With Windows 7 mobile launching in October of this year, Microsoft has been busy putting on the final touches of their favored smart phone.
After giving all of their employees a free Windows 7 phone, Microsoft is now asking them to create apps for the Windows Market in their “spare time.”
Understand the unique value of Windows Phone 7 and evangelize to your customers, partners, friends and family!
[Read more…] about Microsoft to employees: Can you build a Windows 7 app for us for free?
World of Warcraft players, beware! You are now the target of a group (or groups) of cyber criminals. The scam’s premise is nothing new – the cyber criminals send e-mails to WoW gamers, asking them to verify their Battle.net account. In order to do so, the gamer has to enter his password. Of course, the web site to which the gamer is directed to is a fake one, and once the details are inputted – poor gamer!
Discovered and made public by F-Secure, a Finnish antivirus vendor, the scam is only one of the tactics that various cyber criminals are using. Another on going thing is someone sends you a chat message on WoW. This is in relation to the new Cataclysm beta. Spam Fighter shares the details:
Tom Kelchner, Security Researcher at Sunbelt, states that his friend Douglas got one message in a chat session from a person who employed the handle “BlizzalCOL” during the WoW game. He told him about the availability of the beta so the Cataclysm on the World of Warcraft map could expand, as reported by Sunbeltblog on July 13, 2010.
Kelchner further wrote that the message spread via an URL that took to Cataclysmtest.net looking like the login page of WoW.
He added that to determine the destination of the Cataclysmtest.net, he fed an unreal username and password to the site. Surprisingly, they were accepted, implying that the site was possibly stealing login information. Hence, it was a phishing site.
With WoW accounts being in high demand – especially those who have well-established characters – these developments are not surprising at all, are they? Needless to say, WoW players ought to be even more careful about using their login details.
Everyone knows that Apple’s computers outperform Windows-based computer practically in all levels. However, don’t just sit back and think that, since you’re using a Mac, you shouldn’t be concerned about security issues.
Recently, a flaw in Apple’s web browser Safari was discovered by a security researcher. The flaw involves Safari’s auto-fill feature. Because of a bug, malicious web sites can harvest information that the user inputs on the browser. This information can be anything from name, e-mail, phone numbers, address, and more.
Jeremiah Grossman is the guy who discovered the flaw. He is the chief technology officer of WhiteHat Security, a computer security company. He says that he had contacted Apple prior to publishing his findings in his blog. This was back in June. However, he merely got an auto-reply from the company, and no follow up communication ensued.
If you’re thinking that this might just be part of a smear campaign against Apple, think again. The technology giant has acknowledged that the flaw does exist. They gave a statement saying that they are taking the issue seriously and are working towards fixing it at the soonest possible time. Other than that, however, they did not give any information.
What should you do in the meantime? I suggest switching to another web browser till Apple gets things together. Alternatively, if you feel disloyal doing that (I don’t see why, though), disable the auto-fill feature of your Safari. Seth Weintraub provides more information on this.
In the last two years one of the most popular phenomena online has been the rise of “daily deals services”. While the meteoric rise of Twitter has certainly been a more prominent phenomenon, an increasing number of exclusive service sites have started to offer “daily deals”. Unlike affiliate based or coupon websites, these “daily deals services” sites have a straightforward methodology, which is very profitable and logically constructed for consumers looking for discounted products.
In this infographic we have a look at what the biggest “daily deal services” sites do, which ones have gained most popularity and how they have achieved such viral success, along with analysis and comparisons between these main players.
With thanks to Infographiclabs for this visual guide to daily deals sites.
Hardcore graphic novel lovers just might be shaking their heads. I know a number of people who will not even consider reading their graphic novels in digital format, and I totally respect that. However, there are also people who get quite excited about the idea of graphic novels being available in digital format.
With the prevalence of e-book readers (e-book reader wars, remember?), it is not a surprise that graphic novels are soon going to be staple content. This is actually not a new idea since there are graphic novels that have been converted to digital format. Two groups are looking to change that now.
Cognito Comics and Tall Chair, two start ups based in San Francisco are working on creating comics specially designed for the iPad. The New York Times recently covered this development, and shared how David Burwen (Executive Producer of Cognito) showed his graphic novel Operation Ajax. This is based on the nonfiction book All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer.
Their verdict?
“Animated transitions give the comic a cinematic feel, and also give the artist more control over how the page unfolds. The format provides an opportunity to make supplementary material such as photos and documents available within the relevant comics panel.
It’s different from anything I’ve seen in digital comics. Technologies like ComiXology’s “guided view” create a smooth experience by moving the reader from panel to panel, but you’re still reading your basic, old-fashioned comics page.”
I believe that this will introduce a new age in graphic novels. Pretty soon, I think we will be seeing more titles available for download.
Despite lacking numerous apps, an army of developers and Apple’s cult like following, HP’s PalmPad will probably be able to hold its own against the iPad tsunami that is sweeping the planet.
While Steve Jobs greatest creation allows you to interact with the iPad by using all ten digits, PalmPad may one up the iPad–literally–by introducing a simple tool that will appeal to corporate execs, artists and journalists around the world.