Articles by John P. Mello Jr

The Pew Research Center last week released a report suggesting that cyberattacks in the next 10 years might cause major destruction of human lives and tens of billions of dollars in property damage However, the situation might not be as overwhelming as the raw numbers indicate, according to one of the report's authors, Janna Quitney Anderson, direc...

The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday filed a complaint in a California federal court against AT&T, seeking compensation for customers who were told they had unlimited data plans but in reality did not The legal action stemmed from a practice AT&T began in 2011 of throttling data delivery to customers with unlimited data plans when their data us...

The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday filed a complaint in a California federal court against AT&T, seeking compensation for customers who were told they had unlimited data plans but in reality did not The legal action stemmed from a practice AT&T began in 2011 of throttling data delivery to customers with unlimited data plans when their data us...

The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday filed a complaint in a California federal court against AT&T, seeking compensation for customers who were told they had unlimited data plans but in reality did not The legal action stemmed from a practice AT&T began in 2011 of throttling data delivery to customers with unlimited data plans when their data us...

Malware writers behind Koler, a bad app that attacks Android devices, have upped their game with a new variant of the pernicious program In its original version, Koler hijacked phones it landed on and wouldn't set them free until a ransom was paid. This latest strain of the malapp also does the ransomware thing, but it takes its malignancy a step f...

Consumers who had been using Apple Pay at CVS and Rite Aid received a rude shock over the weekend when the chains turned off the technology at their stores across the U.S. Apple Pay enables mobile payments using the latest iPhone models or Apple Watch....

Google on Wednesday introduced Inbox, a free mobile app that aims to separate the email wheat from the chaff. It's currently available to Android and iPhone users on an invitation-only basis The software is aimed at managing email on small screens, although once set up and running on a phone, it can be accessed through Google's Chrome browser on a ...

Leeo on Tuesday introduced the Smart Alert Nightlight, a US$99 gadget that can detect when the alarm sounds from a smoke or carbon monoxide detector and send alerts to an iPhone About the size and shape of a coaster, the Smart Alert Nightlight plugs into a wall outlet where it does double duty as illuminator and listener for alarms....

Following Edward Snowden's revelations about indiscriminate government snooping on U.S. citizens, many Net surfers would like to find a way to lower their visibility on the Internet. There are a number of tools in cyberspace that can help a soul do that, but they can take time and savvy to set up. That's why Kerry Cox launched the Sierra Project Th...

Apple on Thursday held a new product event on its campus in Cupertino, California, where the stars of the show were a thinner version of its iPad tablet and a 27-inch iMac desktop with a display that has 67 percent more pixels than a 4K TV The iPad Air 2, pictured above, will have an entry point of US$499 for a 16-GB model. It is only 6.1mm thick -...

Microsoft on Tuesday released Skype Qik, a new mobile chat app that features short, self-destructing video messages that automatically self-destruct in two weeks -- or sooner if set to do so ...

The days of in-boxes flooded with spam messages on an assortment of sordid subjects are a faint memory to most email users, but what spam has lost in volume it's gained in power More than two-thirds (69 percent) of some 200 IT decision makers in companies with five to 1,000 employees said a spam incident in the last year had severely disrupted thei...

If you're looking for an extravaganza on the scale of last month's new iPhone unveiling, chances are you won't find it at Apple's "Way Too Long" event to be held Thursday in the Town Hall auditorium at its Cupertino headquarters "This will be a very low-key event," Gartner Research Vice President for Mobility Van L. Baker told TechNewsWorld. "They'...

HTC on Thursday debuted two new products for photography enthusiasts. One offering, the RE, is an L-shaped camera that doesn't have a viewfinder. The other is a new smartphone, the Desire Eye, which boasts a 13-megapixel front-facing camera for high-resolution selfies ...

GT Advanced Technologies and seven of its direct and indirect subsidiaries on Monday announced they had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy GT, which makes sapphire components used in the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, expects the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Hampshire to authorize the company to continue to conduct business as usual whi...

"Follow the money" isn't just the war cry of journalistic bloodhounds hot on the trail of political corruption. It's the mantra of Web predators, too. That's why PayPal consistently has been the top brand targeted by phishers -- although that appears to have changed Apple now has the dubious distinction of most-phished brand, according to the lates...

Apple on Thursday closed a gap in its efforts to combat mobile device theft with the announcement of a service for checking the Activation Lock status of its iPhone, iPad and iPod product lines The Find My iPhone Activation Lock requires that an owner's Apple ID and passcode be entered into an iOS device before Find My iPhone can be turned off or t...

eBay on Tuesday announced that its 12-year marriage to PayPal was coming to an end. The move comes mere months after eBay beat down an attempt by corporate raider Carl Icahn to peel PayPal from the online auction site "For more than a decade, eBay and PayPal have mutually benefited from being part of one company, creating substantial shareholder va...

With news of massive data breaches becoming almost a weekly occurrence, consumers are beginning to lose their patience with the custodians of their personal information Survey results from 2,000 consumers released last week by HyTrust, suggest that 51 percent of those polled would bolt from any business involved in a data breach that compromised pe...

Banks and businesses toiled over the weekend to crush a bug in a widely used open source operating system The flaw has been in Unix for some 25 years, but it was revealed just last week. If exploited by an attacker, the vulnerability in BASH (Bourne-Again SHell) could be used to inject malicious code or take command of a system or device....