British criminals are remotely wiping mobile devices while in police custody
Offenders are using software to remotely wipe tablets and smartphones confiscated by the police so they cannot be used as evidence in criminal cases.
Police forces in Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Durham all admitted to the BBC that seized devices have been remotely "wiped" of all data to prevent it being used as evidence in court.
The battle to wipe out revenge porn continues
In the wake of the Fappening, online porn and nudity has been thrust into the public consciousness once again. But porn is about much more than titillating celebrity photos -- even if research shows that we're finding it easier to waste our time online when we should be getting on with work. Revenge porn is on the rise, and steps are being taken to try to thwart its progress. As the Fappening showed us, taking saucy pictures of oneself or partner is far from uncommon. This is fun and exciting in the middle of a relationship, but if that relationship should break down, there's no knowing what could happen to those pictures and videos.
Disgruntled partners may decide to get revenge on their former lovers by sharing those intimate photos and movies online, or it may be obtained by a third party and used as a tool for bribery. Many US states have outlawed the practice, and now the UK is following suit.
Run multiple programs in one desktop window with TaskSpace
Running multiple PC programs side-by-side isn’t difficult, but can require a little preparation as you move, resize and reorganise each window.
TaskSpace offers an interesting alternative, running multiple programs in a single desktop window, and so making them much easier to manage.
ChrisPC DNS Switch 2.0 brings a new Pro edition
ChrisPC has released ChrisPC DNS Switch 2.0, a significant update for its free DNS selection tool.
The core DNS list has been updated, and in a click or two can set your PC to use OpenDNS, Google Public DNS, Comodo Secure DNS, Norton, Yandex, BlockAid, DynDNS and many more. There are 34 servers in total and you can add another 15.
Pale Moon 25.0 released, moves further away from Firefox, drops Windows XP support
Moonchild Productions has released a major update to its Firefox browser variant for Windows with the release of Pale Moon 25.0 and Pale Moon x64 25.0, which sees the browser drop support for Windows XP.
Version 25.0 sees the version number jump for the first time since the browser forked away from its Firefox parent due to major changes in the way the browser identifies itself.
Kmart has a blue light special on malware -- system breach exposes credit card numbers
As someone who grew up in a lower middle class family in the suburbs known as Long Island, there were two places I spent a lot of time shopping with my mom -- Cheap Johns and Kmart. While the former has since gone out of business, the latter still stands. Actually, the fact that it is still operating is surprising -- don't get me wrong, it is an OK store, but Walmart has lower prices and better selection, even if the overall experience is poor. Once Walmart opened in my area, many people ditched Kmart -- the store famous for its "blue light specials". Heck, if someone wants to step up to a nicer store than Walmart, they'll likely head to Target nowadays -- sorry, Kmart.
Unfortunately for Kmart, it now shares something other than low-prices with Target -- malware and data breaches. Yes, today Kmart announces that its payment systems were breached, and debit and credit card numbers have been stolen. Should we be worried?
Netflix officially comes to Ubuntu Linux by way of Google's Chrome browser
As a Linux user, I understand the pain of using it exclusively on the desktop. Sure, you may find that a Linux distribution does everything you want, until it doesn't. Life is known to throw curve-balls, and new needs and wants often come along to spoil the party. Oh, a new obscure piece of hardware has been released? Sorry, no Linux support. Oh you want to watch Netflix? Sorry buddy, Linux is not welcome -- or is it?
Actually, starting today, Netflix is now compatible with Linux; well technically, only Ubuntu and only on the Chrome browser. Still, the open source desktop community is in need of a win, so I'll chalk it up as one. Despite the narrow availability, Netflix is here -- fire up that System76 laptop and get watching!
Windows 10 Technical Preview feedback: what users want to change
Microsoft is encouraging people who have downloaded the Windows 10 Technical Preview to provide feedback on the embryonic operating system. The Start menu is something that users have been begging for, and changes to the Command Prompt have been a very long time coming, but just what do testers think of Windows 10 so far? There's still quite some time to go until Windows 10 is released giving Microsoft lots of opportunity to respond to user feedback. This is what Microsoft is all about these days after all.
With help from one of the readers of his Supersite for Windows, Paul Thurrott has pulled together a list of the top ten requests that have been received so far. The methodology may not be entirely scientific, but it does give an interesting insight into how Windows 10 has been received and what people would like to see changed.
SAP and Birst team up to deliver cloud analytics for the enterprise
Enterprise software specialist SAP has announced a partnership with business intelligence company Birst to deliver faster analytics on the SAP HANA cloud platform.
The tie up will allow organizations to use a single cloud platform which can deliver instant analytics giving managers the ability to more quickly turn insight into action. It brings together SAP's next-generation cloud platform and Birst's comprehensive two-tier data architecture to provide instant access to business data.
Chrome 39 Beta brings new developer features
Google has released Google Chrome 39 Beta to the Beta channel with some major developer-oriented additions.
Web Animations support has been enhanced with a playback control. This supports methods like play(), pause(), and reverse(), as well as adding the ability to jump to a specific point in a timeline, greatly expanding its usefulness.
Best Windows 8 apps this week
One-hundred and two in a series. Two weeks to go and we have reached the two-year milestone.
Last week was rather slow in terms of new apps and games that found their way into store and this week continues the trend. The popular VLC Media Player app for Windows 8 was updated this week introducing support for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. The developers resolved several crash issues on top of that which should improve the stability of the app significantly. Then again, still no sign of a Windows RT version.
Symantec to follow HP and eBay and split in two
There must be something in the air at the moment -- everyone seems to be splitting up. eBay and PayPal decided that it would be better to go it alone, and then HP announced it would be splitting into consumer and enterprise companies. Symantec now reveals that it plans to divide into two independent companies, one focusing on security, and the other on storage.
President and CEO, Michael A. Brown, says that the two markets face their own sets of unique challenges and by splitting in two, each business will have the flexibility needed to respond accordingly.
Flashback Friday: How two Stanford University whiz kids accidentally built Google
Second in a series. Google is everywhere. It's behind the world's most popular mobile operating system and map, one of the most successful email services ever, and has even expanded into the finance, wearables and transport sectors. What's more, it probably still serves as your browser home page (or just a means of finding out whether you're connected to the Internet or not).
The still-relatively-young company has come a hell of a long way since its inception in the late 90s, and looks well capable of dominating each and every avenue it decides to enter. However, the company had very humble, and indeed slightly odd, beginnings.
Is it the end of the line for the password?
In an era of increasing security threats the password is often the weakest link that allows attackers a way into a system posing as a legitimate user.
A new infographic from security company Ping Identity looks at the problem of poor passwords and how in the future they may give way to more sophisticated forms of authentication.
Sony Xperia Z3v launches at Verizon
For a well-known and longstanding smartphone manufacturer, Sony has an unusual strategy in the US. Its presence is limited, and few of its devices make it in the country officially. And when they do, they are about to be superseded. Proof is Xperia Z2. Unveiled at CES 2014 in January, it went on sale shortly after, but only made it to the US in late-July. Its successor, Xperia Z3, was announced at IFA 2014, early last month, and went on sale just weeks later.
However, Xperia Z3 must be the smartphone that breaks the pattern for Sony, and finally show us that the Japanese maker can get its US strategy right, as it will soon be available at two of the largest mobile operators in the country. Yes, while it is still a hot device! After T-Mobile, Verizon was just revealed to also carry Xperia Z3, albeit in a slightly tweaked version called Xperia Z3v. Here are the details.
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