Americans are using social media to enhance Chanukkah and Christmas
In the grand scheme of things, America is a very young nation. Still, we Americans have deep-rooted traditions that are carried over from our ancestors of the old-world. This is most apparent during the holidays -- in November and December -- as the country transforms for Christmas and Chanukkah. Even people that aren't of the Christian or Jewish variety are welcome to participate.
Lately however, Americans are using social media to enhance the holidays. In other words, even though old-world traditions like Christmas trees and Menorahs remain, modern services like Twitter and Facebook are being leveraged too. A new survey from Ebates.com shows us how much so.
Nokia isn't totally abandoning HERE on Windows Phone, but Android and iOS will be its priority
Nokia’s HERE suite of driving and navigation apps first made its appearance on Windows Phone, and although it’s now being developed for other platforms, for many it remains best associated with Microsoft’s mobile operating system.
However, now that Nokia is no longer tied to Windows Phone, the Finnish company’s interest in developing for that platform is waning, and it will in future be focusing on Android and iOS -- which have a much larger user base.
Who's afraid of the big bad bot?
Web security specialist Incapsula has released its 2014 annual Bot Study which reveals that 56 percent of website traffic is accounted for by bots.
That's down from 61.5 percent on last year's study, however the number of 'bad' bots posing as humans has increased significantly.
Here are Samsung's predictions for 2015
As the end of every year rolls around, we get the inevitable tech predictions of what will happen next year, and Samsung has produced its own list of trends which it sees dominating in 2015 (and indeed beyond).
Samsung makes five predictions in total, and the first is that wearable tech will create a "new era of power dressing" for business leaders. So we’re talking smart shoulder pads, right? Wrong. This simply refers to the fact that business folks will use wearables to become more organized and productive, starting with smartwatches.
Self service platform helps cut online help desk requests
Ask anyone who has worked on a help desk and they'll tell you that a lot of their time is spent on solving the same problems.
In order to reduce the help desk workload for online businesses and allow users to solve straightforward issues themselves, contextual answer specialist AnswerDash has announced the integration of its technology with Zendesk.
Ad slip-up reveals Apple Pay is about to expand to Europe, Middle East, India and Africa
Oops! Less than a month ago, Microsoft accidentally let it slip that it was about to acquire email firm Acompli. Not to be outdone, Apple has now let a cat out of the bag a little early as well. A job ad spotted by iClarified shows that the company's Apple Pay service is set to expand outside of the US.
While rolling out outside of the States is not exactly surprising, Apple has given no hints about the timescale it is working to. More and more companies are signing up to get involved with Apple's contactless payment system, and a European launch was all but inevitable -- and now we know for sure.
Microsoft introduces Nokia Lumia 638 Windows Phone in India
With Windows Phone still struggling to gain considerable traction, Microsoft is trying to boost its operating system's market share by focusing on the low-end of the market, which has real potential of attracting consumers, especially those in emerging markets. And, so far this year, Microsoft has introduced quite a few affordable Windows Phones, with the latest of the bunch being the still-Nokia-branded Lumia 638.
Lumia 638 is a new Windows Phone 8.1 handset that is designed for India. It is touted to be one of the most affordable smartphones with 4G connectivity available in this Asian market, which is sure to attract the attention of price-conscious local buyers. What else does it have to offer?
Canon i-SENSYS MF229dw: A great value multifunction printer for home and small business [review]
There’s no shortage of cut-price mono laser printers on the market, but the multifunction Canon i-SENSYS MF229dw is the perfect example of why it’s worth paying a little extra to get a printer that can do everything you’d want it to, and more besides.
Obviously it’s a mono printer, so the one thing it can’t do is output color pages, but aside from that it can print single and double-sided, scan (in 24-bit color), copy pages, and fax documents. It’s a wireless printer, and you can send photos and documents to print directly from iOS and Android devices.
Secret CoolReaper backdoor for hackers discovered in Chinese Android phones
China's monitoring and control of how its citizens access the internet is something that has been going on for some time. Now there is something new for Chinese smartphone owners to worry about. Security researchers at Palo Alto Networks have discovered a backdoor built into millions of handsets produced by Coolpad.
Known as CoolReaper, the backdoor potentially places more than 10 million smartphone owners at risk. The security firm conducted investigations after users complained on message boards about suspicious activity on their handsets. After downloading multiple copies of the stock ROM used on Chinese CoolPad phone, it was found that "the majority of the ROMs contained the CoolReaper backdoor".
Install, update and manage your software with NeoSetup
Keeping Windows software up-to-date can be complicated. There are settings to be configured, maybe several update processes to be left running, troubleshooting rules to follow if they don’t work. And of course if an application can’t check for updates itself, you’ll have to do it manually.
NeoSetup is an application manager which simplifies this process by installing and updating many applications for you.
Online freedom is declining
A new report from Freedom House, a watchdog dedicated to promoting the cause of freedom across the globe, has been published with some interesting observations on how free various nations are in terms of their internet access.
The Freedom on the Net 2014 report, spotted by Mashable, involved evaluating some 65 countries, and the bad news is that over half of them, 36 to be precise, actually dipped in their levels of online freedom between May 2013 and 2014.
Control your PC remotely with DisplayFusion 7
Binary Fortress Software has released DisplayFusion 7.0, a major update for its comprehensive multi-monitor management tool for Windows.
The commercial editions now support remote controlling your system from iOS or Android devices. You can move windows around, change wallpapers, enable/ disable monitors or use hundreds of other options, and if that’s not enough it’s also possible to call your own custom C# or VB.net functions from the program.
How the way you work is going to change in 2015 [Q&A]
Enterprise computing is more and more centered around the user, but how will this trend affect the workplace and what changes will it make to productivity and the way systems are managed and delivered?
We spoke to Torsten Volk, VP of product management, cloud at business software specialist ASG Software Solutions to find out.
OnePlus is the latest smartphone maker to be banned in India
The High Court in Delhi has temporarily banned the sales of smartphones built by Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus.
The ban comes after Micromax, an Indian consumer electronics company, filed a lawsuit alleging OnePlus violated an exclusivity agreement it signed with Cyanogen.
Bitdefender releases free CryptoWall Immunizer
Bitdefender Labs has announced the availability of Bitdefender CryptoWall Immunizer, a free Windows tool which offers some protection against versions 1 and 2 of the file-encrypting malware.
The program appears to work by setting Windows policies to block programs from running when they’re in the %appdata% or %startup% folders.
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