Latest Technology News

Wireless is always better than wired, right? Whoa. Slow down there. While wireless products are sometimes more convenient, the truth is, many people prefer wired products, such as mice and keyboards. While having wires on your desk may look unsightly, wired products have the benefit of not needing to be charged. Not to mention, for some businesses, it is against company policy to use wireless keyboards and headsets for fear of communications being intercepted. And so, regardless of what the user wants, wired is all that will be permitted.

Logitech's Zone Wireless Headset, for instance, seems like a great product. If you are someone that wears a headset all day, there is no wire to get tangled in while moving about your desk. Not to mention, it looks quite comfortable. If you like the design, but don't want (or aren't allowed) to use a wireless headset, I have great news. There is finally a cabled variant of the headset, simply called "Zone Wired Headset."

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DDoS attacks are a continuing problem for businesses and a new report reveals that they are also growing in complexity.

The 2019 DDoS report from Link11 reveals that the share of multivector attacks -- which target and misuse several protocols -- grew significantly from 46 percent in the first quarter to 65 percent in the fourth quarter.

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Google announced in October that after years of theorizing, it had finally achieved the milestone of quantum supremacy -- carrying out a calculation in just three minutes that would take up to 100,000 years for a conventional computer.

Ask any analytics expert what they're excited to see in the future, and you’re likely going to hear quantum computing. That's largely due to the sweeping ways it will transform analytics. We spoke with Prasad Kothari, vice president of analytics and client solutions at The Smart Cube, about what that looks like.

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Just after Windows 7 reached the end of support on January 14, a bug emerged that turned desktops black. Having initially said that only people paying for support would get a fix, Microsoft relented and gave everyone a patch. Now another bug has reared its head, preventing Windows 7 users from shutting down or rebooting their computers.

It's not clear what is causing the bug, but affected users see a message that reads "You don't have permission to shut down this computer" when they attempt to shut down or reboot. There's no fix available just yet, but there are workarounds.

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Microsoft recently released the Chromium-based version of its Edge browser, and now the company seems to be on an all-out offensive to promote it.

Ads have started to appear in Windows 10's Start menu suggesting that Firefox users should try Microsoft Edge instead. This is not the first time the Start menu has been used by Microsoft to promote software, and it's a move that is likely to win the company a few enemies.

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There is a resurgence of flip phones at the moment, but rather than old-school clamshells, we're talking about devices with foldable displays. Samsung has already launched the disastrous Galaxy Fold, but at last night's Oscars there was a surprise ad for the upcoming Galaxy Z Flip.

The handset is due to be officially announced at tomorrow's Galaxy Unpacked event, but now we've been given a sneaky glimpse of what's to come. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip will compete with the likes of the  Motorola razr and Microsoft's Surface Duo.

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A few days ago, we reported on an extremely serious sudo bug that impacted some Unix and Linux-based operating systems. While Ubuntu was not affected, two popular operating systems based on it -- Linux Mint and elementary OS -- were impacted, sadly. This was due to pwfeedback being enabled on those operating systems.

Thankfully, the folks over at elementary have already squashed the bug in the latest version -- 5.1.2 Hera. Even better, the sudo vulnerability fix is not the only improvement found in this version of the Linux distribution.

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With its "last" update for Windows 7, Microsoft managed to introduce a strange bug that left some users staring at a black desktop rather than their preferred background image.

With Windows 7 now at the end of its life, Microsoft initially said that only those who were paying for extended support would get a fix for the bug, but ultimately it relented and said everyone could have it. Now the patch has been released as KB4539602.

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There is a school of thought that suggests many devices have built-in obsolescence. When updates to iOS started to slow down older iPhones, it seemed Apple was providing evidence to support this beliefe.

Apple said that the throttling of iPhone 6, iPhone SE, and iPhone 7 handsets was an attempt to increase the life of phones with aging -- and therefore less than perfect -- batteries. But many people felt that the move was unreasonable, including the French consumer watchdog Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF) which has just handed out a €25 million ($27 million) fine.

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This is not so much news, more of an FYI. Some of you will no doubt roll your eyes and mutter "d'oh, yeah" at the screen, but for anyone who has been looking for a quick and easy way to edit PDF files we have a tip. You may not know that the software you need to edit PDFs could already be sitting on your hard drive.

The humble PDF has become so ubiquitous that there are endless ways to create them from just about any app, and an increasing number of programs support the option to save document in the PDF format. You're probably aware that Microsoft Word can be used to create PDFs, but did you know it can also function as a PDF editor?

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If you are a Linux user that craves lots of processing power, you are undoubtedly familiar with System76's popular line of Thelio desktops. Hell, you have either already bought one of these computers or you daydream about owning one. These Thelio desktops are made in the USA, housed in a custom wooden chassis, and come with Ubuntu Linux or System76's own Ubuntu-based Pop!_OS operating system pre-installed. Thelio is what dreams are made of...

Depending on the model of Thelio you choose, you can get either Intel or AMD processors. While the standard Thelio model can be had with regular AMD Ryzen processors, the Thelio Major can be configured with Ryzen Threadripper chips. If you aren't familiar, Threadripper processors are multi-core beasts that are designed for hardcore users.

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When building a gaming PC, one of the most important purchases you can make is memory. With that said, you don't necessarily need a ton of RAM, nor do you need the fastest. In other words, for gaming, 16GB of memory is still totally fine -- 32GB is more of a want than a need. Unless you are using an integrated GPU, such as an AMD APU, faster RAM speeds won't necessarily give you better game performance either. Currently, 16GB of 3,200MHz memory seems to be the sweet spot -- a good performance/value balance.

Today, GeIL launches its latest such gaming memory. Called "EVO SPEAR Phantom Gaming Edition," it is designed to work with ASRock Phantom Gaming series motherboards. Is that a marketing thing? Yeah, pretty much. I mean, these sticks of RAM will of course work with motherboards made by other manufacturers, such as ASUS, Gigabyte or MSI. If you are an ASRock fan, however, this RAM will be extra interesting to you. There are two types from which to choose -- sticks optimized for either AMD or Intel. You can then choose amongst various frequencies and capacities.

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There's a lot to love about Netflix, but it's certainly not without its fault. One of the more irritating features of the streaming service is the way it automatically plays previews.

Now, at long last and after endless complaints from subscribers, Netflix has finally introduced the ability to turn off this feature. Quite why it has taken the company so long to listen to the endless stream of complaints from users about just how annoying autoplaying videos are is not clear, but the fact that it has finally given users a choice is what's important.

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Since its launch in 2007, cloud-based platform Wix has established itself as a favorite of people who want to build their own websites.

Now though the company is branching out with the launch of Editor X, a new platform aimed at designers, web professionals and agencies. It offers advanced design and layout capabilities. With tools such as a wide, flexible canvas allowing the use of modern CSS technologies with precise drag and drop, so web creators can control the exact position of each element -- regardless of the screen size of the device.

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Microsoft's PowerToys utilities have always proved popular, and the arrival of a Windows 10 version was met with huge excitement. New utilities have been released over the last few months, and now there is news of a new addition: Keyboard Shortcut Manager.

Despite the name, Keyboard Shortcut Manager does much more than give you control over keyboard shortcuts. On top of this, the PowerToy can be used to remap keys -- something that will be welcomed by power users, developers and people switching from macOS or Linux to Windows.

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