New Nintendo 3DS XL coming to USA with exciting new features -- new Zelda too!

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I can't tell you how much I hate modern home console gaming. Every time I find a spare minute to play my Xbox 360, I am faced with system and game updates -- this is the same on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 too. Hell, I spend more time installing updates than actually playing. Don't even get me started on waiting for the damn games to load.

In my day, we had cartridge-based game consoles, and we liked it. Sure, they didn't hold much data and are much more costly to produce than optical disks, but we could pick up and play without nonsense. Luckily, the Nintendo 3DS retains cartridge-based games (and downloads too), leading to a more positive experience. The latest variation of the console, unimaginatively named "New Nintendo 3DS XL", has all-new exciting features, and is finally coming to the USA. Will you buy it?

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Save Outlook.com email attachments directly to OneDrive with a single click

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Managing email attachments in Outlook.com just got a whole lot easier thanks to a new 'Save to OneDrive' feature which Microsoft is rolling out from today.

The popularity of cloud storage services like OneDrive mean you no longer need to email files to yourself to access them from anywhere, but people still do that from time to time for ease (and -- hands up -- I’m one of them), which can result in a messy and chockfull inbox. Save to OneDrive lets you move attachments you’ve received, or sent to yourself, straight to Microsoft’s cloud storage service, and all it takes is a single click.

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Facebook at Work unleashed to cater for the office

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For many employers, Facebook is the scourge of the work place -- but this could be set to change with the launch of Facebook at Work. Designed with enterprise users in mind, Facebook at Work is initially going to be made available to a handful of companies and will allow them to create their own social networks.

Sysadmins may have spent endless hours putting blockades in place to prevent workers from wiling away endless hours on Mark Zuckerberg's social network but now the goalposts have been moved. Getting off to a good start, Facebook at Work is not subject to the user tracking associated with regular Facebook, and ads simply do not exist (for now, at least). So what's it all about?

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Bushel makes Apple mobile device management available to smaller businesses

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Mobile device management is becoming essential for more and more businesses, but solutions are often complex and difficult for enterprises without specialist IT staff to adopt.

Software company JAMF which produces MDM solutions for iOS devices has launched a low cost, easy-to-use solution called Bushel aimed at small and medium businesses.

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Stanford University moves to Office 365 and Exchange

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Stanford University is known for turning out some of the big names in the tech business. It's where two guys thought up the idea for a little search engine called Google. However, that doesn't tie the school to the service and Stanford is proving that with its move to a Microsoft platform.

It's certainly not the first educational institute (or business) to adopt Office 365 and Exchange. This latest move is slated to take place in the summer of 2015, though the work has already begun.

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Samsung introduces first Tizen smartphone, more devices will follow

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Introducing a new platform comes with great challenges. It cannot successfully compete right away with established players, and it will take years to catch up. Gaining any real traction requires having lots of money to burn through, before turning a profit, let alone breaking even. The vast majority of consumers will be looking to buy the best products around, and emerging platforms do not often make the cut -- even longstanding players can struggle here.

So, it's a tough road ahead for Samsung as it tries to bring Tizen into mainstream. It is already used in some types of products -- like cameras and wearables -- but the real challenges come from popular categories, like smartphones. So far, Samsung only announced a Tizen-powered smartphone, but it didn't hit the market. Today, Samsung is at its second attempt, as it announces what is the first Tizen smartphone to actually hit store shelves. It's called Z1.

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Facebook should be applauded for not blocking violent videos

Facebook should be applauded for not blocking violent videos

There's a lot of crazy content out there. Social networks fill up with funny footage, music videos, informative clips, and the downright stupid. As with movies, there's also a good deal of graphic content out there too, and some of it finds its way onto Facebook.

In fact, this is one of the complaints that Facebook constantly has to deal with. When people aren’t taking issue with the social network's privacy policy (and trying to make their own amendments to it) there are frequent objections to violent, gory or otherwise offensive videos. Rather than issuing an outright ban and censoring such content, Facebook has adopted a far more sensible, measured approach.

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Microsoft announces Lumia 532, 435 -- its most-affordable Windows Phones yet

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Windows Phone is most-preferred by low-end smartphone buyers. In fact, Nokia Lumia 520 alone accounts for more than 25 percent of Windows Phones currently in use. However, for consumers in developing and emerging markets even a smartphone as affordable as Lumia 520 may be priced out of their budget.

Less-expensive options are needed for the platform to increase its user base, so, today, Microsoft announces its most-affordable Windows Phones yet -- Lumia 532 and Lumia 435. The two devices are designed to offer basically the same Windows Phone experience as their more expensive siblings, but at prices starting at as low as €69, before any local taxes and subsidies are factored in.

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SHAREit promises easy Wi-Fi file sharing for PCs, iOS, Android

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If you’d like to share files between devices then you could connect them to the same network, but this can be tricky to set up, especially with devices of different types.

Lenovo’s SHAREit is a simpler solution which enables PCs, iOS, Android and Windows Phone users to share files locally over Wi-Fi, no network hassles involved at all.

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Here's how to smuggle 94 iPhones into China (not)

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A man has been arrested for attempting to smuggle 94 iPhones into China by strapping all of them to his body.

Custom officers at Futian Port on the Chinese border were alerted to some suspicious activity when they noticed that the individual had a "weird walking posture, joint stiffness and muscle tension".

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Google Domains launches as beta service in US

Google Domains launches as beta service in US

Looking to get involved in yet another area of your online existence, Google today launched a beta version of Google Domains in the US. As the name suggests, this is a domain registration service that Google hopes will be used to manage websites, including Blogger blogs, within the familiar, comfortable arms of Google.

Google Domains has been up and running as a private beta for a little while, but now it has been opened up to the wider public. Although it is available for anyone in the US to sign up for, there's no clue about when the beta tag will be dropped.

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Microsoft and PayPal transform Surface and Lumia into point-of-sale terminals

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Last year, I was visiting Jacksonville, FL -- an up-and-coming city -- and needed lunch. Rather than being littered with fast food restaurants, food trucks were all the rage there. Now, these are not "roach coaches", as we call them in New York, but high-end gourmet offerings that just happen to be served from a truck. When it came time to pay, I panicked; I did not have cash! Luckily, the owner told me they take credit cards. I swiped my card on an iPad, signed on-screen with my finger, and had the receipt sent to me by SMS text message. Very cool.

While an iPad may meet the needs of a food truck, many businesses will have greater needs. You see, a computer like the Surface Pro 3 has a true desktop operating system -- the venerable Windows -- and can run the best-in-class full version of Microsoft Office. A business-owner would be smart to trust their company to a Windows machine. Well today, Microsoft and PayPal announce a partnership to bring PayPal Here to both the Surface and Lumia devices using software and a credit card reader. Yes, even Microsoft's laptop/tablet hybrid, the Surface Pro 3, will be a super-cool point-of-sale terminal!

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Scroogled is officially dead as domain gets rerouted by Microsoft

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We knew the Scroogled campaign was no more -- it was a miserable failure and the object of ridicule that somehow still got architect Mark Penn promoted within the company. While some folks found it amusing, most laughed it off, as the misinformation conveyed was a joke. Now it seems the fate of this advertising endeavor is completely sealed.

Microsoft has rerouted traffic from the Scroogled website in an effort to forget this embarrassing moment in history. If you visit the site now, you'll be sent to WhyMicrosoft -- a site that shows off the good things the company has to offer, as opposed to a mudslinging campaign against a rival.

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Ban encrypted messaging apps? You'd have to be an idiot to think it workable

Ban encrypted messaging apps? You'd have to be an idiot to think it workable

Wherever you are in the world, it's quite likely that your government wants to monitor your communication, be it online or via phone. Following the tragic events in France, politicians have voiced a desire for greater snooping powers. UK Prime Minister David Cameron has suggested that he would ban encrypted messaging tools if he wins the next election.

He has said that he would move to block the use of methods of communication that could not be intercepted and read by security services. With tools such as iMessage, WhatsApp and Snap Chat providing encrypted messaging options, could their days be numbered? Or is this an idiotic and unworkable way of looking at things?

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Silk Road Reloaded ditches Tor for I2P

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The notorious online black market Silk Road Reloaded has left the Tor web browser to join a more anonymous network known as I2P.

Following the decision, Silk Road Reloaded has also made a number of policy changes, including ending its exclusivity with bitcoin. The site now allows transactions to take place with other cryptocurrencies such as dogecoin and anoncoin.

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