ROYAL PRIESTHUD

Windows 10 was the biggest news story out of Microsoft in 2015, and looking forward to the coming year, it’s slated to continue as one of the pillars of the company’s business. To recap: Microsoft first announced its new operating system in late 2014, skipping over Windows 9 and showing the world what it wanted to see: a version of Windows that kept some of the key innovations of Windows 8, while smoothing out some of the jarring or rough edges of its predecessor that drove people to stick with Windows 7 (or worse, Windows XP). That strategy has been remarkably successful for Microsoft, which reported in November of this year that there are 110 million devices running Windows 10 after its launch at the end of July. Of those devices, 12 million are already running in a business setting, which is a good sign for the business prospects of Microsoft’s new operating system. One of Microsoft’s big changes with its new operating system is that it will be regularly updated with ne

Just as Apple got the size of its iOS upgrades under better control, Microsoft drastically slashed the free allotment of its OneDrive storage service. Ironic? Absolutely: The OneDrive users who have complained the loudest about the reductions weren't iPhone owners -- the focus of Microsoft's 2014 storage expansion -- but Windows loyalists who had committed to the ecosystem, especially Windows smartphones, which continue to struggle in the marketplace. In September 2014, Microsoft used negative news about Apple's iOS 8 to double the free space on its OneDrive cloud service. A month after Apple rolled out a diet-plan iOS 9, Microsoft pared OneDrive's free allowance by 83%. Last year, some iPhone owners were forced to delete content before installing the then-new iOS 8 because of tight storage space on their smartphones and the large size of the new OS. Microsoft exploited the widespread reports of Apple's dilemma to tout OneDrive as an alternative to iOS users remo

Yahoo last week unveiled a novel concept: Access to your Yahoo Mail account without a password. What is a password, anyway? If you think about it, a password is a way to authenticate a person. You create a chunk of random knowledge that only you know. Later, to prove you're you, you demonstrate mastery of that knowledge. Only you would know to type "corndog658" when prompted, so obviously you're authorized for access. It's a great way to authenticate, at least until someone steals or guesses your password. Yahoo's system, which it calls Account Key, works like this: Install the Account Key mobile app (the system works only with the smartphone app), log in with your username and password. Tap the profile icon and choose Settings. Tap Account Key and enable it. (This is the moment at which password authentication becomes phone device authentication.) From that point on, you can simply access your Yahoo email from your phone without a password. According to

In the cloud-first, mobile-first era, companies in every industry around the globe are using cloud computing to power their transformation into digital businesses. Organisations are turning to the cloud due to the business benefits that the technology unlocks and enables including cost savings, greater business agility, reduced IT complexity and gaining a competitive edge on rivals. Even within South Africa, organisations of all sizes are utilising cloud-based services to get more work done from anywhere, anytime, using almost any device. The latest report from market research company Ipsos Mori, entitled SMB IT Research 2015, states that employees from 57% of South African small to medium businesses who do not need to work from the office, access their work remotely through a mobile device or PC by using a cloud service. Almost half (49%) of staff at SMBs also access their work by way of a remote desktop connection. One of the main stumbling blocks towards greater and faster cloud

Darryl Linington Orange has unveiled the Klif smartphone. According to Orange, the Firefox 2.0 powered device was developed by Mozilla’s Egyptian subsidiary Mobinil, and made by Alcatel. When taking a closer look at the device, we found that it features a dual-core 1.0 GHz processor, which is a accompanied by a 3.5 inch HVGA screen, and a 2MP rear-facing camera with LED flash. The device is powered by a 1300 mAh battery and features 512MB storage and 256MB RAM. The phone also features an FM radio. When it comes to connectivity, the device features Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and 3G. Mobinil has essentially claimed that the Klif smartphone is the cheapest smartphone on the market, as it retails for EGP 275 ($35 USD dependent on the current rate of exchange). The Orange Klif will launch in 13 countries in Africa and the Middle East..

How do you map something like the internet? It’s a challenge that continues to fascinate many virtual-cartographers, and amateur graphic designer Martin Vargic is the latest to try his hand - creating the magnificently baroque image above. Vargic began the project in December 2013, using old National Geographic maps for visual inspiration and Alexa data of the most visited websites in the world to scale the different land masses. Perhaps the amazing fact is that the map was drawn free hand, directly into Photoshop. "My map is divided into two distinct parts,” Vargic explained to The Independent. “The eastern continent, the Old World, showcases software companies, gaming companies and some of the more real-life oriented websites." "The western part, the New World, is composed from two major continents; the northern one showcasing social networks, search websites, video websites, blogs, forums and art websites. All major adult-oriented websites, in addition to various