Skype offers free calls from India to US and Canada until March
Microsoft has an end-of-year present for Skype users in India. Starting now and running until the beginning of March, calls from India to the US and Canada are completely free of charge. Interestingly, this includes calls placed to mobiles as well as to landlines.
Unusually for such an offer, there's no commitment, no free trial and, seemingly, no catch -- just free calls for the next three months. The news comes just after Microsoft unveiled details of its Skype Translator preview, and is just in time for the holiday season when the number of phone calls placed tends to skyrocket.
AOC's new computer screens can reduce eye fatigue and retinal stress
If you sit in front of a computer screen all day, as so many of us do, there’s the risk of developing eye fatigue and headaches. Taking regular breaks can help, but you have to remember to do so.
Monitor-maker AOC says it has found a way to reduce the risks of spending so much time in front of computer screens and is debuting two new displays which offer Anti-Blue Light and Flicker FREE technology that it claims can combat eye-related issues such as retinal stress and macular degeneration.
Samsung and Nokia are 2014's biggest smartphone losers
Samsung, the largest smartphone supplier, has had a surprising year and reported losing over 20 million sales, compared to 2013.
Samsung sold 7 million less units in Q3 and 23 million less overall in 2014, compared to the previous year. The Galaxy S5 has been a huge letdown for Samsung, selling less than 20 million units in 2014, a number Apple’s iPhone 6 has already surpassed.
Compress CBR/CBZ comic files by 50 percent or more
Digital comics often come in the form of comic book archives, typically JPGs stored in a single archive file (cbz = zip, cbr = rar, and so on).
You might think these simple compressed formats would already produce the smallest possible files, but no -- the free CbxConverter can resample images and convert them to WebP, shrinking the archives even further.
Uber's tone-deaf surge pricing is its undoing
As downtown Sydney was in full panic Monday during a hostage crisis at a local cafe, Uber sat at the ready to get people out of town. There was only one problem: the ride would cost you $100 or more, four times the service’s normal rate.
The reasoning? Surge pricing.
Spanish publishers demand the return of Google News
Google removed its news aggregation service from Spain a few days ago, but the Spanish Newspaper Publishers’ Association (AEDE) is already asking the government to bring it back.
AEDE claims the removal of Google News will be bad business for the publishing industry overall and will have more of a negative effect on smaller internet-based publications.
View, organize and manage your media with Diffractor
Most PC users need a good media manager, something to bring order to the mass of photos, videos and music cluttering their system.
There’s plenty of competition around, but if your needs are relatively straightforward then Diffractor could be a contender.
HBO GO lands on Amazon Fire TV set-top box
HBO is one of the most popular premium networks on TV, with shows like Game of Thrones and others. The channel has also launched an online and mobile app called HBO GO. This brings the content to your computer, phone or tablet.
Now the network has arrived on Amazon Fire TV, the tiny set-top box that launched earlier this year. It's a strong competitor to Roku and Apple TV. While arguably less capable than the former, it is also stronger than the latter in its offerings.
Netflix for Android phones gains Social Recommendation and Android Wear support
Netflix streaming selection leaves a lot to be desired. With that said, the monthly streaming plan is still one of the best deals in entertainment. Hell, the paltry $8.99 is almost nothing in 2014 dollars -- I spend more at Starbucks in one day on soy chai lattes. What really makes the service attractive, however, is its ubiquity; it can be found on most streaming boxes, game consoles and mobile devices.
Sadly, Netflix sort of dissed Android users earlier this year. How, you ask? Well, it delivered new social features for iOS and game consoles, but left users of Google's mobile OS in the cold. Today, Netflix issues a minor mea culpa, and delivers those features to Android too. But wait, that's not all -- Netflix takes things a step further and introduces Android Wear support! In other words, users of Google's smartwatch platform are getting yet another cool feature to justify their purchase.
Edward Snowden condemns Amazon's 'morally irresponsible' encryption policy -- users don't care
In a near-perfect example of how there is always more than one way to look at things, Edward Snowden has very different views on Amazon than Amazon users do. On Friday, Snowden appeared -- as ever -- via video link at the surveillance symposium at the Cato Institute. He condemned Amazon's lack of encryption of customers' searches, referring to the practice as "morally irresponsible".
But Snowden's condemnation of Amazon comes at the same time as a study by Bizrate Insights which finds that more than 45 percent of online shoppers trust the site with their payment and personal information. So why the disparity?
BT in talks to acquire EE for £12.5 billion
There’s been plenty of speculation over the past few weeks as to which mobile provider British Telecom was sweetest on -- EE or O2 (its ex) -- but today we learn the object of BT’s affection is definitely the Deutsche Telekom and Orange S.A joint-venture, as the telecoms giant confirms that it has entered into "exclusive negotiations" to buy EE for £12.5 billion.
There’s a long, long way to go before the companies tie the knot, but if things go ahead, part of the purchase price will be paid in BT shares. Upon successful completion of the proposed transaction Deutsche Telekom stands to own a 12 percent stake in the company, and Orange would gain 4 percent.
Lack of IT skills is hindering cloud and BYOD deployment
Utilizing the power of cloud technology and mobilizing the workforce are two key interests for most organizations, but several issues are currently affecting progress in the field.
In a survey conducted by NaviSite and Time Warner Cable on migration to the cloud and BYOD (bring your own device) support, several key points were brought up on the reasoning behind the slow progress.
Google collaborates with Akamai to improve Public DNS offering
Whenever I set up a new router, I always change the DNS settings to point to Google Public DNS. Why? I find the search-giant's solution to resolve addresses faster than my ISP. Heck, when I am connecting to someone else's network, I enable Google DNS in my device settings too.
According to Google its DNS solution handles a mind-boggling 400 billion responses per day. Today, the search giant announces that a recent collaboration with Akamai will improve the speed of accessing location-based Akamai hosted content.
Predictions: Top ten mobile trends for 2015
It takes a brave man to make technology predictions in this day and age. Well, never one to shirk a challenge, I’ve been looking into my crystal ball, and with 2015 looming large, I’m putting my head above the parapet to make my top ten mobile predictions for the next 12 months.
Every year, competition in the smartphone space becomes more intense than ever. But we have reached a tipping point. Even the big guns, such as Samsung, are under massive pressure. All vendors will be looking for a killer new differentiator and this means things can (and probably will) get crazy. So, expect to see some wacky concepts making it to the front line of vendor’s product offerings.
New performance testing tool brings added speed and flexibility
With increasing pressure to produce new apps to meet customer demand, testing is vital as problems can lead to the loss of customers and revenue.
Yet the test process can often prove a bottleneck as the tools involved are cumbersome and can struggle to cope with modern complex apps and sites.
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