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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Chrysler to turn cars into hot spots

Chrysler is going to let drivers turn most of the company's 2009 vehicles into hot spots, at least for mobile Web access.

The automaker will unveil a system today that will let motorists check email on their laptop at stoplights, while the kids play online video games in the back seat.

"What UConnect Web does is turn the whole vehicle into an Internet hot spot," says Keefe Leung, who works on advanced connectivity strategies for Chrysler. The wireless router and cellular-based Web connection will serve WiFi enabled laptops, iPhone and other smartphones, entertainment systems and other personal devices.

UConnect Web will be offered in most 2009 Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles starting in August. The in vehicle router will cost $449, plus installation of up to $50. Mobile Web access for it will require a $29 a month subscription, after $35 for activation, through provider Autonet Mobile.

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Verizon plans more fiber optic for cities

Verizon Communications is looking toward big cities as the next big opportunity for its Fios broadband and TV service. "Our plan is to cover all of the 3.1 million households in all five boroughs in the next five to six years," Verizon's COO Denny Strigl said.

Verizon is also working to get video franchise approval for the Fios TV service in other large cities. Verizon sees cities as a huge opportunity for the Fios service, which provides high-speed Internet service, telephony, and cable TV service over a super-fast fiber connection.

The company has also doubled the upload and download speeds of its lowest-tier Fios broadband service. The service will now offer 10Mbps downloads and 2Mbps uploads.

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

Mozilla tries to set world record with Firefox launch

After nearly 3 years in development, the much anticipated release of Firefox version 3 should be available on June 17. As part of the launch the Mozilla Foundation has announced that they'll be attempting to set a world record for the most software downloads in a 24 hour period. They're also suggesting that fans of Firefox host parties celebrating the launch.

The good news for Mozilla is that they don't seem to have any competition for the record. According to the FAQ on the website created to promote the launch, "This is the first record attempt of its kind so there is no set number. We'd really like to outdo the number of Firefox 2 downloads on its launch day, which was 1.6 million. Let's shoot for 5 million--the sky is the limit!"

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Mozilla Firefox 3.0 RC2 released

Mozilla unveiled the second release candidate of Firefox 3.0 and said all of the issues that remain are on the server or site side, not in the application itself.

Firefox 3.0 Release Candidate 2 (RC2) fixed about 40 bugs identified after Mozilla issued the first release candidate three weeks ago.

Mozilla made the decision to go with another release candidate last week, rejecting the option of shipping Firefox 3.0 as is, then following up with a bug fix update later. Mozilla executives assured users that the additional RC would not delay the expected launch date, which has been set for mid-month.

Firefox accounts for 18.4% of the browser market, according to the most recent data from Net Applications Inc. Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer remains the most widely used browser, with a 73.8% share, while Apple Inc.'s Safari comes in third with 6.3%.

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Sunday, June 01, 2008

Safari Flaw Worse Than First Thought

Microsoft is warning that a previously disclosed flaw in Apple's Safari browser could have dire consequences for Windows users.

The Safari bug, originally disclosed on May 15 by security researcher Nitesh Dhanjani, allows attackers to litter a victim's desktop with executable files, an attack known as "carpet bombing."

It turns out that if this flaw is exploited in combination with a second unpatched bug in Internet Explorer, attackers can run unauthorized software on a victim's computer. For the attack to work, a victim must first visit a maliciously crafted Web page with the Safari browser, which in turn will trigger the carpet bombing attack and exploit the IE flaw.

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