Security Researcher “Khalil Shreateh” posts Facebook bug report on Zuckerberg’s wall

Summary: A Palestinian IT Security Researcher Khalil Shreateh discovered a Facebook bug that allowed a hacker to post on anyone’s wall — even if they weren’t that person’s friend. Khalil has had his account disabled and been told he won't be paid a bug bounty after demonstrating a Facebook security vulnerability by posting an image into Mark Zuckerburg's timeline.

On blog post, Khalil Shreateh discovered a vulnerability that allows an attacker to post images into someone else's timeline, even though they're not in the target's friend list. Khalil tried to report the problem to Facebook's security account twice via the company's bug-disclosure and bounty program. The first time, Facebook security representative "Emrakul" couldn't see the results of Khalil's work – presumably because Emrakul wasn't actually friends with the person who Shreateh used as a proof-of-concept for the loophole. The second time around, Emrakul told Shreateh that his findings were "not a bug." Khalil, who doesn't appear to keen on taking "no" for an answer, did the next logical step: Used his loophole to post directly on Zuck's wall, likely hoping to stir the pot a bit and get a stronger acknowledgement of his findings.

Facebook software engineer Matt Jones took to Hacker News to offer a bit of an explanation behind Facebook's response and why Shreateh is out his minimum reward of $500 for the finding.

“To be clear, we fixed this bug on Thursday. The OP is correct that we should have asked for additional repro instructions after his initial report. Unfortunately, all he submitted was a link to the post he'd already made (on a real account whose consent he did not have - violating our ToS and responsible disclosure policy), saying that "the bug allow facebook users to share links to other facebook users". Had he included the video initially, we would have caught this much more quickly,” Jones wrote.

Source: facebook vulnerability 2013

Microsoft reduced the price of its Surface Pro tablet this weekend by $100

Microsoft over the weekend began offering a $100 discount on its Surface Pro, one of the two versions of the company’s tablet-style computer. Previously, Microsoft announced price cuts of up to 30% on the less-powerful version, called Surface RT.

Microsoft’s website says the lower price on Surface Pro is valid through Aug. 29 while supplies last. The discount is available to people in the U.S., Canada, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the Microsoft spokesman said.

Websites of Best Buy and Staples also listed the discounted Surface Pro prices.

Microsoft Surface:

Microsoft Surface was announced on June 18, 2012, by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at Milk Studios in Los Angeles.

The Surface comes in two versions: one with Windows RT and another with Windows 8 Pro. The Windows RT model uses an ARM CPU, while the Windows 8 Pro model uses an Intel CPU. Both models are able to install new applications via the Windows Store, however only the Windows 8 Pro model allows the installation of traditional third-party desktop programs

Source: Microsoft keeps chopping the price on the Surface.

Japan Launches humanoid Kirobo "robot astronaut" Into Space

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the humanoid Kirobo "robot astronaut" into orbit from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan as part of nearly 3.5 tons of supplies and equipment to resupply the space station's six-person crew

Kirobo was packed inside Japan's unmanned  HTV-4 (Kounotori 4) cargo ship when it launched into orbit atop the country's H-2B rocket  at 3:48 p.m. EDT (1948 GMT), though it was early Sunday morning (Aug. 4) Japan Standard Time at the time of liftoff. The HTV-4 spacecraft will arrive at the space station on Aug. 9

Kirobo was put through a series of zero-gravity and other safety tests before it was deemed ready for flight. Image posted June 27, 2013.

Source: Japan robot astronaut ready for space launch

Google has launched new program "Google City Experts"

Google City Experts is a new program introduced by Google to encourage more high quality local business rating and reviews on Google+.

The Google City Expert program brings together the most active users on Google Maps who write reviews and upload photos of local places. As a City Expert you will receive:

• Access to fun, exclusive events in their local areas
• Free custom swag
• Special online recognition

The program is currently limited to select cities in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Japan, and will reward users who have left at least 50 reviews to date, and who produce at least five new reviews each month.

Join now in Google City Experts

Source: Introducing Google City Experts!

Where’s my phone? Android Device Manager can help you to find your lost phone

Android Device Manager is Google’s latest solution to help you hunt out your hidden handset. New Android Device Manager, of a few simple features you can use to keep your device—and the data you store inside—safe and secure.

Locate and ring your misplaced device

You may ended up dropping your phone between those couch cushions, Android Device Manager lets you quickly ring your phone at maximum volume so you can find it. If you left your phone at restaurant last night or if it's been silenced, you can locate it on a map in real time

Protecting your personal information and data

Android Device Manager can help you keep your data from ending up in the wrong hands. If your phone can’t be recovered, or has been stolen, you can quickly and securely erase all of the data on your device.

Availability and getting started

This service will be available later this month on devices running Android 2.2 or above; to use it, you also will need to be signed into your Google Account. There will also be an Android app to allow you to easily find and manage your devices. Stay tuned!

Source: Find your lost phone with Android Device Manager

USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced availability of the USB 3.1 Specification to increase SuperSpeed USB to 10 Gbps

The USB 3.0 Promoter Group today announced the completion of the USB 3.1 Specification which adds enhancements to enable SuperSpeed USB to operate at up to 10 Gbps. SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps uses a more efficient data encoding and will deliver more than twice the effective data through-put performance of existing SuperSpeed USB over enhanced, fully backward compatible USB connectors and cables. Compatibility is assured with existing USB 3.0 software stacks and device class protocols as well as with existing 5 Gbps hubs and devices and USB 2.0 products.

This latest release of the specification will be available today for download from the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) website.

Source: USB 3.1

Facebook Introduced Embedded Posts

In an attempt to boost its connection to current events and breaking news, Facebook is making the social network's public content more accessible to news outlets with the Wednesday release of embedded posts

Facebook software engineer Dave Capra said in a statement, “we are beginning to roll out Embedded Posts to make it possible for people to bring the most compelling, timely public posts from Facebook to the rest of the web.”

Embedded Posts let people add public posts from Facebook to their blog or web site. When embedded, posts can include pictures, videos, hashtags and other content. People can also like and share the post as well as follow directly from the embed. Only posts set to public can be embedded on other web sites.

Just put a hashtag(#) before the keyword of your facebook post. Same the following image

People can embedded posts clicking “Like Page” button

People also can embedded post clicking “Follow Page ” button

Every day, public figures, journalists and millions of regular people share their thoughts on what's happening around the world on Facebook publicly.  Anyone can get the opportunity to discuss with them by using embedded post

Source: Introducing Embedded Posts

Find most popular widget for your wordpress blog

Widget is a fancy word for tools or content that you can add, arrange, and remove from the sidebar(s) of your blog. Widgets create it easy to customize the content of your sidebar(s). Widget appears at appearance. Here are some most popular and also necessary wordpress widgets;

Widget Name	Summary
Top Posts & Pages	Top Posts & Pages Widget allows you to display up to ten of your most popular posts as of the last 48 hours or your most liked posts.
About.me	About.me widget allows you to pull in your About.me profile information, and a small screenshot of it.
Akismet	Akismet Widget will display the number of spam comments caught over the life of your blog.
Archives	Archives Widget organizes your previously published posts by month. This can be handy for readers who want to browse your older content.
Author Grid	Author Grid Widget is a great way to showcase your blog’s authors in your sidebar. The widget displays the avatars of all your blog’s authors, which link to a list of posts they’ve each written.
Authors	Authors Widget is a great way to showcase your blog’s authors in your sidebar. It can display the names or avatars of all your blog’s authors, links to a list of all their former posts, as well as links to posts they’ve recently written.
BandPage	If you are a BandPage user this widget will allow you to easily embed BandPage Extensions into your WordPress blog. This will make your BandPage music, photos, videos, event listing and bio.
Blog Stats	Blog Stats Widget displays the total number of views to your blog (not including your own views). It’s a nice way of showing off how popular your blog is
Follow	Blogs I Follow Widget allow you to list some of the blogs that you are following via the WordPress Reader in your sidebar.
Box.net	Box.net file sharing widget gives you a great looking way to share files with your readers or buddies.
Calendar	Calendar Widget is a simple, easy-to-use widget that displays links to your posts by date.
Categories	Categories Widget organizes your posts by category in your blog’s sidebar. This can be handy for readers who want to find more of your posts about certain topics.
Custom Menu	Custom Menu Widget allows you to display pages, categories, and custom links in your blog’s sidebar. To use it, you first need to create a custom menu.
Delicious	If you have an account with the social bookmarking service delicious, you can display your latest bookmarks in your sidebar with the aptly titled delicious widget. This is a nice way of sharing your bookmarks with your blog visitors.
Flickr	Flickr widget makes it easy to show thumbnails of your latest Flickr photos in your sidebar. Your photos must be viewable by the public in order for this feature to work, so be sure to check your Flickr privacy settings before activating this widget.
Follow Blog	Follow Blog Widget enables your readers sign up to receive your posts via email
Gallery	Gallery Widget provides you with a simple way to display a photo gallery or slideshow in your blog’s sidebar.
GoodReads	GoodReads provides a service that allows you to share your reading lists with friends, and the GoodReads widget at WordPress blog lets you feature some of the books you’ve listed.
Gravatar Profile	Gravatar profile widget allows you to pull in your Gravatar image along with some of your Gravatar profile data.
Image	Image Widget provides you with a simple way to display an image in your blog’s sidebar.
Instagram	Instagram widget allows you to display your latest Instagram photos in your site’s sidebar.
Links	Links Widget displays a list of links (also known as a blogroll) in your sidebar.
Meta	Meta Widget is a simple tool that makes it easy to log in and out of your blog and access your dashboard and RSS feeds from your sidebar.
Milestone	Milestone Widget provides you with a simple way to create a countdown to a given date theme.
My Community	My Community Widget allows you to show users who have interacted with your WordPress.com site.
Pages	Pages Widget displays your blog’s pages in your sidebar. This can make it easier for your readers to navigate around your blog.
Posts I Like	Posts I Like Widget allows you to list the most recent posts that you have ‘Liked’ on WordPress blog so that you can help your readers discover more good posts.
Readmill	Readmill is the best book reader for phones and tablets. With this widget you can enable users to send a book to their device with one click.
Recent Comments	Recent Comments Widget is a sidebar tool that displays the most recent comments readers have left on your blog.
Recent Posts	Recent Posts Widget displays your most recent posts in your sidebar, making it easy for your readers to see what’s new on your blog.
RSS Links	RSS Links Widget allows you to add links to your blog’s post and comment RSS feeds in your sidebar. This makes it easy for your readers to stay updated when you post new content or receive new comments.
RSS	RSS Widget displays posts from any RSS feed. You might find this handy if you want to show off one of your other blogs, or one of your favorite blogs, in your sidebar.
Search	Search Widget adds a search box to your blog sidebar, allowing readers to easily search your site for posts and pages you’ve written in the past.
Tag Cloud	Tag Cloud Widget shows a list of all the tags you’ve assigned to your posts. The most common tags will be displayed in the largest font size. It can display up to 45 of your most popular tags.
Text	Text Widget allows you to add text or HTML to your sidebar. It’s the most popular widget because of its power and flexibility. You can use a text widget to display text, links, images, HTML, or a combination of these.
Top Clicks	Top Clicks Widget show which of your external links (links pointing to other websites) in your posts are most popular with your readers. You can access this information without sharing it on your blog by going to Stats tab on the WordPress blog homepage.
Top Rated	Top Rated Widget, you can show which of your pages, posts, and/or comments have the highest ratings. You need to have ratings enabled on your blog for this feature to work. The widget displays up to 20 items for each type of rating, with selectors for day, week, and month
Twitter Timeline	Twitter Timeline Widget Twitter offers embeddable timelines that allow you to display any public Twitter feed onto your blog.
Upcoming Events	Upcoming Events is a widget and a shortcode. It allows you to use an iCalendar link to display a list of events on your WordPress blog

Source: Popular widget for wordprss blog

Facebook has announced it is joining the mobile publishing game

Facebook is taking new steps to boost its engagement on mobile and tap into the growing gaming market, announcing Tuesday that it has launched a new mobile games publishing platform for developers.

Mobile Game Publishing

According to social network page Facebook's new pilot program is aims “to help small and medium-sized developers take their mobile games global. Through the program, we will work with select game developers and provide promotional support for their games in placements across our mobile apps.”

Launching a game on Facebook’s mobile platform, the social network noted, gives developers a chance to reach around 800 million monthly mobile users. The company has recruited Dan Morris, formerly of Electronic Arts and DeNA, to lead its mobile games partnership team. Facebook will "promote a game across a variety of channels" and then "share in the success of those games by participating in the revenue share," Morris says.

Facebook also announced the first 10 developer participants in the program. They are

·         5th Planet, Dawn of the Dragons

·         Brainbow Dr. Newton: The Great Brain Adventure

·         Certain Affinity, Age of Booty: Tactics

·         Dragonplay, Live Hold'Em

·         Gameloft, Kingdoms & Lords

·         KiwiGames Shipwrecked

·         Outplay Entertainment, Monster Legacy

·         Space Ape, Samurai Siege

·         WeMade Entertainment, WIND Runner

·         Gamevil, Train City

Source:  Mobile game publishing by Facebook

Next year ASUS will be enter US smartphone market

Recently, HP has announced that they are going to make smartphone. So why not others, now ASUS has declared that they are also ready to enter US smartphone market but not this year. The ASUS chairman ended by saying that 2013 wasn't likely and he then said “I think next year is more reasonable.”

ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih

 In recent time, ASUS have been successful in the Android space with the Nexus 7 and Transformer tablet series, but one area they’ve struggled to gain traction is with smartphones. The company has been busy with their ASUS Padfone and FonePad, but penetrating the already crowded US smartphone market is the next challenge they want to take on.

Source: Taiwan’s Asus Aims to Enter U.S. Smartphone Market Next Year

Satellite E series notebooks E45T & E55t/E55D newly announced by Toshiba

Toshiba announced its Satellite E series ultrathin notebooks  14-inch Satellite E45T and the 15.6-inch Satellite E55t/E55Dt will feature touchscreens and will be available with either fourth-generation Intel Core processors (Haswell) or AMD A6-series (Kabini) CPUs

New Satellite E series notebooks will take design cues from the company’s luxury Kirabook, except they're made of aluminum instead of pressed magnesium, and the bottom isn't made of metal but rather, textured plastic. The screen resolution is also lower, at 1,366 x 768; these are middle-of-the-road machines, after all. On the bright side, they all support 802.11ac WiFi -- of a surprise on otherwise humdrum systems like these.

The E45T will be with a Core i5 Haswell processor and a 500GB hard drive paired with an SSD. Perhaps most interesting, though, is that the E45t will come with Dragon Assistant on board for simple voice commands (think: shutting down the computer, doing a web search, controlling multimedia playback, et cetera). You can expect to find that next week, on August 4th, with a suggested retail price of $818.

The 15-inch version, meanwhile, will be offered with either a Core i5 processor and touchscreen (that's the E55t) or a quad-core A6 APU. There are actually two AMD models: one configuration comes with a touchscreen (that would be the E55Dt) and one has a non-touch panel (that's the E55D). Strangely, the non-touch model also offers lesser storage; that has a 750GB HDD, while the touch version goes up to a full terabyte.

Source: Toshiba outs Satellite E45t / E55 mid-range laptops

Sony and Panasonic agreement for developing a next-generation standard for professional-use optical discs

Summary: Sony and Panasonic sign basic agreement to jointly develop standard for professional-use next-generation optical discs

Sony and Panasonic have announced that they have signed a basic agreement with the objective of jointly developing a next-generation standard for professional-use optical discs, with the objective of expanding their archive business for long-term digital data storage. Both companies target will be the development of an optical disc with recording capacity of at least 300GB by the end of 2015.

In a statement both companies said they had “a proven track record in developing Blu-ray Disc™ format technologies, and by actively promoting the adoption of a new standard for next-generation high-capacity optical discs, they intend to offer solutions that preserve valuable data for future generations.”

Source: Sony and Panasonic sign basic agreement to jointly develop standard for professional-use next-generation optical discs