John Lister

Iran's government has dismissed reports that it intends to block all Internet access for its citizens, starting in August. Spokespeople claim the shutdown reports stem from an April Fool's joke. Yet at least one part of the story appears to be true. ... The allegations of a coming shutdown are made by Reporters Without Borders, an international media and free speech advocacy group that in recent years has turned its attention to online censorship. Intranet Could Replace Internet According to Reporters Without Borders, Iran plans to simply cut all public access to the global Internet for its ... (view more)

Microsoft has announced it will finally stop supporting Windows XP in April of 2014. The decision leaves users of that operating system (OS) out in the cold, without security updates or support of any kind from the software giant. The company had ... already begun phasing out support for the original versions of XP and currently offers support only for copies containing the final batch of updates for the software, Service Pack 3 (SP3). Even Windows XP with SP3 has already reached the "extended support" phase. As a result, Microsoft issues free security updates, but offers tech support on a paid ... (view more)

An engineer who left his job at Intel has now admitted to stealing design documents worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Bishwamohan Pani, 36, a worker at the company's chip manufacturing facility in Hudson, Massachusetts until 2008, will be ... sentenced on five counts of fraud. Pani had been working on Intel's line of Itanium processors, which were designed for use in extremely powerful computers and the servers used in corporate networks. Although much-hyped, the processors didn't catch on in the market and were generally considered something of a disappointment. Vacation Time Perfect for ... (view more)

Google has formally confirmed a poorly kept secret: it's working on 'augmented reality spectacles': glasses that display computer-driven text or images on top of a view of the real world. However, there's no sign the company will release the ... spectacles for commercial use in the foreseeable future. Unlike 3D viewing spectacles, or those designed to simulate a giant screen, the Google glasses are relatively low-key. They are much like an ordinary spectacle frame without corrective lenses, but with a microphone and a tiny screen visible only to the wearer's right eye. (Source: google.com ) The ... (view more)

After several years of trending market share losses by Internet Explorer (IE), Microsoft's flagship browser appears to be winning back some customers. However, experts suggest the resurgence may not represent a permanent reversal of fortune. Web ... statistics firm Net Applications now reports that the proportion of web users worldwide who are running Internet Explorer has risen in each of the past three months, while Google Chrome has consistently dropped during the same period. The recent growth is a notable change in a long-term Internet Explorer trend of losing its dominance over Google's ... (view more)

Congress has rejected a bill that would have barred employers from demanding workers reveal their passwords for social networking sites. The vote won't have any immediate effect, but could lead to further legal cases on the issue. The U.S. House of ... Representatives considered the topic as part of a wider bill that aims to limit the power of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by restricting the way it makes new regulations. There's no guarantee the bill itself would ever become law. Even if it passed the House, it may be rejected by the Senate or vetoed by the President. Representative ... (view more)

Research In Motion (RIM), based in Waterloo, Canada, has decided it will no longer target its Blackberry and related products at ordinary consumers. Instead, it will concentrate solely on the business market. A big reason is no doubt that the ... company lost $125 million in just the last three months of 2011. Thorsten Heins, the company's recently hired chief executive officer, said "We believe that BlackBerry cannot succeed if we tried to be everybody's darling and all things to all people." (Source: usatoday.com ) Apple iPhone Popularity Too Much for RIM, BlackBerry RIM first made its name ... (view more)

On the first April Fool's Day to fall on a weekend in five years, there was less opportunity to trick people surfing the web at work. But that didn't stop Google from posting a slew of clever and very bogus tech-related stories. The company ... unleashed at least seven different gags, many of which were gathered together in a "promotional video". It seems as if Google was using a scattergun approach in the hope that even people who spotted most of the jokes would get caught out by at least one. Google Maps Gets Major Downgrade Rather naughtily, Google's first gag came before the day of ... (view more)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says it wants consumers to know exactly what private details about them a company is collecting, storing, using, and sharing. The new regulations would be part of a plan to encourage businesses to be more ... transparent, open and honest about how they treat their customers' personal information. The FTC already has sufficient powers to establish mandatory regulations about how businesses treat their customers. In this matter, however, the agency has sought approval from Congress, suggesting that the contemplated changes would be substantial enough to go beyond ... (view more)

A new hacking group has emerged under a familiar name: LulzSec. Infiltrating dating and communications sites, its activity has led experts to fear that more copycat hacking organizations will emerge this year. The new group calls itself LulzSec ... Reborn, a clear rip-off of the LulzSec name made infamous last year. That rather unique moniker came from a combination of hacker lingo for "laughing out loud" with a short-hand name for "security." First Target of 'LulzSec Reborn' Attack: Single Soldiers The new group's first target was MilitarySingles, an online dating site for soldiers and other ... (view more)