Can a refreshed Google Wallet finally take off?

A large challenge for Google on mobile payments is still one of availability. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon are working on their own mobile payment service, called Isis, and have resisted putting Google Wallet on their handsets.

That may be part of the reason why Google is getting more aggressive in offering Nexus phones that aren't tied to the major carriers. The recently-announced Nexus 4will be sold unlocked and contract-free for $300 and up.

Now, Google reportedly is testing a physical card for Google Wallet, which would work at stores that don't support tap-and-pay from mobile phones.

The Google Wallet card would store payment details from multiple credit and debit cards, Android Police reports, citing an anonymous source. Through the Google Wallet app, users select which of those payment methods to use by default, then swipe and sign the Google Wallet card as they would with a regular credit card.

The idea is that Google Wallet users can leave all their other credit cards at home. All they'd need is their smartphone and the Google Wallet card—and maybe some cash. Because the Wallet app can control which method of payment is associated with the card, it could make sense for users who spread their payments across multiple credit and debit cards.

Also, if the Google Wallet card is lost or stolen, users can cancel it, and won't have to cancel all their other credit and debit cards. In leaked screenshots, Google says it offers fraud monitoring and the ability to remotely disable the card at any time.

Changes for Google Wallet?

As Android Police notes, the physical card may be just a part of some big changes for Google Wallet. Other features may include support for transit cards, money transfers between users, and a “Wallet Balance” from which users can deposit and withdraw. Google has said that it wants to bring discount cards, tickets, and identification into Wallet to compete with the iPhone's Passbook feature.

Google may also be working on a way to bring a version of Wallet to other devices such as the iPhone. A recent sign-up page for news on “the next version of Google Wallet” asked visitors whether they used an Android device, an iPhone or “other.”

The iPhone doesn't support near-field communications, so any service would likely rely on barcode scanning instead.

Even if Google Wallet doesn't take off, the added features and availability should make it more useful. Ultimately, any mobile wallet service needs a clear answer for why people should use it instead of their existing cash and cards. It'll be interesting to see how Google answers that question when it's ready to show off what's next for Google Wallet.

Source: techhive.com

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Malware infects 13 percent of North American home networks

Some 13 percent of home networks in North America are infected with malware, half of them with "serious" threats, according to a report released Wednesday by a cyber-security company.

However, that number is a one-percent decrease from the quarter that ended in June, according to Kindsight Security Labs, of Mountain View, California, in its third-quarter malware report [PDF].

Based on information gathered from service providers, Kindsight reported that 6.5 percent of the home network infections were high-level threats that could turn a home computer into a spam-spewing zombie on a botnet or compromise a computer owner's bank account.

ZeroAccess botnet

Some 2.2 million home networks worldwide are infected with malware controlled by the ZeroAccess botnet, the report estimated. In North America, one in every 125 home networks are infected with malicious software.

Map of the ZeroAccess botnet as it spreads across North America

"The ZeroAccess.net has grown significantly to become the most active botnet we've measured this year," Kevin McNamee, Kindsight security architect and director, said in a statement.

"Cyber criminals are primarily using it to take over victim computers and conduct click fraud," McNamee continued. "With ZeroAccess, they can mimic the human behavior of clicking online ads, resulting in millions of dollars of fraud."

Kindsight estimates that online advertisers lose $900,000 a day in fraud perpetrated by ZeroAccess.

Big money for evil-doers

Spam, add-click malware, banking Trojans, theft of identity information, and fake security software are big money makers for cybercriminals, the report noted.

The cyber-security vendor also reported that it saw a 165% increase in the number of Android malware samples during the period. Nevertheless, despite the growth in spyware apps and malware, there have been no major malware outbreaks, the report said.

"Aggressive Adware," some of it bordering on spyware, continues to be a problem in the Android market, according to Kindsight. It estimates that three percent of all mobile devices host some form of that software.

While security software aimed at removing aggressive adware from mobile devices has been introduced into the market, the report explained, it remains to be seen how effective it will be in mitigating the problem.

Similar efforts were made in the past to address spyware problems in the Windows world, but the Android environment is a horse of a different color. "One key difference between these ad-funded Android apps and the traditional Window’s variety is that the Android variety is being distributed from the Google Play App Store, which lends them considerable legitimacy," the report said.

Source: pcworld.com

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Microsoft Surface goes on sale to cheering crowds

Microsoft’s Surface debuted to crowds of early adopters across the U.S. Friday, as the Windows RT-powered tablet went on sale.

About 100 people waited outside Boston’s Microsoft Store to buy the Surface tablet, which runs a new version of Windows.

Unlike previous versions of the operating system, Windows RT runs on an ARM processor, typically found in mobile devices, instead of an x86 processor, which is used in traditional desktops and laptops. One of the major drawbacks of Windows RT is that it won’t run any old software. All applications will need to be downloaded from the Windows Store, but that didn’t deter some Boston customers.

“It has Microsoft Office, which is the most important reason I’m upgrading from my iPad,” said Joshua Jasper, a veterinary hospital manager who was waiting to buy the tablet. “My biggest concern is app selection, but I know that will grow over time.”

Customers try out the Surface at a Microsoft store in Palo Alto, Calif.

IDC analyst Bob O’Donnell shared Jasper’s concerns. “When I looked in the Windows Store I thought, ‘Wow, there’s not much there,’” said O’Donnell. “There were a lot of cheesy phone-like games in the store, but of course Office is huge,” he said.

“My biggest concern is that people are going to get these tablets, realize their limitations and then return them in droves,” he said. He said that the biggest challenge for Microsoft is explaining the difference between Windows 8 and Windows RT to consumers “because they are very different.”

O’Donnell predicts about 10 percent of buyers in the PC and tablet markets want a PC-tablet hybrid.

A sign in the window lets Palo Alto customers
know that the Surface has landed.

Across the country in Palo Alto, Calif., the surface attracted a line of about 100 people outside the Microsoft Store in the Stanford Shopping Center, the closest Microsoft-run full-time retail outlet to San Francisco. The line began forming about six hours before the store’s opening.

First in line was Matthew Dien, who said he made a two-hour journey from Sacramento to be among the first on the U.S. West Coast to buy the tablet computer.

“I’m very excited about it,” he said. “It’s Microsoft’s very first hardware and they are coming up against Apple. I’ve always liked Windows products and so I was very excited when I heard they were coming out with hardware.”

Dien left the store about 30 minutes after it opened with a new Surface in his hands.

Most of those in line appeared to be waiting for the Surface and not Windows 8, which also went on sale Friday. There’s less buzz for the new operating system, likely because many would-be users can download copies from Microsoft.

Microsoft offered a sweetener to those willing to queue: a yearlong subscription to the Xbox Music Pass worth $100 for the first 100 customers who made a purchase.

Back at the Microsoft Store in Boston, about two dozen Surface tablets were available to try out. The interface was fluid and responsive for the most part. The screen was bright and vibrant and text was very easy to read. Some of the apps took longer to launch than expected, though. For example, it took the Xbox Games app about 10 seconds to fully load.

One of the accessories available for Surface is a keyboard that doubles as a cover. It costs $100 when purchased along with the tablet. It will likely take some getting used to as there’s no tactile feedback when a key is pressed. The cover is surprisingly thin and clips securely onto the tablet. There were no wires or pairing needed for the keyboard to work.

The first customer in line at the Boston store wanted to buy the Surface because he thinks Microsoft’s ecosystem is broader than Apple’s.

“I had a MacBook Pro for a while, but I switched back to Microsoft,” said Mounir Koussa. “I can have a desktop, a laptop, a phone, a tablet and [the Zune] music service all in one.”

O’Donnell said that there will be “huge sales and lots of confusion” in the tablet market in the coming months. He thinks that Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD and Google’s Nexus 7 have good chances at capturing some of the market, but he believes that Apple will continue to dominate.

The Surface has a 10.6-inch display and weighs 1.5 pounds (680 grams). It starts at $499 with 32GB of storage.

Source: pcworld.com

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Google, Microsoft and Yahoo fix serious email weakness

Use of weak DKIM signing keys could allow spoofed email messages to look legitimate, US-CERT warned

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have remedied a cryptographic weakness in their email systems that could allow an attacker to create a spoofed message that passes a mathematical security verification.

The weakness affects DKIM, or DomainKeys Identified Mail, a security system used by major email senders. DKIM wraps a cryptographic signature around an email that verifies the domain name through which the message was sent, which helps more easily filter out spoofed messages from legitimate ones.

The problem lies with signing keys that are less than 1,024 bits, which can be factored due to increasing computer power. US-CERT said in an advisoryissued Wednesday that signing keys less than 1,024 bits are weak, and that keys up to RSA-768 bits have been factored.

The issue came to light after Florida-based mathematician Zachary Harris was sent an email from a Google recruiter that used only a 512-bit key, according to a report published Wednesday by Wired magazine.

Thinking it might be some clever test by Google, he factored the key, then used it to send a spoofed message from Sergey Brin to Larry Page, Google's founders.

It wasn't a test but in fact a serious problem, one in which emails that could be bogus would be trusted. According to the DKIM standard, email messages that have keys shorter that 1,024 bits are not necessarily rejected.

Harris found the problem wasn't limited to Google, but also Microsoft and Yahoo, all of whom appeared to have fixed the issue as of two days ago, according to US-CERT. Harris told Wired he found either 512-bit or 768-bit keys in use at PayPal, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, Apple, Dell, LinkedIn, Twitter, SBCGlobal, US Bank, HP, Match.com and HSBC.

Weak signing keys are a boon for cybercriminals. They selectively target people with emails containing malicious links in an attempt to exploit a computer's software and install malware, a style of attack known as spear phishing. If an email contains the correct DKIM signature, it's more likely to end up in a recipient's inbox.

US-CERT also warned of another problem. The DKIM specification allows a sender to flag that it is testing DKIM in messages. Some recipients will "accept DKIM messages in testing mode when the messages should be treated as if they were not DKIM signed," US-CERT said.

Source: computerworld.com

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Apple iPad Mini: All the iPad at (nearly) half the cost

s the Apple iPad Mini the right tablet for business? Perhaps. It depends on whether you’re in the market for a tablet in general, or if you’re really only in the market for an iPad.

Many expected Apple to offer the iPad Mini at about half the cost of the $499 iPad. Instead,the iPad Mini is $329—or about 65 percent of the price of the larger iPad. It’s not $250, but at $329 the iPad Mini could still be a cost effective option for businesses.

If you’re already deploying, or considering deploying iPads to your users, then you’re probably already beyond the point of evaluating different mobile platforms, and determining whether alternative tablets will work for you. In that case, you should certainly stop and take a closer look at the iPad Mini.

There are cheaper 7-inch tablet options out there,
like the Google Nexus 7

Aside from a price that’s 35 percent less than the 16GB Wi-Fi third-generation iPad,the iPad Mini is almost 25 percent thinner, and more than 50 percent lighter than it’s larger sibling. Yet, it still has access to all 275,000 of the apps developed specifically for the iPad, and it still has Siri and FaceTime HD. Unless there’s a specific reason you’re mobile users must have the larger display, the iPad Mini still gives you all the features and capabilities you’re looking for in a smaller, less expensive package.

Of course, if you’re actually just interested in 7-inch tablets for your workforce and you aren’t committed to the iPad, there are other options out there. The Google Nexus 7 starts at $199, and costs only $249 for a 16GB model—rumor has it that it will soon be 32GB at that same price point. A 32GB Google Nexus 7 for $249 presents a very compelling argument against investing $329 for a 16GB iPad Mini.

The Google Nexus 7 also has a number of advantages over the iPad Mini in terms of features and functionality. It has GPS and turn-by-turn navigation (only available in the more expensive 4G models of the iPad Mini), a quad-core processor, and greater pixel density compared to the non-Retina display of the iPad Mini. Some 7-inch alternatives, like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, also offer expandable storage through a microSD memory card slot.

The iPad Mini is the thinnest and lightest of the established 7-inch tablet rivals, though. It’s also one of the few 7-inch tablets with both front and rear facing cameras. If your mobile users need to be able to take and catalog photos from their tablet, a rear-facing camera is an important element.

The iPad Mini is the only device among the 7-inch tablets that even offers 4G cellular connectivity as an option—although you have to pay an additional $130 premium to get it. $459 is substantially more than $199 or $249, but if your users need GPS capabilities, or to be able to connect to sites and resources without access to a Wi-Fi network or without relying on a smartphone or portable hotspot device to provide the connectivity, the iPad Mini is the only viable option.

If your business has already embraced the iPhone and iPad, and has already invested in iOS apps to get the job done, the iPad Mini might be a perfect combination of price and capabilities for your tablet needs.

Source: pcworld.com

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Apple plays hardball with iPad mini reveal

In staging an Apple event on Tuesday to unveil the long-awaited iPad Mini (and, perhaps, updated iMacs and MacBook Airs), Apple is poised to steal a lot of Microsoft’s thunder later in the week. On Thursday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer willrelease Windows 8 to the masses and launch Microsoft’s first tablet, the Surface RT.

The Surface and similar tablets designed and manufactured by Microsoft’s OEM partners—including some tablet/laptop hybrids—are supposed to represent the company’s response to the iPad. All are designed to be lightweight and portable, offer extended battery life and will run the new Windows RT—a version of Windows 8 designed for ARM-based devices that includes a touch-enabled, non-commercial version of Office 2013. The devices will attempt to compete with the iPad on look and price and offer a range of features that appeal to consumers and business users alike: higher storage capacity, standard USB ports and expandable storage via SD cards.

Microsoft’s event should be a shot across Apple’s bow that says Microsoft can deliver a tablet experience as good as, if not better than, Apple’s iPad. Microsoft has spent months developing and planning for the launch to ensure its message is loud and clear.

Another Apple frenzy

There’s just one problem. Apple, which can create a media frenzy by inviting a select group of technology journalists to an event without even indicating what it will say, has done just that right before the Windows 8 launch. It will almost certainly be an event where Apple will wow the audience with news about how it is expanding its tablet lineup to include new form factors with lower price tags. Apple could even update its current full-size iPad lineup.

If nothing else, Apple will be able to preemptively remind everyone that it defined the tablet market with the original iPad in 2010, that it has the most robust app ecosystem in the world, and that Microsoft is more than two and half years late to the party. That’s a pretty powerful message, and one that the mere existence of an Apple iPad Mini delivers without anyone saying anything about Microsoft, Windows 8 or the Surface at all.

Apple’s playing hardball, something it’s been doing more of lately.

After Steve Jobs died a year ago, there was a constant buzz about what would happen at Apple—and to Apple. For months, each day brought new headlines questioning whether or not CEO Tim Cook was up to the task of running Apple. Each new product announcement, every response that Apple made to labor and environmental critics, and missteps like the iOS 6 Maps fiasco were fresh fodder for the “Steve would have…” musings by media pundits.

Most of those who weighed in assumed that Jobs would have done a better job handling the event or crisis du jour. But by making that assumption, critics missed an important consideration: Maybe Cook’s leadership is actually better for Apple.

Cook may not be the firebrand that Jobs was, but it has become very clear over the past few months that Apple under his leadership remains a force to be reckoned with.

The timing of the iPad Mini announcement—rumored to have been delayed by manufacturing issues but possibly pushed back to control this week’s tablet narrative — sends a simple message to the Apple’s competitors. That message: We are the most successful technology company in the world, we have more resources than you, and we’re prepared to bring anything to the table to compete. You are playing on our turf now.

An invigorated Apple

That’s a far cry from the Apple of 10 years ago, the one Jobs rescued from ruin and that had only just unveiled the iPod. It’s even a far cry from the Apple of five years ago, when it had just released an iPhone that was almost laughable due to limitations like no third-party apps, no 3G connectivity, and its ties to a single carrier (AT&T). In fact, the Apple of today has something of the swagger of the company that brazenly welcomed IBM to the PC market more than three decades ago.

The timing of this week’s iPad Mini event is just one way in which Apple is using all of its resources to compete.

Dropping Google Maps

Dropping Google Maps, which resulted in the work-in-progress Siri-integrated Maps app in iOS 6, was another great example of this new attitude as well as an important strategic move. Google wasn’t providing features that Apple needed to compete—turn-by-turn navigation being the biggest example. That meant Google was using its mapping technology to give itself a real edge over Apple in the mobile landscape.

Beyond that, every time an iOS device owner used location services and map data—whether or not that use was in the Maps app itself—he or she was delivering a wealth of personal and geographic information to Google. Where is the user? What cell towers and Wi-Fi networks are nearby? What generation iPhone and what version of iOS is he or she using? What is he or she looking for—restaurants, bars, hotels, libraries, offices, shoe stores? What route does the user prefer to get someplace? That’s invaluable data for Google to apply to improving its mapping systems, but it’s also a ton of demographic data—the type of information that is at the heart of Google’s advertising business.

That’s information over which Apple had little control. More importantly, it’s information that Apple can now use to grow its own mapping and navigation systems, speech recognition technologies, iAd business and marketing plans.

In short, the deal gave Google significant advantages and held Apple back. Kicking Google to the curb and accepting the potential fallout was a ballsy but necessary move, even if it meant taking jabs over its Maps app.

Fighting Android

Of course, if we’re going to talk about Apple playing hardball with Google, we have to note the range of patent suits Apple has brought around the world to fight Android.

There’s the oft-quoted passage in Walter Isaccson’s biography of Jobs where Jobs says that he’s willing to “go thermonuclear” to stop Android. For him, Android represented a personal betrayal of trust and one that tugged at the psychic wound inflicted by Microsoft’s development of Windows. It was a battle that Jobs would almost certainly press to the highest courts in every possible country were he still alive.

Apple hasn’t backed down from that fight under Cook’s leadership, but it hasn’t made the victory against Samsung this summer personal, either. The company’s responses have been well thought out, calmly delivered statements about how Apple led the way with certain technologies or concepts and incurred R&D costs that competitors didn’t had to pay.

The Apple message is clear: It will use all of the resources at its disposal to compete. In this case, one of those resources is the U.S. patent system and the sheer volume of patents that Apple owns. You can argue about whether the patent system in the U.S. is broken or whether Apple should have been granted some patents. But the fact is that Apple has the patents and will use them. Doing anything less would put Apple at a strategic disadvantage.

The idea of using every strategic advantage even applies to recent reports that Apple has removed Samsung from the design process of the A-series chips that power iOS devices, relegating its mobile device competitor to simply manufacturing the chips and nothing more.

Ultimately, Cook’s leadership at Apple so far appears to be a calculated effort to retain the company’s prominence in the technology sector, the business world and on the international stage. That’s different than Jobs, who offered a more passionate style of leadership. But Cook’s take is equally successful and show how he is very adept at identifying and using each strategic advantage possible. That results is a more rational and reasoned company, one that clearly recognizes its power and potential and will use it effectively.

And that confidence will be very much on display this week.

Source: macworld.com

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Google expected to launch Samsung 10 tablet and LG Nexus 4 smartphone next week

Reports cite internal Google video as source

Google's product unveiling event next Monday will feature a 10-in. tablet running Android 4.2, possibly named the Samsung 10, and an LG Nexus 4 smartphone, according to reports.

The Next Web said it learned of the new tablet from an unnamed source who was familiar with an internal Google video describing new products and software to be launched at the Oct. 29 event in New York City.

Google had no comment early Monday, but last week sent out invitations for the event implying a variety of announcements will be made using the phrase, "The playground is open."

The report indicated the LG Nexus 4 smartphone will have a quad-core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and a 4.7-in. display with 1280 x 768 resolution. It will also have a 2100 mAh battery, 2GB of RAM, 16 GB of internalstorage and an 8-megapixel rear camera. It will run the Android 4.2 mobile operating system, also called Jelly Bean, rather than the next-generation Key Lime Pie, the report said.

The reported 10-in. tablet, with the code-name Manta, would have a better resolution, at 300 pixels per inch, than the new iPad, which has 264 PPI. That puts the Samsung device at 2560 x 1600 pixels with a 16:10 aspect ratio.

Google's event comes at the end of a flurry of late October announcements, including an expected launch of an iPad mini tablet on Tuesday, followed by announcements from Samsung on Wednesday and Microsoft's Windows 8 unveiling with Surface RT tablets on Thursday.

Source: www.computerworld.com

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Popular Android apps leak personal data, study finds

Popular Android apps from the Google Play store are vulnerable to theft of personal details, including emails and bank account logins, according to a new study. As many as 185 million users who downloaded vulnerable applications could be tricked into revealing their personal data, the research indicates.

Researchers at the University of Leibniz and University of Marburg, Germany, tested the top 13,500 popular apps in the Google Play store and identified 41 apps that are prone to SSL certificates attacks. They used a fake Wi-Fi Hotspot and a special attack tool that could spy on the data passing between a smartphone and the website the app is linked to.

In their tests, the researchers were able to capture login credentials for email services, social media sites, online bank accounts, and even corporate networks. They were also able to trick or disable security software on Android and inject malicious code to make apps carry specific commands.

The research paper says: “We have captured credentials for American Express, Diners Club, Paypal, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live ID, Box, WordPress, IBM Sametime, remote servers, bank accounts, and email accounts. We have successfully manipulated virus signatures downloaded via the automatic update functionality of an anti-virus app to neutralize the protection or even to remove arbitrary apps, including the anti-virus program itself.”

The researchers did not name the vulnerable apps, but they did say that the Facebook app for Android is not prone to the attacks they tested, and it displays meaningful warning messages when a possible attack is taking place. However, they did note that many apps can display abstract warnings during an SSL attack, which could leave users confused. (See also Which Android security tools are worth your time?).

A follow-up survey of 745 people considered whether people are aware when they're browsing over unsecured connections from their phones, leaving them prone to attacks. The results from the non-IT experts showed that almost half thought they were using a secure connection when they were actually not, while 35 percent of IT-educated users also mistook unsecure connections for safe ones.

Source: techhive.com

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Google Says Mobile Payments Growing Fast but Won't Catch on Overnight

Navigating Windows 8 involves a steeper learning curve, but you can't dispute the features that Microsoft has absolutely nailed.

 Consider first that Ive been a daily iPad user since the day the tablet launched. Ive never had much affinity for MacOS and Apple desktops, but I have literally used either the iPad, iPad 2 or new iPad every day since April 3, 2010. Tablets work for me. Touch navigation works for me. And the iPad has worked for medespite the fact that its never helped me do any real work.

But now theres a legitimate alternative to the iPad in my life. For the last few weeks, Ive been playing with various Windows 8 tablets, including, yes, the new Surface RT, which I took for a spin on Microsofts Redmond campus earlier this week.

Windows 8 tablets are the real deal, people, and their unique charms tie directly back to the new OS. Now, make no mistake: Navigating the Windows 8 touch interface involves a steep learning curve. The new touch gestures arent intuitive, and this alone cedes important ground to iOS, which is so simple, farm animals could probably figure it out. But as with many vexing software interfaces (think Photoshop or Excel), great power is often locked within seemingly inscrutable UIs.

Think about that as I share the five ways Windows 8 beats iOS...

Snap Screen

Besides offering legitimate, system-wide multitasking (a feature missing in iOS), Windows 8 includes a snap screen feature allows you to see two active apps on your display at the same time. One app consumes about three quarters of the screen, while the other resides in a narrower strip. You can easily swap app positions, and even cut and paste content from one app to its neighbor.

Unequivocally, snap screen is awesome. In fact, its the primary reason why all Windows 8 tablets must have a minimum resolution of at least 1366-by-768. This widescreen pixel grid ensures all tablets will be able to run Snap Screen, affording the narrower snapped app a width of no less than 320 pixels.

I cant wait to see this feature evolve.

Live Tiles

Apple is supposed to be the hip, whimsical, creative company, so its ironic that the iOS home screen borrows all its design cues from the dawn of GUI-based computingthink static, identically sized icons laid out in a rigid grid.

In stark contrast, the Windows 8 Start Screen is dynamic, flexible and flat-out fun. Its app icons are represented by live tiles that can reveal constantly updating information, such as the latest weather forecast or news headlines. Live tiles can also be resized, affording an extra degree of user .

You might think all these features would lead to excessive visual noise, but Microsofts design guidelines help ensure that native and third-party apps cohabitate in harmony. The end result is a Start Screen thats bold and dynamic, but also soothing in its refined, artsy design.

Oh, and one of the coolest Start Screen features? Its called semantic zoom. Just touch the Start Screen with two fingers, and "squeeze in. All the live tiles will shrink in size, giving you a birds eye view of your entire app collection, affording easier navigation between one section of apps to the next.

In fact, semantic zoom is available throughout the Windows 8 touch experience. Its already built into Microsofts own Photos app (aiding navigation in large image collections), and developers can tap into this behavior as well. For example, imagine a calendar that allows you to quickly jump from a monthly view to a daily view with a squeeze of your fingers.

Settings

In Windows 8, each apps settings and options are built directly into the app itself. You simply invoke the Charms bar from within an app, and hit the Settings icon at the bottom. From there you can adjust specific app options, and also address system-wide settings. In iOS, you must exit your active app, open the discrete Setting app, and then hunt around for the name of the app you want to adjust.

In some ways, the Setting function in Windows 8 uses the same philosophy we find in Android: Give the user powerful options to customize his or her experience, and make these options quickly accessible. iOS, meanwhile, sacrifices customization in the service of simplicity. This makes sense for currying mass-market appealbecause we dont grandma and grandpa fiddling with all those confusing controls!but it robs power users of the functions we need.

Semblance of a File System

Because Windows 8 includes the new modern UI and the traditional desktop under a single wrapper, tablets can penetrate the desktops file system. There are no traditional folders in the modern UI, so you cant drag and drop files between directories (though, of course, full file system functionality is still available in the desktop). Nonetheless, the modern UI does expose an underlying file system when you run a search from the Charms bar.

For example, if you run a file search for the term sushi, youll find every documentimage, text file, whateverwith sushi in its filename, whether that doc belongs to a modern Windows 8 app or a desktop app. This is particularly handy when youre looking for saved email attachments.

iOS does include a search function, but it parses a drastically limited set of values. For example, search for sushi in iOS, and the function only reports back a list of installed apps with sushi in their names, as well as Notes and Calendar entries that include sushi in their text strings. This is not a full file system search, because, well, iOS doesnt let you create fully accessible, eminently manageable files.

But the work isnt over on Microsofts end. It shouldnt relegate the full power of its file system to just the desktop. Id love to see greater file-management features in the modern UI soonand maybe they'll come soon if Microsoft adopts a yearly update schedule for its mobile OS. Apple and Google refresh annually, and Microsoft should too.

Internet Explorer

The new Internet Explorerthe version sitting on the Start Screen at leastis better than Safari, full stop. More screen real estate is devoted to browser content, as tabs and the address bar are hidden from view until invoked. In the new IE, theres also integrated search in the address bar, a flip ahead feature that lets you zip through multi-page articles with a finger swipe, and a color-coded, icon-driven Favorites design that doesnt rely only on text.

This last feature not only looks cool, it also makes it easier to quickly locate the Favorite youre looking for (except in Windows 8, web pages are Pinned for easy retrieval, not designated as Favorites).

Finally, Internet Explorer for the modern UI has a screaming-fast rendering engine. During my own anecdotal testing, I found page load times to be faster in IE, and screen redraws to be even zippier than the already fantastic performance of Safari. Someday soon, the PCWorld lab testing will (hopefully) validate my experiences.

Will the Windows Store ever include Chrome or Firefox apps so Windows 8 users can test IE against the other mobile competition? We just dont know. And therein lies the biggest flaw of Windows 8, if not its Achilles heel in the battle with iOS: Microsofts mobile platform doesnt include even a tiny subsection of all the wonderful third-party apps that make iOS so attractive to mainstream users and hardcore nerds alike.

Its a problem for Microsoft, and its one of the key factors that gives me pause when I consider whether to reach for the new iPad or Windows 8 hardware when its time for tablet action.

Source: pcworld.com

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Google says mobile payments growing fast but won't catch on overnight

It will take three to five years for the technology to become common in the U.S., a Google executive said

Mobile payments with Google Wallet are growing fast, but the road to wide acceptance of NFC in the U.S. will be slow, the head of Google's payments unit said Friday.

The number of NFC (near-field communication) transactions with Google Wallet doubled in the first six weeks after the Aug. 1 launch of a cloud-based version, and that trend has continued, said Osama Bedier, Google's vice president of wallet and payments, in a session at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in San Jose, California. He didn't say how many payments that is, however. Google has never quoted an exact number of transactions, and Bedier stuck to that practice.

"We feel like we're making a huge difference on transaction volume," Bedier said in an on-stage conversation with Rajeev Chand of investment bank Rutberg & Co.

However, mobile payments won't be an overnight success, he said. "We didn't think NFC was just going to happen in a single year. This is a three-to-five-year game," Bedier said.

U.S. consumers have shown limited interest in mobile payments because the country has a well-developed credit-card ecosystem, analysts say. Payments with NFC require hardware and software in both handsets and point-of-sale terminals. In addition, there are three systems competing, each with a different set of strong backers.

In addition to Google's NFC payment technology, part of its overarching Google Wallet program for virtual wallets, there are systems being promoted by big mobile operators and by retailers. The ISIS consortium, which includes AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA, plans to launch its platform in two cities on Monday. In August, a group of stores including Walmart, Target and 7-Eleven formed their own mobile payments network, Merchant Customer Exchange.

"The problem is, there's a lot of ideas and not a lot of problems being solved," Bedier said. "There's room for multiple solutions ... but each solution has to have a value proposition."

Any good mobile payment system needs to help consumers save time and money, make purchases seamless, and work everywhere, Bedier said.

Google enabled NFC in its Android OS in 2010 and was an early adopter of NFC chips in its own handsets, but the company is still looking for support from more mobile operators, according to Bedier. The ball is in their court, he said.

"To make NFC successful, the carriers should come along," Bedier said. "I think we've been very reasonable ... but they have to see eye to eye with us on the approach."

Bedier still expects NFC to catch on in the long term. "I do believe, five years out, you'll have NFC in almost every phone and almost every terminal," he said. When that happens, checkout lines will start to disappear as shoppers will be able to complete at least half of their store purchases without going to a checkout counter, he said.

Source: computerworld.com

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After Google disappoints, Page points at future growth chances

Google's earnings fell, and the company missed Wall Street expectations, but the CEO sung an optimistic tune

Google CEO Larry Page tried to put a positive spin on his company's poor third-quarter financial results, which were released prematurely Thursday and triggered a panicked stock sell-off before trading was abruptly halted.

During a conference call with financial analysts, Page said the quarter had been a strong one and that Google has big opportunities for growth, especially in mobile advertising.

"As we transition from one screen to multiscreens, Google has enormous opportunities to innovate and drive ever higher monetization," Page said, referring to the popularity of smartphones and tablets.

To back up his claim, Page said that Google's annual run rate of mobile-related revenue is US$8 billion, mostly composed of ad sales but also containing revenue from the purchase of content, like books, movies and music, and of applications on the company's Play store.

"That's quite a business," he said.

The seed for this was planted back in 2005 when Google launched its Android mobile OS, he said, adding that there are now half-a-billion Android devices worldwide, and that 1.3 million are activated daily.

Still, it was a strange, convulsive day for Google, whose printing service provider RR Donnelly mistakenly released the company's financial report hours early, delivering bad news to investors in the middle of the trading day.

Google's revenue grew, but earnings dropped and the company missed Wall Street expectations, unleashing a massive sale of the stock. When trading on the Nasdaq was halted shortly before 1 p.m. Eastern Time, its shares were trading down a little more than 9 percent.

The stock resumed trading shortly before the close of market and ended the day at $695.00, down 8 percent.

Google took in revenue of US$14.10 billion for the quarter, ended Sept. 30, up 45 percent year on year. Subtracting commissions and fees paid to advertising partners, revenue was $11.33 billion, below the consensus expectation of $11.86 billion from financial analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

Net income was $2.18 billion, or $6.53 per share, down from $2.73 billion, or $8.33 per share, in 2011's third quarter. On a pro forma basis, which excludes certain items, net income was $3.01 billion, or $9.03 per share, well below the consensus estimate of $10.65.

Google was affected by a combination of heightened costs and weaker ad prices.

Paid clicks, or the clicks on search ads that advertisers pay for, rose 33 percent year on year. However, the cost of paid clicks, or the money Google charges when someone clicks on an ad, fell 15 percent.

Costs that included data center operating expenses, amortization of intangible assets, content acquisition costs and credit card processing charges rose to $3.78 billion, or 27 percent of revenue, compared to $1.17 billion in the third quarter of 2011.

In addition, the commissions and fees Google pays to partners, known as Traffic Acquisition Costs (TAC), increased to $2.77 billion from $2.21 billion.

Stock-based compensation expenses also increased year on year, to $715 million from $571 million.

Meanwhile, Motorola Mobility, whose $12.5 billion acquisition Google closed in May, had an operating loss of $527 million on revenue of $2.58 billion. In addition, restructuring and related charges recorded in the Motorola business were $349 million, and the related tax benefits were $76 million.

Other Google executives joined Page in singing a happy tune, including CFO Patrick Pichette, who said he was pleased with the business' "growth trajectory." Pichette said Google's numbers were also adversely affected by "currency headwinds."

Nikesh Arora, Google's chief business officer, reiterated the mobile opportunity, and said the company's enterprise software business, including Google Apps, "continued to thrive" during the quarter.

Google is hard at work at improving its mobile advertising technology, Page said, in part to make it much easier than it is today for marketers to manage their mobile ad campaigns.

Google ended the quarter with $45.7 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term marketable securities.

Source: computerworld.com

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Google offers new 11.6-in. Samsung Chromebook for $249

Some analysts say it is really a netbook and won't sell wel

Google today announced a new low-priced clamshell-style Samsung Chromebook computer for $249 that runs the Chrome OS.

With an 11.6-in. display, a full-sized Chrome keyboard, overall weight of 2.5 pounds and a Samsung Exynos 5 dual-core processor, some analysts immediately called it a netbook instead of a full laptop.

That netbook moniker has negative connotions that could hurt sales, analysts said. Netbooks are seen as basically focused on browsing the Internet and accessing applications and data in the cloud instead of accessing on-board apps that are used offline. The new Samsung Chromebook will ship Wi-Fi-only.

"I don't see any benefit of getting a Chromebook," said Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates. The new device "is basically a netbook with a Web-based OS on it. Why not just buy an Android device and actually be able to use plenty of apps?"

Gold said that a cost-conscious buyer might find $249 attractive for the new Chromebook, especially if it runs some Google apps. "But for another $100 or so, you can get a full laptop running Windows. That's a much better deal," Gold added.

Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said Google might not call the new device a netbook, a category that hasn't done well in the last year. "The light computing experience of the device in a clamshell form factor says netbook, whatever you call it," she said.

Gartner has projected "small volumes for Chrome in the consumer market," Milanesi added. Eventually, Android and Chrome should merge, she said.

"Consumers do not want to choose between apps and Internet; they want both," she added. "The $249 is certainly an interesting price point, but consumers have been burned with netbooks and will be cautious and look beyond the price tag."

Other device makers have backed off netbooks, sometimes in favor of tablets or ultrabooks, including Lenovo in February and Dell last year.

Intel said earlier this year that it would supply netbook processors as long as the processors continued selling in significant volumes.

There are some avid supporters of Chrome and Chromebooks, including JR Raphael, a Computerworld blogger. who has seen the latest device and plans a full review.

Raphael has evaluated earlier Chromebook models, including the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook and Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook.

Even though Raphael said the Chromebook is close to a traditional netbook, it is a fairly unique concept that has been underestimated and that "people seem to either love or hate." Chromebooks have been compared to thin clients and have been used in schools and businesses and in areas such as call centers because those organizations don't have to pay for software updates or complex set-up.

"For people who already live in the cloud and mainly rely on Web-based services like Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, [the Chrome OS] eliminates much of the hassle of traditional computing," Raphael said. "No annoying drivers, no ridiculous OS updates, no crashes and conflicts and viruses."

Google said the 11.6-in. display will have a 1366 x 768 resolution. There will be 16GB of internal storage and 2GB of RAM, with a six-hour-plus battery.

Source: computerworld.com

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