Four new themes

Posted by Jake Knapp, UI Designer and Manu Cornet, Software Engineer

Manu: Hey Jake, you still using that same old theme?
Jake: Well, yeah. I mean, I like it -- but I don't know... I guess it just doesn't feel as new as it used to.
Manu: I hear ya. Well, good news! Today four new themes are out there for everybody. Just go to the Themes tab under Settings...and ta da!
Jake: (click, click) There we go!
Manu: Should we tell people about why we created these four themes?
Jake: We should.
Manu: Assuming they're still reading.
Jake: Right. Okay, well, Gmail themes have been out since November, and I know we were ready for some new ones.
Manu: And we heard some of you asking for new ones too. So we thought about what we wanted to stare at all day long, since we work on Gmail.
Jake: I've been living in Zurich for the last year, and I missed Washington State, where I grew up. The Orcas Island theme definitely takes away a little bit of that homesickness with a new image each day of the week.


Manu: Homesickness eh? What about timesickness?
Jake: There's such a thing?
Manu: Totally. Sometimes I find myself timesick.
Jake: For when?
Manu: For a simpler time. For a time when processors weren't too fast. When graphics weren't too realistic.
Jake: Sounds like a real bummer. Too bad there's no cure for timesickness.
Manu: That's where you're dead wrong, my friend. Take a look at High Score. It's like being in a time machine isn't it?


Jake: (click, click) Aren't these colors a little bright?
Manu: Aren't you supposed to be a designer?
Jake: We'll have to agree to disagree, my friend. This one just isn't for me. I need something soothing. Something like laying face down in the grass.
Manu: I suppose you're talking about Turf now. What's the story behind that one?


Jake: Well, who doesn't like the color green?
Manu: And it doesn't change every day, so it was easier for us to make.
Jake: Are you suggesting we're lazy?
Manu: Prove that we're not.
Jake: We just made four new themes. How about that?
Manu: It took us ten months. And the fourth theme (Random) merely cycles through all the others.
Jake: Well, enjoy these themes for now. And, of course, let us know what you think. Maybe we'll have some more for you in the next ten months ;)

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Nokia outs the XpressMusic X6 and X3

I like the XpressMusic line. I really do. It is fun to watch Nokia try something different and these two new models are no exception. The X6 has 32MB storage and Comes With Music unlimited downloads. It will cost about $650.



The X3 looks like a cousin to the Motorola RAZR and has a 3.2-megapixel camera, FM radio, and takes MicroSD cards. It will be $160.

No word on US availability but don’t hold your breath.

via Giz

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Aleo Photo Collage Maker 1.6

Aleo Photo Collage Maker lets you organize pictures into interesting designs. This is a fun way to use your digital snapshots.

The program's interface was a breeze to navigate, thanks to its simple flow and obvious command icons. Most users can skip the step-by-step Help file, but it is available for those who need a little more direction. Creating collages was a simple process that focused on dragging and dropping photos. You select a template or create your own by inputting the dimensions and simply slip photos into the clearly labeled slots. Thumbnails of user photos are displayed after a folder is selected, which makes picking and choosing a cinch. While making a collage was quick and efficient, we were really impressed by the additional options we hadn't foreseen: using the same method as collages, we were able to create a variety of greeting cards and calendars.

The 30-day trial is plenty of time to fully navigate the program. It also adds a watermark on the created design. With its simple functionality and more than ample features, this program is a great download for any photo collage lover.

 

Easy to use

The software features a wizard style user interface and is very easy to use. Firstly, choose from a variety of collage templates, then drag & drop your photos into the collage. Secondly, decorate your collage with cliparts, callouts and texts. Finally, print the result image or set it as wallpaper or send via email.

Applying photo frames and masks

You can choose from a variety of cool photo frames and masks, drag and drop it on a photo to apply it.

Adding cliparts decorations

The software offers numerous cliparts of different categories, you can simply drag and drop the clipart on the collage to decorate it.

Adding calendar images

You can add a fully customizable calendar image to your collage. You can set the year and month, change font name, size and color, set background color or set it as transparent.

Decorate your collage with texts and callouts

You can add texts to your collage or choose from a selection of rounds and rectangles and add a callout box with text. You can control callout shape, size, color, orientation, and drop shadow, and text font, size, style, layout, and color.

Powerful printing and Easy Share

You can print your collage with customized size or even more than one collages on one paper, you can save results as JPG, GIF, PNG and other popular image formats, set result as wallpaper, send via email, save as screensaver, PDF and stand-alone executable slide show file.

Free Photo Slideshow Screensaver Included

Aleo Photo Collage Maker contains a free photo slideshow screensaver "Aleo Photo Screensaver". You may customize the time interval between photo slides, specify the folder of your photos, and add background music. You may right click your desktop, then click "Properties". In the "Display Properties" dialog box, click the "Screen Saver" tab, and then select "Aleo Photo Screensaver" from the drop down list, then click "Setup" to configure it, and click "Preview" to preview it.

Hackers target Xbox Live players

Halo 3 players are a popular target for the Xbox attack

**BBC News**

Xbox Live is being targeted by malicious hackers selling services that kick players off the network.

The booting services are proving popular with players who want a way to get revenge on those who beat them in an Xbox Live game.

The attackers are employing data flooding tools that have been used against websites for many years.

Microsoft is "investigating" the use of the tools and said those caught using them would be banned from Xbox Live.

"There's been a definite increase in the amount of people talking about and distributing these things over the last three to four weeks," said Chris Boyd, director of malware research at Facetime Communications.

Attack tool

"The smart thing about these Xbox tools is that they do not attack the Xbox Live network itself," he said.

He said the tools work by exploiting the way that the Xbox Live network is set up. Game consoles connecting to the Xbox network send data via the net, and for that it needs an IP address.

Even better, said Mr Boyd, games played via Xbox Live are not hosted on private servers.

The tools mean anyone with a few dollars can boot rivals off Xbox Live

"Instead," he said, "a lot of games on Xbox Live are hosted by players."

If hackers can discover the IP address of whoever is hosting a game they can employ many of the attacks that have been used for years against websites, said Mr Boyd.

One of the most popular for the Xbox Live specialists is the Denial of Service attack which floods an IP address with vast amounts of data.

The flood of data is generated by a group of hijacked home computers, a botnet, that have fallen under the control of a malicious hacking group.

When turned against a website this flood of traffic can overwhelm it or make it unresponsive to legitimate visitors.

When turned against an Xbox owner, it can mean they cannot connect to the Live network and effectively throws them out of the game.

"They get your IP address, put it in the booter tool and they attempt to flood the port that uses Xbox traffic," said Mr Boyd. "Flooding that port prevents any traffic getting out."

Skill set

The hard part, he said, was discovering a particular gamer's IP address but many malicious hackers had honed the skills needed to find them.

Some interconnect their PC and Xbox and use packet sniffing software to hunt through the traffic flowing in and out of the console for IP addresses.

The hackers target the way Xbox consoles connect to the net

Others simply use con tricks to get the target to reveal their net address.

The technical knowledge needed to hunt down IP addresses was quite high, said Mr Boyd, but many of those who had the skills were selling their expertise to those keen to hit back at their rivals on the Xbox Live network.

For $20 (£13) some Xbox Live hackers will remotely access a customer's PC and set up the whole system so it can be run any time they need it.

Some offer low rates to add compromised machines to a botnet and increase the amount of data flooding a particular IP address.

Defending against the attack could be tricky, said Mr Boyd: "There's no real easy solution to this one."

Although IP addresses regularly change, people could find it takes hours or days for their ISP to move them on to a new one.

In response to the rise in attacks, Microsoft said: "We are investigating reports involving the use of malicious software tools that an attacker could use to try and disrupt an Xbox LIVE player's internet connection."

It added: "This problem is not related to the Xbox Live service, but to the player's internet connection. The attacker could also attempt [to] disrupt other internet activities, such as streaming video or web browsing, using the same tools.

In its statement Microsoft warned: "This malicious activity violates the Xbox Live Terms of Use, and will result in a ban from Xbox Live and other appropriate action.

It urged anyone falling victim to such an attack to contact their ISP to report it and get help fixing it.

In January 2009 Microsoft announced that Xbox Live had more than 17m members.

Xoopit Marries Facebook Status Updates With Gmail

Xoopit, a social networking email enhancement that allows users to locate files, images and videos in their inbox, has launched a new feature that lets Gmail users immediately see and set Facebook status messages and view profile photos of their Facebook friends while reading emails off a Gmail account.

Users can also quickly see other information such as birthdays and mobile phone numbers. After downloading the feature, a user can easily update their own status directly from a Gmail account using Facebook Connect. Xoopit’s new feature is pretty neat and gives users the ability to bounce between Facebook and Gmail accounts seamlessly. And Facebook’s status message feature is one that most users check most frequently, so its particularly useful to the average Facebook user.

The marriage of social networking and email is not a new concept. Yahoo and Google are both pretty open to incorporating social networking into their email applications, with Yahoo even potentially creating a social network around its email product (Yahoo mail has around 254 million users worldwide, Gmail has around 80 million users).

It doesn’t appear that the Xoopit-Facebook feature is available to Yahoo Mail users but the Yahoo and Xoopit may not be far away from developing a Gmail-like relationship with Yahoo, as we wrote about late last year.

The plug-in was a bit buggy when I downloaded it but I think its a nifty tool as a whole. It certainly saves me the time in switching back to Facebook to check status updates or update my own status. Now if only we could stream the news feed feature into Gmail.

Here’s another screenshot of the new feature:

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Microsoft: Bounty on Conficker worm creator

Microsoft has announced today that it is offering a reward of $250,000 to anyone who can provide information that can help arrest the creator of the Conficker worm. They stated that this worm is a criminal attack and that citizens from any country can receive the bounty.

Conficker, also known as Downandup, has infected millions of computers around the world since last year. It is difficult to stop because spreads through USB thumb drives or the internet and takes advantage of Windows machines that are missing newer security patches. Once it infects a computer, it can halt automatic updates and security scans, block access to security-related websites and even lock users out of their accounts.

Microsoft has experience with fighting large virus outbreaks like this. Back in 2004, they offered $250,000 for information about the Sasser worm. They later paid out the reward in 2005. They said that this time they are teaming up with security companies, and internet companies like AOL to stop the outbreak. Better late than never, I guess.

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New York Times releases newspaper-like “article skimmer”

While I prefer the sheer heft of the Sunday NYT, there’s something to be said for a great and easy way to skim the online version of the paper. Thankfully, the company just released a new webpage/browser for their website that creates skimmable browser that is easy to read without scrolling.



The skimmer works with most browsers. You simply click as section to see some of the latest stories - not all of them, but enough to be useful. The stories pop up in little boxes on the page along with a thumbnail image.

While many of a certain age will agree that there’s something about getting the paper in the morning that can’t be beat, I’m sure my son will be reading the NYT in this format on his own iTablet come 2020 or so. And so we march into the future.

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