All Applications Feeds

Flash Player 10 hits public beta

Patrick Goss — 1210940520

Adobe has released the public beta of Flash Player 10 and the version formerly known as ‘Astro’ brings the “native ability to model two-dimensional objects in 3D space while maintaining their interactivity.”

Flash 10 also brings variable bitrate streaming – allowing for detection of bandwidth availability and adjusts video playback accordingly with the goal of zero buffer.

Which all means that flash should run more smoothly over patchy or overstrained connections.

Flash Player 10 is compatible with all Windows from 2000 forwards, Mac OSX and Linux.

If you are a Flash developer, you can download the Pixel Bender toolkit free, and run it in conjunction with Flash Player 10 to create animated effects.

Flash Player 10 is compatible with Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, Mac OS X and Linux.

Google Earth tweaked for high-end chip design

J Mark Lytle — 1207292118

Google Earth is a fantastic way to waste time by zooming around neighbourhoods, cities and even the entire planet, but we never imagined engineers would use the mapping tool to design computer chips.

Japanese company Gem Design Technologies has upgraded its industrial chip design application, GemPackage, to work with Google Earth's proprietary way of handling 3D design data.

Mapping format to the rescue

The engineers at Gem have tweaked their tool to allow chip designs to be viewed as 3D models within Google's seemingly innocuous application.

The KMZ file format GemPackage creates after the complicated design process, allows designers to use Google Earth to rotate the chip model around so they can examine it for flaws from any angle – something not possible in typical chip-design applications.

Although examining microscopic electronic designs isn't half as much fun as virtually zooming through the Grand Canyon, we reckon Gem deserves an award for some very smart lateral thinking.

Who cares about Microsoft's new Office file format?

Dan Grabham — 1206979378

Microsoft is still trying to push its Open XML document format as a universal standard, much to Google’s chagrin. Open Office XML (OOXML) is used as the standard file save format for Office 2007 and Office 2008 for Mac.

Last month Google once again called for Microsoft’s efforts to be merged with the Open Document Format (ODF) used by both Google Docs and OpenOffice.

OOXML is currently passing through the various processes of the International Standards Organisation (ISO) again after being defeated last September. The general feeling is that it has now garnered enough votes to be universally adopted.

87 national standards bodies are involved, reports News.com. The story points to the Open Malaysia blog that suggests over two-thirds of the votes are for approval. However, one Polish source cites possible strong arm tactics have been involved.

Serious option for long-term data storage

Microsoft is very keen to make the format internationally standard. The reason? Such a stamp of approval would mean governments and other large organisations could make it a serious option for long-term data storage.

Such decisions are based upon the longevity of formats and the guarantee they will be supported decades from now.

Last month we wrote how Google wasn’t so happy with Microsoft’s approach. A post on the official Google blog criticised OOXML.

Open Source programs manager Zaheda Bhorat urged that Google Blog readers “heed the call” to support ODF. “A document standards decision may not matter to you today, but as someone who relies on constant access to editable documents, spreadsheets and presentations, it may matter immensely in the near future.”

Serious MS Office flaws finally patched up

Don Reisinger — 1205302582

Patch Tuesday is always a big day for Microsoft and it looks like yesterday was no different. According to the company's March 2008 Security Bulletin, it has found 12 security flaws that could prove troublesome to anyone running Office 2003 or higher.

The most serious of these bulletins pertains to Excel, which alone has six specific 'Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures' noted. One of those has already been exploited in the wild and according to Microsoft, more computers will be affected if protective measures are not taken immediately.

Online flaws

Microsoft also admitted to a vulnerability it has known about since September 2006 concerning how Office interfaces with the internet.

Microsoft has released security patches to fix the 12 flaws found in the bulletins and all are available via Microsoft Update today. The company warned that computers that are not patched run the risk of allowing "an attacker who [has] successfully exploited a vulnerability to take complete control of an affected system".

Download the patch and all other Office updates here.

Secret Crush virus spreading on Facebook

James Rivington — 1204384659

A spyware-infested third-party widget on Facebook is spreading like wildfire. Like some kind of e-STI, the 'Crush' application is spreading malicious spyware to young hopefuls who're looking to find love online.

The flirt widget makes use of an iframe hosted by Zango and sends you off to a site which asks you to download the 'Crush Calculator'. What you really get is spyware, and that's left thousands of hormone-ravaged teenagers sick with disappointment.
The application claims to be able to inform Facebook users if someone has a crush on them. Even more insidious, the application asks you to send the invite to five friends before you can find out who your secret crush is. Security experts warn it's been spreading faster than avian flu in Turkey.

Word is that the boffins at Facebook HQ have already removed the Crush application from their site. But if you've already installed the malicious software, best get it removed. You should be able to do this by updating the definitions in your anti-virus program.

And remember, always practice safe surfing! Keep your anti-virus software up-to-date at all times and don't install any unnecessary apps.

How Photoshop helped aid Chinese propaganda

Anna Lagerkvist — 1204131649

An award-winning photo showing antelopes playing in Tibet has been exposed as a scam, after Chinese web users discovered it had been doctored in Photoshop.

China's state-run news agency, Xinhua, issued a grovelling apology earlier this week after publishing the manipulated photo of Tibetan wildlife playing near a high-speed train, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Roof of the world

Back in 2006, a wildlife photographer from the Daqing Evening News was sent off to Tibet to capture the then-latest Chinese engineering achievement, the £2 billion Qinghai-Xizang railway. Dubbed the ‘roof of the world’, the Chinese railway transports passengers to 16,000 feet. It crosses 1,200 miles of rugged terrain to connect the rest of China to the remote Tibetan plateau.

Environmentalists had attacked the railway – which has been very popular with tourists and other travellers – since construction stage. The concern was primarily that the railway would threaten the breeding grounds of the chiru, an endangered antelope species found mainly in China.

After the train service opened, Xinhua published a photograph showing dozens of antelope running peacefully across the vast Tibetan landscape, just as a gleaming silver train rushes past beside them.

Photographer Liu Weiqing’s photo series won multiple awards, and the antelope picture was declared a top 10 photo of the year by CCTV, China's state-run television network. "I wanted to capture the harmony among the Tibetan antelope, the train, men and nature," Weiqing said of his photo.

Expert views

However, antelope experts weren’t convinced. "I was really shocked when I first saw the photo," Yang Xin, of antelope protection group Green River, told the WSJ.

Xin said many of the antelope in the picture appeared to be pregnant and there were no young with the herd. In June, when the photo was supposedly taken, many antelope would have already given birth.

And after it was blown up to poster size and featured on the Beijing underground network, anonymous Chinese web user ‘Dajiala’ raised questions about the photo's authenticity. Dajiala’ was studying a copy of the photo when he rubbed some dust off it and noticed something odd.

Stitching images

"At the bottom of the photograph, there was a very obvious line," he wrote on his blog. "I examined it very carefully and it was obviously the stitching of two different images... Was this decisive moment just a simple Photoshop trick?"

Following the posting, photographers blew up the image and analysed each pixel in detail. Animal experts weighed in, explaining that antelope are shy and sensitive to noise, and would rather die than stand next to a high-speed train.

As the online debate raged, the photographer and his editor were challenged and subsequently resigned after issuing an apology. No one knows why Weiqing chose to manipulate his photo, or whether he was pressurised into it. His award has since been revoked and several news agencies have apologised for publishing the photo.

UK consumer group slams Apple, Microsoft, Symantec & more

Audley Jarvis — 1203521631

The National Consumer Council (NCC) has referred 17 software manufacturers to the Office of Fair Trading following an investigation (PDF link) into End User Licence Agreements.

The NCC investigation bought 25 individual items of software and followed the standard installation process, while its legal team studied the terms and conditions attached to each piece of software.

In many cases, the agreements were found to encroach upon or nullify a user's legal rights under statutory consumer law. The user agreeing to a licence agreement on a given piece of software could effectively be signing away their wider legal rights, shifting the legal burden away from the software creator onto themselves.

Some consumers don't have a clue

The NCC investigation also discovered how many licence agreements are overly long in length and cloaked in impenetrable legal jargon making them virtually unreadable.

“Consumers can’t have a clue what they’re signing up to when some terms and conditions run to 10 or more pages,” explained NCC senior policy advocate Carl Belgrove.

Furthermore, the NCC survey also discovered how many manufacturers hide the requirement to sign a licence agreement from the purchaser. On 14 of the items tested there was found to be no clear warning on the outer packaging of the product that the user would have to sign a legal agreement before being allowed to install the software.

The 17 companies NCC has referred to the OFT for investigation are: Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, Chief Architect, Symantec, Magix, Nero, Corel, Sega, Nova Development, Britannica, Sonic Solutions, Twelve Tone Systems, THQ, GSP, McAfee, and Kaspersky.

Five reasons why UK downloaders will not face an internet ban

Audley Jarvis — 1202902186

A respected torrent blogger and file-sharing journalist has listed five reasons why UK downloaders will not face a ban.

Speaking on his own blog, Matt Mason calls the original Times story about the Government’s proposal to ban pirates as “complete balderdash”, listing five main reasons why:

The paper is but a draft consultation paper - the equivalent of ‘junk mail’ for Downing Street.
The process is technically unworkable. ISPs will simply not be able to check the contents of every single packet carried over their network.
It would be impossible to tell the difference between legal and illegal activities.
The very idea goes against the European Court’s ruling that member states are not obligated to disclose information about suspected file sharers, and also contravenes Article 10 of the European freedom of expression laws.
Wi-Fi piggybacking will make it all but impossible to be 100 per cent certain about who is downloading what in the first place.

Burning down libraries

According to Mr Mason, the whole idea makes about as much sense as “burning down libraries to protect the publishing industry.” He also goes on to question the validity of the entertainment’s oft-repeated claim that it is ‘losing millions’ because of file sharing. In Mr Masons view CD sales are falling simply because “nobody uses them anymore.”

Matt Mason regularly writes for TorrentFreak and other online publications regarding the issue of piracy and file-sharing. In addition, he is also the author of a book, The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture Reinvented Capitalism, in which he analyses the way in which underground youth movements are turned into global business opportunities, which explores how online piracy actually facilitates choice.

Apple releases Aperture 2 digital darkroom software

Audley Jarvis — 1202841378

Apple has announced the release of Aperture 2. This all-new version of its high-end, Macintosh-only digital darkroom software that features 100 new features and an improved user interface.

One of the chief criticisms of the original Aperture was that while it was undoubtedly thorough, it was also overly complex and clunky, especially when used on older hardware. Apple appears to have addressed this by whittling down and streamlining the user interface to make it more user-friendly.

"The theme of this release is performance, simplicity and imaging," said Kirk Paulsen, Apple's senior director, application product marketing.

However, this streamlining process has not come at the expense of image-editing features, and plenty of new imaging tools have been added. Chief among these is a new recovery tool to help reclaim ‘blown’ highlights, alongside vibrancy, local contrast definition and soft-edged retouching.

A new Quick View feature will also allow photographers working with RAW to browse through their files in quick succession. As RAW files are considerably larger than traditional JPEG image files this will be of benefit to pros looking to browse what they’ve captured without having to wait for large downloads to complete.

In addition Aperture 2 users will be able to use the software to post their pictures directly to a .Mac gallery, or to an iPhone, iPod Touch or Apple TV.

Unlike iPhoto, which is intended for general use, Aperture 2 is aimed squarely at professional photographers and advanced enthusiasts. Its main competitor is Adobe’s LightRoom, which until now at least has generally thought of as both quicker and easier to use. Photographers will be keeping a keen eye on those all-important review scores in the coming weeks to see if Apple is any nearer to catching up with Adobe.

Office 2007 offered as monthly rental

Dan Grabham — 1202312664

A UK web host is offering Microsoft Office 2007 on a monthly subscription from £5.86 a month. The boon is that you don’t have to fork out wads of cash for Microsoft’s key suite and there is no minimum monthly term.

Fasthosts is offering Microsoft Office package to its customers under the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. The £5.86 cost (£4.99 plus VAT) is for the cheaper Teacher and Student Edition, but you’ll still get Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Should you want to be über honest and keep in with the man above, you can always op for the Professional Edition for £8.21 a month at home (£6.99 plus VAT) or pay £23.49 a month (£19.99 plus VAT) to have it at work.

There are no discs or boxes supplied – you simply receive the software as a download. The apps then check every so often to make sure you are still paying your monthly sub.

Aside from the regular checking with base (exactly how often that is we’re not yet sure), the software is identical to the existing versions.

“[It’s] an excellent way to obtain the very latest versions of the software we all need, affordably, on a pay-as-you-go basis,” says Mark Jeffries, CTO of Fasthosts. “Its low monthly cost and easy installation will suit a great many home and business users.”

The downside of the offer is that if you keep it long enough you’ll end up paying more than simply shelling out for the full package. However, if you do decide to do that, you will get any updates made to Microsoft Office. The whole idea behind the Software-as-a-Service concept means you don’t pay for owning the software itself but rather for using it.

As for more software packages being made available under the same premise, Jeffries added: “We will continue to develop new products that make full use of one’s internet access to fulfill software and other computing needs. Individuals and businesses alike can gain from the flexibility that internet-driven software can offer."