The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States has launched a probe into an incident that led to the exposure of personal information of AT&T Inc. customers. Among the affected customers were White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and the mayor or New York City Michael Bloomberg.

A group calling itself Goatse Security was able to get information on over 100,000 AT&T iPad subscribers by exploiting a major bug on a script at an AT&T website. The group simply needed to insert an ICC-ID as part of a HTTP request to the vulnerable script which then returned the e-mail address associated with the specific iPad device.

AT&T has stressed that only e-mail address data was actually retrieved by the group and nothing more sensitive was at risk. Still, a collection of 114,000 active e-mail addresses has value by itself without even including the personal e-mail addresses of celebrities or government officials that were revealed.

"The FBI is aware of these possible computer intrusions and has opened an investigation to address the potential cyber threat," FBI spokesman Jason Pack said. Apple's iPad, which launched in April this year, has already sold over 2 million units.

Security experts, for the most part, maintain that the hype surrounding this hack has more to do with the fact that it involves an Apple device and some well-known names than with iPad or even AT&T security. "The hype around Apple products -- like the new iPhone and iPad -- is amazing. However, the reality is this type of vulnerability isn't really news and happens all day long," George Kurtz, chief technology officer for security software company McAfee, said.

Apple customers who have had to enter into contracts with AT&T might not be as understanding however, having already voiced disapproval at the quality of service gotten from AT&T in the past.

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The U.S. International Trade Commission has revealed that it will investigate a patent infringement complaint made against Apple Inc. by Taiwan-based HTC Corp. The ITC is an independent, bi-partisan U.S. federal agency that has powers to protect U.S. industries from unfair trade practices. Its powers include the ability to block imports from foreign sources.

HTC Corp. is seeking an injunction on imports of Asian-manufactured iPhones, iPods and iPads into the United States, alleging that the Apple products infringe five patents held by HTC. The ITC announced on Friday that it has decided to investigate certain portable electronics devices and software related to the complaint.

Apple Inc. sued HTC Corp. for alleged patent infringement in March. The Cupertino-based iPod-maker filed a lawsuit in a US District Court in the state of Delaware against HTC, alleging infringement of 20 Apple patents related to user interface, hardware and architecture associated with its popular iPhone products. It also filed a complaint with the ITC at the time.

HTC is Taiwan's leading smartphone maker and produces handsets for a number of leading U.S. companies. Notably, HTC manufactures the Nexus One handset, unveiled by Google in January, heating up a growing intense rivalry and further decaying past close ties between Apple and the search engine web giant.

In the original lawsuit, Apple sought an injunction to prevent HTC from making or selling products using Apple's patent technology. The ITC's move on Friday is just another chapter in the on-going battle between mobile handset manufacturers looking to dominate the lucrative sector.

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ComScore has reported this week that both Yahoo and Microsoft "gained" share in the U.S. search market for May, although both companies appear to be using gimmicks to distort the numbers in their favor.

By the numbers, Google remained the clear leader but share fell from 64.4 percent in April to 63.7 percent in May. Yahoo gained share, from 17.7 percent to 18.3 percent. Microsoft's Bing jumped to 12.1 percent, from 11.8. AOL fell marginally from 2.4 percent to 2.3.

BusinessInsider reports, however, that both companies are "gaming" the stats, by placing thousands of links on their respective homepages that are search queries pretending to be content.

Additionally, the companies have been creating image slideshows as search engines, as well, in an effort to get additional clicks.

Analyst Ben Schachter of Broadpoint Amtech says without the tricks, real search traffic numbers would have shown Yahoo falling to 16.6 percent, Microsoft holding flat at 10.8 percent and Google gaining to 66.4 percent.

Following the revelations, comScore says it will change the way it accounts for share, so the industry does not consider their work worthless.

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President of Turkey Abdullah Gul has used his Twitter account to voice his disapproval for some web blocking practices carried out in the country. Google services such as YouTube are subject to blocks because of content posted by users and deemed offensive by Turkish authorities.

Turkey blocked YouTube in 2008 after videos surfaced describing Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, as a homosexual and an alcoholic. The country has been scrutinized by human rights watchdogs who urge it to reform restrictive Internet laws unexpected of a country seeking membership of the European Union.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) revealed earlier this year that Turkey is blocking some 3,700 Internet sites for arbitrary and political reasons. Turkey, however, maintains that websites are blocked for offenses that include child pornography, encouraging suicide or insults against Kemal Ataturk.

"I know there are lots of complaints about bans on YouTube and Google," President Gul said in a tweet. "I am definitely against them being closed down. I have ordered responsible institutions for a solution. I asked for a change in regulations on merit."

Whether Gul's stance on the issue will mean anything for Turkish Internet users remains to be seen as the office of President in the country is more or less symbolic, with real power being held by the Prime Minister.

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Microsoft has said they expect to sell "at least" 5 million Project Natal systems by the end of year, a large number for the device which has not even gotten its official name yet.

The expectations come from two "insider sources" cited by the WSJ.

The insiders would not provide the exact launch date (which has been rumored for late October) but did note that the pricing model was "aggressive."

Asian manufacturers Foxconn and Flextronics are also rumored to start shipping the device in August, giving more fuel to the rumor that the system will launch in October.

Earlier today, a new study by OTX GamePlan found that videogame consumers have little interest in Microsft and Sony's upcoming motion control systems, with under 10 percent willing to purchase Project Natal or Sony's rival PlayStation Move.

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A Google engineer has been targeted with harsh criticism from security researchers everywhere for releasing code to exploit a vulnerability in Microsoft operating systems.

Tavis Ormandy has been criticized for releasing code to exploit an unpatched hole in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

Critics take issue with Ormandy releasing the code needed to exploit the vulnerability five days after he alerted Microsoft of the problem. Generally, software vendors are alerted to the problem and once a patch is prepared and is available for end users to download and install - and only then - is the vulnerability in all its details made public.

Microsoft Corp. is not known for fixing such issues quickly, and doesn't often release such updates outside of its normal "Patch Tuesday" schedule. Ormandy, according to his own writing afterward, didn't seem convinced that Microsoft would actually fix the problem unless there was exploit code freely available in the wild as motivation to do so.

The probable main reason for Ormandy's actions prompting such a backlash is his link with Google, whose relations with Microsoft as of late have only gotten more sour.

Specifically, the problem is with the Help Center in Windows. The Windows Help Center utilizes a white list of approved web pages to send users for assistance, but a flaw would allow the addition of unsafe URLs to the white list.

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Adobe announced the release of Flash Player 10.1 on Thursday for Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems (as well as promising a release for Android later this month). The anticipated Flash update is geared toward improving performance, power management and video abilities, as well as adding some new features. It's also important to note that Flash Player 10.1 fixes a whole host of security issues affecting the previous version.

Video improvements in Flash Player 10.1

Sticking with AfterDawn roots, we should mention what Flash Player 10.1 means for video before anything else. For Windows users (for now), Flash Player 10.1 introduces hardware-based (GPU) acceleration of H.264 video content, offloading the task from the CPU which could greatly improve playback.

The addition of HTTP Dynamic Streaming expands the delivery options for high quality live and on-demand media with full adaptive bitrate functionality. This new option enables media publishers to leverage standard HTTP networking infrastructure to help increase capacity, reach, and quality of service for video delivery using standards-based MP4 fragments.

Flash Player now supports peer-assisted networking groups, which allows an application to segment its users and send messages and data between members of the group. Application level multicast allows for one (or a few)-to-many streaming of continuous live video streams as well as real-time audio/video chat applications.

To fight problems associated with short term network failures that can disrupt video playback, Stream reconnect features in Flash Player 10.1 enable an RTMP stream to continue playing through the buffer even if the connection is temporarily disrupted.

Another notable addition is Smart Seek features, which allow a viewer to seek within a new "back" buffer so moving back and forward through video content without Flash Player calling back to the server. This reduces the start after seeking through video. Fast Switch also improves switching time between different bitrates, reducing the time to receive the best viewing experience based on bandwidth or processing speed.

Performance, Power Management in Flash Player 10.1

Since different devices and systems have widely varying processors and memory and Flash Player needs to work across all of them, the development team focused its efforts on creating a single runtime that works across all. The team reduced the amount of memory required at runtime particularly for bitmap-intensive applications.

The ActionScript Virtual Machine received some targeted optimizations for performance and improvements were made to the garbage collector for efficiency.

In previous years, tabbed Internet browsing has become much more common. While highly convenient, it can be a memory hungry habit particularly when plenty of Flash content is involved. Flash Player 10.1 can detect when memory is running low and shut down content running in Flash Player to free some up. Additionally, Flash Player 10.1 can automatically reduce the power consumption for content running in the background (like an invisible browser tab) to improve performance. Of course, when audio is being played in the background, playback fidelity is maintained.

Multi-touch and Browser Privacy Mode

Private browsing has been a feature touted more nowadays than before, and Flash Player 10.1 wants to join the party. The new version abides by the host browser's private browsing mode when it is enabled by the user. Local shared objects (LSOs) created during private browsing modes are removed when the user returns to conventional browsing while existing shared objects are preserved but inaccessible until a user disabled Private Browsing modes in the host browser.

A new set of ActionScript 3 APIs for multi-touch and native gesture events are now available for applications to take advantage of the growing number of multi-touch hardware available on the market. This gives the ability to interact with multiple objects simultaneously or work with native gestures, such as pinch, scroll, rotate, scale, and two-finger tap.

Improvements and Changes specific to Mac version

Flash Player 10.1 is a full-fledged Cocoa app (with legacy Carbon support for Browsers if required). It leverages Cocoa events, uses Cocoa UI for our dialogs, leverages Core Audio for sound, Core Graphics for printing support and Core Foundation for bundle-style text.

Full screen playback efficiency is improved by the user of a double-buffered OpenGL context and overall execution speed has been improved on Macs through compile-time optimizations using Xcode, while Core Animation improves rendering performance on the platform.

Hardware acceleration is used to improve the efficiency of displaying web pages that combine SWF and HTML content (in OS X 10.6 or greater). Overall, the performance improvements for Macs will provide faster playback of video content, efficient CPU utilization and will make improvements to battery life if applicable.

Fixing Security Issues

While this is not exactly a touted "feature" of the new version, upgrading to Flash Player 10.1 does improve security by plugging some holes in the previous version of the software. The update addresses more than 30 identified vulnerabilities, some that could be exploited by malicious web sites to install malware on a victims computer. Maybe I should have just started with that?

Adobe Flash Player (Internet Explorer) v10.1
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/network/browser_add-ons/flash_win_ie.cfm

Adobe Flash Player (Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, Opera) v10.1
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/network/browser_add-ons/flash_win.cfm

Adobe Flash Player for Mac OSX (Intel - Firefox, Safari, Opera) v10.1
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/network/browser_add-ons/flash_mac_intel.cfm

Adobe Flash Player for Linux (Firefox, Mozilla, SeaMonkey) v10.1
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

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Firefox 4, the upcoming major new release of the Firefox web browser, will feature WebM support following the resolution of a licensing issue. The VP8-based video format was introduced at Google's I/O developer conference, and only last week the Internet search giant added WebM support to its own Chrome web browsing software.

Google acquired the VP8 technology in its $106.5 million deal with On2 Technologies last year, and revealed at the time it would use its new codec technology to make the Web experience better for all users. It serves as an alternative to H.264, which for the moment can be used royalty-free. However, the MPEG LA consortium has said that it will only remain royalty-free until December 31, 2015.

With support added to the Chrome browser and Microsoft adding WebM to its upcoming Internet Explorer 9 release (when a user installed the VP8 codec), Mozilla's dedication to it serves as another milestone and WebM is now available in the Firefox nightly builds.

The problem up until now for Mozilla was how the patent clause was written. If patent action was brought against Google, the patent license terminated, which is not uncommon. However, the provision terminated "any" rights and not just rights to the patents, making it incompatible with GPLv3 and GPLv2.

A new iteration of the patent clause decouples patents from copyright, and resolves the issue removing the hurdle for Mozilla. A beta of Firefox 4 is expected this month.

Apple has not revealed if it will follow suit and do the same for its Safari web browser.

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While there are daily rumors about the upcoming Droid Xtreme and Droid 2 devices, Verizon has not forgot about the original Motorola Droid device, which the carrier says still has excellent sales.

The carrier has dropped the price of the device to $149.99 with two-year contract, while concurrently running the BOGO (buy one get one free) promotion on the device.

Analysts are viewing the move as a way to slowly but surely clear out inventory of the device, to make way for the anticipated launch of the Droid X in July, and the Droid 2 sometime later in the summer.

The device had been selling for $199.99 with contract, and with retail stores selling at that price after mail-in-rebate, which can be a hassle. Ordering from the site removes the rebate part.

What is known (unconfirmed) of the Droid X is a large 4.3-inch screen, 16GB of internal storage, a 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, an HDMI-out port, an 8MP camera and 720p video recording.

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According to a new study by OTX GamePlan, videogame consumers have little interest in Microsft and Sony's upcoming motion control systems, with under 10 percent willing to purchase Project Natal or PlayStation Move.

2000 console owners were polled over the last month and 8 percent said they intended to buy Natal while only 6 percent said they were willing to buy the PlayStation Move.

Move and Natal are likely to take center stage at the upcoming E3 event next week, with Microsoft finally giving more official details on their system. Natal is still just a codename given to the system.

The horrible consumer response is likely due to this lack of information on the systems, but that should change after the upcoming week. So far, only prototype games have been shown off that use the motion control systems, with no significant third-party titles attached.

GamePlan's study seems to agree with that notion, as only 15 percent of the entire console market is even aware that the systems are in existence.

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Wal-Mart has announced that it will be one of four retailers with the iPhone 4 for sale on launch day, June 24th, confirming previous reports.

The other places with the much-hyped device are Best Buy, Radio Shack and Apple stores. Obviously, the smartphone will also be available through AT&T.

Pre-orders for the device begin on June 15th and Apple is expecting to sell over 1 million units during launch weekend.

While Wal-Mart is known for having cheaper prices than competitors, Apple does not allow retailers to charge lower than the MSRP. That being said, the 16GB model will cost $200 and the 32GB model will sell for $300.

The iPhone 4 has a 3.5-inch multi-touchscreen with a 640x960 resolution, runs the iOS 4.0 and has a 1GHz Apple A4 processor. The new OS allows for multitasking.

Additionally, the iPhone 4 has a 5MP standard camera and a 1.5MP front-facing camera for video conferencing.

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Motorola Co-CEO Sanjay Jha was recently asked about his thoughts on the Apple iPhone 4 and while most of the comments were generic, Jha did manage to promise a Motorola device running Android that will include a 2 GHz processor.

For comparison's sake, today's most powerful smartphones use a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, including the HTC EVO 4G and the aforementioned iPhone.

Jha made the comments during a speech at the Executives Club of Chicago.

The phone will also have a Nvidia Tegra-based GPU with Flash 10.1 hardware acceleration. Additionally, the device will have 720p video output through HDMI, "HD screen resolution" and an 8MP camera.

A 2 Ghz processor may be overkill for a smartphone, but Jha says Motorola will begin giving employees smartphone devices instead of note/netbooks starting later this year, so it is clear that the device will be plenty powerful. The faster processor will also be essential for video conferencing, and multi-tasking, which many high-end devices are beginning to do.

Qualcomm, the company behind the current generation Snapdragon processors, recently announced it would begin shipping dual-core chips with speeds of 1.2GHz and single chips with speeds of 1.5 GHz.

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