mobile - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Enterprise mobile: 7 things CIOs need to do now

  I recently met with rock star CIOs at a conference focused on enterprise mobility. Here's a snapshot of what I learned:

• Windows Phone Mango: 10 things you need to know

  I was fortunate to sit down this morning with Microsoft's Paul Bryan, Windows Phone senior director of product management and enterprise experiences, to discuss the new software at the company's offices in Cambridge, Mass.

• If you use it, mobile malware will come

  IT people who try to secure mobile devices in a big company face three big conceptual problems.

• Big is not always better with smartphone screens

  Product launches at the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin are giving consumers an unprecedented choice of screen sizes. But analysts are questioning whether consumers can learn to love them all.

• BNZ launches first banking app for Android in New Zealand

  With close to 10,000 hits per month coming into its mobile website from Android users, BNZ has just announced the launch of its native Android application for customers.The application, available now from the Android market, allows customers to do the same operations they can do on the mobile website and the existent iPhone app, launched last month. Users can check their balance, view transactions history, transfer money and pay bills. There is also a store and ATM finder, using the GPS capabilities of the Android smartphone.Rogan Clarke, head of BNZ online, says the company realised they were neglecting a large portion of their customers when they released their iPhone application. "This is our attempt to get ahead of the curve," says Clarke, adding that "Android has gotten to a level where we just can't ignore it anymore". Clarke also says the number of Android users "is reasonably close to iPhone numbers" and the uptake is a lot faster.Since its launch last month, the BNZ iPhone app has been downloaded more than 15,000 times. "We knew from the outset that Android users deserved the same experience and when you take into account the exponential growth the platform is experiencing, it was even more important for us to get this app out there," says Clarke. According to Paul Bartlett, BNZ's project manager for www, mobile and online, the company has recorded a "1313 percent increase in Android visitors to the website" in the 12 months to June 2011. Clarke says BNZ is "confident that the solution has the same level of security as the iPhone app", as it requires the same level of authentication required by the iPhone app and the mobile website."Security and making sure the user experience was solid from the outset were our top priorities. You can't have one without the other in our view, so our in-house development team in Wellington have put in the hard yards over many months to ensure these three BNZ Mobile services are world class. BNZ Mobile offers all the security of our main internet banking website along with a silky smooth, mobile experience," adds Clarke.The launch of the app means that BNZ has become the first New Zealand bank to launch an internet banking application for Android smartphones (and one of the first in Australasia to build its own native Android app). Clarke says the company is well aware of the fact that it will not be long before other New Zealand banks launch their own Android apps as well.

• Social engineering: 3 mobile malware techniques

  Social engineers have been using various <a href="http://www.csoonline.com/article/480589/9-dirty-tricks-social-engineers-favorite-pick-up-lines">dirty tricks</a> to fool people for centuries. <a href="http://www.csoonline.com/article/596512/social-engineering-techniques-4-ways-criminal-outsiders-get-inside">Social engineering</a>, the art of <a href="http://www.csoonline.com/article/494464/social-engineering-5-security-holes-at-the-office-includes-video-">gaining access to buildings</a>, systems or data by exploiting <a href="http://www.csoonline.com/article/663329/social-engineering-3-examples-of-human-hacking">human psychology</a>, rather than by breaking in or using technical hacking techniques, is as old as crime itself and has been used in many ways for decades.

• Oracle adds iPhone support to BI, analytics software

  Oracle has introduced support for Apple's iPad and iPhone as part of a slew of enhancements to its BI (business intelligence) software, the company announced Tuesday.

• Is IT tracking your location via smartphone?

  Let's say you scored a boondoggle to Los Angeles for a business conference, and instead sneaked off to nearby Disneyland with the family for a vacation on the corporate dime. Or maybe you simply told your boss you were meeting a client, but hit the golf links with your buddies.

• Cisco CIO Offers Tips for Talkin' Business

  Cisco CEO <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/679327">John Chambers this week announced</a> a major restructuring of the company's business after two quarters of disappointing financial results. Namely, Cisco plans to stop producing consumer products like the Flip video camera and will roll its Umi consumer telepresence product into its business telepresence line. In addition, there will be a workforce reduction of 550 people.

• CIOs must join the era of empowerment

  Talk to any CIO and one issue inevitably surfaces: How do CIOs cope in a world where they can’t keep up with what their employees are doing?

• IT execs hope iPad, PlayBook can boost decision-making process

  Tablets like Apple's iPad and the upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook will change and improve the way corporate employees work and make decisions, contend IT executives at Chevron and TD Bank. Both companies are evaluating and running trials on such devices.

• With Apple's Jobs on leave, many questions and few answers

  With Steve Jobs taking another medical leave, Apple customers, investors, partners and employees are again left to wonder what implications this will have for the company's stock, financial performance, product development and business operations.

• CIOs have mobile on their minds

  More than two-thirds of IT leaders believe mobile technology facilitates business innovation at their companies. Less than half think mobile investments are being driven by business strategy.

• Windows Phone 7's best chance: No phone is perfect

  One of the big draws of Windows Phone 7, at least on paper, is its ability to connect with the Microsoft tools and apps such as such as Exchange, SharePoint and Office that are already ingrained at enterprises.

• RIM on the future of BlackBerry software

  BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) held its third annual BlackBerry Developer Conference (DevCon) in San Francisco this week, and BlackBerry enthusiasts of all kinds, including developers, analysts, media and other mobile-industry-watchers, showed up in droves to see what RIM has in store for the coming months and years.