The apps and accessories you need to get truly productive with your Apple iPad
While the iPad is seen as a content consumption rather than a content creation device by some, there's no denying that it has been widely adopted across many organizations, and has made an impact on the business world as well as the consumer arena.
The iPad can be a sterling productivity device -- providing you're well equipped for that prospect in terms of software and hardware, of course. Out of the box, your iPad Air doesn't make such a great partner in crime when it comes to cracking through whatever business needs you might have. So, what software and accessories do you need to be truly productive with your iPad? Read on...
AVG reveals yet another OpenSSL security flaw
OpenSSL, which runs on the servers for many websites, has been having a rough time in recent weeks. We all learned of the near fatal flaw named Heartbleed, which affected quite a number companies and services on the web.
Now a new, albeit less severe, flaw has been discovered. Security researchers at AVG have unveiled what they are calling CCS Injection, which the company terms a vulnerability, but points out that it is not easily taken advantage of.
Netflix brings 'Post-Play' to Android phones and tablets
If you have been using Netflix on any number of devices in your living room, including game consoles and various set-top boxes, then you're likely familiar with the "Post-Play" option. The feature automatically queues up the next episode of a show and begins it playing. For movies, it displays three recommendations at the conclusion.
Now the streaming service is bringing "Post-Play" to its Android app. For phones, this will work only with TV shows, but on tablets you will get the feature with both shows and movies.
The most popular stories on BetaNews this past week: June 1 -- 7
The biggest news of this week came from Apple which held a keynote speech at WWDC in San Francisco. One of the major announcements was the unveiling of iOS 8 which will be making its way to iPhone and iPads around the world sometime in the Fall. There was a lot to take in, including "Hey, Siri", HealthKit and iCloud Drive. OS X also got a new lick of paint with Yosemite, with beta versions made available for immediate download. There was also an intriguing change to the App Store Review Guidelines that suggests the doors may be opened to virtual currencies such as Bitcoin.
Windows 7 continues to grow faster than Windows 8.x, but if you're looking for an alternative to Windows, Linux Mint 17 "Qiana" could be worth a try. Windows XP is still managing to hang on it there for the time being. Microsoft celebrated the news that Windows Phone is becoming increasingly popular -- if not with developers -- particularly when security is important; which is just as well, because reports suggest that handsets need to be made more secure for enterprise. Microsoft also had cause for celebration after helping the FBI to take down the Zeus botnet.
How to get the most out of your HTC One M8
The new HTC One M8 is more than just a pretty face. Oh, its metal chassis and curved design have instant -- and lasting -- appeal. But under the hood there's a whole host of features that HTC has added to Android 4.4 to help make this flagship phone different from all the others.
Of course there's the headline second camera to use for depth of field related trickery, and we'll show you how to get started with that. There's also BlinkFeed which can accommodate personalised news feeds and social feeds, as well as a range of pre-selected news and information sources. Then there's the smart TV app, and all important gesture controls.
Why not Surface 2?
Colleague Wayne Williams is right to call out Surface Pro 3 hidden costs necessary to make a reasonable laptop replacement. There is another choice, which geeks often overlook. Surface 2 is a great value for the price, and everyone considering Apple iPad Air as a laptop replacement should look to Microsoft's tab first.
Before explaining, I start a diatribe that will continue to future posts. Geek reviewers hung up on specs and the fanciest features missing what matters more: Benefits -- to whom they are important and in what circumstances. Not everyone needs the fastest, coolest thing, or can afford it. Lower-cost is a benefit, too, and it's one too often ignored by fanboys and tech reviewers. Wayne gets it. So should you.
Paint.NET 4.0 Beta 4 restores Line/Curve tool, improves rendering quality and performance
dotPDN LLC has released the fourth beta of Paint.NET 4.0, the latest pre-release of this eagerly anticipated freeware image-editing tool for Windows.
The fourth beta -- build 5628 -- sees the Line/Curve tool restored, having previously been incorporated into the Shapes tool. It also sees a number of rendering quality and performance improvements alongside a slew of other minor tweaks and bug fixes as Paint.NET edges towards its final release.
There's a Nokia X successor in the pipeline
At February's Mobile World Congress (MWC), Nokia surprised everyone with the release of its Android-powered phone, the Nokia X, but now it looks like there already are plans for its successor.
Despite Microsoft's recent acquisition of the Finnish phone manufacturer's mobile business, the company looks set to swiftly follow-up on Nokia's first foray into Android phone territory, with the Nokia X2.
Pale Moon overhauls rendering engine, adds animated panorama support
Moonchild Productions has released a relatively major update to its Firefox browser variant for Windows with the release of Pale Moon 24.6 and Pale Moon x64 24.6.
Version 24.6 comes with a major overhaul of the graphics rendering engine to boost stability, plus a number of important fixes, including all latest security fixes. It also adds support for animated personas.
Chesterfield County Schools buys 32,000 Dell Chromebooks for students
The battle for the classroom is heating up more and more every day. Lately, it feels like Google and Microsoft are fiercely going at each other in an attempt to capture precious education market share. This is beneficial for schools, as competition should lead to more affordable technology for students. Arguably, schools really can't go wrong either way -- both Chromebooks and Windows laptops (including Surface) offer very rewarding experiences.
Today, Google announces that it convinced the Chesterfield County Schools in Virginia to buy 32,000 Chromebooks. While this is a major score for Google, it is more importantly a big win for students. But, did the school make the right choice?
Best Windows 8 apps this week
Eighty-fourth in a series. Big news this week was China's ban of Windows 8 on government computer systems which Wayne covered yesterday. Country officials seem to believe that the NSA is using the operating system to gather data.
Microsoft has released Xbox One controller drivers for Windows that users of the operating system can use to connect the controller to a Windows PC for games that support controller input.
Best iOS apps this week
Twenty-second in a series. It was Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) this week and as expected the company took the wraps off OS X 10.10 ('Yosemite') and iOS 8.
New features in the next iteration of the mobile OS include interactive notifications, HealthKit, Family Sharing, improved chatting, a better keyboard, and iCloud Drive. It will be released sometime in the fall.
Facebook Messenger for Windows Phone gets new features
As a regular Facebook Messenger user, I prefer my Google Nexus 7, instead of my Nokia Lumia 920, to chat with other people. It is not due to the larger screen size, but because the Android app feels so much better than the Windows Phone counterpart. The former is fast, totes all the greatest features Facebook Messenger offers, and comes with chat heads, which are both cool and useful.
Thankfully, Facebook Messenger for Windows Phone is delivering a better experience with each update it receives. It may not happen as often as I would like, but the popular social network is slowly improving its offering, with the latest version adding some much-needed changes.
Don't want Glassholes using your Wi-Fi? Ban Google Glass!
Do you hate Google Glass? Does your blood run cold whenever you see one of those human cyborgs coming towards you? Well one New Zealand designer has come up with a solution: cut off their Wi-Fi.
Berlin-based Julian Oliver has released a simple program that he calls Glasshole.sh, designed to detect any Glass device attempting to connect to a Wi-Fi network and block its access.
Canon launches Irista photo cloud storage locker
There are no shortage of options nowadays for storing photos. You can turn to physical media, like external HDDs, general-purpose cloud services, like Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive, and specialized services, like Flickr. Physical media usually offers higher storage capacities, but cloud services are more easily-available.
I prefer a combination of the two, uploading photos snapped with my smartphone in the cloud and keeping photos taken with my DSLR on a NAS (Network Attached Storage). Why? Because smartphone photos are small in size, which allows me to store plenty of them on a free cloud storage plan, while DSLR photos are huge, by comparison, as I only shoot RAW, which is where a large HDD comes in. (I might move most of them to Flickr one day though, as 1 TB for free is enticing.) But, if you want to go all-in on cloud storage for photos, Canon just unveiled its own dedicated service, called Irista, which warrants some attention.
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