Apple’s Snow Leopard Brings Compatibility, Security Concerns

Apple’s Snow Leopard update for Mac OS X ships later this week, but compatibility and security worries have already arrived.

Adobe on Tuesday confirmed that its Creative Suite 4 (CS4) line of products is compatible with Snow Leopard, except for Adobe Drive/Version Cue. It also acknowledged that its older CS3 software has not been tested with Apple’s forthcoming operating system.

In an effort to dispel worries that CS3 users would be unable to use their software if they upgraded to Mac OS X 10.6, Adobe Photoshop product manager John Nack subsequently clarified in a blog post that “No one said anything about CS3 being ‘not supported’ on Snow Leopard.”

He stopped short however of declaring that CS3 will be fully functional under Snow Leopard, leaving Adobe users who haven’t upgraded to CS4 wondering, like Microsoft Office 2004 users, whether any show-stopping glitches await.

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Why Google search bar see only negatives..?

A simple search of “Twitter is” on Google spawns suggestions like — Twitter is down, Twitter is over capacity, Twitter is useless; Try this ..

Tried again with the Google’s rival Facebook, still no Luck, only negative options . Google gave results like Facebook is slow, I like this option “Facebook is for Old people”.

Who in this big old world will try only negative keywords as the most widely used search parameters? There was only one way to find out.

Try “Orkut is”, . No wonder IT Companies in India Ban Orkut. Orkut is certified by Google as a “banned virus” see the image.

Now what exactly is Google.?. I tried out by adding “Google is” in the search bar..

Atleast Google gave a mixture of good, and bad search results. 🙂

google-search-result

 

Nokia’s Linux-based N900 Is Now Official

Nokia N900 has made an official appearance as the company has marked the next phase in the evolution of Maemo software with the new device recently. Taking its cues from the world of  desktop computing, the open source Linux-based Maemo software delivers a PC-like experience on a handset-sized device.

Nokia N900 view

Running on the new Maemo 5 software, the Nokia N900 is designed to empower users to have dozens of application windows open while running simultaneously and taking full advantage of the cellular features like the touch screen and QWERTY keyboard.

The Nokia N900 will feature –

• a 3.5 inch touch-sensitive widescreen display with an 800 × 480 pixel resolution
• full physical slide-out QWERTY keyboard and on-screen virtual keyboard as well
• 32GB of storage, which is expandable up to 48GB via a microSD card
• 3.5mm earphone and handsfree socket
• 5 megapixel CMOS sensor autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics and a Tessar lens as well as a Dual LED flash
• Photo editor on device
• Video recording
• TV Out (PAL/NTSC) via Connectivity Cable (included in box) or WLAN/UPnP
• Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP
• Integrated GPS with A-GPS support (Ovia Maps preloaded)
• Video playback includes XviD support (FINALLY)
• Built-in FM transmitter and radio
• Maemo browser powered by Mozilla technology and Adobe Flash 9.4 support.

The Nokia N900 will be available in select markets from October 2009 at an estimated retail price of about Rs. 35,050 (EUR 500) excluding sales taxes and subsidies.

 

10 Tech Career Boosters

Going by most media and industry reports, technology industries in India are starting to bounce back from the global slowdown. Our country might not be faring as badly as others are right now, but that still doesn’t mean all is well on the job search front. Many of the workers laid off earlier this year are still finding it hard to get new jobs, since companies are only just starting to recover and aren’t looking at expansion opportunities yet. With so many experienced workers and so few job openings, things don’t look very good at all for the lakhs of freshers who will be graduating six or eight months from now and entering the job market for the first time.

“IT” as a career option is a fairly vague, nebulous idea. Everyone knows that IT is hot and there’s lots of money to be made if you’re young and well educated, but no one can actually pin down a single, specific path to follow that guarantees you’ll make it big.

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Search for Jessica Biel dangerous

McAfee says Internet search for the celebrity may lead to websites tested positive for online threats.

McAfee has complied its latest list using McAfee SiteAdvisor technology for celebrity names that produce the largest number of risky sites. The top celebrities include; Jessica Biel, Beyonce , Jennifer Aniston, Tom Brady, Jessica Simpson.

An Internet search for Jessica Biel or Jessica Biel downloads, Jessica Biel wallpaper, Jessica Biel screen savers, Jessica Biel photos and Jessica Biel videos have a one in five chance of landing at a Web site that’s tested positive for online threats, such as spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware.

Surprisingly, Barack and Michelle  Obama appeared to be not among the most risky public figure to search. :))

 

Canadians Forces Facebook to tighten the privacy rules

This should be how a Law should function… For the people…

After a year-long review from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Facebook has agreed to give users more information about how it uses their data for advertising, and to change the default settings of its privacy controls – which many users leave unaltered – to better reflect users’ preferences.

The move, which comes in response to complaints from Canadian privacy officials,will clamp down the use of personal data by social networking sites and the software developers who use them to distribute their applications.

By giving more power to the consumers over their information, the move will increase online consumer protection by disallowing the Facebook to sell the sensitive information to their advertisers. This will also restrict the makers of the games and quizzes to post all contents in the  profile pages.

“Application developers have had virtually unrestricted access to Facebook users’ personal information,” privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart told. “The changes Facebook plans to introduce will allow users to control the types of personal information that applications can access.”

The changes, which Facebook will introduce over the next year, will affect all 250 million Facebook users worldwide.

This move could have repercussions for other sites such as MySpace and Twitter.

 

Microsoft’s 720p HD wide-screen webcam

Microsoft’s newest flagship Webcam, offers the HD video of the LifeCam Cinema. Thanks to  Microsoft’s new ClearFrame Technology,

Live-cam-cinema

which promises better low-light performance (and increased visibility thanks to its 74-degree viewing angle) without having to sacrifice resolution quality.

Webcam incorporates a native 720p wide-screen sensor that offers higher quality video to instant-messengers, YouTube videographers, and everyone in between.

Microsoft also includes Windows Live Movie Maker and Windows Live Photo Gallery to help users edit and upload their videos to popular social networking sites like YouTube or Facebook. The LifeCam Cinema will start shipping in September for $80, which includes a three-year limited hardware warranty.

But the LifeCam Cinema does not work with Macs.. :((

 

Twitter to use geolocation information in tweets

Twitter says it will soon enable tweets to include geolocation information. The feature will be implemented on an opt-in basis, and app developers will be given a special API for using the information. It could spell revenue opportunities for the service, but the idea of tweeting one’s specific location could create some security issues, especially if the user does not mean to share the info.

It will also offer a new API (application programming interface) so developers can add latitude and longitude data to any tweet.

Thanks for this release, we almost took 2 weeks to track a user, who was using our company’s name as a profile, if we could know long., and lat., much better to track.

The geolocation feature will be set to off by default, and users will have to manually opt in, cofounder Biz Stone told TechNewsWorld, and Twitter’s servers will not store any user’s location-based data for very long.

Developers will be given early access to the API, so it will be available on third-party Twitter apps before it is available on the service. Twitter does not give  a precise date when the API will be released, and probably the features available to developers in the next few weeks.

As Twitter’s investors see third-party companies such as Dell(Nasdaq: DELL) make money from using Twitter, they have been pressuring the service to monetize.

Although Twitter has yet to start earning actual revenue, investors and other companies see its potential. Facebook reportedly bid $500 million in stock for Twitter in November but was turned down.

This new feature might be a treasure, or trouble for twitter, this has many security concerns to face. Easy to track a user without their knowledge, hackers might benefit also. Better the twitter watch..!

 

‘Dirtiest Web Sites of Summer’ identified by Symantec

Symantec is out with its “Dirtiest Web Sites of Summer 2009,” which it’s calling “the worst of the worst” when it comes to malware threats.
The security vendor says that “48 percent of the Dirtiest Web Sites are, well, dirty–sites that feature adult content.” That means that more than half the sites cover a wide range of other categories including legal services, catering, figure skating, and electronics shopping, according to the report.

On average, sites on the dirtiest list have 18,000 threats per site, but 40 of the sites have in excess of 20,000 threats. One site that appears to offer restaurant catering services has 23,414 computer threats
“The number of web attacks is off the charts because it’s the easiest path into a consumer’s machine” said Gerry Egan, Symantec’s director of security response.

Sample of Dirtiest Web Sites:

• 17ebook.com
• aladel.net
• bpwhamburgorchardpark.org
• clicnews.com

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Yahoo wins appeal of music-streaming case

A three-judge panel ruled Friday that Yahoo will not have to pay up every time it plays a song on its Internet radio service, affirming an earlier verdict.

The suit arose way back in 2001, when a division of Sony sued Launch Media claiming the service was bypassing a law that requires those who provide specific playlists of songs over the Internet to pay rights holders. Yahoo also acquired Launch Media that year, but has since turned over control of the service to CBS Radio, a division of the same corporation that publishes CNET News.
Yahoo won the case in 2007, but Sony appealed, resulting in Friday’s decision.

In what is being seen as a defeat for the music industry, Yahoo Music was not deemed “interactive” enough to require the company to negotiate with record companies for the rights to play songs over the Internet. Instead, it merely has to pay licensing fees to digital music rights organization SoundExchange.