As promised, Google today released 3 Firefox extensions with the anticipated Google toolbar.

Google toolbar has most of the functions of its older brother for IE, exception for the popup blocked (which Firefox already have).

In addition Google release Google Send to Phone extension which allows you to Send text messages of web page content to your mobile phone (U.S. numbers only)
And also Google Suggest extension - Auto-complete search terms that you enter in the Firefox Search bar.

Police have arrested a man for using someone else’s wireless Internet network in one of the first criminal cases involving this fairly common practice.

Benjamin Smith III, 41, faces a pretrial hearing this month following his April arrest on charges of unauthorized access to a computer network, a third-degree felony.

Police say Smith admitted using the Wi-Fi signal from the home of Richard Dinon, who had noticed Smith sitting in an SUV outside Dinon’s house using a laptop computer.

Source: AP

Google Inc. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Hearst Corp. are investing about $100 million in Current Communications Group, a start-up that offers high-speed Internet connections over electricity lines, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Current Communications, of Germantown, Maryland, uses a technology that sends Internet signals over regular power lines, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the situation.

Source: Reuters

The music industry is buzzing with the news that high-resolution DVD-Audio content can be ripped, bypassing most of the format’s copy-protection safeguards. A small suite of applications that patch InterVideo’s WinDVD 5, 6 or 7 program allow data to be routed directly to .WAV files on the user’s hard-disk, instead of to a soundcard for digital-to-analogue conversion.

The three utilities are:

DVD-A Ripper, which is intended to decrypt CPPM protected AOB and VOB files, PPCM Ripper, used to capture Packed PCM (MLP) streams (stereo or multi-channel) to .WAV files and DVD-A Explorer which allows the user to browse a DVD-Audio track structure.

The applications use WinDVD’s licensed DVD-Audio and MLP decoders to access the unprotected data, which can then be freely shared. The only caveat is that DVD-Audio’s Verance digital watermarking, embedded in the audio signal itself, cannot be removed. The Verance watermark contains seventy-two bits of data comprising four CCI (copy control information) bits and eight usage identifier bits every fifteen seconds plus sixty content identifier bits every thirty seconds – if a DVD-Audio player detects that an embedded watermark does not match that of a specific disc (in other words if ripped DVD-Audio content is burnt to a blank DVD-R disc using an authoring program such as DiscWelder BRONZE), the machine will halt playback after thirty seconds.

Source: High Fdelity Review

Microsoft has downgraded detection of the Claria adware application by its anti-spyware software days after reports began circulating that Redmond might buy the online marketing firm. Under its former name Gator, Claria became synonymous with pop-up web advertisements and spyware and Microsoft’s possible purchase of the marketing outfit has raised eyebrows in the IT security community.

Spyware researcher Eric Howes has posted screenshots on Broadband Reports showing the latest signature updates of Microsoft AntiSpyware give users a recommended action of ignoring Claria. Users are free to make up their own mind and either quarantine or remove the application. Last month every time Microsoft AntiSpyware found Claria it advised users to quarantine the application. Detection of Claria has not been removed from Microsoft’s AntiSpyware definitions but there has been a significant change.

Source: The Register

Opera Software has released a test version of its flagship Web browser that adds an embedded BitTorrent client for downloading content using the popular file-sharing protocol. Although Opera has not officially announced the beta, which is dubbed a “technology preview,” the release is available from the company’s FTP server.

The addition makes Opera the first Web browser to natively support BitTorrent downloads, which normally require a separate, external client. Alongside the BitTorrent feature, Opera 8.02 will introduce a number of bug fixes including an update for Web pages using Flash.

Source: eWeek

Yahoo is quietly testing a new job search engine that finds not just job listings from paid partners and advertisers but also from across the Web.

“Wouldn’t job search be a lot easier and faster if you could search jobs from across the Web through one easy-to-use Web site?” the site’s “learn more” page asks. “Well now you can with the new Job Engine from Yahoo HotJobs…We’ve searched the Web, so you don’t have to.”

The new HotJobs site lists sponsored postings, featured results from paid listings, followed by job results from the Web. Yahoo’s HotJobs site previously got its listings directly from employers and staffing agencies.

“We are testing the implementation of a new job search engine that enables job seekers to find jobs from across the Internet at HotJobs.com,” Yahoo confirmed in a statement on Wednesday. “In addition to providing advertised job listings on the Yahoo HotJobs site, we are employing our leading search technology to crawl the Internet, offering job seekers listings from other employer and job-related Web sites.”