reader

PDF files under attack

On Monday, Adobe released a patch for versions 8.1 and earlier of its Acrobat and Acrobat Reader. This patch affects Windows XP SP2 with IE7 and Adobe Reader 7 through 8.1 and addresses the flaws cited in CVE-2007-5020. If exploited, a criminal hacker could launch malicious code on an affected system.

Security researcher Petko D. Petkov first blogged about the vulnerablity in September and predicted that shortly after the patch's release there would be a flood of proof-of-concept exploits on the Internet. He was right. Because of the extremely high risk, Adobe is encouraging everyone to install … Read more

Google Calendar to get Gears support?

Google Calendar could be the latest Google service to get the much-hallowed Gears treatment--Google's offline site viewing extension for Firefox and Internet Explorer. Earlier this morning, a post by Andy Beal on the Marketing Pilgrim caused a stir when he noted that he got a Google Gears security access request while logging into Google Calendar. Despite the pop-up, there was no offline functionality added to the service, or screenshots for proof.

Since publishing the post, Google has officially responded to Beal, stating that there are no specific announcements for any services that will end up with Gears functionality or … Read more

The Gizmo Report: Sony's PRS-505 Portable Reader System (part 2, software)

Before I finish my review of the new Sony PRS-505 Reader (you should probably read part 1 first, here), I wanted to mention that Sony itself has a corporate blog, hosted by corporate-communications manager Rick Clancy.

Clancy apparently has permission to stray slightly off-message, and a recent result of this permissive policy was a funny blog entry about an ill-conceived marketing slogan for the Reader: "Sexier than a librarian." Explaining the slogan, Clancy said:

Please be assured that this was a tongue and cheek effort on our part, playing off a certain stereotype or a fantasy, depending on … Read more

Doppler radar detects speeding hearts

The Army has turned to a Honolulu company for Doppler radar and advanced algorithm technology to be able to detect and monitor multiple subjects based on their heart rate, even through walls.

This means that soldiers will be able to detect someone hiding in a room before the door is kicked in, the company claims, and medics will be able to remotely perform triage and diagnoses or monitor casualties right through their flack jackets. It may also have homeland security and interrogation applications by allowing personnel to screen and identify individuals who may merit the third degree based on a … Read more

Better Gmail gets even better

If you're tired of waiting for Google to make some much-needed improvements to Gmail, Better Gmail has been adding useful functionality to the e-mail client since earlier this year. An update earlier this month finally gave Gmail what users have been clamoring for: integration with Google Reader.

Written by Lifehacker editor Gina Trapani, the extension is basically a collection of her favorite Greasemonkey scripts. It does more than just slap your feeds onto the bottom of your in-box, though. It adds a Collapse/Expand Gmail link to the top-left nav, just under the Compose link. This hides your e-mail and pulls the Reader up to the top, and swtiches to Expand when the in-box is hidden. It also adds a control panel to central left nav for managing your feeds, a neat work-around so that you can collapse the Reader's built-in navigation. The Reader pane is collapsible, too, so you can hide the perpetual distraction of feeds from the perpetual distraction of e-mail.

… Read more

Mippin does socialized mobile content feeds

If you're looking for another way to read Web content on your mobile phone, there's a new solution called Mippin that will let you browse and sort through popular Web feeds about as easily as you can using a desktop RSS browser. The service was created to tackle the problem of so many sites not offering a "mobile" version for cell phone users.

Mippin serves a variety of feeds, which can be browsed and sorted by genre. You can also search by URL, and the service will do its best to convert the content into something … Read more

The Gizmo Report: Sony's PRS-505 Portable Reader System (part 1, hardware)

Well, the new Sony PRS-505 Reader I ordered last week arrived today, quite promptly, even with the optional engraving.

Here it is. (I blurred out the email address I provided; it doesn't get any spam, and I want it to stay that way.) The screen is showing the only complete book Sony provides with it-- a public domain "classic" that I haven't yet read, and probably never will. The PRS-500 came with a few complete ebooks plus a lot of excerpts. Apart from Wuthering Heights, the PRS-505 is preloaded only with excerpts.

But that's no … Read more

FriendFeed does the Facebook feed minus Facebook

Facebook has several layers of functionality that make it worth using, but my favorite is the once-controversial news feed. Why? I simply don't have time to check each of my friend's profiles for what's new, and the feed does a pretty great job at that without all the legwork or annoying e-mail notifications. FriendFeed is a new service that takes the idea of a news feed and extends it beyond the social network into other social services you're a part of. There are more than 20 to pick and choose from, including social news services like … Read more

Hoping for the best from Sony's updated Reader

This week, Sony introduced the new PRS-505 Reader for ebooks. I've already ordered one to replace my PRS-500, which I used a lot before it broke not long ago.

Update: my PRS-505 has arrived. The review, in two parts, begins here.

That's my old Reader there. The damage was internal, somehow. I have no idea what went wrong. I didn't sit on it or anything like that. I just turned it on one day and that band on the left side of the screen showed up. You can see that the band doesn't extend to the … Read more