No More Offline Gmail in Google Chrome

Google Operation System Blog wrote:

Chrome 12, the upcoming version of Google's browser which is likely to be released today, removes a useful feature: the built-in Gears plugin. While most Google services dropped support for Gears and removed offline access, Gears is still being used in Gmail. Google no longer maintains Gears, which is now legacy software, and focuses on implementing offline support using HTML5.

Read the whole story in: Google Operation System Blog

Facebook: Keeping You Safe from Scams and Spam

Facebook Security: Facebook is committed to bringing you a safe experience on the Internet, and today we are announcing several new features to help protect you while online.

Partnership with Web of Trust

First, we're happy to announce a partnership with Web of Trust
. Web of Trust is a free safe surfing tool that tells you which websites you can trust based on the ratings supplied by other Web of Trust community members. Facebook already has a system that automatically scans links to determine whether the websites associated with those links are spammy or contain malware.

This partnership will help us improve our system by providing additional bad links, and in the coming months, we expect to massively increase our coverage even more by working with other industry leaders. You can become a part of this commmunity too by using the Web of Trust add-on, and leaving your own ratings.


Clickjacking protection

Spammers sometimes take advantage of a vulnerability in the web browser to try to trick people into clicking on links they might not want to click on. This is called clickjacking, and it’s done by overlaying the link with something more enticing, like a phony offer.

We have built defenses to detect clickjacking of the Facebook Like button and to block links to known clickjacking pages. Recently, we improved our systems to also alert people if we think they’re being tricked. Now, when we detect something suspicious, we’ll ask you to confirm your like before posting a story to your profile and your friends’ News Feeds.

If you have already clicked on a link resulting in an addition to your "Likes and Interests" section of your profile, you can edit your "Likes and Interests" field by clicking "Edit My Profile" underneath your profile picture. Then, select "Likes and Interests" from the left column menu.


Self-XSS Protection

Spammers take advantage of another browser weakness by asking people to copy and paste malicious code into their address bar, which then causes the browser to take actions on those people’s behalf, including posting status updates with phony links and sending spam messages to all friends.

We have been working hard to improve our systems that detect and block these types of attacks, as well as to educate people on what is causing their accounts to send spam. Now, when our systems detect that someone has pasted malicious code into the address bar, we will show a challenge to confirm that the person meant to do this as well as provide information on why it’s a bad idea.

We are also working with the major browser companies to fix the underlying issue that allows spammers to do this. Internet Explorer 9 has already put some protections in place, and we are talking with others about providing similar protections.


Login Approvals

Finally, our newest advanced security feature, Login Approvals, is now available to everyone who uses Facebook. This is a two factor authentication system that we first announced last month. If you choose to use it, whenever you log in to Facebook from a new or unrecognized device, we’ll require that you also enter a code we send to your mobile phone via text message.

If we see a login attempt from a device you haven’t saved, you'll be notified upon your next login and asked to verify the attempt. . If you don’t recognize this login, you'll be able to change your password with the knowledge that while some one else may have known your login credentials, he or she was unable to access your account or cause any harm.

Find out more about Login Approvals over at Facebook Engineering Page.

We hope you’ll follow these tips and use the protections we have provided. To learn more about how to keep your information safe on Facebook and across the internet, please visit the Facebook Security Page.

Clement Genzmer, security engineer, is searching and destroying malicious links.

Have you are your friend's been affected by this scam? Visit our Help Center to learn more.

Microsoft heading for $8bn Skype acquisition

V3.co.uk: Microsoft is a whisker away from an $8bn deal to buy VoIP firm Skype in its biggest ever foray into the acquisition market, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The deal, which would total around $8.5bn when including Skype's long-term debt, could be signed as early as Tuesday, people familiar with the matter told the paper.

Microsoft's biggest acquisition to date is the $6bn paid in 2007 to buy online advertising firm aQuantive.

The acquisition-shy Microsoft pulled out of a proposed $45bn deal to acquire Yahoo in 2008, in the end deciding on a less risky 10-year search partnership with the firm.

Skype has become the undisputed leading brand in the consumer VoIP space, but doubts remain over its business credentials. In 2005 it was bought in an ill-fated deal by eBay for $2.6bn, but the auction firm was forced to offload it four years later.

Ovum analyst Richard Edwards argued that, although there are products on the market with a better architectural fit, Skype is still "undoubtedly the product Microsoft needs to stay in the game".

"Skype is arguably the most successful real-time social communication platform on the planet, and its $8bn price tag means that only companies such as Microsoft have any chance of acquiring it. But is it a good fit for Microsoft's business model? Answer: Yes," he said.

"It's popular, it runs on Windows PCs, and later this year it will be available on Windows Phone 7. Perhaps more importantly for the rest of us, Skype also runs on other computers, such as Mac and Linux, and mobile phones too, such as iPhone and Android-based devices."

Edwards also emphasised Skype's business services as another attractive feature for Microsoft.

"For enterprises, Skype Connect lets organisations integrate Skype with their SIP-enabled PBX, and Skype Manager enables the business to track, trace and manage the use of this facility by employees," he said.

Skype and Microsoft declined to comment on the rumors.

The Seamless, Automagical Future of Software Updates

Gizmodo: OS X Lion is coming to the Mac App Store, ushering in a new era of digital distribution for their desktop operating system. And rumors are flying that iOS devices will soon receive over-the-air updates. If we had to smash these two pieces of information together and speculate about the future a little bit, we'd say Apple is heading down a path to automatic background updates for all of their operating systems. Hardcore nerds would hate this to be sure, but for the average user, it's a good thing.

Apple has always been about the mainstream user. In the pre-OS X days, the "user-friendliness" of the Mac platform was heralded by the technologically unsavvy, and derided by the hardcore tech community. The original iPod didn't support a million different audio formats, but few pieces of software automatically synced MP3s to a device as easy as iTunes did. iOS doesn't do everything Android does, but your grandma can use an iPhone. The Apple TV may be less capable than some other media streamers out there, but it functions better than many of them. These devices require less thought to use than their competitors.

Software updates should be the same way. Automatic updates may not require thaaaat much less effort, but considering the ADD world we live in, not having to devote attention to an update is nice. Google's Chrome Browser already functions this way, and it's great. You don't even know it happened—you just wake up one morning and it's done. There's no prompting, no nagging, no delaying because of having to restart your computer.

Thing is, even with prompts and alerts, most people don't update. Take my entire family: Whenever I venture back home and take a look at any of their computers, they still have the same version of OSX as the last time I updated everything for them. Some are running OS X Tiger on their computers, because who has time to go out and buy the latest OS disc?

And yes, this is bad for you modders out there. It would give Apple the upper hand on iOS jailbreakers, especially. If Apple were to push updates through regardless of whether or not we want them, the entire jailbreak community would be at Apple's mercy until the latest workaround surfaced (which, to be fair, is only a matter of hours sometimes). I don't necessarily like this idea, because I think the jailbreak community does far more good than harm for the iPhone, but from Apple's perspective, I can understand the logic in wanting to do this, despite a probably PR shitstorm from people who feel violated by a lack of an opt out.

In the case of the iPhone, it's worth pointing out that automatically updating the major releases (iOS 1.0,2.0,3.0,4.0, etc...) would be problematic—because the older hardware is way more sensitive. Just look at iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G. For computers, it'd probably be less of an issue.

Ultimately, though, automatic updates would give Apple control over the top-notch user experience they so dearly covet. Having everyone up to speed on the same software versions would mean fewer complaints about flaws in prior versions that people could have resolved by updating. It would mean no glaring security holes affecting millions of machines. We think it's gonna happen, and we thing it'll make your life easier. It would also mean less choice for you. But in this case, is that such a bad thing?