Code Retard

Shazam Player visualizes song lyrics while you listen. Cool!

(Credit:
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET)

I’m a sucker for cool visuals, which is why I’m gaga over the new Shazam Player app for iOS. It takes something fairly straightforward–song lyrics–and presents it in a visually stimulating, impossible-to-look-away way.

Shazam, of course, is best known for the eponymous app that listens to and identifies the song that’s playing on the radio, in the cafe, during that TV commercial, etc.

Shazam Player aims to replace the stock
iPod app with one that offers a few nifty amenities, starting with LyricPlay, a slick feature that visualizes song lyrics as you listen.

For any “compatible” song (more on that in a minute), Shazam Player will stream the lyrics using one of several cool themes. Think karaoke machine, but with fancy fonts and cool transitions.

For example, sometimes the lyrics scroll from the bottom of the screen to the top. Sometimes they fly in from the side and then shrink into the distance. There’s even a kind of reverse “Star Wars”-style text crawl. The player mixes up its various streaming modes with different fonts, font sizes, and background colors, so it always looks a little different.

When it’s not in lyric-streaming mode, Shazam Player works like most typical music players.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET)

Ads appear at the start and finish of each song, but they’re barely a distraction.

LyricPlay rocks. I had a blast “watching” some of my favorite songs (and learning the right words along the way). And for anyone who likes to sing along, karaoke-style, Shazam Player makes it a breeze.

But it’s not perfect. I found that the lyrics shown (or highlighted) weren’t always in perfect sync with the song. What’s more, when you’re in visualization mode, you have no access to player controls. You can’t pause or skip tracks without returning to the main player interface–very annoying.

Also, the LyricPlay library is currently limited to around 30,000 songs. When Shazam Player scanned my
iPhone‘s library of 1,200 tracks, it found only about 300 that matched–and I have fairly mainstream tastes. Your mileage will undoubtedly vary, but don’t be surprised if you can’t get lyrics for some–if not most–of your tunes.

The good news is that Shazam Player can play your entire library or just the LyricPlay-compatible tracks. And for any song, you can tap an arrow to bring up extra options: YouTube videos, tour dates, bios/reviews, and Facebook/Twitter sharing options. It’s a pretty fun way to get more from your song library.

And it’s free, so I definitely recommend taking Shazam Player for a spin. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to finally learn the words to Young MC’s “Bust a Move.”

Maybe you want to save Web pages for offline reading, or maybe you want to archive a page you created.

There are all sorts of reason to want to save pages, but it can be hard to tackle saving multiple pages at once. ZipTabs is a Chrome extension that lets you save any or all open tabs in one ZIP file, making the process much smoother and more convenient, Here’s how to use it: 

1. Download and install the SingleCore extension. This is required to use ZipTabs, but you don’t need to do any more than install it. 
2. Download and install ZipTabs. 
3. Restart Chrome. 
4. When you’ve got a set of tabs open to Web pages you want to save, just click the ZipTabs icon in the upper right and select which open tabs to save. 
   

   Step 4: Select tabs to save.

5. Select a name for the ZIP file, then click “OK.” 
6. When the ZIP file is created (it can take a little while), it is saved to Chrome’s download folder. This can’t be changed, though you can point Chrome toward a different folder in its Options settings. 

That’s it. Your ZIP file is easy to save and share.

Thanks to Guiding Tech for the link!

When the MacDefender fake antivirus malware was making its rounds early last year, there was a daily cat-and-mouse game between the criminals developing the software and various malware detection companies, plus Apple with its XProtect routine that establishes its “Safe Downloads” list.

While MacDefender has been properly addressed and is no longer an issue, the latest cat-and-mouse game appears to be revolving around the recent Flashback malware that was found for OS X. Flashback is a Trojan horse that is distributed as a fake version of Adobe’s Flash player program. When installed it will insert a payload program into applications like
Safari and
Firefox, which when run will attempt to send personal information to remote servers.

The new Trojan variant is packaged as an Adobe Flash installer.

(Credit:

Intego)

Since its initial discovery in September 2011, the Flashback malware has undergone around 10 revisions in an effort to get around malware detection software, with the latest one aptly being discovered today, on Friday the 13th. The new variant, called OSX/Flashback.J (“J” indicating that it’s the 10th variant), is distributed in a package called “FlashPlayer-11-7-macos.pkg,” but the package in fact contains another installer package that will run and install the malware.

While the progressive release of variants shows the malware is actively being developed, it does not really appear to be changing much. Intego is reporting that this latest release is fully detectable by the malware definitions that were built to detect previous variants of the malware. Intego also claims that it’s likely the current definitions will also detect future versions of the malware, indicating that current samples that the definitions use might be some core aspect of Flashback’s code, which would give detection software a leg up on the malware developers.

On Wednesday, January 11, just before this latest variant was released, Apple updated its XProtect routines again to tackle some of the latest malware variants that have been developed for OS X, though so far the definitions include definitions for Flashback variants A through C only.

There is no word on whether the definitions for the first three variants included in Apple’s XProtect list are likewise enough to detect all currently known variants of the malware.

Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below or e-mail us!
Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.

Chrome’s privacy controls.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Google’s Chrome security team unveiled yesterday its guiding principles on how they build a safer browser.

The manifesto declares seven key guidelines for Chrome security. The first one, “Don’t get in the way,” both echoes Google’s unofficial motto, “Don’t be evil,” and reflects what many Windows security vendors have learned the hard way about keeping people safe. If security negatively affects performance, users will look to alternatives. For a browser which has built its user base on speed, sluggish response times have the potential to wreak great havoc.

“It’s great to see invisibility and automatic background updates as the first principal. Good security is transparent and inescapable,” said Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer at Veracode. “The less security decisions that involve the user the better. Every security decision made by the user is a chance that something with be postponed or forgotten or worse, an opportunity for social engineering.”

Privacy is not mentioned in the list of principles, and that may raise the hackles of some security experts. “I think Google’s approach to privacy is a little bit different than others,” said Jeremiah Grossman, WhiteHat Security’s chief technology officer. “They make the assumption that you trust them, but if you don’t trust them then you have to separate the two. You can’t protect your data that’s on Google, from Google, because it’s contrary to their business model.”

(Credit:
Google)

Google does have a site dedicated to explaining privacy in Chrome, and it does have a company-wide privacy policy that applies to Chrome. However, there isn’t a company policy statement on Chrome privacy like the new security manifesto.

A Google representative told me that the Chrome security team works in close conjunction with Google’s overall security team, as well as the Chrome team itself. “We protect users by embedding security deeply into our culture, as well as our process for designing and developing products. This relentless focus on security often benefits the web more broadly as well, either through our own action or through others who adopt similar approaches,” the representative said.

The need for speed has found its way into Chrome security, and the representative pointed to regular release note updates as evidence of this. “We’ve demonstrated that we will shine a light on security topics that are relevant to our users, even when most companies wouldn’t,” he said, with tough benchmarks set for response time and how long systems are left unpatched.

Of course, Google is hardly the only company to take this approach. Mozilla also regularly publishes security update release notes, and Microsoft has become so regular at publishing security updates to Internet Explorer and its other software that Patch Tuesday has become lingua franca in the computer security world.

Microsoft recently touted a decade of security achievements, and it’s practically universally accepted that the company learned some tough lessons in the past 10 years.

Not surprisingly, Microsoft’s current policies of a company-wide approach to security echo Google’s similar stance with Chrome. Chrome’s third core principle states that security is a “team responsibility,” which was explained to me as meaning that browser security concerns go beyond the realm of just the Chrome security team to include Google’s general security group and the general Chrome group. While this may sound obvious to some, cross-department communication has had an impact on the browser’s development, said the Google representative.

“Engaging the security community makes Google part of the security community. More technology companies should take this approach. They have set up a cooperative and non-adversarial posture. Microsoft pioneered this approach, but Google has taken it a step further with their bug bounties,” said Wysopal.

Google has said that the quality of the bug reports has helped it fix vulnerabilities much faster. The company has paid out more than $200,000 for Chrome and Chromium-related security bugs found by bug hunters. The open-source progenitor of Chrome, Chromium was around for a year before Google debuted Chrome.

While likely familiar to many who keep tabs on browser security, the principles document stands as a place where Google can point to its achievements in the field as well as its goals. Some of the Chrome features referenced in the document include the mention of anti-exploit technologies such as JIT hardening along with Google-sourced innovations like the Safe Browsing API. The “Make the Web safer for everyone” section notes numerous public security standards like public key pinning, SPDY, and Native Client.

Grossman concluded that despite some concerns about Chrome, that the project has been a boon for the Web. “I think they’re doing a lot more right than wrong when it comes to browser speed and security,” he said.

Correction 4:41 p.m. PT: This story originally misstated the amount of money rewarded to bug hunters working on Chrome and Chromium. The correct sum is more than $200,000.
Update 4:45 p.m. PT: The story has been updated with a link to Google’s company-wide privacy policy, which it says also applies to Chrome.

(Credit:
CNET)

Creating collages with your images is easier than ever on your
iPhone, and–with the right app–you can make great looking projects in minutes and share them immediately.

Are you old enough to remember making collages with a glue stick and poster board? These days anyone can create a collage (without all the mess) using digital photos and any photo layout program on a desktop computer. But some recent apps for iPhone make it even easier with intuitive touch-screen controls and other extras that put the old glue-stick-and-photo method to shame.

This week’s collection of iOS apps is about making collages. The first lets you choose a layout and add photos for quick collage projects. The second does the same, but adds more features and lets you make sendable postcards. The third adds something a little different, with a multilens feature that produces unique results.

With Diptic, you can tap a photo in the collage and adjust levels and brightness using sliders.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Diptic (99 cents) is a fairly simple app that lets you make cool-looking collages using photos you take with your iPhone camera or what you have stored in your photo library. You start by selecting from 21 different layouts, such as one photo across the top with three smaller ones across the bottom, or one big image on the left with four small shots down the right side, as examples. You can also use frame sliders to adjust the size of any frame, giving you unlimited customization options.

Once you have your layout, you can add images to each frame and move or zoom each one to make it fit just right. From there you can rotate an image 90 degrees within a frame or create a mirror image of the shot using the Transform features. Finally, you can adjust color, brightness, and contrast to bring out certain shots or make them more similar to the others in your project. All these features are self explanatory just by playing with the interface.

Diptic is an easy way to create quick collages, and offers several features for sharing your work with friends. Earlier iterations of the app only offered sharing by e-mail, but now you can share on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Tumblr. The app also now supports exporting directly to other apps that support JPEG images like Instagram, Camera+, Dropbox, and many others.

If you want to try something different with your photos, Diptic is a tried-and-true option that has added several useful features and enhancements since its release.

You don’t get many options for frame customization, but there’s plenty more to like about Frametastic.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Frametastic (Free) lets you create collages with your pictures with several layouts, effects, and sharing options. You start by selecting a frame for your project from 18 different layouts (you also can purchase another 18 layouts for 99 cents). Next, simply tap in a frame to either import a photo from your iPhone library or you can snap a new picture. From there, you can touch a frame to adjust the positioning of a photo or pinch to zoom to make it fit just right.

Frametastic takes it a step further than other apps in this category by letting you add effects to your photo projects. Just double-tap one of the photos to make it full screen. Then use a scrolling wheel at the bottom of the interface to choose effects like Black and White, Sepia, Paint, and many more. You can use a different effect for every photo in your collage if you want or you can select the same effect if you’re going for a specific look.

To finish your collage, you can customize the frame itself. You have the option to change the color of the frame or you can use a slider to round the corners of each picture to your liking. There are no custom borders here, but even with simple frame options, Frametastic turns out good-looking results.

When you’re satisfied with your work, you can share your collage across all the usual social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram, or you can send via e-mail. But what makes this app stand out from the pack is that you turn your work into a postcard by paying a small fee using the Sincerely service (registration required).

Frametastic is an excellent option for creating collages and the added effects and the ability to make sendable postcards might make this your favorite collage maker on the iPhone.

Tapping on a collage in the gallery lets you choose from several filters to give your project a unique look.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Grid Lens (99 cents) is slightly different than the other two apps in this collection, by letting you make collages of a different type. In this app, the frames of your collage are what you see out of your actual iPhone camera lens in real time. You can also use images from your photo library (by touching and holding a single frame), but the concept behind Grid Lens will enable you to make more than just collages.

To get started, you’ll need to choose a layout for your project. Grid Lens offers several premade layouts, but you also can add a new layout and touch and drag to create each frame of your collage. Being able to create new layouts sets Grid Lens apart–you won’t ever need to buy new layouts like you would in Frametastic.

Once you’ve decided on a layout, you can choose either single- or multilens variations for your collage. The single lens shows one image with the frames superimposed over the image. The multilens gives you a separate lens for every frame. But what makes the multilens variation particularly interesting is that you can touch an individual frame to snap a photo. This means that if you were at an event, you could walk around and touch a frame at various locations creating a collage as you go.

Once you’ve finished taking your shots, you can save your collage to the in-app gallery to add effects and share your project. Simply select your collage to bring it up full screen and choose the spray can icon to browse through six different effects. When you’re finished, you can download it to your iPhone library, upload the collage to Flickr, or post your project to Facebook or Twitter.

Grid Lens is a neat idea and it’s easy to see how all sorts of cool projects would be possible. With a slick interface, multiple options for creating collages, and the ability to add effects and share, this app is great for someone looking to make something interesting with their images.

BlueStacks for Windows 8 scored a Best of CES Award in Software and Apps from CNET editors.

(Credit:
CNET)

Software is becoming a bigger part of
CES, which is a bit ironic since Microsoft has begun to pull back its presence. CES 2012 saw the rise of familiar software names powering your living room TV, augmented-reality apps that created a new way to interact with the world around you, a stone-cold assassination attempt on the QWERTY keyboard, and a deft program that ports
Android apps into Windows 8.

Let’s start with BlueStacks for Windows 8, our Best of CES Award winner in the Software and Apps category. We first looked at a rough version of BlueStacks last year. Now, many of the kinks have been ironed out as it prepares to bring you the entire Android app catalog in Windows 8, complete with individual tiles for each app. Angry Birds Metro, anyone?

One of the most common questions that CNET readers ask is, “How the heck do I cut the cable TV cord and still watch my shows?” While there are numerous paths up that particular mountain, one new answer is to get a Web-enabled TV. We saw a smorgasbord of quality TVs powered by software at CES 2012, including a demo of Opera TV’s new Web app store; BitTorrent-enabled TVs, media players, and set-top boxes; and the Lenovo K91 that will run Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich. (There was also an Android TV by an outfit called Nyxio, although we didn’t get a chance to see it.)

There was even a Ubuntu TV prototype. Yep, that’s “Ubuntu” as in “Linux,” which will have built-in DVR functions, support 1080p, and like BitTorrent TV, it’ll be able to share media across devices.

Another must-see app is the QWERTY-obliterating Snapkeys. Snapkeys is an invisible keyboard that uses 2i technology and predictive typing to eliminate the need to actually look where you’re typing on touch-screen devices. It’s a bit ridiculous that in the age of nascent augmented reality we’re still typing on keyboards that haven’t evolved much in 100 years.

Speaking of augmented reality, the show also proved that mobile apps are getting smarter. And by smarter, we don’t mean they’re simply adding more functions or refreshing their user interfaces. No, we’re talking Skynet kind of smarter, and it’s kind of scary.

Take Vlingo’s Virtual Assistant for TVs, slated for release in the US and Europe sometime this year. You may recognize the name as a popular
iPhone and Android app, but Vlingo is now bringing its natural voice command capabilities right onto that big screen in your living room. You can ask Vlingo what comedies are playing, tell it to flip the channel, or even have it rent or buy movies–all by speaking to it with natural language. And the scary thing is that it will actually understand and comply

There’s also Aurasma, a stunning augmented-reality app that brings 3D pop-ups to life in the world around you. Its image-recognition technology is so smart that it can be programmed to augment almost any object you can think of, like a computer component or even a front door. It’s a huge step forward from the simple augmenting of magazine ads that we’ve seen in the past, and it works like a charm.

Similar to Aurasma is Blippar, which also takes otherwise static objects and makes them interact with your devices. Combined with these insanely wearable protoype glasses from Vuzix, and we’re looking at nothing less than the beginning stages of a real-world “Snow Crash” or “Halting State.”

And finally, there’s Magisto, one of the most intelligent AI-based mobile apps we’ve seen. Magisto can take your iPhone videos and edit them in exactly one click. Well, that’s not true, because you have to tell Magisto what kind of music you like. But after that, it’s seriously one click. Magisto adds the music track, drops in the transitions, and even uses its superadvanced algorithms to choose what’s important and what to cut. Amazing.

From left: Oren Boiman, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Magisto, accepts his award beside first runner-up “Morey” the macaw.

(Credit:
Jaymar Cabebe | CNET)

LAS VEGAS–Magisto took home the top prize in this year’s
CES Mobile Apps Showdown.

Amid a minefield of technical difficulties at the show, magical one-touch video editor Magisto and its well-rehearsed app demonstration emerged from today’s CES Mobile Apps Showdown victorious.

The Mobile Apps Showdown featured 10 finalists, whittled down from dozens of total submissions. At the show, each developer had 4 minutes to pitch his app to the packed LVCC Conference room, and were ultimately judged by a good old-fashioned applause-o-meter.

Attendees were treated to presentations with flashy costumes, acted-out skits, and even a bit of augmented reality. But in the end, it was Magisto’s polished presentation and seemingly magical skill set that won over the crowd. Oohs and aahs were heard as Magisto CEO Oren Boiman showed off Magisto’s one-touch editing functionality and real-world applications. I covered Magisto’s launch here at CES, and was thoroughly impressed with its ability to highlight the underlying stories in what could otherwise be boring, static video. It is available for free download now in the iTunes App Store.

The second, slightly less coveted title of the day–the online vote winner–went to Macaw, a personal health monitor app. Macaw was developed by Preventive Medicine Inc., and can keep track of your exercise, weight, caloric intake, biometrics, and more. Macaw (iPhone | Android) is available for free download now in both the iTunes App Store and
Android Market.

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(Credit:
Jaymar Cabebe | CNET)

LAS VEGAS–Initially launched as a desktop browser experience in September of last year, ground-breaking one-click video editor Magisto has just made its way onto iPhones.

With Magisto on your mobile device, it becomes easier than ever to cobble together polished videos that are ready to share on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social networks.

Simply record a few minutes of video through the Magisto app or choose from any existing videos already on your phone, then let Magisto do all of the work for you. And I do mean ALL of the work. Magisto adds the music (of your choice), drops in the transitions, and even uses its superadvanced algorithms to choose what’s important, and what to cut. I know it sounds crazy, but so far it looks like it works. The videos I’ve seen were stylized and actually looked like they were put together by a human being with editing skills. The volume of the music even dipped when people in the video started talking.

Since all of Magisto’s magic is done in the cloud, you do need an active data connection to use the app. Also, your edited videos will only live on the company’s servers, meaning you can’t download them locally. This may sound like a drag, but the good thing is that all of your content will be ready to share to any of your social networks whenever you log in to your Magisto account. Also, reps from Magisto were quick to assure me that features like local download and sharing within an internal YouTube-like community are on the way.

Magisto (download) is available now for free download in the iTunes App Store.

(Credit:
The Daily)

LAS VEGAS–Verizon Wireless and The Daily have just announced an agreement to bring the popular subscription-based
iPad news app to select
Android
tablets.

Beginning this month, The Daily will come preinstalled on Verizon’s Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and will be available for the Galaxy Tab 7.7 at a later date. According to both Verizon and The Daily, more tablet support is in the works. If you’re lucky enough to have one of these select devices, then your subscription fees can be conveniently charged directly to your Verizon Wireless bill.

A top-seller like The Daily making its way to Google’s mobile platform must feel like a bit of a coup to Android fans. Perhaps it’s only the beginning of a wave of popular iOS-only developers locking their sights on the huge market of Android users.

The Daily for Android is free to try for a week. After that, subscriptions run for $3.99 per month, or $39.99 per year.

Cut the Rope is now available as an HTML5 Web app thanks to Microsoft.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

LAS VEGAS–The final Microsoft keynote at
CES features a choir that belted out soulful tweets, a veritable hugfest on-stage, and Ryan Seacrest palling around with Steve Ballmer in front of several thousand people. And crammed onto the end of the Windows 8 announcements in the middle of the event, Microsoft’s chief marketing officer for Windows Tami Reller took a moment to play a quick round of Cut the Rope in Internet Explorer.

While Google has been getting the lion’s share of press for porting popular mobile game apps to HTML5, most notably with Angry Birds, they’re not the only company pushing the limits of the future-Web tech. To play the game, simply go to CutTheRope.ie. It ought to work in any browser that supports HTML5, although apparently in
Firefox Microsoft has shifted the audio components to Flash.

The Internet Explorer developers noted on their behind-the-scenes site that some Google Chrome bugs, as well as Firefox, prevented full HTML5 implementation. Interestingly, I encountered no problems playing the game in Firefox 11 Aurora. This isn’t surprising, as HTML5 standards have yet to be finalized and the five major modern browsers are quickly adding support.

The game was ported with support from ZeptoLab and Pixel Lab, the makers of Cut the Rope, as part of Microsoft’s Beauty of the Web initiative, which showcases their changes to Internet Explorer to make it modern and competitive.

Using the site pinning feature in Internet Explorer 9, you can unlock an extra seven levels to bring the total to 25 that you can nom your way through.

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