Mobile Technology: Marine Corps Get Smartphone Network

Further incorporating mobile technology into the military, the U.S. Marine Corps will soon use a tactical smartphone network developed to support humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercises.
The Office of Naval Research purchased from Lockheed Martin a MONAX system for the Marine Corps Forces Pacific Experimentation Center.
A portable, private 4G network, it provides voice, data and video services through commercial Smartphone technologies.
"We are proud to help the Marine Corps support this critical mission," UPI.com quoted Sam Guthrie, MONAX program director for Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Defense, as saying. "MONAX is a unique offering that provides an affordable, portable network for a wide range of military, civil and humanitarian missions."
MONAX provides users with a 4G private network they can operate anywhere. Connecting off-the-shelf smartphones to a cellular base station infrastructure, this secure broadband network system enables users to securely send and receive data.
Through the use of a secure RF Link, strong exportable encryption serves as a protection for communications, enabling the safe transfer of pertinent and sensitive information.

read more>>

Mashable Media Summit - Mobile Technology Advances for 2012

At the Mashable Media Summit, Pete Cashmore and other thought leaders discuss the future of

World’s 7 billionth citizen more likely to die of diabetes

cientists have revealed that world citizen number 7 billion is less likely to die from infectious diseases like measles or even AIDS, and more likely to contract diabetes or other non-communicable diseases (NCDs), as they are now the leading causes of deaths globally.


The pathological picture changes, as more than half the world``s 7 billion people live in urban areas.

“Our new world citizen number 7 billion is more likely to grow up in an urban setting, which increases his or her risk of getting diabetes, as well as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cancer and heart disease,” said Siri Tellier, from the Copenhagen School of Global Health at the University of Copenhagen.

World citizen number 7 billion, who was estimated to be born on 31 October, will face very different diseases than that of children born only a few decades ago.

As the population of urban areas keeps growing, it rapidly changes the global health challenges.

“Until 2008, the majority of the world population lived in rural areas, but since then the majority has become urban, and most future population growth will happen in urban areas of developing countries. And one third of them, a little more than one billion, live in urban slums,” stated Siri Tellier.

read more>>

Facebook Says India Users Not Hit by Hacking Attack

Internet site Facebook Inc. Thursday said user accounts in India weren't affected by the spam attack which posted pornographic and violent images on the pages of users of the popular social networking website in the U.S. earlier this week.
Denying a recent media report, Facebook said that there have been inaccurate reports of users' accounts being hacked in India.
"This is not true. Protecting the people who use Facebook from spam and malicious content is a top priority for us".
Facebook has 25 million users in India.
Earlier, a report on the Midday tabloid website said accounts of more than 200,000 Facebook users were hacked and weblinks to their morphed pornographic pictures were sent as news feeds to friends and family.
However, Facebook denied this, saying users' photos were not transferred to an unwanted site and that no accounts were compromised.
Facebook's denial comes as the company Tuesday acknowledged a "coordinated spam attack" in the U.S. over the weekend, where some of its users were tricked into pasting and executing "malicious javascript" in their browser URL bar, causing them to share offensive content without knowing it.
"Our efforts have drastically limited the damage caused by this attack, and we are now in the process of investigating to identify those responsible," Facebook said, in a separate response to the attack overseas.
The company has a no-nudity policy and requires that members be at least 13 years old. Users are encouraged to report questionable content via links on Facebook pages. The social network also removes pornography on its own initiative.
"We are always working to improve our systems to isolate and remove material that violates our terms, and take action on those who is responsible for these types of content," the company said Thursday.
The site is facing challenges at a time when it is set to unveil a major redesign of the profile pages of its 800 million users. The redesign, called Timeline, is supposed to allow Facebook users to let the site organize all of their actions chronologically.

read more>>

Facebook warns of recent wave of spam

Facebook said Wednesday that it has stopped most of the spam that has flooded many users' pages with pictures showing graphic sex and violence.
The social-networking company urged its 800 million-plus users to remain vigilant to keep their accounts from being hijacked.
That includes reporting suspicious links on friends' pages and not clicking on links that offer deals that are too good to be true.
Social-networking sites are popular targets for spammers because people are more likely to trust and share content that comes from people they know. This makes spam, scams and viruses easy to spread.
Still, Facebook says less than 4 percent of content shared on the site is spam. By comparison, about 74 percent of email is spam, according to security firm Symantec, though the bulk gets filtered out before reaching the inbox.
Over the past couple of days, many users have complained about finding links on their Facebook pages taking them to images depicting jarring violence and graphic pornography. Although the way the latest spam messages spread isn't new, their content is more shocking than the typical scam enticing a free iPod shuffle.
The latest attack tricked users into clicking on links by offering some sort of promise — free plane tickets, a fun new video or answers to a quiz, for example, said Vikram Thakur, principal security response manager at Symantec.
Clicking on the link took users to a page that asked them to copy and paste a line of malicious JavaScript programming code into the address bar of their Web browser.

read more>>

New technology comes with new privacy concerns

New technologies such as Apple Inc.’s Siri and Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle Fire are pushing both the limits of mobile technology and the amount of data that can be collected about users. High-speed cellular service and relatively slow mobile hardware has supercharged hand-held devices and upped the ante on privacy concerns.
“I think that individuals do not understand that they are providing all of this detailed information when they sign up for services,” said Ed Yohnka, director of communications and public policy for the American Civil Liberties of Illinois. “We need to make sure engaging in public life doesn’t result in harm or intrusion upon an individual’s privacy,” warns Ed Yohnka.
Apple's latest iPhone, the 4S, houses weapons-grade technology in its glass body. Siri, a project that originated in the depths of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, allows the user to interact and control the phone’s features by speaking to it in everyday language.

read more >>

T-Mobile USA Gains Net Subscribers in 3rd Quarter

New plans at T-Mobile USA helped the struggling No. 4 carrier stabilize its business in the third quarter after dismal results earlier this year.
The improvement comes as AT&T Inc.'s deal to buy T-Mobile from its German parent Deutsche Telekom AG has hit a roadblock in Washington. The Justice Department sued to stop the deal in August, saying it will reduce competition in the industry.
T-Mobile USA on Thursday said it gained a net 126,000 subscribers in the July to September period after three quarters of losses. It still lost contract subscribers, who are the most lucrative, but at a slower rate. The company credited its "Value" plans, which give subscribers the option to pay lower monthly fees if they bring their own phones or pay full price for new phones.

AP

A sign for a T-Mobile store is displayed,... View Full Caption

T-Mobile USA gained non-contract subscribers under its own brand for the first time in more than a year, helped by plans that provide access to faster "4G" data service.

read more >>

Adobe's decision to abandon Flash for mobile technology decision, or economic Continue reading on Examiner.com Adobe's decision to abandon Flash for mobile technology decision, or economic - San Antonio Technology | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/technology-in-san-antonio/adobe-s-decision-to-abandon-flash-for-mobile-technology-decision-or-economic

dobe announced earlier today that they have decided to abandon their Flash for Mobile software in favor of developing for HTML 5 support instead.  Much of the current reporting on this story is following the idea that Adobe is finally conceding a loss to Steve Jobs following their famous debate over the decision to exclude Flash support on iOS devices.
Jobs decided that HTML 5 was a better alternative to supporting media and animation over the web.  Apple has a long history of abandoning technology too soon, just as they did with Firewire.  In reality however, while HTML 5 does provide many advances over the previous iterations of the ubiquitous markup language, it is still years away from being completed.  The timeline for the technology is already behind schedule and is not expected to receive W3C Recommendation status until the year 2022.  Until that time, a large majority of websites will continue to include Flash media.  In fact, some websites wrap their entire content in Flash animations.  Many ads are also presented using Flash, as annoying as such ads may be.

read more>>

Creating an Aura for Insurers With Mobile Technology

Many of us are still wired to the office, tied down to the trusty PC. But the number of business users on the go—not to mention consumers who stay connected 24/7 via their smartphone—isn’t likely to go down ever again.
Those mobile technology users enjoyed their experience on the PC or with their laptop and they want it replicated with their smartphone or tablet device.


read more >>

Africa: Mobile Media - How to Get Your Content to Your Audience

Mobile is often seen as the medium for Africa - the personal, portable devices are more numerous on the continent than traditional desktop computers.
A plenary discussion on the first day of the 2011 African Media Leaders Forum centred on the potential this mobile technology has to disrupt traditional distribution models for media content, and how media organisations can make use of this medium to reach their audience.

"Traditional media has its limitations. The mobile screen is the next platform," explained the Mobile Entertainment Forum's Emma Kaye.
"We are leap-frogging the PC and desktop environment in Africa - instead, we're going straight to mobile," Kaye added.
Mobile platforms like cell phones give media organisations the opportunity to interact with communities on a platform that is always on and used throughout the consumer's day. The devices allow for a level of personal interaction that is not possible with traditional media outlets.
"There is a deep need to interact and the mobile platform has the potential to actively engage the end user," explained Kaye.
Despite the strengths of the mobile platform, many companies find it difficult to make money from mobile devices. Audiences are often reluctant to pay for content, and some media organisations find it difficult to generate revenue.

read more>>

Africa now the world’s second largest mobile market

The mobile ecosystem in Africa currently generates approximately $56 billion or 3.5 per cent of total GDP, with mobile operators alone contributing $49 billion.

The GSMA said that Africa is now the world’s second largest mobile market by connections after Asia, and the fastest growing mobile market in the world. According to the new GSMA Africa Mobile Observatory 2011 report, Africa achieved this milestone as mobile penetration reached 649 million connections in Q4 2011 (having first exceeded 50 per cent mobile penetration in 2010). Over the past five years, the number of subscribers across Africa has grown by almost 20 per cent each year and will reach more than 735 million by the end of 2012.

Ninety-six per cent of subscriptions are pre-paid with voice services currently dominating, although uptake of data services is increasing steadily. There are currently six live HSPA+ networks across Africa, with a seventh deployment planned in the near future. By 2015, next-generation LTE networks are predicted to reach 500,000 connections in Kenya, 1.1 million connections in Nigeria and 2.5 million connections in South Africa.

The mobile ecosystem in Africa currently generates approximately $56 billion or 3.5 per cent of total GDP, with mobile operators alone contributing $49 billion. In recent studies by the World Bank and others, it was shown that there is a direct relationship between mobile penetration and GDP. In developing countries, for every 10 per cent increase in mobile penetration there is a 0.81 per cent point increase in a country’s GDP. The mobile industry contributes $15 billion in government revenues and is a significant contributor to employment in Africa. In 2010 alone, approximately 5.4 million people were employed directly and indirectly in the mobile ecosystem.

However, the Observatory reveals that huge untapped potential remains. 36 per cent of Africans within the 25 largest African mobile markets currently have no access to mobile services. Projections indicate that reaching 100 per cent mobile penetration could add over $35 billion in aggregate GDP – an increase of two per cent – but only if governments and operators work together to bring mobile communication to the entire African population.

read more >>

Tech Talk: IT trends will impact your business…

If there is one constant in life, it is change. When it comes to business, this is even more pronounced. It's important to keep watch on trends that will impact your business over time, especially your information technology.

As the baby boomer generation begins to age out of the work force and the younger generations begin to move in, they will demand technology adoption at an unprecedented rate. The generation that has been raised on smartphones and tablets will demand that these devices be supported in the workplace. They will expect to work in a paperless environment and one that is up 24/7, allowing them to work whenever and wherever they wish.

These new entrants to the work force will challenge established practices and systems and demand more agile and efficient solutions to even the smallest business challenges. They expect technology to enable and support their work, and rightly so. They have learned and grown with technology as an integral part of their life experience and they will carry this into the workplace, challenging the businesses they work for to change, in some cases radically, to meet the changing demands of an increasingly connected and technology-based economy.

Technology will drive our economic growth and recovery. We need to be prepared to embrace new technologies that will allow our business to grow and adapt. Mobility continues to push traditional IT infrastructures. The widespread adoption of smartphones has brought with it requests for access to sensitive company data in real-time. You need to be prepared to support this and do so securely.

read more>>

Uses of Mobile Technology: Increase Effectiveness and Efficiency

Click Here

Access control still a problem for mobile technology

For all the benefits provided by advanced mobile devices in the workplace, the technology also presents a number of data protection hurdles, which, according to an analyst from research firm Ovum, many businesses are failing to address.
In an interview with Infosecurity, Ovum senior analyst Andrew Kellett called current mobile security practices "immature," especially as they pertain to network access control (NAC). Many businesses are now equipping employees with smartphones and tablets – or allowing them to bring in their own devices – but they have not taken the necessary precautions to ensure these devices connect to the company network in a secure way.
"We are talking about devices that people have made a personal choice to purchase," Kellett told Infosecurity. "The issue for business is that senior people see these as valuable for connecting to systems and networks."

read more >>

Use of Mobile Technology by Business Travelers on the Rise

A recent study from PhoCusWright Inc. sponsored by Rearden Commerce revealed that the use of mobile technology by business travelers continues to increase, with more than 75% of business travelers accessing the Internet via mobile phones, and most of them being interested in mobile solutions that cater to who they are and where they’re currently located.

The survey revealed that business travelers use smart phones for:

• mapping or finding directions (80 percent);
• researching local activities (63 percent);
• researching destination information (55 percent)

read more>>

Mobiquity Founds Wireless Innovation Council; Major Public and Private Sector Organizations Partner to Identify, Collaborate on Opportunities Created

Mobiquity ( www.mobiquityinc.com ), a professional services firm specializing in the design, build, deployment and management of innovative enterprise-class mobile solutions, today announced it has founded the Wireless Innovation Council (WIC). WIC brings together strategic decision-makers from across key industries and functions to identify and collaborate on wireless innovation made possible by rapid advances in this disruptive technology. Already, almost a dozen organizations from the public and private sectors have joined WIC as charter members; additionally, Babson College's Center for Information Management Studies and the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business' Institute for Communications Technology Management will serve as WIC's exclusive academic research partners.

read more>>

China Mobile, China Unicom Back NFC Technology

China Mobile and China Unicom, two of the country's largest mobile operators, said they plan to bring SIM card-based Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to their customers.

The GSM Association (GSMA), which has been working on global standardization of NFC, announced on Tuesday that the two Chinese mobile operators were backing the technology. The companies join 43 other mobile operators in the world that have also pledged support to SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) based NFC services and products, GSMA said.

The adoption of NFC in China is significant as the country has 940 million total mobile connections, exceeding the total number of connections in Europe and the U.S. combined, according to GSMA data. China Mobile and China Unicom together have 800 million users.

China is leading a surge in mobile connections in the Asia Pacific region. Half of the world's 6 billion mobile subscribers will be in the Asia-Pacific region by the end of this year, according to a study released Tuesday.

The region will have 4.1 billion connections by 2015, when it will also account for 40 per cent of mobile data traffic worldwide, according to the study produced by GSMA in collaboration with A.T. Kearney. China had the largest number of connections in 2010, followed by India and Indonesia.

read more>>

Africa: Mobile Phone - Convenient Communication or Tracking Device?

he computer age has come and gone. We are now living in the era of the mobile Internet, says Morgan Stanley tech analyst Mary Meeker, who has predicted that by 2015 more people will be connecting to the Internet with their mobile devices than with their PCs. Considering how the tech capabilities of pocket-sized iPhones, Androids and similar devices are skyrocketing even as they maintain their relative affordability, this is not surprising news.

But people who use mobile technology to connect and share information may be more at risk if their governments are taking an interest in their activities. While computer users can make use of Internet cafes, anonymizers and other tools to help them hide their identity, mobile phones cannot offer the same level of protection.

"Usually, that phone is linked to an individual person for billing reasons or because the government requires registration of SIM cards," said a State Department official who asked not to be identified. The device "sends location information as well, which is very different from a computer," the official said.

To help promote the ability of all people to freely speak their minds and associate with whomever they want, the State Department created the Internet Freedom Program office, where officials work with many local and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to provide information on online risks and the ability to make smarter decisions about online activities.

read more>>

In an increasingly high-tech world, SMS still has its place

It was three years ago that the FCC issued a series of orders that identified requirements for a Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS), via which commercial mobile service providers would transmit emergency alerts to their subscribers’ wireless handsets. The development of CMAS was mandated by the 2006 Warning, Alert and Response Network (WARN) Act, which also required wireless operators to declare whether they voluntarily issue such alerts.

Yesterday Sprint Nextel announced that it is the first U.S. operator to offer wireless emergency alerts on its mobile network. Such alerts allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to accept and deliver warning messages to wireless networks from the president, the National Weather Service and state and local emergency operations centers.

read more>>

Intel, MasterCard Join Mobile Payment Race

Intel and MasterCard are collaborating on a solution for secure online shopping, another entry in the increasingly crowded mobile payment field.

The chip maker and credit card company are expected to launch a multi-year, strategic collaboration combining Intel's Identity Protection Technology, which builds security authentication into its chips, Ultrabook laptops and other devices, with MasterCard's wireless payment service, called PayPass.

The deal may signify the two companies' wish to compete in the growing mobile payment market, as more people shop online from mobile devices and want their shopping experiences made easier and more secure.

read more>>

Salvation Army to Use Square Technology for Mobile Donations

The Salvation Army is expanding its efforts to support the needy by teaming up with the portable payment technology of Square to develop mobile donation solutions.

Now, passersby can donate not only to the traditional workers with bells and buckets, but they can also swipe their credit cards, or simply enter their card information on a volunteer’s phone.

The Army plans to put the technology into use in strategic locations in four big cities: New York, Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco.

Salvationists would receive Android smartphones donated by Sprint, outfitted with the Square mobile card reader, and contributors can donate directly to the Army’s account.

By keeping up with the public’s dwindling propensity to carry cash, the Army feels they will be able to increase their charitable outcome substantially.

read more>>

Healthcare Practices Embrace Mobile Technologies, New CompTIA Research Reveals

MarketWatch (press release)
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., Nov 16, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Mobile health (mHealth) is becoming more of a reality as medical practices increasingly embrace mobile technologies, according to a new study by CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the information ...
read more>>

Google's music service will sell and store songs

Looking to extend its reach as a hub for entertainment and social networking, Google on Wednesday introduced a set of music features, including a download store to compete with iTunes.

The service, Google Music, will sell individual tracks and full albums, letting customers store the songs on servers, on so-called cloud accounts. And through an integration with Google's nascent social network, Google(PLUS), the company will also let customers share music by offering friends one free listen to any bought track.

Google Music puts the company in competition with Apple, Amazon and Facebook. Many analysts saw the move as part of an escalating war among those companies to develop consumer environments.

"They've got to make their ecosystem appeal to consumers in a way that Amazon and Apple have," said Michael Gartenberg, a media analyst with Gartner. "Personal cloud services are what's going to drive the next wave of consumer adoption. So Google has to be playing here. But because they're so late they have to be playing here in a unique way."

Google will sell music through the Android Market, where users of its mobile phone system buy apps, videos and e-books. The service is an expansion of Music Beta, which the company introduced in May, and will store customers' songs in remote servers and allow users to listen to them on any device or computer.

read more>>

'Hope Ash's baby has more Aishwarya than Abhishek'

While the film industry congratulated Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan on the arrival of their first baby, maverick director Ram Gopal Varma had something else to say. He tweeted: 'I just hope that she has more Aishwarya than Abhishek.' The director, who considers Ash more beautiful than the Mona Lisa, had earlier written how much he hated beautiful women getting pregnant.

read more>>