Students at the Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany, say they have found a way to steal security tokens in Microsoft’s new CardSpace authentication framework. Attackers can apparently get access to protected, encrypted user data – such as passwords, credit card numbers, and delivery addresses – when they are transmitted. CardSpace (formerly InfoCard) is the successor to Passport. In both architectures, users’ personal data are stored locally on the user’s system.
Depending on the web site, users can decide which data they want to transmit. CardSpace is designed to make classic passwords a thing of the past, by replacing them with digital certificates that may be self-signed or signed by an authoritative CA such as Verisign.

Link: heise.de

Set a Guinness World Record, enjoy a better web. It’s the goal of the Spread Firefox group when Firefox 3 goes final this summer.
“Sounds like a good deal, right? All you have to do is get Firefox 3 during Download Day to help set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours - it’s that easy. We’re not asking you to swallow a sword or to balance 30 spoons on your face, although that would be kind of awesome,” the site says.
This will take approximately a week after the attempt date to know if the record was broken. Judges from Spread Firefox and Guinness World Records will need to review download logs and validate the record attempt. This is the first record attempt of its kind so there is no set number to beat, although the group looks to the number of Firefox 2 downloads on its launch day, which was 1.6 million. 5 million seems to be their target for Firefox 3.
One of the biggest hurdles faced is the fact that a “download” is the transmission of the entire, fully functioning Firefox 3 — not just an update.
The official release date for Firefox 3 has not been announced yet, however, Spread Firefox claims to be posting on their site “soon.”

View: Download Day 2008

Some of you with a sharp eye might have noticed something very interesting on-screen during the Windows 7 multi-touch demonstration at the D6 conference yesterday. If you did, you might be curious to understand what you saw. If you didn’t, read on anyway. Update: The new taskbar is superficially called the “Superbar”.

Picture credit: Gizmodo

The picture above comes from the video feed of Julie Larson Green’s (Vice President of Windows Experience Program Management) demo of the multi-touch picture browser demo app. The quality is a little rough, but you can easily notice a few things that are different.

The first being the taskbar is higher than usual, but not as big as double-height. If I were to guess, I’d say its somewhere around 1.75x-high. In the left corner, the Windows orb remains wedged “on top” of the taskbar - sticking its head out a little - instead of in the center like it is today in Vista.

The taskbar also appears ‘divided’ into sections by variations in the color (dark, gray, lighter) to indicate the different areas. Speaking of which, if you look at the far right corner, you’d notice that the tray (icons & clock) is not touching the edge of the screen, and there’s a small lighter gap. I have no explanation for this, but is well worth keeping an eye on.

A double-height taskbar in Windows Vista

Keeping the focus on the right, the tray is also different. The icons sit in the middle of the taskbar, instead of wrapping in two-lines like it does today, whilst the date now wraps on two lines instead of three. This clearly indicates this taskbar cannot accommodate three lines of text.

Most obviously the quick launch icons are now larger in size, but the icon besides it is not a quick launch icon instead an application. I’ve been told this particular Windows 7 build has rendering issues which is why there’s no label or text next to the icon, but there should have been. At the same time, the icon also should have been a smaller version of the “Live Preview” thumbnails you see when you hover over applications in the taskbar today. That would have been pretty sweet. Apparently that feature has been canned .

Now you would probably be wondering why I just spent so much effort writing about a taskbar, and the answer is because this is what Windows 7 is about. They’re going to take existing interface elements like the taskbar and give them a new coat of paint with some sparkles. Different enough so you notice them, like Walt Mossberg did.

During the demonstration (5:25) Walt asks “I can’t help noticing that the taskbar doesn’t look like the taskbar?” Julie responds with, “It’s something we’re working on Windows 7 and I’m not suppose to talk about it now today.” Shutdown.

Source: www.liveside.net

Earlier this month, Facebook announced “Facebook Connect”, which would allow you to sync Facebook accounts with other websites, such as Digg. With these developments came hinting that social networking was in for a change. Facebook has plans to veer away from being a normal standalone site.
Facebook hopes to bring it’s application platform into open-source. Many other social networking websites are using “OpenSocial”, a platform that any social networking site can use. Facebook has been one of the only networking websites that have disregarded open source.
But the question remains, especially given the scant detail of the latest rumor, about whether “open source” means truly open source or some variety of “extensible.” Facebook has been redefining a whole lot of what we think about the Web, so this may be no exception.

View: The Full Story @ news.com

After yesterdays announcements Microsoft finally demonstrated Windows 7 in public yesterday.
Microsoft has been investing in many forms of natural input to enable users to interact with the PC and their devices using touch. Last year at the All Things Digital conference Bill Gates introduced Microsoft’s surface computer. This year Julie Larson-Green (VP, Windows Experience Program Management), who was responsible for the innovative Office 2007 design, demonstrated the multi-touch innovations first previewed in Surface that will ultimately play a part of the next version of Windows.
Could this now be the start of Microsoft slowly revealing more information over the coming months until their grand double of PDC/WinHEC in November?

Video: >> Click here <<

View: Full Demo Transcript

The European Commission has set a target for 25 per cent of the continent’s businesses, authorities and homes to adopt IPv6 – the next generation internet protocol - by 2010. The previous protocol, IPv4, has been in use since 1984 and supports a total of 4.3 billion web addresses. But only 16 per cent of these are still available for the creation of new connections – a situation that could potentially curb the growth of the web.
The new protocol will remove this problem by making available a near-infinite selection of new addresses. The transition will take time, but such a move is essential for Europe to make the most of next-generation technology, said Viviane Reding, European commissioner for information society and media. “In the short term, businesses and public authorities might be tempted to try to squeeze their needs into the straitjacket of the old system, but this would mean Europe is badly placed to take advantage of the latest internet technology, and could face a crisis when the old system runs out of addresses,” she said.

View: The full story @ vnunet

A very tired little birdie who flew all the way from Seattle to Australia has chirped to me Windows 7 will be publically disclosed for the first time at the D6: All Things Digital Conference hosted by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher next week on May 27. The same conference where last year Bill Gates and Steve Jobs made a historical appearance together on-stage interviewed by Walt and Kara.
Whilst my chirp-to-English translation is a little flaky, it makes sense because the D Conference has been used in the past for Microsoft to make rather grand announcements such as the introduction of the Surface computer. This time round, both Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer will appear together at the keynote so it’s a perfect opportunity to talk about the future of the company.
In addition to just discussing their ideas and vision, it’s rumored the event will actually involve a demonstration of Windows 7 in some fashion. Whether or not we’ll actually see a live build of Windows 7 or purely a technology demo of a specific feature remains a mystery, but it’s sure exciting.

News Source: i started something

A recently published patent application discovered by MacRumors reveals that Apple is investigating the use of solar power in versions of their mobile devices — both handheld devices and portable computers. Integrating solar power into a mobile device holds the enormous potential of extending battery life significantly. However, successfully integrating solar panels into these small devices is not without its challenges.
The major issues described are the limited area available to solar panels, durability, and the “wasting” of space on a portable device. It is due to these problems that solar power has not found its way into mobile devices, not just from Apple, but from all manufacturers.
The most interesting technique described by Apple, however, is the integration of the solar panels behind the actual LCD screen of a portable device. The solar panel would absorb ambient light that passes through the LCD screen of the device. This could eliminate any additional footprint typically required by the solar panels. If successfully implemented, Apple’s iPhone, iPod and laptops, could require no outward changes in design to add solar power.

View: Mac Rumors Article

Consistent with our efforts to promote further interoperability across the Web, Microsoft will be releasing Internet Explorer 8 to render content in its most standards-compliant way by default. Giving top priority to Web standards interoperability allows us to help web developers and designers drive toward the ideal of “write once, run anywhere”, freeing up more time to innovate rather than modify content for different browsers. This commitment also addresses several development and design pain points from previous Internet Explorer releases.
However, browsing with this default setting may cause content written for previous versions of Internet Explorer to display differently than intended. This creates a call to action for site owners to ensure their content will continue to display seamlessly in Internet Explorer 8. As such, we have provided a meta-tag usable on a per-page or per-site level to maintain backwards compatibility with Internet Explorer 7. Adding this tag instructs Internet Explorer 8 to render content like it did in Internet Explorer 7, without requiring any additional changes.
We are encouraging site administrators to get their sites ready now for broad adoption of Internet Explorer 8, as there will be a beta release in the third quarter of this year targeted for all consumers. To learn more and get started, please follow the step-by-step instructions located at KB952030

Link: MSDN Blogs.

ImportGenius, a search engine that gathers “competitive intelligence” by monitoring U.S. Customs records of ocean containers entering American ports, reported on Friday that they’ve spotted a “major spike” since mid-March in ocean containers received by Apple marked with a mysterious new label: “electric computers”
“They have never before reported this product on their customs declarations,” says ImportGenius managing director Ryan Peterson, who notes that there has been no corresponding falloff during this period of shipments labeled “desktop computers” or any of the other labels Apple usually uses.
“The fact that they are importing millions of units, combined with dwindling stocks of the first generation of iPhones,” persuades Peterson that these “electric computers” are, in fact, the 3G iPhones Apple is expected to release in a matter of weeks. He makes a strong case, citing records of a total of 188 ocean containers shipped to Apple from two trusted Asian suppliers, Hon Hai Precision Corp. and Quanta Computer.

View: CNNMoney