Happy New Year!

Hello ‘Omid’s Blog!’ readers!

I wish you all a year full of fun, happiness and health in the 2011, hope all your dreams come true in the new year.

Best Wishes
-Omid

Christmas Day : Facebook beats Google, most visited site in UK

For the first time ever since the evolution of the Internet, if you went that far!, Facebook received more web visits than Google UK site, on a single day… Christmas Day.

Google’s traffic share is constantly between 8-10% in U.K., while Facebook’s is well between 8-6%. Facebook accounted for 10.50% of the internet traffic in the U.K. on December 25th, marginally surpassing Google (9.77%). So, why was Facebook your favorite website on that day? You tell us!

That apart, the Boxing Day (Dec. 26) has come to be the busiest shopping day of the year for online retailers – - 12% higher than on Dec. 5th (earlier peak), and 26% higher than on Christmas Day : according to a Hitwise Intelligence report.

 

Red Hat Near Key Support Area

New York, December 27th (TradersHuddle.com) - Shares of Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT) are trading very close to calculated support at $45.27 with current price action closing at just $46.51 places the stock price near levels where traders will start paying attention.

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT) develops and provides open source software and services, including the Red Hat Linux operating system.

Red Hat's current stock range is defined by current calculated support defined at $45.27 and by the resistance level at $48.78, which should be used by traders planning their trades.

Traders wanting to establish a position should place close attention to Red Hat's price action, and establish a position as close to support as possible, but only after buying materializes. Traders should understand that the resistance point at $48.78 might limit their upside, however if the stock breaks resistance, it could be a good point to add to the position.

Facebook’s value surpasses Yahoo, eBay

A new study from New York securities firm NYPPEX estimates Facebook’s enterprise value is now much higher than Yahoo and EBay, at $41.2 billion and significantly higher than other fast growing startups like LinkedIn, Twitter, Zynga, and Groupon. Facebook’s value has shot up 56 percent since the middle of 2010.

None of the startups mentioned above have gone public but many let their employees sell shares in private markets as an incentive for their valued staff members.  The private markets let investors buy a piece of a company early on but it is difficult to determine what the price of a share should be.

NYPPEX used data from private stock trades made by individuals and institutional investors to estimate the value of Facebook and other privately held social media companies. Because it is difficult to calculate the market value of a private company, NYPPEX calculated an enterprise value.  Market value is calculated by multiplying the price of a company’s shares times the outstanding shares. Enterprise value takes into account the claims of all the security holders in company, less cash on hand.

NYPPEX’s study found that, between June 30^th and December 1, 2010, the value of 11 privately held social media companies grew by a total of$20 billion or 54 percent, and much of this growth came from Facebook.

NYPPEX calculated an enterprise value of $149 billion for Google and $73.5 million for Amazon.  Both Google and Amazon are already publicly traded companies.  EBay was valued at $32.8 billion and Yahoo at $18.4 billion.  NYPPEX estimates that Groupon’s enterprise value grew at a stunning rate, by 303 percent to reach $3.6 billion.  Twitter grew by 131 percent to reach $2.1 billion, while Linkedin and Zinga fell in value by over 8 percent.

Google may have told Logitech to stop the Revue

Google really isn't happy with its TV operating system. In addition to telling companies not to mention their Google TV products at CES next month, now it looks like the search company is actively stopping production on a device that's already been released.

According to a report on Digitimes.com, Logitech has ordered a suspension of all Logitech Revue components from its supplier, Gigabyte Technology. The Revue is Logitech's set-top box that turns any TV into a Google TV.

While Logitech isn't commenting on the product suspension, rumors are now circulating that it's because of Google's intervening.

After the Revue, as well as Sony's Google TV-enabled Internet TV, received mediocre reviews and lackluster sales, Google appears to want to go back to the drawing board. Next month's CES was supposed to be a grand celebration of the new television platform, but now Google TV will be notably absent.

TV companies like Toshiba and LG will have to make last-minute changes to their CES lineup, at the request of Google.

Digitimes reports that Logitech has only requested a suspension of its component sales until later in January. What Google could possibly hope to accomplish in just one month is anyone's guess.

CIA launches W.T.F. (WikiLeaks Task Force)

Washington Post: The CIA has launched a task force to assess the impact of the exposure of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables and military files by WikiLeaks.

Officially, the panel is called the WikiLeaks Task Force. But at CIA headquarters, it's mainly known by its all-too-apt acronym: W.T.F.

The irreverence is perhaps understandable for an agency that has been relatively unscathed by WikiLeaks. Only a handful of CIA files have surfaced on the WikiLeaks Web site, and records from other agencies posted online reveal remarkably little about CIA employees or operations.

Even so, CIA officials said the agency is conducting an extensive inventory of the classified information, which is routinely distributed on a dozen or more networks that connect agency employees around the world.

And the task force is focused on the immediate impact of the most recently released files. One issue is whether the agency's ability to recruit informants could be damaged by declining confidence in the U.S. government's ability to keep secrets.

"The director asked the task force to examine whether the latest release of WikiLeaks documents might affect the agency's foreign relationships or operations," CIA spokesman George Little said. The panel is being led by the CIA's Counterintelligence Center but has more than two dozen members from departments across the agency.

To some agency veterans, WikiLeaks has vindicated the CIA's long-standing aversion to sharing secrets with other government agencies, a posture that came under sharp criticism after it was identified as a factor that contributed to the nation's failure to prevent the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Even while moving to share more information over the past decade, the agency "has not capitulated to this business of making everything available to outsiders," said a former high-ranking CIA official who recently retired. "They don't even make everything available to insiders. And by and large the system has worked."

CIA veterans said most of the agency's international correspondence is classified at the "Secret" level, same as the records that ended up online. But the agency has always insisted on using its own systems.

As recently as two years ago, the agency rejected a request to make more of its intelligence reports available on the SIPRNET, the classified network used by the Pentagon to pass information around the world.

"We simply said we weren't going to do it," another former CIA official said. "The consensus was there were simply too many people potentially who had access."

The former officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss agency security measures.

Among those people with access to SIPRNET was a low-level U.S. Army intelligence analyst, Bradley E. Manning, who has been charged with disclosing classified information and is suspected of using a simple thumb drive to steal the files that were sent to WikiLeaks.

The CIA has had its own computer scandals. Security clearances for former CIA director John Deutch were suspended in the late 1990s after he was accused of keeping classified information on his computer at home.

Officials said the agency has also had internal difficulty keeping track of laptops that are sent to overseas stations, as well as sensitive information shared with thousands of contractors that the CIA has hired as part of a build-up over the past 10 years.

The agency employs software measures to minimize the chance of a WikiLeaks-like leak. Agency systems send warnings to administrators whenever a large amount of data is downloaded. And most of the CIA's computers are not equipped to allow the use of a removable drive.

Asked what might happen if he had inserted a thumb drive into the machine at his desk, the former senior CIA official quipped: "There would probably be a little trap door under my chair."

Even so, CIA security experts have fretted for years about the implications of moving secret information from pieces of paper to digital files that can be distributed online.

"It's just a huge vulnerability," the former high-ranking CIA officer said. "Nobody could carry out enough paper to do what WikiLeaks has done."

Issues with the recent update for Outlook 2007

MSDN Blog: On Tuesday, December 14, we released an update (KB2412171) for Microsoft Outlook 2007. We have discovered several issues with the update and want to inform you about problems you might encounter and what corrective steps we recommend. As of December 16, this Outlook 2007 update has been removed from Microsoft Update.

This Outlook 2007 update was distributed via Microsoft Update. Many of you receive updates automatically and if you installed the update between Tuesday, December 14, and Thursday, December 16, it is likely that you are affected.

The three issues identified in the December 2010 update for Outlook 2007 are as follows:

1. Outlook fails to connect if Secure Password Authentication (SPA) is configured for an account and the mail server does not support SPA. This is important for Google Gmail users because Gmail does not support SPA. Outlook customers using Gmail who have the SPA option turned on cannot connect to Gmail.
2. Noticeable performance issues are experienced when switching between folders if you do not have a Microsoft Exchange Server account configured in Outlook. Switching folders might take several seconds depending on the performance of your computer. This issue only applies when you use an IMAP, POP3, or Outlook Live Connector account, such as Windows Live Hotmail, and do not have an Exchange Server account configured in the same Outlook profile. To determine if you are using an Exchange Server account, see the help article What is an Exchange account?
3. AutoArchive cannot be configured for IMAP, POP3, or Outlook Live Connector accounts if there is no Exchange Server account configured in the same Outlook profile. If you previously configured AutoArchive, no additional items are archived.

If you are experiencing any of the listed issues with Outlook 2007, we recommend that you uninstall the December 2010 update by doing the following:

Uninstalling KB2412171 on Windows 7 or Windows Vista

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Programs, and then under Programs and Features, click View installed updates.
3. Click the entry for KB2412171, and then click Uninstall.

Uninstalling KB2412171 on Windows XP

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Add or Remove Programs, and then make sure that the Show Updates check box is selected.
3. Click the entry for KB2412171, and then click Remove.

Note for Office 365 Beta customers: You do not need to uninstall this update. The listed folder switching and AutoArchive issues do not apply because Office 365 accounts are Exchange Server accounts. However, the issue with SPA when connecting to non-Exchange Server accounts that don’t support SPA does apply. In this case, turn off the SPA option by doing the following:

1. In Outlook, on Tools menu, click Account Settings.
2. Select your account, and then click Change.
3. Clear the Require logon using Secure Password Authentication (SPA) check box.

We apologize to our customers for not discovering these issues before releasing the update and for any inconvenience we have caused. We know that you rely on Outlook and for that reason, we thoroughly quality test every update. We failed to meet our own and our customers’ expectation for quality with this update release. We are working to fix these issues and will post a release date for those fixes, and link to download them, as soon as that information is available.

We value the trust that you place in our software, and we are actively working to resolve these issues.

Sincerely,

The Outlook Team

Your own email @facebook.com? Beware Facebook survey scam

Thousands of Facebook users have been hit by a scam which claims to give them early access to a facebook.com email address.

Messages, appearing in the news feed of users who have fallen for the scam, read:

Just got my own email @facebook.com! Quickly get one before someone takes your name [LINK]

However, clicking on the links leads you to a webpage which tricks you into giving a third party application permission to post to your Facebook wall.

Don't, whatever you do, allow the app to have permission to access your profile. Because then it will start to spread the messages even further, starting with your online Facebook friends.

You won't realize it's doing that, of course, until it's too late - as you're too distracted by the form asking you for your email details.. oh, and the revenue-generating online survey that the scammers have put up in the front of it..

Note, these scam messages are not connected with Facebook's genuine plans to give everyone a @facebook.com public email address. Facebook expects to roll out that service more widely in the coming months, and will use your "publicusername" when live.

New hacked site notifications in search results

Today we’ve added a new notification to our search results that helps people know when a site may have been hacked. We’ve provided notices for malware for years, which also involve a separate warning page. Now we’re expanding the search results notifications to help people avoid sites that may have been compromised and altered by a third party, typically for spam. When a user visits a site, we want her to be confident the information on that site comes from the original publisher.
Here’s what the notification looks like:

Clicking the “This site may be compromised” link brings you to an article in our Help Center which explains more about the notice. Meanwhile, clicking the result itself brings you to the target website, as expected.

We use a variety of automated tools to detect common signs of a hacked site as quickly as possible. When we detect something suspicious, we’ll add the notification to our search results. We’ll also do our best to contact the site’s webmaster via their Webmaster Tools account and any contact email addresses we can find on the webpage. We hope webmasters will also appreciate these notices, because it will help you more quickly discover when someone may be abusing your site so you can correct the problem.

Of course, we also understand that webmasters may be concerned that these notices are impacting their traffic from search. Rest assured, once the problem has been fixed, the warning label will be automatically removed from our search results, usually in a matter of days. You can also request a review of your site to accelerate removal of the notice.

If you see this notification appearing on your site’s listing, please take a look at the instructions in our Help Center to learn how you can begin to address the problem. Together, we can make the web a safer place.

Posted by Gideon Wald, Associate Product Manager

Are you ready for Opera 11?

Newest Opera browser features tab stacking, extensions, visual mouse gestures

Oslo, Norway — December 16, 2010

Opera Software debuted the newest version of its award-winning browser today. Opera 11 combines elegant design, smart updates to some of our most popular features and new ways to customize Opera to your preferences. Download it today for Windows, Mac and Linux computers from http://www.opera.com/.

What’s new

Tab stacking

Tab stacking is a better way to organize your open tabs. Simply drag one tab on top of another to create a stack. Here is a short video to introduce tab stacking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hqSGGk1YTI

Extensions

Extensions help you personalize your browser and enhance what Opera can do. More than two million extensions have already been downloaded from https://addons.opera.com/. Try the top five most-downloaded extensions for yourself:

1. NoAds authored by Lex1. The top ad-blocking extension for Opera.
2. LastPass authored by lastpass. LastPass is a free password manager and form filler.
3. FastestTube - YouTube Video Downloader authored by fastesttube. Download any video from YouTube.
4. Image preview authored by whochan. Displays a pop-up preview of an image.
5. Translate authored by neilj. Automagically translates foreign-language webpages.

Visual mouse gestures

With the flick of your wrist, mouse gestures let you navigate back and forwards, open new pages, close tabs and so much more. In Opera 11, you now have a handy visual guide to the wonders of mouse gestures.

Safer address field

We changed the address bar, so you can make better sense of the security levels of the sites you visit. Opera 11 now displays a clear badge indicating the security level and allowing immediate, one-click access to security and trust information about the site.

What we say

“We have always worked hard to introduce new and bold ideas in web browsing,” said Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder, Opera. “But, sometimes we want to take an idea and improve upon it. Opera 11 adds a layer of polish to features people have known and loved for more than a decade, while introducing extensions. If you have never tried Opera before, Opera 11 will change everything you know about browsing.”

The rule of 30

• Opera 11 is 30 percent smaller than Opera 10.60, so it downloads even faster
• Plug-ins can be set to load on-demand. This can improve performance of the browser up to 30 percent.

More resources

• Download: http://www.opera.com/
• Reviewer’s Guide: http://www.opera.com/press/reviews/
• Opera features: http://www.opera.com/browser/features/
• Opera 11 video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7jC1j9Is6o
• Opera 11 media kit: http://www.opera.com/media/presskit/Opera11.zip
• Developer documentation: http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/opera-extensions-quick-documentation-overview/

About Opera Software ASA

Opera Software ASA has redefined web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera’s cross-platform web-browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at http://www.opera.com/.

Find Opera on the Web

• Follow us on Twitter
• Help us share Opera with the world
• Become an Opera fan on Facebook
• Watch our videos on YouTube

Don’t Lie to Me, Angelina!

Earlier this year I received a Facebook invite in my Yahoo! Mail account from none other than Angelina Jolie herself. I kid you not.

While it’s true that we live in the Digital Age where communicating with anyone is a mere tap of a finger away—whether it’s via email, IM, Facebook, Twitter, etc.—the chances that Ms. Jolie would randomly reach out to a regular Joe, such as myself, is still pretty darn improbable. So, the following questions raced through my mind:

1. What in Brad’s name would compel Angelina to friend me?
2. Did my mom put me up for adoption? (Can she even do that at my age?!?)
3. Why did the invite end up in my spam folder?

This last question is especially relevant for my role here at Yahoo! Mail, where I am part of the anti-spam team. Our mission is to ensure that wanted messages get to the inbox and insidious ones remain out of sight.

After suspending my disbelief for a second, I realized that the invite was a well-crafted forgery. It even spoofed Facebook’s mailing domain, facebookmail.com, to make it seem authentic (email was sent from an IP address in Poland). My trained eye saw through the deception, even though my strained ego wanted to believe it.

Spammers send such spoofed messages by the millions every day, and try to lure recipients into clicking nefarious links in the message by dangling compelling, socially-engineered bait. Perhaps the link leads to a phishing page designed to steal log-in credentials, or a site that sells prescription drugs for cheap. Worse, it may point to a file that silently installs malicious software that logs every key stroke and silently sends it off to some evil mastermind.

The point is, any link found in spam leads to no good. That’s why I didn’t click on any links in that invite; I just deleted the email. You should do the same when you receive a suspicious or unsolicited message—especially if you find it in your spam folder.

In an upcoming sequel to this post, I’ll provide more details on how our anti-spam team is leveraging anti-forgery technologies, such as DKIM and SPF, to step up the fight against such spoofed and phishing emails.

Stay tuned.

Source: Yahoo! Mail Blog

17 Security Updates on MS Patchday

As announced Friday last week, Microsoft delivers 17 security updates on the December 2010 Patchday. The Updates close 2 highly critical security holes which allow for remote code execution and several privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow attackers to gain administrative rights on Windows PCs. Overall, the 17 Updates deal with 40 vulnerabilities.

Affected are the Windows operating Systems, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office, SharePoint and Exchange. Users and administrators should apply the patches as soon as possible!

LastPass Acquires Xmarks!

In our efforts to bring you expanded, go-anywhere access to your data, we're happy to announce that LastPass recently acquired Xmarks!

Xmarks is a popular browser add-on that syncs bookmarks across all of your computers and smartphones. Just like LastPass, Xmarks can be installed for free on your browsers to give you easy access to your bookmarked sites.
Xmarks now also offers a Premium version

with bookmark support on your iPhone and Android, as well as advanced features and priority support. Sign up now to take advantage of the special discount with a dual-Premium subscription.

We're excited to welcome Xmarks to the LastPass family, and hope you will support both of these great services!

Thanks,
The LastPass Team

Plenty of Updates announced

Avira TechBlog: Next Tuesday is going to be tough for administrators: The Redmond company announces 17 security bulletins which are supposed to fix 40 security vulnerabilities. Only two of the bulletins deal with “high”ly critical rated security holes within Windows and the Internet Explorer. The rest of the updates fixes the Windows operating systems, Microsoft’s Office, SharePoint and Exchange.

QuickTime 7.6.9 update resolves 15 vulnerabilities

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).

Strangely if you go to Apple's download page, as you can see in the image above, the iTunes bundle will still install an outdated version of QuickTime. The best method for updating QuickTime for OS X Leopard (10.5) computers is to click the fruit logo in the upper-left corner and choose Software Update. Windows users can choose Apple Software Update from the Start menu, or launch QuickTime and check for updates under the Help menu.

So if you run Windows or Leopard and install the updates you are now protected against these new flaws... What about Snow Leopard? Mum's the word so far, as QuickTime is integrated into OS X Snow Leopard and is not a separate component. I checked the last OS update from Apple and these CVEs are not patched, which leads me to believe Snow Leopard users are at risk from these flaws for now. Theoretically these CVEs could impact iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch users too, as QuickTime is a central piece of Apple's multimedia strategy.

If you are a Snow Leopard user, be cautious of AVIs, JPGs, MPG/MPEGs, MOVs and other content types of dubious origin. Unfortunately, this further demonstrates Apple's scattered security strategy: unannounced random updates for random platforms that leave windows of opportunity for those intent on compromising their devices. Everyone else should patch as soon as possible.

Dutch police website attacked after arrest of suspected hacker

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.

Janus didn't confirm that the downtime of the websites was definitely connected with the ongoing attacks by WikiLeaks supporters, but you would be a brave man to bet otherwise as sheer coincidence seems highly unlikely.

Members of the public, sympathetic with the actions of the controversial WikiLeaks whistle-blowing website, have been downloading a DDoS attack tool called LOIC, turning their home computers into an attack tool against websites in AnonOps' bad books.

Remember folks - if you assist in a denial-of-service attack you could be looking at a lengthy jail sentence.

The unnamed teenager, who is said to have confessed to playing a part in the attacks against the PayPal and MasterCard websites, is due to appear in a court in Rotterdam today.

Christina Aguilera blames hacker for risqué leaked photos

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.

It wouldn't be a surprise if the private photos of Christina Aguilera parading around her huge walk-in wardrobe were also abused in this way by malicious hackers. With Aguilera's new movie "Burlesque" making the headlines the number of people searching for information about her is only likely to increase.

What's most interesting to us, though, is that the photographs appear to have not been intentionally leaked to promote her new movie role, but instead the computer of Aguilera's personal stylist was broken into by a malicious hacker:

"The photos of Christina Aguilera being leaked to the press were illegally obtained by a hacker who tapped into Christina's personal stylist's account. The photos were taken in the privacy of Ms. Aguilera's home and were used only in a personal exchange between the star and her stylist."

Hey, it makes a change from blaming WikiLeaks I guess..

There seem to have been a stream of celebrities who have had their computers (or those belonging to close associates) broken into of late. Earlier this month we spoke about how German authorities believe they have caught two hackers thought to have broken into the computers of over 50 pop stars, including Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson and Justin Timberlake.

Interestingly, it is now being reported that one of the hackers - named only as Deniz A or "DJ Stolen", has written a letter to Lady GaGa apologising for his actions:

Dear Lady Gaga,
I am ashamed of what I have done. I did not think about the consequences. I never thought it would go so far

Burkhard Benecken, Deniz A's lawyer, says that his client "felt like he was in a movie", telling AFP that "It is almost unbelievable that such a boy could hack into the accounts of superstars.. He knows he made a mistake."

18-year-old Deniz A is suspected with his alleged 23-year-old accomplice Christian M of using a Trojan horse to break into computers, stealing music and reportedly attempting to blackmail one star over a "sexually compromising" photograph they had stumbled across.

Whether you're an A-list celebrity, a flunky hanger-on in a star's entourage, or just a regular member of the public, it would be wise to take computer security seriously.

Google Maps for Android to Add 3D and Offline Support

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.

Perhaps the coolest addition to the app is its ability to work in offline mode — a boon to those in shoddy service areas or underground on the subway.

Said mode caches areas that users visit frequently. According to Gizmodo, this process is pretty comprehensive: “A quick demo we saw impressed us with how the vast majority of New York City stayed in memory…. Google says that this should compensate for 90% of the times the app currently fails when the connection is bad — in Navigation, it’ll even re-route you if you miss a turn in an area where the signal drops,” Gizmodo says.

The app is not yet available, but will require Android 1.6 (Donut) or higher when it is (although more advanced features won’t work on older devices running early versions of the Android OS).

Google Launches Tool to Get Companies to Back Up Their E-mails With Gmail

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.

The hope is that when a company’s e-mail servers go down, it will be able to boot up Google’s cloud-based solution and continue its work without interruption. Google and Exchange are constantly synced to make sure Message Continuity is up-to-date. And because it’s cloud-based, the only way it goes down is if Google goes down.

It’s also a not-so-sneaky attempt by the search giant to get enterprises to switch from Outlook to Gmail. “Since Microsoft Exchange and Gmail are always in sync with one another, there’s no need to migrate e-mail data when eventually deploying Google Apps,” the company said in its blog post.

Google acquired Postini in 2007 for $625 million for its cloud-based e-mail technology. It’s the basis for some of Google’s cloud security features.

Who’s Using Twitter?

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.

One-quarter of Twitter users check the service multiple times per day to see others’ tweets, while one in five never look for new updates. Here are some select statistics about the actual tweets that are going out there:

• 72% of Twitter users say they post updates about their personal life, activities or interests.
• 62% post work-related updates.
• 55% use Twitter to share links to news stories.
• 53% use the service to retweet others’ material.
• 40% use the service to share photos with others, while 28% use it to share videos.
• 24% tweet their location.

The report was compiled as a result of multiple surveys: Data on overall Twitter usage and demographics is from the Pew Internet Project’s November 2010 tracking survey. Information on how often people use Twitter, as well as the topics they post about, were from two October 2010 surveys.

According to the center, this is the first time it has conducted research that focuses solely on Twitter users. This is because Pew typically looks into general online activities, as opposed to particular brands. So in most instances, the center’s research has involved asking Internet users if they “used Twitter or another service to share updates about yourself or to see updates about others?”

In August 2008, 6% of Internet users answered “yes.” By September 2010, the number had changed to 24% — but some analysts and readers assumed this pertained to Twitter users alone. This is what led researchers to decide that Twitter usage was worthy of being examined on its own. As we enter 2011, it will be interesting to see if Twitter remains an entity worth studying in an extensive manner.

Google: We're activating 300,000 Android phones daily

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.

Such a milestone shouldn't come as too much of a surprise: analysts have been expecting this to happen for quite awhile now. However, the speed at which it has happened -- a fivefold increase in just the last year alone -- likely gives its competitors some pause, if not cause for concern.

Surveys show that Android is now comprising about half of all smartphone sales in the US in the third quarter, and comScore found that the OS had nearly 15 percent of the worldwide market in October.

Apple may have one last salvo to fire against Android that could slow down its plans for taking over the top spot. First, it is believed that AT&T's exclusivity on the iPhone expires in 2011, which could lead to a significant increase in sales. Add to this the release of the fifth-generation iPhone, and Cupertino might be able to stunt Android's growth, however briefly.

MySpace Introduces “Hijacks” With the Black Eyed Peas

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.

Next week, Jack Black will take over with his own hijack for three days, shortly before his next film, Gulliver’s Travels, hits theaters. More as-yet-unannounced celebrities and musicians will be participating in the program in 2011.

MySpace SVP Sam Wick says Hijack is designed to use the “power of celebrities” — especially global ones — to introduce the social network’s audience to a deeper content experience. He views it as a chance for users to check out the site’s new content hubs and topic pages.

“The way we think about it is, in essence, as the virtual equivalent of Saturday Night Live,” Wick says, pointing out that celebrities typically do such programs in order to promote a project. “But it’s really a personification of who they are — and we look at it in the same way. So the artist is really deeply involved in the programming aspects of Hijack itself.”

The program’s being promoted both on MySpace and off — for instance, anyone visiting the Black Eyed Peas Facebook Page will view a tab informing them about Hijack. Wick says a number of celebrities, like Chris Brown, have tweeted out information as well.

Hijack has launched just a little more than a month after MySpace first announced plans for a completely overhauled design, with the intention of being “the leading entertainment destination that is socially powered by the passions of fans and curators.”

Twitter Celebrates 100 Million New Accounts in 2010

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.

The resulting infographic is a small slice of Twitter’s class of 2010, but it represents the growing diversity and popularity of the still-young platform.

Around the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, many folks were discouraged by the apparent flatline in Twitter’s growth stats. But even as Twitter.com saw less meteoric traffic growth, the number of tweets sent each month were still on the rise.

What quickly realized is that Twitter, by releasing a slew of official mobile apps, affected significant growth in mobile traffic andsignups. In fact, this past September, Twitter co-founder Ev Williams said that since the mobile rollout began four months earlier, the company had seen a 62% spike in mobile usage of the service. At that time, he also said around 16% of all new accounts were created from a mobile device.

Who were your favorite new Twitter account holders from the past year? In the comments, tell us how you have seen Twitter’s membership grow or change in 2010.

Click here to see full infographic

Facebook Announces First Hacker Cup

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.

Registration opens on December 20 and the 72-hour qualification round will start on January 7, 2011.

This round will consist of three problems. Only the competitors that can correctly solve at least one problem will advance to the first online round.

The first online round will consist of three sub-rounds that each last three hours. The top-scoring 1,000 participants from each of these sub-rounds will advance the the second online round.

The 25 competitors who score the highest in the second online round will advance to the finals, which will be held at Facebook’s campus in Palo Alto. Facebook will fly the 25 participants in and pay for their expenses.

At the in-person final round, a winner will be crowned and not only given the title of “world champion,” but also $5,000 in cash.

If you want to brush up on your skills before the competition starts, you can visit Facebook’s puzzles page.

Firefox and Thunderbird updates are available, security and performance improvement

Firefox

Firefox 3.6.13 and Firefox 3.5.16 are now available as free downloads for Windows, Mac, and Linux from http://firefox.com. As always, we recommend that users keep up to date with the latest stability and support versions of Firefox, and encourage all our users to upgrade to the very latest version, Firefox 3.6.13.

Firefox 3.6.13: http://firefox.com
Firefox 3.5.16: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/all-older.html

We strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to these latest releases. If you already have Firefox, you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. This updates can also be applied manually by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu.

For a complete list of changes and more information, please review the Firefox release notes:

• Firefox 3.6.13 release notes
• Firefox 3.5.16 release notes

Note: All Firefox 3 and 3.5 users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to Firefox 3.6 by downloading it fromhttp://firefox.com or by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu and clicking on “Get the New Version”, then checking for updates again once Firefox 3.6 is installed.

 

Thunderbird

Thunderbird 3.1.7 and Thunderbird 3.0.11 updates are now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux for free download from www.GetThunderbird.com. These releases fix several problems with large email folders stored on the user’s computer as well as several fixes to improve performance, stability and security.

Thunderbird 3.0.11 is the last security and stability update for Thunderbird 3.0.x. Thunderbird 3.0.x users will be prompted and encouraged to start using Thunderbird 3.1 starting early next year.

• Thunderbird 3.1.7: http://getthunderbird.com/
• Thunderbird 3.0.11: http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/all-older.html

We strongly recommend that all Thunderbird users upgrade to these releases. If you already have Thunderbird 3.1 or 3.0, you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. You can also manually fetch this update by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu.

For a list of changes and more information, please review the Thunderbird release notes:

• Thunderbird 3.1.7 release notes
• Thunderbird 3.0.11 release notes

Adobe Reader and Google Chrome

The latest release of Google Chrome includes the Chrome PDF Viewer which won’t properly display some PDF files like Dynamic Forms and PDF Portfolios. While Google Chrome is not a supported browser, the Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape 10.0.0 does actually work with Chrome on Windows.

If you want to display your PDF files in Chrome using the Adobe Reader, you can easily disable the native viewer. Just type “about:plugins” in address bar and then disable the Chrome PDF Viewer. You don’t even need to restart.

Photoshop CS5 update (12.0.2) now available

Adobe: The Adobe Photoshop 12.0.2 update (Mac|Win) speeds up painting performance and fixes a number of problems discovered after Photoshop CS5 was released.  The most significant fixes in the update include the following:

• A number of potential security vulnerabilities have been addressed
• Crashing bugs related to typography & fonts have been addressed
• Performance of various features has been improved
• Crashes related to opening 3D layers, sharpening, color management, and scanning via TWAIN devices have been fixed
• Problems with brush cursors, the histogram progress bar, the display of selection boundaries (“marching ants”), scrolling while using the shift key, and the use of action droplets have been addressed
• Intermittent file format problems have been addressed
• Metadata-related bugs related to focus distance and Orphea Studio JPEGs have been fixed

In addition you can download a TWAIN plug-in update that includes fixes for multiple document scanning, and a that fixes a crash that could occur when attempting a second scan.

Google Officially Unveils Chrome Web Store

Google officially unveiled the long-anticipated Chrome Web Store at its big Chrome event today.

Think of the Web Store as the App Store, but for the Chrome browser. The apps work both in the Chrome web browser and in Google’s upcoming Chrome OS.

Google showcased some of the apps that will be available in the Web Store from companies like NPR, The New York Times, EA and Amazon.com.

Google will be rolling out the Chrome Web Store to Chrome users later today and it will be accessible via https://chrome.google.com/webstore.

Google Chrome Has 120 Million Users

Google revealed during its Chrome press conference today that its web browser now has 120 million users. That’s 50 million more users than it had less than seven months ago.

Chrome is Google’s webkit-based web browser. Launched in September 2008, the browser has gone from zero market share to nearly 10% market share. It’s known for its lightweight design and fast JavaScript rendering.

How fast is Google’s web browser growing, though? At its developer conference in May, Google announced that Chrome had 70 million users. That means the browser has increased its user base by around 40% in six and a half months. That’s some serious growth.

In comparison, Firefox — currently the second most popular browser in the world — surpassed 1 billion downloads last year. There’s a big difference between users and downloads, but it gives a reference point for Chrome’s growth in the past two years.

Microsoft’s Still Not Talking About Windows Phone 7 Sales Numbers

Mashable: Windows Phone 7 has been on the market for a little more than a month, but the company still isn’t disclosing how many devices featuring its revamped mobile OS have been sold.

Pressed on the issue by The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg at All Things Digital’s D: Dive Into Mobile conference on Tuesday, Microsoft Corporate VP for Windows Phone Joe Belfiore would say only that “It’s just too soon to talk about numbers,” though he admitted it will likely take years before Microsoft is near the top of the mobile market share discussion.

The issue with that response, of course, is that a variety of reports have pegged Windows Phone 7 sales as lackluster thus far, while competitors Apple and Google continue to trot out big numbers about the growth of iOS and Android, respectively. The silence, as they say, could certainly be perceived as deafening in this case.

Moving on, Belfiore looked to differentiate Windows Phone 7 from its competitors and offer his view on the unique value it offers to consumers. Notably, he said the OS focuses on making “common tasks … with high volume,” like social networking, web browsing and e-mail, more elegant. He also pointed to a photo button that lets users take pictures even when their phone is locked and Windows Phone 7’s “Live Tiles” feature as compelling differentiators.

As for current shortcomings – like the lack of multitasking and copy/paste – Belfiore indicated that the latter is coming in the first quarter of 2011, and that for the former, users can already run features like e-mail, web browsing and music in the background (with support for third-party apps on the way).

In short, it’s clear that Microsoft is still very much playing catchup in the smartphone space, though the company does have a strategy — that’s apparent in its current ad campaign — for luring customers in the short-term. Without disclosing numbers, however, it’s going to be challenging for the company to convince both investors and consumers that Windows Phone 7 is truly catching on and is a viable alternative to other platforms.

Celebrities’ Internet “Deaths” Raise $1M for Charity

Mashable: Facebook and the Twitterverse have been a little quieter for the past several days, as some of the networks’ most famous users — including Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Usher and Alicia Keys — signed off in the name of charity beginning on Worlds AIDS Day, December 1.

The group of celebrities had asked fans to donate to Keys’s Keep a Child Alive organization to revive their Internet presences. But by Monday — six days later — they were only halfway to $1 million and itching to get back on Twitter and Facebook. In fact, Usher, “revived” his Twitter presence before the campaign had technically ended. Apparently, the celebrities were more than a little let down by their followers.

So the celebs convinced Stewart Rahr, a Brooklyn-based billionaire pharmaceutical exec, to donate the remaining $500,000. The donation brought the celebs back from their “digital deaths,” and they wasted no time getting back to their millions of fans and followers.

New York Post: Frustrated celebs get back on Twitter thanks to donation from Stewart Rahr

Google announces Chrome OS hardware and first pilot program

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.

The project has come to the point where it can start to be tested in the real world, and Google today announced some crucial details about who will be making Chrome notebook computers, when the public can expect them, and how they'll ultimately work.

First, of course, comes the pilot program, which will test the viability of a "Web only" computer among both enterprises and individuals. Already, businesses such as American Airlines, Appiro, Cardinal Health, Kraft, Logitech, Virgin USA, and even the Department of Defense have contacted Google to be included in the pilot. Individual users, however, can apply to test out Chrome OS on the reference hardware athttp://www.google.com/chromeos/pilot-program.html.

What will testers be handling? An unbranded notebook computer called the Cr-48.

It's got a 12.1" display, full sized keyboard, oversized touchpad, World Mode 3G connectivity via the Qualcomm Gobi chipset, 802.11n dual-band Wi-Fi, an 8+ hour active battery life with an estimated 8+ hours of standby, a built-in webcam, no spinning hard drives, and a built-in "jailbreaking mode." Google today announced Acer and Samsung as OEM partners, and they will be releasing Chrome OS notebooks in mid-2011. They're all powered by Intel chips, so there's no ARM-based instruction sets here. Unfortunately, the exact chip family and power ratings weren't disclosed today.

 Sundar Pichai, Vice President of Google Chrome Product Management holds one of the notebooks used in the pilot program.

One of the most interesting parts of the Chrome OS notebook will be its focus on connectivity...FREE connectivity. Google has partnered with Verizon Wireless to offer Chrome notebook users special no-contract data plans. The Verizon Wireless Chrome OS data plan will have 100MB of free data per month per user. Daily unlimited data passes will go for $9.99 per day, and other plans will be sold 1GB at a time.

The pilot program will go for about half a year, at which point the first generally-available models will go up for sale. Other OEM partners are expected to be announced in the coming months.

Internet Explorer 9 will feature "do not track" functionality

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.

This blacklist starts out empty, and the user has to populate it with addresses he doesn't want to share information with. Conversely, users will also be able to assemble whitelists of sites that are trusted and free to access browser data.

"We designed this functionality as a good start to enable consumer choice and protection from potential tracking," Dean Hachamovitch Corporate Vice President of Internet Explorer said today. "We provide a tool in the browser, and consumers choose how to use it. As with everything on the web, we expect it to evolve over time especially as the broader privacy dialog continues. We're communicating about it now as part of our transparency in the software development process."

The Google Cr-48 Chrome OS Notebook Is All About the Web

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.

Not much is known about the hardware driving Google’s new machine, but here is what we do know:

• 12-inch LCD display
• Built-in Wi-Fi and 3G (service provided by Verizon Wireless)
• Full-sized keyboard with no caps-lock or function keys
• Oversized clickable touchpad
• Weighs in at 3.8 pounds
• Solid state hard drive — capacity unknown
• Eight hours of active usage with a week of standby power

The Cr-48 Chrome Notebook might not be the most powerful computing device, but that’s not the point. The device is intended for consumption, not raw processing power. Whether it performs as a consumption device remains to be seen, but if Google gets this right, Chrome OS notebooks could put a serious hurt on devices like the MacBook Air.

Spam Carrying WikiLeaks Worm

Symantec Connect: WikiLeaks.org is in the news after their recent publications linked to leaked government documents. Spammers are now leveraging the current level of interest with social engineering techniques to infect users’ computers. Symantec is observing a wave of spam spoofing WikiLeaks to lure users into becoming infected with a new threat.

The spam email has subject line “IRAN Nuclear BOMB!” and spoofed headers. The “From” header purports to originate from WikiLeaks.org, although this is not in fact the case, and the message body contains a URL. This URL downloads and runs WikiLeaks.jar which has a downloader ‘WikiLeaks.class’ file. The downloader pulls the threat from http://ugo.file[removed].com/226.exe. Symantec detects this threat as W32.Spyrat.

Below is screenshot of the email and website that downloads the threat:

W32.Spyrat opens a backdoor using a predetermined port and IP address, allowing an attacker to perform the following actions on the compromised computer:

• Read, write, and execute files
• Steal stored passwords
• Issue commands
• Activate and view a webcam, if present
• Log keystrokes
• Create an HTTP proxy to route traffic through the compromised computer

We caution users not to open or click on the links or attachments of emails such as these. Symantec recommends having anti-spam and antivirus solutions installed and up to date to prevent the compromise of personal machines or networks. We are closely monitoring this threat and update our readers.

Taking a look at fake Amazon receipt generators

Sunbelt Blog:

Above, you can see a vaguely optimistic VirusTotal user summary in relation to a file that’s been doing the rounds for about a month or two. Here is the file in question:

A “receipt generator”, I hear you ask – what do people want with one of those?
The answer, of course, is rather straightforward:

This is a particularly interesting scam, as it doesn’t target regular PC users – it targets the people who sell you things, such as the merchants on the Amazon marketplace. This is what the would-be social engineer sees when they fire up the program:

They can fill in a variety of information, including Item name, Price and the date the order was taken. Additionally, it allows them to choose between the .com, .co.uk, .fr and .ca Amazon portals. When they hit “Generate”, a html file is created in the program folder which looks like this:

It’s a pretty good facsimile of a genuine Amazon receipt – I just logged into my Amazon account, hit the “Printable Order Summary” button on an old order and it’s identical to the above. Note the small details, such as “Total before tax”, “Sales tax” and other touches that make it as convincing as possible.
What happens once our scammer is armed with his fake receipt? Well, many sellers on Amazon will ask you to send them a copy of your receipt should you run into trouble, have orders go missing, lose your license key for a piece of software and so on. The gag here is that the scammer is relying on the seller not checking the details and accepting the printout at face value. After all, how many sellers would be aware somebody went to the trouble of creating a fake receipt generator in the first place?
Some things to note for the wary seller: not only will you not have a record of these people buying your products, you should be able to confirm with Amazon that no purchase was ever made. Check the orange order number at the top, because those are randomly selected from a set of looping numbers every time the scammer clicks on the “Order Number” button – again, something either the seller or Amazon should be able to check. Finally, the program seems to add some random digits on the “Visa: payment method” section in payment information.
As you can see, the careful seller has little to worry about – many of the items in the fake printout are convincing as a whole, but once you start digging into the details a little bit it quickly falls apart. However, it seems this program has started a little wave of imitations, as evidenced by this screenshot lifted from a (now defunct) downloads portal:

Oh dear.
Anyway, it’s clear that sellers will need to keep their wits about them over the coming festive season as I can see this being a particularly popular scam for the time being. If a “customer” seems a little peculiar, ensure you take a good look at their receipt – you probably don’t want to have a Homer Simpson moment after you’ve sent three Playstations to their dropoff address.

We’ve passed the files onto Amazon, and the VirusTotal detection rate is currently 1/42 – VIPER detect this as Hacktool.Win32.Amagen.A.