Firefox 6 ships, but we shouldn't really pay attention.

By Peter Bright | Microsoft contributor (hence that explain the title) 

The Mozilla organization has shipped Firefox 6, eight weeks after the release of Firefox 5. Just as with Firefox 5, not a lot has visibly changed. The domain name in the address bar is now highlighted, to make phishing more apparent—mimicing a similar feature already found in Internet Explorer—sites with "extended verification" certificates appear slightly differently in the address bar, and Mozilla is claiming that there's some speed improvement. And that's about the extent of it. More substantial improvements are in the pipeline for Firefox 7—most notably a JavaScript engine that uses much less memory—but nothing so substantial is evident in version 6.

This smaller release—bug fixes, behind-the-scenes improvements, but little user-visible difference—is likely to be the norm for future Firefox versions. Bigger features will still arrive from time to time, but for the most part, users will just experience a continuous improvement. Firefox updates should be automatic and essentially invisible. Even articles such as this one, which attach some significance to the new release, are probably not what Mozilla wants—press coverage should focus on features, not version numbers. Mozilla—as with Google—wants developers to cease targeting specific browser versions, and instead target standards; the regular releases are one step towards achieving that goal.

Another key part is downplaying version numbers. Again, Chrome is the obvious example here; if you look at the Chrome download page, for example, there's no indication of which version of Chrome you're going to get. It's just "the latest."

Future of Facebook: Economy

FutureOf Facebook on Jun 30, 2011 - the first in a six part series exploring the relationship between social networks and Society, Technology, Environment, Economy and Politics.

Google search goes personal!

How the net traps us all in our own little bubbles

An invisible revolution has taken place is the way we use the net, but the increasing personalisation of information by search engines such as Google threatens to limit our access to information and enclose us in a self-reinforcing world view, writes Eli Pariser in an extract from The Filter Bubble

A slide from Eli Pariser's TED Talk presentation which discusses how major internet players are tailoring information to individuals. Illustration: Justin Kemerling and Eli Pariser

Few people noticed the post that appeared on Google's corporate blog on 4 December 2009. It didn't beg attention – no sweeping pronouncements, no Silicon Valley hype, just a few paragraphs sandwiched between a round-up of top search terms and an update on Google's finance software.

Not everyone missed it. Search-engine blogger Danny Sullivan pores over the items on Google's blog, looking for clues about where the monolith is headed next, and to him, the post was a big deal. In fact, he wrote later that day, it was "the biggest change that has ever happened in search engines". For Danny, the headline said it all: "Personalised search for everyone".

Starting that morning, Google would use 57 signals – everything from where you were logging in from to what browser you were using to what you had searched for before – to make guesses about who you were and what kinds of sites you'd like. Even if you were logged out, it would customise its results, showing you the pages it predicted you were most likely to click on.

Most of us assume that when we google a term, we all see the same results – the ones that the company's famous Page Rank algorithm suggests are the most authoritative based on other pages' links. But since December 2009, this is no longer true. Now you get the result that Google's algorithm suggests is best for you in particular – and someone else may see something entirely different. In other words, there is no standard Google any more.

Name your dot & pay the money, anything goes.

AlJazeeraEnglish on 20 Jun 2011 - The regulatory body that oversees internet domain names, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has voted to revamp the naming system for websites, allowing them to end with words like "apple" and "orange".It will accept applications for new suffixes from January 12 next year at $185,000 per domain.

Today, just 22 gTLDs exist -- .com, .org and .info are a few examples -- plus about 250 country-level domains like .uk or .cn. After the change, several hundred new gTLDs are expected to come into existence.

Al Jazeera speaks to Larry Magid,a Los Angeles-based technology journalist for more.

The Google hacker!

Chinese cooking school named

AlJazeeraEnglish on 13 Jun 2011 - Google recently accused hackers in China of breaking into the personal accounts of U-S officials. They say the attack originated from a cooking school in the city of Jinan.Beijing has denied any state involvement, despite admitting the existence of an elite cyber wing of the People's Liberation Army.

Melissa Chan reports from Jinjan, China.

Cyberlocker: What Is a Cyberlocker?

Why Are They Considered Music Pirate Tools?

Question: Cyberlocker: What Is a Cyberlocker? Why Are They Considered Music Pirate Tools?

 

MegaUpload, DropBox, HotFile, RapidShare, MediaFire, MegaVideo: these are just some of the cyberlocker services today. But what exactly do they do? And why are cyberlockers a threat to music and movie copyright?

Answer: Cyberlockers are 3rd-party file-sharing services. Cyberlockers are also known as 'file hosting' services. Driven by advertising and subscriptions, these cyberlockers provide password-protected hard drive space online. You have the option of sharing the cyberlocker password information with friends, who can privately download whatever contents you put in those folders. The cyberlockers range in size from a couple hundred megabytes for their free services, all the way up to 2 or more gigabytes for their paid subscriptions. These storage sizes will increase as hardware becomes cheaper and bandwidth becomes more efficient over the months ahead.

Tools for work and personal life: Much more convenient than sending file attachements, these cyberlockers are very useful for transferring documents and photos between friends. Perhaps you are collaborating on a PowerPoint show for a wedding, or you want to show your cousins your vacation photos from New Zealand. Instead of the annoying email blizzard of sending 46 photos through Gmail, you can simply drop them into your cyberlocker window through your browser. Your friends will access the content without worrying about a clogged inbox, and they can return the favor by sharing files with you.

Tools for music piracy: This is the concern for copyright authorities - because cyberlockers are so convenient and sophisticated enough to house large movie and music files, it is a common practice for people to share copies of .avi movies and .mp3 songs through their cyberlockers. And unlike bittorrent file-sharing which is traceable, cyberlockers are very hard to monitor, as they employ one-to-one connectivity which is essentially invisible to surveillance tools. Because of this convenience and anonymity, cyberlockers are an ideal tool for trading pirate movie and music files.

What are the good cyberlocker services?

There are several cyberlocker services. They each offer varying size limits for either free subscriptions (i.e. blinking advertising), or paid subscriptions (larger size limits, no advertising). Some of the more popular cyberlocker services include:

 About.com | by Paul Gil

Apple - Introducing OS X Lion.

6 Jun 2011 - Get a closer look at OS X Lion, the world's most advanced desktop operating system. With features like Mission Control, Launchpad, full-screen apps, and new gestures, OS X Lion takes Mac further than ever.

Apple unveils iCloud to cover device storage.

7 Jun 2011 - First came the iPod followed by the iPhone and then the iPad - now, the umbrella tool to service them all... the iCloud.  Apple's CEO Steve Jobs briefly returned to work from medical leave to unveil his newest baby: a remote online data storage and sharing service for the Apple platform. But its a convenience that's also raising some eyebrows over security concerns. - Al Jazeera's Gerald Tan reports.

Microsoft Agrees to Buy Skype for $8.5B

AssociatedPress on May 10, 2011 - Microsoft has agreed to buy the popular Internet telephone service Skype. The $8.5 billion deal is the biggest in the software maker's 36-year history. (May 10)

Assange: Facebook, Google, Yahoo spying tools for US intelligence.

May 2, 2011  -  The man behind WikiLeaks says his website's revelations are just the tip of the iceberg. In an exclusive interview with RT, Julian Assange said it is only a matter of time before more damaging information becomes known.

Google acquisition of ITA Software approved, with conditions

FinancialNewsOnline on Apr 8, 2011 - The Department of Justice said it had approved Google's (GOOG) acquisition of travel software maker ITA Software with a number of conditions. The department will require Google to develop and license travel software, to establish internal firewall procedures and to continue software research and development. The department said that Google will also be required to provide mandatory arbitration under certain circumstances and provide for a formal reporting mechanism for complainants if Google acts in an unfair manner.

Google could be target of Anti-Trust Probe.

FinancialNewsOnline on Apr 5, 2011 - Google (GOOG) is down 2.2% to $574.58 on news the company could be a target of a U.S. Federal Trade Commission anti-trust probe.

The FTC is considering a broad antitrust investigation into the company's dominance in the Internet-search industry, Bloomberg reports.

The commission is awaiting the Justice Department's decision on whether it will challenge Google's planned M&A of ITA Software Inc.

The big business of little apps.

france24english on Mar 11, 2011 - TECH 24 - This week on Tech 24 hosts Rebecca Bowring and Eric Olander explore how those little apps on your mobile phone are now a very big business. Also, a sneak peek at the highly anticipated Nintendo 3DS portable game player.

Technology at the forefront - Quake: internet and social networks in Japan

VDownloader - How to download YouTube videos for free

DownloadOnlineVideos on May 30, 2010 - This YouTube Downloader is vailable for free at http://vdownloader.com

VDownloader is the highest rated YouTube downloader on the market today.Would you like to watch your favorite videos from YouTube, Facebook, Blip.tv, MegaVideo, Veoh, Vimeo, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Google Video, Yahoo Video,

Android hit by rogue app viruses

Android is becoming a popular target  

for writers of mobile malware

More than 50 applications available via the official Android Marketplace have been found to contain a virus.

Analysis suggests that the booby-trapped apps may have been downloaded up to 200,000 times.

The malicious apps were copies of existing applications, such as games, that had been repackaged to include the virus code.

All the apps found to contain the malicious code have now been removed from the Android Marketplace.

Remove and recall

The virus-laden apps were discovered by a Reddit user called Lompolo who realised that one program was listed under the name of a publisher he knew had not written it.

He found that the app, which let people play guitar on their handset, was the same as the original but for a name change and some virus code buried within it.

BBC News | 3 Mar 2011 - Read full report 

Chrome & Privacy - Browsers, Privacy