Latest Technology News

Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference kicks off today, with the big keynote speech scheduled for 10am PST/6pm BST.

Among the highlights we can expect to see OS X 10.10, which might, possibly, be called 'Yosemite' (the OS X banner showing at the Moscone Center in San Francisco has the famous California national park in the background), and iOS 8, plus new versions of existing hardware, and maybe a few surprises.

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The Pirate Bay saga is one that has been running for a number of years now, and the latest chapter sees one of the founders arrested in Sweden. Peter Sunde had been on the run for two years after failing to make an appearance having been sentenced to two years in prison. He had been handed an eight month term for aiding and abetting breach of copyright laws, although those associated with the site have long-maintained that they should not be held responsible for the sharing of copyrighted material as no data was stored on the site.

Sunde had been sought by Interpol and his arrest coincided with the eight-year anniversary of the police raid of Pirate Bay servers. He had been living in hiding in Berlin, but having family in Sweden meant that he often returned to the country. Torrent news website TorrentFreak reports that the arrest was a joint operation between Swedish and Polish law enforcement agencies.

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Microsoft is promising at least four brand new features inside the next release of Internet Explorer and fans of the browser could be treated to even more than that when the final product reaches the market.

The Redmond-based firm confirmed that it would definitely include Web Audio, Media Capture, ES6 Promises and HTTP/2 in the new version plus there is likely to be other features revealed closer to the release date.

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Samsung may be associated with Android thanks to the success of its Galaxy smartphones and tablets, but the South Korean maker is also invested heavily in Tizen. The latter powers its new smartwatches and, via a software upgrade, older models as well. And, today, we can add a new device to the powered-by-Tizen list, the Samsung Z.

The Samsung Z is Samsung's first Tizen-based smartphone, which, on the outside, looks much like the company's premium Galaxy handsets. It features a physical home button, placed between two capacitive keys (home and menu), and a faux-leather back with stitching patterns, like on the popular Galaxy Note 3. It even borrows the now-obligatory gold color trim.

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Ah Linux, we meet again. I am on a perpetual journey to find the perfect Linux distro. Sadly, I am finding it not to be elusive, but downright non-existent. You see, operating systems based on the open-source kernel are very fragmented in experience. It is hard for the stars to align and have everything you want be represented. Maybe you like the available environments for a distro, but hate the package manager. Or maybe you love the community support, but find the release schedule too slow.

While not perfect, Linux Mint is what I have found to be the best choice for many, including myself. It is based on Ubuntu, so it has the awesome APT package manager, while also supporting Cinnamon, Mate and other environments. The tweaks and polish that the Mint team delivers makes it a robust and familiar experience. Well, fire up your torrent and ISO writing software and grab your nearest blank DVD or flash drive -- Linux Mint 17 is finally here!

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Listening to music on a computer can be a very rewarding experience nowadays. However, we aren't far removed from the days where laptops and desktops shipped with horrible speakers. This shouldn't be surprising though; while mp3 and streaming audio is commonplace now, listening to music was not always expected on a computer. Tinny-sounding, rattling speakers were OK for midi files, but now we expect much more.

While Bluetooth speakers are very convenient, their sound quality usually does not match a hard-wired set. My favorites for many years are the Logitech Z-2300 -- a 2.1 setup, which are THX certified and pack a 120 watt subwoofer. I still own these speakers, but they are extremely bass-heavy, even with the bass knob turned down to the lowest setting. They can be overly disruptive to the other people in my home, as the walls shake. For a party, they are great, but for everyday use I need something more tame. Today, I am looking at the Cambridge Audio Minx M5 in hopes that I have found that.

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Still shopping for the perfect Father's Day bargain? Amazon may have the answer to that, as the online retailer has taken two of its most popular products and combined them into one bargain-basement price that will satisfy any connoisseur of sales.

The Kindle Fire HDX 7, a tablet I previously called my favorite product of 2013, has been bundled together with the new Fire TV. If you aren't familiar (or live under a rock) the Fire TV is a set-top box designed to take on Apple and Roku in an increasingly crowded market. Today, Amazon marries the two together with one discounted price.

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Windows XP users might be able to (sort of) cheat the aging operating system’s end of life, but ultimately the only real way to stay safe is, as Microsoft says, by upgrading to a newer, more modern version of Windows. NetMarketShare’s monthly snapshot of the desktop OS share trend shows users are continuing to slowly migrate away from XP. The OS’s share dropped 1.02 percent from 26.29 percent in April to 25.27 percent in May.

So the question is, where are XP users moving to? I think you probably know the answer to that by now.

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No week would be complete without a little Windows news, and this week was no different. A registry hack emerged that should make it possible to receive updates for the no-longer-supported Windows XP right up until 2019. Microsoft later spoiled the fun by pointing out that it could lead to problems as the updates that would be made available as a result of implementing the hack would not be designed for regular desktop versions of Windows XP.

Last week we were wondering why it took eBay quite so long to warn users to update their passwords after a security breach earlier in the year. This week we discovered that it was because the company was under the impression that no user data had been accessed. Apple forgot to renew its SSL certificate, and in another Apple-related security story, a hacker managed to take control of iOS and Mac devices, and hold them ransom. To console itself, the company then splashed the cash on Beats Music -- Joe pondered whether this was just another indication of Apple's lack of innovation.

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Windows Phone started out as a very weak operating system. It was so full of compromises and disappointments, that it was a wonder anyone bought the devices. When Nokia started manufacturing handsets with the OS, it was a real turning point. The Finnish company eventually added amazing tweaks, apps and class-leading cameras. Nokia was so important to the Windows Phone movement, that Microsoft eventually bought the company.

Luckily, besides Nokia, Microsoft was also in the kitchen cooking up improvements for the mobile operating system. The company released Windows Phone 8.1 to developers this year and the changes are staggering. You see, Microsoft is actually listening to users and the end result is a much more capable OS. Unfortunately, Windows Phone 8.1 was still missing a crucial aspect -- a native File Manager. Today, that changes as Microsoft releases the unimaginatively named 'Files'.

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Samsung has taken a new march in the wearables race through a new wristband and development platform to revolutionize the way sensors are used to collect critical health data about the user.

The Simband and Sami [Samsung Architecture Multimedia Interactions] platform, which were announced at a San Francisco press event, will be used by third-party sensor developers to collect and store data.

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FileSearchy is a free-for-personal-use desktop search tool with one or two interesting and unexpected features.

After a quick and easy installation, launching FileSearchy displays a very straightforward interface. Enter part of a file name in the Search box, and the results are updated instantly, just as fast as you can type. You can then double-click any file to view it, or right-click for the usual Explorer context menu.

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Acer is probably not the first company you will think of when you start pondering tablets -- but in fact it has quite a pedigree. It has forayed into Windows-based tablets, with recent examples being the Iconia W4 and the Iconia W700 -- an attempt at an all-in-one/tablet combo. And its Android-based tablets are plentiful with A and B series lines alongside the more recently announced Tab 7 and One 7. ITProPortal actually reviewed the predecessor to this new model, the Iconia A1-810, last summer.

As tablets go the 16GB Acer Iconia A1-830 is a bit of a baby. It has a 7.9-inch screen, just a bit larger than the 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX and Nexus 7, and the same as the iPad mini. Its price marks it out as a budget buy at £140. For reference, the Nexus 7 16GB and 16GB Kindle Fire HDX 7-inch are both £199. The 16GB iPad mini is over £300.

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Eighty-third in a series.  Welcome to this week's overview of new Windows 8 applications and games.

Microsoft removed the beta tag from its Internet Explorer Platform Status website which highlights the development status of web technologies in Internet Explorer.

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User generated content is an important factor in getting consumers to trust online business. But not every enterprise has the time or the skills to build and manage a presence across multiple social media sites.

Customer profile management specialist Janrain has introduced a new product that allows users of any site to introduce and share social content.

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