Latest Technology News

Long-term research by AV-Comparatives shows a growing risk of malware infecting Android phones via third-party app stores. Conducted between November 2012 and May 2013 on 20 major Android stores, the study found 7,175 malware and greyware programs.

Most were hosted in Chinese-based markets with the lowest incidence of malware being on European stores. With 95 percent of malware and greyware apps hosted in Asian stores the findings reflect the market's rapid growth. European and US markets with growth in a steadier phase are now considered secondary targets but that doesn't mean you should let your guard down.

There is money to be made from online advertising, particularly if you happen to be Google. Research by Statista shows that in 2012, there was around $104b in advertising revenue sloshing around in the coffers of various companies. Projected figures show that 2013 is likely to even more profitable, with ad revenue expect to rise to $117.6b. This is not as great an increase as between 2011 and 2012, but it is still a climb.

It is the big names who are raking in the cash, with Google coming out on top. The search giant is expected to pocket $38.6b by the end of the year, equating to very nearly a third worldwide income from online advertisements.

A couple weeks ago when Google introduced its Chromecast HDMI dongle I wrote a column wondering whether it was really such a good product or simply good demoware? Now that I have my own Chromecast and have been playing with it for a few days I have to admit I was wrong. Chromecast appears to be every bit as good as Google claims. That’s not to say it’s perfect (more below) but pretty darned good.

What I really doubted was Google’s claim that the Chromecast could turn on your HDTV, switch the HDMI input, and throw content onto the big screen all in one seamless succession of events. It wasn’t that any of these tasks were especially difficult to do, but that to do them all on every HDTV would require more remote control capability than I knew existed in any current device.

Last month, a young child in my family celebrated her sixth birthday, so I decided to buy her a Nintendo 3DS. Unfortunately, I discovered that the 3DS is only recommended for children 7-years in age and up as the 3D can negatively affect their vision. Sure, you can turn the 3D off with a slider but it is too easy for the child to enable it again; even by accident. And so, I ordered the generation-older DS console instead as a safety precaution.

Today, Nintendo announces a solution to my conundrum, the Nintendo 2DS -- a handheld console which does not offer 3D. The video game company says "the new Nintendo 2DS system gives you all the features of the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL, minus 3D viewing. And the price makes the world of Nintendo games even more accessible."

Some of the most popular games for Android and iOS are slowly making their way onto the Windows Phone platform. Angry Birds have landed, and Temple Run has already arrived, paving the way for the latest release -- Temple Run Oz, a variant of the addictive jungle game.

In this version, you turn, jump, and slide down the Yellow Brick Road to escape an onslaught of ferocious flying baboons, combining elements from both the original game, as well as those from the hit movie "Oz the Great and Powerful".

Microsoft has been busy beefing up SkyDrive this week, first with added storage for Pro accounts, bumping them to 25 GB free, and now with optical character recognition. OCR is generally a desktop software associated with scanners and used to translate copied documents into editable pages.

Now Microsoft wishes to bring that same functionality to the web, built right into its cloud storage service. "Today, in partnership with the Bing team, we’re excited to release the first of several features that will make your SkyDrive photos smarter by using OCR  to extract the text from photos in your camera roll when you view them on SkyDrive.com", says company representative Mona Akmal.

A speedy six weeks after its beta release, Acronis International has announced the first full release of Acronis True Image 2014 ($49.99), as well as a new Acronis True Image 2014 Premium edition ($79.99).

This release is all about the cloud. There’s now 5GB of free storage space included with the program (though only for a year, unfortunately), which can be expanded up to 250GB at extra cost. And you can now back up files, folders, or your entire system image to the cloud, just as easily as any other destination.

TuneUpMedia has released TuneUp 3.0.3, a minor update to its iTunes clean-up tool for Windows and Mac. Version 3.0.3 fixes a bug to make the new Automagic Status bar more responsive, plus adds back support for Windows Media Player to the Windows builds.

TuneUp is designed to simplify the task of managing, organizing and cleaning up messy iTunes (and Windows Media Player) libraries, and version 3.0.3 comes hot on the heels of the recent major 3.0 update.

Some weeks after the US release of the Nexus 7, Google’s 7 inch tablet has found its way to eager customers in other countries. In Europe, the UK, France, Spain and Germany get a little bit of Nexus love, while in Asia it is Japanese tech-heads who can now get their hands on the 7-incher everyone is talking about. As has become the norm with many gadgets, prices are comparatively higher than in the US.

There are 16GB and 32GB Wi-Fi versions available and UK customers can expect to pay £199 and £239 respectively. In France, Germany and Spain, prices are pegged at €229 and €269, while Japanese Nexus fans can expect to be parted from ¥27,800 and ¥33,800 apiece.

The FUZE is a new programable computer and electronics workstation based around the Raspberry Pi. It's built in the UK and its designers believe it will appeal to the education sector as well as home electronics enthusiasts.

We hope to get some hands-on experience with one soon but in the meantime we spoke to Jon Silvera the managing director of Binary Distribution, the company behind the FUZE, to find out more about it.

As some of you may know, Evernote is my favorite note-taking app. And, there is a very good reason for that -- the cloud-based service is available for all major mobile platforms through their respective app stores, making it easy to use, regardless of which operating system I may favor at the time. This makes it particularly handy when I'm jotting down ideas for upcoming stories on my Windows Phone 8 smartphone, but wish to look into them further on my laptop, which runs Windows 8, or straight on the web.

Another good reason as to why Evernote is at the top of my note-taking app list is the ongoing commitment for Windows Phone 8. New versions are rolled out regularly for the tiled handset OS, introducing new features and improvements at a steady pace. And the latest iteration that was released late-yesterday, brings yet another batch of goodies, including speech-to-text support.

Logitech has been rolling out new products at break-neck pace just recently. Yesterday saw the unveiling of a new gaming mouse, which somehow packs 11 buttons onto the tiny peripheral. Now, the company takes a sleeker approach for those who just wish to use the computer -- be it a Windows or Mac.

The T630 comes in two models, separated by the mindset of the user. "The Logitech Ultrathin Touch Mouse T630 in black is designed for PC users while the Logitech Ultrathin Touch Mouse T631 for Mac in white perfectly complements the look of MacBook computers", the hardware maker announces.

Microsoft needs better Windows 8 apps, and in greater numbers, but, at times, it seems at a loss on how to get them. The company has introduced various initiatives, but then for reasons that are hard to fathom, does its best to hamper developers.

In a blog post yesterday, following the announcement of Windows 8.1 hitting the RTM milestone, the Windows Apps Team put out a call to developers to get their apps ready for the Windows 8.1 launch. It went down like a lead balloon with app makers asking exactly how they're supposed to do this without early access to Windows 8.1 RTM.

Finding free public proxy servers isn’t difficult, at least in theory. A few seconds at Google will reveal plenty of useful resources to point you in the right direction.

You’ll still have to locate a reliable site, though; find a proxy; check its type, confirm it’s still working, and that you can use it. Tedious? Absolutely, which is why you might prefer some automated assistance from Burd’s Proxy Searcher.

IT research company Gartner has released its latest research showing that in the second quarter of 2013 server sales were up by four percent though revenues declined 3.8 percent over the same quarter last year.

IBM remains the leader in the worldwide server market based on revenue with $3.2 billion totalling 25.6 percent of the market for the second quarter. HP leads on numbers of boxes shipped but managed only a 25 percent market share by revenue.