Android Wear update brings always-on apps, Wi-Fi support and improved navigation

Android Wear update brings always-on apps, Wi-Fi support and improved navigation

Much as Apple would like you to think otherwise, Apple Watch is yet to blow other wearables out of the water. Smartwatches are still something of an emerging technology, but Google has managed to carve out yet another niche for itself with Android Wear. Today the company unleashes an update that aims to make Android-powered watches easier to use.

The first major addition is support for always-on apps. Most Android Wear watches included support for displaying the time round the clock (sorry!) but this feature has now been expanded to other apps. If you're using your watch to get directions or follow a shopping list, you can opt to keep the relevant app active at all times. The update has more to offer too.

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The top 5 reasons why IT projects fail

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Research suggests that large IT projects are at far greater risk of failure than smaller ones. McKinsey revealed that 17 percent of IT projects budgeted at $15 million or higher go so badly as to threaten the company’s existence, and more than 40 percent of them fail.

However, regardless of business size IT projects are failing everyday -- some are big budget and high profile and make the headlines, others receive less attention, but can be equally damaging to those concerned. But why and what can you do to prevent failure?

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Could Windows 10 really be set to arrive in July?

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There were a few raised eyebrows when Microsoft announced it was planning a summer release for Windows 10, its next operating system. Most people assumed the tech giant was anticipating a late summer release -- September possibly -- but now it seems we might be seeing the new OS much earlier than anyone could have predicted.

According to AMD, and as reported by The Verge, Windows 10 will launch in late July. Which seems like an incredibly optimistic target.

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Containerization is a winning strategy for smarter BYOD management

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Mobile devices have become the preferred means of accessing data and applications, wherever and whenever individuals desire. Today, on average, individuals have two to three mobile devices. Employees expect to use their own preferred tools and technologies to do their work; personal mobile devices are chief among them.

Hence, the BYOD movement is now mainstream and growing. In fact, Forrester estimates that 70 percent of mobile professionals will conduct their work on personal smart devices by 2018.

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D-Link says sorry for shoddy security and sloppy patching of its routers

D-Link says sorry for shoddy security and sloppy patching of its routers

D-Link has issued an apology to its customers for an on-going security issue with many of its routers. A problem with the Home Network Administration Protocol (HNAP) means that it is possible to bypass authorization and run commands with escalated privileges.

The list of routers affected by the issue is fairly lengthy, and D-Link has already issued one patch. But rather than fixing the problem, last week's update left routers wide open to exactly the same problem. As it stands at the moment, a firmware patch is still being produced for a total of 17 routers. In the meantime, all D-Link has to offer is an apology.

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Create HTML family trees with Genealogica Grafica

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Genealogica Grafica is a Windows shareware application which creates various family tree charts and reports from GEDCOM files, saving them as HTML files ready for sharing on your own website.

If the program name sounds familiar, that’s no great surprise -- the first release appeared way back in 2006. But after a long pause, development seems to have resumed again, with support for Unicode and (partially) stylesheets. We downloaded the latest release to see how it looked.

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New firewall provides stronger protection for hybrid cloud systems

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As more apps move to the cloud business infrastructures are increasingly fragmented. This can make traditional on-site security tools ineffective in fighting off cyber attacks.

The threat of attacks remains, however, and a new release from security software company Radware is aimed at protecting both on-premise and cloud-based applications, using just one solution.

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Why the open source software model is fundamentally broken

open source

There was a very frank question pegged towards Slashdot readers a few months back, which I happened to stumble upon just by chance during some Googling. It was a pretty simple question that merely asked: for the non-coders out there, especially ones taking advantage of open source software, why aren't more of you contributing back to the open source community?

A legit, honest conundrum that is likely true for most who use such software.

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Tim Cook's Apple is all about fashion

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Apple has changed quite a bit since Tim Cook took over the helm after the passing of Steve Jobs in 2011.

The two CEOs had distinct approaches to their products, and now that Cook has been in charge for almost four years, his style has become even clearer. But is Cook’s approach an improvement?

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Sony officially announces Xperia Z4 featuring Snapdragon 810, 3GB RAM and 1080p display

Sony Xperia Z4

Sony has finally launched the much-awaited successor to last year's Xperia Z3. Called the Xperia Z4, the new flagship smartphone features a range of incremental improvements to its last generation handset. It features a 5.2-inch 1080p display with the latest and greatest (and controversial) 64-bit Snapdragon 810 processor from Qualcomm. The smartphone runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop.

The Xperia Z4's FHD (1920 x 1080) display might not please a lot of people given how most of the other flagship devices are offering QHD display these days, but Sony continues to value a longer battery life over bragging rights. Other specifications of the device include 3GB of RAM coupled with 32GB of internal storage, which can be expanded up to 128GB using a microSD card.

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BuzzFeed editorial is controlled by advertisers

BuzzFeed editorial is controlled by advertisers

Advertising is unavoidable online. "Ah... but I have AdBlock Plus installed!" I hear you cry. It doesn't matter. You may not see advertising, but it still affects your online experience; this is particularly true if you are BuzzFeed reader. I'm not in the habit of criticizing others in the trade -- and I realize that I'm opening myself up for attack here -- but BuzzFeed is a site filled largely with listicles (lovely words) and churnalism (ditto), headlines sucking up to Google left, right and center.

But for all of the coffee-break-filling articles it pumps out each day, it is the articles that have been deleted that have generated more interest recently. About a week ago one BuzzFeed writer resigned after an article she wrote that was critical of Dove soap ads was pulled. BuzzFeed conducted a review, and this weekend details of the findings came out. It transpires that this is not the first time posts have been deleted because of a conflict of interest between editorial and advertising. BuzzFeed may not be a particularly influential site, but it's worrying nonetheless.

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KaOS 2015.04 is here -- Download the KDE-focused Linux distro now!

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There are too many Linux distributions nowadays. Choice and variety are wonderful, but in this case, they spread resources very thin. Linux-based operating systems might be further along by now if more developers came together to work on projects. For someone new to Linux, finding a distro can be a daunting task. Many of the releases are simply noise, making it hard to find the quality operating systems.

KaOS is one of those quality operating systems. It is a wonderful Linux distribution that focuses on KDE. Quite frankly, if you are a KDE purist, this should be on your radar. To cerebrate the two-year anniversary of the distro, the team releases 2015.04. Whether you are a Linux noob, or even an an expert, you should give it a try.

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Apple must have shares in horse abattoirs

Apple must have shares in horse abattoirs

It's said that just about anything that's broken can be fixed with one of two things. If something moves when it shouldn't, you need duct tape to hold it in place. If it doesn't move when it should, lubricant is what you need. Apple, it seems, has a different approach. Forget screws and clips; these days Apple tech is just held together with glue.

And we’re not talking about just a bit of glue -- we're talking tons of the stuff. Gallons of adhesive pumped into laptops, tablets and phones, holding everything in place and -- ultimately -- making things incredibly awkward to repair. Anyone would think the company had shares in a chain of abattoirs that shipped off horse carcasses to be boiled down into glue. Take the new MacBook Retina for example which featured recently in an iFixit teardown.

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Game of Thrones pirates, HBO is coming for you

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Hours before HBO could officially premiere the returning episodes of the all-new 'Game of Thrones' season last week, screener copies of the first four episodes leaked to the interweb. Pirates from all across the globe took notice and yet again the American fantasy television series ended up getting illegally downloaded over a million times in less than a day.

HBO has in the past condemned such practice, but it looks much more furious this time. The American premium cable and satellite television network has started to send out thousands of warnings to subscribers who had illegally obtained copies of 'Game of Thrones', and is asking their respective carriers to take severe actions.

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No, Microsoft isn't taking Android's future out of Google's hands -- here's why

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Earlier this week, Cyanogen Inc announced that it has entered into a partnership with Microsoft to bundle some apps into its future Android-based operating system. While the companies meticulously chalked out most of the specifics of their collaboration -- and how it wouldn't much affect consumers in the coming months -- many people and even some news outlets are having a hard time understanding these facts, and have started to make bold, misleading conclusions.

Wired, for instance, believes that this tie-up between the two companies will end up taking Android’s future out of Google’s hands. I think they are wrong, and much to the contrary, I believe that this alliance will only be good for Google (and Android). Here’s why.

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