WordPress for Android gains major new features

WordPress

WordPress has updated its two mobile apps with the twin releases of WordPress for Android 3.0 and WordPress for iOS 4.2.

The different version numbers highlight the disparity between both platforms, although ironically it’s the Android version that is more fully featured than the iPad and iPhone build.

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DAYU Disk Master Free: image backups and more

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At first glance, DAYU Disk Master Free looks like many other simple image backup tools. Select a target drive, a destination, choose a few options (compression, splitting, priority, speed) and you can run a backup at a click. Restoration is possible from the program or a rescue disk, and there’s a disk clone feature thrown in.

Browse the program’s menus, though, and some relatively unusual bonus features help it stand out from the low-end competition.

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Google makes it easier to unsubscribe from email lists

Google makes it easier to unsubscribe from email lists

Gmail is undergoing another change, but this time it's a fairly minor tweak -- and one that is likely to be broadly welcomed. Unsubscribing from mailing lists is about to become simpler. Rather than having to hunt through the small print at the end of an email, or scouring the text for a hidden link, you'll soon find the unsubscribe option right at the top of emails. Announced via the official Gmail Google+ page, Google describes the change as "a win for everyone".

The new feature is not something that mailing list creators need to opt into, or indeed do anything about at all. Providing an email features an unsubscribe link somewhere in its text, Gmail will automatically add it to the top of a message next to the From field. Google explains that "when a sender includes an 'Unsubscribe' link in a Promotions, Social or Forums message, Gmail will surface it to the top", so it's not clear if the feature will work with every single mailing list.

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LG unveils another smaller G3 variant

LG G3 A

South Korean maker LG has unveiled another smaller variant of its G3 Android flagship. Called G3 A, the smartphone features hardware specifications similar to last year's G2 flagship, but in a body which resembles that of G3. It is the second smaller version of G3 announced by LG so far, with the first being G3 Beat, also known as G3 S.

Like G2, G3 A has a 5.2-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1,080 by 1,920. It is powered by a 2.26 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, which features 2 GB of RAM, and a 2,610 mAh battery, which is removable. So far, its hardware specifications are more impressive than what G3 Beat brings to the table.

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Technology knowledge -- it's all downhill after you're 14

Teenage tablet users

A new study by the UK's communications regulator Ofcom finds that the "millennium generation" of 14-15 year olds are the most technology aware group but as we get older digital knowledge begins to decline.

The study of 2,000 adults and 800 children measured confidence and knowledge of communications technology to calculate a Digital Quotient (DQ) with the average UK adult scoring 100.

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Xbox One launching in India exclusively through Amazon

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Microsoft is slowly expanding the number of territories in which it’s possible to buy its new game console, a move which will no doubt help in the sales battle against rival Sony’s PS4. The Xbox One is set to go on sale, officially, in China in September, and it will be launching in India soon too.

Rather than pushing the console out to brick and mortar stores in India, Microsoft has chosen instead to launch it exclusively through Amazon.in. While it might seem a rather strange move to limit the console’s availability to a single online retailer, it actually makes a lot of sense. The Xbox 360 flopped badly in India at launch, and Microsoft will be keen to avoid a repeat of that experience.

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Chrome's All Seeing Eye searches the text of every page you’ve visited

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You’ve been online for hours, Chrome windows and tabs scattered everywhere, and now you need to revisit a particular page. Which would be fine, except you can’t remember which one it was, and the standard web history -- just titles and URLs -- doesn’t help at all.

Maybe you should have installed All Seeing Eye, a Chrome extension which takes a snapshot of every page you visit, indexes its text, and makes this freely searchable whenever you like.

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Advanced threat detection is more than a single moment in time

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The changing nature of the threat landscape, and the ever-growing sophistication of hackers, means that the way organizations protect themselves against advanced cyber-attacks must change too. Hackers are no longer focused on what was traditionally deemed to be their destination -- the perimeter of the enterprise. They're now focused on the journey itself, leveraging an array of attack vectors, taking endless form-factors, launching attacks over time, and cleverly hiding the leakage of data.

The reason that many of them are successful, is that most security tools today focus on prevention only -- controlling access, detecting, and blocking, all at the point of entry. Typically, incoming files will be scanned only once, at an initial point in time, to determine if they're malicious.

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Microsoft posts its worst-ever quarterly Surface loss

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Microsoft’s Surface range of tablets has posted its worst single quarter loss since its launch leaving analysts to question whether the fledgling slate is still a viable option for the company.

Two separate sets of figures show that the Surface line of slates ended up posting negative gross margins for the final quarter of FY2014 and the experiment has ended up costing Microsoft $1.73 billion  since it first launched.

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Internet Explorer gets more secure -- will start blocking outdated ActiveX controls

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In the technology world, it is fashionable to bash Internet Explorer. There is that old joke that people only open IE once -- to download Chrome or Firefox. To some extent, that is true; however, Microsoft's web browser has been improving leaps and bounds. When I am on Windows, I enjoy using version eleven very much.

Unfortunately, the reason Internet Explorer got a bad reputation with some tech nerds, is that it was more susceptible to malware than other browsers. There was truth to this and I experienced it first-hand, when fixing and cleaning the computers of friends and family. Today, Microsoft announces that Internet Explorer is getting more secure by blocking outdated ActiveX controls.

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Wireless devices that don’t require any batteries

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Smart devices that lack a battery or wire connection but can still send data over Wi-Fi, have been created by computer scientists.

Experts from the University of Washington have developed a way of using radio frequency (RF) signals as a power source for smart devices and reusing existing Wi-Fi infrastructure to provide connectivity to them.

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Parallels Access 2.1 improves Lock’N’Go Magnifying Glass feature, supports Google+ login

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Parallels IP Holdings GmbH has launched Parallels Access for iPad and iPhone 2.1 and Parallels Access for Android 2.1, a useful new update to its desktop remote control app.

Version 2.1 now allows users to sign in using their Google+ accounts, plus promises slicker drag-and-drop performance when using the Lock’N’Go magnifying glass among other improvements and the usual stability fixes.

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Apple stays quiet on Chinese ban whispers

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China has stepped up its tough stance on foreign technology suppliers with reports it has banned government purchases of Apple products.

Apple has so far declined to comment on reports that China’s government has banned its agencies from buying Apple products including iPad, iPad Mini, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.

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Timex Ironman One GPS+ smartwatch is truly smart -- doesn't need smartphone

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Everyone is jumping on the smartwatch bandwagon lately. The problem is, the watches often aren't all that smart. You see, manufacturers seem intent on making them extensions of smartphones. In theory, linking the two together makes sense; however, to be truly smart, the watch should be an independent device.

Today, famed watch-maker Timex bucks that trend and announces its new smartwatch -- the Ironman One GPS+. Not only does the watch work without a smartphone, it has its own cellular data connection. Intrigued? Read on.

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The age of supply, not demand

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I had lunch last week with my old friend Aurel Kleinerman, an MD who also runs a Silicon Valley software company called MITEM, which specializes in combining data from disparate systems and networks onto a single desktop.

Had the Obama Administration known about MITEM, linking all those Obamacare health insurance exchanges would have been trivial. Given MITEM’s 500+ corporate and government customers, you’d think the company would have come to the attention of the White House, but no.

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