Keane Ingram - Tech News and Views

Users on the O2 network who make use of the data network to visit websites will be interested to learn that their phone number is sent as part of the HTTP header. This has been discovered by @lewispeckover. He has set up a website which when visited shows all of the header information that is sent by your device/network to the website. Apparently O2 users will see a line in the header showing their phone number.

This is pretty bad from a privacy perspective - users on the O2 network who visit websites will be easily identifiable from their phone number. Not every website will log this information but it is possible to do so. I'm on T-Mobile and am not seeing this thankfully.

Today has been chosen as a day of protest for many websites who wish to protest against two bills being considered by the US, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). These two acts would give authorities the power to seize domains without due process, which could effectively lead to sites being blacked out. To show their support, many sites are also blacking out to show how things may be under SOPA/PIPA. The highest profile site to do this is Wikipedia:

Other sites taking part include Reddit and imgur. Google also have a doodle on their US site showing the logo blacked out:

Another site showing their support is TheOatmeal, as suggested I am pirating their gif!

Hopefully these protests will lead the US authorities to realise that their proposed acts will be a big mistake and could cause major damage to the Internet as we know it.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is currently running in Las Vegas, and one of the more interesting devices unveiled this year is Project Fiona, a gaming tablet with controls attached either side of the screen. Games can be controlled either by using the controls, the touch screen or by accelerometers.

Whilst this seems an interesting idea, my hands are aching just looking at this, and wondering how on earth it can be comfortable to hold for any length of time. No release date has been announced but Razer say that developer units will be available soon.

The latest incremental update to the WordPress blogging platform has been released. Version 3.3.1 is now available and fixes 15 bugs from 3.3, and also provides a fix for cross-site scripting vulnerabilities.

To update, log into your WordPress Dashboard, and click the update link at the top:

A bug has been found in Firefox 9 which has led Mozilla to push out an update just a day after the initial release. Firefox 9.0.1 is now available from the Mozilla Firefox website.

Details of the bug can be found at Bugzilla. It appears that the bug most likely wouldn't affect Windows users, but the decision was taken to make this new release for the following reasons:

• We were living with 702813 for most of the life of Firefox 9, and that the backout in 708572 has actually gotten less testing
• New crash signatures (Windows even) have been found which are related to 711794, although none yet are significant or startup crashers
• We are uncertain about the number of sites affected by 702813
• We are uncertain about whether or not we 100% fixed 702813 with the backout in 708572
• The population of Windows users who have already updated to 9.0 is small (in the low millions)
• There is tracking/analysis benefit of having all desktop platforms on the same Firefox version

The latest stable build of Mozilla Firefox will shortly be officially released to users around the world, but if you can't wait for the automatic update you can find a download for Windows here.

The new version offers the following new features:

• Improved JavaScript performance by utilisting Type Inference - promising up 30% quicker performance
• Improved theme integration and swipe navigation for Mac OS X Lion
• Better standards support for HTML5, MathML and CSS
• Several stability issues have been fixed

Firefox will be available for download from the Mozilla website later today.

It doesn't seem that long since the last Humble Bundle was released, but it does seem like a long time since the last numbered Humble Indie Bundle. They seem to have pulled out all the stops this time around!

The games include:

• Jamestown
• Bit.Trip Runner
• Super Meat Boy
• Shank
• NightSky HD

Plus, if you top the current average amount paid, you'll also get the following:

• Cave Story+
• Gratuitous Space Battles

This is a phenomenal offer, especially considering you can pay what you want. I'll definitely be buying the bundle in order to play Super Meat Boy as I've heard great things about it.

The latest version of the popular blogging software WordPress is now available, both as a download and as an update within the WordPress dashboard. As announced on the WordPress blog, this version is codenamed 'Sonny'in honour of jazz musician Sonny Stitt.

The 3.3 update includes a wealth of new features, such as easier uploading, a new dashboard design, a 'new user experience', improved content tools, and many under the hood and performance improvements.

Reports are surfacing today from an unknown source that Amazon's popular Kindle Fire tablet will make it's UK debut next month. The 7" tablet has been very successful in the US and analysts have been talking up the tablet wars as a three horse race - Apple, Amazon and 'others'. Know Your Mobile have reported that the Kindle Fire will account for 50% of the Android tablet market next year.

I'm very interested in this tablet, especially if it's priced aggressively - it's around £130 in the US, I can't see it being that cheap here but if it were sold for £150 I would snap one up. I would prefer something a bit more multipurpose with a camera, GPS etc. but if it's cheap enough I'll probably go for the Kindle Fire.

Did you feel as though Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's campaign was missing something? The folks over at Beat Down Boogie did, so they made a new version starring one of the lead characters from CoD: Modern Warfare 2, Ghost.

The video shows Ghost and his colleague, played by Dolphin Lundgren(!), saving the world from Makarov. Check it out below!