QBurst

Ever Thought Of Locating Your Twitter On Your Mobile Phone Even Without a GPRS Subscription?

This concept has become a reality in India with the Shorthand mobile SMS browser introduced by the Shorthand Mobile-India(www.shorthandmobile.in), a subsidary of Smarttouch mobile Inc.. The browser once downloaded will connect you to your desired web content just through a text sms. Yes, it’s that simple!

The desired web contents are stored as SMS Apps and are listed in the Shorthand browser for easy scroll and click. The users have to just scroll down to their SMS App and click the same to access the online network. The web content is located as soon as the browser sends the text message. Hence, it does not require an active data plan.

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Make your smartphone work even smarter!

Mophie, the powerhouse of iPhone and iPod gadgets and batteries is unveiling the hottest iPhone-centric Credit Card Reader at the 2010 International CES proposed to be held at Las Vegas from 7th to 10th Jan this year. To gear up for an even smarter shopping experience you just need to swipe your credit card into the Mophies  iphone compatible credit card reader. The transaction will be processed with the help of a third party application.
The Credit Card Reader can be slipped into your iPhone just like the Mophie Juice Pack Air, the external rechargeable battery introduced in the mid 2009. The detailed information including its functioning and pricing is yet to be unveiled at the CES 2010.

Google has made some pretty major improvements to the camera application in Android 2.0. This includes more control over white balance, focal length, flash settings, and effects. To complement this Motorola has smartly outfitted the DROID with a 5 megapixel camera coupled with an LED flash. However many initial users claim that the camera is painfully slow to focus and take a snap.

The system comes with a 1400 mAh removable battery which is not bad at all but we expect that it won’t deliver the rated 270 hours standby time or 6 hrs 25 min talktime, especially comparing it to the previous CLIQ. However Motorola has managed to provide a decent talktime of around 5 hrs 30 min, thanks to the somewhat ironic under-clocked CPU!

The wait is over. Microsoft is all set to launch its new Operating System Windows 7. Although the product was released to manufacturing on July 22^nd, 2009, it will be available for the public only today (Oct 22^nd, 2009). The Operating System comes in 6 packages. Each of these packages is meant for different types of customers. The packages are Starter, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, OEM and Enterprise.

A look back

Windows XP has survived more than Microsoft would have imagined. Since its first appearance in October, 2001, the Operating System is still one of the best in the market. Microsoft says over 400 million copies were in use. Although Microsoft stopped the delivery of XP from Jan 31^st, 2009, downgrade option is still available. To be in market for 8 years and still find place to stick around, is an achievement to talk about.

Known by its codename ‘Longhorn’, Vista came into the picture with great expectations in 2007. But the Longhorn did not serve to be a horn for Microsoft. Vista neither compromised on low hardware configurations nor delivered the expected performance. Complaints and weird feedback filled the air. And not surprisingly, most of the customers either continued with XP or looked for alternative Operating Systems.

A positive look forward

With the bar set high for the next Operating System, the Microsoft team started working few years back and has now come up with a product which has generated non-skeptical positive response even from the world’s best analysts. Let’s take a look at a few features that has paved the way for this.

System Requirements – Normal

The Operating System is designed to support 32 bit and 64 bit processors. The minimum system requirements  for the best performance of the product are not highly demanding. Glance at the following table for the exact details.

Lightweight

It takes not more than 30 minutes for a normal install. However, this certainly depends on the hardware of the system and the type of install used (Upgrade or Fresh). The development team has worked in optimizing the underlying code and also removed software like Movie Maker, Mail etc. These are now available in the Microsoft site as free download. The adoption to this new trend has reduced the size of the Operating System and has made it lightweight. Windows 7 can be installed in netbooks and nettops also.

Better Battery Life

One of the concerns for a laptop user is the backup time his laptop offers. If the Operating System enables him to increase this backup time, it is definitely something to cheer about. Windows 7 saves 30% of the backup time if the previous Operating System used was Windows XP. This was announced publicly by Rob Bernard, Microsoft’s Chief Environmental Strategist.

Third Party Software Evaded

Windows 7 emdeds into it, functionalities that require third party software support. Notable ones are:

• ISO image burner
• Fingerprint sensor management

An ISO image file has so far been an unrecognized format in Windows without a third party software support. In Windows 7, you can double click an ISO file and burn it right away. Windows Biometric Framework is a new addition that avoids the necessity for third party software to manage all biometric management activities. Fingerprint sensor is one example. Windows 7 manages this on its own.

New Taskbar

The new taskbar is arguably one of the best features of Windows 7. It works even better than the Mac OS X dock. It looks like a modified Vista. But behind the screens, there is a complete change of code. Mouse over has been dealt with in an innovative way that is sure to attract the public. Pinning to start menu has also become much easier now. Jump list, a new feature, manages recently opened documents. The show desktop icon is brought into the taskbar. And it works with just a mouse over.

PowerShell

PowerShell is a command-line tool that administers various tasks using cmdlets. Cmd and command were available earlier. With the new command-line tool, it is possible to bring out all GUI functionalities. This tool could become very handy for administrators. Although PowerShell could be downloaded for XP and Vista, it was not a very big hit. Microsoft has decided to bring it as a built-in feature for Windows 7.

There are a number of other features that are sure to influence the public. The control panel has been modified and made more users-friendly. The Operating System integrates backup utility with the control panel. Problem Steps Recorder is a new tool that captures user actions and helps debuggers. System repair disc can now be created during administrator works. The features and innovative developments in Windows 7 makes it more than just a Vista debacle fixer or an ideal XP successor. I can’t wait to get my hands on it!

Here’s glad news for web developers from Mozilla Labs. There is now a quick and easy way to test your JavaScript code on multiple browsers. TestSwarm, the new Mozilla Labs project aims to ease developers’ pain by providing distributed continuous integration testing for JavaScript.

However, at this moment, TestSwarm is still in alpha testing.

NOTE: “During this alpha period data may be lost or corrupted and clients may be unexpectedly disconnected.”

The TestSwarm project was initially started by John Resig as a tool to support the jQuery project and it later moved to become an official Mozilla Labs project. According to John, one of the main reasons on why he pursued this project is because the present day’s cross browser Javascript testing methods do not scale. TestSwarm is expected to greatly simplify the complicated and time-consuming process of running JavaScript test suites in multiple browsers.

TestSwarm currently supports 7 operating systems (Windows, Mac OS X and Linux) and runs its tests on all the major browsers from Mozilla to Konqueror. TestSwarm provides a great visual interface to display the test results. Detailed data about what exactly went wrong is provided which helps to rectify the problem too. This makes a developer’s job easier to keep JavaScript libraries compatible with most web browsers.

Currently, TestSwarm is provided as a service to test few popular JavaScript libraries including jQuery, YUI, Dojo, MooTools, and Prototype. You can also download the source code and install TestSwarm on your own servers if you want to use it for your own project.

To know more, watch this screencast on how TestSwarm works. Additional information is available on John’s blog and the TestSwarm site.

With the increasing number of video formats, the complexity in identifying the best format has also increased.  Compatibility, size, quality and affordability together determine the format that best suits for any requirement in the web.

A video format used in the web should be compatible with major browsers and Operating Systems. Major browsers include Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome and Safari. Major Operating Systems include Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. When it comes to size, the smaller, the better. And when it comes to quality, the higher, the better. The cost factor also plays an important role. I have summarized below, few recognized and used formats in the web with their pros and cons. Proper analysis of our requirement with the capability of the video format will help us to identify the best format for the requirement. These formats are developed and backed up by giants who continuously update and keep them to standards.

• WMV:

Windows Media Video (wmv) is developed and controlled by Microsoft. The video file is based on Microsoft Advanced Systems Format (ASF) container format and is compressed with Windows Media compression. The quality of the video is good and the file is also of low size. One major drawback is that the file runs only on Windows. Neither does it support Flash nor Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) standard.

• Quick Time:

Quick time (.mov) is developed by Apple Inc. The latest released version is 10.0. QuickTime is particularly suited for editing. It contains one or more tracks, each of which contains abstract data references for the media data. QuickTime also supports key standards for web streaming, including HTTP, RTP, and RTSP. Also, QuickTime supports every major file format for images, including JPEG, BMP, PICT, PNG, and GIF. QuickTime also features built-in support for digital video, including MiniDV, DVCPro, and DVCam camcorder formats, as well as support for AVI, AVR, MPEG-1, and OpenDML.

• Real Media:

Real media was the first streaming technology on the market. However, Real media still trails Flash when it comes to smooth playback of high-impact interactive multimedia. Web developers have begun to use the Real System G2 and SMIL to stream synchronized multimedia presentations over the Web. This in turn is promoting a wider usage of real media by the developers in the web.

• Macromedia Flash:

Flash is often referred to as the best solution to web media. However, its unfriendliness with search engines has always left it behind. Flash generates high-impact web multimedia with short sound effects and loops. Formerly called as Future Splash, the Flash company was later acquired by Macromedia in 1997. With Flash, users can also draw their own animations or import other vector-based images.

• MPEG-4:

Developed in 1998, MPEG-4 was specially designed to play streaming media file with high quality in the web. MPEG stands for Moving Picture Experts Group and is managed by ISO (International Organization for Standardization). MPEG-4 is a proprietary technology; it requires licensing in order to be used. AT&T claims to have the patent rights for MPEG. But Apple and a number of other video content providers are continuously working on MPEG along with their technologies.

Stay tuned for my next blog in which, I plan to explain the different methods that are available to deliver these formats on the web.

Did you ever wish that keeping up with all your favorite websites was as easy as checking into your email? Or that somebody would keep an eye on the Internet for your sake, choosing interesting stuff and placing it where you can find them easily?

Too incredible to be true, right? But that’s exactly what Google Reader does.

Google Reader was introduced way back in 2005, graduating from beta status in 2007.

For anyone who is not yet familiar with Google Reader, and given that RSS feeds are more extensively used, let me explain……

Google Reader is a web-based aggregator that is capable of reading all RSS feeds that you have subscribed to, so that you can  access them all in one place. Google Reader lets you know each time your favorite websites are updated. You can then, if required, organize feeds into folders, label them, and share the most interesting posts with your friends.

Google Reader is located on the Web at reader.google.com. You can access Google Reader using your Google Account.

Let’s now take a quick look at some of the main features that Google Reader has to offer: (more…)

Almost a year back (Aug 15^th, ’08, to be precise), AUTOMATTIC released WordPress 2.6.1 fixing over 60 bugs. Also the version featured with the introduction of ‘right to left’ typing for Hebrew and Farsi language administrators. In a very short period of time (may be around one month), the company alerted 2.6.1 version users of security holes in using the same. Here, in this small article, we are going to analyze those vulnerabilities that made AUTOMATTIC release an upgrade for WordPress version 2.6.1 so soon.

Ok, let’s be clear and to the point. The problem is created by the nature of:

1.    mt_rand () function of PHP and

2.    the truncation method that MySQL adopts

mt_rand ():

PHP has two random number generating functions: rand (), mt_rand (). The former uses GNU C library and the latter uses Mersenne Twister algorithm. Mersenne Twister algorithm was created by Takuji Nishimura and Makoto Matsumoto of Japan. mt_rand () is predominantly used in most of the PHP applications and most importantly, WordPress 2.6.1 uses it.

Normally a seed is used to initiate the generation of random numbers. If it is possible to determine that seed, we will be able to generate the same sequence for any number of times. In other words, we will be able to hack the working of random generation. Seed can be determined using a lookup. Now, once the seed is found, anyone can generate the sequence that the application generates. If you want to know how this is possible, you got to learn random number generation in PHP or there’s an alternative: bow to the fact that it is the nature of mt_rand () function.

Now, make a request for admin password which would send an activation link to the actual admin. But since we have the seed, we will be able to calculate the same activation link by enabling Keep Alive HTTP request.  Activating this link and using a different email ID in the form will allow creation of a new WordPress admin password and thereby complete control.

MySQL Truncation:

Let’s see the next one. When the string input given in a query is longer than the defined maximum length, MySQL, by default, truncates the string to the defined maximum length. For example, if the maximum value of the string column is defined to be 8 then, the input value, “qburst_expressions” will be truncated to “qburst_e”. There will be a warning displayed but, applications are normally not configured to handle those warnings. And importantly, WordPress version 2.6.1 was not.

Suppose I know the WordPress admin name, (let’s say, “godfrey”) and the maximum length of the username in MySQL is set as 32. When I register as a new user with the same name “godfrey”, obviously, MySQL will return an error as there already exists an username godfrey. Now, I try with “godfrey   “(with 2 spaces after the name), MySQL will truncate the string to “godfrey” and again return an error due to the same reason. Suppose I try with “godfrey                         g” (with 25 spaces between godfrey and g) then MySQL will not be able to identify a similar username and also truncate the name to “godfrey” to be inserted into the database column. This happen because the username exceeds the defined maximum length of 32 and the system will not be able to find a match in the database. Now we have 2 admin usernames in the table. This is sufficient to pass the validation and gain access to the password of the original admin, thereby complete control.

These holes in security made AUTOMATTIC to work on an upgrade at the earliest. And the next release fixed all these errors. So if you are planning to use WordPress, make sure you use the latest version and remain safe. WordPress 2.8.4 is available for download now. It is the latest stable version of WordPress according to the AUTOMATTIC’s last release.

A variety of netbooks have been invading the market for quite a few months now. There have also been reports that consumers who bought a netbook later realized that they had actually wanted a notebook. Majority of the consumers cannot tell the difference between the two, which may be attributed partly to the similar suffixes of the two words.

So, what is the difference between the two?

A simple answer is that, compared to notebooks, netbooks are simply smaller, lighter and cheaper – approximately the size and weight of a hardback novel or diary, weighing around 1 kilogram. Screen sizes (the diagonal measurement across the screen) vary from 7-10 inches for a netbook to 12+ inches for a notebook, typically around 15.4 inches. Netbooks, powered by Intel’s Atom processor are not as powerful as notebooks, and lack the facility to play CDs or DVDs.

Connectivity is the central focus for netbooks and their primary use is to surf the net. Built-in Ethernet and wi-fi is used for connecting to the internet. It is intended to be used mainly by people who want to keep connected while on the go. With its prices below $300, it is an excellent solution during the credit crunch!

Statistics prove that netbooks have succeeded in creating a new market above handheld computers, smart phones and personal digital assistants. Analysts are torn whether or not netbooks will eat into the notebook market share. Since the recession is still underway, people will be looking for cheaper products, which suggest that netbooks will be in demand.

However, netbooks are presently limited by battery size, processing power and storage space, which gives notebooks a clear edge of it.

No matter what, I do believe that there is certainly space in the world for both to function and live together in peace.

Check out the netbooks available in the market

Articles on Google waves is flooding the web, trying to bring out a deeper understanding on this wave renaissance. There is so much of expectation generated now as people are anxiously looking forward to get their hands on it. With the little information revealed by Google, let us try to figure out something more on how this is going to work. In Google wave 1 we discussed about Google waves as a product. This time let us view Google waves in the perspective of a developer, that is, Google waves as a platform.

What is a platform?

Platform in software realms can be understood as an entity on which software can be made to function. A platform provider will provide APIs (Application Programming Interface) for software to be developed in his platform. Let’s take a few examples: Java, the product of Sun Microsystems serves as a platform and it comes with APIs like AWT, JDBC, JMF and so on. These APIs are also provided by Sun Microsystems. Apple Inc, owner of iphone had APIs confidential until October 2008 when the company open sourced and made it license free to develop software applications to be run on iphone. Lately, there is facebook API which is both powerful and popular.

What about Google API?

Google has promised to come up with a public API which can be used by any developer to create applications that run on the wave platform. There are 2 ways by which a developer can make his presence felt in Google waves. The first method is by building robots or creating gadgets. The other method is by embedding waves on third party websites. Let’s try to get some insight on these new terminologies.

Robots, Gadgets and Embed API

Robots are automated participants in a wave. Remember the robot in ‘Lost in Space’. It is a similar kind of simulation except that these robots will function inside the computer. A robot created inside a wave will be able to read, modify and delete blips and wavelets. A wavelet is a smaller wave that is resident inside a wave and a blip resides inside a wavelet. The diagram below will give you better picture.

The developer can create robots and perform interactive operations within a wave. What are the interactive operations? Well, that is left to the creativity of the developer. Learn more about robots here. Wave Gadgets are similar to the ordinary gadgets in its mechanism to get embedded as third party development applications. But there is more offered. A wave gadget can function within a live wave. An example Google gives to explain this is one which lets participants of a wave to vote on where to go for lunch. Learn more about gadgets here.

The second method using Embed API enables to bring waves into third party websites. There will be simultaneous updates in websites as and when an update is made inside a wave. Google has already come up with a few embeds. ‘You tube playlist discuss’ is one among them and is sure to gain so much popularity.  Learn more about embed APIs here.

As Facebook is dominating now with so much integration, it is certain that we can expect even more from Google waves. So if you are a developer, be informed about what is going on in Google waves and get ready to play with the tools as soon as you get them.

Links for further study:

http://code.google.com/apis/wave/

http://googlewavedev.blogspot.com/