Latest Technology News

It’s a regular web annoyance: you’re busy online, a line of browser tabs open, when suddenly one of them starts playing a Flash video ad. Which one? Normally you’d have to check each tab in turn, but that’s all about to change with Google Chrome 32 beta.

The next time your concentration is disturbed by some unexpected sound, just glance at the tabs, and a speaker icon will appear next to any which are playing audio. Further icons highlight tabs currently using your webcam, or Chromecast, and we expect others will appear in future.

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Five words, 25 letters, all indicating the latest addition to Apple's growing iPad family. Let's try to skirt over the name that extends to almost Tolstoyan lengths before we get too bogged down in it. But it does bear mentioning that this is a name no one is going to use; this is the iPad mini, perhaps the 'new' iPad mini to help differentiate from its predecessor. However it's not just the official title that's big… there's that price tag too.

While the price is not a new revelation -- we knew about it when the new iPad mini was announced a few weeks back -- now that the latest model is actually available to purchase, it seems a good time to reassess it. Head over to the Apple website and you can pick up the diminutive tablet for $399. And that's just the base price.

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Starting today, the new iPad Mini with Retina display is available to order from Apple's online store. The tablet was unveiled, alongside the bigger iPad Air (that launched November 1) and other products bearing the fruit logo, three weeks ago during a special Apple event.

Folks looking to purchase one today and get it as soon as possible should take into account the customary initial lead times. Apple lists the 16 GB and 32 GB Wi-Fi iPad Mini with Retina display as ready to ship in one to three business days (lower than its estimates for the new iPad Air -- five to seven business days). The 64 GB and 128 GB Wi-Fi as well as all cellular models are slated to ship in five to ten business days. This applies to both the Space Gray and Silver trims.

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The growth of the cloud and the use of software as a service (SaaS) has had a dramatic effect on both businesses and individuals, allowing people to access corporate applications and data from anywhere and on any device. But it also gives IT managers a security headache as it becomes harder to build and enforce consistent policies, especially when employees are using their own devices.

In a bid to tackle this, security specialist Adallom is launching a complete solution for SaaS applications. This offers seamless cloud-based security that audits all SaaS activities and provides real-time information on user activity.

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BitTorrent still accounts for a massive proportion of Internet traffic, but it looks as though the global spread is switching somewhat. According to data published by Sandvine, BitTorrent traffic has dropped significantly in North America. While the protocol accounted for more than 31 percent of traffic five years ago, today this has plummeted to below 10 percent.

The Global Internet Phenomenon Report found that BitTorrent now accounts for just 7.39 percent of traffic in North America, a drop of 20 percent. Conversely, in Europe, BitTorrent traffic has increased to 17.99 percent. Interestingly, during peak hours, 48 percent of European upstream traffic is accounted for by BitTorrent.

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Avast is probably best known for its free antivirus, but if you need more power then the company has plenty of commercial alternatives. Pro Antivirus extends the package with online banking and shopping protection, for instance, while Internet Security further adds a firewall and spam filter.

Top of the consumer range, though, is Premier. Along with the usual antivirus, firewall and browsing protection, this includes a tool which will automatically detect and install updates for key applications. The Data Shredder securely wipes confidential documents, while AccessAnywhere allows you to access and control your PC over the Internet.

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To help with the emergency in the Philippines after Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) struck, Google launches a series of tools to assist those affected by the disaster. The website can be used by anyone looking for friends or relatives who have been lost, as well as by those who have information about the whereabouts of individuals. With information very hard to get hold off in the area, this is a valuable service to those hunting for loved ones.

It is possible to visit the site and perform a search for anyone using their full name, or just part of it. Where possible, details about whether the individual has been located alive and well are provided, although there is the disclaimer that "Google does not review or verify the accuracy of this data". To help keep the people database up to date, anyone with information is invited to share information about people they know to be alive.

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Google continues to make changes and improvements to Gmail, and the latest addition is a raft of new quick action buttons to help speed up common email tasks. The idea of quick action buttons is not completely new; if you make use of Google Calendar, you have probably noticed that it's possible to indicate whether or not you'll be attending an event you are invited to by making a selection from a drop down menu that appears in the subject line.

Now Google is extending the number of quick action buttons that are available so it is possible to do even more without even having to open an email. The idea behind the buttons -- as you'd probably guess from the name -- is to save time. There are some emails which do not really require you to read them, they simply require some form of response. When you receive a calendar invitation you can probably tell what your response is going to be from the subject line -- so the RSVP quick action button enables you to accept or decline the invitation with a couple of clicks.

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Little brings more emotion to daily life than music. For many people it's a part of the psyche, lending meaning to everyday events, leaving memories that are specifically associated with a particular song. For instance, reggae songs can bring visions of summer, while Air Supply dredges up memories of middle school dances.

Bing now wishes to help you find all of those sappy songs, in video form -- though the search engine also promises to help find the newer and less sappy ones as well.

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There’s not long to go now until Microsoft’s next generation console is released, and the software giant is continuing to push the many non-gaming things you’ll be able to do with it. The latest update covers SkyDrive, with a new video showing how the cloud storage integration works.

As the description accompanying the video says, "SkyDrive on Xbox One provides a seamless way to enjoy your photos and videos, or those shared with you, on the big screen. The app also takes advantage of exclusive Xbox One features: You can open photo albums from channels in the OneGuide, play music alongside your slide show with Xbox Music, and control the whole app with gestures and voice, courtesy of Kinect".

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When an enterprise is looking to utilize a Platform as a Service (PaaS), there are many options. However, one of the more popular options that emerged in 2011 is Red Hat's OpenShift (the enterprise-class public Silver tier launched in June 2013). Amazingly, the user base has grown 259-percent, while the application count grew by 322-percent year-over-year -- a remarkable feat to say the least.

Today, Red Hat announces that it is not content with this growth, as the company looks to take it even further. "Red Hat is expanding Silver tier availability to 14 new Eurozone countries, including Greece, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Cyprus and Malta. With this expansion, Red Hat’s world-class technical support and additional platform resources is available for developers and application providers in more than 30 countries", says Red Hat Inc.

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It seems that everyone is keen to get in on the big data trend at the moment. If you're still unsure of what it is and where it comes from take a look at the handy infographic we published last week. If you want to start making use of it, then the company behind that graphic, Kapow Software has just released its latest product to make it easier to extract big data from any source.

Kapow Enterprise 9.3 uses synthetic APIs which allow it to draw data from a number of sources and integrate it into existing business processes. What the company calls Kapplets enable users to run and manage thousands of automated data integration applications at the same time. They can then view the different data streams in an integrated way and act on the findings.

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Romanian privacy developer East-Tec has released Eraser 2014 v11.0, a major new update (with facelift) of its online privacy protection tool for Windows.

The app, which promises to securely delete all Internet and computer activity via a series of modules, gets a major new Windows 8-friendly facelift, and promises to be simpler for beginners to use while offering more configurability, power and performance.

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There is an ever-growing list of benefits that Amazon provides for its Prime customers. For a $79 yearly fee users enjoy Netflix-like streaming video, Kindle book rentals and free two-day delivery service. The latter has only one simple drawback -- if you order an item on a Friday, you need to wait until Monday for the product to land on your doorstep. Well, at least that was the case, until now.

Today the retail giant announces the start of Sunday deliveries. To accomplish this, Amazon has teamed up with the United States Postal Service, beginning in the Los Angeles and New York City areas.

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One of the largest usability gaps in Windows Phone 8 stems from the lack of a quick and easy way to toggle system settings, similar to what Android's quick settings or iOS's Control Center offer. The feature allows users to turn Wi-Fi, mobile data, GPS and others on and off in as little steps as possible, without having to navigate through the Settings menu every single time to alter their state.

Luckily there are apps in Windows Phone's Store that fill this void, with System Tiles being one of the most appealing and customizable offerings available today. The app is easy to use and quite powerful, allowing folks to create intuitive live tiles that can gather a significant number of shortcuts to apps and settings, all in one place.

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