Security Issues with Dolphin HD Browser

Tapping the designated corner in the Dolphin HD browser will let you control many browser functions with gestures.(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

The makers of a popularmobile browser called Dolphin HD confirmed that their software leaks the addresses of all Web sites a user visits, a potential privacy and security breach.

MoboTap, a Pasadena, Calif.-based mobile developer, told CNET today that Dolphin HD forAndroid transmitted the Web addresses back to the company's servers but that they were not stored. The addresses were used to determine whether to format Web pages in "Webzine" format, MoboTap said.

The privacy and security implications arise when a user connects to a secure Web site (usually shown by "https://" and a closed lock icon). The second, surreptitious connection to MoboTap is unencrypted, allowing an eavesdropper on a Wi-Fi network to learn what's happening.

"In some cases, if you knew the URL you can take over the user's session," says Seth Schoen, staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has advocated the adoption of encrypted Web browsing to thwart eavesdroppers.

Alan Cooper, a spokesman for MoboTap, downplayed the impact of the security snafu, saying that "we've never stored anyone's user data" and have no intention to do so.

In a blog post, MoboTap said that: "With roughly 300 Webzines supported at the moment, it was necessary for the client to check the current user URL against a database housing these 300 Webzine columns... In terms of security, on a scale from one to ten, this is a zero."

EFF's Schoen disagrees. "I wish browser vendors would think things like this through before implementing them," he said. "It seems like they could have forseen the security implications of it."

Cooper said that "the issue has been 100 percent fixed already" in Android Market update 7.0.1. A post on a developer's forum, however, says 7.0.1 "still forwards URLs." Cooper said he would bring this to the attention of the developers for them to "double-check."

He added, in an e-mail message, that:

Dolphin didn't collect any device data in the API request, and doesn't know which clients are being used. The request was served only to crosscheck the URL against the availability of a corresponding Webzine. Using https for this functionality (which will become an opt-in service with accompanying notification of URL pinging) is a great suggestion and we'll be working it into future versions.

Another privacy implication is that MoboTap was also notified what files you're using Dolphin HD to browse even on your computer. A post on AndroidPolice.com suggested one way to fix the problem would be to block connections to the MoboTap-operated Web site, en.mywebzines.com.

Dolphin is a popular gesture-based browser for iOS and Android devices (see CNET's coverage last month when theiPad version was released, a video review, and our "how-to" report on browsing with gestures). Dolphin HD received an average rating of 4.6 out of 5 in the Android Market.

Update 2:10 p.m. PT: Just got e-mail from MoboTap representative Alan Cooper: "It came to our attention that yesterday's hot fix did not fix the URL concern, and we've just published version 7.0.2, which fixes all URL issues. It's just been pushed to the Market, and all users should be seeing it rolled out as an update shortly."

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20127195-281/dolphin-hd-browser-snared-in-security-breach/?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=PrivacyInc.

Reasearch says Web Porn Stops Men from "Performing"

Men in their 20s have a lot to worry about.

Will they ever get a job? Will they ever keep that job for more than a few months? Will they ever have enough money to pay their student loans and still be able to spend $100 a week on pot? Will they ever put their pants on the right way round at the first attempt?

Now it seems that something they do for recreation, in order to take their mind off their worries, is having increasingly worrying effects.

My hard-core reading of Psychology Today caused me to come across a pained and painful piece called "Porn-Induced Sexual Dysfunction is a Growing Problem."

The thesis behind this frightful news--supported by research performed in Italy and elsewhere--is that Internet porn desensitizes young men to such a degree that, when actually faced with a real human from their target sex group, they are entirely unable to participate as they should.

No, no. Not a good idea.

(Credit:CC AmusingThailand/Flickr)

Indeed, research from the University of Padua in Italy suggested that erectile dysfunction due to excessive Web porn begins for many men in their teens. 70 percent of those young men who came to seek help for performance issues said they were Web porn habitues.

The weary and wise might offer that this problem must be psychological. Yet the researchers declare: "Hold on there, big brains."

For their belief is that Web porn simply numbs men's pleasure receptacles, desensitizing responses to the neurochemical dopamine. This is a chemical associated with reward and, in young men, researchers believe that gorging on Internet porn simply shuts down the physiological sense of reward from sex.

Because the Web allows for so many different--and, if the user so chooses--ever more intense stimulations, the mind-body continuum begins to feel nothing at all. Yes, it's a little like 15 minutes of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians."

It seems that when these young men are suddenly confronted with a real sexual encounter, the idea of coupling with a real human being feels suddenly numbing--and therefore frightening.

You might wonder what happens when young men try to wean themselves off their Web porn habits. Studies show that they experience all sorts of withdrawal pains, including insomnia and catchall flulike symptoms.

I know that the Web is supposed to be the repository of all that is open and shared and loving. It seems possible, though, that its very ease offers so much of a good thing that the put-upon males of Generation Y just can't cope, poor dears.

Perhaps all porn Web sites should exclude anyone under 35. For public health reasons, you understand.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20124181-71/research-web-porn-stops-men-from-performing/?tag=rtcol;dis

Preparation for Google+ to rival Facebook

Google will be rolling out major enhancements for its social networking platform Google+, such as integration of search and Google Docs, over the next three months in a bid to bridge the gap with rival Facebook.

According to a Financial Times report on Wednesday, the Internet giant will be looking to compete better with market leader Facebook with major improvements to its Google+ platform. The first round of enhancements will include incorporating Google Docs, the word processing application which will make collaborating on documents easier "within days", and its search function with the networking platform, noted Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering, in the report.

Subsequently, all of Google's Web offerings "are going to be fundamentally changed by the Google+ graph", he added.

Users of multiple Google services, for instance, will be able to rely on a single system for sharing across the different platforms and not have to wonder whether to share content using Google+ or YouTube, Gundotra explained.



He also said the company is delighted with the more than 40 million users who have registered for its social networking service, but acknowledged the figure is still less than a tenth of Facebook's user base. The executive declined to say how many daily active users the platform has, though.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who sat in on the same interview, noted that Google was cleaning up its multiple brands in order to make them less confusing and said Google+ would be one of the core products going forward.

While in the past, the company wanted to let "a thousand flowers bloom", Brin noted that once these flowers bloom, "you [would] want to present them in a coherent bouquet".

Google had earlier showed its determination to streamline its operations by shuttering Buzz, Photovine and Fast Flip, among others, in recent weeks.

Source: http://www.zdnetasia.com/google-preps-google-for-facebook-challenge-62302588.htm

Child Pornography Sites were Taken Down by Hackers!

Anonymous is known as a hacktivist group, pursuing
its agenda through online attacks.

Hacktivist group Anonymous has briefly taken offline 40 sites it claims traded in images of child sexual abuse.

As part of the action it published the names of 1,500 people who it says used a site known as "Lolita City".

The attacks were carried out as part of Operation Darknet which targeted abuse groups that swapped images via the Tor network.

Experts condemned the attacks saying they could have scuppered ongoing investigations or tainted evidence.

Vigilante action
The Tor network tries to aid anonymity by routing web browsing queries through a series of servers scattered around the net. This makes it harder to trace users and monitor what they are seeing.

Many protestors, in nations such as Egypt and Syria, use Tor to hide their location from authorities.

One innovation, recently added to Tor, is the ability to create a "darknet" - a network that works in a similar way to the web but can be seen only by Tor users.

In early October, Anonymous hackers noticed that one site hosted on this Tor darknet contained links to images of child sex abuse.

Anonymous members removed the links but they were soon re-posted. It knocked the site offline with a denial of service attack and worked out which firm was hosting the links.



In a document detailings its actions, Anonymous said it ordered the firm to remove the illegal content. It claimed the the demand was refused, so it broke into the firm's network and shut down a series of computers hosting the abuse images.

It vowed to continue the attacks until the images and other content was removed.

The firm accused of hosting the content has yet to respond to a request for comment on the attacks.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security firm Sophos, said the attacks were misguided.

"Take-downs of illegal websites and sharing networks should be done by the authorities, not net vigilantes," he said.

The attacks could have put an existing investigation at risk, stopped the police from gathering evidence they need to prosecute, or made it difficult to argue that evidence has not been corrupted, said Mr Cluley.

"The Anonymous hackers may feel they have done the right thing, but they may actually have inadvertently put more children at risk through their actions," he said.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15428203

New Features of Tech News

There is always a need for us to reinvent and innovate our site. Thus we have added more features for Filipinos to read about. We have added Philippine News to our servings of daily news online. Be up-to-date with all the happenings in the Philippines!

Philippine News Sites:

• ABS-CBN News
• GMA News

 We also have feeds from different Technology Blogs around the World!

You can find it in the Global Tech News Tab.
Blogs we feature:

• Tech News - Techie Geek's Confessions
• CNET Technology News
• Crave
• Digital Home
• Privacy Inc.
• Apple Talk
• CNN.com - Technology
• BBC News - Technology

Hope you enjoy these new features! Many more coming for the next weeks. Stay up-to-date!

Comment below if you have suggestions or ways to improve our site.

Thank you very much!

Confused about Android Phones?

The Bionic was supposed to be positioned as Verizon Wireless' flagship 4G LTE smartphone--the first with a dual-core processor--when it launched in early September. But its reign barely lasted a month, and following several recent announcements, it may not even rank as the third-bestAndroid phone in Verizon's lineup by November.

The speed in which new Android devices are hitting the market speaks to the strength of Google's mobile platform. But it also leads to a lot of headaches for consumers who can be overwhelmed by the sheer number of options emerging every day. It's like the Best Buy commercial parodying the next great device coming out moments after you buy it, only it's playing out in real life.

The Motorola Droid Razr was in the spotlight for a few hours.

Handset manufacturers can't like the pace either.

They spend millions of dollar of research and development on the hot new device, only to lose the spotlight after a few days (or, in the case of the Droid Razr, a few hours).

"This sort of churn bothers both consumers and OEMs, for whom such a cycle is costly and, arguably, wasteful," said Roger Kay, an analyst for Endpoint Technologies.

For simplicity's sake, let's just look at Verizon's lineup for the holidays. In the past, the carrier has focused its marketing efforts on one big phone, known in the industry as a halo device, since the buzz around it often draws in consumers and drives the sales of other phones.

It was a short reign for the Droid Bionic.

(Credit:Motorola)

Past results have been mixed. The first Droid by Motorola was a smash hit, and helped propel Android into the mainstream. Prior to that was the BlackBerry Storm, which sold well but was plagued with glitches and a clunky user interface. Back then, customers knew exactly what was the phone to get.

That strategy has now been thrown out the window, as Verizon has at least four to five high-profile smartphones to offer for the holidays, one seemingly looking to top the preceding one.

Yesterday, Verizon and Motorola jointly unveiled the Droid Razr, a dual-core 4G LTE smartphone that boasts a thinner profile than theiPhone 4S. It represents a massive upgrade over the Droid Bionic, which just hit the market a month ago.

Granted, the Bionic suffered a well-documented series of delays, and should have technically hit the market in the second quarter. But the extra time to redesign the phone and bring it to market seems wasted with the introduction of the Razr. Why would anyone buy the Bionic now?

Several hours after the Razr unveiling, Google and Samsung showed off the Galaxy Nexus, the first smartphone running on Ice Cream Sandwich, which is the latest version of Android. The upgraded operating system is the first to integrate both smartphone andtablet user interfaces, and comes with a raft of new features. The Galaxy Nexus will run on LTE and is expected to also come to Verizon.

Does anybody remember the Stratosphere?A few days ago the Galaxy S II phones were among the hottest. Not anymore.

The Galaxy Nexus comes on the heels of the Stratosphere, which just launched last week as part of Samsung's flagship Galaxy S II line of Android mobile devices. Samsung clearly took pains to customize the Verizon version of its popular Galaxy S II phone, adding a keyboard and LTE compatibility, yet it is already selling at a discount at various retailers.

For Verizon, having such a robust lineup--which includes the recently launched iPhone 4S--is a boon, and a stark contrast from the older basic cell phone days, when the hottest devices only ran on the GSM network used by AT&T and T-Mobile USA. Gadget bloggers, and tech journalists such as myself, love the torrent of new devices because it means more to write about.

But the rate at which these new super smartphones are emerging is dizzying. That run of phones doesn't even include the wave of devices hitting the market with the other major carriers. People often hold off purchasing new phones so they can see what's coming ahead; with such a steady flow of new products, they may end up paralyzed with indecision.

It sounds counterintuitive, but the Android world, customers, and handset manufacturers included, could stand to see fewer launches of the next big thing.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20122716-94/android-super-smartphones-too-much-of-a-good-thing/?tag=rtcol;dis

Google Doodle: Tribute to Mary Blair

Search giant Google on Friday marked the 100th birth anniversary of American artist Mary Blair - best remembered for her work with The Walt Disney Company - with one of its patented Doodles.

Visitors to Google's homepage were greeted with a stylized logo reminiscent of Blair's art style.

As in the past, clicking on the Google Doodle will take the visitor to a Google search results page on "Mary Blair."

Mary Robinson Blair was born on Oct. 21, 1911 in Oklahoma and worked in the animation industry, according to an article on Techie-Buzz.com.

She began her lifelong multifaceted art career in the 1930’s as a member of the prestigious California Watercolor Society, according to the MagicofMaryBlair.com website.

By 1940, she was working for Walt Disney and in 1941 her passionate “explosion of color" style began to emerge during the Disney Studios “South American Goodwill Tour."

She continued to make extensive contributions to the “world" of Walt Disney off and on for over 30 years. Some of the films she influenced include:

Johnny Appleseed, 1948

Cinderella, 1950

Alice in Wonderland, 1951

Susie the Little Blue Coupe, 1952

Little House, 1952

Peter Pan, 1953

Her passion for painting children began at home, with her own two sons – Donovan, born in 1947 and Kevin, born three years later in 1950.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, she worked on multiple commercial art projects in her home studio in Great Neck New York.

In the 1970s, she expressed herself through texture, color and collage art.

Techie-Buzz said Blair won several awards, including:

1991: the Disney Legend award

1996: the Winsor McCay award from ASIFA-Hollywood.

Google and Samsung's Ice Cream Sandwich Galaxy Nexus

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Samsung Electronics and Google took the wraps off the Galaxy Nexus, the latestAndroid handset to carry the flagship smartphone moniker.

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The smartphone, unveiled at a Samsung event in Hong Kong today, marks the debut of the latest version of Android, known as Ice Cream Sandwich (each iteration of Android is named after a dessert).

For Samsung, the introduction of another flagship Google phone underscores its growing influence as an Android vendor. While the company was slow to shift away from basic phones and move into the smartphone game, it has more than made up for lost time with the success of its Galaxy line of Android mobile devices, particularly with its recent line of Galaxy S II phones in the U.S. It also made the previous Nexus phone, the Nexus S.

"Samsung and Google have closely collaborated to push the mobile experience forward," J.K. Shin, head of Samsung's mobile business, said in a statement.

Unlike previous versions, Ice Cream Sandwich will run on any mobile device.

"Ice Cream Sandwich demonstrates the Android platform's continued innovation with one release that works on phones andtablets and everything in between," Andy Rubin, head of Google's mobile business, said in a statement.

As with all Nexus phones, the Galaxy Nexus boasts some impressive specifications. The smartphone features a 1.2 gigahertz dual-core processor, a 4.65-inch Super AMOLED HD screen with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a pronounced curved shape that is intended to cradle the face. There's a a 5-megapixel camera, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chats, and support for 1080p HD video capture and playback. Samsung says that its camera experiences zero shutter lag.

The body of the HSPA+ version is a svelte 8.9 millimeters thick (Neither Google nor Samsung specificed the thickness of the LTE version in their presentation.) The Nexus S also featured a subtle curve in its design, in keeping with the original curve of the Samsung Nexus S.

The Galaxy Nexus will launch in November in the U.S., Europe, and Asia (including China and Japan). Although no pricing has been announced, Samsung did mention that NTT DoCoMo will be the Japanese carrier.

The Galaxy Nexus debuts amid a number of other super smartphones. Earlier today, Verizon Wireless and Motorola unveiled the super-thin 4G LTE-enabled Droid Razr, a 7.1-millimeter thin phone that comes on the heels of the Droid Bionic. Apple, meanwhile, boasted of selling 4 million iPhones over the weekend after the 4S launched on Friday.



Since the first Nexus One from HTC, Google has used its line of Nexus phones as a showcase for the latest user interface and features available with the updated version of Android. In fact, theNexus One was Google's stab at selling smartphones directly to consumers, although the lack of marketing and customer supported quickly forced the Internet giant to shutter those plans.

The anointed handset vendor partner, meanwhile, gets an early peek at those upgrades, useful for planning out the rest of its Android lineup. The Nexus S, for instance, was the first to have an integrated near-field communications chip, allowing it to use the Google Wallet mobile-payment system. The Galaxy Nexus will also have an NFC chip.

It's unclear how long Google will continue to pick its favorite Android partners; it plans to get into the hardware business itself with the planned $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility. Google, for its part, said it will remain a neutral partner to all of its vendors.

The pervasiveness of Android and Google's ability to work with multiple partners has fueled its ascent in the mobile world. The momentum has allowed it to take a dominant lead in the smartphone market even as Apple's iPhone remains the top-selling smartphone in the world. Google hopes the Galaxy Nexus will be able to sustain that strength.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20122278-94/google-samsung-unveil-ice-cream-sandwich-powered-galaxy-nexus/?tag=mncol;txt