Apple iPhone 5 Slated To Have Bigger Screen

If Apple wants the iPhone to continue to be competitive with devices running Android, it needs to increase the size of the iPhone's screen. Upstream component suppliers say that Apple's manufacturing partners in Asia have begun testing their production lines, and everything points to a small bump in the size of the iPhone's display.

When Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, its 3.5-inch display was outrageously big. It has since been surpassed by the large displays on Android devices, many of which come in at 3.7, 4.0, 4.3, and even 4.8 inches. Holding the iPhone 4 (or any iPhone, for that matter) next to a device such as the Motorola Droid X, which has a 4.3-inch display, makes the iPhone's display look downright puny.

DigiTimes reports that the next Apple iPhone will have a screen that measures 4 inches across the diagonal, an increase of 0.5 inches.

What's not clear is how Apple will adjust application performance on a slightly larger screen. DigiTimes has not reported what resolution the larger display might have, nor whether it will be a Retina Display. Apple hasn't confirmed this report.

This balances out a bit the reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal from earlier this week that suggest Apple will be making a smaller iPhone Nano. The chief selling point of the iPhone Nano is that it will be less expensive when compared to the iPhone 4, iPhone 5 (or whatever Apple calls the next iPhone).

Apple Launches Subscription Service In App Store

Apple Inc. launched a new service for its App Store that allows for magazine and newspaper subscriptions for its popular iPhone and iPad devices, but publishers and other suppliers of content aren't rejoicing.

The service is setting up a conflict with some major media companies that are wary of allowing the computing giant to come between them and their customers.

Apple is using the popularity of its digital devices and its iTunes and App Store to stake a larger position in the media and entertainment business. Meanwhile, as the digital-media world evolves, publishers are struggling to establish online subscription businesses in anticipation of further erosion in their offline businesses.

Most publishers have yet to reach agreement with Apple to sell subscription apps, due to issues such as pricing disputes and the company's privacy policy. Time Warner Inc.'s publishing arm, Time Inc., has yet to reach an agreement with Apple to sell subscriptions for its digital version of Sports Illustrated, a magazine that has launched new digital subscriptions for users of tablet computers and smartphones made by Apple competitors.

PlayStation Phone Coming In March

It has been a busy month for Sony and its PlayStation Portable line. A few weeks ago, the Japanese manufacturer announced that it would be releasing a successor to the PSP, in the form of a brand-new device dubbed the Next Generation Portable (NGP). At an event in Barcelona before the opening of Mobile World Congress today, following months of rumour, speculation, and leaked images, Sony Ericsson formally announced that the PlayStation phone, dubbed the Xperia Play, will be released worldwide in March 2011.

Sony Ericsson announced that the Xperia Play will run the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system when it ships. It also confirmed that the US would be one of the first markets to receive the device in early spring, through an exclusive partnership with mobile network Verizon. There are still a few grey areas in Sony's launch, though--no price has been announced for any market, while the PlayStation Store, through which consumers will buy and download games, will not launch for the device until later on in the year.

The device will be able to run HD games at 60fps, according to the manufacturer. Sony Ericsson boasts the support of Electronic Arts, Namco Bandai, Glu Mobile, PopCap, and Gameloft in terms of software. This will mean that titles from the Guitar Hero, Battlefield, and Dead Space franchises will quickly find their way onto the handheld, Sony said. Kaz Hirai, Sony Computer Entertainment's president and group CEO, was also onstage at the event to announce that the Xperia Play will launch with one "legendary PlayStation One title," although he didn't confirm which title it would be.

Google CEO Regrets Nokia's Choice, Hails Android Success

Google CEO Eric Schmidt took to the stage at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Tuesday to talk up the Android OS for tablets and phones and to say the search giant would have liked Nokia as a partner.

When asked about Nokia's choice of Windows Phone 7 as its smartphone system, Schmidt said that Google would have loved to see Nokia pick Android instead. Google tried to convince Nokia to choose Android, and it can still make that decision in the future, Schmidt said.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, a former Microsoft executive, said here earlier this week that had the mobile-phone maker chosen Android, the market would have become a duopoly, with Apple and Android dominating. He said he preferred a three-horse race, and going with Microsoft would give Nokia a larger share of services revenue.

Nokia's choice notwithstanding, Android has been dominating at Mobile World Congress. Vendors like HTC, LG Electronics, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson have announced a plethora of new smartphones and tablets based on the operating system.

Intel Goes MeeGo, With Or Without Nokia

Despite Nokia's insistence that it is still very much behind MeeGo, Intel is going to the mobile platform dance stag. It would be easy to feel sorry for them if it hadn't felt like a mistake from the beginning. "Disappointed" is how one Intel MeeGo product manager expressed the company's view on Nokia's fickleness. Still, the company presses on, announcing and demonstrating a tablet reference platform, among other advancements, at Mobile World Congress. Intel also showcased MeeGo running a variety of applications.

The MeeGo tablet user experience will run on two standard hardware devices -- the Exo PC (a Windows slate that MeeGo will run on top of) and Wetab (from 4iitoo in Germany). This is a reference platform, where developers can experiment with MeeGo applications. The user interface is primarily an unlimited scrolling experience, with content represented in panes, infinitely displayed as you scroll either vertically or horizontally. In other words, instead of building a hierarchy of content that you drill down into, everything is spread out. It seems different, but not noticeably better or worse than anything else.

Intel said that user interface elements can be written primarily in Javascript and QML (part of the QT family of MeeGo development tools); underlying application code is written in C++. All of the developer support and SDK's are availabe as part of Intel's AppUp developer program. There will also be an open submission process for tablet applications.

Anonymous Hackers Release Stuxnet Worm Online

The group of anonymous "hacktivists" that made headlines for online cyberattacks in December just released a bombshell online: a decrypted version of the same cyberworm that crippled Iran's nuclear power program.

The ones and zeroes that make up the code called the Stuxnet worm -- described as the most sophisticated cyberweapon ever created -- were reportedly found when the faceless group hacked into the computers of HBGary, a U.S. security company that the anonymous collective viewed as an enemy. And the security experts FoxNews.com spoke with said the leaked code was serious cause for concern.

"There is the real potential that others will build on what is being released," Michael Gregg, chief operating officer of cybersecurity firm Superior Solutions, told FoxNews.com. Gregg was quick to clarify that the group hasn't released the Stuxnet worm itself, but rather a decrypted version of it HBGary had been studying -- which could act almost like a building block for cybercrooks.

"As an attacker you need to understand how something works. The better you understand how it works the easier it is to build something similar that servers the same purpose," Gregg explained. The "decompiled" code the group made available is in that sense akin to a recipe book for disaster, he said.

Google Cracking Down On Content Farms With Chrome

Content farms, those generators of spammy Web pages engineered to show up high in search results, are getting a closer look from Google -- a move that could dampen their visibility.

In a post on Google's official blog, the search giant on Monday invited users of its Chrome Web browser to take part in a test of an extension that will let them block certain sites from their search results.

Adding the extension will let users create a "personal blocklist." They won't see content from that site again in Google searches done while using Chrome.

It also sends Google a list of all the sites users have blocked.

"[W]e will study the resulting feedback and explore using it as a potential ranking signal for our search results," Google principal engineer Matt Cutts says in the post.

The tool comes as Google and others in the search industry are ramping up the rhetoric against content farms.

In the post, Cutts describes them as sites with "shallow or low-quality content."

Nokia To Use Microsoft’s Cellphone Operating System

Nokia, the struggling world leader in mobile phones, said on Friday that it would discard its own cellphone operating system and begin using software made by Microsoft, in an alliance to shore up the halting efforts in smartphones of two market leaders.

The announcement by Stephen Elop, the former Microsoft executive hired by Nokia in September as the company's first non-Finnish chief executive, was an admission of failure by Nokia, which had helped define the mobile phone age in its infancy.

The alliance is also a gamble, perhaps a last-ditch effort for both Nokia and Microsoft to gain a lasting foothold in the booming market for sophisticated smartphones, where Apple's iPhone and Google's Android software are leading the way in technology innovation.

"Nokia is at a critical juncture, where significant change is necessary and inevitable in our journey forward," Mr. Elop, a Canadian who led Microsoft's business software division before moving to Nokia, said in a statement. "Today, we are accelerating that change through a new path, aimed at regaining our smartphone leadership, reinforcing our mobile device platform and realizing our investments in the future."

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 Web Browser Goes Live

Microsoft has said the latest version of its internet explorer web browser puts it ahead of competitors like Google and Firefox.

The software giant, which is losing market share, made the bold claim as it unveiled what is known as the release candidate of IE9.

This is the final test drive for the new browser - a chance to catch any last-minute bugs before its debut.

IE9 has been downloaded 25 million times during beta testing.

Privacy and speed are being highlighted as two of the features that set IE9 apart.

"This release is one that is playing catch up [on past releases], but it leapfrogs everything and now you see the other folks on the back foot trying to catch up with us," Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president of Internet Explorer, told BBC News.

"With this release you are seeing innovation after innovation that other folks are catching up to. Hardware acceleration was something no one was talking about until we did it. No one else was talking about privacy and tracking until we did it."

Yahoo Launches Tablet Platform Livestand

Yahoo wants to help magazine and newspaper companies thrive on tablet devices, while also ensuring that its own properties maintain their leadership positions on the new wave of touch screen, handheld devices.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.–based company has rolled out Livestand, a platform designed to serve as a central reading device for tablets such as Motorola's just launched Xoom—but not Apple's mega-hit iPad just yet. Livestand, due to launch some time during the first half of 2011, appears to be Yahoo's answer to the popular iPad app Flipboard, which renders magazines more readable. When it goes live, Livestand will feature tablet-friendly versions of Yahoo's biggest channels (Yahoo Sports, Yahoo News and Yahoo Finance, to name a few).

It will also house several tablet-optimized versions of magazines and newspapers in a user interface labeled "My Library." Yahoo has yet to announce any partners for Livestand, though it did do a demonstration to reporters on Thursday (Feb. 10) showcasing Surfing magazine.

It will be special-interest magazines like Surfing that will likely gravitate to Livestand, said officials. "Of course, we'd like to work with big brands," said Yahoo's chief product officer Blake Irving. "But the real power [of Livestand] is in niche, passion brands...Most magazine content is still trapped offline."

Google Adds Extra Layer Of Security To User Accounts

For those worried about the threat of being hacked — and these days, who isn't? — Google is here to help. The company is rolling out an optional extra layer of security for all Google accounts, mostly to boost the confidence of Gmail and Google Docs users.

The two-step verification process should be familiar to just about anyone who's signed up for an online banking account. The first step is a regular password; the second step involves a code number sent to your mobile phone. You get the code via text message or an automated call, then enter it on the website. And if that's too much of a hassle, there's also an app — called Google Authenticator — for iPhone, Android or BlackBerry that will generate a code for you.

This isn't a new technology for Google. Two-step verification has been offered to enterprise users since September, when it was implemented in Google Apps. For Google account holders, it's opt-in. And no, you don't have to go through the mobile verification part every time you want to check your Gmail. The two steps only kick in when you're logging into your Google account on a new web browser, through a new application or on a new mobile device.

As Google points out, it is devilishly easy for a hacker to access large chunks of your online life once he knows your password, especially if you don't change it from site to site. "There are plenty of examples (like the classic 'Mugged in London' scam) that demonstrate why it's important to take steps to help secure your activities online," writes Google Security product manager Nishit Shah on the Official Google Blog.

Mark Zuckerberg Allegedly Stalked On Facebook

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has allegedly been stalked by a man on his own social networking site.

A spokesman for Facebook confirmed to Computerworld today that Zuckerberg received a restraining order against a man allegedly stalking him.

Court records in Superior Court in Santa Clara County show that the restraining order was issued Jan. 31 against Pradeep Manukonda. A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 22.

The alleged stalking comes during a time of widespread media attention for Zuckerberg.

In December, The Facebook co-founder was named Time Magazine Person of the Year, ahead of Julian Assange, the man behind WikiLeaks, and the Tea Party organization.

Microsoft Delivers 'Big Month' Of Patches, Fixes 22 Bugs

Microsoft today issued 12 security updates that patched 22 bugs in Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Office and its Internet server software.

An analyst suspected that one of the dozen updates was released to prevent hackers from exploiting Windows 7 in the Pwn2Own contest slated to start in four weeks.

"I think this was a strategic move by Microsoft to prevent [researchers] from using the vulnerability as a mechanism to bypass ASLR," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle Security, referring to the MS11-009 update that patched a bug in the JScript and VBScript scripting engines within Windows.

At Pwn2Own, which runs March 9-11 at the CanSecWest security conference, attackers armed with unpatched vulnerabilities and corresponding exploits will try to hack browsers running on Windows 7. To do so, they must sidestep ASLR -- for "address space layout randomization" -- one of Windows 7's two anti-exploit technologies.

Three of the 12 updates were labeled "critical," Microsoft's most serious threat ranking. The remaining nine were marked "important," the second-highest rating.

Verizon iPhone 4 May Offer Hints at iPhone 5

Teardowns of the Verizon iPhone 4 by iSuppli and iFixit reveal a number of changes, including to its antenna and a chip, that may hint at Apple's plan for the iPhone 5.

Verizon Wireless' Apple iPhone 4 may appear to be essentially AT&T's smartphone with its GSM technology replaced by Verizon's preferred CDMA, but not so, say iFixit and IHS iSuppli, two companies that on Feb. 7 revealed the initial findings of their teardowns of the smartphone.

The two iPhones feature different batteries, vibrators, baseband processor chips and GPS chips. But most likely to grab attention is the redesign of the antenna—a component that, following the launch of the AT&T iPhone 4, instigated a public-relations nightmare for Apple, dubbed "Antennagate," after some users found that holding the phone a certain way (known as the "death grip") caused signal interference. That a change had been made was known—the exteriors of the two models are ever-so-slightly different—though not to what degree.

"This isn't just a case where Apple took a CDMA chip and slapped it into the iPhone and called it Verizon. They actually redesigned the entire logic board, including the electromagnetic shields," iFixit's M.J. explains in a video for the repair site. "Apple's RF engineering team did a great job at restructuring the antenna, so hopefully we don't have the same death-grip problem that saddled its AT&T brother."

Google Translate App Hits the iPhone

Globe-trotting iPhone users rejoice — the official Google Translate for iPhone app is now available in the App Store.

The iPhone app appears to be much like the existing Android app (launched January 2010) in functionality — allowing users to speak to translate in 15 languages and to translate words and phrases into more than 50 languages. You can also listen to your translations spoken aloud in 23 different languages. One can also zoom in on text to read it more easily, as well — this is a feature that the Android app lacks.

This official app basically echoes the web app in functionality, allowing one to view dictionary results for single words, and check out starred translations and history (even when not online).

The iPhone app, however, lacks a few features that the Android version boasts: namely SMS translation and the experimental Conversation Mode, which is supposed to allow you to talk with a nearby person in another language.

Dell unveils 10-inch Windows 7 tablet

Dell has unveiled a 10-inch Windows 7 tablet that it'll layer in next to its collection of Android fondleslabs.

On Tuesday, the world's third-largest PC maker showed – briefly – what looked like a mock-up of a planned Windows 7 tablet, coming in the next 30 to 40 days, to press and analysts in San Francisco.

Dell's Windows 7 tablet will run on what it called the "next-generation" Intel processor – likely meaning its upcoming Oak Trail system-on-a-chip.

Aside from that, Dell provided no technical details. In all other respects, the tablet looked identical to the company's Android-powered Streaks 5 and 7.

The Windows machine will be targeted at business users, rather than being designed and sold as a general-purpose consumer device like Apple's iPad. Steve Lalla, general manager of Dell's business client group, said the company would follow the strategy it adopted for netbooks of targeting education, medicine, manufacturing, and financial services.

Employee Fired Over Facebook Comment Settles Lawsuit

The National Labor Relations Board and Dawnmarie Souza agreed yesterday to end a lawsuit over Souza's firing, which occurred after she made some derogatory remarks about her employers on Facebook.

The financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but we do know that Souza will not be returning to work at the same company.

The woman's employer, a Connecticut ambulance company, is also changing its blogging and Internet use policies in ways that will no longer prohibit employees from talking about work online, even if such talk constitutes what the company called "online badmouthing" at the start of Souza's hearing.

Especially since Souza was writing on her personal computer, at home and on her own time, her remarks about her employers were considered protected speech, according to the NLRB. The ambulance company's social media and Internet policies were in violation of certain laws that protect employees' right to talk about wages, working conditions and other factors.

As NLRB regional director Jonathan Kreisberg told the Associated Press, "The fact that they agreed to revise their rules so that they're not so overly restrictive of the rights of employees to discuss their terms and conditions with others and with their fellow employees is the most significant thing that comes out of this."

Smartphone Sales Top PC Sales For The First Time

Ahh, the humble smartphone. For the first part of the last decade a mere curiosity reserved for the hardcore nerds and obsessive businessman of this world, subsequently thrust into the limelight by the iPhone, then Android, and most recently by the escalating war between the two.

Increasingly higher investment in the growing sector combined with massive marketing budgets has seen sales of the now-eponymous devices skyrocket in the last two years.

In the last three months of 2009 smartphone manufacturers managed to shift 53.9 million devices, which is a fairly respectable amount. However in the last quarter of 2010 that number almost doubled to 100.9 million. For the whole of 2010 just over 300 million handsets were sold to excited consumers.

PC shipments, by contrast, were cooling off a bit, managing only 5.5% growth in Q4 2010 from the same period a year previously. For the quarter PC manufacturers shipped 92.1 million units, putting the smartphone – which is increasingly filling in for a full-blown PC (and sometimes even becoming one) – out in front for the quarter.

Verizon To Slow Data Speeds For 1 Million Customers

On the day the iPhone went on sale for Verizon Wireless customers, the carrier delivered a warning to its heaviest data users: Verizon reserves the right to slow down your access speed.

For the subscribers that fall within the top 5% of the network's data users, Verizon said it may reduce their download speeds for the current and subsequent billing cycles, according to a memo on the carrier's website. The company said the slow-down would most likely be periodic and during peak hours.

"Our proactive management of the Verizon Wireless network is designed to ensure that the remaining 95% of data customers aren't negatively affected by the inordinate data consumption of just a few users," the memo said.

But that 5% isn't just a "few" customers: Verizon has 21.5 million smartphone customers, which means the top 1.1 million data users will have their speeds throttled down each month.

Verizon declined to comment, saying the company will let its comments to other news outlets to do the talking. A spokesman told The Wall Street Journal that Thursday's announcement had nothing to do with the iPhone pre-sale that launched on the same day.

"This is clearly something we've been looking at for some time and introducing now," Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeff Nelson told the Journal. "There's nothing magic about the timing.

Google Shows More Honeycomb, But Not Enough

More of Google's Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), the mobile operating system optimized for tablet devices, crawled out into the light of day: more developer tools, more context around its new features, more native applications, and more information about the Android Market. With each addition, the excitement builds; but this week's excitement was largely manufactured.

Carefully orchestrated announcements are ancient practice. After all, wasn't Steve Jobs' famous "one more thing" originally uttered by Cicero during the reign of Julius Caesar? But you'd have to go to Punxsutawney, PA to find an event as meaninglessly ceremonial as Google's Honeycomb rollout. Ironically, Google chose Groundhog Day for its celebration, and like the rodent's absent shadow in the middle of this dreadful winter, all we got were the same rosy promises with little relief.

Honeycomb video demonstrations appeared on Google's mobile blog earlier this year, like a movie trailer showing all of the most enticing parts. The holographic, 3D user experience makes me want to consume so much content that I lick my tablet like a dog lapping up a bowl's remaining morsels.

The menu items on the screen's system bar along the bottom provide all of the tablet interaction, and its multi-tasking button is a superbly intuitive way to get a quick glance at running apps and a view of the state you left them in. The action menu bar along the top provides a more customized set of menus on a per-application basis.

Internet Hits Key Milestone

The Internet hit an important milestone Thursday. The group that manages the Internet's domain name system just handed out the last five blocks of addresses that use the original Internet protocol system known as IPv4.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number made clear that this news will not affect average Internet users. But it will require websites to eventually transition to the next generation Internet protocol known as IPv6.

At a news conference in Miami, ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom described the event as "one of the most important days in the Internet's history. It marks far more than a transition from one Internet address protocol to another. It marks the successful growth of the Internet."

Still, Beckstrom and other officials stressed that Internet users should not notice any difference. "This event is insignificant" for Internet users, Internet Architecture Board Chairman Olaf Kolkman said. "Next week the Internet won't be significantly different than it was a week ago."

ICANN's Internet Assigned Numbers Authority allocated the last blocks, containing about 60 million IPv4 addresses, to the five Regional Internet Registries on Thursday.

Firefox 4 Delayed Again, 12th Beta Planned

A week after releasing its tenth beta of Firefox 4, the open-source browser project's release manager, Christian Legnitto this week announced a new beta plan, which will include a 12th beta.

Previously Legnitto had written that there were no plans for a beta 12 for Mozilla's the next major desktop Web browser.

Beta 11 is finished, and the Firefox planning page on the Mozilla wiki states that the team is "still working on an ETA for releasing it to our beta audience, likely early next week." That page also mentions Beta 12 as having "a small enough list of bugs that it's plausible it will be the last beta, though we're not locking that up, since some of the plugin work needs to crystallize before we can assess timing risk."

Many of the holdbacks seem to be related to Flash and Hotmail. Beta versions of Firefox come with a reporting plug-in that lets testers send comments to the developers. The comments are viewable at the Firefox Input Dashboard page, and nearly 3,700 of these have to do with Hotmail constantly refreshing. Over 1,800 mention Flash, but many involved problems with basic browser functions, such as the new Panorama tab-previewing feature, copy and paste, and password saving.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb Debut Set For Wednesday

Google's vice president of engineering Andy Rubin on Wednesday will formally debut Android 3.0, nicknamed Honeycomb, at a company event in Mountain View, Calif.

Invitations to the event went out Friday, promising Rubin and other Google employees will show off in-depth demonstrations of what the new system can do. Unlike its predecessors, Honeycomb is said to be focused on running on tablets rather than phones.

At the Consumer Electronics Show, many companies bragged about running the latest build of Android on their tablets, including the Motorola Xoom, which many have dubbed the most likely challenger to Apple's iPad.

Rubin teased Honeycomb in early December 2010 and at CES.

Intel Warns Of $1bn Cost Of Chip Fix

The chipmaker Intel has halted shipments of its new "Sandy Bridge" processors and says it will have to spend a total of $1bn (£600m) fixing a fault, delaying hundreds of new PC models for up to three months and potentially stifling growth in the personal computer market.

Launched early in January, the Sandy Bridge chip combines standard processing and graphics units on a single die. But Intel said today it had found flaws in a support chip, called Cougar Point, which would have led to failures over time in connections to hard drives and DVDs.

The fault will upset production on more than 500 computer models that were to have used the processors. That in turn will hit the PC industry, which has already been suffering from slowing growth in the US and other regions last year.

It could also open the door to Intel's longstanding rival, Advanced Micro Devices, which has a similar processor, named Fusion. After the news AMD shares jumped by 5% in early trading in New York, while Intel shares slid by 1.5%.

Android System Overtakes Symbian

Google's operating system for cellphones has overtaken Nokia's Symbian system as the market leader, ending the Finnish company's long reign, a British research firm said Monday.

In the three months through December, manufacturers shipped 33.3 million cellphones running Android, Google's free, open-source cellphone operating system, up from just 4.7 million a year earlier, according to Canalys, a research firm in Reading, England.

Shipments of phones running the Symbian operating system jumped 31 percent in the quarter, to 31 million, Canalys said.

Analysts said the figures represented a tectonic shift in the industry, cementing the influence of Google's advertising-driven business on the mobile Internet. And this year, according to the research firm Gartner, more people will gain access to the Internet through mobile devices than with personal computers.

"Google only wins with this," said Pete Cunningham, a Canalys analyst. "There will be more eyes on the mobile Web and more eyes seeing their advertisements."