The Linux Mint blog has announced the release of Linux Mint 13 RC. This brings us closer to the final release of Linux Mint 13, which should be sometime during the last week of this month. The RC is polished, and looks crisp as seen in these screenshots from the Linux Mint blog.

This latest release of Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu 12.04. As Ubuntu 12.04 is an LTS release, so is Linux Mint 13, and it will be supported until April 2017. Linux Mint 13 RC sports the latest version of Cinnamon 1.4 and the Mate 1.2. While the Mate desktop is focused on productivity and is more mature, the Cinnamon desktop is a new product Linux Mint is trying to develop alongside its Mint distro. With such a large user base, Linux Mint has good testing grounds for its Cinnamon desktop.

Cinnamon was released in the last week of this January. It boasts of a better user experience than Gnome 3. It is based on the Gnome shell 3.2.1 released in October last year and borrows heavily from MSGE. Cinnamon is on a roadmap to creating a complete desktop environment ecosystem, thus making it a self-sufficient product unlike MSGE, which had no individual identity. Cinnamon has ambitious plans, and it will be interesting to see if it attracts more users for Linux Mint.

Intermediary releases of Cinnamon are available on GitHub in a “stable” branch. Get download links and more details for this RC release at the official Linux Mint blog.

Mozilla had been attempting to create a perfect mobile browser for Android for too long now. Its Firefox for Android has always been sloppy with a laggy user interface and bugs all over it. For this reason, I have always preferred Opera Mobile on my Android phone, though, the latest Firefox beta for Android is set to change this. It is snappier, extremely responsive and it will blow your mind. It is a vast improvement over the default featureless Android browser and finally, it looks like Firefox is geared up to compete with leading Android browsers like Opera Mini, Chrome and Dolphin HD.

This latest beta version of Firefox is reported to support more devices than earlier, and it also boasts of performance improvements like faster scrolling, optimized memory usage and of course faster browsing! All in all, the once loathed Firefox for Android has managed to impressed everyone and frankly speaking, I too am sold!

Most of these performance improvements in the latest Firefox beta can be attributed to a new responsive UI, which is using the Android native UI instead of the earlier XUL based UI developed by Mozilla. The addition of a default Flash plugin in the latest beta received mixed reactions. Nonetheless, it is an item in the feature inventory. Text rendering, and panning and zooming have also been improved a lot. Here are some screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

There are still some unimplemented features in this beta version, like text reflow, selecting text etc. I call them unimplemented features because they should appear in any latest mobile browser, and this one is a beta, so it gets the benefit of doubt.

Grab the latest Firefox for Android beta at this page on the Google Play store. Read more about the latest Firefox beta on the Mozilla blog.

Until a few days ago, Adobe had decided not to fix one of its security vulnerabilities. Instead, it tried pushing the next release of its Creative Studio, CS6 as a solution to a critical security issue. This was wrong on multiple levels and was downright unacceptable. The intellectuals and Adobe received thumbs down for this decision. Finally seeing the wrong it has done, now Adobe has decided to retract its decision, and has announced that it is releasing a security fix for the CS5 after all.

Adobe is notorious for having security vulnerability in its products. For a company that is known for having poor security and releasing numerous fixes every few days, Adobe should take extra care when handling matters like these. Now that Adobe has come out in support of a security fix, it is being given the benefit of doubt by The Verge.

The confusion seemingly came from the original wording of the Adobe product security bulletin, which stated, “Adobe Photoshop CS6 addresses these vulnerabilities” without mentioning that a security patch for older versions was being worked on.

However, the security fix is not a complete one. Adobe is supposed to support all versions of its Creative Suite. However, the fix is appearing only on the CS5 for now. This means, CS4, which is also a supported version still remains vulnerable. This lax attitude from Adobe in time when hacks are the order of the day is appalling.

Reckz0r is a known online hacktivist who has been involved in many online hacks and security breaches. What makes him unique, is that he likes to fly solo and regularly exposes (wannabe) security experts who cannot secure their own websites well enough. Nonetheless, Reckz0r has always supported the Anonymous group and is active on Twitter as well.

This time, Reckz0r has brought us some loot from Sony, and dramatically, it appears just in time for the court trials of the LulzSec four. Reckz0r has hacked Sony and posted the looted data on Pastebin. The Pastebin page also gives away an SQL injection vulnerability, however, it seems like not everyone is excited is about this hack. Discordian has criticized Reckz0r on this hack, saying most of the data was already out in the public domain. He wrote on Twitter, saying,

These websites and emails in that pastebin are ALL publically available, can you tell me where the vulnerabilities are listed?

The complete release is available on Pastebin.

In other news, Sony has recorded a loss for the fourth year in a row, and the amount this time is Y457 billion out of which, Y255 billion was in the last quarter alone. To make a comparison, Sony’s loss in the last fiscal year was Y260 billion. This year, a large part of this loss is being accounted to the Thailand floods and the tsunami in Japan.

Adobe has posted a security bulletin for Adobe Photoshop recently, where it addressed a security vulnerability regarding TFF files. The vulnerability allows arbitrary code execution resulting in a system wide control for a cracker. This vulnerability affects all versions of Photoshop prior to and including CS5, on both Windows and Mac.

The vulnerability is specified on Symantec’s Security Focus as:

Adobe Photoshop is prone to a use-after-free memory-corruption vulnerability.
Attackers may exploit this issue to execute arbitrary code in the context of the user running the affected application.
Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 (version 12.1) is vulnerable; other versions may also be affected.

The only solution, which in reality is a non-solution, is to update to Adobe Photoshop CS6 and just in case you were wondering, no, it will not come for free if you already have CS5. With this shoddy decision, Adobe is creating a new trend in the world of security fixes, where a later paid version can be called as a fix for an existing vulnerability in an earlier version. In a way, it will force users to upgrade and while they are at it, Adobe will earn some free cash out of its own fault.

Adobe has released Adobe Photoshop CS6, which addresses these vulnerabilities. For users who cannot upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS6, Adobe recommends users follow security best practices and exercise caution when opening files from unknown or untrusted sources.

Whenever we install software, we agree to an EULA. The same EULA statement has liability provisions as well, and now that Adobe is (probably) psych testing its users for this new liability based business model, someone might just go ahead and file a class action lawsuit in the coming days.

If you want to see this vulnerability in action, proof-of-concept apps are available at this page.

(Via: Slashdot)

A UK based ISP Virgin Media has decided to ban access to the Pirate Bay, following a court order. The court order affects five major ISPs in the UK, Virgin Media being the second largest in all of Britain. British Telecom (BT) is still in talks over this matter, in spite of being asked to implement a ban, last year. The ban on The Pirate Bay came after the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which represents a number of media houses, aggressively pursued a case.

Furious over the ban, The Pirate Bay has given enough tips to circumvent this ban, rendering it useless anyway. On the bright side of things, it has also recorded a traffic boost of 12 million, after the court order. However, when Anonymous came out in support of The Pirate Bay and decided to DDoS Virgin Media, it was not pleased at all. The DDoS was carried out between 5 and 6 PM and Anonymous took down the Virgin Media website for over an hour.

The Pirate Bay has made it clear that it does not support DDoS as a means of protest.

We believe in the open and free Internet, where anyone can express his or her views. Even if we strongly disagree with them and even if they hate us. So don’t fight them using their ugly methods. DDOS and blocks are both forms of censorship. If you want to help; start a tracker, arrange a manifestation, join or start a pirate party, teach your friends the art of bittorrent, set up a proxy, write your political representatives, develop a new p2p protocol, print some pro piracy posters and decorate your town with, support our promo bay artists.

With this ban, Virgin Media has become the first UK based ISP to impose a ban on The Pirate Bay. Legally, Virgin Media is not at fault here because it is just following court orders. However, instead of accepting the ban so happily, Virgin should have questioned the decision and followed BT’s example. ISPs should in no way determine what content to push to its users, and what to filter; this is against net-neutrality and free speech. If they are being forced to censor content like in this case, it is their rightful duty to question such decisions, as BT did.

Facebook has unveiled plans to create an app store exclusively for Facebook. This app store called the App Center will run inside the native Facebook apps on the respective platforms. It will offer apps like Pintrest, Spotify, Viddy and many others, all inside the native Facebook app. However, the apps displayed on the store will be coupled with a rating system that will use the existing Facebook Insights platform.

Aaron Brady announced the App Center on the Facebook developers Blog, saying,

In the coming weeks, people will be able to access the App Center on the web and in the iOS and Android Facebook apps. All canvas, mobile and web apps that follow the guidelines can be listed. All developers should start preparing today to make sure their app is included in the launch.

The URL for App Center has been decided as https://www.facebook.com/appcenter. However, the page is unavailable currently. Currently, all apps that wish to make it to Facebook’s App Center are required to use the Facebook login feature. Apps from the Facebook App Center will be linked to the respective native apps on platforms like Android and iOS. For now, the App Center is not hosting or selling any apps. Its primary focus is creating accurate visibility for apps based on user ratings.

More details on the App store can be found at this page.

With so many apps stores around, in order to hit critical mass Facebook’s App Center has to make an offer to developers, an offer that they cannot refuse. Facebook is rightfully venturing out and trying new things, because as far as a user-base is concerned, Facebook is already at its peak. Moreover, existing app stores are vastly disorganized and some rating and review system will create a more competitive platform and bring in the much-needed order.

Hours after Twitter announced its plan to support one of its users in a court case, and thereby, stand up for the larger cause of online privacy and protection of the First Amendment’s free speech, a massive dox of Twitter accounts appeared on Pastebin. The dump contains nearly 55,000 usernames and passwords. However, it was also found later that many of these login credentials were redundant and some others did not match with any account.

In conversation with CNET, Twitter spokesperson Robert Weeks said,

We are currently looking into the situation. In the meantime, we have pushed out password resets to accounts that may have been affected. For those who are concerned that their account may have been compromised, we suggest resetting your passwords and more in our Help Center.

Twitter has also found that nearly 20,000 of the accounts in the list of 55,000+ were duplicates, and many others did not match as proper login credentials. Though, it was good to see that Twitter took care to force password resets for users whose accounts appeared on that list.

At the moment, it is unclear who carried out this hack and why. The Pastebin page containing the hacked accounts can be found here. However, there might be a relation between Twitter’s announcement to stand up for one of its users in a court case and this hack. Until now, Pastebin has been used by Anonymous for releasing doxes, but a drum roll usually accompanies it.

With Cybersecuritry bills like CISPA floating around waiting to be passed, and its parents like SOPA and PIPA defeated, people are more aware than ever about privacy and online security concerns. This is a good time to redefine the handling of some matters, and Twitter has gone a step forward by taking its privacy policy seriously. Recently, Twitter has taken a bold step by standing up for one of its users, who took part in the Occupy Wall Street protests. The Occupy Wall Street protests saw heavy use of social media, and the Twitter user in question, Malcolm Harris, is being prosecuted for ‘disorderly conduct’ in relation to the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Federal agencies and governments ask for a user’s online personal information too often nowadays, and they have aggravated their strategy for obtaining this information. Oftentimes, the user is totally unaware of a data request of this nature, and has no chance of reacting to such a request on time. Though, in some other cases, even after knowing this problem, the user is tied up in further legal constraints.

Indeed, even though Twitter provided notice to the Twitter user in this particular case, and even though he was able to get an attorney to file a motion seeking to quash the subpoena, the court found that the Twitter user did not have legal “standing” to challenge the D.A.’s subpoena.

This support shows clearly that Twitter stands for what it believes in, even if it is for one user. The First Amendment has been challenged numerous times, and with every passed challenge, it gets refined and defined better.

At the ongoing Ubuntu 12.10 developer summit, Chris Kenyon, the VP of sales and business development at Canonical has unveiled Ubuntu’s ambitious expansion plans in the PC market. Ubuntu is already collaborating with OEMs to deliver Ubuntu Linux based machines. However, the good news is that the Ubuntu is looking forward to a 5% market share in the PC segment.

The advantage of buying a system with Ubuntu or any Linux flavor pre-loaded is eliminating the time spent in initial-configuration of display drivers, network components and syncing across monitors. These are common bummers, when we try to replace a new Windows box with Linux. However, Ubuntu has an extensive list of supported hardware, and this OEM deal will make the hardware support even better.

Phoronix lists some interesting points from Kenyon’s keynote speech.

Here’s some of the facts that Kenyon tossed out in his after-lunch keynote:

- Eight to ten million units shipped last year world-wide.

- Canonical will be opening their first Beijing office this year (their Taipei office right now handles most of their Asian operations since 2008).

- Last year Ubuntu shipped on 7.5 billion dollars (presumably USD) worth of hardware.

- Next year they expect to more than double these numbers to 18 million units world-wide, or what Chris says would be 5% of PCs shipping world-wide would be with Ubuntu Linux.

Finally, after years of vendor lock-in, the PC has finally been freed from its shackles. We hope to see an open hardware market, where the end-user has more choices and there are more than one prominent software development ecosystems.

The Ubuntu Developer Summit is taking place from 7th of this month and will continue until the 11th. The complete event schedule can be found here. The events to watch out for, include the one titled Next Steps for Hadoop on Ubuntu, App Developer Events, Ubuntu Mobile Use-cases and all events that focus on Ubuntu TV.