TechNewsWorld: FAA Relaxes In-Flight Mobile Rules

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FAA Relaxes In-Flight Mobile Rules Oct 31st 2013, 23:47, by Peter Suciu The decision handed down by the FAA today won't be "truly 'complete' until all of the airlines have submitted their plan for how they'll implement the new ruling," suggested Chris Silva, principal analyst at High Rock Strategy. "That is where this will get interesting. There's not too much wiggle room other than when and what type of devices can be used." Travelers on domestic flights in the U.S. will soon face far fewer restrictions on their in-flight use of mobile gadgets thanks to new rules announced Thursday by the Federal Aviation Administration. Previously, travelers were required to shut off all devices with an on/off switch until the aircraft reached 10,000 feet, which typically was about 10 minutes into the flight. Travelers also had to power down the devices for landing. After months of study by aviation experts, however, the FAA announced that portable electronic devices including tablets, laptop computers, e-readers and mobile handsets in airplane mode can be used throughout the entire flight, albeit with some remaining restrictions. Most notable among those restrictions is that devices that can transmit, such as phones, will still not be permitted during the flight. "We believe today's decision honors both our commitment to safety and consumers' increasing desire to use their electronic devices during all phases of their flights," said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "These guidelines reflect input from passengers, pilots, manufacturers and flight attendants, and I look forward to seeing airlines implement these much anticipated guidelines in the near future." 'This Will Get Interesting' Delta Airlines and JetBlue both sent out press releases on Thursday morning announcing that they were in the process of submitting plans to allow customers to use portable devices as early as this week. However, there could be delays before any of this actually takes flight. "The decision, while handed down by the FAA today, looks to not truly be 'complete' until all of the airlines have submitted their plan for how they'll implement the new ruling," Chris Silva, principal analyst at High Rock Strategy, told TechNewsWorld. "That is where this will get interesting." How liberally the various airlines interpret the rules could be a slight differentiator, "though there's not too much wiggle room other than when and what type of devices can be used," Silva added. 'Sick and Tired of the Stupidity' Many seasoned road warriors will admit to "accidentally" leaving a phone or other device on during a flight, thereby furthering the notion that the ban on devices during takeoff and landing was necessary. With so many customers now carrying devices, however, it isn't surprising that the FAA has decided to address the issue. "People are sick and tired of the stupidity of it," Alan Webber, principal analyst at Asymmetric Insights, told TechNewsWorld. "Give me proof of one crash or near miss that was caused by a device. Perhaps it could happen, but the reality is, as long as it isn't transmitting, it shouldn't have an impact at all." In fact, "the likelihood that anything you could carry on plane would knock out the signal is pretty slim," Webber said. "There is frankly a bigger chance of your house being hit by a block of the blue ice released from a plane as waste." Phone Use on Hold One thing that won't change is that fliers won't be allowed to make calls during a flight as a result of Federal Communications Commission rules. "The two issues are not related," Roger Entner, principal analyst at Recon Analytics, told TechNewsWorld. "The FCC doesn't allow phones and tablets to be on below 10,000 feet due to the potential of overloading the terrestrial mobile networks by active devices being handed from one cell to the next in a rapid succession." A plane flying 600 miles an hour travels 10 miles a minute, Entner noted. "With a cell being less than two miles, that's a cell transfer every 12 seconds," he explained. "This is not a significant problem if it's done by a few people in private planes, but a potentially significant problem if it's done by dozens and dozens of people in commercial airlines, and it could impact wireless networks." 'Security Is Reactive' Beyond those concerns, there is also the fact that few people would choose to sit next to someone who decides to talk -- loudly -- on their phones during the entire flight. To that end, "the FAA would face a huge backlash if they allowed people to use phones on planes," Webber pointed out. Looking ahead, there's nothing to say the decision to ban mobile devices won't be reconsidered -- especially over security concerns. "Security is reactive, not proactive, so if anything happens it will shut this down," said Webber. "We do need to remember it was within the year that small pocket knives were allowed on planes and -- again -- just look at how quickly that was turned around."

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TechNewsWorld: Hyperloop Project Revs Up

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Hyperloop Project Revs Up Oct 31st 2013, 18:55, by Kris Holt Elon Musk's Hyperloop dream is beginning to take on substance. There is now a company led by an impressive duo, with a strong lineup of partners, a road map for building a prototype, and a mob of highly skilled applicants begging to help. "I think it is an great engineering project," said analyst Jim McGregor, "but like all such projects, you never see all the hurdles until you begin." A project to build a super-high-speed transportation system in California is gaining traction. JumpStartFund on Thursday revealed its users had voted to select the official name, "Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc.," for the company undertaking the challenge. Marco Villa, Ph.D., former director of mission operations for SpaceX, and Patricia Galloway, Ph.D., former president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, will lead the project, which aims to demonstrate a Hyperloop prototype within 18 months. SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk this summer revealed his concept for the Hyperloop high-speed mass transit system as an alternative to a planned high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Hyperloop Passenger Capsule While the state's project would get commuters from one city to the other in around two hours and 40 minutes, the Hyperloop would move as many as 840 passengers an hour with a travel time of just 30 minutes. It works by transporting people inside capsules riding along an air cushion inside a steel tube; it uses solar arrays on the roof of the tube to generate power. Musk did not feel he had the time to develop his idea further, so he made his plans open source, inviting others to work on their execution. Line Forming JumpStartFund, a crowd-powered incubator, announced its intention to back the Hyperloop project just a month later. JumpStartFund says it's been "inundated by applications" from people looking to join the effort. As of earlier this week, it had 165 applications. "Those are all people interested in joining the team, either part-time or full-time, in exchange for equity," Dirk Ahlborn, CEO and cofounder of JumpStartFund, told the E-Commerce Times. Most are engineers, though marketers and businesspeople are applying too. "It's actually surprising how great a profile and background [the engineers have]. They are all high-level engineers and scientists," said Ahlborn. JumpStartFund is in the process of speaking with those applicants and expects to hear from more interested candidates following Thursday's announcement. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has revealed its list of initial partners: Ansys, which carried out a Hyperloop feasibility study; GloCal Network Corporation, which will support the manufacturing and supply and value chain aspects of the project; and UCLA Architecture and Urban Design's graduate program Suprastudio, which will offer urban planning and traveler experience design suggestions. Additionally, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies unveiled a timeline for developing the prototype. The company plans to start fundraising next week, with a view to releasing a white paper for the project by the end of March and holding demo events for the prototype by the first quarter of 2015. A Lot of Ifs "It shouldn't take that much time if the technology as presented is viable," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told the E-Commerce Times, but "it is likely they will run into unforeseen problems and I'd expect this date to move out as a result." Musk suggested the Hyperloop project would cost less than US$7.5 billion -- far less than the state's estimated price tag of $68 billion for the rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It is not yet clear how much this Hyperloop project, a for-profit venture, actually will cost, though. JumpStartFund has been in contact with venture capital firms regarding financing, and fundraising is still in the early stages. "With the second iteration of the white paper, one of those tasks is to solve all of [the costing] issues," noted JumpStartFund's Ahlborn. That said, there is certainly an array of barriers that could prevent the Hyperloop from coming to fruition. "In terms of building the project, I see a mountain of hurdles. Nothing ever works as planned, especially on this scale," Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research, told the E-Commerce Times." "They are trying something that has never been done before, so the mathematical algorithms to calculate everything have to be developed and tested along the way, and there is still no promise they will work," he pointed out. "I think it is an great engineering project, but like all such projects, you never see all the hurdles until you begin."

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TechNewsWorld: NSA Caught Siphoning Data from Google, Yahoo Servers

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NSA Caught Siphoning Data from Google, Yahoo Servers Oct 31st 2013, 19:08, by Peter Suciu There is "no way" the NSA's newly revealed surveillance activities could have been legal, asserted Fred Cate, director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University. "There is obviously a big security issue here," Cate explained. "It puts us in an almost surreal position, especially as there is no way that the NSA could truly differentiate between U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens." The National Security Agency has tapped fiber-optic cables that connect Google's and Yahoo's overseas servers and accessed vast amounts of data including email and other personal information, according to a Wednesday report in The Washington Post. Included in the data culled by the NSA is information on hundreds of millions of users, many of whom are American, the Post reported, citing documents obtained by NSA contractor Edward Snowden along with interviews with other officials. The NSA's acquisition directorate reportedly sent millions of records daily from internal Yahoo and Google networks to a data warehouse at the agency's Fort Meade, Md., headquarters. 'Not True' The NSA balked at the idea that it was looking into the personal information of American citizens. "NSA has multiple authorities that it uses to accomplish its mission, which is centered on defending the nation," NSA spokesperson Vanee Vines told TechNewsWorld. "The Washington Post's assertion that we use Executive Order 12333 collection to get around the limitations imposed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and FAA 702 is not true. "The assertion that we collect vast quantities of U.S. persons' data from this type of collection is also not true," Vines added. "NSA applies Attorney General-approved processes to protect the privacy of U.S. persons, minimizing the likelihood of their information in our targeting, collection, processing, exploitation, retention and dissemination." NSA is "a foreign intelligence agency," Vines concluded, "and we're focused on discovering and developing intelligence about valid foreign intelligence targets only." 'We Are Outraged' Both Google and Yahoo stressed that they did not participate in the NSA's data collection. "We have long been concerned about the possibility of this kind of snooping, which is why we have continued to extend encryption across more and more Google services and links," said David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer. "We do not provide any government, including the U.S. government, with access to our systems. "We are outraged at the lengths to which the government seems to have gone to intercept data from our private fiber networks," Drummond added. "It underscores the need for urgent reform." Similarly, "we have strict controls in place to protect the security of our data centers," Yahoo spokesperson Lauren Armstrong told TechNewsWorld. "We have not given access to our data centers to the NSA or to any other government agency." 'A Gross Violation' It's unclear exactly how the NSA achieved this tap, but the Post report suggests that "anything flowing between Google's data servers would be vulnerable, which means both metadata and content of millions of emails, among other things," Trevor Timm, an activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, pointed out. Was the surveillance legal? "The U.S. government thinks it is," Timm told TechNewsWorld. "We think it's a gross violation of the privacy rights of Americans and those abroad. "Congress will act to make sure this will never happen again, and tech companies will implement changes to make sure the NSA can't do it again even if they tried," he added. "There is no way it could have been legal," Fred Cate, director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University, told TechNewsWorld. "There is obviously a big security issue here," Cate explained. "It puts us in an almost surreal position, especially as there is no way that the NSA could truly differentiate between U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens, as they claim." A Fine Line Of course, these revelations are just the latest in what's becoming a long stream of leaks about government surveillance. "The truth is, even with all the public leaks and media reporting to date, presumably there's still much we neither know nor have the ability to accurately/fairly understand in full context," Jeffrey Silva, senior policy director for telecommunications, media and technology at Medley Global Advisors, told TechNewsWorld. "Questions about the legality and appropriateness of certain government surveillance -- especially in the post-9/11 world -- are apt to persist on an ongoing basis with every new revelation," Silva added. "The government may need to make a stronger case, and repeat it often, that expanded surveillance is a price that must be paid in the post-9/11era if U.S. citizens want to be safe," he concluded. "At the same, there's the question of whether current level of government surveillance, that even if legal, amounts to overkill and an unnecessary intrusion on American privacy." A Chill Down the Spine In the bigger picture, the revelations are "like layers of an onion," suggested Tim Erlin, director of IT risk and security strategy at Tripwire. "This period of information security history will do more to spur a renewed interest in verifiable security, including end-to-end encryption and distributed systems for validation, than anything we've seen in a long time." The fact is, however, "we've tacitly agreed to allow our personal data be aggregated in large organizations like Google, Yahoo and Facebook," Erlin told TechNewsWorld. "These companies have so much intelligence that they have become too attractive as intelligence targets." Indeed, "the companies involved should be the ones with most concerns," said Cate. "This is not good for their business." Moreover, "when you look at it with the tapestry of all the programs that we've seen come to light," he added, "that is when the cold chill goes down your spine."

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TechNewsWorld: Security Flaw Found in 'Staggering Number' of iOS Apps

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Security Flaw Found in 'Staggering Number' of iOS Apps Oct 31st 2013, 17:32, by John P. Mello Jr. By John P. Mello Jr. MacNewsWorld Part of the ECT News Network 10/31/13 10:32 AM PT Hackers could disrupt the normal content flow of many apps -- a great many, according to Skycure -- due to a flaw in iOS and most likely other mobile platforms. "Poisoning applications with fake content can have devastating consequences," noted security analyst Bogdan Botezatu. "Imagine a specific pool of users being shown news of an imminent hurricane or other disaster in their area." A flaw found in a "staggering number" of apps for the iPhone and iPad could be exploited to send malicious information to the gadgets, researchers at Skycure reported Tuesday. The vulnerability allows enterprising hackers to redirect an app's communication with its appointed server to one operated by nefarious parties. Although the researchers focused on iOS apps, the flaw could affect other mobile platforms too, since the it involves a cross-platform standard -- HTTP. "We've seen a pretty impressive number of iOS applications susceptible to this problem, but it is very likely that other operating systems, such as Android and Windows Phone, may be susceptible to this as well, although we can't confirm that yet," Yair Amit, CTO and cofounder of Skycure, told MacNewsWorld. Apple did not respond to our request to comment for this story. Classic Attack A classic man-in-the-middle attack can be launched on an iOS device by exploiting the vulnerability, which uses a technique called "HTTP Request Hacking." Here's how it works. Many apps are constantly communicating with a server on the Net to obtain information. The app for a news organization, for instance, frequently polls that organization's server to get the latest news. When such communication is initiated by an app, it can be intercepted by a hacker, who then pushes a modification to the iOS device that redirects all future communication from the app to the hacker's server. The modification involves poisoning a cache used by apps with a bogus "301 Moved Permanently" command. Those commands are used by developers when a domain used by their app changes. In this case, though, the hacker is changing the domain and not the developer. "While the 301 Moved Permanently HTTP response has valuable uses, it also has severe security ramifications on mobile apps, as it could allow a malicious attacker to persistently alter and remotely control the way the application functions, without any reasonable way for the victim to know about it," Amit explained in a blog post. "Whereas browsers have an address bar," he continued, "most mobile apps do not visually indicate the server they connect to, making HRH attacks seamless, with very low probability of being identified by the victims." Devastating Potential In order to succeed, an attacker needs to be connected to the same network as the victim and actively intercept the data flow between the victim's vulnerable application and the website it downloads its data from, explained Bitdefender Senior E-Threat Analyst Bogdan Botezatu. However, "the attack can be automated to affect all devices currently connected to the network," he told MacNewsWorld. "While this attack may look more like a prank," Botezatu continued, "poisoning applications with fake content can have devastating consequences. For decision makers, fake news could impact the way they do business, while for others it can trigger panic. Imagine a specific pool of users being shown news of an imminent hurricane or other disaster in their area." Botezatu cautioned against using unfamiliar networks. "Users should be extremely careful when connecting their device to an untrusted wireless network, as their traffic can be snooped on, their credentials intercepted or -- as it is the case with this attack -- their data manipulated in real time, even when they disconnect the rogue network and connect to their own," he said. Massive Scope Typically, security researchers do not reveal vulnerabilities before app makers have a chance to fix them, but Skycure's Amit noted that the scope of this flaw precluded such action. "Unlike most vulnerabilities, where a responsible disclosure could be made in private to the vendor in charge of the vulnerable app, we soon realized that HTTP Request Hijacking affects a staggering number of iOS applications, rendering the attempt to alert vendors individually virtually impossible," he wrote. Instead, Skycure offered two solutions to the problem. First, developers could secure communication between their apps and Web hosts with HTTPS. Apps vulnerable to the 301 attack are using the insecure HTTP protocol. In the past, developers shied away from using HTTPS because they felt it hurt app performance, but that's not the case anymore, maintained Christopher Budd, threat communications manager for Trend Micro. "We're getting to a point where processing costs are low and security risks are high," he told MacNewsWorld, "so using HTTPS as a default, to my mind, is making much more sense." Programmatic Solution While HTTPS could foil some hackers seeking to exploit the 301 flaw, even that protocol can be circumvented in iOS through the use of malicious profiles. "When you combine the 301 and malicious profile attacks together, you can poison and change the logic of applications that interact through SSL," Amit explained. The second solution suggested by Skycure would be to shut off an app's polling of the cache containing the 301 command. "301 is great for the Web, but when it comes to mobile applications -- where, as a user, you have to trust the vendor that what you're doing is safe -- it's very bad for mobile devices," noted Amit. Although that solution addresses the problem, there would be a cost. "It protects," Trend Micro's Budd observed, "but it definitely hampers functionality that, when it's legitimate, can be valuable."

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TechNewsWorld: Adobe Hack Victim Count Skyrockets to 38M

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Adobe Hack Victim Count Skyrockets to 38M Oct 31st 2013, 16:13, by Erika Morphy "We often become numb to the numbers when discussing breaches, but 38 million is a vastly different scale of breach -- it's massive," explained Tim Erlin, director of IT risk and security strategy with Tripwire. "It surpasses last year's 24 million record Zappos breach and will undoubtedly cost Adobe tens of millions of dollars." After initially estimating that a mere 3 million customers had been affected by the security breach it announced at the start of October, Adobe on Wednesday admitted that the actual number now looks to be closer to an eye-popping 38 million. In addition, the breach seems to be more far-reaching than initially thought, extending to the Photoshop family of products as well. In its original announcement, Adobe said hackers stole 3 million encrypted customer credit card records and login data for Adobe user accounts. This past weekend, however, AnonNews.org posted a file that appears to include more than 150 million username and hashed password pairs taken from Adobe, according to Krebs on Security. So far, Adobe's investigation has confirmed that the attackers obtained access to Adobe IDs and what were at the time valid, encrypted passwords for approximately 38 million active users, the company said in a statement provided to the E-Commerce Times by spokesperson Marissa Hopkins. "We have completed email notification of these users," Adobe said. "We also have reset the passwords for all Adobe IDs with valid, encrypted passwords that we believe were involved in the incident -- regardless of whether those users are active or not." Adobe believes the attackers obtained access to many invalid Adobe IDs, inactive Adobe IDs, Adobe IDs with invalid encrypted passwords, and test account data as well, the company added: "We are still in the process of investigating the number of inactive, invalid and test accounts involved in the incident. Our notification to inactive users is ongoing." There's no indication so far, however, that there has been unauthorized activity on any Adobe ID account involved in the incident, the company pointed out. 38 Million! As with most security hacks, information is limited and experts are left filling in the blanks with speculation. For example, there is the question of how one breach could encompass so many people. "We often become numb to the numbers when discussing breaches, but 38 million is a vastly different scale of breach -- it's massive," Tim Erlin, director of IT risk and security strategy at Tripwire, told TechNewsWorld. "It surpasses last year's 24 million record Zappos breach and will undoubtedly cost Adobe tens of millions of dollars. "As more information about the attack vector and details emerges, we'll be able to understand what Adobe might have done to prevent this compromise," Erlin added. A breach of this size doesn't happen overnight, noted Craig Young, also a security researcher with Tripwire. "Clearly, attackers were on Adobe's networks for a prolonged period of time without being detected," Young told TechNewsWorld. "In fact, the attacks were only brought to light when researchers found Adobe's data on a server used by organized cybercriminals." Very likely, the hackers attacked an account management server that contained most if not all Adobe accounts, suggested Dodi Glenn, a security researcher with ThreatTrack Security. Adobe has acknowledged publicly that the breach was possible in part due to server-side accessibility and consolidation of security credentials, noted Lockbox CEO Peter Long. If nothing else, what this breach has served to highlight "is that a strategy of attempting to secure the infrastructure ultimately can be overwhelmed by a consistent and focused attack," Long told TechNewsWorld. 'Should Have Been Prevented' Given the magnitude of the numbers involved, it is fair to rethink Adobe's after-the-fact approach to the breach. When it was first revealed, Adobe apologized and offered free yearlong credit monitoring for affected customers. It also made sure the passwords were encrypted and issued a password reset for the accounts that were compromised, Glenn told TechNewsWorld -- all to the good. However, "the damage is already done," he added. "The leak occurred, and should have been prevented in the first place." Where Adobe's response could stand improvement is in providing more transparency about what happened, he concluded, "instead of letting people and security groups speculate."

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TechNewsWorld: Google+ Gets a Makeover

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Google+ Gets a Makeover Oct 31st 2013, 16:16, by Rachelle Dragani Google+ isn't trying to compete with Facebook, and that could be making it a lot better in some ways. "Google+ doesn't need to make a sudden change that is going to bring in advertisers quickly but upset users, or report every user that comes and goes in a quarter, for example," noted tech analyst Trip Chowdhry. Google can invest in changes that "will make it fantastic for a core group of users." Google has introduced a slew of changes that will make it easier to enhance and share digital media on Google+. It unveiled the new features at a Tuesday event in San Francisco, where it also revealed that Google+ now has 540 million active monthly users who upload 1.5 billion photos each week. Several of the Google+ updates are aimed toward helping users work with those photos, which range from grainy cellphone shots to professionally produced images. Users can enhance them with several new filters, or digitally edit them with Snapseed and an HDR Scape filter. Unlike Instagram's tools, the new Google+ editing features won't force cropping or condensing of images. The new Auto Awesome feature has several components designed to better capture action. Users can turn a series of action photos, such as a person skateboarding, into a strobe-effect image that pieces together all the captured elements. Users can also put those shots into a reel-style movie, adding effects like a soundtrack and transitions. The updates make it easier for users to search their photos using keywords such as "beach" or "concert." Easier Chats Google has also updated Hangouts, the video chat application on Google+, adding automatic lighting adjustments and the ability to share locations via Google Maps. SMS messaging is now integrated into Hangouts. Users can schedule Hangouts On Air, which are broadcast publicly, and use a watch screen to promote the conversation. "The improvements to Google+ Hangouts are cool, especially the dedicated watch page for Hangouts," Internet marketing expert Brian Carter told TechNewsWorld. "From a business perspective, the ability to use Hangouts instead of other webinar or screen-sharing apps is disruptive for the companies that charge for this. Hangouts haven't had all the components they need, though, and the watch page helps." Targeting a Smaller Crowd This product refresh isn't going to suddenly make Google+ the new Facebook or Twitter -- but that's not what Google is aiming to do with its social space, said Carter. The company knows it has a smaller core group of users, and is rolling out incremental updates that cater to them. "There are definitely a lot of people who want Google+ to succeed," he noted. "These improvements are a way for the Google and Android folks to stay on par with what the Apple folks have. But the Auto Awesome Movie and other photo enhancement techniques are more than that -- they're not imitations -- so it's nice to see that the Google and Android product and programming teams are thinking ahead about making the user experience more awesome." Google+ is in a unique position in that it has the freedom to go after that smaller crowd and invest more in user experience, said Trip Chowdhry, senior analyst for Global Equities Research. Facebook has to prove to investors that its site is the preferred social network for consumers, shareholders and advertisers, but Google's social platform is only a small portion of its overall business. "Google+ doesn't need to make a sudden change that is going to bring in advertisers quickly but upset users, or report every user that comes and goes in a quarter, for example," Chowdhry told TechNewsWorld. "Google has the cash to take a bold, long look at Google+, look into what certain consumers really want that is a little different from what they're getting somewhere else, and invest in changes that might not get it to a billion users worldwide, but will make it fantastic for a core group of users."

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TechNewsWorld: Tomahawk Music Player Takes Listening to a New High

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Tomahawk Music Player Takes Listening to a New High Oct 31st 2013, 12:00, by Jack M. Germain Tomahawk's seamless searching feature is very impressive. Just enter your search term in the slender window at the top of the application window. Including filters makes the searching even more efficient. Tomahawk searches through all of your enabled services. The results list is very expansive and uses columns to show artists, albums, songs, tracks and much more. The trick to designing an all-purpose music player is to make it work the way you want. The Tomahawk Music Player performs that trick very well. It could well be a better listening choice than any other cross-platform music player application. It runs on a variety of Linux distros, Microsoft Windows and the Apple OS platforms. This flexibility is important to me as a user because I work on all three. Tomahawk is intuitive, with a very uncluttered display. That holds true for its interface on all of its supported platforms. Another performance factor is its ability to separate the song title from the source. This creates a universal translation layer across music repositories, streaming services and geographic territories. The latest version is 0.7.0 for all supported Linux distros except Fedora and Debian. For those two distros the current version is 0.6.0. Dual Sources Tomahawk is a very young Linux music player, but it makes up for its youth with a surprisingly mature level of performance. It handles local and Internet-based music collections as a single music platform across all three computing platforms. This is a standard that should be met in all modern music players. Tomahawk seamlessly integrates YouTube, Spotify, Jamendo, Grooveshark, LastFM, OfficialFM and a dozen more. This latest edition makes plugging in Internet music sources easy through a system of third-party resolvers. Just open the Settings panel and click the Services button. Select the corresponding resolver from the list and click the Install>From File button. The same process lets you connect Tomahawk to your social networks. Look and Feel Some music players I have liked had a glaring problem with putting too much information into too little display space. That does not happen with Tomahawk. Its interface has a menu bar you can hide. It is replaced with an icon that opens the tools and settings menus. A sidebar helps reduce the display clutter. It has to show the local collection, online playlists and radio stations. Playback controls are at the bottom. What You See The Queue display expands as you add more titles to play from your collections. You can view the open queue list or keep it closed but see the number of titles waiting to play. A nice touch is the ability to remove songs or change their order by dragging and dropping them around the list. Depending on what sidebar labels you select, other expandable windows open in the right side of the player window. For instance, when a title is playing, the display shows the top hits, related artists and a condensed version of the Wikipedia entry for that artist. Screen Real Estate Hold the mouse over any item in the sidebar to see a floating option to hide it. The sidebar serves as the functional control panel for what you see in the display window. For example, the first label is the Dashboard. It shows recent additions to the local catalog, the newest playlists from both local collections and online sources, stations and recently played tracks. The Super Collection label combines the local libraries of all included online friends also using Tomahawk. This might be the least-used feature, depending on your social status, but if you use it, Top Loved Tracks shows the tracks loved the most by all of your friends. Recently Played Tracks shows the last tracks they've played. I'm not a huge social media fan, so pardon my big yawn here. More Sidebar Navigation Charts is somewhat more useful, as it shows the currently best-selling songs on selected services activated by your choice of subscriptions. The New Releases and Search History features are more of those love-it or hate-it options. Perhaps the most useful part of the sidebar display choices are the My Music and My Collection options. You can hide or show the sublists. This is where you click to see your local and online music lists. You also can create playlists and radio station lists for regular listening. Searching Success Tomahawk's seamless searching feature is very impressive. Just enter your search term in the slender window at the top of the application window. Including filters makes the searching even more efficient. Tomahawk searches through all of your enabled services. The results list is very expansive and uses columns to show artists, albums, songs, tracks and much more. Clicking the information icon that appears on hover pops up related details about your listening history for that selection. A Footnote button at the bottom of the information pop-up shows more details about related artists, top hits and more. You can click on a song or other related album or artist. If that title is not already in your local collection, Tomahawk will connect you to its location on your enabled online music outlets and play it for you. Getting It Installing Tomahawk is about the only part of using it that is a bit of a hassle. It is not routinely available in many distro repositories. If you do luck out and find it included in your distro, it will be several versions out of date. Instead, go to the developer's website and click the download button. Then check the download page for distro-specific installation instructions. Tomahawk is available for a wide range of distros, but you must install your flavor through the terminal by adding distro-specific repository commands. So far Tomahawk installs on Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, Arch Linux, Chakra, Gentoo and Exherbo. Debian is coming soon. For other Linux distros, you can download the tarball from the developer's website or get it from github. Bottom Line If you are looking for the next generation of music players, Tomahawk is a good choice. It is still a young effort with lots of areas its developers need to finesse, but that maturity will continue to come with each new release. Meanwhile, Tomahawk performs well in its current release state. It has some usability quirks that are more annoying than dysfunctional. Want to Suggest a Linux Application for Review? Is there a Linux software application you'd like to suggest for review? Something you love or would like to get to know? Please send your ideas to me at jack.germain@newsroom.ectnews.com, and I'll consider them for a future Linux Picks and Pans column. And use the Talkback feature below to add your comments! Jack M. Germain has been writing about computer technology since the early days of the Apple II and the PC. He still has his original IBM PC-Jr and a few other legacy DOS and Windows boxes. He left shareware programs behind for the open source world of the Linux desktop. He runs several versions of Windows and Linux OSes and often cannot decide whether to grab his tablet, netbook or Android smartphone instead of using his desktop or laptop gear.

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TechNewsWorld: Apple's New iWork: 3 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back

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Apple's New iWork: 3 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back Oct 31st 2013, 12:00, by Chris Maxcer Apple has -- compared to most technology companies -- nearly unlimited resources. Billions in the bank and plenty of time between upgrades. If Apple can expend resources to shave thickness in 1/100th of a millimeter increments off the iPad to create the iPad Air, the company sure as heck ought to be able to figure out a word processing application. Real updates to Apple's iWork suite of apps -- Pages, Numbers and Keynote -- have been a long time coming, so when Apple updated the suite with a free upgrade that plays well with iOS 7 and with Web browsers, plenty of users jumped into the new version without looking. Unfortunately, a good many found they had leapt into a shallow pool full of sharp rocks. Feature parity with iWork '09 is not one-to-one with the new iWork, and users are complaining in all sorts of places online. In one discussion thread on the Apple Support Communities pages, there are nearly 400 posts and more than 25,000 views on a question asking why Apple got rid of so many useful features in the new Pages -- and it then goes on to list them in excruciating crowdsourced detail. Personally, despite typing words most days of the year, I've always had a love-hate relationship with Pages, as well as with Numbers and Keynote. Mostly Pages, though. Microsoft Word is a bloated mess of features, ribbons, toolbars and all sorts of distracting crud, and while Pages has always been leaner in its set of features, it's bloated in that there is far too much wasted white space that is very difficult to pare down -- at least, in my opinion. I want lean and mean where almost nothing gets in the way of the words. When I'm making posters designed to help find a lost cat, yeah, templates and such are nice -- but that's just me. The point is, any sort of power user has all sorts of personal needs around software applications and, more importantly, all sorts of habits and preferences. Consequently, mass upgrades have a tendency to irritate some of the most important users. If Apple is willing to anger and disappoint its power users, though, what's the better play here? Who's the new user? Apple's New 'More Important' Users Unfortunately, I see two realistic possible reasons for Apple's iWork upgrade debacle: 1) Apple dropped the ball and lost features by accident and changed things in ways that were dumb because it didn't put enough resources or time into the upgrade and new version; or 2) Apple reset iWork on purpose for a greater good. While reason No. 1 is possible, I have a hard time believing it. Apple has -- compared to most technology companies -- nearly unlimited resources. Billions in the bank and plenty of time between upgrades. If Apple can expend resources to shave thickness in 1/100th of a millimeter increments off the iPad to create the iPad Air, the company sure as heck ought to be able to figure out a word processing application. That means it was on purpose. Apple reset iWork with a reasonable -- but not complete -- set of features that most of the world would need and likely use. More importantly, it still is a suite of applications that creates files that can be shared seamlessly between iOS devices, Macs and Web browsers -- as well as edited collaboratively on the fly via iCloud. The goal is to take iWork to the masses. More to the point, I think Apple is paying attention to the education market in a whole new way, and while iWork will handle the needs of many individuals and business users -- who also like free -- Apple is really resetting iWork so that it's ready to rock and roll for students. 94 Percent of the Education Tablet Market In Apple's earnings call with investors earlier this week, CEO Tim Cook said the iPad's educational market share is "unheard of," and at 94 percent, he's right. That's astounding. Especially with all the cheap competition trying to get in -- and when most of the PCs in education these days are still Windows-based. If iWork is free and upgrades are free, Apple just removed a hindrance for IT management and cost at schools -- and for students at home. At the same time, if these apps can be used via iCloud for free via Web browsers, kids can work anywhere on their reports and projects, even if they don't have Macs or iPads at home. And they can do it collaboratively. In the school districts I'm aware of, collaboration and group projects seem to be on the rise. If student work shifts away from Microsoft Word and PowerPoint toward iWork and Apple, wow -- this would be a major coup for Apple. Forget being "compatible" with PowerPoint. What if a majority of kids created their presentations first on Keynote instead of PowerPoint? That's a huge mindshare shift, and it's not just about battling Microsoft in an office suite battle fought on tablets -- it marginalizes Android as an OS in schools, too. Side Effect of Bigger Goals If more people can seamlessly use iWork everywhere, that's a good thing. However, I see the iWork messiness as a Apple choosing to take three steps forward and one step back while it marches toward a different goal. I remain baffled as to how a company that can compress magic into tiny devices and ship it all over the world still can't get word processing right. MacNewsWorld columnist Chris Maxcer has been writing about the tech industry since the birth of the email newsletter, and he still remembers the clacking Mac keyboards from high school -- Apple's seed-planting strategy at work. While he enjoys elegant gear and sublime tech, there's something to be said for turning it all off -- or most of it -- to go outside. To catch him, take a "firstnamelastname" guess at WickedCoolBite.com.

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TechNewsWorld: How to Prepare for a Power Outage

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How to Prepare for a Power Outage Oct 31st 2013, 12:00, by Patrick Nelson Hurricane season is under way and winter is coming up in the Northern Hemisphere. There's a good chance the lights will go out sooner or later -- at least for a short time. How to prepare? Well, besides the standard staples such as food and water, you'll probably wish for some lighting and a way to charge your smartphone. Here's how to gear up on the "e" side of things. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, the American Red Cross and local governments can all provide copious documentation on ways to prepare for weather and other disasters, but it's often geared towards perishable food and single-family homeowners in the 'burbs -- not information-hungry urban dwellers. Typically omitted are some very simple tricks that you can put into play now, in advance of the incident, to make sure you remain powered, lit and connected should the power go out. Hurricane season is under way and winter is coming up in the Northern Hemisphere. At the bare minimum, you need a light source; lighter; a propane or butane camping stove to use with the window open; cans of food; water; and a power source for a smartphone. Here's how to prepare on the "e" side of things. Step 1: Understand your power requirements. Smartphones, mobile hotspots and any other device that's powered using a USB cable requires a 5 volt power source, not a 110 volt household outlet. The only reason we use wall plugs to charge phones is because the power is conveniently there -- it's available. However, when the wall plug becomes a useless hole in the wall, for all intents and purposes, move on to other sources. Step 2: Prepare existing sources of power. Your laptop contains a battery that, if charged, can be used to power your smartphone. Switch off and unplug your laptop in advance of an incident. Then test each laptop USB port for power. Separate the phone's USB cable from the wall charger and discard the charger. Insert the cable into phone and port. One or more ports may be powered. Keep the laptop usually charged. Then during an incident, turn off the laptop, because it uses more power than the smartphone; switch off the smartphone and plug it into the known powered-USB port overnight; and allow the phone to trickle charge. You could get a couple of days smartphone use out of one charged laptop battery. Tip: If you are unable to find an existing, powered USB port on the laptop, open the laptop's BIOS settings on boot and look for USB power settings there to enable USB power for when the laptop is switched off. Again, do this before any incident so you don't use all the laptop's power fiddling with settings. Step 3: Prepare lighting. You will need some form of backup lighting if the incident extends into the evening. Twenty-two-foot solar-powered waterproof ropes of 50 LED lights, of the kind used to light walkways and awnings, are ideal because they'll last indefinitely -- day after day. I recommend the US$10 Harbor Freight Tools product, which I've successfully used camping. Ensure the palm-sized panel is off and then hang the solar collector out of the window and let the included battery charge for a full day. Tip: Try to get the panel pointing towards the sun, if there is any. Then, wrap the long rope around objects inside, like existing lamps. In the evening, switch the panel to the Continuous mode and the low-power LEDs will illuminate at dusk with enough light to stop you tripping over things. Your eyes will adjust to the limited light, but add more ropes for more light. The lights automatically turn off in the morning and start charging again. Step 4: Prepare additional sources of power. Stick with 5 volt sources of power because that's what will natively charge your phone -- and you're using solar for light. It's likely Internet-based social networks are where you are going to find out what's going on -- assuming there's phone service. Look for universal 5 volt lithium technology USB backup charger batteries on auction sites like eBay. These devices act as power banks and include a USB port. Tip: Capacity is measured in mAh. That's a measurement of amps per hour. Your existing smartphone battery could be somewhere in the region of 1,800 mAh -- it'll be labeled. So a 20,000 mAh power-bank battery should theoretically give you about 10 charges. It won't, though because of technological inefficiencies and exaggerated claims, but that should give you an idea of how to compare what you're buying. You can read about more elaborate solar backup power and communications systems here. Want to Ask a Tech Question? Is there a piece of tech you'd like to know how to operate properly? Is there a gadget that's got you confounded? Please send your tech questions to me, and I'll try to answer as many as possible in this column. And use the Talkback feature below to add your comments! Patrick Nelson has been a professional writer since 1992. He was editor and publisher of the music industry trade publication Producer Report and has written for a number of technology blogs. Nelson studied design at Hornsey Art School and wrote the cult-classic novel Sprawlism. His introduction to technology was as a nomadic talent scout in the eighties, where regular scrabbling around under hotel room beds was necessary to connect modems with alligator clips to hotel telephone wiring to get a fax out. He tasted down and dirty technology, and never looked back.

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Just Another Mobile Phone Blog: AT&T giving free Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 with Galaxy S4, S4 Active, Note II, and Note 3

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AT&T giving free Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 with Galaxy S4, S4 Active, Note II, and Note 3 Oct 30th 2013, 20:53, by Maximus Does Samsung have too many unsold tablets lying around? That certainly seems to be the case, as after Woot, who's giving away numerous Galaxy Tabs on a discount, AT&T launched an offer as well – anyone who buys a Galaxy S4, S4 Active, Note II, or Note 3 on a new two-year contract this holiday season will get a free 7-inch Galaxy Tab 3. You'll be able to add the tablet to an existing Mobile Share plan for $10 more per month, or get a separate data plan if you choose. The deal will be available both online and in retail stores, and kicks off from today itself. Hit the break for the press release from AT&T. AT&T* today announced it is launching a pair of exclusive offers to kick off the holiday shopping season. Beginning Wednesday, Oct. 30, customers can receive a free 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab™ 3 on a 2-year agreement, with the purchase of a Samsung Galaxy S® 4, Samsung Galaxy S®4 Active™, Samsung Galaxy Note® 3, or a Samsung Galaxy Note® II with a two-year wireless agreement or AT&T Nextsm installment agreement. Customers interested in receiving a free** Galaxy Tab 3 can take advantage of the offer by visiting any AT&T company-owned retail store or participating dealer (or soon, online at att.com), and purchasing one of 4 eligible Samsung Galaxy smartphones with a 2 year agreement or AT&T Nextsminstallment agreement and a Mobile Share voice and data plan, and activating a Mobile Share data plan for the Galaxy Tab 3. With an AT&T Mobile Share plan, customers can add the Galaxy Tab 3 to an existing Mobile Share plan for $10 more per month. And with Mobile Share, up to 10 devices can share data without needing to purchase separate plans for each one.*** Additionally, customers can come in and receive a minimum $100 AT&T Promotion Card when they trade in an eligible smartphone and purchase a smartphone with AT&T Nextsm. The promotion card can be used towards the purchase of a connected tablet, new accessories or a wireless service bill.**** Both offers are for a limited time only, ending Jan. 9, 2014 or while promotional supplies last. Promotion can change at any time. "Now consumers who are trying to decide between a smartphone or a tablet don't have to compromise," said Eric Goldfeld, assistant vice president – Marketing Management, AT&T. "This is a fantastic offer for the holidays and we're making it easier than ever for customers to get the latest smartphone plus a free tablet." AT&T recently launched AT&T Nextsm, a new program with a way to get a new device every year. Qualified customers can purchase a smartphone or tablet with no down payment and no activation fee.***** AT&T has the fastest and now most reliable 4G LTE network.  According to AT&T's analysis of independent third-party data, AT&T has the highest success rate for delivering mobile content across nationwide 4G LTE networks, and its download speeds are the fastest.******  And AT&T was also named America's fastest 4G LTE network  in PC Magazine's 2013 Fastest Mobile Networks 30-market study – and also swept the top rankings in all six U.S. regions from coast to coast: Northeast, Southeast, North-Central, South-Central, Northwest and Southwest. From the initial purchase to ongoing service interactions, AT&T is focused on providing an unparalleled customer experience.  AT&T was recently recognized with two significant achievements, outperforming competitors for customer service and wireless purchase experience.  J.D. Power awarded AT&T the "Highest Ranked Customer Service Performance Among Full-Service Wireless Providers" and "Highest Satisfaction with the Purchase Experience among Full Service Wireless Providers" in their 2013, Volume 2 studies. *AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc. ** Activation/upgrade and early termination fees apply. Qual. svc req'd on both devices. *** Mobile Share plan (min $30/month) req'd. Add'l mo. charge per device. If usage exceeds monthly data allowance, overage charges will apply automatically. **** Promotional value cannot be used to reduce AT&T Nextsm installment pmts. Limit 1 promotional trade-in per AT&T Nextsm installment agmt. ***** AT&T Nextsm req's qual. credit and installment agreement.  Sales tax due at sale. Limit 2 financed devices per wireless acct.  New device after 1 yr req's min.12 mthly installment pmts plus trade-in of current device & qual. wireless svc plan. ****** Speed claim based on comparison of n'tl carriers' average 4G LTE download speeds. Reliability claim compares data transfer completion rates on nationwide 4G LTE networks. 4G LTE not available everywhere. LTE is a trademark of ETSI. About AT&T AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company and one of the most honored companies in the world. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and internationally. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation's fastest and most reliable 4G LTE network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile Internet, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV service with the AT&T U-verse® brand. The company's suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com/aboutus or follow our news on Twitter at@ATT, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/att and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/att. © 2013 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners. 4G LTE speed claim based on national carriers' average 4G LTE download speeds. Reliability claim based on data transfer completion rates on nationwide 4G LTE networks. 4G LTE availability varies. http://www.sammobile.com

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