Latest Technology News

Linux desktop environment GNOME 3.12 available

One of the great things about Linux distributions is the customization. In contrast, an operating system like Windows 8 is rather limited. Sure, you can change some colors, wallpapers and sounds, but pretty much, it is what it is. What you see is what you get. That is probably fine for most people, however, Linux users are not most people.

With an operating system such as Ubuntu or Fedora, the user can choose the interface in which they will interact. There are many desktop environments to choose from too, such as KDE, Mate, or my favorite, GNOME 3. Today, the open-source community is treated to the newest version of GNOME -- 3.12. Linux users can start salivating now.

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Microsoft and Dell still BFF -- sign patent licensing agreement for Android, Chrome and Xbox

Peanut butter and jelly. Fish and chips. Salt and pepper. Dell and Microsoft. These are all things that go great together. Sure, Dell has strayed a bit, offering things like laptops with Ubuntu and tablets with Android. However, Windows has been and will likely continue to be the manufacturer's bread and butter.

In the technology world, Dell and Microsoft are "BFF" -- best friends forever. If the companies were teen girls, they'd be braiding each other's hair and gossiping about boys. Today, Dell and Microsoft have signed a monumental patent agreement -- tantamount to BFF's exchanging friendship bracelets.

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Maxthon web browser comes to Linux -- move over, Chrome and Firefox

When it comes to Linux distributions, there is quite a lot of software available. However, it is not always great. Many programs are third-rate, and the ones that are good, aren't the big name brands. Windows and OS X definitely have a superior selection of popular software.

One place where Linux does not lack, is web browsers. With the exception of Internet Explorer and Safari, all the other big-boys are represented -- Chrome, Firefox and Opera to name a few. One browser, Maxthon, was not available for Linux -- until now.

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Spam emails just not quite annoying enough? Google has the solution!

Spam's great, isn't it? I know I just can’t get enough of it. I particularly love the in-your-face, unavoidable stuff that grabs my attention and ultimately has nothing to offer. Love it. This is one of the reasons I was indescribably happy when Gmail introduced its tabbed inbox feature. While some people saw it as a way of keeping their inbox clear, I saw it rather differently. Now I can see all of that level spam -- sorry, I mean "promotional emails" -- in one place: the handily named Promotions tab.

But there are too many emails that are just too subtle. They don’t grab my eyeballs and try to wrestle them from my head. Well, let joy be unbounded, Google has come up with the solution I've been looking for! It's like the company has been reading my mind! I've lost count of the number of times I've thought, "you know what's missing? Really big, graphic versions of my emails. If that was implemented, my spammy desires could be so much more effectively sated!"

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New malware uses Android smartphones to mine for digital currencies

Digital currencies can be purchased in their respective markets, or acquired through "mining", which can be done using any computer or smartphone and a special piece of software. Security firm Lookout has just released details on a new piece of malware called CoinKrypt that uses a botnet of Android smartphones to mine for currency.

Because mining is incredibly resource-intensive, the process can severely run down a phone’s battery, eat through a data plan by periodically downloading what is known as a block chain, or a copy of the currency transaction history, and potentially damage hardware by causing it to overheat and burn out.

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Google Earth and Microsoft Word are now on Mainframe2

Cisco Systems this week announced its $1 billion Intercloud that will link nine partner companies to offer an OpenStack-based, app-centric cloud system supposedly aimed at the Internet of Things. That’s a lot of buzzwords for one press release and what it means is Cisco doesn’t mean to be left behind or to be left out of the IT services business. But Cisco’s isn’t the big cloud announcement this week: the really big announcement comes today from little Mainframe2.

This morning at the big nVIDIA GPU Technical Conference in Silicon Valley Mainframe2 demonstrated two new PC applications -- Google Earth and Microsoft Word -- running on its graphical cloud. This is significant not only because it implies (there’s been no announcement) that Mainframe2 has two new customers, but both companies are cloud vendors in their own right, so we can guess that Mainframe2 will be supported at some point by both Google’s cloud platform and Microsoft Azure.

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Twitter explains its legal approach against ban in Turkey

Social media is frequently the first victim of internet censorship when nations begin attempting to lock down citizens. We have seen these efforts fail time and again. Turkey has been no exception during the past week -- Twitter was blocked, and users flocked to change DNS settings to Google, though that has now also been locked out.

Twitter, for its part, has filed legal action within the country, in an effort to have the blockade lifted and give a voice back to its users, including dissenters of the current government. Now the company details its current efforts in a blog post from Vijaya Gadde, general counsel for the social network.

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Trusted content is the key to consumer purchasing decisions

The internet and social media mean that there is more information available to consumers than ever before. But which opinions do we actually trust?

A new study from Nielsen commissioned by content specialist inPowered seeks to understand how consumers use digital content when it comes to researching and making purchases.

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VirtualBox squashes major bugs, adds experimental native full-screen support to OS X

Oracle has released VirtualBox 4.3.10, a maintenance update to its cross-platform, partly open-source virtualization tool. Although primarily a series of bug fixes, there is one new feature of note for OS X users.

That feature is experimental support for the native full-screen mode as implemented in Mountain Lion and Mavericks -- press the defined host key plus [F] to toggle this on or off, or use the View menu. This new feature is accompanied by the removal of another: the mini-toolbar minimize button that doesn’t work in full screen view.

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K2 makes SharePoint development easier

Microsoft's SharePoint, just in case you aren't familiar with it, is a set of web technologies with an Office-like interface that's designed to allow non-technical staff to build business apps.

SharePoint is typically employed to provide internet and intranet sites as well as enterprise document and content management. Now business application specialist K2 is aiming to help SharePoint users build better applications without the need for any coding.

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AIDA64 adds support for upcoming Windows 8.1 Update, debuts new graphics benchmark

Budapest software firm FinalWire Ltd has released AIDA64 Extreme Edition 4.30 and AIDA64 Business Edition 4.30. The latest builds of its diagnostic and benchmarking tool introduce a new graphics benchmark for measuring the SHA-1 hashing performance of modern chips and cards, plus adds support for the latest technologies.

AIDA64 4.30 also introduces support for the forthcoming Windows 8.1 Update and Windows Server 2012 Update 1 releases. It also optimizes and fixes three modules: ACPI query, tree enumeration and temperature measurement.

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Black Menu for Google Chrome: an easier way to access Google tools

Google offers many different services, and switching between them isn’t difficult. If you’re at Google News, say, click the Apps icon top right and you’ll see buttons for Search, Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Maps and more: just click whatever you need to launch that page.

This is simple enough, but not ideal. You need to be at one Google service before you can launch another; whatever you select replaces the current page, and there are at least two clicks required. If you’re a Chrome user then Black Menu for Google could provide an easier solution.

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Why the use of personal data for authentication needs to change

We run more and more of our lives online today, with multiple accounts for different services. But many of those sites rely on the same few personal identifiers.

Things like your date of birth, social security number and mother’s maiden name may be common to many of your logins, and that’s a problem. If one site's security is breached then your personal identifiers are compromised.

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HTC is (too) confident reviewers like One (M8)

The first ad a company releases for its new product reveals the marketing strategy it pursues. In HTC's case, the first video advert for the new One (M8) tells us nothing concrete about the smartphone.

The ad features actor Gary Oldman, who, while saying "blah" countless times as if he has got nothing interesting to tell us, refers us to the good old Internet to make up our own minds about the One (M8), a smartphone which, per the man's words, "is designed for people who form their own opinions". No wonder the ad is called "Blah Blah Blah - Go Ahead, Ask The Internet".

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ZoneAlarm enhances protection of its paid products

Zone Labs has updated its ZoneAlarm range to version 13.0.208.000.

ZoneAlarm Free users probably shouldn’t get too excited, as the only significant change they’ll notice is that the Privacy Toolbar finally works with Internet Explorer 11.

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