Facebook just announced via its Facebook profile that the ultra-lightweight version of its website, Facebook Lite, is no more.

The site, which many (including us) called yet another Twitter imitation, had only been live since last September but now redirects to the main Facebook homepage.

Facebook’s status update announcing the closure read as follows:

Thanks to everyone who tried out Facebook Lite. We’re no longer supporting it, but learned a lot from the test of a slimmed-down site. If you used Lite, you’ll now be taken to the main Facebook.com site.

The pared-down version of the social network was meant to serve dial-up users and those in third-world countries with slower connections. Facebook did announce another stripped down version of itself called Facebook Zero last February at the Mobile World Congress, but going to this site from a browser simply gets the message “Sorry, your carrier does not support zero.facebook.com.”

We’ve asked Facebook if any other alternative will be available for slow-connection and dial-up users, but did not receive a response by press time.

Adobe may well be hooking up that do-it-yourself butt-kicking machine right now, as the exploit that was shown has now gone from possibly exploited to “oh-boy-isn’t-this-fun” screwing up the machine status.

Security researchers are now security reporters, letting us know that the Zeus botnet has begun attacks on user’s machines, infecting them with malicious code that adds the attacked machine to the ever-growing botnet.

While Adobe did warn everyone to remove the ability for executable code to run on Windows machines, it is hardly the same as putting out an update that went full screen, telling the user that their machine was having the change made, and that, unless they were in the expert category, it should be left that way until further notice.

Some may say that this paternalistic method of care is not giving the users enough credit, but I would say it is giving them exactly the correct amount of credit, because, though many are not stupid, those not stupid are, by and large, lazy in many respects, and upkeep of the computer is one area of tremendous neglect.

A PC World article delivers more of the bad news -

The Zeus botnet is now using an unpatched flaw in Adobe’s PDF document format to infect users with malicious code, security researchers said.

The attacks come less than a week after other experts predicted that hackers would soon exploit the “/Launch” design flaw in PDF documents to install malware on unsuspecting users’ computers.

The just-spotted Zeus variant uses a malicious PDF file that embeds the attack code in the document, said Dan Hubbard, CTO of San Diego, California-based security company Websense. When users open the rogue PDF, they’re asked to save a PDF file called “Royal_Mail_Delivery_Notice.pdf.” That file, however, is actually a Windows executable that when it runs, hijacks the PC.

Just a few seconds of user attention would have taken care of it. If Adobe had done the work to make its own executable, to do the work required may have taken at most 5 hours, including the 4 hours of testing to make sure that it did no harm. Does anyone think that doing that would save the company much trouble, and assessment of blame now?

Zeus is the first major botnet to exploit a PDF’s /Launch feature, which is, strictly speaking, not a security vulnerability but actually a by-design function of Adobe’s specification. Earlier this month, Belgium researcher Didier Stevens demonstrated how a multistage attack using /Launch could successfully exploit a fully-patched copy of Adobe Reader or Acrobat.

Stevens was not the first to reveal the /Launch vulnerability. In August 2009, a module using the same flaw was added to the open-source Metasploit penetration testing kit, said HD Moore, Metasploit’s creator and the chief security officer at Rapid7. “Colin Ames of Attack Research wrote this module as part of his Black Hat USA presentation,” said Moore. “Didier’s work was independent of what we already had, but uses almost the same method at its core.”

Today, Stevens said that the Zeus attack Trojan was actually using the Metasploit module. “From what I can read, the new Zeus PDF actually uses a [Metasploit] Adobe PDF exploit,” Stevens said on Twitter , pointing to another description of the new attack by M86 Security of Orange, Calif.

Although Reader and Acrobat display a warning when an executable inside a PDF file is launched, that’s not enough to stop users from launching the bogus document, said Websense’s Hubbard. “No one is blanket-blocking PDFs at the gateway,” he said. “There’s so much business value in PDFs, and they’re very pervasive.” In other words, people trust PDFs, he said — much more even than some other popular document formats, such as Microsoft Word.

I think that opinion is now changing at every place that has been attacked, and though the users should hold themselves to blame, I think that thinking people are aware how that blame ratio will work out.

Websense has tracked several thousand Zeus attacks using the embedded malware and /Launch function. “The attacks are still going on,” Hubbard said.

While the attack technique may be new, the behind-the-scenes malware and the gang that produces it is standard Zeus fare, Hubbard continued. Zeus is best known for planting identity theft code on victims’ PC to steal, for instance, online banking logon usernames and passwords. “The motives aren’t any different here,” said Hubbard.

Last week, Mickey Boodaei, CEO of security company Trusteer, bet that the /Launch function would be quickly exploited by hackers to infect PCs with financial malware. Stevens has not released proof-of-concept attack code, but Trusteer’s engineers were easily able to duplicate his attack. Zeus’ creators seem to have taken an even quicker shortcut by grabbing code from Ames’ Metasploit module.

“This definitely gives them another tool in their arsenal,” added Hubbard, referring to the Zeus botnet operators.

Now that Zeus has weaponized the /Launch tactic, other hackers will likely pick it up as well. “That’s not uncommon,” said Hubbard, “especially if there’s a Metasploit module for it.”

Adobe did not immediately reply to questions about whether Zeus’ use of /Launch in rigged PDFs would prompt the company to release a patch for Reader and Acrobat. Previously, Adobe has acknowledged the bug, but has not committed to producing a patch. Instead, the company has urged users to change Reader’s and Acrobat’s settings to disable the vulnerable function .

Since then, Brad Arkin, Adobe’s director for product security and privacy, said that one way the company could address the issue would be to update Reader and Acrobat so that the feature is disabled. Currently, Adobe’s software turns on the /Launch function by default.

Adobe has posted instructions on how to configure Reader and Acrobat to stymie the attacks that Zeus is now conducting.

Once again, Adobe proves that either they are not understanding the problem fully, or giving the customers too much credit. Though it would be costly, getting word out on the news, by television, radio, internet, and even Twitter, would be the best way to handle this. Has time not taught every adult that when a problem occurs, getting out in front of it, and taking the correcting steps at once, is the best method of dealing with it?

Come on Adobe, you need to put out that executable, that makes the changes on the users machine, and holds their hand through the process of implementing the download, and execution. The users will thank you, and though they might soon forget your efforts, it is much better than the long memories of people that blame a company for doing nothing as they were attacked through your software.

The world is full of sheeple, stupid or lazy, or both, and more than ready to blame Adobe for the attacks on their machines.

iPad clone comes packed with a 10-inch multi-touch display powered by 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 2GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive. It also consists of a 1.3 mega pixel webcam and WiFi.

This iPad clone is available with a price tag of about US$571 which is very high as compared to original Apple iPad. Apple iPads are out of stock and it being reported that many stores are selling it at very high price. Once the Apple streamlines their sales channel for iPad, the price of cloned iPad is bound to fall.

iPhone 4G/HD pictures claiming to be leaked images of the upcoming iPhone device have been popping up now and then online. But none of us is sure how authentic they are.

Something interesting was found by Engadget today. A device which seems to be the iPhone 4G/HD was found in an iPhone 3G case dropped in a bar.

So, does this look like the real deal? iPhone 4G/HD?

[Via Engadget]

Facebook new layout screen shots spread over the internet yesterday. Some Facebook users witness the early transformation of their Facebook home page. This move by the facebook still on process and making their way from small group up to the wide area to deploy the Facebook new layout this 2010.

Several changes has been conducted and there are also new navigation elements provided for the Facebook new layout of homepage. Some changes and additional features made by the Facebookteam for the new Facebook layout are the list of Online Friends, simplified design, unified inbox and other applications and advertisements boxes. In new Facebook chat, there is no need to click the chat box in order to view the online friends.  This will appear automatically on the left side part of your homepage.The search box has been also moved from the top right to top left to improve navigational functions.

There are millions of people who are using Facebook for their social networking. And this action bythe Facebook team for the new layout seems to be a major topic this month. Maybe there are some people find it not good, a simplified one or another confusion for the avid Facebook old layout users. Have you tried it already?

Tweetdeck

Tweetdeck took the decision to pull the app before the problem became too widespread. After fixing the issue, the latest version was resubmitted to the store and after a typical delay, is now available for download.

This latest release has Facebook written all over it:

• Post status updates to Facebook
• Create Facebook groups (synchronized)
• Video record & upload for 3gs
• Video background uploader
• Facebook account support
• Cross post text & media to twitter & Facebook
• Nearby tweets column
• Sent DM’s column
• HashTag to Search column
• bit.ly account
• Reply to All & RE – in ref to
• Open in Safari
• Landscape compose
• Light Theme
• 2username address picker
• List of recent hashtags
• Compose improvements (clear, save, dm)

If you haven’t already, check your iTunes/iPhone updates, and if you haven’t tried the app yet, you can get it here, it’s good and it’s free.

These themes are all available for free download from Gnome Art. Do try them out and let me know if you like them. If you have more cool Ubuntu themes, let me know below in the comments. I love eye candy!

Murrina Triomphe

Download

Hardy Theme 2.0

Download

Bamboo Zen

Download

Lux Theme

Download

Burnt Orange Ice

Download

Creamy

Download

Glow

Download

Moomex

Download

Roy (Windows Royale)

Download

Clearlooks Metallico

Download

Aqua Dreams

Download

Linux Mint

Download

Real Minimal

Download

Root Green

Download

Light Coffee

Download

Slickness Black

Download

Murrina Aero

Download

Tigris

Download

Sofice

Download

Blue Joy

Download

Gaia Nova

Download

Elegant Brit

Download

Darker Ice Murrina

Download

However this time I am sharing it in the last of this month, though I have shared some in the starting aswell. But publishing another post means there is something specials.

Now you can register .com domain with GoDaddy for just $1.99 + 0.18 (ICANN Fees) = $2.17

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If you are looking for more coupon codes then you can always check them out here.

Normally, Norton Internet Security 2010 costs around $6.99 for the full license, but now thanks to an offer by Symantc, you can grab a free 90 days license code for NIS 2010 with no restrictions or locked features.

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You can download the free licensed copy of Norton Internet Security 2010 from this promotional page or use the direct link given below.

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The license key registration will begin after you download and run the pre-installer. It is not sure how long this offer will run, so hurry up and grab yours now and dont forget to Follow Us On Twitter !

BlackRa1n is said to be the easiest and quickest jailbreak solution so far. But here’s the most important difference between BlackRa1n and PwnageTool:

BlackRa1n requires you to update your iDevice to OS 3.1.2 and then jailbreak it. Which means your Baseband will be updated and would not be able to unlock your iPhone later. PwnageTool, on the other hand, creates a custom firmware which preserves your Baseband from updating so that you may unlock your iPhone later if you want to.

So, We strongly recommend to use PwnageTool if you want to Unlock your iPhone after jailbreaking it because PwnageTool does NOT update your iPhone Baseband.

Here’s a guide: how to jailbreak iPhone OS 3.1.2 using PwnageTool

Download BlackRa1n Jailbreak for Mac:

Official Site

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