Pirates can upgrade to Windows 10 for free but they won't be supported by Microsoft

Pirates can upgrade to Windows 10 for free but they won't be supported by Microsoft

Microsoft has given up trying to stop people from pirating Windows. We already knew that Windows 10 was going to be free, but now Terry Myerson has revealed that it will be free to everyone, including people who are running pirated copies of earlier versions of the operating system.

Speaking to Reuters the Windows chief said: "We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10". The move is an admission that the fight against piracy was a battle Microsoft was never going to win, but the benefits that will be felt extend far beyond just a free copy of Windows.

Fujifilm X-T10

X-T10 joins Fujifilm's crowded digital camera family

Fujifilm's line of cameras increasingly looks like choices among toothpastes. Do you want fluoride or gingivitis protection? Oh, this one whitens teeth, cures bad breath, and eliminates body odor. Decisions, decisions. That's kind of my reaction to today's debut of the X-T10 digital camera, which shouldn't be confused with Fujifilm's X10, X100T, or X-T1. Dyslectics and the visually impaired, beware!

As a X100T owner, I'm a Fuji fan. So, please, don't take my criticism wrongly. It's just this lineup is quite crowded. The company's product website lists -- count `em -- 18 different X-Series models. Sure, some aren't current and not all can be confused. But many of them are close enough in actual benefits to perplex potential buyers.

By Joe Wilcox -
Email overload

Microsoft will keep your emails in check automatically

Towards the end of last year, Microsoft launched Clutter. It's a tool designed to make it easier to focus on the email that matter by moving the less important ones into a separate folder. It works in a similar way to decluttering tools offered by Yahoo and Gmail, and now it's being rolled out to everyone.

Starting in June, there will be no need to manually activate the feature as it will be enabled by default. If you're not keen on having your emails tinkered with, you can disable it, but Microsoft explains that the aim is to save you time by reducing the amount of chaff you have to sort through to get to the wheaty content that matters.

EncFSMP200-175

EncFSMP: a real cross-platform encryption tool

Encrypting your most confidential files can be very easy, at least with the right application. Create a container; choose a password; drag, drop, done.

Sharing those containers is often more difficult, especially if the recipient needs to install a copy of your original encryption tool, and it’s not available for their platform.

By Mike Williams -
cutmoney

Google slashes prices to attract the enterprise to its Cloud Platform

They say the key to a man's heart is his stomach, and for me, that is probably true -- feel free to put fat jokes in the comments. But what is the key to a company's heart? Money. Yes, cost savings is an easy way to make a company take notice in your solution.

Today, Google is aiming to attract the enterprise to its Cloud Platform using this practice. You see, the search giant is dramatically slashing prices, and quite frankly, businesses should take notice.

By Brian Fagioli -
Twitch-Games

Twitch gaming video arrives on Roku set-top boxes and TVs

Video games and set-top boxes. They don't seem to go together, but these days they do. You can play games on many of them, though they won't be confused with an Xbox One or PS4. But today video games aren't just about playing, it's become a spectator sport as well. Much of that is due to the Twitch service which allows people to post videos and watch others.

Now the Twitch channel has arrived on Roku, one of the most popular set-top boxes on the market. The manufacturer is adding the channel now, allowing customers to begin streaming the videos that seem so popular in today's culture.

By Alan Buckingham -
samsung_logo

Court of Appeals says Samsung's legal payments to Apple should be reduced

Patent lawsuits in the world of technology are nothing new, and the case between Apple and Samsung resulted in one of the largest fines ever being handed down. Samsung was ordered to pay $930 million in damages after a court found that the company had violated Apple patents with its smartphone and tablet designs.

Today the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned part of the original ruling, saying that the jury was wrong to say that Samsung infringed on Apple's trade dress intellectual property. The exact details of what this will mean are yet to come out, but it should lead to a fairly hefty reduction in Samsung's legal costs.

GV18 Aplus smartwatch

GV18 Aplus smartwatch -- what can you expect for $35? [Review]

It's always the way with technology that it starts out expensive then tumbles in price as more manufacturers enter the field. With smartwatches that fall in price has come pretty quickly as Chinese manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon.

The last budget smartwatch we looked at proved pretty impressive for the price. The GV18 Aplus is cheaper still and yet packs in even more features. So, is it cheap and cheerful or cheap and nasty? Let's find out.

By Ian Barker -
WinOpt200-175

Ashampoo WinOptimizer 12 gains Windows 10 support

German developer Ashampoo has announced the release of Ashampoo WinOptimizer 12 ($49.99), its hugely comprehensive all-in-one PC maintenance toolkit.

Extended drive and internet cleaners work to free up more hard drive space. They can optimize multiple user accounts in a single operation, too -- no need to log into each account individually.

By Mike Williams -
ddos_attack

Debunking the five common misconceptions about DDoS protection

Defending organizations networks against DDoS attacks has long been a daunting challenge, but now cybercriminals are making it even more so. Headlines today are rife with news of another DDoS attack, data breach or other security incidents.

Yet even in today’s dynamic threat landscape, many organizations still believe that the DDoS protection they adopted a few years ago still works today. In these instances, organizations are gambling with their network. It’s time to debunk some outmoded misconceptions about DDoS.

By Darren Anstee -
security alert

Traditional security approaches produce too many false positives

According to 62 percent of IT professionals traditional security approaches produce too many alerts and false positives for them to handle.

This is among the findings of a new study from research firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), sponsored by machine learning and automation specialist Prelert, which shows that 25 percent of organizations know they experienced a breach or significant cyber attack that incurred loss last year.

By Ian Barker -
Apple buys high-precision GPS firm Coherent Navigation

Apple buys high-precision GPS firm Coherent Navigation

The accuracy of GPS on iPhones could be on the verge of becoming significantly better. Apple has confirmed that it has acquired GPS company Coherent Navigation, a start-up that specializes in super-precise global positioning systems.

As is usual, Apple remains tight-lipped about future plans, going no further than confirming the purchase in an email. The wheels of activity are already in motion and the Coherent Navigation website has already vanished from the internet.

Surface Pro 3 with red Type Cover keyboard

The best Microsoft Surface Pro 3 version gets a $150 discount

If you are in the market for a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 then you should definitely get the 256 GB version with 8 GB of RAM. It is the best of the bunch, offering the right balance between price and performance. It is also the model that I would leave my 13-inch Apple MacBook Air for.

Luckily, if you are considering the aforementioned Surface Pro 3 version, Microsoft is now sweetening the deal with a $150 discount, which brings the price down to a more affordable $1,149. Normally, the slate costs $1,299.

By Mihăiță Bamburic -
facebook_logo

10 things you don't know about Facebook

For a site like Facebook, which has become sort of a synonym for the Internet itself, it’s hard to say there are things we still don’t know about it. Everything’s already been said, everything’s been discovered and the site is as transparent as it gets.

But there are still things we (or at least some of us) still don’t know about it, and those include some awesome, but long lost and forgotten options the site has to offer, like:

By Sead Fadilpašić -
SnapChat

Snapchat plans to release a Windows Phone app, but don't get your hopes up

While Windows Phone Store is home to lots of third-party apps, you will not see a Snapchat client in there. And it is not due to a lack of effort. The company simply does not want any such offerings to be available, actively working towards eliminating each and every one.

Rudy Huyn, a well-known Windows Phone developer, has gone as far as asking Snapchat to review the code of his 6snap client to keep the app alive in Store, but the company would not budge. Also, when Snapchat CEO Evan Spegel was told that Windows Phone users want an official app, he simply replied: "didn't think anyone used those". However, Snapchat's could-not-care-less-about-Windows-Phone stance seems to have changed, as it just announced that a Windows Phone app is on the cards.

By Mihăiță Bamburic -
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