Articles by John P. Mello Jr

Walmart on Monday raised the bar for service by an online retailer with its announcement of free home pickup of customer returns Called "Carrier Pickup by Fedex," the program allows items bought at Walmart's online store to be returned with a minimum of hassle by scheduling a home pickup from the store and printing a return label for the item....

A demand for a massive amount of data from nine technology companies -- including Facebook and Twitter -- has been made by the Federal Trade Commission in what could be a prelude to regulation on the handling of data by the industry The demand made Monday by the FTC seeks to obtain information on how many users the companies have, how active the us...

The Big Three makers of video gaming hardware on Monday announced a united front to make online gaming safe for all their players "All players deserve to have fantastic social gaming experiences in settings where respect and safety are mutual," Dave McCarthy, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Xbox operations, wrote at the Xbox news website....

During any holiday season, consumers have a tough time wrestling with each other for best-selling products, but now times have become even tougher, thanks to the proliferation of online "scalper" bots These robot shoppers emulate the activity of ticket scalpers in the real world....

Despite the proven effectiveness of smartphone contact-tracing applications in reducing COVID-19 cases and deaths, Americans seem to have little interest in using the programs An analysis by the Associated Press released Monday found that only 18 states make those apps available to their citizens and in those locales, only about one in 14 people ha...

Libra, the digital currency announced by Facebook last year, is getting a new name. Libra will now be Diem The new name will reenforce the currency project's independence, according to a statement released Tuesday by the Libra Association, which is also changing its name. From now on it will be the Diem Association....

For years the consumer virtual reality market has failed to fulfill the hype surrounding it, but that's going to change in the next five years, according to a report released Monday The forecast by Omdia, a market analysis firm based in London, predicts the value of the virtual reality hardware and software market to reach US$10 billion by 2025, up...

Spotlight, a new short video service launched by Snap on Monday, is set to take on the leaders in the space, TikTok and Instagram Reels Moreover, it has pledged to prime the creative engines of Snapchatters making videos by divvying up a daily pool of US$1 million for the day's best content....

Amazon on Tuesday announced that it's getting into the online pharmacy prescription business in a big way The e-commerce giant revealed it's setting up a new drugstore on its platform, Amazon Pharmacy, that will allow customers to complete a pharmacy transaction on their desktop or through the company's mobile app....

Apple pulled the wraps off its first computer models based on its new Apple Silicon chip at an online event aired Tuesday The Mac Air, Mac Mini and 13-inch MacBook Pro are all being refreshed with the company's new ARM-based M1 chip. The move is the beginning of a transition, expected to take two years, away from Intel chips and to Apple Silicon....

A social media platform that bills itself as a "non-biased, free speech" alternative to outfits like Twitter and Facebook has seen a surge in interest in its mobile app over the last week that culminated Sunday in it becoming the top free app at the Apple App Store According to Fox Business, the Parler app has been downloaded 310,000 times in the l...

Zoom gave its users a big security upgrade Monday when it rolled out end-to-end encryption for its online meetings network E2EE puts control of the keys for scrambling data in the hands of meeting organizers. Before the E2EE rollout, encryption was done on Zoom's servers, where someone with access to those servers could intercept the data....

When it comes to an appetite for data, social media outfits are the most voracious, according to a recent study released this month by cybersecurity company Clario Tech The analysis of nearly 50 of the world's biggest brands found that Facebook collects more than 70 percent of all the data it can collect legally about someone using its service....

Google found itself in the crosshairs of government regulators Tuesday as the U.S. Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit against the tech giant for unlawfully maintaining a monopoly in online search services and in search advertising "This is a monumental case for the Department of Justice and, more importantly, for the American consumer," U.S.

A warning by Facebook and Google that they may have to curb service to Australia if a controversial law takes effect this year has the Aussies reviewing their options, including setting up a publicly-funded social network The idea of setting of a publicly-funded social network run by the ABC -- the Australian Broadcasting Company, the country's st...

Apple refreshed its iPhone product line Tuesday, introducing four new models, as well as a downsized version of its HomePod smart speaker All of the new iPhones are built around Apple's blazing fast A14 Bionic chip, support all flavors of 5G wireless connectivity, and are protected by a Ceramic Shield that protects the phone from damage after a fal...

An outlaw online network that's been used to infect millions of computers with ransomware has been disrupted by Microsoft The company announced Monday that, together with telecommunications providers around the world, it was able to cut off the infrastructure used by the Trickbot botnet so it could no longer be used to initiate new infections or ac...

Seven scamware apps found in Google Play and Apple's App Store corralled more than half a million dollars for their developers, a digital security company reported Tuesday Avast discovered the malicious apps after a 12-year-old girl flagged a suspicious app promoted on a TikTok profile through its "Be Safe Online" project in the Czech Republic, whe...

According to gaming experts, 2021 is shaping up to be a big year for cloud gaming "We are expecting a big jump in revenue from 2020 to 2021," observed George Jijiashvili, a senior analyst with Omdia and author of a report on cloud gaming released last week....

Apple pulled the wraps off two new Apple Watches, two iPads, and several service bundles at an event Tuesday held online The new watches include the Series 6, which boasts performance improvements over the previous generation of the product and will sell for US$399, and the SE, an economy watch model, which will sell for $279. Apple will also conti...