Articles by John P. Mello Jr.

An overture by WikiLeaks to the U.S. Defense Department to collaborate on sanitizing classified documents on the Afghan war before the whistleblowing website makes the material public has been spurned by the federal agency "[T]he Department of Defense will not negotiate some 'minimized' or 'sanitized' version of a release by WikiLeaks of additional...

Google's expansion into advertising outside the virtual world received a boost Wednesday when it landed a new client: DirecTV. The deal with the satellite TV provider will add another 18.7 million households to Google TV Ads' reach, bringing the total number of households reached by the service to 30 million Under the deal, Google will manage Direc...

Satellite television provider Dish Network plans to release a load of apps this fall that will allow its subscribers to watch its program offerings on Apple's iFamily of mobile devices -- the iPhone, iPad and iPod -- as well as Research In Motion Blackberries and smartphones running Google's Android operating system Although the mobile service itse...

With 3D movies now mainstream fare in theaters and 3D TVs adorning retail shelves, it was only a matter of time before 3D consumer camcorders would begin to hit the market. That time was this week as two camcorder makers, Panasonic and DXG USA announced 3D camcorder products ...

Twitter on Wednesday launched its @earlybird service, aimed at providing its some 75 million members with daily deals and creating a revenue stream for itself The first offering from the service was a discount on tickets to see the critically panned movie "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" from Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer....

Despite predictions to the contrary, Adobe Flash won't be supplanted any time soon as a major video distribution vehicle on the World Wide Web, according to a software engineer at the Net's largest video sharing site, YouTube "[W]hile the

The top dog in Internet telephony is set to expand its reach with the release of new development software. SkypeKit is aimed at allowing software writers to integrate the Net phone service into a variety of consumer electronics devices and computer software programs "For nearly seven years, Skype has revolutionized communications through software t...

Four out of five consumers don't know the speed of their broadband connections. Do they care? Apparently not -- but the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does, and it's starting two projects to clarify how fast U.S. broadband speeds are In a survey released Tuesday on consumer broadband experience, the FCC found that 80 percent of consumer br...

One of the most popular game providers on Facebook cut a deal Wednesday to bring its entertainment wares to Yahoo Zynga -- known for its infectious social media diversions "Farmville" and "Mafia Wars" -- announced a partnership with Yahoo that will expose the gamemaker's offerings to the aging portal's more than 600 million users, although some of ...

Two privacy flaws in Facebook were quickly patched Wednesday, but for security experts the breaches are just signs of what may be chronic problems with the social network's ability to preserve the sensitive data of its more than 400 million members The flaws were linked to a feature that's part of Facebook's new -- and controversial -- privacy sett...

Microsoft announced a new revision of its SQL server software Wednesday, a version that the software maker is hailing as the "most complete information platform for managing, accessing and delivering information" in the corporate environment "It's definitely a complete platform because it gets them to the scale that they wanted to get to in terms o...

It's not often that the military calls on Congress for guidance in conducting a war, but that's what the nominee to head the Pentagon's command for cyberwarfare did on the eve of a hearing on his appointment In a 32-page response to questions posed to him prior to the hearing by the Senate Armed Services Committee, Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander repor...

You need spend only five minutes with Motorola's Devour smartphone to realize how appropriate its moniker is. It's an information gourmand's delight ...

After months of planning and testing, the Internet's No. 1 video-sharing site, YouTube, launched a new look and received mixed reviews The redesign eliminates one of the chief irritants to tubesters: clutter.

In the Windows world, photographers looking for an alternative to Adobe Photoshop that will save them cash without skimping on power typically have turned to Corel's PaintShop Photo Pro. The program has consistently kept pace with the evolving needs of shutterbugs over the years and the latest "X3" version (US$99) of the software continues that tradition...

Digital cameras have been around for so long that for some shutter buffs, it's difficult to remember a time when they didn't exist. It's even more difficult to recall the days when a slide projector was a necessary accessory for an image-grabbing hobbyist. ...

One of the problems with smartphones up to now is that they behaved more like a computer than a cellphone. That's not the case with the Moment, Samsung's new smartphone based on Google's Android operating system. ...

If you want to know why the netbook is headed to the endangered species list, take a look at Gateway's new ultraportable. ...

This is a story without a happy ending. For months I, like many others, had been bombarded with fawning reports about the latest edition of Microsoft's operating system, Windows 7. Admittedly, I was skeptical. Then I tried out a new laptop running the OS, and I was sold.

Up to now, if you wanted a smartphone with power and without complexity, the only orchard you could go to was Apple's. With the arrival of the Motorola Droid, though, that's changed. ...