Gmail has crashed again today, continuing its recent trend of unscheduled downtime.
It began about 11am today affecting users from all over the world. The problem has since been fixed.
A Google spokesperson told IT PRO: “A number of our users had difficulty accessing Gmail this morning. The problem was immediately investigated, and service was restored within [...]

A Japanese computer game maker on Friday dismissed a protest by US rights campaigners against the game “RapeLay”, which lets players simulate sexual violence against females.
New York-based Equality Now launched a campaign this week “against rape simulator games and the normalisation of sexual violence in Japan”.
It urged activists to write in protest to the maker [...]

The European Parliament has voted through a massive tranche of reforms for the European telecommunications sector, including a significant net-neutrality amendment.
The ‘Telecoms Package’ of laws was voted into force on Wednesday with a large majority, and must now be ratified by the Council of Telecoms Ministers. The vote marks the first time that internet access [...]

More U.S. households are forgoing traditional landline telephones and going with only cellular service, according to a new survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Twenty percent of homes surveyed only had cellular service, compared with 17% of homes that had a landline and no cell phones. By comparison, the first survey, conducted [...]

The European Parliament has voted through a massive tranche of reforms for the European telecommunications sector, including a significant net-neutrality amendment.
The ‘Telecoms Package’ of laws was voted into force on Wednesday with a large majority, and must now be ratified by the Council of Telecoms Ministers. The vote marks the first time that internet access [...]

The U.K. government is to increase the maximum fine for intellectual-property infringement from US$7,520 to US$75,200.
Following a consultation by the U.K. Intellectual Property Office (IPO), a majority of respondents supported the increase in the maximum fine, known as an exceptional statutory maxima. Respondents included the Publisher’s Association, the British Phonographic Industry and the Alliance Against [...]

Wireless is about to get faster: users could be offered a new multi gigabit-speed wireless option. An industry group that includes Intel, Microsoft, Nokia and Panasonic plans to introduce a specification for short-range networking by the end of this year.
The WiGig Alliance is developing a specification for using unlicensed 60GHz radio spectrum within a typical [...]

Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) continues a long-running Microsoft practice that puts users at risk, a security researcher said on Wednesday.
The new operating system’s Windows Explorer file manager still misleads users about the true extension of a file, said Patrik Runald, chief research advisor at Helsinki-based F-Secure.
Rather than reveal the full extension for a filename, [...]

Microsoft has laid down the rules for its Windows Marketplace for Mobile (formerly known as Skymarket), which is heading to Windows Mobile 6.5 later in the year. Among the 12 deadly development sins are “Applications that enable VoIP (Voice over IP) services over a mobile operator network.”
This isn’t a huge surprise – trying to mix [...]

UTOPIA (Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency), Utah’s municipal fiber-to-the-premise network, has connected its first customer to a 100 Mbps service. The customer, in Layton, Utah, is setting records by connecting his home to the first symmetrical, non-shared 100 Mbps fiber-optic Internet connection in the United States. His Internet service is provided over the UTOPIA [...]