Chrome browser will block malware downloads

Google has developed a security feature for Chrome that lets the browser detect and stop malware downloads.

Browser hijacking and other browser-based malware infections are on the rise and Google needs to protect Chrome users with native security features, the company said. It is testing the feature in a pre-release version of the browser.

[ Find out how to block the viruses, worms, and other malware that threaten your business, with hands-on advice from expert contributors in InfoWorld's "Malware Deep Dive" PDF guide. | Keep up with key security issues with InfoWorld's Security Adviser blog and Security Central newsletter. ]

"Online criminals have been increasing their use of malicious software that can silently hijack your browser settings. This has become a top issue in the Chrome help forums; we're listening and are here to help," wrote Linus Upson, a Google vice president, in a blog post.

The security feature will trigger an alert, displayed in the download tray at the bottom of the screen, saying that Chrome blocked a malware file from being downloaded. Malicious hackers typically disguise these files as harmless applications, like screensavers and even security updates, to trick users into downloading them.

When installed, this type of malware software wrests control of the browser from users, changing settings, such as the default home page, and displaying unwanted ads.

Google has added the capability to Chrome Canary, a very early pre-release version of the browser that is intended for developers and tech-savvy end users because it "can sometimes break down completely."

Google didn't immediately respond to a request for more details about the way this feature works. Since antivirus products often step over each other when run simultaneously on the same computer, it remains to be seen if this new Chrome functionality will trigger conflicts for people who use other security software.

Chrome already lets users reset their browser settings and alerts them when they're about to visit a site that the company has identified as dangerous.

Juan Carlos Perez covers enterprise communication/collaboration suites, operating systems, browsers and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Juan on Twitter at @JuanCPerezIDG.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/chrome-browser-will-block-malware-downloads-230032
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Boston rejoices in World Series victory at home

Boston Red Sox fans celebrate in the street near Fenway Park following Game 6 of baseball's World Series between the Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, in Boston. The Red Sox won 6-1 to win the series. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Boston Red Sox fans celebrate in the street near Fenway Park following Game 6 of baseball's World Series between the Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, in Boston. The Red Sox won 6-1 to win the series. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Boston Red Sox fans celebrate after winning the championship over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 6 of baseball's World Series Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, in Boston. The Red Sox won 6-1 to win the series. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Boston Red Sox fans celebrate in the street near Fenway Park following Game 6 of baseball's World Series between the Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, in Boston. The Red Sox won 6-1 to win the series. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Boston Red Sox fans celebrate after Boston defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 6 of baseball's World Series Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, in Boston. The Red Sox won 6-1 to win the series. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Boston Red Sox fans celebrate after Boston defeated St. Louis Cardinals in Game 6 of baseball's World Series Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, in Boston. The Red Sox won 6-1 to win the series. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

BOSTON (AP) — The Red Sox have now won three World Series in the past decade — but not since the days of Babe Ruth had Boston won a fall classic in its beloved Fenway Park.

The victory sent Boston fans spilling into the streets Wednesday night to celebrate the team's 6-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 6. Amid the cheers and high-fives, the white lights of Boston's Prudential Tower read "GO SOX."

"Words cannot describe how I feel," Red Sox fan Sam D'Arrigo said. "This is what being a Boston fan is all about."

The win capped an emotional season for the Red Sox, one heavy with the reminder of the Boston Marathon bombings in April, which left three people dead and more than 260 wounded. Players wore "Boston Strong" logos on their left sleeves and a giant "B Strong" logo was mowed into Fenway's outfield.

"We needed this," said Mark Porcaro of Boston. "They were an easy team to get behind because they stood up for us when we needed them most."

An excited Mayor Tom Menino tweeted: "Get the ducks ready, we're having a parade." He was referring to the duck boat parades the city had had during previous sports celebrations.

Menino and Red Sox officials later announced that the parade would begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at Fenway Park and travel down Boylston Street — where the Marathon attack occurred — before going on to the Charles River. Organizers said they wanted the parade to be held at a time when as many fans, including families with children, could attend.

After the deciding game, police set up barriers to funnel the crowds away from Fenway Park and mounted police and officers on bicycles patrolled the area. Some fans were obviously intoxicated. A few young men climbed a pole holding a traffic light.

A large group gathered near the marathon finish line, chanting and blocking traffic until police arrived.

The Suffolk District Attorney's office reported that Boston and state police made 10 arrests in the city, mostly for disorderly conduct.

Throughout the night, the Boston police department had tweeted cautionary messages, encouraging fans to "Celebrate with pride" and "Celebrate responsibly." Police later thanked the "tens of thousands" of Red Sox fans who took their warnings seriously.

There were no reports of serious damage but at least one car was overturned.

Officials at the University of Massachusetts said 15 people — all but one of them students — were arrested after thousands gathered on the Amherst campus to celebrate the Red Sox win. Most of those arrested were charged with failing to disperse and two also with assault and battery on a police officer. No injuries were reported.

In New Hampshire, celebrations turned destructive at several college campuses. In the largest incident, University of New Hampshire officials say police used pepper spray and pepper balls to break up a crowd of several hundred students that had gathered at the Durham campus. Officials said some of the students threw bottles and cans at officers; five were arrested on disorderly conduct charges.

At Keene State College, police also used pepper spray after students flipped over a vehicle and threw rocks, glass bottles and ice. No one was arrested.

Boston has hosted several celebrations over the last decade as the Celtics, Patriots, Bruins and Red Sox have all won titles since 2004, but some of the post-championship partying has caused problems. In 2004, a 21-year-old college student was killed by a pepper pellet fired by Boston police during crowd-control efforts following the Red Sox win in the American League Championship Series. In 2008, a 22-year-old man died after police took him into custody during street celebrations of the Celtics' title.

In St. Louis, fans were disappointed that the Cardinals lost.

Ed Moreland watched the game while cleaning offices at a downtown bank building. "We had a good team. We fought for it," he said. "Boston was just a bit stronger."

At The Dubliner, an Irish pub near the St. Louis Convention Center, bartender David Fitzgibbons suggested that collective excitement in the city dissipated after a 3-1 loss in Game 5 that left the Cardinals needing a two-game sweep in Boston to prevail.

"I don't think people's expectations were that high," he said.

Wednesday's game was a triumphant end to a hectic day in Boston — hours before the game, President Barack Obama delivered a talk at historic Faneuil Hall on his embattled heath care reform.

With the World Series and a presidential visit, police were on high alert. The marathon bombing prompted the deployment of extra dogs and undercover officers.

For the citizens of Red Sox Nation, the extra security, the traffic and the closed streets were a small price to pay for baseball glory.

"Since 1918, no one has experienced this," said Russ Stappen of Rockland, Mass., who shelled out several hundred dollars for his ticket. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be."

___

Associated Press writers Jay Lindsay and Bob Salsberg in Boston and Alan Scher Zagier in St. Louis contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-31-World%20Series-Boston/id-8ec47fcc5c3d4fe4be496b2d6ad90c02
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Twitter Forcing Media Previews On Web Client Users Is Not Cool - But Feels Inevitable As It Preps IPO

And so it begins. Twitter, now firmly on the road to IPO, has equally firmly turned its attention to monetisation — which means it’s turning on new features that are designed, first and foremost, with advertisers in mind. And with the goal of attracting a more mainstream user-base.

Exhibit A: in-stream photo and video previews on the Twitter web client and Android and iOS apps.

(This being timed to coincide with Halloween is probably not at all coincidental. The disproportionate pull of people dressing up for Halloween on apps and services would make a fascinating study — see also FrontBack recently tweaking its offering so you can compose a shot with two images from the rear camera — thereby enabling  users to take lots of shots of other people’s costumes).

Returning to Twitter, what that means in practice is the densely packed wall of 140-character tweets which allowed Twitter to be an exceptional information delivery mechanism is now being interrupted by visual media.

Pictures, as countless photo-sharing apps prove, draw the eye and the attention. They crowd out words. Which means that the Twitter timeline has become less functional, and more trivial.

Pictures are distracting. That’s why advertisers love them. The big bold image can grab you, even if the product itself isn’t something you’d go looking for yourself. Images by their nature are arresting.

But if your primary product is an information network, then injecting visual media necessarily dilutes the offering.

Literally in the physical space sense. These visual media tweets take up more room than a typical text tweet (unless it’s stuffed with line breaks) — so users’ screen real estate is getting disproportionately hogged by anyone choosing to tweet out Twitter photos or Vine videos.

Obviously, Twitter users should expect vast amounts of visual media to be spewed out by advertisers all too soon — giving them a neat workaround to make an advert stand out in a sea of 140-characters.

Twitter’s core product is also now being diluted. The density of the information conveyed by the timeline is being watered down by whatever random visual imagery your followers are tweeting at any given moment (real-time events like popular TV broadcasts and big sports matches could easily end up overwhelming Twitter, more so than they already do).

It’s not that images and videos can’t be interesting; of course they can. But by forcing users to view media before deciding whether it is worth viewing (i.e. by reading the context provided by the accompanying text tweet before they click on the media link), Twitter is removing a vital content filter from its own network.

Now, if you’re using Twitter’s web client, there is no opt out of this visual clutter. And that makes Twitter step a little closer to the kind of content you’re forced to eyeball on Google+ or Facebook. So basically:

You can turn off the new media injection ‘feature’ in Twitter’s mobile apps (perhaps for download speed/data conservation reasons), but Twitter has confirmed to TechCrunch there is no off switch in its web client.

At the time of writing Twitter had not responded to a question asking why it is not offering an opt out to users of its web client.

What this means is that if you value Twitter as a fast information resource on your desktop device then the only option is to use an alternative Twitter client such as Tweetbot (which costs £14 on the Mac App Store vs Twitter’s free web client).

(On that point, Twitter has previously limited its API, thereby throttling the growth potential of third party clients, so opt-out options are being limited too.)

In my view, Twitter forcibly injecting media previews is not cool and makes the service less useful to me. But on the flip side — and there is a flip-side — pictures are very accessible, and are more likely to appeal to a mainstream user vs a dense wall of text that needs to be filtered and unpicked on the fly. So it’s easy to see their rational here.

A wall of tweets is great for busy journalists, but likely somewhat alienating for a first time user trying to figure out what Twitter is for. And attracting more users, and more mainstream users, is a key challenge for Twitter — being as it has a growth problem.

Injecting visual media is not the only recent change Twitter has made that tweaks its product to do a bit more hand-holding for newbies and less techie folk, either.

Back in August, for instance, it flipped the format of the timeline by adding a new conversation view that displays @replies in sequence to the tweets that generated them. For seasoned Twitter who knew how to follow the @reply trail, this change was an irritation — because it also dilutes the density of and interrupts the flow of the timeline.

But for newbies it probably helps to generate context on the fly, and also signposts how the service works. In other words: two Twitter birds, one stone.

I recently went through the process of setting my mum up on Twitter, and when you revisit the process of starting again from scratch with zero followers it’s easy to see how hard it is for a newcomer to hook into the service.

A lot of effort is required to ‘get’ Twitter, in terms of finding other users who are tweeting about things you’re interested in. And, unlike Facebook, none of my mum’s peer group is using Twitter. It become evident that a big portion of Twitter’s efforts at the new user sign-up stage are focused on pushing newcomers to follow celebrity accounts, as a way to offer a mainstream way into its service.

As Twitter prepares to IPO, and becomes answerable to a new influx of investors, it’s inevitable that it’s going to have to find more and more ways to make its service more mainstream. And that’s going to change its core product — in ways that long-time users are going to struggle with.

Add to that, with so much energy and attention still being sucked into photo-sharing services/visual social networks like Instagram, Twitter is evidently feeling a need to diversify beyond text.

Prettying up the timeline with pictures is therefore an obvious next step — it’s just a shame Twitter can’t throw a bone to the subsection of long-time users that value its service as an information resource and give us an opt-out of these mainstream changes.

By all means bury that off switch deep in settings where mainstream users will never find it. But give us an out so we can keep on using the Twitter we know and love.

After all, if we wanted to spend our time idly eyeballing a stream of random eye candy, we’d have long since migrated to Google+…

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/M6g6tBcUVOQ/
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Google says it's cracking down on third-party Google Voice apps, expanding SMS support in Hangouts early next year

Google didn't have much to say about Google Voice integration in its Hangouts app when it announced the latest version earlier this week, but the company's Nikhyl Singhal has filled in a few more details on his Google+ page today. Singhal notes that while the update (and its SMS support) only works ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/UkwKl7JegVI/
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Toronto police say they have mayor drug video

Mayor Rob Ford walks past Halloween decorations on his way to talk to media at City Hall in Toronto on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Ford says he has no reason to step down despite police confirmation that they have seized a video that appears to show him smoking a crack pipe. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn)

Mayor Rob Ford walks past Halloween decorations on his way to talk to media at City Hall in Toronto on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Ford says he has no reason to step down despite police confirmation that they have seized a video that appears to show him smoking a crack pipe. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn)

Mayor Rob Ford talks to media at City Hall in Toronto on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Ford that appears to show him smoking a crack pipe. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn)

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford addresses media outside his office in Toronto on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Ford says he has no reason to step down despite police confirmation that they have seized a video that appears to show him smoking a crack pipe.(AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette)

These annotated video frame grab images provided by the Toronto Police Service on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, show Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, left, and his close friend, Alexander Lisi. Police say they rummaged through Ford's garbage and conducted a massive surveillance operation monitoring him and Lisi following drug use allegations. The marks seen on the images were drawn by the police. (AP Photo/Toronto Police Service via The Canadian Press)

This annotated video frame grab image provided by the Toronto Police Service on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, shows Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, left, and his close friend, Alexander Lisi. Police say they rummaged through Ford's garbage and conducted a massive surveillance operation monitoring him and Lisi following drug use allegations. The marks seen on the images were drawn by the police. (AP Photo/Toronto Police Service via The Canadian Press)

TORONTO (AP) — Toronto police said Thursday they have obtained a video that appears to show Mayor Rob Ford smoking a crack pipe — a video that Ford had claimed didn't exist and has been at the core of a scandal that has embarrassed and gripped Canada for months.

Police Chief Bill Blair said the video, recovered after being deleted from a computer hard drive, did not provide grounds to press charges. Ford, a populist mayor who has repeatedly made headlines for his bizarre behavior, vowed not to resign.

Speaking outside the door his office, where visitors were free to check out the Halloween decorations, Ford said with a smile: "I have no reason to resign." He said he couldn't defend himself because the affair is part of a criminal investigation involving an associate, adding: "That's all I can say right now." Toronto police discovered the video while conducting a huge surveillance operation into a friend and sometimes driver suspected of providing Ford with drugs.

Ford faced allegations in May that he had been caught on video puffing from a glass crack pipe. Two reporters with the Toronto Star said they saw the video, but it has not been released publicly. Ford maintained he does not smoke crack and that the video did not exist.

The scandal has been the fodder of jokes on U.S. late night television and has cast Canada's largest city and financial capital in an unflattering light.

Ford was elected mayor three years ago on a wave of discontent simmering in the city's outlying suburbs. Since then he has survived an attempt to remove him from office on conflict-of-interest charges and has appeared in the news for his increasingly odd behavior. Through it all, the mayor has repeatedly refused to resign and pledged to run for re-election next year.

But the pressure ramped up on Thursday with all four major dailies in the city calling on Ford to resign.

Cheri DiNovo, a member of Ontario's parliament, tweeted: "Ford video nothing to celebrate Addiction is illness. Mayor please step down and get help?"

On Thursday, Blair said the video of the mayor "depicts images that are consistent with those previously reported in the press."

"As a citizen of Toronto I'm disappointed," Blair said. "This is a traumatic issue for citizens of this city and the reputation of this city."

Blair said the video will come out when Ford's associate and occasional driver, Alexander Lisi, goes to trial on drug charges. Lisi now also faces extortion charges for trying to retrieve the recording from an unidentified person. Blair did not say who owned the computer containing the video.

Blair said authorities believed the video is linked to a home in Toronto, referred to by a confidential informant as a "crack house" in court documents in Lisi's drug case.

The prosecutor in the Lisi case released documents Thursday showing they had rummaged through Ford's garbage in search of evidence of drug use. They show that they conducted a massive surveillance operation monitoring the mayor and Lisi following drug use allegations.

The documents show that friends and former staffers of Ford were concerned that Lisi was "fuelling" the Toronto mayor's alleged drug use.

The police documents, ordered released by a judge, show Ford receiving packages from Lisi on several occasions.

"Lisi approached the driver's side of the Mayor's vehicle with a small white gift bag in hand; he then walked around to the passenger side and got on board," reads one document dated July 30, 2013. "After a few minutes Lisi exited the Escalade empty handed and walked back to his Range Rover."

Another dated July 28 says Lisi "constantly used counter surveillance techniques" when he met with Ford that day.

On August 13 documents say Lisi and Ford met and "made their way into a secluded area of the adjacent woods where they were obscured from surveillance efforts and stayed for approximately one hour."

Ford recently vouched for Lisi in a separate criminal case, praising his leadership skills and hard work in a letter filed with the court. The letter was part of a report prepared by a probation officer after Lisi was convicted of threatening to kill a woman.

Ford said previously that he was shocked when Lisi was arrested earlier this month, calling him a "good guy" and saying he doesn't abandon his friends.

The documents also say that Ford met Lisi through Payman Aboodowleh, a volunteer football coach at Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School, where Ford coached the team while also serving as mayor. He told police he was "mad at Lisi because he was fuelling the mayor's drug abuse," the document says.

Ford's controversies range from the trivial to the serious: Walking face-first into a TV camera. Falling down during a photo op while pretending to play football. Being asked to leave an event for wounded war vets because he appeared intoxicated, according to the Toronto Star. Being forced to admit he was busted for marijuana possession in Florida in 1999, after repeated denials. Making rude gestures at Torontonians from his car.

Ford was fired earlier this year from his beloved volunteer job coaching football over disparaging remarks he made to a TV network about parents and their kids at the school.

"The mayor has said there wasn't a video," Toronto councilor Paula Fletcher said. "He has said there is a conspiracy against him. With Chief's Blair's press conference I think that's put to rest."

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-31-Canada-Toronto%20Mayor/id-45dff419b74240959ed40163412d183b
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Whole bevy of official Nexus 5 cases also available in Google Play

Stylish (and expensive) ways to protect your new Nexus 5

Along with the announcement of the Nexus 5 on Google Play, Google is rolling out an assortment of different cases for the phone. There's both a "bumper" case available for $34.99 (£24.99 in the U.K.) and "QuickCover" for $49.99 (£34.99). The bumper isn't much of a bumper at all, and actually covers the back of the phone as well. it is made of a "hard outer shell and soft rubber lining," and is offered in black, grey, red and yellow — while it seemed to actually be on sale for a moment, it is dropped to "coming soon" in all colors.

The QuickCover case is much the same, but has a flap that covers the screen as well. Both black and white varieties are "coming soon" at this point in the US, with the black version currently shipping in the U.K.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/50EUPbxcI24/story01.htm
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WCW's 15 greatest losers

All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2013 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & © 2013 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/classics/wcw/wcw-15-greatest-losers
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