In an effort to combat phishing and spam, which has been an unsolved issue for Twitter for the past years, the micro-blogging platform yesterday said in a blog post that they have rolled out its own URL shortener called Twt.tl to protect users that strikes a major blow against phishing and other deceitful attacks. Today, we’re launching a new service to protect users that strikes a major blow against phishing and other deceitful attacks. By routing all links submitted to Twitter through this new service, we can detect, intercept, and prevent the spread of bad links across all of Twitter. Even if a bad link is already sent out in an email notification and somebody clicks on it, we'll be able keep that user safe.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has said he "still loves" his Prius car, despite what he suspects is a Toyota software problem behind sudden spikes in acceleration. "It is just like all other gadgets we have...Everything today has a computer in it, so everything will fail," Mr Wozniak said, during on-stage banter as part of a geek talk show at a computer security conference on Friday. He said he had bought nine Prius hybrid cars, and had driven one from the Silicon Valley city of San Jose to San Francisco that day. He had conducted his own tests of Prius acceleration, taking his car to an open stretch of highway at dusk and then notching up the speed, using the cruise control mechanism. At "some number over 72 miles per hour the car accelerated and kept picking up speed," he said. "I wanted to see how high it would go." Mr Wozniak add: "It wound up being unlimited so I hit the brake. The problem had to be in the software.

Inspired by Apple's iPad, the folks over at Transparent House have come up with an interesting video clip. The animation, created using 3Ds Max and V-Render, offers a beautiful visualization of of a brief history of the California-based tech juggernaut, from the its Apple 1 personal computer kit om April 1976 to the recently-launched Apple iPad tablet on January 2010. Full video after the break.

Have you ever wondered how teachers spy on students through laptop webcams. Well, below is a video which shows a quintessential example of how it is done. Assistant Principal Dan Ackerman at Intermediate School 339 Bronx, NY. Ackerman demonstrates how he remotely monitors the students' laptops to check for inappropriate use. And he even boasts that he could use Macbook webcam to see the attire of the student.

If you own a LG phone and have been looking at the logo unintentionally every day but find nothing unusual about it, then you got to open your eyes big enough this time. Well, did you know that LG's logo is actually inspired by Pac-Man, a very popular arcade game in the 1980s? We consumers and probably even some of the employees working at the South Korean company were not aware about it until the secret was unravelled recently. And it is rather amusing though.

Windows Live Messenger is set to receive a major revamp, and "social" will be its main highlight. With social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter getting more popular than ever, it appears that the Windows Live team at Microsoft will integrate these social sites and blogging platforms such as Wordpress into its upcoming Windows Live Messenger, beyond its current chat functionality. The latest leaked screenshots of Windows Live Messenger 2010 Beta or better known as Wave 4 have started surfacing on the web showing its improved interface and some new impressive social features. From the screenshots taken by Chinese site cnbeta, the "Social" view allows users to "connect" to Windows Live and Facebook, including Twitter and Wordpress. As both Twitter and Wordpress do not support IM services, it is too early to determine how Windows Live Messenger will be "linked" with the two platforms. It could be similar to the current Web Activities after all.

According to the 2009 Forbes list of the "The World's Billionaires", the world now has 793 billionaires, a far cry from 1,125 a year ago. They may be rich with deep pockets but most of which aren't following the social networking trend. Many celebrities around the world head to social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to connect with their fans online. But as for most billionaires especially those tech-savvy executives such as Warren Buffett and Lawrence Ellison (Oracle), they say "NO!" when it comes to setting up a profile on Facebook or Twitter. Here's one obvious reason why they choose not to use these websites. Social websites don't help them make money at all! They feel that it's a waste of time to connect with people around the world on Facebook or Twitter which doesn't help them boost their wealth significantly.

Apparently, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6, which once dominated the browser market half a decade ago, is slowing down the advance in technology of the Internet. Web designers have to fork out extra time and effort in making sure that every single line of code they have written is compatible with IE6. And sometimes the latest web designing innovations can't be embraced in popular websites such as Facebook and YouTube in order to cater to the outdated browser. Well, the main issue lies in the fact that a significant number of office workers are still using IE6, the default browser of Windows XP. However, not many companies have upgraded IE6 to a better and faster browser as newer browsers tend to come with plugins and tools that are shifted towards the social media and networking side.