Articles by John P. Mello Jr

If you're looking for a credit card and a pleasant experience on the Web, the place to go is Capital One -- at least, according to Web site evaluation firm Change Sciences Group That's because when it comes to credit card cyber-stops, the "What's in your wallet?" folks have created a site that's easier to use, more informative and more persuasive t...

"Due to exceptionally high volume, requests may be delayed up to 72 hours." That message may be mundane when posted at most Web sites, but when it's posted at an online bank, it's as dangerous as blood in shark-infested waters....

We live in an a golden age for portable gizmos Wherever we go we can take our computers, telephones, personal organizer, digital cameras, video camcorders and satellite radios with us....

The risk of getting into an auto accident while reading or writing text messages is 50 percent higher than talking on a phone while driving, according to new research A person talking on a cell phone when driving is four times more likely to get into an accident than someone driving without distraction from the phone; for someone "texting" when dri...

Using the latest advances in genetics, two biofuel companies have developed a way to turn plant matter into fuel that can meet the nation's energy needs In a process similar to brewing beer, the firms use genetically engineered microbes to turn a broth of plant material, water and sugar into a biofuel that can be used to run today's automobiles....

Online video watching is growing rapidly, and where the eyeballs go, you can expect advertisers to follow Sixty-five percent of U.S. broadband users watch video online at least occasionally -- a substantial increase over last year, when that number was 44 percent, according to a report released last Friday by JupiterResearch....

Cybercrime has become a threat to the nation's economic and security interests, according to a report released Monday by a Congressional research and investigation agency Cybercrime in its various forms -- computer crime, identity theft and phishing -- costs the U.S. economy some US$117.5 billion a year, reported the Government Accountability Offic...

Five million is a lot of anything That's why the folks at Boston-based software maker IObit caught my eye recently when they announced they had just cracked the cinco millones mark in downloads for their free Windows maintenance program Advanced WindowsCare Personal....

Revenues from advertising at sports sites on the Web will catapult in the next five years to more than US$1 billion, according to a report from a New York marketing research firm The report from eMarketer predicts sports sites will rake in $1.1 billion in ad revenues in 2011, up from $400 million in 2006....

A ruling by a federal court in a case involving an online roommate matching service will hamstring Web innovators, a civil liberties group argued this week in papers filed with the judicial panel In a "friend of the court" brief submitted Monday to the U.S. Court of Appeals in California, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argued that "the ru...

With the arrival of high-definition cameras, the push for video-to-go (V2G) and, of course, Windows Vista, makers of video editing software have been handed a ticket to introduce new versions of their products. Canadian application architect Corel has done just that with the new version of its VideoStudio VideoStudio, which entered the Corel corral...

Revenue from search-related advertising on mobile phones will crack the US$2 billion mark in 2011, according to a report released last week by a market and trend analysis firm Search-related advertising -- which has made outfits like Google revenue powerhouses -- will grow mightily worldwide during this decade, from $6.8 million in 2006 to $2.4 bil...

Citing information from documents obtained from the Federal Bureau of Investigation under the Freedom of Information Act, a civil liberties group Tuesday maintained the federal agency has had chronic problems with its use of anti-terror letters to collect personal information about American citizens The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) also ass...

Advertising inside video games will near the US$1 billion mark by the beginning of the next decade, according to a report released by a technology research firm In-game advertising will grow from $77.7 million in 2006 to $971.3 million in 2011, the Yankee Group report predicted....

Some 30 percent of businesses in the UK leave data, some of it sensitive, on their PCs when they dispose of them, according to research findings released this week by computer maker Lenovo In the survey of 300 businesses commissioned by the UK-Ireland arm of the company, 29 percent of IT managers in large companies with 1,000 or more employees and ...

Social and community networks may be great hangouts for Web surfers who shop but not so great for retailers looking for virtual "ka-chings." That was one of the findings in a report released Saturday by JupiterResearch of New York, based on a survey conducted in March of more than 2,000 online consumers....

The popularity of social networking sites like MySpace and user-generated content sites like YouTube are inducing traditional news organizations to rethink their approach to the Web Outfits like Fox News, CNN, USA Today and MSNBC have begun to incorporate social networking tools into their sites, as well as actively soliciting content from their us...

Social networking Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook provide a means for people to share their lives with others, but are these sites turning their subscribers' free content into economic gain -- a new form of sharecropping? It certainly seems that way, according to Nicholas G. Carr, author of Does IT Matter?...

A method for screening new hires that counts the likes of Google among its adherents may create some fertile ground for future employment lawsuits That's the opinion of two attorneys writing the New York Law Journal this week....

If there's one prospect that sends shivers down the spines of shutterbugs everywhere, it's the expectation that some day, some way, all their photos will disappear in a computer mishap There are several ways to guard against such disasters, but a neat, mobile way to do it is with the Polaroid Media Backup Photo Edition (US$119 to $149)....