Hackers exploit iPad popularity

Security vendor BitDefender says hackers are using the popularity of the Apple iPad in a bid to spread malware, reports NetworkWorld.

The security company revealed a number of PC users have received e-mails promising "performance, newer features and security" on the iPad. The e-mails also contain a link which claims to let the recipient download the latest version of iTunes to their PC.

However, BitDefender says the malicious link actually re-directs PC owners to a hoax site that infects their machine with malware, known as Backdoor.Bifrose.AADY.

Google has acquired Tel Aviv-based start-up Labpixies, states PCWorld.

No price was announced, but some estimate the acquisition may have cost Google $25 million. The Google-Labpixies partnership goes back to 2005, when Labpixies was one of the first developers to create Web widgets for Google's personalised homepage service, iGoogle.

Google and Labpixies also worked together on a number of other OpenSocial-based gadgets.

Lawmakers and privacy watchdogs are asking Facebook to roll back a new feature that they say invades the privacy of the popular online social network's more than 400 million users, says LATimes.

Adding to controversy over the new feature, four US senators have also objected to Facebook sharing users' personal information with other Web sites, without the explicit consent of the users.

They want Facebook to ask users to "opt into" the feature that personalises content on three other Web sites, rather than "opt out" of it.

The US Supreme Court will decide whether minors have the right to buy violent video games, in a case that tests whether computer software is guaranteed the same free speech protections as books, newspapers and magazines, writes CNET.

The justices have agreed to review a California law that a federal appeals court struck down last year on the grounds that even children and teenagers enjoy free speech rights that are protected by the First Amendment. The case will be heard late this year, or in early 2011.

California is one of a string of states that have enacted similar laws restricting minors' rights to buy violent video games - legislation that has been uniformly rejected by the courts.