Latest Technology News

Google, Facebook and other tech giants are investing in ways to bring Internet access to those far flung parts of the world which are still offline. Creative methods include using balloons, satellites, drones and lasers. Despite this concerted effort, an estimated 4 billion people still don't have access to the Internet.

The Internet Society (ISOC), a global not-for-profit organization founded in 1992, has published its inaugural Global Internet Report in which it charts the spread of the Internet, highlights trends, and illustrates the principles that, it says, "will continue to sustain the growth of the Internet". Importantly it identifies two distinct groups of non-Internet users and reveals the barriers that must be overcome in order for them to gain access.

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If you moved to Feedly after the much lamented shut-down of Google Reader, as many RSS users did, then you may have noticed that the service is currently down. To prevent customers from wondering about the problems, the company has released an announcement.

Feedly says it is currently under a denial of service attack, with the attacker demanding money to bring an end to service interruption. In a brief post on the company blog, the developers let all customers know of the problem, and promise to update users as the situation develops.

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Lots of people are putting themselves, as well as others, at risk by using weak passwords like their phone number, a loved one's name, date of birth, "password", "123456" or "qwerty". You would assume that those who can crack their passwords, or create malware, do not exhibit the same irresponsible behavior, right?

According to security company Avast, hackers are not much different from the rest of us. Sure, they may not use "123456", the most popular weak password of last year, but their passwords are not too far off, as the majority of them only contain lower-case letters. And, on average, a hacker's password is just six characters long.

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MyFolders is a free Windows shell extension which makes it easier to copy or move files to any folder, or to open common folders in a couple of clicks.

The program installs quickly and easily. There’s no obvious interface, so to see how it works, select a file in Explorer, right-click and choose the new MyFolders menu.

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When Microsoft introduced Windows Phone 8.1 in early-April, the company revealed that the latest iteration of its tiled smartphone operating system will allow users to change the default lockscreen with a custom one. This feature is not available in any of the builds Microsoft launched through the Preview for Developers program, as it will be accessible through an app.

Microsoft then said it is working with prolific platform developer Rudy Huyn, who is known for popular apps like 6tag and 6sec, to make the feature happen. Only hours ago, Windows Phone head Joe Belfiore shed some light as to when we can expect the app to launch.

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If you’ve ever spent time troubleshooting low-level PC problems then you’ll know that understanding Windows services can be very helpful. The standard Services applet (Win+R > services.msc) tells you a lot about what’s happening on your system -- but there is one important exception.

Windows 7 and 8 support service "triggers", a mechanism which allows Windows services to start when a particular event occurs (a device is plugged in to the computer, say). The Services applet highlights these by listing their Startup Type as "Manual (Trigger Start)" or "Automatic (Trigger Start)", but double-click a triggered service and it won’t tell you anything more.

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The rise in use of mobile and BYOD technology is great when it comes to giving employees anytime, anywhere access to data. But it presents new challenges for IT departments in terms of keeping data safe and secure across enterprise networks and mobile platforms.

In a recent Dell Global Security Survey BYOD was highlighted as a root cause of security breaches. Of those polled 57 percent ranked increased use of mobile devices as being a top security concern in the next five years. Part of the problem is employee resistance as people find workarounds to avoid restrictive security policies. An ever increasing choice of device types and different operating systems can also add to security risks. To help companies gain maximum benefit from mobile device usage whilst keeping data secure Dell has come up with five best practice recommendations for enterprises.

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Among many third-party Android keyboards, SwiftKey is considered to be one of the best and most popular of the bunch. It has been available in Google Play as a paid app -- I purchased it myself a while back -- but the company behind it just decided to take the freemium route.

This means anyone with a compatible Android device can now take advantage of what SwiftKey has to offer, without having to worry about an expiring trial. Being a freemium app means that, while it may be available for naught, SwiftKey still has to generate revenue. And, it will do just that, through the new SwiftKey Store.

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You may recall that at the end of last month, a number of iOS users were locked out of their devices by ransomware, being faced with a message that their iPhone or iPad had been "hacked by Oleg Pliss", and a demand for $100 to unlock it.

Well, the Sydney Morning Herald (via MacRumors) is now reporting that the device hijacking miscreants behind this scheme have been arrested by the Russian authorities. Some Russian folks were affected by the security incident, as well as those in Australia (and a few other countries such as the US and Canada).

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When people last week started reading my IBM eBook (available Friday in paperback from Amazon and most distributors -- make Mrs. Cringely happy and send one to all your friends) the tales of IBM customer and employee woe were generally accepted as simple fact but some people had a hard time with my assertion that IBM analytics will probably not be successful (I said IBM is already too late to that party).

One especially informed reader hit me pretty hard on the topic and I think our conversation is worth repeating here. He’s asked to remain anonymous but I assure you he’s in a position to know.

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Smart TVs are the latest product to be exposed to dangerous vulnerabilities that can be exploited by burying malicious code in signals sent to the connected devices and even able to attack other devices in the home.

Researchers have found a loophole in the technology used in the advanced sets that allows attackers to hijack TVs in a straightforward way, leave no trace, and do anything that the owner of the TV can do.

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Microsoft differentiated itself from Sony in the game console market by positioning its offering as an entertainment device -- a living room hub, with HDMI pass-thru and lots of options. However Sony has a few of these as well, and now will be adding one more.

At the E3 gaming show, the company announces YouTube will be arriving on its console. "Sharing your greatest gaming moments on YouTube will be a piece of cake on PS4, thanks to the dedicated sharing capabilities at the very heart of PS4. YouTube will officially be one of the social options offered when you press the Share button on your DualShock 4. After pressing Share , you’ll see the YouTube icon pop up alongside Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, and Ustream, and in just a couple of quick steps, you can go from playing your favorite games to publishing videos on your own YouTube channel. You’ll also be able to see your friends’ shared YouTube videos using the 'What’s New' feed", the company states.

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I have a confession -- I like Google's services a lot. Gmail is my primary email, I watch YouTube videos everyday and Google+ is my favorite social media network. With that said, it can be scary for one company to have so much control of the internet and to know so much about me. While I trust Google, I can understand people's hesitation to put blind-faith into the search-giant.

When Google bought Nest, many people were up in arms over the deal. After all, if you don't trust the company with your email, you certainly won't trust it controlling your home. Luckily, if you want a smart thermostat, but don't want Google, you can go in a different direction -- Honeywell. Yes, today, that iconic company announces a Nest competitor called Lyric which is downright sexy and best of all for some people -- Google-free.

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Adobe has released a major update to its web media player and runtime platform with the release of Adobe Flash Player 14.0 and Adobe AIR 14.0.

The new releases deliver a number of new features and updates: a PPAPI Flash Player content debugger, support for Atom-based Android devices and -- of most interest to end users -- support for the AIR Gamepad API.

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HTC has been extremely busy recently in terms of unleashing handsets upon us. Over a period of just a few weeks I have reviewed the flagship HTC One M8, the smaller format HTC One mini 2, and the HTC Desire 816. Now, with barely a pause for breath following those last two reviews, here comes the HTC Desire 610.

Styled by HTC as a good value, entertainment-focused handset, the Desire 610 costs around £235. It shares a lot of design features with its more expensive, higher specified cousin the Desire 816, which will set you back close to £300. So, if you need to save money but like what the Desire 816 has to offer, is this handset a good buy?

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