Hasta La Gadget!

One of the world’s most (in)famous names has picked a side in the browser battles — last night saw the debut of a new Google Chrome commercial, starring Lady Gaga and her “little monsters.” Spanning a minute and a half of Gaga and her fans singing and gyrating their way through her latest single, the ad is intended to illustrate the power of the web and its creative new modes of interaction. To be fair, said interaction is mostly Lady Gaga saying “jump” and a crowd of YouTubers doing it without bothering to ask how high, but hey, the result is fun to watch. You just need to disable your sense of shame for all humanity and click past the break.

[Thanks, Daryl]

Continue reading Lady Gaga uses Chrome, and here’s the 91-second film to prove it

Lady Gaga uses Chrome, and here’s the 91-second film to prove it originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 May 2011 16:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The recent pilfering of PlayStation Network passwords and personal info shows that having a strong passcode doesn’t always guarantee your online safety. However, key-pattern analysis (KPA) software from researchers at American University of Beirut may be able to keep our logins secure even if they’re stolen. You create a unique profile by entering your password a few times while the code tracks the speed and timing of your keystrokes. The software then associates that data to your password as another means of authentication. Henceforth, should the magic word be entered in a different typing tempo, access is denied. We saw a similar solution last year, but that system was meant to prevent multiple users from accessing subscription databases with a single account. This KPA software allows multiple profiles per password so that your significant other can still read all your email — assuming you and your mate reside in the trust tree, of course.

Key pattern analysis software times your typing for improved password protection originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 May 2011 00:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Netflix has just gone and scooped up another big content deal for itself. The movie streaming service has tied the knot with Miramax on a multi-year agreement to allow streaming of films from the latter’s extensive library. Pulp Fiction, The English Patient, Kill Bill, and hundreds of others will be added to the Netflix Watch Instantly catalog on a rotating basis, starting next month. This marks the first time Miramax flicks have been available on a digital subscription service. An agreement between these two companies was last rumored in March, with a five-year term and $100 million price being mooted as the likely parameters for getting it done. Neither outfit would disclose the cost to Netflix, but the benefit to you, dear subscriber, is pretty obvious. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Netflix seals deal to stream Miramax movies, starting in June

Netflix seals deal to stream Miramax movies, starting in June originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 May 2011 05:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google spent a lot of time yesterday talking up WebGL, but UK security firm Context seems to think users should disable the feature because it poses a serious security threat, and the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) is encouraging people to heed that advice. According to Context, a malicious site could pass code directly to a computer’s GPU and trigger a denial of service attack or simply crash the machine. Ne’er-do-wells could also use WebGL and the Canvas element to pull image data from another domain, which could then be used as part of a more elaborate attack. Khronos, the group that organizes the standard, responded by pointing out that there is an extension available to graphics card manufacturers that can detect and protect against DoS attacks, but it did little to satisfy Context — the firm argues that inherent flaws in the design of WebGL make it very difficult to secure.

Now, we’re far from experts on the intricacies of low-level hardware security but, for the moment at least, there seems to be little reason for the average user to panic. There’s even a good chance that you’re not vulnerable at all since WebGL won’t run on many Intel and ATI graphics chips (you can check by clicking here). If you’re inclined to err on the side of caution you can find instructions for disabling WebGL at the more coverage link — but come on, living on the cutting edge wouldn’t be anywhere near as fun if it didn’t involve a bit of danger.

[Thanks, Tony]

WebGL flaw leaves GPU exposed to hackers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 May 2011 15:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It started on a quiet Wednesday night, with PlayStation gamers finding their Network unresponsive to their login attempts, and now continues well into its third day. Sony has now finally shed some light on the problems it’s been having with PSN and, to nobody’s surprise, the culprit for its troubles has been identified as “an external intrusion.” The current downtime for PSN is the second of its kind this month, with the Anonymous group of online crusaders claiming responsibility for the first. Sony now intends to keep both PSN and its Qriocity music streaming service offline until it can pinpoint the vulnerability that has been exploited and put a stop to it. Skip past the break for the company’s full statement.

Update: The PlayStation Blog has added an update to its US portal this evening that suggests the service disruption may continue for a good while longer — according to Sony’s Patrick Seybold, the company is “rebuilding our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure,” and working non-stop to do so.

[Thanks, Christian and Joe]

Continue reading PlayStation Network outage caused by ‘external intrusion,’ continues for third day

PlayStation Network outage caused by ‘external intrusion,’ continues for third day originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 Apr 2011 10:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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