Latest Technology News

The Insider builds of Windows 11 almost always have interesting new features and options to explore, but sometimes the tastiest morsels are hidden from sight as Microsoft is still working on them. The latest release -- Build 25300 -- is a good example, as it includes an experimental version of File Explorer.

This test version of Explorer is based on WASDK (Windows App SDK), and it includes a new image gallery feature that is sure to win itself a lot of fans.

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Not to be outdone by Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg has taken to Instagram to announce the rollout of a paid-for Meta Verified program. While it is already possible to receive a Twitter-style blue tick of verification on Facebook and Instagram, the new subscription service will give users the opportunity to pay for the badge.

Echoing the claims of Musk, Zuckerberg says that "this new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services". With a charge of between $12 and $15 per month, there is obviously a financial benefit for Meta as well.

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Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central holds the key to unlocking efficiency and productivity in the workplace. With improved processes at the forefront of business objectives, Dynamics 365 Business Central is the necessary solution for automating and streamlining operations.

Digitization has taken hold of our day-to-day lives and businesses. The technologies we now have access to allow us to flourish like never before -- when understood and used properly. While this may be overwhelming at times, it should be looked at in a positive light.

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Twitter has received a lot of attention of late, with one of the most recent controversies relating to the decision to charge for access to the Twitter API, all but getting rid of the free tier. Now Microsoft is up to much the same trick, announcing this week huge increases that are coming for developers who want to use the Bing Search APIs.

New pricing for access to Bing Search APIs kicks in at the beginning of May, and the rise is significant. There are various access tiers available, and the cost of some is due to increase tenfold.

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The past twelve months have been tough for a lot of organizations. From inflationary pressures to fears of a global recession, many economists have made pessimistic predictions about the year ahead. As a result, controlling and reducing costs is likely to be the focus for many companies in 2023. 

Yet despite these economic stresses, IT spending has continued to rise. Gartner has estimated businesses spent around $4.5 trillion in 2022, up 3 percent year-on-year. While part of this spend is driven by digital transformation and the adoption of new technologies, a good part comes from unexpected expenses - especially when it comes to cloud where businesses can easily incur heavy costs without realizing it. Research finds that 80 percent of organizations lack awareness of how best to manage cloud computing, leading to overspending of between 20-50 percent. 

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Given we've all been told that it's inevitable that we'll get hacked, or at the least we need to assume that we will, what does this mean for businesses? It's clear that investment in cyber security measures isn't slowing down the attacks, and in 2023 it feels like there's been a significant increase in reported cyberattacks already. And we've only just hit February!

It would also appear that cyber attacks are becoming more sophisticated and technologically advanced. Fundamentally, you can't prevent a member of your team from clicking a phishing link, and the attack surface remains expanded due to the current hybrid working arrangements in place at most companies. So, if we are being told to expect an attack, does this shift the emphasis from prevention and defense, onto preparation and response? How would you recover your business?

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The new year began with a curveball. Normally, when economic troubles occur, high unemployment follows. That’s not the case this time around: there are plenty of jobs that still need filling. This has created a rare talent-constrained recession, leading analysts such as Forrester to encourage IT leaders to maintain employee numbers.

This is especially true of companies that have committed significant resources towards creating a positive employee experience. In doing so, they’ve been able to attract candidates and retain skilled personnel. By taking a step back, a hard-earned reputation is tarnished and a useful recruiting tool diminished. The following takes a look at talent issues in the year ahead accompanied by some tips to overcome them.

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Two-factor authentication (2FA) is an important means of securing accounts, making it significantly harder for hackers to gain unauthorized access. So it is perhaps a little surprising that Twitter has announced that it is locking one of the most popular 2FA methods behind a paywall.

The company has announced that SMS-based two-factor authentication will only be available to paying Twitter Blue subscribers. The change will take effect on March 20, and after this date non-paying Twitter users will be limited to securing their account with either an authentication app or a physical security key.

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Spam in your calendar? It’s not something that most of us think about -- the word brings to mind email and phone calls and even just old-fashioned snail mail. But your online calendar is also a very real target and it may be growing worse. 

It’s actually fairly ingenious; a spammer sends an invite to an event and, even if the email invitation goes to your spam folder, the event still goes to your Google Calendar. When you click on the event in your calendar it contains a malicious link. Even if you click 'decline' it can still take you to possible NSFW content, or worse. Plus, declining will simply cross out the appointment and leave the reminder behind.  

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Core banking technology moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss out…

The reduced cost of fintech, and increased functionality of cloud-based "as a service" models can reduce the number of applications a bank is running by 30 to 40 percent, and the cost of ownership by 15 to 20 percent, when compared to traditional financial services IT infrastructure.

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Five-hundred-and-thirty in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.

Microsoft released an update this week that removed Internet Explorer 11 permanently from most Windows 10 devices. Windows 10 and 11 devices are impacted by a new known issue that affects DirectX.

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While Microsoft would very much prefer that you run Windows 11 on a PC, the company recognizes -- albeit rather reluctantly -- that some people favor Macs. Licensing restrictions have meant that, until now, users have not been permitted to run Windows on Apple Silicon.

Microsoft has published an article that officially permits the use of Parallels Desktop 18 to run Windows 11 on ARM-based Macs. This means that Macs with M1 or M2 chips can be used to run either Windows 11 Pro or Windows 11 Enterprise. There are, however, numerous caveats.

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Another year on the calendar, another guarantee that the technology on which we are so reliant will demonstrate new and largely unanticipated consequences. Perhaps nowhere is this clearer than in the world of cybersecurity. Let's take a brief look at three themes of cybersecurity predictions for 2023.

A is for Autonomy. The automobile industry is the very first thing we think of when we hear "autonomy," and there is no denying the promise of fully automated smart vehicles and how they can improve logistics, personal transport, and last-mile delivery. Through a darker looking glass, while we've seen proofs-of-concept in the past demonstrating unauthorized control of a moving vehicle, look for exploits relating to vehicular data: deliberate obfuscation of real-time geolocation coordinates and tampering of previously recorded data will surface as new areas of mischief for researchers and criminals alike.

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Data science involves analyzing and interpreting large, complex amounts of data and turning it into valuable insight to achieve business goals. Though not exactly a breakthrough field now, it has changed many aspects of how markets conduct business.

In a conversation with Jerry Johnson, founder and president of Marketing Data Science Associates and director of Cascade Strategies, we talk about data science, its applications in marketing, and its future with the emergence of AI.

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Microsoft has released a preview version of the KB5022905 update for Windows 11 which not only fixes a host of bugs, but also adds important new facial recognition functionality.

For now, the update is only available to users running Windows 11 Release Preview, and the KB5022905 update which takes Windows 11 up to build 22000.1639. While there are no security fixes in this update, it addresses a lengthy list of issues.

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