Latest Technology News

More than half of internet users in the US, UK and Germany believe it's impossible to keep their personal information private if they're to enjoy the Internet.

This is one of the findings of research by Open-Xchange, the German open source software company. The Consumer Openness Index surveyed 1,000 internet users in each of the three countries to gauge their opinions about online privacy.

PeaZip Software has announced the release of PeaExtractor, a PeaZip spinoff which can extract the contents from 150+ archive types: 7Z, ACE, BZ2, CAB, GZ, ISO, RAR, TAR, ZIP and more.

The program can’t create archives, it’s strictly about extraction only, keeping the entire process as quick and beginner-friendly as possible.

If you have an entrepreneurial bent it’s hard not to see an opportunity to start the next big cloud storage company in last week’s Nearline Storage announcement by Google. I saw it immediately. So did Google make a big pricing mistake? Probably not.

Nearline storage usually means files stored on tapes in automated libraries. You ask for the file and a robot arm loads the tape giving you access to your data in a couple minutes. Google’s version of nearline storage is way faster, promising file access in three seconds or less. It doesn't say how it works but it makes sense to imagine the data is stored on disks that are powered-down to save energy. When you ask for the file they spin-up the disk and give it to you.

We've just passed Selection Sunday, which revealed the collegiate teams set to join in the hoopla that is known as March Madness. Live sports are still the bane of the cord-cutter existence, but Sling TV changes that a bit. The service offers multiple ESPN stations and Universal Sports, among the other channels included with a subscription.

Now the company is bringing its offering to owners of Microsoft's latest gaming console, the Xbox One. It's already live on various set-top boxes like those from Roku and Amazon, but Xbox is the first gaming console to get access.

Geeky students have it made nowadays. You see, there are many outlets for their minds to be put into use. Sadly, before the Internet, it could be difficult for like-minded tech geeks to communicate and collaborate. Quite frankly, a curious mind could go undernourished as a result.

One of the coolest programs for tech-focused students is the Google Summer of Code. Why? For one, it is run by Google, so it is well funded and organized. More importantly, however, is that all of the projects in the program are open source. Today, the search giant begins taking applications. With that said, the window to apply is fairly small, so you had better do it soon.

Microsoft cares about the amount of formatted, usable storage space users get on their Windows-running machines. The Redmond-based company announced today that, in an attempt to provide users with more storage on their hard-drives, Windows 10 operating system uses some impressive space-saving techniques. The forthcoming operating system uses file compression technology to save around 1.5GB of storage on 32-bit systems and 2.6GB on 64-bit machines.

Furthermore, the software firm notes that it is also stopping using a separate recovery image on its latest desktop operating system. PC makers use a separate recovery image on the computers they ship. Depending on the operating system version and the manufacturer, the space could be anything from 4GB to up to 20GB. The system recovery image shipped by the PC makers includes the disk image of a licensed Windows copy bundled with driver software and some other essentials and bloatware.

I'm going to make a startling confession -- I've never seen American Idol. Why didn't I watch such a wildly popular show? Because I'm not into the lame music that the show puts out. Quite frankly, I'm not sure when such terrible music became acceptable, but I never participated. With that said, I do like some of Carrie Underwood's songs; "Before He Cheats" is an epic classic.

While I've never seen The Voice, I have more respect for it than American Idol, as the judges are kind of cool. The current judges, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera and Pharrell Williams are all accomplished musicians who have created extremely popular music. Today, Microsoft announces that Windows Phone users are getting an official app for The Voice. Users of Microsoft's phone-focused operating system are often neglected, so this is a very pleasant surprise.

Two computers of note have been announced or released in recent days -- the 2015 version of the Chromebook Pixel and the redesigned MacBook -- that feature an all-singing, all-dancing USB-C port. It transfers data, it powers, it makes coffee, it doesn't matter which way round you insert it, and it practically guarantees an orgasm (OK... maybe we got a little carried away).

It’s a progression of USB technology, and one that has been well-received, at least in principle. Who could be responsible for this marvellous technology feat of design? Blogger, Markdown inventor, and owner of Daring Fireball, John Gruber seems to be under the impression that it's an Apple invention. But he's wrong.

Apple may be about to launch a new phone trade-in program in a bid to encourage more people to invest in iPhones. Hand over your old Windows Phone, Android handset -- or even a BlackBerry or aged iPhone -- and you could receive a gift card that can be used as part payment for an iPhone. The news comes from the usually-reliable 9to5Mac where it is suggested that Apple Store employees will place a value on handsets before handing over a gift card in exchange for it.

It's not a completely new venture for Apple; the company has previously run programs to encourage iPhone users to upgrade to the latest version of the handset, but this will be the first time the scheme has been opened up to rival smartphones. While previously this was an incentive to upgrade, this time around it's little more than a bribe.

Mozilla could soon find itself at the center of a new controversy, as it just approved a Firefox extension, called Men Kampf, designed with the sole purpose of replacing so-called "radfem rethoric [sic] with nazi friendly alternatives".

Men Kampf scans the page that the Firefox user visits for any words considered to be linked to feminism -- certainly not radical feminism, as claimed in the description -- and replaces them, on the fly, with said "alternatives". As such, an article about feminism will quickly appear to be one about nazism. The developer behind the extension, Erim Secla, says that it's all "just for fun" in Men Kampf's description. Except that it's not.

Hot on the heels of Office 2016 Mac Preview, Microsoft today launched Office 2016 Preview for developers and IT professionals. We've already heard a little about the direction in which the office suite is heading but -- leaks aside -- this is the first time most of the suite has been seen outside of private testing.

Microsoft is a company that is all about previews nowadays; the days of not having a clue what will appear in the next version of apps are gone. There's the disclaimer that "this early build doesn’t yet contain all the features we're planning to ship in the final product", but it's still an intriguing taster of what's to come.

In the world of business, the typical office is fading away. Yes, there are still places where employees are housed in the same location, but the reality is, talent is scattered across the globe. Less people are spending their entire careers at a single company, so the concept of uprooting an entire family to move for a job is no longer realistic.

The Internet, of course, has afforded talented professionals to work offsite from home or satellite locations (or even outdoors!). The problem is, email is not the most productive collaboration tool, as chains can become convoluted and hard to manage. Phone conferences alone can be quite unproductive as well, as employees mentally check out and mute themselves to work on other things. Microsoft's Lync has been a dream come true for project collaboration, and today, the first preview of the next-generation of the tool, now called Skype for Business, is released.

Modern businesses spend a lot of money on customer service and on e-Commerce solutions, but often it seems that there's a disconnect between the two.

California-based company Altocloud has come up with a solution that combines machine-learning technology with real-time communications to predict the right time to interact with customers.

Is the Apple Watch not going to make the impact Apple is hoping for over in its home turf of the United States? This is the case according to a fresh poll of Americans.

The Reuters survey, carried out by Ipsos, took in the opinions of 1,250 US citizens, and found that 69 percent said they are not interested in buying Apple’s smartwatch.

While other Android makers have long begun to roll out Android 5.0 software updates, Sony is only now starting to make the first Lollipop incarnation available to its customers. The priority is the Xperia Z3 family, which includes Sony's current flagship smartphone.

Sony has decided that Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact should be its first smartphones to get Android 5.0 Lollipop. The roll-out starts today, in Baltic and Nordic Europe. Here's what's new.