As promised back in June, the character limit for Direct Messages on Twitter is being increased. The 140 character barrier is being dropped so messages sent between Twitter users can be much, much longer than before.

The character limit for regular tweets remains the same -- and tweets via SMS are still subject to the same restrictions -- but private conversations can now be much more verbose. The increase will affect Twitter.com, iOS and Android mobile apps, TweetDeck, and Twitter for Mac.

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Yesterday Microsoft’s Gabriel Aul teased a new Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build was on the horizon, and today it arrives to those Insiders on the Fast ring.

Microsoft has been rather preoccupied with the PC and tablet version of its new OS over the past couple of weeks (understandably) but now it’s back to business as usual on the development of the Mobile edition.

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We are just about midway through August, meaning the school year is approaching. For many students, this spells the end to sleeping in, vegetating in front of the TV watching Maury, and staying out late with friends.

As you and your parents' anxiety builds in anticipation, you are all probably doing internet searches related to it. Well, Bing has been data-mining its search queries to find the top 5 most searched for Back-to-School topics, which you can read below. Number 5 is particularly shocking, don't you agree?

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Technology can be cold and harsh -- circuit boards, processors, and programming languages. For some, there is beauty in the technology itself. For other people, the beauty is found in what is created using that technology.

Android is the most popular Linux-based operating system of all time -- a great choice for creative developers. It took the scary Linux world of command lines and elitist support communities and delivered something normal human beings could use. Today, Google launches AndroidExperiments.com -- a site dedicated to projects and experiments that utilize the mobile operating system. Consider it a museum of modern art, but for Android apps.

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The days of spending all of your working hours in a single office location are increasingly behind us. Both employers and staff are demanding more flexible solutions. Add to this a new generation of millennial workers demanding a better work/life balance and it’s clear that enterprises need to deliver on new ways of working,

But how can they do this and what effect does the change have on corporate culture? We spoke to Rickard Hansson, founder and CEO of enterprise collaboration specialist Incentive, to find out.

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If you have a Sony VAIO, you might want to hold off upgrading to Windows 10 for the time being. The company has revealed its schedule for updating drivers and applications to bring Windows 10 support, and there's going to be a wait of at least a couple of months.

Just when your Sony computer becomes Windows 10-ready depends entirely on the version of Windows that was pre-installed. Systems that came with Windows 8.1, Sony aims to push out Windows 10-related updates by October, but if it came with Windows 8 pre-installed, you will have a slightly longer wait on your hands.

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A script injection vulnerability in the popular Salesforce cloud CRM system could have left users open to attack from phishing emails that appear to come from within a trusted domain.

Cloud application security specialist Elastica has released details of the vulnerability -- disclosed to Salesforce in early July -- which opened the door for attackers to use a trusted Salesforce application as a platform to conduct phishing attacks to steal end-users' login credentials and hijack accounts.

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Stop the presses! People don’t like it when things are rubbish! A new study shows that while we are more attached to our phones than ever, they are an increasing source of frustration and problems. Users have become less tolerant of issues with hardware, bad experiences with customer services, and crashing apps.

The study -- entitled It's Complicated: Mobile Frustrations & Churn -- also found that faulty handsets and poor customer services would be enough to drive nearly a third of people to a new carrier or handset manufacturer. Interestingly, the study also threw up a few surprises, including the revelation that not many mobile users are bothered about photo and video quality.

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According to a new report by endpoint security specialist Invincea malvertising is causing more than $1 billion worth of damage each year.

Based on data gathered in the first six months of this year the company detected and blocked approximately 2,100 malvertising attacks against its customers, representing 2.1 million malicious advertisements. Invincea estimates this caused $525 million of damage in repair and recovery expense, excluding the impact of any data breaches.

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In the growing online music streaming industry, Rdio has become one the major players. But it's a cutthroat business, and you have to innovate to stay near the top and keep customers happy or they'll flee to another service.

Now Rdio has come up with something new -- streaming broadcast radio stations. The company is diving in big too, with 500 stations, all owned by Cumulus Media.

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Charging your devices can be such a damn hassle. At the end of the day, you may need to charge your laptop, smartphone, tablet, smartwatch and lord knows what else. It can be a pain in the ass to find your chargers and run around your home looking for free outlets. If you are married or live with people, this becomes increasingly difficult and messy.

Today, Satechi announces a really cool power strip that can solve this dilemma. The unimaginatively named Aluminum Power Strip features four traditional AC outlets, but it has something extra that makes it infinitely better -- four USB ports!

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The Tor Browser Team has announced the first stable release of Tor Browser 5.0.

The new release features a host of updates, including Firefox 38.2.0esr (which gives you much-improved support for HTML5 video on YouTube, as well as the privacy benefits), OpenSSL 1.0.1p, HTTPS-Everywhere 5.0.7 and NoScript 2.6.9.34.

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As someone who is always on the prowl for new podcast material to enjoy, I recently came across one which is hosted by a name familiar to many in the States. Joe Rogan -- currently best known for being lead color commentator on most large UFC PPV events -- doubles as someone who hosts an interesting podcast under the simple guise of "The Joe Rogan Experience."

Specifically, episode 680 of his podcast showed up on my phone today, and it featured a lengthy discussion with a Steve Hassan on the intriguing topic of cults. Hassan is a mental health counselor who has personal experience with cult entrapment, as he was once a member of the Moonies. He dove into a variety of areas surrounding cults and their characteristics with Joe, and if interested, I recommend listening to his appearance on JRE 680. The real reason I plugged Joe's show is because during the episode with Hassan, the relevant topic of Apple naturally arose at one point. The question at large was thrown out in the wild. Is Apple and its following a cult?

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The coding bootcamp industry is growing rapidly. According to Course Report’s Bootcamp Study, the industry is approaching a market size of $200 million, which is 138 percent growth over the prior year.

At the same time, critics warn about similarities to for-profit colleges, especially regarding "poor performance, exorbitant pricing, and exploitation of vulnerable, low-income students". Though I found my Computer Engineering undergraduate education to be helpful and fundamentally sound, I do not think it adequately prepared me for my first job. A case in point is that I learned as much working at a startup as I did in four years of university education. Based on this experience, it’s really important to me that students of all coding bootcamps get the technical skills and job training they need to achieve their goals.

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IObit has shipped IObit Uninstaller 5 with a pile of new PC cleanup and maintenance tools.

A "Win Manager" module allows you to control your Windows startup programs, close running processes, and view or batch uninstall Windows updates, as well as uninstalling Windows 8/10 apps.

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