Whether you’re a frequent traveler with top-secret information stored on your smartphone or you just like to download apps on your mobile device, hackers and malware writers are hungry to get their hands on your personal data.

According to Lookout Mobile Security, mobile threats stole more than $1 million from Android users in 2011, and the company expects that number to mushroom in the coming year.

Don’t get too scared, though. Some background knowledge on the most prevalent mobile threats—and a little common sense—should be enough to keep your identity and financial info out of unfriendly hands.

Head to the next page for threat detection tips.

Mobile Phone Security: The Risks and How to Protect Your Smartphone

• Introduction to Mobile Security Risks
• Know the Threats
• Protect Yourself

Things are looking ever grimmer at the sinking ship that is RIM. During its quarterly shareholders report, the company announced that its profits had plummeted 19 percent from Q3 to Q4, or 25 percent for the year.

The news follows long-time co-CEO Jim Balsillie stepping down from his position on RIM’s board earlier today. In addition to Balsillie, RIM’s Software CTO David Yach and COO of Global Operations, Jim Rowan, also announced they will be leaving the company. Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine you’re riding the subway in a major American city. At a stop, a stranger reaches into the train car, grabs your iPhone right out of your hand and runs off as the train doors close.

You report the theft to your cellular carrier and ask the company to deactivate the handset.  Its representatives tell you that’s not possible. Instead, they will deactivate only the SIM card, which means that while your number will no longer work, the handset still will.

Meanwhile, the thief resells your phone to an unscrupulous shop owner, who removes the original SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card, factory-resets the unit and sells it to an unsuspecting customer. The thief and the shop owner both make money, your carrier gains a new subscriber, and you’re stuck paying for a new iPhone.

Pinterest is this year’s social-networking sensation — and spammers have taken notice.

A 24-year-old man known only as Steve claims to make $1,000 per day simply by flooding the image-based bulletin board with items linked to his Amazon.com affiliate account, according to a report on the Daily Dot website.

“Pinterest is by FAR the easiest social network to spam right now,” Steve told the Daily Dot. “Quite possibly the easiest ever to spam. It requires almost no work to get started and no money to invest. You just have to know how the system works and how you can fix it to your advantage.” Read the rest of this entry »

The door to your aircraft has just closed and you are asked to turn off all cellular and electronic devices. That, of course, is business as usual on any commercial airline flight. But once aloft above 10,000 feet, those laptops, smartphones and tablets can connect to the Web, transforming that crowded-cabin fever into a productive trip with none of the typical office distractions.

Currently there are two in-air Wi-Fi service providers. Gogo Inflight (Gogoair.com) services nine airlines using its proprietary cellular tower infrastructure across the U.S., including Alaska. Its current commercial airline customers include Air Trans, Alaska Air, American, Delta, Frontier, United, US Airways and Virgin America. The cost is $12.95 for a 24-hour pass or $39.95 per month, but you can find discounts if you look around.

Row44 (row44.com), relying on satellite–to–Wi-Fi technology, handles onboard wireless on Southwest Airlines as well as the private business aircraft industry. Southwest charges $5 per flight.

The good news is that we are now able to check email and surf the Web while aloft, activities previously barred by the Federal Aviation Administration. The bad news is wireless connections are available on only a portion of each airline’s fleet. For example, Wi-Fi is only installed on United’s transcontinental “p.s. Service” planes between New York’s JFK and Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO).

So how do you make sure that flight will have Wi-Fi? How do you make the most of that connectivity? And how do you save money? Use these five tips.

Tip 1: Plan ahead.

If you are absolutely, positively depending on there being Wi-Fi available on your flight, plan ahead. Each airline has a dedicated Web page with info on its Internet service. A few even have a Web form to input your flight numbers to check on specific availability. And to find the best seats for Wi-Fi on your aircraft, complete with power ports, check out Seatguru.com. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve been following Enterproid since they first debuted their Divide app for Android at CTIA in October. So when we heard the company was announcing major additions to the software here at Mobile World Congress we made sure to stop by their booth to take a look. As a quick refresher, Enterproid’s Divide app is one of a growing number of Android-based software solutions geared toward separating a user’s personal and work files on their smartphone or tablet.

Divide Extensions ups the ante with Divide Files and a new calling feature. Divide Files provides users with a way to access their sensitive work files on their phone, email them and edit them without them ever touching the phone’s memory. Instead, all files saved in Divide Files is stored in the cloud, or more accurately, on your employer’s servers. During our time with the new software we explored the Divide File system and even prepared an email with a file attachment that we pulled from Divide Files. Read the rest of this entry »

The followup to Intel’s wildly successful Sandy Bridge series of Core processors, Ivy Bridge, won’t be reaching the market any time soon. In fact, it looks like the chip maker won’t be releasing its latest work into the wild until June, a full two months after Intel’s originally promised April release date.

But what kind of computing goodness are you missing out on thanks to the delay? How about a notebook that’s part tablet, part Ultrabook and a super-powered gaming rig that could have Alienware’s best machines running away with their tails between their legs? And those are just the start. So read on to see the six Ivy Bridge-powered notebooks that you’ll be pining for, for months to come.

Next

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga

Lenovo's Ultrabook/ tablet chimera, the IdeaPad Yoga packs the power of a notebook and the versatility of a tablet into a beautiful machine that would make Frankenstein himself swoon. Powered by Intel's third-generation processor, the Yoga can be used like a standard notebook, but flip its screen over and it becomes a super-charged tablet.

In addition to its flashy processor, the 13.3-inch Yoga comes with 256GB of storage space, and 8GB of RAM and will come loaded with Windows 8. Yoga mats not included.

• Top 10 Notebooks Now
• 11 Ways To Increase Your Windows 7 Laptop’s Battery Life
• Intel’s Ivy Bridge Processor Platform: What You Need to Know

It’s not quite Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but it’s pretty close. Software developers and corporations are working on ways to give your smartphone split personalities: one dedicated to work and the other to play. The BYOD, or “bring your own device,” movement—along with the “open” nature of Android—is helping make dual-purpose smartphones a growing trend.

One of the benefits of BYOD is reduced overhead for companies because they can minimize or eliminate hardware and wireless plan costs. Encouraging employees to use their own smartphones can also reduce calls to the IT department, as employees generally have a better understanding of their personal devices than corporate-issued ones.

But with those benefits come significant risks. Read the rest of this entry »

In response to a New York Times report about poor worker safety, last week Apple CEO Tim Cook sent his employees an internal memo stating that the company is a safety leader and would never, “stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain.” However, a representative with the Hong Kong-based Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), one of the organizations quoted extensively in the Times’ piece, said that Apple inspectors visited plants with serious safety problems, and they were not corrected until disaster struck.

According to SACOM Project Officer Debby Chan, Apple has a history of failing to address or being slow to disclose safety violations at its suppliers’ factories.  ”Apple staff know very well what’s going on at their suppliers. Yet, it is not the agenda of Apple to fix the problems,” she said.

Read the rest of this entry »

The last two years have seen a slow but steady decline in the price for PC notebooks, with the average cost dropping from $530  in January 2010 to $456 in December 2011, according to U.S. sales numbers compiled by Market Research Firm NPD. Although a sharp drop to just $407 in November is undoubtedly due to steep Black Friday sales, the overall decline points to a glut of cheap laptops combined with user demand for the lowest priced systems.

The average U.S. notebook price overall, which includes Macs, has risen and fallen over the past 24 months but now sits at a much-higher $631, about the same average as in January 2010 ($635). Clearly, Macs have been able to hold their prices even as PCs have gotten cheaper and cheaper. The least expensive Mac notebook is still $999, while Best Buy alone sells two dozen PC notebooks for less than $400 on its website.

Read the rest of this entry »