Latest Technology News

On Sunday, Paul Thurrott asked (geez does this guy ever sleep) the question: "What the Heck is Happening to Windows?" The answer is hugely pertinent to the BetaNews reader community. Thurrott refers specially to Windows 8.1 development, and colleague Wayne Williams gives great overview of what to expect in Update 1, today.

The problem: What Windows is becoming, as Microsoft tries to satisfy its legacy customers while embracing future devices, particularly those using so-called NUIs, or new user interfaces, like touch and voice. Wayne smartly observes: "Maybe I’m just being overly negative here but with all the changes Microsoft has made along the way, Windows 8.x feels like it’s becoming a Frankenstein product stitched together with compromises".

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According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, were the most generous US philanthropists last year. In 2013, the couple donated 18 million Facebook shares to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, amounting to some $992.2 million. The Chronicle of Philanthropy put together a list of the top fifty most generous donors in 2012, ranked according to the size of individual donations.

The list is concerned only with gifts and pledges of cash and stock to non-profit organizations and it might be surprising to find that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is not at the top spot -- in fact, it does not appear in the list at all. This is explained by the publication:

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HTC is a brand that has fallen from the lofty heights it enjoyed just a few years ago. Today, the company releases fourth quarter earnings and the figures do not make for particularly happy reading.

On the positive side of things, the results show HTC managed to break even -- this is good news having suffered losses throughout 2013. It's not great news as profits stand at just NT$0.31 billion, but it's certainly better than a loss.

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Whether you need to know what a particular installation program is doing to your system, or you’re just wondering why your hard drive is busy all the time, being able to track disk activity can be very useful. It’s surprisingly easy, too, as Free Folder Monitor demonstrates.

There’s a selection of adware to avoid during installation, but get past that and Free Folder Monitor starts to work immediately, displaying current system drive activity as it happens. A table lists the date and time of the event, its type (Add, Modify, Rename or Remove), the file name, size and attributes.

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Microsoft’s tiled operating system has always divided the Windows community. There are those who love or at least like it, and those who tolerate, or outright hate it. I tried really hard to like Windows 8, but never did. Windows 8.1 is much more usable for me, and I’m a fan of it now (even though I probably wouldn’t have switched in the first place if my job didn't require me to be running it). But let’s be honest here. "New Windows" was a massive gamble for Microsoft, and it’s one that simply hasn’t paid off.

The devices and services giant bet big on touch screen devices and Windows tablets flying off the shelves, and they haven’t. The PC market has imploded, users haven’t really taken to expensive touch enabled computers, and Windows tablets are nowhere near as popular as iPads or the numerous Android powered alternatives. Users are sticking firmly to older versions of Microsoft’s OS -- Windows 7 and even XP are showing more growth than Windows 8.x. With the forthcoming Windows 8.1 Update 1 Microsoft has rolled over and admitted defeat. Keyboard and mouse users are here to stay, and finally the tiled OS has something to offer them.

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Folks looking to purchase a small Windows 8.1 tablet now have one more option available to consider, as the ASUS VivoTab Note 8 just made its way to Microsoft's online store. The device can be had for $329 in the 32 GB storage trim, making it slightly more expensive compared to the $299 its maker had revealed it would cost at launch.

For the money, the VivoTab Note 8 packs an 8-inch IPS, five-point multi-touch display with a resolution of 1280 by 800. There is an Intel Atom Z3740 processor, running at 1.33 GHz (1.86 GHz on Turbo Boost), inside, backed by 2 GB of RAM and a one-cell battery that is rated at up to eight hours of use on a single charge.

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Less than two months after unveiling the first alpha, dotPDN LLC has released the first beta of Paint.NET 4.0. Version 4.0 comes with a rebuilt rendering engine, improvements to various tools and a tweaked user interface, and while the beta is primarily a bug-fix release it does introduce a couple of major tweaks.

The first change gives users a choice of color scheme -- light or blue -- via the program’s Settings dialog. The default depends on the version of Windows currently being run -- light in Windows 8, blue in Windows 7.

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IT professionals wanting to perform certain tasks on remote devices from their Windows Phone will be pleased to know they can now take advantage of a Putty client to log in and get the job done. The app just landed in Store, and is currently undergoing private testing. For those who may not be familiar with it, Putty allows users to connect via SSH and Telnet to other devices that have support enabled for the two previously mentioned protocols.

There is a very good chance that your router, which is a common device in Internet-connected households, supports SSH and Telnet connections. When one (or both) is enabled, it is possible to use such an app to, for instance, view stats and modify configurations remotely. But, a more popular use for Putty is remote access to servers, allowing administrators to keep a close eye on what is happening and intervene when needed, like in case of attacks.

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There’s a lot of presentation software around, but the free SlideDog attracted our attention immediately with its claims of wide file format support. The program doesn’t just sequence images, the website boasts: you can also use videos, PowerPoint files, web pages, PDFs, Prezi presentations, and more.

While this sounds great, all isn’t quite as it seems. On installation, SlideDog points out that it doesn’t handle these file types itself, and instead depends on you having suitable viewers available (VLC Media Player for movies, PowerPoint or the PowerPoint viewer for PPT/ PPTX files, and so on).

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Legal threats on Twitter are nothing new, but it is usually Twitter users who are the subject of litigation. In the case of the @JamesDean account, however, it is Twitter itself found on the receiving end of legal action. Acting on behalf of the James Dean estate, celebrity licensing agency CMG Worldwide is attempting to wrestle control of the Twitter account -- which is currently being used to tweet quotes by and about the star -- from the hands of its current owner.

The complaint says that Twitter is breaching trademarks owned by James Dean Inc by placing "objectionable content" online. CMG Worldwide has been in touch with Twitter to ask that the account activity be stopped, and that contact details for the account owner be handed over. Twitter has refused both requests. It is hard to see how the James Dean estate could have suffered "immeasurable and irreparable" damage. It is also interesting to note that the complaint suggests that unless the account activity stops, then James Dean Inc "will continue to be irreparably harmed and suffer actual damages in an amount as yet undetermined". There is no suggestion of what irreparable damage has actually been caused.

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Firefox is my favorite browser, but I don't use it. While that sounds crazy, and it sort of is, there is a method to my madness. You see, Google Chrome utilizes Google accounts, which makes my life easier.

By utilizing Google accounts, Chrome can sync across multiple devices -- that includes things like bookmarks and passwords. And so, the convenience of Chrome caused me to abandon my trusty Firefox. Luckily, Mozilla is looking to bring parity with all-new Firefox Accounts.

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Deciding which browser extensions are trustworthy has always been an uncertain business. If an add-on is highly rated, with plenty of users, then it should be safe… But as the recent issues over Chrome extensions showed, with popular add-ons being purchased and tweaked to push adverts, there are no guarantees.

Extension Defender is a new service which helps by cataloging malicious Chrome and Firefox extensions. This can be searched manually, but it's probably simpler to install the Chrome or Firefox extension, which can check and protect your system automatically.

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LinkedIn, a popular social site for the business crowd, carries a lot of benefits for customers. There is the opportunity for networking, along with finding work. To that end, like any social network, the company has strived to find ways to enhance its offerings and make things more appealing.

It has not always succeeded, and one such failure is about to be killed off. Intro was an app for iPhone that insinuated itself into the user's email, and was perhaps a bad idea from the start.

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The biggest news of the week has to be the appointment of Satya Nadella as CEO at Microsoft, which brought to an end weeks of speculation and rumor. Bill Gates also stepped down as chairman. A leaked version of Windows 8.1 Update 1 appeared online giving us all a sneak peek of what we can expect to see in the upcoming release -- including context menus on the Start screen, a new enterprise mode in Internet Explorer, and different ways of working with modern apps. Ahead of this big release, it was Windows XP that was showing growth rather than Microsoft's latest operating system.

In other Microsoft news, Xbox One's first big update was revealed to be coming up on 11 February. Sony announced that it was selling its VAIO business to enable it to focus its attention on mobile devices. Business and individuals who rely on 37signals' products found that the company was not only changing its name, but also dropping all of its services apart from Basecamp. There was another blow for Bitcoin as the online currency was effectively banned in Russia.

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You might think that Russia has just about enough on its plate at the moment, what with having the Winter Olympics to host and fending off global accusations of homophobia, but the Central Bank of Russia has found the time to slap a ban on Bitcoin. This is not the first country to outlaw the online currency -- it's something that has already been done by Thailand and it's being considered by others.

The General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation looked into "the so-called virtual currencies" phenomenon and found that there was a risk of Bitcoin being used for money laundering. The damning ruling refers to Bitcoin and other similar currencies as "money substitutes". Citing Article 27 of the Federal Law, the General Prosecutor said that "the official currency of the Russian Federation is the ruble", going on to say that money issued in other forms is prohibited.

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