Microsoft has retired the browser choice screen it agreed to show new Windows users in the European Union as part of an antitrust settlement. For five years it showed the screen to new Windows users in a 2009 settlement of an antitrust case in which the European Commission found it …
A coach on your wrist Image by Jawbone, Polar and Shutterstock Nowhere has the current explosion of wearable tech been more evident than in the fitness gadget market. While smartwatches including Android Wear devices and the upcoming Apple Watch may steal the headlines, those products are just emerging. Activity trackers …
And here it is: Android 5.0.1 for your good old Nexus 5. Finally! Merry Christmas: Unwrap your Lollipop update, peasants. As ever, you can wait for ever until your OTA number comes up, or force a sideload of the update, or even download the full factory image (if you don’t …
This IT shop has had system administrator vacancies for a while, and so far no applicants have made it through the phone screening, says a pilot fish on the team. “Management got frustrated and brought someone in for an on-site interview,” fish says. “The IT director, IT manager and team …
How to explain Apple’s 2014 in 33 stats Apple’s had yet another good year. I’ve curated 33 stats to show you how much progress the company made. You might use these tech tidbits at the Christmas table, as pick up lines or to impress Apple using friends. You may even …
A federal judge Wednesday ruled that a two-hour video deposition recorded by former Apple CEO Steve Jobs will not be released to the press and public. Last week a trio of news organizations — the Associated Press, Bloomberg and CNN — had asked U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers …
Cloud service provider Backblaze has published performance and reliability data on two of the industry’s leading 6TB 3.5-in. hard drives from Seagate and Western Digital (WD). The result? Seagate’s Barracuda 6TB desktop hard drive (model STBD6000100) was outperformed by WD’s Red SATA NAS drives (model WD60EFRX). Seagate’s drive also uses a …
Until further notice, Amazon Web Services is the reigning public IaaS cloud leader. But deep-pocketed companies Microsoft and IBM are keeping the pressure on AWS with a flurry of announcements beefing up their clouds to close out the year. IBM, which earlier this year committed to investing $1.2 billion in …
IBM is building out its global computing network in a bid to focus on the enterprise cloud market. The company announced today that it is adding cloud centers in 11 new locations. In a $1.2 billion investment, IBM has built cloud centers in Frankfurt, Mexico City and Tokyo. The other …
Human error was the culprit for a November outage of the Microsoft Azure cloud storage service. The company is hoping that recent updates that automate formerly manual processes will help prevent similar outages in the future. “Microsoft Azure had clear operating guidelines but there was a gap in the deployment …
Sony Pictures on Wednesday canceled the Dec. 25 release of its controversial comedy, “The Interview,” after theater chains decided not to play the film following terrorist threats after a cyber attack. “In light of the decision by the majority of our exhibitors not to show the film ‘The Interview,’ we …
A Russian software company has updated its forensic software to work-around the security features Apple recently added to iCloud and increased what information can be extracted from the cloud storage service. Elcomsoft’s Phone Breaker software now supports the two-factor authentication process Apple added to iOS 8 in September for accessing …
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Gary Barnett and Gary Goldsholle have been named as deputy directors in the Division of Trading and Markets. “I am pleased to announce these additions to our staff,” said Stephen Luparello, Director of the Division of Trading and Markets. “Each brings a …
Uber, in 2015, is resolving to make its car hailing service safer, partly by enhancing its driver screening through the use of biometrics and voice verification. “As we look to 2015, we will build new safety programs and intensify others,” said Philip Cardenas, Uber’s head of global safety, in a …
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged global beauty products company Avon Products Inc. with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by failing to put controls in place to detect and prevent payments and gifts to Chinese government officials from employees and consultants at a subsidiary. Avon entities agreed …
President Barack Obama’s administration is pushing two potentially controversial Internet policies in a secretive trade pact, with trade negotiators calling for other countries to adopt net neutrality provisions while rejecting policies requiring local storage of data in a secretive 50-country trade pact now being negotiated. A leaked U.S. proposal from …
The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has filed a lawsuit accusing Sprint of illegally billing mobile customers for tens of millions of dollars in unauthorized third-party charges. Sprint operated a billing system that allowed third parties to cram unauthorized charges on customers’ mobile bills and ignored complaints about the charges, …
Well, that honeymoon didn’t last long. The approval rating of Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella, once in the stratosphere, dropped by 20 percentage points this year before recovering slightly last month, according to data provided by Glassdoor, a Sausalito, Calif.-based online jobs and careers website. Glassdoor regularly measures hundreds of CEOs …
There was a popular saying among a certain group of folks I once knew: If one person tells you you’re drunk, have another drink. If a second person tells you’re drunk, have another drink. If a third person tells you you’re drunk, go home. What this has to do with …
Thinking about picking up a new smartwatch for the new year? iOS users have to wait a while before the Apple Watch hits store shelves, but owners of Android phones already have some compelling choices available. Google’s Android Wear platform has expanded considerably since its launch this past summer, in …
Chinese smartphone maker Coolpad has built an extensive “backdoor” into its Android devices that can track users, serve them unwanted advertisements and install unauthorized apps, a U.S. security firm alleged today. In a research paper released today, Palo Alto Networks detailed its investigation of the backdoor, which it dubbed “CoolReaper.” …
В начале этой недели в Facebook появился неизвестный вирус. Тысячи пользователей обратились к техподдержке этой социальной сети. Вирус приходит в виде сообщения пользователю от его друзей с изображением и подписью OMG! В случае, если пользователь нажимает на изображение, он переходит на страницу, имитирующую вид видео-хостинга Youtube. При попытке запуска видеозаписи …
Skin cancer can be detected more quickly and accurately by using cognitive computing-based visual analytics, researchers at IBM Research have found, in collaboration with New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In a scan of 3,000 images, IBM technology was able to spot melanoma with an accuracy of about 95 …
Fedora 21 reviews Fedora 21 was recently released, and the reviews have started to trickle in from various sites. This was a big update for Fedora. You can read a detailed list of changes in the official Fedora 21 release notes. Desktop Linux Reviews Gayan at Hectic Geek enjoyed using …
A so-called spearphishing attack on ICANN has compromised the email credentials of several ICANN staff members and allowed the attacker access to user information, including email and postal addresses. The targeted phishing attack also allowed the attacker to gain access to all files in ICANN’s Centralized Zone Data System (CZDS), …
The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has filed a lawsuit accusing Sprint of illegally billing mobile customers for tens of millions[m] of dollars in unauthorized third-party charges. Sprint operated a billing system that allowed third parties to cram unauthorized charges on customers’ mobile bills and ignored complaints about the charges, …