12-inch MacBook's three flaws that Apple could've fixed but didn't
Earlier this week, Apple finally updated its svelte laptop that launched 13-months ago. I am awe-struck by the company's design-audacity—not for brash innovation but bumbling compromises that make me wonder who needs this thing. The 12-inch MacBook offers much, wth respect to thinness, lightness, and typing experience (the keyboard is clever tech). But baffling is the decision to keep the crappy 480p webcam. These days, not late-1990s state-of-art, 720p is the least a pricey computer should come with, and is it too much to ask for 1080p or 4K when modern smartphones can shoot just that?
This shortcoming, and two others, glares because the little laptop otherwise offers so much, for its size. Thickness is 13.1mm, while weight is 2.03 pounds (.92 kilograms). The 12-inch IPS display delvers 2304 x 1440 resolution at 226 pixels per inch. This thing is tiny: 28.05 by 19.65 centimeters (11.04 by 7.74 inches). Apple's redesigned keyboard provides surprising travel, given the keys' shallowness. By these measures, MacBook is a great carry-along.
Chip-enabled cards lead to a decrease in fraudulent transactions in US
Credit and debit cards with embedded microchips have finally begun to become widely available in the US and, according to Visa, they have already prevented a great deal of fraud with some large merchants seeing an 18 percent decrease in counterfeit transactions.
The company noted that 25 merchants had suffered heavily from fraud in 2014. Five of them decided to begin processing credit and debit cards equipped with EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) technology and this led to an 18.3 percent decrease in fraud. Another five of those merchants did not have the necessary equipment to utilize chip-enabled cards and as a result they saw a 11.4 percent increase in fraudulent transactions.
Amazon Fire and Fire Kids Edition tablets get new colors and additional storage options
Times are tough for many consumers financially, making new technology purchases a hardship. While a tablet such as the iPad is wonderful, the high starting price makes it unachievable for some. Luckily, thanks to Android, some companies, such as Amazon, have created affordable slabs for the masses.
Speaking of Amazon, its 7-inch Fire tablet -- which starts at $49 --is getting a minor refresh. You can now purchase it with a series of new colors and storage options.
Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14328 introduces an improved Start menu, and loads of exciting new features
It’s been a couple of weeks since Windows Insiders on the Fast ring got a new build of Windows 10 for PC. A PCI bug prevented a promising build from being released sooner, but the problem has been fixed, and so today Build 14328 arrives for both PC and Mobile.
The past few Windows 10 Fast ring releases have debuted some great new features, and Build 14328 is no different, introducing, among other features, Windows Ink, a wealth of Cortana improvements, and a new Start experience.
Nearly half of EU businesses don't know where their data's located
According to a survey by the cloud hosting firm UKFast, nearly half of businesses are clueless as to where their data is located.
To come to its findings, the company surveyed over 300 IT decision makers in EU businesses, with 47 percent of them unaware of where their personal and company data was hosted.
Weak Lumia sales prove Microsoft should put an end to Windows 10 Mobile
It is hard to take Windows 10 Mobile seriously when Microsoft announces sales of just 2.3 million Lumias in a whole quarter. If you ever thought that the platform can actually be competitive in today's market, now is the time to wake up. This year, smartphones sales are expected to reach 1.5 billion units. If Microsoft manages to move 10 million Lumias in 2016, Windows 10 Mobile's market share would likely be around the one percent mark.
Microsoft is not the only Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile vendor, but it is the largest by far. It sells about 90 percent of the smartphones running the tiled operating system, so its performance has a major impact on the platform's popularity.
Choosing asset management software
Asset management is often seen as something as a chore and something that's relegated to a few hours work with an Excel spreadsheet.
But that makes it hard to keep up to date and may not deliver all of the information needed to effectively keep track of equipment and software.
AMD FX 8350 and FX 6350 processors now come with Wraith cooler
Many gamers on a budget choose AMD FX processors for their builds. Not only are they affordable, but very capable too. With up to eight cores, and easy overclocking, you can squeeze a lot of performance out of them without breaking the bank.
When using an FX processor, it is not uncommon for builders to choose an aftermarket cooler for better cooling or reduced noise. Of course this will add to the overall cost. Today, however, consumers selecting the FX 8350 and FX 6350 may want to forgo the additional cooler purchase. Why? AMD is now bundling its already-legendary Wraith cooler with them. Yes, the formidable silent cooler is being included in the box!
Woz: Apple should pay half its income in tax
The tax arrangements of international technology companies have been in the spotlight for a little while now. Few people disagree with the idea that they should be paying their way when it comes to tax, and one of these people is Steve Wozniak. He thinks Apple should pay tax at a rate of 50 percent -- just like him.
Just like Amazon, Facebook and Google, Apple manages to avoid a great deal of tax by channeling money through a subsidiary located in the Republic of Ireland. This reduces its tax bill dramatically by avoiding the UK corporation tax of 20 percent, and instead paying the Irish rate of 12.5 percent. Apple co-founder Woz feels the company should be paying the same rate that he has to.
Social ad spending rises by 86 percent
Spending on social media advertising has increased by 86 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2015. It's also up eight percent when compared to last year's final holiday shopping quarter.
These findings come from agile marketing specialist Kenshoo based on data managed by its platform for over 3,000 advertiser and agency accounts. It attributes the growth to the appeal of new ad types like Facebook Dynamic Product Ads and increased inventory through Instagram.
Best Windows apps this week
One-hundred and seventy-seven in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows 8.x and Windows 10 in the past seven days.
There has been a good selection of newly released applications and games this week.
Facebook to filter out News Feed crap by timing how long you read articles
Facebook has been going a little crazy with News Feed updates of late, making constant changes in a bid to ensure that people see content they actually want to read. The real motivation may be ad revenue, but it's always pushed as surfacing (ouch... sorry... I slipped into buzzword mode...) more relevant content. The new changes are no different.
The most recent update to the feed algorithm will take into account not only which news articles people click on, but how long they spend reading them. This will help Facebook to not only determine what sort of article interest users but also help the social network to identify clickbait that doesn't deliver what it promises.
More apps and websites leak credit card data on enterprise handsets
In its latest quarterly Mobile Data Report, Wandera has revealed a significant rise in apps leaking credit card data on enterprise mobile devices.
The company, which specializes in mobile data security and management, compiled the report by analyzing the data usage trends and traffic patterns across its global network of enterprise mobile devices. Between Q4 2015 and Q1 2016, there has been a 17 percent increase in apps and mobile websites leaking credit card data.
Dotcom: If you're still using Mega, back up your cloud-based files right now
It seems that Mega -- the enfant terrible of the cloud storage world -- could be on the brink of closure. Founder of Mega (formerly known as Mega Upload), Kim Dotcom took to Twitter to warn people to back up their files ASAP.
Not for the first time, Mega is out of the control of Dotcom, and is currently in the hands of what he refers to as "the fifth most wanted criminal in China". For many people the idea of their cloud storage being in criminal hands would be concerning enough, but Dotcom says that Bill Liu wants to float the company in Hong Kong.
Franz: one desktop chat app for 14 messaging services
Let’s be frank: there are too many chat services in the world, and it can take a stack of background processes and open browser tabs to manage them all.
Franz is a free Windows, Mac and Linux application which makes your life easier by supporting them all.
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