Line2 HD lets you make and take phone calls on your iPad, and even supports conference calling with up to 20 participants.

It was just over two years ago that I wrote about Line2, a clever VoIP app that adds a second phone number to your iPhone.

Now developer Toktumi has released Line2 HD, an iPad-specific version of the app, which should prove popular among business users. It not only turns your tablet into a full-featured phone, but also provides a nice hub for managing calls and messages.

To get started with Line2, you need to sign up via the company's site. (Unfortunately, there's no longer an in-app sign-up option.) You can test-drive the app and service with a free seven-day trial.

Once you've exhausted that, Line2 offers two main service plans: Standard and Professional, priced at $9.95 and $14.95 per month, respectively. (Discounts apply if you prepay for a year.) Both plans entitle you to a new or transferre... [Read more]

The latest malware scam that has been found for OS X is a fairly obscure installer program that is being disguised as an Adobe Flash Player installer. It was first discovered in late September.

This Trojan horse is a minimal threat. It works by installing a payload executable file on the system and then configures environmental variables on the system so that the payload will be launched when certain applications are opened. The payload then communicates with a remote server in an apparent attempt to steal personal information.

The initial version of the malware installed the payload in various locations in the user's home directory, but the second revision, found earlier this month, changed this so the payload was placed in application packages like Safari and Firefox and launched when these applications were opened. Yesterday, the malware detection team at F-Secure uncovered a third variant of this Trojan, OSX/Flashback.C, which shows the criminals behind this malware are still trying to get a foothold for their scheme.

A video demonstrates how the attack could be accomplished. In this screenshot, a series of blue buttons are clicked on as part of a game and the webcam is turned on.

Adobe Systems is working on a fix for a Flash-related vulnerability that could be used by Web sites to surreptitiously turn on a visitor's microphone or Webcam.

The problem is in the Flash Player Settings Manager on Adobe's servers and not with software on customer computers, Adobe spokeswoman Wiebke Lips told CNET today.

"Engineering is currently working on a fix," she said in an e-mail. "Note that this issue does not involve/require a product update and/or customer action. (In other words, there will not be a security bulletin.) It's a fix we are making on our end online, and it is going to be pushed live as soon as QA [quality assurance] has completed their testing."

The vulnerability could be fixed by the end of the week, she said.

The problem was brought to light by Feross Aboukhadijeh, a Stanford University computer science student, in a blog post yesterday that includes a live demo. The attack uses a technique that has become popular on sites like Facebook an... [Read more]

When it comes to sharing ideas and communicating stories, sometimes it's just easier to present your thoughts by drawing them out. Not just for Pictionary, online whiteboards are great collaborative tools to help you visualize your thoughts and brainstorm ideas. These Web apps not only throw out the smelly dry-erase markers, but also add a few tricks to make sharing your works faster and easier than ever.

A Web Whiteboard (AWW), developed by Senko Rasic, was designed to be minimalistic and simple to use like a real whiteboard. Coded in HTML5, AWW not only performs smoothly, but leaves little doubt to its functionality: users are given seven basic colors, three brush sizes, and a menu with sharing options. AWW doesn't strive to provide all the bells and whistles of modern whiteboards in the cloud but aims to simulate the elegance of quickly jotting notes and doodles--the basic features of a physical whiteboard. Its user interface only includes three buttons, freeing users from extraneous tools or widgets. Users can collaborate with others in real time by enabling sharing in the menu and passing the URL to their friends or team members.

AWW can publish drawings to three major outlets : Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. Users can also save their images in PNG format.

If A Web Whiteboard's strength is in its simple and approachable interface, t... [Read more]

The Dolphin browser has long been regarded as one of the best alternative Android browsers for its support of gestures, add-ons, Webzine, and swipe-to-switch tabs. Released today, Dolphin HD 7 (download) adds synchronization to that list. Like Firefox for Android, which was the first Android browser to gain syncing powers, the feature leverages data hosted in the cloud. Called Dolphin Connect, it lets you line up identical browsing preferences, bookmarks and gestures on all your Android devices running Dolphin.

Dolphin HD 7's new look for Webzine.

Unlike Firefox, though, there's no desktop counterpart for Dolphin. Also, Dolphin Connect won't work yet in the iOS version of the browser, although it is being worked on.

Another big change in Dolphin 7 has been to the Webzine feature that emphasizes the Dolphin community's 16 most popular Webzine channels on the home screen as an alternative to the Speed Dial feature. Webzine also has undergone a visual refresh to simplify the interface and make it easier to jump between Webzine, mobile, and desktop site rendering via a location bar button.

Shadowgun

With the iPhone picking up steam as a gaming platform, one of the biggest announcements for gamers was that the iPhone 4S' graphics would be seven times faster than its predecessor's. Even though no developers have released a game optimized for the device so far (Infinity Blade II is set to launch December 1), I decided to put some of the more high-quality current games side by side on the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S to see if we could spot any difference.

The reason for all the extra speed is the iPhone 4S' dual-core A5 processor, which supposedly has enough horsepower to render complex 3D graphics with significantly high frame rates. This bump in processor power should become particularly apparent once we see some of the new games being developed for the device, but I simply didn't want to wait that long.

Instead, I picked out a group of graphically demanding games and grabbed screenshots from both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Not all the games showed a significant difference in quality, but in a couple the 4S definitely had a leg up on last year's iPhone 4. One thing that was easily noticeable was that the 4S looked better in action in all the games; looking around a 3D world was smoother, atmospheric effects were more pronounced, and details like reflections were much more realistic.

Of the six games I picked, ... [Read more]