UNI TECH BLOG I

HELSINKI: Nokia lost market share as smartphones continued to outpace growth in the overall handset market, Gartner Inc said.

Nokia Oyj, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, lost market share as smartphones continued to outpace growth in the overall handset market, Gartner Inc said in a report.

Nokia’s share of global sales to end users fell to 34.2 per cent from 36.8 per cent in the year-earlier period, according to the Stamford, Conn-based market researcher. Smartphone sales gained 50.5 per cent, more than three times the growth for the market as a whole.

Google Inc’s Android overtook Apple Inc’s iPhone to become the third-biggest smartphone platform after Nokia’s Symbian and Research In Motion Ltd’s Blackberry, which had 17.2 per cent of the market. Symbian, also used on some phones from other vendors, lost almost 10 percentage points of marketshare to 41.2 per cent as Nokia struggled to revamp it and bring out new products.

“Nokia’s senior executives need to do more to attract developers and other ecosystem members by revising its platform strategy and improving its communications,” Gartner said.

Apple’s iOS fell behind Android to fourth place among smartphone platforms with a 14.2 per cent market share as the iPhone 4 ramped up production.

Android was helped by “a nonexclusive strategy that produces products selling across many service providers, and the backing of many device manufacturers who are bringing more attractive devices to market at several different price points,” Carolina Milanesi, a research vice president at Gartner’s Egham, UK unit, wrote in the report.

The overall mobile phone market increased 13.8 per cent to 325.6 million units as prices fell on tougher competition, Gartner said.
Samsung Electronics Co maintained its position as the second biggest mobile-phone vendor overall with a 20.1 per cent marketshare, up from 19.3 per cent last year. Apple gained to 2.7 per cent of the market, making it the world’s seventh-largest phonemaker.

PORTLAND: Google Inc’s Android software outsold Apple Inc’s mobile operating system for the first time last quarter among new US smartphone users, according to Nielsen Co.

Android had 27 per cent of the US market in the second quarter, compared with 23 per cent for the Apple iPhone OS, known as iOS, Nielsen said on its website. Research In Motion Ltd clung to its leading position, with 33 per cent share.

Manufacturers such as Motorola Inc and HTC Corp used Android in a wider range of handsets, giving new smartphone purchasers more options. Still, the iPhone retained a higher share than Android among existing smartphone users, according to Nielsen’s research.

“There’s a massive hunger for smartphones, and the Android universe came out not just with one blockbuster device but with a whole series of blockbuster devices,” Roger Entner, head of telecom research at Nielsen, said in an interview.

Motorola’s Droid is sold through Verizon Wireless, the largest US mobile-phone service provider. Sprint Nextel Corp introduced the Evo 4G, made by HTC, in June.

Android’s US success may mean Google will overtake Apple’s iOS globally earlier than previously expected, said Will Stofega, program director at research firm IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts. Earlier this year, IDC said it expected Android to overtake Apple’s iOS globally in 2011.

“It could happen sooner,” Stofega said. ‘Feasting on BlackBerry, Windows’ RIM’s BlackBerry operating system commanded 35 per cent of the overall US smartphone market. Still, among the group of newcomers to smartphones, BlackBerry’s market share dropped to 33 per cent from 45 per cent a year earlier, Nielsen said.

Microsoft Corp’s Windows Phone software also lost popularity with new users. Its share fell to 11 per cent last quarter from 20 per cent a year earlier, according to Nielsen.

“Android is feasting on BlackBerry and on Windows,” Entner said. Microsoft is trying to revive demand for its mobile software with the release of Windows Phone 7 this year. RIM tomorrow may introduce a new version of its software, BlackBerry 6, Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Bros, wrote in a research note.

Some of the decline in popularity for the Apple operating system may have come as consumers put off purchases before the June introduction of the iPhone 4, Entner said. Apple may regain share in the third quarter, he said.

Among all US smartphone subscribers, Apple’s share increased to 28 per cent last quarter from 21 per cent a year earlier, according to Nielsen. Android’s share among all US smartphone subscribers rose to 13 per cent from 2 per cent.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

TNN, May 13, 2010

India’s 71 million internet and close to 10 million broadband users are increasingly becoming the victims of vicious phishing attacks that can result in identity theft, danger to life and even crippling financial fraud.

On Wednesday, users of Google’s email services received a legal notice from the gmail team asking them to update their account details for security reasons.

“Gmail Team is working on total security on all accounts in order to make Gmail better as ever and as a result of this security upgrade we require all Gmail members to verify their account with Google. To prevent your account from disability you will have to update your account by clicking the reply button and filling the space below,” the mail read.

The legal notice from Gmail wanted users to refurbish their account name, password, occupation, birth date and country of residence. It also carried a threat that users who did not update their details within 7 days of receiving the warning would lose their account permanently.

However, when contacted, a Google spokesperson said, “Some spammers send fraudulent mass-messages designed to collect personal information, called ’spoofing’ or ‘password phishing’ . We always advise our users to be wary of any message that asks for your personal information, or messages that refer you to a webpage asking for personal information. Google or Gmail does not send unsolicited mass messages asking for passwords or personal information; even if the message asking for it claims to be from us, please don’t believe it.”

This information is publicly available in the Gmail support center at http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=8253

According to Rakshit Tandon, consultant safe surfing with the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI ), “Phishing activity has been on the rise across India since December. The biggest targets for cyber criminals are banking sites followed by free email sites like Gmail and Yahoo and social networking sites like Facebook and Orkut,” he said.

The IAMAI runs cyber safety programmes and has already worked with 3,50,000 students in 185 schools across 43 cities and 13 states.

“A schoolteacher in Mumbai lost close to Rs 10 lakh after phishers got into her netbanking account. Internet penetration is going up which is inviting more criminal attacks as awareness levels are very low,” adds Tandon.

His advise is to be investigative and use logic (BIUL) when using the Net in order to improve your personal Internet security levels.

By Harry McCracken

- FOXNews.com

The Web is an amazing source of TV, from the latest shows to classic reruns. And these sites, services, and software can help you explore it all.

Hulu

Popular Web site Hulu lets you watch television shows over the Internet. But there are a wealth of new alternatives to the site.

TV or PC? That’s the question I find myself asking these days when I’m in the mood to watch the tube. There are still plenty of reasons to opt for the HDTV in my living room: It’s got the biggest and best picture, the most theater-like audio, and — overall — the best selection of stuff to watch. But so many popular programs are now available online that I’m just as likely to catch them on my PC.

TV on a TV may still be the most immersive experience, but TV on a PC feels far more personal. For one thing, most of it is available on demand, on your own schedule. For another, there’s an ever-expanding universe of sites, services, and software designed to make it a cinch to find both shows you know you love and ones you haven’t discovered yet, and then watch them your way. Such as these five winners, all of which work on both Windows PCs and Macs and are absolutely free.

Explore a site that’s half TV Guide, half TiVo. You’ve got favorite TV shows, old and new. And Clicker is an extremely slick way to find everything from Lost to The Dick Van Dyke Show. It covers both free sources (such as Hulu and the sites of the major networks) and paid ones (like Amazon and Netflix), and lets you search by title or performer, or browse by category. You can add entire series to playlists and get notifications by e-mail when new episodes are available, making the service a sort of virtual DVR that helps you keep on top of your faves and play catch-up when necessary.

Make any computer a media center. Boxee is a hot piece of software that lets you browse and enjoy a bevy of digital content, including paid and free video on the Web, files on your computer or home network, music, photos, and more. It’s meant to appeal to folks who have connected their computers to their TV sets: You can breeze through the whole user interface with a remote control, and everything’s got a sheen that looks great in high definition. But it’s fun to use even if just to watch TV on your laptop or desktop monitor.

Try a better Netflix. Netflix may still be synonymous with DVDs by snail mail in little red envelopes, but its Watch Instantly feature — which gives every Netflix subscriber unlimited on-demand access to a profusion of movies and TV shows — is one of the best ways to spend a few bucks a month on internet content. Oddly enough, though, finding stuff to watch is surprisingly frustrating: when you search on the Netflix site, the Watch Instantly titles are often overwhelmed by the ones that are still only available on DVD.

Enter Instantwatcher.com, an ingenious, ingeniously simple site that does one thing: help you locate items you can Watch Instantly. It shows only films and episodes available for instant viewing, and it tells you what’s popular right now. Find something that catches your fancy, and one click loads it up in Netflix’s player.

Capture, convert, and move streaming video. Most free TV on the Web streams to your PC, which works just fine for one-time viewing on a broadband-connected computer. But you’ve got to be online to watch it, and can’t save items for offline viewing or move them to gadgets such as your cell phone, media player, or game console.

RealNetworks’ RealPlayer SP is a clever application that changes that. Install it, and you can download and save video all over the Web, then convert it and transfer it to your other devices. Other services and software offer similar features, but I don’t know of any that make the job as easy as RealPlayer. The downside? It doesn’t work with copy-protected content, such as most of the shows that big-name entertainment companies make available on the Web. That still leaves a wealth of stuff to watch, including most of YouTube.

“Google” your cable or satellite box. Did I say this column was about how to get more out of Internet TV? I fibbed a little. LocateTV is a search engine that lets you track down programming that’s available via your cable and satellite subscription, complete with episode guides, reminders, and other features that are reminiscent of Clicker. Tell it your zip code and provider, and it’ll restrict its results to shows available locally, and will give you the channel numbers you need to tap on your remote.

LocateTV is a vastly more efficient way to navigate through thousands of hours of programming on hundreds of channels than scrolling through a never-ending programming grid on your TV. It’s pretty cool when you think about it: The Internet is so powerful a force that it can make TV better even when you aren’t watching TV on the Internet.

Harry McCracken blogs at Technologizer, his site about personal technology. He’s also the former editor in chief of PC World. Follow him on Twitter as @harrymccracken.

You thought Google Inc’s recent spat with the Chinese government must be one of the biggest concerns for the IT giant considering the mammoth sized Internet market in China? Not really! For the search giant has many more challenges to contend with: slowing growth, regulatory scrutiny, shift in ad spending and more.

Here’s looking into Google’s six troubles.

Facebook

While Mountain View, California-based Google has the biggest share of online search at home and in Western Europe, it has been leapfrogged by social network Facebook Inc as the most popular US Web site.

This month, Facebook surpassed Google as the most visited Web site in the US, accounting for more weekly visits than Google.com, according to research firm Hitwise.

Facebook’s gains at Google’s expense weren’t lost on Levi Strauss & Co. The closely held maker of blue jeans and Dockers pants is advertising on Facebook this year for the first time, while its budget for search, Google’s mainstay, is staying about the same as last year, said Megan O’Connor, director of digital marketing.

The same goes for advertisers like Starbucks and JetBlue Airways, which are eager to get their marketing messages in front of Facebook’s 400 million users.

No Search success

Google’s ventures in mobile, video and display ads have failed to match the success of search. To catch up in social media, Google added a social- networking feature called Buzz to its Gmail e-mail, letting users share photos, comments and clips from its YouTube site. The site drew criticism over privacy, prompting Google to scale back some of Buzz’s features.

“They need to show how they’re going to monetize things like Android, where they seem to be taking good mobile market share,” said Richard Parower, manager, Seligman Global Technology Fund. “How can they turn that into operating profits?”

Regulatory obstacles

Like Microsoft, Google faces regulatory obstacles to efforts to break into faster-growing markets. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether the AdMob deal would squelch competition in the mobile ad market.

The US Justice Department also has raised antitrust concerns over a proposed $125 million legal settlement between Google and a group of publishers and authors. The agreement, if approved by a judge, would create the world’s largest digital library. In Europe, Google is under scrutiny for possible privacy, antitrust and intellectual property violations.

“Google has enjoyed an extended period of unfettered growth,” said Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for Competitive Technology, a Washington trade group that represents technology companies. “Between Washington and Brussels, it’s clear that they’re now in a time where their explosive growth will be under greater scrutiny.”

Slowing sales growth

As sales gains diminish, some investors are concerned that Google has begun to resemble Microsoft Corp, which generates billions of dollars in cash from its mature flagship business yet has struggled to conquer new markets. Google’s sales increased 9 percent last year after almost doubling in 2005.

At Google, sales growth has slowed in each of the past seven years, to 9 percent in 2009 from 409 percent in 2002. “They were the new kid on the block and everyone thought they were great,” said Daniel Morgan, a money manager at Synovus Financial in Atlanta, which oversees about $7.5 billion, including 27,720 Google shares, Bloomberg data shows. “That kind of euphoric, love-at-first-sight status has changed.”

Falling stocks

Google shares, which doubled last year, have dropped 8.6 percent in 2010, the sixth-biggest decline among the 75 technology stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. The stock is 24 percent below its peak of more than $740 in 2007.

R&D spend

Google has been piling up cash faster than it can find ways to spend it. Its cash and marketable securities surged 54 percent to $24.5 billion at the end of 2009 from a year earlier and made up 60 percent of total assets, up from 50 percent. Meanwhile, research and development costs rose only 1.8 percent to $2.8 billion.

This means Google is spending about 12 cents of every sales dollar on research and development, comparable with 15 cents for Microsoft.

New York: Internet search engine Google has reported a five-fold jump in net income at $1.97 billion in October-December quarter, driven  by robust sales figure due to rebound in advertising market.

In the year-ago period, the company had a net income of $382 million, Google said in a statement. Google’s sales clocked a double digit growth in the quarter under review as revenue rose by 17% to $6.67 billion. Google had a strong fourth quarter, with 17% year-over-year revenue growth .Given that the global economy is still in the early days of recovery, this was an extraordinary end to the year,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said. The company’s sales boosted on the back of a rebound in advertising market. Advertisers paid 5% more per click on ads serve on Google’s website in fourth quarter compared to what they paid a year ago.

Google’s revenue from paid clicks on ads served on it’s wed sites went up 13% from last year .Google-owned sites generated revenues of $4.42 billion,or 66% of total revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to $3.81 billion in the year-ago period.

Google posted a net income of $6.52 billion for the year 2009 compared to $4.22 billion in 2008. our performance in 2009 underscored the strength of our management team, the resilience of our business model and the pace of innovation within our product and engineering teams, which continued unabated throughout the downturn,” Schmidt added.

HE further said that the company remains hugely optimistic about the Internet and would continue to invest heavily in technological innovation.

Gmail just got new. The search giant Google’s free email service has got a slew of new features. Numbering as many as nine, they promise more security, storage and simplicity.

Presently, third in global email marketshare, Gmail is striving hard to increase its turf. So here’s looking into all the new features that Gmail has added in the recent past in its endeavour to climb up the ranking ladder.

HTTPS by default

Google recently introduced a mandatory secure encryption for all users of its free email service Gmail, which will make it more difficult for hackers to break into the email accounts.

Gmail will now be accessible through what is known as the hypertext transfer protocol secure or HTTPS on internet, instead of the HTTP protocol which it was using earlier. Rival email service providers, including Yahoo and Hotmail, are expected to follow suit.

Under the new protocol, email data traveling between a user’s browser and Google computer server will be encrypted, making it tougher for the hackers sitting on unprotected Wi-Fi to break into the user’s accounts.

For users, the new encryption would result in higher level of security, similar to an online banking transaction. Hackers would also find it more challenging to steal credit card and bank statements stored by Gmail users in their mailboxes. The connection will be routed through an encrypted route, which will make it difficult for hackers to decode it. Users who do not want their data to travel through the encryption because of slower speed, have the option of turning the HTTPS off.

More storage

For users who require more space space, Google has introduced 20 GB of storage for only $5 a year. Extra storage is shared between Google Mail and Picasa Web Albums and acts as an overflow if a users uses up his free storage.

Send sms from gmail

Google labs now enables users to send free SMSes to any mobile number. But, hold on, so far it is limited to US only

Presently, users can only send SMS to US numbers. Here’s hoping that Google soon takes the feature global.

“Got the wrong Bob?” and “Don’t forget Bob”

Google has added an embarrassment-avoidance tool that catches misdirected Gmail messages before they are fired off by users of the Google’s email service. Called “Got the wrong Bob?”, it is designed to warn people if it appears they may be about to send a Gmail message to an unintended recipient.

The feature identifies groups of people that a Gmail user most often sends messages to, and then alerts the sender when they deviate from patterns. Google engineers Ari Leichtberg and Yossi Matias wrote in a joint blog post, “Gmail will try to identify when you’ve accidentally included the wrong person, before it’s too late.”

The new feature from Google Labs can be turned on by enabling the respective feature in Gmail Settings. Similarly, it is not uncommon to realise that you have left someone important after having sent a email? Or to keep on thinking who all, from your long list of contacts need to be sent this email? Gmail Labs new feature termed ‘Suggest more recipients’ (recently renamed ‘Don’t forget Bob’) intends to help you do just that.

Once enabled, the Google labs feature suggests the user a list of recipients while composing a message. The recipient list suggested is based on contacts that a user might want to include based on the group of people they email often.

Four more themes

Make Gmail look like a calm patch of grass or an old school video game. Can’t decide? Choose “Random” and cycle through a different theme each day. Check out all available themes from the Themes tab under Settings.

Message translation

Turn on “Message translation” from the Labs tab under Settings, and whenever you receive an email in a language other than your own, Google Mail will automatically translate it into a language you can understand with just one click.

To-do list

Available in Google Mail, Google Calendar, iGoogle and on your mobile phone, Tasks is the simple to-do list that’s with you everywhere you go. Click “Tasks” above your chat list to get started.

Drag and drop labels

You can now drag labels onto messages and messages into labels, just like folders. The labels you use most often are easier to access right above your chat list. The rest are hidden but still accessible under “more”. Customise which labels you see from the Labels tab under Settings.

YouTube, Picasa, Flickr, and Yelp previews

Instead of just links, see previews of photos, videos, and reviews right in your email. Turn on these and other experimental features from the Labs tab under Settings.

Tasks mobile

Take your to-do list everywhere you go. Just go to mail.google.com/tasks from your mobile browser.

Indiatimes Infotech

In a move that will revolutionise motoring, a new generation of computerised dashboard devices that will bring Internet access to the driver’s seat are about to be unveiled.

The Wi-Fi-enabled gadgets, which are being developed by technology companies such as Intel and Google in conjunction with car manufacturers, will allow drivers to compose voice-activated e-mails on the move, call up restaurant reviews as they reach their destination and use 3D maps to navigate while their passengers watch movies.

The devices will go on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

However, motoring organisations have warned the so-called “infotainment” systems will distract drivers and increase the risk of accidents.

Duncan Vernon, from the road safety team at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, acknowledged that sat-nav systems could help motorists, but warned that too much gadgetry was dangerous.

“All drivers have to navigate when they are behind the wheel, and technology such as sat-navs can help drivers do this when used appropriately,” the Scotsman quoted Vernon as saying.

“But there is a serious potential for distraction, and related crashes, resulting from visual display entertainment systems unrelated to and unnecessary for driving. Most of us would be shocked if we saw a driver reading an encyclopaedia or texting behind the wheel, and rightly so. When behind the wheel, a driver’s primary task is to drive,” Vernon added.

Edmund King, AA president, said: “We must accept that technology is evolving and will not go away. But in general terms we think that the internet should be reserved for the cyber-highway rather than cause distractions for drivers on the real highway.”

Neil Greig, director of policy and research for the Institute of Advanced Motoring, said: “The impact of these devices on driving standards has not been sufficiently examined. Therefore it must be a basic requirement that the new interactive technology only works when cars are stationary.” (ANI)

Beijing: At least two foreign journalists living in Beijing have had their Google email accounts hacked, a journalists’ advocacy group in china said on Monday. The hackers changed settings so that all Gmail messages would be forwarded to unfamiliar addresses.

The journalists apparently discovered that their accounts had been hacked after Google announced last week that hackers had attempted sophisticated attacks on its security infrastructure.  The attacks were trace to mainland china.

Google also said that two Gmail accounts had been compromised and, separately, that dozens of people pressing for human rights in china had had their email accounts hacked.

In retaliation, Google had said it would talk to the Chinese government about ceasing the practice of self-censorship of its Chinese-language search engine, Google.cn, and that the search company could close down its operations in china.

The two foreign journalists victimized by hackers were among a large number of Gmail users in china who checked their accounts after Google’s announcement and discovered their accounts to be compromised.

Cyber attack insider’s job? Google to probe

Google is investigating whether one or more employees may have helped facilitate a cyber-attack that the US search giant said it was a victim of  in mid-December, two sources said the sources, who are familiar with the situation, said the attack may have been facilitate by people working in Google china’s office.

New Google Inc software will start up a computer as fast as a television can be turned on, the search company said as it showed off its Chrome operating system designed for PCs that do their work on the web.

Google gave the first public look at its Chrome four months after declaring its intention of developing the PCs main software, a move that puts it directly against Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc.

True to Google’s internet-pedigree, the Chrome OS resembles a Web browser more than it does a traditional computer operating system like Microsoft Windows, matching Google’s ambition to drive people to the Web – where they can see Google ads.

The software will initially be available by the holiday season of 2010 on netbooks that meet Google’s hardware specifications, such as using only memory chips to store data instead of slower hard drives.

Sundar Pichai, vice-president of product management for Google’s Chrome OS, said computers running it will be able to start in less than seven seconds. “From the time you press boot you want it to be like a TV: You turn it on and you should be on the Web using your applications,” he said.