Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Samsung Galaxy S8 has the best smartphone display ever

Samsung has given Galaxy S8 owners a lot to be excited about, including Samsung DeX to transform it into a dockable computer. There's also the assistant, Bixby, but the biggest talking point is probably that display.

The Infinity Display not only occupies a massive proportion of the front of the smartphone, it is also the best display of any smartphone ever. At least that's what the guys over at DisplayMate think; after testing in the labs, they awarded it the highest grade they’ve ever handed out.

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Brace yourself for 'painful' Windows 10 Redstone 3 preview builds

If you have been following the development of Windows 10 with any degree of interest, it can't have escaped your attention that Windows 10 Creators Update is due to roll out next week -- starting on April 11 to be precise. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from grabbing the update right now, but now many people are starting to think about the next stage of Windows 10's future.

The next branch of development is Redstone 3 and Microsoft promises that new builds will start to creep out very soon. Dona Sarkar advises that "you won't see many big noticeable changes or new features in new builds just yet," but that's not to say big changes aren't coming -- such as Project NEON. The focus for now is on OneCore, and Microsoft warns that bugs might be an issue to start with.

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YouTube Go beta brings data-saving video streaming and downloading to Android

It has been a while since Google announced its plans for YouTube Go, a streamlined version of its mobile app with a focus on sharing and minimizing data usage. Now the company has released the first beta on Google Play.

Designed for use in countries with less-than-reliable internet connection, such as India, YouTube Go also allows for the downloading of videos for offline viewing without buffering. The app includes a number of options to help you "maximize your fun without burning up your data," including the ability to preview videos and see the amount of data required to download different quality versions of the same file.

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Tests show laptop manufacturers dramatically exaggerate battery life -- but not Apple

Consumer group Which? has performed tests on laptops that show manufacturers are overstating the battery life consumers can expect from their devices. In some cases, real-world battery life is just half of what manufacturers claim.

Only Apple's MacBook Pro met -- and even exceeded -- battery life claims when put through tests that simulated scenarios users would put laptops through. In all, 67 laptops -- from big names including Acer, Dell and Lenovo -- were put through their paces, and all of the non-Apple devices were found to fall hours short of manufacturers' claims.

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Trump signs resolution permitting ISPs to share your web history without consent

Donald Trump has forged ahead and done what privacy advocates hoped would not happen. The US president has signed a resolution rolling back FCC privacy rules, meaning that ISPs are now free to share and sell customers' browsing histories without express permission.

The signing of the bill into law comes after the Senate and then the House voted to allow ISPs to share customer data without consent. The White House has confirmed that Trump has reversed the Obama-era rules, so closely targeted advertising is now not far away.

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Microsoft releases two cumulative updates for Windows 10 Creators Update

Windows 10 Creators Update is mere days away from release, and ahead of the launch Microsoft has pushed out a couple of cumulative updates.

Build 15063.13 is being pushed out to Windows Insiders on the Slow Ring and Release Preview Ring, while those who have opted to participate in the Fast Ring can download build 15063.14. With the full rollout of Creators Update now just a week away, these updates see Microsoft address a handful of last minute issues.

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Amazon Cash lets you pay for Amazon shopping with cash rather than a bank card

Amazon today announced details of Amazon Cash, a new way to shop online that does not require shoppers to have a bank card. The system allows shoppers to print out a barcode -- or display it on the screen of their iOS or Android phone -- and make a payment in brick-and-mortar stores.

Launching in the US, Amazon Cash can be used to add money to a customer's Amazon Balance, and a number of big names including CVS Pharmacy, Speedway and Sheetz are among the stores participating in the scheme.

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Android is more popular than Windows... for getting online

We already know that interest in Windows 10 is on the wane, but now Android is more popular than any version of Windows with Internet users. Google's mobile operating system has overtaken Windows as the preference for getting online for the first time.

Usage figures published by StatCounter show that Android accounted for 37.93 percent of the worldwide OS Internet usage share in March. Windows is not far behind at 37.91 percent, but Android taking the lead is being described as a "milestone in technology history."

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Virginia Tech's DIALDroid shows Android apps steal data through secret collusion

Researchers from Virginia Tech have found that Android apps can work together to mine personal information from smartphones. While users have long been aware of the need to check the privacy settings and permissions for individual apps, few people will have thought of the potential for collusion between apps that, individually, have innocuous-looking settings.

A team from the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech's College of Engineering developed a tool called DIALDroid (Database powered ICC AnaLysis for anDroid) and used it to monitor the exchange of data between apps. Analysis of 110,150 apps over three years found that security and privacy is put at risk as information is shared between different, independent apps that users may have installed.

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How to find out which of your apps are not compatible with iOS 11

Last week saw the release of iOS 10.3, and thoughts are already turning to the next major release of Apple's mobile operating system. When iOS 11 launches later this year, it is not expected to support 32-bit apps and this means that a number of apps that have not been updated accordingly will stop working.

Built into iOS 10.3 is a tool that can be used to quickly determine which of your apps could die in iOS 11. While it's possible that updates might be released for them, Apple's move away from 32-bit software is far from new, so it's probably time to start looking for 64-bit alternatives for anything you have come to rely on.

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Windows 10 users can now download videos from Netflix for offline viewing

Streaming services like Netflix are proving increasingly popular as fans of television and movies cut the cord and look for on-demand options that better suit their needs. Having previously made it possible for iOS and Android users to download content for offline viewing -- complete with optimized codecs -- Netflix is now doing the same for Windows 10 users.

The idea is pretty simple. Netflix acknowledges the fact that subscribers may well want to be able to access their favorite shows when they do not have an Internet connection, and is therefore providing the perfect solution: Download & Go.

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Apple ditches Imagination Technology and will make its own iPhone GPU chips

In a dramatic announcement, British firm Imagination Technology has revealed that in 15 to 25 months' time Apple will no longer be using its GPU chips. Imagination's graphic chips are used in the iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV and Apple Watch, and the revelation sent the British firm's shares into freefall.

Apple will reduce its reliance on Imagination's technology as, the chip-maker explains, it "has asserted that it has been working on a separate, independent graphics design in order to control its products and will be reducing its future reliance on Imagination’s technology." Apple is Imagination's largest customer, and the company has issued a warning that the iPhone-manufacturer risks infringing upon intellectual property rights.

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Hacked! New York Post mobile app compromised in security breach

The New York Post suffered a security breach this weekend when its push notification system was compromised. Unknown attackers used the system to send out messages to users of the New York Post mobile app.

The hackers sent out messages with strange, cryptic content. One read "Heil President Donald Trump!", while others had a religious or spiritual tone to them, and one quoted a Nirvana lyric.

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AT&T, Comcast and Verizon say they won’t sell customers' browsing histories

Concern has mounted in the US after the Senate and then the House voted to permit ISPs to sell customers' browsing histories and other data without consent. In response to these concerns, major ISPs have spoken out to say they will do no such thing.

AT&T, Comcast and Verizon have all published statement that aim to calm fears that may have arisen this week. All three insist they do not sell customer data and have no intention of doing so. Whether customers are convinced by the pleading, however, is a different matter entirely.

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Microsoft is shutting down open source repository CodePlex, offers GitHub migration tool

Microsoft is closing down CodePlex on December 15, 2017. The company says that its repository for open source software projects has seen a dramatic fall in usage, and points to GitHub as the "de facto place for open source sharing."

With 11 years of service under its belt, CodePlex is not just giving way to GitHub, Microsoft is actively recommending migrating to the renowned service -- and is making it easy to do so.

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