Registration begins for 15th annual QuakeCon gaming fest
Registration for QuakeCon 2011, the annual PC gaming convention and LAN party is now open, and seats are filling up quickly.
QuakeCon is considered one of the United States' largest bring-your-own-computer (BYOC) PC gaming festivals and it grew from an event with fewer than one hundred attendees to one with just under ten thousand. The focus of the convention has always been the id Software franchise Quake, and since 2008, most of the convention's gaming events have centered on Quake Live.
Russian payment firm could be behind Mac Defender scam
Evidence is mounting that a Russian payment processing firm may be behind the Mac Defender malware scam that has suddenly brought the issue of Mac viruses into the limelight. Security researchers at Microsoft noted that the software shares some similarities to fake antivirus products intended for Windows machines.
Security researcher Brian Krebs has also been able to trace back the application to ChronoPay, a firm that has been involved in scareware scams in the past. Krebs scanned the WHOIS information of domains that victims were being sent to, and found contact e-mails matching that of other ChronoPay-linked domains.
If Windows Phone fails, Microsoft can still profit from Android's popularity
One year ago, Microsoft announced it had signed a licensing deal with Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC where Microsoft would receive royalties for every Android phone HTC made.
This week, a report from Citigroup analyst Walter Pritchard said that royalty fee amounts to $5 per Android phone.
Hollywood's 28-day delay for Redbox and Netflix is now Blockbuster's only advantage
National video rental chain Blockbuster went bankrupt because of the high price of running video stores when its principal competitors were shipping DVDs by mail, streaming movies online, or operating out of tiny, ubiquitous kiosks.
After being sold off to Dish Network, Blockbuster announced on Friday it is switching its pricing model to one nearly identical to competitor Redbox.
Firefox 7 'Nightly' adds to version confusion, but that's OK, we help you choose the right one
If you thought three builds of Firefox was hard enough to keep up with, you might want to sit down. For those who really want to experience Firefox on the cutting edge -- and by that we mean version 7 of Firefox -- you can access the latest Nightly build, which puts you right on the bleeding edge of development, running code that didn't exist a few days previously.
Firefox Nightly effectly means -- like Google Chrome with its Canary, Dev, Beta and Final releases -- that you have four different builds of Firefox to choose from. Confused? So were we, until we investigated further. Read on, then, for our definitive guide to what version means what, and which version is the best one for you.
The Mac malware problem is bigger than you think
Take a long hard, really hard, look at the above chart, which Craig Schmugar posted today at the McAfee Labs blog. Look at the dramatic increase, basically from none, in "rogue" malware (e.g., fake security software) during May.
He asks: "Is this merely a short-term blip on the radar or the beginnings of a trend for Mac threats? Time will tell." Lots of people are asking that question. The answer is easy. It's yes, if there's ongoing money for malware writers to make and no if there isn't.
Why can you download Office for Mac 2011 from Amazon but not Apple?
If you've seen Amazon's new Mac Software Downloads store it's the question to ask. Amazon offers digital downloads from the Mac's two largest developers, Adobe and Microsoft. Apple does not. Well, Windows Phone 7 Connector is available from Apple's shop. But, hey, where's Microsoft Office?
Perhaps the answer to that question will come next month during Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, where Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" takes center stage. The Mac App Store, which debuted in January as an add-on to v10.6 "Snow Leopard," will be built into Lion.
Chinese prisoners forced into WoW "goldmining" scheme, says detainee
In what could be considered the most modern form of prisoner torture known, prisoners in a labor camp in northeastern China have allegedly been forced to play MMORPG's like World of Warcraft in an elaborate scheme said to net prison bosses approximately $800 to $900 per day.
A former prisoner who identified himself as "Liu Dali" told the Guardian that guards forced prisoners to work 12-hour shifts on a procedure commonly referred to as "gold mining." The process essentially requires long hours of playing the game to build up credits, which are then in turn sold for real money.
Gmail's new 'people widget' promotes contextual communication
In attempt to provide more context when composing e-mails in Gmail, Google on Thursday said that it was adding a new "people widget" to the interface that will provide contextual information on the contact. Information will be culled from a number of sources.
"Email is just as much about the people you communicate with as it is what you communicate about," software engineer Zohair Hyder said in a blog post announcing the new feature. "The people widget surfaces content from friends, family and colleagues that is already available to you but may be hard to find and makes it easier to connect with them."
Sparrow 1.2 adds unified mailbox, Facebook friends
Sparrow, the minimalist email client for Mac, has been updated to version 1.2. The latest release sees a number of improvements and additions, including the much requested unified inbox. This works in much the same way as the inbox in iOS, displaying all of your emails in one place. A neatly redesigned interface is in keeping with Sparrow's minimalist philosophy.
The app has been labelled 'the social email client' and to this end there are a number of improvements. There is better integration with Facebook meaning that friends' avatars are displayed in the application's chat window. In addition to Facebook avatars, Sparrow 1.2 adds support for contact images in your address book as well as the use of Gravatar.
Google debuts NFC enabled pay-by-phone system
As expected, Google on Thursday announced Google Wallet, a mobile application for Android that will use near-field communication (NFC) technology to allow users to pay with their mobile phone. The effort is a joint venture between Citi, MasterCard, First Data and Sprint.
Google Wallet is currently in field testing and Google expects to launch it to consumers this summer. Transactions will be secured through the use of an application-specific PIN, ensuring that a stolen phone doesn't subject the user to credit card theft. The first phone to support the functionality will be the Samsung Nexus S, although support for others are expected to be added soon.
Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 7 and Xara Designer Pro 7 are now available
Xara has updated both of its flagship vector and bitmap design tools -- Xara Photo & Graphic Designer and Xara Designer Pro -- to version 7. New features include the addition of fly-out galleries, a magnetic snap feature, and a photo-erase tool that aims to simplify the process of replacing the background in one image with that of another.
Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 7 is aimed at graphic enthusiasts, while Xara Designer Pro 7, which adds web-design functionality and professional-level tools such as CMYK and PANTONE support, is geared towards professional designers and web builders.
AT&T and T-Mobile merger: No way to resurrect competition once it's gone
The House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet met Thursday morning to examine the effects a merger between AT&T and T-Mobile would have on wireless competition.
AT&T, the United States' second largest wireless network, is looking to obtain federal approval to acquire the fourth largest network, T-Mobile USA in a deal that could fundamentally change the wireless telecommunications industry as it transitions into the 4G era and beyond.
avast! Free Antivirus for Mac beta is impeccably timed
Mac owners have long been notoriously smug about the lack of viruses for their chosen operating system, but it is far from true to say that viruses do not exist for OS X. In reality, the platform has simply been of little interest to virus writers and coders of malicious software, but the Mac Defender Trojan highlights the fact that Macs are just as vulnerable as other computers. avast! Free Antivirus for Mac is, and there's a clue in the name, a free antivirus tools for Mac -- and a new beta version has just been released. Timing is appropriate given all the noise about Mac Defender.
Coming from a well-respected name such as avast! you would be right to expect great things from the application, and things certainly bode well. Although there is a memory resident virus scanner that is constantly on the lookout for potential viruses, on-demand scanning is available. If you want to be thorough you can opt to scan your entire system, but you can also perform custom scans or check only in your Home folder. Individual files can be scanned by dragging them onto a special drop zone in the corner of the application window.
Five things you need to know about Mac security
The Mac Defender outbreak has stirred much debate about the state of Mac security and whether or not a malware deluge is headed for Apple computers. However, the nuances of the problem, if there really is one long term, are more complex than the majority of blog posts or news reports indicate. It's wrong to wholly, or even largely, assume that increasing Mac install base is reason for Mac Defender and other malware to follow.
I present five things you need to know about the state of Mac security, in no order of importance. All five matter.
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