Spice Mobiles Launches D-88 Gold

Spice Mobiles has announced the launch of the Spice D-88 Gold handset. 

The dual-SIM facility enables dual SIM usage and simultaneous calls and messages on both the CDMA and GSM SIMs. This also allows calls to be put on hold and swapped simultaneously between the GSM and CDMAs connection without re-starting the phone.   

The Spice D-88 Gold comprises of FM recording and  playback together with an expandable memory support up to 2 GB and 1.3 MP camera with multi–shot photo mode.

This gold-finished handset also features stereo-Bluetooth, JAVA support and Remote Control Application that lets users run through their business presentations via Bluetooth. This phone can also be used as a modem and has the Opera Mini web browser. 

The sales pack comes with a 512MB memory card free and preloaded songs of the movie Dostana. 

The Spice D-88 Gold is available at an MRP of Rs 8,999.

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Damn Small Linux

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Preview - HTC Touch Pro

HTC launched its Touch Pro handset along with the Touch Viva only recently with Idea Telecom. Now I’m not particularly interested in what services are bundled with the handset and provider combined; since the phone's open GSM I’m more concerned with what it offers the generic user. Having gotten hold of a test piece I can’t give a comprehensive review, but I shall give you a preview of what it offers – and what I liked and disliked about the phone.

Form Factor
The biggest drawback I see with the handset is its bulky design. Let’s face it; if it’s going to go up against the Xperia it’s not going to fare very well in the looks department. To start with, it weighs about 165g and is 18.05mm thick. It has no hot swap slot for the microSD card on the outside; you will have to pop open the rear panel to access it. There's a magnetic slot for the stylus, so it neatly slips in. 

The 2.8 inch VGA display (480 x 620 pixels) is vibrant and will be great for watching videos or surfing the net. The Pro is identical with theDiamond with regard to the navigation system and the keys located below the display – a circular five-way nav-pad, home and return keys, and call take and end soft-touch buttons.

It has a proprietary USB slot at the bottom that somehow manages to accommodate a standard mini USB cable. What really gets to me is the one-slot-fits-all design. The same port is used for charging, earphones, and USB connectivity. There's a 3MP camera with LED flash, located at the rear of the handset.

Features
Running on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS with a 5287 MHz Qualcomm processor and 512MB ROM and 256MB RAM, I’m expecting the handset to be a lot faster than the prototype, so no comment on the speed of performance. The TouchFLO 3D looks great and is very convenient to use. The Stylus is absolutely redundant in this sense, but it will be handy for other features and settings. I couldn’t seem to find a control for the accelerometer though.

There's an Audio Booster feature that is usable only when a headset is connected. The fluid nature of the accelerometer is revealed in the preloaded game 'Teeter' (available with the Diamond too). There aren’t too many additional or HTC-oriented features though. A YouTube client should be available. The handset also has internal GPS, which is getting increasingly useful these days. 

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Review of LEAD 4 DEAD

Looks amazing Features the most juicy headshots out there Incredibly scalable Best co-op action, hands down Exemplary level design Great gun physics No server browser Matchmaking is inadequate Too few Campaigns

There's something about zombie flicks and games that makes them fun to watch/play, no matter how lame they are. So when a high quality piece of entertainment hits us zombie fanatics, it's a little unsettling since we're used to the mediocre stuff thrown at us. Left 4 Dead is just that - an extremely well designed co-op zombie shooter, that offers an experience more intense than anything out there.

Left 4 Dead has you play the role of one of four survivors of a zombie holocaust - Francis, Bill, Zoey and Louis. Your goal is to make your way to an extraction/rescue point, as you carve your way through an endless onslaught of the risen dead. This cooperative approach to survival horror has never been done before, and it exercises both - your skills with the gun, as well as your ability to work as part of a team.

The game has two modes - Campaign and Versus. Campaign plays out as a standard co-op game with up to four players playing as survivors, while empty slots get filled by the game's AI. The Campaigns are presented as zombie flicks, namely No Mercy, Death Toll, Dead Air and Blood Harvest. The loading screen of each Campaign displays a poster of each of these flicks, with a rather cheesy caption like "Curing the infection, one bullet at a time", reminding you of those dusty old zombie movies sitting in your VHS collection.

But don't be fooled by its cocky appearance. While Left 4 Dead isn't scary enough to make you wet your pants, it's probably the most intense co-op shooter you're ever going to play. You start off each campaign in a relatively safe spot - the roof of a building or a safe room inside a factory - with a stash of firearms, ammunition and first aid kits at your disposal. From the minute you leave the comfort of these safe zones, you're up for a different experience no matter how many times you've played the game.

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Cybercriminals Move Fast as McColo Takes a Short Breath of Air

McColo has succeeded to strike a deal with an unsuspecting uplink provider, and got back online for a short period of time. Even if it lasted only a few hours, the uptime allowed botnet herders to push updates and relocate some of their control servers.

The sudden takedown of the McColo hosting provider last week took online criminal organizations by surprise and seriously hindered their illegal operations. According to security researchers, the company was responsible for hosting many of the control servers of major botnets such as Srizbi, Rustock, Pushdo, Mega-D and others.

Such armies of zombie PCs are responsible for the vast majority of junk e-mail sent daily and, since the notorious provider was cut off from the Internet, many spam monitoring organizations have reported very low distribution levels. IronPort, an e-mail security vendor, reported a decrease of 2/3 in spam activity, while the Spamcop service registered a 3/4 decline.

A few days later, security researchers got an alarm that McColo was back online. The company succeeded in securing an uplink with a Swedish Internet provider, TeliaSonera AB, which has a router located in San Jose, where McColo's headquarters are. “Apparently those responsible for hooking up new customers at TeliaSonera don’t read security blogs,” wrote Ross Thomas, security analyst at SophosLabs Canada.

The Swedish ISP was quick to act though after Thomas, as well as others, sent e-mails to their security department informing them of the badness they were now routing. The ISP responded in a matter of hours through Jimmy Arvidsson, the head of the Security Department, who announced that depeering procedures had been started.

Unfortunately, even if McColo's new peering was eventually revoked by TeliaSonera, the short uptime period was sufficient for the cybercriminal groups to start moving their infrastructure. According to Sopho's Thomas, the owners of the Rustock botnet, which is responsible for as much as 30 billion daily spam messages, have successfully relocated some of the control servers in Russia. The researcher warns that “we should expect spam volumes to increase again soon [...], though how big an increase we’ll see depends largely on the number of zombie PCs the botnet’s controller was able to reach.”

We can only hope that McColo will remain offline for good and will not get picked up by another internet service provider. If the servers of the infamous company register longer uptimes, like it happened with Intercage/Atrivo when it was knocked offline in a similar fashion, the crooks will be able to take their business elsewhere, maybe outside the reach of responsible ISPs.


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2 New Security Programs for XP SP3 and Vista SP1 Patches

The upcoming patches for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Service Pack 3, along with all the additional software products updated via the Microsoft monthly bulletin cycle, will benefit from two new Security Programs. At the start of August, the Redmond company announced that it was kicking its monthly release of security bulletins up a notch with the introduction of two new initiatives: the Exploitability Index and the Microsoft Active Protections Program. Both will be presented next week, namely on October 14.

This month, Microsoft plans to release no less than 11 security bulletins covering a wide range of its software products including Windows client and server platforms, the Office System and Internet Explorer. At the same time, Bill Sisk, Microsoft Security Response Center Communications Manager, informed that October would also be synonymous with Microsoft offering additional information on the vulnerabilities affecting its software to both customers and partners.

“We want to announce the availability of the Exploitability Index in upcoming security bulletin summaries and the official release of Microsoft Active Protections Program,” Sisk stated. “The Exploitability Index provides additional information to help customers prioritize deployment of monthly security bulletins while the Microsoft Active Protections Program provides vulnerability information to security software providers in advance of Microsoft’s monthly security bulletin releases. Both the Exploitability Index and Microsoft Active Protections Program provide additional support to customers and partners to defend against emerging online threats.”

The Exploitability Index is designed to provide an insight into the level of exploitability of patched vulnerabilities. All security flaws will be labeled in accordance with three levels of risk: "Consistent Exploit Code Likely", "Inconsistent Exploit Code Likely" and "Functioning Exploit Code Unlikely" in accordance with the detection of exploit code in the wild. “As part of our regularly scheduled bulletin release, we’re currently planning to release four Microsoft Security Bulletins rated as Critical, six rated Important, and one rated Moderate,” Sisk added.


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Windows 7, XP SP3 and Vista SP1 Vulnerability Exploit Included in Malware Kit

The exploit for a vulnerability affecting the Server Service on all supported versions of Windows has been included in a commercial malware kit, available for sale. MS08-067 is labeled with a maximum severity rating of Critical, and the security bulletin is designed to patch vulnerable Windows operating systems, which could allow for remote code execution via a successful attack involving a specially crafted, malicious RPC request. The vulnerability affects the latest Windows client and server operating systems, including Windows 7, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Service Pack 3.

“Probably the most widely reported topic in the Chinese Security community this month will be the availability of a commercial MS08-067 attack pack, customized for Chinese users. On October 26th, 2008, exploit code was posted on to a well-known public repository site. In a few days, malware kit author, WolfTeeth, was quick to sell a MS08-067 port scanning tool with attack capability to his 'customers,' using free code from the Internet,” revealed Haowei Ren and Geok Meng Ong, from the McAfee Avert Labs.

The security issue is rated Critical on Windows Server 2004, Windows XP (including SP3), and Windows Server 2003, and just Important on Windows Vista (SP1) and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft made available MS08-067 as an out-of-band release in October 2008. During the same month the company issued the first security patch for Windows 7, designed for the pre-Beta Build 6801 Milestone 3 release.

“A security issue has been identified that could allow an authenticated remote attacker to compromise your Microsoft Windows-based system, and gain control over it. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. This update is provided to you and licensed under the Windows 7 Pre-Release License Terms,” Microsoft informed in the description of Security Update for Windows 7 Pre-Beta (KB958644).


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Xbox 360 Is Recession-Proof

Mindy Mount, the vice president and Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division, has argued, at the recent BMO Capital Markets Interactive Entertainment Conference, that the Xbox 360 gaming console is a recession-proof product that might even benefit from the economic downturn that the world is experiencing.

The main argument is that a bad economy makes every dollar more important, which means that Microsoft can push the Xbox 360, with its recent price cut, as the best value for money console on the market. Mount said that, “In tough economic times, people tend to cut back on very high-ticket items like travel and automobiles, but they still want to be entertained. Video games already offer some of the most hours of entertainment per dollar than any other form of entertainment.”

If people tend not to travel, they might be more interested in videogames. If they believe the price of admission at the movie theater is too high, they might be interested in using Netflix to stream full movies on their console. The New Xbox Experience is also aimed at making the console interface more intuitive and easy to use by more casual players.

Mount says that the Xbox 360 will be reaching an install base of more than 25 million by the end of November, which means that the numbers of the original Xbox will be surpassed. She also says that recent customer surveys show that families are more interested than ever in getting a console that can offer entertainment opportunities for the entire family. It seems that 81% of the members of homes with children are now looking to buy “gifts that provide entertainment while staying home,” which is a good sign for the videogames industry in general, and could drive up sales of the Xbox 360 this holiday season.


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Plans Already in Motion for Windows Azure

After just a few weeks since the introduction of Microsoft's Cloud operating system, the company has revealed that the developer community is already making plans to embrace the brand new Windows platform. At the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles at the end of October 2008, Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie emphasized that a new platform from the Redmond company was synonymous with new growth opportunities.

Following the departure of Bill Gates from Microsoft, Ray Ozzie began shifting the company in a new direction, in accordance with his vision of Software plus Services. This means taking Windows, not just the operating system but also SQL and .NET, into the Cloud.

“It seemed just a few years ago Ozzie was talking about this move to ‘services in the cloud’, ” stated Tim Huckaby, CEO of Interknowlogy. “And then to see him on stage there – he was clearly excited about it, and charismatic and dynamic – and to see him execute that vision was really great. Then I had the realization that Microsoft already has capitalized over $1 billion into its datacenters worldwide. That is a very bold statement.”


Windows in the Cloud, or Microsoft's web-tier of computing will be accompanied by Azure Services Platform, which uses the Windows Azure operating system as run-time and environment. The obvious advantages of S+S are the cost saving opportunities for corporate customers. At the same time, both potential customers and developers have to be educated in order to embrace the new Cloud OS. Windows Azure and the Azure Services Platform will require a consistent educational effort on behalf of Microsoft, and the company needs to get its evangelism wheels in motion as fast as it can.

“In a lot of ways I was surprised at how far along (Windows Azure and the Azure Services Platform) was,” said Lead Software Engineer at Interactive Intelligence, Dan Rigby. “You could see how it could be used as a repository today. Also, Ozzie pointed out that some of the foundations for Azure are going to drive the stuff like Live Services and Mesh, so I had the idea that as a developer I may not even have to touch the Azure foundation – there are enough services built on top that you might be able to leverage those.”


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IE8 RTW Will Not Install on Windows 7 Pre-Beta

The final version of Internet Explorer 8 will not install on the pre-Beta version of Windows, according to Microsoft. Just as it is the case with Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7, Windows 7 will come with Internet Explorer 8 as a default component. However, users of Windows 7 pre-beta will only be able to use the IE8 bits that come by default with the testing milestone, and not integrate the standalone variants of the next iteration of IE.

“You will only be able to use the included build of IE8 in the Win 7 pre-beta bits,” revealed an Accessibility PM for IE, during the November 13, 2008 Windows Internet Explorer 8 Expert Zone Chat. The question was whether or not users running Windows 7 pre-beta bits would be able to install IE8 RTW (released to manufacturing) on the third development milestone of the operating system.

Microsoft is reportedly working to finalize Internet Explorer 8 by the end of November 2008. However, the Redmond company continues to not adhere to a final deadline for the delivery of the successor of Internet Explorer 7.

At the same time, it has pushed back the support cut-off date for Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 until December 31, 2008. Initially, support for the second Beta milestone of IE8 was planned to expire on November 1, which further fueled speculation that the gold version of the browser was due by the end of this month.

Still, Microsoft is not committing to anything in this respect. “We haven't announced the next public milestone for IE8. Our schedule is driven by build quality, which we use feedback from the community to help drive,” stated a member of the IE Feedback and Release team.

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