Ed Oswald

Adobe has issued an out-of-cycle patch for its Flash, Reader, and Acrobat applications which it recommends all users upgrade to immediately. The fix will close a security hole in the Authplay component, which allows for the use of Flash within PDF files.

Code to exploit the vulnerability was out in the wild, Adobe has disclosed. It had initially believed that the vulnerability was only being exploited through malformed Flash .swf files within Excel spreadsheets, but it was discovered that attackers could also possibly exploit the vulnerability through holes in the PDF file format.

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T-Mobile this week said it was set to double the speeds of its HSPA+ network to 42Mbps in three cities this spring, with service initially launching in New York City, Orlando, Florida, and Las Vegas. Long Island, N.Y, northern New Jersey, and Chicago would follow soon after, expanding to about 25 markets by the middle of the year.

The carrier's announcements come just days after it announced a blockbuster merger with AT&T that would create the nation's largest wireless carrier. Regardless, T-Mobile had said it would continue with its plans until the merger's approval, including network expansion and new device releases.

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The nation's largest GSM carrier on Monday announced two new smartphones aimed at the higher end as it works to differentiate itself after losing exclusivity of the Apple iPhone. The LG Thrill 4G, a dual-core 3D-ready Android phone, and the HTC HD7S, a Windows Phone 7 device with a five megapixel built in camera, will be available in the coming weeks.

Both devices will sport large 4.3-inch screens, with the LG Thrill able to run on AT&T's new 4G network. The LG Thrill would also be able to shoot 3D imagery and video through its own built in five megapixel camera, and no glasses would be required in order to view the imagery.

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While the final version Firefox 4 is not slated to release until Tuesday, Betanews' sister site FileForum has obtained the official releases from Mozilla's FTP servers a day early. Those FTP servers are the ones used to populate the company's distribution points for widespread release.

Mozilla strongly discourages direct downloading from these servers as they are not equipped to handle the traffic that major software releases can generate. In the past, the software maker has asked companies to remove any direct links to its FTP servers.

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In a stunning development that likely surprised many, AT&T announced Sunday that it had entered into an agreement to acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom in an agreement valued at some $39 billion USD. The combined entity would have approximately 130 million subscribers, far surpassing rival Verizon and becoming the nation's largest cellular provider.

AT&T has committed to pay Deutsche Telekom $25 billion in cash, with the remainder being paid in stock according to a statement by the company. The board of directors of both companies have already approved the deal, and it is expected to close within 12 months.

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With supplies of the iPad 2 already tight, the ongoing disaster in Japan could make things even worse according to a prominent research firm. IHS iSuppli -- most known for its teardown analyses -- said it had identified at least five parts in the tablet device that are manufactured in the country.

So far the company has identified NAND flash chips from Toshiba, DRAM chips produced by Elpida Memory, an electronic compass from AKM Semiconductor, touchscreen glass overlay believed to be from Asahi Glass, and the system battery produced by Apple Japan.

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AT&T has begun cracking down on those subscribers who are tethering their laptops or other Wi-Fi enabled devices to their smart phones for Internet access. The company began sending texts and e-mails to those it suspects are doing so without subscribing to the carrier's $45 per month DataPro plan.

For an additional $20 above the standard 2GB smart phone data plan, subscribers are permitted to use their phones as hotspots to connect Wi-Fi devices to AT&T's 3G data network, and given an extra 2GB data allotment. Some have balked at the extra charge, opting instead to tinker with their phones to allow tethering without the necessary plan.

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A study on the loading times of websites on both Android and the iPhone came under fire late Thursday, with Apple supporters calling its results flawed and the company behind the study defending its findings amid questions on the methods used to test the iPhone's performance.

Blaze Software, a website optimization company found that on average Android loaded web pages 52 percent faster than the iPhone 4. It also said that it saw no noticeable performance increase due to the optimizations of the JavaScript engine included in iOS 4.3.

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A new study released Thursday claims that Android loads webpages on average 52 percent faster than iPhone, while also throwing cold water on claims that enhancements to the JavaScript engines of either platform made web surfing faster.

The study from website optimization company Blaze involved an iPhone 4 running iOS 4.3 and a Nexus S running Android 2.3. Tests were performed over 45,000 times using Fortune 1000 websites, and 84 percent of the time the Nexus phone loaded the page faster. Median load time was 2.144 seconds for Android versus 3.254 seconds for the iPhone.

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Expanding on moves first made last April to make Google Docs more collaborative, Google on Wednesday further expanded on social aspects of the online document service. Comments are now "seamless," the company says, and easier to manage through new e-mail functionality.

Previously users had to check the document itself to view new comments, which the company admitted was not the best solution. Google has changed this so that a new comment would be directly e-mailed to the document owner. Replying to the comment would be as easy as replying to the email. Also, new participants can be added through the use of an @mention.

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Netflix may be looking to leverage some of its massive market share in streaming and downloading, reportedly outbidding major cable networks to carry a new television show exclusively on its platform. According to a report on Deadline.com, the entertainment company has won the rights to House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey.

The deal is said to be worth at least $100 million, and AMC and HBO had both apparently shown interest in the show. No doubt original programming is a whole new venture for Netflix, which has previously built its business on the distribution of other's content. But it is also a costly gamble with no guarantee of success.

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With security of our social networks an ever growing concern, being able to connect to these sites securely has become increasingly important to some networks. Twitter is the latest to offer this feature, introducing an "always on" HTTPS connection within the site's settings.

Previously users would access the SSL connection by surfing to the URL directly from the web browser. By checking the "Always use HTTPS" box in settings, Twitter would always connect in this manner.

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In a validation of its strategy to make its content available on as many platforms as possible, research firm NPD Group has found that 61 percent of all legal movie downloads and streams originate from Netflix. That is over seven times its nearest competitor Comcast, with only eight percent of the market.

"VOD and other digital options are now beginning to make inroads with consumers," NPD entertainment analyst Russ Crupnick said. "Overwhelmingly digital movie buyers do not believe physical discs are out of fashion, but their digital transactions were motivated by the immediate access and ease of acquisition provided by streaming and downloading digital video files."

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Hackers have already managed to break open Apple's latest iPad, with developer and hacker Comex saying he had managed to do so remotely over the weekend. While proof of the jailbreak has shown up in photos and video on the Internet, it will not be made available immediately as it must be packaged for public use.

According to talk on Twitter, versions for both the Wi-Fi and 3G models of the iPad could be released shortly, although no specific date for its release has been given.

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For a third straight year, Google's Chrome browser has gone unhacked at a yearly event aimed at exposing the security flaws of today's modern browsers. The Mountain View, Calif. search company put its money where its mouth was too: last month it offered $20,000 to the first team able to hack the company's browser.

Pwn2Own is part of the CanSecWest security conference, held yearly by HP TippingPoint. Contestants are tasked with hacking each of the major browsers -- Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome -- and the first teams to do so not only win a $15,000 cash prize but also the computer they hacked the browser on.

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