Snapchat has come on leaps and bounds since it was first introduced to mobile users in September 2011, despite the photo application gaining a negative reputation with its initial release.

By some, it was seen to perpetuate the sexting trend, with researchers claiming its primary audience to be teens who predominantly shared sensitive content that handily disappeared after the app’s timer runs out. However, since those days Snapchat has expanded its repertoire and is now being used for a variety of creative purposes that are not necessarily privacy-related. And the fundamental reason for its use, according to users, is that the application is seen to be "fun and easy to use".

PayPal, currently owned by eBay, is one of the most popular methods for moving money online. Of course, as Microsoft knows from Windows, with popularity comes problems. People are going to poke and prod in an effort to find soft spots. Sometimes the intention is to help fix things, sometimes to exploit the problems.

Security researcher Yasser Ali is on the good side, but he still has released details of a vulnerability that shows how easy it can be to hack PayPal. However, before you get all worked up, the payment service fixed the problem before Ali announced it. It also paid him in gratitude for the information.

Small is beautiful, and this is something that the Raspberry Pi demonstrates perfectly. But now there's a little competition. The Creator CI20 is a new diminutive micro-computer which offers more power than an existing Raspberry Pi, as well as a choice of operating systems -- Android or Linux.

The company behind the barebones computer is another UK chip manufacturer, Imagination, and at just $65, it's a perfect stocking stuffer. Or at least it would be if units were going to ship before January 2015. Like the Raspberry Pi, the Creator CI20 is a fully loaded board designed for use in all manner of DIY computing projects.

As the IT landscape changes and employees are more likely to be accessing cloud services on a range of devices, it's important that they remain properly protected from threats.

Cloud-delivered security service OpenDNS has announced that it's opened up its platform to other security vendors to fight attacks through intelligence sharing.

Progressive organizations recognize data as a strategic asset and rely upon it for critical decision making. Business intelligence spending has been steadily increasing and is forecast to be upwards of $16 billion worldwide in the next year.

Major investment and effort are spent on data extraction, transformation and load (ETL) from source systems into data warehouses and data marts. Incorrect decisions based on poor data can be disastrous, so how can we ensure that we are utilising the proper data to begin with? In order to do so, we must be able to address the following data quality considerations:

At first glance, Light Alloy looks and feels much like any other free media player. Drag and drop your source files, open discs, play and pause individual tracks, manage playlists, all the usual core basics.

The program handles this well, too, with strong support for just about every format you’ll ever need (and plenty you won’t). But that’s just the start. For us, Light Alloy’s real highlight is its interface.

As more and more data gets moved to the cloud it's easy to forget that it still needs to be protected against corruption and loss.

Cloud backup specialist Spanning has a new solution for Office 365 users with the launch of an enterprise grade cloud-to-cloud backup solution. It's aimed at bringing the same application-centric focus and backup and restore expertise to Office 365 that it already has for Google Apps and Salesforce solutions.

It's only a few weeks since Tim Cook announced that he is gay and the impact is already starting to be felt. The Apple CEO wrote in Bloomberg Business that "I'm proud to be gay", and his coming out has proved to be inspirational, even in the short time between then and now. Now an anti-discrimination bill in Alabama is to be named after him.

Alabama is in the process of passing a bill that will make it illegal for state employers to discriminate against workers on the basis of their sexuality. Democratic state Representative Patricia Todd is the Alabama's only openly gay lawmaker and she proposed the billing, mentioning Tim Cook's name "in jest".

Whilst access to data is often the key to things running smoothly in business, providing access to that data for the right people at the right time can be a challenge.

Enterprise collaboration specialist Clarizen combines social engagement with powerful project management to redefine enterprise collaboration and has announced a new release of its product bringing a number of tools together in a single solution.

A little over a year ago, fashion photographer Viktorija Pashuta released images from a photo shoot entitled What If Girls Were Internet Browsers. It was a simple, fun idea in which Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Safari were given female personas and represented by models. Now Viktorija has a new project -- What if Guys Were Social Networks.

The idea's very similar to last year's project. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+, tumblr, Pinterest, flickr and LinkedIn are all anthropomorphized into eight men, each with their own unique look and personality. In the line-up of social networks, all of the major players are represented, but the new kid on the block, Ello, is notable by its absence.

Two weeks ago Mozilla announced that it would be jettisoning Google as the default search option in Firefox, opting instead to go for Yahoo, the search engine that most right-thinking people stopped using, and caring about, years ago (at least Mozilla didn’t select Ask.com).

Firefox 34 launched at the start of the month, with Yahoo as the default choice for US users, and instantly the newly selected search engine saw a massive increase in usage.

The holiday season is probably the worst time to discover that due payments are going to be late, but that's exactly the position independent Xbox game developers find themselves in. Developers awaiting payments for Xbox Live Indie Games on Xbox 360 (Xbox One is not affected) have been told that a problem with Microsoft's payment system has delayed payments to "select developers".

The apology was issued via the ID@Xbox Twitter account late last night, and there are already numerous replies from disgruntled developers. It's not clear exactly what the problem is or why only the Xbox 360 platform has been affected, but these details are of little concern to developers just looking to get paid.

Most consumers who buy one of Apple's latest smartphones end up with the smaller model. In fact, iPhone 6 is outselling its bigger brother, iPhone 6 Plus, by a ratio of three to one in US, and an even higher ratio of four to one in Britain. However, Apple shouldn't be worried that its first phablet is nowhere near as popular as the "standard" iPhone 6.

That is because iPhone 6 Plus is actually a hugely popular device in its category, accounting for 41 percent of phablet sales in US in the three months ending October 2014, despite being on sale only from mid-September onwards. What does that mean in the grand scheme of things?

You know how a slice of bread always falls on the buttered side? Or how a cat, when dropped onto its back, always somehow manages to turn around mid-air and land on its feet?

Well, basically, Apple has been awarded a patent that does just that -- makes sure its products, when dropped, land exactly how they want them to land. Of course, this desired landing will be one that is the least likely to damage crucial components.

Samsung is not as fast as rival makers HTC or Motorola when it comes to rolling out software upgrades to the latest version of Android, but the company appears to be finally cleaning up its act. Not too long after Google released Android 5.0, Lollipop is now available for Galaxy S5.

The epicenter for the Android 5.0 Lollipop roll-out is Poland, a market Samsung has frequently used to commence roll-outs of new major software upgrades. The company is currently targeting users of the SM-G900F version of Galaxy S5, which, as some of you may know, is the model featuring a Qualcomm processor (Snapdragon 801).