Latest Technology News

Watermark images easily with Photo Date Stamper

Send a set of photos to someone and they might sometimes want to see when they were taken. This might be possible by checking their properties or otherwise displaying EXIF/ IPTC data (if they're tagged correctly, anyway), but that's not exactly convenient.

Photo Date Stamper simplifies the process by watermarking a batch of images with their "taken" date.

Continue reading

Suggestions that Twitter is not a valid news source are insane

Suggestions that Twitter is not a valid news source are insane

This morning, as I do most mornings, I started my day by firing up my phone and browsing the news headlines in bed. One story caught my attention -- and the reaction to the story in particular. As you'll have discerned from the headline, there were comments that questioned the value of using Twitter as a source of serious news.

The subject of the story doesn't really matter, but for the sake of completeness, it was this one in the Guardian. It's about the backlash that followed a Telegraph article which suggested suicides in newspaper journalists could be attributed to stress stemming from trying to hit commercial targets. This is a story that's not without irony.

Continue reading

Judge dismisses US antitrust claims against Google search in Android

A San Francisco judge has dismissed a class action against Google's alleged monopolizing of searches on Android devices. Gary Feitelson and Daniel McKee brought a case against Google saying that the search giant was being anticompetitive by forging agreements with handset makers that made Google search the default search engine.

The company faces similar charges in Russia where the country's leading search engine, Yandex, has made a similar complaint to the Federal Antimonopoly Service. In Europe Google has just agreed to regular audits to ensure it complies with Data Protection Authority measures in Italy, and Friday's ruling in its favor in the Northern District of California will come as some welcome good news.

Continue reading

Canonical teams up with Amazon and Microsoft to push Ubuntu for IoT

Canonical teams up with Amazon and Microsoft to push Ubuntu for IoT

The growth of the Internet of Things spreads, and Canonical wants to ensure that Ubuntu is involved. To help with this, the company behind one of the most popular Linux distributions has announced partnerships with Microsoft and Amazon to help facilitate secure cloud infrastructures.

The two companies are to publish their IoT developer APIs on Ubuntu Core so they can be used by Snappy developers in services and apps. The aim is to avoid a market fragmentation, and the new partnerships lay the groundwork to help Ubuntu Core's development deeper into the IoT.

Continue reading

TwitchCon 2015 is coming to San Francisco, bros! Are you going?

When I was a young man, around the age of 8 or 9, a friend of mine got a NES and Super Mario Brothers. I went to his house almost every day to watch him play. Yes, he would give me turns, but you know how that goes -- you play for maybe 5 minutes while your friend plays for 3 hours. After a while, this became unbearable -- watching someone else play was torturous. I begged my dad for my own, so I could play as much as I wanted. My pops came through for me after a while, coming home with a NES, Super Mario Brothers and The Legend of Zelda. I had to play it on a black and white TV, but I didn't care; no more watching people play.

Fast forward to 2015 and I don't have the time to play video games; it is tragic. With that said, I do find time to watch others play. I know this sounds crazy, as I used to hate never getting a turn to play, and having to watch watch my friend, but now I watch Pewdiepie on YouTube, and many others on Twitch, playing video games. Why is this enjoyable? I have no idea. I'm not alone, however, as Twitch is massively popular. In fact, it is so popular that the first-ever TwitchCon has been announced. Will you be going?

Continue reading

Yahoo Mail brings enhancements to its search functionality

While much is made about Gmail from Google and Outlook.com and Hotmail from Microsoft (now pretty much combined), Yahoo Mail quietly flies along getting little attention, but huge numbers of customers. Many people likely have accounts without even knowing it -- if you register for a Yahoo service you get an email address, and the company has several popular arms, such as Flickr. Now it is looking to improve its email offering.

First off, there is now an easier folder search. Customers can select any of their folders from a list and then type a word or phrase to zero in on the targeted email. A dropdown menu on the right allows for the folder selection.

Continue reading

Lenovo redeems itself with open source Superfish removal tool

open source bubble

What do you do when you are facing scrutiny in the media? Damage control. You see it all the time with celebrities. A famous actor or musician does something wacky or stupid and ends up crying to Oprah, or going to rehab.

If you are a respected computer manufacturer, what do you do to fix a tarnished image? Open source. Nothing makes computer nerds more giddy than hearing that software is open source and the source code is available to investigate. Today, Lenovo releases an official open source Superfish removal tool under the Mozilla Public License.

Continue reading

Need a flashlight in Android Lollipop? Just yell at your phone

Need a flashlight in Android Lollipop? Just yell at your phone

Who hasn't used their cell phone as a flashlight? Drop your key as you get out of the car at night and it makes sense to reach into your pocket, pull out your handset and search using the light from your screen. If you're really organized you'll have a flashlight app installed, but when you need a source of light quickly, fiddling with the menu can be a little too... er... fiddly.

Well fiddle no more. If your phone is kitted out with Android 5 Lollipop there's no need to navigate menus, or even have a dedicated flashlight app installed. Google has helpfully integrated a flashlight feature into the latest version of its mobile OS which can be activated with your voice.

Continue reading

Google complies with Italian privacy audits

Google complies with Italian privacy audits

Few weeks go by without Google coming under fire for some privacy-related misdemeanor or other. In Italy, however, the search giant has just agreed to comply with measures put in place by the Data Protection Authority. Moreover, the company will be subjected to regular audits to make sure that everything is in order.

Google is required to make improvements not only to privacy notices for its various services, but also obtain consent from users to use their data in research and profiling. The right-to-be forgotten also rears its head again as the authority requires Google to investigate individuals' requests for search listing removals.

Continue reading

Demand for Linux developers on the rise

The demand for Linux developers has jumped seven percent in comparison to last year, a study has shown.

The 2014 Linux Jobs Report shows that hiring managers at tech-powered companies are focusing more attention on Linux talent, and that’s reverberating in the market, with stronger than average salary increases to those working with the OS.

Continue reading

Microsoft is like Aquaman -- uses Windows Defender super powers to kill evil Superfish

Lenovo is not having a good time right now, and rightfully so. Its inclusion of the Superfish adware on some of its consumer products has caused outrage and shock in the tech community. It is important to remember that Lenovo is not the super-villain in this story, Superfish is. In other words, the manufacturer was not intentionally malicious, but most likely misguided.

Today, Microsoft is a super hero -- Aquaman if you will -- and its super power is Windows Defender. Yes, Aquaman is destroying the Superfish villain, leaving Lenovo as the now-saved damsel in distress.

Continue reading

Dear EE, it really shouldn't be this way

Dear EE,

We've known each other for a long time, you were called Orange when I first got to know you. A work colleague said we'd be good together and he was right. We've been through more than 12 years and five pay as you go mobile phones together. Then you decided to change your name to EE. What's in a name? I thought, a change to what was shown on the screen of course, but the service seemed the same as before so we carried on and I was still happy. Until I decided I needed a new phone.

Continue reading

NetCrunch Tools is a free network troubleshooting toolkit

If your PC network is misbehaving then you could turn to the standard Windows troubleshooting tools. But they’re mostly console-based, not exactly comfortable or convenient to use, even if you can remember all their various command line switches.

NetCrunch Tools tries to make your life a little easier by combining 11 troubleshooting and information tools into a single straightforward application.

Continue reading

IT departments take the lead in bringing cloud services to the enterprise

It’s no surprise that more and more organizations are using the cloud, but the latest State of the Cloud report from RightScale throws up some interesting trends.

The company surveyed 930 technical professionals across a broad cross-section of organizations about their adoption of cloud computing.

Continue reading

Neptune Duo turns the smartphone/smartwatch relationship on its head

Neptune Duo is an interesting smartwatch/smartphone concept that flips our traditional view of the wearable tech on its head. Ask yourself: What’s a smartphone, and what’s a smartwatch?

Most of us (I dare say almost everyone) thinks of a smartphone as a mobile computer, small enough to fit in your pocket, but large enough to watch videos, even movies on it, write emails, chat, talk to your friends, all that jazz.

Continue reading

© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. About Us - Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy - Sitemap.