Tech News Today 71

Tech News Today Episode 71

Tech News Today 71: PDFs gone wild

Adobe zero-day vulnerability in the wild, email virus shuts down big business, and when to Tweet and when not.

Hosts

• Tom Merritt (@acedtect)
  • TomMerritt.com
• Becky Worley (@bworley)
  • BeckyWorley.com
• Kirsten Sanford (@drkiki)
  • KirstenSanford.com
• Erik Lanigan (@eriklanigan)

Top Stories

• Apple publishes app store guidelines, eases restrictions on developers [1]

• Apple's App Store Review Guidelines: 'we don't need any more fart apps'

• Amazon to sell Kindle at Best Buy

Other Stories

• New Adobe PDF Zero-Day Under Attack

• Here you have virus

• Craigslist called in front of Congress

• iOS 4.1 jailbroken

• Microsoft legal punch may change botnet battles forever

• Wireless call quality matters and that's bad news for AT&T, good for Verizon, Sprint

News Fuse

• The 18-month-old BlackBerry World has passed 10,000 app mark. The Register reports a mere 17 fart-related applications: less than 0.02 per cent of the total. That compares very favourably to Apple's fart ratio of 0.31 per cent and Android's ratio of 0.11.

• ARM just revealed the "Eagle" Cortex-A15 MPCore with reportedly five times the power of existing CPUs while consuming the same amount of energy. Single- and dual-core cell phone processors will run up to 1.5GHz and quad-cores as high as 2.5GHz with the ability to address up to a terrabyte of physical memory. The 32nm and 28nm parts based on the license are expected to ship in 2013.

• The anti-piracy forces are going rogue. Girish Kumar, managing director of Aiplex Software says his company has been hired by more than 30 Bollywood companies, and some from Hollywood to attack online pirates. If a website does not respond to a takedown notice, Aiplex launches a denial-of-service (DoS) attack on the offending computer server.

• According to Engadget, RIM wants to create digital billboards that automatically add details the slower traffic gets. In one example, a "Road House Restaurant" could display only the name and exit number of the joint in giant letters when traffic moves quickly, but pitch that delectable pecan pie more thoroughly when it's stop and go, possibly even adding coupons if traffic gets slow enough.

• The open source VLC media player, the one that can play virtually any file you throw at it... or load into it. is coming to the iTunes Store. Applidium tweaked the client to run on iOS. Now we wait to see if this passes Apple's 'duplicates feature' muster.

• Broadcom, the company that makes the vast majority of wireless chips, has announced it's open-sourcing its drivers for the latest generation of 802.11n chipsets. The opened driver supports multiple current chips and provides a framework for supporting additional chips int he future. Linux wireless woes will be drastically reduced by this move. Tux hugs you Broadcom.

• In a meeting with top trade officials from the US government, Google calls Net censorship a trade barrier. The search giant's top lawyer says China's censorship amounts to a trade block and threatens existing trade agreements. This is the latest salvo in the Google/China confrontation with google threatening to bring in the world trade organization as its big stick if the skirmishes continue.

Calendar

• Windows Phone 7 launching 11 October according to mobile phone blog- pocketlint.com M$ no comment

• Google TV coming this month or this fall??- oops Intel CEO spills the beans, (goog said this fall)

• Dell lays down the law: no more Windows XP shipments after October 22nd. Microsoft edict that was last date, Microsoft will continue Windows XP driver support until December 2012.

• T-Mobile G2 comes out from hiding, pre-orders begin later this month $199 rumored

• google earth 5.0 historical slider, underwater, touring record trips. video broll at link

• DEALS: BEST BUY 10% OFF COUPON (@bworley)

• AMAZON phones Blackberry torch $99, $199 on ATT. Verizon samsung fascinate $99

• Sony PlayStation Turns 15

Email

"Hey Guys,

Just listening to yesterday's show and you had a guy call in saying Google TV should be voice controlled. What happens when you're at the climax of some really awesome action scene and someone on the TV yells, ""STOP!!!"" I don't want my movies turning themselves off.

Ryan"

"Hello TNT,

I had to respond to the story of the reporter who tweeted about his heart attack. As a paid firefighter and EMS provider I can tell you many care providers question the seriousness of a patient's complaint if their main concern is using a mobile device. I'm assuming the reporter called 9-1-1 and the emergency crew responded using their lights & sirens to get to him as quickly as possible. If his first thought was to tweet the heart attack maybe he should have texted a buddy to get a ride to the hospital instead.

And playing devil's advocate, what would the reporter think if the provider stopped to tweet instead of treating him for his heart attack?

Love the podcasts.

- J. Adams Henrico, Virginia"

"I wanted to make a comment and then also pass-on a comment I read on Kotaku that really nails this topic about the head of AAFES ordering a ban of selling Metal of Honor because it allows the player to become the Taliban. Sara and I can't remember what's his name on TNT Friday was trying to make the point that if a Solider really wanted to get the game, they could go off-post to buy it. That's not an option for deployed Soldiers overseas where there are PX/GameStop stores setup in the larger bases. So now instead of just going to the PX to buy a game just like any other, the Solider is going to have to have a family member or friend send it APO into Iraq or Afghanistan.

Also I liked this comment that Kotaku posted separately from the article they wrote on the ban: http://kotaku.com/5631759/

I am a Sgt in the US Army and i find this absolutely ridiculous. Playing video games is a great solace after a long day in the field or even after a convoy. I have personally seen combat and have no problem with combat related games. If i were still in Iraq and AAFES was my only source for video games I can tell you now i would be up in arms about it. I think it is ridiculous that they think we are mature enough to die and patrol real streets but not mature enough to decide if we are offended by a video game.

Dustin the Army Spouse Sparta, WI"

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Production Information

• Edited by: Erik
• Notes:

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