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Broadband quality increasing worldwide

The quality and availability of broadband around the world have improved dramatically in recent years, according to an Oxford University study out today.

Sponsored by Cisco Systems, the third annual study from the Oxford's Said Business School examined broadband access across 72 countries and 239 cities. Due to investments around the world, the quality of broadband has improved by 50 percent in just the last three years, the study found, while 49 percent of the countries in the study now have broadband access, compared with 40 percent in 2008.

The average global download speed has shot up from 3.… Read more

The best 'NSFW' URL ever

I am sure that, when creating Web sites, people still think long, hard, and late into the night about the URL behind which they will stand.

In the case of one organization, perhaps it thought too long, too hard, and far too late into the night.

The National Schools Film Week is the "world's largest festival for cinema and young people." Its home page has a very interesting picture of many children wearing dark glasses. Perhaps they are 3D. Perhaps it's because the URL of the National Schools Film Week is, you got there, didn't … Read more

School district settles Webcam privacy case

The Philadelphia-area school district sued for remotely and secretly taking pictures of students at home via laptop Webcams has agreed to pay $610,000 to settle the lawsuits.

The Lower Merion School District's board of directors said in a statement today that it will pay $175,000 to plaintiff Blake Robbins and $10,000 to plaintiff Jalil Hassan. An additional $425,000 will be paid out to cover the plaintiffs' legal fees.

"We recognize that in this case, a lengthy, costly trial would benefit no one," the district said. "It would have been an unfair distraction … Read more

Microsoft sends Bing back to school

Microsoft on Wednesday is launching Redu, a Bing-powered site that aims to act as a "homeroom" for people interested in learning more about the state of American schools. The Web site, to which Microsoft plans to link from Bing.com, aspires to be an online hub for those looking to donate to schools, volunteer locally, or work in education.

"This new site is a great way to galvanize interest and focus on public education," Pamela Passman, vice president of corporate affairs at Microsoft, said in an interview Tuesday.

Among its features is a Bing Map that … Read more

Essential free apps for back-to-school laptops

Heading off to class with a shiny new laptop is one of the best things about the back-to-school season, but we have yet to find a laptop that's perfectly set up out of the box. The typical first-time-use experience for a new laptop owner can be a frustrating one, with pop-up warnings from your free antivirus trial software; annoying settings to go through the first time you launch Internet Explorer (likely the only browser preinstalled on your machine); and missing or crippled apps for burning DVDs, opening ZIP files, or playing videos.

Unboxing and setting up a couple of … Read more

Best back-to-school laptop backpacks

We're not going to lie. The backpack is a tough look to pull off, especially if you're a both-straps-on type. Anytime we see an adult wandering the streets or coffee shops of Manhattan looking like a harried high schooler, we cringe a little bit. That said, the one place you can get away with it is when you're actually in school--hence our perfectly timed collection of back-to-school laptop backpacks.

We may mock the backpack a bit, but despite years of bag evolution, they're still the best way to carry a laptop, books, and other assorted gear … Read more

School escapes charges in Webcam spying case

A Pennsylvania school that was caught secretly snapping photos of students via laptop Webcams will not face criminal charges in the case.

Triggered by complaints and a civil suit by Harriton High School student Blake Robbins in February that he was photographed at home without his knowledge, the FBI and local officials launched an investigation to determine if the Lower Merion School District illegally misused the Webcams.

But federal and local prosecutors looking into the incident were unable to prove criminal intent on the part of school employees and therefore could not prosecute the case, according to U.S. Attorney … Read more

Get a Lexmark inkjet printer for $29.99 shipped

Need a spare printer for the den? A cheap inkjet the kids can use to print their pictures? Something affordable for a cash-strapped student?

Buy.com has the Lexmark Z2300 color inkjet printer for $29.99 shipped. It's about as entry-level and no-frills as printers get, but if you have light printing needs, it should get the job done.

The dual-cartridge Z2300 promises 22 pages-per-minute (ppm) for black output and 16 ppm for color. It can produce borderless photos as large as 8.5 x 11 inches, and it supports 6-color printing (if you replace the black cartridge with … Read more

High-end back-to-school retail laptops: The big guns

Though budget and surprisingly affordable laptops are all the rage lately, there are still quite a few high-end models out there that aren't exactly cheap. Even so, many of these "high-end" laptops offer far more for the money than ever before, making for potentially compelling buys for people looking for big screens and superpowered processors offering desktop-replacement-level performance.

Our high-end laptops from this year's 2010 back-to-school retail roundup are actually a pretty affordable bunch, including an $829 Toshiba Portege R705-P25 that offers an executive feel for less than the white Apple MacBook. In fact, only one of these laptops breaks $1,000: the $1,349 Sony Vaio F126FM/B. In fact, the two Vaio models here are virtually identical, designwise. The more-expensive version has a faster CPU and better graphics card, but the $999 Vaio F12A may be a better overall deal, offering a big screen, Blu-ray, and mainstream/casual gaming graphics for $350 less than its big brother.

Editors' note: See our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more