Since the introduction of the first Samsung Galaxy Note in 2011, competitors have placed on the market  many phones billed as “bigger than ever before.” But none could match Samsung’s success or give the users a compelling reason to own such a big smartphone. Samsung smartly created a sub-market for the device that’s primarily a phone, but also pretends to be a tablet, and the Galaxy Note 3 is the latest model for this niche. The price of the Galaxy Note 3 is proportional to its size, larger than average – it retails for around $950 contract free and $299 with a two-year contract. OS is Android 4.3 with Samsung’s TouchWizz skin over the top. Its dimensions (5.95 x 3.12 x 0.33) suffered almost no modifications, but magically the display is bigger, reaching 5.7 inches, and has been upgraded to a 1080p Super AMOULED panel with full HD at 386ppi. The colors are vibrant, maybe even a bit too saturated when using the camera viewfinder. The weight of the device has dropped from 6.45 oz. to 5.93 and the sensitivity of the screen can be increased to make it possible to use the phone while wearing gloves, perfect for cold climates. The appearance of the device shows improvement. Unfortunately the edges continue to have that faux-metal finish that soon will start to peel off; an actual metallic band would really give the premium feel we’re looking for in a smartphone, especially one that’s as pricey as the Note 3. The back of the phone feels much better than other Galaxies of late: the leathery finish looks much better, picks up no fingerprints, and provides a good amount of traction for the fingers. Although it’s still plastic, it feels strong and is removable to allow...

The password and its powers to secure our data is a topic that’s constantly on the minds of technology companies, and equally discussed by users. The central problem with the current form of data protection is what it needs to be most effective: passwords should be long, complicated, and changed regularly, thus increasing the possibility that they are forgotten by the account holder. Considering that that typical person nowadays requires 11 unique passwords, the system is unsustainable. The security landscape is subject to change even more since employees started bringing their own smartphones and other devices to work. Proliferation of individual devices is seen by many as a serious security threat, but there are also those who see this as a chance to improve security by using biometric authentication. Some researchers are inclined to think that mobile computing will be the driver and enabler of it. Biometric authentication is not new technology; it actually started in 2004 when IBM introduced the first fingerprint reader in its ThinkPad T42. Clain Anderson said then that the customer response to the fingerprint reader made biometric security a must-have feature; they invested in development of built-in iris scanners on portable computers. The trend continued, and now many of the laptops come with built-in fingerprint readers. Living in an era dominated by smartphones, the same tactic is slowly being adopted. The latest iPhone model, the 5S, has as one of its main attractions (and distractions at the same time), the Touch ID function, the sensor that scans the holder’s fingerprint, but only unlocks the device if the finger is that of the owner’s. Responding to privacy concerns over who will have access to this data, Apple stated that the fingerprint record won’t be saved on their servers, but on...

Canonical’s Ubuntu Edge won’t happen after the company’s effort to raise $32 million via crowdsourced funding fell short with nearly $13 million raised in 31 days. However, the experiment proved that mass market phone companies can’t rest too easy – there are still ways to tackle the status quo, and room for innovation that many customers would be excited to pay a premium for. The Ubuntu Edge has been highly praised – the mammoth with a 128GB SSD and a minimum 4GB of RAM, equipped with a multi-core CPU. Its announced ability to turn into a desktop when docked gave a clear idea about the direction for the mobile era. But the 24,000 supporters were not enough for this project to become reality. Is it that the world is not yet ready for convergence, unwilling to use a single device that acts as both phone and PC? Or is it too high of a price? Perhaps both.  Rumors have it that despite the ambitious funding target of $32 million, the device would have coasted backers $830 to get a phone. Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Canonical, thinks the core lesson here is first to secure substantially more industrial commitment to the concept as that will take care of covering the base development costs. The domino effect will be to set a lower target of $10 or $20 million and to signal the backers that they’ll get the device at cost before it actually goes onto the market. Words of wisdom? Despite the failure to raise the full amount that would have made possible the manufacture of the Ubuntu Edge phone, the plans for it are shelved, not abandoned. In the meantime, a Linux-based smartphone is expected to be launched next year, followed by a...

As a Peace Corps volunteer serving in rural Paraguay, I encountered moments when a quick internet search would have been a blessing. The resource could help with verb conjunction as I fumbled through Spanish or event planning during the rainy season. I shrugged off the inconvenience as part of the job. Away from the city, internet connectivity simply wasn’t an option. Now, an exciting new project delivers life-altering internet connectivity for isolated communities. Google’s recent launch of super pressure balloons, dubbed Project Loon, has drawn attention to the emergence of balloon-based internet connectivity. Space Data and World Surveillance Group have launched similar projects, mainly for military purposes. Google is the first to use the technology to bring 3G speeds to remote areas for civilian use. The company is also the first to attempt long-term operations using the balloons, currently up to 100 days. If it works out, here are the kinds of problems that Project Loon could solve: Back in 2010, my Paraguayan students were in a frenzy over the FIFA World Cup. I jumped on the opportunity to turn their fanaticism into a learning experience. We began a geography series highlighting dominant teams like Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, and the Netherlands. As I began the class session on Japan, I remembered a college friend who was teaching in Tokyo at the time. I thought: How awesome would it be to have our students interact with each other in real time. They could see one another’s faces and take a little tour of each other’s worlds. In my rural station, access to basic necessities was scarce. Forget smartphones and data plans. The infrastructure simply was not available. Google’s balloon-based connectivity could change that. On a larger scale, balloon-based connections permit nonprofits, hospitals, and businesses in developing regions...

“If everyone is busy making everything, how can anyone perfect anything?” That was the opening line of the 24th Apple World Wide Developers Conference that wrapped up last week. Tickets to this year’s event sold out in only 71 seconds. Over 1,000 engineers from more than 60 countries gathered for the first-look reveals of software, hardware, and service updates. While technology perfection may be an impossible utopian dream, the continuing quest for improvement and exuberant excitement around Apple innovation makes WWDC a high-energy event every year. Although speculation on the unveilings was rampant in online software forums, Apple CEO Tim Cook and his team managed to present a few surprises. OS X Mavericks The reign of big cats (OS X Mountain Lion) is now ended, and cool California places are the new nomenclature theme for OS X), starting with the famous Northern California big wave beach, Mavericks. Craig Federighi, Senior VP of Software Engineering, introduced over 200 features of the new OS. Some of those are relevant to all Mac users, and others are geared towards professionals in different fields. New core technologies are the most impressive updates, with great impact on power efficiency and performance. Timer Coalescing groups low-level operations, reducing CPU utilization by 72 percent (it spends more time in a low-power state) without affecting performance and responsiveness. App Nap reduces the power consumed by unused apps and Compressed Memory increases speed and responsiveness by compressing inactive data when not used, uncompressing it instantly when needed. The sync between devices is deepened, Finder Tabs and Tags are introduced with applicability anywhere on the Mac and in iCloud, making Finder-browsing and document search easier, Tags acting as search filters. Safari’s new sidebar eases access to bookmarks and reading lists, while the Shared Links...

Asus is at it again. Imagination and innovation are once more on display with the newly revealed Transformer Book Trio. A mind-blowing gadget, it’s a slick notebook, a dockable tablet and a veritable desktop PC, all in one.  The world’s first three-in-one mobile device is designed to offer extreme flexibility, encompassing work, play, and social interaction. The Asus design shows the desire of technology developers to simplify today’s digital lifestyle and the multi-device headaches that come with it. When traveling for business, we’ve all looked into our bag and probably wondered whether it was really necessary to bring along the laptop, the tablet, the smartphone, and maybe even a standalone camera, on a four-day business trip. In Asus’ case, the streamlining effort started with transforming expectations for an average notebook. The result of the effort is a triple-faced gadget with dual operating systems, running off a pair of processors and double battery power. When the Trio tablet is docked, it becomes a notebook and can switch between Windows 8 and Android Jelly Bean through a physical hotkey, a similar feature found on the Transformer AiO.. This gives the user the ability to access any of the over 700,000 apps in Google Play and over 50,000 apps in Windows Store. The transition between the two modes occurs smoothly allowing users to sync data and even to continue surfing the same webpage they were on before moving from notebook to tablet mode. The hotkey will not work if the tablet is unlatched from the keyboard dock, in that case it will only run the Android OS. A 4th generation Core i7-4500U, a bigger 750GB of hard drive space, and a 33Wh cell battery are placed under its hood. The PC station serves as a charger for...

We’ve blogged before on the shift from PCs and laptops to tablets, a trend that still has momentum at its back. Intel, the world’s leading chip manufacturer for personal computers, has announced the release of a new product that may reasonably swing the balance—or at least level the playing field. Intel’s Haswell chip has been outfitted with several new components that permit faster, more energy efficient operations. As a result, the computers that use the chip can also become faster, greener, and lighter. As a bonus, Haswell machines will also offer improved graphics, less heat generation, and the gift of silence. Haswell at a Glance Microsleeps to save power: “If someone is typing on their PC, we can literally shut everything down when it’s not being used and then immediately bring it back up again in between the keystrokes,” says Navin Shenoy, vice president of the Intel Architecture Group, in an interview with the BBC. “The system is smart enough to know it’s not being used for those nanoseconds. That’s the kind of granular power management at the chip level that we’ve never had before.” This feature promotes longer battery life and less energy drain. Active-use battery life has been reduced by 50%, with inactive battery use improved by 75 percent compared to the previous generation. Quieter and cooler: Certain versions of Haswell contain a CPU core that uses six watts of power, which is low enough to ditch a noisy, cumbersome fan. The unit stays cool with less noise. Notable leap in GPU: The average user will have no need for an additional graphics card, which previously added to the cost and bulk of PCs. Notebooks and two-in-one devices can now compete with tablets on weight and bulk. Increased capability: Haswell’s CPU performance...

The annual Google conference ended a few days ago. This year the event was more developer-centric. Many were disappointed by the lack of new gadgets, but this year’s conference focused on behind-the-scenes action. News about Android, Google Chrome, Google Maps, Google Search, and Google Play took center stage. Android By now, 900 million activations of Android devices have occurred, and more than 48 billion apps installed from the Google Play store. Developers read these numbers as serious interest from the customer side. To aid development efforts, Google introduced a new tool – Android Studio – which allows them to work in multiple languages and for different sizes much easier than ever. Google Chrome Google named it “the most popular browser used in the world” and the 750 million active users worldwide agree. Last year, there were 450 million active users, much of the growth having happened on tablets and phones. And because it is a platform itself, developers use it to build apps, using all open tools offered by Chrome. More news on the operating system will be announced later this year. Google Maps for Mobile For the past ten years, the Google Maps product has been unmatched. Now, changes are making it more user-friendly and will help us discover new places, instead of just taking you from point A to point B. Maps users now have Places Recommendations, meaning that they see what places have been rated and recommended by Google+ friends. The integration with Zagat has been improved to include badges and editorial reviews right in the app. Exclusive offers from different locations can now be displayed directly in the information cards, redeemable on the spot or saved within the app for later use. Google Explore is the new feature that enables...

Is it a tablet, is it a phone? Why not two in one? Asus keeps coming up with very interesting technology and based on their latest release, one could say that they’re having a good time experimenting with the industry’s most popular mobile devices: the smartphone and the tablet. At the Mobile World Congress they revealed the pair Fonepad and Padfone Infinity. The first one is a 7-inch Android tablet with a 1280×800 display. It runs on Android 4.1.2 OS with 16GB of storage and 1GB RAM. A microSD slot for expanded file storage is available. What makes this tablet interesting is the micro SIM for voice calls. Although highly commented upon, with clear emphasis on its futility (who would want to hold a “phone” that has the microphone too far from the earpiece because of its size that resembles a book?), it’s still a nice experiment result. Still, headsets were created with a purpose, weren’t they? The 3MP rear camera is available only for Asian models; those built for Europe don’t have it. The US market most likely won’t make room for it and that’s because it lacks LTE; Asus has only 3G support. Another interesting aspect of the Fonepad is that it’s got Intel inside, more precisely PowerVR SGX 540 GPU paired with a single-core 1.2 GHz Atom. This is quite the involution as far as the strength of the device is concerned (compared to the quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor that’s in the Nexus 7), games or more elaborate applications will have it slow down fast. As availability, Asia will welcome it in March at around $249 and Europe in April at 219 Euros. The Padfone is not a new product line for Asus, but the updates made to the hardware...

Europe hosts the world’s premiere mobile event, a supersized tech fair that recently brought together over 72,000 participants from more than 220 countries and over 1,700 companies. Held this year in Barcelona, the Mobile World Congress is where the latest innovations in the mobile ecosystem are revealed, with emphasis on the technology behind the scenes such as networks, support systems, connected spaces, and more. This is the ultimate event for any technology fan, featuring exciting phones, tablets, back-end solutions, applications, and accessories. At this year’s event, over 50 percent of the attendees were C-level executives. Keynote speakers included Dr. Paul Jacobs, Chairman & CEO – Qualcomm, Stephen Elop, President & CEO – Nokia, Gary Kovacs, CEO – Mozilla, Mitchell Baker, Chairman – Mozilla, Dennis Crowley, Founder & CEO – Foursquare, Drew Houston, Founder & CEO – Dropbox, René Obermann, CEO – Deutsche Telekom, Axel Dauchez, CEO – Deezer, Randall Stephenson, President & CEO – AT&T, Franco Bernabè, Chairman, GSMA, Chairman & CEO – Telecom Italia Group, and Vittorio Colao, Chief Executive – Vodafone. There were many big announcements and unveilings. Highlights included: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 SoC (system-on-chip) phone lacks a competitive peer. The company makes the world’s most sophisticated 4G modems, advanced radio frequency connectors, and can roll a mind-blowing applications processor to boot. It’s truly impressive how Qualcomm managed to fit 4 “Krait” cores, Adreno 320 graphics, and an on-die LTE modem into a phone; it wouldn’t come as a surprise if they will be taking on more of Samsung’s business. Nvidia and Intel have made good progress on the mobile SoC branch, but not good enough to consider themselves competitors. Neither has the capability to deliver an integrated LTE modem with apps processor sooner than the end of 2013. This year Qualcomm runs unopposed. Nokia announced to everyone’s delight that they’re making a wireless...

We’re already well into the new year, but it’s not too late – or early – to anticipate some of the consumer tech releases that will be highly anticipated this year. Last month we learned that the Blackberry 10 won’t be available to U.S. consumers until sometime next month. Here are a few other products that techies are keeping an eye on in 2013. Mobile Operating System from Firefox Apple has one, Google does too; it’s about time Mozilla Firefox joined the Mobile Operating System group. Because entering such a compact market is not easy, the Firefox OS claims it will be cheaper than Android, that it will support rich content with HTML5, and tap into the hardware differently. Another piece of information that leaked is the OS’s ability to control the phone’s camera for slow motion recording or quick, successive shots. Surface Pro tablet from Microsoft Available since Feb. 9, Surface Pro runs on Intel I5 dual-core processor featuring the full Windows 8 Pro operating system. Microsoft has high hopes from it as it is the first device to bring a full operating system to the tablet format without compromising quality. Opinions on it are diverse, although its “snappier and more ‘performant’” (Mary Jo Foley for the ZDNet tech blog), its reliance on the power cable doesn’t help it in the run for the best tablet while its immutability puts it below any laptop. Price-wise it is not a friendly device: the Surface Pro starts at $899 ($200 more than a comparable iPad) and you’ll need to invest another $120 for the keyboard. This two-ways compromised device, as a tablet and as a laptop, makes me wonder, wouldn’t it be more comfortable to get the 64GB MacBook Air laptop at $999? Amazon Kindle...

After a stellar 2012, what does 2013 hold for Apple? Let’s have a look at the online speculation and buzz, and tell us your thoughts in the comments. Apple Radio One of the new products on this list is the “Apple Radio”. This will be a free service that would gain revenue through ads, as its (most likely) competitor, Pandora. Rumors about it appeared last fall and since then Pandora’s stock fell approximately 12%. No major labels are on board yet and according to speculations, the launch would take part sometime in March. Apple Television Right before the holiday season, in November, analysts say that Apple will release an actual television, not just the Apple TV. The iTV might measure between 42” and 55” and costs are estimated at around $1500-$2000. iPhone 5S Like its older brother, the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 5 will get its second-generation offspring. No technical specifications leaked yet, but bets are set for a better battery life and an improved camera. iOS 7 We all remember the chaos caused by the release of iOS 6 without the Google Maps (and YouTube), so the pressure is high for Apple to release a strong and stable operating system this year. iOS could bring an improved version of Passbook, the digital-wallet app. iPad Mini with Retina display November 2012 was another great month for Apple due to the launch of iPad Mini, and although it’s only been out a few months, more and more are turning their attention to the next generation, the iPad Mini 2. Rumors have it that it will address the disappointment of those who have been expecting the Retina display with the first model. Shenzhen Century Science & Technology (SCST), a subsidiary of Foxconn, seems to have supplied...

Once considered the go-to phone for the business elite, today BlackBerry struggles to stay above water in a marketplace dominated by iOS and Android operating systems. Three years ago, Research in Motion (RIM) held 50 percent of the smartphone market in the US; in September of 2011 there were eighty million worldwide subscribers to BlackBerry, and 200 million shipped smartphones. But with no newly released device in over a year, BlackBerry now holds less than 5 percent of the smartphone market. Corporate giants have been stepping away from using BlackBerry devices, giving the exodus heft and volume. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s CEO, told Fortune that her company is one of them, moving “from BlackBerries to smartphones.“ “One of the really important things for Yahoo’s strategy moving forward is mobile,” Mayer told the magazine. “So it was really important that our engineers, our salespeople, really everyone throughout our whole organization really understand Android, iPhones, and, you know, Windows 8 and really get a sense of what’s happening there and how to create an amazing experience… so we decided we wanted to get everyone upgraded to smartphones.” Goldman Sachs employees were given the option to use iPhones in fall 2012. The White House, which previously used the BlackBerry for security reasons, recently started supporting the iPhone (President Obama reportedly uses his iPad during cabinet meetings). BlackBerry’s popularity has been dropping considerably, even the most loyal users are either thinking about replacing their devices, or are already carrying two devices, the secondary one being an iPhone or an Android. CIO writer Al Sacco wrote a thoughtful piece that sums up the current situation in an ingenuous manner: users love their BlackBerry devices for the keyboard, notification systems and messaging capabilities, but at the same time they are very...

Whoever said that practical toys couldn’t be fun had never heard of SmartThings. Tenants will soon have access to an undeniably practical, incredibly fun, and potentially life- and money-saving set of devices. Before the ink on the business plan has dried, the product has already taken off, blazing a trail in home automation that is bright and promising. Thousands are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their SmartThings starter kit. SmartThings, a breakthrough technology company, has a simple goal to “add intelligence to everyday things.” From this humble approach, CTO Jeff Hagins and his staff of 25 reimagined ordinary operations within the home. By rethinking the connection between a device and the intelligence needed to control it, SmartThings has created a wireless network that can help tenants monitor and operate endless facets of their homes with a smartphone or tablet. According to a Kickstarter survey, potential users are most enthusiastic about SmartThings impact on DIY home security. Residents want an easier way to monitor their homes. They want to know who is at the front door long before they reach the foyer. They want to ensure that the Christmas lights aren’t burning down the house while they are away at a party. They want to enjoy their vacations without worrying about a burst pipe and flooded basement. SmartThings’ series of wireless devices such as low-resolution, cloud-controlled cameras, temperature and moisture sensors address those concerns and more. While SmartThings can be used to mitigate major home catastrophes, the simple daily functions are also impressive. By attaching a contact sensor to a closet door, a sister knows precisely when her younger sibling is attempting to make off with some “borrowed” clothing.  A motion sensor alerts a mother when her sleepwalking child has left his bedroom; Lumawake can...

Canceling credit cards and getting a new drivers license after an “old-fashioned” wallet is lost or stolen is no picnic. But what if you lost your wallet with $900 inside, plus your address book, your bank passwords, access to your email and social media accounts? That’s what it is like when you lose your smartphone or have it stolen. No wonder that these days travelers worry more about losing their phone than their wedding ring, according to a recent Intel survey. Around 60 million smartphones and cellphones are lost, stolen or damaged each year, according to Asurion, an insurance cellphone provider. A replacement could cost you as much as $850 for the device alone if your loss is a top-of-the-line iPhone and you aren’t eligible for an upgrade in the near future. While your phone is still in your possession, keep these in mind: Password-protect it. This is the easiest and most secure way to keep your device private. Don’t be too lazy to enter your password every time you need to access your phone; you will be sorry afterwards for not taking this measure. Sign up for a “Find my Phone” service. All new smartphones come with the “find my phone” app that tracks your device, regardless of the carrier or insurance. Check your phone for this app and activate it. Go as far as to install extra security apps – Prey (iOS, Android, Linux, OSX, Windows), Lookout (iOS, Android), etc. iCloud: Erase your device remotely (for iOS and OS X devices) The safest way to protect the data you have on your phone, from contacts to electronic banking software, is to revoke access to the device by remotely locking or wiping it. Make sure you’ve been using the iCloud Backup or had...

Back in 2010, the blogosphere discovered and publicized a hidden feature in Windows 7 it coined “God Mode”.  It appears this feature had existed long before Windows 7.  I often see tech tips, for Windows or otherwise, with limited value or that are unique to solving rare OS issues.  This feature doesn’t expose any new feature in Windows, but does provide incredible utility by providing access to all your Windows customization settings in one convenient folder, presented in a well-organized fashion.  No more frustrating perusing of Windows help forums or calling your tech-savvy friends in an attempt to find that hard-to-find Windows setting. I’m late to the party on discovery of this feature, as it was widely published back in 2010.  Checking with colleagues in the tech field, none of them had seen this before.  Perhaps you missed it, too.  With that in mind, here’s how, in a matter of seconds, to create your God Mode folder.  For those IT professionals concerned about a feature termed “God Mode”, there is no new Windows features or settings exposed through this trick, other than the trick itself.  It is harmless but incredibly useful. Here we go: 1)  Right click on your Desktop 2) Create a New Folder 3)  Rename the folder:  GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} 4)  The folder icon will now change:                   5)  Double click the new folder.  Enjoy. It appears this works with Windows 8 as well. Get more details in a CNET instructional video. Ina Fried, the author of the CNET article, had an exclusive interview with Steven Sinofsky, the President of Windows at Microsoft until last month.  In that conversation, Sinofsky divulged that many more GUID shortcuts exist in Windows.  We’ll leave you to discover those yourself. ...

The ‘YotaPhone’, a two-sided smartphone out of Russia, has been a topic of much tech chatter for the past few days. Industry buzz calls the development a surprise, as Russian technology developers have thus far kept a low profile in the mobile phone market. Will they profoundly impact our next generation of smartphones? With this new product, CEO Vladislav Martynov is trying to make an entrance and change the smartphone landscape via innovation, something he thinks has been missing from the market recently. Think your iPhone is boring? He agrees. Fighting back is event in the prototype phone design, which has a unique dual-screen, with one screen on each side of the device. The front of the phone has the traditional LCD screen and the back has an electronic-paper display (E-Ink) that’s black and white. This combination of screens supposedly offers a longer battery life (+50%) by dividing different information on each of them – the frontal one will allow working with apps, texts and calls, while the E-Ink side is designed for reading news and books, for reminders and calendar appointments, missed calls and other notifications. The electronic-paper side would be easier to read in sunlight, but would hardly affect the phone’s 2,100 mAh battery. Martynov believes that the prototype will be a success, commenting: “two years ago we were not so dependent on all the kinds of information we consume now, from Facebook and Twitter to news and other RSS feeds. The smartphone is now a window onto this virtual life, but today there’s a lot of disappointment when you miss information. Our electronic paper display with our applications will remove this irritation.” (BBC) Early reviews say there are some limitations to the E-Ink screen – it doesn’t accept touch input, relying...

Just in time for the holiday rush, Google brings shoppers, travelers and those who find themselves looking for an exit new access to indoor maps.  The new service offers over 10,000 indoor layouts for malls, stores, museums, casinos, and airports from different parts of the world. The technology powerhouse is late to the indoor map market but brings volume and global reach –  Microsoft’s Bing Maps has launched indoor maps in 2010 with 3,100 maps. Currently the Google indoor map service is available in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Sweden, and Switzerland. Navigating on Google Indoor Maps follows the same paths as exploring Google Maps. The steps to follow are simple: Find an available Indoor Maps location. Zoom into the map until you start to see an indoor floor plan of the building. Use the level switcher to move from the ground floor to other available floors in the building. Searching works exactly as it does in the rest of Google maps for mobile, but the search results for Indoor Maps will only show when you’re fully zoomed into a building where an indoor map is available. The Android Latitude feature is seamlessly integrated with the indoor maps as well, thus allowing you to find your friends and children with a few simple touches of your mobile phone. The service will expand with user uploads of  building plans online. If you want to see your residential, commercial or retail property on the service, uploading is available in the US, UK, and Japan. Google is also starting to collect indoor images similar to Street View. The images will augment the floor plans and give you a look inside buildings around the world from your tablet, laptop or mobile device....

The holiday season is official upon us. Whether you’re traveling near or far to visit friends and family this year, there are dozens of smartphone apps you can download to help you get where you’re going – and help you navigate a new city once you get there. Here are a few recommended apps to download before you hit the road – or fly the friendly skies: Kayak:  An excellent all around app from a website that’s been around for almost a decade now.  Search for last minute flights, hotels, car rentals. (iOS or Android) The nice thing about Kayak is that you can also search travel site competitors including Expedia, Priceline, Hotwire, and Hotels.com. Hipmunk: Similar to Kayak, you can search for hotels and flights but an added convenience is the way they present the data in an organized timeline so it’s easy to read and compare with your schedule. Plus, once you choose your ideal travel itinerary, it easily integrates with Google calendar so you have it on the go. (iOS or Android) The Weather Channel: Unlike the free weather app that may have come on your phone, The Weather Channel app provides detailed 10 day forecasts. With ultra-local forcasts and animated radar, it’s an excellent free upgrade option. (iOS or Android)   Road Ninja: In need of fuel for your car or your family? Download Road Ninja (iOS or Android) to see what’s coming up on the next exits. (iOS or Android)   HopStop:  If you’re in the city this week and using public transportation for your travel needs then HopStop is your one stop shop. With information from more than 62 major cities, it’s a complete guide to public transportation, walking directions, taxis, and car rentals.  (iOS or Android) There are endless...

“Virtualization”  is one of the hottest buzzwords in the IT world today.  Virtualizing servers has become a common practice in most large IT shops.  We have recently seen the introduction of virtualization with graphics processing cards (GPUs)  And of special interest to executives and IT professionals exploring Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) for their business, smart phone virtualization may present a solution to security and privacy concerns. Even without the intentional practice of BYOD, the flood of personal smart phones and tablets entering the workplace raises many questions about security.  Today’s workers demand the flexibility to work not just from employer-provided desktops or laptops, but from personal smart phones and tablets. As these devices encourage out-of-office connectivity, productivity and responsiveness, most companies are loath to discourage such behavior. But when personal devices are used to access corporate email, applications and data, both the personal privacy demands of the user and the enterprise’s security and control requirements are simultaneously in need of control points and protection measures.  The same goes for company provided consumer devices, which end up being used not only for business, but the inevitable access of personal email, data and media. So how to build a wall between the personal and corporate worlds, even when using just one device? Virtualization may hold the key. One of the industry leaders in virtualization, VMWare, has recently unveiled their  “MVP” (Mobile Virtualization Platform)  that will allow a company to introduce iOS and Android devices securely into the enterprise.  The access is controlled via a separate workspace on the mobile device that is entirely controlled by the company.  Essentially, personal and business applications and usage are separated. The user of a mobile device MVP-enabled now has 2 personas:  Personal and business.  The user can toggle between...

Ever wondered what happens after you close your browser and end yet another session online? Have you ever felt like you’re being watched – and maybe even gossiped about – by those persistent tracking cookie monsters as you blaze a trail via your browser? If you ask yourself why anyone would care about your interests and what happens to the zillions of pieces of search data generated daily, the answer is simple: information is power. Our personal data is the most valuable asset class of the 21st century. Cookies are not the only way our activities are monitored. Every online action is stored in cyberspace, regardless of the device used, be it PC, laptop, or cellphone. Every transaction is a little piece of puzzle that will generate our consumer profile. Being smart about protecting this data is our new personal challenge – and a far more complicated task than stashing physical valuables and personal paperwork in a safe deposit box. Companies have already started the race to cash in. Azigo, Mydex, The DataBanker, and Personal.com are offering a cloud-based hub that allows users to safely store and/or remove their personal digital information from everything from medical records to music and financial reports. For many users, the biggest complaint about the online environment today is privacy concerns. But we still manage to be pleasantly amazed by search engines that “read our minds,” returning suggestions extremely close to what we’re looking for after typing in just a few letters. (These “miracles” are made possible through browsing history and cache. This data is now available across all devices, so it follows you from phone to laptop to tablet, as long as you’re signed in to your Google or Apple account.) Another common complaint is the stream of...