Minecraft sales exceed 20 million copies
The extremely popular sandbox game Minecraft has now sold more than 20 million copies on PC and Mac.
According to the statistics on the official Minecraft page, at the time of writing, 20,007,577 people have bought the PC/Mac version of the game.
Yet another Windows 10 Insider Preview release? Get Build 10162 now!
Good lord Microsoft, do you never let your developers sleep? I think that Red Bull is probably a huge portion of the Windows 10 budget. Yes, once again, we have another Windows 10 Insider Preview release.
After Fast Ring users were treated to Build 10158 and 10159 earlier this week, Microsoft is today seeding 10162. Excited? Us too!
Practical step-by-step guidance for after your company has been hacked
Everybody tends to think that hackers will never ever target them or their company/organization until a breach occurs. I've already written several practical examples explaining why hackers target you and your data.
Here, I will try to concentrate on post-incident actions and provide some brief advice on what to do after you have been hacked.
Snapchat grows up -- gets massive update
When Snapchat was first released, it served as nothing more than a way to send self-destructing pictures of your genitals to people -- even if that was not the intention. The theory was, you could share a nude picture and the recipient could not save a copy and it would expire. Of course, this proved to be false, as the recipient could easily do a screen grab.
Either way, it became wildly popular with millennials, and ultimately older folks too. It has grown into a much more G-rated service, which companies and brands are even utilizing. Today, the popular app gets a massive update -- you no longer have to hold your finger on the screen to view pictures and videos. Hallelujah!
UK government illegally spied on Amnesty International
A court has revealed that the UK intelligence agency, GCHQ, illegally spied on human rights organization Amnesty International. It is an allegation that the agency had previously denied, but an email from the Investigatory Powers Tribunal backtracked on a judgement made in June which said no such spying had taken place.
The email was sent to Amnesty International yesterday, and while it conceded that the organization was indeed the subject of surveillance, no explanation has been offered. It is now clear that, for some reason, communications by Amnesty International were illegally intercepted, stored, and examined. What is not clear is when the spying happened, what data was collected and, more importantly, why it happened.
Imagina is a professional photo processor for Windows
With so many image viewers and editors available for the PC, it’s not easy for developers to make their product stand out. Some try to win you over with the sheer quantity of features, but Imagina is more about the quality: it doesn’t do much, but what you get works very well.
The thumbnail browser doesn’t just open with the usual JPGs and PNGs, for instance -- dcraw support means it can handle many RAW formats, initially displaying them in an attractive photo collage-like "3D Desktop" view.
Make your signature style a consistent close
How risky is your signature style? According to the report, "CFO Narcissism and Financial Reporting Quality," a CFO's signature style can predict misreporting. The study suggests that large signatures are linked with "earnings management, less timely loss recognition, weaker internal controls, and a higher probability of restatements".
The report found that the connection between signature size and accounting misstatements is narcissism. Large signatures appear to characterize people who believe that they can "talk their way out of anything". This is clearly not the best characteristic for any CFO responsible for financial reporting.
Intel Compute Stick with Ubuntu finally available from next week
Forget desktops and laptops, the future of computing appears to be flash drive-sized sticks that you plug into a TV or screen. Quite a few companies are making these now, including ARCHOS, Lenovo and Intel.
Intel's Compute Stick, which comes with either Windows 8.1 or Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on board, was first announced six months ago, with the Windows version going on sale in April. It’s taken a while, but Canonical announces the Ubuntu version will finally be available globally from next week, priced at around $110.
Business intelligence analysts spend too much time cleaning up data
We hear a lot about the potential benefits of big data, but a new study reveals that those benefits are won at a cost of considerable time spent in cleaning up and preparing raw information.
The study by data integration company Xplenty surveyed over 200 business intelligence professionals and finds that a third of them spend 50-90 percent of their time just cleaning raw data.
Smartphone porn consumption will explode
A wise man once said our phones started getting bigger when we realized we could watch porn on them. If you had the slightest doubt in your mind about these wise words, then the latest research from Juniper should put it to rest.
According to that research, each "each smartphone user (who access adult content) is expected to watch an average of 348 videos this year". That means, more than 136 billion porn videos will be watched this year alone. But don’t worry, it will grow. By 2020, estimates say that number will hit 193 billion, which is a growth of almost 55 percent.
Security pros lack faith in endpoint protection
Organizations face increasing numbers of threats today and a high percentage of security professionals now no longer trust traditional protection solutions.
A survey by enterprise security specialist Bromium reveals that 92 percent of respondents have lost confidence in the ability of traditional endpoint protection solutions, such as antivirus and white listing, to detect unknown threats like zero-day attacks. In addition 78 percent believe antivirus software is not effective even against general cyber attacks.
Reserved your copy of Windows 10? You may not get it on July 29
In a new blog post, Windows chief Terry Myerson has detailed how Microsoft will be rolling out Windows 10 to the world.
The process begins with Microsoft giving a build of the new OS to its OEM partners. If you thought getting the OS ready for a July 29 launch was going to be tight, bear in mind OEMs will have the OS quite a bit before then. After that, retailers around the world will get their copies in order to upgrade customer devices. And then Windows Insiders will get their copies, starting on July 29. Yes, Myerson says "starting" on that date. There’s no guarantee you’ll get the OS at the end of the month.
Battery drain on iOS 8.4? Blame Apple Music
The latest update to Apple’s operating system may have only been available to the public for a couple of days, but complaints are already starting to emerge.
Reports are circulating that iOS 8.4 is a huge drain on the user’s battery life and apparently Apple Music is to blame.
Motorola Moto 360 can now be had for just $149.99
While the competition is trying to catch up, Motorola's Moto 360 remains one of the best-looking Android Wear devices on the market despite being around for over nine months. It is also among the most refined, making it an attractive purchase for the smartwatch enthusiast.
The one thing that you may not like about Moto 360 is its price, which, considering that a successor is likely to be announced in the coming months, is a bit too high. Motorola has fortunately addressed this with a $100 price cut.
Can't remember your brother's phone number? You could be suffering from digital amnesia
When you can find a phone number with the swipe of a finger or resolve an argument with a quick trip to Google, why would you need to remember anything?
A new report from Kaspersky Lab calls this phenomenon 'digital amnesia'. It surveyed over 1,000 consumers across the US and finds that 91 percent of them say they use the Internet as an online extension of their brain.
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