Articles by John P. Mello Jr

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. ...

Business users whose lives revolve around their mobile phones won't be disappointed with Samsung's Intrepid smartphone. The handset, which uses Sprint's 3G network (EV-DO Rev.A) domestically and also connects to 3G networks abroad, is packed with features aimed at the pinstripe crowd ...

With high-definition video popping up everywhere, it's a wonder it has taken this long for the first 720p HD webcam to hit the market. It's Microsoft's LifeCam Cinema webcam, and not only is it a honey of a webcam, but at US$79.95, it's nicely priced to boot. ...

Even in the best of times, job hunting is a taxing task, but in these economic conditions, it can be a crushing experience. Fruitless replies to job notices, dead-end interviews and inhuman human resource departments can grind a job seekers' resolve to dust. One way to beat the no-job blues is to purge the word "unemployed" from your vocabulary. Y...

There's a lot to like about Amazon's new super-sized e-book reader, the Kindle DX. It has more than a few nettles, too. Since the original Kindle was introduced at the end of 2007, its fans have been clamoring for more screen real estate. With the DX, Amazon has met those demands in a big way. The reader's screen measures 8 by 5.5 inches, or 9.7 i...

With all the buzz surrounding netbooks, it seems as if they've been around forever. In reality, though, they're youngsters in the great scheme of things. As such, their characteristics are still in flux, their makers still casting about for the best mix of form and power. Acer, with the introduction of its Aspire One AO751h model, is advancing the netbook closer to that best mix.

Marking up Web pages is nothing new. Offerings like Sharedcopy, MyStickies and Stickis allow you to annotate any Web page and, in some cases, share those annotations with others. However, a new entry into this genre, Blerp, adds a new twist to the practice. Blerp, currently in its alpha phase, is the brainchild of the folks at RocketOn.

Though it's struggled when it comes to kicking in doors in the consumer market, Linux has clearly found a welcome home in the enterprise, and it appears to be making itself more comfortable with each passing day "It's the fastest-growing server-side operating system of any of them that are out there -- Unix, Windows, you name it," Jim Zemlin, execu...

One would think that the cost of doing business on the Web is so small that it would be almost negligible, but that's not the case with many e-tailers, which is why many of them fail. It's also why Prashant Nedungadi decided to found IMshopping, an online company that's trying to emulate offline customer service. With Nedungadi at the helm as CEO, IMshopping recently launched its site in beta.