When 32GB equals 16GB, you get sued

A California-based lawyer is suing Microsoft for not providing the advertised amount of storage space on its Surface tablet.

Andrew Sokolowski filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court after discovering that his 32GB Surface tablet did not actually allow users to load 32GB worth of content. About half of the tablet's storage is consumed by pre-loaded apps.

"Mr. Sokolowski's lawsuit against Microsoft is about protecting consumers as we head into the holiday shopping season," Sokolowski's attorney, Rhett Francisco, said in a statement. "Microsoft is misrepresenting the storage capacity and capabilities of its Surface tablet, and consumers should know about it."

Francisco said Sokolowski is not asking for damages. "We have only asked that Microsoft correct its unlawful practices by providing consumers with notice of the true characteristics of the Surface tablets and that Microsoft refund profits from sales it obtained as a result of misrepresenting the characteristics of its Surface tablets," he said.

My own personal nightmare is almost over...Google Maps is coming to IOS

Apple made my daily work a nightmare when they banished Google Maps with IOS6.  Seems like I am about to wake up from the nightmare.

Google is testing a pre-release version of its mapping service for Apple's iOS devices, according to a new report.

The Wall Street Journal says Google is "putting the finishing touches" on the software ahead of submitting it to Apple.

The software, which the Journal says is already undergoing testing beyond Google employees, is "expected to contain" turn-by-turn navigation, just like its Android counterpart. That very same feature was said to be one of the main sticking points in negotiations between the two companies that led to Apple creating its own mapping software.

The report comes two days after Nokia's announcement that it has developed its own maps offering for iOS called Here Maps. That software, which will also compete with Apple's homegrown mapping app, will be released in the next few weeks.

Use Google Chrome's "Do Not Track" option...if you can find it

The FTC has requested that browser makers come up with some mechanism that allows Web browser users to prevent their online activities from being stored and profiled by Web entities. The first response to this, coming late in 2009, was Internet Explorer 9's Tracking Protection feature, which lets users subscribe to blacklists from privacy organizations such as TrustE and PrivacyChoice. A month later came Mozilla's Do Not Track proposal.

Finally this week, after about 3 years of foot-dragging, Do Not Track arrived in a released version of Chrome. It should be noted that Google only said that it would be adding the feature after the White House put out a Privacy Bill of Rights with the suggestion that Congress would develop legislation that gives the FTC and State Attorneys General authority to enforce the protections.

So, after updating your Chrome browser to version 23, with the spanking new Do Not Track support, you might say "Where is it?"  You might think, oh, it must be turned on by default, since Google would surely want to protect my browsing privacy, and 75 percent of users say they'd like it on by default. Not so. It's off by default in Chrome. So, click that menu button that used to be a wrench but now has three lines, for Settings. Hmm, nothing there about Do Not Track. Nothing under "Tools." Choose "Settings" from the menu. Still no dice. Ah, but go all the way to the bottom of the page and click "Show advanced settings"—and voilà! "Advanced settings" - that won't scare non-technical consumers away, right?

But even if you braved the "advanced" designation and did find the Do Not Track checkbox, the very last option under Privacy, you're not out of the woods yet. When you click this unconfusing "Send a ‘Do Not Track request with your browsing traffic" option, you get a long wordy message about how the setting may do nothing to protect your privacy and will deprive you of targeted advertising. It also notes that sites can still collect your browsing history, but just may not use it to customize your ads.

Thanks for keeping it simple Google.

IE 10 available now for non-Windows 8 users

Microsoft today launched a release preview version of Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7.

The updated browser is available for download now on Microsoft.com.

"Consumers can now enjoy a fast and fluid Web with the updated IE10 engine on their Windows 7 devices," Microsoft said in a blog post.

Microsoft first tipped IE10 for Windows 7 last month. The revamped browser "brings an entirely new browsing experience and set of capabilities to the Web, such as a new touch first browsing experience and full screen UI for your sites, security improvements that offer the best protection against the most common threats on the Web, improved performance, and support for the HTML5 and CSS3 standards developers need," Microsoft said.

IE10 was developed for Windows 8, but is now being rolled out to those who have not yet upgraded to the new OS. On the security front, IE10 includes the "do not track" technology turned on by default, so advertisers cannot secretly monitor your activity in order to serve up targeted ads. Those who want it, however, can disable "do not track."

Google warns of increased Government Surveillance

Google today released its latest stats about government requests for data and content removal across its products, and the search giant said the feds are showing no signs of backing off.

"This is the sixth time we've released this data, and one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise," Dorothy Chou, a senior policy analyst with Google, wrote in a blog post.

The data covers January to June 2012 and breaks out government requests for information and government requests to have content removed from Google's network.

In the first six months of the year, Google received 20,938 government requests to hand over information about 34,614 accounts. That's up from 18,257 requests betweeen July-Dec. 2011, and an increase from the 12,539 requests that were made between July-Dec. 2009, the first time period for which Google released these stats.

The United States had the highest number of user data requests at 7,696 regarding 16,281 accounts. Of that, Google complied fully or partially with 90 percent. The number of requests is up slightly in the U.S. from 6,321 in the second half of 2011, which resulted in a compliance rate of 93 percent.

India came in at No. 2 with 2,319 requests, followed by Brazil, France, and Germany, which all had about 1,500 requests, and the U.K. with 1,425.

Google said content removal requests were "flat" between 2009 and 2011, but have "spiked" this year - from 1,048 in the second half of 2011 to 1,791 in the first half of 2012.

In the U.S., most of the content removal requests focused on Google's Web Search and content on Google Groups.

The company received five requests to remove seven YouTube videos that criticized public officials, but Google declined. It received a court order to remove 1,754 posts from Google Groups relating to a case of continuous defamation against a man and his family, and Google removed 1,664 of the posts.

There were also three court orders regarding 641 search results that linked to allegedly defamatory websites. Google removed 233 of the search results. The company also pulled 156 search results for trademark violations.

Google said its data is "only an isolated sliver" of the actual number of Internet-related requests that governments make "since for the most part we don't know what requests are made of other technology or telecommunications companies." The company praised firms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Dropbox, and Sonic.net, which have also started publishing stats on government requests.

Filelocker - Free end-to-end online storage and encryption

If recent cloud storage breaches have you wondering if the web can be trusted with your files a new service launched Tuesday called FileLocker, that provides encrypted cloud storage, may give you new faith.

FileLocker, a folder sync and collaboration service, claims to provide end-to-end military-level encryption of files stored on its servers. That means that data is encrypted at its source (on your desktop), in transit (256-bit SSL), and in the cloud. Typically, web storage services offered to consumers don't encrypt data at all three of those stages.

Although primarily targeted at small and home businesses, the service, which offers 25GB of free online storage for up to five users, can be a good deal for consumers, too.

Paid accounts start at $5-per-user a month, with unlimited storage space for a minimum of 5 users and maximum of 10. Accounts include an app for the desktop and for mobile devices running iOS or Android, as well as administrative and reporting tools.

According to the company, files are protected before leaving a device with a personal passphrase known only to you. You can designate a folder and just drag-and-drop files where they're sent to the cloud using a 256-bit SSL connection, encrypted again and stored in the FileLocker cloud.