Phishing using plain-text emails

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Phishing is typically done using HTML that lets someone hide a malicious link in an email disguised as a legitimate link. Read the post to see how this has been countered, then repacked. Good info to know.

Bill Gates back on top as the world’s richest person

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Forbes posted its annual list of the world’s top net worth individuals. For all his philanthropy (and Gates gives vast amounts of his money and his time), Gates has found his way back to the top of the list. Wonder if he bought any Apple stock.

Google locking down approval process for Chrome add-ons

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This might seem like an obscure change in a small part of the Google universe, but it might just be signaling a sea change in Google’s stance on the apps and add-on approval process.

Google has been talking up the auto-removal of unsanctioned extensions since November, when the company characterized the policy as a security necessity, claiming that “bad actors” were using loopholes to continue installing malicious add-ons without user approval or knowledge.

Top executives Bates and Reller to leave Microsoft

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Two direct reports to new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella — EVP of business development and evangelism Tony Bates and EVP of marketing Tami Reller — are leaving the company, according to numerous sources close to the situation.

The shakeup begins. Standard stuff when a new CEO takes over, more a question of who will stay and who will go. Bates came to Microsoft when it bought Skype. Reller worked for the Windows unit, as both CMO and CFO.

Reddit riddle thread

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Lots to enjoy here, especially if you have kids. Some of these are pretty difficult. All are thoughtful.

WSJ publishes excerpt from new book, “Haunted Empire, Apple After Steve Jobs”

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Author Yukari Kane adapted a chapter from her new book for the Wall Street Journal. I think the excerpt is well written and it’s certainly interesting. My only gripe is that it seems a little one sided and one-dimensional. It dehumanizes Tim Cook, focuses on anecdotes that paint him as a harsh taskmaster, anecdotes that are not supported by personal account but as hearsay.

Final Cut Pro X and the Firebird Suite

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Fabrizio Fracassi left Final Cut Pro when Apple made a left turn back in 2011 with the release of Version 10. Happily, Apple addressed the criticism it received from that release and Fabrizio is back in the fold. He explains his logic with a beautiful analogy.

New web site trend – scrolling animations

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New trend in web page design uses a single page featuring scrolling animations that keep you on the page, walk your eyes through the page’s elements.

Apple wins dismissal of $2.2 billion German patent troll suit

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The rulings are a blow to Munich-based patent holding company IPCom which has sued mobile-device makers over technology it acquired from Robert Bosch GmbH in 2007. The “100” series patents, which also apply to methods helping to place emergency calls, are the central piece of its portfolio.

IPCom, which doesn’t make any products, is one of a group of firms that license its patents and file lawsuits to generate revenue, earning the moniker “patent trolls” from its targets. Apple was among 19 companies and associations that petitioned the European Union in a letter this week to weaken the ability of non-manufacturers to win injunctions in intellectual-property cases.

“IPCom’s story has come to an end” with the ruling, said Martin Chakraborty, HTC’s attorney.

I love the phrase “IPCom, which doesn’t make any products”. Goes to the heart of the definition of a patent troll.

Brilliant app uses WiFi as SOS beacon in disasters

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I love the simplicity of this idea.

The team consulted emergency workers from the Haiti and Fukushima disasters and developed a “victim app” and a “seeker app”. “They wanted it simple, unencrypted and smart,” says Al-Akkad.That meant avoiding known problems like low-power, low-range Bluetooth radio links, which often fail to connect – or “pair” – with each other amid the clutter of metallic debris in broken buildings. So they stuck to the much more robust and receivable Wi-Fi radio.

With the victim app a trapped person can write a 27-character message such as “broken leg stuck in bank” or “need help fire on 4th floor” and a seeker app up to 100 metres away can pick it up. The app found two “trapped” people in a large-scale, simulated terrorist attack at a seaside chemical plant in Stavanger, Norway – an exercise organised by the Norway-based research organisation Sintef.

This is the kind of thing that should just ship on every phone.

South African detectives race to Apple HQ for help cracking Oscar Pistorius’ iPhone passcode

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Three South African investigators are racing against the clock to secure crucial information from Oscar Pistorius’ iPhone 5 before his trial starts on Monday.

The detectives have flown to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California to request help in unlocking the iPhone’s passcode, as prosecutors want to access its SMS and WhatsApp messages as evidence for the trial.

Sure seems like they waited ’til the last possible minute for this.

Google roadblocks distracted driver legislation

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Google is lobbying officials in at least three U.S. states to stop proposed restrictions on driving with headsets such as Google Glass, marking some of the first clashes over the nascent wearable technology.

This angers me. If someone is killed because a driver was distracted by something on Google Glass, why is that any different than someone killed by careless texting? If your focus is held by an interaction with Google Glass, your focus is not on the road.