Plextor launches M9Pe NVMe PCIe gaming SSD

It’s 2018, and there will likely be a lot of new hardware to excite and delight computer builders this year. In 2017, we saw solid stare drives continue their climb in popularity — a trend that will absolutely continue in the new year. Today, Plextor launches a new solid state drive with a focus on gaming. The M9Pe series, as it is called, is an M.2 NVMe SSD drive that will be sold in capacities up to 1TB. It uses 64-layer 3D NAND Toshiba flash and the Marvell 88ss1093 controller. “The new M9Pe SSD Series is adopted advanced 64-layer 3D NAND… [Continue Reading]

Steam: Windows 7 loses a large chunk of usage share, but is still well ahead of Windows 10

Depending on which analyst firm you believe, Windows 10 is either a whisker away from overtaking Windows 7 as the most popular desktop operating system, or still quite a distance off. Steam’s monthly usage survey, which shows usage share from the gamers’ perspective, paints an entirely different picture however. It has consistently reported Windows 10 as the top operating system of choice, until recently, when Windows 7 roared into the top spot. SEE ALSO: StatCounter: Windows 10 STILL hasn't overtaken Windows 7 NetMarketShare: Windows 10 still has quite some way to go to beat Windows 7's share At the same… [Continue Reading]

Privacy: Kodi's remote access could be used to spy on you

There's no denying the massive popularity of Kodi, and the streaming media center has become infamous as well as famous. While the negative press concerning the software tends to focus on the potential for piracy, there's also the question of privacy and security. Kodi includes -- as does the likes of Plex -- a remote access feature. While wonderfully useful for when you're away from home, it also poses a security risk and represents a serious privacy concern if not correctly configured. The importance of properly protecting your Kodi setup really cannot be overstated. As TorrentFreak points out, if Kodi… [Continue Reading]

Samsung Galaxy Note8 handsets have a battery problem

Sound familiar? A Galaxy Note has a problem with its battery! Samsung has acknowledged that there is an issue with the battery of the Galaxy Note8 -- but unlike the Galaxy Note7, there's no risk of it catching fire or exploding this time around. A number of Note8 owners have complained that their phones have essentially been bricked after they let the battery run flat. With the battery fully discharged, it has proved impossible to charge the phone again. The problem is mainly affecting Note8 owners in the US. Samsung has acknowledged the issue, but says that it has been… [Continue Reading]

Ancient unpatched IOHIDeous vulnerability allows root access to macOS

Apple has a tendency to pride itself on security, but a researcher has released details of a macOS vulnerability that allows for complete system control by an unprivileged user. A self-described "hobbyist hacker," Siguza, has published details of the exploit which is thought to have existed, undetected and unpatched for at least a decade. As well as details of the security flaw, Suguza has also published proof-of-concept code for the IOHIDeous vulnerability on GitHub. In a highly-detailed write-up, Siguza says that the bug has been present for at least 15 years, but suggests it is possible that it has been… [Continue Reading]

StatCounter: Windows 10 STILL hasn't overtaken Windows 7

While NetMarketShare’s monthly usage share figures show there to still be a fairly significant gap between Windows 7 and Windows 10 (in the older OS’s favor), rival analyst firm StatCounter has long reported the battle for the top spot to be much, much tighter. So close is the race in fact, that in October it looked as if Windows 10 would easily pass Windows 7 at some point in the following month. Surprisingly, that didn’t happen, although the gap did narrow. It seemed all but guaranteed that Windows 10 would claim pole position in December, but incredibly it didn’t. SEE… [Continue Reading]

NetMarketShare: Windows 10 still has quite some way to go to beat Windows 7's share

NetMarketShare reports on the state of the desktop operating system market on the first day of each month, and it has long shown Windows 10 to be lagging well behind Windows 7. However, tweaks to how the analyst firm records these numbers means the gap has closed recently. The latest figures, for the final month of 2017, show Windows 10 growing and Windows 7 declining, but the difference in usage share hasn’t altered by much. SEE ALSO: NetMarketShare: Windows 7 has been losing share faster than we thought In November, Windows 10 had 31.95 percent share, and in December that… [Continue Reading]