Facebook have started paying out to hackers that find loopholes or exploits in, er, Facebook.

One security researcher has been rewarded with more than $7,000 for finding six serious bugs in the social networking site.
...
The minimum amount paid for a bug is $500, said Mr Sullivan, up to a maximum of $5000 for the most serious loopholes. The maximum bounty has already been paid once, he said.
Many cyber criminals and vandals have targeted Facebook in many different ways to extract useful information from people, promote spam or fake goods.

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More and more companies are offering cash incentives to third parties (ie the public) for finding exploits in their products. I guess it certainly beats waiting around for other people to do it for "the lulz" to huge embarrisment later on.

:source: BBC News - Facebook pays for security loopholes

Even though the product is abandoned and has been sold for a price so low that it has gone out of stock everywhere (or indeed perhaps because of it), HP have announced that they will be releasing an update for the HP Touchpad. A HP spokesperson confirmed the following to CNET:

HP TouchPad owners can look forward to an over-the-air update that will enhance the platform and add functionality and a growing applications catalog.

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There are so many rumours floating around at the moment, that HP are going to do a one-eighty and keep on going with their WebOS tablet, can you imagine the pressure that would put on Apple if they didn't put the price back up? It is amazing that HP are continuing to manufacture these just to fufil the backorders. I am also curious to see how far along Android development goes on this thing, with builds of Cyanogenmod already working.

:source: HP: TouchPad will receive OTA update for added 'functionality' -- Engadget

Not strictly gaming related, but the Purchase Brothers have finally released the second episode of Escape From City 17 after the first part back in October of 2009.

Based in the Half-life universe, if fans couldn't immediately recognise the City 17 reference, the short features both live action as well as ingame characters and creatures.


A story about the connection that grows between two people during the battle for city 17. Made in the same gritty guerrilla style as the original, it was made on a $250 budget, previously owned/donated software, time, and an HVX200 camera.

And in case that doesn't take your fancy, check out this amazing Portal-based short that appeared the other day.

It is once again time for OSNN to provide one of its lucky members the opportunity to recieve a gift card good for one 32GB Ipad 2, which I hear are rather popular. Clearly you want to know why we should do this and are not currently skipping down to the indented text below, so I shall spare your nerves and tell you straight away.

Vonage have teamed up with 75 sites, including OSNN, to promote their new Apple Appstore Time to Call that will allow you to easily and cheaply make international calls directly from your device over 3G (where supported by the application) or over Wifi. The Time to Call application will be making its way to other platforms soon enough, but for now Apple users can find it here - they will even give you 15 minutes worth of international calls for downloading the free application so be sure to give it a look. You can see it in action below.


I will be posting the thoughts of a work colleague later who was able to go over the features of the application, as I don't have any Apple products and I am anxiously awaiting the Android version, which I am told in the works so look out for that later. Be sure to keep an eye on this post for that. Here are some some social links if you want to help Vonage shape this application as they have been and will be very open to feedback:

Facebook - Vonage
Twitter - @Vonage

The competition is simple and open to the entire world, with the exception of myself, as far as I know (the winner will recieve the prize in the form of a gift card for their local/national Apple store), so here is what you need to do.

The competition has a slight social network feel to it this time around:

• The Competition is now closed.

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Please note that new members may find their first post moderated, a feature used here at OSNN in an effort to curb spam, the team will be authorising these posts regularly. So don't panic, if you do need to do so please make sure you are in a controlled environment and ask me politely on Twitter if you do not see your posts.

The winner will need to give me details such as email address, real name and address and these will be treated with the utmost respect and only given to Ivy Worldwide so your prize can be forwarded to you.

The rules of the competition may change for clarification as it continues and I will do my best to make that clear should any changes affect the running or format of the promotion.

The competition will run for the next four days ending on the 3rd September (in some time zone or other) and is limited to one entry per IP address/household and I will select the winner that meets all of the above criteria.

Be sure to check out Time to call from your smartphone? for the other sites taking part in this promotion for other chances to win.
Good luck and a special thanks to Vonage and Ivy Worldwide for allowing OSNN to be a part of this great promotion!

After 14 years as CEO of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs has announced he is resigning from the company he co-founded.
Steve will remain as chairman of the board.

Tim Cook is said to be the replacement CEO.

More at the source.

:source: Source: Reuters