The Comms Culture

Lenovo is working with Microsoft and McAfee to help protect its users from the security vulnerabilities created by Superfish's adware. Microsoft's Windows Defender and McAfee's antivirus software were both recently updated to remove Superfish's adware from affected Lenovo PCs, according to the company, See also: Lenovo CTO admits Superfish put users at risk, talks damage control The update to Microsoft's Windows Defender was first spotted by security researcher Filippo Valsorda. It will automatically uninstall Superfish and reset the affected security certificates to remove malicious ones that may have been installed as a result of the adware Read more...More about Microsoft, Tech, Lenovo, Apps Software, and Apps And Software http://on.mash.to/19Tiw6m #facebook #social

 Social location app FacesIn has relaunched with a new focus on delivering location-based alerts about where someone will be soon — not just where they are right now. Read More http://tcrn.ch/19T7cY1 #tech

 When Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, the world was immediately changed forever and the web gave way to apps as the leading way people absorbed content. As with most emerging mediums, Hollywood was one of the first forces to take notice of mobile and tap its potential to reach fans. Unfortunately, a lot of these attempts have historically ranged from confusing to ridiculous. Read More http://tcrn.ch/1D2VRhG #tech

 If you didn’t know how easy it was for hackers to grab information off of your smartphone before, you should now. The Intercept reported earlier this week that the National Security Agency (NSA) and the British equivalent spy agency GCHQ had allegedly hacked into and stole information from millions of SIM cards produced by the Dutch company Gemalto. This may have given both agencies… Read More http://tcrn.ch/1D2xMYg #tech

It looks like Samsung's next Galaxy phone will finally ditch the cheap-feeling plastic of its predecessors. In a new teaser trailer for its upcoming phone — likely to be called the Galaxy S6 — Samsung teases that "metals will flow" while cutting to a bunch of cryptic, artsy shots of liquid metal.  The ad also proclaims that "borders will disappear," hinting that its screens will be bezel-free.  Other than a new metal design, the Galaxy S6 may come with wireless charging  as well as some performance improvement and cleaner software. We'll know for sure on March 1 following Samsung's press event in Barcelona. Watch the full teaser: SEE ALSO: Four years ago Gilt Groupe was the hottest startup in New York — Here’s what happened Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do http://read.bi/1D2nxDn #social #mobile #fb

Apple flooded us with information about what its first smartwatch will be able to do when it announced it back in September.  It will be able to share your heartbeat, prompt you to stand up when you've been sitting all day, and, of course, show you the time in a bunch of different ways. But, one of its most interesting capabilities is a somewhat minor one that's easily overlooked. Apple's industrial design chief Jony Ive talked about the company's upcoming watch in a recent interview with The New Yorker. Ive described how the Apple Watch's screen will be different than that of a phone — it won't light up the same way the iPhone's display does when it turns on. According to Ive, the screen for the watch uses deeper blacks than that of the iPhone. Ive thinks that an entire display, especially for something as small as a watch, shouldn't have to light up. Rather, the screen should only highlight the specific thing you're looking at. "The whole of the display comes on,” he said to The New Yorker in reference to the iPhone 6. “That, to me, feels very, very old.” But since the Apple Watch's screen shows deeper and darker blacks than the iPhone's, it'll make the screen look like it has very little, if any, frames surrounding it. The New Yorker cited the neon jellyfish images Apple showed on the watch during its launch as an example. Since the display would be so dark and it would blend into the bezels, it would make it seem like the jellyfish is suspended in space rather than just being pictured on a screen. Here's how The New Yorker described it: On a current iPhone screen, a jellyfish would be pinned against dark gray, and framed in black, and, Ive said, have “much less magic.” It's a small detail, but an interesting one, and it's something that could differentiate the Apple Watch from its competitors. Throughout the smartwatch category in general, there's been some question as to whether or not a small screen on your wrist could serve any real purpose. It's unclear whether or not the Apple Watch will answer that question, but based on Ive's words it at least seems like Apple is trying by thinking about screens differently on watches versus phones. SEE ALSO: Here's why there are so many different versions of the Apple Watch Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do http://read.bi/19RhFTM #social #mobile #fb

If you use Dropbox for cloud storage, Microsoft will give you a bunch of free space for trying out its own service, OneDrive.  In an effort to recruit new users, the company is offering 100 GB of space for free for one year to any Dropbox user who installs OneDrive.  You also have to have a Microsoft account to sign up. If you do, you can verify that you have a Dropbox account and then get your free space here.  Wanna see which cloud storage service is right for you generally? Check out our handy write-up about the pros and cons of each. (H/T The Next Web)   SEE ALSO: Amazon and one of its biggest competitors in India got into a funny Twitter spat Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do http://read.bi/19RdcjW #social #mobile #fb

Apple's new "spaceship" campus is officially designed by Foster + Partners, but Apple design guru Jony Ive has been advising the project, according to a New Yorker profile of Ive. Although Ive doesn't usually do architecture projects — he did co-design his house in San Francisco's Pacific Heights — he and his disciples have worked alongside Foster + Partners on the new campus. Ive's influence ranges from big things — like the 4400 concrete units that will make up the building's frame — down to little things like office signage, the slight curving of the floors as they intersect with the walls, and the control panels on the building's elevators. Not all of Ive's preferences came easily. The New Yorker described Ive's demands on the building's elevators as "a big fight." Of course, Ive is probably working on a lot of other projects with a lot more intensity than he is on Apple Campus 2. But given his enormous clout at Apple — some think he's the most powerful person at the company — it's no surprise execs there gave him reign over the new headquarters. SEE ALSO: Apple designer Jony Ive's favorite cars Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do http://read.bi/19QVPQf #social #mobile #fb

Only two years ago, it seemed like the juggernaut that was Samsung's mobile division was nearly unstoppable; there was even talk of the Seoul-based company getting so big that its domination of Android market share was causing nervousness throughout the halls of the Googleplex. With enough market power, the story went, Samsung would be able to extract concessions from Google such as a cut of revenues from ads served on its devices. The implicit threat there is, of course, that Samsung had become so popular that it could dump Android for another platform — like home-grown Tizen — if Google was not willing to play ball. But two years later, the landscape has shifted rather dramatically. From the top to the bottom of its considerable smartphone lineup, Samsung has seen a withering of interest from consumers. Read more...More about Samsung, Smartphones, Tech, and Mobile http://on.mash.to/19Qy4Yw #facebook #social

There's a new profile of Apple's design chief Jony Ive in the New Yorker, and it reveals new information about how he works. As you might expect, Ive's office is filled with interesting things. There are shelves filled with sketchbooks, as well as a rugby ball. But perhaps the most interesting thing inside Jony Ive's office is a motivational poster. The New Yorker say that this poster hangs in Ive's office: It was designed by Brian Buirge and Jason Bacher, at the studio "Good Fucking Design Advice." Elsewhere in the office is this framed Banksy print: You can read the full profile of Jony Ive here. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Apple Crashed A Paris Fashion Show To Promote Its Smartwatch http://bit.ly/1D0bPJg #social #mobile #fb

Apple is a company with a long, long history of extremely tightly-controlled media access. It doesn't want to engage, and doesn't need to, unless we're all getting the wrong impression about something. Say, for example, whether or not it's time to get excited about an Apple Car So the Bloomberg story that dropped late Thursday — warning us that it would be at least 5 years until we see an Apple Car rolling off a production line — had many of the hallmarks of a strategic Apple leak. Apple may not have been able to control the rumors that it is working on some kind of car battery tech; a lawsuit from electric car battery company A123, concerning Apple poaching its employees, saw to that Read more...More about Tech and Apple Car http://on.mash.to/1CXJdk7 #facebook #social

People are addicted to Trivia Crack. The app now has 13o million downloads, according to The Wall Street Journal. That's a significant jump from 100 million last month. The app has dominated the App Store, rising to the No. 1 spot and staying there for 66 consecutive days. That shatters the previous 36-day record held by the 2012 hit game Draw Something. It ranks 17 on AppData's list of top grossing apps, and Maximo Cavazzani, the CEO of the game studio that makes it, says it is "very profitable" thanks to in-app purchases and advertising.  Although the app launched in late 2013, it didn't take off until it launched a feature called Question Factory that lets users submit their own questions. The app is now so popular that users are submitting one million questions a day. But because each question has to get approved by 100 other users, only 1,500 get added each day. That slow process annoys users.  "You put a lot of thought into the questions, because you love the game so much," a user from Dallas told The Journal. "[But] if they don’t start updating it, it’s probably going to get too repetitive." While Trivia Crack's growth is impressive, it's not the first time we've seen a trivia app get crazy popular. QuizUp was the fastest growing iPhone game in history, but it has now almost completely fizzled out.     SEE ALSO: Steve Jobs' desk at Apple hasn't been touched since his death Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do http://read.bi/1CXyRkb #social #mobile #fb

 Apple has spent the whole week in the news because of a car it might be making, so that’s a real thing that happened. We discuss how the rumor went from airy tales to something quite solid, including a possible timeline for launch in 2020. Just what might an Apple Car actually look like, and why would the company even bother to make one? We don’t know for certain, but we… Read More http://tcrn.ch/19Mx4op #tech

People are always howling about how you NEED to switch to Apple or Android devices. iOS is the best! Android is the ... whatever rhymes with Android and is awesome! Sometime they have perfectly good reasons for switching. Other times, not so much. What are the worst reasons you've heard? Read more... http://bit.ly/19Mfh0s #mobile #social

Must-haves for life on the road. Business travel is not for sissies. And even the most hardened road warriors still need all the help they can get. In that spirit, here are some apps to make living out of a suitcase more bearable. Read Full Story http://bit.ly/1CWML62 #fb #sm #social

Though plenty of companies have been starting to build and release smartwatches and smart fitness trackers over the last year or so, most people are looking forward to seeing how the Apple Watch will drive demand for the product category when it launches in April. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that more people want a smartwatch running iOS than any other operating system, including Android. Based on global online survey data collected in October 2014 and charted for us by BI Intelligence, roughly one-fifth of smartphone owners are interested in pairing a smartwatch with their phones — but 31% of respondents who wanted a smartwatch said they wanted one running Apple's iOS. By comparison, only 12% of respondents had interest in an Android-powered smartwatch. Though Apple Watch and Android Wear watches offer similar functionality, only Apple’s watch will also support Apple Pay, the company’s new mobile payments platform that will let iPhone owners pay for goods with their wrists. SEE ALSO: Why Samsung wants an Apple Pay competitor Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do http://read.bi/19LVPRw #social #mobile #fb

Perhaps you have that next great idea — a mobile app itch you need to scratch. Well, don't we all? It's how you go about putting that idea into action that really matters That's why Mashable sat down with mobile guru and founder of product development company Fueled, Rameet Chawla, and asked him what special ingredients are necessary for building a successful app. "What's going to determine success isn't the added polish, but what the app is doing," Chawla says. "If you aren't adding value to the user experience, then it won't end up being a popular app." Rameet Chawla is a man of many apps. Fueled has helped develop apps for QuizUp, Afterlight, KeyMe, JackThreads and Barney's New York, to name a few. "Right now I have six screens," he says as he scrolls through his phone. "I typically start fresh when I buy a new phone, and I get a new phone every year. When I max out my screens, I create folders. I have no organizational structure. The apps are ordered in the order I downloaded them ... unless it's on my home screen. Home screen is specific." Read more...More about Mobile, Marketing, Business, Small Business, and Startups http://on.mash.to/19LDHHt #facebook #social