Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book go on sale today -- will you buy one?
Surface Pro 4, the latest generation of Microsoft’s popular Windows slate, and Surface Book, the company’s brand new high-end laptop, both go on sale today -- provided you live in the US or Canada. If you live elsewhere you’ll have to wait until November.
Pre-orders have reportedly been brisk, with both devices going in and out of stock. Microsoft says the initial reaction to Surface Book and early pre-order activity has exceeded its expectations, so it’s likely to have limited quantities in store today.
Mozilla may drop FTP support from Firefox [Confirmed]
When your product has millions of users, any change that you make is guaranteed to impact a significant number of people. So, when you decide the time has come to remove a traditional feature, you are sure to encounter some resistance. Question is, where do you go from there?
Mozilla is in this exact situation. The organization apparently wants to drop support for FTP in a future version of its Firefox browser. And, even though most folks are likely not making use of it, there are still hundreds of thousands if not millions of other people who will be affected.
New platform simplifies OpenStack cloud networking
OpenStack is a popular open source tool for creating public and private clouds and is used by big companies around the world.
To make running OpenStack systems easier, open source network specialist Akanda is launching a new version of its Astara platform that radically simplifies the complexity and scale of implementations.
Apple might break its Q4 iPhone sales record
Apple may have broken its Q4 iPhone sales record, according to analyst estimates.
Forbes has aggregated all the predicted sales figures for the last quarter (Q4 FY2015) and found that the average estimate was 48.72 million, a 24 percent increase when compared to twelve months ago.
Behind the big names, the first hires of major tech companies
We've all heard of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, but what about the people they hired in the early days of their fledgling businesses?
You probably don’t know anything about Marc McDonald's role at Microsoft or Shel Kapha's at Amazon, but these were among the first people hired by those companies and had a significant effect on their growth.
Apple is the coolest brand and battery life doesn't matter in the world of wearables
Consumer opinion about wearable devices is somewhat divided, accordingly to a new survey by Juniper Research. The company found that the wearables market is dominated by Apple and Samsung, but it is Apple that manages to take the 'coolest brand' crown.
Microsoft will be disappointed to find itself ranked in 13th place, but the survey shows that it is the familiar technology companies that remain the most popular. Fashion and designer brands like Nike, Rolex, and Ralph Lauren account for a tiny percentage of sales. The research also found that there is a limit to what people are willing to pay for a wearable.
Microsoft arrives on Fifth Avenue, opens a new store in New York City
There is no more iconic street than New York's Fifth Avenue -- okay, maybe there are some rivals such as the Champs Elysee -- but the Big Apple's street has its claim to fame. It's the residence of many famous locations and now one more company is calling it home.
Microsoft is opening a flagship store on the famous avenue, marking its latest location in an ever-expanding footprint.
Generate spectacular 3D fractals with Mandelbulber
Fractal generators have been around for a very long time, but most of them just provide yet another way to produce the same Mandelbrot-based imagery we’ve seen so many times before.
Mandelbulber is different, because not only does it give you more formulae to play with, but it also renders your creations in spectacular 3D.
EFF tells California Supreme Court no searches of controlled substance prescriptions
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been busy lately, especially with all of the revelations coming from Edward Snowden. The organization has been busy taking on the NSA, but that doesn't mean it won't have time for other causes.
Now the EFF is taking on the California Supreme Court, urging an end to the gathering of personal prescription information by law enforcement and done without a warrant.
Wikimedia case against NSA spying thrown out of court
A lawsuit brought against the NSA by Wikimedia and eight other plaintiffs has been dismissed by a federal judge. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the case on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation alleging that the NSA had engaged in mass surveillance of Wikipedia users.
Joined by the likes of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International USA, Wikimedia complained about the NSA's upstream surveillance as revealed by Edward Snowden. The ACLU suggested that the sheer volume of traffic Wikipedia receives means that the US government's surveillance must have included spying on the activities of Wikipedia users. Judge T.S. Ellis disagreed, saying that the plaintiffs did not have plausibility -- or size -- on their side.
Apple hit with lawsuit over iOS 9's Wi-Fi Assist
The Wi-Fi Assist feature found in iOS 9 has caught some people unawares, and many have complained that they have been landed with large bills due to increased data usage. Two individuals have filed a class action lawsuit in California against Apple, alleging that the company failed to properly explain how Wi-Fi Assist works.
While Wi-Fi Assist can be disabled, the plaintiffs say that Apple should reimburse anyone who found they were pushed over their data usage limits. The company now needs to defend itself against charges of violating Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law, and negligent misrepresentation. Apple is also accused of downplaying the risk of exceeding data limits.
Alexa, what's a good pizza restaurant? Amazon Echo gets more local
Once you possess the Amazon Echo there are two reactions. The first is a bit of fear that Amazon is listening to you, but the second is the joy of voice control to answer questions almost instantly, as well as providing news, weather, traffic and more.
Do you want more from the device? Who doesn't, right? Well now Amazon is using location information to provide recommendations for all sorts of things. Ask for a good Italian restaurant and you'll get some choices. But there's more than that. Ask Alexa the hours of your pharmacy and you will hear that information as well.
Chattanooga, Tennessee gets first 10 gigabit residential internet service courtesy of EPB
Looking to move to a new area? You may wish to add another location to your list of possibilities. Kansas may have Google, but not to be outdone Tennessee is going one better on the search giant, specifically if you live in the area of Chattanooga, a town situated near the Great Smokey Mountains.
The first ever 10 gigabit residential internet service has now been rolled out, appropriately installed for someone who has a pressing need for such massive bandwidth.
Could a new Twitter campaign weed out fake reviews on TripAdvisor?
TripAdvisor quickly became one of the most useful websites, and subsequently the most useful apps, to have been developed in recent times. But it also has a dark side. Like any site that allows users to leave reviews, TripAdvisor suffers with the problem of fakes. A new Twitter campaign hopes to help cut down the number of fraudulent reviews.
Fake reviews are not a problem that is specific to TripAdvisor -- Amazon has gone as far as suing people it believes to be fabricating reviews -- but a group of people have joined forces to try to do something about it. Concerned that there are a huge number of reviews written by people who have not actually visited the establishment they are reviewing, the #noreceiptnoreview campaign proposes that people should only be permitted to share their reviews upon the production of receipt.
The Xbox app for Windows 10 gets additional social features
The Xbox One is no longer new, but Windows 10 still has that shiny feel. The two were made to go together, along with Windows Phone, in an effort to bring a more unified feel to the platform. You may or may not think Microsoft succeeded in this, but the effort was there.
Now the company is enhancing the beta for its Xbox Windows 10 app with a nod towards social sharing features that allow the user to bring more friends to the fun and games.
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