Siri has been reigning supreme in the iOS world for a while,  but with rival Google Now coming to Siri’s home turf will she hold on to her postition as go-to voice assistant for iPhone users? Boston.com senior business producer Daniel Kline took the two out onto the streets of Boston to see which virtual assistant would get the job.

Accessibility

Being accessible by holding down the main button helped Siri win this round. Google Now requires you to open an app first.

Direct Search & Directions

When Daniel asked for directions to the Omni Parker House hotel Google Now knew exactly what he was talking about and where it was. Siri? Not so much. Her list of options didn’t even include the right hotel Daniel reported.

Search by Statement

From Boston.com:

“Neither produced a satisfactory answer to the query, “I’m thirsty,” and asking “Where can I get a cup of tea?” was equally unsuccessful. On the tea question, Siri asked if I wanted to do a Web search, while Google produced Web links to establishments that had the words “cup of tea” in their name. Simply asking for “coffee?” was more satisfying as both apps produced lists of nearby options, though neither offered up the Finagle A Bagel I was standing in front of.”

 Let’s call this one a successful and unsuccessful tie.

Search by Question

When Daniel asked a question about the circus being in town both virtual assistants returned the circus’ website.

When he asked where he could find a burger, Siri pulled up some nearby burger joints while Google Now didn’t produce any results.

Clueless when it  comes to pop culture? You might want to go with Google Now.

I asked both assistants, “Who are One Direction?” Siri did not appear to know and offered up a list of Web links not related to the band. Google, however, knew exactly what I was asking and it offered up links to both the band’s website and its Wikipedia page.

When it comes to the Red Sox, though, both apps know their stuff. They both produced graphical information when asked about the next Sox game. Results were a bit iffier when Daniel wanted to know about the Bruins playoffs schedule. Siri had nothing and all Google could muster up was a link to the Bruins website.

This one was close and it seemed to be hit or miss overall, but in the end Google Now inched ahead with slightly better results than Siri.

Local Public Transit

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Mobile app users are concerned about the privacy and security of their data (in fact, those are two of the 10 important attributes highlighted by Applause). But what happens when it’s your kid using an app? Privacy issues with children’s apps have been making headlines in the past months and at the end of last year the Federal Trade Commission put out a report titled “Mobile Apps for Kids: Disclosures Still Not Making the Grade.”

Kristin Judge, the executive director of the Trusted Purchasing Alliance (part of the Center for Internet Security), used the report and a corresponding article to highlight some particularly disturbing privacy lapses.

• Parents are not being provided with information about what data an app collects, who will have access to that data, and how it will be used. Only 20 percent of the apps staff reviewed disclosed any information about the app’s privacy practices.
• Many apps (nearly 60 percent of the apps surveyed) are transmitting information from a user’s device back to the app developer or, more commonly, to an advertising network, analytics company, or other third party.
• A relatively small number of third parties received information from a large number of apps. This means the third parties that receive information from multiple apps could potentially develop detailed profiles of the children based on their behavior in different apps.
• Many apps contain interactive features — such as advertising, links to social media, or the ability to purchase goods within an app — without disclosing those features to parents prior to download
• Fifty-eight percent of the apps reviewed contained advertising within the app, while only 15 percent disclosed the presence of advertising prior to download.
• Twenty-two percent of the apps contained links to social networking services, while only 9 percent disclosed that fact.
• Seventeen percent of the apps reviewed allow kids to make purchases for virtual goods within the app, with prices ranging from 99 cents to $29.99. Although both stores provided certain indicators when an app contained in-app purchasing capabilities, these indicators were not always prominent and, even if noticed, could be difficult for many parents to understand.

Read the full article at AnnArbor.com >>>

Some of these issues are problems for both adults and children. Others – such as ads, in-app purchases and social network links – are things adults will see and understand, but may be tempting to children who don’t know what they’re clicking or what it does.

How does this tie into in-the-wild testing? When you’re testing an app that a child might use (a game, an entertainment app, etc.) think about it from a child’s perspective. Is it too easy to accidentally click on an ad? Did you get a clear privacy policy statement when you downloaded the app (so that parents are informed)? Does the app match the privacy policy or did it neglect to mention certain features? Test the app as you would normally, then take another look at it through the eyes of a seven-year-old – it can be a world of difference. That’s not something test automation or a simulator can test for.

No matter how good you think your security is, there is always someone who can break it. … But sometimes that’s a good thing.

Jeremiah Grossman, a web app security expert and CTO of WhiteHat Security, changed his password and, unfortunately, forgot the new one. From InformationWeek:

As a result [of forgetting the new password], he was unable to access the many different Mac OS X Disk Image (.dmg) files he uses to store his work, which he created with Apple FileVault using double the default level of encryption: AES-256.

“A great thing about DMGs is that they can be stored anywhere — hidden in some obscure directory on the local machine, a network storage device, a USB drive, whatever. All my confidential files are typically stored this way, in a series of encrypted DMGs with separate passwords,” said Grossman in a blog post.

Being a security expert, you can bet his password wasn’t 1234 or Monkey. He even took extra security steps to keep hackers from getting to his data.

Grossman also mounts the DMGs only when they’re needed, both to make the files harder to find should someone obtain his password, and to make the data much more difficult for any hackers who remotely compromise his system. Likewise, Grossman didn’t store his password in the OS X Keychain. Nor did he write it down and store it in a safe or other hiding place.

Using strong passwords is good, but the down side is that if you do forget your password you’re in a bit of a bind – for Grossman, there were 41 billion password possibilities. He remembered part of the new password (which lowered the possible answers to 22,472) but after a week of trying couldn’t figure out the rest. So Grossman turned to the public for help. Four world-renowned password crackers answered the call and created a new password cracker specifically to get into Grossman’s files.

Grossman issued a plea via Twitter, which was answered by four developers: Solar Designer, gat3way, Dhiru Kholia and Magnum. They collectively created the John the Ripper (JtR) password cracker along with Jeremi Gosney of Stricture Consulting Group, which maintains a powerful GPU cluster for rapidly cracking passwords. “Collectively, these guys are the amongst the world’s foremost experts in password cracking. If they can’t help, no one can,” said Grossman.

They were successful and Grossman got back into his data. He presumably immediately changed the password again (it was just cracked after all) and hopefully this time he came up with a back up plan for remembering. This should teach you an important lesson about software security:

The moral of the story: No matter how secure your system might be, never discount the human element, even if that human is an information security specialist.

Don’t think of that moral as an ominous reason to completely give up on security. Instead, look at it as motivation. You should constantly be conducting security testing on your applications and software because the hackers out there are constantly finding new vulnerabilities and coming up with new ways to get into your systems. You can’t stay one step ahead of them – or even on pace with them – if you’re not continually dedicating time and resources to good security testing.

What happens when you replace a young teen’s iPhone with a Windows Phone? They give you a clear, non-techy analysis of the pros and cons.

Danny Sullivan, of CNET, didn’t set out to do an official test. His 14- and 12-year-old sons saw a commercial for Windows Phone and were intrigued by the distinct UI. Working for a tech publication, Danny was in the perfect situation to obtain a few tester phones and let his kids give them a whirl. The boys used an HTC 8X and a Nokia Lumia 920.  What we ended up with was a combination of usability test and OS/device review from the eyes of the next generation of users. Here’s a few snippets:

For Declan, any chance Windows Phone had for winning him over was pretty much lost when he learned there was no Instagram app. …

“The tiles were what drew me in, but then they didn’t work as well as I thought,” [Declan] said. “They looked cool, but when it comes to using them, it’s kind of confusing.”

Confusing? With the iPhone, each app icon also has a text label, so you know exactly what it is. But with Windows Phone, you only see labels if the apps are medium- or large-sized, not small. It’s not something I thought much about myself, until he pointed it out.

“I have no idea what that’s supposed to be. It’s some lady,” he said, pointing to the Photo Enhancer app. “You have to have them big to have labels.” …

The screen on the Nokia Lumia 920 is even bigger than that of the HTC 8X, and it’s one of the things that won over Rhys. He began watching TV shows on Netflix through his phone, something he never did on the iPhone, because the larger screen makes viewing easier.

Like his brother, Rhys wasn’t happy to find that some games like Plants vs. Zombies were more expensive for Windows Phone ($5) than for the iPhone ($1). One blamed Microsoft for this; the other blamed the game makers. I don’t know who to blame, myself. …

I knew Windows Phone had captured Rhys entirely when, walking out of the house to go on a short vacation, I noticed he’d left his iPhone behind on his desk. He was all in on Windows Phone, no safety net and not worried at all. In fact, his biggest concern has been having to go back to the iPhone 4.

“Overall, it just felt more unique. It felt as if I had control of the phone and was able to do more things with it,” he said when asked to sum up his experience with Windows Phone. …

Read the full article at CNET >>>

So there you go, one son wasn’t impressed with the apps and some user interface decisions. The other was won over by a larger screen and different features. It just goes to show you that without in-the-wild testing, you’ll never know how real users are going to react.

It has become fairly apparent that software security is a complicated and important issue these days. There are a lot of options if you’re looking to upgrade your security software to protect your devices and data. Which is the best you ask? The folks over at PCWorld and AV-Test checked out nine security suites both in the lab and in-the-wild to see which ones worked best. Here’s a bit of background on the process, from PCWorld:

AV-Test ran each suite through a comprehensive battery of tests to find out how well each would stand up to the worst malware currently in existence. AV-Test also performed speed testing to determine whether the suites will slow your PC to a crawl. We analyzed the data that AV-Test provided, and then tried each of the products ourselves to give you an idea of which suites you should go for—and which ones you should pass on.

These four suites rose to the top:

Best Overall: F-Secure Internet Security 2013
Best Protection: Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2013
Best Speed: Norton Internet Security
Best Interface: Norton Internet Security

The full PCWorld article is definitely worth checking out. It has sections that cover which suites were tested (and how they scored), why the winners came out on top, what the security suites don’t do and major security threats for 2013, among other things. And if you’re more concerned about mobile security, don’t discount this article or the suites they review, you might be surprised by some of the features available in the 2013 editions.

Awesome inforgraphic from our friends over at Veracode:

Infographic by Veracode Application Security

Raise your hand if you have an Android. You could help predict the next major thunderstorm or even give advance warning about an impending tornado. Atmospheric sensors began being incorporated into Android devices following the release of Android 3.0. These sensors are intended to make location pinpointing more accurate, but a group of scientists is looking to collect that data and use it to help identify and predict weather patterns in-the-wild. From Wired:

“The first I heard about these [Android] pressure sensors I said, ‘Oh my god, this could be a huge game changer,’” said Cliff Mass, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington. “My vision is someone needs to collect all these observations across the country — we could have a million an hour – and use that to radically improve weather prediction.” …

Right now forecasters can vaguely tell you that there’s a chance of thunderstorms the next day. But if researchers can incorporate a large volume of pressure readings into climate models to define features associated with severe weather events, they can begin predicting when a severe storm will hit a specific part of a city up to six hours in advance. “You couldn’t do that now with any skill,” Mass said. …

Mass has been working with Jacob Sheehy and Phil Jones, the developers of an Android app called PressureNet. They say it’s the only barometer app on Android that not only shows users the pressure reading in their location but collects the data and shares it back to all users. The app lets users zoom into a location on a map to see a graph of the collected readings from that region.

Read the full article at Wired >>>

Right now, pressure sensors are included on a handful of devices, including the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 10, Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note. PressureNet and Mass are still working out the kinks (like getting people to download the app and any potential privacy issues), but if people buy into this system, it could have amazing real life implications on weather prediction.

The race towards in-vehicle apps is on, as big automakers Ford and General Motors jump to announce mobile app integrations for their vehicles. This may come as news to some, but others have long predicted what Wired’s Thilo Koslowski refers to as “The Internet of Cars”.

Now “The Internet of Cars” is much more a reality than a prediction. According to Frederic Lardinois of TechCrunch:

“Ford [yesterday] introduced its new AppLink API that allows mobile apps to talk to its cars. Not to be outdone, General Motors just introduced its own API and SDK for its new in-vehicle app platform. the big difference here is that while Ford uses a driver’s smartphone, General Motors’s framework for its MyLink platform is meant to let developers run apps hosted in the car’s infotainment system.

GM announced four potential launch partners for this new system: iHeart Radio, TuneIn, Slacker, and The Weather Channel. At least some parts of the SDK will allow developers to use HTML5 and JavaScript to write their apps, though details about this still remain sparse.

The company’s 2014 model year, which will launch in late 2013, will feature the first cars to have this new capability, but the company hasn’t announced which vehicles will get this feature first. The cars that will feature this system will allow drivers to download apps directly to the car through an app catalog.”

Developers that plan to launch and run their apps in a vehicle app platform must note the significance of testing outside the lab. Mobile app development teams must be able to adjust their development and quality assurance processes to a platform that is far from a mobile device or tablet. An in-vehicle app platform requires a different breed of testing, and the only way to know how an app will run in a vehicle is to test under real world conditions.

A major development project like this brings countless real world situations to question: will different conditions of the vehicle affect the app system – or worse – can the app in any way affect conditions of the vehicle? The scary realization is that if in-the-wild testing is overlooked, a software “crash” could have an all new meaning.

Vehicles aren’t the only place software and quality assurance is headed. Wireless medical devices are soon to face similar concerns. Read more here>>

Looking for more resources on In-The-Wild Testing? Download this free whitepaper here.  

What’s the best way to test a wireless network based on new technology? Set it up in a major city and see what happens! That’s what the New American Foundation’s Open Technology Institute is doing with a wireless technology called “Commotion.” From Gigaom:

A section of Detroit will be the proving ground for a new open source wireless networking technology called Commotion. Commotion is a mesh networking technology that creates a wireless local area network for devices. The network can connect users to each other and with an Internet connection and can connect them to the greater web.

Commotion has already been set up in Detroit’s Cass Corridor and the Institute hopes it will give internet-starved Detroit residents an alternative communication network.

These technologies are not going to eliminate your wireless phone bills or anything, but they can provide a testing ground for wireless engineering as well as a means by which communications can occur in areas where there is no Internet access. The OTI release on the news notes that more than half of Detroit residents do not have Internet service at home due to the cost of service and a lack of investment in infrastructure by Internet service corporations. With the Commotion network they can at least talk to each other — and the few who have Internet access might be able to offer that connection to the outside web via the software.

Read more about Commotion and similar projects in the Gigaom article >>>

The creators of Commotion plan on releasing the technology to others early this year. 2013 could be a very good year for in-the-wild testing!