After a much longer run as a private beta than originally intended, the digital comic book store and comics reader called LongBox has finally opened its doors. The public beta is available for Windows and Mac, and although it's still quite rough in some spots, it represents a major breakthrough for the print-centric medium.

When you open LongBox v0.5, you'll see a massive information overload. The layout uses boxes to keep the busy display from getting too chaotic, but the varying shades of blue don't keep things as separate as they could be. Just because this is comics doesn't mean you're going to encounter a lot of primary colors or ziptones here, but some of that old-school feel might have helped here.

In the upper left box, you'll see a horizontal scroll of featured titles. Below that is a newsfeed from the comic book news and reviews Web site Comic Book Resources. The Blackbox is a comic creator spotlight, with the debut focus on Steven Niles, perhaps best known as the writer of 30 Days of Night. It is currently not functioning.

The column on the right is devoted to your LongBox stats on top and a scroll list of comic books being published for the current week. The stats counter wasn't working in the version I tested but should display your purchased comics, comics subscriptions, and comics loaded on your current device. That's a hint at what's to come for LongBox, which anticipates an iPad version, an Android tablet version, Xbox support, and support for other handheld devices. Comics downloaded through LongBox are shared to your account in addition to being stored locally, so you'll be able to read them on any LongBox-supported device without having to download them a second time.

Sitting calmly above all the noise is the LongBox navigation bar. Next to the home button is the Library, where comics you've downloaded reside, followed by the Store, the Reader, and the Options button. Nine comics are currently available for free in the store, including both mainstream works like "Witchblade," comics that have been made into movies like "Wanted," and cult favorites like "Punks."

The default view shows the comics as free-floating covers with the title and issue number above the image and a mouse-over link to the publisher info below it. Mouse over a comic and two options appear. The "i" will open an information box that includes a synopsis, a link to a preview, a wishlist option, and a purchase button. The "+" will add the comic to your shopping cart. There's also a list view, which contains a dedicated preview window and a more text-centric approach.

Accessing the store will require registration, a free process. Because the comics are free for the moment, no credit card information needs to be revealed at this time. Through the Options menu, users can choose to log in when LongBox starts, or to enter their information manually. Here you can switch skins and change your start screen from the main window to the reader, store, shopping cart, or last viewed screen when you start LongBox.

The shopping cart lives on the right edge of the top navigation bar, along with your wishlist, featured LongBox specials, and the Help button which opens a PDF. There's a search bar that anchors the two sets of buttons that becomes a recently read list in Reader mode. It appears to work fine from all screens except the default window.

The Reader mode opens to a blank screen. You can click on the Reader button again to open up the default system file browser, although the Reader does support drag-and-drop for non-LongBox formatted CBR and CBZ comics. In the Library window, however, you'll see an interface that looks like the LongBox Store but with page navigation controls at the bottom. Mouse over a comic and click the icon that appears to open it.

Comics that you haven't read before will open smoothly, but ones in the middle of being read are more sluggish. More often than not I had to mouse over the navigation buttons to get the comic to appear. Several times I had to click on a nav button, or in the black space where the comic should have been, to get it to appear.

In Reader mode, the shopping cart and help buttons are replaced by supplementary navigation buttons. There's a bookmarks button, known to be not working at the time of writing, and a "double" button that opens pages two at a time. This is a well-designed and essential tool for comics, which often use a two-page spread to highlight story moments that call for emphasized action.

There's a Manga button, which can be used for Japanese and Hebrew comics that are published in a right-to-left reading order, and a Zoom button that offers three kinds of viewing. Panel zoom focuses in on the comic at panel width, while page zoom is more of a mid-length zoom, but still bigger than the default viewpoint. Free zoom works like a magnifying glass, large enough so that you can see an entire panel in the frame. The scroll wheel can help you move the page under page zoom, and clicking on the magnifying glass zoom icon will toggle between the most recently selected zoom mode and the default view.

Lastly, there's a currently nonfunctional Audio button. There's a long history of comics and music crossing over, and the CEO of LongBox, Rantz Hoseley, won an Eisner Award for editing an anthology, "Comic Book Tattoo," a collection of comics inspired by Tori Amos' songs. If the button allowed publishers to associate recommended playlists with their comics, this could be a really cool feature, but there's no word as of yet as to what it can do.

The navigation controls at the bottom look smart but still need tweaking. There are controls to move forward or backward by a single page, or flip to the beginning or end of the comic. When you mouse over the controls, a pop-up bar appears previewing the pages of the comic that looks and feels like mini and elongated version of iTunes' Cover View mode. However, the previews are all blank unless you've already viewed a page. This could be a clever way to avoid spoiling the story, or another bug. It's a bit hard to tell at the moment.

The Reader mode is really the guts of the program, and a comic read on a 19-inch monitor with occasional juicing from the zoom mode was enjoyable. Nobody really cares about the news features or even the store if you can't read the comic, and on that end LongBox succeeds. However, it's likely that users with significantly smaller or older screens will find it unbearable.

Hoseley has stated that the beta will proceed in three stages. The current public beta, version 0.5.2, is nearly identical to the private beta that I began testing toward the end of 2009. The next stage will introduce redemption codes for nonwatermarked comics. The final stage will introduce full e-commerce functionality to the LongBox store, and add about 100 comics to the store.

Besides the ones mentioned above, there are plenty of known bugs in LongBox. Font usage needs to be standardized, the Comic Book Resources feed requires tweaking, the default window doesn't pull titles from LongBox site correctly, and metadata editing needs work.

The LongBox public beta showcases a massive amount of potential, but unlike the latest Web browser beta from whichever browser publisher is your favorite, this is definitely a rough work and is still very much in progress. It faces massive challenges beyond getting the software to work correctly. Unlike music and MP3s, there's currently no single approved file format for comics. CBRs and CBZ are little more than image archive containers.

There's also the issue of adoption. Except for the rise of graphic novels, comics have been dependent on the direct market niche comic book stores. Will readers flock to digital versions of them? And will those readers jump from stores to digital, or will LongBox bring in new readership?

Overall, though, LongBox represents a good-faith effort to shove the medium out of its print-based nest. It's just too soon to tell whether it can fly.

In a recent white paper on security in Chrome, Google let it slip that one of the most controversial features it's added to the Chromium source code will be going away after the first program update check. The white paper (PDF) states that the "unique ID," which Google says it introduced to Chrome as a way to keep track of installation success, will be deleted after the program checks for updates for the first time. This means that if you run Chrome immediately after installing, the ID will be deleted within minutes of a successful install.

Google reiterated previous statements in the white paper that it uses the randomly-generated identification tag to keep track of an installation's success and that it isn't associated with any of the user's personal information. However, the unique ID has been a lightning rod to privacy concerns despite a lack of evidence proving claims that the company had been using it to collect personally identifiable data.

Until the change is implemented, users can install the UnChrome add-on, which will remove the ID for them. It is also located in the Local State file in the Chrome installation folder (C:\User\[Name]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome for Vista and Windows 7 users) as user_experience_metrics.user_idkey.

While there are still concerns about Google and data privacy issues, it's telling that Google chose to respond to this largely symbolic stress point rather than tackle more serious issues. The white paper also points out Chrome's privacy behavior and options for the Omnibar, 404 errors that redirect to google.com, local storage of the phishing and malware blacklist, promotional tags, and usage statistics. There are few changes, if any, in those fields, and the white paper serves more as a reminder that they're there than anything else.

(Via The H)

During a recent spring cleaning, my wife and I wondered aloud why either of us needed an alarm clock on our nightstands.

After all, my iPhone and her iPod Touch both have a perfectly good alarm feature. What's more, the App Store is home to hundreds of alarm-clock apps--many of which are pretty slick.

With that in mind, here are four "alarming" apps that aim to make your mornings a little nicer:

1. Alarm Clock Free Just the basics. Alarm Clock Free lets you choose from an assortment of alarm sounds, any of which can "fade in" rather than blast at full volume. I especially like the oversize snooze/off buttons. The app doubles as a large LCD clock, great for folks who have nightstand iPod docks. Also, the 99-cent Pro version lets you wake up to a selected playlist, podcast, or even audiobook, rather than just generic sounds.

2. Public Radio App I've long been a fan of this public-radio-streaming gem, arguably the best in its class. Two features make it even more appealing: a sleep timer (so you can fall asleep to your favorite show) and an alarm (so you can wake up to, say, NPR's "Morning Edition"). Well worth the $2.99 price of admission.

3. Sleep Cycle I am NOT a morning person--perhaps because I'm waking up at the wrong time during my body's natural sleep cycles. The Sleep Cycle app analyzes your nighttime movements and wakes you in your lightest sleep phase, thus helping you feel more refreshed in the morning. Haven't tried it myself, but check out Jason Parker's Sleep Cycle review. For 99 cents, I might just give the app a whirl. (Note: This one's for iPhones only; the Touch is no longer supported.)

4. Wakeupcall.tv I'm not sure I understand the logic of an alarm app that plays a video, but I suppose it's a good choice for folks who immediately flip on the TV in the morning. Wakeupcall.tv streams a two-minute newscast by former "Daily Buzz" host Andrea Jackson. You can see the $1.99 app in action in the video below.

Before you go, however, hit the comments and let me know if you've found any other alarm apps you'd recommend!

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Slacker better light a fire under its keister if it wants to be the first streaming-music service to offer offline song caching for the iPhone and iPod Touch. In the midst of all the SXSW hoopla, Rhapsody has announced its intentions to offer caching as part of the next update to its own iPhone app.

For those not in the know, this feature allows users to save music to the device so that they may continue listening to the content without the use of a constant wireless connection. It's a more compelling functionality for the iPod Touch, but iPhone users will find it particularly handy on underground public transport and on airplanes. Plus, playing music that is saved to the device rather than streaming it over the air conserves loads of battery life.

No word yet on when exactly the updated app will be available--Rhapsody has yet to even submit it to Apple for approval--so it looks like Slacker still has a chance to come in first in the iPhone caching race. For more info and video on the Rhapsody update, check out the company blog.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Microsoft said on Friday it is testing a patch to fix a new hole in Internet Explorer 6 and IE 7 following the release of exploit code on the Internet.

With the announcement it seems increasingly likely that the company will be issuing a patch for the hole before the next Patch Tuesday in about four weeks, if the testing of the patch goes quickly.

Microsoft warned about the hole, which it said was being targeted in attacks and could allow an attacker to take control of a computer, in an advisory on Tuesday. The next day, Israeli researcher Moshe Ben Abu released exploit code for the vulnerability after using clues in a McAfee blog post to find existing exploit code and pinpointing the weakness from there.

"We have seen speculation that Microsoft might release an update for this issue out of band. I can tell you that we are working hard to produce an update which is now in testing," Jerry Bryant, senior security communications manager lead at Microsoft, wrote in a post on the Microsoft Security Response Center blog.

"This is a critical and time-intensive step of the process as the update must be tested against all affected versions of Internet Explorer on all supported versions of Windows. Additionally, each supported language version needs to be tested as well as testing against thousands of third party applications," he wrote. "We never rule out the possibility of an out-of-band update. When the update is ready for broad distribution, we will make that decision based on customer needs."

Microsoft included workaround information in its initial advisory on the hole, which does not affect IE 8, and on Friday updated Security Advisory 981374 to add more information on workarounds following Ben Abu's work.

"With today's update, we have added a Microsoft Fix It to automate this workaround for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 customers," Bryant said. "As always, customers should test this thoroughly before deploying as certain functionality that depends on the peer factory class, such as printing from Internet Explorer and the use of Web folders, may be affected."

Originally posted at InSecurity Complex