accessibility

If you're visually impaired or legally blind, living in the age of the MP3 player can be frustrating. Small screens, tiny fonts, complicated menus, and imprecise controls make the majority of MP3 players very difficult to use. Until now, visually impaired users often resorted to counting scroll wheel clicks and memorizing menus, or installing and configuring third-party firmware, such as the open source Rockbox (a project not recommended for the technologically timid).

By adding a Spoken Menus feature to their fourth-generation iPod Nano, Apple is one of the first manufacturers to dramatically improve the usability of their MP3 players … Read more

Target and an advocacy group for the blind announced Wednesday that they've settled a class action lawsuit regarding the accessibility of Target.com for the visually impaired.

The retail giant will establish a $6 million fund for settlement claims and promised to make its site fully accessible to blind visitors as part of a deal ending a class action lawsuit filed two and a half years ago.

The suit against Target was first filed in early 2006 by the Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind, which claimed Target.com contained thousands of access barriers making it difficult, if not … Read more

Intel has developed technology that lets people remotely power up their computers and retrieve files across an Internet connection, according to a report on The Wall Street Journal site on Wednesday.

The technology, called Remote Wake, will work only on PCs that use a recently introduced chipset from Intel and requires new software to be loaded onto the PC, according to the report. The technology will also reportedly allow PCs that use Internet-based phones services to be remotely activated to receive calls. Remote Wake could also allow consumers using a Web-enabled phone or a laptop connected to the Internet to … Read more

A funny thing happened on the way to Boston: the CNET office disappeared. Our Cambridge office is moving to a new location, so when I arrived on the East Coast for a short stay, I found myself without a cube to call home. More importantly, I couldn't work from a computer already inside the CNET firewall, which left me with two choices: use a VPN client, or use a remote access program.

I haven't encountered a single VPN client review without some degree of legitimate complaint, and my own experience with them has left much to be desired. … Read more

Microsoft on Tuesday released its August 2008 security bulletin. Bulletins rated "critical" concern Microsoft Access 2003 and earlier; Microsoft Word 2002 and 2003; Microsoft Excel; and Microsoft Office 2000, Microsoft Office XP and Microsoft Office 2003. A cumulative patch for Internet Explorer also is rated critical.

"Important" bulletins affect Windows Internet Protocol Security (IPsec); Outlook Express and Windows Mail; Microsoft Windows Event System; Windows Messenger; and Microsoft PowerPoint. All Microsoft security patches for both Windows and Office software are available via Microsoft Update or via the individual bulletins detailed below.

MS08-041: Critical

Titled "Vulnerability in … Read more

Social network MySpace has signed a promotional deal to bring free Wi-Fi to its users...but only in the U.K., and only to access MySpace-owned pages.

It's partnered with The Cloud, a European wireless provider that powers broadband access in establishments like hotels, fast-food joints, and airports. MySpace users will now be able to access the social network, which is owned by News Corp., on The Cloud's paid-subscription hotspots. The access company runs about 7,000 of them in the U.K.

Cool idea. It would've been an interesting extension of credential portability if social-network logins … Read more

Network access control (NAC) has certainly had a boisterous lifetime.

Cisco Systems first coined this term in 2005 when introducing an initiative to ensure that only "healthy" endpoints could access the network. In the intervening years, the NAC concept gained popularity, drove tremendous VC investment, and most recently came crashing down in a micro boom-to-bust cycle.

So what's the future for NAC? Out of the ashes, NAC is slowly changing and moving in the right direction toward identity-based networking. Rather than a myopic security tool, identity-based networking initiatives:

• Span the enterprise. NAC was primarily based upon … Read more

Olympic officials on Saturday said there was "no deal" with the Chinese government to restrict Internet access for foreign journalists covering the Beijing Games.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said during a press conference in Beijing that he is "adamant in saying there has been no deal whatsoever to accept restrictions," according to the BBC. In addition, he applauded the organization of the Summer Games, falling short of an apology following widespread public criticism that China had backtracked on assurances that members of the media would not be restricted.

Rogge did not address reports that had surfaced … Read more

On Wednesday, a 42-year-old UFO enthusiast lost his bid in a British court to fight extradition to the U.S. on charges he hacked into several U.S. military bases and even NASA.

Gary McKinnon has been fighting extradition for nearly six years, and his latest setback occurred in the British House of Lords. McKinnon admits breaking into U.S. databases in order to uncover evidence of secret UFO documents. His supporters contend that if deported to the U.S. for trial, McKinnon could be portrayed as a terrorist, seeking military secrets in general.

At the heart of Wednesday's … Read more