Latest Technology News

Steam will not support Ubuntu 19.10 onwards

Steam

It is only a few days since Canonical announced that it was dropping support for 32-bit packages as of Ubuntu 19.10. The fall out from this is now being felt.

While there were many developers who were not happy with the decision, Linux-based gamers are now likely to be more than slightly annoyed. Steam has announced that "Ubuntu 19.10 and future releases will not be officially supported by Steam or recommended to our users".

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BenQ PD2720U DesignVue 27-inch 4K UHD IPS Designer Monitor [Review]

When is a monitor not just a monitor? When it doubles as a Thunderbolt 3 docking station. The latest 27-inch 4K display from BenQ is called "PD2720U," and yes, it essentially has an integrated TB3 dock. In fact, with a single cable, this monitor can charge your laptop, display video, and provide USB ports (USB 3.1 gen 2) for things like mice, keyboards, and more.

Taking things even further, the PD2720U has a second Thunderbolt 3 port for connecting a TB3 device. In other words, you can daisy chain an external GPU, TB3 SSD, or even another display to the computer -- still having just one wire connected to it.

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Windows Terminal preview now available to download

Windows Terminal

At its Build 2019 developer conference earlier this year, Microsoft revealed the Linux-inspired Windows Terminal, which gives access to the Command Prompt, PowerShell, and WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) in one place.

The code has been available to download and compile for a little while, but now Microsoft has released a ready-made Windows Terminal app for anyone to try out.

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Leaked: Microsoft bans employees from using Slack, Kaspersky… even GitHub use is discouraged

Nope

A leaked document has shed light on what it is like to work at Microsoft. It reveals the software and online services that Microsoft either prohibits or discourages employees from using, and there are some big names on the list.

One of the most well-known tools to be slapped with a ban is Slack, with others including the grammar checker Grammarly and security software from Kaspersky. The cloud-version of Microsoft-owned GitHub features on a list of "discouraged" tools and services.

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ProtonMail criticizes Gmail's confidential mode for being neither secure nor private

ProtonMail and Gmail icons

Privacy-focused ProtonMail has lashed out at Google, saying the "confidential mode" available in Gmail is "misleading" and "little more than a marketing strategy". It says that people "don't need to settle for fake privacy"

Pointing out that Gmail's confidential mode lack end-to-end encryption, ProtonMail says that the email service is "not secure or private". The company says that Gmail can still read your emails, and that expiring emails are not as secure as Google would have users believe.

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Epic privacy fail: WeTransfer shared its users' files with the wrong people

Sharing files using the cloud is very convenient, but understandably, some people are hesitant to do so with sensitive or private information. These privacy-conscious folks may be looked at as "paranoid" by some, but you know what? As more and more breaches occur, it is becoming harder to trust the cloud with files. And so, the "tinfoil hat" wearers start to look quite sensible.

As an example, popular cloud-based file-sharing service WeTransfer has failed in epic fashion. You see, the company not only shared files with the intended recipients, but with random strangers too! Yes, that private information you didn't want seen by anyone other than your intended audience may have been viewed by the wrong person. Good lord.

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Ubuntu is dropping i386 support and WINE developers are irked

Stacked Ubuntu logo

As of version 19.10, Ubuntu will no longer support i386. With the arrival of Eoan Ermine, Ubuntu is severing 32-bit ties, and some developers are concerned.

The move is not entirely unexpected. The Ubuntu developers had previously said it would make an i386 decision in the middle of 2019. That time having rolled around, the Ubuntu engineering team says that it "has reviewed the facts before us and concluded that we should not continue to carry i386 forward as an architecture". WINE developers are among those unhappy with the decision.

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Best Windows 10 apps this week

Three-hundred-and-forty 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 introduced support for WSL 2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux 2) in recent Insider Builds. Check out Wayne's guide on installing the new component.

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There will be no more tablets from Google

Google logo on white wood

Google is getting out of the tablet-making business, but says that it will continue to produce smartphones and laptops.

The announcement means that Google is ceasing work on two unreleased Pixel tablets, with the company's head of hardware saying: "Google's hardware team will be solely focused on building laptops moving forward". While ditching tablets is not entirely surprising, Google is said to have been working on two new tablets until as recently as this week.

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Security flaw in Dell SupportAssist tool puts millions of Windows systems at risk

Black and chrome Dell logo

A Windows support tool bundled with Dell computers has a high-severity security hole that leaves millions of systems at risk of a privilege-escalation attack.

Dell has announced that both the Business and Home versions of its SupportAssist tool have a security vulnerability within the PC Doctor component that requires immediate patching. The discovery was made by SafeBreach, and there could be over 100 million systems that are affected.

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Google confirms that second-hand Nest Cams could have been used to spy on people

Nest Camera

There been many concerns voiced about the privacy and security implications of many smart products. Some are well-founded, as a new admission from Google that its Nest Cams could be used to spy on people goes to show.

The problem does not center around hackers, but people who have sold or given away their Nest Cams. Even after the new owner performed a factory reset of the camera -- following Google's own instructions -- it was still possible for the original owner to access the camera feed.

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Recall alert: Your Apple MacBook Pro could be a fire hazard

If you own a MacBook Pro, you are very lucky -- they are great laptops. Unfortunately, even top computer makers, such as Apple, can experience hardware issues leading to safety concerns, and sometimes, a recall.

Today, Apple announces a voluntary recall for some MacBook Pro laptops. It is quite a scary issue too -- the batteries can overheat and cause a fire. In other words, it can potentially damage property, cause injuries, and worst of all, lead to death.

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Is technology harming our ability to write?

Handwriting

The pen may be mightier than the sword, but it seems that because of technology our writing skills may be about to go the same way as our swashbuckling.

Stationery supplier www.euroffice.co.uk has polled over 2,400 Brits to find out how people feel about their handwriting, how frequently they write and if technology is killing the hand written word.

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Microsoft releases Windows 10 20H1 Build 18922 to the Fast ring

Work is progressing well on the next big feature update of Windows 10, due out a year from now.

Some builds offer a lot of new features, others are more about fixing problems and making general improvements. Build 18922 falls into the latter category, although it does have some language settings improvements and Feedback Hub updates.

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Cloud-based security service offers web app and API protection

Intelligent APIs

Web app and API exploits are among the leading threats to business at the moment. Organizations with a major web presence face malicious traffic and sophisticated bots trying to damage their brands.

In order to protect against these threats, Instart is launching a new Web App and API Protection (WAAP) platform. This is a cloud-based platform, powered by a single rules engine and a unified threat intelligence system, to defend against application vulnerabilities, sophisticated bots, and browser-based attacks.

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