Customers should abandon BlackBerry

Gartner has issued a warning urging BlackBerry users to abandon the platform and migrate to other alternatives as soon as possible.

Following the recent quarter report showing a 1 billion USD loss for BlackBerry, and the BlackBerry acquisition by Fairfax Financial Holdings, the well renowned Gartner analyst firm has issued a warning. According to Gartner, BlackBerry users should start to look for alternatives immediately. This in particular includes government agencies and corporations.

Top 10 best global brands

The current list of the best global brands by Interbrand has been published with the top 10 list clearly dominated by computer and technology corporations.

Interbrand is a consultant firm which publishes lists of the top 10 best strongest brands on the global level. In this list, Interbrand takes aspects such as the market value of the company and the predicted market value of the company into account weighed with other relevant economical and market attributes. This gives a so called projected value of a company in units of billions of USD.

The top 10 list has been dominated for 13 years by Coca-Cola, however, now, Coca-Cola has been bumped down to a bronze position and the top two positions are now given to Apple and Google (who have made huge leaps since last years, increasing their score by approximately 30%). This is described as an paradigm shift by the analysts.

iOS 7 download forced onto users

iOS 7 downloads itself in the background regardless of user preferences and explains the large number of users who all of the sudden are starting to run out of storage memory.

iOS 7 which was first released September 18, 2013, has today already released two point releases with the most current one being iOS 7.0.2 released September 26, 2013. iOS 7 has really split its users up to a love camp and a hate camp with the haters definitely wanting to hold off the upgrade for as long as they can.

However, now it appears that Apple has decided to force iOS 7 onto all users. During the last days, a lot of users have reported that they are running out of storage memory for no apparent reason. After some investigation, it appears that iOS 7 is forcing itself to download onto the user devices in the background. Considering that the upgrade file is 3.3 GB large, it is of no wonder that users are all of the sudden experiencing a shortage of storage memory. What makes matter worse is that there exist no way to remove the downloaded files without actually having to install the upgrade.

Google celebrates 15-year birthday with Easter egg and doodle

Google was founded in September 15 years ago and is celebrating its 15-year birthday by an Easter egg which shows how Google looked like in 1998 and also a piñata Google Doodle game.

Google was founded in September of 1998 and therefore, this month, Google is celebrating its 15-year birthday. At the time Google was launched, Altavista was the dominating search engine on the market followed by Yahoo.

However, after Google launched its search engine, the company created huge headlines in multiple newspapers who were impressed by the results delivered by Google. Following this, it did not take very many years before Google completely started to dominate the market. The total dominance of Google forced Yahoo to acquire Altavista in an attempt to strengthen its position. Although this does not seem to have worked out too well and today Google is still, by a large margin, the largest search engine on the internet. 

iOS 7.0.2 released: changes and highlights

iOS 7.0.2 was released on September 26, 2013, and the changes include a bug fix for the security bug that could be used to bypass the lock screen.

Apple released iOS 7 on September 18, 2013. iOS 7 is said to be the single largest change to the iOS system since it was initially released in 2008 with the original iPhone. Given its huge number of changes, it is not surprising that there have sneaked in bugs in the iOS release. Among more serious bugs are security loopholes that allows a hacker to bypass the lock screen and gain access to photos to share them in e-mails and social media. Also, it was just recently demonstrated that it is possible to place regular phone calls without unlocking the phone.

Fake iOS 7 ad claims to make iPhones waterproof

An unknown number of people have immersed their iPhones in water following a fake iOS 7 ad claiming that the new iOS version will make the iPhones waterproof.

Screenshot of the fake ad, source unidentified.

A fake iOS 7 ad has started to spread. In the ad, it is claimed that an update to iOS 7 will make iDevices water proof due to some intelligence within iOS 7 that will shut down the device if it detects water to prevent damage. In addition, it is claimed that the waterproofing is covered by Apple's warranty policy. Needless to say, the advertisement is fake and anyone exposing their iPhones, iPods or iPads to water will definitely end up with a dead device that certainly is not covered by any Apple warranty.

iBeacons used to activate Apple TV by touch

iBeacons is a new feature in iOS 7 which uses Bluetooth to measure the distance between two units. Now, it appears that the first practical application for it is to active an Apple TV simply by touching it with an iPhone.

iOS 7 provides a lot of new features for its users. One feature is known as iBeacons which uses Bluetooth to measure the distance between two units. The principle is based on setting one devices up as a beacon, which would actively measure the distance to Bluetooth-enabled units in the proximity. This idea has many similarities to the NFC technique that is used by most other smartphones and also smartwatches.

Apple has envisaged the iBeacons to be used as a way for users to, for example, pay for certain goods in supermarkets or other public places, in a similar fashion that NFC is used. However, now, the first practical use of iBeacons has been demonstrated through Apple TV.

Scientists makes two brains communicate over the internet

For the first time, two brains can communicate completely without any intrusive procedures. Scientists have enabled two humans to communicate purely based on their thoughts.

Scientists at the University of Washington recently demonstrated communication between two human brains without applying any intrusive procedures. The approach was based on two caps. With the sender wearing one filled with electrodes which could pick up on the brain activity. The brain of the receiver would then be stimulated by magnetic fields at the same locations as the active parts of the sender brain.

iPhone 5S more popular than iPhone 5C by 350%

Apple claims to have sold 9 million iPhones since the release of iPhone 5S and 5C last Friday. Recent analysis by Localytics show that 4 out of 5 users, however, prefer the iPhone 5S over 5C according to the sales numbers.

While Apple should certainly be happy about its sales numbers of the new iPhone models since the release on Friday, Apple, however, may have miscalculated the demand for the two different models. 

A recent analysis has shown that iPhone 5S sales account for 78% of the total number of sales, indicating that the, so called, budget model iPhone 5C does not really appeal to the customers. 

Spotify expands into new markets

Spotify, the highly popular music streaming service recently expanded its markets and is now available in four new countries.

Spotify announced yesterday that it has launched its music streaming service in four new countries. The new countries being, Turkey, Greece, Argentina and Taiwan. 

It looks like Spotify is not slowing down anytime soon and the company has already revealed its next target market, which will be the Japanese market. According to Spotify, Japan has the potential to become the single largest market for music streaming services owing to high general public interest of music as well as high penetration rate of smartphones.

iMessage for Android, Huluwa: critical security threat

Users who have installed Huluwa, an app that enables Android users to use iMessage are advised to promptly uninstall the app due to recently discovered security issues with the app.

Huluwa has been available on Google Play for a while now and it promises to be an app that allows Android users to use the iMessage system developed for iOS devices. However, it has now been revealed that the app itself raises many warning flags and users concerned with security should promptly uninstall the app.

Analysis of the behavior patterns of the Huluwa app shows that all data transmission are sent to a server in China. This includes your messages, but also internal Android data, in principle all information that the app has access to is transmitted to the Chinese server. In a nutshell, the use of Huluwa causes your user credentials to be sent to a third party, which is in particularly alarming for users who have linked their credit cards with their accounts (Google Play as well as Apple-ID). 

Bubblews review: Scam or legit website to make money online?

Bubblews is a website where users can submit short articles and earn money when they are viewed, commented on, liked or shared. The promised earnings for the users are very impressive and the question is if Bubblews is too good to be true. Is Bubblews a scam or a legit and revolutionary novel way for users to monetize their articles?

Several people from completely different sources have contacted me regarding a new revenue-sharing website known as Bubblews. The website has the motto of "Speak Freely. Write Your World" and is advertised as providing users a platform where they can publish their short articles (400 characters minimum) and earn money when the articles are viewed, commented on, liked or shared. 

Obviously, revenue-sharing article websites are nothing new and the internet is filled with such websites including Hubpages, Infobarrel and Squidoo. However, what apparently sets Bubblews apart from the rest is that it promises extremely high earnings. For example, Bubblews promises its users $0.01 per view, and for each like, comment or share (social media) that a post receives the users can earn even more money depending on how much advertisement revenues that Bubblews pulls in. Still $0.01 per impression as we all know is a CPM rate that is incredibly high. After doing some research I decided to give Bubblews a go to evaluate if it is truly a legit website or yet another scam website.

Windows XP not upgradeable to Windows 8.1

With Windows XP reaching its end-of-life Microsoft has asked its users to upgrade to Windows 8 and the upcoming 8.1. However, it appears that Microsoft has changed its stance and states that computers running Windows XP and Vista are not suitable for Windows 8.1.

As known, Windows XP will reach its end-of-life in the spring of 2014. Since Windows XP is still used on 34% of the computers today, this has caused serious security concerns where it is expected that hackers will keep their XP exploits secret until the end-of-life. Microsoft, has up until now urged the Windows XP users to upgrade to Windows 8 and subsequently to Windows 8.1 following its release. However, Microsoft has now released a statement where it claims that Windows XP and Windows Vista machines are not suitable to be upgraded to Windows 8.1.

BlackBerry acquired for $4.7 billion by Fairfax Financial Holdings

BlackBerry has long been a company in crisis and the topic of acquisition has been up for discussion for quite some time. Now, BlackBerry has been acquired by the investment firm Fairfax Finanical Holdings for an amount of 4.7 billion USD.

BlackBerry has been less than successful during the last years and has encountered several troublesome issues related to its products and finances. The company first of all put a lot of efforts into the BlackBerry Q10 and Z10 which simply has become massive failures. This certainly was disappointing and the market share of BlackBerry is only just over 4%. Finally, yesterday, BlackBerry published its second quarterly report which shows a massive loss of 1 billion USD. All the above events indicate clearly a company in distress and many has speculated if BlackBerry would be acquired soon in order to have both the economical muscles as well as the knowledge to turn itself from a massive sinking ship into an agile and profitable company. 

Google makes Quickoffice a free app

Quickoffice which is one of the most competent office suites for smartphones and tablets has now become a free app following an initiative by Google.

Image src: www.flickr.com/photos/sigalakos/

Quickoffice which by many is considered to be one of the best and competent office suites for smartphones and tablets was acquired by Google in June 2012. Google has recently announced that a new version of Quickoffice has been released that is free-of-charge for all users. In addition, 15 GB of storage space is also given to the users for free during a 2-year period. 

Touch ID fingerprint reader easily hacked on iPhone 5S

The Apple Touch ID security technology introduced by the iPhone 5S has been described by Apple and the media as a revolutionary secure alternative to the conventional PIN code. However, the Touch ID technology has already been hacked by the German Chaos Computer Club through only using a camera, printer and glue.

The Touch ID fingerprint security technology has been given a lot of attention by Apple and the press. In essence, it is nothing but a re-packaged and somewhat improved fingerprint reader that has been around for a long time. Already when it was launched, there has been serious fingerprint security and privacy concerns of Touch ID on iPhone 5S. The situation does not become very much better as a group of German hackers known as Chaos Computer Club has recently shown that creating a "fake" finger to bypass the Touch ID security is extremely easy using nothing but a camera, printer and glue.

According to Chaos Computer Club, the Touch ID technology differ very little from conventional fingerprint technologies, in essence much less than Apple makes its consumers to believe. The main difference is that the Touch ID sensor operates at a higher resolution as compared to conventional commercial fingerprint readers. Therefore, this meant that the fake fingerprint needed to be photographed at a resolutions of 2400 DPI. 

Massive loss for BlackBerry

BlackBerry is known to have a tough time and the company just announced that its second quarter did not see any improvements with losses of 1 billion USD.

In BlackBerry's latest report from Friday September 20, 2013, BlackBerry announced that its sales declined by 45% as compared to the same period last year. In raw numbers, this means that the sales decreased by 1.6 billion USD during the company's second quarter. The bad results were largely attributed to the failed BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 products which resulted in write-offs of 1 billion USD for unsold units.

Hacker attacks NASA to protest against NSA

A Brazilian hacker, known as BMPoC, has attacked several NASA websites as a protest against... eh... NSA.

The Register has reported that several NASA websites are down as a result of an attack by a Brazilian hacker known as BMPoC. Apparently, the contents of the compromised websites (which contain information regarding scientific projects) have been replaced with the following, less than coherent, message:

Facebook Professional Skills challenges LinkedIn

Facebook is testing a new function which allows users to provide information regarding their professions and areas of expertize, thus directly challenging LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has become a very dominant social network that is used primarily for professional networking which opens up a lot of possibilities for those interesting in a new career and for recruiters. Now, however, it appears that Facebook is determined to get its own share of the cake and has introduced the function known as Professional Skills. The Professional Skills function, which is still in testing, allows the users on Facebook to provide information related to professions, areas of expertize as well as other relevant information for professional purposes. 

The most dangerous hacker group: Hidden Lynx

The Chinese hacker group, Hidden Lynx, is the most skilled, experienced and dangerous active hacker group today as shown in a recent analysis by Symantec Security Response.

Symantec Security Response has collected and analyzed the data of all the most active hacker groups in the world. The analysis showed that the Chinese hacker group, known as Hidden Lynx, is by far the most potent, skilled and dangerous at the moment. The report shows that the group is composed of 50 to 100 individuals with main targets being multi-national corporations and government agencies over the whole globe. 

Internet Explorer 11 is the fastest browser

Microsoft has just released the Release Preview version of Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7. Based on initial performance tests, it appears that Internet Explorer 11 will become the fastest web browser in the competition of today.

Internet Explorer has long been known among enthusiasts to be something like an old and slow dinosaur that is both difficult to customize and also inefficient. In addition, Internet Explorer has also been the source of headache for countless of webmasters since it simply does not follow the HTML standard in terms of rendering. 

During the last years, the situation has truly changed. Today, Internet Explorer is striving to follow the HTML standard in rendering pages, and is also giving a lot of emphasis on performance and efficiency of the browser. Following the Release Preview version of Internet Explorer 11 that was released yesterday, it appears that this new version will be the fastest version ever released for Internet Explorer. According to Microsoft, Internet Explorer 11 is 9% faster than the current stable version of Internet Explorer 10 and 30% faster than the closest competitor (Mozilla Firefox). 

App Store now offers older app versions

Apple has finally introduced the possibility to install an older version of an app which solves a lot of iOS version incompatibilities of new or updated apps following the release of a new iOS version.

Since Apple App store was launched an intrinsic "feature" of it is that it only allows users to download and install the newest version of a given app with no way to downgrade to an older version. While most users could live without the possibility to downgrade, a major problem arises when new iOS versions are released. Historically, older iDevices that do not support the new iOS version will eventually not be able to run most apps as they are missing some newer iOS developer functions.

Critical vulnerability exploit found in Internet Explorer

Microsoft has confirmed the discovery of a critical security vulnerability in Internet Explorer that affects all versions of Internet Explorer.

Microsoft recently announced that a new critical security exploit for all versions of Internet Explorer is in the wild, meaning that it is actively being used by hackers to attack computers. Currently, it appears that only Internet Explorer 8 and 9 are affected, but the vulnerability exists for Internet Explorer 6 all the way to Internet Explorer 11.

The large number of potentially vulnerable Internet Explorer versions makes this bug critical, in particular as the found vulnerability is of the type that allows hackers to perform drive-by attacks. This means that a user can become infected by simply visiting a website which contains malicious code snippets. This is also one of the top ways to infect and hack a computer.

Google improves file sharing by Bump acquisition

Google recently acquired the file sharing app Bump for the purpose of improving the file sharing capabilities of smartphones.

Bump is a popular app that is available both for iOS and Android with the purpose of making file sharing easy between the two platforms. Using Bump, the users can share photons, contact information and even files between two phones. Google apparently deems Bump to be of high interest and value and has therefore purchased Bump and its developer company.

NTT Docomo stirs up the Japanese iPhone market

After years of negotiations, the largest mobile operator in Japan, NTT Docomo, finally has agreed to sell Apple iPhones. This definitely stirs up the Japanese market and currently there is a full-scale war between the Japanese mobile operators trying to attract customers.

NTT Docomo is the largest Japanese mobile operator and for many years has also been the only Japanese mobile operator who has refused to sell Apple iPhones. Recently, NTT Docomo and Apple has finally reached an agreement around iPhone sales and with 61 million subscribers, NTT Docomo is certainly an important sales channel for Apple in Japan. NTT Docomo has also predicted that 40% of its future sales will originate from Apple iPhones. For the rest of the Japanese operators, for example, KDDI and Softbank, who have up until now been able to steal customers from NTT Docomo by the masses, their situation certainly has overnight become a whole lot tougher.

Best browser, Java and Flash security scanner

Security threats which infect through the web browser and plugins are extremely common. With only one out of five internet users running an up-to-date version of Java, the situation is definitely alarming. Fortunately, it is easy to use a free online tool to check the security status of your web browser as well as your plugins, such as Flash, Java, Acrobat and Silverlight.

Internet users are constantly being exposed to new threats. Currently, some of the most dangerous attacks are made through the web browsers and its plugins or add-ons, with Java, Flash and Acrobat being the most targeted plugins. 

For example, security analysis has recently showed that 81% of the computers online is running an outdated Java version which carries one or several severe security vulnerabilities. Out of these 81%, 40% of the computers were running Java version 6, which is an outdated Java version since Java 7 was released 2 years ago. In addition, Java is installed on 84% of corporate computers. Java, however, is not alone either, and the same analysis also shows that more than 40% of all corporate computers are running an outdated version of Adobe Flash and Acrobat.

Windows 8.1 only available for Software Assurance accounts

Microsoft apparently is having huge issues communicating and making up their minds. Windows 8.1 which was first decided to not be available to developer prior to release was changed to become available for Technet and MSDN subscribers. However, now, apparently Windows 8.1 will only be available for volume license customers with a Software Assurance account.

Microsoft is certainly not making the lives of developers easy. With the Windows 8.1 release date only one month away, Microsoft apparently has decided that providing Windows 8.1 app developers with a final version to ensure that functioning apps will be available upon the official Windows 8.1 release is not all that important. The situation is made even worse with the extremely poor communications made by Microsoft. Let us take a look at the history.

Battery life specificiations improved on iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C

Apple iPhone battery life has since the first iPhone always been a hot topic of discussion and the battery time for a single charge just never seems to be sufficient long for a large number of users. With the iPhone 5S and 5C, Apple has increased the battery capacity and also improved the battery life.

With every new iPhone model, and even with every new iOS version, complaints about insufficient battery life always seem to emerge. When the iPhone 5 was release approximately one year ago, the situation was the same and many users complained about very poor battery life on their phones. With the recent release of the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, it can therefore be expected that it will not take very long before discussions regarding the battery life will emerge once again, even though the battery specifications (shown in the table below) have been improved.

Fixes to battery issues normally involves turning off unused radios, that is, 3G, LTE, WiFi and GPS as well as turning down the screen brightness. On the software side, Apple is also doing what it can to improve the efficiency of the iOS system in general. However, the ultimate limit to the battery time of a portable device is of course tied to the battery capacity.

Dropbox opens and reads uploaded files

A security test showed that files uploaded to Dropbox are opened and read by Dropbox which causes some concerns for the popular cloud storage service.

Dropbox is a very popular cloud storage service which is used both as a backup storage service but also to synchronize files and data over multiple computers or devices. As with any cloud storage, security is always a concern for sensitive documents. Recently, WNC Infosec has conducted a security test on Dropbox, based on the technology provided by Honeydocs, which showed that files uploaded to Dropbox are opened and viewed by Dropbox which raises some security concerns.

Intel changes strategy to focus on Quark

The market for smartphones and tablets is huge and Intel has completely failed to penetrate the market. Apparently, Intel has learnt from its mistake and a new strategy is proposed where Intel will focus on ultra compact and portable devices and medical equipment.

The technology scene changes extremely rapidly and it is difficult for a lot of companies to adapt fast enough. Recent examples include the acquisition of Nokia but also the that the tablet market is larger than the PC market. Intel has also had a relatively poor history in the field of smartphones and compact devices and for years has been shunned by most smartphone and tablet manufacturers who have chosen ARM CPUs instead of Intel x86 CPUs.

Tablet sales surpass PC sales

PC sales have been on a declining trend for some time and now the number of tablets sold for the first time surpasses the number of PCs sold.

A recent analysis by IDC shows that the number of tablets that is expected to be sold until the end of 2013 will be larger than the number of PCs that will be sold during the same period of time. The PC market has had troubles during the last few years and this only once again confirms that particular fact. One major reason behind the numbers is that the demand for tablets is expected to skyrocket during the Christmas season, whereas the PC sales will only be moderately modified. However, if the whole year of 2013 is considered, PC sales numbers will still be greater than tablet sales numbers.

Security concerns over Google Chrome Apps

American security experts advise against installing Chrome Apps on sensitive systems.

Google Chrome Apps was released as a way to allow for the installation of apps for the Google Chrome OS on Windows or Mac OS X systems. In essence, Chrome Apps are simply packaged apps that run in a stand-alone mode and does not need to be accessed through the use of Google Chrome web browser, although at present, Google Chrome web browser is still required to have been installed.

The benefit of Chrome Apps as envisaged by Google is that it allows users to run the apps in an offline mode and also allows for documents and data to be saved locally on the hard drive instead on the default Google Drive cloud. However, recently, a group of American security experts have raised some concerns about the potential risks of Google Chrome Apps.

iPhone 5S: Sacrificing your fingerprint privacy with Touch ID?

The iPhone 5S is an improvement over the iPhone 5 in many aspects. However, the Touch ID fingerprint reader which can be used instead of PIN codes definitely raises some privacy and security concerns. Considering the recent chain of events involving the NSA, the question is if you are ready to potentially give up your control and privacy of your biometric data.

As expected, the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C were revealed during the Apple Event on September 10, 2013. The iPhone 5S, as the name suggests, is an improved iPhone 5 which has been significantly improved under the hood and includes the new 64-bit A7 CPU architecture, a dedicated M7 motion co-processor and an improved camera which is much more responsive due to dedicated computing resources. While the improvements by themselves certainly justify the iPhone 5S, a completely new feature is the fingerprint reader technology that is integrated into the home button which is known as Touch ID.

To most people, the reveal of Touch ID was in itself not a big surprise as Apple acquired the fingerprint technology company, AuthenTec, last year. In addition, tests have already shown that the Touch ID technology works exceptionally well as a way to replace PIN codes and Apple ID authentications for App Store purchases.  However, the picture of the fingerprint technology is a lot larger than only its designed functions and the storing of fingerprints on the iPhone 5S certainly raises a lot of concern and questions regarding the personal privacy and security.

Apple shuts down the postcard Cards app

iDevices such as iPhones, iPod Touch and iPads have been used for to send physical postcards through the use of the Cards app, which Apple recently has shut down and cancelled.

Apple has decided to cancel the Cards app which allowed users to send a physical postcard to an address based on a photo on the iOS device. 

The Cards app itself was launched almost 2 years ago, and based on this decision, this service has likely been less than successful for Apple. The primary reason for this is probably that the cost was quite high for sending a post card. Using the Cards app, the users had to pay $6 to send a postcard, which simply does not make much sense for most people who may just as well send the photo through e-mail, iMessage, other instant messaging apps or simply MMS.

Office 365 free for non-profits

The cloud service, Office 365, is now offered free of charge for non-profit organizations. 

Microsoft has announced that the cloud based office suite, Office 365, will be available free of charge for all non-profit organizations in the world. Initially, 41 countries will be included in the program but more and more countries will be included with 90 countries in total before July next year. 

Non-profits that are eligible for the program may subscribe to Office 365 Enterprise E1 free of charge for an unlimited number of users, in contrast to the standard price of $8 per month and per user. The program only covers the cloud versions and downloadable client versions will still carry a charge of $2 per user and per month. 

Hand of Thief Linux trojan harmless

Hand of Thief was discovered in August and described as the first functional and dangerous Linux trojan in the wild. However, recent analysis has showed that this trojan is relatively harmless and in most cases does not even function.

At the beginning of August, reports from EMC showed that a new trojan targeting the Linux platform has emerged. The trojan was given the name Hand of Thief. The purpose of the trojan is to collect login credentials and transmit it to the owner of the trojan based on input fields in web browsers, potentially able to collect banking information from the users. The threat was considered to be severe and Hand of Thief was considered to be the first Linux trojan in wild that posed a true security risk.

iPhone sales increase by 35 million units with new contracts

If Apple manages to secure a contract with China Mobile its annual sales of iPhone units can increase by 35 million units according to a recent analysis by Deutsche Bank.

Apple and NTT Docomo (Japan) recently managed to reach an agreement and iPhones will be available for NTT Docomo customers starting from this fall. Following this, it is expected that Apple will focus on securing a contract with China Mobile as well. 

A recent analysis by Deutsche Bank (German Bank), shows that if Apple manages to reach an agreement with China Mobile, the combination of it and the recent agreement with NTT Docomo will result in that Apple will be able to increase its iPhone sales numbers by 35 million units annually. 

Twitter purchases Mopub advertisement company

Twitter has recently acquired the mobile advertisement company, Mopub, in an effort to motivate its stock-market introduction.

Twitter has announced that it has purchased Mopub, which is a company specializing in mobile advertisements and offers a advertisement network for app developers. 

According to Twitter, the purpose of the purchase is to address two issues, mobile advertisements (obviously) but also directed and content-based advertisements. This is likely also directly related to the plans Twitter has to enter the stock market in January, for which it has to have strong motivations of its sources of income. 

India embraces open source to save its economy

The economy crisis in India has caused both corporations and government agencies to move to open source as a way to cut costs and ensure future compatibility.

The economy in India is doing anything but good and the currency, rupier, has been free falling for some time now. This has resulted in massive increase in license costs for both corporations and government agencies since most licenses are priced in USD.

In order to find ways to cut down the cost of software the Indian magazine The Economic Times has reported that government agencies as well as private companies/corporations are investing significantly into the field of open source software and platforms, instead of the conventional solutions from SAP, IBM and Oracle. These larger corporations include Hungarna Digital Entertainment, Uttam Energy, Bilcare and IGate.

Windows 8.1 available to developers prior to release

Windows 8.1 will be made available to Technet and MSDN subscribers prior to launch as per a new decision by Microsoft.

Microsoft Windows 8.1 release date is scheduled to be October 18 at 12:00 am in New Zealand time (4:00 am October 17 in Redmond, Microsoft's home town) and previously Microsoft has stated that the RTM or final build will not be available for developers before the official launch date. Obviously, this upset a large number of developers who is trying to develop apps and ensuring that the apps will be compatible and functional upon the release of Windows 8.1.

Apple iPhone market share breaches 40% in USA

Apple iPhone continues to dominate the market according to recent statistics and 2 out of 5 smartphones are now an Apple iPhone on the American market.

The American market has traditionally been a strong market for Apple iPhones. Recent data from Comscore shows that Apple had a market share of 40.4% in July, which is 1.2 percent-units higher than in April. The closest runner up is Samsung, with a market share of 24.1% and HTC with 8.0%.

However, while Apple is strong when it comes to one single company, when considering the mobile platforms in the USA, Google Android is still the largest platform currently. Google Android is used on 51.8% of the smartphones in USA and the Apple iOS platform is used on "only" 40.4%. The closest runner up is far behind, being the Blackberry with only 4.3% of the market.

Review of smartwatch facts, myths and potential

Smartwatches are expected to be the next big hit and are being developed by many big companies, including Samsung (Galaxy Gear) and Apple (iWatch). As with most new things, myths and ambiguous information is circulating on the topic of smartwatches and this review aims to provide the facts, point out the myths and highlight the potential of smartwatches.

Image: telegraph.co.uk

Smartwatches, according to many will sweep across the globe in a similar way as smartphones once did. The concept definitely makes a lot of intuitive sense. A device worn on the wrist that will provide the user with a wealth of information in an extreme accessible format certainly does sound attractive to most people. However, before purchasing a smartwatch, it is definitely worth to consider the facts and the myths. Companies such as Samsung and Apple certainly do their best to exaggerate or seed exaggerated expectations into the minds of their potential customers in order to gain an edge once the product is launched on a large scale. This review will provide some of the known and confirmed facts of smartwatches, the myths that are circulating and summarize the true potential and challenges that are still ahead for smartwatches in general, no matter if it is a Samsung Galaxy Gear or an Apple iWatch.

iPhone available for NTT Docomo in Japan

NTT Docomo will begin to offer iPhones to their customers starting from this fall after years of negotiations.

Apple and the Japanese company NTT Docomo have been negotiating for years regarding the terms for offering iPhones to their customers. NTT Docomo is the largest mobile operator in Japan with 45% of the Japanese market and therefore is also highly relevant channel for Apple to sell their iPhone products. However, the negotiations have been painfully slow and in this process NTT Docomo has lost a large number of customers who have switched to other operators who have been offering iPhones for years.

Demand for open source jobs rockets

Open source knowledge significantly increases the career possibilities as shown by a recent analysis by CIO magazine.

In the last decade, applications and the awareness for open source projects has increased tremendously. According to a recent study by CIO magazine, the number of job openings that involves open source is increasing in an extremely rapid fashion. 

As an example, the number of job openings in Python development has increased by 22% over the last year and similarly Ruby on rail development jobs have increased by 15%. 

Spotify worth more than 5 million USD

Spotify, the Swedish music streaming service has made massive success and today its market value has exploded and the company is now worth more than 5 million USD.

Since the last time Spotify attracted funding, the value of the company has increased by 2.3 billion USD, and this is only over the course of less than a year. Today, Spotify's market value has breached 5 million USD and nothing is signalling that this rate of increase will slow down anytime soon.

Annual smartphone sales breaches the billion wall

For the first time in history, more than 1 billion smartphones will be sold during one year.

The global smartphone sales has increased by over 40% since last year and for the first time it appears that the total number of smartphones sold will pass the 1 billion barrier this year. 

A recent analysis by IDC predicts that the total number of smartphones sold will be 1.8 billion units this year and increase even further to 2.3 billion units next year (2014). 

Next Android version name is Kitkat

Google has announced that the next Android version 4.4 will be given the name Kitkat, which is a popular candy bar by Nestle.

As known, Google Android codenames carry the theme of popular desserts or candies. The present version is known Jelly Bean, and following the tradition, the next version will be given a name beginning with the letter 'K'. For a very long time, the next version codename was thought to be Key Lime Pie. However, Google has now announced that Kitkat will be the name of the next Android version.

Top 10 best Nokia cell phones of all time

With the phone division of Nokia becoming a part of Microsoft, a new era of Nokia as we know it has begun. The all-time best classic Nokia mobile phones are therefore worth to revisit.

Nokia has had a couple of difficult years and has had huge problems competing against its arch-rivals being the Apple iOS iPhones and Google Android based smartphones. After reporting hundreds of millions of Euro of loss quarter after quarter, finally Nokia was acquired by Microsoft. The acquisition makes very much sense considering the last strategic move by Nokia which is to develop Windows Phone based smartphones only. However, this strategy definitely is risky as Windows Phone simply lacks demand currently.

Despite the recent troubles of Nokia, it has, over its glorious history, produced several extremely successful phones that today are considered classic. In this article, the top 10 best Nokia phones are presented.

Surface RT 2 in the making and is expected soon

Despite disastrous sales numbers for the Surface RT tablets, Microsoft apparently has not given hope and has been working on a successor that will run Windows RT 8.1.

It is impossible to claim anything other than that Windows RT and the associated Surface RT products have been utter failures for Microsoft. In addition to horrible sales numbers, one partner after the other has left the Windows RT scene. However, despite these discouraging facts, Microsoft apparently has not given up hope. 

According to Neowin, Microsoft has been working on a new generation of its Surface RT tablet, which is currently denoted Surface RT 2. The new tablet will run Windows 8.1 and will also come with an updated set of hardware under the hoods. 

Hackers to attack Office 2003 after its end-of-life

Microsoft Office 2003 will reach its end-of-life on April 8, 2014. Following this date, hackers are expected to focus on attacking this widely popular office suite since Microsoft will no longer patch up vulnerabilities.

April 8, 2014 is the end-of-life for Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003. While the case of Windows XP is well known, the drop of support for Office 2003 is less spoken of.

Similar to the case for Windows XP, once Office 2003 reaches its end-of-life, no new patches will be released for the public. This means that the hackers can exploit a vulnerability in the software suite indefinitely, without worrying about their vulnerability being patched up by Microsoft.