Latest Technology News

Speculation about the possibility of Amazon starting to accept Bitcoin as a method of payment started to circulate after the company posted a job listing for a Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead.

This led to a surge in the cryptocurrency, with the trading heading toward $40,000 in an impressive 20 percent jump over the weekend. In addition to the job posting, an insider has been quoted as saying that not only is Amazon working toward accepting Bitcoin by the end of 2021, but it is also considering launching its own token.

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Battlefield 2042 is one of the most highly anticipated video games, and it is due out later this year. It is currently scheduled for an October 22 release, but as we all know, these dates can be pushed back due to unforeseen issues. With that said, I am pretty confident Electronic Arts will meet this deadline, and Battlefield 2042 will prove to be one of the hottest Christmas gifts this year.

If you want to ensure you get your copy of Battlefield 2042 and that your PC's storage can load it quickly, Western Digital has a special bundle you must check out. You see, the company has launched a special Battlefield 2042 variant of its WD_Black SN750 SE NVMe SSD. Not only does it comes with a redeemable download code for the game, but it is emblazoned with really cool Battlefield 2042 branding.

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There have been a lot of printing-related problems with Windows 10 in the last couple of weeks, but if you were hoping that the situation might improve, you're going to be disappointed.

Microsoft has issued a warning that the July security updates released by the company can lead to printing and scanning issues. The problem affects not only Windows 10, but also Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows Server.

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As with any big-name software that is yet to be officially released, there is not only great enthusiasm about Windows 11, but also a rush to get hold of it by any means possible. While there are formal channels through which to obtain Windows 11 legitimately in order to test it out, scammers are taking advantage of the excitement surrounding the new operating system.

Security firm Kaspersky has issued a warning for anyone thinking about downloading Windows 11. The company urges caution lest users find their system infected with malware and adware, particularly in the light of a 1.75GB file that is currentlyu in circulation called 86307_windows 11 build 21996.1 x64 + activator.exe.

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Google has announced a significant upgrade to it search engine that means you will now be better informed about the reasons particular results are displayed to you.

Much of the time it is apparent why a certain page has been included in results, but this is not always the case. It is with this in mind that Google is updating the About This Result panel in search results to be more informative.

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Debian 11 is a long time coming now, with users of the Linux-based operating system anxiously awaiting the upcoming release. Code-named "Bullseye," it has been suspected to have 2021 availability, but as of today, we now know the specific date.

You see, the Debian developers are planning to release version 11 on August 14 of this year. In other words, it is less than a month away! This year, you can celebrate the August 14 birthdays of celebrities Mila Kunis, Steve Martin, and Magic Johnson by downloading and installing the wildly popular Linux distribution.

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A few days ago, we shared some Windows 11 news that upset a few people. At Microsoft Inspire, it was announced that Windows 11 would ship with dark mode activated by default.

This was not a case of rumor or speculation, this was an announcement made at an official Microsoft event by a Microsoft employee. But now it transpires that the statement about dark mode by default was not correct. Microsoft has been in touch with BetaNews to clarify.

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In a recently published transparency report, Twitter has revealed figures that show a disappointing adoption of 2FA (two-factor authentication) by users.

While the number of users choosing to secure their account with 2FA is on the increase, it "remains relatively low", says Twitter. And we are talking low numbers here -- a mere 2.3 percent of the Twitter userbase is concerned enough about security to enable two-factor authentication.

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As enterprise boundaries have become more flexible, older authentication models of security have begun to look increasingly outmoded.

A new survey of 150 IT security decision makers carried out by ThycoticCentrify finds that 71 percent of contributors agree that a distributed workforce makes a zero trust security strategy even more critical.

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The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics are shaping up to be one of the most unusual in Olympic history for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that public spectators will not be allowed at any of the events (yeah, and the fact that the 2020 Olympics are happening in 2021).

And even though this won't be the first time that Olympics content will be available in VR, it is a particularly relevant way to experience the 17 days of international matchups this year -- if you still have a standard cable subscription.

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Four-hundred-forty-eight 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 revealed this week that its DirectStorage API is coming to Windows 10 as well (not just Windows 11 as originally announced). The API improves game loading times on NVMe storage devices significantly.

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The development team behind Audacity learned the hard way that people do not take kindly to the introduction of telemetry, particularly when communication is poor.

Over the last few months, there has been a very public debacle involving Audacity's proposed changes to its privacy policy. It resulted in the software being branded "possible spyware" and led to explanations, apologies and backtracking. Now the team behind the open source audio editor has published its updated privacy policy along with a lengthy explanation about various elements of it and an apology for the "significant lapse in communication".

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Local councils have faced the same pressure as commercial businesses to have people working at home during the pandemic. But a new report shows attacks on UK councils' remote workers rose by 213 percent from March 2020 compared to the previous year.

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made by technology solutions provider Insight, show that on average councils switched 74 percent of their employees -- more than double the UK average -- to remote working during the pandemic.

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Earlier in the week, Microsoft rolled out the first preview for Teams in Windows 11. This took the form of new Chat flyout from taskbar, as well as a Teams desktop experience designed to make the best use of the upcoming OS.

This addition is only available to some Windows Insiders, for now, but Microsoft has now released a new Windows 11 build for Insiders in the Dev Channel that comes with a number of visual improvements.

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In many regards, the move from Windows 10 to Windows 11 is not a massive one. While there are undeniably a lot of changes and additions -- both visible and under the hood -- the operating system still looks, feels and functions much as it has done for years.

But while it may seem that there's not much to learn, there are still elements of friction that gripe in Windows 11. The redesigned context menu is a good case in point, dividing users into those who love it and those who hate it. And then there is the Start menu. Of course, there is a new look here, but that's not the problem.

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