Technology
Windows 7 Gets a Bye on Latest Patch Tuesday
Microsoft’s newest computer operating system has survived its first few weeks on the market without needing any security fixes. Microsoft plugged several security holes Tuesday, but none are aimed at Windows 7, which was released Oct. 22. That’s to be expected, said Ben Greenbaum, a researcher at the antivirus software company Symantec.
Schools Slam Kindle Over Blind Access Failure
Amazon’s Kindle can read books aloud, but if you’re blind it can be difficult to turn that function on without help. Now two universities say they will shun the device until Amazon changes the setup. The National Federation of the Blind planned to announce Wednesday that two major schools won’t consider big rollouts of the electronic reading device unless Amazon fixes the problem.
Samsung Chimes In With Bada Mobile OS
Does the mobile phone world really need yet another platform, open source or otherwise? South Korean-based electronics firm Samsung answered yes to that question on Tuesday when it announced the launch of Bada. Bada, the Korean word for “ocean,” is a new open platform that Samsung hopes will become a top phone OS in the future.
The PC Privacy Battle at the Border
Civil liberties groups continue to lock horns with the Department of Homeland Security over border searches of electronic equipment, although relatively few people have been affected. The Department’s statistics show that only 1,000 laptops were searched between October 2008 and August 2009, a time period in which more than 221 million travelers came through U.S. ports of entry.
