Woman touching a phishing concept

Gen Z most likely to fall for phishing attacks

A new survey reveals that 44 percent of all participants admit to having interacted with a phishing message in the last year. Gen Z stands out as the…

By Ian Barker -

Latest Technology News

Nokia 808 PureView white

Windows Phone holds back Nokia?

That's the sentiment expressed by a commenter to an exciting promotional video Nokia uploaded to YouTube today. The Finnish handset maker shot the promo using the new Nokia 808 PureView, which sports 41-megapixel camera. The comment: "This is true Nokia innovation. Windows Phone is just holding them back". My question: Do you agree with either or both sentiments?

I'm a big Nokia fan, who relished the benefits of great camera capabilities long before iPhone even had a crappy one. I've owned E71, N79, two different N95s, N96, N97 and N900. Nokia's N Series set the standard for mobile phone photography that most rivals have yet to catch up -- and that includes the N8 and N9, which capabilities should shame every iPhone 4/4S photographer. I clamor for Nokia 808 PureView but won't buy one. Symbian holds me back, or perhaps I should say Windows Phone. Compelling as the smartphone may be, Symbian is a dead end. Windows Phone is Nokia's primary mobile OS now.

By Joe Wilcox -
AnonTuneABBA

RIAA's Waterloo? Anonymous Looks to set streaming music free

Streaming music content is too restrictive, believes hacktivists Anonymous. Six members of the group have released Anontune, a web-based application that aims to aggregate streaming music online and place it in a central location. AnonTune currently accesses the catalogs of YouTube and SoundCloud, although the developers plan to add content from other services including Yahoo Music, Myspace Music, Bandcamp and others in the future.

True to the groups name, users will be able to listen to tracks anonymously, and Anonymous itself will not store the tracks. Instead it depends on the catalogs of the services it aggregates, thus leaving the sticky copyright issues to those sites. Recording Industry Association of America's Waterloo, indeed. The next one, if Napster wasn't enough a computing generation ago.

By Ed Oswald -
Uninstall trash

Trashed something you want to keep? EaseUS Mac Undelete 5.5.1 can help

Data recovery used to be an incredibly expensive business, but these days you can often recover accidentally deleted data without having to bankrupt yourself in the process. And if you’re a Mac user, the good news is that you might even be able to recover irreplaceable files and folders from your hard drive for free.

Chinese software manufacturer EaseUS has just released a second freeware data recovery tool for Mac users. Hot on the heels of its free image recovery app, EaseUS Mac Photo Recovery Free comes a general purpose tool, aptly titled EaseUS Mac Undelete 5.5.1.

By Nick Peers -
Virus

As many as 100,000 WordPress blogs infected 700,000 Macs with malware

If computer security is your thing -- it really should be everyone's -- and you own a Mac, Kaspersky's analysis of Flashfake malware, also called Flashback, is a must-read. Gasp, this is only part one. There's more to come from the security software developer.

Flashfake's success -- Kaspersky raises the number of infected Macs to 700,000 from previous 600,000 estimates -- is bigger than the obvious conclusion Apple computers aren't safe havens from cybercriminals. Late last week, Apple released a Flashfake removal tool that contrary to earlier reports failed to substantially reduce the botnet. But as many as 100,000 infected WordPress blogs, the majority in the United States, lay in wait for unpatched Macs or even a Flashfake variant that unleashes another outbreak. Like last year's MacDefender outbreak, cybercriminals used tactics tried and proven against Windows users.

By Joe Wilcox -
folder gears

Enigma Virtual Box turns complex applications into portable, single executables

The typical large application will have a rather complex structure. There might be DLLs, OCXs and other executable components, data files and more, all scattered across a potentially very large number of subfolders: not necessarily very convenient.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Point Enigma Virtual Box at an application and it’s able to combine all the program’s components and data files into a single module. This is compressed, so can greatly reduce the disk space required for a program. And if you’re a software developer, then the process does a very good job of protecting your components from misuse. (The files are unpacked in RAM, never written to disc, so it becomes much more difficult for others to take your DLLs, OCXs, images, audio files and any other elements of your application.)

By Mike Williams -
Hard Drive

TweakNow HD-Analyzer reclaims hard drive space

Have you ever wondered where all of the space of your multi-gigabyte, or even terabyte, drive has disappeared to? The voluminous hard drive you installed a year ago seemed like it would last you forever filled up all too quickly. While there’s nothing to stop you from manually working your way through the contents to determine what could be removed to free up space, TweakNow HD-Analyzer is a free tool that could make the decision-making a little easier.

If you are running short of space, perhaps before starting a video editing project or something else similarly space-hungry, it makes sense to home in on the files and programs that are currently occupying the most space. This is something that TweakNow HD-Analyzer can help you with, performing and in-depth analysis of your hard drive and highlighting the largest files and folders so you can easy delete them or move them to an alternate location.

By Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson -
antivirus antimalware shield cloud

Easy Clean better protects, connects to F-Secure cloud

F-Secure has released an updated version of its stand-alone antivirus detector, Easy Clean.

The new build is smaller than previous releases at under 4MB. You can scan your system just by launching the executable; no installation is required. But most usefully, Easy Clean now contacts F-Secure’s cloud-based servers to obtain details about the very latest threats, so there’s no need for it to download regular updates. (Although, of course, this does also mean that you now must have a fully functional Internet connection for Easy Clean to be of any use.)

By Mike Williams -
Microsoft logo

Microsoft Q3 2012 by the numbers: $17B revenue, 60 cents EPS

Late this afternoon, after the closing bell, Microsoft revealed results for one of its most uncertain quarters in years. That's because Gartner and IDC report tepid PC shipments and Microsoft prepares to launch a horde of new products later this year, including new versions of Office, Windows and Windows Server, among others. Sometimes sales sag in the quarter or two before new product releases -- and for 2012 there are many core ones coming.

"With the upcoming release of new Windows 8 PCs and tablets, the next version of Office, and a wide array of products and services for the enterprise and consumers, we will be delivering exceptional value to all our customers in the year ahead", Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says.

By Joe Wilcox -
cloud key

AppSense's DataNow answers demand for corporate cloud file sharing

Aiming to become the Dropbox of the enterprise, New York City-based AppSense has introduced DataNow, a cloud-based service aimed at giving companies a method to securely share documents across multiple platforms. The company says that its solution lessens the risk of the loss of sensitive information.

File sharing services like Dropbox have already been in the news for just that. Like Facebook and Draw Something, Dropbox has been found to store access tokens in plain text. Last June, a flaw in the software allowed anybody to log in to any account with any password. In the corporate world, such a breach is possibly devastating.

By Ed Oswald -
Spotify for Android, related artist view

Spotify for Android Ice Cream Sandwich launches in beta


Popular music streaming service Spotify has rolled out a beta of its first Android app optimized for devices running Ice Cream Sandwich.

The most current version of the app, available in Google Play, was built for Android Gingerbread, and no version was released for Honeycomb. Google Play says the Gingerbread version is compatible with Ice Cream Sandwich devices, but this is not strictly true, and installing the Gingerbread version didn't guarantee local playback or playlisting, so this beta is a ramp-up to a significant release for Spotify.

By Tim Conneally -
Lumia 900

Nokia's short-term pain is the result of long-term problems

Point. It's always fun to point the blame at someone, and everyone loves to blame CEO Stephen Elop for Nokia's woes. As the Finnish phone manufacturer began to burn, Elop came aboard and made a deal with his former employer, Microsoft, to adopt the Windows Phone platform. Pundits thought he was insane, and have criticized him repeatedly for the move.

These criticisms grow louder as Nokia reports a $1.3 billion euro ($1.76 billion) loss in the first quarter of 2012. According to the financial statements, the company burned through 700 million euros in cash during the same quarter, and has a little under five billion euros in cash left. The company may face bankruptcy in two years.

By Ed Oswald -
skeleton dance

Nokia does the Windows Phone death dance

Few high-tech companies have imploded like Nokia and at the strangest time. Typically, dominant companies get killed during transitions from where they rule to where they don't. Nokia is oddest exception, imploding during a major computing era shift that favors its core competency. Transition from the PC to the mobile device eras is underway -- to a market where Nokia was, until recently, share leader by huge margins. How low the mighty has fallen, and former Microsoft division president turned Nokia CEO Stephen Elop wields the missile codes that launched self-inflicted nuclear strikes.

Today's Nokia earnings report is a disaster. It's radioactive fallout from Elop's decision to turn over the Finnish company's crown jewels to Microsoft. Elop sold Nokia's soul to his former masters, which I described at the time as a "silent takeover" of the company. Nokia needed new leadership, not new technology -- Elop's fundamental platform and cloud services switch -- to combat escalating Android and iOS competition. Before his tenure, Nokia did the right things, just in the wrong ways. Since taking the chief executive's seat in Autumn 2010, Elop has done the wrong things in all the right ways to destroy a once proud mobile device innovator.

By Joe Wilcox -
Bluetooth OnOff

Bypass cumbersome iOS settings with Bluetooth OnOff

Something that irritates many iOS users, and drives a large number of them to go as far as jailbreaking their phones and tablets, is the fact that Apple is so strict about what apps are able to do. The guidelines for getting into the App Store mean that it is not possible for any app to replicate an existing feature of iOS, nor access system settings in any way that Apple deems inappropriate. Despite this, Bluetooth OnOff has found its way in to the App Store, providing easy access to Bluetooth settings.

Due to battery draining, it is not a good idea to leave Bluetooth enabled when it is not being used. With this in mind, it is strange to find that in order to switch Bluetooth off, Apple makes users jump through a series of hoops in a process that takes several taps. Bluetooth OnOff is a simple little utility that reduces this to a one or two tap process so if you need to enable Bluetooth for a quick gaming session, you can do so in around a second.

By Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson -
Advanced System Care with Antivirus

IObit Advanced SystemCare adds antivirus protection

PC maintenance specialist IObit has released the first public beta of Advanced SystemCare with Antivirus 2012. Which, as you’ll guess from the name, not only now caters to all your PC maintenance needs, but also includes a full antivirus package as well.

The beta takes a dual-engine approach to protecting your PC, using both IObit and BitDefender technology to detect and block threats. And essentially it provides all the features you’d expect from a basic antivirus package. So you can run quick, full or custom scans; a simple scheduler allows you to configure scans to run automatically; and conveniences like a Silent Mode reduce unnecessary alerts when you’re playing games or other full-screen applications.

By Mike Williams -
Photo editing

Ashampoo Photo Commander 10 adds new 'quick fix' options

German software developer Ashampoo has released Ashampoo Photo Commander 10, a major new build of its photo management and editing tool for Windows. Version 10 introduces a number of new tools, features as well as performance improvements.

Ashampoo Photo Commander 10 adds two new photo tools, Repair Pen and Focus Effect Tool, alongside an Effect preview browser, plus adds support for directly uploading photos to three popular social networks.

By Nick Peers -
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