Monday, December 13, 2010

Apple mysteriously kills jailbreak detection API while hacker boosts iOS security, irony restored

Apple mysteriously kills jailbreak detection API while hacker boosts iOS security, irony restored

It's no secret that Apple's been keen to monitor the lot of naughty jailbreakers, but it turns out the company has recently shelved iOS 4.0's jailbreak detection API with no explanation given. While this has little effect on the average user, Network World explains that this is bad news for enterprise IT and MDM (mobile device management) vendors, who will now have one fewer channel for checking whether a user's iOS device has been jailbroken and thus become vulnerable to attacks. That said, apparently this isn't a huge loss for the MDM vendors, anyway; but the real question is why drop the API now? Could its presence alone be a threat? We'll probably never know.

Fear not, though, as some folks have put jailbreaking to good use. The Register reports that come Tuesday, Stefan Esser of Sektion Eins will demonstrate a tool called antid0te, which reportedly adds ASLR (address space layout randomization) onto jailbroken iOS devices. In a nutshell, ASLR randomizes key memory locations to make it more difficult for certain attacks to locate their target data. According to the famed white hat hacker Charlie Miller, this technique is already present on Windows Phone 7 and desktop Windows since Vista, but Apple's only dabbled with it on OS X and not on iOS. Now, this doesn't mean that jailbroken devices will be fully safeguarded, but some protection is better than no protection, right?

[Thanks, wooba]

Apple mysteriously kills jailbreak detection API while hacker boosts iOS security, irony restored originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Dec 2010 23:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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US Military bans removable media again, this time probably for good

US Military bans removable media again, this time probably for good

The US military has officially solidified its reputation as a flake, by banning the use of all removable media including thumb drives, CDs and DVDs again on its Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRnet) after relaxing the same policy in February. To prove they meant business this time, senior officers in each branch relayed the orders and reaffirmed personnel would risk of court-martial if they failed to comply. This seems silly to us considering Uncle Sam feels comfortable giving some cell phones access to secure data, and we all know how much damage losing one can cause. But then again, if history and Transformers are any indication, sometimes it's these little things that cause bigger breaches than anything Cyber Command focuses on stopping.

US Military bans removable media again, this time probably for good originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Dec 2010 01:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

SlashGear | source

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LG's E90 monitor slims down to 7.3mm thickness by stuffing everything into its excessively glossy base

LG's E90 monitor slims down to 7.3mm thickness by stuffing everything into its excessively glossy base

LG's just announced a new desktop visualizer for us all and it looks a promising proposition with its stupendously thin 7.3mm profile and minimal bezels surrounding the screen. But wait, it can't be all good news and it's not, as LG's also decided to apply an ultra-glossy finish to the E90, which should easily neutralize any understated appeal it might otherwise have had. As usual with these ultraslim displays, most of the electronics are encased in the E90's base, though the specs themselves don't seem to be showing any sacrifices. You're looking at an LED-backlit panel with a 2-millisecond response time, a 1920 x 1080 resolution (on the 21.5-inch E2290V), 250 nits of brightness, analog, digital and HDMI inputs, a 10,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, and a €329 ($435) MSRP. It should be available at some point later this month, see video of its appearance at IFA this year after the break.

Continue reading LG's E90 monitor slims down to 7.3mm thickness by stuffing everything into its excessively glossy base

LG's E90 monitor slims down to 7.3mm thickness by stuffing everything into its excessively glossy base originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Dec 2010 04:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google hides mathematical puzzle in Cr-48 video, rewards its solver with a laptop

Google hides mathematical puzzle in Cr-48 video, rewards its solver with a laptop

Watching Google destroy Cr-48 laptops for fun can't have been easy for any of you, but it turns out that the wily geeks of Mountain View had a clandestine purpose to their malevolence after all. An equation, scribbled out in old school chalk in the background of one scene, attracted the attention of a Sylvain Zimmer, who, together with a group of like-minded geeks, set about trying to solve it and discover its meaning. A full day's worth of cryptographic work later, Sylvain was left with a set of numbers he was able to convert into letters, which in turned spelled out "speed and destroy." Appending goo.gl, Google's URL shortener, to the front of those words got him to a screen congratulating him for being "first to figure out our MENSA-certified puzzle" and promising to send him a Cr-48 laptop as his prize. Kudos to Sylvain... and to Google for being such irrepressible geeks.

Continue reading Google hides mathematical puzzle in Cr-48 video, rewards its solver with a laptop

Google hides mathematical puzzle in Cr-48 video, rewards its solver with a laptop originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Dec 2010 07:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Friday, December 10, 2010

#RutgersCMD - about to start session - Integrating Social and Digital in Marketing

Thursday, December 09, 2010

"funnel compression" mixing tactics from top/bottom of funnel "any branding effort should also try to trigger the sale" http://bit.ly/hkpRUH

Live stream from @digiday ON Media - http://bit.ly/hkpRUH

@ClickZ @acfou Why Marketing Should No Longer Be Just a Creative Exercise - http://bit.ly/fEPWEW

Notion Ink Adam gets caught Photoshopping its bezel away

Notion Ink Adam gets caught Photoshopping its bezel away

How big is the Notion Ink Adam's screen? Well, it depends on what time you looked at the company's site today. If you were one of the unlucky folks who saw the image titled "preordernow.jpg," the screen's a tiny bit smaller and the bezel a tad larger than it is for all the fortunate peeps pre-ordering from the "preordernow1.jpg" pic that's currently gracing the site. Now's your chance, guys -- go grab yourself the truly magical and revolutionary tablet whose specs change with the wave of a Photoshop airbrush.

[Thanks, Andrew]

Continue reading Notion Ink Adam gets caught Photoshopping its bezel away

Notion Ink Adam gets caught Photoshopping its bezel away originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 05:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlueSLR dongle and app turn your iPhone into a DSLR remote shutter release

BlueSLR dongle and app turn your iPhone into a DSLR remote shutter release

You have a phone, you have a DSLR, yet although you love them both equally, the two pretty much never speak. This failure in capturing synergistic value is now at an end, however, thanks to the BlueSLR Bluetooth dongle and its accompanying iOS app. Compatible with iPhones (down to the 3G model), iPod touches (second generation and above), and iPads, this remote control system will let you manually trigger your Nikon's shutter release from a distance of up to 300 feet. There's also GPS tagging, if you're into that sort of thing, and a toggle in the app for adjusting exposure length. The app itself's free, though the dongle will set you back a mighty $149. At least it communicates via Bluetooth, which won't require line of sight like Nikon's own IR remotes. Compatibility is set to expand to include Canon DSLRs and Android and BlackBerry smartphones in the future, but if you've already got a D5000 and an iPhone 4 lying around looking wistfully at one another, you can pre-order your BlueSLR at the source link below.

BlueSLR dongle and app turn your iPhone into a DSLR remote shutter release originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 06:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gizmodo, Electronista | source

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Apple to rely on Intel's Sandy Bridge graphics in future MacBooks, AMD GPUs in MacBook Pros?

Apple to rely on Intel's Sandy Bridge graphics in future MacBooks, AMD GPUs in MacBook Pros?

Apple will use Intel's Sandy Bridge CPUs in its future laptops, no surprises there, but what's interesting about these forthcoming machines is that some of them might rely solely on Intel's chip for both general and graphical processing tasks. That's the word from the usual "sources familiar with Apple's plans," who expect "MacBook models with screen sizes of 13 inches and below" to eschew the inclusion of a discrete GPU and ride their luck on the improved graphical performance of Intel's upcoming do-it-all chip. There are currently no sub-13.3-inch MacBooks, so the suggestion of one is surely intriguing, but the major point here seems to be that NVIDIA's being left out of the Apple party, because MacBook Pros are also predicted to switch up to AMD-provided graphics hardware. All these changes should be taking place with Apple's next refresh, which is naturally expected at some point in the new year. Although, as CNET points out, this could all be just a massive negotiating ploy to get NVIDIA to play nicer with its pricing, we're inclined to believe Intel has finally gotten its integrated graphics up to a level where it pleases the discerning tastemakers at Apple.

Apple to rely on Intel's Sandy Bridge graphics in future MacBooks, AMD GPUs in MacBook Pros? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 08:02:00 EDT. ! Please s ee our terms for use of feeds.

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Kinect finally fulfills its Minority Report destiny (video)

Kinect finally fulfills its Minority Report destiny (video)

Not to denigrate the numerous fine hacks that Kinect's undergone since its launch, but it's always nice to see the professionals come in and shake things up a little. A crew from MIT's brain labs has put together a hand detection system on Microsoft's ultra-versatile cam, which is sophisticated enough to recognize the position of both your palms and fingers. Just as a demonstration, they've tied that good stuff up to a little picture-scrolling UI, and you won't be surprised to hear that it's the closest thing to Minority Report's interactive gesture-based interface that we've seen yet. And it's all achieved with a freaking console peripheral. Video after the break.
Continue reading Kinect finally fulfills its Minority Report destiny (video)
Kinect finally fulfills its Minority Report destiny (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 08:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

TI's OMAP4440 processor brings two blazing Cortex-A9 cores to the table

TI's OMAP4440 processor brings two blazing Cortex-A9 cores to the table

Phones and tablets based on TI's first production OMAP4 processor -- the OMAP4430 -- won't even be on the market until early next year, but TI's already planning ahead with the announcement of an upgraded chip that promises a 50 percent boost in overall performance. The new OMAP4440 can send its two Cortex-A9-based cores as high as 1.5GHz, while the 4430 tops out at 1GHz; TI says that means we should expect a 1.25x improvement in graphics performance, a 30 percent decline in webpage load time, and 1080p playback performance that doubles the slowpoke (comparably speaking, anyway) 4430. The company expects to sample these little speed demons to manufacturers in the first quarter of next year with volume shipment coming in the second half, itching to do battle with Samsung's Orion; in the meantime, we suppose your 4430 will have to do. Follow the break for the press release.

Continue reading TI's OMAP4440 processor brings two blazing Cortex-A9 cores to the table

TI's OMAP4440 processor brings two blazing Cortex-A9 cores to the table originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 11:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twitter Gains Much-Needed Instagram Support And Full Songs From Rdio

Twitter Gains Much-Needed Instagram Support And Full Songs From Rdio

For the past few months, probably something close to half of my tweets have been links that take you off of the site. My bad. But tonight I have good news! If you too are addicted to Instagram — which it seems about a quarter of the people I follow on Twitter are — you’ll no longer have to leave twitter.com to view those pictures. Yes, New Twitter has expanded their right pane to include a number of new third party sites tonight, including the popular mobile photo sharing startup.

So who else is joining the pane? Blip.tv, Rdio, SlideShare, and Dipdive. These added to the ones that launched alongside New Twitter such as YouTube, Flickr, USTREAM, and more recently, iTunes, means that less and less, you’ll have to click away from twitter.com. With these additions, they now have over 20 content partners for the right-side pane. It’s becoming quite the platform itself.

And they’re not done yet. “In the next few months we'll integrate with more content partners,” the company writes tonight on the Twitter Blog.

While Instagram is a much welcomed addition, Rdio is also an awesome one because it means users can share full-length songs for the first time on Twitter. You’ll recall that iTunes sharing only including song previews.

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Why Tech Startup Flattr May Be The Key to WikiLeaksâ Future Funding

Why Tech Startup Flattr May Be The Key to WikiLeaks' Future Funding

WikiLeaks, which publishes anonymous leaks of secret material (most recently 250,000 previously secret US embassy cables) still has a trick up its sleeve. In the last few days its sources of funding have been gradually cut off. MasterCard, PayPal and now Visa have all suspended payments to the organsation and founder Julian Assange has been remanded in custody in London without bail (so far).

However there remains one source of funding so far untouched, and that is a small startup, Flattr, created by Peter Sunde, co-founder of torrent site Pirate Bay, who has been reminding Twitter users today via his personal Twitter account that it’s still possible to “help” Wikileaks.

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