Latest Technology News

Sony's problems surrounding the hacking of the PlayStation Network is much worse than originally thought. The company confirmed over the weekend that hackers stole some 50,000-plus Michael Jackson tracks and music files from Sony servers. The company paid the Jackson estate $250 million last year for the rights to the unreleased material.

Reports say Sony's plans were to release the stolen music on up to ten separate albums, a strategy now in jeopardy as the tracks are now in the hands of Jackson's most avid fans. In fact, that's how Sony discovered the breach in the first place -- discussions of the tracks appeared on fan forums as they leaked to the Internet.

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Every year the top security companies fight to see who can be the first to get their next generation suites out to the public. Last year Symantec did well, revealing Internet Security 2012 in April 2011. But this year Kaspersky Lab is the clear victor, as today they’ve released the first beta of Kaspersky Internet Security 2013.

This isn’t anything like as polished as some of the betas we’ve seen, though. The interface isn’t finished, for instance, and the build has Application Verifier and trace logging turned on, which means it will slow your PC down considerably. You won’t want to leave the suite installed for long.

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Last night, while watching "The Walking Dead", I breezed past an Internet Explorer 9 ad, while fast-forwarding commercials. I actually stopped to watch the last 15 seconds or so. Perhaps it was the one here or another similar. I'm uncertain, since Ryan Gavin, Internet Explorer General Manager, says the TV spot above airs tonight and I already deleted the recorded program.

I must say, though, there's something appropriate about an Internet Explorer commercial running during "The Walking Dead" -- that's assuming where I saw one last night. I also fast-forwarded commercials during a show about kittens my daughter watched, and perhaps I saw the ad there. Considering IE's declining usage share, there's metaphor here in the AMC drama.

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Over the weekend App Store reached a momentous number of downloads: 25 billion. That achievement comes in less than four years; App Store opened for business in July 2008. Our question for you: What's your favorite?

Better: What are your favorite 10 downloaded iOS apps? Or you could answer: Which one, or which 10, do you use the most? Please answer in comments, and if you prefer some other mobile platform more tell us about it and the apps that make it matter most to you.

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Postbox, Inc. has updated its cross-platform, commercial email client with a minor update. Postbox 3.0.3 includes a number of enhancements, some platform-specific, plus fixes a number of issues, including one that meant the “Check this folder for new Mail” feature didn’t work with IMAP accounts.

Postbox 3.0 released last November and introduced tighter integration with a range of third-party apps and services, including Gmail, Dropbox, Facebook and Twitter. The full version costs $29.95, and a 30-day trial is available.

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While some free antivirus tools are a little short on functionality, that’s not a problem with avast! Free Antivirus 7. A Compatible installation option helps you run the program alongside other security tools, you get strong on-demand and real-time malware protection, new cloud-based services quickly check the safety of files and websites, and streaming updates now ensure faster protection against the latest threats.

But avast! Pro Antivirus 7 offers even more.

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It has been another very busy week in the world of software releases and we’ve collection together 21 of the biggest titles that you may have missed; there’s something for everyone here, no matter what you use your computer for.

This has been a big week for anyone looking to get a little creative with their computer. CyberLink Video and Photo Creative Collection 2.0 is a powerful collection of tools that includes all you need to work with your photo and video collections. Comprising PowerDirector and PhotoDirector, you can edit all of the images and footage you have capture with your digital camera ready to use in a range of projects.

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You can find many reviews about Windows 8 Consumer Preview. This one is different because I set out to understand how Windows 8 performs for a blind person who must use keyboard shortcuts to navigate. I am sighted but tested the operating system thinking about my blind nephew.

My review focuses on navigation of the new OS using keyboard shortcuts and no mouse. It is not aimed at partially-sighted or low-vision people who use a mouse and may actually benefit from the larger icons. Neither do I evaluate how screen readers such as JAWS will read the screen contents once the correct location is reached. I suspect that the makers of JAWS and other screen reader software will have lots work to do before their programs will work well with Windows 8. I hope that isn't the case. But my guess is that it will be.

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Swedish web album creation tool, jAlbum 10.4, is now available, boasting a number of major new features. Version 10.4 now supports building entire websites rather than simple photo albums, promises up to 40 percent faster page processing on multi-core CPUs and adds support for transparent PNG images and the ability to scale individual images to different sizes.

jAlbum, which is free for personal use and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, makes it possible to create online photo albums quickly and easily via drag, drop and edit. Pick a template and publish -- either to jAlbum’s own online hosting service or your own website.

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Viruses are something that are most readily associated with the Windows platform, but the increased popularity of mobile devices means that operating systems such as Android have become targets more recently. It’s easy to question the need for antivirus software for your cell phone, and if the software had a price tag attached to it, you might be right to view it with some degree of suspicion.

But Comodo Mobile Security & Antivirus Free for Android is available free of charge and comes from the reliable security firm Comodo -- and it’s packed with extra features, making it well worth a look.

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That is the big question the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is asking right now in its latest call for public comment.

If there was an emergency situation, such as a mobile-triggered explosive device, or phone-organized "violent flash mob," could and should authorities be allowed to bring down all of the mobile communications networks?

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Two is enough. Windows 8 and Windows on ARM.

Based on a registry key found in Windows 8 Consumer Preview, there are potentially nine different editions coming later this year: Windows 8 Starter; Home Basic; Home Premium; Professional; Professional Plus; Enterprise; Enterprise Eval; Ultimate; and ARM. The six Windows 7 editions already are too many. Nine is bad gone way worse and shows that Windows 8, for all the courageous changes, is too much about the past way of thinking. Microsoft is looking back at the old PC model rather than looking far enough ahead to the cloud-connected device era.

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CyberLink has released the final version of CyberLink PhotoDirector 3, a brand new version of its high-end photo management and editing tool. The new release boasts a number of powerful new editing tools, including an object removal system, a “People Beautifier” system offering skin smoothing and wrinkle removal among other retouching features, watermark editor and lens correction tools.

The final release comes two-and-a-half months after the public beta was launched, which attracted over 50,000 users and 5,000 comments, which CyberLink says led to several improvements and new features being added to this first stable release.

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The panic that sets in after emptying the Trash folder only to realize that it contained files you actually needed is a feeling that can only be match by the one that arises after hard drive fails and you realize you have no backup.

Losing certain files through user error, hardware failure or some other problem can cause inconvenience and lead to a great deal of work, but when it comes to photos and other images files, it is often the case that replacing files is simply not possible. EaseUS Mac Photo Recovery Free is a data recovery tool that may be able to help.

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Trouble looms ahead this month for Chrome, while Internet Explorer is poised for a growth surge. Behind this March Madness both browsers share something in common -- their ties to either Google or Microsoft products or services. Chrome will be penalized for one, while IE is set to gain from the other.

Chrome is one of the decade's stunning success stories, in part because of Google's rapid innovation that puts out a new version about every six weeks. But Google also benefits from ties to its other products and services, with search being high among them. Recent browser usage share growth reversals reveal just how much -- in January and February stats compiled by Net Applications.

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