Samsung Nexus Two details surface

Crude details of heavily anticipated Samsung Nexus Two (rumored name) have surfaced online. Gizmodo reported about a source who claimed to have got hands on to the next major smartphone Nexus Two smartphone. Nexus Two isn't going to be the official name of Samsung's Android device due on Nov 8. That name is being used just because the phone is believed to be a successor of Nexus One. On Nov 8, all eyes would be set on this smartphone build Samsung and will run Google's Android 2.3 Gingerbread update. 

As per Gizmodo s Nexus Two will have a full touchscreen form factor with black, shiny glossy plastic with a curved back. It comes with front facing camera and the stock Android 2.3 Gingerbread might bring video chat feature built-in. Google engineers have been working to get video chat activated on Android. 

Taylor Kimberly, blogger at AndroidandMe blog has compiled a set of specifications that possibly would constitute as the Nexus Two s internal features. Checkout the list of specifications compiled for Nexus Two smartphone.

- Stock Google Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)- 1.2 GHz processor (mostly overclocked Hummingbird or may be different model)
- 4 inch AMOLED display (Could be Super-AMOLED version)
- 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and HD video capture, front-facing camera 
- 512 MB RAM, 16 GB internal storage
- Support for multiple carriers     
- All the usuals like WiFi, Bluetooth, 3.5 mm headset jack, etc.
- Outer casing is a mix of metal and plastic materials

Based on the above specifications, it seems like Google and Samsung have been working on one of the best Android phone available today. Why Google chose Samsung? Simple, Samsung makes the CPU and GPU chips used in majority of smartphones available today. Also the Galaxy S smartphone has proven to be one of the best high-end Android-based smartphones available today. But there's no information on whether Nexus Two will carry flash or will it be dropped just like in Galaxy S. Nexus Two would be offered by several mobile operators and won't be exclusive to just one like Sprint had bagged Evo 4G.

Purported Nexus Two is a better and powerful iteration of Nexus One smartphone with 4-inch screen and 1.2GHz microprocessor. Though both the sources state that the details are confirmed, we d still term them as speculations until we see actual listing or specification details. That s because at times, the actual unit carries different specifications.

We ve got to hold our procrastinating speculative horses just for a week. 

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Android 2.1 for Xperia X10 family due tomorrow

Finally, Sony Ericsson has announced to release Google Android 2.1 Eclair update for its Xperia X10 family handsets. Tomorrow on Sunday, the Android 2.1 update would start rolling out phase wise for Xperia X10, X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro. But still there s no guarantee that all Xperia X10 family handset owners will get the update immediately. Only the non-branded Xperia X10 series handsets will get notification for Android 2.1 update.

Last month we reported about Sony Ericsson fixing last minute issues in the Xperia X10 series range through Android 2.1 update. Now since the update is due on Sunday, not all Xperia X10 series handsets owners would receive update notifications.

Richard Skogberg at Sony Ericsson Product blog noted that generic kits for the Nordic countries would be pushed out tomorrow evening European time. More kits would be rolled out on Monday and then the roll out has been spread out for next month - Nov. 
The key changes coming with Android 2.1 update are:

Xperia X10:
- HD video recording with continuous auto-focus for high quality videos
- Upgrade of the Android platform to Android 2.1
- New back up and restore application, with extended content back up
- 5 homescreens for apps, widgets, shortcuts and folders
- Social phonebook which automatically syncs contact pictures from Facebook and shows when your friends are online

Xperia X10 mini and X10 mini pro:
- Improved Bluetooth functionality with support for sending and receiving pictures, contacts and more
- New backup and restore application with extended content back up
- Automatic synchronization of your contact pictures between Facebook and your phone book
- Improved ways of handling pictures, audio, text and numbers in your messages

Generic unbranded Xperia X10, X10 Mini or X10 Mini Pro handset owners will get notification of Android 2.1 update which can be downloaded Over-the-Air using Wi-Fi or mobile GPRS. Alternatively, users can also take help of PC Companion software to download and install the Android 2.1 update on their Xperia X10 series phone. We d suggest you to download via PC Companion software to be on safer side. 

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160by2.com Launches Free SMS App for iPhone

Popular free SMS website 160by2.com has launched its very own iPhone app. Their website allowed people to send SMSs from their website via the computer or the mobile phone (via a mobile-optimized site). The app will allow direct access to sending free SMSs across borders, and within too. Another advantage of using the app over the mobile site is that you can select contacts from the ones stored in the phone directly. It works only in a few countries at the moment; namely U.S., UK, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. All these countries can send SMSs free to cell-phones in India. 

iPhone users in India can also send free SMSs to anybody in India. The funny thing is that it isn't clear whether Indian users can send free texts to other countries. This service is ad-based, so 80 characters from the typical 160 in a single SMS are available for you to type. The rest 80 are given to advertisers to append contextual ads afterwards. The International SMS facility sounds lucrative to people residing abroad and wanting to communicate with the people of India. But with local SMSs, most post-paid operators these days have lucrative plans that have a couple of hundred SMSs free. Some even have an absurd 15,000 SMS per month limit. So, I really wonder if many people will be keen on using this app on a day-to-day basis for sending local SMSs.

The service does have its share of cons; other than the ads after every message you send, the message sender name is 160by2.com. So, the receiver cannot quickly hit reply - one would have to create a new message. So, do you think this app is worth keeping in your iPhone? Download it from here and let us know.

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Mobile Number Portability from Nov. 1

Finally the long wait will come to an end next month. Yes, the Mobile Number Portability would be made available from Nov 1 onwards said Indian Telecom Minister A. Raja reported The Hindu. After the recent announcement of 3G services by the mobile operators, the Mobile Number Portability's arrival surely promises pleasant days ahead. 

A. Raja, Telecom Minister for India, said, "November 1 onwards MNP would be operational partially... We wanted to inaugurate it in Haryana."

Mobile Number Portability facility will let mobile phone subscribers to retain their ten digit phone numbers if they wish to go for different or any mobile operator's service. For instance, if you are Airtel subscriber, then you can retain your number after applying for MNP and change to any other cellular service you want. 

Under the MNP process, users will have to apply for number portability and pay nominal fees to retain their ten digit phone number. Licences have been given to Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions, a 74:26 joint venture between U.S.-based Telcordia and Deepak Talwar Consultants, to implement MNP in India.

Mobile Number Portability will be rolled out in phases in different regions. Stay tuned for more updates on the MNP facility rollout and other details. 

We've noted that few mobile operators have started requesting documents for re-verification and identification. This is applicable to all mobile phone owners who've bought GSM or CDMA connection before Jan 1 this year. 

Several consumers have started receiving emails to send across their document copies again. Here's the snippet from the email:

Dear Customer,

In view of the current law and order environment, the Government of India has advised us to update/re-verify the identities and addresses of our customers who have taken their mobile connections before 1st January 2010 (Please refer to ad released in Times of India on 16th September 2010). Therefore, we request you to submit your recent verification documents at any of the document collection centres within next 3 days.

We value our relationship and your prompt response will allow us to continue with the same without disruption.

In case, if we do not get your documents in next 3 days, we will be bound to suspend your service till proper documents are received.

We'd like to apologize and say that pleasant days of using mobile connection aren't here just yet. We're sure many would have to under go loads of issues related to document re-submissions. However, the three day deadline is way too short. What are you thoughts on this move by mobile operators? Do let us know in the comments section below.

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Games For Windows Marketplace Relaunch Next Month

From being a mere platform for games that feature Microsoft's Games for Windows branding, the giant from Redmond has decided to relaunch Games For Windows Marketplace. But this time, the marketplace will feature more titles, even the ones that do not feature the branding, which should make it relevant.

The product manager for Windows Marketplace confirmed the same in a statement to Engadget, "The store is really going to be a destination for games for PC gamers. Sure, we're going to have Live-enabled titles, and we love those, but that's not all you'll find here."

The marketplace will be seamlessly integrated with the existing Xbox LIVE and Windows Live services, and will feature a library of over 1,000 games to begin with. The store will allow game access from the Internet, discounted games and allow you to find games title, genre or publisher. Pretty much like Steam; that is if Microsoft gets it right this time. 

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FarmVille out on Apple iPad

Habitual farmers now need not rue the absence of Zynga's wildly popular FarmVille on the iPad, because it's out now for free on Apple's app store. This port to iPad comes after the release for the iPhone platform in June this year, where it was very successful. Even that would work on the iPad but this version is HD and customized to be played on the iPad.

The gameplay is the same as it is on the Facebook as well as the iPhone version, albeit with a touch interface tailored for the iPad. According to Zynga, push notifications will be used to alert farmers to the health of their crops.

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Garmin-Asus launches A10 Smartphone

Garmin-Asus has launched the Garmin-Asus A10 in the Indian market. The A10 is powered by the Android 2.1 OS, using a 3.2-inch capacitive screen capable of multi-touch. Other features are pretty much standard smartphone fare with 5 megapixel auto-focus camera, 4GB storage in addition to 512MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM for storing often accessed files. A 1500mAh battery is claimed to deliver a long battery life.

It features Garmin's proprietary car and pedestrian navigation technology, making it easy to navigate the city and utilize the built-in Point of Interest (POI) database to scope out movie show times, public transport information, shops and establishments, in addition to real-time information on weather, gas prices, and parking lot availability among other things. These services are integrated into A10's customised "click and go" function.

The navigation aspect is foolproof because the smartphone comes preinstalled with requisite maps, so users don't have to put up with the time and money spend downloading the same from third-party sources. Although, with the municipal corporations reformatting our topography with an alarming regularity, one can only hope the maps are up to date. The phone will retail in major metros at Rs 18,990.

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White iPhone 4 gets spotted in New York

The elusive white iPhone 4 that a lot of people are waiting for has been spotted in New York. The guys over at Pocket-lint caught hold of a guy who was seen carrying around a white iPhone 4, which at the moment, is as rare as spotting a penguin in Africa. 

Turns out the guy managed to get hold of his white iPhone 4 through someone who obviously has good contacts with the people at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino (or presumably works there himself) and as it turns out there are a lot more where that came from.

The reason, according to the person who owns the said iPhone, why you cannot just walk into an Apple Store and buy a white iPhone 4 for yourself is because Apple is having problems matching the shade of the white colored parts from its two suppliers. We are talking about the Home button and the front panel of the phone.

So that's apparently the reason for the MIA status of the white iPhone 4. It's because Apple wants to make sure you get the same, uniform shade of white across the device. While that's awfully nice of them, we are assuming most people probably won't care less if the home button is slightly darker or lighter than the rest of the phone, that is if they spot that it looks different in the first place. 

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Now, Use Your Phone Once Your Plane Lands

The country's air safety regulator, The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has issued a fresh directive allowing passengers to use their mobile phones after the plane has landed, provided it's clear of any active runway.

The statement by the regulatory authority reads, "The DGCA has amended the Rule 29B of Aircraft Rules to provide for the use of the cellular phones by passengers after the aircraft has landed and cleared the active runway, except in cases when low visibility conditions exist at the airport."

This essentially means mobile phone usage is acceptable when the aircraft's dependence on electronic aids is non critical; that is post landing and in clear visibility conditions. This is a prudent move on DGCA's part, because the sole purpose of the ban was to prevent any cell phone interference with critical electronic components and guidance systems within the planes. The new operating procedure should be in place before October 22.

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Zyxel Releases Wireless N Access Point

Taiwan based Zyxel Communications has introduced WAP 3205 wireless N compatible access point. The 802.11n standard offers enhanced speeds of 300 Mbps and enhanced range over the existing B & G standards. This makes it ideal for those seeking to stream high bandwidth HD video content over the network. Besides its primary function as an access point, it can be deployed for multiple roles like universal repeater, WLAN bridge, WDS repeater and as a Wi-Fi client.

Other features include a one touch WPS button for easy wireless security setup, mac address filtering and support for WEP, WPA and the latest WPA2 encryption standards. It also allows flexible network infrastructure setup with multiple SSID support, using which WAP 3205 can allow different groups of users to access different networks at the same time. It is available now for Rs. 6,771. Here's a full list of specifications:

• 802.11n enabled with data transfer rate of up to 300 Mbps
• Backward compatibility with the 802.11b/g standard
• Easy to extend the wireless network coverage with repeater modes
• Multiple SSID for separating access privileges
• WPS button for quick and easy wireless security setup
• Secure wireless communications with wep/wpa/wpa2
• Wi-Fi protected set up increase the flexibility and efficiency of the network infrastructure

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TWEETMYPC – CONTROL YOUR PC WITH TWITTER

TweetMyPC is a small application for  Windows written in VB.net using . Net Framework, which enables you to manage and access your computer from any remote location with just a message to twitter with a special command.

Supported Commands for TweetMyPC version 3:

• shutdown – Shutdown your computer
• restart – Restart
• hibernate – The put in Hibernation Mode
• lock – blocks the pc, but leaves the listener of new tweets
• download – You can enter a video or file to be downloaded

And many more commands a very long list check it out here. And the most interesting thing is that you can create your own commands with parameters above if you fall short of the long list.

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Facebook Password Will Self-Destruct in 20 Minutes

Facebook has unveiled new measures to keep members secure when they log into its site.

One is a temporary password; another is letting people sign out of Facebook remotely. Finally, it will also now regularly prompt members to update their security information.

"Our new features are aimed at protecting people who log in from devices they don't own as well as helping people who lose access to an account get it back quickly," Facebook spokesperson Simon Axten told TechNewsWorld.

How the Temp Password Works

Facebook members must have first listed a mobile phone number in their account information if they want to use the temporary password feature, wrote Jake Brill, a Facebook product manager.

Then, if they're unsure about the security of the computer they're using -- at an airport, Internet cafe or hotel, for example -- they just have to text the string "otp" to the number 32665 from their mobile phones.

Facebook will ping back a password that can be used only once. This password expires in 20 minutes. It can be used instead of the member's regular password.

Facebook is rolling out this feature gradually, and it will be available to all its members in the next few weeks, Brill wrote.

Looking at Temp Password Protection

Students who use library computers or PCs in a computer room in school, and travelers who use PCs at cyber cafes and at hotels, are likely to need the temporary password protection, Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld.

The temporary password will protect users against key-logging malware that's common on PCs that are for public use, Enderle pointed out. "Key-logging malware captures IDs and passwords, and using temporary passwords means the password captured won't work for the thief," he explained.

"The biggest risk when logging into Facebook, or any site for that matter, with a computer that isn't yours, such as a hotel or Internet cafe computer, is that a key-logger or Trojan may have been pre-installed on that computer, and that will let someone steal your user name and password," Patrik Runald, senior manager for security research at Websense, told TechNewsWorld.

Problems With Temp Passwords

"Facebook is hoping that by providing a temporary password, it doesn't matter if the password gets stolen by spyware, but I have other problems with the approach," said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos. He pointed TechNewsWorld to his blog, where he outlined these issues.

One problem is that users who lose their mobile phones are still at risk. If someone else can get access to that lost phone and the owner hasn't locked the device with a password to prevent SMS texts being sent, the finder might be able to access the phone owner's Facebook account, Cluley wrote.

Another problem is that hackers may be able to change mobile phone numbers on their victims' accounts to phone numbers they have access to, Cluley wrote. This will let them access to those accounts readily.

Further, temporary passwords only prevent cybercriminals using keylogging spyware from recording victims' real passwords, Cluley wrote. However, it doesn't prevent them from using malware to spy on their victims' online activities and seeing what's happening on their PC screens.

The temporary password won't protect Facebook members from exposure to malicious links, Websense's Runald pointed out.

Websense claims that about 40 percent of Facebook posts contain links, and about 10 percent of those posts are either spam or contain malware. The greatest danger comes from corporate and celebrity Facebook pages that are accessed by large numbers of users.

"The Websense data isn't consistent with what we've seen, and likely only accounts for public comments made on large group sites and pages," Facebook's Axten pointed out. "There's an important difference between these comments and the comments made through actual person-to-person communication channels such as the Facebook Inbox, Status Page and Wall. The latter have a higher signal and are where we focus many of our efforts," Axten said.

Public comments made on large groups' pages and sites are "more fleeting and have a lower signal since they often come from non-friends," Axten said. "We provide group and Page admins with tools to delete any posts they don't like."

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Facebook and Bing Do the Search Two-Step

Facebook and Bing have teamed up in a move that could bring a touch more sociability to online search.

Facebook users will see Web pages their friends like popping up when they launch a Bing search while logged into the social networking site. Further, when Facebook users search for their friends on Bing, people with whom they have Facebook friends in common will top the results.

The service is already available to two percent of Facebook subscribers in the United States, and it will roll out to the rest in the next few weeks, Facebook spokesperson Malorie Lucich told TechNewsWorld.

Both Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Facebook say they'll safeguard users' privacy, an issue over which Facebook has often taken a beating.

Why Bing Friends Facebook

Search is becoming more personalized and social at the user level, but the traditional method of using clues, or signals, to best match a search can be further improved, wrote Satya Nadella, senior vice president of Microsoft's Online Services Division.

These traditional signals depend on how information is connected, but in the real world, such connections aren't enough; you have to also look at the connections between people, Nadella wrote. Adding a social layer to a search makes the process of connecting to information and making decisions more social, personal and useful.

"Fifty percent of people say that when making a decision, they take into consideration thoughts shared by others in their circle of friends," Nadella wrote, although he didn't cite the source of this statistic.

No matter; by teaming up with Facebook, Bing gets to use a new signal that goes beyond mere pattern recognition or keyword matching, Nadella wrote. This will make for better search results because they will include results that people whom searchers trust find interesting.

Basically, Bing will include two new features now: "Liked Results" -- which shows what your friends like when you launch an online search while in Facebook -- and "Facebook Profile Search."

The "Facebook Profile Search" feature narrows down the search by listing people who share mutual Facebook friends with the searcher at the top of the results, wrote Bing executives Paul Yiu and Todd Schwartz.

Search Engines Who Need People

"I feel like there's a quote in here somewhere -- who're you going to believe? The Internet or your lying friends?" Carl Howe, director of anywhere consumer research at the Yankee Group, told TechNewsWorld.

"Some consumers want facts, while others want opinions and still others want both," Howe added. "The problem is that different sources of information are better for different goals. Friends are great for opinions, but they may not be such great sources for hard facts," he said.

However, the Bing-Facebook team-up may lead to problems for the two.

"This feels like Bing and Facebook are trying to tap into personal data in a way we haven't seen before, and I think there's some danger of a backlash," Howe warned. "After all, these results don't just return information about friends, but also friends' histories of what they like and dislike. Just because you may have been fond of Jell-O shots as a college student doesn't mean you want that information hanging around for your new friends at work to browse."

Every Step You Take

Perhaps in anticipation of a backlash from privacy advocates, both Facebook and Microsoft contend that they'll protect users' privacy.

Bing is one of several partners Facebook has teamed up with in its "Instant Personalization" project -- others are Rotten Tomatoes, Docs.com, Pandora, Yelp and Scribd.

All partners have to adhere to Facebook's guidelines and can only use subscribers' public information -- which they share with friends on the social networking site -- to serve up a personalized experience, Facebook said. This information cannot be transferred to advertisers or used for any other purposes.

Microsoft, too, will focus on user privacy. Bing's "Liked Results" will only include content designated as public and is the same information available to the searcher's Facebook friends, Microsoft's Yiu and Schwartz wrote.

Further, consumers will be notified in advance that their search will be enhanced with "Liked Results" and they can disable the feature if they launch a Bing search without being logged into Facebook. There are other restrictions on information what users can see, and their friends won't be able to see what they're searching for.

Finally, Facebook requires users to be at least 13 years old to access its services, and Bing's Facebook Profile Search will only serve up results for users who list themselves as 18 years or older in their Facebook profiles.

"Neither Microsoft nor Facebook is tracking data from this integration, and Microsoft does not log search history tied to a user's profile on Facebook," Facebook's Lucich said. "By technical design, Facebook does not receive any search queries from Bing except for people searches." Facebook deletes queries within 24 hours, she pointed out, adding that search queries are not shared with a user's Facebook friends.

The Love of Money

Data generated from tracking online searches and the people with whom the searcher communicates about the search results can help build up a powerful profile of a user.

"Microsoft and Facebook really want to know their users intimately so they can serve up better services, offer up more targeted advertisements and make themselves more valuable to advertisers," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld. "In the end, they'll create a virtual you and, if that virtual you is highly modeled, it will have a very high value to advertisers."

How long can the two resist the monetization that could result from collating such data?

That's difficult to say. After all, Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) monetizing its online search results quite profitably.

Shaking Up Online Search

The partnership between Facebook and Bing will likely impact online search heavily.

"This creates an uber-portal on Facebook that does change the game," Enderle said. "It will put a lot of pressure on Google to do something similar. Google will have to get into the social networking space."

Google "may try to address the market created by this alliance, but they'll probably do so in a more thoughtful and careful way," Howe said.

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World Smallest Stop Motion Animation

I love this little (literally) stop-motion animation. Not only did “Dot” break the Guinness World Record for Smallest stop-motion animation character in a film, it was shot using life-saving technology.

First about the film, which you can watch below. It features Dot, a girl who just 9 millimeters tall. She wakes up in a world that seems to be unraveling. Fleeing an encroaching wave of loose threads, Dot runs across coins, pins, nuts and bolts and jumps on a bumblebee to fly away. Finally she saves herself by knitting the threads into a sleeping bag.

Now about the life-saving technology. The animation was filed using a Nokia N8 smart phone equipped with a CellScope, a diagnostic-quality microscope that was invented by Daniel Fletcher at the University of California, Berkeley. The CellScope allows a doctor working anywhere there is a phone service to capture and transmit images of blood samples anywhere in the world. The technology could help diagnose disease in developing countries where medical doctors and labs are few and far between.

Another bit of technology was used that, although not life-saving, is an interesting application. It’s 3-D printing. It was used to create various molds of Dot posed in different positions. Normally such an animation would rely on clay manipulated manually to adjust the character’s body positions. But Dot was too small for this and so her body positions were adjusted using molds of her in various positions.

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You may not want to be the Internet police, but you need to be !

Today’s Internet connected businesses must be concerned not only with threats originating from the Internet, but also threats that can manifest from their employees accessing the Internet both recreationally and as a part of their job. Employees can expose the company to threats from malware, and from litigation resulting from employees downloading copyrighted material or accessing inappropriate content. An acceptable use policy and a written information security policy are both critical, and great places to start, but more is required.

Packet filtering firewalls are very effective at blocking unsolicited inbound connections, but they can do very little to block malware downloaded by an internal client with Internet access. Nor can they recognise inappropriate content, or copyrighted material. Antivirus software can help protect against malware, but not against pornography or the latest Hollywood blockbuster. Internet monitoring software is another layer of defence that can help protect your network from threats of the technical variety, and your company from threats of the litigation variety.

Internet monitoring software can be run on appliances inline to your Internet connection, on a server acting as a proxy, out of band but in tandem with your firewall, or as an agent installed on your clients. The type of deployment you choose depends on your network architecture, how easily you can manage your clients, and whether or not you want the ability to protect machines when they are remote. Whatever the type of deployment, the purpose of Internet monitoring is to examine all internet activity and, protect against threats, and to enforce policy. Your acceptable use policy should define what is considered acceptable business use, address whether or not any recreational access to the Internet is acceptable, and clearly explain what is considered inappropriate use of the Internet.

Internet monitoring solutions can help protect your users from threats in several ways. Most combine several different methods. One popular approach is to maintain a list of websites by category that is regularly updated through a subscription service. Websites and ip addresses are sorted into categories that make it very easy for the administrator to select what types of sites should be permitted, and what types of sites should not be accessed. When the client makes a request, the traffic is compared against the lists and permitted or blocked based on policy. Another way these products can monitor Internet activity and protect against Internet threats is to examine file types requested; permitting html, text, and graphics, but blocking scripts, executable content, and media files that could contain copyrighted material. Many Internet monitoring software packages also offers anti-x capabilities; examining all files for malware, emails for suspect links, and traffic flows for known patterns related to backdoor programs and bot-nets.

Internet monitoring can, but does not necessarily have to, log all such activities. Whether you log access or not depends on many factors, including your privacy policies, your corporate policy regarding monitoring employee activities, and whether or not you wish to invest the time and storage necessary to review and archive these logs. Some companies expressly choose not to log; taking advantage of the protections offered by their Internet monitoring software without tasking personnel to monitor Internet activity. They get the benefits of policy enforcement without the efforts and potential HR overhead that goes along with investigating policy violations to determine whether the act was accidental or intentional. With this approach you can safely regulate Internet access without being branded as the Internet Police.

Whatever approach you take, monitoring Internet activity is a critical part of a defense in depth approach to securing your network. Look at your options, and select the approach that best fits in with your client base, your Information Security Policies, and your management’s philosophy.

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BLACKBERRY PLAYBOOK THE NEW COMPETITOR FOR APPLE IPAD

BlackBerry, recently unveiled its new tablet. It’s called Playbook (and not as it was rumored BlackPad … ) and seems to have all it takes to give a hard time for both the Samsung Galaxy and iPad .

Playbook has two cameras One, internal , 3 megapixel and other an external 5 megapixel camera. With the display of 7 inches (compared to 9.7 iPad) , and has a resolution of 1024 × 600 pixels.

The new BlackBerry tablet will have the support for Adobe Flash (in addition to the HTML5 standard ) and the operating system on which the BlackBerry will not hold up( as stated by the rumors ), but the newTablet BlackBerry OS.

Playbook will arrive in the United States in early 2011; with regard to prices , however , it is called 499 €for the base model up to a 699€.

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