GOOGLE LAUNCHES NEW GMAIL LOOK

Hot on the heels of the newly revamped Reader, Google is rolling out a new Gmail. Gmail’s conversation view has been streamlined and now includes photos of each contact. Additionally, it will automatically resize itself to look best depending on your screen size thanks to a new “elastic density feature.” Themes now support HD images and there is a new “smarter navigation” panel on the left hand side of the display that is customizable. Google also added a drop-down search box for more accurate email searches. The software giant says users will begin to see the option to “switch to the new look” in the bottom right-hand of their inbox over the next few days. Check out the video below for more features.

APPLE STORES STOCK SQUARE CREDIT CARD READER

Jack Dorsey's über-popular credit card readers got a big thumbs-up from Cupertino this week. Square's devices are hitting Apple's 235 US retail locations and Apple.com for $9.95 a pop(with a $10 redemption code making it free), plus the 2.75 percent that the startup takes off the backend each time you use the reader -- or you can always just sign up for a free one over on Square's site. The iPhone / iPad / iPod touch plug-in accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and yes, even American Express. The CEO of VeriFone will no doubt have plenty to say about the matter.

ADOBE FINDS ANOTHER CRITICAL FLAW IN FLASH

Adobe has found yet another serious security flaw in Flash. The vulnerability affects all platforms, including Android, though only attacks on Windows have been seen in the wild so far. Just like last month's exploit, this one is spreading via malicious .swf files embedded in Office documents, only this time it's Word instead of Excel being targeted (a hacker's gotta keep it fresh, after all). Once again Reader and Acrobat are also vulnerable, but attacks can be thwarted using Reader's Protected Mode.

APPLE REJECTS SONY READER APP

Apple has rejected the recently launched Sony Reader app for iOS devices. The reason? Apple will no longer accept any app that has in-app purchasing that doesn't go through Apple itself. Also, Apple will not tolerate apps that access material purchased through external content stores.

The Kindle and Nook apps get around this by sending the users to the browser, so technically they don't have in-app purchasing. Neither Sony nor Apple have issued any statements.

SONY READER APP LAUNCHES ON ANDROID

The Sony Reader app for Android, promised for December 2010 release, has finally appeared in the Android Marketplace. The app allows users, besides reading ebooks, to automatically syncs previously purchased books, and like the e-readers, it also supports ePub and PDF formats. In addition, you can easily highlight text and adjust font and brightness settings right from the page you're reading.

Sony has confirmed the app will only work with handsets that run Android 2.2 and higher, which is incredibly ironic considering most Sony Ericsson handsets are, you know, still stuck with 2.1.

The iPhone version, according to Sony, is in review by Apple and should be in the App Store soon.

E INK TO COME IN COLOR

Tired of reading in black and white on your ereader? A Chinese company will announce, on Tuesday at the FPD International 2010 trade show in Tokyo, that it will be the first to sell a color display using technology from E Ink, whose black-and-white displays are used in 90 percent of the world’s e-readers, including the Amazon Kindle, Sony Readers and the Nook from Barnes & Noble.

“Color is the next logical step for E Ink,” said Vinita Jakhanwal, an analyst at iSuppli. “Every display you see, whether it’s a TV or a cellphone, is in color.”

The new color E Ink display, while an important technological breakthrough, is not as sharp and colorful as LCD. Unlike an LCD screen, the colors are muted, as if one were looking at a faded color photograph. In addition, E Ink cannot handle full-motion video. At best, it can show simple animations.

These are reasons Amazon, Sony and the other major e-reader makers are not yet embracing it. Amazon says it will offer color E Ink when it is ready; the company sees color as useful in cookbooks and children’s books, and it offers these books in color through its Kindle application for LCD devices. Sony is also taking a wait-and-see approach. [NY Times]

Hanvon color e-ink reader

ADOBE WARNS OF A CRITICAL VULNERABILITY IN READER AND FLASH

Adobe has released a security bulletin warning of a critical, zero-day vulnerability affecting their Reader and Flash player.  Adobe states in the bulletin and unpatched system could "crash [your system] and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.”  According to Adobe the vulnerability affects the following systems:

• Adobe Flash Player 10.1.85.3 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris operating systems
• Adobe Flash Player 10.1.95.2 and earlier for Android
• Adobe Reader 9.4 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX
• Adobe Acrobat 9.4 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows and Macintosh
• Adobe Reader and Acrobat 8.x are confirmed not vulnerable. Adobe Reader for Android is not affected by this issue.

Adobe has promised a fix for this issue by November 9th.  Read below for mitigation instructions for your system.

MITIGATIONS: 

Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x - Windows
Deleting, renaming, or removing access to the authplay.dll file that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x mitigates the threat for those products, but users will experience a non-exploitable crash or error message when opening a PDF file that contains Flash (SWF) content.

The authplay.dll that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x for Windows is typically located at C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\authplay.dll for Adobe Reader or C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 9.0\Acrobat\authplay.dll for Acrobat.

Adobe Reader 9.x - Macintosh
1) Go to the Applications->Adobe Reader 9 folder.
2) Right Click on Adobe Reader.
3) Select Show Package Contents.
4) Go to the Contents->Frameworks folder.
5) Delete or move the AuthPlayLib.bundle file.

Acrobat Pro 9.x - Macintosh
1) Go to the Applications->Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro folder.
2) Right Click on Adobe Acrobat Pro.
3) Select Show Package Contents.
4) Go to the Contents->Frameworks folder.
5) Delete or move the AuthPlayLib.bundle file.

Adobe Reader 9.x - UNIX
1) Go to installation location of Reader (typically a folder named Adobe).
2) Within it browse to Reader9/Reader/intellinux/lib/ (for Linux) or Reader9/Reader/intelsolaris/lib/ (for Solaris).
3) Remove the library named "libauthplay.so.0.0.0."
[Adobe]