Sony Reviles Waterproof Universal Remote Control for Mythical Mermaids

If you are one of the millions of super clumsy people, or a mythical mermaid, Sony has the thing that you need. The Rimotokomanda RM-PZ3SD comes in a variety of colors, works on several TV’s (including those by Panasonic / National, Toshiba, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Victor / JVC, Sanyo, Aiwa, Sharp, Funai / PRECIOUS, NEC, Fujitsu, Pioneer, Philips, and, of course, Sony) and offers hours of entertainment while watching your underwater TV. This product will be released in Japan soon (whenever that is) for ¥2,468, which is around $26.

10 Most Essential Firefox Add-Ons

Flagfox

Flagfox displays the location of the current website you are on. It also will display the sites IP address when you hover over the flag. Useful for many things.

Foof

Are you tired of annoying ads on websites. Well Foof will get rid of them for you. Despite its silly name, Foof will get rid of about 95% of all ads on websites.

Before:

After:

FoxTab

If your like me, you’ve probably been in a situation where you have just too many tabs to easily manage. Well FoxTab can help. It arranges all of you tabs into a Flip-3D type of stack. In addition to the stacks view there are Page Flow, Wall Grid, Row and Carousel view modes. FoxTab also has several theme and 3D view options.

Tab Scope

Speaking of tab management, here is another great way to easily manage your tabs. Its called tab scope. When hovering over a tab, it provides a live preview of the site. This helps allot when you have several similar named tabs open at once, because you can visually pick which one you want to open. In addition to the live preview Tab Scope has simple site navigation tools, so you can go back a page, or stop a page from loading without opening that tab

ImTranslator

It’s becoming more common for people to stumble upon websites written in a language they do not understand. This is where ImTranslator can help. When coming across a website in a foreign language, simply select the text you want to translate, right click and select ImTranslator. You are then given several language options, select the one of your choice and enjoy.

McAfee Site Advisor

There’s no denying it, there are several dangerous websites on the internet. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could simply have something tell you when your about to stumble onto a bad site. Well, Site Advisor does that. It adds a green, yellow or red symbol beside search results to tell you if the site your about to go to is dangerous. It also adds the same symbols to the bottom of the browser.

RamBack

What I’m about to say is going to upset some Firefox users. Firefox is a ram hog! There have even been some reports of Firefox using up to half a gigabyte of ram at any time. Wouldn’t it be nice to get some of that ram back. Well as the name implies that is exactley what RamBack does. This add on runs innocently in the background, with no hint that it even exists. RamBack works by causing Firefox to issue an internal notification to free up memory that is otherwise held for performance purposes.

TwitterBar

This is for all you Twitter addicts. You know who I’m talking about. TwitterBar will allow you to write any tweet (106 character or less) in the address bar, and to post it with a single click. Its that simple.

SmarterFox

Save time - get faster downloads, save Web videos, infinite pages, quicker searches, shortcuts for favorites, auto copy & paste, SmarterFox does this all in a single package for you. SmarterFox has several features built in.

SmarterFox adds a "related articles" sidebar to the left side of Wikipedia.

Popup bubble

The popup bubble appears when you select (or "highlight") some text on a web page. Clicking on it will take you to the Wikipedia article for that term or if no such article exists, a Google search for that term. You also have the option of using the right-click context menu.

Tip

You can disable any aspect of SmarterFox by going to Tools -> SmarterFox

Enhanced Awesomebar

SmarterFox extends the Awesomebar (also called the URL bar) so that Google search results automatically appear as you type. This way you do not have to click though to Google in order to search.

qlauncher

The qLauncher allows you quickly visit your favorite webpages. To invoke the qLauncher press Ctrl-Space. If you are using a Mac or Ubiquity, you might need to change the shortcut since Ctrl-Space might already be in use. (Do so by going to Tools -> SmarterFox). After the qLauncher panel is open simply press another key to open the corresponding site. qLauncher's settings integrate right into Firefox's bookmark system so it will be backed up alongside your other bookmarks if you use something like Xmarks. The bookmarks for qLauncher are included in the folder named "qLauncher" on your bookmarks menu. To add a bookmark to qLauncher simply click on the + button on the qLauncher itself or copy it into the folder. To assign a shortcut key, tag the bookmark with "qlauncher:k" where k is the key you want to use. You do not have to do this however: qLauncher can pick one for you automatically. If you find the bookmark folder obtrusive you can disable the qLauncher and delete it.

SmarterFox can also convert text urls into clickable links and automatically copy on select or paste on right click (NOT enabled by default).

The Tenth Add-On

The tenth add-on will be the one that YOU the reader recommends. Yes I’m looking at you. Post a comment about your favourite add on and it may be added to the list.

Bill Would Give President Obama the Power to “Turn Off The Internet” During a Cyber Emergency

A revised version of a bill first introduced this spring would give the president the power to disconnect private sector computers (or servers) if there is a “Cyber Emergency” This basically means if the bill is passed the president can shut down any website based in the United States.

The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

Section 201 of this bill also suggests that government will have the power to regulate critical private networks.

Probably the most controversial language begins in Section 201, which permits the president to "direct the national response to the cyber threat" if necessary for "the national defence and security." The White House is supposed to engage in "periodic mapping" of private networks deemed to be critical, and those companies "shall share" requested information with the federal government.

There has been lots of debate over this bill. Some are calling the bill “vague” and others say it is essential to protecting the nations digital infrastructure. What do you think of this bill? Post you comments below.

Pamphlet Discloses That HD Movies are Coming to the Zune Marketplace

BostonPocketPC has uploaded a photo claiming that the above image is a pamphlet given to viewers at a Best Buy Zune HD demonstration. If this is true,this confirms that Microsoft will be selling HD movies on the Zune marketplace. Microsoft has already sold TV shows, music video, and video podcasts on the Zune marketplace so it was only a matter of time.

Win Windows 7 Ultimate From TUWB

Windows 7 is without doubt the best operating system Microsoft has released since XP. It has several feature to make using your computer easier such as, homegroups, aero peek, aero shake, Libraries, XP mode and much more. Usually to get Windows 7 you would need to give up $400 to get this wonderful operating system, but now you can get it absolutely free. Just comment below and you’ll be entered. If you win you’ll receive Windows 7 Ultimate in the mail once it is released on October 22nd. Commenting twice will get you disqualified. Contest closes on September 1st 2009. 

Snow Leopard Malware Blocker Only Blocks two Trojans

Earlier this week Apple announced that Mac OSX Snow Leopard would come with a malware blocker, which prompted overwhelming excitement. Lets just say that the malware blocker was less than underwhelming. It only blocks two Trojans.

The two Trojans it protects your Mac from are OSX.RSPlug and OSX.Iservice. Even worse, it only scans for the Trojans in a few applications. Intego (an OSX security company) found that the malware blocker is half baked in several ways:

Apple's anti-malware function only scans files downloaded with a handful of applications (Safari, Mail, iChat, Firefox, Entourage, and a few other web browsers) — therefore the disturbingly modest signatures base would be undermined if the user were to download the malware from a BitTorrent application

Apple's anti-malware function currently only scans for two Trojan horses, as of the initial release of Snow Leopard — relying on such a modest set of signatures for malware variants of known OS X families, clearly indicates the premature release of the feature

Apple's anti-malware function receives occasional updates via Apple's Software Update — in respect to malware, even Mac OS X malware, every modified variant of a known malware family enjoys a decent life cycle until it gets detected through malware signatures. In its current form the reliance on occasional Apple Software Updates compared to regular/scheduled independent signatures update, clearly increases the life cycle of a known piece of malware.

I personally believe that the anti malware feature provides a false sense of security. Apple may make it better in the future, but that seems unlikely. Windows Defender was better than this.

Twitter and Facebook For XBOX Free for Gold Members

No surprise here; anyone wanting to fuel their addiction to Facebook and Twitter on XBOX Live will need to pay extra for a gold subscription. Silver subscribers will be given a trial, but we don't know if that means if they will be able to upgrade their membership.

Amazon Confirms Zune HD Pricing

Yesterday, a Bust Buy employee leaked the Zune HD pricing and it looks like he was not fibbing. Amazon’s pre order page is confirming the price as 220 (16GB) and $290 (32GB).

Twitter Crashes, Again!

Yet again Twitter’s servers crashed, this time at around 11:45 am PDT. Twitter members reported server time outs and 3^rd party applications were not able to access the service.

On Twitters blog, employees said that the service had some issues for around 10 minutes.

"Responding to site downtime. We're working to recover from a site outage and will update as we learn more."

Twitter was back up and running again, approximately 36 minutes later.

In the past, outages were a common thing, because Twitters small servers could not keep up with the massive traffic, but the outages became less common as Twitter became more popular. This outage is particularly interesting because Twitter is still recovering from a denial-of-service attack last week. The attack was aimed at a Georgian activist blogger, but ended up crashing Twitters servers for several hours. There are rumors that the attack came from the Russian government.

Flash Zune’s Disappear From the Microsoft Store

 

It looks like all of the hype over the Zune HD has killed the Flash Zune’s. The official Microsoft Zune Store no longer lists any flash players at all, leaving the only the Zune 80 and Zune 120 available for purchase. Amazon and other retailers still have the flash Zune’s in stock, so hurry if you want one because they may not be around for long.

First Photo of Microsoft Store Construction

The first photo of a Microsoft Retail Store under construction basically confirms the the leaked store planes. These photos come to us from Microsoft’s official twitter account. The first stores will open in Arizona and Mission Viejo, California this fall.

Bing Gains Market Share in July

The web analyst firm, StatCounter, released its analyst today, and it shows Microsoft’s Bing gaining slightly in market share.

Last week, Microsoft and Yahoo reached a deal to redirect all Yahoo Search traffic to Bing, which essentially means that Yahoo’s and Bing’s market share are combined. Combined, Bing/Yahoo increased market share 1.09%, up from 19.27% in July. Google’s market share shrunk slightly in July from 78.48% to 77.45%.

StatCounter’s number are based on an analysis of 1 billion search engine referring clicks.

Student Fined $675,000 For Sharing 30 Songs

Teenager, Joel Tenenbaum, admitted to sharing 30 songs illegally and was originally fined $150,000 per song. He managed to negotiate the price down to $22,500 per song but he still has to pay $675,000 in total.

Unlike other unfortunate people, Tenenbaum has not said he will refuse to pay the $675,000 fine so it looks like a victory for the RIAA. 

The RIAA pointed out that the money will go towards more lawsuits and not artists.

Remember, DONT PIRATE SONGS OR THE RIAA WILL BE AT YOUR DOORSTEP.

Snow Leopard Now Available For Pre-Order on Amazon

Amazon is now accepting pre-orders for Mac OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard, for an incredible price of $29. The five user family pack costs $49 and the server edition is $49. You can bundle iLife and iWork with Snow Leopard for an additional $169 and $229. Unlike Windows 7, most people do not see the operating system being in short supply come launch time, but if your worried here.  

FCC Investigating Apple for Rejection of Google Voice App

  The Federal Communication Commission is looking into Apple’s rejection of Google Voice, asking whether AT&T was involved, and why it was rejected.

The request is part of a broader-ranging inquiry by the commission on exclusive deals between cell phone carriers and handset manufacturers for hot phones. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Thursday that the FCC wants to look into rural areas where customers can't buy the latest fancy phones because of such exclusive deals.

Unfortunately, Google Voice still may not be included in the iTunes App store, but it may pressure Apple into including more Apps.

PlayStation 3 Slim Appears on Amazon Listings

Amazon’s German website has added a listing for "PlayStation 3 Konsole slim” (Translation: PlayStation 3 console slim) from Sony. The PlayStation 3 Console Slim is listed as Platform Independent and has its own ASIN. Unfortunately Amazon does has not posted any photos or launch date.