racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

Mobile devices are gaining popularity as preferred communication and productivity devices in the workplace. In fact, mobile devices are set to overtake wireline access (cable, DSL) in terms of Internet use by 2015. But before you start using your iPad or Android device as your main work device while mobile, consider investing in a few apps, including unified messaging services, virtualization software, document management and cloud storage.

Convert Your Content Into HTML5 Tablet Apps

Meanwhile, if you’re on the other end of the content production business, you might want to consider optimizing your website for tablet computers. Apps like Pressly will turn your website into a format for tablets, which will include support for touch interfaces, gestures, swipes and the like. No need to build an iPad or Android app from scratch, since the service will do the conversion for you.

Chrome 14 On Its Way to Secure Browsing?

Google has just rolled out version 14 of its Chrome Browser, with support for the Native Client or NaCl platform. This is a secure environment for developing applications in C/C++, which can securely run in their own memory space.

SSL No Longer Secure?

But before you think you’re securely accessing your email, bank and other secure websites, consider that SSL/TLS transactions may have already been compromised. Security researchers have found a way to undermine the confidentiality of SSL/TLS, and even encrypted traffic can be viewed.

Mac OS X Lion Also Vulnerable

Aside from SSL potentially being broken, OS X Lion users might also want to watch out for possible intrusions. Security researchers have discovered a serious flaw in OS X Lion that lets any user change passwords with local access, without the need for admin access.

Linux, Android Concerns?

If you’re a fan of free software (meaning free as in speech, not free as in beer) you might want to think about how free Android really is. FSF’s Richard Stallman says Android still severely limits user control over the firmware and hardware. And if you use Linux, the introduction of unified EFI in Windows-8 certified computers might limit your options, as dual-booting or even booting Linux may not be possible.

Cloud-based computing made news when Google released its Chromebooks through Samsung and Acer. While it’s certainly novel to run all your applications from the cloud, you won’t be able to do much work when you’re offline. But Google’s latest features will make Gmail, Google Docs and Calendar users happy, with offline Gmail, Docs and Calendar functionality.

With these, Chrome OS and Chrome browser users can access emails, schedules and documents even without a working connection. The free Chrome plugin works via HTML5 to enable both online and offline functionality. The app actually delivers a similar user experience as with  the tablet/iPad version of Gmail and Docs, so tablet users will find this familiar.

In other news today …

Search Becomes More Social With +1 Integration

Google has earlier included +1 support in Search. But the big change of late is that the search giant will actually start using +1 data in its ranking algorithm. This gives more value to Google+ shares and website +1 buttons.

Amazon is Getting Ready to Release Tablets

Amazon reportedly has Android-powered tablets in the works. The retail giant will start shipping 7-inch tablets this October, primarily meant as higher-end ebook readers. Meanwhile, OEMs in China will start production of the 10.1-inch Amazon Android tablet starting first quarter of 2012.

Microsoft Windows Will Get Ribbons

MS Office users may have balked at the Ribbon interface introduced in Office 2007 onwards. But Microsoft is implementing the Ribbon in Windows Explorer when Windows 8 is released. This is in the aim of providing a better interface for both mouse- and touch-based computing.

Create PDFs From Your iPhone

Adobe has released a 10 dollar app that lets users create PDF files straight from mobile phones. No need for stellar processing power, since all the conversion is done in the cloud.

Google Warns of Security Breach

Are you paranoid about your online identity and security? Watch out for man-in-the-middle attacks, Google warns. A Dutch SSL certificate issuer has recently been breached, and attackers might pretend to be Gmail or any other Google app.

Are Patents Good or Bad?

This is a pressing question in today’s tech business environment rife with lawsuits. Independent BlackBerry developers are getting lawsuits for inclusion of in-app payment systems in their software. Google and Apple are helping out their respective third-party developers. Will RIM stand up for its developers, too? And the bigger question is this — are patents good or bad? Do they encourage or stifle innovation?

Check out more of my recent articles at CMS Wire and TFTS.

The big tech news this week involves HP announcing plans to exit the hardware business and focus instead on enterprise software. HP will be spinning off its PC business, and is dropping webOS altogether, possibly licensing it to another manufacturer.

Along with this announcement, HP dropped prices of its TouchPad tablet to $99 for the 16GB model and $149 for the 32GB model. The sale price sparked rush purchases across the US, UK and other parts of the world where the TouchPad was sold.

HP TouchPad to Run Android & Ubuntu Linux

Now the bigger piece of news here is that while the TouchPad is considered a dead platform in terms of webOS, developers are starting to tweak the hardware to run other operating systems, notably Android and Ubuntu Linux. So far, hackers have been successful at installing Ubuntu, and an Android Gingerbread port is underway. Will Android and Ubuntu Linux be the saving grace for the HP TouchPad? Has HP done its own TouchPad a favor in terms of sales and desirability by killing off webOS? People are calling it the best $99 tablet ever. With Android coming soon, it’s going to be even better.

In other news …

Facebook on a startup buying spree

Facebook is facing tough competition from newcomer Google+. The company is therefore on the lookout for more startups with interesting ideas, and is set to acquire 20 companies this year (double last year’s 10). These will include talent and products related to design, user interface and mobile services. Do you (or your app) have what it takes to be a Facebook acqusition?

Google Chrome OS Does Windows

Google’s Chromebooks are trying to attract enterprise markets by offering a leasing scheme, with Chromebooks for $28 per month. But the latest Chrome OS build supports Citrix Receiver, which gives virtualization access to users. This means Chromebook users can run Windows apps through an enterprise Citrix server. For people who are worrying about having to adjust to Linux (or the Chromebook interface), this might help with the decision to go full-on with the cloud.

Marketing professionals are targeting you via email

Marketers are increasingly targeting their campaigns through tailor-fit messages. And while social networks are becoming more and more popular, marketers still prefer sending out email messages, since these are more direct and evoke more action from the recipients. If you’re an online marketing pro, what have you been doing to improve the performance of your campaigns?

Google App Inventor Decommissioned

Meanwhile, back on the Android front, Google is reportedly deprecating App Inventor, which used to be an easy wasy to create applications through a GUI interface. Time to brush up on our programming skills?

It’s an exciting time for social media and mobile users, as the tech world is seeing a lot of changes and upheavals.

Skype now on the iPad

Sure, Apple has FaceTime and iPad users can talk to iPhone, iPod and Mac users. But what if you want to chat and video conference with users of other platforms? Now you can, with Skype’s native iPad application.

Bit.ly Acquires Twitterfeed

Twitterfeed rose as a popular means to publish blog content to social mediums like Twitter and Facebook. The service has since gone low-profile, but with Bit.ly’s recent acquisition, users and businesses will benefit from real-time social media data brought about by the partnership.

Android Dominates Smartphone Market

It’s nothing new. Android has been on the rise for some time now. But latest figures show that the platform has taken almost 50% of the smartphone market as of 2Q 2011. Now, will Android finally overtake iPad in the near future?

Geo-Tag Your Mobile Videos & Share With Friends Online

iPhones have cameras, but social video company BitFlx makes video-taking more location- and time-relevant. The BitFlx application lets you see videos being taken nearby, which can be great for events, grassroots reporting, and simple video-sharing with friends. Works with Facebook.

Google Launches Speed Optimization Service

Google has recently launched a speed optimization service for websites, which is currently free. But will you be willing to point your website’s DNS to Google’s datacenters and let Google serve your website from their own servers?

Google’s Chrome OS has been a novelty because of the idea of putting everything on the Web. Now that Apple will be releasing its upcoming OS X Lion soon, it seems they’re taking a page out of the Chrome OS playbook by adding a browser-only mode.

Beta versions of Mac OS X Lion feature a “restart to Safari” mode, which can be used to leave your current session and open a browser-only session, sans the desktop, finder, dock and other desktop UI elements. You’re basically left with something like Chrome OS’ interface–just the browser.

This option can be accessed from the user lock/login screen, which means you can boot right into Safari-only mode if you don’t want to access your desktop. Perhaps this is some form of guest-only mode. Some early reviewers say it’s a good way to troubleshoot your computer in case a catastrophic error happens and you need to research how to troubleshoot. Still, with Lion’s new auto save and and restore capabilities, you can return to your regular desktop and all your apps and sessions will still be there.

Will this new feature be a challenge to Chrome OS? Probably not, since Chrome OS was designed primarily to be a browser-only OS. OS X Lion, on the other hand, is a full-fledged desktop operating system and you would need to boot it up until the login screen before you can access Safari. In contrast, Chrome OS promises to be lighter and quicker, although you will need access to either a Wi-Fi network or 3G. Then, there’s the price. If you compare prices, the latest Chromebooks from Acer and Samsung are about half or almost a third the price of the cheapest MacBook.

Will OS X Lion’s browser-only mode put Chromebooks to shame?