But over the past few months, Google has also been secretly testing a new UI and look for the Google Search engine, which has essentially not changed much since its inception. Do you want to be one among the secret testers, to have a sneak peak of the new design?

To get this Hack Attack to work for you, you need to be using the international version of Google i.e. http://google.com/ncr and not the localized version that you are redirected to usually.

Once you are at the Google Homepage, copy the following text and paste it in the address bar as it is…

javascript:void(document.cookie=”PREF=ID=20b6e4c2f44943bb:U=4bf292d46faad806:TM=1249677602:LM=1257919388:S=odm0Ys-53ZueXfZG;path=/; domain=.google.com”);

Once you are done, press enter and reload the Google Homepage. You Should now be looking at an all new design for the homepage. Perform a search and you’ll see a new search results page with an always visible Sidebar.

So Do you like the new look? I do quite like it, at least the sidebar is useful to perform searches more rapidly. But I’m not quite sure if it will be well received by all the people because it is quite a departure from the Google we are all used. However they could tone down the Blue a bit because at times I feel am at the MSN of yesteryears rather than Google.

Or you never know Google may never release it in the wild…

However if you aren’t a fan of the new design, you can remove the corresponding cookie from your browser. Here’s how its done in Chrome

Leave your comments, as to what you feel about the new Design?

Via Google Blogoscoped | Google Caffeine Update | Image Credit : ientu

Reading through my RSS feeds today, I stumbled upon an interesting post over at Neowin entitled “Vista’s Security Rendered Completely Useless by New Exploit” which reports on a new technique that can “bypass all memory protection safeguards that Microsoft built into Windows Vista.”

Mark Dowd of IBM Internet Security Systems (ISS) and Alexander Sotirov, of VMware Inc. have discovered a technique that can be used to bypass all memory protection schemes that have been built into Windows Vista by Microsoft.  These new methods are basically used to get around Vista’s Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), Data Execution Prevention (DEP) and other protections by loading malicious content through a web browser.

In a nutshell, this hack is something that many of us weren’t expecting.

While this may seem like any standard security hole, other researchers say that the work is a major breakthrough and there is very little that Microsoft can do to fix the problems. These attacks work differently than other security exploits, as they aren’t based on any new Windows vulnerabilities, but instead take advantage of the way Microsoft chose to guard Vista’s fundamental architecture. According to Dino Dai Zovi, a popular security researcher told, "the genius of this is that it’s completely reusable. They have attacks that let them load chosen content to a chosen location with chosen permissions. That’s completely game over."

Microsoft has yet to post a statement officially, but they are apparently aware of the security issue and are waiting for the exploit to be made public. We can only wait and watch as to what comes up now…

If successful this could be a mess as good as the DNS exploit in the wild these days. This can potentially change the whole view of how the industry thinks about hacks in my opinion. Microsoft will have a quite a lot of work on hands in the coming days, I’m sure. We’ll know more about this in the near future and there even lies possibility of being faced with the prospect of your "secure" server being stripped completely naked of all its protection.

You think its game over for the already struggling Vista?

While the Dev Team has released Pwnage tool for Mac OSX, it’ll be some time before we see Pwnage tool for Windows. All those Windows users who can’t wait to jailbreak/unlock their iPhones here’s a guide for you to jailbreak/unlock your iPhone.

While at the moment there is no Installer.app on firmware 2.0, and there aren’t many apps running but that will change with time, and more and more apps for the jailbroken iPhone will appear. Follow this quick 15 min guide to Jailbreak/unlock your iPhone on Windows..

I’m going to divide the guide into two clear and concise sections, one for the iPhone 2G and one for the iPhone 3G.. Pick the section that you have and proceed.. Make sure you have iTunes 7.7 installed and backup your iPhone before continuing..

Disclaimer : I’m not responsible if these hacks end up bricking your iPhone, while the methods have been tested widely but please proceed at your own risk.

For iPhone 2G

iPhone 2G can both be unlocked and jailbroken unlike the iPhone 3G which can only be jaibroken at the moment.. Download the following files before you get started..

• WinPwn 1.0
• Custom Firmware Restore Image (Torrent Link)

Lets get started then..

• Backup your iPhone before you proceed.
• Install WinPwn and Pwn your iPhone 2G running firmware 1.1.4 using it. Please note that it is very important that you have the iPhone Pwned at 1.1.4 before proceeding..
• Install Bootneuter (You should be able to find it in Installer.app)
• Run Bootneuter and have it neuter your iPhone.
• Put your iPhone into DFU Mode.. This can be a bit tricky.Here’s how to get into the DFU Mode, hold the home button on the bottom and the power button until the screen turns off and then count to 2 and let go of the power button on the top of the iPhone , but keep pressing home button until iTunes asks you if you want to restore your iPhone.
• In iTunes Shift+Click the Restore button and find your custom IPSW Firmware file that you downloaded earlier.
• Wait for it to complete, and enjoy you have a completely Jailbroken, Unlocked iPhone running firmware 2.0.

For iPhone 3G

iPhone 3G can only be Jailbroken at the moment, because no unlock has been found yet. Again download the following files before you get started..

• x12220000_4_Recovery.ipsw
• iPhone1,2_2.0_5A347_Custom_Restore.ipsw

You can download both these files from this torrent.

Now that you have the files downloaded, lets get started then…

• Backup your iPhone before you proceed.
• Click Start and Run, and type in %appdata%Apple ComputeriTunes.
• In the folder that opens, create a Directory called Device Support if it doesn’t exist already and if it is present delete it.
• In the Device Support folder copy x12220000_4_Recovery.ipsw that you had downloaded earlier.
• Open up iTunes and now you need to get your iPhone into DFU Mode..Here’s how to get into the DFU Mode, hold the home button on the bottom and the power button until the screen turns off and then count to 2 and let go of the power button on the top of the iPhone , but keep pressing home button until iTunes asks you if you want to restore your iPhone.
• In iTunes Shift+Click the Restore button and find your custom IPSW Firmware file that you downloaded earlier (iPhone1,2_2.0_5A347_Custom_Restore.ipsw).
• When the restoring has completed, the iPhone will ask you to connect to iTunes and redo the activation (download carrier settings).
• Restore your backup. This should be automatically done after the carrier settings have been downloaded, but you can also do it by right clicking iPhone on the left and selecting Restore iPhone
• Wait for it to complete, and enjoy you have a completely Jailbroken iPhone 3G.

I hope everything went well for you and you are running iPhone with the latest firmware 2.0.. Big credit to the dev team for developing Pwnage tool and others for the custom firmware images.

Let us know in the comments on how it went for you..

Yay! Finally the Pwnage Tool for iPhone 2.0 has been released.. The Dev Team has released a working jailbreak for iPhone 3G and a working unlock/jailbreak for iPhone 2G..

The most important thing is that firmware 2.0 was just released on 11th July, which meant Dev Team had an jailbroken firmware 2.0 on the iPhone 3G in just a space of 8 days.. Neat achievement I must say..

If you have an older generation of iPhone and you can’t wait to try out the apps from the app store on your unlocked iPhone, download Pwnage tool 2.0 immediately.. At the moment it is Mac only, but a windows version is on its way as I speak.

If you are casual jailbreaker, or if you simply want to unlock your iPhone, you might probably want to hold out for another week or so, so that the dev team can iron out the bugs and Pwnage becomes even more stable. Considering the kind of pressure the dev team has been through the Pwnage tool is a wonderful achievement on their part. It will only get better with time. At the moment though its still not ready for the average guy, atleast not as easy as using ZiPhone.

But since the unlock for iPhone 3G isn’t out yet, its not currently a part of the Pwnage tool. You can unlock the older generation of the iPhone, while jailbreak is supported on both the generations.

Follow this guide to use Pwnage tool to unlock your old iPhone or jailbreak the iPhone 3G..

Please let us know in the comments if you succeeded in jailbreaking/unlocking your iPhone using the Pwnage tool

Today Last.fm decided to take wraps off its new design they’ve been working on since May. I was not a part of the beta but still at first glance the new design looks little different from the one we saw during the beta period. Looking through the Last.fm forums I found that the beta design was much criticized and the design that we see now is after tons of user feedback.

I was a Last.fm user for quite some time before I stopped using it for unknown reasons. In the past Last.fm always had a confusing navigational structure that for some reason never got you to what you wanted. Looks like Last.fm team has worked hard to resolve the navigational issues that plagued the old design and the new design is marked improvement over the older one.

Take a look at the screenshots yourself and you will see why the new design is much cleaner and more functional than the old design..

The New Design

The Beta Design

The Old Design

Surely the new design is more clean and functional than the original Last.fm. But so far the new design has evoked nothing but reactions favoring the extreme negative.

Some users have gone to the lengths of calling the new design as Myspace clones and they have expressed their dissatisfaction over it. Here are few opinions about the new design…

MidwinterSun said,

the main problem here is that the new site is just a mess. The old last.fm had identity. It was different. And what do we got now? A parody of web 2.0!

Last.fm used to be about the music we listen. So when I visit someone’s profile, I see what their tastes in music are. This was the reason I liked last.fm – the musical revolution, right?

It was different. Now it’s like every other site on the web.

Ant17 said,

This, however, sucks. I can’t believe one of my favourite and most used sites is about to go straight to the trash bin. If you want to make a site look like a new vulgar, post-modern tacky iPod which is completely user-unfriendly, then there are plenty of pointless social gathering sites to visit.

There is absolutely no need to destroy one of the best working and most appealing sites that’s been praised for years, without any option of a decline. Quite simply, horrible service and a now horrible site.

A lot of people have asked Last.fm an option to switch back to the old design.. If you don’t like the new design voice your opinion in this forum thread, hopefully Last.fm will listen to its audience.

Also give a try to this Userstyle that gives Last.fm some new features while preserving the identity of the old design.

And to conclude, I actually like the new design, but I feel that Last.fm has lost much of its identity its built up over the years with this design. Maybe an extended beta would have been a better option..

What is your opinion about the new design? Which one do you like?

Screenshots Credits – ReadWriteWeb

RSS Feeds seem to be everywhere these days. With growing popularity and the sheer number of websites offering RSS Feeds, the search for good RSS Feed readers gains significance.

Before you tell more about Headline, I’d like to ask you which feed reader you use and what are the things that you like/dislike about it the most? I for one use Google reader as my primary feed reader and I am happy with it.

Ever since RSS has started to make attention into the mainstream the need for more functional RSS feed readers with a much more intuitive UI has arised and Headline aims to exactly fill that void.

Simply put Headline is a revolution in feed reading. It combines a sleek, clean interface with a powerful user experience.

Yes Headlines is one of the most stunning looking RSS feed readers I’ve ever seen. Its not only about its stunning looks but it also offers a range of features that you find in almost feed readers plus some more that you won’t find elsewhere.

Let me just rundown through the important features of Headline.

• Easy Filtering

Headline allows you to easily filter out contents switching from Today, This Week, This Month, All, Unread or Favorites items.

• Sharing

Headline can easily share articles to friends over iChat and Mail. No need to manually find, copy and send links to friends, Headline do it for you.

• Media Player

Headline has built in support for Audio and Video player. You can easily listen audio or watch video podcasts on the fly with out downloading any files.

• Core Animation

Headline starts with a revolutionary interface and then gets better. Core Animation provides smooth effects between views and articles.

• Beautiful Preview

Headline can easily preview any article, mimics Quick Look, without opening the default browser or an external application for that.

• Growl Notification

Headline can automatically notify you when there are new articles available via Growl Notifications. It allows you to see when there are new articles while using other applications.

Quite an impressive feature set I must say. I just wonder why doesn’t windows see such beautiful functional softwares. Here are some screenshots of Headline for you to drool over.

On the Mac I know many users swear by NetNewsWire, but to all those hardcore fans of NetNewsWire I suggest you give Headline a try.

Headline comes in at 19.95$ for a single user licence and is also available for 34.95$ for a Family Pack Licence.

With the iPhone on sale in over 22 countries today the day will not be complete without some launch day humor. The iPhone is already on sale in the US and some of you have already told us what you wish to do with your existing iPhone or your plans for the iPhone 3G.

Since the iPhone isn’t out here in India, i’ve been left with nothing less than hope to see the iPhone in my hands. Whatever that is, below are some comics courtesy Joy of Tech. After having a look at the comics make sure you visit the site for some geeky laughs. Whatever they meant!!

Rogers Rips of the Canadians!!

Sorry Boss, Don’t have enough $$

iPhone 3G WooHoo

Raiders of my Wallet

The Weekend Before a Keynote

So have you brought the iPhone 3G yet or is this just another gadget you must possess?

With the iPhone 3G all set to go on sale tomorrow morning, there are still some unanswered questions about the iPhone 3G.. Apple seems to have coordinated review spree from Walt Mossberg, Edward Baig, and David Pogue, all out with major hands-on reviews.

All the three of them feel that the iPhone 3G is a good hardware device and a good upgrade over the original iPhone that we saw an year earlier. But just like the original compromises with the iPhone still exist and that make it hardly a must-have device.

But that brings us to the important question.. Will you buy the iPhone 3G when it goes for sale this friday? If you are not planning to buy one what is it that is holding you back from buying one? Is it the cost, or is it the carrier choice or is it the design cues since you are going to have to acquaint yourself to a completely new experience of mobile phones..

Or are you going to rush to the nearest Apple Store first thing tomorrow morning and get the iPhone 3G? Or are you going to stay with your first gen iPhone? We’d love to hear what your plans are…

I for one will surely be lining up to buy the iPhone when it makes an appearance in India. Here’s a chance for all you guys to be a little bit of nostradamus..

Will the iPhone 3G be a hit or miss?

Finally Yahoo decided to cave in and has decided to partner with Google to display relevant alongside its search results in the US and Canada. This surely is the beginning of the end of the ambitious Panama project.

If you remember Yahoo had announced a similar deal a couple of months back that was more of a test to see the returns from the ads by Google. From what I’ve heard, Yahoo was extremely satisfied with the returns and that’s why this deal is happening today.

Yahoo has spent a lot on Panama, the advertising platform that was built to compete with Google Adwords. But somehow Google managed to stay on, and Yahoo has seen less ad dollars compared to Google on its search advertising front.

You can read the Google blog post about the deal, but here is the main gist of the deal.

• The deal is non-exclusive. Yahoo will be able to run Google ads alongside Yahoo ads or other ad providers.
• The deal is expected to add $800 million a year in revenues and $250 million to $450 million in operating cash flow.
• The deal only applies to paid search and contextual ads, not to algorithmic search.

On a related note, Yahoo also has concluded all talks with Microsoft and decided to focus on its core business. I have no idea who’s going to benefit in this race of Internet domination that Microsoft, Yahoo and Google are vying for.

At the end of the day its Google who is playing the smart moves. Simply put this deal will start the decay of Yahoo Search, and who knows one day they might even outsource search to Google. Who wins? Google obviously.

As someone said, this deal is more like Ford signing a deal to have its cars built by Honda. By any means its an admission of failure, a failure by Yahoo to monetize its assets effectively and a complete failure in the search game.

I now wonder what does Microsoft get by buying a sinking Yahoo? Simply put Microsoft is a sinking ship too, and two sinking ships don’t make a cruise that is Google.

I have virtually have no interest in this deal, since this is the beginning of another round of internet domination by Google. But even otherwise I’d never want Yahoo to go into Microsoft’s hands. The big three are BIG only when they are left on their own, not when Yahoo becomes a mouse to Google or Microsoft.

On a slightly retarded note, I love the press release headline of Yahoo. “Yahoo! to Strengthen Competitive Position in Online Advertising Through Non-Exclusive Agreement With Google”

Really? Yahoo

Google’s press release is a better read though. Sound off your opinions of the deal in the comments.

When Steve Jobs had unveiled the original iPhone last year, I was completely bowled over. It was light years ahead of any other smartphone out there in the market. Since the initial release was US only, and unlocking of the iPhone wasn’t a good idea, I held off purchasing the iPhone and patiently waited, waited till this day.

With today’s launch of the iPhone 3G, the iPhone has become a more compelling device than it was last year, and here are 5 reasons why you must have the new iPhone..

Before I move onto outlining the 5 reasons, here is a fact. Many people world over held off from purchasing the iPhone, some for the lack of 3G, some for the lack of a good camera, some for its price. But the fact is that Apple managed to sell almost 6 Million iPhone’s last year which is no small feat.

But with the launch of the 3G iPhone, Apple has managed to shoot more than a couple of birds with one arrow, and that is why it is here to stay..

So here are the 5ive reasons why you must have the iPhone when it comes out this july..

• Price

Well the new iPhone comes in at a price that is hard to resist. The original iPhone was darn expensive for most people, but the new iPhone comes in at 199$ which is an amount most people can afford.

As Steve himself said during the keynote about 50 percent of people surveyed who didn’t buy an iPhone said that they didn’t because of price.

So now with 199$ price point, I’m sure Apple is going to sell a shit load of iPhone’s worldwide.

• Presence of 3G

3G was one of the most demanded features, when iPhone initially came out. With the most advanced browser on a smartphone, the original iPhone’s sole missing point was 3G.

With the latest iteration however Apple has managed to plug the hole. 3G is nearly 3 times faster than the EDGE that was a part of the original iPhone.

Time for some innovative web apps to see the light I guess.. and Mobile browsing got a whole lot better than it was..

• GPS and Location Aware Services

Google had once said that they have seen extremely high usage of Maps via iPhone. With just Cell tower triangulation and WiFi triangulation in the original iPhone we saw high usage of maps.

Now with GPS we’re heading off for a whole new era of Location Aware Services. We already saw a prime example of that during the keynote with the demo of Loopt.

With features like Search, Directions on a tiny mobile device that fits your pocket, the world just got a lot more smaller isn’t it?

• Applications Galore

The App Store will be the single most important feature of the new iPhone. We already some cool demos during the keynote like blogging apps, games, medical applications. The SDK is the most compelling mobile development platform ever.

You as a developer are only limited by your imaginations.

Add that with the distribution model that the App Store has, people are going to go crazy over the apps. Way better than downloading apps for your Windows mobile or Symbian phone.

The iPhone Apps will be a bigger success than the Facebook platform for sure..

• Sync via MobileME

The iPhone 3G brings about a new age of mobility never seen before by normal users. What has forever remained a feature for the enterprise for ages now is in the hands of normal people like you and me.

Complete sync between the iPhone, your PC and MAC and the internet. What more could you have asked for?

So are you going to stand in the long queues this July 11th when the iPhone 3G comes out?