Talking about Seniors Gone Wired!
Month: April 2012
Mac Flashback trojan exploits unpatched Java vulnerability, no password needed
Developers behind the Flashback trojan for the Mac have updated it to exploit a vulnerability in the Java software framework that has yet to be patched for machines running Mac OS X, an antivirus firm warned on Monday.
Flashback.K, as the latest variant is called, is able to hijack Macs even when users don’t enter an administrative password. Instead, it does this by exploiting a critical Java vulnerability classified as CVE-2012-0507, F-Secure researchers wrote in a blog post. Although Oracle released a fix for the security threat in February, a patch has yet to be released for OS X users. That’s because Apple distributes Java updates itself and the company has yet to make one for the specific flaw, or indicate when it plans to do so.
Flashback first surfaced in September as a trojan that masqueraded as an installer for Adobe’s Flash Player. Over the past few months, it has taken on increasingly sophisticated features, including the ability to bypass built-in OS X malware protections and attack code that exploits long-ago patched Java vulnerabilities. The version analyzed by F-Secure is the first known time Flashback has exploited a vulnerability for which no fix is currently available.
Although Apple stopped bundling Java by default in OS X 10.7 (Lion), it offers instructions for downloading and installing the Oracle-developed software framework when users access webpages that use it. Some security researchers have for years criticized Apple for lagging behind Microsoft and Linux distributors in releasing Java updates to its users. F-Secure has recently joined others in counseling Mac users to disable Java on machines that don’t regularly use it. The antivirus provider also has provided instructions for checking if your Mac is infected.
Attacks that exploit CVE-2012-0507 recently went mainstream when they were added to automated exploit kits such as Blackhole. Once it infects a Mac, Flashback changes the contents of some of the webpages it displays.
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Mac Flashback trojan exploits unpatched Java vulnerability, no password needed
Philips transfers TV business to a joint venture with TPV Technology, TPV takes the controlling stake
It took almost exactly a year, but Philips is finally free of its pesky, money-losing TV problem. As planned, the company transferred its television business into a joint venture with Hong Kong-based TPV Technology called TP Vision — an arrangement that endows TPV with a controlling 70 percent stake. (Philips will still receive royalties on top of whatever it earns through this venture, and plans to sell Philips-branded sets in the US through a separate partnership with Funai.) Though the deal was first detailed a year ago, Philips only announced today that the transaction had closed. Now that it has, the newly formed company will produce Philips-branded TVs in a bid to make it one of the “top three players,” according to TP Vision chief Maarten de Vries. As you’d expect, all of the 3,300 employees that previously fell under Philips’ television division will now be in the employ of TP Vision, and Philips’ various manufacturing sites have been transferred over too. All of that and a healthy dose of rah-rah in the full PR below.
Philips transfers TV business to a joint venture with TPV Technology, TPV takes the controlling stake originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Philips transfers TV business to a joint venture with TPV Technology, TPV takes the controlling stake
Intel 330 SSD leakage hints at bargain price tag, perhaps just $149 for 120GB
A number of online retailers listed an Intel 330 SSD over the weekend, which would have been cool except that the drive was supposed to remain in the shadows until given a proper announcement. Some sellers pulled their listings pronto, but not before giving us a good glimpse at the drive’s likely specs. These include the arrival of the SATAIII 6Gbps interface in this budget line, the same 25nm NAND fabrication process used for last year’s 320, and promised sequential read / write speeds of up to 500MB/s and 450MB/s. None of this is especially thrilling, perhaps, when you recall that a similarly-specced SSD, the SanDisk Extreme, topped even the premium Intel 520 in recent benchmarks, but it all starts to make sense when you look at the pricing. SabrePC lists $149 for the 120GB variant, which is a full $40 cheaper than SanDisk’s rival, $60 cheaper than the Intel 320, and only enough to pick up 60GB-worth of Intel 520. There are also 60GB and 180GB flavors, listed at $89 and $234 respectively. Assuming these prices hold tight, and that there’s no repeat of the 320’s firmware issues, this could be a bargain drive worth waiting for.
Update: Amazon UK helpfully lists April 13th as launch day.
Intel 330 SSD leakage hints at bargain price tag, perhaps just $149 for 120GB originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Intel 330 SSD leakage hints at bargain price tag, perhaps just $149 for 120GB
One of the bigger complaints levied against the original iPad…
One of the bigger complaints levied against the original iPad was that, while it was a great device for watching movies or surfing the web, it didn’t do much to “facilitate [content] creation.” Steve Jobs took that criticism to heart, and made apps like Garage Band and iMovie an essential part of the iPad 2.
Now, a new sketchbook app called Paper is targeting artsy tablet owners. Developed by a team of former Microsoft employees who worked on the company’s once-promising, now-dead Courier dual-screen tablet, Paper allows users to draw in a minimalist, user-friendly interface. Want a thicker line with your fountain pen? Just swipe a little faster. To erase, move two fingers counter-clockwise in a circle. The company touts it as ”the easiest and most beautiful way to create on the new iPad.”
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One of the bigger complaints levied against the original iPad…
Tribune stations nationwide including WGN America go dark on DirecTV
In the latest round of disputes between pay-TV providers and networks over the millions of dollars we, the customers, are paying for service, Tribune Broadcasting Company (owner of several different broadcast networks nationwide including WGN America — list follows after the break) and DirecTV are going at it. As a result, the 23 broadcast networks under Tribune’s umbrella are no longer available on the satellite service, and there’s no indication when they’ll be coming back. Oddly, DirecTV claimed Thursday it had accepted Tribune’s terms, before the Tribune Company stated no deal had been reached. Now both sides are accusing the other of misleading viewers but no matter who is responsible the facts remain the same — until they settle things you’ll need to get those channels some other way.
Continue reading Tribune stations nationwide including WGN America go dark on DirecTV
Tribune stations nationwide including WGN America go dark on DirecTV originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Apr 2012 19:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tribune stations nationwide including WGN America go dark on DirecTV
USRobotics PalmPilot Personal review
It’s 1996. You might have a cellphone, but it doesn’t do much more than make phone calls. You might have a laptop, but it’s likely too heavy to carry with you everywhere you go. Or you might only have a phone that’s plugged into a wall and a PC that’s confined to a desk. That’s the environment that gave rise to the Personal Digital Assistant (or PDA), a new type of product that first arrived in the late 1980s but really came into its own in the mid-90s.
1996 also saw the release of the first PDAs developed by USRobotics subsidiary Palm Inc., the Pilot 1000 and 5000, which had more in common with today’s smartphones than many of their contemporary devices. They had a touchscreen with only a few physical buttons at the bottom. They had apps you could download. They could sync data with your computer. And they were small and light enough to carry with you at all times. They just didn’t make phone calls.
A year later, Palm released the slightly upgraded PalmPilot Personal and PalmPilot Professional (with 512KB and 1MB of RAM, respectively), and the ensuing years would see a regular stream of new devices — not to mention an acquisition by 3Com, and a new spate of Palm OS products from Handspring, a company founded by the folks behind the original Pilot.
But it’s those first few devices that come to mind when someone mentions “Palm PDA,” and with good reason — they set a mold that wasn’t deviated from much until Palm made the jump into smartphones.
Gallery: PalmPilot Personal review
Continue reading USRobotics PalmPilot Personal review
USRobotics PalmPilot Personal review originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Apr 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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French anti-P2P law cuts back pirating, but music sales still decline
France’s three-strikes anti-piracy law is one of the strictest in the world. It employs private companies to scan file-sharing networks for copyright infringement and sends warnings to pirates if they’re caught red-handed. The law, enforced by a French authority called Hadopi, was instated 17 months ago to the applause of music copyright holders and their representatives. Although an early study originally showed piracy had actually increased after the anti-P2P law passed, Hadopi released a report this March saying French ISP users had significantly decreased their illegal file sharing. Despite that announcement, the French music industry still saw a decline in revenue.
Hadopi used the reports of two different companies to ascertain the decrease in pirated traffic. One metric said illegal data sharing on peer-to-peer networks decreased by 43 percent, another survey used a different methodology and saw a 66 percent decrease in illegal P2P traffic. While Hadopi only monitors peer-to-peer networks, its recent study noted there’s “no indication that there has been a massive transfer in forms of use to streaming technologies or direct downloads.”
For all the fanfare in Hadopi’s 14-page report celebrating the crackdown on music and video piracy, the music and video industries in France did not see increased profit in 2011 compared to the year before. The overall recorded music industry saw a 3.9 percent loss, and France’s video market dropped 2.7 percent overall.
The depressed sales likely won’t take copyright holders off the warpath. In fact, both music and video industries saw significant increases in purchases of digital media. In music, download revenues increased by 18.4 percent. Streaming and subscriptions revenue grew by 73 percent, largely due to the rising popularity of Spotify and Deezer. According to a domestic video publisher’s group, video-on-demand sales increased 50 percent.
An article on the French website Numerama also noted that streaming music played a large part in increasing sales of digital music downloads, and surprisingly, concert tickets. Streaming music did not, however, influence a user’s impetus to buy CDs.
These numbers show that despite the hemming and hawing about piracy eating up entertainment industry revenue, the transition from physical discs to digital files is a huge factor in negative growth. No matter what, music industry officials are unlikely to let up on piracy. More than likely, they will adopt the argument that media sales would be even lower without ISP monitoring.
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French anti-P2P law cuts back pirating, but music sales still decline
Hands-on: GNOME 3.4 arrives, introducing significant design changes
The developers behind the GNOME project have announced GNOME 3.4, a new version of the desktop environment. The update brings several significant new features and a number of design and usability improvements.
GNOME is an open source software stack that provides a desktop shell, applications, and development frameworks that are commonly used on the Linux platform. It is the default desktop environment in Fedora and several other Linux distributions. It’s released every six months on a time-based development cycle.
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Hands-on: GNOME 3.4 arrives, introducing significant design changes
April Fools’ Day roundup: the big toys, the small toys and the cats
Depending on where you are right now, you’re either pretty much done with April Fools’ Day (hence our bloated inbox thanks to all you lovely tipsters!) or it’s just about to start on your side of the world. In fact, some of this year’s submissions already got a head start, including the excellent 8-bit quest mode in Google Maps. Oh, don’t worry, there’s plenty more from Mountain View and the usual participants this year — we’ve rounded up the best of the lot right after the break for your amusement. Keep an eye on this as we will be adding new goodies to the list throughout the day.
[Thanks to everyone who sent these in]
Continue reading April Fools’ Day roundup: the big toys, the small toys and the cats
April Fools’ Day roundup: the big toys, the small toys and the cats originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Apr 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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April Fools’ Day roundup: the big toys, the small toys and the cats