Latest Technology News

It's not all that long since Google launched Inbox. The 'smart' alternative to Gmail appeared a few months ago and Google tried to get the hype machine going by launching it as an invite-only service, gradually trickling out invites here and there.

Now the search giant is trying a new tactic to encourage people into using the service, specifically Apple users. Google has pulled the iOS and Mac version of the Sparrow email app from the App store; the hope is clearly that Sparrow users will migrate to Inbox.

Most web-based threats come from malicious adverts placed on websites (aka malvertising), but Malwarebytes has discovered a well hidden malicious injection on the official website of Jamie Oliver which redirects unsuspecting visitors to an exploit kit.

The compromised site -- www.jamieoliver.com -- is currently ranked 519 in the UK (5,280 in the world), according to Alexa, with around 10 million visitors a month, which makes it a valuable target for hackers.

There are many Linux-based operating systems nowadays, making it difficult to pick one. This is a good problem to have, however, as trying new distributions can be fun. Unfortunately, many are so similar, that you can end up wasting your time.

One alternative distro may be worth the time and effort; Bodhi Linux. Since it is based on Ubuntu 14.04, there is less of a learning curve for users of Canonical's OS. What really makes it stand out, however, is the Enlightenment window manager, which is lightweight, functional and pretty.

It’s fair to say Raspberry Pi, the super-affordable ARM GNU/Linux computer, has been a massive success. Originally envisaged as a way to get kids coding again as they did in the 1980s and 1990s, the device has found a massive fan base outside of the education system, and has been selling in impressive quantities since its launch in 2012.

The British success story sold more than a million units in its first year, but since then the pace has picked up, and the Raspberry Pi Foundation has just tweeted some staggering news -- it has now sold more than 5 million Raspberry Pis worldwide.

Police in London have raided a site providing movies and TV show downloads. Three men have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud as well as copyright infringement offenses. The site has not been named, but police describe it as "extremely" popular.

The raid followed an investigation by FACT (the Federation Against Copyright Theft) and resulted not only in three arrests, but also the seizure of computer equipment and financial documents. Although we don’t yet know which site is involved, police say that "it ranked thousands of places higher than a well-known and legitimate film download site".

Even though nearly 90 percent of companies offer wellness incentives, more than two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese. Studies abound on the adverse health effects of excessive sitting; most recently, researchers from Toronto found that sitting more than eight hours per day can increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by ninety-one percent, dying of cardiovascular disease by eighteen percent and dying of cancer by seventeen percent.

The silver lining to those bleak statistics is that many of the negative effects of prolonged sitting can be reduced simply by finding ways to move throughout the workday -- for example, a brisk walk around the block during lunch or a few chair squats at your desk. Given sitting’s bad rap -- not to mention longer workdays -- it’s no surprise that companies are striving for more effective ways to incentivize and reward healthy employees to reduce absenteeism and insurance costs.

Microsoft's mobile-first, cloud-first strategy continues. In something of a surprise announcement the company reveals that it is launching a new cloud storage partner program meaning that any cloud storage provider will be able to integrate with Office for iOS and Office Online.

The news follows on from Microsoft's partnership with Dropbox in November and while it is just iOS users who will benefit from the new mobile options for now, Office for Android and Office for Windows 10 will also get the same treatment in due course. It's a recognition of the fact that integration with OneDrive is not enough so it shouldn't be long before we see iCloud and Google Drive working with Office.

Let's face it, we're always at risk, and I speak for human kind, not just the personal risks we take each time we leave our homes. Some of these potential terrors are unavoidable -- we can't control the asteroid we find hurtling towards us or the next super volcano that may erupt as the Siberian Traps once did.

Some risks however, are well within our control, yet we continue down paths that are both exciting and potentially dangerous. In his book Demon Haunted World, the great astronomer, teacher and TV personality Carl Sagan wrote "Avoidable human misery is more often caused not so much by stupidity as by ignorance, particularly our ignorance about ourselves".

There's always that tiny glimmer of hope that in some way a new year is going to be somehow different from and better than the one that went before.

Usually it's extinguished quite quickly and it seems that, in software terms at least, 2015 is no exception according to the latest vulnerability report from Secunia released today.

Analytics can be worthless, counterproductive and even harmful when based on data that isn’t high quality. Garbage in, garbage out, as they say. So when Salesforce Analytics Cloud hit the market, vendors rushed to announce plugins that would load high-quality data into the solution.

The painful truth is that without high-quality data, it doesn’t matter how fast or sophisticated the analytics capability is. You simply won’t be able to turn all that data managed by IT into effective business execution.

Finally acknowledging the growing competition from arch rivals and emerging players in the developing regions, Samsung today slashes the price of several of its handsets in India, one of the largest and fast-growing smartphone markets. The South Korean technology conglomerate revised the retail prices of Samsung Galaxy S4, Galaxy A3, Galaxy A5 in the country. While yet to be officially announced, the company seems to have quietly slashed the price of several more handsets too.

Galaxy S4, the flagship handset from Samsung which was launched in India in 2013 for Rs 41,500 ($667) off-contract, is now available to purchase for Rs 17,999 ($290, roughly 57 percent off), with an additional Rs 1,000 ($16) Gift card to buyers.

Google today announces the arrival of Android One in the Philippines, bringing the number of countries where the program is offered to six. The first Android One smartphones to launch in the Philippines are called Cherry One and MyPhone Uno, and they'll both come with Android 5.1 Lollipop out-of-the-box.

Google says that both smartphones will be available to local consumers in the coming weeks, featuring hardware specifications that are on par with those of other Android One devices. Let's take a look at what One and Uno have to offer.

Your antivirus software claims to be working all the time, monitoring every file you access for any potential threats -- but is this really how it is? EICARgen can help you find out.

This tiny freebie has a single task: to generate the EICAR Anti-Virus Test File on demand. EICAR isn’t an actual virus, not even executable code (it’s just a few characters of text), so it can’t harm your system in any way. But it is something which all antivirus programs should detect as a threat, making it very useful for testing.

Smartglasses are tricky. You have people who don't like to wear glasses. Those who do may not like their design. They can also be tiring to wear for extended periods of time, as Google Glass Explorers have confessed. Not to mention that smartglasses are also very expensive. And, at least for the time being, consumers are not taking the plunge, as they appear to be perfectly happy with using just their smartphones.

The lack of consumer interest, and Google recently killing its beloved Glass project, hasn't stopped Japanese maker Sony from coming out with its own pair of smartglasses. They're called SmartEyeglass Developer Edition SED-E1, and they're available for pre-order starting today.

VAIO might not have the market presence it did ten years ago -- especially with the recent sale by Sony -- but it is still an exciting brand to look out for in the laptop market.

The two new hybrid laptops are the first from Japanese Industrial Partners (JIP), the new owners who acquired the VAIO brand late last year.