Mozilla Officially Unveils A Pre-Alpha Test Version Of Firefox For Android

Late last month, a number of sites noted that a very early build of Fennec, the mobile version of Firefox, was available to download for Android phones. However, that build wasn’t official as it was put together by an individual and optimized for the Droid device. Today, Mozilla has itself put out a pre-Alpha build of Fennec that should work at the very least on Droid and the Nexus One.

Mozilla is quick to note that this is a pre-Alpha build of the browser, and is only for testing purposes. But that isn’t stopping Mozilla’s Vladimir Vukićević from announcing it on his blog. “There also aren’t yet any automated nightly developer builds or automated updates to this build; it’s even more of a pre-nightly build (even earlier than pre-alpha).  But, it’s usable enough that we wanted to get some feedback on it as we continue to develop,” he notes.

To get this build, you can visit this link on your Android device. Or you can point your phone’s browser to: bit.ly/fennec-android. And yes, there’s a QR code on Vukićević’s blog post if you want to scan it, and download it that way. Whichever way you do it, you’ll need to make sure your settings allow you to install non-Market apps (go to Settings, Applications, and check “Unknown Sources”).

Some other warnings and notes to consider about the build from Vukićević:

* We’ve only really tested this on the Motorola Droid and the Nexus One.
* It will likely not eat your phone, but bugs might cause your phone to stop responding, requiring a reboot.
* Memory usage of this build isn’t great — in many ways it’s a debug build, and we haven’t really done a lot of optimization yet.  This could cause some problems with large pages, especially on low memory devices like the Droid.
* You’ll see the app exit and relaunch on first start, as well as on add-on installs; this is a quirk of our install process, and we’re working to get rid of it.
* You can’t open links from other apps using Fennec; we should have this for the next build.

He also notes that there’s an experimental version of Weave, Mozilla’s syncing tool that will work with this pre-Alpha build of Fennec. Visit this page and click on the “Experimental version” to find it.

Source: TechCrunch

Google

Google’s logged 87.8 billion searches in December 2009, or 66.8 percent of the more than 131 billion searches conducted worldwide. Google hopes to grow its search and ad dominance by focusing on a convergence of mobile search, advertising and applications, including location-based technologies with a heavy dose of social networking. Smartphones as Google’s Nexus One, paired with mobile search, applications and advertising seem like a fine way for Google to extend its search dominance from the desktop to the PC. Google will pit its mobile technologies those of Microsoft, Yahoo and Apple in 2010.

Google’s strategy to “double down” on its core search business helped the company clean up as the top search property with 87.8 billion searches in December 2009, or 66.8 percent of the more than 131 billion searches conducted worldwide.

That’s good for a 58 percent increase in search query volume over the past year, according to figures released Jan. 22 by researcher comScore. These world-leading totals helped Google rake in a fourth-quarter 2009 profit of $1.97 billion and sales of $4.95 billion.

Google hopes to improve on these numbers through focusing on a convergence of mobile search, advertising and applications, including location-based technologies with a heavy dose of social networking.

Jonathan Rosenberg, senior vice president of product management at Google, attributed Google’s successful Q4 to the company’s doubling down on its efforts in search, AdWords search advertising and display advertising.

“Search did particularly well in 2009 and I think that may be the best example of what we feel we can do when we double down and focus,” Rosenberg said on the company’s Q4 earnings call Jan. 21. He cited Google’s 550 search quality enhancements; a bigger and faster index; universal search expansion; and Google’s new music search service.

However, Google’s crowning search achievement arrived Dec. 7 in the form of real-time. Google indexes tweets from Twitter and public status updates from Facebook, as well as info from MySpace, news publications and blogs only seconds after the content is published online.

Rosenberg noted that two minutes after a force 4.1 earthquake struck California two weeks ago, Google’s real-time search algorithms surfaced local Twitter tweets and news reports. The idea is that retrieving this type of content will keep users coming to Google.

It’s difficult to gauge the financial impact of these real-time results, but Google CEO Eric Schmidt said on the call real-time search was “very successful.”

Source: eWeek

Nokia to announce Microsoft deal, denies ditching Symbian

Apple has released a software patch to address a recently described security flaw in the iPhone.

Experts revealed on Thursday that modified SMS messages could result in iPhones being disconnected from the network or hijacked altogether.

Apple said phones incorporating other mobile operating systems, such as Windows Mobile and Google Android, were also potentially vulnerable.

It added that no-one had actually used the flaw to gain access to an iPhone.

A spokesperson for O2, the iPhone’s service provider in the UK, said: “We will be communicating to customers both through the website and proactively. We always recommend our customers update their iPhone with the latest software and this is no different.”

Access all areas

Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner told the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas that the hack works by slightly modifying the data – sent by the network and which the user does not see – that arrives as part of a text message.

The system that processes such messages is similar across different operating systems and can, once compromised, gain access across a range of applications including a phone’s address book or camera.

The team say that hackers could develop programs to exploit the weakness in as little as two weeks, but told the conference that publicising the means of attack was necessary to ensure the problem was addressed.

“If we don’t talk about it, somebody is going to do it silently. The bad guys are going to do it no matter what,” Mr Mulliner, an independent security expert, said.

The team wrote software to exploit the weakness, targeting iPhones on four networks in Germany as well as AT&T in the US. However, they believe it would work equally well in any country.

The approach is particularly dangerous because messages are delivered automatically, and users cannot tell that they have received the malicious code.

The problem could be fixed by directly patching the vulnerability in smartphones’ operating systems, or the network providers could scan for messages that look to be trying to gain access to phones via the malicious code.

The researchers said they had informed Google of the hack and that the company had already taken steps to address the problem.

The Black Hat gathering, part of a leading series of conferences for information and computer security experts, took place from 25 to 30 July.

Apple were not available to comment on the flaw.

Source: BBC News

An update for Blackberry users in the United Arab Emirates could allow unauthorised access to private information and e-mails.

The update was prompted by a text from UAE telecoms firm Etisalat, suggesting it would improve performance.

Instead, the update resulted in crashes or drastically reduced battery life.

Blackberry maker Research in Motion (RIM) said in a statement the update was not authorised, developed, or tested by RIM.

Etisalat is a major telecommunications firm based in the UAE, with 145,000 Blackberry users on its books.

In the statement, RIM told customers that “Etisalat appears to have distributed a telecommunications surveillance application… independent sources have concluded that it is possible that the installed software could then enable unauthorised access to private or confidential information stored on the user’s smartphone”.

It adds that “independent sources have concluded that the Etisalat update is not designed to improve performance of your BlackBerry Handheld, but rather to send received messages back to a central server”.

The concern over this unauthorised access only came to light when users started reporting problems with their handsets.

After downloading the update, users across the country noticed significantly reduced battery life, poor reception and in some cases, handsets stopped working altogether.

Users have complained that the firm’s customer service is unable to provide information on the problem. Initial advice led many users to simply buy new batteries.

‘Surveillance solutions’

The update has now been identified as an application developed by American firm SS8. The California-based company describes itself as a provider of “lawful electronic intercept and surveillance solutions”.

It is not clear why Etisalat wanted to include the software in the download.

The firm issued a brief statement last week, calling the problem a “slight technical fault”, saying that the “upgrades were required for service enhancements”.

Etisalat told BBC News that it stands by last week’s statement and has not yet responded to further requests for comment.

“There may be a good reason they wanted to install the software,” said one Blackberry user in Dubai who did not want to be named.

“But my biggest problem is that my phone won’t work. If you call customer service you either can’t get through, or they don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know what to do.”

RIM has now issued its own update allowing users to remove the application. Customers of the country’s rival service, Du, have not been affected.

Source: BBC News

Dell is developing a pocket-size Internet device using Google’s Android operating system that could take on Apple’s iPod Touch, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Two people who have seen early prototypes of the device told the newspaper it looks like Apple’s iPod Touch but slightly larger. And like the iPod Touch, the device isn’t expected to include a cellular phone. The device is considered part of a new category of gadgets called mobile Internet devices, or MIDs, which are designed to fit into the market between a mobile phone and a laptop or Netbook computer.

The device could go on sale as early as the second half of 2009, according to the Wall Street Journal’s sources.

Dell supposedly started working on the new device about a year ago as a way to compete against Apple’s iPod business. The Journal also cited an unnamed source who said that Dell has considered selling the new Internet device through a cell phone carrier. Dell and other computer makers such as Hewlett-Packard already sell their Netbooks through cell phone operators.

Dell has long been rumored to be making a smartphone. And the company has also been rumored to be testing the Android software for its smartphone and possible for its Netbooks. With these developments in the works, it probably wouldn’t take much to also develop a portable Internet device using the same operating system without the phone. That’s what Apple did with the iPod Touch.

Source: CNET News

Apple‘s Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off on June 8 in San Francisco, has traditionally been the site of the Mac maker’s biggest announcements. This year will be no different, with the event expected to host the debut of a new iPhone running a powerful new operating system. On the computer side, WWDC attendees will hear details of Apple’s next-generation operating system, Snow Leopard.

Apple will almost definitely unveil its new iPhone at WWDC, although likely it won’t go on sale for a couple of weeks after that. The first iPhone went on sale in late June 2007 and the second in early July 2008. The new model will be named the iPhone Video, according to The Unofficial Apple Weblog. (See also Apple Planning Video-Call iPhone.)

iPhone 3.0

The biggest change for the iPhone will be its software. iPhone 3.0 will support copy, cut and paste (finally!), and push notification for applications. Push notification will be a workaround for the iPhone’s lack of support of background apps, to allow tools such as instant-messaging apps to send alerts to the user when an update is available.

The new built-in Spotlight app will allow users to search applications and their data.

Another sign of progress: Using iPhone 3.0, developers will be able to write applications that provide turn-by-turn directions for driving and walking — previously a no-no under the Apple terms of service.

Bluetooth On Board

The software will support peer-to-peer connectivity over Bluetooth, allowing developers to write multiplayer games that users can play on two or more iPhones without needing an Internet connection.

Peer-to-peer connections will also allow iPhone users to exchange data, such as electronic business cards. And If you’re sick of untangling your earbud headphones, take heart: The new iPhone software will support stereo Bluetooth audio.

The iPhone 3.0 software will include a couple of additional goodies for developers: They’ll be able to write software applications that tie into particular hardware devices; for example, when Apple demoed the software in March, it showed a glucose reader for diabetics with its own application for recording data and calculating recommended insulin doses.

And developers will be able to sell content from within applications; game developers will be able to sell add-ons, magazines will be able to sell subscriptions, and e-book readers will be able to sell e-books.

When will the software be available? Possibly as early as this coming week. The software will be free to existing iPhone users, iPod Touch users will have to pay $9.95.

Hello, Faster Chips

On the hardware side, one of the most significant features of the new iPhone will be its new processor. The original iPhone and last year’s iPhone 3G used the same 400 MHz processor, but the new iPhone will likely have a 600 MHz processor, writes John Gruber on the blog Daring Fireball.

The change won’t be just a little speed boost, it’ll be transformative, he writes:

Much of what the iPhone does now is constrained by its CPU. App launching speed, for one thing — faster app launching should make it feel more like switching between apps and less like quitting/relaunching them.

Faster processor speeds will also significantly speed up Web page rendering.

The new model iPhone will have double the RAM of existing models, 256 MB. “Prices will stay the same — $199 and $299 — but storage will increase to 16 and 32 GB,” Gruber says.

Also look for a possible 4GB iPhone 3G for $99. That’s according to a report on the Boy Genius Report, a popular mobile blog. But my colleague Eric Zeman is skeptical, noting that the first-generation iPhone came in a 4 GB model that was discontinued after a few months. I agree; I think people who’ve already decided to buy an iPhone will pay a little more for a lot more memory.

Changes to the size and shape of the iPhone, and how it looks and feels will be “subtle, perhaps very subtle. I expect that cases designed for the iPhone 3G will continue to fit the new iPhone, and that the only colors will remain black and white,” Gruber says. Despite the faster CPU, he expects improved battery life for the new iPhone.

The new iPhone will also probably have a magnetometer — a/k/a a compass. Now applications won’t just know where you are, they’ll also know what direction you’re facing. I have a feeling this will open the door to vastly richer location-aware applications. Like what, exactly? If I could tell you that, I’d write the apps myself and make a million dollars off the app store.

The Mobile Safari browser will also support geolocation, according to Computerworld; so no more need to type your zip code or address into the browser to tell it where you are to find local restaurants, bank branches, or auto-repair shops; geolocation support will also lead to more targeted Web ads.

The new iPhone will likely support video recording, making it a tough competitor for inexpensive, point-and-shoot digital video cameras like the Flip, Gruber says. The iPhone will have video uploading capabilities, so you’ll be able to upload short clips to video-sharing sites like YouTube as soon as you take them.

MacRumors has a screenshot that appears to show the video-recording application at work; it’s pretty much the same as the existing Camera app but with additional buttons to allow you to choose between still and video.

Other features that will probably appear in the new iPhone include Wi-Fi movie and TV downloads, and an improved camera, at least 3.2 megapixels, up from 2 megapixels on the current model.

So when will the hardware be available? Did Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal slip up when he referred to “the new iPhone to be unveiled next week”? The blog AppleiPhoneApps is reporting the release date will be July 17. I don’t buy it; that would be almost six weeks during which Apple fans would be waiting impatiently for the next-generation iPhone — and, more importantly, not spending their money on buying current model iPhones. That kind of delay would cost Apple a lot of money. My gut feeling is that we’ll see the new iPhones at about the same time as we saw previous generations, late June or early July.

Snow [Leopard] In Summer?

And what about Snow Leopard? Expect Apple to release more information about that operating system, unveiled a year ago. The new version will focus more on speed, scalability and stability than new features. It will be optimized for multicore processors using technology called “Grand Central,” and designed to facilitate future innovation.

It will lift the theoretical system memory limit to 16 TB, up from 4 TB today. The software will support technology Apple is calling “Open Computing Language,” for improved graphic processing performance. And it will include QuickTime X, a revised and optimized version of Apple media technology, native support forMicrosoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Exchange, and a faster implementation of JavaScript. Still unknown: When Snow Leopard will ship.

Now here are a couple of things you won’t see at WWDC:

First, you won’t see the rumored Apple Tablet. Apple is reportedly working on an inexpensive tablet computer, its answer to netbooks, for availability in 2010. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said last month that Apple is working on a tablet with a 7-10-inch touch screen, selling at $500-$700, and filling a gap between the $400 iPod Touch and $1,000 MacBook.

Evidence pointing to such a device is coming from Piper Jaffray component contacts in Asia, as well as from recent Apple patents related to multitouch technology, comments to financial analysts in April by chief operating officer Tim Cook, Apple’s acquisition of chip designer P.A. Semi, and recent chip-related hires, Munster said. “It is increasingly clear that Apple is investing more in its mobile computing franchise.”

My gut feeling is that Apple is, indeed, working on this product. The iPhone and iPod Touch are already perfectly fine tablet computers; a bigger display would make them even more useful. But I don’t expect to see Apple talking about the product at WWDC. Apple doesn’t want to take focus from the iPhone and Snow Leopard.

Moreover, Apple likes to announce products around the time of their availability. The company is sensitive to cannibalizing sales, and an announced, but unavailable tablet would lead some consumers to put off buying low-end MacBooks, iPhones, and iPod Touches and wait for the tablet to come.

The iPhone was the exception to the rule about advance announcements — Apple announced it in Jan. 2007 for availability almost six months later. But this was Apple’s entry into a completely new product line and business; it had no existing products to cannibalize sales from.

Steve Jobs Due Back Soon; Fanfare Not Expected

Another thing you won’t see at WWDC — or, rather, a person you won’t see, is Steve Jobs. Apple announced Jobs was taking medical leave of absence in December to deal with a dire digestive problem — his body was not absorbing nutrients, leaning to drastic weight loss. Jobs survived cancer surgery in 2004, his gaunt appearance last year fueled rumors that the cancer had returned. Apple said in December that Jobs would be back in June, and he’s been taking a role in strategic Apple decisions since then.

Jobs is recovering nicely, ready to get back to work, and might well put in a surprise appearance at WWDC, according to a report that ran Friday on The Wall Street Journal

But I don’t think Jobs will make a big appearance at WWDC. He might take a quick stroll of the show floor, and if he does it’ll surely create huge buzz on the news and in blogs, but that’s the most I think we can expect to see from Jobs at the conference.

My gut feeling is that Jobs will simply return to work, at the end of this month, without any external announcements. It seems like his style to send an all-hands e-mail to Apple employees and then get to work without any further ado.

US law may require Apple to make a short press release on his return, but I don’t think we’ll see any further hoopla from Apple when Jobs returns to work. He’ll make his first public performance a few weeks or a few months afterward, at an earnings conference call or the next time Apple has a new product or service to announce.

Source: InformationWeek

This week Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) revealed Bing.com to the world as its new search engine, or as MS likes to call it, a decision engine. It is a new way to search the web and can provide some interesting results. MS wasted no time in setting the engine up to work with mobile devices.

You can access the site by typing m.bing.com into your phone’s browser or by visiting the Bing mobile page and entering your phone’s number there. The site will send a text to your phone with a link you can click on.

Once you are on the site, you can tell it your location and then save it. It has the ability to remember three locations for you, home, work and a third you can label yourself. These locations are important for search results. If you search for “coffee house” it will first try to find coffee shops around you. It will then offer up links to define what a coffee house is, just as a traditional search might. It will also give you other local results like movie times at nearby theaters or weather forecasts.

Bing for Mobile also does mapping. Once you have your location set on the home page, just tap on “Directions” and then tell it where you want to go. It will bring up a map with driving directions. If you have a Windows Mobile device you could always download the interactive map application, but not everyone has Windows Mobile and even if you do, if you use maps sparingly, a web page once in a while is easier than installing an application and setting it up. Once you have the directions, you can switch it to walking directions or driving directions that avoids traffic if traffic status is supported in your area.

If you go into Bing’s preferences from the home page, you can set it to filter your results to block out explicit results or not, and tell it whether or not to let you through to the actual web site when you click on it or let Bing reformat the page so it works better on your phone. I tried this on a few sites and it works reasonably well. Once you are on a Bing formatted page, you can quickly switch to the full site without modifying your preferences via a link at the bottom of the page. There is also a handy frame navigator that will show you a zoomed out look at the whole page and then allow you to zoom in on the frame you are interested in. This makes it easy to read a blog or news article without all of the advertisments, history and navigation tools that tend to make sites look horrible, difficult to navigate and slow to load and render on a phone.

I’ve played with Bing on my desktop and it has an interesting way to return information. It hasn’t replaced Google (NSDQ: GOOG) for me, but unlike Live Search before it, it has earned its place as one of my browser’s search providers. With all of the extra features that Bing for Mobile offers in one place, it may become the default search engine on my phone.

You can read about these and other Bing for Mobile features here or get a full overview of the decision engine itself to see how it differs from other search engines.

Source: InformationWeek

A source closely connected to Apple’s hardware team claims to possess knowledge of the next-generation iPhone’s specifications and release date.

The source told iPhone fan blog Apple iPhone Apps that the new iPhone will launch July 17. Many of the provided specifications corroborate with past rumors that the device will introduce a digital compass and a video recorder, among other features. (The source did not provide a photo; the image to the right is from a past rumor report for the sake of comparison.) Here’s the list:

• 32GB and 16GB storage (up from the current 16GB and 8GB models)
• $199 and $299 price points to be maintained
• 3.2-megapixel camera (up from the current 2-megapixel camera)
• Video-recording and editing capabilities
• Ability to send a picture & video via MMS
• Discontinuation of the metal band surrounding the edge of the device
• OLED screen
• 1.5 times the battery life of the current models
• Double the RAM and processing power
• Built-in FM transmitter
• Apple logo on back will glow
• Rubber-tread backing
• Sleeker design
• Built-in compass
• The camera, GPS, compass and Google map combined will identify photo and inform about photo locations
• Turn-by-turn directions

Overall, if these claims are true, this is a relatively minor upgrade. The most notable new features would be the built-in compass (which appeared in earlier rumor reports), the video recorder and editor (the current iPhones don’t support video recording unless you Jailbreak them), the built-in FM transmitter and the OLED screen (which would improve battery life).

One of the features that sticks out to me is the built-in FM transmitter. I see no compelling reason for Apple to put this in the iPhone, as it is not a feature that users have been demanding, and it hasn’t appeared in other iPods.

Another specification I find strange is the OLED screen. That would be a welcome change because it would look nicer than the current LCD screen. But OLEDs are generally pricey, and if the current price points are maintained, I’m not sure if I believe this one.

Otherwise, the rest of the specifications appear not too far-fetched. If the source is simply taking shots in the dark, then most of these specifications are very conservative guesses derived from previous rumor reports.

What do you think, readers? I’m curious as to whether this list of purported specifications is enough to get you to upgrade from a current iPhone. Or if you don’t own one, will you buy one if these rumored features turn out to be true? Let us know in the comments below.

I, for one, will be standing in line for Apple’s next iPhone this summer whether or not these rumors are true. After all, my iPhone is resting in rice.

Source: WIRED

iPhone and iPod users may experience a “small and quick” shock via their earbuds due to a buildup of static electricity, Apple warned Monday.

People listening to one of the devices in extremely dry air are most at risk of receiving a static electricity shock through the ear buds, according to a warning posted on Apple’s Web site. The post likened the condition to the discharge that occurs when a person drags his or her feet across a carpet then gets a shock by touching a door knob.

However, Apple asserted that this condition did not necessarily indicate that Apple’s equipment was malfunctioning.

“This condition is not limited to Apple hardware and static can potentially build up on almost any hardware and could be discharged using any brand of earbuds,” Apple said.

Apple’s warning didn’t mention what prompted the company to issue the warning, but a discussion thread on the company’s support site showed a few users had voiced concern about the condition.

“Maybe it’s just me but for a couple of weeks now my earphones are delivering little electric shocks into my ears,” wrote one reader. “I just wonder if anyone else is going through this issue.”

Apple made several suggestions in the warning on how to remedy the condition when indoors, including the use of a humidifier to raise the moisture level of the air, hand lotions to moisturize dry skin, or an anti-static spray. The site also recommends users wear clothes made of natural fibers instead of synthetic fibers. When users are outdoors, Apple suggests users keep their device in a bag or a case to keep it out of the wind and refrain from frequently removing it from pockets as the rubbing may cause static buildup.

Source: CNET News