Latest Technology News

Other World Computing (also known as OWC) is a very Apple-centric company. Its products are typically designed for Mac computers, such as the iMac, Mac Pro, and MacBook to name a few. Hell, the company's website is MacSales.com -- what does that tell you? Despite primarily focusing on Apple products, its offerings aren't exclusive to Mac. Many of its storage, memory, and docking products are compatible with Windows and Linux computers too.

OWC's latest storage product is sure to be cross-platform, as it is merely a solid state drive. The SSD is a very fast M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe variant, but that isn't what makes it so exciting. Actually, it is the capacity -- an insane 4TB! And yes, as you can expect, the 4TB Aura P12 M.2 NVMe SSD (S3DN3P2T40) is quite expensive.

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Ubuntu 20.04 was released this past Friday, and Linux fans around the world were understandably excited. However, "when it rains, it pours," as they say, because not only is Fedora 32 right around the corner, but today, yet another top-tier distribution gets a new release. This time, it is the Arch Linux-based Manjaro 20, which is code-named "Lysia."

The newest version of the wildly popular operating system can be had with your choice of three desktop environments -- Xfce, GNOME, and KDE Plasma. All three are great, but Xfce is the default for Manjaro. In version 20 of the OS, Xfce gets bumped up to 4.14. Manjaro 20 "Lysis" also gets Linux kernel 5.6 and a new ZFS installation option in Architect. Pamac 9.4 package manager gets support for both flatpaks and snaps by default -- very cool.

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Microsoft is no stranger to hitting its customers with ads for its products and services, and it seems that the company is so keen that people make the switch to the new Chromium-based version of Edge that it is now bombarding Outlook.com users with banner ads.

The ads are targeting people who visit the web-based version of Outlook using Google Chrome, and they see Microsoft extolling the speed and performance of its most recent web browser.

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While Zoom has been taking numerous steps to address various security and privacy concerns that have arisen in recent weeks, there are still plenty of people seeking alternatives to the video conferencing platform. Now Facebook is trying to make its Messenger tool a viable option.

With Facebook Messenger Rooms, the social media giant is giving people the option of conducting video chats with up to 50 people at a time. Unlike the free version of Zoom, there is no time limit on chats in Messenger Rooms, and as an added bonus there is no need to have a Facebook account to use it.

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Bluetooth headphones are no longer the future of portable audio — they are the present. Since Apple courageously killed the 3.5mm audio jack on the iPhone, and many Android manufacturers followed suit, wireless headphones have exploded in popularity. And yes, Apple AirPods are leading the trend.

The thing is, while AirPods are very popular, they aren’t necessarily the best. In fact, if you are an Android user, you should absolutely look elsewhere. Today, Audio-Technica launches its newest in-ear Bluetooth headphones, and they put Apple AirPods to shame. Called “QuietPoint ATH-ANC300TW,” they feature 4.5 hours of listening time, but the USB-C charging case adds 13.5 more. You even get replaceable tips so you can find the most comfortable fit.

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As businesses move to the cloud, they want choice, flexibility, and the ability to easily manage and migrate their critical workloads securely across public clouds, private clouds, and on-premise environments.

To help them achieve this IBM is enhancing the Red Hat OpenShift container platform on IBM Cloud by making OpenShift 4.3 generally available as part of its fully managed service.

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Three-hundred-and-eighty-three 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.

Microsoft plans to release the next feature update for Windows 10 in May 2020. Check out Mark's post if you want to know what is new and changed in that version. Wayne's review of a new privacy app for Windows 10 is another good read this week.

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Apple Music and Spotify are both great streaming music services, but the former is just a bit better than the latter. Apple’s offering has a much more intuitive user interface, and its curated playlists are second to none. Apple Music is now available on most platforms too, such as iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux — thanks to the new web client.

Starting today, Apple Music is now available on many newer Samsung smart televisions as well. This is quite remarkable, as Apple and Samsung are fierce competitors in the smartphone market. As Apple becomes more and more focused on services, however, the company is apparently becoming more open to working with former “enemies.”

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Well known for its endpoint protection and malware removal solutions, Malwarebytes is now moving into the online privacy space with the launch of its own VPN.

Malwarebytes Privacy aims to offer best-in-class encryption without compromising on performance. It doesn't log the user's online activities and it offers a choice of virtual servers from over 30 countries in order to protect their real location.

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The ever changing landscape of cybersecurity means it can be hard for any one organization to stay on top of all the latest threats.

To address this problem, Trustwave is expanding its cybersecurity collaboration platform to help businesses around the world meet security challenges.

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It is a little while since Proton Technologies announced that ProtonVPN was being open sourced to help build trust in the service. Now the company has done the same for the Android version of ProtonMail, and this means that all ProtonMail and ProtonVPN apps are now open source

Just as with ProtonVPN, the open sourcing of ProtonMail opens it up not only to the scrutiny of anyone who cares to trawl through the source code, but it has also been subjected to a third-party security audit.

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Microsoft released a new application for Windows devices this week called Bing Wallpaper. Windows users may install the application to automatically download Bing wallpapers and have them set as the system's background image.

The application has not been released as a Microsoft Store app but as a desktop program. Users should not confuse it with the open source program Bing Wallpaper which Mike reviewed in 2017 here on BetaNews.

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There are many desktop Linux distributions these days, but only a handful are significant enough to cause widespread excitement. None have the mainstream attention that Ubuntu does, however -- it is undoubtedly the most popular desktop Linux-based operating system on the planet. Hell, what other distro got mentioned on the wildly popular TV show The Big Bang Theory?

But why is Ubuntu so popular? Despite what some critics may say, Ubuntu's popularity and admiration are absolutely warranted -- there's a reason the distro has been trusted by so many people over the years. Not only is the operating system beautiful, easy to use, and very stable, but there are countless packages and repos available for it, making it a wise choice for both beginners and experts alike. Not to mention, it has a very large online community, making it is easy to find help if needed. Plus, these days, it uses the overall best desktop environment -- GNOME.

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Researchers at Check Point have revealed how a sophisticated cybercrime gang managed to trick three UK private equity firms to steal hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The gang, named 'The Florentine Banker,' got away with over £500,000 following a complex business email compromise (BEC) attack.

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If you were hoping that a spate of problematic updates for Windows 10 might have caused Microsoft to up its game and improve quality control, think again; the KB4549951 update is just the latest to cause issues for users.

And this time around, the problems are pretty serious. In addition to BSoD crashes and connectivity issues, users are also reporting that their settings are being removed and files deleted.

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