Recy, the Recyclable Wood Roadster from Mercedes-Benz
LG Electronics, the world's fourth-largest cell phone vendor, has added another compelling feature to the mobile handset- reading books for the visually impaired.The Seoul-based company yesterday started marketing the model, the LF1300, through LG Telecom, the country's smallest wireless operator; at around 400,000 won ($425).Only the blind, visually impaired and dyslexic can buy the talking phone after presenting a government certificate at sales outlets of LG Telecom. The LG LF1300 is the world's first mobile handset that is capable of reading books for the print-disabled, who otherwise could not enjoy them. Users of the gadget can download approximately 300 audio books from the Internet site of LG Sangam Library to their handsets in two ways- free of charge.
Beside its unique feature of reading books, the16-millimeter sleek -thick gizmo LG LF1300 features an MP3 player and a Bluetooth headset. The user interface of the LF1300 is also customized for the blind, enabling handset users to control it through a voice guidance system.
Via The
A flaw in Microsoft Powerpoint
Microsoft's summer-long struggle to lock down gaping holes in its Office software suite has once again escalated with the discovery of a new zero-day attack targeting PowerPoint users.
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The Redmond, Wash., software maker confirmed reports from anti-virus vendors that another round of "extremely limited attacks" is exploiting a previously unknown PowerPoint vulnerability.
The e-mail-borne attack, which uses rigged .ppt attachments, is being used to plant a Trojan dropper on infected Windows machines.
According to an advisory from Symantec, the malicious file injects itself into several computer processes and uses rootkit techniques to hide its files and process.
It opens a back door and connects to Web sites hosted at the 6600.org and 9966.org domains, allowing a malicious hacker full control of the target machine.
The file names of the rigged PowerPoint files are "FinalPresentationF05.ppt," and "2006-Jane.ppt," according to Symantec's alert.
The tactics appear identical to a recent wave of zero-day PowerPoint exploits that experts believe are linked to corporate espionage in the Far East.
Symantec said the targeted attack could be used to perform network reconnaissance, search for files, download and upload files, create and remove folders, execute commands or update registry entries.
McAfee, an anti-virus software vendor in Santa Clara, Calif., said the exploit was aimed at "a single target," further confirming that the recent exploits against Microsoft Office users are part of well-targeted attacks.
A spokesperson for Microsoft said the company's investigation has concluded that the vulnerability affects users of Microsoft Office 2000, Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Office XP.
"In order for this attack to be carried out, a user must first open a malicious Microsoft PowerPoint document that is sent as an e-mail attachment or otherwise provided to them by an attacker," the spokesperson said.
He said Microsoft is aware of an attack scenario that involves malware known as "Win32/Controlppt.W" and "Win32/Controlppt.X," and has added detection and removal signatures to its free Windows Live OneCare safety scanner.
