Research in Motion CEO Thorsten Heins holds up a prototype of the BlackBerry 10 smartphone at the BlackBerry World event in Orlando. Photo: Reuters

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has shown off advanced new features that will be available on new BlackBerry 10 smartphones – and a new prototype – but analysts are already questioning whether it’s “too late” to claw back market share lost to smart hone titans like Apple and Google.

The sneak viewing of its yet-to-be-launched operating system at the BlackBerry World conference in Orlando, Florida, brings the ailing smartphone and tablet maker a step closer to what some have described as the most crucial launch in the company’s history.

In his first keynote address since being appointed chief executive of RIM in January, Thorsten Heins unveiled the new operating system and gave a demonstration of some of its new features which include a new smart virtual keypad, advanced camera capabilities, and its ability to easily traverse between apps and system setting windows using gestures.

But Heins gave no concrete date on when the Canadian company would launch a phone that used the new features other than saying hardware and software would be released “later this year”. “We’re taking our time to make sure we get this right,” Heins said.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek, who is in Orlando for the conference, speculated in an interview with the Associated Press that it felt like it was “getting close to being too late” for the BlackBerry maker to recover despite its CEO giving what he described as a good speech.

“I just get the feeling that I wish they had it [the new operating system] out already. It’s going to be a challenge for them. When they launch BlackBerry 10 devices the iPhone 5, Windows 8 and all the Android devices will all be out,” Misek said.

In demonstrating the new operating system, Heins also showed off the prototype touchscreen smartphone it was running on. Developers of third-party apps for BlackBerry who are attending its seminar will be receiving a similar device – known as Alpha Dev – with different software (not BlackBerry 10).

The idea behind giving developers the prototype – which boasts a 4.2-inch screen and looks like a smaller version of RIM’s PlayBook tablet – is so that they can create apps that will work on the new operating system before it is launched further into this year.

But the prototype given to developers was met with a fair chunk of criticism in the tech media – one of the key issues being the fact it can’t make calls or access mobile phone networks.

There is also the fact it doesn’t come with the new operating system unveiled by RIM’s CEO on his prototype device, which ran a beta version of the BlackBerry 10. The device given to developers instead runs something similar to what is powering the PlayBook tablet.

New features

Head of RIM’s software portfolio, Vivek Bhardwaj, described the new virtual on-screen keypad as being tailored to each individual user “just like a glove”. “We’re using things like modelling algorithms to actually learn where you press every single key,” he said.

The new keypad also makes it easy for users to “type fast and accurately”, according to Bhardwaj, and shows suggestions for words on the keypad midway through typing. The words can then be swiped upwards to be inserted into something like a text message.

“This keypad really saves you time,” Heins said during a demonstration.

The advanced camera software, another of the clever features shown off that will be built into the next iteration of the BlackBerry operating system, allows users to go “back and forth in time” after taking a picture to ensure they get the right shot, Bhardwaj said.

He showed an example of a picture taken where one of the subjects had blinked when the photo was taken. He then demonstrated how one could scroll back and forth in time through a variety of shots that were taken when the photo was made, meaning one could choose a photo that was taken where a subject had not blinked, making for a better outcome.

Heins said the feature meant users would “never miss that magic moment”.

The other major feature shown off in a demonstration was a more swifter way of switching between apps running on a smartphone using the new operating system.

“We wanted a user paradigm that is easy and fast,” Heins said, showing how information from documents, emails, calendars, and address books could slide in and out from a smartphone screen’s edges. “It’s all about making things flow.”

Companies ditch RIM

The unveiling follows some of the biggest corporate giants in Australia and around the world ditching the Blackberry in favour of Apple and Google-powered mobiles and comes as research firm IDC said that RIM’s share of the global smartphone market had slipped to 6.7 per cent in the first quarter of this year, from 13.6 per cent a year earlier. Last year IDC said RIM’s share of the smartphone market in Australia was just 5 per cent.

Nicholas Ebbeck, commercial sales manager at Dick Smith for Australia and New Zealand, said BlackBerry had recently seen a decline in the corporate market not only because of the iPhone but because of other smartphones too. Ebbeck manages the smartphone contracts for big corporates, including Woolworths (owner of Dick Smith).

“Corporates at the moment are looking at alternatives and I think BlackBerry have always been a small piece of an organisation’s communication [system],” he said. Woolworths executives had recently switched to Apple’s iPhone, he said. IBM Australia and Dell also recently decided to abandon RIM.

Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg said in an email that RIM’s sneak preview of the new features showed that it was “focused on details that differentiate meaningfully”. But the key to gaining back market share, he said, would be shipping and execution of a new mobile.

John Jackson, an analyst at CCS Insight, told Reuters that Heins’s address was low key but effective in presenting RIM’s vision.

“Mr Heins delivered a decent articulation of what and who RIM stood for while providing a sufficiently tantalising glimpse of some unique BlackBerry 10 features to keep things interesting,” Jackson said.  “This should be enough to at least give the naysayers pause, if only temporarily.”

Ben Grubb travelled to BlackBerry World in Orlando, Florida as a guest of RIM

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In what is being touted as “the world’s largest dream experiment,” a psychologist from Britain’s University of Hertfordshire is inviting volunteers to try using an iPhone app to control their dreams. Prof. Richard Wiseman teamed up with the developers at software company YUZA to create Dream:ON, an app that plays soundscapes while its user sleeps, intended to shape what sort of dreams they have. The project comes in response to a UK survey conducted by Wiseman, in which 15% of respondents claimed that they frequently suffered from unpleasant dreams.

To use Dream:ON, people start by indicating the time at which they would like to wake up. Next, they select an alarm tone, followed by one of several “soundscapes” – examples include titles like Peaceful Garden and A Trip to Tokyo. The phone is then plugged into an external power source, and left turned on at the bedside.

Throughout the night, the phone uses its microphone to monitor the user’s movements. Approximately 20 minutes before their selected wake-up time, and once a decrease in their movements indicates that they’ve entered REM sleep (the sleep stage at which dreams occur), the soundscape will be played. Theoretically, that audio will be incorporated into the existing dream. Of course, it’s possible that someone could simply end up dreaming that an axe murderer was chasing them through a peaceful garden – that’s the sort of thing that the project is looking at.

Once the person starts moving again, indicating that they are no longer dreaming, the alarm will sound to wake them. As a side benefit, by not being woken up while in deep REM sleep, users should wake up feeling more refreshed – a strategy already employed by products like the sleep-monitoring Sleeptracker alarm.

The app will subsequently prompt users to submit a report of their dream.

After a few months, Wiseman and his team will review the various users’ reports, to see how well the app works. Dream:ON is available now as a free download at the App Store, while an Android version is expected to come out later this year. If it does indeed work, more soundscapes could be on the way – some of them would be free, while others would have to be purchased.

Should the idea behind Dream:ON sound at all familiar to some readers, it’s because something similar already exists, in the form of the Japanese Yumemiru app. There’s no word on how effective that one has proven to be.

The video below provides an outline of Prof. Wiseman’s project.

Source: University of Hertfordshire

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

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She is ”hungry for it”, her mother, Justine Lange, 43, of Clovelly, says.

But Ms Lange emphasises app time is ”by no means a substitute for all the other games, physical games and other activities we do together”.

She is so concerned about the potential for inappropriate app use by toddlers that she is working up a one-minute presentation to audition for TED, the non-profit organisation and internet phenomenon that promotes people with ”ideas worth spreading” at exclusive summits and posts their talks online to an audience of millions.

The replacement of the mouse and keyboard with simple to use tap and swipe technology for iPads and tablet PCs meant ”my little girl, from as young as 18 months, is able to interact with technology”, Ms Lange said.

Having worked with online platforms in the media all her life, she recognised ”how vulnerable these children are, now that they are a new market”.

Ms Lange is backing her views in a start-up company, PaddleDuck Learning, developing interactive educational apps for toddlers with a group of artists, musicians and educators.

Not that Ms Lange will be promoting her wares at TED. Hawkers, jargon junkies, dullards and motivator wannabes need not apply, say the organisers. It is undiscovered prodigies, sages, sparks and storytellers they want.

In a break from its 26-year invitation-only policy for speakers, TED’s global search for new talent spans 14 cities from Europe and Africa to Japan and the Middle East between April and June, including Sydney in May.

The best performers will join the ranks of such luminous TED speaker alumni as Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Sir Richard Branson, Isabel Allende and Philippe Starck. The most viewed is the British educator Sir Ken Robinson’s take on how schools kill creativity, with 9.6 million views.

Other Sydney applicants will include Darryl Nichols, whose Garage Sale Trail is galvanising communities around selling junk; Matt Noffs on the Street University for youth at risk; web entrepreneur Rebekah Campbell on a new model for helping small businesses thrive; Cathy Kezelman on treating child abuse and Janine Weir on lifting barriers to international adoption.

Successful first round applicants will be invited to speak at the audition event to be held at Carriageworks in May. Their talks will be posted online and put to a vote of TED’s global audience.

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A video posted at a Project Glass page at Google+ social network confirmed the rumour that the technology titan is working on eyewear that meshes the online world with the real world.

“We think technology should work for you – be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t,” members of the project team said in a Google+ post.

Google plans to release Android-powered internet glasses with a heads-up display.

“A group of us from Google X (Labs) started Project Glass to build this kind of technology; one that helps you explore and share your world.”

Images showed people wearing eyeglasses with stylish silver frames that featured tiny cameras and on-lens displays to discretely show information such as walking directions, weather forecasts or messages from friends.

Built-in microphones let wearers command the internet-linked glasses by speaking.

“We took a few design photos to show what this technology could look like and created a video to demonstrate what it might enable you to do,” Google said, stressing that the glasses were a concept far from being brought to market.

“We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input.”

The project team invited people to express ideas for the glasses at the Google+ page.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin is deeply involved with the California company’s X Labs, best known for its work on a self-driving car.

A YouTube video of legally blind Steve Mahan “driving” an autonomous Google car in his California neighborhood has been viewed more than 1.2 million times since it was uploaded on March 27.

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As a response to public fears about radiation levels following the Fukushima crisis, a Japanese organization called Radiation Watch has launched Pocket Geiger, a Geiger counter iPhone peripheral and accompanying app aimed at concerned individuals.

New Scientist reports that the peripheral has eight photodiode sensors to detect radiation and aluminum foil to screen alpha and beta particles. Second generation peripherals, known as Pokega Type2, do away with the need for batteries, using the connected iPhone as a power supply.

The app functions as the Geiger counter display, but also uploads data to a Radiation Watch server where readings are collectively mapped for an overview. Apparently there are over 10,000 users, though the viewing of maps is limited to Radiation Watch members.

The main advantage of the Pocket Geiger appears to be cost. Where a typical personal Geiger counter would cost well into three figures, the peripheral and app cost a mere US$46 – or $65 for the Pokega Type2.

Of course, the WikiSensor app we looked at last October did away with the peripheral entirely.

Sources: New Scientist, Radiation Watch

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

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SAN FRANCISCO: The private photos on your phone may not be as private as you think.

Developers of applications for Apple’s mobile devices, along with Apple itself, came under scrutiny this month after reports that some apps were taking people’s address book information without their knowledge.

As it turns out, address books are not the only things up for grabs.

Photos are also vulnerable. After a user allows an application on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to have access to location information, the app can copy the user’s entire photo library, without any further notification or warning, according to app developers.

It is unclear whether any apps in Apple’s App Store are illicitly copying user photos.

Although Apple’s rules do not specifically forbid photo copying, Apple says it screens all apps submitted to the store, a process that should catch nefarious behaviour on the part of developers.

But copying address book data was against Apple’s rules, and the company approved many popular apps that collected that information.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

The first time an application wants to use location data, for mapping or any other purpose, Apple’s devices ask the user for permission, noting in a pop-up message that approval “allows access to location information in photos and videos.”

When the devices save photo and video files, they typically include the coordinates of the place they were taken — creating another potential risk.

On phones and tablets running Google’s Android software, apps must ask for approval before transmitting any photos.

On Apple devices, full access to the photo library was first permitted in 2010 when Apple released the fourth version of iOS. The change was intended to make photo apps more efficient.

The knowledge that this capability exists is not new, developers say, but it was assumed that Apple would ensure that apps that inappropriately exploited it did not make it into the App Store. Based on recent revelations, phone owners cannot be sure.

“Apple has a tremendous responsibility as the gatekeeper to the App Store and the apps people put on their phone to police the apps,” said David Jacobs, a fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Centre.

“Apple and app-makers should be making sure people understand what they are consenting to. It is pretty obvious that they aren’t doing a good enough job of that.”

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Now Swedish group myFC says its water-powered charger could be the fix anywhere while battery giant Duracell is championing a push for cars and even stadiums to be built with energy “mats” that would power up phones.

A Californian firm, meanwhile, has launched a phone that it claims can remain charged for up to 15 years, making it the perfect spare in emergencies or disasters.

“The difference between the energy on a phone and the energy we consume is increasing. We need to charge more often but you don’t want to be hooked onto a wall,” said myFC chief executive Bjorn Westerholm.

His firm has therefore come up with a portable fuel cell charger which is slightly larger than a compact camera and which uses just one spoonful of water and a small metallic device called a fuel puck, to fully charge an iPhone.

The PowerTrekk could appeal most to campers, aid workers or the military, said Westerholm, who is exhibiting the charger at the world’s biggest mobile fair in Barcelona.

“It could be sea water, fresh water. You need to carry water with you to survive anyway and the PowerTrekk needs just one spoonful,” he said.

“So you can Facebook, email even when you’re in the outdoors for hours.

“Our value proposition is that you don’t need to go to the grid. You don’t need to wait to charge your phone.”

Competition for solutions to power up phones is fierce.

XPAL Power rolled out a phone with a battery that “lasts 15 years,” said Christian Scheder, chairman of the Californian firm.

The so-called Spareone, which will be commercialised in March, remains charged for up to 15 years if the phone is turned off, and for two months if it is on.

“This is great for emergency, disaster situations,” Scheder said.

Battery giant Duracell meanwhile has its own vision to keep the world charged.

It is championing the PowerMat system, a mat which looks like a small tablet that plugs into the power source and which has sufficient space to charge two phones which are equipped with special protective covers.

But that is just the beginning, Stassi Anastassov, Duracell President, said.

Beyond just targeting consumers with the charging kit, Duracell is at the Mobile World Congress to talk phone manufacturers into designing a slot for a special chip or even build it into the telephone, thereby doing away with the protective covers that are currently required to dock with the mat.

The company further wants to fit the mats in public places, for instance, build them into tables at fast-food chains, thereby allowing anyone with equipped phones to charge up anytime.

It already has a deal with General Motors to fit all vehicles from 2013 with the charging mat. Likewise, it has an agreement to equip New York’s Madison Square Garden, starting with bar tabletops.

“Of course it will take many years, the whole ecosystem will not be up tomorrow,” said Anastassov.

“But our vision is that you will be able to never go out of power, simply by facilitating the whole charging process for you.

“It’s very similar to banking and money. If you want to have cash, you can either have a very big wallet full of money or you have an ATM card,” he said.

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The security threat to mobile devices is now very real and there is a wave of new exploits that has allowed hackers to eavesdrop on smartphones – even when you’re not connected to a phone call, writes Lia Timson.

Phone crashing regularly? Strange SMS bothering you for an update or a juicy link? It’s time to wise up to mobile malware.

Security experts have shown that iPhones and Android phones are quite vulnerable to the same type of “drive-by” attacks that have long plagued PC users.

A team of researchers infected a Google Android smartphone overnight, live, in front of a packed audience of computer security buffs to prove how mobile malware is now on the cusp of the big time, after so many years of unfulfilled predictions.

George Kurtz, co-author of Hacking Exposed, former McAfee security champion and now at the helm of CrowdStrike alongside Dmitri Alperovitch, demonstrated how the team designed a smartphone remote access tool (RAT) and eavesdrop operation.

They then set about buying the necessary items to make it happen, later coding, then executing the attack on their demo phone.

“We believe we are here today and on the cusp of what we’re going to see in the future. If you think of what a smartphone has the capability to do, it’s the ultimate spying tool. Always powered on, always connected, travels around with us at all times,” Kurtz began.

“If you haven’t figured out privacy is dead, this is going to do it for you.”

The scenario was a competitor wanting to intercept calls and text messages on Kurtz’s phone and the attack was Webkit-based. Webkit is a tool used by Apple, Google and RIM to render HTML websites in Safari, Chrome and Android, and the latest versions of the BlackBerry, respectively.

The team bought 20 Webkit vulnerabilities – or bugs – in the underground for $US1400, spent approximately $US14,000 developing the malware code (“weaponisation phase”) and engineering root access, as well as building their own command and control centre to be able to harvest the fruits of their exploits.

The attack followed several steps: the first was a text message delivered to the smartphone appearing to come from the mobile carrier requesting a system update via a link. Once clicked, the drive-by link delivered the first part of the malware to the phone to elevate access (root) privilege, then cause it to crash.

It then automatically rebooted, executing the second part of the malware and hijacking the phone’s communications.

When Kurtz made a call to Alperovitch, the audience could hear the live conversation – as well as what was said before the call connected. On the command and control centre’s screen, a map positioned Kurtz and Alperovitch’s locations, the start of transmission, and the text of a subsequent text message Alperovitch sent Kurtz.

They said the attack did not require a phone be jailbroken and would work on any of the devices using Webkit – although this particular code was customised for the Adroid 2.2 (Froyo) version.

Kurtz told Fairfax Media such an attack would be possible on the iPhone because of the root access obtained via the browser vulnerability.

“We would have to get code execution via the browser, then escalate our privilege to root and totally bypass the app store [as we did] with Android.

“This is the point we are making: drive-by attacks will hit the phone just like the PCs,” he said.

But he said he didn’t want the audience to develop a bout of paranoia.

“The sky is not falling, these are very targeted attacks.”

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THE LTE PHONE NETWORK IN AMERICA MOVES AHEAD QUICKLY

The announcement this week that Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA unit plans to launch LTE services in most of the 50 largest metropolitan markets over the next two years means that all four leading US mobile operators will have commercial LTE networks up and running by the end of 2013, several years ahead of earlier expectations.

After lagging well behind their European counterparts in the rollout of 3G services in the early 2000s, US network operators, led by Verizon Wireless, the joint venture between Verizon Communications and Britain’s Vodafone group, have led the rollout of commercial LTE services, spending billions of dollars in recent years on upgrading network infrastructure.

For their part, the major handset makers are rushing to deliver LTE smartphones, remembering perhaps that Motorola’s delay in offering 3G handsets during the last technology transition was a major factor in its subsequent crisis and split-up.

Since Verizon Wireless, the largest US mobile operator by subscriber numbers, first launched its LTE network at the end of 2010, its rivals including AT&T Mobility and Sprint Nextel have accelerated their own LTE rollout plans in a helter-skelter effort to retain customers and remain competitive.

For example, Sprint Nextel, which currently resells Clearwire’s WiMax 4G service, is investing heavily in an infrastructure upgrade project called “Network Vision” that will enable the third-largest US wireless carrier to launch LTE services in selected markets this summer.

Clearwire itself has also announced plans to deploy LTE technology alongside its existing WiMax network and offer the service on a wholesale basis to regional network operators and new industry entrants.

However, the precise timing of the US network operators’ LTE announcements has been driven in part by their particular requirements and spectrum holdings. Verizon Wireless, for example, needed to move to LTE because its older 3G network, based on a technology called CDMA, was running out of steam.

Conversely, T-Mobile USA has been forced to rely on upgrades to its existing 3G network because it has lacked the spectrum to move to LTE – a problem partly resolved by the spectrum it will receive from AT&T after the collapse of its $39bn takeover bid for T-Mobile at the end of last year.

Nevertheless, the rapid shift to LTE in the US primarily reflects the accelerating adoption of smartphones and the emergence of the mobile internet as a real alternative to desktop internet access.

As AT&T’s network problems in the wake of the launch of Apple’s iPhone in mid-2007 demonstrated, the US carriers needed to upgrade their networks to cope with the mobile data tsunami unleashed by advanced smartphones including those powered by Google’s Android operating system.

Unlike the first generation of smartphones pioneered by companies like Nokia and Research In Motion, the latest smartphones come with easy-to-use touch screens, super-fast processors, advanced mobile browsers and powerful third-party ‘apps’ which are fuelling a surge in mobile data usage.

Underscoring this, Ericsson’s most recent traffic and market data report predicted that global mobile data traffic will grow by 10 times between now and 2016. In the US, the Federal Communications Commission has projected that the nation’s wireless carriers will face a 275 MHz “spectrum deficit” by 2014 if no new spectrum is opened up for use.

LTE technology, based on the same communications protocols as the internet, offers a partial solution to this conundrum because it uses scarce spectrum much more efficiently than older 2G and 3G technologies and therefore offers a mechanism for operators to accommodate much higher data loads. Looked at another way, LTE is a more cost effective mobile technology for data-heavy networks.

As Lyn Cantor, president of Tektronix Communications, which advises mobile operators on how to maximise network efficiency, notes: “The fact that carriers are losing money on the subscribers that are heavy data users is one of the key drivers of the move to LTE to create a scalable architecture that will drive down the delivery costs of data.”

What is already clear is that the shift in the market to LTE has already begun. A recent forecast from Juniper Research estimated that the number of LTE subscribers will reach 428m by 2016 with a surge in growth taking place in 2012.

“This year promises to be a watershed for LTE, as some wireless operators take stock of the economic and competitive environment in their respective markets and consider their rollout options. It may no longer be a case of ‘if’ an operator will launch an LTE network, but the ‘when’ is a different story,” says Mr Cantor.

Meanwhile, LTE pioneers like Verizon Wireless are already looking to migrate mobile voice calls over to their new networks using a technology called Voice over LTE or VoLTE. That will enable them to free up underutilised 2G and 3G spectrum and reuse that for the next generation of LTE called LTE Advanced, which is projected to deliver average download speeds in the 100 megabits per second range, opening up a whole new set of opportunities for mobile operators.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

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