John Lister

Plans for the first major update to Windows Vista are experiencing hiccups. A mini-update had to be withdrawn after causing PCs to endlessly reboot, while Microsoft has had to warn that several popular programs will no longer work once the major ... update is complete. Service Pack 1, the first major revision of the Vista system, is expected to be available to customers next month. It's an important step as many users, particularly those in businesses, wait for the first such update before upgrading to a new operating system (in this case, from Windows XP). The problem came with an automatic ... (view more)

Microsoft has announced Xbox 360 users will now be able to legally download games created by other players. While some independent developers already have such games available on their own sites, the new scheme would make titles available through ... the console's built-in online service, Xbox Live. Players will be able to rate and discuss the games. The firm expects around 500 such titles to be available in the service's first year, which starts testing this spring before an official launch nearer Christmas. People wanting to develop a game will have to use dedicated Microsoft software which has ... (view more)

Hardware manufacturers and software publishers have banded together to try to boost the depressed PC gaming market. They've formed the PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA), the first organisation ever dedicated to that cause. The non-profit group's aims ... include "driving coordinated marketing and promotion of PC gaming...and creating forums for member companies to cooperate on solutions to challenges facing the PC gaming industry, such as hardware requirements and anti piracy." Members include graphics card rivals ATI and NVidia, hardware firms like Intel and Acer, games producers Epic and Activision, ... (view more)

Microsoft is giving students free access to some of its leading tools for developing software and creating web sites. The project, called Dreamspark, is designed to encourage pupils to learn the skills needed for a career in the software and ... computing industry. The package includes Visual Studio (a facility for developing software), Expression Studio (which includes graphic and web design tools) and XNA Game Studio (which is used for creating video games). Around 35 million high school students in the US, China and several Western European countries are eligible for the scheme now. School ... (view more)

The great missing iPhone mystery may have been solved. Bosses at Apple were confused that they'd sold 3.7 million phones in the United States and Europe, but only 2.3 million were actually registered on the phone networks which had signed deals to ... provide service for the iPhones. It turns out around 400,000 phones are registered with China Mobile, the country's leading cell phone carrier. The iPhone isn't sold in Asia, so it appears there's a rather ironic pattern by which the phones are manufactured in China, shipped to the US, and then unofficially imported back to China. Apple had ... (view more)

Two congressmen have proposed laws which would enforce the principle of net neutrality. That's the idea that broadband providers should not be allowed to discriminate against particular sites, companies or technologies. The planned law would be ... called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act. It's a joint effort by political rivals Republican Chip Pickering and Democrat Ed Markey, who described the Internet as "the greatest level playing field ever created". Though net neutrality is already widely seen as the basis of America's broadband network, the new law would specifically define US ... (view more)

Mozilla recently released Firefox 3 Beta 3 : a beta version of the latest edition of its Internet browser which is a rival to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. For those unaware, A 'beta' edition is one that is largely operational but may still have ... some bugs which need finding and fixing before an official release. The software is freely available to download from Mozilla's website, though the firm says it's not ready for 'casual' users. The biggest changes include technical improvements that should make web pages load quicker, easier bookmarking of favorite pages, a progress indicator in the ... (view more)

Firms involved in filesharing technology have protested Comcast's decision to restrict its customers' use of peer-to-peer (P2P) software, such as BitTorrent. P2P is a system of distributing data which involves splitting one file into many pieces. ... Rather than downloading the file directly from a website, users get pieces from a variety of fellow users, with the file reassembled on their computer. This spreads the demand for data and means P2P can be used for files which would be too large for many people to download from a single site. Several firms complained to the Federal Communications ... (view more)

Earlier last week we reported that Best Buy decided to heavily back Blu-Ray in the next generation DVD format wars. We wrote that the battle appeared to be nearing its climax, and now Wal-Mart may be striking the killer blow to the rival HD-DVD ... system. While Best Buy plans to continue stocking both formats (but put all its promotional backing behind Blu-Ray), Wal-Mart is dropping HD-DVD completely. Their head of home entertainment, Gary Severson, said "We've listened to our customers, who are showing a clear preference toward Blu-Ray products and movies with their purchases." They'll be ... (view more)

A woman from Washington DC is suing Best Buy for $54 million after it lost a laptop she'd put in for repair. The company already gave Raelyn Campbell the full replacement cost of her $1,100 laptop plus a $500 gift card as compensation. However, ... she's suing for costs including the replacement of software, music, pictures and other data, plus the actions she's had to take to protect against identity theft. Her laptop included material such as her will and tax returns which could have been used for such purposes. (Source: computerworld.com ) She's detailed her case at the tongue-twister-named ... (view more)