John Lister

After several years of trending market share losses by Internet Explorer (IE), Microsoft's flagship browser appears to be winning back some customers. However, experts suggest the resurgence may not represent a permanent reversal of fortune. Web ... statistics firm Net Applications now reports that the proportion of web users worldwide who are running Internet Explorer has risen in each of the past three months, while Google Chrome has consistently dropped during the same period. The recent growth is a notable change in a long-term Internet Explorer trend of losing its dominance over Google's ... (view more)

Congress has rejected a bill that would have barred employers from demanding workers reveal their passwords for social networking sites. The vote won't have any immediate effect, but could lead to further legal cases on the issue. The U.S. House of ... Representatives considered the topic as part of a wider bill that aims to limit the power of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by restricting the way it makes new regulations. There's no guarantee the bill itself would ever become law. Even if it passed the House, it may be rejected by the Senate or vetoed by the President. Representative ... (view more)

Research In Motion (RIM), based in Waterloo, Canada, has decided it will no longer target its Blackberry and related products at ordinary consumers. Instead, it will concentrate solely on the business market. A big reason is no doubt that the ... company lost $125 million in just the last three months of 2011. Thorsten Heins, the company's recently hired chief executive officer, said "We believe that BlackBerry cannot succeed if we tried to be everybody's darling and all things to all people." (Source: usatoday.com ) Apple iPhone Popularity Too Much for RIM, BlackBerry RIM first made its name ... (view more)

On the first April Fool's Day to fall on a weekend in five years, there was less opportunity to trick people surfing the web at work. But that didn't stop Google from posting a slew of clever and very bogus tech-related stories. The company ... unleashed at least seven different gags, many of which were gathered together in a "promotional video". It seems as if Google was using a scattergun approach in the hope that even people who spotted most of the jokes would get caught out by at least one. Google Maps Gets Major Downgrade Rather naughtily, Google's first gag came before the day of ... (view more)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says it wants consumers to know exactly what private details about them a company is collecting, storing, using, and sharing. The new regulations would be part of a plan to encourage businesses to be more ... transparent, open and honest about how they treat their customers' personal information. The FTC already has sufficient powers to establish mandatory regulations about how businesses treat their customers. In this matter, however, the agency has sought approval from Congress, suggesting that the contemplated changes would be substantial enough to go beyond ... (view more)

A new hacking group has emerged under a familiar name: LulzSec. Infiltrating dating and communications sites, its activity has led experts to fear that more copycat hacking organizations will emerge this year. The new group calls itself LulzSec ... Reborn, a clear rip-off of the LulzSec name made infamous last year. That rather unique moniker came from a combination of hacker lingo for "laughing out loud" with a short-hand name for "security." First Target of 'LulzSec Reborn' Attack: Single Soldiers The new group's first target was MilitarySingles, an online dating site for soldiers and other ... (view more)

PayPal has unwrapped a new device that allows anyone with a smartphone to accept credit card payments. Unlike some other systems, "PayPal Here" doesn't require any special chips be installed in the phone itself. The idea is to tackle two existing ... problems for merchants who want to take credit and debit card payments: First, card payments usually require the merchant to have a device with telephone connectivity, to allow instant bank verification of the customer's identity and account. Second, taking such payments often entails hefty fees from the card-issuing bank, the merchant's ... (view more)

Google is currently getting grilled by French officials over the way it handles customer privacy. At the same time, the search giant is also facing stern criticism from British politicians regarding the way it deals with complaints involving illegal ... websites. The French authority that governs data handling in the country, the Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertes, (CNIL) has even slapped the company with a deadline of April 6, by which it must answer to the Commission. The CNIL is currently leading a Europe-wide probe into Google's recent changes to its privacy policies. ... (view more)

According to a new report from Verizon, the majority of data stolen last year was the work of "hacktivists," many of whom were hoping to send a political message. According to security experts, this means that attacks by hackers seeking financial ... gain were, for the first time ever, overshadowed by other motivations for breaching security systems. The report, called "Data Breach Investigations," details examinations by Verizon of 855 security breaches. Ninety of the attacks were found within the ranks of Verizon's own customers, and 765 came from law enforcement agency ... (view more)

A major microprocessor company has designed a new chip that requires far less energy to work than more conventional chip designs. The breakthrough could allow millions of non-computing devices to benefit from an Internet connection. The new design ... comes from British-based firm ARM Holdings, which builds the processors used in most smartphones. While PC chips generally require so much power from batteries that they are limited to only a few hours of portable operation, the new ARMchip allows smartphones to run for several days without recharging. Cheap and Tiny 'Flycatcher' Chip Uses One-Third ... (view more)