Articles by Fred J. Aun

Ever get the feeling that somebody is watching over your shoulder while you browse the Web? Yahoo's new SmartAds program promises to bring to your monitor display ads based on your behavior, location and demographics....

Continuing to expand its portfolio of services under the Windows Live roof, Microsoft's newest beta offerings allow users to store and share photos and files online The Windows Live Photo Gallery, Microsoft said, is an upgrade of the Windows Photo Gallery that comes with the Windows Vista operating system. However, people still using Windows XP wil...

Ohio's data theft problem has grown beyond the scope of the information originally provided by state officials It was announced last week that a data device containing state workers' personal info had been given to an Ohio state intern who reported it missing after his vehicle was burglarized. At the time, officials reported that the data pertained...

Microsoft will tweak Windows Vista to enable the easy use of other vendors' desktop search applications, a response to a complaint by search giant Google News of the agreement was included in an U.S. Department of Justice report on Microsoft's compliance with final judgments of the U.S. versus Microsoft anti-trust case....

It's not Apple's release of a Windows version of its Safari Web browser that concerns Mozilla COO John Lilly. It's Apple founder Steve Jobs' apparent view of a Web browser market shared, for the most part, by two companies: Apple and Microsoft In a "John's blog" entry published last Thursday, Lilly expressed unhappiness with Jobs' comments at the r...

In an apparent effort to move beyond the past problems with its Internet protocol television (IPTV) middleware, Microsoft has changed the name of the platform and added some new multimedia capabilities What was once Microsoft IPTV is now Microsoft Mediaroom. The updated software includes support for the sharing, throughout a home network, of music ...

Using subscriber information provided by MySpace, Texas officials have arrested seven previously convicted sex offenders who illegally created profiles on the site. The arrests were described as the nation's "first large-scale crackdown" on MySpace-enabled predation The busts came after a two-week-long investigation aided by MySpace's release of th...

A new sensor design introduced Thursday by Kodak will double, and possibly quadruple, the light sensitivity of digital cameras, according to the company Describing the technology as "groundbreaking," Kodak said the advance in image sensor design will drastically improve the quality of digital pictures taken in low-light situations. Image sensors ar...

Under pressure from the European Union's Data Protection Working Party, search giant Google said it will "anonymize" its search server logs after 18 months. However, Google also stressed it will never alter the data sooner than 18 months after its creation and will comply with laws that could require it to retain the information for up to two years...

Google on Friday unveiled Google Calendar Gallery, a platform that allows one-click importing to Google Calendars of event and listing content found on other Web sites Google has always envisioned Google Calendar to be capable of easing the hassle normally associated with calendar management, the company said. In announcing Google Calendar Gallery,...

Microsoft and South Korea's LG Electronics (LGE) have announced a patent cross-licensing deal, similar to one Microsoft recently signed with Novell, that allows LG to use Microsoft technology in its products while giving Microsoft access to LG's intellectual property The deal means LG can use Linux in its products without fearing litigation from Mi...

Back in the good old days of 2005, most American youngsters didn't start fiddling with electronic gadgets until they were about eight years old. Now, six-year-olds know how to use cell phones, DVD players and just about anything else with an "on" button Such are the findings of the NPD Group, a research firm that's been keeping tabs on the penetrat...

The latest search engine safety report by McAfee SiteAdvisor states that Web search results are slowly getting safer, but it also asserts that search providers can do more to weed out sponsored links from scammers, malware spewers and other "bad actors." Search engine companies have the ability to clamp down on unscrupulous search-based advertisers...

Nokia unveiled three new mobile phones this week and aimed for the moon with the most expensive of the trio: a dark, smoked-glass and soft-touch stainless steel creation called the "8600 Luna" that features a pulsing "heartbeat" of a keyboard Taking a backseat to the high-end Luna, but still fairly svelte, are the 6500 Classic and the 6500 Slide. B...

Many technology analysts and gadget lovers found themselves this week scratching their heads, rubbing their chins, squinting their eyes and exhibiting other signs of uncertainty about the need for, and future of Palm's latest device, the Foleo Billed by Palm as a "smartphone companion product," the Foleo doesn't come close to a full notebook comput...

Rupert Murdoch, who lost a chance to buy YouTube last year when the massive video-hosting site was gobbled up by Google, has snagged two other Internet companies that are popular with young people: Photobucket and Flektor Murdoch's Fox Interactive Media (FIM), which owns the heavily visited social networking hub MySpace.com, announced the acquisiti...

Once a feisty competitor that beat Intel to market with processor innovations and lower costs, chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has lately slumped a bit. That could change, as Japanese electronics giant Toshiba confirmed Tuesday it plans to use AMD processors in some of its laptops The deal would pull the plug on an arrangement under which th...

MySpace competitor Facebook has introduced a new open platform that allows developers to build applications that integrate with the social networking site and can be chosen by users to appear within their Facebook profile pages Announced Thursday by Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg -- and called "Facebook Platform" -- the new system will al...

Internet advertising grew by about 35 percent in 2006, according to a new study that suggests companies and their advertising agencies are increasingly embracing the Web as a viable place to build brands and sell goods Online advertising revenue grew to US$16.9 billion last year, according to the latest version of the Interactive Advertising Bureau...

T-Mobile Tuesday became the first U.S. cellular carrier to introduce a device powered by Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft's latest operating system for mobile devices The latest offering, called the "Wing," is an upgrade to the company's discontinued MVA smartphone. It is priced at US$299 with a two-year contract....