Anyone who's ever subscribed to AOL dial up service knew how hard it was to cancel. Sales representatives would pick up the phone, spend hours offering customers free hours, arguing with them, and doing all sorts of stuff, just to keep an AOL account open. Sales representatives might have even got paid for every account they kept alive. However, these low-ball tactics have come to an end. AOL has reached a settlement with 48 states (the only two excluded were New York and Florida) that makes AOL promise never to use such tactics again. AOL is paying $3 million dollars to each state in order to avoid the massive lawsuit that AOL would otherwise face.

A (former) employee of Best Buy's famous Geek Squad has recently admitted that his team of "agents" hacked Jasmine Grey to get free access to all the porn she had made.

The story begins when Grey asked the Geek Squad for service, because her webcam caused the computer to lock up. The Geek Squad decided it was best to upgrade XP to SP2, and do a simple tune-up. However, when the Geek Squad stumbled upon 12GB of "deleted" porn, they decided to do a complimentary back up of all the pornography, with which they split among each other and management.

However, it gets better. After Grey got her computer back, the webcame was still locking up, so she called Geek Squad for a house call. The agent spent about five minutes fixing the problem, and then spent several hours searching for more porn on Grey's network, and saved it all on a portable hard drive.

Jasmine Grey died in a car crash, and the Geek Squad that hacked her feels quite guilty.

Seems like what we think as a fast broadband connection is no longer fast enough...

A 75-year-old woman from Karlstad in central Sweden has been using a 40 Gbps internet connection! Sigbritt Löthberg is the mother of Peter Löthberg - a Guru when it comes to matters of the internet - who is proving rather effectively that fiber networks can deliver a cost-effective, ultra-fast connection. A 40Gbps connection can be used to either watch 1,500 HDTV channels simultaneously or even download a whole 24 GB DVD in two seconds!

Back in February, a blogger who went by the alias "DigDuality" got fed up with Microsoft's accusations of the open source community. And so, from work, he started a website that challenged Microsoft to find any IP violations *nix was making. May came, May went, and the website became about as active as an exhausted gold mine. Now, a few days into July, "DigDuality" has returned to his blog. He claims that Microsoft traced the website to DD's company, and that Microsoft threatened his company. The company, according to DD, then proceeded to give DD a choice: he could either keep the website running, or keep his job. DD preferred the latter, and so, the website has remained inactive for quite some time. DD refused to name the company that told DD to hold his tongue.

The lucky Europeans are going to get to see a very interesting gadget next week: the next generation of the DataWind Pocket Surfer. What makes this 97 gram clamshell gadget so special? For the equivalent of $300 USD, the customer can access the world wide web for absolutely no further fee. If you prefer to be shackled to a plan, you can pay the equivalent of $200 USD and $10 USD a month. The device is 13.8 x 6.9 x 1.5cm, has a 640 x 240 color display, and a full keyboard/cursor (as well as internet hot-keys, such as stop, refresh, and previous page) integrated into the device.

DataWind's PocketSurfer2 goes on sale next week in the United Kingdom, Reg Hardware is looking forward to seeing how DataWind can back up the ambitious claim of free internet across Europe.

The official Crysis website is now live, offering screenshots, trailers, wallpapers and info about this first person shooter game for PC in the works at Crytek. Crysis is powered by CryENGINE 2 which features dynamic day/night cycle, fully interactive enviroments, sunrays and diffuse transmission, real time soft shadows, soft particles, interactive/destructrible enviroments, volumetric clouds, and advanced shader technology. Crysis will be released by Electronic Arts later this year. Check the new website at www.ea.com/crysis/index.jsp or join the brand new official Crysis forums here.

If the iPhone became a must-have gadget, like the iPod did, AT&T's network would have quite a time dealing with all the internet bandwidth being used by iPhones. Fortunately for AT&T, Steve Jobs said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that the iPhone will use an available WiFi network for internet capability before using AT&T's "Edge". The iPhone is even programmed to use WiFi as a VoIP medium if AT&T service is not available, another innovation in the iPhone.

Steve Jobs and AT&T talked a lot about the iPhone in a Wall Street Journal interview, if you're interested in this kind of stuff, please click here.

A single click is all the effort a user needs to record and download video from tens-of-thousands of web sites with the new Realplayer. After install, a 'download-this' button briefly appears in the browser when playing video content. Video can then be downloaded in the background allowing users to continue surfing other web sites and it even supports multiple downloads. Realplayer can capture the most popular video format however it automatically recognizes and will not download video content protected by DRM. The program can be downloaded for free at www.realplayer.com

You might be pleased with your new wireless equipment that can transmit signals as far as a few houses down the street, but Ermanno Pietrosemoli (president of the Escuela Latinoamerica de Redes, which translates as networking school of Latin America) has managed to establish a WiFi link between two computers placed 382 km apart - that's about 238 miles. Using this connection, Pietrosemoli managed to achieve transfer rates of about 3 megabits per second, which is quite impressive considering the distance involved. This figure represents a new record for a WiFi connection, and was achieved using a combination of technology from Intel and some "off-the-shelf" parts, set up to transfer data to a specific point rather than in all directions. The previous record was held by a group of Swedish scientists that managed to create a WiFi connection between a hot air balloon and an Earth-bound station 310 km apart, so this exceeds that by almost 25%.

Although the Netscape name has now all but disappeared from most people's computers, the company (now owned by AOL) has just released version 9 of the once-loved Netscape Navigator. It's still a beta version at the moment, but the list of new features include a refreshed user interface, URL correction, a news menu and sidebar, in-browser voting, a sidebar mini-browser and compatibility with Firefox 2.0 extensions. Of course features like tabbed browsing and RSS feeds are a standard characteristic of modern browsers nowadays, so Netscape is no exception. If you're getting a little bored of your current browser or want to give Netscape another chance, you can download it from here. The complete list of new features can be read here. It's worth remembering that Netscape and Firefox are both based on the same architecture (which is why they can share extensions), so if there are any niggling issues for you with Firefox, Netscape might be worth a try.

Google is adding an antivirus and anti-spam solution to its arsenal with the acquisition of GreenBorder Technologies Inc. Google did not comment on the story, but GreenBorder, a Mountain View, Calif. -based security company, posted a statement on its Web site, telling users that it has been bought by Google:

GreenBorder Technologies, Inc. has been acquired by Google, Inc. We will continue to support our existing customers through the end of their current subscriptions.

GreenBorder, which was founded in 2001, offers consumer and enterprise-level security products, protecting against viruses, spyware, and Trojans.

The inventive folks at Pileus LLC in Tokyo, Japan have created an umbrella that allows users to take pictures with a digital camera and upload them to photo-sharing websites via a wireless connection. The umbrella also has a GPS and a digital compass, which uses Google Earth so you won't get lost.

Bonding together four cable lines, engineers at Cable Television Laboratories have developed a technology called 'DOCSIS 3.0' enabling transfer speeds of 150 megabits per second. Available in less than a couple of years, U.S cable provider Comcast will compete with Verizon's new FiOS service which delivers 50 megabits per second but offers nearly unlimited potential.

Have you ever broken a small plastic part off of something and wished you could just replace that one piece rather replacing the whole item? In three to five years you may be able to do just that and, better yet, from the comfort of your own home. Three dimensional printers, also called rapid prototypers, once cost around 100,000 USD and could only be seen in industrial design shops. Soon, however, they will begin making their way into consumer's homes. Desktop factory, a company started by IdeaLab, will start selling its first printer this year for around 5,000 USD. It will be compact enough for home offices, measuring 25 by 20 by 20 inches and weighing only 90 pounds. In theory, this would allow you to download plans from the internet for whatever part you might need and print it within a short period of time.

What is the difference between a normal hardware enthusiast and a true one? A real one is known to break world records with the help of liquid nitrogen, has a ton of spare cash to blow, and now, has enough spare time to thoroughly review 105 individual power supplies. Stephane Charpentier is the man who is responsible for that little 105 power supply review. And by little, I mean 140 pages. His work should seriously be published like a very nerdy version of Kelly Blue Book breaks records for being the longest hardware round-up ever. If you're bored out of your mind, need a new power supply, or want to appreciate Mr.Charpentier's effort, please read his 140 page review.

The article is in French, so you might want to run the individual pages through Google translator.

Newlaunches.com has managed to obtain a list of the most commonly used passwords from the upcoming May 8th issue of PC Magazine.

The passwords are below:

1. password
2. 123456
3. qwerty
4. abc123
5. letmein
6. monkey
7. myspace1
8. password1
9. blink182
10. (your first name)

If you are using any of these passwords, it is strongly advised that you change them ASAP.

Free online encyclopaedia Wikipedia could soon be available on a CD as volunteers work on an offline version of the website. A preliminary version of the CD has already been released earlier this month, with Wikipedia hoping to become available to those without access to the internet - although this obviously destroys Wikipedia's aim of allowing users to contribute to the encyclopaedia themselves. The CD, which can be purchased for $13.99 plus postage, is intended to be of a higher quality than the online version with all bad language and vandalism is being removed. Although the current version only features 2,000 articles, it likely to slowly expand to become a comprehensive offline encyclopaedia to compete with the likes of Britannica and Encarta.

Fans of the Fallout series, which was recently purchased by Bethesda, will be pleased to know that Fallout 3 development has been coming along quite nicely. There is now an official Fallout 3 'teaser website', as well as official Fallout 3 forums. While things haven't really taken off with this site or the forums just yet, with Bethesda working hard on making Fallout 3 amazing, we can be sure that the final product will be well worth the wait.

Millward Brown, one of the leading UK-based research companies, today said that the "Google" is now the world's most valuable brand. The firm's name is now valued at about twice the amount of IBM, three times Disney or five times Yahoo. Google has risen to the top of this year's ranking, taking the number one spot with a brand value of $66,434 million. This was followed by General Electric ($61,880 million), Microsoft ($54,951 million) and Coca-Cola ($44,134 million).

It seems as if Google's software, designed to compete with automated map-makers such as MapQuest, still has one or two kinks that need to be worked out. While Google Maps is absolutely wonderful when telling you how to drive in either the USA or Europe, it seems not to be so good at telling you how to drive from the USA to Europe. The screenshot I attached explains the theoretical situation of me driving from (an area very close to) my house to W1zzard's (the man who started techPowerUp!). I'm not sure I can handle the extremely difficult task of swimming 3,462 miles to get into France.Special thanks to 'Spud107' for bringing this bug to my attention.

SAN JOSE, Calif. and LAS VEGAS - April 16, 2007 - Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the Adobe Media Player at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show. This desktop application expands Adobe's Internet video solutions, adding to an emerging ecosystem that enables new ways to distribute and monetize media, while helping viewers discover and view high-quality content both online and offline. Leveraging Adobe's Emmy Award winning Flash architecture, the Adobe Media Player delivers more engaging video experiences to viewers while offering content publishers new abilities to distribute, track and build businesses around their media assets. A preview of the new player will be shown during NAB, April 16 - 19 (Booth SL 3220).

"Akamai and Adobe have a longstanding partnership that enables the world's leading media companies to deliver consistently high-quality Flash Player video experiences to global audiences," said Paul Sagan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Akamai. "Adobe continues to be an industry leader in their approach to innovation by delivering new ways for audiences to experience rich, interactive content. We are excited about supporting this latest initiative that will make it easier for our joint customers to facilitate broad distribution of Adobe Flash-based video."

As The Inquirer so eloquently puts it, "only in LA". After answering a Best Buy Geek Squad call, technician Hao Kuo Chi was accused of hiding a camera phone in the shower of Sarah Vasquez. Sarah Vasquez got suspicious when she saw a little red blinking light in her shower. Thinking quickly, she found the camera phone, disabled it, and ripped out the memory card. Taking the thing to her local Verizon store, they quickly discovered all the steamy shower footage. However, in a move that Hao Kuo Chi will probably regret later, he left footage of himself setting up the camera phone on the camera phone. The Best Buy store knew absolutely nothing about this camera being hidden in one of their customer's showers, so this is going to get very interesting very quickly.

The Inquirer also points out that if this had happened in the UK, it would have been quite embarrassing, since the Carphone Warehouse is promoting Geek Squad heavily.

File sharing could become a lot faster in the near future as a team of researchers has developed a new technology which could see speed increases of up to 500%. Current technologies such as BitTorrent are limited by the number of people sharing a certain file, however the new research will allow software to spot chunks of data from a different download that contain identical or very similar data, therefore allowing more download locations. For example, if a song were being shared from a number of locations, it may have different information in the ID tags for various reasons and therefore conventional sharing methods would not recognise it as being the same data. But Similarity-Enhanced Transfer (SET) would spot these other songs and allow the user to download from these locations as well. The system basically assigns a rank based on how similar files are, and will then allow chunks of the file to be shared based on this.techPowerUp! does not support the use of file sharing software for illegal purposes. The above is just an example.

Opera Software just finished the version 9.20 of its popular browser. The new main feature is Speed Dial, the fastest and easiest way to access your favorite sites. Speed Dial allows you to transform your top nine sites into visual favorites that are immediately available in any new tab. Of course the new version comes with the famous BitTorrent downloading support, the possibility to customize your own search engine and the Widgets, Small Web applications (multimedia, newsfeeds, games and more) that make your desktop experience more fun.Download your version over here: Opera Download Website

Despite all the whining over Windows Vista, the next version of Windows, it seems like Windows Vista is doing pretty well for itself. Figuratively speaking, of course. Windows Vista now accounts for 2.04% of all operating systems installed. This is more than double last month's figure, which was .93%. In direct contrast, despite all the pro-Macintosh advertisements and Macintosh "fanboys", Mac OS X has lost .3% of it's market share, and now accounts for 6.08% of all operating systems installed.

In related news, Mozilla Firefox is gaining market momentum. 15.1% of all internet users access it through Mozilla Firefox, while Internet Explorer users account for 78.6% of all internet users. Apple Safari usage dropped to around 4.51%