WP Super Cache 1.4.5 Patches Critical XSS Vulnerability

WP Super Cache, you should immediately update to version 1.4.5 as it patches a XSS vulnerability in the settings page. This version also prevents PHP object injections. In addition to security patches, 1.4.5 contains a number of bug fixes. Make sure to update your sites as soon as possible to patch the vulnerability.

Read the Whole Detail article on this release on Donncha Ó Caoimh’s website.

Read More

Watch Google I/O 2015 - Keynote "LIVE STREAMING"

Read More

SurveyMonkey CEO died of head trauma in exercise accident

MEXICO CITY — SurveyMonkey CEO David Goldberg died of severe head trauma in an exercise accident in the Mexican resort town of Punta Mita, a Mexican state official said Monday.

Goldberg, husband of Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, was found lying next to a treadmill on Friday at the Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita near Puerto Vallarta on Mexico's Pacific coast.

The official said he left his room at about 4 p.m. to exercise, and family members went to look for him after he didn't return. He was found at about 6:30 p.m. in a resort gymnasium lying by a treadmill in a pool of blood, with a blow to the lower back of his head. He apparently had slipped on the treadmill and hit the machine, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak to the press.

The official said Goldberg still had vital signs when he was discovered, but later died at a hospital in Nuevo Vallarta.

The official said the cause of death was severe head trauma and hypovolemic shock, or bleeding.

The family had checked in on April 30 to the exclusive resort, where rooms start at $500 a night and villas go for up to $5,000 a night. The thatched roof resort nestled into a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean has an ocean-side infinity pool, golf course and rooms with hammocks and terraces opening out to the water.

© Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE via Getty Images In this handout image supplied by Sportsfile, Dave Goldberg, CEO of Survey Monkey, speaks on the centre stage during Day 2 of the 2014 Web Summit at the RDS on November 5, 2014 in…

Read More

How Android and iOS Apps Could be Ported to Windows for Mobile – Everything Detailed

Microsoft’s Build 2015 conference is now over and we were greeted with many pleasant surprises.According to me, one of the biggest announcements from the events was that now Windows developers will be able to bring the Android and iOS apps to Windows platform easily. Earlier less was known about how this work but as the time progresses, we are getting new details.

The Android apps portability toolkit is being called Project Astoria where its iOS counterpart is known as Project Islandwood. At the time of the Windows 10 launch, developers will only be able to port Web apps to Windows Store. The Android, Win32 and iOS toolkits will be released a bit later.

Talking to VB, Todd Brix. GM Windows Apps and Store explained the options as following:

Bridge	Process	Runs on
Web	Uses web code as a native app	Any Windows 10 device
.NET & Win32	Sequences & repackages Win32 code as Appx	Desktop only
Android: Java/C++	Runs on top of Android subsystem	ARM based mobile devices
iOS: Objective C	Maps Objective C to C++	Runs on any Windows 10 device – but, it does not leverage the universal UI and universal controls. So, app won’t automatically adapt to different screen sizes.

Now let me tell you about bringing Android and iOS apps to Windows one by one:

Android apps to Windows 10 – Project Astoria:

To bring Android apps to Windows 10, Microsoft has released a Universal Windows Platform Bridge for Android Runtime, also known as Project Astoria.

To try out this toolkit before everyone else and its public release, you can sign up here for the developer preview.

This “bridge” between the Android and Windows 10 for app developers will let them make the app with few code changes. The toolkit analyses the APK file and tells how much of the existing code could be reused. Microsoft claims that with a single line of code, Android app will switch between Bing Maps and Google Maps. Microsoft has also released a video explaining the process in detail. Watch it below:

These ported apps are meant for Windows 10 phones and your app will work on ARM-based Windows 10 phones and tablets. This means that x86 Windows 10 phones or tablets won’t be able to run such apps.

iOS apps to Windows 10 – Project Islandwood:

For bringing the awesomeness of iOS apps to Windows ecosystem, Microsoft has introduced the toolkit named Project Islandwood. This lets developers build Windows 10 apps using Objective-C, the iOS’ programming language, with small changes.

Developers will be able to build, test and debug iOS ported using Visual Studio. Again, in this case, it isn’t clear how iOS apps will be optimized for iPhone and iPad.

Developers can sign up here for the limited developer preview.

Know more about the announcements made at Build 2015 by Microsoft here.

Read More

Pwn2Own 2015: Day 2 Highlights

HPSR brings you highlights and analysis from Day 2 of the Pwn2Own Security Contest, where over $200,000 was awarded to researchers. Today's results saw exploits of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome.

Read More

Pwn2Own 2015: Day 1 Highlights

The HPSR team takes you inside the Pwn2Own Security Contest, where over $300,000 was awarded to researchers. Today's results featured exploits of Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft 
Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Windows.

Read More

Another leaked photo of the Galaxy S3 surfaces ahead of launch

Yesterday was the day tipsters had decided to reveal whatever they knew about the upcoming flagship handset from Samsung. First the device was spotted on Samsung Kies database which revealed the smartphone’s official name as the Galaxy S3 and a mini thumbnail image giving those interested a glimpse of what it would look like. A little later on, the device made its second appearance of the day when a sketch of the handset surfaced in what is believed to be the handset’s service manual. Along with the render of the device, there was also a list of specifications available for the world’s viewing pleasure which literally foretells everything that will be featured in the device. It seems the leaks had not stopped and mobile website, PhoneArena had received an image which their sources claim is the Galaxy S3.

Is this the real deal?

What is interesting about the leaked image is that it has a lot of resemblance to the image portrayed in the service manual. However, one cannot be for certain if this handset is a prototype or if it is the real deal that we will see in a few short days. To quote the report, “There is evidently a physical home key, as rumored, and two capacitive buttons, while the whole setup resembles a lot the render from the leaked early manual of a Samsung GT-I9300 Galaxy S3 that we saw yesterday. The side bezel of what seems to be quite a big display is pretty thin, but we'll leave the speculations on screen size aside, as we can't vouch whether this is the real deal anyway.” The screen size is expected to be between 4.6 to 4.8-inches and by merely looking at this image one cannot confirm the same. However, if the earlier image of the service manual is anything to go by, then we can expect this handset to feature a display size of 4.8-inches.

The handset will be announced on the 3rd of May 2012, so those gearing up for the unveiling, can hit thelink here and download the Samsung Unpacked Mobile 2012 app for Android and stream the event live as it unfolds. To read about all the rumours of the Galaxy S3, click here.

Read More

LG announces new IPS4 series monitors

LG Electronics (LG) has announced the availability of a new line of monitors, the IPS4 series. These monitors feature In-Plane Switching (IPS) rather than conventional Twisted Nematic (TN) panels, allowing for better colour reproduction, picture quality and colour shift-free wide viewing. Thanks to a wide viewing-angle (178 degrees), the new IPS monitors enable viewers to enjoy clear picture quality without any colour shift whether they are sitting, standing or lying down. Their ‘Smooth Colour Change’ also eliminates blur generated from rapid motion in action scenes, sports or video games so that viewers feel less eye fatigue even during longer viewing sessions. When all of these technologies are combined, the result is a richer, more comfortable viewing experience.

The IPS4 series monitor

By boosting colour consistency and minimizing colour changes, the IPS4 series is able to reproduce original colours, virtually eliminating the gap between what is shot and what is shown. As such, the IPS4 monitors are ideal for anyone engaged in photography or video editing. "Despite strong sales and dominating the professional market, IPS monitors were less popular with the majority of consumers due to the cost of high-quality IPS panels," said J.J. Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of IT Business Unit of LG Home Entertainment Company. "With the launch of the affordable IPS4 series, LG is taking a huge step in making IPS monitors ubiquitous in every room."

A number of easy-to-use functions add to the appeal of the IPS4 series. For instance, the Dual Smart Solution feature uses a simple one-click set-up to run dual monitors, and even creates a dual taskbar and auto-optimized dual web split screen. The Dual Screen feature optimizes the window size to automatically divide the screen to view multiple web pages, making it easier to multitask online. Efficiency has also been improved. The monitors are equipped with a cable management design that does away with the messy snarl of wires. The IPS4 series is much more energy-efficient compared to conventional LED monitors without sacrificing picture quality.

LG's IPS4 series will first become available in Asia in May followed by Europe and North America in the coming weeks.

Read More

FaceVault lets you unlock your iPhone with your face

FaceVault is already available for Android, in fact facial recognition security is quite the norm for Android based devices. iPhone users however, previously had to jailbreak their phones and go through Cydia to download the RecognizeMe tweak that would let them use their faces to unlock their phones. Now, after much battle to get the app into the iOS App Store, FaceVault is available for iPhone users for $0.99 (approx Rs. 51). According to Redmond Pie, it is the ported version of the stock Android Ice Cream Sandwich Face Unlock. However, it had to be modified because Apple's developer rules do not allow app developers to take control of the device's lock screen. What the app does, is it makes users import photos into an album within the application to use for facial recognition to unlock the phone. Watch the video below to see a demo of FaceVault on the iPhone.

When you first download the app, you'll have to set it up so that it learns the details of your face and can recognize it for an efficient unlock. However, if the recognition system doesn't work, you will be taken to another screen where you have to swipe out an unlock sequence for your device. The facial unlock system is powered by face.com which means that you'll have to grant them permission to upload the trained facial recognition image to their servers, that you will need to do over an active internet connection.

Even once you set up the facial recognition as your default unlocking method, you can switch over to the unlock code when you're in low light. The application uses your front facing camera to detect your face. There is also a log in archive that tells you when the app had a break in attempt. The app does warn you that Face Recognition is less secure a locking method than Pattern. They also say that someone who looks similar to you can use the feature to unlock your phone. For the application to have access to the camera roll (for images to train itself to your face), you will need to turn on your location services setting. And finally, the application cannot delete photos imported from the camera roll, that will have to be done manually. Do you use facial recognition to unlock your phone? What do you think about it? Let us know in the comments below.

Read More

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale announced

Inspired by the success of Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros, Sony has decided to offer PlayStation owners its very own take on the matter. Enter PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, a four person beat ‘em up full of popular characters from the PlayStation universe such as the God of War himself, Kratos, Twisted Metal’s Sweet Tooth, Sly Cooper and lots more.



The game’s essentially a 2D fighter that offers players interactive environments to fight in. For example, in the trailer you see a bunch of dudes slugging it out against what appears to be the three headed Hydra from God of War who regularly strikes out randomly at players. The next level has elements from LittleBigPlanet and so on. No price or release date have been announced but we're guessing E3 2012 should shed more light on this game.

Read More

Nokia demonstrates ‘white spaces’ technology for indoor positioning

Nokia Senior Manager, Scott Probasco, is roaming the floor of the hangar at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, with a Nokia N9 attached to a small box. He passes a Concorde, turns right at a World War One bi-plane and pauses underneath a sea rescue helicopter suspended from the ceiling. Strategically placed signs give detailed information about and the stories behind the historic planes on display at the former airbase outside Cambridge, but Probasco doesn’t need to look at them. Using the N9 he is demonstrating a three year Nokia research project to develop indoor information delivery using TV white spaces. TV white spaces are unused parts of the TV spectrum at a particular location. So, for example, part of the signal reserved for a London TV channel may not work in Cambridge – resulting in a ‘white space’ which can potentially be used for providing better and cheaper internet access.

Nokia is demonstrating how indoor information delivery might use this as part of the Cambridge TV White Spaces Trial, which has brought together a consortium of 17 leading technology and media companies. “We are interested in TV white spaces from the perspective of getting more radio spectrum to give greater internet access capacity,” Probasco explains. “It’s a new and novel way to access the spectrum. The existing ways are inefficient. Because white spaces are unlicensed we can deploy systems and provide internet access more cheaply.”

The N9 and the box..

White spaces can be used to launch new services, like the Nokia demo at the Imperial War Museum:  “You know when you go to a museum and you put the headset on, and listen to the information about what you’re seeing,” Probasco says, “Well, this basically does away with that.” As he roams the floor of the hangar, the N9 detects his location and pushes him “offers” of information about the different planes. The Imperial War Museum, like any other major museum, has vast archives, and multi-media content, which  could never be displayed on old-fashioned signs and maps. An indoor information delivery system, which museums could potentially develop as apps, “would be great for displaying that content,” says Ian Crawford, the museum’s head of ICT.

The demo also raises the possibility of developing the system for commercial use in locations like grocery stores, or shopping malls. “Shop owners might install their own access point to give people free Wi-Fi,” says Probasco. “If they do that using white spaces, the users can be located and, as people walk by, the store can target them with offers and coupons. If this is a coupled with a loyalty program, then it can become even more tailored and targeted to what people want.”

According to their official blog, the system has some unique advantages: “GPS works really well outdoors, but less well indoors. What we are doing here is about indoor positioning,” Probasco explains. Unlike information that comes from crowd sourcing, or ‘war driving’, the system uses information automatically generated from a government mandated database that is activated when the equipment in turned on.

Probasco used a box that was attached by a cable to the N9. The box is a simple radio system operating in UHF TV bands that connects to a TV white space database to determine which TV channels are available for use. The Nokia N9 connects to the Internet over the TV white space and the app contacts the Nokia service on the Internet. Using the location provided by the TV white space database, the Nokia servers then deliver information about nearby aircraft carriers to the app in the phone. The phone uses signal strength measurements to refine the location provided by the TV white space database, which is accurate to about 10 metres.

“Before this system can be used in commercial devices, and we can get rid of this box, we need mass produced chips to fit inside the phones, and those will only come when the standards have been developed,” Probasco says. That technology will probably not be standardized and available before 2015. Before then, Nokia is investigating other trials in Brazil, Singapore and Finland. To check out the video, hit the first link in our related videos section below.

Read More

Play Modern Warfare 3 this weekend absolutely free

If you haven’t had a chance to play the latest Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare 3, you can do so this weekend absolutely free on Steam. Of course this is limited only to the multiplayer side of things which means no access to the single player campaign or Spec ops missions (co-operative missions and the game’s Horde mode). At the same time Activision have slashed the price of the game down by 33% which means it’s now available at $39.99 as opposed to $59.99.

Get your COD on this weekend

The download weighs in at around 15 GB so if you do plan on trying the game out, we suggest you get downloading ASAP as the free weekend ends early Monday. Of course you will need Steam to play the game.

Read More

Twitter updates its iOS and Android applications

Twitter has updated its iOS and Android applications and along with minor appearance changes, the services included in the apps are more streamlined with the services included on their website. Just like Twitter for web, where you have tabs for Connect, Discover and your homepage of tweets, the applications now include buttons that offer the same features. The Discover tab in the app allows you to find timely content that is interesting and that matters to you. In the Discover section, you'll see Activity, which, like the web counterpart, allows you to see tweets that are retweeted or favourited by the people you follow as well as which accounts your followers start following and if they've added any new accounts to any of their lists. Activity appears right below the redesigned stories in Discover. You can tap any story to see any trend or news article. You can then read the entire story or join the conversation by replying, retweeting or favouriting related Tweets. 

Twitter for iOS and Android gets updated

Twitter also says that search is now simpler on their apps for iOS and Android. Within the Connect tab, you can start typing the first name, last name or username of someone you're looking for and the name will autocomplete for the people you follow. Furthermore, you can now also see different versions of spelling and related terms for some queries that you might be looking for. Twitter has also added a new feature specifically for the iPhone app. When you tap the search box to perform a search in the application, you'll see your most recent queries. You can also go directly to someone's profile when you search for their username in Connect.

Finally, Twitter updated the way it notifies you about people connecting with you. When you are retweeted, favourited, or when someone new starts following you, Twitter wants to let you know immediately by enabling Push Notifications. You can customize your Push Notification settings to get only the alerts that you want. Twitter says that these updates were a collaboration between many teams at Twitter including Android, iOS, Discover, Search and others. To download Twitter for your respective Android and/or iOS device go to Google Play or the iOS App Store.

Twitter also recently updated TweetDeck to extend its web services to the desktop and mobile application. TweetDeck was acquired by Twitter last year and now also contains Twitter's Connect and Discover functions, among others. Twitter's mobile applications came from the company's acquisition of Tweetie and it seems clear that Twitter wants all its mobile counterparts to be exact representations of its web functions.

Read More

Apple sales rocket in China, but growth may slow

Apple Inc is likely to see its sales growth nearly double in greater China this year, but the pace will probably taper thereafter as competitors hit back with new products in the biggest global mobile phone market. For the world's most valuable technology to get a bigger slice of the China market, it will also have to come up with an iPhone that supports the biggest Chinese mobile carrier's proprietary technology, settle an iPad trademark dispute and create more official sales outlets. Apple's sales in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, expanded three-fold to $7.9 billion in the first quarter, making up a fifth of the total figure. Sales are on track to nearly double in 2012 from last year's $13.3 billion. "We may not see a repeat of this year's stellar pace of growth in coming years unless Apple comes up with great products to keep up with consumers' demand and tastes," said Candice Wang, an analyst with research firm Analysys International.

Big boost in sales

Apple has been successful in raking in sales in China's wealthy first- or second-tier cities, b ut less so in the wider Chinese market, where overall income levels are still low. Consumers with deep pockets generally see Apple as a premium product and status symbol, analysts say, and are willing to overlook certain drawbacks - such as that "Siri", the iPhone's voice-enabled personal assistant technology, does not speak Chinese. "I see everybody using an iPhone, so I decided to buy one," said a user whose surname is Zhou, who lives in China's wealthy coastal province of Jiangsu. "I love the screens and the applications are really sleek." She has switched iPhones within a year to keep up with Apple's latest gadgets. But for most of China, especially in third- or fourth-tier cities, that is not the case. A basic iPhone 4S costs 4,988 yuan, which is more than what many Chinese make in a month.

Even though Chinese salaries are on the rise, per capita urban disposable income was only 21,810 yuan in 2011, while per capita rural income was only 6,977 yuan. For many Chinese consumers, the iPhone is out of reach and most have instead bought cheaper smartphones running Google's Android operating system, from the likes of ZTE Corp's. ZTE's U880 smartphone costs less than 800 yuan and the Coolpad 9930 model sells at 1,670 yuan. "There is no doubt that Apple's sales will keep rising, but market share is a different story," said CK Lu, analyst at Gartner. "If Apple wants to maintain or grow its market share, it will have to cooperate with its partners to roll out more affordable smartphones." With China's smartphone shipments expected to hit 137-140 million in 2012, exceeding the United States for the first time, according to research firms IDC and Gartner, the potential is huge in an country with more than a billion mobile phone users.

For now, Apple still has the upper hand in the high-end smartphone sector. "I've tried out iPhone 4S and Lumia 900 and I personally feel that if one really wants to buy a handphone, iPhone 4S is the way to go," Luo Wen, an Apple user based in the southern province of Guangdong, said in his microblog. "Nokia is lagging behind by a far margin in terms of the overall feel of its products."

Clock ticking on China Mobile Deal

Apple is expected to sell 16 million smartphones in China in 2012, double 2011's total mainly due to the addition of China Telecom as a carrier partner, IDC said. China Unicom is the other official carrier that sells iPhones, leaving China Mobile, the biggest operator, the only one without an Apple contract. "The clock is ticking for both parties to get a deal done," said Wong Teck Zhung, senior analyst at IDC. "China Mobile might lose patience and decide to go for flagship handsets from other vendors while consumers, increasingly aware of non-iPhone alternatives, might also just get tired of waiting." Wong said chances of a deal would bump up significantly if the upcoming version of iPhone supported China Mobile's 4G TD-LTE and its proprietary 3G technologies, provided Apple uses one of Qualcomm Inc's high-end Snapdragon chipsets.

In the tablet PC sector, Apple's iPad now dominates the China market with a more than 70 percent market share. However, it has not launched its latest iPad product due to its lawsuit with a near-bankrupt Chinese technology company called Proview International Holdings, which says it owns the "iPad" trademark in China. That legal tussle is awaiting a ruling from the Higher People's Court in Guangzhou.

REUTERS

Read More