Shmoe

Filed under: Hardware, iTunes, Apple, iPhone, SDK, Jailbreak/pwnage

TUAWDev team releases PwnageTool 3.1.5 to jailbreak iPhone 3.1.3 firmware originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Filed under: Gaming, Multimedia, Apple, iPhone, App Store, SDK, iPod touch

TUAWGame developers on iPhone outnumber DS and PSP two-to-one originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google has plans to make Gmail "more social," according to an anonymous source. The idea is to make it easier to post links and share status updates. Meanwhile, Facebook is apparently planning a "Gmail killer."

From Slate:

If the rumors are true, Facebook Mail will be accessible without logging into your Facebook account, and your e-mail address would consist of your Facebook username @facebook.com. According to the post, the product is officially called “Project Titan” within the company, but it’s also been optimistically dubbed a Gmail killer.

Which is better?(polling)

Teenagers Could Flock to Facebook Mail [Slate]

Windows/Mac/Linux (with Adobe Air): TweetDeck—most popular Twitter client among Lifehacker readers—just released an update to version 0.33, bringing with it more support for viewing media inline without opening a page in your browser (including YouTube videos and Flickr images) and a nice new column navigation tool. Sound good? Check out the video above for more details or just grab the latest here. [TweetDeck Blog via Mashable]

A very smart person has cut out everything except the violence from the Super Bowl commercials. This way you can see Tim Tebow tackle his mom without worrying about boring controversy.

Enjoy.

[The Daily What]

According to the Microsoft Security Response Center, Microsoft will issue 13 Security Bulletins addressing 26 vulnerabilities on Tuesday, and it will host a webcast to address customer questions about the bulletins the following day (February 10 at 11:00am PST, if you're interested). Five of the vulnerabilities are rated "Critical," seven are marked as "Important," and the last one is classified as "Moderate." All of the Critical vulnerabilities earned their rating through a remote code execution impact, meaning a hacker could potentially gain control of an infected machine. At least 10 of the 13 patches will require a restart.

The list of affected operating systems includes Windows 2000, Windows XP (x86 and x64), Windows Server 2003 (x86 and x64), Windows Vista (x86 and x64), Windows Server 2008 (x86 and x64), Windows 7 (x86 and x64), and Windows Server 2008 R2 (x86 and x64). In terms of the Microsoft Office suites, only older versions are affected: Office XP, Office 2003, and Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac.

Compared to last month's quiet Patch Tuesday, this one is quite a whopper. The exact breakdown of the bulletins is as follows:

• Bulletin 1: Critical (Remote Code Execution), Windows
• Bulletin 2: Critical (Remote Code Execution), Windows
• Bulletin 3: Critical (Remote Code Execution), Windows
• Bulletin 4: Critical (Remote Code Execution), Windows
• Bulletin 5: Critical (Remote Code Execution), Windows
• Bulletin 6: Important (Remote Code Execution), Office
• Bulletin 7: Important (Remote Code Execution), Office
• Bulletin 8: Important (Remote Code Execution), Windows
• Bulletin 9: Important (Denial of Service), Windows
• Bulletin 10: Important (Elevation of Privilege), Windows
• Bulletin 11: Important (Remote Code Execution), Windows
• Bulletin 12: Important (Denial of Service), Windows
• Bulletin 13: Moderate (Elevation of Privilege), Windows

If you're wondering, the 17-year-old Windows hole we reported on last month is indeed being plugged next week. As for the Internet Explorer flaw disclosed this week, Microsoft understandably isn't ready to patch it yet. What is worrying, however, is that Redmond says it is still working on a patch for the SMB flaw that can be used crash Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 remotely. That was disclosed three months ago, so the company is lagging quite a bit with that one.

Along with these patches, Microsoft is also planning to release the following on Patch Tuesday:

• One or more nonsecurity, high-priority updates on Windows Update (WU) and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)
• One or more nonsecurity, high-priority updates on Microsoft Update (MU) and WSUS
• An updated version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool on Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Windows Server Update Services, and the Microsoft Download Center

This information is subject to change by Patch Tuesday; Microsoft has been known to rush patches as well as pull them if it deems it necessary.

Linus Torvalds, the inventor of the Linux kernel, has an absolute disdain for mobile phones. All of the ones he has purchased in the past, the man writes on his personal blog, ended up being “mostly used for playing Galaga and Solitaire on long flights” even though they were naturally all phones run on open source operating systems.

Things have changed now, he adds, now that he has caved and bought Google’s Nexus One a couple of days ago.

Torvalds has owned a number of phones before, including Google’s G1 device and ‘one of the early China-only Motorola Linux phones’, but it took for Google to add multi-touch capabilities to the Nexus One before he finally broke down and bought one from the company’s web store.

And he’s loving it:

But I have to admit, the Nexus One is a winner. I wasn’t enthusiastic about buying a phone on the internet sight unseen, but the day it was reported that it finally had the pinch-to-zoom thing enabled, I decided to take the plunge. I’ve wanted to have a GPS unit for my car anyway, and I thought that google navigation might finally make a phone useful.

And it does. What a difference! I no longer feel like I’m dragging a phone with me “just in case” I would need to get in touch with somebody – now I’m having a useful (and admittedly pretty good-looking) gadget instead. The fact that you can use it as a phone too is kind of secondary.

While Google hasn’t disclosed how many phones it’s sold so far, the company is believed to have sold closer to 100,000 than 1 million devices. But at least one of them made one of the most famous software engineers in the world one happy camper.

Google's Superbowl ad will make you cry a little bit originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Facebook is revamping their messaging system into a full-fledged email client, according to tech news site TechCrunch. We can't imagine ditching our beloved Gmail accounts for Facebook's alternative anytime soon (at least not without some serious innovation from Facebook), but for those true Facebook nuts, it could be a viable email alternative. [TechCrunch]

As a Montrealer who has shoveled more snow than you can shake a very big stick at, I was intrigued when I first came across a video of this wheeled shovel in action. I live in the suburbs south of Montreal, on a street where there's a popular bus route; the snow plow can pass my house several times a day during heavy snow falls, repeatedly depositing a compacted mound of snow in my driveway entrance.

I bought a Wovel, and what was once a dreaded exercise in futility has now become a looked forward to workout! Thanks to the Wovel's design, all the snow's weight gets transferred to my arms and legs. The fulcrum at the center of the big wheel effectively allows the Wovel to do the heavy lifting for me. After becoming proficient in its use, I was able to master the natural seesaw action and launch the snow surprisingly high. Now, after a season and a half of use, I can consistently build snow banks up to five feet high. It's like having my own little nonnmotorized bulldozer.

I've been using mine to shovel my walk/driveway as well as my neighbor's for more than a year, and I’ve been beating the crap out of the thing. It won't quit. It’s made from a thick-gauge steel and is covered by a lifetime warranty. What was once about an hour of back-breaking work has been cut down to about 20 minutes, which makes this purchase one of the best expenditures I have ever made.

The Sno Wovel Wheeled Snow Shovel
$120

Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Structured Solutions II

New Orleans has scheduled a parade for next Tuesday, "win or lose." The football gods don't like hubris, and they especially don't like fêting losers. So it's a jinx-jinx situation either way. [Indy Star]

From Justin Van Genderen, a series of minimalist posters advertising planets in the Star Wars galaxy. See more at Giagantor .

View Image ›

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Last weekend, The Washington Post published an article from Mike Rosenwald about the recent resurgence of haggling. To get a feel for the art of the deal, Rosenwald spent a week putting haggling to work in his own life:

For consumers like me who have spent decades shopping at full retail, getting a deal on previously no-deal items is liberating and invigorating, as I found out during a recent week I spent haggling. At first, my wife and friends asked me if I was crazy, but when I reported saving $3 on steak at Giant and $50 a month on our Verizon bill, they asked only one thing: How?

Just before Christmas, I spoke with Rosenwald about haggling. Though none of my tips made the final article (which is no big deal; that’s how journalism works!), he did profile long-time GRS reader Stephen Popick (who also volunteers as the GRS discussion forum admin). Rosenwald writes:

Popick is a well-paid guy — he can afford things. But he looks at price tags merely as suggestions. (Call him cheap, and he’ll thank you for the compliment.) For years, Popick has haggled down prices on ground beef, videogames, beer, bicycles, magazines, satellite TV and even the his-and-her plastic reindeer that adorned his front lawn for Christmas.

“I’ve always wondered why more people don’t do this,” said Popick, who lives with his wife in Alexandria. “This is your money. It would be wasteful not to do this, right?”

Taking lessons from Popick and others, Rosenwald gave haggling a try. He negotiated on everything from DVDs to steaks to cell phones. Final result? Rosenwald saved $730 in seven days.

As I’ve said before when this subject comes up, haggling isn’t for everyone. But if you’re brave enough to negotiate — and willing to put up with occasional rejection — you really can save money.

Here are some past Get Rich Slowly articles on this subject:

• How one reader uses haggling to save big bucks
• How to haggle
• You can negotiate anything
• Negotiate once, save thousands every year
• How I cut my Comcast cable bill by 33% (without losing any service)

Do you haggle? How often? Only on the big stuff? What rules have you set for yourself? How successful are you?

[The Washington Post: In tough economic times, shoppers take haggling to new heights]

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Related Articles at Get Rich Slowly:

• How to Haggle
• Daily Links: Twitterpated Edition
• How to Afford Anything (But Not Everything)
• How I Cut my Comcast Cable Bill by 33% (Without Losing Any Service)
• How One Reader Uses Haggling to Save Big Bucks

Apple just pushed out the iPhone OS 3.1.3 software update, featuring various minor bug fixes and improvements, including improved accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS and resolved issues with third-party apps not launching. None of what the release discusses sounds too exciting, but here's betting that iPad is in the dictionary now. Update: Huh, apparently it's not. To update your iPhone or iPod touch, plug it in, fire up iTunes, and hit the Check for Updates button.