Software & Apps News - Page 155

The latest and most important Software & Apps news - Page 155.

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RIM's PlayBook OS 2.0 arrives next month

Anthony Garreffa | Jan 12, 2012 10:24 PM CST

CES 2012: Research in Motion (RIM) unveiled at CES a software update for its slate, BlackBerry PlayBook, PlayBook OS 2.0. PlayBook OS 2.0 includes native e-mail, contacts and calendar applications. The former two serve as hubs for not just PlayBook messages and contacts, but those in your social networking accounts like Twitter, LinkedIn and more.

The e-mail app offers a bunch of text formatting options to do, well, normal things like bold, italicize, create bullet points, change font type, color or size. The calendar app is reportedly standard, but has been said to include good things with the cross-app integration. BGR reports that the contacts are tied to meeting entries in the calendar for quick and easy access. The calendar also syncs with popular services from Google, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail and Microsoft Exchange.

PlayBook OS 2.0 also revamps the homescreen, now allowing users to group applications into folders and place your most used applications on a dock. A "reading view" mode is included in the browser, which is similar to Apple's desktop and mobile Safari browsers, as well as an improved version of BlackBerry Bridge, which sports a remote control function that allows you to type, navigate and perform gestures on a PlayBook using a BlackBerry smartphone.

Continue reading: RIM's PlayBook OS 2.0 arrives next month (full post)

Google preparing next version of Google TV for release later this year

Anthony Garreffa | Jan 12, 2012 10:15 PM CST

CES 2012: Google have plans to update their television service software by year-end, where they'll also be adding content and making it easier than ever for users to find shows. According to director of product management, Rishi Chandra, Google TV will undergo annual software updates.

Chandra went onto say:

We don't intend to stop iterating. You'll see cool interaction stuff, you'll see a lot of cool things happening on the recommendation engine and on the discovery experience.

Continue reading: Google preparing next version of Google TV for release later this year (full post)

Windows 8 beta will arrive in late February

Anthony Garreffa | Jan 11, 2012 4:24 AM CST

CES 2012: Microsoft announced during their final CES keynote that the Windows 8 beta will be released to their darling public late next month. On top of the release of the public beta of Windows 8, Microsoft will also launch the Windows Store.

Microsoft's Windows Store is their central repository for Metro applications. Windows Store will be available globally, and will support every language that Windows supports, which is great. At this point in time, there was no talk of the release candidate, but if we're seeing a public beta next month, we should expect a single release candidate of Windows 8, just like Windows 7 had.

It is worth pointing out that when compared to Windows 7, Windows 8's development is slightly lagging when on a calendar basis. The Windows 7 beta was released to the public on January 10th, while the Windows 8 beta arrives 6 weeks later. There was a 9.5 month gap between the Windows 7 public beta and retail availability, so we should expect Windows 8 toward the end of the 2012. Maybe on December 21, 2012 and that's what the Mayan's meant by the end of the world? Gasp.

Continue reading: Windows 8 beta will arrive in late February (full post)

Microsoft release an emergency Windows 7 update, just before the end of the year

Anthony Garreffa | Dec 30, 2011 5:21 AM CST

Microsoft have released a rare out-of-band update to fix a vulnerability in the .NET Framework. The update comes weeks before the next regularly scheduled "Patch Tuesday" in mid-January, and addresses a flaw that could allow attackers to exploit hash tables to perform a denial-of-service (DoS) attack against a website built with Microsoft's ASP.NET application framework.

DoS attacks usually require thousands of malware-controlled systems in a botnet to overwhelm a site with requests. This opening would allow an attacker to cripple a vulnerable site by sending a certain type of HTTP request. Each of these requests would consume 100-percent of one CPU core. As you can imagine, the more of these requests, the more CPU power that is zapped away.

Microsoft says "Attacks targeting this type of vulnerability are generically known as hash collision attacks." They also added that the problem is not specific to Microsoft's Web services as it affects PHP 5, Java, .NET, v8 and even PHP 4, Ruby and Python. The people behind these platforms will release updates soon, but the holidays will dampen these efforts.

Continue reading: Microsoft release an emergency Windows 7 update, just before the end of the year (full post)

Bad Robot release iOS app, Action Movie FX

Anthony Garreffa | Dec 26, 2011 8:24 PM CST

Bad Robot, the company behind Lost, Alias, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, and Super 8, have just released a free iOS app called Action Movie FX. Action Movie FX lets you shoot a small video, and then layer in some special effects such as a Missile Attack or Car Smash.

The app comes with two free effects, the above mentioned Missile Attack and Car Smash, but for $0.99 you can download extra effects such as Chopper Down, Tornado, Air Strike and Fire Fight.

Some of the effects look crappy, but there are a couple there that wouldn't look too bad if you shot the video well. There will be more effects added in the future, and the app works on the following devices: iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, iPad 2 and fourth-generation iPod Touches.

Continue reading: Bad Robot release iOS app, Action Movie FX (full post)

Windows 8 gesture login, perform gestures to unlock your device

Anthony Garreffa | Dec 26, 2011 3:20 AM CST

Microsoft is preparing a new way to log into tablet PCs with Windows 8, by allowing a user to perform gestures on a screen instead of typing in letters or numbers. For example, you can use a photo with some personal meaning to you, create a sequence of taps, lines, and circles that must be performed in the right order, in order to unlock the computer.

It is a new form of an unlock procedure, and will have three paths chosen for it: people will love it, people will hate it, or Apple will sue Microsoft for some form of patent rip-off. Microsoft does acknowledge that the new gesture unlock puts smudges on the screen, and recording devices could theoretically allow the gesture password to be compromised, but says the risks are very low.

Not everyone agrees with Microsoft, though. Kenneth Weiss, inventor of RSA's SecurID token who now runs a three-factor authentication business called Universal Secure Registry, told Network World that it's not "serious security," that the gestures someone makes upon a screen can easily be recorded from a distance.

Continue reading: Windows 8 gesture login, perform gestures to unlock your device (full post)

U.S. Army uses CryEngine 3 for 'Dismounted Soldier Training System'

Anthony Garreffa | Dec 25, 2011 11:27 PM CST

In what could look like a pre-alpha video for Battlefield 4 (face it, COD:whatever comes next will feature the same engine as previous games), the U.S. Army has been financing a "game" called Dismounted Soldier Training System, commissioned by the government in May of this year for $57 million.

The contact was awarded to RealTime Immersive Inc. The simulator is said to be cutting edge, with the director of strategic programs at Intelligent Decisions, Floyd West, stating:

With CryEngine 3 being used for Crysis 2 and the capabilities that game engine provides, it allows us to make the most realistic simulation possible. We're able to transport soldiers to accurately recreated locales like Afghanistan and Iraq, where we can simulate everything from visuals to 360-degree sound.

Continue reading: U.S. Army uses CryEngine 3 for 'Dismounted Soldier Training System' (full post)

Dropbox for Android gets dropped a new update, full revamp, new features

Anthony Garreffa | Dec 25, 2011 10:25 PM CST

Dropbox fans rejoice, Dropbox 2.0 for Android is now here. If you want some cloud storage for your Android-based device, you're in luck. Version 2.0 of the app includes new features and a totally revamped layout. A little arrow can be found to the right of each file in the app, which then leads you to a pop-out menu.

From the pop-up menu, you can share, delete, and favorite, which is a brand new feature to Dropbox. When in the main menu, you'll have three taps up top including Dropbox, Uploads and the new addition, Favorites. From Dropbox, you can put files into your cloud-based storage, which then puts them across all of your devices, and once a file is favorited, you can access it even without an Internet connection because it'll be stored locally on the device itself.

Dropbox also includes the ability to rename files directly from the app, as well as uploading files in bulk. If you like to upload from and export to local storage, you're in luck: you can now do this from the Uploads tab. Ice Cream Sandwich support has been baked in, as well as various bug fixes.

Continue reading: Dropbox for Android gets dropped a new update, full revamp, new features (full post)

Chrome Engineer says Firefox is a partner, not a competitor

Anthony Garreffa | Dec 25, 2011 9:26 PM CST

Earlier this week, Mozilla renewed their agreement with Google to be their default search engine in Firefox for another three years. Google Chrome engineer, Peter Kasting, has said: "Google is funding a partner," not a competitor. And its a great way of putting it, more revenue streams and people coming to your search engine, are better than none.

Kasting adds:

People never seem to understand why Google builds Chrome no matter how many times I try to pound it into their heads. It's very simple: the primary goal of Chrome is to make the web advance as much and as quickly as possible. It's completely irrelevant to this goal whether Chrome actually gains tons of users or whether instead the web advances because the other browser vendors step up their game and produce far better browsers. Either way the web gets better. Job done.

Continue reading: Chrome Engineer says Firefox is a partner, not a competitor (full post)

Windows 8 will feature built-in password manager

Anthony Garreffa | Dec 18, 2011 11:26 PM CST

Password management and security is something that confuses a lot of people, and Microsoft are hoping to change that. A new feature that will be included in their next OS will allow users to put an unlimited number of individual passwords behind one master password, and then sync them across all other Windows 8-based machines they use.

The Live ID password is all you'll need, so for the multiple websites you use, you can set very complicated passwords for them, in the case you get hacked and your credentials are stolen, your entire digital life isn't ripped away from you. Windows 8 will automatically enter your login information when visiting a saved website.

There are similar services and apps available that do this, examples are 1Password and LastPass, but being built into the OS is a much better option. What if your Windows Live ID is stolen or lost somehow? That's fine. Microsoft are including a bunch of safety features into Windows 8 that are designed to detect compromise and limit account usage until you can recover it.

Continue reading: Windows 8 will feature built-in password manager (full post)