Latest Technology News

If you do a lot of traveling -- especially when covering long distances -- taking some form of entertainment with you to help while away the hours is a must. You can load a laptop, tablet or smartphone with movies and TV episodes, but if you want to download or stream additional media while away from home, you’ll find yourself at the mercy of whatever connections are available to you.

Location-based retail entertainment download service Digiboo is aiming to make it much easier -- and faster -- to download movies and TV shows when on the go. Announced today, Digiboo Zones, is a speedy download service that will allow travelers to download content to mobile devices in around a minute.

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There are many third-party keyboards available for Android and iOS, but few of them stand out. Fleksy is certainly among the best that you can get today, alongside the likes of SwiftKey and Swype, and, to make it even more appealing, the company behind it has decided to make it available for free.

Fleksy is actually following in SwiftKey's footsteps, which took the freemium route more than a year ago on Android and stuck to this strategy for its iOS launch. Fleksy used to sell for $0.99; it is not much for a quality app by any means, but it is a barrier of entry nonetheless. Users could have picked something else, that is just as good for their needs, without spending a dime. And this is a problem for a startup, which prioritizes growth.

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Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, has partnered with computer OEM Lenovo to launch the ThinkPad L450 series running the Linux distro in India. Starting at Rs 40,000, the laptops will be available to purchase from selected commercial resellers and distributors.

As for the specs of the ThinkPad L450 series, users have the choice of Intel Core i3 and i5 processors, paired with AMD Radeon R5 M240 2GB VRAM Intel HD 5500 GPU, 4GB of RAM, and 500GB hard drives. The laptops sport a 14-inch display with HD (1,280 x 720) screen resolution.

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The OpenSSL Project team has issued a warning about a new "high severity" flaw. More details about it will be released on Thursday.

"The OpenSSL project team would like to announce the forthcoming release of OpenSSL versions 1.0.2d and 1.0.1p. These releases will be made available on 9th July. They will fix a single security defect classified as 'high' severity. This defect does not affect the 1.0.0 or 0.9.8 releases". This alert and update information was released on Monday.

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Microsoft has not been exactly clear on how long Windows 10 users will receive free upgrades, saying only that its upcoming operating system will be kept "current for the supported lifetime of the device -- at no additional charge". However, since the "supported lifetime of the device" has not been defined, consumers are still left wondering what it could mean with just a couple of weeks to go before Windows 10's official debut.

You can see many threads (like this one) on Microsoft's Answers forums asking for clarification on what the supported lifetime of the device actually means, but not even MVPs seem to have a definitive answer yet, offering their own estimates in response. However, a PowerPoint presentation buried on Microsoft's site finally sheds some light on the matter.

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Following a massive security breach over the weekend, Hacking Team has issued a warning that its surveillance and remote access software could now be used by anyone -- including terrorists. The Italian security and surveillance firm fell victim to an attack that relieved it of 400GB of company data, including source code for its software.

Whoever was responsible for the security breach made this data available via torrent, meaning that anyone was able to get hold of it. Hacking Team's software is favoured by governments around the world for mounting NSA-style surveillance and monitoring programs and the company has now issued a stark warning: "Terrorists, extortionists and others can deploy this technology at will if they have the technical ability to do so".

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LG has been busy expanding the G4 smartphone lineup, catering to a much wider range of consumers. After unveiling the G4 Android flagship, the South Korean maker has announced G4 Stylus and G4c. And, today, the lineup gets its fourth member, called G4 Beat.

G4 Beat is positioned as a mid-range Android smartphone, sitting above G4 Stylus and G4c in LG's portfolio. It features better specs than the aforementioned two devices, making it a more appealing option for more demanding consumers. As expected, it retains the design characteristics from its upmarket sibling, G4, but not its higher price-tag nor high-end hardware.

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Selecting software is one of the most crucial decisions that many enterprises have to make. The right choice can make all of the difference between success and failure.

However, finding impartial advice on the pros and cons of various business packages can be difficult. Could crowd sourcing of opinions provide an answer? The people behind software review platform G2 Crowd definitely think so. We spoke to company president Tim Handorf to find out more.

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Microsoft announced yesterday that it is slashing 7,800 jobs, mostly from the phone-hardware business it picked up from Nokia. As a result, the software giant is writing off $7.6 billion, which is actually more than the $7.2 billion it paid Nokia in the first place. But, more importantly, the move signifies that Windows Phone, its smartphone operating system, is now being put on the slower release cycle.

Microsoft is scaling back. The software giant is losing money instead of making anything big off its phone division. In the five years of its existence, Windows Phone is yet to get past three percent market share. And that’s finally a reality check to its ambitions.

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BeamUsUp is a free Java-based crawler which quickly scans a website and reports on common SEO issues: status error codes, description/ title too long or missing, missing headings, duplicate content and more.

Free? We were skeptical, but it’s true. It’s free for all uses, no adware, no flashing "Donate" button, and no annoying restrictions to persuade you to upgrade (can’t scan more than xxx links, can’t produce reports, can’t use it on Tuesdays -- you know the kind of thing).

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When buying a monitor, 1080p is more than fine for most people. Unfortunately, we computer nerds -- including you, my dear BetaNews readers -- are not most people. We want the newest hardware, early adopter issues be damned. Obviously, we all want 4K displays, but they are super expensive, right? Not anymore.

AOC is a company that is near and dear to my heart. While not a top-of-the-line manufacturer, it certainly produces great quality at affordable prices -- a value brand, if you will. Today it announces the 28 inch 4k U2870VQE monitor. At first, I'm like, OK, a new 4K monitor, so? Then I saw the $349 price and nearly fainted!

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Linux founder Linus Torvalds doesn’t understand the fear Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Professor Stephen Hawking and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak share about artificial intelligence.

Musk said creating artificial intelligence would be equal to “summoning a demon”, and has even donated millions to protect humans from the impending doom. Torvalds, on the other hand, describes such fears as "bad" science fiction, during a Q&A session with Slashdot users.

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As the music streaming space intensifies, participants are becoming increasingly aggressive to rope in users. In the latest episode, Spotify has started to notify its iPhone customers about a workaround to save money.

The company is emailing its customers who use an iPhone to let them know about the 30 percent cut Apple takes on all the payments made through the App Store. The result of which, as Spotify notes, is that users have to pay $12.99 per month instead of Spotify's official $9.99 per month charge.

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When people decide to start new ventures, the traditional ways of obtaining financing have typically involved asking friends or family for money, using savings or credit cards. Some entrepreneurs may opt to obtain financing via venture capital firms. However, venture capitalists tend to be very picky about the types of ventures that they will fund and there are often stringent terms attached to any funding that is granted.

As a result, crowdfunding has offered an alternative option that allows entrepreneurs to get access to capital without so much red tape. Crowdfunding sites, such as Kickstarter, have built entire companies on the dreams of entrepreneurs looking to make their ventures the next big thing. However, the reality is that working with a crowdfunding site isn’t always a formula for success either.

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Google's Chromecast has gained quite a following of people looking for a cheap, simple way to stream content to their TVs. Part of the device's appeal is its ease of use and extensibility through the use of apps, but it is reliant on a steady Wi-Fi signal. If this represents a problem in your home, there's now a solution.

The new Ethernet Adapter for Chromecast does very much what you would expect -- it adds a wired Ethernet port to Google's streaming dongle. This is great news for anyone with a flaky Wi-Fi signal, or those looking to use Chromecast beyond their router's normal range.

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