Kiran Upadhyay

New changes to Skype and the support of third party apps have left many users frustrated, particularly where call recording is concerned. With suggestions that the service isn’t as secure as once thought, could now be the time to start looking for an alternative VoIP call recording service? Quit Skype? Are You Mad?! Had you told me 12 months ago that Microsoft was going to disable the Skype desktop API, thus rendering many third-party call recorders useless, I’d have suspected you (or they) were mad.  Although a temporary delay has been announced , the writing is clearly on the wall. Like many people, I use Skype extensively, both as a telephony system (I work from home, and my Office 365 subscription gives me free monthly call credit) and for podcasting with two online colleagues. The best solution for podcasting in this way (and for bringing in someone over the phone) is a call recording app – I use  MP3 SkypeCallRecorder . To find that the technology giant was going

Computer scientists have devised an attack that reliably extracts secret cryptographic keys by capturing the high-pitched sounds coming from a computer while it displays an encrypted message. The technique, outlined in a  research paper published Wednesday , has already been shown to successfully recover a 4096-bit RSA key used to decrypt e-mails by  GNU Privacy Guard , a popular open source implementation of the OpenPGP standard. Publication of the new attack was coordinated with the  release of a GnuPG update  rated as "important" that contains countermeasures for preventing the attack. But the scientists warned that a variety of other applications are also susceptible to the same acoustic cryptanalysis attack. In many cases, the sound leaking the keys can be captured by a standard smartphone positioned close to a targeted computer as it decrypts an e-mail known to the attackers. "We devise and demonstrate a  key extraction  attack that can reveal 4096-bit RSA s

Windows XP is really old, and we would suggest that you don't use it unless you really have no option. For the most part, however, that age doesn't really manifest itself. Sure, the operating system is missing the security features, hardware acceleration, and built-in support for things like USB 3 that newer versions of Windows have, but old software doesn't have the same issues as, say, old cars. Old software generally runs as well today as it did when it was brand new. But Windows XP users have noticed that this isn't  entirely  true. A bunch of them have found that the old operating system is working considerably worse than when it was released in 2001. The problem is that—especially among those who are still using Internet Explorer 6 or 7—each time you boot your Windows XP machine, it slows to a crawl. There's a built-in process, svchost.exe, chewing up the entire processor, sometimes for an hour or more at a time. Wait long enough after booting and the mac

Video games have become a massive business. There’s a ton of money to be made, and lots of companies are trying to cash in. Yet designing, developing and supporting a title that goes beyond anything seen before isn’t easy, and it often leads to spectacular failure. Here are the five worst blunders, scandals and botched releases of 2013. SimCity’s Release Shenanigans Few games received more hype this year than  SimCity , and it’s easy to see why. The first new entry in the franchise to be released for ten years, the title promised to modernize city-building with attractive graphics and gameplay mechanics that computers simply couldn’t handle a decade ago. A relatively smooth beta and glowing previews elated fans who believed they would soon be diving into city-building nirvana. Then SimCity was released and, well, it didn’t really  work . Part of the title’s modernization included always-online play which promised a global market and collective gameplay, but the servers a

Watching TV has never been easier, with apps for smartphones and tablets  streaming live pictures to your handheld device. It’s been tougher for desktop users, but with the release of Windows 8 several apps have come along that make enjoying TV on your computer much easier. Desktop and notebook owners have long had the advantage of TV cards and USB signal converters that enable the capture, display and recording of TV signals from terrestrial, satellite and cable providers. However, setting up these devices can be tricky, and in the case of the USB solutions, a drain on your system resources. While there are various standalone client apps that stream TV to your computer, Windows 8 has several apps that make watching television much easier. The following apps are all free from the Windows 8 Store. TVCatchup  (UK Only) In the UK, TVCatchup has a huge user-base across the various mobile platforms and has also been released on Windows 8. Although considered by some to be some

Are you concerned about your privacy online? Many people are and have taken to encrypting their internet traffic with a VPN (Virtual Private Network). For the uninitiated, a VPN allows you to tunnel your Internet traffic through another computer. The computer, acting as an intermediary, ensures that any data you send out cannot be identified to you based upon your IP address. More often than not, VPNs employ encryption; ensuring that nobody on your local network can intercept your traffic. VPN usage has historically been linked with the enterprise, offering companies a way for remote workers to access an internal network without worrying about external threats getting hold of their precious, private data. From this stuffy, corporate heritage, the consumer has found use for the humble VPN, with the proliferation of VPN services reflecting that. Common use cases involve circumventing georestriction on the likes of Hulu and iPlayer; anonymizing BitTorrent traffic and avoid

Did you know that out of the 1.26 billion Facebook users worldwide, 128 million are American users — 11,000 of whom are being watched by the US government? Over 600,000 Facebook login credentials are compromised daily, and one in four of those credentials will later be used for identity fraud. Here’s a list of do’s and don’ts to keep yourself safe on Facebook.

What’s the easiest way to take your entire music library with you, no matter where you go? Google Play Music, of course. But what if you don’t want to use the cloud? Well, you could also stream directly from your PC to your phone. It’s trickier to set up than Google Play Music and may involve tweaking your router’s settings, but it’s far from rocket science. Music streaming has been around for quite a while. You’ve got Pandora , Songza , and Jango , all of which can stream music for free in an Internet radio format. Or you can use Spotify or Rdio   to stream music on-demand to your Android. Then you’ve got Google Play Music and Amazon MP3 , which allow you to store music on the cloud and stream it from there. But what if you want a direct stream from your PC to your Android, no clouds involved? That’s when the following apps really shine. Note: If you’re behind a router and you want to stream music from your PC, you’ll need to know your external IP address and how to fo

Security is an absolute crucial part of computing, and whether it’s a strength of yours or not, you should strive to educate yourself and stay current — I believe anyone who uses a computer should understand and do what they can to prevent security risks. However, if security isn’t a primary interest of yours, this can be difficult to do. Thankfully, there are many experts in this field who do this for us and share their knowledge online. Dave Parrack already covered many security experts to follow on Twitter, if that’s where you prefer to get your information. If you prefer to follow blogs directly, then you’ll want to check out these ten security blogs. Naked Security Naked Security is a blog containing security news, opinions, advice, and research from Sophos , a widely recognized security company. Here you can find a wide range of categories from privacy to security threats to operating systems, including mobile, to cryptography and even specific organizations, amo