But the technology market is different, and in the last three years we’ve seen it take on a whole new dimension where Windows is no longer the obvious operating system choice, and where comparisons are increasingly being made with IBM.  On tablets, a market that Microsoft invented back around 2003 they’re going to have a real fight on their hands, and in computing generally it’s no longer clear what devices and form factors we’ll be using in even five or ten years time.  What is obvious however is that the traditional desktop PC is well and truly on its way out.  Lastly new operating systems such as iOS, Android and WebOS have blown away the notion that people will resist a learning curve on new devices.  So what would the world be like if Microsoft stopped making Windows desktop and server products?

First of all it’s not very likely, Microsoft would probably drop Windows products last of all with their expensive research and development centres and other products such as Xbox falling by the wayside first, so there’s no need to worry in the short term.  Windows 8 is a big gamble though and if it fails then Microsoft will either have to backtrack with Windows 9, pull an immensely impressive rabbit out of their hat or face the consequences of poor decision-making.

There has already been talk that Google would like to bring Android to the desktop.  HP said the same of WebOS, which they are still developing or at least maintaining, and could put extra resources back into quickly.  Ubuntu Linux is now at least as friendly as Windows XP was, only the lack of big name software for the platform is holding it back now and Apple’s OS X is becoming more like iOS with every release.  So it’s already clear that there’s plenty of choice.

We might also expect an open-source upstart operating system to appear too and it might even be a reinvigorated WebOS.  Companies such as the Mozilla Foundation might see an opportunity as their Firefox browser begins to fade in popularity, and this is just one of several places where a new operating system might emerge.

In the business space, some of the GNU/Linux companies including Red Hat, might jump in with versions that will run Windows programs on the desktop.  This isn’t new and has already been done with operating systems such as Lindows (later renamed Linspire).  This product still exists today and could prove popular with businesses if Windows 8 and Windows 9 fail to deliver the working experience that they need.

Again it’s very unlikely that Microsoft will cease development of Windows in the next twenty years at least.  If they’d have done it even five years ago there would have been almost no alternatives to choose from.  Should they do it now though businesses and consumers would probably just shrug their shoulders and quietly move on to the next big thing.

The report said that “the last week of 2011 was the largest week for device activations and app downloads in iOS and Android history.”

This shouldn’t come as any major surprise to people though as many people would have received new tablets and smartphones for Christmas, but also that app stores had a great many cheap deals on over the holiday period.  Even so, these numbers are huge and very clearly indicate that our hunger for smartphones and tablets isn’t going away any time soon.

When you factor in the number of people who would have picked up cheap Blackberry Playbook tablets over the holiday period we can expect activations to be much higher.

Flurry, which gets its data directly from Apple and Google said…

Looking forward to 2012, Flurry expects breaking the one-billion-download-barrier per week will become more common-place.   While iOS and Android growth continues to amaze, the market is still by all measures relatively nascent.

It’s very likely that they are correct and that 1 billion app downloads a week worldwide will not just quickly become the norm, but that the number by the end of 2012 will in fact be considerably higher.

Factor in the launch of ARM-powered Windows 8 tablets, now probably scheduled for early 2013, and that number will rise exponentially as people try out Metro apps for the new operating system.  It is a reasonable predication though that by the time this happens the weekly app download figures for iOS and Android will have exceeded 2 billion a week.

In an interview with veteran Microsoft journalist Mary-Jo Foley, Rizzo said “We want to work where people work, whether it’s online or offline, and on various platforms.”  He went on to say that Android is in the frame as well as a bigger focus on the iPad.

So why would Microsoft do this when they have their own tablet operating system, Windows 8, coming out within a year?  Well let’s not forget that Microsoft are a ‘software’ company, not an operating system company first and foremost.  While Windows might be a huge revenue earner for them on the desktop and the server, Office also does well for them on both PCs and Macs, where on both platforms it is the dominant office productivity package.

With the hugely successful launch of Office 365 this year it makes complete sense for the company to roll out its products across as many platforms as possible.  Rizzo acknowledged that the iPad is “mattering more in the enterprise” and so clients for their office productivity software including Lync, OneNote, SkyDrive and Office Live matter.

All in all we’re moving towards a world of apps.  Anyone who picks up an iPad won’t expect to have to go online to use a service such as Office 365.  They’ll expect there to be an apps for it.  As such we can fully expect Microsoft to deliver such an app, or more likely a series of them, that will deliver the entire Office 365 experience to their customers on the iPad.

But why should Android be left out?  It’s becoming more and more common for cross-scripted packages to be ported to every mobile platform and the tools have existed for some time to enable this.  Thus it is cheaper and simpler than ever before and Microsoft would only be sensible to make sure that their productivity apps are available for Android devices and others including those form Blackberry and perhaps even WebOS.

As I mentioned before this is nothing new for Microsoft who have been producing and supporting office on the Mac for many years.  Why should this software company be defined by their operating system?  If their cloud products are genuinely good and people are using them in ever greater numbers, it makes good business sense to support those customers on the platforms they choose to use.  After all, you don’t make something a cloud-based service in order to tie them to a particular operating system, or even web browser.

Other companies, including Google with its own web apps system, have fallen some way behind Microsoft this year with products that simply don’t stand up against Office 365.  These companies could still come forward with a winner, but the longer they take and the more platforms Microsoft support in the interim, the harder it will be for competitors to compete long-term.  After all, just ask Microsoft what sales are like for their Windows Phone OS.  If anybody knows how tough competition can be when you arrive late to the party, Microsoft do.

The growth in apps, not just for Google but for all the smartphone and tablet platforms is still growing exponentially as people discover the power and flexibility the devices have.  In their announcement Google said…

One billion is a pretty big number by any measurement. However, when it’s describing the speed at which something is growing, it’s simply amazing.  This past weekend, thanks to Android users around the world, Android Market exceeded 10 billion app downloads—with a growth rate of one billion app downloads per month.  We can’t wait to see where this accelerating growth takes us in 2012.

The figures released by Google show that their market reflects the current worldwide trend and is gathering pace.  Their store took 22 months to reach 1 billion downloads but only another 9 to get to to 10 billion.

In an interview with the BBC Geoff Blaber from analysts firm CCS Insight said…

Apple announced the 15 billion download mark in July so it’s clear that Android’s momentum in device activations is translating to application downloads and usage.  We’d expect Android to overtake Apple in application downloads in the first half of 2012.

Android is currently the world’s best-selling smartphone platform but it has come under fire for a lack of due diligence to malware in its store.  Figures have been released by security companies showing an accelerating malware problem on Android.  Many people are now beginning to hit back at the anti-virus firms with some very strong and robust claims that they’re hyping the malware threat unnecessarily to boost sales of their own anti-virus products for the platform.

However hyped the malware threat to Android users might be it’s still wise to be protected as there may come a time when mobile phone operating companies no longer want to insure users against the premium rate texts sent by the fraudsters.

Android’s growth in the smartphone and tablet market for the foreseeable future however is pretty-much guaranteed, boosted by the recent launch in the US of Amazon’s first tablet, the Kindle Fire.  This tablet is widely expected to be the world’s biggest selling tablet when overall figures are released in six months or so from now.

Among the apps and games being discounted in the Google app store to mark this occasion are Asphalt 6 HD, Color & Draw for Kids, Endomondo Sports Tracker Pro, Fieldrunners HD, Great Little War Game, Minecraft, Paper Camera, Sketchbook Mobile, Soundhound
Infinity and SwiftKey X.

The BBC reported that “Carolina Milanesi, from analysts Gartner, said download numbers were a poor measure of success.” but Android still has more handset activations per day than any other smartphone or tablet platform.  It’s by far the biggest and most popular platform out there at the moment.

How Windows 8 tablets, on new ARM-based hardware will fare against it when they begin to appear late next year or in early 2013 remains to be seen.  Android will already have gone through at least two more versions by then and will be a far more polished and accomplished operating system.  Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS is already struggling to keep up with Android and make any impression in the marketplace.  Android’s open-source nature, which allows handset manufacturers to modify it has helped considerably in this, as has the fact that it is free too.  HTC are one manufacturer that has taken full advantage of this and will no doubt continue to do so.

If you are like me, you’d probably want to know if a program that can virtually access all data on the phone is running on it and with which server and companies it communicates.

Bitdefender Carrier IQ Finder is a new program for Android mobile phones by Bitdefender that can be used to find out if the technology is running on a phone.

Android users need to download the application from Android Market where it is available for free. The app has been designed to detect Carrier IQ on Android phones. It cannot remove the technology nor detect or remove malicious software from the phone.

Android users can point their browsers to the Bitdefender carrier IQ Finder market place listing to install the program directly from there. It is necessary to be logged in a Google account to install the app.

The app will search for traces of Carrier IQ on the phone on start up.

A red screen after the scan indicates that Carrier IQ has been found running on the system, a green screen that the technology has not been found on the smartphone.

What can you do if Carrier IQ has been found on your phone? It may be virtually impossible to remove the technology completely from the phone. You could contact your carrier for additional information about the technology. (via)

Carrier IQ is a software that runs on more than 140 million mobile phones (according to information on the Carrier IQ website). It is a monitoring software that can track user activities and data, including their personal information, locations, network communications, phone calls, messages and a lot more.

A few aspects make the software especially suspicious from a consumer perspective. Carrier IQ is not listed as a running application on the phone. The software furthermore cannot be stopped or deactivated on standard phones.

The Carrier IQ company stated that the Carrier IQ software “delivers Mobile Intelligence on the performance of mobile devices and networks to assist operators and device manufacturers in delivering high quality products and services to their customers”.

How can you find out if Carrier IQ is running on your phone?

It’s almost impossible for users to find off switches, user interfaces, policies, or references to IQRD anywhere on the phone. Using standard functionality, the only place you can see that the application is installed on the phone is in Menu -> Settings -> Manage Applications -> All, then scroll down to IQRD. This application has a non-descript icon and offers no information about itself. Even on old devices, IQRD runs continuously because it’s set to start automatically at boot. The only option you have to stop the application is to select “force stop”—which does nothing. The application continues to run.

The only option to remove Carrier IQ is to root the phone:

The only choice we have to “opt out” of this data collection is to root our devices because every part of the multi-headed CIQ application is embedded into low-level, locked regions of the phones. Even if you unlock your device and remove the base application with a sophisticated removal method, neutered, leftover code called from other applications will likely throw an error each time an old action is triggered.

It’s almost impossible to fully remove Carrier IQ. The browser is modified to send to Carrier IQ daemon, as is almost everything else. The application is so deeply embedded in our devices that a user must rebuild the whole device (system.img and boot.img) directly from source code to remove every part of CIQ.

Eckhart only looked at Android devices, but it is likely that other phone manufacturers are also making use of Carrier IQ.

I suggest you take a look at the YouTube video that is a live demonstration of the Carrier IQ software by the security researcher himself.

I suggest you read the two detailed articles (What is Carrier IQ? and CarrierIQ Part 2 for a deeper understanding of the situation.

My opinion? I’d stop using a phone immediately if it would run the software and would not give me an option to opt-out of it. What’s your take?

Update: Carrier IQ has also be confirmed running on Apple’s iOS. Read the blog post here for detailed information.

I received the Samsung GT-S8500 when I renewed my contract with T-Mobile. That was about a year ago and I never bothered to connect the phone to the Internet or see if Samsung has released a newer firmware for the device.

That changed today when I decided to find out how to update the phone’s firmware. And since I’m probably not the only one who cannot figure it out in a matter of seconds, I have decided to write a tutorial on how its done.

You need the following equipment to check for and install updates: The Samsung Android phone, the USB cable to connect the phone to the computer, and the Samsung Kies software [here] which handles the updating and other things.

Install Samsung Kies first. This may take a while. The program installs mobile phone drivers and may restart your computer without warning. Next thing that you need to do is to close all open applications on your phone. This is done by holding down the center button on the phone’s front until a new screen pops up with an option to close all running applications.

Use the USB cable to connect your mobile device to the computer and select Samsung Kies as the USB connection method. Start the software, the mobile phone should be recognized immediately.

Samsung Kies will search for updates automatically if the computer it is running on is connected to the Internet.

I’d advise anyone to stop the process at that time to export the phone’s settings and data to the PC first. Firmware updates may alter or remove data on the phone and it is always a good idea to make sure you can restore your data if that is the case.

Click Import/Export in Kies, switch to Export and use the Export buttons to backup the phone’s data to your computer. You can backup contacts, photos, music, videos, schedule, or to-dos.

Go back to the basic information tab in the Samsung Kies software after you have backed up your phone’s data. Click on the Firmware Update button to start the upgrade.

An informational page is displayed next. Samsung offers tips on how to make sure that the firmware update will complete without errors. The company suggests to connect the phone to a power supply, to back up data before the process, to not use the phone during the upgrade and to not connect other devices to the computer in that time.

The process may take up to 30 minutes, but is usually faster. My phone’s firmware upgrade took about five minutes.

If everything went fine you will receive a success message in the end. The device needs to be restarted (happened automatically in my case). You should now check if the data that you have stored on your phone is still available. If it is not, use the import feature of the Samsung Kies software to upload the data again to your phone.

Have you ever updated your smartphone? If so, how would you describe the process?

BlueStacks offers a solution for Windows based computer systems. It was first only compatible with Windows 7, the latest version released a few days ago added support for XP and Vista as well.

When you install BlueStacks on your computer an icon is added to the upper right screen of the operating system. This icon acts as the central hub. Here you can start Android applications, open the help file or the BlueStacks website to load additional apps on the computer.

The free version ships with ten preinstalled apps. It offers room for additional apps (The (changing) start page states the free version is limited to 26 additional apps) that can be installed from a list of featured apps on the BlueStacks homepage or by installing a BlueStacks client on the Android mobile which can then be used to push Android apps directly to the Windows PC. These apps appear in the hub listing after a short period of time.

Available preinstalled are mostly game apps like Aporkalypse or Drag Racing. The featured apps section on the BlueStacks homepage, only accessible after connecting a Facebook account with the service, lists more games and some news related apps.

More interesting that the featured or preinstalled apps is the ability to push existing Android apps from your phone to your PC to access them on Windows. The developers say that not all apps may work at the current point in time.

Apps that work are launched in fullscreen. Take a look at the following videos to get a better expression.

The developers are continuing to work on the application. It will eventually reach beta and then final status. The plan of the company from what I can see is to keep offering the free version of the software with limited app storage space, and a professional version with unlimited space that is likely going to cost either a flat sum of money or a subscription fee.

Windows users can download the latest version of BlueStacks from the project website. Windows XP users should take a look at the prerequisite page before they install the software to make sure they have all the software installed on their system that is required to run BlueStacks.

Android users, have you tried the BlueStacks App Player yet? If so, what’s your opinion?

Nokia’s now mostly retired Symbian operating system still sits in a resounding first place with just under three quarters of all malware, but Android now has a malware problem that is growing exponentially according to the security company’s quarterly threats report…

Last quarter the Android mobile operating system (OS) became the most “popular” platform for new malware. This quarter Android became the exclusive platform for all new mobile malware. The Symbian OS (for Nokia handsets) remains the platform with the all-time greatest number of malware, but Android is clearly today’s target.

They say that SMS-sending trojans are still the biggest threat but that trojans that record phone calls to steal sensitive information are now beginning to appear.

While Google’s problems with malware on their Android platform are well known it should be pointed out that this report makes no mention at all of either Apple’s iOS, Microsoft’s Windows Phone or RIM’s Blackberry apps security.  It is odd that the chart they provide doesn’t single out these operating systems at all, merely referring to “Others” at around 10% of the malware problem.

Ten percent of all smartphone malware however is still a huge issue and assuming that 10 percent is split equally three ways (which is just an assumption to highlight a point), while it would only be about 16% of the total malware available for Android, we’re still talking about huge numbers indeed.

Mobile malware is a continuing problem and one I highlight as often as I can.  The reason for this being that this malware can cost you real money in premium rate texts or other mobile charges that can’t occur on your PC.  It’s entirely within the gift of your mobile operator as to whether they will refund such costs, but as the mobile malware problem escalates it will become more and more likely that operators will simply blame the user for downloading and installing the malware (which is fair to be honest) and refuse to issue any credits.

As the introduction to the report the company says…

The third quarter of 2011 offered its fair share of noise and signal: Malware continues to be produced daily at high levels, but we often miss its sophistication—which lies buried beneath the big numbers.  McAfee Labs saw some significant increases this quarter in stealth malware techniques, often referred to as rootkits, especially from the TDSS family. We also observed the continued emphasis on mobile malware, specifically targeting the Android operating system. In fact, this quarter Android was the sole target of mobile malware writers. A true portent indeed!

Unfortunately the mobile malware problem generally is receiving precious little widespread publicity.  While IT Enthusiasts might be increasingly aware of the need to install an anti-virus package on their handsets, the bulk of consumers will still see the their smartphones as embedded OS devices that will just work in the way their TV or toaster does.  They won’t necessarily see it as a device that can be infected and compromised.

While the report is clearly intended to shock, without the exact figures for iOS, Windows Phone and Blackberry’s being released it is hard to guage overall how bad the problem is and to make a judgement over how much more of a target Android is over the next platform.

And now Google Music with its big announcement on November 16. Google Music gets rid of the beta status and remains a free service for all users (from the United States, and those who know how to use a proxy). Users can store up to 20,000 songs on Google servers.

The Google Music store offers a library of 13 million songs which can be purchased on the Android Market. Songs cost 99 cent and are provided in 320 Kbit quality. Users can download songs or stream them to other devices. Google Music users who make purchases can share their purchases on Google+. This allows others to listen to the song once on Google’s social networking platform.

Payments are currently limited to T-Mobile US customers which benefit from carrier billing support. This basically means that Google Music purchases will appear on the monthly cellphone bill which improves the buying experience significantly. T-Mobile customers will get exclusive contents for free until the end of the year as part of the promotion to establish the service in the United States.

Artists can create their own space on Google Music where they can sell their music directly. The initial fee to setup an artist page is $25 US Dollars. It is likely – but not confirmed – that artists will have to share their earnings with Google.

When you look at both Google Music and iTunes Match, you will notice that they are both US-only at this point in time. Google Music is even more limited as the store is currently only available to T-Mobile USA customers.

What’s your take on the recent development? If you are living in the US, will you be using one of the services?

This is a real shame as it would be very easy for a company with Google’s resources to manage their app store properly and bring security and peace of mind to their millions of customers.

Now though a test by AV Test.org has showed that the current batch of free anti-virus packages for Android are pretty useless.  In their tests they found that the best overall virus and malware scan result from these packages found on 32% of malware when performing a manual scan with four out of the seven packages tested finding nothing at all.

The “on installation” results were slightly better, but not by much with all but one of the packages finding only 10% of malware.

The results of the real-time guard functionality were quite shocking. The guard should warn the user upon installation of malicious apps. The 10 malware samples were chosen with the help of AV-TEST’s own analysis system, which uses more than 30 virus scanners to analyze the APK files. The test set contains the 10 files, which were most often classified as malware by the virus scanners. Because of the high detection rates these files can be considered as well known and should therefore be detected by a reliable virus-scanner. Did the vendors of mobile security apps know them, too? The test results will show: Zoner AntiVirus Free was the only app with a respectable result. It detected 8 out of 10 samples during the installation attempts. BluePoint AntiVirus Free, Kinetoo Malware Scan and Privateer Lite still warned against one malicious app. Antivirus Free by Creative Apps, GuardX Antivirus and LabMSF Antivirus beta failed completely. In comparison to the free apps the commercial products of F-Secure and Kaspersky detected all threats without a problem.

The packages tested were Antivirus Free, BluePoint Antivirus Free, GuardX Antivirus, Kinetoo Malware Scan, LabMSF Antivirus beta, privateer Lite and  Zoner Antivirus Free.

Even the very best test result here of 80% for Zoner with the installation scan is well below what is considered acceptable for virus and malware protection and scores of 10% or even 0% are unheard of.

People place considerable trust in anti-virus software.  We all want to be able to trust that whatever we choose to use, we will be protected from the vast majority of malware on our devices.  On smartphones however where the handset is capable of running up huge bills for you by texting premium rate numbers, the trust we have in this software is even more important.  A significant number of people are also trusting these anti-virus apps as the report details.

The number of installations, which is given on the market website, shows that many users trust these free apps, although they do not offer a reliable protection. The by far most popular program is Antivirus Free by Creative Apps with 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 installations. The only useful free product Zoner AntiVirus Free has just 50,000 – 100,000 users. The best protection was achieved by the commercial tools of the well known security software vendors Kaspersky and F-Secure. The circulation of obviously near to useless security apps endangers those, who trust them and install apps from 3rd party app markets without further suspiciousness.

I still can’t recommend Google’s Android operating system because of the malware problem, no matter how usable or polished an operating it may be.  For anti-virus packages to be completely missing almost 100% of malware on the platform however just adds salt to the wounds.

I’ll start this conversation by getting all teary-eyed.  It’s a huge pity that two operating systems as capable as MeeGo and WebOS both seem to be on their way out forever.  We all know that the worldwide smartphone market is easily big enough to support them, but support is the issue as it costs millions for companies to develop and maintain these operating systems.  This is money that Nokia simply don’t have and that HP may not be willing to pay.

But what will this mean for you in the coming years?  For the moment people who have iPhones seem to want the next iPhone when their mobile contract ends, and people who are on Android seem to like it too.  Windows Phone hasn’t yet been around long enough for anyone to reach the end of their first contract using it but RIM’s Blackberry’s also have a loyal following.

There are several main reasons for smartphone loyalty.  These include people being resistant to change and not wanting to learn something new, just getting really comfortable with an operating system and also having paid a lot of money for all those apps you won’t be able to port to a new OS.

But loyalty and favouritism for the operating system isn’t the whole picture.  There is also loyalty to the handset manufacturer.  Many people love Nokia, or HTC because they’ve always had a good experience with their phones.  Many more people like Sony Ericsson (soon to be just Sony) for their gaming integration and so on.

In the end though we all tire of the mundane and want a change occasionally.  This could mean iPhone users jumping ship to Android or Blackberry users jumping ship to Windows Phone.  In short, it could mean anything and there are a whole lot of factors to consider.  There is also the question of if you have loyalty to any one manufacturer and how you feel about this?  I’m very fond of HTC but I’ve owned phones by LG, Sony and others and all have been very good too.

So I’m interested ot ask here what platform you are currently loyal to, if indeed you’re loyal to one at all and what other ones you would consider in the future if you’ve even thought that far ahead?  To start I’ll say I’m very loyal to Windows Phone but, as and when I get bored I’d consider either the iPhone or a BlackBerry.  This would be for several reasons, I’m not happy with the malware problem that still exists on Android and while I don’t like iOS very much, you can’t easily complain about Apple’s hardware.  For BlackBerry, they’d have to produce another handset similar to the Storm, a full touchscreen as I’d never want a full QWERTY keyboard.

So what are your preferences?

The tablet, which has been rumoured for some time, would run on Google’s Android operating system which would be specially modified to get the best from Amazon’s Kindle eBook app, and to give the best full-colour eBook reader experience possible.

What we do know about this tablet is that it runs on a single-core processor with 6Gb or storage, a 7 inch screen, speakers, a micro USB post and, oddly, no cameras.  The new Kindle interface is rumoured to be reminiscent of Apple’s CoverFlow and the unit is expected to retail for around $250.

This will price it aggressively compared to other 7 inch tablets and with Amazon’s reputation for quality hardware already confirmed with the current generation of Kindle readers, should be widely sought after and very popular.

Personally I find Amazon’s choice of Android disappointing given the ongoing, and unanswered by Google, security concerns about the platform.  For being open-source however and light-weight it would remain the obvious choice given that neither Apple nor RIM are currently prepared to licence their tablet operating systems to third parties, that HP’s WebOS is currently hanging under a very large gallows axe and that Microsoft’s offering is not only far from finished, but probably wouldn’t be suitable for such a device anyway.

Currently the only direct competition to an Amazon tablet would be the Barnes & Noble Nook Color, which is scarcely available outside of the US.

It’s also possible that Amazon will use the event to announce a refresh to its current Kindle eReader range with possible additions including a touch-screen.

Whatever the outcome, as I mentioned previously, any Amazon tablet would almost instantly become a best-seller and would probably become the most-popular Amazon tablet around, besting the Samsung Galaxy Tab devices.  We’ll keep you informed of what Amazon announce.

Google’s plans for now are to run Motorola Mobility as a separate business that remains one of the licensees of Android. Nothing will change for the Android platform which will remain open for all hardware partners according to Larry Page’s post on the official Google blog.

Google’s CEO reveals furthermore the motivation behind the deal. Google believes that Motorola’s mobile business is “on an upward trajectory and poised for explosive growth” thanks to the concentration on Android as the sole operating system for all of its smartphones.

Motorola is also seen as a market leader in the “home devices and video solutions business”.

Probably more interesting than that is Motorola’s patent portfolio which is explicitly mentioned by Larry Page on the Google blog post.

Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.

While I cannot really vouch for or against Motorola’s patent portfolio, it needs to be noted that Microsoft has sued the company back in 2010 for infringing on Microsoft patents.

Google expects the transaction to close by the end of 2011 or early 2012 if it is approved by Motorola stockholders and regulatory approvals in the US and the European Union.

It will be interesting to see how Microsoft and Apple will react, and if and how Motorola Mobility smartphones and tables will benefit from this.

What’s your take on the acquisition? Let me know in the comments.

The news, which was reported by ComputerWorld, said that four new malware apps were discovered on Friday by Lookout Security that were infected by a variant of the DroidDream Light virus.  This is now the third time this year that this particular malware has been found in the Google marketplace.

Yesterday though, North Carolina State University researchers found new malware that would force Android phones to text premium rate numbers.  According to ComputerWorld, Google has been forced to pull over 80 infected applications from its app store since March this year.

In a poor attempt to defend themselves, Google said in a blog post that “Fortunately the malware was available in the Android Market for a short period of time so the number of downloads was limited to 1,000-5,000.”  How the company can possible claim that up to 5,000 people’s smartphones and tablets have been infected is ‘fortunate’ would need explaining to many people.

Ever increasing volumes of malware are being found on the Android marketplace and security researchers from across the world are warning repeatedly about the dangers posed by downloading them.  These malware apps can do everything from texting and calling premium rate numbers, to stealing your personal and contacts information and email and other log-in information.

Currently the Android platform offers no protection from these apps and Google simply aren’t being proactive enough in preventing them from appearing on their app store to begin with.

The problem stems from the open nature of the platform.  App developers don’t have to submit apps for rigorous testing in the way they do for Apple and Microsoft smartphone and tablet platforms.  This is one of the factors that has allowed Android to become so popular in the last year and to build up huge numbers of available apps.

Furthermore, the open-course nature of the operating system gives malware writers unfettered access to Android source-code which they can use to refine and test their malware, to make sure that it remains as hidden and as deadly as possible.

Neither of these are problems facing Apple, Microsoft, RIM or HP on their own platforms.  The problem is compounded however by a lack of clear communication and information from Google to their customers.  Most Android users will be completely unaware that any malware problem exists on the platform.  Obviously Google aren’t too keen to highlight this to them as it would clearly damage sales, and harm the reputation of their operating system.

Also, the company has made no moves towards tightening up control of their own app store, or locking down specific features within the OS to prevent malware from actioning requests unless specifically called by the user.

Clearly something is going to have to give.  Android is the most vulnerable operating system currently available and either Google will have to step in soon and take positive action to defend their platform against the threat, or the ever growing volume of negative publicity their action is bringing will eventually come to the attention of the mainstream press.

Xuxian Jiang, an assistant professor of computer science at North Carolina State University offered this advice to Android users keen to avoid malware on their devices.  He said to make certain that the permissions an app requests from you match the permissions you would expect that app to have, while Lookout security said “Use common sense to ensure that the permissions an app requests match the features the app provides”.

The device, which is rumoured to be called the Padfone, looks to be the second iteration we’ve seen of the PC in your pocket concept that Motorola recently pioneered with their Atrix mobile phone.

We can expect the device to be based on Android, though which version of the company’s OS is unclear.  Android is currently available in very different versions for phones and tablets, though its open-source nature makes it much easier for companies such as ASUS to modify it to suit their particular needs.

The next question is whether the tablet will be dumb without the phone docked.  This will be fairly likely but will keep the cost of the tablet down considerably as it will just require a screen and a dock, not a computer itself.  This could be a way for people to get a tablet for very little money.  That said the Motorola Atrix with its netbook dock as received unfavourable reviews so far.  The Atrix, in Motorola’s defence though, is a version 1 product and the first iteration of this type of device that we’ve yet seen.

The main function of the host is to act as a bus master which controls the data input and output channels and decide its use at varied times. The host also acts as the powered bus to provide power. In the computer world the laptop or the desktop acts as the host which performs as the bus master as well as providing power to the bus. While the other accessories such as the mouse, printer, webcam etc. act as the USB devices. Similarly in the smart phones the phone device acts as the host whereas its accessories act as the USB devices. But since very few Android powered devices support host mode to successfully connect the accessories as the USB devices, the Android developers turned the normal relationship on its head. Instead of using the phone or tablets as hosts, they act as USB Devices and the accessories acts as the USB Host. This means that the accessories act as the bus master and a powered bus.

The Open Accessory will consist of a USB host and a system to provide power to the Android Device such as a phone or tablet. Once the accessory is connected to the device the device will identify itself on the basis of its VID/PID (significant IDs which are unique to the Device model and manufacturer). Once the device is detected the accessory asks the device to switch to accessory mode by sending a series of control transactions to the device. While switching to accessory mode the device will reappear with the new VID/PID corresponding to the accessory mode. The above protocol will help the device to start in the accessory mode after the appropriate application is initiated. If the specific application is not found, the protocol will suggest a relevant URL for the application.

How to start Android device in accessory mode?

Step 1: Send a 51 control (“get protocol”) request to detect if the device supports Android Accessory Protocol. If the device supports the protocol, a non-zero number is returned. This number represents the version of the protocol. The following are the characteristics of the request control.

Step 2: After the appropriate protocol version is returned by the device, send a string information to the device, this information will select the appropriate application for the accessory attached, if the application is not found in the device it will suggest the user with a URL. The characteristics of this request are as follows:

The following string IDs are supported with maximum size of 256 bytes for each string.

Step 3: Once the application has been chosen, send the request to start device in accessory mode. This request is a control request on endpoint 0 having characteristics as follows:

After the final control request has been sent, the device will reappear in the accessory mode and the accessory will be able to identify the device and establish communication with the device. Thus the Android seems to have created a pathway for configuring the accessories with the devices.

So what is this change I hear you cry. This will be the move to the computer in your pocket and, surprisingly, Microsoft seem to be ahead of the game this time. I say surprisingly because in recent years Microsoft have long been playing catch-up to their competitors and, frankly, making a bit of a mess of it. Windows Phone is the best example of how the company completely failed to bring the right product to market at the right time. Currently this smartphone sits with little over 3% market share and the company has huge volumes of work to do to catch up with the big boys.

When it comes to computing in your pocket though Microsoft could yet come up with a few surprises, and I fully expect that they will. The first indication of the computing in your pocket future took the form of the Motorola Atrix. This is a smartphone that can sit in a dock at the back of a netbook-style keyboard and screen assembly and be used as a desktop computer.

This Android powered phone has received great reviews as a phone but hasn’t been so well received as a netbook. That said it’s the first device of its kind and a very exciting prospect. We never expect version 1 products to tick all the right boxes anyway.

Google don’t seem to be too concentrated on the prospect of dual devices at the moment. They’re OS product line-up has even become a little fragmented with Chrome OS now gearing up for release and Android being steered towards touch-only desktop devices.

Of Microsoft’s other competitors Apple seems best-placed to compete in this arena. Their iOS smartphone operating system is already based on their successful OS X desktop operating system and the news that the company is planning to port an iOS-style user interface to their desktop computers could show a hint of the way forward for all of us.

It’s with Windows 8 and Microsoft’s move to ARM processors though where the most interesting developments lie. In research most people have answered that they’d most like to be using Windows on mobile devices. This is despite Microsoft’s disasterous history with phones and tablets.

With an ARM-powered Windows we have the glint that we might just see a proper desktop OS available as a secondary interface on a smartphone when you plug your phone into an appropriate dock, be that on a dumb screen and keyboard affair or on your own desktop instead of a PC case.

Either way we can fully expect not be carrying around slimmed down computing devices in a year or two and instead be expecting to be carrying full computing devices with quad-core processors, large volumes of storage and full desktop apps. This is a hugely exciting prospect and one that futurologists were getting excited about twenty years ago.

This future is now just outside our doors, the question remains will people embrace it?

Google Music Beta in its current stage offers storage space in the cloud to store up to 20,000 songs. Plans are to turn the service into a paid service after the beta. Google did not comment on pricing at all, or if they will be offering a free basic plan next to the paid Music beta plans. They could design the service similar to how Picase is offering free limited space for all users, and more space and options for paying customers. For now, Music Beta is free, but you should keep in mind that this might change in the future.

Music Beta currently is all about hosting and streaming of music. You wont find an integrated music shop on Music Beta, mostly because there have not been any agreements with record labels as of yet. Google mentioned that they are in talks with major record labels. For now, if you use the Shop for Artist feature you are taken to a media portal on the Google website instead. That’s a step backwards compared to Amazon’s offering which offers access to a complete mp3 store on their site.

On the music side of things, mp3, aac, flac and wma files are supported. All other music formats are not supported, which may be especially problematic for Apple users who may have part of their music collection in m4p and m4a format. Flac users need to know that Google will re-encode their files to 320 kbps mp3s.

Computers and Android devices can currently be connected to Google Music. There is an eight device limit for streaming in place though, which means that you may need to de-authorize devices regularly if you got more than eight devices, or devices in the authorization list that you no longer posses.

How do you get music on Music Beta?

PC users need to download Music Manager, a proprietary software that can import music from iTunes, the music folder or any other folder on the computer’s storage devices. The software can sync music that you add to your iTunes library with Music Beta automatically.

One severe limitation is that you cannot customize the music selection. Say you have 10,000 songs on iTunes. You cannot pick songs that you want uploaded to Music Beta. If you select iTunes in the Music Manager, all songs will be uploaded. Your only option is to use the other folder option during start up and pick each folder manually. That’s uncomfortable especially if the music library is large.

Another limitation is that music cannot be played in Music Manager. That’s bad if you need to check out songs before you sync them with Music Beta.

I cannot say for sure, but it appears as if the Music Manager is the only way to transfer music to Google Music Beta. Apps are available for Android and tablet PCs but those appear to miss uploading options (correct me if I’m wrong please).

Music that is online can be streamed to any connected and supported device. Caching is used on Android so that recently played music becomes available offline as well.

There is no option to download or share music.

Music Beta Invite Only

Music Beta is an invite only service currently. Users from the United States can request an invite here. Users from outside the country can use proxy or vpn connections to outsmart the country detection on site.

Still, you need to wait until you receive an invitation to Google Music Beta before you can make actual use of the service.

Verdict

Music Beta in its current stage has several limitations that will keep many users from signing up for the service. Among them the restriction to US-only users, no music shop integration, the mediocre Music Manager, streaming only and the prospect that the service will turn commercial after beta.

Especially the concentration on streaming may be seen negatively, considering that many cell phone data plans are not exactly generous in the free Megabyte department.

Have you watched the keynote or received an invite yet? What’s your take on the service in its current form?

So why do I have this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that whatever Microsoft deliver next year won’t be good enough?  Microsoft tout the features of Windows 7, its stability and reliability almost to excess.  Certainly it’s the most stable, reliable and dependable operating system the company has ever produced.

Windows 8, when it finally arrives, will no doubt be even more reliable, stable and dependable than even Windows 7 is capable of being.  Then there’s been all the tablet talk in the last year or so.  Google rushed a new version of its Android OS out of the door, Steve Ballmer has said that the next version of Windows will be tablet friendly and the world is looking forward to all that.

If we look at the, now mature, smartphone market though what do we see?  Probably the biggest and most popular smartphone OS out there at the moment, Google’s Android, is still based around a desktop with widgets on it.  Indeed its handsets still come with a cursor you can move around.  This is a good example I feel that no matter how good this particular smartphone OS might be, its still a step behind its users.

If you look back historically for instance to the days of MS DOS and Windows 1.  By the time Windows and Mac OS were first released, users had already been clamoring for a GUI OS with alternatives such as DesqView and GEM rising to fill the temporary gap.  With almost every OS the world has seen it’s been a step behind its users.

But surely this is the problem, as new technology comes along we find more and more innovative uses for it and so the technology keeps getting left behind.  Operating systems suffer from this problem even more.  Look at Windows.  The current version is leagues behind where its users want it to be.  Only now are Microsoft taking features such as tablet functionality and System on a Chip seriously.  All the companies responsible for hardware and operating systems are staying one step behind their users.  There’s one exception to this however and that’s Apple.

Apple are the only technology company that’s being proactive and trying to anticipate what its users will want to do in the coming years.  It’s this forward-thinking attitude that have put the company firmly in the lead, and that will keep it there until anybody else is brave enough to catch up.  Nintendo and Microsoft have both achieved this to a lesser degree in recent years with innovative new ways to interact with their games consoles.  These innovations aside though there’s very little that’s staying ahead of the users of modern technology.

So where does this leave any OS?  If you look at any of the desktop operating systems, OS X, GNU/Linux and Windows, they’re all currently playing catch up with their users.  Now smartphone and tablet operating systems are doing the same with Google and Microsoft rushing to finish products they should really have brought to market a couple of years ago.

That was the time when people wanted these features, right back at the beginning.  Unfortunately unless and until the big technology and software companies realise that the consumer is now ahead of them, no operating system will ever be good enough.