Mobile

Reviewing most any MacBook Pro is a pointless exercise, because this year's model isn't much different from the previous—or the one before. That's why I typically buy refurbished rather than new. But I broke with that practice last month, after a sudden electrical calamity laid my wife's laptop to rest. Fried and died it is. With Apple releasing new versions of iOS and OS X and launching a streaming music service, a summer sojourn seemed opportune.

I considered going Windows 10, which arrives later this month. But most of my BetaNews colleagues are headed that way, so I set out down the Apple reviews track. Again, I probably wouldn't have done so if not for my wife's computer catastrophe. I lent her my Chromebook Pixel LS and purchased a new MBP. She will never give up the Google laptop, BTW.

Ads are part and parcel of being online, but they can be particularly annoying for mobile users. When playing games on a phone or tablet, it's all too easy to accidentally tap an ad you have absolutely no interest in, pulling you out of the game you were playing or the site you were reading. If you've cursed when this happened to you, Google hears you.

The company is taking steps to make the "user experience" of ads a little better. It recognizes that advertisements that get clicked accidentally don't benefit anybody. They end up irritating the clicker, and are unlikely to be of value to the company that placed the ad. With around half of ad clicks being made by mistake, Google is now taking steps to stop this from happening -- great news for users and advertisers alike.

Most of the malicious software for mobile devices targets Google’s Android operating system, a new report by Pulse Secure says.

Last year, almost one million individual malicious apps for Android were released, according to Pulse Secure’s Mobile Threat Report. That means the number of threats quadrupled in comparison to the year before.

The demand for new enterprise mobile applications is about to rapidly increase, a new research shows.

Sponsored by Kony, the new 451 Research global survey of IT management, IT development and line of business professionals found that more than half of the 480 respondents, from North America, Europe and Australia, plan to deploy 10 or more enterprise mobile apps during the next two years.

Companies worldwide are equipping their workforce with the latest mobile technology. Many company-provided mobile devices allow for personal use so employees aren’t inconvenienced by being required to carry multiple devices.

This is commonly referred to as Corporate Owned Personally Enabled or COPE. With an ever-evolving mobile ecosystem, IT leaders are forced to continually adjust the rules and devise new approaches, and that’s likely to continue as complexity increases.

The next update to Apple’s mobile web browser Safari will include a way to block annoying ads, working similar to AdBlock Plus on desktop browsers.

Under the banner of user experience, Apple promoted the new loading system capable of blocking JavaScript, cookies and even images from displaying. The system came to the desktop version of Safari first. Users will be able to opt-in to this experience on iOS 9.

Mobile security is starting to get attention, but still doesn't garner the same amount as the computer does. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be a concern, only that the average user isn't looking at it that way. However, we're starting to see that landscape slowly changing, with phones coming with built-in security software.

The latest will be devices from Chinese manufacturer ZTE, as the company has partnered with security firm AVG, which has long offered mobile apps to protect consumers.

With its Internet.org project, Facebook is trying to not only spread into new parts of the world by bringing the internet to places where it is not currently available. With a focus on minimal data usage to help keep down costs, it was only a matter of time before a stripped down version of the Facebook app appeared.

Today is the day that Facebook Lite arrives. As the name suggests, this is a data-light version of the familiar Facebook app, and it starts its life on Android devices. It is designed with developing markets in mind, and today it starts the rollout process in Asia before it spreads further around the globe.

Nine years ago, a NPR interviewer asked me about Google and other U.S. companies censoring search results in China. The question was one of morality -- to which I gave answer she didn't expect. That response, or my recollection of it, is appropriate for rather ridiculous and self-serving statements that Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly made two days ago.

"We believe that people have a fundamental right to privacy", Cook said, Matthew Panzarino reports for TechCrunch. "The American people demand it, the constitution demands it, morality demands it". Oh? What is moral? The answer I gave NPR in 2006 applies: There is no moral high ground in business. The high ground is quagmire, because all public companies -- Apple surely among them -- share a single, moral objective: Make profits for stockholders. Plain, pure, and simple.

In March earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it has partnered with Xiaomi to beta test Windows 10 Mobile ROM on the Chinese company’s flagship Android Mi 4 smartphone. The company has just seeded out the ROM to the phone for select beta testers.

Terry Myerson, Microsoft's executive VP of operating systems, announced earlier that "a select group of Xiaomi Mi 4 power users will be invited to help test Windows 10 and contribute to its future release later this year. These power users will have the opportunity to download the Windows 10 Technical Preview - installing it and providing their feedback to Microsoft".

Developing mobile and web-based continues to present a major challenge for enterprises, especially with regard to the costs associated with infrastructure and DevOps.

A new survey of 200 technology decision makers by mobile backend-as-a-service (MBaaS) company moBack shows that 80 percent of respondents, including both large and small businesses, consider mobile app development very important and essential for their business.

Periscope from Twitter seems to get mixed reviews from users and the tech community. However, it isn't going away, at least as far as we know. The video sharing app received a lot of attention, which really is what Twitter wants from any improvement or new apps.

Periscope isn't new, but the app for Android is. It boasts the ability to replay your live broadcast to your followers, it can be private if you only want certain followers to see it, you can also share these broadcasts via Twitter, manage notifications and Hearts, which tracks how many viewers like your broadcast.

"The dog ate it" is a classic excuse for failing to deliver homework, but a new study shows that it also explains a good deal of damage to various items of technology. You may well have dropped a phone in the toilet, smashed a tablet on the floor or accidentally obliterated a laptop screen, but it seems our furry friends are just as much to blame as us bipeds.

Figures released by insurance company SquareTrade show that in the last five years, pets in Europe have been responsible for the destruction of £1.5 billion ($2.3 billion) worth of tech. British households have been hit with the highest pet vs tech bills, with cats, dogs and other domestic creature clocking up £358 million in damage.

For many folks, music gets them through the day, or even life. There's also no shortage of services out there looking to get users to choose them. While some are lesser known, Spotify certainly isn't, as it's an industry leader that boasts 25 billion listening hours since it launched.

Now the streaming company is making some improvements that should satisfy customers even more. Users of the mobile app can expect what Spotify terms a "richer experience" for the Now app.

More and more companies are turning to apps to improve business mobility, but 67 percent cite security as the top challenge to achieving their goals.

This is among the findings of the 2015 Enterprise Mobility Report from app management specialist Apperian. Although security is the major challenge others include determining return on investment, lack of budget and reaching BYOD or unmanaged devices.