Latest Technology News

Is LibreOffice better than Microsoft Office? No, and it's not even close. Say what you want about Microsoft, but Office is in a league of its own -- the best productivity software on the market.

Why would anyone not use Microsoft Office? Well, for one, it costs money -- potentially hundreds of dollars. Secondly, it is not available on all operating systems. Linux users, for instance, simply can't use Microsoft Office (except the web version). Not to mention, Microsoft Office is closed-source software, and some folks only want to use open source options.

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I’ve switched between owning an iPhone and various Android handsets over the years, but for me iOS remains easily the best mobile operating system (and iPhone 12 Pro the best smartphone). It would take something very special to tempt me back to Android.

Something like this stylish vision of Android 12.

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With the pandemic forcing more people to work from home, businesses in the UK -- particularly smaller ones -- may not have considered the fact that their employees' home networks now fall under the scope of regulatory and certification requirements.

According to a report from support solutions company A&O IT Group, if an individual works from home more than half of their time, their network must be compliant with current regulations.

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Banks and other financial services institutions have been moving more and more towards digital in order to streamline processes and improve customer service.

The pandemic has accelerated this process but has also brought a rise in cyberattacks. Regulators have also begun to take more notice of security practices surrounding accounts. We spoke to Michael Magrath, director, global regulations and standards, at specialist in anti-fraud and digital identity solutions for financial institutions OneSpan, to discover more.

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Windows 7 may be rather long in the tooth, but there are still millions of people using it globally. And just because the operating system has been around for years, that does not mean all of the bugs and security issues have been ironed out; far from it, in fact.

Earlier this month a security researcher discovered a local privilege escalation vulnerability in both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. There's no indication that Microsoft will issue a patch even for organizations the paid for extended support, but the vast majority of Windows 7 users will be left vulnerable. Or at least that would be case if it wasn't for 0patch stepping up to the plate and making a micropatch available for free.

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The increasing number of news headlines that mention data piracy, theft and database hacking makes it clear that businesses need to treat data as a valuable asset. This is especially true of businesses with teams that work remotely, as these set-ups usually have fewer security protocols.

Most remote workers are working from their homes, and unless those team members are conscious of cybersecurity, they’re not likely to have intrusion detection systems and firewalls on their personal networks.

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Earlier this month, we took a look at how COVID-19 is impacting the technology job market, with a focus on precarious tech positions. In this piece, we want to explore a related question: if you are a tech worker who has recently been laid off or lost your job, which steps can you take right now to stay competitive in a tight job market?

Here are three tips for tech workers seeking jobs who want to set themselves apart from the pack.

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Like many things happening in 2020, Coronavirus means that Thanksgiving is going to be very different to previous years. While friends and family would normally gather together, COVID means that more of this year's celebrations will be held remotely.

And with this in mind, Zoom is here to help. Over the Thanksgiving period, the company is lifting its 40-minute limit on calls and will let everyone -- all over the world -- make calls of unlimited length for free.

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Security researchers from Palo Alto Networks have discovered that apps produced by Chinese firm Baidu have been leaking sensitive data about users.

Baidu Search Box and Baidu Maps -- which have been downloaded more than six millions times in the US alone -- were found to be sending details such as MAC addresses, phone models, IMSI and IMEI to a server in China. The researchers warned Google about the activity of the Android apps which were then removed from the Play Store.

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When Apple launched its new MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac Mini systems, there was much excitement about the performance boost the M1 chips are bringing to the table.

People who have been running Windows and Windows apps on Macs, however, are less happy due to the lack of support for Boot Camp, and the lack of M1-ready virtualization software from the likes of Parallels. But what about the prospect of Linux on M1 Macs?

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While the holiday season is a peak time for retailers, it also represents an opportunity for cybercriminals. This is particularly true of 2020 when more people than ever are likely to be shopping online.

Research from Comparitech analyzed around 30 million websites registered this month to identify efforts by cybercriminals to trick consumers looking for holiday shopping deals.

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TCL is on a come-up in a big way. The company's televisions are wildly popular thanks to their low prices and excellent features, and its smartphones are disrupting the industry. For instance, the wonderful TCL 10 5G UW can be had for a song -- a mere $120 when you sign up for a Verizon Unlimited plan. That's definitely the best early Black Friday deal I have seen.

TCL is not only about smartphones and televisions, however. For instance, the company makes tablets too. Today, it launches new wireless earbuds that rival Apple AirPods at a fraction of the price. Called "MOVEAUDIO S150," these Bluetooth 5.0 earbuds are chock-full of cool features -- they are waterproof, have touch controls, and the charging case uses USB-C.

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The blue tick of verification is something a huge number of Twitter users crave. Sadly for those who are desperate for validation, the company placed a paused of verifying accounts quite some time ago. But this is about to change.

2020 has been a terrible year for many people for numerous reasons, but for those seeking Twitter verification, things could be about to improve. The company has announced that its verification program is about to start up again. So... how do you get verified on Twitter?

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SAP remains one of the most commonly used enterprise resource planning tools and many businesses are looking to migrate their SAP to the cloud from on-premise systems. But this is being held back by a shortage of skills.

New research from Ensono shows just four percent of UK IT leaders say they have completed their SAP to public cloud migration strategy. 80 percent of those who haven't completed projects say they have postponed or canceled their migration of SAP applications to the public cloud due to the SAP skills shortage and 74 percent have taken a similar decision due to a lack of public cloud skills.

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A good deal of software development now relies on open source images, but it can be hard for businesses to know if they're introducing security flaws by using them.

Canonical -- the company behind Ubuntu Linux -- is addressing this by publishing the LTS (Long Term Support) Docker Image Portfolio, a curated set of secure container application images, on Docker Hub.

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