Will the FBI share its #iPhone-cracking method with police?

 The successful hack of a phone linked to the San Bernardino terror attacks is unlikely to help police win greater access to encrypted data in thousands of smartphones sitting in evidence lockers nationwide, legal experts and law enforcement officials say.

The process used to gain access to Syed Rizwan Farook's iPhone 5c might not work on other devices, according to an FBI official with knowledge of the investigation.

Though the FBI might want to use the new tool to help solve other criminal cases, doing so would also make the process subject to discovery during criminal trials and place the information in the public domain, according to the official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Any application of the method used to access Farook's phone would probably be limited to investigations that are unlikely to result in criminal cases, the official said.

“A technical option developed for a particular computing device may not work on other devices,” the FBI official said. “The effectiveness of these lawful methods may be limited by time and resources, and may lack the scalability to be a viable option for most investigations.”

On Wednesday, an Arkansas prosecutor said the FBI has agreed to help his office gain access to an iPhone 6 and an iPod that might hold evidence in a murder trial. It was not clear if the FBI would employ the method it used to access Farook's phone.

News that the FBI found a way into Farook's phone Monday thrilled police, who have long complained that encrypted data represents a major roadblock to routine police investigations. Thousands of smartphones sit in police evidence lockers across the country. At least 400 locked devices are in the possession of the Los Angeles Police Department and the L.A. County Sheriff's Department.

But as it became clear that the FBI's success in the San Bernardino case wouldn't translate to broader access for law enforcement, officials once again called on Congress to settle the issue.

“We cannot ask crime victims across 3,000 local jurisdictions to stake their hope for justice on an unending technological arms race between the government and Apple,” Manhattan Dist. Atty. Cyrus Vance Jr., one of the leading national voices decrying encryption, said in a statement issued Tuesday. “The ongoing public safety challenge posed by warrant-proof encryption demands a comprehensive, legislative solution.”

Terrence Cunningham, the police chief in Wellesley, Mass., and president of the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, said he respects the FBI's position but warned that criminals will continue to use encryption to deflect police investigations until a legislative solution is presented.

“The concern is that today's technology provides criminals with powerful new tools that keep police from protecting the public,” he said. “Data that rests in emails, text messages, photos and videos stored on mobile devices can help to locate a suspect or a victim, and in some cases, save lives. Law enforcement's mission is to keep the public safe and to protect communities, and collecting digital evidence from criminals and terrorists will help us do that.”

Federal investigators have offered few details about how they gained access to Farook's phone. The iPhone 5c was at the center of a court battle between the FBI and Apple, which led to a court order that Apple create software that would allow the FBI to access encrypted data on the device.

Farook disabled the phone's iCloud backup feature six weeks before the Dec. 2 attack, according to court filings. He had also enabled an auto-erase feature that would permanently destroy all data on the phone after 10 consecutive failed attempts to enter the device's password.

A third party provided the FBI with a way to disable the password entry limit, according to another law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation who was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Internal government policy might limit what, if anything, the FBI could share about the method used to hack Farook's phone, said Andrew Crocker, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group.

If the government exploited a flaw in Apple's security measures, it could be required to disclose that information to Apple under the Vulnerabilities Equities Process, Crocker said. The policy is weighted toward disclosure, but the government has successfully fought to keep such details secret before.

Government agencies are allowed to share information about digital security flaws with one another, he said. But if the government chose not to share that information with Apple, it could also conceivably be barred from telling police agencies about the process used to unlock Farook's phone.

“They certainly can share it within the federal government without disclosing it to Apple,” Crocker said. “The way I read the policy, sharing it with local police would be a dissemination outside the government.”

In the Arkansas case, Cody Hiland, prosecuting attorney for the state's 20th Judicial District, said the FBI's Little Rock field office had agreed to help prosecutors gain access to a pair of locked devices linked to suspects in the slayings of Robert and Patricia Cogdell.

Calls to the FBI's Little Rock field office were not immediately returned. An FBI spokesman in Washington, D.C., declined to comment.

Attorneys for Apple are researching legal tactics to compel the government to tell the company what, if any, flaws it exploited in gaining access to Farook's phone. But most experts believe the FBI has no obligation to comply. The FBI could also argue that the most crucial information is part of a nondisclosure agreement, solely in the hands of the outside party that assisted the agency, or cannot be released until the investigation is complete.

Though the debate over Farook's phone did not land in criminal court, the fight between law enforcement and Silicon Valley over access to encrypted data is far from over. The FBI may have claimed a victory this week, but some police leaders fear it won't take long for Apple or another company to build tougher encryption methods.

“If the FBI did in fact find some type of a flaw that they were able to exploit, clearly the industry is going to say, ‘We've got to find a way to plug that hole,'” Cunningham said.

Latimes.com

Apple’s #iPhone 7: Everything we know so far.

 Apple’s upcoming iPhone 7 may very well represent the most radical iPhone redesign we’ve seen yet. Not only will the iPhone 7 likely sport a new form factor, there are also a number of rumors pointing towards the device completely doing away with the traditional 3.5mm headphone jack.

Of course, seeing as how the next iPhone will be a number upgrade in the refresh cycle (as opposed to an ‘S’ upgrade), it stands to reason that the iPhone 7 will introduce a wide array of compelling new features.

With the rumor mill already in full swing, we’ve compiled a list of all the interesting iPhone 7 rumors we’ve seen spring to life over the past few months. While Apple’s iPhone plans are certainly subject to change, the list below is a reasonable and safe approximation of what exciting features folks looking to upgrade can look forward to later this year.

1. No headphone jack

Without question, the most startling design change to the iPhone 7 may be its lack of a headphone jack. What started out as a crazy rumor has since been corroborated by a number of varying sources. According to reports, Apple will completely remove the traditional 3.5mm headphone jack and instead rely on the Lightning port for audio. Doing so will not only save space, thus allowing for a thinner iPhone, but will also improve the overall sound quality. A Fast Company report from last week claimed that the iPhone 7’s “audio system will also leverage a new noise-canceling technology” that will be “baked into the phone and also into the headphones that will plug into it, and will help remove background noise in music playback and in phone calls…”

The only question, though, is how big the backlash will be if Apple actually does abandon the traditional 3.5mm headphone jack? Will consumers protest and take their wallets elsewhere, or will this eventually blow over with time, much like other instances where Apple has abandoned legacy technologies.

2. Waterproof design

One of the side benefits to eliminating the headphone jack is that it makes it easier to waterproof the iPhone. After all, it’s one less port for water to creep into and wreak havoc with the circuitry. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen reports that the iPhone 7 will be completely dust and waterproof and may very well come with an IP68 rating. If this pans out, the iPhone 7 would be able to withstand submersion under water at great depths and still operate swimmingly after the fact.

3. New form factor

While the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus display sizes will be the same as what Apple already uses on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, it stands to reason that the iPhone 7 will introduce a new look and feel to Apple’s smartphone lineup. Indeed, every major iPhone upgrade (the iPhone 4, iPhone 5, iPhone 6) has incorporated new design elements and there’s no reason to think that the iPhone 7 will be any different. One safe bet is that the iPhone 7 will be even thinner than the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.

4. Wireless Charging

Though smartphones from companies like Samsung have had wireless charging for some time, Apple will reportedly jump on the bandwagon with the iPhone 7. Apple, we should point out, isn’t completely new to the world of wireless charging as that’s how the Apple Watch is charged.

5. Bigger battery

Battery life has long been a sore spot for some iPhone users. Of course, this is arguably a good problem as it shows that consumers love using their iPhones. With respect to Apple’s next-gen iPhone 7, a recently surfaced report claims that the battery packs on the iPhone 7 models may have more capacity than the ones used on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Specifically, the iPhone 7 Plus model may be graced with a 3100 man battery. In contrast, the iPhone 6s Plus battery is 2750 mAh. If this translates into longer battery life, that may be a strong impetus for folks to upgrade.

6. Better photos with dual-cameras

We haven’t heard too much about the iPhone 7 camera just yet, but a recently unearthed patent suggests that Apple is actively exploring implementing two distinct camera modules on the iPhone. Doing so would not only help improve overall camera quality, but would also improve image quality and overall detailing when zooming in. Another compelling use-case involves the ability to record two types of video at the same time, one in regular 4K and one in slow motion.

We should also point out that Apple back in April acquired LinX Computational Imaging, an Israeli company with incredibly advanced camera technology. As we highlighted a few months back, LinX touted its cameras as “leading the way to DSLR performance in slim handsets.” Some of the other features LinX’s camera technology provided includes improved low light photography, decreased noise levels and much more.

7. More RAM

Unfortunately, this rumor only pertains to the iPhone 7 Plus. According to reputable KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple will bestow the iPhone 7 Plus with 3GB of RAM, a slight bump up from the 2GB of RAM currently found in the company’s iPhone 6s lineup. While this rumor has a 50-50 shot of being true, it’s widely believed that the iPhone 7 model will ship with 2GB of RAM.

8. 256GB of Storage

With iPhones today capable of taking 4K video and high-quality photos, iPhone users, more than ever, are in need of more varied storage options.

To that end, rumor has it that the iPhone 7 Plus alone (do you notice a pattern here?) may be graced with a 256GB model. As it stands now, the largest capacity iPhone checks in at 128GB.

9. Blazing Fast and power efficient A10 processor

With each successive iPhone release, Apple manages to greatly improve both the performance and power efficiency of its processors. That being the case, it’s reasonable to assume that the iPhone 7 will house a blazing fast A10 processor.

Some rumors we’ve seen thus far have suggested that the A10 will deliver a performance boost of 20% while simultaneously reducing power consumption by 40%, relative to the iPhone 6s. Coupled with larger capacity battery packs (see above), we can only hope that the iPhone 7 models will really deliver a notable uptick in battery performance.

10. Earlier release date

Since the iPhone 4s hit store shelves in 2011, every new iPhone has launched sometime during the Fall. In 2016, Apple may decide to switch things up. According to an Apple Insider report from this past November, Apple may release its next-gen iPhone model sometime during the Summer.

This seems very unlikely, of course, for a number of reasons. Apple is under tremendous pressure this year to grow holiday-quarter sales. We also would have certainly seen more components leak at this point if iPhone 7 production was going to ramp up in time for a summer launch.

Rumored features not likely to happen

• No home button. While perhaps a design choice Apple will implement in the future, we haven’t seen any genuine indication that 2016 will be the year the home button disappears
• No OLED display. The rumors surrounding Apple’s interest in OLED displays have become too loud to ignore. Still, it’s far too early in the game to expect the iPhone 7 to feature said display. From what we’ve heard thus far, an iPhone equipped with an OLED display won’t become a reality until the iPhone 8 ships in 2018.

 Bgr.com

20 Awesome Hidden Features of iOS 9 #iphone, #ios

There are several hidden features in iOS 9 that are very useful. There are nifty features to improve battery life, and tweaks that improve the security of you iOS device, along with small tweaks like the Bluetooth battery widget and reorganised folders on iPads that make the experience of using your device that little bit better. Here is a list of features that you may not have spotted on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

1) Swipe left to invoke Spotlight
If you are wondering why you can no longer swipe down from any home screen to search, it's because Spotlight has been reinstated to a screen of its own in iOS 9. Before iOS 7, Spotlight could be invoked by swiping left from the main home screen, but this hasn't been the case with recent iOS versions. Here you will also see Siri's suggestions for apps and contacts based on what apps you use and who you contact at any given time of the day.

2) Settings search
The settings app is one of the more crowded and confusing parts of your iPhone or iPad - but now, you don't need to know where every setting is. The search bar at the top of the Settings app lets you quickly find whatever options you were looking for, to easily make the changes you want.

3) Low power mode
Running out of charge? Go to Settings > Battery and enable Low Power Mode. This disables certain visual effects, automatic downloads (apps, songs, etc), mail fetch, and background app refresh to improve battery life.

4) App screen time
Go to Settings > Battery and tap the clock icon under Battery Usage. This will give you detailed app usage information, and shows you how much time an app has been active, or running in the background. If an app is using a lot of battery while in the background, removing it could solve some battery woes.

5) Batteries widget
Open the Notification Centre and add the Battery widget. You will see the battery level of your iPhone, and also all paired devices like Apple Watch or Bluetooth headphones. It also has a tiny icon there to let you know if the device is charging.

6) Photo folders
The photo album on your iPhone or iPad has always been a slightly cluttered mess, but iOS 9 has brought some changes that could help. Open the Photos app and tap Albums. You'll see that all your photos are now neatly categorised into folders, such as Selfies, Panoramas, Screenshots, and more.

7) iPad folders
If you've created folders on the home screen of you iPad, you will notice that there are four apps per row in each folder, and four rows, as opposed to the three by three grid in iOS 8. That means that each page of a folder can now show 16 apps at a time, which is handy as you won't have to keep hunting for apps hidden away behind pages now. This is just one of the many iPad-specific tweaks in iOS 9.

8) Keyboard shortcuts
QuickType keyboard on the iPad has several nifty features in iOS 9. An entire shortcut bar at the top lets you quickly add attachments, formatting, and has nice undo and redo buttons too. Swiping on the keyboard with two fingers unveils a trackpad mode. This trackpad feature comes to iPads, and the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus (via 3D Touch). If you plug in a Bluetooth keyboard accessory, you can use quite a few shortcuts such as command-N to create a new document in certain apps such as Pages. Third-party apps like Microsoft Outlook have also been updated to make use of this feature.

9) Return to app
Moving between apps is a lot easier on iOS 9. If an app opens a link in another app, you'll be able to get back to the first app without needing the app switcher. For example, if you open a link in the Messages app, it will open in Safari. To return to the app, just tap the Back to Messages link on the top-left.

10) Custom numeric passcode
If you don't want to set a six-digit passcode or a regular password comprising alphabets and numbers, you can create a custom numeric passcode in iOS 9. Go to Settings > Touch ID & Passcode > Change Passcode. Tap Passcode Options and select Custom Numeric Code.

11) Spotlight calculator
Spotlight search can now search within third-party apps, and doubles up as your calculator and currency converter. Just type $600 in the search bar and Spotlight will show the equivalent rupee amount right there. You can also perform basic calculations using the search bar.

12) Quickly select photos
Open the Photos app, go to the album of your choice and tap Select on the top-right. Now just slide your finger over a bunch of photos and you will see that they're all getting selected. This is much faster than manually tapping each photo to select it.

13) Contextual Siri search
You can ask Siri to remind you about something tomorrow or to show you photos taken in Mumbai. Siri has now become a lot better at processing natural language.

14) Who's calling?
Getting a call from an unknown number? Siri will check your emails to try and show you the name of the contact.

15) Better Reader mode
Safari's inbuilt reader mode makes it easier to read articles. Once you enable it you can tap and hold the AA icon on the top-right to see several new iBooks-like options such as changing the fonts and night mode.

16) Safari share sheet
In Safari tap the share icon and you will see several new options. For example, you can now save webpages to pdf via iBooks in two taps. Also new in the share sheet are extensions that let you request the desktop version of any site and find words on the webpage. You can also save links to the new and improved Notes app or add them to the Reminders app directly.

17) Paste and go
Copy a URL and tap and hold the address bar in Safari. This will reveal a Paste and Go button. If you copy any other search term, this button changes to Paste and Search.

18) Grouped notifications
You still can't dismiss all notifications at once, but you can now dismiss all notifications from any one day at once. This is because iOS 9 groups notifications by date rather than by app. You can toggle this via Settings > Notifications > Group By App.

19) Mail improvements
The Mail app now lets you add markup to any photo. Select any photo you've attached, tap and hold, press the > button and tap Markup. Here you can annotate the picture and even add a digital signature.

20) Safari reload
Safari's reload page button on the top-right hides a couple of interesting features. Open any webpage and tap and hold the reload button. Now you will see two options slide up - Request Desktop Site and Reload Without Content Blockers. The second one will appear only if you are using a content blocker app.

Sourse: Ndtv.com

What the Cellphone Unlocking Law Means for You

A bill that will make it legal to unlock your cellphone is headed for U.S. President Barack Obama's desk. This is great news, but what does it mean for you? Will it actually impact how you can use your devices?

The ability to "unlock" your cellphone or tablet — that is, provision the phone to run on a different carrier network — gained visibility in early 2013, after a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exemption that made the practice legal in the U.S. expired.

That means that under U.S. law, it is now illegal to unlock a cellphone without a carrier's permission. Consumers, advocacy groups and even the White House came out in favor of legalizing phone unlocking. The wireless industry, which was initially against reinstating the copyright exemption, even had a change of heart, of sorts.

Last week, a piece of bipartisan legislation, dubbed the "Unlocking Consumer and Wireless Competition Act," was unanimously approved by both the House and the Senate. This means that consumers will once again be able to legally unlock their cellphones without running afoul of copyright laws.

The law will only restore the exemption until the Librarian of Congress makes its next ruling(which is scheduled to happen sometime in 2015), but as activist Sina Khanifar notes, this is the first time Congress has ever acted to reverse an exemption.

Alright, so you'll soon be able to unlock your phone again. What does this mean for you, the regular phone user?

Will this make my phone work on all carriers?
Can my unlocked phone work overseas?
Can I unlock my tablet too?
What does this mean for bulk unlockers?
Will we have to do this whole exemption dance again?

A common misconception is that unlocking a cellphone will make it compatible with all other cellular networks. In other words, if I unlock my Verizon handset, I can use it on AT&T or Sprint.

The reality is a lot more complicated. In the United States, wireless carries have historically run on two types of technology: GSM or CDMA. AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM for the underpinnings of its network, while Verizon and Sprint use CDMA. The two technologies are incompatible with one another, which means that many (though not all) CDMA phones will not work on a GSM network.

With CDMA devices, even being unlocked doesn't guarantee a Sprint phone will work on Verizon's network. The networks still have to provision different phones and in most cases, a Sprint phone won't be provisioned to run on Verizon's voice network and vice versa.

But let's assume you have a "world phone" — that is, a phone that has both CDMA and GSM support. Does that mean your Verizon device can now be used on AT&T? The answer sadly, is, "it depends."

Some phones, such as Verizon's iPhone, are also unlocked to work on GSM networks. That means that you can use your Verizon iPhone 5S on AT&T and T-Mobile, and you'll even get LTE speeds. If you have a Verizon iPhone 5, however, the unlocked phone will only get HSPA+ speeds on T-Mobile and AT&T.

An AT&T or T-Mobile phone, unlocked or not, will not work on Sprint. Some AT&T and T-Mobile unlocked phones will work on Verizon's LTE network, but that's only for data, not for voice.

We should also point out that because LTE has so many different bands, you can't guarantee that an LTE device made for one network will work on LTE on another network. Phone makers are starting to build in support for more bands into their devices, but it's far from a perfect match.

If you're an iPhone user, you can find out what networks your phone will work on by looking atthis chart from MacRumors.

As long as it is a "world phone," the answer is yes. Unlike the United States, the rest of the world has almost entirely standardized on GSM. That means that as long as your Verizon or Sprint phone is designated a "world phone," it can be unlocked and used in Europe and many other countries.

Keep in mind, however, that just because you can pop in a SIM card and get voice or SMS service doesn't mean you can get LTE data service on your phone overseas. LTE support is based on what band is supported by your phone and the carrier in a specific country. More often than not, your phone will get HSPA+ at best if you are trying to use it someplace else.

It's also important to know that China uses a different standard than the rest of the world. If you're going to China, plan on just using your phone on Wi-Fi and maybe on 2G. Plan to buy a local replacement if it's going to be a long stay.

The cellphone unlock bill only covers phones. The bill did say, however, that the Librarian of Congress should consider whether other wireless devices, like tablets, are also eligible for unlocking.

With tablets, the unlocking scenario is actually less complex, if only because we're only talking about data networks, Increasingly, modern tablets in the United States are sold to work on T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon networks for LTE (and Verizon models can fall-back to CDMA for 3G data).

Early supporters of the cellphone unlock movement expressed their displeasure with an early version of the bill, which denied legal protections to "bulk unlockers" — that is, companies and services designed for unlocking your phone. This group also includes phone recyclers and resellers.

As a result, the language concerning "bulk unlockers" was removed for the bill. That means that bulk unlocking services or recyclers or resellers, should feel free to unlock phones just like anyone else.

Yes, but hopefully it won't take as long next time. The Library of Congress meets again in 2015 to decide on the next set of DMCA exemptions. With Congress and the Senate approving the bill — and with the overwhelming public support — we can only hope it will be passed again.

There is talk to bring a bill forward that would permanently exempt cellphone unlocking from the DMCA, in order to avoid this every two-years song and dance.

Mashable.com

CES: GM Wants To Turn Your Car Into An iPhone On Wheels

The Detroit, Michigan-based automaker  announced it will debut its new CUE infotainment software on the Cadillac ATS — a new BMW 3-series fighter GM introduced at the Detroit Auto show earlier Sunday.

Short for Cadillac User Experience, CUE is built around an 8-inch touch screen, kind off like an iPad. ”Customers want things that are elegant, intuitive, and simple to use,” Cadillac Global Marketing Director Jim Vurpillat told a crowd of journalists.

There’s more to GM’s plans than just pretty software however. GM also said it will open up its OnStar telematics service to outside developers.

The first outside developer to take advantage of the service, GM-backed startup RelayRides, plans to let RelayRides users unlock a car they’re renting from other RelayRide users with their smartphone.

CUE is based on Linux, the same open-source software running many of the world’s servers. Cars last three to four to five years, so Cue’s open, Linux-based architecture will let GM keep the CUE’s interface up to date, Vurpillat said.

GM showed a video showing a user accessing Pandora on his car’s center console, plugging gadgets into the car’s USB port, and generally treating the thing like a smartphone with a stick shift.

Unlike an iPhone, of course, you can’t put a Cadillac in your pocket. Like Apple, however, GM is tying its software to a suite of cloud services, and opening its software up to outside developers.

An OnStar cloud platform called ‘ATOMS,’ is already used by more than 250,000 customers who use GM’s ‘RemoteLink’ smartphone software, which let’s users tap into GM’s OnStar service to check their cars diagnostics or unlock their car door with a mobile phone.

GM wants to open that platform up, said Nick Pudar, vice president of planning and business development for OnStar. During the first half of 2012, OnStar will make its application-programming interfaces available to developers.

Third-party developers will get access to ATOM-based services, such as vehicle location, diagnostics, and remote capabilities and controls.

That will allow car sharing service RelayRides to let one of its customers open up a car they’re renting from another RelayRides customer with their smartphone.

And if the car is stolen, GM’s OnStar service can even be used to slow the stolen car down and stop it.

For more coverage of the 2012 Consumer Electronics show, see forbes.com/CES

Forbes.com

Nokia Exec: 'Kids Today Fed Up With iPhone, Confused by Android'

 Kids today! You just can't satisfy them. Well, Apple and Google can't--but, apparently, Nokia can.

According to the Nokia Director of Portfolio, Product Marketing and Sales, Niels Munksgaard, the youth of today are fed up with Apple's iPhone and confused by Google's Android platform. Er…yeah, okay.

"What we see is that youth are pretty much fed up with iPhones," Munksgaard told Pocket-lint in an interview Tuesday. "Everyone has the iPhone. Also, many are not happy with the complexity of Android and the lack of security."

Sure, Niels, because what kids today are really interested in is…smartphone security. That's why people who jailbreak their iPhones or root their Android devices are usually middle-aged.

Munksgaard goes on to say that the youth that "wants to be on the cutting edge and try something new are turning to the Windows phone platform." This of course explains why everyone is jumping on the Windows Phone 7 ship and totally rejecting phones that offer little "cutting edge" improvement, such as Apple's iPhone 4S. And why Android has such a small, shrinking percentage of the smartphone marketshare.

That's all sarcasm, of course. While Windows Phone 7 sales have been dropping precipitously, the iPhone and Android OS continue to shine--Apple sold over 1 million pre-order iPhone 4S's in less than 24 hours, while Android has been the best-selling smartphone OS since the fourth quarter of 2010.

Still, Munksgaard believes that Nokia has something different to offer the market, such as the brightly-colored designs of the Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia's first Windows Phone 7 phones. Munksgaard says that Nokia wants to deliver services and phones that are different--"The marketplace is extremely crowded. I refer to it as a sea of sameness. When you walk up to a retail shelf at Phones4U and see the number of black mono-blocks sitting on the shelf, it is very confusing to the consumer."

Nokia also plans to offer different services, such as Nokia Mix Radio,Nokia Drive, and Nokia Maps. Nokia Mix Radio, for example, will deliver 15 million music tracks, sorted by genre or taste, that can be downloaded for offline listening. With Nokia Mix Radio you can skip six tracks per hour--so it's a lot like a built-in Pandora. The good news, of course, is that it works out of the box and costs nothing extra.

Pcworld.com

Apple Said to Work on Cheaper IPhones to Ward Off Android-Based Handsets

 Apple Inc. is working on new versions of the iPhone that are aimed at slowing the advance of competing handsets based on Google Inc.’s Android software, according to people who have been briefed on the plans.
One version would be cheaper and smaller than the most recent iPhone, said a person who has seen a prototype and asked not to be identified because the plans haven’t been made public. Apple also is developing technology that makes it easier to use the iPhone on multiple wireless networks, two people said.
Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, who remains involved in strategic decisions while on medical leave, would use lower prices to widen the iPhone’s appeal and keep it from losing further ground to Android devices. Less expensive iPhones may also ratchet up pressure on Nokia Oyj, whose handsets are especially popular in Europe and some developing markets.
“Instead of targeting 25 percent of the global mobile- phone market, Apple would be going after 100 percent,” said Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co. in New York, who has a “buy” rating on Apple shares.
Google’s share of the global smartphone market more than tripled to 32.9 percent in the fourth quarter, eclipsing Apple’s 16 percent, according to Canalys. Apple will face another challenge as Nokia and Microsoft Corp. join forces in smartphone development, a partnership announced today.
Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California- based Apple, declined to comment.
Apple added $1.30 to $355.84 at 9:59 a.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The stock had climbed 9.9 percent this year before today.
Smaller, Cheaper

Apple has considered selling the new iPhone for about $200, without obligating users to sign a two-year service contract, said the person who has seen it. Android phones sell for a range of prices at AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless and other carriers, and typically come with agreements that include a fee for broken contracts. The iPhone 4, sold in the U.S. by AT&T and Verizon Wireless, costs $200 to $300 when subsidized by a contract.
While Apple has aimed to unveil the device near mid-year, the introduction may be delayed or scrapped, the person said. Few Apple employees know the details of the project, the person said. Apple often works on products that don’t get released.
The prototype was about one-third smaller than the iPhone 4, and it had no “home” button, said the person, who saw it last year.
Apple would sell it at a low price mainly because the smartphone will use a processor, display and other components similar to those used in the current model, rather than pricier, more advanced parts that will be in the next iPhone, the person said. Component prices typically drop over time.
Dual-Mode Phone

Apple is also working on a so-called dual-mode phone, two people said. This device would be able to work with the world’s two main wireless standards -- the global system for mobile communications, used by AT&T and overseas carriers such as Vodafone Group Plc, and code division multiple access, used by Verizon Wireless. It couldn’t be determined whether Apple intended to include this capability in the cheaper iPhone.
Apple is working on a technology called a universal SIM, which would let iPhone users pick from a variety of GSM networks without having to switch the so-called SIM cards that associate a phone with a network, according to one person. Having universal SIM capability built-in would help cut the cost of distributing and managing millions of SIM cards.
The new features could also give Apple an advantage over mobile carriers in influencing customers. The device would be affordable without a carrier subsidy, so buyers wouldn’t need to agree to terms, such as termination fees, that carriers demand in exchange for lowering the cost of the phone.
Global Appeal

A cheaper iPhone would help Apple make deeper inroads in markets such as China and India, where many shoppers opt for lower-priced devices that don’t carry long-term contracts, Wolf said.
Apple has also worked on redesigned iPhone software that would let customers choose a network and configure their device on their own, without relying on a store clerk or representative of a carrier, according to the person.

Apple has gone down-market before. In 2004, when sales of the original $299-plus iPod were still rising, the company introduced the $249 iPod Mini. In 2005, when the iPod Mini was still a bestseller, Jobs discontinued it in favor of the cheaper iPod Nano. Apple began selling the last version of the iPhone, the 3GS, for just $49 in January -- though it required a two- year contract.
Price cuts and the absence of a carrier subsidy may put Apple’s margins under pressure.
Still, Apple is able to get big discounts from suppliers because of the large volume of iPhone sales and by signing long- term contracts. The company said in January that it has executed long-term agreements totaling $3.9 billion in recent months.
Google’s Android operating system also may suffer if Apple makes the iPhone more versatile and affordable. The Google- backed operating system benefited when Apple wasn’t available from Verizon Wireless. Verizon Wireless began selling the iPhone yesterday.

Bloomberg

Your Apps Are Watching You

A Journal investigation finds that iPhone and Android apps are breaching the privacy of smartphone users.

Few devices know more personal details about people than the smartphones in their pockets: phone numbers, current location, often the owner's real name—even a unique ID number that can never be changed or turned off.

These phones don't keep secrets. They are sharing this personal data widely and regularly, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.
An examination of 101 popular smartphone "apps"—games and other software applications for iPhone and Android phones—showed that 56 transmitted the phone's unique device ID to other companies without users' awareness or consent. Forty-seven apps transmitted the phone's location in some way. Five sent age, gender and other personal details to outsiders.

The findings reveal the intrusive effort by online-tracking companies to gather personal data about people in order to flesh out detailed dossiers on them.
Among the apps tested, the iPhone apps transmitted more data than the apps on phones using Google Inc.'s Android operating system. Because of the test's size, it's not known if the pattern holds among the hundreds of thousands of apps available.

Apps sharing the most information included TextPlus 4, a popular iPhone app for text messaging. It sent the phone's unique ID number to eight ad companies and the phone's zip code, along with the user's age and gender, to two of them.
Both the Android and iPhone versions of Pandora, a popular music app, sent age, gender, location and phone identifiers to various ad networks. iPhone and Android versions of a game called Paper Toss—players try to throw paper wads into a trash can—each sent the phone's ID number to at least five ad companies. Grindr, an iPhone app for meeting gay men, sent gender, location and phone ID to three ad companies.
"In the world of mobile, there is no anonymity," says Michael Becker of the Mobile Marketing Association, an industry trade group. A cellphone is "always with us. It's always on."
iPhone maker Apple Inc. says it reviews each app before offering it to users. Both Apple and Google say they protect users by requiring apps to obtain permission before revealing certain kinds of information, such as location.


"We have created strong privacy protections for our customers, especially regarding location-based data," says Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr. "Privacy and trust are vitally important."
The Journal found that these rules can be skirted. One iPhone app, Pumpkin Maker (a pumpkin-carving game), transmits location to an ad network without asking permission. Apple declines to comment on whether the app violated its rules.
Smartphone users are all but powerless to limit the tracking. With few exceptions, app users can't "opt out" of phone tracking, as is possible, in limited form, on regular computers. On computers it is also possible to block or delete "cookies," which are tiny tracking files. These techniques generally don't work on cellphone apps.
The makers of TextPlus 4, Pandora and Grindr say the data they pass on to outside firms isn't linked to an individual's name. Personal details such as age and gender are volunteered by users, they say. The maker of Pumpkin Maker says he didn't know Apple required apps to seek user approval before transmitting location. The maker of Paper Toss didn't respond to requests for comment.
Many apps don't offer even a basic form of consumer protection: written privacy policies. Forty-five of the 101 apps didn't provide privacy policies on their websites or inside the apps at the time of testing. Neither Apple nor Google requires app privacy policies.
To expose the information being shared by smartphone apps, the Journal designed a system to intercept and record the data they transmit, then decoded the data stream. The research covered 50 iPhone apps and 50 on phones using Google's Android operating system.
The Journal also tested its own iPhone app; it didn't send information to outsiders. The Journal doesn't have an Android phone app.
Among all apps tested, the most widely shared detail was the unique ID number assigned to every phone. It is effectively a "supercookie," says Vishal Gurbuxani, co-founder of Mobclix Inc., an exchange for mobile advertisers.
On iPhones, this number is the "UDID," or Unique Device Identifier. Android IDs go by other names. These IDs are set by phone makers, carriers or makers of the operating system, and typically can't be blocked or deleted.
"The great thing about mobile is you can't clear a UDID like you can a cookie," says Meghan O'Holleran of Traffic Marketplace, an Internet ad network that is expanding into mobile apps. "That's how we track everything."
Ms. O'Holleran says Traffic Marketplace, a unit of Epic Media Group, monitors smartphone users whenever it can. "We watch what apps you download, how frequently you use them, how much time you spend on them, how deep into the app you go," she says. She says the data is aggregated and not linked to an individual.
The main companies setting ground rules for app data-gathering have big stakes in the ad business. The two most popular platforms for new U.S. smartphones are Apple's iPhone and Google's Android. Google and Apple also run the two biggest services, by revenue, for putting ads on mobile phones.


Apple and Google ad networks let advertisers target groups of users. Both companies say they don't track individuals based on the way they use apps.

Apple limits what can be installed on an iPhone by requiring iPhone apps to be offered exclusively through its App Store. Apple reviews those apps for function, offensiveness and other criteria.

Apple says iPhone apps "cannot transmit data about a user without obtaining the user's prior permission and providing the user with access to information about how and where the data will be used." Many apps tested by the Journal appeared to violate that rule, by sending a user's location to ad networks, without informing users. Apple declines to discuss how it interprets or enforces the policy.

Phones running Google's Android operating system are made by companies including Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Google doesn't review the apps, which can be downloaded from many vendors. Google says app makers "bear the responsibility for how they handle user information."
Google requires Android apps to notify users, before they download the app, of the data sources the app intends to access. Possible sources include the phone's camera, memory, contact list, and more than 100 others. If users don't like what a particular app wants to access, they can choose not to install the app, Google says.

"Our focus is making sure that users have control over what apps they install, and notice of what information the app accesses," a Google spokesman says.

Neither Apple nor Google requires apps to ask permission to access some forms of the device ID, or to send it to outsiders. When smartphone users let an app see their location, apps generally don't disclose if they will pass the location to ad companies.

Lack of standard practices means different companies treat the same information differently. For example, Apple says that, internally, it treats the iPhone's UDID as "personally identifiable information." That's because, Apple says, it can be combined with other personal details about people—such as names or email addresses—that Apple has via the App Store or its iTunes music services. By contrast, Google and most app makers don't consider device IDs to be identifying information.
A growing industry is assembling this data into profiles of cellphone users. Mobclix, the ad exchange, matches more than 25 ad networks with some 15,000 apps seeking advertisers. The Palo Alto, Calif., company collects phone IDs, encodes them (to obscure the number), and assigns them to interest categories based on what apps people download and how much time they spend using an app, among other factors.
By tracking a phone's location, Mobclix also makes a "best guess" of where a person lives, says Mr. Gurbuxani, the Mobclix executive. Mobclix then matches that location with spending and demographic data from Nielsen Co.
In roughly a quarter-second, Mobclix can place a user in one of 150 "segments" it offers to advertisers, from "green enthusiasts" to "soccer moms." For example, "die hard gamers" are 15-to-25-year-old males with more than 20 apps on their phones who use an app for more than 20 minutes at a time.
Mobclix says its system is powerful, but that its categories are broad enough to not identify individuals. "It's about how you track people better," Mr. Gurbuxani says.
Some app makers have made changes in response to the findings. At least four app makers posted privacy policies after being contacted by the Journal, including Rovio Mobile Ltd., the Finnish company behind the popular game Angry Birds (in which birds battle egg-snatching pigs). A spokesman says Rovio had been working on the policy, and the Journal inquiry made it a good time to unveil it.
Free and paid versions of Angry Birds were tested on an iPhone. The apps sent the phone's UDID and location to the Chillingo unit of Electronic Arts Inc., which markets the games. Chillingo says it doesn't use the information for advertising and doesn't share it with outsiders.

Apps have been around for years, but burst into prominence when Apple opened its App Store in July 2008. Today, the App Store boasts more than 300,000 programs.
Other phone makers, including BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. and Nokia Corp., quickly built their own app stores. Google's Android Market, which opened later in 2008, has more than 100,000 apps. Market researcher Gartner Inc. estimates that world-wide app sales this year will total $6.7 billion.
Many developers offer apps for free, hoping to profit by selling ads inside the app. Noah Elkin of market researcher eMarketer says some people "are willing to tolerate advertising in apps to get something for free." Of the 101 apps tested, the paid apps generally sent less data to outsiders.
Ad sales on phones account for less than 5% of the $23 billion in annual Internet advertising. But spending on mobile ads is growing faster than the market overall.
Central to this growth: the ad networks whose business is connecting advertisers with apps. Many ad networks offer software "kits" that automatically insert ads into an app. The kits also track where users spend time inside the app.
Some developers feel pressure to release more data about people. Max Binshtok, creator of the DailyHoroscope Android app, says ad-network executives encouraged him to transmit users' locations.
Mr. Binshtok says he declined because of privacy concerns. But ads targeted by location bring in two to five times as much money as untargeted ads, Mr. Binshtok says. "We are losing a lot of revenue."
Other apps transmitted more data. The Android app for social-network site MySpace sent age and gender, along with a device ID, to Millennial Media, a big ad network.
In its software-kit instructions, Millennial Media lists 11 types of information about people that developers may transmit to "help Millennial provide more relevant ads." They include age, gender, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation and political views. In a re-test with a more complete profile, MySpace also sent a user's income, ethnicity and parental status.
A spokesman says MySpace discloses in its privacy policy that it will share details from user profiles to help advertisers provide "more relevant ads." My Space is a unit of News Corp., which publishes the Journal. Millennial did not respond to requests for comment on its software kit.
App makers transmitting data say it is anonymous to the outside firms that receive it. "There is no real-life I.D. here," says Joel Simkhai, CEO of Nearby Buddy Finder LLC, the maker of the Grindr app for gay men. "Because we are not tying [the information] to a name, I don't see an area of concern."
Scott Lahman, CEO of TextPlus 4 developer Gogii Inc., says his company "is dedicated to the privacy of our users. We do not share personally identifiable information or message content." A Pandora spokeswoman says, "We use listener data in accordance with our privacy policy," which discusses the app's data use, to deliver relevant advertising. When a user registers for the first time, the app asks for email address, gender, birth year and ZIP code.

Google was the biggest data recipient in the tests. Its AdMob, AdSense, Analytics and DoubleClick units collectively heard from 38 of the 101 apps. Google, whose ad units operate on both iPhones and Android phones, says it doesn't mix data received by these units.
Google's main mobile-ad network is AdMob, which it bought this year for $750 million. AdMob lets advertisers target phone users by location, type of device and "demographic data," including gender or age group.
A Google spokesman says AdMob targets ads based on what it knows about the types of people who use an app, phone location, and profile information a user has submitted to the app. "No profile of the user, their device, where they've been or what apps they've downloaded, is created or stored," he says.
Apple operates its iAd network only on the iPhone. Eighteen of the 51 iPhone apps sent information to Apple.
Apple targets ads to phone users based largely on what it knows about them through its App Store and iTunes music service. The targeting criteria can include the types of songs, videos and apps a person downloads, according to an Apple ad presentation reviewed by the Journal. The presentation named 103 targeting categories, including: karaoke, Christian/gospel music, anime, business news, health apps, games and horror movies.
People familiar with iAd say Apple doesn't track what users do inside apps and offers advertisers broad categories of people, not specific individuals.
Apple has signaled that it has ideas for targeting people more closely. In a patent application filed this past May, Apple outlined a system for placing and pricing ads based on a person's "web history or search history" and "the contents of a media library." For example, home-improvement advertisers might pay more to reach a person who downloaded do-it-yourself TV shows, the document says.
The patent application also lists another possible way to target people with ads: the contents of a friend's media library.
How would Apple learn who a cellphone user's friends are, and what kinds of media they prefer? The patent says Apple could tap "known connections on one or more social-networking websites" or "publicly available information or private databases describing purchasing decisions, brand preferences," and other data. In September, Apple introduced a social-networking service within iTunes, called Ping, that lets users share music preferences with friends. Apple declined to comment.
Tech companies file patents on blue-sky concepts all the time, and it isn't clear whether Apple will follow through on these ideas. If it did, it would be an evolution for Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who has spoken out against intrusive tracking. At a tech conference in June, he complained about apps "that want to take a lot of your personal data and suck it up."
By WSJ