SMART GPS

SMART GPS

Dash express GPS
The device has two-way internet connectivity

No longer content with simply providing directions from point to point, manufacturers are starting to pack more and more features into in-car GPS devices.

Those on show at CES include the ability to download movie times, find a parking spot and avoid the traffic.

One company, Dash Navigation, has launched a unit called the Dash Express which aims to harness the power of its community to avoid traffic jams.

The unit has the ability to receive real-time traffic data from different sources, including units belonging to other owners.

In effect, each unit works as a traffic sensor sending a user's speed and location over a permanent internet connection.

Back at Dash HQ, the company calculates up-to-the-minute traffic conditions and suggests alternative routes if there is a traffic snarl ahead.

In theory, the device should get better as more Dash users hit the roads.

The device has been developed in collaboration with Yahoo and allows the users to conduct web searches for locations or even the cheapest fuel.

The US service costs from $10 a month.

WIRELESS MEMORIES

Eye-fi card
The card can automatically upload photos to the web
To share photos quickly and easily a wireless camera is a must.

But for those people who do not want to invest in a new device help is at hand.

A company called Eye-Fi have developed a series of memory cards with built in wi-fi that automatically convert your camera into a wireless device.

The 2GB cards automatically connect to a wi-fi network and can dump photos to a folder on a PC or upload them to social networks or photo-sharing sites.

The firm has done deals with the likes of Flickr, Photobucket and Facebook.

The associated software takes care of log-ins and passwords and can even automatically resize pictures if the site requires it.

To send them to a computer the PC must be turned on and running the companies photo managing software.

Currently they are only available in the US but should be on sale in Europe later this year.

Google opens up social networking

Google opens up social networking

Developers will have wider distribution for their widgets
Google has launched a system that will allow developers to create applications for a variety of social networks.
Developers currently have to customise their designs for a particular site with many partnering with the hugely popular Facebook.

Google's OpenSocial system will allow a wider distribution for tools like Facebook's music recommendation service iLike and its Top Friends application.

It has long been reported that Google has big ambitions in social networking.

Last week it missed out on the chance to buy a stake in Facebook with the founders choosing instead to do a deal with Microsoft.

"Facebook-fear"

Google said that around a dozen social network partners had signed up to the system, including business site LinkedIn, Friendster and Google's own social network Orkut.

Developers already onboard include Flixster, iLike and RockYou.

Unlike Facebook, OpenSocial allows developers to write in normal javascript and html with only minor adjustments needed for the code to work on its platform.

According to blog TechCrunch the plan is likely to be a big hit with developers as well as Facebook's rivals.

"Developers have been complaining non stop about the costs of learning yet another markup language for every new social network platform, and taking developer time in creating and maintaining the code," wrote TechCrunch's Michael Arrington.

He is impressed by the number of social networks that have signed up so far.

"Facebook-fear has clearly driven good partners to side with Google," he wrote.

Technology writer Om Malik observed: "OpenSocial attacks Facebook where it is the weakest (and the strongest): its quintessential closed nature."

Leopard upgrade hits Mac firewall

Upgrading to Leopard can mean your firewall is turned off
Upgrading to the latest version of Apple's operating system, might make a Mac less secure, say experts.
A test of Leopard revealed that installing it led to the firewall on a Mac being turned off and its default setting changed to leave it disabled.

Heise Security, who conducted the tests, said the failings meant users could not "rely" on the firewall to protect them.

Apple has yet to comment about the security shortcomings in Leopard.

Leopard, the newest version of OS X, was launched on 26 October and since then Apple claims to have sold or delivered more than two million copies of the software.

But a test of Leopard by Heise Security security expert Jurgen Schmidt found that the firewall in the updated software was set to off and allowed any and every incoming net connection.

Mr Schmidt also found that installing the software as an upgrade to a machine on which the firewall was turned on would lead to this protective software being turned off when that computer was re-started.

He also found that even when the firewall was re-activated it did not let users know about all the potentially vulnerable processes running on that machine.

Commenting for Heise Mike Barwise, editor of the site, said: "This as a serious problem: It provides a false sense of security, which is more dangerous than a lack of actual security that you know about."

Apple has yet to respond to a BBC request for comment on the Heise findings.

Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, said: "Year after year, Macs continue to have these potential security problems.

"However, in practice they just don't seem to become real-world problems," he added. "The old wisdom still stands: if you want to avoid viruses and worms, get a Mac."