Moneual's Rydis H67 robot both vacuums and mops

Sometimes, we just don't find the time we need to clean our homes. That's where cleaning robots can be a real life saver, as they do the cleaning for you. A new one from Moneual, called the Rydis H67, combines a vacuum for carpets and mop for tile and wood floors into one electronic workhorse.

Read more

There's not an app for that: CAC issues warning about avalanche apps

The smartphone is like the modern day, techy Swiss Army Knife. With the help of a few apps, it can control all kinds of devices, deliver all types of entertainment and information, and get you out of jams. Heck, it can evenbecome an actual pocket knife. But it can't do everything. The Canadian Avalanche Centre says that avalanche rescue apps can not effectively replace dedicated avalanche beacons.

Read more

Google Nexus 5 leaks in white, November now looking likely for launch

A new promotional image showing a white model of Google's upcoming Nexus 5smartphone has leaked ahead of an official announcement, alongside another potential launch date.

Designed and built by LG to Google's specifications, a partnership which previously resulted in the best-selling Nexus 4 handset, the Nexus 5 builds on its predecessor with a larger, higher-resolution screen, more powerful internals and the latest Android 4.4 Kit Kat build of Google's Android mobile operating system.

Read more

Sony's US Mobile Strategy: Whatever

Sony has dropped three new mobile devices into the US market -- its Smartwatch 2 and its Xperia Z1 and Z Ultra smartphones -- but it doesn't seem to be playing a very high-stakes game. That's possibly because it doesn't need to. "Sony is a diversified consumer electronics and digital content company," noted tech analyst Stephen Blum. "Its competitive advantage is its brand."

Read more

Powerful Nokia Tablet Focuses on Photo Skills

Nokia's Lumia 2520 is the first tablet to incorporate Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 processor, and it's the first to include Zeiss lenses. Also, the addition of an LTE modem in the 2520 "is a great attempt to see if [Nokia] can change the game," said tech analyst Jeff Orr. "I believe whoever can lead the charge by including a modem could be a bellwether for the rest of the market."

Read more

LG Introduces Caressable Smartphone

Do you want your phone to curve? If you do, should it curve to fit your hand or curve to fit your face? LG has introduced the face-hugging G Flex, believing that's how consumers want their curves. An additional innovation is the self-healing elastic material used on the G Flex's back case -- it supposedly can repair any nicks or cracks caused by wear and tear.
Read more

The IF Convertible: 3 Devices, 1 Data Plan

Get in on the ground floor as we look at the most exciting crowdfunded tech projects out there right now. This week: IdealFuture's IF Convertible, a device that combines phone, tablet and dual-screen laptop in one. The device will weigh in at less than one pound and feature an 18-hour battery; ports consist of USB, HDMI, Ethernet and memory card; RAM comes in at 4 GB and storage at 512 GB.

Read more

iPhone and the Amazing Microfluid Dreamcoat

CODE Fluidics has 57 backers who have pledged about $4,140, as of this writing. The goal is $55,000, and the campaign ends Nov. 23. The funds will let CODE Fluidics get the mass production molds produced, as well as buy raw materials and make a production run. An early bird pledge of $35 will nab 250 backers a white or black iPhone 5/5s case with three color MicroCartridges that hold the fluids.

Read more

'Apple can read your iMessages' claims security firm

Earlier this year, Apple said: "Conversations which take place over iMessage and FaceTime are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them. Apple cannot decrypt that data."

But Quarkslab, a Paris-based security firm, disputed those claims at a Hack in the Box conference in Kuala Lumpur on ThursdScheduleay, according to Ars Technica.

Read more

The Brick mobile phone is back - and has Snake

An 80s-style retro phone called 'The Brick' has been launched today at Carphone Warehouse.

The Brick is on sale for £50, has a standby battery life of up to one month, and comes with mobile phone game Snake.

Read more

Phonebloks: a phone that can be built like Lego

A smartphone with detachable parts that could last forever has been designed.

Phonebloks is a sustainable device that can be built like Lego and would allow users to replace its parts over time instead of buying new smartphones.

Dutch designer Dave Hakkens designed it after his favourite camera broke and he was advised to buy a new one as it was cheaper than replacing the broken part.

Read more

London-based MyTime app launched on iPhones

Free iPhone app MyTime has launched in London and is already on Apple's 'What Hot' listing on the App Store.

The app is personalised to allow the user to re-select and filter results by the type of interests and events they enjoy.

It links to iCal, so the user can select an event and see it go straight into their phone's calendar.

Events can also be shared to a user's friends, and it is updated in real-time so users do not miss out on last minute events or one day exclusives.

Read more

LG unveils G Flex curved smartphone

South Korean mobile phone maker LG claims that the vertically curved design of its G Flex smartphone is optimised for the average face, to deliver improved voice and sound quality. The curved form increases the sound level by 3dB compared to typical flat smartphones.

The curved design also offers a more reassuring grip and fits more comfortably in the user's back pocket, according to LG. In landscape mode, the display offers an IMAX-like experience, providing accc angle for watching videos or playing games.

Read more

BBM for Android and iOS hits 20m downloads in a week

BlackBerry has announced that its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) apps for Android and iOS have already been downloaded more than 20 million times.

It means it now has more than 80 million active users globally across BlackBerry, Android and iPhone devices.

BlackBerry re-launched the Android and iOS apps last week, after problems with a rogue version of the Android app forced BlackBerry to suspend the rollout for almost a month.

BBM quickly rose through the rankings on the App Store to become the number one free app in 107 countries and top free app in 35 countries in Google Play during its first week.

Read more

New coating could lead to waterproof mobile phones

Dropping your phone down the toilet may never be a problem again.

Researchers have developed a new way of waterproofing electronic components that means they can be immersed in water for days without being damaged.

The technique coats components with a protective layer just a few atoms thick that is impervious to air or water.

They claim devices treated in this way can be left submerged in salt water for months without being harmed – conditions that would destroy normal electronics.

Read more

Shoto photo app launches on Android and iOS

A new app is launching in the UK today that uses a combination of location and phonebook details to automatically create albums of all the photos taken together by a group of friends at a given place and time.

Known as Shoto, the aim of the app is to solve the problem of never getting to see the photos that other people have taken an event, like a wedding or a office party. However, it also includes privacy controls that let the user select which people at the event get to see their pictures.

Read more

Stepping Out Of The Lab: Steve Cousins' New Robotics Company

 At the Pioneers Festival in Vienna, several of the leading voices in robotics, including Rodney Brooks, CEO of Rethink Robotics, and Steve Cousins, former CEO of Willow Garage gathered to have a candid discussion about the future of robotics.

Cousins, also the creator of ROS (Robot Operating System), an open source software that’s become the de facto standard in modern robots, announced his new robotics company, Savioke. He won’t go into a lot of detail, but he did say the company is focused on service robotics.
Read more

Latest mobile phones 2013: hottest handsets reviewed

In the ever-changing mobile market, it can be hard to keep pace with the latest mobile phones. That's why we've put together this hub for our latest mobile phone reviews and hands on: to give you the ideal jumping-on point for choosing the best handset for you out of the most current models around.

We cover a plethora of brands, including Apple, HTC, Nokia, Samsung and Blackberry, and operating systems, such as Android, iOS and Windows Phone 8, so you should find something that piques your interest here.

In short, if you're seeking a new mobile phone, this is a great place to start.

Read more

Oculus Rift Is Coming to Android—iOS Still Waiting Read more: Oculus Rift Comes to Android - Popular Mechanics Follow us: @PopMech on Twitter | popularmechanics on Facebook Visit us at PopularMechanics.com

Oculus Rift, the massively Kickstarted virtual reality headset and PopMech Breakthrough Award Winner, is going mobile with Android compatibility. Chief executive officer Brendan Iribe announced the integration yesterday during the GamesBeat 2013 conference in Redwood, Calif. 

The mobile Rift headset will be much lighter than its PC-tethered counterpart, and the team announced that it hopes to launch both sets next year. The company's blog also says that Oculus Android development kits are already running. Games will most likely be created around or modified for the device, and Oculus demos like the VR Cinema 3D will allow users to watch movies unrestricted by cables. 

Read more

GIMP review: This free image editor is no longer a crippled alternative to Photoshop

Whether you are actively considering a move away from Photoshop, or simply hoping there is a non-proprietary tool for reading your Photoshop images if you ever decide to stop subscribing to Adobe’s cloud, you’ve probably wondered about GIMP. A free, open-source, image editor, the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) has been a go-to tool for Linux users for years, but has a reputation for being hard to use and lacking many of Photoshop’s features. The reality has changed dramatically over the last couple years. GIMP now has a very competent user interface, as well as an extensive and powerful set of features. Its openly extensible nature means that in some areas, like running well-known image processing algorithms on your photos, it actually outshines Adobe Photoshop.
Read more

Cool Tents for Chic Camping Vacations

Spending time in the great outdoors is one of our favorite things, if you couldn't tell from the articles we've written on glamping, tents, and ultra-chic campers. A quick look around the web shows that we're far from the only ones who've fallen in love with all aspects of camping, especially when it comes to tent design. The humble tent has gotten a designer upgrade and now comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and styles. Here are some of our favorites.
Read more

Aeromobil takes to the skies: Is the age of flying cars finally here?

The design space for a machine that can roll out of a standard parking spot, unfurl a pair of wings, and hurl itself into the air has been explored as thoroughly as any. Stefan Klein, an engineer from Austria, has been working on such machines for the last 20 years. His latest concept, the Aeromobile 2.5, has some impressive specs, and seems to have little trouble getting airborne. The question that comes to mind when watching footage of the prototype is — can it stay there?
Read more

The futility of Surface and ccc RT: If only Microsoft had stuck with Intel

Over the past week, I’ve had the fortune to play with both Microsoft’s Surface 2 and the Asus T100 Transformer Book. These are very similar devices — convertible laptops with detachable keyboards — except for one big and fundamentally life-altering difference: Where the Surface 2 is powered by Nvidia’s ARM-based Tegra 4 SoC, the Transformer Book has Intel’s x86 Bay Trail under the hood. As a result, while the Surface 2 runs Windows RT, the T100 runs full Windows 8.1. Yes, every program and game that you use on your Windows desktop PC also works on the T100. Steam works on the T100. Team Fortress 2 works on the T100. Photoshop works (surprisingly well!) on the T100. Let that sink in for a moment, and then read on.
Read more

Why curved smartphone screens massively increase image quality, daylight readability

Believe it or not, the curved screen on the Samsung Galaxy Round smartphone isn’t just a marketing gimmick: The curvature actually causes a series of optical effects that result in improved contrast, color accuracy, readability, and overall image quality — especially under ambient light that usually makes smartphone screens almost unreadable, such as daylight or fluorescent office lighting.

This new information about curved displays comes from Raymond Soneira, who is one of the few authorities on display technology, image quality, and color calibration. From thestory on his site, it sounds like Samsung gave him a Galaxy Note 3, the Galaxy Round (which is the Note 3 but with a curved display), and a standalone, free-standing OLED display from the Round (which he could bend and flex to his heart’s content). While he hasn’t yet produced his usual slew of images and graphs, it’s clear that he’s very surprised by the massive gain in image quality afforded by the curved display.

Read more

Photoshop Elements 12 review: A cheap, better alternative for most photographers

For over 20 years, Photoshop has been the image editor of choice for photographers around the world. Initially it was just about the only good option, leading to its use not only by work-a-day pros who value its extensive feature set, but by millions who would really rather have an easier-to-use and lesSofs-expensive alternative. With Adobe’s new “rent-only” policy for Photoshop, those users, along with new photographers looking for an image editor, the search for alternatives has an increased urgency. Fortunately Adobe itself is now providing a worthy option in the new Photoshop Elements 12. At less than $100, the program is affordable for most people, and is the most powerful version of Elements ever.
Read more

NTT researchers entangle photons 300 kilometers apart using fiber optics

Japanese telecom giant NTT is concerned with more than routing phone calls — it is exploring the technology to enable a new kind of super-fast communication based on quantum mechanics. NTT’s recent experiments with quantum entanglement have reached a true milestone in the understanding of this phenomenon. A team led by Takahiro Inagaki at the NTT Basic Research Laboratories in Kanagawa has managed to keep two particles entangled over a distance of 300 kilometers through fiber optic cable.

Entanglement has been of huge interest to physicists over the years for its ability to seemingly transfer information simultaneously from one location to the other without actually crossing the space in between. Two particles that are entangled share the same quantum state, describing properties like spin, momentum, and polarization. Thus, observing one of the particles tells you about the other.

Read more

Hydrogel implants could be a fiber optic network for your body

The biggest problem with wetware is the “ware” part. Enormous metal implants like those seen in The Matrix or Elysium look cool and all, but any real-world interface of metal and flesh is precarious; surface implants are often rejected by the body, leading to infection and even death. Technology has gotten smaller, more efficient, and able to better communicate wirelessly, but for all the nifty implants we can build, actually implanting them has proven difficult, and controlling them even more so. Now, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital claim that a special hydrogel could change all that.
Read more

Motorola and Google unveil upgradeable modular smartphone platform

Remember that technologicallyutopian future with modular, upgradeable smartphones that I envisioned back in August? It turns out that Motorola has had the same idea. Called Project Ara, Motorola’s R&D department is working on an “open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones,” with the aim of doing for hardware what Android has done for software. If an open, modular smartphone ecosystem can be realized, it could do wonders for innovation, massively drive down development timelines and total cost of ownership, and finally allow you to do whatever you want with your smartphone, rather than being constrained by draconian measures imposed by carriers and device makers.
Read more

Hell freezes over: Intel announces plan to fab ARM processors

As developments go, this one is a bombshell. For the first time, Intel has agreed to build ARM chips based on its prime competitor’s architecture, for another company. For decades, Intel was an Intel-only shop. When it announced plans to lease some fab space to companies several years ago, the deal was presented strictly as a low volume project to be used for a handful of small customers, with no significant impact on Intel’s bottom line. Even the news that Chipzilla would build FPGA’s for Altera on 14nm wasn’t a huge shift in this policy, though Altera was a bigger customer than Intel had previously signed.
Read more

A cheap, powerful digital microscope using your smartphone and an old laser pointer

There is little reason anymore to buy one of those toy microscopes from the hobby shop for your budding biologist. To observe all that the microworld has to offer, the focus has shifted from the scope, to the camera. In other words, instead of trying to rig a camera to an existing scope, it now seems to make more sense to just build the scope around the camera. A cool project to build a high-power digital microscope, using an iPhone and the focusing lens from a cheap laser pointer, recently showed up on the Instructables website. Ten minutes and twenty dollars may be a little bit optimistic, but the video below does make it look easy.
Read more

World first laser levitation could help solve the contradiction of quantum and classical physics

Physicists in Australia have become the first researchers to levitate a macroscopic object using lasers. The physicists used three lasers to form a levitational “tripod” that could hold a small mirror in free space. Beyond the inherent awesomeness of optical levitation, the physicists believe that the setup could be used as an incredibly accurate sensor for fickle forces such as gravity, and perhaps ameliorating the greatest contradiction of them all: quantum mechanics vs. general relativity.

As you can probably imagine, levitating a physical object with lasers (a stream of massless photons) is rather difficult. “Imagine you’ve got something above you and you are throwing ping pong balls at it to keep it in the air,” is the simple (and not wholly accurate) analogy given by Ben Buchler, one of the physicists involved with the study. The key to the levitation is a force known as radiation pressure, and a branch of physics called optomechanics.

Read more

How the NBA’s SportVU ball and player tracking tech changes the face of sports

Tonight sees the return of the NBA, but along with LeBron’s continued dominance and Derrick Rose’s return, comes a new breed of technology and influence. Each team in the NBA now has access to the SportVU, a camera system so technologically advanced that it has opened the door for Big Data to invade and shape the NBA, and subsequently, the sports world.
Read more

iPad Air reviewed: Thinner, lighter, faster, and easier to hold. What’s not to like?

With just a couple of days until the iPad Air’s official release date of November 1, the first batch of iPad Air hands-on reviews have arrived. As the thinner, lighter, and faster successor to the massively acclaimed iPad 4, the reviews for the iPad Air are exactly what you’d expect: universally positive.
Read more

Apple Replacing ‘Limited’ Number Of iPhone 5s With Manufacturing Issue Leading To Battery Life Problem

Apple released a statement today to The New York Timesnoting that a manufacturing issue has caused shortened battery life in a ‘very limited’ number of iPhone 5s devices. At its introduction, the phone was reported by Apple to have nearly identical life to the iPhone 5, and most tests have borne that out with reviewers seeing identical or slightly improved numbers.

Read more

Barnes & Noble Outs The $119 Nook GlowLight, We Go Hands-On

For better or worse the holidays are right around the corner, and that can only mean one thing: consumer electronics companies are slaving away on new hardware designs and trying to get those final products onto shelves in time for an annual feeding frenzy.

Barnes & Noble is no different. Well, it’s a little different — when I sat down with Digital Content EVP Doug Carlson earlier today he was eager to paint a picture of a savvy bookseller that’s still aware of the human elements of peddling tomes (digital and otherwise). But it wasn’t long at all before he got down to the business at hand and revealed the $119 Nook GlowLight, a new e-reader the company will start selling today.

Read more

ET deals: $499 for Dell Inspiron One 2020 all-in-one

When it comes to the concept of an all-in-one PC, a lot of technically inclined people might raise the question, “why bother?” Most of us may not mind plugging in and routing the wires associated with a traditional desktop and are OK with accepting the limitations of a laptop, but an all-in-one PC makes a lot of sense for a lot of users, especially those of us who just want a simple PC with a small footprint.

All-in-one’s have gained a lot of popularity over the last few years, as the designs get sleeker and the prices lower. With the deal today you can get a complete PC with 20-inch multi-touch screen and everything you need in one order for $500. You will be hard-pressed to get a comparable desktop, much less an all-in-one, anywhere else.

Read more

iPad Air Review: Apple Makes Big Tablets Beautiful All Over Again

Apple introduced two new iPads this month at a special event in San Francisco on October 22, and the first of those to go on sale is the iPad Air, which is in stores and on virtual shelves this Friday, November 1. After a week with Apple’s newest 9.7-inch device, it’s clear there’s a new champion of the large tablet market, and one that breathes new life into Apple’s original slab-style game-changer.
Read more

iPad Air: Escaping Apple’s Reality Distortion Field

At first glance, with the Apple Reality Distortion Field at full power, the iPad Air seems like an impeccable, immaculate device that could only ever be conceived by the magicians at Apple in California. The iPad Air is some 30% lighter and 20% thinner than the iPad that it replaces, while still retaining the same Retina display and 10 hours of battery life. Somehow, just somehow, Apple made us feel that it had yet again pulled off the impossible. In reality, the iPad Air, while very attractive, isn’t remarkable at all. The new Kindle Fire HDX, for example, has a higher-resolution screen, more battery life, weighs less, and even costs less than the iPad Air.
Read more

AWS Updates Big Data Analytics Platform With New Support For Hadoop And Its Ecosystem

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has updated its Elastic Map Reduce platform with a new version of Hadoop and updated support for its data analytics ecosystem.

Elastic Map Reduce is AWS platform for processing large amounts of data. But unlike many vendors, AWS offers a hosted service. The challenge for AWS is to keep Hadoop and its accompanying ecosystem updated and in pace with the latest open-source platforms.

Read more

Cloud-Based Device Management Startup Soluto Getting Acquired By Device Insurers Asurion For Up To $130M

Looks like another exit for an Israel-based startup — this one straddling the worlds of cloud services and hardware control.Soluto, a service that lets users manage PCs and other connected devices remotely, is getting acquired by Asurion, a company that offers device insurance services. The news is being reported as a work in progress by TheMarker andCalcalist. Globes, meanwhile, is reporting this as a done deal. Meanwhile, we have confirmed the sale through two separate sources. We’re hearing reports of up to $130 million, specifically between $100 million and $130 million.

You can see where a deal with Asurion makes a lot of sense.

The latter company, based out of Nashville, Tennessee, partners with carriers like Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Clear to resell its services to consumers. Those services include physical replacement of broken devices — consumers can file and track claims — but there are also a suite of services that are software-based, such as the ability to locate lost devices and back up content. Soluto will help Asurion extend and improve the latter part of the service, perhaps as a way also to offset some of the insurance risk around losing and replacing faulty or broken handsets.

Read more

Computational sprinting with wax takes heat off smartphones

(Phys.org) —What about using wax with a processor as part of a technique to stave off smartphone overheating? Can wax be the answer to the thermal problem confronting smartphones? That is the proposal coming from a University of Pensylvania and University of Michigan team of researchers, who have been studying ways to manage the chip performance of smartphones. Milo Martin, an associate professor with the University of Pennsylvania and his colleagues at the two schools believe the answer is in computational sprinting involving wax. "When someone cranks the chip well beyond its recommended speeds, the wax absorbs the extra heat coming off the silicon, and at 54 degrees Celsius, it starts to melt," said a report about their research in Wired. Small mobile devices don't have room for the large fans that cool a laptop. If mobile phones actually used all of their transistors at the same time, they would overheat. Only a portion of a smartphone chip's transistors can operate at once. If you hear the term "dark silicon" it refers to the large portions of a silicon chip that must remain off at a given time. As transistors get smaller, the heat problems may only get worse.

Read more

Achieving the perfect phone technique

Do you sometimes wonder what being good on the phone is all about? It is pretty obvious, isn’t it? You have to learn how to work your voice. Understanding the overwhelming importance of the tone of voice during a phone call is the first step towards a successful and convincing conversation on the phone. This is why this article takes a closer look at your voice as an important instrument – no matter whether during a business or private call.
Read more

Windows Phone 8 update supports bigger and faster phones

Count Microsoft in on the giant phone trend.

When the latest Windows Phone 8 update hits devices at the end of the month, MIcrosoft's mobile operating system will get support for zippy quad-core processors and 1080p high-definition screens. That means Windows Phone devices will be able to sport five-inch, Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) iPhone-like retina-grade displays. It also means that we'll eventually see a Windows Phone phablet.

The push for bigger displays also means that more live tiles can fit on the screen, and big phones running Windows Phone 8 will be able to add an extra column of tiles to its home screen.
In its previous iteration, Windows Phone 8 only allowed for slower dual-core processors and less-rich 720p screens. That meant Windows Phone devices couldn't participate in the move towards gigantic phones.
Read more

Review: Grip & Shoot iPhone photography pistol grip

It was just a few months ago that we first saw the Grip & Shoot at CE Week in New York City. The device is a pistol grip attachment for the iPhone (4S and higher), allowing users to shoot stills and video one-handed, without having their fingers awkwardly splayed to reach the touchscreen controls. Its commercial launch has taken place since then, so I recently had the chance to try one out for myself.
Read more

A field test of Structure Sensor's 3D scanning for mobile devices

When Occipital launched its Kickstarter campaign for a portable 3D sensor for Structure Sensor mobile devices, it saw the project fully funded within a few hours. Knowing we had to see this gadget in action, Gizmag met with co-founder Vikas Reddy after Structure Sensor had become the 50th Kickstarter project to reach the million-dollar mark. Our goal was to test the gadget that has its backers so eager to test one too.
Read more

Review: Rhino Shield impact-resistant smartphone screen film

It was just a month ago that we reported on Evolutive Labs' Rhino Shield, a 6-layer transparent polymer film designed to protect smartphone screens. Not only is it said to ward off scratches and fingerprints, but it's also reportedly five times more impact-resistant than Gorilla Glass 2. Evolutive recently sent me a testing kit, so I could see first-hand just how tough it is – without endangering my smartphone in the process. Here's how things turned out ...
Read more

LG challenges Samsung with the G Flex curved screen smartphone

It looks like LG and Samsung are at it again. Both companies were vying for our attention at CES 2013 with simultaneous "world's first" curved OLED television announcements. LG consistently led in the race to the consumer space, and looked liked being first to move the screen format onto smartphones with the announcement earlier this month of its plans to mass produce flexible OLED phone displays. Samsung had other ideas, however, and the Galaxy Round was launched just a few days later. LG has now caught up with the forthcoming release of its slightly larger G Flex smartphone, featuring a curved display that follows the contour of the face.
Read more

BlackBerry removes queue for app, video and voice calls due in future

BlackBerry Messenger for Android and iPhone will have voice and video  calling in the future, according to a company executive. The extra communication options for the app comes at the same time as the phone manufacturer removes the queue from the app, allowing anyone that has downloaded it access without having to wait any longer.
Speaking to CBC, executive vice president of BBM for BlackBerry Andrew Bocking advised that the voice and video chatting, already used on BlackBerry devices, will reach the iOS and Android versions "within months." As for how to earn money from BBM, Bocking advised that it is "definitely a free service," though "we have other ideas on how to monetize that service." It is thought that it could receive revenues through BBM Channels, a social networking feature that would allow users to follow others on the service, much like Twitter, with advertising providing BlackBerry some revenue.
Read more

Hunting Mobile Threats in Memory

Yesterday at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, a researcher presented a new way to detect malware on mobile devices. He says it can catch even unknown pests and can protect a device without draining its battery or taking up too much processing power.
Experts agree that malware is coming to smart phones, and researchers have begun to identify ways to protect devices from malicious software. But traditional ways of protecting desktops against threats don’t translate well to smart phones, says Markus Jakobsson, a principal scientist at Xerox PARC and the person behind the new malware detection technology. He is also the founder of FatSkunk, which will market malware-detection software based on the research.

Read more

iPad Air gets new cases and keyboards from Logitech

Buyers of Apple's iPad Air will be able to outfit their new tablets with keyboards and cases courtesy of Logitech.
Announced on Monday, Logitech's FabricSkin Keyboard Folio, Ultrathin Keyboard Cover, Ultrathin Keyboard Folio, and Folio Protective Case are all designed to protect the iPad Air.
The first three products include a Bluetooth wireless keyboard that promises a large key size for more accurate typing. The Folio Protective Case doesn't offer a keyboard but comes with a stand and a waterproof skin that Logitech says will protect the iPad against bumps, scratches, and spills. It's also the lightest and thinnest case of the new lineup.
All four cases will launch sometime in November. The iPad Air itself will reach buyers this Friday, November1.
Read more