Three weeks ago, Energous announced a partnership with appliance manufacturer Haier Wireless, to add its WattUp wire-free charging transmitters to a wide range of home appliances. This will allow phones, tablets and other devices to charge over-the-air, just by being in range of an equipped appliance, such as a washer, microwave or fridge.

I spoke to Gordon Bell, Director of Marketing for Energous, to find out more about WattUp and the company's future plans.

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Gartner research indicates that the rapid growth in the number of Internet-connected devices will become a powerful force for business transformation and will have a disruptive impact across all industries and all areas of society. Forecasts predict that 4.9 billion connected things will be in use by 2015, an increase of 30 percent compared to today, with the figure set to reach 25 billion by 2020.

Jim Tully, vice president and analyst at Gartner, explains how companies need to embrace IoT if they want to survive in the changing business landscape. "The digital shift instigated by the Nexus of Forces (cloud, mobile, social and information), and boosted by IoT threatens many existing businesses. They have no choice but to pursue IoT, like they’ve done with the consumerization of IT".

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We've become used to the fact that for pretty much any product or service we want to buy there will be reviews available online to help us with our purchase decision.

These reviews matter to businesses as they can have an impact on sales. Open review community Trustpilot has carried out a survey looking at how online reviews can influence the bottom line.

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The recent spate of payment card breaches that have plagued the retail industry this year has prompted many merchants to consider investing in cybersecurity liability insurance policies to offset the costs associated with a breach recovery. These companies often make this choice based on the belief that the money they’ve spent to comply with industry security standards has failed to prevent these breaches from occurring, and there seems to be no other alternative. At least one recently filed claim has led to a lawsuit that will put these cybersecurity insurance policies to the test.

The key element of such lawsuits is determining liability -- who is at fault -- to determine whether the claims are justified and if the insurance companies will pay out. Finding a party liable for something means determining if the party was taking reasonable steps to prevent such actions from happening.

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Credit card giants Visa and Mastercard are planning to get rid of their current online security verification system, and replace it with something a bit more modern and secure.

You’re probably familiar with either Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode, which pop up when you make an online purchase, just before the payment is officially put through. They ask you to input letters from an extra password to verify that it’s actually the card owner making the purchase -- but in contemporary terms, this is a relatively unsophisticated security measure.

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Reports from Associated Press reveal that the State Department has closed down its email system following a security attack. The news comes after the details of a hack attack on the White House in October were made public. It seems that the State Department's unclassified email system was attacked at the same time, and technicians are currently working to repair the damage.

It was suggested that last month's White House hack was linked to Russia, but it is not yet clear whether the attack on the email system is part of the same security breach. The email closure is described as "unprecedented", but officials insist that classified data systems have not been affected.

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Organizing files in Windows can be a tedious experience. You'll view your source files, maybe create a few destination folders, select each group of files, move them to their new home… Then start all over again.

Sounds familiar? Then Files 2 Folder might appeal. It’s a free Explorer extension which can automatically move files into new folders based on your preferred rules.

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Cough. Choke. Collapse. That's me nearly needing the Heimlich maneuver during breakfast while looking over Samsung Black Friday deals. You can preorder them. Seriously. What the frak is that?

The routine started all so innocently. Samsung sent a promo email, and I curiously clicked the picture of a Chromebook and "Reserve Computing Deals". The webpage screenshot says all you need to know. You can, today -- as in right this very minute -- preorder either Samsung Chromebook 2 for assured savings ($20 or $50) between November 27 and December 1 for one and until the 27th for the other. I understand that Black Friday is late-month this year, but, c`mon, beat me with a sack of cash, sales preorders?

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Piriform has released the first beta for CCleaner 5.0, its popular system cleanup tool.

The only change so far is the move to a flat interface, and even that is largely cosmetic. Functions and features are organized just as they were before, but the toolbar icons are replaced by plain stencils, and the title bar is now also a stark-looking white, whatever your Windows settings happen to be.

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The Linux kernel is constantly evolving and adapting; there is a reason it has seen great success on servers and mobile devices. On the desktop, however, Linux-based operating systems hold a paltry amount of usage share; it is almost non-existent in the grand scheme of things. With that said, many modern Linux distributions are very usable, easy to install, and have great support communities.

While I am a Fedora user, there is only one Linux distro that I suggest to people -- Linux Mint. Why? Well, it is a very easy-to-use operating system, and for people coming from Windows, it can look rather familiar. The people behind Mint are very accommodating too; they actually listen to users! Since it is based on Ubuntu, there are tons of packages available, for which you can use the popular APT package manager when needed. Today, a release candidate (RC) of Linux Mint 17.1 'Rebecca' becomes available -- download it now.

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When Microsoft entered the console business, it was quite the perplexing move. An American company competing with Sega, Nintendo, and Sony? Crazy! Fast-forward to 2014 -- Sega has exited the console business, Nintendo's Wii U is a massive flop, but Microsoft is still going strong. While Sony's PlayStation 4 is the current leader regarding shipped consoles, the Xbox One is a close second. Based on recent sales and consumer interest, Microsoft's console can conceivably catch up.

Either way, the Xbox brand overall has been a runaway success that has exceeded the expectations of consumers and analysts alike. Hell, I bet Microsoft is surprised at how competitive its consoles have been. Today, Xbox celebrates a 13th birthday -- the video game brand is a teenager.

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Apple's Senior Vice President of Design, Jony Ive, used an interview at London's Design Museum to lash out at design copycats. He touched on many topics, including suggesting that design schools rely too heavily on computers, the "theft" of Apple designs, and explaining why the design of Apple's own products is formulaic.

In conversation with Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum, Ive also said that Apple does not exist to make money. This will come as news to most people -- including, perhaps, Apple itself -- particularly as the company is currently the most valuable brand in the world. He insists that integrity is at the very heart of Apple, and that any money that may come rolling in is merely "a consequence".

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A month ago we reported that Apple is the most valuable brand in the world. This ranking was based on figures published by Interbrand, but things have been improving for the Nadella-led company in recent weeks. Since then, Microsoft is creeping up the charts when looked at in terms of market capitalization -- the number of company shares multiplied by the price of a share.

Microsoft now finds itself overtaking oil giant Exxon as it jumps to second place in the global rankings. Apple remains in the top slot. The move up the charts was helped not only by Exxon getting hit by a slump in global oil prices, but also by an increase in Microsoft's share prices.

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Advanced SystemCare 8 Pro is a comprehensive suite of tools which aims to clean, optimize and generally speed up your PC.

There's plenty of competition around, but SystemCare impresses immediately with its lengthy feature list. It doesn't just empty your temporary folders and display Windows startup programs: the package also removes malware, cleans and defragments the Registry, updates software and drivers, manages browser plugins, undeletes files, optimises internet settings, fixes common Windows problems, finds duplicate files, and a whole lot more.

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There is, perhaps, no place the Google Street View team will not go, including national parks around the US. The crew has traveled around the world, and even beneath the oceans. Now the team is honoring the IUCN World Parks Congress, which is taking place in Sydney, Australia this time around. The meeting happens only once per decade, so it's a big deal.

In celebration, Google has trekked 21 parks and 27 underwater spots in an effort to bring them to your desktop. There was some help, and this came about through a partnership with New South Wales National Parks and Catlin Seaview Survey.

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