Comcast to offer 305 Mbps broadband Internet

Posted by David Bernstein

Cable, phone and internet provider Comcast has announced that they are going to offer cable broadband speeds of up to 305 Mbps which is a huge jump in existing cable broadband speeds. The new service will be called Xfinity Platinum and will be rolled out in many major markets according to Comcast representatives. This new package will also offer up to 65Mbps upload speeds which is faster than most download speeds.

There is no pricing for the new Xfinity Platinum but sources say it may be similar to the $210 300Mbps FiOS service that Verizon is now offering. This may be too much for most home users but business users will certainly be able to make good use of the new speed that is being offered.

They are also saying the will be doubling the speeds of their 25Mbps and 50Mbps plans for existing subscribers at no additional cost.

Upcoming Office 2013 will not run on Vista or XP

Posted by David Bernstein

On Monday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled their new Office 2013 suite at a launch event in San Francisco. But if you plan on upgrading and are running Windows XP or Vista then don’t waste your time. In order to run Office 2013 you will need a PC, laptop or tablet that runs either Windows 7 or Windows 8. Or if you have a server operating system it will run on Windows 2008 R2 and the upcoming Windows 2012.

In fact, Windows XP will not be supported at all by 2014 and many companies have not even upgraded to Windows 7 from their XP systems yet. Microsoft is hoping this requirement for Office 2013 pushes customers to get their upgrades going.

Minimum requirements for Office 2013 will be a 1 Ghz processor with 1 GB of RAM for a 32 bit system and 2 GB for a 64 bit system. You will also need 3 GB of free hard disk space and a DirectX 10 compatible video card.

DNS Changer malware to strike tomorrow

Posted by Jim Bernstein

The latest security threat to potentially affect thousands of computer users is called DNS Changer and it’s expected to unleash itself on Monday, June 9^th. This malware infection was created by a group of Estonian criminals.

According to the FBI, this group of cybercriminals designed the malware to redirect users computers from the DNS servers their computers normally use to search the internet to rogue servers crated by the group. So if you are searching for a HP monitor for example you might be redirected to a fraudulent site that appears to be selling the same product. This infection affects around 275,000 computers worldwide according to the FBI.

The FBI and the Internet Systems Consortium have provided a temporary fix, re-re-routing the fraudulent traffic. During this period, your ISP was supposed to contact you and inform you if your computer was among the affected. The temporary fix will be shut off on Monday which means users whose ISP’s haven’t informed them of the infection may be off to a rough work week. A simple test is to go to http://www.dns-ok.us/ and it will tell you if your computer is resolving internet names correctly. There are other tests you can find online as well but just be sure they are from legitimate sources.

Spyware help

Virus help

Microsoft to offer Windows 8 upgrades at a discount

 Posted by David Bernstein

As you may or may not know, Windows it is on its way and Microsoft is really pushing for it since it will run on PCs as well as tablets. If you are running Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 then you will be eligible for an upgrade to Windows 8 pro for just $39.99. Not only that, but Microsoft will throw in Media Center for free.

One caveat is that this upgrade must take place via the Windows Upgrade Assistant which means you will have to download your new copy of Windows rather than get it on disk. A DVD copy of the upgrade will cost you $69.99. The upgrade assistant can supposedly transfer things like Windows settings, applications and personal files depending on what version you are upgrading from.

The upgrade promotion for Windows 8 Pro is good through January 31, 2013. If you download the upgrade you can burn it to DVD for later use since it comes in an ISO format.

Facebook settles on $10 million payment for Sponsored Stores lawsuit

Posted by Jim Bernstein

If you are a Facebook user I’m sure you have seen those advertisements that have one of your friends names in it stating that they “like” that product or service and showing their profile picture next to the ad. These ads make a recommendation for that product or service from your friend but the catch is that your friend actually did not recommend the product or service. Plus your friend doesn’t get any compensation from the advertiser for them using their name and picture for the ad and they don’t even know that they are being used in this way.

Five California residents sued Facebook over this practice stating that it violates California law and the case was actually settled last month but just now made public. According to the lawsuit, this could have included one of every three Americans and could have been a huge payment for many people if more lawsuits were to follow. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh found that Facebook's Sponsored Stories could cause "economic injury" by using friends' names, likenesses and pictures. She ordered a cy-pres settlement, meaning Facebook's $10 million would be sent to charity.

Internet Explorer 10 to use the Do Not Track setting as its default

 Posted by David Bernstein

As I’m sure you know, Windows 8 is almost here and that means a new version of the Internet Explorer web browser will be here as well and Windows 8 will include version 10 of IE. But this time IE 10 will be the first browser to have the Do Not Track setting turned on by default.

The Do Not Track feature prevents 3^rd party websites from tracking your online activity. Sites that receive the Do Not Track signal from your browser are supposed to honor that request and therefore not track your activity. This feature has been an option that you can enable manually but many people don’t know how to do it or even realize that the option exists. If it’s enabled by default then way more people will be using private browsing than ever before.

This may be good for IE end users since most people don’t like to be tracked but others are not too happy about it. The advertising industry for example likes to track where you go in order to help them know what your shopping habits or interests may be but Brendan Lynch who is the Chief Privacy Officer at Microsoft says that Microsoft's is trying to advance trust and consumer privacy online and that people come first.