Transform your photos with PhotoWand for Windows 8
PhotoWand is a free photo effects app for Windows 8. It’s not going to compete with the desktop equivalents any time soon, but there’s more than enough power here to make it genuinely useful.
There are simple and practical tools to improve your photos, for instance, including a crop function, blur and sharpen filters, and adjustments for hue, saturation, brightness and contrast.
Lenovo Yoga 2: A decent budget hybrid [Review]
The Lenovo Yoga 2 is not to be confused with the Yoga 2 Pro. Although the basic principle of a notebook with a screen that flips over to turn the device into tablet is the same, the specification is markedly different. Just for starters, this is an 11.6in device rather than 13.3in -- but what's inside is much more value-oriented as well.
Instead of a processor from Intel's Core range, our Yoga 2 sample came with a Pentium N3520. This is part of Intel's Silvermount microarchitecture generation, in particular the Bay Trail-M family, which means it's actually from the same line as the Atom processor, despite the Pentium brand name. The N3520 has a nominal frequency of 2.166GHz, but a single core can rise to 2.42GHz in Turbo mode.
Gmail app hacked with 92 percent success rate
Researchers from the University of California Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering have identified a weakness in Android which allows personal data to be obtained from apps.
Tested against seven popular apps the method was between 82 and 92 percent successful on six of them, only Amazon with a 48 percent success rate proved more difficult to crack. Most vulnerable were Gmail and H&R Block at 92 percent, followed by Newegg (86 percent), WebMD (85 percent), CHASE Bank (83 percent) and Hotels.com (83 percent).
How security breaches have changed the cyber landscape
There's no doubt that security breaches are becoming more common. According to the US Government Accountability Office cyber incidents increased by 782 percent between 2006 and 2012.
But how does this impact the world at large? Security management company SRC Cyber has put together an infographic looking at some of the most infamous occurrences over the last decade and how they've affected the global cyber landscape.
How to secure commercial online file sharing
Cloud-based file-sharing services benefit all types of businesses by providing easy, convenient access to information anytime, anywhere. With technology increasingly blurring the lines between work and personal lives -- often with the same platform being used in both worlds -- it can be easy to forget that work-related information often needs to be handled with greater care and a higher level of security.
If employees use personal accounts and free services designed for consumer use, in order to manage clients' documents, they could be putting your business at high risk for a security breach. This will become ever more important as the regulations around management of sensitive and private information get stronger and enforced more strictly. However, there are several simple steps companies can take to tackle these issues and keep business information protected.
Nearly 70 percent of homes will have an Internet of Things device by 2019
Acquity Group (part of Accenture Interactive) has just released the findings of its 2014 State of the Internet of Things Study, and the headline fact is that the firm estimates 69 percent of consumers will own an in-home IoT (Internet of Things) device come the year 2019.
Looking nearer to hand, by the end of 2015, 13 percent of consumers (2,000 US consumers were surveyed, incidentally) will have at least one IoT device in their home, such as a thermostat from the likes of Nest, or home security camera. Only 4 percent own a device like this right now, so that's a tripling up of ownership by the end of next year.
Satechi announces the BT Wireless Smart Keyboard for Windows and OS X
I am gong to let you in on a secret -- I love the Apple Wired Keyboard. When I say "love", I mean it; if legally possible, I would marry it. Whether I am on Linux, Windows or OS X (Hackintosh), it is the keyboard of my choosing. Why? Build quality and the speed at which it lets me type. The effort needed to press the keys is very minimal and the height of the keys allows me to move my fingers quickly. The problem is, it stands out and looks ugly on my desk. You see, my desktop, monitor and mouse are black, but then Apple's product is an angelic white that is out of place and simply doesn't look cool.
Unfortunately, I do not anticipate the fruit-logo company producing a black variant any time soon. Luckily, Satechi announces a new keyboard that may be destined for my desk -- the unimaginatively named BT Wireless Smart Keyboard. It looks a lot like Apple's keyboard and comes in both black and white. While the "BT" stands for Bluetooth, it is not a wireless-only affair. You see, it has a USB port and can double as a wired keyboard too!
XRay web tool to make online personal data more transparent
It’s a given that internet companies gather titbits of our private lives in exchange for free services, but how much do we really know about what happens to our personal data?
Researchers at Columbia University have warned it is a mistake to gloss over the details we reveal online and describe the web as an “opaque black box” leveraging our personal info without our knowledge or control.
Opera Mini will see some Microsoft feature phones through their death throes
Asha and Series 40 "feature" phones (read cheap, crappy phones) may be taking their last breath -- Microsoft plans to kill them off by the end of 2015 -- but it's never too late to try spicing things up by changing the default browser, eh? This is precisely what's happening with the ill-fated handsets, along with the Series 30+ range, as Opera Mini replaces the current Xpress Browser. Despite the seemingly short-lived nature of the deal, Opera Software is upbeat about the arrangement as, undoubtedly, will any poor blighter suffering with one of these handsets.
What is there to look forward to in the browser switch? Like other versions of Opera Mini, the version replacing Xpress Browser benefits from built-in compression that reduces data usage and helps to speed up web browsing. The deal will come as something of a surprise to many, and it has come rather out of the blue. Starting in October, Asha, Series 30+ and Series 40 handset owners will start to see notifications inviting them to upgrade, and newly produced handsets will come with the browser pre-installed.
Flappy Bird creator returns with tricky Swing Copters game -- watch out for rip-offs
The pressure got to him last time, so how will developer Dong Nguyen cope if his new mobile game Swing Copters takes off?
Flappy Bird was downloaded more than 50 million times and was the number one free game in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store charts before Nguyen pulled it in early 2014 sparking petitions, suicide hoax stories and death threats.
Run Windows software on Google's Chromebooks with Citrix Receiver for Chrome
Chromebooks are amazing computers. Part of the genius of Google's Chrome OS is its lack of freedom; a seemingly crazy statement, I know. You see, users cannot install software locally, which in turn, also blocks viruses and malware. In other words, limitations become a strength from a security standpoint. However, sometimes the limitations of the OS are not a positive, but a negative.
For business users in particular, using Chrome web apps exclusively is a non-starter. Sure, some small business users can get by, but many large companies rely on specialized software -- mostly for Windows. Today, Windows programs come to Chromebooks -- sort of. Google announces that Citrix Receiver is coming to Chrome OS. Will this massively disrupt the business market?
The Score brings new mobile features in time for football season
The NFL season is about to get underway, though pre-season games are already in full swing. The Score wants to bring you all of the action with its latest "mobile-first" update, that includes lots of enhancements for fantasy team owners, as well.
The app is multi-sport, so don't worry if you’re a fan of baseball or basketball instead. This update announcement, though, focuses on the season at hand. The new version promises to "provide the most detailed, comprehensive, in-depth football data found on a multi-sport mobile app".
Software-defined networking on the edge
Software-defined networking (SDN) enabling the wireless LAN (WLAN) can help deliver a consistently high performance of critical business applications and simplify unified management of wired and wireless networks. However, to do this effectively, WLAN vendors need to provide solutions that offer immediate benefits to the IT department without any additional training or a "rip-and-replace" of existing controllers and access points.
It also means that these solutions must truly embrace the open architecture approach to SDN enabled by OpenFlow and advocated by communities and industry organizations like the Open Networking Forum and Project Open Daylight.
Gartner: 3D printing still a decade away for most consumers
Gartner says that 3D printers will be used to print medical devices in just two to five years. According to Pete Basiliere, research vice president at Gartner, in the next half decade "3D printing of medical devices will offer exciting, life-altering benefits that will result in global use of 3D printing technology for prosthetics and implants".
However it could be a decade before consumer level 3D printing reaches the mainstream. Basiliere continued, "over 200 startups worldwide are developing and selling consumer-oriented 3D printers, priced from just a few hundred dollars. However, even this price is too high for mainstream consumers at this time".
Rdio teams up with SoundHound for new feature
Rdio, one of the top streaming music services, and SoundHound, an ace at recognizing what music you're listening to, are teaming up to bring better integration to customers. The two companies are announcing a new agreement that will bring them together in a unique way, allowing customers to utilize the two in tandem.
Beginning now, the latest SoundHound update will begin placing tagged songs into a playlist titled, appropriately enough, "Soundhound". This playlist will be accessible from within your Rdio account. The new service is named "Connect to Rdio".
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