Calls for net neutrality clash with reports of how Netflix wants to treat its own video, the commissioner says
Microsoft’s Windows 10 is still in testing, but hardware makers can’t wait for the day the OS replaces the controversial Windows 8. Millions of PCs are aging, and those who have resisted Windows 8 will likely upgrade to computers with Windows 10. The initial reception to a test version of Windows 10 has been positive, as it resolves many usability issues affecting Windows 8. There are about 600 million PCs that are four years or older, and those systems are ripe for upgrades, said Renee James, president at Intel, at the Credit Suisse Technology Conference on Tuesday. “When we see a healthy macroeconomic environment and an aging installed base we expect a new [OS] deployment. The [PCs] are fantastic and at new price points. That’s kind of a perfect storm, combined with a new OS, and the OS usually pushes the upgrade cycle,” James said.
Twitter is a real-time news platform, a social scene, and a forum for anonymous harassment and abuse. One of these things is not like the others, so the company is making changes to fix the process for reporting and blocking harassers. Twitter is rolling out streamlined in-app abuse reports. The new tools won’t make life easier for prominent Twitter users who experience a daily onslaught of abuse, but they simplify the process of reporting abusive tweets within the Twitter app and managing block lists on Twitter’s desktop site. Now you can quickly tap through an abuse report to file a complaint on your phone, proof that Twitter has come a long way since first adding the
With 2014 almost over, Microsoft has released its lists of the top searches on Bing and, so far, Apple’s iPhone 6, Facebook and Kim Kardashian are the year’s big winners. “We’re taking a look back at the people, moments, and events that shaped 2014,” wrote the Bing Team in a Microsoft tracks billions of searches throughout the year and annually lists the top search terms in a variety of categories, including most-searched news stories, devices, apps, sports and celebrities.
Sprint's trying hard to shake its underdog mobile carrier status, and its latest plan to snag subscribers is eye-catching. The company's Cut Your Bill in Half Event, which starts December 5 for a limited time, offers to halve the mobile device plans of AT&T or Verizon customers if they switch to Sprint. As the sale’s name suggests, Sprint says it will cut your cost for calls, text, and data in half. “For example, Verizon customers paying $140/month for four lines of service to share can get four lines of service from Sprint for $70/month,” Sprint said in its announcement Tuesday morning. Once you’ve got the new rate locked in, it’s yours for as long as you decide to stick with Sprint. The half-price event is not available to current subscribers.
Few have probably heard about Digione, but one of the Chinese company’s latest products looks quite similar to the iPhone 6, and could potentially spark a patent dispute with Apple. The little-known Chinese smartphone maker revealed Monday it sent a letter to Apple in September, claiming that the iPhone 6 may infringe on a company-registered patent.
The peephole is a brilliant low-tech invention that lets you see who’s at your front door without having to open it. But it requires you to put your eye right up to the hole, putting you in very close proximity to the person on the other side. The folks at Skybell had a better idea: A device that replaces your doorbell with a Wi-Fi camera and intercom, so that you use your smartphone to see—and talk to—the person on the other side of the door. Their 2013 crowd-funding campaign was a huge success, and today they’re shipping Skybell version 2.0. “We launched on Indiegogo on August 15 [2013], with a target of $100,000,” Skybell co-founder Andrew Thomas told me in a recent interview. “We raised $100,000 in the first five days. Between that and Amazon pre-orders, we recorded $2 million in product sales before the device went into manufacturing.”
The lock screen in Android 5.0 Lollipop is a strange beast. Google has done away with the lock screen widgets, which never really caught on, and replaced them with notifications. At the same time, there are multiple new ways of securing the lock screen and keeping your personal data private. The options to do all this are scattered throughout the settings, because Google apparently likes to keep us on our toes. Here’s how to get it all set up. This first step will be familiar to long-time Android users. Go into the main system settings and find the Security menu. From there, change the screen lock type to something other than swipe—PIN, pattern, password, or whatever you want. Remember that if your device is encrypted you’ll need to enter this code when starting up.
HP's new EliteBook laptops may be corporate tools, but they've got some cool factor, too—whether it's the carbon-fiber-infused shell of one model, or the twistable display on another. Cool is good, because these EliteBooks face as much pressure as the mobile workforce they support. They have to perform, and they have to last. I'll be honest with you: I have a friend whose company went with HP for her sales team, and she hated those laptops. They kept failing. I recall her bitter words as I write this. Let's hope that was then, this is now, because these EliteBooks, announced Tuesday, meet military (MIL-STD 810G) durability standards, and they sport many premium features you won't see on consumer systems shipping now. (They may, however, offer a peek at what could show up on mainstream machines someday.)
