Mediafire launched Official iOS App and Workin on Android app

Media fire launched its official app for iOS users.With the Mediafire app user can view and share their pictures and galleries, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and PDFs and can listen audio files and play video files of premium or free media fire account.

The app is available for download on iTunes app store.Users can download the app by going  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mediafire/id555646196?mt=8.

However there is not confirmed date but it is confirmed by mediafire officials that mediafire is working on android app and it will be available for android user as soon as passible.

Windows Phone to beat Android

While Android has become the smartphone platform with the largest installed base, its future in that position is not guaranteed and it is seeing competition from a contender many had considered also-ran: Microsoft.

Signaling: “We’re not sure Android is a critical asset”

Android has had a fantastic run over the last couple of years and was positioned as the best alternative to Apple’s ambitions in the space, which makes recent comments by Google’s new leader somewhat disconcerting.

During this week’s proceedings surrounding Oracle’s lawsuit against Google over use of Java code in Android, Larry Page made a very curious remark: he said he wasn’t sure that Android was a critical asset to Google and saw it as mainly a vehicle to get Google products to run on mobile devices. This was an odd bit of signaling as it seemed to imply that support for Android as a platform is far from guaranteed. As a developer, this could be a cause for substantial concern: if I develop for Android today, what kind of guarantees do I have that the OS will still be supported tomorrow.

The coming OS war

By contrast, Apple appears to be going all in on iOS, even going as far as bringing iOS features into its traditional computer business. Looking at Apple’s future roadmap, it seems increasingly clear that the company intends to merge iOS and OSX so the same OS runs on all the products it offers and the company is investing heavily on making that merger a reality. Along the way, they are sending a clear signal that iOS is Apple’s platform for the future and a key part of their business.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has always seen its Windows operating system as one of the pillars of its business. With the release of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft made it very clear that the operating system they were selling in that space was an important one for them and one that was targeted solely at phones. This allowed them to focus the operating system for a specific kind of use, with a different operating system being available for tablets (the disastrously named Windows RNT). The radical new Metro UI interface they brought to their phones is also slated to make it into desktop version of their flagship operating system as well as into the Xbox interface. This points to Microsoft sharing Apple’s view that a single integrated experience between all operating systems they offer is where the future is.

This clearly sets up the mobile landscape for a repeat of the desktop OS wars of the 1980s/1990s with a key difference. This time, there are two strong players  looking to leverage their position on one end of the spectrum to get a larger slice of the overall pie: Apple will leverage its success in the mobile world to help increase the footprint of its computer offering while Microsoft will come at it in the reverse direction, trying to leverage its desktop footprint to get at the mobile market.

You’re either all in or you’re out

Apple and Microsoft are going all in. Apple will continue to succeed, having developed a fairly strong head start. Meanwhile, Microsoft has tempted others into joining its coalition. On the device end, Nokia has gone all in on the Windows platform, staking its future on its success. The Finnish company know what the mobile game is, as it once was the leader in the space, and now has to prove that its strategy of going all-in with an operating system many thought of as an also-ran will be successful. In a way, the Microsoft Nokia partnership can work as a reminder of the Microsoft Intel partnership of the past, with Microsoft providing software and a partner providing hardware.

Apple’s own Steve Jobs has long seen the world as one where hardware and software practice ought to be integrated along a single stack: his view was always that Apple should produce both the software and hardware to define the complete experience. Over the last year, Microsoft has worked hard with Nokia to develop what amounts to a tight integration with a preferred partner. With few other companies betting the farm on Microsoft’s new OS, this allowed the two partners to stay focused on making the partnership work. Microsoft has also made it clear in its integration guidelines that the user experience (ie. how user interact with their operating system) was something Microsoft controlled, not the hardware manufacturer.

By contrast, Android is now spread across anywhere between a dozen and half a dozen manufacturers, each with a slightly different look and feel. Pick up an Android phone from HTC, Motorola, or Samsung and you end up with experiences that are similar but also not completely alike. In its attempt at domination, Google has focused on the guts of the software but not on how individuals work with it. As a result, Android is the type of operating systems engineers love but the general public tolerates. Meanwhile, the inconsistent upgrade cycles from device to device has creating an environment where there are more Android devices but also one where there are more flavors of Android out there, making it difficult for developers to manage.

For example, look at the Android phone of a non-technical person: most likely, the phone comes with the stock apps, and whatever other apps have been downloaded are probably not been updated in a while (a quick way to evaluate that is by launching Google Play (an unfortunate name in itself as it seems to focus on apps that cannot possibly be about business); in most cases, people will be ask to agree to the terms of services because they haven’t really launched what used to be called the Market since they initially got their phones. Complicating things even further, Google has now acquired Motorola, which may mean the company is going to produce its own phones but also unsettles its hardware partners as they may now found themselves in a situation where they have to compete with their own software providers.

A big push

Verizon, one of the largest mobile providers on the American market, recently announced that it would throw its support behind Microsoft to create a third major player in the space, even though it is the company that has benefited the most from Android’s growth. Meanwhile, AT&T is working very hard to make Windows Phone a huge success, pushing the platform with a strong marketing campaign that  has already led to early shortages in the US market.

The pricing of Nokia’s Windows Phones is also interesting, with devices that are about $100 cheaper than their competitors in the space: the market they’re going after is not the more gadget-centric crowd but rather the mainstream that has heard of smartphones but not yet made the jump (and that mainstream represents about 60% of all phone users right now). A lot of those users may go for an iPhone because of its elegance or might go for a Windows phone because of its price. This leaves Android devices in the odd situation of neither being the best devices from a user experience standpoint nor being the value devices from a price one.

So without a strong marketing push by partners and a value proposition that is hard to figure, what to make of Android? That question is one that may hobble future sales for devices from the company.

“Developers, developers, developers”

One thing Microsoft understand more than most is that the future of any platform is contingent on developers supporting it. In fact, the company’s CEO scream about developers has become its own meme. Apple, on the other side, has long managed its developers relations through it annual developers’ conference and related online center. The two companies listen to input from their development community and respond by bring forward features that help those developers succeed.

By comparison, Google is a company that sees itself as developer led and thus does not feel it needs to take outside input. Instead, it queries its internal people and based on that brings what it feels is best for the development community. This has led to a decrease in the interest developers have in the platform. That decrease could spell trouble in the future.

Some claim the decrease is related to the increasing fragmentation of the Android market. But more troubling is that the monetization of apps on the Android platform seems to present a substantially larger climb than on other platforms. iOS has won the race on that end but interestingly enough, Microsoft may have an opportunity to come in in second as it has a better  understanding of how to support third party developers. With less than half of what iOS has in terms of apps with in-app purchase capability, Android has a long way to go to make monetizing on the platform something good for developers and Google’s DNA being all about advertising will not help when it comes to that model.

So if you’re a developer, what should you do? First, the obvious thing is to start developing for iOS. Start with the iPhone and go to the iPad. But once you’re done, take a very serious look at the Windows Phone. It may be a smaller market today but I would bet the future of apps rolling out on Windows Phone is brighter than that of similar apps rolling out on Android

Next-Gen iPhone May Be Baptized in Liquidmeta

Apple  will use so-called Liquidmetal for the casing of the iPhone 5, which will be launched in June, according to Korea IT News.

Liquidmetal is the commercial name of an amorphous metal alloy developed by researchers at the California Institute of Technology and marketed by a company they set up called Liquidmetal Technologies.

The alloy’s been used in more than 10 million hinges for mobile phones and smartphones, more than 2 million antennae, over 2 million cases and more than 1 million pounds of coatings materials.

Apple purchased a worldwide exclusive license to commercialize Liquidmetal Technologies’ intellectual property in the field of consumer electronics, according to the latter’s 10-K report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in March.

“With the license, Apple’s highly likely to use the technology in future mobile devices, including the iPhone, iPad or even the MacBook Air,” Jim McGregor, president of Tirias Research, told MacNewsWorld. “Liquidmetal offers a lightweight solution that has all the characteristics of metal and can be an attractive alternative to plastics.”

Apple did not respond to our request for comment for this story.

 

What Is Liquidmetal, Anyhow?

Liquidmetal alloys contain atoms of different sizes that form a dense mix with very little free volume. Unlike crystalline metals, they don’t have an obvious melting point. At high temperatures, Liquidmetal behaves like plastic. Because of their non-crystalline, or amorphous, structures, Liquidmetals are harder than titanium or aluminum alloys used in similar applications.

Liquidmetal alloys can be heat-formed the same way plastics can, up to a point.

Another term for heat-forming Liquidmetal is metal injection molding, Kevin Keller, a senior principal analyst at IHS iSuppli, told MacNewsWorld. Metal injection molding “lets you fabricate complex geometries similar to injection molded plastics” but with the advantages of a metal alloy — strength, rigidity, wear and corrosion resistance, Keller said.

“From a design standpoint, I believe rigidity and durability may be [Liquidmetal’s] best benefits,” Tirias Research’s McGregor said. “I would expect more investment into this and other materials technologies for the casings of all mobile devices.”

Issues With Liquidmetal

However, metal injection molding is “still a fairly immature technology, so using it can be quite costly,” iSuppli’s Keller pointed out.

Apple is already using this technology right now, as are other manufacturers, but its use is “limited to small mechanical internal components such as the SIM card ejector on the previous iPhone as well as other internal components,” Keller said

Further, there are “some limitations” to the process in terms of the physical size of products that can be made with metal injection molding because of its relative newness, Keller stated. “Where you have a molten material you’re injecting into a die, that material has to be very tightly temperature-controlled and has to be cooled at a certain rate, and it’s a matter of working out the techniques.”

Where Liquidmetal’s Being Used

Liquidmetal is being used in the cores of golf balls, in skis, in baseball and softball bats, and in tennis racquets.

It has been used on the casing of SanDisk’s (Nasdaq: SNDK) Cruzer Titanium USB flash drives and Sansa flash-based MP3 players. It has also been used in the casings of some mobile phones such as those made by Nokia (NYSE: NOK) subsidiary Vertu.

Taking Liquidmetal Into Tomorrow

Apple paid Liquidmetal Technologies US$20 million for the licensing rights to the latter’s IP for use in the consumer electronics sector.

Cupertino’s likely to work on getting around the size limitations imposed by the metal injection molding process.

“Right now, Apple’s exploring the use of this manufacturing technique into more and more components of their products, and possibly even planning to use this technology for larger, more visible components such as the enclosure,” iSuppli’s Keller said. “Apple is, I’m sure, right now developing techniques to expand this manufacturing process into larger and larger parts like enclosures.”

Apple “invested millions of dollars” to move the use of precision aluminum machining up from “turning out low-volume, low-quantity short-run prototyping” into creating unibodies for its MacBooks, Keller pointed out.

Rumours says Google is launching it own cloud-based storage drive – Google Drive

Drive.

The Next Web was lucky enough to get a heads up on what’s expected, and based on the details, it seems like competitors may be given a run for their money.

Space

The site which is expected to launch at http://drive.google.com will offer users a free online storage service with 5GB of space, with the option to upgrade at a small cost. There are no details yet about referral upgrades though. Dropbox users on the other hand start off at 2GB and also have to pay to upgrade. Their referral program however allows users to upgrade up to 16GB for free, and HTC users even get a special free 23GB upgrade for 2 years.

Until Google details their referral scheme, it’s hard to make judgement just yet, but starting with 5GB is definitely a big incentive for many over Dropbox. As a Dropbox user, I’ve found it hard to get referrals because of the fact that so many of my friends already have an account with them. There are some clever ways to upgrade, but most can’t be bothered.

Platforms

Google Drive will first debut on the PC, Mac, Android, and iOS systems. This alone was a good decision because they target a huge demographic of users. While Dropbox is also available on a few other Platforms such as Blackberry and Linux, Google Drive will still be available for most of the masses.

Integration

One of Google’s most prized services is Google Docs. It has revolutionized the way people share office/school/home documents over the web. There are rumours that Google Drive will also feature some type of real-time document editing service similar to that or even integrated into Google Docs. This alone could be a huge draw for many. Dropbox does offer real time syncing, but editing it means users have to completely sync a file before others can edit it, and edits can only be made by one users at a time per sync (for management’s sake).

While Google has had its share of failed services such as Wave and Plus, Drive sounds like an extremely competitive service when compared to Dropbox, and we can’t wait to try it out.

There are other services like iCloud, Box.net, and SkyDrive, which offer similar services but still lack in various areas such as bandwidth limits and lack of real time syncing.

Nokia can’t compete with Apple, Android, say European carriers

Nokia’s Lumia phones are already facing an uphill battle trying to gain attention and sales in a market dominated by Apple and Android.

Four of the major telecom carriers in Europe told Reuters that the Lumia smartphones were not good enough to compete with the iPhone or Samsung’s Galaxy phones. As a result, carriers seem to feel little incentive to push the phones over the competition.

At one French telecom store cited by Reuters, Lumia models were not displayed prominently, and one salesperson steered a potential customer toward an iPhone and a variety of Android phones over Nokia’s devices

Lack of customer awareness is also hurting Nokia.

“No one comes into the store and asks for a Windows phone,” one executive an a European carrier told Reuters.

Nokia has tried to get the word out with a marketing blitz. Ads mocking its rivals and touting the Lumia phone as unique and different have already hit the market.

But the appeal of the iPhone and Android, both among consumers and retailers, shows that Nokia faces a huge challenge not just promoting its phones but changing public perception.

Hackers Can Make $250,000 Selling iOS Exploits To The Government

iOS hackers are some of the most sought after individuals in the security research community. Geniuses like Comex who come up with jailbreaks used by millions of iPhone and iPad users are offered incredible sums of money to sell their exploits to powerful and high profile clients.

Sure, you could win a decent amount of cash at a security conference for showing off the exploits you’ve uncovered, but why not make $250,000 and secretly sell your stuff to say, an entity like the U.S. government?

That’s exactly what a security researcher/middle man by the pseudonym of “Grugq” did for an unnamed iOS hacker. Located in Bangkok, Grugq made 15% commission off negotiating a $250,000 deal with a contact in the U.S. government. Grugq facilitated the transaction of the exploit information from the hacker in exchange for the 6-figure payout from the client.

Andy Greenberg from Forbes has put together a rundown of how much the average exploit sells for these days. The different price ranges are arranged by platform:

Windows exploits have always sold for more because of Microsoft’s larger market share presence in the PC space. Since Macs still only represent a fraction of desktop PCs sold every year, it’s much more cost-effective to create malware for the OS that the most people are using. You don’t see many viruses in the wild for OS X because there hasn’t been enough reason to target the platform.

What’s more surprising about Greenberg’s calculations is how little Android exploits are sold for in comparison with iOS. In fact, the average iOS exploit is worth far more than even a Windows exploit. It makes sense that browser are high up on the list, as they run on multiple platforms (for the most part) and serve as gateways to the internet. iOS, on the other hand, is the crème de la crème of platforms if you’re looking to sell an exploit.

Apple keeps iOS locked down tight. That’s why new jailbreaks always get so much coverage — they are feats of masterful hackery. Comex, the maker of the once-popular JailbreakMe tool for iOS 4.0, was reportedly offered 6 figures by multiple agencies to sell his iOS exploit. He ended up interning at Apple to help the company fortify the very platform he reverse engineered.

The people that make jailbreaks and find these kinds of exploits typically do security research work and consulting on the side. It’s a very lucrative, professional market that brings in millions and millions of dollars. Think about that next time you’re jailbreaking your iPhone.