Get started here.

Currently there’s a tool available for PCs, Macs, Android phones and tablets; but an iOS version will be available in the coming weeks.

Cloud storage is nothing new and there are alternatives around.  Dropbox has been the market leader for some time and it will be interesting to see if Google can in fact take the top spot.

Instagram is a photo sharing application that allows users to take photos, apply filters and then share on a wide range of social networking sites; including their own.

The following post was made by Facebook’s owner Mark Zuckerberg:

I’m excited to share the news that we’ve agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook.

For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.

We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.

That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.

We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.

These and many other features are important parts of the Instagram experience and we understand that. We will try to learn from Instagram’s experience to build similar features into our other products. At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook’s strong engineering team and infrastructure.

This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.

We’re looking forward to working with the Instagram team and to all of the great new experiences we’re going to be able to build together.

https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10100318398827991

Share you thoughts in the comments section.

The lawsuits were filed Thursday morning and a official blog post followed shortly after.  The suits were filed in San Fransisco and target “five of the most aggressive tool providers and spammers”.

While the blog post doesn’t give any names, Venturebeat has been able to confirm the names of the targets appearently in an email with Twitter.

The first of the five defendants: Tweet Attacks, has already pulled the software and ceased in selling new licenses.

Tweet Attacks's Homepage

Other defendants include:

• TweetBuddy
• TweetAdder
• James Lucero
• Garland Harris

It’s early days, but this round of lawsuits is certain to cause some reduction in spam on Twitter.

Windows: Download

Mac:  Download

But before all you 4s and iPad2 fans get too excited, unfortunately this jailbreak isn’t for you and will only work on the following devices: iPhone 4, 3GS, iPod touch 4G, 3G and iPad 1.

For instructions how to jailbreak with Redsn0w check out this link: http://www.spiritjb.org/2011/12/download-untethered-redsn0w-0.9.10-b1-jailbreak-5.0.1.html

If you’ve already upgraded to 5.0.1 and your currently using a tethered jailbreak, not to worry, simply go to the Cydia store and download the corona tweak to convert your current jailbreak to an untethered.

Earlier this year we reported that BT was ordered by the court to block access to Newzbin2 in the first case of it’s kind in the UK.  Read that story here.

Sky has became the second ISP to block the website after receiving a court order on the 13th of December.  Your can read their press release on their website: http://www.sky.com/helpcentre/broadband/protecting-copyright/

From the sky press release:

“We have received a court order requiring us to block access to this illegal website, which we did on 13th December, 2011.”

Other UK ISPs have said they will obey a court order, but have yet to receive one.

Akismet

Chances are, if you run a blog, you’ve already heard of this website.  The plugin checks all new posts against Akismet’s database and if it detects a post it deems as spam, it’s placed in a queue for you to approve or deny.

Plugin Url: http://mods.mybb.com/view/akismet-(spam-protection)   Still works with 1.6.* –  Changing the version number in text editor is required.

StopForumSpam

StopForumSpam is a very fitting name for this plugin, as for me, it’s stopped an insane amount of spammers signing up.  The plugin works by checking a new signup’s IP address, username and email against their spam database.

To give you a small idea of the effectiveness of this plugin; here’s a screenshot of my logfile:

StopForumSpam Log

Plugin URL: http://mods.mybb.com/view/stopforumspam-com-for-mybb

Registration Security Question

This plugin allows you to set your own security questions to ask on signup.  This is a great way to combat bots as the questions can be literally anything you choose.

Plugin URL:  http://mods.mybb.com/view/registration-security-question

Other steps to take:

Bots may try to stay under the radar by PMing members instead of posting.  I combat this by making new members unable to send any private messages.  Their accounts are automatically upgraded and provisioned at 15 posts, by which time I hope to be able to tell their intentions.

Here’s a link to their channel:  http://www.youtube.com/user/YouTube

Notice the website information on the profile panel?

Here’s a screenshot for latecomers to the party:

Screenshot

Yesterday, visitors to Sesame Street’s YouTube channel were greeted with content that wouldn’t usually be associated with a children’s show.

The channel had been compromised and the usual child-friendly videos were replaced with hardcore porn.

The content remained up for around 20 minutes, before the channel was suspended.

As well as uploading the videos, the hackers also edited the channel’s information and added the following message:

WHO DOESN’T LOVE PORN KIDS? RIGHT! EVERYONE LOVES IT! IM MREDXWX AND MY PARTNER MRSUICIDER91 ARE HERE TO BRING YOU MANY NICE CONTENT! PLEASE DON’T LET SESAME STREET TO GET THIS ACCOUNT BACK KIDS PLEASE…LET ME AND MRSUICIDER91 HAVE IT AND WE GONNA MAKE ALL THE AMERICA HAPPY!

It’s hard to believe that if MREDXWX was responsible that he’d be stupid enough to sign his work.  Only time will tell I guess.

YouTube has since reinstated the account and the content is back to usual.  The channel’s info bar now contains the following apology:

Steve Jobs pictured with iPhone

Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple and visionary who revolutionised the way we interact with technology, died on Wednesday aged 56.

A brief statement was made by Apple on their website that announced his death.  Although it doesn’t go in to details, a friend of the family has reportedly said that his death was a result of complications with treatment for pancreatic cancer which Jobs has been suffering with since 2004.

In August we reported Jobs’ resignation as Apple’s CEO after his health deteriorated.

Jobs has been hailed by many as a modern day genius and since news messages of condolence have been rolling in.  Messages from Bill Gates, Barack Obama and many more.

Our thoughts are with the people left behind.

Microsoft will be shipping their latest OS, Windows 8, with a built in antivirus.  The antivirus software, Microsoft Security Essentials, is already available as a separate package, but until now hasn’t been built in to Windows.

This is great news for average users, who might not be as technically aware as some, who currently run their systems with no protection at all.

However it will no doubt anger security software companies, who have previously cried foul over Microsoft bundling security software with updates.  Can you blame them though?  Those £40 a year subscriptions are probably the easiest money they’ve ever made.

What are your views on the matter?  Do you side with the AV companies and think Microsoft have overstepped the line?  Or do you think that any move to help protect unsuspecting users can only be a good thing?