Firefox flaws account for 44% of all browser bugs

By Gregg Keizer November 9, 2009

Firefox accounted for almost half of all browser vulnerabilities in the first six months of 2009, a Web security company claimed today. According to California-based Cenzic, Mozilla's browser had the largest percentage of Web vulnerabilities over the six-month span, while Apple's Safari had the dubious distinction of coming in second. Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) was third, while Opera Software's flagship browser took fourth place. The Cenzic report can be downloaded from the company's site ( download PDF). "It's not rocket science," said Lars Ewe, Cenzic's chief technology officer, referring to the browser bug counting. "We used several databases, including the CVE (common vulnerabilities and exposures) database to count the number of known vulnerabilities." Firefox accounted for 44% of all browser bugs reported in the first half of the year, said Ewe, while Safari vulnerabilities came to 35% of the total. IE, meanwhile, accounted for 15%, while 6% of all the flaws were in Opera.

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Nokia Recalls 14 Million Mobile Phone Chargers

Some customers could face a nasty shock
By Jansen Ng November 9, 2009

Mobile communications giant Nokia is the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones, with approximately 304.9 million sold in the first three quarters of this year alone. With such high volumes, problems will inevitably develop. Nokia partners with many component manufacturers in order to speed time to market and lower costs. One of these partners is BYD, a Chinese company that produces cars, rechargeable batteries, and mobile phone components. One of these key components is the power charger, which due to economies of scale BYD is able to sell for around $1 per unit. A safety issue has now arisen that has prompted a recall for up to 14 million of these chargers. "We have determined that the plastic covers of the affected chargers could come loose and separate, exposing the charger’s internal components and potentially posing an electric shock hazard if certain internal components are touched while the charger is plugged into a live socket," stated Nokia. Chargers with the model AC-3U or AC-3E manufactured by BYD between June 15, 2009 and August 9, 2009 are affected, as well as AC-4U chargers made between April 13, 2009 and October 25, 2009.

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Nvidia CEO says 'no' to Intel-compatible chip

by Brooke Crothers November 8, 2009

Despite persistent rumors, Nvidia's chief executive says the graphics chip supplier is not working on an Intel-compatible chip. In an exclusive interview with CNET Thursday, I asked CEO Jen-Hsun Huang about the possibility of Nvidia coming up with its own x86 (Intel-compatible) chip technology, after the company reported strong third-quarter earnings. A recurring rumor has it that Nvidia is developing a chip that would be able to run the same software that runs on all Intel- and AMD-based PCs worldwide. "No," he said when asked if there was any truth to the rumor. "Nvidia's strategy is very, very clear. I'm very straightforward about it. Right now, more than ever, we have to focus on visual and parallel computing." Huang went on to describe where the chip supplier sees its best opportunities for growth. "Our strategy is to proliferate the GPU (graphics processing unit) into all kinds of platforms for growth," he said. "GPUs in servers for parallel computing, for supercomputing--and cloud computing with our GPU is a fabulous growth opportunity--and streaming video." "And also getting our GPUs into the lowest power platforms we can imagine and driving mobile computing with it," Huang added, referring to its Tegra chip, which, for example, powers Microsoft's Zune HD media player.

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Apple likely to launch Verizon iPhone in 2010

Corp. prepares to do something about poor 3G coverage
By Dylan Horner, November 8th, 2009

It's no secret, bad networks ruin even a great phone. It seems as though Apple is finally realizing this, and is preparing to do something about it. Based on a report from research firm OTR Global "citing sources in the Taiwan handset supply chain," Apple plans to unveil a new iPhone, a hybrid of sorts, that utilizes a new chip from Qualcomm allowing it to function on both GSM and CDMA networks. The hybrid iPhone will be made available sometime during the third quarter of 2010, which makes sense, seeing as how AT&T’s exclusivity agreement terminates in 2010. Furthermore, research notes indicate the new iPhone design will only feature a 2.8" screen. When compared to the current 3.5" screens of the current iPhone models, it seems like Apple is downsizing. Last year's rumor of a smaller iPhone turned out to be false, though the idea could very well have just been ahead of its time. However, there is another possiblity besides a smaller iPhone, that being a "smaller" iPhone. At this point in time, what seems more likely is the development of an iPhone nano. Looking back at the iPod's history, one can only assume it's the latter.

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Nvidia Fires Back at Intel – With Cartoons

by Mark Hachman 11.06.09

Nvidia has quietly begun taking aim at Intel through a series of editorial cartoons, poking fun at the chip giant through a site known as IntelsInsides.com. Nvidia representatives and the cartoonist himself confirmed that Nvidia hosts the site, which is also linked to on its corporate blog. So far, IntelsInsides.com has only poked fun at Intel, although Bob Sherbin, Nvidia's head of corporate communications, said that other targets could be forthcoming. "[The site] is satirical in nature, and attempts to have a bit of fun with what is quite a serious issue," Sherbin said of the most recent topics, which have involved Intel's alleged use of market development funds and rebates to illegally obstruct rival AMD. "The spotlight is on them regarding this issue, and so they are a very obvious target." So far, all of the single-panel cartoons have been drawn by Steven Lait, a freelance editorial cartoonist whose work has appeared in the Bay Area News Group. Sherbin said that topics for the strips are "discussed" over e-mail, and that the collaboration goes both ways. The most recent parody shows Intel chief executive Paul Otellini claiming that "I did not have bribery, coercion, and kickback relations with the computer industry," a reference to President Clinton's denial that he did "not have sexual relations with" Monica Lewinsky. Later, of course, Clinton admitted an affair.

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Firefox and Chrome updates spike stability bugs

By John Leyden, 6th November 2009

Mozilla has pushed out a new version of Firefox that fixes a number of stability bugs that pose possible security concerns. Firefox 3.5.5, which comes only a week after the release of 3.5.4, addressed a start-up crash problem and crashes in the GIF image decoder of the open source browser, among other bugs (as explained here). The flaws create a possible means to crash browser with malformed code on websites but their main importance is as an irritation that impairs users ability to surf the web without irksome browser crashes. The cross-platform updates was published on Thursday (5 November) and is available for immediate download. Alternatively Firefox fans will be prompted to update as they surf the web over the next day or so. A new version of Google Chrome, also released on Thursday, fixes two clear-cut security flaws as well as tackling a few performance and stability bugs, as explained here.

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Report: NVIDIA Plans to Block Lucid’s Hydra Chip

by Sue November 6th, 2009

If you’re wondering why the highly-anticipated MSI Big Bang Trinergy motherboard turned out to be using NVIDIA’s nForce 200 SLI chip, with no sign of the Lucid Hydra 200 chip as it promised, the answer is simple - NVIDIA does not like it. Considering the product would impact NVIDIA’s profit coming from SLI fee, the green giant decides that it’s time to do something. Firstly, they will break support for Lucid’s chip at the driver part, and by unknown means force MSI to postpone their “Big Bang” motherboard. Though MSI claims the Big Bang Fusion powered by Hydra engine will be released by the end of 2009, we don’t think so, exactly. The site Overclock3D believes the board will be delayed to early next year, or even be killed finally. A site visitor said it best so I qoute "Aramid Says: Ooh geez, why Nvidia? I will say that NVIDIA IS NOW FAIL. NVIDIFAIL." "They don’t push DX10.1 and DX11, they block antialiasing for the Batman game for ATI users, they block Physx for ATI users, even for Ageia card users (the origin of Physx), bad performing Physx!!!, they re-use chips from 8000 series all the way to 200 series (several generations!), they STILL USE GDDR3, oversized heatmaking chips, failing chips for notebooks from Dell, Apple, Sony, HP, etc., etc etc, and now this, blocking Hydra, something I was looking forward to since it’s introduction. NVIDIFAIL"

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Intel replicates 'bricked SSD' bug, pledges fix

By Tony Smith 6th November 2009

Intel has once again promised a fix for the glitchy firmware update tool it released for its 34nm solid-state drives last month. But it still can't say when the new version will arrive. The chip giant released new firmware for the drives on 26 October. The following day it pulled the software after a number of users running 64-bit Windows 7 systems alleged the software bricked their SSDs. Yesterday, Alan Frost of Intel's NAND Solutions Group wrote: "Intel has replicated the issue on 34nm SSDs - X25-M - and is working on a fix." He added: "Intel is pursuing the resolution of this as a high priority. Intel is seeking direct feedback on this issue from members of the [Intel Support Community]... asking them to send their drives directly to Intel to expedite the analysis of the issues. This action will enable us to more quickly generate a resolution for this issue." The firmware update - version 02HA - adds support for the Sata command Trim, an SSD-oriented option that helps the operating system write data to the drive in large chunks, allowing it to leverage Flash memory's high sequential write speeds rather than fall back on much slower random write speeds.

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