Winners include Avira, Bitdefender, Kaspersky and more

Some time has passed since 2016 started, but in case you're still in the mood for rankings and year-in-review articles, here's one from the AV-TEST Institute, which published yesterday its list of best-in-class antivirus solutions.

After subjecting various antivirus engines to a battery of tests during the past year, AV-TEST bestowed the following honors on these antivirus products.

AV-TEST Award for Best Protection

This award is split into two sub-categories, one for consumer users and one for corporate users. Both awards went to Symantec, with the Norton Security antivirus grabbing the best-in-class title in the consumer class while Symantec's Endpoint Protection took the laurels in the corporate category.

AV-TEST Award for Best Performance

This award was given to antivirus products that had the least impact on the speed of a Windows PC. In the consumer class, the award was a tie between Bitdefender Internet Security and Kaspersky Internet Security while, in the corporate category, the award was given to Bitdefender's Endpoint Security.

AV-TEST Award for Best Usability

This title rewarded security products that were easy to use and user-friendly. Again, there was another tie in the consumer class, this time between Avira Antivirus Pro and Kaspersky Internet Security, while the award for corporate class UI friendliness went to Intel Security's McAfee Endpoint Security.

AV-TEST Award for Best Repair

Blocking malware is not the only thing antivirus engines should be able to do, as cleaning up after virus infections is also as important.
This award was split into two categories, one that awarded the best repair operations for tools built into security products, and a second one that awarded best standalone repair (cleaning) tools. Avira Antivirus Pro nabbed the award in the first category while Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool got it in the second.

AV-TEST Award for Best Android Security

This award was also split into two subcategories. One was for best app overall performance, which went to Bitdefender Mobile Security, and the second for best app protection features, which went to Sophos Mobile Security.

If you don't agree with the AV-TEST Institute, then you can also check out a similar ranking published by AV-Comparatives.

Source 1

Source 2

The phone costs only $4, though the bill of material value is much higher even if sourced from the cheapest supplier

Indian company Ringing Bells announced a few days ago it would launch the world's cheapest Android smartphone, Freedom 251, for just $4.

That's an incredibly low price for a smartphone that is not subsidized at all, and that raised some questions in India, the country where the Freedom 251 should be available for pre-order.

Recently, India's Cellular Association got in touch with the telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to try and get some answers regarding the low price of the Freedom 251.

According to the Indian mobile industry body, Freedom 251 can't be priced below $51 even after subsidies. The cost of the material value for the smartphone, even if ordered from the cheapest supply chain, is much higher than the price of Freedom 251.

“For your kind information, the bill of material value for a product like this when sourced from the cheapest supply chain cost approximately Rs 2,700 ($40).
And this, when translated into retail price after addition of applicable duties, taxes and with distribution and retail margins would be at least Rs 4,100 ($60) while the product is being sold at Rs 251,” ICA national president Pankaj Mohindroo wrote in the letter.

It's a disguised Adcom Icon 4 smartphone

Freedom 251 should have been launched by India's Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar, who decided at the last moment that it was not a good idea to be present at the event.

But that's not the only issue that Indian company Ringing Bells is facing, as the device showcased as Freedom 251 is, in fact, the Chinese handset called Adcom Icon 4, which was poorly disguised with a white stripe above the logo.

On top of that, the phone copies some design elements from Apple's iPhone (Home button). Also, the app icons inside the operating system are an accurate version of those included in the Apple iOS.

Last but not least, Ringing Bells' website crashed soon after the company opened pre-orders for the Freedom 251, so no one can order the smartphone anymore.

For those unfamiliar with the Freedom 215, the handset comes with Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system right out of the box.

It sports a small 4-inch capacitive touchscreen display that supports 480 x 800 pixels resolution and a 3.2-megapixel camera on the back.

Freedom 251 is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, coupled with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. The smartphone packs a 1,450 mAh battery, a VGA front-facing camera, and offers 3G connectivity.

Source

Quote:Whenever you connect to a wireless network using a device running Windows 10, a profile is saved to the computer.

That's useful if you need to connect to the network again in the future as it makes that operation easier, especially if the access password is saved as well.
While that is useful, wireless network profiles are not removed from the list of profiles after time has passed.

That may not be a big issue either, but if you like things tidy, or prefer to remove old information from the operating system, then you may want to remove these old network information.

It makes little sense to keep profiles around that you know you will never connect to again using the device. Examples are hotel wireless networks, wireless networks at airports, or a wireless network that is no longer available.

It may also help if you have connections problems and believe that it is profile related.

The last Insider Preview builds that Microsoft released to the Fast Ring were rather uneventful as they did not introduce new features or major changes to the operating system.

This changes with today's release of Windows 10 Insider Preview build 14267 to the Fast Ring, as it introduces several new features and fixes to the operating system.

Fast Ring is the cutting edge development channel that the public has access to. There is also the Slow Ring which gets fewer builds, and a new Release Preview ring which gets even fewer builds than the Slow Ring.

On a side note, the Release Preview ring won't show in the Settings menu on Fast Ring or Slow Ring Windows 10 systems, only for Current Branch systems.
Insider Preview 14267

Microsoft's Gabe Aul published a blog post detailing the changes in the new Insider Preview Build 14267 but as always, it is just a quick overview of the changes in the build.

Note: Microsoft notes that the company adjusted the frequency in which it puts out new builds to the Fast Ring of the Windows Insider program. As a consequence, these builds "may include more bugs and other issues".  Users who don't want their systems exposed to that can migrate to the Slow Ring instead by opening the Settings app with Windows-I, and navigating to Update & Security > Windows Update > Advanced options and moving the slider to Slow Ring there.

Microsoft Edge:

The new Microsoft web browser received three improvements (sorry, no extension support yet):



Microsoft Edge users can configure the browser to clear the browsing data on exit now. To configure the option, do the following:

1. Click or tap on the three dots menu icon in the top right corner of the Microsoft Edge window.
   
   
   
   
2. Select Settings, click on the "choose what to clear" button there, and check the "always clear this after I close the browser" box after customizing what you want deleted on exit.
   
   
   

1. The WSClient.dll error dialog when logging in on the device is fixed and should not be thrown anymore.
   
   
   
2. A bug where the front-facing camera did not work on Intel RealSense Camera devices is fixed, and Windows Hello should work again as well on these systems.
   
   
   
3. Incorrect storage capacity reporting of the system volume under Settings > System > Storage has been fixed.
   
   
   Closing Words:
   

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 Changelog:
 
v2.10.2 (2016-02-18):

• Fixes an audio issue when a SHIELD Controller is connected to the PC.
  
  
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Download Speed Test - you want to know how fast your internet connection? You want to check the performance of the server? With this test it is very easy to measure the speed of your Internet connection. For testing, you can use any link can also check the operation of a particular remote server.
 
 
Features:

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Mozilla plans to release a new style for addons.mozilla.org (AMO) when Firefox 48 hits the stable channel which, if things go as planned, will be on August 2, 2016.

It is rather surprising that Mozilla neglected AMO for the most part. The last major change that took place on the main hub for all things Firefox add-ons dates back to 2011.

Surprising, because one of Firefox's greatest strengths is its add-on ecosystem and the extensions that are created for the web browser.

On a personal level, I like Mozilla's Add-ons website more than Google's Chrome Web Store as it offers better filtering options.

There is a "new add-ons" and "recent updated add-ons" filter for instance to find out quickly what is new or updated, something that Google's store has been lacking for years.

Old addons.mozilla.org design

Before it goes away, here is the old design of the add-ons website.



 
 
The new design:

The new design is a restyle of the old which means that the functionality is not modified in any way. All links and features remain where they are for the most part which means that you will feel right at home once the change goes live.

Note: The style may, and probably will, change before it is released. This is a work in progress.

Here are three screenshots of the new design that Mozilla plans to launch in August.





As you can see, all page elements and features are still there. Some may have moved a bit. Core changes are the color scheme that is used on the site, especially the blue header background is new.

You can open the style in an editor to list all the changes made to the site.

Test the new AMO style right now

Mozilla has made available a userstyle that Firefox users can install in the web browser to test the new AMO style before it is officially released.

1. First thing you need is the Stylish add-on. Head over to Mozilla AMO and install Stylish in Firefox.
   
   
   
2. Once Stylish has been installed, a restart is required to complete the process, you can head over to the official Userstyles website to install the userstyle.
   
   
   

Opera Software announced yesterday that Opera 36 will be the last version of the web browser  for Windows XP and Windows Vista, and that all future versions of Opera would only run on newer versions of Windows starting with Windows 7.
The reason why support is being dropped in Opera 37 is Google's announcement back in 2015 that it would end support for Windows XP and Windows Vista starting April 2016.
 
Opera Software, unlike Google, plans to maintain Opera 36, the last compatible version for systems running Windows XP or Vista, so that users who are running XP or Vista can continue using the web browser.
 
While Opera 36 will be last one with features additions on Windows XP and Vista, we are still going to provide security and crash fixes to XP and Vista platform. You will no not be able to run Opera 37+ on Windows XP and Vista, we advise you update to more recent OS. Otherwise, we will have Opera 36 for you.
 
The support length is unknown but support will end eventually. Opera Software will create security and crash fixes for Opera 36 even after the stable branch of the browser moved on to Opera 37 and newer versions.

 
 
The maintained version of Opera 36 won't receive any feature updates from that point on though.
 
Opera suggests to upgrade to a recent operating system to benefit from feature additions to newer versions of the web browser.
 
Opera 35 Stable was released this week which means that it will take a while before that version is upgraded to version 36.
 
Opera 36 is currently tested in the beta channel and Opera 37 on the Developer channel.
 
It is rather surprising that companies are dropping support for Windows Vista, considering that the operating system is still supported by Microsoft.
Extended Support for Windows Vista ends on April 11, 2017. No security patches are released by Microsoft for the operating system to the general public after that last patch day.
 
Opera Software pushed out an update for the classic version of Opera. Opera 12.18 and Opera Mail were updated fixing several security issues and settings in those classic programs that did not receive updates for two years before the recent update.

The update has only been made available for Windows as there are not "significant numbers of users of Opera 12 and Opera Mail on non-Windows platforms".
 
Now You: Are you affected by the decision (Opera's or Google's)?
 
Source

Waterfox is a 64-bit version of Firefox. Waterfox is modified version of the Firefox source code specifically for machines running 64-bit versions of Windows. Software designed for 64-bit Windows editions can take advantage of faster RAM and processing speeds and greater stability in 64-bit systems. Just converting Mozilla's source code for 64-bit Windows isn't enough, Waterfox takes it to another level with unique tweaks which help it exploit the speed of 64-bit systems. Waterfox is made with one thing in mind: speed. Waterfox offers 100% Firefox Add-on Compatibility and 64-bit Plugin Support.


What is NEW?

Disabled Tracking Protection for non-private browsing instances as it was breaking various pages relying on tracking cookies
Disabled 64-Bit Plugin whitelist to allow all 64-Bit plugins to run


Download:

Download:    https://storage-waterfox.netdna-ssl.com/...0Setup.exe


Download Portable: https://storage-waterfox.netdna-ssl.com/...sh.paf.exe


Download/ Alternative: https://www.waterfoxproject.org/downloads.html

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Quote:If you’re developing Android-based games or complex apps with extensive cloud integration, you’ll probably want to seek out native application development tools. These range from the Java-oriented Android SDK and Android Development Tools (ADT) Eclipse plugin to game-oriented engines like Corona to commercial enterprise platforms like the cloud-oriented Monaca toolsuite.

Most mobile apps, however, are simpler affairs with tight deadlines and budgets and the need to support both Android and iOS. For most app developers, especially those converting web apps to mobile, cross-platform mobile app frameworks are a better choice. And the latest mobile frameworks promise some native-like performance and functionality while still hewing to a basic “write once, run anywhere” development approach read more