Android Basic Terminologies

Android Basic Terminologies
What is Android?
In a layman’s term, Android is operating system that runs on primarily on mobile platform (Cellphone/tablets). It certainly is not the hardware that you get when you purchase a phone.

Architecture of Android
Before I go in depth about ROM and Super User, let me tell you a little about the architecture of android. For any computational device to work there needs to be certain element which interacts with the hardware. Hardware alone can’t do a thing unless it is directed to. This direction/interaction with the hardware is done through the innermost layer of the operating system known as kernel. The Kernel inside android is a fork of present day Linux Kernel.

The layer above kernel is what gives the kernel instruction to perform specific tasks. For instance if your click on the browser icon on the launcher, the input is interpreted by kernel (as it interacts with hardware) but what to do with this input is understood by the next layer, which is application. In this case the launcher. So the question is how does launcher work? It doesn’t directly work with kernel, instead there is an intermediate called Dalvik Virtual Machine which runs these applications. If you are familiar with Java you will understand this quite easily, but if you don’t get it don’t bother.

In short, hardware interacts with kernel which interacts with Dalvik virtual machine which interacts with applications, and all these together combined is called ROM.

ROM, RAM and Firmware
ROM stands for Read Only Memory, there are many kinds of ROM, some which can be erased, some that can be programmed. ROMs are used to store the entire stack that I mentioned above. Whole Kernel, DVM and Applications are stored in these ROM, hence the name.

There is quite a difference between ROM and RAM so don’t get confused. On one hand ROM is like a permanent storage, RAM is the temporary storage. It stores the run time data that is generated during processing.

And, if you hear someone say something about ‘firmware’ don’t get confused because ROM and Firmware are almost the same.

What is Rooting? Who is a Super User?
If you are an avid ‘Linux/Unix’ user then I don’t need to answer these, but for others let me put it this way. If you have read till now you would realize that Linux Kernel is in the heart of this device. So all the inherent features of operating system would be same as Linux. Therefore which is the one user which can do anything/everything on a Linux system?

The answer is Root aka super user, and hence the term rooting.

Rooting gives you the rights/permission to do certain tasks on android which has inherently been blocked by the handset makers for both simplicity and security of the device. You might have noticed that when you install any application from android market, it asks for certain permissions. Similarly there are some applications which require system level permissions for them rooting is required.

There are different ways to root android (depending on the version), but we will not deal with them here.

Flashing the ROM
As you might know, Android is an open source initiative and anyone can go ahead and build his/her own custom operating system for their handset. There are numerous developers working on building their own versions of Android. One of them that we mentioned previously is known as Cyanogenmod. There are many such ROMs built for many different devices, and process of installing these on the handset is commonly knows as flashing. The process of flashing varies from handset to handset and ROM to ROM. It isn’t a difficult task, but certainly requires lots of research.

I think this should be enough for the basics, though you should know about some common terms used in relation to android.

Deodexed – If you are new to flashing and modding, don’t bother with this one. It is for those who venture a little deep into it. And if you are really interested in knowing what exactly it is you read about it in this excellent article at addictivetips.com.
Partitions – Don’t get confused when someone says ‘ROM partitions should be ext4 or Reiserfs’. Partitioning is dividing the internal memory of the handset, and ext4/reiserfs are the file systems. Like in case of Windows, fat32 and ntfs.
Bootloader – Again, if you are linux user I don’t need to explain you this, but for the ignorant ones, bootloader is what loads the kernel into the main memory so that it can interact with hardware. I won’t go deep into how it works, but would point out that the moment your device starts the first thing that comes up after powering on is Bootloader, which loads the modules of kernel in memory.

Ok enough of complex stuffs, let me tell you about the applications you might need if you think of flashing.

Odin – Its a Windows application which interacts with the device at hardware level and can write on ROM (Read only memory) of the handset.
CWM – Clockwork Mod is an application installed on android device that manages the ROM(the stack) installed in the system. It can be used to install or backup the roms.

This is more than enough information for one read. If you wish to know more about your handset post your queries here and I will guide you to right place. Also for most of HTC/Samsung/Motorola phones the best place to venture is XDA Forum.

Facebook tracks what you do online even when you're logged out

Facebook tracks what you do online even when you're logged out

An Australian technologist has claimed that Facebook can track the web pages you visit, even when you are logged out of the social networking giant.

According to Wollongong-based Nik Cubrilovic, when the user is logged out of Facebook, rather than deleting its tracking cookies, the site merely modifies them, maintaining account information and other unique tokens that can be used to identify its users.

This simply means that any time you visit a web page with a Facebook button or widget, your browser is still sending personally identifiable information back to Facebook.

"Even if you are logged out, Facebook still knows and can track every page you visit," Cubrilovic wrote in a blog post.

"The only solution is to delete every Facebook cookie in your browser, or to use a separate browser for Facebook interactions," he added.

Cubrilovic said he tried to contact Facebook to inform it of his discovery but did not get a reply, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

He said there were significant risks to the privacy of users, particularly those using public terminals to access Facebook.

"Facebook are front-and-centre in the new privacy debate just as Microsoft were with security issues a decade ago," Cubrilovic said.

"The question is what it will take for Facebook to address privacy issues and to give their users the tools required to manage their privacy and to implement clear policies - not pages and pages of confusing legal documentation, and 'logout' not really meaning 'logout'," he added. (ANI)

4G wait till early next year

4G wait till early next year

High-speed mobile and Internet services, using fourth-generation (4G) technology, will be rolled out only by early next year as operators are still in talks with equipment vendors.

Operators are expected to finalise contracts by the third quarter of 2011 (October-December) and start rolling out services by early 2012, "when consumer demand and operator ecosystem will be in place".

"By the end of this year, the entire ecosystem for effective rollout of 4G in India will be in place, including handsets, data cards and networks," said Ying Weimin, president of GSM, UMT and LTE network at Huawei.

Long-term evolution (LTE) technology, or 4G, allows data downloads at higher speeds. Essentially, a four-minute song can be downloaded in four seconds.

Beginning with metros and high revenue earning circles, 4G is expected to spread to other towns and cities and attain pan-India coverage over a period of two years.

"The business model that is emerging is that operators will sign up 2-3 equipment vendors and give rollout contracts for different telecom circles," said an operator gearing up to launch 4G. The potential deal size is expected to range between $250 million and $4 billion for a single contract.

According to industry experts, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries-owned Infotel, being the only pan-India 4G player, is expected to set the trend in service rollout and tariffs.

"All operators are waiting to see how Infotel forges alliances with vendors and deploys the new technology," experts said.

Infotel has won licences in 22 circles. Others to bag licences are Aircel (8), Bharti Airtel and Qualcomm (4), Delhi-based Tikona (5) and UK-based Augere (1).

Mukesh Ambani is likely to align Infotel's rollout with the global 4G road map, under which countries such as the US, South Africa and Latin America will go live between 2011-end and mid-2012, experts said.

Though the migration of millions of mobile users to the 4G network will initially be slow because of the lack of affordable LTE-enabled handsets and devices, industry players are optimistic about a fast uptake.

"Prices will gradually decrease as more subscribers opt for LTE. We experienced a surge in 2G and 3G mobile telephony with reduction in handset prices. The same can be expected of LTE in a shorter period because of the rapidly maturing ecosystem," said Mark Atkinson, head of global LTE sales at Nokia Siemens Network.

India starts blocking file storage websites in a move against piracy

India starts blocking file storage websites in a move against piracy

File storage websites such as Megaupload, Putlocker, Rapidshare are being blocked in India.

A thread started on a popular online forum focused on developments in Indian broadband has furious and surprised users sharing a list of websites blocked by their Internet service providers. Going through the thread and my Twitter interactions, India’s Department of Telecommunication is behind the block.

Some users say they are not able to browse the file uploading websites, others say they can access and download content. A screenshot shared by Sunny Chahal on Twitter confirms that the block is in effect. Some other users are seeing the same notice. The error message:

Users of popular Internet Service Providers MTNL, BSNL and Airtel have confirmed seeing the same error while visiting some or all of the following websites:

Megaupload.com
Mediafire.com
Megavideo.com
VideoBB.com
Novamov.com
Movshare.net
Rapidshare.com
Putlocker.com
Hotfile.com
Fileserve.com
Filesonic.com
Filesonic.in
Depositfiles.com
Wupload.com

The decision behind banning the websites looks like piracy. Most of these websites are widely used to share content production houses and record labels would want users to pay for. Users are comparing the ban to Internet rules in China. The Department of Homeland Security in the US also made definitive moves against piracy by seizing domains of websites hosting pirated content.

As of now there is no official word from the DoT, the story will be updated as we get more information.

Update: Reliance BIG Pictures obtained a court order to get the sites banned. Users are reporting that most of these websites are now working.

Multi-billion-dollar military computer system suffers bugs

Multi-billion-dollar military computer system suffers bugs

The Army’s $2.7 billion computing system designed to share real-time intelligence with troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq reportedly doesn’t work and efforts to fix it haven’t been successful, according to recent published reports.

In fact, the system has hurt, rather than helped, efforts to fight insurgents because it doesn’t work properly, POLITICO reported last month.

Recent comments from analysts came after the top military intelligence officer in Afghanistan and members of Congress tried for the past two years to get the Army to consider alternatives to the system, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.

Analysts and former officers reportedly have said the computer system is unable to perform simple analytical tasks, prone to crashes and frequently goes off-line.

"There’s a lot of bugs in the workflow," one of the officers said.

The Army computer system is a cloud-based network designed to collect information from multiple sources for real-time analysis by battlefield commanders, according to POLITICO. For example, a commander searching for an insurgent leader would benefit from being able to collect reports of that leader's locations and plot them on a map to make tracking easier. However, the search tool made finding the reports difficult and the mapping software was not compatible.

After seeing a memo from the top military intelligence officer in Afghanistan regarding the faulty system, lawmakers sought urgent funding in fiscal 2011 for an alternative system. According to Extreme Tech, the Army refused, and instead rolled out a software update that was meant to fix any issues. Unfortunately, according to the former intelligence officers, the system is still unusable.

While it’s not likely to solve the Army's computer woes, certain specialized computer tools can make a world of difference in average PC users' lives.

Several tools are available that automatically maintain your computer and help it retain peak performance.

Boost Weak Cell Service at Home: Your Options

Boost Weak Cell Service at Home: Your Options

Even the best wireless networks often can't deliver a consistent signal inside your house. Femtocells and repeaters will usually help, but they'll cost you.

The problem is familiar to many cell phone users: When you're indoors, even within your carrier's coverage area, the network's signal sometimes simply isn't strong enough to support voice calls or data services. With so many consumers ditching their landlines for cell phones, poor reception at home is no longer acceptable. Fortunately, a slew of products now address the problem, though they don't come cheap.

Ssignal-boosting products generally fall into one of two categories: femtocells or signal repeaters. Both types of equipment can deliver strong signals within buildings, but they work in fundamentally different ways.

Femtocells act as miniature cell phone towers that connect to a home network router and use your wired broadband connection to move voice calls and data services to and from your carrier's network. Femtocells don't rely on the carrier's towers at all, but because they use technology that can direct data and calls back to the carrier networks over the Internet, most of them are sold by the carriers themselves.

Repeaters and boosters, on the other hand, amplify and rebroadcast cell tower signals. Since they don't require carrier support, they tend to be manufactured and sold by third parties such as Wi-Ex (under the brand name ZBoost) and Wilson Electronics.
Understanding Femtocells

While repeaters have been around for several years, femtocells are relative newcomers to the mobile scene. Of the four major U.S. carriers, two--Sprint and Verizon--have been selling femtocells (under the brand names Airave and Network Extender, respectively) for the past few years; AT&T introduced its 3G MicroCell femtocell last year.

The first Sprint and Verizon Wireless femtocells supported only voice calls, but current models support high-speed data as well as voice. Sprint charges $130 for its Airave access point (with a two-year service plan); there's no additional charge for using Airave to enhance coverage with an existing plan, but Sprint does offer a $25-a-month unlimited calling plan for Airave calls--which might appeal to anyone who is considering dropping landline voice service. Current Airave access points support EvDO Rev. A 3G data speeds and up to six simultaneous calls.

Verizon Wireless charges $250 for its Network Extender, which also supports 3G data, and the carrier imposes no monthly service fee. AT&T sells the MicroCell for $150, also with no mandatory service fee; it also offer an optional $20-a-month unlimited calling plan, plus price breaks for customers who sign up for the company's DSL service.

The Beauty of the Femtocell

AT&T's 3G MicroCell, made by Cisco.

Femtocells appeal to consumers and carriers on several levels. Consumers like them because they provide immediate five-bar coverage across an area of up to 2500 square feet, regardless of how far you are from a cell phone tower. A strong signal typically means better voice quality, fewer dropped calls, and faster data speeds. Good signals also improve a phone's battery life, since its radios don't have to work as hard.

Femtocells are low-power wireless access points that operate within a licensed spectrum to connect standard mobile devices to a mobile operator’s network via residential DSL or cable broadband connections.

Another benefit: You can configure the femtocell to recognize and prioritize the phones you authorize, so neighbors can't mooch off your service at your expense. Interestingly, Verizon Wireless's FAQ for its Network Extender says that, though you can prioritize up to 50 Verizon Wireless numbers, the device will remain available to all Verizon Wireless subscribers within range when priority numbers aren't using it.

This brings us to a big reason why wireless providers like femtocells: They offload some of the expense that the carriers might otherwise incur in order to expand network capacity and/or coverage. Femtocells also help retain customers in locations where carriers can't significantly improve reception on their own (such as basements, suburbs that don't want new cell towers, locales with difficult topography such as steep hills and valleys, and skyscrapers with thick walls). In fact, forum posts indicate that Sprint has occasionally given customers Airave units to keep them from switching to another carrier.


Femtocell Weaknesses

Price aside, femtocells have some limitations. For one thing, you can use a femtocell only at the address where it is registered. To enforce that restriction, the FCC stipulates that all femtocells must be equipped with GPS receivers, and that they either must be placed close enough to a window to receive GPS signals directly or must be connected to a GPS antenna that can pick up the signals.

David Nowicki, marketing vice president for femtocell vendor Airvana and for the Femto Forum trade association, says that the FCC imposed the location restriction to enable carriers to track the femtocell's position and disable its operation in areas where the carrier doesn't own the frequencies that the femtocell supports and where, consequently, using the femtocell might interfere with another carrier's network. Even so, forum posts suggest that femtocells sometimes hurt neighbors' regular network reception when deployed in close proximity.

Then again, it’s not necessarily a bad thing that femtocells are aware of their location. That, coupled with the device's ability to recognize when an authorized phone is nearby, could enable carriers to offer customers additional services that go beyond improving reception, including 911 services.

Network handoff issues are another concern. You can start a call on femtocell service and then hand it off to the regular network as you leave the femtocell's coverage area (assuming that the nearest cell tower is close enough). But calls initiated on the regular network can't be handed off to a femtocell.

And finally, critics complain about having to pay for a service that essentially deliver what the wireless network is supposed to have provided all along. "It's a fair point," Nowicki concedes. But carrier spokespeople say that no carrier can provide coverage in all locations of its service area. Verizon Wireless spokesperson Thomas Pica describes the Network Extender as a "niche product," given that the vast majority of Verizon customers don't need one because of the carrier's robust network.

What about the broadband ISP that now gets to carry the wireless carrier's traffic? Nowicki says that the bandwidth consumption of mobile devices is tiny compared to that of most home and office networks. For that reason, femtocells don't impose a significant burden on the ISP, which in some cases is run by the same company as the mobile carrier anyway.
T-Mobile’s Approach

T-Mobile has taken a different approach to improving weak cell signals. Phones that support Wi-Fi Calling use UMA (Unified Mobile Access) technology to route calls over Wi-Fi hotspots. T-Mobile notes that this helps with calls made through any hotspot that its phones can access, and not just at a single location (which is the case with femtocells). However, T-Mobile's Android phones can't hand off calls made using Wi-Fi hotspots to T-Mobile's cellular network; other phones that support Wi-Fi Calling can. T-Mobile has no announced plans to introduce femtocells, but a spokesperson says that the carrier continues to review customer equipment options for improving coverage.


Repeaters and Boosters

Repeaters (also called "boosters")--the other class of products designed to improve poor cell reception--depend on at least a weak cell tower signal to amplify and rebroadcast. They work with specific frequencies, independent of carrier; some support more than one frequency. On the frequencies they support, repeaters improve both voice calls and data speeds.




Many repeaters have multiple parts, starting with an antenna that you place as close as possible to the strongest cell tower signal--typically, near a window or even outdoors. The antenna transmits signals over a cable connected to an amplifier, which boosts the signal and retransmits it indoors. In some cases, the amplifier and indoor antenna are integrated; in others, the amplifier hooks up to a separate, centrally located indoor antenna in the home or office. The area of coverage depends on the strength of the amplifier and of the signal being amplified.

Unlike femtocells, repeaters can't be configured to recognize specific phones. Consequently, the amplified signals benefit any mobile device within range that operates on the supported frequencies--though obviously the owner's devices are more likely to benefit than a neighbor's devices located farther away from the indoor antenna. It's up to you (with the help of your reseller) to ensure that your repeater kit amplifies the frequency or frequencies that your carrier uses in your area. You can get help in choosing the right repeater kit from specialty retailers such as wpsantennas.com or RepeaterStore.
Repeaters Don’t Come Cheap

Repeater kits can be more expensive than femtocells. Pricing depends on how large an area you want to cover. Wi-Ex's ZBoost line includes SoHo products that range in price from $169 to $399, and you can spend up to $600 for kits that cover areas larger than 2500 feet--the maximum handled by femtocells. On the other hand, Wi-Ex marketing vice president Sharon Cupett notes, there are no monthly fees for repeaters--and of course, no broadband service is involved.

Though repeaters rebroadcast over carrier-owned frequencies, they are legal if they don't interfere with cell tower signals (which is why repeater signals have limited strength). One way to avoid problems is to look for FCC-certified repeaters; some are still awaiting approval, however. Check with the reseller.
Repeater vs. Femtocell

Should you get a repeater or a femtocell? Generally, femtocells are a good match for cell phone customers with broadband service who don't want to pay $300 or more for equivalent repeater coverage and who want to avoid many of the antenna-positioning hassles that repeaters entail. You do need a GPS signal, but those are available pretty much everywhere. Cell tower sites with signals that repeaters can work with are probably less common. But if your carrier doesn't offer a femtocell, a repeater may be the only way to improve your indoor coverage.

iPhone 5 Rumor Review

iPhone 5 Rumor Review

July is half over and still no sign of The Next iPhone.

The iOSsphere has been seething over conflicting rumors about when It will be announced, and released, about unbuttoning, panning, and the masses who still long for whatever it is Apple will be announcing soon or not so soon but, whenever, not soon enough.

First an award: This week's "Most Creative Use of Pure Puffery in Advancement of Rumormongery" goes to the TFTS website. The site ran a "story" about the fact that an iPhone 5, or iPhone5/4S, or a prop or a fake (it used all these terms) appeared in the hands of a fictional CIA spy in the USA Network show "Covert Affairs."

SLIDESHOW: Inside iOS 5

"Of course we wouldn't necessarily call a poor TV prop a source, especially one that's featured in a TV show that has nothing to do with reality," writes Chris Smith.

Of course we wouldn't necessarily let that stand in the way of writing a story about it, especially one that has nothing to do with reality. We're dealing with rumors, after all. TFTS even posted an image captured from the TV screen of this fake marvel.

So even though it has nothing to do with reality, it is at least a real fake.

"It's pretty clear that we're looking at an iPhone," Smith notes, missing his own point that it's a TV show prop. "We also have what appears to be an edge-to-edge display, a feature that's expected [i.e., rumored] to be part of the next-gen iPhone."

As he says, "That's definitely an odd choice for a product placement" and "one has to wonder whether Apple has approved this message in any way." One does indeed. Smith seems concerned, even outraged, that Apple would let this happen. "So how can Apple sit by and allow such a monstrosity to be shown on TV, especially since the next iPhone may very well have certain similar features to the one presented on 'Covert Affairs.'"

It says something about something that Smith or anyone else would notice a smartphone when the show's lead character, a novice CIA spy named Annie Walker, is played by Piper Perabo.

iPhone 5 is arriving: in fact, on August 16.

Gekko, a British firm that specializes in retail sales optimization, posted an ad this week on behalf of its client Apple for "full-time iPhone Sales Staff for an exciting project to work 5 days a week (Tuesday-Saturday) for the period 16th August - 29th October within key retail stores."

And that can only mean one thing, according to CNET UK, which was sent a link to the job posting by a tipster: "It sounds as if Apple is looking to bolster its sales staff, and the only reason we can think is that there's a big product launch on the horizon."

And that, in turn, can only mean one thing: the launch of the iPhone 5. What could be bigger than that?

iPhone 5 is not arriving soon.

That's because the Magical A5 dual-core, Apple-designed CPU is overheating.

9to5Mac reports this rumor while encouraging readers to ignore it: "We're taking this one with a healthy dose of skepticism (and so should you) ..."

But "purely for the sake of the discussion" or page views, it reports, "Straight from Chinese-language site Sohu.com comes a story of an iPhone 5 delay blamed on the A5 chip overheating."

There's an "if" here: "If machine translation [i.e., the use of Google Translate] is to be believed, that's why Apple pushed back the next iPhone launch from the usual June-July timeframe into the late August-early September timeframe. The story has it that Apple's silicon team is facing difficulties keeping the dual-core A5 chip cool in the iPhone's tiny enclosure where space and battery are at premium."

Worriedly, 9to5Mac wonders, "If there's any substance to this story, what then (if anything) will Apple release come this Fall?"

That would be the mythical iPhone 4S, a "modest upgrade" to the current iPhone 4, designed to keep customers happy until the Apple chip boffins figure out how to make the cool chip actually ... cool.

Internally, AT&T confirms release date for iPhone 5. Kind of.

Here's the quoted portion of the purported AT&T memo: "All customers enrolling in MI must be advised of the pending MRC increase from $4.99 to $6.99 [...] This occurs on October 4, 2011, in conjunction with a new tier, Device Tier 3, that is $199. iPhone and other devices will move to this tier on October 4, 2011."

This is something most of us would just blankly pass over, but the keen minds at Uberphones plumbed the depths to read the tea leaves.

MI stands for "mobile insurance" and MRC stands for "mobile recurring charge." Admittedly, knowing that doesn't help much, either. But Uberphones says the memo "may have accidentally leaked the date" of iPhone 5, since it's widely expected to be announced in September (unless you believe other rumors; see above).

"This seems like quite a coincidence," according to Uberphones.

But we all know, we just know, that when it comes to Apple, there are no coincidences.

iPhone 5 may be almost completely unbuttoned.

Or at least you won't have to use them, buttons being so unvirtual.

The newest release of the iOS 5 beta release has an upgraded "AssistiveTouch" capability, as part of the platforms "accessibility" feature, according to 9to5Mac. But this has Big Implications.

"The feature takes the previously available custom gesture support to the next level and brings a new control panel," the website says. "This control panel is an accessibility feature -- but also has applications as a replacement for the iPad and iPhone's hardware buttons."

A swipe activates the control panel, causing what the story calls a "heads-up-display type of menu" to appear. With that menu, a "user can rotate the screen orientation, control the device's volume, 'shake' the device (is an API for developers in applications), lock the display and more.

"We realize that this is an accessibility-feature, but this is something that can come in handy for just about anybody. Apple has started to wean off the need for home button usage for iPad users, and this accessibility-feature can technically turn into a replacement for all of the iPad's (and iPhone/iPod touch's) hardware buttons."

iPhone 5 panoramic camera will require manual intervention!

Gadget site T3.com says it dug up more details in the iOS 5 beta code that show how the phone's expected panoramic camera will work. The panoramic feature was first noted after Apple unveiled iOS 5 in June.

The latest beta code reveals that to use this photo enhancement, "users will need to pan their device from left to right, 'tap the Camera button to begin' and 'keep the arrow on the center line.'"

Next: detailed instructions on how to pan from left to right.

Spreading the magic: iPhone 5 for Sprint and T-Mobile users.

Having deigned to released iPhone 4 on Verizon this year, Apple might be equally gracious to the remaining NotQuiteAsBig Two mobile networks.

"While we remain uncertain regarding the next-generation iPhone's specs and features, we believe the most noteworthy change could be the device's ability to run on more networks, specifically Sprint and T-Mobile in the U.S," said Piper Jaffray stock analyst Chris Larsen, in a research note reported on by CNET.

"A move to all four national carriers would greatly expand Apple's ability to reach the masses, critical at a time when smartphones running on Google's Android software have overrun the market," according to CNET. "Adding Sprint and T-Mobile would increase Apple's addressable market by 30 percent, Larsen said."

Speaking of the masses, Apple plans to sell 25 million iPhone 5 units in 2011.

So that would be in the three- to five-month period that the phone actually is on sale, depending on which availability date you like (see above).

This estimate comes from a Wall Street Journal story via iPhone5Released.com. The Journal cited "unnamed sources at Apple's suppliers," one of whom said "Apple's sales estimates of the new iPhone is quite aggressive. It told us to prepare to help the company meet its goal of 25 million units by the end of the year. The initial production volume will be a few million units ... we were told to ship the components to [Taiwanese] assembler Hon Hai [technically, its Foxconn subsidiary] in August."

The website says Apple sold 3 million iPhone 4 units in the first three weeks of its release last year and in the most recent quarter, sold 18.65 million iPhones, including some number of older 3GS models.

IE Wins Malware-Blocking Tests

IE Wins Malware-Blocking Tests

The in-house reputation system used in Internet Explorer 8 and 9 is markedly superior at blocking social-engineering attacks than the Google equivalent used by Chrome, Firefox, Apple's Safari, an independent test by NSS Labs has found.

Rating the browsers against a sample set of European malware URLs over 19 days in April, IE 8 achieved a mean block rate of 90 percent, leaving Chrome 10, Firefox 4 and Safari 5 in the dust on 13 percent each. Opera, which uses technology from antivirus company AVG, came in last on 5 percent.

When assessing IE 9 with application filtering turned on, the results were even more dramatic, taking that version to a mean blocking rate of 100 percent.

Internet Explorer's positive showing appears to be thanks to two embedded technologies; Smartscreen URL Filter, a cloud-based system that checks URLs against a master database. This is present in both IE 8 and 9 and seems to work more or less identically in both.

In addition, IE 9 has added a second system, SmartScreen Application Reputation which on the basis of this test offers browser users a remarkably effective level of download block protection. Chrome, Firefox and Safari all use a rival URL checking system, Google's Safe Browser Feed, which as previous NSS Labs tests have suggested, is now falling some ways behind.

"The significance of Microsoft's new application reputation technology cannot be overstated. Application Reputation is the first attempt by any vendor to create a definitive list of every application on the Internet," the authors conclude.

"Browsers provide a layer of protection against socially-engineered malware, in addition to endpoint protection products; as this report shows, not all are created equal. The overall lower protection offered by Firefox, Safari, and Chrome is concerning."

An extra but important dimension also tested was the 'average response time to block malware', basically the time it took each browser to add a problem site to the block list once it had been fed in to the test by NSS Labs.

Again, IE 9 with Application Reputation enabled gained a perfect score, adding a site without any delay, the only browser to manage such a feat. Interestingly, however, without the Application layer, IE 8 and 9 sank down the table, taking nearly 14 and 16 hours respectively, behind Safari's five hours, Chrome's nearly seven hours, and Firefox's 8 hours.

Block time is worth paying attention to because the longer protection takes to be activated, the longer the window of possible exposure.

The limitation of the report is that it is only measuring one dimension of the threat users face when using browsers, that of attacks where the user can be tricked - 'socially-engineered' in security parlance - into downloading malware. This compares with what are called 'drive-by' attacks that seek to exploit specific vulnerabilities in software and which require no user intervention.

Which is more dangerous is a matter of debate although NSS Labs references a separate study by AVG that found socially-engineered attacks to be the most likely way for malware to find its way on to a user's PC.

A social engineering attack has the advantage that it recruits the user to agree to a download event thereby potentially bypassing Windows controls such as User Access Control (UAC) and even the warnings of antivirus software. A drive-by attack, especially one manipulating a zero-day flaw, can sneak on to the PC without any of these defences being aware but requires more engineering effort to work.

The claim that socially-engineered attacks are the more significant doesn't entirely accord with the admittedly patchy evidence that exists on the subject.

A recent and revealing assessment by Qualys using its Browsercheck tool found that large numbers of browser users routinely run out-of-date plug-ins for interfaces such as Flash Adobe Reader and especially Java. Many of these have significant flaws that can be attacked by drive-by exploits.

It could be that both sides of this coin -- social-engineering attacks and drive-by attacks - are equally perilous but in different ways.

A final qualification is that the test was conducted on Firefox 4, since supplanted by the rapid-development replacement, version 5.0, likewise Google Chrome, which has reached version 13. The URL-filtering systems used by these are, however the same as in the previous versions so would be unlikely to make a difference to their blocking performance.

Flash Player 11, Adobe AIR 3 Betas Released

Flash Player 11, Adobe AIR 3 Betas Released

Adobe has released public beta versions of Flash Player 11 and AIR 3. The desktop beta of Flash Player 11 offers new features for cross-platform browser-based viewing of expressive rich Internet applications, content, and videos across devices. Some of the features from the Flash Player Incubator, such as Stage 3D (codenamed Molehill) and 64-bit support, have been moved into this beta release.

Key benefits of the Flash Player 11 desktop beta include Stage3D APIs, which support highly interactive visuals to improve collaboration on 3-dimensional models; 64-bit support for Mac OS X, as well as Windows and Linux; and there's also the ability to integrate voice/telephony into business apps using the G.711 audio compression codec and encode higher quality video locally using H.264 /AVC SW Encoding. (See also Adobe Flash Update Puts Users in Charge of Privacy

In addition socket progress events allow developers to build advanced file sharing apps like FTP clients to send large amounts of data, while the addition of HD surround sound enables delivery of full HD videos with 7.1 channel surround sound directly to AIR powered TVs.

The beta of Adobe AIR 3 introduces enhanced features that provide developers a consistent and flexible development environment for the delivery of out-of-browser applications across devices and platforms.

AIR 3 delivers innovation for rich engaging applications with performance improvements that deliver advanced graphics rendering, high-definition video, and consistent reach across operating systems and devices. AIR 3 has a special focus for those interested in developing console quality games, delivering high quality video, or scalable enterprise applications.

The AIR 3 desktop runtime beta is provided to ensure current AIR 2.7 and AIR apps targeting older version of AIR are compatible with this upcoming release of AIR 3. At this time the AIR 3 SDK will not be available in a public beta.

Google vs. Facebook: Which Can You Trust?

Google vs. Facebook: Which Can You Trust?

Analysis: Are people flocking to Google+ to escape Facebook's evil clutches? And if so, is that really such a good idea?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog post about how MySpace's assets -- including some 50 million-odd personal profiles -- were purchased by Specific Media, an online ad firm, and the privacy implications of that.

Since then, some smart folks have pointed out to me that -- hey, looky -- Google is also an advertising company. And when you come right down to it, so is Facebook. That's certainly what has produced the vast majority of FB's revenues so far.

* 4 things Facebook doesn't tell you about privacy, security
* So, Why Do We Trust Google with Our Data?

So can any of them be trusted?

Former TV newsman Issac "Ike" Pigott asked a similar question this morning on his Posterous audio blog:

Am I wrong for continuing to think that there's humor in the fact that so many people are flocking to Google+ because they just don't trust Facebook with all their private information? These are the same people who've had gmail accounts for six or seven years, have racked up about five or six gigabytes of data that they leave on Google servers, [including] emails they would not want the rest of the world to know about. And [they] trust Google with all that but [they] won't trust Facebook with it."

An interesting thought. First, though, let's examine the premise of this question. I'm not convinced people are abandoning Facebook for Google+. I think they're just adding Google+ to their ever growing list of social media sites.

In fact, based on my short experience with G+ and the friend/follower notifications that have come pouring into my inbox, the people who are flocking to G+ are the same ones who flocked to Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, Buzz, Foursquare, Groupon, blah blah blah -- I mean the same friggin people. It's the Social Media Mafia; Robert Scoble and the Scoblettes. They're all over G+ they way they were all over all of those other services.

Remember in high school, when you tried to start a club for all the cool kids but the dorks kept showing up instead? It's like that.

Anyway, I digress. The question really is, should you trust Google more than Facebook? Stupidly, in my heart of hearts (if not my brain of brains) I do trust Google more than Facebook. And I think there are a few reasons why.

1. "Don't be evil." Yeah, I know. But it was a ballsy thing to put out there, and people are constantly holding Google's feet to the fire over it. It's also the fact that when Google screws up, especially in the area of privacy, it apologizes almost immediately and tries to correct it. Unlike (ahem) certain social media companies, they don't sit there defiantly telling us we're all wrong or hide in their rooms waiting for people to stop complaining.

2. The ever-changing moods of Facebook's privacy policies. It's hard to trust somebody when you sign a contract with them, only to have them continually using Wite-Out TM to erase the bits they don't like and rewriting them to their advantage. Google doesn't generally do that.

3. Mark Zuckerberg. He looks like the kid who left a flaming bag of dog doo on your front stoop and now just denies, denies, denies it. The history of how Facebook came to be, and Zucky's other adventures borrowing other people's ideas, don't help. Uncle Eric, while just a teensy bit creepy, always felt more credible to me.

I'm not saying you should trust Google more -- in many ways, Google is a bigger threat to your privacy than Facebook, because it has access to far more than just the information you've shared with it. I'm just saying I do.

Iomega launches Four-Drive NAS Appliance

Iomega launches Four-Drive NAS Appliance

The StorCenter ix4-200d, the latest four drive NAS appliance announced by Iomega is available in 2TB, 4TB and 8TB capacities. It utilizes the acclaimed EMC LifeLine software, a fully-developed Linux operating environment and suite of applications that protects your data and performs valuable business tasks above and beyond simple storage, all designed to make it easy to securely store, protect and serve up data when you need it and where you want it. EMC LifeLine software is designed for cross-platform support with PC, Mac and Linux computers. It can be configured with different levels of RAID support: RAID 5 (pre-configured) and RAID 10 (both with automatic RAID rebuild), as well as JBOD. The four drives in the ix4 are user replaceable SATA II hard drives that minimize downtime. With dual Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and a high-performance embedded architecture, the ix4-200d boosts small business productivity by making data readily accessible and secure over a local network. The ix4-200d also has three USB 2.0 ports for adding printers or additional storage capacity with external USB drives.


Its features also include Device-to-Device Replication (D2D), VMware Ready Certification, Remote Access, Multiple Network Protocols,Time Machine Support, UPS Support, Video Surveillance, Print Server, Bluetooth capability and Picture Transfer Protocol. Iomega says the StorCenter ix4-200d is the ideal NAS appliance for small businesses, distributed offices and home office networks that require advanced data storage and protection features without the need for a dedicated IT staff.

New Twitter scam "Your Online Timer" spreading rapidly

New Twitter scam "Your Online Timer" spreading rapidly

Twitter users, beware of an online scam doing the rounds across the popular microblogging / social networking website. Your Online Timer, a rogue application designed to help scammers by spreading links pointing to online surveys is spreading fast across Twitter, IT security firm Sophos warned.

The Your Online Timer application claims to count how long Twitter users have been members of the social networking site.

Sophos reports a variant of the following message appearing on various Twitter profiles within the past day, allegedly displaying the affected Twitter user's time spent on the site:

The message appears on Twitter profiles after users authorise "Your Online Timer" application to access and update their Twitter accounts.

Sophos says once you authorize the application to post to your Twitter profile, users are redirected to a website which claims to indicate their time spent on Twitter. After this a page pops up in the browser displaying a survey which earns the scammers money for each questionnaire completed.

WD Scorpio Black 750 GB Available, is 2.5-inch 7200rpm HDD

WD Scorpio Black 750 GB Available, is 2.5-inch 7200rpm HDD

Western Digital has announced that it has begun shipping its new WD Scorpio Black 750 GB hard drive (model number WD7500BPKT). This 2.5-inch laptop hard drive is meant to provide high-performance, with a rotation speed of 7200 RPM. The new model offers a 16 MB cache, uses Advanced Format (AF) technology, and is claimed to incorporate data-protection features to actively monitor and protect valuable data.

The WD Scorpio Black is one of the few 2.5-inch laptop compatible hard drives to spin at 7200rpm, yet offer data storage capacity of as much as 750GB. Western Digital offers a five-year limited warranty on this product, and it is expected to sell at Rs. 5,275 (excluding tax).

"Our most demanding customers have come to expect "no compromises" from our all of our Black series products," explained Sushil Bandi, Country Manager for the Indian sub-continent, Western Digital. "The new WD Scorpio Black drive does not disappoint, providing users of portable devices the necessary speed, significant storage and efficient power management needed to enjoy their favorite HD content, high resolution images, powerful office applications or gaming at home, in the office or on the road."

Internet Explorer 9 Chalks up 2.3 Million Downloads

Internet Explorer 9 Chalks up 2.3 Million Downloads

Microsoft has claimed that their newly released Internet Explorer 9 Web browser was downloaded 2.35 million times in the first 24 hours of its release. In a post on Windows Team Blog, Ryan Gavin, Senior Director, Internet Explorer claims that the browser was downloaded 27 times per second in the first 24 hours.

While these numbers may look impressive, a story by The Register helps put these numbers in context. The first 24 hours of the Opera 11 Web browser launch was said to have seen 6.7 million downloads while Mozilla came up with even bigger numbers for their Firefox 3.0 launch- eight million downloads in 24 hours. So, while IE9’s download count beats IE8, it still lags behind Firefox and Opera.

Internet Explorer 9 was launched on Monday and has generally received positive response from critics and users (along with some brickbats).

RIM to use Microsoft's Cloud Services on its Playbook

RIM to use Microsoft's Cloud Services on its Playbook

RIM has announced its plan to partner with Microsoft to integrate cloud services to RIM's Blackberry devices including the upcoming Playbook tablet. The cloud-based service from Microsoft called the Office 365 is a service that has communications and collaboration products with Microsoft's latest version of desktop suite for businesses. The Office 365 includes Microsoft Office Professional Plus, Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online and Microsoft Lync Online. RIM's Blackberry devices will carry the Office 365 and the RIM's Blackberry Enterprise Servers will connect to Microsoft data centers, so that Blackberry users will have up to date information on their devices all the time.

With the Blackberry Office 365 service, companies who have been maintaining one or more Blackberry Enterprise Servers on their private servers will now have off-site data centers which will enable them to control and manage their data remotely. According to Jim Tobin, senior vice president of RIM's software and business service unit, RIM and Microsoft won't jointly manage off-site date centers, but Microsoft centers will connect "cloud-to-cloud" to RIM centers that house Blackberry Enterprise Servers. The cloud-based Blackberry Exchange Server (BES) will also support RIM's upcoming Blackberry Balance service which will allow IT departments’ access to the enterprise and BES part of the Blackberry while providing users freedom to access web or social networking sites like Facebook etc. The Blackberry Playbook will also include the Blackberry Balance service but the announcement date for this tablet is still not yet disclosed.

Lava KKT 35 with Color Matcher App Launched in India for Rs.3,950

Lava KKT 35 with Color Matcher App Launched in India for Rs.3,950

Lava has launched a budget handset KKT 35 with what it's called an innovative feature - a Color Matcher application on the occasion of Holi. The Lava KKT 35 is a dual-SIM handset with bar-form factor. It comes with a Color Matcher application to pick up any color as background and let users to use it as a home screen. The new phone comes in a slim metallic body and it features like 1400mAH battery that has a promising talk time of up to 8-9 hours. Apart from the Color Matcher application, the Lava KKT 35 includes useful features like conversation recording, answering machine, web camera and chat-style SMS.


The budget phone has a 2.4-inch QVGA TFT LCD screen supporting up to 260k colors, a camera ( supposedly VGA) with digital zoom, upto 8GB microSD support, audio (MP3, AAC, WAV, AMR, MIDI) and video (3GP, MP4 and AVI) players, Stereo FM, 3.5mm stereo jack, torch function, WAP browser, Mobile Tracker application and Flight Mode. The phone is priced at Rs.3, 950 and based on the official Lava site; the package includes a 2GB microSD card. “Color Matcher” is another example of our commitment. We understand that colors are a way of expressing ones personality and attitude. Normally consumer has a limited choice of selecting colors in a phone .With “Color Matcher” now you can pick up any color which excites you,” said Mr. Sunil Raina, Chief Marketing Officer, LAVA International.

AT&T's takeover of T-Mobile creates largest U.S. carrier

AT&T's takeover of T-Mobile creates largest U.S. carrier

AT&T will buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion in cash and stock, easily making AT&T the nation's largest wireless carrier, ahead of top-ranked competitor Verizon Wireless and reducing the number of major national wireless carriers from four to three.

Consumer groups are sure to object because of concerns over market consolidation and less competition, but some analysts said the deal makes sense and won't lead to higher prices. Rumors circulated last year that T-Mobile was expected to be sold, possibly to third-place Sprint, so AT&T's emergence was somewhat of a surprise.

The deal, announced on Sunday by both AT&T and T-Mobile's parent Deutsche Telekom, has been approved by the boards of both companies. Under the deal, Deutsche Telekom would receive an 8% equity stake in AT&T and a board seat.The transaction is expected to close in 12 months, the companies said. It is subject to federal regulatory approval, where it will undoubtedly receive close scrutiny, given its size and impact on the competitive landscape. A conference call on the agreement is set for 8 a.m. EDT Monday.

AT&T said the deal will add T-Mobile's 34 million customers to AT&T's 95.5 million total subscriber base (at the end of 2010), enabling a quicker expansion of 4G LTE wireless networks to the entire subscriber group of about 130 million. By comparison, Verizon had 94.1 million subscribers at at the end of 2010 , although Verizon and AT&T count them somewhat differently.

Some analysts lauded the deal, even though consumer groups are expected to question having more subscribers under the control of a single carrier. "Bigger is better in a commodity game," said Phillip Redman, an analyst at Gartner who follows the wireless carriers. "Four providers were too many. This may help [third-place] Sprint as it becomes the standalone low-cost provider, and it makes more sense than a Sprint-T-Mobile deal."

Redman said the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission will both "take a hard, long look at it, but in the end it will be approved." With three major providers -- Verizon, AT&T and Sprint --Redman added, "I think there is plenty of competition...This is the last of the big mergers" in the wireless industry.

The companies sought to deflect concerns about reduced competition with the combination of two large carriers, noting in a statement: "The U.S. wireless industry is one of the most fiercely competitive markets in the world and will remain so after this deal. The U.S. is one of the few countries in the world where a large majority of consumers can choose from five or more wireless proviers in their local market ...The competitiveness of the market has directly benefited consumers."

Shortly after the takeover was announced, consumer rights group Free Press issued a statement condemning it. "Don't believe the hype: There is nothing about having less competition that will benefit wireless consumers," said Free Press research director S. Derek Turner. "And if regulators approve this deal, they will further cement duopoly control over the wireless market by AT&T and Verizon."

Turner noted that the top four companies already control 90% of the wireless business. If two of the four merge, that means "nothing but higher prices and fewer choices, as the newly engorged AT&T and Verizon exert even more control over the wireless Internet."

Jeffrey Kagan, an independent analyst, said he didn't think the AT&T takeover would have a negative effect on pricing, since there will still be three major players in the market. "Ultimately, [the merger] will be approved," he said. Because AT&T will invest more in network expansion because of the takeover, Kagan said both customers and investors will be "happier."

He noted continued problems in keeping up with data demands of the iPhone when AT&T was the device's exclusive wireless carrier, creating an image that AT&T didn't want. Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates, said he was unsure whether regulators will automatically go along with the merger because it significantly limits competition.

"It is highly likely that data rates ... will increase," he said. "The bottom line is that this is probably good for current customers of AT&T and T-Mobile as it will ultimately result in better network coverage, but in limiting the competition, it will also probably result in higher prices."

AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson said the transaction represents "a major commitment to strengthen and expand critical infrastructure for our nation's future." AT&T will increase its infrastructure investment by more than $8 billion over seven years, he said, and will be able to extend its plan for LTE coverage to an added 46.5 million Americans across 95% of the U.S.

With the acquisition, AT&T will immediately gain cell sites that would have taken on average five years to build without the transaction, the carrier said. It said its mobile data traffic grew by 8,000% over the past four years, and will be eight to 10 times greater in 2015 than it was in 2010.

Both companies use a GSM-based HSPA network, although T-Mobile announced HSPA+ speeds in January that would technically make it faster than AT&T. AT&T is moving its subscribers to LTE in the next two years, expecting the first rollouts later in 2011.

Xbox 360 successor to surface by 2015

Xbox 360 successor to surface by 2015

Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming console is headed towards a refresh by 2015, if leaked images of a confidential project part of WGX (Windows Gaming eXperience) and Microsoft's IEB (Interactive Entertainment Business) are to be believed.

This Xbox scoop comes courtesy of ZDNet, who managed to get their hands on the confidential image in question. It shows a tantalizing hint of what arguably looks like the successor of the Xbox 360 as we know it. Take a look (image courtesy ZDNet).

The cryptic note at the top of the image reads "collaboration with Microsoft's IEB Design group investigating future user experiences and hardware for 2015." The image was posted on the website of one Ben Patterson -- a recent addition to the Xbox team, reports suggest.

Right now, the details are hazy at best and all in the realm of speculation, because it looks like Microsoft has just started working on the Xbox 360 gaming console's successor. But the 2015 release date means the current Xbox 360 console is on its way to complete a decade as Microsoft's premier gaming console. Ten years, who would've thought?

There you have it then, Sony's PS3 and Nintendo's Wii have been warned. What needs to be seen is if the Xbox 360 successor will be anything as groundbreaking or record-breaking as its Kinect motion controller. Four years is a lot of time for Microsoft to cook something spectacular, don't you think?

Google Blames China for Blocking Gmail

Google Blames China for Blocking Gmail

After a lull, the conflict between Google and the Chinese government seems to have flared up again. A Google spokesperson leveled accusations against the Chinese government blaming them for interrupting the Gmail service for almost an entire month.

According to Google, Chinese Gmail users regularly complained of disruptions in service during this period, which coincided with political trouble in Middle Eastern countries such as Tunisia and Egypt (also known as the “Jasmine Revolution”). During this same period, there were also cases of Chinese people living overseas who were calling for similar protests in China.

The Google spokesperson also claimed that there was no technical issue on Google’s side with reference to the service disruptions and that the blockage was “carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail.”

Problems between China and Google had reached a peak in January of last year when Google had declared that they would no longer be willing to censor search results leading to a war of words with the Chinese government.

Twitter allows secure HTTPS access to website

Twitter allows secure HTTPS access to website

Facebook did it earlier this January, it was only a matter of time before Twitter followed suit. Yup, users of the popular microblogging website, now have the option to secure their connection to Twitter over the Internet via HTTPS.

Once you enable HTTPS access through your Twitter user settings, it allows you to connect to the website over a secure encrypted connection, keeping your user data secure from unfriendly eyes.


Just go to Settings > Account, scroll down to tick the Always use HTTPS radio box. In the past Facebook and Gmail have enabled HTTPS access to user accounts to secure connections.