Major banks ready their own mobile payment apps

Several major national and international banks are planning to launch their own mobile payments apps next year.

The banks would be major competitors to handset makers Apple and Google because unlike others pushing mobile wallet technology, such as mobile phone carriers and retailers, they already have an intimate relationship with consumers and know their spending habits.

"Banks all around the world are working on this right now," said James Anderson, senior vice president for mobile and emerging payments at MasterCard.

Anderson didn't name any of the banks, but said MasterCard is already in conversations with them on how to add mobile payment capability to the existing apps that millions of consumers already have on their phones.

The most likely way will be through a technology called host card emulation, that was introduced in Android 4.4 "KitKat" and allows software apps to emulate the secure element chip found on some bank cards and the iPhone 6. Using software means wider compatibility with phones than if a dedicated chip was required.

The mobile payments market had been relatively quiet until recently. Google Wallet and Softcard, a competitor backed by cellular carriers, were in the market but consumer awareness and interest appeared to be low.

That changed with the launch of Apple Pay on October 20. A million cards were activated in the first three days of use and early adopters have praised its ease of use: users just need to hold their thumb over the iPhone 6 fingerprint reader and bring the device near a terminal for payment to be made.

As a result, competitors are planning their attack. Next year CurrentC, backed by some of the biggest retailers in the U.S., will launch and companies like PayPal are also hoping to expand their footprint in stores.

But an app from a bank might have an edge because it removes a potential hurdle to adoption: unease among consumers that at a third-party is getting access to details of purchases they make.

Apple has stressed that it doesn't see any of the purchases made by its users but Google's system is set up so that all payments run through the company's servers—giving the company an additional layer of information into the lives of its users.

A bank already has access to this information because of its nature and is presumably trusted by its customers. If a customer has a banking app on their phone, it would suggest they also have faith in the bank's online security system.

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Samsung attacks Chinese rivals with new mid-range Galaxy phones

With Chinese vendors coming out with high-spec phones at affordable prices, Samsung is hitting back with two handsets sporting "metal unibody" designs that'll be targeting consumers in China with mid-range prices.

Samsung announced Friday the Galaxy A5 and the Galaxy A3, a pair of Android smartphones. China was the only market the company specifically named of the "select markets" where the phones will be available starting November. The Korean electronics giant wouldn't give an exact price, but said the devices would be "mid-range additions" to its smartphone portfolio.

In its announcement, Samsung highlighted the metal and slim design of the phones. Previous Samsung handsets have often come in plastic casings, a design choice that has become a frequent complaint among critics as rival vendors including Apple and HTC have incorporated aluminum into their flagship devices.

But now even Chinese vendors are making phones with sleek metal frames, and eating away at Samsung's market share in the country.

Once, the Korean electronics giant had consistently led the Chinese market as its biggest smartphone vendor. But in this year's second quarter it was ranked fifth, behind four Chinese companies, including Lenovo and Xiaomi, according to research firm IDC.

IDC is still working on finalizing its third quarter smartphone market data for China. But globally Samsung's market share dipped during the period, while Xiaomi rose to become the world's third largest smartphone vendor on strong sales in China.

Samsung's earnings have also taken a hit. In this year's third quarter, the Korean company's operating profit from its mobile devices division fell year-over-year by 74 percent.

To re-energize it's smartphone business, Samsung said on Thursday it plans to focus more on developing less expensive phones, and using better materials such as metal frames in its high-end devices.

Both the Galaxy A5 and the Galaxy A3, built with metal casings, seem to reflect those plans. The Galaxy A5 is the thinner of the two at 6.7 mm, and has 4G connectivity, in addition to a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, a 5.0 high-definition Super AMOLED screen, and a 13-megapixel rear camera. It has 16GB of internal storage, a micro SD slot for more memory, and 2GB of RAM, along with a 2,300 mAh battery.

The Galaxy A3 has lesser specs, including a smaller 4.5-inch display with a 960 by 540 screen resolution. It still comes with a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, but has a rear-facing 8-megapixel camera, 1GB of RAM, and a 1,900 mAh battery.

Both run Android 4.4 and have a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

China is the world's largest smartphone market, making it an important arena for Samsung to compete in. But increasingly, Chinese vendors are releasing more and more affordable devices, undercutting Samsung, which has historically tried to command a premium price on its products, said Bryan Ma an IDC analyst.

Among those Chinese vendors threatening Samsung is Xiaomi, which announced its newest flagship phone, the Mi 4, in July. The phone has a metal frame, a 5-inch HD screen, 3GB of RAM and a 3080 mAh battery, all for the starting price of only 1999 yuan (US$326), or less than half of what it takes to buy Samsung's Galaxy S5 in China.

By using metal unibody designs, Samsung's new A5 and A3 phones will at least offer more flash than its previous devices, Ma said. But the company will probably have to do more than compete only on price to beat its rivals in China.

Xiaomi, for example, not only offers affordable phones, but has built up a large and loyal fan base by engaging with customers through its online activities, Ma said. "They have a near religious following that constantly gives them feedback. Does Samsung have that emotional punch?" he said. "Just putting out a cheaper phone is one of the many ingredients you need."

Samsung did not disclose the other markets where the phones would be available from November.

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FCC's Wheeler said to mull hybrid approach to net neutrality

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission appears set to reclassify broadband so that it comes under the agency's authority, but without explicitly prohibiting special access deals between broadband and content companies, according to a news report.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is mulling this hybrid answer to the knotty "net neutrality" issue, and his proposal would still require a vote of the full five-member commission, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Broadband providers may also challenge in court the move to give the FCC more authority.

Supporters of the principle of equal access to all Internet traffic have pressed the FCC to reclassify broadband as common carrier under the Communications Act. Title II of the Act already defines telephone companies as common carriers, and requires them to deliver service at "just and reasonable" rates and interconnect with each other.

By extending its authority, the FCC would keep residual rights to block any deal it considers uncompetitive, the Journal said.

The FCC adopted in 2010 the Open Internet Order, which prohibited broadband providers from blocking or unreasonably discriminating against content providers or applications for network access.

The net neutrality issue came to the forefront in January this year after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit largely overruled the Open Internet Order in a lawsuit brought by Verizon. The court said the FCC has "general authority" to regulate how broadband providers deal with network traffic under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which deals with promoting innovation and competition.

Wheeler proposed in May a plan that would allow "commercially reasonable" traffic management, but would not reclassify broadband.

Under the new plan said to be under consideration by the FCC chief, the back-end broadband service, through which broadband providers serve as a route for websites to distribute content, would be classified as a common carrier to give the FCC the authority to monitor agreements between content and broadband providers, WSJ said.

The FCC could not be immediately reached for comment.

The plan is, however, likely to face legal challenges. In a submission Wednesday to the FCC earlier this week, Verizon warned that "any effort to reclassify broadband Internet access service would have significant legal vulnerabilities." Supporters of the Title II route to resolve the current debate have assumed that the FCC has the broad authority simply to declare broadband Internet access service to be a common carrier telecommunications service, it added.

U.S. lawmakers have also looked at the various options available to the FCC to ensure net neutrality, some of which are similar to the one said to be under consideration by Wheeler.

Representative Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat, wrote to the FCC earlier this month, suggesting a "light-touch" reclassification plan, that would not enforce the entirety of Title II regulations, but would at the minimum enforce a section which makes "any unjust or unreasonable discrimination" unlawful.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy wrote this month letters to Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Charter Communications, asking them to take a stand against fast lanes on the Internet. "Allowing the Internet to become a two-tiered system of 'haves' and 'have-nots,' controlled by a small number of corporate gatekeepers, would destroy everything that has made it one of the greatest innovations in human history," the Vermont Democrat wrote.

Verizon said in a public response Wednesday that it "is on record numerous times as saying that it has no plans to undertake the hypothetical 'paid prioritization' business model." The FCC has authority under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act to ban forms of paid prioritization that it believes could be harmful to competition or consumers, it added. Comcast and AT&T are also reported to have promised in replies to Leahy not to have Internet fast lanes.

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Microsoft enters smartwatch market with $200 Microsoft Band

Wednesday night Microsoft confirmed what we all expected—that it too, has a smartwatch that it wants you to wear 24/7, for work and for play, called the Microsoft Band.

Looking as much like a hospital bracelet as anything else, the $200 Microsoft Band features a rectangular, 320 x106 TFT display that hovers over your wrist. Sensors—a continuous optical heart monitor, GPS, UV sensor, and more—track your activity while on the move and at rest, and send the data to what Microsoft calls the Intelligence Engine, aka Cortana's little brother. The Band is then designed to work with third-party apps developers, including MyFitnessPal, RunKeeper, and Starbucks—which has developed a "payment" app of sorts.

In all, Microsoft is calling the Band its flagship device of Microsoft Health, a reboot of sorts for a health initiative it tried to establish with products like HealthVault. If you choose, you can store the data the Band collects in HealthVault and share it with your medical provider. Otherwise, Microsoft sees the Band, and Health, as a new way to collect data about you that it can use to improve your day.

Microsoft

Microsoft hopes its Microosft Band is equally adept for work and play.

How? Initially, Microsoft sees the Intelligence Engine as supplying suggestions on how long to recover from a workout, for example. Over time, the Engine will apparently be able to comment on whether eating breakfast will make you run faster and more effectively. It's unclear how the Engine will feed data into Cortana, but she's there: you'll be able to ask Microsoft's digital assistant to add calendar entries, for example, or dictate a text. And, of course, the Band will notify you about upcoming appointments, as your Windows Phone already does.

"Imagine you've set the goal that you want to get fit and lose weight as part of your exercise routine," Zulfi Alam, general manager  of Personal Devices at Microsoft, said in a statement. "Based on your burn rate and exercise over one week, we will soon be able to auto-suggest a customized workout plan for you. As you follow that plan – or if you don't follow the plan – our technology will continue to adjust to give you the best outward-looking plan, like a real coach would do."

Why this matters: A number of fitness bands already track your activity, even sleep. Fewer still, though, deliver messages calendar invites. And, barely any smartwatches beyond the Big Three—Apple, Google, and now Microsoft—provide any intelligence that helps you anticipate and plan your day. Microsoft's Intelligence Engine and Cortana appear to be the pair of intelligent technologies that Microsoft hopes will inspire you to plunk down $200, rather than opt for the aesthetics of the Apple Watch or Google's ecosystem.

But Band isn't Microsoft exclusive: apps will allow it to work with Apple iPhones (the iPhone 4S, 5, 5C, 5S, 6, 6 Plus running iOS 7.1 or later), Android (4.3 or 4.4) and Windows Phones (with the Windows Phone 8.1 Update). Those apps leaked out earlier on Wednesday.

Microsoft

The Microsoft Band talks to Windows Phone, iOS, and Android.

Microsoft promises that the Band will last about 48 hours on a single charge, with functions like GPS lowering that somewhat. It will charge in about an hour and a half. Unfortunately, it's not waterproof, so swimmers will have to look elsewhere. But it will repel "splashes" and will work from 14 degrees up through 104 degrees.

Specifically, the Band will include an optical heart rate sensor, a 3-axis gyrometer, GPS, ambient light sensor, skin temperature sensor, an ultraviolet light sensor, a galvanic skin sensor, and a capacitive sensor. The watch will monitor your heart rate 24/7, and assess whether you've been sleeping well.

The band will record data without a data connection, then beam it your phone via Bluetooth. It won't make calls, but it will flash messages, emails, and even Facebook posts and Twitter tweets. And, of course, there's a microphone, to trigger Cortana. There's no speaker, however, so Cortana's information will be passed along via the screen.

Microsoft

A small numer of app developers have signed on to support the Microsoft Band. Here is the Starbucks app.

For that matter, Microsoft seems to want you to wear the Band with the screen hovering over the inside of your wrist. Whether that's a limitation of the sensors or a design aesthetic remains to be seen.

Naturally, Microsoft hopes that the Band itself will become a platform, with third-party app developers coming together to add to its own capabilities. In addition to the Starbucks app—you can tell the Band to display your Starbucks card info, which can be scanned—Microsoft has struck partnerships with MyFitnessPal, MapMyFitness, RunKeeper, and Gold's Gym. Gold's even will construct custom workouts, which Microsoft hopes the Band will be able to adapt as it learns more about you. 

All in all, you'll find a lot of crossover between the features the Band offers and what other fitness bands and smartwatches offer. But the $200 Band is also available now, in three different sizes to fit different wrists. Microsoft also seems to be taking a page from Google in that it's promising that the Band will improve over time, specifically as it learns more about you.

With the Microsoft Band, Microsoft appears to want to play seriously in the health market, while also providing a tool for your workday. It remains to be seen, however, whether Microsoft will leverage its other technologies—its Xbox game console comes to mind—to enhance its capabilities further. On paper, however, the Band certainly appears to be in the lead pack of smartwatches.

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Samsung eyes cheaper smartphones as profit plunges

Samsung plans to focus on cheaper smartphones and flexible displays for high-end phones after its third-quarter profit plummeted by nearly 50 percent amid intense competition from Chinese rivals making low-cost handsets.

The low-end smartphone market is still growing rapidly, and the company aims to exploit the opportunity by improving cost competitiveness, said Kim Hyun-joon, the head of the company's mobile communications segment said during an earnings conference call on Thursday in Seoul. Samsung also aims to differentiate its high-end products with flexible displays and new materials such as metal frames.

The world's largest smartphone maker saw its market share drop to 23.8 percent in the third quarter from 32.5 percent a year ago, while Xiaomi rose to the third place after second-ranked Apple, according to IDC.

Samsung's net income fell 49 percent to 4.2 trillion Korean won (US$4 billion) in the July-to-September period from 8.2 trillion won a year ago. Operating profit dropped 60 percent to 4.1 trillion won compared with 10.2 trillion won a year ago. Revenue was 47.45 trillion won, in line with an earlier guidance report.

"Tough competition leaves some uncertainties in our smartphone business for the Q4 earnings," Robert Yi, Samsung's head of investor relations, said during the earnings conference.

Samsung sold 102 million handsets and 10 million tablets in the quarter, and a similar level of shipments is expected in the fourth quarter, Yi said. Samsung shipped 79.2 million smartphones in the period, according to Strategy Analytics.

"Samsung continues to face tough competition from Apple at the higher-end of the smartphone market, from Xiaomi and Huawei in the middle-tiers, and from Lenovo and others at the entry level," Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, wrote in an email.

Korean rival LG, the world's fourth-biggest smartphone vendor, sold a record 16.8 million devices in the quarter, taking a 5 percent global share, according to Strategy Analytics. Brisk demand for LG's flagship G3 phone boosted overall shipments in the third quarter, LG said.

Analysts earlier noted that an estimated inventory of 40 million Galaxy smartphones in sales channels is worrisome as it is an indication of the growing appeal of rival, high quality Android devices on the market.

"The smartphone market is maturing globally, and it is undeniable that Samsung smartphone's competitiveness has eroded to some degree," Do Hyun-woo, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities, wrote in a research note. Samsung's strategy of targeting the mid- and low-tier segment is promising and the market has expectations for its flexible displays, Do added.

Samsung's semiconductor business was one ray of light in the earnings results as memory chip sales rose about 24 percent to 7.9 trillion won in the quarter from a year earlier. Samsung said early this month it would invest about $15 billion to build a chip manufacturing plant in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul.

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Nintendo targets new health business with sleep sensor

Nintendo has been stimulating people with video games for decades, but now it wants to help them sleep better.

The Japanese gaming giant on Thursday gave a few details of its plan to enter the healthcare business with a device that can sense how well users sleep.

The Quality of Life (QOL) Sensor sits by a user's bedside and monitors body movements, heart rate and breathing via radio waves. The non-contact unit then sends the data it gathers to cloud-based servers for analysis. Users can then access results that show their sleep and fatigue levels.

The system will also automatically make recommendations such as getting more exercise or changing one's diet. The information would be made available on "smart devices," Nintendo said, without elaborating whether that would include smartphones. However, dedicated video game systems could also be used to improve users' quality of life, it said.

"Fatigue and sleep are themes that are rather hard to visualize in more objective ways," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told a management policy meeting. "At Nintendo, we believe that if we could visualize them, there would be great potential for many people regardless of age, gender, language or culture."

The company is partnering with ResMed, a U.S.-based manufacturer of machines to help treat sleep apnea, to help represent sleep and fatigue data in a meaningful way for users.

While it won't be available until 2016, the QOL Sensor would be part of a services-based health business that Nintendo hopes could be even larger than its gaming empire, which has drawn criticism for failing to embrace the popularity of smartphone gaming over traditional consoles.

Nintendo suggested its games and QOL businesses could benefit from synergies such as making health monitoring enjoyable.

"We have various kinds of know-how in making experiences fun and something that users want to continue, so we'd like to put efforts into this," a Nintendo spokesman said.

On Wednesday, the 125-year-old Kyoto-based company reported a surprising net profit of ¥14.3 billion (US$132 million) for the six months to Sept. 30, up from a profit of ¥600 million a year earlier.

It attributed the strong performance to the global rollout of "Mario Kart 8" and improved sales of its Wii U console, leaving unchanged its forecast from May that sees a net profit of ¥20 billion for the year to March 31, 2015.

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China's Xiaomi defends itself from Apple copycat claims

Facing claims that the company lifts too much from Apple, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi defended its design philosophy and said the whole industry is constantly innovating on the ideas of the competition.

"Our designers, our engineers, are inspired by great products and by great design out there. And frankly who in today's world isn't?" Xiaomi vice president Hugo Barra said on Tuesday.

Barra made the comment while speaking at The Wall Street Journal's technology conference, where he added, "Point me to a product in our industry, a new product that came out that had completely unique design language. You're not going to be able to find one."

Xiaomi, which began selling Android smartphones in China three years ago, has quickly risen to become one of the country's top handset makers, and is already embarking on a global expansion.

But the company has continually faced criticism that it steals ideas from Apple, with some in the media dubbing it the "Apple of China." Xiaomi's newest handset, for example, has a similar exterior design to Apple's previous iPhones.

Earlier this month, Apple's design head Jonathan Ive was asked his thoughts on Xiaomi, and how the company's products are similar to Apple. "I don't see it as flattery, I'm just talking about this issue in general. I actually see it as theft," he said.

"The first thing I think isn't, oh that was flattering," he said, adding, "I think it's really straight forward. It really is theft and it's lazy. And I don't think it's OK at all."

On Tuesday, Xiaomi's Barra said the Chinese company admired Apple's products and went as far to call the iPhone 6, "the most beautiful smartphone ever built."

"I'm a huge Apple fan, Apple is the world's design mecca," he said. But he added that the U.S. tech giant also lifts ideas from competitors, including those used in HTC products and Google's Android OS.

"I think it's fascinating that Apple took existing ideas that were very good, added their twist of innovation on top, and in many cases they actually made those ideas better," Barra said.

"So this idea of building upon great ideas and adding a twist of innovation is what they do. It's what we do," he added.

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Ambulance drones could bring defibrillators in minutes

Someone has collapsed on the ground from cardiac arrest and there's no defibrillator around. What to do? Summon an ambulance drone.

A graduate student at Delft University of Technology in Netherlands has created a prototype drone that can autonomously navigate to a location in minutes and deliver a defibrillator, a device that can help reestablish normal heart rhythm.

Product engineering student Alec Momont of the university's Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering created the drone, which has three rotors and an on-board defibrillator.

The drone would basically be like a mobile version of an automated external defibrillator (AED), which are lightweight, portable, battery-operated devices often found in shopping malls, transport stations and convention centers.

The prototype also has a webcam so that people on the scene of a cardiac arrest can communicate with emergency personnel and follow instructions about how to care for the patient.

The 4kg drone has a carbon-fiber frame and 3D-printed micro-structures. It can navigate via GPS and finds its way to a location using a caller's mobile phone signal. It can fly about 100 kilometers per hour and is able to carry another 4kg worth of payload.

The main merit of the prototype is that by flying over roads, it could get life-saving equipment to a patient before emergency services arrive when every minute counts, according to the university.

"The ambulance drone can get a defibrillator to a patient inside a 12 square km zone within one minute," Momont said in a release. "This response speed increases the chance of survival following a cardiac arrest from 8 percent to 80 percent."

A YouTube video shows a dramatisation of how the drone would be used, with a woman picking it up at the entrance to a building where her father has collapsed.

The drones would cost 15,000 euros (US$19,074) each and could help treat some of the roughly 800,000 people who suffer cardiac arrest in the EU every year, according to Momont.

One obstacle to implementation is that Dutch law currently forbids autonomous drones. Another is that the device's ability to avoid obstacles in its path must be improved.

Still, Momont believes the machines could be helping people within five years and is working with partners including Ghent University Hospital and the Amsterdam Ambulance Service.

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Ruckus hopes to raise a rumpus in the small-business Wi-Fi market

Very small businesses—on the order of 1 to 10 employees—don't have IT departments to manage their network infrastructure. Responsibility for tech support typically rests with that one employee who has just enough tech savvy to get by. And when you're talking sole proprietorship, that person is often you, the proprietor. So you buy consumer networking gear because it's inexpensive, it's widely available, and it's easy to install.

Ruckus thinks it has a better solution for you. It's introducing an all-new series of Wi-Fi products under the Xclaim brand that it says will bridge the gap between complex, high-priced enterprise network equipment and simple, low-cost consumer gear.

Ruckus also developed an app called Harmony to make it easier for non-techies to set up and manage a network. Harmony includes a wizard-driven setup routine, it reports on the access point's health, and it provides real-time stats on the entire network's performance. The free app is available now for iPhone and Android smartphones, and Ruckus is working on a version for the iPad.

Ruckus

Ruckus developed a smartphone app to help users install, configure, and manage its Xclaim Wi-Fi access points.

There are currently four products in the Xclaim line: three indoor access points and one outdoor model. These are all 2x2 models, meaning they support two spatial streams for transmitting and two for receiving. All four support IEEE 802.3af power-over-ethernet, so you don't need an AC outlet near where you install them.

Ruckus includes a power injector in the box, which you insert between the router and the ethernet cable that connects it to the wireless access point. The injector uses the same Ethernet cable to carry the electricity the AP needs to operate. That eliminates the need for a wall wart at the AP, and a surge protector to protect it from power spikes.

The Ruckus Xclaim Xi-1, $89, is a selectable dual-band 802.11n AP ("selectable" means it will operate on either the 2.4- or the 5GHz frequency band, but not both at the same time). The $149 Xclaim Xi-2 is an actual dual-band 802.11n wireless AP, so it can support discrete wireless networks on both the 2.4- and 5GHz bands simultaneously. The $199 Xclaim Xi3 moves up to the faster 802.11ac standard and also operates discrete networks on both the 2.4- and 5GHz bands. The final AP in the Xclaim lineup, the $299 Xo-1, is a weatherized dual-band 802.11ac model designed for outdoor use.

Ruckus

The Xclaim Xo-1 802.11ac Wi-Fi access point is enclosed in a weatherized enclosure to protect it from the elements. 

If you decide to buy an Xclaim product, don't toss your existing router—consumer or otherwise—on the scrap heap. The lineup announced today includes only wireless access points (APs). You'll still need a router to share your Internet connection among several devices, to direct traffic on your network, and to perform the other functions that a router handles. If you're using an integrated router/gateway provided by your Internet service provider, you'll just need to turn off its wireless function before connecting an Xclaim AP to it.

Xclaim-series access points can be purchased from online retailers, from a limited number of value-added resellers (VARs), or directly from Ruckus. Ruckus expects some Internet service providers might also be interested in reselling the APs to their customers.

Tech support will be available through online forums, but Ruckus has no plans to offer telephone tech support. VARs would also provide limited tech support to their own customers. Ruckus offers two-year warranties on the indoor models and a one-year warranty on the outdoor AP.

How do you manage your small-business network today? Are you using consumer-class gear or something more robust? Do you handle your IT needs, do you have an IT person on staff, or do you have a contractor handle the job? Share your thoughts in the comments section, below.

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Microsoft opens Office 365 to programmers

Extending Office 365 functionality to third-party developers, Microsoft has exposed a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) so other companies can add features and capabilities to the online productivity service.

The company announced the new functionality at the TechEd Europe conference, held this week in Barcelona.

The APIs are a way for third-party programs to access the information and capabilities of the online office suite, including those for user mail, files, calendar and contacts.

Microsoft is "clearly trying to keep Office front and center in the new world of mobile devices," wrote Al Hilwa, program director for software development research at IDC. "The approach of moving to APIs is the right strategy for providing extensibility to services like Office 365 in the era of cloud. I would expect that they will keep building on these APIs over time, but they are handling the most important areas in this wave, which relate to email integration."

Microsoft estimated that 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies are using Office 365 in some form. The company holds about 450 petabytes of information from all of the service's users.

The APIs could be used in a wide variety of ways, Microsoft said. For example, an app for making travel reservations could automatically place the user's itinerary in his or her calendar. A CRM (customer relationship management) app could link its sales information directly to the salesperson's email or files. The APIs are exposed through a REST (Representational State Transfer) protocol.

One early user of the APIs will be cloud service broker IFTTT (If This, Then That), which is used to connect separate cloud services into workflows. Already, the service connects 130 services for its users and plans to hook in Office 365 functionality in the coming weeks.

Over time, Microsoft will offer additional APIs, including those for updating tasks and Yammer activity.

To help developers get started, Microsoft Open Technologies, a subsidiary of Microsoft, has released new Visual Studio software development kits (SDKs) for both Android and the Apple iOS devices. The company has also posted online training for the APIs.

In addition to exposing the APIs, Microsoft has made room on the Office 365 app launcher for new third-party tools. That will allow new third-party apps to appear alongside Microsoft tools, such as Outlook, Yammer or OneDrive. Microsoft has already started working with third parties, including project management service SmartSheet, and authentication service provider DocuSign, to bring their applications to the launcher.

Microsoft has already made some headway in getting developers to add functions to its products and services. Between Office 365 and SharePoint, more than 3.4 million developers have found ways to extend Microsoft software, according to the company. PayPal, for instance, has developed software that allows its users to issue invoices from within Excel. Software provider Poll Everywhere developed a way to incorporate audience feedback directly into PowerPoint presentations.

As an online service, Office 365 acts as both an online extension to the on-premise version of Microsoft Office and a full-fledged collaboration and productivity suite, including email, calendaring, file storage, document sharing and other features.

At TechEd Europe, Microsoft made a number of other announcements around its Azure cloud service and its mobile device management offerings.

For Azure, the company previewed a service, called Azure Batch, that allows customers to easily schedule jobs that may involve thousands of compute nodes. Another service, called Azure Automation, was designed to automate many administrative tasks needed to run complex jobs in Azure that are now done by hand. The company has also stood up an anti-malware service to protect virtual machines from wrongdoing. An update to the Azure Active Directory will allow organizations to make their on-premise applications available to external users.

Microsoft has also updated Intune, a service to help small businesses manage computers and mobile devices. It can now control how users deploy Office 365 on their own devices, as well as control mobile Office apps that the organizations construct themselves. In the first quarter of 2015, Office 365 will also come with some mobile device management (MDM) capabilities, allowing administrators, for example, to wipe corporate data from an employee device.

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Microsoft opens up Office 365 APIs to other platforms, including Android

There's nothing wrong with using more than one platform. That's the message Microsoft is preaching as it opens up its vast library of Office 365 APIs to Windows, iOS, Android, and web developers.

"Today, we're enhancing the opportunity for developers with Office 365, through new APIs for mail, files, calendar and contacts," Microsoft wrote in its official press release. "These new robust, REST-based APIs empower all developers to leverage more than 400 Petabytes of data and popular services across Office 365 in any application. From a travel reservation app that connects to Office 365 calendars and contacts, to a sales automation app that fully integrates with Office 365 mail and files."

Interested developers can check out the official Office Dev Center or Microsoft's GitHub repository.

Why this matters: For Microsoft, this is simple business strategy. There's no point in keeping popular services tied to the Windows platform if that means sacrificing potential users. It's also crucial to keep current Office users happy, lest they stray to other productivity platforms, like Google's revamped document apps.

"We have millions and millions of users in Office 365, but we're noticing these users are becoming more mobile," Chris Johnson, group product marketing manager for Office 365, told me over the phone last week. Those users are also flocking to other mobile platforms—like Android—so Microsoft likely figured that if it can't get the masses to jump on board Windows Phones and Surface tablets, it can at least make it easier for Android and iOS users to use Office 365.

Microsoft

Perhaps the most exciting part of Microsoft opening up the Office 365 APIs—at least for me, personally—is the possibility for better integration with apps like IFTTT. "They'll be releasing a channel in the next couple of weeks to create recipes that dig into office 365," said Johnson.

IFTTT will become compatible with more than 130 Office 365 services, including mail, contacts, calendar, and files. This will make it possible for me to create an Android Wear alert that pops up on my watch any time I receive an email from my editors. The integration could also sync a calendar event from my Office 365 mail account to a shared Google Calendar.

The Office 365 channels in IFTTT will go live in the next few weeks.

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Tim Cook to explore tie-up with China's Alibaba on Apple Pay

Apple is eyeing a possible partnership with China's biggest e-commerce player Alibaba Group that could help bring the company's Apple Pay service to the country.

"We're going to talk about getting married later this week," said Apple CEO Tim Cook at the The Wall Street Journal's technology conference on Monday.

Cook made the comment after he was asked by the moderator about a possible "marriage" between Apple and Alibaba's Alipay, an online payment service from China with 300 million registered users.

Cook later said he admired Alibaba's founder Jack Ma, and added, "If we can find some areas of common space, I love it. I love partnering with people like that."

Ma, who also spoke at the conference, said he too hoped the companies could partner, according to The Wall Street Journal's live blog of the event.

Last week Cook was in China, where he told a state-run publication that he wanted to bring Apple's new mobile payment system to the country.

"I'm convinced there will be enough people that want to use it. It's going to be successful," Cook said in the interview with Xinhua New Agency.

To make it happen, Apple will have to find partners in China, just as it has in the U.S., where Apple Pay launched last week.

The system lets registered users make payments with their iPhone 6 devices at stores equipped with NFC (near-field communication) readers. In the U.S., Apple has partnered with companies including Visa, MasterCard, banks and retailers including McDonalds, Walgreens and Nike.

In China, Alibaba has also been working to promote mobile payments with its affiliated Alipay service. Alipay Wallet, a mobile app, also lets users make payments with their phone to buy goods at shopping malls and convenience stores. It has 190 million annual active users.

China is Apple's second biggest market behind the U.S. But Cook has said the country will eventually grow to become the company's largest market one day. Over the next two years, Apple plans on adding 25 new company stores in China, Cook said in his interview with Xinhua.

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Tor Project flags Russian 'exit node' server for delivering malware

The Tor Project has flagged a server in Russia after a security researcher found it slipped in malware when users were downloading files.

Tor is short for The Onion Router, which is software that offers users a greater degree of privacy when browsing the Internet by routing traffic through a network of worldwide servers. The system is widely used by people who want to conceal their real IP address and mask their web browsing.

The suspicious server was an "exit node" for Tor, which is the last server in the winding chain used to direct web browsing traffic to its destination.

Roger Dingledine, Tor Project's project leader and director, wrote the Russian server has been labeled a bad exit node, which should mean Tor clients will avoid using the server.

The Russian server was found by Josh Pitts, who does penetration testing and security assessments with Leviathan Security Group. He wrote he wanted to find out how common it was to find attackers modifying the binaries of legitimate code in order to deliver malware.

Binaries from large software companies have digital signatures that can be verified to make sure the code hasn't been modified. But Pitts wrote most code isn't signed, and even further, most don't employ TLS (Transport Layer Security) during downloading. TLS is the successor to SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), which encrypts connections between a client and a server.

He suspected attackers were "patching" binaries during man-in-the-middle attacks and took a look at more than 1,110 Tor exit nodes.

Pitts only found one Tor exit node that was patching binaries. The node would modify only uncompressed portable executables, he wrote.

"This does not mean that other nodes on the Tor network are not patching binaries; I may not have caught them, or they may be waiting to patch only a small set of binaries," he wrote.

The broad lesson for users is that they should be wary of downloading code that is not protected by SSL/TLS, even if the binary itself is digitally signed, Pitts wrote.

"All people, but especially those in countries hostile to 'Internet freedom,' as well as those using Tor anywhere, should be wary of downloading binaries hosted in the clear—and all users should have a way of checking hashes and signatures out of band prior to executing the binary," he wrote.

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Twitter keeps alive Twitpic domain and photo archive

Twitter will keep alive the domain and photo archive of Twitpic, which was set to shut down on Saturday, the failed image-sharing website said.

The deal gives users continued access to their photos and other data on Twitpic, but it isn't clear for how long.

Twitpic founder Noah Everett wrote in a blog post Saturday that he was happy to announce his company "reached an agreement with Twitter to give them the Twitpic domain and photo archive, thus keeping the photos and links alive for the time being."

The Twitpic service let people share their images on Twitter, but lost its relevance as Twitter made it easier to upload photos directly.

The company said earlier this month it was shutting down on Saturday after a failed acquisition deal which was to prevent it from having to close. Everett said the acquisition had been prematurely announced as eventually "agreeable terms could not be met" with a potential buyer. Twitpic had said last month it would shut down after a trademark dispute with Twitter. "Unfortunately we do not have the resources to fend off a large company like Twitter to maintain our mark which we believe whole heartedly is rightfully ours," wrote Everett in September.

As Twitpic's user base consists of Twitter users, it made sense to keep the data with Twitter, Everett wrote Saturday. "Twitter shares our goal of protecting our users and this data," he added.

Twitpic's website will continue in a view-only mode and will not accept new photos and data. Users can still login to their profiles, delete content or Twitpic accounts, or export and download their content, Everett said. The iOS and Android apps have been pulled down from their app stores and will no longer be supported, he added.

Twitter could not be immediately reached for comment.

Internet archivists Archive Team said it had decided to make a full copy of Twitpic as it looks now, because it is unsure about the potential changes as a result of the agreement between Twitpic and Twitter.

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For big raises in IT, look to mobile, security, big data

IT salaries will remain mostly stagnant in 2015, except for workers with highly coveted skill sets, according to a report tracking IT salaries and skills demand in the coming years.

"When you look at the actual salaries, just speaking in general, what you see is a lot of highly paid positions. You don't see a lot of big increases," said Jack Cullen, president of IT staffing firm Modis, which presented this data in its 2015 IT salary guide. "Companies don't want to pay exorbitant rates. However, when they have a particular niche that's really hard to fill, they don't want to lose the right talent."

While pay increases for some technology jobs may be modest, these raises will "certainly be better than the normal pay increases that we are seeing in the job market," he said.

Smaller raises don't mean falling demand for IT workers. In fact, technology hiring through 2022 looks robust, Cullen said. The Modis report, citing U.S. government statistics, predicted an 18 percent annual growth rate in technology jobs and the creation of 685,000 technology jobs over the next eight years. By comparison, the growth rate for all other industries is projected at 10.8 percent.

Modis salary data shows that companies will give raises between 3 percent and 18 percent in 2015, depending on the person's skill level, Cullen said. The report noted that a company's size and location affect compensation.

It forecast hefty raises—and strong career growth—for IT careers involving security, big data and mobility.

IT security jobs have the highest projected growth rate, according to the report. By 2022, there will be a 37 increase in jobs in that field. The average base pay for security positions ranges from US$74,917 for a security administrator to $115,415 for a data security manager.

"There's such a concern of the cost of infraction that you are going to see this is an area where companies can't take a chance of not spending. They need to make sure that their data is protected," Cullen said.

Companies are especially concerned about securing mobile devices as more employees use personal tablets and smartphones for work tasks, so mobile security backgrounds will command higher salaries, he said.

Skills demand doesn't necessarily translate into higher salaries. Take Web application developers versed in .Net and Java, for example: The need for those programming skills will increase by 20 percent over the next eight years, according to the report. However, the salaries would "probably be more consistent to what they are today," Cullen said. The report lists $66,000 as the average salary for a Web developer, going up to as high as $85,000.

Jobs at lower end of the skills chain, such as network administration technicians, may see a pay increase that is only slightly more than the rate of inflation, Cullen said. Although those workers may leave for larger paychecks, employers are willing to accept a high turnover rate since "the feeling is, we can always find those people," he said.

One market with both strong growth potential and compensation is health IT, which has a projected value of $56.7 billion by 2017. Jobs in that sector include clinical systems trainer (average base salary: $66,710), HIPAA security analyst ($72,414) and clinical systems architect ($141,371), according to the report.

"Health IT is one of the fastest, most in-demand sectors. Compliance is critical, and penalties associated with noncompliance are very substantial, so there is going to be a continued ramp up on spending for companies involved with health IT," Cullen said. Other growth markets for IT jobs include the finance sector and small and medium-size businesses, he said.

IT jobs with increasing growth rates over the next eight years include project managers (15 percent), systems analysts (25 percent) and software developers (22 percent).

Many of those project management and business analyst roles may be filled by women, who are already taking an interest in these positions, Cullen said.

"Women are recognizing that a path to success on the business side does come from knowledge in the IT area," said Cullen. "You are seeing a lot of cross over from CIO to CEO levels now. So if you follow that path, you're seeing a large number of women looking for career opportunities in the IT sector."

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Wi-Fi Passpoint standard now knits together SF, San Jose, London

A partnership that lets Wi-Fi users get on free public networks in San Francisco and San Jose, California, with a one-time joining process now also covers a hotspot along the River Thames in London.

The cities at either end of Silicon Valley used the Wi-Fi Alliance's Passpoint specification to set up Wi-Fi roaming between their city-owned networks earlier this year. The technology lets residents and visitors set up a secure connection with either network and then automatically get on the other city's system whenever they enter its coverage area.

It's an arrangement that makes a lot of sense between the two cities: They're both home to major tech companies and are commuting distance apart. Adding in a river halfway around the world may seem like a stretch, but for travelers, the easy access to Wi-Fi across borders could be a nice convenience—and a sign of things to come.

The Thames network spans 44 kilometers (27 miles) of riverfront in the London area, with access points both along the shore and on ferries. Access to the network is included with free Wi-Fi that's bundled with broadband plans from carrier BT.

Passpoint is a standard for automating and securing most aspects of getting onto Wi-Fi networks. It can eliminate the need to enter a username or password to join a Passpoint Wi-Fi network, even the first time you get on. To join a network initially, users only have to use a one-time provisioning file. After that, they automatically get on that network and on those of all roaming partners.

A second release of the specification, introduced this month, is designed to make the initial joining process even simpler and more secure. There are more than 700 devices and infrastructure products certified for Passpoint, including iOS and Android devices.

Backers of Passpoint envision consumers moving from one Wi-Fi network to another wherever they go, in the same way they automatically roam among cellular carriers today. But Wi-Fi network operators are just beginning to activate the technology, which can require new or modified infrastructure. Worldwide, there are 12 live commercial deployments of the underlying technology, called Next Generation Hotspot, according to the Wireless Broadband Alliance.

The grouping of the Thames network with San Francisco's and San Jose's is no accident. All three networks use infrastructure from Ruckus Wireless and back-end technology from Global Reach, a Wi-Fi software and services company in London. But with Passpoint, networks that want to offer roaming among them don't all have to use the same vendors, according to the standard's supporters. San Francisco CIO Miguel Gamino says the city was approached by people from the Thames network and that other municipalities have also asked about joining in, Gamino said.

Using Passpoint across oceans and borders is no great technical feat, said Farpoint Group analyst Craig Mathias. But that doesn't mean universal free Wi-Fi will take the place of expensive cellular roaming.

"If we wanted to connect the whole world into Passpoint, we could," Mathias said. But where the technology is the same everywhere, the way services are packaged and paid for will vary, he said. Carriers, network operators and hotspot aggregators will continue to compete as they do now, sometimes with free access and sometimes with paid. "You'll see all kinds of hybrids," Mathias said.

One limitation of the roaming setup is that the fully streamlined user experience is only available on Apple iOS and OSX devices, according to Ruckus. Users can easily go from one network to another on some Samsung devices, too, but only those with SIM cards, said David Wright, technical director for Ruckus's carrier business. With non-SIM devices such as tablets, the process is more complicated. That's because OS support is still limited: Passpoint is included in iOS but not yet in Android or Windows, Wright said.

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Dreamfall: Chapters Episode One review: A long-awaited journey

It's been fifteen years since The Longest Journey came out, making it a pretty apt name for a series. A cult classic, The Longest Journey is regarded as one of the best point-and-click adventure games and best game stories of all time.In 2007 fans finally got a long-awaited sequel, known as Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, which wrapped up a few story threads from the original game while opening up even more questions.

And now, seven years and one successful Kickstarter campaign later, we finally get Dreamfall: Chapters, an episodic sequel that takes place immediately after the events of the 2007 game.

Was it worth the wait? Let's dig in.

What dreams are made of

Dreamfall: Chapters, like its immediate predecessor, is a third-person adventure game taking place in the dual worlds of Stark and Arcadia. Stark is a near-future reflection of our own world, heavy on science and technology, while Arcadia is a fantastical realm of magic.

In case you've forgotten the ending of the 2007 game, spoilers ahead: After discovering a global conspiracy to co-opt people's dreams, protagonist Zoe Castillo was put into a coma and left to die. April Ryan, star of the original Longest Journey, was killed. The third protagonist, Kian Alvade, was captured by his own men on charges of treason and left in a jail cell to await execution.

Yeah, The Longest Journey has never really been good at happy endings. That's part of what makes it so special—this is unapologetically an adventure game for adults. I mean, the first game (again, spoilers) leads you to believe that you're a long-awaited savior, that you're the key figure in the world's mythology, only to reveal in the last act that you were nothing but a side character the whole time. April Ryan is left with nothing, no purpose, as the game closes. It's bleak.

Dreamfall: Chapters opens with this bleakness. Zoe is still in a coma, April is still dead, and Kian still awaits execution. And while two of those things change, it remains to be seen whether they've changed for the better.

This is but the first episode of five, so it's a bit hard to get a feel for where everything's headed. The Longest Journey has never been a series content with the micro level, which is a bit funny because that's where it excels. The Longest Journey andDreamfallare fantastic at telling enormous, world-shifting epics, and I have no doubt another is in store for us with Dreamfall: Chapters.

But what makes this such a special series is the way it handles the mundane. Like The Longest Journey, Dreamfall: Chapters opens with...normality. Well, not really—there's an extended prologue/dream sequence at the beginning that aptly demonstrates how far the series has come graphically since 2007.

Once we've escaped that dream sequence, however, we're left literally at square one. Zoe awakens from her coma with no memory of the events in Dreamfall, and while we (the audience) know what transpired she's left to piece it back together. Or not.

As such, we're confronted with a Zoe Castillo who has a day life—a Zoe Castillo who goes to therapy, who delivers lunch to her boyfriend, who works a day job. While there are seeds of a much larger conspiracy to unravel, and while we know that inevitably the other shoe must drop (and drop with what I assume is a world-threatening bang), it's the way Red Thread and writer Ragnar Tornquist add life to liveliness to what should by all rights be boring that I find admirable.

I can't wait to watch things escalate, but I wasn't at all let down by this opening episode of Dreamfall: Chapters. It's slow and ponderous and you'll spend much of your time just wandering the city of Europolis, listening to random side-conversations (the magical realm of Arcadia barely makes an appearance), but it's a way of easing you into a world—of making this feel like a real place rather than Video Game City X—that I really admire. It dangles just enough out there to get you excited and then pulls back. The Longest Journey has never been one to show its cards quickly. Don't believe me? Go back and play the original point-and-click adventure.

What's disappointing is that we have to wait for the next chapter—the downfall of all episodic games. There's something to be said about the format in relation to a tale like Dreamfall, though. Already I've seen people going into forums and speculating about the end of this first chapter. It's almost like watching Lost when it aired, when fans dissected every frame and throwaway line for meaning.

And props to Red Thread for giving us a series of choices that are apparently world-shifting. The game borrows rather heavily from Telltale's school of adventure game design, to the extent that the screen flashes the same "BLANK will remember this" text after you make key decisions.

I was amazed by the breadth of those changes though, even in this first chapter. With one early choice you lock yourself out of an entire section of content, regardless of which path you take. That's Witcher 2 levels of gutsy, and is a drastically different approach than Telltale's "Illusion of Choice" style. For a series that's always played with notions of free will, of faith and rejection of faith, it's a bold extension of those themes into the actual layout of the narrative.

Bottom line

I completely understand if you wait until all five pieces of Dreamfall: Chapters are released. There are some bugs Red Thread needs to figure out (specifically in regards to performance and optimization) and I imagine it's hard to sell you on an initial chapter where literally nothing seems to happen if you're not already a fan.

But as hard as it is to explain, that's the charm of it. I honestly don't know if non-fans will ever want to play this game—Tornquist and Co. barely refresh your memory on the plot of the original Dreamfall, and I can imagine the dual-protagonist, dual-world structure makes very little sense if you haven't followed this series since its first iteration.

I have, though. I have no qualms about saying this is one of the best-written, best-voiced, and best-structured adventure series in all of gaming, and from this initial chapter I expect the same quality from Dreamfall: Chapters. If you haven't played The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, maybe check them out.

And if you have? Well, there's still four chapters to go, but as far as I can tell this is the sequel you've been awaiting for seven years.

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Court decision puts Uber on hold in Nevada (for a couple weeks, anyway)

Well, that didn't last long.

Uber launched its ridesharing service in Nevada Friday, but by Friday evening, a Carson City court ruling came down that prevented the company from doing business in the state until at least November 7, the Associated Press reports.

According to the AP, District Court Judge James Russell issued the ruling at the request of Nevada State Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto. And as you might expect, the issue all comes down to Uber not conforming to existing taxicab regulations. 

The story behind the story: Uber, Lyft, and other app-based ridesharing companies have run into regulatory issues in numerous regions around the world. In September, the district attorneys of San Francisco and Los Angeles threatened both Uber and Lyft with legal action "if they don't make major changes," according to SFGate.

The San Francisco Business Journal noted in June that cities across the US—such as Austin, Miami, Kansas City, Houston, and St. Louis, among others—have all taken issue with ridesharing services because they didn't meet existing regulations for taxi companies. 

According to the AP, a court hearing on the issue will take place November 6, presumably to decide what will happen next. In the meantime, drivers who offer Uber's services do so at their own risk: The AP notes that four Uber drivers who illegally offered rides had their cars impounded and "faced fines of up to $10,000."

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Nest acquires Revolv and immediately stops sales of one of the top smart-home hubs

So you bought a Revolv smart hub to manage your smart home. You obviously recognized a well-designed product. The only problem now is that Nest Labs saw the same potential. The folks who designed the world's most famous thermostat, since gobbled up by Google, have swallowed Revolv—and immediately stopped sales.

I was a bit gobsmacked when I saw the Revolv smart-home hub at CES last January. With this one device and a smartphone app, you could control just about any smart system in your home. The odd-looking device could control your home lighting, your door locks, and your programmable thermostat, but it could also speak to your Sonos mutli-room audio system.

The Revolv was able to do this because it was outfitted with enough radios to choke a horse. It connected to Wi-Fi, it spoke Z-Wave, and you could even program it using the IFTTT service. One of the few things it didn't have—Zigbee support—was in the works. Unfortunately, all the silicon to pull off that feat drove the price of the Revolv to a place many consumers weren't willing to go.

Say goodbye to Revolv. Nest has acquired the company and stopped sales of its excellent smart-home hub. 

Building a consumer device that could do all that, and creating a smartphone app that made it all easy to understand, is a daunting task. A task the Revolv team excelled at. Nest Labs saw the potential and snapped up those human resources for its own purposes, but selling just a hub is apparently not part of its game plan. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but I hope the folks at Revolv were well rewarded for their efforts.

If you purchased a Revolv hub, a statement on the company's website indicates that service will continue for existing customers, but that no new Revolv hubs will be sold. The one-year warranty on existing products will also be honored, and customer support will continue to be available. Perhaps most importantly, any data collected by Revolv systems will remain subject to the Revolv privacy statement and—like Nest data—will be kept separate from Google.

The good news for smart-home enthusiasts is that deals like this prove the smart-home market is poised for tremendous growth. The connected home is no longer a fringe pursuit for propeller heads; it's about to go mainstream.

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Google makes a strategic move, crowns Sundar Pichai as head of product at Google

We have a saying around the Greenbot newsroom that the most exciting tech-centric news usually hits on Friday afternoons. Google just dropped a Friday afternoon news bomb.

Recode reports that Google CEO Larry Page has transferred leadership of all core Google products over to Sundar Pichai, who was formerly head of Android and Chrome OS. He will serve as Senior Vice President of all Google products and will manage a number of divisions, including business and operations, access and energy, Nest, Calico, Google X, corporate development, legal, finance, and business, which includes ad sales. YouTube is not included in the deal because CEO Susan Wojcicki will continue to run that division somewhat independently.

According to Recode's sources close to the situation, the move stems from Page's fear that Google's products will grow less innovative as the company ages. Thus, the move should help create "less of a bottleneck" so that Pichai can focus his attention fully on making those existing and future products turn heads. 

Why this matters: It may all sound like inside baseball from where you're sitting, but it's a critical move for Google and it may mean better Google products for you in the future. The consolidation of divisions under one leader will help the company unify its business across the board rather than have Android, Chrome, and the rest operate as individual entities. Because that's really frustrating when you're building an empire.

Google

Android's new motto is "Be together. Not the same." Seems to apply to Google's employee restructuring, too.

Android and Chrome OS have been somewhat rewired to work together seamlessly, anyway, and there's already been rumors afloat that Chrome OS and Android would eventually become one, so it isn't too farfetched to assume that this is the beginning of it all. What's unclear, however, is how Pichai's promotion will affect some of Google's perennially not-released products, like Google Glass.

For the most part, it seems that while Google's search and related ad business is what's effectively keeping the engines running, it's Android, Chrome OS, and the strong developer involvement behind that ecosystem that Google wants to leverage.

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Wi-Fi Passpoint standard now knits together SF, San Jose, London

A partnership that lets Wi-Fi users get on free public networks in San Francisco and San Jose, California, with a one-time joining process now also covers a hotspot along the River Thames in London.

The cities at either end of Silicon Valley used the Wi-Fi Alliance's Passpoint specification to set up Wi-Fi roaming between their city-owned networks earlier this year. The technology lets residents and visitors set up a secure connection with either network and then automatically get on the other city's system whenever they enter its coverage area.

It's an arrangement that makes a lot of sense between the two cities: They're both home to major tech companies and are commuting distance apart. Adding in a river halfway around the world may seem like a stretch, but for travelers, the easy access to Wi-Fi across borders could be a nice convenience—and a sign of things to come.

The Thames network spans 44 kilometers (27 miles) of riverfront in the London area, with access points both along the shore and on ferries. Access to the network is included with free Wi-Fi that's bundled with broadband plans from carrier BT.

Passpoint is a standard for automating and securing most aspects of getting onto Wi-Fi networks. It can eliminate the need to enter a username or password to join a Passpoint Wi-Fi network, even the first time you get on. To join a network initially, users only have to use a one-time provisioning file. After that, they automatically get on that network and on those of all roaming partners.

A second release of the specification, introduced this month, is designed to make the initial joining process even simpler and more secure. There are more than 700 devices and infrastructure products certified for Passpoint, including iOS and Android devices.

Backers of Passpoint envision consumers moving from one Wi-Fi network to another wherever they go, in the same way they automatically roam among cellular carriers today. But Wi-Fi network operators are just beginning to activate the technology, which can require new or modified infrastructure. Worldwide, there are 12 live commercial deployments of the underlying technology, called Next Generation Hotspot, according to the Wireless Broadband Alliance.

The grouping of the Thames network with San Francisco's and San Jose's is no accident. All three networks use infrastructure from Ruckus Wireless and back-end technology from Global Reach, a Wi-Fi software and services company in London. But with Passpoint, networks that want to offer roaming among them don't all have to use the same vendors, according to the standard's supporters. San Francisco CIO Miguel Gamino says the city was approached by people from the Thames network and that other municipalities have also asked about joining in, Gamino said.

Using Passpoint across oceans and borders is no great technical feat, said Farpoint Group analyst Craig Mathias. But that doesn't mean universal free Wi-Fi will take the place of expensive cellular roaming.

"If we wanted to connect the whole world into Passpoint, we could," Mathias said. But where the technology is the same everywhere, the way services are packaged and paid for will vary, he said. Carriers, network operators and hotspot aggregators will continue to compete as they do now, sometimes with free access and sometimes with paid. "You'll see all kinds of hybrids," Mathias said.

One limitation of the roaming setup is that the fully streamlined user experience is only available on Apple iOS and OSX devices, according to Ruckus. Users can easily go from one network to another on some Samsung devices, too, but only those with SIM cards, said David Wright, technical director for Ruckus's carrier business. With non-SIM devices such as tablets, the process is more complicated. That's because OS support is still limited: Passpoint is included in iOS but not yet in Android or Windows, Wright said.

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Three can't-miss deals on Intel 'Haswell' PCs

You know the drill. When the model year nears its end, new cars gets cheaper. The same is true of winter clothing when spring approaches, and it's equally true of computers when a new generation is on the horizon.

PCs with Intel's next-generation microprocessor, known as Broadwell, should be available early next year, so it's time for manufacturers to clear out some inventory. There are lots of PCs on sale today, but I'm focusing on machines with Intel's fourth-generation Haswell chips. They're powerful, energy efficient, and they're selling for well under list price—in some cases, hundreds of dollars less than list.

These three deals from Dell, and one from Lenovo, are all worth a look.

Dell is offering a great deal on its Latitude 15 3000 Series. You can get yours for just $669, or $268 off the list price. (That number does not include tax or shipping.) One thing I especially like about this deal is the fact that you can buy it with Windows 7. I don't know about you, but I want to avoid Windows 8 at all costs. The Latitude 15 3000 comes with an i5 Haswell processor, 4GB of memory and a 500GB solid-state drive. You can find it and a few other Dell deals on the company's website.

Lenovo is knocking $200 off the price of its Z50 with a 15.6 inch display, which means you'll pay $559. Like the Latitude, it comes with Intel's i5 Haswell, but it has more RAM (6GB). It has a 500GB hard drive, runs Windows 8.1 and comes with a useful complement of ports, including USB 3.0, HDMI-out, and a card reader. This deal likely won't last, so act fast if you're interested.

The Microsoft Store offers the Dell XPS 13 7144sLV Signature Edition Laptop for $1,199 with free shipping. It packs an Intel Haswell Core i7, 2GHz processor, a 256GB solid state drive, a 13.3-inch 1080p display, and it gets up to six hours of battery life, according to Dell.  

If you're looking for a convertible—not the kind you drive, but a laptop that doubles as a tablet—Dell's Venue 11 Pro 7000 is one option. It normally sells for $1,214, but it's on sale right now for $650. It comes with an Intel Core i5 processor, Windows 8.1 and a 128GB solid state drive. You can use it as a standard laptop, or disconnect the 10.8-inch HD screen and use it as a tablet.

If you don't need a PC right away, there are a few reasons to wait until next year. Broadwell systems will certainly be faster and more power-efficient. As we get closer to the holiday season there will be plenty more bargains. Another reason you might want to wait is the advent of Windows 10, which is expected in 2015. It will likely be a significant improvement over Windows 8.1, and it should look and feel a lot like the more familiar Windows 7—Start Screen and all.

However, if you need a PC now, all of these options are worth a good look.

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Adobe begins encrypting user data collected from Digital Editions app

Adobe Systems said Thursday it is now encrypting data it collects about certain ebooks after facing criticism earlier this month for not protecting the data.

The Digital Reader blog reported on Oct. 6 that Adobe's Digital Editions 4 software, used for downloading and reading ebooks, sent detailed logs to Adobe describing readers' activity.

Those logs were not sent using SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security), according to the blog. SSL/TLS encrypts data sent between a client and server, designated by "https" in a browser's URL bar.

In a note about Digital Editions posted Thursday, Adobe said it now periodically collects the data "using HTTPS." The change is made in Digital Editions versions 4.0.1 for Mac and Windows.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation contended that sending the data over plain text "undermines decades of efforts by libraries and bookstores to protect the privacy of their patrons and customers" even if Adobe's practice was a mistake.

Without encryption, the plain-text data could be intercepted and read using network analysis tools such as Wireshark if the data was sent to Adobe while a person was using, for example, a public Wi-Fi network.

Adobe maintains the data is necessary to abide by the DRM (digital rights management) restriction on content, which are imposed by publishers and distributors to protect works from piracy.

The data sent to Adobe includes the title and description of a book, the author, language it's written, the date of purchase or download, the distributor ID, the publisher's list price and ISBN (International Standard Book Number).

In some cases, Adobe may record how long a person reads a book, which is used for "metered" pricing models based on the actual time the content is read.

The company also collects other technical metrics, such as the IP address of the device downloading a book, a unique ID assigned to the specific applications being used at the time and a unique ID for the device.

Adobe said it doesn't collected any personally identifiable information, but may share "anonymous aggregated information with eBook providers to enable billing under the applicable pricing model." It said it doesn't collect information about content without DRM restrictions.

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Microsoft to continue using Nokia brand on entry-level phones

Microsoft will continue to sell low-end phones with the Nokia brand and has licensed the brand for these type of devices.

The company is meanwhile preparing to roll out its new Microsoft Lumia brand, Tuula Rytilä, senior vice president of marketing for phones at Microsoft, said in an interview posted late Thursday on the Conversations blog, which will also move to the Microsoft website.

"Our global and local websites are going through a transition as we speak and in the coming days our social channels will get a new name too—they will be called Microsoft Lumia," Rytilä said. "This work continues across our devices, packaging and retail, to name a few."

Microsoft completed in April this year the acquisition of Nokia's smartphone business for over US$7 billion.

Besides continuing to offer Nokia-branded entry-level phones like the Nokia 130, the company will continue to also sell and support Nokia Lumia smartphones that are in the market, such as the recently announced Lumia 830 and Lumia 730/735, Rytilä said. Nokia 130, a mobile phone that does not have an Internet connection or apps, was unveiled in August.

The executive said that Microsoft was looking forward to unveiling a Microsoft Lumia device soon, without giving a specific date. She described the change in brand as "a natural progression" as all devices that once came from Nokia now come from Microsoft.

The new Microsoft Lumia brand is likely to be aimed at clearing the confusion that arose from the continued use of the Nokia brand even as a company by the same name continues to operate, after the sale of the devices business to Microsoft. Nokia in Espoo, Finland, is now focused on networking gear, its Here navigation service and a technology development and licensing business.

Microsoft is likely to have decided to retain the Nokia brand for the low-end market as it "resonates with this segment of users," said Vishal Tripathi, a principal research analyst at Gartner.

The company could not be immediately reached for comment.

The transition to the new Microsoft Lumia brand was first announced on Nokia France's Facebook page.

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What Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg said in Mandarin that so impressed the Chinese

Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg stunned many Chinese on Thursday, not with a new Facebook feature, but because he spoke and answered questions in Mandarin for almost half an hour.

Zuckerberg gave a talk in Chinese at Tsinghua University on Wednesday, and later posted a recording of the event to his Facebook page. The video quickly spread online, generating much surprise and praise from local Internet users.

"Such an awesome person is learning Chinese, why is my own English so bad," wrote one user on Chinese social networking site Sina Weibo.

Zuckerberg spoke with a strong accent, but handled the language confidently enough to impress the Chinese. Increasingly, executives from the biggest tech companies in the world are visiting the country, but rarely do they speak in Mandarin, let alone for such a long period, or field questions from the audience.

However, Zuckerberg has been studying Chinese, something he mentioned as far back as 2010. During his talk at Tsinghua University, he discussed his interest in China, his future goals for Facebook, and even cracked a joke about his Mandarin language skills. Here are some takeaways:

Why he learned Chinese

"The first reason is my wife [Priscilla Chan] is Chinese. Her family speaks Chinese, and her grandmother only speaks Chinese," Zuckerberg said. "When Priscilla and I decided to get married, I told her grandmother using Chinese. She was really shocked."

His plans for his visit to China

"I think the students at Tsinghua University are very good. Facebook has over 140 alumni from Tsinghua," he said, adding. "Every year we come to China to hire from the best cities. Last month, we hired 20 Chinese students." Zuckerberg has visited China four times.

Advice for Chinese students wanting to create a startup

"The best companies are created not just because an innovator wanted to create a company. It's because the innovator wanted to change the world," Zuckerberg said.

Asked what the secret to his success was, Zuckerberg replied, "Most innovators will give up, but the best innovators do not. So believe in your mission. Don't give up. This is very important."

On China's tech scene

"I think China has many of the world's most innovative companies. Last night I ate with Xiaomi's Lei Jun," he said, referring to the CEO of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, which has quickly become one of the country's biggest handset makers.

"Xiaomi is a very innovative company. They have developed many different products very fast," Zuckerberg said. He also pointed to social networking products from Chinese Internet giant Tencent as another example, and said he was impressed with the e-commerce site Taobao from Alibaba Group.

On Facebook coming to China

The social networking site has been blocked in China since 2009, as part of the country's online censorship. Zuckerberg said Facebook has a growing business in the country by selling advertisements to Chinese companies.

"We are already in China. We help Chinese companies grow their international customers. They use Facebook ads to find new customers," he said. "For example, Lenovo is in Indonesia using Facebook ads to sell phones."

Zuckerberg's problems listening

Asked if his Chinese was better than that of his wife Priscilla, Zuckerberg said his listening skills were particularly poor. "My listening is very weak. One day, I asked her why is my listening in Chinese so bad. She told me, 'Your listening in English is also bad.'"

Facebook's upcoming goals

He pointed to three upcoming goals: connecting all of the world to the Internet, developing artificial intelligence, and creating more virtual reality products. Earlier this year, Facebook bought virtual reality headset maker Oculus VR for US$2 billion.

"Once everyone is using a mobile phone, I believe the next platform will be virtual reality. Oculus is the first product, but we hope to have many products," he said.

Following his talk, Internet users in China naturally asked when the Facebook website would enter the country. But Zuckerberg made no comment on it during the event. A Chinese official said he welcomed the site last year, but only if it followed the country's Internet regulations.

Not all of China's Internet users were quite as impressed with Zuckerberg's speech, with some commenting that he was hard to understand. But an Internet user named Lung Lei said most of what Zuckerberg said during his talk was spoken without any grammatical or usage mistakes, and he only need practice more on pronouncing his tones.

"Chinese is one of the hardest languages, but Zuckerberg is daring enough to take the challenge. Moreover, it's obvious he successfully overcame the challenge," he said. "By using China's mother language to communicate, I felt Zuckerberg was being more personal, and it pulled me in."

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Vietnam police hunt hackers behind mass outage

Vietnamese cybersecurity authorities are hunting hackers believed to be responsible for the country's biggest-ever online attack last week, according to the founder of a security website in Hanoi.

"This is the biggest cyber-attack ever in Vietnam, affecting the Vietnam security community," Tran Quang Chien of SecurityDaily.Net wrote in an email. "This was a targeted malicious attack."

The incident that began Oct. 13 saw the outage of multiple websites under Vietnam Communications (VCCorp), an Internet company in Vietnam that owns more than 20 websites such as news portal Dan Tri.

The news sites affiliated with VCCorp came back online, but some others took a number of days to recover. The outage was first described by VCCorp as a data center glitch.

Hackers used malware to erase all data in about 800 servers under VCCorp, according to Tran, who estimated the total damage from the attack at 10 billion Vietnamese dong (US$464,000).

The attack was more destructive than previous hacks in Vietnam, which tended to only deface sites or publish user information, he said.

Most affected websites in the Oct. 13 attack displayed the message "Data center is experiencing problems. Please come back later," according to Tuoitrenews, an online news portal.

In one example of the lingering effects of the attack, online payments website Sohapay.vn was for some time redirecting traffic to a blog containing defamatory statements about VCCorp, Tran said.

The VCCorp main website was not accessible on Thursday. The company did not respond to a request for more information.

VCCorp has a large ecosystem of online and mobile services in Vietnam, with products related to online content, e-commerce, social media, ad networks and mobile services, according to IDG Ventures Vietnam, which invested in the company in 2007.

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Microsoft to discontinue free Xbox Music streaming

Microsoft is withdrawing free streaming on Xbox Music from Dec. 1, citing the need to focus on its music purchase and subscription service.

The company is offering a free 30-day trial for users wanting to move to the paid service.

"Effective December 1, 2014, the free Xbox Music streaming feature currently available on Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and over the Internet will be discontinued in all countries where it is offered," Microsoft wrote on a support page.

The move will not affect music purchases on Xbox Music or MP3 files added to Xbox Music collections, according to a Microsoft FAQ. Users can also continue to view playlists or collections set up using the free streaming feature, but they can't listen to the music in those playlists or collections unless they sign up for the Xbox Music Pass or buy the music.

Microsoft rolled out Xbox Music in October 2012, first to Xbox 360 users around the world, and a little later to Windows 8 users.

The cloud-based music service was then touted as combining the best aspects of free-streaming radio, music subscription services and music purchasing options. It would free users from having to hop services when they wanted, for example, to buy music that they had just listened to on Internet radio. The free streaming service was ad-supported.

In Microsoft's FAQ about the retirement of free streaming, the company did not provide more information on why it had changed its mind on the free service, except for mentioning the need to emphasize on its paid services. At US$9.99 per month, Xbox Music offers ad-free streaming, syncing among devices, and offline listening on PC, tablet and phone.

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Symantec sees rise in high-traffic DDoS attacks

A type of distributed denial-of-service attack, DNS amplification, has risen sharply, according to new research from Symantec.

The security vendor said it saw a 183 percent increase in DNS (Domain Name System) amplification attacks from January through August, which abuse recursive DNS resolvers.

Recursive DNS resolvers look up a domain name and return an IP address, which can be called into a browser.

But these types of servers return a large amount of data. Attackers abuse them by making requests but substituting the IP address of their victims.

That directs a large amount of data to the victims, consuming up to 50 times more bandwidth, making it an "amplification" attack.

The problem is that there are 28 million open DNS resolvers, which should be locked down and secured, wrote Symantec's Candid Wueest, a threat researcher, in a report.

"Until this problem is addressed, DNS reflection attacks will continue to be used for large DDoS attacks," he wrote. "In the past, we have also noticed that some attackers set up their own deliberately vulnerable DNS servers and then misused them for reflection attacks."

DDoS attack continue to be a problem, as a variety of groups—from hackers to extortionists—use the method to punish or embarrass companies and organizations.

Most of the DDoS attack traffic for the first half of this year came from India at 26 percent, with the next highest source being the U.S. at 17 percent, Symantec wrote. The reason may be a high number of poorly configured servers that can be abused for amplification attacks.

The most common type of organizations targeted by DDoS flood attacks are those in the gaming industry, then software companies and media organizations.

DDoS have become shorter in duration but tend to focus a larger amount of traffic toward a victim. Larger but shorter attacks follow initial probes that are intended to figure out what defenses are in place.

"In other attacks, small bursts were enough to temporarily disrupt the victim's operations," Wueest wrote. "For example, in online games, a short offline window of a few minutes can be enough to settle the odds on who will win the game."

DDoS attackers were quick to exploit the "Shellshock" flaw, a vulnerability discovered in September in Bash, a command-line shell processor present in most Unix and Linux systems.

"Within 24 hours after news about the ShellShock Bash vulnerability was published, we saw the first use of an exploit against the issue, where attackers aimed to install DDoS malware scripts on Unix servers," Wueest wrote.

DDoS scripts such as PHP.Brobot and Backdoor.Piltabe were installed on vulnerable Unix servers, abusing their high bandwidth for attacks.

The going rate for DDoS hire services—often referred to as "booter" or "stresser" services—range from as little as US$5 to $1,000, charged according to the attack's duration and size.

"These services are commonly offered in the gaming community to temporarily get rid of competing teams," Wueest wrote.

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