2015 technology industry graveyard

2015 technology industry graveyard
Cisco, Microsoft, Google and others bury outdated technologies to move ahead with new ones.

Ba-bye
The Technology Industry Graveyard is pretty darn full in 2015, and we’re not even including the near-dead such as RadioShack and Microsoft’s IE browser. Pay your respects here…

GrooveShark
The self-described “World’s Music Library” is no more after shutting down in April in the wake of serious legal pressure by music companies whose songs GrooveShark allowed to be shared but had never licensed. Apple and Google had each kicked GrooveShark out of their app stores years ago due to complaints from music labels. Much more sadly than the 9-year-old company’s demise, however, was the death of co-founder Josh Greenberg in July at the age of just 28.

Typo iPhone keyboard
Not even the glamor of being co-founded by American Idol host Ryan Seacrest could help Typo Innovations save its iPhone keyboard, which BlackBerry said infringed on its patents. So instead, Typo bailed on the iPhone model and settled for selling ones for devices with screens 7.9-inches or larger (like iPads).

Amazon Fire Phone
With a product name like Fire, you’re just asking for colorful headlines if it bombs. And indeed, Amazon has stopped making its Fire Phone about a year after introducing it and media outlets were quick to highlight the company “extinguishing” it or remarking on the phone being “burnt out.” Amazon has had some success on the hardware front, namely with its Kindle line, but the Fire just didn’t distinguish itself and was going for free with a carrier contract by the end.

Interop New York
Interop Las Vegas carries on as one of the network industry’s top trade shows next May, but little sibling Interop New York is no more this year. The Fall show, traditionally held at the Javits Center since 2005, was always smaller and was discontinued for 2015 despite lively marketing material last year touting “More Than 30 Interop New York Exhibitors and Sponsors to Make Announcements in Anticipation of the Event.”

GTalk
Google ditched so many things in 2015 that we devoted an entire slideshow to Google’s Graveyard. So to choose just one representative item here, we remember Google Talk, which had a good run, starting up in 2005. But it’s never good when Google pulls out the term “deprecated” as it did in February in reference to this chat service’s Windows App. Google said it was pulling the plug on GTalk in part to focus on Google Hangouts in a world where people have plenty of other ways to chat online. However, Google Talk does live on via third-party apps.

Cisco Invicta storage products
Cisco has a good touch when it comes to acquisitions, but its $415 mlllion WHIPTAIL buyout from 2013 didn’t work out. The company in July revealed it had pulled the plug on its Invicta flash storage appliances acquired via that deal. It’s not unthinkable though that Cisco could go after another storage company, especially in light of the Dell-EMC union.

RapidShare
The once-popular file hosting system, begun in 2002, couldn’t withstand the onslaught of competition from all sides, including Google and Dropbox. Back in 2009, the Switzerland-based operation ran one of the Internet’s 20 most visited websites, according to Wikipedia. It shut down on March 31, and users’ leftover files went away with it.

Windows RT devices
This locked-down Microsoft OS for tablets and convertible laptops fared about as well as Windows 8, after being introduced as a prototype in 2011 at the big CES event in Las Vegas. Microsoft’s software for the 32-bit ARM architecture was intended to enable devices to exploit that architecture’s power efficiency, but overall, the offering proved to be a funky fit with existing Windows software. Production of RT devices stopped earlier in 2015 as Microsoft focuses on Win10 and more professional-focused Surface devices.

OpenStack vendor Nebula
As Network World’s Brandon Butler wrote in April, Nebula became one of the first casualties of the open source OpenStack cloud computing movement when it shuttered its doors. The company, whose founder was CIO for IT at NASA before starting Nebula in 2011, suggested in its farewell letter that it was a bit ahead of its time, unable to convert its $38 million in funding and hardware/software appliances into a sustainable business.

FriendFeed
Facebook bought this social news and information feed aggregator in 2009, two years after the smaller business started, and then killed it off in April. People have moved on to other means of gathering and discovering info online, so FriendFeed died from lack of use. It did inspire the very singular website, Is FriendFeed Dead Yet, however, so its legacy lives on.

Apple Aperture
Apple put the final nails in its Aperture photo editing app in 2015, ending the professional-quality post-production app’s 10-year run at Version 3.6. In its place, Apple introduced its Photos app for users of both its OS X Mac and iOS devices.

Secret
One of the co-founders of anonymous sharing app shared this in April: The company was shutting down and returning whatever part of its $35 million in funding was left. The company’s reality was just not going to meet up with his vision for it, said co-founder David Byttow. The company faced criticism that it, like other anonymous apps such as Yik Yak, allowed for cyberbullying.

Amazon Wallet
Amazon started the year by announcing its Wallet app, the company’s 6-month-old attempt to get into mobile payments, was a bust. The app, which had been in beta, allowed users to store their gift/loyalty/rewards cards, but not debit or credit cards as they can with Apple and Google mobile payment services.

Circa News app
Expired apps could easily fill an entire tech graveyard, so we won’t document all of their deaths here. But among them not making it through 2015 was Circa, which reportedly garnered some $4 million in venture funding since starting in 2012 but didn’t get enough takers for its app-y brand of journalism.

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Google to pull Chrome plug on Windows XP at year's end

Another browser on XP bites the dust

Google on Thursday announced it will shut down support for Chrome on Windows XP at the end of the year.

"We will continue to provide regular updates and security patches to Chrome on XP through the end of 2015," said Mark Larson, Chrome's director of engineering, in a short blog post Thursday.

A year and a half ago, Larson pledged to support Chrome on the even-then-aged operating system until "at least April 2015."

"We know that not everyone can easily switch to a newer operating system," Larson said of Google's decision to continue supporting Chrome on XP after the latter's retirement. "Millions of people are still working on XP computers every day [and] we want those people to have the option to use a browser that's up-to-date and as safe as possible on an unsupported operating system."

But enough was apparently enough.
Microsoft called it quits on Windows XP a year ago Tuesday, when it issued the final scheduled security updates for the 2001 OS. (The company made a one-time exception shortly thereafter when it shipped an emergency patch for its Internet Explorer (IE) browser.)

Because Microsoft halted security fixes for IE on Windows XP on April 14, 2014, security professionals urged the OS's users to switch to another browser. Dropping IE for Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox or Opera Software's Opera was one way to minimize -- but not eliminate -- risk, they said.

Neither Mozilla or Opera have publicized end-of-support dates for their browsers on Windows XP.

According to Web metrics vendor Net Applications, approximately 18.5% of all Windows PCs ran XP in March, slightly more than half the 34.5% the OS accounted for in October 2013, when Larson set Chrome's earliest support demise at this month.

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Dear Google: It's not you, it's me

I've become too dependent on Google's services for storing my data. I think it's time we start seeing other people.

Dear Google,

I stand before you today a broken man, beholden to the whims and wiles of a distant, faceless corporate master. In case it wasn't clear – that's you, Google. You broke me.

You see, 10 years ago I was the master of my own destiny. My data was my own. When I checked my email it was downloaded to whatever computer I was using and stored locally... until I needed to format my drive and reinstall my OS (at which point I usually lost my mailbox file because I, of course, forgot to back it up first). When I took a picture, I stored it on my hard drive until I either burned it to a CD/DVD or accidentally deleted it.

Did I lose my data on a regular basis? Yes. Yes, I did. Text files with notes and to-do lists. Contacts. Calendar data. Save games. The MP3s of my entire CD collection that I had just finished ripping. Even source code. I lost it all, over and over again.

Sometimes it was my fault. OK. Usually, it was my fault – I simply either forgot to back up my files or I was too damned lazy and, somehow, believed that the magical backup fairy would take care of everything. Sometimes it was the fault of a failing backup drive... or a Zip disk that started clicking at me maniacally like some sort of demonic cicada.

But whatever the cause, I felt in control. My data was right there (hopefully). I never needed an Internet connection. I never relied on the 24/7 operation of some remote servers running in the cloud. I felt... powerful. My files were my own and I could, quite literally, reach out and touch whatever disk they were stored on.

Those days are long gone. Now, if my Internet connection drops out, I'm dead in the water. Dear heavens, Google, without an active connection to your servers I am lost, adrift in a sea of nothingness.

I don't have a local MP3/Ogg collection anymore – now I just use Google Play Music. Because it's easy.

I don't keep local backups of my contacts or email anymore – again... Google services. Because of that "easy" thing I was talking about earlier.

Hell, I don't even have a normal phone anymore, opting to use Google Voice and Hangouts for all my phone calling (and even texting) needs. Guess why? Easy.

All of which means I have traded control over my own data for a boost in simplicity. And you know what they say – "those who would give up essential data control to purchase a little temporary simplicity deserve neither data control nor simplicity." Or something like that.

The worst part of it? I saw this coming. I even warned myself – and others – about this very thing. And yet... here I am, a slave to the sweet, sweet Google fruits. Unable to break myself free of chains of convenient online data and services.

I'm not sure how. Maybe I'll setup a server with Own Cloud – or possibly something similar – so that I can still have a server, but with more control. Or perhaps I'll simply start using a wider variety of services so all of my eggs aren't piled into the Google-Basket-O-Eggs quite so highly.

Either way, Google and Google's services... I'm putting you on notice. Your days in my computing life are numbered. Yes. This my way of saying, "we should start seeing other people."

Except for Google Voice and Hangouts. I'm keeping those forever. That stuff is just too good to give up.

Hugs and kisses,

Bryan Lunduke

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15 great apps for Android Wear

All Android Wear apps are not created equal. Here are 15 standout selections that actually add value to the smartwatch form.

Expand your Android Wear horizons
Google's Android Wear platform is pretty powerful out of the box -- but with the right set of apps, it can be made even more useful.

Any Android app can actually interact with a Wear watch via its regular notifications. Certain apps, however, take things a step further with advanced features and special interfaces.

Of course, just because an app works on a watch doesn't mean it's worth using. Wear apps shouldn't merely be watered-down versions of what we have on our phones; they should provide meaningful value specific to the smartwatch form -- in a way that actually makes sense for a wrist-based device.

These 15 apps accomplish that, and they're well worth giving a whirl.

Wear Unlock for Android Wear
This app is one you'll probably never open once you have set it up -- but its presence will benefit you almost every day.

Wear Unlock ($1.99) turns your smartwatch into a wireless key for your phone: Whenever your watch is present and paired, your phone won't prompt you for a PIN or password. When your watch isn't actively connected, your phone will automatically lock itself and enable a security prompt.

That type of function is available natively in the Moto X -- and will be built into Android itself starting with this fall's "L" release -- but Wear Unlock makes it work with any phone today.

Wear Unlock for Android Wear
This app is one you'll probably never open once you have set it up -- but its presence will benefit you almost every day.

Wear Unlock ($1.99) turns your smartwatch into a wireless key for your phone: Whenever your watch is present and paired, your phone won't prompt you for a PIN or password. When your watch isn't actively connected, your phone will automatically lock itself and enable a security prompt.

That type of function is available natively in the Moto X -- and will be built into Android itself starting with this fall's "L" release -- but Wear Unlock makes it work with any phone today.

Wear Aware - Phone Finder
Your Android Wear watch is always on your wrist -- and that means it can help make sure you never leave your phone behind.

Wear Aware (free) runs in the background on both devices and buzzes your watch anytime your phone moves out of range. That way, if you set the phone down and walk out of a room, you'll figure it out before you get too far.

The app also allows you to manually page your phone from your watch so you can easily find it when it's out of sight (like those times when it's magically hidden between your couch cushions).

IFTTT
No single Android Wear app offers more possibilities than IFTTT. The app -- which stands for "If This, Then That" -- connects to the cloud-based service of the same name.

IFTTT (free) allows you to configure and run all sorts of recipes that bring together different types of Web-driven actions. You can use it to set the temperature on a Nest thermostat, for example, or to activate an appliance connected to a Belkin WeMo switch. You can even use it to trigger a fake call to your phone, if you're ever desperate for an excuse.

Anyone can create and contribute new recipes, and the list of available options grows with each passing week.

PixtoCam for Android Wear
Google's native Android Camera app has built-in Wear functionality: When you open the app on your phone, a card appears on your watch with a simple button to activate the shutter remotely.

Handy, sure, but that's just scratching the surface of the ways Wear can interact with your phone's camera. An app called PixtoCam ($1.99) actually lets you see through your phone's lens anytime you open it on your watch. You can remotely snap photos or capture videos and even control the camera's zoom and flash from your wrist.

The app's interface isn't great -- but if you're willing to put up with that, its functionality is fantastic.

Allthecooks Recipes
Allthecooks (free) is a prime example of how an app can adapt sensibly to the smartwatch form. The way it works is simple: You open the app on your phone and find a recipe you want to attempt.

Once you make a selection, the recipe automatically shows up as a card on your watch. You tap it to bring up step-by-step instructions formatted to fit the small screen. Each step is on a single card, and you swipe horizontally to move from one to the next.

That keeps your hands free while you're cooking and allows you to glance down at your wrist for all the info you need -- and that, my friends, is what a smartwatch is all about.

RunKeeper - GPS Track Run Walk
RunKeeper (free) makes excellent use of the smartwatch form. The app is designed to track your walks, runs and bike rides while providing detailed ongoing info about your progress.

Anytime you start a new activity, RunKeeper places a card on your watch that lets you view your current time, total miles traveled and miles per minute. You can pause or stop the activity by using on-screen buttons or by tapping a microphone icon and saying "pause" or "stop." When you're finished, RunKeeper gives you a summary card that shows all of your stats, including totals for the aforementioned measurements as well as the number of calories burned.

An optional $9.99/month subscription offers features like long-term statistics.

Golfshot: Golf GPS
Golfshot (free) turns your Android Wear watch into an intelligent guide for all your golfing adventures. You simply tell the app what course you're playing on and it puts pertinent info on your watch's display as you go.

Cards from Golfshot show you the distance from your current location to each hole, along with stats like the par and handicap for every stop along the way. You can also get the distance to the course's hazards in order to keep track of upcoming obstacles.

An optional $4.99/month subscription enables enhanced features like 3D flyovers and personalized recommendations.

EchoWear Song Search
Google's ability to identify a song on demand is an awesome feature for music fans -- and with a screen on your wrist, it's easier than ever to access that information.

Install EchoWear Song Search (free) on your Android Wear device and the next time a song that you don't know is playing, tell your watch to "Start Echo Search." The app will listen to the tune through the watch's mic and then present you with a card showing the artist and track title.

Wear Mini Launcher
In theory, Android Wear is designed to revolve around voice commands and contextual information -- but in reality, there are also times you'll want to manually open an app or adjust your watch's settings. The current version of the software doesn't make those tasks easy.

That's where a utility called Wear Mini Launcher comes in handy. Wear Mini Launcher (free) adds a hidden drawer that appears anytime you swipe over from the left side of your watch's home screen. The drawer gives you quick access to all of your apps as well as tools to adjust the watch's brightness, view the battery level of your watch and your phone, and remotely toggle things like your phone's Wi-Fi and volume settings.

@here for Android Wear
Ever find yourself in an unfamiliar area and attempting to tell someone where you are? An app called @here (free) can help.

The app does all the work for you: When you're in a new location, @here will place a card on your Wear watch showing your current address on a map. You can swipe sideways to see the name of the neighborhood and to get a closer view of the streets around you.

If you'd rather not get location cards automatically, you can also opt to have @here appear only when you explicitly ask for its assistance.

Emergency Alert for Wear
Emergency Alert (free) is an app you probably won't need often -- but one that might be worth keeping around just in case.

The app allows you to set a predefined emergency contact and message. You can then speak the command "Start Emergency Alert" into your watch to have the message delivered via SMS along with an interactive map of your location. (The app does require a single on-screen tap for confirmation to make sure you don't trigger an alert by mistake.)

Of course, the app doesn't have to be used only for emergencies; you could also employ it as a tool for quickly sharing your location with a specific friend or loved one to make it easier to meet.

Lyft
Next time you need a ride, try speaking into your wrist. Lyft (free) lets you request a pickup via Wear with an easy-to-remember voice command: "Call me a car."

Once a driver's en route, the app delivers card-based updates to your watch that show you the vehicle's estimated arrival time along with the option to cancel.

Lyft isn't available everywhere, but if you're in one of the places where the service is provided, its Wear integration delivers a top-notch -- and thus far unmatched -- experience.

Fly Delta
Flying the friendly skies? Grab the official Fly Delta app (free), and you'll automatically get useful info on your Android Wear watch when you need it.

Delta's app delivers nicely formatted updates about your itinerary along with mobile boarding pass barcodes so you never have to whip out your phone or physical documents. Its updates start appearing as cards as soon as you're checked in.

(The American Airlines app (free) also provides similar functionality.)

1Weather: Widget Forecast Radar
Android Wear has its own native weather cards, but you can step things up a notch with the aid of 1Weather (free -- an optional $1.99 upgrade removes ads).

The app's main card shows you the current conditions for your area or any other area you select. Swiping over once gives you a glimpse at what's ahead for the rest of the day -- broken down into segments like "morning," "noon," "evening" and "night" -- while swiping over a second time lets you look ahead at the four-day forecast.

Baby Time: Android Wear Lock
If you spend any time holding a small child, this app might be just what the doctor ordered.

Baby Time (free) offers an easy way to baby-proof your Android Wear watch: Just issue the voice command "Run Baby Time," and your screen will go dim and stop responding to taps and basic swipes. To get the watch back in its normal mode, you'll have to swipe up twice and then down twice -- something even the most advanced infant is unlikely to do.

JR Raphael is a Computerworld contributing editor and the author of the Android Power blog. For more Android tips and insights, follow him on Google+ or Twitter.

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Brace yourself, here comes the mobile appsplosion

Brace yourself, here comes the mobile appsplosion
Prediction: The tech industry's aggressive push to give every feature its own app will drive a pandemic of app fatigue.

Smartphone and tablet apps are great. But now we're facing a kind of app glut. Our smartphones are quickly becoming bloated with far more apps than anyone can manage.

Remember when Facebook had an app? You could post messages, upload and share pictures, message people, read stuff and poke your friends.

Now Facebook has many apps for doing similar things. In addition to the main Facebook app, Facebook offers Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Paper, Camera and others.

None of these are necessary. All those features could be easily accommodated in the main Facebook app. But Facebook is embarking on a strategy of creating a maximum number of mobile apps to take up more space on a smartphone screen and, presumably, capture more user mindshare.

In what's proving to be an unpopular move, Facebook is removing the chat feature from the main Facebook iOS and Android apps to force people to install a second app called Messenger. (The rollout of this policy across the globe will be gradual and take weeks.) I expect more forced adoption of apps that contain what used to be features inside the Facebook app.

Facebook isn't the only company with a more-apps-is-better strategy.

Dropbox has since its launch been a simple-to-use cloud storage and sharing service accessible both via the Web and through iOS and Android apps. But this week, Dropbox fans were confronted with more Dropbox apps to download and install.

In addition to rolling out a new Dropbox for Business, the company also unveiled Project Harmony, which enables group editing and sharing of Microsoft Office apps stored on Dropbox, as well as Dropbox Carousel, a photo-sharing app.

Dropbox also announced an Android version of its Mailbox email app, which has been available on iOS for more than a year. The company expects to further the strategy in the future with still more apps.

These two sets of announcements this week are part of a larger trend where companies engage in a kind of arms race with competitors to see how many apps they can get everyone to use.

It may be a reaction to Google's leadership in the mobile app arena, where that company makes most of the mobile ad revenue, and also gobbles up screen real estate. Just looking at my own Android phone, I see Google's Gmail, Google+, Maps, Play Music, Play Movie, Play Books, Play News (yes, they all have their own apps), YouTube, Calendar, People, Drive, Keep. There are others I could download if I wanted to.

Meanwhile, objects in our lives that never had associated apps are getting them. The so-called Internet of Things and the home automation movement are mostly bringing apps onto our phones.

A company called Automatic plugs into your car's data port to deliver details on the car's functioning and performance via a smartphone app.

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Philips, Samsung and LG Electronics now sell smart lightbulbs. Now you need an app to turn on the light.

Google recently bought Nest, which makes smart thermostats and smart smoke detectors, both app-controllable.

A new world of smart washing machines and smart refrigerators and smart air conditioners from companies like Samsung and LG will usher in a new world of apps that control physical things in our homes.

Related to the Internet of Things, we'll see apps to go with our wearable devices, including smartwatches and smart glasses.

It seems that every exciting new trend in computing these days involves more and more mobile apps.

Users are certainly spending a lot of time with apps. At least that's what mobile analytics firm Flurry found when it measured usage patterns on 1.3 billion smartphones worldwide. According to Flurry, U.S. users on average spend about two hours and 42 minutes each day actively using their smartphones or tablets. Some 86% of the time that people spend using smartphones involves the use of apps, rather than surfing the mobile Web.

This abandonment of the mobile Web and the embrace of the mobile app is no surprise. Just about every major company or organization offering content on the Web eventually comes out with a mobile app for better presenting their information or services on a small touchscreen.

Each individual change that brings new apps for things that didn't used to have apps makes perfect sense and represents an improvement in how things work and how users interact.

Inevitably, though, a kind of app fatigue will set in. At some point, there will be too many apps for the average user to deal with.

I already find myself using the Play Store to find apps I know I've already installed simply because it's faster and easier than finding them on the phone. Every user is or will soon feel the strain of trying to cope. It takes longer and longer to hunt for the mobile app we're looking for.

That's why major companies are buying Android apps that help you deal with app overload. For example, Yahoo bought Aviate. More recently, Twitter bought Cover. Both these apps automatically find a user's most frequently accessed apps and make them readily available on the home screen so they're not lost in the haystack of apps on the phone.

Apps that automatically bring forward other apps are nice. But ultimately they're not a solution to the coming app overload problem.

Call it the mobile appsplosion. It's coming. And it's not going to be pretty.

With Chromecast, Google reveals Chrome as its strategic big gun

With Chromecast, Google reveals Chrome as its strategic big gun
The browser is behind Google's play for user data from as many screens as possible

Chrome is Google and Google is Chrome.

The Chrome browser is Google's most potent strategic weapon, a former Microsoft program manager said last week.

"Chrome is the focus at Google; Android is an afterthought," asserted Ben Thompson, who writes on his Stratechery blog. Thompson, who left Microsoft earlier this month, has quickly made a name for himself with insights into the technology market, in particular Microsoft, Apple and Google, ranging from Microsoft's massive reorganization to the possible role for a larger, 13-in. iPad.

"Chrome shouldn't be thought of as a Web browser," Thompson wrote. "Rather, it's an optimized bi-directional delivery vehicle: the best experience with Google services for users, and maximum user data for Google. And it runs everywhere. This is why Google has been investing millions of dollars in building the Chrome brand."

Thompson's latest post was reacting to the debut of Chromecast, the $35 stream-to-TV device Google introduced last week. Chromecast, said Google, is powered by a simplified version of Chrome OS. (Although GTVHacker.com claimed Chromecast is "more Android than ChromeOS.")

"As a horizontal company, Google wants to be on every screen, and their vehicle to accomplish that across verticals, both from a technical and brand perspective, is Chrome," Thompson added. By "verticals," Thompson meant "devices."

It's hard to argue with Thompson.

Google has been expending significant resources to push Chrome into as many corners as possible.

Not only is Chrome (the browser) available for all major desktop and mobile platforms -- from Windows and OS X to Android and iOS -- the major features of Chrome OS are being added to the browser, including packaged, nee "native," Web apps and the ability to view and edit Microsoft Office documents.

The goal? From Thompson's viewpoint, control of a "multi-screen world."

Others have had similar thoughts.

"It looks like Google is defining the Chrome platform as what I'd call 'Web Platform Plus,' and intends for Chrome OS and the Chrome browser to be a 'platform on a platform' on any device it is permitted to run on," said IDC analyst Al Hilwa in a May interview, months before Chromecast.

By defining that "platform on a platform" -- Chrome on Windows, on Android, on iOS, on OS X, on the television -- Google is trying to turn as many devices and screens as possible into ones locked into the company's ecosystem, keep users loyal to that same ecosystem of sites, service and apps, and entice others to join them.

The ultimate prize is more revenue, which Google generates almost exclusively from online advertising. All Google does, argued Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester, is driven by its search for more, and more expensive, advertising.

"Google is advertising driven. All its efforts, including Chromecast, are not just about selling more ads, they're about aggregating data about the customer to make those ads more valuable," said Golvin in an interview last week. "The more you can target the ads, the more attractive they are to advertisers, and the more Google's real customers -- advertisers -- are willing to pay."

Thompson dubbed that "maximum user data," but his meaning was the same as Golvin's.

Chromecast is Google's newest blatant example of a Chrome-centric strategy. Not only does it carry the "Chrome" moniker, important in itself as an expression of brand identity, but it heavily leans on the browser for functionality.

Only a handful of dedicated apps support Chromecast out the gate: Google's own YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV and Google Play Music; and the only third-party entry, Netflix. The rest of the lifting is done by Chrome, the browser.

Content on any Chrome tab active on a device within range of a Chromecast-equipped TV can be displayed on the television. During installation on a Windows or OS X personal computer, Chromecast automatically adds the Google Cast add-on to the browser; it can be downloaded separately from the Chrome Web Store, but again, requires Chromecast.

Not only does Chrome's ability to cast ease the early adopter pain of too-few Chromecast-supporting apps, but it circumvents the limitations of accumulating data when third-party apps are used to display content on a television.

Instead, the normal data collection rules -- as Google spells them out in its privacy policy for Chrome -- apply.

Specifically, Google knows what you watch, at least in a general way.

"For Chromecast users, Google may collect system activity, crashes, and other details about how you use Chromecast, including use of apps and domains (but not full URLs) accessed by Chromecast," Google's privacy policy states.

Maximum user data, as Thompson put it.

In fact, argued Thompson, Google has bet its strategic coin on Chrome, not Android, the mobile operating system also launched in 2008, the same year as Chrome. Thompson noted that Android was largely absent from last week's unveiling of Chromecast -- even to the point, if GTVHacker.com was correct, fudging the code foundation of the device's firmware -- as it was earlier this year at Google's I/O developer conference.

That's no coincidence, Thompson said.

"Android ... enables several of those verticals [devices], and keeps Apple honest in phones especially," said Thompson. "However, by virtue of the hardware world it lives in, it's not the best vehicle for reaching all users, and Google is fine with that. Now that Android is good enough on phones, there simply isn't any point in investing in it as heavily as before."

Put plainly, Chrome is Google ... and Google is Chrome.

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Google Glass still vulnerable to Wi-Fi attack

Glass can fall prey to a long-known issue in wireless networking

Google fixed one Wi-Fi security problem with its wearable computer Glass, but Symantec says there's another problem, which has been a long-known weakness in wireless networking.

The security vendor has been analyzing Google Glass in its labs and found a second issue that is just as harmful as the now-patched QR-code vulnerability found by Lookout Mobile Security, which was made public earlier this week.

Many Wi-Fi devices regularly look for networks that they have been connected to before, wrote Candid Wueest, a threat researcher for Symantec. The behavior is convenient for users, since they don't have to manually connect to a known network, he wrote.

But for as little as US$100, a hacker can buy a device that impersonates the known Wi-Fi network by borrowing the network's name, known as its SSID (Service Set Identifier).

If a mobile device such as Google Glass looks for a known network with the SSID of "myPrivateWiFi," a device called the Wi-Fi Pineapple can respond, pretending it is the network.

Wi-Fi Pineapple is intended as a tool for security researchers. It sits between a targeted device and the Internet. Once it has tricked a Wi-Fi device into thinking it is the legitimate network, it can then spy on the data traffic.

If the traffic between a pair of Google Glasses and a remote server is unencrypted, an attacker using Wi-Fi Pineapple can view it, a major privacy and security problem known as a man-in-the-middle attack (MITM).

The issue isn't exclusive to Google Glass and could affect any device used, for example, by someone in a coffee shop. Savvy laptop and mobile phone users may be able to take steps to prevent data from leaking by using a VPN (Virtual Private Network). But the keyboard-less interface of Google Glass could make thwarting this style of attack more complicated.

In early June, Google fixed the vulnerability found by Lookout, which found that Glass would scan a QR Code instructing it to connect to a malicious Wi-Fi access point. Lookout, which told Google of the problem in May, then directed Glass to a malicious website that ran a known Android 4.04 vulnerability, which gave the security vendor complete control over the glasses.

Google issued several fixes, including one that required users to approve instructions contained in QR codes.

The fundamental problem of Wi-Fi devices looking for known networks isn't an easy one to solve, Wueest wrote. Devices could check a hardware identifier, called the MAC (Media Access Control) address, of a Wi-Fi router and match it with the SSID. But MAC addresses are easily faked, he wrote.

"The more practicable solution is to treat every network as hostile and ensure that all the applications use encrypted communications like SSL [Secure Sockets Layers] or tunnel through a VPN," Wueest wrote.

Google couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

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IT departments won't exist in five years

Generation gap between new technologists and old is widening, say experts at CITE conference

SAN FRANCISCO -- Consumerization of IT and self-service trends will lead to a restructuring of the today's IT shop, leaving behind a hybrid model consisting of tech consultants and integrators.

"The business itself will be the IT department. [Technologists] will simply be the enabler," said Brandon Porco, chief technologist & solutions architect at Northrop Grumman.

Porco was part of a four-person panel of technologists who answered audience questions during a town hall-style meeting at the CITE Conference and Expo here this week.

Among concerns raised is whether IT is losing control as consumer technology becomes part and parcel of everyone's work in the enterprise, and the data center is left behind.

Others said they are not sure how to address a growing generation gap between young and veteran workers, each of whom are comfortable with different technologies.

"Interns coming in for the summer are asked if they're familiar with Google Apps. They say, 'Of course we are,'" said Nathan McBride, vice president of IT & chief cloud architect at AMAG Pharmaceuticals. "Then we have other employees coming in who worked for other companies who say, 'I need Outlook.' We have to say we don't use that anymore."

McBride said 75 Fortune 100 companies now use Google Apps along with most Ivy League schools, meaning that the next generation of workers won't be users of Microsoft Exchange or Office.

In five years, McBride said, companies will have to ensure they're matching their enabling technology to the demographic of that time.

Kathleen Schaub, vice president of research firm IDC's CMO Advisory Practice, said many corporate IT organizations now report to the head of the business unit it's assigned to.

"The premise is that wherever IT sits in an organization will dictate what they care about," she said. "If they're in finance, they'll care about cost cutting. If they're in operations, they'll care about process management. If [the company] decides it wants to focus on the customer, they'll put it in marketing."

While the CIO position will likely remain in an enterprise, his or her role will morph into a technology forecaster and strategist, rather than a technology implementer, according to Porco.

John Mancini, CEO of the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM), agreed with Porco, saying that in the consumer technology era, it's the business side that has all the tools, so it will be able to trump IT's desire to control who uses what and how.

While the business can dictate the service or technology it wants, McBride said IT can still decide the flavor of technology.

For example, when AMAG business users asked for Microsoft's Visio tool set for diagraming and creating flow charts, McBride's team found a less expensive, web-based tool, LucidChart. "That was only $15 a seat," he said, adding that users were just as happy.

"We're not trying to be ahead of the technology curve and we don't' want to be behind, but we're trying to maintain pace in order to know what they're going to ask for next before they ask for it," McBride said.

Porco said he takes advantage of university partnerships and take cues from entrepreneurial centers throughout the U.S. such as Seattle and Denver to keep his finger on the pulse of tech innovation.

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Google-led group warns of 'patent privateers

BlackBerry, Red Hat, Google and EarthLink say businesses use patent trolls as mercenaries to harass the competition

Patent trolls are increasingly becoming a weapon some companies can use to harm or harass their competitors, according to public comments jointly submitted today to the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department by lawyers for Google, Red Hat, BlackBerry and EarthLink.

The comment detail what the companies say is a rising tide of so-called "patent privateering" and called for a large-scale government probe of the matter. The term refers to the practice of selling patents to a patent-assertion entity (or patent troll), which enables the troll to turn around and sue a competitor without the original company having to expose itself to negative publicity or countersuits.

Google senior competition counsel Matthew Bye explained why the process works in an official blog post.

"Trolls use the patents they receive to sue with impunity - since they don't make anything, they can't be countersued. The transferring company hides behind the troll to shield itself from litigation, and sometimes even arranges to get a cut of the money extracted by troll lawsuits and licenses," he wrote.

What's more, according to the companies, patent privateering can be used to circumvent fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing agreements - exposing businesses that made good-faith decisions to create products based on a given technology to infringement suits by trolls.

Google and its co-signers urged an FTC investigation into the practice, saying that the extent of patent privateering and its effects is difficult to quantify without additional information.

"The secrecy in which PAEs cloak their activities exacerbates all of these concerns and leaves the public without information needed to access the likely competitive effects of patent outsourcing practices," the companies said.

Google recently announced an Open Patent Non-Assertion Pledge, saying that it will agree never to sue over the use of some designated patents unless attacked first. The first 10 patents in the program all relate to MapReduce, a big data processing model.

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NotCompatible' Android malware rears its ugly head, again

NotCompatible' Android malware rears its ugly head, again
Mobile security vendor Lookout says Android malware is showing signs of sudden activity

The "NotCompatible" malware, designed to infect Android devices and turn them into unwitting Web proxies, is suddenly showing a sharp uptick in activity, according to mobile security vendor Lookout.

The malware is essentially a simple network proxy, which pretends to be a system update in order to get unwitting users to install it. The idea seems to be gaining access to protected networks through victims' infected Android devices. It was named for its apparent command-and-control server, at notcompatibleapp.eu.

Last weekend saw the number of detections for NotCompatible rise to 20,000 per day as of last Sunday and Monday, wrote researcher Tim Strazzere, who said that the malware had been largely dormant since it was discovered in May 2012.

But while the initial discovery saw the malware being installed by hacked websites, the latest wave of NotCompatible is being spread by email spam. The usual subject line is "hot news," and the infected messages appear to contain links to fake weight-loss articles.
NotCompatible malware
Credit: Lookout Security
The hacked Web page that can contain the NotCompatible malware.

"Depending on the user's Android OS Version and browser, they may be prompted about the download. Many stock browsers will transparently trigger a download to the device /Downloads folder whereas Chrome displays a confirmation dialog," wrote Strazzere.

Lookout said there is little chance of direct harm to infected devices, and victims must allow NotCompatible to be installed for it to function, further minimizing the overall threat to the majority of Android users. The best advice for safety is simply to never allow any .apk whose provenance you're even a little bit unsure of to be installed on your phone.

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Google, US FTC settle antitrust case

The company agrees to license mobile patents to competitors and to stop scraping rivals' content

Google has agreed to change some of its business practices, including allowing competitors access to some standard technologies, to resolve a U.S. Federal Trade Commission antitrust complaint against the company.

BACKGROUND: Lawmakers question FTC's investigation

Google has also agreed to give online advertisers more flexibility to manage advertising campaigns on Google's AdWords platform and on rival ad platforms, the FTC said Thursday. After a 19-month FTC investigation, Google also agreed to stop some of its "most troubling" search practices, including scraping Web content from rivals and allegedly passing it off as its own, said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.

Google has agreed to allow competitors access to standards-essential patents the company acquired along with its purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2012, the FTC said. The FTC raised concerns that Google had reneged on commitments to offer some mobile and Web patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory, or FRAND, terms.

Without the patent agreement, a number of smartphone and gaming console devices were "under threat" of patent litigation, Leibowitz said during a press conference. "Today's action makes clear that the commitment to make patents available on reasonable terms matters, and that companies cannot make these commitments when it suits them ... and then behave opportunistically later," he said.

The agreement doesn't include a fine, but the FTC could fine Google up to US $16,000 per violation if the company violates the terms of the patent settlement, Leibowitz said. The agency will monitor Google's compliance with the settlement, he said.

The settlement also doesn't include an agreement on search bias because the FTC didn't find enough evidence to force an agreement, he said.

The FTC did see some evidence of search manipulation, but Google's actions "didn't violate the American antitrust laws," Leibowitz said.

The agency looked at allegations that Google threatened to remove websites from search results if they complained about the search giant scraping their content, Leibowitz. "If the allegations are accurate, they describe conduct that is clearly problematic and potentially harmful to competition because it undermines incentives to innovate," he said. "Why would you create a new site for restaurant reviews if someone else can take them and appropriate them as if they were their own?"

The settlement shows Google's services are "good for users and good for competition," David Drummond, Google's senior vice president and chief legal officer, wrote in a blog post..

The settlement will give websites the ability to opt out of Google's search results and allow advertisers to mix and copy their Google ad campaigns with third-party services that use Google AdWords APIs, Drummond wrote.

"We've always accepted that with success comes regulatory scrutiny," he added. "But we're pleased that the FTC and the other authorities that have looked at Google's business practices ... have concluded that we should be free to combine direct answers with web results."

The FTC began investigating Google for antitrust violations in its search and advertising businesses in mid-2011. The agency reportedly has looked into Google's relationship with Android handset makers and whether Google favors its own services in search results.

In December 2011, U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat, and Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, asked the FTC to look into whether Google listed its products and services first in search results. Other lawmakers have urged the FTC to tread carefully in a dynamic tech industry.

Google competitors, including Microsoft, Oracle and other members of the FairSearch.org coalition, have accused Google of search "discrimination" by manipulating search results. Google has also used its dominance to force competitors out of the search marketplace, the group has said.

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Santa and NORAD: Microsoft nicer than Google this year

NORAD switches to Bing Maps to help you track Santa's journey on Christmas Eve

Google apparently hasn't been naughty in Santa's eyes, but Microsoft must have been pretty nice. NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, will switch from using Google Maps to Bing Maps to track Santa Claus on his Christmas Eve trip around the world.

This year's NORAD team includes many members, from Verizon to Avaya Government Solutions, but Microsoft appears to be the lead sponsor, getting high play for products and services ranging from Bing to Windows Azure cloud services to Windows 8 and Windows Phone.
NORAD tracks Santa
Credit: NORAD

GIFT GUIDE: Be a hero for the holidays

We say that Google must not have been naughty in that NORAD is still pushing its YouTube channel, and YouTube of course is a Google property. NORAD is also offering Android and iOS apps in addition to Windows Phone and Windows 8 ones.

Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land writes that Google Maps have been used over the past five years by NORAD for Santa tracking.

The good news for good little children around the world is that NORAD apparently is not relying on Apple Maps for Santa tracking. Apple Maps have proven to be a big problem for Apple this year, even confusing the Dark Knight and being called a life-threatening issue in Australia.

Last year NORAD introduced mobile apps and games (including elf tossing) to its repertoire.

NORAD's tradition of tracking Santa started in 1955, with kids of all ages able to call NORAD to check on the jolly old elf's progress (and you can still do this in 2011 on Christmas Eve by calling 1-877-Hi-NORAD). Naturally, the tracking and communications processes have become more sophisticated over the years, with the rise of the Internet.

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