software

A company that rents both furniture and PCs has been accused of spying on its customers. A lawsuit alleges Aaron's Inc remotely accessed a spy camera on a PC to take a shot of a customer using it. No Disclosure of Spy Software The claims arose in a ... case involving a customer who had taken a computer from Aaron's Inc on a rent-to-own agreement. That allows a customer to pay a monthly fee for a set period: after this period they own it outright, but before then they can also simply return it and stop paying. In the case of customer Brian Byrd, Aaron's believed he had stopped paying (which ... (view more)

With a range between 3,000 to 5,000 tweets per second , it is no wonder that so many people found out about the capture (and subsequent demise) of Osama Bin Laden via Twitter earlier in the week. While the majority of people world-wide learned about ... the covert operation only after it was complete, a few thousand people were in fact following the sting in real time via a live Twitter feed hosted in Abbottabad. Man Blogs About Raid Without Knowing About It Sohaib Athar, the man behind the blog, now believes that one of his Twitter followers might have actually been a hacker looking to prey on ... (view more)

According to news agencies, Kaspersky Antivirus founder Eugene Kaspersky's son has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom in Russia. Unconfirmed reports, including a bulletin from BBC News, state that 20-year-old Ivan Kaspersky was nabbed while ... on his way to work. Eugene Kaspersky is the founder of Moscow-based security company Kaspersky Labs, a world leader in software designed to protect PCs from viruses and malware. The firm says its products are currently being used by more than 300 million people around the world, making it the third-largest security software company in the world. ... (view more)

In taking advantage of a security loophole, hackers have hijacked as many as four million website pages over the past week. It's thought to be the biggest attack of its type, ever. The attacks have been dubbed LizaMoon, named after the first ... destination to which visitors of hijacked sites were redirected. The hijack campaign has proven to be incredibly successful: on the first day, security firm Websense estimated 28,000 web sites were affected, but within three days that figure had risen to 500,000. Two days later and the number of affected pages were estimated to be as high as three or four ... (view more)

Special note: this article has been broken into two parts, as the question and answer is somewhat technical. I've gone to great lengths to make this as easy as possible and have provided step-by-step instructions on converting VHS to DVD, as we ... receive this question a lot from our readers. This first article describes how to do VHS to DVD conversion / transfer using USB video capture hardware. The second article explains how to make any video file (including any VHS videos you transfer to your PC) play in a DVD player: either connected to your TV, or playable in your PC. Infopackets Reader ... (view more)

Google has restored access to email for around 40,000 customers whose accounts were mistakenly wiped clean this past Sunday. It says the delay in sorting the problem was because it had to restore from a physical back-up. The problem began on Sunday ... afternoon when some customers found either they were unable to access their Gmail accounts, or that the accounts appeared as if they were open. That is to say, there were no messages whatsoever in the archive, except for a welcome message from Google. Google said it was working on the problem and noted that in cases where users were unable to log- ... (view more)

Update 2012/01/16: : The 37% discount expires this coming Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 @ 11:59PM EST. Reserve your copy before the deadline and you'll also receive System Tweaker software as a free bonus! Satisfaction guaranteed for 30 days or your ... money back. Details at the end of the review. Are you looking to speed up your computer, but are on a tight budget? Do you enjoy learning about computer hardware and how it interacts with software? If so, you'll find this software review highly informative. -- I get asked all the time, "Dennis, what can I do to make my PC faster?" The simple answer ... (view more)

Microsoft is set to plug a coding loophole that allows users of the new Windows Phone 7 system to run unauthorized software on it, an action known as jailbreaking . But it's agreed to meet the developers of the tool that took advantage of that ... loophole. The jailbreaking tool in question, called Chevron , helps users get around one of the key restrictions Microsoft put on the phones: that it's only possible to run applications that have been approved by, and downloaded from, Microsoft's own "Marketplace" store. Chevron to be Disabled in Upcoming Release Chevron worked by unlocking a special ... (view more)

Update 2011/11/23: We've contacted PCTools and were able to finagle a generous 30% discount for Registry Mechanic 2011 (PC optimizer) for our Readers. This offer expires Wed, Dec 07, 2011 at 11:59PM EST, so don't wait! This most excellent deal ... includes a 3 PC license (you can use it on 1, 2, or 3 Windows PCs: both 32 *and* 64bit supported). An fantastic bargain, indeed! Proceeds from this sale support our website. Access the 30% discount here , or continue reading the review below. The Registry Mechanic 2011 download + 30% discount link are also at the end of the review. Excellent news for ... (view more)

For those of you who dislike the pesky anti-piracy measures used by software companies, here's good news: Microsoft will discontinue its program of additional anti-piracy monitoring for its MS Office software. A few years ago Microsoft introduced ... Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), an anti-piracy measure that checked the validity of user operating systems by dialing into their computers. PCs found to be running illegal copies of Windows had their operating system desktop screen turned black with a message that their PC may be running counterfeit software. Microsoft Office Genuine Advantage ... (view more)