'Tis the season to go shopping, and the point where desperation begins to make its ugly presence felt. The holidays are just around the corner. One thing popular with folks this time of year is "window shopping", meaning walking along the streets and checking out the displays.

If you enjoy this activity then there are no better places to do it than New York City and London. Coincidentally, that's exactly where the Google Street View team recently trekked, taking in the sites and recording them for the rest of the world.

The world of information security is, as we know, a constant arms race between the hackers and cyber criminals and the protection industry.

Since the focus has turned to making money rather than simply causing disruption it's become big business too. 2014's string of retail and other security breaches is testament to this.

Staff members present the biggest security risk to a company, and the most likely weak point when it comes to data in the cloud.

According to the recent State of SMB Cybersecurity report from CloudEntr, which took in the opinions of 438 IT pros across 20+ different industries, 77 percent said that staff members are the weakest link in their security infrastructure, and a liability when it comes to cloud usage.

Nowadays, dog ownership is more like adopting a baby than buying a pet. What do I mean by this? Canines are often a part of people's families, sometimes kept in higher regard than the human members. While this may seem crazy to some, I totally get it. My dog has more clothes than me and she has more toys than the average human child. Keep in mind, dogs love you unconditionally, and make your life better -- they deserve to be spoiled and have the best lives possible.

One of the most popular things in technology nowadays is wearables. While smartwatches have been slow to take off, Apple's watch will likely change that next year. For now, it is fitness wearables that are all the rage. Guess what? An all-new health-focused wearable for dogs is getting ready to hit the market and I am happy to say that dog-owning BetaNews readers can apply for the opportunity to test it.

Copying files to a USB storage device is generally very easy. Plug it in, the drive appears in Explorer, drag/ drop, go do something else until the transfer is complete. Simple.

If you’re moving a lot of files, though, you might want to know more. Like, does your device support USB 3.0? And if so, have you connected it to a USB 3.0 hub, to ensure you’ll get the best possible performance?

Anyone using an Android powered smartwatch no longer needs to worry about actually having to pick up their smartphone in order to see what’s going on back home, or in the office while they’re gone.

Now they can do it through the smartwatch.

Pandora is one of the grandfathers of streaming music services, and remains among the most affordable and well known sources around. It's available on phones and even set-top boxes, not to mention, right on your computer. There are also apps for smart TVs and Blu-ray players. In other words, it is almost ubiquitous.

Now the music service is launching on your Xbox One. The new app was built specifically with the gaming console in mind, with an interface designed to look good on your TV. It will not only be pretty, but provide music while you play your game, and even adds a couple of new features.

If you subscribe to Hulu, and many cord-cutters, along with some who aren't, do, then you know that it has become a haven for content of all sorts. Care to watch last night's episode of The Blacklist? You can do that, along with countless other shows. The service has also been working on original content in an effort to rival the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Now the Twentieth Century Fox TV Distribution for FX network is signing what Hulu terms a "landmark deal" to bring more of its original content to the service.

Digital technologies have changed the way that college students and prospective students do everything from applying to school and enrolling in courses, to participating in class and taking exams.

If you are a prospective student yourself and you would like to know what the term "digital school" actually means, it is important to have a basic understanding of how new distance technologies and platforms have changed the ways that the modern day student learns.

Amazon has been toying with delivery ideas for sometime now. The company has talked of same day service, there were rumors of it creating its own FedEx-like fleet, then there was the Jeff Bezos appearance on 60 Minutes -- you know, where he showed off a video of drone delivery.

The online retailer is finally beginning to realize this dream and make it reality. Amazon today is announcing Prime Now. It’s a delivery service for "essential items" and it promises one hour service. Yes, you read that correctly.

In the grand scheme of things, America is a very young nation. Still, we Americans have deep-rooted traditions that are carried over from our ancestors of the old-world. This is most apparent during the holidays -- in November and December -- as the country transforms for Christmas and Chanukkah. Even people that aren't of the Christian or Jewish variety are welcome to participate.

Lately however, Americans are using social media to enhance the holidays. In other words, even though old-world traditions like Christmas trees and Menorahs remain, modern services like Twitter and Facebook are being leveraged too. A new survey from Ebates.com shows us how much so.

Nokia’s HERE suite of driving and navigation apps first made its appearance on Windows Phone, and although it’s now being developed for other platforms, for many it remains best associated with Microsoft’s mobile operating system.

However, now that Nokia is no longer tied to Windows Phone, the Finnish company’s interest in developing for that platform is waning, and it will in future be focusing on Android and iOS -- which have a much larger user base.

Web security specialist Incapsula has released its 2014 annual Bot Study which reveals that 56 percent of website traffic is accounted for by bots.

That's down from 61.5 percent on last year's study, however the number of 'bad' bots posing as humans has increased significantly.

As the end of every year rolls around, we get the inevitable tech predictions of what will happen next year, and Samsung has produced its own list of trends which it sees dominating in 2015 (and indeed beyond).

Samsung makes five predictions in total, and the first is that wearable tech will create a "new era of power dressing" for business leaders. So we’re talking smart shoulder pads, right? Wrong. This simply refers to the fact that business folks will use wearables to become more organized and productive, starting with smartwatches.

Ask anyone who has worked on a help desk and they'll tell you that a lot of their time is spent on solving the same problems.

In order to reduce the help desk workload for online businesses and allow users to solve straightforward issues themselves, contextual answer specialist AnswerDash has announced the integration of its technology with Zendesk.