Bug in Snapchat and Facebook Poke lets recipients save video files

A new bug has been discovered that allows the recipient of a Snapchat or Facebook Poke video to revisit and keep it forever without the sender ever knowing it. All that’s needed to save videos is an iPhone or iPad, a data cable and a free file browser.
The process is pretty straightforward and can be done by virtually anyone. First, open the app and load a video but don’t open it. Then, plug your device into your computer and open an iPhone file browser, like iFunBox. From here, navigate to the Snapchat folder and look for the “tmp” folder. If you’re using Facebook Poke, the files will be buried a bit deeper in library/caches/fbstore/mediacard. Once they have been located, simply copy them and paste them to your computer. It’s as easy as that.

Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel told Buzzfeed that people who most enjoy using Snapchat are those who embrace the spirit and intent of the service. He said there will always be ways to reverse engineer technology products but it spoils the fun.
Snapchat launched in September 2011 with absolutely no media coverage. The idea behind the app is that you can share a photo or a video with someone for a set amount of time – up to 10 seconds. When the preset time limit has expired, the media is then deleted from both devices as well as Snapchat’s servers. Sure it’s possible for someone to capture a screenshot but like other apps, the sender is notified in such an event.
There are essentially two camps when it comes to the intended use of such an application. Some will say it’s innocent in nature, allowing users to send silly or goofy photos to friends or family that they otherwise wouldn’t send over social media or SMS. Others, however, see Snapchat as little more than an app to facilitate sexting. We’ll leave you to draw your own conclusion as to what you believe people are using it for.
The app now has a solid following, with over 50 million snaps being shared each day. In fact, Facebook essentially copied the entire idea and released it as a social media app called Poke not too long ago.

Windows 8 Boot Issues? Try Fixing the Master Boot Record (MBR) or Boot Configuration Data (BCD)

Windows 8 received a decent amount of enhancements on the desktop side that I tend to appreciate versus running Windows 7, even if that means I get Metro standing in the middle here and there occasionally. One such area of improvement is notification management and how it handles updates and system restarts. Running the final version of the OS for a few months now, it’s been a painless affair until this past weekend.
I shut down my desktop PC with the purpose of connecting new hardware and on the way out I was prompted to “update and shutdown”. Sure, why not. I went on to install a secondary SSD for maintenance purposes and apparently that was enough for my system to refuse booting right after. I tried to backtrack to no avail.
"Reboot and select proper boot device"
I bet you have no love for the message, neither do I. Because I had disconnected a few devices, it took me a while to narrow things down to my boot SSD, and for a second I even thought the SSD had gone forever kaput. After booting with a different drive and noting I could read all my data on the drive in question, I took a deep breath and started to troubleshoot the boot record. Once you settle on the idea that it’s not a hardware problem and you are unable to boot up, your best bet is to try to fix the MBR (Master Boot Record).
With a long history of dual booting different versions of Windows over the years, finding a corrupt MBR, boot sector, or Boot Configuration Data (BCD) is nothing new, but it took me longer than usual to come to a solution. Here are a few things you can try and hopefully get back to full speed in no time.
First of all, you will need a bootable disc or pen drive. Here’s a quick guide to accomplish that if you don’t already have one handy. Although it's not a requirement, to be on the safe side it's recommended at this point that you disconnect other storage devices from your PC and leave only the SSD/HDD that you are troubleshooting.
Booting into the Windows 8 setup, select “Repair your computer” in the bottom part of the window, then “Troubleshoot” and “Advanced options”. Here I was given a good reminder of another cool Windows 8 feature. If you have a restore point created you can go back to that working copy of the OS without losing your data. Well, I didn’t have any.
So the first thing you will want to try is the Automatic Repair.
If that fixes your boot problem, you had it easy and go on to create a restore point for another time you are out of luck. If Windows is unable to fix your issue, read on.
Go back to the Advanced options and choose the Command Prompt. Going for the next easiest way to fix the problem, enter the following four commands into the prompt:

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd

After receiving a success confirmation. Close the CMD window and restart your PC.
If you are booted into Windows, excellent! If not, let’s try one last thing. Follow the previous steps until you have landed into the Command Prompt.
Enter the “bcdedit” command. A lists of items will appear under Windows Boot Manager and under Windows Boot Loader. Look for the following items:

• Under Windows Boot Manager, the Device item should be set to unknown.
• Under Windows Boot Loader, the Device and os device items should be set to unknown.

Run the following three commands to correct the settings:

bcdedit /set {default} device partition=c:
bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=c:
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=c:

One last thing to try (though in theory, it's the repeating what we’ve done before) browse to the folder X:SourcesRecovery and then enter “StartRep.exe” which executes another automated startup repair utility.
 tech tips on TechSpot.

Nvidia's GeForce Experience PC game optimizer enters open beta

Nvidia has opened the doors on its GeForce Experience after letting thousands of users hammer on it over the last month. Announced last April and introduced as a closed beta in December, the PC game optimizer aims to help players get the most out of their machines by automatically adjusting in-game settings for their hardware.

When the initiative was first revealed, Nvidia cited a survey that suggested more than 80% of users play PC games in their default configuration, presumably because they're either intimidated by the myriad of quality settings or they simply don't care to invest the time necessary to find a decent configuration for their particular system.
When the closed beta began last month, the GeForce Experience only supported 32 games, and while that number hasn't increased by much, Nvidia has added nine more titles to its database, including Far Cry 3, Mechwarrior Online and Hawken. You'll still need a Fermi or Kepler-based graphics card, though the software now offers limited support for Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors, which weren't backed before.

Nvidia says other changes since the closed beta include enhanced game detection logic, support for optimizing games played on 2560x1440 displays, better Chinese, Danish and UK English translations, improved client startup, billboard display, game scan and communication with Nvidia's servers, as well as with various bug fixes. The company previously outlined its six-step game testing process and we'll list that again:

1. We start with expert game testers that play through key levels of the game (indoors, outdoors, multiplayer etc.) to get a feel for the load and how different settings affect quality and performance.
2. The game tester identifies an area for automated testing. This area will be from a demanding portion of the game. We don’t always select the absolute worst case since they tend to distort the results.
3. As part of the game evaluation, the expert game tester will identify an appropriate FPS target. Fast paced games typically require higher FPS. Slower games lower FPS. We also define and test against a minimum FPS to minimize stuttering. The average framerate target is typically between 40-60 FPS, the minimum 25 FPS.
4. The most difficult part of OPS is deciding which settings to turn on and which to leave off in a performance limited setting. This is done by analyzing each setting and assigning them quality and performance weights. The game tester compares how each setting (eg. shader, texture, shadow) and each quality level (eg. low, medium, high) affects image quality and performance. These are stored as weights which are fed to the automation algorithm.
5. From here on the testing is automated. The GeForce Experience supercomputer tests the game by turning on settings until the FPS target is reached. This is done in the order of maximum bang for the buck; settings that provide the most visual benefit and least stress on the GPU (eg. texture quality) are turned on first; settings that are performance intensive but visually subtle (eg. 8xAA) are enabled last.
6. Finally, the GeForce Experience supercomputer goes through and tests thousands of hardware configurations for the given game. Unique settings are generated for each CPU, GPU, and monitor resolution combination.

AMD Catalyst 13.4 (WHQL), 13.5 (Beta) ready for download

AMD has released two new sets of drivers for Radeon graphics card owners, namely Catalyst 13.4 and 13.5b2. The former driver bundle is WHQL-certified while the latter remains in beta; however, both offer the usual crop of bug fixes and performance improvements.

Download AMD Catalyst 13.4 (WHQL)
Note: All packages work with both desktop and mobile GPUs

• Windows XP 32-bit | 64-bit
• Windows Vista/7/8 32-bit | 64-bit
• Linux 32/64-bit
• Catalyst 13.4 release notes

Catalyst 13.4 promises all the enhancements made in the 13.3 beta, but adds a number of noteworthy profiles and bug fixes:

• The Walking Dead:  Survival Instinct:  Fixes image quality issues when enabling Anti-Aliasing through the AMD Catalyst Control Center
• Crysis 3:  Improves CrossFire performance in 3 and 4 GPU configurations
• Deus Ex:  Human Revolution:  Improves CrossFire performance
• Unigine Heaven:  Improves CrossFire performance in 3 and 4 GPU configurations
• Hitman Absolution:  Resolves application issues on the AMD Radeon HD 7790 when running at 1680x100 with 8xAA enabled
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2: Fixes object and texture corruption
• Adobe Photoshop CS6: Resolves screen flicker under Windows 8

AMD promises 13.4 will "significantly improve" latency for Skyrim, Borderlands 2, Guild Wars 2, Tomb Raider and Hitman Absolution. The entire Radeon HD 7700 series should see performance gains in Batman Arkaham City (~5%), Borderlands 2 (~10%), Quake Wars (~13%), Hitman Absolution (~11%), Wolfenstein MP (~11%) and Civilization V (~5%).
Support for the AMD Radeon HD 7790 and Radeon HD 7990 have also been added.
Download AMD Catalyst 13.5 (BETA 2)
Note: All beta packages include 32-bit + 64-bit support

• Desktop: Vista, 7, 8
• Mobile: Vista, 7, 8
• Catalyst 13.5 BETA 2 release notes

Meanwhile, AMD's latest beta driver, Catalyst 13.5, packs all of that plus even more boosts in performance for Radeon HD 7000-series owners. Bumps include Far Cry 3 with AA (~4%), Shogun II with AA (~20%), Tomb Raider (~6%), Bioshock (~6%) and Borderlands 2 (~17%).

AMD Catalyst 13.5 Beta 3

AMD Catalyst 13.5 Beta 3 (Notebook)

Build Info:
Catalyst Version: 13.5
Direct3D Version: 9.14.10.0968
OpenGL Version: 6.14.10.12198
OpenCL Version: 10.0.1124.2
Catalyst Control Center Version: 2013.0416.1036.17145



NOTE! You must un-install AMD Catalyst 13.4 (if you have already installed AMD Catalyst 13.4) before installing AMD Catalyst 13.5 Beta

Feature Highlights of The AMD Mobility Catalyst™ 13.5 Beta 3

• Adds support for the AMD Radeon HD8000M Series

Feature Highlights of the AMD Catalyst™ 13.5 Beta

• Performance gains seen on the entire AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series for the following:

» Far Cry 3: Improves performance up to 4% with Anti-Aliasing enabled

» Shogun II: Improves performance up to 20% with 8x Anti-Aliasing enabled

» Tomb Raider: Improves performance up to 6%

» Bioshock: Improves performance up to 6%

» Borderlands 2: Improves performance up to 17%

• Corruption is no longer seen on the AMD Radeon HD 7790 when TressFX is enabled in Tomb Raider

System Requirements:

• Windows 8 (32 & 64-bit versions)
• Windows 7 (32 & 64-bit versions with SP1 or higher)
• Windows Vista (32 & 64-bit versions with SP2 or higher)

AMD Product Compatibility:

• AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 7000M Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6000M Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series

AMD Catalyst 13.5 Beta 2
AMD Catalyst 13.5 Beta 3

App Porter helps translate iOS apps for other mobile platforms

In the convergence of Bring You Own Device and in-house app development, many agencies are overloaded with the task of creating apps for multiple platforms. An app that was created for use in one mobile operating system may need complete rewritten to be used in another. This effectively multiplies the work by the number of platforms that need to be supported.
Intel has come up with a partial solution, at least for apps that start out written for Apple’s iOS. The HTML5 App Porter Tool  has been in beta for a little more than a month now, and it has just started to get some traction with the mobile app development community. It will automatically convert the Objective-C code of iOS-based apps into JavaScript so that it can be more readily converted to work with other operating systems, such as Android, BlackBerry and Windows.
It will also rewrite layouts in HTML/CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and convert iOS API data types and objects to JavaScript/HTML5. While this won’t automatically convert 100 percent of an app, it could save a lot of effort by translating as much as it can.
If you are interested in trying out the HTML5 App Porter Tool, you can sign up at Intel’s website.  You can also learn how to get the most out of what looks to be a quite useful tool with the tutorial and support forum.
The tool requires Windows 8 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2012.

Install pirated iOS apps without jailbreaking your device

If you wanted to install pirated apps on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch up to this point, you’d first need to jailbreak your device – a process that many users simply didn’t want to fool with for a number of reasons. But that’s all changed now as there are at least two apps that allow users to install pirated apps without having to root the operating system.
The new services are gaining momentum after another popular pirate installer, Installous, met its demise late last year. This new breed of services, led by Zeusmos and Kuaiyong, make it easier than ever to install apps as they facilitate one-tap installs that can be done on non-jailbroken devices.

Zeusmos is available free of charge on jailbroken devices although, interestingly enough, there is a fee associated with using it on non-jailbroken units. It seems kind of counterproductive to charge to install pirated apps but in an interview with TWN, the 15-year-old creator said it was a way to try before you buy.
Kuaiyong, on the other hand, is a web-based installer that is free for all to use. Users can install apps directly from their iOS devices or use a desktop app to install them using a data cable. Using the app will disable iTunes synching but as the publication notes, that likely won’t be much of a deterrent for those interested in downloading the latest and greatest apps without paying for them.
It goes without saying that those interested in either product should proceed at their own risk as Apple is sure to shut these services down in due time.