Latest Technology News

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.

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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.

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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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One year ago today, the world learned the truth about surveillance by the US and UK Governments.

Since then, the security industry and wider world have been made to decide whether the man behind the leaks is a hero or a villain? Surveying some key names in the security industry, Lancope’s director of security research Tom Cross said that it is hard to view the situation strictly in black and white terms.

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From the moment the Xbox One went on sale, I've been silently waiting for drivers for the controller to be released for Windows. While I am sure the actual console is awesome, I simply don't game enough to buy it. However, I do casually game on my PC, so I want to own the best controller.

Earlier today, my waiting ended, as Microsoft released the drivers I desire. I ran down to my local Walmart to buy the limited-edition Titanfall controller. Why did I buy that one? It looks cool and only cost $5.00 more. As soon as I got home, I ripped-open the box, inserted the batteries and plugged it in. After installing the drivers, I was off to the races. But how well does it work on Windows?

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Bored with your iPhone’s camera? Fed up with taking dull, listless shots? Apalon Apps may have something for you, with its new Camera Fx8 Free app.

The app, a cut-down version of the existing Camera Fx8 (currently 99c in the App Store), allows users to apply filters and shapes to both live and previously taken photos. These can then be saved to the camera roll and shared via Twitter or email.

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Microsoft could renew its partnership with HTC in order for a more diverse range of handsets to be available on the Windows Phone platform.

Nick Parker, head of Microsoft’s OEM division, told a packed press conference at Computex that HTC could soon be back in the Windows Phone fold, according to CNET.

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I love First-Person shooter video games such as Call of Duty and Quake 4. For that genre of game, my trusty keyboard and mouse is the optimal way to interact with my on-screen character. However, for all other games like fighting, racing and platforming, I need and demand a quality controller. While there are many to choose from, the Xbox 360 controller has proven to be the most reliable and comfortable for many. Drivers exist for Windows, so gamers can connect it by USB or buy a wireless variant and dongle.

Sadly, Xbox One controller drivers have been absent for Windows. This is puzzling as Microsoft is behind the controller and operating system. This new controller is wonderfully built and designed, so gamers have been eager to use it on their PC gaming rigs. Well, today the wait ends -- Microsoft has finally delivered the drivers we have been waiting for.

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There’s no question that Surface Pro 3 is a nice piece of kit. My colleague Brian Fagioli loves his, and says it at last puts Microsoft ahead of the competition. It’s expensive though, and a lot of people will struggle to justify the cost.

With previous iterations, Microsoft pitched its slate against the iPad, but with this latest version the tech giant has decided to take a different tack -- positioning it instead as a laptop replacement.

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Since his appointment as CEO in February of this year, Satya Nadella has made it clear that Microsoft needs to be more than a one-platform developer. Still, it may come as some surprise that the Android version of the latest touch-optimized Office suite will be released months before the Windows 8 variant.

Office's user base across PCs remains high, but in order to target mobile users, the majority of whom are on Android or iOS, the company is making a clear statement that it won't neglect these consumers.

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It’s fair to say China isn’t a fan of Windows 8. A few weeks ago, the tiled OS was banned from Chinese government computers, as part of a notice on the use of energy-saving products (if this sounds a bit vague, that’s because the reason given is).

Then, if that wasn’t bad enough news for Microsoft, a state-backed news report broadcast on China's CCTV has really put the boot in, branding the operating system a threat to China's cybersecurity, and suggesting it is being used to spy on Chinese citizens.

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VMware is locking horns with Amazon Web Services (AWS) over the latter’s decision to implement a new hybrid cloud connector that VMWare warns is a dangerous precursor to vendor lock-in.

A blog post from VMware’s CTO Chris Wolf explained that the recently released AWS Connector for vCenter, a plugin that allows AWS cloud services to be run inside VMware-designed environments, will create significant complications down the line.

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G’MIC (GREYC’s Magic for Image Computing) is an exceptionally powerful image processing tool for the command line (or via GIMP, if you install it via a plugin). It’s aimed very much at experts, but has features which can be used by just about everyone.

At its simplest, you might use the program to view a series of images (gmic pic1.jpg pic2.jpg pic3.jpg) or convert an image from one format to another (gmic ThisPicture.png Output.png).

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BillP Studios has released WinPatrol 31.0.2014, a minor refresh of its Windows snapshot-based security tool. WinPatrol monitors key system areas for changes, alerting the user to program attempts to make significant alterations.

Despite the jump to version 31, the latest release is a relatively minor one, with the most significant changes made to its browser-monitoring SQLite database.

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System outages remain a major problem for businesses, with over half suffering critical problems in the last three months according to a new report.

The latest annual Service Availability Benchmark Survey conducted by risk management specialists Continuity Software is based on responses from 155 IT professionals across a range of industries and regions.

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