John Lister

According to TechCrunch, Google is reported to have paid $30 million for Internet phone call company Gizmo5. It could be a major boost for Google Voice, but may also raise further interest among regulators. (Source: techcrunch.com ) Google Voice ... lets users hook up a single phone number that can receive calls. When they get a call on that number, a user can have multiple phones ring, such as home, work and cellphones. The service also includes features such as voicemail transcription, meaning the user can search for words in their messages in the same way as with emails. The firm also offers ... (view more)

Microsoft has assured users that it will strive to give cloud computing customers the same privacy commitments given to those using desktop software. But it warns that this could be limited by government regulations, particularly where data is ... transferred across international borders. Cloud computing is a broad term, but generally refers to set-ups where data, an application, or even an operating system is stored on, and operative from, a remote server rather than a user's computer. As Microsoft notes, it's not a new idea: Hotmail is an example of a cloud-based service, with the emails and ... (view more)

One of the most visible changes in Windows 7 is that the User Account Control (UAC) system has been made less irritating than with Vista. However, a security firm says that less hassle comes with a price. The UAC system, which debuted in Vista, ... means that once installed, software is not automatically able to run without restraint. Instead, when it wants to perform an action which will change Windows itself, a pop-up box asks the user for permission. The user must be logged in under an administrator account to give this permission. Vista Users: UAC Most Annoying The idea was to put a block on ... (view more)

Microsoft's share of the Internet browser market has fallen by almost a tenth in the space of one year. The lost share has been split between Firefox, Safari and Google's new Chrome browser. (Source: informationweek.com ) Monitoring firm Net ... Applications has just released its browser statistics for October. While some reports are concentrating on the changes since September, which saw Internet Explorer drop by just one percentage point, the trends are much more striking when comparing October 2009 to October 2008. Firefox Does Most Damage During that one year period the percentage of Internet ... (view more)

It remains unclear whether the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be able to bring its proposed net neutrality rules into force. Another politician has launched a bid to block the FCC from further regulating the net, while an Internet ... carrier claims the commission doesn't have the legal power to bring the rules into force. Last week, the FCC voted unanimously to adopt plans for new rules enforcing the existing principle of net neutrality. The overall idea is that Internet carriers should treat all traffic equally. In practice that could mean cable firms and ISPs would not be allowed ... (view more)

Many users are taking up the offer for Windows 7 "Upgrade," which requires the user to have a pre-existing, legitimate copy of Windows 2000, XP, or Vista already pre-installed on the user's machine. However, Microsoft has recently confirmed it is ... technically possible to install an upgrade-only edition of Windows 7 on a machine that doesn't already have another version of Windows pre-installed. That said, the firm has also pointed out that doing so is an illegal breach of licensing conditions. Several websites have printed what they describe as 'workarounds', which use an upgrade ... (view more)

In its attempt to make Windows 7 a success and build a successful chain of retail stores, Microsoft has declared war on one of the most annoying parts of buying a new PC: bloatware. Bloatware -- known less charitably as crapware -- is trial software ... which PC manufacturers include with new computers. To the manufacturers and developers it's a great deal: the manufacturers get some bonus content while the developers can expose their products to new computer buyers. However, many users find the programs useless and unwanted; they usually come with limited functionality until the full edition is ... (view more)

The body that controls the way website addresses work plans to allow non-English characters to be used in domain names. The move follows increasing demand for the change, thanks to the rapid growth of Internet use in largely non-English-speaking ... countries, like China. At the moment, the only characters allowed in domain names are those in the Latin alphabet; that is to say, those used in languages such as English, French and German. Those who use languages based on other alphabets, such as Russian or Chinese, must use special software that lets them type on keyboards (with their own alphabets ... (view more)

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has backed plans to introduce laws on net neutrality . Unfortunately, they face political and legal challenges which appear to have the support of major Internet carriers. In a unanimous vote, the ... five-strong commission agreed to give force to the principles of net neutrality: that Internet providers treat all legal Internet traffic equally . That would outlaw practices such as slowing down access to people using peer-to-peer file-sharing, or blocking applications from running on cellphone networks. The vote doesn't guarantee the rules will come ... (view more)

The battle between Bing and Google has heated up with both sides agreeing to deals with micro-blogging site Twitter. In addition, Microsoft has reached a separate agreement with Facebook, while Google is launching its own, unique search tool for ... social networking sites. User demand is behind decisions by Microsoft and Google to include social networking in search results . While both search sites update their index of web pages regularly, they still struggle to cope with very recent information such as current events. While both Google and Bing have dedicated searches of news websites, that ... (view more)