Author: Swati

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Teenager helps find robbers using Google Street View

Well, it seems Google Street View is not all “bad” when it comes to the subject of “privacy.” A year back, in the month of September, a 14 year old boy reported to the police in Groningen, Holland, that he had been hooked off his bicycle by a couple of men who snitched his money (€165 or $230) and cell phone.

At that time, the boy did not have enough evidence to prove it.

Six months later in March, the boy saw himself and the two men he believed attacked him, just about the place where he was allegedly robbed, on Google Street View. The boy approached the police again with the images and the photos proved as an important contribution in finding the crime suspects.

Screenshots of the blurred faces:

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The Dutch police requested Google to provide them with the “unblurred” images from Street View and subsequently managed to arrest the twin brothers (one of them recognized by Groningen’s robbery squad.) It will soon be decided whether to charge the suspects.

Since its launch in 2007, Google Street View has reached out to more than 100 cities worldwide, however has faced complaints related to privacy from many people and institutions that have been photographed. Street View provides 360-degree panoramic images of urban areas that the user can manipulate, as part of Google’s Internet mapping products.

The tool has become one of Google’s more controversial projects, with privacy advocates warning it could compromise people’s rights and leave them open to abuses by criminals or snooping government agencies. However, this time it seems to have worked the other way round, right?

(Source: AP)

(Image credits: Google maps)

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Unsafe Gmail email service putting users at risk

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The 38 signatories including security experts, lawyers and privacy advocates have questioned Google in an open letter to explain why it is not making Gmail service more secure and needlessly putting Gmail users at risk.

Google apparently is not using the secure version of the HTTP protocol for privacy protection of its users, leaving them vulnerable to threats from cybercriminals.

The Problem

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  • When someone signs in on to Gmail, their login and password are encrypted.
  • Then this data goes back and forth using the secure version of HTTP known as HTTPS.
  • This secure version is turned off once sign in process is complete.
  • Because of this, the risk from cybercriminals increases as they could easily use the unencrypted data passing back and forth to steal ID files called “session cookies” generated when these applications start being used.

Possible Threats

Criminals could use the cookies to

  • Hijack the account
  • Pose as the user himself
  • Change the password
  • Send false emails
  • Abuse owner’s identity
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Says Ben Edelman, a signatory of the letter and assistant professor at Harvard Business School:

“As more of us end up using insecure internet access – such as wi-fi in coffee shops, libraries, and so forth – there’s a real risk of session hijacking,”

The Solution

Enabling HTTPS as a default option:

  • It is possible to use HTTPS at all times when signed on to Gmail, Docs, or Calendar.
  • However, the option is hard to find and few people would know how to use it.
  • Mostly people prefer to stick to default options that are available and end up leaving themselves at risk.
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Hence, it is necessary that Google turns on HTTPS by default.

Google’s Response

  • Google boss Eric Schmidt has responded to this by saying that Google is considering trials of the secure system with a select group of users.
  • Google says it wanted to be sure that the user-experience of Gmail would not change by turning this feature on.
  • Google fears that by enabling the encryption, the response time would slow down.

Every email service should do more to protect its users online from potential risks. Let’s wait and watch what Google does to ensure more protection for its users.

Share you comments on what you think about this.

(Source: bbc)

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News

Google improves access to information, adds Persian to Google Translate

clip_image002Because of the latest events in Iran, search giant Google has added Persian language to Google Translate. In my previous post, I had mentioned how social networking site Facebook too launched its Persian version. These efforts should hopefully improve access to information and communication for Persian speakers across the globe.

Now people can translate any text, whether it’s a news story, a website, a blog, an email, a tweet or a Facebook message, from Persian into English and from English into Persian. This will increase access to information for all and allow Persian speakers to communicate directly to the world, and vice versa.

How does it work?

  1. Go to http://translate.google.com

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  1. Enter the search phrase in the box provided

  2. Select the language you want the content to be translated “from” and “to”

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  1. Hit “Translate”

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Simple!

Google believes in organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful. Till date, translations from Google are already available in 41 other languages, apart from Persian.

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Languages available for translation other than Persian

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  1. Albanian
  2. Arabic
  3. Bulgarian
  4. Catalan
  5. Chinese
  6. Croatian
  7. Czech
  8. Danish
  9. Dutch
  10. English
  11. Estonian
  12. Filipino
  13. Finnish
  14. French
  15. Galician
  16. German
  17. Greek
  18. Hebrew
  19. Hindi
  20. Hungarian
  21. Indonesian
  22. Italian
  23. Japanese
  24. Korean
  25. Latvian
  26. Lithuanian
  27. Maltese
  28. Norwegian
  29. Polish
  30. Portuguese
  31. Romanian
  32. Russian
  33. Serbian
  34. Slovak
  35. Slovenian
  36. Spanish
  37. Swedish
  38. Thai
  39. Turkish
  40. Ukrainian
  41. Vietnamese

Although Google admits that Farsi translation is not as polished and accurate as Spanish to English translations yet, but they are working on improving it soon. This is perhaps because they don’t have much data from which they can build their systems, hence Google is welcoming help from Persian speakers.

Share your comments on what you think.

(Source: Google blog)

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News

Facebook now available in Persian

image After Facebook’s launch in Swahili language, it’s now time for Persian – the native language of Iran, Afghanistan and Tajakistan. Apparently, the Iranian elections last week resulted in a lot of information in Persian being exchanged over Facebook, about the election results and aftermath. The people, however, had to navigate the site in English (or some other supported language).

The beta version of Facebook in Persian is now available, making it easier and more convenient for Persian speakers around the globe to use Facebook.

Places with Persian-speakers as mother tongue

[source: wikipedia]

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Persian is spoken in the Middle East and Central Asia

  • Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
  • Also in various Iranian, Afghan, Uzbekistani, and Tajikistani diaspora communities in the Brazil, Bahrain, Canada, France, Germany, India, Israel, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Turkmenistan, UAE, USA

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How does it work?

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  1. Click here to change the language

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  1. Select your primary language for the browser as Persian from the drop down menu.

  2. Once the browser is set, to Persian, you will automatically see the Persian version of Facebook.

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Says Eric Kwan, Facebook engineer in a blog post:

“We could not have made this happen so quickly without the more than 400 Persian speakers who submitted thousands of individual translations of the site. Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far.”

This move is likely to attract more Persian speakers around the world to join Facebook and communicate better.

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News

Slow but steady, Bing grows in the search market

image Bing seems to be going slow but steady and showing continuous growth in its search activity. According to the recent study on the performance of Bing from comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, Microsoft has continued to increase its position in the search market following the initial week of Bing’s debut.

comScore Stats on Bing

According to the report:

  • Bing’s average daily penetration among the US searchers reached 16.7 % during the work week of June 8-12 up to 3 % points from the May 25-29 work week prior to Bing’s introduction.
  • Microsoft’s share of search result pages in the US increased to 12.1 % during the period of June 8-12, also climbing 3 % points from the pre-introduction work week of May 25-29.
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StatCounter on Top 5 search engines

According to StatCounter, an Internet research firm that tracks page loads, Bing too has shown steady improvement, although it has dropped down from the number 2 to the number 3 position since its launch.

StatCounter reports

In the US

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(Last 30 days: May 19-June 17, 2009)

  1. Google (78.46%)
  2. Yahoo (10.92%)
  3. Bing (4.72%)
  4. Windows Live (2.36%)
  5. AOL (1.31%)

StatCounterGlobal(3)

StatCounterGlobal

Worldwide

(Last 30 days: May 19-June 17, 2009)

  1. Google (89.83%)
  2. Yahoo (5.13%)
  3. Bing (1.89%)
  4. Windows Live (0.86%)
  5. MSN (0.57%)

StatCounterGlobal(4)

StatCounterGlobal(2)

As per the reports, Microsoft Bing has continued to generate interest from the market so far and reflects a continued positive market reaction since its launch. Let’s see if it can continue to do so and leap past Yahoo again.

Share you comments on what you think.

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Google App Sync disables Outlook Search; Microsoft not impressed!

Untitled-1 Google and Microsoft are locking horns over Google’s App Sync software that disables Outlook Search. When the user installs Google Apps Sync plugin, it disables Outlook’s ability to search any and all of your Outlook data. I am not sure how many Outlook users are unhappy with this, but Microsoft for sure is not impressed.

Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook is a plug-in for Outlook 2003 or 2007 that allows users keep using their familiar Outlook interface after switching from Microsoft Exchange Server to Google Apps.

Outlook Product Manager – Dev Balasubramanian says,

“The plugin modifies a registry key which disables Windows Desktop Search from indexing and providing search functionality for all Outlook data, not just the Outlook data being synchronized from GMail. Because Outlook search relies upon the indexing performed by Windows Desktop Search, Outlook search functions are broken as a result.”

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Google apparently admits to this flaw. Google says that because of a compatibility issue, Google Apps Sync disables Windows Desktop Search for all Microsoft Outlook files. If someone needs to use Windows Desktop Search to search your Outlook data, Google recommends them to uninstall Google Apps Sync through the Add or Remove Programs panel in the Control Panel in Windows.

However, Miscrosoft says that uninstalling the plugin may not fix the issue.

In a blog post, Balasubramanian suggests a few steps to address the issue:

The only remedy is to change the registry key that was modified by the plugin:

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  • Press the Windows Key + R on your keyboard, and type “REGEDIT”. This will open the Windows Registry Editor.
  • Browse to the following: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindows Search”
  • You will manually have to reset the value of “PreventIndexingOutlook” to “0” (without the quotes). To do this, right click on the “PreventIndexingOutlook” key, select “Modify…”, then change the value data to “0”.
  • Close the registry editor.

It has also been observed that App Sync disrupts Hotmail, Adobe Acrobat PDF Maker, and Outlook Change Notifier.

Share your comments on what you think.

(Source: App sync | Outlook blog)

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News

Facebook experiments with new a search feature for improved results

clip_image002Facebook has started to test new versions of its Search that will take a deeper into content than just profiles. The experiment is being done with just a fraction of the people on Facebook, so it is likely that you will not see the new layouts for search results and its features this soon.

Potential features:

  • The new potential features of Facebook search should be able to find content from:
    • People
    • Organizations
    • Public figures of relevance as soon as they share it on Facebook
  • You will be able to search your
    • News Feed for the most recent status updates
    • Photos
    • Links
    • Videos
    • Notes being shared by friends
    • Facebook Pages of which you’re a fan
  • You will have complete control over the content you share from privacy settings.

In a blog post, Facebook engineer Kari Lee gives an example of what one might end up getting from a search on the news out of the Iranian election:

“By entering the term “Iran” in the “Search” field in the upper-right corner of any page on Facebook, I will see up-to-the-minute results from my friends and the Facebook Pages of which I’m a fan, not to mention people who have chosen to make their profile and content available to everyone. I’m able to discover what blogs and news sources my friends are following, what my friends are saying about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, and how people in general are reacting to the election results.”

A more advanced search is for sure a welcome addition to Facebook. Even though Facebook goes slow on releasing this feature, I suppose people will be willing to wait to watch to see what might actually evolve out of the test.

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Reviews

Vopium: For cheaper international calls from your mobile handsets

Vopium, the popular mobile application based option to make VOIP based calls, is now also available for Android. With the launch of Vopium’s mobile VoIP application in the Android market, Vopium is all set to offer even android users a better international communications channel. More people across the globe can make cheaper international calls, at the same time enjoy high call quality.

Features

The applications should be downloaded after which it:

  • Seamlessly integrates with the address book
  • Intelligently recognizes international numbers
  • Automatically re-routes calls via the Vopium gateway
  • Uses 3G, GSM, and GPRS networks to ensure that all international calls are made using the cheapest method available
  • Preserves the highest level of call quality
  • Gives you a saving of up to 90 % on international calls
  • Allows Vopium Wi-Fi users to call each other around the world for free

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Compatibility

It is compatible with more than 500 handsets across:

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Java, Symbian, BlackBerry RIM and Windows Mobile, as well as offering complete applications for the iPhone App StoreSM , BlackBerry App World and Android Market.

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Charges

It is to be noted that when a user calls from their home country, a local rate may be applied by their operator. When calling from abroad a roaming charge will be applied by the subscriber’s operator. Wi-Fi calls made with Vopium will not incur additional charges from a subscriber’s operator.

To receive 30 minutes of free calls and 30 free SMS, just download and register with Vopium from Android Market.

Vopium is free to download at www.vopium.com.

Is anyone using this service? Do share your experience with us.

Link: Vopium

[Disclaimer: Please ensure that the Telecom laws of your country permit you to make VOIP based calls using the service.]

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Reviews

Free File Sharing from Opera

Worried about sending files through an email, or a single file being too large to send by an email? Not any more says Norway’s Opera!

Opera, a couple of days back, introduced free File Sharing – a simple and safe way to share files directly from your computer. The new service is a part of Opera Unite and allows you to share music, documents, pictures, etc. right from your personal computer.

There is no need to sign up for third-party file sending applications, or set up an FTP service. All you need to do is send your friends the unique URL and they can instantly see your files.

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Opera Unite

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Opera Unite claims to make serving data as simple and easy as browsing the Web. Opera Unite services give greater control of private data and make it easy to share data with any device equipped with a modern Web browser.

Opera is the world’s third-largest browser maker with about 40 million users, but is far behind Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox.

Stats from StatCounter

  • Internet Explorer –  about 60 % of global Internet traffic
  • Firefox – about 30 %
  • Opera – about 4 %
  • Followed by Google Chrome and Apple’s Safari

Even though Opera has a small percentage share of the desktop browser market, but its mobile browser is the most widely used browser on handsets.

Has anyone used Opera’s file sharing service yet?

(Image credit: Opera)

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Reviews

Use Cloudberry to backup your data on Amazon S3

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If you use Amazon s3 storage for disaster recovery of your blog or development projects and were looking for an easy to use reliable backup and restore program, then try CloudBerry Online Backup.

What is Amazon s3?

Amazon S3 is a virtual storage solution for backing up your critical data over the internet. Amazon S3 provides a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. Primarily, it is meant for small scale web services or bloggers who can back up their data on Amazon S3 cloud but the service is equally popular amongst the home users.

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What is CloudBerry?

It is a powerful backup and restore program for Amazon S3 storage and is aimed at making disaster recovery plan simple, reliable, and affordable.

CloudBerry Explorer allow user to move files to Amazon S3 just as easily as they manage them on their local drive(s).

Features of CloudBerry Online Backup

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  • Easy installation and configuration
  • Scheduling capabilities
  • Data encryption
  • Data retention schedule
  • Secure online storage
  • Backup verification
  • Alerting notifications
  • Reporting of successful/failed backup status
  • Restoration roll-back to a particular date
  • Backup open files
  • Support SSL for secure data connection

Benefits

  • In built wizards provide user friendly recovery and back up
  • Strong data encryption helps protect data from unauthorized access
  • Scheduling capabilities helps automate the backup process
  • Does not us any proprietary storage format. Thus data can be accessed even using any other Amazon S3 tools
  • Work with any number of Amazon S3 accounts simultaneously

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Pricing?

CloudBerry Explorer can be downloaded online and can be used for 3 months without any cost. However, you will need to pay for Amazon’s S3 storage.

Is anyone already using CloudBerry? Do share your comments on what you think.

Links: CloudBerry, Amazon S3