James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
We know your Android phone isn’t encrypted, so here’s how you encrypt it in a few easy steps
Over the last few weeks due to the Apple vs. FBI case, pervasive media coverage of that case, and consequently a growing concern throughout the world regarding our digital privacy, the word encryption seems to be on many people’s minds. Of course that doesn’t mean that many people have actually encrypted their device(s). Statistically speaking ...
John Oliver on why Apple’s products aren’t really safe, but why the tech giant has every right to protect our privacy
In an ongoing case that is surely going to become a landmark issue concerning how we live today, satirist and comedian John Oliver laid down his views concerning Apple vs. FBI. If you don’t know what this is referring to, in short, a demand by the FBI that Apple hacks one of its own iPhones to ...
True Skin picked up by Amazon, must avoid cliches for sci-fi fans
True Skin, a 2012 short film that looks something like tech on steroids amidst a futuristic depiction of Bangkok’s red light district, has now been optioned by Amazon Studios to be made into a series. Written and directed by Stephan Zlotescu, the short was previously picked up by Warner Brothers less than a week after it ...
Consumers outraged at Microsoft’s underhanded patch trickery
“The most troublesome thing about this is that it becomes clearer and clearer that Microsoft doesn’t treat its customers as partners, but as some sort of enemies who have to be tricked, cheated, fooled.” These are some strong words, issued in reply to a recent Microsoft security update that was only partly a security update – ...
Surface Book vs. Mac: A war of words with a musical twist
Following an advertising campaign in which Microsoft lists the wonders of Windows 10 for PC and why it’s so much better than anything Apple Inc. can put together, Redmond is now bashing its competitor once more in a series of ads that tell us Microsoft’s Surface Book is way better than the Mac. The ads ...
Microsoft is bringing one of its most important enterprise products to Linux, its one time ‘communist’ foe
Microsoft has announced it’s about to bring its database software, SQL Server, to Linux. The move comes as some surprise, as Microsoft has never allowed SQL Server to run on another platform. Less of a surprise is that this direction is firmly aligned with CEO Satya Nadella’s vision of Microsoft’s priority to sell services. Such a ...
Inside the Dark Net: Digitizing the cure for child pornography
“Almost everyone,” replies a Filipino woman in an interview on Showtime’s series Dark Net, episode 3, when she is asked how many kids in her neighborhood are earning money, or being forced by their elders to make money, by interacting with people on sex cams. “I hate foreigners,” she says, “using our children as commodities.” The ...
‘No, I’m Spartacus!’: It’s not just Apple vs. FBI, it’s Us vs. Them
Apple Inc. is in good company as it goes head to head in a legal battle with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) concerning the latter demanding the former to hack one of its iPhones. Apple did not comply, “delivering an epic F.U. to the Feds” in the words of our own Duncan Riley. A ...
If you don’t have $3,000 for Microsoft’s HoloLens developer kit you can at least experience the HoloLens emulator
Not everyone has a spare $3,000 for the Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition, which will start shipping in the U.S. and Canada March 30th. If that’s the case, and your yearning to get involved with writing apps for the headset then no sweat, Microsoft has announced a HoloLens Emulator will also be available for budding developers. ...
Facebook is making sure you’ll see more Live Videos in your News Feed
You can expect to see more Live Video content on your Facebook News Feed following the company’s latest move which will mean the videos appear higher in News Feeds as those videos are actually happening. The move, Facebook says, is due to popular demand – people apparently spend three times more time watching a live video than they ...