http://youtu.be/2b42qbUC8b4

In its new "honestly" commercial, Microsoft shows us a man who has just purchased a Surface 2. "This deal was way too good to believe", says the happy purchaser, with a bag tucked under his arm. "Instead of paying too much for an iPad, I got this Surface 2", he adds, before telling the camera it comes with Office (a Surface commercial that mentions that? Amazing!) and Outlook, free Skype calls to over 60 countries, and 200 GB of cloud storage ("others charge for that").

Continue reading →

Smartphones without LTE cellular connectivity are becoming increasingly rare nowadays in 4G-enabled markets, as consumers are looking towards faster data speeds to get more out of their handsets. It is no surprise then that research firm Strategy Analytics predicts that sales of LTE smartphones will grow by a whopping 547 percent year-over-year in China, the largest market worldwide.

Samsung is no stranger to 4G LTE, as many of its smartphones offer this cellular capability. To tap further into the growing entry-level market, the South Korean company has announced the Galaxy Core LTE, which touts a premium look coupled with decent specs and fast connectivity speeds on mobile networks.

Continue reading →

As businesses move their data to the cloud they can often be caught out by the need to comply with audit and usage reporting requirements.

Cloud security specialist Elastica has a solution to this with its new CloudSOC product which helps companies and employees use the cloud whilst remaining secure and compliant.

Continue reading →

Audible notifications coming from mobile devices can be annoying in some situations, as they can distract us and bother others. Being informed of a new message on Facebook or a reminder to start playing a game again are some things we can postpone knowing about in the middle of the night or an important business meeting. Some companies offer a feature on their devices that allows users to mute sounds during a certain period of time.

Apple offers this under the name Do Not Disturb on its devices, while some Android vendors and Microsoft refer to it as Quiet Hours. Even though Windows 8.1 offers such a feature, Windows Phone has yet to see a similar implementation. But, fret not, as quiet hours can be brought to the tiled smartphone operating system via third-party apps.

Continue reading →

PNG is an excellent graphics format which can achieve very good compression rates. We’ve regularly covered tools which can optimize them still further, though -- including PNGOptimizer, just last month -- and PNGmini is the latest contender.

The program installs easily (no adware), and looks great. There’s a sleek, black interface, flat buttons, red status bar and highlighting, while menus slide out smoothly with a click. It manages to be modern, without simply copying anything else.

Continue reading →

One of the main advantages to using a router is knowing that your personal information is kept away from the privy eyes of the Internet, unless you choose to make the data publicly available. A number of ASUS routers, however, are making files stored behind them visible to everyone, which basically renders them useless if security is of concern (which it usually is).

The behavior is present when the AiCloud feature is enabled. It allows users to remotely access files on the network, through a mobile app, including content stored on USB-connected hard drives. The last bit is what is available for the whole Internet to see. Why? Two vulnerabilities, which allow anonymous access to the built-in FTP server and the storing of user names and passwords in plain text, have not been fixed in due time by ASUS, after a security researcher reported their existence to the company in June of last year. Yeah, many months have passed since.

Continue reading →

Windows Phone, we meet again. I have a love/hate relationship with Microsoft's Mobile OS. You see, I love using it -- particularly the social media integration with Facebook and Twitter. The glance and go philosophy of the platform really appeals to me. I want a smartphone to blend into my life and not dominate it. However, I am heartbroken by the lack of apps, most notably, Google's.

And so, here I am with the Nokia Lumia Icon and I am very excited. This shouldn't be too surprising though, as I declared the Lumia 928 to be my favorite smartphone of 2013, despite the lack of apps. So, what do I think of the Icon? Read on for my impressions.

Continue reading →

Emsisoft has released Emsisoft Anti-Malware 8.1.0.40, a minor -- but significant -- update for its Windows anti-malware tool. Version 8.1.0.40 can now detect malicious browser extensions as well as look out for unwanted system changes.

The update also removes a number of so-called "obsolete" scans, fixes a number of errors and promises improved performance to boot.

Continue reading →

Video Comparer is an interesting commercial tool which can find similar videos by their content.

The key word here is "similar". The program doesn't just look for identical files. It can also match files when one has been cropped, rotated or resized. It's even able to identify videos where one clip exists within another (video A is a single scene extracted from video B).

Continue reading →

The existence of a paperless office and the overall death of paper has been greatly exaggerated. Anyone who has been in an actual company office recently knows that paper is still haunting the corporate world. Sure, there is less of it being used, but even one sheet is too many.

What can be particularly annoying is signatures. Printing and signing something feels archaic. Hell, you might as well chisel your name into a cave wall. Today, however, Microsoft and DocuSign join forces to bring eSignature to Office 365. While the partnership won't single-handedly kill paper, it is a start.

Continue reading →

To say Windows 8.x is a controversial operating system is an understatement. Heck, it is downright polarizing, causing a schism between users that love it and others that hate it. It has arguably set Microsoft back and potentially damaged both the Microsoft and Windows brands. This is both disappointing and sad as Microsoft is a story-booked American darling that has enjoyed years of success and domination.

I'll admit, while I loved Windows 8.1 at first, I soured on it once I noticed an impact in my productivity. Performing a balancing act between the classic UI and Modern one, is maddening. It was so distressing to me, that I actually turned my desktop into a Hackintosh. While Linux distributions are my go-to choice, I still have a need for some other software, such as Office, and OS X meets that need. But Windows 8.1 isn't all bad, it truly shines in one place -- tablets.

Continue reading →

Video Comparer is an interesting commercial tool which can find similar videos by their content.

The key word here is "similar". The program doesn’t just look for identical files. It can also match files when one has been cropped, rotated or resized. It’s even able to identify videos where one clip exists within another (video A is a single scene extracted from video B).

Continue reading →

With security breaches on the rise, such as the recent Target credit card theft, you can’t be too careful how and to whom you share your personal information. According to the US Department of Justice, 7 percent of US households reported being victims of some form of identity fraud and with financial losses totaling upwards of $50 billion, people have to be vigilant.

Nowadays it’s fairly easy to steal an identity by obtaining different bits of information about someone and piecing them together like a jigsaw puzzle. Things you may not even think about such as your zip code, maiden name, or date of birth. And it’s not just unknown entities who are procuring your personal information and using it for their nefarious gain, it’s people you may think are legitimate and trustworthy such as babysitters, housekeepers or your latest online crush.

Continue reading →

Microsoft is expanding its collection of Bing apps on Windows Phone with the addition of Bing Health & Fitness. The offering, that debuted on Windows 8.1 last year, is meant for "Microsoft testing purposes only", but is available to download for other users as well, provided they want to eat healthy and stay in shape.

"The Bing Health & Fitness app helps you stay on top of health and fitness trends and provides the tools you need to support a healthy lifestyle. Designed for Windows Phone, the Health & Fitness app brings together great fitness, nutrition and health content, along with trackers, tools and other features", says the app's description. Now let's take a look at its features.

Continue reading →

NTWind Software has released WinSnap 4.5, a major new build of its Windows screen capture and post-processing tool. Version 4.5 debuts a completely redesigned and updated user interface, plus adds a host of new tools, including new presets and quick preferences and a number of new drawing tools.

The new release also promises improved support for the most recent Windows 8 Aero theme, plus the usual gamut of tweaks and bug fixes.

Continue reading →