Internet

A couple have reportedly named their daughter after an Internet company in return for 18 years of free mobile broadband. Perhaps fortunately the girl now only has "Twifia" as a middle name. The couple took up a promotional offer from Swiss company ... Twifi. It made the offer to any parents who named their child with Twifia or Twifius. It's not clear why the offer covers these variations rather than the brand name itself. The deal requires a parent to upload a photograph of the birth certificate with one of the names on it and await verification. They will then get 18 years of service for the ... (view more)

Review site Yelp is to highlight businesses that have been accused of racist behavior. Critics argue the policy is open to malicious abuse. Yelp says over this summer it has noticed a surge in reviews which warn users of racist behavior. However, it ... believes many of these may be written by people reporting to social media or news reports of such activity, rather than from their own experience of using a business. According to Yelp, it needed to change its policy to deal with two issues. The first is that its rules only allow reviews based on first-hand experience. The second is that it ... (view more)

Google is doubling the top speed of its Fiber broadband service to 2Gbps, though it will cost $100 a month. It also says the speed will be available through its 'wireless' service for businesses. The original idea for Google Fiber - at least ... according to the company - was to use its buying power and technology to offer an alternative high-speed service in areas which either had no serious broadband available or were served only by a single company that exploited its monopoly. The problem is that while the service itself has had good reviews, Google doesn't offer it in many places. Only a ... (view more)

The new record for fastest Internet connection is quick enough to download everything on Netflix in under a second. It's safe to say the average home user won't see such speeds, but the techniques used to achieve the speeds could benefit everyone. ... The transfer was done over a fiber-optic cable between computers 25 miles apart. It reached a peak speed of 178 terabits per second. That's around 20 percent faster than the previous record and five times the speed of the fastest connections currently in regular use, namely cables running between machines in data centers. University College London, ... (view more)

Google is experimenting with a way to make Chrome use less power when a laptop battery is starting to run out. But it will rely on website owners to make it happen. The test is of a "Battery-Savings Meta Tag" which can be added to a website's code ... and will include battery saving recommendations specific to that site. These would then kick in whenever the computer is at a particular battery level. The idea is to avoid having Chrome itself simply take blanket measures that might not be appropriate for all websites. Video Frame Rate Lowered One of the examples Google gives is for a tag to say ... (view more)

Average broadband speeds have dipped during 2020, almost certainly because people spent more time streaming video. It's a reversal of normal trends but could have been a lot worse. The figures come from cable.co.uk, which includes a speed testing ... feature. It says normally the global average figures measured by such tests will rise by at least 20 percent each year, which is largely because of improved infrastructure. However, across tests in 114 countries, speeds are actually down 6.31 percent from the beginning of the year. Only two regions (the Baltics and Carribbean) had an average rise, ... (view more)

Microsoft is making two changes to make notifications less disruptive but still useful. The changes affects Microsoft's Edge browser and follow in the footsteps of changes made in Chrome and Firefox. The first change affects standard notifications ... which appear at the top of the screen. They bring information from a website even when the user doesn't have it open. For example, a video streaming site might display a notification when it uploads a new episode of a series the user has watched in the past. Browser makers have struggled to get the balance right between satisfying users who find ... (view more)

Two years ago Facebook commissioned an audit on its effect on civil rights. The results are in, and they don't make for pretty reading. The report makes a series of suggestions for Facebook to change its policies, but the company says it won't ... implement all of them. Arguably the most damaging conclusion in the report is that Facebook isn't just hosting extremist views and hatred, but that its very setup may actually be encouraging and boosting such material. The biggest criticism is that Facebook's own algorithms may have pushed users towards "self-reinforcing echo chambers of extremism." The ... (view more)

Facebook chief says the site will let users opt-out of seeing political advertising for this year's US presidential elections. But the site won't seek to block controversial content posted by politicians themselves unless it breaks the law. Writing ... in USA Today, company chief Mark Zuckerberg announced a voter registration drive. Facebook will have a dedicated section with information about how to register, cast a vote, or arrange mail-in or early votes. The section will include verified content from election officials. This section will be promoted at the top of user's news feeds and on ... (view more)

Google is increasing privacy on Chrome with a change to the way it connects users to websites. But businesses will be able to disable the move so they can keep tabs on staff. The change is to the way Chrome connects with Domain Name Servers (DNS), ... which act a little like a telephone directory for the Internet. A DNS takes a website address that a user types into their browser and finds the matching IP address, which identifies the specific connection to the device such as a server (or service) that physically stores the website's files. In the past, the connection between Chrome and a DNS was ... (view more)