Google has just started rolling out a great new feature for all of its users, a two-step verification process for all accounts. The feature will be opt-in, but, if enabled, it will require users to enter not only their username and password but also a pass code generated by a mobile app or received on their phones via a call or SMS.

"As we announced to our Google Apps customers a few months ago, we've developed an advanced opt-in security feature called 2-step verification that makes your Google Account significantly more secure by helping to verify that you're the real owner of your account," Nishit Shah, product manager for Google Security, wrote.

"Now it's time to offer the same advanced protection to all of our users. 2-step verification requires two independent factors for authentication, much like you might see on your banking website: your password, plus a code obtained using your phone," he announced.

When it comes to any sort of device, the marketing efforts play a pivotal role, and Samsung decided to do something about its own tactics when it comes to application processors, hence the latest press release on its part.

Samsung is a well known maker of many sorts of semiconductors, application processors being just one type of such chips. Apparently, the rate at which they sell could do better, especially now that so many tablets and smartphones are cropping up.

As such, the company decided to provide a new brand name for its entire collection of application processing units. The brand name in question is Exynos and is associated with the company's “smart and green” strategy.

To be more specific, Samsung is always doing its best to ensure that its products meet both the performance and the power efficiency requirements of mobile electronics.

Officially launched at the beginning of January, Intel's Sandy Bridge processor lineup was initially comprised out of 29 SKUs, but the count will continue to grow as Intel has plans to release a wide number of CPUs based on this architecture in the coming months, including the Core i3-2105 and Core i5-2405S processor which are slated to arrive in Q2 2011.

The Intel Core i3-2105 and Core i5-2405S will pack two and respectively four CPU cores, shared L3 cache, DDR3 memory controller and HD 3000 graphics controller on a single die. As CPU-World reports, both processors feature SIMD instructions support (up to SSE4) as well as the newly introduced AVX (Advanced Vector Extensions) instruction set.

The Ruby on Rails project has released new security updates to address several serious vulnerabilities affecting the Web application development platform. The new 3.0.4 and 2.3.11 versions fix a total of four vulnerability of low and medium impact which facilitate cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery (CSRF) and SQL injection attacks.

On the project's blog, the Ruby on Rails developers go into detail about a CSRF protection bypass, identified as CVE-2011-0447.

"Certain combinations of browser plugins and HTTP redirects can be used to trick the user’s browser into making cross-domain requests which include arbitrary HTTP headers specified by the attacker.

Although the official iOS 4.2.6 IPSW (software update file) has been available for download since January, Apple on Thursday issued the official iOS 4.2.6 software update complete with release notes for CDMA (Verizon) handsets.

The software update release coincides with the physical availability of Verizon iPhones which went on sale at Apple and Verizon retail stores this week. According to the changelog posted by Apple for iOS 4.2.6, the update "fixes a bug to ensure Personal Hotspot data usage is accurately reported (for Verizon iPhones)."

A number of CDMA handsets assembled to work on the Verizon network were originally assigned an iOS 4.2.5 firmware, which delivered specific new functions, including the Personal Hotspot feature. Owners of these devices should now use iTunes to update their firmware, in order to avoid getting taxed for extra wireless mileage.

Developers enlisted with Apple have been granted access to a fourth beta release of the seventh incremental update to Snow Leopard - Mac OS X 10.6.7 Build 10J855. The beta reportedly asks developers to continue their focus on the Mac App Store, as well as AirPort, Bonjour, SMB, and Graphics Drivers. There are also no known issues with this build.

“Mac OS X Snow Leopard Software Update 10.6.7 build 10J855” weighs in at 412.6 MB as a barebones delta update, and precisely 1 gigabyte as a combo update, according to a screenshot published by MacRumors.

This new beta is at least the third one in under a month to carry identical focus areas for developers, and no known issues, indicating that Apple is looking for specific bugs that may affect a number of core system components, as it prepares to upgrade its Mac userbase to Mac OS X Lion.

Windows 7’s successor, currently dubbed Windows 8 or Windows vNext will be released to manufacturing in the second half of 2012 and will hit store shelves in early 2013. One trusted source close to the Redmond company revealed that the software giant’s current plans are to ship Windows 8 to customers on Monday January 7th, 2013.

Of course, Microsoft has not offered confirmation of this date, nor has the company made public an official timetable for Windows 8, including development milestones such as Milestone 1, M2, M3, Beta, Release Candidate or RTM.

I’ve heard that 2013 was considered for the General Availability deadline of Windows 8 from a number of sources, not just Wzor. But customers must understand that these are nothing more than the Redmond company’s current plans. And plans, especially when it comes down to software development, have the custom of evolving and changing.

Ahead of its first year on the market, .NET Framework 4 will be offered for customers that are currently taking advantage of the minimal server installation options of Windows Server 2008 R2. According to one member of the Windows Server Core team, the Redmond company has been indeed working on making .NET Framework 4 available on Server Core.

And it appears that customers will not have to wait all that long either, as the new flavor of .NET 4 is expected by the end of Mach 2011. Of course, customers will also need to upgrade their existing Windows Server version to the latest release of the operating system.