A report published by Juniper Networks, an IT company, has stated that there has been a 400 percent increase in Android malware since the summer of 2010. The information was released via a report titled "Malicious Mobile Threats Report 2010/2011". Juniper Networks further stated that the attention of cyber criminals has now turned to mobile devices.

Dan Hoffman, chief mobile security evangelist at Juniper Networks has stated that most users are quite unconcerned about the applications that they download. According to him, most users don’t bother to check whether the applications that they download are actually coming from legitimate sources.  This has opened up a massive amount of possibilities for malicious app developers who are seeking for ways to spread corrupt software.

The report suggested that users pay special attention to provide adequate protection to their mobile phones the same way they would for computers and laptops. The fact that the majority of mobile phone users haven’t got antivirus software installed in their phones offers a free passage for malicious software.

The spreading of SMS Trojans makes up about 17 percent of all infection. This is considered to be the biggest threat to smart phone security at the moment. The lack of antivirus software enables Android malware to enter mobile phones without much obstruction. Most users fail to realize that they have been attacked until the damage has been done.

According to Jeff Wilson, principle security analyst at Infonetics Research, a survey conducted on large businesses has brought disturbing facts to light. Over 40 percent of the surveyed business individuals have considered smart phones to be the primary security threat as of now. Experts suggest that as the technology of smart phones reach higher and higher peaks, the users also need to increase their awareness on the potential dangers that may arise.

Roivo, the developer of the popular game Angry Birds, has made an impressive announcement.  According to the developer, the application sensation has managed to surpass the 200 million download milestone. The recently released Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Seasons combined with the original Angry Birds downloads has added up to make the application a world dominating franchise.

Angry Birds has risen to popularity within a short time after the game was originally released as an iPhone app. With the massive response from users, the game made a quick leap on to Google’s Android operating system. Making the addictive game available on Android as a first step for its venture in to all major mobile operating systems ensured the game’s rapid rise in to massive success.  As of now, Angry Birds is available on Apple’s AppStore, Android Marketplace, and Google’s new Chrome Store.

The attention of most Angry Birds fans is turned towards the Windows Phone 7 where Angry Birds is set out to be released next. Peter Vesterbacka, the CEO of Rovio, has revealed the latest information on the game’s anticipated venture in to Windows Phone 7. According to Vesterbacka, the game is currently held up sue to Microsoft’s complicated legal procedures.  Experts believe that the delay is unexplainable as the Angry Birds franchise has performed up to high standards on all other standards.

At the moment, the exact release date of Angry Birds for Windows Phone 7 is unknown.  Although speculation about the game appearing on 3D is circulating throughout the Internet, most of the actual information is still kept under wraps. However, it is confirmed that Angry Birds will be released on Nintendo 3Ds.

Roivo has stated that Angry Birds has a long way to go towards new areas of the entertainment industry and that fans could expect plenty of growth throughout 2011.

According to a CNN report, Twitter has made arrangements to acquire TweetDeck. TweetDeck is a desktop client in use by most of Twitters’ active users. The deal is said to be worth about $40 million. As per the report, a purchase agreement was signed.

Twitter has not yet released news of the deal officially. On the company’s official public relations Twitter account, it was stated that Twitter will not be providing comments on rumors. According to massive speculation among the Internet, the deal has put an end to a tug of war between UberMedia and Twitter. However, in February, a report issued by TechCrunch had stated that TweetDeck was indeed purchased by UberMedia.

According to many tech experts, Twitter has been aggressive in the acquisition and building up a suite of applications. The social media giant purchased Tweetie in 2010 and transformed it in to Twitter for iPhone. Similarly, Summize search engine was purchased in 2008 and it was transformed and released as Twitter search.

Recently, Twitter released an Android app which generally received mixed reviews. Users gave thumbs up for the easy navigation and instant familiarity while giving thumbs down because the app was made available exclusively for Android 2.1 leaving quite a few users behind.

As for the TweetDeck acquisition, back in April, it was announced that the deal will be closed for $50 million. Back then, it was reported that Twitter was discussing the deal in detail. However, the final deal was worth significantly less than the reported amount.

The deal is yet to be officially announced. According to a source with inside information on the matter, the purchase agreement was finalized on the 23^rd of May. As for Twitter’s plans for the acquired desktop client, users are going to have to be patient until official information is released.

Apple has issued a confirmation that an unspecified number of their massively successful iPad 2 tablets have been recalled. This occurred due to certain issues regarding the connectivity of the devices. The issue is said to be related to their mobile equipment identifier codes.

Reports of the issue started surfacing last year and Apple has been halting shipments from their production plants in China as a result. Apple’s confirmation states that an ‘extremely small’ amount of iPad 2 tablets are being recalled at the moment.

According to a statement issued by a spokesperson from Apple has offered some details on the connectivity issue. According to the spokesperson, a few iPad 2 units had started to show flashes of duplicate MEID codes. This issue was specific to the iPad 2 units for the Verizon 3G network.

The tablet, which was unveiled earlier this year, was available in three options: Wi-Fi only or with 3G services provided by Verizon or AT & T. As of now, the actual number of devices affected by the issue is unknown. According to information provided by an Apple employee in the US, the number of sent back units adds up to over one hundred. According to the employee’s statement, the stores were given a list of serial numbers, if a match is found, it was ordered to be shipped back to the company. He further added that the issue is specific to Verizon tied units.

At the moment, Apple is dealing with the situation by offering a brand new replacement for each faulty device. While some people are beginning to think that the issue will have considerable effect on Apple’s domination of the tablet PC market, others remain optimistic that this minor ‘glitch’ will be resolved very soon.

The latest leaked information about Apple has made a revelation about the MacBook Air laptops. According to the information, the latest addition to the ultra thin range of laptops will hit the shelves this Wednesday. The information leak was announced by Chronic who is a leak-artist popular for his early revelations of undisclosed information about Apple.

The latest tip about the MacBook Air has made it certain that the device will definitely be released this Wednesday. The available information at the moment suggests that the MacBook Air will retain the same minimalist futuristic design. The updates made to the 11.6- and 13.3-inchultra thin laptops willmake sure that the storage space of the machines will be increased. In addition, the processors are expected to be faster.

According to Ming Chi-Kou, an analyst for Concord Securities, the production of all new 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch models of the MacBook Air are currently in progress. The revelation was made earlier when reports stated that Apple had placed an order for the production of 400,000 units of MacBook Air in June.

Ming Chi-Kou believes that the top ranking technology company has already made orders for the final production run of 80,000 existing dual core MacBook Air machines. However, he has stated that according to the available information, the release of the MacBook Air updates may not take place as soon as Chronic suggested.

The MacBook Air is one of the most popular device ranges from Apple. Just like every other Apple device, the MacBook Air is also subject to a great deal of hype from users and gadget enthusiasts. Experts believe that it is wise for users and fans of the ultra thin, ultra portable laptop range to keep an open mind and not to be driven by unconfirmed leaked information.

According to a complaint made by the music streaming service Simfy, Apple is holding back the approval for the iPad application published by the streaming service. Apple’s upcoming iCloud service was officially announced last week and is expected to contain musical streaming elements.

As for Simfy, it is a service offering music streaming on demand. At the moment, Simfy is active within European countries such as Switzerland, Germany and Austria. According to a statement issued by the company’s CEO Gerrit Schumann, Apple just might be dreading competition from them. The company believes that a connection exists between the development of Apple’s iCloud service and the blocking of their application.

Shumann has added that they have always thought of Apple as an important partner. Simfy users have also complained about the application not being available for the iPad. The developers have stated that Apple’s actions and lack of response to legal letters are incomprehensible as well as disappointing.

Shumann further stated that Apple’s attempts to control the market in such a manner are unacceptable. Since the Apple App Store is a marketplace where applications such as Simfy can reach a lot of potential customers, the developers behind the application are disappointed in the fact that Apple has kept blocking it for months. Even the investors behind Simfy have voiced their opinion about how Apple is apparently misusing their power. Ciaran O’Leary, of VC firm Earlybird, has stated that they are well aware that their application approval has reached Apple’s senior management several weeks ago and the delayed approval is inexplicable.

As of now, no clear details on the musical components of Apple’s iCloud service have been unveiled. However, experts believe that the claims from Simfy’s developers will be proven right or wrong after iCloud has been officially unveiled at WWDC event in San Francisco.

Skype has made it official that their users will only be able to make HD quality video calls if they pay a premium for the service. According to the most recent reports, Skype has refused to certify other HD webcams that don’t come with their own built in CPU’s designed especially for HD video calls on Skype. However, the fact remains speculated that other HD webcams will not work.

According to Skype, they are unable to guarantee that other webcams will work with the HD video calling service.Last year, Skype has refused to certify some HD webcams released by Logitech and Microsoft. Skype had declared that they will not be able to guarantee that users will be able to make successful HD quality video calls using these webcams. On the other hand, webcams created according to Skype’s specifications will even run on old computers without interfering with video quality. It is believed that if a user is in possession of a webcam sporting Skype’s specifications, the quality of the video call will then solely depend on the speed of the internet connection.

One such example that meets Skype’s requirements is the Creative Live! inPerson HD which comes with its own CPU. The built in CPU allows higher video quality and will create a much smoother video call experience than with a regular laptop camera. In addition, the inPerson boasts a ‘quad mike’, flexible autofocus and built in H.264 encoder.

All this is designed t allow glitch free video calls in HD.However, the inPerson is priced at £109.99 which puts it out of reach from most clients.Other manufacturers, such as Freetalk and FaceVision have also created HD cameras that fit Skype’s strict requirements.

According to some experts, Skype has made a little too much hassle on the matter.

Usability of web applications has been under spotlight for few years as it represents a set of significant qualities of the business application. Improved usability has been identified as a cost saver when it comes to user trainings etc. The business that has a higher attrition rate such as call centers expect their software to have high usability as it cuts down the cost in frequent user training.

In this article we focus on few tools used for tracking user behaviors for usability implementation. If the application to have higher usability, first of all the designers and the developers of the software should know the exact user behaviors. These sophisticated tools help designers and developers to monitor the user behaviors closely and accurately.

Clickheat

Clickheat monitors specific web pages of web applications and track where the users click. After monitoring user clicks for over a period of time, it generates a heat map indicating the click density of the page. This allows the application designers and developers to identify the main areas accessed by the users and perform the optimization for the web page. This information is vital for identifying the places for placing advertisements, important links etc.

Installation of Clickheat is quite easy. You can install Clickheat on a Linux PC and then you need to custom generate a JavaScript code which is about four lines for the web page you are intended to monitor. Placing the JavaScript code at the bottom of the HTML page completes the job and Clickheat starts recording every click on the webpage from there onwards. Eventually, Clickheat generates heat maps for different screen resolutions and time frames. Clickheat is free and open source software and installed on either Windows or Linux. It supports Mozilla Firefox 2, Mozilla Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 6 and 7.

With the availability of shopping carts on the internet, most of us now do shopping online. This online shopping may vary from books to cars from few dollars to thousands of dollars. Online shopping has become one of the most convenient ways of purchasing goods with the minimum effort. In this article, lets try to understand how online shopping works in simple terms.

Most of the shopping sites are built top of databases. When customers search for their product in the shopping site, they are actually searching through a set of database records. This search query can be simple or complex, based on the consumers buying requirements.

After the database returns the query results to the end user through the web page, end user usually pay using a credit card or a third-party paying mechanism such as PayPal. In the process of filling online forms for buying goods, end users are directed to a secure connection secured with SSL (Secure Socket Layer) for entering billing information such as credit card details. This is to ensure hackers or attackers don’t get in to sensitive information.

After the consumers are in the secured area, they fill out the form and submit it to the website. Then this information is sent to the web application through the secured connection to the web site's transaction server. The end users  don’t have be worried about sensitive information being transferred over the wires as they are encrypted and no one else other than the website can read it.

Then the transaction server receives the encrypted information and the information will be decrypted. Thereafter, based on the billing information provided such as credit card information, transaction server verifies the validity of payment by connecting to a payment gateway of the credit card company or the financial institute.

If the transaction server receives a positive response from the credit card company or the financial institute, then it refreshes the web pages and displays the page that the consumers can print out to confirm their order. This is an online invoice. Most of the online shopping sites will send the consumer an email following the online purchase displaying the purchase information.

Then the transaction server sends out the order to the warehouse so the warehouse can dispatch the order to the consumer via the preferred method of transporting.