Google Patches 6 Serious Chrome Bugs - PCWorld

Image via WikipediaGoogle Patches 6 Serious Chrome Bugs - PCWorld

Google on Thursday patched six vulnerabilities in Chrome, and as usual, silently updated users' copies of the browser.

The update to Chrome 10.0.648.204 also included two more blacklisted SSL certificates that may be related to last week's theft of nine digital certificates from a Comodo reseller.

All six bugs were rated "high," Google's second-most-serious ranking in its threat scoring system. Of the half-dozen bugs, two were "use after free" flaws -- a type of memory management bug that can be exploited to inject attack code -- while a second pair were pegged by Google as "stale pointer" vulnerabilities, another kind of memory allocation flaw.

As is Google's practice, the company locked down its bug-tracking database, blocking access to the technical details of the patched vulnerabilities. Google usually unlocks the bug entries several weeks, sometimes months later, to give users time to update before the information goes public.

Google paid out $8,500 in bounties to three different researchers for finding and reporting the six vulnerabilities. So far this year, Google has cut bounty checks totaling $58,145.

Frequent-contributor Sergey Glazunov took home $7,000 for reporting four of the bugs patched Thursday, bringing his 2011 bounty total to $20,634. Glazunov has become the most prolific of the independent researchers who specialize in rooting out Chrome flaws, reporting 14 of the 54 bugs attributed to outsiders.

Yesterday was the sixth time Google patched security vulnerabilities in its browser this year.

Google said the update also added support for the browser's password manager on Linux, and included performance and stability fixes. According to the Chrome change list, it also blacklisted two additional SSL (secure socket layer) certificates , the digital certificates that encrypt traffic between users and sites.

The additions to the SSL blacklist may be connected to last week's theft of several certificates from a Comodo reseller, an event that prompted Comodo to revoke the stolen certificates. Since then, Google, Mozilla and Microsoft have each issued updates -- Google was the first off the mark -- to block the certificates and warn users if they tried to connect to fake sites.

Comodo has cited circumstantial evidence that points to Iran , perhaps the Iranian government, being involved in the certificate theft.

Google did not immediately reply to questions Friday about whether the newest additions to Chrome's blacklist were related to the Comodo theft.

Chrome 10 can be downloaded for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux from Google's Web site. Users already running the browser will be updated automatically.

Related articles

• Google, Skype, Yahoo Targeted by Rogue Comodo SSL Certificates (pcworld.com)
• Digital certificate theft shines spotlight on Safari limitation (macworld.com)
• Digital Certificate Theft Shows Safari Limitation (pcworld.com)

First Look: Firefox 4 Web browser Review | Browsers & Add-Ons | Macworld

First Look: Firefox 4 Web browser Review | Browsers & Add-Ons | Macworld

For years, Firefox has trundled along at the back of the browser pack, a beast of burden laden with fancy features but lacking speed. Not anymore. Mozilla has released Firefox 4, and in our preliminary tests, the browser makes a huge performance leap forward.

On a 2GHz Core 2 Duo aluminum MacBook with 2GB of RAM, Firefox 4 roughly quadrupled Firefox 3.6.15’s speed in an XHTML rendering test and the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark. Its Acid3 score improved by 3 points (reaching 97 out of 100), and it gained more than 100 points out of 400 on its predecessor in an HTML5 compliance test (255 and 9 bonus points vs. 155 and 4 bonus points).

Against other browsers, Firefox 4’s XHTML and CSS rendering speed still trails the latest versions of Safari, Opera, and Chrome, and it lacks their perfect Acid3 scores. But its HTML5 compliance outscores Safari’s and Opera’s, and only slightly lags Chrome’s, and in the SunSpider test, Firefox 4’s JägerMonkey JavaScript engine beats everyone else.

Firefox 4 packs a few other happy improvements under the hood. It now offers full support for CSS3 transforms and transitions, and hugely enhanced support for CSS3 animations. Built-in hardware acceleration vastly speeds up page rendering; however, in a Mozilla-created “stress test,” my computer and browser only eked out 2 frames per second when attempting 3D transformations on multiple 2D images. Firefox 4’s superb support for WebGL 3D graphics, Google’s new WebM open source video codec, and OpenType font rendering left me much more impressed.

Firefox 4’s interface changes are a somewhat mixed bag. Tabs now top the URL bar, Chrome-style, and you can now jump directly to a tab by starting to type its name in the “awesome bar” –nice, but nothing major. I liked the “app tab” feature, which lets you shift Gmail, Google Docs, and other much-used Web apps into tiny, space-saving icon tabs at the far left of the tab list.

The ability to group tabs by dragging and dropping left me cold, though. You must switch to an entirely separate screen, and drag tabs one by one into groups. The whole process just added an extra layer of clutter and confusion to my browsing.

We’re working on a full review of Firefox 4. For now, Firefox 4 looks like a happy compromise between speed-demon performance and a polished interface.

[Nathan Alderman is a writer and editor in Alexandria, Va.]

Related articles

• First Look: Firefox 4 Web Browser (pcworld.com)
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Apple releases Mac OS X 10.6.7 | Operating Systems | MacUser | Macworld

Image via CrunchBaseApple releases Mac OS X 10.6.7 | Operating Systems | MacUser | Macworld

If you thought your old friend Snow Leopard was getting a little long in the tooth, fear not: Apple has released Mac OS X 10.6.7, the latest update to the venerable feline.

In addition to providing the standard enhancements for stability, compatibility, and security, 10.6.7 improves the reliability of Back to My Mac, resolves an issue with transferring files to SMB servers, and makes minor updates to the Mac App Store. In addition, the update incorporates a number of security fixes to Snow Leopard, which are also available separately as Security Update 2011-001.

Other fixes packed into the update include additional RAW image compatibility for digital cameras, an issue with MacBook Air (Mid 2010) kernel panics, and AirPort driver issues. In addition, brightness on external displays and projectors is improved, as is a DVD Player playback issue on 64-bit Macs.

Also fixed is a rare issue in Mac OS X 10.6.5 that could cause user accounts to disappear from the Login window and System Preferences after putting the system to sleep.

Mac OS X 10.6.7 is available in both server and client editions via Software Update and directly from Apple’s Website. For the full list of fixes, read on.

Improve the reliability of Back to My Mac.

Resolve an issue when transferring files to certain SMB servers.

Address various minor Mac App Store issues.

Additional improvements

Includes all the improvements in the previous Mac OS X v10.6.1, 10.6.2, 10.6.3, 10.6.4, 10.6.5, and 10.6.6 updates.

Includes Safari 5.0.4.

Includes RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras.

For information about the security content of this update, please visit article HT1222.

Resolves a window resizing issue with X-Plane 9 on Macs with ATI graphics

Addresses an issue with MacBook Air (Mid 2010) computers that could cause a kernel panic.

Address issues in the AirPort driver for certain devices.

Improves brightness on external displays and projectors.

Addresses an issue where DVD Player may display black video on some Macs using the 64-bit kernel.

Addresses an issue with some NEC displays in which the screen may appear black when connected to a Mac Pro (Mid 2010).

Resolves an issue in which some Multiple Master (MM) fonts were missing from Mac Pro (Mid 2010), MacBook Pro (15-inch & 17-inch Mid 2010), and iMac (Mid 2010) computers.

Addresses various issues with MacBook Air (Mid 2010) computer performance.

Resolves an issue in which clicking the Updates tab in the Mac App Store could cause the Mac App Store to become unresponsive.

Fixes a problem opening an afp:// URL that points to a file, and changes the AFP mount path to conform to previous Mac OS X releases. For details, see article HT4538.

Includes the ability to repair certain issues that may prevent hardware RAID volumes from mounting. For more information, see article TS3631.

Fixes a rare issue in Mac OS X v10.6.5 that could cause user accounts to disappear from the Login window and System Preferences after putting the system to sleep.

Improves the reliability of dragging files or folders to the Trash when using an NFS home directory.

Brighthand.com - AT&T Acquiring T-Mobile, To Become the Largest U.S. Carrier

Brighthand.com - AT&T Acquiring T-Mobile, To Become the Largest U.S. Carrier

AT&T Acquiring T-Mobile, To Become the Largest U.S. Carrier

by Ed Hardy - 3/20/2011

AT&T has just announced that it is buying struggling T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG in a deal that will make it the largest cell phone company in the United States in the number of subscribers.

AT&T is paying approximately $39 billion in cash and stock for T-Mobile USA, who is currently the fourth largest wireless carrier in America. DT will end up owning around 8% of AT&T.

The deal has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies, but government regulators will have to sign off on it, too, and there's likely to be considerable scrutiny -- if approved, one of the big four carriers is going away and one of the remaining ones is becoming much larger.

T-Mobile currently has 34 million subscribers, but once these are combined with AT&T's the company will have 129 million. That will make it bigger than Verizon Wireless.

It's All about the Network

Both AT&T and T-Mobile use the GSM standard, and are working on 4G LTE networks, so combining them is a relatively simple process.

Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman and CEO, said, "This transaction delivers significant customer, shareowner and public benefits that are available at this level only from the combination of these two companies with complementary network technologies, spectrum positions and operations. We are confident in our ability to execute a seamless integration, and with additional spectrum and network capabilities, we can better meet our customers' current demands, build for the future and help achieve the President's goals for a high-speed, wirelessly connected America."

With the additional cell towers and wireless spectrum it is acquiring with T-Mobile, AT&T is committing to a significant expansion of its future 4G LTE service. It now believes it will eventually be able to reach 95 percent of the U.S. population.

It was no secret that Deutsche Telekom has been looking for a buyer for some time. There had been reports that T-Mobile and Sprint might merge, bringing together the third and fourth largest U.S. carriers -- however, these two use incompatible wireless networks, so a merger wouldn't be any easy one.

Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media | Technology | The Guardian

Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media | Technology | The Guardian

Military's 'sock puppet' software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda

Gen David Petraeus has previously said US online psychological operations are aimed at 'countering extremist ideology and propaganda'. Photograph: Cliff Owen/AP

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.

The project has been likened by web experts to China's attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet. Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not correspond with its own objectives.

The discovery that the US military is developing false online personalities – known to users of social media as "sock puppets" – could also encourage other governments, private companies and non-government organisations to do the same.

The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries".

Centcom spokesman Commander Bill Speaks said: "The technology supports classified blogging activities on foreign-language websites to enable Centcom to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the US."

He said none of the interventions would be in English, as it would be unlawful to "address US audiences" with such technology, and any English-language use of social media by Centcom was always clearly attributed. The languages in which the interventions are conducted include Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto.

Centcom said it was not targeting any US-based web sites, in English or any other language, and specifically said it was not targeting Facebook or Twitter.

Once developed, the software could allow US service personnel, working around the clock in one location, to respond to emerging online conversations with any number of co-ordinated messages, blogposts, chatroom posts and other interventions. Details of the contract suggest this location would be MacDill air force base near Tampa, Florida, home of US Special Operations Command.

Centcom's contract requires for each controller the provision of one "virtual private server" located in the United States and others appearing to be outside the US to give the impression the fake personas are real people located in different parts of the world.

It also calls for "traffic mixing", blending the persona controllers' internet usage with the usage of people outside Centcom in a manner that must offer "excellent cover and powerful deniability".

The multiple persona contract is thought to have been awarded as part of a programme called Operation Earnest Voice (OEV), which was first developed in Iraq as a psychological warfare weapon against the online presence of al-Qaida supporters and others ranged against coalition forces. Since then, OEV is reported to have expanded into a $200m programme and is thought to have been used against jihadists across Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East.

OEV is seen by senior US commanders as a vital counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation programme. In evidence to the US Senate's armed services committee last year, General David Petraeus, then commander of Centcom, described the operation as an effort to "counter extremist ideology and propaganda and to ensure that credible voices in the region are heard". He said the US military's objective was to be "first with the truth".

This month Petraeus's successor, General James Mattis, told the same committee that OEV "supports all activities associated with degrading the enemy narrative, including web engagement and web-based product distribution capabilities".

Centcom confirmed that the $2.76m contract was awarded to Ntrepid, a newly formed corporation registered in Los Angeles. It would not disclose whether the multiple persona project is already in operation or discuss any related contracts.

Nobody was available for comment at Ntrepid.

In his evidence to the Senate committee, Gen Mattis said: "OEV seeks to disrupt recruitment and training of suicide bombers; deny safe havens for our adversaries; and counter extremist ideology and propaganda." He added that Centcom was working with "our coalition partners" to develop new techniques and tactics the US could use "to counter the adversary in the cyber domain".

According to a report by the inspector general of the US defence department in Iraq, OEV was managed by the multinational forces rather than Centcom.

Asked whether any UK military personnel had been involved in OEV, Britain's Ministry of Defence said it could find "no evidence". The MoD refused to say whether it had been involved in the development of persona management programmes, saying: "We don't comment on cyber capability."

OEV was discussed last year at a gathering of electronic warfare specialists in Washington DC, where a senior Centcom officer told delegates that its purpose was to "communicate critical messages and to counter the propaganda of our adversaries".

Persona management by the US military would face legal challenges if it were turned against citizens of the US, where a number of people engaged in sock puppetry have faced prosecution.

Last year a New York lawyer who impersonated a scholar was sentenced to jail after being convicted of "criminal impersonation" and identity theft.

It is unclear whether a persona management programme would contravene UK law. Legal experts say it could fall foul of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, which states that "a person is guilty of forgery if he makes a false instrument, with the intention that he or another shall use it to induce somebody to accept it as genuine, and by reason of so accepting it to do or not to do some act to his own or any other person's prejudice". However, this would apply only if a website or social network could be shown to have suffered "prejudice" as a result.

• This article was amended on 18 March 2011 to remove references to Facebook and Twitter, introduced during the editing process, and to add a comment from Centcom, received after publication, that it is not targeting those sites.

A New Internet Privacy Law? - NYTimes.com

A New Internet Privacy Law? - NYTimes.com

Considering how much information we entrust to the Internet every day, it is hard to believe there is no general law to protect people’s privacy online. Companies harvest data about people as they surf the Net, assemble it into detailed profiles and sell it to advertisers or others without ever asking permission.

So it is good to see a groundswell of support emerging for minimum standards of privacy, online and off. This week, the Obama administration called for legislation to protect consumers’ privacy. In the Senate, John Kerry is trying to draft a privacy bill of rights with the across-the-aisle support of John McCain.

Microsoft, which runs one of the biggest Internet advertising networks, said it supports a broad-based privacy law. It has just introduced a version of its Explorer browser that allows surfers to block some tools advertisers use to track consumers’ activities online.

It is crucial that lawmakers get this right. There is strong pressure from the advertising industry to water down rules aimed at limiting the data companies can collect and what they can do with it.

Most oppose a sensible proposal by the Federal Trade Commission for a do-not-track option — likely embedded in Web browsers. They have proposed self-regulation instead, and we applaud their desire to do that, but the zeal to self-regulate tends to wane when it is not backed by government rules and enforcement.

Senator Kerry has not yet proposed specific legislation, but he has laid out sound principles. Companies that track people’s activities online must obtain people’s consent first. They must specify what data they are collecting and how they will use it. They need consumers’ go-ahead to use data for any new purpose. They are responsible for the data’s integrity. And consumers should have the right to sever their relationship with data collectors and ask for their file to be deleted.

But there are potential areas of concern. Senator Kerry so far has not called for a do-not-track option. He would allow companies to write their own privacy plans and submit them to the F.T.C. for approval.

That would give companies flexibility to adapt their solutions as technology evolved, but it lacks the simplicity and universality of a do-not-track feature. It could yield a dizzying array of solutions that would confuse consumers about their rights and options and make it more difficult to enforce clear standards. Moreover, it would make it tougher for consumers to keep track of how their information is used and to whom it is sold.

Advertising firms still argue that privacy protections could undermine the free Internet, depriving it of ad revenue by reducing advertisers’ ability to target consumers. This is overstated. Advertisers will still need to advertise. If many people opt out of behavioral targeting, the firms will find other ways to do it.

Privacy protections are long overdue. We hope the swell of support will lead to significant legislation.

Related articles

• Obama Administration Calls for New Privacy Law (pcworld.com)
• Web Companies Urged to Practice 'Data Stewardship' (pcworld.com)
• White House pushes for online privacy bill of rights (news.cnet.com)

Apple tops smartphone satisfaction for fifth time | The Digital Home - CNET News

Apple tops smartphone satisfaction for fifth time | The Digital Home - CNET News

Another year, another win for Apple in smartphone satisfaction.

According to findings released today from the J.D. Power and Associates 2011 U.S. Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study, customers are more satisfied with Apple's iPhone than any other smartphone on the market. Apple secured a rating of 795 out of a possible 1,000 points in customer satisfaction. Motorola and HTC secured the second and third spots with 763 points and 762 points, respectively.

This isn't the first time Apple has placed at the top of a J.D. Power and Associates satisfaction study. In fact, Apple's latest win marks the fifth-consecutive year that it has bested all other smartphone makers in this study. However, customers were a smidge less satisfied with Apple's smartphone this year than they were last year. In J.D. Power and Associates' 2010 findings, Apple was able to secure 800 points of the available 1,000.

But Apple wasn't alone in seeing its satisfaction slip this year. Both Motorola and HTC have witnessed satisfaction for their devices decline significantly. In 2010, their figures stood at 791 points and 781 points, respectively.

J.D. Power and Associates said respondents based their opinions on "ease of operation, operating system, physical design, features, and battery function."

Smartphone market overall

In addition to looking at individual smartphones, J.D. Power and Associates also examined other areas of the space. It found that the average price of a "traditional mobile phone" has dropped to about $73 in 2011, down from its average price of $81 in 2009.

Related articles

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Chrome still shines, 10 versions later | The Download Blog - Download.com

Chrome still shines, 10 versions later | The Download Blog - Download.com

Tablet Shootout: Xoom vs. iPad 2 vs. Galaxy Tab

Internet Explorer 9 arrives, but not for XP | The Download Blog - Download.com

Internet Explorer 9 arrives, but not for XP | The Download Blog - Download.com

The training wheels have come off of the latest version of Internet Explorer as Microsoft unleashes version 9 of the world's most heavily used browser this evening at an event at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. Internet Explorer 9 (download after 9 p.m. PT) debuts to the public not only as the fastest, most standards-compliant version of IE yet, but also as one that can stand up and compete on features and looks with Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and the Opera browser. Along with IE's new features, though, Microsoft has a clear message for Windows XP users: hurry up and upgrade to Windows 7 already.

Microsoft's official explanation for why Internet Explorer 9 doesn't support Windows XP, the operating system that runs an estimated 40 percent to 50 percent of the world's computers, is that the graphics card-powered hardware acceleration that helps the browser load pages faster doesn't work properly with the device drivers on Windows XP. However, at least one other browser, Firefox 4 release candidate 1, offers full hardware acceleration across multiple operating systems, including Windows XP.

The lack of support for Windows XP aside, Internet Explorer 9 is a fantastic browser when compared with its predecessors, and competitive against its toughening rivals. The browser offers some great new features, such as Pinned sites, a revamped search box, and add-on performance impact notifications.

Pinned sites create a tighter integration between the browser and desktop by creating site-specific browsers. Drag the tab onto the Windows 7 desktop taskbar, and depending on the site developer's coding, you can get site-specific jump lists, unread e-mail notifications, or streaming media player controls. Other major sites that have Pinned integration include Groupon, CNN, Pandora, Hulu, Slacker, Facebook, Twitter, and eBay.

Meanwhile, the new unified search box manages to include all the functionality of the old search box, such as changing search providers on the fly, while introducing on-the-fly searching so that as you type, you see a relevant list of Web results, bookmarks, and browsing history.

The add-on performance notification is a small but useful feature that warns you when an add-on is slowing down the browser. You can customize what that level of impact is, too.

The performance of the browser itself has been lauded since last year when Microsoft rolled out developer's previews. Over the course of the following year, the developer's previews, betas, and release candidate version of IE 9 were downloaded more than 25 million times, and amounted to around 2 percent of all installed versions of Internet Explorer on Windows 7 by the time the release candidate was published.

For an in-depth review of Internet Explorer 9, check back here at 9 p.m. PT today when Microsoft makes the browser available to the public.

All Comcast Users should Get A Docsis 3 Cable Codem

If you use Comcast as your internet service provider make sure they give you a docsis 3 cable modem. It is no additional charge and will provide you with much faster speeds. See my numbers. I switched modems a month or so ago and now my speeds are almost always like this.  A Comcast lineman told me about this.  I had to pressure the telephone representative to get me one but she did.  It has made a world of difference.  You can also buy your own online.

Check for prices here.

Related articles

• Cable companies best at streaming Netflix video (news.cnet.com)

First Look Video: Mac OS X Lion | The Download Blog - Download.com

First Look Video: Mac OS X Lion | The Download Blog - Download.com

AT&T to introduce data caps on DSL | Signal Strength - CNET News

AT&T to introduce data caps on DSL | Signal Strength - CNET News

Unlimited data will soon be a thing of the past for all AT&T customers, as the company confirms it will put a cap on data usage for its DSL and U-verse broadband services.

The blog Broadband Reports confirmed over the weekend that AT&T will introduce a data cap for its broadband services. Customers who exceed a monthly limit of 150GB of data in three separate months will be charged $10 extra for every additional 50GB of data they consume. Customers subscribing to AT&T's faster U-verse broadband service will have a limit of 250GB. The new policy goes into effect starting May 2, the company said.

The new capped data policy is aimed at reining in heavy data users. The way it will work is that only users who exceed the new usage cap three times will be charged the overage fees. AT&T will then alert customers multiple times if they are near the limit or if they exceed their limit. These notifications will occur when usage hits 65 percent, 90 percent, and 100 percent of total usage. The carrier also plans to provide online tools to help customers track their usage.

AT&T said that the new policy will affect only a small percentage of customers--roughly 2 percent--who it claims use a disproportionate amount of bandwidth.

The company already caps data usage on its wireless service. Last year, it revised its smartphone data pricing, eliminating its unlimited plan and instead offering customers the choice of a 2GB service for $25 a month or a $250MB service for $15 a month. Customers who exceed those limits are charged for the additional usage.

AT&T's move to impose caps on its wired broadband service follows similar action by other broadband providers. Comcast imposed usage caps on its broadband service in 2008. The company limits residential customers to 250GB of data per month. Comcast says that median monthly data usage of residential customers is about 2GB to 3GB of data per month.

To put this type of usage into context, Comcast says on its Web site explaining the policy that customers would have to do any one of the following to exceed its 250GB cap:

Send 50 million e-mails (at 0.05KB per e-mail)

Download 62,500 songs (at 4MB per song) Download 125 standard-definition movies (at 2GB per movie) Upload 25,000 high-resolution digital photos (at 10MB per photo)>

AT&T has been experimenting with usage-based broadband service. In 2008, it conducted a trial in Reno, Nev., and Beaumont, Texas, in which it capped usage between 20GB and 150GB, charging up to $1 per gigabyte, Broadband Reports said in its report.

While the caps that AT&T is imposing are large, analyst Craig Moffett at Sanford C. Bernstein said that as people watch more video online, these caps may not look so large in the future.

"Only video can drive that kind of usage," he said in an e-mail to investors. "To be sure, the caps are high, and the number of customers who will be affected is low. Still, the importance of the move cannot be overstated."

He expects other broadband providers to follow in AT&T's footsteps. Charter Communications, Cox Communications, and Time Warner Cable are likely first movers, he said.

"Usage Based Pricing is one of two critical feedback loops that must be considered in any serious analysis of over-the-top-video (the other is content availability)," he said in his e-mail. "To wit; if consumption patterns change such that web video begins to substitute for linear video, then the terrestrial broadband operators will simply adopt pricing plans that preserve the economics of their physical infrastructure."

In other words, broadband providers can't lose.

MPU 045: Finding Files and Tagging « Mac Power Users

MPU 045: Finding Files and Tagging « Mac Power Users

Katie and David, joined by Mac mad scientist Brett Terpstra, cover the many ways to organize and find files on your Mac. This show includes tips on tagging, spotlight, naming conventions and more.

Browsers pick up the pace (week in review) | Business Tech - CNET News

Browsers pick up the pace (week in review) | Business Tech - CNET News

It might seem like the tech news this week has been all about the new iPad, but speedier browser versions grabbed some big headlines as well.

Google on Tuesday released Chrome 10, endowing its browser with faster JavaScript, password synchronization, and a revamped preferences system. Chrome is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Google announced Chrome 10's stable release on its blog but refrained from mentioning its product number. That's in line with the company's effort to focus on features rather than version numbers, which it calls mere milestones. Google tries to get new versions into users' hands as rapidly as possible and currently passes a new milestone about once every six weeks.

Chrome 10 comes with the "Crankshaft" version of the V8 browser engine that Google pegs as 66 percent faster than the unnamed version in Chrome 9 as measured with Google's V8 Benchmark suite. That's a major speed boost, but be aware there are many other attributes of browser performance, and one of the biggest--hardware acceleration--will hit prime time with the imminent release of Mozilla's Firefox 4 and Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9.

Speaking of IE9, Microsoft will be formally launching the next version of its browser at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival on Monday--an interesting place to launch, given that the Austin, Texas, geek fest is packed full of the hordes who have long since ditched Internet Explorer for the decidedly hipper pastures of Firefox, Safari, or Chrome.

Among the new features in IE9 is a refreshed look with the browser taking up less space than previous versions of IE, as well as a way to pin sites to the Windows task bar. Sites can then program their pages to act more like desktop applications with things like notifications, and the Windows 7 Jump List feature, which can hop users to specific parts of a Web page.

IE9 also brings performance improvements, including faster start times and a new JavaScript engine called Chakra that Microsoft has proven to be faster at the WebKit SunSpider benchmark test than competitors. On the security side, IE9 also adds support for "do not track" through lists that users can subscribe to, as well as a way to filter ActiveX content from pages.

Meanwhile, Mozilla updated the Firefox 4 beta to release candidate status, meaning that the features are locked, and barring the discovery of any major bugs, this version is likely to become the browser's official release. Available to download for Windows, Mac, and Linux, Firefox 4 release candidate 1 contains no major bug fixes, and instead offers a series of stability, compatibility, and performance tweaks.

Related articles

• Mozilla releases Firefox 4.0 release candidate (macworld.com)

Google's Chrome untouched at Pwn2Own hack match | Security | Macworld

Image via WikipediaGoogle's Chrome untouched at Pwn2Own hack match | Security | Macworld

by Gregg Keizer, Computerworld Mar 10, 2011 12:00 pm

Editor's Note: This story is excerpted from Computerworld. For more Mac coverage, visit Computerworld's Macintosh Knowledge Center.

Google's $20,000 was as safe at Pwn2Own Wednesday as if it had been in the bank.

But no one took up Google’s offer.

“The first contestant was a no-show,” said Aaron Portnoy, manager of HP TippingPoint’s security research team, and Pwn2Own’s organizer. “And the other team wanted to work on their BlackBerry vulnerability. So it doesn’t look like anyone will try Chrome.”

Only two entries had pre-registered for Chrome: Moatz Khader and one or more researchers going as “Team Anon.” (Researchers may remain anonymous if they wish.) Based on a random drawing several weeks ago, Khader was to get first shot, with Team Anon second.

Team Anon is also slated to tackle RIM’s BlackBerry OS on Thursday.

Late Wednesday, TippingPoint provided a tentative schedule for Thursday’s Pwn2Own; that schedule doesn't show any planned Chrome exploit.

Even if someone unexpectedly stepped up to take a crack at Chrome and exploited the browser, Google would be on the hook for just $10,000. As part of the deal it struck with TippingPoint, the two will split the $20,000 payment for a successful hack on the second or third days of the contest.

If Chrome comes out unscathed, as it now appears it will, the browser will have survived three consecutive Pwn2Owns, a record.

On Wednesday, researchers successfully exploited Safari and Internet Explorer. A team from French security company Vupen took down Safari 5 running on a MacBook Air notebook in five seconds, and independent researcher Stephen Fewer used a trio of vulnerabilities to hack IE8 on Windows 7.

Portnoy was impressed with Fewer’s work. “The most impressive so far,” said Portnoy. “He used three vulnerabilities to [not only] bypass ASLR and DEP, but also escape Protected Mode. That’s something we've not seen at Pwn2Own before.”

ASLR, for address space layout randomization, and DEP, or data execution prevention, are a pair of technologies baked into Windows that are designed to make it more difficult for exploits to reliably execute. Protected Mode is IE’s “sandbox,” which isolates the browser—and thus any attack code that manages to infiltrate it—from escaping to do damage on the system as a whole.

Pwn2Own continues Thursday and Friday, when Mozilla’s Firefox and four smartphones running Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows 7 Phone and RIM's BlackBerry OS will be in researchers’ crosshairs.

Related articles

• Google's Chrome Untouched at Pwn2Own Hack Event (pcworld.com)
• Safari, Internet Explorer hacked first at Pwn2Own (macworld.com)
• Chrome Owns Pwn2Own, Google's $20K Safe (slashgear.com)

Mozilla Releases Firefox 4.0 Release Candidate - PCWorld

Image via CrunchBaseMozilla Releases Firefox 4.0 Release Candidate - PCWorld

The Mozilla Foundation has issued the first release candidate of Firefox version 4.0, finishing a grueling and ambitious beta development cycle for the browser.

This release candidate represents what the development team feels is a finished browser, said Johnathan Nightingale, director of Firefox development, in an interview.

The quality assurance team will still take feedback from users over the next few weeks, but if no major bugs are found, Mozilla expects to issue the full production release of the browser by the end of the month, he said.

If so, March will be a busy month for the ongoing browser wars. In addition to the pending final release of Firefox 4, Microsoft plans to launch version 9 of its Internet Explorer on March 14. And Google released version 10 of its Chrome browser on Monday.

Version 4 of Firefox is a major upgrade for the open-source browser, and includes a wealth of new features and enhancements.

The user interface has been completely revamped and streamlined, with the menu bar condensed under a single button. The JavaScript Engine has been overhauled for speedier performance. The Add-ons Manager has been upgraded to a full-page interface.

Tab management has also taken a great leap forward. Users can bundle sets of tabs into different groups, under a feature called Panorama. They can add small permanent tabs to the top of the browser, for those pages and applications they continually keep open.

For the first time, Firefox will allow users to synchronize their bookmarks across different computers and even with Android-based mobile phones. This is also the first version of the browser to include the Do Not Track feature, which can alert website owners if the user wishes to opt out of third-party Web tracking.

The release candidate is available for the Windows, Mac and Linux platforms, and supports more than 70 languages. Current users of the beta version will have their browsers automatically updated.

Related articles

• Showdown: Chrome (Beta) vs. Firefox 4.0 (technologizer.com)
• Mozilla Exec: Firefox 4 Will Arrive in February (pcworld.com)

Google Chrome 10's New Settings Menu

The best browser in the world has gotten even better. It is sven much faster than version 9. Google Chrome has been updated 6 times since May of 2010. Those folks who still naively use Internet Explorer have not sen an update of that terrible browser in over three years. If you still use Internet Explorer download Chrome and you will be shocked by what you have been missing.