Google tablet unveiled - the Nexus 7

Google has unveiled a small tablet computer bearing its brand in a challenge to Amazon's Kindle Fire device.

The Nexus 7 is designed specifically for Google Play, the online store that sells movies, music, books, apps and other content the things Amazon.com also sells for its tablet computer.

Both tablets have screens that measure 7 inches (17.5 centimetres) diagonally, smaller than the nearly 10 inches (25 centimetres) on Apple's popular iPad. The Nexus 7 will also be light at about 0.75 pound (0.34kg), compared with the Kindle Fire's 0.9 pound (0.41kg). The iPad weighs 1.44 pounds (0.65kg).

The Nexus 7 will ship in mid-July starting at $US199 the same price as the Kindle Fire. By contrast, iPads start at $499. Customers can start ordering it through Google on Wednesday, initially in the US, Canada and Australia.

Andrew Rassweiler, an analyst with IHS iSuppli, said he suspects Google will be subsidising the tablet to sell it starting at $199.

The Nexus 7 has more features than the Kindle, including a front-facing camera. The Kindle is believed to be roughly break even at that price.

Samsung Electronics sells a tablet similar to Google's for $250.

The Nexus 7 will run the next version of Google Inc.`s Android operating system, called Jelly Bean.

Google also announced a home entertainment device called Nexus Q. It sends content from your personal collection or YouTube to your existing TV and speaker systems. You control it through a separate Android phone or tablet.

The Nexus Q, which Google is calling the world's first "social streaming device," will available in July in the US initially and sell for $299.

Google made the announcements during a keynote to open its annual conference in San Francisco for computer programmers.

Google also demonstrated its futuristic, internet-connected glasses by having parachutists jump out of a plane above San Francisco. The audience got live video feeds from their glasses as they descended to land on the roof of the Moscone Center, the location of the conference.

Google is making prototypes of the glasses available to computer programmers to try out. They can only be purchased for $US1,500 at the conference this week, for delivery early next year. Google is also giving all 6,000 attendees a Nexus 7, Nexus Q and Google Nexus phone for free.

At the event, Google provided an update on its Google Plus social network, which the company considers crucial to challenging Facebook for users and advertising. Google said the year-old social network now has 250 million, far smaller than Facebook's more than 900 million but larger than what Facebook had at the one-year mark.

Google said more people use Google Plus from mobile devices than traditional computers. On Wednesday, it introduced a Google Plus app for Android tablets and said one for the iPad is coming "very soon."

Google's expansion into the tablet market with the Nexus 7 brings another imposing entrant into what is already a battle of tech heavyweights. Last week, Microsoft announced its own tablet, Surface. Expected to go on sale this fall, Surface will run on a revamped version of Windows and compete directly with the iPad.

Although the tablet carries the Google brand, the machine will be made by AsusTek Computer Inc. Google also recently expanded into the device-making business with its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility, but the company has stressed that it intends to continue to rely on Asus and other manufacturers that have embraced Android.

There are already other Android-powered tablets on the market, but none have proven nearly as popular as the iPad or Kindle Fire. That has raised worries at Google as more people rely on tablets to surf the internet.

If Apple and Amazon establish themselves as the dominant tablet makers, they could set up their operating systems in ways that de-emphasize Google's internet search engine and other services. Apple develops its own system, while Amazon modifies Android for use in Kindles.

Apple already has announced that the next version of the iPad operating system will abandon Google's digital maps as the built-in navigation system. That shift could cause neighbourhood merchants to spend less money advertising on Google.

Earlier Wednesday, Google unveiled a new search tool to help you get the right information at the right time on your mobile device. Called Google Now, the tool will be part of Jelly Bean, which will be available in mid-July. Some devices, including the Galaxy Nexus, will get the upgrade automatically over the air.

With Google Now, if you say "traffic," for example, it will look at your usual commute to work and show you alternative routes if there's a lot of traffic. It will tell you the scores of your favourite sports teams automatically, and it will keep you up to date on flight statuses if you are flying somewhere. You'll have to activate Google Now to start using it.

Google said the Google Now feature will get smarter as you use it more.

The feature bears resemblance to the Siri virtual assistant on Apple's iPhone.

Jelly Bean will also come with the ability to share photos by tapping two phones together, using an emerging wireless technology called near-field communications.

Google said there are a million new Android devices activated daily, up from 400,000 a year ago. Google says there's particularly fast growth in emerging markets such as Brazil and India. Android is now the chief rival to the mobile software running Apple's iPhone and iPad.

Want To Know A Secret? Check Out Dell\'s Trade Secrets eBook

As small business owners and entrepreneurs, we are constantly looking to those who have come before us and those who have clearly obtained success and wondered ‘Just how do they do it?'

Well, Dell understands our driving desire to learn from the best and has recently released it's third Dell Trade Secrets ebook.

This new book offers great bits of advice and tips from industry professionals, including Smallbiztechnology's very own Ramon Ray, on topics such as Efficiency, Planning, Technology and Delegating.

So, check it out, read the tips and perhaps you'll find one or two that you can take away to help you achieve greater success in your own business!

4 Ways to Increase Your Sales Productivity by 243%

If you're like most small business owners, selling is the least favorite part of what you do. What if you knew there was an easy way to make it way more likely that when you call a client or prospect to make a sale, you'd get a call back?

According to a study by Reachable, having a personal connection with a prospect â€" even an indirect connection, such as a mutual acquaintance or colleague â€" makes prospects five times more likely to call you back. If you have a direct connection with the prospect, the odds get even better: Your chances of getting a return call increase elevenfold.

To put this another way: For every 1,000 calls you make, only 345 will get returned if you don't have a connection.  But if you do have a connection, 849 calls will be returned. Overall, Reachable found that personal connections increased sales productivity by an incredible 243 percent.

We all know sales is a numbers game, and no one likes making 1,000 calls. But knowing you could get almost all of those 1,000 calls returned makes it a lot more appealing, doesn't it? So how can you and your sales team create the personal connections that make it easier to make the sale?

Here are four ideas:

1. Start a referral program. Asking your satisfied customers for referrals is a great way to build a pipeline of warm leads with whom you have a connection. Create a system for regularly requesting referrals at a point after you've delivered the goods and know your customer is happy with the job you've done.
2. Spread the word. Let your colleagues and business associates know you're looking for new prospects. Keep them up to date on the types of projects you're doing, areas you're looking to expand into or new skills you and your team are developing. LinkedIn is an especially good tool for staying top of mind; post regular updates and you can gently let your connections know what you're doing without being pushy about it.
3. Get out there. Reachable studied all kinds of connections, including those made by social media or email. In my opinion, though â€" and I bet most of you agree with me â€" at some point, you need to make the connection in person. We're all way more likely to respond to someone we've actually met, or someone who knows someone we've actually met-that's just the way we're wired. Get and stay involved in organizations, associations and networking events that bring you in contact with the right kinds of prospects and get results for you.
4. Harness technology. There are more CRM tools than ever out there today (search “CRM” on this site and find reviews of several). Many are robust, yet simple enough for even the smallest businesses to benefit from. Set up a CRM system and (this is key) actually use it. You'll have a record of your business's connections that anyone on your team can use.

Sales Photo via Shutterstock

Google takes aim at Apple\'s iPad with cheaper, slimmer tablet

Google plans to unveil a US$199 ($252) tablet co-branded with Tawian's Asustek Computer at its developers conference this week, taking direct aim at Apple's iPad, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The 7-inch (18cm) tablet running Android mobile software will be shown at the Google I/O conference, starting today in San Francisco, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private.

The device will also showcase new features of Android, according to one person, who said the latest version of the software is named Jellybean.

Google is scouting out new ways to fuel sales of tablets, a market that may almost double this year to 118.9 million units, according to Gartner.

Though Android has grabbed more than half of the smartphone market, tablets with the software have won less than half the iPad's share, and will face new pressure from Microsoft, which unveiled its own tablet last week.

"The tablet market is a major challenge for Google at this point," said Clayton Moran, a Florida-based analyst at Benchmark.

"They need to have a competitive product with the iPad."

David Chang, chief financial officer of Taipei-based Asustek, declined to comment, as did Shari Yoder Doherty, a spokeswoman for Google.

Android tablets are already available from companies such as Samsung Electronics, HTC and Motorola Mobility Holdings, which Google acquired last month for US$12.5 billion.

Still, Google is aiming to capitalise on its own brand name.

It also seeks to woo consumers with a slimmer device that features the latest software yet carries a lower price than the larger iPad. The newest versions of Apple's tablet start at US$499.

"When you look at the tablet market, you have iPad - and others," said Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at industry researcher IHS iSuppli.

"Everybody is trying to figure out how to compete against the iPad. And I just see it as just one more experiment going down that road."

This would also be the first tablet to get Google's Nexus designation. Google has worked with manufacturers such as Samsung in the past for Nexus smartphones to highlight the best features of Android software.

The processor in the new tablet will be provided by Nvidia, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

Gartner expects the iPad to remain the global tablet leader through at least 2016, even as it loses some market share.

The iPad will account for an estimated 46 per cent of shipments in 2016, down from a projected 61 per cent this year.

Android may have 37 per cent by 2016, a gain from 32 per cent.

Microsoft, which had zero per cent of the tablet market last year, is expected to nab 12 per cent by 2016.

That number may increase, because the Gartner report was issued before Microsoft unveiled its Windows-based Surface tablet, which is likely to be released by the end of the year.

Sales of Android-based tablets have been held back by a lack of developers for the platform.

Apple's App Store has more than 650,000 downloadable applications that include games, news and travel tools for the iPhone and iPad.

Though Google Play has more than 500,000 for Android devices, Apple's success with the iPad has given it a greater lead in apps designed specifically for tablets, said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Gartner.

"At the moment, we don't see the ecosystem being strong enough to compete," Milanesi said.

"There's just not enough apps that give you a rich experience on the tablet as you have at the moment with Apple."

- Bloomberg

Qualys extends BrowserCheck capabilities and adds Howard Schmidt to board of directors

Qualys has added new technologies to its BrowserCheck product to enable users to scan multiple browsers at once as well as details on the main vulnerabilities.

The company said that users running multiple browsers can now check all of their browsers in a single scan using BrowserCheck, with users able to fix any vulnerable or out-of-date components individually, regardless of the browser.

Qualys CTO Wolfgang Kandek, said: “Windows users can also select an option to run system checks that analyse anti-virus, firewall and Windows updates settings. Recommended actions are displayed on a separate tab (System Checks) in the results.” 

For business edition, a new Asset tab organises BrowserCheck scan data by asset, making it easier for IT administrators to identify which assets have insecure components. This data is then sorted by the number of issues, time of last scan, IP address, platform, user and asset name, and it can be filtered by browser type and plug-in, to help administrators investigate issues affecting subsets of assets.

Kandek said: “Clicking on an asset drills into the detail of the latest scan, and a drop-down allows you to see the same detailed drill-down of previous scans run on the asset. Anywhere you can see information on a specific asset, you can choose to ignore the asset and it will be removed from the data set. This is useful when a user in your organization forwards your organisation's BrowserCheck URL to someone outside the organisation, whose system you don't want to track.”

The dashboard also now features a 'Current Status of Windows Assets' to show the top ten insecure assets in the organisation, as well as a graph summarising the security status of all assets.

In other news, former White House cyber security coordinator Howard Schmidt has joined Qualys' board of directors. Schmidt retired from the Obama administration last month after serving two and half years in the position, during which time he unveiled the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative for securing government and private industry networks; launched the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace; and made moves to tackle the prevalence of botnets and protect power grids from attack.

Qualys said that he will lend his expertise and guidance to help the company expand its presence in the federal government and further build industry collaboration efforts through the CSO Interchange, which he co-founded with Qualys CEO and chairman Philippe Courtot in May 2004.

Schmidt said: “By delivering security and compliance services through the cloud, Qualys has been a leader in helping organisations and government agencies monitor and protect against the constantly changing threat landscape. I look forward to working with the Qualys team on the new security challenges that businesses and government agencies are facing today so we can arm them with the best solutions to enhance their security and compliance posture.”

Courtot said: “Howard is internationally known and respected for his vision and contributions to improving corporate and government security. We are honoured to welcome him to our board of directors and gain his valuable insight and guidance to expand our cloud security and compliance offerings to better serve the public and private sectors.”

Credit Union Small Business Lending Act Would Help Small Businesses Find Capital

The Credit Union Small Business Lending Act (H.R. 4191) is bipartisan legislation introduced by Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) and Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), that would make it easier for credit unions to participate in the SBA small business loan programs.

SBA lending has been critical to helping the growth of small business, which creates the lion's share of new jobs in the U.S. economy. Passage of the Credit Union Small Business Lending Act would enable credit unions to provide more loans to small companies. This, in turn, would spur further economic recovery.

Everybody wins.

Another important piece of legislation before Congress is H.R. 1418, which would raise the credit union member business lending (MBL) cap from 12.25% of assets to 27.5% of assets.

At a time when big banks typically reject nine out of 10 funding requests from small business owners, credit unions have filled the void. In the past 12 months, they have steadily upped their loan approval percentages and have become an increasingly important source for capital. Removing the 12.25% asset cap and allowing them to increase their small business lending can only help make things better as the economy continues to rebound.

Month Credit Unions, SMB Loan Approval %:

May â€" 11 51.20%
Jun â€" 11 52.30%
Jul â€" 11 53.40%
Aug â€" 11 54.20%
Sep â€" 11 55.50%
Oct â€" 11 56.60%
Nov â€" 11 57.00%
Dec â€" 11 57.40%
Jan â€" 12 57.60%
Feb â€" 12 57.80%
Mar â€" 12 57.90%
Apr â€" 12 57.40%
May â€" 12 57.60%

* source: Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index for May 2012

“Allowing credit unions to do more to help small businesses is an important step toward helping our nation recover from the current economic downturn,” said Robert Marquette, president and CEO of Members 1st Federal Credit Union in Mechanicsburg, PA. He is also an at-large director for the NAFCU, the National Association of Federal Credit Unions, the only national organization that focuses exclusively on federal issues affecting credit unions.

“On behalf of America's credit unions, their 94 million members and small businesses, we urge Congress to act to pass both of these important job creating bills, H.R. 1418 and H.R. 4191,” added Marquette, who informed the House Small Business Committee Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Regulations that the average loan size for MBL loans is $185,000, and that since the end of 2007, business loan applications have grown from $87 million to $259 million in 2011.”

I agree with Robert Marquette. Removing the restrictions on credit union lending will keep capital free flowing. That, in turn, will help spur business growth and job creation.

Find Capital Photo via Shutterstock

Video Testimonials: Profiting from Authentic Customer Feedback

It's funny that the underlying ethos of marketing shifts as much backwards as technology progresses. In the era of Internet, social media, digital marketing, and SEO/SEM, it's not so much about the reach that a business has to worry about; it's more about the engagement.

The timeline for marketing first started with trade between two parties, which was based on trust. Later marketing found its way to customers through mass media. After a heady run of hit-and-miss (which is what mass media gives businesses, at the most), the core of marketing best practices are now back to win the trust of the customer through one-on-one marketing en masse.

A good way to evoke trust from your customers is to gather video testimonials. In the world of Internet marketing, scrupulous Internet marketers ruined the authenticity of a testimonial by making up random testimonials with computer-generated names â€" and that's a bad pinch.  Video testimonials, to a large extent, remain authentic. First, it's real people talking. Most video testimonials also come with customer information showing up. You can't make up too many of these, can you?

How do you make video testimonials? What are some of the better ways to create video testimonials? Let's take a look at some great options:

GetBravo: It's, by far, one of the few robust business solutions for generating video testimonials for small business owners. Complete with a support system, knowledge base, and ever-evolving feature set, GetBravo makes it easy for you to collect video testimonials for your products, services, or your brand. With regular plans starting from just $49 per month, you can pick and choose your plan and get started immediately. You are not limited to video testimonials though. You may also create sales pitches, create webinars on the fly, receive feedback, launch social contests, create compelling video content that goes great with your blog, and much more.

Skype: Almost everyone knows and probably uses Skype. Apart from computer-to-computer calling and communications, Skype also provides plenty of other services for small businesses. While screen sharing, video calls, and instant messaging are popular, Skype also lets business users connect with others in real-time and record conversations. You'll of course need Skype for Business, editing software (If you'd like to keep it professional), and a Skype Recorder (Call Recorder for Mac and Pamela for Windows).

Final Cut and Adobe Premier: Record Videos, the Old-fashioned way

If you have the resources, you could choose to actually visit your customers in person and have them talk to a camera (a simple camcorder will do).  Using professional software like Final Cut Pro (For Mac) and Adobe Premier Pro CS6 (for all OS), you'll be able to create professional, high-quality videos for user testimonials.

Plenty of small businesses already use great-looking, authentic, and professionally rendered video testimonials to give them that much-needed marketing boost by invoking trust in their customers.

Are you going to be next?

SMBs Prepare To Jump Into Mobile Marketing

So what do you your marketing plans look like for the next year? If you're like the majority of small- to medium-sized businesses, they include putting together a mobile marketing campaign and making your move onto those smaller (but increasingly profitable) screens. And if they don't, well, maybe they should!

Earlier this week, eMarketer commented on a survey from Strongmail which found that 75 percent of marketers without a current mobile strategy have plans to develop one within the next year. Strongmail's 2012 Mobile Marketing survey found that 14 percent of business owners plan to dive into mobile within the next six months, 29 percent in the next 6-12 months, and 32 percent will do it in the next year or more.

It's worth noting that even the marketers currently putting off mobile know they have only have a short window where they'll be able to ignore this trend. The world and the market are becoming increasingly mobile-reliant. If you want your customers to be able to find you, your business must go where they are. And they're on the move.

There's no getting around it.

For businesses already investing in the mobile revolution, 70 percent are doing so with mobile Web sites; 55 percent are building mobile applications; and surprisingly, nearly 50 percent have experimented with QR codes.

While just 40 percent of respondents said they're using paid mobile advertising today, you can expect this area to grow significantly over the next year, especially if Google and Facebook have anything to say about it.

Earlier this month, Google announced it would finally be integrating AdMob's mobile display ads, which appear in more than 300,000 apps on phones, into its AdWords platform. The new integration will make it considerably easier for SMBs to purchase mobile ads since they'll be to do it directly within AdWords, the same place they're purchasing other types of paid advertising.

Facebook has also automated mobile-ad buying to make it easier and faster for businesses to purchase mobile ad inventory.

Of course, the Strongmail data has now been corroborated by multiple other sources.

For example, the Small Business Mobile Survey, released in May, indicated that while 69 percent of SMBs view mobile as a significant growth source for the future, only 26 percent currently have a mobile-friendly Web site today and just 14 percent having a standalone mobile site. Interestingly, however, of those that do have a standalone site, 84 percent said they had seen an increase in new business due to these mobile marketing efforts.

But, again, even these business owners know they can't ignore mobile forever, with 64 percent saying they plan to spend more in mobile marketing this year. They're motivated to get involved by the ability to provide better service to existing customers, attract more local customers, and gain a competitive advantage.

It truly is the time for mobile. If you haven't dove into the mobile waters yet, now's the time to jump. The water's just heating up.

Image credit: stockbroker / 123RF Stock Photo

RSA hits out at SecurID research

RSA has dismissed media reports about the security concerns of its SecurID 800 authenticator.

Following the research paper by Team Prosecco, which looked at attack vectors against authentication tools and evaluated cryptographic hardware, RSA's CTO for the identity and data protection business unit, Sam Curry, said that RSA had received many inquiries, press pickups, blog entries and tweets regarding an alleged 'crack' by scientific researchers of the RSA SecurID 800 authenticator.

He said: “This is an alarming claim and should rightly concern customers who have deployed the SecurID 800 authenticator. The only problem is that it's not true. Much of the information being reported overstates the practical implications of the research, and confuses technical language in ways that make it impossible for security practitioners to assess risk associated with the products they use today accurately.

“The initial result is time wasted by product users and the community at large, determining the true facts of the situation.”

He said that the research does not cover any meaningful new ground and in the specific case of RSA's products, does not highlight any practical risk to users of the SecurID 800 tokens (or any other RSA product).

“However, it is an attempt to continue to explore the potential implications of a fault in PKCS #1 v1.5, and that is always a beneficial exercise regardless of the potential results of the research,” he said.

“The vulnerability outlined by the researchers makes it possible (however unlikely) that an attacker with access to the user's smartcard device and the user's smartcard PIN could gain access to a symmetric key or other encrypted data sent to the smartcard. It does not, however, allow an attacker to compromise private keys stored on the smartcard.”

Curry said that rather than highlighting a ‘crack' of the RSA SecurID 800 authenticator, the researchers in the study are noting a known vulnerability in the widely-used PKCS #1 v1.5 padding mechanism, a standard utilised by five vendors.

RSA's position regarding the research from Project Team Prosecco was detailed as so: This research is only related to the smartcard functionality of the RSA SecurID 800 token and does not impact the one-time password (OTP) functionality of the token in any way; this does not impact the RSA SecurID 700 or any other RSA SecurID authenticators, including software tokens, apart from the smartcard functionality of the RSA SecurID 800 token; this is not a useful attack, as the researchers engaged in an academic exercise to point out a specific vulnerability in the protocol, but an attack requires access to the RSA SecurID 800 smartcard (for example, inserted into a compromised machine) and the user's smartcard PIN. If the attacker has the smartcard and PIN, there is no need to perform any attack, so this research adds little additional value as a security finding.

Finally, RSA said that the vulnerability does not yield the private key stored on the smartcard, as the specific vulnerability â€" if carried to its logical conclusion â€" cannot lead to successful harvesting of the private key corresponding to the public key in a user's certificate.

Curry said: “We welcome continued research into our products and third-party technologies that are used by us and other security companies, as we feel it helps to make our collective information security solutions better.

“But when the research leads to confusing or overstated claims and reports, the result is confusion and misplaced concern, not productive collaboration. In our view, more care must be taken by all parties involved in this process to ensure accurate, useful information is provided to practitioners and the security community at large.”

It has offered guidance to users to follow best practices for endpoint security and ensure that the RSA Authentication Client (RAC Client) is up-to-date.

5 Great Tools That Help You Create Apps For Your Business

While it might be true that equality among human beings is a standard of society we want to reach, mobile apps don't get such a privilege. If you look closely into an application or its code, there are telltale signs that it was created with a specific environment. This kind of telltale sign gives us insight into the various different environments available for development. Perhaps your business would benefit from one particular development tool better than another one.

Now that we got the snowball rolling, let's talk development. We're not going to do the famous Steve Ballmer “developers” chant, but we are going to present you with some mobile app development tools that have each presented a special contribution to the mobile world. If you want an app for your business, choosing the right platform on which to create it might become a burden unless you fully understand all the funky techno babble they present.

But why present app creation platforms with techno babble? Why not make their features easier to understand for people who don't really put a lot of time hitting the programming books?

One thing to consider, though, is that there's no “right” tool to choose for every business. There's only a tool that would meet your specific needs. Now, let's get down to business and list you some good tools to get your IT pros into:

• PhoneGap - If you're looking to get your app on different markets and app stores fast, PhoneGap can be an answer to all of these problems. One of the most notable features is its “write once” standard, which allows you to develop an application once and not have to worry about tweaking it for different platforms. PhoneGap gives you an app that works in Windows Phone, iOS, Android, BlackBerry, SymbianOS, and 2 other platforms. This is very comprehensive and a great cost-cutting platform. The only problem is that apps might run a bit less-than-optimally on some platforms.
• Xamarin Mono & MonoTouch - Got people, or are you yourself, accustomed to writing in C#? The C# programming language is a very simple language used in making desktop and web applications, and now can be used to make mobile apps without a hitch. Xamarin gives you Mono for Android and MonoTouch for iOS. This also adds the benefit of allowing you to program in one language for both operating systems and Windows Phone!
• Tiggzi - If you like PhoneGap, but would like to develop apps on the Cloud and harness the power of Aepona's billing and authentication platform, then you can select Tiggzi. Their mobile app builder lets you flexibly sculpt your application into anything you want, achieving much more than a run-of-the-mill “hello, I'm here” app. They don't support Windows Phone and BlackBerry yet, but plan to do so in the future.
• Titanium â€" Offered by Appcelerator, Titanium is a strong application development environment that doesn't require any hardcore programming experience. Instead, developers can make apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript â€" the same stuff that makes websites. So, if you have a web developer on your team, making a mobile app aside from maintaining your site would be a total breeze!
• AnyPresence â€" Don't know how to code at all, and don't have anyone to do it for you? Use AnyPresence to make apps that you can immediately publish into the Cloud in a jiffy! This platform lets you harness the power of a form-based design system that implements features commonly used in enterprise-level applications with an SMB price tag. This allows you to stop juggling around with other app development utilities and create applications like wildfire.

Whatever you choose, just make sure that your business will benefit best from it. Remember that simpler app creation tools might have limits that may make you uncomfortable. In the end, you must pick a tool according to how complex your app will be. The more tailoring you have to do in the development stage, the more shades of gray start to appear on what you should choose from this list.

FBI set up sting \'carder\' forum and arrests 24 globally

Six Britons have been arrested for their role in an international global cyber crime ring that specialised in trafficking stolen credit card information.

Twenty-four people have been arrested globally, including 11 in the US, two in Bosnia, one each in Bulgaria, Norway and Germany and two in Italy and Japan. The FBI announced yesterday that one of the Americans is Mir Islam, who uses the alias ‘JoshTheGod', and is purported to be the leader of the UGNazi hacking group.

The FBI has said that this is the largest coordinated international law enforcement action in history directed at ‘carding' crimes, offences in which the internet is used to traffic and exploit stolen credit cards, bank accounts and other personal identification information of hundreds of thousands of victims globally.

The two-year FBI operation involved establishing an undercover carding forum called ‘Carder Profit' that enabled users to discuss various topics related to carding and to communicate offers to buy, sell and exchange goods and services related to carding. This site enabled the FBI to identify cyber criminals and investigate their activities.

The site was also configured to allow the FBI to monitor and record the discussion threads posted to the site, collect user's contact details and store private messages sent through the site between registered users while recording the users' IP addresses.

It also imposed restrictions to site membership from time to time to individuals with established knowledge of carding techniques or interest in criminal activity. For example, some new users were prevented from joining the site unless they were recommended by two existing users who had registered with the site or unless they paid a registration fee. The site was taken offline in May 2012.

Prosecutors said that Mir Islam was also the founder of Carders.org, an online carding forum similar to the sting site. Authorities picked up Islam on Monday night in Manhattan when he met an undercover FBI agent, whom he believed was a fellow ‘carder' - to collect cloned credit cards containing stolen information. Islam was arrested when he tried to use one of the cards to withdraw cash.

Preet Bharara, Manhattan US Attorney, said: “The allegations unsealed today chronicle a breathtaking spectrum of cyber schemes and scams. Individuals sold credit cards by the thousands and took the private information of untold numbers of people.

“As alleged, the defendants casually offered every strip of malware and virus to fellow fraudsters, even including software-enabling cyber voyeurs to hijack an unsuspecting consumer's personal computer camera. To expose and prosecute individuals like the alleged cyber criminals charged today will continue to require exactly the kind of coordinated response and international cooperation that made today's arrests possible.”

FTC announces files complaint against Wyndham Hotel Group over multiple breaches

The Federal Trade Commission is suing a major hotel chain and its subsidiaries for allegedly failing to secure the financial information of its guests.

The complaint centres on the fact that New Jersey-based Wyndham Worldwide experienced three data breaches in less than three years and in each case, the intruders made off with financial information by breaching the company's Phoenix data centre.

The FTC alleges that Wyndham, which operates 7,200 hotels and 93,000 vacation properties worldwide, and its three subsidiaries - Wyndham Hotel Group, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts and Wyndham Hotel Management â€" ‘misrepresented the security measures that the company and its subsidiaries took to protect consumers' personal information and that its failure to safeguard personal information caused substantial consumer injury'.

The FTC also said that the ‘property management systems' of all Wyndham-branded hotels are managed by the defendants, and are connected to the corporate network.

In the first breach, which occurred in April 2008, the hackers gained an initial foothold onto a Phoenix Wyndham hotel's network. Then the attackers pivoted to one of the subsidiary's corporate networks, which granted them access to the property management servers belonging to 41 other Wyndham properties.

In total, the thieves compromised half a million credit card accounts, shipping many of those numbers, which were being stored in clear text, off to a hacker-owned server in Russia.

The following year, vandals used a similar method to latch on to one of the subsidiary's networks, where they installed ‘memory-scraping' malware to steal another 50,000 card numbers from 39 hotels. In 2010, Wyndham announced another breach involving 28 hotels and 69,000 accounts, where the data was moved off-site between late October 2009 and January 2010 when the incident was discovered. Wyndham said that it became aware of the incident after guests reported that their cards had been stolen and used fraudulently after staying at one of the hotels.

The FTC is seeking unspecified relief for incidents which it said resulted in $10.6 million in phony card charges and other expenses.

“Consumers and businesses suffered financial injury, including, but not limited to, unreimbursed fraudulent charges, increased costs and lost access to funds or credit,” the lawsuit said.

“Consumers and businesses also expended time and money resolving fraudulent charges and mitigating subsequent harm.”

Michael Valentino, a Wyndham spokesman, told SC Magazine US that the company has yet to learn of any fraud that resulted from the breaches. He said he was surprised to learn of the lawsuit.

“We regret the FTC's recent decision to pursue litigation, as we have fully cooperated in its investigation and believe its claims are without merit. We intend to defend against the FTC's claims vigorously, and do not believe the outcome of this litigation will have a material adverse effect on our company,” he said.

Windows Phone 8 and RIM Announcements Suggest Many Mobile Options for Business

Announcements about Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 and RIM's BlackBerry 10 suggest even more options in store for business owners reliant on mobile technology to decrease costs and increase productivity. Mobile devices are changing the way businesses of all sizes operate, and continued development suggests this trend will only grow.

Windows 8 Coming to Phones

Microsoft re-imagines mobile…again. Microsoft executives Joe Belfiore, Terry Myerson, and Kevin Gallo give a preview of Windows Phone 8 due out this holiday season. New developments for the software mean a wider range of phone options, capabilities, and prices, more functionality crossover between Windows Phone and Windows for PC, and a different kind of app. Channel 9

Hardware makers are lining up. You can get a good idea of the variety of devices that will be running Windows Phone 8 by looking at the companies that are already lining up to build hardware for the new Microsoft product. Hardware partners thus far include Nokia, Samsung, HTC, and Huawei. VentureBeat

Tech Developments Continue

Worth a thousand words. Not only will Nokia be a major partner in the Windows Phone 8 roll out, but the Finnish company has been making other strides in mobile phone development. The Nokia 808 PureView boasts technology that produces still and video images so incredible it might be called a camera that makes phone calls. The Verge

Driving innovation. Another big focus of the Windows Phone 8 roll out will be location-based services, again with the help of Microsoft hardware partner Nokia. The company is adding the new feature, Nokia Drive, which will be available to other Windows Phone 8 partners too, so if you're buying some of these new devices for your business, this feature may well be included. Conversations By Nokia

Behind the Software

Some key features. If you're still wondering what Windows Phone 8 will mean to your business, here's a breakdown of key features that are probably most important in this new software platform. They include a multi-core processor, HD display, microSD card support, NFC, Wallet, Nokia Maps, voice controlled assistant, Internet Explorer 10, VoIP, Skype and app compatibility. Check for more details on all these features. Mobile & Apps

RIM Innovation

RIM still going strong. Businesses that benefit from the company's well-known BlackBerry and PlayBook devices will be happy to hear rumors about the company splitting its hardware from its service side or selling a stake in the company to Facebook or Amazon are unfounded. Instead, the company is preparing a new line of its messaging devices, especially popular with the business market. The Globe and Mail

Look, Ma, no keyboard! One major innovation users will want to look for in RIM's new BlackBerry 10 is the lack of a physical keyboard. The replacement of a physical keyboard with touch-only functionality has been a hallmark of smartphones, including the Apple iPhone and Google Android, for some time. RIM will be offering a similar experience this time around. The Washington Post

Go to video. But don't let a company description alone suffice when scoping out the features of the new BlackBerry 10. A video demonstration will give you a much better impression of what this next generation mobile device can accomplish. The BlackBerry bid for the small business mobile market comes with plenty of features. Engadget

Built-in savings. Finally, the BlackBerry 10′s new design has energy efficiency in mind. A recent review reports that the darker display color for the BlackBerry Messenger, one of the device's most popular features, was chosen because it would help conserve battery life. N4BB.com

Other Developments

Samsung challenges the iPhone. Microsoft and RIM aren't the only companies making noise in the mobile device space. An important part of any decision about the kind of mobile device you want for your company may have to do with whether the product line is here to stay. Despite the iPhone's near dominance of the market, at least one other mobile device is mounting a credible challenge. The Next Web