Google is going after Flipboard with its own digital newsstand application optimized for smartphones and tablets.

The company unveiled Google Currents, touting it as a central location for news content, video and photo feeds, RSS subscriptions and Google+ streams.

U.S. customers can download Currents application from the Android Marketplace and Apple's App Store and select which publications to subscribe to, as well what streams and feeds to follow. The application also includes a trending tab to find other popular items of interest.

Google said it has partnerships with 150 publishing partners, including AllThingsD, Forbes, and the Huffington Post (CNET is also among the partners), all offering full-length articles.

The Web titan added that it is launching a self-service platform that lets publishers customize the feel and the look of their content, allowing even small organizations to create their own digital publications for Currents.

Currents will take on the pioneer and leader among news reader applications, Flipboard, a product that Apple last year named its iPad app of the year. The Palo Alto, Calif., company has raised more than $60 million from top-tier venture capital firms such as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Index Ventures, and Insight Venture Partners.

App... [Read more]

uTorrent Plus gives users free virus scanning, but it's not free.

Two new paid torrent-managing programs have launched today from BitTorrent, Inc., as the 100-million-user base of uTorrent also earned an update.

First announced in July, uTorrent Plus 3.1 (download) debuted with an unexpected counterpart, BitTorrent Plus 8 (download). Both mark the first time that a paid selection of features the company calls "premium" have been added to either client. Accompanying them is the version 3.1 update to uTorrent (download).

People with the free version of uTorrent will be able to play media files directly in the uTorrent interface, thanks to the newly-baked in media player. The player is powered by VLC Media Player, one of the best-known multi-platform and open-source media players available. uTorrent 3.1 users can also transfer torrented files directly to several ... [Read more]

Soda PDF, the popular Adobe Acrobat alternative, jumped to version 2012 today.

All three editions--Standard, Professional, and Pro + OCR--have been outfitted with a redesigned user interface and improved PDF editing features. Now, users can split PDF documents or extract specific pages in just one click. Also, simple operations like selecting text and rearranging elements should be a bit easier.

But the biggest addition to the product is Soda's new 3D View. This patent-pending technology presents PDF files like a book, allowing you to grab and manipulate a page just as you might in the physical world. While it's not a particularly useful feature, it does add some visual flavor to what might otherwise be a drab PDF experience. Also, if you can get your hands on some PDF comic books, 3D View might be a nice option for some added realism.

To accompany Soda PDF as it makes its big jump to 2012, Lulu is also today releasing its free 3D Reader in its fully matured form. Previously only available as a Beta version, Soda 3D Reader is Lulu's answer to Adobe's Acrobat Reader, and is the only such product we've seen with the 3D View option. Also, if you register the product, you get PDF creation capabilities at no extra charge. Soda 3D Reader (download) is available for free download now.

Meanwhile, ... [Read more]

When you connect to a Web site on the Internet, your computer uses the Domain Name System (DNS) to convert URLs like "www.macfixit.com" to the IP address for the server where that Web site resides.

This system is a hierarchical network of computers throughout the world that distributes a database of domains and subdomains, allowing the system to resolve the components of the URL ("com," "macfixit," and "www") to a specific IP address out of millions of publicly available ones. This system is used for Web browsing, but also for numerous other Internet communication services including e-mail, instant messaging, syncing, and application registration technologies.

The DNS system is a major area of security for Web traffic, since compromised data from a DNS server can result in your system either not being able to find the servers it needs, or even worse, being redirected to a rogue server that will try to install malware, or coerce you into giving up personal information among other illegal activities.

While an attacker can try hacking the DNS system from any point, the area of most interest is the business-end of the DNS connection called the "last mile," which is the connection between it and your home computer, since it is this point where your computer receives instructions on which IP address to use for a connection to a specific URL. Attackers can compromise this connection either by ... [Read more]