The InPrivate Browsing feature in Microsoft’s latest browser is designed to delete a user’s browsing history and other personal data that is gathered and stored during regular browsing sessions. The feature is commonly referred to as ‘porn mode’ for its ability to hide which websites have been visited from nosy spouses or employers.
The patent’s listed ‘inventors’ are Timothy Sellers, Heather Grantham and Joshua Dersch. However, Page Up and Page Down keyboard buttons have been in existence for at least quarter of a century, as evidenced by this image of a 1981 IBM PC keyboard.
Dell will continue to offer Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system to customers beyond the June 30th deadline. The announcement comes after CEO Steve Ballmer suggested that Microsoft might change its mind and extend Windows XP if customers asked for it. However, Mr. Ballmer added that most customers were not asking for XP.
The much-hyped “year of the Linux desktop” may still not be with us but there’s no doubting the free open-source operating system has gained significant traction in the last year. One reason for this is, with equal certainty, the mess that is Windows Vista. Here’s how it’s actively driving new interest in Linux.
Owners of non-genuine copies of Windows XP will get a black background instead of their wallpaper every hour, as well as a translucent watermark, as part of new efforts by Microsoft to deter piracy of its products.
With Beta 2, Microsoft is introducing InPrivate Browsing, which ensures users don’t leave any trace of the sites they have been visiting. Some are referring to the feature as “porn mode,” given that it most likely would be used to hide tracks to such sites.
In a forthcoming book called “Changing the Game”, David Edery and Ethan Mollick argue that many skills and lessons from the computer gaming world are applicable in the business world. The smartest firms, the authors argue, will not only allow game-playing in the workplace, but will actively encourage it.
Even as Microsoft gears up to release Internet Explorer 8, the developers behind the Firefox Web browser are experimenting with a new technology that sharpens the threat their browser software poses to Microsoft’s most valuable businesses. The new technology, dubbed TraceMonkey, promises to speed up Firefox’s ability to deliver complex applications.
The advertising industry is bracing for trouble from the next version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, details of which were announced today, because it will offer a feature that blocks some ads and other content from third-parties that shows up on Web pages.
The attempted image overhaul comes in the wake of Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” ads featuring a geeky PC guy who vaguely resembles Bill Gates being unable to keep up with a better-looking, hip Mac counterpart. Those ads, painting Windows as stodgy and unreliable, have reinforced criticism about Vista’s performance, stringent hardware requirements and lack of support for other software and devices such as printers.