AT&T Cutting 12,000 Jobs Due to "Economic Pressures"
[Via CellPhonesMarket.com; thanks, SK]
[Via CellPhonesMarket.com; thanks, SK]
Firefox Extension Links to Free, Illegal Downloads from Amazon
Pirates of the Amazon is a new extension that links from Amazon directly to illegal downloads on the Pirate Bay, a notorious source for subverted copies of music, movies, games, and more. After installing the extension, you'll often see new links on Amazon.com that say "Download 4 free." Click there and you'll be given the opportunity to download an illegal copy without paying a cent.
We don't think Amazon's particularly worried, as the people who use this are likely already downloading software illegally, but it'll be interesting to see if they make some changes to their site to circumvent this extension. If so, it'll surely turn into another back-and-forth battle of updates with no winners. [From: CNet News]
McDonald's and Other Big Brands Used to Spread Computer Viruses
by Tim Stevens, posted Dec 4th 2008 at 8:46AM
As seen in the above picture, one of those says it's from McDonald's and is delivering you "FREE giveaways and AWESOME savings." Actually, all it's giving is a file that, if you run it, will give hackers control of your machine and access to your data. According to CNET, similar e-mails are appear to come from Coca-Cola and Hallmark as well -- the latter even including a goofy-looking holiday card! It, too, is just another delivery means for corrupt software. So, update that anti-viral software and, as always, watch where you click! [From: CNet News]
Cyber Monday Traffic Way Up, Xbox 360 Sales Hit Record
The rate of shoppers yesterday was 6.7 million per minute, a massive figure that's nearly 50 percent higher than last year's 4.6 million. There's no word yet of final sales resulting from all that traffic, but it must be good, and Microsoft, for one, is spreading some joy, letting the world know that over the holiday weekend it sold 25 percent more Xbox 360 consoles than during the same period last year. An even better sign for the console, currently the cheapest of the current generation of gaming systems, is that it out-sold Sony's PlayStation3 by a three-to-one ratio. What we don't know is how well Nintendo's Wii sold, but one word comes to mind: gangbusters. [From: ZDNet, and Microsoft]
Apple Reminding Mac Users They're Not Immune to Viruses
Surely you've seen the Mac vs. PC commercials in which Apple loves to make a fool of the bungling PC, played by John Hodgman. In one commercial, embedded after the break, Apple shows a sick PC, coughing and saying he's been infected by some virus. The noble Mac offers a hankie and says he's immune. However, showing what little truth there is in advertising, Apple's not nearly as confident when it comes to making recommendations to customers.
The Zero Day blog at ZDNet recently noticed this statement on Apple's site:
Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult.In other words, Macs are indeed not immune and, not only should users install an anti-virus program, Apple recommends that they install more than one! Somehow we don't think we'll see this warning pop up in the next round of commercials. [From: Zero Day]
Amazon Kicks Off Cyber Monday With $99 Nintendo DS
The catch is it's the "Limited Edition Pink Ribbon" version, and pink and white is not exactly the perfect color scheme for those about to rock. However, a deftly-placed 'AC/DC' sticker might let you feel the joy of supporting a good cause this holiday season ($5 goes to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation) while also avoiding any embarrassing taunting from thoughtless friends. [Via I4U]
Despite Economic Slump, Online Black Friday Sales Up
Online sales for the period covering November 27 and 28 were up two percent over last year, a combined $822 million. But, the preceding days in the month were down four percent, $10.4 billion this year compared to $10.8 billion last year. Interestingly, according to the report from comScore, online Black Friday shoppers tended to sleep in, being most active at Noon-4pm in the afternoon. That's a stark contrast to the average buying experience most associate with that holiest of shopping days -- getting up at 2:00am to stand in the cold in a long line of bargain hunters. [From: comScore]
Chatty Passengers Less Distracting Than Cell Phones, Study Finds
The study, posted in the 'Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied,' was conducted at the University of Utah and used 96 drivers aged 18 to 49. It found that people were more likely to drive badly and miss exits on the highway while on the phone compared to when they were talking with passengers, largely because passengers were also in the car and were thus aware of traffic conditions. Passengers tended to know when to shut up when things got busy, and could even help the driver by pointing out impending trouble -- something a disembodied voice on the other end of a call can't do. [From: Reuters]
How Many Online "Breaks" Do You Take Every Day?
In the "old" days (oh about 15 years ago, or thereabouts), if you wanted to take a break from work, you had to go out for a smoke, head off for a cup of coffee, or saunter on over to the water-cooler. These days, if you have five minutes to decompress before diving into your next hour-long task, you're just a few clicks away from a smile and some good thoughts online. It's a trend that, many think, is a more productive and healthful way to work.
Whether looking at playful puppies or silly cat pictures, most workers find these online distractions quickly get their minds off of work issues and ramp the stress level down. We're big fans of the online micro-break, though unfortunately many employers still frown upon personal time spent surfing. It seems most would probably agree that a few minutes clicking around at silly pictures is better than getting burnt out -- or taking up smoking. [From: USA Today]
YouTube Finally Goes Widescreen, Some Users Not Pleased
by Tim Stevens, posted Nov 25th 2008 at 10:23AM
While YouTube quickly came to dominate the scene in user-provided, online video content, pioneering the market for many others, in a lot of ways it's been rather slow to react to the competition. Other sites like viddler were quick to offer high-quality, widescreen videos, but YouTube stuck with the old, traditional-format and low-resolution stuff for a long time. At last, the video site has upgraded to widescreen, and while the results are good, not everyone is happy!
New videos added to the site and made specifically for the widescreen (16:9) format look great, but other videos that were uploaded letterboxed to fit the old (4:3) format now have black bars on all sides, leaving them looking rather... small. Unfortunately the site applied this new format to all videos and didn't give an option to users to disable it, meaning every old video posted on the site will have borders. That's unfortunate, so we hope YouTube makes the new widescreen optional in the near future. Regardless, we think this is a good move for YouTube, and it's about time! [From: The YouTube Blog]
New videos added to the site and made specifically for the widescreen (16:9) format look great, but other videos that were uploaded letterboxed to fit the old (4:3) format now have black bars on all sides, leaving them looking rather... small. Unfortunately the site applied this new format to all videos and didn't give an option to users to disable it, meaning every old video posted on the site will have borders. That's unfortunate, so we hope YouTube makes the new widescreen optional in the near future. Regardless, we think this is a good move for YouTube, and it's about time! [From: The YouTube Blog]
