John Lister

Facebook has a new solution for people who are having trouble accessing their accounts: if you sign up for the site's 'Trusted Contacts' feature, you can log in with a little help from your friends. The system is designed for people who've forgotten ... their password and is an alternative to existing security measures that involve answering questions and awaiting a confirmation email. Using the feature you can designate between three and five people from your Facebook friends list as Trusted Contacts. If and when you are unable to access your account and trigger the feature, Facebook will send a ... (view more)

Google Glass blends advanced smartphone technology with your average set of spectacles. But people who've used the first batch of Google Glass devices say the technology suffers from a number of problems. Google Glass is described as a wearable ... computer. It has most of the components of a smartphone, including an earpiece and voice-recognition microphone. The display is a tiny transparent screen that fits over one eye. Google Glass allows users to carry out a range of functions, including taking photographs, carrying out voice-activated Internet searches, and acquiring navigation data. The ... (view more)

Twenty years ago this week the World Wide Web's technology became publicly available. To mark the event, the first-ever website has been recreated and republished. The web began at CERN, a research facility for particle physics in Switzerland. In ... recent years it has become well known for housing the Large Hadron Collider instrument used to hunt down the Higgs Boson, a previously undetected particle that could help explain how the universe works. Back in 1989 Tim Berners-Lee, one of the people working at CERN, came up with the idea of the web as a way to make it easier for researchers to share ... (view more)

Nokia has launched a $20 cellphone that comes with no service commitments. The handset lacks many modern mobile tech features but lasts up to 35 days before requiring a recharge. Originally the Nokia 105 handset was designed for the developing ... world. However, the company is now expanding the device's release area to include Europe. The phone boasts 12.5 hours of talk time or 35 days on standby. It's also designed to prevent dust or liquids getting into the phone through the keypad, something that may be particularly useful in some remote areas. The rest of the phone is relatively basic, with ... (view more)

Spanish police have arrested a man on suspicion of masterminding one of the largest online attacks ever recorded. The suspect appears to be the chief of a controversial web hosting company who had begun a rivalry with the anti-spamming group hit by ... the attack. According to Dutch prosecutors the man arrested was a 35-year-old Netherlands resident with the initials 'S.K.' That appears to match Sven Kamphuis, a senior figure at Cyberbunker. (Source: om.nl ) Cyberbunker is a web hosting company known for having a particularly relaxed attitude to the online activities of its customers. That led to ... (view more)

T-Mobile's "No Contract" deal is supposed to let a customer sever their relationship with the wireless carrier at any moment. However, Washington state officials have ordered the firm to offer refunds to people who didn't realize that quitting the ... contract would come with a fee. With most smartphone deals, the user only pays a portion of the cost of the handset, while the service provider picks up the rest of the tab. In return, the user is tied to a minimum service term (usually lasting two to three years), during which they must pay a steep early termination fee if they choose to cancel the ... (view more)

Google has agreed to make significant changes to the way it displays search results. The move is designed to ward off sanctions from European officials. For some time the European Commission has been carrying out an investigation of Google's ... operations. The goal of that investigation has been to determine whether or not Google's dominance of the search market harms competition. The commission says it identified four main ways in which Google's behavior might breach regulations. The most important involves claims that Google intentionally lists sites and services that it owns higher up in the ... (view more)

The Department of Transportation (DoT) is calling on automakers to disable technologies that allow someone to send text messages while driving. However, the DoT is only making recommendations and cannot yet force automotive firms to follow its ... advice. The new guidelines are based around electronic devices that are built directly into vehicles, such as GPS navigation devices and communications tools. The DoT has two main recommendations. The first is that such equipment should never force a driver to stop looking at the road for more than two seconds at a time to carry out an action. Officials ... (view more)

According to a new study from Verizon, almost one in three of the world's cyber attacks originate in China. The study also revealed that Chinese attackers are more interested in cyberespionage than stealing money. The figures are part of Verizon's ... annual Data Breach Investigations Report. The report aims to bring together data from cybercrime experts from around the world. This year the data covers a total of 47,000 "security incidents," though the vast majority of these incidents appear to have been failed attacks. Only 621 cases are known to have involved an actual breach of security with ... (view more)

Amazon plans to broadcast pilot episodes for 14 new television shows, with viewers deciding which programs deserve to become a full-length series. The pilots will air free-of-charge on Amazon.com in the United States. In the United Kingdom, viewers ... can watch the content on 'Lovefilm'. Although you'll need to register an account to see the shows, you won't need to have a paid subscription to Amazon Prime or Lovefilm to watch these episodes. Although Amazon will be asking for feedback, it isn't simply having a "winner takes all" vote to decide a winner. Instead, it will look at responses and ... (view more)