Following on from the popularity of the genuine “Like” button that the social network installed, hackers have decided install an application pitched as the “Dislike application.

Once a user grants access to said application, the hacker pumps out spam through their Facebook account, which snowballs as the user’s friends get invited to join the application. You have been warned.

Image by: www.larrabetzutik.org

Facebook has agreed to launch a new application which will act as a panic button on users’ profile pages. The decision has come after much debate on how child safety online should be tackled.

The application is aimed at children and teenagers who want to report abuse to the CEOP, and is said to give them the feeling that they are in control online.

The popular social networking site was originally against the idea after CEOP, a government law enforcement agency that tracks down online sex offenders, called for it to be implemented in November 2009.

More people began to call for such a device after the rape and murder of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall. Her killer was a 33-year-old convicted sex offender, who she met on Facebook – he posed as a teenage boy.

Bebo was the first social networking site top adopt the button, followed by MySpace and now finally Facebook.

Jim Gamble, CEOP’s chief executive, said in a statement to the BBC:

“Our dialogue with Facebook about adopting the ClickCeop button is well documented – today however is a good day for child protection.

“By adding this application, Facebook users will have direct access to all the services that sit behind our ClickCeop button which should provide reassurance to every parent with teenagers on the site.”

The CEOP has also decided to set up a Facebook page reporting on a variety of topics that are of interest to teens, and then link these subjects to safety online.

It has been revealed that 1.5 million people follow Dell on Twitter and more than 3.5 million people have communicated with the company via Twitter and Facebook.

Dell’s Internet, spokesman Richard Binhammer said: “Wherever our customers are is where we want to be. The more places where we’re available to them, the better it is.”

Image by: JoshSemans

1. The Anti-vuvuzela trumpet software scam

Anyone who has been watching the World Cup will know just how annoying the constant hooting of the vuvuzela is. Well, Scammer have decide to cash in on people’s frustration, and invent a fake anti-vuvuzela trumpet software, with supposed “active noise cancellation” technology.

Do not be fooled, this is a scam and will leave you with an empty wallet and vuvuzela’s still ringing in your ears.

2.  Facebook “click-jacking” scam

Beware of the phoney “like” button my fair Facebook users! If you see that your mate is suddenly advertising Andrex toilet tissue, then you know they have been hit by the scam.

This click-jacking occurs when a user clicks on a link to a webpage which, when clicked through leads the victim to a third-party site, and accesses their news feed without them knowing!

The link to this page then appears on the home pages of the users friends, luring in other potential victims.

3. Eclipse novella features more nasties than bargained for…

The popular Twilight Saga is being targeted by scammer looking to manipulate young and incautious fans.

The Eclipse novella The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is available to read for free at BreeTanner.com, but hackers have been luring fans who are desperate for a copy, into downloading malicious viruses and malware.

The 192-page short story is available in a read-only format at breetanner.com, and fans have been warned not to click any download that claim to lead to downloads.

4. It’s another shot at the World Cup!

Scammers are well known for targeting current events and the Wolrd Cup has been hit hard this year.

Spam has done the rounds targeting American supporters with competition offers based on World Cup quizzes and phishing email with subject lines:

“Know your football? Make your World Cup predictions. Completely free. Predict correct and win a huge cash prize.”

5. Facebook friend-deleting bug

Yes the hackers have taken another swipe at Facebook with a code that uses publicly available data from Facebook to delete every friendship connection a user has!

You have been warned…

Image credit: Bruno Biagioni Neto

A student in the US reported the flaw, a code that uses publicly available data from Facebook to delete every friendship connection a user has.

Facebook official have stated that the flaw has been mended, but it seems that the bug can still be manipulated to control the site’s “like” feature and advert endorsement content.

Image by: M i x y

You may be sick of hearing “touch screen this, multitouch that” but HP’s motto “life without walls” should be changed to “notebook without walls” in mind of this little laptop. PC Site® is here to tell you exactly what is so great about this particular touch screen PC.

What I like

There are too many things to like about this laptop, and with an Internet users short attention span in mind, I try to be brief.

The tm2 interface has new touch apps for Twitter, Hulu and Netflix and the TouchSmart browser has large and easy to use buttons (there is nothing worse than a touch screen with tiny buttons that not event the sharpest stylus can tap).

It also has new touch-enhanced applications such as HP BumpTop touch enabled 3D desktop which allows you to upload photos onto social media sites and send documents to the printer with a simple “flicking” action.

There is also Corel® Paint It! Touch (its like finger painting without the mess), which lets you create pictures or turn photos into paintings. The one that really made me squeal with excitement was the DigiFish Dolphin application; a 3-D screensaver that recreates an ocean environment that you can interact with…you can even stroke a dolphin through your own computer screen.

Ok, enough with the cool apps, back to the hardware and usability. The twist action of the laptop, the one that turns it from notebook to slate and back again, is very smooth and feels sturdy.

It provides a full notebook experience with the latest low-voltage Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processors, 8Gb memory, 320Gb hard drive and optional high multimedia performance ATI Mobility Radeon™. The 6-cell battery gives users around 9 hours of use and it has an advanced thermal design that helps to keep the PC cool.

This notebook also earns green points as it is brominated flame retardant (BFR) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) free!

What I don’t like

Well the only negative point is that this laptop will probably come with all HP’s preloaded software and applications (as do most of its PCs) which will take time to uninstall if you don’t need them.

Summary

In conclusion, this TouchSmart tm2 is amazing in every way. From its sophisticated aluminum design with “Riptide” engraved illustration, Intel processing power and smooth touch-enabled applications.

This video sums it up nicely:

Product specifications

• Windows® 7 Home premium
• 12.1 inch WXGA LED Brightview screen
• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor
• Up to 8Gb DDR3 memory
• Up to 320Gb hard drive
• ATI Mobility Radeon™ graphics card
• 6 cell battery – approx 9 hours

There have been two recent attacks featuring a ’sexy video’ which lures the user into clicking on a fake FLV Player upgrade message which then downloads adware onto the PC.

Security firms have now called for Facebook to set up a warning system for its users to notify them of any threats that may occur when clicking on links.

Image by: www.larrabetzutik. Org

The makers of the popular free antivirus software, said that from midnight to 9am on Saturday 15 May they blocked more than 300,000 rogue applications.

It used a picture of a girl in a bikini to entice viewers to click on the image, which would download adware onto their computer, called hotbar and lead to hundreds of pop-up ads.

“Interestingly, they launched it on a Saturday. I guess they figure we don’t watch on the weekend,” said Roger Thompson, AVG’s Chief Research Officer, “but malcode researchers are all cut from the same cloth as Inspector Gadget… we’re always on duty.”

“This latest issue really underscores how powerful, while at the same time vulnerable, social networking applications are. This attack was actually stunning in terms of scale,” said.

“Facebook is very responsive to threats when we identify them, and removing these applications as soon as they find them, but they’re still able to generate huge traffic, just because of the viral nature of social networks. It is staggering how many threats were propagated before they were stopped.”

Some of the most notorious malware has made use of natural disasters like the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti to entice people to defraud people looking to make donations, but many still use the classic offers of a free popular product (like the iPad) or pictures of a pretty girl.

Make sure you have up to date anti-virus software to protect from malware.

Image Credit: Franco Bouly

Everything seemed to kick off with the rumours of Apple’s tablet, now released as the iPad; so much anticipation, speculation and excitement. Many PC manufacturers have brought out competitors to the device, such as HP’s Slate but are they all they cracked up to be?

The initial attraction

The idea of a button-less, sleek, hand-held device that can hold your entire digital world, sound very appealing I admit. You can watch videos on them, browse the web, read magazines and newspapers, organise your images and play games.

They are fun for all the family, but that is just it, they are for fun. One look at the iPad and you’ll want one; but it seems that these devices are more for show than real computing.

Tablet vs. laptop

What does a tablet do that a notebook or netbook can’t? Ok for one it may be a tad smaller and lighter but is it a practical portable computing device?

Writing anything other than an email, Facebook update or Tweet isn’t as easy on an iPad, as Rafe Needleman points out in his Cnet blog Real-world iPad annoyances: A timeline:

“It has no arrow keys and obviously no mouse, which makes quick edits go slow. Selecting text by pointing and dragging over it works and looks cool but is just not efficient. It’s an annoying roadblock. (The external keyboard accessory has arrow keys, but I’d rather carry my MacBook with me than schlep that thing around.)”

Ninety nine per cent of people use their computers to type up a document of some sort and it’s in those areas that the iPad specifically seems to fail. Now compare that with a HP Mini 1000; you can buy it for around the same price as the iPad and the keyboard is one of the stand out features.

It has a 10.2-inch display, compared with the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen, although it does weigh only 0.7kg compared to the HP’s 1.02kg.

If it is style you seek, you may see the iPad as a more fashionable option, but HP does some beautiful netbooks in an array of colours and patterns, including the new butterfly design by Vivienne Tam.

The winner?

What it boils down to is personal preference, but there is one PC that is the perfect compromise. The Lenovo U1 laptop with removable slate device gives you the best of both worlds.

When docked, it runs Windows 7 on the dock’s low-power Intel processor and has a 128Gb SSD, but once detached it uses an ARM CPU and runs on Linux. The resistive 11.6-screen supports multitouch, and the switch over is said to take place in under 3 seconds.

Life is all about compromise and the Lenovo U1 Hybrid is the ultimate PC/Slate/tablet/laptop.

Image credits:  FHKE nDevilTV

Following the recently announced release date for a certain other slate we have all come to know and love, HP has decided to get in on the action.

HP has posted videos (see below) on YouTube showing a computer-rendered model of the tablet in action, and boy is it a beauty!

According to what the video suggests, the Slate will have two-way video chat capabilities, a USB port, a SD card slot and image capture features. The Slate will run on Windows 7 and will be roughly the same size as its rival the iPad.

The HP Slate and the iPad differ in various ways, for example, you cannot connect a camera or SD card to the iPad without a dongle (which you have to pay extra for). One more prominent contrast is the fact that the HP Slate will support Adobe Flash, whereas the iPad will use HTML 5, a controversial decision that has the tech world divided.

The blog post that accompanied the videos, stated:

“Think about the last time you chatted with friends over Skype on your notebook. Or uploaded a picture from your mobile phone to Facebook or Flickr. How about the last time you viewed images or video from an SD card or a USB device. We know that you expect to be able to capture and share digital content on your mobile devices. And the HP slate device excels there.”

Rumours are already circling of a June release date, with estimated prices of around $500/€400/£350. PC Site® will keep you updated with all the news as it comes in, but until then, have a gawp at the videos!