Just the other day, I wrote on one of the outlying issues with Windows Phone: hardware. More specifically, specifications. In truth, the hardware is quite nice on most Windows Phones. The main Windows Phone OEMs are also major Android manufacturers, and devices on both sides of the fence are on par with one another in terms of materials, build quality and size range. Specifications, on the other hand, are literally years apart.
Like I explained before, though, better specifications aren’t necessary for better performance. Performance on Windows Phones, across the board, is just fine, despite the seemingly underpowered processors and small amount of RAM. But when it comes to appeal and misguided opinions (presumptions, really) based on clock speeds and the number of cores a phone’s processor might have, specs are everything. Nine times out of 10, a customer who knows nothing about phones, mobile platforms, their respective performance or mobile processors will choose a phone with bigger, better, more future-proofed specifications. That means, 9 times out of 10, Windows Phone loses the battle.
Sure, specs could use some improving, solely for more appeal. But I don’t mind the software too much, and performance is already exceptional. Nonetheless, I cannot force myself to use Windows Phone. Even if a “champion device” or a Windows Superphone were to grace shelves, I could not buy into Windows Phone in its current state. Buy why, exactly?
The current interface is painstakingly boring
Notifications are terrible
Next to no customization
I’ve stated before that I think Windows Phone is boring. That’s no secret, and to be honest, I think that’s what Microsoft was shooting for considering their initial marketing campaign stated that Windows Phone was going to save us from our phones. When you consider their market share (currently only 5.2 percent in the US), though, it’s clear that not many people want to be saved from their phones. They want something fresh, exciting and fun to use. In its current state, Windows Phone is fresh, but it’s neither fun or exciting to use.
I honestly like the change of pace Microsoft introduced with Windows Phone – I love the fact that it’s not closely related to anything else out there. I love the largely typographic interface and simplicity of everything. And I really love the software keyboard.
When I first get a new phone, I enjoy taking some time to setup my phone and truly make it mine. But unlike my Android devices or even my iPhone, I do not spend hours setting up my home screen. There’s not much to setup at all on Windows Phone. There are only two main views on Windows Phone: an alphabetical list of all apps on the phone and your basic tile view. In the tile view, the only things you can currently change is the color of the tiles (or system-wide highlight color) and their order. Apart from that, you can only change the lock screen wallpaper and toggle the background color between black and white.
Like I said, I like the direction Microsoft is headed. And in it’s defense, Windows Phone is still in its infancy. (Android wasn’t much to look at in its early days either.) But I see the Metro UI as a huge waste of space and kind of … tacky. All I ask for is more customization options, like being able to change the color of each individual tile, changing the background to any color of choice, being able to resize tiles (from extra small to the current large tile size), etc.

I hate to make this comparison (I’m sure it will start a flame war of some kind), but a great example of a more useful and more pleasing tiled interface to look at is the newest version of Android Market. There is a lot of helpful information on each tile, a plethora of colors and pictures and the entire display is used, instead of the space-wasting, two-column tile interface of Metro UI.
All things considered, I can get over a boring interface if need be. But possibly the biggest area Windows Phone is missing the mark is notifications. My phone is my lifeline, and I need my notifications to be there in the event I overlook or miss something. On iOS, there is Notification Center and there are little, annoying (in a good way) bubbles popping up all over the interface. On Android, I have a pull-down notification shade where everything unread is kept, and little reminders for those notifications are kept in the status bar at all times. And on Windows Phone? As new notifications come in, they alert you just fine. But if you don’t act on the notifications immediately, they’re reduced to numbers on the respective tile and they blend with everything else on the interface. In other words, if I miss something on the first go around, the chances of me ever realizing it are slim. Existing, unread notifications need to be improved. There needs to be some central location I can go to and deal with all of my unattended notifications.
Windows Phone is off to a great start, and I’m actually rooting for Microsoft on this one. But if I’m ever going to consider using their platform as a primary (or even secondary) mobile OS, they’re going to need to make some radical and unlikely changes in their upcoming updates.
I know a lot of you Windows Phone fans out there will disagree with me on a lot of this. If you want to contest me and defend your favorite platform, volunteer for the Ultimate Fanboy War. In the meantime, tell me how you would change Windows Phone. Would you add more customizations to the interface? Or do you find it perfect, as is?

Source:http://www.phonedog.com/2012/01/05/how-would-you-change-windows-phone-software/

Microsoft is not a new player in the mobile market. Long before the world heard of iOS and Android they were shipping Windows Mobile on full touchscreen smartphones that were ahead of the curve in the stylus era. Microsoft lost the plot when it came to the new lot of capacitive screens and intuitive
UI. People no longer wanted a PC in their hands and that was where we believe Microsoft’s learning had been over the past few years.

The first version of Windows Phone 7 was out in late 2010 and two major releases and a year later, a lot has changed. The platform is stronger than ever before and Redmond has a new partner in Nokia, the beleaguered mobile champion that is fighting its way back into the smartphone world. Windows Phone 7 came in with a radically different concept and the last release, dubbed ‘Mango’, adds much needed speed and over 500 new features.

The Interface

iOS began with a homescreen full of icons and users kept on adding more in the form of apps. Android came in with multiple homescreens, widgets and an app drawer.

Windows Phone’s Metro UI throws in live tiles on the homescreen and gives you one long list of all apps and settings on another screen. Users can pin any app or contact to start and it would show up as a live tile on the homescreen. The live tiles can throw basic updates, like the number of new emails, number of new Facebook / Twitter notifications or simply the number of missed calls. Though beautiful, this is a lot different than widgets on Android or the lockscreen on iOS 5 that would let you read the Twitter mentions, see who called or read a preview of an incoming message.

Windows Phone 7 visualizes any app as a large canvas and allows one to navigate through it as if you are moving the screen window within that canvas. So you don’t jump into a hierarchy of menus but slide the canvas further to see something new. The beauty that Windows Phone manages is currently unmatched in the mobile space.However, we would wait and see how Microsoft answers the question of productivity with this design.

Each WP7 device has three hardware buttons below the display.These are standard across all devices – Back, Home and Search. At any point, while navigating within the interface, you can jump into the homescreen and press the back key to get back to where you were.

Mango update also brings multitasking to Windows phone. Windows Phone has no exit button for apps and thus the option users need to exercise is either using the back button to reach the previous screen or simply the home button. With the Mango update, users can long press the back key and reach the last 5 apps they used. This isn’t the most productive multitasking gesture compared to task manager on Android, quick jump to any open app on iOS or even the card deck interface seen on webOS. It is common to come across the same app twice when using multitasking on Windows phone (say two different screens of the contact / phone app). Multitasking is one area we would expect to be tweaked with subsequent updates to Windows phone.

Social Media & Cloud
The new windows phone is loaded with social integration and I believe it is the best cloud + social mobile platform out there. Right from the first version of WP7, Microsoft managed to integrate Facebook at OS level. As you setup the device and configure your email IDs, you also get an option to integrate your social networks. With Mango, Microsoft has added Twitter and LinkedIn to the list. You can check-in to places, update status and check your notifications right from the ME tile. It has its own constraints as well; like you can’t reply to all when reverting a twitter mention nor can you see the news feed (both of these would require you to launch the official Facebook / Twitter app). And as I pointed before, you need to jump into the tile to get any info beyond the number of notifications or the name of the person commenting. Yet, the ME tile on WP7 is pretty handy and happens to be lot more productive than any social widget on a smartphone. It worked well even over an ordinary 2G EDGE connection.

The Facebook/Twitter integration also shows in your contacts and once you have synced your contacts the people hub syncs their display pictures and even their latest status updates.

The integrations are not limited to contacts or status updating, you can actually browse through all your Facebook albums in the Pictures hub. The albums aren’t cached locally on your device by default, but as you access each of these albums, the Facebook photos are downloaded. You can see the comments on them and even add new comments right from the pictures hub. This should be a super delight for the ones uploading lots of photos to Facebook.

If you are a Facebook person, you would love the integration on Windows Phone, just watching the continuous flow of display pictures on the live tile is a delight to watch and remember friends. On the flip side, if you aren’t a Facebook / Twitter person, the office and photo options are your only hope to get some value from a Windows Phone device.

Microsoft has integrated SkyDrive on WP7, throwing in 25GB of free storage. The SkyDrive account is mapped with your Hotmail/Live ID. This storage is mainly utilized for photos and documents upload from your Windows Phone.

Productivity
WP7 makes a good push on the work side, syncing calendars, emails and contacts from your Google or Live account. At the moment Windows Phone 7 sets up each email account separately (in a new tile) and that turns out to be a good structure for ones who do not want their email accounts to be interconnected with a unified inbox or a single email app. The good part is that do have option to link inboxes together and that leaves you with more control on how you want to deal with different inboxes.

You can skim through the different tabs inside an email account, these are all (all emails), unread, flagged and urgent. The best part however about email on Windows Phone 7 is the fonts. Windows Phone 7 has the best readability for emails that we have ever seen on a mobile. You can also dig through all your folders/labels by jumping into options.
Selecting multiple emails and dealing with them together is easy using a small checklist button at the bottom which reveals a checkbox next to each email. You can also simply hit the left edge of the screen next to any email and the checkboxes would show up. Emails are threaded and we did see the WP7 email system getting confused with multiple emails with a blank subject being clubbed together in a thread. Other than that little glitch, the threading and emailing works well.

Microsoft has integrated Office, OneNote and Sharepoint right into Windows Phone 7. Opening attachments and reviewing them on word / excel is smooth. You can also choose to sync all your documents online to your SkyDrive account and access it anytime. Shifting a Windows Phone 7 device resulted in all my previous OneNote and Word & Excel files auto-syncing with the new device (downloads the file names initially and the complete file as you access it). For many who rely on office apps for Android & iOS, WP7’s office integration is a big attraction.

The line between enterprise and consumers has blurred. Given the number of Fortune 500 companies testing / deploying the iPad and the iPhone, Microsoft sure knows that it needs to offer a mix of consumer and business features. While we would wait for phones with different form factors, Windows Phone 7 is believed to be a secure platform, given the tight control Microsoft maintains over the software and hardware.

Performance & Apps
When Windows Phone 7 came out last year, it was termed a good product but work in progress. With the Mango update, Microsoft matched the speed and flow of any latest smartphone OS. The responsiveness of the menus, camera & cloud, office, email etc is top-notch, almost everything that Microsoft bundles worked efficiently.

The deal isn’t that attractive when you look at the third party apps. The feature set even for basic apps like Twitter / Facebook is far from matching their iOS & Android counterparts. For example, if you click a notification pertaining to a group in the Facebook app, it would launch a browser to show the content. The Twitter app has improved with the Mango update, far better from the initial sluggish days, however it still has many frustrations in its usability. The total number and quality of apps on the Marketplace isn’t very encouraging either and most apps are expensive when compared to their pricing on the iTunes App Store and Android Market.

The apps situation should improve gradually as more Windows Phone devices make it to the market, also given the fact that the platform is just a year old. We would wait to see the marketplace get traction, but for now killer apps isn’t an attraction for Windows Phone 7.

Nokia Windows Phones & Wrap-up
2012 holds the answer to what the mobile market would be for years to come. The top spots are taken by Android and iOS. With webOS and MeeGo falling out, Microsoft is making a come-back and a key partner for Redmond is Nokia. Reinventing itself with an entire range of Windows phones, the Finnish giant has a tough task at hand. Ability to roll-out low cost smartphones and good apps would be crucial for Nokia / WP7 to succeed. With the Metro UI laden Windows 8 making an entry in 2012 and given the traction tablets have, Microsoft seems to be in the game for now.

Source:http://www.hindustantimes.com/technology/Technology-Review-Application/Windows-Phone-7-5-Mango-Review/SP-Article1-789988.aspx

Research In Motion will not start selling phones with its new software platform until the “later part” of 2012, it has announced, as it took a $485 million (£312 million) inventory-related charge on its PlayBook tablet.

Net income in RIM’s third quarter ended 26 November dropped dramatically to $265 million, compared with $911 million in the same period last year. Revenue declined to $5.2 billion from $5.5 billion in the same quarter in 2010. RIM shipped 14.1 million phones during the quarter, up from 10.6 million in the second quarter this year.

Shipments of RIM’s PlayBook tablet continue to drop. The company shipped 150,000 during the quarter, compared with 200,000 in the second quarter this year. RIM has recently launched new promotional programs aimed at boosting sales, and those efforts have helped it work through most of its inventory, said Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of RIM.

However, the increased sales from those promotions won’t be reflected until the fourth quarter. In the meantime, the company took a $485 million charge related to PlayBook inventory in the third quarter.

Despite those challenges, RIM remains committed to the tablet market, executives said. The market is in its infancy and it makes sense to be in both the smartphone and the tablet markets, Lazaridis said. In addition, RIM hopes that when it releases an update to the operating system, which will include native email and a player for running Android apps, sales will improve.

The company also took a $54 million charge related to the service outage it experienced during the quarter.

Once the predominant developer of smartphones used in enterprises, RIM has failed to keep up with new competition from Apple, Google and others. It is preparing an overhaul of the software that runs on its phones but must convince people to buy its current generation of phones until that new platform is released.

That is proving to be a challenge already. The company expects to ship between 11 million and 12 million phones in the fourth quarter, down from 14 million in the third. But RIM has now decided to push the launch of that new platform back.

While RIM previously hasn’t been specific about when it would launch the new phone platform, many observers had expected the phones to appear as early as the first quarter of 2012. Now RIM says it won’t ship until the “later part” of 2012 because the company has decided to use a more advanced chipset that will offer improved power efficiency. The chipsets won’t be available until the middle of the year, according to RIM.

In the meantime, RIM promised investors that it would aggressively work to cut costs. “I want to reiterate our commitment to completing this challenging transition. We’ll leave no stone unturned when evaluating the business,” Lazaridis said.

The company is looking at its supply chain, partnerships, licensing opportunities, organizational and management structure, and the number of products it releases for places to cut costs or improve performance. It is not looking at reducing headcount, however, they said.

Source:http://www.macworld.co.uk/apple-business/news/?newsid=3325644&pagtype=allchandate

Software makers sell spyware as a way to catch a cheating spouse or protect children from a bad babysitter. The software allows the spy to peek in on another person through their cellphone.

Mike Carr is the director of information assurance at the University of New Mexico.

“It’s very real, and unfortunately it’s going on as we speak,” Carr said. “I can follow you around if your phone has GPS technology. I can see where you are. I can read your emails. I can read your text messaging.”

To test the concept, Target 7 purchased software for about $350 and installed it on an employee’s phone with her permission. Once the person made a phone call from several miles away, Target 7 received a text message and the software hacked into the conversation.

The spyware also allows the user to track a target’s location and lets you listen in real-time even when the target’s not using the phone.

“A lot of the snoop ware or spyware that’s installed on cell phones is very hidden and the user doesn’t know that they’ve been installed,” Carr said. “If somebody really wants to break into your computer or your phone, they will. And that’s a scary thing.”

Internet companies in the United Kingdom, Thailand and Taiwan sell the software. Prices range from $50 to $3,000.

Installation isn’t very difficult, and can be done in a matter of minutes.

“If I happen to ask to borrow your cell phone while you go to the bathroom. I just need to make a call… and while you’re in the bathroom I go ahead and install the malicious software. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes if you know what you’re doing,” Carr said.

There are a few things to watch out for.

“Maybe, the battery’s hotter than it normally is, or maybe you look down and the browser’s open or your address book is open and you didn’t explicitly do that,” Carr said.

It’s not illegal to download, but it’s basically illegal to use the software in the U.S.

The cellphone spyware did not work on every phone. It only works on smartphones with an internet connection, and it worked best on Blackberrys. It can also work on jailbroken iPhones.

Source:http://www.koat.com/news/29823410/detail.html

A British company has been accused of selling mobile phone tracking software to the Iranian Government.

The Telegraph writes that Creativity Software signed a contract two years ago to “provide lawful intercept solutions” to Iran, and alleges that this software could have been used to track protesters.

The deal was signed with one of the biggest mobile phone networks in Iran, Irancell, on 1 August 2009. An Iranian journalist, Saeid Pourheydar, says that the technology was used to track down protesters, even when they were not using their phones. He adds that he was “presented with his ‘entire phone history’ when he was arrested”.

The newspaper report adds that a major shareholder in Creativity Software is a company called MMC Ventures; and both the CEO and chairman of this outfit contributed towards William Hague’s private office.

However, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills told the newspaper that the software was not covered by export controls and therefore Creativity Software has done nothing wrong. A spokesman said: “The Government actively discourages all trade with Iran. We take any reports of exports being misused overseas seriously. It does not appear that the exporter has broken the law.”

The news comes just a week after allegations that the Metropolitan Police had deployed software to track, and remotely jam the mobile phones of protesters in London. The Guardian reported that the software developer, Datong, sells its products to nearly 40 countries worldwide, including some in the Middle East, but does not give details of which. It does, however, add that “in 2009 it [Datong] was refused an export licence to ship technology worth £0.8m to an unnamed Asia Pacific country, after the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills judged it could be used to commit human rights abuses.”

Wired.co.uk has left a message with Creativity Software and is awaiting its response.

Source:http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-11/07/iranian-phone-tracking-allegations

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. unveiled a new operating system Tuesday in hopes of grabbing some attention away from the iPhone and Android phones.

The new BBX system combines existing BlackBerry elements with RIM’s previously announced QNX operating system for phones and tablet computers.

RIM said BBX will incorporate the reliability and security features of QNX — which RIM snagged in 2010 by purchasing QNX Software Systems. It will also enable software developers to create more advanced, dynamic apps for the devices.

The Canadian company gave few details about the software and did not say when devices using it would be available. The company previously said that it would offer phones running QNX software in 2012.

RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis introduced BBX on Tuesday at the company’s annual developer conference in San Francisco.

He began his remarks by speaking briefly about the service outages that frustrated tens of millions of BlackBerry users last week. He said the company restored service as quickly as possible and is working on figuring out the causes and “making this right” for BlackBerry users worldwide. On Monday, BlackBerry tried to soothe customers by offering more than $100 worth of free software to each one and giving some a month of technical support.

The disruption came as RIM, once dominant in smartphones with its secure BlackBerry email service, has been losing ground to more consumer-friendly offerings such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone and smartphones running Google Inc.’s Android software.

RIM has sold 165 million BlackBerrys through August. Apple had sold 146 million iPhones as of September, but its device has been on the market for a much shorter amount of time.

RIM has also lagged in the market for apps that run on smartphones and tablets. Its BlackBerry App World, which includes apps for its smartphones and its PlayBook tablet computer, includes more than 46,000 apps. That is just a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of apps offered for the iPhone and Android phones.

RIM, which is based in Waterloo, Ontario, is trying to encourage developers to be more prolific, though, by showing off new software Tuesday that makes it easier to build apps and get them into the company’s online store.

The company’s stock rose 81 cents, or 3.6 percent, to close at $23.21.

Source:http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20111102/WIRE/111109886?p=1&tc=pg

Investigators at Kaspersky Lab the security company have warned that a phony VirusTotal online site is spreading malware.

It may be noted that VirusTotal is one widely used facility with which computer operators can scan files using numerous anti-virus engines. A huge number of professionals as well as routine end-users use this website nearly everyday.

Typically, the fake website, which Kaspersky investigators spotted, appears identical to the original VirusTotal site and encourages visitors for executing a malicious Java applet.

This applet doesn’t have a signature from an authorized certificate; therefore the fake site asks end-users to confirm after running it, albeit the impact isn’t too varied as evident from the same type of assaults over the past.

The applet essentially represents an installer of Java-based Trojans, which spreads a malicious program that Kaspersky Lab has detected as Worm.MSIL.Arcdoor.ov.

Telling more about the said assault, Kaspersky stated that the worm’s objective was to infect PCs and recruit them to a botnet through which Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks would be carried out. Also, the infected PCs would exchange messages with the command-and-control (C&C) server regarding their type, hostname, operating software version etc., the company added. Net-security.org published this on May 24, 2011.

Kaspersky stressed that normally the above kind of assaults took place via one main hub that was used for the attacker to work out hostile maneuvers with the help of Cythosia or NOise viz. names of web-software DDoS Framework. Those software programs made an extensive impact and thus raised their demand amidst hackers mainly from Germany, Kaspersky continued.

Citing the above assault, Kaspersky cautioned that malware purveyors had recently started to put together malicious JavaScript as well as social engineering tactics, as the combination let them to contaminate PCs irrespective of which operating system or Web-browser the machines used.

However, identifying the above online danger as proactive, the security company goes on with investigating into the offensive operations.

Eventually, exploitation of VirusTotal’s brand name for disseminating malware isn’t something new. During February 2010 too, according to security specialists, cyber-crooks utilized a phony VirusTotal site so they could spread ’scareware’ to contaminate users’ computers.

Source:http://www.spamfighter.com/News-16240-Phony-VirusTotal-Website-Pushes-Malicious-Software-Kaspersky.htm

People can now report graffiti, potholes and broken street lamps to councils online and on the spot with their smartphones thanks to Kiwi-developed mapping software.

One of the applications is being used to help with the Queensland flood recovery.

FixMyStreet, a free application created by Christchurch web developer Jonathan Hunt, lets people use their PC or iPhone to report faults or incidents.

Mr Hunt said the application asked people to choose the address nearest to the incident or fault. “It then comes back to you with a map so you can fine-tune the location by dragging a marker. Then you fill out what the issue is and enter your contact details and you can also upload a photo,” he said.

People would receive a link via email and once they clicked to confirm it, the application would email the report to the right council, based on the incident’s location.

People had reported 200 issues since the site launched in September. The issues most commonly reported were graffiti, potholes, “footpath issues” and rubbish.

Councils already had email addresses for reporting issues but FixMyStreet let people pinpoint them on a map and post photos.

There were versions of FixMyStreet in about 10 countries and councils in Australia, and a few countries in South America and Africa had contacted him about setting up their own sites, he said. About 75 New Zealander had downloaded the iPhone application.

Wellington geospatial software firm Critchlow has also launched an application in New Zealand and Australia.

Government sales manager David Knight said the free NeatStreets application could be used on iPhones, Android smartphones and BlackBerrys, and downloads currently ranged between 50 and 100 a week. Users could take a photo of an issue, categorise it, type a message and send it to Critchlow, which would check and send it on to the relevant council either via email or, for a price, directly to their internal systems.

GPS-enabled phones would automatically give a location for the issue – based on where the photo was taken. People without this feature on their phones could mark the location on a map.

More than 2000 issues had been reported through NeatStreets in New Zealand and Australia.

An Australian search and rescue agency involved in Queensland’ flood recovery had asked Critchlow to develop a version for its staff so they could gather information about flood damage.

Wellington City Council spokesman Richard MacLean said staff took photos of graffiti and damage while out in the field. “If residents are doing the same thing it saves us the job.”

The council would have to review the business case before deciding whether to integrate applications like FixMyStreet or NeatStreets into its systems.

Source:http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/4623684/Phone-software-reports-street-faults-graffiti

There is a lot of irony in the websites that are being targeted by hackers today.

It is ironical that the Kenya Police website was hacked into and it seems the hacker was sending out a message about his prowess.

A second hacker apparently also managed to hack into the same site and the two managed to carry on a debate about their prowess on the home page.

What makes this story so ironical is that the two hackers managed to hack into the website of Kenya’s security organ.

Recently a hacker also hacked into the page of the Facebook founder raising questions about the site’s security despite reassurances about its safety as a site.

E-commerce is definitely the best way of doing business today but just how safe is it?

Recently some tricksters created fake websites of Kenya’s leading companies with a bid to duping job seekers. Obviously this has had a bad dent on the companies “image”.

A few years back a vindictive person managed to create a fake website of a leading Kenya law firm and went on to post possibly defamatory statements about the law firm on the fake website.

The level of cyber crime in Kenya is taking a worrying trend.

Perhaps cyber criminals do not have a clue that they are committing crimes and view their actions as harmless fun when it is actually criminal.

What is so wrong if a suspicious spouse or parent buys spy ware software and uses that to track all information going in or out of the users’ mobile phone or computer?

What is wrong with an employer or a private investigator doing the same thing?

It may not seem morally wrong after all it is your moral right but legally it is actually a crime.

What is so wrong in using your computer skills to find out more about your competitor’s business methods after all you are a computer whizz and perhaps that is why you were hired in the first place?

The law is clear, all the above constitute offences under our communication laws.

Source:-http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Beware%20its%20an%20offence%20to%20use%20mobile%20phone%20spyware/-/539444/1098578/-/l46uamz/-/

Peep Wireless Technology (PWT), a Delaware-based company, has revealed a software app that turns a phone into a small cell tower (client/server viral transmitter/receiver).
The application will be revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show or CES in Las Vegas later this week. It is called PeepApp and will initially be available only for the iPhone. Later it will be made for other mobile operating systems as well.

Phones with the app, which operate as cellphone towers, or “seed phones” as the company calls them, in turn identifies and connects every device with Bluetooth, WiFi or other spectrum points which has PeepApp (i.e.: game boxes, pads, cafes, Bluetooth cars, PC’s and internet TV’s etc.) and cause the Peep Mesh to grow and grow around the world in a peer-to-peer manner.

Peep Wireless claims that this new network will mean that the consumer would never need to pay a phone bill again and all his email, internet and media access would be free forever.

For network operators PeepApp saves billions of dollars and years of build-out time, and doubles their capacity almost overnight. It creates instant, low-cost connectivity for even those places that femtocells and picocells cannot fill.

PeepApp is software based but the company will release a keyfob (key chain) item that is said to quadruple the range, scope and power of the PeepApp.
With the Peep technology, mobile devices connect instantly to one another over WiFi, Bluetooth, GSM, CDMA or walkie talkie channels that PeepApp constantly scans. No cell tower, base station or internet server is needed.

Phone calls, media sharing, texts, movies, media and data sharing can be free between all mobile devices. All mobile units act as nodes. They transport data traffic between all the other such devices in clusters.

Any phone call moves from one device to the next in segments, sometimes in different duplicate segments with the fastest segment of the duplicates being used until the call reaches its destination.

This viral mesh network growth can instantly span a vast area with no external infrastructure required.

This unique, proprietary technology offers the ability to interact with any phone anywhere in the world free of cost. Phones with PeeApp can move across any carrier system, via a legal “backdoor” technology that Peep has engineered.

Peep devices make voice and data calls by scanning and using the entire free spectrum adjacent to paid spectrum used by service providers and the company claims that it only takes a handful of people using PeepApps to provide network coverage across an entire large city.

The release of this app to the consumer has not been announced and the company plans to license PeepApp to other parties who will in turn bring it to market.

Source:http://telecomyatra.afaqs.com/news/?sid=2698_Software+to+turn+every+phone+into+a+cell-tower+

Phone Remote Control is a shareware application from Blueshareware.com that lets you use your phone as your PC’s interactive remote control. All it needs is a Bluetooth-enabled phone and PC, and you’re ready to go.

Some features that I personally like:

Control Winamp, iTunes, or Windows Media Player using your phone (switch tracks, shuffle play, rewind/fast forward, volume control, etc.)
Control your on-screen mouse cursor using your phone’s control stick (awesome for pranks and presentations)
Interact with your Powerpoint presentation right with your phone
Shutdown or reboot Windows, or lock your work station with just a few clicks
Extra features enhance your workstation security; Phone RC can automatically lockdown or set your PC to screen saver mode when your phone is out of range
Version 5.1 can actually use WiFi connection instead of Bluetooth (sweet)
However, there are some drawbacks — since it’s a shareware app, you’ll need to get the full version if you don’t want it nagging you after every few clicks, and some actions cause your PC and phone to freeze, especially if you’re on a low-speed Bluetooth connection. But overall, I’d give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Source:-http://kixtrix.com/2009/05/11/control-your-pc-with-your-bluetooth-phone/#3

Windows Phone 7 dominated Microsoft’s week yet again and it seems logical because the company is hopeful that it will allow it to regain its lost ground in the mobile market. The WP7 was launched in the U.S. market on November 8 and the first three smartphones running the WP7 include the Samsung Focus and HTC Surround. AT&T is offering these devices for $199 with a two-year contract, while T-Mobile will release HTC HD7 for the same price with data plan.

According to reports, the WP7 is doing good business at global level. Taiwan-based DigiTimes reported on November 3 that sales of HTC-build Windows Phone 7 smartphones are strong in Europe and Australia. The WP7-powered devices are also doing good business in the U.K. “Early supporters of the new operating system such as South Korea’s It is to be noted that Microsoft is facing stiff competition from Google’s Android and Apple iPhone. A report by research firm Gartner said that Microsoft’s market share declined from 7.9 percent to 2.9 percent leading to the third quarter. “Smartphone OS providers have entered a period of accelerated platform evolution, stimulated by more regular product releases, new platform entrants and new device types,” Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, wrote in a November 10 research note.

The week was also dominated by a series of court actions taken by Microsoft against Motorola. Motorola filed patent-infringement complaints on November 10 against the software giant claiming that Microsoft’s PC and Server software, Windows Phone software and Xbox products violate 16 of its patents.

Motorola’s lawsuit is seen as a response by the company to Microsoft’s Nov. 9 lawsuit against the handset maker. In its lawsuit, Microsoft alleged that it violated agreements to license at “reasonable rates” patents related to H.264 video compression and wireless LAN.

“Motorola broke its promise to IEEE-SA and its members and affiliates by refusing to offer Microsoft a license that is consistent with Clause 6 of IEEE-SA Standards Board Bylaws, instead demanding royalties that are excessive and discriminatory,” reads a section from Microsoft’s lawsuit.

Source:-http://www.lanewsmonitor.com/news/Windows-Phone-7-Sales-Take-The-Wind-Off-Motorola-Lawsuit-Againt-Microsoft-1289755660/

Opera software, manufacturer of world’s leading mobile phone browser Opera, has launched new Mini 5.1 beta mobile browser for Symbian operating system based handsets.

The new Opera Mini 5.1 beta will support more than 3000 Symbian mobiles.

Currently, Opera Mini 5.1 beta supports only English language but it supports old Symbian devices.

The Norwegian company Opera told that the new browser was developed keeping a wide range of Symbian phones in mind.

Now it allows text input methods, scrolling on older phones and improved page loading.

Another new feature on Opera Mini 5.1 is the option to set a default access point once and for all, which puts paid to all those annoying dialogs.

Source:http://news.oneindia.in/2010/10/29/tech-symbian-phones-get-new-opera-mini-5-1-browser.html

If you want to keep track of a girlfriend or boyfriend or youngster, Spy Bubble’s telephone spy program allow for users to accomplish cell telephone tracking

Spy Bubble is a small application that can be easily placed upon a good number of cellular phones without the individual even figuring out it has been put in. It documents every thing from calls to text messages that are both delivered and received.

Spy Bubble can help an individual uncover if a partner is actually disloyal, whether your teenager is actually engaging in anything at all that they should not, and even allow you to watch your workers’ cellphone use.

Spy Bubble helps make it simple and easy to find what numbers have been called, what numbers have called the an individual phone, what particular times the telephone calls took place, the duration of each and every phone call and even much more.

Spy Bubble offers a thirty day, 100% cash back guarantee as a result it is easy to test it out and see the returns for your self.

Source:http://aamproject.org/spy-cell-phone-with-spy-phone-software/4438

Allworx , a wholly owned subsidiary of PAETEC Holding Corp. , today announced the addition of its 48x phone system and System 7.2 Software Upgrade to its current award winning suite of IP-based phone systems for small and medium sized businesses. With support for up to 250 employees per site, the 48x is the largest system to date from Allworx and an ideal solution for companies in the mid-market enterprise space, as well as small businesses preparing for future growth.

IP-Based phone systems such as the 48x offer tremendous advantages over traditional systems. By converging voice and data over a single network, businesses can realize network efficiency, powerful features and simpler management for internal staff. Since devices are connected through routing rather than physical connections, users can easily move phones within a building, or even bring their phone and capabilities to any Internet-based connection such as their home or hotel room when traveling.

“The 48x is the latest addition to our already robust line of communications products,” said Chris Hasenauer, president of Allworx. “As our customers grow, the 48x can expand with them while keeping the same intuitive interface and simple management that Allworx users have come to expect.”

The Allworx 48x offers dual T1/PRI interfaces, each capable of supporting any mix of voice and data connectivity, making it the perfect system for businesses which are too large for a single PRI, but not so large that they need the significant expense of an enterprise-class server.

In addition, the Allworx 48x includes:

Two (2) T1/PRI interfaces, each capable of supporting any mix of voice and data connectivity Four (4) conference bridges with up to 30 users per conference and up to 60 users in all conferences simultaneously Three (3) FXO ports and five (5) FXS ports Full support for every Allworx VoIP phone Energy efficient design for maximum energy cost savings Rack mountable

The System 7.2 Software Upgrade from Allworx offers full support for the 48x Phone System plus numerous other features.

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/allworx-releases-new-48x-phone-system-and-supporting-software-2010-10-20?reflink=MW_news_stmp

If you would like to keep track of a partner or teenager, Spy Bubble’s cell phone spy software programs make it possible for users to do mobile phone tracking.

Just click Here To Check out The Official Spy Bubble Internet site.

Spy Bubble is actually a compact application that can be simply added right onto many cellular phones without the person even knowing that it has been applied. It documents every thing from cell phone calls to text messages which have been both placed and received.

Spy Bubble can assist someone in determining if a partner is actually being disloyal, whether your little one is actually engaging in some thing that they should not, as well as even permit someone to evaluate your employees mobile phone use.

Spy Bubble can make it uncomplicated to see which numbers have been called, what numbers have called the mobile phone, what times the actual calls took place, the time-span of every single phone call plus considerably more.
Spy Bubble provides a 30 day, 100% cash back guarantee thus you can test it out and see the returns for on your own.

Source:http://aamproject.org/users-can-track-a-phone-with-phone-spy-software/3829

Microsoft has recently announced that the first Windows Phone 7 powered smartphone will be launched on October 11. In the light of recent news, this first WP7 smartphone might be released by Samsung.

The Korean electronics manufacturer has announced that, given the finalized Windows Phone 7 license agreement, it is ready to release its smartphones based on this operating system in time for the 2010 holiday season, making Microsoft’s mobile operating system a key component of its smartphone portfolio.

WP Hong, Samsung’s Executive VP and head of Product Strategy Team promises a long time commitment to the platform and an unparalleled entertainment experience, the latest hardware design and Microsoft software innovation and heritage (whatever this means).

This decision will surely boost the new Microsoft mobile operating system’s penetration, given the popularity of Samsung’s Galaxy S smartphone. The combination of a much anticipated software platform and a well known, high performance hardware can be the source of much satisfaction for the users.hopefully we will see the first Windows Phone 7 powered smart phones on the shelves in the next few weeks.

Source:-http://www.providingnews.com/samsung-will-use-windows-phone-7-on-several-smartphones.html

With Cell Tracker Cell Phone Software is setup on any Cell Phone owners can easily find out who a partner, children, business associates, and friends have been in contact with phone spying software.

Cell phone owners can listen to phone calls by a spouse, the teenagers, employees, or even a business partner with strange activities – this phone spying software can help solve all these worries – SECRETLY!

If you want to monitor Family or Business Cell Phones they will want the option to monitor live *cell phone GPS location tracking, SMS* text monitoring, and have the option to listen to any phone calls*, all from the owner’s main cell phone or on a home computer from any internet connection, or any 1G to 4G carrier service in the world…

When they compare cellular phone plans – this new invisible phone spying software service from Cell Tracker.com is the least expensive choice to find and track anyone – or catch cheating spouse in the act!

A parent, security company or any business owner that is searching for free mobile security options, there is a tracing and surveillance service that will show anyone how to take advantage of all the Free Options in any cell phones they own and monitor on any PC in the World!

Source:http://www.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=227874

Writing applications for devices like tablets and smartphones could become more challenging as CPUs and hardware accelerators are added to mobile chips, experts agreed at a processor conference on Monday.

Chip makers are adding CPUs and specialized hardware accelerators to mobile chips as an energy-efficient way to boost application performance on tablets and smartphones. Most mobile devices today come with one CPU core on a chip, but tablets and smartphones with dual- and triple-core chips could hit shelves as early as next year.

That means that applications must be rewritten to take advantage of the new hardware, said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst at Linley Group, during the Linley Tech Processor conference in San Jose, California.

A lot of work would be needed in software to extract better performance out of multicore chips, which could be a challenge, Gwennap said.

“What we’re seeing on the phone side is applications having to change to use the second CPU,” Gwennap said. “It’s going to take some time before the software is ready for that,” Gwennap said.

But it’s a challenge that programmers are likely to meet. Smartphone and tablet shipments are growing fast, and developers are churning out new programs designed to get an early foothold in these exciting markets.

New smartphones such Apple’s iPhone 4, Motorola’s Droid X and HTC’s Evo 4G carry the fastest processors ever, running at clock speeds of 1GHz. The tablet market is ruled by Apple’s iPad, but it will heat up as challengers such as Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and Toshiba’s Folio 100 begin shipping. Research in Motion on Monday announced its new tablet, called the PlayBook.

Mobile devices are undergoing a transition from voice and SMS to more data services, and applications remain connected for longer, said Kannan Parthasarathy, an engineer at Byte Mobile. “It started off with Web browsing, now people are watching video,” she said.

There are also social media applications that remain connected for longer, which calls for more processing power and improved network connectivity. To save battery life, developers need to understand mobile applications, services and connectivity, and break down tasks over cores and threads accordingly.

Mobile operating systems like Google’s Android are partly ready for dual-CPUs at the OS level, which could initially reduce the strain on programmers, Gwennap said. But as mobile chips carry more cores, there will be more complexity in implementing applications over multiple cores and threads.

Qualcomm and Nvidia have announced dual-CPU chips based on Arm designs for smartphones and tablets. But Marvell has already released a chip with three processing cores, and the number of cores on mobile chips could increase over time as devices demand more performance while saving power.

“As you go beyond four cores … you really have to start stripping down the OS,” Gwennap said.

Chips based on Arm designs also have the capability of shutting down cores to save power. Depending on the chip architecture, many OS- and program-level changes would be needed for tablets and smartphones to take advantage of the power-saving features.

“The problem is the way you throttle down a Marvell CPU is different from the way you throttle down a Qualcomm CPU. The operating systems are going to have to have specific modules for each phone. It starts getting complicated,” Gwennap said.

Beyond CPUs, specialized cores and hardware accelerators are being added to mobile chips to either increase performance or reduce power consumption. However, such specialized cores could reduce software portability, as they may require specific proprietary APIs (application programming interfaces) to port specific applications.

“The downside of accelerators is they reduce software portability,” Gwennap said.

Some applications like video processing are suited for multicore processors and specialized accelerators, Gwennap said. Nvidia, for example, has added proprietary graphics processing cores to its Tegra 2 chips to accelerate video applications while saving power.

Similar multicore programming challenges faced software programmers writing applications for PCs in the past. Before multicore chips, application performance on PCs was boosted by cranking up CPU clock speed, and a lot of software was written in sequential mode for execution on a single core.

But cranking up clock speed led to excessive heat dissipation and power consumption, and chip makers like Intel reverted to a new technique of adding processing cores to improve performance. Software developers faced the challenge of rewriting applications to take advantage of multiple cores to scale application performance.

But with mobile devices, power consumption matters a lot more than application performance, Gwennap said.

“The software is very important in terms of driving power consumption. Everybody says ‘oh, is my CPU good, is my CPU not good,’ but it’s what the software does with the CPU that makes a huge difference,” Gwennap said.

Source:http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/article/362379/tablet_phone_software_developers_face_multicore_challenge/

When software company WhereScape Red needed to make a splash at a large technology tradeshow it turned to mobile tagging technology backed by another local software player, Contrast Media.

Mobile tagging uses the barcode reader function on most new mobile phones to scan printed “tags” that take the phone user to a website, video or add a contact to the address book.

Contrast Media chief executive Chris South said it is about joining the real world to the virtual world.

South said around two million devices in New Zealand are capable of snapping mobile tags.

With enabled devices the tag shown (right) should link to Herald technology stories.

South said the extra effort needed to snap a tag creates a big psychological difference in the level of engagement of consumers.

“Mobile tagging is not a widespread demographic. It is not intended to be used to try and get the people who are not currently consuming content on mobile phones. However it has a very sweet spot with the demographic who already consumes [data].

If you check your email, you browse the web, you update Twitter, you update Facebook then you’re a sitter for using mobile tagging technology,” said South.

It was exactly this demographic WhereScape Red’s Stephen Usmar was interested in connecting with at Microsoft’s TechEd conference.

An MS tag – Microsoft’s version of the mobile tags – on a sticker had attendees snapping to win prizes and to register for a demo of WhereScape’s data warehousing software.

The stickers were slapped on the back of attendee badges and the bags of anyone who walked past the company’s stand.

“About halfway through the first day you got to the tipping point which was people coming to us and saying ‘how come I haven’t got a sticker’,” said Usmar.

The goal for WhereScape was to attract people who had never seen the company before.

Usmar said the use of mobile tagging worked much better than he had expected with 12 per cent of the 1600 attendees snapping the tags and many of those registrations converting into solid interest in the firm’s software.

Although the technology has been around for years – one type of mobile tag, QR codes, were created 15 years ago in Japan – Contrast Media has taken the technology and added its own smarts to run in the background, much of which South said are world-leading.

South said its Hardlink platform not only delivers content customised to the users phone specifications ensuring users get the best experience possible, it can also provide valuable marketing statistics back to the advertiser on who has scanned or “snapped” the tag.

“You know they are interested in your product – that’s an advertising opportunity to offer a discount right now to close this deal,” said South.

South said bus shelter ads sporting the tags – for example, a tag on a poster promoting a movie taking the mobile user to the movie trailer – could provide valuable statistics back to the advertiser on which locations are being snapped more than others.

Hardlink also allows the tags to be locked down by passwords or to particular devices opening up opportunities for targeted advertising or a specific business use, such as security guards scanning the tags of buildings visited using a phone rather than the current barcode method requiring special hardware.

The Hardlink platform could be adapted for other mobile commerce applications, said South, but with mobile tagging a recognised technology it had been the first cab off the rank.

Source:http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10676289