Darkhotel sounds like it ought to be one of those budget hotel chains you find on the outskirts of towns -- possibly one built without windows to keep costs down.

In fact researchers at Kaspersky Lab have revealed that it's an espionage campaign, which has been operating for almost a decade, that steals sensitive data from corporate executives traveling abroad.

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Google is widely regarded as being one of the controllers of the internet. It is by far the most popular search engine and if a site does not appear in the first few pages of results, it may as well not exist. But Google is far from being the only gatekeeper to the internet; Facebook is increasingly vying for that crown, whilst making efforts to make access more secure through Tor. But what does this mean?

Facebook accounts for a terrifying percentage of web traffic -- it is the second most visited website in the world according to Alexa. This means that it has a huge influence online, giving the social network the opportunity to shape the web and holds great sway in determining which sites, services, and stories rise to popularity. To many people, this influence is all but invisible, and this is perhaps the most concerning part of the story. So how does Facebook's influence present itself?

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As you may know, HTC One (M8) launched as a Verizon-exclusive in late-August. Shortly after its introduction, both AT&T and T-Mobile revealed that they would too carry the Windows Phone, but at a later date. The former was the first to get it, last week, but now you can also buy it from the magenta carrier.

While things were pretty clear about the cost of buying One (M8) for Windows from AT&T, T-Mobile left this information for the day when it is actually available through its stores. Luckily, if you have waited this long, you will not be disappointed.

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For some strange reason, when Microsoft released Windows 8.1 it forced Windows 8 users to update through the Windows Store. If you wanted to download an ISO file for installing how and when you liked, you either had to be an MSDN subscriber or use a couple of clever workarounds (as detailed here and here).

Thankfully, better late than never, Microsoft has finally come up with an official tool which will let you create your own Windows 8.1 installation DVD or USB flash drive. If you need to install Windows 8.1 from scratch, no longer do you need to install Windows 8 first, and then update through the store.

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I'm sure you're aware of the looming "digital skills gap" and the terrifying figures attached to not addressing the problem. However in order to find a solution to the digital skills crisis, we must first define exactly what digital skills are.

In this article we spoke to Nick Millman, managing director at Accenture Digital UK, about defining what digital skills are and how the gap will affect your business.

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Raspberry Pi, the hugely popular credit card-sized ARM GNU/Linux computer, is available in two versions -- the Model A and the Model B. Four months ago the Raspberry Pi Foundation launched an updated version of the latter called the Model B+, which added more USB ports, more GPIO and microSD support (among other features). Impressively, the price remained the same -- $35.

Today the foundation announces an upgrade to the cut-down Model A called -- can you guess? -- the Model A+, and while it’s better than the A in several ways, it’s also smaller and cheaper.

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Traditional malware infections usually require a file object to be placed on the system which makes it relatively easy for them to be detected and removed.

Now though there’s a stealthier threat uncovered by security company Malwarebytes. Poweliks is an infection that runs without a filesystem object, completely from the registry and memory using rundll32.exe, javascript and a create on-the-fly dll.

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has finally explained the reason behind the company's decision to split Facebook and Facebook Messenger into two different mobile apps.

He said that the Facebook app was weighing down on messaging, making communication more difficult and slower.

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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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