Just a few days ago, we reported how Skype had vulnerability in its Android app that could expose personal data and leaves it unencrypted and accessible to all other apps requesting a simple memory read by directory. The data was stored in plain-text format and this is not expected of Skype, a company that boasts of extremely secure voice channels.

Skype for Android is potentially vulnerable. So much so, that it exposes personal data to any app asking for it. Data is left out in the wild and the app stores it with improper permissions allowing access from any other rouge app. In short, any other app installed on your phone can steal your personal Skype data without you knowing about it.

After the exploit was spotted and covered in elaborate by Androidandme, Skype issued a statement assuring a fix to the problem. It took them less than a week, and a Skype has issued a fix to their problem.

The new Android app for Skype has fixed another big problem, VOIP calling. If you were wondering what was wrong with that, well, it was available only on Verizon until now. However, from now, the VOIP feature of Skype is available on any 3G network in the US, not just Verizon. This makes the Skype app from Verizon quite meaningless.

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Samsung Fascinate Android 2.2 Froyo Update To Roll Out From Tomorrow!

There has already been a huge controversy surrounding the Galaxy S series of handsets Android 2.2 update in the United States.

Samsung started rolling out the Android 2.2 update for the Galaxy S back in September (2010). However, it was only in the 2nd month of 2011 that the company started rolling out the Android 2.2 update for some of the Galaxy S handsets in the United States.

These handsets included the Sprint’s Epic 4G, AT&T’s Captivate and the T-Mobile’s Vibrant. Now, Verizon has also decided to release the Android 2.2 update for its Galaxy S handset – the Fascinate.



The update to Android 2.2 will bring with it some welcome features including support for Flash 10.2. The general system performance and the web browser performance have also been improved significantly.

Samsung and Verizon have also taken this opportunity to load more bloat ware on the handset, in the form of V Cast Apps and the Samsung Media Hub. The update also aims at fixing tons of bugs. The whole change-log can be found here.

For Fascinate owners, who are cursing Samsung for the delay in the update – Please blame Verizon! Samsung has already started rolling out the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update for the Galaxy S in Europe. Whereas, it is still unconfirmed whether the Galaxy S handsets in the United States will get the Gingerbread love or not.

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HTC Flyer Wi-Fi Priced at £479 in UK

The HTC Flyer, HTC’s only Android tablet, was announced at MWC 2011. We have already stated before that the HTC Flyer will be priced at £599 in the UK. It has been available for pre-order since a month now.

Today, PC World just updated its product page to reflect the pricing and availability of the Wi-Fi only version of the HTC Flyer. It is priced at £479.99 in the UK, and is available for delivery from May 17.

The price has been dropped substantially from the £599 that the 3G version is priced at. It has been priced at exactly the same price point as the Motorola Xoom Wi-Fi, which is one of the first Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets.

The HTC Flyer is one of the few new tablets which doesn’t run Honeycomb; instead, it runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread with the HTC Sense UI. HTC has announced on Twitter that it will be getting a Honeycomb update soon.

The HTC Flyer comes with a 7 inch capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. It has a 1.5 GHz processor and 1 GB RAM. It comes with 32 GB internal storage and a 5 MP camera. It also has Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and GPS.

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Eye In Space: Celebrate The 21st Birthday Of The Hubble Space Telescope With Images

If the Cosmos is the place of all things beautiful and unusual, the Hubble Space telescope (known simply as ‘Hubble’ or HST) is the ultimate eye to see it with. Launched on 20th April, 1990, aboard the Discovery space shuttle by NASA, as the best of the space-based optical telescopes, Hubble has reached out to all.

Hubble’s images have filled the hard disks of active researchers and eager school students alike, and these have endeared the large floating eye in space to millions worldwide. It has captured stunning, but violent galaxy collisions, seen never-before seen nebular formations, glimpsed the merging of galactic black holes and captured the awe-inspiring and data rich alleys of star-forming nurseries, all the while enthralling us and challenging our own perception of the vastness of the universe. In fact, the word ‘Hubble’ today bears more resonance with the telescope rather than the famed astronomer, Edwin Hubble, after whom it is named.

Hubble also happens to be the only telescope that was serviced by astronauts in space. When Hubble started acquiring images, a flaw was found in the positioning of the main mirror. A collective sigh and gasp throughout the astronomy fraternity around the world was followed by a daring and successful mission by NASA technicians, which involved them going into space and correcting the incorrect alignment of the main mirror. Hubble has never looked back since.

Enjoy the brilliant images below (they may take a second to load). Don’t forget to wish a very Happy Birthday to Hubble. To get more, click here.
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Sony Kills the PSP Go

According to a report by AV Watch, Sony is apparently ending sales of the PSP Go portable gaming console in Japan. The PSP Go was launched in October 2009, and came with a new slider design, very different from the original PSP. Unlike its predecessors, it didn’t have a UMD drive, which was a flop anyway.

With the launch of the iPod Touch, Apple had taken a large chunk of the portable gaming market, but I don’t think that had much to do with Sony’s decision to kill the PSP Go, as Sony will continue to offer the PSP 3000 and it will also go ahead with the launch of the NGP, or the PSP 2, which should be launched by the end of 2011.

Sony recently launched the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, which was largely inspired by the PSP Go, but came with phone capabilities and the Android OS. It is much better than the PSP Go, in terms of both, functionality and specifications.

One reason for the lack of popularity of the PSP Go could be its high initial price – $250 – which was higher than the PSP 3000. It was subsequently dropped to $199, but even then it failed to attract many buyers. Sony will continue to provide updates and support for the PSP Go.

Were you a big fan of the PSP Go? Let us know your views in the comments.

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Google Analytics 5 Now Available For Everyone

Google has been working on a new version of Google Analytics v5 which includes a lot of new and exciting features for users. Google Analytics 5 has been in beta for quite some time now and has been tested by thousands of users. If you haven’t had a chance to take a look at the new Google Analytics 5, here is some good new. Google has rolled it out Analytics v5 to all users.

Google Analytics 5 contains a lot of new features including a new home section, a streamlined interface to make it easier to get information you want. Analytics users can also get create multiple dashboards and add widgets to it so that you can quickly view information you want on your dashboard. Users can also create event goals to track downloads or purchases and create more powerful custom reports.

However, there are a few features from the older version which are not yet available in the new version, these include:

Exporting reports to PDF
Emailing reports
Migrating a custom report from the current Analytics version to the new version
Linking a new AdWords or AdSense account
In-Page Analytics
Google Analytics 5 is definitely better than the older version, however, I would still like to see real-time analytics in the software. Right now, I have to use some other real-time analytics tracking software to do that. It would be great if we could do it from a single interface.

How To Get New Google Analytics?

To get the new Google Analytics 5, login to your account and click on the "New Version" link on the top of the page and you will be switched to the new Google Analytics. You can always go back to the Older version by clicking on the "Old Version" on the top of the page.

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Latest Technology

Once upon a time, there was a software engineer who used to develop programs on his Pentium machine, sitting under a tree on the banks of a river. He used to earn his bread by selling those programs in the Sunday market. One day, while he was working, his machine tumbled off the table and fell in the river. Encouraged by the Panchatantra story of his childhood (the woodcutter and the axe), he started praying to the River Goddess. The River Goddess wanted to test him and so appeared only after one month of rigorous prayers. The engineer told her that he had lost his computer in the river. As usual, the Goddess wanted to test his honesty.

She showed him a match box and asked, "Is this your computer ?"
Disappointed by the Goddess' lack of computer awareness, the engineer replied, "No." She next showed him a pocket-sized calculator and asked if that was his. Annoyed, the engineer said "No, not at all!!" Finally, she came up with his own Pentium machine and asked if it was his. The engineer, left with no option, sighed and said "Yes." The River Goddess was happy with his honesty. She was about to give him all three items, but before she could make the offer, the engineer asked her, "Don't you know that you're supposed to show me some better computers before bringing up my own ?" The River Goddess, angered at this, replied, "I know that, you stupid idiot! The first two things I showed you were the Trillennium and the Billennium, the latest computers from IBM!" So saying, she disappeared with the Pentium!!

Moral: If you're not up-to-date with technology trends, it is better keep your mouth shut and

let people think you're a fool, than to open your mouth and prove it !!!
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Techie Buzz

After a long wait, a Windows 8 build was finally leaked a few days back. The leaked build was a pretty old M1 build, but that didn’t stop thousands of Windows enthusiasts from taking it for a spin. At first glance, it appeared to be, by and large, identical to Windows 7.However, NaiveUser from MyDigitalLife forums managed to unlock quite a few interesting features including Ribbon UI (user interface) for Windows Explorer.NaiveUser succeeded in enabling several locked features through simple registry tweaks. However, if registry editing is not your cup of tea, then fear not, as the folks at Windows8Beta have released the first Windows 8 tweaking utility.

Windows 8 Tweaker is a straightforward application that enables the following hidden Windows 8 features:

1. Ribbon UI for Windows Explorer: Windows 7 saw Microsoft adding the popular Ribbon UI, which was first seen in Office 2007, to applications like Paint and WordPad. With Windows 8, Microsoft is going a step further, and incorporating the Ribbon interface in the Windows Explorer itself.

2. PDF Reader: PDF (Portable Document Format) is now an open standard, and a virtually universal file format. Microsoft has finally decided to stop messing around with its own document formats, and has added a native PDF reader to Windows 8. However, like the Ribbon UI, this feature is also locked down in Windows 8 build 7850.

3. Advanced Task Manager: Windows 8 will feature a significantly improved and touch-screen friendly task manager. The advanced task manager, seen in the screenshot below, sports a new “dashboard” that will provide a quick overview of various resource usages (CPU, memory, disk, and network). Also present in the new task manager is a new section for startup processes, and a revamped process and application manager.

4. Webcam Application: The final feature that the Windows8 Tweaker unlocks is a native webcam app. The app itself is pretty bare bones, but it gets the job done.

If you have installed the leaked Windows 8 build, then go ahead and grab the Windows 8 Tweaker from here. Don’t forget to chime in with your opinion about the new Windows 8 features in the comments section.

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Google Toolbar 7 Adds Instant Search To Internet Explorer 9

Some good news for Internet Explorer users.

Google has recently released a new version of Google toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox. Google Toolbar 7 making your web browsing faster, simpler and “instant”.

The newer UI of Google Toolbar 7 for Internet Explorer and Firefox is sleek and hides all the options under a drop down menu, as shown in the following screenshot

Enabling Instant Search In Google Toolbar 7

After you have downloaded and installed Google Toolbar 7, you will be first asked to choose your default search provider. You may either choose Bing or Google as your default search engine, hit “OK” and restart the browser for the changes to take effect.

To enable Instant search in Internet Explorer 9, go to the toolbar options panel by clicking the tiny wrench icon at the top right of Google Toolbar and choose “Enable Instant for faster searching and browsing”

Once you have turned on Instant search for Internet Explorer 9, you can preview search results on Google.com by typing the keywords on the Google search box of Google Toolbar.

Since I am a regular Google Chrome user, I confused this with the address bar of Internet Explorer only to find out that I have to type the same words in the Google search box of Google toolbar (and not in the address bar of Internet Explorer 9). You can also type Alt+G to get to the Toolbar search box more quickly.

Here is how the Instant search interface of Google toolbar looks like

To clear your search terms, hit the “Escape” key on your keyboard and the search box will be highlighted, waiting for you to type the new keywords you want to search for.

With this new update, Google wants to push their instant search features deeper and let IE users get the feel of “Instant” search without having to use Google Chrome at all.


Privacy Options

Many features in Google Toolbar send anonymous usage information to Google, in order to improve your browsing experience.

If you’re concerned about the privacy of your system and don’t want to share anonymous usage data with Google, you can turn off specific privacy features from the preferences panel


Other features are quite the same as before, it’s just that Google has revamped the overall look and feel of Google toolbar by removing unnecessary UI clutter of buttons and icons from the toolbar panel. To customize which buttons and options appear in the toolbar panel, click the “wrench” icon, go to “Custom buttons” and choose the buttons you want to see in the toolbar area.

Overall, the new Google Toolbar adds a hint of Google Chrome in Internet Explorer 9. While I continue to use Google Chrome as my default browser, those who want Google’s Instant search feature on Internet explorer, can try the improved Google toolbar 7 here. The following video gives a short introduction of what Google toolbar 7 is all about:

You might want to check our ultimate list on Internet Explorer 9 tips and tricks

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AT&T Rolls Out The WP7 NoDo Update For The Samsung Focus Source

Microsoft started rolling out the NoDo update – bringing the much awaited copy & paste feature – to all WP7 handsets, at the end of the last month.

However, some carriers decided to delay the release of the NoDo update for WP7 based handsets including AT&T.

Nevertheless, AT&T has finally started rolling out the NoDo update for the Samsung Focus and the LG Quantum. The HTC Surround will get its NoDo update sometime in May, due to some software issues.

Samsung has also taken this opportunity to roll out a firmware update for the Focus. The new firmware update incorporates some useful changes and bug fixes.

The capacitive buttons on the Focus are temporarily disabled, if an app is open and a* user drags his finger from the screen to the buttons. This will definitely be appreciated by all Focus owners, and will help in reducing all those accidental touches. No more going back to the previous screen, while playing Fruit Ninja!

Another nifty change brought by this firmware is the anti-shake setting being enabled by default for the Camera. Most users don’t really bother to check out the camera settings before clicking a snap, and this small change will definitely come in handy for them.

WP7 is a closed OS, still users need to wait for sometime before they can update their handset to the latest version of the OS.* So much for being a closed OS!

Via – WPCentral

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HTC Desire Z Gets Sense 3.0, Thanks To The Leaked HTC Sensation ROM

It was just a few days ago that the leaked HTC Sensation ROM was ported over to the Desire HD.

The HTC Sensation runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread with the latest version of Sense (v3.0) running on top of it. The Sense UI in its latest version packs a very nifty lock screen with widgets, and new animations.

Now, rmk40 – a popular developer over at Desire Z modding community, has ported the Sensation ROM for the T-Mobile G2/Desire Z.

The ROM is a highly experimental one and rmk40 recommends general users to stay away from it.

One of the major problems with the ROM is that most of the UI elements are not rendered properly. The reason behind this is the difference in the resolution of the devices. The Sensation has a qHD (960×640) resolution, while the Z/G2 has a WVGA (800×480) resolution screen.

At the moment, the developer has no intention to work and make this ROM fully-functional on the Z/G2. The Desire HD developers are also on the same boat.

If developers of any of the devices are able to solve this problem, the changes could be easily ported to the other handset. Intersted developers can download the ROM from here.

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Google Chrome To Include Profile Switcher For Multiple Profiles

Google Chrome is one of the best browsers available today and with the Chrome Sync feature, it allows you to easily sync all your bookmarks, passwords, extensions, themes and auto-fill across multiple browsers. Chrome Sync is definitely a good option, however, users still face a problem if they want to have separate profiles for work and home.

The latest Canary Build of Google Chrome 12 (v12.0.741.0 canary build) now has a new feature which will allow you to have Multiple Profiles for different Chrome Windows. According to the description of the feature, Multiple Profiles associates every browser window with a profile, and adds a profile switcher in the upper right corner. Every profile has its own bookmarks, extensions, apps, etc..



Once you enable the Multiple Profiles feature, you will see a profile switcher at the right hand side corner. Users will be able to seamlessly switch between different profiles by clicking on this.* Users can also create a new profile through the switcher or through the options as seen in the first screenshot.

The Multiple Profiles feature seems to be under work right now and does not allow users to create a second profile yet. However, it looks they might add the new feature soon and ship it to the canary and development channel.

Multiple Profile is definitely a great feature and one that I have been waiting for a long time. To enable Multiple Profiles in Chrome (Canary Build Only) type about:flags in your address bar and head to the bottom of the page. Once there, enable "Multiple Profiles" feature and restart the browser.

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