Tech Check

Top 25 Android Apps

2011-07-01T14:57:00.001+05:30

1. Google Voice

Google Voice is a service that is so useful I consider it one of the top benefits of Android itself, especially since Apple rejected the Google Voice app for the iPhone. It gives you a phone number that can ring to multiple places or devices and it allows you to access all of your voicemail and text messages over the Web. The Android app integrates even deeper. It can make outgoing calls look like they’re coming from your Google Voice number so that you can keep your real mobile number private.

2. Advanced Task Killer

One of the realities of having a multitasking mobile OS in Android is that you have to manage your apps so that they don’t hurt performance or battery life. Advanced Task Killer (or ATK) is my favorite. It even comes with a widget that you can tap once to kill all open apps.

3. Dropbox

Dropbox is a great cloud service that automatically syncs a folder of files between multiple computers (Windows, Mac, or Linux). This app extends Dropbox to Android and interacts with other apps (such as Documents To Go) to open the files.

4. Evernote

Once you get used to typing on a virtual keyboard (and it honestly took me over a year to do it), then these devices are great for note-taking, and Evernote is a great note-taking app. It is similar to Dropbox in that it saves data locally but syncs it across all your machines and devices.

5. DroidAnalytics

For some reason Google doesn’t have an official app (for either Android or iPhone) for Google Analytics. The best one I’ve found on Android is DroidAnalytics. Another good one is mAnalytics.

6. Documents To Go

The free version of Documents To Go offers a great little reader for Word and Excel files. You can upgrade to the full version (for $15) if you want to edit files and add PowerPoint files to the mix. If you do want editing capability, I’d also recommend taking a look at QuickOffice.

7. Amazon Kindle

I never warmed up to the Amazon Kindle e-reader, but I’m a big fan of the Kindle mobile app. Since it was released I’ve read a lot more books simply because my smartphone is always with me and I can pull it and read a few pages anytime I’ve got a couple minutes free.

8. Places Directory

This is an awesome app for finding shops and services near your current location. From restaurants to movie theaters to medical facilities to taxis, this app is very accurate and takes advantage of the business information from Google Local. This app is better than the info you get from a GPS unit (or app) and better than any of the similar apps available on the iPhone.

9. Tripit

I dig Tripit. It is by far the best app I’ve found for keeping track of all my travel itineraries. It runs on some great backend systems. You simply forward your confirmation emails for your flights, hotels, rental cars, and more to Tripit and it automatically organizes them into trips with all your details and confirmation numbers.

10. Seesmic

Twitter is an amazing instant-intelligence engine and it was made for mobile browsing. Although there’s an official Twitter app for Android now, Seesmic is still the best Android Twitter client.

11. FCC Speedtest

I’m obsessed with running speed tests to check my bandwidth in various places, both to see 3G fluctuations and to check the quality of Wi-Fi. There are a number of really good speedtest apps, but my new favorite is the FCC Test app.

12. Astro File Manager

Another one of the great things about Android (if you’re a geek or a tinkerer) is that you have lower-level access to the system itself. Astro is an app that lets you navigate the Android file system.

13. Got To Do

There are plenty of to-do apps to choose from on Android but I prefer Got To Do because of the solid interface and the fact that it can sync with the online service Toodledo.

14. Gist

Many of us have contact lists scattered across various computers, devices, and online services. Gist is a Web service that can bring them together and even pull in stuff from the Web to help you stay up to date with your most important contacts. There’s an Android app as well as an iPhone app.

15. TED Mobile

TED is a fascinating event that features a meeting of the minds of some of society’s most influential thinkers. You’ll definitely disagree with some of them, because there’s a large diversity of opinions, but many talks are worth listening to. What I love is that they’ve taken the videos from their conference and made them freely available on the Web. This app provides a great way to access the videos. I hope more conferences follow TED’s lead on this.

16. Pandora

Pandora is a streaming “radio station” for the Internet age. You simply search by an artist or song and it will create a running playlist based on that one piece of information. It intersperses an occasional ad between songs but the ads tend to be fairly localized and occasionally even useful.

17. Shazam

If you want to impress your friends with a mobile app, show them Shazam. Ever hear a song being played at a store or on the radio and ask yourself, “Oh, what song is that?” That’s where Shazam comes in. Just hit the button and let it listen for 15 seconds, query its database, and then return the name of artist and the song. It has about an 80% success rate.

18. Dial Zero

Are you one of those people who dials a customer service line and just keeps pressing zero until you get to talk to a real person? Then Dial Zero is your new friend. This app provides a directory of a ton of U.S. businesses and gives you numbers to help you get closer to a real person and instructions for which prompts to hit to speak to a human being as quickly as possible.

19. Google Goggles

This is a fun app that is a little but ahead of its time. It does visual searches. You can take pictures of things and then the app tries to tell you what they are. It’s limited in its scope but it is pretty cool, and it’s definitely a peek into the future. One of the coolest features is the ability to take pictures of text in a foreign language and let that app translate for you. In a foreign country, this can help you read street signs and avoid going into the wrong bathroom. :-)

20. Google Sky Map

Ever look up at the night sky and try to tell your kids the name of that constellation you’re pointing at, or try to remember which planet that is in the southern sky? Google SkyMap lets you point your smartphone at it and get the information. This is part of a new breed of apps called “Augmented Reality” apps that layer digital information on top of real world experiences.

21. Tricorder

A lot of geeks I know like to say that our smartphones are becoming more and more like the Tricorders on Star Trek. Well, here’s a fun app that turns your Android device into a virtual Tricorder. It even offers some useful environmental information, including GPS data, wireless data, and ambient sound measurements.

22. FxCamera

Honestly, the camera software on Android is an area where major improvements are needed, but this app is a great example of what’s possible. It has solid camera controls, full customization options, and offers some great effects for photos.

23. Photoshop Mobile

Photoshop is, of course, the best known photo editor in the world and its mobile app doesn’t do anything to hurt that reputation. But while the desktop version is know for having a zillion features, the mobile app is distinguished by its simplicity. It’s the best Android (and iPhone) photo editing app for simple crops, brightness adjustments, and sharpens, for example.

24. Bump

Bump is a fun (and useful) idea for sharing info between two phones using the accelerometer, and it works across Android and iPhone. You can use it to share contact info (yours and others), photos, and apps. You both simply open the Bump app, choose what you to share, and then hold the phones in your hands and bump your hands together.

25. Barcode Scanner

This app turns the Android camera into a barcode scanner. You simply scan a product’s UPC code and let the app go to work to find it in Google Product Search or a search on the open Web. You’ll be amazed at how fast it works. This is great for when you’re shopping retail and you want to check the price of a product online before buying to make sure you’re paying a fair price.

Tips for googling! ! !

2010-09-25T18:55:00.015+05:30

Tips for googling! ! !

In the era of 21^st century, google is the instrumental force for development, it may be anything and everything you just need to google it and you are done. Today, the context of GOD is changing and now is all like Google Oriented Development (GOD).

But every time you search for something you never get the desired outcome always, because the crowd doesn’t know to search it in a manner to get the desired result at once.

It would be really great if you get the stuff that you were searching for in a seconds, and the same desired result would be a motivational factor to you to develop in a way you wanted to be, for that you need to remember or learn or memorize certain terms, certain techniques while searching. If at all you are able to do this, than the world is yours explore it and develop yourself!! ! This post would be really so very helpful to all if you implement the same in your real-time schedule. . .

Here are the techniques:-

Exact Search:

It lets you search the exact stuff that you are looking for let’s say you are looking for content about Yahoo messenger. Instead of just typing Yahoo messenger into the Google search box, you need to type it explicitly for the phrase. To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.

“Yahoo messenger”

Exclude Words:

For instance you were searching for internet marketing, but you want to exclude all the results that contain the term advertising.

To do the above, you need to use "-" sign in front of the word that you want to be excluded from the results while searching.

Internet marketing -advertising

Site Specific Search:

If at all you are looking for a particular website. Than you need to type it in a way like this

"internet marketing" site:www.smallbusinesshub.com

Boolean Operators:

The boolean operators like AND,OR,NOT can be used in search box to connect the words !The search engine understands them as what they mean but the must be in capital letters !

For Eg swim OR float. This will return the results containing either swim or float! ! ! and the same can be done in OR and NOT as well. .

Word Definitions:

If you need to quickly look up thedefinition of a word or phrase, simply use the "define:" command and you are done.

Define: perception

Search a phonebook:

“phonebook” searches for street address and phone number information.

For instance phonebook : Abhishek + INDIA will list down all names of person having “Abhishek” in their names and located in

“INDIA”. This can be used as a great tool for hacker

Searching a keyword that is in a Particular Website.

The “intext:” syntax searches for words in a particular website. It ignores links or

URLs and page titles.Intext : Deployment will return only links to those web pages that has the search keyword "Deploynent" in its webpage.

To get the current time of any city globally.

All you need to do is time: cityname

For example:- time: Mumbai will redirect you to the page with the result of the current time and the current day.

Searching a particular type of a file

This “filetype:” syntax restricts Google search for files on internet with particular

extensions (i.e. doc, pdf or ppt etc).

filetype: perception.doc

Searching site:

The “site:” syntax restricts Google to query for certain keywords in a particular site or domain.

Site: www.gizmohcheck.co.cc

Use Of '~' sign :

Using '~' before any word will return the results also containing the synonyms of the word !

intitle:

Searches sites with one search term in the title.

allintitle:

Searches sites with all search terms in the title.

inurl:

Searches sites with one search term in the URL.

allinurl:

Searches sites with all search terms in the URL.

All the above can be done by downloading a simple tool "GOOGLE HACKS"

Download Google Hacks For Free

How to Protect your USB Drive with a Password

2010-09-23T21:13:00.000+05:30

A USB Flash drive is a data storage device integrated with USB(i.e Universal Serial Bus). These drives have become so much popular because they are portable, fast start-up, reliable, removable and rewritable. They are very handy and you must have used them to carry your data.
But what would happen when you have some confidential data in your drive or if the drive gets stolen and someone steals your data? So I would like to tell you a tool called USB Flash Security, which helps you to password protect you USB drive.

This tool is quite simple to use. When you run it for the first time, you will see the following window. You can click on “Don’t display again”, to avoid it from displaying every time you start.

After clicking OK you can see main Window. This Window would show all the hard drives attached to your computer. From the top tab bar, you can browse and find your USB Drive.

I have attached a 4 Gb pen drive with USB. Now the first step to use this tool is to locate your USB drive and then click on it.

After locating your drive, first you would need to back up your date before tool deletes all data for protection. When done, click on your USB Drive and then click on Install. Then it would prompt you with a message, that your all data will be deleted. Click on Ok to start the process.

Now you need to set password to protect your drive. You can type any phrase or word which can remind you of your password in Hint. Click OK when done.

The tool would again prompt with an message to confirm the process. Click on Ok to start the process. Then within some time, it would format your USB Drive and then your drive will be protected with the password. To check, remove your USB drive from your PC and then plug-in again.

When you plug-in, and then try to open it, you would be prompted with the password. Hence you won’t be able to open it without that password.

If the input password is wrong then you will be prompted with the following error.

Hence no one would be able to open this USB Drive without knowing the password. And if you want to remove the password from your USB Drive then you will need to follow the above steps to remove the password protection from your drive.

The size of USB Flash Security is 1.19 Mb and it is free for personal and non-commercial purpose. This tool is compatible with all the versions of Windows.

DOWNLOAD

How to import your tweets directly from tweeter

2010-09-23T18:44:00.015+05:30

There are several ways to import your tweets from twitter, like :-
1)By using an API for tweeter.
1. You need to visit backupmytweets.com , than you need to click on the button “BACKUP YOUR TWEETS!!!”
2. Than you need to sign in @ Twitter.com by clicking on the button “Sign In At Twiiter.com and backup Your Tweets”.
3. After signing in the application (API), will ask to grant the permission to access your twitter account. Press the “ALLOW” button and than the twitter will redirect you to the application.
4. In the Dashboard of the API in the module of download formats, there are three formats available, we are going to take example with xml format.
5. Just save that xml file on your PC.
6. Open a new workbook in EXCEL, than navigate to the data tab than select “From Other Sources”
7. Than you need to click on From XML Data Import, than navigate your explorer and select the XML file that we had saved it before.
8. Once the XML file is opened than just save it as a worksheet.

2) By using a Tool
1. First and foremost thing that you need to do is download the tool known as “The Archivist”.
Download The Archivist
2. In real term an archivist is a professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to information determined to have long-term value. The information maintained by an archivist can be any form of media(photographs, video or sound recordings, letters, documents, electronic records, etc.).
3. Here archivist is a Twitter Search Archive Tool, this tool uses a concept of data mining, and in this case the data would be extracted from twitter.
4. Run the setup and Install the archivist tool.
5. Once you had installed it, open the application than click on the button Get Latest.
6. A simple click of “Export to Excel” and you have a .TXT file you can open in Excel

Protect Your System Settings Being Changed By Virus and Malware Infection

2010-09-21T02:06:00.001+05:30

We all very conscious about our data and we all try to protect it from being infected by anti-viruses and other malwares which can harm our data (system) while surfing the internet. To protect the system from such viruses and malware we use various tools, one of such tool is ‘Time Freeze Free’. This is very light and provides better security to system.

This tool gives you the general info/configuration of your system and provides facility to protect your folders or specific location on your system. It would indirectly act as anti-virus software.

Install this tool and restart the system or else it won’t work. After opening the app, u would see a black button in the bottom, it is a switch to ON and OFF the app. In the above snapshot we can see the system info related to C drive and the amount of RAM installed in the system and the amount of space occupied and vacant.

The other tab in the app window, named as Folder Protection, in this tab you specify a folder to be checked regularly for any virus or malware. I would suggest to keep the Download Folder under regular check.

As I mentioned, this app is very light (2.2 MB) as compared to other freeware applications which are used to protect your system. You would require a key after downloading this application, the link for the same is mentioned below. This tool is compatible all the versions of Windows as it has been checked on Windows 7 32-bit Ultimate edition.

Download and Get Key

Restart on Crash

2010-09-19T22:24:00.000+05:30

I was very irritated with the unstable tools or applications which used to run properly in the beginning but then started hanging up. Whenever I used to keep my system turned on for longer period of time, then while turning it off, I at times have to use force shut down command to shut down my system. Some of the applications hang up, when they are operating for more than certain period. In my system Gtalk used to hang a lot and these problems were always discovered after 1 or half an hour, so I used to miss lot of important instant messages. But, then I came with a solution knows as ‘Restart On Crash’, and this freeware really helped me a lot.

As the name of this tool says, that it will restart the application which got hung while running on the system. It will keep monitoring the application selected by you and whenever they stopped operating, then it will restart those applications. While monitoring it will continuously show the status of that application, if they are working fine then their status will running.

When you will launch this tool, you will see an almost blank application window with very few options like add, delete, settings and view log. A blank white gap in the middle of the application window has been allotted for the applications which are being monitored by this tool. When you click the add option, then you can see a similar application window as shown below.

You can either add a file or you can add an application process from your system. Now, after adding the file, you will have to decide the condition on which this tool will assume that selected application to be crashed. After the selection, you have to adjust the time duration in seconds for which it will wait before killing that process and restarting it. The selected applications will be enlisted in the application window. Now, you can also delete any applications from the list from ‘Delete’ option. You can also view the logs to check that how many times that unstable tool has been restarted.

The size of this tool around 1 Mb and the best past is that, you can use anywhere on any system as this tool is portable. This tool is also compatible with all the versions of Windows as it has been checked with Windows 7 32-bit Ultimate edition.

Download Restart On Crash

How to Turn Off, Disable Video Files Thumbnails In Windows Explorer

2010-09-19T18:33:00.002+05:30

In windows the video files are being shown as thumbnail view, by default in windows 7 these thumbnails might make windows explorer slow to load when there are so many video files in a folder. In such case you can speed up windows explorer to show these files when the folder is opened by turning off the thumbnails shown for these files, follow the procedure below to disable thumbnails beings shown for files.

1. Open Windows Explorer or just open My Computer and then press the alt key on the keyboard and navigate to file menu Tools >> Folders Options as shown in the image below.




2. Under folder options, click View tab and locate the option which says Always Show icons, never thumbnails and check this option as shown in the image below.

3. Click apply button and then ok, Once you check this option you will not see thumbnails for video files and rather it will show icons. However this tip would be helpful in case you identify these video files with their names.

i hope this helps you guys in identifing the video files and at the same time speeding your explorer to load the same.

Se7en File Replace – Windows 7 System File Replacing Utility

2010-09-18T09:52:00.000+05:30

There could be times when you need to replace a system file in windows 7, but in order to do that you would need to take ownership of that file. if you want to avoid this situation of taking ownership you can use this free utility called Se7en File Replacer.

In order to replace the system file with the modified system file, drag and drop the modified file over this replacer utility. It will automatically look in "system32" folder, and if the old file is found it will be backed up and replaced without prompt, otherwise you can select it manually.

It also allows you to replace a system file which is in use, as it will end the process using the file and then after running it will automatically start the process after replacing is done.
Download Se7en File Replace | [ Source: IntoWindows.com ]

TimeComX

2008-09-11T22:00:00.002+05:30

TimeComX is a resource-friendly tool that can put your computer into different states after specified time.

>Following options are availabe:

Restart
Shutdown
Hibernation
Suspend
Alarm-clock

Features:
The program is equipped with a transparency mode and can be optionally kept in the background by a Tray Icon.
TimeComX has one default alarm sound which can be replaced by any sound you like.

Within a fixed period of time before the countdown has run out, you will be optically advised of it and a bit later acoustically as well.

Video CacheView

2008-09-11T17:54:00.003+05:30

After watching a video in a Web site, you may want to save the video file into your local disk for playing it offline in the future. If the video file is stored in your browser's cache, this utility can help you to extract the video file from the cache and save it for watching it in the future.
It automatically scans the entire cache of Internet Explorer and Mozilla-based Web browsers (Including Firefox) and finds all video files that are currently stored in it। It allows you to easily copy the cached video files into another folder for playing/watching them in the future. If you have a movie player that is configured to play flv files, it also allows you to play the video directly from your browser's cache.

Click Here To Download The zip File

Retroshare 0.4+

2008-09-11T17:25:00.003+05:30

Retroshare is a private and secure decentralised commmunication platform. It lets you share securely your friends, using a web-of-trust to authenticate peers and OpenSSL to encrypt all communication. RetroShare provides filesharing, chat, messages and channels...

RetroShare features

Graphical User Interface written with Qt4.2
UPnP / NAT-PMP port forwarding support
OpenSSL Encryption
Encrypted Chat & Filetransfer
Multiple simultaneous downloads / uploads
Search Friends
DHT support
Instant Chat Messaging

Click the following to Download:-
For Windows Click Here
For Ubuntu Click Here
For Debian Click Here

Laptop Battery Power Monitor -

2008-09-11T17:03:00.003+05:30

Laptop Battery Power Monitor allows you to track the battery power of your laptop. This cool little widget can be dragged across your desktop and placed over any window. To eliminate intrusiveness on your other programs, users can adjust the transparency of the battery. In addition, the battery can be resized to 33%, 50%, or 75% of its original size. If you place your mouse over the battery, your battery's charge status, total hours remaining, and percentage of battery life remaining will be displayed.

Click Here To Download For FREE!!

SpeedUpMyPC Publisher's Description:

2008-09-11T17:00:00.000+05:30

Are you tired of crashes, slow internet connections and applications that run out of resources every 5 minutes? SpeedUpMyPC is a new powerful system utility that helps you get the most out of your computer without being a Windows expert.

SpeedUpMyPC can free up memory and other resources. It can optimize your internet connection, reassign CPU resources to improve performance, prevent crashes and reduce startup times considerably. Get SpeedUpMyPC today and improve your system performance in minutes!

Why You Need SpeedUpMyPC
- Extremely Easy to Use
- Free Up RAM
- Improve CPU Usage
- Increase Internet Connection Speed
- Reduce Startup Times
- Recover from Crashes

A Cool Alternative to Windows Explorer

2008-08-28T12:10:00.000+05:30

I've never been impressed with the Windows file managers, especially Windows Explorer. If you want to copy a file from one folder to another, you have to open two instances of the program. Locate the source file in one copy of Explorer. Locate the target folder in the other copy of Explorer and then drag the file from one Window to the other. Why can’t explorer allow you to view the contents of two folders at once?

This past week I stumbled across an Explorer alternative called ExplorerPlus. I understand that it’s written by the same guys who wrote PowerDesk.

As you can see below, it has a tabbed interface that allows you to view multiple folders. This may not sound like a big deal, but it makes moving and copying files a breeze.

Microsoft Nips Anti-piracy

2008-08-28T10:45:00.003+05:30

Microsoft has recently updated their software that verifies whether a copy of Windows is genuine in its Windows XP Professional edition, making it similar to the notification used in Windows Vista.

Now when a version of windows XP Pro is found to be pirated, the next time a user logs on the system, the desktop screen background will be black, replacing all the custom desktops settings set by user. This will keep on appearing every 60 minutes, even if a user resets the screen's background. Previously, this was not a part of the WGA (Windows Genuine Notification) notification for Windows XP Pro.

Another new feature of the alert system is to put the PC into 'Persistent Desktop Notification' mode, with a banner at the bottom of the screen informing the user that the copy of Windows used by him is not Genuine. The notification is semi-transparent and usrers can interact with any objects underneath it. However, it will continue to appear on the screen untill a user installs a Genuine copy of Windows.

Microsoft had first distributed WGA only to the users of Microsoft's Download Services who wanted to install only Add-on software, Excluding security releases, for Windows XP. Then it became part of Microsoft's Update Service and then it was built into Windows Vista .

Add free facial recognition to unlock your Windows PC

2008-08-11T00:04:00.000+05:30

I wanted to see if there was an option to use the front-facing integrated web-cam for logging in to my device. A little dose of early afternoon Google found me a potential solution called LemonScreen from KeyLemon. I just downloaded the free beta application and installed it on my UMPC that runs Windows Vista and gave it a quick test. Unfortunately, LemonScreen won't work to replace the Windows logon, but you can use it to unlock your PC if you manually lock it or after a period of inactivity that you can specify.

In order to use LemonScreen, you first need to create a facial model, which is similar to enrolling your fingerprints on a reader. In this mode, the application continuously scans your face and offers instant feedback in the form a "face detection confidence" meter. Apparently, I have less of a face when wearing a hat, so I removed it and the confidence factor went up noticeably. After I got the confidence meter into the green, saved the facial model which also needed my Windows password.

Aside from removing my hat, I did some high-level testing of the recognition algorithm by turning my head in various directions. After wrenching my neck a few times, I realized that the confidence level was optimal when my head was positioned in the exact same way as enrollment, which I expected.

Since you can't replace your Windows login with LemonScreen, I set the inactivity parameter to 60 seconds. Leaving the machine alone for a minute caused the device to log and LemonScreen then works in a scanning mode so you can log in via your webcam.

I tested the recognition five times over five minutes and the app routinely unlocked my UMPC with just a second or two of scanning. If for any reason the application doesn't recognize your face, you can manually type in your Windows password at the bottom of the application; useful say if you don't have your glasses with you and LemonScreen is looking for them. ;)

If you don't want to set the inactivity timer, you can manually lock your machine with LemonScreen using an option in the tray icon. Ideally, this app would be much more useful if you could use it for your initial Windows login, but the developers are still working on that. While LemonScreen has limited settings and usage models for now, it appears to work well for those that want to lock a webcam-enabled PC and then log in with the camera.

I should also note that the app is geared for use on Windows 2000 and XP, although it appears to be running just fine on Vista in my case.

A Little Gift To All My Friends

2008-08-06T10:23:00.000+05:30

This movie is about two companies, one is Microsoft and other one is Apple.
Watch this movie and enjoy!!

The Pirates Of Silicon Valley

Analysis: Hacking VoIP, As Easy As 1-2-3

2008-08-04T21:00:00.000+05:30

Back in February, when little-known VoIPshield Systems sent a report to Cisco, Avaya and Nortel detailing vulnerabilities in their VoIP technologies, the three largest IP-PBX vendors on the market shrugged off the report and never responded. The vendors began cooperating and acknowledging on their Websites of the risks to their VoIP systems, only after VoIPshield continued reporting the vulnerabilities publicly. Nortel attributed a vulnerability to VoIPshield on April 10, for example.

Because of legislation in the data world, vendors have to announce vulnerabilities to the public. However, there's no legislation in the voice world, so it's up to vendors to disclose vulnerabilities. And so far, they've failed to be upfront with customers. FDIC examiners are not asking about VoIP yet, according to VoIPshield.

This is the state of VoIP security today. Most of the 300,000 privately owned IP-PBX systems deployed throughout the US are wide open to anyone that wants to hack them. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.

Originally used as a call saver, VoIP systems are now being integrated with data LANs to form unified communication platforms. The goal of vendors like Cisco and Microsoft run quite deep into the data stack. By combining instant messaging, presence awareness and other communication routes into a single platform, users will be able to stay in touch with everyone at all times. Microsoft touts this highly integrated VoIP architecture with its Office Communication Server 2007.

Those that believe in the new architecture and convert must know that their integrated VoIP platforms are in close contact with data LANs. And here's the where things can go awry quickly.

VoIPshield showed us a hack from outside a firewall using a known vulnerability in Cisco's Call Manager 5.0. First off, a quick search for Call Manager on Google gave us to an eye awakening experience. Cut and paste the following example into the Google search bar -- inurl:"ccmadmin" intext:CallManager. While not all links returned lead you to an exposed Call Manager, look for "Cisco Unified CallManager Console." Once you click on the link, you'll find Cisco's CallManager wide open to the Web.

When contacted about this article, Cisco had no comment.

This is public information, so we are not divulging any secrets. Moreover, VoIPshield and the Test Center agreed not to release further details of the exploit. There are many other searches you can do that will show much more information about gaining access to VoIP systems.

As they say, ignorance is a blessing, but not so with VoIP. Over the years, the misconception about phone systems being isolated boxes that can only transmit voice and the lack of information perpetuated by vendors have led many administrators to believe that it is OK to expose their call manager Web-based interfaces expose to the Web.

For the exploit, VoIPshield researchers used a laptop to connect to a Cisco Call Manager. The researchers used another laptop to connect to a Cisco soft phone and to view responses from a Call Manager. All that was needed was the IP of the call manager to run the tools.

Once connected, the researchers forced an update to the soft phones. The update contained an executable that allowed the researches to gain full control of users' corporate computers. The executable takes effect only after a reboot.

Because the executable was bundled as part of the Cisco soft phone application, it was completely undetected by personal firewalls or anti-malware software.

If you are not in shock yet, here's another Google (NSDQ:GOOG) search request that allow hackers to find Cisco phones -- inurl:NetworkConfiguration cisco. Keep in mind that it is possible to find phones exposed to an external network. From there, hackers can quickly gain the knowledge on how to exploit a Call Manager that works with the exposed phones.

The NetworkConfiguration search exposes IP addresses and brings up a page on some of the results with the IP addresses of the call manager. One search, one click, and there you go!

Since VoIP works alongside data LANs, hackers can use a free utility called VoIPhopper to jump between voice and data VLANs. This is by far the easiest way to bypass firewalls and just about all IDS software on the market. What's more, crafted VoIP packets can circumvent today's security IDS stacks, so even a direct attack in a multi-layered corporate intranet or a WAN will not be able to stop hackers from gaining unprecedented access to internal systems.

Let's just say, if banks can be extorted, anyone is vulnerable. Most administrators don't realize that VoIP phones are located in hostile environments. These phones are located where contractors work, in lobby areas and in hotel rooms. Simply walking into a bank and ask for a phone and almost everyone will not think twice to leave you unattended with the phone.

At 20 employees, Ontario based VoIPshield is working to establish itself as a security vendor. The company wields lots of power on the market because they're unique and the first ones to do this, but its technology is largely unknown. Like the more established data security vendors, VoIPshield is using its security alerts to gain the vendors' respect and market trust. In turn, the company offers two key products to partners and customers " VoIPaudit and VoIPguard.

Data VARs should take advantage of this moment by offering customers security scans with the VoIPaudit technology.

VoIPaudit performs security audit on VoIP infrastructure by automatically discovering devices and services. The product also tests for vulnerabilities. VoIPguard arrives with two detection engines. One engine is signature based and relies on discovered vulnerabilities in its database. The other engine is much smarter and attempts to discern traffic to find whether it's malicious or not. The smart engine looks at traffic going through logging events, studies protocols and general IP-PBX traffic behavior. Both products are fed with updates as part of a subscription service.

Source : http://www.crn.in/Security-001Aug008-Analysis-Hacking-VoIP-As-Easy-As-123.aspx

Lenovo Launches Ultraportables

2008-08-04T20:51:00.000+05:30

Lenovo announced its entry into the ultraportable notebook PC market with the IdeaPad S9 and S10 netbooks. The PC giant follows Acer and a number of other vendors who have launched similar models earlier this year.

"IdeaPad notebooks are the latest in a string of recently announced Lenovo products, designed specifically for consumers worldwide. With the rapid advances in technology, today's consumers are looking for mobile products that feature the best of basic computing functions in an extremely compact and affordable form. Lenovo has designed the IdeaPad netbooks for that purpose," said Liu Jun, Senior Vice President, Consumer Business Group, Lenovo.

The new notebooks are expected to be available in September and will be sold through the company’s retail stores.

Source : http://www.crn.in/NewsAug042008Lenovolaunchesultraportables.aspx

AMD expands Imageon processors

2008-08-04T20:50:00.000+05:30

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has announced the extension of its portfolio of products and technologies, likely to appear in mobile phones in late 2008 and 2009.

The extended portfolio of products and technologies enable media-rich applications as mobile TV, 3D games and high-fidelity audio, AMD said at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

The new handheld technology, which broadens the family of AMD Imageon processors, will be available for OEMs and silicon supplier licensees to sample beginning this month.

Among the new products is Imageon D160 mobile TV solution, which enables OEMs design mobile devices that receive over-the-air broadcast TV signals transmitted in the DVB-T and DVB-H standards. Its Imageon M210 audio processor would be able to deliver over 100 hours of music playback in airplane mode.

Imageon A250 application processor is expected to help phone manufacturers reduce the time and cost associated with system integration. Graphics To Go AMD delivers graphics to consumers everywhere by licensing intellectual property to mobile chipset suppliers.

AMD Z180 OpenVG 1.x graphics core offers a hardware-accelerated native vector graphics solution, ideal for advanced user interfaces, navigational systems and portable devices optimized for animation and Flash-style content. The Z460 OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics core will deliver fully programmable shader models for realistic 3D graphics, designed to revolutionize the mobile gaming experience for portable devices.

"Our latest handheld technologies allow AMD to better address new and emerging applications, such as 3D gaming and mobile TV, as well as satisfy today's consumers who crave portable music players and full-function touch-screen mobile phones," said Adrian Hartog, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer Electronics Group, AMD.

Source : http://news.ciol.com/News/Product-Features/News-Reports/AMD-expands-Imageon-processors/13208103634/0/

Dell launches Equallogic PS5000 series

2008-08-04T20:48:00.000+05:30

Dell India launched its next-generation iSCSI storage area network product - Dell Equallogic PS5000 series.

The product would fit corporates who want to function with virtual data centers.

The array solution comes from Dell's acquisition of EqualLogic Solution in February this year.

"We are aiming at large corporates across the verticals especially in IT/ITES, sectors. This is one of its kind unrivaled by competition in the Indian market," said Pallab Talukdar, director, Enterprise Solutions group, Dell.

The SAN is virtualized with automation of complex tasks that will stand out as the USP of the product said Talukdar.

Dell has been gaining from the SMB segment. The segment will be Dell's focus area, said the company.

Dell Equallogic series PS5000 will be available through Dell channel partners and through the company's direct sales force.

Source : http://news.ciol.com/News/Product-Features/News-Reports/Dell-launches-Equallogic-PS5000-series/29508106565/0/

Nuance intros mobile discovery solution T9 Nav

2008-08-04T20:40:00.000+05:30

MUMBAI, INDIA: Nuance Communications Inc, supplier of speech, smart keypad and imaging solutions, today announced the availability of T9 Nav, a mobile discovery solution that provides a faster way to access all features, applications and content on a mobile device in just a few key presses.

The company said that the solution is available via download for consumer evaluation trials in India.

T9 Nav will also be launching in the US and the UK.

The company said in a release that T9 Nav is ideal search and discovery solution for mobile communications device manufacturers, as well as other industry sectors such as office automation, personal navigation devices and consumer electronics.

T9 Nav comes as simple and powerful mobile discovery software that significantly improves the mobile user experience by allowing users to bypass button-driven menu systems which often require complex combinations of key presses, offering a fast, direct and repeatable way to access features and content on the phone.

It intelligently adapts to user behaviour over time, reordering and predicting frequently searched terms using the industry leading, patented algorithms from T9/XT9 software.

"Nuance Mobile Solutions make it easier to control mobile devices, automate customer services, and access and discover even the most advanced mobile applications and content - regardless of technical know-how, location, environment or physical and literacy capabilities," said Sunny Rao, general manager, ASEAN and India, Nuance Communications.

source : http://news.ciol.com/News/Product-Features/News-Reports/Nuance-intros-mobile-discovery-solution-T9-Nav/16608107126/0/