Google designing Android for Intel chips

San Francisco -- Intel, which dominates the PC market but has struggled to break into smartphones, is getting a hand from Google.
Upcoming versions of Android, the No. 1 smartphone operating system from Google, will be compatible with Intel processors, the companies announced at Intel's developer conference on Tuesday.
"We want to make Intel architecture the platform of choice for smartphones," Intel CEO Paul Otellini said onstage. "Every time we have collaborated with Google, good things have come out of it."
The partnership will aid Intel in delivering on its promise to finally release smartphones with its technologies by the middle of 2012.
Google may benefit from accommodating a company that has significant influence in computers, which is the market Google is struggling to break into with its Chromebook project. The two companies already collaborate on that laptop operating system.
"The partnership has been great," said Andy Rubin, Google's executive for mobile development, who took the stage at Intel's conference to announce the deal.
In his keynote, Otellini touted Intel's Ultrabook concept, which the company has been reportedly nudging partners to embrace. The laptop concept facilitates very thin, light and affordable computers with batteries that can last for about a full day on a single charge. They look similar to Apple's MacBook Air, which uses Intel's Core processor.
Otellini also discussed a new processor, slated for 2013, called Haswell. Devices with the chip can remain connected to the Internet in standby mode for 10 days before the battery depletes, he said. Haswell will be tailored to Ultrabooks and tablets running Windows 8, the new operating system Microsoft was showing at the same time at its own conference in Anaheim, California.
"Computing means a lot more than just computers," Otellini said. "Just as computing has evolved, so too has Intel's architecture."
Intel's recent focus on reducing energy consumption, thereby improving battery life, should bolster its efforts in smartphones, analysts say. The company is also working on more compact chips, which it is calling "3-D transistors" because of the unique way the microscopic parts are situated.
Google and Intel did not say which chip will power upcoming Android phones or which manufacturers have agreed to make devices for it. Most smartphones and tablets use chips designed by ARM Holdings, which are popular for their efficiency. The next version of Android for phones and tablets, called Ice-Cream Sandwich, will debut next month or in November, Google has said.

Source : CNN

1:54 PM | 0 komentar | Read More

Staying safe while using Facebook on mobile phones

Configuring your Facebook settings from a laptop is confusing enough, but try monitoring your Facebook privacy and security setting on a mobile phone. It's even more of a mess.
There's some help on the way, however. On Tuesday, the nonprofit group MobileActive published its list of tips for using mobile Facebook more safely.
About one-third of Facebook's 750 million active users worldwide access the service via mobile phones.
MobileActive's mobile Facebook guide is written with activists in mind (especially in light of the key role that Facebook played in many Arab Spring uprisings), but it's useful for any Facebook user.
Some Facebook-related mobile security risks have to do with how you use Facebook in general. Others relate to how your phone and its various mobile communication channels handle security when you're using a Wi-Fi connection rather than your carrier's data network.
For instance, many people set their phone to use a Wi-Fi connection whenever possible, in order to curb their data usage, which can get expensive. If you use Wi-Fi on your phone, depending on how your mobile browser or Facebook app handles security, someone might snoop on your login credentials ("sidejacking") and use them to impersonate you on Facebook. They could even lock you out of your own account.
Sidejacking is a Wi-Fi-related risk for many online services, not just Facebook. The main way you can protect yourself is to always use a secure connection (URLs that begin with "https" rather than "http") when logging in to an online account from any device, including your phone.
You can configure your Facebook account to always use "https." However, MobileActive cautions: "Be aware that this setting is not applied when browsing from a phone! You may also notice that some applications warn you that you cannot access them using HTTPS. If you use such applications, be aware that they may turn the 'always use HTTPS' setting off -- you will need to go back into your account settings and turn it back on every time."
So this means that using Facebook's mobile website could be more secure than using a Facebook app -- when you're on Wi-Fi. And the same would be true for Twitter, Tumblr and other services.
It's a good idea to bookmark the mobile websites for the services you use -- the URL versions that start with "https," of course -- on your phone's browser. Then use those sites (rather than service-specific apps) when accessing them over an open or shared Wi-Fi network.
Also, check that your mobile browser really can make a secure Web connection. MobileActive notes that some older or more primitive browsers (probably including many browsers that come pre-installed on feature phones) may revert the connection to "http," which is not secure. So once you've tried to access a site using "https," after the page loads, double-check the location bar in your browser to make sure it still says "https."
If you prefer to use Facebook apps, it's safer to turn off Wi-Fi access on your phone while you're using them. Your carrier's data connection is more secure. This is especially important if you use your Facebook account to log in to additional sites, via the Facebook Connect service; it would be bad enough just getting your Facebook account hacked, let alone everything else you've connected that account to.
MobileActive also notes that Facebook provides extra options to help you control which devices can access your account.
"Log-in notifications warns you every time your account is accessed from a new device (both computers and phones). Log-in Approvals takes things a step further by requiring you to enter a code sent to your mobile phone every time you access the site from a new device. And in the U.S., Facebook users can send a text message to a predefined number to request a one-time password."
MobileActive's guide did not address third-party services (such as PicPlz) that can be used to post photos or video to Facebook, Foursquare and other services. But in general, if you use these tools, be aware of the various audiences and level of privacy each service affords. Before you upload a photo, make sure it's getting cross-posted only to the services you wish to use.

Source : CNN

1:52 PM | 0 komentar | Read More

How many pages are on the internet...???

It seems like an answerable question, right?
But no one really knows how many websites or individual Web pages make up this seemingly infinite digital universe that is the internet.
Kevin Kelly, a founder of Wired magazine, has written that there are at least a trillion Web pages in existence, which means the internet's collective brain has more neurons than our actual gray matter that's stuffed between our ears.
"The Web holds about a trillion pages. The human brain holds about 100 billion neurons," Kelly writes in his 2010 book "What Technology Wants."
"Each biological neuron sprouts synaptic links to thousands of other neurons, while each Web page on average links to 60 other pages. That adds up to a trillion 'synapses' between the static pages on the Web. The human brain has about 100 times that number of links -- but brains are not doubling in size every few years. The global machine is."
Wild, huh?
Well, at long last, an answer may be coming.
A group called the World Wide Web Foundation -- appropriately founded by Tim Berners-Lee, who pretty much created the internet -- is on a quest to figure out, with some degree certainty, how big the internet really is.
With a $1 million grant from Google, the foundation plans to release the results of its online forensic search, called the World Wide Web Index, early next year, the foundation's CEO, Steve Bratt, said in a recent interview.
Here's how the foundation described the project in an e-mail to CNN:
"The Web Index will be the world's first multi-dimensional measure of the Web and its impact on people and nations. It will cover a large number of developed and developing countries, allowing for comparisons of trends over time and benchmarking performance across countries."
Bratt stressed that it won't answer every question people have about the internet, but he hopes the index, which will be presented as a series of annual reports, will go a long way toward filling in some of the gaps.
"We want to be really careful about what will happen (as a result of the Web Index) because we just don't know," he said. "But this will be probably the best opportunity to quantify" the Web.
So, what kind of tools does one use to try to measure the internet? Certainly not yard sticks and rulers, right?
Bratt said the Web Foundation will conduct surveys of internet users, interview relevant people and try to gather data from internet service providers, national governments and search engines such as Google to come up with its findings.
In addition to looking at how big the Web is, the group wants to use data to tease out the role social media sites had in sparking revolution in the Middle East this year. And it wants to find out what kinds of websites people all over the world are looking at; what websites exist; and how internet trends differ from country to country and region to region.
The International Telecommunications Union digs into some similar questions, publishing reports on the number of internet users in various countries and how fast connections are around the world (South Korea is by far the fastest, in case you were wondering. The United States is super-slow in comparison).
Bratt said the Web Foundation's work will supplement, not replace, what the ITU does.

The foundation is starting work on the Web Index soon and is still seeking funding for the project, he said. The first of five annual reports will be available early next year, the group says.

Source : CNN

1:50 PM | 0 komentar | Read More

Microsoft prepares Windows 8 for battle against the iPad

Microsoft is set to unveil the next generation of Windows today. The new operating system, currently known as Windows 8, is the tech giant's attempt to regain ground that it has lost to Apple, which surpassed Microsoft last year as the world's most valuable company.
It isn't the MacBook or Mac OS X Lion that has Microsoft executives worried, though. It's the sheer dominance of the iPad.
The iPad hasn't skipped a beat since its debut last year. Thanks to Apple's ingenuity, a shockingly low starting price and a strong marketing campaign, the device has sold more than 25 million units in less than a year and a half. More importantly, it has defined a whole new category of consumer devices. And it dominates that category with an iron fist.
iPad competitors have come and gone, but none have been able to make a dent in the iPad's rapid growth. HP has given up on the TouchPad, the RIM Playbook has underperformed and countless Android tablets have fallen by the wayside. Nothing has emerged as the alternative to the iPad.
Windows 8: One OS to rule them all
This presents a dangerous problem and an opportunity for Microsoft. The tech giant cannot let Apple monopolize the tablet market like Microsoft did with the desktop OS. That would seal its fate as a technology power destined to diminish into a shell of its former self.
There is a need for a legitimate alternative to the iPad, though, and the company that gets it right will emerge in a strong position to take a big piece of the fast-growing tablet market. Success in tablets would boost Microsoft's profits, ease investor concerns about the shrinking PC market and set it up for future growth.
That's where Windows 8 comes in. The next generation OS, which will be unveiled at the Microsoft Build conference on Tuesday, is not only designed for PCs, but it is also made to work on tablets as well. We got a taste of its touchscreen capabilities at the D9 conference earlier this year, but we expect Microsoft to unveil the first Windows 8 tablet during Tuesday's keynote. Our sources tell us that the device will be manufactured by Samsung but has been designed meticulously by Microsoft in an attempt to create the iPad alternative.
Will Microsoft's gamble work? Can the company create an OS that works seamlessly on both tablets and PCs? And most of all, will it be useful enough, different enough and cheap enough to give the iPad a run for its money?
We'll be closer to knowing the answers to those questions Tuesday morning. The tablet wars are about to begin in earnest.

Source : CNN

1:47 PM | 0 komentar | Read More