Windows 7 to lead OS market

Windows 7 will become the leading operating system used in PCs worldwide by the end of 2011, running on 42% of all computers, says Computing.co.uk.

According to research firm Gartner, 94% of new PCs will be shipped with Windows 7 in 2011.

Annette Jump, Gartner's research director, says uptake of Windows 7 will be fastest in the US and Asia-Pacific, but western Europe may lag behind.

Anonymous has made good on a promise to wreak havoc on the Web site of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) System, although not exactly as planned, writes Cnet.

The amorphous collective had threatened to take Bart.gov offline for six hours, or twice the amount of time BART managers took cellphone service offline at some BART stations on Thursday night in order to head off a planned protest.

As screen captures of the defacement began rocketing around Twitter, news came that Anonymous hackers had also accessed and posted online a database of mybart.org with user e-mails and some addresses and phone numbers.

Social networking site LinkedIn says it will alter an advertising technique, following criticism and questions in the Netherlands about whether it violated privacy laws, reveals the Associated Press.

LinkedIn has been testing “social ads” since June. Some attach users' photos to ads for services they have shown an interest in, then broadcast them to other members of their networks.

Dutch lawmaker Jeroen Recourt asked the justice minister last week to investigate whether it is legal in the Netherlands. The company said on its Web site on Friday that reaction from users was “loud and clear” and it will stop using user photos in ads.

Google has posted details on a set of user interface updates the company has made for its Gmail Web mail platform and Docs application, notes V3.co.uk.

The company said the update would help users to better navigate Gmail by providing an inbox preview pane. The window will allow users to scroll through Gmail messages and scan the contents of an e-mail and mark messages as read without needing to fully open a message.

Additionally, the update will look to improve the interface for mobile users. Google said it would increase the resolution on mobile devices and add animated transitions when users move between pages on the service.