Apple pulls out Aurora Feint, a game from Appstore due to privacy concerns

Apple pulled out Aurora Fein, a game from Appstore due to user privacy concerns. The game creates a copy of user contact and stores it locally. It is reported that the game uses this data while the user connects to the game community. The developers are giving detailed explanations , but many users consider it as first iPhone Spyware. Meanwhile new version is under developement and expects to come with many bug fixes. 

iPhone Red Coming Soon ??

Rumours are floating in the net that Apple is planning to release iPhone Red soon.  The new red iPhone is expected during the holiday season. It also comes with a range or accessories ofcourse in red. Apple earlier released the red iPods. So iPhone could be the next move. A percentage of profit from the sales will be contributed for fight against AIDS, the same case when Apple released the red iPods.

Apple hints of lower prices for iPods and Macbooks

Apple Inc. hints of lower prices for iPods and Macbook series of computers. The price is likely to be revealed by the end of September. Usually Apple comes with a surprise every holiday season. A new product range is not expected with iPhone 3G just released. But rumours are that Macbook prices will be lowered to $999 bracket. Reports suggest that iPod sales increased once the shuffle price are lowered. The move hints that Apple is moving towards a value market while keeping premium prices. I expect more updates from sources soon... 

75% of Banking sites are vulnerable

Zdnet reports of a study caught attention of me. According to it 75% of banking sites are vulnerable to attacks. These are not due any major OS or Firewall flaws but due to very simple application flaws. For example flaws like placing secure logins in insecure pages, putting contact info in insecure pages, redirecting without user consent etc. This comes at a point where banks are spends a lot of money to prevent attacks like phishing. If user computer is installed with malware nothing more can be done unless these flaws are fixed. The link to full report is given at the end.

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Restarting blogging after a pause

Hi everyone, 

It has been quite some time since posted anything in this blog. I was taking a short break from blogging. As I now entered a new phase in my life it is time to re enter my world of blogging. My view of technology hasn't changed much and will continue to post interesting things as it catch my attention. Thanking you all

Apple boosts iPhone, iPod Touch capacity

Apple boosts the capacity of iPhone to 16 GB. It retails for $499. The 8 GB version costs $399. Apple upgraded the iPod touch to 32 GB. It costs $399 for 32 GB and $299 for 16 GB versions. The new version is available through online stores and apple stores.

Wikia search goes online today

Wikia search , a search engine from Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia goes online today at California midnight time. According to his message posted on website, wikia.com, Search is part of the fundamental infrastructure of the Internet. And we are making it open source.

Wikia is not a complete full fledged search engine. But it will use wikipedia model using communities to build an efficient one. The time period is expected to be around 2 years for wikia to become an efficient search engine by web standards or a rival to google. The web index and search technology are opensource and any one can use this to build their search application, is a major highlight of this project.

Napster to sell music as unprotected MP3 files

Napster is planning to start selling music as unprotected MP3 files in this spring. It is joining other online retailers for the unprotected MP3 race. The file format change will be only for single track or album purchases. As there is no copyright protection these files these files are compatible with all music players including Apple's ipod. Meanwhile the subscription service of Napster continue to be copy protected content .

Hitachi unveils world first 500 GB laptop Harddrive

Hitachi has developed 500 GB hard drive for laptops. They have done that by adding a third platter to the existing two 2.5 inch platters. There is always big demand for large hard drives. Meanwhile Asus launched tow models of their latest laptop range with terabyte capacity.


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Wikia search to launch on January 7

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales had set January 7 as the launch date for the Wikia search engine. Wikia Search project has assembled the basic technologies for a search engine, including a search application, search algorithm and Web crawler. The project will allow technology enthusiasts to help filter sites and rank search results, similar to Wikipedia.

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FireWire speeds set to quadruple

Firewire also known as iLink , the IEEE 1394 standard is set to quadruple the speeds. The speed is up from 800 Mbps to 3.2 Gbps. Thus Firewire will be faster than USB and eSATA as well as it can power devices. Moreover the new version can support co-axial cable also providing support for HD connectivity at a cost lower than current HDMI.

FireWire is, according to the association, "the only separable interface today that can record HD programs in their full digital quality while also meeting the content protection requirements of copyright holders."

Google working on Internet encyclopedia

Google is working on an internet encyclopedia similar to wikipedia. Google is expected to release the service soon , initially available only by invitation. The service will be similar to wikipedia , the posting will be done by people around the world. Google is expecting to make ad revenues from this as well by showing relevant ads. More details of the service will be revealed soon.

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