SiliconANGLE » MobileANGLE

Chrome For Android Draws Early Privacy Concerns

Mellisa Tolentino — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:33:18 +0000

According to data released by web analytics company StatCounter, in the past 12 months mobile access to the internet rose to 8.5%. StatCounter’s data also reflects that in North America, the top mobile browser was Android at 37%, followed by Safari on the iPhone at 34%, plus 10% for Safari on the iPod Touch, while the Blackberry browser shrank to about 7.5%, and Nokia at only 2%.

And Google wants to maintain that lead. Google’s Chrome browser has been catching up to Mozilla’s Firefox on PCs and they want to translate that success in the mobile realm; thus the launch of Chrome for Android.

Chrome for Android Beta is now available for download in the Android Market for free, but it’s only for devices running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, because of the browser’s dependency on hardware acceleration, which earlier versions of Android don’t support. Google states that they focused on creating a seamless, personalized experience that users can enjoy anywhere, even on different devices.

Fast and Simple Mobile Browsing

With Chrome for Android, users can search, navigate and browse with Chrome, fast. Search and navigation can be done in the omnibox, making things as simple as possible. Justt like Chrome on the desktop, there are tabs, Link Preview, and for the pervs, the incognito mode is also available. ;)

Personalized Experience

Signing in to Chrome for Android opens up a different browsing experience as it becomes personal. By signing in, you can:

View open tabs: Access the tabs you left open on your computer (also signed into Chrome)—picking up exactly where you left off.
Get smarter suggestions: If you visit a site often on your computer, you’ll also get an autocomplete suggestion for it on your mobile device, so you can spend less time typing.
Sync bookmarks: Conveniently access your favorite sites no matter where you are or which device you’re using.

Watch IntoMobile’s video of the Chrome for Android Beta demo below.

Though Chrome for Android was just released yesterday, critics are already gnawing on it. Some users are happy with the auto-fill feature because it makes things easier, while some are concerned it can be a security risk. Most are delighted with the sync feature, as it also syncs open tabs, but some are concerned with privacy. And of course, they look for things that aren’t there, like the bookmarks, Flash support and support for plug-ins. Some people are just insatiable.

Mobile Browsing Gains Traction

As for other mobile browser news, Dolphin Browser recently added Evernote, the suite of software and services designed for notetaking and archiving, and Skitch, the Evernote-owned screenshot editing and sharing utility, to their offerings.

And Opera Mobile was recently updated to address compatibility issues for ICS and Honeycomb devices but new features are expected to arrive when the Opera 12 is released which can happen anytime soon.

Chrome For Android Draws Early Privacy Concerns is a post from: SiliconANGLE
We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

Traveling Super Bowl Fans Inflated Indy’s WiFi Nearly 20%

Kristina Farrah — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:40:44 +0000

Ever wondered where those fans during Super Bowl come from? Indianapolis can’t possibly have that many people taking a day just to watch the event. Here’s a data from JiWire showing the top 20 places where the fans traveled from.

“It’s no doubt that each year the Super Bowl attracts an abundance of fans from all over the country. JiWire looked across its entire network of the on-the-go audience connecting to cafes, hotels and airports, to determine the top 20 places that fans traveled from to attend Super Bowl XLVI and watch the New York Giants play the New England Patriots live.”

The tops 5 cities were Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Dallas, and Philadelphia. Among the devices that were used by the on-the-go audience, smartphones top the chart with 47 percent market share, followed by laptops and tablets at 29 percent and 24 percent respectively. Overall, connectivity in Indianapolis alone increased by 18 percent during the event.

While fans travel across America just to catch the game, brands and advertisers are all about marketing and leveraging the world of social-mobile-local. Instead of paying large sums of money for a 30-second cable ad slot, they might as well take advantage of fans’ heavy mobile usage. Mobile marketing company Velti says users connect beyond their in-person friends and are likely to check their phones 10 times more during the game.

Even popular quarterbacks Eli Manning and Tom Brady didn’t escape analytics, as Twitter sentiment compared their positive impressions, putting Manning ahead with 65 percent over Brady’s 62 percent. Here’s also a thought-provoking article from Sandvine about the plunge of internet traffic and Netflix’s viewership during the event. For more on social-mobile, check out this roundup.

image credit: nj.com

Traveling Super Bowl Fans Inflated Indy’s WiFi Nearly 20% is a post from: SiliconANGLE
We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

Springcoin Launches Automated Debt Relief Program: where Data Meets Human Expertise

Kristen Nicole — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:30:22 +0000

Credit cards are handy, but that’s also the very reason they can land you in a big mess. You just keep buying stuff till your debt builds up, then you wonder where all that money went. For those looking to get out of debt, especially in an uncertain economy, Springcoin may be the thing you’ve been waiting for. It’s a personal finance tool that’s leveraging big data tool for consumer-facing services, launching “the first automated debt relief coach with human expertise,” as Springcoin puts it. It was called DebtEye during its beta period.

Using aggregated consumer data from financial institutions and credit bureaus, Springcoin can determine near real-time actionable items/recommendations for a consumer to get out of debt. An example would be limiting Starbucks spending to $10 a week if they notice a user is spending too much at Starbucks.

“Today the average American carries more debt than ever due to a few key reasons. First, most Americans lack of a basic level of financial education and money management skills. Second, wage increases have not kept pace with inflation and the general cost of goods and services such as medical care and tuition expenses. Third, Americans’ savings rates have been dropping steadily and many are at unhealthy financial risk. Up to 43 percent of U.S. households are just one unexpected financial event away from having to carry high interest debt (source: 2012 Assets & Opportunities Scorecard by CFED).”

Moreover, it’s a cost-effective service at only $8 a month, with a basic plan, compared to credit card counseling solutions that could charge you $50-$120 a month. The basic plan is inclusive of spending monitoring, bill reminders, basic financial education tools and rewards. SpringCoin Premium at $35 a month is a full-service debt relief plan that provides all of the benefits above, and negotiation tools for lower payments, automatic bill payments, a complete set of financial education tools, and 24/7 financial advice.

What makes SpringCoin better than other personal finance solutions? It integrates highly advanced technology, software analytics, and personalized financial education to get consumers out of debt faster and create healthy, sustainable financial habits.

“Integrated with Transunion and other institutions to access data, we’re able to develop real-time profiles on customer spending,” explains Springcoin founder John Sun. “We can also see what their monthly income is, and what their spending is across categories. Based on this differentiation, we then take the data points we have and match them to our algorithm for optimal points for recommendations on spending.

“As the customer uses the software, we see how their behavior changes month-to-month. We adjust our recommendations accordingly to keep the customer on plan, making the right kind of payments and getting customers into a habit of savings.”

Big data powering personalized finance services

Being able to leverage data for personalized consumer services is an important development in today’s world, where expectations are on the rise and analytics improves services across the board. Another company putting big data to good use is startup Enloop. It provides people advice on whether a business idea will take off or not. It saves time and money during the early stages of business development.

In other personal finance news, Mint just launched a new Android tablet app, which advances Mint’s mobile portfolio, now inclusive of smartphones and tablets on iOS and Android. HelloWallet also released an app that provides personal finances tracking and recommendations to workers, as it works directly with employers to help workers save for retirement. It also provides personalized recommendations at the individual level. Here are some of the best of personal finance apps that we compiled in recent weeks.

Contributors: Kristina Farrah

Springcoin Launches Automated Debt Relief Program: where Data Meets Human Expertise is a post from: SiliconANGLE
We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

The Money-Making Side of Mobile App Development

Mellisa Tolentino — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:29:41 +0000

In a recent study by the International Data Corporation that involves 350 US residents regarding their view about vendors effectively offering services in mobile application development (AD) and mobile testing services (for applications and devices), AT&T stood out from the crowd, followed by Verizon and IBM in third. The IDC study showed that the brand name greatly influenced how the participants chose.

Aside from the brand name, the study was also able to come up with key findings that could greatly help in app development and app testing.

Key findings for app development:

Need for experienced mobile user interface (UI/UX) skills is high
Innovation and speed to market are critical
Reusable frameworks expected to lower development costs
Monetization of the mobile channel to grow in enterprise priority

Key findings for app testing:

Demand for testers with strong communication skills
Flexibility in packaging enterprise mobile testing services
Industrialized text execution services critical

“Success as a provider of discrete or bundled mobile application development and/or testing services will require players to highlight a combination of their technical and business competencies and experience in highly iterative mobile prototyping and validation, as well as availability of end-to-end mobile life-cycle services,” said Rona Shuchat, director, Application Development, Testing and Management Services.

“Enterprise customers are challenged by the rapid pace of and investment required in mobile technology platforms, and many plan to leverage a range of professional project or fully outsourced mobile application services.”

IBM is already busy with their mobile efforts. A couple of weeks back, Big Blue announced the IBM Endpoint Manager for Mobile Devices which is a software platform that companies can use to secure and manage employees smartphones, tablets and laptops. They also announced their intent to acquire Worklight to add up to their mobile efforts. The acquisition will include Worklight Studio, an Eclipse-based IDE (integrated development environment) and Worklight Server. The terms of the deal were not disclosed though it is expected that it will wrap up sometime this quarter.

The Worklight platform is useful for developing mobile applications for both consumers and enterprises, as well as targeted toward various industry verticals. The platform includes SDKs for iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows mobile devices, and according to Worklight, it “enables rich, cross-platform apps without requiring code translation, proprietary interpreters or unpopular programming languages.”

Since companies are now seeing the dollar signs in mobile app development, more and more companies are entering the enterprise side of the mobile app development sector.

Earlier this week we saw new analytics tools for Android app development and testing from Apkudo, and last January, Pyxies Mobile received $17 million in new funding and decided it was time for a change and rebranded itself to Verivo Software. The company’s metamorphosis doesn’t end with the rebranding as they now offer a more complete mobility solution designed to meet the needs of multiple industries in order to stay ahead ot the competition.

According to their site, “With Verivo’s enterprise mobility software, you can now own your mobility initiatives, without having to rely on outside resources to develop and run your mobile apps.”

Appcelerator, the leading mobile platform company, recently hired former Gartner analyst Michael King as the company’s principal mobile strategist. King will help Appcelerator’s enterprise customers define and implement their mobile strategies as well as guide the company’s internal product strategy, making sure that Appcelerator’s Titanium platform and integrated services meet the highest standards for building intuitive, cloud-connected content-rich applications for mobile, tablet and desktop platforms. And to complete the bulk of his work, King will also provide strategic sales support, partner enablement, as well as market research/analysis and product evangelism.

And Facebook, which recently went public, is trialing bookmarks for third-party applications in their mobile news feed to increase user engagement and attract developers to their Facebook Platform mobile initiative. The Facebook Platform mobile allows app developers to integrate Facebook into their already existing apps to attract more users.

The Money-Making Side of Mobile App Development is a post from: SiliconANGLE
We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

Nokia to Layoff 4,000 Workers, Apple Sued for iPad Trademark

Mellisa Tolentino — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:15:28 +0000

Nokia, the Finnish-mobile manufacturer, will be laying off approximately 4,000 workers from three factories as they move manufacturing to Asia.

The factories in Komarom, Hungary, Reynosa, Mexico, and Salo, Finland, have a total of 8,900 employees and Nokia wants to cut it in half as they move manufacturing to Asia. Nokia wants to concentrate on Asia to regain competitive market value.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop wants Windows Phone-based devices to be quickly reproduced and introduced to new markets, as they wean from their Symbian-based phones. Elop also wants to pick up the pace at which new models are launched.

And according to a Nokia spokewoman, the employees who will not be terminated will work on “smartphone product customization,” which could include tailoring the software of smaller batches of phones for specific operators.

“With the planned changes, our factories at Komarom, Reynosa and Salo will continue to play an important role serving our smartphone customers. They give us a unique ability to both provide customization and be more responsive to customer needs,” said Niklas Savander, Nokia executive vice president, Markets.

Google’s Plan For MoMo Patent-licensing, Chrome for Android

According to unnamed sources, Google is going to send a letter to standards organizations such as the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, a nonprofit recognized by the European Union, to assure them that their acquisition of Motorola Mobility will not affect licensing patents of the said company.

“Having the blessing of wireless standards committees could help Google’s position,” Maulin Shah, managing director of patent research firm Envision IP Inc. in New York said in an interview. “The regulators might see that as a sign that this is not going to lead to a monopoly position.”

The European Commission is still scrutinizing the Google-MoMo deal, with concerns that it will violate the fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms, or FRAND.

“Since we announced our agreement to acquire Motorola Mobility last August, we’ve heard questions about whether Motorola Mobility’s standard-essential patents will continue to be licensed on FRAND terms once we’ve closed this transaction,” Niki Fenwick, a spokeswoman for Google said. “The answer is simple: They will.”

Google’s been steadily updating its software offerings for its mobile devices while waiting for the MoMo acquisition to go through. Yesterday they released the Chrome for Android, which is seen as a move to accelerate browser update since Chrome for desktop rolls out faster and more stable.

“Right now, our focus is on making Chrome for Android Beta available to Android 4.0 phone/tablet users to gather initial feedback…. [But] our long-term plan is for Chrome to become the standard browser on Android 4.0 and above,” said a Google spokeswoman in an email to ComputerWorld.

Chrome for Android is available only for devices with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Apple Sued By Chinese Company Over “iPad”

The Chinese company Proview Technology (Shenzhen), a subsidiary of Proview International in Hong Kong, is suing Apple for $38 million, and demands an apology for the illegal use of the iPad trademark.

Apple bought the iPad trademark from Proview Electronics (Taiwan) for $55,000 in 2006 by way of a front company called IP Application Development. But the Taiwanese company claims that the deal did not include the rights to the trademark in China.

Proview sued Apple, seeking a total of 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in damages, but Apple countersued, claiming that they are the rightful owner of the trademark. A Chinese court sided with Proview, so Apple appealed the case. Proview is said to be ready to slap Apple with a $38 million legal fine, but Apple has managed to delay the hearing.

Aside from that, Proview Shenzhen’s lawyer Xie Xianghui claims an apology from Apple is more important for them.

“We ask the court to stop selling and marketing for Apple’s iPad in China. We also demand an apology,” Xie said.

Other Mobile News

When Hewlett-Packard’s TouchPad went on a fire-sale, some tablets shipped were allegedly running on the Android platform and not webOS. The people from HP were dumbfounded as to how that happened, and the incident created quite a frenzy because companies shipping Android devices are required to make the kernel open source. Since HP didn’t officially release the tablets running Android, it was not required to make the kernel of its internal build open-source. But, since HP is such a good sport, they now offer the internal Android build to the open-source movement.

Ahead of the upcoming Mobile World Congress, LG is teasing consumers with the ad for the LG Optimus Vu, a smartphone believed to measure at 5 inches, having a 4:3 aspect ratio display, 1.5GHz Qualcomm WPQ8060 dual-core paired with 1GB of RAM, 8-megapixel main camera, front-facing camera, 8GB of ROM space and NFC-capable.

GreenSimian, the brainchild of two Seattle veterans from Microsoft and Texas Instruments, will be launching SolMate, a smartphone power casing packing solar electricity, inductive charging, battery storage and energy management software that ups the ante on smartphone battery life, by Spring 2012.

“SolMate is not another iPhone casing. It’s a seductive combination of software, microelectronics and power-generating semi-conductors that take mobile power to a new level,” said Jamie Wojcik, GreenSimian CTO and co-founder.

Nokia to Layoff 4,000 Workers, Apple Sued for iPad Trademark is a post from: SiliconANGLE
We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

iPad Drives BYOD Trends, says Oxygen Cloud Founder Peter Chang [Video]

Saroj Kar — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:03:06 +0000

One of the highlights of the first ever NodeSummit this year was the participation of new start-up ventures and their adoption of the Node.js. During NodeSummit in San Francisco, Oxygen Cloud’s founder Peter Chang talked to our own John Furrier and Alex Williams about the current state of enterprise cloud storage adoption. He also briefs the challenges companies are facing with the rising trend of BYOD (bring-your-own-device) in the workplace.

The interview started with the discussion on the company’s history. Oxygen Cloud was started last year, and introduced their first client faced product last June. They provide companies an option upgrade any storage to secure storage clouds, with cross-device access to all corporate files.

Chang then discussed the importance of the iPad in driving enterprise cloud adoption, and the current gaps in the market. He notes that more and more people are using their iPad and other mobile devices in the workplace. This brings more challenges to a firm, as they might lose control over company’s sensitive data when a user leaves the firm or loses their device.

That’s why Oxygen Cloud has created a secured virtual file system that accepts file and transfers them to one of the several cloud storage sites. The file system also interacts with iPad and other mobile devices, allowing BYOD users to access the files securely and remotely.

Chang talked about some similarities of Oxygen Cloud services to that of DropBox, SugarSync, and Syncplicity. But Oxygen Cloud adds one more layer to its services that other don’t provide. The company interposes IT management through its virtual file system, and allows authorized users to choose from a number of possible IT-approved destinations for a given file. At the same time, it also uses either an internal or external cloud system powered by EMC’s Atmos.

Chang goes on to discuss how Oxygen Cloud’s unique security model protects corporate content with minimal disruption. He also highlighted the company’s adoption of a new model of content access in the enterprise that will further enhance capacity management.

Watch live video from SiliconANGLE.com on Justin.tv

iPad Drives BYOD Trends, says Oxygen Cloud Founder Peter Chang [Video] is a post from: SiliconANGLE
We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

Google Working on Real Goggles, Other Mysterious Gadgets

Kristina Farrah — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:40:14 +0000

Seems like the search giant has found a new hobby in developing devices. There appears to be two of them: the first one a so-called HUD Google Goggles, and the other an unnamed device.

HUD Google Goggles function similarly to that of the Terminator’s vision, which scans things within its visual periphery. The prototype looks like Oakley Thumps with a small front-facing camera that’s likely only a few megapixels, and a flash perhaps to help it take better pictures even if it’s dark. It will be highly utilized in developing augmented reality apps.

The model is only for one eye and not transparent. It doesn’t have dual 3D configurations either, as opposed to what previous rumors suggested. A head tilt to scroll and click serves as a navigation system, and will also support voice input and output. The CPU/RAM/storage hardware almost equals that of a second generation Android smartphone.

But the product is still far from complete. It’s a must-see how Google’s going to release it, and whether or not the public will find it to their liking. The device is reportedly being developed in secret, with only a few developers having access to the real thing. The company may consider a pilot program outside Google, like it did with Chromebooks.

Google’s new entertainment device

Meanwhile, Google is also reportedly working on an unnamed entertainment device that accesses WiFi and Bluetooth-enabled devices. They are currently testing in employees’ homes. In their FCC paperwork, Google is asking permission from FCC to test it in 4 US cities, launching 252 devices.

“Users will connect their device to home WiFi networks and use Bluetooth to connect to other home electronics equipment.”

No further word from Google, so we can only speculate as to what it is exactly, and how it works. It may have something to do with the company’s Android@Home tech which launched last year, or even the Google Goggles mentioned above.

Google Working on Real Goggles, Other Mysterious Gadgets is a post from: SiliconANGLE
We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

Mobile Malware Hosted on German Server Shows Diversity of Fraud

Kit Dotson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:08:56 +0000

The ecology of mobile malware is beginning to take root and grow into a real wilderness as malicious software authors continue to penetrate the market. Fortunately, we have numerous vendors working to protect people’s phones. Recently, many antivirus and mobile security vendors discovered an interesting mix of malware being hosted on an undisclosed server in Germany. TrendLabs Malware Blog surveyed the malware discovered to look at what the authors were using against Internet mobile users.

We found a total of 1,351 websites hosted on the said server and categorize the sites into five segments based on the type of guise they use for the distributed malware:

Android Market apps

Opera Mini/ Phone Optimizer apps

Pornographic apps (sites were unavailable during time of checking)

App storage sites

Others (sites that were inaccessible during time of checking)

As for the unavailable sites, it seems that the attacker is still setting them up, or has permanently taken them down. The domains listed under App storage sites, which hosts Apps featured in the other domains, are inaccessible. However, the hosted Apps were still up thus making them available for download through the Android Market App and the Opera Mini/Photo Optimizer App sites.

The malware hosts revealed a surprising tactic of directing efforts in a shotgun approach towards multiple platforms. While Android has been seeing a giant increase in being targeted by viruses and malware, iOS and Symbian have also found themselves dead in the sights of malicious software.

Many of the apps act to pretend to be normal apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Barcode Scanner, Skype, Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube, and many others. Antivirus apps designed to protect mobile phones trigger on these malicious pretend apps as ANDROIDOS_FAKENOTIFY.A—a sneaky little Android Trojan that displays translated Russian text and sends messages to premium-rate numbers that costs the owner of the phone a great deal of money.

Mobile security is becoming a big trend (as it has been for the past year) and aside from Trendmicro, Norton Symantec is getting into the game by releasing a new security app. The middle of last year we saw an increase in the use of social engineering and fraudulent malware apps appearing on Android so it’s a good time to brush-up on your own security and know what you can do.

Most mobile security is all about only downloading apps from vendors that you already trust. Sticking to the market on your phone and verifying the source of downloaded apps before installing or authorizing them to use your phone. Also, a mobile security solution could be right for you if your lifestyle or job causes you do download risky apps on a regular basis.

Anyone can fall foul of many of these tricky apps; but fortunately the mobile security ecology is growing alongside the hackers and the Red Queen Race is on.

Much of mobile security is about paying attention and being prepared. This is the same for much of all online security.

Mobile Malware Hosted on German Server Shows Diversity of Fraud is a post from: SiliconANGLE
We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

Apkudo Launches New Android Analytics, MetroPCS First On Board

Maria Deutscher — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:36:19 +0000

Apkudo, a company that offers developers solutions to amend the fragmentation of the Android ecosystem and run their apps on multiple devices without the need to rewrite, announced a new offering today.

Apkudo Device Analytics is designed forAndroid OEMs and carriers that also seek to solve these kinds of compliance issues, and is comprised of a piece of software coupled with a service provided by the company itself. It complements Apkudo App Analytics, the company’s original tool that is designed to show developers how their applications are performing across a wide-variety of devices.

The chosen name for the solution is self-explanatory. The product runs the 200 most popular apps from the Android Market in sandbox environments mimicking actual devices, in which features such as scroll speed and responsiveness are being tested. Device Analytics then produces all the measurements the client company needs to become aware of, and the service part of the offering kicks in.

Apkudo Device Analytics builds on broad-based user experience testing and comparisons to both standard reference values and actual devices. Apkudo performs deep analysis of the data collected by comprehensive test suites and provides concrete specific recommendations, not just abstract benchmark results.

Device Analytics also makes it easy to interpret multi-faceted test results by creating ratings and ranking based on key device parameters, on absolute scales and relative to other devices on the market.

Carrier MetroPCS is one of the first clients that signed up for the solution, according to a second press release that went out today alongside the original product announcement.

Android’s open-source nature is one of its key advantages, but it presents a number of issues such as fragmentation. This is a major reason why analytics and data-driven tools are necessary for a broadening ecosystem, and Apkudo is amongst those third party services to bridge gaps in this emerging industry.

Apkudo Launches New Android Analytics, MetroPCS First On Board is a post from: SiliconANGLE
We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

In the same vein:

Norton’s Latest Android Security App Launches Amidst Market Breach

Mellisa Tolentino — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:18:46 +0000

During the holidays, the most popular gifts given or received were mobile devices and according to Google’s Andy Rubin, there were 3.7 million Android devices activated between December 24 and 25.

But here’s the troubling fact: more kids and teenagers own mobile devices. According to Nielsen, a typical teenager generates an average of 3,417 messages per month. This means that kids and teens spend most of their time on their mobile devices and this concern parents. Parents always want what’s best for their kids and they would do everything they can, even invade their kids’ privacy, just to keep them safe.

But privacy is important, we all know that, even kids value their privacy. And snooping parents will just result in angry teens. This is exactly what Norton aims to address when they launched their new, free app – Norton Safety Minder for Android, which allows parents to keep track of what their kids are doing on their mobile phones through Norton Online Family.

Parents can now monitor what their kids are up to on their phone as they do for their home PC, but the difference is that the kid knows what you are doing. How, you ask? Simple; when the Norton Safety Minder is running, an app icon will appear on their device. Norton hopes that this would encourage open conversation between parents and their kids about the importance of online safety.

A premier subscription to Norton Online Family allows access to the following Parental Control Features:

Online Activity Reporting: Tracks your kids’ online activities including ALL websites they visit or attempt to visit, their entire search history, whom they text, and what they say.
Web Monitoring & Blocking: Lets you turn Web monitoring on or off and put a parental block on specific sites or types of sites that you feel are inappropriate for your kids.
Text Message Monitoring (with Norton Online Family Premier Only): Shows you whom your kids are texting with and what they say. Lets you choose whom your kids can exchange messages with.
Multi Media Message Monitoring (with Norton Online Family Premier Only): Show parents who their kids are exchanging MMS messages with and when they were exchanged. Parents can also decide who their kids can exchange messages with, by designating whether certain contacts are blocked, monitored or unmonitored.
App Monitoring (with Norton Online Family Premier Only): Gives you the ability to see which apps your kids have installed and uninstalled so you can keep it “kid-friendly.”

It’s not just creepy guys calling or texting kids that parents should be worried about when talking about mobile devices. Aside from predators, kids and even adults, can become victims of malware through careless app downloads.

About a week ago, Symantec and Lookout Mobile Security published their findings regarding the Apperhand SDK found in some Android apps. Symantec stated that it’s malware but Lookout argued that it’s an aggressive adware, which, in the end, Symantec agreed with Lookout. But the point here is, people fall victim because of careless app downloading. It doesn’t follow that because an app is free you download it without thinking twice.

While there was much confusion over the Apperhand SDK, Symantec’s recently uncovered another wave of malicious apps, and these Trojans escape security software detection by mutating. As Android Market dangers continue to rise, more security services push their products to stay in line with increasingly competent malware makers.

About the same time as the Symantec-Lookout debate, McAfee launched the Mobile Security 2.0 for Android, BlackBerry and Symbian devices.
The security suite offers:

Location & SIM Tracking: Locate your mobile device on a map; Remotely lock your mobile device to prevent misuse; Remotely wipe your personal data to protect your privacy; Continue to track your device, even if the SIM is replaced!
24-7 Anti-Virus Protection: Detects and removes viruses and spyware without affecting your device’s performance; Automatically scans all apps, messages,memory card, and more; For Android users: Blocks against risky mobile websites to protect against phishing and scams.
Backup & Restore: Back up your data from your device or remotely on the web; Access your data online from anywhere; Restore your data to a new device.

But keep this in mind: it doesn’t matter how many security app you on your mobile device if you would just keep downloading apps from untrustworthy sources as well as visiting unsecured sites. Be a real “smart”-phone owner.

Norton’s Latest Android Security App Launches Amidst Market Breach is a post from: SiliconANGLE
We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.