YouTube is to support high dynamic range (HDR) videos. It’s a soft launch to say the least with just four videos uploaded to start with. HDR in video is not the same as the more established technology of the same name in stills photography which involves combining multiple images shot with different range exposures and […]
Mobile devices now make up more global website traffic than desktop computers for the first time according to newly-published figures. But traditional computers still make up the majority of traffic in the US. The figures come from StatCounter, which measures traffic on around three million sites for which it provides analysis services. One note of […]
New FCC rules mean broadband providers can’t track or share a customer’s online activity without permission. But the rules have some major shortcomings, not least that they don’t apply to online services. Under the new rules, Internet service providers must: get prior permission from customers (ie an opt-in system) to use or share a range […]
This infographic by EssayRoo takes a look a several popular web properties, such as facebook.com, uber.com, outlook.com (and several others,) before they got sold to their current owners. Just love the old web 1.0 look most of these had. The web was an ugly place back then. Also, did you know that Google.com got sold […]
A new California law gives some actors the right to force sites such as IMDb to stop listing their age. Supporters of the law say it will fight age discrimination while critics call it an attack on free speech. The law comes after a previous court case in Washington State that ruled that sites are […]
The latest public edition of Opera includes a free one-click VPN. It offers both privacy and an attempt to get around region-blocking websites. The VPN has previously been trialed in developer editions of Opera but is now available to all users. It needs to initially be enabled from the settings menu (under privacy and security) […]
Google has blurred the face of a bullock pictured on its Street View mapping service. It’s since confirmed it was a blunder rather than some form of bovine witness protection. As a standard policy, Google blurs out any human faces its cameras catch, simply because the law of averages means they are sure to picture […]
The Chrome browser will soon start flagging sites with password or card number fields that don’t use encryption. The change in January will be the first of a multi-step process. Until now Chrome has worked like most browsers by putting the emphasis on positively identifying secure sites with the familiar padlock icon in the address […]
The European Union has published strict guidelines to enforce net neutrality. However, the rules do have exceptions that mean they fall short of a ‘pure’ interpretation of the principle. While the net neutrality debate in the US has been bogged down in arguments about legal authority in the rulemaking process, the EU had already agreed […]
A woman’s 27-year-hunt for her missing father has ended happily thanks to a combination of Instagram and Facebook. The remarkable story was revealed by the BBC World Service this week. It involves a woman named Farhiya who was born in St Petersburg (then Leningrad) to a local woman and a visiting army officer named Siid from […]