Great article and infographic on the SmartPlanet blog about use of smartphones and other technology in agriculture.
Telecommunications has come a long way from when I grew up in rural Idaho. Our telephone line had a seven-minute limit on call length because of relative lack of capacity. And even that was a step up from the party line we had when I was a little boy.
Will Smartphone apps improve our relationships? Â Herman thinks so …
Poor Dilbert. His social skills just don’t measure up to the smartphone!
On a more serious note, is this so far removed from reality? Is the entertainment value of smartphones and related apps getting in the way of real human relationships?
Has the focus of malware attacks shifted from Windows to Android? Not completely, I’m sure. But as the Wall Street Journal reported this morning,
A major software attack on mobile phones has put pressure on Google Inc. to do more to secure its online store for smartphone applications.
The company behind the now ubiquitous Android operating system came under fire after computer-security experts last week uncovered more than 50 malicious applications that were uploaded to and distributed from Google’s Android Market. …
Google has said 58 malicious apps were uploaded to Android Market and then downloaded to around 260,000 devices before Google removed the affected apps last Tuesday evening. It isn’t clear how many users activated the applications, a Google spokesman said.
Google doesn’t employee people to evaluate and approve applications before they are posted to the Android store, but rather depends on consumers to report bad behavior. Unfortunately, that practices can allow attacks like this latest wave to compromise the integrity of downloaded apps.
The apps involved in the latest incident were corrupted versions of legitimate products from three different developers. The apps, which included Super Guitar Solo, Advanced Barcode Scanner, Bubble Shoot and dozens of others, were adulterated with a malicious code called "DroidDream" that could compromise sensitive personal data, including the IMSI number of the user’s phone, a unique identifier that carriers try to protect.
I’ll bet Google will quickly change its practices in this area. There’s nothing like a bunch of infected apps to play havoc with brand loyalty.
In a recent article in PCMAG.com, an interesting graphic highlighted the market share of smartphone operating system preference. Where are you located? I’m firmly in the Apple iOS camp, grateful that I bought an iPhone a year and a half ago, rather than casting my lot with the Palm/HP WebOS.
I enjoyed the comments John Dvorak made today in his article “The US Smartphone Revolutionâ€:
Overlooked in the commotion, though, is the transformative nature of the entire market. The whole world is looking at these changes. Wherever you go, the hip, trendy phone users around the globe will most often be seen with one of these North American smartphones. And to be honest the hippest of the hip will have an iPhone.
I find this particularly amusing, because I recall a constant barrage of anti-American accusations during the late 1990s, whereby we were told that the mobile phone world has passed us by. When I was doing Silicon Spin, a cable show for TechTV, guests would often arrive having just visited Japan, carrying some dingbat phone, such as the Docomo, and singing its praises. …
It’s expected that within just a few years the entire market will consist of varieties of smartphones, whose designs and operation were all invented in the U.S. and Canada.
It’s great time to be an American! Yes, my Canadian friends, we include you!