GAJIZMO

Software for new PCs to block access to certain websites 

China's government wants all PCs sold in the country from July 1 to be loaded with software that blocks certain websites, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The paper cited the software's main developer as saying the primary target was pornography, and added that the government said it was to protect young people from "harmful" content.

The software, called "Green Dam-Youth Escort," would block access to banned websites by connecting to a database, the Journal reported.

Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co developed the software with the help of Beijing Dazheng Human Language Technology Academy Co, it said.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology put the requirement in a notice on May 19 but it has not yet been publicised, the paper said.

RELATED:

 Reuters:

China to require PCs with software to block sites - WSJ  —  * Requirement for all PCs sold from July 1  —  * Software to block access to certain websites  —  China's government wants all PCs sold in the country from July 1 to be loaded with software that blocks certain websites, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

 Bloomberg:
China Will Require Web-Censoring Software on All PCs, Journal Reports

Discussion: Wall Street Journal 

Vista Service Pack 2 RC2 hits the streets 

New Nitro Engine Runs JavaScript More Than Four Times Faster

Apple today announced the public beta of Safari 4, the world’s fastest and most innovative web browser for Mac and Windows PCs. The Nitro engine in Safari 4 runs JavaScript 4.2 times faster than Safari 3.* Innovative new features that make browsing more intuitive and enjoyable include Top Sites, for a stunning visual preview of frequently visited pages; Full History Search, to search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages; Cover Flow, to easily flip through web history or bookmarks; and Tabs on Top, to make tabbed browsing easier and more intuitive.

“Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back into web browsers, and today it takes another big step forward,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Safari 4 is the fastest and most efficient browser for Mac and Windows, with great integration of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards that enables the next generation of interactive web applications.”

Safari 4 is built on the world’s most advanced browser technologies including the new Nitro JavaScript engine that executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than IE 7 and more than three times faster than Firefox 3. Safari quickly loads HTML web pages three times faster than IE 7 and almost three times faster than Firefox 3.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Between the Lines, Digital Daily, Softpedia News, PC World, MacRumors,Webware.com, The Toybox, MacBlogz, tinyComb, Ajaxian, The Apple Core, SlashGear, The Tech Report,blogs.telegraph.co.uk …, Mashable!, The iPhone Blog, TheAppleBlog, World of Apple, TheNextWeb.com,atmaspheric, I4U News, MacDailyNews, Electronic Pulp, TUAW, Incremental Blogger, GartenBlog,GeekSmack, AppScout, GottaBeMobile.com, O'Grady's PowerPage and Neowin.net

In a move affecting 2G cell phones owners using AT&T Mobility’s network, including the highly visible, and originally highly expensive first generation iPhone,  AT&T has been quietly sacrificing 2G signal strength in an effort to speed up the build out of its next generation 3G network. The first generation iPhone was trumpeted by the company as recently as seven months ago; many 2G phones continue to be sold by the Dallas-based company today.

Cell phones, like other wireless communications devices, have certain radio bands they communicate on. While previously the company had been primarily relying on the 850 MHz band that offers a more robust signal, including superior indoor reception, transmitters for the 2G signal used by the original iPhone and most other handsets, including most AT&T offered BlackBerry and RAZR models, have been shifted to the weaker 1900 MHz band in some areas.

The result? Customers past their 30-day return policy, but still with relatively new phones, finding themselves stuck with equipment no longer able to pick up signals properly in previously strong coverage areas, even though the equipment itself is without defect.

After its surprise New Years Eve outage, Microsoft has issued a fix to the Zune bug that appeared to have afflicted the 30GB models causing the units to die unexpectedly. The problem caused the 30GB Zune music players to freeze up, leaving owners without access to their digital music.

The good news is that on Thursday, Microsoft posted a note to its Web site that read, "You can go back to using your Zune!" The missive from the company had instructions for how its users could fix the Z2K9 bug by resetting their players.

The fix for the problem, it turns out, is pretty simple. "Wait until the battery is empty and the screen goes black," the company said. After that the devices simply had to be powered back up after 7 a.m. on New Year's Day. "No other action is required."

But don't expect everyone to cheer Microsoft's bug spray (from a convenience standpoint, anyway) because there is a catch and one that requires a small extra step: Customers with music containing DRM (digital rights management) will have to take one additional step, because the fix made DRM coded music unplayable. Customers who wanted to retain and replay that music were forced to resynch their Zune with their computer, which Microsoft said will fix the problem.

Fourteen updates and 10 million users later, Chrome shines bright as a full release

Google today released Chrome 1.0, the first official version of its already widely used web browser.

In an announcement in The Official Google Blog, Product Development VP, Sundar Pichay, and Engineering Director, Linus Upson, declared that the beta label is being removed after having met stability and performance goals for the Chrome web browser. At the same time, they indicated that work continues on further product enhancement which include extension platform and much anticipated support for Mac and Linux.

Expect this exciting development to heighten the browser wars a notch.

Google Chrome 1.0 now available here.

Search king might even do crowd-sourcing down the road

Here's the new scoop on search: If Google delivers useless search results, just erase them and you won't see them again.

That's possible under a new system that the search giant revealed Oct. 20. Hoping to give its search engine a more personal touch and presumably less of the annoyances, Google now lets users reshuffle results so their favourite websites get top billing and disliked destinations get discarded the next time they enter the same request. Wow!