PRISM -- It's the end of the Internet as we know it
…And I don’t feel fine. Tyranny has replaced liberty in the United States. Our rights are slowly being eroded. Not a day goes by without a new government scandal breaking in the news. As my colleague Mark Wilson reported yesterday, the National Security Agency (NSA) has been secretly spying on Verizon customers since April. The public was outraged -- and rightfully so. There was worry that this was just the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, according to a new report, it was just the tip. The rest of the iceberg is much larger -- and we are the Titanic heading right for it.
While the public was still wrapping their heads around the Verizon scandal, they were informed by The Guardian of a far more devious and tyrannical program dubbed ‘PRISM’. According to the report, this program has been in effect since 2007. In that 6+ year span, the following companies have allowed themselves to be infiltrated:
Microsoft releases Bing Translator for Windows 8
It's not often that I wish to find out what "Qorwagh" or "ghaH*" mean, but when curiosity strikes I can always power up Bing Translator on my Windows Phone. Sadly, Microsoft does not provide a similar app on Windows 8, leaving folks to look up the meaning of those Klingon words using a web browser. Until today, that is.
On Thursday, the software giant released its excellent Bing Translator on Windows 8 and, yes, I can assure you that Klingon is among the supported languages. The app is similar to its Windows Phone 8 counterpart in terms of functionality and includes options like camera translation and more mundane ones like text-to-speech.
File Metadata lets you view and edit metadata for all file types
Windows Explorer has displayed file metadata for a very long time. Click an image, say, and you’ll see (and have the option to edit) details like the picture title, author, comments, camera manufacturer, model and more. This allows you to record useful extra information about each file, and is also used by Windows Search, so for instance searching for "Title:Fiji" would locate all files with "Fiji" in the title.
Ever since Windows Vista, though, general metadata support has been restricted to only file types which include metadata within the files themselves -- images, MP3′s, Office documents and so on -- while simpler formats, like TXT or HTML, are left out. Annoying? Yes. Restrictive? Absolutely. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Grab a copy of the File Metadata beta and you’ll be able to create, view and edit metadata for just any file type you like.
SDL launches free online translation
If you want a guaranteed way of mangling a piece of text, feed it into an online translator, switch it to a foreign language, then translate it back again. Mostly the finished result will bear little resemblance to the original and in many cases won’t make much sense at all.
A new translation service then is something we always approach with a healthy degree of skepticism. SDL's new service www.freetranslation.com, however, proves to be rather good. We took some samples of English text, translated them to other languages and back again, and whilst the results weren't perfect they weren't a million miles away from the original either.
Dropbox Experimental Edition reveals future path for the cloud backup solution
Cloud backup and storage provider Dropbox has released Dropbox Experimental Edition 2.3.12, a pre-release version of its desktop client for Windows, Mac and Linux. The new build introduces several new features -- some restricted by OS -- designed to help simplify the import of photos and other images into the user’s Dropbox account.
At the same time, Dropbox 2.2.0 Release Candidate as quietly slipped out, confirming that the next stable release of Dropbox -- currently at version 2.0.26 -- will go straight to version 2.2, skipping the whole 2.1.x release branch that was previously being used to preview new features.
Enterprises warned BYOD is here to stay
Global industry analyst Ovum has revealed the results of its 2013 BYOX (Bring Your Own Anything) employee survey which reveals that 70 percent of employees use their own devices to access corporate data.
Launching the research at the start of the BYOX World Forum today in London, Ovum revealed that BYOD shows no signs of going away. More to the point it will continue whether the IT department wants it to or not. The study shows that 67.8 percent of smartphone-owning employees bring their own smartphone to work, and 15.4 percent of these do so without the IT department's knowledge, with 20.9 percent of corporate rebels doing so in spite of an anti-BYOD policy.
Super-charged find and replace tool Replace Genius now available for free
Just about every text editor has some kind of search and replace tool which allows you to process data in the file you’re editing. Even Notepad includes a Replace option which can run a case-sensitive search across your entire document, replacing defined text with whatever you like, and all in a click.
What if you want to tweak text case, though? Add or remove text? Insert line numbers, or apply some other more advanced editing option? Then you might need Replace Genius. This smart tool -- once a commercial product, now free -- allows you to perform a host of processing options on plain text files, as well as Word and Excel documents (if Office is installed). And it really is very impressive indeed.
NSA secretly orders Verizon to hand over millions of call records -- innocent & guilty
It sounds like something from the Cold War, but it is happening today. A top secret court order requires Verizon to hand over telephone records for millions of its subscribers to the NSA on an "ongoing daily basis". The order, in place since April this year, forces the telecom company to hand over a range of "tangible things" about phone calls placed within the US and to foreign countries.
This is not entirely unprecedented -- the recording of telephone data has long been used as a means of gathering intelligence during periods of war -- but this time things are a little different. Not only was the court order passed in secret, but there are no specific targets to the operation. It would be quite normal for the call of suspected terrorists or other criminals to be logged and recorded, but in this instance all phone calls are considered fair game.
Microsoft and FBI take down major botnet
Working with the FBI and authorities in 80 other countries, Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit has disrupted a major cybercrime ring. The operation has targeted 1,400 systems involved in running the Citadel botnet.
Citadel is thought to have infected as many as 5 million PCs worldwide and has been used to steal from major financial institutions including American Express, Bank of America and PayPal, accounting for losses of up to half a billion dollars to companies and individuals worldwide. The Citadel botnet is hosted using pirated versions of XP. Once the virus -- which first appeared in early 2012 -- infects a user's machine it blocks access to legitimate antivirus sites and disables installed antivirus applications making it hard to detect and remove.
Acer Aspire R7 Star Trek edition goes up for auction
To celebrate the theatrical release of Star Trek Into Darkness, Taiwanese PC maker Acer partnered with Paramount Pictures to create a limited Star Trek themed edition of its Aspire R7 touchscreen notebook. Just 25 of these special R7’s were produced, none of which were made available to the general public.
Until now. Acer is putting one -- and just one -- up for sale on eBay, with all proceeds going to two charities -- The Mission Continues and Save the Children.
Google's stock Android keyboard hits Play store as a free standalone app
Finding the right keyboard for Android can turn into a lengthy mission. There are few stock keyboards that cut the mustard and timesaving, gesture-friendly alternatives such as Swype and SwiftKey have gained a massive following in recent months. Not wanting to feel left out, Google is making its own stock Android keyboard available in the Play store.
Despite being a stock keyboard, Google Keyboard is surprisingly good -- Nexus users should not be surprised at this as this is the keyboard they are used to working with. Unlike many native keyboards, this one goes above and beyond being a basic onscreen input device for typing letter by letter. Well above and beyond.
Skype 6.5 improves video messaging
Microsoft has today released Skype for Windows desktop 6.5, featuring improved video messaging and simplified contact handling.
Aga Guzik, head of Desktop Product Marketing at Skype, explains that the new build "improves the stability of video messaging and makes video messaging easier to find with improved notifications".
Microsoft: If you want to be green, use Internet Explorer!
The "browser you loved to hate" continues to try and find ways to push itself into prominence against the likes of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Now, on World Environment Day, Microsoft comes up with yet another reason why you should choose Internet Explorer over its closest rivals. And this is one of the most imaginative ones yet -- energy efficiency!
Roger Capriotti, Director of Internet Explorer Marketing, tells us that, according to the Center for Sustainable Energy Systems at Fraunhofer USA, "When compared to Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer uses up to 18 percent less energy". He also adds in some fancy numbers, to boost this claim. Unsurprisingly, the report was commissioned by Microsoft.
Around the world in 5 types of mobile threat
Mobile security company Lookout has released a report breaking down the types of threat encountered by users around the world. It takes data from the Lookout app in the US, UK, Germany, India and Japan to spot the key dangers in each region.
Threats are broken down into five categories -- adware, chargeware, spyware, surveillance and Trojans. Adware dominates around the world thanks to grey areas surrounding what's acceptable in mobile advertising. However, users in India are almost four times more likely to encounter mobile adware than those in the US. Indian users have a greater chance of encountering any kind of threat with a 5.49 percent likelihood of infection compared to only 1.66 percent in the US and 2.16 percent in the UK.
Wearable cloud tech makes users feel more self-confident, clever... and sexy?
A study by CAST in conjunction with Rackspace reveals that users of wearable technology -- such as the Nike+ FuelBand and Jawbone UP -- feel using such devices boost their intelligence levels. The study looks at residents of the UK and US, and finds the wearable tech users not only feel cleverer, but also more self-confident.
These are not the only benefits the study unearths. US participants were generally rather more impressed with the benefits of wearable technology -- 71 percent of American users felt their health and fitness had improved as a result of using such devices, compared to 63 percent of those in the UK. More than half (53 percent) of US users believe wearable tech helps to improve intelligence, compared to just 39 percent of UK users.
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