“Hacker Croll” has supposedly managed to infiltrate the Twitter website with an administrator account. The person has bragged about the breach in a French web forum, saying he hacked into Jason Goldman’s account, a product management director at Twitter. As proof, he published 13 screenshots of the company’s account management interface. The screenshots indicate that he accessed several celebrity Twitter users, such as Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears.

Biz Stone, Twitter’s co-founder admitted on the site’s blog that the site was accessed, but that no account data was changed or deleted. The only unauthorized activity that took place is that 10 accounts were viewed without permission. Hacking into Twitter doesn’t seem like a worthwhile activity for a hacker since there isn’t any user financial information listed on the site. More of a technical challenge, which seems not to pose much of a barrier for some.

The Omaha police force are looking for numerous suspects who organized a shoplifting spree that ended with 37 iPods being taken from a local Toys R Us store. Surveillance video indicated 6 suspects working in an integrated campaign to steal the iPods, although accessories such as quality low price ipod speaker systems were not taken.

The video shows some people in the electronics section of the store. In the video, one female suspect is requesting for help to distract an employee. Another female suspect also looks through windows and around the area for any customers or employees. The suspects then target a glass case where the Ipods are found, disable the glass from its tracks and start removing the items. 2 of the suspects then meet and appear to finish hiding the iPods. The group then leaves the building.

The 37 iPods are estimated to be valued at about $6,300. Police is  currently looking into similar such description of thefts at other local Toys R Us stores to see if they are related. Any tips from the public are welcome as well.

Google has introduced a new Gmail feature that lets people use it offline.This was made possible by Google Gears, a browser plugin that is integrated into Google’s Chrome browser. The Gears plugin allows for downloading a local cache of email. As long as a person is connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail’s servers. When the connection goes down, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode and uses the data stored on your computer’s hard drive instead of the information sent across the network.

While offline, a person can read messages, star and label them, and any message sent while offline will be placed in the outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection.”

Additionally, if a person is in an unreliable or slow connection area, they can choose to use ‘flaky connection mode’, which relies on the local cache but still synchronizes your mail with the server.

Offline Gmail has been part of Google’s plans for  ever since the company introduced Google Gears back in October 2007. Google is opening up offline Gmail to everyone who uses Gmail in U.S. or UK English. Google is looking for feedback from users so it can improve any bugs in the service.

The search engine Ask.com is relying on people’s concerns of online threats to attract more traffic to its website. To allow web users a higher degree of assurance, Ask has signed a deal that will combine its search engine with Symantec’s Norton security software. The latest test version of Norton 360, to be released out Tuesday, will rate the security threat posed by websites found on searches done using the new toolbar. Financial details about the agreement aren’t being disclosed.

Oakland-based Ask has been endeavoring to increase its market share in the profitable Internet search market for several years. But it hasn’t had much success despite introducing new products that have won positive reviews and been advertised heavily. Through December, Ask remained in fourth place in the U.S. search market with a market share of roughly 4%, according to the Internet metrics firm comScore Inc. Google dominated the market with a share of about 63%, followed by Yahoo Inc. at 17% and Microsoft Corp. at 11%.

Last year, Yahoo joined forces with Symantec rival McAfee Inc. to offer security alerts in its search results. Google also has its own version of malware alert but the troubleshooting isn’t always accurate, as Google recently experienced when for about an hour on Saturday an incorrect update of suspicious sites caused even legitimate sites to become flagged.

Major corporations, financial institutions and other large organizations require encryption software to protect their valuable online and offline data. Often, it is also a matter of regulatory requirement. PGP.com is a leader in providing File Encryption Software for businesses. PGP provides specialized software to secure data at every point, from securing FTP servers to bulk data transfers to backups etc’, for such applications as mobile data protection and secure email messaging.

In addition, PGP.com offers hardware protection with harddrive encryption for Mac and PC laptops and desktops as well as removable media.  The chances of corporate data loss and identity theft from, let’s say, a stolen laptop can be considerably reduced with harddrive encryption as offered by PGP.

The PGP data protection services being offered are based on the size of a company, the industry the company belongs to, the compliance initiative, as well as by the role that the software buyer plays within the company. Notably, the PGP Encryption Platform is cost effective, simple to deploy and easy to use.

Check out the PGP website if you do not have a current method of protecting confidential company information or if you are unhappy with the current data protection software you have. You can also email or contact PGP by phone to receive further details on this vital issue.

The holiday season is fast approaching and this usually indicates that plenty of money is about to be spent. However, we are going through an economic downturn and an increasing number of companies begin to cut their prices with deep discounts so people will come and buy their products.

This is what a company like Newsmy is doing. Newsmy is a Chinese producer of consumer electronics brands, and has more than 500 Specialty Stores in China. Its product line spans a wide array of items, from digital AV, mobile storage, car electronics, communications, imaging, and more. Many people even believe it has the potential to become China’s Sony or Samsung. Newsmy is offering one of its product promotion in partnership with LightInTheBox.com. LightInTheBox.com is a China-based online distributer of 1000s of products, serving both business customers in more than 100 countries.

The special offer is for the One-Dollar-MP3-Player and One-Dollar-Cellphone, which aims to draw in more global customers to Chinese-made consumer electronics.

Do remember that shopping online is becoming more popular and is more comfortable, and well as being a safe way to get those holiday gifts. You can visit the Sandbox Online Shopping site for additional information on this promotion that can go easy on your wallet.

Getting the right Hearing Aid is essential and is likely to affect most of us at some point in our lives. There is a website, called AidRight.com, that intends to help customers who are seeking low-cost digital hearing aids with the promise of a quality service. The website offers information on the various types of hearing aids and related information such as insurance.

The website contains links to manufacturers of affordable hearing aids. The prices are affordable due to the sheer number of patients they treat nationwide. The price includes a complementary hearing test by a hearing professional, a specialist who will help the customer with the process of buying, custom device programming, custom impression fitting for the ears , a 45-day trial period, a 1 to 3 years money back warranty for breakage, loss or damage, and a full year of follow-up service and adjustments. AidRight is able to save its customers $400 – $1200 off of retail prices. Zero percent and low interest payment plans are additionally available. These plans have no pre-payment penalties or annual fees.

AidRight has produced quality products for over 30 years. The company is one of the biggest hearing aid providers in the United States and is worth checking out.

NORAD is set to track Jolly Old Saint Nick again this year, closely monitoring his around-the-world gift-delivering adventure.

Tracking starts on Christmas Eve, and can be watched at the Noradsanta.org website. Check out the below video for a trailer!

Trophyhorse.com is an exhilarating way for anyone to feel the stimulating world of horse racing in this interesting online game. This is a game for everybody, whether you have been involved in some way with horses, are an avid racing fan, or even if you have never been around a horse at all.

The Trophyhorse.com website is user-friendly and easy to navigate. Trophyhorse.com is a strategy game. You start with five horses & $100,000 game dollars to begin with. You then select your jockeys, races, etc’. You can even provide your horses with workouts, participate in buying and selling auctions and breed your horses. The horses cost a certain amount per day, all based on the breed. Once the horses compete, although some people lose their virtual money, there are numerous stables that make lots of money. There is also a community section, which is basically a message board, filled with useful information and members appear to be enthusiastic to help out. There are options to have a free as well as a paid account and the price is quite reasonable.

The game is missing more of a visual component. It is completely a statistical game without a race viewer. Some people may enjoy viewing the horses race itself but if you do not care about the visual aspect and cheering on your horse as it gets closer to the finish line then you could truly enjoy this game.

The computer mouse could one day become extinct. Rather than moving a mouse to relocate a cursor around the monitor, there is an increasing number of users who will move their fingers on touch screens and multi-touch track pads.

Another innovation that is gaining ground for the mobile world is tilting or shaking the phones or other mobile devices. Apple’s iPhone, Nokia and additional smart phones are currently undergoing such technology adoption with touch screens. On an iPhone or iPod touch, a user can scroll through album covers by moving their finger across the screen, or tilt and turn the device to control actions in a video game.

it is plausible that users will not have a mouse connected to their laptop in the next five years, if they haven’t already. And the use of a mouse will diminish on office desktop computers after that.
The end of the traditional mouse will be expedited by the move toward 3D spaces, which encourage a more composite range of motions to move around, as well as by the increase in multimedia software and handling, which promote a more lifelike user interface.

Hewlett-Packard is already making a TouchSmart personal computer with a touch-screen monitor. Apple’s new laptop computers contain track pads that support movements with 2, 3 or 4 fingers. There is also the forthcoming Microsoft Windows 7 which will likewise support multi-touch.

The history of the mouse goes back to 1968, beginning at what was then known as Stanford Research Institute. A look of the future can be seen at the Microsoft Technology Center in Manhattan, where visitors can get their hands on a Surface table. The Surface computer, which debuted for commercial use in July, is a 30-inch display on which users can drag tap, spin and zoom in and out using their fingers or an object such as a paintbrush.