paidContent:UK: Penguin's Upcoming iPad books

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdExukJVUGI&feature=player_embedded

AT&T takes the Google out of Google Android

One of the best things about Android is the deep integration with Google’s apps. If you’re a Gmail, Google Docs or Google Calendar user, there’s no doubt that Android is the way to go.  Well, the geniuses at AT&T decided that Android is way too Googley for their taste. They decided to take the Google out of Google Android. Thus, AT&T’s first Android phone -the Backflip- is deprived of a lot of that Google integration.

The Backflip will be the first Android phone to have Yahoo as the default search engine. Everywhere you’ll go to do a web search that giant violet logo will be waiting for you. Engadget was as shocked as us:

“Yahoo has replaced Google as the default search provider throughout the phone. It’s crazy: the home screen widget, the browser, everything’s been programmed to use Yahoo. We love us some irony, but golly, we’d prefer Google searches most of the time.”

There’s a good and bad side to this story: On the good side, this is what Android is all about, anybody is free to anything they want to it. I don’t think there’s much Google can do to fight this, these issues come with the freedom of the OS. On the bad side, AT&T is making the choice for us by making Yahoo the default search engine. Also, there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to switch over to Google as the search engine. To make matters worse, they filled the phone with AT&T branded crapware:

• AllSport GPS
• AT&T Maps
• AT&T Music
• AT&T Navigator
• AT&T Wi-Fi Hotspots
• Mobile Banking
• MobiTV
• MusicID
• Where
• YPmobile

The motives for AT&T doing this are still unclear. We’re not even completely sure that it was AT&T’s decision to replace Google and not Motorola’s. But seeing as all other MotoBlur devices have Google included, we’re going to go ahead and blame this on AT&T. It’s not like they don’t have a million reasons to do this. AT&T and Google are not exactly best buddies; maybe they’re trying not to get caught in the crossfire between Apple and Google. The Backflip itself is not a bad phone; you can watch our hands on here. However, we recommend you wait and see what else AT&T has coming down the pike.

Via Engadget

 

http://www.droiddog.com/android-blog/2010/03/att-takes-the-google-out-of-google-android/

Apple feels Android’s heat, goes after HTC

Apple -to put it mildly- is not the most popular company around these parts. Having said that, we rarely go on rants against them or even mention them at all on our articles. Apparently, Apple doesn’t like that, and they’ve decided to test how much the Android community can despise them. Yesterday they decided to put their lawyers where their mouth is, and go after HTC.

People at HTC yesterday woke up to some rather unpleasant news, Apple filed a lawsuit against them over alleged infringement of 20-odd patents. Some of the patents are related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware, while others have nothing to do with the iPhone and go as far back as 1995. In some cases the patents are so broad they could sue everybody and their mothers, and it’s mind blowing how the U.S. Patent Office even granted them in the first place. Take for example patent #7,657,849: “Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image”. Yes, sliding your finger across a phone to unlock it is patented. Fun fact: That patent was just granted February 2, apparently for the sole purpose of being used in this lawsuit. I won’t go into detail about each patent ’cause most of them get very technical/boring very quickly, but you can read the whole document here if you’re into that kind of thing. Also, the guys over at Engadget did a breakdown of what each patent means, and they came to the same conclusion I did: This lawsuit is all about crushing Android.

Steve Jobs had something to say about this whole ordeal:

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

Apparently during Jobs’ liver transplant they went ahead and replaced his brains also while they were at it, ’cause 1996 Steve Jobs has a completely different opinion on these issues.

 

http://www.droiddog.com/android-blog/2010/03/apple-feels-androids-heat-goes-after-htc/

Steve Jobs: Good artists copy great artists steal

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU

Cisco Develops VPN Client for PCs, Smartphones

Cisco Systems will soon release a VPN client for smartphones and PCs aimed at enterprise administrators who want to provide secure access to their networks and ward off malicious software.

Cisco's AnyConnect Secure Mobility Solution was announced at the Cebit trade show in Germany on Tuesday. It is part of Cisco's "borderless networks" initiative, which aims to provide better performance and security to traveling corporate workers.

While other security vendors have end-point security software, they don't necessarily have the VPN (virtual private network) component as well, said Horacio Zambrano, a Cisco product line manager.

Cisco said its software is superior because once it is set up, it will maintain a VPN connection with a corporate network and users do not have to manually connect.

AnyConnect will automatically detect where a user is and can enforce certain policies determined by an administrator for that type of connection. For example, if the user is in India or China, an administrator may want to implement stronger security measures, said Axel Foery, head of Cisco's borderless network architecture for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Administrators will also have granular control over applications. For example, users may be allowed to send attachments over instant message programs if they are located in certain places but barred from sending attachments in other locales.

Cisco contends the system also allows for greater control over software-as-a-service applications such as Salesforce.com. Access to Salesforce is managed via Cisco's secure gateway, so employees don't have a direct login to the Web application.

If an employee is terminated, their access can be revoked from the gateway, and the employee will not be able to access Salesforce corporate data.

AnyConnect will work on major mobile platforms including Windows, Blackberry, Palm, Symbian and the iPhone by the end of the year, Zambrano said. AnyConnect will be available for PCs running Linux, Windows and Mac OSes, he said.

To install the client on a smartphone, administrators send users an e-mail with a link to the AnyConnect application. Once users have authenticated themselves, AnyConnect will start an encrypted connection.

Cisco is combining its AnyConnect software with its Web security appliances and firewalls. Last October, Cisco bought ScanSafe, a vendor that specialized in Web filtering. In 2007, Cisco bought IronPort, which made Web security appliances.

Technologies from both of those acquired vendors are wrapped into AnyConnect. ScanSafe's technology can stop users from going to malicious Web sites on their PCs or mobile devices, preventing malicious software from possibly invading the corporate network. IronPort's worldwide sensor network is used to gather information on emerging security threats on the Web as well, said Amanda Holdan, Cisco product marketing manager for security.

All of the components for AnyConnect should be released by June, although iPhone and Android compatibility should come by the end of the year, Zambrano said. Pricing has not been finalized.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20100302/tc_pcworld/ciscodevelopsvpnclientforpcssmartphones

Hold and Copy in UIKit

Recently, I wanted to implement an interface where a user holds down on a UIView class or subclass to reveal a copy menu. Basically, I didn’t want to have to present the user with a UITextField just to provide the ability to copy some data to the pasteboard. In this case, I’m working with a UILabel, but a similar paradigm already exists in many Apple-supplied apps where one can hold down on an image and be presented with the Copy menu option.

Going in it seemed pretty straight-forward, but it ended up taking me the better part of an afternoon of trial and error alongside the Event Handling section of “iPhone Application Programming Guide” to work it all out, so I believe a tutorial is in order. A reference project with sample code is available on Github.

Getting Ahold of a Hold

One can easily calculate the length of time a touch was held when the touch ends (by calculating the difference between the timestamp properties of the passed UIEvent and UITouch objects), but I found making this the point of responding to the event less than ideal because it means responding to the user’s interaction after the user lifts her finger, rather than while she is holding down on the screen. I’d rather respond while the user is still holding her finger down to let her know that the instruction was received. If the software will only respond after the user lifts her finger, she has no idea how long she has to hold her finger down, which is a nuisance, really.

Old Cocoa pros and experienced UIKitters probably saw the solution from a mile away: we intercept the touches began event for the view we’re interested in, and tell some object to do something after a long enough delay (the minimum time we want a user to have to hold to do something). We then cancel the request if any of the other touch events fire before our delay hits. That looks something like this, depending on your needs:

  - (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
  	UITouch *t = [touches anyObject];
  	if ([t locationInView:someViewWeAreInterestedIn])
  		[self performSelector:@selector(showMenu) withObject:nil afterDelay:0.8f];
  	}
  }

  - (void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
  	[NSObject cancelPreviousPerformRequestsWithTarget:self selector:@selector(showMenu) object:nil];
  }

  - (void)touchesCancelled:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
  	[NSObject cancelPreviousPerformRequestsWithTarget:self selector:@selector(showMenu) object:nil];
  }

  - (void)touchesMoved:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
  	[NSObject cancelPreviousPerformRequestsWithTarget:self selector:@selector(showMenu) object:nil];
  }

There may be better ways to do this, but this seems pretty solid. In the sample code you can see this at work in the view controller, which shows a hidden image once a user holds down on another image for long enough. Just under a second (0.8s) seemed to feel right to me.

  - (void)holdingView:(id)view {
  	[hiddenView setHidden:NO];
  }

  - (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
  	NSSet *imageTouches = [event touchesForView:imageView];
  	if ([imageTouches count] > 0) {
  		[self performSelector:@selector(holdingView:) withObject:imageView afterDelay:0.8f];
  	}
  	[super touchesBegan:touches withEvent:event];
  }

Implementing a Custom Copy

I feel like there’s real pun-potential for this subtitle, but reasonably groan-inducing text is eluding me. In any event, now that we can detect when a user has held our view long enough to warrant a response, we need to make a move: presenting the UIMenuController with the Copy option and actually copying something in response. I’m sure there are various approaches that can be taken, but my approach was to start by subclassing UILabel, curious to hear other ideas.

First, I wired the subclass to intercept touch events, and to save that touch-down for the extra point (ho!):

  - (BOOL)canBecomeFirstResponder {
      return YES;
  }

  - (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
  	if ([self canBecomeFirstResponder]) {
  		[self becomeFirstResponder];
  		UITouch *t = [touches anyObject];
  		holdPoint = [t locationInView:self];
  		[self performSelector:@selector(showMenu) withObject:nil afterDelay:0.8f];
  	}
  }

  // (other touches* methods implemented to cancel perform) ...

Showing the menu itself is a touch awkward, you need to provide a “target rectangle” (CGRect) to UIMenuController to tell it about where on the screen you want the menu to appear (it can appear above or below this point, depending on proximity to the screen bounds).

  - (void)showMenu {
  	NSNotificationCenter *center = [NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter];
  	[center addObserver:self selector:@selector(reset) name:UIMenuControllerWillHideMenuNotification object:nil];

  	// bring up editing menu.
  	UIMenuController *theMenu = [UIMenuController sharedMenuController];
  	CGRect myFrame = [[self superview] frame];
  	CGRect selectionRect = CGRectMake(holdPoint.x, myFrame.origin.y - 12.0, 0, 0);

  	[self setNeedsDisplayInRect:selectionRect];
  	[theMenu setTargetRect:selectionRect inView:self];
  	[theMenu setMenuVisible:YES animated:YES];

  	// do a bit of highlighting to clarify what will be copied, specifically
  	_bgColor = [self backgroundColor];
  	[_bgColor retain];
  	[self setBackgroundColor:[UIColor blackColor]];
  }

Note that I’m registering for a notification: I basically wanted to know whenever the menu disappeared, because that would mean it’s time to stop high-lighting the text in the label, and restore the original background color. Totally not required for getting the menu on screen.

Next we have to make it clear to the UIMenuController that we mean serious business, and what kind of business we intend to conduct. In my case, I was only interested in Copy, but other options are available:

  - (BOOL)canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender {
  	BOOL answer = NO;

  	if (action == @selector(copy:))
  		answer = YES;

  	return answer;
  }

And in my case, the data I’m looking to copy is simply the text of the label itself, and I just want to put it on the general pasteboard so the user can paste it into another app, or wherever:

  - (void)copy:(id)sender {
    UIPasteboard *gpBoard = [UIPasteboard generalPasteboard];
  	[gpBoard setValue:[self text] forPasteboardType:@"public.utf8-plain-text"];
  }

That’s it!

 

http://www.mobileorchard.com/

Why are So Many Android Owners Male?

When compared with some of the other smartphones on the market, owners of phones running Google's Android mobile operating system are predominantly male. This finding comes from analytics firm AdMod's latest Mobile Metrics Report, which revealed that 73% of Android users are male. Meanwhile, on the iPhone, iPod Touch and Palm platforms, the ratio of male-to-female owners was more even. However, males were still in the majority even on those devices, accounting for 54% to 58% of the users.

This was only one of the findings from the firm's January report, which also examined ages of smartphone owners, propensity to download and pay for mobile applications and interest in purchasing the upcoming Apple iPad.

Kids Love the iPod Touch and the Free Apps

Most of the statistics AdMob revealed weren't all that shocking. For example, iPhone owners are more likely to purchase an iPad than owners of other smartphones. And while 16% said they intend to buy Apple's new slate computer when it arrives in March, only 11% of Palm webOS users and 6% of Android owners said the same. This finding can easily be attributed to the so-called "fanboy" syndrome among Apple hardware owners - that is, the tendency of those who own Apple products to want to buy more Apple products. Sometimes described as fanaticism, it's really just a testament to the popularity of the brand and its repeat customer business.

Another interesting, but still explainable, statistic involves the buying habits of iPod Touch and iPhone owners. Those who own the less-expensive iPod Touch devices tend to download more free applications than those who own an iPhone. And they download a lot of apps, too. On average, iTouch owners download 12 apps per month - that's 37% more apps than iPhone and Android users. They also spend more time playing with their apps - 100 minutes per day, 25% more time than iPhone or Android users.

At first, those figures may have you scratching your head - after all, isn't the iPod Touch the exact same mobile operating system as the iPhone? And doesn't its Wi-Fi-only connectivity actually limit the functionality of a lot applications since so many require an Internet connection to work? The answer to both questions is yes. But the reason why the iPod users appear to be more active and engaged is explained in another section of the report. According to the demographics, they're much younger. 78% of iPod Touch users are under 25 (compared with 25% of iPhone users) and they're often students, too. These are the very sort of users who have time to play with a ton of apps. They're also, not surprisingly, the least likely to pay for them. iPod Touch owners download an average of 10.5 free apps per month and only 1.6 paid apps during that same time. iPhone owners, however, download 7.0 free apps per month and 1.8 paid ones.

Why are So Many Android Owners Male?

The only truly odd statistic to arise from this report is the gender variance among Android owners. With a 78%/22% male-to-female ratio, the question that comes to mind is why are so many owners male? There is a wide range of Android-powered smartphones for people to choose from, including everything from sleek-and-shiny HTC devices to keyboard-ready Droids from Motorola and Verizon. In other words, there's an Android handset out there for everyone.

Our only guess as to why the statistics are skewing male for Android may have something to do with the latest Droid marketing efforts. Commercials for Verizon's Droid send the message that the phones are the equivalent of having a "robot in your pocket," and the latest show a robot's finger quickly typing out searches on the phone's on-screen keyboard. While arguably, some females are sure to love robots, too (especially those interested in reading about smartphone statistics here!), a campaign that uses robots and reminds you of all the things the Droid does that the iPhone doesn't, is a not-too-subtle attempt to play to the male ego and that gender's stereotypical desire for constant one-upmanship among their peers. And that's not the worst of it, either. Another Droid ad, spotted by CNNMoney blogger Elmer DeWitt in December, targeted the male demographic in the "most testosterone-heavy TV commercial to date," he noted at the time.

The ad copy read:

Droid. Should a phone be pretty? Should it be a tiara-wearing digitally clueless beauty pageant queen? Or should it be fast? Racehorse duct-taped to a Scud missile fast. We say the latter. So we built the phone that does. Does rip through the Web like a circular saw through a ripe banana. Is it a precious porcelain figurine of a phone? In truth? No. It's not a princess. It's a robot. A phone that trades hair-do for can-do.

So congratulations, marketers. It appears you have successfully attracted the males to your handset. But in ignoring the potential female users, you're doing smartphone owners a disservice. The Droid, and other Android-based phones too, are powerful, attractive and easy-to-use handsets that should have a broad appeal. It may be time to remind the women of that.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_are_so_many_android_owners_male.php