John Lister

The Department of Justice says Google must sell off Chrome following a court ruling on anti-competitive behavior. But it will be months before the court decides whether to force the sell off. Unsurprisingly, Google has expressed outrage with the ... suggestion, calling it a "staggering proposal." Back in August, a court ruled that Google had broken competition law in the way it maintained its market share for online searches. This included the ways it promotes its search engine through its own tech services, in addition to paying to be the default search tool on other devices including Apple ... (view more)

We recently reported on an AI model that could take control of a computer, for example to complete a form. Now a Google leak reveals its planning a similar technology. Anthropic recently released a beta update to its AI model Claude. It includes the ... ability to move a mouse cursor by taking a screenshot and calculating the number of pixels to figure out how far and in what direction to move. The company gave the example of the tool automatically copying data from a spreadsheet to fill out an online form. "Jarvis" Leaks Now Google has let slip it's about to release a similar tool. It ... (view more)

Windows 10 users who won't or can't upgrade to Windows 11 (due to hardware restrictions, such as TPM 2.0) will have to pay $30 to keep their computers officially patched by Microsoft after October 2025 and through 2026. It's the first time Microsoft ... has offered paid extended security updates for consumers. Windows 10 officially comes to its end of life point in October next year. After that Microsoft will no longer issue security updates to all users. Coming roughly 10 years after the system debuted, this is the normal schedule for Windows versions. However, the timetable feels different this ... (view more)

Google will soon let children use Android phones to make in-person purchases. It says there will be sufficient safeguards and controls for parents. The changes will be to Google Wallet. That's an app that lets users store card details and make ... payments in the real world without the card. The app also lets users store electronic versions of tickets and passes. The payments are contactless and use the NFC (near-field communication) chip in the phone. Users must authenticate the app through a security measure such as a PIN, passcode, fingerprint or facial recognition. Previously the app was only ... (view more)

Google has confirmed it currently owes $2.5 decillion dollars in an unpaid fine in Russia. It doesn't plan on paying any time soon. The fine stems from a judgment in 2020. The government run Russian news site RBC reported on the fine this week and ... Google has confirmed that the details are correct. The penalty was for restricting the YouTube channels of two Russian media outlets, with those companies successfully suing Google for civil penalties under Russian law. Further penalties were added for similar bans of Russian media sites in 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine. At that time Google ... (view more)

Running app Strava made it possible to track the locations of world leaders and high-profile political candidates according to a newspaper investigation. Security services say the vulnerability did not put people at risk but are reviewing their ... guidelines on using the app. Le Monde investigated the movements of bodyguards for politicians including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Emannuel Macron and Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump plus partners Jill Biden and Melania Trump. (Source: lemonde.fr ) Secret Trip Revealed The newspaper was able to discover the names of the presidential bodyguards and find ... (view more)

The makers of an AI model claim it can take control of a computer and complete tasks such as completing forms. The latest version of "Claude" takes a screenshot and counts pixels to figure out how far to move the cursor. Anthropic, which made ... Claude, say this is the first time a publicly released AI model has the capability of "computer use". It defines this as "looking at a screen, moving a cursor, clicking buttons, and typing text. The goal is to allow the model to carry out tasks which go beyond simply generating text or images in line with a user's instructions. Instead, it could actually ... (view more)

Tests of a proposed "6G" cellular data service achieved speeds four thousand times faster than current 5G networks. It's not necessarily a fair comparison but it could mean neither speed nor capacity was a problem with cellular networks. The testing ... at University College London achieved transmission speeds of 938 Gbps. To put that into context, according to Statista, the fastest average 5G speed in the US as T-Mobile's 227 Mpbs. (Source: statista.com ) The researchers behind the technology were trying to solve the main constraint on 5G: it uses a limited frequency range that is now highly ... (view more)

American consumers and businesses should soon find it much easier to cancel subscriptions, "free trials" and other ongoing payments. The FTC has added what it's dubbed the "Click to Cancel" rule that means it must be as easy to cancel such ... arrangements as it is to start them. The regulation is formally known as the "Rule Concerning Recurring Subscriptions and Other Negative Option Programs." In this case "negative" means the provider will start or continue to take payments unless the user expressly cancels the arrangement. Free Trials Have Surprise Catch The FTC has been working on the ... (view more)

Google has announced a range of security and privacy boosts for Android 15. It's also rolling out a key feature called Theft Detection Lock to older handsets. The new version of Android is coming to Google's own Pixel handsets almost immediately and ... then will go out to other manufacturers. The release date and which handsets it works on depends on the manufacturer. Theft Detection Lock Explained Unlike some previous new versions of Android which have often seemed more focused on appearance and style, the focus this time is much more practical. The most high-profile change is Theft Detection ... (view more)