accessibility

LAS VEGAS--Verizon will soon allow some Fios TV customers to remotely access their DVRs online from a computer or via a Verizon Wireless cell phone, the company is expected to announce Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show that it.

Using the remote access service, Fios TV subscribers are able to remotely review, change or add recording requests, delete recorded programs, browse and search TV and video-on-demand listings, and set parental controls.

The remote control service can be accessed through the Fios TV Web site or by using downloadable software on select Verizon Wireless handsets, including the LG enV2, LG Voyager … Read more

Charitable causes are getting hit hard these days, but the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, formed by the eponymous Microsoft founder and his wife, announced Thursday the donation of nearly $14 million. About half, or $6.9 million, is going to two U.S. organizations promoting broadband connectivity, and another $7 million has been awarded to fight a parasitic illness that threatens millions of people in developing countries.

The $6.9 million for broadband has been donated to advocacy group Connected Nation and to the American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy -- the bulk of it to … Read more

Just how reliant are you on the Internet?

Nearly half of the women questioned by Harris Interactive said they'd be willing to forgo sex for two weeks, rather than give up their Internet access, according to a study released Monday by Intel, which commissioned the survey.

While 46 percent of the women surveyed were willing to engage in abstinence verses losing their Internet, only 30 percent of the men surveyed were willing to do likewise.

The U.S. survey, which queried 2,119 adults last month, found that the gap grew even wider for both men and woman who … Read more

Citrix has announced that it is planning to bring its XenDesktop and XenApp client and server software to the iPhone sometime in the first half of 2009. Citrix XenApp virtualizes individual Windows applications such as Microsoft Office, PowerPoint, Excel or SAP and then allows the user to run them remotely on a client-sever configuration. Citrix XenDesktop expands the virtualization concept to include the entire Windows Desktop operating system for XP or Vista. Both of these apps will be tweaked to take advantage of the iPhones multitouch commands such as pinch and pull, zoom and pan.

Citrix developers are not taking … Read more

CA announced Thursday plans to acquire Israel-based Eurekify, in a move to expand its identity and access management software portfolio.

IT management software company aims to use Eurekify's analytics engine to reduce the time and effort it takes for customers to shift through employee's duties and responsibilities and to monitor their access management settings.

The combined CA Identity Manager and Eurekify Enterprise Role Manager will aim to help customers clean up existing identity data and build a model that "serves as the foundation to automate the user provisioning process and enhances identity lifecycle management," according to … Read more

Researchers have found a method of cracking a key encryption feature used in securing wireless systems that doesn't require trying a large number of possibilities. Details will be discussed at the sixth annual PacSec conference in Tokyo next week.

According to PCWorld, researchers Erik Tews and Martin Beck have found a way to crack the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) key, used by Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). Moreover, they can do so in about 15 minutes. The crack apparently only works for data aimed at a Wi-Fi adapter; they have not cracked the encryption keys used to secure data … Read more

Recently, a server upgrade caused my office XP system to reset to its defaults. I knew as soon as I heard the Windows startup chime that something was wrong. The first change I make on any new or renewed PC is to set the Windows sound scheme to No Sounds.

As I reset Windows' default sound settings for the umpteenth time, I got to thinking about the many Windows customizations I make on any machine I use on a regular basis. Here are my five favorite Windows interface tweaks. (Note that the last two default-beaters apply only to Vista.)

Tell … Read more

Access 360 Media, an out-of-home media network catering to young adults, announced Tuesday that it raised $8 million in a Series B round led by Mission Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners. The company's executives said the funding will be used to accelerate the company's growth and capitalize on opportunities in the market.

Access 360 Media has carved out a significant niche by focusing its attention on young adults. The company has formed partnerships with major retailers worldwide and uses in-store, online, and mobile marketing campaigns to target an audience that amounts to 170 million people in 14,000 … Read more

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, a U.K.-based charity that aims to protect kids, offered up an interesting study recently. According to the organization, 75 percent of children have seen disturbing images online.

Now, it should be noted that the study polled only 477 kids who went to the charity's site and asked them if they've seen disturbing images, so it may not necessarily reflect the true number of kids who have been exposed to images of pornography, violence, or any other content that would be deemed "unsuitable" for children.

That in mind, the most we can really gather from this study is that some groups believe children are being exposed to too much on the Web. Sure, that might be true, but how can we really solve it?

Oh, wait, the NSPCC has an answer: more parental controls.

"Children are just a few clicks away from innocently stumbling across upsetting or even dangerous pictures and films such as adult sex scenes, violent dog fights, people self-harming and children being assaulted," NSPCC Policy adviser Zoe Hilton said in a statement. "High-security parental controls installed in their computers would help shield them. Social networking sites must also put more effort and resources into patrolling their sites for harmful and offensive material and ensure their public complaints systems are clearly marked, easy-to-use and child-friendly."

You just have to love it, don't you? Instead of looking at parents and saying, "Um, mama, papa, uh, don't you think you should watch your kids a bit better than you have in the past?," the NSPCC is calling on companies and service providers to protect the children instead.

What a joke.… Read more