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

Sony PS3 Slim, PlayStation 3

Sony cheapens PS3...or boosts its HDD size, depending on your perspective

Sony Computer Entertainment lowered the worldwide price of its PlayStation 3 by another $50 on Tuesday, knocking its 160GB model to $249, and its 320GB model to $299.

The five-year old video game console has already gone through a handful of iterations and price reductions, as well as one major structural redesign. The first PS3 price reduction took place in July 2007 and knocked the 60GB model from $599 to $499. Subsequent models introduced higher storage limits and lower prices.

By Tim Conneally -
firefox logo 200

Finally, Firefox for Android is stable and primed for tablets

Along with Firefox 6 for PCs, today, Mozilla also released the mobile version, which I must say looks damn good. But it feels even better. There's a solidness about the browser that makes it ready, finally, for prime time. Firefox fans, this is the one you've been waiting for.

I tested Firefox 6 for Android, quite unexpectedly, on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. I had planned to use the Nexus S but let the battery run down. Good thing, too, because I might have waited days to try the tablet experience -- and, whoa, is it good. So let me preface that the screenshots here are stock ones from the Android Market and they show the browser on a smartphone. The browser looks much better on the Tab. That's right, Mozilla optimized this release for tablets.

By Joe Wilcox -
AT&T lte usb

Ahead of the new network, AT&T's first 4G LTE devices arrive on Sunday

With Labor Day and the unofficial end of Summer rapidly approaching, Network operator AT&T is still expected to launch its 4G LTE network this summer in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. A sign that the network's nationwide launch may not be far off, AT&T on Tuesday unveiled its first two LTE/HSPA+ data modems which will be available on August 21.

The devices are the Momentum 4G USB stick and Elevate 4G 5-device mobile hotspot which sell for $50 and $70 respectively with two-year service contracts.

By Tim Conneally -
google catalogs icon small

Google skips Web shopping, ports paper catalogs directly to the iPad

There is simply no way to avoid mobile tablets in the publishing world.

Magazines like Glamour, GQ, Gourmet Traveller, The New Yorker, People, Popular Science, Vanity Fair, and Wired have all debuted subscription apps for iPad, Newspapers are toying with the subsidized tablet model, new college textbooks are being written specifically for tablets…and good old fashioned "dead tree" books…well, we may still love them, but they're being outsold by e-books.

By Tim Conneally -
lock

Anti-malware vendors unite to fight cybercriminals

I travel a lot. One day I might be in Australia, next day Japan and then off to the United States. Why such a hectic schedule? It's all about how the antivirus industry cooperates. I've been in meetings. Specifically, I've been in meetings with our competitors.

I've now been working with computer viruses for more than 20 years. During this time I've come to realize that the antivirus industry is quite unique in the way direct competitors help each other. It's not publicly known, but antivirus companies like F-Secure, Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro and others help each other out all the time.

By Mikko Hypponen -
Adobe Muse

First Look: Adobe Muse Beta 1

Adobe has revealed the first public beta of a new WYSIWYG web design tool, code-named Muse, which allows you to build entire sites without worrying about HTML, scripting or other low-level complexities.

The AIR-based application is a little short on features right now, no surprise for a first release. But as we discovered when we took a closer look at Muse, there's more than enough functionality to get a feel for how the program is going to work.

By Mike Williams -
wombat icon 200

Wombat updates service that lets you defensively phish your own employees

Rather than provide security alerts when suspicious messages arrive in employee inboxes, Pennsylvania-based Wombat Security Technologies trains employees by actively trying to phish them.

Tuesday, Wombat announced the second version of its PhishGuru anti-phishing training service now extends to mobile devices including iOS and Android-based devices.

By Tim Conneally -
Thunderbird 200 pix

Thunderbird 6 arrives, but was it too fast?

Mozilla has placed the final release of Thunderbird 6 on its download servers to coincide with the earlier release of Firefox 6. Changes are few and far between in this latest build, with the only noteworthy feature being support for Jump Lists in Windows 7.

Thunderbird 6's release reflects the email program's switch to the same rapid development cycle as its sister product, Firefox. With so few changes being implemented, it's tempting to think the move doesn't make much sense except from the point of view of keeping the version numbers of both products the same.

By Nick Peers -
DropSync

Got Dropbox? And Android Phone? Try Dropsync

When it comes to synchronizing files between computers, there are few better services than Dropbox. This online storage service not only means that it is possible to access your files from any computer with an Internet connection, but desktop software means that it is possible to automatically synchronize files between the various computers you use. While there is a Dropbox app available for the Android platform, it is a little disappointing; enter Dropsync to save the day!

Rather than requiring you to visit the Dropbox website and edit files online or download them manually, Dropsync is a two-way synchronization tool for Android. If you edit a file on your mobile, the changes will be uploaded and reflected in your Dropbox account. Similarly, if you edit a files on your computer, it will first be synchronized to the Dropbox website and then with your device.

By Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson -
CopyTrans

CopyTrans Manager puts you in control of your iPhone or iPod

Love for the iPhone and the rest of the Apple portable device family appears to know no bounds, but as soon as you connect it to a computer the niggles start. While an iPod may be sleek and user friendly, the same can't be said of iTunes. Simply adding a new album or removing a couple of tracks can become a deeply frustrating experience with long sync times and annoying waits. It seems very irritating that you can't simply drag and drop the MP3 files that you want to play into your device.

With CopyTrans Manager, this is precisely what you can do. It's a free component of the larger CopyTrans Suite that provides a wider range of iPod/iPad/iPhone management functions. You have to pay for the additional functions, but the ability to manage tracks on your iPod is free. Even more impressing is that the program enables you to manage multiple devices on the same computer without undue fuss.

By Joe Cassels -
iObit logo

Advanced System Care: Does the first public beta do enough?

IObit has released the first public beta of Advanced SystemCare 5, its comprehensive PC maintenance and optimization suite.

The main addition in this release is ActiveBoost, a technology that aims to automatically improve PC performance by "intelligently managing system resources" in real time. Technical details are sparse so far, but we suspect ActiveBoost is tweaking process priorities and RAM use when it thinks this might be helpful. If that's the case then it can be a useful strategy in some situations, but didn't make any noticeable difference to us.

By Mike Williams -
Google Plus Circles

Real people react to Google's Motorola Mobility acquisition

Some of the best commentary about the pending Moto merger is taking place on Google+. So I've collected some of the more insightful opinions so that you don't have to search the social network for them.

The responses are about as "real people" as the geekfest of commentary going at Google+ today can be. I've randomly pulled reaction from journalists, IT admins, Android enthusiasts and mobile gearheads; surprisingly, or perhaps not because of the social venue, they're enthused. I actually expected more criticism, but maybe I'm in the wrong Plus Circles for that.

By Joe Wilcox -
WIndows 8

Microsoft aims to engage developers with Windows 8 blog

Aiming not to repeat the mistakes of its past, Microsoft pledged Monday to engage the developer community as well as consumers during development of its upcoming Windows 8 operating system. As part of that, the company has launched a new blog called "Building Windows 8."

The company will use that to discuss what technologies its building into the next-generation OS. It mirrors a similar effort undertaken by the Redmond company for Windows 7, following what many call a disastrous rollout of Vista.

By Ed Oswald -
Moto Logo

A history of Motorola: From a warehouse in Chicago to Google's arms

Across its 83 years in business, Motorola has spent all of it focusing on mobile technologies, and nearly 65 years in the cell phone business. You could argue that the company was a pioneer in the sector, possibly the reason why it became so attractive to Google.

We've put together this (somewhat) comprehensive list of Motorola's activities in the sector to give you an idea of just how important of a role the company has played in mobile technology.

By Ed Oswald -
Galaxy Tab 10.1 200 pix

Apple lied to get that injunction against Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1?

What? Is MG Siegler on holiday? TechCrunch's Jordan Crook has a sizzling story about Apple's bullying Samsung in German courts, not exactly the kind of stuff her Mac-loving colleague writes. I almost never re-report from another publication, but, damn, Crook makes sense out of what didn't make sense to me last week.

On August 9, a German court issued a preliminary injunction, banning sale of Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the European Union, with exception of Netherlands. Apple filed the complaint under the EU's "community design" provision enacted in 2002 and 2003, This is not a patent dispute, per se, but one of look and feel -- does one product essentially immitate, or copy, another. That baffled me for two reasons: The tablet form factor has been around for more than a decade and Tab 10.1 is longer and narrower in portrait mode than iPad. They're not the same shape. As soon as you pick up iPad 2 and Tab 10.1 you feel the difference, and I wondered how much that matters with "community design".

By Joe Wilcox -

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