Earlier this week, Google finally took the wrappings off of the Facebook clone it has been developing, sparking a prolonged media frenzy about its efforts to catch up with Twitter and Facebook in the social networking arena. By all accounts, Google+ represents the company’s most sophisticated attempt to build a social network. It is a top […]
Category: Technology
Posted inPolicy Topics, Technology
Microsoft buys Skype for $8.5 billion
Microsoft confirmed today that it is spending eight and half billion dollars in cash to acquire peer to peer communications company Skype, which operates the world’s most preeminent VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) platform. The deal, which was first reported by the tech press a couple of days ago, is the biggest acquisition in Microsoft’s […]
Posted inPolicy Topics, Technology
Ubuntu 11.04 “Natty Narwhal” released
For the last several years, the end of April has meant another release of Ubuntu (the world’s most popular GNU/Linux distribution), and 2011 is no exception. Yesterday, Canonical — which sponsors the development of Ubuntu — announced the release of Version 11.04, codenamed “Natty Narwhal”. Natty succeeds Maverick Meerkat, which was released back in October […]
Posted inCivil Liberties, Policy Topics, Technology
Researchers’ discovery demonstrates that Apple users don’t really own their devices
Two security researchers investigating visual uses for geolocation data revealed today that gadget giant Apple has been secretly shipping spyware inside of its mobile operating system (iOS) that constantly records its customers’ whereabouts. The discovery, which has ignited a firestorm of criticism, was first made public at O’Reilly Radar by the researchers (Alasdair Allan and […]
Posted inPolicy Topics, Technology
Mozilla releases Firefox 4
We at NPI would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to the team at Mozilla, who released Firefox 4 this morning after laboring for many weeks and months to develop this latest and greatest version of the world’s best web browser. This is a huge accomplishment. Having tried out the betas and the release candidate, […]
Posted inTechnology
Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 9
After many months of development, Microsoft has finally finished working on Internet Explorer 9, which was released to market a couple of hours ago (9 AM Pacific Time). This iteration of the browser represents Microsoft’s first real attempt to make standards support a priority, and sports some new useful features. If you’re running Windows Vista […]