15 Widgets for your Android Phone

One of the biggest advantages of Android over iPhone is widgets. Android has them, iPhone does not.
Widgets are valuable because they can provide an at-a-glance look at lots of different kinds of information and quick access to valuable apps and configuration settings.
To help you find some of the most useful widgets, I’ve put together my list of the top 15. The best way to way this list is in the screenshot gallery. But, you can also view it in list form below.
A couple things to keep in mind with widgets: 1.) They can sometimes hog resources, bandwidth, and battery life so you should make sure you’re using a task killer to regularly refresh your open apps; 2.) Widgets can take up a lot of screen real estate and so you may need to use an alternate home screen launcher, such as Launcher Pro, to give yourself some extra space.

The screenshots

The list

1. Extended Controls
Android comes with a “Power Control” widget (bottom) that I’ve always liked because it lets you quickly toggle Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Brightness, and more. However, I recently discovered the “Extended Controls” widget, which allows you to create a customized version of Power Control with a lot more toggle options.
2. Battery Watcher
This widget provides a battery percentage visual. Since you can’t add the battery percentage to the notification icon in Android, I always anchor this simple widget on my primary home screen on any Android device. I like that it is the size of an app icon, so it doesn’t take up too much screen real estate.
3. Picture Dial
This is a smartphone speed dial app that allows you to set up your most important and most frequently-dialed people or numbers based on photos. You can see the two sizes of the widget, one with two numbers and one with four. You can also stack multiple widgets on the same page. The default configuration is that you select a contact and then assign phone, text, or email to the speed dial button.
4. Analytics Widget
If you use Google Analytics to track Web site traffic, this little widget makes it easy to get a get quick glance at your traffic metrics. It takes up the same amount of space as an app icon and you can set up multiple widgets to track multiple metrics.
5. 3G Watchdog
As most people are aware, “Unlimited Bandwidth” data plans are not unlimited. Most of them are capped at 5GB. Plus, companies like AT&T are moving away from unlimited plans altogether. That means people are going to need to be more conscious of the bandwidth usage. The 3G Watchdog is a widget that can track it for you. The widget is available in two sizes, as you can see in the screenshot.
6. System Info
This widget provides a great little system monitoring function for battery life, over-heating, memory, and storage.
7. Pure Calendar
There’s a built-in widget that can provide a quick glance at your calendar but Pure Calendar is far more detailed and customizable.
8. Pure Messenger
The cousin of Pure Calendar is Pure Messenger, which can provide a quick glance at your inbox. It can even integrate SMS messages, Twitter DMs, and Facebook mail.
9. Buzzbox
Buzzbox offers a no-frills widget for quickly glancing at the news. There are a bunch of pre-configured RSS sources (including some good ones for tech) and you can easily add your own.
10. SMS Unread Count
The basic premise here is that this widget replaces your Messaging (SMS) icon with a widget that looks like an icon but includes a little red circle in the upper right corner with the number of unread messages you have (mirroring the iPhone UI). The app can also do this for Gmail and Phone (missed calls).
11. Last Call
This widget provides a glance at your last call, which makes it easy to redial or to call back a missed call. You can also click on the widget to go to your full Call Log.
12. FlightView
For travelers, the FlightView widget is very handy. Rather than digging through apps or Web pages to get a flight status update, you can enter your airline and flight number into this app and it will track it for you.
13. Twitter
As I’ve said before, Twitter is a terrific real-time intelligence engine. Now that there’s an official Twitter Android app, there are also a couple Twitter widgets (large and small) for scanning your Twitter stream.
14. Scoreboard
This is a Google widget that lets you keep track of the scores from your favorite sports teams. It shows the last game and the next game (or current game).
15. Pandora
Pandora is a custom streaming “radio station” for the Internet age. You simply search by an artist or song and it will create a running playlist based on that one piece of information. This widget makes it easy to control Pandora, including play/pause, thumb up, thumb down, and skip-track buttons.
created by zdnet and uploaded by created by  Niall Mulrine, Pc Clean, Navenny, Ballybofey, Co. Donegal, Ireland

Mob: 086-2377033

www.pcclean.ie

sales@pcclean.ie

How to install iTunes 10 without all the additional bloatware

One of the most popular posts I wrote in 2008 was a set of step-by-step instructions to help you do what Apple doesn’t want you to do with iTunes for Windows (see Slimming down the bloated iTunes installer). Now that iTunes 10 has been released, it’s apparent that nothing has changed in Cupertino. Apple still gives its customers a monolithic iTunes setup program with absolutely no options to pick and choose based on your specific needs.
Why is that important? When you run the iTunes setup program, it unpacks six Windows Installer packages and a master setup program, which then installs nearly 300MB of program and support files, a kernel-mode CD/DVD-burning driver, multiple system services, and a bunch of browser plugins. It configures two “helper” programs to start automatically every time you start your PC, giving you no easy way to disable them. It installs a network service that many iTunes users don’t need and that has been associated with security and reliability issues.
And you wonder why I dislike iTunes with a passion that burns like the fire of a thousand suns?
That’s where this post comes in. It contains detailed, up-to-date instructions for cracking open that gigantic iTunes installer and installing just the pieces you want and need. I’ve also updated my advice for individual scenarios so that you can make intelligent choices instead of simply settling for Apple’s defaults.
To get started, you need a copy of the iTunes Windows installer, which comes in x86 and x64 versions and is available via this download page. You also need a third-party file extraction utility. WinZip and WinRAR work fine, but I recommend the free and extraordinarily versatile IZArc utility. Use the File, Open menu to extract files from iTunesSetup.exe (or, on x64 Windows machines, iTunes64Setup.exe). This screen shows the contents of the 64-bit iTunes 10 installer.

Extract those files to a local or network folder and you can run them individually, using command-line switches to control their behavior. On the next page, I describe what is in each of those installer packages.
When you run the master iTunes setup program, it extracts the following files to a temporary folder and then begins installing all of them in sequence. In Windows 7 and Windows Vista, it interrupts you for two UAC prompts.
Here’s an unvarnished description of each installer:

• QuickTime is Apple’s multimedia framework, a collection of codecs, plugins, DLLs, and several players designed to help you play back digital media files in most popular formats. The big selling point is support for the QuickTime movie (.mov) format, via the standalone player or an embedded ActiveX control. QuickTime is required if you want to use iTunes. If you don’t have an iPod or other Apple-branded device and all you want is the ability to play QuickTime files, go to Apple’s QuickTime download page and choose the QuickTime-only option (don’t select the QuickTime with iTunes option, which includes the full, bloated iTunes installer). If you’d prefer an even lighter option, try the unofficial QuickTime Alternative, which runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.
• iTunes (iTunes64 on x64 systems) is Apple’s all-purpose media player/device sync application. It is the only officially supported way to sync music, videos, and other content with Apple-branded devices, although third-party alternatives are available. iTunes also provides access to the iTunes store. If you own an iPhone or a 3G iPad, you must use iTunes to activate your device. For an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, you must use iTunes to update its firmware and sync its content with your PC.
• Apple Application Support was added in iTunes 9 as a framework for managing applications on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. It is a required component for both iTunes and QuickTime. If you remove it, or if you install iTunes without also installing this package, you’ll see the following error message.

That is, of course, a bogus error message. If you know where the individual installer package is located, you can install just that piece without having to go through the tedious full install.

• Bonjour (Bonjour64 on x64 systems) is Apple’s implementation of the open-source Zeroconf, a multicast DNS responder used to discover services on a local area network. It is installed by default with the iTunes download. I strongly recommend not installing Bonjour unless you need it. Bonjour has required patches for security issues in the past and has been known to cause a complete loss of network connectivity on Windows networks. (Yes, I’ve seen Bonjour disable local and Internet connections on Windows networks. It was not a fun troubleshooting exercise.) And a search of the Apple support forums finds dozens of recent complaints from Windows users struggling with iTunes 10 and Bonjour. Adding unauthorized peer-to-peer services on a corporate network is a distinct no-no, as a number of customers have told Apple on their support forums. (The response? Crickets.) If you want to share iTunes libraries over a network or use Apple TV, you need Bonjour. If you have a printer attached to an AirPort device, you should use Bonjour. It’s also required with AirPlay speakers and some remote control apps. However, if you simply want to play media files and sync your iTunes library with your iPod, you do not need Bonjour. iTunes will throw up an error message if Bonjour is missing. You can safely ignore that message, which will not reappear.
• Apple Mobile Device Support (AppleMobileDeviceSupport64 on x64 systems) is the synchronization framework for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad family of “mobile devices.” This package is not necessary if you use another member of the iPod family, including the Classic, Mini, Nano, or Shuffle, which sync just fine using just the basic iTunes app.
• Apple Software Update is a utility that checks for new versions of Apple software installed on your PC. It also pushes new Windows-compatible Apple software programs. Understanding how this utility works is crucial; it can and will install software you have explicitly rejected if you don’t monitor its actions carefully. Just today, for example, I updated iTunes on a Windows 7 system and Apple Software Update selected Safari and Mobile Me for installation, even though I had specifically hidden them previously. This is a behavior that Apple has been guilty of for years. It doesn’t happen on every system, but for some reason it’s an issue on this one.

The seventh file in the list is SetupAdmin.exe, the monolithic installer. You don’t need it, obviously. Oh, and thankfully, the MobileMe component, which was previously included with a full iTunes install, is now a separate option.
So how do you decide which programs to install, and how do you avoid inadvertently getting more than you wanted? Full details on the next page.
Performing a selective iTunes install involves three steps:
1. Extract the installer files you need to a local folder.
2. Run the installers with the proper command-line switches.
3. Prevent Apple Software Update from undoing your careful work later.
The exact steps vary, depending on what device you’re using.
If you want to use iTunes with an iPod Classic, Mini, Nano, or Shuffle…
Extract three files from the iTunesSetup installer and save them in a local folder. Open a command prompt window, navigate to that folder, and run the following commands:

• AppleApplicationSupport.msi /passive
• Quicktime.msi /passive
• iTunes.msi /passive (on a 64-bit Windows system, use iTunes64.msi /passive)

If you shudder at command lines, press the Windows logo key + R to open the Run box. Clear its contents, and then drag the extracted file into it. That will add the full filename, with path, to the Run box. Add a space and then type /passive after the closing quotation mark. Click OK to execute the command. Repeat for the other packages.
The /passive switch performs all installations in unattended mode. After you complete the installation, you can rip and burn CDs, play music from your collection, buy music tracks and TV shows from the iTunes store, and synchronize music and other media files with any Apple device except an iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad. I tested this scenario with an older iPod Nano and it worked just fine. If your experience differs, please let me know in the Talkback section.
If you want to combine multiple iTunes libraries on a local network and/or connect to an Apple TV device…
Install the AppleApplicationSupport, QuickTime, and iTunes packages as described in the previous scenario, and also extract and install Bonjour.msi using the /passive switch. Note that Bonjour must be installed on any computer whose library you want to share. It’s not necessary if you have two iPhones, each with different accounts and connected to different PCs. In that scenario, Bonjour provides no benefit.
If you want to activate and manage an iPhone or iPad or synchronize with an iPod Touch…
In addition to installing the iTunes and QuickTime packages, you’ll need to extract and run AppleMobileDeviceSupport.msi (on x64 installations, be sure to use AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi.)
And finally, decide whether you want to install Apple Software Update. Given the history of serious security flaws in QuickTime and iTunes, it’s crucial to remain up to date with patches for all Apple programs you choose to install. The trouble with Apple Software Update is that any attempt to “update” iTunes will install the other, unwanted packages as well. iTunes actually has its own update detector that doesn’t require Apple Software Update. You can check for a new version any time by clicking Help, Check for Updates. Regardless of how you check, when you see that a new update is available, be sure to download the iTunes installer manually and then extract and update only those components you want.
If you inadvertently install a component you don’t need, it’s relatively easy to undo the damage. All of the above components are available from the Programs option in the Windows Control Panel, where you can uninstall them individually. If you plan to uninstall Bonjour or Apple Mobile Support, be sure to stop the associated services first; if you don’t, you’ll need to restart to complete the uninstallation.
And finally, there are those two startup files, which slow down your boot time and add nothing to your iTunes experience. One is called iTunesHelper.exe; the other is QTTask.exe. You’ll find only a few lines of sparse documentation at apple.com. In my experience, neither is necessary for using any of the features in iTunes or QuickTime. Unfortunately, Apple does not offer a supported way to disable these start-up programs, so you’ll have to do it manually by using the System Configuration utility in Windows (Msconfig.exe), by editing the registry manually, or by using an external utility like AutoRuns from Sysinternals.
Update: As a commenter points out, you can prevent QTTask.exe from starting automatically by opening Control Panel’s QuickTime option, clicking the Advanced tab, and clearing the Install QuickTime Icon In System Tray option.
created by zdnet and uploaded by created by  Niall Mulrine, Pc Clean, Navenny, Ballybofey, Co. Donegal, Ireland

Mob: 086-2377033

www.pcclean.ie

sales@pcclean.ie  

Skype give customers some free money!!

On December 22nd, Skype experienced a 24 hour outage. This was a pretty big deal since people use Skype for work, and plenty of other people use it for pleasure. Today Skype posted a detailed technical explanation of what went wrong. In summary, there were a bunch of events that led to the P2P network becoming unstable, which then led to a critical failure.
The tech explanation is actually pretty cool to read through, but the part that I found particularly interesting is that Skype then sent customers a voucher as part of an apology.
I’m a Skype user and pay yearly for Skype unlimited. As a result I received an e-mail from Skype, with the aforementioned apology, and a a credit voucher. Being a person who never passes up a deal, I redeemed my voucher only to soon see that even though Skype was touting it as a

“voucher worth a call of more than 30 minutes to a landline in some of our most popular countries, such as USA, UK, Germany, China, Japan. Or spend it however you like on Skype …”

it was really just $1.00. Granted, $1 will get you far on Skype, but still, there was a lot of negative publicity around this outage, so if you’re going to offer up a voucher of some sort, it should probably amount to more than a $1.

Regardless, I’m happy that the service has been restored and I don’t know when I’ll use that $1, since I’ve already paid for the year.
If you are a skype customer, check your email
created by zdnet and uploaded by created by  Niall Mulrine, Pc Clean, Navenny, Ballybofey, Co. Donegal, Ireland

Mob: 086-2377033

www.pcclean.ie

sales@pcclean.ie

Top 25 Android Apps for your Phone

The Android Market may not have as many apps as the iPhone App Store yet, but there are still enough to be overwhelmed, and it’s growing at a breakneck pace. To help you sort through them all, here’s my list of the best apps I’ve found on Android. Again, remember that this is a snapshot in time. The Android platform is developing so quickly right now that I guarantee my home screen look different a month from now.
The best way to view my list of the top Android apps is in the screenshot gallery. However, you can also view my top 25 in the list below.

The screenshots

The list

1. Google Voice
Google Voice is a service that is so useful I consider it one of the top benefits of Android itself, especially since Apple rejected the Google Voice app for the iPhone. It gives you a phone number that can ring to multiple places or devices and it allows you to access all of your voicemail and text messages over the Web. The Android app integrates even deeper. It can make outgoing calls look like they’re coming from your Google Voice number so that you can keep your real mobile number private.
2. Advanced Task Killer
One of the realities of having a multitasking mobile OS in Android is that you have to manage your apps so that they don’t hurt performance or battery life. Advanced Task Killer (or ATK) is my favorite. It even comes with a widget that you can tap once to kill all open apps.
3. Dropbox
Dropbox is a great cloud service that automatically syncs a folder of files between multiple computers (Windows, Mac, or Linux). This app extends Dropbox to Android and interacts with other apps (such as Documents To Go) to open the files.
4. Evernote
Once you get used to typing on a virtual keyboard (and it honestly took me over a year to do it), then these devices are great for note-taking, and Evernote is a great note-taking app. It is similar to Dropbox in that it saves data locally but syncs it across all your machines and devices.
5. DroidAnalytics
For some reason Google doesn’t have an official app (for either Android or iPhone) for Google Analytics. The best one I’ve found on Android is DroidAnalytics. Another good one is mAnalytics.
6. Documents To Go
The free version of Documents To Go offers a great little reader for Word and Excel files. You can upgrade to the full version (for $15) if you want to edit files and add PowerPoint files to the mix. If you do want editing capability, I’d also recommend taking a look at QuickOffice.
7. Amazon Kindle
I never warmed up to the Amazon Kindle e-reader, but I’m a big fan of the Kindle mobile app. Since it was released I’ve read a lot more books simply because my smartphone is always with me and I can pull it and read a few pages anytime I’ve got a couple minutes free.
8. Places Directory
This is an awesome app for finding shops and services near your current location. From restaurants to movie theaters to medical facilities to taxis, this app is very accurate and takes advantage of the business information from Google Local. This app is better than the info you get from a GPS unit (or app) and better than any of the similar apps available on the iPhone.
9. Tripit
I dig Tripit. It is by far the best app I’ve found for keeping track of all my travel itineraries. It runs on some great backend systems. You simply forward your confirmation emails for your flights, hotels, rental cars, and more to Tripit and it automatically organizes them into trips with all your details and confirmation numbers.
10. Seesmic
Twitter is an amazing instant-intelligence engine and it was made for mobile browsing. Although there’s an official Twitter app for Android now, Seesmic is still the best Android Twitter client.
11. FCC Speedtest
I’m obsessed with running speed tests to check my bandwidth in various places, both to see 3G fluctuations and to check the quality of Wi-Fi. There are a number of really good speedtest apps, but my new favorite is the FCC Test app.
12. Astro File Manager
Another one of the great things about Android (if you’re a geek or a tinkerer) is that you have lower-level access to the system itself. Astro is an app that lets you navigate the Android file system.
13. Got To Do
There are plenty of to-do apps to choose from on Android but I prefer Got To Do because of the solid interface and the fact that it can sync with the online service Toodledo.
14. Gist
Many of us have contact lists scattered across various computers, devices, and online services. Gist is a Web service that can bring them together and even pull in stuff from the Web to help you stay up to date with your most important contacts. There’s an Android app as well as an iPhone app.
15. TED Mobile
TED is a fascinating event that features a meeting of the minds of some of society’s most influential thinkers. You’ll definitely disagree with some of them, because there’s a large diversity of opinions, but many talks are worth listening to. What I love is that they’ve taken the videos from their conference and made them freely available on the Web. This app provides a great way to access the videos. I hope more conferences follow TED’s lead on this.
16. Pandora
Pandora is a streaming “radio station” for the Internet age. You simply search by an artist or song and it will create a running playlist based on that one piece of information. It intersperses an occasional ad between songs but the ads tend to be fairly localized and occasionally even useful.
17. Shazam
If you want to impress your friends with a mobile app, show them Shazam. Ever hear a song being played at a store or on the radio and ask yourself, “Oh, what song is that?” That’s where Shazam comes in. Just hit the button and let it listen for 15 seconds, query its database, and then return the name of artist and the song. It has about an 80% success rate.
18. Dial Zero
Are you one of those people who dials a customer service line and just keeps pressing zero until you get to talk to a real person? Then Dial Zero is your new friend. This app provides a directory of a ton of U.S. businesses and gives you numbers to help you get closer to a real person and instructions for which prompts to hit to speak to a human being as quickly as possible.
19. Google Goggles
This is a fun app that is a little but ahead of its time. It does visual searches. You can take pictures of things and then the app tries to tell you what they are. It’s limited in its scope but it is pretty cool, and it’s definitely a peek into the future. One of the coolest features is the ability to take pictures of text in a foreign language and let that app translate for you. In a foreign country, this can help you read street signs and avoid going into the wrong bathroom. :-)
20. Google Sky Map
Ever look up at the night sky and try to tell your kids the name of that constellation you’re pointing at, or try to remember which planet that is in the southern sky? Google SkyMap lets you point your smartphone at it and get the information. This is part of a new breed of apps called “Augmented Reality” apps that layer digital information on top of real world experiences.
21. Tricorder
A lot of geeks I know like to say that our smartphones are becoming more and more like the Tricorders on Star Trek. Well, here’s a fun app that turns your Android device into a virtual Tricorder. It even offers some useful environmental information, including GPS data, wireless data, and ambient sound measurements.
22. FxCamera
Honestly, the camera software on Android is an area where major improvements are needed, but this app is a great example of what’s possible. It has solid camera controls, full customization options, and offers some great effects for photos.
23. Photoshop Mobile
Photoshop is, of course, the best known photo editor in the world and its mobile app doesn’t do anything to hurt that reputation. But while the desktop version is know for having a zillion features, the mobile app is distinguished by its simplicity. It’s the best Android (and iPhone) photo editing app for simple crops, brightness adjustments, and sharpens, for example.
24. Bump
Bump is a fun (and useful) idea for sharing info between two phones using the accelerometer, and it works across Android and iPhone. You can use it to share contact info (yours and others), photos, and apps. You both simply open the Bump app, choose what you to share, and then hold the phones in your hands and bump your hands together.
25. Barcode Scanner
This app turns the Android camera into a barcode scanner. You simply scan a product’s UPC code and let the app go to work to find it in Google Product Search or a search on the open Web. You’ll be amazed at how fast it works. This is great for when you’re shopping retail and you want to check the price of a product online before buying to make sure you’re paying a fair price.
created by ZdNEt
uploaded by Uploaded by Niall Mulrine, Pc Clean, Navenny, Ballybofey, Co. Donegal, Ireland

Mob: 086-2377033

www.pcclean.ie

sales@pcclean.ie

Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcut Keys

Here is a list of keyboard short-cut keys for maximising your efficiently on Windows 7 Platform.

created and uploaded by Uploaded by Niall Mulrine, Pc Clean, Navenny, Ballybofey, Co. Donegal, Ireland

Mob: 086-2377033

www.pcclean.ie

sales@pcclean.ie

Weirdest design of USB Thumb Disk Drives

As more and more different brands, capacities and designs of USB Thumb Drives become available on the market, it sometimes makes us stop and wonder where have we come from since removable storage was a 3.5" Floppy disks that held 1.14 MB in data. Now an average thumb drive comes with 8GB storage, which is 8000 MB in data. That is roughly 7000 floppy disks in total. Would it be easy to carry them in your pocket?
Well now you can, and some of the fancy designs can be shown below.

created and uploaded by Niall Mulrine, Navenny, Ballybofey, Co. Donegal, Ireland
Mob: 086-2377033

www.pcclean.ie

sales@pcclean.ie

Borrow books on the Kindle eBook Reader

Last year Barnes & Noble rolled out their Nook eReader with some unique features, including the ability to loan books to people for two weeks. Today, Amazon joined Barnes & Noble with this capability as they try to catch up with the functionality of the Nook. You can check out the Amazon help page for all the details on loaning Kindle ebooks.

As you can see on that help page, this is still a process under development as it appears you can only loan and accept loans for Kindle book through your Amazon Kindle webpage with no loan initiation or acceptance from within the Kindle devices or various Kindle applications.
The mechanics of the system work similar to the Nook system where you can offer books up for lending and the recipient has seven days to accept, they can borrow it for up to 14 days and you cannot read it during this time, and if the borrower has the book or is in a country without rights to the book you will get the book back in your library after the seven day period ends.
Websites have launched for the Nook to facilitate loaning books and I imagine we will see the same thing happen with the Kindle as well. I am still more of a Nook fan with support for free public library books.
created by Techrepublic
Uploaded & Created by Niall Mulrine, Navenny, Ballybofey, Co. Donegal, Ireland
Mob: 086-2377033

www.pcclean.ie

sales@pcclean.ie

Skype video Call now available on iPhone Handsets

Skype has now being used for Video calling using the iPhone handsets. All new iPhone version 4 can allow users to have face to face video conversations on the move over both 3G Signals and Wi-Fi.
These calls are FREE!!!
Go to http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/get-skype/on-your-mobile/download/iphone-for-skype/
for more info
iPhone 4 owners already have the ability to make video calls over WiFi networks using the FaceTime feature, but the new video calling feature built into the Skype app now supports video calling to both mobile and desktop Skype apps
created by  Niall Mulrine, Navenny, Ballybofey, Co. Donegal, Ireland

Mob: 086-2377033

www.pcclean.ie

sales@pcclean.ie

New BitTorrent Client offers more

While BitTorrent is the most popular P2P protocol, it still relies on several centralized points for users to find the files they are looking. There have been several attempts at making BitTorrent more decentralized, and the latest Tribler 5.3 client is the first to offer the BitTorrent experience without requiring central trackers or search engines, according to TorrentFreak.
Tribler offers some very interesting technologies; the latest version enables users to search and download files from inside the client. Plenty of other clients offer search features, including the ever-popular µTorrent, but Tribler's results come from other peers rather than from a dedicated search engine. Users can search and download content without a server ever getting involved; everything is done among peers, without the need of a BitTorrent tracker or search indexer.
This is a little ironic because it means that the actual torrent file aspect of BitTorrent is no longer necessary. Normally, users have to find the torrent file corresponding to the content they want to download. The torrent file contains the BitTorrent tracker URL which, as its name implies, keeps track of everyone downloading and uploading the content in question. More recently, the need for a tracker has been replaced by technologies like peer exchange (PXE) and distributed hash tables (DHT). A replacement for BitTorrent search engines and indexers had yet to appear, until Tribler 5.3.
Since Tribler is still a rather new BitTorrent client, there are significantly fewer torrents to search from compared to popular BitTorrent search engines, but as it gains more traction, that number should grow exponentially. Furthermore, if competitors like µTorrent jump on board, we may have yet another P2P revolution on our hands.

created by neowin
published by pcw
Uploaded by Niall Mulrine, Navenny, Ballybofey, Co. Donegal, Ireland

Mob: 086-2377033

www.pcclean.ie

sales@pcclean.ie

Mark Zuckerberg joins Richest people in Charity

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg will join some of the world's richest families and individuals in giving the majority of his wealth to charitable causes.

Mr Zuckerberg was one of 17 new signatories to the Giving Pledge, a project created by investor Warren Buffett along with Bill and Melinda Gates. The pledge asks that each billionaire signatory commit to giving most of their wealth to philanthropic causes or charitable organisations either before or after their death.

In a statement, Mr Zuckerberg said there was no reason for people to wait until late in their careers to give back.

''Why wait when there is so much to be done? With a generation of younger folks who have thrived on the success of their companies, there is a big opportunity for many of us to give back earlier in our lifetime and see the impact of our philanthropic efforts,'' he said.

In September, Forbes estimated the 26-year-old's personal wealth at US$6.9 billion and placed him at number 40 on a list of the world's most powerful people. Around the same time, the young billionaire gave US$100 million to Newark's public schools, sparking accusations he was attempting to preempt negative publicity stemming from film The Social Network, which had only recently been released.
Mr Zuckerberg is joined in the Giving Pledge by a range of high-profile billionaires including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Star Wars creator George Lucas and hotel heir Barron Hilton.
published by neowin
Uploaded by Niall Mulrine, Navenny, Ballybofey, Co. Donegal, Ireland

Mob: 086-2377033

www.pcclean.ie

sales@pcclean.ie 

Wireless networks not safe, change to AES

Japanese computer scientists have developed a way to break the WPA encryption system used in wireless routers in around one minute.
The attack gives hackers a way to read encrypted traffic sent between computers and certain types of routers that use the WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) encryption system. The attack was developed by Toshihiro Ohigashi of Hiroshima University and Masakatu Morii of Kobe University, who plan to discuss further details at a technical conference set for September 25 in Hiroshima.
Last November, security researchers first showed how WPA could be broken, but the Japanese researchers have taken the attack to a new level, according to Dragos Ruiu, organiser of the PacSec security conference where the first WPA hack was demonstrated. "They took this stuff which was fairly theoretical and they've made it much more practical," he said.
The Japanese researchers discuss their attack in a paper presented at the Joint Workshop on Information Security, held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan last month.
The earlier attack, developed by researchers Martin Beck and Erik Tews, worked on a smaller range of WPA devices and took between 12 and 15 minutes to work. Both attacks work only on WPA systems that use the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) algorithm. They do not work on newer WPA 2 devices or on WPA systems that use the stronger Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm.
The encryption systems used by wireless routers have a long history of security problems. The Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) system, introduced in 1997, was cracked just a few years later and is now considered to be completely insecure by security experts.
WPA with TKIP "was developed as kind of an interim encryption method as Wi-Fi security was evolving several years ago", said Kelly Davis-Felner, marketing director with the Wi-Fi Alliance, the industry group that certifies Wi-Fi devices. People should now use WPA 2, she said.
Wi-Fi-certified products have had to support WPA 2 since March 2006. "There's certainly a decent amount of WPA with TKIP out in the installed base today, but a better alternative has been out for a long time," Davis-Felner said.
Enterprise Wi-Fi networks typically include security software that would detect the type of man-in-the-middle attack described by the Japanese researchers, said Robert Graham, CEO of Errata Security. But the development of the first really practical attack against WPA should give people a reason to dump WPA with TKIP, he said. "It's not as bad as WEP, but it's also certainly bad."
Users can change from TKIP to AES encryption using the administrative interface on many WPA routers.
Smaller businesses in particular are being urged to move over to the newer standard, due to their reliance on Wi-Fi in place of wired networks.
created by techcentral
uploaded by
Niall Mulrine
Navenny, Ballybofey, Co. Donegal, Ireland

Mob: 086-2377033

www.pcclean.ie

sales@pcclean.ie

Already Sex is on the agenda with the new Kinect!!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.