Another week, another baddest ass Android phone on the market, and right now that’s the Samsung Galaxy S II — and Android Central has their full Sprint Galaxy II Epic 4G Touch review up for your reading pleasure. Now Sprint doesn’t have an iPhone (yet?) so if you’re on Medium Yellow and you need a phone this week then the Galaxy S II is hard to beat. If you’re on AT&T, however, you have a tougher decision to make — namely iPhone 4 today, or perhaps iPhone 5 next month vs. the AT&T Galaxy S II.
Since we don’t live in the future, however, if really you really need that phone today, which should you get?
Hardware
iPhone 4 is compact, with a 3.5 Retina Display (960×640 IPS LCD) screen, stainless steel antenna band, and glass on both sides. It’s as much object d’art as mobile device, and some 15 months later it’s still one of the best designed, best manufactured, best finished devices on the planet. The AT&T Galaxy S II isn’t the almost obscene behemoth that Sprint has released, but at 4.3 inches and 800×480 pixels of Super AMOLED Plus, it’s by no means small — though it’s considerably less than dense than iPhone or even some other Android devices. Even the plastic feels slightly better on the new generation of Galaxy. It’s still Hasbro, but it’s the higher-end Hasbro.
While iPhone 4 has a great 5 megapixel rear camera with nice, big, photon-friendly sensor that also shoots 720p video, the Galaxy S II will do 8mp with 1080p.
With smartphone competition at an all-time high, more manufacturers than ever vying for the top spot to to make the fastest and best device(s) available. One of the newest high end devices around is the Samsung Galaxy S II. The phone packs a 1.2ghz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 (CPU), and an ARM Mali-400 (GPU). Recently, AnandTech put the device to the test. The results, well, are simply astonishing. Clocking in at a 42.5, second only to the iPad 2, is the Samsung Galaxy S II.
Although second place may not seem so hot, the list in not only compiled of smartphones, but tablets as well. As a matter of fact, the Galaxy S II is anywhere from 1.7 – 4 times faster than any other smartphone on the market today.
Well, this is certainly an interesting turn of events. In Samsung and Apple's ongoing attempts to sue the pants off one another in every court conceivable, an unlikely player has stepped into the arena as a voice of reason (sort of).
Verizon Wireless, the US's largest wireless carrier, has requested permission to file a brief in the Federal Court for the Northern District of California on the part of Samsung in one of the many lawsuits it is involved in with Apple. Apple filed a motion previously for a preliminary injunction, asking the court, in light of Samsung's alleged patent infringement, to ban the import of four Samsung Android devices (the Infuse 4G, the DROID Charge, the Galaxy S 4G, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1). The court has yet to rule on the motion, and Verizon has jumped into the fray to fight for Samsung.
The efficacy of an amicus curiae brief (which is by definition filed by a third party) depends largely on the discretion of the court, because it is unlikely Apple will consent to Verizon's filing. The court will decide whether or not to consider the brief based upon its helpfulness, who paid for it to be written, and whether the information in the brief provides the court insight not previously offered by either of the parties in suit.
Unlike the Bold 9900’s sky-high $300 price tag with contract (unless you catch it on sale this Saturday), the Curve 9360 starts at a more reasonable $80 after a $50 mail-in rebate, but still requires signing a two-year service agreement (at minimum a classic voice and data plan).
Rather than offer a tiny touchscreen like the Bold 9900, the Curve 9360 has a 480 x 360, 2.44-inch HVGA + display, with 512 MB of internal storage, Wi-Fi, GPS, NFC, a micro-SDHC slot (can read up to a 32 GB card), and a 5-megapixel camera with flash that can shoot VGA videos. Most importantly, it comes with the “iconic” QWERTY keyboard and optical trackpad for speedy thumb-typing and navigation, as well as a new version of BBM and Social Feeds.
Research In Motion is listing the OS 7-running Curve being good for 5-hours of phone calls on the GSM and UMTS networks, and 12 to 14 days in standby mode. According to its specs sheet, this BB is compatible with HSPA for voice and data so you should be able to enjoy T-Mobile’s 4G speeds but a T-Mobile rep confirmed to me by email that, “The BlackBerry Curve 9360 is a 3G device, not 4G.”
IT managers should also be happy to know that even this basic BB offers enterprise security features via BlackBerry Protect, so users can backup their data to the cloud and be able to trace misplaced BBs using GPS. In fact, T-Mobile is giving business users first dips to the Curve 9360 now, before opening it up to the general public on September 28. The Curve 9360 will be available in black first, with a special “merlot” color coming to select stores by October 12.
South Korea's Samsung Electronics, the world's second-largest mobile phone maker after Nokia, said it had sold 10 million Galaxy S II smartphones worldwide since the device debuted in April.
Sales of the new model, an upgraded version of the firm's flagship smartphone, had doubled in two months after hitting the five-million mark in July, the company said on Sunday.
The new device was released locally on April 29 and in some European countries in May. It also went on sale in China in July before hitting the US market in September.
"In just five months the Galaxy S II has seen tremendous growth, reflecting strong support from carrier partners," JK Shin, the head of the firm's mobile device unit, said in a statement.
Shin said earlier this year that Samsung planned to sell globally more than 10 million of the phones, powered by Google's Android operating system and spearheading the firm's smartphone push this year.
A few days ago a phone called the Motorola Edison leaked out, a phone that is almost certainly going to be the sequel to the original Motorola Atrix 4G. We saw some photos, we got some more information on its specifications and we also learned that it probably isn’t a 4G LTE device. Well today, we have more specs, photos and more confirmation that this will indeed be a HSPA+ device.
The Motorola Atrix 2 has surfaced once again and this time we have crisp press photos that offer up a glimpse at Motorola’s upcoming smartphone that is destined for AT&T’s network.
It’s going to feature a a 4.3-inch qHD display, an 8 megapixel AF cam with single LED flash, 8GB of on-board storage space, 1GB of RAM, and a 2GB card inside the box. It also bears no 4G LTE markings anywhere so it looks like this is definitely going to be a HSPA+ 4G device. It’ll also likely be called the Motorola Atrix 2 and not the Motorola Edison.
One Twitter report, originating from someone calling himself "Reporter Carl Phillips," even described "debris found at the Wilmuth farm," and detailed tattered vegetation where the huge piece of orbiting space junk allegedly crashed to earth.
Alas, it was all a complete fabrication.
NASA's faltering Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite in fact fell out of orbit into the Pacific Ocean off the U.S. West Coast sometime between 11: 23 p.m. EST Friday and 1: 09 a.m. the next day, the space agency reported Saturday.
In a teleconference on Saturday, NASA scientist Nicholas Johnson said it likely dropped out of the sky and into "the Pacific, a good deal away from the Western coast of the United States."
But that didn't stop the rumours that it had come down near Okotoks, just southwest of Calgary, from spreading like a prairie wildfire.
"Reporter Carl Phillips on the scene near Okotoks, AB," tweeted one @imnotgonnalie2u. "Debris found at the Wilmuth Farm." Phillips, an apparent local reporter, seemed to be accompanied by one Professor Pierson.
"The ground is covered with splinters of a tree it must have struck on its way down," wrote the seemingly faithful scribe, even going so far as to include a radio transcript of the scene.
Astute followers would have hearkened back to Orson Welles' radio transmissions of the work of author H.G. Wells. His War of the Worlds, broadcast in 1938, panicked listeners who thought reports of the coming extraterrestrial invasions - complete with Martians landing at Mr. Wilmuth's farm, vividly described by news reporter Carl Phillips - had journalistic, rather than fictional merit.
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Okotoks+satellite+crash+hoax+world+Twitter/5455284/story.html#ixzz1YxGGUc6N
Actor-producer DJ Qualls is being urged to contact Vancouver police.
Following allegations by Qualls he was beaten and sent to hospital by a Vancouver police officer, a spokesman for the force said they want more details of his complaint.
"At this point we can't speak to details or allegations," said VPD spokesman Const. Lindsey Houghton.
"We don't want to taint the process."
Houghton said police are asking Qualls to file a complaint with the force's Professional Standards Section if he wants the allegations to be investigated. Houghton said the VPD first became aware of Qualls's allegations through a social media posting and Qualls' Twitter account.
The Road Trip star posted dozens of messages to his Twitter page early Saturday, detailing what he said was an unwarranted assault from a Vancouver cop.
The incident allegedly happened Friday night along Granville Street in the city's downtown.
"Our investigators will be gathering all the information," said Houghton.
"The main things is he [Qualls] makes contact with us."
Qualls alleges he was a witness to a fight in the street and tried to identify one of the attackers to a police officer, but instead that officer turned on him and threatened to arrest him.
He claims the officer tackled him to the ground, busted his face, handcuffed him and, "Taunted me for a halfhour b4 the ambulance came."
"I was held, no calls, no attorney. and I had to pay an $800 ER bill. Free health care, Canada?"
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/technology/Actor+takes+Twitter+alleging+assault/5455450/story.html#ixzz1YxG5zNTN
It was like an external memory drive for his brain, he wrote in a book called "Total Recall."
Sounds pretty sci-fi, right? Not so much. The "real-time sharing" updates Facebook announced Thursday aim to do something quite similar -- only for the Internet instead of in real life.
Before we get into the details and implications, here's a "real-time" example of how the updates, which are rolling out in the coming weeks, will work: As I write this, I'm listening to the band LCD Soundsystem on an Internet music service called Spotify. Because I've updated my Facebook page (here's a TechCrunch article on how to do that if you're interested) and because I've logged in to Spotify with my Facebook identity, every song I listen to is automatically shared to Facebook.
Suddenly, my listening experience isn't private. It's public. All my Facebook friends are watching. And judging. Chances are this will affect people's behavior online. If you're a closet fan of Lady Gaga or Bjork or Enya (I'm all three), then you'll just have to stop listening to those potentially mockable artists -- either that, or all your Facebook friends will be chiming in with comments:
"OMG, you're listening to that?!"
In the old world of Facebook, I would have to click that I "liked" a song for it to show up on my Facebook profile page. That's something you have to think about: "OK, I really like this song, and I really want all of my friends to know that I'm listening to it right now." Now, sharing is both passive and automatic. It's a choice you make in advance -- one time -- and never again.
And so it goes with all kinds of the new "real-time" apps.
Since I've logged in to Yahoo! News with Facebook, every time I read an article on that site, it goes to my Timeline.
GRAND RAPIDS -- It's becoming more and more common: See something interesting, reach for a smartphone, take a picture and post it online.
At ArtPrize, the radically democratic art competition in Grand Rapids, that's the norm. With its focus on social media and online discussion about the art, some of which takes over entire buildings, ArtPrize was designed for the smartphone set.
ArtPrize promotes the use of social photo services such as Flickr, Facebook and Instagram in the hopes that photos of the work will spark discussion online.
And with the popularity of apps like Instagram, an iPhone app that produces retro-looking square images with colorful photo filters, ArtPrize has become a destination for those looking to make their own creative images out of the art.
"It's that conversation about art that you're not going to have anywhere else," says ArtPrize public relations director Brian Burch.
This year's ArtPrize includes work from nearly 1,600 artists at 164 venues dotted across the city. Visitors vote for pieces they like with the official ArtPrize app, by text message or online at artprize.org.
Walking up to Kathy Goodell's entry in the Grand Rapids Art Museum, visitors are met with a dreamy kaleidoscope of reflected ovals.
"Mesmer Eyes ... A Requiem" is an 18-foot-wide mosaic of more than 5,000 colorful oval-shaped drawings. Hung 5 feet from the wall are 20 acrylic lenses, which offer a constantly moving kaleidoscopic of the ovals as the lenses sway and twist.
In short, it does -- with both style and grace. The Epic 4G Touch kicks some serious keister; if you're a fan of Samsung's Galaxy line, you won't be disappointed.
After spending a week using the phone as my own, I have some pretty detailed thoughts about where the device excels, and also why it might not be the right choice for everyone. Click over to my in-depth Epic 4G Touch review for the full report.
Before you go, though, let me share some random tidbits with you about the software on Samsung's latest Galaxy phone. These are things I observed during my time with the device that didn't quite fit into the review but struck me as interesting enough to be worth mentioning. Think of them as the "deleted scenes" of the story -- the extra goodies you get for buying the DVD. Err, reading the blog. Whatever. You know what I mean.
LOS ANGELES — It’s been a day of missed, dropped and failed calls for AT&T wireless customers in Southern California, and the night is sounding very similar.
AT&T spokeswoman Meredith Red said late Saturday that a hardware equipment issue was disrupting service for wireless subscribers in the Los Angeles area, and technicians were working on the problem.
The service glitches began at about 3 p.m. and continued more than six hours later.
It was not immediately clear how widespread the problem was, but users complaining about their lack of service made AT&T one of Twitter’s top trending topics for Los Angeles.
Company officials told KCAL and KCBS-TV that there were problems with about 1,000 cell phone towers that were not expected to be fixed until about 2:30 a.m. Sunday.
Source:http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/atandt-technical-problems-causing-outages-difficulties-for-customers-in-los-angeles-area/2011/09/24/gIQAXATquK_story.html
The Samsung Galaxy S2 remains one of the leading smartphones but the new HTC Sensation XE is one of the first that we have encountered that can eclipse this best selling model.
The Samsung Galaxy S2 has sat proudly at the top of the smartphone tree for the past few months with several handsets attempting to take it position but none succeeding. Here we take a look at the latest challenger the HTC Sensation XE and see if this great looking new phone can succeed where others have failed.
The Sensation XE gets off to a good start when we take a look at the build and design of the two models. The HTC handset is made from high quality materials and this is evident when you handle the phone for the first time. It uses the same striped aluminium design that was found on the original Sensation phone but the overall look has been spiced up with the introduction of some flashes of red together with a much darker looking chassis. The Samsung Galaxy S2 has always been an attractive device but in use it can feel quite lightweight thanks to the plastic back panel. This is great for the phones overall weight of just 116 grammes but also makes the phone feel less rugged than the HTC. The overall measurements of both phones are fairly similar as they both sport the same sized display but the Samsung is the slimmer model at just 8.5mm rather than the 11.3mm offered by the HTC. Internally the Sensation XE also keeps pace with the Galaxy S2 by offering a 1.5 Ghz dual core processor compared to the dual core 1.2Ghz chip fitted on the Samsung. Despite its extra speed the HTC does offer just 768MB of RAM whereas on the Samsung offer and impressive 1GB. When all is said and done there is nothing to chose between the performance figures of both of these great phones.
U.S. carrier Verizon Wireless has taken sides in the legal dispute between Apple and Samsung with a legal brief opposing a preliminary injunction against the South Korean company's smartphones and tablets.
The nation's largest wireless operator has submitted a request to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California to file an amicus curiae, or "friend of the court," brief in support of Samsung, Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents reports. The brief would allow Verizon to intervene as a third party in the case.
Apple's request for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. against the Infuse 4G, Galaxy S 4G, Droid Charge and Galaxy Tab 10.1 was filed in July and is scheduled to be addressed in a hearing on Oct. 13.
The carrier argues that such an injunction "would hinder Verizon Wireless in developing and deploying its next generation high-speed LTE [fourth-generation] network, the job growth dependant on that network, and will undercut key public policy goals, including expansion of American's [sic] access to broadband networks and faster communication with emergency personnel."
Verizon was an early partner with handset makers making use of Google's Android mobile operating system, including Samsung. The carrier has faced off against rival AT&T, which held an exclusive lock on Apple's iPhone in the U.S. for three and a half years.
The event reminder on Melissa Weinblatt's iPhone buzzed: 15 minutes till her shrink appointment. She mixed herself a mojito, put on her sunglasses and headed outside to her friend's pool. Settling into a lounge chair, she tapped the Skype app on her phone. Hundreds of miles away, her face popped up on her therapist's computer monitor; he smiled back on her phone's screen. She took a sip of her cocktail. The session began.
Ms Weinblatt, a 30-year-old high school teacher in Oregon, used to be in treatment the conventional way - with face-to-face office appointments . Now, with her new doctor, she said: "I can have a Skype therapy session with my morning coffee or before a night on the town with the girls. I even e-mailed him that I was panicked about a first date, and he wrote back and said we could do a 20-minute mini-session ."
Skype, and encrypted digital software through third-party sites like CaliforniaLiveVisit.com, have made online private practice accessible for a broader swath of patients, including those who shun office treatment or who simply like the convenience of therapy on the fly.
The pragmatic benefits are obvious . "No parking necessary!" touts one online therapist. Some therapists charge less for sessions since they, too, can do it from home, saving on gas and office rent.
But does knowing that your therapist is just a phone tap or mouse click away create a 21st-century version of shrink-neediness ?
The Next Web is reporting that the dates of a couple of upcoming Twitter developer events suggest that Apple will release iOS 5 on or before October 10.
The events, TNW says, "seem to be focusing on the integration of Twitter into Apple's upcoming iOS 5 software." The first is in London on the 10th, and the second is in New York on the 12th. And neither event, TNW reports, is limited to Apple Developer program members. That means attendees won't be under a nondisclosure agreement--so, the theorizing goes, there probably won't be anything to disclose: by then it'll all be out of the iBag.
Of course, these dates jibe with a lot of earlier reports about an early to mid-October launch for iOS 5 and the iPhone 5, including a report from All Things D that pegs the iPhone 5 announcement for the fourth day of the month.
Another clue being offered up today is that Apple is reportedly telling staffers at its Apple Stores that they can't go on vacation during the second week of October (this from AppleInsider). Who's gonna wrangle with the iPhone-buying hordes if Apple-ites are all lolling about at home, wiping fingerprints from their iPads?
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20111242-37/fresh-iphone-ios-5-rumors-cite-twitter-events-vacay-days/#ixzz1YxDWea58
So what exactly is a Dot? It's a plastic lens attachment for Apple's iPhone 4 that allows users to capture video in a 360-degree panoramic shot. Once captured, the video is processed by an app from Kogeto, the New York-based maker of the Dot, called Looker and then is fully navigable upon playback (i.e., you can move your finger around on the iPhone's touchscreen, and as the video is playing, the video moves up, down, side-to-side in response. If you're watching a Dot-shot video uploaded to Kogeto's website, you can move your mouse or trackpad to move the video in the same way.
From the Looker app, Dot users can upload their videos to the aforementioned Kogeto website as well as to Facebook and Twitter. Kogeto likes to call videos uploaded to its site Dotspots, and although the Dot is still a prototype and not yet in stores, some interesting videos have already been shot.
On Kickstarter, Kogeto had a target of raising $20,000 to help fund a fully realized Dot, which could sell for $79 in stores and online. Instead, Kogeto raised $120,514.
Saturday marks what would have been the 75th birthday of Jim Henson. In his honor, today’s Google Doodle, which represents the company logo on the search engine’s home page, is an interactive puppet show, designed by Google and the Jim Henson Company. More on the Bits blog.
Minutes prior to testifying on Wednesday before a Senate subcommittee investigating whether Google stifles competition, Google's chairman sat down at the witness table to allow himself to be photographed. As cameras clicked, Schmidt decided to open a laptop.
The computer was a MacBook Air.
One of the leaders of one of the most powerful Internet companies was about to be given the third degree by U.S. lawmakers and he's making sure that he's photographed trusting his notes or his pre-grilling Web surfing to a device made by a competitor. Was this the beltway equivalent of a shout-out? Schmidt is, after all, a former member of Apple's board.
Certainly, he wasn't going to be seen with a PC, right? Not when he dedicated some of his opening remarks to pointing out the differences between his company's business practices and those employed by Microsoft in the late 1990s. Microsoft was accused by the U.S. government back then of unfairly crushing competing Web browsers by bundling Internet Explorer into its ubiquitous operating system. On this day, Schmidt wanted to put as much distance between his company and the software maker as possible.
Still, why not whip out a tablet computer that runs Android, or one of the company's newfangled Chromebooks?
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20111173-261/senate-notes-schmidts-apple-plug-google-piracy-issues/#ixzz1YxCqMO8K
News organizations can add "standout" metadata tags to the coding of a special story--a scoop, an exclusive, and so on--and Google's algorithm will factor that data into the decision-making process it goes through when choosing and displaying stories, says a report by the Associated Press. The tags aren't a guarantee that a given story will be featured, however.
A Google representative told the AP that a tagged and chosen story could persist on Google News longer than it normally would, as other news agencies follow with their own takes on the news. But if a news organization tags more than seven stories in a week, the algorithm will become suspicious and give the tags less weight--or discount them completely.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20111235-93/google-news-to-add-featured-labels-to-stories/#ixzz1YxCeGiBy
Is Blaine Gabbert so nervous about facing-off against the Carolina Panthers’ Cam Newton, Gabbert can’t Twitter tweet?
Blaine Gabbert, the Jacksonville Jaquars NFL Draft 1st Round Pick (10), is a prolific Twitter user. According to Twitter Grader, Gabbert has 2,198 tweets, 32,584 followers, 132 he follows back, and has a “100″ score as of this writing. Blaine is ranked 34,980 out of 10,656,377 on Twitter, and has gained 24,000 followers in just about one year.
DJ Qualls posted dozens of messages to his Twitter page early this morning, detailing what he says was an unwarranted beat down he took from a Vancouver police officer.
Qualls -- best known for his roles in "Road Trip" and "Memphis Beat" -- says he witness a fight in the street and tried to ID one of the attackers to a police officer, but that officer immediately turned on him and threatened to arrest him. He claims the officer tackled him to the ground, busted his face, handcuffed him and "Taunted me for 1/2hr b4 the ambulance came. I was held, no calls, no attorney. AND I had to pay an $800 ER bill. Free healthcare, Canada?"
Motorola, now with the backing of prospective new owner Google, may have a worthy competitor to the iPad 2 on the way, according to a report. And another, smaller model may be coming too.
Motorola Xoom 2?(Credit: This Is My Next)
After some rather murky initial Xoom 2 speculation was reported earlier in the week, This Is My Next has come up with some more-solid details.
Those deets include a 9mm thickness (the iPad 2 is 8.8mm) and a 1.2GHz dual-core processor. This time it may be a Texas Instruments ARM chip variant, according to speculation. The Xoom currently sports a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2. The ability to record 1080p video is also expected.
Other goodies include Adobe Flash Player 11, Netflix streaming in HD, an optional keyboard case, a stylus pen, and the ability to synch wirelessly to a PC, according to the report.
And that's not all. There may be a smaller 8.2-inch 0.95 pound Media Edition coming too.
Tablets and smartphones pouring out of Motorola Mobility over the next 12 months should be compelling considering that well-heeled Google--the provider of the Android software that runs on Motorola's consumer devices--is expected to absorb the company. Perish the thought that this would give Motorola a leg up over rivals in the Android ecosystem!
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20111218-64/more-motorola-xoom-2-leaks-two-models/#ixzz1YxAl2fWW
But don't assume that this business relationship makes the two companies effectively allies. Verizon has jumped into the ongoing patent dispute between Apple and Samsung, asking the United States District Court for the Northern District of California to deny Apple's request for a preliminary injunction in the matter. Such an injunction would otherwise prohibit Samsung from selling four of its Android products while the patent dispute plays out in the courts, which includes the Infuse 4G, Galaxy S 4G, Droid Charge, and Galaxy Tab 10.1.
"[The injunction] would hinder Verizon Wireless in developing and deploying its next generation high-speed LTE network, the job growth dependant [sic] on that network, and will undercut key public policy goals, including expansion of American's [sic] access to broadband networks and faster communication with emergency personnel," reads Verizon's motion for leave, a request that asks for the court's permission to file an official amicus curiae brief.
In short, Verizon argues that it's invested billions of dollars into its 4G LTE network, but the caveat is that there are currently very few devices on the market that can actually tap into the new service. Samsung is one of the six manufacturers that sell these devices, and Verizon argues that limiting the company's ability to get early adopters access to Verizon's LTE network would be akin to a snowball rolling down a hill: Fewer early adopters would result in fewer people to convince mainstream audiences to move to LTE devices, ultimately hindering Verizon's ability to develop and deploy what it's spent a lot of time and money building.
Facebook users worried about the risk of clicking on malicious links while using the social networking service are being offered a new app web that filters friend from foe.
Available as a live beta, ShareSafe from F-Secure uses "patent-pending" technology to scan links users plan to send to friends, or do the same in reverse when links arrive from other sources. Once installed, users simply navigate to the Sharesafe page where links can be pasted for security testing.
The app spreads virally by branding itself next to every scanned link sent out to friends and by asking for permission to recommend itself to a user's Facebook friends directly, which underlines the vendor's motivation for offering it as a free utility.
Cleverly, F-secure also offers points for every scanned link as long as it is also "shared" (i.e the F-Secure brand gets some exposure), which can be redeemed against paid products from the company such as its PC or mobile antivirus software or online backup service. (See also "How to Avoid Malware.").
"People now share via social media more than by any other method. Online criminals and tricksters are exploiting this to make money from spam, scams and malware," said F-Secure security advisor, Sean Sullivan. "ShareSafe is a fun application that also provides a useful service for family and friends, making Facebook a safer place for everyone."
Facebook isn’t dead yet, despite what some might say. Sure, they randomly make widespread changes to the interface that are hugely unpopular with the users (much like putting on a crappy song at a party), sure they are struggling to keep up with the ever-expanding juggernaut that is Google+ (which still lacks basic features like automatic sharing from RSS feeds, etc), but they’ve now got a new Hulu plus app… which seems to me really just a way to circumvent your workplace network policies so you can watch at work.
Source: Watch Hulu On Facebook: New App Is Almost A Total Failure http://www.reelseo.com/watch-hulu-on-facebook/#ixzz1Yx9ugWrK
I'm a Twitter-Head, so I couldn't come up with a better way to explain the most notable features for me included in the latest update of Google+ for iPhone other than now it's easier to send a "Direct Message" to other users and "Mention" them in reply.
Maybe it was just me, but every time I tried to do any of the above, Google+ looked at my phone's contacts instead of my Google+ peeps. The latest update adds a tab in the upper-middle portion of the screen that lets you toggle between adding Circles to an update or individual users. You can now add Google+ users (instead of phone contacts) to a reply by adding the "+" feature then typing the user's name. Again, I had the hardest time mentioning people in a reply.
Now those two updates were real important to me, but what will probably interest the bulk of users would be the ability to create and join Hangouts from your iPhone instead of waiting until you get back to your desktop/laptop. Additionally, the Huddle feature has been renamed to just plain ol' Messenger due to another company pulling the "Hey, we already own the rights to that name" card.
Last week, All Things Digital reported that Apple plans to make a major announcement October 4. As the company did not debut a new iPhone earlier this year at the WWDC, traditionally the time when Apple announces new iPhones, it is virtually certain that any announcement will center around an iPhone. Further, last week, former U.S. Vice President and current Apple board member Al Gore, revealed in a speech that two new iPhones are on the way.
The two new devices would likely be a next-generation iPhone 5, as well as a lower-cost model that would allow Apple to capture more market share. There are also strong rumors that Sprint will join AT&T and Verizon as carriers of Apple's iconic device. T-Mobile, the remaining member of the Mount Rushmore of U.S. carriers, may also begin marketing iPhones if it ultimately gets acquired by AT&T (pending U.S. regulatory approval).
Analyst Brian Blair of Wedge Partners has said that Apple will only launch one new iPhone this year, not two models as others have claimed.
The comments, reported by Apple Insider, were almost immediatelycontradicted by a statement made by former vice-president Al Gore at a conference in South Africa.
Gore, who sits on Apple's board, said that there would be "new iPhones" -- plural -- launched by the company in October.
Blair made his comments in a note to investors, insisting that the new iPhone would be fairly similar in design to the iPhone 4 but would have upgraded components including "an A5 processor and a higher resolution 8 MP camera with a small possibility of a larger 4-inch screen."
However, he makes no mention of a wider Home button, or curved edges and a tapered back, as somemockups have shown.
Another analyst that agrees with Blair is Ming-Chi Kuo of Concord Securities, who told Apple Insider he expected the new iPhone to look much like the iPhone 4 and have an improved antenna design.
But some analysts are firmly in the two new iPhones camp, including Mark Moskowitz of investment bank JP Morgan who said that a new "iPhone 4-plus" may be targeted mainly at the Chinese market, with an iPhone 5 -- that will either be based on the iPad 2's A5 processor or an A6 chip and will be matched up with 1GB of RAM for improved performance -- that will be launched in other major territories.
South-Korea's Samsung is taking the offensive against Apple, pushing for product injunctions and stepping up rhetoric against the long-time consumer electronics rival.
The maker of the Galaxy Tab S2 smartphone called on Netherland courts to ban Apple's popular iPad and iPad2 tablets, and the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 over alleged violations of its 3G patent patents.
The company wants to stop all importing, trading and sales by Apple and five Apple subsidiaries, as well as recall all infringing devices in stock from its "professional customers."
It comes just days after South-Korean papers reported that Samsung would file suits against Apple's upcoming iPhone 5 on its home turf, and against other Apple products in Australia, again citing its wireless technology patents.
"Samsung has a proud history of innovation in the mobile industry," the Suwon, South Korea-based company said after filing the Australian suit. "It has invested continuously in R&D, design and technology to produce our innovative and cutting-edge mobile devices."
The recent litigation represents a departure from what Samsung executives called a "passive" strategy in the past, to a more bolder stance against market-leader Apple.
"We've been quite respectful and also passive in a way," Lee Younghee, head of global marketing told the AP. "However, we shouldn't be anymore. We'll be pursuing our rights for this in a more aggressive way from now on."Read more at
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/219312/20110924/korea-passive-samsung-steps-up-offensive-on-free-riding-apple.htm
With Margo Georgiadis leaving her gig as COO of Groupon to return to Google as president of its Americas business, the search giant has given Dennis Woodside, the executive currently in that position, a new role: Overseeing the integration of Motorola Mobility. By far the largest acquisition in Google’s history, the purchase of Motorola Mobility brings with it a groaning board of integration challenges. But according to Nikesh Arora, Google’s senior vice president and chief business officer, Woodside is prepared for them. “He wanted a new and exciting challenge,” Arora told Bloomberg. “We wanted a capable pair of hands.”
The juicy and exciting Motorola leaks just keep on coming this week. We now have the official press images for the upcoming and recently leaked Motorola Atrix 2. We can now confirm the naming will indeed be the Atrix 2 — not the HD, and Motorola is also preparing a fancy new “Lapdock 100″ to launch along with the new Atrix 2.
We’ve seen plenty of the Motorola Atrix 2 over the past few weeks and even a full hands-on yesterday. Sporting a 4.3″ qHD 960 x 540 display, a yet unknown but most likely TI OMAP 4 series dual-core processor said to be running at 1.2 GHz, 1GB of RAM, 8GB internal storage and more. Sadly it will only come with a 2GB micro-SD card but as always that can be expanded. Sources have also confirmed the 8 MP camera around back with 1080p video capture and a 2 MP front camera for video chat capabilities. In what has to be the biggest con and definitely a surprise — the Atrix 2 will not support AT&T 4G LTE. Instead they’ve opted to just run with HSPA+ instead.
Well, what do we have here? According to "trusted sources" over at This Is My Next it's a Motorola Spyder, or a Droid RAZR, or maybe even the Droid HD we peeped back in August. Whatever the name, the phone is apparently packing a first-of-its-kind 4.3-inch, 960 x 540 qHD super AMOLED display. The rumored LTE handset also supposedly contains a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, an 8 megapixel, 1080p rear-facing camera and HD front-facing camera, and is apparently outfitted in Gorilla Glass and Kevlar. TIMN is also boasting exclusive new details for the recently outed Atrix 2. It seems the name is confirmed as well as a handful of previously identified specs. What's more, the phone's got a couple of accessories on board, including a laptop dock called the Lapdock 100, also rumored to play nice with the Spyder, or RAZR, or HD. More images of both devices await you at the source links below.
The site bared no obvious connection to Google and was praised for its slick layout, but nonetheless it will be shutting its doors. In lieu of this closure, Google is overhauling its Product Search page. The property has gotten a serious style upgrade and has taken over much of what Boutique was doing with its expanded fashion inventory. The site will officially shut down October 14, when users will be redirected to Google Product Search (users will have the ability to save their preferences so they carry over to the new domain).
Google says this will actually lead to a simpler, better online shopping experience. We’re just happy that this means you won’t have to jump between different sites if you want to use Google for purchases. Now users will still be able to access what Boutiques had to offer as well as Google’s various other product categories. They are more than enough style curator websites out there, and the lure Google has over other retailers is its search prowess and its ease of use. A product page makeover that pulls in Boutiques’ offerings without abandoning some of what Google Search is known for (like those left-hand sidebar filters) sounds like an upgrade.
According to Business Insider, the executive chairman of Google came close to admitting that Google was a monopoly while testifying before U.S. senate antitrust committee earlier this week.
"But you do recognize that in the words that are used and antitrust kind of oversight, your market share constitutes monopoly, dominant -- special power dominant for a monopoly firm. You recognize you're in that area?" Schmidt was asked by Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl.
Schmidt replied that yes, he agreed Google was "in that area." However, earlier comments from Schmidt suggest that Google has learned a lot from rival Microsoft's mistakes.
Speaking to the committee, Schmidt's opening speech made reference to a company whose name was 'synonymous with innovation' and whose software was on nearly every computer. Schmidt said that 20 years ago, this company setting the world on fire "but [it] lost sight of what mattered" and then Washington stepped in.
"I was an executive at Sun and later Novell at the time," he said. "And in the years since, many of us in Silicon Valley have absorbed the lessons of that era. So I’m here today carrying a long history in the technology business and a very short message about our company: We get it. By that I mean that we get the lessons of our corporate predecessors."
If you haven't checked out today's Google Doodle, here's the deal: The interactive "logo" is actually an HTML5-powered interactive illustration that features six different Muppets. You click on a little button beneath each Muppet to take control of him, or her, or it, and the Muppet's face will then follow your mouse cursor around and chomp its jaws whenever you left-click.
A few hidden Easter eggs are also buried within the digital puppeteering app: For example, try clicking on the second puppet from the right and then holding down your left mouse button and rubbing your mouse up and down his elongated body. You'll eventually trigger a special animation that involves another puppet on the board eating the skinny puppet. But don't worry; he'll find his way back to the logo soon enough.
Computerworld - Google Wallet has run into technical glitches, although the extent of the problems is not clear.
Google's Web site says the new mobile payment service is having "slower than normal wait times to add [credit and debit] cards to Google Wallet."
Also, Google Wallet over-the-air updates to Nexus S smartphones are going slowly and the app did not reach all users by late Friday, when Google had said the update would be rolled out.
A Google Help Desk representative named Dave said via phone on Saturday at 7:36 a.m. (ET): "The [Google Wallet] rollout is kind of a slow rollout. They are still working on that. There's no specific time frame for when it will be complete. You should see it soon."
Computerworld called the Help Desk to see why a Nexus S phone in hand had not received the Google Wallet by Friday night, four days afterGoogle Wallet was officially launched.
Two Google spokesmen were asked to comment on the status of the rollout and the wait times for adding cards to Google Wallet, but did not respond as of mid-day Saturday.
Bob Egan, a mobile commerce analyst at The Sepharim Group, said the rollout probems "are a really big deal.... It shows Google's preparation for launch isn't production ready, especially in the context of a payments market" where security and customer expectations are heightened.
The Google News team is asking publications to use a new Standout tag in their HTML to mark “exceptional original reporting, deep investigative work, scoops and exclusives, and various special projects that quite clearly stand out,” the company says in a blog post. Marked articles may be anointed with a “Featured” label in Google’s listings, but it’s not guaranteed.
It’s a common problem facing online publications: extra time, money and effort are put into generating original features. But these articles are often lost in a sea of breaking news, rebogged content and iPhone 5 rumor posts. Google’s new tag will allow publishers to mark the articles they have put additional effort into, hopefully helping the pieces get the recognition (and traffic) they deserve.
A publication can only use the tag on seven of its own articles a week, but it can use it an unlimited number of times when linking to worthy articles on other sites. Currently, the feature is only available for the U.S. edition of Google News.
What’s new? Like its Android cousin, the iOS version of the Google+ mobile app now supports Hangouts, letting groups communicate with each other using front-facing cameras on the iPhone 4 and iPod touch. In addition to Hangouts, the app offers better control of its various notifications, and a renamed Messenger (formerly Huddle) that now lets users attach photos to chat threads.
Other niceties include the ability to +1 in comments, improved +mention support, a map view in Profile for places you’ve lived, and various reliability improvements. Macstories‘ Federico Viticci had a chance to try out the new features in Hangouts — take a look at his experience here.
You can read more about the iPhone 5′s rumored release date here. For an overview of what to expect in iOS 5, read this article.
Verizon is sending the $120 iPhone 4 offer to existing customers by text message, enticing them to upgrade before the iPhone 5 is officially announced according to Beatweek. The deal requires a new two-year contract. Apple rarely allows its partners to sell the current-generation iPhone for below MSRP, which is $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for he 32GB model.Typically, carriers offer early upgrades to retain customers, but do not tie them to a specific phone or expiration date.
The offer is customer-specific, which means if you haven’t received a text message, then you aren’t eligible for the early upgrade. A call to Verizon customer support to ask for an exception may be worth your effort if you’re absolutely sure you want the iPhone 4 right now and simply can’t wait a couple of weeks.
While $80 off an iPhone 4 might sound tempting, we don’t recommend taking Verizon’s offers. Apple has kept each iPhone’s starting price at $199 for the past three years and we don’t expect that to change with the iPhone 5. While the iPhone 4 is a nice enough phone, it is showing its age. Released on June 24, 2010, the iPhone 4 is now 15 months old, an eternity in mobile phone years. Since then, competitors have launched phones with more robust features, such as dual-core processors and 4G.
Google just rolled out a beefy update to the official Google+ iPhone app which includes the ability to enter a video chat while mobile with other mobile users or users on a personal computer with a webcam. If a friend starts a hangout stream on Google+, the user can simply click “Join” and the video screen appears on the iPhone. As new people join the hangout, notifications pop up on the iPhone screen and the user can add any of these people to a circle during the video stream. The app also allows the users to switch between the two cameras on the smartphone as well as mute the audio in case the user needs to switch to headphones for a private call.
In addition to mobile hangout support, the Huddle feature has been rebranded to Messenger and allows for photo support. Photos can be snapped immediately or brought up from the photo library. Users also now have the ability to +1 comments within the app as well as view a map within the profile for previous homes throughout the life of the profile. Google has also given the user vastly more control over specific notifications. For instance, users can turn notifications on and off when being tagged within a photo or when another user requests a tag. Other notification tweaks include comments, shares, mentions, follow-up comments or when another user adds them to a circle.
Beyond a smattering of bug fixes to round out the new version, this update doesn’t include iPad support. Users will need to use the Web version of Google+ or the iPhone app in zoom mode if browsing on an iPad. Rival social network Facebook has yet to release an iPad-optimized version as well and will likely continue to rely on the Web version of the site in the future.
MEXICO CITY — Before the police or news reporters had even arrived at the underpass outside Veracruz where gunmen held up traffic and dumped 35 bodies at rush hour last week, Twitter was already buzzing with fear and valuable information.
“Avoid Plaza Las Américas,” several people wrote, giving the location.
“There are gunmen,” wrote others, adding, “they’re not soldiers or marines, their faces are masked.”
These witness accounts have become common in Mexico over the past year, especially in violent cities where the news media have been compromised by corruption or killings. But the flurry of Twitter messages about the bodies arrived at a telling moment — on the same day that Veracruz’s State Assembly made it a crime to use Twitter and other social networks to undermine public order.
It is the first law of its kind in Mexico, but most likely not the last. At least one other state, Tabasco, is considering a similar measure, and all across Mexico, public officials are now complaining about new technologies that can help spread rumors. Panic is the fear: Two people in Veracruz were charged last month with terrorism and sabotage after their Twitter messages — spreading a false rumor that schools were under attack — seemed to cause traffic accidents as parents flooded the roads.
“I don’t need to hire ghostwriters, I am a ghostwriter,” he told The Atlantic Wire. Davidson agreed to tell me the full story--and not one of the many other reporters who had reached out to him--because, as "one of the tribe" I would understand the issue at hand. He said he came up with the idea after a chat with his mom in whcih she nagged him for not being a real social media expert like Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page. "She tells me why can't you be like them? While your brother's a doctor, you’re doing social media. That’s how the conversation evolved... So that was part of the catalyst for motivation," explained Davidson. "I have a total Jewish mother, right?"
