How to Use Windows

Fondly remembered computer games television show GamesMaster could be set for a return to the small screen, with Future Publishing confirming that it is currently exploring its option for bringing back the programme. Future Publishing, also TechRadar’s publisher, owns the rights to GamesMaster and is set to unveil its redesigned GamesMaster magazine in May, but the revival doesn’t stop there with confirmation that the brand could move back onto TVs. “Future is also looking at ways to extend the brand into new formats,” said Future.

The full story can be found on Tech Radar

Qualcomm has continued the war of worlds with a German company over the use of the word ’smartbook’ for devices that fall between smartphones and netbooks. The ’smartbook’ term has become widely used for a new wave of connected devices, many of which are using Qualcomm’s well-received Snapdragon processor, but German company Smartbook AG has engaged in what Qualcomm labels ‘an aggressive campaign to prevent the continued use of the term “smartbooks” by journalists, manufacturers and consumers’. “Qualcomm does not claim and has never claimed to own the term “smartbook” which it believes is a descriptive and generic term,” insists Qualcomm in a statement. “The term is used by a number of companies, consumers and industry commentators to describe a class of devices that combine attributes of smartphones and netbooks enabled by various technology companies, including but not limited to Qualcomm. “Smartbook AG has obtained a Temporary Restraining Order in Germany against Qualcomm.

The full story can be found on Tech Radar

What started as a hacking attack on Google began to have significant repercussions across the world last week, as French, German and Australian authorities recommended PC users avoid Internet Explorer until a critical security flaw was fixed. Although a patch has now been issued , these security alerts are less clear about exactly what you should use instead, though, which might leave you with a question: which is the most secure browser? The answer, unfortunately, is none of them. Every browser has its share of security problems, and the worst offenders aren’t always who you might think

The full story can be found on Tech Radar

It was in the USSR in 1984 that Tetris came into being. It was created by computer engineer Alexey Pajitnov, with the help of Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov, on the Elektronika 60 while he was working for the Moscow Academy of Sciences. The name was derived from the Greek word ‘Tetra’ which means ‘four’ and tennis, Alexey’s favourite game. Tetra, of course, referred to the fact that all of the game’s pieces were tetrominoes, consisting of four segments

The full story can be found on Tech Radar

The Internet started it all off–the (theoretical) creation of a world without borders. There’s a problem, however: borders still remain. And those borders are inhabited by sovereign entities that dictate the rules for their respective domains. This creates another problem, for both consumers and producers: what rules are in force over a technology that has no regard for arbitrary geographic boundaries? Microsoft, in a move that protects it and the consumers it serves, has asked that current federal technology laws be updated, new ones implemented, and that international standards be devised , so that border-oblivious technologies will be protected

For the full story, go to Maximum PC

Rupert Murdoch’s News International corporation has announced it is to block aggregation site NewsNow from indexing its content. Just last week it was revealed that The Times had blocked NewsNow from accessing content but now the rest of News International’s UK portfolio has been blocked to the site. This includes websites like The Sun and The News Of The World . “NewsNow has been using Times Online content as part of its paid-for, commercial as well as free services,” explained NI’s statement

The full story can be found on Tech Radar

Microsoft has been toying with ideas on how to increase revenue streams from its software offerings, both operating system and business productivity software. It’s suggested that Microsoft’s objective is a strategic response to pirating: if pirates act because software costs are too high, then find a way to lower those costs without giving it away. But Microsoft’s newly announced rental program seems more a modification of licensing to meet real world usage of Microsoft’s software, in a way that can generate a few more dollars. From the description offered on the Microsoft Partner Network , it seems that rental only applies to owners of such software (i.e., you aren’t renting from Microsoft, but are renting from the legal software licensee.) According to the site: “Windows desktop operating system and Microsoft Office system licenses do not permit renting, leasing, or outsourcing the software to a third party…Rental Rights are a simple way for organizations to get a waiver of these licensing restrictions through a one-time license transaction valid for the term of the underlying software license or life of the PC.” Under Microsoft’s old licensing system this was technically ‘illegal’ (but people were still doing it). Now, with the right payment, it is ‘legal.’ For example, the steps in rental, according to the Partner Network, consists of (1) obtain from Microsoft valid licenses for all machines to be rented; (2) acquiring rental rights for those PCs from Microsoft; and (3) finding customers to rent them

For the full story, go to Maximum PC

Books published within the last 15 years have clearly defined e-book publishing rights, but for the billions of titles published before this, the rules are not so clear cut . The battle being waged now between book authors and publishers is over who owns the digital rights, and more importantly, who gets the lion share of the revenue generated from the sales. It is in the best interest of authors to self publish e-books themselves since the cost of doing so is relatively small, and they wouldn’t need to share the revenue with the publisher as an added bonus. A 2002 ruling by a Manhattan judge ruled in favor of authors claiming that “e-books are separate from books”. We can reasonably expect this to be a decision which will be appealed all the way to the top court, but until then the debate rages on.

For the full story, go to Maximum PC

This may seem odd, but I’d like to recommend a movie this time. It’s called Sita Sings the Blues . It’s an animated retelling of the Hindu Ramayana interwoven with commentary about the story and the creator’s real life troubles, set to the 1920s-era songs of Annette Hanshaw. I know, not what you were expecting, but trust me

For the full story, go to Maximum PC

Hacker and Asperger’s sufferer Gary McKinnon has lost his final appeal to the UK government to halt his extradition to face trial in the US. Home Secretary Alan Johnson is coming under fire from civil liberties campaigners following his decision to let the extradition of McKinnon go ahead. McKinnon’s family fears that the hacker – who also suffers from Asperger’s syndrom – is now at a serious risk of suicide For its part the US government continues to claim that Gary McKinnon is directly responsible for the biggest military computer hack of all time. In a letter today Alan Johnson made it crystal clear “that McKinnon’s extradition would not be incompatible with his [human] rights,” adding that “his extradition… must proceed forthwith.” Lawyers have described the move by the UK government as “callous” while McKinnon’s mother, Janis Sharp blasted the government saying they were “terrified of speaking up to America, and now they are allowing vulnerable people to be pursued for non-violent crime when they should be going after terrorists.” Life is at stake Mckinnon’s lawyer, Karen Todner added: “We genuinely believe Gary’s life is at stake here,” Human Rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC, told the Guardian : “To send a British citizen to the US, without any right to bail, to face 10 years in prison for a crime for which he would be unlikely to receive any custodial sentence if tried here amounts to ‘cruel and unusual’ punishment’ in breach of our 1689 Bill of Rights.

The full story can be found on Tech Radar