Why Mark Wilson is wrong about Windows 10

featWrong

My colleague, Mark Wilson, just posted a list of the seven things he "still hates about Windows 10". And while I feel his pain -- I have my own pet peeves with Microsoft’s latest and greatest -- I found many of his complaints are misguided and/or shortsighted.

In a lot of cases he's just nitpicking and I think he’s missing the bigger picture.

Continue reading

Fix Windows 10 problems with these troubleshooting tools from Microsoft

Windows 10 solution

Upgrading to Windows 10 from either Windows 7 or 8.1 should go smoothly and be relatively painless afterwards, but we know from the enduring popularity of features such as How to fix Windows 10's worst problems that it often isn’t the case.

Microsoft also knows that upgraders are encountering all sorts of issues with the new OS, and so has put together a selection of automated troubleshooters designed to fix problems you might be having post-upgrade.

Continue reading

AVG's new privacy policy is brutally honest about tracking you

man_peering_over_fence

AVG has thrown down the gauntlet to other technology companies, challenging the rest of the industry to produce open, truthful privacy policies. AVG has done just that, and you might not like what you read.

The antivirus company has published its own brutally honest privacy policy that clearly sets out how it tracks users' activity, gathers data, and shares that information with others. Unsurprisingly, despite the fact that nothing has changed but merely been brought out in to the open, people are not happy. Is honesty about a disagreeable policy better than living in blissful ignorance?

Continue reading

Best Windows apps this week

yahoo mail

One-hundred and forty-six in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows 8.x/10 in the past seven days.

This week saw the release of the official Yahoo Mail client for Windows 10, as well as the release of other great applications such as the Stack Overflow app Heep, and the beta of Microsoft Translator for Windows 10.

Continue reading

Germany changes stance on Wi-Fi rules to boost hotspot availability

Wi-Fi

If you’ve ever been to Germany, you know it’s more likely you’ll stumble upon the World Cup trophy somewhere along the way, than to find a Wi-Fi internet connection in a cafe or a hotel somewhere.

Germany has very strict rules regarding internet piracy and has, until recently, held the providers of the Wi-Fi network responsible for any illegal activity such as piracy conducted on the network.

Continue reading

The real reason why you’ll never get Windows 10 on your Surface RT tablet

Surface 2 WIndows 10

"What Intel giveth, Microsoft taketh away". That was the mantra my colleagues and I adhered to when I was leading Intel’s PC benchmarking efforts in the early 2000s. As the resident "HOC" (Highly-paid Outside Consultant) to the company’s Desktop Architecture Labs (DAL), my job was to help Intel’s engineers design the most complex desktop runtime environments possible for the purpose of showcasing the performance advantages of each new PC chip generation. And thanks to a steady stream of increasingly CPU-hungry Windows and Office releases, our thirst for new and interesting stuff to stack atop our shiny new Pentium III and IV test rigs was always satiated.

Then came Windows Vista, and for the first time the CPU demands of Microsoft’s software stack outpaced the average performance of even state of the art Intel designs. Suddenly, Windows was "too fat" to fly, and the subsequent backlash saw the long overdue departure of Vista’s architect Jim Allchin, the ill-fated rise of Steven Sinofsky to Windows development boss, and the much anticipated emergence of Windows 7 as the anti-Vista: A new version that was actually less demanding (in terms of CPU, memory and disk footprint) than its predecessor.

Continue reading

MyFord Mobile app gains Android Wear, Apple Watch support

MyFord app

Ford has updated its MyFord Mobile app and gave it support for both the Apple Watch and Android-powered smartwatches.

According to a report by T3, the app doesn’t actually let you drive the car with your watch, but instead offers a handful of nifty features to make your driving experience more enjoyable.

Continue reading

7 things I still hate about Windows 10

Angry PC user

Windows 10 has been with us for quite some time now, particularly for anyone who has been trying out the Insider builds since the beginning. Many people, myself included, have been disappointed with Microsoft's latest operating system but perhaps it's time to re-evaluate.

Have I got used to the things I didn’t like? In some cases, yes. But there are still a number of areas in which Windows 10 falls short of the mark. So here are seven things that piss me off about Windows 10; one for every day of the week!

Continue reading

DDoS attacks are more dangerous than you think

DDoS attack

We all know that DDoS attacks are capable of causing massive inconvenience, but according to a new survey they can have major financial and data loss implications too.

The study of over 5,000 companies by Kaspersky Lab finds that almost one in three DDoS attacks coincides with a network intrusion.

Continue reading

Spotify gets a new About screen with more features

Spotify_Icon

Music streaming sevices need to differentiate in order to stand out and hold market share. Features, as well as the song offerings, matter. Spotify is in a tight race with opposition from Google, Rdio, Apple and others. That means innovation is key.

The service has updated its "About" screen, bringing new features for its customers. Included are biographies with full screen browsing, global rankings based on monthly listeners, letting customers know where people are discovering the most popular artists, and even which city the artist is most popular in.

Continue reading

Do you care about the environment? Buy an AMD APU!

hippieamd

When it comes to building a PC, energy savings is not a particularly sexy subject. Of course, it is more fun to talk about raw power and fun components. In other words, it would be quite rare to see two PC gamers arguing in a forum about who has the lower electric bill. Wouldn't it be sort of cool if they did discuss that though?

If you own a 6th Generation AMD "Carrizo" A-Series APU, however, you might be saving energy and being environmentally friendly without even knowing it. Today, AMD reveals a new study which shows its new APUs can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 50 percent compared to previous generations. In other words, upgrading your AMD APU will make both Mother Nature and Captain Planet happy. Huzzah!

Continue reading

VR headset sales will reach 30 million units by 2020

2488966-oculusrift1_contentfullwidth

Although yet to achieve mainstream success, the virtual reality market is predicted to experience massive growth according to the latest research from Juniper.

In a whitepaper titled The Rise of Virtual Reality, it is claimed that approximately 30 million virtual reality headsets will have been sold by 2020 with sales topping $4 billion.

Continue reading

Facebook rolling out missing children alerts in UK

Facebook Missing Children Alert UK

Facebook is rolling out its missing children feature to the United Kingdom, allowing people within a certain area to be notified when a child goes missing.

The social network uses geo-location to find people in the near area, and alert them to a child disappearance. Facebook users can learn more about the disappearance if they happen to know any information that might be of help, or share the post to friends and family.

Continue reading

How to enable Apple News on iOS 9 outside United States

apple-news-app

Apple, on Wednesday, released iOS 9, the latest software version of its mobile operating system. The iOS 9 update comes with a number of features including Apple News, a news reader app that works as an RSS feed fetcher. It's an interesting app as it allows immersive visual effects that are not available on any alternative. But if you live outside the US, you might not be able to use the app as it is not available for you yet. But there's a way you can get the app on your iPhone or iPad. Follow the instructions mentioned below.

The trick is very simple. You just have to change your region settings to the United States to make Apple believe you live there. Once done, you should be able to see the News app on your homescreen. Here’s the elaborate guide to get the News app on your Apple device.

Continue reading

Add Apple CarPlay to your existing vehicle with Kenwood DDX6902S and DDX6702S

KWeX6902Sfeat

Back in the 90's and early 00's, I was one of those punk kids who drove around with his aftermarket stereo blasting rap music. Yes, I had a subwoofer in my trunk that would shake both my car and my neighbors' houses. While I still love rap music, I have outgrown the obnoxious behavior of forcing my music on others.

Car tech and music are still loves of mine, however, albeit it at lower decibels. I have been considering upgrading the stock stereo in my Ford Focus lately (I don't even have Bluetooth), and today Kenwood announces two receivers that pique my interest -- the DDX6902S and DDX6702S. As someone who just ordered an iPhone 6s Plus, these both feature something I desire -- Apple CarPlay.

Continue reading

Load More Articles