Google starts up Newspaper Subscription Service to rival Apple's

Google has launched a digital newspaper and magazine subscription service less than a day after rival Apple.

Eric Schmidt, chief executive of the web search giant, yesterday said Google would take 10pc of the cash collected via its One Touch digital newsagent service, with 90pc going to publishers.

Apple's system will see it take a 30pc cut from subscriptions bought through iPad and iPhone apps.

Google will also provide publishers with the names and email addresses of readers, while Apple has refused to share customers' details.

"You've got a very publisher-friendly approach; we basically don't make any money on this," Mr Schmidt said during a speech in Berlin yesterday. "The most important thing is to get the money to people who are producing high-quality content."

Mr Schmidt said Google would not profit from the service, and explained that the company's 10pc cut was to cover costs.

The service is available now in the UK, the US, Canada, France, Spain, and Germany. It will be expanded to other countries soon. It is available via tablet devices, smartphones and PCs.

Google said publishers can charge readers as much or as little as they like and offer single issue purchases to long subscriptions. The company has been working on the project for some time, but is understood to have brought the launch forward following Apple's demand yesterday for a 30pc cut of in-app subscriptions.

 source  Go to Home

Apple iPad and iPhone 'aim to replace cash'

Apple's forthcoming iPad and iPhone are expected to include a mobile payments feature that the firm hopes will replace cash and cards for millions of users.

Spending on debit and credit cards in the UK overtook cash for the first time last year, but already the technology industry is gearing up for the next battle.

According to analysts, Apple is considering heavily subsidising payment terminals for shops as it prepares to take on rival "Near Field Communications" (NFC) systems from Visa and Mastercard, which allow shoppers to simply wave their credit card at the checkout.

The second iPad is due in April, swiftly followed by the fifth iPhone in June.

NFC is most familiar to most Britons as the technology behind Transport for London's Oyster card. More recently it has been promoted by Barclaycard: For small purchases, users just have to wave their card rather than enter a PIN.

Apple is not the only Silicon Valley giant to see the potential in uniting such technology with internet-enabled smartphones. Google's new Nexus S device also incorporates an NFC chip.

"The reason this NFC chip is so interesting is because the credit card industry thinks the loss rate is going to be much better, they’re just more secure," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt in November.

Apple's forthcoming launches will be particularly closely watched, because as with technologies popularised by the iPhone, such as mobile web browsing and touchscreens, the mobile industry has tried for several years to launch NFC, with limited success.

Steve Jobs' mobile payments service is expected to be launched in the United States as soon as mid-2011, according to Bloomberg. It is likely to be integrated with the firm's iTunes service, which already holds financial information on millions of iPad and iPhone owners.

The system could open up yet another front for Apple, against the credit card industry. The firm is already the world's most valuable technology company, fighting service providers, hardware and software makers in many markets.

via telegraph

Verizon iPhone to Curb Android Sales, but How Much?

Most high-tech analysts in the free world agree the CMDA-based Verizon iPhone 4 will impede both AT&T's iPhone sales and the growth of Google Android handsets on Verizon Wireless' network.

Few agree, however, on just how much Android will be affected. EWEEK found some analysts who have some insight into the Verizon iPhone speculation.

Gleacher Co. analyst Mark Mckechnie, who estimated Verizon accounted for 7 million of the 14 million Motorola Android phones shipped in 2010, said that number will likely fall to 5 million through 2011.

That's quite a hit, but not catastrophic, particularly one when one considers Samsung sold 10 million Galaxy S Android units in just half a year. Remember that HTC, Sony, LG and others also make Android models for all four U.S. carriers.

Many analysts expect Verizon to ship 9 million to 15 million iPhone 4s this year, minus the benefit of a full year of sales because the device won't hit stores until Feb. 10.

Yankee Group analyst Carl Howe is going with 16.5 million Verizon iPhone 4s sold in 2011. However, Howe also believes that despite the cachet of Apple and its iPhone, Android will weather the Verizon iPhone storm well on sheer diversity of handsets.

"Android provides a lot of choices that Apple doesn't," Howe told eWEEK. "Want a hard keyboard? You're not going to be buying an iPhone. Want a 4G device? Not available on the Apple platform today. There are still lots of ways to differentiate other than with the OS."

Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin takes a slightly dimmer view of Android's prospects as a result of the Verizon iPhone coming to the market

Golvin believes that the majority of Verizon's iPhone sales will be to its existing customers, some of whom may be trading in their Blackberry or Droid to get an iPhone.

"It's also reasonable to assume that a high percentage of those who will migrate from Sprint, T-Mobile, and smaller carriers are already carrying a phone running another smartphone platform," Golvin said. "All told, this means that Android will see some actual losses in share as well as lost sales opportunities."

"You may have some customers who will switch from an Android phone to an iPhone but we will also have many who are perfectly satisfied with the device they are using. One of the advantages we have is our stores will be stocked with both so customers can not only look but touch before making their decision."

Yankee's Howe added that there's room for Apple, Android, RIM platforms, if not more, such as Microsoft Windows Phone 7.

via eweek

RIM taps Web technology to drive mobile developments

BALI--Research In Motion (RIM) is looking to harness the best of today's Web technologies including HTML5 and JavaScript, to bridge the gap between development efforts for its BlackBerry smartphones and the soon-to-be-released PlayBook tablet.

Tyler Lessard, vice president of global alliances and developer relations at RIM, said the Canadian smartphone manufacturer is intent on bringing the "Web to mobile" by incorporating existing Web technologies into its WebWorks software development kit (SDK).

Released Thursday, the early access version of the SDK will give Web and mobile developers skilled in HTML5, JavaScript and CSS, the tools to create apps for RIM's upcoming PlayBook tablet device, said Lessard, during his keynote presentation here at RIM's first Asia-based developer conference.

Bridging the platforms
According to Lessard, WebWorks allows existing BlackBerry OS developers to port their apps over to the BlackBerry Tablet OS once the device hits the North American market in the first quarter of 2011.

HTML5, specifically its WebKit technology, bridges both the BlackBerry and BlackBerry Tablet platforms, he added.

RIM also released WebWorks as an open source technology so that the wider developer community can add functionalities that are currently missing in the toolkit, he said.

Asked if its PlayBook device is generating developer buzz, Greg Wade, RIM's Southeast Asia managing director , pointed to the extension of an ongoing tablet development program as proof of the increasing interest in the platform.

RIM introduced the Playbook tablet on Sep. 28 last year, pitching it as a product built for the enterprise user base. In fact, RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis described it as an "amplified view of what's already on [customers'] BlackBerrys".

The 7-inch, dual-core tablet is touted to offer "full multitasking" and hardware-accelerated apps that tap its fast computing capabilities, said Lessard during his keynote.

Carrier billing impetus
Besides creating a viable development roadmap for app developers, RIM is also intent on building out its carrier billing capability, Lessard revealed. Since the launch of its BlackBerry OS 5 in 2009, the company has been partnering U.S. telco, AT&T, to provide carrier billing for subscribers that download its apps, he said, noting that this option is in addition to PayPal and credit card payment methods.

He stressed that carrier billing is a "hugely important, even critical" area for RIM to roll out. Pointing to emerging markets in Southeast Asia and other regions, where credit card payment"doesn't make sense", he noted that these are areas that carrier billing takes on added importance.

via zdnetasia

Technology : Android more at risk than iOS, says Trend Micro

When it comes to mobile security, Apple's iOS platform might get the nod over Android, according to security software maker Trend Micro.
Speaking to Bloomberg yesterday, Trend Micro Chairman Steve Chang said that "Android is open-source, which means the hacker can also understand the underlying architecture and source code." Apple, he said in the interview, has been "very careful about it. It's impossible for certain types of viruses" to run on the company's iPhone.
Chang specifically pointed to Apple's "sandbox concept that isolates the platform, which prevents certain viruses that want to replicate themselves or decompose and recompose to avoid virus scanners."
For its part, Google told Bloomberg that its platform has safeguards in place that "limit the amount of trust a user must grant to any given application developer."
Debates are ongoing with respect to the security of Android and iOS. In July, security experts revealed that both iOS and Android have "comparable" security, but they achieve it in different ways. Moreover, an expert told CNET at the time that the threats each mobile operating system poses aren't affecting users all that much.
"Security concerns are mostly theoretical, at this point," Independent Security Evaluators principal analyst Charlie Miller said in an interview with CNET. "You are more likely to lose the phone."

via cnet

Mac App Store Licensing and Copy Protection, Explained

Rights and sites:- When you buy an app on the Mac App Store, you're getting the rights to run that program on any Macs you own and operate, for your personal use. Basically, if your household has a half-dozen different Macs, including desktops and laptops, you can buy a copy of Gratuitous Space Battles and play it on every single one of them. Consider a purchase of consumer software via the Mac App Store to be a bit like buying a household site license for the app.

Copy protection:- Mac App Store apps aren't wrapped in digital-rights management software, really. In fact, copy protection is not mandatory on Mac App Store apps. Developers can add an identity check if they want, though. The way that identity check works is, the app itself (not the Mac App Store App) sees if it's got authorization to run. If it doesn't, it asks for your Apple ID and password and then verifies that information with Apple. Once it gets the OK from Apple's servers, it saves that authorization and continues running. read more at pcworld

XWave: The iPhone App That Almost Reads Your Mind

Ok, so the app doesn’t exactly reads your mind but it visualizes whatever brain waves XWave head gear senses while clamped to your head. The head gear costs $100 and once you put it on, it senses your brain waves and analyzes them to provide some very useful information. The iPhone app is free of cost and interacts with the head gear once it is inserted into the ear phone jack of your phone. read more at techperiod

Things NOT going to happen in 2011

Prediction ain’t easy. But that doesn’t stop many would-be pundits from trying to read the 2011 tea leaves, with sometimes hilarious results.

The antidote? ABI Research’s annual take on what’s NOT going to happen next year in many of the markets.

The Wholesale Applications Community will not go anywhere fast.
After adding significant numbers of members this year, the initiative looks to be plagued with divisive intentions and counterintuitive political forces. It is a simply case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. While the consortium wrangles to get everyone’s input accommodated in a highly politicized environment, other apps initiatives – driven ostensibly by single powerful entities – are running away with the swag.


BlackBerry will NOT be eclipsed by enterprise iPhones.
Android will NOT begin to eclipse Apple in 2011.
Nokia will NOT collapse in a heap.
Google TV is NOT dead on arrival, and yes, it will live past 2011.
Location-based advertising will NOT be huge.
read more at ciol