Neowin Back Page News

Notepad++ 6.1.3 Released

Mon, 28 May 2012 15:24:15 +0000

Notepad++ is a free (as in "free speech" and also as in "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.

Based on the powerful editing component Scintilla, Notepad++ is written in C++ and uses pure Win32 API and STL which ensures a higher execution speed and smaller program size. By optimizing as many routines as possible without losing user friendliness, Notepad++ is trying to reduce the world carbon dioxide emissions. When using less CPU power, the PC can throttle down and reduce power consumption, resulting in a greener environment.

Notepad++ 6.1.3 Released
05.28.2012

Whats New
• Enhance the performance issue for xml matching tags highlighting and for displaying clickable links.
• While the amount of file to open is larger than 200, a dialog will be shown to warn user.
• Fix Notepad++ close bug while move one cloned new empty document into another view, in the destination contained only this new empty document.
• Fix hanging problem while double-click on a project folder then (immediately) drag it.
• Fix a bug while command argument contain an empty string ("").
• Fix mouse cursor disappearing bug on right click while a project item is dragging.

Download: Notepad++

GameStop Rolls Out Android Tablets With Pre-Loaded Games To 1,600 Stores

Mon, 28 May 2012 15:20:09 +0000

Quote

Diversification is the key to longevity. With that likely in mind, GameStop just announced widespread availability of Android tablets throughout its chain of retail stores. This comes after a 200 store trial that started last October.
These aren’t ordinary Android tablets, though. GameStop is pre-loading the Samsung, Asus, Acer, and Toshiba with extra gaming titles such as Sonic CD, Riptide, the Kongregate Arcade app and a free issue of GameStop’s gaming mag, Game Informer. Thanks to these extras and with prices that are inline with other stores, GameStop actually has a chance to capture a bit of the tablet market.

GameStop has recently been bulking up its non-game retail stock in a likely attempt to stop the bleeding. While brick and mortar locations still focus mainly on video games, the website offers headphones, tablet accessories, even refurbished iPods and iPads. The company started testing selling Android tablets last October. Today’s announcement states loud and clear that GameStop sees a future in Android tablets even if no one else does

http://techcrunch.co...to-1600-stores/

Google Street View cars stole emails, SMSs, photos & documents

Mon, 28 May 2012 14:45:38 +0000

Sinister truth about Google spies: Street View cars stole information from British households but executives 'covered it up' for years

Work of Street View cars to be examined over allegations Google used them to download personal details

Emails, texts, photos and documents taken from wi-fi networks as cars photographed British roads

Engineer who designed software said a privacy lawyer should be consulted

Calls for police and Information Commissioner to investigate new evidence

Google has always claimed that it didn't know its software would collect the private information

Google is facing an inquiry into claims that it deliberately harvested information from millions of UK home computers.

The Information Commissioner data protection watchdog is expected to examine the work of the internet giant’s Street View cars.

They downloaded emails, text messages, photographs and documents from wi-fi networks as they photographed virtually every British road.

It is two years since Google first admitted stealing fragments of personal data, but claimed it was a ‘mistake’.

Now the full scale of its activities has emerged amid accusations of a cover-up after US regulators found a senior manager was warned as early as 2007 that the information was being captured as its cars trawled the country but did nothing.

Around one in four home networks in the UK is thought to be unsecured – lacking password protection – allowing personal data to be collected. Technology websites and bloggers have suggested that Google harvested the information simply because it was able to do so and would later work out a way to use it to make money.

The slow reaction of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to deal with the data theft is in direct contrast to the vigorous efforts of watchdogs in Germany, France and even the Czech Republic.

The fact that the Government was at the same time courting executives at Google opens up uncomfortable questions about its relationship with the company.

Read more: http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz1wAxUIWGV

Talk Talk customers data openly accessible

Mon, 28 May 2012 10:20:43 +0000

Quote

TalkTalk subsidiary's customer data placed on the web in IIS whoopsie

'We don't care, we're called TalkTalk not ListenListen'
By Bill Ray
Posted 28th May 2012 08:01 GMT

Greystone Telecom, adopted child of TalkTalk and provider of telecommunications to the business community, is unwittingly sharing customer and contract details with the world: but TalkTalk doesn't care.
The details include customer and contract prices, copies of sales orders and spreadsheets showing how things are going at the subsidiary which TalkTalk acquired last November.

The mistake is a classic: Microsoft's IIS - the server that comes with Windows - is configured by default for anonymous access, and happily allows itself to be indexed (and cached) by the ever-helpful Google crawlers. In this case, the documents now readily to be found on teh interwebs (and flagged up to us by an alert Reg reader) include all kinds of handy information regarding Greystone customers and what deals they've struck with the TalkTalk tentacle.
The offending Windows box isn't on TalkTalk's own network - it's hosted on the Demon Internet subnet. This, apparently, means that TalkTalk doesn't care.
"It's not one of our servers, so it's not our problem," a TalkTalk rep told us. "Our firewalls are all secure."
So as long as the company's sensitive data isn't being hosted by TalkTalk then the company has no problem with it being shared around the internet?
Given the propensity of Demon customers to hold static IPs, it seems as if this server is perhaps a contractor's home machine, a conclusion supported by the other documents knocking around the server, which include installation manuals for MS Lync and a file of "hold music" for Manchester-based Titan Telecom.
Open FTP servers are nothing new, but Google's omniscience makes them far more vulnerable. Where hackers would previously have had to scour random IP addresses in the hope of striking lucky, now they can just get Google to do their heavy lifting for them (though a glance at the traffic on the far side of any firewall shows there are still plenty of old-school hackers out there).
What's remarkable is TalkTalk's cavalier attitude to its data. Companies normally protect their customer lists and pricing information, for commercial reasons if not simply good manners, but tracking down the individual running this server is obviously too much effort for TalkTalk.
Which is why we're not going to give specific details of this particular server: but if you're contractor, and Demon customer, who has worked for a few telecoms companies and has a liking for IIS, then best check you've unticked the box for anonymous access.

http://www.theregist...lktalk_leakage/

Cambrigde researchers find hardware backdoor in CPU's?

Mon, 28 May 2012 09:09:45 +0000

Hey, anyone seen this on any news channels?

Google translate of Swedish article.
http://translate.goo...a-processorchip

Cambrigde article. Here http://www.cl.cam.ac....html#Assurance

Basically, the article says that researchers in Cambridge have found a previously unknown hardware backdoor in chips that are used by the US military and made in China. According to the news article it's possible to enter the chip even if it's owner has locked it with his/her own code.

Update:
New links from the original article:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/chips-oy-spies-want-to-hack-proof-circuits/#more-49990

&
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-06-27/news/30048253_1_microchips-missiles-foreign-chip-makers

Ehm, this isn't really reassuring if it's true.

/Regert

foobar2000 v1.1.12a Released

Sun, 27 May 2012 01:34:52 +0000

foobar2000 is an advanced freeware audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include full unicode support, ReplayGain support and native support for several popular audio formats. Foobar2000 isn't just for early adopters or software jukebox fetishists. It doesn't mess with fancy buttons or bright colors, instead preferring a utilitarian, straightforward user interface to let the music speak for itself. foobar2000 uses tabs and panels to help the user navigate its plain, but functional, user interface. You can customize the interface using several layout options. Menu options and recognizable command buttons reside at the top of the window. Two panels, each with tabbed menus, reside on the left side of the window. From there, you can view the album list and the properties of a selected artist or song. You'll also find tabs for viewing a spectrogram, a spectrum, and VU meter of music currently being played, display album art, and synchronize with portable players including iPods.

foobar2000 v1.1.12a Released
05.27.2012

Whats New:
• Hot fix: foobar2000 v1.1.12a has been released.
This version corrects a regression in 1.1.12 final.
• Fixed Musepack HTTP streaming bugs.
• Fixed incorrect MP3 decoder behavior on certain rare files.
• Fixed crash reporter dialog crash (duh).
• Detection of proxy server settings from Internet Explorer.
• Fixed multi-channel FLAC encoding (channel mask now gets preserved).
• Fixed multi-channel WavPack decoding (channel mask now gets preserved).
• Now possible to use HDCD & DTS decoder components with ALAC.
• Changed MP3 tag reading behaviors when multiple tags are present.
• ID3v2 content now takes priority over APE and then ID3v1.
• Various time-consuming operations such as conversion or ReplayGain-scanning now
prevent the computer from automatically going to sleep (opt-out).
• Tuned ReplayGain scanner for fast multicore CPU / slow HDD scenarios (beta 4).
• Fixed Converter misbehavior on files with misplaced “cuesheet” tags (beta 4).
• Improved performance when playing MP3 files from internet HTTP sources (beta 4).
• Improved compatibility with Apple's HFS driver (beta 4).
• ID3v2 handling improvements (beta 5):
• Fixed TXXX field name sometimes incorrectly written.
• No longer possible to write multiple values per ID3v2.3 frame in various scenarios.
• COMM frames with a description now show as “COMMENT ”.
• Certain broken APIC (cover art) frames are now visible.
• APEv2 tag writing: relaxed tracknumber/discnumber field content restrictions (beta 5).
• Improved ID3v2.3 specification compliance for TXXX and TCON (genre) frames (beta 6).
• Fixed Converter having trouble locating oggenc.exe (beta 6).
• Fixed WAV handling exploits affecting versions 1.1.9-1.1.12b6.
• Thanks to FuzzMyApp for the report and samples.
• Files with .M4R (MP4 ringtones) extension are now recognized (1.1.12 final).
• Fixed incorrect handling of hidden files with certain Media Library configurations (1.1.12 final).

Download: foobar2000 1.1.12a

First 50 Galaxy SIII owners to win Olympic tickets

Fri, 25 May 2012 18:34:51 +0000

Quote

An email from the Samsung store at Westfield Stratford City, London has just arrived in our inbox, with details of the Galaxy S III launch event on the evening of next Tuesday, May 29. As we've already reported, Samsung's kicking things off a little early for pre-order customers at its branded store at the London shopping center. Invites are being sent out for 5pm, with the first sales taking place an hour later at 6, assuming you've pre-ordered your S III.
And to sweeten the deal, the first 50 Galaxy S III's sold at the Samsung store will win free tickets to this summer's London games. Being the official phone of the Olympics, it's not surprising to see a little cross-promotion from Samsung. (Earlier in the week we reported on limited "Olympic editions" of the Galaxy Note and Galaxy Y being sold through O2 UK.)
Anyone planning on heading down to Stratford for the Galaxy S III launch next Tuesday? Shout out in the comments!

http://www.androidcentral.com/first-fifty-galaxy-s-iii-owners-win-olympic-tickets

White SpaceBroadband: Hope for Rural America? A New Alternative Finally

Fri, 25 May 2012 16:43:46 +0000

e Reviews Tools Forums FAQs Find Service ISP News Maps About

White SpaceBroadband: Hope for Rural America? A New Alternative Finally Starting to Emerge by ryan711 98 minutes ago tags: competition · business · wireless · hardware · alternatives · wireless

If you live in a rural area, your only real options for Internet service besides dialup are satellite and if you’re lucky, 3G mobile Internet. Both of these have a multitude of negatives associated with them whether it be low data caps, terrible latency, or cost. There is a new technology on the horizon, however, called WhiteSpace broadband.

White Space broadband came about after the switch to digital television from analog opened up new frequencies to use for other things. Most infamous is those frequencies that were auctioned off by the FCC in the 700 MHz spectrum. White Spaces on the other hand are not necessarily exclusive to one specific entity, which could mean, due to the increased competition, that new mobile ISPs could crop up with increased speed and larger caps than traditional wireless carriers.

The name White Space comes from the location of the frequencies that are being used. The frequencies come from the unused white spaces in the 54-698 MHz spectrum (TV Channels 2-51). Because of the frequencies being dispersed in between those that are currently in use by over the air television channels and devices such as wireless audio systems, there was much controversy over the use of them. White Space transmitting devices have the potential to interfere with those other technologies.

The FCC ruled in 2008 to allow the unlicensed use of white space technologies, and included some very strict rules for its use -- including constant monitoring for legacy devices, such as wireless microphones that could be in the area, and yield to said devices. However, in 2010, the FCC revised its decision by removing the strict monitoring requirements, but it also made the ruling that the devices could not be used locally as a Wi-Fi technology.

That decision really was a shame as Microsoft had been testing a white space utilizing wireless access point, and it only took one to cover their entire campus, presumably achieving close to the 400-800 Mbps theoretical rate for local networking. This is also the reason if you search for white spaces, you’ll often see articles from years ago claiming this as "Super Wi-Fi." While you won’t be seeing so-called "Super Wi-Fi" anytime soon, you might begin to see mobile ISPs pop up that don’t completely suck, at least compared to many satellite and wireless carriers.

With fewer barriers to entry than a wireless company and better performance than traditional mobile ISPs, people in underserved areas could finally begin to see some decent broadband. In trials, a UK company was able to deliver 16 Mbps over a distance of 10KM, with presumably more distance at the cost of a little throughput. This is fantastic news as not only is it on par with current 4G but you could opt to purchase service from a local company that treats you like a person and not a cog in an infinitely hungry corporate machine.

There might also be more competition locally, but I’m not sure on the specifics of overlapping service areas. It might be that interference issues only allow one person or entity to use the frequencies in each specific service area. That opens a whole other can of worms though with the decision of who actually gets to use those frequencies in a specific area. Municipal mobile ISP anyone? I can dream.

This new technology also raises the question "Can this possibly be used as a replacement for traditional cell service?" Of course, this technology will probably never attain the coverage of the massive wireless carriers, but if it becomes ubiquitous enough and there is some sort of agreement between each mobile ISP that allows roaming on each other’s coverage area, it could work well enough. Any non-coverage areas could be solved with a dual SIM phone and a cheap wireless plan or even a cheap prepaid plan.... http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/White-Space-Broadband-Hope-for-Rural-America-119680 .

Facebook to buy Opera?

Fri, 25 May 2012 15:43:34 +0000

Facebook to acquire browser maker Opera? Maybe. Here’s what we know.

Juicy rumor coming from Pocket-lint this morning: Facebook is reportedly eyeing a takeover of desktop, tablet and smartphone browser maker Opera Software.

Citing an unnamed source, Pocket-lint says the social network juggernaut is considering an outright acquisition of the Norwegian software company to accelerate a move onto the battlefields where the browser wars between Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, Apple and since recently Yahoo are being fought.

But not so fast. First of all, we asked Opera Software for an official response on the report, and a spokesperson declined to comment.

One source close to the company, however, tells us two interesting things:

1) Opera Software management is talking to potential buyers right now.
Currently listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, the company’s leadership is said to consider becoming part of a larger privately-held or public company rather than trying to keep growing the business independently.

2) We’re told that there’s currently a hiring freeze at Opera, which is a surefire sign that something big is about to happen – or at least that Opera wants something big to happen.

We’re trying to get more sources to corroborate these stories, but the above comes from a very solid source. Our source was unable to confirm whether Facebook was one of the potential acquirers, but said it “would make sense”.

Indeed, an acquisition of Opera could give Facebook a major boost if they decide to enter the browser wars for real (and they may eventually have to).

As the company itself admitted when it filed to go public, it has some issues monetizing mobile right now, and that’s where its users are increasingly heading to visit Facebook.

Facebook has long been rumored to be working on a full-fledged mobile operating system based on Android, and even its own (HTC-made?) ‘social’ smartphone.

Buying Opera would certainly make more sense for Facebook than to do it all from scratch, but for now this is almost all speculation. On to the facts:

About 270 million people use Opera browsers every month, the software company claims. Furthermore, more than 168 million people used the Opera Mini browser in March 2012, with a total of 117 billion pages served.
The company has deals with mobile device (and TV) OEMs and carriers worldwide.

Opera also just bought not one but two mobile advertising companies (after picking up AdMarvel back in January 2010).

Opera boasts more than 750 employees today and a strong executive team. Its chief technology officer, Håkon Wium Lie, is a pioneer in the Web field and a standards expert who is often described as the ‘father of CSS’.

Established as an independent company back in 1995, Opera expects to book roughly $50 million in revenue for the second quarter of the year. Its market cap currently hovers around $670 million.

That would make it an expensive purchase, but Facebook’s recent IPO certainly put the social networking company in a solid position to close major deals like an Opera Software acquisition. Let’s not forget it spent $1 billion to buy Instagram.

All this does not mean Opera will end up selling, and it doesn’t mean Facebook will be the buyer if they do. But for now, Opera execs are definitely talking to a number of different companies about what a deal could look like, our source asserts. Other likely suitors include search giants Yandex (Russia) and, yes, Google.

When we learn more, you’ll learn more.

Source: The Next Web

Google warns botnet users

Fri, 25 May 2012 11:47:15 +0000

Quote

Google has dusted off a tool it last used nearly a year ago to warn users infected with the "DNSChanger" malware. Special messages are being displayed at the top of a Google search results page to people whose Windows PCs and Macs have been infected with malicious code that hijacks their computer.

Damian Menscher, a Google security engineer, in a post to a company blog said the goal with this notification is to raise awareness of the DNSChanger malware among affected users.

"We believe directly messaging affected users on a trusted site and in their preferred language will produce the best possible results," he said.

DNSChanger silently redirects clicks by modifying victimized computers' domain name system (DNS) settings. The users are sent to hacker-created websites that resemble the real domains. The servers were taken over by the FBI which administered them for a while to give users the chance to remove the software from their computers.