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Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced a revamped Apple TV device, a new iPod line, an iTunes social network and updates to the operating system for the iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad at Apple's highly anticipated product launch event on Wednesday.

Apple TV, which hasn't sold well and which Jobs has referred to as a "hobby," got a major revision. The new device is a quarter the size of the current model, fits in the palm of your hand, and sells for just $99 (UGX 200,000) -- much less than the (UGX 500,000) of the current model.

PC Tech Communications would like to inform esteemed readers of PC Tech Magazine that Issue 7 of will be released on Wednesday, 15^th September 2010, not at the beginning of the month as has been the case. A few changes are being made to this “Special” issue, especially in the volume, but subsquent issues will be released at the beginning of every month as usual.

Also coming this month is Issue 01 of “INTERNATIONAL EDITION”, ahead of the official launch, slated for Friday September 24^th, in Accra, Ghana.

The editor also notifies interested contributors to send articles to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

We thank you for your continued support for East Africa’s Most Contemporary Technology Magazine.

Independent researcher Chad Houck recently released algorithms that can crack Google's reCAPTCHA program, even after the company's recent improvements to the security tool. Houck's method uses a combination of his own algorithms, including one that decodes the ribboning protections reCAPTCHA uses to mask the words from software, optical-character recognition, and a dictionary attack. Houck says the weakness of the reCAPTCHA program is in the way it is designed. "Every time someone types the verification word correctly, [the program] assumes they also typed the digitization word correctly," he says. Google strengthened the verification words in the program both before and after Houck's paper was published, according to a Google spokesperson. "We've found reCAPTCHA to be far more resilient while also striking a good balance with human usability, and we've received very positive feedback from customers," the spokesperson says. However, Houck says he has solved Google's latest tweaks and claims that "all of their security features are flawed."

culled from Dark Reading (08/18/10) Higgins, Kelly Jackson

Say goodbye to those wimpy, eight-letter passwords.

The 12-character era of online security is upon us, according to a report published this week by the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The researchers used clusters of graphics cards to crack eight-character passwords in less than two hours.

But when the researchers applied that same processing power to 12-character passwords, they found it would take 17,134 years to make them snap.