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This article is about a new virus, namely OSX/Flashback.k, that can hack into your Mac without the need for the admin password. Once infected, the Trojan will attempt to download a code for the main piece of malware, also known as "payload" and attempt to install it one of two ways. The way it installs it depends on whether or not the user inputs his admin password. Once the Mac is infected, the malware then hijacks Safari every time it launches and redirects the user to it's targeted website.

This post is on cracking Wi-Fi WPA passwords with "Reaver." Many people know that cracking a WEP password is fairly easy, so they use the more bulletproof WPA security protocol. Reaver is a program that exploits a security hole in wireless routers and can crack most routers' passwords with relative ease. First off, you will need the BackTrack 5 Live DVD. Download the Live DVD from BackTrack's download page and burn it to a DVD. Next, you need a computer with Wi-Fi and a DVD drive. Lastly, you need a nearby WPA-secured Wi-Fi Network. Using four steps you can hack into a WPA Wi-Fi Network. Step 1: Boot into BackTrack, Step 2: Install Reaver, Step 3: Gather the Router's information, and Step 4: Crack the WPA password to the Wi-Fi Network. Now I will explain how you can protect against Reaver attacks. Since the vulnerability lies in the implementation of WPS, your network should be safe if you can simply turn off WPS (or, even better, if your router doesn't support it in the first place), however Reaver may still be able to crack your password, even with WPS manually turned off. You could also set up MAC address filtering on your router (which only allows specifically whitelisted devices to connect to your network), but a sufficiently savvy hacker could detect the MAC address of a whitelisted device and use MAC address spoofing to imitate that computer. The good news is that there is a way to surely protect against Reaver. You can get the open-source router firmware DD-WRT installed on your router. Reaver has been tested on routers with this firmware and it was not able to crack the password. As it turns out, DD-WRT does not support WPS, so there's yet another reason to love the free router-booster.

Through the innovation of technology, with faster CPUs, GPUs and RAM comes one problem. Heat. A lot of it. Due to this, water cooling came into play allowing heat to be pulled away from components faster and more efficiently than ever. This allowed enthusiasts to get the most out of their hardware through overclocking. Kingston decided to take it even one step further with their HyperX H2O RAM. This 2133Mhz DDR3 stick of RAM runs much cooler than it's air cooled competitors and is one of the first of its kind, allowing overclocks to get a greater performance boost that ever. And, it just looks plain awesome. Personally, no matter how much of a PC enthusiast I am i would not install this in my Personal Computer as this technology is not perfected yet. For a little more cost, not including a water cooling loop, you can get a stick of RAM with not only more memory, but with a greater base clock than even this hyperX H2O at it's finest can't overcome, without the hassle of leaks, and the extra cost of installation due to piping and radiators.

This article is about Google Fiber which is a new type of internet that uses an optic fiber cable to deliver Internet at the incredible speeds of a gigabit. The Internet that is available now in Canada is only up to about 500 megabit speed, and Google Fiber is about double the speed, at a lower cost, in comparison to Rogers or Bell. The article explains how the Fiber Internet is spreading to cities of the United States, such as Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah. There is a lot to be done on installing this Internet in the cities, and it will take a lot of time, but in the end it will be worth it, as it increases the poor quality Internet Services that are available now in North America. In my opinion, Google Fiber should start making its way into the new developing cities of Canada, such as Vaughan, or Richmond Hill because it will be easier to install since the infrastructure is not finalized.

There have been over thousands of Apps that are made all over the world.  Today, technology is getting faster and faster each and everyday.  But have you thought back on the apps that were once use everyday? According to this article, Google Goggles, My Tracks, Bump and many more.  My tracks is a GPS for your cellphone where you are able to track where you go while you are biking or running.  This app will help you find your way back home or anywhere you are leaving.  Bump used to be one of the firsts apps that was able to blew people's minds.  If you have two smartphones with Bump installed, you can instantly share contact information. Nowadays, the app Bump is automatically installed in the SG3 phone. There are many apps that were mentioned in this article that has been useful in the past few years. Many phones that are being released or has been already, have most of these apps already installed onto their phone without knowing.

Online services such as cloud may be convenient, but there is always a risk of such services that your locally installed software won't. Unfortunately, what could happen is that your cloud service could abandon you at any moment. OfficeDrop users were facing just about the same scenario. After receiving a notice that last Friday that the online service of OfficeDrop stopped its service on May 5. This left collaboration and service no longer available to its users. Many people have come to depend on OfficeDrop to store and share your files in the cloud. Unfortunately, OfficeDrop is not longer able to offer OfficeDrop as a standalone service anymore and also discontinued it permanently as of May 5th, 2013. OfficeDrop as a company did not go away, just the service to its users. OfficeDrop signed an agreement to sell OfficeDrop to another Cloud Storage player. Also, the acquirer has decided to not continue offering the OfficeDrop service and instead will combine the product, technology and team with theirs and market it through their channels. According to the notice sent to OfficeDrop users, billing for OfficeDrop has stopped, and refunds are being issues when applicable. The notice urges all files be downloaded as soon as possible, because they will be securely and permanently deleted as of May 6th, 2013. This is a negative impact when you use the cloud.

New York City has decided on replacing most of their pay phones with 32 inch touchscreen phones. These phones would be used for anything like Skype and other video services, email, wi-fi access, and *11 numbers. Most people don't know how to react to this change. Tourists would find it very helpful, but regular pay phone users would be very confused. Something that they had been used to using for so many years would now be replaced by something more high-tech. Also, many people in nyc have smartphones, so they wouldn't have any use for them. If anything, one could say that this new installation would be more for the tourists than the residents of the city.

This article talks about new gesture that could be used in addition to finger touch in order to have more options easily and launch new apps using your knuckle, fingertip, fingernail and more. A trio of Ph.D. students at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh managed to modify a Samsung Galaxy SIII to accept input from all three different touch variations, and tell the difference between them. It accomplishes this with the help of a vibration sensor and software that listens for the acoustic differences that come with the different types of touches. A man named Harrison has already started a company called Qeexo to start selling this tech. This vibration sensor can easily be added to any smartphone's "guts" and the software added too.   This article has a lot to do with portable computing because different companies are always coming up with new innovative ways to make smart phones more "smart". This is one of those things that a new company called Qeexo is doing. They are looking to improve the options and speed of using a smartphone for example instead of opening up a note pad by going into the menu and clicking it with your finger, you can use the "shortcut" of taping your knuckle twice to open it. This can also be used in gaming, option menus etc.  The main point is that companies are always changing making technology much more natural and easy to use. I think that this is a very good idea and over time if people hear about this depending on how much this would cost to upgrade it may become big and even become a pre-installed feature. 

As if 3D printing wasn't impressive enough. A unnamed man in the US successfully had 75 percent of his skull replaced using just a 3D printer. The printer printed out an implant, which the company (Oxford Performance Materials) was granted permission to install within the patients skull. Also stated was that the implant has special indent and features that allows and promotes brain growth within the patient. The potential of 3D printing is extremely high. The company has said that they can now print out implants to fix any type of bone damage, whether it be from disease or trauma. The company also says that 500 people in the US a month could use this technology to fix any injuries. 3D printing is the future of the medical field, and I wouldn't be surprised if some day we could 3D print organs.  3D printing is talked about a lot in Mr. Fabroa's class, but I believe that it deserves all the coverage it gets. It truly is the future of the technological world.

A recent study indicates that more people in the world have cell phones than toilets. According to a national report, 6 out of 7 billion people on the Earth have cell phones, compared to the 4.5 billion who have access to a functional toilet. Cell phones are in no way a bad thing, the major concern here is the shockingly low number of toilets. The study shows that those in countries without proper sanitation lose about 4500 children a day, just because they lack proper cleanliness. The shortage of latrines makes disease spread quite easily, and it is shown that the countries with the most poverty have a direct correlation to the countries which lack proper bathrooms. Bill Gates and the UN have been working to make a toilet that can easily be installed and maintaining in a developing country, and hopefully these findings will decrease the amount of death and poverty in these third world countries. Although the article compares two completely different things (cell phones and toilets), it does well at shining a light on things we take for granted in our lives. It's great that cell phones are everywhere, it allows anyone anywhere to have access to information from around the world. However, the priorities need to be straitened out; toilets are way more important than iPhones.

I was going to do that article D:

Matthew doesn't have toilets in his house.

This article is about a new company chosen by FIFA called GoalControl. This company's goal is to clarify goals and prevent incorrect judging of offside rules.This company plans to use cameras to capture the goals so that an assistant coach won't be relied on. Their camera and software system, will be used to judge goal line decisions at this summer's Confederations Cup in Brazil and,maybe next year's World Cup. GoalControl's system involves 14 cameras with seven trained on each goal. In Brazil, the cameras will be attached to the catwalks beneath each stadium's lights and will constantly take full frame,color pictures( 500 per minute) to determine the ball's location at every point in the game. Computers will continually scan the images, and when the ball is seen to have crossed the goal line, a signal will be sent to the referee's watch causing it to vibrate and alert him that a goal should be awarded.GoalControl will cost roughly $260,000 per stadium to install in Brazil. This new technology is positive influence to the soccer world. It will provide teams with their rightful goals and prevent confusion and false calls. It will also be more accurate since assistant referees and referees will not have to determine the situation, but can refer back to the tapings. This new technology is also a negative influence because two different referees may interpret the tapings differently causing more confusion.

Earlier today, Twitter announced  a brand new update for it's searching features for the web and smartphones including Android and IOS. This new update adds a search button to the Iphone making it up to speed with Androids and any form of a tablet. Also, this update improves search results for photos, tweets and twitter accounts. Secondly, the connect tab automatically defaults to interactions which will display new followers, mentions as well as re tweets. Lastly, which is probably the most favourite new addition, is a change in Twitters mobile implementations handle links. Meaning, you can now click a URL directly from your twitter timeline without having to open a related tweet. This is the new twitter search update that was released earlier today. Make sure to install this update and the mobile site is already sporting the latest updates, but you will need to update your IOS or Android smartphone at their respective store.

In this article, the global state of the current smart device market is addressed with its top two consumers being the U.S. and China. As of February 18, 2013, China has officially surpassed the U.S. in its number of active iOs and Android devices, a year after being named the fastest-growing smart device market in the world. According to estimations, China will have a 16M lead in smart devices installed on the U.S. by the end of February and their market will continue growing exponentially putting them far ahead of any other country. China's purchases in the smart device business, makes them an important group of interest for smart device companies such as Samsung and Apple, and the choices of the people will have a great impact upon the market. Especially in the competition between iOs and Android devices. In recent studies, the Android has nearly 75% of sales in China. This is not very comforting for the iOS since it might fall behind in competition due to consumer behavior in China's economy.

This article is about the Playstation 4.  It Lists the new technology added to the Playstation 4, such as its new graphics card, the new RAM, and  the new GPU.  It also talks about some of the new features such as the new "suspend mode", in which you basically put the gaming console into a "sleep-mode", in which it cuts out the start up sequences, and takes you directly to the game. Also, you now have the option to connect your PSN to your facebook.  Playstation has changed and updated their console very much from the previous installments, and because of this, Sony will have a distinct advantage in the upcoming console race that will come later this year.

Interesting. Very interesting. Not.

This new tab syncing feature that google provides, allows the user coordinate the tabs between their mobile device and home laptop/desktop. This relates to Portable Computing because you are able to access tabs on your home computer through a mobile device while outside. This could also connect to the Privacy and Security tag because if someone has access your devices they are able to change your info or documents. This is extremely helpful during your day to day lifestyle since a large portion of the population uses mobile devices. The positive aspect would be that you're able to  continue work. The negative aspect could be that an outside source could access your info. With an Android phone with the new Chrome beta installed, you have the power of  being able to access any open tab any on your desktop from any location.

More than 650,000 Mac computers were infected with a nasty Trojan horse called "Flashback" The virus was disguise as an Adobe Flash Player installer, using Flash Player logo.

This is all about the followup release of PS Vita's v1.65 firmware update. This new Version 1.66 brings with it a few UI tweaks, including tidbits such as the addition of a progress bar during app installs, notification alerts now only popping up for three seconds, plus the option to tap Retry / Cancel when running into troubles during location search. Games like Unit 13 and Gravity daze will also see "functional improvements", while the near apps is getting a direct link to the  PlayStation Store to make it easier and faster to update or to download.

This article talks about Internet Explorers recent up-rise in the market. Over the past several years, Internet Explorer faced a massive decline in their marketing, because of safari, chrome and firefox. Now Internet Explorer, once again is increasing. This is relevant because it tells users that Internet Explorer may be reliable and it as  at easy access due to it already being installed on your computer.