Articles by John P. Mello Jr

Reviews of Apple's next generation iPhone X have started appearing online, and for the most part, critics have showered praise on the product "The iPhone X is clearly the best iPhone ever made," wrote Nilay Patel for The Verge....

Researchers have found a way to use neural networks to create DSLR-quality photos from snapshots taken with low-end smartphones A team of scientists at the ETH ZurichComputer Vision Lab recently published a paper describing a deep learning approach that uses neural networks to translate photos taken by cameras with limited capabilities into DSLR-qu...

A new feature that Facebook recently has been testing in a handful of countries could hurt publishers everywhere if it should roll out globally The feature removes users' Liked pages from their main News Feed and aggregates them in a separate space called "Explore."

Google on Monday rolled out an online payment service that's designed to accelerate the online checkout process While the new offering isn't quite Amazon One-Click, it will eliminate many of the annoying steps that can slow down the online purchase process and often result in abandoned shopping carts....

Apple and General Electric on Wednesday announced a new software development kit for Apple's mobile operating system, iOS. The SDK, which will be available for download next week, enables developers to create applications for Predix, an Internet of Things platform made by GE "Together, Apple and GE are fundamentally changing how the industrial worl...

As Google's new Pixel 2 smartphones get ready to hit the shelves, reviews of the models have begun mushrooming online While the new phones generally have received positive grades, many reviewers found the their design boring....

Amazon on Wednesday pulled the wraps off a new premium e-reader that's waterproof and has a sharp 300 pixels-per-inch display The Kindle Oasis has a 7-inch Paperwhite display and sports an aluminum back and ergonomic shape that makes it easier to read for prolonged periods. It has a battery life measured in weeks, and it can charge from zero to ful...

Apple has made a retro version of iTunes available, 12.6.3, reviving features removed by the mammoth 12.7 overhaul it released last month. News of the release surfaced Monday in a post on Reddit by user vista980622 The company was low key about the release, saying in an online post dated Sept. 23 that the retro version was for business partners who...

Apple's use of facial recognition to unlock its iPhone X may open the gates for developers champing at the bit to bring the technology to the Android world Face ID, which will replace fingerprint scanning in Apple's new US$1,000 iPhone X, uses Apple's TrueDepth 3D camera to verify the owner of a phone and unlock it....

A refresh of Google's critically acclaimed Pixel smartphones is expected Wednesday when the company holds its annual product launch event at the SFJAZZ center in San Francisco Although their features won't be known officially until Google raises the curtain on the phones at the event, leaks -- including photos -- have given the public a good idea o...

Microsoft on Monday announced that it has been working on a language for a computer that doesn't exist The company unveiled the language -- as yet unnamed -- at its Ignite conference in Orlando, Florida. Part of its Visual Studio product, it will run on a quantum simulator and quantum computer....

Microsoft on Monday announced the general availability of SQL Server 2017, now with support for Linux, at its Ignite conference in Orlando. The company first announced its plans for the newest iteration of its database software a year and a half ago This is the first version of SQL Server to run on Windows Server, Linux and Docker, noted Scott Guth...

Reviews of Apple's new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus started turning up this week, and for the most part, they've been laudatory. However, the reviewers can't seem to get their minds off the jewel of the Apple universe, the iPhone X Both the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are "awesome" and better than last year's models -- but iPhone shoppers who want to be part of th...

Malicious code has been discovered in two versions of Piniform's CCleaner housekeeping utility, the company disclosed on Monday. Piniform is owned by Avast, whose security products are used by more than 400 million people The malware infecting CCleaner could give hackers control over the devices of more than 2 million users. CCleaner is designed to...

Apple on Tuesday raised the curtain on its next-generation iPhone X, and it so far has been greeted with praise -- though tentative -- from early hands-on reviewers For the most part, they gave the X kudos for design and build, but reserved their unequivocal endorsements until they could spend more time with the phone....

Russian President Vladimir Putin last week poked the nest of anxieties over the use of artificial intelligence to gain power in a video address to students at 16,000 selected schools. "Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia but for all humankind," he said. "Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the ...

The hacker group known as "Dragonfly" is behind sophisticated wave of recent cyberattacks on the energy sectors of Europe and North America, Symantec reported Wednesday The attacks could provide the group with the means to severely disrupt energy operations on both continents....

Pixelmator on Tuesday unveiled Pixelmator Pro 1.0 Whirlwind, a high-powered version of its popular photo editing application for macOS. Whirlwind will be available this fall The app's interface has gotten an overhaul -- it's now in a single window with no floating toolbars -- and it boasts new nondestructive, GPU-powered image editing tools and enh...

Amazon's digital assistant, Alexa, has a new musical talent, the company announced Tuesday "Today, we're making Alexa even smarter with an all-new feature that lets you play music synchronized on multiple Echo devices to provide room-filling music throughout your home," said Amazon Alexa Vice President Toni Reid....

Apple plans to refresh its iPhone, TV and watch lines at an event scheduled Sept. 12, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday In addition to upgrading its iPhone 7 models, the company is expected to debut a new mobile phone to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the brand, which the press has dubbed "iPhone 8."