Top 5 Optimizers technical rumors

Another mobile operating system to add to the list of the modern ones that are currently competing on the market, including Windows Mobile, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry, Palm’s webOS, Apple’s iPhone, Symbian and Google’s Android. Samsung electronics announced the launch of their own open mobile platform by the name of bada, which is translated from korean as “ocean”, and is meant to “convey the limitless variety of potential applications which can be created using the new platform.” As third party application become an increasingly important factor in purchasing decisions, it is well understood why the new OS will be an open platform, which presumably refers to the open software development kit and the ability of developers to create applications for devices running on bada. Even though the company released it’s own OS, it still remains involved with the Windows Mobile, Java and Symbian operating systems. Where it will go – we’ll see.

Windows 7, being the newest operating system that Microsoft released to the world, survived its first few weeks on the market without needing any security fixes or updates. Microsoft plugged several security holes with recent fixes, but none were aimed at Windows 7, as expected as attackers will need more time to figure out how to get into this new system. Among the problems that have been fixed with this patch was a flaw that allowed an attacker to infect all computers in the local network after getting access to just one (not all of the school or office computer users can avoid clicking on suspicious links), some Word and Excel flaws that would give the attacker access to whole PC through some spreadsheet or document, and some problems with early versions of XP and Vista.

Rumors have it that the acquisition-happy search giant has acquired Gizmo5, a Skype-like VoIP startup. Google has payed $30 million in cash for Gizmo5, which offers a software app that allows you to make free phone calls to other Gizmo users, as well as inexpensive calls to landlines and cell phones. It also supports SMS and instant messaging. Although it has not been officially announced, many industry watchers say it is a done deal. And combined with what Google already has in VoIP direction, it may result in something much more powerful then Skype. So how might consumers benefit from this? We can only guess for now, but with the Google tendancy to stir up trouble in established tech markets (just ask the GPS makers about it) we might soon expirience something new and yet unseen.

Firefox is one of the most popular Internet browsers currently used, and it was interesting to see an urgent update release to 3.5.5 since the latest version has only been two weeks old. The reason behind this update is because the previous version contained a number of errors, not critical, but still rather annoying since they were about grafics mainly. The main new concept behind Firefox 3.5 version is the Private Browsing option – an option that allows no traces of internet browsing and user activity to be left on the useres computer. It can be accessed through Tools menu in Firefox browser.

Kaspersky Lab, the software development company and authors of one of the most popular antivirus software, presented it’s two TOP 20 list s harmful programs and codes. The first list was dedicated to the programs that were found and deleted on users computers, and the first place went to Net-Worm.Win32.Kido.ir, which confirms that infections from media storage devices are still one of the main cause of getting viruses. The second list is dedicated to the harmful programs found on the Internet, and includes a number of JavaScript harmful codes divided in smaller pieces which makes it more difficult to detect and cure, including the recent popular download utility Gumblar.

Software makers arounf the world are scrambling to fix a certain and very serious bug in the technology that is used to securily transfer the information on the internet. The problem lies in Security sockets Layer protocol used for safe browsing, and altough the flaw can only be exploited under certain circumstances, it could be used to hack into filesharing servers, mail servers, databases and many other secure applications. As it is so widely used, the SSL protocol is under very close watch by security specialist and researchers. We should expect a number of patches to be available soon to fix the problem, as the bug was the main theme for discussions lately.

In Netherland a hacker took advantage of the SST protocols the mobile service of T-mobile Netherlands was using to provide the connection between iPhones and some terminal comands. People who used this service sometimes forgot to change the root password, which is basically same as leaving your car open on the street with keys inside. The hacker changed the wallpaper on all hacked iPhones to show the following text:”Your iPhone has been hacked as it was absolutely unprotected! Please visit link to ensure it’s safety right now!”. On the website the hacker offered the owners of hacked iPhones to pay a €5 fee to get instructions on setting security to optional level. He also stated:”I don’t really care if you pay, just remember that there might be thousands of others who might use your iPhones to send messages and make calls from your phone number after hacking.

It is highly advised for all users of Adobe Shockwave Player (and there it is used on more then 450 million computers) to update it to the last version 11.5.1.602. Adobe Systems itself classified this update as “critical” as it is fixing 5 vulnerabilities, 4 of which may allow an attacker to execute malicious code on a computer, while the fifth one could lead to a denial-of-service condition. Since the vulnerabilities in operating systems have become something quickly dealt with, hackers tend to use vulnerabilities in third party applications as this one more often. Urgent update is advised by both the Adobe Systems Company and IT specialists.

A report was released by Microsoft yesterday stating that Windows Vista greatly outperforms XP when it comes to security. The number of infections that Vista computers got was far less then XP users have faced. Still, whatever operating system you use it is always necessary to update to the latest service pack available, as it is this service packs that contain most major security modifications. That is another reason behind Vista supremacy – Vista SP completely outbeat XP SP in the subject of security configurations. For obvious reasons we can’t have any information of this kind on Windows 7, however it has been stated that Windows 7 contains a number of new important security enhancements.

An impressive feature of Google’s new Android 2.0 mobile device operating system is Google Maps Navigation, a turn-by-turn navigation application that’s not only free to use, but is fairly easy to learn as well. Its release was a nightmare for GPS manufacturing companies as it basically offers the same information they do, but for free. And since it is connected to Google Maps Navigation System it is perfectly up to date so you don’t need to update your maps yearly. The only problem for Google right now is that this service only runs on Android mobile phones of version 2.0 and higher, and its share in mobile sales is still small at the moment, so GPS manufacturers have some time to come up with ideas on how to compete with Google.