News

BetaNews: One year ago, Google gave the world its first look at Chrome OS, a project taking a new approach to thin clients and terminal computing. The long and the short of Chrome OS is: if the browser is the most-used application on a PC, why would you load it down with anything else? Chrome OS focuses on computers that are permanently connected, where all apps, data, and user identities and desktops are stored in the cloud. The computers running the OS are designed to be as unencumbered by software as possible, so they can run quickly and reliably. Businesses can run them in secure private clouds just as well as consumers can run them on the public Web. ...

BetaNews: In light of the recent rash of “history sniffing” bugs and the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed “do not track” list, Microsoft today announced that release candidate of Internet Explorer 9 will feature a new tracking protection setting that will keep a user’s browsing habits private from sites looking to harvest browser histories. The new feature of IE9 will let users opt out of sharing their browser information with sites they may not know or necessarily trust. It includes a Tracking Protection List of Web addresses that the browser will call only if the user specifically types the URL into the browser bar. That means any content from a URL that the user has blocked will also not show up in the browser. ...

Mashable: Google just launched artillery deep into territories held by Microsoft and Apple by making one of the biggest announcements in its history: The reveal of Chrome OS. And in doing so, it has declared war on the traditional desktop model. The Cr-48 Chrome Notebook will be the first official device featuring Chrome OS. Although it’s only being released in a pilot program to beta testers, it’s very much an emissary to consumers (Google’s hopeful allies in the fight). Those of you interested in enlisting can sign up to test the device, but we’re guessing selection will be — well — selective. ...

Mashable: After launching its own incredibly successful, single-purpose hardware and a slew of free apps for mobile and PC devices, Amazon is getting ready to launch a new web app version of Kindle. Amazon’s timing is impeccable, particularly if the tech giant is trying to take the wind out of Google’s sails; Google just launched its own e-reading, e-bookstore platform today. An Amazon rep said in an e-mail to ComputerWorld that the new version of the web app is intended to “enable users to read full books in the browser and any website to become a bookstore offering Kindle books” — exactly what Google E-books aims to do with its own platform. The previous version of Kindle for Web, as the app is properly called, was not nearly as noteworthy, allowing users to read only first-chapter previews of books online. ...

Avira programmers spent a lot of work and drastically overhauled the Avira AntiVir Rescue System which is now available in version 3.7.16. Next to a much better usability due to the redesigned user interface and 11 supported languages the new version offers even improved detection and removal capabilities. Avira AntiVir Rescue System uses Linux as operating system. The new kernel has much better and wider hardware support. The bootable CD can not only be used to analyse the system for malware infections and remove them, but also enables the user to get access to data on the system in case the operating system won’t start anymore so it can be backed up onto a USB drive, for example. ...

The New York Time: The Google e-bookstore is finally open. Tom Turvey, head of strategic partnerships at Google, said he thought the book business should have diversity of retail points After years of planning and months of delays, the search giant Google started its e-book venture on Monday, creating a potentially robust competitor in the digital book market to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple. ...

Google has upgraded its Priority Inbox, a recently launched Gmail feature that automatically places important mail on top of your inbox, with a couple of improvements based on user feedback. The Priority Inbox now reacts much faster to users’ manual corrections. Furthermore, if you hover the mouse cursor over the importance marker of individual emails, you’ll see a short explanation of why that message is considered important. As far as what kind of impact the Priority Inbox has had on Gmail users, Google claims that typical Priority Inbox users spend 43% more time reading important mail compared to unimportant, and 15% less time reading email overall, when compared to Gmail users who don’t use the Priority Inbox. ...

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has accepted a preliminary staff report that lays out a framework for Internet privacy and suggests a “do not track” mechanism – possibly a persistent cookie installed on browsers. The agency was careful to point out that the commissioners see privacy measures as a balancing act. The news release quotes FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz: “Technological and business ingenuity have spawned a whole new online culture and vocabulary – email, IMs, apps and blogs – that consumers have come to expect and enjoy. The FTC wants to help ensure that the growing, changing, thriving information marketplace is built on a framework that promotes privacy, transparency, business innovation and consumer choice. We believe that’s what most Americans want as well.” ...

According to The Telegraph, German prosecutors are accusing two local hackers of breaking into the computers of over 50 pop stars, including Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson, Justin Timberlake and Ke$ha. (Wouldn’t you have to be pretty brave to blackmail Lady Gaga? She can be, um, scary. ) Ralf Haferkamp, from the Duisburg prosecutor’s office, said in an interview with Deutsche Welle that the hackers, two boys of 17 and 23 from the West of Germany, infected the machines with malware in order to steal all sorts of files. ...

Google has finally announced its new phone ‘Nexus S’ manufactured by Samsung and is the first phone powered by the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS. Nexus S is a successor of Nexus One and looks an amazing Android phone with powerful hardware. Nexus S Official Specifications: Connectivity Quad-band GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 Tri-band HSPA: 900, 2100, 1700 HSPA type: HSDPA (7.2Mbps) HSUPA (5.76Mbps) Wi-Fi 802.11 n/b/g Bluetooth 2.1+EDR Near Field Communication (NFC) Assisted GPS (A-GPS) microUSB 2.0 Display 4.0″ WVGA (480×800) Contour Display with curved glass screen Super AMOLED 235 ppi Capacitive touch sensor Anti-fingerprint display coating Size and weight 63mm x 123.9mm x 10.88mm 129g Hardware Haptic feedback vibration Three-axis gyroscope Accelerometer Digital compass Proximity sensor Light sensor Processor and memory 1GHz Cortex A8 (Hummingbird) processor 16GB iNAND flash memory Cameras and multimedia Back-facing: 5 megapixels (2560×1920) 720 x 480 video resolution H.264, H.263 MPEG4 video recording Auto focus Flash Front-facing: VGA (640×480) 3.5mm, 4-conductor headset jack (stereo audio plus microphone) Earpiece and microphone Software noise-cancellation Battery Talk time up to 6.7 hours on 3G (14 hours on 2G) Standby time up to 17.8 days on 3G (29.7 days on 2G) 1500 mAH Lithum Ion Software Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) Android Market Calendar Gmail Google Earth Google Maps with Navigation Google Search Google Talk Google Voice Voice Actions YouTube Official Video – Introducing Nexus S ...

Google’s Chrome team has sent out invites to a press event in San Francisco, “where we plan to share some exciting news about Chrome,” the invitation reads. The event will be hosted at DogPatch Labs’ San Francisco office on Tuesday, December 7 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. PT. We will be reporting live from the event. We expect the team will unveil the long-awaited Chrome OS, the first operating system Google has designed for traditional computers, such as desktop PCs, laptops and netbooks, rather than smartphones and/or tablets. ...

Google announced on Friday that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Widevine, a Seattle-based company that has focused on DRM and security for streaming internet media for the last decade. “The Widevine team has worked to provide a better video delivery experience for businesses of all kinds: from the studios that create your favorite shows and movies, to the cable systems and channels that broadcast them online and on TV, to the hardware manufacturers that let you watch that content on a variety of devices,” said Mario Queiroz, Google Vice President of Product Management. ...

Though it is primarily known as a social networking site, Facebook is actually one of the top destinations for photo sharing, and a new user profile design change unveiled Monday ups the visibility of Facebook photos and encourages users to share personal information in a more visual way. Two years ago, Facebook came forward with some staggering figures about the photo sharing taking place on its sites, which amounted to between 2-3 Terabytes of photos being updated daily with a peak of 300,000 images per second. Facebook would serve about 15 billion photos, and the storage dedicated just to photography amounted to more than a petabyte. ...

Mashable: The AOL-Yahoo rumors are heating up once again. This time, they involve splitting up the AOL empire into two divisions before engaging in a merger of the two Internet companies. AOL has two main components: A content and display advertising business, and its longstanding dial-up business. In the past few years, AOL has focused on developing and expanding its advertising arm, its web portal and its media properties (e.g. Engadget and TechCrunch). ...

Avira TechBlog: We discovered a new ransomware threat which is downloaded by a Trojan of the Oficla family. This downloaded threat replaces the MBR (master boot record) of the hard disk with its own MBR which asks the user for a password and thus blocks the loading of the operating system. Upon starting the Oficla Trojan and successive execution of the downloaded payload the system will be rebooted and the user will be presented the ransom notice. ...