For the first time in 13 years, Coca-Cola is not the most valuable brand in the world, according to the annual Interbrand ranking report. Dominating the top ten instead are technology companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung. While Apple and Google may be the biggest winners, sharing the top ten with IBM, Microsoft, Samsung and Intel, Nokia appears to be the biggest loser

These are all, however, billion-dollar brands that everyone knows. For more than a decade, Coca-Cola was the undisputed number one. But for the first time this is no longer the case. The sticky black sugar-water has now been demoted to number three, and by none other than Apple and Google, the makers of the two most popular operating systems for mobile devices. With enterprise values of 98.3 billion U.S. dollars (28 percent annual growth) and 93.3 billion (34 percent growth) respectively, they are clearly the big winners amongst worldwide brands this year.No real surprises here: Apple and Google skyrocket to take the top two spots

The most successful Android smartphone manufacturer in the game, Samsung, with a value of nearly $40 billion (20 percent increase) comes in at 8th place. So you see again: as successful as Samsung may be, despite its broad product offering within and outside the smartphone market, it simply cannot keep up with a brand like Apple. Whether that is subjectively understandable or not, of course, is a question that can be argued at length

In addition to Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung, there is another player in the top 100 which appears to be the biggest loser amongst smartphone-related companies: Nokia. Once the leading world power in the mobile market, the Finnish company has taken a 65 percent nose dive in value to come to rest at 57th position, behind Philips, Siemens and Sony. Microsoft, which ranked fifth this year, must be feeling like the purchase of the mobile division of Nokia was all a bit of a bargain.

Nestlé is also found in the list this year in 56th position. It will be interesting to see how their partnership with the number two spot holder's Android platform might affect their value in the coming year.

Do you agree with these rankings?

BlackBerry and Microsoft: The Fight to Reclaim Past Glory

Both BlackBerry and Microsoft have been in far stronger positions with regard to personal technology. At one time, Microsoft was contending for leadership in smartphones against Palm and BlackBerry, and BlackBerry took leadership only to lose it to Apple and then Samsung. Microsoft put tablets on the map in the early part of last decade, but it missed a memo and Apple refined them to success -- pointing out that beauty, price and battery life rule in something you hold.
In the end, I think both companies are on a path to turn around their fortunes and they are making progress. Because BlackBerry is fighting for its life, it is making more of the necessary moves more aggressively.

We live in a fickle world, though. Leaders during one period may be gone the next, as Palm, Compaq and Netscape have demonstrated. Still, death can be defeated -- as IBM, Apple and the U.S. auto industry have demonstrated. There is a path back. Microsoft is still a major power, and BlackBerry isn't yet in as much trouble as Apple was when Steve Jobs reclaimed the helm.

Fascination

I'm kind of fascinated by some of the Apple fans who post. During much of the last decade, many of those who were most visible made fun of people who had called Apple dead prior to its recovery. Now, many of those same people are convinced Microsoft and BlackBerry are dead, showcasing that they didn't really learn from the mistakes of the folks they ridiculed.

One thing you learn in this business, particularly after watching IBM and the entire U.S. auto industry come back from the brink, is that it really isn't over until it is over. A significant change in leadership can turn a loser into a winner, and there is no better example than Apple -- which went from death watch to the most highly valued company in the world in one short decade.

It does take time, and in a world with TV programs that solve major conflicts in 30 minutes to two hours, I can understand why folks point at a failure and scream "death!" However, we don't live in a TV drama or situation comedy.

BlackBerry's condition

Of the two firms, BlackBerry is in the most trouble at the moment. The cause is that for an extended time, it thought it was unbeatable. Once it became clear it was vulnerable, it tried to chase Apple instead of doubling down on its own strengths. That attempt ended badly.

Samsung did demonstrate that with massive spending, you could catch Apple from behind and bypass it -- but even with its massive resources (Samsung spent three times as much as Apple), it still needed Google to get the job done, and BlackBerry simply didn't have those kinds of resources. Nor did it have Google's help to get apps.

When you are outmatched, you have to focus on your strengths and tightly target your unique users. Business segments like government, pharmaceuticals, legal, banking (particularly trading), and healthcare have compliance and work requirements that favor BlackBerry's unique strengths and direct sales model.

BlackBerry is focusing on this segment and its strengths -- and like Dell and BMC, it is going private so it isn't distracted by having to meet financial analyst quarterly pressures as it attempts to turn reverse its fortunes. This is what IBM did and it worked. IBM stepped away from all of its consumer efforts and focused on its core business. The result: IBM is once again one of the most powerful technology companies in the world. The strategy works, but it will take a number of years to make this happen. IBM started in the early 90s and wasn't really out of the woods until the end of the decade.

Part of undertaking a turnaround is getting on the right path -- and now, finally, BlackBerry may be on the right path. Granted, it still has to execute.

Microsoft Situation

Surface 2 is a vastly better set of products than the Surface Microsoft debuted last year. However, the issue isn't just building something better. If you improve your product by 100 percent and the leader improves theirs by 200 percent, your efforts are considerable -- but you'll still lose. The issues for the first-generation Surface were threefold: The products weren't as attractive as the iPad, the most competitive product using the ARM processor; they didn't use Outlook ,and folks who might have used it saw it as crippled as a result; and the Surface Pro was not only too expensive and too heavy -- it had lousy battery life.

Oh, and instead of marketing like it is now, showcasing the product's advantages over the iPad, Microsoft focused on the keyboard's unique way of attaching to the device. The campaign drove interest, but it didn't drive sales.

Now I'd still like to see Microsoft focus more on the appearance, but it has improved the ARM-based product so that it isn't crippled, and on specs, it is better than the iPad for the money. The exception is app support, which is improved but still lags Apple. The Intel-based product I still struggle with a bit, because it is an Ultrabook with a small screen, and the target of this product is more MacBook Air than iPad.

Given that I'd suggest a different industrial design with a larger screen, Ultrabooks with 11-inch screens typically don't sell that well. However, having said that, if there were a product that would get folks to consider a full-fledged laptop in a tablet form factor, this would be it. It is small, light, and with the new battery keyboard, it has segment-leading battery life.

If folks see this as a more portable and flexible MacBook Air or a more capable iPad, the Surface 2 might pull off a surprise win. I think the odds are against this, but we've seen folks win before when the odds were against them. The iPhone is the perfect example of this.

I'd put my money on the ARM version of Surface as being the better seller.

Conclution:It Isn't Over

The old saying is that "it isn't over until the Fat Lady sings," and that lady hasn't sung for either company. Microsoft will be getting different leadership shortly, and while I think its strategy is weaker than BlackBerry's, it has vastly more funding -- and resources can often make a huge difference.

In the end, I think both companies are on a path to turn around their fortunes and they are making progress. Because BlackBerry is fighting for its life, I think it is making more of the necessary moves more aggressively. I doubt Jobs would have been successful had Apple not been on death watch; in fact, it wouldn't have brought him back if that hadn't been the case, given that he was fired for cause.

BlackBerry clearly has that fear, and Microsoft's resources may be preventing it from making the dramatic moves needed to truly turn around its tablet and smartphone trends. We'll see.

Scientists from Harvard University Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology have demonstrated that light can

behave in a way previously observed only in science fiction -- that is,
photons can bond and create a molecule. The fundamental properties of
light derive from the fact that photons, which are the quanta of light,
do not interact with one another. That's most easily seen by shining two beams of light at each other cross-wise -- the beams pass through one other.

Scientific experiment shown that something like the light sabers the Jedi wielded in Star Wars is not outside the realm of possibility. That is, light can behave as though it has mass. Though their work may not produce "an elegant weapon for a more civilized age," it could lead to advances in quantum computing, 3D modeling and other as-yet-unimagined applications.

What we have done is create a special type of medium in which photons interact with each other so strongly that they begin to act as though they have mass," said Mikhail Lukin, a professor of physics at Harvard University

Light's ability to behave this way has been theoretically predicted by scientists for some time, although this is the first time experimental proof has been provided.

The researchers' discovery of how to control the two-photon bound state "could lead to important technologies ... even though the details of what the use is are not known yet," Wendell Horton, professor emeritus of physics at the University of Texas at Austin

About Photons

A photon is considered to be massless like gauge bosons and gluons.

In empty space, photons move at the speed of light.

If photons had mass, they would not move at the exact speed of light in a vacuum; instead, their speed would be lower and would depend on their frequency.

If a photon had mass, it would mean Coulomb's law would not hold true. That would cause the presence of an electric field inside a hollow conductor when it was subjected to an external electric field.

Further, it would impact observation of the galactic magnetic field because that field can only be observed if photons have no mass.

Photons inside superconductors develop what's called a "non-zero effective mass," meaning that the mass they seem to have when responding to forces

What the Researchers Did

The researchers pumped rubidium atoms into a vacuum chamber, then used lasers to cool the cloud of atoms to a few degrees above absolute zero.

They then fired single photons into the cloud using extremely weak laser pulses.

When they fired two photons into the cloud, the two exited together as one molecule.

When one photon entered the cloud, it handed off part of its energy to the cloud and slowed down. However, when two were pumped into the cloud, they leveraged the Rydberg blockade effect.

That basically let the photons push and pull each other through the cloud, then exit together, behaving like a molecule.

"While it's true that photons do not interact with each other, they do interact with electrons in materials and the electromagnetic fields created by the electrons in matter," said UT Austin's Horton.

The two-photon bound state was created owing to the distortion of the surrounding electromagnetic fields, he suggested.

Reactions to the Experiment

The interactions observed "only occur in the presence of matter which responds in a very nonlinear way to the presence of photons," Andrew Cleland, a professor of physics atUniversity of California at Santa Barbara,

Rydberg atoms are one example of a medium that responds in a nonlinear way, where there are different responses depending on whether zero, one or two photons pass through the medium.

The binding of photons to one another through the medium "is analogous to superconductivity, in which electrons bind to one another via their interactions with the positive ion background in the superconductor," Cleland said. "I think calling it a new state of matter is not unheard of; that's what superconductivity is called.

Possible Uses for Paired Photons

The researchers' discovery may enable the building of quantum computers, because photons remain the best means of carrying quantum information, and quantum logic requires interactions between individual quanta, according to Lukin. Until now, it was thought that photons could not be used because they don't interact with each other.

Other possible uses might be in classical computing and the creation of complex 3D structures such as crystals wholly out of light, Lukin suggested.

"Slow light has found important applications," observed Horton, "so the control of signals which are based on light would be a natural area where the discovery could make important contributions to society.

Say hello to the new HP Chromebook 14: Hewlett Packard’s new laptop is the first of the Chromebook series with an Intel Haswell processor.The UK model will only have 3G, but there is a 4G version available in US markets. Selected deals in the US can get consumers up to 200MB of data per month for two years on a T-Mobile contract.  On making enquiries to HP as to whether there will be a similar sort of deal with a 4G network here in Britain and currently there isn’t.



The Chromebook 14 or Chromebook¹⁴, as HP themselves style it, has a 14-inch high-definition screen. Under the hood is a 16GB solid-state drive, with HDMI, USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 connectivity and a combined headphone and microphone jack.  The  Chromebook 14 comes in white, turquoise and coral peach, which in reality is actually just pink


What you Need to Know About Chrome Laptops

The Chromebook series is based around Google’s Chrome operating system. Examples include the hugely high-resolution Chromebook Pixel the Samsung Series 5, or the bargain £200 Acer C7. They do not have software installed on them like a normal laptop, instead they need to be connected to the Web and rely on apps that connect to the Internet, including Google apps like Gmail, YouTube, and Google+ Hangouts. You also get 100 GB of free storage on Google Drive to keep files, documents and pictures for a two year period.  The HP Chromebook 14 hits the UK shelves in November, starting at £250.

What do you think of Chromebooks? Is the always-online requirement a heavy flaw? Tell me your thoughts in the comments

The bike is hung up in the garage waiting to be taken out again. But until somebody comes and moves the hills, or explains to you exactly how the gears work on the bike so you don’t feel as though you’re riding through wet concrete everywhere you go, the bike will stay hung up in the garage. That’s how most people feel about biking these days but Autobike has developed a new automatic bike that will make any road seem flat. Biking can be fun again according to the electric biking company from Detroit.

Smooth, Self-powered and Automatic

The SRAM front hub dynamo generates electric from every revolution of the front wheel. The electric is used to power the brain of the operation, a computer which is placed right behind the pedal crank. Sensors are able to detect the cadence of the cyclist and any incline in the road. The brain then caluculates the adjustments needed to keep the cyclist at their chosen cadence and changes the gears accordingly. Rather than experience rapid gear shifts that judder the bike and jar the rider, the developers have used a Nuvinci N360 rear hub transmission allowing for super smooth gear shifts.

All about the Cadence

Cadence is a term used to describe the amount of revolutions your pedals go through per minute while cycling. Most people fall within the range of 60 to 70 revolutions per minute (rpm) but when they climb a hill this will normally change depending on how well a person uses their gears.

Autobike uses automatic gear shifting to make sure that people can stay at the same rpm anywhere they go. The rpm is completely up to them and what makes them feel comfortable, making every road and hill seem flat. The co-founder of Autobike, Sean Simpson told Mashable; “we set out to create a bike that offers a fun experience that is accessible to anyone who wants to jump on a bike with zero training. They can just hop on and go.

Getting Back on the Bike

The Voyage and Voyage ST can be ordered from Autobike for $1,000. Developers are hoping the bikes will get people to return to biking and perhaps even forego the short ride on the subway or bus to work for a healthier, more economic bike ride.

Google looks for talent in BlackBerry's backyard

With Blackberry Ltd shedding staff in its hometown of Waterloo, Ontario, other tech companies, including Google Inc's Motorola Mobility unit, are moving to take advantage of a growing pool of local talentMotorola Mobility said on Thursday it plans to set up a new hub in Waterloo, located about an hour's drive west of Toronto.

"We have a small space right now and we're looking to grow considerably," said Derek Phillips,engineering director for Motorola Canada.

He declined to specify the number of new hires expected, but said the company was seeking computer science and engineering talent.

Google acquired Motorola Mobility last year in a $12.5 billion deal that gave it ownership of a large portfolio of communications patents. It has since moved to revamp the company's money-losing mobile phone business.

Google separately has its existing Canadian development headquarters in Waterloo, which boasts an in-office slide.

The company is one of hundreds of tech players with a presence the city, attracted in part by graduates of the University of Waterloo's highly ranked computer science, engineering and technology programs.

The vast majority of local technology companies are small startups looking to make a splash such as the one BlackBerry, then called Research in Motion, made after it pioneered pocket email in the 1990s.

But times have changed for BlackBerry, which said on Friday that it would cut about 4,500 workers, more than a third of its global workforce, and post a quarterly loss of nearly $1 billion.

It is unclear if the sale, if it goes through, will result in further job cuts.

START UPS HIRING

Phillips did not link Motorola's expansion to BlackBerry's troubles, but said the local talent pool was key to the area's appeal.

"The goal is to try to get just as many people who are interested to come out and hire as many people as we can. I think as long as we can find really good people, we will find a way to hire them," he said.

The hiring is not expected to come close to replacing the hole left by the BlackBerry cuts. But members of the local technology community noted that Motorola is not the only one looking to expand in the region.

Mobile payments company Square Inc plans to establish a permanent office in the area in 2014, spokeswoman Lindsay Wiese told Us

Avvey Peters, head of external relations at Communitech, a non-profit that bills itself as a regional hub for the tech sector, said she knew of about 1,000 job vacancies in the industry. She estimates the sector employs about 30,000 people.

"Certainly everybody's watching. Everybody's feeling for individuals who either have been laid off or are going to be," she added. "The local ecosystem created BlackBerry, not the other way around."

The job cuts are expected to strike a blow to the city and regional economy, given the knock-on-effect on retailers, the property market and local service providers.

The latest layoffs follow other cuts over the past three years as Blackberry bled market share to competitors such as Apple Inc and phones that use Google's Android operating system.

On Monday, BlackBerry said it agreed to sell itself for $4.7 billion to a consortium led by its biggest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.

MeteoEarth is available for US$3.99 in the Google Play store.


You know those fancy, animated weather visualizations that you get on
the local television news broadcasts -- the ones with the 3D drill-down
dynamic graphics that make it appear as if the meteorologist is
directing the clouds? Well, you can now get something similar on your
Android device. MeteoGroup is a European producer of weather-in-motion
graphics that it supplies to broadcasters.

Heavy weather geeks are going to argue that you can't beat a set of pixelated, classic overlapping Doppler radars with all the science imaging they provide. However, where MeteoEarth comes in is with an overall picture of developing weather, including wind, and across vast regions. Like the difference between the scientist in the windowless office and the presenter, it's a different kettle of fish.

MeteoGroup is a European producer of weather-in-motion graphics that it supplies to broadcasters. Recently, it's made some of its graphic tools available in mobile form.

Not to shatter any illusions, but just like the weather forecasting itself, which is accomplished by scientists in windowless workspaces in drab offices around the world -- not the prancing, toothy guy in the shiny suit on TV -- many of the visualizations on TV are supplied by third parties. Germany-based MeteoGroup is one of those suppliers.

Gaming-Like Graphics

I'll go out on a limb here. MeteoEarth is a weather app unlike any other, and once you've seen its gaming-like graphics, you'll want it -- even if you're not a weather geek.

Unfortunately it's expensive at $3.99 in the Google Play store, plus an additional in-app purchase of $4.99 for a year's premium features. On the other hand, you're getting what you pay for.

If you've used Google's Earth product, you'll have an idea as to what to expect. This app is based around a highly visual 3D globe that, much like Google Earth, is navigated through touch, allowing you to spin effortlessly around, speedily visiting continents with God-like ease.

The globe's timeline is managed through a Play button on a bar that lets you visualize the high-resolution animated weather-in-motion in one-day or five-day time spans, depending on whether you've paid for the upgrade or not.

The whole shebang is compelling and an absolute pleasure to use. I found myself following the direction of moving cloud and watching weather unfold. Great stuff.

The Features

MeteoEarth's features include wind, rain, isobars and clouds; local time zones with graphically represented day and night; and moon phases with sun and moon graphics. A one-button link to sister program forecaster Weather Pro is included.

What's Missing

Missing features I would like to see in MeteoEarth include street-level graphics and roads -- it'd be nice to drill down to the neighborhood level -- and storm-tracking overlays. However, I understand that storm tracking is an upcoming feature, for future update



The Issues
I ran into a couple of issues with MeteoEarth. First, there's no instruction manual -- just a button-by-button description. I found this to be a gaping omission because there are features pitched that I would have liked to have used for the purposes of this review that I was unable to verify, because I couldn't figure out how to use them.

For example, you should be able to "intuitively" save an unlimited number of default views of a location, weather element and level of zoom. I was able to save one view, but I did have a good laugh at the developer's use of the work "intuitive" when describing the feature.

A help section would have helped.

Conclusion

If you enjoy those TV visualizations, go for this app

European Lawmakers Push for Universal Chargers

European Parliament committee wants to mandate uniform electronic chargers -- or, put differently, it wants Apple to cooperate. Also: Portugal could be next to block The Pirate Bay;

Members of the European Parliament's internal market and consumer protection committee voted unanimously Thursday in favor of a new law mandating universal chargers for mobile devices.

In addition to convenience -- German parliamentarian Barbara Weiler called the current situation "cable chaos" -- the measure is motivated by a desire to curb electronic waste.

While the measure is not necessarily targeted at Apple, the company is an obvious outlier. Apple chargers are notoriously incompatible with other devices (and vice versa).

In 2009, the European Commission partnered with the International Telecommunications Union and mobile phone manufacturers to create a voluntary agreement around the micro USB chargers. Apple signed up for the agreement but has yet to adopt such a charger.

Despite the committee's vote, the single-charger measure must still make it through the European Council and European Parliament.

Portugal to Pursue 'Pirate' Blockade

In Portugal, a coalition of copyright trade groups will file an injunction to force Internet service providers to block The Pirate Bay and other file-sharing sites.

The Pirate Bay, the 29th most-visited website in Portugal, has been similarly blocked in other European nations, including the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium.

The group filing the injunction, reportedly backed by major movie studios, says it will deliver the injunction by the end of the year. If successful, it would mark the first time that Portuguese ISPs would be required to block a website because of copyright concerns.

Plus

UN Report Details Global Broadband Growth

The United Nations Broadband Commission released a report on broadband and Internet use around the world.

By the end of the year, the total number of mobile broadband connections will hit 2.1 billion, the report says -- about three times more than fixed-line subscriptions.

Singapore and Japan lead the world in per-capital mobile broadband use, with 123 and 113 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, respectively.

Perhaps surprisingly, Oman and Kazakhstan, of all places, have higher broadband penetration than some European countries, including Germany and Switzerland. Meanwhile, Europe is tops in fixed-line broadband connections, with Switzerland leading the way at 41.9 subscriptions per 100 residents.

Europe is also tops in overall Internet use. Iceland -- which used the Internet to help draft its constitution -- is No. 1 at 96 percent.

Carbon Nanotube Computer Technology Breakthrough

Researchers at the Stanford University announced on Wednesday that they have created the first-ever working carbon nanotube computer.

They published their discovery in this week’s edition of Nature. The researchers, led by professors Subhasish and H.S Philip Wong call it “CEDRIC”, which they say loosely stands for carbon nanotube digital integrated circuit.

The reason for the excitement over this advancement comes as current silicon transistor computing is soon reaching its limit as the transistors can not get much smaller due to quantum effects. The new carbon nanotube transistors are the way forward because they can conduct electricity better than silicon and on a smaller scale.

Put into practical terms, carbon nanotube-based computers will be faster and more energy-efficient, which is always a challenge for manufacturers every time there is a new generation of processor.

The future is not problem free however. This technology is still new but the Stanford researchers have been able to solve some of the problems surrounding error connection. The system they have developed can switch off defective carbon nanotubes and come up with an algorithm which addresses misaligned carbon nanotubes that can short-circuit the system.

“People have been talking about a new era of carbon nanotube electronics moving beyond silicon,” Mitra said in a statement. “But there have been few demonstrations of complete digital systems using this exciting technology. Here is the proof.”

Although this is a key breakthrough for the technology, CEDRIC is still not able to carry out complex computations like a normal PC but the future looks promising. No doubt carbon-nanotube computers will be what our children use in the coming years.

search update for Google's 15th Birthday

The core algorithm for Google search has just been updated to handle longer, more complex question-like queries. The last major update to the search engine was back in 2010, with Caffeine, but the change to Hummingbird brings about the matching of past queries with new ones, making consecutive queries possible – for example, ask a question about something and then ask something else without actually naming the thing you're talking about. Google will remember what you're talking about. And relative queries – this or that – will also be possible.
The update also pairs voice search to text search, making your phone that much smarter when you're looking for something. Because voice searches tend to naturally be more complex than text searches, Google had to improve the way their search formulas worked. While the changes to the results you see may not be apparent to you, believe me, there's a lot of new mojo going on in the background. And they've already been happening, with the actual implementation of Hummingbird occuring a last month ago but only being announced yesteray at a birthday event in Google's legendary original garage

.The changes are built on Google's ''Knowledge Graph,'' a complex encyclopedia of over half a billion objects and several billion facts and relationships between them. Released in mid-2012, Knowledge Graph is basically an attributes log that understands the kinds of information you're likely to want to know when you search for something. So you won't just get search results based on words, but on concepts, relationships and more. And now it handles voice searches in the same way.

It's a nice announcement for the 15th birthday of Google

If your Android device is lost or stolen, and you're sweating bullets over sensitive material getting into the wrong hands, you can relax a little -- as long as it's connected to the Internet. Google has finally introduced remote lock functionality as a feature of its new Android Device Manager. All you need to do is go online to activate the lock.

Google on Tuesday rolled out a feature for its recently launched Android Device Manager that lets users lock down a stolen Android device from anywhere, via the Web.

"This is something that should be embeded into the OS and the platform because it's an inherent security feature

It might be asked why Google took so long to roll out its remote lock capability; iOS has had it for three years, and there are several third-party remote lock and tracking apps for Android devices.

"Consumers weren't demanding security, so why should Google put it in?

Sure, with the NSA stuff security is important -- but in three to four months everybody's going to forget about it, and nobody's going to care

How It Works                                                                                                                             

Android Device Manager and its newly released remote lock feature run on Android 2.2 OS and above.

The remote lock feature will override any existing password on an Android device, and it will turn off the screen as well, so long as the device is connected to a network.

If it is in Airplane mode or is turned off, the remote lock feature will kick in the moment the device is connected to a network.

Users have to first enable the Android Device Manager. Then they go to the Android Device Manager website and choose "Lock," enter a new password, and confirm it.

The device will then be locked and will require the new password to unlock.

Late to the Party                                                                                                                           

"Remote Lock is a feature that has been a part of most mobile device management solutions for years,

The actual remote lock operation "is part of the MDM API which Google has now implemented in their own Android Device Manager interface,

With the growing trend toward BYOD, many businesses have selected MDM solutions to institute some form of control over the proliferation of mobile devices being used by employees in the workplace.

Android's remote lock can coexist with existing enterprise solutions.

A device can have multiple device administrators configured, so "it is perfectly reasonable for the end user to use the Google Android Device Manager to remote lock a lost device as well as an enterprise management solution such as third-party MDM to also provide the same capabilities for the enterprise

Impact on Third Parties                                                                                                                 

There are several third-party solutions from independent vendors, such as Where's My Droid, Seek My Android, and Seek Droid. Some are free and others are for-pay.

Where's My Droid has been around since 2009, for example. It added screen lock to its features in 2011,

Google's remote lock feature will likely shoulder out third-party products because "third-party products are more likely to break when there's a patch, whereas core features won't because they have been tested against the patch already

However, platform vendors like Google "will just do the basics, so if you need a lot of bells and whistles, that's where third-party players can provide value

Safety Is Just a Concept                                                                                                              

Security "is a big challenge in any industry because there aren't industry-wide standards, consumers don't want to pay for it, and anything you put in can be hacked

Even the Apple fingerprint sensor was hacked in two days

Remote lock features should be used with other security features.

Many users are likely to have more than one security app, in order to protect themselves better

iOS 7 Shows Up, Lets Review It

Apple's servers were working overtime Wednesday as the new version of its mobile operating system, iOS 7, became available for download by the public



iOS 7 may be just what the BYOD enterprise has been waiting for. Privacy settings are more detailed than in previous iOS versions, for example, and multitasking has been improved. "It's much easier to seamlessly switch between running applications, killing things that you don't want running, and seeing what the state of the machine is.

iOS 7 has a number of new features that should appeal to consumers who are fans of Apple's iPhone, iPod and iPad, but it also contains features to bolster the company's already strong position in the enterprise.

The most obvious change in the software is its new flat interface. It will be jarring to old timers accustomed to icons that emulate analog objects.

Departing from past skeuomorphics isn't just Apple putting a pretty new face on iOS.

There's a significant disruption, because most of the icons that have become so familiar and instantly recognizable have been replaced by something similar but different enough to make you ask yourself, 'Where is it?

Mixed Bag

There are some inconsistencies in the interface as well.

"Not all developers have gone through the entire process of providing an iOS 7 look-and-feel in their applications,"So it can be a sort of mixed metaphor when you go from the Apple application -- all of which have been updated -- versus other applications that have not gone through that yet."

"That can be disconcerting," he added. "A period of adjustment will be necessary.

That doesn't seem to be deterring download traffic, though. Within the first 24 hours of availability, 18 percent of North American iOS traffic was generated by iOS 7 users, according to analytics firm Chitika. By comparison, when iOS 6 was introduced, it generated 15 percent of the iOS traffic within it first 24 hours of availability.

Also among the new features is a control panel to give an Apple jock one tap access to common functions such as WiFi, Bluetooth and Do Not Disturb. The panel also provides music controls and access to the timer and camera apps, as well as enabling use of the LCD flash as a flashlight.

"Things you want to have at your fingertips can be accessed with fewer steps now. "That's a primary benefit of iOS 7."

"Some might argue that that's a little bit of catch-up to what Android already offers in some cases, although Apple has done it in an elegant way.

Better Multitasking, Privacy

Many users will appreciate the new auto update feature in iOS 7. It allows installed apps to update themselves without a user going through the rigmarole of entering an Apple ID.

Multitasking has also been improved in the new iOS.

"It's much easier to seamlessly switch between running applications, killing things that you don't want running, and seeing what the state of the machine is,

Privacy settings are more detailed in iOS 7. You can block information from being sent to Apple, such as location or diagnostic and usage data. You can gain visibility into which apps are accessing info like location, contacts, pictures, calendars and Bluetooth sharing.

Apple has brought AirDrop to iOS from its desktop operating system, OS X.

Suddenly we can set up ad hoc networks where we can share information in a P2P format

That has some interesting implications if that becomes a use case for these devices. That reduces the dependence on the carrier for connectivity. Millions of iPhone subnetworks could be created.

No. 1 in Enterprise

with iOS 7, Apple is making a real play for the enterprise crowd

With the announcement of iOS 7, Apple seems to have turned a new page in providing the enterprise some of what it has long been waiting for, Unlike the iOS 5 and iOS 6 releases, which contained only minor updates to its enterprise features, Apple has prioritized a number of enterprise management needs, added features that expand business usefulness, and corrected a number of incomplete or insufficient concepts launched in earlier versions."

Among those features are the ability to assign bundles of apps to use a VPN, better support of mobile device management, an activation lock that can't be skirted by resetting a machine, and mass device enrollment.

By 2016, by predictions, "Apple iOS devices may be the No. 1 smartphone platform purchased and supplied to end users by the enterprise.

Adobe to Give Creatives New Gizmos

Adobe is inching into the hardware space with a couple of new items for the digital artist's toolbox -- a pen and a ruler compatible with its Creative Cloud software. However, "Adobe is lacking control over one key aspect of these devices, and it's the tablets," noted Web designer Kris Black. "Adobe is still relying on tablets made from other manufacturers."

The company plans to release its Mighty digital pen, a thin-tipped stylus designed to help digital artists have more control over their creativity while drawing on a tablet screen. The pressure-sensitive pen comes with color and tip tools that allow artists to draw lines of varied widths and colors. The device uses Bluetooth to connect to Adobe's Creative Cloud software.



Napoleon Ruler App for the iPad

To produce the Mighty, Adobe is teaming with Adonit, which has hardware experience making the Jot tablet stylus.

Adobe also plans to release the Napoleon, a digital ruler that makes it easy for artists to draw precise lines, edges or other shapes on tablet screens.

Both devices are designed with what Adobe terms "the new creatives" in mind -- a generation of artists and tinkerers who now have a variety of new tools, both analog and digital, at their disposal. Both are scheduled in the first half of 2014.

Adobe also plans to release two iOS apps -- Parallel, a drafting app, and Contour, an app that helps artists capture and create outlines. Both are optimized to work with the Mighty and the Napoleon.

Making It Seamless

If Adobe can produce devices that stand out from the crowd, the company's foray into the hardware arena could be an exciting development for designers, architects, artists and developers, said Kris Black, a Web designer and the author of Squarespace 6 for Dummies.

"If companies like Adobe can make creating art digital in a way that the technology doesn't interfere with creativity, then I think we'll start to see more and more people using digital tools to create art,"

Along with setting a reasonable price point, it will be crucial that Adobe tie in its software to the devices, said Black. There are already similar stylus tools available to digital artists, but if Adobe can produce a device that has seamless integration with its creative software, then the Mighty and the Napoleon would come out way ahead of the competition.

"The strongest features of these Adobe devices will be how they integrate with Adobe's software," Black emphasized. "Apple has proven that when you can control the hardware and software, you can make huge, game-changing advancements in technology and how people interact with your products.

Software at Its Core

In addition to offering its own hardware, Adobe might need to strengthen its relationships with tablet makers to help users get even more out of products like the Mighty and the Napoleon, Black noted.

"Adobe is lacking control over one key aspect of these devices, and it's the tablets. Adobe is still relying on tablets made from other manufacturers," he added. "If Adobe could strengthen their partnerships with hardware manufacturers like Wacom and Apple, I think they could make deeper innovations with their drawing devices."

Adobe won't stray from its core software business even if its hardware efforts prove to be successful, said Trip Chowdhry, senior analyst for Global Equities Research. However, the company has shown that it is willing to try new ways to get creative people interested in its software, and that's an initiative that won't stop even if the products turn out to be a flop.

"Adobe is a software company at heart, but it has also been good about overseeing a transition of its software to the cloud and anticipating how the market is shifting, "They are willing to try out new initiatives that will enhance their software, and we're going to continue to see that attitude from the company

No fingerprint scanner yet for Samsung

Fingerprint scanning technology – as found rather unimpressively on the new iPhones – has been quite the hot topic the last few weeks, with everything from iOS flaws to humorous applications of the security feature occupying our attention with fingerprint scanner manufacturers - one that Apple had bought outright and another that Samsung was working closely with. While Apple managed to come through in the end, it may not have done them any favors. Samsung, on the other hand, don't look like they're in any particular rush.
Some consider the fingerprint scanner a breakthrough security addition, other see it as a flimsy sales gimmick easy to bypass, while even more think it never took off on laptops for good reason. Either way, it has been one of the key selling points for the new iPhones, even if its many flaws have already been discovered. Meanwhile, Samsung has had the code supporting a fingerprint scanner buried in their devices for ages, since the S3 in fact, but it looks like they won't be doing anything major with the technology for a while yet, with their scanner partner a year behind Apple's in the delivery of a stable fingerprint scanner.

We never officially admitted that Samsung was weighing the fingerprint system and Knox for Galaxy Note 3 for security functions. We are not yet developing the technology. - unnamed Samsung official

The Note 3 came and went without a fingerprint scanner and Samsung has now officially stated they are ''not yet developing the technology.'' A fingerprint scanner will of course appear in future Samsung devices, but it may be a little slower to roll out than you might expect. If the response to Apple's inclusion of the TouchID scanner turns out to be generally negative it would make sense for Samsung to avoid it altogether. But if the scanner becomes a smartphone must-have, Samsung will find themselves playing catch up.

In the mobile sector, Samsung has been a fast follower instead of being a risk taker. It is waiting until its rival Apple opens up the market to some extent. - Yoon Jung-sun, Hyundai Securities

What do you think of the technology? Do you want it in your next Samsung?

Space Mission To Jupiter’s Moon, Europa

Just lately there has been alot of talk about missions to Mars and further exploring what can be found on the planet. But a group who call themselves Objective Europa want to go where no one else has thought of going, Jupiter’s moon. The group are looking into the feasibility of sending a one-way crew to this icy moon, which is called Europa, in order to search for knowledge and extraterrestial life.

Objective Europa currently is only an online group and are not attached with any legal organisation. The group has stated its aim by saying, “Our purpose is to establish the foundation for and carry out a crewed mission to Jovian ice moon Europa through international crowd-research and participation.”

The team is made up of some interesting names and give the possible mission some credibility. There is Kristian von Bengtson, co-founder of Copenhagen Suborbitals, a non-profit organisation that aims to launch humans into space. He is a Danish architect but specialises in manned spaceflight. Another team member is Michele Faragalli, who is a rover mobility specialist for the NASA contractor Neptec Design Group.

Jacques Cousteau’s son, scientist and diver Pierre-Yves Cousteau, is an ambassador for the group as well as being a team member.

At the moment this mission is nothing more than a concept but the group have opened up various research topic for discussion. They will need to gather information and find out whether it is feasible to send a manned mission to Europa, as well as do cost analysis.

So the race is on, will humans land on Mars or Europa first?