German government warns web surfers to find alternative browser to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer after the firm admitted that IE was used to hack Chinese Human Rights Activists’ Gmail accounts. The BBC reports that the warning comes from Federal Office for Information Security.
However, Microsoft, as usual, rejected the warning saying that the risk was not so high that users have to switch. It said, the risk is low and the browser’s increased security setting would prevent any serious risk. However, German authorities still recommends finding alternative.
When the fact about IE’s role in hacking search giant’s system came, Microsoft Spokesman in Germany said that the particular hack was made by “highly motivated people with a very specific agenda”. The company claims that there were no attacks against general users or consumers, as the BBC reported.
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Recently Google went tough with Chinese government saying that it will no longer censor its search results and, if necessary, they will pull out its business from the country. That was all because of what Google calls ’sophisticated and targeted attack into its corporate infrastructure’ originated from China. And now, Microsoft has admitted that its web browser, Internet Explorer, was used to break Google’s mail system.
The company said in a blog post that the vulnerability in its browser could allow hackers to remotely run programs on infected machines. The BBC reported that Microsoft is formally working to resolve this security flaw in Internet Browser which caused break in Gmail accounts of Chinese Human Rights Activists for what Google threatened that it may no longer run business in China.
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Chinese Google users leaving flowers outside the Google headquarters in China as the company declared possibility of leaving the country.
The online giant Google has taken a tough decision of providing unfiltered search results to the Chinese people. In a blog post, it said that when it launched Google in china, it clearly stated that it will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If it is determined that Google is unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.
That’s what Google has done lately. It is taking all censorship off its search result pages in China though the Chinese government requires opposite. Google in that post also said that it will shut down its business in China if it isn’t allowed to continue providing uncensored result to its users in China.
The Beginning
Google has come up with what Chinese rival Baidu calls “Hypocritical” decision following a cyber attack on Chinese human rights activists’ gmail accounts. Google said that the attack was sophisticated and targeted originating from China. The statement from Google reads:
In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google.
Following the incident, Google has made a tough decision not to provide censored search result anymore. Google said that it recognizes the potential of shutting down its Chinese offices as well as Google.cn (Google’s Chinese homepage).
The move was all on a sudden that almost shakes the technology world.
After the launch of the first ever Google phone on the planet, mixed reaction is seen among all kinds of people including technology analysts and end-users. However, The Huffington Post has pointed 7 things that Nexus One has but iPhone lacks. Here we will discuss about those 7 things that will probably make Nexus One smarter than iPhone.
Typing Tricks
On Nexus One, users don’t have to switch screen to enter a period when typing. Nexus One has a conveniently arranged typing screen that makes typing smarter, better, and faster. Also, both phones (iPhone and Nexus One) provide word suggestions from dictionary as the user types. But iPhone usually doesn’t show more than 5 suggestions at a time while Nexus One comes with as many as 15 suggestions if you scroll down vertically. This is obviously a good point for the newcomer in the industry.
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With a self-timer, flash, and red-eye reduction, the Polaroid camera is making a comeback after almost two years later the production was closed down. The redesigned product was spotted in Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronics Show 2010.
The Instant Cameras require a particular film to use with it, which is also being built by the Impossible Project. Reports said that the new camera and film (both color and black-and-white) is expected to go on sale in mid-2010. The Telegraph writes:
The film, meanwhile, will be created by The Impossible Project – the company rescued from the ashes of the Polaroid manufacturing plant based in Enschede, The Netherlands. Over the last year former managers of the factory have worked, as mostly a labor of love, to recreate the magic of the film on a low budget.
Besides the traditional Polaroid camera, a digital Polaroid will also go on sale in mid-2010, as expected by the manufacturers.
Digital Polaroid Camera
After manufacturing of Polaroid 1000 Instant Film (the name of the film to be used on Polaroid cameras), the product will be brought out to the markets. According to the Wikipedia. Polaroid had announced on February 2008 that it will shut down its three factories stopping the production of Polaroid films. However, on October 2009, it announced that the Polaroid is being prepared to make a comeback to the gadget world. Display at CES ‘10 was astonishing.
Despite lacking a lot of facilities, it seems like users with minimum requirements of their browser — who are obviously larger in number — preferred the simplicity, stability and speed of Google Chrome. Users’ love made Google Chrome third most popular web browser around the world beating the Apple’s browser, Safari.
British News Media Telegraph.co.uk reported that Google Chrome is now the third most popular web browser around the web. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is still at the first place in popularity queue followed by Mozilla Firefox. According to data collected in last year on December, Chrome has been used by 4.63 percent of total internet surfers while Apple’s Safari was used by a percentage of 4.46.
The statistics also showed that Internet Explorer was used by nearly two-third of all internet users having a percentage of 62.69 while the second most popular had 24.61 percent users worldwide. The data was collected by online services firm Net Applications.
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Fennec is the codename of the first ever mobile browser that is about to release by the world’s most popular browser, Firefox by Mozilla Corporation.
According to BBC, the project is done and the product is about to release within a few days; even before the new year. Currently it is going through the final testing within the people at the group behind Firefox. The open-source browser will be able to synchronize with the desktop version of Firefox.
Mozilla is the second desktop-browser developer company that dives into the mobile market after Opera. Currently Opera Mini, the mobilized version of Opera browser, has the largest popularity among the Java-enabled handset users across the world.
The new browser will initially be compatible with Nokia N900 only. Later compatible versions with Google’s Android-run smartphones and Windows Mobile will be released, while for iPhone, it may take a little longer.
Developers told BBC that it took one and half a year to develop ‘Fennec’, the application (browser) that will compete with Opera Mini.
Go to google.com and hit the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button leaving the query box empty. You’ll immediately see a countdown at the lower middle of the page.
Google Countdown
We’ve calculated to find out when the countdown ends, and figured out that this is a countdown to the new year’s first day. The countdown ends at 00:00 local time on January 1st, 2010. That means, whosoever visits this hidden page, will see the countdown to the end of the year according to their local time.
We still have no idea if it’s just a simple countdown, or Google is planning for something big on the occasion of the new year. As a result, what we can do is wait and see what Google is going to do.
At last Google is coming up with the first mobile device of its history, named “Nexus One”. Google has built this ‘google phone’ in conjunction with Taiwanese mobile set manufacturer HTC. The handset is supposed to become available on the first month of the new year.
Mario Queiroz from Google first posted about the Google Phone on the Official Google Mobile Blog on 12th December. There was insufficient information about the newly-built handset which is currently available only for the Google employees across the world.
Unverified Image: Nexus One, also knows as Google Phone.
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