John Lister

With less than a year to go, Microsoft is sticking to its vow to stop supporting Windows 10. Analysts remain unconvinced given it remains the most used version of Windows. Officially, October 14, 2025 will be the end of life date for the system. ... Although it will still work, Microsoft will no longer offer security updates for Windows as standard. Instead, users will have the option to pay for extended security support. (Source: microsoft.com ) 10 Year Life Cycle In principle, this is perfectly normal. Next year is 10 years after Windows 10 was first released, and that's the normal ... (view more)

Five gadgets are in the running for a $1.3 million prize for using tech to tackle dementia. They range from high-tech glasses to a device that looks like a landline telephone. The projects have all made the final of the global Longitude prize for ... dementia. It's part of a wider series of prizes based on an 18th century contest that rewarded scientists for finding a way for sailors to determine the longitude of their location. The five finalists will each get the equivalent of $392,000 to develop their products before competing for the overall prize. The money comes from the UK government and ... (view more)

The Department of Justice says it may ask a judge to forcibly break up Google's business over its alleged monopoly abuses. Google called it an overreach and says such a move could kill Android or Chrome. Google lost a court case in August for ... breaking antitrust laws in the way it built up and maintained a 90 percent market share in online searches. The DOJ must now put proposals before a court on how to remedy this breach. In a preliminary filing, the DOJ says it is considering the most serious option of "structural remedies". That could mean Google would no longer be able to maintain its ... (view more)

Google has suffered a major court defeat over its Play store. It will mean much greater access for third party app stores and apps, though could prompt a continuing argument about security. The ruling came in a case brought by Epic Games, makers of ... the popular game Fortnite. It's had similar battles with Apple and its possible this case will have an effect there too. Epic had argued that Google unfairly exploited a monopoly over access of app developers to the Android system by the way it controlled the official Play store. It said that monopoly existed despite the fact that Android users can ... (view more)

Harvard students have demonstrated that "smart glasses" can be used to look at somebody in public and reveal their identities and personal information. Meta, which made the glasses used in the demonstration, say they have adequate security ... safeguards in place. The Ray-Ban smart glasses, produced by Facebook owner Meta, connect wirelessly to a smartphone. They include a camera, speaker and microphone and allows a range of hands-free actions such as filming, taking photos and making calls. (Source: meta.com ) Facial Recognition Abused AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio of Harvard University ... (view more)

Facebook's parent company has been fined the equivalent of $100 million for storing user passwords in plain text. Failing to encrypt the passwords breached Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Meta, which runs Facebook and Instagram, ... broke the rules despite there being no evidence that anyone accessed the passwords without authorization or that anyone was then able to access accounts. Delay In Coming Clean The company was found to have breached the GDPR on four counts. Two involved failing to adequately secure personal data, one involved not properly documenting these failures ... (view more)

Four months after the end of a subsidy program for home broadband, individual states are figuring out if and how they can expand access. Meanwhile the debate over the value and impact of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) continues to rage. ... The program launched in 2021 as part of a wider infrastructure package. It was available to households earning up to double the federal poverty level or with somebody in a government assistance program. Under the program, households would get a government-funded discount of up to $30 a month on broadband services and a one-off discount of $100 for a ... (view more)

The head of controversial messaging app Telegram says it will now comply with some legal requests for information about users. Russian business owner Pavel Durov announced the policy change just weeks after being arrested in France and charged with ... enabling criminal activity. Telegram is a messaging app similar to WhatsApp in that the content of messages is encrypted, to the point that even the operators of the app can't read private messages. It has a couple of significant differences that likely affect the type of people that use it, however. One is that unlike WhatsApp's limit of 1,000 ... (view more)

"Modified" versions of popular apps have helped distribute a nasty piece of Android malware. The tactic expanded the reach of the Necro Trojan despite Google's security checks. Necro was able to survive for some time before discovery, largely ... because the infection wasn't obvious to users. Its main purpose was to hijack phones and use them to make money for the people behind the malware. This included displaying paid ads in the background so that users didn't see them, but the scammers were able to claim revenue from advertisers. The malware would also install apps on the phone to earn ... (view more)

Chrome is getting more proactive on browser safety. The changes are coming to both desktops and Android devices. It's part of the browser's "Safety Check" feature which already warns users if a password has been compromised or if a website appears ... unsafe. The feature is expanding to cover permissions and notifications. The former involves the way Chrome controls whether or not a specific website has access to computer resources and data such as a microphone, webcam or precise location. Chrome will now start automatically revoking permissions from websites the user rarely visits. Google has ... (view more)