One of the more controversial features of Windows 10 is the automatic, mandatory installation of updates. With launch day now just hours away a problem with NVidia drivers has highlighted just why automatic updates have proved so controversial.
Microsoft has previously said that home users will have no choice but to let Windows 10 take care of updates for them. For those concerned about this, the company has a special tool that can be used to block specific updates to Windows and drivers.
Mark Zuckerberg's Internet.org has come in for quite a lot of criticism since it launched. Designed to help get the entire world online, it has been argued that the program is in opposition to the idea of net neutrality and many of its backers have pulled out or complained about things since it kicked off.
But in many regards none of this matters -- it is the numbers that are important. Twelve months after the launch of Internet.org, more than a billion people have been connected to the internet free of charge. Moving into year two, the next part of the operation involves scaling things up.
We reported last week that a number of Fiat Chrysler vehicles were being recalled due to the potential for them to be hacked.
Experts at IoT security specialist INSIDE Secure have been looking at the risks and how vehicles can be made more secure in future.
Huawei is not, perhaps, a name that springs immediately to mind when you think about smartphones. But with this latest model the Chinese manufacturer is making a bid for a slice of the top end market dominated by the likes of the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy.
You get the impression of quality from the moment you receive it. It comes in a smart, black plastic box with a cardboard slip case; the phone sits in this with a shiny edge uppermost so it’s like opening a piece of jewelry.
Your monitor can be so much more than just a device for displaying your desktop -- it can also supply power to other things. Extra ports on the back of a screen are nothing new, so the idea of using a monitor to charge your phone might not seem groundbreaking; but the Samsung SE370 can do it wirelessly.
The monitor is available in 23.6 inch and 27 inch models and features an integrated Qi wireless charging plate so compatible handsets can be charged without the need to fiddle with USB cables. In addition to space and time-saving features, Samsung has taken care to ensure that wireless charging is not the only reason to buy the monitor.
MindMaple Lite is a free application for generating mind maps, project plans, running brainstorming sessions, and generally helping to organise, present and share your ideas.
Download and installation is straightforward – no registration, adware or other hassles here – and conveniently the program opens with a mind map explaining itself: the main features, what’s new in this edition, what you get from upgrading to the Pro edition, and more.
The Apple Watch has only been available a few months, but it has already captured a sizable portion of the wearable market. Selling 4.2 million units throughout the second quarter of 2015, it has stolen an early march on its rivals, particularly the many wearables that use Android Wear as their primary operating system.
The question remains, however: how much longer can Apple continue to dominate the market with its self-imposed restrictions? The Apple Watch is only compatible with the iPhone 5 and later models running at least iOS 8.2, cutting off a huge proportion of consumers who use Android handsets. If Apple wants its new smartwatch to have genuine mass appeal, it will struggle under these terms.
I'm late to the game, switching from a standard Kindle to a Paperwhite. Honestly, there's nothing not to like about the low-end Kindle -- it's priced right and provides a fine reading experience. But just about everything can be improved upon with a bit effort and ingenuity.
That's exactly what Amazon has done. I can't speak for the first generation Paperwhite, I never used it. But the switch from standard to second generation is a world of difference. It's noticeable right away.
From the slew of videos flying out the Microsoft stables over the last week, it's clear that Windows 10 is trying to be all things to all people. The ads we've seen so far have promoted security, Windows Hello, Microsoft Edge, and yet another video has been released today that extols the virtues of the built-in apps.
What's different about this video is that it doesn't really focus on anything that's particularly new and exciting. Many of the Windows apps that are features are not new, so this is clearly a video aimed at those who skipped Windows 8 and stuck with Windows 7 or XP. But it's a good opportunity to take a look at the Photos, Maps, Mail and Calendar, Groove, and Movies & TV apps.
In the last few days before Windows 10 is unleashed on a largely unsuspecting world, Microsoft has released a number of updates. These are just regular, everyday updates rather than new builds of the preview, but one of those released over the weekend has been causing problems.
Update KB3074681 was released yesterday (Saturday), and it has been causing issues that result in Explorer crashing. The way updates work in Windows 10 means that there is no way to get rid of the update, so until a patch is released there is little that can be done -- apart from avoiding the crash triggers, that is.
One of the features that has been removed from Windows 10 -- at least for home users -- is the ability to pick and choose when updates are installed. Microsoft has taken Windows Update out of the hands of users so the process is, for the most part, completely automated.
In theory, this sounds great -- no more worrying about having the latest patches installed, no more concerns that a machine that hasn’t been updated will cause problems for others -- but an issue with NVidia drivers shows that there is potential for things to go wrong. Irate owners of NVidia graphics cards have taken to support forums to complain that automatically-installed drivers have broken their computers.
LinkedIn caused a storm a couple of days ago when it removed the option to instantly download contacts. Many users of the professional social network were more than a little irked to discover that while contact exporting was still available, a wait of up to three days had been put in place.
Unsurprisingly, users revolted, having been particularly upset by the fact the change was implemented with no warning or announcement. But the company has managed to turn things around by quickly backtracking on its decision after listening to a stream of complaints on Twitter.
Sometimes it just takes someone with a big enough name -- and voice -- to draw attention to something that thousands of others have been saying for a long time. Proving this, Kim Kardashian (of all people) has made a suggestion for a feature that Twitter should adopt: editing. Twitter loves the idea. And when we say 'Twitter', we don’t mean 'people on Twitter' -- we mean Twitter itself: none other than co-founder Jack Dorsey.
Kardashian tweeted to her 33.8 million followers letting them know that she'd got in touch with Twitter to share her idea. In a matter of hours she received tens of thousands of replies, favorites, and replies. If she has husband Kanye West on board, that's another 13.5 million followers.
Can a joke be copyrighted? Twitter seems to think so. As spotted by Twitter account Plagiarism is Bad a number of tweets that repeat a particular joke are being hidden from view. The tweets have not been deleted as such, but their text has been replaced with a link to Twitter's Copyright and DMCA policy.
The joke in question? "Saw someone spill their high end juice cleanse all over the sidewalk and now I know god is on my side." Perform a search for the text and, while you will find several tweeted instances of it available at the moment, there are many examples of tweets that have been censored.
It's no secret that computers are becoming smaller. What used to gobble up voluminous space once -- think about a couple of rooms -- are now available in miniature form factor. But how powerful are these USB flash drive-shaped computers? We tested the Intel Compute Stick and here is how it fared.
Intel has an ambitious plan. It claims that its tiny computer will suffice the basic computing needs for most. The tiny computer in question is called the Compute Stick. It is powered by the company's own entry level Atom chipset dubbed Z3735F, its own HD graphics card HD audio card coupled with 2GB of RAM.