Datamation Staff

SlashGear: A new study from the Pew Research Center reveals that just 11 percent of U.S. adults own a tablet PC. However, among those who do own tablets, 77 percent use them every day, with an average of 90 minutes of use each day. Most common uses for tablets include the following: Reading news (77 […]

TGDaily: This week is the 10th anniversary of the release of Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system, but the company clearly wishes fewer people were still using the aging OS. “Think about phones – would you even carry a flip phone now? Think about music – would you still claim that Destiny’s Child is your top […]

ZDNet: According to Google’s recently released transparency report, requests from the U.S. government to remove data from Google’s servers are up nearly 25 percent over a year ago. In all, U.S. officials made 5,950 data subject take-down requests linked to over 11,000 individual users. Google complied with those requests 93 percent of the time. Take-down […]

Apple Insider: With no announcements or fanfare, Apple has updated the specs for its MacBook Pro line of laptops. While the prices remain the same, the 13-inch model now features either a 2.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 CPU and 500GB hard drive, or a 2.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 and a 750GB hard drive. The […]

eWeek: A new report from security vendor Symantec reveals that small businesses may think they are more protected from cyberthreats than they really are. While 85 percent of SMBs believe they are safe from most cyberthreats, 77 percent have not taken the basic step of instituting a formal, written Internet security policy. Other key findings […]

PCWorld: Google users can no longer type the “+” sign in front of a keyword in order to ensure that all search results include that term. Instead, those who want to make sure a certain term is included in all results will need to put that term inside quotation marks. While the change is small, […]

TechWorld: The Oracle NoSQL Database that it announced at the OpenWorld conference is now available for download. The new product is based on the Java version of Berkeley DB and offers greater speed and scalability than traditional SQL databases. Oracle’s Marie-Anne Neimat says Oracle NoSQL will be useful for “customers who are acquiring massive amounts […]

NetworkWorld: Over the weekend, someone briefly took over Microsoft’s YouTube channel. He or she deleted all existing videos and posted new videos advertising a non-existent contest. It’s possible the person responsible for the hijacked account may have been a previous owner of the account. He or she posted a messaged which read, “I DID NOTHING […]

NYTimes: It used to be that Apple products were notoriously expensive, but recently the company’s prices have become much more competitive. For example, prices for the iPhone 4S start at $199 with a two-year contract, and while you can certainly find cheaper smartphones, some competing Android devices can cost up to $300. “They’re not cheap, […]

InfoWorld: At the recent VMworld Europe event, VMware CEO Paul Maritz said the company’s licensing model could soon be changing. “We are going to have to move toward more of a consumption-based model. This is where we are going,” said Maritz. “We are trying to keep the licensing stable for as long as we can, […]

The Guardian: WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange says that the whistleblower website will be “simply not able to continue” unless the world’s major financial institutions reverse their policy of not allowing payments to the organization. Before Bank of America, Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Western Union stopped doing business with the site, WikiLeaks was receiving an average […]

Computerworld: Microsoft has announced that it has reached a deal with Taiwanese manufacturer Compal Electronics that will result in licensing fees on all the Android- or Chrome-based devices the company makes. With licensing agreements in place with Samsung, Wistron, Quanta Computer and several other companies, Microsoft says it now receives royalties for 53 percent of […]