John Lister

Android users can now get alerts if a tracking device such as an Apple AirTag may be targeting them. The alerts were already available on iPhones, but Google and Apple are now working together, albeit with some holdups. An Apple AirTag is a small ... device that emits a Bluetooth signal. The idea is to attach it to valuable or important items such as keys, purses or luggage. Around a billion Apple devices are set to scan for the signals and anonymously report the location and identity of the AirTags, meaning that owners can track down lost items with varying degrees of precision. Like most tech, ... (view more)

The number of 0-day bugs, which give hackers a dangerous advantage, fell in 2022 according to Google. However, the company warns this may risk misleading complacency that forgets other factors. The figures come from Google's Threat Analysis Group, ... which aims to track, identify and report security bugs, regardless of the software or hardware concerned. The logic is that the better Internet security is overall, the better it is for an Internet-dependent business such as Google. For the past nine years, it's put together an annual tally of 0-day bugs. While definitions vary, Google classes them ... (view more)

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says 25Mbps is no longer fast enough to count as "broadband." It's proposed increasing the standard to 100Mbps for downloads. The figures matter because the "broadband speed standard" is the measure the ... FCC uses to assess whether broadband is becoming available "on a reasonable and timely basis" to the entire US population. If it isn't, the FCC has the authority - and legal responsibility - to take action to correct the shortfall. This could include changing rules to promote competition or make it easier for companies to invest in new infrastructure ... (view more)

The FTC is asking the public whether facial "age estimation" is a smart way to make sure games companies don't break privacy rules for children. The tool would be used to check the age of adults giving consent, not to check the age of the player. ... The proposal originally caused some major confusion as it comes from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which rates games for age suitability in a similar way to the Motion Picture Association's movie ratings. However, this proposal has nothing to do with checking whether somebody is old enough to play a game. Instead, it's to do with ... (view more)

Software engineers have been debating whether today's operating systems are slower to respond than their predecessors. It led one site to experiment with running Windows XP on a new computer. After some hassles of getting it going, it turned out ... that XP felt extremely fast to use, albeit with a serious risk of malware infection. The debate started when Julio Merino put together "real-time videos" of an old machine running Windows NT 3.51 (a business version roughly equivalent to Windows 95 for consumers) and a modern machine running Windows 11. (Those of us of a certain age may have to ... (view more)

Google will stop some of its employees accessing the Internet. It's a bold experiment to see if it can reduce security threats without affecting performance. The idea is reduce the risk of hackers getting access to employee machines, either to get ... hold of data on those machines or to use them as an entry point into Google's network. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Google's internal data is particularly attractive to attackers, whether they are seeking financial gain, political or commercial advantage, or plain old mischief making. For example, attackers being able to find out how Google ranks ... (view more)

Windows 11 should soon have an option to repair a broken system without a complete reinstall. The feature will work through Windows Update. If it works as described, users will be able to fix problems by switching to a stable and working version of ... Windows 11 without the two major hassles that often come with a reinstall. For example, it won't require users to download an entire copy of the Windows 11 and write to USB, then boot from the USB in order to perform the install; but, most importantly, it won't wipe out installed applications after the reinstall has completed. The new feature is ... (view more)

Two sets of researchers into quantum computing have announced very different sets of results. One claim they've already achieved more powerful performance than a traditional computer, while the others say they've confirmed the potential for ... performing genuinely useful tasks. Quantum computing aims to take advantage of the way particles can exist in more than one state at a time. That compares with traditional computers which store data in bits, each of which is either a 0 or a 1. In principle at least, a quantum computer could be made up of "qbits" and perform calculations dramatically faster ... (view more)

Google is to give users of its VPN service more control over the location they want their traffic to appear to come from, rather than just selecting a country. It should overcome a problem with localized webpage information. A virtual private ... network (VPN) is designed to overcome problems with an inherent aspect of the Internet: that both Internet data and its origin are readily accessible by default. One analogy likens it to vehicles passing through a giant glass tube. Even when the data itself is encrypted, the origin and destination can still be discovered. In the analogy, a VPN is like ... (view more)

The latest Windows 11 update brings a host of new features. The emphasis appears to be very much about minor improvements rather than a major overhaul. All users who have the latest edition of Windows 11 (codenamed 22H2) will now get the "Moment 3" ... update. Those on older editions will only be getting the regular security patch. "Moment 3" doesn't include any dramatic changes but rather includes new and tweaked features that will have small but meaningful benefits. For example, File Explorer and the desktop will get "access keys," designed to bring the benefits of shortcut keys without the ... (view more)