Articles by John P. Mello Jr.

Some 72 percent of the businesses evaluated by a Boston-based research firm scored poorly on their policies for re-using their customers' personal data for marketing purposes, but the researchers maintain that more companies are sensitive to privacy issues than ever before and are acting on that awareness Other findings in the report prepared by Th...

One in every 74 e-mail messages on the Internet yesterday carried a new strain of the Sober virus, estimates one security analyst "At the moment, this virus is accounting for 65 percent of all virus reports to us," Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant for anti-virus software maker Sophos told TechNewsWorld. "That means, including legitimat...

The software universe is teeming with programs for creating slideshows from digital images. Many of these applications fulfill their appointed task very well. But one snag for me when creating slideshows has been their file size Although some programs claim they'll create slideshows suitable for posting on the Web or sending through e-mail, I've fo...

What began as a promising way to protect CDs from piracy has become a public relations nightmare for Sony BMG Entertainment and its digital rights management (DRM) partners, First 4 Internet (F4I) and SunnComm The new lawsuits leveled at Sony BMG stem from its sale of audio CDs protected with a scheme developed by F4I called XCP. Meanwhile, the blo...

Use of Web-based e-mail is on the rise and online marketers should be wary about it That's the thinking of Lyris Technologies, a subsidiary of J.D. Halsey that released a survey yesterday revealing 64 percent of consumers used Web-based services like Hotmail and Yahoo to check their e-mail compared to 37 percent who say they use a desktop client li...

Podcasting changed the face of audio on the Web and now it's altering the face of hosting, too The technology that moved blogging from eye to ear has hosting services revising their pricing to attract the growing ranks of podcasters to their servers and has increased pressure on niche players to rethink their offerings....

Less than half the consumers using the Internet feel safe shopping online, according to a survey expected to be released today by Symantec, a maker of anti-virus and security software The survey, based on a sample of 2,400 consumers, revealed that some 60 percent of those respondents felt less than safe shopping online....

The United States Supreme Court dealt online file sharing a body blow in June when it ruled that makers of peer-to-peer (P2P) software could be held liable for illegitimate uses of their applications. Since that decision was handed down in MGM v. Grokster, the P2P world has been floundering, bobbing in a sea of uncertainty over its future prospects...

There aren't many tech outfits that can rival Apple Computer when it comes to industrial design, but in the keyboard department, there's one company that can give the Cupertino crew a run for their money What's most surprising about the company is that it's not really known for its hardware. Software is its main game....

As the potential of that indefinitely defined technology called Web 2.0 becomes more and more apparent, new applications seem to be appearing on an almost daily basis But for users forced to hop from site to site for their Web services, the new social Net can be a drag....

Their numbers may not jibe but two prominent research firms agree on one thing: the holidays will be merry for online retailers Forrester Research and JupiterResearch released their holiday sales projections for online retailers this week and both predicted double-digit increases for the period....

Microsoft's expected announcement today that it was broadening its presence in the on-demand software market isn't causing leading players in the arena to quake in their code "I truly don't think Microsoft has anything to sell in that space," maintained Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite in San Mateo, Calif....

Ease of use and design -- not features -- are critical components to consumers' satisfaction with their cell phones, according to a study released yesterday In fact, as handset makers continue to wedge more and more bells and whistles into their diminutive devices, those aspects of a mobile phone become even more important, according to the study b...

Yahoo continued to raise the ante for content portals on the Net with the launch yesterday of a new original multimedia series by the pasha of adventure travel Richard Bangs Bangs' initial package for the content aggregator chronicles a climb of the Eiger by John Harlin III whose father died scaling the mountain 40 years ago....

Pressure to make more consumer friendly a standard for the next generation of DVDs continued to mount yesterday Boston-based Forrester Research predicted a victory for that standard, Blu-ray, over its rival, HD-DVD, but only a Pyrrhic one if the tough digital rights management (DRM) scheme incorporated into the technology isn't relaxed....

Although Web logs, or blogs, have attracted a lot of ink and electrons, the keys totheir creation and upkeep remain a mystery to many Net surfers. That's not to say that there aren't minds at work in the electronic plasma ruminating on ways to encourage even the meekest Websters to try their hand at blogging For instance, the folks at Blogger.com, ...

Clandestine codes used to track the output of some color laser printers have been cracked by a research team led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) According to the organization, the codes are part of a deal cut by the U.S. Secret Service with some printer makers to help curb the counterfeiting of currency....

Clandestine codes used to track the output of some color laser printers have been cracked by a research team led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) According to the organization, the codes are part of a deal cut by the U.S. Secret Service with some printer makers to help curb the counterfeiting of currency....

Computer crimes targeted at businesses are at their lowest level ever, according to a leading expert in the field Computer crime, observed Robert Richardson, editorial director for the Computer Security Institute (CSI) in Philadelphia "is as low as it's ever been and has dropped off significantly from last year."

Rising gas prices may be withering consumer confidence these days, but online retailers see a silver lining in the disturbing trend "People are going to be less inclined to drive to shopping centers," Bernard Baumohl, executive director of the Economic Outlook Group in Princeton Junction, N.J. told the E-Commerce Times. "Instead, they're going to s...