Latest Technology News

Development of Mageia 8 seems to be moving along nicely, which is great news for users of that Linux-based operating system. Back in August, we shared that the first Beta of the distribution was available for testing, and now today, the second Beta arrives. As with the first Beta, the second is available with your choice of three desktop environments --  KDE Plasma, GNOME, and Xfce.

"We are happy to announce the release of Mageia 8 Beta 2. After a long time since the beta 1, we look forward to hearing your feedback and thoughts so that we can continue to get Mageia 8 ready for release. As we said in a previous post, a lot of work had to be done for the base system upgrade, java, kernel, and the graphical stack. These upgrades are now in a state that allows for the Beta 2 ISOs to be built and tested," explains The Mageia Development Team.

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MSI is a company popular for many of its products, but it is probably best known for its excellent motherboards. Many PC builders choose that company's boards when building a new gaming computer. Of course, MSI makes other great products, such as desktops, laptops, and more.

Today, MSI launches its latest monitor, and gamers should take notice. Called "MAG274QRF-QD," this 27-inch display (2560 x 1440 resolution) features Quantum Dot technology and NVIDIA G-Sync. Not to mention, it looks absolutely gorgeous -- it would look wonderful next to a gaming PC.

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It's a sad fact of life that the lightning-fast computer you bought recently will slow down. But the fact that things are feeling more sluggish than they used to does not mean that you need to rush out and buy a new computer, or even upgrade your hardware -- a little software-driven optimization may be all you need.

With the newly launched BoostSpeed 12 and Defrag 10, you have everything you need to give your computer the injection of speed it needs. Both have a great range of new features and options that will prove tempting to existing users and new ones alike.

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Four-hundred-and-sixteen 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.

Windows 10 version 1903 reached end of support this week.

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There's a battle playing out in the enterprise open source arena right now, but it's one you probably haven't heard about.

It's a clash between pure open source and commercialized open source (or 'open core') versions. While this may be below the radar for anyone not directly involved it has important long-term implications for the industry.

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From now, Windows 10 Insiders on the Dev Channel currently have the choice of installing preview builds from the FE_RELEASE or RS_PRERELEASE branches. By default, Insiders will get flights like new Build 20277 from the FE_RELEASE branch, but you can switch to RS_PRERELEASE if you’re feeling more adventurous.

To get the alternative download, Build 21277, you will have to actively choose to download it via Windows Update. Be warned though, once you’ve switched to RS_PRERELEASE you won’t be able to download FE_RELEASE builds any more.

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We're used to Microsoft rolling out a new Windows 10 Dev Channel build on a weekly basis, but this time around it has something different for us -- two Dev Channel builds, from different branches. It’s like a choose your own adventure.

The first of the new flights, Build 20277, comes from the usual FE_RELEASE branch and sports a handful of fixes and known issues.

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The consumer Internet of Things (IoT) has exploded into the connected world, making domestic life richer, easier and more entertaining. Consumer IoT comprises a set of connected devices that have a discrete function, enabled or supplemented by a data-gathering capability through on-board sensors. In any home or office environment an individual may come into contact with 'smart' appliances or devices such as coffee machines, cameras, heating systems, locks, lights, health trackers, refrigerators and TV’s, to name a few.

Criticism of IoT security, or lack-thereof, has highlighted serious deficiencies in both design and implementation of IoT devices. Unfortunately, consumers are critically dependent on device manufacturers for the security of their devices. With a rushed and greater rate of adoption, a number of risks have been introduced, attracting close attention from threat actors aiming to steal valuable information and disrupt services. However, all hope is not lost -- at a consumer level, there are still a few basic techniques that can be used to protect IoT devices from attacks.

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As the number of people working remotely increases, organizations are relying more heavily on IT to manage day-to-day activities. This new demand placed on IT infrastructure, especially cloud technologies, brings with it a change. Instead of building a budget in the background, IT professionals need to evaluate how information is going to be consumed by the organization going forward.

In light of the current climate, business priorities are changing. To build a budget that’s agile and can react to changes in service consumption, it’s up to IT professionals to work with the wider organization to really understand what’s important going forward. Many organizations are starting to look to cloud-based technologies as a way to mobilize their workforce in the long term. This means as users continue to work remotely, they will consume more bandwidth and data at an increasingly exponential rate. This increase in consumption has a direct impact on the IT department and subsequently the budget.  

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In response to the economic impact of COVID-19 companies are turning to their investments in AI to deliver both short-term cost-cutting and long-term technology innovation to drive revenue and efficiency.

A report from ML operations and management software specialist Algorithmia finds that 83 percent of organizations have increased their budgets for AI/ML and that the average number of data scientists employed has increased 76 percent year-on-year.

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There are likely to be around 31 billion IoT devices by the end of this year and we already know that they can be vulnerable to attacks.

Israeli company Karamba Security is launching its XGuard Monitor platform aimed at managing the security of large numbers of IoT devices.

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A new report from hybrid infrastructure solutions provider INAP shows that 54 percent of tech leaders say the pandemic has motivated their organization to move applications and workloads off-premise.

The survey of 500 IT infrastructure managers and senior technology leaders reveals that 53 percent say that their organizations are migrating to colocation and hyperscale public cloud environments, with 50 percent also turning to hosted private cloud solutions.

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As always, spammers and cybercriminals seek to take advantage of the peak online shopping season covering Black Friday and the Christmas holidays.

The Bitdefender Antispam Lab has identified a series of campaigns impersonating online banking and financial organizations. In October six in 10 emails (58.84 percent) relating to the banking industry were fraudulent.

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With more people shopping online than ever before, 78 percent of cybersecurity professionals say they expect to see an increase in DNS-related security threats over the next month.

This is according to a new report from information services and technology company Neustar's International Security Council which also finds that 59 percent have altered their DNS security methods in the run up to the holiday season.

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Having released the experimental PowerToys v0.28 earlier this week complete with the video conference mute feature, Microsoft has now released an update to the stable version of its Windows 10 utility collection.

We were not expecting to see an update to PowerToys v0.27 just yet, but Microsoft has produced one out of the blue. The company says it deemed the release "important" as it addresses a number of issues.

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