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gHacks technology news

May 17, 2008
20:03
IcoFx Icon Editor
» ‎ gHacks technology news
I usually do not care that much about the icons on my computer. Sometimes however I encounter an icon that looks so ugly or misplaced that I have to change it. One possibility would be to use an icon editor like IcoFx to create a new icon, makes only sense if you are somewhat talented in graphic design.

IcoFx could be the icon editor of choice then for you. It can create Icons for Windows 98 to Windows Vista and Macintosh OS X computers and provides functions to convert icons from Mac to Windows (and Windows to Mac) and to extract icons from 32-bit exe and dll files. One great feature is the ability to add, change or delete icons in executables which means that you could permanently change icons of explorer.exe for instance.

The interface looks clean, crisp and is very responsive to user input. The most gorgeous feature in my opinion is the ability to create icons from images. Just select an image on your hard drive and select the color depths and size of the icon that you want to create in the first step and use the advanced import settings to pick a specific part of the image, change the resolution and transparency.

The icon will then be created and can be saved in the usual icon formats. Colors range from 2 colors to True Color + Alpha Channels which equals 1-bit to 32-bit. Supported resolutions are 16×16, 24×24, 32×32, 48×48, 256×256 and custom resolutions.

Different sizes can be created and merged by dragging and dropping them into one icon window which has the effect that several sizes are supported in the icon file that will be created.
Tags: extract icons, icofx, icon editor, icons, software, Windows
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17:39
Explore the world with Schmap
» ‎ gHacks technology news
Google Earth is unbeatable when finding stuff, looking at the world, finding your route and so on, but it doesn’t really give you information on what the places you see are like. Schmap is service I found which tries to bring together Google Maps, and actual information on places to get you valuable travel guide quality info.

I found that the information was quite helpful and detailed, there was even loads of info on Budapest where I live. History was accurate and thorough and although there were only 18 places to see, these were well picked with nice photos and descriptions. Tour suggestions were also well written and show pretty much what needs to be seen when traveling to Budapest for the first time, and even events were accurate and updated.

Schmap also makes a desktop application named Schmap Guides Desktop which contains all this data in a downloadable form. You can download various cities, or choose packs which contain all American, all European, or every single destination available. The desktop software is great if you’re traveling somewhere, and it also enables you to print custom guides for yourself, a great way to get to know a place.

The only real problem with Schmap is that there aren’t enough destinations. You’ll find them if you go to big places like capitols, but if you want to go to a seaside city in Italy, you won’t find an entry. I think Schmap would be one of the most useful aps on the net if they manage to build such an infrastructure. Since I’m going to Italy this Summer, I would urge them to hurry up!
Tags: maps, travel
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14:46
Anti-Theft Software for Mobile Phones
» ‎ gHacks technology news
After writing the article about Locate PC, a utility that sends information like the IP address on a daily basis I was wondering what the state of the art of the anti-theft software for mobile phones would look like. I’m just guessing but it’s probably true that mobile phones get stolen more often than notebooks, probably due to sheer numbers but also because they are smaller and easier to steal.

I was surprised that a very effective way of dealing with mobile phone theft was already available. All of the applications that I took a look at support sending a SMS whenever the SIM card of the mobile gets changed. The SMS will contain information about the new phone number and, depending on the software and phone, other relevant information like GPS coordinates.

This makes it very easy to track down your mobile phone with the help of law enforcement agencies who simply contact the phone company asking them to reveal name and address of the person behind the new phone number.

Most anti-theft software is not free unfortunately and I was only able to find two free ones that unfortunately work only on selected mobile phones:

mGuard

mGuard is a anti-theft software for Sony Ericsson phones and provides a way to send an SMS to another mobile phone whenever the SIM card gets changed. It operates silently in the background and it should be very hard to spot. Even if the thief spots the application the SMS has already been send out.

Guardian

Guardian is a advanced anti-theft software for Symbian S60 devices. It starts automatically when the mobile phone is turned on and checks the SIM card in the process. A SMS will be send containing information about the new phone number, GSM cell ID, country ID and current network). The current user will not be notified about the SMS and it will not appear in the logs or send SMS folders.

Guardian will automatically switch to invisible mode when a SIM card is entered that is not authorized which makes it impossible to access the application. It also comes with a hard reset protection that protects the application when the user performs a hard reset which basically means a return to the default phone settings. (works 90% of the time according to the developers)

Users who donate money to the project, from €3 to €500 get a few extra features. The remote control plugins sound very interesting. Once an unauthorized SIM card has been placed in the phone it is possible to send remote commands to the phone to
- Recover your sms and your Phonebook’s contacts from your stolen mobile
- Gain informations about the thief, monitoring his activities like sent and received sms, incoming and outgoing calls, phonebooks contacts added
- Track the movements of your mobile, using the gsm cell-id localization
- Protect your Privacy deleting contents from your stolen mobile (sms, contacts, images, videos, audios)
- Lock your Phone or your SIM to avoid anyone using it
This version can also store up to ten different SIM cards that are authorized which is great if you happen to change SIM cards every now and then.

Guardian is a pretty sophisticated tool and I would definitely recommend to donate to get the additional features.

Now of any other free tools for mobile phones that add anti-theft protections to them ? Let me know about them please.
Tags: anti-theft, guardian, mguard, mobile phone, Nokia, sony ericsson, symbian 60
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14:06
Track your stolen computer with Locate PC
» ‎ gHacks technology news
If you travel a lot chance is that you will eventually fall victim to theft. If you happen to have your notebook or laptop with you most of the time chance is pretty high that the thief will have the desire to steal that one. Chances are pretty slim that you will see your notebook again after the theft but you can increase them a bit by using Locate PC.

Locate PC only works if the thief is stupid enough to boot your computer while being connected to an internet connection. I cannot really say how many thiefs would do that but it can happen and that’s probably reason enough to use Locate PC. A slim chance is better than no chance at all, don’t you think ?

Locate PC (via Cybernet News) will send emails periodically whenever the PC is connected to the Internet, by default one email is send per day and another one for every IP change. The application is running in the background with an obscured filename and no system tray icon making it harder to identify. I would say that you do not need to worry about that though, if the thief really boots the PC while it is connected to the Internet then you should not fear that he will discover the little tracking application.

One thing that actually might work pretty well is to create a bogus account that does not require a password. I mean, a thief that gets a password prompt will probably not be able to load the operating system which would make the whole configuration void.

The emails that are send contain several interesting information, not only the IP that it is being send from. It displays the computer’s host name and logged in user. This will be probably your information though. More interesting are the network connections that are listed. A dialup connection would reveal the phone number and the user name which can lead directly to the thief.

A traceroute command is issued as well and identifying information are pulled from Windows. The important information that can lead to the thief are the IP address, the network connections and the traceroute command. Everything else will be your information unless the thief decides to chance the name and address of the owner to his own.
Tags: computer, laptop, locate pc, notebook, stolen pc, theft
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13:37
Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1
» ‎ gHacks technology news
The first release candidate of Firefox 3 has been finally published on the Mozilla Firefox website and users of previous Beta versions seem to get an update notification already asking them to update to the latest version. The release notes do not give specific information about the changes and features that have been implemented in this version but I was able to find some information about them at the Mozilla Developers website.

The first obvious change after starting Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 is the improvement to the user interface which affects versions for all operating system, yes that includes Mac and Linux.

Several other features have been changed or fixed after receiving lots of community feedback, this includes the autocomplete function of the location bar, bookmark backup and restore and full page zoom among others.

Additional fixes and improvements have been made to improve security, web compatibility, stability and performance. Many add-ons will not work for the time being unless you use the Nightly Tester Tools to force compatibility. The release candidate 1 is another version that has been released for testing purposes and to receive additional feedback from the Firefox community.
Tags: firefox, firefox 3, firefox 3 rc1, mozilla
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