Displaying items by tag: iOS

Straight from the Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas we have some bad news for the Apple fans. It seems that the myth surrounding the security of the iPhone is starting to crack around the edges. This is something that we predicted would happen when the trend to use Smartphones for common net tasks first started appearing. It only make sense that malicious coders would start hitting out smart phones after all. I mean how many people use their phones for banking, personal and work email, store passwords to online accounts in their phones with password lockers and more. To be honest, considering the number of smart phones in use, we are surprised that it has taken this long.

Well looks like we were close to the mark with our comments this morning about a Facephone. If you remember we had talked about the rumors that continually popup about this legendary device and some of the “indicators” that have had analysts and journalists even claiming to know when one would launch. So far we have heard everything from it will be Nokia/Microsoft effort to an HTC/Android product. The problem was that most guesses about this were based on the simple fact that Facebook hired people from Apple and Palm. What they did not do was really look at what those people did and what they are doing at Facebook.

Time Apple news for July 26th 2012. Today we have Apple’s “we should not have to pay” defense, a new worm in the iTunes store, and new Malware that has popped up for OSX users. These three things have loads of laughs and some interesting twists which we think you will enjoy. So up on deck first we will take a look at Apple’s we should not have to pay defense which they are presenting in one of the patent cases they have going with Samsung.

As we near the launch of two new phones the rumors are building again around a Facebook phone (dubbed the Facephone by many). This is a rumor is something we have covered on more than one occasion and while we still think that it would be a flop (for many reasons) the rumors are interesting when we take a look at their origins and the companies they involve. The latest one involves HTC as the potential partner with Android as the base OS. It comes on the heels of new information about the team of developers that Facebook has picked up from Apple and Palm.

Nokia is laboring under some false expectations with their Lumia phones and the upcoming release of Windows Phone 8. It seems that despite the lack of market share and a dubious demand for Windows Phone in general they feel that building exclusive deals with carriers is the way to go. We find this very odd considering that the numbers they have now are only due to the proliferation of Windows Phone 7 based Lumias in the market. If they were restricted to single carriers in every market they would not have the 10.9 million units shipped that they have now.

It looks like Google is finally stepping up to the plate when it comes to security in their Android Smartphone OS. For a number of years now opponents of Google’s desert themed mobile OS have complained Android does not have sufficient security. This makes it an unsuitable operating system. The fact that a large portion of these complaints come from the competition (Apple and Microsoft) meant that they were ignored by the large majority of people. It is also noteworthy that the openness of Android has allowed for mobile phone makers to highly individualize their Android offerings instead of relying on the stock version. Consumers have eaten this up and now you can see people defending their favorite version (HTC’s Sense UI over Samsung etc.) It is a great feature to the OS and one that has helped in in the market.

Microsoft is in a bit of trouble over their decision to grant users in the EU the right to choose their browser upon the installation of the Windows operating system. Now I know you are thinking that they have already been in trouble for this before, so why are we bringing it up again? Well the issue is that with the launch of Windows 7 Service Pack 1… Microsoft just stopped allowing for the browser election. Yup, any new system shipped with Windows 7 SP1 would boot up just like the good old days (for Microsoft). Well the European Union would like to talk to them about it.

There are a few laws that govern a modern market. One of the most basic is the law of supply and demand. If there is a short supply and a high demand prices will tend to go up. This is because the people that want these products are willing to pay more to get them. Apple is a master of this and calculates their launches to take advantage of this. On the other side of this coin is plentiful supply and low demand. Here, well you can imagine that people will do whatever they can to clear inventory.

For home theater enthusiasts there is some good news today as we have found out that XBMC is working on a Media Center for use with the Android operating system. Many sites are reporting this as a “leak”, but as the information comes straight from XBMC’s own page we are going to call it a sneak peak. Ever since the first few Android based media players popped up on the market we have noted a rather large gap in what they offer. While most of them do have access to a limited form of the internet and you can access pictures and other items from your own network, the UI is clunky and not really suited for a home theater environment.

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer is trying to do a little damage control, but as usual he just does not get how to do that. At the Microsoft Worldwide Partners Conference Ballmer made the rather foolish mistake of announcing his intent to compete with Apple directly. Now you might not think that this is foolish and on the surface it is not, but if you think about what the statement actually means it is a tacit acknowledgement that Apple is ahead of them and that their new products are not innovations, but measures to counter Apple offerings. It is a subtle, but vital distinction to analysts, investors and consumers.