Latest Technology News

CES starts today, and as you might expect from a virtual event taking place in the middle of a pandemic, much of the new hardware being launched there is aimed at commercial and education users working from home.

Case in point is Microsoft’s new Surface Pro 7+ for Business, which is an updated version of the company’s Surface Pro 7 2-in-1 tablet PC with improved internals, better battery life, and optional 4G LTE Advanced for remote working.

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The appetite for councils to become digitally-led and transformative in their IT is growing, and this growth picked up a lot of speed last year due to the challenges presented by Covid. A sudden shift to working from home, combined with an urgent need for councils to continue the same level of service provision remotely, has increased the pressure on IT support teams within those councils.

This general mood is reflected in statistics, too. Research conducted by YouGov on behalf of Cantium has found that 70 percent of IT professionals in the public sector reported an increase in IT support tickets and requests since the tectonic shift in working life arrived in March of 2020.

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Parler, the social platform launched in 2018 that brands itself as a 'free speech network' has gone offline following a decision by AWS to ban the service from its servers.

This follows hard on the heels of Twitter's decision to impose a life ban on Donald Trump. As we reported last year Parler had become a popular destination for those of a more right-wing persuasion worried about Twitter's censorship policies.

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How do you take an idea and turn it into a successful product? It’s easier said than done. Having a great idea is just one small step. The "productizing" of that idea requires many more steps to execute. According to the laws of market failure, most new products will fail even if they are competently executed. Good ideas typically fail because they can’t cross the barrier between innovation and production.

Bringing an idea to fruition and then getting it to market is a significant undertaking with many challenges and potential pitfalls along the way. And that’s to say nothing of the competition you will encounter, but there are some basic steps to take that will help position you for success.

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Language AI is one of the most challenging areas of artificial intelligence, one where mainstream AI is far from coming near human-level performance, because it needs world knowledge to be solved (AI complete).

The shortcomings of modern machine learning approaches can be explained by the low efficiency of artificial neural networks. Because natural evolution is mainly driven by efficiency, I developed a strong interest for biologically inspired natural language understanding, hence the following book recommendations.

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Recently, a report conducted by PFL and Demand Metric -- which surveyed nearly 600 marketing professionals across a variety of different industries -- revealed data accuracy, understanding audience needs, and branding as the three most important factors to multichannel marketing campaign success.

Data is critical for marketers conducting multichannel marketing campaigns because it’s used to personalized messages and reaching prospects at the right moment in their customer journey. When marketers rely on and analyze data within multichannel marketing initiatives and campaigns, they can measure and improve strategies in real-time, allowing for better, more segmented outreach. Without data to inform campaigns, marketers might as well write a message on a paper airplane and throw it out the window.

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Microsoft Teams has been one of the winners of the pandemic, with usage in December 2020 estimated at 115 million daily users, growing from 32 million in early March.

But this success has also made Teams a tempting target for hackers. Cloud security specialist Avanan has released a new report, based on analysis of nearly 200 enterprise customers, looking at the risks of using teams and how to combat them.

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It's a new year (thank goodness), and for 2021, I am happy to say we already have a new version of Linux Mint. Yes, folks, you can now download Linux Mint 20.1. Called "Ulyssa," it is available with your choice of three desktop environments -- Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce.

Linux Mint 20.1 is based on the rock-solid Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Linux kernel 5.4. It will be supported until 2025 and comes with an all-new unified filesystem layout. For the desktop environments, Xfce is at version 4.14, MATE is at 1.24, and Cinnamon is 4.6.

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A new survey finds that 85 percent of IT decision makers are planning to up their budgets for 2021, with 65 percent of companies indicating that cloud migration is a top priority.

The study by automated cloud migration company Next Pathway shows most companies are in the early stages of moving to the cloud and 94 percent say application migrations will be performed over multiple months or years.

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

It is still possible to upgrade earlier versions of Windows -- Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 to be precise -- for free to Windows 10.

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Earlier today, we told you about the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2. This laptop is notable for being much more affordable than its predecessor while retaining its elegance. With that said, Samsung is not the only company making premium Chromebooks. In fact, as the Chromebook market matures, more and more manufactures are putting increased focus on their designs.

Acer is a company that has long supported the Chromebook community, offering many great machines over the years. Today, the company unveils the Chromebook Spin 514 and it is very intriguing. While the laptop appears to be nothing special on the outside, it is the internals that are exciting. You see, the Spin 514 is powered by AMD Ryzen APUs which feature Radeon graphics

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Chromebooks are great laptops, and I recommend them all the time. Long gone are the days where a Windows computer was necessary. Quite frankly, most homes would be better served by a computer running the Linux-based Chrome OS than any Microsoft operating system. While power users and gamers may want to stick with Windows (for now), the average user should without question buy a Chromebook instead.

Best of all, Chromebooks are no longer just underpowered laptops -- many have great specifications and elegant designs. For instance, last year, Samsung launched the beautiful Galaxy Chromebook. Today, the company unveils the sequel, and it is quite impressive. Called "Galaxy Chromebook 2," the convertible laptop has a QLED touch display with FHD resolution. Samsung promises an enhanced audio experience too.

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Last year, Apple released new Mac computers powered by the company's own M1 processors. Not only are there new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops, but a new Mac mini desktop too. I am fascinated by the new Apple Silicon processors, so last week, I bought my very own Mac mini. Guess what? It is a phenomenal computer that I love very much so far.

The problem with the Mac mini, however, is it doesn't come with a keyboard or mouse. This is by design, as Apple hopes Windows users will replace their current desktops with the little Mac -- simply reusing existing keyboards, mice, and monitors. Unfortunately, a Windows keyboard is not ideal for a Mac. Will it work? Yes, but it doesn't have the exact same keys, such as "COMMAND." And so, Mac mini buyers would be wise to buy a Mac keyboard.

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With many people working from home and relying on the internet more than ever to run their personal lives, there's greater focus on the quality of online experience.

In the run up to next week’s virtual CES, Lenovo has announced a range of new devices aimed at providing better and more personalized connectivity. Among the highlights is a 5G-enabled laptop for those with out access to fast home broadband.

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Windows Insiders who install the latest build of Windows 10 are being treated to a powerful new option in WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) -- the ability to run Linux commands when a distro starts up.

The new feature can be used to run things such as environment configuration scripts and more. This is an extremely versatile option that will be welcomed by power users, as well as anyone interested in taking their usage of Windows Subsystem for Linux to the next level.

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