'Warbiking' highlights the need for better wireless security

A high-tech bike ride around Sydney shows off how little thought many companies and individuals give to wireless security.

Don't let the lycra fool you: James Lyne isn't your traditional cyclist.

Unlike the majority of MAMILs (middle aged men in lycra) on Sydney's roads, he's not cycling to and from work, or for medically-advised health reasons. He's actually the global head of security research for Sophos, and this bike ride is all about research.

Lyne has a high-tech rig installed on his bike that sniffs out Wi-Fi networks and lets him see just what their security is like. He calls it warbiking -- named after the old-school wardriving in the early days of wireless networks -- and last week we took a ride with him around Sydney.

Sydney is just the latest stop on Lyne's World of Warbiking tour -- he's been through Hanoi, London, San Francisco and more. While in town, Lyne's ride scanned a total of 34,476 networks with some depressing results.

A staggering 28 percent of the networks had either no security encryption at all or used WEP -- a security algorithm that's been regarded as broken since 2001. A further 28 percent used WPA rather than the preferred WPA2.

Amazingly, these results were actually better than many of the other cities that Lyne has been to.

The flipside of the Warbiking tour is when Lyne actually offers an unsecured network to see who connects and see what's sort of activities they're willing to perform on an open network. In Sydney, people connecting to the unknown network were happy to connect to not only social media sites but even netbanking.

According to Lyne: "This willingness to connect to any wireless network that professes to offer free Wi-Fi, without ensuring you have some kind of security measures in place, is like shouting your personal or company information out of the nearest window and being surprised when someone abuses it."

In the video above, Lyne explains warbiking in greater detail as well as offering some great advice about wireless security, not only for Sydneysiders but anyone around the world.

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Microsoft, Canon shake on patent licensing agreement

The two companies will share intellectual property on a "broad range of products and services," including those for certain digital imaging and mobile consumer products.

Here's a novel idea: Instead of suing for patent infringement, why not just share the intellectual property?

This is exactly what Microsoft and Canon have decided to do. The two companies announced Wednesday that they've signed a patent cross-licensing agreement, which gives them the right to use the intellectual property on some of each other's products.

"This collaborative approach with Canon allows us to deliver inventive technologies that benefit consumers around the world," Microsoft IP Licensing general manager Nick Psyhogeos said in astatement. "Microsoft believes cooperative licensing is an effective way to accelerate innovation while reducing patent disputes."

Patent cross-licensing agreements are nothing new. In fact, a lot of tech companies over the years have made such deals with their colleagues and even their competitors. For example, earlier this year Samsung entered into three separate patent cross-licensing agreements with Google, Cisco Systems, and Ericsson.Microsoft and Canon did not disclose the terms of the deal or say exactly what types of patents they'll be sharing. But, they did say the agreement "covers a broad range of products and services" and applied to their "growing patent portfolios." The companies said that certain digital imaging and mobile consumer products have been included in the agreement.

As for Microsoft, since it launched its IP licensing program in 2003, it has entered into more than 1,100 licensing agreements with various companies.

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Mobile SEO, Are You Doing It?

Google recently revealed on ablog post that the rankings of search results on mobile devices will be affected by the optimization of websites for such devices. In other words, the more your content and website design is optimized for mobile devices, the higher your site will rank for users on those devices.

It makes sense, after all it would be bad for Google to serve a search result that would be poorly visualized on the device of the user.

Here’s a quote from the article:

Smartphone users are a significant and fast growing segment of Internet users, and at Google we want them to experience the full richness of the web. As part of our efforts to improve the mobile web, we published our recommendations and the most common configuration mistakes.

Avoiding these mistakes helps your smartphone users engage with your site fully and helps searchers find what they’re looking for faster. To improve the search experience for smartphone users and address their pain points, we plan to roll out several ranking changes in the near future that address sites that are misconfigured for smartphone users.

Google also has a page on developers section where it highlights the most common mistakes when optimizing sites for mobile devices. They are:

• Unplayable videos
• Faulty redirects
• Smartphone-only 404s
• App download interstitials
• Irrelevant cross-linking
• Page speed

If you are not testing your website on mobile devices yet, well, now it’s a good time to get started.

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Galaxy S4 Group Play makes sharing easier (hands-on)

Samsung Galaxy S4 Group Play gives you the option to create or join a group, as well as set a password.

(Credit: Shara Tibken/CNET)

Sharing is a big part of Samsung's products (just think of all those ads in recent months, like the one with a woman giving her husband a secret video). Now the Korean electronics giant is taking that a step further with the Galaxy S4's improved Group Play.

Galaxy S3 users will recognize this as the feature that lets them share documents and photos with others in close range. I recently got some hands-on time with Group Play on the S4 and found some nice updates to the program. In particular, future S4 owners can share music and games along with photos and documents, and the group leader's device acts as the Wi-Fi access point connecting all the other devices. That means you don't have connect to any Wi-Fi or cellular data network -- a big change from the Galaxy S3 version, which relied on all devices being connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

Setting up and connecting to a group is so simple that people might actually use the feature (once they realize what it is). Samsung crams tons of capabilities in all of its devices, but few consumers know they even exist, let alone how to use them. One of the company's biggest pushes this year is to make its products easier to use. With the Galaxy S4, many features such as NFC are automatically turned on instead of defaulted to the off setting. And the device has an improved notification/settings screen that's easier to navigate.

Setup
For Group Play, you launch the program by clicking an icon on the phone. The group leader has to choose "create group," which automatically turns on the Wi-Fi access point.

All other devices joining a Group Play session will recognize the access point the same way as any other Wi-Fi network. When you launch the program, you choose "join group" instead of "create group." The program then automatically searches for available Wi-Fi networks and connects when it finds one called "Group Play XXX." If there are multiple networks with "Group Play" in their name, the program gives you the option to choose which to join.

Group Play allows you to share music, photos, documents, and games. A box in the top-right corner shows how many people are connected to the group.

(Credit: Shara Tibken/CNET)

Samsung is working to let you pair your phone with NFC, so instead of seeing a list of available Group Play sessions, you can tap your phone against the leader's device to automatically join the session. I didn't get to test that feature out, and it's unclear whether U.S. GS4 owners will be able to do that at launch.

Whoever creates a group has the option to set up a password, which makes sharing a little more secure. A box in the top-right corner will indicate how many people have joined the group, allowing people to keep track of each other. Hovering over that number will show the names of the devices that are connected.

Once you've joined a group, you see a list of possible information to share -- music, pictures, documents, or games -- and multiple files can be shared in one session. Everyone has control over the Group Play content, so you can move through slides in a presentation and make notes on the material using your finger or a stylus on the Note devices. Each person's comments/doodles shows up as a different color to avoid confusion.

You can advance or rewind through the presentation not only on your own device but on everyone else's device, as well. For the music feature, it also means you can control the volume on another user's Galaxy S4.

The Group Play photo-sharing option sorts images based on settings new to the Galaxy S4, such as "Sound & Shot."

(Credit: Shara Tibken/CNET)

Photos and documents are holdovers from the older version of the program, but the updated Group Play sorts images based on the new shooting modes such as "Sound & Shot," "Drama Shot," and "Dual Shot."

Music and gaming
As I mentioned before, music and gaming are a couple new features for Group Play. The music feature is pretty interesting. It synchronizes whichever song is currently playing, so everyone can rock out to the same tune or have a silent disco, those parties where you have to wear headphones to hear the music. You can set each phone to act as a different speaker, so one will be the left, another the right, and so on.

Hands-on with Samsung Galaxy S4's Group Play features (pictures)

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You also can now play games with your friends, though you all must have the compatible game loaded on your phones. I wasn't able to try out the gaming feature, so it's unclear how well that actually works. Initially, the Galaxy S4 will feature Asphalt, a racing game; Gun Bros, a shooting game; and a poker card game. Gaming sessions work the same as other sessions and are initiated from the Group Play app. Gaming is typically limited to four to six players, depending on the title.

The new Group Play allows you to share music, playing back tracks in perfect harmony.

(Credit: Shara Tibken/CNET)

It's unclear exactly how many users can access the other sharing features; Samsung says it depends on the content being shared. PowerPoint and PDF documents can handle more users than photo sharing. Music sharing supports even fewer. The company notes that it has seen more than 20 people sharing the same PowerPoint presentation.

Because the leader generates the Wi-Fi access point, the session ends when that person leaves the group. Everyone else is then kicked out of Group Play, and the shared content disappears from your devices.

Bottom line
I got to see Group Play's new features and setup in action when I went to Samsung's U.S. mobile headquarters in suburban Dallas to get briefed on the company's retail store strategy. There, Samsung execs showed a small group of journalists how Group Play operates. We shared photos and played music, and both features worked well in the demo.

I had a chance to try setting it up myself. It was easy with a coach in front of me, but I'm not sure I'd know what the feature was or how to do it on my own if I'd never seen a demo. That's part of the reason Samsung has formed its partnership with Best Buy: after brief instruction, users should pick it up pretty easily. And while the improvements from the older version are nice, it's hard to imagine people using Group Play all that often. I could see it most commonly used in business for doing tasks like sharing PowerPoint presentations.

Group Play includes a gaming feature.

(Credit: Shara Tibken/CNET)

Sharing via Group Play isn't limited to the Galaxy S3 and S4. The feature is also available on theGalaxy Note 2, and certain tablets such as the Note 10.1 and Note 8. Samsung has said most GS4 software features will make their way to the S3, but it's not clear right now whether that device and other older Samsung gadgets will be able to share music and games or whether people can join groups using NFC. I wasn't able to test out how Group Play on the GS4 interacts with other Samsung devices.

And it's important to note that not all features of Group Play and the GS4 are set in stone. Some capabilities could change by the time Samsung launches the device, and features may vary depending on region. Samsung isn't sharing specific details yet, but we'll check back after the device has launched to fill in some of the question marks.

CNET

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Schmidt predicts entire world online by 2020. Is he right?

Google's executive chairman has made a bold prediction about the spread of the Internet. Do you think that prediction will come true?

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt speaking at Mobile World Congress in 2012

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt predicted that the world's entire population will be on the Internet by 2020.

"For every person online, there are two who are not," Schmidt said on Google+ last night. "By the end of the decade, everyone on Earth will be connected."

Certainly the number of people online is expanding dramatically, in particular with the spread of mobile phones. But the entire world?

That's a bold claim, given persistent poverty in many parts of the world and the difficulty of bringing even wireless networking to large swaths of thinly populated areas.

Of course, Google stands to gain a lot with the spread of the Net, and it's working speed that spread with technology such as Android and Google Fiber. Google's search-ad business generates profits from a service that's free, a price that's awfully compelling to people on a tight budget.

Do you think Schmidt is right? Vote in the poll and share your comments.

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Nokia Lumia 720 review: Sleek, but not the best value in town

Nokia's Lumia 720 made its debut this past February at Mobile World Congress.

(Credit: CNET)

With all the Nokia Lumia phones out and about right now, it's hard to keep track of what's what. Luckily, CNET UK's Andrew Hoyle puts the Nokia Lumia 720 into perspective in his full review of the midrange smartphone.

In other words, the decent camera, user-friendly interface, and bevy of Nokia-only apps do make the 720 a good choice for budget-seekers, but those looking for the ultimate value should stick with the Lumia 620, or keep their eyes trained on the 520, Nokia's least inexpensive Lumia yet.The Windows 8 phone looks sleek and familiar, more akin to Nokia's high-end Lumia 920 than the upper-midrange 820 series. It offers more than the forthcoming 520 andbudget 620, but not so much over these latter two that wallet-watchers should lose focus.

For all the details, photos, and a video tour, check out this full Nokia Lumia 720 review.

Originally posted at Dialed In

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BlackBerry denies abnormally high return rate for Z10 phone

The BlackBerry Z10.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

No, BlackBerry Z10 sales aren't falling off a cliff.

BlackBerry shares took a hit today after a few analysts criticized the tepid launch of the Z10 phone in the U.S., with one analyst claiming that the return rate was higher than the sales rate. Another said sales have dropped significantly at carrier stores.

BlackBerry, however, denied the claim, calling it "absolutely false." The company said the return rates in the U.S. and around the world have been in line or better than its internal expectations, as well as consistent with the return rates for other premium smartphones.

The performance of the Z10 is critical to the company's comeback plans, as it represents the first of a new generation of BlackBerry devices. The company has put a lot of resources behind the phone in the hope that it gets it back into the game.

Waiting in the wings is the BlackBerry Q10, which comes with the traditional physical keyboard, and is expected to launch as early as the end of this month. The Q10 is expected to draw in fans of the older BlackBerry design.

BlackBerry reported that it had shipped 1 million Z10 phones to its partners in the last quarter, but that didn't include U.S. sales, which began late last month. All eyes will be on BlackBerry's next earnings report for a more accurate tally of the Z10's performance.

Here's BlackBerry's full statement:

BlackBerry wishes to respond to media coverage today regarding speculation that there have been abnormally high levels of returns of BlackBerry Z10 devices. This is absolutely false. Our data shows that return rates for BlackBerry Z10 devices both in the U.S. and on a global basis are in line with or better than our expectations and are consistent with return rates for other premium smartphones in the market today.

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