internet

Microsoft offers up a bounty for finding bugs in beta

Microsoft on Wednesday announced it will launch a "bug bounty" program, designed to stamp out security vulnerabilities in its software before and after its products are launched.

The software giant has previously offered as much as $250,000 for security vulnerabilities disclosed as part of its BlueHat prize during contests, but the company had yet to offer a long-term, ongoing bug bounty program to encourage researchers to find flaws in its products.

"This is the smartest thing we can do," Katie Moussouris, senior security strategist lead at Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), told ZDNet on the … Read more

Internet access is more important than sleep or food?

Believe or not, the plurality of men in the U.K. rank Internet access as valuable as sex and even more important than food and shelter.

That's right, 42 percent of male respondents in a new survey by broadband provider TP-Link throw food, shelter, and sleep to the wind, while saluting Internet access as one of life's most cherished needs. In fact, 50 percent of people say they dedicate more time to the Internet than sleep.

"As our recent research shows, in the current increasingly digital world, quick and easy connectivity is one of the main concerns … Read more

Meet Google's 'Project Loon': Balloon-powered Net access

Google has officially announced "Project Loon," its plan to connect the entire world to the Internet that uses a decidedly 19th century technology: Balloons.

According to a post on the official company blog:

We believe that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet access to the earth below. It's very early days, but we've built a system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, to beam Internet access to the ground at speeds similar to today's 3G networks or faster.… Read more

Google sharpens ax for Chrome Frame

Google's controversial Chrome Frame, a secure Internet Explorer plug-in that fought to bring the modern Web to legacy versions of Internet Explorer, will soon be going the way of Reader, Wave, and other Google projects not deemed worthy of a future.

Chrome engineer Robert Shield wrote in a blog post on Thursday that Chrome Frame had outlived its usefulness. Basically, it wasn't being used. Google said that its lack of appeal was because the use of browsers that support modern Web site technology has advanced far enough beyond where it was in 2009, when Chrome Frame launched.

Gary … Read more

$150 movie ticket? George Lucas says it could be so

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg -- the two men perhaps most responsible for the model of the summer blockbuster -- see the studios' obsession with such hits putting the in-theater film experience on a crash course -- perhaps with Internet TV there to pick up the pieces.

Studios would rather pour $250 million into one movie to have a shot at a mega-blockbuter than invest in personal, interesting, or historical projects that can get lost in the hubbub of a entertainment-saturated world, Spielberg said Wednesday during a panel discussion at the University of Southern California, according to The Verge and … Read more

Microsoft exec on Xbox One: No Internet? Get an Xbox 360

Bummed out because the Xbox One requires an Internet connection? Microsoft has some advice for you: stick with an Xbox 360.

In an interview with Spike TV at the E3 show Tuesday, Xbox executive Don Mattrick responded to the complaints about the Xbox One's demand for an Internet connection. Mattrick described the $499 Xbox One, coming in November, as "a future-proof choice," saying that a console designed to be used online offers certain advantages, such as the ability to link games and entertainment.

And for those people without Internet access?

"Fortunately we have a product for … Read more

360 Protection on Windows and Android

On Tuesday, Qihoo launched two major security products: 360 Internet Security and 360 Mobile Security.

360 Internet Security (32-bit / 64-bit) is a light weight security program that provides real time scanning, automatic updates, and some basic tools to protect your PC from viruses, malware, and other potentially unwanted or suspicious applications.

360 Mobile Security is the younger Android cousin, designed to provide malware protection for your mobile device and comes with a slew of useful system management tools to give you control over what apps have access to your sensitive data. Grab them both over on Download for an exclusive … Read more

Review: 360 Internet Security provides protection all around

360 Internet Security 2013's installer is a light 17MB, and though the overall installation time and duration was relatively fast, it's update process took longer than we had expected. Prior to installation, 360 will automatically prompt you to agree to their license and usage terms, something that's normally an opt-out process. And though it's more or less required to move on, those who are more keen on privacy details or interested in the terms of agreement should keep this in mind before they install the software. Still, the opt-out option might appear a bit suspicious, especially … Read more

One in three Americans are toting tablets now -- study

One out of every three people in the U.S. is a tablet owner now, with the prevalence of the devices nearly doubling in the last year, a report from the Pew Internet Project says.

The study, released Monday, found 34 percent of U.S. adults now own a tablet, up from about 18 percent who owned one a year earlier.

Tablet owners tend to be older and more well-heeled than demographics for other consumer electronics. The majority of tablet owners, or 56 percent of respondents, are people living in households earning at least $75,000 a year. Nearly half, … Read more