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Iphone

Submission + - 68% of iPhone Apps Collect Unique Device ID (www.pskl.us)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: It looks like iPhone users are not immune to the types of data leaks recently discovered on the Android platform. Researchers looked at the top free applications available from the App Store and discovered that "68% of these applications were transmitting UDIDs to servers under the application vendor’s control each time the application is launched." The iPhone's Unique Device ID, or UDID, cannot be changed, nor can it's transmission be disabled by the user. The full paper is here.

Comment Re:Android (Score 1) 403

by cweditor (#33734648) Attached to: Should I Learn To Program iOS Or Android Devices?
*Some* end users don't care if a system is open or not. Others - especially those who have burned in a previous technology buy by being locked into a system that ended up too proprietary - actually do. The questions to ask: Does the closed system have enough market share & clout that you'll still get the apps you want? Is the closed system likely to be around long enough to justify your investment? Will the closed-system vendor become too tempted by market clout to make unreasonable decisions on pricing and on developers? This is a definite risk for things like overpriced products and planned obsolescence. Are there benefits to the closed system that make up for the drawbacks? (In the case of the iPhone, fans argue that the software and hardware can work better together because the environment is better controlled than any Android app on any Android device.)

Submission + - US tech employment held steady last year (computerworld.com)

Submitted by cweditor
cweditor writes: Although the US economy was hemorrhaging jobs elsewhere, the number of people working in computer- and tech-related jobs last year remained almost constant in 2009 vs. 2008, according to data released yesterday by the US Census Bureau. The story wasn't the same everywhere, though, with some states showing small upticks in number of tech workers while others suffered a decline.
Technology

Submission + - Massive Satellite Could Harvest Space Wind Energy (discovery.com)

Submitted by disco_tracy
disco_tracy writes: A solar sail orbiting the planet could capture enormous streams of charged particles zooming away from the sun at several hundred kilometers per second. Scientists have calculated that such a satellite could generate one billion billion gigawatts of power.
Piracy

Submission + - Android software piracy rampant (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
bednarz
bednarz writes: "Pirating Android apps is a http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/45899 longstanding problem. But it seems to be getting worse, even as Google begins to respond much more aggressively. The dilemma: protecting developers’ investments, and revenue stream, while keeping an open platform. Some have argued that piracy is rampant in those countries where the online Android Market is not yet available. But a recent KeyesLabs research project suggests that may not be true: 'Over the course of 90 days, the [KeyesLabs] app was installed a total of 8,659 times. Of those installations only 2,831 were legitimate purchases, representing an overall piracy rate of over 67%.... The largest contributor to piracy, by far, is the United States providing 4,054 or about 70% of all pirated installations...'"
Robotics

Submission + - Linux Based Swarming Micro Air Vehicle Network (lis.epfl.ch)

Submitted by tetrahedrassface
tetrahedrassface writes: When a disaster strikes connectivity can be one of the most important and least available resources for responders. The Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne or EPFL have developed autonomous swarming, flying robots that run linux. The robots are low cost, and can run for 30 minutes per charge. Swarm controllers are implemented on a Toradex Colibri PXA270 CPU board running Linux, connected to an off-the-shelf USB WiFi dongle. The output of these controllers, namely a desired turn rate, speed or altitude, is sent as control command to the autopilot. These flying machines work in two ways. The first is to let the bots loose and let artificial evolution come up with good evolved controllers whose setting are saved for potential scenarios. The second is to mirror the was ants swarm and follow pheromone pathways. There is a lot of video of the swarm in action in the article, and it sure looks interesting.
Handhelds

Should I Learn To Program iOS Or Android Devices? 403

Posted by timothy from the go-straight-for-neural-implants dept.
HW_Hack writes "In my early career in the '90s I had a hardware tech degree, but also a strong interest in software. I completed software courses in assembly, Pascal, HTML, and C as I prepped for a CS degree. I then got my chance to do hardware design for a major US firm and went that direction for a good 18-year career. I now work in a good sized school district doing IT support work at a large high school. I plan to revive my programming skills this winter so I can write apps for the flood of mobile devices. I am very much platform / OS agnostic and I support on any one day OS X, XP, Win 7, Linux servers, and now iOS as we pilot iPads in our school. My question focuses on three topics: Which programming environment (iOS or Android) is easier to jump into from a technical perspective / number of languages needed to master? Which one has a better SDK ecosystem of documentation, programmer support, and developer community(s)? Where is the market and the money going? I do not expect to get rich doing this, but with my insights into K12 needs I hope I can write effective apps for that market."
The Internet

IE 9 Beta Strips Down For Speed 288

Posted by CmdrTaco from the couldn't-get-worse dept.
CWmike writes "Those who have written off IE as being slow and old-looking are in for a surprise. The just-released Internet Explorer 9 beta is dramatically faster than its predecessor, sports an elegant, stripped-down interface and adds some useful new features, writes Preston Gralla. Even more surprising than the stripped-down interface is IE9 beta's speed. Internet Explorer has long been the slowest browser by a wide margin. IE9 has turned that around in dramatic fashion, using hardware acceleration and a new JavaScript engine it calls Chakra, which compiles scripts in the background and uses multiple processor cores. In this beta, my tests show it overtaking Firefox for speed, and putting up a respectable showing against Safari, Opera and Chrome. It's even integrated into Windows 7. One big problem: It will not work on Windows XP. So, forget the performance and security boost, many enterprises and netbook users."
Google

Google Engineer Spied On Teen Users 338

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i-see-what-you-did-there dept.
bonch writes "Former Google employee David Barksdale accessed user accounts to spy on call logs, chat transcripts, contact lists. As a Site Reliability Engineer, Barksdale had access to the company's most sensitive information and even unblocked himself from a teen's buddy list. He met the minors through a Seattle technology group. Angry parents cut off contact with him and complained to Google, who quietly fired him."

Submission + - How To Make Android 2.1 Work Like Froyo (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Using some simple methods available to anyone, you can tether your computer to your smartphone, control your phone with your voice, get additional home screens and even increase performance. 'And in some ways, it's even better, because you may not have to pay the $20 or so fee that carriers tack on for the rights to tether a smartphone. Service contracts are often not clear about whether you are allowed to tether this way free of charge. But I've known several people who do it without paying the fee, and their service providers haven't said a word.'
IT

Submission + - Hacking Your Web Browser in 7 Easy Steps (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "InfoWorld's Peter Wayner provides a deeper look at browser plug-ins — mechanisms by which users can customize their Web experience and tweak the performance of their browser of choice. 'All the major browsers make such customizations easy, though each employs a different mechanism,' Wayner writes. 'What's great about these additional blocks of code and images is that they're usually packaged for easy installation. In most cases, one click starts the process. And there's little reason to worry about the mechanism itself. The process works smoothly — most of the time.' From face-lifts, to tailoring to the browser to suit your surfing habits, to bringing the outside world in, customizing your browser to the perfect balance of features and speed has never been easier."
Security

Submission + - Disposable Virtual Machines: Deliberately Expndabl (rlgs.com)

Submitted by RLGSC
RLGSC writes: Virtual machines can be used to increase the security of person workstations in business and personal environments by encapsulating untrusted software within an otherwise expendable environment.

Disposable Virtual Machines can be used to simplify several challenges to keeping a workstation secure in a sea of conflicting requirements, some of which are imposed from the outside and non-negotiable.

Submission + - Skills Needed For A Future In IT (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: An increase in the pace of change in IT has created new dynamics for jobs involving the Web, mobile computing and virtualization. For those looking to either enter the marketplace in years to come, 30-somethings hoping to upgrade their skills, as well as those who'll be winding their careers down by 2020, skill sets are drastically changing. For example, graphics chips are doubling in capacity every six months. That translates into a thousandfold increase in capacity over a five-year period — the average shelf life of most game platforms. "We've never seen anything like it in any industry. Colleges are in continual catch-up mode and have only recently added project management and soft skills training to computer science programs. According to one expert, "They're about five years behind where they need to be.
Google

Submission + - The smart paranoid's guide to using Google (computerworld.com)

Submitted by cweditor
cweditor writes: The more you use Google — search engine, Maps, Docs, GMail — the more information about you is stored on the company's servers. For example, if you conduct searches while logged into a Google account, its servers are storing all of your queries. What can you do about it? Some steps are common sense: Don't use GMail for any sort of sensitive messages. Here are a few additional tips on maintaining some control over your privacy while using Google, such as how to remove items in your Web history or turn off Google's Web history altogether.

Submission + - Europe has a single digital market - and it's ille (itpro.co.uk)

Submitted by nk497
nk497 writes: Europe is trying to create a single digital market across its member countries, using universal broadband and shared regulations, to create economic and environmental benefits. So far, however, it's failed, according to European Commission vice president Neelie Kroes. According to Kroes, the only successful single digital market is the illegal one. “We have a single digital market in Europe, but it is illegal... Legal markets are fragmented. We need to change that. I cannot explain to you why you can buy the same CD in every member country but not the same digital product.”

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