GOOGLE has launched a localised version of its Chrome Web Store, which offers apps made by local developers. Best accessed via Google’s own speedy Internet browser Chrome, the store is located at the link http://chrome.google.com/webstore.
A Google staff showing off the localised Chrome Web Store apps
(2) Attendees of the DiGi CyberSAFE Programme launch in Terengganu
(3) MOL Global PR and Communications manager Shyla Sangaran with the new look Friendster
(4) Creative Advances’ CEO Rohizam Md Yusoff (second from left) and chief marketing officer Joanna Liao (third from left) at the launch
The Chrome Web Store apps are classified under Business Tools, Education, Entertainment, Games, News Weather as well as Social Communication, among others. Some of the local apps available are from AirAsia and Maybank, as well as popular Malay tech portal Amanz.my.
According to Sajith Sivanandan, country manager of Google Malaysia, the Chrome Web Store has expanded into more than 30 countries and more
than 200 million people around the world are using the Chrome browser.
“A check with GS Statcounter indicates that Chrome is used by 44 per cent of desktop Internet users in the country. With the launch of a localised Web Store here, we hope to see tens of thousands of local apps on the Chrome Web Store for Malaysians in the future,” says Sivanandan.
He adds that Google also has plans to heighten the awareness of Chrome Web Store among local developers here.
Chrome Web Store also offers extensions and themes for customising a user’s web browsing experience. One of the extensions is PrayOnTime, which displays the Islamic prayer times for the user based on his location. Themes, on the other hand, offers changing backgrounds on the Chrome browser for a personal touch.
2. Online safety awareness
DIGI Telecommunications held a series of workshops at its Community Broadband Centres located around Terengganu recently to raise awareness on online child safety.
The workshops are part of the DiGi CyberSAFE Programme.
Jennifer Neal, DiGi’s head of Eastern Region said as a leading enabler of Internet in the country with over five million active mobile Internet subscribers, the company feels responsible to educate communities around the country to ensure that they have a safe, family-friendly Internet experience.
“While we encourage local children and communities to explore the wonders of the Internet, we also need to equip them with practical knowledge on how to stay safe online. DiGi will continue to work closely with the Ministry of Education, CyberSecurity and Childline to raise awareness of this important issue.”
This Terengganu leg of the programme marks its first outreach to communities in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The programme that kick started in Klang Valley in November 2011, has since reached 2,300 students, teachers and parents from 117 schools in the Klang Valley, Putrajaya, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Johor and Malacca.
Through DiGi CyberSAFE Programme’s partnership with Childline Malaysia, children are also provided with access to the 15999 Childline, a 24-hour telephone helpline for children to call should they encounter online threats.
For more information on the DiGi CyberSAFE Programme, visit www.cybersafe.my/dcp.
3. Redesigned Friendster targets hip gamers
MOL Global has unveiled a new-look Friendster, with new features and a strong focus on games.
Ganesh Kumar Bangah, MOL’s group chief executive officer, says the new Friendster is positioned as a social discovery and gaming platform that also offers rewards to users.
“We currently have four million unique active visitors every month and we are targeting to increase this number to 10 million a month by year end,” Ganesh says.
Friendster offers high quality social games with a library of 56 titles along with tools for connecting, chatting, playing and competing with other players. It also leverages on MOL Global’s strength in online payment services to offer
Friendster Coins payment system for users to buy items within a game and pay for other content, as well as allow developers to monetise their apps.
“I do not agree with the opinion that Asian gamers and app users do not like to pay for their contents. At MOL where Asia is our strongest market, we even have ‘whales’ who spend over RM1,000 a month for their games, and on average we earn between RM150 and RM200 per month per user,” Ganesh says.
At the launch, Ganesh also highlighted two spin-off media products that are based on the Friendster brand, which is the Friendster iCafe and Friendster hotspot.
The Friendster iCafe is a cybercafe management system which integrates cybercafe computers, customers, accountings and billing needs into one, while the Friendster hotspots allow retailers to add free WiFi infrastructure to enhance customer experience.
In Malaysia, Friendster hotspots has helped outlets such as Starbucks, Old Town White Coffee, Kenny Rogers Roasters and Papa John’s offer WiFi connectivity to their customers.
Through the Friendster local developer programme, developers can make use of Friendster’s comprehensive application programming interface to build, test and deploy games to Friendster’s players.
“I hope to see more local developers develop games for the 4.5 million active Friendster users,” expresses Ganesh.
4. SOTA gets new brand identity
CREATIVE Advances Technology has announced a new brand identity for its online travel portal SOTA.travel in line with its objective of making travel packages worldwide more accessible to everyone online.
SOTA is now known as Smart Online Travel Assistant. There’s not only a change in the logo but a new look and feel.
The new look is aimed at presenting SOTA as a more consumer-focused online travel portal, moving from the initial focus of providing an online platform for the sellers in the travel industry to one that focuses on reaching the buyers in the travel market.
The revamped travel portal, www.sota.travel, comes with improved navigation and seamless user experience for the travel buyers. The portal also incorporates other value-added features such as tips for travellers, recommendations on travel bargains as well as weather forecasts and calendars for smarter planning.
The rebranding exercise includes a media blitz between May and October via print and online media channels.
A mid-year school holiday promotional travel campaign was also launched during the announcement of the new brand. The campaign runs from May 17 to 31and features attractive travel packages to destinations such as Bali, Phuket, Osaka and Australia.
PanARMENIAN.Net – Google Chrome has been long expected to leapfrog Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) to take its position as the Web’s most used browser and, according to data from Statcounter, the momentous change of leadership happened last week, The Next Web reports.
The firm’s latest figures – spotted by Global Nerdy blogger Joey deVilla – show that Chrome’s line of usage creeped overtook IE’s for the first week ever, with Firefox, Safari and Opera completing the top five respectively.
Statcounter’s findings give Google a double win, after the analytics site found that its mobile browser – Android Robot – had leapfrogged Opera to become the most popular option for mobile-based Web surfers in March.
Measuring the Web is an imprecise science, very often based on scaling up small scale measurement surveys, but the gist of Statcounter’s data over the last year indicates that Chrome use is rising of Chrome at the expense of IE and Firefox, regardless of the exact precision of the data.
Statcounter first found Chrome to be ahead for just one day, back on March 18, and its breakdown of browser usage over May to date puts Chrome and IE almost neck-and-neck at around 33 percent for the month. However, given that last week saw Chrome push ahead, May could become the first month during which the Google-owned browser has been the most popular option.
Google Chrome has come on leaps and bounds since launching in 2008. Extensions are a key part of the browser’s appeal, with the latest additions including a scheduler for Google+, a Pinterest like script and these further 9 recommended extensions.
Google is big on internationalising its service and Chrome is now different. For example, its My Chrome Theme social tool just became available in 36 more languages, to help increase its appeal across the planet.
Microsoft isn’t taking the challenge lying down and Statcounter recently suggested that the latest version of IE (9) is making progress, and is seeing particularly marked usage over the weekends.
Regardless of whether Chrome can maintain its momentum over the rest of May to top the month’s use, Chrome is on the up and we’d expect it to reign supreme in the Web browser world sooner rather than later.
Article source: http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/108311/
Tags: Android Robot, Global Nerdy, Google Chrome, IE, Internet Explorer, Net Google Chrome
GOOGLE has launched a localised version of its Chrome Web Store, which offers apps made by local developers. Best accessed via Google’s own speedy Internet browser Chrome, the store is located at the link http://chrome.google.com/webstore.
A Google staff showing off the localised Chrome Web Store apps
(2) Attendees of the DiGi CyberSAFE Programme launch in Terengganu
(3) MOL Global PR and Communications manager Shyla Sangaran with the new look Friendster
(4) Creative Advances’ CEO Rohizam Md Yusoff (second from left) and chief marketing officer Joanna Liao (third from left) at the launch
The Chrome Web Store apps are classified under Business Tools, Education, Entertainment, Games, News Weather as well as Social Communication, among others. Some of the local apps available are from AirAsia and Maybank, as well as popular Malay tech portal Amanz.my.
According to Sajith Sivanandan, country manager of Google Malaysia, the Chrome Web Store has expanded into more than 30 countries and more
than 200 million people around the world are using the Chrome browser.
“A check with GS Statcounter indicates that Chrome is used by 44 per cent of desktop Internet users in the country. With the launch of a localised Web Store here, we hope to see tens of thousands of local apps on the Chrome Web Store for Malaysians in the future,” says Sivanandan.
He adds that Google also has plans to heighten the awareness of Chrome Web Store among local developers here.
Chrome Web Store also offers extensions and themes for customising a user’s web browsing experience. One of the extensions is PrayOnTime, which displays the Islamic prayer times for the user based on his location. Themes, on the other hand, offers changing backgrounds on the Chrome browser for a personal touch.
2. Online safety awareness
DIGI Telecommunications held a series of workshops at its Community Broadband Centres located around Terengganu recently to raise awareness on online child safety.
The workshops are part of the DiGi CyberSAFE Programme.
Jennifer Neal, DiGi’s head of Eastern Region said as a leading enabler of Internet in the country with over five million active mobile Internet subscribers, the company feels responsible to educate communities around the country to ensure that they have a safe, family-friendly Internet experience.
“While we encourage local children and communities to explore the wonders of the Internet, we also need to equip them with practical knowledge on how to stay safe online. DiGi will continue to work closely with the Ministry of Education, CyberSecurity and Childline to raise awareness of this important issue.”
This Terengganu leg of the programme marks its first outreach to communities in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The programme that kick started in Klang Valley in November 2011, has since reached 2,300 students, teachers and parents from 117 schools in the Klang Valley, Putrajaya, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Johor and Malacca.
Through DiGi CyberSAFE Programme’s partnership with Childline Malaysia, children are also provided with access to the 15999 Childline, a 24-hour telephone helpline for children to call should they encounter online threats.
For more information on the DiGi CyberSAFE Programme, visit www.cybersafe.my/dcp.
3. Redesigned Friendster targets hip gamers
MOL Global has unveiled a new-look Friendster, with new features and a strong focus on games.
Ganesh Kumar Bangah, MOL’s group chief executive officer, says the new Friendster is positioned as a social discovery and gaming platform that also offers rewards to users.
“We currently have four million unique active visitors every month and we are targeting to increase this number to 10 million a month by year end,” Ganesh says.
Friendster offers high quality social games with a library of 56 titles along with tools for connecting, chatting, playing and competing with other players. It also leverages on MOL Global’s strength in online payment services to offer
Friendster Coins payment system for users to buy items within a game and pay for other content, as well as allow developers to monetise their apps.
“I do not agree with the opinion that Asian gamers and app users do not like to pay for their contents. At MOL where Asia is our strongest market, we even have ‘whales’ who spend over RM1,000 a month for their games, and on average we earn between RM150 and RM200 per month per user,” Ganesh says.
At the launch, Ganesh also highlighted two spin-off media products that are based on the Friendster brand, which is the Friendster iCafe and Friendster hotspot.
The Friendster iCafe is a cybercafe management system which integrates cybercafe computers, customers, accountings and billing needs into one, while the Friendster hotspots allow retailers to add free WiFi infrastructure to enhance customer experience.
In Malaysia, Friendster hotspots has helped outlets such as Starbucks, Old Town White Coffee, Kenny Rogers Roasters and Papa John’s offer WiFi connectivity to their customers.
Through the Friendster local developer programme, developers can make use of Friendster’s comprehensive application programming interface to build, test and deploy games to Friendster’s players.
“I hope to see more local developers develop games for the 4.5 million active Friendster users,” expresses Ganesh.
4. SOTA gets new brand identity
CREATIVE Advances Technology has announced a new brand identity for its online travel portal SOTA.travel in line with its objective of making travel packages worldwide more accessible to everyone online.
SOTA is now known as Smart Online Travel Assistant. There’s not only a change in the logo but a new look and feel.
The new look is aimed at presenting SOTA as a more consumer-focused online travel portal, moving from the initial focus of providing an online platform for the sellers in the travel industry to one that focuses on reaching the buyers in the travel market.
The revamped travel portal, www.sota.travel, comes with improved navigation and seamless user experience for the travel buyers. The portal also incorporates other value-added features such as tips for travellers, recommendations on travel bargains as well as weather forecasts and calendars for smarter planning.
The rebranding exercise includes a media blitz between May and October via print and online media channels.
A mid-year school holiday promotional travel campaign was also launched during the announcement of the new brand. The campaign runs from May 17 to 31and features attractive travel packages to destinations such as Bali, Phuket, Osaka and Australia.
Article source: http://www.nst.com.my/life-times/tech/pixels-localised-chrome-web-store-1.85935
Tags: Chrome Web Store, GOOGLE, Klang Valley, Peninsular Malaysia, Redesigned Friendster, SOTA
Google has updated its Chrome browser, adding the ability to sync browser tabs across multiple devices to make a single session of Chrome accessible as you move from desktop, to mobile, and back again.
The update has also come to the Chrome Beta for Android.
The update marks a milestone for Chrome on Android, which is quickly overtaking the original Android browser in terms of features. Unfortunately, Chrome Beta is only available to those running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which currently accounts for only around five percent of all Android devices. If you can use the Chrome Beta, enabling Tab Sync is possible by signing in to your Chrome account and opening a new tab, where you’ll find the new “Other devices” menu. The process is identical on the PC version of Chrome.
As of now, Chrome is available on PC, Mac, Linux, and Android, leaving iOS users unable to try Chrome Mobile and the Tab Sync feature. However, this could change in the near future, with some predictions that Google will launch Chrome for iOS devices this year.
Source: Google Chrome Blog
Here’s a quick video from Google introducing the new Tab sync feature.
Article source: http://www.gizmag.com/chrome-tab-sync/22602/
Tags: Chrome Beta, Google Chrome, PC, Tab Sync
Craig Palli is vice president of Client Services Business Development at Fiksu (@fiksu), which helps brands boost iOS and Android mobile app ranking and secure large volumes of loyal users. You can find him on Twitter @cpalli.
Thriving with Google Play
Apple’s planned phase-out of the UDID has introduced considerable angst in the app marketing community. The UDID provides a standard, widely supported method for attributing performance of advertising campaigns. Unfortunately, there’s no single solution to replace the UDID and it appears the iOS market is fragmenting, with multiple technologies vying for developer attention. This is making it difficult for app developers to allocate their resources.
With all this uncertainty, some marketers are looking more closely at Google Play to fuel their continued growth in mobile. Unfortunately, many marketers are sidestepping Android development based on several published reports indicating that Apple’s iOS monetizes significantly better. Savvy marketers know that high-level statistics often mask a much more complex reality. While we’d never suggest that the iOS market be ignored, once you do the math you may find that Android represents a much more compelling (and profitable) opportunity than you thought.
Here’s why and how you can thrive with Google Play.
Bigger yet cheaper…
For sheer size, the Android platform has no equal. According to Nielsen, Android has more than 48 percent of the smartphone market, versus 32 percent for iOS. Google indicates there are 850,000 Android device activations per day and total Google Play app downloads have reached more than 15 billion. App search firm Xyologic reports that in March 2012 there were 617 million app downloads on Android versus 393 million app downloads on iPhone in the U.S.
Android also provides more advertising inventory, and at a lower cost. A recent analysis Fiksu did of available impressions concluded Android is able to deliver 12 percent more ad inventory than iOS. Further, the estimated cost of those impressions was 40 percent lower.
Android Advantages
Android also has a number of practical advantages over iOS that make it a great environment for market testing and quick rollout. Since there is no app approval process, you can quickly iterate your design and determine what features or offers work best. Updating an app can take weeks with iOS due to Apple’s submission and approval process.
In some ways, Google Play is also a more accessible market. Competition in the iOS sphere is extremely intense. Marketing any app is challenging, but the explosion of new apps and changes in Apple policy have made breaking a new app into the iOS market a much tougher hill to climb. Xyologic reports they “have seen the momentum of iOS for app publishers slow down considerably in the last 5 months. Several key performance indicators we track are down, especially the amount of new apps which make it to the Top 100. We view this as evidence of the new challenges the Apple environment puts on app marketers.”
Unlike iOS, where rank is critical and often expensive to attain, Google Play has a strong search engine that makes it easier for interested users to find your app. Our experience is that 80% of the organic users in Google Play come from searches.
Finally, Android also solves the problem of marketing attribution, since it provides referrer information that anonymously identifies the source of a download. This is a single industry-wide solution that provides reliable data, yet balances the need for user privacy. You know exactly where your ad dollars go. You know exactly what is and isn’t working. And there’s none of the data ambiguity or user experience issues seen with some iOS tracking solutions.
What About Monetization?
Of course, the big concern about Android is monetization. There’s clearly a gap: an oft-quoted post last December by Peter Farago of Flurry indicates Google Play monetization is roughly 24 percent of that of iOS. It’s important to note that the gap is closing. Flurry notes that the biggest factor behind the gap is payment mechanisms, and expects this situation to improve with the integration of Google Wallet and Google Checkout. Evidence of improvement has already surfaced: app research firm Distimo indicates it saw an 80 percent improvement in average daily revenues for the top 200 US apps between December 2011 and March 2012. Furthermore, in a post titled Treat Android as a first-class citizen… it’ll pay off! TinyCo noted that Average Revenue Per Paying User (ARPPU) for Google Play and iTunes is about the same as iOS, and found that Amazon performance surpassed that of iOS by a significant margin.
Beating the Averages
One problem with the monetization statistics on Google Play is that they cover the “average” experience. We’ve seen that if you target users effectively and you employ the right development strategy, Android apps convert and generate loyal users at roughly the same rate as iOS apps. More significantly, they do so at a lower acquisition cost.
In Q1, Fiksu conducted a study of six clients running the same apps on both iOS and Android to determine differences in acquisition cost and loyal usage conversion rates. (Loyal users are those who return repeatedly to an app and are most likely to monetize.) The cost of acquiring an install was 24 percent lower for Android than iOS. Given the monetization issues noted above we expected a higher conversion from installs to loyal users for iOS. Instead, what we saw was that once a user was acquired, the loyalty rate was exactly the same for both platforms. The only difference was that the cost of acquiring those users on Android was 24 percent lower.
There are, however some exceptions where iOS does beat out Android. For example tablet based shopping apps are an area where iOS excels. Other than the Kindle Fire, there is no Android-based tablet that can challenge the iPad. Further, payment processing is stronger on iOS. Fiksu data shows that for such apps loyalty is far stronger on iOS. However, these issues are being addressed in the market and those shopping apps that move to Android now will have a significant early mover advantage since Play’s algorithm rewards total downloads and usage.
How to Thrive with Google Play
It’s clear that there are many apps that are struggling in the Google Play environment, yet some are doing extremely well. Here are factors that we’ve found have made for a successful Android implementation:
Good design has its rewards: A key to rising above the averages is simply to design for Android. Many developers port iOS apps to Android as an afterthought, resulting in a sub-optimal or even buggy user experience. ESPN for example, shared during a recent webinar that their ported apps originally did not perform to expectations. When they took the approach of developing specifically for each environment, they found that performance was on par with iOS. Another example is game developer TinyCo. who specifically ascribes its aforementioned success with Android to taking “the Android pledge” to treat Android as a first class citizen. The result was that TinyCo doubled its market opportunity.
Prioritize device and OS support: With the large number of form factors in Android, developers can find themselves stretched trying to determine what devices to support. Fortunately, a subset of roughly 20 devices makes up about 80 percent of the volume for Android, so the problem is more manageable than one might suspect. Similarly, more than 90 percent of Android devices are addressed by supporting OS version 2.2 and later.
Look forward: In hockey, there’s a saying “skate where the puck is going” (not where it is now.) The monetization issue that has received so much press is being addressed as more consumers adopt Google payment mechanisms. As noted above, there are already indications that this situation is improving rapidly. In addition, Google’s rank algorithm benefits longevity yielding an early mover advantage for apps debuting on Play sooner.
Leverage lower customer acquisition costs: The enormous scrum of developers scrapping over the iOS marketplace has resulted in higher acquisition costs. Android presents an opportunity to develop market share and test new strategies at a lower cost.
Best Practices
The following best practices will maximize the return on an Android implementation. Here are some practical tips for success:
- Maximize search potential in your app title: identify your most successful keywords and make sure to include them in your app title. In fact, this is so critical to success (potentially 80 to 100 places in your search ranking), that you should seriously consider removing your app name from your title and focus your description on the best keywords. Include the app name in the body of the app description – users will still be able to find it by name. Unlike iOS, the body description is searched under Google Play.
- Use, but don’t overuse, keywords: try to use the best keywords at five times the body of your app description. This can affect search ranking from 10 to 20 places. Anything over five times has no additional benefit, so don’t overdo it.
- Test your search parameters: the above recommendations are guidelines based on accumulated experience, but search results can vary based on many factors.
- Steady efforts work best: Google Play’s ranking algorithm is tilted towards long term user acquisition – apps that acquire and retain satisfied users are rewarded with higher ranks. Advertising campaigns should be run over a longer term and sustained over two to three months, as opposed to the short bursts of activity often seen in the iOS market.
- Use closed loop attribution and target long term users: since retained users have an important impact in ranking, use closed loop marketing to ensure you are identifying and utilizing ad sources that bring loyal users.
- Don’t be afraid to experiment and test market your strategy with Android. You can apply these learnings to your iOS versions and reduce your costs and risks.
Conclusion
The ecosystem continues to provide an unprecedented growth opportunity for mobile app brands. While there are several options that iOS-centric developers may explore to maintain their growth in the wake of UDID deprecation, perhaps the biggest opportunity has nothing to do with iOS at all. Android offers a bigger overall market, increased amounts of marketing insight, lower user acquisition costs and, in many cases, users who are at least as engaged as their iOS counterparts. Perhaps it’s time that we all thrived with Google Play.
Fiksu, Inc. is a new marketing technology company. Fiksu® for Mobile Apps is the company’s first solution designed to help mobile app brands achieve their business goals faster and more cost-effectively. Based in Boston, MA, Fiksu, which means ‘smart’ in Finnish, is venture-backed by Charles River Ventures. The company was born from Fluent Mobile, developer of the Fluent News app.
Learn more
Android smartphones rock, but whether you use Avast, Lookout, the new Sophos, or another freebie antivirus/security app, you better lock and load to protect your Android before you become a victim and a stat.
Android, once dubbed a “cyber menace,” is too popular, too juicy and potentially too lucrative of a target for malware writers to ignore. In fact, a new F-Secure report suggests malware writers are getting craftier by creating Trojanized apps that can defeat antivirus detection. F-Secure released its latest mobile threat report [PDF] concerning the first quarter of 2012 and Android malware has grown exponentially. Since a year ago, the number of new malware variants have quadrupled and the number of malicious Android application package files (APKs) had a “staggering” increase of “139 to 3063 counts.” (See also “Tips for a Malware-Free Android Smartphone.”
According to F-Secure:
Today what we’re seeing are malicious Android applications that have bundled legitimate apps such as Rovio’s Angry Birds Space. First the malicious “wrapper” tricks and manipulates the user into granting permissions that allow the malware to subscribe to premium rate services. But then….then malware actually does install a working copy of the promised game. At this point, there is little to be suspicious of and nothing to troubleshoot. The user gets the game that he was promised.
Avast put together this comparison chart of free antivirus Android apps.
After identifying a fake antivirus scam making the rounds on Twitter, GFI blogged about the growing Android malware threat; if this rogue antivirus APK file is downloaded, it shows the Kaspersky logo. “Such Tweets are equally accessible to computer (desktop, laptop, and tablet) and smartphone users. There is no doubt, however, that smartphone users on Android**are particularly targeted by these spam.”
A new NSA mobile risks fact sheet [PDF] said the newer generation of smartphones are more resistant to cyberattacks, but also listed the attack categories against mobile devices, including vectors, sophistication level of effort required to deliver the mobile cyberattack, and mitigation.
Screenshot of the free Sophos security app
Meanwhile the Sophos Mobile Security team announced, “To help you better safeguard your Android phone and tablet, Sophos just published Sophos Mobile Security for Android [BETA] in Google Play.”
The Privacy Advisor comes with three different filters which can be turned on individually or all turned at once to list apps “that may cause costs, harm your privacy, and access the Internet.” The scanner protects against malicious apps “and other risks” and detects “even the recent fake antivirus nasty, which attempts to send expensive SMS messages to premium-rate services.” F-Secure’s Mikko Hypponen warned about this type of mobile malware two years ago in “You will be billed $90,000 for this call.”
The loss and theft portion of the Sophos app requires Sophos Mobile Security to be activated as the device administrator to locate or lock a lost or stolen Android. When asked about permissions, Graham Cluley explained:
Some folks have asked why the app requests rights to send SMS messages and access your contacts. When you do a remote lock or locate, the app sends you an SMS with latitude/longitude or confirmation that the lock was successful. Access to contacts is required because the user specifies from which other phone numbers they might wish to remotely lock/locate their missing Android. You can choose those numbers from your contacts.
Sophos, Avast Offer Apps
Do you use a freebie antivirus app to protect your Android smartphone or tablet?
Besides Sophos Mobile Security Beta, which currently has a 4.9 average rating from 18 users, of the freebies, Lookout Security Antivirus has a 4.5 average rating and is installed on 303,730 Androids.
I liked Lookout but the privacy and safe browsing are not free.
avast! Mobile Security has a lot of free features that most security apps do not.
Google Play lists it as having an average rating of 4.7 from 47,590 Android users. The firewall only works for rooted mobile phones. It’s like some kind of unpleasant mantra that mobile malware is on the rise and Android smartphones are dead-center in the crosshairs.
See also Antivirus and Security apps PCWorld’s Downloads section.
Article source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/255875/3_free_apps_to_guard_android_from_malware.html
Tags: GFI, Google Play, NSA, PDF, SMS, Sophos Mobile Security
Technology giant Microsoft claimed victory this weekend as the International Trade Commission (ITC) issued its final determination in Microsoft’s Android infringement case against Motorola, ruling Motorola violated a Microsoft patent related to ActiveSync, a mobile data synchronization technology and protocol developed by Microsoft, originally released in 1996. The technology is licensed to a number of mobile device companies, including Apple for iOS.
The ruling affects eight individual Motrola Mobility handsets which run Google’s Android operating system, including the popular Droid 2 and Droid X smartphones, as well as the Backflip, Charm, Clip, Devour, i1 and Cliq XT. “Microsoft started its ITC investigation asserting 9 patents against Motorola Mobility,” Motorola spokeswoman Jennifer Erickso said in an emailed statement. “Although we are disappointed by the Commission’s ruling that certain Motorola Mobility products violated one patent, we look forward to reading the full opinion to understand its reasoning.”
A Bloomberg article reported that Motorola Mobility could appeal the ruling or cut a licensing deal with Microsoft in order to avoid altering the software on its phones. The company is currently being acquired by Google for $12.5 billion, a move that would give Google a hardware arm, as well as inheriting a broad array of wireless technology patents that could provide useful cover against its rivals’ legal assault on Android. “These cases usually end up with the parties settling,” Charlie Wolf, an analyst with Needham Co in New York, told the news service. “I would expect Motorola to get together with Microsoft to resolve this.”
According to the ITC filing, the Commission instituted the investigation on November 5,2010, based on a complaint filed by Microsoft titled In the Matter of Certain Mobile Devices, Associated Software and Components Thereof, 337-744. The final ruling was delivered to President Obama as well as the U.S. Trade Representative, where Obama has the decision to either support or override the decision, based on public policy grounds.
“Microsoft sued Motorola in the ITC only after Motorola chose to refuse Microsoft’s efforts to renew a patent license for well over a year. We’re pleased the full Commission agreed that Motorola has infringed Microsoft’s intellectual property, and we hope that now Motorola will be willing to join the vast majority of Android device makers selling phones in the US by taking a license to our patents,” David Howard, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for Microsoft, said in an emailed statement.
Article source: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Microsoft-Wins-Patent-Suit-Against-Motorola-Android-Handsets-808814/
Tags: Charlie Wolf, ITC, Jennifer Erickso, Motorola Mobility, Motrola Mobility, Trade Representative
You don’t have to get on Windows 8′s Metro ride.
Some people are still sure Windows 8 is going to be the cat’s meow. I’m sure Windows 8 and its Metro interface will be more like a cat’s yowl of pain. The more I look at Metro, the more I’m sure that Microsoft’s new desktop will flop as badly as the Facebook IPO.
It’s not just me. Business analysts, who could care less about technology but care a lot about what customers think, are saying things like “Windows 8 will prove to be a disappointment.”
Windows users who were already unhappy about having to learn Metro, which doesn’t work or look a thing like Vista and Windows 7’s Aero interface never mind XP’s familiar appearance, are finding out there’s more trouble ahead for them. Windows 8 will cost more at launch to upgrade to from Windows 7. DVD playback and media-center functionality will now be an extra-price option.
Oh as for Metro-friendly applications, here’s what Matthew Baxter-Reynolds, an independent software development consultant, speaker, author, and trainer and all around Windows guru who’s writing the book “Programming Windows 8 Apps with C#” had to say: “does Metro actually work? In my opinion: No.”
I don’t care if your most prized possession is an autographed copy of Bill Gates’ The Road Ahead, you have got to be wary of moving to Windows 8. So what can you do to avoid, or at least delay, the day you have to start using it?
1. Stick with Windows XP
OK, so your PC is getting a little older, but it’s still working isn’t it? According to some estimates, most PC users are still using XP. Certainly hundreds of millions of users are still using it. If it’s not broke, why fix it?
Well, there is one reason: On April 8, 2014, Microsoft says it will officially end support for XP–and Office 2003 while they’re at it. Of course, Microsoft has extended XP’s life support before. Today, they swear they wouldn’t do it again. But, if say 20% of users still have XP running in their PCs in 2014… well let’s just say I won’t be surprised if Microsoft has a change of heart.
2. Stick with Windows 7 or move to it
So, let’s say its 2012’s holiday season and all the new PCs are coming out with Windows 8, what do you do? You don’t ask, you demand, Windows 7 instead.
Yes, I’m a Linux guy, but if you really want Windows, and I know most of you do, Windows 7 SP 1 is easily the best version of Windows to date. Yes, it’s not the same as XP. There is a learning curve. On the other hand, while it’s not as safe as Linux, Windows 7 is a lot more secure than XP. There are also plenty of useful, easy to-use tools to move your XP data and applications to Windows 7.
3. Move to a Linux or Mac Desktop
Since Microsoft wants to force a radical change on you, why not really make a change and move to Linux or a Mac? The Linux desktop is great for both power users and for users who just need a computer for the basics. Specifically, I think XP users will find Linux Mint with the Cinnamon interface to be inviting. And, Ubuntu 12.04’s Unity interface is much easier to use than Metro. Heck, my 80-year old mother-in-law is a successful Ubuntu user!
Macs, of course, are Macs. They’re pricy, you’re locked into Apple’s hardware and software in ways that Steve Ballmer can only dream about, and, and, gosh they’re pretty and easy to use. Well, easy to use so long as you do exactly what Apple thinks you should be doing anyway.
4. Move to the cloud with Google’s Chrome OS.
Chrome OS hasn’t really caught on yet, but I think Google’s Chrome OS is a real alternative to Windows for many users. It’s not so much Chrome OS itself, it’s the whole concept of being able to use a Web browser and the cloud for everything you need to do and that you want to do instead of a fat client desktop operating system.
Think about what you’re doing today. Web-browsing, e-mail, IM, VoIP, maybe using Google Docs, whatever, how much of that actually requires that you use a local application? If 99% of what you’re doing on your computer can be done on the Web, what more than you really need than the Chrome Web browser, or-and there’s the point–an operating system like Chrome OS, which is just the Chrome Web browser running on a barebones Linux structure?
5. Use an iPad or Android tablet instead.
Microsoft really wants people to switch to Windows 8, and its close cousin Windows RT smartphones and tablets. I’m not holding my breath. I actually think Windows 8/Metro on Intel actually makes sense–Windows RT, which doesn’t have Active Directory support, not so much. Metro looks and works better on a tablet than it ever will on a desktop. There’s just this one little problem: People love iPads and they’re getting fonder of the Android tablets with their lower price tags. If I were a Microsoft fan, I’d worry if there’s any room left in the market for a Windows 8 tablet.
At the same time, as Microsoft is painfully aware, tablets are becoming popular as desktop replacements. As ZDNet’s own James Kendrick points out, “It is now possible to get a full day’s work from almost anywhere, without compromise,” on a tablet.
So, come the day you go to a Best Buy and all you see is Windows 8 PCs from one end of the store to the other, just remember you do have other, better, options.
Related Stories:
No Windows 8 DVD playback will mean increased costs, and consumer confusion
Windows 8 will “disappoint”: Analysts cut price targets on HP, Dell
Windows 8 Pro upgrade for new PC buyers set at $14.99
Windows 8’s five biggest enemies
Five Reasons why Windows 8 will be dead on arrival
Article source: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/five-ways-to-avoid-windows-8/11007
Tags: Chrome OS, Chrome Web, DVD, PC, Related Stories, XP
The 2012 Bowman Chrome Bryce Harper Superfractor has surfaced on eBay. While it may not have the same prestige as his earlier Superfractors, it’s still getting lots of attention, and bids, from collectors.
Ending on Tuesday, the Bryce Harper Superfractor currently sits at $3,300 based on 28 bids from 16 different bidders. The card comes from the recently released 2012 Bowman Baseball.
With the somewhat ambiguous title, “bryce harper bowman chrome superfractor 1/1 WOW!” it could lead to a potential bargain as doesn’t draw much attention to itself. It’s also not very clear, not being up front about the card’s year.
This is the second Bowman Chrome Bryce Harper Superfractor to pop up on eBay in recent weeks. The 2011 Bowman Chrome Bryce Harper Superfractor ended early earlier this month. All bids were cancelled beforehand. Just a couple of weeks earlier, the same card was listed on eBay but ended up being sold offline. Graded 9.5 by BGS, the 2011 Bowman Chrome Bryce Harper Superfractor will likely remain the most iconic.
The first Bowman Chrome Bryce Harper Superfractor is from 2010 and pictures the outfielder as a member of the USA Baseball team. It sold in October, 2010 for $12,500.
A 2011 Bowman Platinum Superfractor featuring autographs from both Harper and Jameson Taillon is also being offered on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $2,600. Although Bowman Platinum doesn’t carry the same clout as the Bowman Chrome brand, the fact that the card is signed still makes it stand out from other Superfractors.
The 2012 Bowman Chrome Bryce Harper Superfractor is the latest to turn up for sale on eBay. Other high-end 2012 Bowman Chrome Superfractor sales include autographs from Dante Bichette Jr. ($2,500), Tommy Joseph autograph ($1,535) and Eddie Rosario ($1,499).
The teenaged phenom continues to bring a lot of attention to the Washington Nationals and baseball in general. While Harper’s batting average has dipped, he has still been involved in several dramatic moments. Through 20 games, the first overall pick in the 2010 MLB Draft has 17 hits, two home runs and five runs batted in.
Harper’s first official rookie card arrives as a short print in 2012 Topps Archives Baseball, which is officially released on May 23.
2011 Bowman Bryce Harper Prospect Auto **MINT** (BP1)
$249.99
2012 BOWMAN CHROME REFRACTOR BRYCE HARPER NATIONALS #BCP10 442 500
$11.61
BRYCE HARPER RED COOL BASE JERSEY SIZE 52
$41.00
BRYCE HARPER RED COOL BASE JERSEY SIZE 48
$41.00
2012 BOWMAN CHROME PROSPECT BRYCE HARPER REFRACTOR 208 500
$14.99
1 – Bryce Harper MiLB – etopps
$19.95
2011 Topps MLB MEGA Box+EXCLUSIVE Bryce Harper Refractor RC+Bowman Chrome HOBBY
$16.99
2012 Bowman Bryce Harper Blue Border RC #d 500 + 11 Chrome Bowmans Best +
$18.00
2011 Bowman MLB F S 18 Pack Jumbo Rack Box+AUTOGRAPH !-Look for Bryce Harper RC!
$88.88
BRYCE HARPER 2011 BOWMAN CHROME RC ROOKIE GREEN XFRACTOR
$18.49
2012 BOWMAN BASEBALL HOT PACK GUARANTEED AUTO AUTOGRAPH! BRYCE HARPER?
$15.00
BRYCE HARPER 2011 Bowman Bowman Chrome (5) card ROOKIE LOT (RED, GOLD)
$29.99
Article source: http://www.cardboardconnection.com/baseball/2012-bowman-baseball-bryce-harper-superfractor
Tags: Although Bowman Platinum, Chrome Bowmans Best, Dante Bichette Jr, Eddie Rosario, Tommy Joseph, Washington Nationals
First quarter numbers from IDC showed that Android tablet shipments declined in Q1-12 from Q4-11, while Apple cruised ahead, reasserting dominance of the tablet market. Looking a bit deeper, we see that Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, a deviation from Google Android, is becoming dominant, and all the tablets from Samsung, Moto/Google, and other mainstream CE and PC manufacturers are losing share. This looks like a disaster for Android.
Android Tablet Market Share: Dec-11 to Feb-12; Data via Comscore.
It is a disaster for Google’s Android tablet strategy, which seems to boil down to producing a better product with much the same value proposition as Apple’s iPad. The high-end Android tablets that are positioned right against the iPad (Moto Xoom, Samsung GalaxyTablet) are losing ground. Asus, Acer, and Toshiba, which have more of a value strategy, are hanging on. The others have failed to make a mark.
However, Amazon has created a whole new market with the Kindle: defined by simpler hardware and software, $200 price point, and linkage to the Amazon content platform and brand.
There’s more to this market than the Comscore numbers show, because Comscore does not consider Barnes Noble’s Nook to be a tablet, although it’s functionality is similar to the Kindle. Other sources indicate that Nook sales are a large fraction of Kindle sales.
And, the lower-priced market is seasonal (more of a gift market) than the iPad. Analysts expected a Q1 dip in sales; it does not indicate that the category is going away.
Most important, there is a wave of competing tablets coming at the sub-$200 price point. Amazon has shown that there is demand for this class of product. The open source code for Android 4.x (Ice Cream Sandwich) was released in late 2011. OEMs are working hard to launch new sub-$200 products based on the new OS. This produced a pause in Q1 and Q2 but will bring forth a surge of new offerings in the summer. A new wave of Chinese ODMs and CPU chip companies are entering the market with cost structures that are lower than the Taiwanese and Korean OEMs and ODMs who produce the bulk of products in the market today. They will offer products that retailers can sell well below $200 with a normal margin.
And, Amazon has created an app store and content services that many of these products will use. Amazon is, after all, primarily a content company; the Kindle is a platform for selling content. Google/Android has limited access to its content platform (“GMS” = Google Mobile Services) to a select few OEMs, the ones losing share in the chart above, in its attempt to raise the quality of Android products and directly attack Apple. This held the second tier Android OEMs back, until now.
I’m disappointed that Android tablets are not having more success in the enterprise. I expected that the highly functional and open Android OS would attract developers to build enterprise applications. This has not happened yet, and Apple has done a great job in this segment.
But, don’t count Android tablets out. A wave of new, lower-priced products are coming for the fall selling season, and the game in the enterprise is far from over.
Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddhixon/2012/05/18/are-android-tablets-dead/
Tags: CE, CPU, Google Android, IDC, Moto Google, PC
