How to Secure Your Smartphone

With phones falling into the wrong hands every day and California residents subject to warrantless cellphone searches, now's a pretty good time to think about protecting your smartphone. Fortunately, it's pretty easy and we'll walk you through the process.

Angry Birds creator praises iPhone as a platform, talks Android fragmentation

Angry Birds creator, Peter Vesterbacka, in a recent interview had some fairly positive things to say about Apple and the opportunities they have created for developers with the iPhone and iOS platform. He also gives a short explanation for the price tag for the iOS version versus the free Android version.

Apple will be the number one platform for a long time from a developer perspective, they have gotten so many things right. And they know what they are doing and they call the shots. Android is growing, but it’s also growing complexity at the same time. Device fragmentation not the issue, but rather the fragmentation of the ecosystem. So many different shops, so many different models. The carriers messing with the experience again. Open but not really open, a very Google centric ecosystem. And paid content just doesn’t work on Android.

iPhone 4 Antenna Issues and Ping Rank Among Top 'Tech Fails' for 2010

CNN has put together its list of the Ten Biggest Tech "fails" of 2010, highlighting the technology and Internet products and features that failed most spectacularly during the year.

In what may be a bit of a surprise considering how little we've heard about it over the last several months, CNN ranked the iPhone 4's antenna issues, known informally as "Antennagate", as the top tech fail of the year. In fact, even CNN acknowledges that "fail" is "a pretty relative term" considering how successful the iPhone 4 was and continues to be.

Playboy's Hefner announces Christmas engagement

Hugh Hefner, the twice-married founder of Playboy, is taking the plunge again.

Hefner, 84, said on Saturday in a posting on Twitter that he and his girlfriend Crystal Harris, 24, got engaged on Friday.

"When I gave Crystal the ring, she burst into tears. This is the happiest Christmas weekend in memory," Hefner tweeted.

Hefner, whose magazine was founded in 1953, was divorced from his second wife, Kimberley Conrad, earlier this year. His first marriage to Mildred Williams ended in divorce in 1959.

Harris was the Playboy Playmate of the Month for December 2009.

Hefner, known around the world by his nickname, Hef, has championed sexual freedom and civil rights, published stories challenging McCarthyism and the Vietnam War, and backed gay causes and the legalisation of marijuana.

With a cover featuring a calendar photo of Marilyn Monroe, Hefner put the first issue together on the kitchen table in his flat. It hit the stands in December 1953 and sold 51,000 copies -- enough to finance a second issue -- and led to a multimillion dollar international corporation.

via Reuters

LimeWire abandons hope, prepares to close music store

A new report Thursday suggests that legendary piracy pioneer LimeWire may soon call it quits. LimeWire was hardly the first network of its kind, but along with services like Kazaa, LimeWire played a major role in bringing file-sharing to the masses. This past October, LimeWire was forced to shutter its file-sharing service following a court order. Now, the company’s recent attempts to jump from seedy to sanctioned appear to be for naught. According to an alleged email to vendors obtained by All Things Digital, LimeWire will soon cease its attempts to run a legitimate online music store. 

AMOLED shortage to become a surplus in 2011

Samsung's beautiful Super AMOLED panels are becoming more and more common in mobile devices, but they're not as common as they could be if there were more of the things flying out of Samsung Mobile Display factories. Predictably that's set to change in 2011, with SMD planning to fulfill its promise and bring another production facility online, while other competitors in Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore will ramp up their own AMOLED facilities in the coming year. Meanwhile, China is said to be working on its OLED supply chain as well, meaning those displays of the passive matrix variety will also be flying off of assembly lines soon. So, 2011 may still not be the year of a chicken in every pot, but it could be the year of glowy organic goo in every smartphone.

via Engadget

Smartphone Sales In Asia On The Rise, Android Tops Symbian

We can’t say we’re really surprised: according to market research company Gfk, smartphones are getting increasing popular in Asia, with Android now being the region’s most popular OS for this type of handsets. Cell phones with the Google software on board have reportedly enjoyed brisk sales in that region in the second and third quarters of 2010.

Google Cloud Connect takes on Microsoft Office

Google has launched Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, allowing Office users to back up and sync their docs, spreadsheets, and slideshows on Google's cloud network.

Yesterday, Google took its latest shot at Microsoft Office. In a blog post, the search company unveiled Google Cloud Connect, an add-on to Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, and 2010 that allows users to automatically upload and sync their documents as Google Docs in the cloud, allowing access from multiple computers with an Internet connection.

Black Friday Week: What Delightful Deals Will Apple Have In Store?

Well grow me from a chick in a massive pen full of other turkeys, feed me antibiotics, cut off my head and boil my skin briefly then shake and blow off my feathers with an industrial fan, and then stuff me full of bread and sausage, cook me for most of the day, and call me dinner! Apple is announcing a super secret sale dedicated to those who want to offer only the very best to their loved ones. No details yet, but given that iPod Touches are hovering at about $240 at Wal-Mart, I can’t imagine the deals are very massive.

This Is the World's Fastest Rollercoaster In Action

We knew the world's fastest rollercoaster was a Ferrari, but we never saw this 150mph crazy ride action. Here it is, shown by Ferrari Formula 1's pilots Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. Zero to 62mph in two seconds. Terrifying. [Thanks Perico!]

via Gizmodo

Sony backing new series of 3D TV shows launching in Japan this January

Now that Japan's first 3D broadcast is old news, Sony hopes to spark 3D TV sales in the island by offering a new series of late night 3D programming. Created in partnership with the Japanese TV company BS Fuji, the proposed lineup will launch with three 30-minute specials. The first will air at midnight on Saturday, January 1st, with the other two following at the same time on Sunday the 2nd and Monday the 3rd. Topics covered include: rail travel on the Orient Express, a bird's eye trip that follows the ultra low-flying journey of a powered paraglider, and a recap of Sony Aquarium 3D coverage from 2008-2010, which apparently has been a popular annual summer event held in Sony's Ginza building. After that trio, 30 minutes of 3D programming will continue to air at the witching hour from January 9th onwards. How much this ploy will help Sony's 3DTV sales considering Japanese consumers can already watch BS11 3D broadcasts is debatable, but anything's better than robot theater right?

via Engadget

Facebook founder's first website sold at auction

The FaceMash.com Web address that landed Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in trouble as a Harvard University student has sold at auction for slightly more than $30,000.

FaceMash.com drew 10 bids, with the top contender offering $30,201, according to a posting online Thursday at domain name auction service Flippa.

Zuckerberg was a Harvard student in 2003 when he made a FaceMash.com website at which people could compare pictures of coeds at the college and rate which was "hotter."

The website was an instant sensation but was quickly shut down by Harvard administrators unhappy with the stunt. Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard and started Facebook in 2004.

A Look At LG Optimus 7 DLNA Support (Video)

A unique feature of the LG Optimus 7 Windows Phone 7 handset -- one of which you can win brand new with our contest -- is DLNA support and implementation which enables you to hook your handset up with another DLNA-enabled device in order to play back music, videos and pictures. 

Japan to develop cheap satellite for emerging markets

TOKYO—Japan is developing a low-cost surveillance satellite to aid disaster relief and other purposes as it looks to expand its reach into emerging markets, government and corporate officials said Friday.

Japan's trade ministry is collaborating with NEC Corp. and other companies to develop by 2012 a small satellite costing a fifth of current prices for conventional monitoring satellites, trade ministry official Shuichi Kato said.

NEC will contribute technology it developed for the Hayabusa asteroid probe programme, whose success in being the first to collect asteroid particles during a seven-year odyssey has captured the imagination of Japan's public.

The iPhone alone is worth more than all but 10 companies in the world

In a provocative thought experiment, Trefis compares its spinoff value to the rest of industry

Assume Apple (AAPL) today is worth $391 billion (nearly 40% more than its current market cap), as the analysts at Trefis estimate it to be.

Assume as well, as they do, that the iPhone represents 53.5% of that value.

Then it follows, according to them, that the iPhone, were Steve Jobs to spin it off as a separate company, would be worth $209 billion.

How does that compare with the largest companies in, say, the automotive industry, or pharmaceuticals, or media?

It would dwarf them all. In fact, team Trefis could find only ten companies on the planet -- three of them Chinese -- that are more valuable than the iPhone. They are

• AT&T (T): worth $224 billion in Trefis' valuation
• Petro China (energy): $225 billion
• China Construction Bank (banking): $229 billion
• IBM (IBM): $234 billion
• BHP (mining): $236 billion
• Proctor & Gamble (PG): $243 billion
• Microsoft (MSFT): $262 billion
• ICBC (banking) : $265 billion
• Exxon Mobil (XOM): $349 billion
• and, of course, Apple itself: $391 billion

via FortuneTech

Android Preferred to iOS When It Comes to Ads

Chalk up another win for Android (however bittersweet it may be). The CEO of Pontiflex recently was quoted saying that Android was more important for mobile ads because it was so much faster in implementing ads.

The good news about this is it gives us even more proof that Android is a fast growing, influential mobile OS. With no signs of fatigue, it is only feasible that more and more developers will start jumping ship to Google's OS. Plus, ads on applications are a great way for developers to get some coin, without making users pay for their app.  It seems that many Android devs are looking to monetize their apps using ads inside of free applications.  It is good to hear that they seem to be on the right track.

via AndroidGuys

Google Turns Dozens Of Its Consumer Products Into Enterprise Apps

Earlier this year, Google announced that it would be rolling out Apps interactivity with iGoogle, YouTube, Blogger, Picasa, and other products in the Google family. Today the search giant is making over 60 of its homegrown products available for a deep integration for all types of Google Apps accounts.

Services like Google Voice, Reader, Analytics and AdWords will now be available on Google Apps accounts. The apps can be accessed through a new interface in administrative control panel for new customers. Existing customers can transition to the new interface at their own pace but Google says it will automatically shift all App customers over to the new control panel early next year.

Wozniak: Android Will Dominate iOS [Updated]

UPDATE: Woz now says he was misquoted by De Telegraaf, and offers direct clarification of his statements over at Engadget. He says he never meant to suggest that Android was better than iOS, just that it seemed to possibly be on track to overtake Apple’s OS in terms of market share “based on what [he's] read.”

Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder and worldwide technology celebrity, predicts that Android will dominate iOS before long. Wozniak, speaking to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, shared his thoughts on various topics in his usual candid manner, but the Android/iOS war was front and center throughout.

Not all Samsung Galaxy S phones will get Android 2.2 this year

If you are the owner of the Samsung Captivate or the Samsung Vibrant and are still running Android 2.1, you are not going to want to hear this-that is, unless you live in Canada. According to the Samsung Mobile Canada Facebook page, Canadian owners of the Vibrant and Cativate will be getting upgraded to Android 2.2 in the middle of next month from Bell and Rogers respectively.Android 2.2 sometime next month. The message adds that TELUS will upgrade the Fascinate in early 2011. 

In the U.S., 3 million Android users stuck using Android 2.1 are owners of the Samsung Galaxy S, including carrier branded models. There are some who theorize that instead of following the Canadian upgrade to Android 2.2 with a similar move down south, U.S. owners might end up with Android 2.3. If that occurs, it might help Galaxy S buyers in the U.S. feel a little bit better about all of the waiting they had to go through, but we wouldn't really expect the Korean based manufacturer to skip right past Froyo to Gingerbread.

via PhoneArena

Wanna Watch TV? Don’t Cut The Cord, Get Cable

Google TV is a mess. Apple TV is a joke. Using a Roku is about as exciting as cleaning my gutters. I like the Boxee Box, but my wife doesn’t understand why; she doesn’t get it and that says something. Downloading torrents or NZBs is time consuming and only a small portion of the population actually has the know-how and hardware to do it. Sorry. Cord cutting is a lost cause.