Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Samsung has revealed a new, free Android app -- Samsung Max, which it says is "designed to promote mobile data savings and application privacy management". The app replaces Opera Max and anyone with this app currently installed should find that it automatically updates to Samsung Max.

While Opera Max included a fully-fledged VPN tool, Samsung Max downgrades this to a DNS-masking service. There are, however, other security and privacy options, as well as tools for reducing data usage.

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Microsoft has announced the availability of a new Surface Pro in India. Starting at Rs 64,999 ($1,000), the range starts with a Core m3 model, and goes up to a Core i7 machine for Rs 182,999 ($2,800).

The new models will be available directly from Microsoft, through Amazon, as well as through a range of authorized retailers. The company highlights the quiet, fanless design of some models, as well as the lightness and thinness of others. Battery life and performance is key to these latest additions to the Surface range, and there are models to suit differing budgets.

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TVAddons has been very much in the news over the past year or so, with the controversial site constantly fighting to prove it is doing nothing illegal, and did not exist with the aim of providing access to copyrighted content. In the latest stage of its on-going battle with copyright holders, the site has lost an appeal hearing in Canada after a judge overturned a ruling from June last year.

It had previously been ruled that a search warrant (an Anton Piller order) against Adam Lackman had not been correctly executed, thereby negating any evidence it resulted in. Bell, Videotron, Rogers and TVA appealed against this ruling, and a judge has now overturned the original verdict, throwing further confusion onto an already confused situation, and bringing into question the interpretation of evidence put forward in the case. The judge also ruled that TVAddons was "clearly designed" to be used by "those who want to circumvent the legal means of watching television programs and the related costs."

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The Spectre/Meltdown debacle continues to rumble on, and now the chip manufacturer has announced the availability of a new "microcode solution" to the Spectre vulnerability. The updated firmware applies to 6th, 7th and 8th Generation Intel Core devices, and the release sees the company crossing its fingers and hoping that everything works out this time.

This is Intel's second attempt at patching the Spectre vulnerability, and this time around both the company and its customers will be praying that the fix for Skylake, Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake chips actually does the job.

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The future of technology is about more than just increasing raw processing power and embracing the likes of quantum computing -- storage is also a serious concern. We already generate huge amounts of data, and the amount we need to store is only going to increase.

Just as processors have developed in new and exciting ways over the years, so there have been great strides made in the field of storage. But variants on the current methods of storage are simply not going to cut it for much longer. Thankfully, scientists in Ireland may have come up with a solution -- storing data in DNA.

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Just last week Facebook was hit with the news that its privacy settings -- as well as the way the company uses personal data -- are illegal in Germany. Now the social network has been threatened with fines for tracking people through third-party websites.

The tracking affects even people who do not have a Facebook account, and this is something that a Belgian court took exception to. Belgium's privacy watchdog also told Facebook to delete data that had been illegally collected about Belgian citizens.

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The Wikimedia Foundation is to kill off Wikipedia Zero this year. The zero-rated version of the online encyclopaedia was launched six years ago with the aim of providing free access to mobile users in numerous countries, but there has been a significant drop in demand.

The foundation has partnered with dozens of mobile operators around the world to provide free access to Wikipedia. Among the reasons for shutting down the program is "low awareness of Wikipedia outside of North America and Europe."

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Google has revealed details of a security vulnerability in Microsoft Edge before a patch has been produced. Through Project Zero, Google notified Microsoft about a bug in the browser's Arbitrary Code Guard (ACG) feature back in November, giving the company the usual 90-day disclosure deadline.

Google went further, granting Microsoft a further grace period of two weeks on request, but the vulnerability remains unfixed in Windows 10. As such, details of the "ACG bypass using UnmapViewOfFile" bug have now been made public.

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We all back up our data, right? That's what everyone does! But of course, that's far from true. Most people don't get much further than thinking about putting a backup plan in place, promising themselves it's something they'll sort out one day -- and, all of a sudden, it's too late.

Deleting files by accident is easily done. If you're tinkering with partitions, it's also scarily easy to wipe out the wrong one! These are just two of the ways in which you can lose files, and if you don’t have a backup to hand, you're going to need help from a data recovery tool. Here we look at five of the best free options to help bring your files back from the dead.

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The US government has joined the government of the UK in pointing the finger of blame at Russia for the NotPetya cyberattacks. The ransomware/destructoware hit computers around the world last June.

After speculation that the attack was a state-sponsored one carried out by Russia, this position has now been confirmed as the White House accused the nation of the "reckless and indiscriminate." At the same time, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre said that the Russian military was "almost certainly" responsible for the attack.

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It's only a week since Samsung started to roll out Android 8.0 Oreo to the Galaxy S8 and S8+, and now the company has paused the update.

A "limited number" of handsets receiving the update have been experiencing reboot problems after installing Oreo. While Samsung investigates the matter, the rollout has been paused and a new version of the update is being worked on.

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Facebook and privacy are not words that really belong in the same sentence, so the idea that the social network is offering a VPN tool might well raise your suspicions. Back in 2013, Facebook acquired Onavo, the company behind the VPN tool Protect.

Recently, users of the Facebook iOS app noticed a link to something labelled Protect within settings. While this appears to be a built-in setting, it is in fact just a link to the Onavo Protect VPN app -- and the idea of a Facebook-owned VPN tool being promoted from within the Facebook app has people concerned. Take a look at the app description, and you may well understand why.

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Intel has updated its bug bounty program, offering up to $250,000 to anyone identifying vulnerabilities in its hardware and software. The key update here is that the program is now open to everyone through the HackerOne platform -- it was previously open to selected security researchers on an invite-only basis.

The move comes in the wake of the Meltdown and Spectre chip vulnerability revelations, and it's clearly an attempt by Intel to not only ramp up its security, but to be seen doing so. The company says it wants to create "a process whereby the security research community can inform us, directly and in a timely fashion, about potential exploits that its members discover."

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Despite the fact that Google has a vested interest in online advertising, the company is about to enable its own built-in ad blocker (of sorts) in Chrome. Starting tomorrow, 15 February, the Chrome browser across all platforms will feature ad filtering to cut out those advertisements that fail to comply with the Better Ads Standards.

This is something that Google has talked about before, but ahead of the ribbon-cutting, the company has revealed how the feature works and what it means for Chrome users. The first thing to note is that it does not mean you should ditch your current ad blocker.

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For anyone looking to bag a bargain-priced handset, Amazon Prime Exclusive Phones were a great idea. There was just one drawback: lockscreen ads. Of course, there was the option to pay to hide the advertising, but that sort of negated the benefit of the initial low price.

Last week, Amazon announced it was going to get rid of these ads. This is great news for owners of Prime Exclusive Phones, but it irked people who had paid for ad removal. Now Amazon has announced that it will be offering refunds to anyone who parted with money to hide ads.

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