Twitter ratchets up phishing protection by adopting DMARC standard

Phishing emails often pose as being sent by major league sites rather than princes from far-flung countries, but Twitter's implemented a new measure to stamp out phonies that borrow its name. Costolo and Co. announced that, earlier this month, they began leveraging a tech called DMARC that establishes a way for email providers to authenticate senders and reject messages penned by impostors. While the DMARC specification does need support from e-mail services, outfits including AOL (which happens to be our parent company), Gmail, Hotmail / Outlook and Yahoo already make use of it. According to Twitter, it's now "extremely unlikely" that the majority of their users will receive emails masquerading as being sent from a Twitter.com address. We're sorry to disappoint, but it looks like you'll have to get your fix of foreign lottery notices from somewhere else.

[Source: Engadget]

Google Glass maps, translation and more shown off in new vid

Google's futuristic 'Glass' eyewear is slowly but surely coming into focus, with the Big G releasing a new video that gives a clue as to how the space-age pince-nez will function.

In several scenes, real-time GPS is shown to be feeding maps data into the eyepieces of Glass wearers, so you can see where you are on a map while driving or cycling.

The video also suggests that commands are summoned by saying "OK Glass", which calls up more voice-activated commands, including "Google", "Take a picture" and "Record a video".

It seems you won't need your hands for photographical functions then, but the futuristic specs are also going to include touchpad controls, which may come in handy for more sophisticated tasks.

Translation is another touted feature, so you could use Google's voice search to demand instructions on how to say a word in French, for instance.

Google's original 'One Day' trailer for Google Glass was a lot more ambitious, featuring icons that bob in front of your eye and other high-tech treats that likely won't be available when Google Glass eventually goes on sale.

I think it's good to see the search giant talking in more practical terms about what its glasses will be capable of. A new site explains some of its features, and opens the doors to fans who want to be among the first to use the new technology, if you can impress Google with your combination of words, pictures and relevant hashtags.

Better still, it reveals that Google Glass will come in black, grey, white, blue and orange! Hooray for colours!

[Source: CNET]

NVIDIA UNVEILS NEW TEGRA 4I PROCESSOR WITH BUILT-IN LTE

NVIDIA (NVDA) on Tuesday announced its first Tegra processor with an integrated LTE chip. The 2.3GHz quad-core Tegra 4i, which brings the company in closer competition withQualcomm (QCOM) and its line of Snapdragon CPUs, is equipped with 60 custom GPU cores, a fifth processing core for battery conservation and an integrated NVIDIA i500 LTE modem. It also includes NVIDIA’s Chimera camera technology that is capable of capturing HDR panorama shots without requiring a single-direction sweep. The company calls its the new processor the most efficient, highest performance CPU core on the market, noting that it will provide “amazing computing power, world-class phone capabilities, and exceptionally long battery life.”

[Source: BGR]

Google Liberates More of Your Data With New Takeout Service

Google is once again trying to show itself as the friendly service that feels you own your ondata by adding a couple of more service to its Takeout product.

While Facebook continues to do everything possible to hold on to your data for as long as possible, Google has been adding more and more data liberation tools to its Takeout – now apparently being renamed to Takeaway – product. For some time you’ve been able to download all of your information from Contacts to your Profile, but now it has also added Blogger and Google+ to the services you can grab your data from.

The new Blogger extraction tool allows you to remove your entire history, or even as little as one blog post. On the Google+ side of things, you not only get your original posts, but also all of the data on the circles you shared it with.

Freedom of data you create should be a no-brianer, but it appears Google is one of the few companies that understands that.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Google Takeout now liberating Blogger and Google+ Pages

Google Takeout's export functions have slowly extended their reach from profiles and personal contacts to heftier material, such as all our videos. However much we've been using that data portability, Google is eliminating what few gaps are left in its coverage: the company's Data Liberation Front has expanded Takeout to preserve both Blogger content as well as Google+ Pages. Web denizens can cherry-pick just the blogs or Pages they want if a whole-enchilada backup is too much. Regardless of how large a safety net we need, the new options are ready and waiting at the source links.

[Source: Engadget]

Blockbuster to close 164 stores, 800 jobs under threat

Another 164 Blockbuster stores are to close, threatening 800 jobs and leaving the DVD and game rental chain with less than half its stores surviving.

The latest round of closures is on top of 160 closures already announced. That takes the number of doomed Blockbuster stores to 324, leaving just 204 branches remaining of the 528 open when Blockbuster first went into administration.

The branches earmarked for closure will stay open for the time being, but there's no word on how long for. Fear not though -- stores will inform customers ahead of time to give you opportunity to return rented items. Returning items to a company that's about to go under, that'll definitely be at the top of the to-do list.

In the meantime, the Blockbuster website has a clearance sale, including a deal to get you 6 pre-owned DVDs for £10 -- and we're talking proper recent movies like True Grit, Star Trek andBridesmaids.

The administrators were called in in mid-January and are currently searching for a buyer to see if Blockbuster can continue trading.  

Blockbuster's administration is handled by Deloitte, which ushered Comet to the great high street in the sky last year and is also currently administering to ailing music and movie shop HMV. HMV is closing 66 stores in the UK, threatening nearly 1,000 jobs, and abandoning Ireland completely at the cost of 300 jobs.

Meanwhile camera emporium Jessops, which has disappeared from the high street, is to reopen online after buyers -- including Dragons' Den tellypreneur Peter Jones -- snapped up bits of the brand.

[Source: CNET]

Microsoft Offers Workarounds for iOS 6.1 Exchange Bug

iOS 6.1, which was released two weeks ago, brought with it a handful of serious bugs. The first bug, which affected 3G performance on the iPhone 4S was fixed yesterday, followingApple's release of 6.1.1 for the iPhone 4S. 

The second bug involved an error that caused iOS devices running 6.1 to continuously loop when synchronizing a recurring calendar meeting invitation on Microsoft Exchange. This error, which causes excessive memory consumption, was not fixed with yesterday's 6.1.1 update. 

As noted by 9to5Mac Microsoft has published an official support document offering workarounds for the error. 

Microsoft offers up several fixes, including the recommendation not to process Calendar items like meeting requests on iOS 6.1 devices. The company also recommends immediately restarting the devices and renewing the device partnership to halt the continuous looping access. 

Devices using iOS 6.1 should be blocked or throttled, says Microsoft, in order to reduce the effect on server resources. 

While none of these options are true fixes, Microsoft mentions that it is working with Apple to investigate the issue and suggests customers open an Enterprise Support case with Apple, via Enterprise agreement or a pay-per-incident case report.

[Source: MacRumors]

Facebook Adds Buy Tickets Button in Event Pages

Facebook is making our itchy trigger fingers more susceptible to impulse clicks, with a new “Buy Tickets” button emblazoned in event pages.

The social conglomerate confirmed that instead of having a bit.ly link to a third-party ticket seller, that area will now entice users with a button. It doesn’t sound like an enormous change, but that small switch will no doubt affect a psychology in click happy Facebook users. Or at least that’s the hope. Everything seems to be live in the Netherlands and Israel, so the new switch is confined to only a specific audience. It’ll make going to shows with your friends that much easier.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Tesco Clubcard TV has free on-demand telly, sign-in wobbles

The fun of shopping at Tesco no longer has to end when you leave the supermarket -- now you can immerse yourself in Tesco all through the evening, with the company's new streaming service, Clubcard TV.

The service is free for anyone who possesses a Tesco Clubcard (if you don't have one, it's free to sign up), and puts a slew of movies and TV shows at your on-demand disposal, at the impressive price of precisely zero pounds. Batman, Goodness Gracious Me and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps are among the available programmes, the Telegraph reports.

The service is very similar to rivals such as Netflix or Lovefilm Instant, except for the lack of a monthly subscription fee, and the promise of more horse meat. You select what you want to watch, and the programme or film is streamed via your broadband connection.

At the moment the service seems limited to in-browser streaming, though as Tesco's promo video cheerily informs us, you can hook your computer up to your telly using an HDMI cable.

Teething woes

Signing up for the service appears to be borked at present, with three Clubcard-clutching CNET members unable to proceed past the Clubcard number entry page, which sees the site demanding a 'Privilege Card number'.

Privilege Cards are something given to staff once they've worked with the company for six months, so perhaps the service has been tested internally, and the supermarket forgot to turn off the Privilege Card number requirement.

Rival £6-per-month service Netflix recently launched its homemade House of Cards series, starring Kevin Spacey. Sainsburys, meanwhile, already has its own video-streaming service.

[Source: CNET]

O2 Tracks app offers UK Top 40 playback, for a price

If you follow obscure app-related news, you might remember that Samsung, MusicQubed and the Official Charts Company launched a UK Top 40 app last summer for owners of certain Samsung devices. That promotion's now come to an end, and this time around it's O2 that's partnering with the Charts Company with its own Top 40 app, fittingly dubbed "O2 Tracks."

When you first sign up there's a complementary free trial period -- 8 weeks for O2 subscribers, 2 weeks for anyone with another operator. After that, O2 customers can subscribe for £1 per week, while for others it's £5 per month. The music itself is delivered through a bright blue, O2-themed interface, with extra tabs for tawdry "celebrity news and gossip," if you're into that sort of thing.

Like the old Samsung app, tracks are downloaded to your device at regular intervals rather than being streamed, so any worries about data usage shouldn't apply here. For what it's worth, O2's app looks relatively well designed and clutter-free, but we doubt it'll be tearing anyone away from the likes of Spotify and Google Play Music anytime soon.

[Source: AndroidCentral]

Box offering 25 GB for free in promotion

Filesharing service Box is offering up 25 GB of free cloud storage in a new promotion (supposedly for "Gameday," but it seems to still be in effect anyway). To qualify, you must be a new customer on a free plan, or just sign up for a new account with a new email address. The deal is also for non-commercial use only, and because it's free, there's a file-size cap of 250 MB that you'll have to duck in under.

But even with those catches, who couldn't use some extra storage, right? Box's deal is as up for as long as they leave it up, so definitely jump on it soon if you're interested.

[Source: TUAW]

BBC iPlayer to stream shows ahead of broadcast

The BBC is looking at debuting some of its programming over iPlayer before it airs on television. The projected yearlong trial will test a variety of programs, Radio Times reports, but the BBC hasn't specified whether that will include established series or new ones. The BBC says there were more than 187 million requests for content through iPlayer last month and is hoping it will be a boost in overall viewing figures.

The BBC's first attempts in streaming online-only content includes the pilot of the BBC Three comedy Impractical Jokers. Prior to the first part ofDoctor Who series 7 airing in August 2012, the five-episode prequel "Pond Life" also was made available online-only. "Pond Life" also appeared on the BBC's YouTube channel at the same time it appeared in iPlayer. The first part currently has more than 1 million views just through YouTube.

[Source: TUAW]