Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Friday, April 5, 2013
Better sync lined up in Chrome for Android
An update to Chrome for Android delivers some features it's been lacking, including password and autofill sync.
Chrome on desktops has been able to sync personal data like passwords and online form fields for ages, but the features just landed in the Android version of the browser today.
Chrome on desktops has been able to sync personal data like passwords and online form fields for ages, but the features just landed in the Android version of the browser today.
Chrome 26 for Android (download) brings automatic form filling and password synchonrization to the mobile browser, as well as unnamed performance and stability fixes. The new version of the browser also repairs a problem where a blank page would be shown instead of loading the correct URL.
Some features that made it into the beta version of Chrome 26 for Android don't appear to be in today's stable release. These include server-accelerated browsing using a proxy, Google's SPDY technology, and rudimentary support for Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC).
Unlike many other browsers for Android, including Firefox, Dolphin, and Opera, Chrome is limited to running on Android 4.0 and above. If you've got Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean, you can install it.
In other related Chrome news, Google has released a Canary version of Chrome OS, which has existed for Chrome-the-browser for some time. Canary is analogous to Firefox's Nightly build -- it's highly experimental and unstable, and subject to near-daily changes.
Microsoft Outlook ready to run on Windows RT?
The RT version of Windows 8 lacks the popular Outlook e-mail client, but that may change in the coming months.
A fresh rumor out today holds that Microsoft Outlook is coming to Windows RT.
The popular e-mail application is conspicuously absent on Windows RT devices. That is, RT devices -- which run a limited version of Wind
Today there's word that Outlook has been seen running on Surface RT tablets.
And that's not all. SuperSite for Windows claims that an ARM-related firmware issue was causing Outlook to crash. Possibly offering at least one reason for its exclusion until now.
The popular e-mail application is conspicuously absent on Windows RT devices. That is, RT devices -- which run a limited version of Wind
Today there's word that Outlook has been seen running on Surface RT tablets.
And that's not all. SuperSite for Windows claims that an ARM-related firmware issue was causing Outlook to crash. Possibly offering at least one reason for its exclusion until now.
Adding Outlook certainly wouldn't hurt, said Craig Stice, an analyst at
IHS iSuppli. "Consumers can find this frustrating. They think they're
getting a Windows 8 system but there's no Outlook," he said.
"They don't know what they're getting into when they buy an RT device," he said. Consumers buy an RT device because it's less expensive than a full-blown Windows 8 system but miss the fact that it's incompatible with older "legacy" Windows software, Stice explained.
Nvidia's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, whose ARM chip powers the Microsoft Surface RT tablet, said in no uncertain terms last month that Outlook is necessary for RT's success. "Outlook god, please," Huang said at that time, pleading for Microsoft to add Outlook.
(Note that RT products come preloaded with Word 2013 RT, Excel 2013 RT, PowerPoint 2013 RT and OneNote 2013 RT.)
Nvidia's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, whose ARM chip powers the Microsoft Surface RT tablet, said in no uncertain terms last month that Outlook is necessary for RT's success. "Outlook god, please," Huang said at that time, pleading for Microsoft to add Outlook.
(Note that RT products come preloaded with Word 2013 RT, Excel 2013 RT, PowerPoint 2013 RT and OneNote 2013 RT.)
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Adobe issues emergency update for Flash
Adobe issued an emergency update to its Flash Player to fix two zero-day threats, the company announced yesterday. The updates affect all versions of Flash on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android.
The vulnerabilities currently are being exploited "in the wild," says Adobe's blog on the patches. According to the Kaspersky ThreatPost blog on the pair of zero-days, one attack targets "aerospace and other manufacturing companies" by tricking people into opening a Microsoft Word document with malicious Flash content embedded in it. The second zero-day targets Firefox and Safari on Mac OS X by tricking you into visiting Web sites hosting malicious Flash content, and it aims at Windows users by way of a Microsoft Word attachment delivered via e-mail.
Adobe listed on its blog the affected versions of Flash, and it recommended actions to take. Apple iOS is not affected, since it has never been compatible with Flash.
The vulnerabilities currently are being exploited "in the wild," says Adobe's blog on the patches. According to the Kaspersky ThreatPost blog on the pair of zero-days, one attack targets "aerospace and other manufacturing companies" by tricking people into opening a Microsoft Word document with malicious Flash content embedded in it. The second zero-day targets Firefox and Safari on Mac OS X by tricking you into visiting Web sites hosting malicious Flash content, and it aims at Windows users by way of a Microsoft Word attachment delivered via e-mail.
Adobe listed on its blog the affected versions of Flash, and it recommended actions to take. Apple iOS is not affected, since it has never been compatible with Flash.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
HP wants to help developers make apps faster
There's a new wave of application development tools on the market dubbed "agile" that aim to speed the delivery of applications and provide for a more collaborative environment. Today, HP took a big step toward making sure it is a relevant player in that market.
Agile software development is already used by up to one-third of development shops, according to Forrester, replacing the "waterfall" approach, which could take weeks or months to develop the software. In an agile world, code is written and deployed quickly, iterated on, market-tested and adjusted. That requires a whole new set of tools to manage these products.
Today, HP released two cloud-based agile application management tools -- HP Agile Manager to facilitate agile software development, and HP Performance Anywhere, which will help monitor and test applications post-launch.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY: 2013's 25 geekiest 25th anniversaries ]
Agile Manager works in conjunction with HP's existing Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tools, including Quality Center, and allows tasks to be assigned to individual developers while allowing code to be created, shared and edited.
One of the key tenants of an agile development model is that code should be created quickly and changed frequently. Performance Anywhere helps app owners know what changes need to be made after the app has been launched. Users create points of presence all around the world, either within their own WAN or on public cloud resources, which test how the application is running. If an error occurs, Performance Anywhere creates a flag, alerting the managers to the issue. Analytics tools even point to the potential cause of an issue -- be it an individual line of code, hardware issues, networking problems or any other variety of problems that could arise.
Both HP offerings are delivered as software as a service (SaaS), accessed through a Web portal. HP's Agile Manage is available today for $39 per user per month, with a three-month term. Performance Anywhere is not yet available, but is expected to cost $39 per application transaction per month plus $199 per server that runs the analytics software.
Agile software development is already used by up to one-third of development shops, according to Forrester, replacing the "waterfall" approach, which could take weeks or months to develop the software. In an agile world, code is written and deployed quickly, iterated on, market-tested and adjusted. That requires a whole new set of tools to manage these products.
Today, HP released two cloud-based agile application management tools -- HP Agile Manager to facilitate agile software development, and HP Performance Anywhere, which will help monitor and test applications post-launch.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY: 2013's 25 geekiest 25th anniversaries ]
Agile Manager works in conjunction with HP's existing Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tools, including Quality Center, and allows tasks to be assigned to individual developers while allowing code to be created, shared and edited.
One of the key tenants of an agile development model is that code should be created quickly and changed frequently. Performance Anywhere helps app owners know what changes need to be made after the app has been launched. Users create points of presence all around the world, either within their own WAN or on public cloud resources, which test how the application is running. If an error occurs, Performance Anywhere creates a flag, alerting the managers to the issue. Analytics tools even point to the potential cause of an issue -- be it an individual line of code, hardware issues, networking problems or any other variety of problems that could arise.
Both HP offerings are delivered as software as a service (SaaS), accessed through a Web portal. HP's Agile Manage is available today for $39 per user per month, with a three-month term. Performance Anywhere is not yet available, but is expected to cost $39 per application transaction per month plus $199 per server that runs the analytics software.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Apple ordered by court to produce agreement with HTC
A court in California has ordered Apple to produce without delay an unredacted version of its recent patent agreement with HTC, after Samsung Electronics said the agreement was relevant to its patent infringement dispute with Apple.
The document will, however, be made available only for viewing by the attorneys in the patent lawsuit, Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose division, wrote in an order on Wednesday.
HTC had earlier agreed to produce a version of its Patent License and Settlement Agreement (PLSA) with Apple, provided it was redacted to exclude the terms disclosing the consideration paid under the PLSA, including how the amounts were calculated. The redacted document was also to be marked "Highly Confidential --Attorneys' Eyes Only" as provided under a protective order entered by the court.
The compensation terms it seeks to redact are highly "competition-sensitive," HTC wrote in the filing.
Apple and HTC said earlier this month that they had settled all their outstanding patent disputes in a settlement that includes a 10-year agreement under which the companies will license current and future patents from each other. The terms of the settlement were kept confidential and not disclosed.
Samsung asked the court to compel Apple to produce a copy of its settlement and patent license agreement with HTC, as it almost certainly covers at least some of the patents in the suit. Apple's willingness to license patents in the suit may undermine its claim of irreparable harm and demonstrate that monetary remedies are adequate, Samsung said in a filing last week.(
The South Korean company asserted during a hearing that the financial terms of the agreement support its argument that a royalty is a more suitable alternative to a permanent injunction. The court has scheduled a hearing in December to decide on Apple's plea for a permanent injunction on the sale of some Samsung phones.
"Many third parties to this case have had their licensing agreements disclosed -- without any redaction of financial terms -- subject to an Attorneys-Eyes-Only designation because the confidential financial terms were clearly relevant to the dispute between Apple and Samsung," wrote Judge Grewal in his order. HTC is not entitled to special treatment, particularly as it has recognized the general sufficiency of the protective order and the integrity of Samsung's outside counsel, he added.
The court also agreed to Samsung's moves to compel further depositions of three of Apple's experts whose declarations accompany Apple's reply brief in its motion for a permanent injunction against Samsung. It also allowed Apple's request for two additional depositions if the court were to grant Samsung's request.
The document will, however, be made available only for viewing by the attorneys in the patent lawsuit, Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose division, wrote in an order on Wednesday.
HTC had earlier agreed to produce a version of its Patent License and Settlement Agreement (PLSA) with Apple, provided it was redacted to exclude the terms disclosing the consideration paid under the PLSA, including how the amounts were calculated. The redacted document was also to be marked "Highly Confidential --Attorneys' Eyes Only" as provided under a protective order entered by the court.
The compensation terms it seeks to redact are highly "competition-sensitive," HTC wrote in the filing.
Apple and HTC said earlier this month that they had settled all their outstanding patent disputes in a settlement that includes a 10-year agreement under which the companies will license current and future patents from each other. The terms of the settlement were kept confidential and not disclosed.
Samsung asked the court to compel Apple to produce a copy of its settlement and patent license agreement with HTC, as it almost certainly covers at least some of the patents in the suit. Apple's willingness to license patents in the suit may undermine its claim of irreparable harm and demonstrate that monetary remedies are adequate, Samsung said in a filing last week.(
The South Korean company asserted during a hearing that the financial terms of the agreement support its argument that a royalty is a more suitable alternative to a permanent injunction. The court has scheduled a hearing in December to decide on Apple's plea for a permanent injunction on the sale of some Samsung phones.
"Many third parties to this case have had their licensing agreements disclosed -- without any redaction of financial terms -- subject to an Attorneys-Eyes-Only designation because the confidential financial terms were clearly relevant to the dispute between Apple and Samsung," wrote Judge Grewal in his order. HTC is not entitled to special treatment, particularly as it has recognized the general sufficiency of the protective order and the integrity of Samsung's outside counsel, he added.
The court also agreed to Samsung's moves to compel further depositions of three of Apple's experts whose declarations accompany Apple's reply brief in its motion for a permanent injunction against Samsung. It also allowed Apple's request for two additional depositions if the court were to grant Samsung's request.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Disable Or Enable USB Storage In A Single Click With Phrozen Safe USB
People who frequently have to share their PCs, may often have faced the nuisance of unauthorized media, such as movies, photos, music etc., being transferred through a thumb drive, without their consent. Kids, in particular, aren’t usually wary about viruses and malware that a USB thumb drive may carry (especially if it’s being plugged into every other computer), and so might not be your non-techie roommate. Moreover, if you have some confidential files on your computer, you would be quite miffed to have them sneakily copied when you’re away. Likewise, people often want to restrict their computers to be used for file transferring and sharing through a USB flash due to various security reasons. Windows 7 doesn’t offer any option to write protect or disable USB storage medium temporarily, or even on permanent basis. Obviously, you can disable the USB ports in the BIOS, but then again, it would also disable your keyboard or mouse, should they support a USB connector. So what would do in such cumbersome situation? Phrozen Safe USB has an answer for you. This tiny little application lets you activate and deactivate USB storage within a single click. Keep reading for more details.
The tool has a mini console window, which, although not sporting many settings, easily lets you specify three different USB modes. The USB status drop down menu holds these modes. By default, it’s set to USB Devices fully operational. This means that any USB drive connected to your PC will be fully functional – you can write, read and delete the content stored in the drive.
The drop down menu also contains USB Devices in read only mode and USB Devices deactivated. When on read only mode, the connected device can be used to read any stored content, but it becomes write protected, so this in fact a handy solution to secure your files from being copied. The last of the trio is USB deactivated. When selected, any USB device connected to the PC won’t be recognized, while still keeping your USB mouse or keyboard, or any other device for that matter, completely operational. It should be noted that the any of three modes will work on devices connected afterwards, so it won’t have any effect on existing USBs.
When closed, the application is minimized to system tray. You can easily change USB modes from within the contextual menu.
During testing I noticed that all of the three USB modes work after quitting the application even from system tray. Phrozen Safe USB supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.
The tool has a mini console window, which, although not sporting many settings, easily lets you specify three different USB modes. The USB status drop down menu holds these modes. By default, it’s set to USB Devices fully operational. This means that any USB drive connected to your PC will be fully functional – you can write, read and delete the content stored in the drive.
The drop down menu also contains USB Devices in read only mode and USB Devices deactivated. When on read only mode, the connected device can be used to read any stored content, but it becomes write protected, so this in fact a handy solution to secure your files from being copied. The last of the trio is USB deactivated. When selected, any USB device connected to the PC won’t be recognized, while still keeping your USB mouse or keyboard, or any other device for that matter, completely operational. It should be noted that the any of three modes will work on devices connected afterwards, so it won’t have any effect on existing USBs.
When closed, the application is minimized to system tray. You can easily change USB modes from within the contextual menu.
During testing I noticed that all of the three USB modes work after quitting the application even from system tray. Phrozen Safe USB supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.
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