Friday, July 09, 2010

The Pirate Bay Hacked, 4 Million Usernames, Email Addresses and IPs Compromised [Security]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5582418/the-pirate-bay-hacked-4-million-usernames-email-addresses-and-ips-compromised

Oops! It looks like Argentinian "researcher" Ch Russo hacked The Pirate Bay, acquiring a whopping four million usernames, email addresses and IP addresses.

I didn't even realize you could sign up for an account at The Pirate Bay! If you've just visited the site and downloaded some things, you should be fine, as you don't need to have an account to do that. Presumably, these accounts are for uploaders and more heavy users.

Luckily for them, Russo claims that he has no plans to give out or sell the data, even though the copyright cops would surely find it to be very valuable. And TBP has since plugged up the hole that allowed for the breach to occur. So, uh, carry on, I guess. [Krebs on Security via Boy Genius]

If You Buy an iPad Mag, It Might As Well Be Popular Mechanics [IPad Apps]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5582442/if-you-buy-an-ipad-mag-it-might-as-well-be-popular-mechanics

The latest big magazine iPad app is here: Popular Mechanics. It's very possibly the best. Though for now, it's a glorified beta test.

That is, Pop Mech's Interactive Edition isn't the first "issue" of monthly apps—those won't arrive until later this year—it's more of a tech demo that mixes up older and newer material to show how they're thinking about a digital magazine. (Fortunately, it's just $1.99. I doubt this price will stick.)

It's essentially the same app I saw a couple months ago, which is mostly a good thing. It's down to a mere 27MB package—compared to 500MB for the similar Wired app. Video clips are seamlessly integrated with the page. (Though a couple, like the video for the article "Epic Air," were choppy and froze.) The neato interactive earthquake app, showing a wealth of data from the USGS, is built directly in the mag now.

Its color-coded navigator, for quickly skimming the entire magazine, is perhaps my favorite table of contents in an iPad mag yet (seen above). Except for the occasional moments when the app breaks its own navigational scheme—typically, swipe left-to-right to go to the next page—it's fairly easy to use, taking care to explain interactive wonkiness when it arises without feeling too fored. Which is more than can be said about some mag apps.

Pop Mech manages to mostly walk the line between being a "magazine" and some glimpse of the future of slick digital content you might pay for, though it never quite escapes that sensation of requiring "work" to read, versus leisurely flipping through a magazine. Which is the feeling I hope digital magazines really learn to mime in the end. Zippy videos don't replace the feel of high quality, glossy paper between your fingers. (Ironically, for the moment, my favorite iPad reading experiences are Instapaper, Reeder and BoingBoing's slick web features.)

If you're going to buy a fancy iPad mag, though, it might as well be this one. It's good. And it's the cheapest, at any rate. [iTunes, Popular Mechanics]

This Bendable Bike Can Tie Itself to a Lamp Post [Biking]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5582565/this-bendable-bike-can-tie-itself-to-a-lamp-post

This Bendable Bike Can Tie Itself to a Lamp Post I'm slowly customizing my new bike with the help of some friends from Ohio. I love it except for one thing: The massive lock that I've to use in NYC. This awesome bendable bike, however, doesn't need any lock.

This has to be one of the best bike inventions in the history of bike inventions. It was created by the guy in the photos, 21-yo designer—and Adam Frucci impersonator—Kevin Scott.

I know it's hard to believe, but this thing actually works and could go into production. The bike can literally bend around a lamp post. Again: The whole bike bends to lock onto itself. First, it's rigid. Then, you push a lever and it's flexible enough to tie it to a post. Rigid. Lever. Bendable. Lever. Rigid. Lever. Bendable. I'm sorry, but I just can't stop marveling at this invention. [DMU via Daily Mail]

OnLive's Lag Tested With SCIENCE [PC]

Source: http://kotaku.com/5582385/onlives-lag-tested-with-science

OnLive, a streaming service that hopes to replace both PCs and consoles as the gaming setup of the future, has its sceptics, who say it's too laggy to work. Why listen to them, when you can listen to science?

The boffins at DigitalFoundry have rigged up a PC and some testing units to see just how much lag OnLive really suffers from. At least in the case of this PC and this internet connection (its performance will of course vary on your location and bandwidth).

Don't mind the slow-motion footage. Take heed of the results, using Unreal Tournament III, which in this case show that the time between button press and on-screen action was around 150ms. That may sound like a lot, but it's typical of the kind of delays you'll face playing any kind of networked game, whether online or even locally.

Other games tested included Dirt 2 and Assassin's Creed II, with both of those games recording lag of around 150-216ms. While this is far from ideal, since it's still slower than you'd experience using a locally-based product (as in, a disc spinning in a console or a game installed on a hard drive), considering the nature and benefits of OnLive, they're...not bad.

It's worth noting, however, that the results were far slower than those originally promised by OnLive, who reckoned lag would only be between 35-80ms, proving perhaps that conditions in the real world are never as ideal as those in a testing environment.

OnLive Latency: The Reckoning [DigitalFoundry @ Eurogamer]

395 Photos That Prove Cellphones Make Great Cameras [Photography]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5576509/395-photos-taken-on-cellphones

If the 395 results of this week's cellphone Shooting Challenge prove anything, it's that there's no excuse for taking a bad photo with a cellphone, even if resolution, color processing and exposure limitations force you to get a bit creative.

Lead Shot

Took this photo in London today with an Apple iPhone 3GS, Edited using the 'TiltShiftGen' App.
Couldnt resist a photo of these reflections of bright lights in the water.
-Charlie Davis

HTC Evo

I shot this picture with my HTC Evo set to 8megp. I found this little crop of corn on the side of the road two days ago, hopped out of my car, tripped over some steel wire and cut my shin. BUT, the sun was setting so I snapped a quick photo. No in phone alteration or anything. The Sun coming through the trees at the top of the picture gave a unique color palate to the rest of the picture. Hope you like it.
-Anthony Meadows

iPhone 3GS - PS Mobile

395 Photos That Prove Cellphones Make Great Cameras

Shot with an Iphone 3gs edited in Photoshop mobile
-Zachary Hertel-Therrien

Phone Unspecified

395 Photos That Prove Cellphones Make Great Cameras
There was a storm nearby and a tree fell on my girlfriends roof. It was cut into pieces to take it out of the house. The tree was an "Eucalipto", the program i used was PS Mobile, took the picture, full contrast, full sharpen (gave the fire effects), some saturation and thats it!
-Bernal González Orellana

Phone Unspecified

I've taken this photo leaving school tonight. I was studying the whole day for my exams, in the new library of the EPFL, the Learning Center. By leaving the Learning Center after a tough day, I enjoyed the the sunset, walked a bit further a I thought "No way, I've to take a picture of this". (As you may not know, the weather was horrible these two last weeks in Switzerland. Today was the first day we could go outside without a jacket :D ). I went back, aligned to have a nice reflexion of sunset in the Learning Center windows and shot
-Donovan Koch

iPhone 4

I just got my iphone 4 after waiting 5 hours in line. For the past two days I have just playing with it non stop (resulting in a few close call care crashes). While driving home from work on I-10, I pulled out my camera, tapped to focus and... voila!
-Sebastien Bonnot

Blackberry Tour 9630

Living close to Lake Shore drive in Chicago has its perks. I have been using Palm Treos since I could remember (300, 600, 650, 700, 755). I decided to make the jump finally to the Blackberry Tour 9630. This picture was taken by my new 9630 right off of Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. I was playing around with my Tour after a long bike ride and saw the perfect picture opportunity. I took this to use as my phone background. This is the most calming and peaceful picture ever.
Phone Used: Sprint Blackberry Tour 9630
-Michael Ying

Samsung Sway

This photo was taken with my 2.0 megapixel Samsung Sway cellphone. The photo was taken in a darkened room, with the "negative" color effect, which is included in the phone's camera options. The light is a black light, the 3 sticks around the light are "dead" (already used) glowsticks, and the 2 orange sticks are LED glowsticks.
-Jordan Ruedy

iPhone 3GS - AutoStitch Panorama

Device: iPhone 3GS with iOS 4
App used: AutoStitch Panorama
Technique: Panning and stitching
The sun was just setting and, after reading the challenge, I left to go pick up some food from the local Mexican joint. As I'm locking the door, I look at the sky and see beautiful colors. I decided to go with a panoramic shot since one shot probably wouldn't have done the view justice. This is the result.
-Nolan Gaudreau

BlackBerry 8900

I took this photo on my Blackberry 8900 and used an iPod Touch to edit it in Chase Jarvis' The Best Camera app (Believe me, I wish I just had an iPhone). I've been taking photos on my Blackberry ever since I was inspired by Chase Jarvis' mobile phone photography preachings and photos. This candid photo was taken at a party against a white wall illuminated by pink lights. In the photo my friend is holding a fluorescent ball.
-Leo Zuckerman

iPhone 3GS - Hipstamatic

After a long day of rock climbing in Winslow, AZ. The sun was about to set and was casting an awesome light onto the hillside. The moment was to good to pass up. So I pulled out my iPhone 3Gs, booted up the Hipstamatic program and snapped the shot. I was pleased, an even better end to an already great day.
-K. Allen Peters

Evo 4G

Photo was taken with an Evo 4G, with the default camera app and default settings.
-Kelly

HTC Incredible + DVD Lens

Taken with my HTC Incredible with a dvd lens from my husbands spare parts computer stuck to the outside to act as a macro lens. No editing was done to picture.
-Ashley Winder

Samsung Pixon

Samsung Pixon
12 Program
Mode ISO 50 Macro Focus
The picture was taken in "Vintage Mode" with the exposure dialed down a few notches. I was standing outside, trying to find something that I could possibly use in this contest, when my daughter came outside wanting to blow bubbles. We had previously been out in the pool together and I had earlier hung our bathing suits outside to dry. As we were playing, a good sized bubble found its way into the the puddle that had been left behind on the railing, so I pulled out my phone, quickly toggled a few settings, and this was what I got!
-Joe Testman

HTC Evo + Macro Lens

Camera(phone): 8.0 MP, HTC EVO 4G (with a magnetically attached macro lens)
Software: None
Settings: Flash on
I recently got this $10 magnetically attachable macro lens from Dealextreme. I had very low expectations for it, but it transformed my phone. Luckily, during my first few tries with the lens, I saw a tiny spider web on my patio. In it had a very small spider with a freshly captured fruit fly in his grasp. Apparently this was not a rare feed.
-Rich Ohnnmeiss

Camera Unspecified + Jelly Lens

I used a Jelly Lens - Polorizer Which I hope isn't considered cheating. I have a handful of the Jelly lenses and tried a few different ones, this was certainly the best of the bunch. This picture was taken just before dusk, it has a weird ethereal strangeness to it.
-Piers

iPhone 3GS + PS Mobile

395 Photos That Prove Cellphones Make Great Cameras
I did a little touch up with the Photoshop Mobile app on the exposure and to add saturation to fix the colors of the sunset and cropped the image to balance it out.
The story. My gf and I were in South Beach in Miami for a beautiful dinner. She is a photographer and we walked over to the park at the south beach inlet. She took her camera with her and as I was watching her shoot the evening away, I felt and wanted to capture her in her moment. Her pose may seem a bit unnatural because she is holding a camera up (she had no idea I was taking this photo).
-Mark Chervony

iPhone 3GS + Various Apps

Was riding on the F line, headed to Coney Island to check out the Cyclones game when suddenly, my friend Beth was drenched in sun beams. I put my shades on, pulled out my iPhone and snapped a pic. In reviewing it, I was surprised by the intense amount of lens flare and decided I really liked the photo. It's like the sun beams are radiating direction from the smiling faces on the TCI poster.
APP: Hipstimatic SETTING: John S lens and Ina's 1969 film
APP: Mill Color: Used this to tweak color and pull out some detail
APP: PS Mobile: A little more tweaking in color, exposure, contrast.
-Brian Durniak

iPhone 3GS + CameraBag

Camera: iPhone 3GS
App: CameraBag
Filter: CrossProcess
Location: Lake Ontario, Canada
Snapped a few shots while walking down the pier last night. There was some beautiful cloud formations and sun rays hitting the water. Played with the CameraBag app until I found the right feel to the photo.
-Andrew O'Hoski

Motorola Droid

This was shot with a Motorola Droid on June 25th with no real adjustment to the camera settings. Taken in the evening at the Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles, California at the Exposition Park. At the time me and couple friends wandered over to see Basement Jaxx performing and I wanted to share this image to my other friends and happen to get the shot as the lights hit directly at my phone.
-David Wu

Motorola Droid

395 Photos That Prove Cellphones Make Great Cameras
I'm trying to capture the prettier side of roller coasters without the stigma of bright colors/clown show that a park PR or park visiter might take. The lack of a coaster train almost makes the ride seem as if its closed or forgotten.
-Robert Gasper

HTC Incredible

Nothing says summer like a sweaty pint glass, recently emptied of its "gins and tonics" contents, and nothing says cellphone photo like not having to leave the porch to fetch the old DSLR and macro lens. Shot, resized and emailed with an HTC Incredible, using PicSayPro and Gmail. The glass, of course, is a Rolling Rock novelty pint, and it had homemade quinine syrup, penguin seltzer and Tanqueray. Oh, and ice.
- Noah Montena

Palm Pre

I have an infamous Palm Pre, and since its camera isn't that good, I figured I might have to shoot something a bit more abstract; without photoshop, normal pictures taken with my phone would definitely look bad. So I took some close-up pictures of the glass elements of an old Nikon lens, then I used the "Photo Effects" app to invert the color, and I added a (very original) sepia effect. Used Photoshop to resize to 800px.
-Stéphane Lam

iPhone 3GS + CrossProcess App

-Photo taken with: iPhone 3GS
-Edited with: "CrossProcess" iPhone app
I need a new car and want a Mini Cooper. My wife has pretty much vetoed my wish for a Mini Cooper (she feels it's not a "family" car and would make things like grocery shopping with our two kids a bit cramped...sigh). Alas, I happened to be driving down the road and spotted this junker for sale. I took the shot and sent it to her with a note saying, "If I can't get my Mini Cooper, you'll end up driving a car that looks like this...and just think, this is only a small piece of what the whole thing looks like.")

iPhone 4 - backside camera and flash

This shot was taken with my new iphone 4 using the backside camera and the led flash. I like the abstract quality of the shot. Basically it was a mostly empty glass of milk and I just (probably unwisely) rested the phone on top of the glass and took a couple of pictures with the flash on. After that I imported the photo I liked into the camera+ app on the iphone and added a vignette and changed the coloring a bit to make it look slightly more abstract and alien-esque. It still amazes me the high quality/resolution photos this new phone takes.
-Ralph

Unspecified Camera

No subversion of the medium is going on here, this is just a photo. But what I love about this photo is the story of time. The rain-dimpled sand tells of a rainstorm, heavy enough to flood the ground and coat the lower portion of the orange with sand, but continuing softly to leave its mark after the flood. The orange has not not been off the tree long - unlike the one that decays behind it - and yet it has experienced much on the ground. Perhaps it was this storm that took it from the tree in the first place. And now, it rests on the sand, awaiting some small creature and even smaller bacteria to devour it.
- Joshua Lund

Acer Neotouch S200

No apps or post pro used
Since my phone does not have a great camera (read terrible), i decided to make use of it's crappiness.
I put the anti-shake on and took a few shots from the balcony of my place at night, doing a little light painting with the street/other lights dotted around the burb.
-Nathan Cunningham

HTC G1 + Various Apps

Taken with a G1
FX camera app
Tiny camera mode
green cross processing emulation
This was taken on a walk with my daughter during my favorite time of night which i rarely get to see because of my work schedule. I snapped about 30 images and it took me 2 hours to pick one. Im a sucker for a good silhuoette.
-luis fregoso

iPhone 3GS + Various Apps

- shot with iPhone 3Gs, @ LIve Bait bar in NYC Flatiron District. Shot in lowlight, against oblong refrigerator. After the picture was taken, i launched LoMob to apply the grid and B&W filters, and used the Photoshop app to crop. I had this image in less than a minute.
[Ed note: instant album art]
- Christian Ghligliotty

iPhone 3GS + Best Cam App

I took this photograph on a rainy Thursday evening while my car idled at the red light and train tracks in Depot Town, a historic district of Ypsilanti, Michigan.
The photograph was taken with an iPhone 3G just before the light turned green. The mobile app "Best Cam by Chase Jarvis" allowed me to apply the "Jewel" filter, which brightened up the colors.
[Ed note: big, the shot gets a bit blurry, but small, I like that the water drops look like suspended sparks]
-Diana Madrigal

iPhone 3GS + Several Apps

This image was shot with my iPhone 3GS at the Red River Ex in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Ex comes around once a year, and people from all over the province flood into the city to take part. There's all sorts of rides, but I don't remember this one (Cliff Hanger) being there before. I took this shot while my friend and I were waiting in line. It was shot around dusk with the standard camera app, processed with Cross Process, taken into the Mill's Colour app for final colour tweaking, and cropped to 16X9 with my upcoming iPhone photo cropping app, CineCrop.
-Kert Gartner

iPhone 3GS + Telescope + Camera+

For this photo I used the app Camera+ to shoot, with the Stabilizer function activated. I positioned the iPhone on a telescope lens, and took the picture. After I used PSMobile just for exposure, saturation, contrast ajustments etc...
-Rafael Valério

Motorola Droid

This was taken using a Motorola Droid with the app "FxCamera," using the ToyCam effect. There's really no special story to it, I was just trying out the app for the first time in my backyard and the results surprised me. The image just defines "summer" to me.
[Ed note: Very tough to pick a winner for this challenge, and of all the extra eyes I enlisted, everyone had a different favorite. So I chose this shot because it's the one that's stuck out in my mind after several days. It's an excellent composition with a subject that I'd argue was enhanced by filters.]
-Spencer McCoy

iPhone 4

Shot using the iPhone4. I went out just walking around and started to take photos. I came back home and noticed the article for the contest. Went through all my photos and picked out the one I enjoyed the most. I was just shooting and having fun. Not really shooting for any kind of style.
-Bryan Gosline

WINNER

Taken with iPhone 3GS using HDR app. Standing in the parking lot of my work during sundown and had to capture this shot. Pic taken in Centennial, Colorado.
[Ed note: It was impossible to pick a winner this week, and after changing my mind several times—no thanks to every Giz editor's varied opinion—I'm perfectly happy for this fine shot to represent the talent of the group. It's a great photo that would have been hard to imagine someone taking on a cellphone a few years back, and excellent use of an app to boot.]
-Justin Deavers

Thanks to everyone for supporting our most-entered Shooting Challenge yet. There are literally hundreds of other pictures in the ten galleries that follow. (I know, that's a lot of galleries, but keep in mind, there's a link above each to view each in single-page form.)