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<title>Haaze.com / dergtyuibdw / All</title>
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<pubDate>Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:10:40 +0000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[IBM says it knows how bad your commute will be]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ibm-says-it-knows-how-bad-your-commute-will-be</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ibm-says-it-knows-how-bad-your-commute-will-be</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:10:40 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>dergtyuibdw</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ibm-says-it-knows-how-bad-your-commute-will-be</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A new system from IBM Research could make it possible for commuters to see ahead of time whether their drive to work is likely to be delayed by accidents or bad traffic.(Credit:IBM Research)If you're a commuter stuck in traffic, it doesn't help you all that much to know what road conditions are like right now. You already know you're being delayed. But what if there was a way to alert you to problems before you even get in yourcarThat's the premise behind a new project being announced tonight by IBM Research, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), and the University of California at Berkeley's California Center for Innovative Transportation (CCIT). The idea behind the project is simple: as a commuter, you're better off if you know what problems might await you on your normal drive, and even better off yet if an alternative route is automatically suggested to you.The three partners think that the answer lies in a troika of building blocks: first, a system for measuring traffic' second, a system for predicting how traffic will react to accidents and other anomalies' and finally, a system for communicating information to people before they get on the road.And that's just what the three have built, said Stefan Nusser, the director of services research at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif.: a predictive modeling tool that can learn individual commuters' driving patterns and give them advanced warning on problems that may lie in their way.The system could send a text message or an e-mail to uses alerting them of potential problems along their commute.(Credit:IBM Research)Based on traffic information feeds coming in from CCIT, IBM's system is designed to run a traffic prediction, said Nusser, and send users alerts--perhaps text messages, e-mails, or even calendar or social networking pop-ups--in advance of their drives. But those alerts will only come if something is amiss--an accident, construction, or some other delay. That's because, Nusser said, if people are constantly getting alerts that don't mean much to them, they'll stop paying attention.Currently, a group of people are involved in a test program and is carrying mobile devices with an installed client application. But rather than send information to the drivers while they're in their cars, IBM is intent on delivering the predictions to them before they depart.That's why, Nusser said, the client application has no user interface and as such, isn't meant to be used by commuters while on the go. Rather, the mobile application is meant solely for gathering and feeding traffic data back to IBM's systems for analysis. After all, Nusser said, IBM doesn't want users fiddling with their mobile devices while behind the wheel.Ultimately, IBM sees this kind of service as one it can sell to cities and municipal transportation agencies that want to create new relationships with citizens and riders. One idea the company has is that the system may be able to tell users that although their normal route to work might be slower than usual, there's a parking spot at the train station and the trains are running right on time. For now, the system is only in trials, but Nusser said he envisions it being rolled out in cities in the near future. Whether or not people will adopt something like this depends, of course, on how well it works, and how unobtrusive it is. But there is already evidence that traffic and transportation portals like 511.org in the San Francisco Bay Area can provide commuters with a wide range of information about getting around. So IBM and its partners are betting services like that will be very interested in branching out and giving users the kind of up-to-the-minute data that will help everyone get more out of their commutes.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[What the app privacy investigation means to you (FAQ)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=what-the-app-privacy-investigation-means-to-you-faq</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=what-the-app-privacy-investigation-means-to-you-faq</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 05 Apr 2011 07:10:43 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>dergtyuibdw</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=what-the-app-privacy-investigation-means-to-you-faq</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Federal prosecutors are looking into whether mobile application makers, advertisers, and mobile app store owners are violating the law when it comes to transmitting users' personal data. But what's it all mean for average consumersThe music service Pandora disclosed in a U.S. Securities Exchange Commission filing recently that it has been subpoenaed by a grand jury to provide information about how its mobile app collects data. The investigation appears to be prompted by a report published by The Wall Street Journal in December that evaluated 101 popular mobile apps. The newspaper said in that article that more than half the applications tested disclosed consumers' personal information without their consent or knowledge. The story also prompted at least two civil lawsuits against several application companies including Pandora as well as Apple and some ad network aggregators. To get a better understanding of what this means for users, CNET put together this FAQ.What is this federal investigation aboutIn December, The Wall Street Journal published a story stating that more than half of the 101 mobile apps it tested share information about users without their consent. Civil lawsuits have been filed against several application companies and Apple, which runs and approves apps for its App Store.The federal investigation is likely looking further into these allegations to see if the law has been broken. Specifically, the government is investigating whether app developers have violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, according to an unnamed source who spoke to The Wall Street Journal in a story published Monday.This law was created to prosecute computer hackers who go after information stored on a computer.What information is shared in mobile applicationsDepending on the application, there is a lot of information that can be shared. Some of this information is provided by the consumer and with the consent of the user. But some of it is being sent from mobile devices without the user even knowing or realizing it.For example, people using an app like FourSquare realize that their location is being tracked. That's the purpose of the application. Users of Pandora also know that their musical tastes are being tracked. Again, that's the purpose of the application. And many people assume and tacitly accept that this information is shared with advertisers. This is why people receive coupons for certain places they visit on FourSquare or why people hear or see certain advertisements on Pandora.But what many users might not realize is that there is some information that is being transmitted from their phones that they don't realize is being shared. And some of this information can also be used to identify them.For example, in The Wall Street Journal test, the paper said the most widely shared detail was the unique ID number assigned to every phone. These IDs are set by phone makers, carriers, or operating system developers to track devices. And they usually are not able to be deleted or blocked.For example, Apple uses a unique device identifier called a UDID, which is similar to a serial number that belongs to each iOS device. According to the test that the WSJ conducted, this number was often transmitted to advertising companies to track usage. In one of the civil lawsuits filed against Apple after the WSJ story was published, the plaintiff alleges that this UDID can be used by third parties to know which apps you download, how frequently you use those apps, and for how long. Also, when this information is gathered and compared with other data collected, the suit alleges that third parties can extrapolate a person's gender, location, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation and political views. All of this can be obtained without the user ever providing consent or having knowledge that the information has been transmitted and shared with third parties.Does Apple have a policy against thisYes, Apple certifies all of its apps for its App Store. And the company's policy is thatiPhone andiPad apps &quot;cannot transmit data about a user without obtaining the user's prior permission and providing the user with access to information about how and where the data will be used.&quot; But according to the WSJ story and the lawsuits filed against Apple, this rule isn't always followed by application developers. Apple has declined to comment on this. What aboutGoogle Android phones Are they vulnerable as wellYes, every phone has a unique identifier that is used and this information could be transmitted to third parties, which could extrapolate information based on this identifier. So far Google hasn't been named in any of the civil lawsuits. But an unnamed source in another recent Wall Street Journal article about the federal investigation said Google has been asked to provide information. A Google spokesperson did not return phone calls or e-mails seeking comment on this topic. Google is different from Apple in the sense that it doesn't certify or test applications for submission into the Android Market. So the company says it's up to the application developer to handle the user information appropriately.That said, Google does require that Android apps notify users, before they download the app, about what information on the device the app will access. For example, if an app will access the camera, memory, contact list, or a number of things on the device. Users then have the option to not install the app.But if some of this information is being given up by users with their consent and permission, why is this a problemWhat makes all of this somewhat troubling is that even if a user provides permission for the app to use its location or other information, neither Apple nor Google require app developers to disclose whether or not they send that information onto third parties, such as advertisers. Also, consumers are often not notified if their unique device identifier is being used by advertisers.How can I keep apps from getting at my informationOn iOS devices:Applications that want to make use of your location are required to first get your approval. This comes as a pop-up notification the first time the application asks. If you do not want an app to have your location, you can deny this message. Apple's iOS also keeps track of each time the location is being used with an arrow in the device's status bar at the top of the screen.As for other types of data, that's where some of the controversy lies. The majority of app makers put third-party tracking tools as part of the underlying code of their application, meaning there's no on-off switch. One solution that users have come up with is jailbreaking their device to get low-level system access, then installing programs that can provide a system-wide block for third-party trackers. For those with a jailbroken iOS device, there's PrivaCy, a free settings option that includes toggles to turn on and off the anonymous usage statistics sent to companies like Flurry, Medialets, Mobclix and Pinch Media. This gives users a granular control over which of these networks apps can talk to.  For Android users:Unlike on iOS, there's no app that lets you turn particular data collectors on or off across all apps. However there's a $2 app called Privacy Blocker that can go through your applications and find which are transmitting certain kinds of data. The program is then able to let users toggle, or make edits to those bits of information, such as changing a listed phone number or name fields. The next time that application checks in, it will be transmitting the data the users has come up with. For BlackBerry users:The BlackBerry Analytics service, which some application makers use to collect anonymous usage data, can be opted out of. This must be done on an application by application basis. Instructions for how to turn it off can be found on the BlackBerry support forums, linked here. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Why my friends hate Google Voice]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-my-friends-hate-google-voice</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-my-friends-hate-google-voice</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 07 Mar 2011 08:10:15 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>dergtyuibdw</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-my-friends-hate-google-voice</guid>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;I have too many different phone numbers for you.&quot; &quot;I never know where to reach you.&quot; &quot;Calling you is so confusing!&quot;I wish I could label the words above a hyperbolic chorus that merely points to the perils of being a cell phone reviewer with friends outside of the tech world. Instead, it is a torrent of discontent rushing from the throats of six of my closest friends at a party (my birthday party, no less), gathering momentum as it crashes toward its inevitable destination: me. &quot;It's not my fault,&quot; I demur. &quot;It's Google Voice!&quot;I can see that you're itching to interject. I'm clearly scapegoating poor Google for my own spamming of too many numbers from all my review phones, right That's certainly part of it, but it's not the entire story. Well, then, I must be doing it wrong--especially if you don't have the same issues. And what about now that you can port your mobile number to a Google Voice account The latter will certainly obviate the sticky entanglements I'm about to describe, but dropping carrier support and switching over completely to Google Voice isn't a plunge everyone's prepared to take, myself included.I use Google Voice on the iPhone and multiple Android phones I carry with me, grabbing whichever phone has the strongest signal or battery life, or simply whichever one happens to be in my hand when I need to place a call or answer a text. Google Voice on Android has the bonus of being able to dial out on the native dial pad using the Google Voice number, which certainly makes it less confusing for my friends.That's assuming, though, that the GV app doesn't freeze, and that it ferries text messages back and forth without much delay. After using Google Voice on a daily basis with other heavy Google Voice users, our general consensus is that texting is slower than with conventional SMS since Google routes messages through its servers. If we need to reach others quickly, we GV users, we'll text the old-fashioned way--which means we're back to jockeying more than one number.TheiPhone problemGoogle Voice for iPhone has this neat view of recent and priority contacts.(Credit:Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)Until the official Google Voice app for iPhone came into being last November (after a year and a half of waiting), usability on the iPhone app was limited to a Web-optimized site. Thanks to the app, things are much more smooth and convenient--but still far from perfect. Even four months on, the app frequently freezes, is slow to load new messages, and experiences a delivery delay often enough to cause frustration. As I was writing this article, a GV text landed on the AT&amp;amp'T iPhone 4 about 10 minutes after I received it on Verizon's Android-based Droid Pro. I'm not certain how much is the app's responsibility, and how much is the carrier's.In addition to the delays, Apple won't give third-party developers the kind of deep access to the iPhone's address book that Google gives its own Android apps. As a result, you can't automatically dial out from a GV number using the phone's native dial pad. You can dial out from the GV dialer, but you have to remember to first open the app. If it's acting up, as it is wont to do, I wind up abandoning ship and calling out from the iPhone's default number--it's just simpler and more reliable. My friends will have to deal.Google hasn't significantly upgraded the GV iPhone app since our initial review, but I'm hoping there are new performance enhancements riding high up some coder's sleeve.Cold comfortAll these explanations, while perfectly understandable from the point of view of somebody following the development of Google Voice on mobile, continue to flummox my friends. They don't care about iterations, development cycles, the differences between Google Voice apps on separate platforms, and weaknesses in app implementations. They just want to know which one phone number they can use to reach me every single time, a sentiment made clear during the Jessica's Crazy Phone Numbers Bashfest.&quot;There is!&quot; I always exclaim, pointing to my Google Voice number in their phone's address books, nestled among the other numbers my friends have saved, just in case. &quot;But how am I supposed to know the difference,&quot; they retort, &quot;between that number and any of the other numbers you call me on&quot; Um...That's when the specialized nature of my particular profession comes in. If I had most other jobs, I'd have only one cell phone and only two phone numbers for friends and family to juggle--the phone's default, carrier-given number and my Google Voice line. I could dispose of my confusing phone numbers and streamline to one. Since I'm lucky enough to see many smartphones, my case gets a little more complicated than that of the average Google Voice user, and also harder to solve.Still, I think my particular situation reflects a very real frustration that vexes some recipients who, for whichever reason, are confounded by the free service, especially if that user, too, has a less conventional need of or use for the service. For me, Google Voice apps may be a perfectly useful solution on my end, thanks to its comprehensive visual voicemail and call forwarding features, but only if I'm prepared to guide close friends and family through the initial haze of my multiple phone numbers, particularly if the app freezes and I need to make calls from a phone's default number. One of the reasons I started using Google Voice in the first place was to give out a single number that could reach me on any number of phones that I test. Or, I give up my carrier's network reliability entirely and switch over completely to Google Voice, a system I still find extremely promising, mostly enormously useful, and still buggy.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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