Our latest edition of WIG is filled with news link coverage on topics such as Google Earth for Android gets Street View, Canonical plans to have dogfood-capable phones by the end of May, UEFI will make its way into mobile and non-PC markets, and more.
Weekly News Links
- Facebook to Firefox: Please add WebP image support
Engineers for the powerful Web site like Google’s image format and are encouraging Mozilla to support it in Firefox. - Mozilla Firefox Metro for Windows 8 to Be Launched by November
Mozilla is still working on a Metro flavor of its popular Firefox browser with new details posted on the Wiki development site revealing that the stable build should be here by November. - Google builds push notifications into Chrome, Chrome OS
Programmers now can get servers to send alerts to Google’s browser rather than requiring the browser itself to constantly check for them. - Google intros one-click ‘Save to Drive’ button
Google plays catch-up to the likes of Pocket and Evernote with a one-click clipping button for saving web files for later perusal. - Are video codecs written in JavaScript really the future?
Describing it as “the future,” Mozilla has been showing off ORBX.js, a video codec roughly comparable to the industry-standard H.264 that can be decoded entirely in JavaScript. - Google’s VP9 video codec nearly done; YouTube will use it
One of the biggest video sites on the Net will use Google’s next-generation video compression technology after it’s fully defined on June 17. - Office Web Apps to get real-time co-authoring, better Android support, and more
The last time Microsoft updated their Office Web Apps service was back in February, when they brought new editing capabilities to its suite of Web Apps. This past week on the official Office team blog, Microsoft announced that several new features are set to come to Office Web Apps soon. - Adobe’s professional cloud push arrives at its final destination
Depending on your feelings about Creative Cloud, you’re either going to want to pop the champagne or sharpen your pitchfork. The Creative Suite products go cloud-only, but get better integration and new features. - Debian 7 “Wheezy” released
The release of Debian 7.0, also known as Wheezy, has taken place – the community-driven and built Linux distribution’s most visible change is a new updated look with GNOME 3.4 and the GNOME shell as the default desktop. - Ubuntu 11.10, 10.04 Desktop and 8.04 Server reach end of life
May 9th was the day that three different versions of Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux distribution reached their end of life. All versions of Ubuntu 11.10 (“Oneiric Ocelot”), the desktop version of Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS (“Lucid Lynx”), and the server edition of Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS (“Hardy Heron”) will no longer receive any updates. - Mozilla offers developers phones to write Firefox OS apps
The open-source browser maker is trying to coax programmers into writing software for the Firefox Marketplace by offering them free phones. - Canonical plans dogfood-capable phones by the end of May
Canonical’s Vice President of Ubuntu, Rick Spencer, has set out a plan to make the Ubuntu phone images dog food – dogfooding is where a company’s employees use its own product for their day-to-day work and comes from the phrase “Eating your own dog food”. - Facebook updates Home, says downloads reach 1M
The social network says its “Facebook phone” app — which stumbled out of the gate — has been installed nearly 1 million times. The company also announces the release of an update for the software. - Google Earth for Android Gets Street View
Google has updated its Google Earth Android app to version 7.1, bringing several important improvements, most notably the support for Street View. - New Gmail for iOS keeps it all in the family
If you’re a Google fan and an iPhone owner, you can do your happy dance now. An update to Gmail for iOS does an end-run around default iOS apps in favor of Google’s own. - Google Maps for iOS auto-dimming is driving users crazy
Undocumented feature dims the screen between directions to save battery, but it’s having unintended consequences. - Bing adds more Facebook to search
The search engine, courtesy of a long-standing relationship with the social network, updates with sidebar commenting. - Dropbox planning first developer conference this July
Developers (as well as Dropbox team members) will be able to gain more visibility into what other developers are building for the cloud storage service. - Box for Windows 8 Receives Major Update, Download Here
The official Box client for Windows 8 has just received a new batch of improvements, this time aimed at the security tools offered to users. - Microsoft Launches The Fire Hose Blog
Tech giant Microsoft has recently debuted a new blog called The Fire Hose that’s supposed to provide one-click access to the latest news concerning the company.
Security News
Fractured glass photo effect courtesy of PhotoFunia.
- Zero-Day Exploit Published for IE8
Security experts are warning that a newly discovered vulnerability in Internet Explorer 8 is being actively exploited to break into Microsoft Windows systems. Complicating matters further, computer code that can be used to reliably exploit the flaw is now publicly available online. Download the EMET Tool here. Learn more about the EMET Tool here. - A Stopgap Fix for the IE8 Zero-Day Flaw
Microsoft has released an stopgap solution to help Internet Explorer 8 users blunt the threat from attacks against a zero-day flaw in the browser that is actively being exploited in the wild. This is a second solution from Microsoft for dealing with the Internet Explorer 8 vulnerability. - Web server backdoor also booby traps lighttpd and NGINX
The criminals behind Linux/Cdorked.A web server backdoor are targeting the lighttpd and NGINX web servers. This is in addition to the already discovered compromised Apache HTTPD servers, according to a blog post by the anti-virus specialists at ESET. - Adobe acknowledges critical hole in ColdFusion
Adobe says it has identified a critical vulnerability, which is reportedly already being exploited in the wild, in ColdFusion 10, 9.0.2, 9.0.1, 9.0 and earlier versions on Windows, Mac, and UNIX systems. - Hackers gain access to all .edu domains
The hacker collective “Hack the Planet” (HTP) has claimed responsibility for an attack on MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) computer systems in late January, in which it claims to have briefly taken control of the university’s domain, redirected email traffic, and obtained administrator access to all .edu domains. - Child pornography trojan becomes more aggressive
Anti-Botnet Advisory Centre, a German anti-botnet advisory service, reports that a new variant of the BKA trojan attempts to blackmail the owners of infected computers with four pornographic pictures of children. - Three SCADA Vulnerabilities Disclosed
Recently, RiskBased Security’s Chief Research Officer, Carsten Eiram published three vulnerability reports. All cover vulnerabilities in high-profile SCADA products from two major vendors: Rockwell Automation and Schneider Electric. - Homeland Security Warns Of Expanding Medical Device Attacks
A bulletin published by the Department of Homeland Security has warned that the increasing use of wireless networking technology to enable medical devices expands the ways that those devices could be hacked. - Snapchat images that have “disappeared forever” stay right on your phone…
US-based computer forensics geek Richard Hickman grabbed a forensic image of a phone running Snapchat, found a directory called received_image_snaps and looked in it. Both unviewed and expired images were still there. - Lost+Found: failed extortionists, Google hack and OAuth security
Too small for news, but too good to lose, Lost+Found is a compilation of the other stories that have been on The H’s radar over the last seven days: Cain & Abel on Windows 8, Google hacked, failed extortionists, untangling the web, OAuth security issues, and vulnerabilities in NetApp and SAP ERP. - How hackers allegedly stole “unlimited” amounts of cash from banks in just hours
Federal authorities have accused eight men of participating in 21st-Century Bank heists that netted a whopping $45 million by hacking into payment systems and eliminating withdrawal limits placed on prepaid debit cards. - China bot operators target Apple’s App Store rankings
Increasing competition among bot operators touting the ability to “promote” an app up Apple’s free download list results in Apple “locking down” the chart last Friday. - Nordstrom tracking customer movement via smartphones’ WiFi sniffing
Tara Darrow, a company spokeswoman, told CBS DFW that sensors in the stores are collecting information from customers’ smartphones as those phones automatically scan for WiFi service. Darrow said that the sensors monitor which departments you visit and for how long, but the sensors don’t actually follow your phone from department to department, and they don’t identify personal information tied to a phone’s owner. - UEFI to make its way into mobile and non-PC markets
UEFI — the BIOS replacement that bought the Secure Boot technology to Windows 8 PCs — is set to appear in a wide range of devices, from smartphones to servers. - W3C proceeds with Web video encryption despite opposition
The Web standards group is going ahead with its Encrypted Media Extensions technology despite some opposition, arguing it’s a step in the right direction. - Apple’s two-step ID verification expands to more countries
More than a dozen new countries now have access to a stringent security measure designed to keep Apple IDs safe. - Could ‘honeywords’ help stop high-profile password breaches?
Using decoy passwords alongside genuine hashed passwords could help IT admins to identify when attackers gain access to protected systems. - Why Intel’s “How Strong is Your Password?” site can’t be trusted
A new website published by chipmaker Intel asks readers “How Strong is Your Password?” and provides a form for estimating the strength of specific passcodes. It’s too bad the question isn’t “How Strong is your Password-grading site,” because the answer, unfortunately, is “not very.” - FBI says it doesn’t need a warrant to snoop on private email, social network messages
An FBI guidance manual says the law enforcement agency is able to access U.S. residents’ email, Facebook and Twitter messages, and private documents, without breaching the Fourth Amendment. - Use These Secret NSA Google Search Tips to Become Your Own Spy Agency
There’s so much data available on the internet that even government cyberspies need a little help now and then to sift through it all. So to assist them, the National Security Agency produced a book to help its spies uncover intelligence hiding on the web.
TinyHacker Links
- Why did a CIO Ditch his iPad for a Surface Pro?
The personal experience of a CIO with a Surface Pro after many years of iPad use. - Best Android Sports Games
One awesome Android game each for Soccer, Baseball, Golf, Cricket and Tennis. - Samsung Ativ S – The Most Underrated Windows Phone 8 Device
The Samsung Ativ S is a very good Windows Phone 8 device which, unlike its competitors, delivers the basics right. Learn more about its features and performance from this detailed review.
How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap
- PC Cleaning Apps are a Scam: Here’s Why (and How to Speed Up Your PC)
- Is There a Difference Between the Headphone and Speaker Ports?
- No More Cables: How Wireless Charging Works and How You Can Use It Today
- No More Upgrade Fees: Use Google Docs or Office Web Apps Instead of Microsoft Office
- How to Use Multiple Disks Intelligently: An Introduction to RAID
- What ActiveX Controls Are and Why They’re Dangerous
- QR Codes Explained: Why You See Those Square Barcodes Everywhere
- 5 Tricks to Use Your Android Phone as a Travel Guide (Without Mobile Data)
- How to Flash Your Nexus S (or Any Other Android Device) with a New ROM
- How to Cheaply and Safely Clean Your Camera’s DSLR Sensor
Geeky Goodness from the ETC Side
- Desktop Fun: Ocean Waves Wallpaper Collection Series 2
- How to Run a Scheduled Task Without a Command Window Appearing
- How To Quickly Get The MAC Address of any Windows PC on Your Network
- Exploit for New Internet Explorer 8 Vulnerability is Now Active and in the Wild
- The Terrifying Promise of Robot Bugs
- A Temperature Experiment – Boiling Water at Mt. Everest
- Time to Upgrade: Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server, 10.04 LTS Desktop, and 11.10 Desktop Support Ends Today
- Dropbox Announces its First Developer Conference
Daily App Downloads
- ‘Where’s My Water?’ is a Fun Physics Puzzle Game
- Get Double the Physics Game Fun Rolled into One with Physics Gamebox
- Embark on a Wild Run Through the Jungle with Banana Kong
How-To Geek Weekly Trivia Roundup
- Which Country Has The Highest Rate Of Tornadoes Per Area?
- Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle Is Widely Used By What Organization?
- One Of Tesla’s Early Experiments Caused New Yorkers To Panic Over What?
- With The Y2K Problem Behind Us, We Now Need To Worry About What?
- What Was The First Youtube Video To Reach One Billion Views?
- What Was The First Instant Messaging App?
- The Terms Uppercase And Lowercase Are Derived From What?
One Year Ago on How-To Geek
- 47 Keyboard Shortcuts That Work in All Web Browsers
- The Best Tips and Tweaks for Getting the Most Out of Google Chrome
- How to Easily Create Search Plugins & Add Any Search Engine to Your Browser
- How to Speed Up Web Browsing with Search & Bookmark Keywords
- HTG Explains: What’s a Browser User Agent?
- How to Change Your Browser’s User Agent Without Installing Any Extensions
How-To Geek Comics Weekly Roundup
- Golfing just got Easier
- His Geek Status is in Danger
- Lessons Learned from Sales Training
- Extreme Ad Blocking
- Staying One Step Ahead
- Inspiration for a Phone Design
- Steadily going Downhill