John Lister

Google has stopped working with Chinese manufacturer Huawei, following a US government supply ban. It will have limited effect on Huawei smartphones and tablets that use the Google Android operating system, but will be a huge long-term problem for ... Huawei. The move comes after an executive order from the US President that restricts the way American companies can supply the Chinese-based firm. While attributed to security concerns involving the Chinese government, the order was made under economic emergency powers. (Source: theguardian.com ) Android-based Huawei handsets will continue to work ... (view more)

Adobe has warned users they could be in legal trouble if they carry on using older editions of software. But it seems to be more of a 'legal' technicality than a crackdown. The company wrote to some users of its Creative Cloud applications. That's a ... series of software and services launched in 2011 that replaced the more traditional model of buying Adobe software outright. Instead users now pay a subscription fee and can use the software (and receive updates to the latest editions) for as long as the subscription is active. Adobe recently wrote to some customers with the letter including the ... (view more)

Unwanted pre-installed software on Android devices often poses privacy and security risks according to a new study. That's because the so-called "bloatware" often by-passes Google's vetting process. One of the key selling points, or big drawbacks - ... depending on your perspective - of the Android operating system is that phone and tablet makers can customize their own devices, through the user interface and the apps that appear when a new device is first powered on. That's different from systems such as Apple, where both the hardware and software are controlled by the same company . The study ... (view more)

The Supreme Court has ruled that lower courts can hear a case claiming Apple's pricing policy for its apps breaches anti-trust laws . The claimants say Apple has a monopoly, and its mandatory commission drives up prices unfairly. The case centers on ... two main differences between apps on Apple mobile devices and those on rival systems such as Google's Android. The first is that it is virtually impossible to install an app on an iPhone or iPad from a sources other than the official iTunes App Store - something Apple cites as being important for security reasons. The second is that publishers ... (view more)

A University of Oxford study claims any negative effects of social media on teens are likely trivial. It said other life events had a far greater effect. The study used data from extensive household surveys that ran between 2009 and 2016 which ... covered a wide range of issues. The researchers mined the survey results for responses from children who were aged 10 to 15 at the time of questioning, with more than 12,000 children covered. (Source: pnas.org ) The researchers looked at questions about how many hours the children spent communicating on social networks on school days. They compared this ... (view more)

Google is set to make it easier for users to block tracking cookies. Perhaps unsurprisingly the reported changes would also be very helpful for Google. Cookies are small files that a website saves onto a computer's hard drive via the web browser. ... When the user next returns to the site, it will check for cookies and use the information to customize the site's content or appearance. For example, if a user were to enter in their name and password on a forum website and then selected the "remember me" option, this preference would be saved using a cookie. The next time the user visits ... (view more)

A consumer group has accused Apple of significantly overstating battery life on iPhones. The group also said some manufacturer's smartphones perform much better than advertised. The claims come from "Which?," a British organization similar to ... Consumer Reports in the US. It tested a range of handsets from five leading manufacturers: Apple, HTC, Nokia, Samsung and Sony. (Source: which.co.uk ) The tests were specifically about talk time: how long the battery lasts while making voice calls. That's provoked some criticism from people who argue this is only a small part of battery life ... (view more)

More than half of the world's population now has Internet access according to newly-published estimates. The figures also suggest there are more mobile phones than people worldwide. The estimates come from the International Telecommunications Union ... (a specialized agency of the United Nations), and the World Bank. (Source: itu.int ) While most of the figures relate to subscriptions, the overall Internet use number is for individual people. The estimate has 51.2 percent of people online as of the end of 2018, with dramatic growth in Internet access in Africa helping reach this milestone. ... (view more)

A tech expert has spotted a security risk in the mobile edition of Chrome. The way the exploit works means that scammers could make the browser appear to show a fake website address. This type of exploit would be particularly useful in a phishing ... scam, where hackers could develop a bogus website (such as a major banking site) to trick people into handing over personal information or passwords to sensitive data. James Fisher noted a potential problem with what's meant to be a useful measure in mobile Chrome. As the user scrolls down the page - which is much more likely to happen on a phone ... (view more)

Microsoft has ditched Windows 10 "Sets," a feature planned as a major rethink of how Windows 10 works. In simple terms, it would have replaced traditional windows (such as File Explorer or a MS Word) with browser-like tabs. The feature was first ... revealed by Microsoft in late 2017 and later went out to some users in the Windows 10 test panel. The concept was simple: to offer an alternative to the current methods of switching between open applications such as using Alt-Tab to cycle between them, or clicking on icons in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. Browser-Like Experience ... (view more)