Archive for the ‘PC Software’ Category
February 19th, 2009 | 
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A service launched this week unblocks Caller ID information that the caller thinks is blocked, causing concern among those who help abused women.
TrapCall.com lets people rig some AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA phones so that if a call comes in with blocked Caller ID and is rejected, it rings again, this time displaying the number of the caller.
The basic service if free. The Web site charges for plans with more advanced services, like call recording and Caller ID with name.
The Web site said the service can be useful for people who get harassing phone calls…
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A federal judge has ruled against a US couple who accused Google of invading their privacy by publishing a Street View picture of their house in the Internet giant’s free online map service.
US magistrate judge Amy Reynolds Hay on Tuesday rejected the couple’s claims that Google owed them cash damages for using a picture of their Pennsylvania property snapped from a private road.
Google uses cars equipped with cameras to drive about taking 360-degree images it weaves into its mapping service in a Street View feature that provides online glimpses of selected locations.
In April of last year, Aaron and Christine Boring of Pennsylvania filed suit charging Google with trespass, negligence, invasion of privacy, and unjustly enriching itself by profiting from the photo of their property…
Google will use its software skills to help consumers track their home energy usage and thereby lower demand and the global warming emissions that come from producing electricity.
The move is part of Google’s effort to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into renewable energy, electricity-grid upgrades and other measures that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The company has already invested in several fledgling solar, wind and geothermal companies, as well as two “smart grid” companies.
Smart grid describes a more efficient, less costly method of moving electricity along long-distance transmission lines to local power lines and end-users in homes and businesses.
On its official company blog, Google said it is developing a smart grid tool called Google PowerMeter that will show home energy consumption almost in real time on a user’s computer…
Yahoo has taken new steps to sharpen its Webmail service’s antispam capabilities, including the adoption of two commercial technologies and the testing of an open-source system, the company said Tuesday.
Abaca announced that Yahoo will use its e-mail security technology designed to detect malicious phishing and spam messages and filter them out of Yahoo Mail inboxes.
Meanwhile, Return Path said separately that Yahoo will implement its Complaint Feedback Loop, a service that notifies legitimate e-mail marketers whenever end users tag their messages as spam, so that they can investigate why, such as using an incorrect mailing list, and take corrective action…
Microsoft launched downloads of the public test version of its new version of Windows on Saturday, after a one-day delay due to overwhelming demand.
The “beta” launch of the highly anticipated update to Microsoft’s Windows franchise was to began on Friday, but the company had to halt downloads to add more servers.
A Microsoft spokesman said on Monday that the company did not yet have a tally of how many copies of the program have been downloaded.
However, it has eliminated its limit of 2.5 million copies for the first two weeks of availability, to allow more people to get a copy…
Breaking news: something’s happening to the internet, right now. We’re just not quite sure what.
Interoute, the internet networks company, reports that three of the four internet sub-cables that run from Asia to North America have been damaged.
These carry more than 75 per cent of traffic between the Middle East, Europe and America. It’s hard to gather what this actually means – is it that the internet is down or (more likely) significantly slower than usual between the Middle East and America? (If you’re reading this, let’s face it, the internet has not shut down altogether)…
Microsoft yesterday rolled back a recent change to Windows Live Hotmail, more than a month after users had complained bitterly about a new interface the company unveiled in September.
“We heard many users say that they had trouble navigating through Hotmail, especially if they had a smaller monitor,” Microsoft’s Hotmail team wrote on its company blog. “We’ve decided to make a significant change in our product: Hotmail will scroll like classic Hotmail.”
Hotmail users who logged onto the service also received a message alerting them to the change. “We’ve changed the way that scrolling works for users who have the reading pane turned off. It’ll look more like Classic Hotmail if your reading pane is off,” the message read.
Hundreds of users had complained about the new interface on earlier blog entries by the Hotmail developers, upset over the interface redesign and angry about glitches that prevented them from reading their mail. Some also dinged Hotmail’s new look and navigation…
The group representing the U.S. recording industry said Friday it has abandoned its policy of suing people for sharing songs protected by copyright and will work with Internet service providers to cut abusers’ access if they ignore repeated warnings.
The move ends a controversial program that saw the Recording Industry Association of America sue about 35,000 people since 2003 for swapping songs online. Because of high legal costs for defenders, virtually all of those hit with lawsuits settled, on average for around $3,500. The association’s legal costs, in the meantime, exceeded the settlement money it brought in.
The association said Friday that it stopped sending out new lawsuits and warnings in August, and then agreed with several leading U.S. Internet service providers, without naming which ones, to notify alleged illegal file-sharers and cut off service if they failed to stop…
Google is shifting its Web browser out of test mode just 100 days after its debut, an unusually quick transition for a company known for keeping the “beta” tag on some products for years.
Thursday’s removal of the test label from Google’s browser, called Chrome, underscores its importance to the Internet search leader.
Google is trying to lure Web surfers away from the leading browsers, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Firefox.
In the process, Google hopes Chrome makes it easier to gather insights about users’ preferences and extends the popularity of its online applications, which are supposed to run more smoothly and quickly in Chrome.
Since its Sept. 2 introduction, Chrome has attracted more than 10 million active users around the world, according to a Google blog posting that announced the browser’s upgrade.
Microsoft says it will discontinue sales of its subscription PC security service and instead offer free software to help protect computers from viruses, spyware and other threats.
With the move, the software giant appears to be taking aim at McAfee and Symantec, its chief rivals in the PC security market.
Microsoft plans to halt sales of its Windows Live OneCare service on June 30. The service being discontinued costs $US49.95 a year and covers up to three PCs.
The new security program, which the company has code-named “Morro”, will be available as a free download in the second half of next year…
