John Lister

Microsoft and Google have both put plenty of effort into artificial intelligence in recent months. After an initial wow factor, they've been plagued with a host of problems. Interest in AI-text shot up with the public release of ChatGPT, a tool that ... can not only simulate conversations with the user and answer questions, but also write articles and other text in a variety of styles. While it appears extremely clever, it's effectively an extremely souped-up version of the auto-predict feature many phones offer when sending text messages. ChatGPT is produced by an independent developer called ... (view more)

Internet providers have been accused of misleading claims as to where they offer service. The apparently false information could affect which areas benefit from a $42 billion government fund to get more homes online. Internet service providers have ... supplied data to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for coverage maps as part of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program. That will help fund broadband networks in areas that don't currently have access, usually because they are too remote or sparsely populated to make it commercially worthwhile for companies to install new ... (view more)

The average US broadband subscriber uses almost 600GB a month according to new estimates. The figures also show people on an affordable connection program are making the most of it. The figures come from OpenVault, a company that provides technology ... for "optimizing networks," which naturally means it has an interest in showing broadband networks are under strain. According to the report, the average use was 586.7GB a month, up almost 10 percent last year. That includes both uploads and downloads, which remain in roughly the same proportion as last year. The averages are certainly being driven ... (view more)

A new, unofficial version of Windows 11 runs on older machines with extremely limited memory and storage. In practice, though, Tiny11 is more for enthusiasts than the average user. Officially Windows 11 needs at least 4GB of RAM and 64GB of hard ... drive space. The specs are a big increase from Windows 10 following several previous Windows editions where the minimum specs either increased slowly or remained steady. That prompted debate about what elements of Windows boost the memory and storage requirements and whether those elements are really necessary or desirable. Now a Romanian tech ... (view more)

iPhones could soon act as wireless chargers for other devices. It's been in the works for many years but will likely be restricted to premium models. The logic behind the move is that modern smartphones have high battery capacity (even if iPhones ... don't always have the best reputation for long battery life). That could be a source of power for smaller devices such as smart watches and wireless earphones. Although such devices usually last longer between charges, that can be a disadvantage for charging. That's because the chances of them running out of power when the user is away from home are ... (view more)

Chrome users on Android devices may soon have an "emergency" button to delete the last 15 minutes of browsing history. It's a simplified version of existing settings and follows a similar tool for search history. The search delete tool has been ... available for nearly a year now, but doesn't appear to be widely known about. It's not on the Chrome browser app but rather the dedicated search tool that's accessible on many devices by swiping right from the home screen. Users simply need to click on their profile picture and then select the "Delete last 15 minutes" option. Now it appears a ... (view more)

The market for smartphones, tablets and PCs will shrink for a second straight year according to a newly-published forecast. The phone slump could mean the lowest number of units leaving manufacturers since 2009. Gartner, which produced the figures, ... says factors behind the trend include the economy, changing consumer behavior, and a lack of innovation. The forecast isn't for sales but rather shipments: that is, the number of devices which manufacturers send to retailers. It's affected by both recent sales and forecast for future sales. For example, shipments may drop if retailers have a ... (view more)

A former Facebook employee says the company deliberately drained the batteries of users as an experiment. George Hayward made the claims in a lawsuit that he has now withdrawn. Hayward says he was fired for refusing to work on the experiments. He ... originally sued the company, but has now withdrawn the case because of a rule that says he must go to arbitration. The lawsuit said the possibility of completely draining a battery and making phones inoperable put users at risk. This was especially the case "in circumstances where they need to communicate with others, including but not limited to ... (view more)

The FBI says it disrupted a major ransomware network that had already taken around $100 million in payments. It says its work to infiltrate the Hive group saved a potential $130 million in future demands. The group is said to have compromised ... networks run by hospitals and schools among other organizations. The $100 million compares with an estimated annual total of $886 million payments in the US across all ransomware attacks. (Source: nbcnews.com ) Scammers Pay Royalties Hive is one of the more notorious "ransomware-as-a-service" groups. Its business model means individual attackers will use ... (view more)

The next version of Android may make it much harder to install and run apps from third party sources. The change will mainly affect older apps that haven't been updated in some time. Unlike with Apple's iPhones, Android handsets aren't restricted to ... apps from the official App Store. Users may either use other app stores (other than the Google Play Store), or download and manually install apps from the web in a process known as "sideloading." Doing this doesn't require any "hacking" of the device, though users do have to change the phone's settings and confirm they understand the ... (view more)