Google has added another layer of security to its Google Apps service, which may make it more appealing to businesses still uncertain about joining the move to Cloud Computing. The new step to keeping accounts secure currently applies to the Premier, Education, and Government editions of Google Apps, with the feature coming to all Google Apps users in the next few months.
It can’t be more simple, yet it’s actually quite clever. When users sign up to Google Apps, one of the details they’re asked to supply is their mobile phone number. With this new step, when you log in to your Google Apps account, a random security code, which changes each time, will be sent to your phone, either via a text or voice call. To verify yourself and actually get in to your account, you will need to type the code you are given into the site. If the code is wrong, you won’t get in. It’s the same concept as those “Authenticators” banks and online games are starting to use in abundance, but it eliminates the need for any new gadgetry, and instead uses the one gadget practically everyone these days has – their phone.
What’s more, to make the feature less annoying, Google lets users tone down the security for devices they trust. If a user is on a trusted computer — their office system, for example — they can opt to have their verification code remembered on that computer, meaning they won’t be asked for a code for 30 days, instead of having to enter a new one upon each login.
One final point, for those Tech-minded people out there who may want to take advantage of this security in their own projects: it may interest you to know that Google has built its verification feature on the open source OATH standard, meaning users can customize it for their own needs or even apply it to non-Google applications.
In a blog post posted today, Dave Girouard – the president of Google Enterprise – stated that the company will soon offer the ability to edit Google Docs documents on Android devices and the Apple iPad.
Little information was given about the additional editing capability in the blog post, which instead seemed more focused on the news that more than 3 million businesses have “gone Google,” a term Google has coined for those using Google hosted services. However, reports suggest the technology may be predicated on DocVerse, which Google bought in March.
DocVerse allows users of PowerPoint, Word, and Excel documents to collaborate and save them to the cloud, as well as chat with the collaborators, and many other features. Although DocVerse originally provided up to 1 GB of free storage, with any additional files costing $0.25 per GB per year, the service would presumably be rolled into the Google Apps Premier Edition fee, or $50 per user per year.
Four New York University students who raised a bundle of cash to build a privacy-preserving alternative to Facebook sure have their work cut out for them.
The project in question, Diaspora, grew out of deep-rooted dissatisfaction many people expressed earlier this year in response to Facebook privacy changes that without warning exposed details many users didn’t want to share with world+dog. When the developers sought funding, according to The New York Times, they asked for $10,000. So strong was the discontent of some Facebook users that they ended up with donations exceeding $200,000.
On Wednesday, to show people just how far the project has come along, some of the open-source code planned to be used in a pre-alpha version of the website was made available to the public. However, only a few hours later, hundreds of security researchers and amateur hackers began identifying security flaws in the code that could seriously compromise those who used the service. Among other things, the mistakes make it possible to hijack accounts, friend users without their permission, and Read the rest of this entry »
As if no-one guessed already – Sony has officially announced plans to release 3D enabled games for its Move motion-sensing controller.
At the Tokyo Game Show, the Japanese consumer electronics giant revealed to the mass media plans to introduce 3D games to its PlayStation Move, while announcing 3D Blu-ray movie support for its PS3 console with a firmware update, which according to reports will be released on 21 September.
Opinions are divided, with others saying that 3D technology is both still in its infancy and an unattractive proposition to most consumers – a situation not expected to change for three years – and others claiming that it makes good business sense as a way for Sony to tout it’s OWN 3D TV sets. There’s also a belief that the Nintendo’s 3DS hand-held gaming device may steal Sony’s thunder, as its technology does not require special glasses. But Sony’s spokesman has refuted all anti-3D opinions, stating that the company is trying to promote the technology in content and that the 3D titles fall in same price bracket as their 2D variants. What do you think?
For most people, surfing the internet has become synonymous with clicking on the ‘e’ icon on their computers to launch Internet Explorer (IE). And while it is by far the most popular browser in the world, of late, IE had seen increasing threat from others such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera that claim to be faster, have more features, and more secure. Microsoft’s answer to all these criticisms has been to unveil a new version of the browser: Internet Explorer 9 (IE9). Read the rest of this entry »
Security vendor Avast takes a cue from its own name and a slightly aged Internet meme to bring you a pirate-themed approach to home computer protection.
Since last night, Avast has been preparing to celebrate the international “Talk Like a Pirate Day” that comes every year on September 19. Users using Avast! will at some point receive a prompt from the program telling them about Talk Like a Pirate Day and give them the option to install a special “Pirate English” language pack. This tongue-in-cheek new feature rebrands four of the main screens in Avast!’s user interface to use Pirate Speak for people who opt in to the feature through September 22.
The changes are actually quite minimal, but somewhat humorous. A skull-and-crossbones is added to the avast! logo, and the “Secured” text to confirm that the program is working correctly changes to say “Ship-Shape”, also stating, “Yer ship be secure.” Menu options are also renamed to a more pirate-y theme, with the Scan options being renamed “Scour the Ship”, the Virus Chest becomes the “Dead-man’s chest”, and so on. If you like a little bit of pirate humour, then you’ll like this new feature.
It is not often that I post freebies that other blogs are doing, because it both seems like a conflict of interest, and also said freebies usually have some sort of term or condition that makes it not as great an offer as they seem. However, I was recently made aware of this Freebie Giveaway that is exclusive to one specific tech blog, and I thought I just HAD to make an exception.
For the next 48-hours, popular tech blog dotTech has teamed up with Yellow blue soft to bring dotTechies Tabbles Home (normal price USD$29.99) for free! For those that don't know, Tabbles is a program that aims to eliminate your file management pains by easily and efficiently tagging files. There are many handy features of Tabbles, such as the ability to multi-tag files, the ability to auto-tag, and powerful tags/files filtering capabilities. The idea is that by categorizing the same file under multiple tags, and filter down to them, you should be able to find any file you need easily even if you can't remember the file's name or location – and the file is still kept in its original location and isn't modified or copied in any way. If you would like to learn more about Tabbles in detail, you can drop by Read the rest of this entry »
Google today have officially retired the original web-based interface for GMail, their own-brand email service, previously served to browsers unable to support the current interface or those who clicked the “Older Version” link at the bottom of the page.
Browsers incompatible with all the features of the modern interface are now forced to use the Basic HTML view, and the “Older Version” link no longer exists. Attempts to load the Older Version manually, by typing in the URL to it yourself, also fail.
Since the HTML version is incredibly limited in functionality, this change effectively means that Google has forced all GMail users into an “all-or-peanuts” situation – either having to use the default interfacer, with ALL of Google’s various features and tweaks if they want to use any feature not standard to email (such as Chat, Labs Features…); or going back to the dark ages. In this reporter’s opinion, expect to see a number of complaints in the upcoming weeks.
A Twitter user going by the user name of ‘nocchisan’, who apparently is or was an employee at Japanese Videogaming company Key Factory, tweeted that Key Factory is gearing up to launch 3DS peripherals to coincide with the Japanese launch of the hand-held on 20 November 2010.
However, shortly after the tweet was posted, the Twitter account disappeared completely from the service, taking the tweet along with it.
The tweet Read the rest of this entry »
The G1 smartphone from T-Mobile was the first Android-powered handset to hit the market, and it was arguably a very good introduction for Android to the Smartphone market. But that was a few years back, and since then we’ve seen far superior Android smartphones hit the market. It didn’t take long, therefore, for people to spread rumours that T-Mobile was working on a sequel to the phone to hit back at the newer, stronger competitors. But T-Mobile stayed silent all this time.
Until today.
T-Mobile has just announced it is mounting a comeback with a sequel phone that’s “better than ever”. The new phone is called – what else? – T-Mobile G2 (with Google), and is Read the rest of this entry »