This Is What Dictators Are Really Scared About [Image Cache]

Ahmadinejad, Qaddafi, Chaves, Mugabe and Kim Jong-Il. All the same dogs with different collar, scared about the same thing. More »

IKON OFFICE SOLUTIONS EMULEX

Man Discovers His Online Girlfriend of 2.5 Years Is Fake—After Paying Her $200,000 [Bizarre]

A 48-year-old man in Naperville, Illinois must be crying his eyes out right now because he was recently finally forced to face reality about a few things. More »

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CrunchGear Week in Review: New Species Edition

Here are some stories from the past week on CrunchGear: Weekend Giveaway: Rebtel Wants You To Have A Motorola Atrix The Creditor Carbon Fiber Money Clip Knife Keeps Your Money Safe What Is Thunderbolt And Will It Change Your Life? Little Magic Stories: Interactive Art With The Kinect Thodio iBox Is A Cute And Customizable [...]

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Samson Zoom H1 Handy Recorder Review

Recording microphones are common place these days.� They are on our phones, iPods, mp3 players and even on pens.� But usually these microphones don?t result in the best audio quality from their built-in�mono microphone.� That?s where Samson?s Zoom H1 Handy Recorder comes in. The package includes the Zoom H1 Handy Recorder with a preloaded 2GB [...]

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Five privacy protection Firefox add-ons for Data Privacy Day

Happy Data Privacy Day! While Lee already published one roundup showing a multitude of various tools, this post is all about Firefox!

If you're reading Download Squad, you already know all of these classics. Kudos to you! Now go ahead and let your less computer-savvy coworkers or family members read this list, and make sure they install at least one of these if they use Firefox at all.

• HTTPS Everywhere is an add-on by the beardies over at the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation). It forces Firefox to communicate using HTTPS (secure HTTP) with a number of major websites, such as Google, Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, PayPal and others.
• Ghostery focuses on those corporations and institutions bent on tracking your movements around the Web (or on their own websites). It detects when you're being tracked by Google Analytics, Facebook and over 400 other ad networks, and provides an easy way to block those tracking mechanisms while leaving all other JavaScript functionality intact.
• Web of Trust provides a clear "traffic light" indication showing which sites you can trust with your credit card details, and which sites you should be leery of. The ratings are user-generated, and you don't have to access the actual website in question to view them - they show up right on the search results page when you use Google, Yahoo!, Bing and even Wikipedia.
• NoScript is somewhat similar to Ghostery mentioned above, in that it also blocks JavaScript. But it's a more extreme solution: Rather than just block trackers, it implements a "white list", blocking all JavaScript except for scripts running on domains you trust. One of its many advantages is that it protects against cross-site scripting attacks.
• BetterPrivacy protects you against a different kind of cookie - one that you can't flush just by clearing your browser history. These cookies are called Local Storage Objects, or Flash cookies, and are put on your computer using the Flash plug-in. BetterPrivacy scrubs these cookies off your system every time your exit your browser.

Did I miss any of the must-have privacy add-ons for Firefox? Share your recommendations in the comments!

[Image credit: dcJohn]

Five privacy protection Firefox add-ons for Data Privacy Day originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Madness Takes Physical Form Within the Caduceus Cellphone Hack [Video]

South Korean inventor Mok Young Bak took his apparent obsessive compulsive disorder—an intangible thing—and put it into Caduceus, a very real thing. It serves one, mad purpose: Simultaneous cellphone usage from a remote location. More »

MANTECH INTERNATIONAL L-1 IDENTITY SOLUTIONS INSIGHT ENTERPRISES FINISAR

Mac OS X Lion has TRIM support for SSDs, HiDPI resolutions for improved pixel density?

As you'd expect, developers have wasted no time in tearing apart the Mac OS X Lion preview, and in so doing they've allegedly discovered some intriguing things -- namely, support for the SSD-wiping TRIM command, and a series of high-DPI display modes which would allow for icons and UI elements with twice the graphical detail -- which could mean a PC-sized Retina Display. The former doesn't sound like the most exciting upgrade, but it's truly a boon for Mac users with solid state storage, as TRIM can greatly improve write speeds in compatible drives. As far as the improved pixel density rumors are concerned, it's not clear whether Apple's actually looking at doubling display resolutions in new computers (9to5Mac imagines a 15-inch MacBook Pro with a 2880 x 1800 screen) or whether Apple's simply moving to maintain icons that are precisely the same physical size across all its displays -- which would make fantastic sense for a touchscreen UI, by the way.

Mac OS X Lion has TRIM support for SSDs, HiDPI resolutions for improved pixel density? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Feb 2011 19:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Electronista, CrunchGear  |  MacRumors, MacGeneration  | Email this | Comments

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Internet Explorer 9 pinned sites: how they work, and the best examples on the Web

If, by some weird quirk of fate, you missed the big news yesterday: Internet Explorer 9 RC is now available to download. If you've read our complete guide you'll know about one of IE9's neatest features: pinned websites.

In essence, it takes the Firefox and Chrome idea of pinned app tabs and goes a few steps further by actually integrating with the operating system. To pin a site, simply visit it in IE9, then drag the tab down to the Windows taskbar. Your tab will quickly close and re-open in a new (color-coded!) window.

Pinned sites can do three very awesome things: they can provide notifications, such as new messages; you can right click the pinned icon to access a jump list to various parts of the site (see right); and finally, pinned sites can even have thumbnail toolbars -- you can control a media player, from a pinned site!

The thing is, though, a website has to be explicitly coded to provide these features -- and while Microsoft has done a good job of getting major Web service providers to add the IE9-specific meta tags, it will be some months before every site has IE9's special pinned site magic.

After the break, we have a comprehensive list of the best examples of IE9 pinned sites from across the Web. Make sure you've downloaded and installed IE9 before you continue, too.

Continue reading Internet Explorer 9 pinned sites: how they work, and the best examples on the Web

Internet Explorer 9 pinned sites: how they work, and the best examples on the Web originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily Crunch: Sea Comb Edition

Video: Connected Medical Devices At The GSMA Embedded Mobile House A USB-Powered Aquarium, Alarm Clock, Thermometer, And Desk Light Honeycomb Ported To The Nexus One New Amazon Kindle Commercial: ?The Book Lives On? A Very Happy 25th Birthday To The Legend Of Zelda

CERADYNE COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY LIFECELL J2 GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS

Fido can stand under my Dogbrella ella ella ay ay ay

If you have a dog, you have stood in the rain with him while he does his business. No big deal for you, if you have an umbrella, but what about Fido? If you want to avoid wet dog smell, get your pooch his own umbrella – the Dogbrella. It’s a 29″ diameter canopy (think [...]

TRANSACTION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTS SALESFORCE COM METHODE ELECTRONICS INTERSECTIONS

Download every Sports Illustrated 2011 Swimsuit photo with a simple Perl script

After the runaway success of last year's Sports Illustrated Perl downloader, Download Squad reader and cameltoe connoisseur, Sparticus, has produced the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Downloader 2011. It's a simple Perl script that you can run on Windows, Mac and Linux -- and before you know it, your computer will be positively overflowing with bikini-clad babes.

Like last year, the script doesn't only download the final, glossy-magazine-destined photos. There's tons of behind-the-scenes stuff, and lots of shots that simply didn't make the final cut. Last year there were around 1200 photos to download -- we're still running this year's downloader, but it looks like there could be even more!

Linux users, you'll be able to simply download the script, chmod +x, and run. Windows users will need a copy of wget and a Perl distro, such as ActivePerl. Mac users can use the Xcode Developer Tools.

Alternatively, be a cool kid and run Ubuntu in VirtualBox!

Download every Sports Illustrated 2011 Swimsuit photo with a simple Perl script originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 06:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LastPass XSS vulnerability found, website and browser add-ons affected (updated)

Mike Cardwell, the Stallmanite who recently discovered a fantastically covert way of working out which Web services you're currently logged in to, has found a nasty XSS vulnerability in the LastPass password manager. The cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability not only allows nefarious types to see which sites you've recently logged in to, but it also provides access your email address and password reminder.

First off: don't worry. Cardwell reported the vulnerability to LastPass before writing it up, and it has since been fixed. We're not sure if the fix has propagated out to the Chrome and Firefox add-ons -- but we have to assume that Cardwell wouldn't have written his blog post if the vulnerability still existed.

With that said, you should still be more than a little concerned about the fundamental architecture of LastPass as an in-the-cloud password manager. While this cross-site scripting attack was fixed quickly, Cardwell thinks a similar attack "could easily happen again in future."

Beyond being susceptible to XSS attacks, LastPass doesn't even use HSTS, which means that man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks are also rather easy to pull off.

It's very hard for us to recommend LastPass as a password manager when further vulnerabilities will almost certainly be found. For the time being, you should check out KeePass, an offline password manager that, for now, is a lot more secure than LastPass.

Update: LastPass has now implemented HSTS and a few other features to make their website and browser add-ons a lot harder to attack in the future. Hooray!

[Thanks to Brad for the tip!]

LastPass XSS vulnerability found, website and browser add-ons affected (updated) originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 27 Feb 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily Tip: How to move your iTunes library to another hard drive

Hard drive coming dangerously close to being overrun with data and wondering how to move your iTunes library to another location? If you have a ton of stuff on your computer and your iTunes library isn’t helping the situation out have no fear we are here to help! Find out how, after the break! [Apple iTunes [...]

Daily Tip: How to move your iTunes library to another hard drive is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

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Consumer Reports Finds Antenna Issue on Verizon iPhone

Consumer Reports claims the Verizon iPhone 4 exhibits signal loss when held in a specific way, similar to the problems seen in the AT&T iPhone 4 last year.
More�Verizon iPhone coverage on Wired.com:

Review: Verizon iPhone
Hands-On With the Verizon iPhone Hotspot
Price Chart: Verizon iPhone vs. AT&T iPhone
Switching to Verizon iPhone? 3 Ways to Shave the Termination Fee
Verizon [...]

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Gaikai beta goes live, brings Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 2, Sims 3 and Second Life demos to your browser window

Remember Gaikai, the cloud computing service that lets you demo video games in your browser window without downloading a thing? It's live, meaning it's no longer just us tech journalists that get to give it a thorough try. Provided you have a blazing fast internet connection and both Flash and Java installed, four streaming game demos are a just a click (and possibly a survey, or a short wait) away, including three EA titles (Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 2, The Sims 3) and Second Life. As we discovered in our initial hands-on, it's not a flawless experience even with a fantastic internet connection, but it's not meant to be -- the entire point is to allow you to adequately sample a game right before making a purchase decision. It's also a free taste of the future, and you don't see those every day.

Gaikai beta goes live, brings Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 2, Sims 3 and Second Life demos to your browser window originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Feb 2011 20:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Big Download  |  David Perry  | Email this | Comments

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Transphorm promises brickless laptop chargers, power savings aplenty

Stop us if you've heard this one before. A mysterious startup company operates in secret for a number of years, raises millions in funding from some of the biggest players in the industry (in this case, Google and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers), and announces a breakthrough technology that promises to change everything. In this case the startup is a company called Transphorm, and the breakthrough is a gallium nitride technology that promises to improve AC/DC transformers. While that might not sound like the most exciting thing in the world, the company's CEO says that it could not only drastically reduce the electricity wasted by electronics that currently rely on silicon components, but significantly reduce the size of the components as well. One prime example there is laptop charger bricks, which Transphorm says could be reduced or even completely eliminated by building the necessary components right into the laptop itself. The company also sees a huge opportunity with electric cars, and especially data centers, which is one of the first markets it will be targeting. Of course, complete details are still fairly light at the moment, but the company is promising to unveil its first products in just two weeks, and you can be sure we'll be watching.

Transphorm promises brickless laptop chargers, power savings aplenty originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Feb 2011 16:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Boing Boing  |  Transphorm, Technology Review  | Email this | Comments

MANTECH INTERNATIONAL L-1 IDENTITY SOLUTIONS INSIGHT ENTERPRISES FINISAR

LastPass XSS vulnerability found, website and browser add-ons affected

Mike Cardwell, the Stallmanite who recently discovered a fantastically covert way of working out which Web services you're currently logged in to, has found a nasty XSS vulnerability in the LastPass password manager. The cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability not only allows nefarious types to see which sites you've recently logged in to, but it also provides access your email address and password reminder.

First off: don't worry. Cardwell reported the vulnerability to LastPass before writing it up, and it has since been fixed. We're not sure if the fix has propagated out to the Chrome and Firefox add-ons -- but we have to assume that Cardwell wouldn't have written his blog post if the vulnerability still existed.

With that said, you should still be more than a little concerned about the fundamental architecture of LastPass as an in-the-cloud password manager. While this cross-site scripting attack was fixed quickly, Cardwell thinks a similar attack "could easily happen again in future."

Beyond being susceptible to XSS attacks, LastPass doesn't even use HSTS, which means that man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks are also rather easy to pull off.

It's very hard for us to recommend LastPass as a password manager when further vulnerabilities will almost certainly be found. For the time being, you should check out KeePass, an offline password manager that, for now, is a lot more secure than LastPass.

[Thanks to Brad for the tip!]

LastPass XSS vulnerability found, website and browser add-ons affected originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 27 Feb 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just How Likable Is Each Angry Bird Anyway? [Image Cache]

We don't really want to think about how many hours we've spent flinging little cartoon birds at little cartoon pigs—it's too sad to consider all that wasted time. Instead we're going to focus on which of those little cartoon birds we like best and why. More »

MOTOROLA LINEAR TECHNOLOGY . JDS UNIPHASE INFOCUS