IDG News Service - Google has acquired Pitts burgh Pattern Recognition, known as PittPatt, a company that develops technology for recognizing faces in images and video, according to PittPatt's website.
Its founders began developing the technology at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute in the 1990s and formed PittPatt in 2004 as a spin-off from the university, the website says.
"At Google, computer vision technology is already at the core of many existing products (such as Image Search, YouTube, Picasa, and Goggles), so it's a natural fit to join Google and bring the benefits of our research and technology to a wider audience," PittPatt said.
"We will continue to tap the potential of computer vision in applications that range from simple photo organization to complex video and mobile applications," the company said.
PittPatt's technology can do various types of facial recognition, including tracking faces in videos and sorting photos according to whose face appears in each photo, according to pages on its website that can still be found in Google's cache. It also makes a software development kit.
Terms were not disclosed and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read the views of online Certification Experts, which provide the real questions and correct answer and explanation for the students / professionals who are seeking or enhancing their level of expertise. more at certkingdom.com
July 23, 2011
July 21, 2011
Hands on: Mac OS X, iOS morph into Lion
Apple goes all in on multi-touch gestures in its new OS
Computerworld - Apple has finally unleashed OS X 10.7 Lion, the revamped operating system for the company's desktops and laptops. Lion is the latest in a string of major OS revisions released over the past 11 years, and this newest cat borrows some tricks from Apple's mobile lineup.
You can drag and drop all open windows across Spaces, so if you're browsing the Web and using iChat while working in iPhoto, you can drag the iPhoto window into its own Space and leave more distracting apps in another Space. (You add new Spaces by moving your cursor to the upper-left corner of the screen, prompting a slide-out window with a + sign in it to appear.) Using four fingers to swipe left or right will toggle through open Spaces, and swiping right eventually brings you to Dashboard.
Launchpad
Launchpad is similar to the home screen on the iPhone or iPad; it gives you quick access to all of your apps with one click or gesture. (See full visual tour.)
To make the different Spaces easier to discern, you can assign custom wallpapers to each by right-clicking the Desktop in whichever Space you're in and selecting Change Desktop Background. Apple has included new desktop pictures to get you started.
In Snow Leopard, I used Exposé all of the time, and since Mission Control essentially incorporates Exposé, I imagine I'll be using this new feature all the time. It's intuitive and easy to use. Most Lion users who've been accustomed to reaching for Exposé (through gestures, clicking a mouse button, clicking on the Dock icon or using the keyboard) will find Mission Control a welcome update.
Launchpad is Lion's new app organization scheme that mimics the one used in iOS 4, right down to the numeric badge notifications on app icons. Like the home screen on the iPhone and iPad, Launchpad arranges applications in a grid, but the Lion version supports up to 40 icons and folders on the screen. (You can have up to three screens of apps, with 40 in each one.)
The apps can be arranged through drag-and-drop, and you can move them to a different space by dragging them to the edge of the screen -- just as you move apps on the iPhone to a different screen. You can also create folders of similar apps à la iOS by dragging one app icon onto another. If you hold down the option key with Launchpad running, the icons jiggle, allowing apps that have been downloaded from the App Store to be deleted. And you can drag apps from the Launchpad to the Dock.
For many users, Launchpad may be more about eye candy than function. It's not that different from having a shortcut to your applications folder in the Dock. But if you have a trackpad, Launchpad is much more useful, since you can call it up with a five-finger "clench" gesture. That gesture offers a quick and easy way to access apps, and trumps navigating to the Dock because it saves you a couple of clicks. Considering how often power users go through the action of launching and relaunching apps, streamlining the launch process is a good thing.
In essence, what Apple has done is to build a redundant -- and eye-catching -- way to quickly access apps. As always, you can open a Finder window and navigate to them the old-fashioned way.
LaunchPad gives you immediate access to your applications. You can click on the LaunchPad icon in the Dock or use a gesture to activate this feature. Just as in iOS, apps can be grouped together and accessed by clicking on the app group's icon. You can also move apps to different windows by dragging them to the edge of the screen. Holding down the option key allows you to delete apps purchased through the Mac App Store, much as you can delete them in iOS.
Mail and Safari tweaks
Mail gets a fair number of upgrades, as does Safari, both of them gaining features from the mobile versions.
Mail 5.0 looks and operates suspiciously like its iOS cousin, and for good reason: The iPad version was the inspiration for Mail in Lion. Visually, the biggest change for Mail is that it's gone widescreen, and the interface is more streamlined. Just as on the iPad, emails in your in-box are listed on the left and message contents show up on the right. (If you like the old view, it is still there and can be activated by going to Mail > Preferences > Viewing and selecting "Classic view.")
There's a new Favorites bar below the Mail buttons where you can add shortcuts to various mailboxes, RSS feeds or other email-related items just by dragging them into place. (It's like the Bookmarks bar in Safari.) The Favorites bar has a Show/Hide button for the mailbox sidebar, which is hidden by default, as well as access to a unified Inbox, Drafts, Sent messages, Notes, and Flagged Items. Each has a drop-down menu that lets you navigate to your email accounts.
Computerworld - Apple has finally unleashed OS X 10.7 Lion, the revamped operating system for the company's desktops and laptops. Lion is the latest in a string of major OS revisions released over the past 11 years, and this newest cat borrows some tricks from Apple's mobile lineup.
You can drag and drop all open windows across Spaces, so if you're browsing the Web and using iChat while working in iPhoto, you can drag the iPhoto window into its own Space and leave more distracting apps in another Space. (You add new Spaces by moving your cursor to the upper-left corner of the screen, prompting a slide-out window with a + sign in it to appear.) Using four fingers to swipe left or right will toggle through open Spaces, and swiping right eventually brings you to Dashboard.
Launchpad
Launchpad is similar to the home screen on the iPhone or iPad; it gives you quick access to all of your apps with one click or gesture. (See full visual tour.)
To make the different Spaces easier to discern, you can assign custom wallpapers to each by right-clicking the Desktop in whichever Space you're in and selecting Change Desktop Background. Apple has included new desktop pictures to get you started.
In Snow Leopard, I used Exposé all of the time, and since Mission Control essentially incorporates Exposé, I imagine I'll be using this new feature all the time. It's intuitive and easy to use. Most Lion users who've been accustomed to reaching for Exposé (through gestures, clicking a mouse button, clicking on the Dock icon or using the keyboard) will find Mission Control a welcome update.
Launchpad is Lion's new app organization scheme that mimics the one used in iOS 4, right down to the numeric badge notifications on app icons. Like the home screen on the iPhone and iPad, Launchpad arranges applications in a grid, but the Lion version supports up to 40 icons and folders on the screen. (You can have up to three screens of apps, with 40 in each one.)
The apps can be arranged through drag-and-drop, and you can move them to a different space by dragging them to the edge of the screen -- just as you move apps on the iPhone to a different screen. You can also create folders of similar apps à la iOS by dragging one app icon onto another. If you hold down the option key with Launchpad running, the icons jiggle, allowing apps that have been downloaded from the App Store to be deleted. And you can drag apps from the Launchpad to the Dock.
For many users, Launchpad may be more about eye candy than function. It's not that different from having a shortcut to your applications folder in the Dock. But if you have a trackpad, Launchpad is much more useful, since you can call it up with a five-finger "clench" gesture. That gesture offers a quick and easy way to access apps, and trumps navigating to the Dock because it saves you a couple of clicks. Considering how often power users go through the action of launching and relaunching apps, streamlining the launch process is a good thing.
In essence, what Apple has done is to build a redundant -- and eye-catching -- way to quickly access apps. As always, you can open a Finder window and navigate to them the old-fashioned way.
LaunchPad gives you immediate access to your applications. You can click on the LaunchPad icon in the Dock or use a gesture to activate this feature. Just as in iOS, apps can be grouped together and accessed by clicking on the app group's icon. You can also move apps to different windows by dragging them to the edge of the screen. Holding down the option key allows you to delete apps purchased through the Mac App Store, much as you can delete them in iOS.
Mail and Safari tweaks
Mail gets a fair number of upgrades, as does Safari, both of them gaining features from the mobile versions.
Mail 5.0 looks and operates suspiciously like its iOS cousin, and for good reason: The iPad version was the inspiration for Mail in Lion. Visually, the biggest change for Mail is that it's gone widescreen, and the interface is more streamlined. Just as on the iPad, emails in your in-box are listed on the left and message contents show up on the right. (If you like the old view, it is still there and can be activated by going to Mail > Preferences > Viewing and selecting "Classic view.")
There's a new Favorites bar below the Mail buttons where you can add shortcuts to various mailboxes, RSS feeds or other email-related items just by dragging them into place. (It's like the Bookmarks bar in Safari.) The Favorites bar has a Show/Hide button for the mailbox sidebar, which is hidden by default, as well as access to a unified Inbox, Drafts, Sent messages, Notes, and Flagged Items. Each has a drop-down menu that lets you navigate to your email accounts.
July 20, 2011
Apple patches 58 Safari bugs to deflect drive-by attacks
Safari 5.1, the browser bundled with Lion, also makes its way to Snow Leopard
Apple today updated Safari to version 5.1, patching 58 security vulnerabilities and adding several new features, including sandboxing on Mac OS X 10.7.
Safari 5.1 is the browser bundled with Lion, the operating system Apple released earlier today, but it will also run on Mac OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard. A separate Safari update to version 5.0.6 was also issued today for users running Mac OS X 10.5, or Leopard.
The update patched a total of 58 flaws in Safari, 14 of them specific to the Windows edition, one that affected only the Mac version, and 44 that impact both platforms. Forty-seven of the 58 were accompanied by Apple's "arbitrary code execution" phrasing, indicating that the company considered them critical.
Unlike rival Microsoft, Apple does not tag vulnerabilities with threat-level labels.
Safari was last patched in April when Apple fixed two flaws. The month before that, however, Apple addressed 62 vulnerabilities in a massive security update.
The bulk of the bugs patched today -- 43 of the 58 -- were in WebKit, the open-source browser engine that powers Safari and also Google's Chrome.
Most of those were memory flaws.
"Multiple memory corruption issues existed in WebKit," said Apple in the security advisory that accompanied the Safari 5.1 update. "Visiting a maliciously-crafted website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution."
Apple's description means that the vulnerabilities could be exploited via "drive-by" attacks that only require cyber criminals to trick victims into visiting a malware-serving URL.
Along with the patches, Apple also added new features to Safari 5.1, including Reading List, a feature inspired by the third-party program Instapaper, that eliminates Web ads on content marked for later viewing.
Safari 5.1 supports several Lion-only features as well, ranging from the operating system's multi-touch support and full-screen view to automatic resume and "sandboxing," an anti-exploit technology that isolates the browser from the rest of the machine.
Reading List
Safari 5.1 runs on Snow Leopard, but only some features -- like Reading List -- are available. The new browser runs best on Lion.
Like Chrome has done since its 2008 debut, Safari 5.1 insulates the operating system and other applications from any code executed in the browser, including attack code.
"If a website contains malicious code intended to capture personal data or take control of your computer, sandboxing automatically blocks it to keep your computer and your information safe," Apple claimed on its Safari 5.1 website today.
Chrome's sandbox has kept it more secure than other browsers from attacks, including those launched by top-notch researchers at the annual Pwn2Own challenge, where Google's browser has never been hacked.
Safari can be downloaded for Leopard or Snow Leopard on a Mac, and for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 on a PC, from Apple's website. Mac OS X users will be notified of the new version automatically, while Windows users already running Safari will be alerted by the Apple Software Update tool.
Apple today updated Safari to version 5.1, patching 58 security vulnerabilities and adding several new features, including sandboxing on Mac OS X 10.7.
Safari 5.1 is the browser bundled with Lion, the operating system Apple released earlier today, but it will also run on Mac OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard. A separate Safari update to version 5.0.6 was also issued today for users running Mac OS X 10.5, or Leopard.
The update patched a total of 58 flaws in Safari, 14 of them specific to the Windows edition, one that affected only the Mac version, and 44 that impact both platforms. Forty-seven of the 58 were accompanied by Apple's "arbitrary code execution" phrasing, indicating that the company considered them critical.
Unlike rival Microsoft, Apple does not tag vulnerabilities with threat-level labels.
Safari was last patched in April when Apple fixed two flaws. The month before that, however, Apple addressed 62 vulnerabilities in a massive security update.
The bulk of the bugs patched today -- 43 of the 58 -- were in WebKit, the open-source browser engine that powers Safari and also Google's Chrome.
Most of those were memory flaws.
"Multiple memory corruption issues existed in WebKit," said Apple in the security advisory that accompanied the Safari 5.1 update. "Visiting a maliciously-crafted website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution."
Apple's description means that the vulnerabilities could be exploited via "drive-by" attacks that only require cyber criminals to trick victims into visiting a malware-serving URL.
Along with the patches, Apple also added new features to Safari 5.1, including Reading List, a feature inspired by the third-party program Instapaper, that eliminates Web ads on content marked for later viewing.
Safari 5.1 supports several Lion-only features as well, ranging from the operating system's multi-touch support and full-screen view to automatic resume and "sandboxing," an anti-exploit technology that isolates the browser from the rest of the machine.
Reading List
Safari 5.1 runs on Snow Leopard, but only some features -- like Reading List -- are available. The new browser runs best on Lion.
Like Chrome has done since its 2008 debut, Safari 5.1 insulates the operating system and other applications from any code executed in the browser, including attack code.
"If a website contains malicious code intended to capture personal data or take control of your computer, sandboxing automatically blocks it to keep your computer and your information safe," Apple claimed on its Safari 5.1 website today.
Chrome's sandbox has kept it more secure than other browsers from attacks, including those launched by top-notch researchers at the annual Pwn2Own challenge, where Google's browser has never been hacked.
Safari can be downloaded for Leopard or Snow Leopard on a Mac, and for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 on a PC, from Apple's website. Mac OS X users will be notified of the new version automatically, while Windows users already running Safari will be alerted by the Apple Software Update tool.
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