Technology news

• GameSpot's The Lobby - Does the Xbox One need an upgrade too? video - CNET

  01-04-2016 23:45 via cnet.com
  
  With word circulating of an upgraded PS4, GameSpot's Peter Brown talks with Danny O'Dwyer about what's to come for the Xbox One and the potential blurring of console with PC.
  
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• Pinning tabs in Edge - CNET

  01-04-2016 23:41 via cnet.com
  
  A handy feature you didn't know you needed.
  
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• You can now try out browser extensions in Edge - CNET

  01-04-2016 23:33 via cnet.com
  
  Windows 10 Insiders can download a handful of browser extensions for Edge right now.
  
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• Fact or fool: Can you tell the pranks from the real gadgets? (CNET Update show notes) - CNET

  01-04-2016 23:30 via cnet.com
  
  Tech companies love putting out joke announcements on April Fools' Day, but sometimes real products sound like jokes. See how good you are at telling them apart.
  
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• Your Google Wallet card is about to die. Here's what you need to know - CNET

  01-04-2016 23:24 via cnet.com
  
  Only a few months remain for Google Wallet's physical debit cards.
  
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• Fact or fool: Can you tell the pranks from the real gadgets? video - CNET

  01-04-2016 23:24 via cnet.com
  
  Tech companies love putting out joke announcements on April Fools' Day, but sometimes real products sound like jokes. See how good you are at telling them apart.
  
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• Quantum Break dev was 'pushing' for PC version, 'baffled' by response - CNET

  01-04-2016 23:20 via cnet.com
  
  Remedy creative director Sam Lake: "People are very passionate [and] have a feeling of ownership on their chosen platform."
  
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• Capcom getting serious about mobile games, planning Mega Man and Monster Hunter titles - CNET

  01-04-2016 23:20 via cnet.com
  
  New division will "aggressively" use popular franchises.
  
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• U.S. hospitals face growing ransomware threat: security group

  01-04-2016 23:12
  U.S. hospitals should brace for a surge in "ransomware" attacks by cyber criminals who infect and shut down computer networks, then demand payment in return for unlocking them, a non-profit healthcare group warned on Friday. The Health Information Trust Alliance conducted a study of some 30 mid-sized U.S. hospitals late last year and found that 52 percent of them were infected with malicious software, HITRUST Chief Executive Daniel Nutkis told Reuters. The most common type of malware was ransomw
  
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• Pair your Amazon Echo Dot with a Bluetooth speaker - CNET

  01-04-2016 23:01 via cnet.com
  
  This smaller device that still packs the full Alexa voice assistant works best when used with an external speaker. Here's how to connect one to the Echo Dot wirelessly.
  
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• Orange and Bouygues $11.4 billion French telecoms deal collapses

  01-04-2016 22:58
  By Mathieu Rosemain, Gwénaëlle Barzic and Sophie Sassard PARIS (Reuters) - Talks between Orange and Bouygues on a deal to create a dominant French telecoms operator collapsed on Friday, ending an attempt to ease a price war that has ravaged operators' margins. The failure of the proposed 10 billion euro ($11.4 billion) cash-and-share deal involving Bouygues Telecom is a blow to the two companies and the French government, which was heavily involved as it has a stake of around 23 perc
  
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• Sony Computer Entertainment changes its name today - CNET

  01-04-2016 22:55 via cnet.com
  
  Here is the new name for Sony Computer Entertainment and an explanation for why it's changing.
  
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• Shadow Complex dev talks sequel and working with Star Wars 7 director - CNET

  01-04-2016 22:53 via cnet.com
  
  Creative director Donald Mustard discusses the legacy of Shadow Complex and the series' future.
  
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• Quantum Break review

  01-04-2016 22:45
  
  Quantum Break reviewThe story behind Quantum Break is as interesting as the game itself. Introduced at the Xbox One reveal event in May 2013, the first unveiling of Quantum Break painted it as this nebulous think-piece of a game that promised TV-quality, live-action video inside of a sci-fi, third-person shooter. To be honest, it sounded too tricky to pull off – or at least pull off in a way that enhanced the game rather than tack on an extra hour of video most gamers would want to slam th
  
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• In Depth: How social media is fueling March Madness and the Final Four

  01-04-2016 22:40
  
  Social media plays ballIt's the big dance, the time of year when every sports fan channels their inner dorm-dweller, auspiciously fills out five or 10 brackets and tunes into the college basketball's great gladiator match. I'm talking about March Madness, of course, which reaches its epic conclusion with the Final Four this weekend and the crowning National Championship game on Monday. This year, social media has taken March Madness to whole new heights, letting viewers experience the joy and he
  
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• BlackBerry revenue miss puts hardware future in focus

  01-04-2016 22:38
  By Euan Rocha and Alastair Sharp WATERLOO, Ontario/TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd plans to make a decision by September on the future of its beleaguered smartphone business, but its Chief Executive John Chen stressed on Friday he remains confident the company will have a profitable hardware segment by then. The smartphone industry pioneer has been pivoting to focus more on software and services as its smartphone market-share has dwindled, and its shares sank Friday after it reported a larger
  
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• Reddit change sparks concerns about U.S. government spying

  01-04-2016 21:44
  By Dustin Volz WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Digital privacy advocates and users of Reddit expressed their alarm on Friday over a change in the forum's transparency report that suggested it may have been asked to give customer data to FBI investigators under a secretive government authority. On Thursday, Reddit deleted a paragraph known as a "warrant canary." The paragraph had said that Reddit had not been subject to national security letters, which are used by the FBI to conduct electronic surveillanc
  
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• Overstock invests $4 million in Caribbean firm working on digital currencies

  01-04-2016 21:31
  U.S. online retailer Overstock.com Inc said on Friday it has invested $4 million in a financial technology company that is working to move countries in the Caribbean region to adopt digital currencies. The investment was announced at a media conference in Barbados attended by principals from the financial firm, Barbados-based Bitt, and Overstock, according to a statement from the U.S. retailer. "A major impediment to economic advancement around the world is the fact that the vast majority of hum
  
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• Secret Tut chamber? Egypt calls experts to examine evidence

  01-04-2016 21:26
  
  VALLEY OF THE KINGS, Egypt (AP) — Egypt on Friday invited archaeologists and experts from around the world to examine new data from new, extensive radar scanning conducted on King Tutankhamun's tomb to explore a theory that secret chambers could be hidden behind its walls.
  
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• Infographic: Businesses are turning to the hybrid cloud to avoid hardware costs

  01-04-2016 21:08 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  68% of respondents to the latest Tech Pro Research survey are either using or considering the hybrid cloud. The number one reason: to cut down on hardware costs while still extending the data center.
  
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• D+M Group Head of Service Operations says real-time reporting from cloud enables better quality, customer service

  01-04-2016 20:13 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Jim Flat, Head of Service Operations from D+M Group spoke with ZDNet about how gathering data from the cloud helps the company react quickly to issues with products and why ROI on the cloud can be huge, if data is organized correctly.
  
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• Tesla, buoyed by strong Model 3 orders, may need more cash

  01-04-2016 20:09
  An initial flurry of orders has put Tesla Motors' new Model 3 sedan off to a fast start, but the company may need to raise more cash if it hopes to deliver the new electric vehicle to customers on time, analysts said on Friday. Up to Thursday's close, Tesla stock had soared 60 percent since hitting a 12-month low in February. Chief Executive Elon Musk's ambitious plans include launching the Model 3, Tesla's first mass-market car, in late 2017 and boosting the company's annual production tenfold
  
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• Apple iPhone SE review: Back to the future with a 4-inch pocket powerhouse

  01-04-2016 19:26 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  A smaller version of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6s, the 4-inch iPhone SE is hardly a low-cost model, but it should make an attractive option for people who prefer a truly pocket-sized smartphone.
  
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• Not funny: Google removes April Fools' Day prank email feature

  01-04-2016 18:30
  Google hastily removed an April Fools' Day feature on Friday that allowed Gmail users to send emails and not see the replies, after the joke fell very flat with some people. The prank, called "Mic Drop," gave users the option of sending emails through a special send button that - if the person replied - did not show the response. Due to a bug, the Mic Drop feature inadvertently caused more headaches than laughs," Google said in a Gmail blog post after its help forum filled with complaints.
  
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• High-tech Boston area in legal bind on driverless-car tests

  01-04-2016 18:15
  
  With its Colonial-era street patterns, icy winters, notoriously aggressive drivers and high-tech talent, the Boston region would seem the perfect place to test self-driving cars and ensure they can handle ...
  
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• Google drops the mic ... when April Fools' Day pranks go wrong

  01-04-2016 18:09 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Some users claim to have lost their jobs over Google’s Gmail April fool ... while we round up the best of the rest of the day’s gagsThe first of April is normally a day of frothy fun, where newspapers and brands compete to produce the best jokes and the worst puns to fool their readers.But this year some of the more complex pranks did not go quite to plan. Continue reading...
  
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• Apple still strong at 40, but are best years behind it?

  01-04-2016 18:08
  
  Apple turned 40 on Friday, and it's a very different company from the audacious startup that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak launched in a Silicon Valley garage in 1976. Today, the maker of iPhones and Mac ...
  
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• Uber 'price-fixing' lawsuit to go ahead

  01-04-2016 17:47 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A federal judge in the US refuses to throw out a lawsuit alleging that Uber's chief executive conspired with drivers to fix the cost of rides.
  
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• Silver Lake to invest in Ancestry.com: sources

  01-04-2016 17:07
  Private equity firm Silver Lake Partners has agreed to acquire a minority stake in Ancestry.com in a deal that values the privately held genealogy website at $2.6 billion, including debt, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The investment represents a bet that Ancestry's fast-growing DNA business will continue to expand. Ancestry sold 1 million genomics kits last year, a 93 percent increase from the prior year, as people keen to discover their roots sent in saliva samples.
  
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• The PS2 is now officially dead

  01-04-2016 17:02
  
  The last remaining online servers for the console have been switched off.
  
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• DOOM celebrates first beta with live action trailer

  01-04-2016 16:53
  
  The upcoming game is offering its first gameplay preview to some players this weekend.
  
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• Hybrid cloud: Why hybrid IT may be the better choice

  01-04-2016 16:51 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  The limitations of DIY cloud mean that if you don't want to use public cloud, it might be better to ask 'Should this be cloud at all?'.
  
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• Tesla Model 3, Microsoft's bots: Podcast 261

  01-04-2016 16:39
  
  
  Tesla has unveiled its Model 3, and we discuss Microsoft's plan to make artificial intelligence bots the new apps. By: WIRED.co.uk, Continue reading...
  
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• Blackberry squeezed as sales slump

  01-04-2016 16:35 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Blackberry sales fall by almost $200m in the three months to February in a bigger-than-expected slide that sent shares down almost 8%.
  
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• Apple at 40: How much would its classic products cost today?

  01-04-2016 16:12
  
  How much would you pay for a piece of tech history?
  
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• Google April Fool's prank boomerangs

  01-04-2016 15:50
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — Google is acknowledging that it pranked itself after an April Fool's Day Gmail tweak angered some people who use Google's email for work.
  
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• New Linux tablet aims to make Ubuntu desktop mobile

  01-04-2016 15:42 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  If you weren't scared off by Jolla's tablet disaster on Indiegogo, another little-known brand wants you to back its Intel-based Ubuntu Linux tablets.
  
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• Nasa discovers underground 'forest of fungi' from space

  01-04-2016 15:28
  
  Mycorrhizal fungi forms a complex system which stretches miles underground as it searches for nutrients. And now, Nasa satellites have been used to develop the "first-ever" method for detecting this fungi from space. By: Emily Reynolds, Continue reading...
  
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• BlackBerry continues to lose money in Q4, falls short of Wall Street's expectations

  01-04-2016 15:21 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  The figures are nowhere near as high as earnings during its handset heyday, but CEO John Chen says BlackBerry is 'gaining traction' as a software and services company.
  
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• FBI facing demands to share its claimed technique to unlock iPhones

  01-04-2016 15:12 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Local law enforcement officials want access to Apple phones to solve crimes but Apple might be able to patch security flaws if secret technique is widely sharedAny day now, Hillar Moore is expecting a call from the FBI. Moore, a district attorney in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has publicly lamented that Apple’s iPhone encryption is keeping local police out of a victim’s phone in a recent murder. On Monday, Moore’s ears perked up when the FBI announced it would drop its court battle
  
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• Death by smartphone: the .38 calibre mobile that really sends a message | Peter Bradshaw

  01-04-2016 15:03 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  The firearm that resembles a mobile is ingenious, but surely its creator has missed a trick – a phone that actually is a gun. It’s going to happenUntil so recently the selfie-stick was the top gizmo of choice for gadgety-minded people everywhere. But in the United States, something else is now hogging the limelight: the Ideal Conceal, a .38 calibre handgun that folds up to look exactly like an iPhone-sized smartphone. Unfolded, it fires two shots before needing to be reloaded and cos
  
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• Google creates smartphone ID system that can tell it's you just from your nose

  01-04-2016 14:45 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Google is looking at ways to keep you continuously logged into an account using a smartphone's video camera.
  
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• Tesla reveals the new Model 3, its cheaper electric car for the mass market

  01-04-2016 14:22
  
  The technology and motoring firm has revealed its next step.
  
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• Reddit kills snooping 'warrant canary'

  01-04-2016 14:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Reddit removes a 'warrant canary', stating it has not received secret data snooping requests, from its transparency report.
  
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• Intel aims new Xeon processors, SSDs at building better clouds

  01-04-2016 14:14 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Chip giant claims it can 'ease the path' to cloud deployment with new server-targeted Xeon processors and SSDs.
  
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• China antitrust proposals trigger foreign business fears over IP protection

  01-04-2016 14:07
  By Michael Martina BEIJING (Reuters) - Foreign companies with dominant market positions could be increasingly forced to license technology to competitors or face sanctions under China's latest draft antitrust policy guidelines, according to foreign business groups and attorneys. The proposals include a so-called "essential facilities" doctrine, a legal concept that assumes some core infrastructure and technology is so important, or the barrier to entry so high, that refusal to share constitutes
  
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• Tesla unveils $35,000-Model 3 with range of 215 miles

  01-04-2016 13:42
  By Alexandria Sage and Joseph White HAWTHORNE, Calif. (Reuters) - Tesla Motors gave a sneak preview Thursday of its Model 3 sedan, saying more than 130,000 people had ordered the car, even though it is more than a year away from production. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk unveiled a prototype of the Model 3 in Hawthorne, California outside Los Angeles to hundreds of Tesla owners and the media, saying the vehicle will go into production in 2017 at a starting price of $35,000. Tesla shares have ju
  
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• Google disables April fool joke amid user fury after prank backfires

  01-04-2016 13:33 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Gmail Mic Drop caused more tears than laughter, thanks to users accidentally enabling the prank on serious emails – with some dire consequencesApril Fools’ Day 2016: best jokes from around the worldGoogle’s April Fools’ Day prank has backfired, leaving the company looking the fool and a number of concerned users fearing for their jobs – or worse.
  As 1 April began in Australia, the company announced its latest stunt: “Gmail Mic Drop”, a special version of
  
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• Apple pushes out update to fix iPhone broken-links bug

  01-04-2016 13:27 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  iOS 9.3.1 update should fix bug and make links on affected iPhone and iPads work again after disruption of Universal Links system by errant third-party appsApple has pushed out an update for iPhones and iPads to fix a bug that caused devices to lock up, batteries to drain and links to be completely inoperative.The updated version of iOS 9.3.1 is available now through the Settings app on an iPhone or iPad, or though iTunes on a Windows or OS X computer. It fixes a problem caused by rogue third-pa
  
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• Owl vs. drone: We test the ultimate flying machines - CNET

  01-04-2016 13:10 via cnet.com
  
  We put the DJI Phantom 4 up against Mother Nature's top predator, the beautiful barn owl, in a deadly serious battle of aerobatic skills.
  
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