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

There have been countless spottings of him at events, navigating the streets or simply riding public transportation in those unmistakable glasses.

Google’s Co-Founder, Sergey Brin, was most recently seen last week riding the downtown train in New York sporting his Google Glass Specs. According to Jon Russell of The Next Web:

“That a man as fabulously wealthy as Brin uses the train to get around is quite amusing. With his winter hat, beard and plastic bag, he looks just like a regular guy. Albeit one rocking a $1,500 set of glasses.

It’s pretty incredible to think that this technology — which was unveiled last April and demoed at Google IO in June when Brin showed a video of him skydiving with a pair – is being worn out and about among ordinary people, many of whom probably have no idea what it is…let alone how much it is worth.

Is this a glimpse of the future when ordinary folks are wearing Google Glass while doing everyday activities…? Brin will certainly hope so.”

While flying through the air skydiving might not be the best representation of real world usage, a man as brilliant and powerful as Brin knows the importance of testing a product in-the-wild before launching it.  As Russell mentioned, people other than Brin are out testing the specs. In fact, we recently featured an interview with a Googler who was stopped by a reporter while taking the glasses for a spin. In-the-wild testing is a must – and Google knows it.

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 notion of a space habitat is no longer fiction. NASA has recently begun exploring ways to expand the International Space Station, and they are doing so through in-the-wild tests. After all, you can’t launch a safe “self-contained inflatable space habitat” without testing in the real world… or should I say, in the real “outer space”?

According  to Don Reisinger of CNet:

“The agency announced last week that Bigelow Aerospace has been awarded a $17.8 million contract to deliver to the agency an inflatable extension for the space station. According to NASA, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module ‘will demonstrate the benefits of this space habitat technology for future exploration and commercial space endeavors.’”

The inflatable extension will essentially be a test to determine if these habitats are beneficial to space exploration. While we are just seeing tests emerge now, Reisinger says the concept has been around for quite some time:

“The idea of a self-contained inflatable habitat for space exploration has even been in place for decades. However, due to NASA budget constraints, the so-called ‘Transit Habitat,’ which was to help get crews to Mars with inflatable technology, was cancelled in 2000.

Bigelow, founded in the late 1990s, has been working on its own inflatable habitats for years. The company currently offers a BA 330 inflatable habitat that can be both added on to existing stations or operate on its own. The BA 330 has 330 cubed meters of volume and support up to six crewpeople for an extended period of time. According to Bigelow, the BA 330′s radiation protection can at least match that of the International Space Station. The habitat’s “aluminum can” design includes four large windows for occupants to look out into space.”

Pretty neat. It will be interesting to see how the extension performs under real world conditions and what NASA’s next move will be.

We’ve known for awhile that Google embraces in-the-wild testing, but here’s more proof. The famed Google Glasses were spotted by a Gothamist writer at a bar in NYC. Here’s a snippet of the conversation the intrepid reporter had with the Googler taking the glasses for a spin.

Gothamist: How long have you been using them?

Cyborg: A few weeks now. They’re pretty awesome.

Gothamist: I don’t understand exactly what they do. Can you see my organs? Or my sins?

Cyborg: They basically do everything that a smartphone can do, but faster and without having to pull out your phone.

…

Gothamist: This isn’t exactly the place where you’d expect to find people testing expensive, precious-looking, cutting-edge technology.

Cyborg: Well, that’s kind of the point. You want to be able to use them everywhere.

…

Gothamist: One last thing. Would you honestly use these even if your job wasn’t to test them?

Cyborg: Absolutely.

Read about the full encounter at the Gothamist >>>

Google gets it, in-the-wild testing is important. Are you really going to argue with one of the most successful companies in the world?

Even data centers need to take the real world into consideration. Check out these maps (put together, by Gigaom):

Five of those states overlap. Which means five of the most common locations for data centers also happen to be some of the most disaster-prone states. And unfortunately, data centers are just as prone to disaster damage as any other building.

These are the most popular states for data centers because they’re located near highly populated areas. On paper, this makes sense. You want to give people the fasted data possible, so put the data centers near the people. This is where the whole “in-the-wild” concept comes into play. As we’ve seen before, what looks good on paper might not work in the real world. Now, some data experts are arguing that having a data center nearby might not really be necessary. From Gigaom:

Read more …

Not the average smartphone user, that’s for sure. According to a survey from Accenture, two-thirds of tablet and smartphone users don’t care what operating system they run and would be open to switching platforms. Here is VentureBeat with the rest of the story:

In fact, 24 percent would switch just to see what else is on the market, 23  percent would change for a better user experience, and another 23 percent would  ditch their current mobile operating system to “get access to more innovative  services and applications.”

“Overall, our survey found there is not widespread loyalty among consumers  about operating systems used on their smartphones, tablets and PCs,” Kumu Puri,  a managing director at Accenture told me via email. “They are willing to try  different operating systems and are not, generally, locked into using any one  single platform.”

That’s somewhat astonishing, given that strength of ecosystem is one of the  key factors that mobile device manufacturers see as a core strength. After all,  if you’ve got an iOS device and have purchased apps, music, movies, and books,  moving away from Apple means leaving all your expensive content behind.

Reasons for switching include simple curiosity — what’s on the other side of  the fence — as well as lower costs, less hassle, higher security, and better  syncing with an in-car system. It’s tempting to say that lower costs would come  on the Android side, less hassle on the Apple side, and better in-car syncing  with a Microsoft solution, but the survey did not go into that depth of  detail.

Read the Rest >>>

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>>

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Smartphones are fragile things, and when it comes to real-life interactions, they don’t always fare very well. Here’s an infographic produced by Square Trade (a protection plan company) and published by CNET that details some of the most common untimely ends iPhones meet.