V-CLICK: open source cellphone pioneer, or rebadged late arrival?

I am more used to reviewing routers and network webcams from D-Link than reading about the company launching a cellphone, let alone one which will run on a Linux OS and be populated with open source software. But apparently that is exactly what it is going to do, and do in the early part of 2007 if my sources are correct.

Managed insecurity

A long time ago, in another life, I was a hacker. Back then it involved actually having some understanding of the networks you wanted to explore, an ability to think on your feet and to learn as you went. It also involved an acoustic coupler and a modem the size of a shoebox (and about as speedy) but what it didn’t involve was any malicious intent. Indeed, until the arrival of the Computer Misuse Act the authorities were hard pressed to come up with a crime that had been committed. As I matured so my thirst for knowledge was quenched by becoming a journalist and writing about the stuff I already knew, while getting paid to learn new stuff: they call it research dontcha know.

Beyond Email: BlackBerry Takes Aim at Applications

I spent Tuesday morning at The Hospital, but I wasn’t poorly. Mainly because this was the recording studio, private members club and meeting place in Covent Garden, called The Hospital, rather than some bacteria infested hell hole. I wasn’t there to record my latest single, and anyone who has ever heard me sing will be grateful for that, nor to sip brandy and smoke cigars with the in-crowd. I wasn’t even there to admire the rather unusual floor to ceiling tiles in the gents loo on the cinema/presentation room floor, although admire them I did. In fact, I took photos of them with my mobile phone as nobody would ever believe me when I explained about the toilet with illustrations from the Kama Sutra otherwise.

Nope, I was there to listen to why there is more to the BlackBerry than email.

Get the message: IM is not secure

A new report by the Aberdeen Group admittedly sponsored by a number of security vendors, has revealed that 91% of companies see virus and malware as either medium or high on the threat rating list, and 86% put spam at the same level, but this drops to just 72% when the external interception of confidential data is in the risk frame. Well, I say ‘just’ but 72% is a fairly big number in the scheme of things, unlike 25% which is the number of those companies that have actually done anything to implement a messaging encryption solution in order to address the threat.

Google Code Search goes live

Google Labs has launched a new search engine just for you, software developers that is. Google Code Search can help all programmers by quickly filtering billions of lines of source code, all from the default and familiar search interface, to reveal reusable code-snippets. Be it a specific programming term or language, or diving headlong into some compressed code on a hunt for very specific features, Google Code Search would seem to have it all.

Go-Go Google Gadgets

Google has announced the availability of more than 1000 ‘Google Gadgets’ that can be run on any web site, differentiating them from the existing desktop gadgets which could only work locally by way of the Google Desktop software or on a personalized Google homepage. These bits of cobbled together HTML and Javascript code that act as dynamic applications when installed on your web page are also different from the Widgets that Yahoo has had available ever since it acquired Konfablator last year. Those 3000+ plus mini-applications only run if you download and install an 11Mb host application first, and then only on a Windows based PC. Apple and Microsoft also have similar requirements, for now. It seems highly unlikely that Google will be allowed to maintain the lead in independent widgetry for long.

Firefox flaw only unfixable because it does not exist

Just days after telling delegates at the ToorCon hacking convention in San Diego that Firefox was critically flawed, and the online reporting hysteria that followed, one of the two coders who gave the damning presentation has now admitted that it was just a joke. Neither Mozilla, nor the reporters and bloggers now busy wiping the egg from their faces, are laughing.

Sony feels the financial heat for those flaming batteries

More than 7 million Sony batteries have now been recalled since the middle of August when Dell made its big 4.1 million battery recall announcement, a figure which has risen to 4.2 million over the weekend interestingly enough. Toshiba has now joined the feeding frenzy by recalling 830,000 laptop batteries; Fujitsu is also doing the recall thing but refuse to comment on numbers. This following the earlier announcement from IBM/Lenovo that it was recalling over half a million Sony batteries, and let’s not forget that Apple has been busy doing the same.

Top of the malware pops

This morning Sophos published details of the most prevalent malware threats and hoaxes that have been causing problems for users of its IT security products across the globe during the month of September 2006. Interestingly, despite the sadly predictable news that the number of new threats discovered by Sophos had doubled compared to the previous month, there were no new entries in the chart, one re-entry, and the top five retained their exact positions from August.

First notebook HD-DVD Write Drive announced

Toshiba have announced the first notebook HD-DVD Write Drive, which can read and write HD-DVDs as well as standard DVD and CD. Of course, announcements and availability are completely different beasts, so do not expect to see this little beauty until nearer the end of the year.

Exclusive: new PGP encryption upgrades for enterprise users

PGP Corporation will announce on Wednesday the availability of numerous application upgrades across its entire portfolio. I have persuaded them to let me break the embargo and bring the news to DaniWeb members a couple of days early.