Since the launch of Apple’s iOS 5 and the latest iPhone, whispers about poor battery life have been floating around. Apple publicly addressed the issues yesterday and announced plans to correct the issues.
Apple on Wednesday said it had found a few problems that are leading some iPhone customers to experience less-than-expected battery life with iPhones running its latest software.
“A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices,” Apple said in a statement to AllThingsD. “We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.”
Apple declined to comment beyond the statement.
Complaints about battery life issues have been growing on the Web in recent days, but began shortly after both iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S were made publicly available last month.
The problems appear to vary based on what network a user is on, usage patterns and other factors.
Earlier this month Dell CEO Michael Dell said that as of right now, Android tablets aren’t really giving the iPad a run for its money. But his hopes must be high as a new player has entered the table consumer market. The Defense Information Systems Agency just approved Dell’s Mobile Security for Android platform for use within the U.S. Department of Defense. Here’s betanews with the details:
The consumerization of IT isn’t just taking place in the private sector. Consumer mobile devices are moving uncharacteristically quickly through public sector regulations to be used in government and military as well, and the Department of Defense is now on board with Android.
This week, Dell announced its Mobile Security for Android platform has been certified for use within the U.S. Department of Defense by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DSIA).
Dell’s platform was developed in cooperation with Good Technologies, and gives defense employees secure access to email, documents, and a discrete, partitioned method of distributing apps securely (In June, the DSIA said “Several DoD agencies are considering standing-up a DoD mobile application distribution center, but this capability is not expected to be available until mid-late 2011 at the earliest.”)
Siri’s not telling. Here’s the story from CNET.com. Note the Speedtest.net tool mentioned in the blurb.
How we test
It’s generally hard to figure out the way to get the best picture of how fast a mobile cellular Internet device’s data rate is. The truth is that the speed of a cellular Internet connection varies a great deal from one location to another. On top of that, it also depends on the server on which the app’s data resides and sometimes even on the time of day.
For the testing, I used the Speedtest.net mobile app, which is the most popular app for the purpose. The app automatically connects to a nearby server to download and upload data. How busy the server is during the test affects the scores, but the app still offers a good representation of data speeds in a local area.
I gathered iPhone 4Ses from AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, and tested the three smartphones against an iPhone 4G at a few well-known places in San Francisco: CNET’s lobby, Union Square, and the Fisherman’s Wharf area of Pier 39. I picked the first location for an obvious reason: it’s the lobby of the building where I work, which is right in the middle of the Financial District. The others are two of the most popular spots in the city, with lots of people using their phones. Also, I tested three 4G hot spots from various carriers for a comparison.
Keep in mind that these tests only evaluate data speeds for these phones in San Francisco and are not designed to be representative of data speeds you’ll find in your area. However, they at least should show how the data speeds compare between each carrier version of the iPhone 4S, as well as the difference between AT&T’s iPhone 4S and iPhone 4G.
Apparently there’s a new threat out there for mobile users: zombies (but not of the brain-eating variety). Here’s the scoop from Voxy:
AVG (AU/NZ) Pty Ltd, the distributor of the award-winning AVG Internet and mobile security software in Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, is alerting mobile device users to update their security to protect against the latest cyber crime threat: mobile Zombies.
As Halloween revellers turn themselves into the familiar fantasy version of these creatures, smartphones and tablets across the planet are being fully equipped by remote cyber-criminals to take actions against key personal, commercial and governmental assets – long before they can be effectively tracked.
A Zombie is an Internet-enabled computing device that has been hacked to perform tasks under instructions from others. Most owners of Zombie devices have no idea their system literally lies in wait to be called into a range of actions, such as:
*Click fraud – waged against sites displaying pay-per-click advertising, essentially stealing from online retailers
*Denial-of-service attacks – the orchestrated flooding of target internet addresses by a large number of computers to crash it and prevent access from legitimate users, often aiming to take down popular website
*Debilitating spam – spammers avoid detection and pass bandwidth costs to device owners
*Harvesting of personally identifiable information (identity theft)
Here’s Eddy Bruin, a native of The Netherlands who has been working as a test consultant within Capgemini from the beginning of 2008. Since then, he has been working for several clients like ING Bank and ING Investment Management. In this video, gives us a sneak-peek on his presentation about mobile app testing.
Here’s a quick interview with mobile app testing expert Karen Johnson, as part of uTest’s STPCon 2011 video series. Karen is the owner of Software Test Management, Inc. and has been an active contributor to software testing conferences and quality assurance groups for many years. Stanton Champion caught up with her and asked about the mobile testing workshop she ran earlier this week:
“Certainly there’s a great deal of extra complexity to be dealt with in the mobile space, when we look at the number of different systems and functions through which a given bit of data passes, or the enormous number of platforms on which people want to run apps. Before Windows came along to abstract the hardware, there were drivers for each video card, each printer, each mouse, each network card times each operating system. But then each application program came with special drivers to talk to each kind of hardware. Developing and supporting all that stuff was completely nuts.
Since there’s a perception of lots of opportunity and lots of money in the mobile space, there’s a gold rush and lots of people are heading for the Klondike. Now there are competing mobile OSs, times all those versions of those OSs, times all those handsets and tablets and mobile browser versions and interconnecting apps and services. So in a way, we’re back to the late 80s and early 1990s, back in the DOS days, when I first got involved with programming and support and testing. Hey you kids, get out of my yard!”
Anyone with a Smart Cover can break into your “password-protected” iPad 2. This issue occurs in iOS 5, but we’re hearing uncorroborated reports of it also working in earlier versions of iOS 4.3.
What the flaw allows:
As you can see in our video above, a Smart Cover can essentially unlock an iPad 2. The person who unlocks your iPad 2 will not have complete access to your iPad, but will be able to gain entrance to whatever you locked your iPad 2 on. If your iPad 2 went to sleep in Mail, Safari, Messages, Contacts, or Maps, you can imagine the sorts of personal information that can be viewed on your iPad. If you left your iPad 2 on its Home screen, the person can view which applications you have on your device, control media from the multitasking bar, but not much else.
And perhaps testing, too. Here’s the story from msn.com:
Blackberry-maker Research-in Motion today said it will offer engineering students BASE (BlackBerry Application Student Entrepreneur) platform to enable them display their creativity in developing applications for its mobile phones.
The service, which will be available in Tamil Nadu, would help third- and fourth-year engineering students develop applications that would be used in AppWorld, BlackBerry Research in Motion India Head of Alliances Annie Mathew said.
AppWorld is the application store of Blackberry.
“It is an excellent example on academicia-industry collaboration. BASE would help them develop applications that will be made available in AppWorld,” she told reporters here.
She said this is the first time that such an initiative was taken by Research in Motion and the reason to select Tamil Nadu was it producing good number engineering graduates.
Since the launch of Apple’s iOS 5 and the latest iPhone, whispers about poor battery life have been floating around. Apple publicly addressed the issues yesterday and announced plans to correct the issues.
