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Watchdog: TalkTalk's broadband speed test misled users

The UK advertising watchdog has ordered TalkTalk to change the presentation of its broadband speed-checking tool, as it had been misleading customers into thinking their connections were faster than in reality.

In an adjudication published on Wednesday, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the ISP did not make it clear enough that customers would likely get lower speeds than those estimated by the... Read more

Huawei to manage O2's back-end

The Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has won its first major managed services contract in the UK, with mobile operator Telefónica.

The deal was announced on Monday. Huawei will manage planning and implementation of Telefónica UK's core network for five years, the companies said. The Spanish carrier operates in the UK under the O2 brand.

"Huawei works with Telefónica in a number of markets around the world... Read more

LG reveals UK release timing for Optimus 4X HD

LG's Optimus 4X HD Android smartphone will go on sale in the UK next month, the manufacturer said on Tuesday.

Revealed in February, the Optimus 4X HD is a quad-core device with a 4.7-inch screen that uses in-plane switching (IPS) technology to allow wide viewing angles. It runs Android 'Ice Cream Sandwich' 4.0 and, according to LG's Korean newsroom, it will come to Europe in June.

LG's Optimus 4X HD handset... Read more

Virgin Atlantic lets airborne passengers use mobiles

Some passengers on Virgin Atlantic can now make mobile phone calls, send and receive text messages and check their emails from the airline's planes.

Virgin Atlantic announced the move on Monday, making it the first UK carrier to let passengers use their own phones for voice calls in the air. However, other airlines such as Emirates have used the same technology for years, and BA also offers text and data... Read more

ACTA sees official referral to ECJ over rights

The European Commission has officially referred the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, to the European Court of Justice.

The Commission said in February that it intended to make the referral, to see whether ACTA was in line with fundamental rights. However, the European Parliament, which is set to vote on ACTA's ratification in June, has refused to delay that vote to wait for the ECJ's opinion.... Read more

Amnesty websites compromised in Gh0st RAT attack

Amnesty International websites in the UK and Hong Kong have been compromised and made to serve a variant of malware known as Gh0st RAT, security researchers have said.

Websense revealed the hack of Amnesty's UK site in a blog post on Friday, saying it had picked up the incident between 8-9 May. Amnesty dealt with that breach before the public announcement was made, but Websense subsequently updated its post to... Read more

Court bans Dutch party from helping Pirate Bay

A Dutch court has ordered that country's Pirate Party to stop providing or even mentioning proxy services for letting people access the blocked Pirate Bay file-sharing service.

The court ordered the original blockage in January, largely because legal efforts to shut the site had failed. However, the Dutch Pirate Party and others then set up a reverse proxy for the service, bypassing the ISP blocks.

On... Read more

Motorola fails to win Microsoft push email ban

A German court has halted an attempt by Motorola to have Microsoft's push email services for Exchange and Hotmail banned over patent infringement.

The patent in question is the same one that Motorola asserted against Apple in Germany, a move that successfully saw the push email functionality of iCloud and MobileMe banned in that country.

However, on Friday judge Andreas Voss suspended Motorola's ability to... Read more

Windows 8's NTFS health model to be 'less intrusive'

The corruption-fixing tool in Windows 8 will be a lot less intrusive than in earlier versions of the operating system, Microsoft has promised.

In a blog post explaining Windows 8's new NTFS health model, the company said on Thursday that the "redesigned" chkdsk utility would lead to less downtime. It will also run for shorter times and more in the background than its predecessors.

"In Windows 8, we have made... Read more

Dell launches cloud printing app for Android

Dell has released an Android app that lets users print to network-connected Dell printers, giving the manufacturer a rival to similar cloud-based services from the likes of HP.

The company announced the Dell Mobile Print app on Thursday, explaining that it can print directly from other productivity, email, browser, photo and PDF apps. The app runs from any iteration of the mobile OS from Android 2.1 upwards.... Read more

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ZD Staff

Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.

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Community highlights

BarryGill

Darth Vader brought his own device...

Blog Post A few weeks ago I wrote a blog piece called "Bring Your Own Delusion (BYOD)"....

16 May, 2012 by BarryGill
Jack Schofield

Mobile phone sales dip while smartphones boom

Blog Post Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users fell by 2 percent to 419.1...

16 May, 2012 by Jack Schofield
First Take

HTC One V

Blog Post HTC's One range of handsets comprises three models. There's the flagship HTC...

16 May, 2012 by First Take
Simon Bisson and Mary Branscombe

Contribute, contract; endorse? Technology reputations

Blog Post Technology companies need to be careful about who and what they're seen to...

16 May, 2012 by Simon Bisson and Mary Branscombe

ZDNet UK Live

annonymous2

If Piratebay is a crime then so is borrowing a dvd you purchased to a family member or a friend. Why should we not be aloud to share. Most of the...

2 hours ago by annonymous2 on UK ISPs ordered to block Pirate Bay website
NanWag

File Services For Macintosh was causing Excel to prompt for Overwriting changes or Save Another Copy because it was changing the timestamp on the...

2 hours ago by NanWag on Windows Server 2008 drops the ball for Mac compatibility
Regis Machado

creative cloud $48/month in the USA, £48/month in the UK ($79). good for the competitors

4 hours ago by Regis Machado via Facebook on Adobe move promotes piracy
Tom Espiner

Hello KosGirl, Good question. I've asked Belfius for a response. The latest post I can find on Pastebin about it is here:...

4 hours ago by Tom Espiner on Hackers hold bank to ransom over stolen data
KosGirl

Have there been any further updates to this story? I can't find any information on whether the hackers released the data or not.

5 hours ago by KosGirl on Hackers hold bank to ransom over stolen data
SandJ

I have done 7 speed tests this morning on different speed test tools. They tell me my download speed is: 12.3, 12.3, 12.3, 11.1, 12.7, 12.7, 11.7...

6 hours ago by SandJ on Watchdog: TalkTalk's broadband speed test misled users
Jack Schofield

@Mary Microsoft could always send Mozilla a spec sheet and oblige them to meet the same standards as IE. Then Mozilla can spend millions of...

9 hours ago by Jack Schofield on Windows RT browsers and the point of Windows RT
goth1csnake3

Not before time, that people making films,dvd's get whats coming to them. Well done, Virgin Media.

11 hours ago by goth1csnake3 on Virgin Media: Spotify deal will bring down piracy
Simon Bisson and Mary Branscombe

Apex - the question then is what about letting the user choose to have a tablet where they don't have to have that responsibility? why can't the...

21 hours ago by Simon Bisson and Mary Branscombe on Windows RT browsers and the point of Windows RT
Simon Bisson and Mary Branscombe

Moley, Apex, thanks; I think there's an interesting other dimension of choice - the choice to have a platform that is 'locked down' in the sense...

21 hours ago by Simon Bisson and Mary Branscombe on Mozilla accuses Microsoft of shutting Firefox out of WOA
Yellowcave

Not surprised. I once used the methods to let my firewall just notify me of breaches. Not one single logged event was genuine. Once, we all...

1 day ago by Yellowcave on Mobile porn filters catch innocent content, says report
duplex

live realy sucks in facebook becuase people hack your profile

1 day ago by duplex on Irish watchdog: Facebook privacy still falls short
Ed Macnair

If only it was that simple. When you start accessing Cloud applications you are stuck with the security model the vendor provides...........unless...

1 day ago by Ed Macnair via Facebook on IT security? You're doing it wrong!
Phil at Cloud4

Another good updaet, I have enjoyed going on the journey reading this series on SharePoint 2010 and have learned alot. Great writing.

1 day ago by Phil at Cloud4 on Designing a SharePoint farm: Tiers before bedtime
muteen

roumers of an ipad Mini, isnt that just an iTouch!?

1 day ago by muteen on Apple rebrands iPad 4G as 'Wi-Fi + Cellular' for UK
apexwm

Thanks for this article and bringing this issue to light. Unfortunately this type of activity is common not only with Adobe, but many other...

1 day ago by apexwm on Adobe move promotes piracy
Andy Bolstridge

there's a very thin line between tax avoidance and tax efficiency - earning £850 a month and claiming dividends to bring my income up to normal...

1 day ago by Andy Bolstridge via Facebook on The Idle Self-employed
Andy Bolstridge

I see that they are happy to announce these numbers.. but no-one will take any notice until they start announcing sales numbers too.

1 day ago by Andy Bolstridge via Facebook on Microsoft's score card for Smoked by Windows Phone
AndyPagin

I saw a Windows phone about a year ago, haven't seen once since, and quite a few people own phones in the City of London.

1 day ago by AndyPagin on Microsoft's score card for Smoked by Windows Phone
helice041

Well said. You can add the change differences between US $ and Euro for the adobe cloud subscription and the very clouded informations about when...

2 days ago by helice041 on Adobe move promotes piracy