Your favorite browser Google Chrome has just received a stable update which adds some cool new improvements to the mix including considerably faster browsing.

The latest version adds autocomplete when you are entering a URL, so it automatically suggests you the most likely site that you are going to visit based on what you’re typing. Also, it checks executable files against a whitelist for any sort of malware threat. Overall, some neat features that again improve upon the core experience and justify why the browser is so popular today.

Download the latest version of Google Chrome here.

Thanks to the activism by the collective internet which included blackouts by major websites like Wikipedia and Reddit, the misguided bills SOPA and PIPA were deemed dead. But just like in Hollywood movies, things don’t stay dead. And looks like SOPA is getting back up – stronger and with a modified but equally terrifying agenda.

According to RT, there is a bill being prepared in Washington by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that will effectively bring back everything that was wrong with SOPA back into circulation. So here’s the gist of it – the new bill proposes that all of the internet would be run by an executive branch (which is the White House) since they are of course the best people to be in charge of the entire world wide web. They will use their p0wers not only to tackle piracy but hear this interesting bit – it gives the government the Kill Switch ability to shut down the entire internet if a ‘cybersecurity emergency’ is declared by them.

Do you see what’s going on here? SOPA is back with a vengeance, slowly regaining its strength and disguising under the name of ‘cybersecurity’ and will attack again in a sequel to internet’s biggest battle ever. Who will win?

Time will tell.

Nokia has announced Belle, a new operating system for its existing range of handsets. The update can be downloaded from the Nokia Suites for the PC for free.

The new operating system offers six customizable home screens, new widget sizes, new menu screen, pull-down notifications, new status bar, new Nokia maps, speedier video recording, and smoother and faster overall performance. That’s a nice big update.

The update applies to Nokia’s C6-01, C7, E6, E7, N8 and X7 smartphones.

So what do you do if you’re a successful recording artist with millions of fans?

Well, if you’re Lady Gaga, you launch your own social network.

Affectionately called LittleMonsters.com, the site aims to be a community for Gaga’s fans to share photos and content related to the star (fyi this has no connection to Monster, the job site). Currently the site is invite-only (but of course), and is the product of start-up company Backplane.

Lady Gaga already has an immense presence on Twitter and Youtube, so it will be interesting to see how this new venture plays out once it hatches (pun intended).

In what was undoubtedly one of their most easiest hacks to date, infamous hacktivist group Anonymous cracked the passwords of 78 email addresses from the Syrian Ministry of Presidential Affairs over the weekend to expose some interesting emails.

We’ll not be going into details of these emails themselves, which reveal some scandalous information on how Syrian president Bashar Al Assad was prepped for his now infamous interview with ABC last year. However, what’s more interesting to note is that 33 of the hacked 78 emails, 4 of which seem duds, had their password set as “12345″ as reported by Forbes.

Analyzing the data further it seems that 2 of these accounts are dead, while another one is just made for testing. Furthermore, one user has 5 different variations of their email, another with 2 more variations; with the same password of course.

Not denying that Anonymous wouldn’t have been able to hack more complex passwords, but at least the public wont ridicule you if your password got hacked and came out to be the second most simple password in existence.

Don’t you love it when photos of devices get leaked? While it might be a PR nightmare, snapshots of units under production always set the tech world on fire, especially if that product is from Apple.

The good folks over at Repair Labs have posted an image that compares the current iPad2 back casing with a casing that is currently under production for the iPad 3. Peering into their crystal ball, the team have deduced what some of the upcoming changes will be to Apple’s pride and joy (it’s amazing what you can figure out by looking at the placement of screws).

The screenshot shows the iPad 2 casing on the left, and the reported new iPad 3 casing on the right. The casing reveals a different enclosure for the rear camera, speculating that there might be a higher quality camera available in the next iPad. The mounts for the logic board are also different, pointing to a refreshed board that might sport a different processor. The width of the board also suggests a different battery, further fueling the rumors that Apple is looking to get even more battery life out of the next iPad. And while a newer LCD is also expected to make an appearance, it’s good to see that the device hasn’t increased in thickness in any way, so Apple techs are certainly working hard on keeping the iPad slim and trim.

Of course, all of these are mere speculation, but who doesn’t love a good rumor mill?

We’ve already seen quite a few filesharing websites close down in the wake of the Megaupload shut down and arrests, but it didn’t really affect torrent websites before. Until now.

Popular torrent website BTJunkie has taken the bullet and decided to close itself down to users after 7 long years of service. The message above is what you get once you visit BTJunkie.com and it fittingly sums up a final notice and farewell to its longtime users. Speaking to TorrentFreak, one of the founders said that the decision was made after seeing Piratebay owners getting jailed and Megaupload getting shut down. He really hopes that the rest of the websites keep the war going though: “I really do hope so, the war is far from over for sure.”

RIP. And something tells me this isn’t the end of it.

When to Alienware’s product manager Eoin Leyden, Pocket-lint asked them about the possibility of a gaming tablet, à la Project Fiona from Razer. At this time though, there are two major factors limiting Alienware’s progress in this arena: proper input methyod, and continuously evolving processors that aren’t at the PC level yet.

“We have discussed [tablets] a couple of times.” Eoin said. “There are issues and limitations that make it difficult to see that would appeal to our core audience right now.” While action and racing games are easy to translate to this platform,complex games that requiring multiple inputs simultaneously, like StarCraft 2 for instance, are much harder to implement without a keyboard. ”The issue is the input mechanism and how the game uses the the mechanisms and turns them into in-game actions.”

Eye tracking is one of the input methods that Alienware is considering for future tablets, but the technology isn’t there yet to be available for mass market production at acceptable price levels. Although, with head tracking features used by Microsoft’s Kinect, it wouldn’t be hard for developers to map body movements at such close range.

“From a performance point of view tablets are on an accelerated curve,” Leyden said. “They aren’t quite there yet though.”

Press Release:

United Arab Emirates–Feb. 8, 2012–More seductive than ever, the astonishing Motorola RAZR^™ from Motorola Mobility combines alluring design with mind-blowing power and is now encased in a cool white exterior. This impossibly thin and lightweight smartphone is distinguished by its unique design, and now offers two classic colour choices – original Black or pristine White. Motorola RAZR in whiteis expected to be availablefrom all leading UAE mobile phone retailers.

 “Since we re-imagined the iconic RAZR brand, the new Motorola RAZR has wowed consumers in the UAE with its beauty inside and out,” said Raed Hafez, managing director for Motorola Mobility, Middle East & Africa. “Our consumers in the region are renowned for their style, sophistication and love of cutting-edge technology, so the newwhite Motorola RAZR will surely stand out from the smartphone crowd as a genuine object of desire.”

Motorola RAZR boasts a gorgeous sculpted, glass screen, diamond-cut aluminum accents, and a hyper-vibrant 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced display for incredible vivid images. It also sports KEVLAR^® fiber (yes, that KEVLAR) and Corning^® Gorilla^® Glass to help the screen stand up to scratches and scrapes. And every part of the Motorola RAZR is protected by a splash-guard coating, which even extends to the electrical boards inside.

Motorola RAZR is beautiful on the inside too, with 1GB of RAM and a dual-core 1.2GHz processor and Android^™ 2.3.5, enabling a lightning-fast user interface and the power to multi-task like never before.

You can rock your playlists while checking email, breeze through photos – all at the same time, without delay. Motorola RAZR comes preloaded with the Motorola MotoCast^™ app¹, giving the power to stream or download content from a home or work computer straight to the device so your personal content is always within reach. Watch movies on a screen that sports a wider range of colors than most LCD HDTVs. And when tired of watching (as if), use the cinematic-quality front-facing 720p HD video camera and 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with even sharper 1080p HD video capture to create your own movies – all with image-stabilization technology toturn your life into art without breaking a sweat.

Work Smart, Not Hard

Government-grade encryption ensures that your email, contacts and calendar are fully protected. Even your strict IT manager will be impressed. Motorola RAZR offers remarkably intelligent, preloaded application Smart Actions – that that lets you automate everyday tasks and enable better battery life. Smart Actions can turn down the ringer when you step into work, change the Bluetooth^® and GPS settings when you get home to save battery, or send a text to someone if you cannot answer their call.

Availability

Motorola RAZRin white is expected to be available from all leading UAE mobile phone retailers.More information available on www.motorola.com/razr.

Yesterday, after month long negotiations finally broke down between the hacker group and Symantec, Anonymous leaked the source code for Symantec’s PCAnywhere software. The source code was actually stolen in late December or early January of this year, after which Symantec apparently tried to handle the situation by paying the hacker group $50,000 to not leak the code.

Turns out the entire negotiations were just a setup by law enforcement officers, trying to lure the hackers in order to get their information. The entire email thread has been posted online for everyone to see by the Lords of Dharamaja, one of the hacker groups associated with Anonymous. Posting on his Twitter, one of the hackers, Yama Tough, wrote, “You won’t believe it but Symantec offered us money to keep quiet.”

According to Symantec spokesperson Cris Paden who told Forbes in an interview, “Symantec began to receive emails from the hackers a few days later, in which the group demanded money not to publish the portion of Symantec’s source code it hadn’t yet released.”

“When they came to us with what was for all intents and purposes extortion, we went to law enforcement,” says Paden. “From that point on, we turned over the investigation to them.” Eventually after the month long sting operation that didn’t go as intended, Anonymous finally released the source code yesterday on file sharing sites around the world. “We’re able to say with high confidence, any type of cyber attacks generated by this attack would have old characteristics and look like an attack from 2006 that can easily be stopped using current versions of our solutions,” says Paden as Symantec is still analyzing the leaked code. “Our customers are protected.”

The effectiveness of the sting operation by the unnamed law enforcement agencies isn’t clear yet, as the investigation of this leak against one of the world’s biggest security firm is still under way. “As to what happens next,” Paden says. “We’re not really sure.”