John Lister

YouTube is trying to make it harder for users to distribute 'adult' content. It's part of a plan to clean up the site to avoid scaring off would-be advertisers. The video-sharing site is already much cleaner than many rivals, barring clips with any ... nudity -- let alone sexually explicit content. However, from now on any content deemed too 'suggestive' will be restricted to viewing by those over 18. The formulas used to generate lists of 'most viewed' clips and those which most people have marked as favourites will be redesigned to minimise the likelihood of suggestive clips appearing on the ... (view more)

Blockbuster has launched a service might save couch potatoes from travelling to their doorstep. The online MediaPoint player allows customers to 'rent' any of 2,000 titles for immediate viewing. The announcement may be the answer to Blockbuster's ... continued difficulty in making a viable business out of Movielink, the online video company it bought last year. The firm was created by a partnership of the major movie houses which appears to have lost a massive amount in selling to Blockbuster for $20 million. (Source: arstechnica.com ) The new service is Blockbuster's answer to similar offerings ... (view more)

Google has unveiled technology that allows search users to customize their results and even post comments about particular sites for other users to read. However, the firm has dropped a separate unbranded search engine which it had been using to ... test out new features. The main feature of the new SearchWiki tool is a series of buttons which appears next to each result whenever you search while signed into a Google account (such as Gmail). The first, an arrow pointing upwards, allows you to move a site up the list of the results. (After doing so, you also then get the option to move it down ... (view more)

For the first time ever, fewer than 90% of computer users are running Windows. The figures show the growing success of rival operating systems -- though there's no sign of Microsoft losing its dominant position any time soon. The figures come from ... Internet services firm Net Applications. They regularly measure which operating system users are using when connecting to web sites. While this is obviously not a perfect way to quantify market dominance, it does provide a decent sampling method given how many users have an Internet connection these days. The figure for Windows in November was 89.6 ... (view more)

New figures show the US is one of the few places where female Internet users outnumber male users. The study also unveiled intriguing facts about television and cell phone use worldwide. The figures, produced by British communications regulator ... Ofcom, directly compare the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the United States, Canada and Japan. The researchers also produced a separate report on countries with developing economies such as China and Russia. Because the analysis is so detailed and brings together several outside surveys, the figures cover activity in 2007 rather than this year. Across ... (view more)

The American armed forces have launched their own video-sharing site. TroopTube is designed to allow military personnel and their loved ones to exchange messages without the drawbacks of mainstream sites such as YouTube. The move follows a decision ... last year to block overseas military sites from accessing a dozen of the leading online video sites. That wasn't down to content concerns; rather military bosses felt streaming video was too much of a burden on the network links between the US and foreign bases. It was rumoured that at one stage the bandwidth was so clogged that it affected the ... (view more)

Barack Obama recently published a YouTube video response to George Bush's weekly Presidential address to the nation. It appears Obama will use the video-sharing site as a regular means of communication once he enters the White House. Each week, ... President Bush, like all holders of office, delivers an official address to the United States public via the radio. The opposition party traditionally delivers an official response, usually with a different speaker each week. Obama delivered the Democratic response in the usual audio format, but his organization also filmed the response, which now ... (view more)

Apple's new 3G iPhone has now become the best-selling mobile handset of any kind in the United States. Meanwhile, the original iPhone has earned the title of the 'most reliable' smartphone. The iPhone 3G snatched the top spot away from Motorola's ... RAZR, which had been the best selling phone for three full years. NPD, the group which produces the regular rankings, says this shows buyers are now much more interested in a phone's features than its look. That could be because people want better value as the economy slows. (Source: latimes.com ) Before anyone gets carried away, it's worth bearing ... (view more)

Despite the economic slowdown, shoppers are expected to flock to stores for this year's Black Friday sales. And there are plenty of treats either confirmed or rumored for technology fans. Black Friday, which takes place on November 28th this year, ... is the day after Thanksgiving in the United States. It marks the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season and many retailers drop prices to attract customers. The biggest story this year for tech lovers are widespread rumors Apple may be offering intense price cuts for a one-day sale. There's already speculation that some Macs could be ... (view more)

A New York judge has ordered a new Apple executive to stop work until a legal dispute with IBM, his former employer, is settled. Mark Papermaster had been set to head the hardware side of Apple's iPod and iPhone division. Papermaster was formerly ... IBM's executive in charge of blade servers, a technology which involves bare-bones servers taking their power from storage racks rather than individual power supplies. This makes much slimmer servers which is particularly useful for firms needing to store a large number of servers in a small space. As part of his IBM contract, Papermaster is banned ... (view more)