Firefox Friday: Mozilla refuses to ban Firesheep, a more-Awesome Bar, delayed Firefox 4, and more

Filed under: Features, Mozilla, Browsers

This week has been a busy one for Mozilla, and not in a here-are-lots-of-awesome-toys-to-play-with way.

First of all, Firefox 4 was pushed back to 2011. We had originally hoped to see it launch before the end of 2010, but in all likelihood we probably won't see before March or April 2011. There are still a bunch of Beta releases to get through, and then the Release Candidates. On the flip side, FF4 is already very fast and a joy to use -- as long as you don't mind the occasional hiccup, it's well worth the upgrade from FF3.6!

Then there was Firesheep, a sidejacking add-on that gets its name from Firefox, which Mozilla has decided not to ban. Mozilla retains the ability to blacklist add-ons, but generally only blocks add-ons that cause browser crashes. There have been a few add-ons blocked for 'security issues', though, which raises the question: is Mozilla simply looking at the bigger picture -- a Web made all the more secure because of awareness-raising add-ons like Firesheep?

Finally, the Nobel Peace Prize website was hacked to exploit a 0-day Firefox vulnerability. The hole was summarily patched and new versions of Firefox 3.5 and 3.6 were released.

It wasn't all bad this week though! Mozilla Labs threw out a few of very fun toys to play with (an auto-complete Awesome Bar!), and I've found a few other goodies to show you, too.

Mozilla Labs brings you Awesome Bar word completion

This add-on, which is the first deliverable from Mozilla Labs' Prospector experiments, is all about enhancing the search experience inside Firefox. If you thought the Awesome Bar was good -- this will blow your mind! It's hard to explain exactly what 'word completion' does, but essentially it means you have to type less while searching -- just like Google's search suggestions!

Incidentally, this is yet another Chrome-like feature -- but hey, I don't think anyone's complaining.

Combine your address books and friends lists with Mozilla Labs' Contacts

Mozilla Labs has been quietly plugging away at the Contacts add-on for a while, and with release 0.4 it's definitely starting to become usable.

Contacts is part of Mozilla's continued efforts to make the browser a tool, rather than a portal. While Google's Chrome tries to get out of your way as quickly as possible, Mozilla wants Firefox to be part of the browsing experience. With Contacts you can import contacts and friends from a variety of services (Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, Yahoo, etc.) into your browser.

Having your contacts in your browser is great for two reasons: a) you always have an offline backup handy, and b) when registering for new Web services, you'll be able to give those sites access to your contacts directory. You won't have to give up your Facebook, Google, Flickr and Twitter credentials every time a site asks you to 'look for friends'!

[At the time of writing, this add-on doesn't seem to work -- I don't know if it's an issue with Contacts, or the latest builds of Firefox -- either way, I guess you just have to bookmark this one and hope Mozilla fixes it ASAP.]

Grab a faster, optimized version of Firefox 3.6 for Windows and Linux

The tenacious Mitch over at Firefox Facts dug up two gems this week: The Pale Moon Project and Swiftfox, which provide optimized versions of Firefox 3.6 for Windows and Linux respectively. Documentation for Swiftfox is lacking, but fortunately Pale Moon provides tons of details for why its build is faster than Mozilla's. The memory management runtime library has been custom-compiled for faster operation, and overall complexity has been reduced by removing unnecessary features (like accessibility and ActiveX). In general, it sounds like the Pale Moon build is angled towards speed, while Mozilla builds for compatibility.

The only real problem is that these are builds of Firefox 3.6. No matter how hard you tune it, 3.6 still languishes some way behind 4.0. Still, if you're not quite ready to transition over to the beta builds of Firefox 4, these two optimized builds should definitely give you a bit of a boost. Pale Moon also says it will build an optimized version of Firefox 4 when it's released -- and when that happens, Download Squad will be sure to review it.

Of course, neither of these optimized versions are overseen or ratified by Mozilla, so use them at your own risk!

Firefox Friday: Mozilla refuses to ban Firesheep, a more-Awesome Bar, delayed Firefox 4, and more originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/10/29/firefox-mozilla-refuses-to-ban-firesheep-a-more-awesome-firefox-4/

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Sprocket Rocket is a Wallace and Gromit themed brain teaser -- Time-Waster

Filed under: Fun, Time-Wasters, Education

Intellectual property is one of the most hotly debated subjects online. Should there be patents or not? And what can be patented? And once you have a patent, when is it fair to protect it?

But to argue about these things, everyone should have the terminology down. What exactly is a patent? And what's a registered trademark? And what, then, is a registered design (which I did not know)?

Sprocket Rocket is a Flash game that attempts to provide a basic education in these terms while showing the value of innovation at the same time. It does all this, and it still manages to be fun!

You control a little "space pod" (my term, not theirs), and your mission is to collect cogwheels for Wallace and Gromit so that they can assemble their space ship and go to the moon. Yeah, it's dorky, but it's well-made!

Each level is a puzzle. To solve a puzzle, you often need to build a "tool" for your space pod. There's an editor where you can make simple tools that attach to your ship, and they are used to push, hook, and prod things on the screen. It's very open-ended, and it sometimes requires a fair bit of thinking. You need to shape just the right tool for the job, and then you have to figure out how to use it in the level.

Bottom line: Sprocket Rocket is very nice brain teaser, and the website that it's hosted on is worth browsing through, too (it's related to the UK's Intellectual Property Office). If you don't feel like leaving Download Squad, just keep reading this post -- the game is embedded right after the fold!

Sprocket Rocket is a Wallace and Gromit themed brain teaser -- Time-Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/10/26/sprocket-rocket-is-a-wallace-and-gromit-themed-brain-teaser/

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If you want VLC for iPhone, iPad get it now before it?s pulled

Looks like VLC for iPhone and iPad is about to be pulled from the App Store because the Open Source Powers That Be don’t believe Apple’s iTunes App Store is compatible with the GPL components of the app. Basically, anything under the GPL has to be freely transferable to anyone without restriction. Since the App Store [...]

If you want VLC for iPhone, iPad get it now before it’s pulled is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/R96RLzwY4pw/

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Prey for Android is an open-source anti-theft service

Filed under: Security, Utilities, Android

There are two ways of looking at geolocation and other tracking technologies. There are those that decry the Information Dynasty, that abhor the idea of sharing your location with the godless monstrosities of Facebook and Google -- and then you have the diametric opposite: sharing is good, information is knowledge, knowledge is wisdom, Google is God.

But both schools are missing the point: data is useful. It is simply how you use it that matters. It might not seem apparent as a marketing-bombarded, social media munching consumer, but there is a mid-ground between giving Facebook all or none of your data. The danger with Facebook and other omnipresent Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net corporations is that you never really know how your information will be used: you sign up to chat to your friends, and before you know it, your data is being used by countless other services.

There is a way out, though, if you're looking for that fabled mid-ground -- it's counterintuitive, going against everything we've been taught in the last decade, but it works. You simply have to use services that do just one thing -- no feature creep, bloat, or third-party integrations -- just one thing.

Which brings me onto Prey, an open-source and cross-platform anti-theft tool that lets you track your mobile phone or laptop at all times. It's free to use, there are pro accounts for large companies, and you can even set it up on your own servers if you like.
While Prey works across almost every modern platform (iOS and BlackBerry are the only omissions), I will be focusing on the experience for Android. Every version uses the Web control panel, however -- and the Prey app that runs on your phone or laptop doesn't require much configuration. If you want to secure a laptop or netbook, check out Lee's post!

To start, you need to register on the Prey website. Then grab the Prey app from the Android Market. Log in with your account details, and you'll be greeted with the Settings screen:

To understand the settings, you need to know how Prey for Android works. It's very simple: Prey reads every incoming SMS, and if it contains the activation code ("GO PREY" by default), your phone immediately tries to contact the Prey servers -- your phone is then considered "missing." Disabling Prey is just a matter of sending another SMS ("STOP PREY"), or toggling the "found" button on the Web control panel. The only other option for mobile phones is "SIM replacement detection" -- if your would-be thief tries to change the SIM, Prey can be configured to SMS the phone's new number to your phone.

Now we move onto the more important bit: the (very pretty) Web control panel. Here you can modify how often your stolen (or lost) phone reports back, and what data is reported. You also configure "Action Modules," which as you might have guessed, cause your phone to perform an action. For now you can only make your phone display an obnoxious message ("YOU THIEVING B*STARD"), or ring a very loud police-siren alarm. Presumably there might soon be more Action Modules that do other cool things -- like nuke your address book, take photos of the thief, use a voice synthesizer to produce racial slurs, and so on.

Finally, the whole point of Prey is to produce reports of your stolen phone or laptop. To this end you get a nice Google Map with your phone pin-pointed on it, your phone's current IP address, ... and that's about it. The control panel suggests that you should get "nearby Wi-Fi hotspots," "traceroute," and "active connections" information, but that seems to be missing from my reports. Maybe it doesn't work on the Android version!

Conclusion

To be honest, I don't know how big an issue phone (or laptop) theft is. But maybe it doesn't matter: Prey is so light-weight and so free that you might as well install it on your phone -- you have nothing to lose (hah).

Prey for Android Tech Specs

• Installed Size -- 400KB
• Speed/Responsiveness -- Excellent (Android 2.1 @ 600MHz, LG GT540)
• User Interface -- The Android app doesn't have an interface as such; the Web control panel is nice, though!
• Configurability & Extensibility -- None really, but you could code your own modules if you like...!
• License -- Free and open-source with "premium" packages available

Prey for Android is an open-source anti-theft service originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/10/28/prey-for-android-is-an-open-source-anti-theft-service/

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Facebook Acquires Drop.io, Nabs Sam Lessin

Social sharing site Drop.io has just posted the breaking news of its acquisition by Facebook on its company blog:

"Today, we?re proud to announce that we?ve struck a deal with Facebook.��What this means is that Facebook has bought most of�drop.io?s technology and assets, and Sam Lessin is moving to Facebook. In the coming weeks, we?ll be winding down the�drop.io service. As of this week, people will no longer be able to create new free drops, but you?ll be able to download content from existing drops until Dec. 15. Paid user accounts will still be available through Dec. 15 and paid users will be able to continue using the service normally.��After Dec. 15, paid accounts will be discontinued as well."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/gItWsoK1xlk/

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The Linux credit card -- with Tux on the front and everything

Filed under: Fun, Open Source

I couldn't make this up if I tried: The Linux Foundation is offering a platinum rewards Visa credit card. There is no annual fee, a low introductory APR -- in fact, it's a normal credit card with Tux on the front.

Every purchase you make with the Linux credit card will kick back a percentage to the Linux Foundation. The Foundation also gets $50 for every activation! In the words of the Foundation, this card is for "those who want to support the Linux Foundation's activities while expressing their commitment to Linux. The Linux credit card is an easy way for anyone to contribute to the growth of Linux and identify themselves as supporters of the community by carrying Tux in their pocket."

Unfortunately it's for U.S citizens only, otherwise I'd sign up right now! If you're going to rack up credit, why not do it in a way that benefits the most important software movement of the last 20 years? Why don't more charities have credit cards...?

[via Hacker News]

The Linux credit card -- with Tux on the front and everything originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 06:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/10/29/the-linux-credit-card-with-tux-on-the-front-and-everything/

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Defend against Firesheep by surfing securely with HTTPS

Filed under: Security, Browsers

The last couple of days have seen the launch and explosive proliferation of a Firefox add-on called Firesheep. It's an incredibly simple program that snoops unsecured Wi-Fi packets to grant you one-click masquerading of other users: if you log into Facebook at the local coffee shop, someone can use Firesheep to become you. Seriously, you can go along to any location with an unsecured Wi-Fi network and steal other users' accounts.

Firesheep does this by 'scooping' cookies out of the air. Whenever you log into a website your name and password is only sent once -- afterwards, a stored authorization token is used. This means that if someone has your cookie they can pretend to be you -- and with unsecured wireless networks, anyone can grab your cookie.

This is a huge issue, and you have every right to be concerned -- but there is a solution!

Hopefully you've all heard about SSL and HTTPS, the encryption techniques used to secure Internet communications. The 'secure padlock' icon in your browser is most commonly found when buying things online, but most major sites also use it to secure login and registration. If you see this padlock, you are safe. If you could browse the entire Internet with that secure padlock in place then I wouldn't be writing this post.

Unfortunately, many sites redirect you to an unsecured page after you log in. Yes, your password remains secret -- but what good is that if your exposed cookie can be stolen by anyone on the same unsecured Wi-Fi network?

Fortunately, there are a few solutions for Firefox, and at least one good solution for every other browser.
The key to staying safe is by forcing every connection to use HTTPS, or to go via another connection that encrypts your communication. Almost every website has HTTPS capabilities, but because of the increased overhead that encrypted communication requires, it's often only used for logins and registering. Years ago this might not even have become an issue, but with everyone storing more and more personal information on services like Facebook and Google, and with Wi-Fi blanketing our streets and coffee shops, encryption really is required.

If you use Firefox, these add-ons should do the trick:

• HTTPS Everywhere -- this gem from the Electronic Frontier Foundation is about as good as it gets. By default it forces most popular websites to use HTTPS, and you can add your own rules for other sites. This is one of the few add-ons that I use everywhere
• Torbutton -- this solution is slightly more involved (it's for power-users), but if you want to be really secure and anonymous, the Tor network is a fantastic solution
• Force-TLS -- this is like HTTPS Everywhere, but doesn't come with a built-in dictionary of secure sites. Adding them is very easy, though

Chrome users, due to a limitation of the browser, aren't quite so lucky. There is no way to force HTTPS with an extension. You may have read elsewhere that KB SSL will help you, but it won't. Instead you need to use a secure SOCKS proxy. This isn't particularly hard, it does involve a bit of work.

• A guide for Windows users, using SpoonProxy
• A guide for Mac users, using Meerkat -- our sister site TUAW has a guide that might help, too

Opera and Internet Explorer users: you too will need to use a SOCKS proxy; just follow one of the guides above.

Ultimately, though, if you use unsecured Wi-Fi networks you will leave yourself exposed. The best solution might not be to install add-ons, but to ask your local coffee shop owner to secure his network with WPA2. The entire problem would go away if big-name websites used HTTPS across the board, too.

Defend against Firesheep by surfing securely with HTTPS originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 27 Oct 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/10/27/defend-against-firesheep-by-surfing-securely-with-https/

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Top 30 Android Apps Of All Time

With the ubiquitous media coverage surrounding the iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) app market, it's important to remember that Android also is making huge headway. More than 100,000 apps are now available in the Android Market. Within the last six months, Android devices have reigned supreme, comprising 32 percent of all new smartphone purchases. There is finally a larger selection of models being manufactured and more carriers offering them. When the first Android device launched, I predicted that the OS would surpass iPhone in the coming years. While this looks to be true, those of us involved in the app industry are concerned with something more specific: Who will have the most active app marketplace? Currently, iOS is still the definitive winner. There is not enough app interest on the Android consumer front to warrant a mass exodus just yet. I have a pretty simple metric for determining the potential of an app market: Is PopCap involved? If the answer is no, then the market is still too green. While PopCap has yet to enter the Android space, they have noted plans to port some of their game titles in the coming months. This supports the notion that Android has big potential, but it's still too early. Nevertheless, Android does have serious potential, and there are some fantastic apps already available! Without further ado, here are my top all-time picks for the Android platform, broken down by top free apps, top paid apps, and top games

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/rfTXa-OyesQ/

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Microsoft buys Canesta, continues camera-based domination of our interfaces

It seems that Microsoft's taken the camera to heart following its dismissal of the pen -- the company bought 3DV, collaborated with PrimeSense on Kinect, and today it's apparently finalized a deal to acquire 3D CMOS camera chipmaker Canesta as well. In case you've already forgotten, the latter company is the one that made an paid actor look particularly smug last year, by allowing the gent to control his television with a flick of the wrist. Things have progressed a good bit further than that, however, as you'll see in a demo video after the break, and Canesta president and CEO Jim Spare says he expects the company's stuffs to "see wide adoption across many applications that embody the full potential of the technology" under Microsoft's reign. Press release after the break.

Continue reading Microsoft buys Canesta, continues camera-based domination of our interfaces

Microsoft buys Canesta, continues camera-based domination of our interfaces originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Oct 2010 22:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/ObVmPUnTQ_Q/

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Apple Sues Motorola Over Multitouch [Lawsuits]

Earlier this month, Motorola sued Apple for pretty much everything phone-related: MobileMe, the App Store, location based services, antenna design, and so forth. One thing Moto didn't mention however, was multitouch. So guess what happened? Apple decided to sue Motorola right back, filing two patent infringement lawsuits that cover six patents regarding, you guessed it, multitouch. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/IHcl3dn8B7Q/apple-sues-motorola-over-multitouch

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A Giant Lego Map of Europe [Imagecache]

You could go to Barcelona and Paris, make out with foreign strangers, and post lots of Facebook photo albums about it. Or, you could check out this enormous, 157 square foot Lego map of the continent. It's at least cheaper. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/jnomobYs38U/giant-lego-map-of-europe-is-kinda-more-impressive-than-the-real-thing

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Create a Pumpkin Carving Stencil in Photoshop [DIY]

So you've read our guides to carving, preserving, and illuminating the perfect pumpkin, but you still need an idea of what to carve. Our friends at the How-To Geek show us how to make a stencil out of any picture with Photoshop. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/_7BtFdJVVpE/create-a-pumpkin-carving-stencil-in-photoshop

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