Top 20 Must Have Android Apps

Android is the hottest mobile platform on the market and it is also the most affordable. Being able to purchase handsets for as little as $100 it doesn't take much to get you up and going. However Apps are a huge part of the experience, from syncing your itunes library with your Android phone to playing games and remote accessing your computer from your phone.

Android can do it all. With over 200, 000 apps in the apps store it can get a little confusing and dangerous when choosing apps. So here are my top 20 android apps everyone should have; and my top 20 every tech should have.

 

 

 

 

1. Lookout mobile security suite is a free smart phone protections system that is an anti-virus, backup and device location software all rolled into one. Get LookOut Mobile Security Suite

2. App 2 SD Free is an Ad-supported app. New "Clear cache" helps you to get more free space! Need more free space for your internal phone storage? "App 2 SD" helps you to move apps to either external or internal storage. Get App 2 SD Free

   
   

3. AppBrain - a different take on the Android market. Find your next favorite app, live wallpaper or widget. Includes features like App recommendations, Hot apps of the day, Find apps with a price drop, Share apps and more. Get AppBrain

4. Android Booster - This free app is designed to optimize Android smartphones while minimizing the power consumption, and keeping users in control of the amount of internet usage. Get Android Booster

   
   

5. Rockplayer Lite - An ad supported video player that can play multiple formats. It plays XVid, DivX, MPEG4, MKV and much more. A suitable substitute until VLC Player is released for android. Get RockPlayer Lite
   

6. doubleTwist Player finds all the music on your phone and syncs music & video with the free doubleTwist app. Imports iTunes music playlists, ratings & playcounts; sync music, play music & video podcasts! Get DoubleTwist Player

   
   

7. Shazam. Start your music journey now with Shazam to discover, buy & share music. This free app gives you 5 tags each month to identify music anywhere. Get Shazam

   
   

8. Shop Savvy Barcode Scanner is the original barcode scanner on Android. Aim the camera at any product's barcode, wait for the beep and ShopSavvy will provide you with a list of online and local prices. Get Shop Savvy Barcode Scanner

9. Adobe Reader is a must-have app for high quality PDF viewing on Android. It Opens PDF files as email attachments, on the web or on device and has Text Reflow. You can send PDF files via email and has Multi-touch gestures for Navigation & Zoom. Get Adobe Reader

10. Color Note is a simple notepad app. It give you a quick and simple notepad editing experience when you write note, email, message, shopping lists and todo lists. Color Note makes taking a note easier than any other notepad apps. Get Color Note

11. Easy Uninstaller - Easy & fastest uninstall tool.
    Advanced Task Killer is a tool to kill applications running.
    Fast Reboot - closes/restarting all processes and frees up memory

12. GDocs is a simple notepad that can view, edit and sync documents from your Google Docs account. It allows you create, import/export and send documents. Get GDocs

    
    

13. File Expert is a Powerful & Leading File Manager for Android; it can do all basic file operations - Copy, Paste, Move, Create and Rename your files and folders FTP/HTTP Server - Web Sharing or WIFI File Explorer and can provide both Web & FTP transferring support. SMB Plugin Available. Get File Expert and File Expert SMB Plugin

14. CamCard. It can capture business card images with phone-based camera, and recognize the card image content, and the recognized result is automatically organized as a contact and saved into phone address book. Get CamCard lite get the unlocked CamCard - BCR (Western) for $6.99

15. QR Droid is a complete QR code reader, generator and scanner for your Android. Easily scan QR codes from camera, decode them from images saved in your device or from URL of images stored in Internet. Get QR Droid

16. TweetDeck is your mobile browser for staying in touch with what's happening on Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Buzz. TweetDeck makes it easy to stay up to date and organized no matter where you are. Get TweetDeck

17. Skype offers free Skype-to-Skype calls over 3G or WiFi. Call landlines or mobile phones at great Skype rates; Instant message one or many friends at the same time. Get Skype

    
    

18. TeamViewer TeamViewer connects to any PC or server around the world within a few seconds. You can remote control your partner's Mac, linux or windows PC as if you were sitting right in front of it. Get TeamViewer

19. Dropbox Sync your files between your computers and your mobile device; browse the files in your Dropbox folder from anywhere! Share links to files, save photos and video from your camera to your computers, and open files using your favorite Android apps. Get Dropbox

20. Tricorder A multi-sensor environmental monitor -- turn your Android device into a working tricorder! Get Tricorder

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My open letter to the copyright committee

Honorable Members of the Copyright Committee,

First off, I would like to thank you for opening up the committee to accepting submissions from the public; now with that I would like to get down to business.

Bill C-32 is not overall a horrible bill; it updates many items that should be modernized like the right to post remixing of copyrighted material for creative non-commercial benefit, an updated fair use regime for personal and educational purposes.  However all that is nullified by the inclusion of a single clause; 41.1, making it illegal to circumvent copy protection even if it is for reasons that are covered under "fair use".

I will be frank with you I believe, artist and companies should be paid for their work.  What I do not believe is as technology and distribution gets cheaper that the price stays the same if not gets increased my the production companies.  For example, the recent changes to the itunes pricing scheme. It now cost the same if not more to purchase the same quality movie like "Alice In Wonderland" on iTunes then it does to buy the DVD or even the Blu-Ray in some cases.  That's fine, if the production companies want to overcharge for digital distribution to try save their dieing distribution industry, that's their choice.  It is not the place of the Government to stand in the way of technology and innovation to "bail out" bad and changing business practices.  The best example I can show you would be Leo Laporte's TWIT Network. A low cost technology network that produces high quality shows about technology distributed over the internet.  Now if it were up to what I refer to as "Old Media" would not exist.  Another Successful example of this would be a Show Called the "Guild" which is freely available to watch on NetFlix.  "Old Media" had to be dragged kicking and screaming by Apple to be put on iTunes, which ended up being a huge win for them; if it were up to "Old Media", they would have sued Apple out of existence much like they did to Napster.

Giving consumers choice is always a good thing, this includes the ability to backup content, and change platforms to consume that content as the consumer sees fit.  Under C-32 it would be illegal for me to rip a DVD and put it on an computer, ipad, iphone, android or windows device because of section 41.1.  DVD's have digital copyright protection called CSS, it was cracked about 10 years ago.  Has Copyright protection stopped piracy?  No.  Did Copyright Protection Inconvenience members of the open source community that cracked to the copyright protection because they couldn't watch or listen to items they purchased on their computers?  Yes.  That is why the copyright protection was cracked in the first place.  To watch DVD's on a Linux (Open Source) based computer.

Now we are coming to a crossroads and it's important to pick the right way to proceed.  It is important we keep the internet in Canada a free and neutral place for innovation, communication and the free flow of idea's that will make Canada a world leader in the 21st century.  Having fragmented systems where you can watch and listen to content on one device over another makes no sense.  We must allow consumers the ability and choice to watch and listen to what they want where ever they want on any device they want to use. 

I implore the committee to change provision 41.1 to allow for the circumvention of DRM for personal and educational uses. The economy of the 21st century is going to be a knowledge based economy, let's make Canada, a leader in this brave new world.

My submission for an amendment is as follows.

42. Fair Use and Moral Rights - media shall not be restricted to or prohibit the user from not being able consume purchased media from a non-subscription based service on media consumption devices. The user shall be allowed to change the format of media for devices that the user owns at the time of purchase and in the future.  Subscription based services shall not be prohibited or locked down to a single platform or content device.

For more information you can read my blog post about this topic

I would like to thank the committee for the time it took to read this email.

Trevor Tye

Posted via email from The OptionKey Blog

A creator and consumer's view of copyright reform in Canada.

Bill Freeman wrote an interesting commentary on straight.com, and from the article what I can gather is either Mr. Freeman, doesn't consume any media himself so the copyright changes don't apply to him or he missed the issues with it all together.

As a content creator and a content consumer I can tell you that unless the digital locks provision is changed to allow backups, change formats and break copyright protection so you can use the content on other devices the bill is useless to everyone except copyright lawyers, and the people hiring copyright lawyers; here's why.

In case you haven't noticed the price on music and videos have been steadily increasing on iTunes. A user I know was telling me that a show they subscribe to on iTunes went from $30 for the season to $45 for the season. They called it a rip off and are now canceling their subscription to the show. In my humble opinion Mr. Freeman thinks the way Mr. James Moore thinks about content and copyright - you pay a licensing fee for every format you want the content on regardless if you can convert it yourself. Should digital copies cost as much as their printed counter parts in the store? Why would you pay $45 for say a digital copy of season 9 of CSI when you can go to the store and buy the same season on DVD for $20 and you get the nice packaging and pressed DVD's. <sarcasm>Makes complete sense!</sarcasm>

The copyright holders don't have their heads on straight. Lets see what's going through their heads. The consumer pays more if we put a digitally locked file on iTunes, they pay as much for it as they would pay for the DVD, but they don't get packaging, artwork or an original copy, they we tell them what devices they have to buy to play our content, and we can take away the right for them to play back their digital content.

This changes everything. Please allow me to clarify; this is right out of the proposed law. So I need to put things into perspective here. This is the proposed law's definition of "Circumvent"

“circumvent” means,

(a) in respect of a technological protection measure within the meaning of paragraph (a) of the definition “technological protection measure”, to descramble a scrambled work or decrypt an encrypted work or to otherwise avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate or impair the technological protection measure, unless it is done with the authority of the copyright owner; and

(b) in respect of a technological protection measure within the meaning of paragraph (b) of the definition “technological protection measure”, to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate or impair the technological protection measure.

“technological protection measure”

« mesure technique de protection »

“technological protection measure” means any effective technology, device or component that, in the ordinary course of its operation,

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Now here is what a person is NOT allowed to do.

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Prohibition

41.1 (1) No person shall

(a) circumvent a technological protection measure within the meaning of paragraph (a) of the definition “technological protection measure” in section 41;

(b) offer services to the public or provide services if

(i) the services are offered or provided primarily for the purposes of circumventing a technological protection measure,

(ii) the uses or purposes of those services are not commercially significant other than when they are offered or provided for the purposes of circumventing a technological protection measure, or

(iii) the person markets those services as being for the purposes of circumventing a technological protection measure or acts in concert with another person in order to market those services as being for those purposes; or

(c) manufacture, import, distribute, offer for sale or rental or provide — including by selling or renting — any technology, device or component if

(i) the technology, device or component is designed or produced primarily for the purposes of circumventing a technological protection measure,

(ii) the uses or purposes of the technology, device or component are not commercially significant other than when it is used for the purposes of circumventing a technolog- ical protection measure, or

(iii) the person markets the technology, device or component as being for the purposes of circumventing a technological protection measure or acts in concert with another person in order to market the technology, device or component as being for those purposes.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

You can read the full bill here or an excellent summary on Michael Geist Website.

The point is that you can do anything you want to the content so long as it's not copyright protected. Guess what... Everything is copyright protected! If you ever played card games like bridge, spades and hearts you should know what trump is and that is what this bill has. This bill gives consumers much updated rights to the content they buy except the copyright holders have a great big trump card that nullifies all the consumers rights.

The only way around this is the creators of the content have to come out with software that will either convert your content to different devices because under Bill C-32 it is illegal for you to do so or to seek services or any software, to put your digital copy of Toy Story Three on your New Android Tablet. That's right the digital copies provided only work in iTunes, Windows Media Player, Apple and Microsoft devices. They will not work on your PSP, Android, or other devices. This also makes ripping DVD's illegal because it has a digital lock called CSS, it was just broken a long time ago by DVD Jon.

I'm of the belief that you should only have to pay for content once and if you want to take the time to change the content from platform to platform all the power to you; and if the media companies and copyright holders want to provide that content at what consumers consider a "reasonable" price even better. In my opinion a digital copy should be 1/3 of the price of the "hard" copy since there is no shipping for the digital copy no box, no store, no sales person to sell it to me, the cost just aren't their with the digital copy that their are with disks at the store.

The other part of C-32 I wanted to comment on is the "Educational" use of copyrighted material. In my opinion, the Creator's Copyright Coalition is essentially fear mongering that they are all going to starve if a teacher don't get fair use rights in the classroom. This is ridiculous; teachers loving being able to give students books and if possible I know for a fact most teachers would rather buy 30 copies of a book then photocopy a few pages. The educational exemptions are just going to more or less legalize what is going on in schools now, like watching a movie about World War II with out having to pay a licensing fee, or copying a few pages out of a book to analyze the meaning of a phrase poem etc.

Bill C-32 has some great things in it but the digital locks issue must be addressed and changed to allow for the circumvention of DRM for personal or educational uses. Once that change is made, the bill should be allowed to pass. If a member of the Copyright Committee is reading this please feel free to add the following text to C-32 in the copyright infringement section.

41.15 to allow for the circumvention of media by use of service and software for personal, non commercial and educational uses of owned content.

42. Fair Use and Moral Rights - media shall not be restricted to or prohibit the user from not being able consume purchased media on media consumption devices. The user shall be allowed to change the format of media for devices that the user owns at the time of purchase and in the future.

That seems fair to me. I have a huge library of DVD's and we recently purchased a blu-ray player for our HD TV, this doesn't mean I'm entitled to a new blu-ray movie because I have the DVD but I am entitled to rip my DVD's to my computer for backup or to watch them on my Linux media server. If I want to re-purchase the movies I own to a higher quality format or purchase a digital copy because I don't have to convert the movie myself (because it's more convenient) that's my choice. I should not be dictated to by media companies, manufactures and government that I have to re-buy everything to pay for some executive's diamond studded solid gold TV or ivory back scratcher.

If you think I'm harsh about this don't even ask me what I think about the book publishers and their copyright issues with digital books.

Trevor

Posted via email from The OptionKey Blog

Intel's New SandyBridge Processor and Integrated DRM

Intel has made a deal with the devil; OK I'm sorry I didn't mean to insult the Devil, they made a deal with the MPAA. SandyBridge for all intents and purposes looks like a great processor, high performance low cost and worst of all integrated DRM. It was something Intel slipped into the chip when no one was looking; Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), the bane of consumers every where. It prevents you from using media you have legally purchased on different devices. The best example I can give is purchasing a song or video on iTunes then trying to load that song or video on to a non-apple device such as a Windows Phone 7, or Android tablet/phone. So now Intel is going to make every person that purchases a SandyBridge i3, i5 and i7 subject to this DRM. This isn't the first time Intel tried a boneheaded move like this, it tried it with the Tualatin-Based Pentium III's with a technology called PSN (Processor Serial Number) but privacy advocates managed to get Intel to remove this feature and it was not carried though to future processors.

 

This new DRM technology built onto the chip could be used to allow or deny you use of your computer depending on how it is implemented. To support this argument further it is also known that SandyBridge processors have a feature called Anti-Theft 3.0. This technology allows the processor to be disabled even if the computer has no internet connection. It was implemented under the premises if someone stole your computer you could shut it down. Now consider what we have here. Technology where that tracks what you have purchased; probably tracks what your using and technology that can shut your computer down. Hmmmmm...... I smell trouble here. I wonder what would happen if you tried to rip a DVD with handbrake or even tried to install handbrake? Would your computer shut off never to be turned on again or perhaps you might get a nice letter from the MPAA informing you of a court date? I don't like the idea of all these different technologies on the Intel processors calling home it feels like a violation of our privacy. If I want to spend the time and RIP my purchased DVD to my Android Phone, iPod Touch, or make a digital copy then I should be able to do that and without looking over my shoulder.

Trevor

 

Sources:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/03/intel-to-launch-insider-movie-service-with-1080p-content-widi-2/

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1934536/intels-sandy-bridge-sucks-hollywood-drm

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/12/18/2230221/Intels-Sandy-Bridge-Processor-Has-a-Kill-Switch?from=rss

http://www.techspot.com/news/41643-intels-sandy-bridge-processors-have-a-remote-kill-switch.html

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How to stream media to your Android Phone from a Network Attached Storage Device (NAS).

Ever since I got my HTC Desire at the End of September 2010, I've wanted to be able to stream shows and songs from my NAS to my Phone.

Let's face it syning though USB sucks and when I'm at home I can have access to my entire media collection on my NAS.

One of the best things about Android is it's Linux Roots and Google's commitment to keeping Android an Open Source Platform.

This allowed some very cleaver app developers to create the apps that are going to allow us to do this very simple thing.

*Note: iPhones and at the time of this post Windows Phone 7 devices can't do this without some major setup or some sort of media server such as VLC or Windows Home server etc.

What you need.

Any NAS, I am using a Linksys Dual Bay NAS200 (which only has 10/100 Ethernet access), you will need a Android Phone the better the specs the better the performance. My Android Phone is a HTC Desire with the 1Ghz Snapdragon Processor and am running Android 2.2 (Froyo).

The app I am using for accessing the NAS is called File Expert, which is free. For playing the videos I am using RockPlayer which will also allow you to play DivX and Xvid videos. RockPlayer will stream the video from the NAS to your Android Phone.

The nice thing about this is on the Apple iOS devices you have to have your mac on and itunes open to with and have some sort of third party software installed on your Mac and iOS device to access your content wirelessly. On Android you just need the two apps.

Here is how you set it up; first I will assume you have a NAS already setup on your network; and your have configured it so everyone will have access or "guest" access

In File Expert on your Android handset, press on the network tab, then depending on your phone it may be a little bit different but on my HTC Desire I need to press the menu button then I want to press "New" then select Add New SMB Server; then Fill out the Server IP Address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx and check Anonymous. Press Ok.

Then that's it, you can then browse your NAS if everything has been configured properly, and when you want to watch a video be sure to use RockPlayer especially if your using DivX or Xvid Files.

Full Video Tutorial Coming Soon!

Trevor

Posted via email from The OptionKey Blog

Windows Phone 7 Review

I've never had a problem working with technology. I've worked with windows, OS X, iphones, ipods, Android 1.6, 2.1, 2.2 and blackberry devices. I've seen and used windows mobile 6.5. I have never had any issue syncing, navigating or doing anything with any of these devices. Now welcome Windows Phone 7; Microsoft's "iPhone and Android" killer which it definitely is not. When Windows Phone 7 was released I went to have a look at it; they had a demo of it at the local Futureshop. At the time I thought the phone was mostly "Flash" it was a little confusing moving around Microsoft's operating system. Other then that I thought it might be ok. The overall impression I got is if you didn't like the way or style the iPhone or Android looked; Windows Phone 7 Might be a good solution. Boy was I wrong.

So Why do I dislike the Windows Phone 7 OS so much? There are a few things.

1) The Data Syncing is very lack lustre it is about the same as the Blackberry, just a little bit worse (in my opinion).

2) Adding a contact took 6 steps. That is ridiculous. The I was adding the contact I was never qued to add the phone number or email address to an existing contact. On my Android and iPhone it only took 2-3 steps!

3) The Messaging application only selected addresses that were imported from the gmail account so we could only send emails. If we wanted to SMS we had to input the full number.

4) If you want apps you have to have a LIVE Account! So I had to sign up for one. I was not impressed.

5) When we downloaded an one of the very few free apps, I have no idea where the heck it went!

6) The search only seems to work in sections. For example if I am in the Microsoft Apps Store it only searches the store, if I am in the email it only searches the email.

7) I was beginning to find the navigation confusing. there is a huge amount of scrolling in Windows Phone 7 and it varies from up and down to side to side. You never know which way your going to have to scroll.

This phone was picked out by someone with very limited computer skills against my suggestions for an iPhone 3GS or Android phone. The person that bought it was told by the sales person that they would find it easier then an iPhone, and when they couldn't get it working; they called me and I found it frustrating to get setup. Perhaps if I had an Xbox with a XBox Live account and a regular Microsoft Live account I would love it.

So this is my recommendation for those of you looking to buy a Windows 7 Phone. If your tied into Microsoft's services hey then go for it if you don't have Microsoft's Services then stick with A BlackBerry, iPhone or Android. If you are wondering Yes I did find Windows Mobile 6.5 easier to use and setup no matter how awkward it was.

Video to be posted soon!

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Going from a Democracy to an Empire

We live in interesting times... at least I think we do. Have you watched Star Wars episodes one to three recently? No, well maybe you should and then have a look at your local news paper and check out what the heck is going on in the world. See any similarities? No, well you should and here is why. Ever since September 11, 2001 (a tragic day in the history of the world); the United States and the western or "modernized" countries have to some respects become police states constantly in a state of emergency at least compared to pre 9/11. I highly recommend reading a post from Robert Elias, professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco era 2001, for a great article about Today's terrorism and what was/is America's foreign policy. Now if I'm going to compare today with what happened in Star Wars let's go back to 2001. The Bush administration was in power, and life was going along just fine there were many international disagreements, perhaps more so then before. The United States and the Western Countries are in a relatively Utopian State much like the Republic in Star Wars. So now this is going to get a little complicated here but I will try to explain it. Some bad stuff happens in Star Wars like the deaths of Jedi, and the realization of "rogue countries and companies (The Trade Federation)" that become a threat to the republic.

Now the extremist are the "Trade Federation", we lived with them bought things from them used them and now they want to kill us. Now in Star Wars the republic and Trade Federation have their little war (Iraq and Afghanistan) where the armies fight on the battle ground. However here is where the Terrorist are very cleaver. If Terrorist hate the way we live our lives, having technology, consumerism, etc, then they are as good if not more cleaver then Emperor Palpatine. We have democracy for now¹ but I don't know if we will for much longer; we now live about two steps from being in a police state. Issues where common sense should prevail are trumped by over zealous calls for patriotism and security. We the people have allowed this to happen, making our countries almost no different then the corrupt "Dictatorships" our "governments" say are evil (except we have more technology). I do recognize that we still do have elections their for we are still technically a democracy but when only a small percentage of people come out to vote I seriously question that. Like in star wars where the government took away all the power from the people in the name of security, because of a war, then the Terrorists have already won.

The best examples of this I can give you is the conduct of the police at the G20 meeting in Toronto², the reaction by The US Government and companies to Wikileaks. Here is a great example of optics. The Harper Government is all about Anti-Corruption but when they appoint a public sector whistleblower commissioner who is to busy berating their staff amongst other things then to do her job (See the Toronto Star Post). Like in Star Wars, where The Republic goes from being a republic to an Empire; I fear we maybe on the same path giving up our freedoms for temporary security. It has happened before heard of the great republic of Rome?

There is hope, there are many more political parties propping up like the Pirate Party and the Alberta Party. I hope that we can return to our governments governing with common sense, good will and reason instead of fear, and ideology. We have to make these changes before it's to late.

That's just my opinion. I hope I'm wrong.

1 - In Canada since in 2008 and 2009 Prime Minister Steven Harper Prorogued Parliament to avoid no-confidence votes. It basically set a precedent for how the Governor General (queen's representative) handles these kind of issues in the future.

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Open ID and API's. What Are They And How They Work?

In today's wonderful computing world you have a number of really popular companies (such as twitter, Google and Facebook to name a few) and they have a huge user base. To allow these users access to your web services you can use something called an API (Application Programming interface). An API allows a programmer to integrate a product or service into their particular product or service (such as a wordpress blog). A popular example would be having a GMail account and creating or accessing Your Wordpress account. This is made possible by their APIs which is why you see buttons like "Connect with Facebook" or "login with your GMail Account".

Now a good API that most people should have integrated into their website is Open ID. OpenID is a safe, faster, and easier way to log in to web sites. http://openid.net/. This way a user can use an account they already have (so long as that account uses open id) to login and join your site or web community without the user having to fill out another sign up form. This can be very useful when setting up a website with a CMS like Wordpress. The web developer that sets up such a site can then allow you to use an open ID login to access the site.

 

Who currently uses the Open ID Standard?

Look for the “Sign in with a Google Account” button or use your Google Profile URL	Look for the “Sign in with Yahoo” button.	Look for the “Yahoo! JAPAN IDでログイン” button.
Enter “username.livejournal.com”	Click the “Sign in with Hyves” button.	Enter your blog URL: “blogname.blogspot.com”
Look for the “Sign in with Yahoo” button or use your photostream URL	Click the “Sign in with Orange” button or enter “orange.fr”	mixi is a web service that allows users to communicate with their friends and acquaintances.
Look for the “Login with MySpaceID” button or enter “www.myspace.com/username”	Enter your WordPress.com URL, for example: “username.wordpress.com”	Look for a “Sign in with AOL” button or enter “openid.aol.com/screenname”
Chi.mp allows you to create your own social hub on an OpenID domain you own and control.	ClaimID is an easy way to manage your online identity with OpenID.	myID.net is an OpenID provider with support for groups and the Korean language.
myOpenID is the first standalone provider for both individuals and businesses, with secure multi-factor authentication.	VeriSign’s Personal Identity Provider is an OpenID provider with support for multi-factor authentication.	Your Internet ID lets you build a social identity to use on the web.

Please note who is notice who is missing from the list most noticeably Apple and Microsoft.

 

What are some benefits of using OpenID?

Most websites ask for an extended, repetitive amount of information in order to use their application. OpenID allows you to sign in to websites with a single click. Basic profile information (such as your name, birth date etc) can be used to pre-populate registration forms, so you spend more time engaging and less time filling out annoying registration pages.

Allowing the user to use Open ID will help reduce frustration and keep the user to a minimum number of multiple usernames and passwords which they may find difficult to remember. Since password recovery process is tedious the user will be more inclined to use the site that makes it easiest for them to use. However using the same password at each of your favorite websites poses a security risk. With OpenID, you can use a single, existing account (from providers like Google, Yahoo, AOL or your own blog) to sign in to thousands of websites without ever needing to create another username and password. This makes OpenID is the safer and easier method to joining new sites.

OpenID is a decentralized standard, meaning it is not controlled by any one website or service provider. You control how much personal information you choose to share with websites that accept OpenID. Multiple OpenIDs can be used for different websites or purposes. If your email (Google, Yahoo, AOL), photo stream (Flickr) or blog (Blogger, WordPress, LiveJournal) serves as your primary online presence, OpenID allows you to have a portable identity across the web.

Many web users deploy the same password across multiple websites. And since traditional passwords are not centrally administered, if a security compromise occurs at any website you use, a hacker could gain access to your password across multiple sites. OpenID is more secure because passwords are never shared with any websites, and if a compromise does occur, you can simply change the password for your OpenID, thus immediately preventing a hacker from gaining access to your accounts at any websites you visit.

Since the focus of most OpenID providers (such as Google, Yahoo and AOL) is in identity management, they can be more thorough about protecting your online identity. Most website operators are less likely to be as dedicated to protecting your identity as the OpenID providers, whose focus is on securely hosting user identities.

Plugins such as the Wordpress Open ID plugin allows users to login to their local WordPress account using an OpenID. This also allows the enabling of commenters to leave authenticated comments using OpenID. The plugin also includes an OpenID provider, enabling users to login to OpenID-enabled sites using their own personal WordPress account. XRDS-Simple is required for the OpenID Provider and some features of the OpenID Consumer.

Developer documention for the Wordpress Open ID API, which includes all of the public methods and hooks for integrating with and extending the plugin, can be found here.

 

If you have any questions or comments please tweet them to me @trevortye on Twitter or email me

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Google Website Optimizer Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability

Security Bulletin December 07, 2010

There is a potential security issue with Website Optimizer. The vulnerability in the Website Optimizer Control Script, allows the execution of malicious code on your site using a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attack. This attack can only take place if a website or browser has already been compromised by a separate attack. The immediate probability of this attack is low but it is essential take action to protect your site.

Google has a fixed for the bug, and all new experiments are not susceptible. However, any experiments that are currently running need to be updated. If you have any Website Optimizer scripts from paused or stopped experiments created before December 3, 2010, you will need to remove or update that code as well.

There are two ways to update your code. You can either stop current experiments, remove the old scripts, and create a new experiment, or you can update the code on your site directly. Creating a new experiment as it is the simpler method.

Creating a New Experiment

Stop any currently running Website Optimizer experiments
Remove all the Website Optimizer scripts from your site
Create a new experiment as normal. New experiments are not vulnerable.

To Update the Website Optimizer Control Script Directly Locate the Control Script on your site.

It should look something like this:

A/B Test Control Script
<!-- Google Website Optimizer Control Script -->
<script>
function utmx_section(){}function utmx(){}
(function(){var k='XXXXXXXXXX',d=document,l=d.location,c=d.cookie;function f(n){
if(c){var i=c.indexOf(n+'=');if(i>-1){var j=c.indexOf(';',i);return c.substring(i+n.
length+1,j<0?c.length:j)}}}var x=f('__utmx'),xx=f('__utmxx'),h=l.hash;
d.write('<sc'+'ript src="'+
'http'+(l.protocol=='https:'?'s://ssl':'://www')+'.google-analytics.com'
+'/siteopt.js?v=1&utmxkey='+k+'&utmx='+(x?x:'')+'&utmxx='+(xx?xx:'')+'&utmxtime='
+new Date().valueOf()+(h?'&utmxhash='+escape(h.substr(1)):'')+
'" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></sc'+'ript>')})();
</script><script>utmx("url",'A/B');</script>
<!-- End of Google Website Optimizer Control Script -->

Multivariate Test Control Script
<!-- Google Website Optimizer Control Script -->
<script>
function utmx_section(){}function utmx(){}
(function(){var k='XXXXXXXXXX',d=document,l=d.location,c=d.cookie;function f(n){
if(c){var i=c.indexOf(n+'=');if(i>-1){var j=c.indexOf(';',i);return c.substring(i+n.
length+1,j<0?c.length:j)}}}var x=f('__utmx'),xx=f('__utmxx'),h=l.hash;
d.write('<sc'+'ript src="'+
'http'+(l.protocol=='https:'?'s://ssl':'://www')+'.google-analytics.com'
+'/siteopt.js?v=1&utmxkey='+k+'&utmx='+(x?x:'')+'&utmxx='+(xx?xx:'')+'&utmxtime='
+new Date().valueOf()+(h?'&utmxhash='+escape(h.substr(1)):'')+
'" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></sc'+'ript>')})();
</script>
<!-- End of Google Website Optimizer Control Script -->

Locate the following in the Control Script: return c.substring(...
Modify the following line as shown:
BEFORE: return c.substring(i+n.length+1,j<0?c.length:j)
FIXED: return escape(c.substring(i+n.length+1,j<0?c.length:j))
Make sure to include the final closing parenthesis “)”

Fixed A/B Control Script
<!-- Google Website Optimizer Control Script -->
<script>
function utmx_section(){}function utmx(){} (function(){var k='XXXXXXXXXX',d=document,l=d.location,c=d.cookie;function f(n){ if(c){var i=c.indexOf(n+'=');if(i>-1){var j=c.indexOf(';',i);
return escape(c.substring(i+n.length+1,j<0?c.length:j))}}}
var x=f('__utmx'),xx=f('__utmxx'),h=l.hash; d.write('<sc'+'ript src="'+
'http'+(l.protocol=='https:'?'s://ssl':'://www')+'.google-analytics.com'
+'/siteopt.js?v=1&utmxkey='+k+'&utmx='+(x?x:'')+'&utmxx='+(xx?xx:'')+'&utmxtime='
+new Date().valueOf()+(h?'&utmxhash='+escape(h.substr(1)):'')+
'" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></sc'+'ript>')})();
</script><script>utmx("url",'A/B');
</script>
<!-- End of Google Website Optimizer Control Script -->

Fixed Multivariate Control Script
<!-- Google Website Optimizer Control Script -->
<script>
function utmx_section(){}function utmx(){}
(function(){var k='XXXXXXXXXX',d=document,l=d.location,c=d.cookie;function f(n){
if(c){var i=c.indexOf(n+'=');if(i>-1){var j=c.indexOf(';',i);
return escape(c.substring(i+n.length+1,j<0?c.length:j))}}}
var x=f('__utmx'),xx=f('__utmxx'),h=l.hash; d.write('<sc'+'ript src="'+
'http'+(l.protocol=='https:'?'s://ssl':'://www')+'.google-analytics.com'
+'/siteopt.js?v=1&utmxkey='+k+'&utmx='+(x?x:'')+'&utmxx='+(xx?xx:'')+'&utmxtime='
+new Date().valueOf()+(h?'&utmxhash='+escape(h.substr(1)):'')+
'" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></sc'+'ript>')})();
</script>
<!-- End of Google Website Optimizer Control Script -->

Note that the k=XXXXXXXXX line in the above Control Script examples is a placeholder.

Your experiment will continue as normal after you’ve made this update. There’s no need to pause or restart the experiment.

 

Trevor Tye

Posted via email from The OptionKey Blog