Technology news

• Latest Firefox update makes internet browsing safer

  02-04-2015 22:11
  
  Mozilla has responded to a recent damning security assessment by improving how encryption is handled inside the Firefox browser to make browsing safer.In response to various bugs pointed out by the Pwn2Own browser security competition last month, Firefox 37 has a number of improvements headed by the addition of "opportunistic encryption" to any sites supporting the HTTP/2 AltSvc standard.It basically means that Firefox users will be safeguarded against passive (dragnet) surveillance. H
  
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• The first Apple Watch prototype was an iPhone with a Velcro strap

  02-04-2015 21:42
  
  kThere are 38 Apple Watch designs to choose from, and thankfully none of them include an iPhone rigged with a Velcro strap.But that's exactly how the "iWatch" began to crudely take shape when it was first prototyped at Apple's campus in Cupertino in 2013, according to a new expose."The goal was to free people from their phones, so it is perhaps ironic that the first working Watch prototype was an iPhone rigged with a Velcro strap," writes Wired."In a sense the first true
  
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• Chrome users can now run 1.3 million Android apps

  02-04-2015 21:40
  
  Google might have made it possible to launch Android apps on almost any device as part of the latest developer preview of its App Runtime for Chrome (ARC) project.The new features make it so that ARC can run on any desktop OS that has the Chrome browser installed, and opens up the ability to launch Android apps on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Chrome OS, according to Ars Technica.Google's updated ARC project also allows developers to run their app on ARC via a new Chrome app packager, and the onl
  
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• Samsung busts out the curves with new display lineup

  02-04-2015 21:00
  
  If you like curves, Samsung has got you covered. The South Korean technology manufacturer has unveiled three full HD curved monitors to add to their existing lineup of desktop displays. Monitor and TV manufacturers have touted curved screens as providing more immersive viewing experiences. They are designed to offer you multiple vantage points, some of which are physically closer along the edges, in order to make you feel as if you're surrounded by video and images. Samsung's new lineup hopes to
  
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• Majority of Windows 10 upgrades will be from Windows 7

  02-04-2015 20:45
  
  Windows XP continues to stand strong in second place among all desktop operating systems just months before the next version of Windows gets released this summer. Data released by Net Market Share for March 2015 shows that Windows 7 dominates the OS landscape with a 58.04% share of the market as most of those leaving the out-of-date Windows XP have simply moved over to 7.XP users account for 16.74% of the market, down from 19.15% in February, yet Windows 8.1, the newest version currently availab
  
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• Office Lens transforms your iPhone, Android phone into a scanner

  02-04-2015 20:34
  
  After an initial popular launch of Office Lens for the Windows Phone platform, Microsoft is now mobile scanner app for iPhone and Android smartphones. The app turns your smartphone into a convenient, portable scanner where you can convert physical documents into digital files."Use it to take pictures of receipts, business cards, menus, whiteboards or sticky notes - then let Office Lens crop, enhance and save to OneNote," Microsoft said in a statement. "Just like that - all the sca
  
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• Too little thought is given to the environmental impact of instant gratification

  02-04-2015 20:30
  
  Continue reading...
  
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• 4G slowing down as more users sign up, says Ofcom study

  02-04-2015 20:26
  
  Research reveals average speeds in Britain have fallen between the start and end of 2014, and that home broadband is now fasterBritain’s newly built superfast 4G networks appear to be slowing down as more subscribers sign up for top-flight mobile internet and traffic increases over the fledgling service. The average speed at which a mobile phone can download content – such as apps or video files – fell between last spring and last winter, according to a study published on Thursday by Ofcom
  
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• HIV spreads like computer worms, say scientists

  02-04-2015 20:06
  
  New model equates spread of worm across local networks and internet with progress of Aids virus through the body, suggesting early treatment is vital Continue reading...
  
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• Google could be fined £4.4bn as Brussels signals legal challenge in offing

  02-04-2015 20:06
  
  Margrethe Vestager, European competition commissioner, appears to be taking forward complaints of 30 online firms that Google is harming their businesses Continue reading...
  
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• Review: Mini review: Macphun Noiseless Pro 1.0

  02-04-2015 19:25 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  IntroductionMacphun makes a whole bunch of quick and simple desktop apps for Mac users, and Macphun Noiseless is its latest release.Like other Macphun apps it's designed to do one job simply. It goes on sale at £17.99 for the Standard version available on the Apple App Store and £49.99 for the Pro version bought directly from Macphun website – you can upgrade the Standard version to Pro later. Both will be available from mid-April.The Pro version adds the ability to open raw files, brings ex
  
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• TrueCrypt audit shows no evidence of NSA backdoors

  02-04-2015 18:58 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  But there's no lifeline in sight for the now defunct open-source encryption project, which barred developers from taking the remains and forging something from its ashes.
  
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• Airbnb and Cuba: a match made in capitalist heaven

  02-04-2015 18:52
  
  The country offers Airbnb a unique opportunity with its many hosts who have long rented out homes and rooms to visitors from abroad Continue reading...
  
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• London: Westfield and Inition use Oculus Rift virtual reality to showcase future of retail

  02-04-2015 18:51
  
  London shopping mall chain Westfield has teamed up with virtual reality interactive experience production company Inition to showcase the key fashion trends of spring/summer 2015 using virtual reality. Virtual reality (VR) is still a relatively new concept but developers are steadily developing a wide number of purposes for the technology, including 360-degree gaming, the chance to watch gigs from the front row, the ability to look at the interior of cars at a showroom, or to be able to analyse
  
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• Review: Intel SSD 750 Series 1.2TB

  02-04-2015 18:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  IntroductionWipe the slate clean. That's the thinking behind the Intel SSD 750 Series 1.2TB. Forget the SATA interface, forget the AHCI protocol. This is high bandwidth, NAND Flash-specific storage of the highest order. This is solid state all grown up and with Non-Volatile Media Express (NVMe), and it's forging its own path free of the past. Since the first consumer SSDs started hitting our PCs they've all been piggy-backing old school, high-latency mechanical drive technology in terms of their
  
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• VIDEO: Buyers’ guide: LG and Moto watches

  02-04-2015 17:45 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Kate Russell reviews some of the latest smartwatches.
  
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• VIDEO: The crime fighting 'Twitter chief'

  02-04-2015 17:33 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Kenyan village chief who is turning to social media to help fight crime.
  
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• Sharing Doctor Who: how BitTorrent bagged its BBC bundle deal

  02-04-2015 17:00
  
  File-sharing firm’s Matt Mason says he wants to combat piracy: ‘Content has value, it should be legally licensed and distributed...’ Continue reading...
  
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• Doctor Who gets official BitTorrent ‘box-set’ from the BBC

  02-04-2015 17:00
  
  Broadcaster follows Radiohead’s Thom Yorke in testing legal file-sharing distribution with 10-episode bundleDoctor Who is on BitTorrent. But this time, it’s the BBC that has put it there.The broadcaster’s BBC Worldwide division is releasing an official digital box-set of 10 episodes from its popular sci-fi show’s modern incarnation. Related: What are BitTorrent bundles and how can I download Thom Yorke's album?Related: Doctor Who's new web game aims to teach children programming skillsCo
  
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• Bloodhound SSC: 1,000mph car built to inspire the next generation of British engineers

  02-04-2015 16:54
  
  Those two men were Richard Noble, an entrepreneur and former land speed record holder, and Andy Green, an RAF fighter pilot and current holder of the land speed record. It would be easy to view Wing Commander Green and Bloodhound SSC (supersonic car) through the same rose-tinted glasses which made the nation proud of Malcolm and Donald Campbell and their Bluebird land speed record cars of the 1930s and 1960s.
  
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• Google drops Chinese net regulator

  02-04-2015 15:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A Chinese internet regulator has hit out at Google for no longer accepting its security certificates.
  
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• Check Point makes major mobile move with $80m Lacoon acquistion

  02-04-2015 15:10 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  The firewall veteran hopes Tel Aviv's Lacoon Security will help grow its mobile security business
  
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• British tech at the top of its game

  02-04-2015 15:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Changing perceptions of the UK's video game makers
  
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• OpenStack flag bearer and private cloud champion Nebula shuts its doors

  02-04-2015 15:03 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Operations cease at the firm set up by OpenStack co-founder Chris Kemp, which provided appliances to simply the creation of private clouds.
  
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• Optimize your audio gear for pro-quality Google Hangouts

  02-04-2015 14:15 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Do you want to up your Hangouts game with high-quality audio? David Gewirtz takes you through the gear he uses and how to set it all up in your spare room.
  
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• Facebook launches collaborative clips app Riff as video war heats up

  02-04-2015 13:47
  
  Social network brings its current total of photography and video apps up to six in battle with Twitter’s Vine and Periscope Continue reading...
  
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• ​Google banishes China's main digital certificate authority CNNIC

  02-04-2015 13:46 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Google says a future update in Chrome will remove trust for all certificates from China's main root certificate authority.
  
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• ​Google boots China's main digital certificate authority CNNIC

  02-04-2015 13:46 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Google says a future update in Chrome will remove trust for all certificates from China's main root certificate authority.
  
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• Silicon Valley flexes political muscle in new US culture war over anti-gay laws

  02-04-2015 13:44
  
  Apple CEO Tim Cook set off an unprecedented backlash against ‘religious freedom’ laws this week, and showed why Republicans can no longer stay silent on civil rights Continue reading...
  
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• Review: BenQ TreVolo

  02-04-2015 13:37 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Introduction and featuresBluetooth speakers designed to unlock music stored on your smartphones, tablets and computers have come in all manner of weird, wonderful, and even weirder shapes over the past few years. But nothing before has looked quite like the BenQ TreVolo.The main - though certainly not the only - reason for this is that it uses, uniquely for the portable speaker market, electrostatic speakers, known more colloquially as flat panel speakers. I'll get on to the audio ramifications
  
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• Android apps to run on Windows, Macs

  02-04-2015 13:27 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Google has released a software tool that lets Android apps run on any machine that can run its Chrome browser.
  
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• Airbnb adds Cuba to destination list

  02-04-2015 13:12 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Airbnb begins listing rooms to rent in Cuba, but only allows US-based members to make bookings.
  
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• ​EC setting the stage to finally file antitrust charges against Google

  02-04-2015 12:50 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Europe's competition regulator is preparing to reexamine Google's allegedly anti-competitive practices, once again attempting to bring its long-running investigation to a head.
  
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• Stock split could cost Google over $500 million

  02-04-2015 12:37
  
  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An unorthodox stock split designed to ensure Google CEO Larry Page and fellow co-founder Sergey Brin retain control of the Internet's most profitable company could cost Google more than half a billion dollars.
  
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• The 12 greatest video game 'Easter eggs'

  02-04-2015 11:21
  
  From hidden programmer credits to movie references and macabre jokes, developers have been stuffing their games with secrets for 30 yearsLegend has it that the 1979 Atari 2600 game, Adventure, was the first to include a hidden in-joke buried away in an obscure corner of the code. If players directed a grey dot into a hidden room they got to see the message “Created by Warren Robinett”, a self-referential protest by the game’s programmer who was annoyed at Atari for not crediting its staff.
  
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• ​Cisco to buy Embrane to boost datacenter SDN play

  02-04-2015 11:06 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Cisco buys Embrane, an early software-defined networking player that it made a strategic investment in last year.
  
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• China internet regulator slams Google's certificate refusal

  02-04-2015 10:41
  
  Move by search engine means warning display could deter Chrome browser users from visiting sites approved by Chinese authority
  A Chinese internet regulator has slammed as “unacceptable” a decision by Google to no longer recognise its certificates of trust, a move which could deter Chrome browser users accessing sites approved by the authority.Google said on its official security blog on Wednesday that it would no longer recognise the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) certific
  
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• ​Mirantis joins Cloud Foundry to ease the PaaS onto OpenStack

  02-04-2015 09:01 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Mirantis says it's now a Cloud Foundry Foundation member, as it pursues its goal of making the major cloud app-development technologies available to developers on OpenStack.
  
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• Increpare: the genius developer who gives his games away for free

  02-04-2015 07:00
  
  Stephen Lavelle’s website offers over 200 strange and thrilling games – yet one of the artform’s most unusual talents asks for little in returnStephen Lavelle develops short games, little games, but they make me more aware that I am alive than just about anything else. He just gives these games away for free on his website, like throwing breadcrumbs to pigeons.
  He creates under the pseudonym Increpare, the Latin word for “rebuke”. He is kind and softly spoken, but he doesn’t have to
  
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• Konica Minolta snaps up two Australian IT service providers

  02-04-2015 06:25 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Konica Minolta Business Solutions Australia has acquired two local IT services companies, Stonebridge Systems and Knowledge Partners, as it works to overhaul its business model under its Transform 2016 strategy.
  
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• Hands-on review: Nikon 1 J5

  02-04-2015 06:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Background and introductionCamera reviewsBest camera 2015Best compact system camera 2015Nikon's compact system camera (CSC) line-up seemed to start well when the Nikon 1 J1 and Nikon 1 V1 were first announced back in September 2011. But after an initial flurry of impressive sales reports, the market seemed to lose interest. However, the changes brought by the latest introduction, the Nikon 1 J5, could see renewed interest from Nikon SLR lovers looking for a smaller alternative.Inside the Nikon J
  
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• NZ media companies order ISPs to stop 'global mode' access

  02-04-2015 05:59 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Lightbox, MediaWorks, SKY, and TVNZ have threatened to sue local ISPs and companies that allow customers to bypass geoblock restrictions on services such as Netflix.
  
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• Government ideal for hybrid cloud: Cisco

  02-04-2015 05:34 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  As the Australian government begins to dip its toes into cloud services, hybrid cloud offers a good balance, according to Cisco's ANZ head Ken Boal.
  
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• Australia sees 15 percent data download volume surge

  02-04-2015 04:37 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  ​The volume of data that Australian internet subscribers downloaded in the three months ending December 2014 surged by 15 percent over the three months ending June 2014, according to new figures by the ABS.
  
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• ​South Korea to remove 90 percent of ActiveX by 2017

  02-04-2015 04:24 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  After relying on ActiveX for almost two decades, the South Korean government has announced that it will be removing the framework, starting with the top 100 popular websites.
  
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• Woolworths to launch shopping app for Apple Watch

  02-04-2015 02:54 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Woolworths is releasing its Woolies Shop app this month, one of the first apps to be available on the Apple Watch, which has been designed to help customers find their nearest stores and navigate the aisles according to their shopping lists.
  
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• Reddit’s April Fools joke is totally stressing people out

  02-04-2015 02:24
  
  Rather than do something big and elaborate for … Continued The post Reddit’s April Fools joke is totally stressing people out appeared first on Business Insider.
  
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• Immigration Department establishes task force after G20 breach

  02-04-2015 02:02 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Australia's Department of Immigration and Border Protection is revamping its information management practices with the establishment of an accountability task force, after a breach last year of G20 leaders' personal information.
  
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• Fiancee and cat tracked by home cam

  02-04-2015 01:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The girlfriend and cat watched by home cam
  
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• Social media teacher abuse 'rising'

  02-04-2015 01:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The NASUWT teachers' union says an increasing number of teachers are facing abuse on social media, not only from pupils but also parents.
  
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