TechBlog

This week Apple announced the availability of QuickTime 7.6.9 for OS X 10.5 and Windows platforms. This release fixes 13 vulnerabilities in QuickTime for OS X Leopard and 15 vulnerabilities on the Windows platform. Keep in mind that if you use iTunes it requires that you install QuickTime as well, so be sure to check for updates. Apple has provided a direct download link for IT folks at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/. All 13 vulnerabilities for OS X can cause unexpected application termination (what you and I call a crash, but you can’t say crash on a Mac) or arbitrary code execution (make QuickTime run programs… BAD). ...

Just a day after Dutch police arrested a 16-year-old boy in connection with WikiLeaks-related denial-of-service attacks, websites belonging to the Netherlands computer crime cops and prosecutors have been struck with a similar assault. Dennis Janus, a spokesman for the National Police Service confirmed that both the police website, and that of the National Prosector’s Office had been offline for much of the day, with many theorizing that the likely reason is a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack similar to that which was launched against MasterCard, PayPal and other firms. ...

Sophos Labs: Semi-nude pictures of Christina Aguilera leaked onto the internet earlier this week, causing fans of the pint-sized pop diva to feverishly run to their search engines in the hunt for the private snaps. Regular readers should know only too well about the dangers that can be associated with hunting for such material – with nude pictures of Twilight star Ashley Greene and snaps of princess-to-be Kate Middleton recently being used as bait for the unwary. ...

Mashable: Get ready, folks with no sense of direction; Google Maps 5.0 app for Android is looking to make your life a lot easier with 3D graphics, more accurate orientation and the ability to function offline. According to Gizmodo, the app — which was demoed at D: Dive Into Mobile conference in San Francisco — is much faster than the previous iteration and renders in real time. 3D buildings are visible at street-level view, which lets you tilt the image and check out your virtual surroundings. The map will also adjust as you move, dictated by the compass, or you can rotate the map yourself if you want to check out various views. ...

Google has just launched Message Continuity, a cloud-based enterprise solution for backing up corporate e-mail whenever Microsoft Exchange goes down. The new product, powered by Google’s 2007 acquisition of Postini, focuses on giving companies another access point to their e-mail accounts. It essentially creates a complete backup copy of Microsoft Exchange Servers and puts those e-mails into a Google Apps account, replicating that information within Gmail, Calendar and Contacts. ...

Mashable: The Pew Center is out with a new report that focuses on Twitter usage in the U.S., and it reveals that 6% of the entire U.S. adult population uses Twitter. Young adults ages 18 to 29, minority groups — 13% black and 18% Hispanic — and urban dwellers are among the groups with the highest level of Twitter use. The report reveals that women and those with college educations are also slightly more likely than other groups to tweet. ...

Android activations have now surpassed 300,000 per day which equals the number of activations for Symbian worldwide, according to data provided by Google. It also indicates that the now near-continuous stream of new Android phones is having a positive effect on sales overall. Back in October, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the company was activating about 200,000 phones per day. The new number also comes from Google’s engineering chief Andy Rubin, who tweeted it on Wednesday night. It is not out of the question to think that Android may become the top platform in the world early next year. ...

The Black Eyed Peas have taken over MySpace in an effort to improve its social entertainment offerings. Hijacks is a project that involves allowing celebrities — like the aforementioned Peas — to “take over” MySpace. Fans will have the opportunity to learn more about these celebrities’ particular interests, while also receiving access to new products and exclusive content. So in the case of the Black Eyed Peas’s MySpace Hijack, fans can do things like play a new 8-bit game, view the band’s featured playlist and learn more about chanteuse Fergie’s love of Italian fashion house Emilio Pucci. Non-MySpace users will be able to view some of the content from the hijack, but actual MySpace membership is necessary to receive access to items like a limited edition Black Eyed Peas badge. This promotion is taking place just a little more than a week after the Black Eyed Peas released their last disc, The Beginning. ...

Twitter has seen a phenomenal amount of growth in the past year. In fact, the company claims more than 100 million new accounts were opened in 2010. To celebrate, the startup has created an infographic showing off some of the most notable new accounts from this year. It’s quite a motley crew; celebs such as Billy Idol, Tiger Woods, Sylvester Stalone and Cher rub digital elbows with world leaders, including the Dalai Lama, Donald Rumsfeld and Queen Noor of Jordan. ...

Mashable: Facebook is known for its hackathons — all-night coding sessions designed to help create new products or improve others. Now the company has announced its first Hacker Cup. Facebook says it’s “bring[ing] engineers from around the world together to compete in a multi-round programming competition.” The Hacker Cup is very similar to Google’s popular Google Code Jam. Contestants will be challenged with solving algorithmic-based problem statements. Those who successfully solve the problems in the allotted period of time will advance to the next round. ...