Software-Programming

After 12 months in development, Metasploit version 3.3 is available to the masses. The new version packs in a ton of features, fixes, exploits, and payloads, thanks to contributions from the community.

“The Metasploit community has worked hard over the last 12 months to build a penetration testing platform with unique features and unmatched flexibility,” said HD Moore in a statement. “I’m confident that Metasploit users will immediately benefit from the new capabilities of the framework and I look forward to raising the bar even further in the coming months.”

Google has finally posted the Android 2.0 source code so other smartphone makers–not just Motorola–can engineer Android 2.0 devices. According to Google’s Android Open Source Project page, the Android 2.0 source code is now available. The 2.1GB download requires Linux or Mac OS X and 6GB of free storage space to complete the build. Google warned that building under Windows is not currently supported.

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo may be tough competitors when it comes to Internet software and services, but they are putting their differences aside to build a developer community to tackle bigger picture problems like saving lives in emergencies, writes CNet.

The companies have joined with Nasa, the World Bank and PR agency SecondMuse to organise the first Random Hacks of Kindness event, which was held at a warehouse-space-cum-community-centre called Hacker Dojo this weekend.

Many of us now find ourselves working from multiple locations. We sometimes trot around with a laptop, sometimes use different computers in each location and, increasingly often, try to access our files from computers we don't own. Fortunately, you can access files you need at multiple locations, either via synchronizing selective files constantly, or by using remote access tools. Here are four ways you can access your files remotely.

On the verge of rolling out its new geolocation feature, Twitter is thinking ahead. One potentially powerful use for it will be to showcase trending topics happening in specific places. The overall Trending Topic area has long been getting out of control with spam (which Twitter is now working to clean up), but location-specific trends could be very interesting. And Twitter clearly knows this as it has announced a new feature for third-party developers to use: Trends API.

Google announced overnight the release and open-sourcing of a trio of tools designed to help JavaScript developers.

Dubbed Closure Tools, the search giant is continuing its push of JavaScript with a tool set including a JavaScript optimiser called Closure Compiler, a JavaScript library called Closure Library, and a templating system for JavaScript and Java entitled Closure Templates.

The Mozilla Foundation has announced that the latest version of its Thunderbird email system will be out this month.

The release candidate version of Thunderbird 3 will be out next week and the company expects the final version to be released by mid-November, although it hasn't set a firm launch date in line with Mozilla's long-standing policy of releasing software when it's ready and not before.

Vladimir Vuki?evi? was working at the Mozilla office when Firefox was first released into the wild. “All of our servers melted instantly,” Vuki?evi? says. “We spent an hour trying to get the downloads back up.” Indeed, the anticipation around the release of Firefox 1.0 on November 9, 2004 — five years ago Monday — was electric.

Journalist are habitually accused of over-hyping the iPhone, so legendary electronics hack, David Manners, has decided to go that one step further. He’s created his own iPhone app (with a couple of mates) entitled Stuck4Words.

Actually, David has managed to combine a whole host of skills – journalism, social engineering, marketing and IT savvy – into one product. Basically Stuck4words gets the socially inept out of sticky situations when they haven’t a clue what to say.

The MAC OS installed with Apple Macintosh computers is a robust and Popular OS and it has enjoyed uninterrupted popularity among the Mac users since its inception. However, those who want to get a feel of Windows on their Macs often opt for virtualization software. It is typical for those users who migrate to Macintosh from Windows. A number of virtualization software is available to cater to their needs. Recently, Parallels launched its revamped virtualization software named Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac.