Software Headline

Flashback Fix Released

skye@softwarecasa.com — Wed, 16 May 2012 09:49:58 +0000

OS X Leopard

Apple Releases Flashback Fix for OS X Leopard.

After issuing similar fixes for Lion and Snow Leopard in April, Apple has now released a Flashback removal security update for OS X Leopard.

Apple describes the update as follows: “This update removes the most common variants of the Flashback malware. If the Flashback malware is found, a dialog will notify you that malware was removed. In some cases, the update may need to restart your computer in order to completely remove the Flashback malware.”

Flashback is a malicious program which uses a Java vulnerability to track Mac users. At one point, more than 600,000 Macs were estimated to be infected.

Source: Mashable

High-tech Software to Spy On You

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:12:56 +0000

Software Spy Tools

Nowadays, the government tracks the movements of private citizens by GPS, reads private citizens’ emails, and possibly even reads what you’re saying on Facebook.

It does so all in the name of law enforcement and Homeland Security, of course — but whether or not that makes you feel safer is up to you.

1. The NSA is building a massive data center in Utah to read every email you’ll ever send.

You’d think your emails would be safe from prying eyes — especially those of your government. Not so, once the government completes work on a top-secret Utah data center reportedly built to spy on civilian communications.

2. The FBI maintains detailed files on numerous public, semi-public, and private figures.

The government runs incredibly extensive background searches on its high-profile applicants. It is worth noting, of course, that the government doesn’t profile everyone — just certain people of interest.

3. Homeland Security is reading your tweets and Facebook status messages.

The Department of Homeland Security is seeking contractors to build software and hardware capable of reading through what it calls “publicly available social media.

4. Your ISP may soon be required to keep files on what sites you visit.

The bill, sponsored by State Rep. John Mizuno (D), “requires internet service providers… keep consumer records for no less than two years.” The bill then goes on to specify that these records must include “each subscriber’s information and internet destination history information.”

Source: Yahoo News

Facebook’s Antivirus Marketplace: Added Security or Sales Publicity?

admin — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:02:53 +0000

Facebook: Security or Marketing?

Last week Facebook made two decisions that could increase security for users of the service. The first change is the addition of an Antivirus Marketplace, a page on Facebook where anyone can find a list of antivirus solutions to download.

The second is a change in how its backend URL parsing utility works, in order to scan and eliminate malware threats that are linked from Facebook itself.

The first addition, the Antivirus Marketplace, is somewhat of a strange move. It’s available from the security portal, but isn’t currently promoted anywhere else.

This means very few users are likely to find it. While they are all free to try, those would cost money after a while, such as McAfee and Norton, if you get them from Facebook.

The second measure put in place by Facebook is likely to be far more effective. The company has always scanned URLs put into their system.

It’s well known that Facebook is a prime target of scams and can be a good infection vector, purely for its huge amount of users, so having the company proactively go out and scan addresses as they are shared is a big plus.

This is the type of service that can really help users, because it’s all done on the server side transparently, and doesn’t require any user input.

Source: Latest Articles in Software

Free PSD Goods from Creative Market

admin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:54:31 +0000

Creative Market is giving away a collection of top-quality design resources free for a limited time.

As a bonus, join today and get $5 early-access credit to spend when the full site launches.

Check it out and get downloading!

Windows 8 Coming in 3 Versions

Kiwi — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:42:44 +0000

Microsoft has announced that Windows 8 will come in three versions.

“For PCs and tablets powered by x86 processors (both 32 and 64 bit), we will have two editions: Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro.” – a post on Windows 8 Blog Team.

But the post goes on to let us all know that there’s a third version, Windows RT.

“Windows RT is the newest member of the Windows family,” the post says, going on to explain that the new name replaces “Windows on ARM or WOA” and that this version of Windows “will only be available pre-installed on PCs and tablets powered by ARM processors.”

There’s no explanation of the name RT, but the post does say “Windows RT will include touch-optimized desktop versions of the new Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. For new apps, the focus for Windows RT is development on the new Windows runtime, or WinRT, which we unveiled in September and forms the foundation of a new generation of cloud-enabled, touch-enabled, web-connected apps of all kinds.”

Source: The Register

Microsoft Product Roadmap Leaked

Kiwi — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 05:24:26 +0000

Microsoft has provided some of its partners with a roadmap for next versions of many of its key products, including Office 15, IE 10 and Windows Phone, and parts of that document have leaked to the Web.

One of the partners who received the roadmap, Maarten Visser, CEO of Meetroo — a new SharePoint and mobility startup — recently posted screen shots from it and tweeted links to them.

“For who want to know: I got the roadmap from the Microsoft Partner Network, where it can be downloaded without logon,” Visser tweeted a week ago.

Update: And here’s a Microsoft spokesperson emphasizing those same caveats in a statement: “We often provide forward-looking information to our partners and customers under our confidentially agreements with them. This information contains our best estimates and is, in no way, final or definitive.”

Source: ZDNet

US sues Apple for Ebook Price Scheme

admin — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:47:08 +0000

The U.S. government sued Apple Inc and five publishers, saying they conspired to fix the prices of electronic books, and reached a settlement with three of the publishers that could lead to cheaper e-books for consumers.

Source: Yahoo! News: Software News

India Got Its First 4G With Airtel

Kiwi — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:20:05 +0000

An immediate opportunity for Airtel is to push 4G (fourth-generation) data services in a market that is currently addressed mainly by slower, fixed line broadband connections that have limited reach, said Kamlesh Bhatia, principal research analyst at Gartner.

Airtel bid about 33 billion rupees (US$634 million) in a government auction in 2010 for the right to offer broadband wireless access (BWA) in four of India’s 22 service areas. Starting with Kolkata, the company plans to offer 4G services in the other three service areas including Bangalore shortly.

Besides offering rich content, Airtel plans to give customers fast access to high-definition (HD) video streaming, multiple chatting, and instant uploading of photos, and also to bridge the country’s digital divide.

Source: Latest News on Software

Support for Windows XP Ends in Two Years

Kiwi — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:59:53 +0000

XP was shipped to OEMs on August 24th, 2001 and reached average punters on October 25th.

Plenty bought it and plenty still run it: Gartner’s July 2011 assessment of the global OS population suggested “Windows XP Home and Follow-Ons” had 68 million users, while XP Professional ran on 144 million machines.

A more recent Gartner study, the March 2012 Client OS and Office Survey reported 79% of business desktops and 45% of notebooks ran XP, based on responses from a 147-strong, self-selecting, group at its October 2011 US Symposium event. While the analyst firm notes that’s not the most scientific of samples, the respondents represented organisations with a combined three million PCs in service.

Gartner’s message to to those users is clear: flee migrate away from the OS ASAP, or as soon as is convenient before the end of its supported life on the date we note above.

See Full Story Here!

Source: The Register

Microsoft Stacked The Deck for Firefox and Google

Kiwi — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:37:47 +0000

Windows 8 is considerably more complicated because you have two versions of IE, one for the Legacy Desktop and one for the Metro Start screen. In Windows 8, if you choose IE as your default browser, you need to pick which version of IE is the default browser: Metro or Legacy. In a flourish of Windows-style user interface muddling, the place where you choose your default browser is not the same place where you choose which of the two IEs reigns as default.

Firefox and Google have a vested interest in coming up with a Metro version of their browsers. As Firefox architect Brian Bondy puts it, “If a browser does not support Metro, it is seriously at risk of losing the default browser status, and therefore significant market share.”

Here’s how it works. Just as in Windows 7, you need to set a default browser in Windows 8. In Windows 7, the default browser handles all the things you would expect a browser to handle: links in email messages and documents, rendering HTML files, the usual browser shtick.

Source: InfoWorld