Internet Explorer users, there's something you should know: Microsoft can track your mouse's every move, and it won't do anything to fix it.

There’s a new security flaw in Internet Explorer that allows outside sources to track your mouse cursor, even when your browser is not in use. From IE6 to IE10, the flaw affects every supported version of Internet Explorer. 

The issue was first discovered a few months ago by Spider.io, an ad analytics company whose job is to make sure your site visitors are real people, not spam bots. Spider.io actually pointed out the flaw to Microsoft on October 1. According to the company, Microsoft’s Security Research Center said it knew of the security flaw, but had “no immediate plans” to fix it in current, supported, versions of the browser. Since Microsoft has refused to do anything about the flaw, Spider.io decided to go public with the security issue last night, saying how it is “important for users of IE to be made aware of this vulnerability and its implications.”

This security hole could have large ramifications for the average user. Meant to combat keylogger programs from copying everything you type (including sensitive data, such as credit card number, social security numbers, and passwords), many users have started using virtual keyboards and keypads. But now, malicious hackers have the ability to see where your mouse moves on a virtual keyboard and can copy your sensitive information.

Even more worrisome is that your activity on IE can be recorded even if you’re not currently using IE. According to The Next Web, people looking for your information can just buy an advertisement on a website you visit frequently. As long as that webpage is open, even if you’re not using it (if the browser is minimized in the background, or you’re using another tab), your movements can be tracked.

In fact, Spider.io said that the security breach is already being utilized by advertisers. Though they didn’t list any names, the flaw is being used by at least two ad analytic companies “across billions of page impressions per month.” 

Of course, you can say that you have nothing to worry about since in order for the flaw to be exploited by potential attackers, they would need to find out what websites you visit. But, since the flaw is already being exploited for the gains of advertisers, this probably isn’t too difficult. Spider.io’s Nick Johnson wrote that it doesn’t matter what kind of sites you visit, whether you go to shady file-sharing sites, or YouTube and The New York Times. Through ad exchanges, any website is a possible gateway for attackers. 

Microsoft could not be reached for comment.

Yahoo unveiled its newly redesigned Flickr iPhone app. Users can now take photos and add color filters using Flickr's app.

Mobile-first is the first strategy on Marissa Mayer’s mind in resurrecting Yahoo from its state of decay. Next on the list to be revamped, which sorely needed an upgrade, is the photo-sharing platform Flickr. That’s right, Internet, you may be getting your wish. And now that filters have hit the big time, Yahoo has jumped on the bandwagon and released an updated iPhone Flickr app today that integrates filters and completely reimagines the user experience.

At the height of its popularity and pre-Yahoo acqusition, Flickr was hands down the best desktop photo sharing and publishing app. Now Yahoo is struggling to catch up in the wake of newer, more social, more mobile-friendly tools. Adding filters and transforming Flickr’s iPhone app into an Instagram clone might be a move in the right direction, but there’s also a good chance that it may not sit well with existing users, many of whom have been loyal users and prefer the professionalism and traditionalism of the site. 

While there aren’t too many changes to the app’s design – Flickr has kept its gray gradient on a white navigation bar – the app has been retooled from the ground up to look more like today’s photo-sharing apps. 

There are now two sections dedicated to discovering new photographs on Flickr. The far left button in the navigation opens up a page for photos that your contacts and groups are sharing. Like Instagram and other apps, you can scroll through the photos in a vertical swiping motion. Or to see more of an individual contact’s photos on the same screen, like viewing images on Facebook, you can scroll left and right. And of course users can favorite, comment, or share the images they’ve discovered in these sections.

The button next to it that looks like a globe opens up a page of recommended images from around Flickr, labeled “Interesting” and “Nearby.” “Interesting” shows you cool photographs that deserve your attention, but it’s not clear if the photographs are personalized recommendations based on your interests, or if it’s simply photographs that are trending on Flickr. “Nearby” uses your current location to display the photos published by users around you.

The central button is the in-app camera and the focus of the update. We have to hand it to Flickr for adding a zooming feature, which Instagram sorely lacks, but aside from that there’s nothing else with the app that would pull us away from Instagram. Yahoo’s 16 filters, like Twitter’s, are sourced from Aviary. We went hands on with comparing Instagram’s filters Twitter’s filters, and Instagram wins out by a mile. The same conclusion goes for Flickr’s Aviary filters.

Flickr’s app also offers users their own profile page called “Photostream” where you can view your own photos and photos by groups or contacts you’re following, and the photos that you’ve favorite.

Has Yahoo sold out with this update? The addition of filters will no doubt attract a crowd of smartphone photographers, which amateur and professionals might have to come to grips with. But if you’re looking for a new platform to display your professional photographs that hasn’t been influenced by Instagram and the rest of the trend-hopping photo apps out there, we’d recommend that you sign up for 500px. Hopefully, Flickr is still able to hold on to its cherished spot as a hub for professional photo-sharing, but this deviation will certainly test that. 

For as much of a celebration of Nintendo's old franchises as Nintendo Land is, it doesn't delve too deeply into the company's catalog of characters. That wasn't always the case according to the game's directors.

Nintendo Land, the flagship game for Nintendo’s new console the Wii U, sells itself not just as a showcase for the new types of gameplay offered by the tablet controller but as a celebration of all things Nintendo. Its virtual theme park is crammed with games based on some of the company’s most storied franchises, from The Legend of Zelda and F-Zero to Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. Even lesser known series from the past fifteen years like Luigi’s Mansion and Pikmin got slots in the line up. According to Nintendo, though, more than a few of the company’s classics got axed from Nintendo Land.

Star Fox, Nintendo’s infrequently updated shooter series starring a group of anthropomorphic starship pilots, was actually in the game at one point but it was eventually changed into another science fiction game entirely. “Generally it was easy to match the gameplay from the prototypes with one series or another,” Nintendo Land director Yoshikazu Yamashita told Japanese magazine Famitsu, “For example, a game with air and ground battles works well with Metroid. There was a time when Metroid Blast was going to be a Star Fox title, but the prototype features this vehicle that hovered around like a helicopter and we figured that’d never be a good match for an Arwing.”

Star Fox has at least seen new games come out in the past decade, like Nintendo DS title Star Fox: Command or the 2011 remaster Star Fox 64 3D. Other Nintendo franchises considered for Nintendo Land have been defunct for far longer.

“I’ll admit that some of the tie-ins, like Donkey Kong and Octopus, might be stretching it a little,” co-director Takayuki Shimamura confessed, “With the way the courses are designed, we were originally thinking about making Donkey Kong’s Crash Course into an Excitebike of 1080 Snowboarding title at first.”

Both of those extreme sports series haven’t seen new games released since the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube eras in the company’s history, but they still would have been charming additions to the line up. Part of what makes the Super Smash Bros. series of Nintendo fighters so engaging is that they are filled with more obscure Nintendo ephemera than in Nintendo Land. Nintendo could, of course, upgrade Nintendo Land with new attractions through downloadable content. Nintendo has already released software updates for the game, though no new content was added.

Source: Polygon 

Funcom and Ragnar Tørnquist's MMO, The Secret World, has struggled to find an audience since its release earlier this year, but the publisher is making it easier to play by dropping subscription fees.

The Secret World came out half way through 2012 five years after it first went into full development. It was supposed to be the MMO that finally, after nearly a decade of World of Warcraft, changed what MMOs are popularly understood to be. This would not be a Star Wars: The Old Republic that simply added a patina of competent storytelling to the same old fetch quest and combat tree rigormoral. This would be a smart, challenging, and literary fantasy from the mind of Ragnar Tørnquist, writer and designer of The Longest Journey.

In many ways it was just that, but both developer Funcom and the game are struggling in the wake of its troubled release. It may have been better at realizing its lofty goals than Star Wars: The Old Republic, but like BioWare and EA decided to do, Funcom is dropping the monthly subscription fee from The Secret World. It is not going full free-to-play, though.

Funcom announced via The Secret World’s homepage that subscriptions to the MMO are now “optional.”

“That means that after buying the game you can play all of the heralded storyline and all content available right now without paying a monthly fee,” reads the update. This includes all four of the expansion updates released for The Secret World. A fifth update due in early 2013 will be made available for anyone that pays the full $30 for the game before Dec. 31.

People who keep their subscriptions to the game naturally get a number of perks, including an item that can be used once every sixteen hours that briefly increases doubles the experience you gain in fights as well as a discount on everything sold in game. Members will also get a free monthly gift, but Funcom didn’t elaborate on what that might be. Subscribers to the “Grandmaster” package get even more discounts.

Funcom’s solution is certainly more inviting than the non-subscription options and subscription-based premiums offered by BioWare in Star Wars: The Old Republic. That game’s switch to free-to-play proved so noisome to players that BioWare had to announce major changes to the new system within days of its release. Funcom may also be able to avoid some of the criticisms leveled at other games that have dropped subscriptions by not calling The Secret World “free-to-play.”