John Lister

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has failed in a bid to win patent damages against numerous online retailers, as well as Google and YouTube. He's been given until late December to come up with more specific claims. Allen's lawsuit named AOL, Apple, ... eBay, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Yahoo and YouTube, plus retailers Officemax, Office Depot and Staples. But a federal judge said Allen hadn't been specific enough in his filing, meaning "the court and defendants are left to guess what devices infringe on the four patents." (Source: wsj.com ) Patent Copyrights Date back to 1992 The patents belong to ... (view more)

The next edition of Internet Explorer is said to include a new tool for users to restrict how their information is shared with websites. But it will likely mean that some web features and content will be unavailable to users if the special privacy ... feature is enabled. FTC Calls for "Do Not Track" Feature in Web Browsers Recently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) called on web browser producers and website owners to make it easier for users to avoid having their online activity shared with other web sites. For example, a site might share what a user reads with an advertising agency ... (view more)

According to security firm Armorize Technologies, both Google and Microsoft ad systems recently linked to web sites containing malicious software. Once an infected link is clicked, Internet Explorer automatically installs bogus software that claims ... the user's PC is infected, requiring payment to remove the alleged problems. Santa Clara based security firm Armorize Technologies says that the bogus links appeared on banner ads provided through DoubleClick (owned by Google) and MSN (Microsoft). The ads did not appear on Google or Bing's search results pages, but rather on third-party websites ... (view more)

Microsoft's new mobile phone system, Windows Phone 7, has only been available on handsets for a couple of weeks, but "enthusiasts" have already discovered how to jailbreak it. The process allows users to run any application on the handset, including ... those that haven't gone through a Microsoft vetting process. Jailbreaking Dissimilar to Unlocking Cells It's important to note that jailbreaking is not the same as unlocking. The latter is the process of removing the protection manufacturers put on a phone so that it only works on a particular network, usually in cases where the handset was sold ... (view more)

Some rumors are hard to believe, and yet sometimes you can't help buy pay attention. That certainly describes a story coming from an Italian web site (blog) which claims that Windows 8 will come in a fully three-dimensional edition. The blog is very ... careful to call the story unofficial. It begins by noting that Windows 8 will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit editions, but not 128-bit. Those numbers refer to the amount of information that a computer's CPU (center processing unit) can process simultaneously. Software has to be specially written to work with the number of bits on a computer, ... (view more)

Microsoft has provided more information with regards to Silverlight 5, the next edition of its multimedia software. The company hopes Silverlight 5's barrage of features can dampen speculation that the system will take a back seat to other forms of ... web media, including that of Adobe Flash and HTML (hyper text markup language) version 5. Silverlight is an application framework, a system that designers can use to create graphics, animations and multimedia content. With the new edition of Silverlight, Microsoft is putting a lot of emphasis on its use in a business context -- particularly in ... (view more)

The owner of an online eyeglasses store has been charged with making electronic threats to disappointed customers. However, in doing so, Vitaly Borker believes the threats actually helped to boost the site's position in Google search rankings, and ... thus bring more traffic to his website. Borker, who operates decormyeyes.com, has been charged with four offenses: cyberstalking, making interstate threats, mail fraud and wire fraud. In at least one case, he is accused both of delivering a counterfeit pair of "designer" spectacles and vastly overcharging the customer. When the New York Times ... (view more)

A Russian man has appeared in a US federal court accused of running a network of infected computers that had the capability of sending 10 billion unsolicited emails a day. Oleg Nikolaenko is said to be responsible for a third of the world's spam ... messages. 23-year old Nikolaenko has denied the charges, brought under the federal CAN-SPAM act. That doesn't make sending unsolicited email an offense in itself, but rather places specific restrictions upon the practice. In this case, the claim is that the email messages contained false information, for example by disguising the identity of the ... (view more)

Electronic reading devices (or E-Readers) such as Amazon's Kindle are not just best-sellers, but also the most-requested items on automated online shopping wish-lists. However, until now it's not been possible to buy electronic books as a gift. ... Instead, users could only pay for gift vouchers. That's changed with two leading companies offering gifting options for eBooks. The first to launch the feature was Kobo, a Canadian company that originally started as an electronic books retail website, but later launched its own portable reading devices, stocked in stores such as Borders and Indigo / ... (view more)

Microsoft is reportedly planning to become a "virtual cable TV operator" through a broadband service. It's seen by many as an attempt to challenge Google TV. The plan, which wouldn't take effect for at least a year, would be to team up with cable TV ... networks towards offering channels directly to users via the Xbox 360 games console, with the content delivered through a broadband connection. The service would work along the same lines as traditional cable TV, with a basic tier-based package and then a premium fee for some individual channels. There will also be interactive, options such as the ... (view more)