BARCELONA--Steve Ballmer hopes "7" will be Microsoft's lucky number as the company restarts its mobile business with the release of Windows Phone 7.
On Monday, the CEO of Microsoft and his team of Microsoft executives took the wraps off the latest version of the Windows Mobile operating system at a press conference here at the Mobile World Congress. The new Windows Phone 7 is a fresh start for the company in mobile.
"There's no question that a year and a half ago we had to rethink everything," Ballmer said.
Instead of revamping Windows Mobile software, which first came out in 2002, Microsoft decided to start from scratch. The result is a completely new look and feel to previous generations of Microsoft Windows Mobile software.
The new Windows Phone 7 is primarily designed for touch-screen smartphones. It offers graphic "tiles" that let users get multiple views of their information. The goal was to create software, and a user interface, that was much more useful--and intuitive. For example, the new software integrates data such as pictures, e-mail, music, video, and contact numbers from the phone and other places (social-networking sites or multiple music services or e-mails) into easy-to-access "tiles" or virtual buttons on the phone.
Even though Microsoft is still a leading provider of smartphone software, its market share has slipped over the past several quarters. Competitors such as Apple with the iPhone, Research In Motion with its BlackBerry devices, and now Google with Android phones, have taken share away from Microsoft.
Apple and RIM have taken a different approach to the market than Microsoft has. Those companies build both the software and hardware for their phones, which has provided them more control and some edge in terms of getting new features out across an entire product line. It's also made it somewhat easier for developers to come up with new applications for these devices.
Andy Lees, senior vice president of mobile communications for Microsoft, admitted during the press conference Monday that Microsoft had questioned its strategy of not building its own hardware and instead selling software to phone manufacturers.
"We considered a lot of different things over the past year and a half to two years," he said. "We even considered building our own phone."
Instead, Lees said the company decided that working with partners offered far more value.
That said, Microsoft recognizes the need for more hardware consistency, and it plans to work closely with hardware manufacturers such as LG, Samsung, HTC, Sony Ericsson, and others to make sure there is commonality in devices. For example, Microsoft is setting standards within its partner group for screen size. It will also require that devices use the same kind of sensing technology.
In addition, it's working with carrier partners to ensure more consistency in service offerings.
From a developer's perspective, this sounds great. But it also sounds like it limits manufacturers and carriers when it comes to how they can differentiate their products. And it's unclear how handset manufacturers--which are already struggling to differentiate their products from one another--will handle the requirements.
On Sunday, at a press event here, Sony Ericsson's CEO said the company plans to eventually become operating-system-agnostic, providing consumers with a user interface that has a look and feel unique to Sony Ericsson.
Ballmer argued that the new version of its OS will offer stricter sets of criteria for devices and services using the software, and that would ultimately lead to more innovation from its partners.
"We needed a model to raise the bar and give our partners a chance to show their unique capabilities," he said. "I think it will create a bigger pool of opportunity for everyone. And when we look back, there will be greater diversity and innovation when you work from a higher foundation instead of everyone replumbing things from the lower levels of user interface."
The new Windows Phone 7 phones are expected to hit the market in time for the 2010 holiday shopping season, Ballmer said. He also said AT&T and Orange have been selected as special carrier partners. The company plans to deliver Windows Phone 7 devices on all four major U.S. carrier networks.
Source:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13970_7-10453467-78.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1
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Showing posts with label BlackBerry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BlackBerry. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
BlackBerry has Spyware Risk too, Researcher Says
We've heard a lot about security issues with the iPhone, but the BlackBerry isn't immune to threats from malicious apps.
Tyler Shields, a senior researcher at the Veracode Research Lab, has written a piece of spyware that allowed me to shoot an SMS command to his phone and have his contact list forwarded to my e-mail address in a demonstration. With another short text command, I was able to get his BlackBerry to e-mail me any SMS messages he sends.
And if I had wanted--and he had allowed me--I could have seen a log of all his calls, monitored his inbound text messages, tracked his location in real-time based on the GPS (Global Positioning System) in his device and turned his microphone on to listen to conversations in the room and record them.
"It's trivial to write this type of code using the mobile provider's own API [application programming interface] they provide to any developer," Shields said in an interview in advance of his talk on the spyware scheduled for the ShmooCon security show on Sunday.
He calls his program "TXSBBSpy" and is releasing the source code but not an executable version of it. "My goal is to show how easy it is to create mobile spyware," he said.
TXSBBSpy "can take data from the phone, both in real-time and in snapshots, and send it off via SMS or e-mail to any Web server or TCP [Transmission Control Protocol] or UDP [User Diagram Protocol] network connections," Shields said.
While I was able to control the spyware using text messages sent from my mobile phone, the spyware had to be first installed on his BlackBerry for the snooping to work. This can be done by sending the target victim an e-mail or text with a link to a Web page where the spyware is surreptitiously installed. Or it can be hidden inside a legitimate-looking app downloaded from the App Store.
The risks are similar to those posed by Swiss researcher Nicolas Seriot in his iPhone spyware demo at the Black Hat DC security conference on Wednesday.
"These types of behaviors we're demonstrating will be universal across all mobile platforms," Shields said.
The BlackBerry platform has a "significant number" of security mechanisms in place that could be used to mitigate against these types of attacks, he said. For instance, the user can set the options to limit what access to specific types of data a particular app can have, he said.
However, many smartphone users either don't know about the security risks, don't think the risks are serious or don't know how to be more secure with their devices. A Trend Micro survey from last August found that only 23 percent of smartphone owners use the security software already installed on their device.
App stores also need to do more to vet the apps, Shields said--the same message Seriot had for Apple.
In the meantime BlackBerry users should be more cautious about what apps they download and what rights they give them. "Users should not hit the 'I trust this app' button," Shields said. "That will give it access to all your personal information."
Users should go into the app security configuration within the BlackBerry option screen and tell it specifically what information the app can access or set it to prompt if the app tries to access certain data, he said.
"The security models are inadequate because they trust by default," he added. "Sandboxing [techniques] only protect one app from another app; not from accessing user data. App stores give users a false sense of security."
Shields said he has contacted RIM about the issues and the company's official comment was: "We won't make any comment on how the security of the App Center operates."
Shields has also created a video demonstration of his spyware.
Source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10448545-245.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0
Web Site Design
Tyler Shields, a senior researcher at the Veracode Research Lab, has written a piece of spyware that allowed me to shoot an SMS command to his phone and have his contact list forwarded to my e-mail address in a demonstration. With another short text command, I was able to get his BlackBerry to e-mail me any SMS messages he sends.
And if I had wanted--and he had allowed me--I could have seen a log of all his calls, monitored his inbound text messages, tracked his location in real-time based on the GPS (Global Positioning System) in his device and turned his microphone on to listen to conversations in the room and record them.
"It's trivial to write this type of code using the mobile provider's own API [application programming interface] they provide to any developer," Shields said in an interview in advance of his talk on the spyware scheduled for the ShmooCon security show on Sunday.
He calls his program "TXSBBSpy" and is releasing the source code but not an executable version of it. "My goal is to show how easy it is to create mobile spyware," he said.
TXSBBSpy "can take data from the phone, both in real-time and in snapshots, and send it off via SMS or e-mail to any Web server or TCP [Transmission Control Protocol] or UDP [User Diagram Protocol] network connections," Shields said.
While I was able to control the spyware using text messages sent from my mobile phone, the spyware had to be first installed on his BlackBerry for the snooping to work. This can be done by sending the target victim an e-mail or text with a link to a Web page where the spyware is surreptitiously installed. Or it can be hidden inside a legitimate-looking app downloaded from the App Store.
The risks are similar to those posed by Swiss researcher Nicolas Seriot in his iPhone spyware demo at the Black Hat DC security conference on Wednesday.
"These types of behaviors we're demonstrating will be universal across all mobile platforms," Shields said.
The BlackBerry platform has a "significant number" of security mechanisms in place that could be used to mitigate against these types of attacks, he said. For instance, the user can set the options to limit what access to specific types of data a particular app can have, he said.
However, many smartphone users either don't know about the security risks, don't think the risks are serious or don't know how to be more secure with their devices. A Trend Micro survey from last August found that only 23 percent of smartphone owners use the security software already installed on their device.
App stores also need to do more to vet the apps, Shields said--the same message Seriot had for Apple.
In the meantime BlackBerry users should be more cautious about what apps they download and what rights they give them. "Users should not hit the 'I trust this app' button," Shields said. "That will give it access to all your personal information."
Users should go into the app security configuration within the BlackBerry option screen and tell it specifically what information the app can access or set it to prompt if the app tries to access certain data, he said.
"The security models are inadequate because they trust by default," he added. "Sandboxing [techniques] only protect one app from another app; not from accessing user data. App stores give users a false sense of security."
Shields said he has contacted RIM about the issues and the company's official comment was: "We won't make any comment on how the security of the App Center operates."
Shields has also created a video demonstration of his spyware.
Source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10448545-245.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0
Web Site Design
Sunday, December 20, 2009
BlackBerry Outage Not Winning Any Fans for RIM
Research in Motion (RIM)--maker of the popular BlackBerry line of smartphones, confirmed an email outage earlier today. The issue has since been resolved, and RIM reports that service is back to normal, but it's never good for marketing or public relations to have the word "outage" come up.
In an e-mailed statement, RIM noted "Some customers may still experience delays as email queues are processed." The statement summed up with "RIM is continuing to investigate the cause of the issue and apologizes for any inconvenience."
The outage only impacted e-mail service. Affected users were still able to place phone calls, use text messaging, and surf the Web. That is good news for most, but little consolation for users who were perhaps anxiously awaiting an urgent e-mail at the time.
Users don't like outages in general, though. People have been more than a little irate at outages by Google, and particularly riled up when Microsoft and Danger lost all data for T-Mobile Sidekick users. In an increasingly competitive smartphone market, outages are a black eye that doesn't win any fans.
RIM's BlackBerry is a leader in the smartphone segment. The BlackBerry and Apple's iPhone have been eating away at Nokia's dominant position, with RIM holding nearly 20 percent of the market, and Apple nearly 11 percent.
Like Nokia, though, RIM needs to watch its back and pay attention to the threat from the iPhone. RIM may have nearly double the smartphone market share of Apple globally, but the iPhone has leapfrogged into the number two spot for smartphones in the United States.
Users rely more and more on smartphones as an all-in-one communications platform. An outage of any size or duration is bad for RIM's reputation and damages its credibility with customers. RIM has experienced massive, North America-wide outages in both 2007 and 2008.
The outage only impacted consumers relying on RIM to provide the e-mail platform. Business customers that manage their own internal BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) were not affected. Corporate customers make up the vast majority of BlackBerry users and are RIM's bread-and-butter source of revenue, so that is good news for RIM.
With security and compliance concerns to worry about, it is difficult for businesses to fully embrace a platform like the iPhone. For now, that leaves RIM as the dominant player for a business-friendly smartphone platform.
RIM needs to continue to innovate and find ways to continue to provide compelling handsets and services for corporate customers while also finding ways to expand into farther into the consumer market. If Apple ever loosens control enough to allow for an iPhone management platform similar to BES, RIM could see its market position plummet.
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/phones/12150/blackberry-outage-not-winning-any-fans-rim
Chicago Website Design
In an e-mailed statement, RIM noted "Some customers may still experience delays as email queues are processed." The statement summed up with "RIM is continuing to investigate the cause of the issue and apologizes for any inconvenience."
The outage only impacted e-mail service. Affected users were still able to place phone calls, use text messaging, and surf the Web. That is good news for most, but little consolation for users who were perhaps anxiously awaiting an urgent e-mail at the time.
Users don't like outages in general, though. People have been more than a little irate at outages by Google, and particularly riled up when Microsoft and Danger lost all data for T-Mobile Sidekick users. In an increasingly competitive smartphone market, outages are a black eye that doesn't win any fans.
RIM's BlackBerry is a leader in the smartphone segment. The BlackBerry and Apple's iPhone have been eating away at Nokia's dominant position, with RIM holding nearly 20 percent of the market, and Apple nearly 11 percent.
Like Nokia, though, RIM needs to watch its back and pay attention to the threat from the iPhone. RIM may have nearly double the smartphone market share of Apple globally, but the iPhone has leapfrogged into the number two spot for smartphones in the United States.
Users rely more and more on smartphones as an all-in-one communications platform. An outage of any size or duration is bad for RIM's reputation and damages its credibility with customers. RIM has experienced massive, North America-wide outages in both 2007 and 2008.
The outage only impacted consumers relying on RIM to provide the e-mail platform. Business customers that manage their own internal BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) were not affected. Corporate customers make up the vast majority of BlackBerry users and are RIM's bread-and-butter source of revenue, so that is good news for RIM.
With security and compliance concerns to worry about, it is difficult for businesses to fully embrace a platform like the iPhone. For now, that leaves RIM as the dominant player for a business-friendly smartphone platform.
RIM needs to continue to innovate and find ways to continue to provide compelling handsets and services for corporate customers while also finding ways to expand into farther into the consumer market. If Apple ever loosens control enough to allow for an iPhone management platform similar to BES, RIM could see its market position plummet.
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/phones/12150/blackberry-outage-not-winning-any-fans-rim
Chicago Website Design
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