If you're feeling a bit like George Costanza in the Seinfeld episode "The Wallet," chances are you have a few too many scraps and cards stuffed into your carryall. Luckily, we live in the digital age, where much of the information you need to keep on your person can be stored in your mobile phone. For example, for those of us who cart around a cadre of gift cards from various establishments, JunoWallet provides an app for that, and it's available for both iOS and Android devices.

You can read the full review of the iPhone version here.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Fans of the free music discovery and management program Songbird will soon be able to enjoy that experience on the go--if they have an Android device, that is. The developer recently announced a beta app for the mobile operating system; those who are eager to give the software a spin can download the APK (link) for the next four weeks and submit feedback to Songbird. For people who prefer a more polished experience, the full release is expected to be out near the end of February.

So what can you expect from Songbird for Android? Well, the developer blog isn't telling us much, and our Samsung Galaxy S won't play nice with the download, so we're left mostly in the dark for now. What is certain is that the app will include a home-screen widget for controlling playback, and it's likely that most of the main features from the desktop software--namely music search and discovery, recommendations, and social interaction--will be incorporated. Beta testers seem to be enjoying the app so far, despite the known bugs that Songbird points out in the aforementioned blog.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

If you never had the pleasure of playing World of Goo on your PC, Mac, or Wii, you missed out on one of the most original and endearing games in recent memory.

Now you can get Goo to go: World of Goo just landed on the iPad. The question is, how does it compare with its desktop and console counterparts?

Very, very well. The World of Goo is populated by Goo Balls--cute, yelping little blobs. In each level, it's your job to guide them to a specific destination: up a tube, across a bridge, and so on. The Goo Balls themselves become part of whatever structure you have to build, but if you use too many of them, you won't accomplish your collection goal.

The game's designers have sculpted a gorgeous, cinematic world, from mystery-shrouded cutscenes to alternately dreamlike and inspiring soundtracks that accompany each level.

What's interesting about the game is that you learn as you go. Developer 2D Boy provides no instructions, save for cryptic clues presented in-game by the mysterious "Sign Painter." It can be a little frustrating at times not to know if you're doing things right--or you may find discovery to be part of the fun.

The desktop versions rely on the mouse for Goo Ball placement; on the iPad, as you might expect, your finger does the job. This works reasonably well, though sometimes it can block your view and interfere with your success.

I should point out that the developer's Web site currently has no iPad-specific support for the game, and even the support forums are "under construction." For help, you're directed to a fan-driven site.

World of Goo is currently on sale for $4.99, down from its launch price of $9.99. I'm not sure for how long, but I do think 2D Boy would be wise to make that sale price permanent. Many gamers will balk even at that $4.99 price, if only because so many other great iPad games cost only a buck or two.

That said, I urge you to give World of Goo a try. Like its predecessors, it's one of the most unique and entertaining physics-based puzzlers you'll ever play.

Originally posted at iPad Atlas

A laundry list of features new to Kaspersky debuts today in a new home security suite, Pure Total Security. Originally announced earlier this month at CES 2011, Kaspersky Pure Total Security takes the highly regarded set of features offered in Kaspersky Internet Security and mixes in some extras that are designed to appeal to people who have more complicated, multi-machine setups at home.

Most notable among these new features is centralized home network security management. It allows users to control the security settings of the other computers within their home LAN that are also running Pure, and it will work remotely as long as the user is connected via VPN. Pure will let you run scans, configure security policies, run backups, and monitor parental controls for multiple machines from one computer.

Pure also is the only Kaspersky home offering for North American residents that includes local backup management. The company took its preexisting Crypto-Storage product and integrated it with Pure, so that you can run and manage backups similarly to how Pure will let you handle security settings.

Another new feature in Pure is the inclusion of password management from Lamantine's StickyPassword, which along with basic password-management controls has a portable option so you can export your encrypted passwords onto a USB stick and use that on any PC. Pure also comes with file encryption and shredding.

Kaspersky has further plans for new products. In mid-March, the company hopes to release Kaspersky Small Office Security, which will include server support for up to 10 computers, and free tech support, and is qualified on MS servers Windows servers 2008 R2 and above. And like many competitors, the company plans in the next few months to add Android and BlackBerry support to its mobile security option that currently is only available for Symbian and Windows Phones.

A one-year license for Kaspersky Pure Internet Security covers three computers, and retails for $89.95.

The World Wide Web Consortium, faced with derision that its new HTML5 logo represented a broader set of Web technologies, has pared down the logo's scope.

"Since the main logo was intended to represent HTML5, the cornerstone of modern Web applications, I have updated the FAQ to state this more clearly. I trust that the updated language better aligns with community expectations," W3C spokesman Ian Jacobs said Friday in a blog post.

Indeed, the HTML5 logo FAQ now states in no uncertain terms: "This logo represents HTML5, the cornerstone for modern Web applications." Those who want to promote related technologies--Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Web Open Font Format (WOFF), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), and Web Sockets, for example--can use the accompanying but subordinate icons.

HTML5 has become something of a marketing buzzword--to some Web developers' chagrin, since it sometimes stands for so much more than the next version of Hypertext Markup Language that's being standardized at the W3C and at its longtime home, the Web Hypertext Applications Technology Working Group (WHATWG).

Indeed, after the W3C released the HTML5 logo last week, Ian Hickson, editor of the specification at both W3C and WHATWG, moved up the schedule to drop use of HTML5 in favor of just HTML. That's only happening at the WHATWG, though he'd like to see it at the W3C as well.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

Mozilla, acting on a U.S. Federal Trade Commission proposal, has offered a detailed mechanism by which Firefox and other Web browsers could prevent Web pages from tracking people's online behavior for advertising purposes.

With Mozilla's do-not-track technology, network data packets from the browser would signal to a Web site that a person doesn't wished to be tracked. Then comes the tricky part: getting Web site operators to cooperate.

Alex Fowler, Mozilla's global privacy and public policy leader, said that with the mechanism, the browser would alert a Web site during basic communications that use the Web's Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). He also acknowledged that getting Web sites to cooperate is a crucial difficulty in getting the system to work:

As the first of many steps, we are proposing a feature that allows users to set a browser preference that will broadcast their desire to opt-out of third party, advertising-based tracking by transmitting a Do Not Track HTTP header with every click or page view in Firefox. When the feature is enabled and users turn it on, Web sites will be told by Firefox that a user would like to opt-out of OBA [online behavioral advertising]. We believe the header-based approach has the potential to be better for the Web in the long run because it is a clearer and more universal opt-out mechanism than cookies or blacklists...

The advantages to the header technique are that it is less complex and simple to locate and use, it is more persistent than cookie-based solutions, and it doesn't rely on user's finding and loading lists of ad networks and advertisers to work...

The challenge with adding this to the header is that it requires both browsers and sites to implement it to be fully effective. Mozilla recognizes the chicken and egg problem and we are taking the step of proposing that this feature be considered for upcoming releases of Firefox.

Mozilla has long had privacy as part of its mission to empower users of the Internet. In practice, privacy remains a broad, thorny problem, however; what one person sees as corporate intrusiveness another can see as a way to offer genuinely relevant ads.

Mozilla doesn't appear to be acting alone. Today, "Google is expected to announced a privacy tool called 'Keep My Opt-Outs' that enables users to permanently opt out of ad -targeting from dozens of companies," The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, citing an unnamed source.

The FTC proposed a Do Not Track mechanism last year (click for PDF).

"While some industry members have taken positive steps toward improving consumer control, there are several concerns about existing consumer choice mechanisms," the FTC said. Among them, "industry efforts to implement choice on a widespread basis have fallen short," consumers aren't generally aware of the technology when it's available, and it can be hard to use.

"Given these limitations, [FTC] staff supports a more uniform and comprehensive consumer choice mechanism for online behavioral advertising, sometimes referred to as 'Do Not Track,' the report said. "Such a universal mechanism could be accomplished by legislation or potentially through robust, enforceable self-regulation."

For details on Mozilla's proposal, check posts by Sid Stamm and Mike Hanson. Also available is Mozilla's do not track FAQ.

Originally posted at Deep Tech