sandbox

Adobe Systems is expected to announce tomorrow the next version of its Acrobat software, dubbed Adobe Acrobat X.

The software will include the free PDF (portable document format) viewing software Adobe Reader X, which is expected to be available for download within 30 days, Adobe said.

The new version of Adobe Reader will feature sandboxing security technology designed to add an additional layer of protection against attacks targeting the popular PDF viewer. Adobe Reader Protected Mode will be enabled by default and included in Adobe Reader browser plug-ins for all the major browsers. The sandbox mechanism will keep PDF processing, … Read more

Adobe Reader will soon have an additional layer of protection against the many attacks that target the popular PDF viewer.

Adobe Systems is borrowing a page from Microsoft's and Google's playbook by turning to sandboxing technology designed to isolate code from other parts of the computer.

Adobe is adding a "Protected Mode" to the next release of Adobe Reader for Windows due out some time this year, said Brad Arkin, director of product security and privacy at Adobe. The feature will be enabled by default and included in Adobe Reader browser plug-ins for all the major … Read more

Web browsing and e-mailing from Mozilla got a bit of a bump forward on Wednesday, as the company updated its beta test builds of Firefox 3.6.4 and Thunderbird 3.1, respectively code-named Lorentz and Lanikai.

Firefox 3.6.4 beta 3, for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and Thunderbird 3.1 beta 2, for Windows, Mac, and Linux, offer the latest features from Mozilla but are also less stable than the current releases.

When pushed out to all users, Firefox 3.6.4 will incorporate the much-anticipated Out-Of-Process-Plug-in feature, which prevents plug-in crashes from Adobe Systems' Flash, Apple's … Read more

The original Just Cause game debuted in September 2006 and though it attempted to introduce some compelling gameplay, we were left wanting more. Three and a half years later, the same development team (Avalanche Studios) is back with promises of new improvements and tighter gameplay.

We were definitely impressed with the private demo we received in late February, so let's see if the final version of the game delivers.

Jeff: Just Cause 2 may not be heavy on story or character development, but it doesn't need to be. Why? The game is an absolute blast in its own … Read more

Returnil Virtual System is an interesting compliment to your PC's security system, but it's not glitch-free.

The software creates a new partition on your system's hard drive, and then mirrors it. It acts as an isolated work environment that protects your actual system by preventing downloads and such from accessing it. Instead, anything created in this pocket of your drive--this virtual partition--is erased when you reboot. Since toggling the protection requires a reboot, Returnil isn't as simple as running a basic DOS shell. This is a minor speed bump if you're working with potentially destructive … Read more

On Monday, Adobe Systems rolled out its new Web 2.0 development tool, Adobe Integrated Runtime, or AIR. Following its release were some concerns from the security community.

AIR, formerly Adobe Apollo, is a runtime environment that allows developers use HTML, Flash, AJAX, Flex, and other Web 2.0 tools to create desktop applications. One such application built using Adobe AIR comes from Nickelodeon Online.

But some security experts are concerned about local file access by AIR applications. Recently, Firefox experienced a vulnerability that could have allowed remote attackers to access a targeted file system. To mitigate this, Adobe says … Read more

At first glance, Re-Mission comes across as a stylishly produced, anime-influenced video game. But the targets in question are cancer cells, which the character Roxxi the nanobot blasts with the Chemoblaster, the Radiation Gun, and the Antibiotic Rocket.

Re-Mission is specifically designed as a health improvement intervention for teens and young adults who have cancer. Game producers at HopeLab start with a desired health outcome, and then reverse engineer a game that encourages positive behaviors, adding motivation and fun into something as scary as a kid's battle against cancer.

HopeLab Vice President Ellen LaPointe spoke at the Sandbox Summit … Read more

I spent the whole day at CES attending the Sandbox Summit, an ambitious new specialty session put on by the Parents' Choice Foundation. We heard presentations from over 20 speakers, from Nickelodeon and Sesame Workshop (an Elvis-impersonating Elmo showed up live as a keynote speaker!), to Michelle Slatalla, Cyberfamilias columnist at The New York Times; Anastasia Goodstein, founder of YPulse.com; and Warren Buckleitner, editor of Children's Technology Review. The five panels addressed topics in depth and from several angles, including marketing, safety, the quality and effectiveness of educational media, and the question of how families can develop reasonable limits on screen time. I will be covering the details this five-hour summit in many upcoming blog posts.

The Sandbox Summit was well-attended and I had the most amazing networking experience afterward, talking to other women who attended as audience members. … Read more