John Lister

Users of Windows versions dating right back to Windows 95 can now get updates for their system. It's thanks to an enthusiast project and is absolutely not meant to be a sensible alternative to using modern version of Windows. The Windows Update ... Restored site aims to recreate the official Microsoft web pages for getting feature and security updates for older versions of Windows. Those pages were used by people who chose to manually download and install updates rather than use automatic updates. Understandably, Microsoft has long since taken down the pages for updating many Windows versions ... (view more)

Researchers say smartwatches could predict people getting Parkinson's disease up to seven years before they developed symptoms. The next steps could be as much an ethical challenge as a technical one. The finding came from researchers who looked at ... data from the UK's Biobank project. That's a database that tracks anonymized health data from half a million volunteers. The idea is that the sheer amount of data makes it easier to spot patterns and connections between different health factors and conditions. As part of the project, just over 100,000 people agreed to wear a smart watch for a seven ... (view more)

Windows 11 users are continuing to report hard drives performing more slowly after mandatory system updates. The problem appears to affect solid state drives rather than traditional older model hard drives with moving parts. The Windows Latest ... website gathered together reports from its own forums, discussion site Reddit, and Microsoft's support forums. It concluded that the "performance issue doesn't appear to be widespread, but it is real." (Source: windowslatest.com ) One piece of evidence that something is actually amiss rather than it just being a fluke pattern is that those complaining ... (view more)

An app for spying on a partner or employee has been hacked. It means victims of the spying could face further data security threats. LetMeSpy is what the makers call a "parental control" and "employee control" and what critics call "stalkerware" or ... "spouseware". Once installed on a phone, it lets the person who installed it remotely access text messages, call logs and precise location. (Source: techcrunch.com ) The marketing is somewhat inconsistent with what the company says its intended use is for, suggesting people might put it on their own phone so that they can find the phone when lost, ... (view more)

A period of increased risk to communication and the Internet could hit earlier than expected. The dangers of a solar storm are genuine, though one expert says she regrets using the term "Internet apocalypse." The risk is that intense solar activity ... could increase the levels of electromagnetic radiation hitting the Earth's atmosphere. That could damage Internet infrastructure such as undersea cables. The risk increases during a period called "solar maximum" where the sun's magnetic field reverses. During this process, the magnetic field around the sun becomes inconsistent, leading to ... (view more)

A lawyer is suing Microsoft for $1.75 million after being locked out of his email account. David M Schlachter says a bug meant he couldn't verify his identity, making the account useless. According to Schlachter, the problem was with his paid Office ... 365 account. After using it for six years, he was locked out in May by a two-step verification check. The check would send a verification code to his phone, either via a text message or an automated voice call. However, when Schlachter tried to choose one of these options and initiate the check, he'd simply see a message reading "Sorry, we're ... (view more)

Apple and Samsung have both extended their self-repair programs, reducing the need to get devices fixed by the manufacturer or authorized repairers. However, both programs still have significant limitations. The Apple program now covers the iPhone ... 14 and 14 Pro, the MacBook Air (M2, 2022 model) and MacBook Pro 14-inch (2023 model). These are all the latest models of the relevant devices. Meanwhile the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 Self Service Repair now covers the top speaker and the TrueDepth camera, components which were previously exempt from the program. In each case, users can order official ... (view more)

A supposed scam in which ChatGPT can provide working Windows 10 and 11 product keys is not quite what it seems. Most of the keys it provides will only give limited access to the system. Some reports have implied that ChatGPT is using artificial ... intelligence to figure out a working product key, perhaps in the manner of a safe cracker or somebody working out a user's online password. In reality, the "discovery" was made by a user playing around with ways to defeat ChatGPT's content filters. In most cases somebody asking ChatGPT to provide information that could be used for shady or downright ... (view more)

Phone manufacturers may soon have to offer replaceable batteries in handsets. The rules have been approved by European politicians but could create enough hassle for manufacturers that they follow the measures worldwide. The change, approved ... overwhelmingly by the European Parliament, is part of an overall package to reduce the environmental impact of batteries. Other measures include minimum requirements for the levels of recycled material in new batteries along with the amount of material that can be recovered when the batteries go to waste. The precise wording has yet to be finalized, but ... (view more)

Regulators in Europe have threatened to break-up Google. They say it could be the only way to prevent anti-competitive behavior in the ad market. While Google has been fined eye-watering sums for breaking competition laws in Europe before, they've ... proven a poor deterrent given the company's huge revenues. This time, though, the penalty may be a forcible sale of some of its ad business. The key to the legal problem is that Google is a major player in all three elements of online advertising: businesses buying ads, businesses selling ads, and the technology that brings together buyers and ... (view more)