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Today’s topics include a clarification of the confusion surrounding the availability of Windows 10 PCs, a new security ally for Adobe, a new video enhanced version of Yahoo’s free Messenger mobile app and Neil Young pulling his music from streaming sites.
A Microsoft official threw a scare into an already shaken PC industry earlier this month when he said system makers probably would not have Windows 10 systems available when the operating system is launched July 29.
However, the confusion seems to have been cleared up, and now Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Acer appear primed to release new systems at the same time Windows 10 hits the market.
Microsoft officials sent Bloomberg Business a statement last week saying that Yusuf Mehdi, vice president of Windows and device marketing for the software giant, erred when he told the news site that Windows 10 systems would begin arriving soon after the OS launch, but not on the same day.
Adobe isn’t alone in its efforts to secure Flash, as a very key ally is now contributing significantly to Flash’s defense—none other than Google. As of the Flash update released on July 14, Flash now includes new attack mitigations, courtesy of Google’s Project Zero security initiative.
Google security engineers Mark Brand and Chris Evans detailed the full mitigation in a technical post, but what it really boils down to is protection for a common class of use-after-free exploits that take advantage of weaknesses in memory.
Yahoo has quietly soft-launched a new version of its free Messenger mobile app that provides video behind texting. The Livetext for iOS app may be the closest thing to turning a smartphone into a live television camera, only the app is silent and comes with texting.
Users can have virtual face-to-face chats and text each other simultaneously, and there’s no voice to get in the way of the messaging.
Streaming music lovers who are fans of songwriter and guitarist Neil Young better hope they can still dig out their old Neil Young CDs and vinyl albums now that the legendary musician is pulling his music back from streaming media Websites due to what he says is poor audio quality.
In a somber personal post on Facebook on July 15, Young wrote, “Streaming has ended for me. I hope this is OK for my fans.”