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Here's a question we recently received from an Infopackets subscriber in beautiful Montana, "Dear Infopackets team, I'm thinking about buying a Windows 8 computer. But I'm not sure if I should buy one with Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro? And what's ... Windows RT? Can you please explain the differences to me? Thanks for the assistance, Molly C." My response: Technically speaking, Molly, those are the three different versions of Microsoft's newest operating system (OS), Windows 8. Windows RT is a trimmed-down version of the OS specially designed for portable devices with ARM chips. We're talking ... (view more)

This great question recently made its way to us from a frequent Infopackets reader: "Hi guys, I just purchased a Windows 8 PC. For the most part I'm enjoying the new OS. However, I noticed that Safe Mode is no longer available. I think this is an ... important feature and can't figure out why it would have been removed. Is there a way to bring it back? Thanks! Richard F." Our response: Yes, Richard, it is an important feature. There are many situations in which it's helpful to boot your computer into Safe Mode. So it's good to know you can do this in Windows 8. Actually, there are two ... (view more)

A group of hackers has gained access to an Australian medical center's electronic patient records. Until they receive a cash payout, the hackers say they won't relinquish control of the information. It's relatively common for hackers to access ... sensitive data and then threaten to expose it unless a victim pays up. There have been several cases where scammers have remotely installed viruses on computers, then threatened to wipe the hard drive of all its stored data unless they receive hefty payments. But this case, involving the Miami Family Medical Center (MFMC), is different. Rather than ... (view more)

We have received several technical inquiries much like this one from a long-time Infopackets subscriber: "Dear Infopackets: I have converted to Windows 8 and am getting along OK. But I'm worried about losing my data if this new operating system ... should contain a bad bug that hasn't yet been discovered. I knew what to do for data recovery in Windows 7, now I'm lost. You offered me lots of good information in the past, so I'm hoping now you can tell me how to do data recovery in Windows 8. Thanks, Charlene F." My Response: Few people have reported major problems with Windows 8 so far ( ... (view more)

A federal court has ruled that major cellphone carriers must let their smaller rivals use their data networks. This could mean more competitive deals and better coverage for smartphone and tablet owners, as well as those accessing mobile broadband ... on a laptop. The United States Court of Appeals has rejected a challenge by Verizon, thereby upholding an earlier ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The original ruling primarily covered data roaming, the technique by which customers of one cellphone carrier access the data services of another carrier. The FCC had said that ... (view more)

Pricing has been announced for a new version of Microsoft Office 365 tailored specifically to university students, staff, and scholars. Microsoft says the software is available as a four-year subscription for $79.99. That works out to about $1.67 ... per month. Microsoft also says any student who continues their education beyond four years (say, by entering a graduate program) can renew their subscription to the software for four more years at the same price. Documents Automatically Saved to the Cloud Office 365 University automatically saves its documents to Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud storage ... (view more)

Iran's government has removed its block on Gmail in that nation, claiming it didn't mean to restrict access to the service. It now says the block was an unintended result of a deliberate effort to stop Iranians from viewing YouTube. These new claims ... contradict an earlier comment from an Iranian official who said last week: "Due to the repeated demands of the people, Google and Gmail will be filtered nationwide. They will remain filtered until further notice." Another government official now says: "Unfortunately, we do not yet have enough technical know-how to differentiate between these two ... (view more)

The Iranian government has blocked its citizens' access to Gmail and a secure version of Google. The move appears to be the first part of a larger plan to control exactly what Internet sites Iranians can access. An Iranian official who is part of a ... government group in charge of controlling Internet content says that "due to the repeated demands of the people, Google and Gmail will be filtered nationwide. They will remain filtered until further notice." (Source: com.au ) The official did not make clear exactly who made these demands. Insiders, however, note that many Iranian businesses use ... (view more)

A U.S. senator wants to close a legal loophole that allows law enforcement officials to read private emails without first obtaining a warrant. If successful, the change would mean users of webmail services, such as Gmail and Hotmail, will receive ... extra protection against prying eyes. Private email content is currently protected by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. However, email usage is far greater today than it was then, and new procedures leave open the opportunity for officials to read private emails in secret. Years ago most email users downloaded their messages, which ... (view more)

The man convicted of infecting 72,000 computers has been sentenced to two and a half years behind bars. Joshua Schichtel created a network of hijacked machines and then -- for a fee -- allowed others to control them. Schichtel first came to the ... attention of authorities in 2004. At the time, he was part of a group charged with using infected computers to carry out distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Earlier DDoS Attack Goes Unpunished Under a DDosS attack, a hacker uses many computers to send service requests to legitimate website servers. Because servers are set up to respond to all ... (view more)