Bringing together bits and bytes of technolgoy news. Technology News http://techfragments.com A major flaw in the Secure Sockets Layer protocol (SSL) has been uncovered by security researchers with PhoneFactor, a firm providing phone-based authentication. SSL is an technology used widely for online banking, secure e-mail and database access, and other online applications, in order to protect sensitive data in online transactions. The vulnerability was first discovered in August and disclosed by security researchers Marsh Ray and Steve Dispensa to a major tech industry consortium in September. Disclosure to the general public was not to be until next year, in order to give affected companies time to update their software with a fix, but another security researcher independently discovered the vulnerability, then posted it November 4th to an Internet Engineering Task Force mailing list, prompting the other researchers to go public. Now software developers are working overtime to get patches in place. "The SSL Authentication Gap allows an attacker to mount a man-in-the-middle attack, and affects the majority of SSL-protected servers on the Internet", said Steve Dispensa of PhoneFactor. "Specifically, the vulnerability allows the attacker to inject himself into the authenticated SSL communications path and execute commands. Furthermore, both the web server and the web browser generally have no idea their session has been hijacked. All SSL libraries will need to be patched, and most client and server applications will, at a minimum, need to include new copies of SSL libraries in their products. Most users will eventually need to update any software that uses SSL." The exact mechanism of the exploit was not disclosed, butthe researchersdo point outthat a security breach would likely only occur in combination with one or more other vulnerabilities, such as a DNS flaw or unsecured home router. Tech http://techfragments.com/news/1136/Tech/New_SSL_Security_Flaw_Leaves_Browsers_Vulnerable.html The upcoming launch of space shuttle mission STS-129 on Monday, November 16 will be accompanied by a NASA blog updating the countdown as well as the crews activities during the flight. The blog is here: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle. The crew, which lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is to be commanded by Charles Hobaugh and piloted by Barry Wilmore. Also onboard will be astronauts Robert Satcher Jr., Mike Foreman, Randy Bresnik and Leland Melvin. Wilmore, Satcher and Bresnik are first time astronauts. During the mission, three extravehicular spacewalks are scheduled. The crew will also pick up Nicole Stott at the space station to return her to Earth. "During the mission, visitors to NASA's shuttle Web site can read about the crew's progress and watch the mission's three spacewalks live. As Atlantis' flight concludes, the NASA blog will detail the spacecraft's return to Earth," NASA said. Additionally, two of the missions astronauts are posting on Twitter about their pre-launch preparation, and will post updates to their Twitter accounts while in space, NASA said. Bobby Satcher, an orthopedic surgeon, can be followed at: http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Bones and http://www.twitter.com/ZeroG_MD. He will discuss space exploration medical issues for, officials said. Crewmate Leland Melvin, can be followed at http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Flow. Science http://techfragments.com/news/1135/Science/Space_Shuttle_Atlantis_STS-129_Crew_to_Blog_and_Tweet_Live.html The Courier, Microsofts rumored tablet device, got more buzz in the media this week, as Gizmodo broke details from a set of illustrations they obtained, although no photos, for the project. The latest details show that the Courier will be oriented toward business applications, a sort of electronic day planner and note taking assistant, rather than general consumer usage and gaming. To recap, the Courier would have two 7 inch screens joined by flexible hinge in the middle, making a horizontal clamshell, with multi-touch or stylus input but no keyboard, WiFi, and a camera on the back. The latest information shows that the device would revolve around something called the Infinite Journal, virtual notebook pages for note taking, pasting web clippings, sketching out ideas and keeping records. The Smart Agenda would be an adjunct to the Infinite Journal, a simplified task manager/PDA app. Collaborative abilities would also be built-in and integrated to other functions. Most of the information emerging so far has been about the functionality of the device; hardware specifics such as storage media, operating system, processor and so forth are unknown, not to mention price points. The other unknown is if this project really exists, or these are just conceptual sketches for potential future projects from Microsofts R&D. Hardware http://techfragments.com/news/1134/Hardware/More_Details_on_Microsoft_Courier_Leak_Out.html Mobile phones with support for IP-based Long Term Evolution (LTE) will not be on the scene until 2011, and LTE networks wont reach significant market penetration until 2012 or 2013. But a group of mobile telecom operators and vendors have already hammered out an agreement on how to offer voice and SMS services on the 4th generation of wireless networks. The agreement, called the One Voice initiative, includes AT&T, Orange, Telefnica, TeliaSonera, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Samsung Electronics and Sony Ericsson. Missing in action are T-Mobile, Sprint and Chinese players. The standard is aimed at helping to ensure international interoperability for LTE voice and SMS services for consumers and to smooth the way to service convergence. "Open collaborative discussions," One Voice representatives say, "have concluded that the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based solution as defined by 3GPP, is the most applicable approach to meeting the consumers' expectations." LTE will initially be used for wireless data services, with existing circuit-switched networks carrying voice and SMS. Eventual migration of voice and SMS to packet-based 4G LTE is what the One Voice initiative addresses with the new technical standard. Verizon Wireless and Vodafone partner, plan on introducing LTE service in the U.S sometime next year. Tech http://techfragments.com/news/1133/Tech/Telecoms_Agree_on_LTE_SMS_and_Voice.html Linden Labs, the company behind Second Life, is launching a beta version of Second Life Enterprise, which will enable companies to run Second Life on their own servers and networks. Putting the software behind the firewall will eliminate confidentiality and safety concerns for enterprises who want to use Second Life for virtual conference calls and meetings. The beta is expected to run through the end of the year, with an official release by March 2010. Linden Labs runs the public version of the virtual world software on its own servers, so organizations have limited control over security, downtime and maintenance. The 1,400 companies currently using Second Life for meetings, training, and conference calls is a small number compared to those using sites like Facebook and Twitter, butLinden labs hope to expand the number with the new offering. Second Life Enterprise takes the form of a $55,000 hardware appliance which companies install in their own data centers, behind the company firewall. Up to around 700 avatars can be logged in concurrently and can support up to eight simultaneous virtual regions, like training centers and conference halls. Users will be able to transfer virtual goods between the public second life and the Enterprise version, but avatars must remain separate. Organizations now beta testing the new service include as IBM, Northrop Grumman, Case Western Reserve University, and Chicago Children's Memorial Hospital. Hardware http://techfragments.com/news/1132/Hardware/Second_Life_Getting_Enterprise_Edition_Hardware_Appliance.html Google has introduced Google Dashboard, a product which gives users access to their personal information retained in Googles databases. It is intended to provide transparency for all the Google products in one location, as well give more control in managing the data and account settings associated with it. In order to get to the service, log in to your Google account, then under Personal Settings, look for a link that says "View data stored with this account", clicking on that link will lead you to a second log-in panel, which leads to Google Dashboard. Google products which you will be able to manage are: Account & Profile, Custom search engines, Web history, Gmail, Docs, Shopping List, Calendar, YouTube, Blogger, iGoogle, Latitude, Reader, Talk, Mobile Sync, Health, Orkut, Picasa, Voice, Contacts, Alerts, Finance, Friend Connect and Tasks,. The following products are not supported yet: Analytics, AdSense, AdWords, Checkout, Google Video, Groups, SideWiki, SearchWiki, 3D Warehouse, Book Search, Sites, MyMaps, Base, Code, Moderator, PowerMeter, and Feed Burner. Google Dashboard is available in 17 languages, soon to be 40 languages. The dashboard will show all of the Google products linked to an account, along with various data associated with users use of each product. In addition to the account data, links to manage it are available, so that instead of having to go to each Google product separately, everything can be managed from one location. While Dashboard doesnt actually add any new features in terms of privacy, it does make keeping track of everything in all your Google accounts easier and hopefully will give users a little more confidence that Google takes their privacy concerns seriously. Tech http://techfragments.com/news/1131/Tech/Google_Launches_Google_Accounts_Privacy_Management_Dashboard.html NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has uncovered evidence of an ultra-thin layer of carbon on the neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant, a discovery which solves a mystery about the object. It is the first time that composition of an atmosphere of an isolated neutron star has been confirmed. "The compact star at the center of this famous supernova remnant has been an enigma since its discovery," said Wynn Ho, lead author of a paper in the latest issue of Nature outlining the find. "Now we finally understand that it can be produced by a hot neutron star with a carbon atmosphere." A Chandra image of Cas A in 1999 showed a previously undetected point-like source of X-rays at the center. This object was presumed to be a neutron star, the typical remnant of an exploded star, but researchers were unable to understand its properties, since the object showed no X-ray or radio pulsations or signs of radio pulsar activity. The carbon atmosphere explains the lack of X-ray pulsations because, like a lightbulb that shines consistently in all directions, this neutron star would be unlikely to display any changes in its intensity as it rotates. Unlike most astronomical objects, neutron stars are small enough to understand on a human scale. For example, neutron stars typically have a diameter of about 14 miles, only slightly longer than a half-marathon. The atmosphere of a neutron star is on an even smaller scale. The researchers calculate that the carbon atmosphere is only about 4 inches thick, because it has been compressed by a surface gravity that is 100 billion times stronger than on Earth. Also, the estimated age of the neutron star in Cas A is only several hundred years, making it about ten times younger than other neutron stars with detected surface emission. Therefore, the Cas A neutron star gives a unique window into the early life of a cooling neutron star. And the carbon? The researchers say it comes from a combination of material that has fallen back after the supernova, and nuclear reactions on the hot surface of the neutron star which convert hydrogen and helium into carbon. Science http://techfragments.com/news/1130/Science/Neutron_Star_with_Carbon_Atmosphere_Found.html The latest version of Parallels Inc's Windows virtualization software for Mac, Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac, has been released. It is compatible with OSX 10 Leopard and Snow Leopard. The company claims it is faster and more powerful than rival VMware Fusion 3.0.According to a study commissioned by Parallels, Windows 7 64-bit runs 22% faster on a MacBook Pro using Parallels than using Fusion. 70 new features have been added, such as compatibility with the latest Windows 7 and Mac OS X versions, support for Windows Aero graphics, and more integration between the Windows and Mac environments. Virtualized Windows programs can be even controlled using Mac multitouch swipe and pinch gestures on notebook trackpads. The other virtualization program Parallels Desktop competes with is Apples Boot Camp feature, although it does not allow the two operating systems to run simultaneously, and there is no Windows 7 support yet. Price and availability: Available now, Parallels 5 retail price is $79.99, an upgrade version is $49.99. Upgrade is free is you purchased the current version after October 1, 2009. Software http://techfragments.com/news/1129/Software/Parallels_Desktop_5_Mac_Virtualization_Released.html PayPal officially launched PayPal X yesterday. Paypal X is an open API which lets third parties add payment methods to their platforms. The eBay owned company is seeking to expand from their current 70 billion dollars of transactions per year by putting the ability to pay via Paypal into more services and websites. Processing fees will be as low as .75% or 50 cents. "With the new open software, called Paypal X, users won't have to type their username and password into a separate PayPal Web site in order to complete a payment, executives said. Instead, people will be able to sign into PayPal and make purchases, such as virtual weapons, right inside an application such as a game." Paypals payment fulfilment system is up against some serious competition. Googles Checkout is now available for use on mobile devices, Nokia is developing Nokia Money, a rival mobile payment platform, Apple and Facebook are looking to enter the space, and Amazon has just unveiled PayPhrase, their own version of an open payment system. It will be interesting to see how developers make use of this technology. Will there be any incentive for them to create Apps for profit, and what will the future of online payment look like? PayPalX API Software Development Kits can be downloaded from X.com, the projects web site. The domain has been owned by eBay since 1999. Software http://techfragments.com/news/1128/Software/PayPal_X_Opens_Up_Paypal_API_to_Developers.html Maingear has announced their latest series of high horsepower muscle PCs. Well, you could probably build this yourself for half the price, but there are plenty of folks out there who just want to snag the fastest off the shelf PC they can get and go play games, or do video editing or 3D graphics. This new high power PC is aimed at them. The Maingear SHIFT is being touted as a personal supercomputer", whatever that is, but its really just a liquid cooled Core i7 or Xeon box. Yes, we know, they installed the motherboard sideways and made the airflow from the bottom and tweaked the aluminum case to allow three GPUs to be installed. Yes, graphics cards do put out a lot of heat. But you wont see this brick on desks in the Jet Propulsion Labs or Oak Ridge National Laboratories; its no supercomputer. Actually, you might not see it on any desk, since the case measures 21.6 inches by 8.6 inches by 24 inches. Whats inside it? Specs on the SHIFT include Core i7 processor in either P55 or X58 motherboard, closed loop liquid CPU cooling for up to 4 GHz speeds, 6 hard drive bays, holding up to 12 SSDs, Silverstone power supply up to 1.2KW, Kingston HyperX DDR3-2000 at 2000MHz (up to 8 GB total on the i& version, and up to 24 GB RAM total on the X58 version), and your choice of Nvidia GeForce or ATI graphics cards. Each PC is rated for 50,000 hours of operation. The P55 motherboard version starts at $2,199 and the X58 version starts at $2,599, not including graphics card. Tech http://techfragments.com/news/1127/Tech/Maingear_Shows_Off_SHIFT_Personal_Supercomputer.html Marvell and E Ink have signed a joint development and croos licensing agreement and are now shipping an integrated system on a chip (SoC) e-reader processor. The two companies have been developing products together for the past three years, but say the new partnership should allow for higher integration and lower cost for manufacturers of e-reader devices. The new SoC, the Marvell ARMADA 166E application processor, contains a processor and Electronic Paper Display (EPD) controller on a single chip, and is designed for fast rendering of high resolution PDF documents as well as support for the latest ePaper technologies. The ARMADA 166E will bring e-readers new features for saving power and extending battery life, like a zero power hibernation mode. The two companies also announced FirstPaper, LLC, a joint innovation enabling various display sizes and resolutions, including support for larger screens that will deliver layouts, graphics, and content choices that people normally associate with periodicals, larger-format books, and documents. "Periodicals are the next big frontier in e-reading", said Gil Fuchsberg, President of FirstPaper, "To enable great newspaper and magazine reading experiences, e-reading devices need the right tools to make richer layouts and complex content come to life. We're excited to be working with Marvell to bring such tools to the market. Device manufacturers will be able to take full advantage of FirstPapers integrated content and commerce platform with the ARMADA 166E". According to Marvell Co-founder Weili Dai, "Because this is a total platform solution including Marvell key technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G modem, and power management the ARMADA e-reader has the potential to deliver the first mass market product accessible and affordable to billions of consumers around the world. Marvells passion is to give consumers more choice, improved features, and greater access to more information with e-readers that are aimed at education, health, and business applications". E-readers with the new processor expected on the market in 2010 include the entourage eDGe, the Plastic Logic ProReader and Spring Designs Alex. Tech http://techfragments.com/news/1126/Tech/Marvell_and_E_Ink_SoC_to_Power_Next_Generation_E-Readers.html The current developer build of Snow Leopards next version is being reported to have effectively eighty-sixed support for Intel Atom CPUs. Currently, Apple OS X 10 Snow Leopard will run on Atom chipsets, so users were able to install the Mac operating system on low priced Netbook computers, creating what are termed Hackintoshes. The lack of support could be an unintentional oversight in the developer build, but recent trends (iPhone OS updates that prevent jailbreaking, legal actions against Psystar, etc) would support the view that Apple is going after Hackintosh users. The report comes via the OS X Daily site, which speculates that "this move is Apples attempt at shutting down the growing and popular Hackintosh Netbook community, since Apple has no product line that runs the Atom itself... Maybe its in effort to kill the Atom Hackintoh Netbooks in anticipation of the rumored Tablet?" Users of unauthorized Mac Netbooks are advised to not update, and stay with version 10.6.1 or 10.5.8 until a workaround emerges from the Hackintosh community. 10.6.2 is meant to be the second maintenance and security update to Apples OSX Snow Leopard; it will update more than 150 components, including AppleBacklight, Battery Menu, Dictionary, Expose, FileSync, Family Controls, Fonts, Front Row, HFS, Inkwell, iPhoto, MobileMe, OpenCL, Parental Controls, QuickTime, Screen Sharing, Spell Checker, Spotlight, Time Machine, and USB. Tech http://techfragments.com/news/1125/Tech/Snow_Leopard_10-6-2_Pulling_Atom_Support.html Microsoft has just released a new version of its mobile search site which is specially made for touch screen devices like the iPhone. New functions include a Search for Movies that lets you find by what movies are nearby your location, with time and theater listings as well as trailer previews. Selection buttons are optimized for finger use, making them easier to read and press. Point your mobile browser at m.bing.com to try it out. Devices supported as of this writing are the T-Mobile G1, iPhone, iPod Touch, Zune HD, Verizon Imagio, and the Samsung Omnia. Additional support for other phones and devices will be added over the couple months, Microsoft says. The new Bing mobile site also features real-time search results for flight status and NFL scores. If you type in an NFL team or player, youll now see almost real time player stats, game scores and other details. Typing in a flight number and airline will return almost real-time arrival, departure, delay and cancellation info. Any handsets which are not able to use the touch optimized GUI will automatically default to a simplified version. For now, the new site is only accessible for U.S. users. Tech http://techfragments.com/news/1124/Tech/Updated_Bing_Mobile_Site_iPhone_Optimized_Version.html Creative, maker of the Zen mp3 player, is making noises in the e-reader space and may be the next to announce an electronic book reading device. The company showed off a working prototype e-reader at its annual general meeting, according to EpiZenter.net. The Creative MediaBook sports a touchscreen, text to speech conversion, interenet connectivity and runs on the companys proprietary Zii operating system on a chip. Creative's vice president of strategic business Willie Png, trashtalked on the Kindle at the meeting, calling it "just another electronic device which displays books in text" (thank you Captain Obvious), and added that Creative's e-reader will exploit "videos, pictures, text, and services in one device that supports a media-rich experience." More of a CrunchPad style tablet device then, it sounds like. Creative is said to be talking to 10 international and local publishers to provide content for the device. Fiction, newspaper, magazines, education materials, and textbooks all are fair game for the device. Singapore Press Holdings, publisher of 17 newspapers and more than 100 magazines, may be one local content provider. The publisher controls a range of multimedia content, such as videos, images and radio programs, which could be used for content on the device. But how will the MediaBook distinguish itself in this increasingly crowded niche? Price and availability: unknown as of yet. Hardware http://techfragments.com/news/1123/Hardware/Creative_Shows_Off_MediaBook_Zii_E-book_Reader.html The first beta of Firefox 3.6 has been made available for download by Mozilla. The final release be ready later this year, but testers, developers and early adopters can get 3.6b1 now. The newest Firefox browser contains few new features; most changes from the 3.5 version are behind the scenes enhancements for speed and code efficiency, such as the JavaScript rendering engine. There are some new features, including built-in support for Mozillas Personas lite browser skins, new alerts to users for outdated plug-ins like Flash Player or QuickTime required by sites, and support for full screen video display for videos embedded with the video HTML tag. Updated outdated third-party plug-ins is important because many updates are for security resons; leaving plug-ins un-updated may leave users vulnerable to viruses and malware. Earlier this fall, plug-in checking was added for Adobe Flash Player to updates of Firefox 3.5.3 and 3.0.14, and Mozillas site now has a page dedicated to helping users manually check other plug-ins for updates. With Firefox 3.6 Beta, an alert is shown when the browser is asked to run an outdated plug-in; it will read "Some plug-ins used by this page are out of date." Other changes in Firefox 3.6 beta, are support for the Web Open Font Format (WOFF), new CSS, DOM and HTML 5 web technologies support for full-screen video; and better JavaScript performance, browser responsiveness and startup time. Support for Windows 7's Aero Peek and taskbar thumbnail previews are also included in 3.6b1, although integration with Windows 7 Jump Lists has been postponed. If you are already running one of the earlier Firefox 3.6 builds, then it will be automatically upgraded. If not, Firefox 3.6b1 is available for download for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux now. Download Page: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html Software http://techfragments.com/news/1122/Software/Firefox_3-6_Beta_Released.html