My favorite tech products of 2014 [Mihaita]
I'm not easily impressed. Lots of tech products see the light of day each year, but only a few I consider to be truly great. And by that I mean technology that I want to have in my life, that brings value, and, last but not least, that makes me feel good. The subjective factor is just as important, I believe, when it comes to the things that I have to look at and interact with on a daily basis. That's just the way it is, and I'm fine with it.
Because of this, a pretty long list can get really, really short in no time. My colleagues have already shared their favorite tech products of 2014 with you, and now the time has come for me to do the same. It's BetaNews tradition, after all. So, without further ado, here they are.
Want to launch your own DDoS attacks? Just buy them from Lizard Squad
You know what it's like. You have a niggling desire to launch a DDoS attack on a website but there are a couple of problems. You might not know how to do it, you might not want to run the risk of getting caught, or you might, you know, be too lazy to do it yourself. Never fear, Lizard Squad is on hand to help you out.
The hacker collective hit the headlines over the holidays after taking out the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. It then claimed to have had a (small) hand in the hack of Sony, but now the aim appears to be to monetize the whole venture. Lizard Squad has launched a service called LizardStresser that could be used to launch DDoS attacks.
The most pirated movies of 2014
A list of this year’s most pirated movies has been revealed online, with most of 2014’s blockbuster releases featuring.
Director Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, claimed the title of most illegally downloaded film in 2014.
dnGrep is a powerful search / replace tool for Windows
DnGrep is a powerful text search and replace tool for Windows. It comes packed with all the functionality you'd expect from anything with the GREP name, but a well-designed interface ensures it's also very easy to use.
Getting started, for example, is as easy as specifying a path to search, a text string to look for, clicking "Search" and waiting for the results. It's much like any other search tool, really, although even here it’s delivering more than you might expect, as the program searches archives, PDFs and Word documents, as well as plain text files.
Roku looks back at 2014 by the numbers
2014 could be viewed as the year of set-top boxes. 2015 is likely to see even more action, as more of what we watch moves to online content, be it Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu Plus, the new CBS offering, or one of the lesser known competitors. When you take all of that into account, you'd assume it would have been a big year for Roku, and you'd be right.
Today the company ran down the numbers for 2014 and they were a bit staggering in terms of just how well the set-top box maker has performed.
Apple's 14-day returns on iTunes could kill devs and musicians
From now on, if you buy an app, music track or book from iTunes and change your mind, you can get your money back in the first two weeks, no questions asked -- if you are in the EU, anyway. Distance selling laws mean that a 14-day cooling off period is in place, so it is possible to get a refund on anything bought through iTunes in this timeframe.
It doesn’t matter if you don't like an app or album, something doesn't work as it should, or you just need your money back after an impulse purchase, the cash will be returned to you without question. One the face of it, this is great news for consumers, but the outlook is potential less rosy for app developers, authors and musicians.
Social networks are simply not important in the workplace
Surveys often reveal facts that are largely common sense, and this is certainly true of a study by the Pew Research Center -- the findings being that is seen as "very important" to workers. Nearly half of the 1,066 people surveyed said internet, email and cell phones made them more productive, while just 7 percent said the opposite was true.
So far, so predictable. But the same study also reveals that just 4 percent of workers feel that social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are "very important". These are findings that Facebook would almost certainly disagree with, as would Twitter and LinkedIn, despite reports suggesting that Facebook is valuable to business users.
Sports fans, go crazy! WatchESPN now available for Windows Phone
The older I get, the more interested in sports I become. I suppose as my own dreams fade away, I can live vicariously through the athletes on the TV. Though I can appreciate all sports, I am mostly a fan of baseball, basketball and football -- sometimes hockey. While most of the world likes soccer, we Americans, for a large part, ignore it, despite the media trying to force it down our throats.
Unfortunately, watching sports often conflicts with real life. Case in point, the NFL is primarily a Sunday-affair, and my family usually has other plans for me that day. While I always side with living my own life over watching someone else play sports on TV, I never abandon it altogether. You see, I track sports scores and watch plays on my smartphone. Today, Microsoft announces that WatchESPN is available for Windows Phone.
Lizard Squad claims to have assisted with Sony hack: 'this is kind of a game for us'
To many people Lizard Squad comprises a collection of attention-seeking skiddies looking for their five minutes of fame. To others, they are the group that ruined Christmas by taking down the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live over the holiday period. Of course, it didn't end there. There were then claims of attacks on the Tor network, but the group's impact might be even more high-profile than first thought.
While not claiming full responsibility for the now infamous hacking of Sony, Lizard Squad has said that it provided Sony login details to the people who did. A man identifying himself as a Lizard Squad administrator said that Sony employee details were given to Guardians of Peace (GoP), one of the groups at whom the finger of suspicion is pointing.
Windows Phone is stuck in the low-end market
At the end of 2014, the Windows Phone landscape is dominated by low-end smartphones. Of the ten most popular devices that the platform has to offer, just two are high-end handsets -- however, neither is a current-day flagship. If it is not clear enough by now, Windows Phone is nothing more than a low-end affair, after more than four years down the road. Is that a bad thing?
Nokia Lumia 520 is the most-successful Windows Phone around, accounting for a whopping 25.4 percent of Windows Phones in use. Put differently, it is as popular as the following nine most popular Windows Phones put together. Altogether, the top ten makes up 67.2 percent share in this market, according to information revealed by AdDuplex.
The best Windows Store apps of 2014
The best apps for Windows 8 series on Betanews is almost as old the Windows 8 operating system itself. If you follow the series closely you know that it has had its ups and downs depending on what apps are released in a given week.
Things improved after the release of Windows 8.1 as more quality apps and games were released for the operating system.
Could Android apps save Windows Phone?
The mobile market is a four horse race... if we're being polite, that is. Really it's a battle between Apple's iOS and Google's Android. BlackBerry desperately neighs about its importance to the enterprise market, while Windows Phone stamps its hooves trying to gain attention as it's hauled off to the glue factory via the knacker's yard.
Microsoft's mobile OS may have gained ground in some parts of the world, but the reality is that it's struggling. Whenever we talk about Windows Phone it feels like the same topic comes up again and again, forcing us to re-tread old ground, bang the same drum. The app situation is dire; it's all but impossible to paint it any other way. But could opening up the ecosystem to Android apps save it from a slow and painful death?
Next Lock Screen: Microsoft's take on the Android lock screen
Next Lock Screen is an Android lock screen "built for busy professionals".
That sounds very familiar, but what’s a little more unusual is that Next is from Microsoft Garage, an "idea factory" where employees work on whatever "wild ideas" they like.
Is Facebook more useful for professionals than LinkedIn?
When the LinkedIn network for professionals launched it was sometimes referred to as social networking for grown ups. But is it really any better than Facebook for business users?
The UK's Brighton School of Business and Management has produced an infographic comparing the relative merits of the two sites and it shows that Facebook may be getting overlooked as a business tool.
My favorite tech products of 2014 [Brian]
Well folks, 2014 is almost in the books, and we will soon be in 2015. Outside of tech, the world has been rather crazy; there have been tragic deaths, natural disasters and further division among US citizens. Sadly, the tech world got pulled into the major news with various hacking scandals -- Home Depot customer information was breached, Sony Pictures was brought to its knees and Hollywood celebrities had their naked photos leaked. In other words, there have been many negative things in both tech and non-tech news.
Luckily, not all is bad; the tech community has seen many great devices and software released too. As is customary for late-December, many tech-writers, such as yours truly, begin compiling lists of the best tech of the year. Well, "best" is subjective, I realize that, so instead, I am offering my favorite tech of 2014. Maybe your list is different; my colleague's lists are. Variety is the spice of life however, so please tell me if you agree or disagree with my choices.
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