Google's sister company is to build a mini-city in Toronto that includes a range of technologies built into the infrastructure. It's designed partly to help locals and partly as a test bed for new technology. The 68-acre project on the Lake Toronto ... waterfront is led by Sidewalk Labs - a spin-off company that's owned by Google's parent company Alphabet. It's a partnership with the city and won't involve Google owning any land or acting as a landlord, though Google will move its Canadian headquarters to the area. It'll be part of a wider regeneration project covering 800 acres. Free Public WiFi ... (view more)

The latest major update to Windows 10 starts rolling out to the general public this week. Some of the most useful changes will be behind the scenes, but there will be the first hints in a longer-term program to revamp the way the system looks on ... screen. The "Fall Creators Update" is the latest of the twice-yearly major Windows 10 updates that add new features. That's in contrast to the more frequent updates that fix performance and security problems. As usual, it's been available to people in Microsoft's testing programs before this roll out. Windows 10 Fall Creators Update will be a ... (view more)

One of the key security protections in WiFi has a serious vulnerability, a researcher has revealed. The exploit has to do with the protocol "WPA2" - currently considered the most secure protocol commonly used on WiFi routers and hotspots. Here's ... what you need to know about the WPA2 exploit. What's the problem and what does it affect? Security researcher Mathy Vanhoef has published a demonstration for what he's called "KRACKs," short for key reinstallation attacks. That's a way of exploiting a weakness in WPA2 (WiFi Protected Access II), the security system that is most ... (view more)

Infopackets Ready Sally G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just bought a new Windows 10 laptop and the touchpad scroll does not appear to be working. On my old Vista laptop, I had a scroll bar on the touchpad (on the far right), but the new Windows 10 ... laptop doesn't have this feature. Normally when I open a PDF file I need to zoom in and out. I would do this on the old laptop by pressing CTRL on my keyboard and using the scroll bar on the touchpad. On this laptop, I am at a complete loss. Can you tell me how I can fix my touchpad scroll? " My response: Each laptop manufacturer has their own way of ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Sarah H. writes: " Dear Dennis, A few days ago, my PC got stuck updating Windows 10 (for over 30 minutes), so I pulled the power cord out. After that, Windows wouldn't boot to the desktop. It would give me blue screen of death ... (BSOD), then reboot, then BSOD, ad infinitum. I knew it was stuck in a reboot loop, so I decided to install Windows 10 again. During the Windows 10 setup, it asks me to select where to install Windows. I selected the C drive, but I get an error message that says: ' Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition ... (view more)

T-Mobile has fixed a bug that let hackers get sensitive personal data just by using a phone number. In theory, it could have been possible to collect details on all the company's customers, though T-Mobile denies this. The problem was discovered by ... Karan Saini, a security researcher who discussed the problem with the Motherboard Vice website. The site then approached T-Mobile about the problem. It said "we were alerted to an issue that we investigated and fully resolved in less than 24 hours. There is no indication that it was shared more broadly." (Source: vice.com ) The bug had to do with T ... (view more)

Users of a popular ad-blocking tool have been warned to watch out for a bogus version of the tool. One copy of the fake Adblock Plus was downloaded 37,000 times before being removed from the Google Chrome store. The legitimate version of Adblock ... Plus is one of the most popular tools available as a Chrome extension: a third-party tool that can be added directly to the browser itself. The makers claim that more than a hundred million devices are actively using the tool. The bogus version is particularly ironic, though not in a way that victims would appreciate: rather than block ads, it ... (view more)

Microsoft says it won't add any new features or devices for Windows 10 Mobile. It's a sign that hopes Windows 10 would revive the company's smartphone presence have largely failed. While what was then called Windows Mobile was once technically the ... most common smartphone operating system, it faded behind Apple's iOS and Google's Android as smartphones became more widely used. The attempt to relaunch under "Windows Phone" failed to make a breakthrough, and the system fell well under a one percent market share. The most recent figures suggest just one in every three thousand phones ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Giselle' writes: " Dear Dennis, Recently my Windows 10 computer upgraded to the 'Creators Edition', and now the Windows 10 'Photos' app has magically replaced the 'Windows Photo Viewer'. I absolutely can't stand the 'Photos' app ... and I want Windows Photo Viewer back on my system! I have tried going to Control Panel -> Default Programs to change the settings but Windows Photo Viewer is nowhere to be found! Can you help? " My response: I also noticed that the Windows Photo Viewer went missing with the Creators Edition update. Windows Photo Viewer has been a staple in ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jill G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a Windows 7 Pro machine that we use at work which has a broken Windows Update. I have tried to do an 'upgrade repair' in hopes of fixing the issue, but the Windows installer exits immediately. ... The major issue we're facing is that our Windows 7 machine has new user accounts on it which we did not create - we suspect that it has become compromised because it has not downloaded Windows Updates in over a year. From what I read online, it is possible to upgrade from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 8 Pro (not 8.1!) which will keep my programs and ... (view more)