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As what the case is during the holidays, hackers have managed to send in the Storm Trojan through posing as a video link. Its subject line was usually as such: “Amazing Fireworks 2008,” “Light Up the Sky,” “Celebrating Fourth of July,” “Spectacular Fireworks Show.” It comes with a pitch stating that the largest fireworks in history happens a day before Independence Day. It was described to be a spectacular event, with millions spent for fireworks execution. The user then is instructed to click on a certain link to view the video and there goes the Trojan virus infecting your Windows-ran PCs and adding your system into the collection of compromised computers comprising Storm botnet. Hackers used executable “fireworks.exe” as bait.

This has been a recurring occurrence especially during Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Microsoft claims ability to control the influx of the virus by coming up with the malicious software removal tool, which has beaten Storm into submission. This claim was supported by security experts. 

Graham Cluley, senior technology at Sophos, said, “You're not going to be feeling in the mood for celebrations if this malware infects your PC.”

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Microsoft hasn’t been known to invest on any iPhone applications. However, surprisingly at that, it has bought a speech recognition company called Tellme.  With Tellme, you can speak on your phone and automatically it will give back a screen that would show the information you need.

TellMe’s CEO who is also Microsoft’s executive, Mike McCue, has been tinkering away on his desk, placing the application on Microsoft’s mobile phone. He said that he technically wants the application on every phone available. McCue is also working on other phone service companies; and in fact, Tellme was originally created for the Blackberry phone. With this, he merely said that he wants to be where the mobile customers are.

Besides the fact that iPhone is believed to be the dead-end of all mobile gizmos, McCue said that the iPhone seems to be bulky and it’s quite a headache to navigate while looking at local listings. Furthermore, one would have to click six times to tune in to your favorite song on the list. In this case, changing the music stored in your phone is somewhat like engaging in a technological war.

Voice application is seen as a great solution to this need of a better interface. It is believed that Microsoft will be following if not surpassing Apple for its mobile applications. McCue, on the other hand,  is working closely with the group working on Windows Mobile 7—Microsoft’s next version of mobile phone operating system.

Source: http://news.cnet.com

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Everybody’s on the rush for grabbing the latest 3G iPhone yet there are things you have forgotten to consider. Ten things, and they are not found in this state-of-the-art gadget.

First thing’s first, there’s no video camera in a 3G iPhone. It’s a feature that comes as basic in most of its rival phones. Of course, you can share a YouTube video from your supergadget to another phone, but you can’t send MMS.  Some say it might be because of the lack of video camera that causes this. That entirely means you can’t shoot, store, and share video files. It’s not to say that the 3G iPhone has no camera at all. There’s a 2 megapixel cam on the phone which will take your photo and send that through email.

Another “can’t” in the 3G iPhone is not being able to share music files in non-DRM protected tracks. Good thing is that you no longer have the adapter when you get to use the recessed headset, but the cord is still there. It should have the stereo Bluetooth headset to do away with the cumbersome wire.

Another headache is when you have long messages and you want to have them edited before you get to copy and paste them in another application. The 3G iPhone is also not able to rotate in landscape orientation when you are making notes, maps, and emails. This is a necessity for those who use their phones to submit graphs and other applications for data reporting.

When you try to type In a word in your 3G iPhone, it will automatically guess a word that more often than not you don’t want or need. It’s fine with you, but wait when you try to delete it and it takes time to have it removed because you don’t have an opt-out option for that function. You would have to deselect each word each time, which is really that cumbersome.

There’s no Instant Messaging capacity for the 3G iPhone. Flash animations as well as films are still mere wishes for the iPhone users.

Why these applications and features are not yet found in the supergadget is still an unsolved riddle. Many have surmised that this is some sort of marketing strategy for its developers to still have room for coming up with a better gadget, of course with a better price. Whatever it is, nothing can stop from the queue waiting for the latest iPhone model.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com

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Savvychavvy.com, a social networking site, bagged an award for social use of technology from UK’s Catalyst Awards. The site has been honored due to valuable information and the social importance it has on giving an online venue for gypsy travelers to keep in touch with their bigger community. It also serves as a catalyst in the way the world sees the gypsy culture.

Another award-winning networking site is Wheelies. The Second Life-hosted virtual night club for disabled people garnered the revolutionary award. The David and Goliath Awardee is Liftshare, an online system that helps drivers with extra space on their cars find passengers.

Besides community sites, UK’s  social media award–giving body also awarded Helen Anderson for her social effort of bringing the broadband connection to South Witham, Lincolnshire after the town was ignored by Internet suppliers.

The Catalyst Awards was formed to recognize those who use any social media, such as the Internet, as a social unifying factor or as a tool to discuss social issues like poverty and gang culture or violence.

All the awardees were given trophies presented to them by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

"The worst of Britain can always be challenged by the best of Britain," he said.

The sponsors for Catalyst Awards were Council on Social Action, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) and the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform.

http://news.bbc.co.uk