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ITS MY OWN LIFE

Google Defends Way It Gets Phone Data

Posted by Abhishek Monday, 25 April 2011 0 comments



WSJ.com Senior Technology Editor Julia Angwin reports Apple's iPhone and Google's Android regularly transmit user location data back to those companies, based on data analyzed by The Wall Street Journal.
Amid rising scrutiny of their practices, Google Inc. defended the way it collects location data from Android phones, while Apple Inc. remained silent for a third day.
The companies' smartphones regularly transmit locations back to Google and Apple servers, respectively, according to data and documents analyzed by The Wall Street Journal.
Research by a security analyst this week found that an Android phone collected location data every few seconds and sent it to Google several times an hour. Apple disclosed in a letter to Congress last year that its phones "intermittently" collect location data, and the company receives it twice a day.
On Friday, a Google spokesman said "all location sharing on Android is opt-in by the user."Both companies have said users can prevent the data collection by turning off location-based services, although doing so limits functions such as maps.
However, this definition of "opt-in" doesn't mean the system is off by default for people who use the typical Android set-up.
Rather, when a user activates an Android phone, a screen appears saying Google's service provides location to applications and that it will collect anonymous data even when no apps are running.
The box to accept this is checked by default, but the user can uncheck it. For users who bypass this process entirely, location services aren't turned on.
"We provide users with notice and control over the collection, sharing and use of location in order to provide a better mobile experience on Android devices," the Google spokesman said.
There are ways for users to block the transmission of location information by Android devices and iPhones-although doing so limits important smartphone functions such as maps. WSJ's Jennifer Valentino explains.

Tests of the Android phone showed the transmissions included a unique ID that is tied to the phone. Google says this ID is associated with location and not with other user information. The user can change this number by performing a "factory reset" of the device, which deletes the phone's data.He added that "any location data that is sent back to Google location servers is anonymized and is not tied or traceable to a specific user."
Google has long defended its collection of location as helpful in providing services, such as accurate traffic maps, and its stance hasn't changed amid the recent disclosures.
Apple, which also came under scrutiny this week when researchers revealed its iPhones store location data for months, didn't respond to requests for comment.

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Google Defends Way It Gets Phone Data

Posted by Abhishek 0 comments



WSJ.com Senior Technology Editor Julia Angwin reports Apple's iPhone and Google's Android regularly transmit user location data back to those companies, based on data analyzed by The Wall Street Journal.
Amid rising scrutiny of their practices, Google Inc. defended the way it collects location data from Android phones, while Apple Inc. remained silent for a third day.
The companies' smartphones regularly transmit locations back to Google and Apple servers, respectively, according to data and documents analyzed by The Wall Street Journal.
Research by a security analyst this week found that an Android phone collected location data every few seconds and sent it to Google several times an hour. Apple disclosed in a letter to Congress last year that its phones "intermittently" collect location data, and the company receives it twice a day.
On Friday, a Google spokesman said "all location sharing on Android is opt-in by the user."Both companies have said users can prevent the data collection by turning off location-based services, although doing so limits functions such as maps.
However, this definition of "opt-in" doesn't mean the system is off by default for people who use the typical Android set-up.
Rather, when a user activates an Android phone, a screen appears saying Google's service provides location to applications and that it will collect anonymous data even when no apps are running.
The box to accept this is checked by default, but the user can uncheck it. For users who bypass this process entirely, location services aren't turned on.
"We provide users with notice and control over the collection, sharing and use of location in order to provide a better mobile experience on Android devices," the Google spokesman said.
There are ways for users to block the transmission of location information by Android devices and iPhones-although doing so limits important smartphone functions such as maps. WSJ's Jennifer Valentino explains.

Tests of the Android phone showed the transmissions included a unique ID that is tied to the phone. Google says this ID is associated with location and not with other user information. The user can change this number by performing a "factory reset" of the device, which deletes the phone's data.He added that "any location data that is sent back to Google location servers is anonymized and is not tied or traceable to a specific user."
Google has long defended its collection of location as helpful in providing services, such as accurate traffic maps, and its stance hasn't changed amid the recent disclosures.
Apple, which also came under scrutiny this week when researchers revealed its iPhones store location data for months, didn't respond to requests for comment.

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Rolls planning third Indian outlet in city

Posted by Abhishek 0 comments


CHANDIGARH: Rolls Royce, the car of royalty and ultimate symbol of luxury for past 102 years will soon be sold in this region of big spenders from the city itself. ''The company is looking for an outlet either in Chandigarh or somewhere in Punjab,'' Rolls Royce representative Pankaj Sharma told The Times of India here on Friday.
This is going to be just the third outlet of the luxury car manufacturer in India. Mumbai and Delhi are the other cities where Rolls Royce sells cars.
Sharma said the company was interested in having a sale point here as a large number of enquiries for these cars came from Punjab and most buyers belonged to Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Jalandhar.
The company's cars are priced between Rs 2.5 crore and Rs 8 crore. It even brought its two latest brands, Ghost and Phantom for a show at Taj hotel.
''India is one of the biggest markets for the cars as out of 1,100 cars sold by the British car maker last year, 70 were bought here. This year, the number may cross 100,'' Sharma said.
The car has been a royal style statement with heads of former principalities in Rajasthan having 100 of them collectively. The Patiala royal family had a number of them. The largest fleet was with Osho who had 101 Rolls Royce cars.
Other high-end automobile companies that have a presence here are Harley Davidson and Jaguar.
Sharma said, ''During the last couple of years, appetite for luxury has increased in Punjab.''

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Rolls planning third Indian outlet in city

Posted by Abhishek 0 comments


CHANDIGARH: Rolls Royce, the car of royalty and ultimate symbol of luxury for past 102 years will soon be sold in this region of big spenders from the city itself. ''The company is looking for an outlet either in Chandigarh or somewhere in Punjab,'' Rolls Royce representative Pankaj Sharma told The Times of India here on Friday.
This is going to be just the third outlet of the luxury car manufacturer in India. Mumbai and Delhi are the other cities where Rolls Royce sells cars.
Sharma said the company was interested in having a sale point here as a large number of enquiries for these cars came from Punjab and most buyers belonged to Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Jalandhar.
The company's cars are priced between Rs 2.5 crore and Rs 8 crore. It even brought its two latest brands, Ghost and Phantom for a show at Taj hotel.
''India is one of the biggest markets for the cars as out of 1,100 cars sold by the British car maker last year, 70 were bought here. This year, the number may cross 100,'' Sharma said.
The car has been a royal style statement with heads of former principalities in Rajasthan having 100 of them collectively. The Patiala royal family had a number of them. The largest fleet was with Osho who had 101 Rolls Royce cars.
Other high-end automobile companies that have a presence here are Harley Davidson and Jaguar.
Sharma said, ''During the last couple of years, appetite for luxury has increased in Punjab.''

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Ways to enjoy benefits of 3G and still keep your bills down

Posted by Abhishek 0 comments


By Nimish Dubey, ET Bureau

The wise person who pointed out that you cannot get a rose without attendant thorns might well have been referring to 3G services in India.

For, while there is no doubt that 3G (wherever available) has added a whole new dimension to what one can do on a handset, from watching streaming high-definition video to making video calls, the fact is that all this does not come free.

In fact, if you are the type that has been spoilt by relatively low charges for accessing the Internet on your handset using GPRS/EDGE, then it is a fair chance that you will be stunned by the kind of hole a 3G connection can blow in your wallet. For instance, while Airtel allows users to access the Internet using EDGE/GPRS connectivity on their handsets for Rs 199 per month with a 2GB data limit in Delhi, a similar plan for 3G costs Rs 750.
And that is only part of the problem, thanks to the faster connectivity on 3G, you end up doing far more browsing than you would normally do on a relatively sluggish connection.

Of course, if you overshoot your data limit, you will end up being charged at the rate of 30 paise per 20 kb. Which does not sound too bad on the surface, but on conversion works out to be approximately Rs 15 per MB, which in turn means more than Rs 15,000 per GB. Financial mayhem, in other words.

The good news is that, with a little prudence, you can still make the most of 3G connectivity without depreciating your bank account significantly. All it takes is some common sense and attention to download detail. (Note that this feature mainly deals with 3G usage on a phone, as that is where it is most likely to be used).
To start off, make sure you're on the right plan. As of now, most major service providers (BSNL, Airtel, Vodafone, Idea) have a number of 3G plans, but unlike the early days of accessing the Internet on your handset when you could have an unlimited data plan, there are some very strict data limits on just how much data you can use.

You can get plans for long or short periods, with data usage limits applying for both. Some operators, like Idea, have time-based plans which let you use 3G services for a limited period of time, for instance, there is a Rs 145 plan for prepaid connections in which you get 120 minutes of 3G free spread over a period of seven days.

Similarly Airtel has sachet plans that let you use small amounts of data over 3G for a limited period of time, Rs 11 for 10 MB of usage for a day, for instance.
The plan you choose depends on your needs, if you are the type who needs to use the mobile Internet a lot and need to download large attachments and watch lots of video, we would recommend using a high data usage plan. On the other hand, if you only occasionally need the odd burst of speed, go for one of the shorter duration ones.

A warning: do not get lured by the lower costs of relative low data usage plans, the costs you incur for data beyond your usage limit could really hurt you. As to how much data you use, Airtel has a very good data calculator that let you work out your data usage by answering some simple questions.

At the cost of sounding like old fogies, we must point out that if you are the type that just needs Internet access to check your e-mail on your handset and do some basic browsing, then you probably are better off with a "normal" EDGE/GPRS connection.
One of the greatest attractions of 3G connectivity for many people is the fact that they can access videos on their handsets in all their glory, without having to go through the stop/stutter experience that is the staple on EDGE/GPRS connections. Well, all that video gobbles bandwidth, and lots of it.

In fact, even if you watch as little as half an hour of video per day on your handset, it is a fair chance that you will have used up close to 1.5 GB of data in a month, more, if you are the type who prefers watching videos in high-definition.

The rule of thumb for online video fans with tight budgets as far as 3G goes is very simple, use only when necessary, simply because ten minutes of video can cost much more than an hour of relatively normal browsing on the same connection.
And unless it is absolutely essential, avoid hitting that "view in HD" option. The same goes for still images. Unless very essential, you should stick to viewing low-res images and not click on to their much larger versions. Loading a high-resolution image could put you back by a few MBs.

The above applies not just to viewing pictures and videos but also uploading them. So if you are the type that likes to pitch your pictures and videos on YouTube, Facebook and the like, please do not get carried away by the fact that 3G connectivity can let you upload a two minute high definition video to your social network in seconds, or that you can now post high quality pictures in Facebook without waiting for half an hour for the picture to upload. Yes, it works faster, but it does so at a price. One which you have to pay when the bill arrives!
This might sound a bit ridiculous to some people, but you do not always need to keep your 3G connection running. When you do not need to do something which requires high-speed data access, you can simply go to your phone's settings and switch to the good old 2G network.

Believe us, you do not need mbps speeds all the time, especially for tasks as routine as downloading mail or getting social network notifications.

While on the subject of notifications, wherever possible when on 3G connection, do make sure that you only keep those tasks running that you actually need. For instance, having your phone checking for software updates all the time might not be the wisest idea.


Full Story

Ways to enjoy benefits of 3G and still keep your bills down

Posted by Abhishek 0 comments


By Nimish Dubey, ET Bureau

The wise person who pointed out that you cannot get a rose without attendant thorns might well have been referring to 3G services in India.

For, while there is no doubt that 3G (wherever available) has added a whole new dimension to what one can do on a handset, from watching streaming high-definition video to making video calls, the fact is that all this does not come free.

In fact, if you are the type that has been spoilt by relatively low charges for accessing the Internet on your handset using GPRS/EDGE, then it is a fair chance that you will be stunned by the kind of hole a 3G connection can blow in your wallet. For instance, while Airtel allows users to access the Internet using EDGE/GPRS connectivity on their handsets for Rs 199 per month with a 2GB data limit in Delhi, a similar plan for 3G costs Rs 750.
And that is only part of the problem, thanks to the faster connectivity on 3G, you end up doing far more browsing than you would normally do on a relatively sluggish connection.

Of course, if you overshoot your data limit, you will end up being charged at the rate of 30 paise per 20 kb. Which does not sound too bad on the surface, but on conversion works out to be approximately Rs 15 per MB, which in turn means more than Rs 15,000 per GB. Financial mayhem, in other words.

The good news is that, with a little prudence, you can still make the most of 3G connectivity without depreciating your bank account significantly. All it takes is some common sense and attention to download detail. (Note that this feature mainly deals with 3G usage on a phone, as that is where it is most likely to be used).
To start off, make sure you're on the right plan. As of now, most major service providers (BSNL, Airtel, Vodafone, Idea) have a number of 3G plans, but unlike the early days of accessing the Internet on your handset when you could have an unlimited data plan, there are some very strict data limits on just how much data you can use.

You can get plans for long or short periods, with data usage limits applying for both. Some operators, like Idea, have time-based plans which let you use 3G services for a limited period of time, for instance, there is a Rs 145 plan for prepaid connections in which you get 120 minutes of 3G free spread over a period of seven days.

Similarly Airtel has sachet plans that let you use small amounts of data over 3G for a limited period of time, Rs 11 for 10 MB of usage for a day, for instance.
The plan you choose depends on your needs, if you are the type who needs to use the mobile Internet a lot and need to download large attachments and watch lots of video, we would recommend using a high data usage plan. On the other hand, if you only occasionally need the odd burst of speed, go for one of the shorter duration ones.

A warning: do not get lured by the lower costs of relative low data usage plans, the costs you incur for data beyond your usage limit could really hurt you. As to how much data you use, Airtel has a very good data calculator that let you work out your data usage by answering some simple questions.

At the cost of sounding like old fogies, we must point out that if you are the type that just needs Internet access to check your e-mail on your handset and do some basic browsing, then you probably are better off with a "normal" EDGE/GPRS connection.
One of the greatest attractions of 3G connectivity for many people is the fact that they can access videos on their handsets in all their glory, without having to go through the stop/stutter experience that is the staple on EDGE/GPRS connections. Well, all that video gobbles bandwidth, and lots of it.

In fact, even if you watch as little as half an hour of video per day on your handset, it is a fair chance that you will have used up close to 1.5 GB of data in a month, more, if you are the type who prefers watching videos in high-definition.

The rule of thumb for online video fans with tight budgets as far as 3G goes is very simple, use only when necessary, simply because ten minutes of video can cost much more than an hour of relatively normal browsing on the same connection.
And unless it is absolutely essential, avoid hitting that "view in HD" option. The same goes for still images. Unless very essential, you should stick to viewing low-res images and not click on to their much larger versions. Loading a high-resolution image could put you back by a few MBs.

The above applies not just to viewing pictures and videos but also uploading them. So if you are the type that likes to pitch your pictures and videos on YouTube, Facebook and the like, please do not get carried away by the fact that 3G connectivity can let you upload a two minute high definition video to your social network in seconds, or that you can now post high quality pictures in Facebook without waiting for half an hour for the picture to upload. Yes, it works faster, but it does so at a price. One which you have to pay when the bill arrives!
This might sound a bit ridiculous to some people, but you do not always need to keep your 3G connection running. When you do not need to do something which requires high-speed data access, you can simply go to your phone's settings and switch to the good old 2G network.

Believe us, you do not need mbps speeds all the time, especially for tasks as routine as downloading mail or getting social network notifications.

While on the subject of notifications, wherever possible when on 3G connection, do make sure that you only keep those tasks running that you actually need. For instance, having your phone checking for software updates all the time might not be the wisest idea.


Full Story

Samsung Galaxy S II will come out early on 27 April

Posted by Abhishek Thursday, 21 April 2011 0 comments


KOREAN ELECTRONICS GIANT Samsung's Galaxy S II dual core smartphone will arrive four days early on 27 April at Phones4U.
The INQUIRER reported earlier this month that Samsung had set the release date for 1 May, which was much later that the 31 March date that Play.com initially had for the handset. But the Phones4U website now states a delivery date of 27 April.
Phones4U is offering the phone on Orange for free on a £35 a month contract. However T-Mobile still has Samsung's Gingerbread smartphone down on its coming soon page for June.
Play.com still has its SIM free price of £499 with a date of 29 April, earlier than we last reported, which was 6 May. Clove.co.uk price and availability remain unchanged at £528 on 1 May.
The Galaxy S II is the successor to the popular Galaxy S smartphone, which is currently experiencing issues with its update to Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Though it has a 1GHz dual core processor, we could see Samsung bring out a smartphone with double that processor speed by the end of the year.
We had a quick play with the Galaxy S II smartphone at the Gadget Show Live earlier this month, so take a look at our hands-on review of the handset


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