Consumer software and hardware

Adobe warned of reports of an attack exploiting a hole in Reader and Acrobat on Monday.

"This afternoon, Adobe received reports of a vulnerability in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.2 and earlier versions being exploited in the wild," the company said in an advisory on its Security Incident Response Team blog. "We are currently investigating this issue and assessing the risk to our customers. We will provide an update as soon as we have more information."

Three different security vendor partners reported the alleged exploit to the company on Monday afternoon, said Adobe spokeswoman Wiebke … Read more

With Microsoft's Windows Mobile unit having run in slow motion for the past several years, it doesn't surprise me that there are calls for the company to get out of the phone business.

The more interesting question raised in this New York Times blog, to me, is whether Microsoft flat out just doesn't get the consumer.

That, to me, is a much broader issue for Microsoft, given the fact that more and more parts of computing--even enterprise software--are taking their lead from consumer trends--think Facebook, Gmail and Twitter.

Microsoft certainly has its challenges on this front, and … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--A renaissance is under way in the world of mobile-application development.

Less than five years ago, developers were just beginning to create high-bandwidth media apps with the help of freshly-introduced 3G wireless data networks. But the carriers weren't quite ready to open up that fire hose. Nor were the hardware makers, who were creating hardware designed mainly for business users who wanted to check e-mail and play a hand or two of solitaire.

Fast forward to now. Both sides are reaching a kind of equilibrium. Smart phones and handhelds like the iPod Touch, Nintendo DSi, and … Read more

Microsoft released fixes on Tuesday for critical vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, including one for which exploit code has been released.

Adobe, meanwhile, was scheduled to release a critical update affecting Flash Player and Adobe AIR, following news of exploit code being released for a vulnerability in Illustrator CS3 and CS4 on Windows and Mac last week.

Microsoft's regular Patch Tuesday release includes six security bulletins addressing 12 vulnerabilities in IE, Windows, Windows Server, and Office.

However, priority should be given to the cumulative IE bulletin, which affects all major Windows versions including Windows 7, IE 6, IE 7, and … Read more

Google is taking legal action to stop companies from allegedly using the search giant's name to trick people into paying for supposed work-at-home kits advertised online and in e-mails.

The company filed a lawsuit on Monday in federal court in Salt Lake City against Pacific WebWorks and other, unnamed defendants alleging trademark infringement and dilution, unfair competition, federal cyberpiracy, and violation of consumer sales practices. The lawsuit can be amended to add the names of additional defendants as they are uncovered.

"This action seeks to stop a widespread Internet advertising scam that is defrauding the public by misusing … Read more

Gmail has long had keyboard shortcuts, though learning them can be difficult. Enter the Gboard, a specialized mini-keyboard for Google's e-mail service. It debuts this Friday at an asking price of $19.99.

The Gboard consists of 19 colored keys set in a standard size numpad-only keyboard. Clicking on any one of these performs that particular keyboard shortcut. Included are Gmail-specific features such as starring messages, starting a search, and jumping between message threads. Outside of Gmail they simply act as normal keyboard buttons, and will type in whatever letter or number corresponds with that shortcut.

The device is … Read more

The Department of Defense has pulled a parental control product from its online store serving military families after learning that the company collects childrens' data, according to documents the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) obtained from the government agency.

EPIC has filed a complaint (PDF) with the Federal Trade Commission alleging that Echometrix, maker of FamilySafe parental control software, violates the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting personal information from children and disclosing it to third parties for market intelligence purposes. Echometrix denies the allegations.

After learning that the Defense Department's Army and Air Force Exchange Service (… Read more

Microsoft said on Thursday that it will offer six updates for 12 vulnerabilities next week including a critical hole in Internet Explorer that affects Windows 7 and other current versions of the operating system for which exploit code has been released.

Late last month, Microsoft said it was investigating an IE vulnerability after someone released proof-of-concept code affecting IE 6 and IE 7 that could be used to take control of computers.

Microsoft described the problem in an advisory issued November 23: "The vulnerability exists as an invalid pointer reference of Internet Explorer. It is possible under certain conditions … Read more

Czech Republic-based Avast issued an update late on Wednesday to its antivirus software that mistakenly flagged hundreds of innocent files as a Trojan. It fixed the situation five and a half hours later.

Falsely labeled as malware were programs from Adobe, Realtek, sound card drivers, and various media players, among others, according to a blog post on the Avast Support Center.

The errant update had been issued around 12:15 a.m. GMT. A new update was issued at 5:50 a.m. GMT that corrected the problem. Customers who did not use their computers between that time will most … Read more