Latest Technology News

Analysis of over 557 million broadband speed tests worldwide has revealed that the UK now sits in 47th place, with an average speed of 37.82Mbps.

The research from Cable.co.uk puts the UK ahead of 174 countries, but behind 46 others, coming in behind 21 Western European countries. This puts the UK among the slowest in the region when it comes to average broadband speed, losing 13 places since the measurements were taken last year.

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The popular Ubuntu Linux gets two new versions a year, with one coming in April, and the other in October. Its version numbering scheme is based on year (YY), a period, and the month (MM). For instance, the most recent stable version was released this past April and it is numbered as 20.04. In addition, Canonical (the operating system's owner) assigns names -- sequentially and alphabetically. The alphanumeric code name is always based on two words starting with the same sequential letter -- an adjective followed by an animal name. The aforementioned 20.04 is named "Focal Fossa."

Obviously, the next version of Ubuntu will be numbered 20.10, and it will be given a two-word code name based on the letter "G." This time, the operating system will be called "Groovy Gorilla." Thankfully, development of the operating system seems to be on schedule, as it recently received a feature freeze. What does this mean? Essentially, moving forward, Ubuntu 20.10 should only receive bug fixes -- no more features will be introduced unless by exception. It also signals that the upcoming Beta release should be released on schedule as expected.

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The launch of the original Galaxy Fold, Samsung’s revolutionary folding smartphone, was nothing short of a disaster with the company being forced to postpone things after models sent out to reviewers were found to be "problematic" and in need of design improvements. Pre-orders in the US even had to be cancelled, which didn’t go down at all well.

Samsung eventually fixed the problems and released the Fold, although problems remained. Today the South Korean tech giant announces a completely re-engineered successor, the Galaxy Z Fold2.

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As of September 1st, all publicly trusted TLS certificates must have a lifespan of 398 days or less -- roughly half the previous life.

According to security experts from Venafi, a provider of machine identity management, this latest change is an indication that machine identity lifetimes will continue to shrink.

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More than half of respondents to a new survey are either accelerating their cloud adoption timeline or moving forward as planned during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this number goes up to 59 percent among respondents considering VMware Cloud on AWS.

The study from multi-cloud data service provider Faction finds that among those organizations where COVID-19 has paused or canceled cloud adoption, the top factors cited are budget pressures (75 percent) along with staffing shortages and macro-economic uncertainty (each named by 41 percent of respondents).

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In yet another example of cybercriminals exploiting world events, the frequency of phishing threats has risen considerably since the start of the pandemic, with companies experiencing an average of 1,185 attacks every month.

New research from GreatHorn reveals that more than half (53 percent) of over 300 IT professionals surveyed by Cybersecurity Insiders say they had witnessed an increase in phishing activity since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Google has released Google Web Designer 9.0, the third major update of its HTML-5 content-producing tool for Windows, Mac, and Linux in just over a year. The tool is particularly popular among web advertisers thanks to its user-friendly WYSIWYG user interface and time-saving tools such as syntax highlighting and code auto-completion.

Version 9.0 introduces a host of useful new tools, including an eyedropper for easy color picking, several image-processing tools, support for masking, and the ability to set up custom keyboard shortcuts.

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Microsoft is blocking the installation of Windows 10 version 2004 on laptops with LTE modems. The company is investigating why the May 2020 Update is causing connectivity problems for some systems with such modems.

Microsoft has acknowledged that "certain WWAN LTE modems might not be able to connect after waking from sleep" and has implemented a block on the update to prevent more people from suffering connectivity issues. The company has also issued advice for anyone who has already installed Windows 10 version 2004.

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Linux owns the smartphone market thanks to Android. While some think Apple's iOS is superior, and maybe it is, that is merely opinion. The fact is, Android has a much larger market share -- it is undeniably more popular. And yet, some Linux enthusiasts are not satisfied with that. Some of these people feel Android is not "true" Linux, but that is just stupidity. The truth is, Android uses the open source kernel, so it is Linux -- end of discussion.

But OK, if you are a Linux fan but an Android detractor, there are some other options, such as the Purism Librem 5 and Pine64 PinePhone. Speaking of the latter, that phone is offered in "Community Edition" variants, and very soon, there will be an official Manjaro version! Yes, you will be able to buy a PinePhone with Manjaro Linux pre-installed on it. There are two variants -- one has 2GB RAM and 16GB of storage for $149, and the other has 3GB memory and double the storage for only $50 more. Other specs can be found here.

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DevOps has boosted the speed of development, but this very advantage can lead to problems and errors making their way through to production without being spotted.

California-based DeepFactor is launching a new Continuous Pre-Production Monitoring platform that combines security, performance and behavior monitoring into one solution that is completely integrated into the DevOps pipeline.

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Email has become the preferred communication medium for both businesses and individuals. But useful though it is it can be incredibly frustrating as our inboxes are clogged with spam, advertising and other unwanted material.

Step forward Edison Software, the company behind the Edison Mail app, which is launching its new OnMail service in public beta. Designed to help users control their mail, OnMail lets you choose what can enter your inbox, what mail address reflects your identity, and how your mailbox is structured. Anti-tracking technology is built in to stop invasive ad targeting efforts too.

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Many of the updates and patches Microsoft releases for Windows 10 prove to be unpopular, usually because of the new problems they can introduce. But with the KB4023057 update, people have another reason to consider avoiding installing it.

KB4023057 has been pushed out by Microsoft several times before, and the company has just started to push it again. The aim of the patch is to address issues that have been preventing some people from upgrading to newer versions of Windows 10, and also override any blocks that users have put in place to stop feature updates from being installed. The problem is that there are many people with good reason to stick with an older build of Windows 10, but KB4023057 is ready to ride roughshod over such plans.

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DevSecOps, the integration of security into DevOps processes, is in increasingly common use. Logging and log management play a critical role in helping to put DevSecOps principles into practice by ensuring that developers, IT operations staff, and security teams have the visibility and communication pipelines they need to prioritize security at all stages of the DevOps delivery cycle.

We spoke to Ryan Staatz, systems architect and head of DevOps at LogDNA to discuss how log management fits in the toolchain of technology and practices that create a successful DevSecOps initiative.

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Some people think you need expensive hardware to have fun playing video games, but the truth is, you don't. Believe it or not, there are plenty of free games that can run well on a fairly meager PC. No, I am not just talking about emulating classic video games (piracy is bad, mmkay). Actually, there are some really fun PC games that you can legally download at no charge.

One such popular game is SuperTuxKart. This open source Mario Kart clone is totally FREE on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It can even be had on Android too. Rather than use Nintendo mascots, the racers in SuperTuxKart are based on open source projects -- it is quite cute. The game even has network support these days, so you can have a multiplayer experience over the internet. SuperTuxKart recently reached version 1.2, and the new version is chock full of improvements. The developers are also sharing their plans for the future of the game.

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Contact tracing is being touted as the best way to keep the novel coronavirus under control and avoid yet another country-wide shutdown, at least until a vaccine can be developed. The process has many benefits and was seen as integral to the success in staunching the spread of COVID-19 in a few different cities in Asia. However, there are quite a few hurdles to overcome in the process of implementing successful contact tracing efforts in the United States.

For starters, manual contact tracing requires a large workforce as well as time and money. Apps, on the other hand, can be implemented quickly and for a relatively low cost.This option seems simple and unproblematic enough at first glance but, upon further inspection, poses a threat to the privacy of any and all users. Despite their promise of aiding in the eradication of COVID-19, If left unregulated, contact tracing apps put your personal information at risk and open up potential abuses of that information for decades to come.

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