Latest Technology News

When Microsoft announced Windows 11 last week it promised we would see the first builds of the new OS become available for Insiders this week, and true to its word, the first such flight -- Build 22000.51 -- is available now.

You will need to be an Insider in the Dev Channel to install it, but assuming you are, the update will be available to you shortly. This preview comes with the main features you’d expect to see, including the new look, widgets, and a preview of the new Microsoft Store.

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When you’re getting a website off the ground, lots of factors come into consideration -- from the design and functionality, to the content that will populate the site. Hosting is one area that shouldn’t be forgotten about.

Partnering with another company to support your web capabilities can seem like a daunting task. But if you ask the right questions up front and do your research properly, you’ll avoid getting stuck with a service that doesn’t meet your needs. Before signing on the dotted line for any website hosting plan, make sure you take time to consider the following things.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has had a lasting impact on countries around the world and, even with the successful vaccination roll out, regions are still moving in and out of lockdowns. Containment measures have, as you would expect, caused a substantial drop in business activity across Europe, especially in contact-intensive sectors. Economic growth is expected to pick up throughout 2021 as vaccines become more widely distributed. However, communication service providers have seen a significant surge in demand because of the pandemic. Overnight they saw demand spike as organizations moved to a distributed workforce.

With many businesses now committing to a more hybrid working model, communication service providers will continue to experience high demand for the foreseeable future, which presents a unique set of challenges.

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As organizations become global and teams get increasingly distributed, establishing and maintaining workforce productivity becomes crucial to drive business success. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, organizations realized that, in the absence of proper infrastructure and setup, global teams battle several challenges such as poor communication and fragmented collaboration that can deter any organization's growth.

With dispersed resources and remote onboarding of people and teams, getting the correct technology setup and helping the workforce perform optimally becomes extremely challenging.  

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We've all seen the headlines suggesting that AI is racist and sexist. However, many people overlook one important fact -- that AI is simply a tool, incapable of being inherently biased. That’s not to say AI isn’t capable of producing biased outcomes -- as the headlines show, it certainly is. But it can only ever be as biased as the data upon which it relies.

So how can developers and marketers avoid deploying biased AI? Unfortunately, there is no magic one-size-fits-all solution. As with any successful technology deployment within a business, it requires a thorough understanding of the datasets you are working with, and the outcomes AI can produce with said data. The first step is knowing what to look for.

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Architecturally speaking, what’s the difference between configuring SQL Server for high availability (HA) and configuring it for disaster recovery (DR)? The terms HA and DR are so often paired that one might imagine them to be the same -- when in fact they are distinct approaches to mitigating different risks.

Let’s start by distinguishing the risks. Let’s say your mission critical SQL Server infrastructure resides in a datacenter in Orlando, Florida. It doesn’t matter whether it’s your own data center, a co-location facility, or a cloud data center. A category 5 hurricane causes a catastrophic failure of the data center and your critical SQL Server infrastructure goes offline.

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Just 19 percent of US business professionals claim to understand the benefits of 5G, according to a survey by Ciena, carried out in partnership with research firm Dynata.

The main benefit associated with 5G is 'faster access speeds', cited by 61 percent of respondents. By contrast, only six percent of respondents think 'reduced latency' is a major benefit, only 18 percent named 'more reliable connectivity' and only 16 percent recognized 'better wireless coverage' as a major benefit.

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The TCL 10 series of phones are some of my personal favorites. The company managed to break into the smartphone market with devices that were premium despite being very aggressively priced. In other words, TCL proved that even consumers on a budget can have a high-quality handset. Heck, the TCL 10 5G UW in particular was cutting-edge while being priced under $400.

And now, the follow-up to the TCL 10 series is coming to America. Yes, the TCL 20 series of smartphones are on their way to the USA market, and like its predecessors, they too are priced affordably. There is a trio of new smartphones -- TCL 20 Pro 5G, TCL 20S and TCL 20 SE.

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A disconnect between IT teams and the wider business is preventing organizations from adopting new technologies and jeopardizing their long-term response to the pandemic, according to new research from Insight.

Despite the importance of IT to delivering on strategic objectives, 72 percent treat IT as a utility rather than a business enabler, with just 22 percent giving IT a seat on the board. This has direct effects for enterprises as 55 percent are failing to take advantage of new technologies because they aren't listening to IT.

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While there was undoubted excitement at the announcement of Windows 11's impending launch, there was also a great deal of confusion about system requirements. Concern built up around not only Microsoft setting the bar fairly high in terms of CPU generations, making many processors that are far from old essentially obsolete, but also TPM requirements.

Communication about Windows 11's reliance on Trusted Platform Module (TPM) has been poor. Is it TPM 1.2 that's needed, or TPM 2.0? It depends on who you listen to, and which documentations you read -- even official Microsoft documentation. But it turns out that TPM may not be required at all... only in certain circumstances though.

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Apple devices can be literal life-savers. For instance, in an emergency, you can call 911 with an iPhone to summon help. Not to mention, there have been documented cases of Apple Watch detecting undiagnosed medical conditions. People ultimately go to the doctor to follow-up, and as a result, it ends up saving their lives.

As great as Apple devices are, they can also sometimes kill you. Like, seriously, some Apple products can possibly end your life -- if you have certain medical devices, that is, such as a pacemaker. And now, Apple is sharing a full list of its products that can interfere with medical devices and potentially lead to death. This expands upon its previously released list.

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You've probably noticed that there has been an absolute glut of Windows 11 news in recent days. After Microsoft officially announced the upcoming version of its operating system, there has been excitement, analysis, disappointment, leaks, and much more.

And today, Microsoft has delivered some bad news. While Windows 11 is being released later this year, if you're currently running Windows 10, you're going to have to wait until 2022 to get your free upgrade.

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If you bought a computer with Windows 10 pre-installed, the chances are that it came with Windows 10 Home Edition. While this is fine for day-to-day stuff, it does -- fairly obviously -- lacks many of the feature of Windows 10 Pro.

Many people are drawn to the idea of Windows 10 Professional but are put off by one thing. Price. But what about it Windows 10 Pro was significantly cheaper? We have a special offer that means you could save 65 percent off the usual selling price -- and then you can get a free upgrade to Windows 11 later!

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There is huge interest in Windows 11, in particular finding out if a computer can be upgraded to the latest version of Windows when it is released in the coming months. Microsoft has released its own PC Health Check app that reveals whether a computer can run Windows 11, but it is not overly informative -- even though it has been updated to provide more information.

But PC Health Check is not the only tool for checking if you can upgrade to Windows 11 or not. Another option is WhyNotWin11, which helps you to determine if you hardware is up to the task, including checking what TPM version your system has.

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If you're a fan of utilities, you've very probably installed PowerToys for Windows 10. Long an essential software collection for older versions of the operating system, Microsoft gave the beloved tools a reboot for Windows 10 a couple of years ago, and it has gained an enthusiastic following.

And this is not surprising; the utility collection includes some incredible tools, and there's the promise of more great additions in the future. But it's not just us users who think PowerToys is great, the developers behind Windows 11 also appear to be fans. So much so that they decided to steal a few ideas from PowerToys and integrate them into Windows 11.

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