Download your YouTube video history from Google Takeout

By Martin Brinkmann on September 27, 2012 - Tags:Video, Youtube

Google Takeout is an official service that enables Google users to export data from their Google account to their local computer system. Users can either download all account related data at once, or select specific Google services they are interested in. Among the supported services are Google Contacts, Picasa Web Albums, Google Voice, and Google Drive.

Google recently has added another service to Takeout. YouTube users who have uploaded files to the video hosting site can now use Google Takeout to download all of their original videos to their local system. Options are available to download the full archive, which includes all videos hosted on YouTube, or use the custom export option to only download the YouTube videos to the local system.

The size of the download can be quite large. This depends largely on the number and quality of videos that you have uploaded to YouTube. The 44 videos of my account were listed as a 7 Gigabyte download, imagine how large the total download size is for someone with hundreds of uploaded videos.

The building of the archive takes some time and depends largely on the number of videos and their size. It feels a bit strange that you end up with a much smaller download size once the building is complete.

Google Takeout displays a size of 4.6 Gigabyte on the building page, and a size of only 768.2 Megabyte next to the download button. The actual download size was 768.2 Megabyte, and I can’t really say where the 7 Gigabyte or 4.6 Gigabyte figures came from. The files are downloaded in the format you have uploaded them to YouTube originally.

There is unfortunately no option to download only select videos from Google Takeout, which makes the service less usable if that is what you want to do.Still, a great service if you want to download the majority or all of the videos that you have uploaded to YouTube to a local system.

iPhone 5 Launcher for Android Released

By Alan Buckingham on September 28, 2012 - Tags:Apps

This may have been done partially as a joke, but an iPhone 5 launcher for Android devices has been released.  I say joke because Android users are notorious for making fun of the rival mobile device  from Apple.  Samsung in particular have made it their business model to poke fun at, not only Apple, but more specifically their fans.  The Galaxy Nexus and S3 maker has even gone viral with their TV ads, such as the latest one which ran all day last Sunday during NFL games (you can see it here).

The folks over at XDA Developers, who do some absolutely amazing things when it comes to creating apps and ROM’s and rooting Android devices, announced the new iPhone 5 launcher earlier today.  As the name implies, this app will skin your Android device and leave the screen appearing as if it were actually running the new iOS 6 mobile operating system.

User panmoto shared news of the free app on the XDA Forums and it’s available right from the Google Play Store, where it goes by the name “Fake iPhone 5 Launcher“.  Ironically, the launcher may actually be more capable than the real iPhone 5.  The developer lists the following features on the app download page:

• Most realistic iPhone skin on the market.
• Fully functional home screen replacement.
• Beautiful icon effects – all installed apps are styled.
• Comes with 16 default apps on the first page.
• Custom wallpapers supported!
• Swipe-to-Search available – just swipe left at the main screen.

I’m not actually sure how many people would truly want this on their Android device, especially thos running the Jelly Bean 4.1 version of the operating system.  However, it already has more than 100,000 installs and a four star rating, so perhaps I am in the minority.  It requires you to be running Android 2.1 or higher, but that shoudn’t leave any device out at this point.

Study finds Internet Explorer to be malware blocking king

By Martin Brinkmann on September 28, 2012 - Tags:malware, safari

Which web browser, with its default configuration, is best at blocking malware? According to a recent NSS Labs study it is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 which performed the best during the course of the study. Want some numbers? Microsoft’s Internet Explorer blocked 94% of general malware and 96.6% of click fraud the researchers threw at the browser. All other browsers performed a lot worse in the test. Google Chrome, which came second in both tests, blocked only 27.6% of malware and only 1.6% of click fraud. Firefox performed even worse, blocking only 5% of malware and 0.8% of click fraud. Safari 5 came last stopping 4.7% of malware and 0.7% of click fraud in its tracks.

The developers tested the web browsers over a period of 175 days against a set of 84,000 malicious urls running a total of more than 3 million test runs. Browser versions were updated automatically when new versions were released by the developers of the web browser.

Internet Explorer’s SmartScreen technology appears highly effective in blocking a large percentage of malware and click fraud on day one of release. Chrome’s performance is better than that of Firefox and Safari thanks to is malicious download module which blocks downloads that it considers to be malicious.

As far as click fraud goes, it is not that relevant to end users, as it is affecting advertisers and webmasters directly. It basically revolves around generating clicks on ads with the sole intention of driving the revenue of a site or network up.In this particular study only click fraud urls were monitored. The researchers noted that users sometimes were infected with malware as a by-product of click fraud.

You can download both studies in pdf document format by following these links: malware and click fraud.

NSS Labs in the past accepted sponsorships to conduct studies. For this particular study, no such sponsorship was accepted.

Browsers like Firefox or Google Chrome offer extensions that add protection to the browser. Add-ons like NoScript or Adblocker would likely have improved the efficiency when it comes to malware and click fraud blocking in browsers. It is still interesting to see how well Internet Explorer performed in the test. While this won’t convince me to make the browser my default, it should be reassuring to Windows users who work with the browser on a day to day basis.

Study finds Internet Explorer to be malware blocking king

By Martin Brinkmann on September 28, 2012 - Tags:malware, safari

Which web browser, with its default configuration, is best at blocking malware? According to a recent NSS Labs study it is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 which performed the best during the course of the study. Want some numbers? Microsoft’s Internet Explorer blocked 94% of general malware and 96.6% of click fraud the researchers threw at the browser. All other browsers performed a lot worse in the test. Google Chrome, which came second in both tests, blocked only 27.6% of malware and only 1.6% of click fraud. Firefox performed even worse, blocking only 5% of malware and 0.8% of click fraud. Safari 5 came last stopping 4.7% of malware and 0.7% of click fraud in its tracks.

The developers tested the web browsers over a period of 175 days against a set of 84,000 malicious urls running a total of more than 3 million test runs. Browser versions were updated automatically when new versions were released by the developers of the web browser.

Internet Explorer’s SmartScreen technology appears highly effective in blocking a large percentage of malware and click fraud on day one of release. Chrome’s performance is better than that of Firefox and Safari thanks to is malicious download module which blocks downloads that it considers to be malicious.

As far as click fraud goes, it is not that relevant to end users, as it is affecting advertisers and webmasters directly. It basically revolves around generating clicks on ads with the sole intention of driving the revenue of a site or network up.In this particular study only click fraud urls were monitored. The researchers noted that users sometimes were infected with malware as a by-product of click fraud.

You can download both studies in pdf document format by following these links: malware and click fraud.

NSS Labs in the past accepted sponsorships to conduct studies. For this particular study, no such sponsorship was accepted.

Browsers like Firefox or Google Chrome offer extensions that add protection to the browser. Add-ons like NoScript or Adblocker would likely have improved the efficiency when it comes to malware and click fraud blocking in browsers. It is still interesting to see how well Internet Explorer performed in the test. While this won’t convince me to make the browser my default, it should be reassuring to Windows users who work with the browser on a day to day basis.

Study finds Internet Explorer to be malware blocking king

By Martin Brinkmann on September 28, 2012 - Tags:malware, safari

Which web browser, with its default configuration, is best at blocking malware? According to a recent NSS Labs study it is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 which performed the best during the course of the study. Want some numbers? Microsoft’s Internet Explorer blocked 94% of general malware and 96.6% of click fraud the researchers threw at the browser. All other browsers performed a lot worse in the test. Google Chrome, which came second in both tests, blocked only 27.6% of malware and only 1.6% of click fraud. Firefox performed even worse, blocking only 5% of malware and 0.8% of click fraud. Safari 5 came last stopping 4.7% of malware and 0.7% of click fraud in its tracks.

The developers tested the web browsers over a period of 175 days against a set of 84,000 malicious urls running a total of more than 3 million test runs. Browser versions were updated automatically when new versions were released by the developers of the web browser.

Internet Explorer’s SmartScreen technology appears highly effective in blocking a large percentage of malware and click fraud on day one of release. Chrome’s performance is better than that of Firefox and Safari thanks to is malicious download module which blocks downloads that it considers to be malicious.

As far as click fraud goes, it is not that relevant to end users, as it is affecting advertisers and webmasters directly. It basically revolves around generating clicks on ads with the sole intention of driving the revenue of a site or network up.In this particular study only click fraud urls were monitored. The researchers noted that users sometimes were infected with malware as a by-product of click fraud.

You can download both studies in pdf document format by following these links: malware and click fraud.

NSS Labs in the past accepted sponsorships to conduct studies. For this particular study, no such sponsorship was accepted.

Browsers like Firefox or Google Chrome offer extensions that add protection to the browser. Add-ons like NoScript or Adblocker would likely have improved the efficiency when it comes to malware and click fraud blocking in browsers. It is still interesting to see how well Internet Explorer performed in the test. While this won’t convince me to make the browser my default, it should be reassuring to Windows users who work with the browser on a day to day basis.

Study finds Internet Explorer to be malware blocking king

By Martin Brinkmann on September 28, 2012 - Tags:malware, safari

Which web browser, with its default configuration, is best at blocking malware? According to a recent NSS Labs study it is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 which performed the best during the course of the study. Want some numbers? Microsoft’s Internet Explorer blocked 94% of general malware and 96.6% of click fraud the researchers threw at the browser. All other browsers performed a lot worse in the test. Google Chrome, which came second in both tests, blocked only 27.6% of malware and only 1.6% of click fraud. Firefox performed even worse, blocking only 5% of malware and 0.8% of click fraud. Safari 5 came last stopping 4.7% of malware and 0.7% of click fraud in its tracks.

The developers tested the web browsers over a period of 175 days against a set of 84,000 malicious urls running a total of more than 3 million test runs. Browser versions were updated automatically when new versions were released by the developers of the web browser.

Internet Explorer’s SmartScreen technology appears highly effective in blocking a large percentage of malware and click fraud on day one of release. Chrome’s performance is better than that of Firefox and Safari thanks to is malicious download module which blocks downloads that it considers to be malicious.

As far as click fraud goes, it is not that relevant to end users, as it is affecting advertisers and webmasters directly. It basically revolves around generating clicks on ads with the sole intention of driving the revenue of a site or network up.In this particular study only click fraud urls were monitored. The researchers noted that users sometimes were infected with malware as a by-product of click fraud.

You can download both studies in pdf document format by following these links: malware and click fraud.

NSS Labs in the past accepted sponsorships to conduct studies. For this particular study, no such sponsorship was accepted.

Browsers like Firefox or Google Chrome offer extensions that add protection to the browser. Add-ons like NoScript or Adblocker would likely have improved the efficiency when it comes to malware and click fraud blocking in browsers. It is still interesting to see how well Internet Explorer performed in the test. While this won’t convince me to make the browser my default, it should be reassuring to Windows users who work with the browser on a day to day basis.

Study finds Internet Explorer to be malware blocking king

By Martin Brinkmann on September 28, 2012 - Tags:malware, safari

Which web browser, with its default configuration, is best at blocking malware? According to a recent NSS Labs study it is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 which performed the best during the course of the study. Want some numbers? Microsoft’s Internet Explorer blocked 94% of general malware and 96.6% of click fraud the researchers threw at the browser. All other browsers performed a lot worse in the test. Google Chrome, which came second in both tests, blocked only 27.6% of malware and only 1.6% of click fraud. Firefox performed even worse, blocking only 5% of malware and 0.8% of click fraud. Safari 5 came last stopping 4.7% of malware and 0.7% of click fraud in its tracks.

The developers tested the web browsers over a period of 175 days against a set of 84,000 malicious urls running a total of more than 3 million test runs. Browser versions were updated automatically when new versions were released by the developers of the web browser.

Internet Explorer’s SmartScreen technology appears highly effective in blocking a large percentage of malware and click fraud on day one of release. Chrome’s performance is better than that of Firefox and Safari thanks to is malicious download module which blocks downloads that it considers to be malicious.

As far as click fraud goes, it is not that relevant to end users, as it is affecting advertisers and webmasters directly. It basically revolves around generating clicks on ads with the sole intention of driving the revenue of a site or network up.In this particular study only click fraud urls were monitored. The researchers noted that users sometimes were infected with malware as a by-product of click fraud.

You can download both studies in pdf document format by following these links: malware and click fraud.

NSS Labs in the past accepted sponsorships to conduct studies. For this particular study, no such sponsorship was accepted.

Browsers like Firefox or Google Chrome offer extensions that add protection to the browser. Add-ons like NoScript or Adblocker would likely have improved the efficiency when it comes to malware and click fraud blocking in browsers. It is still interesting to see how well Internet Explorer performed in the test. While this won’t convince me to make the browser my default, it should be reassuring to Windows users who work with the browser on a day to day basis.

Study finds Internet Explorer to be malware blocking king

By Martin Brinkmann on September 28, 2012 - Tags:malware, safari

Which web browser, with its default configuration, is best at blocking malware? According to a recent NSS Labs study it is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 which performed the best during the course of the study. Want some numbers? Microsoft’s Internet Explorer blocked 94% of general malware and 96.6% of click fraud the researchers threw at the browser. All other browsers performed a lot worse in the test. Google Chrome, which came second in both tests, blocked only 27.6% of malware and only 1.6% of click fraud. Firefox performed even worse, blocking only 5% of malware and 0.8% of click fraud. Safari 5 came last stopping 4.7% of malware and 0.7% of click fraud in its tracks.

The developers tested the web browsers over a period of 175 days against a set of 84,000 malicious urls running a total of more than 3 million test runs. Browser versions were updated automatically when new versions were released by the developers of the web browser.

Internet Explorer’s SmartScreen technology appears highly effective in blocking a large percentage of malware and click fraud on day one of release. Chrome’s performance is better than that of Firefox and Safari thanks to is malicious download module which blocks downloads that it considers to be malicious.

As far as click fraud goes, it is not that relevant to end users, as it is affecting advertisers and webmasters directly. It basically revolves around generating clicks on ads with the sole intention of driving the revenue of a site or network up.In this particular study only click fraud urls were monitored. The researchers noted that users sometimes were infected with malware as a by-product of click fraud.

You can download both studies in pdf document format by following these links: malware and click fraud.

NSS Labs in the past accepted sponsorships to conduct studies. For this particular study, no such sponsorship was accepted.

Browsers like Firefox or Google Chrome offer extensions that add protection to the browser. Add-ons like NoScript or Adblocker would likely have improved the efficiency when it comes to malware and click fraud blocking in browsers. It is still interesting to see how well Internet Explorer performed in the test. While this won’t convince me to make the browser my default, it should be reassuring to Windows users who work with the browser on a day to day basis.