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Security firms are fanning the flames of fear about mobile malware and viruses, while others accuse such firms of being scammers. Who’s right, and who’s wrong.

Earlier this week, Juniper Networks lit a fire with its report claiming that the amount of mobile malware has jumped 472% since July. According to Juniper’s numbers, the number of malware samples collected in October jumped 110% compared to September, and 171% over what was collected in July. (Click to see their report’s infographic)

“These days, it seems all you need is a developer account, that is relatively easy to anonymize, pay $25 and you can post your applications,” the company wrote in a blog post. “With no upfront review process, no one checking to see that your application does what it says, just the world’s largest majority of smartphone users skimming past your application’s description page with whatever description of the application the developer chooses to include.”

Earlier this year, Symantec, too, warned of mobile malware in the Android Market. In its own blog post, Symantec said, “Android malware is on the rise. Android.Pjapps is another example of a Trojan with back door capabilities that targets Android devices. As seen with previous Android threats, it is spreading through compromised versions of legitimate applications, available on unregulated third-party Android marketplaces.”

Symantec, of course, sells security software for both PCs and mobile devices.

Let’s not leave out Kapersky Labs (which also sells security software.)

“When it comes to attacking smartphones, there were clear signs that cybercriminals have made Android their platform of choice,” the company said in a blog post on Thursday. “Increasingly sophisticated operations by malicious programs were also noted in Q3 along with some tried-and-tested methods: innocuous QR codes are now being used to conceal malware and computers are facing threats even before their operating systems start as cybercriminals revisit BIOS infection methods.”

Are you scared yet, Android smartphone owners?

Are you quaking in your boots? Are you ready to buy antimalware and antivirus software from these companies? Should your corporate IT department be licensing protection schemes in bulk?

Hold on just a minute.

Google’s open-source Guru, Chris DiBona, had some harsh words about these reports and the companies that generate them…

Full article:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/mobile/231903411

With operations disrupted at more than a dozen hard disk drive (HDD) factories due to flooding in Thailand, PC manufacturers should prepare for significant supply shortages, market research firm IDC said Thursday.

Worldwide HDD shipments could suffer a 20% decline beginning in the middle of this month and extending well into the first quarter of 2012, according to a new IDC report.

In the first half of 2011, Thailand accounted for 40% to 45% of worldwide HDD production. As of early November, nearly half of Thailand’s production was directly affected by the flooding. While production at some factories was halted due to flooding, the industry also faces work stoppages due to poor access and power outages.

The full extent of the damage to hard drive industry factories will not be known until the floodwaters recede, “although it’s already clear that there will be HDD supply shortages into the first quarter of 2012,” IDC stated.

Full story: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9221717/PC_makers_should_brace_for_drive_shortages

Some of the largest and most popular tech companies in the world are throwing their support behind a bill that could lead to censorship on the Internet.

Apple, Microsoft and Adobe are just a few members of the Business Software Alliance, which has thrown its support behind the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), according to The Next Web.

SOPA, along with the PROTECT IP act in the Senate, give content-producing companies the right to order a take down for a website that they believe is infringing on a copyright. If you even host links to content that infringes on a copyright, you have to take it down.

If not, the copyright owner can request that the infringing site has its advertising and transaction revenue cut off. Or it can request that a domain name — like businessinsider.com — be blacklisted and rendered inaccessible.

Here’s the statement by the BSA on SOPA:

The Business Software Alliance today commended House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) for introducing the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (H.R. 3261) to curb the growing rash of software piracy and other forms of intellectual property theft that are being perpetrated by illicit websites.

And here’s a list of companies on the Business Software Alliance, according to The Next Web’s report:

Adobe

Apple

Autodesk

AVEVA

AVG

Bentley Systems

CA

Cadence Design Systems

CNC Software – Mastercam

Compuware

Corel

Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation

Dell

Intel

Intuit

Kaspersky

McAfee

Microsoft

Minitab

Progress Software

PTC

Quark

Quest

Rosetta Stone

Siemens PLM Software, Inc.

Sybase

Symantec

TechSmith

The MathWorks

Full Story:http://www.businessinsider.com/you-would-never-expect-these-tech-giants-to-back-that-bill-to-censor-the-internet-2011-11

Earlier today, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (or SOPA) which, depending on who you ask, is either a means to stop piracy and copyright infringement on so-called “rogue” websites, or the most serious threat of internet censorship that we’ve seen in some time. In the latter camp are some of the biggest internet companies around, including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, eBay, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Zynga and AOL (full disclosure: Engadget’s parent company), who today made their stance clear by taking out a full-page ad in The New York Times.

The ad itself is a letter sent by the nine companies to Congress, which states that while they support the stated goals of the bill and the related Protect IP Act, they believe that, as written, the bills “would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of web sites.” The companies further went on to say that they believe the measures also “pose a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job-creation, as well as to our Nation’s cybersecurity.” While they didn’t all sign onto the letter, those companies also also joined by a host of others who have spoken out against the legislation, including Foursquare and Tumblr. The sole witness against the proposed measures at today’s hearing, however, was Google’s copyright policy counsel, Katherine Oyama — you can find her testimony on Google’s Public Policy Blog linked below.

Full Story and associated articles here:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/16/google-facebook-twitter-and-others-speak-out-against-the-stop/

Is the Internet a fundamental human necessity? Is a workplace with flexible mobility policies as valuable as salary?

To demonstrate the role of the network in our lives, Cisco commissioned an international workforce study of nearly 3000 people. The study revealed that one in three college students and young professionals consider the Internet to be as important as air, water, food, and shelter. The study also found that their desire to use social media, mobile devices, and the Internet more freely in the workplace is strong enough to influence their future job choice, sometimes more than salary.

Full Story Here: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns1120/index.html

Mozilla on Tuesday released Firefox 8, adding Twitter search to the browser and patching eight vulnerabilities.

Since Mozilla kicked off its every-six-week upgrade cycle last summer, each new Firefox has had relatively few visible changes. That held true yesterday.

Firefox 8′s most notable addition was Twitter as a choice in Firefox’s search bar, letting users look up topics, hashtags and usernames on the micro-blogging service. Twitter search is currently available only in the English, Japanese, Portuguese and Slovenian editions of Firefox.

Mozilla also made good on a promise last August to automatically disable add-ons installed without user approval. Behind-the-back add-ons have cropped up at times, most recently in January when one bundled with Skype caused so many browser crashes that Mozilla blacklisted it. When users start Firefox 8, all add-ons that have been surreptitiously installed are turned off by default.

Full Story:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9221663/Mozilla_ships_Firefox_8_adds_Twitter_search_and_patches_8_bugs

We heard the talk and now here’s the confirmation: Flash Player for mobile devices is officially dead. Adobe is reaffirming its commitment “aggressively contribute” to HTML5, a platform with broader support and capabilities than Flash was ever able to deliver. Adobe will of course also be pushing developers to work in its AIR platform for a more native experience, and the company will continue to work on Flash Player for desktop operating systems, but one can’t help but see the platform as a whole standing on fairly shaky footing at this point.

Original Quote: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/09/adobe-confirms-flash-player-is-dead-for-mobile-devices/

Full Story from Adobe: http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2011/11/flash-focus.html

ALEX JOHNSON, a freelance video producer in Indianapolis, has a self-esteem problem. Well, not really, but his new iPhone thinks he does.

“Why do I cry so much?” he asked it recently in jest.

“I don’t know,” it responded. “Frankly, I’ve wondered that myself.”

The funny (if slightly unsettling) reply was courtesy of Siri, the new virtual personal-assistant application for the recently released Apple iPhone 4S. Siri recognizes conversational speech and responds, helping with everything from scheduling a meeting to finding a therapist.

Siri also talks back. Owners of the new iPhone have been quick to ask it all kinds of odd questions, from the inane to the illicit. Looking for a place to hide a body? Siri provided Mr. Johnson with a list of metal foundries, dumps and swamps.

FULL STORY: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/fashion/when-your-phone-humors-you-noticed.html?_r=1&ref=technology

A couple of interesting things happened in the world of Web browser usage during October. The more significant one is that Internet Explorer’s share of global browser usage dropped below 50 percent for the first time in more than a decade. Less significant, but also notable, is that Chrome for the first time overtook Firefox here at Ars, making it the technologist’s browser of choice.

Internet Explorer still retains a majority of the desktop browser market share, at 52.63 percent, a substantial 1.76 point drop from September. However, desktop browsing makes up only about 94 percent of Web traffic; the rest comes from phones and tablets, both markets in which Internet Explorer is all but unrepresented. As a share of the whole browser market, Internet Explorer has only 49.58 percent of users. Microsoft’s browser first achieved a majority share in—depending on which numbers you look at—1998 or 1999. It reached its peak of about 95 percent share in 2004, and has been declining ever since.
Net Applications

Where has that market share gone? In the early days, it all went Firefox’s way. These days, it’s Chrome that’s the main beneficiary of Internet Explorer’s decline, and October was no exception.

Full Story Here:
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/11/the-end-of-an-era-internet-explorer-drops-below-50-percent-of-web-usage.ars

Apple issued a statement to The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple about customer complaints of poor battery life with the new iPhone 4S and iOS 5:

A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.”
There have been a litany of complaints about iPhone 4S and iOS 5 battery life ever since their release last month. A number of solutions have been proposed by the community for this problem, including turning off Time Zone detection, Bluetooth and others.

Apple has already seeded developers with a 5.0.1 beta that is said to address the issue.

Full story/snippet here:
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/11/02/apple-confirms-battery-life-issues-with-iphone-4s-software-update-coming/