I wish Facebook knew more about me
The other day I was chatting with a friend and she mentioned how Facebook was listening into personal conversations via her phone. It was the only possible explanation, she said, for how it could know she was in the market for a new sofa. Her husband was the only person (other than me) she’d mentioned this to and although she hadn’t yet got around to looking for a sofa online, her Facebook feed was full of ads for upholstered seating. I’ve heard this conspiracy theory before, of course, we all have. If it’s not Facebook listening in, it’s Google. But it made me smile.
When I go into Facebook (or Instagram), which is several times every day, I see stories from my friends and family, interspersed with 'targeted' adverts for products and services that I have no interest in -- such as the advert I saw today for a train company whose trains I’ve never been on because they don’t run anywhere near where I live or travel to. Judging by all the food ads Facebook shows me, it thinks I’m a staunch (and very hungry) vegan. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
ADATA launches insanely fast Premier Extreme SDXC SD 7.0 Express Card
Nowadays, professional photographers with high-end camera equipment are embracing CFexpress storage cards more and more. The problem? Those cards are quite expensive. Not to mention, many photographers can get by without the latest-and-greatest. And so, for many photographers -- amateur and professional alike -- good ol' SD cards are still more than fine.
Thankfully, companies are still putting out new SD cards, and today, ADATA launches its latest. Called "Premier Extreme," this SDXC SD 7.0 Express Card comes in two capacities -- 256GB and 512GB. What's most notable about the card, however, is its insane read and write speeds.
Firefox's address bar has become an ad-stuffed privacy nightmare
Mozilla has just released Firefox 93 and there is a big and controversial change to the address bar. Not content with making helpful suggestions from your browsing history as you type, Firefox Suggest now also includes "relevant suggestions" and "sponsored suggestions" from "trusted partners"; in other words, ads.
There are privacy concerns associated with making these suggestions. Mozilla may insist that it only deal with partners that meet its privacy standards for Firefox, but it still means that whatever is typed into the address bar is sent back to Mozilla and processed in order to deliver ads it hopes you will click on. The good news is that you can disable Firefox Suggest and hide ads in Firefox.
Kodi 19.2 'Matrix' is here -- Download it NOW!
It’s been five months since the Kodi Foundation released Kodi 19.1 'Matrix'. The latest iteration of the popular home theater software brought with it a wealth of fixes and changes.
Now Team Kodi releases version 19.2 with more fixes and improvements.
Why improved digital solutions sit at the heart of a successful office
The pandemic has changed a lot for businesses, whether that’s their customers’ buying behavior or product demands.
One of the biggest challenges for many businesses was the shift to home working. In March 2020, companies who hadn’t already implemented dedicated digital solutions scrabbled to adapt. Digital transformation was accelerated -- McKinsey found that businesses sped up their digitization by three to four years.
Can vaccine passports ensure a safe return to school?
With no true end to the COVID-19 pandemic in sight, there are growing concerns from parents, teachers, and dignitaries alike about how schools can operate safely as the new school year gets into full flow. As vaccination rates increase across the board, educational institutions nationwide are determining whether or not to make it mandatory for students to be vaccinated upon re-entry.
Vaccine passports have become a hot topic of discussion. They are valid pieces of documentation that prove that you have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and other infections. They can be physical copies, such as a paper card. Or, more conveniently, vaccine passports are digital, available through phone apps and other technological means. Some universities and colleges have required that these passports be shown, while several apps have been developed to show these passports. As health officials express concern about COVID spread and variants make their presence felt, can vaccine passports assure students a safe return to school this year?
How firewalls have improved and become part of zero trust cyber defense
The zero-trust model is an enigmatic animal. Sometimes you think you already know and understand it, but you may end up realizing there’s still a lot to learn. This quandary can be exemplified by the use of firewalls to protect an organization’s networks and IT resources.
Traditional firewall software has already ceased to be useful in putting up meaningful security for organizations. The same goes for legacy firewall appliances. However, firewalls have evolved to provide more features and functions that address present-day threats. As network security specialist Ruvi Kitov suggests, "firewalls are not going anywhere." They just evolve and add new features to address new needs.
4 tips for creating a DevOps implementation strategy
By its very design, DevOps is a disruptive technology -- but one that can profoundly and positively impact how businesses manage and deliver software projects. As one of the most complex technologies to implement, DevOps includes multiple phases critical to achieving successful digital transformation. But, when it’s managed correctly, DevOps is the most powerful tool available in modern software development.
With proper guidance, organizations that take the leap and deploy DevOps will become adept with its unique structure and realize its ability to create and deliver results at the speed modern business demands. While there are no shortcuts to implementing DevOps, general recommendations to apply will benefit any business considering its implementation.
Best Windows apps this week
Four-hundred-fifty-nine 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.
Windows 11 has been released this week. Check out Nick's guide on getting Windows 11 right now on your PC, and Wayne's guide on restoring Windows 10, in case you need to go back.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2022 and Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 are unleashed
Adobe has long been a name associated with creativity, but it is also a company whose products are most generally thought of as being professional, with a level of complexity and price tags to match. With its Elements range, however, Adobe brings the essential components of its flagship products to a wider market in easier-to-use, more affordable tools.
Now the company has launched the 2022 editions of the range, furnishing each with important and powerful new features that will enable you to take your creativity to the next level. For photo editing and image-based creations, there is Adobe Photoshop Elements 2022; for video-based work there is Adobe Premiere Elements 2022.
Why businesses need to take vulnerability and risk management seriously [Q&A]
As businesses rely more on the cloud and virtual infrastructure, so the potential for both configuration errors and cyberattacks increases.
The pandemic has only made the problem worse and in many cases led to a loosening of security policy. What do organizations need to do to address the issue and protect their systems? We spoke to Tal Morgenstern, Vulcan Cyber CPO and co-founder, to find out.
Speed up Windows 11 by disabling Virtualization-Based Security (VBS)
The roll-out of Windows 11 is now in full swing, and various problems are starting to emerge. There is a list of known issues that Microsoft acknowledges, but there have also been reports of problems with memory usage, performance issues with AMD processors, and reduced gaming performance.
Two of Windows 11's security features -- namely Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) and Hypervisor-Protected Code Integrity (HVCI) security -- have been blamed for some of the performance issues. Here's how to disable VBS so you can see if you can earn yourself a speed boost..
Microsoft launches 20th Anniversary Special Edition Xbox Wireless Controller
Want to feel really old? The original Xbox was released nearly 20 years ago! Yes, way back on November 15 of 2001, Microsoft officially joined the console wars, competing with companies like Sony, Nintendo, and Sega. While the Xbox consoles have not been a huge success in Asia, they are wildly popular in the USA. Many people doubted Microsoft could succeed with its gaming consoles, but the Windows 11-maker is still going strong two decades later.
To celebrate the upcoming anniversary of the Xbox brand, Microsoft is launching a very special product that is sure to be a hot commodity this Christmas shopping season -- the 20th Anniversary Special Edition Xbox Wireless Controller. This beautiful controller mixes nostalgic designs with modern hardware to create something truly special.
Workforce optimization in a new world of worker mobility
A recent BBC article highlighted the tidal surge of workers looking for new jobs in the post-pandemic world. Dubbed "The Great Resignation", the data paints a startling picture of people "leaving the workforce or switching jobs in droves". A similar survey by Microsoft of more than 30,000 workers showed 41 percent were considering quitting or changing professions within twelve months. Meanwhile yet another study of British and Irish employees showed 38 percent planning to quit in the next six months to a year.
These alarming figures could make any employer break into a sweat, unless they were in the recruitment business. However, in sectors that struggle with high staff turnover even in normal times, the projected increase in labour mobility presents an existential threat. In the contact center industry, for example, where employee turnover is usually around 26 percent annually -- significantly higher than the national average of 10-15 percent -- mapping on the new churn multiplier might even mean total workforce loss.
The week of tech outages and leaks
History will treat Monday and Tuesday as days the tech world would love to forget.
Monday was Black Monday for those who rely on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. All of these Facebook-owned properties went down for around eight hours, leaving a lot of people confused and services such as Twitter booming with the extra traffic. This was a critical outage that even affected Facebook employees and their internal systems, making it impossible for many people at Facebook to use anything they needed to get their jobs done.
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