Latest Technology News

In America, Black Friday is a retail-focused holiday following Thanksgiving. In other words, the day after we spend time with family giving thanks, we rush to the stores to spend money. Yes, it is bizarre and a bit conflicting, but actually, it is a good thing. Not only is a positive for the economy, but it also brings families together; waiting in line together, fighting fellow shoppers together and spending money together -- at least family is together. It is actually rather nice to see a tired, post-shopping family eating omelettes together at 3am at a 24-hour diner.

Another tradition of Black Friday is buying the newspaper and reading the circulars. Normally, the deals are supposed to be revealed the day before; people would make it a point to buy the newspaper on Thanksgiving. The Internet, however, has birthed "leaked" Black Friday deals, where websites publish the deals weeks in advance. While some people may imagine store employees secretly smuggling the information, others hypothesize that it is the stores themselves leaking the deals. Today, Microsoft takes the approach of openly leaking its Black Friday deals weeks in advance, by emailing them to its customers; however, there is a catch.

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In the classic movie Rambo: First Blood, Col. Trautman tells John Rambo, "It's over Johnny. It's over!", to which Rambo exclaims, "Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off!" While the interaction is actually regarding Rambo's trouble leaving the Vietnam War in the past, it actually sounds like something an ex-iPhone user would say about iMessage. You see, Apple's messaging platform has been historically difficult to eliminate from one's life -- leading to missed text messages and overall frustration.

Sadly, this has been a huge inconvenience for quite a while, but Apple is finally rectifying the cause of Android-converts' indignation. Today, the company introduces a new tool called "Deregister iMessage". Those that have ditched the iPhone should check it out as soon as possible.

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Light levels, position, sound, acceleration: your Android device knows a lot about its environment, and this data can be very helpful in adjusting how it behaves.

Individual apps might access one or two of these sensors, but Sensor Sense displays them all, and in real time.

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On November 9, 1989, twenty-five years ago today, the Berlin Wall was torn down. Many young women and men nowadays either weren't born yet or were too young to understand it. I fell into the latter; in elementary school, my teacher taught us that this wall was bad and that it was torn down. I did not understand Communism or inequality -- my simplistic understanding was just that people should be free to move about and interact with each other.

Fast-forward to 2014 and quite frankly, my simplistic view hasn't changed much; I still want people and information to flow freely. Sadly, issues with borders still exist; both literally and figuratively. A wall definitely exists in countries like China and North Korea, but it is designed to keep information and ideas out. Luckily, the Internet is the great equalizer and companies like Google are working to knock down, or at least weaken, these walls erected by censoring and oppressive forces. Today, the search-giant unveils a very special "doodle" and guest blog post by German musician, Nils Frahm.

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Government websites set to help people gain access to information about AIDS have been leaking the data about its users. Anyone visiting AIDS.gov and making use of the search box will probably be concerned to learn that, until the end of last month, data was transmitted in unencrypted form. The Washington Post points out that this data could be very easily intercepted and used to identify an individual.

We know that web users are more concerned about privacy than ever before -- and little wonder when authorities say that privacy is not a right. We know that there are various ways in which web activity can be monitored, but it seems that the smartphone app associated with AIDS.gov included this feature as standard -- the app collected and transmitted the latitude and longitude of users, again unencrypted.

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Unlike HTC or Motorola, LG still has a terrible reputation when it comes to delivering Android software updates. It is usually among the last well-known vendors to upgrade its devices to the latest version of Android, even when those devices are flagships. It also has the bad habit of leaving some handsets out of its upgrade plans, even when those handsets are compatible. Not to mention that its upgrade plans are actually revealed well after its rivals announce theirs.

This is a nice change of pace then. Today, LG gets to proudly claim "first" for once, as it is rolling out Android 5.0 Lollipop ahead of any of the usual suspects, namely HTC, Motorola and Google. Its first device to see Android 5.0 Lollipop is the G3 flagship.

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Social networks have long been a domain for trolls, but in more recent times there has been an increasing problem with harassment of women. There have been a number of high-profile cases recently, including #gamergate, where women have found themselves targets of vicious attacks online. Women, Action & the Media (WAM!) is a US non-profit whose aimed is to fight for gender equality in the media, and its latest project involves collaborating with Twitter to help fight harassment and abuse.

The project's aim is to better understand how online persecution can be tackled. WAM! explains that "women of color, queer women, trans women, fat women, and other oppressed groups of women are especially targeted and abused", but the Twitter collaboration is design to help any Twitter users experiencing "gendered harassment".

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The Windows tablet market isn't a danger to Android or iPad, but it isn't doing horribly either. Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 seems to be a hit and others are on the market as well, with makers like Dell and Toshiba jumping on board. But in case you haven't yet taken the bait, Microsoft wishes to add a bit more enticement with a sale on one of them.

Between now and November 21st the company is offering the Toshiba Encore Mini WT7-C16MS Signature Edition for a steal of a price. The tablet is a seven inch model and it comes with an Intel Atom Z3735G processor, one GB of memory, 16 GB of storage, front and rear cameras and promises up to seven hours of battery life.

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We've reached the midway point of football season. Races are shaping up between NFL teams that are battling for a playoff berth, while others have fallen by the wayside -- I won't name those, to spare the poor fans. But sometimes sports meets technology, and it does so at an increasingly high rate. That happens today as Motorola joins the club of "NFL fans".

The Moto X has gained notoriety, partially because of its functionality, and largely with its customized backs. Perhaps not everyone wants a phone with a wood back, but apparently some do. Now Motorola is going a bit further, adding a "football back". In other words, it has the look and texture of a game ball.

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Don't get too excited. Actually, don’t get excited at all. To say thanks for taking the trouble to download a multi-gigabyte image, going to the hassle of setting up a virtual machine or installing a new operating system on a spare computer, for providing feedback on the embryonic Windows 10 Technical Preview, Microsoft has a gift for members of the Windows Insider Program. Three wallpapers.

Yes, you did read that correctly. Three. Wallpapers. Available at resolutions from 1280×1024 all the way up to 4K, the theme linking each of the images is the construction of Windows 10. Microsoft seems to think that a Windows Insider might want to "show your pride about helping us build Windows 10", so the wallpapers give a chance to herald your Insider status to passers-by.

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Everything in life has consequences, and that goes especially for data breaches. Big data holds a significant amount of information that can lead to the identification of individual users -- this makes the privacy of users a primary concern and also means that the consequences of a breach can be even more damaging than usual.

Following a big data breach, not only does the aftermath serve to disrepute an organization, but it can also have a negative impact from a legal stand point. A security breach will affect a significantly larger group of people; therefore, organizations have to ensure that they achieve the correct balance between the use of the data and their users' privacy.

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The new internet protocol known as Multipath Transmission Control Protocol enables easy privacy invasion, but also secures today’s networks.

On the internet, your traffic is not your own -- no matter how you roam. New multipath technologies, including one found hidden dormant in the internals of the newest Mac operating system, OS X 10.10 Yosemite, may provide consumers with more tools to gain control of their online communications. However, this freedom comes at a price, which network operators may not be willing to pay.

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As concerns about online surveillance mount, more and more people are seeking ways to protect their identities and disguise their online activities. Services such as Tor are increasingly popular as surfers look for ways to maintain their privacy. Facebook even recently got in on the act, providing users concerned about their privacy with a secure .onion address through which to access the site.

While the likes of Tor are often turned to as a means of bolstering security and privacy, there is also a darker side -- the dark net, the dark web -- which is used for more nefarious activities. One site that rose to notoriety was Silk Road, an anonymous online marketplace where just about anything could be bought. Last year, the FBI closed the service, but Silk Road 2.0 soon sprang up out of the ashes. This has now also come to an end as the FBI once again shut down the marketplace with the help of Europol and Eurojust in a coordinated clampdown on the darker side of the web.

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Today, there is a messaging service for just about anything and anyone. The core features are pretty much the same across the board, however. Where they differ is mostly in the way those features are implemented. For instance, you can chat with others using any messaging app, but not all offer encrypted conversations or delete your messages after they're received. The devil is in the details, as always.

Despite all the different options available today, there is still room for new messaging services to make their mark. Wiper is among the new up and coming players, with its main highlights being the option to delete conversations everywhere, on-demand, and provide secure HD video chats.

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When Microsoft released Office for iPad, it was immediately popular and shot to the top of the app charts. This was hardly surprising, as people had been hoping for it ever since Apple's tablet was released. Sure, Apple's iWork solutions are fine, but Office is, well...Office. It is the gold standard for getting things done.

The problem was, while the apps were free, editing was not. You see, downloading Word, Excel and PowerPoint cost nothing, but it did not function as consumers had hoped. Only viewing office documents is a frustrating experience -- people want to edit too. The solution for this was to become an Office 365 subscriber, which unlocked the full potential of the software. While many recognized the value in being a subscriber, it is a hard sell when Apple's offerings are much more affordable (or free with a new iPad). Microsoft responded by making editing a free feature and all are happy right? Not so; what about the people who already paid? Great news, you can get a refund now!

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