Articles about Mobile

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.

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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.

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"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.

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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.

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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.

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According to research by IDC the number of enterprise applications optimized for mobile is set to quadruple by next year as businesses seek to improve workflow across the organization.

Adaptive enterprise file services specialist Egnyte is unveiling its new enterprise mobile suite that's optimized for business users. It allows them to seamlessly access, manage and share online and offline data from both cloud and on-premises storage.

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Google is facing something of a European revolution as mobile companies consider blocking ads on a massive scale. Israeli company Shine has developed software that blocks mobile ads, and it has gained the attention and support of a number of telecom companies in Europe.

Talking to the Financial Times, one wireless carrier said that the software had been installed at its data centers and could be enabled by the end of the year. With the potential to automatically block most ads on web pages and within apps, the repercussion of the ad boycott could be huge as mobile providers try to wrestle control from the likes of Google.

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Last month Google announced a series of changes to the way it handled search results on mobile devices, and now Microsoft is following suit. Now there is a focus on promoting those sites that are optimized for viewing on a smaller screen. Microsoft said six months ago that it would start to push mobile-friendly sites, and today this plan is being put into action.

The project started off by simply highlighting mobile-friendly sites to aid identification, but now they will be promoted further up search rankings. If there are two sites rated equally highly for their content, the one which is considered most suitable for viewing on a mobile device will appear higher in results when a search is conducted from a mobile device.

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Around half of the workforce will be millennials by 2020, but according to a new survey by endpoint security specialists Absolute Software they're likely to present a bigger risk to data security.

The survey questioned more than 750 Americans over the age of 18 who work for a company with 50 or more employees and use an employer-owned mobile device.

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The headline may seem a bit outrageous but is a fair assessment of what Big Red gets from its proposed purchase of AOL. The all-cash, $4.4 billion deal would strengthen Verizon's media portfolio, and I wonder: Is this what happens when there is Net Neutrality? ISPs become content carriers?

Verizon's venture cannot be understated for what it means. Like a game of Risk, where players jockey for early-play position and forge alliances with eventual combatants, mobile is a battleground in the making. Territory captured now will mean everything in the future. AOL's content portfolio, which includes Huffington Post, is among the major assets.

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Indian mobile manufacturer Micromax and Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus have withdrawn their respective lawsuits against each other. As a result of this the flagship One smartphone will now resume the impending over the air update from Cyanogen Inc.

OnePlus announces that both the companies withdrew their respective lawsuits against each other through mutual consent. In a statement to BetaNews, OnePlus says that it will be working with Cyanogen to ensure that the OnePlus One Indian variant continues to receive updates from the software firm. These updates also include the next in line to CM 12S software version.

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Smartphone security takes a number of forms; you might access your phone with a PIN, your fingerprint, or via facial recognition. But if Yahoo's plans gather momentum, you could be using your ear to unlock your phone in the not-too-distant future. The idea builds on the idea of the unique fingerprint we all have, taking advantage of the capacitive touchscreens that are now a standard feature of phones.

There's no need for special sensors as the way different parts of your ears touch the screen when held in the 'talk' position can be used to uniquely identify you. It's all part of Yahoo's Bodyprint program, which is also looking at how the way you hold your phone could be used as an unlock tool.

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Mobile engagement specialist OpenMarket has released the results of a study, commissioned from IDC, into the business impact of mobile messaging.

The study looks at how mobile messaging is being used across a number of key industries including automotive, education, financial services, healthcare and utilities. It shows that many companies have failed to adopt holistic mobile messaging with 62 percent having at least two messaging platforms deployed, and 78.5 percent with more than one active initiative.

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Wouldn’t it be great if Nokia started manufacturing phones again? If the recent reports are to be believed, the Finland-based company is planning to do just that. Citing its sources, Re/code earlier this week reported that the company will be returning to the phone manufacturing business by 2016, and would launch a couple of Android smartphones. Too bad, that’s not happening. Nokia announces today that it doesn’t intend to return to the smartphone manufacturing business, squashing all the recent reports that claimed otherwise.

On its website (via Reuters), the company notes that the recent news reports that claimed that Nokia expressed its intention to manufacture consumer handsets out of an R&D facility in China “are false". "Nokia reiterates it currently has no plans to manufacture or sell consumer handsets.", it further says.

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When disaster strikes, technology can often be put to good use. Following the devastating earthquake that struck Nepal this week, Google and Facebook are among the companies helping those in the area, as well as people looking for friends and relatives.

Google's People Finder does very much what it says on the tin. It's a very simple website that enables people to publish requests for information about loved ones, as well as giving those with information somewhere to share it. Facebook's Nepal Earthquake Safety Check provides a similar feature.

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