Under the Brussels edict, police across the EU have been given the green light to expand the implementation of a rarely used power involving warrantless intrusive surveillance of private property. The strategy will allow French, German and other EU forces to ask British officers to hack into someone’s UK computer and pass over any material gleaned. A remote search can be granted if a senior officer says he “believes” that it is “proportionate” and necessary to prevent or detect serious crime — defined as any offence attracting a jail sentence of more than three years. The authorities could break into a suspect’s home or office and insert a “key-logging” device into an individual’s computer. This would collect and, if necessary, transmit details of all the suspect’s keystrokes. The Home Office said it was working with other EU states to develop details of the proposals.

Source: The Times

Lenovo includes an interesting remote control that not only controls media functions from across the room, but it doubles as a motion sensitive game controller allowing gamers to play from the couch with the remote only. The remote also functions as a VOIP handset and an air mouse. The machine offers Intel Pentium Dual Core and Core 2 Duo mobile processors and uses DDR 3 RAM form 1GB to 4GB. Storage space is up to 1TB and the integrated graphics support DX10. Buyers can option the machine with discrete ATI graphics cards as well. Lenovo says the machine will start at $999, but if you option the rig with Blu-ray, discrete graphics and lots of storage the price will go north of starting price very quickly.

Source: DailyTech

Furthermore, the research data showed the original Xbox hanging on at 9.7 percent, as the PlayStation 3 sits at 7.3 percent.  Nintendo’s GameCube falls below that at 4.6 percent, leaving 16.2 percent in the “Other” category, which consists of “any other console found in the home.”  This doesn’t include portable platforms on the DS or PSP. Even more impressive data from Nielsen is the fact that World of Warcraft (WoW) users average 671 minutes (over 11 hours) per week! In any given minute, “almost 1 percent (0.723 percent) of all PC gamers are playing WoW.”

Source: Cnet, Afterdawn

Google’s Chrome browser topped the 1 percent mark in Net Applications’ survey for the first time, with a share of 1.04%, up from 0.83% in November and 0.74% in October. Opera’s share remained steady at 0.71%. Net Applications warned that decreased workplace use of the Internet in December may have biased its results. “The December holiday season strongly favored residential over business usage. This in turn increases the relative usage share of Mac, Firefox, Safari and other products that have relatively high residential usage,” it said. However, Internet Explorer’s market share actually declined more slowly in December than it had done in November, according to the company’s figures.

Source: Network World

While discussing the unlocking procedure, the hackers kicked-off their demonstration with describing iPhone’s basic design, its boot sequence and baseband, and all such entities that were required to unlock the iPhone. The iPhone dev team discussed the various exploits they used for the purpose, which differed starkly from the efforts required for first- and second-generation handsets, along with the manner the unlock code executes, and the method of delivering payload.

Source: IT Pro

The Zune fix (outlined below) will work at 7am ET January 1, 2009. Microsoft says it will also issue a fix for the device so that this problem won’t re-occur the next leap year, in 2012.

To Fix Your Zune Follow These Steps:

1. Disconnect your Zune from USB and AC power sources.

2. Because the player is frozen, its battery will drain-this is good. Wait until the battery is empty and the screen goes black. If the battery was fully charged, this might take a couple of hours.

3. Wait until after noon GMT on January 1, 2009 (that’s 7 a.m. Eastern or 4 a.m. Pacific time).

4. Connect your Zune to either a USB port on the back or your computer or to AC power using the Zune AC Adapter and let it charge.

Once the battery has sufficient power, the player should start normally. No other action is required-you can go back to using your Zune!

Source: PC World

Within the U115, the SSD is used to store system files, while the magnetic hard drive is used to store data. In essence, the hybrid technology is basically an expanded version of the Intel Robson or Microsoft ReadyBoost technology, where the flash drive is used to increase the overall system performance through local caching. MSI powers the system using Windows XP Home, incidentally. One ergonomic note: MSI said it increased the distance between the keys to 17.5mm, making it a bit more comfortable for fat fingers. The MSI U115 measures 260 mm x 180 mm x 19-31.5mm, and weighs about a kilogram, MSI said. What’s missing, of course, is the price: SSDs usually don’t come cheap.

Source: PC World

Bloggers who have downloaded the pirated operating system — such as ZDNet.com’s Ed Bott — are reporting that its end-user licensing agreement labels the new build as the beta that Microsoft has promised it will open to the public in early 2009. Although Microsoft hasn’t specified a release date, information published on its own Web site earlier this month hinted that the beta would become available no later than Jan. 13. And with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer slated to deliver a keynote speech Jan. 7 on the evening before the opening of the International CES trade show in Las Vegas, speculation has been brisk that he will not only talk about Windows 7, but possibly also announce the immediate availability of the beta. Windows 7 is scheduled to ship late next year or in early 2010, according to statements made previously by Microsoft.

Source: Computer World

The demonstration underscores that the commercial infrastructure, as well as the privacy and security, of the Internet are based on an advanced branch of mathematics that in the future may become vulnerable to more powerful computing systems and more clever attackers. Today’s browsers display a tiny image of a padlock when a user has a secure connection to a Web site. This is intended to provide evidence that the Web site is legitimate, as the browser and the site exchange digital certificates provided by a Certificate Authority — a trusted third party. Researchers have proven they can create fake certificates that will be accepted by the security system.

Source: NY Times

For example, Heather Farley put a photo of hers while breastfeeding her infant around Halloween, but the picture was removed in November. In addition, Farley was warned that she would have her account erased if another photo of this kind would have to be removed again. Barry Schintt, spokesperson for Facebook, stated that the pictures which show a nipple or areola are considered to be vulgar and violate the policy of the site. Thus, any kind of photo which presents such images has to be removed.

Source: Efluxmedia