Hate Facebook? ‘Ello’ opens to public, launches iPhone app

Hate Facebook? ‘Ello’ opens to public, launches iPhone app

Ello, the ad-free social network which gained prominence last year with an invitation-only launch, announced Thursday it was opening to the public with an application for iPhone users.

The startup got attention with its “anti-Facebook” policy of promising to never use advertising or to sell customer data to third parties.

Last September, a surge in interest made Ello membership a hot ticket, with invitations selling on eBay at prices up to $500.

In announcing the public launch, Ello provided no details on numbers of members but said there were “millions” using the platform.

“The new app is beautiful with dozens of unique features,” said Ello co-founder and chief executive Paul Budnitz.

“With so much positivity on Ello, and with awareness of the negative effects of ads and data collection by other networks coming to the forefront of the news, the timing of our app release couldn’t be better.”

Ello has upgraded the service to include new ways to find friends, full search, real-time alerts, private messaging, private groups and “loves” instead of likes.

The new Ello app for iPhone. Image: Ello

It received $5.5 million in funding last year as it changed its charter to back a promise to remain ad-free, becoming a “public benefit corporation.” While the services is free, Its future plans include premium features which would be paid.

Ello was launched by a group of artists and programmers led by Budnitz, whose previous experience includes designing bicycles and toys.

Antergos Linux Lowers the Arch Barrier

Antergos is an Arch-based Linux distribution that offers six desktop choices.

This is a distro that Linux tinkerers might well embrace, but it comes with a few more stumbling blocks than other Linux options, which could make it a less welcome alternative.

Its developers created a cute logo that espouses the notion that Antergos is a distro "for everyone." In some ways, that is true. The developers smoothed over some of the tripping points that bog down typical Arch distro entry. The graphical installer is a big part of that success.

They clearly made Antergos look and feel different from other Arch Linux distros, but Antergos is still Arch-based. Arch Linux distros are notorious for their user-intense installations and sometimes- challenging software management processes.

Antergos has a look and feel that's different from other Arch Linux distros.

That means users need a better handle on how Arch Linux works to use Antergos successfully. Considerable background reading is necessary for things to make sense with minimal frustration.

The Antergos Linux distro's latest release, 2015.4.12, brings a simpler graphical installer into the mix. The Cnchi version 0.8.0 and GNOME 3.16 are two of the most notable improvements.

Antergos keeps the live session separate from the installation process using the Cnchi graphical installer tool.

Another plus is Antergos' reliance on rolling releases. Once you install Antergos and have it running well, you never have to repeat the process. Updates roll in as they are ready, so the operating system is always loaded with the latest releases.

Family Lineage

Spanish developer Alex Filgueira rebranded his distro from its former iteration, "Cinnarch." As that name suggests, it was a derivative of Arch Linux. It existed with just the Cinnamon desktop environment.

The last Cinnarch version was released as build 2013.04.05. Filgueira introduced Antergos with his next release, Antergos 2013.05.12.

The new name was aptly picked. "Antergos" is a Galician word used to link the past with the present. Making an Arch distro simpler to install remained Filgueira's focus.

I reviewed the Manjaro Linux distro a while back. In working with Antergos, I saw many similarities between these two Arch-based distros. Both make Arch Linux less intimidating.

I was less impressed with Manjaro's balky installation and sometimes troublesome performance. Clearly, Antergos offers a much smoother process.

Getting It

Frankly, actually getting the installation ISO file is more of an annoyance than it should be. The website links you to the download page. There you must read through the wiki document that explains how to create a working live USB.

Once you access the wiki page, you can access the download links that appear as a tab at the top of the page.

This seems a hoop too far. The primary direction should be instructions on burning the ISO file to a DVD. Creating a bootable USB as a live session is a separate and unnecessary process.

Installing It

I burned the ISO file to a DVD to check out the live session of Antergos. 

Normally, live session DVDs or bootable USBs load directly into the desktop. 

Once there, you find a desktop icon that starts the installation to a hard disk.

Antergos gives you that option before showing you the live session environment. You must click the Try It button or the Install It button.

So if you decide to actually install Antergos, you then have to reboot the computer to get to the installation option again. The live session desktop has no menu option or icon to initiate an installation.

Antergos offers only the GNOME desktop in the live session. If you decide to install Antergos, the installer offers six desktop environment options: GNOME 3,Cinnamon, KDE4, Xfce, Mate and Openbox. Chatter on the developer forums suggests that the Deepin (DDE) desktop is coming soon.

GNOME 3.16 is one of six desktop options in the latest Antergos release.

You have two download options. A Live Install Image includes a fully working GNOME 3.16 environment. The Minimal Install Image includes only what is required to run the installer and thus offers a much smaller initial download.

Look and Feel

I was less than impressed with the performance of Antergos in the live session. 

Numerous programs in the menu failed to load. Also, the wireless connection icon failed to appear on the panel bar. I had to click around to make it appear.

That situation remained with the full installation. It gets in the way when using laptops on a wireless connection. Usually, a networking icon is visible to indicate the connection status. Right-clicking on it opens the available WiFi options without requiring navigation through the system networking tools.

The visual appeal and usability differences of Antergos vary depending on your choice of desktop environment. The six options give any user enough choices based on personal preferences. Still, not being able to try out their performance before installation is a drawback.

One thing that mutes the user experience in any of the desktop options is the unimpressive flat icons and dingy gray borders. One way to deal with this is to run the Numix application, developed by the Numix Project and included with Antergos.

Bottom Line

Users who are already familiar with Arch but want a quicker installation method will appreciate what Antergos brings to the Linux table. Those less familiar with the Arch Linux methodologies are sure to be much less enthusiastic about using the OS.

One of the first hurdles in getting used to Antergos -- or any other Arch-based distro -- is how the software management tool works, or doesn't.

The Arch software tool is called "thepacmanpackage manager." It relies heavily on the command line method. Antergos has installed by default the Pamac graphical front end along with support for the AUR (Arch User Repository) dependency. This helps considerably to make software management easier.

Routers Becoming Juicy Targets for Hackers

 There's a way to compromise a home network without actually being on it. It's called "cross-site request forgery." It starts by redirecting a user to a malicious website, typically by phishing. The site uses the prey's browser to send requests to the home router. The router thinks the prey is sending the requests from the home network. "Home routers are very naive," said Incapsula's Ofer Gayer.

Most consumers pay as much attention to routers as they do to doorknobs. That's not the case with Net marauders. They're finding the devices ripe targets for mischief.

"We've seen a big increase in malware designed for home routers," saidIncapsula researcher Ofer Gayer.

"Every week, we see a new vulnerability in a vendor's routers," he told TechNewsWorld. "They're low-hanging fruit if you're a hacker. They're a very soft target."

Home routers are the soft underbelly of the Internet, observed Andrew Conway, a threat researcher at Cloudmark.

"They were never designed to be high security components, and once they are installed, they are typically never updated," he told TechNewsWorld.

"Even when vulnerabilities are discovered, a vendor may not patch their firmware -- and if they do, the patches are rarely applied," Conway said.

Cross-Site Shenanigans

As soft a target as routers may be, they have been protected by a restriction on how their settings can be altered. Typically, you have to be on a network locally before you can access and change those settings. That's not always the case, though, as Incapsula recently pointed out.

Incapsula discovered one router maker had installed what was essentially a backdoor in its products to make it easier to service the routers. Unfortunately, Net miscreants discovered what the router maker had done, and they began herding many of the routers together to mount distributed denial-of-service attacks.

"Routers are strong enough today to create a pretty significant denial-of-service attack," Gayer said.

Even if your router maker doesn't put a backdoor in your router, there's a way to compromise a home network without actually being on it. It's called "cross-site request forgery."

It starts by redirecting a user to a malicious website, typically by some kind of phishing email. The site uses the prey's browser to send requests to the home router. The router thinks the prey is sending the requests from the home network.

"Home routers are very naive," Gayer explained.

Once a predator opens up the channel between the prey's browser and the router, a host of options become available.

"I can change whatever I want," Gayer noted. "I can change the DNS server. I can open a hole in the firewall. I can change the admin password." To do all that, no access to the router is needed.

"I just make you perform the requests by redirecting you," Gayer said.

Targeting Uncle Sam

Last week wasn't the best of times for federal employees. The decibel level of the furor over the Office of Personnel Management data breach continued to rise.

It didn't take long for signs to appear that Net bandits were putting the stolen data to use. For example, an Army base in Alabama warned its employees of a phishing email purporting to be from the OPM and directing targets to a website where personal information could be cajoled from them.

Meanwhile, OneWorldLabs, which monitors the Dark Net, spotted data apparently from the OPM breach for sale. If that were the case, though, it would throw cold water on the idea that the Chinese government was behind the OPM break-in, since it likely would keep the data under wraps and not be trying to sell it to cybercriminals.

Nevertheless, most of the U.S. finger-pointing has been toward Beijing.

"China would like to be in every U.S. system on some level," said Jared DeMott, principal security researcher at Bromium.

"The data the hackers stole could just be the initial phase of the attack, while moving toward more attractive targets," he told TechNewsWorld.

What makes matters worse is that there's little the United States can do about the breach, said Securonix Chief Scientist Igor Baikalov.

"First of all, the U.S. spies for 'national security advantages' just like China does -- no moral high ground for he U.S. there," he told TechNewsWorld.

"Second and most frustrating, there's not much the U.S. can do to retaliate for this attack," Baikalov said. "Economic sanctions? They're hardly applicable to the country that holds most of your national debt."

DxO One Bridges iPhone-DSLR Camera Divide

By John P. Mello Jr.
Jun 19, 2015 3:37 PM PT

DxO, known for its top-notch digital imaging software, on Thursday announced a new compact camera designed to allow iPhones and iPads to capture higher-quality digital images.

The DxO One is the first digital camera that plugs into the Lightning connector found on Apple devices and that uses their Retina display as a viewfinder.
Lightweight, at 3.8 ounces, and a compact 2.65 inches tall, the DxO packs a very fast lens (f/1.8) and a large 1-inch CMOS BSI sensor with support for 20.2 megapixels.

"Compactness is key, because it's the sort of camera you're going to want to keep in your pocket at all times so it's always there when you need it," said DxO Senior Vice President for Marketing Kirk Paulsen.

The DxO One isn't designed to replace either DSLRs or the iPhone's camera, he told TechNewsWorld.

"We think the camera on the iPhone is fantastic, and it's great for capturing life's everyday moments," he said.

"At the other end of the spectrum, we're not suggesting it will replace digital DSLRs, because they have a purpose and will continue to be used by high-end photographers," Paulsen said, "but in between the two, there's a need for something that offers very high quality and is incredibly compact."

No Overhead for iPhone

Made of high-grade aluminum, the DxO One allows an iPhone to swivel plus or minus 60 degrees while attached to the camera. That gives a shutterbug more flexibility when setting up the angle for a shot.

With the free iOS app included with the camera, a shooter can control the unit's aperture (f/1.8-f/11), shutter speed (15 seconds -1/8000 second), and ISO (100-51,200).

Images can be captured in full auto mode, one of multiple scene modes, shutter or aperture priority mode, or full manual mode.

Video can be shot at 30 frames per second for 1080p and 120 frames per second for 720p.

Since the camera runs on its own battery and storage -- it accepts micro SD cards -- it won't be gobbling up the iPhone's resources when the pair are married. However, it can use the phone's connectivity options to quickly share photos on social watering holes like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
That's a new twist for a camera like this, noted Ross Rubin, the principal analyst at Reticle Research.

"We really haven't seen a lot of cameras with built-in cellular capability," he told TechNewsWorld.

"If it can take advantage of the existing cellular capability," Rubin continued, "it allows consumers to share quite a bit more conveniently to their social networks, which is a key way that consumers use photography today."

Beyond RAW

One mark of a serious camera is its ability to take photos in the RAW format. The DxO One will do that; further, it supports its own SuperRAW format. SuperRAW is sort of a variation on High Dynamic Range processing, except that in SuperRAW, four RAW shots are captured in sequence.
"SuperRAW is intended for extreme low-light photography," DxO's Paulsen explained. "With our software, you can produce images that are exceptional with very little noise and lots of detail.

DxO on Thursday began taking orders for the camera, which will sell for US$599. It's expected to ship in September. For a limited time, the company will include for free two of its software products: DxO OpticsPro, which sells for $199; and DxO FilmPack, which sells for $129.

With smarphones eating up so much of the camera market in recent years, camera makers have sought refuge at the high end of the market. Will the DxO One challenge one of their last bastions?

"I've seen the phrase 'DSLR quality' in a lot of the headlines about DxO's new camera, but I wouldn't expect consumers to find it hard to choose between this and a DSLR," said Stan Horaczek, online editor for Popular Photographymagazine.

"I do, however, think that it's just another step in fragmenting the camera market," he told TechNewsWorld, "which has ultimately been tough on overall DSLR sales."

Pricey Device

The DxO One may not be much of a threat to DSLR makers.

"Mirrorless cameras have been way more effective at putting a dent in DSLRs than this will be," said Terry Sullivan, associate editor for digital cameras and imaging at Consumer Reports.

"DxO is a very reputable imaging company and does very good work, but it's not a hugely known brand to the public," he told TechNewsWorld.. "It's also really super pricey."

Nevertheless, for some smartphone shutterphiles, DxO One is going to be just what the doctor ordered. "There are a lot limitations to camera phones, and this takes care of probably 90 percent of them," said David D. Busch, creative director of the David Busch Photography Guides.

"I take pictures with my iPhone, but not that many," he told TechNewsWorld.

"This would probably change that."