Archive for: wordpress
Users of various WordPress plugins including but not limited to WPtouch, W3Total Cache, and AddThis should send a special thanks Automattic’s way tonight — they just saved your ass. The popular WordPress blogging platform company (which Gadgetsteria is also run off of) had a minor security scare earlier this afternoon. The plugins (and many more) listed above had several “suspiscious” comments posted that turned out to be backdoors allowing hackers into the system. Automattic went ahead and removed the comments in question, issued updates to the plugins in question, and reset all WordPress.org, bbPress.org and BuddyPress.org passwords. Users will be prompted to reset their password when logging into the plugins repo, WordPress forums, or WordPress.com accounts for the first time since the incident. Clearly Automattic is on top of it.
To be clear: WordPress itself was not hacked and no user information was compromised. With that said, customers with self-hosted WordPress.org sites were unaffected.
Still confused/curious? Automattic has posted a handy little document/FAQ right over here.
Wordpress.com has been hacked — this according to an official post by Automattic’s Matt Mullenweg on the website’s blog. “Anything and everything” could have been revealed”, says the post.
Tough note to communicate today: Automattic had a low-level (root) break-in to several of our servers, and potentially anything on those servers could have been revealed.
We have been diligently reviewing logs and records about the break-in to determine the extent of the information exposed, and re-securing avenues used to gain access. We presume our source code was exposed and copied. While much of our code is Open Source, there are sensitive bits of our and our partners’ code. Beyond that, however, it appears information disclosed was limited.
Based on what we’ve found, we don’t have any specific suggestions for our users beyond reiterating these security fundamentals:
- Use a strong password, meaning something random with numbers and punctuation.
- Use different passwords for different sites.
- If you have used the same password on different sites, switch it to something more secure.
(Tools like 1Password, LastPass, and KeePass make it easy to keep track of different unique logins.)
Our investigation into this matter is ongoing and will take time to complete. As I said above, we’ve taken comprehensive steps to prevent an incident like this from occurring again. If you have any questions or concerns, please leave a comment below or contact our support.
While we here at Gadgetsteria make use of the WordPress platform, ours is self-hosted. That doesn’t completely exempt us or other self-hosted WordPress blogs from the security breach, however. All WordPress.com and WordPress.org users obviously need to use common sense, change passwords if need be, and roll with the punches.
We’ll keep you updated as the WordPress team provides details regarding the breach…
- December 15, 2010 7:49 am
WordPress owner Automattic has just released the last WordPress app, this time for Windows Phone 7. With the new app, WP7 users can quickly and easily edit comments, write posts, and monitor stats. The app is a free download in the Windows Marketplace.
Hopefully the WP7 version works better than the current iOS WordPress app (hint: it’s garbage). Any WP7 users care to chime in with your experience?
Individual app updates aren’t usually something we cover, but seeing as how Gadgetsteria depends on me writing…a lot…and WordPress to cater those words to you, I figured it was appropriate. Specifically, the latest WordPress mobile app to see this update is for iOS. The name of the game is bug fixes and minor improvements. That’s A-OK by me. After a pathetic attempt to write and post an article via WordPress for iOS this weekend, I can only hope this update makes it slightly less infuriating.
However minor, updates are always a welcome event. Hop inside for the full, detailed list of WordPress 2.6.2 for iOS updates…
WordPress has come quite a long ways in only a few years to the point that a massive chunk of the internet is now powered by the blogging/site building tool. Today, WordPress 3.0 has officially been released. With over 1,217 bug fixes, a new theme called “Twenty Ten”, and a lighter admin interface, WordPress 3.0 is definitely a major upgrade. The list of improvements are literally too long to list here. But a video would capture it all in a much easier fashion. Jump inside to give the video a look, highlighting some of the major improvements in WordPress 3.0…
Go to the local county fair and walk around listening to the various languages and dialects you hear. Depending on where you live, the scope of spoken languages can actually be pretty expansive. Then think that no matter how many languages you think you are hearing in your little corner of the globe, it is but a tiny, minuscule drop in the bucket. Now take second to think about the millions of conversations that go on over the internet each and every day, on a much larger scale than your typical face-to-face encounter. Pretty intimidating huh? So how do people in different locations actually carry on a conversation?
Well, there are many ways in fact. Perhaps the more common options people are familiar with include Yahoo’s Babblefish and Google Translate. Both are machine based translation services that are free of charge and generally “ok” when accuracy is concerned. (Google Voice translations…need I say more…?) But for the sake of today’s featured article, we’re going to look at New York based company, “SpeakLike” and their robust, human-based translation service.
Besides keeping the lights on, why charge? Simple — it’s community driven. As the description highlights, the translation services provided by SpeakLike are the fruits of labor spanning thousands of actual human bodies. Anyone can become a translator by pointing their browser over here. Again, it won’t be enough to live off of, but that’s not the point. Think of it as added compensation for doing something you may find enjoyable.
Employee compensation and other things aren’t what really matters though. What really takes the cake is how the service works. And….? I’ve only had the plugin installed for a little over an hour so I’ll have to update after I have a good solid few days to play with the plugin. SpeakLike CEO, Sanford Cohen, was kind enough to give me some extra credits to allow me to further test SpeakLight for everyone here. My initial impressions are positive so far. The WordPress setup was a breeze. With 35 supported languages as of writing, a pretty large swath of the planet’s population is covered. Not a small feat by any means. Again, we have to stress that SpeakLike isn’t as instantaneous as machine based “real-time” methods, it is more than adequte considering it is a real human doing all the grunt work work. Anything from 24-hours up to mere minutes are available for users — see, impressive for us mere mortals. And, because real humans are behind the translation process, users can expect rock solid, quick, (and common sense filled) translations. For those in a hurry, there’s help there too via traditional machine-based translation services as well, just for when those precious seconds just can’t be wasted on waiting.
Some may be worried about the delay in translations. It’s a valid concern really. Sometimes a delay, if even for a few minutes just won’t do. It’s those times when machine based translations services do really shine. But if you’ve got a few, striking it up with a living, breathing body — for now — just cannot be beaten by any machine.
**For those on the go, be sure to check out SpeakLike’s Photo Translator. Simply snap a picture of some text, click a few virtual buttons, and boom — translations on the go!
Stay tuned as I test out SpeakLike for WordPress. I encourage SpeakLike users to also give me feedback as how to get the most out of the service.
***Interesting Factoid: (You know, being a gadget blog and all), SpeakLike CEO Sanford Cohen’s favorite gadget at the moment is his trusty iPhone 3G.
SpeakLike on Twitter
SpeakLike Website
Well isn’t his a pleasant surprise? It is Tuesday. A seemingly void of a day that is too far form the weekend mainland it recently left and still far too distant from the saving grace of Friday. And yet there is something worth getting excited over tonight — if you’re a WordPress user and Android aficionado.
The official WordPress Android app that we’ve talked about a couple of times before is finally available in the Android Market for FREE! So how does it stack up? I’ve been using it for all of 20 minutes so far. I’ll need a little bit longer to get a better impression. But the feature set is respectable: write/edit blog posts, moderate/reply to comments, new comment notifications, and multiple blog support.
An interesting little factoid: WordPress for Android is built off of the source code for wp2go so fundamentally it isn’t too far removed. The developers have tweaked a few things and sped up the app a bit though. A fresh coat of UI polish has also been added so it’s not the same exact thing in case you were worried. If you are still worried, give the video below a few minutes of your time.
The big zingers here for me are the multiple blog support and new comment notification features. Head on over to the Android Market and let us know what your favorite (or not so favorite) features are. Aaaaannnnd GO!
Video
Unwired
WordPress. Android. Nexus One. Tomorrow, January 5th is the claimed announcement/release of Google’s Nexus One running Android 2.1. It’s been the talk of the town in geekdom for the last several weeks as it’s Snapdragon internals are certainly worth talking about. The first word mentioned at the start seems out of place with “Android” and “Nexus One”, but that’s only because it doesn’t exist yet in mobile Android form. Or does it?
A post today on IntoMobile highlights a link located at android.wordpress.org/ that supposedly leads to the Android support/info page at WordPress.com. This support page would obviously document an Android app of some sort. Only problem is, an Android WordPress app hasn’t been announced yet.
Since the iPhone and BlackBerry platforms already have an official WordPress app, it would only make sense for Android to join in on th e party. I for one am extremely excited seeing as how Gadgetsteria is run off of WordPress. Since picking up my Droid back in November, I’ve been using WPToGo to get all of my mobile blogging/comment moderation done while on the go. It is far from perfect and frustrating at times but there’s no doubt it’s highly useful.
With all of that said, the android.wordpress.org link may cause many to believe that an Android WordPress app is imminent. I can’t blame you. The same link style appeared right before the iPhone and BlackBerry versions went live as well. However, after skimming through the comments at IntoMobile, another blogger by the name of Andrew pointed out that he touched on this whole WordPress/Android love fest back in October at his site ChangingWay. There he highlights how even several months back, the same link was “live”, though still protected, proving something is going on behind the scenes for Android.
Further adding fuel to the speculative fire, in an older video of Sony’s Xperia X10 a WordPress App for Android can clearly be seen in the app drawer (left). Granted it could very well be a place holder and void of any real meaning. I mean, the video in which the screen grab was captured from originates way back from July of ’09. Clearly they’re either having problems with bugs/development or they are developing one hell of an application.
WordPress for Android has to be coming at some point. Do you think Google is lining up a big WordPress app/announcement to accompany the Nexus One announcement or at the very least, use CES as the birthplace? Or are all of these signs mere coincidental?
I for one am crossing my fingers. I’m finding myself spending an increasing amount of time on WPToGo on my Droid. Can WordPress make a functional and worthwhile mobile app for Android?
IntoMobile > BlogHerald
- October 29, 2009 10:38 am
Within the last several years, blogging has gone from a simple geeky thing enjoyed by tech journalists and gadget nerds to something that many people from all walks of life can partake in. Even more recently, with the explosion of smartphone usage, mobile blogging has started a sort of “rebirth” for the whole blogging scene since you can now take yourself and your blog on the road, expanding possibilities.
For iPhone users, there are several blogging apps each with their own pro’s and con’s. Since I run WordPress, my natural choice was the WordPress iPhone app. The first version was pretty good though was missing several features and abilities that just left it rather “meh” for me. Even other options I tried just weren’t quite working for my tastes so I just settled that for now, my mobile blogging experience would always rate a 3/5. Thankfully the WordPress team has come back to answer many complaints and requests with the first version of the app with version 2.0.
