Smartphones just as accurate as wearables for tracking fitness
Fitness trackers have become all the range and over 3 million were sold in the second half of 2014, making up over three quarters of the total wearable sales, but it looks like the benefits of a fitness tracker might be minimal.
That is according to a new study by the University of Pennsylvania, which measured the amount of steps on a treadmill with two smartphones and three wearables.
Choosing a streaming stick -- Chromecast, Roku, or Fire TV? [Review]
My household cut the cord in July 2014; the cable box is gone. In the process, I have been testing various streaming set-tops and sticks, and the latter is today's topic. Google opened up the category with $35 Chromecast in July 2013, and the device gets better with age. Roku Streaming Stick, at $49.99, is priciest choice, while Amazon Fire TV Stick is the $39 in-betweener.
Briefly, before deep diving, Chromecast is easiest to use and offers more commercial programming support. Roku delivers broadest streaming channel selection. Fire TV fits tightly into the broader Amazon Prime ecosystem, while offering satisfying, but incomplete, content options compared to either of the other devices.
Large enterprises targeted by mobile Trojans
Mobile cyber threats are more common and more sophisticated than ever before, with a number of high profile threats in the past year.
According to a new report from security companies Check Point and Lacoon Mobile Security, this means mobile devices are growing into a serious threat to the enterprise.
Fighting cyber threats hampered by disconnect between IT and business
A disconnect between systems leaders and business leaders coupled with a lack of resources is keeping enterprises from properly addressing cyber threats.
This is according to a new study commissioned by defense and security company Raytheon and conducted in conjunction with the Ponemon Institute.
Opera sees Africa as a fast growing market for mobile phones
While those who reside in the US and Europe may see mobile as a massive market, that isn't the case in all parts of the world. Technology spreads a bit slower in some parts of the globe where even "feature phones" are only now on the rise. Africa is one such market, but it is starting to see an increase in mobile adoption.
"Africa is poised to become a hotbed for mobile growth and commerce in the coming years" according to a State of Mobile Advertising report from Opera Mediaworks. The assessment comes from studying two of the company's most prominent areas -- the mobile browser and mobile advertising.
Dear Apple, I will switch from Android to iPhone if you meet my demands
Believe it or not, even as a big tech and gadget nerd, I have never owned an iPhone. My smartphone life went from Palm, to BlackBerry and ultimately Android. I didn't purposely boycott the iPhone or anything, it just never happened.
As an iPad owner, however, I have come to love iOS for its ease of use and collection of amazing apps. For whatever reason, I usually prefer the iOS version of apps over the Android equivalent; they seem more snappy and fluid. So, why haven't I switched to the iPhone? There are still some major issues with Apple's phone and mobile operating system that prevent the jump. The ball is in Apple's court, however, and if the company meets my demands, I will switch.
The Internet of Things will change your life
The Internet of Things (IoT) -- you may have heard of it in discussions around wearable devices or perhaps just know it as one of the top technology trends of 2014. If you aren’t familiar with the term, be prepared to hear about it a lot this year.
As much as the Internet of Things has become an extremely hot topic for businesses and consumers alike, there is still a chance that you are unsure how it will impact you personally. While items such as "smart" thermostats and coffee makers sound cool, it’s tough to determine how these products will change the way we live.
Find your PC's most space-hogging folders with Folder Size
If your hard drive space is a little lower than expected then your first instinct might be to uninstall a few applications, maybe use CCleaner to remove any leftover junk.
If you really want to understand where you drive space has gone, though, there’s no substitute for analyzing it properly with a tool like Folder Size.
How to get 100GB of free OneDrive storage worldwide
You can easily increase the amount of storage that's available with your OneDrive for free. Bonus space can be unlocked by referring the service to your friends and enabling the auto camera upload feature in the mobile apps. The most that you can get though is 20 GB. Those of us who have been using the service from the early days also get a loyalty bonus of 10 GB. But maybe that's still not enough.
As you may know, Microsoft has recently started to give Bing Rewards users the option to unlock a further 100 GB of free OneDrive storage. The catch? Only folks using the service in US have been welcome. However, now you can get the same treatment worldwide. Here's how.
Reply to WhatsApp, Hangouts messages directly from Pushbullet notifications
Pushbullet’s latest Android app update means it’s now possible to reply to messages from WhatsApp, Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and Line, directly from your desktop notifications.
There’s no complex tweakery required to make this happen. As long as you’re running Android 4.4 or later (and you have the Android Wear app installed for Hangouts messages), notifications from supported services now have a Reply button: just click it and go.
Android 5.1 Lollipop could be widely available in March
Google had become rather predictable at introducing new major Android releases, announcing two a year, when we most expected them -- around late-June and October. But this changed in 2014. Lollipop stood alone. What's more, the first major update that followed -- version 5.1, which came earlier this year -- arrived completely unannounced. There wasn't even a blog post about it, as we confirmed its existence based on reports from folks who discovered it on their Android One smartphones, and a mention in passing on the Android One site.
Weeks after Android 5.1 was revealed to exist we are still waiting for Google to tell us more -- well, something -- about it, including when we should expect to see it available in the Android Open Source Project. Luckily, we may now know this important detail thanks to an HTC VP.
Happy birthday Photoshop -- 25 years old today!
http://youtu.be/QmYc1MNJaQc
These days there are a lot of image editors to choose from, and they run on computers, the web, smartphones and tablets. Whatever your price range you’ll find one to suit. For me, however, there’s really only one photo editor, and that’s Photoshop. I’ve been relying on it for work and home image editing for a good 15 years (probably longer) and while I’ve used other rival packages, I always end up returning to Adobe’s powerful suite.
SOAP vulnerability leaves Netgear routers open to hackers
Owners of Netgear routers are warned that their wireless security keys and admin password could be accessed by hackers. A security vulnerability has been found in the SOAP service embedded in some Netgear network devices that could be abused with specially designed HTTP requests.
Routers can be tricked into executing commands even if they originate from an unauthenticated session, potentially exposing sensitive information to hackers. For anyone with remote management enabled on their router, there is the added worry that all of this could be carried out by someone without physical access, or who is not in close proximity, to the network. A number of Netgear routers are affected.
Pump Audio earphones: Better than Beats? [Review]
You might think that in-ear type earphones are pretty much the same when it comes to listening quality. But British company Pump Audio is on a mission to convince you otherwise.
It only makes one style of earphone, no plethora of fashion options here, and its selling point is sound quality. Pump claims to offer a 'premium' audio experience, so does the product live up?
Samsung lied -- its smart TV is indeed spying on you and it is doing nothing to stop that
About 70 years ago, English novelist George Orwell wrote 1984, a controversial novel which visioned of a fictional dystopian place called Oceania where people had no real privacy. As Orwell described, residents of Oceania had two-way telescreens so that they may be watched or listened to by government authorities. The book was written way ahead of its time, and while it didn't make much sense back then, a lot of assumptions Orwell made in 1984 are coming true now.
Samsung's smart TVs are in the news once again. Not for impressive sales figures -- something the South Korean technology conglomerate would definitely appreciate -- but for jeopardizing its users’ privacy.
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