A friend of mine bought a new iPhone 5s recently, used it for just over a week, and then 'lost it'. It might have been stolen or simply misplaced, she has no idea. All she knows for certain is she no longer has it in her possession. That’s bad enough, but she spent much of the first week copying over photos and other personal data to it from her old phone, but didn’t devote any time -- at all -- to protecting the device.

So in other words, if someone else has her iPhone now -- which it’s pretty safe to assume is the case -- they also have access to everything on it, which could be potentially catastrophic for her. The thing is, it’s so easy to protect a smartphone these days it amazes me so many people don’t bother to take the following simple steps:

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Email can be inherently dangerous, as less savvy users can, and do, click links that can lead to nefarious locations on the web. The links are frequently a bit hidden -- characters are slightly altered, such as "0" instead of an "O".

Last week Google rolled out support for non-Latin characters, a great addition, but one that enhances this problem, as well. With that in mind, the company is attempting to protect its email customers, by now enabling recognition of bad links through Unicode checks.

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Despite the rise of other forms of communication, email remains one of the most popular options, particularly for business. No surprise then that there’s plenty of choice when it comes to mail apps for your mobile device.

According to data from app analytics company Distimo, the myMail app has passed other options to become the most popular alternative mail app for both Android and iOS, behind only Gmail and Yahoo Mail.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a bit of a buzzword among technology professionals (and even within the mainstream public) but truthfully, most people do not know how it works or how it is already being integrated within leading enterprise businesses. AI for businesses is today mostly made up of machine learning, wherein algorithms are applied in order to teach systems to learn from data to automate and optimize processes and predict outcomes and gain insights. This simplifies, scales and even introduces new important processes and solutions for complex business problems as machine learning applications learn and improve over time. From medical diagnostics systems, search and recommendation engines, robotics, risk management systems, to security systems, in the future nearly everything connected to the internet will use a form of a machine learning algorithm in order to bring value. It is the same thing as for humans, we attend schools for many years and we gain practical experience in order to deliver some kind of value.

But what exactly is machine learning, how is it being applied within organizations today, and what does it mean for the future of business? It is becoming ever more crucial for enterprise leaders to understand machine learning, particularly the benefits that it can provide for companies today. Machine learning today is already allowing many businesses to achieve higher productivity and efficiency, innovating their business, and those that do not begin to explore this new tool ultimately are at risk for falling behind their competition.

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Ransomware is on the rise according the the latest report from enterprise threat protection specialist Damballa, with an increase in average daily infections of the Kovter infection of 153 percent between April and May this year.

Kovter is "police ransomware" that displays fake legal warnings about pornography. At its peak of activity in June it was recording almost 44,000 infections per day. But while Kovter was thriving CryptoLocker was dealt a blow by the taking down of the GameOver Zeus botnet.

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Microsoft’s long-awaited "Update 2" for Windows 8.1 users has materialized in the guise of August 2014 update rollup for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2. Also available separately for 64-bit Windows, the update is currently listed under optional updates in Windows Update.

The update is not as major as the previous Update 1 release, but does nonetheless contain a number of improvements and tweaked features.

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The Amazon Fire TV has become a solid competitor in today's set-top box market, competing with Roku, Apple TV and others. It works especially well for those who are Prime subscribers, as the service is completely integrated into the tiny box.

But Prime is not all you can do with Fire TV, other apps, like Hulu and Netflix, were available at launch and Amazon promised more on the way. That time has arrived, and the company is celebrating in its usual manner. That is, offering discounts on the device.

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USB 3.0 Promoter Group announces that the much-awaited USB Type-C connector, which can be plugged in both ways, is now finally ready to enter mass production. It makes way for faster transfer speeds, courtesy of the USB 3.1 standard, increased power delivery, more compact device designs and, arguably, fewer moments of frustration thanks to its reversible orientation, which is similar to that of Apple's Lightning connector which launched in 2012.

"Interest in the USB Type-C connector has not only been global, but cross-industry as well", says USB 3.0 Promoter Group chairman Brad Saunders. "Representatives from the PC, mobile, automotive and IoT industries have been knocking down our door anticipating this new standard. This specification is the culmination of an extensive, cooperative effort among industry leaders to standardize the next generation USB connector as a long-lasting, robust solution". Here is what else you should know.

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It's been heralded the as future and celebrated as a beacon of technological advancement, but now analysts are branding the Internet of Things (IoT) as the most over-hyped technology in development today.

For the uninitiated, the concept of the Internet of Things is that one day the world will be completely connected on the web. It has been predicted that within five to ten years every object -- whether a fridge or a bed -- will have its own online presence.

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It is well known that Samsung has often been criticized for giving its premium smartphones a not-so-premium look and feel. But, in spite of all this, in the land of upscale Galaxy handsets, an all-plastic body, with a bland design, has always prevailed. Until now.

Today, Samsung finally shows us that a premium Galaxy smartphone can break away from the norm, as it reveals the new Galaxy Alpha boasting a metal frame and an attractive design. The device's main rival is likely to be Apple's upcoming iPhone 6, which is expected to ship with a similarly-sized display.

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Google's Chromebook is on the up and up, according to the latest report published by analyst firm Gartner.

This year, Gartner estimates that total Chromebook sales will hit 5.2 million, which is up 79 percent from 2013. Looking further out to 2017, the number of units sold should reach 14.4 million, in other words we're looking at a near tripling of sales inside three years. Which has to be music to Google's ears...

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SanDisk has unveiled a new super-fast tiny USB flash drive designed to appeal to media savvy customers that want top performance inside a small package.

The Ultra Fit USB 3.0 Flash Drive comes in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB incarnations and is designed to offer transfer speeds that are up to 10 times as fast as the current USB 2.0 flash drives on the market.

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Both businesses and home users now utilize server technology, it's a great way to backup files and keep things safe. But, perhaps it isn't quite as secure as many unsuspecting customers had thought. Synology, one of the leaders in the market, is now dealing with a Crytolocker-like threat, this one aptly name "Synolocker".

Much like its namesake, the software is ransomware, prepared to extort money from unsuspecting NAS customers. While this sounds like doom and gloom, it's actually only compatible with older versions of DiskStation Manager.

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Ninth in a series. User experience is an ongoing series of surprises -- discovery of something unexpected and useful when positive and discovery of annoying glitches when negative. Both evoke emotional responses. The latter is devastating as little frustrations build to crescendo. That's the state I near with my "Microsoft All-In" experiment. Dissatisfaction grows.

I started this journey on July 1, after buying Surface Pro 3. The tablet-hybrid promised so much, and my overall experience with the hardware is excellent. I can't say the same about the operating system, web browser, or supporting services. Clunky is good word. Think old car that runs well on the highway but sometimes stutters and stalls at stoplights. The overall UX is nowhere as smooth as Chrome OS or OS X.

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Although Windows XP’s end of life date was set in 2007, many firms failed to completely remove all trace of the aging OS by the time the deadline arrived. In fact, it’s claimed that around 53 percent of businesses still have XP running somewhere in their organizations.

End of support for Windows 7 is set for January 2020 (some way off still, and Microsoft may push it back further), but Gartner says firms need to start planning for it now if they want to avoid finding themselves in a similar situation as many did with XP.

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