quick

A serious new flaw was disclosed on Thursday that affects the latest versions of Apple's QuickTime and iTunes applications.

The National Vulnerability Database entry CVE-2008-4116 describes a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability within Apple's QuickTime 7.5.5 and iTunes 8.0 programs.

To infect a computer, a maliciously coded long-type attribute within a QuickTime tag might be placed on a Web page, or within a .mp4 or .mov file. This could allow remote attackers to crash the applications (known as a denial of service) or possibly execute arbitrary code on a compromised computer.

The announcement comes one week … Read more

A new test to screen blood donors for hepatitis C (HCV) is showing promise, having scored the highest against five other systems during an evaluation by Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, according to developer OraSure Technologies.

When there's a shortage of blood for transfusions on the battlefield, medics turn to the Walking Blood Bank, i.e. any available soldier. However, short of prescreening every potential donor or using other time-consuming methods, there has been no way to be sure that a donor is disease free (PDF).

The company already offers a test for HIV, and now it looks … Read more

There's nothing like a quick YouTube break to shake up the workday monotony, but nothing will stop the show faster than a stalled video stream or a crashing media player. Make these sites your first stops when your media player goes on strike.

YouTube Help Center The service's own troubleshooting page is a bit too quick to recommend that you uninstall and then reinstall the Adobe Flash Player (cutesy instructional video, though). This may be the surest cure for all types of glitches, but I would begin with the simpler steps the site suggests, such as restarting your … Read more

I use Apple's Safari browser on my iPhone but don't have much use for it on my Windows PCs. I do run iTunes and QuickTime on the Windows systems, so every time there's an update for one of those apps, I'm prompted to download Safari.

A quick tweak of the Apple Software Update utility makes the Safari prompts history.

Open the Apple Software Update application via its shortcut on the Start menu. To set the updater to stop nagging you about Safari, check the browser's option in the main window, and click Tools > Ignore … Read more

Logitech today announced a Webcam specifically tailored to Macs. The Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro is a spitting image in terms of both specs and design of the PC-friendly QuickCam Pro 9000 I reviewed (and very much liked) last year, but Logitech sees fit to charge the few Webcam-less Mac owners out there an additional $30. The QuickCam Vision Pro will cost you $130 when it's released next month; the QuickCam Pro 9000 can be had for $100 or less.

Like its PC doppelganger, the QuickCam Vision Pro features a 2-megapixel sensor, a Carl Zeiss lens, and Logitech's RightLight … Read more

Delighting some Firefox browsing loyalists and distressing others is the so-called "awesome bar" in Firefox 3 (download for Windows and Mac).

Officially known as the Smart Location Bar, it has earned a mixed reputation by suggesting 12 bookmarks and URLs of previously visited sites as the user types keywords into the URL field. If you're one of those users clamoring for an option to silence the 'helpful' new feature in Firefox 3, released on Tuesday, look no further than this Quick Tip video. CNET Editor Tom Merritt, working off a user tip, demonstrates how it's done.… Read more

An Intel paper to be released Tuesday offers more details on future Nehalem processors.

Rajesh Kumar, Intel fellow and director of the Circuit & Low Power Technologies Digital Enterprise Group, gave a brief overview of a paper covering "clocking architecture" and some of the major data transfer and power savings goals for Nehalem, Intel's next-generation chip architecture due in the fourth quarter of this year. One of Nehalem's major new features is QuickPath (PDF), a data transfer technology.

He began by explaining why Nehalem integrates more components--including the memory controller--than previous Intel chips. "The reason … Read more

In the year 2008, when every computer and most other gadgets have their own calculators, one might wonder why anyone other than the most severe technophobe would want one of these anachronistic devices--much less create one. But if any company is allowed that indulgence it would have to be Hewlett-Packard.

As one of the companies that brought handheld calculators to the masses nearly 40 years ago, the computing pioneer is reaching back into its past once again with the "HP Quick Calc." There's still no urgent reason to get one, other than to make a statement in … Read more

Apple released QuickTime 7.5 late on Monday, fixing a handful of security issues, including holes that would have allowed someone to run malicious code on a computer and remotely control it.

One of the issues, which would have allowed a maliciously crafted PICT image file to run code, affected computers running Windows Vista and XP SP2.

Four other issues affected Vista and XP SP2, as well as Mac OS X 10.3.9, Mac OS X 10.4.9 through 10.4.11, and Mac OS X 10.5 or later. QuickTime 7.5 fixes a memory corruption issue … Read more