Hasta La Gadget!

Just when Google thought everything was going swell with its open source VP8 video standard for the web, up pops one last hurdle. And it’s a big one: Nokia has suddenly decided to use the patent system to try to prevent VP8 from being adopted as a free (or at least free-er) alternative to the license-laden H.264. Why would it do such a thing? Because, according to a statement given to FOSS Patents, the Finnish manufacturer believes VP8 isn’t truly open. It describes the codec as a “proprietary technology” that offers “no advantages” over H.264 and that Google is “attempting to force” on others as part of its WebM project. What’s more, Nokia claims VP8 infringes on its own intellectual property and says it isn’t prepared to license any patents that may be required to let VP8 flourish. Oh dear. This problem may now need even more money thrown at it.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Mobile, Nokia, Google

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Via: The Register

Source: FOSS Patents

Gaping security holes are a pretty terrifying thing, especially when they involve something as sensitive as your Apple ID. Sadly it seems that immediately after making the paranoid happy by instituting two-step authentication a pretty massive flaw in Cupertino’s system was discovered and first reported by The Verge. Turns out you can reset any Apple ID password with nothing more than a person’s email address and date of birth — two pieces of information that are pretty easy to come across.

There’s a little more to the hack, but it’s simple enough that even your non-tech savvy aunt or uncle could do it. After entering the target email address in the password reset form you can then select to answer security questions to validate your identity. The first task will be to enter a date of birth. If you enter that correctly then paste a particular URL into the address bar (which we will not be publishing for obvious reasons), press enter, then — voilà — instant password reset! Or, at least that’s the story. While we were attempting to verify these claims Apple took down the password reset page for “maintenance.” Though we’ve received no official confirmation from Apple, it seems the company is moving swiftly to shut down this particularly troublesome workaround before word of it spreads too far.

Update: We’ve heard back from Apple on the matter, which stated, “Apple takes customer privacy very seriously. We are aware of this issue, and working on a fix.” No real surprises that a fix is in the works, but there you have it from the horse’s mouth.

Update 2: The forgotten password page is back as of late Friday evening — that was (relatively) quick. iMore reports (and we’ve verified ourselves) that the security hole is now closed.

Filed under: Internet, Apple

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Source: The Verge, iMore

Twitter users looking to permanently house their missives in Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and eight other languages have now been given the go-ahead. This third language expansion focuses on the east, although it does add Italian, Turkish and Danish support too. In short, it’s another excuse to celebrate the microblogging network’s seventh compleanno.

Filed under: Internet, Software

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Via: Techcrunch

Source: Twitter

Do you remember how your life was like without the Internet? Wondering and daydreams without Google confirmation, restaurant and bar picks without online reviews, working hard because there is no such thing as the Internet to goof off on, actually seeing friends in real life—it all sounds so awesome! But if you replaced your Internet having self into an Internet-less world, well, things won’t go so well. [Uproxx] More »

Were we really expecting a different outcome? Several months after Google bought Frommer’s to bolster its location efforts, Skift hears that the iconic travel guide maker has completely stopped publication of print editions as its focus swings to the online realm. Authors say that many of their scheduled Frommer’s books now won’t be published; a few say their contracts were simply delayed, but the usual raft of guides that would show at this time of year just haven’t materialized. We’ve reached out to Google to confirm what’s going on, although the writing may have been on the wall when the bookstore disappeared from the Frommer’s site in September. If true, many travelers will have to either switch to rival guides or use Google’s digital parallels to learn what’s interesting in a strange new land.

[Image credit: Caitlin Regan, Flickr]

Filed under: Internet, Google

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Source: Skift