Want to customize your Taco Bell order? Now there's ta.co

taco-bell

Fast food may not be the ideal staple of a diet, but most on us indulge, at least from time to time. The sign just seems to beckon sometimes -- the Whopper, the Quarter Pounder, the fries. Now Taco Bell wants to make life even easier for those stopping by for a quick meal.

The company is announcing its new site -- ta.co. Obviously the name is catchy and easy to remember, but there's more to it than just browsing the same menu you'll find in the restaurant. Instead you can customize your dish however you want utilizing options that aren't available when you walk in. You can even pay right on the site.

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Google's Customer Match and Universal App Campaigns bring closely-targeted mobile ads

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Google is making it easier for advertizers to very closely target mobile users, homing in on the 'moments that matter'. The company is launching two new ad products -- Customer Match and Universal App Campaigns -- in a bid to convert more views into sales.

The aim with Customer Match is to target people with ads based on what they are doing, where they are, and the device they are using. It ties in with searches, Gmail, and YouTube to enable businesses to create highly tailored ad campaigns. Universal App Campaigns helps advertisers gain greater reach across the Google network.

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New cloud platform improves big data performance and reliability

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For the typical enterprise, running big data platforms like Hadoop and Spark is complex and resource intensive, and the challenges only increase as data volumes expand.

Big data as a service specialist Altiscale is releasing the latest version of its Hadoop and Spark platform in the cloud, offering full operations support and elastic scalability. It ensures that customers can focus on the value they get from big data, while liberating them from the hassles of data management.

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iPhone 6s and 6s Plus' opening weekend sales record isn't as impressive as Apple would like you to think

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You know where you stand with Apple and the iPhone. Every year a new model arrives in September. You get an updated flagship (an 's' model on alternate years), and a spin off version (the 5c, the Plus) for a bit of extra revenue. Then, shortly after the new iterations go on sale, you get an announcement from Apple declaring a new weekend sales record.

At some point this record breaking run will end, although it’s not likely to happen anytime soon. Today Apple announces more than 13 million iPhone 6s and 6s Plus have been sold around the world. It’s a huge achievement, and blows past last year’s numbers, but all is not as it seems.

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New solution automates integration of SaaS workflows

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Companies are increasingly turning to software as a service solutions. But these often lead to problems when needing to integrate workflows with in-house or other SaaS solutions.

To address this, cloud software specialist Azuqua has announced the availability of a new integration solution for connecting cloud applications and automating business-critical workflow.

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Google plans to bring one billion more Indians online

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While it seems odd to many people, the whole world isn't online -- though it may seem that way sometimes when you visit sites like Facebook. Not all countries have the infrastructure in place to support the deployment of broadband. Google is looking to help.

The company claims that one billion residents of India are without a connection. To remedy this the company is going to the heart of transportation in the nation, the railway stations.

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Stupid iOS 9 bug makes me regret buying an iPhone 6s [Updated]

The iPhone 6s is a great phone. Mine arrived on Friday and I’ll be reviewing it in the next couple of days or so. It has some very welcome improvements over my previous Apple phone -- the iPhone 5s -- and 3D Touch has the potential to be a real game changer.

However, my enjoyment of the new phone has been tainted thanks to an incredibly annoying bug that makes the iPhone 6s next to useless when out and about. In fact, when I went out for the day yesterday, I was forced to leave the shiny new iPhone 6s at home and take my aging Android phone with me instead.

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GoPro's new Hero+ is an attractive entry-level action camera with Wi-Fi

GoPro Hero+

GoPro makes some awesome action cameras, but they are not exactly cheap. If you want to get one of its top-of-the-line models you will have to shell out between $400 and $500. And then you will have to add some more on top of that for different accessories. However, the company also has some pretty good entry-level options for consumers on a budget, the most-attractive of which is the new Hero+.

Hero+ slots between Hero and Hero+LCD, and might just be the best option of the three if you are looking to get into the GoPro action camera game. At $199.99, it bundles most of the best features of Hero+LCD at a price that is closer to that of a base Hero. Here is what you need to know.

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Silent Circle's Blackphone 2 is the most secure Android phone available

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With all of the talk about the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, and the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+, it's easy to forget that there are some genuine alternatives out there. One such smartphone is the Blackphone from the privacy-centric Silent Circle. The original Blackphone caused great excitement, and now the Blackphone 2 is available.

This is a phone that has been built from the ground up with security and privacy in mind. While the Blackphone 2 will appeal to anyone who is concerned about privacy, this time around there is a greater push to appeal to businesses and enterprise, including joining Google's Android for Work program. In terms of specs, opting for the most secure handset on the market does not mean making compromises: this phone is a beast.

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Women make up only 10 percent of the IT security workforce

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New research carried out by non-profit certification organization (ISC)² and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton highlights a lack of gender equality in IT security roles.

Based on a survey of almost 14,000 global professionals, the report looks at the differences between men and women in the industry, the current and future outlook for women in the information security field and the unique skills women possess to fill information security positions today and in the future.

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Autonomous cars will make safe driving a reality

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Given the correct inputs, there are many tasks that robots (or machines or driverless cars) can do much better than people. The keyword here might be "input" however.

In the case of driverless cars, they are using many sensors, cameras and radar to control those inputs, but they are not perfect just yet. In time however, we can expect fewer traffic accidents, due to an autonomous system’s increased reliability and faster reaction time compared to human drivers.

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ACDSee Pro 9 gains lens correction, Photoshop plugin support

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ACD Systems has revealed the next generation of its image management and editing tools, ACDSee 19 ($59.99), ACDSee Pro 9 ($99.99) and ACDSee Ultimate 9 ($149.99).

The Pro and Ultimate editions gain the most this time around, with major new editing features.

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Samsung Galaxy Note5 versus S6 edge+: Which Android smartphone should you buy?

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Are you are in the market for a flagship Android smartphone, but you do not know what to buy? This is totally understandable, as there are many from which to choose. Let me save you some trouble -- stick to Samsung. Sure, there are other great phones from other manufacturers, but Samsung takes things to another level. Its Touchwiz enhancements are actually an improvement over the stock Android experience, while its hardware are often works of art.

But hold on there, I know what you are wondering; which Samsung flagship should you choose? True, the company does have two Android smartphones which are worthy of your hard-earned money -- the Galaxy Note5 and the Galaxy S6 edge+. Both phones are wonderful, and you should be happy with either, but after extensive testing, I have a definitive answer as to which is better.

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You can now grab Adobe Flash 19 beta from the Labs

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Adobe Flash and other programs can be a security problem. There's a reason the company releases regular updates. It's advisable to install them, as it likely means you're vulnerable if you don't. Perhaps the biggest offender is Flash, which powers many things on the web.

Now Adobe is quietly testing a beta version of Flash 19. It is currently a Labs project, but anyone can grab a copy if they'd like to try it out.

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Leaked documents show UK Karma Police program was just as intrusive as the NSA -- and spied on the US

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There have been countless stories about the activities of the NSA and the revelations by Edward Snowden continue. A new batch of documents leaked by the former NSA contractor show that GCHQ ran a program called Karma Police that was used to "build a web-browsing profile for every visible user on the internet".

If that sounds a little sinister, that's because it is. You would think that we might have become hardened to this sort of thing, but it is still comes as a slight surprise to learn of the extent of surveillance that has been taking place. The UK government has been building profiles of web users around the world based on their browsing histories (news, porn, social networking, and so on), monitoring email and Skype communication and more for the last seven years.

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