Today YouTube has announced the launch of LeanBack, a TV-like viewing experience. Go to LeanBack and a full-screen feed, personalized for each viewer, begins playing. Using your enter and direction keys you can navigate the feed. No need for the mouse or for entering URLs.

Kuan Yong, Senior Product Manager for YouTube, explained how the feed is created.

“This feed is based on your YouTube settings and preferences, including content from your subscriptions and videos your friends are sharing on Facebook (assuming you’ve connected your YouTube account to your Facebook account).”

Two data sources – your YouTube info and your Facebook sharing – seem insufficient to get at an approximation of something as complex as a person’s taste. Here’s hoping they add in additional sources, such as Twitter accounts and feed readers.

Meanwhile on the handheld front, YouTube’s also pushed live a new mobile site. New touted features include a more touch-friendly UI, further incorporation of the main site’s elements such as favorites and ratings, and a generally speedier existence. YouTube also promises to work at bringing update parity across its desktop and portable kin, “unlike native apps which are not updated as frequently” (come on, tell us how you really feel, guys). Since the TV season is in a bit of a lull anyway, might as well grab your iPhone, Android device, HTPC remote, laptop, or whatever other screen you have and play catchup with your viral videos.

When Google launches new services, they often gets a lot of hype (see: Wave, Buzz). Unfortunately, they don’t always live up to that hype (see: Wave, Buzz). But one service that Google launched last year definitely has: Google Voice. Sadly, it has only been open to those with invites. But starting today, it is open to all.

Google Voice started as GrandCentral, a startup launched in 2006 to revolutionize phone management on the web. Google quickly snapped it up in 2007 for over $50 million. For the next two years, it went through a metamorphosis. During that time, some wondered if it was yet another service that Google bought and let die. But in 2009, it emerged as the Google Voice butterfly.

The “early preview” of Google Voice that Google unveiled last year has since undergone a number of changes. Notably, SMS now works better, a Chrome extension makes it simple to keep on top of everything, and there’s a great mobile web app. Most importantly though, Google Voice now works seamlessly with all Android-based mobile phones. The solution is brilliant — and was the central figure in Google’s falling out with Apple (after they rejected the native Google Voice app).

There are also some features we’re still waiting for — such as full number portability and a desktop app (which may be scrapped now).

Google says that there are now over one million people actively using the service. You can expect that number to balloon now that anyone can go to the site and sign up.

In fact, why are you still reading this? Go sign up (well, if you’re in the U.S. –  yes, it’s still U.S.-only). After all, according to this chart, Google Voice is the pinnacle of human communication.

If you are not familiar with Google Voice, here are some of my favorite features:

• transcribed voicemails: whenever somebody leaves a voicemail, Google Voice will transcribe the message as best it can (this only works for English right now). These transcripts are then forwarded to your email account and you can also opt to receive an SMS notification.
• listening in to voicemails: whenever you receive a call and decide to let it go to voicemail, you can also choose to listen in and even pick up the call if it turns out to be an important message. This feels just like the old days when answering machines with tapes were still a novelty.
• call screening: one neat option in Google Voice is the ability to screen calls. If you activate this feature, callers will be prompted to leave their name once they call, and once you pick up the phone, Google Voice will play the name back and you can choose whether you want the call to go to voicemail or actually speak to this person. You can opt to let all unknown callers who are not in your Google address book go through this procedure or just those calls from callers who have blocked their caller ID.
• recording calls: at any time during a call, you can press 4 and the call will be recorded. This only works for calls you receive on your phone for now, and doesn’t work for outgoing calls.
• conference calls: just ask participants to call your Google Voice number and as more callers arrive, you can just conference them in – this works for up to 4 callers.
• switching phones: if you want to switch phones during a call (say you took a call on your landline and decide you want to take a walk and continue the call on your cell), just press * and all your other phones will ring again and you can continue the conversation on any othe rphone.
• SMS: you can send and receive text messages from your Google Voice account and web interface
• integration with Google Contacts
• it just works: the call quality is good, we didn’t experience any outages during the last few months, and calls aren’t dropped. Google Voice does what it says it does, and it does it well.

The number of malware and spyware programs found on smartphones has more than doubled in the past six months — and some types of malware are more prevalent on certain smartphone platforms than others.

New data gathered from users of a free smartphone security tool shows the bad guys are increasingly going after smartphone users. According to Lookout, which offers a free lightweight mobile client with cloud-based security, backup, and anti-theft features, there were about nine pieces of malware and spyware per 100 smartphones as of last month — more than twice as many as in November 2009.

Even more worrisome is how rapidly these threats are hitting smartphones in comparison to the desktop: What took 15 years to evolve with the desktop machine is happening practically overnight in mobile handsets, security experts say. “We call this the 1999 factor: It feels like about 10 years ago in terms of prevalence of threats. There was a tipping point between 2000 and 2002 [for PC threats] that was driven by broadband” and more consumers going online, according to John Hering, CEO and founder of Lookout, formerly Flexilis. “The same trends are going to hold true here [with smartphones].”

Tyler Shields, senior security researcher with Veracode, says he has seen a definite uptick in malware arriving for smartphones during the past few months. “It’s coming at a much faster rate now. It’s difficult to quantify the amount of growth,” however, he says. Shields earlier this year developed and released proof-of-concept source code for a spyware app he created that forces a BlackBerry to hand over its contacts and messages. The spyware can also can grab text messages, listen in on the victim, as well as track his physical location via the phone’s GPS.

Spyware is the main type of malware Lookout sees being created for BlackBerrys, while Windows Mobile phones suffer more from traditional malware, and Androids from a little of both, according to Lookout’s data. “We’re seeing a pretty equal spread [of the threats] across these platforms,” Lookout’s Hering says. The firm doesn’t yet support the Apple iPhone in its app, so data on the iPhone isn’t included.

Why mostly spyware on the BlackBerry? Veracode’s Shields says it might be due to the heavy corporate use of BlackBerrys, which would make any data lifted from them more easily monetized. “The type of data on a BlackBerry generally is going to be corporate-centric and could be of interest to attackers,” he says.

A recent malware attack against Windows Mobile phones basically took an existing, legitimate smartphone app and booby-trapped it with malware: The 3D Anti-Terrorist app game for Windows Mobile was rewritten with auto-dialer malware, according to Lookout’s Hering. The app basically fires up the auto-dialer malware when the user runs the game. “It sits dormant for hours or days, and then wakes up and calls numbers at a premium rate — from Somalia to the South Pole,” for instance, he says. “The victim is then incurring charges but doesn’t notice until [he] receives the phone bill.”

A Windows codec and poker app also were hijacked, copied, and repackaged with malware. The apps are being distributed via typical mobile download and app store sites, such as sharewareplaza.com, geardownload.com, myzips.com, and top4download.com. “We’re seeing the same evolution on mobile as on the desktop: It’s going from notoriety [purposes] to trying to profit,” Hering says.

The malware attack vector being used against smartphones isn’t the SMS or email spam that was all the rage in the early days of mobile attacks. Instead, it’s following smartphone user behavior trends and exploiting downloadable applications, experts say. “Users are downloading apps at a huge pace,” Hering says.

And smartphones are actually more “personal” than PCs. They include GPS location, payment information, email, text messages, and records of who a user communicates with. Hering says today’s smartphone malware is all about grabbing personal information and, now, attempting to monetize it. “On the spyware side, you can imagine an app grabbing personal data that you’re unaware of [occurring] and transmitting that to a third-party location” where it can be resold, for example, he says.

Meanwhile, enterprises should be aware of the risks of breaches via their smartphone users. “They should be worried about this,” Hering says.

But the likelihood of another Operation Aurora-scale targeted attack isn’t as likely to hit via the smartphone just yet: “At this point in time, the PC [attack] model is so much easier and faster. I don’t foresee that level of coordination to target mobile devices at this point,” Veracode’s Shields says.

For those that didn’t catch Google’s keynote where they gave a rundown of Android’s progression since August 2008 (when the OS was first approaching maturity), AndroidTapp’s put together a great looking overview of those facts in a long track sheet, of sorts.

Key highlights – as most would probably remember if they watched the I/O keynote – are that Android’s reached 100,000+ activations per day, there are 60 devices (with more coming in at scarily fast rates) across 59 carriers in 48 countries by 21 manufacturers, and that the Android market enjoys 50,000 apps by 180,000 developers. We expect these numbers to look just as impressive as they do now after Android reaches the two-year mark.

A good friend of mine is developing an application that helps keep track of all your spendings. He is currently in a contest to help when some much needed prize money to help with its development. To help all you need to do is vote for him HERE and to learn more about his application, continue reading.

rugalFay is a application to help you keep track of your spending. Services like Mint.com are great but all they do is provide a general idea of how much money you have. This only helps if when have plenty of money or rarely spend it. Being a college student, I know swiping your card over and over again, writing a check here and there, and borrowing money from a friend can be very hard to keep up with unless you write it all down. Who carries around a ledger to document their spending? Grandma, maybe… rugalFay is nothing but an account ledger that can be used with almost any phone, not just a smartphone.

Some features are:

• SMS enabled, use text messages to record transactions and check balance
• Mobile version of site compatible with mobile browsers
• Native App for Android and iPhone
• Main site provides reports and charts to see how you are spending money

rugalFay accurately keeps track of your spending.

and yes…rugalFay is frugal in Pig Latin

How he plans on using the money:

I plan on using the money for the following:

• To promote and advertise
• Bring in another developer to help with native mobile applications
• Equipment such as phones for testing
• SMS fees
• Graphic Design

About the Developer:

His name is John Hiott. He is a 23 year old real estate agent. He is currently selling real estate while he finishes his 4 year degree in Computer Science. His passion has always been development. He started developing software on a Tandy his grandfather gave me when he was 10.

Google TV Annoucement at Google I/O

Today at Google I/O, the company made the announcement that everyone was waiting for — Google TV. While some glitches in the demo (with the Bluetooth keyboard) prevented it from being a “wow” moment, the implications are pretty clear what Google is going for. That is, the 4 billion TV users worldwide. Or rather, advertising to the 4 billion TV users worldwide.

Google noted that while computer usage is huge with 1 billion users, and mobile is even bigger with 2 billion users, TV is the real massive medium with 4 billion users around the world. Further, Google notes that people spend 5 hours a day on average in the U.S. watching TV — and that’s more than ever before. Then the real stat came out. 70 billion dollars. that’s the annual ad spend on television in U.S. alone.

Video should be consumed on the biggest, best, and brightest screen in your house, Google says. And while they’re not the first to attempt this, Google thinks they can get it right. There are four things they’re focusing on:

• With Google TV, you’ll spend less time finding, more time watching
• We’ll also show you more ways to personalize content
• We’ll make existing TV much more interesting
• This is much more than a TV

“TV meets web. Web meets TV” is the slogan Google is going with for this new endeavor. It will work as a new box — you’ll just hook up your existing cable or satellite box to it. All the hardware will include a keyboard and a mouse — but it will work with Android phones too. And you can use multiple Android devices to control the same TV — no more fighting over the remote.

You can also use the Android devices to speak to your TV — voice search on the TV.

Google TV is built on Android (2.1 right now, but they’ll upgrade it later). It runs Google Chrome for the browser. And yes, it has Flash (10.1).

Also cool, since Google TV is Android-powered, Android apps will work on the TV. With the device, there will be two app frameworks: web apps and Android apps. A new SDK for the Google TV is coming as well. And YouTube has a new product they’re launching for Google TV: YouTube Leanback — this is an optimized way to use YouTube on a big screen.

Google is working together with Sony and Logitech to bring Google TV to televisions, Blu-ray players and companion boxes, and you should expect to see it in Best Buy stores by next fall.

You can also Click HERE for the official announcement via the Google blog!

For the first time criminal hackers may have succeeded in creating a network of “zombie” cellphones, infected with software that can be used to send spam or attack websites without the owners’ knowledge.

Botnets, as such networks are known, are usually made up of infected personal computers and are used to make money from spam or extortion. Millions of machines worldwide are secretly running botnet software and it has been estimated that one in four US personal computers is part of a botnet.

No botnet has ever been discovered running on mobile devices – until now, that is. Security firm Symantec, headquartered in Cupertino, California, says that a piece of software known as Sexy Space may be the first case.

Sexy Space uses text messages reading “A very sexy girl, Try it now!” to jump between phones. The messages contains a link that, when clicked, asks the user to download software which, once installed, sends the same message to contacts stored in the phone.

Similar SMS viruses have been seen before. But Sexy Space is unusual in that it also communicates with a central server and can thus be controlled by the hackers who created it – the feature that gives conventional botnets their power. If the network of infected phones is seen to be responding to remote commands, it can be described as a true botnet.

Zulfikar Ramzan, Symantec’s technical director of security response, notes that it is not yet clear how Sexy Space will use the connection to the central server. “But this has all the makings of a mobile botnet,” he says. As PC botnets go it’s unsophisticated,” adds Ben Feinstein of SecureWorks, a computer security firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. “But it’s a new development in the world of mobile malware.”

Mobile botnets would pose entirely new security threats, says Feinstein. For example, researchers have shown that one could disable parts of the mobile phone network by flooding it with text messages. Infected devices could also be used to infiltrate computer networks. In a demonstration last year, a team from Errata Security, also in Atlanta, used an iPhone sent to a company to spy on its IT infrastructure.

While sat in the firm’s mailroom the phone sent back information about the local wireless systems and computers. A criminal hacker could use the same technique to break into a company’s internal computer network, Errata’s researchers claim.

With the wide range of video formats out there, it can be quite a challenge to find a tool that can easily convert these to a format that is supported by your mobile device. The Pirate Bay, one of the greatest video libraries online, now has an application that does just this.

The ViO converter reduces AVI, MPEG, MP4, WMV and others videos to 20% of its original size without any reduction in image quality, and claims to do it faster than any other converter. The tool is completely free and comes with pre-configured settings for the most wisely used mobile devices, including the iPod, iPhone and BlackBerry.

The converter can be downloaded for free, but strangely enough a .torrent is not available. The ViO website is currently accessible at a subdomain of The Pirate Bay, complete with a nifty marketing pitch claiming that “ViO proprietary compression delivers better video quality, higher resolution and smaller file sizes, than anything else on the market today.”

When ViO is installed there is an optional toolbar that can be installed with it. The application itself is easy to use, and does indeed a good (and fast) job at converting different video files we’ve tried. If this takes off, it might even reduce the number of pirated downloads of some of the commercial alternatives. Some readers noted that ViO violates the GPL for at least 2 projects, The Pirate Bay will put the source online to resolve this issue.

Ok, so this is one thing that has really bugged me since I got my SCH-i760.  I will connect it to the internet and check my email, or look at something online such as the weather or google maps, and close it down and continue on my way.  But what I forgot was the fact that I didn’t manually shut off the data connection and for the rest of the day it has eaten my battery life alive!  After a while I found alittle program called “BandSwitch” but even it was not free and only a trial of the program.  So last night I decided to do some digging since I couldn’t sleep!

After about an hour of hunting around I was able to dig up a very cool registry edit for my phone (and any phone using wm5 or 6) that simply changes one value in the registry to turn on this auto disconnect idle data connections feature.  Below are links to the .CAB files to change it for you as well as what to do if you want to edit the registry yourself.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\ConnMgr\Planner\Settings\
SuspendResume = GPRS_bye_if_device_off
CacheTime = xxx (where xxx are seconds before auto disconnect, for me the best value is 60)

Auto disconnect GPRS after 1 minute idle time
Auto disconnect GPRS after 5 minutes idle time

There you have it, I don’t take credit for this just trying to spread the love alittle because I know this can be a real bother when your phone’s battery life is eaten up when you forget to turn off your data connection…. so ENJOY!