Posted on July 7, 2011, at 2:04 PM .
The average consumer simply doesn’t care about security today, but they will in 5 years. You can’t go an entire week without reading a story about the Chinese Government or some hacker group trying to access an individual or corporation’s private data. As smartphones become more ubiquitous, users are going to buy more of the smartphone platform that affords them more protection against malware and potential theft of personal data.
Recently, Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security warned that clicking on an infected PDF file “is sufficient to infect the mobile device with malware without the user’s knowledge” on several versions of Apple’s iOS operating system. A statement filed said that cyber criminals could access confidential information such as passwords, online banking data and emails.
Posted on July 7, 2011, at 1:47 PM .
Recently, Captain Johnathan Springer of the US Army developed a really cool iOS app that can pinpoint the coordinates of enemy gunfire. Traditionally, pinpointing enemy gunfire is the support of a fire support officer, and involves a compass, binoculars, a map, a protractor, a GPS device – a secondary GPS device in case one fails – and batteries. A smartphone can replace all of these tools and provide much more, making it the perfect combat tool for a soldier.
Smartphone apps also have the ability to save the military lots of money where it tends to be wasted. Logistics, bureaucracy, communication, and training can all be improved with apps used in the field. Currently, Springer’s app is sold in the App Store for $5.99, but a wholesale purchase by the Department of Defense could make this app readily available.
The biggest hurdle for smartphone apps in the military is probably choosing a device and making sure it’s secure. Although Springer’s Tactival NAV app is developed for iOS, the BlackBerry would make the best platform for military apps. How cool would a modern BlackBerry in an Otterbox Defender Series case be in the field? The military could empower smaller, special forces divisions such as the Green Berets with BlackBerrys and the latest military apps. It would surely make them a more effective fighting team. Or maybe we could just see more smartphones used in Hollywood military movies like the Nokia X7 in Transformer.
Posted on July 6, 2011, at 3:31 PM .
We’ve taken 2 apps that are new to each smartphone and we’ll be posting this type of roundup every now and then. It’s fun to see what’s popping up on other platforms and as most developers are interested in more than one platform these days, it might prove inspirational. There also seems to be a difference in the types of applications that appear on each smarpthone and these roundups should begin to reveal the difference in what you can expect app-wise from each platform. For example, BlackBerry apps are generally much more about adding new features and contextual menus than iOS apps which are more about games and media. Click through to check out new apps on each platform.
Continue reading ‘New Apps on iOS, Android and BlackBerry: ComicBook!, Google+, Checkin King and More’
Posted on July 6, 2011, at 1:43 PM .
Nielsen recently released some statistics showing games as the most downloaded app category. Users on iPhone and Android tend to download games and apparently most BlackBerry users are similar to feature phone users in that they tend to play what’s preloaded. This speaks volumes to the fact that there is still a significant number of BlackBerry users out there that don’t know or care about App World and are using the device simply for communication. It also shows that RIM needs to do a better job of both promoting App World or updating the device with better game preloads.
According to the research, the average mobile gamer plays an average of 7.8 hours a month. Those with iPhones tend to play around 14.7 hours each month while those with Android devices play around 9.3 hours per month. Just behind the Games category is the Weather app category, with 60% of users saying they have downloaded a weather app over the past 30 days. In third place is social networking apps, with 56% of users having downloaded one in the past month.
Although the Games category is the most popular when taking into account all smartphones, it probably isn’t the most popular on BlackBerry. In general, BlackBerry users played the least amount of games, and it’s possible that social, weather and utilities would fair better than games.
For more charts and info, head over to the Nielsen blog.
Posted on July 4, 2011, at 3:03 PM .
The hacker group Anonymous has hacked into one of Apple’s servers used to process technical support follow-up surveys. The hack has revealed some 27 usernames and passwords and while the hack hasn’t revealed any customer data, it does expose internal passwords and usernames. What’s more interesting is whether the hacking team has managed to hack into Apple’s iCloud service. According to Lulzsec representatives: “After mapping their internal network and thoroughly pillaging all of their servers, we grabbed all their source code and database passwords, which we proceeded to shift silently back to our storage deck.” A hack of the iCloud service could really affect Apple once the service is more popular.
The usernames and passwords are available on Pastebin.
Posted on June 28, 2011, at 1:52 PM .
Taipei, Taiwan
Taiwan’s consumer protection laws stipulate that all consumers are entitled to a seven-day trial period after purchasing any products via Internet. This law apparently extends to apps as well, and the Taiwanese government has already fined Google Tw$1,000,000 ($34,600) for refusing to grant customers their trial period. Apple has already changed its Terms of Service in order to be compliant with local law and Google has given consumers 15 minutes to decide whether they want a refund after buying an app. BlackBerry apps are also being sold in Taiwan but there hasn’t been any word on whether RIM has been forced to change its Terms of Service to be compliant as well.
