Tuesday, November 6, 2012
iOS 6.1 features needed beyond Siri
8:54:00 AM
Unknown
Apple has now pushed out an official update to iOS 6.0.1 for supported devices, but already consumers are looking forward to the next major update with iOS 6.1. We’ve just heard that Apple plans to add even more functionality to their Siri personal assistant, but should the company be focusing on improving other areas first?
Siri seems to one of the first areas that Apple looks at when providing new iOS 6 updates for iPhone and now iPad users. We saw during Apple’s iPhone 5 event that consumers will soon be able to use the Passbook app to seamlessly book and store boarding pass information when travelling through busy airports.
Now, Apple is again following on from this functionality, by bringing full support for purchasing movie tickets within Siri on the forthcoming iOS 6.1 update. When the update is out, you will then have the ability to ask Siri to buy movie tickets for a particular movie, with Siri understanding commands for relevant movie times as well.
Information uncovered in the iOS 6.1 beta has revealed that the new movie service will make use of the Fandango application to purchase tickets. If you don’t have the app installed, Siri will prompt you to do so before moving on to the payment process. Unsurprisingly though, not everyone is going to be happy with the new features, especially those outside of the US as this is another feature that will be exclusive to US residents for the time being.
Not every theater is supported by Fandango service either, with Siri displaying a movie tickets icon next to theaters that are supported for instant payments on an iOS device. Considering that this is yet another US only feature, we would hope that Apple are planning some other major improvements to iOS 6.1, features that will work universally across all iOS 6.1 devices in all countries.
Opentable is a great feature for US residents, but Apple really should be trying hard to make the same features available in other countries. OpenRice is a great application for Hong Kong residents, which basically provides the same services as OpenTable – so what is the hold up Apple?
On a more pleasing note, we’re also hearing that improvements to Apple maps are coming in iOS 6.1 as well, which are badly needed as anyone who has used the current app will agree. Even Tim Cook has recently admitted that the Maps app needs some work, with many consumers probably wishing that the Google Maps app still remained as an alternative option.
What are your thoughts on the US-only movie ticket features within iOS 6.1? Do you agree that Apple needs to start providing features that work across all countries? After having spent a good deal of time with iOS 6.0.1, what would you like to see in iOS 6.1?
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Source: product-reviews.net
Hotmail no more: Gmail is now the world’s most used email service
8:46:00 AM
valgeo
Pity poor Hotmail, finally ousted from worldwide email service control by Google's Gmail after eight years of competition.
Sorry, Microsoft: The rein of Hotmail is finally over, with the long-lived email service finally being knocked off of the top spot when it comes to the most-used email service on the Internet last month by Google’s Gmail offering.
Originally launched on July 4 1996 as one of the first web-based email services – Its launch was tied to American Independence Day, as the service promoted itself as offering users “freedom” from ISP-based email and email addresses - Hotmail was purchased a year later by Microsoft for an estimated $400 million, and rebranded as MSN Hotmail (Later becoming “Windows Live Hotmail” in 2006/2007). Despite becoming the butt of many online jokes for its ubiquitous quality and age, Hotmail has been continually revised, upgraded and refined by Microsoft, with the company even going so far as to introduce an “all-new” update a year ago that mimicked many of the features that won users over to Google.
That, sadly, wasn’t enough to allow the service to maintain user dominance. According to a ComScore report for October – first made public by GigaOm – Gmail usage finally rose above that of Hotmail last month worldwide. This isn’t the first time that this shift has been reported; Google quietly boasted about it happening way back in June of this year, in the middle of a blog post about cloud computing when it announced that it had “more than 425 million active users globally.” However, ComScore disagreed with that number more than a little, claiming at the time that it only had 289 million users active worldwide. ComScore Vice President Andrew Lipsman explained the discrepancy by saying that “there are going to be some users that are left out” of its calculations, as it only tracks home and business use, meaning that Internet access via smartphone or other mobile device, or Internet cafe access, would be missing from their figures (Google, when asked about the difference in estimates, commented that it doesn’t comment on third-party numbers).
Now, however, it appears to be official: Gmail is the king of web-based email services even by third-party metrics. This, apparently, is down to a fall in email provider numbers overall, with Gmail’s simply seeing less attrition than either Hotmail or Yahoo and coming out stronger as a result (It’s perhaps worth noting that Microsoft introduced Outlook.com as its Hotmail replacement in July; I wonder whether adding Outlook and Hotmail users together for October would provide Microsoft with overall control of the market?).
It’s less of a contest when it comes to American email service use, and more of a surprise who wins that particular battle: Yahoo, which has 40.8 percent of the US market, compared with Gmail’s 36.7 percent, or to put that in real numbers, a 7 million user difference between the two (Hotmail languished in far third place, with 18.9 percent of the US market).
Source : digitaltrends
Instagram Introduces Web Profiles
8:43:00 AM
valgeo
Two years after it arrived on the iPhone, Instagram launched a web companion for users of its photo-sharing and filtering app Monday.
The most striking thing about the new web profiles, which are being gradually rolled out to users, is its resemblance to Facebook Timeline. An animated, rotating mosaic of Instagram photos occupies about the same amount of space as Facebook Timeline’s Cover photo; a small profile image, short bio and follower stats are situated just beneath. Photo thumbnails are organized in reverse-chronological order further down the page; click on one, and it’ll appear at full size alongside likes and comments.
For the first time, users can like and leave comments on photos from the web, and follow new users as well.
Profiles’ resemblance to Timeline is not particularly surprising given that Instagram was acquired by Facebook this past September for $715 million. It does suggest that deeper integration between the two networks may come in future iterations.
You can see if your profile is up by typing in instagram.com/username, a la instagram.com/nike (pictured above), or instagram.com/palomaparrot.
Source : mashable
Apple's iOS 6.0.1 still has Wi-Fi bugs
8:39:00 AM
valgeo
The latest version of Apple's new operating system for iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touch, iOS 6.0.1, is still giving some Apple device users Wi-Fi fits.
You'd think by now, seven weeks after Apple released iOS 6, the technology giant would have fixed all this major mobile operating system's Wi-Fi networking problems. Wrong.
Customers are still reporting that Wi-Fi is completely inaccessible with a grayed out Wi-Fi option even after the recent 6.0.1 update. As before, this problem seems to strike Apple iPhone 4S users far more often than other users. Any Apple device running iOS 6.x may be vulnerable though.
Officially, Apple's suggestion is the usual 'reboot and pray' litany:
If you encounter this issue, try the following steps and attempt to enable Wi-Fi or Bluetooth after each one.
1. Verify that Airplane Mode is off.
2. Restart your iOS device
3. Update your iOS device
4. Reset Network Settings, by tapping Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings
5. Restore your iOS device in iTunes.
And if that doesn't work? Contact Apple or your mobile carrier. Good luck with that.
There is still another Wi-Fi problem if you're using your iDevice on a closed network or automatically connect to a virtual private network (VPN). Brett Glass, founder of LARIAT.NET, a Laramie, WY-based ISP specializing in wireless broadband, reported:
In iOS 6, Apple assumes that the only reason you would want to connect to Wi-Fi is to access the Internet, and that all hotspots authenticate users via a Web server. Both assumptions are wrong. When you connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot using Apple iOS 6, it starts a browser and assumes that if you need to log in, you will immediately do so via that browser.
Switch the context away from the browser (e.g. by pressing the "home button") before the device is able to contact Apple via the Internet, and the OS disconnects you from the Wi-Fi.
At our hotspots, users first connect to the Wi-Fi network and then activate a secure VPN connection that provides them with privacy (all of the Wi-Fi encryption schemes are easily broken) to "tunnel" out to the Internet. But they cannot do this on iOS 6. When they switch away from the browser and go to the "Settings" app to start the VPN, they find that they've been cut off from the Wi-Fi and cannot make a VPN connection.
Anyone who wants to connect to a private network (i.e. one that doesn't offer Internet access) and use a program other than the browser -- such as an SSH client -- also cannot do so. This makes iOS 6 useless to anyone who wants to run apps strictly on an internal network, including administrators configuring equipment.
This problem, Glass said, did not exist in iOS 5.x. "We have lots of users happily operating on iOS 5. We have tried to caution them not to upgrade."
For all that many users have upgraded to iOS 6.x, until Apple gets its Wi-Fi act together, Glass' advice is good for anyone who depends on Wi-Fi on their iPhone 4S or use their iDevices in any tightly secured Wi-Fi network.
Source : zdnet
Monday, November 5, 2012
Beware Android Users! 100K Android Apps Make You Vulnerable
12:47:00 PM
Unknown
The company examined more than 400,000 Android apps and found that 72 per cent use at least one high-risk permission.
Monday, November 05, 2012: Are you one of those who keep clicking ‘Allow’ while downloading an app without thinking too much? Well, you could be at risk. Bit9, a security vendor has termed 100,000 applications in Google Play as questionable or suspicious. The way they define their doubts is the way these apps request permissions, categorisation of the application, user rating, number of downloads and the reputation of the application's publisher.
The company examined more than 400,000 Android apps and found that 72 per cent use at least one high-risk permission and 42 per cent access your GPS location data, including wallpapers, games and utilities. Thirty one per cent gain access to your phone calls or phone numbers and 26 per cent access personal data, such as contacts and e-mail; and 9 percent use permissions that can cost the user money, eWeek reported.
According to the company report, “Our research shows that 26 percent of apps in Google Play have access to personal information such as contacts and email, and in our survey, 96 percent of employers, who permit personal devices to access their networks, allow employees to connect to company email and contacts. So as more companies allow their employees to access their organizational data from personal devices, employers must recognise the threats to their intellectual property posed by unmonitored devices.”
Most users do not pay close attention to the permissions applications are requesting, Harry Sverdlove, CTO of Bit9, told eWEEK. In addition, the problem is compounded by the fact that allowing permissions is an all-or-nothing proposition if a user wants a particular app, he said.
Source: news.efytimes.com
Samsung Galaxy S4 display size is critical
9:53:00 AM
Unknown
The past couple of weeks have seen some solid rumors arrive for the Samsung Galaxy S4, which is pegged to be the only Android device likely to beat the S3 success, but we’re not liking some of the Galaxy S4 display size suggestions that seem to be in direct conflict with what the majority of users want. It is fair to say that the Note 2 has carved out its own niche of becoming both your tablet and smartphone, although there is no need for Samsung to send the screen size of the Galaxy S4 in this direction as well.
Samsung Galaxy S4 display size is critical – there have been a few rumors pointing to a screen size of around 5-inches for the Galaxy S4, which resulted in forums and blog comments being filled with users stating they’d “never buy the Galaxy S IV with a display size at or above 5-inches“. It is understandable why the majority of users seem to have these feelings, which is due to each Samsung Galaxy device needing to fit in and also keep the gap between display sizes.
Insight into the Galaxy S4 horse power can be read in our article here, which looks at a number of signs pointing to the EXYNOS 5250/5450 chip being used in the next Galaxy smartphone, although it is worth pointing out these rumors started back in January and look pretty solid. The link to the article above includes a video showing how long ago the EXYNOS chip rumors started.
Towards the end of last month we also looked at other Galaxy S4 specs that could happen, and after dissecting a number of sources claiming insider information it seemed that the most likely screen could be a 4.8-inch OLED with edge-to-edge technology. Take a look at that article here, although we’d love to hear what your ideal screen size would be for the Samsung Galaxy S4? Do you have a maximum display size, and anything after this would be a no-go for you?
At the time of writing there has been no confirmation of a release date for the Samsung Galaxy S4, although numerous reports are claiming that February next year is looking likely. Considering Mobile World Congress 2013 runs Feb 25-28, we’d expect a March/April launch for the Samsung Galaxy S4 to be on the cards.
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Source: product-reviews.net
Apple Publishes New Samsung Acknowledgement
9:36:00 AM
valgeo
You probably know about the back and forth in the UK regarding the acknowledgement Apple had to publish on its website. The initial text was found to be improper and the court ordered Apple to replace it, something which happened recently in the printed media too.
Now Apple’s website features not one but two acknowledgements. The first one, at the bottom of the front page, contains a link to the legal text alongside the lines: “On 25 October 2012, Apple Inc. published a statement on its UK website in relation to Samsung’s Galaxy tablet computers. That statement was inaccurate and did not comply with the order of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales”.
The new acknowledgement text can be found in the image above (the same as the text printed), and, in comparison, find the new version of the text in the image below. If you’re trying to find differences as in wording, you will not, as Apple has only removed references to other rulings. Basically the new acknowledgement is the old one sans paragraphs two, three, four, and six.
Source : pocketnow
Facebook getting more proactive on privacy awareness
9:03:00 AM
valgeo
Facebook has taken a lot of hits in the past about not being totally crystal clear with users about privacy policies, whether they have to do with data sharing, automatic opt-in features, and more.
Thus, the world's largest social network is trying to get a little proactive with its privacy strategy -- at least for new users.
The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company announced in a blog post on Friday that it is rolling out new privacy education features for new users when they sign up for Facebook.
The information itself isn't new, but the manner in which it is presented is the upgrade. Facebook now highlights and zooms in on a lot more on the nitty-gritty details about sharing and what might or might not be public to a person's friends.
This includes specific spotlights on tagging people in content, how they interact with apps and games, and even how ads work on the site.
This also includes in-line privacy controls for customization based on the audience, whether it be for high school classmates or employers.
Facebook cited that it did get some help with setting this education platform up from the Irish Data Protection Commissioner's Office, the regulatory oversight agency for Facebook's services outside of the United States and Canada.
Interestingly, while Facebook is trying to step up its efforts for spreading privacy awareness, some users who have been on Facebook longer left comments on the announcement blog post asking for where their extra help is. Considering there are already a billion people on the social network, that's quite a few people they might have missed with this education campaign.
Source : zdnet
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Efficient Power Amplifier Could Double Battery Life of Smartphones
2:30:00 PM
valgeo
