Save your money with Mint

The $14 million round was led by DAG Ventures, and also includes newcomer Founder’s Fund. Existing investors Benchmark Capital, Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital, and Sherpalo Ventures all participated as well. Patzer declined to comment on the company’s valuation, but says that it is “decidedly an up round” and that it was preemptive. Mint hasn’t disclosed its revenues, but Patzer says that they’re up 8x year over year.

Since launching at TechCrunch40 in 2007, Mint has grown to 1.4 million registered users, tracking $175 billion in transactions and $47 billion in assets. The site also reports that it has identified $300 million in potential savings offers for its users. It primarily makes its money by generating leads for financial institutions, but it’s also sitting on a goldmine of user data that it hasn’t even begun to tap into yet.

Read the full story at TechCrunch by Jason Kincaid

New Mac OS X DNS changer spreads through social engineering

TrendMicro is reporting on a newly discovered4th member of the OSX_JAHLAV malware family.

The latest variant is once again relying on social engineering, this time spreading under a QuickTime Player update (QuickTimeUpdate.dmg) with a DNS changer component enabling the malware authors to redirect and monitor the traffic of the victim.

More info on OSX_JAHLAV.D:

The Trojan contains component files detected as UNIX_JAHLAV.D and obfuscated scripts detected as PERL_JAHLAV.F. The Perl script then downloads a file from a malicious site and stores it as /tmp/{random 3 numbers}, detected as UNIX_DNSCHAN.AA, which allows a malicious user to monitor the affected user’s activities. This may also cause the user to be redirected to phishing sites or sites where other malware may be downloaded from.

Not only are cybercriminals beginning to acknowledge the “under-served” Mac OS X segment, but also, they’re already borrowing tricks from the Microsoft Windows playbook such as OS-independent tactics like fake codecs and bogus video players. The irony? Both the Mac OS X and Windows malware are hosted on the same domains, with copies of each served on the basis on browser detection.

Read the full story at ZDNet by Dancho Danchev

Still for security, you can't beat Mac OS X because we know of well over 236,000 malicious malware items. These are mostly meant for the MS-Windows environment. Only about 700 are meant for the various Unix/Linux distributions. Current known Mac OSX malware count is even less with 20, so pretty much non-existent at the moment.

Bank to Offer Check Deposits Through iPhone App

The New York Times has reported that banking and insurance company USAA will allow qualified customers to deposit checks via its iPhone application.

USAA's iPhone app currently allows customers to check account balances, find ATMs and rental car locations, and includes a loan calculator and more. According to the New York Times, the update to the app that will allow check deposits should be available this week.

Read the full story at MacRumors by Marianne Schultz

Why Apple Is More Valuable Than Google

A look at what's behind the Mac and iPhone maker's now firm market-cap edge on the Web-search leader, and how it could one day challenge Microsoft

Now that Apple (AAPL) has once again passed Google (GOOG) in market value, can the consumer-electronics maker maintain its lead?

While Apple's capitalization has risen above that of Google for short bursts in the past, it has remained higher since July 22. As of Aug. 11, Apple was worth $145.87 billion, compared with Google's $143.40 billion. This could be a momentary shift in Wall Street's whims—like when Cisco Systems (CSCO) briefly surpassed Microsoft (MSFT) to become the world's most valuable company in 2000.

More likely, Apple has more solidly unseated Google as tech's No. 2 powerhouse and is now on track to one day challenge Microsoft for the crown. While both Apple and Google are likely to remain highly valuable in the coming years, there's reason to believe that Apple may outshine Google in the eyes of investors.

Read the full story at Business Week by Peter Burrows

No homegrown seafood for this Nevada

Bob and Pam Eddy have fought to make a go of it selling live 'desert lobsters,' or Australian red claw crayfish. But wildlife officials have made the state even less hospitable to the crustaceans.

Here in Mina -- population about 200 -- Bob and Pam Eddy have pursued an improbable dream. For about 14 years, they've tried to bring seafood, or their version of it, to this remote patch of desert. They've sparred with the state, pleaded with lawmakers and become heroes to sagebrush rebels over their "desert lobsters."

Trying to make the most of his location, Bob had been raising thousands of desert lobsters -- actually Australian red claw crayfish, which can weigh more than a pound -- mainly in a greenhouse just south of Mina. His 10 tanks (8 feet wide, 22 feet long, 3 feet deep) were partly buried to keep the water from dipping below 80 degrees.

On a sweltering morning in 2003, after months of warnings, authorities stormed the greenhouse with a court order and chlorine bleach. Some wore bulletproof vests and carried guns.

"They poisoned them and hauled a bunch off and dumped them out in the desert," Bob says. He had as much as 300 pounds of crayfish at the time.

Nevada: Liquor, Gambling and Prostitution Legal 24 HR but Lobsters are NOT LEGAL!

Read the full article at the Los Angles Times by Ashley Powers

Judge: Microsoft can't sell Word anymore and pay more than $290 million in damages!

A Texas judge ruled Tuesday that Microsoft cannot sell one of its flagship products, Word, in the United States because of patent infringement.

You read that right: Microsoft cannot sell Word, the judge ruled.

Judge Leonard Davis, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, ordered a permanent injunction that "prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML," according to an announcement by the plaintiff, Toronto-based i4i Inc.

Read the full story here

Macintosh users may want to consider: NeoOffice, OpenOffice, StarOffice, NisusWriter, iWork

Windows users may want to consider: OpenOffice, StarOffice, WordPerfect Office

Using Old Soap To Save Lives

You've probably seen those tiny bars of soap in hotel rooms. After you wash your hands a few times and check out of the hotel, what happens to that soap? Some people are using them to save lives.

Clean the World Foundation, Inc. was founded in February 2009 by Shawn Seipler and Paul Till. They got the idea in Orlando, where millions of people use hotels to visit theme parks.

Read the full story here