Monday 8 February 2010, 2:43 PM
Malicious Mobile Code: What You Need to Know.
Malicious Mobile Code: What You Need to Know.
Author: Eric Everson, MBA, MSIT-SE
The thought of someone hacking into your mobile phone to steal your personal data added to the growing number of mobile threats sounds bad enough, then you come across the industry term “Malicious Mobile Code” and it makes downloading any new mobile app a scary process.
So it sounds like scary stuff, but what is Malicious Mobile Code (MMC) REALLY? If you follow my journal, you know that I’m always knuckle-deep in this kind of stuff, and as a result I’ve lost many good computers and mobile handsets along the way. As threatening as the words may sound, MMC is really an industry catchall phrase that refers to any code that can hinder the operation of a mobile application or device.
Building software is kind of like building a house of cards in that each layer depends on the next to function properly. In software (just as in the house of cards) if you remove or otherwise tamper with a key component it can often corrupt the entire structure. MMC most often attempts to do this very thing by injecting faulty code into a key operating component of your mobile software or Mobile Operating System (MOPS).
Though mobile devices are steadily becoming more sophisticated with added computing power, the reality is that MOPS remain highly vulnerable to such MMC attacks. This is why third-party mobile security software is becoming so important to have on your mobile device. Many of the mobile security solutions on the market today block the MMC similar to antivirus software for a computer.
Additionally, the demand for mobile app-driven handsets is significantly on the rise which is putting many users at greater risk.
Often consumers on the most popular app retail portals assume that anything they download to their handsets should be safe. Despite best efforts however, many risky apps from those with harmful embedded source code to those masquerading as legitimate financial services apps are making their way to unsuspecting mobile users.
This issue has created new demand for services like MyMobiSafe Verified, the first service of its kind that offers a formal review and validation of new mobile apps across every platform (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, Java, Orange, and all others). By creating an environment where developers and the mobile community alike are looking for the confidence of the MyMobiSafe Verified mark, this creates a significant hurdle for unwanted Malicious Mobile Code in the market.
MMC can range from the simplest corrupt code to the worst mobile viruses, yet the phrase and acronym remains as an industry catch all. As a software engineer and one with substantial frontline experience with this kind of code, my words of wisdom are to be cautious of anything that you are loading onto your handset. If it is free, remember that old adage that suggests “nothing good comes free.” In too many cases of mobile apps, free means that there is something else behind the curtains. Start looking for verified apps before you buy them as they will often display an industry-wide recognizable logo. Finally, remember that not all MMC is created equal, in many cases damage is not permanent and can often be repaired by a professional.
Monday 8 February 2010, 2:08 PM
Did Microsoft stifle tablets and leave the iPad the market?
Dick Brass says so and he thinks he should know; he was the vice president of emerging technologies and launched the Tablet PC in 2002. What does he think went wrong? He blames infighting, he blames PC manufacturers, he blames other divisions for not doing enough to support him so he could make the tablet PC successful - though he doesn't go into what he did or didn't do to deal with the endemic internal politics (that's hardly exclusive to Microsoft; every company that's not run by a dictator has this to a greater or lesser degree). Certainly Tablet PCs are still a curiosity. Simon and I have had tablets as our main notebooks since they came out; I reviewed every single tablet in the 2001 launch, we both bought the HP TC1000 as soon as it was available and since then we've toted tablets from Motion, IBM/Lenovo, Toshiba and - most often - HP. But every time I use one with a pen, someone asks me what it is and how it works. I sometimes feel like the only marketing there is for tablet PC! So do I agree with Dick Brass? No, but...
Microsoft's Frank Shaw points at OneNote to say that the tablet was given lots of love. Yes, but...
I am a huge OneNote fan; I use it every day, it's one of the reasons I'm still chained to Windows Mobile as my main phone (I'm thinking a lot about this as I move from one WinMo phone to another - I have to have a full keyboard, a OneNote client, a real browser that does all Web sites and full Exchange sync and WinMo is the only platform with *all* of those (if you know of another, tell me!)), I have 7 years of notes in there, and while I'm sure I still don't know all the features, I've been nagging the OneNote team for the last few years to bring the spell checking and autocorrect features up to the level Word was at 5 years ago (and Replace All is a 20-year-old feature that's missing, for heavens sake!). Plus I can routinely refer to OneNote as Office's hidden treasure and not have anyone ever disagree with me.
OneNote was written from scratch, driven not from Microsoft Research - although their research on handwriting recognition underpins it - but by one product manager, Chris Pratley (formerly Mr Word, now at Office Labs and behind Ribbon Hero and other interesting training ideas). I backed him into a corner in my enthusiasm, asking for more features and changes - some of them made it in to the first and second release, but OneNote has never had the resources to do everything the team and the users want. Suggest a feature that every OneNote fan says yes to and the team will say 'lovely idea, if only we had the resources'. That's because OneNote hasn't taken over the world - possibly because it's hard to explain to people just how useful it is, probably because for a long time you only got it on a tablet PC or in an expensive version of Office. This time it's in everything so sometime around June the world can look at a product I've been living in for 7 years and either embrace it or wonder why Microsoft didn't do this 7 years ago...
The tablet did get support at Microsoft - internally, for developing the OS and the superb and only-getting-better handwriting recognition (stop me at a conference and try it before you dismiss it), and externally for getting the OEMs on board (and it probably got that support because Bill Gates was such a tablet proponent). But that didn't translate into sales, because of the price of the tablet PCs - or because the marketplace wasn't ready for tablets because the balance of what you did on a PC 7 years ago was more about typing stuff than about looking at stuff. Microsoft didn't stifle tablets; everyone stifled tablets…
Does that mean Brass is wrong? Yes, but... He has identified a huge frustration with Microsoft; all of these smart people, all of these smart ideas - and how many of them ever make a difference to what we do on computers? Adoption is part of the problem (we could all have been using the Remove What I Don't Want In This Photo tool for years if Microsoft Picture It! had sold well enough not to get cancelled). But Microsoft's inability to take those ideas and make them into products in the first place has frustrated those of us who've seen research products that never get into products and researchers who've given up and left Microsoft. The ideas that get picked to become products are sponsored by someone high enough up inside Microsoft to be able to push through the support they need. I don't think that's any different from any other company; I think there are just so many good ideas at Microsoft that there aren't enough visionaries in management to support them - and yes, powerful internal teams do get to say 'we make a substantial proportion of the company profits and we don't want to change things for this unproven upstart'.
Over the last four years I've met half a dozen people who've said their job is to take those great ideas and make them actual products; and more ideas are getting out. Remove background in Office 2010, the Sidewinder x4 keyboard - they're both original Microsoft ideas and successful developments (and you can hear the frustration when the Microsoft hardware team says they announced their home-grown capacitive mouse a month before Apple's). Surface isn't a mainstream product, but it's creeping into commercial environments.
That's only a handful of ideas-made-real and neither are on the scale expected of the iPad. And as Frank Shaw says; "what matters is innovation at scale, not just innovation at speed". Yes, but...
Yes, innovating at scale is important; but people expect innovation at speed as well now - they expect a new Facebook, a new Twitter, the next big thing every 18-24 months. Internet time is 6 months, not 3 years. It may not be feasible for one company to do, and both Brass and Shaw ignore major Microsoft developments like SharePoint, the in-house development of the technologies bought in as FAST and Dynamics and other not-so-shiny business tools that won't make headlines in a mainstream paper. This argument is specifically a question of mainstream, mass-market innovation. And yes, there is a large proportion of that audience that doesn't always like innovation; witness the cries to go back to toolbars in Office or the XP interface in Vista (although I notice that there are far fewer complaints about the Windows 7 interface, so it may be less not liking change and more not liking change until what you get is done well) and the way umpteen enterprises still can't wean themselves off IE6.
Microsoft has to deal with the way internal politics holds it back without running after every bright idea anyone has. Turning Courier from a concept video to a prototype would be a start. Getting the Office Web apps out and updating the Windows Live apps. Delivering on Windows Mobile while the three screens plus cloud promise still resonates for people. And yes, I'd like better tablet hardware and better tablet apps for Windows 7 - but it's the hardware manufacturers, the developers and ultimately the market that makes those happen. What Apple can do that Microsoft has never managed is to make the market in the first place.
-Mary
Monday 8 February 2010, 1:11 PM
Google considering speech-to-speech translation
Automated speech-to-speech language translation should be possible in a few years' time, according to Google translation chief Franz Och.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Och said the company was examining the possible fusion of two types of technology it already has, namely Google Translate's text-to-text translation and the voice recognition system it has built into Android 2.1.
"We think speech-to-speech translation should be possible and work reasonably well in a few years' time," Och is quoted as saying. "Clearly, for it to work smoothly, you need a combination of high-accuracy machine translation and high-accuracy voice recognition, and that's what we're working on.
"If you look at the progress in machine translation and corresponding advances in voice recognition, there has been huge progress recently."
Google Translate is able to translate text between 52 languages, with Haitian Creole being the latest addition.
Friday 5 February 2010, 5:59 PM
Toshiba's new business notebooks, with Reel Time documents
It's hard to tell Toshiba's new Tecra and Satellite Pro models apart; that's actually quite deliberate.
This is the Tecra S11...
...can you tell the difference from this Satellite Pro S500?
It's not just that Toshiba's proud of the new design, with its textured black surface that's rugged, scratch resistant, doesn't show every fingerprint - and doesn't slip out of your hand when you're carrying it. But keeping the look across the different ranges also minimises arguments in the office over whether my new laptop is obviously better than yours, Toshiba general manager Thomas Teckentrup pointed out to us.
That could actually work, because the different models look very similar. Confusingly so, in fact; the main difference between the 15.6" Tecra S11 and the 15.6" Satellite Pro S500 is that the Tecra comes with the choice of Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, optional discrete graphics (Nvidia GeForce) and 128GB SSD where the Satellite has Core i3 or Core i5 and a spinning hard drive. The Tecra also has a fingerprint reader and the option of a non-glossy screen, which is welcome if you ever work anywhere near a window. Other similar Tecra models come with a 15.9" screen as the A11 or a 14" screen as the M11. (there's a new Core i5 version of Toshiba's convertible 12" tablet PC, updated as the Portégé M780, though it doesn't have the same design or other specs as the Tecra models).
Like most workhouse business notebooks these days the Tecra and Satellite Pro notebooks have ESATA, mini DisplayPort and a spill-resistant keyboard. Less common is the extra-large touchpad and numeric keypad - and the option of replacing the numeric keyboard with an AccuPoint trackpoint. Some users prefer the fine control, says Teckentrup; and others want to be able to hold the laptop vertically and control the screen (although we wonder if touch might not be a better option for that).
IT admins will appreciate the AMT 6.0 support in the new models, which lets you wake the PC and repair Windows or remove a virus, even if the OS isn't bootable. AMT 6 adds anti-theft support; Toshiba is supporting services like Computrace in the BIOS, so even if someone replaces the hard drive in a stolen laptop the Computrace agent will be re-installed and start reporting its position. (Previously only US models of Toshiba notebooks have had the BIOS support). With a Computrace subscription you can find, lock or wipe stolen notebooks and Teckentrup points out that the deterrent value can be worth the price of the service; "thinking about theft internally in companies - if people know this is an implemented solution, there is no interest any more in stealing them".
See your document history in Reel Time
These new models are also the first of Toshiba's business notebooks to come with its LifeSpace software; already available on Toshiba's consumer notebooks, this takes Windows 7 features like jump lists and thumbnail previews and adds them to friendly tools for organising projects and documents. The Bulletin Boards let you bring together all the documents you use in a particular project with widgets like a clock and calendar as if you were pinning them up on a board; there's also a board that brings together all Toshiba's support and diagnostic tools, though you can't add program icons to your own boards.
Interfaces that try to be too much like the physical world don’t always work and you wouldn't want to get at all your documents like this but a Board is a nice way to organise specific groups of documents that you need to use together. If you miss the Office binder, you'll like this. And the Reel Time tool that comes with it is extremely useful. This gives you a timeline of documents you've opened and Web pages you've visited, organised by the type of document, the specific apps you've opened or the times and days you opened them. Windows 7 already does some of this with the recent documents on jump lists, but Reel Time gives you thumbnails that you can click to get previews where you can scroll through the pages (like Explorer but without you having to find the right folder). You can quickly get back to the PDF and PowerPoint you were looking at on Friday evening before you went home, which means you don’t have to leave documents and Web pages open just so you can remember what you were doing.
Mary Branscombe
Thursday 4 February 2010, 2:50 PM
O2 publishes 4G demo video
O2 and the network kit supplier Huawei have uploaded a video to YouTube showing their test 4G network in action.
In the video, uploaded on Tuesday, O2 "radio evolution" man Rob Joyce explains the concept of the long-term evolution (LTE) of 3G, generally referred to more simply as '4G'.
Although Joyce points out that LTE can theoretically hit downlink speeds of up to 150Mbps, the demo itself shows speeds of just under 8Mbps — comparable to many fixed broadband connections in the UK right now.
High-definition video streaming is shown in the video, as is real-time gaming, an application made possible by LTE's low latency.
Huawei is also the vendor behind one of TeliaSonera's Scandinavian LTE deployments, which involve real commercial roll-outs rather than tests, such as Huawei's UK tests with O2.
That said, it's still early days for the technology. TeliaSonera's deployment has seen mixed reports, ranging from disappointment (12Mbps) to delight (47Mbps), so a wait-and-see approach has its advantages. In any case, a variety of factors in the UK is making it unlikely that we will see LTE rolled out here until 2012 at the very earliest.
Wednesday 3 February 2010, 3:16 AM
iPad on Lockdown: Apple Faces a Twist of Intellectual Property Law
iPad on Lockdown: Apple Faces a Twist of Intellectual Property Law
Author: Eric Everson, MyMobiSafe.com
Imagine that you have this great product idea and a catchy brand name for it too. As managers, we have all been there at some point or another. Grandiose ideas of being patted on the back and welcomed into the inner circle of the executive leadership team come to mind as you envision all the profit your company is going to earn with this revolutionary new product… then the USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office) snaps you back to reality as you discover that it’s already been done before!
As a U.S. Company, this is the epiphany that Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) either failed to acknowledge or figured they had the treasury and legal muscle to flex. As it turns out the iPad, is not a new product in the world of technology, in fact as even some of us more techy types may remember, it was Fujitsu that actually introduced the first iPad. Don’t just take my word for it, just look it up for yourself at USPTO.gov (Hint: start with US Patent: 7,228,469).
How accurate does this sound? “Portable information device, … portable information device, and computer product” If that sounds like one of Steve Jobs’ lines for promoting the new Apple iPad, think again as that text was literally copied verbatim from the Fujitsu owned US Patent: 7,228,469. It would seem that Apple Inc has stepped into the ring with Fujitsu, which is a leading Japan-based company with a beefy balance sheet and domestic access to the legal system that should certainly make Steve Jobs and team consider their next moves carefully.
As I understand it Apple has until February 28, 2010 to decide to fight for the name at the USPTO. The new Apple iPad has iPhone app developers frantic as their current content will lose significant resolution when displayed in full screen on the iPad. Apple released a new SDK exclusive to the iPad this week, which has many developers contemplating if they should invest the time in redeveloping and transferring their product to the iPad.
While the future may bring about a balance where app content can be shared from iPad to iPhone (and back) with ease, in the interim we are granting a specialized MyMobiSafe Verified package that covers content unique multiplatform apps. This will allow app developers to earn their MyMobiSafe Verification for either their iPhone App or their iPad app and use the same credentials at no added cost.
Apple is no stranger to big lawsuits and legal action, but for now, it seems this twist of intellectual property law has plans for the Apple iPad on lockdown.
About the Author: Eric Everson is a leader in mobile technologies and is the founder of the U.S.-based MyMobiSafe.com. If you would like to contact Eric Everson for interview or with consulting related inquiries contact him directly at EricEverson@Hotmail.com. To get started with your MyMobiSafe Verification simply email: GetVerifed@MyMobiSafe.com.
Tuesday 2 February 2010, 5:33 PM
WiMax lost against LTE, says Alcatel Lucent
The mobile industry has clearly chosen LTE over WiMax for the next generation of mobile broadband connectivity, a senior Alcatel Lucent executive has said.
Patrick Plas, Alcatel Lucent's chief operating officer for wireless, said on Monday that the company is "not putting a lot of effort into this technology [WiMax] any longer", adding that upcoming LTE launches by companies such as Verizon showed "a clear direction taken by the industry towards LTE".
Plas is not the first to point out that LTE (the long-term evolution of 3G) is now firmly in the roadmap of most operators — even WiMax backers have acknowledged that their chosen technology is more likely to serve niche markets. It is, however, interesting to hear a telecoms hardware vendor, which still makes and markets WiMax equipment, say it.
According to Plas, LTE handsets are likely to start appearing at the start of 2011, but operators such as Verizon are more interested in data connectivity in the early stages of the technology.
Tuesday 2 February 2010, 7:44 AM
Top o' the World Ma! (Google Earth)
Google Earth is both truly amazing and even a bit majestic.
I have used flight simulator, in the past and it has made my day. And I hear free GPS is coming to Google Earth for iPhone/OS X and Android sometime in the next two years. Google Earth is one of the Wonders of the Internet, Like Google, eBay, YouTube, Wiki, Yahoo Mail*, but a Driving Simulator is missing, a 3D environment is missing ala~GTA*, is more always better? no. but in this case Virtual Holidays would while away hours of potential boredom/malaise.
I'll tell you a story, So I was planning a trip to Oslo in Summer for Autumn last year and I hadn't been away for years, So I thought I would check out the local area on Google Earth, I used Street View and ended up in some train station facing some flats. fast forward two months and I and my friend are lost on Oslo, and we end up Lillistrom train station, it was late at night, the pubs were coming out, I heard some dude in modded Subaru was blasting out Cliff Richard, and I look up and there are those flats! just as pictured, but at night :) WOW
I am NOT saying V-Holidays could replace real Holidays*, but expand on your experience. Also if you are broke, as many of us are these days* a nice wee break around the world would be nice. a train Journey would be nice too :) Orient Express style... without the murder.
peace
Dava
*(for me Yahoo Mail, in the sense that 1. they will not ditch you with inactivity 2. they LISTEN to your feedback and 3. they will improve your services without charge eg see the new mail WOW)
*I would sit in a taxi for hours watching the world go by... yes I don't get out enough!
*eg have you seen fuel bills? WOW even though the source was cut to a third we are still paying FULL price.. that's not right!
*I wouldn't of missed that dude in the Subaru for £1000, it was priceless.
Tuesday 2 February 2010, 7:30 AM
More Reliability Problems at Skype
It seems there was another round of connectivity/reliability problems at Skype this past weekend. From their own Heartbeat Blog:
Some of you who've just tried opening Payment In Client window, making a call to Online number, making a purchase or using any other service, may have noticed some difficulties to do so. You may have received some error such as "Internal error" from the web or "Check your connection" from the Skype Client
Of course, as always, the entry concludes with empty promises to investigate and "share information". This is exactly the same empty promise that was made for the entry "Problems signing in, making calls to landlines and mobiles" on Jan 29, and the entry "Sign in server problems" on Jan 21. All three are marked "Resolved", with no additional information provided about how, why or what went wrong. I suppose that Skype's idea of "sharing information" with their "beloved customers" is adding "Resolved" to the blog entry title.
The positive side of this is that these sorts of unexplained problems are making it a lot easier for me to convince my friends who are still using Skype what a load of unreliable rubbish it really is, and to get them to get rid of it.
Of course, I can't tell people "ditch Skype" without an option, so the two places I point them are ooVoo (my favorite, a good product with good support) and TokBox, a newer product that seems to be gaining a good following.
jw 2/2/2010
Friday 29 January 2010, 5:32 PM
Motorola to sell phone through Google store
Motorola is to market an Android phone directly to consumers through Google's new online store, in much the same way as the Nexus One smartphone is sold.
Sanjay Jha, the company's chief, revealed the as-yet-unnamed device in an analyst call on Thursday, following Motorola's results announcement.
"In smartphone, we plan to launch at least 20 devices, including at least one direct-to-consumer device with Google," Jha said.
The company has launched several Android phone models in recent months, including the Droid (the Milestone in Europe), which has proved popular in the US.
Motorola's results for the fourth quarter of 2009 showed the company rebounding from the haemorrhaging of cash that characterised most of its previous results over the last year and a half.
"We are pleased with the meaningful progress we made in 2009 in further improving our cost structure and strengthening the operations of the Mobile Devices business," Jha said in a statement. "Our first Android smartphone devices have been very well received. We look forward to broadening our handset portfolio in 2010."
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