A number of major webmail services have suffered one of the largest security breaches in recent years. The account details of Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, and Mail.ru are just four of the services affected.

Security firm Hold Security says that it has been contacted by a hacker in possession of 272 million unique pairs of email addresses and unencrypted passwords. This is far from an insignificant number, and the situation is made all the worse as the data is being freely shared for just about anyone to access.

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Last week a Windows 10 forced upgrade did its best to ruin a weather forecast on live television, and this week the new operating system started an update right in the middle of a gaming session being streamed live on Twitch.

During the stream of Counter Strike: Global Offensive, full-time pro-gamer Erik "fl0m" Flom was rudely interrupted as Windows 10 decided that mid-game -- in front of 130,000 or so followers -- would be the best time to start an update.

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The Internet of Things, or IoT, has been both a blessing and a bain since it came into existence. Does convenience trump security concerns? That's the question each user has to ask his or herself. It's that security part that tends to make the news.

The latest to suffer a setback is Samsung SmartThings, with a new report claiming the platform has a security problem. The vulnerabilities reported are only hypothetical so far however.

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Microsoft has upgraded its Operations Management Suite and has made a new preview of System Center 2016 available, in an effort to aid system administrators in tackling the increasingly complex cloud environments and data center resources.

The company’s System Center is as a suite of systems management tools, that includes System Center Configuration Manager and System Center Operations Manage, all aiming to help companies manage on-premises data centers. Operations Management Suite on the other hand, is designed to aid companies in gaining control of hybrid cloud environments.

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Google Chrome has just passed Internet Explorer to become the most popular desktop web browser, according to web analytics company NetMarketShare. Based on the latest figures, the former has 41.71 percent usage share as opposed to 41.33 percent for Microsoft's longstanding PC browser.

NetMarketShare is the last major web analytics company to crown Google Chrome as the most popular desktop web browser. Other players in this field have it pegged as the leader with an even more comfortable lead over Internet Explorer.

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With SharePoint 2016’s general release on the horizon, many companies are contemplating what the path to migration will look like. But before making the switch, organizations should take into account what’s unique to SharePoint 2016 and how new features will affect business functions.

The most notable difference in SharePoint 2016 is that this release has been derived from SharePoint Online’s source code. While previous releases looked first to on-premises solutions to define what SharePoint’s cloud offerings looked like, SharePoint 2016 was built out of the cloud. In the years since launching SharePoint Online, Microsoft has learned quite a bit about operating and supporting SharePoint at a massive scale.

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Microsoft Edge, the default web browser in Windows 10, has potential, but there’s still a long way to go until it can rival the likes of Firefox or Chrome.

Microsoft is working hard on improving the browser however, and recently introduced support for extensions, although there aren’t many to choose from at the moment. There are plans for an Adblock Plus extension in the future, but if you want to block ads in the browser now, there is a way of doing this.

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Microsoft has just made a public preview of its PowerApps service available, which will include support for its Flow data-sharing tool.

A limited preview of this new service -- aimed at allowing business users to create their own custom business applications -- was released by the company five months ago. Now Microsoft has decided it is time to launch a public preview of Power Apps which has been available from 29 April.

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The growth of Windows 10 continues, albeit slowly, the latest figures from NetMarketShare show. The statistics for April reveal that, at long last, Windows 7 is no longer installed on the majority of computers, slipping to a 48.79 percent market share. Windows 10 saw slight growth to 14.35 percent (up from 14.15 percent), and Windows XP dropped below 9.66 percent.

Usage of Windows 8.x stayed largely stable (12.11 percent compared to 12.01 percent in March), but the balance between Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 (9.16 percent down from 9.56 percent) shifted slightly, with the older version seeing slight growth (2.95 percent, up from 2.45 percent). OS X's market share increased slightly, and Linux dropped a little.

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Now that users are generating more data than ever before, Microsoft has begun to explore the idea of using DNA molecules to store data.

To begin investigating the possibility of accomplishing such a complex task, the company will be purchasing 10 million strands of long oligonucleotides -- or lab made DNA molecules -- from a startup in San Francisco called Twist Bioscience.

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The Windows Phone landscape has evolved at a slow pace in the past three years, and the list of the ten most popular smartphones running the tiled operating system is proof of that. Since July 2013 Lumia 520 has held the top spot in the charts, taking Lumia 920's crown just a few months after being introduced. But, fast forward to today and we finally have a new king.

Before you get too excited and think that we finally have some major changes at the top you should know that Windows Phones appeal mainly to folks who shop in the low-end segment of the market. As such, the smartphone that follows Lumia 520 at the top of the pack is also an entry-level handset.

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Last year, Microsoft announced plans to drop the free OneDrive storage amount from 15GB down to 5GB, and also discontinue the 15GB camera roll bonus.

Earlier this week we learned that the software giant will be putting this plan into action from July, which means if you’re currently using more than 5GB of storage you will either have to remove some files to get under the new limit, or upgrade to a paid plan. But hold on a minute. Before you do either, there is a third option which you can use to keep your free storage at 15GB.

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Companies are often criticized for the length of time it takes them to patch security problems found in software. But this week Microsoft exceled itself, taking just 7 hours to patch a serious security hole in Office 365 that made it possible to gain unrestricted access to businesses' cloud accounts.

A problem with the SAML authentication system meant that it was possible to gain access to just about any Office 365 account, including accessing connected services like Outlook, OneDrive and Skype for Business. More than this, the exploit allowed an attacker to infiltrate companies and organizations such as Verizon, Georgia State University and British Airways who use Office 365. The researchers who unearthed the issue have praised Microsoft for dealing with it so quickly.

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Holy cow, Microsoft makes it really hard to recommend its products lately. Windows 10 was a great way to wash the disgusting Windows 8 taste from consumers' mouths -- initially, at least. Unfortunately, the discovered privacy issues frightened many folks, causing them to delay upgrading.

The latest build has a wonderfully refreshed Start Menu, making me think that the company was back on track. Nope; I was wrong. Today, Microsoft announces an anti-competitive bombshell -- it is blocking all third party browsers and search engines from Cortana. Prefer using Chrome and Google? Tough luck. Firefox and Yahoo? Sorry. Microsoft just can't stop pulling boners, it seems.

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With the new big update to Windows 10 just around the corner, Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to make sure that developers have access to the tools they need to take advantage of the new features. Windows 10 Anniversary Update is due for release in July and ahead of the big day Microsoft has released a new SDK.

Having open-sourced the Xamarin iOS, Android and Mac SDKs, the launch of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update SDK Preview gives developers a chance to make sure their code works ahead of the update rollout. It is compatible with Build 14332 (and newer) of Windows 10 Insider Preview and includes an important selection of bug fixes.

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