John Lister

Apple chief Steve Jobs has quashed speculation that the company might switch Mac computers to an App Store system. It comes as a relief to software developers who won't have to go through the same approval process as with portable Apple devices. A ... report published by programmers Rixstep last week claimed that Apple was to end the current system by which, as with most computing platforms, any compatible software can run on a Mac computer and can be installed at will by the user. Rixstep claimed that software developers would have to pay $99 for membership in an Apple program, that they'd have ... (view more)

McAfee is facing a major backlash in sales this morning after a buggy security update left many customers' computers effectively unusable. Worst still, some analysts are predicting that an automated solution may not be possible. As we reported ... yesterday , the problem is the result of a recent McAfee antivirus update gone awry, which then caused the antivirus program to identify legitimate Windows files as being virus infected. The end result was that the legitimate Windows files were sent to a quarantine, resulting in thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of crashes PCs. The problem ... (view more)

A former presidential advisor has called for the US government to reclassify the legal status of the Internet. It follows concerns that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may not have the statutory authority to enforce "net neutrality" ... principles or to go ahead with proposed plans to expand Internet access. The FCC has historically sought to uphold the idea of net neutrality. This is the principle that, with the exception of illegal material, all Internet traffic should be treated equally by carriers. This would mean, for example, that an Internet service provider couldn't charge ... (view more)

A major video games producer says it will begin phasing out printed manuals in a bid to cut down on waste. Ubisoft, makers of the acclaimed Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell series, say the move will save both paper and the energy used in ... production. Beginning with the next Shaun White Skateboarding game sometime before the end of 2010, Ubisoft will include the manual, along with safety and legal information, within the game itself. The company says this will offer an easier and more intuitive way of accessing the information. (Source: gamespot.com ) That will certainly be easier to achieve ... (view more)

Toshiba says it will be launching its own line of tablet computers to rival the Apple iPad later this year. That follows on from a similar announcement by netbook specialists Asus earlier this month . Toshiba may be working on more than two tablet ... machines, one running Windows 7, the other Google's Android operating system (OS). It says that as well as considering a 10-inch screen model, it's also looking at producing a dual-screen device, though the dual-screen version would run Windows 7 only. (Source: reuters.com ) That sounds similar to Microsoft's Courier project, which involves a ... (view more)

Google has announced it will ask all users to reconfirm their preferred privacy settings on its social networking site 'Buzz'. It follows a controversial launch in which many believed, correctly or otherwise, that their privacy had been compromised. ... Buzz is Google's rival to Facebook and Twitter. It's integrated into Gmail and allows users to follow and reply to posts made by people they decide to follow on the service. The service also allows users to share information from other Google-owned services such as Google Reader (an RSS newsreader) and picture-sharing site Picasa. It was clearly ... (view more)

Microsoft, like competitor Apple before it, has become embroiled in a scandal over the treatment of its foreign workers. But it's arguably more embarrassing, as the details continue to emerge via third-party investigation. When stories broke about ... labor violations among staff working overseas on Apple products, the negative publicity was tempered by the fact that it was Apple's own program which uncovered the abuses. That's not the case with the Microsoft allegations, however. The claims come in a report by the National Labor Committee, an independent pressure group which aims to uncover and ... (view more)

Google has unveiled several changes to its cloud-computing based office application service, Google Docs. Changes include the ability to collaborate on documents in real time and improvements to the spreadsheet editor. While Google Docs is a free ... service, and meant as a more basic edition of Google's paid Apps package, it is used by many business users -- particularly those on tight budgets. That explains today's launch of the Docs updates at Google headquarters, which was attended by chief information officers from 400 companies. Google Docs Allows for Collaborative Editing The big update ... (view more)

This month's security updates from Microsoft will cover every currently supported edition of Windows. That means home users should check carefully if they don't have automatic updates switched on, while businesses will need to plan how they will ... apply the patches. As happens on the second Tuesday of every month, Microsoft will release its Patch Tuesday security fix for issues affecting the Windows operating system (OS). This month, though, there was an exception: an emergency patch released on March 30th for a serious security flaw in Internet Explorer versions 6 and 7. At the time, several ... (view more)

Microsoft has released a revised beta edition of Windows High Performance Computer Server (HPC Server), in its effort to crack the supercomputing market. The new edition makes several changes which improve integration with Linux machines. ... Supercomputing is all about processing speed: the idea being to produce computers capable of performing as many calculations as possible. The types of employed tasks tend not to be technically complicated, but instead involve a great deal of detail. A typical example of supercomputing would be data modeling, in which a computer simulates future events where ... (view more)