IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TechSpot) 03/01/2015

The Cornerplay: Your phone's front facing camera does actually matter

One of the big smartphone trends last year was the “selfie” phone. HTC, Nokia, Sony, Huawei and many others all had at least one device marketed towards that purpose.

Apple hit with lawsuit over storage consumed by iOS 8

Apple's latest iOS update has earned the company a lawsuit. Filed by Miami residents Paul Orshan and Christopher Endara, the complaint alleges that Apple has failed to disclose the exact amount of storage the operating system will use.

Sony wants to make up for PSN outage, offers discounts, PS+ subscription extension

In an effort to make up for the recent PlayStation Network outage, Sony will be offering all PlayStation Plus members a five-day extension on their memberships. Terming it as an "appreciation for your patience," the company said the extension will be available to all those who had an active membership...

What's Next in Mobile? 10 Predictions for 2015

Twenty-fourteen saw mobile displays go above 1080p, ubiquitous LTE, lots of affordable devices, and more. As we now head in to 2015, it's time to make another ten predictions for what we might see in mobile computing throughout the year. Is the market set for a slowdown or will we...

The 2015 Ativ Book 9 is a thin, fanless Ultrabook from Samsung

Samsung has got a brand new, thin and light Ultrabook on the cards for 2015 that slots perfectly into their Ativ Book 9 range. The new model sports a 12.2-inch display with a 2560 x 1600 resolution, capable of 700 nits of brightness in its outdoor mode, and a fanless...

This 143-megapixel camera was created from an Epson scanner

As a photography enthusiast, I’ve seen cameras of all different sorts over the years but this one from computer aided designer and photographer Dario Morelli may be the most unique yet.

Tesla's Model S P85D hits the road for some drag racing, shames the competition

With 691 horsepower on tap, we’ve known for a while now that Tesla’s Model S P85D was a beast (at least on paper) but how does that performance translate in the real world? Pretty damn good, as some newly published YouTube videos reveal.

Blame game begins as Gmail access slowly starts returning in China

Gmail users in China are slowly regaining access to their accounts following a four-day outage. It’s still a work in progress as some are still reporting issues with receiving incoming messages while others remain down completely.

Samsung launches Milk VR multimedia service for Gear VR headset

Samsung’s Gear VR headset launched earlier this month but up to now, there really hasn’t been much of a reason to pluck down $199.99 for the gadget as content has been scarce at best. Sammy is now addressing that issue with the launch of Milk VR, a collection of 360-degree...

Xiaomi now the world's most valuable tech startup

China's top smartphone vendor Xiaomi, which recently surpassed LG and Lenovo to become the third-largest smartphone maker in the world, has announced that it has raised $1.1 billion in its latest funding round valuing the company at a whopping $45 billion, pre-money.

Xbox Live founder Boyd Multerer departs Microsoft to work on "something new"

Microsoft has lost yet another highly-ranked executive as Boyd Multerer has called it quits. The Xbox Director of Development recently announced his decision to leave the Redmond-based company on Twitter, citing a desire to “do something new.”

Apple reportedly in talks with Britain's top banks to launch Apple Pay early next year

Here's some good news for people in the UK waiting for Apple Pay to launch there: the Cupertino-based company is in talks with Britain's top banks to launch the mobile payments service, which is officially only available in the US, in the first half of the next year, according to a Telegraph report.
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Samsung launches Snapdragon 810 Note 4 as Galaxy Alpha is killed off

Samsung isn't finished with announcements for 2014, launching a new variant of the Galaxy Note 4 before CES kicks off in a few weeks. While most aspects of the Note 4 remain the same, the SoC has received a decent upgrade to Qualcomm's latest flagship, the Snapdragon 810.

'Quake' demake running on an old oscilloscope is downright haunting

There’s something oddly appealing about porting games or apps to platforms in which they don’t belong. In the clip above from Finnish programmer / artist Pekka Vaeaenaenen who managed to create a demake of the classic first-person shooter Quake to run on a decades-old Hitachi oscilloscope, it’s downright haunting.
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Kim Dotcom says browser-based encrypted video call and chat service is coming soon

Nearly a couple of years after Kim Dotcom, founder of file hosting service Mega, first unveiled his company's plans to offer an encrypted video-calling and chat service, the internet mogul has announced that the browser-based service will launch soon.

Apple enacts 14-day, no-questions-asked return policy for digital purchases in EU countries

Apple has rolled out a 14-day, no-questions-asked refund policy for buyers of digital goods in European Union member countries. Specifically, the policy covers all App Store, iBooks and iTunes purchases with the exception of gift cards once the redemption code has been used.

Xiaomi reportedly working on MacBook Air laptop clone

Xiaomi has been known to push the boundaries in their smartphone releases, developing cheap and quite decent devices that pack designs often inspired by Apple. So far the company hasn't released a laptop, but judging by Gizmochina's leaks we might be getting one soon.

LG to unveil new 'Art Slim' line of LCD televisions at 2015 CES

The 2015 Consumer Electronics Show gets under way next week in Las Vegas and among the companies already jockeying for media attention is LG with its new Art Slim line of LCD televisions.

Apple responsible for more than half of all mobile device activations this holiday season

If you didn’t activate a new Apple device this holiday season, you were apparently in the minority. According to a new report from research firm Flurry, more than 51 percent of mobile devices activated between December 19 and December 25 were from the Cupertino-based company.

Biometrics researcher reproduces fingerprints from photographs

Chaos Computer Club member and biometrics researcher Jan Krisller claims to be able to reproduce a person’s fingerprint from images captured by a standard camera.

Microsoft is reportedly building a brand-new web browser for Windows 10

As Microsoft continues to put the finishing touches on Windows 10, many have speculated as to the direction the Redmond-based company will take with regard to Internet Explorer.

These are the most pirated movies and TV shows of 2014

Game of Thrones is the 'most-pirated TV show of the year' for the third consecutive time. This according to estimates compiled by TorrentFreak, which says the HBO drama’s season finale was torrented 8.1 million times during 2014. The Walking Dead and The Big Bang Theory round out the top three...

The NSA struggled with several encryption tools as recently as two years ago

While it’s generally a safe bet to assume that the NSA can beat every form of encryption technology out there, that apparently isn’t the case according to a new report.

Despite making headway towards legitimacy, Bitcoin was the worst-performing currency of 2014

It’s been a banner year for Bitcoin in terms of the headway made towards being a legitimate currency but you’d never gather as much based on performance alone. In fact, it was the world’s worst performing currency according to a recent report from Bloomberg.

The Interview grosses $15 million in online sales in just 4 days

Apparently, the gamble Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) took by releasing The Interview online has paid off, as the company has revealed that the film, which was made at a budget of $44 million, grossed over $15 million in online sales through the first four days of the holiday weekend. Put...

China tightens Internet censorship, blocks any form of access to Gmail

China has long had complicated relationship with Google, and for the past six months, several of the company’s services have been experiencing disruption as a result of censorship believed to be related to the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. As of last Friday, however, access to Gmail via...

Top Tech Stories of 2014: Hardware, Tech Culture, Mobile, The Web, Microsoft, Google, Apple & More

As the year comes to a close it’s time to take a look back at some of the events that shaped the tech landscape in twenty-fourteen. There were some high profile buyouts, buzzwords, and a fair share of disruptions, controversies and security disasters with the likes of Apple, Google, Uber,...

Court allows Aereo to sell off its TV streaming technology

Just over a month after Aereo filed for Chapter 11 protection, a bankruptcy court in New York has granted the now-defunct video streaming service permission to sell off its TV streaming technology assets.

The Cornerplay: On clicktivism, social media and trolling

Social media has become an indispensable part of many people’s lives. The one trend that piqued our interest this year is social activism or “clicktivism”. I was recently asked to be a guest on a TV show to talk about social media, and thought I’d share some of the Q&A and...

10 Mobile Tech Predictions for 2015

The Year in Tech: 2014 Top Stories

As the year comes to a close it's time to take a look back at some of the events that shaped the tech landscape in twenty-fourteen. There were some high profile buyouts, buzzwords, and a fair share of disruptions, controversies and security disasters with the likes of Apple, Google, Uber, Sony and the NSA -- among others -- as protagonists. This is a quick recount of the most relevant stories of 2014, divided into eleven different categories.

Viber 5.2.1
Free calls, text and picture sharing with anyone, anywhere.

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PC Decrapifier 3.0
The PC Decrapifier is designed to remove a specific list unwanted software in an unattended fashion.

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GeekUninstaller 1.3.2.42
Standard removal program leaves tons of leftovers on your PC. GeekUninstaller performs deep and fast scanning afterwards and removes all leftovers.

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VueScan 9.4.59
VueScan is an easy to use scanner program that saves you time and improves your productivity.

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Patch My PC 3.0.0.1
Patch My PC can scan your machine to see what application have updates available and automatically patch those for you. You can also use Patch My PC Updater to install applications that arenÂ’t currently installed as well.

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WinLock 6.33
Comprehensive security program for personal or publicly accessible computers.

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PrivaZer 2.25.0
PrivaZer is a privacy cleaner that scans your computer and provides you with a complete report of all computer and Internet traces that can be found on your PC.

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SpeedyFox 2.0.9.77
Your Firefox/Skype/Chrome/Opera/Thunderbird is working slowly? Boost them all in a single click with SpeedyFox absolutely for free.

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Privacy Eraser Free 3.4.0
Privacy Eraser is an all-in-one privacy suite that protects your privacy by cleaning up all your Internet history tracks and past computer activities.

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KFK 3.15.1.46
KFK is a user friendly file splitter. with KFK you can chop large files into smaller chuncks.

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Database .NET 14.1.5479
Database .NET is an innovative, powerful and intuitive multiple database management tool Browse objects, design tables, edit rows, export data and run queries with a consistent interface .

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Emsisoft Anti-Malware 9.0.0.4799
Comprehensive PC protection against trojans, viruses, spyware, adware, worms, bots, keyloggers, rootkits and dialers.

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GoodSync 9.9.13.5
GoodSync is an easy and reliable file backup and file synchronization software.

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R-Studio 7.5.156292
Data recovery software and undelete tool supports FAT12/16/32, NTFS, NTFS5 and Ext2FS (Linux) file systems.

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HDDExpert 1.11.2.17
HDDExpert give you a cristal-clear vision on your Hard Drive health and performance and translate S.M.A.R.T. attribute into readable indication.

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BitDefender Virus Definitions Update January 2, 2015
Keep your Bitdefender Anti-Virus updated with the latest definitions.

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Spybot Search and Destroy Detection Update January 2, 2015
This updates the detection rules for Spybot Search and Destroy.

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Trend Micro Update File 383 for January 2, 2015
Trend Micro's latest compilation of patterns for virus identification.

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Microsoft Windows Defender Definition Update January 2, 2015
Download the latest updates or definitions for your Microsoft Windows Defender security software

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RemoveIT Pro v7 Ultra 1.2.2014
Locates & Removes many new dangerous files that other popular AV programs do not find.

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Symantec Norton AntiVirus Definition Update January 2, 2015
Keep your Norton Anti-Virus updated.

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VIPRE Antivirus Definitions Update File 36276 January 2, 2015
VIPRE Antivirus out to date with the latest definitions available.

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SUPERAntiSpyware Database Update January 2, 2015
Keep SUPERAntiSpyware up to date.

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Bitdefender 9-10 Virus Definitions January 2, 2015
Keep your Bitdefender Anti-Virus 9 to 10 updated with the latest definitions.

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Norman Malware Cleaner 2015.01.02
Norman Malware Cleaner is a free utility that may be used to detect and remove specific malicious software (malware).

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Symantec Norton AntiVirus X 9.x-10.x Update for Mac January 2, 2015
Keep your Norton Anti-Virus for Mac up to date.

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RemoveIT Pro v7 Enterprise 1.2.2015
Locates & Removes many new dangerous files that other popular AV programs do not find.

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AVIRA Antivirus Definition Update January 2, 2015
Update AVIRA Desktop for Windows with latest virus definitions and scan engine.

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ClamAV Virus Database Update January 2, 2015
ClamAV is an open source antivirus solution for Windows operating systems.

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Available Tags:Apple , iOS , Sony , Samsung , Epson , Gmail , Xbox , Microsoft , Galaxy , MacBook , LG , Windows , TV , BitDefender , Trend Micro , Symantec , Norton , Mac , AVIRA ,

Friday, January 2, 2015

IT News Head Lines (TechSpot) 03/01/2015

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