"The Ultimate Drive" - New Social Navigation App from BMW

"The Ultimate Drive" is a social navigation mobile app that allows users to discover the best roads to drive in more than 50 countries, and like a smartphone "American Idol" competition, lets them rank, comment and share those roads via Facebook, e-mail or GPS devices. It's sponsored by BMW Group Financial Services.

"Within a few seconds of opening the app, 'The Ultimate Drive' connects you to driving enthusiasts who have discovered great roads in your neighborhood — roads you may have overlooked," said Pawan Murthy, general manager of online business for BMW Group Financial Services.

After downloading the app, which is available for both iOS and Android devices, the app finds the user's location and then displays recommended stretches of road from other car enthusiasts. Conversely, when the user has generated his or her own favorite stretch, it takes three taps to share via e-mail or Facebook or send to a GPS device or app.

San Francisco-based software and technology firm SocialNav developed the technology that powers "The Ultimate Drive". It can be downloaded for free from Apple's App Store and the Android Marketplace.

Google launched Games in Google+ : Directly from Google Blog

Today we’re adding games to Google+. With the Google+ project, we want to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to the web. But sharing is about more than just conversations. The experiences we have together are just as important to our relationships. We want to make playing games online just as fun, and just as meaningful, as playing in real life.

That means giving you control over when you see games, how you play them and with whom you share your experiences. Games in Google+ are there when you want them and gone when you don’t.

When you’re ready to play, the Games page is waiting—click the games button at the top of your stream. You can see the latest game updates from your circles, browse the invites you’ve received and check out games that people you know have played recently. The Games page is also where your game accomplishments will appear. So you can comfortably share your latest high score—your circles will only see the updates when they’re interested in playing games too.

If you’re not interested in games, it’s easy to ignore them. Your stream will remain focused on conversations with the people you care about.

You’ll have a fun initial set of games to play with on Google+. Thanks to the developers who’ve worked with us to make them available:

If you’re a developer interested in building games for Google+, you can learn more on our newGoogle+ developer blog.

Today we’re starting to gradually roll out games in Google+. We look forward to making them fully available to everyone in Google+ soon. When you see a Games page in your account, please give games a try and send us feedback. Look for the "send feedback" button in the bottom right-hand corner of any page in Google+. Thanks for playing! Like the rest of the Google+ project, we're just getting started.

Password Security Test : All mobile Apps Failed

How safe is data stored on smartphones? Not very. In fact, 76% of popular consumer applications running on Android and iOS devices store usernames as plaintext, and 10%--including Hushmail, LinkedIn, and Skype--store passwords as plaintext.

That's according to a recently released report from digital forensics and security firm viaForensics. For the study, viaForensics researchers evaluated 100 popular consumer applications that run on Android, as well as Apple's iOS operating system, covering iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices.

The firm's application assessments found that numerous applications store data, including usernames, as plaintext on devices. Why is that an issue? "Many systems require only username and password, so having the username means that 50% of the puzzle is solved," said the report. "In addition, people often reuse their usernames so it will generally work on many online services."


Arguably worse, however, is when applications fail to encrypt even more sensitive information, such as passwords. "Sensitive data stored on mobile devices poses a risk to consumers, because devices are frequently lost or transferred, and because malware could potentially grab the data," according to viaForensics. "Some risks--such as stored passwords or credit card numbers--are clearly greater than others."


When it comes to the security of mobile consumer applications, tested social networking applications fared the worst, with 74% earning a "fail," indicating that sensitive data, such as passwords or account numbers, was recovered. According to the report, "the recovery of the sensitive data places the user at a significant increased risk for identity or financial theft."


Other application categories fared better, including productivity apps (43% failed), mobile financial apps (25% failed), and retail apps (14% failed). While the retail application failure rate looks low, no retail applications actually passed the test. Instead, most got a "warn" rating, indicating that that the application's data was present on the smartphone, but not encrypted.

Which individual applications make the list of shame? On both Android and iOS, applications that store sensitive data insecurely include Hushmail, LinkedIn, Skype, and WordPress. Meanwhile, on Android alone, applications that store sensitive data insecurely include Android Mail (for Exchange and Hotmail), Gmail, Netflix, and Yahoo Mail. For just iOS, meanwhile, applications that store sensitive data insecurely include Chase (for banking) and iPhone Mail (Exchange and Gmail).

Numerous other applications, however, also store non-sensitive data in unencrypted format, including mobile software from Amazon.com, Best Buy, Facebook, and Twitter.

Of course, all of the above applications rely at least in part on the underlying operating system to remain secure. Accordingly, which is more secure: Android or iOS? In general, however application developers handle data, users of iOS devices appear to have better out-of-the-box protection, said viaForensics. "It would be a fair generalization to say that so far, Apple has made more efforts toward data protection in their iOS platform, compared to Android. However, users do still face risks due to malware that can compromise the device, or data recovery from lost/stolen devices."

That said, changes are afoot. Google released Android version 3.0, aka Honeycomb, earlier this year. Notably, the operating system will encrypt the user partition on Android devices. But so far, it's only available for tablets--not smartphones.

Therefore, "if the person who acquires a lost/stolen phone, or a malware program, can gain root access on an Android device, they then have full access to the user partition and its data," according to the report.

Apple's iOS isn't bulletproof--or standing still--either. Apple upgraded its mobile operating system with better encryption as of the 4.0 version, released in June 2010. But earlier this year, forensics researchers and toolmakers cracked the iOS data security scheme, and released automated tools that can recover much of the information stored by iOS devices, providing they can crack the device's password.

In other words, the security of an iOS device is very much up to its owner. "If the phone user does not activate data protection by setting a passcode, the files are not fully protected," according to the viaForensics report. "Furthermore, various tools exist to uncover the user's passcode with varying degrees of success depending on the strength of passcode used."

On the "which is more secure?" front, viaForensics isn't alone in its assessment. According to Gartner Research VP and research fellow John Pescatore, Apple iOS and RIM BlackBerry devices offer levels of security beyond what's available on Android, simply because of the extent to which Apple and RIM control their mobile operating system environments.

Vizio's 8-inch Android tablet in some stores now, $299.99

Vizio, based in Irvine, is hoping to do with tablets what its done with TVs -- become a market leaderby selling millions of lower-priced units with higher-end features.

But, in typical Vizio fashion, the company is taking an unorthodox approach to just about everything, including the release of the $299.99 Vizio Tablet.

For example, there's no solid release date. Some stores already have the tablet, others have yet to get them.

But the tablets should be available in just about all Sam's Club, Wal-Mart and Costco stores by the end of the week, said Jim Noyd, a Vizio spokesman. Amazon.com is selling the lower-price tablet as well.

Noyd said Vizio is working on adapting Android Honeycomb, Google's OS built specifically for tablets, to the Vizio Tablet. Once that is ready, he said, the company will update tablets in an over-the-air download.

The new Vizio Tablet features an 8-inch touchscreen with a 1024 x 768 resolution, Wi-fi only Internet connectivity, a front facing camera (but no rear-facing camera), an HDMI port, a MicroUSB port and 2 gigabytes of memory (expandable up to 32 gigabytes with a MicroSD card). The device runs on a modified version of Google's Android Gingerbread mobile OS, which was designed for smart phones but is still being used on many competing tablets.

Of course, the Vizio Tablet runs Android apps as well as Vizio's TV apps (which it calls Vizio Internet Apps Plus), which run on Vizio's newer Internet-connect TVs and its tablet in a feature that allows video programming or apps to be shared and moved between TV sets and the handheld.

The Vizio Tablet can also be used as a universal remote controller for Vizio TVs, Blu-ray players and other home electronics, even many of those made by other manufacturers, with a built-in infrared receiver, Noyd said. That addition, not found on many (if any) other tablets makes a lot of sense as Vizio makes TVs, remotes, speakers and just about anything else used for living-room entertainment.

So, does Vizio make as solid of a tablet as it does a TV set? We've yet to get our hands on one, but as soon as we do, we'll post our impressions here on the Technology blog. Stay tuned.

Preview Pane : New in GMAIL Labs

When I check my email, I often rely on the message snippets to figure out which messages to open first. Sometimes, though, I want to see more than snippets, which is why I’m happy to announce that you can now preview messages in your inbox using a new feature in Gmail Labs called Preview Pane. It’s probably a very familiar layout to those of you who have used Gmail on a tablet device. We also think it’s going to work especially well if you have a larger resolution screen.

After you enable Preview Pane from the Labs tab in Gmail Settings you’ll see a toggle button in the top right corner of your message list, which lets you switch between preview and list views.


For those of you who have more vertical space you can also move the preview pane below your message list. You can enable this using the dropdown arrow next to the toggle button:


By default there is a 3-second delay in marking a conversation as read after previewing it. If that doesn’t feel natural to you, you can change the timing in the General tab of settings:


If you’d like to remove the new layout, simply return to Gmail Settings and disable the lab.

EXCLUSIVES RIM’s first QNX phone revealed: BlackBerry Colt to launch in Q1 2012

While Research In Motion just recently announced its new BlackBerry 7 device lineup — including the fantastic BlackBerry Bold 9900 — we all know that the real-deal smartphones are still in the oven. What everyone is waiting on from RIM is the company’s QNX-based devices, which we hope will make RIM competitive in the smartphone industry once again. BGR has learned exclusive details surrounding the first QNX smartphone RIM intends to release, which is codenamed the BlackBerry Colt, and it looks like there are already going to be some compromises the company will have to make in order to launch the smartphone on schedule. Hit the break for all the details we have so far.

RIM has always touted the superior battery life of its mobile devices, and this has forced the vendor to be one of the last to adopt various technologies, from full-color screens to fast 1+ GHz processors. In a time where we’re close to seeing quad-core CPUs in mobile devices, RIM is launching single core devices with a promise of dual-core processors coming to its future QNX smartphones. The information we have received suggests that the first QNX device out of Research In Motion will be powered by a single-core processor, however, rather than a speedier multi-core chipset. It’s entirely possible that it could change ahead of the device’s release, our source said, but the internal testing going on right now is with a single-core chip.

One of the reasons that the BlackBerry PlayBook launched without native email is that RIM has had to rewrite its BES code in order for it to support the new operating system, and this has proven to be extremely difficult. We have been told that RIM is working on a QNX-specific BlackBerry Enterprise Server, but that the first QNX smartphone will launch without support for current BES versions. The kicker? If companies want to use Microsoft Exchange email on the device, they will actually have to use Microsoft ActiveSync, which the phone will support out of the box.

RIM is currently aiming to release the BlackBerry Colt  some time in the first quarter of 2012, obviously depending on how internal testing goes. We’re told that the Software Verification team inside of RIM is already well into the testing process with this device, so our fingers are crossed for a timely release.

Windows Phone 7 sales falling fast

Since the launch of Microsoft's new mobile operating system, sales of Windows-powered smartphones have fallen 38%.

That's not exactly what you want to see when you launch a new product or line of products, but with Windows Phone 7, things are a bit tricky.

The nascent mobile platform launched very late last year; it hasn't even been on the market 12 months yet. Shortly after WP7 launched, Windows smartphone devices had an impressive 8% market share in the US, but now that number sits at 5.8%, according to research firm Comscore.

However, earlier this year, Microsoft announced a huge, sweeping update headed to Windows Phone, saying it could revolutionize the way the world interacts with their smartphones.

Among the changes are shying away from the traditional "download a million apps and use them independently" mindset, and instead incorporate all of the most popular apps into the software of the phone itself. So, wanna check movie times? How about that train schedule? What's in my Netflix queue? Microsoft wants all of these kinds of questions to be answered in the same, universal navigation of the device.

That update is coming later this year, which could be a reason for why consumers are shying away from buying a Windows Phone device today.

But it's not exactly like everything was smooth sailing before the update was announced. In fact, Microsoft had a devil of a time rolling out a very minor update at the beginning of 2011. It took months of delays, apologies, and unmet rollout promises before Microsoft was finally able to deliver that.

Additionally, the company completely failed on its marketing message, hitting on features that were already commonplace on Android and the iPhone, making Microsoft seem way out of touch, instead of focusing on what actually made WP7 unique and special.

All that being said, however, there is one other huge thing in Microsoft's favor - the newly minted alliance with Nokia. By next year, there will be numerous new handsets from Nokia, which has faltered lately because of its rigid software but has always been admired for its design and manufacturing of hardware, running on Windows Phone software.

In other words, there are a lot of huge changes coming to Windows Phone, but the question on everyone's mind is whether or not Microsoft has already sealed its own fate with its poor handling of the operating system so far. Only time will tell.