Modern mobile devices

In the XXI century it’s impossible to imagine a person without a mobile phone. We have become accustomed to these devices so much that sometimes we feel awkward if left the phone at home. A mobile device is not simply a plastic case with buttons which can make calls, send SMS, take pictures, reproduce video and audio and work as a calculator. Modern mobile devices have all possible functions which we couldn’t even imagine before.

The technical development of mobile devices has led to the improved video chips, developing mobile platforms (iPhone, Android, iPad, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile), new updated mobile applications and so on. With the development of mobile technologies more and more software development companies are trying to develop modern, useful applications for mobile devices.

There are many different applications for entertainment, learning, or just for using in life. Before when mobile phones were not able to use and reproduce advanced graphics, applications were not very accurate. Now, users of mobile devices became more selective in this way because modern technologies let mobile app developers create applications at any taste.

European Commission joined the antimonopoly trial against Apple

The European Commission joined the antimonopoly trial against Apple which the US Federal Trade Commission initiated at the beginning of July. It means that the verdict can be taken in 4-6 months, announced the New York Post.

It should be noted that officially FTC hasn’t announced about the trial. According to the American press, it concerns the rules of publishing applications in the App Store which Apple introduced in April. In particular, the vendor banned the usage of tools for application porting. It deprived mobile apps developers of the possibility of the official sales of Flash applications. The company Adobe which possesses this technology declared about its intention to struggle against this decision.

Moreover, in July Apple introduced the new rules of using the statistical information which is formed by applications on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. In particular, the new rules deprive the company AdMob of earning money on mobile advertising. In May Google announced about the close of the deal on acquiring this company at $750,000. Last month the executive director of AdMob said that the given ban hadn’t come into force. If the ban becomes effective, iphone apps developers will have problems with their applications.

Google starts fighting against piracy on the Android platform

Google has developed a new way of fighting against piracy in the mobile application market. Now Android apps developers will be able to suppress illegal copying of their products.

The developers who want to protect their software from illegal copying will be able to install a special module into their applications which will occasionally connect to Google servers for checking the license of each separate copy of the product (in accordance with the statistics of downloading at the Android Market store).

If the application was bought illegally, the Google module will perform the action preplanned by the authors, for example, the application can be moved to a trial mode, blocked or even deleted from the device.

The application with the built-in system of verification from Google can be installed only at official Google phones. Thus, those  who use Android modified versions won’t be able to try protected mobile applications in mobile application development.

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44% of British people can’t imagine their lives without mobile phones

According to the research conducted by the BM Savings Company, more than half of Britain’s population (51%) never leaves their houses without mobile phones. 44% of British people can’t even imagine their lives without mobile devices.

26% of respondents admit that they feel upset after leaving their mobile phones at home and missing calls. About three quarters of the questioned people spend half an hour talking on the phone daily. And the youth (88%) don’t regret spending more than two hours daily chatting on the phone or using various mobile applications. As a result, mobile application developers work hard to create more and more useful applications for iPhones and iPads, etc.

Half of the participants consider mobile banking the most convenient financial service and 49% of them prefer dealing with real people while solving financial matters. At the same time 52% are satisfied to use mobile banking at any time at any place and 38% use this service when can’t reach the bank.

Apple became the world’s leader at the number of vulnerabilities

Apple Corporation became the world’s leader at the number of vulnerabilities detected in its applications, writes Ars technica with reference to the research conducted by the company Secunia specialized in IT security.
Apple managed to overcome the former leader at the number of vulnerabilities – Oracle Corporation. The third place is occupied by Microsoft, HP, Adobe, IBM, VMWare, Cisco, Google and Mozilla Corporation are also in the top ten. In general, these 10 companies are responsible for 38 % of all detected vulnerabilities.
The report covering the first half of the year 2010 doesn’t reflect the seriousness of the detected errors, bugs and vulnerabilities. Thus, the products from Apple application developers can be rather safe if their disadvantages are very difficult to use for cracking.
Secunia has been keeping the record of vulnerabilities since 2005 and annually detects in average 4464 problems connected with security. More than 80 % of vulnerabilities allow cracking the system remotely, 10 % require for cracking the access to the local system and 8% require the access to the local network.

Research In Motion reduces sales but increases profits

The Canadian producer of BlackBerry devices, Research in Motion, has accounted for the first financial quarter of 2011. The company informed about the profit which exceeds the forecasts of the analytics against the growing sales of corporate smartphones. According to the company, Blackberry smartphones are sold not bad at the corporate as well as at the private markets.

According to RIM, in the first quarter the sales increased by 24% and were 4.24 bln dollars. The experts predicted higher figures, somewhere at the level of 4.35 bln dollars. The net profit of the company has increased by 20% up to 768.9 mln dollars against 643 mln dollars a year earlier.

The market analytics say that despite the traditional ruff of RIM is a phone with a fully functional keyboard, the company should have present at the market a smartphone with a big sensor display, similar to iPhone, to compete more successfully at the consumer’s market. Also RIM can’t boast of an impressive list of applications from BlackBerry apps developers.

The Mackie Research Company suppose RIM now will be difficult to compete with Google Android and Apple iPhone at the smartphone market just because of the absence of a smartphone with a big sensor display.

Android is leading at the free apps segment, Windows Mobile is dragging behind

According to analytics, more than half of Android applications at online apps stores are free, however, paid ones cost more than those for iPhone.

There are about 70,000 applications at the online store Android Market, about 57% of them are free. According to the analytical company Distimo, neither similar store can boast of the same share of free applications. That’s definitely good news for those who own an Android-based device or are going to buy new one.

In analytics’ opinion, it’s due to the technical limitations of the Android Market. Thus, only Android apps developers from 9 countries can add paid products and only the users from 13 countries can buy them whereas the sore operates in 46 countries. The additional restriction is the necessity to register at the Google Checkout service – only after this one can effect a purchase. At the biggest online apps store – Apple App Store – your account must be also linked to the iTunes Store that’s why in terms of convenience they are similar.

Intel optimizes ОS Google Android under the х86 architecture

The Intel Corporation is working on the optimization of the operation system Google Android for using it at the devices with х86 compatible processors.
The Android platform was originally developed for smartphones and ARM chips are usually used in such devices. However, the operation system is compatible with other architectures, in particular, with MIPS and x86. By the way, last year Acer presented a netbook with the processor Atom and Android OS.
It should be noted that the modification of Android optimized especially for x86 compatible chips will be based on Version 2.2 (Froyo) of the platform. This innovation will enable Android application development not only for smartphones, but also for netbooks and smart books. This version of the operation system is planned to be released by the end of the summer; third-party developers will be able to get acquainted with the source code of the product if they want.
The Intel version of Android is expected to be used in netbooks, tablet computers and other gadgets with the х86 processors. First of all, it refers to the Atom chips with little energy consumption.
Let’s remind that moving Android to the х86 platform is also done by the participants of the Android-x86 project.

Apple updated MobileMe: iPhone can’t be stolen now

Apple has updated the data synchronization service for mobile devices MobileMe. The main innovation is the availability of thе application Find My iPhone for iPhones, Apple iPads and iPod touch players. It represents a port in the form of an individual client’s application of the service for finding stolen portable devices from Apple.

In other words, Find My iPhone is a branded ‘anti-stolen’ system – the user and the former owner of the device can see the interactive map where the position of the lost device is located with the help of GPS or antenna signals. He can not only apply to the police having provided them with the exact place where the device is but he can also send remotely the command for deleting all the data from the memory of the phone or he can display the message on the screen with the request to return the phone to its legal owner. The application itself is free, however, you’ll have to subscribe for MobileMe which costs $99 a month if you want to use it.

Earlier the information that Apple would annul the subscription fee for using MobileMe at the next update of the service appeared. However, it hasn’t happened. Probably this step will encourage iPhone apps developers to create cheaper applications for protecting personal data of the owners of Apple gadgets.
Apart from Find My iPhone, the update of the MobileMe service has touched its other components as well. In particular, the user’s web interface has been changed – the mail client has been adapted to wide screens (for iPhone 4), the possibility for creating and using the rules for sorting letters as well as the instrument panel for text formatting has been added.

Motorola will present a new Droid on June 23

Motorola will present its new smartphone Droid of the next generation on June 23, wrote Engadget.

The smartphone based on the Android OS will be announced a day before the official launch of iPhone 4 sales. At the same time it isn’t reported which smartphone will be advertised. At present it is known that Motorola is developing two new models – Droid 2 and Droid X.

The directors of Motorola and the mobile operator Verizon Wireless as well as one of Vice Presidents of Google Andy Rubin and the Head of Adobe Shantanu Narayen will take part in the press-conference.

Engadget also published a brief review of the smartphone Droid X. The smartphone will be equipped with a 4.4-inch screen and a resolution of 854×480 pixels. Droid X also has a 8- megapixel camera with the option of video recording with high definition in the 720p format. The given set of functions opens new possibilities for Android mobile app developers as the smartphone will work on the Android 2.1 OS.

The date of this smartphone coming into the market is not announced. At the same time the first model Droid Motorola was announced at the end of October 2009. On the territory of the USA this model came into the market in November.