Better Technology boosts iPhone security controls

Good for Enterprise works on iPhones, iPods, and iPads.

(Credit: Good Technology)

When an employee at AIM Media lost his iPhone containing company e-mails and other sensitive data last year, there was nothing to be done except hope that whoever found it didn't care to snoop.

Now, if that happens again AIM Media IT Director Nelson Saenz can just remotely wipe the data.

"Apple made it possible for the iPhone to work with Microsoft Exchange," he said. "But from an IT standpoint what was missing was centralized administration and security."

Since January, AIM Media has been using Good for Enterprise, software and service from Good Technology that lets companies manage and secure smart phones that employees are increasingly using for work and play. For many employees, it means they don't have to carry two phones, such as the work-sanctioned BlackBerry and their beloved iPhone, because the corporate data on the device can be protected.

And as of Monday, companies that are paying the subscription fees for employees' iPhones will be able to remotely wipe the entire device and not just the work-related e-mails, calendar, contacts, and other data.

Good Technology is releasing iPhone Management so that companies, government agencies, and other organizations that may have more stringent compliance and other regulatory restrictions can have more control over the iPhones, iPads, and iPods their workers use.

This could free up doctors and others who work in HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)-governed areas to be able to use iPhones for work, said John Herrema, chief marketing officer at Good Technology.

"We're giving the IT department a finer level of control so if you are coming from a regulated industry you can manage that subset (of iPhone users) in a more controlled way," he said.

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Google remotely wipes apps off Android phones

One of the proof-of-concept apps was disguised as a preview of the "Twilight Saga: Eclipse" movie.

(Credit: Jon Oberheide)

Google has remotely removed two free apps from several hundred Android phones because the apps misrepresented their purpose and thus violated Android developer policies, according to a company spokesman.

This marks the first time Google has used the Remote Application Removal Feature that allows the company to delete apps for security reasons that have been installed through Android Market.

The apps were proof-of-concept programs designed to test the feasibility of distributing a program that could later be used to take control of the device in an attack, according to Jon Oberheide, the developer who wrote and distributed them.

The one app--called RootStrap--executed code that merely printed a message on the phone that says "Hello World," while the second app did the exact same thing but was disguised as a preview of the "Twilight Saga: Eclipse" movie, he said in an interview with CNET on Friday. There were about 50 downloads of the RootStrap app and 250 to 350 of the Twilight app, though some people later uninstalled them, he said.

Oberheide has developed a program that could be used to bootstrap a rootkit, effectively allowing someone to remotely take control of a phone by having an app already installed on it phone home to fetch code that could exploit a vulnerability on the device, he said.

"An attacker who develops legitimate-looking apps and distributes them on the Android Market could gather a large install base and if there was a vulnerability within the Android operating system or Linux (upon which Android is based) the attacker can phone home to see if there is an exploit to download and push it out to all the phones he controls and take complete control of the phone via the kernel," said Oberheide, who works at a security start up called Scio Security.

Oberheide removed the apps voluntarily from the Android Market after being asked to by Google, he said.

The apps "were not designed to be used maliciously, and did not have permission to access private data--or system resources" beyond accessing the Internet, Rich Cannings, Android Security Lead, wrote in a blog post.

Under the Android Market Content Policy for Developers, "developers should not upload or otherwise make available applications...(that offer) misleading information about an application's purpose."

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Lotus finds a buyer for its hybrid engine

Lotus used the Evora 414E Hybrid concept to show off its range extender engine at the Geneva auto show.

(Credit: Wayne Cunningham/CNET)

Last year Lotus announced a new engine designed specifically as an onboard generator for electric vehicles, giving them range beyond what batteries can provide. That engine was more than a concept, as the Fagor Ederlan Group, a European-based supplier of power train and chassis equipment to the automotive industry, announced an agreement with Lotus for production and sales of the engine.

Lotus' three-cylinder 1.2-liter engine combines block, head, and exhaust manifold in a single piece for efficient construction and low maintenance. The company showed it off as a component of the Evora 414E Hybrid at this year's Geneva auto show.

Fagor Ederlan has a large number of automotive clients, and has supplied everything from aluminum knuckles for Mercedes-Benz suspensions to engine components for Honda. Although Fagor Ederlan did not announce a specific client interested in Lotus' generator engine, Honda could use it to replace the fuel cells in its Clarity vehicle, which already has an electric vehicle architecture. Likewise, Mercedes-Benz has in the past suggested that its experimental fuel cell vehicles could use a different generator source for electricity.

Interest in Lotus' engine will probably depend on the success of GM's upcoming Chevrolet Volt, which uses just the kind of extended range electric vehicle architecture the engine was built for, as other automakers develop a competitor. GM itself is probably not a potential buyer, as it has already developed the Volt's engine in-house.

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Google eyes more home energy jobs for PowerMeter

WASHINGTON--Google's PowerMeter is a straightforward application for monitoring home electricity at this point, but the company expects to stretch its features toward managing an array of energy loads in the home, according to an executive.

PowerMeter gets data from smart meters or home electricity monitors and displays that data on a PC or smartphone, which helps people better understand electricity usage and leads to clues on how to cut bills. But "we're just getting going" with PowerMeter, said Dan Reicher, director of climate change initiatives at Google, here at the Kema Utility of the Future conference on Thursday.

Google PowerMeter on smart phone.

(Credit: Google)

"We're starting with electricity and we're interested in moving on to natural gas and other utilities [such as water] in the home," Reicher said, speaking to utility industry executives.

Asked afterward about timing, Reicher indicated that there are no immediate plans, but more sophisticated gas and water meters open up the possibility for Web-based monitoring.

Google also sees PowerMeter as a way for people to manage when and how electricity gets used in the home.

Reicher said that the application could be extended to let consumers take advantage of off-peak rates when using electricity-hungry devices such as appliances.

'Demand dispatch' for appliances and vehicles 
On Thursday, Reicher said that Google engineers are doing research and development around what he called "demand dispatch," in which software and the Internet can be used to lower electricity use in the home and provide services to the grid now done by power plants.

Specialized power generators push more electricity into the grid to keep a balance of supply and demand or to maintain a steady frequency. The idea of demand dispatch is that small reductions of electricity use across hundreds or thousands of homes can replace supplying more power into the grid.

Last year, Google engineer Alec Brooks first describedexperiments Google has been doing around demand dispatch using its fleet of plug-in electric vehicles. The software Google is working on is designed to slow the charge rate of electric car batteries as a way to curtail load temporarily and maintain grid frequency, he explained.

Google sees demand dispatch, through which hundreds or thousands of load reductions are coordinated and communicated to grid operators, as something that can work with big electricity users other than electric vehicles.

"It goes way beyond what's going on with a limited number of plug-in vehicles in the near future," Reicher said after his talk. "It's dispatching all sorts of loads in people's homes."

For example, a person could start a dishwasher at 5:30 on a hot afternoon and have an option to run it then or pay one-fifth the current rate to have it run at three in the morning. Reicher said there are a number of "simple loads" in the house that can be dispatched to the grid to cut peak-time electricity usage, something that utilities and policymakers are interested in to avoid having to build more power plants.

PowerMeter could play a role in this demand dispatch scenario, although Google's work in this area is still in the R&D phase, Reicher said. In March, Google partnered with embedded chip developer Microchip, which said it will use the PowerMeter API to make it easier to integrate products such as appliances.

"We're looking at it and we've done some experiments with other kinds of loads [than plug-in electric vehicles]," he said. "Smartphones, smart car, smart house--where a lot of those intersect, there's a lot of opportunities."

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iPhone 4 lacks The X killer feature

The iPhone 4 is racking up the superlatives and sales numbers, but the Motorola Droid X is coming, packing one killer feature the iPhone lacks.

Verizon will offer the Motorola Droid X with the 3G hotspot feature.

(Credit: Verizon)

Let me begin with a caveat: The Droid X is still untested in the field, so we won't know until after July 15 whether it harbors any serious user issues. That said, it already has me drooling over its impressive feature set and design.

Though the 4.3-inch display (in the case of already-small smartphone displays, bigger is better), the Flash 10.1 support,DLNA streaming, and the Texas Instruments 1GHz ARM processor are nice, the icing on the cake is the built-in Wi-Fi hotspot--or what Verizon calls the 3G Mobile Hotspot.

I've always been surprised at how many technologically savvy laptop toters still tether themselves to Starbucks or scurry around, seeking out the local Wi-Fi hotspot when on the road. Or worse, rely on the invariably abysmal Wi-Fi provided at conferences--and often at airports.

I began using laptop 3G on a regular basis a few years back with an HP 2510p ultraportable business notebook, which integrated the Verizon EVDO-A silicon inside the laptop. To me, putting 3G in a laptop was a godsend. It allowed me to work almost anywhere, anytime.

Eventually I moved to Verizon's MiFi mobile hotspot because I purchased an Apple MacBook Air (Apple doesn't offer any laptops with built-in 3G, which I have lamented in the past). But beyond the Apple issue, MiFi also has a serious upside: It frees you from being tied to one laptop--as current 3G contracts do when 3G is built into the laptop--because MiFi supports up to five devices.

Now the Droid X proposes to do MiFi one better. Instead of carrying around both a MiFi and a 3G smartphone, you have it all in one nice, attractive package. And, like MiFI, it supports up to five devices. Presuming that Motorola and Verizon have implemented this feature relatively well, it makes an already attractive Droid X almost irresistible, even with the extra $20 monthly fee tacked on for a 2GB data plan, as Verizon has stated. (Note that this is cheaper than most 3G data plans.)

After all, this is what true integration is all about. Taking something that was previously a discrete, external device (like a camera) and bringing it inside. And in spite of the media's round-the-clock laserlike focus on the iPhone 4 (which, admittedly, I participate in), I will be taking a good, long look at the Droid X.

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LG answers Samsung Galaxy S with Optimus Q

LG Optimus Q

It may be a member of the Open Handset Alliance, but LG hasn't done much with Android here in the United States. To date, the company has only released one such device, theAlly, on Verizon's network. Though it was among the first phones released with Android 2.1 it was quickly lost in the shuffle with the EVO 4G and Droid X stealing the spotlight.

The situation back home in South Korea is somewhat similar in that Samsung's Galaxy S is getting all the buzz, but things could change with the release of the new LG Optimus Q.

Featuring a 1GHz processor, the Optimus Q is faster than anything LG has released so far and on par with this year'ssuper phones. The handset also boast a 3.5-inch high definition AMOLED display and a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash. Other hardware features include a TV tuner and support for Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), 3G, HSDPA, and Bluetooth. Internal memory is pegged at 3GB but microSD expansion allows for another 32GB.

Adding to the competition, Sony Ericsson is planning to release the Xperia X10 in Korea later this summer. Although it's running a much older Android 1.6 under the hood, the 8-megapixel camera could turn a few heads.

I'd love to see LG come to the United States with a beefier phone. The Ally makes a fantastic pickup for the $49.99 price point, but they have nothing to combat the heavy hitters arriving over the next few months.

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The X-ray-vision edition

Yes, this used to be a car.

Too busy killing reception on your new iPhone 4 this week to keep up with Crave? Here's just some of the non-iPhone 4 related news you missed while you were trying to hold those metal antennas just so.

• If the Droid X is more your thing...

• We love a good e-reader price war.

• Meet the astronauts of tomorrow.

• 'Tron Legacy' gear we wouldn't be ashamed to own.

• Some strong words for Google Voice.

• Dyson: Look ma, no blades!

• From old Lada to new Iron Man.

Va-va voom!

(Credit: Eizo)

• Hello Kitty meets "Texas Chainsaw Massacre;" we cower in fear.

• Who knew X-rays could be so sexy?

• Medical marvels: Which amazes you most?

See any stories we missed? Move those antennas to the right position and send them on in to crave at cnet dot com.

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Samsung Galaxy S models announced for Sprint, Verizon, U.S. Cellular

Samsung Epic 4G for Sprint

Over the past few days, we've learned the identities of a couple of Samsung Galaxy S phones headed for the U.S., including the Samsung Captivate for AT&T and the Samsung Vibrant for T-Mobile, but turns out Samsung's got plenty of more Android love to spread around, as it announced three additional models forSprint, Verizon, and U.S. Cellular. Though the handsets share a lot of the same core features, they also have unique designs and carrier-specific services so here's a quick rundown of each one.

Samsung Epic 4G for Sprint: As you might have guessed from the name, the Epic will be a 4G-capable phone--the second for Sprint after the HTC Evo 4G--and features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a 4-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen. According to Samsung, the benefit of its Super AMOLED display is that it has a higher contrast, wider viewing angles, faster response time, and allows for thinner design. We've tried the Super AMOLED screen on the Samsung Wave, and we can say that most of this is true.

Armed with such a display, 4G, and Samsung's 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor, multimedia will, once again, play a central role much like it did on the Evo 4G. However, Samsung will make it even easier to get TV shows and movies on your device by including a video store on the Epic. The company has not revealed where the content will come from but said it includes "some of the biggest names in entertainment."

Other goodies include a 5-megapixel camera with HD video capture, a front-facing VGA camera for video calls, and the ability to act as a mobile hot spot for up to five devices. The Epic will ship running Android 2.1 and Samsung's TouchWiz interface, but if you're worried about another Behold II situation, don't worry: the Epic will get the Android 2.2 Froyo update. Sprint plans to announce pricing and release date in the coming months, but you can sign up for updates through its Web site. A 4G Developer Guide is also available now for anyone who wants to create apps for the Epic.

Samsung Fascinate for Verizon: The Fascinate is Verizon's first Android phone from Samsung. As with most of the Galaxy S models, the smartphone will be powered by a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, have a 5-megapixel camera with HD video capture, and launch with Android 2.1. Like the Epic, the Fascinate also has a 4-inch Super AMOLED display but this will be a touch-only device with the option of a regular virtual keyboard or Swype. In addition, the smartphone has a six-axis sensor (as does the Epic) that works with the built-in accelerometer for a better gaming experience.

It's not clear whether the Fascinate will also come with a video store, but it can support a number of video codecs, including DivX, and offers DLNA support, so you can wirelessly share content with DLNA-compliant devices, such as HDTVs and game consoles. It, too, can be used as a mobile hotspot for up to five devices. The Epic has 2GB of internal memory and ships with a 16GB microSD card (accepts up to 32GB cards). Verizon services, such as V Cast Music and Video, VZ Navigator and Visual Voicemail, are all available on the Fascinate as well. No word on pricing or availability date at this time.

Samsung Galaxy S for U.S. Cellular: U.S. Cellular has got a pretty busy summer with the upcoming launch of theSamsung Acclaim and HTC Desire, and we weren't really expecting this but we're glad to see them getting serious about smartphones. U.S. Cellular was a little less specific about the features of its Galaxy S model (aside from the aforementioned core specs), but we expect to hear more closer to the scheduled fall launch of the device.

Samsung Vibrant for T-Mobile: Last but not least, we have the Samsung Vibrant. Though T-Mobile unveiled its identity late last week, there were few details about the smartphone, but we now know it will be an all touch-screen smartphone (same 4-inch Super AMOLED display as the others) and come preloaded with a full-screen copy of "Avatar," Amazon Kindle for Android, MobiTV, Slacker Radio, a month of free in-flight Wi-Fi access through Gogo Inflight Internet, and Samsung's Media Hub.

The Samsung Vibrant will be available from T-Mobile starting July 21 for $199.99 in either dark blue or lavendar, and RadioShack is taking in-store preorders for the smartphone starting July 1 (a $50 deposit is required).

Phew! Got all that? Now remember, Samsung will be hosting a Galaxy S event on Tuesday, June 29 in New York, where we expect to see most of these devices and hopefully learn more about availability, so check back then for more details and hands-on impressions, photos, and videos.

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Acer unlocks Predator gaming desktop

It' s been a little while since we've heard from Acer about its Predator gaming desktop, so we were a bit surprised to learn about the updated version announced this morning. The new, fixed-configuration system offers a decent collection of hardware for the $1,999 price tag, including a 2.8GHz Core i7 930 CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 470 graphics card, as well as support for two additional 3D cards via extra slots on the motherboard.

Acer's tweaked the color scheme of its new Predator gaming desktop.

(Credit: Acer)

Other specs in the Predator include 12GB of 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM, a 1.5TB 7,200 rpm hard drive, as well the familiar mechanized door on the front panel that conceals the front-accessible hard drive bays. Acer also tweaked the colors this time around, although given the outlandish design, we can't say adding more black to the exterior really does much to make this system more acceptable to anyonewithout a certain zeal for broadcasting their affinity for PC gaming.

A quick glance around the rest of the PC gaming market suggests that this system is a fairly good deal. We checked with Alienware, Dell, Falcon Northwest, Maingear, and Velocity Micro, and none of them offers a similar configuration for under $2,000. Alienware's Aurora came closest, but it doesn't offer the front-loading hard drives, a feature we've come to appreciate in the few desktops that offer it.

The new Predator retains the slide-up door on the front panel that hides the hard drive access.

Hopefully Acer has made sure this new version won't suffer the overheating that plagued a select number of Predators from the previous generation. For those with the means and an appreciation for the distinctive Predator style, you should find this system available for purchase today from the usual large retail suspects.

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