Software & Apps News - Page 104

WhatsApp is a near unstoppable messaging client, so I'm sure most people will still balk at the fact Facebook dished out an enormous $22 billion to acquire them earlier this year. The company is now set to launch its new feature, a voice calling function, to its app in the coming weeks or months.

Some new leaked photos are showing us what the latest update to WhatsApp will deliver, where we won't only get voice calling but image files and text support, too. The new details were yanked from the latest version of WhatsApp by Android World, where we can see the new features in all their glory.

We don't know when the voice calling function is coming to WhatsApp, but judging from this information being pulled from the latest version, I'm sure it can't be long now.

Have you ever used ChatOn to chat to your friends? We haven't either. Samsung's unpopular messenger service has been marked for closure on the first day of February, 2015.

Unfortunately this messenger app didn't really gain traction in the wider market, which is currently heavily saturated. If you're wanting to chat to a friend there is a seemingly endless list of ways to contact them in this day and age through your mobile. Off the top of my head I can immediately rattle off: Steam, Skype, Facebook Messenger, Xfire, WhatsApp, Line - amongst many others.

Announced in 2011, Samsung were said to have big plans for ChatOn's development - setting it up for pre-installation on Samsung devices to try and push it into the market. This claimed by many to be a good move as Samsung was just gaining massive market share in the smartphone sector, however its three-year service will be coming to an end in two months time.

It almost seems like vulnerabilities in hardware and software is all that's hitting the news in the past few days. We've reported on multiple issues ranging from the "Grinch" Linux flaw to the vulnerability in SS7's mobile network towers rendering our text messages and phone calls open for all prying eyes.

In recent news, a vulnerability in router software has opened up millions of devices to hacking. This is apparently achieved by the hacker "sending a specially crafted request to RomPager, an embedded Web server running on them" as according to PC World.

Once access has been gained, the hacker then has full control over any in-home security, systems or devices connected to the network - meaning they can steal your data, alter your information or utilize your technology to launch attacks against other systems. It gives them the ability to strip SSL from secure connections and also hijack your DNS settings, listing dodgy websites as 'safe' for your personal computers - opening you up to more malicious attacks.

Alert Logic has recently informed the public of a "grinch" Linux vulnerability, but according to Red Hat - it's a perfectly normal thing.

The official reply noted that "this report incorrectly classifies expected behavior as a security issue," through a Red Hat Bulletin released on Wednesday just one day after the report being made public. This was in response to Alert Logic claiming that this Grinch issue may be as large as the previously seen Heartbleed bug, noting that they believe it is a serious design flaw in how Linux handles user permissions.

The flaw is said to enable hackers the ability to gain root access to machines, with Alert Logic further claiming that this Grinch can be exploited through third-party Linux software framework such as Policy Kit. This Red Hat self-made software is listed as an open-source program, and set in place to allow users to install software easily - something that requires root access. If the hackers can take this program over for their own use, that's where much if the problem lies. However Linux doesn't think this is an issue, claiming that root access is how these programs are designed to work.

Due to gaps in the deployment policies produced by engineers, Microsoft's Azure cloud service was taken offline during a period of time throughout November 2014. This information has been discovered thanks to a detailed mea culpa analysis by Microsoft themselves.

Jason Zander, Azure team member, conducted a final root cause analysis (RCA) and published it recently, claiming that the engineers intended to push software changes to improve performance and reduce processor load of the services' front-end system. However an outage was caused, meaning customers being unable to connect to Azure's storage, virtual machine, website, Active Directory or management portal functions.

The coding succeeded well in improving performance in the testing phases, however the full roll-out was discovered to encounter two main issues. Usually Microsoft deploys these updates in waves, slowly increasing the updated infrastructures bit by bit rather than a full roll-out. However an engineer saw this update as a low risk exercise after a small testing phase and pushed it to everyone in one hit. Thanks to this blunder and subsequent outage, Microsoft are heavily enforcing staged deployments from now on.

NVIDIA has released a new beta driver in the form of the GeForce 347.09, with the company releasing it as a "Game Ready" driver for two big releases this week: Elite: Dangerous and Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes.

The former, Elite: Dangerous, is worth noting as it's the first time the company has released a new driver the concentrates on a crowdfunded game like this. Elite: Dangerous isn't some massive AAA title like Call of Duty or Battlefield, but to the fans, it is. It's great to see NVIDIA releasing a driver ready for Elite: Dangerous. MGS V: Ground Zeroes on the other hand, we have full support for it with NVIDIA explaining "ensures you'll have the best possible gaming experience for Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Elite: Dangerous."

NVIDIA has also provided an application profile for Project CARS, as well as some new 3D Vision and 3D Compatibility Modes for various games, including Alien: Isolation, Far Cry 4 and Elite: Dangerous. If you want to download the new NVIDIA GeForce 347.09 Beta drivers, grab them right here.

Acording to Hong Kong's Privacy comissioner and iTNews, Android applications running on version 4.3 or older have the ability to access your personal photos, files and sensitive data without any notification.

Yesterday there was a report published by the Hong Kong Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD), explaining the findings of this information and their tests on the authenticity of the Android app model.

The report states that their "tests have revealed that it is possible to develop an app that can read the memory of Android devices, including photos, files, and any data other apps choose to store in the devices, without the need to inform app users on the permission page," further mentioning that they had informed Google of this issue back in August 2014, formally requesting that the large-name company to correct this hole.

Bose has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons lately, fighting being thrown off, and then back on Apple store shelves. Today we are hearing that the company might be launching its own music streaming service, that could compete against the likes of Spotify and Pandora.

Hybebot is reporting the news from a job listing for a Senior Designer that would help make the "next generation streaming music platform" and a matching "ecosystem of products." Engadget has asked Bose to open up about its new plans, but there's been nothing said so far. This could be bad for the company's plans of getting back onto Apple store shelves, as a music streaming service would be competing against Apple.

We should hopefully find out more soon, with CES 2015 right around the corner.

Early this morning, local time, news was spread by the mainstream media on a hostage siege taking place in Sydney's inner CBD involving 'Muslim Extremists' laying claim to an unknown number of hostages. If you're unaware of what's going on, one of the reputable news sources covering this unfortunate news (News.com.au) released a very simply laid out 'what we know' on the matter.

In light of local business evacuations and people rushing away from this threat, users began noticing that popular rideshare app Uber was charging users around the CBD a $100 AU to flee safely to their homes, this is said to be a "result of automatic surge pricing meant to get more drivers online" as according to News.com.au.

Mashable first reported on this issue, being sent screenshots of Uber's iOS application charging a $4/minute, $9.59/KM, $100 minimum cost, being clearly labeled in bold writing as "4.0X the normal fare".

The roads leading into France's capital city may be in jeopardy this Monday, as Parisian taxi drivers are vowing to block major highways to protest the rise of Uber's ride-sharing service application - adding to yet another countries Taxi demographic unhappy with the company's offering.

The court has refused a ban on the urban ride share service application Uber, seeing French cabbies threaten massive retaliation against the service that they claim is promoting unfair competition of their services.

UberPOP has a claimed 160,000 French users, with people being able to use their personal cars to transport passengers around at low rates. Taxi drivers are fed up with the recent rise in popularity of these services, bidding to the French commercial court to make a new law ot ensure Uber drivers have a harder time soliciting businesses. However, last Friday this law could not be enforced "until the government had published full details of the restrictions", as according to Business Insider.