TMCnet News
The Technology newsbucket: iPad 2 reviews, more Android malware, Apple's and Kinect's top spots and more(Guardian Web Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) A burst of 9 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team Bing.com searches increase 5% [in ratio] in February 2011 >> Experian Hitwise" Google accounted for 66.69% of all U.S. searches conducted in the four weeks ending Feb. 26, 2011. Bing-powered search comprised 28.48% of searches for the month, with Yahoo! Search and Bing receiving 14.99% and 13.49%, respectively. The remaining 69 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis report accounted for 4.68% of U.S. searches." Slightly more interesting: "success rate", where a search leads to a website visit, is higher on Yahoo than on Bing (which ranked second) or Google. But wait, Yahoo search *is* Bing. How does that work? Mobile Trojan mimics Android clean-up tool >> The Register"Google pulled the [malware-infected] games from the marketplace. That stopped further infections from spreading but failed to help eradicate the infection from already compromised handsets; hence the decision to push an over-the-air update (theAndroid Market Security Tool)."But sneaky VXers have developed a backdoored version of this clean-up tool, dubbed Bgserv-A by security firms, and released through third-party Android marketplaces. Bgserv-A lifts the IMEI and the phone number from compromised handsets, uploading this information to a remote hacker-controlled server (much like the original Trojan). Analysis suggests that Bgserv-A is targeting users of Google's smartphone in China."Actually, it's worse than that: there are other backdoored apps, including one for hotel reservations. All seem limited to China - which is now becoming the go-to country both for PC and smartphone infections. LinkedIn: Polls: Will you continue as a Nokia user when Nokia switches to Windows Phone 7?Ends on April 1; you need to be a member of LinkedIn to see it in full (with the comments). At present the "Somewhat or Very unlikely" groups (601, or 41%) are edging it on the "Somewhat or very likely" (580, 40%) groups. Unsure: 20%. Notable: so far, the "very unlikely" are more likely to be younger. 10 million a magic number for Microsoft's Kinect >> CNET News10m makes it the fastest-selling piece of consumer kit ever (though some doubters are saying that's just "shipped to retail" rather than "bought at retail").Along with that, 10m Kinect games sold. (Is that paid-for or "transacted along with the Kinect"? Again, unclear.) But: the slowdown in numbers is interesting too. Will it get another bump next Christmas? Will there be the games to make it really worthwhile? Or will Microsoft figure out a way to make it an indispensable input device for PCs? Now that would make sales explode. Apple retakes World's Biggest Computer Maker Crown after 3 decades - with power of iPhone, iPad and Touch >> Tomi AhonenNever one to shrink from a controversial opinion, the ex-Nokia executive classes smartphones as computers, and puts Apple narrowly ahead of Nokia. Don't argue, either: "And for those who argue that a smartphone is 'not a proper computer' - please don't bother to argue that point here anymore. It is no longer worth arguing, if HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba - the 5 biggest PC makers - all agree that smartphones are computers. I am happy to have comments here, but those postings that try to argue that smarthpones are not computers, they will be mercilessly removed. That train has left the station and I won't bother to reply to those. If the big computer makers think so - go argue with them haha, not me here. I only report the numbers for you." The iPad 2 >> Daring FireballJohn Gruber reviews the iPad 2: "Most of the 15 million original iPads sold to date do not need to be replaced by iPad 2s. That's not a problem for Apple, nor a failure for the iPad 2. A $500-800 device should have a useful life that is longer than a year. The same is true for all Apple's products: iPods, iPads, iPhones, and, of course, Macs. Anyone who argues that the iPad 2 falls short because it doesn't offer enough to get current iPad owners to upgrade is missing the point. Apple's target is not the 15-20 or so million people who've already bought a tablet. They're looking at the hundreds of millions of people who haven't yet, but will soon. The year-over-year delta between Apple products is almost always noticeable but seldom dramatic." Also includes lots of benchmarks. (He even got a game developer to write a custom app to test its speed.) The irony is that Gruber, whom many people see as an Apple 'fan', has written a dispassionate review. New iPad Appeals More to Emotion Than Reason >> NYTimes.comDavid Pogue gets to the core of the iPad's appeal: it's about the experience, not the technical specifications. "And if you thought there was an intellectual/emotional disconnect before, wait till you see this thing."On paper, Apple didn't do much. It just made the iPad one-third thinner, 15 percent lighter and twice as fast. There are no new features except two cameras and a gyroscope. I mean, yawn, right?And then you start playing with it." The iPad 2: Better Design, Speed and Power, but Cameras Are Mediocre >> WSJ.comWalt Mossberg struggles to find negative things to say about the iPad. Battery life not quite as good. Original iPad owners can stand easy. Then again... "It never crashed in my tests, unlike every Android tablet I've tested." Apple Safari, Microsoft IE 8 Hijacked by Hackers at Pwn2Own Contest >> eWeek.com"Pwnd! Safari on MacOS X and Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7 fell in the first day of the Pwn2Own hacking contest at CanSecWest."Despite the last-minute update from Apple, Safari was the first to be cracked by security researchers on the first day of the Pwn2Own hacking contest." Continuing Safari's 100% record of getting cracked in the first day of its appearance at the conference. You can follow Guardian Technology's linkbucket on delicious To suggest links, tag articles on delicious.com with "guardiantech" (c) 2011 Guardian Newspapers Limited. |