itbusinessedge.com - To some extent, the screens of mobile devices hide in plain sight. They are, of course, the center of attention. But the tasks of which they are capable, their size and related issues are a big deal that at times is under-reported.
Small screens are big business. NPD DisplaySearch reports that revenue from large screen sales, 40 inches or larger, is declining significantly. Revenue from smaller screens, which include those used in mobile phones, mobile PCs and a number of other devices, is growing.
The eWeek report on the study says that mobile devices are a growth area: Mobile PC screen revenue will rise from $20.3 billion in 2013 to $21.2 billion this year and mobile phone display revenue from $28.9 billion to $33.6 billion during the same period. The decline of large-screen display revenue will limit the overall front-panel display market to 1 percent, to $131 billion this year, the report concludes.
A Simple Approach to BYOD Download Now
After a long era in which small was beautiful, screen size has gradually been increasing in parallel to the popularity of mobile video. The next big thing, according to insiders, is high-resolution active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) screens. Last week, AU Optronics introduced a 2,560 x 1,440 pixel screen, which Digital Trends says is the highest resolution yet. The site says that LG Display and Japan Display have shown similar screens, but only in prototype form.
The approach offers brighter colors, sharper images - and less energy consumption. The screen, according to AU Optronics, is aimed at smart watches. The story says that no information on whether it will be used on smartphones was released.
Generally, it doesn't make sense to discuss rumors in the telecommunications and device sector for a couple of reasons: They often don't come true and there is so much real news to report.
It pays to make an exception in cases in which the rumors demonstrate a sector's overall activity. The Wall Street Journal (in a story behind its pay wall) reports that Amazon may release a phone with a 3D display this year. Motley Fool said that the company has already ordered 600,000 devices. The report says that rumors of such a phone have been circulating since last year and that developers have already seen a prototype.
Leaked screen shots fall into the same general category as rumors. Last week, Chinese site Weibo posted what it said is an image of a screen shot of iOS 8 running on an iPhone 6. There is much to interest phone fanatics in the shot. If the screen shot is real, the fact that the screen is larger shows that the big-is-beautiful trend is not abating.

marketwatch.com - BlackBerry Limited BBRY +0.32% CA:BB -3.78% , a world leader in mobile communications, today announced that several leading Canadian customers are deploying BlackBerry(R) Enterprise Service 10 (BES10), including: Volker Stevin, City of Waterloo and Samuel, Son & Co., Limited
According to J. Gold Associates(1), over the next year or two the average enterprise user will employ three to five personal devices and use eight to 10 business applications. With the growing need for enterprise users to connect to at least five different enterprise systems, such as VPN, email and the cloud, to perform work-related tasks, the management and security of devices will become increasingly more complex to control without the right enterprise mobility management (EMM) solution.
Migrating to BlackBerry's EMM solution allows organizations to seamlessly manage devices, operating systems, applications and security. "Our enterprise customers know they can trust BlackBerry because they've long counted on our mobility solutions to arm their employees with the best tools to help them be more productive and collaborative - all without ever having to worry about the security of their data," said John Sims, President, Global Enterprise Services at BlackBerry.
Volker Stevin, one of the largest heavy civil and highway maintenance contractors in Western Canada, is deploying BES10 and BlackBerry 10 smartphones as the company's sole EMM solution. "We have hundreds of employees on and off the field, and they all require one thing - fast, secure and consistent communication tools," said Mike Philip, Wireless Program Manager, Volker Stevin. "We evaluated other MDM solutions like MobileIron and AirWatch, but BES10 was a clear winner in terms of being more user-friendly and cost-effective. BlackBerry 10 smartphones and BES10 allow us to improve operational efficiency with security capabilities that are second to none."
The City of Waterloo continues its long-standing partnership with BlackBerry in innovating and injecting new ideas and technologies to provide valued services that help build the best quality of life for its citizens. In addition to deploying BES10 and BlackBerry 10 smartphones for its workforce, the City of Waterloo also worked with BlackBerry to develop the Ping Street
The City of Waterloo has also embraced BBM(TM) to stay connected and share secure real-time updates and news with its employees during emergency situations. BBM(TM) Groups used during emergencies sped up response time and drastically improved collaboration and critical communication during emergency incidents. "BlackBerry 10 devices are by far some of the best business smartphones available. While they deliver tangible productivity benefits and iron-clad security standards, our whole crew from planners to bylaw personnel to firefighters can also enjoy all the benefits of a cutting-edge device with all the enterprise apps they need at their fingertips," said Max Min, Director of Information Management and Technology Services, City of Waterloo.
Samuel, Son & Co., Limited, Canada's oldest and largest metals service center and metal manufacturing company, has chosen BES10 and BlackBerry 10 smartphones as their core end-to-end business mobility solution. "We're confident that our investment in BlackBerry 10 is the best mobility solution for our workforce," said Bob Carter, Chief Information Officer, Samuel, Son & Co., Limited. "The powerful combination of BlackBerry 10 smartphones and BES10 offers us an integrated mobile device and server solution that meets our highest security and productivity needs. BlackBerry also offers a best-in-class customer service experience and product training support, which makes deploying BlackBerry 10 a great value proposition overall."
The BES10 multi-platform solution allows customers to manage BlackBerry, iOS and Android devices from a single, highly secure, reliable platform. Around the globe, nearly 33,000 BES10 commercial and test servers have been installed to date. To further accelerate migration to BES10, BlackBerry launched the new EZ Pass offer that provides free migration for existing BlackBerry customers or those on any other mobility management platform. The EZ Pass offer will be available from March 31, 2014 through January 31, 2015.

baselinemag.com - Mobile device management enables the staff at the Australian National Audit Office to run BlackBerry apps and tools on any mobile device they bring to work.
For many organizations, building a viable and secure mobile platform is complicated and difficult. The problems multiply with the introduction of bring your own device (BYOD) initiatives, which result in a variety of makes and models of mobile devices accessing the corporate network.
Last year, the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO), an independent government agency that oversees 300 agencies and reports to the country's parliament, recognized a need to update and modernize its existing mobile infrastructure.
In the past, the agency relied solely on BlackBerry devices-mostly 9000 series phones-to connect staff. Unfortunately, over time, "They had become pretty clunky," says Gary Pettigrove, ANAO's CIO. That wasn't good enough, especially for a department that requires a high level of efficiency and sets standards for other agencies.
"We're under significant budget and time pressures, and we had to find a way to improve internal communication and collaboration, while ensuring a very high level of security," he says.
After evaluating a number of solutions, the agency selected BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES10). It began piloting the environment in August 2013 and went live with the platform three months later.
In addition to deploying BlackBerry smartphones, ANAO is able to manage other mobile platforms and devices, including iOS and Android. The mobile device management (MDM) software allows ANAO to install and manage a secure container on each device. Therefore, a user with an iPad, iPhone or Android device can run BlackBerry apps and tools on that device.
"They're able to create their own workspace on the device," Pettigrove points out. "People can step into board meetings and track all their emails and documents on whatever device they choose."
As a result, productivity has risen by about 20 percent, while overall staff satisfaction rates have climbed by 15 percent. About 65 percent of the ANAO staff use the new BlackBerry handsets, while 30 percent employ iPhones and 5 percent use Android devices.
The main appeal, according to Pettigrove, is that ANAO has been able to adopt BYOD. Because the MDM software can manage and control the individual container on the device, IT can lock and control the container while leaving the rest of the device alone. In addition, the system provides better controls for email and documents.
"We have a classified and protected network," he reports. "People are able to send email with the security classification, and we're able to ensure that the message is received and viewed only by the appropriate person."
The platform also allows ANAO to update phones, install newer versions of operating systems, and deal with other patches and updates more seamlessly. "As long as the BlackBerry MDM runs on the phone, we're able to make changes," Pettigrove explains. "We can add a new OS or app and move on,"
At present, about 50 devices run on the BlackBerry platform, though Pettigrove expects the number to rise to about 200 in the coming months. He's now looking to add a PDF annotator and other productivity solutions.
It's a winning situation. "Mailboxes are smaller, people are responding faster and employees say they have better work-life balance," Pettigrove says. "We're a quicker, smarter and more efficient organization."

tabtimes.com - Tablet adoption in the enterprise is growing at a staggering pace. The CTIA estimates a total of 285 million tablets were in use at the end of 2013, and that number continues to grow, even as the road ahead promises to be bumpy.
While consumer adoption initiated the growth, most believe growth trajectory will be sustained as enterprises add tablets to their approved device portfolios. The initial tablet users in the enterprise were almost always executive users who "had" to have the latest technology.
This procurement process often circumvented the typical policy and approval steps. Tablets haven't always been available to every level of mobile workers. It wasn't until the last few quarters when enterprise programs began to relax approved device portfolios and embraced tablet UI/usage.
Also, tablet growth in the enterprise has not been confined to any one specific vertical in the way other multi-functional devices were designed for unique and specific use cases. According to research conducted by Good Technology, adoption has been led by the Financial Services Industry, while Manufacturing and Government show significant evidence in recent adoption. Predictions through 2017 show the tablet trend on a steady incline; however, the landscape of operating system popularity is expected to change according to forecasts by IDC.
As enterprises rely more heavily on tablets, vendors in the emerging managed mobility services market have an insightful perspective. According to Gartner, "Managed Mobility Service (MMS) encompass the IT and process services provided by an external service provider (ESP) that are required to: plan, procure, provision, activate, manage and support mobile devices, network services and mobile applications."
My company, MOBI, is one of those MMS providers. We manages hundreds of thousands of devices, including tablets, across our customer base. Of our tablet deployments, approximately 70% are iOS tablets and 29% are Android, with Windows accounting for less than 1%.
But according to research conducted by IDC, as more big businesses adopt tablets in the workplace through 2017, the operating system landscape is expected to shift-eventually giving way to a rise in popularity of Windows devices.
In 2013, the market share of Windows tablets was around 3.2%, and is expected to rise to 5.7% this year. By 2017, however, they are expected to account for 10.2% of the tablet market.
Why? Familiarity with Windows interoperability and comfort with the look and feel of Microsoft Office tools may explain the pending rise in popularity of Surface tablets. Further, the striking similarities between current laptop models and Surface tablets are also important to recognize when considering the change in the tablet market share.
Currently, tablets are more useful for content consumption as opposed to content creation, and are rarely seen as a direct replacement for either laptops or cell phones. In most cases, tablets are viewed as incremental devices-meaning they are not intended to replace another device, but simply be used in addition to a laptop and/or mobile device.
However, the recent release of Office for iPad promises to extend the use of tablets beyond mere consumption. As tablets' wheelhouse of capabilities expands, consequently so does the need for effective security and management of these devices.
Recently, MOBI hosted a Customer Advisory Board meeting with representatives from five different industries, including telecommunications, healthcare, state government, consumer goods, and chemicals manufacturing.
A general consensus among the members included the notion of Windows' growth, along with the growth of tablet use overall in the enterprise mobility landscape. Specifically, the need for shared devices among employees in manufacturing/warehouse setting was discussed-a need that favors tablets that allow multiple users to share one device, with personal information still protected via biometrics, passwords, or some other security measure.
With a growing desire for tablets in a number of industries, coupled with the possibility of devices (specifically the Windows Surface) operating in a fashion that could replace laptops, the market will not be diminishing any time soon. As demand continues to grow over the next several years, leading operating systems vendors and cellular carriers will have to battle to stay innovative and maintain relevance amongst enterprise consumers.

theguardian.com - Overhauls, strategic changes, new objectives: the NHS is no stranger to grand claims and plans about the future of healthcare. However, all too often these plans are political footballs, doing little to improve day-to-day patient care or the working lives of frontline healthcare professionals.
We all know that in the face of budget cuts and rising admissions, NHS professionals at every level are under pressure to do more with less. While change in the NHS is no easy task, investment targeted in the right areas provides huge opportunities to increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve patient care. One recent initiative, the NHS Nursing Technology Fund, has provided some hope for those at the frontline of health services.
A recent freedom of information request submitted to NHS trusts across England highlighted that, despite the pledge to create a "paperless NHS" by 2018, two-thirds of nurses and medical staff continue to rely on handwritten notes and corridor conversations to communicate vital patient information. Another survey of NHS staff recently found that, although 37% of those surveyed did not have access to a Wi-Fi network installed at work, 66% felt that this would improve their ability to provide good quality care.
This system of pagers, fixed terminals and handwritten notes draws nurses away from patients. But sophisticated mobile communication technology could turn the situation around, allowing nurses to effectively be at their patients' bedsides whenever required. Technology can identify new ways to reduce administration and speed up decision-making, knowledge transfer, delegation and equipment finding. The right tech means nurses can spend more time with patients, imporving the quality of care they can provide.
The key is to take advantage of opportunities such as the Nursing Technology Fund to adopt technology that makes it easier to communicate and share information on the move. Nursing is clearly not a sedentary role. If nurses are equipped with devices and tools that allow them to quickly input data, contact colleagues or respond to patients, they'll be free to focus their attention where and when it is needed most.
Consider three simple capabilities that could run on a mobile device and improve the lives of clinical staff and patients alike:
• A smart nurse call system that can send patient alerts or lab results directly to the phone of the closest, most appropriately qualified member of staff. This means that nurses can respond to patients' needs immediately without necessarily having to walk back to their room. The result? Peace of mind and a comprehensive view of activity on the ward.
• Barcode scanning would help ensure the right medicine is being given to the right patient or that the right person has turned up for surgery accompanied by the right paperwork. By using a device equipped with a scanner nurses can be rapidly assured that no errors have been made.
• Geo-location of vital equipment could save hours of wasted time searching the hospital and ensure essential pieces of kit are well distributed across wards. Wheelchairs, medical devices, even beds can be easily fitted with RFID tags and then identified with a mobile device, allowing nurses to find what they need quickly and easily.
• Static technology, no matter where it is located, will create delays. Short periods of time spent walking to an information source add up if repeated over the course of a long shift.
However, when we talk mobile devices we don't mean consumer-grade smartphones and tablets. A day in a ward or in A&E will quickly demonstrate that these flashy bits of equipment aren't cut out for serious work. In a demanding hospital environment, smartphones will be prone to breakages, water damage from chemical cleansers, drained batteries and network blackspots - leading to inconvenience, expensive repairs and an extremely high cost of ownership. More seriously, we saw recently that smartphones pose a hygiene risk, potentially spreading viruses like MRSA.
The NHS needs to invest in purpose-built, smart mobile communication devices if it is to improve patient experiences, nurse satisfaction and hospital efficiency. And with £70m of the Nursing Technology Fund still to be distributed, the means are finally available to make a difference.

businessinsider.com - The next wave of smartphone growth will be driven almost wholly by emerging markets. In particular, China and India will see half a billion smartphones sold this year, with a majority of these sales going to new users.
But the big smartphone makers - namely Apple and Samsung - won't be in nearly the same position to quickly dominate these markets, as they have elsewhere.
Instead, low-cost local smartphone manufacturers like Xiaomi and Micromax stand to take an increasing share of these markets, as they offer first-time smartphone users affordable handsets with features comparable to those produced by the leading brands.
Apple already knows just how competitive Xiaomi's products really are.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak recently visited Xiaomi's headquarters and declared, "They're good enough to break the American market."
In a new report from BI Intelligence, we create a category we're calling the "Local 7," made up of the top five Chinese smartphone manufacturers, and the top two in India. Combined, these seven manufacturers are now shipping about 65 million smartphones every quarter, more than Apple and coming close to drawing even with Samsung.
We explain why global consumer Internet and mobile companies will increasingly need to work with companies like Xiaomi and Micromax - not to mention China's Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, and Coolpad - if they don't want to miss out on mobile's next growth phase in emerging markets.

businessinsider.com - Apple is reportedly going to release a 4.7-inch iPhone this fall.
The current iPhone is 4-inches. You may be thinking to yourself, is 0.7-inches really that big of a difference? The answer is, yes!
MacRumors is running through how the iPhone's resolution would change with a new screen. As part of that it included the following graphic to illustrate how much bigger the big iPhone will look than the current iPhone:

info.fonality.com - Just a quick look around your corporate office reveals the tidal wave of change sweeping the business world: cubicles are becoming increasingly vacant as a number of employees work from home several days a week; IM pop ups and unified messaging bubbles are floating across computer screens; and a number of employees are participating in virtual meetings with their colleagues thanks to the advent of video conferencing and screen sharing. We are well on our way to becoming a wholly mobile workforce.
This is evidenced by the fact that some 30 million Americans work from home at least once a week and that number is expected to climb 63 percent over the next five years, according to the Telework Research Network. Moreover, telecommuters are more productive than your on-site staffers and are almost twice as likely to work more than a 40-hour workweek (only 28 percent of non-telecommuters work beyond 40 hours, while 53 percent of telecommuters do).
threeAs a C-suite executive or active Director, you may be scratching your head wondering where the days of hours-long boardroom meetings and kitchen room banter have gone. But this is the month to stop scratching and start pondering whether you are missing out on something massive. Let's take a look at three reasons to say "yes" to the mobile workforce movement this month:
The Technology is Available: There is a reason there has been such a sudden spike in remote work as of late; it's because technology has caught up to the movement. Thanks to the surge of unified collaboration solutions and robust phone systems, the work office can be easily simulated at home and employees can enjoy the exact same capabilities they would have had on-site. From presence technology to voicemail-to-email notification to Find Me/Follow Me, there are a wealth of unified communications solutions that facilitate the remote workforce movement.
Your Direct Reports Want You To: How many times has your Director of Marketing lamented the fact that his prime candidate for an open position hails two time zones away? Or, on a grander note, how many times has your company passed on resumes from those located hundreds or thousands of miles away? The fact is that some of your best talent could reside in states other than your own. Being able to cast your recruiting net farther is a huge boon for your company as it will allow you to secure top-notch recruits.
Your Corporate Culture is Changing: Whether you want to admit it, your corporate office has probably gotten a whole lot younger, thanks to the rise of Millennials heading to the workforce. By 2020, those born between 1980 and 2000 will form 50 percent of the global workforce, according to a PWC white paper, and they want to work for forward-thinking companies. The study found that 41 percent of Gen Y-ers prefer to communicate electronically at work, as opposed to face-to-face or even over the phone. Moreover, 71 percent want the opportunity to work overseas at one point. In other words, your technology has to keep up with this rapidly evolving workforce.
As explained by Group President, Asia and Global Specialty Channel, Procter & Gamble Deborah Henretta in the aforementioned white paper, "The workplace and workforce are going to change pretty dramatically as we look forward. The entire concept of work is going to become more flexible."
So where will you fit it when it comes to the mobile workforce movement? Is this the month that you will say "yes" and catapult your business into the 21st century? We want to hear from you!

marketingprofs.com - The strongest-performing companies bring Marketing and Sales together.
Companies that are "best-in-class" at aligning marketing and sales departments had a 20% average growth in annual revenue, compared with a 4% decline among "laggard" organizations, according to Aberdeen Research. Moreover, 66% of companies reporting complete alignment made their revenue goals, compared with just 41% that reported no alignment, a recent study by Demand Metric found.
However, in today's fast-paced environment, keeping the sales team up to date and aligned with marketing is tougher than ever. But there's hope.
Mobile technology offers one of the most effective ways to support marketing-sales alignment and boost sales: 23% more firms meet team sales quotas when employing a sales mobility strategy, according to Aberdeen; and companies that use mobile business apps increased win rates 26%, according to a recent Yankee Group survey.
With the growing number of mobile devices in the hands of employees, marketers now have an efficient means of getting feedback from the field, as well as tools to better support the sales team on-demand.
Improve lead conversion by better supporting Sales
Buyers have taken control of the sales cycle. With seemingly unlimited online resources, the buyer now has more power than the seller in many cases. Therefore, it is essential for sales reps to be prepared for their next cold call, meeting, presentation, or negotiation with key information about prospects, their company, and the marketplace. But, sales reps often can't quickly and easily find the materials they need.
Traditional marketing and sales strategies lack the ability to address those challenges, often resulting in lost opportunities and revenues. However, marketers can use mobile technology to provide sales reps with the right content at the right time, while increasing lead conversion and sales.
Making pertinent information such as product details, prices, inventory, and Web demos available remotely enables the salespeople to easily access the most accurate and timely information when they need it most. The more quickly salespeople can get to information crucial to move their prospects through each stage of the cycle, the more they will stand out from the competition and ultimately make a sale.
Create a knowledge support system the sales team will actually use
In traditional training, 80% of what employees learn is forgotten within 30 days if the training is not reinforced and incorporated into daily work habits. Similarly, remote reps need to be connected to data, know-how, and one another in the field to reinforce what they've learned in their initial onboarding. Modern mobile technology provides the perfect platform for doing so.
Technology gives us the ability to build a comprehensive mobile-ready library around every aspect of sales and marketing that's easier to access on-demand to support customer-facing interactions. Plus, push notifications can alert reps of product updates in real time, as well as send company news and information that can help win business-such as playbooks, recent company awards, and client testimonials.
Use mobile to increase marketing productivity
Marketers are struggling to get appropriate and actionable feedback from sales reps on what would really benefit them during the sales cycle. In the meantime, they are spinning their wheels creating content assets that are not being used because Sales can't find them or doesn't know when to use them in the selling process.
When mobile sales enablement tools are implemented correctly, Marketing can gain insight into what sales materials get the most use and they can gather feedback from comments and rating systems. Such real-time data bridges the conversation gap between the two departments and enables Marketing to focus its time on what really matters. The ability to track and support activity from lead to close is directly related to eventual success, and it can help shorten sales cycles by enabling Marketing to better support reps with relevant information at the right time.
Today, mobile sales-enablement tools are creating new and better ways for marketing to support sales reps in their customer interactions. Many teams are now looking toward mobile-ready sales-enablement technology to bridge the gap between Sales and Marketing; the adoption of such technology will be a defining aspect of successful businesses from now on.
Streamlining content updates and making them easily accessible, on demand, enable sales teams to remain in sync with up-to-date content so they can sell anytime, anywhere. Plus, offering data-capture and tracking capabilities provides marketers with insight into what is working and what the sales reps need so that the marketing team can focus its activities on providing the most effective resources.

marketingprofs.com - Google's Android platform dominated the smartphone market in the U.S. yet again with majority smartphone activations during the first quarter, while Apple's iOS came in second place.
The dominance of the Android platform in the U.S. smartphone market continued as it again took the top spot during the first quarter of 2014. According to new data from research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, CIRP, Android smartphone activations accounted for 53 percent of the entire market share in the U.S., but Apple's iOS platform witnessed a significant drop from the previous quarter, nabbing 42 percent of all activations during the CIRP's survey period.
The results were based on a survey of 500 U.S. residents who activated their devices from January through March. CIRP's data only shows the number of new activations and not the total number of devices running Android or iOS.
Since Android and iOS took the majority share, with 95 percent of all activations in the U.S., other competing platforms were left with a mere 5 percent. Based on the findings, Microsoft's Windows Phone and BlackBerry OS took one percent each and the remaining three percent was mustered by basic phones.
The results show a significant drop in the non-smartphone activations, down 20 percent from the beginning of Q1, CIRP shows. As for Android, the market share grew significantly from 43 percent at the beginning of the quarter to 53 percent by the end of the period. The growth was seen for iOS platform as well, which was weighed at 30 percent at the beginning to 42 percent during the quarter's end.
"On a percentage bases during the quarter, iOS grew a little faster than Android, from a smaller base, even though in absolute terms Android had a larger share," Mike Levin, Partner and Co-Founder of CIRP, said in a press release, Friday. "The long term issue is where Android and iOS growth will come from when there are no more basic phones being retired. First time smartphone buyers are key to that equation."
Another recent survey from a market intelligence firm, IDC, revealed in February that Android accounted for nearly 80 percent of all smartphones in 2013. The survey was conducted on a global level and showed the total number of devices powered by different mobile operating systems and not just activations.

m.itworld.com - When Notification Center arrived in iOS 5, we greeted it with a sigh of relief. No more alerts lost to the ravages of time, easy access to all of our notifications in a single place, and even a handy way to get a look at the weather or stock info.
But as the years have passed, our enthusiasm for Notification Center has dimmed as we've realized that most of its original limitations are still around. Even some of iOS 7's updates to Notification Center served only to increase our frustration, adding less-than-useful features while avoiding fixing its most glaring annoyances.
As we sit only a few months away from the likely announcement of iOS 8, we've compiled a list (with the help of a few of our Twitter followers) of our biggest frustrations with iOS's handling of notifications--along with what we'd like to see Apple do about them.
Wipe it clean
You've surely had a moment when you've wanted to just raze everything in Notification Center from the face of the earth--if you're anything like us, perhaps as often as once a day. But if you've ever actually tried to clear out Notification Center, you've quickly discovered that there's no easy way to do so. Rather, you must tap the "x" icon next to the application name, and then tap the Clear button that takes its place--and then repeat the process for each app. And you may have to go through a dozen (or more) applications. Surely it would be faster to have a button, say all the way at the bottom of Notification Center, that simply declares notification bankruptcy? We'd certainly appreciate it.
Weed it out
While we're on the topic of clearing notifications, how come it's an all-or-nothing proposition for each app? Say you get three text messages from somebody you're meeting later in the day; one of them contains a particular piece of information--a time or location--that would be handy to refer to at a glance, but you don't need the other two. If you want to keep one and ditch the others, you're out of luck. The capability to clear an individual notification would be a nice improvement in Notification Center--provided of course that there's an easier way to do so. Speaking of which ...
Die, tiny buttons, die
Raise your big, fat finger if you've ever been annoyed that clearing an app's notifications in Notification Center requires you to tap the teeny, tiny, little "x" button, followed by tapping an almost-equally tiny Clear button. Especially on the iPhone and iPod touch, these buttons are frustratingly small--so small that they often result in accidentally tapping a notification itself, which then opens the app doing the notifying. We'd like to see bigger buttons or, perhaps even better, swipe-to-dismiss, like the folks using Android have had for a while now. (Sure, swiping currently switches between the Today, All, and Missed views, but that gesture is unnecessary given the buttons at the top of Notification Center.)
Let me clear that for you
Since so many of our frustrations appear to be connected with clearing items out of Notification Center, let's take things a step further: What if Notification Center could automatically let certain items "roll off" as they no longer became relevant? After three weeks, that to-do item that you ignored probably isn't a high priority; nor is that week-old text message or email.
While not every item would be a candidate for auto-clearing, there are plenty of places where it would help avoid the build-up of outdated cruft. Allowing certain types of notifications to have expiration dates would greatly simplify managing Notification Center, not to mention making it more relevant by focusing on only the most pertinent items.
Moreover, iOS could be a bit smarter about connecting the dots to determine when notifications can be cleared. For example, if I read a text message or email, chances are I no longer need to see its notification. The same goes for Twitter mentions, Facebook status updates, and the like. In general, if I've opened an app, I no longer need to see its notifications. Having to mark things as read within an app and then again in Notification Center is both redundant and ridiculous.
The same goes for notifications that pop up on multiple devices. Apple's already working on cross-device notification syncing with iMessages, FaceTime calls, and even email. But it would be nice if there were a simple way for every app's notifications to be cleared, on all our devices, once we've dismissed them on one.
Better settings
We'll just come right out and say it: Settings > Notification Center is a bit of a mess. While we appreciate the capability to manually arrange the order in which applications appear in the notifications list, "no order" is not an acceptable organizational scheme for the settings screen itself, especially now that many users have a plethora of apps.
Currently, finding a particular app and tweaking its notifications requires slowly scrolling through the app list--and if you miss the app, well, it's back to the top to start the process again. If alphabetical order doesn't work (because of the manual sorting option), then at least throw us a search or filter field so we can find the item we're looking for.
The situation's little better within each app's entry. Turning off all notifications for a particular app requires multiple taps to deactivate banners/alerts, turn off app badges, deactivate sounds, and remove from Notification Center and the lock screen. A single option to deactivate all notifications for an app would be much appreciated.
And while we're considering turning off notifications for an app, perhaps iOS could give us a helping hand by letting us know exactly which apps are sending notifications. An indicator in the Notification Center app list showing which apps have recently sent us notifications, like the one in Location Services that lets us know which apps have requested our location in the past day, would be very handy indeed.
Silent mode revisited
The iPhone and iPad make for great gaming devices--until you're in the middle of an intense bit of action and a notification pops up on the screen. Even if it's just a banner (which appears at the top of the screen and then fades out), rather than a modal alert, it's still distracting. And even on the latest Apple devices, with all their horsepower, Notification Center banners still seem to bog down the device for a second or two.
Similarly, we suspect that many reading this article have been in a situation where they were using their phone for navigation in the car and were interrupted by a modal notification right smack in the middle of the screen. This one's not only annoying; it's also dangerous, as you have to take your eyes off the road to dismiss the alert if you want to be able to glance at the screen for navigation help. And it's just as annoying--if not as dangerous--when notifications interrupt your movie-watching sessions.
iOS offers a convenient Do Not Disturb mode that silences incoming calls and alerts. And if you've enabled (in the Do Not Disturb screen of the Settings app) the new Silence: Always option of iOS 7, you can temporarily prevent notification interruptions by manually enabling Do Not Disturb mode using Control Center. But this silences notifications and calls, and it requires that you remember to manually enable Do Not Disturb before every activity (and to manually disable it after each activity is finished).
Though we suspect this approach would be too "fiddly" for Apple, we'd like to see an API that developers could use to let you disable, within an app, notifications while using that app. We'd even be happy with just a device-wide setting that would let you disable notifications when using particular categories of apps, such as Games, Entertainment, or Navigation.
Delayed decisions and default settings
If an app offers notifications, you're asked, the very first time you launch the app, if you want to allow it to use notifications. The problem is that you may not know if you want notifications from that app until you've used it for a while. We're not sure what the perfect solution would be here, but there's got to be a better way.
On that note, when you do agree to let an app send you notifications, you're stuck with a particular set of notification settings--unless you really want, say, banners, app badges, and sounds, you have to manually change those settings for each app. We'd like to be able to choose default settings for allowed apps so, for example, apps don't use audible notifications unless we explicitly tell them to do so.
Abusing the privilege
We suspect that for many people, the most annoying thing about notifications is developers who abuse the system, using notifications not to alert you to important information, but to annoy you with incessant banners reminding you to--the most-common example we've seen--come back and play their game. (This one ties in nicely with the previous item: If you knew an app would be spamming you like this, you never would have allowed it to use notifications.)
Currently, short of being irritated enough to delete the offending app outright, your only recourse is to manually go into Notification Center settings and disable notifications for the app. (We recommend also leaving an appropriately worded review on the App Store.) It would be great if you could instead disable a particular app's notifications right from within Notification Center, perhaps by tap-holding on a notification and choosing the option from a popover. (Heck, though we acknowledge the problems it could cause, there are times we wish we could actually delete an app right from within Notification Center.)
All, missed
If the responses from our Twitter followers are any indication, iOS 7's attempt to divide Notification Center into Missed and All lists didn't quite hit its mark. The All pane, for the record, is supposed to contain all of your notifications, while the Missed pane contains only those you haven't addressed in the last 24 hours. But neither seems to work quite as designed: For many people, the Missed pane is always empty, while for others--us included--it often displays notifications that we've not only seen but have actually acted upon.
The easiest solution would seem to be merging these two views back into a single list. For example, Apple could take a cue from a tried-and-true interface: the Recents pane of the Phone app. Give us a list of notifications in reverse chronological order (either by app or intermingled, depending on your preferences) and highlight the ones that we might have missed. Simple, easy to read, and proven.
Miscellanea
There are also a few minor tweaks we'd like to see that would make Notification Center more useful. For example, we'd like to be able to specify only particular calendars to be included in the Today view--we don't really need to see our sports-team calendar subscriptions each time we open Notification Center. On the other hand, we often do want to see all-day events in the Today view, but these events aren't displayed. How about a simple toggle in Notification Center settings for choosing whether or not they appear?
It would also be nice if notifications were a bit longer. As one of our Twitter followers pointed out, Notification Center could be perfect for keeping an eye on Twitter replies without having to open your favorite client ... except that many tweets get cut off, forcing you to launch that client just to view the three words you couldn't see.
Admittedly, it's unlikely that Apple will choose to address all of these issues in a forthcoming iOS update, but with all this room for improvement, we certainly hope a few of them might find their way to top of the priority list.

fortune.com - The latest attempt at a digital wallet uses novel magnetic technology to imitate your debit, credit, and loyalty cards.
FORTUNE - Imagine walking into a store, gathering some items you want to purchase and waving your smartphone across a the credit card terminal to pay. This scenario is not a reality that's fast approaching - it's possible today. In recent years, a number of technology companies have started to subtly say: Forgo the need to carry around a stack of plastic cards in your pocket! Don't worry about having enough cash! Sure, there's nothing wrong with carrying these items around, they say. But wouldn't it be nice if you didn't have to?
Mobile payments, as this area of technology is called, aren't a new idea. The idea dates to the late 1990s as mobile phones took off in the marketplace. If we can exchange calls and text messages, the thinking went, why not dollars? Since then, companies large and small have taken on the challenge, with mixed results: Google's three-year old Google Wallet app is still around, and the likes of Square, PayPal, and ISIS continue to offer some form of mobile payment solution today. But a visit to any brick-and-mortar store reveals sluggish adoption: No one seems to have disrupted humans' psychological attachment to storing bits of plastic, cotton, and metal in a scrap of cowhide.
The companies trying to solve this problem come from both the technology and financial services industries, and approaches vary widely. But the hurdle remains the same: adoption on both the consumer and retail side of the transaction. Retailers balk because they often need to purchase compatible equipment for their point-of-sale system and train staff on the new payment procedure - a challenging proposition in a sometimes low-margin business.
In October, a Boston-based company called LoopPay entered the fray with a product that seeks to knock down some of those hurdles. Called Loop, the system promises to work with most existing credit card processing equipment (90%, the company says) and makes it possible for you to leave the leather and plastic at home.
Here's how it works: First, you're asked to download the free LoopWallet app and order a compatible device (a $39 fob that plugs into a smartphone's headphone jack or a $99 payments-ready iPhone case; Android support is due later this year) from the company. Once in hand, you use your phone to load your credit, debit, gift, membership, and loyalty card information onto the device. When you're at a store and ready to pay for a product, hold the device against the credit card swipe slot and press the transmit button.
The wizardry comes courtesy of "magnetic secure transmission" technology, which involves the brief generation of changing magnetic fields. (In the company's own words: "This is accomplished by putting alternating current through an inductive loop, which can then be received by the magnetic read head of the credit card reader. The signal received from Loop emulates the same magnetic field change as a mag stripe card when swiped across the same read head.")
The information you store is encrypted and saved in a PCI-compliant datacenter, and the transmission technology works only when it's activated and within a three-inch distance from the read head. For retailers, there is no extra equipment or training necessary. It is, on paper, a clever way to trick today's technology into working with tomorrow's supposed use case.
But does it really work? To find out, I took a blue fob out on the town.
After I downloaded the LoopWallet app, I entered my personal information to verify my identity and selected a password and a PIN. I added my cards by swiping each card across the fob with it plugged into my phone, an iPhone 5S. It took some practice to get the fob to stay still the first few times I swiped a card; if the fob moves too much, the card isn't properly read and you're asked to swipe again. I was able to add a Visa, MasterCard, and American Express card in a matter of minutes. (In addition to credit cards, you can also add loyalty cards, a driver's license, and insurance cards by snapping a photo of each with your phone.)
After swiping your cards' information into the app, you can set a default card and store its information on the fob. You can also set a time limit, ranging from 10 minutes to always, for the fob to store a single card's data; once the time limit has passed, the fob loses the stored card's information. Think of it as a sort of self-destruct mechanism.
There are two different ways to use the fob for payment. The first and easiest method is to hold the fob near a vendor's credit card terminal and press the transmit button. The other method involves leaving the fob attached to your device, with the LoopWallet app open, and tapping on your screen when it's time to pay. Why use the clunkier latter option? If you want to use any card stored in your LoopWallet, rather than just your default card.
I was able to successfully use Loop to pay at several different merchants. It worked equally well at a Panera Bread, a local family-owned hardware store, and a regional grocery chain. In each instance, when I used the fob, I only had to press the button once for the credit card terminal to successfully receive my card's information and the clerk to be able to transact payment.
I won't lie, I experienced some hesitation before each transaction. I felt reluctant to ask the clerk to touch a device to the store's credit card reader. Will Graylin, LoopPay's chief executive, told me that clerks often react with "surprise and delight" and learn to trust the system. In my experience testing the device, I saw similar results. Clerk reaction ranged from not noticing to uttering "Holy crap," as one did, following a long list of questions. Not a single clerk hesitated or refused to let me pay with Loop during my testing at 10 different locations in Colorado.
So is Loop the future of payments? Not quite. In exchange for giving up your plastic cards, you must - counterintuitively - carry around a plastic fob. The biggest selling point behind mobile payments is reducing how much we have to carry and making the payment process easier. Having yet another device to manage doesn't accomplish either one of those goals.
The company's proprietary iPhone case changes that proposition slightly, allowing you to do away with the fob. But Loop's real potential lies in incorporating its technology into future devices, so that you need no additional hardware to conduct a transaction.
LoopPay says it is engaged in discussions with hardware partners and phone manufacturers about this. When I pressed Graylin on what it would take to put Loop's technology in a smartphone or smartwatch, he estimated the component cost would be around $1. The technology used by Loop is similar to that found in wireless charging, and can be incorporated in batteries, back covers, cases, and other accessories, he says.

mobileworldlive.com - Mobile operators are backing an attempt by the UK government to help millions of individuals, as well as small businesses, who lack digital skills and capabilities.
Vodafone and EE are among the public, private and voluntary sectors supporting a drive to reduce by 25 per cent the number of people who are offline in the UK by 2016.
The contribution of Vodafone is a new smartphone guide which is designed to help first timers understand the mobile internet, as well as offering a range of entry-level Vodafone-branded smartphones.
Recent research published by the BBC found that 21 per cent of the UK's population lacked basic digital skills and capabilities to get the most out of the internet.
But the problem goes wider, as many smaller firms are also not realising their potential when it comes to the internet.
About one third of SMEs do not have a website; once voluntary, community and social enterprises are included that figure rises to a surprisingly high 50 per cent.
The current initiative, which is jointly led by the government and Go On UK, a digital skills charity, has set out ten aims it wants to achieve in a Digital Inclusion Charter. These include aims such as sharing best practice and establishing a network of so-called digital champions.
Other supporters include the BBC, BT, Microsoft and TalkTalk as well as leading companies such as Asda and Barclays. The voluntary sector is represented by Age UK and Shelter, among others.

infoworld.com - As Android's popularity continues to climb, it's increasingly joining the workplace. In its early days, Android had little in the way of security, relegating it to personal use. But over the years, Google has upped the ante in terms of Android security, as have third-party vendors.
Today, thanks to the tools baked into Android itself and available from Google Play app store, you can easily protect both your personal and work-related data from common threats.
If your security requirements are very strict, such as due to compliance-oriented regulations, you may need to use a third-party mobile device management tool. But many individuals and businesses can protect themselves with a simpler set of tools and steps.
Focus on these Android risks
To best protect your device and your personal data from threats, you first need to understand what's legitimate and what's hype. For Android, its vulnerability lies in its open nature. In InfoWorld's "A clear-eyed guide to Android's actual security risks," Bob Violino narrowed Android's vulnerabilities down to two core areas of concern.
First is Google Play's "come one, come all" model, allowing just about anyone to upload and distribute their apps. In their native untested state, these apps can contain malware, spyware, and other hijacking protocols that can put your data at risk.
But malware isn't limited to Google Play: Because Android allows for side-loading apps from sources outside Google Play, the risk of compromising your device with a rogue download is compounded.
Hindering Android's ability to fight these risks is Android's second major weakness: its inherent fragmentation. Google and Android OEMs have been criticized -- rightfully so -- for untimely and unreliable updates, which has left Android splintered.
Only 1.4 percent of Android devices are running the latest version (4.4 KitKat), while 21 percent are still running 2010's 2.3 Gingerbread version. Whereas iOS's security holes can be easily patched in one fell swoop by Apple, Android is patched on a version-by-version basis determined separately by each device maker and carrier, which is often a slow and ineffective process.
As a result, someone running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich might face very different risks than someone running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which makes standardizing your protection very difficult.

businessinsider.com - The last thing you want when you drop a few hundred bucks on a new phone is for it to fail on you within a few days.
That's why manufacturers go through lengthy testing processes to make sure every aspect of their devices work. Samsung does the same with its Galaxy line of phones, including the new flagship phone the Galaxy S5.
We visited Samsung's testing facilities at its headquarters in Suwon, South Korea. There, engineers test everything from how well phones can survive a fall to how many times you can push the home button before it breaks.

computerworld.com - Microsoft last week revealed how it will squeeze Windows 8.1 onto devices with storage space as small as 16GB to fulfill a promise earlier this year that OEMs could produce low-cost tablets and laptops.
The technology Microsoft will use, dubbed "WIM" for "Windows Imaging," is a file-based disk image format introduced in Windows Vista, the OS flop that debuted in 2007. Work on WIM, however, took place during the long -- and oft delayed -- development of "Longhorn," the code name for the project that was originally to produce an operating system in 2004.
To put Windows 8.1 Update on devices with tight storage constraints -- 16GB in particular, but also 32GB -- Microsoft has applied the decade-old technology to free up more space for applications and user content.
"This new deployment option, called Windows Image Boot (or WIMBoot), takes a different approach than traditional Windows installations," Michael Niehaus, senior product marketing manager in the Windows Commercial group, wrote on a Thursday blog. "Instead of extracting all the individual Windows files from an image (WIM) file, they remain compressed in the WIM. But from the user's perspective, nothing looks any different: You still see a C: volume containing Windows, your apps, and all of your data."
As Niehaus explained it, the WIM file -- an aggressively-compressed file that contains all the files necessary to run Windows 8.1 -- will sit in its own partition on a device's SSD (solid-state drive). By moving Windows to its own partition and then compressing it into a WIM file, Microsoft frees up space in the C: drive partition, which is traditionally where Windows is stored in an uncompressed state. That means there is more space left for user content and applications.
To boot and run Windows, a set of pointer files are stored on the C: drive which, in turn, aim at a file index within the WIM file. Windows, then, runs from the compressed, read-only WIM file.
Wes Miller, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, a Kirkland, Wash.-based firm that tracks only Microsoft, called the concept "a pretty good solution."
As well he might. Miller, like many of the analysts at Directions, once worked at Microsoft. In fact, Miller was on a team that worked on the WIM technology in 2003-2004. "A lot of [old] technology has fallen off the planet, so it's cool to see one that survived," he said.
While working on Longhorn, Microsoft was looking at running Windows from a WIM file. "We would read from the WIM file as if it was a file system," Miller said. That's pretty much what Microsoft is now doing.
Previously, Microsoft promised that Windows 8.1 Update would run on devices with small SSDs of 16GB and 32GB, but did not say how it would do that, leaving some to speculate that it would dump the Windows recovery tools or even strip out features.
Some kind of miniaturization was required: The full-blown Windows required Microsoft to equip the Surface Pro 2 with a minimum of 64GB.
Even then, the Surface Pro 2 and its predecessor, Surface Pro, have reaped criticism for the paltry amounts of user content space left after the OS and a recovery partition has occupied the SSD.

businessinsider.com - The PC is being eclipsed as a shopping tool. Mobile is becoming a primary place to both shop and buy online.
But mobile has too often been understood by retailers as a singular category, when in fact smartphones and tablets are used very differently.
Tablets are lean-back devices that consumers use to browse, research, and buy - great product views are key on these devices. Smartphones are much more commonly used as an in-store shopping companion. Smartphone retail apps should have QR code scanners and easily accessible price comparison information.
In a recent report from BI Intelligence, we take stock of the explosion in tablet-based e-commerce, analyze the best data available on tablet shopper behavior and how it's different from the behavior of smartphone owners. We also explore why retailers have lagged in creating tablet-friendly shopping experiences for their users, despite allocating budgets to ad campaigns meant to be viewed on tablets.

informationweek.com - Friday marks the worldwide launch of the Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone and the Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo, and Gear Fit wearable. The devices are available in 125 countries, including the US, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and most Asian markets. They are being sold by wireless network operators in the US, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and others. Most carriers are asking $200 for the GS5 with a contract, or about $26 per month via installment plans.
The Galaxy S5 is a moderate upgrade to last year's GS4. The design is a bit conservative, but the materials and build quality are improved. One standout feature is the phone's IP67 rating, which means it's water- and dust-resistant: It can survive an afternoon at the beach, even if you drop it in the surf for a short time.
The GS5 has a 5.1-inch full HD screen, quad-core Snapdragon processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16 or 32 GB of storage. Network support runs the gamut, with Category 4 LTE, dual-band 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy, NFC, GPS, and GLONASS radios all on board. Shamefully, AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless have nixed one of the GS5's neatest tricks: Download Booster, a technology that uses WiFi and LTE together to speed up file downloads. Only the T-Mobile version includes the feature.
Samsung made strides with the smartphone's camera, simplifying the user interface. The sensor counts 16 megapixels and is capable of capturing 4K (Ultra HD) video. The camera has its own companion chip, and the GS5 can attain focus in a quick 0.3 seconds.
Another interesting addition is a heart rate monitor. The GS5 can detect the owner's pulse through a sensor on the back of the phone. The heart rate monitor ties in to Samsung's updated S Health suite of software, which aims to help owners manage diet and fitness. The GS5 also includes a fingerprint sensor, which is built into the home button on the front. Samsung says the sensor can be used as an added layer of protection for businesses and users who want to secure their devices. It can be used to lock individual files and folders. What's more, the sensor works with PayPal and can be used for swipe-and-pay purchases.
The Samsung GS5 runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat and employs Samsung's TouchWiz user interface. The UI is as cluttered and gimmicky as ever, but it offers an incredible array of tools, settings, and functions.
Samsung's new smart wearables come in three different flavors: the Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo, and Gear Fit.
The Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo are more or less identical, except that the Neo has no camera. Each features a 1.63-inch touchscreen with 320 x 320 pixels, 1-GHz dual-core processor with 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of storage, Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy, and a 300-mAh battery that's good for several days of use. Unlike the original, the Gear 2's camera is built into the body of the watch itself rather than the strap. That means the strap can be interchanged, allowing owners to personalize their devices. The watch also includes an IR port and a remote control application for home theater equipment. Samsung says a few dozen apps will be available at launch (unlike the 80 that were available for the original Gear). Apps will include CNN, Expedia, eBay, Evernote, Feedly, Path, PayPal, and The Weather Channel. The Gear 2 costs $299; the Gear 2 Neo $199.
The Gear Fit has a curved AMOLED screen that is much wider than it is tall. The low profile makes it a more attractive workout companion. It has its own operating system, which is also toned down compared to the Gear 2/Gear 2 Neo. It has access to a handful of simple apps, most of which center on health and fitness. The Gear Fit, which costs $199, also includes a heart rate monitor. One crucial shortcoming of all three smartwatches: They work only with Samsung Galaxy-branded devices.
Samsung has a lot riding on the success of the GS5. Sales of the GS4, though significant, fell far short of Samsung's 100 million unit goal. The company hopes the tweaks and modifications in the GS5 will make it a more compelling device to consumers.

businessinsider.com - NFC RUMORS COULD MARK APPLE'S SEISMIC ENTRY INTO PAYMENTS: Apple will integrate NFC (Near-field communications) into the new iPhone 6 and iWatch, which will release this year, predicts Apple analyst Ming Chi Kuo, of KGI Securities. If Kuo's right, as he has so often been in the past, the move would signal Apple's long-anticipated entry into mobile payments, a market in which the company would instantly wield tremendous power. Apple has 600 million customer accounts on file, most of them linked to a credit card. Apple's entry would also finally set a firm agenda for retailers facing a confusing array of payment technologies. "Every time I bring up payment platform options with my executives, they say 'Let's just wait and see what Apple does,'" one retail industry insider tells us.
ANOTHER FALSE RUMOR? But Apple watchers note that the company has long favored Bluetooth over NFC. They point to the recently released iBeacon technology - which runs on a battery-friendly form of Bluetooth - as a potential mobile payments platform. But in a patent approved in January, Apple describes a mobile payment system that uses NFC to establish an initial secure link with a point of sale, and a secondary link using technology "such as WIFI or Bluetooth, that has more desirable characteristics for maintaining the link over time than NFC." Similar rumors about Apple's plans for NFC have flared regularly since at least 2010, when the company hired Benjamin Vigier, whose experience included work on white-label NFC wallets. But all the past rumors came to nothing.
The Apple rumors come amid renewed buzz on NFC's prospects, spurred in part by host card emulation technology, which allows mobile payments to work without needing to access special hardware on a phone, known as the Secure Element, which is controlled by the wireless carriers. "I feel that NFC payments are currently getting a shot in the arm with the emergence of HCE," writes Windsor Holden, research director at Juniper. As we reported last week, Google has now turned to host card emulation for all Google Wallet mobile payments. Holden also sees NFC payments infrastructure gaining traction: "In Europe at least, contactless infrastructure on the retail side has increased dramatically over the past year." In the U.S., Merchants Warehouse, which provides payments tech and services to retailers, has also said that it will include NFC in its terminals.

gulftoday.ae - Sharjah: Over 20 government departments in Sharjah have been oriented in the trend for developing smart services.
The departments were hosted on Tuesday by the Roads and Transport Authority of Sharjah (RTAS) at its headquarters in Al Azra near Ajman.
The orientation was made by the Swedish based firm familiar with the region's migration to smart technology, Gartner.
"We have convened this presentation since the government of the UAE is encouraging most of the services to go smart," said the Manager of Information and Technology (IT) in RTAS, Ibtisam Al Obeidli.
She said RTAS is the "first government department in Sharjah to subscribe to Gartner, a reputable consultancy firm in IT."
In his presentation, Gartner's Research Vice-President for Mobile and Client Computing, Leif Olof Wallin gave the ABCs of how to develop sustainable mobile application.
"You need have it simple to use and have a clear reason and value for the customer to be compelled to use it."
Time frame
He added that the application needs to bear clarity of time frame which is in sync with the need in addition to urgency where a client can seek information on, say, a blocked road and get it immediately.
Wallin said that users do not want corporate messages to destroy personal information or compromise usability of device or applications.
He took them through the trend of the tech devices and how the curve is expected to appear in the next seven years, emphasising that "most innovations are made to enhance services but not for mere ostentation."
"The strategy is for you to check where you are today and see where you're heading and then close the gap," he said, cautioning the audience to be aware that "testing is a bigger compared to developing."
Almost the entire audience told Ibtisam they are willing to attend and share such presentations.

digitaljournal.com - Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:
REPORT HIGHLIGHTS
The global mHealth market reached nearly $1.5 billion in 2012. This market is expected to grow to $2.4 billion in 2013 and $21.5 billion in 2018 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 54.9% over the five-year period from 2013 to 2018.
This report provides:
A global overview of the mobile health technology market
Analyses of global market trends, with data from 2012, estiamtes for 2013, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2018.
A presentation of the changing mobile health technology environment in terms of new challenges and rising opportunities.
Information regarding market trends, leading service providers, therapy markets, and the most popular mHealth applications.
Insight into the second generation of mHealth devices, projected regulatory patterns, and innovative devices and services to be launched in the near future.
Comprehensive company profiles of major players in the industries covered.
REASONS FOR DOING THE STUDY
Mobile Health is a rapidly emerging market. Over the past decade communication and wireless technologies have quickly become integrated in daily life, with the emergence of the internet. Many sectors such as banking, shopping and navigation have evolved to higher internet presence, providing an efficient and effective media to connect businesses with their customers; leading to more extensive market penetration and the ability to provide personalized solutions for better customer service.The global healthcare industry continues to face considerable challenges in delivering high quality care to a rapidly expanding population. With the increasing penetration of mobile telecommunication platforms, healthcare via mobile technology has the potential to solve some of these issues providing affordable cost effective solutions in the diagnosis, treatment and management of chronic diseases.
MHealth solutions can help to rapidly improve healthcare access in developing countries and maintain quality healthcare services in the face of increased patient burden in the developed countries. In addition, mHealth technologies can provide companies with a competitive advantage in the increasingly competitive pharmaceutical environment.
SCOPE OF REPORT
This new report on Mobile Health will provide a brief description on the current status of the industry and recent developments. It presents the changing environment, in terms of new challenges and rising opportunities. The report analyzes the market trends, leading service providers, therapy markets and most popular mHealth applications, in terms of downloads and revenues.The report will also explore the primary beneficiaries of mHealth and identify the areas/services with revenue growth opportunities in the mHealth industry, across the globe. Finally, it will provide future insights into the second generation of mHealth devices, the projected regulatory patterns, innovative devices and services to be launched in the near future. The report will also discuss briefly how mHealth services will be integrated in the future healthcare environment.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
The study provides a detailed analysis of the recent advances in mobile technologies and its potential application in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry; it also examines the market factors and identifies the market potential through the year 2018. The study is aimed at the mHealth developers, services providers and mobile operators as well as the pharmaceutical industry experts, biotechnology firms, diagnostic laboratories and individuals interested in exploiting the commercial opportunities offered in this field.

thestreet.com - IBM's (IBM_) mainframe technology celebrates its 50th birthday this year, with the tech giant marking the milestone by bolstering the hardware's mobile and cloud credentials.
Ahead of a 50th anniversary event in New York City later Tuesday, IBM has unveiled a slew of System z mainframe announcements. These include System z for Mobile Computing, which is geared toward developing and deploying mobile applications. One early adopter is First National Bank (FNB) in Africa, which has used the technology to create new banking tools, swelling its mobile transactions to more than 230 million a month.
IBM is also touting a new pricing mobile model which lets mainframe customers pay only for the computing power they use. Also known by the nickname "big iron," mainframe hardware is typically used to handle large scale data processing. IBM has worked hard to keep the technology relevant during its five-decade history.
Charles King, principal analyst at tech research firm Pund-IT, said he thinks that the decision to target the mainframe at mobile is a shrewd move which will extend the technology's lifespan.
"IBM's leveraging their mainframe for the mobile world makes perfect sense," he told TheStreet. "I think the bottom line message is that a 50-year old mainframe looks remarkably young for its age - that's a testimony to the innovation that IBM has managed to imbue in the mainframe platform."
King pointed, in particular, to IBM's decision to embrace Linux in the 1990s, which he described as a watershed moment, opening up the platform to a new generation of technologists and modern workloads.
Cloud, of course, is another big tech buzzword, and features prominently in IBM's big mainframe push. The company announced the IBM Cloud Enterprise System, aimed at enterprises and service providers that want to quickly build out cloud environments. Again, IBM is offering a flexible utility pricing model that will let service providers pay for Linux-based mainframe infrastructure based on compute consumption over a period of time, as opposed to the actual capacity of the system being used.
Emirates Airlines, which already uses the System z for its ticketing and reservations system, plans to use the technology to expand its mobile and cloud efforts, according to a statement released earlier today.
Other announcements from IBM Tuesday include zDoop software, developed in partnership with Veristorm and the first commercial version of Hadoop for Linux on System z. Hadoop is an open source software for processing large sets of data across clusters of hardware. Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM also unveiled new Flash storage for mainframe devices and a new version of its CICS Transaction Server technology for handling large transaction volumes.
Keen to ensure that future generations of IT managers become familiar with mainframes, IBM also announced three new online courses offered through partnerships with Syracuse University, Marist College and the Linux Foundation. The firm already offers its IBM Academic Initiative, which provides mainframe educational resources to schools.
In her annual letter to shareholders last month, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty vowed to maintain the company's significant presence in hardware, highlighting, in particular, its mainframe business.

independent.ie - Big retailers are muscling in on the likes of Visa, MasterCard and Google in a fiercely competitive and growing mobile payment market that promises to cut transaction costs and increase customer loyalty
Stores such as British supermarket Tesco and France's Auchan hope their "digital wallets" - apps which allow users to pay with their smartphones rather than cash or cards - will also give them more comprehensive data about customers' shopping habits than ever before so they can target advertising.
They are joining a crowded market - banks, card companies and tech firms like Google and Apple are all entering the mobile payment business, each hoping their app will become the industry standard. eBay's PayPal, well established in e-commerce, is also experimenting with the technology.
Retailers hope to attract customers to their own services by giving discounts and rewards to those using them, while also linking payments automatically to loyalty schemes and offering features like saved shopping lists.
The global market for mobile payments is forecast to grow about threefold by 2017 to some $721bn worth of transactions, with more than 450 million users, according to research firm Gartner.
The growth could benefit retailers as the competition from a host of payment providers should help drive down the fees stores pay to have transactions processed - a service currently dominated by banks and card firms Visa and MasterCard.
"We view merchants as overall beneficiaries of the trend toward mobile payments," said Morgan Stanley, which estimated retailers in developed countries spent up to $150 billion in 2012 to accept card payments.
"Expected returns should justify any incremental investments required in enabling mobile payments technology," it said in a report in January.
However, it is still unclear how the retail mobile payment market will develop, with card companies and banks seen retaining a leading role in processing payments even if physical cards become obsolete.
Retailers' apps might struggle to take off as customers are unlikely to be willing to use a variety of services for different stores, but the success of Starbucks Corp in combining mobile payments with promotions shows big players can succeed.
U.S. RETAILERS
Starbucks, the world's biggest coffee chain, launched its mobile payment and rewards app in 2011. It already has 10 million users and the firm said this month it is looking for ways to expand the program beyond its own network.
"The mobile payments platform has given us a higher degree of frequency and higher degree of loyalty and the question is how can we leverage that beyond our stores," Starbucks Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Schultz told CNBC television.
An alternative path is also being explored in the United States, where dozens of top retailers including Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy have announced plans to set up a joint digital wallet service - the Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX - though no launch date has been set.
Meanwhile, an attempt to create a mobile payment app universally accepted by retailers has recently launched in Germany. Yapital, owned by e-commerce firm Otto, has gone live in thousands of stores and also allows users to pay online and make peer-to-peer transfers.
Yapital Chairman Nils Winkler expects just a few players to survive of the 200 initiatives now clamoring for attention in Europe, with apps tied to retailers more likely to win out than those being developed by telecom and card firms.
"The biggest success in this field will be retail-based. PayPal is a good example that has grown tremendously based on the retail success of eBay," he said.
"CLEAR BUSINESS CASE"
Tesco, the world's third-largest retailer which pioneered the tracking of customer behavior with its Clubcard loyalty card two decades ago, will launch its digital wallet this year, as it also starts offering current accounts.
That is part of the British supermarket chain's eventual plan to use smartphones - and its own-brand Hudl tablet computers - to allow customers to navigate stores with their devices and scan products to buy them as they shop.
Sophie Albizua, co-founder of UK-based retail consultancy eNova Partnership, said her clients were ready to invest in overhauling outdated till systems to enable mobile payments. "People spent the last five to 10 years fine-tuning their websites. Now they have time to focus on something else."
French supermarket group Auchan, Europe's fifth-biggest retailer, launched its "Flash and Pay" electronic wallet about a year ago. It combines payments with coupons, loyalty cards, receipts and a shopping list feature.
"Our objective is to minimize costs. To have alternatives to existing solutions. All other solutions try to make costs for merchants," Arnaud Crouzet, Auchan head of global payments, told the Merchant Payments Ecosystem conference in Berlin.
"It is difficult to imagine our data on our customers going through a third party," he added.
Britain's Centre for Economics and Business Research said there was a clear business case for digital wallets in terms of reduced costs and improved customer service and sales.
UK retailers could have saved £463m in transaction costs in 2013 by shifting to mobile payments from cash, credit and charge cards, it estimates.
Mobile payments could reduce queue length in stores by speeding users through tills and cut the cost of handling cash and card payments, it said.
Handling cash - which accounts for over half retail transactions by volume in Britain - is costly for retailers as it needs to be counted and guarded, costs equivalent to about 2.5pc of takings, compared with about 2pc for processing cheques and 1 percent for debit and credit cards.
However Carrefour, the world's second biggest retailer after Wal-Mart, thinks shoppers need more time to be convinced.
"For the moment, cards are still a good solution, especially contactless ones," said Frederic Mazurier, a vice-president for finance and risk management at Carrefour Banque. "It is going to take quite a few years more."

independent.ie - In front of 5,000 software developers in San Francisco last week, Microsoft laid out its stall for a new future where mobile phones are key. Little matter that the company has missed the boat since former chief executive Steve Ballmer laughed at the iPhone - today, finally, it knows that the mobile phone is the only frontier that really matters.
Stephen Elop will be the company's new commander in this crucial battle.
The former boss of Nokia will run Microsoft's devices and services division, moving from chief executive to a new, much larger role when Microsoft completes its acquisition of the struggling Finnish manufacturer.
His aim will be to turn what's already the fastest growing mobile platform into a serious challenger to Apple and Google, and he says that he's quite happy to be ruthless.
Take, for example, the recent step of putting Microsoft Office on to Apple's iPad.
"We establish that to the benefit of Microsoft when you're using Office on the iPad you might just get drawn into Skype," he said.
"In some ways, it's taking a valuable asset of Microsoft and being - it's sort of an odd word - parasitic on the iPad. We are communicating with consumers on iPads to get them into Microsoft."
This Windows-maker is not just a parasite on Apple, however.
Nokia has made a phone using Google's Android operating system.
While Microsoft's Windows Phone software boss, Joe Belfiore, described it as a move he didn't like, Elop is robust.
"We're not going to take Windows and run it on a €15 device, yet," he said.
"Microsoft has so many assets - if you've asked the head of the Skype team he could have said that there could be 100 million new consumers amongst people that Microsoft has never talked to who all of a sudden create a Microsoft account [thanks to a cheaper Android device].
From a broader perspective - a more complete view of the company - it can be a very powerful opportunity."
While Belfiore is less enthusiastic, he concedes that the Microsoft-Android hybrid model is "an experiment that deserves watching".
Nonetheless, Belfiore says: "My strategy is to make Windows Phone successful. You hear me talking about having great price points - we are going to go after that."
The impression is that Belfiore views the Nokia X Android project as a short-lived experiment that may provide interesting data.
"I don't know how that's going to go yet," he said. "It's nice that they connect to services like OneDrive, all that's good. We can learn which aspects of it matter." When Microsoft completes its acquisition of Nokia, he says "we'll go dig through all the facts".
According to Elop, the prospect of properly integrating the software of Microsoft and the hardware of Nokia might provide a host of similar opportunities.
He says that the cheaper parts of the phone market may get compressed as devices become cheaper, but "in the context of Microsoft [Nokia] has a broader mission which also includes making the market or paving the way for other manufacturers," Elop added: "Any technology needs someone to lead it. New experiments, new innovations, someone's got to put the seed capital down. Microsoft, combined with Nokia, will make more of those seed investments. The best thing that can happen is that other manufacturers step in."
The impression he gives, overall, is of relentless enthusiasm for Microsoft's products, with Nokia acting as their best ambassador.
"Certainly there will be efforts made to make sure that other manufacturers have full access to Microsoft," he said.
"But it is our intent by coming into Microsoft to reduce the friction between what we've done at Nokia and what's going on at Microsoft."
He says that those moves could have improved key functions, such as the camera, and says there are marketing advantages too.
"Today, before the deal closes, we still have the 'Nokia Lumia 1520 using Windows Phone 8.1 on the AT&T fastest in the land network'," Elop says.
"That's the name because everyone's got to get their piece in.
"We can simplify some of that. I guarantee you it will be fewer words and probably a few less numbers."
All of this goes to the heart of the bureaucracy that has hampered Microsoft in the past. Where previous business units have often been rivals with their peers, he presents a version of a more open company that is in tune with a single mission.
"Listen to Satya [Nadella] as he's taken over as CEO and recognise that at moments like this you have to take stock of how does the company move forward as a whole," says Elop.
Even the company's new voice assistant, dubbed Cortana, is unusual for being open to developers to use in their own apps from the beginning.
So it's the idea of mobile technology as a whole that Elop says is key.
But it doesn't end at phones, even if cracking that nut will be huge progress.
"Mobility is defined by a lot of things," he teases. "Wearables, that's part of it. Automobiles." ((c) Daily Telegraph, London)