flash

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past week, you've probably heard about Flashback, a piece of malware targeting users of Apple's Mac OS X that's now estimated to be quietly running on more than 600,000 machines around the world.

That number, which came from Russian antivirus company Dr. Web earlier this week, was confirmed today by security firm Kaspersky. More than 98 percent of the affected computers were running Mac OS X, the firm said.

That's certainly a big number, but how does it stack up to past threats?

"It'… Read more

Many developers are ready to dump Flash in favor of Web standards -- and for those who aren't ready, Adobe Systems is throwing its weight behind a new project called CreateJS to ease the transition.

CreateJS is a collection of libraries -- prewritten code, essentially -- that lets people program with Web standards such as HTML5 and JavaScript the way they're accustomed to with Flash. And along with the libraries there's the Toolkit for CreateJS, an extension for Adobe's Flash Pro developer tools that lets programmers work with Flash Pro and then export an HTML/JavaScript … Read more

Adobe Systems released Flash Player 11.2 today -- along with a plan to make the browser plug-in a direct source of revenue for the company.

In the past, the Silicon Valley company has charged programmers to use development tools such as Flash Pro. But for any games published August 1 or later that use premium features in the new version of Flash Player, Adobe will require programmers to pay.

More specifically, Adobe will require developers to share 9 percent of net revenue beyond $50,000 for using the premium features, Adobe announced today. The premium features are Stage 3D … Read more

Hope Apple investors had their seat belts fastened and their trays in the upright and locked position earlier today. Because they had quite the free-fall experience for a few minutes there -- even if it was a brief and seemingly accidental one.

Slightly before 11 a.m. ET, Apple shares suddenly plunged 9.4 percent, to $542.80, before an automatic "circuit breaker" cut in and halted trading. That was a drop of $57.69 from the opening price of $600.49.

Whew.

According to the WSJ, the culprit was BATS Global Markets, a stock-exchange rival to both … Read more

Is your 16GB iPad feeling the storage pinch? Are you wishing Amazon had squeezed more than 8GB into the Kindle Fire? Here's the rub: Kindle Fires and iDevices lack expansion capabilities, so you're pretty much stuck with what you've got.

Or not, thanks to the Kingston Wi-Drive. It offers wireless, portable storage for select phones and tablets.

The big downside has always been the price, but Adorama now has the 16GB Kingston Wi-Drive for $44.95 shipped. That's a heckuva lot more reasonable than the original $129.99 list price.

The gizmo measures 4.78 inches … Read more

Sometimes it takes a little effort to figure out even the simplest tools, at least when you go by the documentation. So it was with AutoRunnerX, a free tool that launches portable applications, folders, and other stuff stored on a USB drive or portable hard drive when you insert the drive in your system. That's simple enough and useful, too; but it took some mental translations calling upon high school German classes to figure it all out.

Installing AutoRunnerX requires a reboot. The program runs in the background, though it has a compact user interface for adding and removing … Read more

Applian FLV Player is a free media player optimized for playing Flash videos downloaded from Web sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Break, Daily Motion, and others. It not only plays FLV files from any site but other formats as well, and it adds much-needed features, including high-quality playback in enlarged mode, slow-motion playback, and playlists.

Applian's installer includes many optional downloads, but clicking Decline instead of Accept on each offer keeps any unwanted software out of your system. We don't mind since that's how freeware stays free, and some people may want to try some of the … Read more

Jumping jack flash-drives!

While supplies last (and they definitely won't last long), Buy.com has the Kingston DataTraveler 109 16GB flash drive for $10.95 shipped--the lowest price I've ever seen on a drive with that much storage space.

Update: Be sure to select the "budget shipping" option. Also, remove the CA security option that is automatically added to your cart.

Though it's hard to tell from the picture, this drive is tiny. I've got the 8GB version, and it's barely longer than the end of your pinky finger. Because it's … Read more

Toshiba has announced new SDXC and SDHC cards that support the UHS-1 high-speed interface--and the new Exceria brand name to go along with them.

The Exceria name is meant "to reflect a combination of 'excellent' and 'experience,'" Toshiba said in a statement this week, but I wouldn't have guessed that without being told. Too bad Sony got there first with Xperia.

The new cards come in three varieties. At the top of the heap are models that will arrive in July with read speeds of 95MBps and write speeds of 90MBps; they'll come in 8GB, 16GB, … Read more