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Five mobile apps released this year that you must download

By Appolicious.com, Tribune Media Services

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Appolicious

With half of 2012 already in the books, now is a good time to showcase the best apps and games released in 2012 so far. Whether you are a social butterfly or couch potato, a shutterbug or a drawing game fanatic, there are great new apps worth downloading right away.

Camera Awesome (iPhone, iPod Touch)

Way more than just an incremental improvement over the pre-installed Camera app on the iPhone, Camera Awesome is so easy to use and has so many features that, after using it, you may not buy another stand-alone digital camera ever again. Created by 10-year-old photo-sharing site SmugMug, Camera Awesome offers several ways to "awesomize" your pictures, including automatic levelization and color adjustment. Furthermore, the interface is gorgeous. And while most casual photographers will have more than they need from Camera Awesome without ever paying a dime, there are several additional presets and filters that can be purchased for 99 cents a pop (or all at once for $9.99).

Highlight (iPhone, iPod Touch)

Highlight is one of several new and innovative apps that help users identify Facebook friends and other people with similar interests who are in their physical proximity. The app works best when you are at an event or urban location where other users have Highlight downloaded to their devices. When you enable push notifications to allow the app to alert you when a Highlight contact is nearby, you might realize that your old high school buddy works in the building next to you, or that there is an attractive person in line at Starbucks who shares your taste in music.

Viggle (iPhone, iPod Touch, Android)

Didn't we all have that childhood fantasy about an invention that could actually reward viewers for watching their favorite television shows? Thanks to Viggle, that dream is now a reality. Viggle lets users check-in and earn loyalty points from the likes of Amazon, Starbucks and the Gap for watching their favorite programs. Beyond earning credit for vegging, Viggle treats users to trivia questions, polls and tweets related to the programs they are watching.

Instagram (iPhone, iPod Touch, Android)

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It didn't take long for Instagram to become a household name after it made its debut on the iPhone in late 2010. It did take awhile, however, for the photo-sharing app to arrive on Android, which it finally did in April. It was worth the wait, both for the company and its community. Within a week, Instagram attracted more than 5 million downloads (enriching the experience for existing users of the service). Shortly thereafter, the 12-person company was acquired by Facebook for what was then a 10-figure valuation. Now that is a positive development you'd like to share with friends!

Draw Something (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android)

Modeled after Pictionary and adapted for touch-screen devices, Draw Something was downloaded more than 50 million times in its first 50 days of availability, making it the fastest growing app of all time. The collaborative game works well when played between Facebook friends or complete strangers. It's accessible enough that young children and tech-illiterate adults can pick it up in a flash. Despite a slowdown in usage after it was acquired by Zynga in March, Draw Something is still a blast to play.

Award To Develop Mobile Phone Apps For Stroke Patients

BROOKLYN, N.Y., July 9, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- SUNY Downstate Medical Center has received an award to develop mobile phone applications for stroke patients and their caregivers. Steven R. Levine, MD, professor of neurology and emergency medicine and vice chair of neurology at SUNY Downstate, is scientific principal investigator on the $500,000 award, which is from the federally funded Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).

Investigators from Downstate's College of Medicine and School of Public Health are participating in this study, which is being developed in conjunction with the National Stroke Association and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health. The grant team will survey stroke survivors and their caregivers to investigate the interest in and preference for smartphone apps that facilitate improved identification and management of risk factors and healthcare needs.

"Despite the saying, 'There's an app for that,' progress has been limited in providing successful mobile technology to help patients manage cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and other illnesses," said Dr. Levine. "Nevertheless, there is enormous potential for patients and their caregivers to improve health outcomes through this technology, including among the elderly, minorities, and those of limited financial means, who are often most in need of better care. We are looking to develop a model program that will address stroke risk and disease management that will be applicable to other conditions as well."

The two-year award is part of PCORI's Pilot Projects Program. The funding for SUNY Downstate has been approved pending completion of a business review and a formal award agreement with PCORI, which is an independent, nonprofit organization whose establishment was authorized by Congress in 2010. Its mission is to fund research that will provide patients, their caregivers, and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed healthcare decisions.

Investigators include Dee Burton, PhD, associate professor and chair of community health sciences, School of Public Health; Abhishek Pandey, MD, clinical instructor in the Department of Medicine and sleep researcher with the Brooklyn Health Disparities Center (BHDC); Clotilde Balucani, MD, research fellow in the Department of Neurology; Ruth Browne, ScD, MPH, CEO of the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health (AAIUH) and co-director, BHDC; and Marilyn Fraser-White, MD, associate director of research and training, AAIUH, and director of community engagement, BHDC.

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Dr. Levine is also principal investigator on Downstate's NIH-funded clinical trial network involving the four SUNY medical center campuses. Among the aims of the Network for Excellence in Neuroscience Clinical Trials (NeuroNEXT) is the recruitment of a diverse patient population for neurology clinical trials and to train underrepresented minority investigators. This grant is also part of SUNY REACH, a collaborative effort involving the four SUNY academic medical centers and the SUNY College of Optometry.

SUNY Downstate Medical Center, founded in 1860, was the first medical school in the United States to bring teaching out of the lecture hall and to the patient's bedside. A center of innovation and excellence in research and clinical service delivery, SUNY Downstate Medical Center comprises a College of Medicine, Colleges of Nursing and Health Related Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, a School of Public Health, University Hospital of Brooklyn, and an Advanced Biotechnology Park and Biotechnology Incubator.

SUNY Downstate ranks eighth nationally in the number of alumni who are on the faculty of American medical schools. More physicians practicing in New York City have graduated from SUNY Downstate than from any other medical school.

New Android malware infects 100,000 Chinese smartphones

Summary: A new piece of Android malware called "Trojan!MMarketPay.A@Android" has been found on at least nine app stores, and has already infected over 100,000 Chinese smartphones. It works by automatically downloading paid content in the background.

By Emil Protalinski

A new piece of malware has been discovered on more than 100,000 Android smartphones in China. It generates revenue by silently downloading paid apps and multimedia content from Mobile Market, an Android app store hosted by China Mobile, one of the largest wireless providers in the world.
TrustGo, which first discovered the malware, is calling this particular threat "Trojan!MMarketPay.A@Android" and has already found it on nine app stores: nDuoa, GFan, AppChina, LIQU, ANFONE, Soft.3g.cn, TalkPhone, 159.com, and AZ4SD. The security firm also disclosed the following eight package names for the malware:

com.mediawoz.goweather
com.mediawoz.gotq
com.mediawoz.gotq1
cn.itkt.travelskygo
cn.itkt.travelsky
com.funinhand.weibo
sina.mobile.tianqitong
com.estrongs.android.pop

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MMarketPay.A works by placing malicious orders at Mobile Market. Normally, a Mobile Market customer receives a verification code via SMS after purchasing an app or multimedia content, which he or she has to input back into the market to start the download. China Mobile then adds this order to the customer's phone bill.

MMarketPay.A automates this process and downloads as much as it can so that victims rack up huge phone bills. It finds paid content, simulates a click action in the background, intercepts the received SMS messages, and collects the verification code sent by Mobile Market. If a CAPTCHA image is invoked, the malware posts the image to a remote server for analysis.

In short, MMarketPay.A is a complex little bugger. If you're using an Android device on China Mobile, you may want to check your phone bill and make sure there's nothing suspicious on it.

Android lets you download and install apps from anywhere (provided you have the following option enabled: Settings => Applications => Unknown sources). If you want to minimize the chance of downloading malicious apps, please only use the official Google Play store.

Microsoft Inks Android Patent Deal With Aluratek, Coby

By Chloe Albanesius

Microsoft on Monday announced a patent-licensing deal with Aluratek and Coby Electronics, which will allow the firms to sell products running Android or Chrome OS.

Microsoft has now licensed more than 70 percent of all U.S. Android devices, the company said.

"The licensing agreements with Aluratek and Coby Electronics demonstrate yet again that licensing is the path forward to resolving intellectual property disputes within the industry, and can be effective for companies of all sizes," Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of the Intellectual Property Group at Microsoft, said in a statement. "Aluratek and Coby Electronics are the latest two companies to recognize the value of Microsoft IP in Android and Chrome, joining the majority of Android vendors in taking a license for this IP."

Microsoft has previously signed patent licensing deals with companies like HTC, Samsung, Suanta, Copal Electronics, Wistron, LG, and Pegatron.

Though Coby and Aluratek are smaller players, the deal is noteworthy because Microsoft has been waging very public patent battles over its Android-based technology, as have its rivals. Microsoft holds patents relating to navigation and how websites display content; technology used on the Android and Chrome platforms.

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One of the more public fights in which Microsoft has been involved is with Motorola, now owned by Google. Last month, Motorola proposed a settlement that would end its patent dispute with Microsoft, but Redmond was not exactly ready to sign on the dotted line.

In May, Google filed a complaint with the European Commission, accusing Nokia and Microsoft of mobile patent abuse. That came a month after the European Commission formally opened a patent abuse investigation into Motorola.

Questions about patent abuse prompted the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) within the UN to announce today that it will hold a roundtable on Oct. 10 with standards organizations, key industry players, and government officials at ITU headquarters in Geneva.

"The ITU Patent Roundtable will address the worldwide surge in patent litigation and the growing lack of adherence to standards bodies' existing patent policies. Topics include potential improvements to existing policy frameworks, entitlement to injunctive reliefs, and definitions of what constitutes a royalty base," the ITU said.

Microsoft will be among the participants in the roundtable. "Microsoft is pleased that the ITU is organizing this global event to explore current issues related to RAND licensing commitments made to standards-setting bodies. We look forward to participating in this timely discussion," said Amy Marasco, general manager of Standards Strategy and Policy at Microsoft.

Privacy risk from ads in apps rising: Security firm

By Tarmo Virki

Some advertising networks have been secretly collecting app users personal details over the past year and now have access to millions of smartphones globally, U.S.-based mobile security firm Lookout said.

These unregulated practices are on the rise, Lookout said on Monday as it unveiled the first industry guidelines on how application developers and advertisers could avoid raising consumer angst.

"Aggressive ad networks are much more prevalent than malicious applications. It is the most prevalent mobile privacy issue that exists," Kevin Mahaffey, Lookout's technology chief and co-founder, told Reuters in an interview.

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Over 80 million apps have been downloaded which carry a form of invasive ads - used by 5% of all free apps on Google's Android platform - which can take data from phones or install software without users' knowledge.

Some more aggressive networks collect users' email addresses or phone numbers without permission, while others install icons to home screens, track users whereabouts or push ads to notification bar.

Mobile devices have so far had limited appeal for writers of viruses and other malicious software, or malware, due to numerous small platforms and limited financial gains. But during the first quarter, the amount of malware on the popular Android platform jumped to 7,000 from 600, according to Intel's security software arm McAfee.

Lookout declined to name the most aggressive ad networks, hoping some of them would align practices to match the new guidelines which include publishing details on their privacy policy and allowing consumers to avoid data collection.

"These guidelines make it clear some practices are out-of-bounds. That's good news for both consumers and responsible businesses," said Jules Polonetsky, co-chair of Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington-based thinktank focusing on responsible data handling practices.

"Many apps are ad-supported, there is nothing wrong with it, but users should know what is their trade-off. People want to have confidence and trust that they're not being compromised while on devices that have access to their most personal information," he said.

Advertising networks work as intermediaries, linking large numbers of advertisers with media publishers.

They have seen a boost especially from a rise of Google's Android platform, where many of the applications, like Angry Birds, are distributed free and funded through changing advertisements.

Ad companies are closely watching the sector as mobile advertising presents an opportunity for new revenue streams. Advertisers are attracted to the sheer size of the audience.

"If you look at the 6 billion eyeballs - there is a potential for a gold rush," said David Gosen, a director at market research firm Nielsen.

But with consumers increasingly conscious of privacy issues, some said aggressive practices could backfire on the $8 billion industry.

"We are in a very early days of mobile advertising and models are very much derived from the web where practices have not been very respectful," said Anne Bezancon, founder and president of Placecast, which provides location-based marketing services but never shares or sells information of its 10 million clients.

"The mobile experience is much more intimate and personal - a phone is an extension of you, not a distant publishing screen. The equivalent is someone whispering in your ear."

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