A Police Scanner App For Android

Remember your buddy who had the police scanner at home? Now you can recapture the feeling of listening in, and do so on an Android phone with the Scanner Radio app.

Similar apps exist for iPhones as well. In the case of Scanner radio, you get feeds from police scanners all over the world, uploaded to the Internet. Some of the iPhone apps are even free. And it isn’t just for cop beat reporters: at least one reviewer on the iTunes store said they were able to hear how bad the damage was in areas hit by tornadoes this summer. Technews Daily

Google+ Challenges Facebook With Social Network

Google Buzz and Google Wave were strikes one and two, so Google has to get it right with Google+, the search giant’s ambitious new social network.  The Google+ Project goes right after Facebook by offering multiple ways of connecting with your friends and family, including a Circles feature that lets users be more choosy about what they decide to share with specific friends. The project is currently invite-only, but we snagged a few invites and will have our first impressions soon. So what exactly is Google+? It’s comprised of four different components, Circles, Sparks, Hangouts, and Mobile. Technews Daily/ MadOne
 

 Circles


Sparks


Hangouts


Mobile

Google's Music Storage and Movie Rentals

Google Music Beta is Google's answer to the music services Apple, Amazon and other companies have been creating for years. Google Music Beta isn't so much about buying music (though that can be done, too) as it is about hosting the music you already own and making it available anywhere.

Users can upload all their music, up to 20,000 songs (can you hear the sigh of relief from the music lovers?) to Google's cloud services and stream them from anywhere there's an Internet connection. There's also an app for Android phones that not only streams music but remembers the most recent and most played songs in your library and keeps them available offline in case there isn't a data connection available. Google has also taken great strides to make Music Beta a universal experience no matter how many devices you use. Any change made to your Google Music Library will be synced to other devices. And there are even smart playlist features that can analyze your music and instantly create a playlist based on a song that strikes your fancy at the moment.

The other major media announcement from Google I/O is the ability to rent movies from the Android Market, which along with the addition of movie rentals on YouTube firmly cements Google's place as a content provider (and tightens the competition for other streaming and download services from Apple, Amazon, Netflix and more). Technews Daily

99% of Android Phones Leak Personal Data

Evil Droid

Google's Android mobile operating system is again in the hot seat after German researchers found that a security flaw causes nearly 100 percent of Android phones to leak users' secret account credentials. Researchers at the University of Ulm explained that the problem lies in ClientLogin, a Google authentication protocol that verifies communication between Android phones and Google apps such as Google Calendar, Google Contacts and Picasa, as well as third-party Android apps such as Twitter and Facebook.

"This means that the adversary can view, modify or delete any contacts, calendar events or private pictures," the researchers wrote. With your username and password, a hacker could also gain unauthorized access to your online bank accounts and other sensitive information. According to the researchers, 99.7 percent of Android smartphones are vulnerable to this type of attack.


This new exploit casts yet another shadow on Android: between infected apps and a 400 percent increase in malware since last year, Google is having a hard time keeping its increasingly popular smartphone platform safe. In response to the growing incidents of security threats targeting mobile users, AT&T has announced plans to launch a consumer security service for mobile users next year. TechNews Daily

iPhone Will Track You Even After Location Services Are Disabled

Even when location services are not enabled, your iPhone will still collect and store location data, according to a test run by the Wall Street Journal.

The recent revelation that iPhones were collecting precise location data, and storing that data for up to a year in an unencrypted file, has sparked concern among users, as well as from Senator Al Franken and Representative Ed Markey, who have demanded Steve Jobs explain what the data is used for. 

The Wall Street Journal's test showed that the iPhone used cellphone towers and Wi-Fi access to find this location data, though it did not appear to be transmitted back to Apple. The test observed the data recorded by the phone as it moved from place to place, and found that these moves were recorded, using coordinates and time stamps. Google performs a similar operation regarding users' location data on phones using its Android software.Wallstreet Journal

Cloud Storage Is the Future of Music Services

Amazon announced cloud storage for music. Google is reportedly working on a massive music streaming service that will reside in the cloud. And new reports indicate the Apple is working on its own cloud music service that might even beat Google to market. There's a reason why these companies are aiming for the cloud even though Amazon and Apple already have healthy and successful music download services. Cloud storage is the future of media. 


The benefits for companies are clear. For instance, Apple needs only to keep a master copy of a song on their servers, and multiple subscribers can listen to that track at once. Speaking of subscribers, subscriptions are frequently more profitable than single track or album sales on a per customer basis, and streaming music helps to deter piracy. But the benefits to consumers are clear, too. Think of it this way: You don't need to ever worry about the storage capacity of your music player (be it a dedicated MP3 player or a smartphone), and you never have to worry if you've put your latest favorite songs on that particular device. It's all housed in the cloud.

The same transition is taking place in media, and it likely won't be too long before you, too, are storing media in the cloud. Technews Daily

Google Invests in World's Largest Solar Power Tower Plant

Google has just sealed a deal to invest $168 million in a Mojave Desert solar energy plant. The investment is going to BrightSource Energy, a company that developes and operates large-scale solar power plants, specifically to fund its Ivanpah project. Ivanpah is a solar electric generating system that uses solar thermal technology and "an environmentally responsible design," according to the project's website, to deliver reliable, clean and low-cost power to Californians.

The plant will generate energy with a technology called power towers. Mirrors, called heliostats, are arranged in an array and aim the sun’s rays at a receiver atop a tower. The receiver generates steam; the steam causes a turbine to rotate; the rotation causes a generator to generate electricity. Because such large quantities of solar energy are being directed to such a small area, the power towers are very efficient. The power tower at Ivanpah will be around 450 feet tall. The plant will use 173,000 heliostats, and each heliostat will have two mirrors, making Ivanpah the largest project of its kind. Construction at Ivanpah should be completed in 2013. Here's a video from the plant's groundbreaking ceremony 

Google's YouTube Says It's in Negotiations to Stream Live NBA, NHL Games

Google Inc.’s YouTube is in talks with the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League to show live games, building on the popularity of cricket’s Indian Premier League last year, a Google executive said. “It’s fair to say that there will be a lot more appealing sports content you’ll see on YouTube,” Anand said. “We have ongoing conversations with pretty much everyone.”


NHL spokesman Michael DiLorenzo said in a telephone interview that the league is not in talks to stream live games over YouTube, nor has it been in discussions about it.


Michael Bass, senior vice president for marketing communications at the NBA, said, “We’re pleased that YouTube recognizes the value of live sports.” Huffington Post

Motorola Xoom tablet

Motorola Xoom tablet

LAS VEGAS (AFP) – Motorola Mobility's Xoom tablet computer powered by new "Honeycomb" software from Google was crowned the best gadget at the giant Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on Saturday.
Along with being declared the top creation at the dazzling gadget extravaganza, Xoom was also honored as the best of the scores of tablets introduced here as fresh competitors in a market dominated by Apple iPads.
Motorola also scored a victory with its Atrix smartphone designed to work with high-speed 4G wireless networks and which can be used in a dock to power a laptop.

Atrix Smartphone

Atrix won the top spot in a smartphone category at the official Best of CES awards.

Google Collected Emails, Personal Information: South Korean Police

SEOUL, South Korea — Google Inc. collected e-mails and other personal information from unsecured wireless networks in South Korea while taking photographs for its Street View mapping service, police said Thursday. In May, the American search giant announced it had inadvertently collected fragments of people's online activities from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries, prompting investigations around the globe. Street View provides street-level images on Google Earth and Google Maps. Google said entire e-mails, URLs and passwords were among items its researchers collected. Google accessed private data as its cars took photos of neighborhoods in Seoul and three other major cities in South Korea between October 2009 and May 2010, said Jung Suk-hwa, a police officer in charge of the investigation. 

In addition to international investigations, about 40 U.S. states are seeking to review the information to see if Google improperly accessed e-mails, passwords and other private data.
Google's disclosure has generated a variety of responses. Greek officials asked for more safeguards before its streets were photographed, and some English villagers protested by forming a human chain to stop a camera van.

In November, Google bowed to pressure from German residents and made that country the only one in the world where people can ask in advance to have images of their homes excluded from the Street View feature. Last month, Google acknowledged that it trespassed when it took a photo of a Pittsburgh-area house for Street View, but consented to pay only $1 in damages to the couple who sued.

Creative Releases 7-inch Android Tablet for $270

Here's another entry into the Android tablet market, although you might not have known this one was coming. Creative just launched the ZiiO Android tablet, which retails for $250. Unlike the majority of Android tablets, the ZiiO uses a ZiiLabs processor, but the rest of the specs are fairly familiar. The display is 7 inches (similar to the Samsung Galaxy Tab) and has a 800 x 400 pixel resolution. Inside is 16GB of storage, WiFi, Bluetooth and front-facing webcam.


The Creative ZiiO runs Android 2.1, which is disappointing because Google is just about to release Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Hopefully Creative plans to help buyers upgrade later.

The most attractive part of the ZiiO is probably the price. At $270, this tablet is pretty cheap compared to other Android tablets. It might not be quite as powerful or feature-filled (no 3G for instance), but it's an alternative for those who don't have $600 to spend on the Galaxy Tab.

Google finally admits that its Street View cars DID take emails and passwords from computers

Google Street View Car

Google was accused of spying on households yesterday after it admitted secretly copying passwords and private emails from home computers. In an astonishing invasion of privacy, it admitted entire emails, web pages and even passwords were 'mistakenly collected' by antennae on its high-tech Street View cars. Google sent a fleet of specially equipped cars around Britain in 2008, armed with 360-degree cameras to gather photographs for its Street View project.

Earlier this year the California-based firm admitted that the cars' antennae had also scanned for wireless networks, including home wi-fi, which connect millions of personal computers to the internet. Google registered the location, name and identification code of millions of networks and entered them into a database to help it sell adverts. The firm was able to record the location of every wireless router and network without alerting households because wi-fi signals are 'visible' to other internet devices, including the cars' antennae.

 

The information was only gathered from wireless networks which were not password-protected. But it means the antennae potentially harvested millions of private emails and passwords around the country. It is not known how many householders have unprotected wireless networks. 'Google is fast developing a reputation as a company that cares little for privacy or data security.' Mail Online

What Happens When Technology Giants Like Sony and Google Collide?

Sony Google TV

Sony Google TV's QWERTY keypad

Sony® Internet TV, the world’s first HDTV powered by Google TV™ . For more information on sponsored posts. What happens when technology giants like Sony and Google collide? You get lots of media clamor, but more importantly, a real possibility that you'll never leave your living room. Enter the new Sony® Internet TV, the world's first HDTV powered by Google TV™. Just as the collaboration implies, this mighty piece of hardware merges your favorite media -- television and the Internet -- on a gorgeous, high-definition flat screen that puts your measly computer monitor to shame.

Settle into your favorite spot on the sofa, and don't get up (unless nature calls), now that you can watch TV, browse the Internet, or do both simultaneously. You'll have a customizable home screen where your favorite shows, sites, and other media are easily accessible. The handheld QWERTY keypad makes channel- and web-surfing a cinch, as does the simple search technology. The TV is also packed with the power of Intel Inside, ensuring that it has enough processor juice for quick load times and seamless streaming Web video. Mashable