Geek Engineer

How to enable Push Notification on a Unlocked iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:24:00 +0000

Push Notifications have been introduced by Apple with the launch of OS 3.0 and its not a biggie for those who are using their iPhones on contract, but the folks with unlocked iPhone have to do some manual settings in order to enable Push notifications.

Download this file first and then follow this guide step-by-step to successfully implement it:

Push Solution Test Steps
------------------------

A. Get Legit Keychain Data:
*You Must Perform These Steps On A Properly Activated Device (iphone or ipod touch) with at least one working push app*

1.Unzip the downloaded zip file and copy the binary 'nimble' using SSH into /private/var/Keychains and set permission to 0755

2. Make sure the file "keychain-2.db" is in /private/var/Keychains and run nimble. You will see 4 files being created:
- youtube-cert.bin
- youtube-key.bin
- push-cert.bin
- push-key.bin

3. Copy these 4 files into the corresponding folder on your hactivated device.

B. Testing Push:
*You Must Perform These Steps On Your Hacktivated Device*

1.Unzip the downloaded zip file and copy the following files using SSH into /private/var/Keychains and set permission to 0755:
- inject
- nimble

2. Store in somewhere else the current "keychain-2.db" and run inject. A new keychain-2.db will be created

3. Uninstall the push app (i.e. beejive or similar) you intend to test on from your hacktivated device and reboot

4. Test youtube, reinstall the above push app and test.

Please note that notifications can be controlled from "settings" option.

Enable Private Browsing mode in Firefox 3.5

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:44:00 +0000

Firefox 3.5 hasn't been out yet, its still in beta testing but one of the key feature of the new browser would be a Private surfing mode, which was introduced by Google Chrome in the browser market.

The advantage of private surfing mode or window is, that all your cookies, browsing history and Internet files are deleted, right after you close the window. This helps preventing the unauthorized access to your Online accounts and helps you keeping your browsing history a secret (that is by deleting everything related).

It can be helpful to you in one more way, that if you're using someone else's PC and the user saves cookies and passwords in their browsers, you'll have to log him/her out before you can log-in if you want to access the same site. That usually happens when visiting a social media site or checking E-Mails. To avoid this, you can simply open a Private mode for browsing and do your stuff their. All your data and setting would be automatically deleted, right after you close the browser, without changing any saved password or cookie.

Now how to do that? Here's a short tutorial:

Make sure you have downloaded the latest version of Firefox 3.5 (beta)
Open the Tools menu and click on 'Start Private Browsing' or use Shift + Control + P
A pop-up will ask you to confirm your decision so click on 'Start Private Browsing' again.
Now to end the session, simply go to Tools menu and click on 'End Private Browsing'.

How to Unlock and Jailbreak iPhone 3GS? Step-byStep Guide

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:37:00 +0000

Here's a video from iPhone Dev Team blog, which demonstrates how to Unlock your iPhone 3GS in few easy steps!

Here’s a brief video demonstration by @planetbeing of the iPhone Dev Team’s ultrasn0w unlock for the new iPhone 3G S. Special thanks to @Oranav for the at+xlog crash — a gift to the community that has kept on giving!

Our ultrasn0w program uses the at+xlog crash as an injection vector of our unlocking payload — and it does so on the 3GS in exactly the same way as on the 3G! But this injection vector will be lost if you update to 3.1 using the official Apple IPSW, which updates the baseband. So stay away from official 3.1 IPSWs until we release the tools that let you update the firmware without updating the baseband.

iPhone 3GS Unlock Demonstration from planetbeing on Vimeo.

If you encounter some confusion in this video, or are looking forward for a step-by-step guide to Unlock your iPhone 3GS, then here it is in few simple steps:

1. Download Redsn0w first.

2. Download the original firmware of your iPhone from here and here. These two files are a splited version of a single iPhone firmware, and therefore you need to extract it using WinRAR first to get a single firmware file out of it.

3. Connect your iPhone to the USB port and execute Redsn0w. It should detect your iPhone and something like this would be displayed:

4. It would either automatically detect your firmware, or you'll have to browse to the file you just downloaded.

5. It would ask about the packages you want to install, check on Cydia and Unlock.

6. Keep following the on screen instructions, it will ask you to reboot your iPhone

7. After rebooting, you'll have a jailbroken iPhone, but you won't be picking up any signal. Now its the time to unlock it.

8. Browse your iPhone to the Cydia application and execute it. Its an essential application that is installed automatically after the iPhone is jailbroken.

9. Download repo666.ultrasn0w.com from there. Your iPhone should be connected to a WiFi.

10. Download Ultrasn0w from Cydia. Search it and you'll find it easily.

11. Restart your iPhone 3GS and now you are free to choose the carrier of your choise!

Windows 7 Prices announced by Microsoft

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:48:00 +0000

Microsoft has finally announced the prices of their long awaited Operating system, Windows 7 which will be released on October 22. Though the beta version is already out, some users are anxiously waiting to get their hands on something which is more advance and better than XP.

The prices are announced on the Windows 7 Blog. Rumor has it that the upgrade to the newer version would be free of cost but its not for sure.

The list of prices which we have got from the official sources are as follows:

Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade): $119.99
Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade): $199.99
Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade): $219.99

And the estimated prices for full versions are:

Windows 7 Home Premium (Full): $199.99
Windows 7 Professional (Full): $299.99
Windows 7 Ultimate (Full): $319.99

Also there is a Special offer on Pre-Order of Windows 7,

We will offer people in select markets the opportunity to pre-order Windows 7 at a more than 50% discount. In the US, this will mean you can pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium for USD $49.99 or Windows 7 Professional for USD $99.99. You can take advantage of this special offer online via select retail partners such as Best Buy or Amazon, or the online Microsoft Store (in participating markets).

You can pre-order a copy of Windows 7 from retailers like Best Buy and Amazon or online from Microsoft Store

Unlock the OS firmware 3.0 on iPhone 2G

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:47:00 +0000

The procedure of unlocking the firmware 3.0 has already been discussed here but for the sake of simplicity, we will define it here too.

Follow the following steps in exact order to get your iPhone 2G unlocked:

Download the PwnageTool 3.0 (Direct | Torrent)
Make sure to download bl39.bin and bl46.bin
Install the iPhone firmare for iPhone 2G from here.
Run the PwnageTool and follow the steps on the software.
Once the custom firmware is made, enter DFU mode and restore the firmware.

Note: To enter DFU mode, watch this easy tutorial. Also while clicking the restore button, hold 'Shift' in Windows and 'Option' in Mac to browse to the custom firmware file.

Unfortunately the PwnageTool does not work for Windows users so just make use of the following custom and unlocked firmware 3.0 files for iPhone 2G.

Download the Custom/Unlocked firmware 3.0 files above.
Combine the files with HJSplit (for Windows) and Split&Concact (for Mac).
Now you will have on file named iPhone1,1_3.0_7A341_Custom_Restore.ipsw
Simply boot into DFU mode and restore the Custom/Unlocked firmware 3.0.

If you follow each and every step mentioned here carefully, then you should have an Unlocked iPhone 2G running on firmware 3.0. Good Luck!

Unlock your iPhone 3.0 Firmware with Ultrasn0w

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:45:00 +0000

The Apple iPhone dev team has came up with a new solution to unlock the iPhone 2G/3G and iPhone touch who have been upgraded to the firmware 3.0 While firmware 3.0 has its advantages which can be found everywhere on Internet, it also solves the problem of unlocking an iPhone whose baseband was 2.30.03

Currently, the solution available by dev team did not support this baseband. Their support to unlock an iPhone on all carriers was uptil baseband 2.28. To resolve this issue, if you upgrade your firmware, then its baseband would change to 04.26.08 and then it can be easily unlocked.

Once you have upgraded on firmware 3.0 on your iPhone 2G/3G you have to jailbreal it using quickpwn or redsn0w. Once they are jailbroken, use Cydia installer (Its the name of an app which will automatically be installed on your iPhone when it will be jailbroken) to install ultrasn0w.

Once ultrasn0w will be executed on your iPhone, it would be unlocked and you'll be free to use it on any carrier you wish.

More details are available here.

Track Your iPhone Through GPS

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:24:00 +0000

It is possible to track your iPhone online and offline with the helpp of GPS, but there sure are several catches as well. For example, iPhone normally doesn't run apps in background, so if you're planning to use applications like Instamap or something, it won't help much until that particular application is launched. To track your iPhone online whereever it goes, you'll have to break some rules.

To run application in the background of OS, you'll have to jailbreak it. You can jailbreak your iPhone using quickpwn or winpwn. Once its jailnroken, you'll see an app called Cydia installed on it.

Run Cydia, and from there install an app called "findmyi". Using the web interface you’re able to mark your iPhone as stolen and review a map with it’s location. The findmyi GPS agent runs in the background and contacts the server at the interval specified in the options menu to record its location. Free accounts are given an estimated location, and upgrading appears to be rather simple. It also allows you to place a message on your iPhone asking for the current user to contact the owner should you wish to.

So even if your iPhone get lost or stolen somehow, that was an easy way to recover it.

Good Luck!

Height of Desperation

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:20:00 +0000

Looks like the ongoing browser is touching the new boundaries, since the people associated with the publicity of browser are not only focusing on the performance but also its marketing, and in this regard Microsoft has made its move for its new browser, Internet Explorer 8.

Here's a ad below:

More details are available here

Pro tips to breathe new life into your website

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Sun, 03 May 2009 02:56:00 +0000

As the global economy continues to stutter its way through 2009, companies are increasingly fighting to be heard.

In recent months, investment has shifted abruptly from traditional media and 'real world' environments to the internet, which provides the means to reach the largest possible audience in a relatively cost-effective manner.

In theory, this is great news, but in practice the picture isn't entirely rosy. As Clearleft's managing director Andy Budd explains: "Many people view a website as a one-off project, rather than an ongoing concern. Organisations often go through a big redesign and then let a website fall into disrepair."

Instead, he recommends training yourself and your clients to think of a website as a staged process, which should be updated every three to six months: "That way, it'll always be up to date and will last longer, rather than spending the majority of its life underperforming."

Instead of tearing a site down and rebuilding it from scratch, figure out ways to make the existing site work harder.

"Breathing new life into a site through a design refresh is one such option," suggests Budd. "Smart companies also explore usability improvements to help conversion rates – small tweaks to registration and checkout processes can see conversions skyrocket and pay for themselves in no time."

The trick is in knowing the difference between an expense and an investment. While some sites are too outdated to make do with subtle tweaks and need a radical revamp, you can often do a lot with a little, thereby finding yourself in tune with companies cutting back on large capital expenditures.

10 things to put on your web design to-do list

Back to basics

Even if you only want to make small changes, Alex Willcocks, creative director at Engage Interactive, recommends approaching your site refresh with an open mind. "Sometimes going back to the beginning and thinking from that standpoint can bring surprising results," he says, "especially with the number of resources available to web designers increasing all the time."

However, there are certain tried and tested considerations that will almost always play a part, including tweaking content, amending graphic design and integrating new components.

It's essential to consider how each element works in a modern context, especially if a site is long out of date. "Users want information quicker than ever before and if you don't supply it, their interest will move elsewhere, regardless of whether you're a trusted brand or resource," argues Tim Gibbon, director at Elemental.

Gibbon reckons there's a desired immediacy to website content and structural revamps must take this into account. Now isn't the time to be coy; tweak homepages so they enable users to rapidly access the most important current content, rather than making them hunt for it.

Alec East, director of Do Tank Studios, adds that immediacy in modern sites sits alongside a certain informality. Often, just changing the name of a site's sections results in something more contemporary.

"There's a move away from 'catalogue' and 'about us' to more descriptive and cognitive terms, such as 'men's shorts'," East says. This assists users in finding specific types of content in a more intuitive manner than when generic terms are used and improves things from an SEO perspective.

And on the subject of search engines, East points out that they've become the only way many users find information online. "Since most people find a site via a search engine, they could enter anywhere," he says.

Consequently, during refreshes, it's important to consider whether it's obvious how to navigate straight away, regardless of where you enter, and whether basic information about the organisation needs to be available site-wide (such as in the footer), so new users immediately know a little more about the site they're visiting.

Source

Adblock Plus and (a little) more

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Sun, 03 May 2009 02:56:00 +0000

Recently I wrote about how not giving extension developers a good way to earn money might lead to very undesirable effects. The recent events give an impression of the kind of effects we should expect here. This is going to be about the popular NoScript extension which happens to make its money from ads. And to make sure that somebody sees these ads it goes pretty far. For example, it opens the changelog webpage (full of ads of course) on every single update of the extension, even though the NoScript FAQ claim that it happens only on major updates (yes, if you dig into it you will find the preference to disable this behavior – but how many people do that?). And updates coming roughly each week ensure that this page is opened fairly often. A problem is of course that NoScript will usually disable scripting and consequently also most advertising. That problem is being worked around by putting NoScript’s domains, Google AdSense and a few others on NoScript’s default whitelist (again, the overwhelming majority of users won’t go hunting for bogus entries in their whitelist). Given that NoScript proudly calls itself a security extension this means putting users at risk — for example, a while ago I demonstrated how an XSS vulnerability on a NoScript domain can be used to run JavaScript from any website, despite NoScript. This was countered by implementing anti-XSS measures rather than removing anything unnecessary from the whitelist.

You get an impression for the business model here. Of course, this approach brings NoScript in conflict with another popular extension — Adblock Plus. For years, NoScript has been using a trick to prevent Adblock Plus from working on its domains. Fixing this issue was never particularly high on my list of priorities (though I finally came around and fixed it after the recent events) so at some point I suggested that EasyList should be extended by a filter to block ads specifically on NoScript’s domains. This finally happened two weeks ago.

What followed was a small war — the website would add various tricks to prevent Adblock Plus with EasyList from blocking ads, EasyList kept adjusting filters. Then, a week ago a new NoScript version was released. A few days later I noticed first bug reports — apparently, Adblock Plus “glitches” were observed with this NoScript version, especially around NoScript’s domains (but not only those). When I investigated this issue I couldn’t believe my eyes. NoScript was extended by a piece of obfuscated (!) code to specifically target Adblock Plus and disable parts of its functionality. The issues caused by this manipulation were declared as “compatibility issues” in the NoScript forum, even now I still didn’t see any official admission of crippling Adblock Plus. Clearly, NoScript is moving from the gray area of adware into dark black area of scareware, making money at user’s expense at any cost.

Confronted with the facts and with the AMO policy NoScript author agreed to revert the changes. However, he put a different “solution” in place — the new NoScript version released yesterday adds a “filter subscription” to Adblock Plus meant to whitelist NoScript’s domains. A note about this “feature” has been added to extension description on AMO (I insisted), not without misrepresenting the cause of course. Supposedly, this is because of a “targeted attack from EasyList which broke functionality.” Which fails to mention that EasyList was just doing what it was created for (block ads) and the broken functionality is the result of attempts to avoid ads from being blocked (originally the filters didn’t break anything). So the real reason is not broken functionality, it is the ads on these sites.

Of course, adding a note to the description that almost nobody will read anyway wasn’t the only change I wanted to see. Adblock Plus allows other extensions to add filter subscriptions but that wasn’t supposed to happen without user’s consent. In case of NoScript, asking the user whether this filter subscription should be added was clearly required. But that would probably make too many people notice that something fishy is going on and decline. Note also that this filter subscription cannot be removed (will be re-added on next Firefox start), only disabled. Also, it stays there even after NoScript is uninstalled. Should I now make it harder for all extensions to integrate with Adblock Plus just because NoScript is misbehaving? I doubt that this will help much, any installed extension has the privileges to do anything and trying to stop it from misbehaving after installation is a lost cause.

While the current state of affairs (NoScript’s manipulation of Adblock Plus is visible to the user if he knows where to look, it is documented and even reversible) is better than what we had before I still think that extensions manipulating other extensions to prevent them from doing their job is not where we want to be. NoScript might be somewhat extreme but the “business offer” emails I occasionally see in my inbox make me think that we will see more of this. Companies start to recognize the potential of Firefox extensions and push extension authors into monetizing their extensions by questionable means — at the expense of the users.

Update (2009-05-02): Apparently, thanks to some pushing from AMO yet another NoScript version was released. This one supposedly no longer adds a filter subscription to Adblock Plus and also removes the one added by the previous versions. Also, a change to AMO policy is under discussion. Big thanks to everybody who made that happen!

Source

13 Super Cool Computer Keyboards

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Sun, 03 May 2009 02:54:00 +0000

Keyboards are an essential part of out computers. We use computer keyboards mostly to type. However in recent times we have seen a diversification in the use and design of keyboards. They are no longer used to type only text anymore, but are now used to do a lot more tasks. Playing Games, Controlling Media Players and launching applications are some of them. To meet these user requirements, keyboards are no longer confined to having only alphabetical keys and numbers. They now come with Media Controlling Keys, Special Keys for Playing games, Shortcut Keys to launch applications and some have even taken a step ahead and come with touch screen instead of the traditional buttons. We don’t usually get to see these types of keyboard in homes and offices. Let us take a look at some of these unusual but cool Computer Keyboards that make the use of Keyboards easier and much more

1.Optimus Maximus

Optimus Maximus is a fully customizable keyboard that lets you choose the sequence of the characters on the keyboard. Each key of the Optimus Maximus is a stand-alone display that shows the function currently assigned to it. You can make use of any language like Cyrillic languages, Ancient Greek, Arabic etc. Apart from that you can use any other character sets: notes, numerals, special symbols, HTML codes, math

3 Ways to Record Your Linux Desktop

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Sun, 03 May 2009 02:49:00 +0000

In this article I'll include three ways to screencast your Linux desktop with the help of recordMyDesktop, XVidCap and Istanbul. These three applications are included in every major distribution.

recordMyDesktop and frontends
recordMyDesktop has both a command-line interface and two frontends, a GTK and a Qt graphical frontend. You can run it in a console, do whatever stuff you want to record, then hit Ctrl+C to stop it and recordmydesktop will create an out.ogv (Ogg Theora) video file in the current working directory.

recordMyDesktop - GTK interface

If you need to customise the video settings for the screencast, you can do it either with the command-line tool or by using one of the graphical frontends. For example, to run the GTK application use gtk-recordmydesktop.

recordMyDesktop will allow you to create a screencast and choose the video and audio quality, frame rate, include or exclude window decorations and the mouse pointer. It's easy to use and will surely do its job in a few clicks.
Official website

XVidCap
XVidCap is another pretty good GTK-based recording application. The first thing which jumps into attention when starting XVidCap is a red rectangle which can be moved around and resized and which will allow you to record only a certain portion of the desktop.

XVidCap

XVidCap allows you to save the screencast as an MPEG or AVI format.
Official website

Istanbul
These are not the only applications with which you can make a screencast. Have a look at Istanbul too, which is included in the repositories of all the popular distributions. Although it is probably the easier to use of all three, I found Istanbul to be the slowest when it comes to response time (it looks like it takes forever to encode the video), so you'll have to bear with it. Just like recordMyDesktop, Istanbul saves the screencasts into the free Ogg Theora format.
Official website

Istanbul

Have some other cool applications or ways for creating screencasts? Please share them in the comments below.

Source

1 Million Google Android Phones sold by T-Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 14:43:00 +0000

Bellevue (WA) - T-Mobile’s Google Android smartphone has reached an incredibly important milestone, reaching one million in US sales in the six months since the phone launched. The smartphone now accounts for almost two thirds of all of the 3G devices available on the T-Mobile network.

T-Mobile is the US’s fourth largest wireless network operator and has over 32.1 million customers. The company started selling the G1 Smartphone on October 22, 2008.

It is being reported by mobile advertising specialist AdMob that the Android OS now accounts for 6% for the entire smartphone market in the United States. Though the popularity is increasing, Android still has a while to go until it beats out Windows Mobile, which holds an 11% market share, the Blackberry OS at 22% and the iPhone, which takes the cake with 50% of the smartphone market in the U.S.

During a conference call last week Eric Schmidt, Google CEO stated that he felt the Android had a chance for great success this year. Schmidt claimed that the open source strategy was gaining ground and hinted that the company would deliver future announcements.

“There are announcements happening between now and the end of the year that are quite significant from operators and new hardware partners in the Android space, which I won't preannounce except to say that they really do fulfill much of the vision that we laid out more than a year ago,” stated Schmidt during the call. “On the netbook side, there are a number of people who have actually taken Android and ported it over to netbook or netbook-similar devices.”

Source

iPhone Software 3.0 may offer voice control, dialing - report

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:02:00 +0000

A new report is backing rumors of Voice Dialing support inside betas of Apple's iPhone 3.0 Software but adds that capability may be just one of several features included in a new Voice Services framework that may also facilitate voice control of the new OS.

Adding to discoveries of "Voice Control" preferences within the International preferences of the upcoming release, contacts speaking to Ars have located a number of function calls to voice control features apparently nicknamed "Jibbler."

While details are few and far between, the features appear to tie into the new version of the Springboard application that serves as the iPhone's home screen and application launcher. In particular, references to VSSpeechSynthesizer, VSRecognitionSession, SBVoiceControlDisableHandlerActions, SBSensitiveJibblerEnabled, and SBVoiceControlSoundCompletion were uncovered.

While those methods appears to be private at this time, meaning they're accessible to Apple but not third-party developers, it's speculated that they could initially provide support for Voice Dialing on current and future iPhone handsets. In addition, they could also provide an alternative means of controlling the iPhone's Springboard services.

"Jibbler may be controlled via the iPhone headset -- button squeezes could be used to record short voice segments from the user, which Jibbler will then interpret," the report notes. "Voice synthesis can then be used to give the user a response, similar to the latest generation iPod shuffle, which can 'read' playlists and track names -- the difference being that the iPhone hardware itself could handle real-time voice synthesis."

Apple has said it plans to release iPhone Software 3.0 sometime this summer as a free upgrade for all current iPhone owners. A distribution for iPod touch users will cost $10.

Source

The Future of Networked Warfare Begins with Apple

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:28:00 +0000

"The future of 'networked warfare' requires each soldier to be linked electronically to other troops as well as to weapons systems and intelligence sources," says a new report in Newsweek, and the product of choice appears to be the iPod Touch.

According to Newsweek, both the iPod Touch and to a lesser degree the iPhone are increasingly being used by the U.S. military because of their versatility, ease of use and comparative low cost.

The report notes that the iPod fulfils the military's need to give soldiers one device that can perform many different functions, and this device has the added advantage that it can often be controlled with one hand.

Software developers and the U.S. Department of Defense are busy developing military software for iPods in an attempt to gives soldiers even more functionality. A new program called Vcommunicator produces spoken and written translations of Arabic, Kurdish and two Afghan languages.

"Snipers in Iraq and Afghanistan now use a "ballistics calculator" called BulletFlight, made by the Florida firm Knight's Armament for the iPod Touch and iPhone. Army researchers are developing applications to turn an iPod into a remote control for a bomb-disposal robot (tilting the iPod steers the robot). In Sudan, American military observers are using iPods to learn the appropriate etiquette for interacting with tribal leaders," the report says.

According to an Army official in Baghdad, the devices have yet to be successfully hacked and at $230 a pop, the iPod may fit right into President Obama's 663.7 billion dollar defense budget.

Source

Report: Hulu app coming to the iPhone soon

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:26:00 +0000

Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that a dedicated Hulu application is indeed on its way to the iPhone and should be here in just a few months.

SAI says the application will work over Wi-Fi and AT&T's 3G network, meaning that users will be able to view programming anywhere with a fast data connection.

Rumors suggesting that an iPhone-friendly version of Hulu swirled around this time last year, however, they predated the launch of the App Store, and Hulu flat-out denied that one was being worked on.

This time around, though, it's far more plausible, with the upcoming iPhone OS 3.0 software update, which lets developers bake streaming media into their applications. For Hulu, this means that the advertising could be stuck into the mobile stream and that users would be able to watch videos without leaving the application.

One of the things that keep this rumor from holding water is that Hulu is in direct competition with Apple's iTunes business. Users of Hulu can watch ad-supported, full-length television shows and movies on their personal computers for free, instead of paying Apple to download a copy for offline viewing.

If such an app were available on the iPhone, it would also offer portable TV and movie watching, something not yet offered in Apple's own mobile iTunes app, which is limited to video podcasts. In past instances of this, the company has simply denied applications such as Podcaster from making it through the app approval process, only to launch it as a first party feature later on.

On the other hand, some of Hulu's competitors have already gotten a foot in the door, including Joost and CBS-owned TV.com, which has its own iPhone application that streams in content in chunks. In addition, Google's YouTube, whose application comes preinstalled on the iPhone, has recently reached an agreement with major studios, including Sony Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment, and CBS (publisher of CNET News), to offer visitors full-length TV shows and feature films.

If Hulu can't manage to pull off getting advertisements in the stream, using this system, it would be fairly simple to force users to sit through advertisements between clips.

Source

Wanted: Computer hackers ... to help government

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:25:00 +0000

WASHINGTON -

Wanted: Computer hackers.

Federal authorities aren't looking to prosecute them, but to pay them to secure the nation's networks.

General Dynamics Information Technology put out an ad last month on behalf of the Homeland Security Department seeking someone who could "think like the bad guy." Applicants, it said, must understand hackers' tools and tactics and be able to analyze Internet traffic and identify vulnerabilities in the federal systems.

In the Pentagon's budget request submitted last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon will increase the number of cyberexperts it can train each year from 80 to 250 by 2011.

With warnings that the U.S. is ill-prepared for a cyberattack, the White House conducted a 60-day study of how the government can better manage and use technology to protect everything from the electrical grid and stock markets to tax data, airline flight systems, and nuclear launch codes.

President Barack Obama appointed a former Bush administration aide, Melissa Hathaway, to head the effort, and her report was delivered Friday, the White House said.

While the country had detailed plans for floods, fires or errant planes drifting into protected airspace, there is no similar response etched out for a major computer attack.

David Powner, director of technology issues for the Government Accountability Office, told Congress last month that the U.S. has no recovery plan for a digital disaster.

"We're clearly not as prepared as we should be," he said.

Administration officials says the U.S. has not kept pace with technological innovations needed to protect its computer networks against emerging threats from hackers, criminals or other nations looking for national security secrets.

U.S. computer networks, including those at the Pentagon and other federal agencies, are under persistent attack, ranging from nuisance hacking to more nefarious assaults, possibly from other nations, such as China. Industry leaders told Congress during a recent hearing that law enforcement and other protections are too outdated to fend off threats from criminals, terrorists and unfriendly foreign nations.

Just last week, a former government official revealed that spies had hacked into the U.S. electric grid and left behind computer programs that would let them disrupt service. The intrusions were discovered after electric companies gave the government permission to audit their systems, said the ex-official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Cyberthreats are also included as a key potential national security risk outlined in a classified report put together by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Pentagon officials say they spent more than $100 million in the last six months responding to and repairing damage from cyberattacks and other computer network problems.

Nadia Short, vice president at General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, said the job posting for ethical hackers fills a critical need for the government.

The analysts keep constant watch on the government networks as part of a program called Einstein that was initiated by the Bush administration under the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team.

Short said the $60 million, four-year contract with US-CERT uses the ethical hackers to analyze threats to the government's computer systems and develop ways to reduce vulnerabilities.

Faced with such cyberchallenges, Obama ordered the 60-day review to examine how federal agencies manage and protect their massive amounts of data and what the government's role should be in guarding the vast networks that control the country's vital utilities and infrastructure.

Over the past two months, Hathaway met with hundreds of industry leaders, Capitol Hill staff and other experts, seeking guidance on what the federal government's role should be in protecting information networks against an attack. She sought recommendations on how officials should define and report cyberincidents and attacks; how the government should structure its cyberoversight; and how the nation can increase security without stifling innovation.

A task force of technology giants, including representatives from General Dynamics, IBM, Lockheed Martin and Hewlett-Packard Co. urged the administration to establish a White House-level official to lead cyberefforts and to develop ways to share information on problems more quickly with the private sector.

The administration has struggled with the basics, such as who should control the nation's cyberspace programs. There appears to be some agreement now that the White House should coordinate the overall effort, rejecting suggestions that the National Security Agency take it on — a plan that triggered protests on Capitol Hill and from civil liberties groups worried about giving such control to spy agencies.

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How slow can Linux go?

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:23:00 +0000

If it has a CPU, you can run Linux on it. Xboxes or iPhones, cars or calculators, Linux can live quite happily on any of these devices. But, when it comes to the desktop or laptop, how much processing power do you need to run a modern Linux desktop?

The short answer to this question is "not much at all." In fact, I don't think you could buy a computer at your local Best Buy or online that can't run Linux.

Let's take Ubuntu 9.04, which is due to arrive this week. The official minimum requirements for this popular Linux distribution are a 700MHz processor and 256MBs of RAM. I think that's too low. In my experience, you could run GNOME 2.26 on that slow a processor, but the RAM's way too low. You could pull it off with 512MBs, but you'd be happier with a Gigabyte.

A reader recently claimed to me that he had an older PC that can run Windows 7, but wasn't powerful enough to run any modern desktop Linux. Yeah. Right. Windows 7 'officially' requires, a 1GHz processor, 1GB of memory, 16GBs of free hard drive space and 128MB of graphics memory on a chip set or card able to support DirectX 9. As with every version of Windows going back to 1.02, Microsoft is lying about the minimum requirements.

In my Windows 7 testing, starting with Build 7000 to Build 7077, I've found that 7 requires at least a 1.6GHz processor and 2GBs of RAM to run at an acceptable level. Still, that's not bad, and it's certainly better than Vista. That said, there's no way any desktop that can run Windows 7 can't run Linux. Period. End of statement.

What about older PCs though? Linux works great on them. The oldest working server I have is one of the ones I used in 1999 to prove, for the first time, that Linux was a better file server than Windows NT. It's a white-box with a 266MHz Pentium II and 64MBs of memory. These days it's running openSUSE 10.3.

My least-powerful Linux desktop I'm currently using is HP Pavilion 7855 PC. It was born in 2001 with a 1GHz Pentium III and 512MBs of RAM. These days I run Mint 6 on this old vet of a PC. Frankly, that's a little too much operating system for it.

I'd be better off on this level of PC running a Linux that uses a lightweight desktop manager like Fluxbox or XFCE, instead of GNOME or KDE. There are also many desktop Linux distributions that are designed to work this kind of old hardware.

I'm particularly fond of DSL (Damn Small Linux). DSL can run on as little as a 486DX with 16MBs of RAM. I've used it myself on a 33MHz 486 PC with 32 MB of RAM.

DSL, which comes in a 50MB package, isn't a one trick pony. It's a real, live desktop Linux distribution with the Fluxbox windows manager, Firefox for Web browsing, office programs, IM client, and all the other trimmings. It's my first choice for really old PCs.

Many of my friends are also fond of the lightweight Puppy Linux and antiX MEPIS distributions. Both these distributions can run on PCs with as little as 64MBs of RAM and Pentium II 266MHz processors.

In short, if you have a PC that's still not old enough to vote, you can easily find a well-regarded and supported desktop Linux that will run great on it. I wonder how many of you are already running Linux on PC 'antiques.' Drop me a note on this article's comments areas and let me know just how slow you've been able to go with desktop Linux.

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Rumor: Undoubtedly Expensive 2nd Generation Sony OLED TV Unveiled This September

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:21:00 +0000

If you get your rocks off over TVs that you can't have and can never afford, why don't you set aside some alone time this coming September, when Sony might reveal a larger OLED TV.

The announcement, if true, would signal the launch of Sony's 2nd generation OLED TVs. The first gen, as you'll remember, were showcased as tiny XEL-1 prototypes and consumer models throughout 2008 (notably at CES 2008, later as a swank kitchen knife set).

Hopefully, the second coming means an end to the OLED no-show we experienced late last year/this year, which manufacturers (rightly or wrongly) blamed on this crappy economy of ours.

Interesting coincidence: It was nearly one year ago that Sony said it would invest about $210 million into larger OLED TV development. Way to take your sweet time, fellas! [Korea Times via OLED-Info - Thanks, Ron]

GPS Map Navigation in Pakistan

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:26:00 +0000

A good summary post by Shahid Saeed on the topic of automotive navigation in Pakistan appeared recently at Pakistaniat and other blogs. Last year I spent some time evaluating the feasibility of making the portable navigation devices ‘connected’ in US and EU. By including a SIM in these gps based devices, one could combine location based features with search and other internet functionality. The idea was good but the market was not ready for that - the main factors were the high cost of data and the competition from mobile phones, which now have almost the same functionality as a stand-alone portable navigation device. In the US the phone companies are making a lot of money by offering network based navigation (turn-by-turn directions) services on the phone.

These pictures are via Sahid’s post. He writes: these picturers show a drive from my home in Rawalpindi to Jinnah Super Market in Islamabad. The maps were of course not up to date, but will provide a relief to somebody new in the city.

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Telenor may deploy 3G Network in Pakistan

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:25:00 +0000

Telenor Pakistan has reportedly agreed to award 3G network deployment contract to NSN (Nokia Siemens Networks) in Pakistan, told us a reliable source in NSN.

Earlier there was this feeling in NSN that they might not get away with this contract as Huawei gave them a tough competition.

Telenor’s spokesman didn’t confirm it and said that he can’t comment on the issue at this point of time; however, he was enthusiastic enough to validate that Telenor Pakistan is all set ready for 3G deployment and it is eagerly for 3G license auction.

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Samsung confirms Android handsets as Google adapts to market

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:23:00 +0000

Mobile phone maker Samsung has confirmed that it intends to launch at least three phones this year that are built with Google's Linux-based Android operating system, including two that are destined for US mobile carriers. The move will boost the availability of Android-based handsets and give consumers some new Android options besides T-Mobile's G1, the current flagship Android handset.

Samsung first announced its Android plans last year, after it was revealed that the company had formed a sizable team of Linux and Java experts to build an Android touchscreen phone reportedly similar to the company's Omnia handset, which runs Windows Mobile. The products suffered some delays and it became unclear whether Samsung would still deliver an Android phone on Sprint's network when Sprint backed away from Android.

Major mobile operators in the United States have been cautious about Android and slow to accept the new platform. Verizon and AT&T, the two largest carriers in the US, have both declined to make a commitment to Google's OS. Sprint and T-Mobile were both on board from the start, but Sprint's early trepidation left T-Mobile standing alone as the only strong adopter.

Sprint boss Dan Hesse said in October 2008 that the platform wasn't fit to ship yet. Sprint's Android product manager provided more insight into the carrier's concerns and criticized Google's handling of the platform in an interview that was later retracted. He praised Google's confidence and vision, but suggested that the company needed to be more pragmatic and more responsive to carrier requirements.

Samsung executive Won-Pyo Hong told Forbes last week that Samsung encountered some difficulty with carrier concerns over Android, but he says that his company's Android phones are still on track for release. He also indicated that Samsung's own version of the platform will not be Google-centric.

"Some operators were concerned about the vision Google has [and] that affected [timing]," Hong told Forbes. "Our commitment is more to the Android phone than the Google Experience device."

Google has taken some steps to accommodate carrier interests while scaling back on its original vision of unprecedented freedom. For example, Google has removed a third-party tethering program from the App Store, blocked users from installing custom firmware on carrier-subsidized handsets, and imposed limitations on App Store accessibility for users of unlocked developer handsets. These moves haven't been entirely popular with some users, but have likely helped to increase the carriers' comfort level with Google's vision, thus paving the way for broader Android adoption.

The most visible sign that Google's increased willingness to compromise is getting through to carriers is Verizon's recent change in tone about Android. Verizon initially made a very strong commitment to LiMo as its platform of choice, citing LiMo's approach to governance and conformity with existing carrier business models as primary factors in the decision. The company recently indicated that Android could be back on the menu when it told reporters that it is no longer "in a position where we shun one operating system in favor over another operating system."

Android's recent technical improvements could be another factor in the recent increase in carrier support for Android. The lack of an onscreen keyboard and several of the platform's other weaknesses at launch have since been corrected. The platform has gained a strong touchscreen keyboard, complete localization support, and a number of other critical features. The localization support will likely contribute to boosting Android's presence abroad. A keyboard-less G1 refresh is coming to Vodafone in Europe while Lenovo and other vendors have Android products in the works for Asia.

Android hasn't been welcomed with the kind of enthusiasm that Google originally expected and the platform's growth has been stifled by cautious carriers who aren't ready to cede control or allow Google to disrupt the status quo. Google's recent concessions to restrictive carrier demands, which are clearly helping the platform gain ground, show that the search giant is beginning to accept the realities of the market.

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Next-gen iPod touch, iPhone to support low-power 802.11n

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:10:00 +0000

Wireless radio component specifications contained within beta distributions of iPhone 3.0 firmware reveal support for a new chip enabling low power 802.11n that's bound for Apple's third-generation iPod touch. It's therefore also likely to be included with new iPhone models.

The version of the existing Broadcom chip that supplies WiFi and Bluetooth on existing models jumps from BCM4325 to BCM4329, according to resource files reserved for a third-generation iPod touch. The component upgrade adds new support for 802.11n features, including the ability to find and join 5GHz networks.

Existing iPhone and iPod touch models only support 5GHz 802.11a networks, or 2.4GHz 802.11b/g networks, forcing users who want the top speed of 802.11n (available on all MacBooks) but compatibility with 802.11b/g networks (to use the existing iPhone) to set up a 2.4GHz compatible network. That compromise forces the wireless network to deal with interference from other networks on the often crowded 2.4GHz band.

Apple's latest generation of AirPort base stations added new hardware support for dual-band networks, allowing both fast and slow devices to connect to independent 5GHz and 2.4GHz signals at the same time. However, this isn't possible with previous AirPort base station hardware, or when setting up an ad-hoc WiFi network from a notebook, for example.

New support for 802.11n in the upcoming iPhone and iPod touch models would also provide the devices with additional network speed and reception range features of the significantly faster 802.11n specification, which are related to channel bonding (using two channels at once to double the top reception speed) and MIMO, the ability to use multiple transmit and receive antennas to improve reception speed and range.

Other features related to 802.11n include Space Time Block Coding (STBC), which sends the same data across multiple antennas for redundancy against radio interference; Short Guard Interval (SGI), which increases the data rate by squeezing out shorter padding intervals; A-MPDU, the aggregation of multiple MAC-level service data units; Block Ack, which increases efficiency by transmitting multiple data frames followed by only one acknowledgement frame in a transmission block; Greenfield mode, the increased efficiency gained by dropping 802.11a/b/g backward compatibility; and RIFS, reduced interframe spacing, which minimizes unused radio dead time by cutting the interval time between sent packets.

The new device also focuses on efficient power management, with a special integrated PMU (power management unit) and a shared Bluetooth and WiFi receive signal path, which "eliminates the need for an external power splitter while maintaining excellent sensitivity for both Bluetooth and WLAN."

The new component should dramatically speed up WiFi throughput and flexibility as AT&T and other UMTS mobile providers also upgrade their 3G networks to take advantage of parallel improvements in mobile 3G speed capacity expected in the new iPhone.

Source

Google and Nokia Catch Netbook Mania

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:08:00 +0000

Nokia and Netbook Mania Dept.: When I first heard about Nokia considering getting into the netbook game, I made an offhand joke that it would be interesting unless the company ran Symbian as the OS. I figured that, like every other netbook, it would be running Windows or Linux. So you can imagine my shock when I was reading an article in which the Nokia folks seem to be indicating their netbook will indeed be running Symbian. What?!? Is the device just going to be a huge phone? It's ridiculous. Stop now, guys, before it's too late!

Meanwhile, there's more and more talk on the streets about Google porting its Android OS—actually a specialized distro of Linux—to its own netbook. This makes a lot more sense than using Symbian, that's for sure. If Google puts its resources behind Linux on the desktop, I think we could actually see a platform shift. This would be the time to do it since Microsoft seems to be distracted by both cloud computing and making money selling advertisements. The cash cows are what should be getting the attention, but many companies neglect them. Poor cows.

As the netbook scene heats up, you have to wonder: Exactly where is the Sony netbook? The company has released a few smallish machines they say are netbooks, but one, for example, with a Blu-ray drive is $2,700. This misses the point of a netbook, which is the low cost. It should cost about $299. Expect to see some major changes at Sony now that its European boss, Howard Stringer, will be running the whole show, as he got rid of one more top executive. It will be a magic act if Sony can somehow get back into a position of influence. The entire netbook genre had Sony written all over it, but the company could not execute. Kind of like with the iPod and the iPhone. These would have been Sony products in the 1970s.

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Invisibility 'carpet' expected soon

noreply@blogger.com (HamzaZafar) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:06:00 +0000

An invisibility cloak has long been the the stuff of fantasy, but fiction is about to become reality.

The British scientist who pioneered the concept, Sir John Pendry, expects a cloak that can conceal an object from prying eyes to be unveiled within months.

Harry Potter need not worry just yet. His wizard's cloak, which makes people disappear, is still too complicated and costly for Muggle scientists to emulate.

"At the moment we don't have the technology to do that," Professor Pendry, of Imperial College London, told the Sydney Morning Herald. The first man-made cloak will be more like an invisibility "carpet", he said. Tuck a tiny object underneath it, and it will seemingly disappear because the bump the object makes will be hidden from view with an artificial mirage.

Its development will be a startling demonstration of the potential of metamaterials - a radical new technology that could lead to other applications, including barriers to prevent waves damaging the shore, acoustic cloaks to reduce noise, stealth systems for the military, and faster telecommunications.

Metamaterials have microscopic structures that give them properties not found in nature because of the unusual way the structures interact with light or other electromagnetic waves.

They can be designed to hide things by bending radiation around an object as if it were not there, "like water flowing around a stone", said Professor Pendry, who will give a public talk on invisibility at the University of Sydney on Wednesday.

He was the first to think up these new materials a decade ago. In 2004, to "spice up" one of his mathematically dense lectures in the US, he mentioned Harry Potter. "I said one of the interesting things they could do is hide things."

Other researchers in the audience, led by David Smith of Duke University, took his message to heart. "They went back and built the darn thing."

In 2006 Professor Smith revealed the first cloak, which steered radiation around a copper cylinder, making it invisible to microwave detection.

"I am optimistic work in progress will produce an optical cloak in the next six months," Professor Pendry said.

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