BetaNews Staff

Apple is still first place in the tablet market, despite two years of solid decline in sales. The figures released by IDC earlier this week show Apple as the major vendor, with 24.5 percent of the market share.

This is a far cry from Apple’s performance three years ago, when it held almost 50 percent of the tablet market. The tablet has continuously lost market share since, dropping three percent since 2014 and shipping 2.4 million less units.

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Approximately half of the world’s online population accesses Facebook on a monthly basis, the social media giant has reported.

By the end of Q2 2015, 1.49 billion people accessed the website at least once in a month, up 13 percent from the same period last year and representing half of the estimated global online population of 3 billion, Facebook said.

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All the news surrounding Windows 10 is focused primarily on desktop and tablet, with little mention of Windows 10 Mobile from any Microsoft executives.

Vice president of Operating Systems Joe Belfiore has finally updated us on Windows 10 Mobile, stating that the Insider program allowing Mi 4 owners to flash the operating system will be open to anyone.

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Nokia’s event in Los Angeles wasn’t a smartphone, but instead a 360-degree film camera for virtual reality projects. Named OZO, it is intended for Hollywood and other video makers who intend to use virtual reality in the future.

The eight sensors that cover the spherical camera will collect film in 360-degrees, with playback stitched together within minutes. Nokia claims this is the first of its kind, with playback through VR normally taking hours in post production.

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As a small business owner, you have a lot on your plate. You’re managing your business’ value in the marketplace on a daily basis while at the same time striving to maintain superior customer service and employee satisfaction. There’s a lot on your mind and the minds of your employees, too. Some days, it feels like nine a.m. becomes five p.m. in a heartbeat. At times like this, you spend most of your time just trying to keep the ship afloat.

Of course, you also want your employees to feel accomplished and productive at the end of the day. Professional success is largely a mental game, after all. If you believe you are getting things done and doing good work -- then you will probably get things done and do good work! The following are steps you can take to ensure that your team is put in the best possible position to effectively manage their time.

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As the wireless power space continues to rapidly expand, everyone is getting increasingly anxious to never again have to plug in their phone, laptop or headset. Simply placing devices on the furniture, work surface, auto console, or walls without any cords is becoming a long-awaited reality.

However, few people are aware of the benefits of wireless power. Here are five of hidden benefits of wireless power, based on our experience at NuCurrent:

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The most eagerly awaited new version of Windows since -- well, since the last new version of Windows -- has finally arrived. Windows 10 is rolling out to consumers, and it’s a free upgrade for users of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. So, what’s it like and has it been worth the wait? Here are our first impressions.

There are four main versions of Windows 10: Home, Pro, Enterprise and Mobile. The differences have been well documented elsewhere so we’ll skip the detail here, but most people will encounter the Home or Pro versions. This review is based on Windows 10 Home.

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I know this is some Iron Man-level stuff, but it is true. Microsoft’s HoloLens allows you to interact with holographic objects that are set in the real world.

If you told me five years ago that I’d be able to wear a futuristic augmented reality headset and do so many tasks, I wouldn’t have believed you. We already saw what HoloLens can do and how it can make us feel like the Iron Man (except the suit). The best thing is, we are barely scratching the surface of the capabilities of this headset. A recent research paper outlines how the headset can be used to grab live video and turn it into a hologram.

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You know all those little car icons you see when you open up your Uber app? All those little cabs in close proximity, just waiting to pick you up?

Well, they might be fake. Researchers from think-tank Data & Society said the cars shown to be very close to you could be fake, but the arrival times are still accurate.

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Customer identity management firm Gigya has released its Q2 "landscape of customer identity" figures, showing how consumers are using third party identity providers such as Facebook and Google+ to log into other websites.

Facebook continued its dominance, now controlling two-thirds of all social logins, followed by Google+ (20 percent), Twitter (six percent) and Yahoo (four percent).

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Artificial intelligence is the next step in the world of technology, but some of the leaders and speakers in the industry have asked for more oversight on weapons with AI.

Renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and co-founder of Apple Steve Wozniak have all spoken out in favour of more regulation on AI weapons. In the open letter posted on A Future For Life Institute, which Musk donated $10 million (£6.4 million) to see further research into AI, it asked for governments to not allow offensive weapons manufacturing that uses AI to pick out targets.

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If you’re the same as me, you’ll resent the idea of having to pay for apps. Fortunately, there are plenty of free gems out there and, since these freebies are available in pretty much every category you could think of, the likelihood is you’ll be able to find exactly what you’re looking for without having to spend a penny.

That’s not to say that they’re all good apps. A lot of them are duds that won’t be worth your while, but there’s no fool-proof way of knowing that until you actually test them. Alternatively, you can just have a look through a list that sifts out the best from the rest. Wouldn’t that be convenient?

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Following the release of the Undo Send option last month, Gmail users can now also delete sent emails.

Through a new Chrome extension called Dmail, users will be able to use a self-destruct option, which deletes sent mails after a stipulated period of time.

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Pakistan has decided to ban Blackberry’s Enterprise Services and its Internet and messaging service, the media reported on Monday.

Telecom operators in the country have been instructed by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to shut down Blackberry services by December.

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In August 2013, Motorola Mobility -- which was owned by Google at the time -- released a beautiful phone called the Moto X that focused on providing a flagship user experience instead of trying to be the best Android phone by offering the best technical specifications; in other words, it wanted the Moto X to be the iPhone of the Android world.

This first generation of the Moto X was a great hit with the bloggers and journalists who reviewed it, but it did not sell in huge numbers. In order to compete with the flagship phones from Samsung (with its huge marketing budget), which typically came with removable batteries and microSD card slots, the Moto X had to have an amazing battery life and a really great rear-facing camera. While the cameras and battery life of the Moto X were good, they were not best-in-class, and consumers voted with their wallets accordingly.

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