Tech News Today 78

Tech News Today Episode 78

Tech News Today 78: Fight DDOS with DDOS

Low-orbiting Ion cannons, how to hack Interpol with Facebook, and Google's two factor authentication.

Hosts

• Tom Merritt (@acedtect)
  • TomMerritt.com
• Sarah Lane (@sarahlane)
  • sarahlane.com
• Erik Lanigan (@eriklanigan)
• Darren Kitchen
  • hak5.org
  • Hack Across America

Top Stories

• Google Apps Gets Two-Factor Security

• Google Docs Editing Coming to iPad and Android

• Facebook denies 'Facebook phone' report

• Facebook denies phone rumors, but possibility still exists

• Intel Wants To Charge $50 To Unlock Your CPU's Full Capabilities [1] [2]

Other Stories

• Lawsuit: T-Mobile text blocking is harshing our buzz, man

• DDoS From 4chan Hits MPAA and Anti-Piracy Website

• Lawmakers want power to shut down 'pirate sites' [3] [4]

• Content subscriptions for Apple's iPad could debut in 1-2 months [5]

• Best Buy retreats from iPad cannibalization claim

• iPad vs. netbook: direct cannibalization and collateral damage

• We have already shown that netbooks are performing acceptably, and we are seeing last year’s hottest segment, the under-$500 full-size Windows notebook, post flat year-on-year results ... Where we have seen slowing sales is precisely the place we have seen sales slow for the past few years, the mid-priced $500-$1,000 segment.

News Fuse

• Apple's kinder gentler, smart-assier app guidelines are starting to bear fruit. VLC Media Player for iPad is now available along side two Google Voice apps (neither from Google) and a Commodore 64 emulator. Also Napster has an iOs app that for $10 a month gives you access to 10 million songs, in some cases even when you're offline. Kinda like Napster 1999 except for $10 a month. [6] [7]

• Downloaded games are outselling discs. During the first six months of the year, consumers in the U.S. purchased and downloaded 11.2 million digital PC games online, surpassing the 8.2 million physical games bought at retail stores over the same period, according to an NPD Group report. Still, Revenue for both digital and physical games dropped 21 percent compared with the first half of 2009, NPD said, while unit sales declined 14 percent year over year.

• ID Software has released the source code to Castle Wolfenstein, along with Wolfenstein – Enemy Territory, Return to Castle Wolfenstein single-player, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein multiplayer, under the GPL. Thegraphics are not part of the release. You need the full game if you want to look at the castle.

• Verizon has launched a mobile recovery app as part of its Total Equipment Coverage, allowing users to secure and find their lost phone. Users will be able to start an alarm, locate the phone by GPS, and erase their data remotely. Total Equipment Coverage runs $8 a month for smart phone users.

• Apple signed a deal with Rovi, a company that provides TV guide listings to hardware vendors, like the listings you see on your Cable Box or DVR. Piper Jaffray analysts claim this is a sign that Apple will merge the Apple TV device into an all-in-one television device in 2012. Apple also bought face-recognition company Polar Rose. So maybe customized TV listings based on your face?

• You may have seen the headline "Flash runs more efficiently than HTML 5 in tests. Yes and no. Adobe themselves say the Canvas tool used to run the benchmarks could be tuned to run better on mobile. John Gruber at Daring Fireball makes the point that it doesn't benchmark all uses of Flash or HTML 5. So grab a bice big grain of salt and enjoy the benchmarks.

• Plane Finder AR's App for iPhone allows you to point your phone's camera at a plane and get the flight number, aircraft registration, speed, altitude and distance. It's based on an existing service called Plane Finder, which tracks planes using ADS-B signals which are transmitted by commercial airliners.

• INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble's Identity was Stolen via Facebook. According to the Daily mail, two fake accounts were created in his name and used to find the details of highly dangerous criminals. Thanks to petec for sending along the link.... if that's his real name.

• BerryReviws has a picture of what is supposedly the BlackBerry Storm 3. Their tipster wishes to remain anonymous but they think it's real. According to the tipster the Storm 3 will have a 3.7 inch display and 8GB of internal memory. This device is also rumored to have mobile Wi-Fi hotspot connectivity.

Calendar

• iPhone 4 Available in China on September 25

• Civilization V arrives Tuesday 9/21

• Firmware for 3D on Sony PS3 arrives Tuesday 9/21

Voicemail

• Kendrick from Missouri: First caller has an interesting point about Android's rise.

Email

"Hello Team Awesome!

On the last TNT, episode 77, you mentioned September 19, the international talk like a pirate day.

September 19 wasn't just talk like a pirate day but also the day for the Swedish election. It is however unclear whether it being talk like a pirate day affected the outcome of the election vis-a-vis the Pirate Party.

(Hint: they got, I think, less than 0.5% of the vote but it's hard to say exactly because the numbers are so small, meanwhile the old neo-Nazis managed 5.7% and got into the Riksdag for the first time. To quote Indiana Jones: ""Nazis. I hate these guys."") Love the show, keep up the good work, yadda-yadda, etc.

Yours depressingly,

Henrik"

"In news that doesn't make sense but made me LOL, Lily Allen is suing Apple.

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/singer_lily_allen_sues_apple_over_hacked_laptop/

There are so many better ways of figuring out who hacked a laptop than a lawsuit.

Sheala, GA"

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Production Information

• Edited by: Tony
• Notes: Mediafly publish: 5:00

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