John Lister

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has voted unanimously to enforce "right to repair" laws. The rules should make it harder for manufacturers to maintain monopolies over fixing gadgets such as phones. The FTC follows an executive order from the ... President that covered economic competition issues in general but included a specific reference to smartphones. (Source: theverge.com ) The moves aim to tackle companies such as phone makers which either block or restrict third-party companies or device buyers from carrying out repairs. This involves a range of tactics such as refusing to supply ... (view more)

Windows 11 will soon be available for testing in a less-risky manner. Meanwhile, Microsoft has unveiled some more changes, including an end - of sorts - to the "Blue Screen of Death". Microsoft has confirmed the system will be available to people in ... the Windows Insider Program in its Beta testing channel as of July 29. It is officially the first time something resembling the finished Windows 11 is available in a complete and fully usable manner. Up until then, Windows 11 has only available in the Dev channel, meaning some features and actions may be unavailable. Microsoft also stresses that ... (view more)

A ransomware gang said to have Russian links appears to have been knocked offline. The REvil group recently demanded a $70 million ransom after a major attack. The group was linked to two recent attacks, the first on an international meat processing ... company. JBS, which is estimated to process 20 percent of the beef and pork sold in the US, had to shut down production while dealing with the breach. An even more serious attack targeted Kaseya, a company that not only offers computing services to businesses, but also powers many managed service providers that run IT for their own clients. The ... (view more)

A government agency says the current US definition of broadband may be too slow. It says the threshold of 25 Mbps likely isn't enough for today's needs, particularly for small businesses. The figure in question is the Federal Communication ... Commission's "benchmark" for broadband speeds. It's important because it's the figure officials use to assess what proportion of the US population has access to broadband and whether the country is meeting targets. The most recent estimate is that 96 percent of the population has broadband access under the current definition. The benchmark also plays a key ... (view more)

People paid to promote products in Norway will be legally required to say if they've used photo editing tools. The new law also covers using photo filters. The law has already been passed by legislators but the date it takes effect hasn't yet been ... confirmed. (Source: bbc.co.uk ) The rules will apply to any photo that's posted for promotional purposes. It will also apply to users - sometimes dubbed "influencers" - who are receiving payment or other benefits in return for making the post. Any manipulated image will need to carry a warning label, designed by the government, that tells users it ... (view more)

Nine popular Google Play apps were actually scams to steal Facebook logins according to a security company. Although Google has removed some of them, they may still be on devices. All the apps were promoted as performing a simple task and appear to ... have worked as designed. Although that meant more effort for the developers, the idea was to make users less suspecting that the apps were actually harmful. The affected apps had the following names and functions: App Lock Keep (child safety tool) App Lock Manager (child safety tool) Horoscope Daily (astrology) Horoscope Pi (astrology) Inwell ... (view more)

A federal judge has blocked a Florida law that would have made it illegal for social media sites to suspend or ban politicians from posting. The judge said the law was both discriminatory and a breach of the First Amendment. The controversial law ... was first proposed in February and signed by the state's governor in May. It was scheduled to take effect on July 1st, 2021, but was blocked by US District Judge via a preliminary injunction following a case brought by trade associations including social media companies. The law said social media companies could remove specific posts and suspend ... (view more)

A judge has thrown out two complaints from federal and state government that claimed Facebook broke competition laws. After the ruling, Facebook's market value rose to more than a trillion dollars. The first case was brought by the Federal Trade ... Commission (FTC), which said Facebook not only had a monopoly but had unfairly maintained it. The FTC said the monopoly was in the market of "personal social networking services" and that it's unfair actions included using technology to block interoperability between Facebook and other services. (Source: courtlistener.com ) Instagram Buyout Questioned ... (view more)

Google is to warn users when results for a search might not provide reliable information. It's designed mainly for breaking news stories. The warning will be an update feature for the existing "About this result" tool that Google has been testing ... publicly since February. The tool means results on mobile devices now have a menu option that brings up a pop-window that describes the source, with the description taken from Wikipedia. The idea is to give users a quick insight into sources they don't recognize and help them decide how authoritative or otherwise they may be. Warning Message Issued ... (view more)

A surprise requirement for Windows 11 has left many users fearing their computer may not be compatible with the new system. The need for a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) has led to a price spike for the component, though there's no real need to panic ... or pay over the odds right now. The requirement came to light when Microsoft published a downloadable PC Health Check tool that told users whether their PC met all the hardware requirements for running Windows 11, which is due for release later this year. That led to a lot of confusion with users seeing the answer was "No," but the tool not saying ... (view more)