According to a court in New Delhi, big Internet companies will have to remove all content that is offensive to Indians from their websites. All content must be removed by February 6 and report their progress on January. Companies ordered to purge themselves are Google, Facebook, Microsoft, YouTube and 21 more. Indian government is trying to monitor and control electronic information. Special units have already been set up to monitor social networking websites. They are mostly concerned about images, altered images of politicians and religiously sensitive images.
An Android Backdoor without permissions
Thomas Cannon, a security expert have developed an app that can install a backdoor in Android smart phones. The app does not exploit any security holes and it does not require any permissions. The app is able to give a remote shell to an attacker and allow him to execute commands on the device. The attacker could be anywhere in the world and execute the commands remotely. The app is not an exploit, it uses Android as it was designed to work. The app in a clever way can establish a two-way communication channel and it works on all Android versions from 1.5 to 4.0 (Ice cream sandwich).
IBM predicts the near future with 5 in 5
IBM predicts five innovations that can change the world within five years. The following five predictions can transform the aspects of our lives and make earth a smarter planet. This year predictions are people power will come to life, you will never need a password again, mind reading is no longer science fiction, the digital device will cease to exist and junk mail will become priority mail. Those five innovations are this year’s predictions from IBM. Some of their predictions come true, including two of the last year 5 in 5. The one that I vote for is the first one, people power will come to life. This one will help us gather energy from everywhere and will result in a much greener place to live.
Strange Gamer
I have seen very strange gamers but nothing like that. You see babies play games and you thing that is a remarkable thing but this will amaze you even more. It is a video of a Bearded Dragon playing Ant Smasher. She does not use her tiny fingers to play but her tongue. She is a very good gamer, once she starts smashing ants, she can’t stop. She just needs to learn the rules and we might have a new record. How do you feel if you get beaten by a beard dragon in a game? We might soon see them playing World of Warcraft or Call of Duty. Enjoy!
Microsoft wants the death of Internet Explorer 6
There are hundreds of articles and blog posts that mention the obvious, Internet Explorer 6 is the least secure web browser. People, through ignorance or not understanding the risks, still using this old and insecure web browser to surf the Internet. Microsoft is aware of that and it tries to make people understand the risks of using the decade old browser and the need to upgrade their web browser. This is the last year that Microsoft allows its users to use IE6 and in January it will force them to update it. XP users will be updated to IE8 and Vista users to IE9. There is a website that shows the countdown of Internet Explorer 6 usage which is now about 8.3%. The purpose of that site is to watch IE6 usage drop to 1%.
Rumors about the return of Bill Gates to Microsoft
There are rumors that Bill Gates will return to Microsoft. The chance of doing that is very small as he likes the work he is doing is his foundation. There is no doubt that his return will help Microsoft and make it stronger but it is not doing bad as it is. He admitted that his future lies on his foundation where he is working full-time. He donated billions and he helped a lot of people and this is more important than anything. He is still a part of Microsoft as chairman and part-time involvement. In my opinion, he will return to Microsoft only if he thinks that the company he founded is in the wrong path and will collapse.
Apple to acquire Anobit for about $500 million
Apple wants to buy Anobit, an Israeli Flash Memory Company and the price of this acquisition is between $400 and $500 million. Anobit is producing flash memory with Memory Signal Processing (MSP) technology which increase the performance and the endurance of the memory while reducing the cost. Apple wants that technology for their products such as iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air. Apple is not buying companies like crazy like Google does and this shows that Anobit will help Apple to make better products. Anobit was founded in 2006 and last August it shipped 20 million MSP-powered MSP20xx embedded flash controllers. Those controllers are used in smartphones and tablet computers and they boost memory performance. Anobit is apparently a great company, being so young and having only about 200 employees and at the same time being so successful, it is a great choice for Apple.
Google search now draws graphs
There are many Google funny things and Easter eggs, some of them are described in the Funny Google Stuff article. Google has also useful stuff like the calculator which can calculate almost any equation. For example you can search for 3+5*5-2 and gives you 26 as a result (3 + (5 * 5) – 2 = 26) before the search results. Also you can convert currency, for example I searched for 200 usd to eur and it gave me as a result 200 U.S. dollars = 148.776315 Euros. This is a very fast and easy way to calculate things. But Google does not stop, it continues to add functionality and now it shows graphs.
Find the phone spy
Recently, an Android developer found an app that it is used to spy on you without your permission. The application is called Carrier IQ and it is on most smartphones. It tracks your location and records your keystrokes. If you want to know it that little spy is on your smart phone you can get the app called Voodoo Carrier IQ detector from the market and scan your phone. Although it is not very reliable yet, this means it is not 100% accurate, you will get a hint if you have it or not. The source code is released and soon we will have a more accurate version of it. Keep in mind that Voodoo Carrier IQ detector does not delete Carrier IQ, it just finds it and informs you with a score.
Prison guards to be replaced by robots
South Korea will try robots as prison guards for one month. Robotic prison guards are 150cm tall and have wheels. They are designed to be humane and friendly. If the trial is a success more robots will be added. The robotic prison guards will be used mainly at night and with their censors can check the condition of a cell and report to the officer in charge. They will not be used only as cameras, they have algorithms that analyze activities and can detect abnormal behavior. Inmates cannot bribe or threat robots but they might find a way to hack them or exploit any vulnerabilities. This will bring us one step closer to a world that machines rule.