There is an epic battle taking place before our eyes, in our pockets and in our wallets. Smarthones have come to dominate consumer behavior and the headlines of media. What is the newest development with the iPhone? What are the newest and hottest Android devices this week? Can Microsoft make a dent in the mobile market? What kind of tricks does Amazon have up its sleeves? Does Facebook have a plan to tap into consumers' wallets through mobile devices?
Make no mistake, the pipeline between users' bank accounts through smart devices is what each one of these companies is looking to tap. Each one of these five major American technology companies is taking a different route to this one goal. Yet, each one of these companies is taking a different route to the same goal. Let's break down the roads that each one of these companies is taking in the quest to win the Mobile Platform Game of Thrones.
If you thought the idea of using your voice to control your smartphone was neat, just wait. One developer has hacked Siri to allow it to control third party devices, starting with his WiFi-enabled thermostat.
In what he says is his first-ever Ruby project, St. Louis developer Pete Lamonica set up a proxy server in order to effectively trick Siri into thinking it's communicating with guzzoni.apple.com, the server on which Siri's functionality actually happens. Developers can write their own custom handlers for various actions. In this case, Lamonica uses Siri to get a reading off of his thermostat and then change the temperature.
According to several reports, Flash for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will be ready by the end of 2011. This will be the final release of mobile Flash as future versions of Android will support it. At this time that only means that Samsung Galaxy Nexus users do not get Flash and since that device (or Ice Cream Sandwich) is not yet widely released, Flash for new Android device users is not likely to be a problem.
The question becomes: does mobile Flash really matter? For Android in general, the answer is yes, Flash does matter. For Android 4.0? Maybe. It all depends on how many Android Gingerbread users get the ICS push within the next couple of months and how much they rely on Flash. Most Gingerbread devices will eventually see ICS updates. Yet, with HTML5 being pushed by developers, this is a fork that Android users will hardly notice.
If the mere thought that your children (or some dude you don't know and will never meet) might be texting such filth as "smagma," "wuutang," "trisexual," and "carruth," your long trial is over. If you're Pakistani. And unrealistic.
As of today, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority has ordered mobile phone companies to filter its list of 1,600 "offensive and obscene" words, according to AFP. Many of the words are in fact obscene. But a ridiculous number seem to have been copied off English language t-shirts spotted in the Tokyo subway.
Updated after the jump.
One of the more common criticisms lobbed at Apple when it comes to iOS is its restrictive application approval policies. Apps that contain racy content, include features that compete with Apple's own core functionality or that don't adhere to their user experience guidelines are often rejected. To some extent, the criticism is warranted, although Apple has grown more accommodating over time.
Take browsers, for example. When the iPhone App Store first launched, you couldn't dream of getting a Web browser other than Safari onto the device. For similar reasons, there was a long wait to get the official Google Voice app approved by Apple, since it duplicated some of the functionality of the phone. Over time, Apple loosened its restrictions and apps like Google Voice and the Dolphin Web browser are readily available on iOS.
Ever since the eruption of the series of political uprisings now known as the Arab Spring, there's been much speculation over the role of social media and mobile technology. Whether revolutions in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and elsewhere could have happened without Twitter and cell phones is something historians will probably continue to debate years from now.
What's indisputably clear is that regardless of what's sparking and fueling these revolutions, technology is certainly helping to spread information and facilitate communication among the protesters.
Back when the iPad was nothing more than an Apple gadget rumor, publishers began imagining the possibilities the device would bring. Only 22 months into the so-called tablet revolution, the iPad hasn't "saved" struggling print publishers, but early indicators look positive for publishers old and new. Last month, Apple went live with Newsstand, a new feature in iOS 5 geared toward bringing publications front and center.
Like it or not, the iPad is changing the way we read and Pew says that tablet owners are more engaged than PC users are. Naturally, publishers are looking to Amazon's Kindle Fire next.
The native Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users is back in the App Store. The app was first released on November 2, but it shipped with an unfortunate error that greeted new users with an incomprehensible error message. Shortly after releasing it, Google pulled the app from the store. The problem was caused by broken push notifications, and that bug has been fixed in today's release. The update also improves handling of images in HTML messages.
Unfortunately, users' more substantive concerns with the app have not been addressed. The Gmail team's blog post says that multiple account support, improved notifications and mobile-specific signatures are coming, along with "many more" features. But for now, little has changed about the app that many panned as insufficient for a native Gmail app.
Facebook is partnering with French cellular operator Orange to bring cheap cellphones with dedicated Facebook functionality to emerging markets in Africa and Europe. Orange will release three devices with a special "F" button for unlimited Facebook access to 15 countries starting in the fourth quarter of 2011. The move fits well in line with Facebook's desire to increase its presence worldwide to people that may not have access to a computer but access the Internet solely through mobile devices.
The phones will be from Alcatel's series of Android phones. These are not feature phones with Facebook integration but actual economy class smartphones. The roadmap for Facebook in the emerging world is clear: get smartphones in the hands of people everywhere and an easy avenue to access the social platform.
Looking back at 2011, we could call it subtitle it as The Year Of Android Malware. It started with DroidDream and reports have been issued all year that have shown exponential growth in Android malware. It is not getting any better. If Juniper's research can be believed, it is getting much worse.
Juniper says there has been a 472% rise in Android malware samples since July 2011. Juniper says that almost all of the Android malware contains code for root access that will force the device to communicate with a command-and-control server and download additional instructions. 55% of Android malware acts as spyware and the rise of "SMS Trojans" has become a significant problem.
