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ponedjeljak, 20.02.2012.

5 Most Telling Takeaways From Tim Cook's Goldman Sachs Keynote

5 Most Telling Takeaways From Tim Cook's Goldman Sachs Keynote

By Christina Bonnington, VIA:wired.com.

Tuesday afternoon, Apple CEO Tim Cook presented the keynote speech at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. Cook's presentation ranged from discussion of Apple's supply chain strategy in China to how the iPad is cannibalizing computer sales.

We listened in on the nearly hour-long keynote livestreaming from Apple's website, and rounded up the five juiciest, most interesting reveals of Apple's roadmap and culture.

Here's what we found - with insight on why it matters.

On Factory Working Conditions

"Apple takes working conditions very, very seriously, and we have for a very long time… Our commitment is simple: Every worker has the right to a fair and safe work environment, free of discrimination, where they can earn competitive wages and they can voice their concerns freely. Apple suppliers must live up to this to do business with Apple. If we find a supplier that intentionally hires underage labor, it's a firing offense."

Cook also detailed how Apple is constantly monitoring its factories. He said Apple has eliminated child labor in the final assembly portion of its supply chain.

It's important to note that Cook opened his keynote with a discussion of working conditions at the manufacturing plants of overseas suppliers. Sure, accusations of inhumane conditions in Foxconn factories are currently making news, and Cook certainly had to respond to the bad press. But the content and tenor of Cook's comments suggest a new humility on Apple's part - that the company knows it needs to do the right thing. We can call this a third gesture of "corporate kindness" in the new Tim Cook Era.

On Quality

"Price is rarely the most important thing. A cheap product might sell some units. Somebody gets it home and they feel great when they pay the money, but then they get it home and use it, and the joy is gone. The joy is gone every day that they use it until they aren't using it anymore. You don't keep remembering ‘I got a good deal!' because you hate it!"

Let's read between the lines: Cook was responding to a question about tablets, and the above response is obviously a dig at the Amazon Kindle Fire. Clearly, Cook doesn't think the Fire, or any other budget tablet - or any other tablet, for that matter - is a threat to the iPad.

His response doesn't simply suggest he's a man with a competitive streak. It suggests he doesn't have any respect for the Fire and its Android brethren. It's a position that recalls the bluster of Steve Jobs, and proves Cook is just as much the fighter.

On Competition

"The real catalyst to the tablet market will be innovation and pushing the next frontier. Honestly, we'll compete with everybody. I love competition. As long as people invent their own stuff, I love competition."

The unspoken message: If you don't invent your own stuff, Apple's legal team will make sure to set things right. But this statement also makes us wonder which companies, if any, Apple considers to be competition. Google perhaps? In today's keynote, Cook could only muster calling Android "that other OS."

On Mac Cannibalization

"iPad has cannibalized some Mac sales. The way that we view cannibalization is that we prefer to do it to ourselves than let someone else do it. We don't want to hold back one of our teams from doing the greatest thing, even if it takes some sales from another product area. Our high-order bid is, ‘We want to please customers and we want them buying Apple stuff.'"

While this was just a basic reiteration of Apple's position since the advent of iOS, it's also telling for what it reminds us about Microsoft - namely, that in the ongoing synergistic fusion of Windows 8, Windows on Arm and Windows Phone, Microsoft will be attempting to prop up the Windows legacy by any means necessary.

Indeed, when you think of Apple as a dynamic, forward-thinking company, when do you ever think of Mac OS? It's just not part of the daily conversation or news cycle. But Microsoft has a deeply entrenched, vested interest in making sure Windows never goes away, even if it means, well, window-dressing the Windows desktop with a mobile U.I. We don't blame Microsoft for trying, and it certainly doesn't have Apple's "luxury" of owning such a small part of the desktop and enterprise market share.

On Steve's Legacy

"Steve grilled in all of us over many years that the company should revolve around great product, and that we should stay extremely focused on just a few things rather than try to do so many that we do nothing well. We should only go into markets where we can make a significant contribution to society, not just sell a lot of products. And so, these things, along with keeping excellence as an expectation of everything at Apple, these are the things that I focus on because I think those are the things that make Apple this magical place. We're always focused on the future. We don't sit and think about how great things were yesterday. I love that trait. I think it's the thing that drive us all forward."

This is Tim Cook's assurance to the investment community that a little Steve Jobs avatar is perched upon his shoulder. The avatar isn't issuing orders, mind you. It's just rubbing Cook's delts, and reminding him about core company values.

And this is a helpful avatar to have. We've seen all too many tech companies lose their mojo following the departure of founding fathers. Just look at the mess that's become of Hewlett-Packard. Tim Cook emphasized that he's striving to maintain the same culture and vision that Steve Jobs fostered while he was in charge. And because Apple does have a clearly defined focus, it should be able to continue to deliver solid, inventive products in the years to come.

And, of course, having another iPad waiting on deck - a product launch that wasn't acknowledged in even the most tangential, knowingly cheeky way - doesn't hurt Mr. Cook's chances for success either.

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20.02.2012. u 03:52 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

New Mobile Phone App to Help Save Lives Announced by San Jose Fire Department and El Camino Hospital

New Mobile Phone App to Help Save Lives Announced by San Jose Fire Department and El Camino Hospital

VIA:marketwatch.com.

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- A free CPR "citizen responder" mobile phone application will help save lives through a new partnership between the San Jose Fire Department and El Camino Hospital.

The PulsePoint app enables members of the public to provide life-saving assistance to victims of sudden cardiac arrest, which causes nearly 1,000 deaths a day in the United States. San Jose is the nation's largest city to utilize PulsePoint's location-aware technology. The app is available for both the iPhone and Android smart phones.

"The first few minutes after a sudden cardiac arrest are critical for saving lives, and this app will help citizens provide immediate assistance," said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. "Technology can help us build a safer, stronger and healthier community, and our partnership with El Camino Hospital to bring PulsePoint to San Jose is a wonderful example of this commitment at no cost to us."

App users, who have indicated they are trained in CPR, can be notified if someone nearby is having a cardiac emergency and may require CPR. The app uses sophisticated location-based services to alert citizens in a public place of the need for CPR. The application also directs citizen rescuers to the exact location of the nearest publicly available automated external defibrillator (AED).

The PulsePoint app will be made available to additional communities in Santa Clara County over the next year.

"We're making it very easy to empower citizens of San Jose who can help with CPR when every second counts," said San Jose Fire Chief William McDonald. "Timing is crucial for saving a life during cardiac arrest, and a notification to someone close by who can perform CPR can make all the difference."

The City of San Jose has installed 190 AEDs in libraries, community centers and other public locations. The City has also installed 40 AEDs at the San Jose International Airport so victims of cardiac arrest can have a greater chance of survival.

"Bringing this leading-edge lifesaving tool to the residents of San Jose is part of our ongoing commitment to improve the health and wellbeing of our community," said Tomi Ryba, president and CEO of El Camino Hospital. "We encourage everyone to become trained in CPR in order to extend the benefits of this mobile application and save lives."

"Once a sudden cardiac arrest begins, chances of that person surviving decrease 10 percent for every minute that passes without resuscitation; after 10 minutes there is little chance for successful resuscitation," said Chad Rammohan, MD, FACC, medical director of the Chest Pain Center at El Camino Hospital. "Citizen responders can help stop the clock by starting CPR immediately and help increase the individual's chances for survival until paramedics arrive. Recent advances in hospital management including cooling or therapeutic hypothermia have made a significant difference in meaningful recovery."

While difficult to quantify how many lives have been saved from bystander intervention since CPR was developed by the American Heart Association in 1960, the stories of people like sudden cardiac arrest survivor Theresa Doede underscore the important role that everyday individuals trained in CPR can play.

"I survived an out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest while attending a Christmas party on December 11, 2010," said Ms. Doede. "I have no brain injury due to a willing bystander beginning CPR within moments of my collapse."

The PulsePoint app is available for download free at both the Apple iPhone App Store and in the Android Market.

The PulsePoint app also provides a virtual window into select 911 emergency communication centers giving users of mobile devices real-time access to emergency activity as it is occurring. Users are able to view active incidents, including the current response status of dispatched units, and instantly pinpoint incident location on an interactive map. Users also can choose to be notified of incidents by type when they are dispatched and monitor emergency radio traffic via this modern version of the traditional fire scanner.

The PulsePoint app has received several international awards, including the International Association of Fire Chiefs 2011 Fire Service Award for Excellence, a Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) 2011 VITA Wireless Samaritan Award, a 2011 Computerworld Honors Program Laureate Award for Innovation, an American Heart Association Life Saver Heart Partner Award, and an IADAS Webby Official Honoree award for the Best Use of GPS or Location Technology.

About Sudden Cardiac Death

Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly stops beating, resulting in no blood flow to the brain and other vital organs. Approximately 300,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur each year in the United States, with a median reported survival-to-hospital-discharge rate of 8 percent.(1)

Rapidly implementing the "chain of survival" model(2) can help increase the chances of survival from sudden cardiac arrest. The steps in the chain include activation of emergency medical services by calling 9-1-1, starting CPR, using an AED and acquiring appropriate care.

About the San Jose Fire Department

The San Jose Fire Department is committed to excellence in public safety. It embraces innovative approaches to meet the evolving needs of the diverse city of San Jose and works in partnership with the community to achieve a fire and hazard safe environment. The San Jose Fire Department consists of 650 authorized sworn personnel, 44 non-sworn uniformed Fire Communication Dispatchers, and 57 civilian personnel. It protects 206 square miles and approximately 1.2 million residents. Its mission is to serve the community by protecting life, property, and the environment through prevention and response.

About El Camino Hospital

El Camino Hospital is an acute-care, 542-bed, not-for-profit and locally governed organization with campuses in Mountain View and Los Gatos, Calif. In addition to state-of-the-art emergency departments, key medical specialties include heart and vascular, cancer care, urology, orthopedic and spine, neuroscience, genomic medicine, and the only Women's Hospital in Northern California. The hospital is recognized as a national leader in the use of health information technology and wireless communications, and has been awarded the Gold Seal of Approval from The Joint Commission as a Primary Stroke Center as well as back-to-back ANCC Magnet Recognitions for Nursing Care.

About PulsePoint

PulsePoint is a non-profit foundation based in the San Francisco Bay Area whose goal is to make it much easier for citizens who are trained in CPR to use their life-saving skills to save lives. Through the use of modern, location-aware mobile devices, PulsePoint is building applications that work with local fire departments, EMS agencies and police departments to improve communications with citizens and empower them to help reduce the estimated 1 million worldwide annual deaths from sudden cardiac arrest.

The San Jose Fire Department encourages everyone to PREPARE, PRACTICE AND PREVENT.

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20.02.2012. u 03:50 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

Apple gets more new apps than Android, widens app gap

Apple gets more new apps than Android, widens app gap

By Mikey Campbell, VIA:appleinsider.com.

Fresh data released on Tuesday suggests that the number of new apps entering the Apple App Store outpace those from the competing Google Market three to one, with developers leaning toward iOS partly because of Android's platform fragmentation.

Citing a study by Flurry analytics, Business Week reports that despite taking a modest lead in worldwide smartphone marketshare, the Android operating system's app selection is being outnumbered by offerings designed for iOS, and the gap is only widening.

The Flurry study, which tracks app developers using the firm's tools, discovered that Google's push to match or outperform Apple's App Store is slowing down, possibly due to the difficulty developers face in programming for the fragmented Android mobile OS.

"We saw a greater migration to iOS," says Flurry Vice President of Marketing Peter Farago.

As of January, iOS held a total of more than 550,000 apps in its arsenal, while Android's blitz to the top has introduced over 400,000 since the platform's launch in 2008.

More than 65,000 new projects were started by the over 55,000 developers tracked by the 2011 study, and the growth of new apps for iOS during the year roughly doubled efforts from Android app makers.

The trend away from Android could be industry-wide, as a 2,000-person survey conducted by Appcelerator and IDC showed that in November fewer developers were "very interested" in writing code for handsets running Google's OS than in June. Interest in iOS remained constant during the same period.

According to the app coders, the fragmentation of Android's ecosystem is to blame for the lackluster interest. Some note that Apple's iTunes system allows for a comparatively streamlined process that can quickly move an idea to a finished product, thus allowing companies to generate revenue with less overhead.

For example GameHouse, makers of the games 'Doodle Jump' and 'NCIS the Game,' claims that it makes three or four times the revenue on an iOS game when compared to its Android counterpart. This is in part due to the Google OS version taking two months more to complete because of the various optimizations needed to accommodate the litany of Android handsets available as well as constantly-changing OS versions.

Apart from platform fragmentation, the Android Market has multiple app stores whereas Apple relies on iTunes, which stores users' credit card data to make purchasing a simple and fast experience.

"Developers can make more money on iOS," Farago says.

The mobile app industry sees iOS as the reigning champion of app distribution, however the sheer number of Android devices in the market make a compelling argument for the platform.

If and when Google can consolidate its partner handset makers and create a unified store that is as simple and monetarily integrated as iTunes, Android may well be the new industry leader.

Apple CEO Cook: The iPhone Now Casts The Halo Over The iPad

It's kind of amazing to consider how passé the iPod, the gadget that defined a decade of music, has become at Apple: the iPhone is the now the halo maker, according to Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) CEO Tim Cook. In comments before the financial community at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, Cook spoke about a number of mobile-related topics, including the debate over whether the iPad is a PC, and his views on the company's $98 billion cash pile.

Of course, it's no surprise to anyone how mobile-centric Apple's business has become five years after the debut of the iPhone. But Cook said that the iPhone is now the halo product that is turning the iPad into the fastest-growing product launch in Apple's history, with 55 million units sold to date, an accomplishment that the Mac didn't achieve until 22 years after its debut. That's how people used to describe the effect that the iPod, a huge seller, had on potential Apple customers who were suddenly willing to take a second look at the Mac.

SEE ALSO: Why Apple Just Pulled Off The Company's First True Post-PC Quarter

"The iPad has stood on the shoulders of everything that came before it," Cook said. A generation of technology buyers already understood concepts like the iTunes Store, the App Store, and the iOS navigation system through their exposure to the iPhone to instantly grasp the potential of the iPad, he said.

Still, Cook doesn't think the iPad will lead to the death of the personal computer as we've known it for the past 25 years or so. "I don't predict the demise of the PC industry, I don't subscribe to that," he said, although admitting that tablet sales were eating into Mac sales and were likely having the same effect on the PC industry, which is essentially stagnant. It seems pretty clear that Cook thinks of the iPad as a different product from the PC/Mac, unlike some industry observers who would prefer to lump the two together.

Cook drew hearty laughs for describing the 37 million iPhones sold during the three months ending in December as "a decent quarter," but said the company is much more focused on the overall opportunity for smartphone sales, which could reach 1 billion units a year within a few years. "When you take it in the context of these numbers, the truth is this is a jaw-dropping industry, it has enormous opportunity to it."

And emerging markets will account for a huge chunk of that growth, he said. About one quarter of those billion smartphones he referred to will come from sales in China and Brazil, and Apple has invested a great deal in making sure that its economic activity in China involves more than its supply chain, Cook said.

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20.02.2012. u 03:47 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

Does Firefox have a mobile future?

Does Firefox have a mobile future?

BY GEOFF DUNCAN, VIA:digitaltrends.com.

Mozilla has ambitious plans for mobile in the coming year, but will the team behind Firefox be able to make the leap to mobile, or be left stranded on the desktop?

Firefox may be losing marketshare to Chrome, but the Mozilla Foundation has laid out an ambitious roadmap for 2012. It includes not only major new features and capabilities for its Firefox browser, but solutions for online identity management and a full-fledged marketplace for cross-platform Web apps to rival offerings from Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and others.

However, while Mozilla is perhaps singlehandedly responsible for breaking Internet Explorer's stranglehold on the desktop browser market, the Internet world is increasingly focused on mobile - and Mozilla has yet to make a strong transition to mobile devices.

Can Firefox and Mozilla survive in a world where mobile users are almost all locked into app and software ecosystems - and Mozilla is all but locked out?

Why Mozilla's desktop footprint hasn't carried over to mobile

Mozilla's Firefox has waged a lengthy - and successful - battle against the market dominance of Microsoft Internet Explorer on the desktop. Internet Explorer once accounted for over 90 percent of all browsing around the world, a feat it accomplished after successfully vanquishing one-time browser leader Netscape. Mozilla was birthed from the ashes of Netscape, and over years of pressing for open standards and pushing for improved performance, security, and features, Mozilla arguably won that battle, even if IE is still the dominant browser in the world (Net Applications has all versions of IE currently accounting for about 53 percent of the desktop market). More recently, Google's Chrome has become a major force in the browser market, essentially neck-and-neck with Firefox for the not-using-Internet-Explorer crowd.

However, in the mobile world, the landscape is very different. The success of Apple's iOS on iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches makes Safari the dominant mobile browser: According to Net Applications, it has a 55 percent share of the mobile browser market. Mozilla and Firefox are almost absent, while Opera mini and the default Android browser each account for about one fifth of mobile browsing. After that, shares fall into the single digits for Symbian and BlackBerry. Firefox barely registers: According to Net Applications, it claims just 0.02 percent of the mobile browser market.

Firefox's challenges in the mobile arena are formidable. For instance, Apple's development restrictions for iOS mean browsers have to use iOS's built-in WebKit rendering engine, and that rules out a port of Firefox's Gecko rendering engine for iOS. To be sure, Mozilla could produce an iOS browser called Firefox built on WebKit, but doing so would leave most of Mozilla's core technology behind. While a WebKit-based Firefox could perhaps offer a different mobile browsing experience than Safari, it likely would never be able to keep up with Mobile Safari because Apple has a history of keeping some WebKit optimizations to itself.

If Microsoft's Windows Phone platform develops market traction, it could be an opportunity for third-party browsers, except that Microsoft restricts third-party app development to XAML and its own Silverlight platform. It might be possible to build a browser with those technologies, but (again) Mozilla would be leaving its Gecko engine behind, re-inventing the wheel, and starting off at an incredible disadvantage compared to native apps.

Firefox's first moves into mobile browsing were for MeeGo, an open-source mobile operating system being developed jointly by Nokia and Intel. Unfortunately for Mozilla, Nokia threw MeeGo to the wolves when it fully embraced Microsoft's Windows Phone platform. Although the MeeGo project has been rolled into Tizen (which has recently been augmented by Samsung's Bada), both are still a long way from fully-baked, let alone shipping on handsets or making a mark on the market. By the time Tizen starts hitting the streets, it'll probably even have competition from webOS, which should be fully open-sourced by September 2012.

That pretty much leaves Android - and, to be sure, Firefox is available for Android. Although the degree to which Google's mobile OS is "free" and "open" won't likely be settled for some time (in or out of court), the Android platform does offer the low-level access Mozilla needs to bring its browsing technology to mobile devices. But Firefox for Android faces some very real challenges. For one thing, it's performance is distinctly subpar compared to Android's native browser. Mozilla promises it's working fast on a rewrite to bring Firefox for Android up to speed, in part by tapping native Android interface elements. But that will lock Firefox for Android out of a lot of existing Firefox add-ons. And it's not like Firefox is the only alternative browser for Android. Google not only packs a default WebKit browser into Android, it just launched its own version of Google Chrome for Android, to generally positive reception. If any company has a leg up on making a browser for Android, it's Google.

Boot to Gecko

So where do Mozilla's mobile hopes lie? Since Mozilla is effectively locked out of every mobile platform but Android (and perhaps Tizen, one day), Mozilla is hoping to do an end-run around the mobile OS conundrum with Boot to Gecko, a fully Web-based mobile operating system for tablets and smartphones. Yes, another mobile operating system. The idea behind Boot to Gecko is to provide an OS built entirely on HTML5, Javascript, and CSS. Everything on screen would essentially be a Web app, and those Web apps would essentially be native-optimized apps on Boot to Gecko. Although built on a basic foundation from Android, Boot to Gecko would offer no proprietary layers, no distinction between Web apps and native apps. Boot to Gecko will support a privilege model that puts users in control of their data and personal information - in part, that would leverage Mozilla's BrowserID framework, which enables users to log into Web sites (and go back again) via any email address they like.

If Boot to Gecko sounds a bit like Palm-then-HP's killed-then-open-sourced webOS, you're right. Much of the idea behind webOS was to build a mobile operating system using purely Web-based technologies on a WebKit engine. Maybe the world isn't ready for a mobile operating system based fully on Web technologies: One former Palm executive has laid the failure of webOS squarely at the feet of WebKit - a claim that seems a little preposterous since Apple and Google have had solid successes with the same technology, but it's important to remember Palm tried to get there first. Boot to Gecko would use Mozilla's Gecko rather than WebKit, but unlike webOS, will apparently eschew native apps. (So did the original iPhone, if anyone remembers.)

Given that modern mobile hardware has considerably more horsepower than the original iPhone (or Palm's first webOS devices), it's conceivable a Gecko-based mobile operating system could fly where webOS has (so far) failed. However, the problem might be timing: Mozilla B2G roadmap reveals the organization isn't expecting to have a demo of Boot to Gecko up and running until this quarter, with "productization" starting in the second quarter. Even if Mozilla gives birth to a fully-formed Boot to Gecko OS by the third quarter of 2012, it then faces an uphill battle to adoption. Mozilla has to pursue deals with handset makers, who by that point, will be able to choose not just Windows Phone and Android but perhaps webOS and Tizen too, or try to convince the technologically savvy to install B2G on Android handsets with unlocked bootloaders. That may appeal to developer-types, but not to mainstream mobile users.

A market for Web apps

Realizing its opportunities to bring Firefox to to the mobile world are perhaps less-than-ideal, Mozilla has outlined another zag-rather-than-zig strategy: a marketplace for cross-platform Web apps. The idea sticks to the core of Mozilla's fundamental principles that consider the Web itself to be the primary platform for the future of the Internet, rather than iOS, Android, Windows, or even Firefox. To that end, Mozilla wants to create a marketplace for cross-platform Web apps. Sure, they would run on Firefox, but they would also run on other HTML5-compliant browsers. Customers would be able to buy a Web app from one place (whether via Mozilla, directly from the developer, or through a competing marketplace) and use that app in any compatible browser on any compatible device, whether that's an iPad, a Windows desktop, or an Android phone.

"Most apps today are built using platform-specific tools and languages," Mozilla's Ragavan Srinivasan wrote in it Apps Roadmap. "They are distributed using tightly controlled and locked down app Stores. They only run on specific device and OS combinations. A few dominant market players have assembled these various pieces into integrated app ecosystems that pose some big challenges for users and developers."

Mozilla is hoping that advances in Web technologies, as well as mobile and desktop hardware, will enable HTML5 apps to rival the experience and performance of native apps. And, unlike app marketplaces from Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others, Mozilla's app store will not be locked to a single platform, or even locked to Firefox. Any browser supporting the standards needed by a Web app will do.

Mozilla plans to develop its own Marketplace for Apps by first building on the infrastructure it's created for Firefox add-ons and extensions. Mozilla's Marketplace will also be the default location for users to look for things to enhance their Firefox experience. Mozilla says the Marketplace will enable one-click payments: Users will be able to purchase premium apps, and Web apps will be able to tie back to the Mozilla Marketplace to facilitate in-app payments, subscriptions, and other monetized services. All the validation will center around Mozilla's BrowserID technology.

A post-Firefox Mozilla?

Since Mozilla's inception, Firefox has been the organization's primary platform: Firefox allowed Mozilla to drive adoption of Web standards and innovation on the Web. However, now that support for HTML5 and CSS3 are the norm across almost all operating systems and devices (and standards support is seen as a strength, rather than a hassle), Mozilla's future might not lie as much with Firefox itself as with the goal to treat the Web itself as a platform. Ironically, that's a notion that harks all the way back to Netscape's original battle with Microsoft in the 1990s. The question then becomes whether the browsing world - on desktops, tablets, phones, televisions, and other devices - is ready to drop distinctions between operating systems and focus exclusively on the Web. It might seem like a long shot now, but most people thought Mozilla was tilting at windmills when it took on Internet Explorer. Just look how that's turned out.

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20.02.2012. u 03:43 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

petak, 10.02.2012.

Android Botnet Exploits Gingerbread Root Access

Android Botnet Exploits Gingerbread Root Access

By Mathew J. Schwartz, VIA:informationweek.com.

Malware grabs rootkit exploit code to obtain temporary access privileges, poses a "serious threat," says researcher.

The mobile malware state of the art continues to improve, as demonstrated by the emergence of a new Android threat that's been dubbed RootSmart.

According to Symantec, the malware interfaces with a bonet that it's dubbed "Android.Bmaster." That botnet appears to have active connections with about 11,000 Android devices, and is likely generating daily revenue between $1,600 and $9,000 for its controller, or botmaster.

RootSmart is designed to escape detection by being named "com.google.android.smart," which the same name as a settings app included by default with Android operating systems. The malware can gain root access to phones running versions of Android Gingerbread before 2.3.4, or Android 3.0, as well as "phone home" to a command-and-control (C&C) server for instructions. More than half of all Android smartphones are now running some version of Gingerbread.

[ Google's effort to stop bad apps is a step in the right direction. However, Google Bouncer Won't Block All Android Malware. ]

When first installed, RootSmart lies dormant, waiting for some type of trigger, such as an outgoing phone call. Once triggered, however, "RootSmart will connect to its C&C server with various information collected from the phone," said Xuxian Jiang, a computer science professor at North Carolina State University, in a blog post. "Our analysis shows that the collected information includes the Android OS version number, the device IMEI number, as well as the package name." To make it more difficult for security vendors to block the software, it also obfuscates the URL of the C&C server that it contacts.

After RootSmart phones home, it then downloads exploit code known as GingerBreak from the server, and uses it "to obtain root privilege on infected phones," said Jiang. Next, RootSmart attempts to download additional malicious applications--including malware known as DroidLive--which it installs in the device's system partition. "It's worth mentioning that if RootSmart fails to obtain the root privilege, it will still attempt to install the downloaded apps," said Jiang. "However in this case, it cannot install the apps silently. Instead, a pop-up window will be shown for [the] user's approval."

"Due to the fact that RootSmart utilizes the GingerBreak root exploit and can be remotely controlled, we believe it poses serious threats to mobile users," said Jiang.

What's RootSmart's purpose? Like so many types of malware, it's designed to earn money for its botmaster. According to Symantec, it pursues that goal by primarily targeting users of two Chinese mobile phone carriers. "For example, an infected device can be configured to send messages to a particular premium SMS number at a specific rate (three a day, for instance) for a certain number of days," said Cathal Mullaney, a security response engineer at Symantec, in a blog post. "Devices connecting to premium video or telephony services can also be configured for how long they should connect to a premium phone number or pay-per-view website." The malware can be set to block incoming emails containing specified keywords, which attackers could use to try and prevent mobile subscribers from receiving "unusual activity" alerts from their carrier.

How might RootSmart end up on an Android device? The software comes bundled "with a legitimate application for configuring phone settings," said Mullaney. "Trojanized applications are a well known infection vector for Android malware, as they allow malware to be distributed while retaining the appearance of a legitimate application."

Thankfully, however, the N.C. State researchers found the malware not in the official Android Market, but rather on third-party download sites. Accordingly, Jiang recommended avoiding such download sites whenever possible. But in some countries, including China, access to the official Google Android Market is blocked. Thus it's no surprise that, according to Symantec's study of RootSmart, "the vast majority of infected devices belonged to Chinese customers."

In terms of mitigation strategies, Jiang also recommended keeping a close eye on the permissions being requested by apps, as well as any unusual device behavior, and finally, running mobile security tools to keep devices safe.

VIN Viper CEO Unable to Attend NADA 2012 Due to "Space Madness!"

VIN Viper, leading automotive industry mobile software development, is proud to announce the release of a plethora of mobile app and software upgrades for all VIN Viper's platforms for the Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile and its web based utilities available at www.vinviper.com .

Most notable in the Android update (v1.0.6) is the release of a new VIN bar code scanner that VIN Viper built from the ground up. VIN Viper spent over 12 months developing the new barcode scanning module and now proudly touts their new VIN barcode scanner as the fastest scanner in the industry and has been benchmarked at least 10x faster than the closest competitor. Additionally, VIN Viper's iPhone and Android apps now have a new user-interface (UI) that allows dealers to book deals faster and access critical data metrics on one page, thereby eliminating the need to page flip and saving appraisal time.

In addition to the mobile app upgrades and enhancements, users will also find more features and added functionality in the desktop web portal located at www.vinviper.com that allows users to view and manage all mobile app appraisals, create new ones, export/import vehicles into other software platforms, manage all settings, take multiple photos, make appraisal notes, e-mail appraisals within the app and push vehicles to Facebook as News feeds.

"There are numerous user interface upgrades, a new scanning platform, the removal of device restrictions and even a new pricing model that has turned the automotive industry upside down," said Jason Seligman, President of VIN Viper. Seligman lamented, "We recently had a competitor call and complain that our prices were 'too low' and that it was 'unfair,'" which Seligman replied, "Unfair to you, or unfair to your customers because we offer a better product at a fraction of the cost?" "VIN Viper has initiated a new marketing plan and business model that now offers the most advanced features, functionality and accessibility not previously offered in the industry. For only $25 a month, VIN Viper is offering a suite of products and features not only unavailable elsewhere, but at a 400% annual savings for comparable products offered by VIN Viper's direct competitors."

VIN Viper's President continued, "VIN Viper is a technology development shop first and foremost, and with internal brilliant resources at our disposal our core belief and values are to continually enhance our products, listen to the market, release the upgrades for free and even offer our paid services so inexpensive that no competitor can compete long term due to our continual adjustment in economies of scale." Seligman concluded, "We will push to continually expand that gap and the result will be more features for the automotive community, a more standardized and accepted platform and a reset on what the industry thinks is 'fair' pricing for value added resources that are quickly becoming the standard."

While VIN Viper takes its mobile application development position as an industry leader very seriously, VIN Viper also enjoys having fun with its marketing campaigns and designing marketing collateral that allows VIN Viper to let their hair down every now and then. VIN Viper's latest campaign, based on a 1960's Sci-Fi TV show, announced VIN Viper had cut their price by 50%, spoofing what most baby boomer dealers are sure to remember as the TV show, "Lost in Space," was entitled, "VIN Viper CEO suffers Space Madness!"

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10.02.2012. u 07:35 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

Motorola exec blames slow Android updates on hardware

Motorola exec blames slow Android updates on hardware

By Marguerite Reardon, VIA:cnet.com.

Why does it take so long for Motorola to update its smartphones with the latest Android OS updates? Blame it on the hardware, said Christy Wyatt, vice president and general manager for Motorola Mobility's enterprise business unit.

At a roundtable discussion with reporters this week in New York City, Wyatt explained that making sure a new release of Google's software works on every variation of a Motorola smartphone takes time, especially with devices launching in multiple countries.

Motorola is not the only Android manufacturer that has been slow introducing Android upgrades. Samsung, HTC, Sony, and LG have also been criticized. Experts speculated that one factor causing the delay was the additional software layered on top Android that is supposed to differentiate products from competitors. For example, HTC has Sense and Motorola has Motoblur.

But Wyatt said that this additional software is not the problem. Instead it's the variations in hardware for each market along with the additional software added by wireless operators that slow the process.

"I'd say it's the hardware that's the long pole in the tent," Wyatt said. "Dealing with the software is not the hard part. The Razr launched in more than 40 countries and each country had slightly different requirements in terms of banding. And there are also dozens of carriers we need to work with. It's a big machine to churn."

But the slow and erratic upgrade cycle for Android devices is a chief complaint among Android device owners. It's especially frustrating for consumers when competing operating systems are able to push out releases of new software to every customer at once. For example, when Apple came out with iOS 5, it was able to let customers know that anyone with an iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 was eligible for the upgrade. Once the software was released, people could upgrade their devices.

Microsoft also updated all its existing Windows Phone devices at the same time when Windows Phone 7.5, also known as Mango, was introduced in September.

But for Google Android users, knowing when or even if their smartphone will get an update is a guessing game. Android 4.0, otherwise known as Ice Cream Sandwich, was announced last spring at Google I/O. The first device to use the new software, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus came to market in October.

Meanwhile, Motorola has introduced new devices since the first Ice Cream Sandwich phone was launched, including the Razr and Razr Maxx that are using the older version of Android known as Gingerbread. And now four months later, Motorola is about to launch the Droid 4, which also uses Gingerbread instead of Ice Cream Sandwich. The Razr and Razr Maxx are also still waiting for Ice Cream Sandwich.

While other Android device makers, such as Sony (formerly Sony Ericsson) have promised Ice Cream Sandwich for all phones with certain specs launched in 2011, Motorola has been vague about which devices will get the upgrade and when consumers can expect those upgrades.

"It's not as easy for us to make a blanket statement because we have a lot more devices and sell them to a lot more carriers than some other manufacturers," said Wyatt.

Wyatt explained that Google doesn't share the new software code with its Android partners until the first pure Google device with the latest version of software is introduced. So the introduction of the Galaxy Nexus in October was really day one for Motorola in terms of testing out the new software, she said.

Wyatt also shed light on when the company might introduce devices that support near-field communications, or NFC. This short-range wireless technology allows people to make mobile payments using their smartphones. Google has included NFC in the Samsung Nexus 4G, Google's old Gingerbread flagship handset, and Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the flagship Ice Cream Sandwich device. And last year it introduced its Google Wallet application and service that turns an NFC-enabled cell phone into a virtual digital wallet. But so far NFC chips haven't shown up in any other Android devices.

Wyatt said one reason Motorola hasn't added NFC to devices yet is because it adds cost and bulk to the smartphones. And since there hasn't been a burning desire from customers for the mobile-payment functionality, the company has held off including it in its devices.

But part of the issue may also be that operators aren't yet sure they want NFC-enabled devices on their networks. For example, even though the Samsung Galaxy Nexus has an NFC chip built in, Verizon has disabled the functionality on the device. There are reports that an unlocked Galaxy Nexus on AT&T can use Google Wallet. The reason Verizon disabled the chip is that the carrier also wants a cut of the mobile-payment business. And Google Wallet doesn't really allow for that. Verizon and other wireless operators are working on their own digital wallet through a joint venture known as Isis.

Still, Wyatt said that Motorola will introduce NFC handsets in the "not too distant future."

As for those Ice Cream Sandwich updates on existing Motorola smartphones, consumers will just have to wait.

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10.02.2012. u 07:33 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

Motorola Aims To Make Android Business Ready

Motorola Aims To Make Android Business Ready

By Serdar Yegulalp, VIA:informationweek.com.

How seriously does Motorola want to be taken in the CoIT space? Very.

That's how Christy Wyatt, senior vice president and general manager of enterprise mobile devices division for Motorola, wants people to see it. She's been in charge of the newly-minted division for some six months now, and during a roundtable invitation-only event in New York on Wednesday she sat with a small clutch of press folks and answered questions about Motorola's current and forthcoming inroads into the consumerization of IT, a.k.a CoIT.

"CoIT is exploding," Wyatt said, an assertion no one in the room challenged. She went on to describe how Motorola planned to make the best of that situation. For IT managers, she pointed out, the problem is not with CoIT-ed devices that are in the 10% of the smartphone market that is made up of pre-approved, managed corporate devices. The problem lies in the 30% of the market that's the prosumer space--people who know exactly which phone they're going to get and demand support for from their IT guy as soon as it comes out. This has created a management challenge for IT like nothing seen before.

Motorola's initiative for building devices that satisfy that CoIT segment is branded with the slogan "Business Ready"--a way to describe Android devices that have been built from the inside out by Motorola to satisfy that need. This means more than just hardware. It also includes OS-level customizations to make Android more IT-department friendly.

The gap between what Google has provided for IT departments faced with CoIT issues and what those same departments actually need has been narrowing with each successive revision of Android--but Motorola wants to give everyone involved as few excuses as possible to use Motorola's devices. To that end, "clearly you have to start with the IT organization," Wyatt said, and enumerated three things IT departments ask of Android: Is it secure? Is it manageable? What will it cost?

Regarding the first two concerns, Motorola found that simply bolting a software layer on top of Android wouldn't cut it. Motorola wanted to bake as much functionality directly into the mobile operating system as possible, and one of the ways it did this was through the acquisition of 3LM about a year and a half ago.

3LM's mobile device management system does not work by sandboxing the entire phone into "work" and "personal" sections like LG's solution. Instead, it allows individual apps to be designated as work or personal, and by allowing specific behaviors to be sandboxed instead. For example, a sandboxed work app would be designated by a special icon set; might have cut-and-paste capabilities to all work apps disabled; and would take all of its data with it when locally or remotely wiped from the phone. Also, things such as geolocation can be used in 3LM security policies—e.g., "Disable the camera when you're in the corporate offices."

Much of the rationale for this app-centric security approach came from the user experience side. Users, Wyatt explained, find a dual-facet phone confusing. A phone with discrete home and work screens is counter-intuitive, she claims. She also came out against the idea that a curated app store along the lines of Apple's, or solutions like Google Bouncer are the kinds of security solutions needed for an enterprise. No platform is invulnerable, she pointed out, and IT security needs require a more granular solution.

With end users and prosumers, Wyatt added, security is more about privacy--or rather, the perception of privacy. "One in four users would rather let you use their toothbrush than their cellphone--but other than worrying about it, they're pretty much not doing anything about it." They express more concern about the monitoring of their activities by their IT organization, or about losing their own data when their work's data is cleared from the device, she said.

The third problem, cost, revolves mainly around controlling data plans. "There's a lot of exploration going on regarding what's corporate data versus what's private data." This is where a sandboxed approach of some kind becomes crucial: how do you separate a user's YouTube addiction from his genuine corporate Citrix usage, especially if they're all on the same billing plan? Different SIM cards isn't a solution, and so work continues to crack that nut as well.

What came out again and again was how Motorola plans to dig as deeply as it possibly can into Android's core to do what needs to be done. Wyatt noted that this wouldn't be possible with a proprietary platform--at least, not to the degree that Motorola has deemed necessary.

One advantage that Motorola has, Wyatt emphasized, is a consistency of software deployment across all their Android products, so the low-level work done with their phones for app security can be cross-applied to their tablets with minimal retooling.

That brought us to the subject of tablets for the vertical business space. Motorola is very choosy about which vertical markets it participates in, but education and health care are both becoming crucial. As for horizontal, BYOD-type environments, the question it asked itself was "How much work is getting done with these devices at work?" Motorola found there was a broad swath of users who were happy with, for example, simply opening and reading documents via QuickOffice on the local machine. A smaller number who wanted the full-blown Microsoft Office experience were opening Citrix.

But "the gap is closing," Wyatt declared. More and more people want to use a tablet to actually create things, even if that means attaching a full keyboard to it. Most of the tablets shown at the event featured keyboard add-ons.

Another repeated point was the depth of Motorola's commitment to Android. There will be no Motorola Windows Phone devices, Wyatt said. Based on her earlier comments, at least some of that seems to be driven by Android's open-source nature, and Wyatt is no stranger to open source. She served as Motorola's board representative to the Linux and Eclipse foundations.

The fruit of her labors, and Motorola's generally, will become clearer by the end of the year as their next waves of Android-powered handsets and devices make their way into the market. Among them, the DROID 4 will be the subject of a forthcoming BYTE review.

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10.02.2012. u 07:31 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

SlashGear 101: Android@Home

SlashGear 101: Android@Home

By Chris Burns, VIA:slashgear.com.

Google's vision for a network of accessories connected to one another and running on Android as their operating system is what they call Android@Home. This system was first presented at Google I/O 2011 at their Day One Keynote and stood to extend the Android OS to include new services and apps to discover, connect, and communicate with appliances and devices in the home. The following is a basic guide of what this project, Android@Home or the Android at Home Framework, entails as of today.

For appliances that are unable to connect to Wi-fi, the folks at Google have designed an open wireless protocol that allows Android devices to talk to them. This protocol is designed to offer low-cost connectivity to everything electrical in the home. Lights, alarm clocks, thermostats, and more are included in the first iteration of this connectivity protocol - Google wants to think of every single appliance in your home as a potential piece of the puzzle in this Android@Home framework, ready to work with Android apps.

Lights and Appliances

In the original presentation of Android@Home, an app with four off/on switches was presented with data flowing to the right on a Motorola XOOM tablet's display. This app connected with a set of four lamps, each simply controlled by the app and connected with the protocol written for Android@Home. Very simple stuff. The next example was an app that connected to your alarm clock/stereo and your lights throughout a room - this app gradually raising the brightness of the lights and turning up the sound on your stereo as the time for your awakening in the morning approaches.

Another example given by Google was an app connected to your home's irrigation system, this bringing you a "real world Farmville app" so to speak, watering your plants and grass whenever you tap a button or on a set schedule. A game connection was shown on stage at I/O 2011 with the game Quake being played on the Motorola XOOM Android tablet - as shots were fired and enemies were killed, the lights connected with the app flickered and dimmed - no more life, no more light.

Google has partnered with several industry groups on this project, one of these being Lighting Science - a leading LED lighting manufacturer. This group will be the first to sell LED lighting and switches directly tied to the Android@Home environment. You can check out the bulb held up and demoed at the event over at Lighting Science but good luck getting much information out of them on how they're doing with the Android@Home project now - mum's the word!

Project Tungston / Android@Home Hub

The Android@Home Hub is a "totally new kind of Android device" as they said at Google I/O 2011 and combines a standalone Google Music endpoint and a bridge to the Android@Home network. This project was code-named Project Tungston. At the first introduction to the project, they had a couple of Tungston devices - both of them ran the Android operating system as well as the Android@Home software framework. Both of these devices were "always powered on" and always connected to the cloud. They have Audio Out and can connect to either 3rd party speakers or your home stereo system (aka wirelessly or wired). These Tungston devices connected with what we now know as Google Music - all your music in the cloud and available for purchase on command.

The control device, aka the one that looks like a leaning box here with lights flashing in its seams, is controlled by your Android smartphone or tablet. In the interface on Google Music you're able to see which devices you're connected to, and in this case you've got "Stage Left" and "Stage Right", the names of the two Tungston controllers connected to speakers.

All of this connectivity and functionality is, like Android itself, based on an open source code. Developers will be able to create their own apps based on the code freely and without cost. Another "Tungston" device was demonstrated on stage at I/O 2011 that looked more like a sphere than a box. This device was able to read NFC tags that were "activated when the packaging was taken off of the case" of a CD. When you opened your CD case up and tapped it to the sphere, it would read the tag inside and the music was immediately added to your Google Music library in digital form. Touching the sphere with the CD case once the music was added started playing the music from the first track instantly.

Google I/O 2011 Presentation

Head to about 43 minutes into the video here to see the entire presentation on Android@Home or watch the full video to see everything presented on the first day at Google I/O 2011 - it's Ice Cream Sandwich fantastic!

What we expect soon

Android@Home is likely to pop up again here in the Spring of 2012 as the Google Home Entertainment Device we've been hearing whispered tips about for the past week. We're thinking that the open protocol and codes galore for developers will be formally passed on soon, and that a device may well be developed by Google to show the functional power of Android@Home off to the world, much like an Android Nexus device would. Let's get connected at home in 2012!

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10.02.2012. u 07:26 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

utorak, 07.02.2012.

Insulting Comments at Fox News Debate Show Newt Clueless on Black Americans

Insulting Comments at Fox News Debate Show Newt Clueless on Black Americans

by Peter Beinart Jan 17, 2012 1:50 AM EST

At the GOP debate Gingrich stood by his comments about African-Americans needing to demand work, and his description of Obama as the 'food stamp' president, showing why he - and his party - can't appeal to non-whites.

If you want to understand why the GOP is so ill-prepared to compete in an increasingly non-white America, just look at the exchange between Fox News questioner Juan Williams and Newt Gingrich halfway through last night's Republican presidential debate.

It being Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Williams asked Gingrich whether some poor and minority voters might not be insulted at his claim that poor kids lack a work ethic and that black people should be instructed to demand jobs not food stamps. Gingrich, as is his wont, haughtily dismissed Williams' question, to wild applause.

Then Williams tried again, mentioning a black woman who had taken Gingrich to task for calling Barack Obama a "food stamp" president. By this point, the overwhelmingly white crowd had begun to boo the only African-American on stage. When Gingrich insisted that Obama was indeed the "food stamp" president - because more Americans are now on food stamps - and dismissed Williams' criticism as "politically correct," the crowd began to scream with delight. By the time Gingrich finished his answer, the crowd was on its feet in a standing ovation.

The fascinating thing about the exchange is that Gingrich is not a racist. I suspect he genuinely cares about the African-American poor. In fact, he's convinced himself that his willingness to say things that many African-Americans consider insulting is an expression of that concern; that only he cares enough about African-Americans to speak the "politically incorrect" truths that black leaders won't.

Gingrich's problem isn't racism; it's ignorance. Only someone profoundly ignorant of African--American politics would suggest that black Americans have spent the past few decades seeking food stamps, not jobs. We celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, after all, in part because of the speech King gave at an event called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. If you look at the budgets proposed by the Congressional Black Caucus over the years, you'll see that they often include huge, FDR-style government jobs programs. Gingrich may not think that's the best way to go about providing jobs, but to suggest that African-Americans and their leaders don't consider jobs important just reveals how shut off from Africa-American politics he actually is.

I'm sure Gingrich also sees nothing offensive in calling Obama the "food stamp" president. After all, under Obama the number of people using food stamps has gone up! So because Alan Greenspan presided over predatory lending policies by banks, perhaps we should have called him the "Shylock" chairman of the Federal Reserve. And if child molestations by priests rise on this administration's watch, perhaps we should call Joseph Biden the "pedophilia" vice president.

Gingrich would never use those phrases, of course, because he's familiar enough with Jews and Catholics to understand why they'd find them offensive. But for Gingrich - a veteran politician from the state of Georgia, speaking at a debate in South Carolina on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday - not to understand why calling the first African-American in the Oval Office the "food stamp" president would offend African-Americans is simply amazing. The most plausible explanation is that Gingrich inhabits a cultural and intellectual bubble. A bubble called the Republican Party.

I don't doubt that Newt Gingrich wants to help African-Americans, just like I don't doubt that George W. Bush wanted to help Iraqis. But in politics, if you want to help people, it's a good idea to learn something about them first.

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07.02.2012. u 09:20 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

ponedjeljak, 06.02.2012.

Romney endures battering in South Carolina

Romney endures battering in South Carolina

Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich vie to be the conservative alternative to the front-runner, aiming blows at his business and government record.

By Paul West and Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times

January 16, 2012, 10:53 p.m.

Reporting from Myrtle Beach, S.C.-

In one of the most sustained batterings he has endured in the 2012 presidential primary debates, Mitt Romney was repeatedly put on the defensive over his business and government record and the attack ads by his supporters that are swamping South Carolina's airwaves.

The former Massachusetts governor's rivals have been increasingly desperate to derail his front-running candidacy as Romney looks to put a virtual lock on the Republican nomination in Saturday's primary.

Rivals Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich both took aim at Romney, landing blows that, despite hitting their mark, may have canceled out either candidate's chances of emerging Monday night as Romney's key challenger.

Together the opponents sought to argue that Romney lacked principles, was exercising an unfair advantage through a "super PAC" created by his former aides, and was hiding his income taxes to deflect criticism.

Santorum delivered one of the first blows, laying a trap for Romney about voting rights for prisoners. A super PAC supporting Romney has been running ads accusing Santorum of backing the right of felons to vote from prison - a charge the former Pennsylvania senator said was false.

Santorum defended his Senate vote, saying the measure he supported was aimed at restoring voting rights for criminals who had served their time and finished their probation and parole requirements. He noted that Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and that the criminal population disproportionately included African Americans. He pressed Romney about whether he supported such a measure.

Romney said he did not believe that people who had committed violent crimes should ever be allowed to vote, leading Santorum to parry that when Romney was governor, violent felons in Massachusetts could vote even while they were on probation and parole.

"If in fact you felt so passionately about this that you were now going to go out and have somebody criticize me for restoring voting rights to people who have ... exhausted their sentence and served their time and paid their debt to society, then why didn't you try to change that when you were governor of Massachusetts?" Santorum said.

Romney responded that his state's Legislature was 85% Democratic, and he went on to criticize the existence of super PACs, although he has benefited the most from their existence this election cycle.

"We all would like to have super PACs disappear, to tell you the truth," he said later in the debate. "Wouldn't it be nice if people could give what they'd like to campaigns and campaigns could run their own ads and take responsibility for them?"

Gingrich criticized Romney's inability to get his supporters' super PAC to remove an ad that distorts Gingrich's position on abortion. He said it "makes you wonder how much influence he'd have if he were president" - a line that drew hoots of approval from the audience.

Romney shot back that Gingrich's supporters were running an ad replete with erroneous charges about his business record that is "probably the biggest hoax since Bigfoot."

With his experience as co-founder of a private equity firm, Bain Capital, under attack, Romney said for the first time that he would "probably" release his tax returns later this year if it was apparent he would be the nominee.

Gingrich defended his assaults on Romney's business record, which includes job losses at some companies Bain invested in, and what Gingrich called a pattern of loading a "handful" of companies with debt, after which they went broke.

To applause, the former House speaker said that questioning Romney's record in private business was "exactly what campaigns ought to be about. And we need to satisfy the country that whoever we nominate has a record that can stand up to Barack Obama in a very effective way."

One of the debate panelists, Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal, asked Romney about American Pad and Paper, a company that went bankrupt, costing hundreds of people their jobs, while Bain Capital took out $100 million in profits and fees.

Romney said the company was caught in a shrinking industry and some of those who lost jobs were union workers who didn't want to transfer to a nonunion plant. And he pushed back against the notion that he practiced a particularly harsh brand of capitalism.

"I know that people are going to come after me. I know President Obama is going to come after me. But the record is pretty darn good," Romney said.

"If people want to have someone who understands how the economy works, having worked in the real economy, then I'm the guy that can best post up against Barack Obama," Romney said to cheers from supporters in the crowd at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center.

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