Latest Technology News

When Marissa Mayer took over the reins at Yahoo, it was largely expected that Yahoo Mail would be one of the first services to be revamped. Despite still being hugely popular, it lags behind Gmail in terms of features and has, for a long time, felt rather neglected.

Well, the good news if you’re a Yahoo Mail diehard, is the service has undergone some major changes. Improvements include a redesign made with speed in mind. An easier to navigate, more intuitive and less distracting inbox will apparently allow users to get through their emails much quicker. Recognising the importance of mobile devices, finally, Yahoo is also rolling out new Yahoo Mail apps for Windows 8, iPhone/iPod touch and Android.

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Little more than three months ago, Samsung introduced the Galaxy Note II, running Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean. Shortly afterwards Google issued a minor update to its OS, Android 4.1.2, and starting today you can get it for Samsung’s popular green droid device.

On Nexus-branded hardware, Android 4.1.2 only delivered minor changes. For the Galaxy Note II, however, Samsung has apparently introduced more significant benefits. The most noteworthy features include a higher number of notification toggles, swipe gestures using the built-in keyboard, a new lockscreen effect and a customizable notification panel.

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Microsoft might want all users of Windows 8 to use its new tiled interface, but if you really don't like it, or it's the one thing that's preventing you from switching to the new OS full time, there's a clever hack which will disable it for good -- or until you want to switch back, at least.

Ex7ForW8, or "Explorer 7 for Windows 8", is a wrapper created by a developer named Tihiy which basically allows Windows 7's explorer.exe to run on the new OS. Once installed and activated it will take users straight to the Windows 7 desktop upon boot up, and when I say "straight to" I mean it. The new UI doesn't load at all. The wrapper doesn't modify any system files or system protected registry entries, and you can switch back to the Windows 8 UI at any time.

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Microsoft has announced the availability of a SkyDrive app for Xbox 360 consoles, giving users the ability to display content stored in the cloud service on any connected TV or monitor.

The Xbox 360 is designed as a content consuming device, and the SkyDrive experience on the console reflects this. According to the software giant, the app focuses on photo and video sharing, as well as playing slide shows, with no mention of productivity. It's fair to assume that Microsoft plans to keep the content editing features for newer devices running Windows Phone or Windows 8/RT.

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Just days after Instagram said it would no longer allow the micro-blogging site to display its photos, Twitter has responded by giving users the ability to apply colored filters to pictures they upload.

There are eight Aviary-powered filters to choose from -- Vignette, Black & White, Warm, Cool, Vintage, Cinematic, Happy, and Gritty. A grid view shows how each of the filters will affect your image, and you can tap any of the choices and then scroll left or right to view the alternatives.

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Intel-owned security software company McAfee on Monday released a major update to its McAfee Mobile Security product, featuring a new interface and a new app privacy feature called App Lock.

Though many mobile security suites focus on protecting private information from being stolen and misused, much of the information that is available within apps is left totally unprotected from prying eyes.

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The Walking Dead is now on its mid-season break, but if you’re missing the show already then you could turn to Zombie Shooter, a free game which provides all the opportunities for walker-slaughtering you’re ever likely to need.

Okay, it’s true, you won’t get quite the character development here that you do in the show (or, indeed, any at all). The game’s plot, such as it is, it rather more basic: essentially you’re just running around a secret research lab, slaughtering zombies, picking up weapons, ammo and health packs, and trying to figure out what’s going on.

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Google on Monday announced it will offer the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook to educators for a special price of just $99 until December 21 through a partnership with public education nonprofit Donors Choose.

Full-time public educators can go to the DonorsChoose site, fill out a three-question questionnaire and project request for up to 30 Chromebooks, and then begin collecting donations to receive the computer hardware, management, and support. Typically, each Chromebook costs $249.

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NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, has been tracking Santa since 1955. In the old days, it was an AM radio broadcast that began on Christmas Eve and purported to track the jolly old fellow as he left the North Pole and began his flight around the world. With technology's advance, NORAD has also pushed into the future.

These days, you can keep up with Saint Nick's journey with more than just a transistor radio. There is a special website and even mobile apps for iOS and Android that allow parents and children to track Santa's flight.

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On Monday, Research In Motion unveiled the stable version of the company's messaging app for BlackBerryOS, simply titled BlackBerry Messenger 7. Among the newly introduced features, the most noteworthy addition is the ability to perform calls via Wi-Fi.

Wi-Fi calling works in parallel with existing functionality and as a result it can be used, for instance, while sending messages. To enable the feature users have to select the corresponding icon in the chat/messaging window. BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) 7 also implements an upgrade notification functionality, which is designed to inform users of available updates that can be downloaded straight from the app.

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There have always been programs around to hide what you’re doing on a PC, and perhaps unsurprisingly they don’t have the best of names. The assumption seems to be that they’re only ever used by people who don’t want everyone else to know they’re looking at porn, say, or playing games when they should be working. But of course the reality is a little more complicated than that.

What if you’re shopping for birthday presents and the lucky recipient-to-be comes in, say? Or maybe you don’t want a work colleague to see you’re browsing a mental health website? There are all kinds of reasons why you might want to maintain your PC privacy, and SmokeScreen is a simple free tool which promises to help.

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Apple’s replacement for Google Maps isn’t the most reliable of mapping apps, especially outside of the United States. The first time I used it, requesting directions to Blackpool on the north-west coast of England, it sent me to the south coast, some 248 miles the wrong way. Of course, I didn’t actually make that journey, but had I been visiting from outside of the United Kingdom, and knew no better, I would have been in for a very nasty surprise if I’d followed the app’s directions. But at least I wouldn’t have been misdirected into a potentially life threatening situation, unlike some motorists in Australia.

Victoria police have been forced to issue a warning after Apple Maps routed a number of motorists off the beaten track and into the middle of a national park with no water supply and where temperatures can reach up to 46 degrees.

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German developer Canneverbe Limited has announced the first stable release of popular Windows freeware disc-burning tool, CDBurnerXP 4.5.0.

Once the freeware burning tool of choice, the latest update of this powerful and versatile data, audio and video burning tool has one notable update to its data-burning component: it ditches the old Numedia Soft burning library in favor of the StarBurn library in a move designed to improve compatibility and stability.

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Even though mobile devices play an ever-increasing role in our digital lives, on more than one occasion they can act counterproductive, delivering noisy notifications or consuming too much battery life. With Silence, however, Android users can take control of their devices, scheduling the usage of built-in functionality like vibrate or airplane mode.

Silence basically allows users to enable or disable commonly used connectivity options such as airplane mode, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, as well as set the ringer to silent, vibrate or normal, all within an established period of time. Each of the available options can be individually controlled, meaning that airplane mode can be enabled at night to preserve battery life, or silent mode can be activated during working hours so as to not disturb co-workers.

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The South Korean tech giant has released a short YouTube teaser promising a new product which will be revealed on January 8-11 2013, presumably at the International CES in Las Vegas.

"The world awaits" the video says at the beginning before quickly flashing up words like "Innovation", "Ideas", "Design", "Technology", "Dreams", "Wonder", and "Future". It's obviously just an attempt to drum up interest in the forthcoming product and get the Samsung faithful speculating, as there are no other clues as to what the product might be. There are already plenty of guesses in the comments under the video, of course.

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