There are two main thrusts to WeatherBug, above and beyond the basic iPhone Weather experience (although the interface is kept fairly similar). Firstly, and most importantly, the detail from each weather station is much greater. And notice I said 'weather station' - there are no artificial averaged-out 'city' forecasts here, the data is attributed to the exact weather stations that generated it, which is as accurate as things can be, geographically. So, for example, you have quantities of rain, wind chill factor (in degrees F), humidity, dew point, plus current temperature, highs and lows, and current wind speed and direction. One nice touch is that as you side-scroll from favourite weather station to station, the wind indicator animates smoothly.
In addition to the details above, there are often radar or satellite images available, showing cloud cover, rain and snow coverage. This
can be fascinating to watch, refreshing every few hours, when there's a major storm or climatic event happening. A 'Video' module sounds
promising, but unless you live in the USA and a few other selected locations then a video weather forecast won't be available. Finally, 'Cameras' lets you step through any available weather cameras, though again there seem to be almost none organised outside the USA.
The heavy United States focus shouldn't stop you investigating WeatherBug though. Never mind the videos and cameras, if you have even
a passing interest in how our planet's weather systems work then you'll love exploring the data from the world's regions in this global
application.
FEATURES:
-Call Skype users to their PCs
-With IM+ for Skype it is possible to have chat conversations with other users who are logged in with their Skype accounts on PC.
-IM+ for Skype is based on SkypeOut service that allows users to make and receive calls for a low fee.
-Network Independence
Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer are being urged by experts to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed.
The flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer could allow criminals to take control of people's computers and steal their passwords, internet experts say.
Microsoft urged people to be vigilant while it investigated and prepared an emergency patch to resolve it.
Internet Explorer is used by the vast majority of the world's computer users.Microsoft says it has detected attacks against IE 7.0 but said the "underlying vulnerability" was present in all versions of the browser.
Other browsers, such as Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari, are not vulnerable to the flaw Microsoft has identified.
Browser bait
"In this case, hackers found the hole before Microsoft did," said Rick Ferguson, senior security advisor at Trend Micro. "This is never a good thing."
As many as 10,000 websites have been compromised since the vulnerability was discovered, he said.
"What we've seen from the exploit so far is it stealing game passwords, but it's inevitable that it will be adapted by criminals," he said. "It's just a question of modifying the payload the trojan installs."
Said Mr Ferguson: "If users can find an alternative browser, then that's good mitigation against the threat."
But Microsoft counselled against taking such action.
"I cannot recommend people switch due to this one flaw," said John Curran, head of Microsoft UK's Windows group.
He added: "We're trying to get this resolved as soon as possible.
"At present, this exploit only seems to affect 0.02% of internet sites," said Mr Curran. "In terms of vulnerability, it only seems to be affecting IE7 users at the moment, but could well encompass other versions in time."
Richard Cox, chief information officer of anti-spam body The Spamhaus Project and an expert on privacy and cyber security, echoed Trend Micro's warning.
"It won't be long before someone reverse engineers this exploit for more fraudulent purposes. Trend Mico's advice [of switching to an alternative web browser] is very sensible," he said.
PC Pro magazine's security editor, Darien Graham-Smith, said that there was a virtual arms race going on, with hackers always on the look out for new vulnerabilities.
"The message needs to get out that this malicious code can be planted on any web site, so simple careful browsing isn't enough."
"It's a shame Microsoft have not been able to fix this more quickly, but letting people know about this flaw was the right thing to do. If you keep flaws like this quiet, people are put at risk without knowing it."
"Every browser is susceptible to vulnerabilities from time to time. It's fine to say 'don't use Internet Explorer' for now, but other browsers may well find themselves in a similar situation," he added.
IM+ for Skype is a web-based iPhone / iPod Touch application that enables voice and text communication with other Skype users and provides cost-effective calling to landlines and mobiles.
FEATURES:
-Call Skype users to their PCs
-With IM+ for Skype it is possible to have chat conversations with other users who are logged in with their Skype accounts on PC.
-IM+ for Skype is based on SkypeOut service that allows users to make and receive calls for a low fee.
-Network Independence
