John Lister

Microsoft will release critical updates for six security issues next Tuesday. This Patch Tuesday will include a controversially delayed Mac MS Office fix , but won't solve a recently discovered directx flaw for Quicktime files. Biggest Monthly ... Update This Year The monthly update, which will be biggest so far this year, will contain critical fixes for Windows, Internet Explorer, Word and Excel in particular, and Office in general. In all cases, hackers could gain remote control of an affected computer. The Internet Explorer issue appears particularly serious as it reportedly affects all ... (view more)

Microsoft has confirmed Windows 7 will get its official release on 22 October. It's also updated some of the details about the Starter edition which will appear on low-spec machines such as netbooks. The October release date had been widely expected ... since the head of Acer in the UK revealed one of his firm's new models would be on sale running Windows 7 on the 23rd -- one day out from the confirmed release date. October Release a Pre-Emptive Strike The release is three months before the earliest date Microsoft had previously hinted at (January 2010, three years after Vista's release). The ... (view more)

The company that makes parts for popular electronic reader devices, including the Kindle, is buying out the company behind the technology used in the displays. Though the two firms say it will be good for consumers, there are some claims it might ... limit competition. The deal involves Prime View International of Taiwan, which is set on buying E Ink, based in Massachusetts, for $215 million. Prime View is today responsible for the display screens on both the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader. Electrophoretic Film: Otherwise Known As Electronic Paper E Ink, a company started by Massachusetts ... (view more)

Google is set to challenge online retail giant Amazon by selling contemporary electronic books. And unlike Amazon, it will let publishers set the prices. The move is a new development for the Google Book Search scheme, in which the firm scans texts ... so that users can search for particular phrases. While Google does intend to bring in paid access for full editions of some books covered by Book Search, the vast majority of titles in the scheme are either out of print or out of copyright. At the moment, most modern books included in the scheme only have 20 per cent of their pages available for ... (view more)

Microsoft has officially unveiled the replacement for its Live Search tool. However, the new instrument will be known as "Bing" rather than "Kumo," and is billed as a 'decision engine' rather than a search engine. The working name for the new ... service had been Kumo, but Microsoft eventually settled on Bing despite some problems trade marking the name. The firm appeared to be looking for an active name which could be used as both a verb and a noun, in the same way as 'to Google' has become another way of saying 'to search online'. As we've noted before, the main difference ... (view more)

Unconfirmed reports suggest Microsoft will drop a limitation on the Starter Edition of Windows 7 that would prevent users from running more than three applications at a time. This comes amidst speculation that guidelines for the Starter Edition have ... been rigged to benefit particular manufacturers. The Starter Edition, aimed at netbook users, will not be available for consumers to buy separately. Instead, only manufacturers are allowed to license it and install it on their machines. In the originally published specifications for the Starter Edition, users could only run three programs at any ... (view more)

Circuit City has reopened as an online-only business under new management. However, it's brought in a tough, new returns policy which many consumers will consider a gamble. One of the first major victims of the economic downturn , Circuit City went ... into liquidation last November. Its woes were cause by a combination of poor sales and bad timing: the firm's struggling business prompted wary creditors to offer much less generous terms. This stretched its cash flow to the point where it could no longer operate. Circuit City had already received threats that if its stock price continued to hover ... (view more)

There's been a mixed response to a new search tool aiming to answer questions rather than index the web. Wolfram Alpha has earned praise for its ability to solve specific problems, but it's become clear it's no replacement for the wider capabilities ... of Google and friends. The site, which has been in testing for a few weeks but is now fully operational, is the work of British physicist Stephen Wolfram. He's best known for developing the argument that the wider universe runs on logical rules, just like the language of computer programs. Solutions, Not Guidance The major difference with Wolfram ... (view more)

Microsoft has withdrawn its demand for a hearing after it was found guilty of anti-competitive behavior in Europe. The firm says it could not hope for a fair hearing because many officials will be unable to attend. The European Commission, the EU's ... administrative wing, issued a 'ruling in principle' in January that Microsoft had breached competition laws by bundling Internet Explorer with Windows while not allowing other browsers to be included with the system on new machines. Nobody's Listening The hearing on this issue had been scheduled for June 3rd through June 5th, but Microsoft says it ... (view more)

Microsoft has announced it will stream movies from Netflix through its Windows Media Center software. It's a major breakthrough in the firm's attempt to make sure that PCs can compete with game consoles and dedicated devices in the streaming market. ... Netflix already provides Xbox 360 DVD rentals , allowing customers to watch directly on their TV sets. Until now, PC users had only been able to watch streaming movies from Netfix on their computer screens. Streaming it to a TV set could only be done through "unofficial" methods and copy protection meant the resulting image would be of a ... (view more)