I started thinking about this when Dave Winer pointed out the new Path photo-sharing app grabbed all his contacts on the iPhone without permission. Dave is rightly concerned that his private contact list is now resident on the app developer’s servers somewhere. He points out he should at least have been asked if that was OK first, but instead, it just happened when he installed the Path app on his iPhone.

Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence in the world of mobile apps. If you have a smartphone and use Twitter, odds are you’ve installed a few free apps that let you tweet on the go. In order for the apps to work with Twitter, when you installed them you gave them your Twitter login credentials to work with your account. If you’ve tried a few Twitter apps on your phone, that means you’ve thrown your login credentials around, and you’ve willingly handed them over to developers you don’t know. If you want to see that first-hand, go to your settings page in your Twitter account and see how many Connections you’ve authorized. I have 16 apps/services I’ve authorized to tap into my private Twitter account, most of them mobile apps I’ve installed on Android phones and the iPad.

That’s just Twitter, though, so it can’t really impact me unless one of the developers who now has my credentials starts posting stuff that gets me in trouble. That would be bad enough, but nothing compared to the damage that could be caused if someone got my Gmail credentials. Guess what? I realize that not only do several people/organizations I don’t know have them, but I willingly handed them over.

I use Google Reader to follow RSS feeds, as do millions of you. I use apps on my iPad and phone to make working with Reader easier, and when I installed those apps, I duly input my Gmail login information. At the time it didn’t seem like a big deal, it was only RSS information, right? Unfortunately, once a third party has my Gmail login, they can tap any Google service as if they were me.

That leaves my email wide open to these people, which is scary enough, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg, as I use an Android phone. I install lots of apps on my phone from the Android Market, which is accessed using the same Gmail credentials. Even worse, the Market is set up to use my personal credit card to pay for apps, and Google Checkout is accessed through those same credentials. Now you begin to see the scope of the potential problem.

Now I’m sure the one app developer whose app I use on the phone is a good person and won’t take advantage of my information. The problem is I didn’t do that just once; I did it multiple times. I tried several RSS reader apps on my iPad, and input my login information to every one of them. I did the same thing on my Android phone until settling on the app I like. I figure there must be 7 or 8 parties who now have my Google login credentials. I thought I was conscious of security as a rule, so this realization floors me.

I immediately changed my various login credentials, and I strongly urge you to do so right now. Then you have to make a decision if these apps are worth giving the new login information. At the very least, pick the most trustworthy app and stick to that one. Limit your exposure as best you can.

Image credit: Flickr user matsukawa1971

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Mobile hotspots were initially confined to standalone devices like the MiFi and the Sprint Overdrive, which were designed to share 3G (HSPA, EVDO) and 4G (WiMAX) connections respectively. Carriers realized that a barrier to consumer adoption of hotspot technology, and the fees they enabled, were the cost and inconvenience of carrying a separate device for the capability. Smartphones began appearing with mobile hotspot integration, and adoption ratcheted up quickly.

Carriers charge up to $30 per month for smartphone mobile hotspot service, and up to $60 per month for standalone devices. This fee is on top of all other carrier fees associated with the devices, and is a windfall for carriers. As faster networks roll out this year and next, mobile hotspot service could be fast enough to start infringing on home connection options. This could see revenue skyrocket, as customers realize they can take their fast broadband with them everywhere.

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Properly using mobile technology in global healthcare has three immediate benefits: bringing medical consultation to remote patients, allowing professionals to monitor patients remotely and making patient information universally available to the healthcare system. Patients in developing countries often have little or no access to adequate healthcare, and the global proliferation of mobile phones makes it possible for providers to make initial consultations remotely.

A trial in India is providing initial medical consultation to those living in remote areas currently without local medical care via mobile phone for the equivalent of a dollar. The trial illustrates one of the challenges medical researchers have in putting mobile technology to use for better healthcare. Researchers must rely on third parties, such as handset manufacturers or network operators, as partners, since those companies own the networks and provide the devices. Those same partners want to lock the researchers into their networks or gear with exclusive deals, shutting out options the healthcare professionals want to try. The Indian trial involves exclusive participation of one mobile operator, but in this instance, the company’s 47 million customers are sufficient to produce good results. That’s not always the case, which is one reason why exclusive partnerships can hinder researchers.

However, the biggest challenge in bringing mobile technology to healthcare is the rapid pace of technology advancement compared with the plodding nature of medical trials to test the technology. It’s standard for such trials to take five years, during which technology can leapfrog ahead, rendering the approved devices moot. To put the timeframe in perspective, five years ago, the smartphone didn’t exist. Medical trials started just a few years ago are not addressing the appearance of the iPhone and Android, two major factors in the evolution of smartphone technology. Researchers must speed up medical trials involving rapidly evolving technology, without compromising the objectives of such trials.

Smartphone technology is already being used for remote patient monitoring in the U.S., as we recently reported. This type of mobile healthcare needs to spread globally, a challenge in developing countries where smartphone adoption is lagging. The appearance of low-cost smartphones should help put them in more hands and kick-start the use of such mobile technology.

While mobile platforms (Android, iOS, etc.) are major players in the mobile technology segment, they are not as important to healthcare research as the cloud. Access to medical information online is driving medical uses, since it can provide global access to patient records in a scalable fashion. While local medical uses don’t require large storage capacity, such capacity is necessary for healthcare on a global scale. A key ingredient to improving global healthcare is developing standards for medical records that can be accessed by professionals treating patients both locally and remotely. This brings privacy and security concerns to the forefront, and the healthcare industry is trying to work through these significant issues.

The mHealth Summit will be running for another two days, and we’ll be monitoring activities for important information. Mobile technology has the potential to provide a significant step forward in global medical care, but the challenges are formidable.

Image credit: Flickr user US Army Africa

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Apple and Microsoft, not surprisingly, are responding to Android’s threat in two different ways, but both are using HTML5 to compete on their own terms.

HTML5: Another wall around Apple’s garden

Those who, like I, hoped Apple would dramatically lower prices, increase developer outreach through open source and open standards, and otherwise emulate Google in order to grow its smartphone market share are going to be disappointed. The iPhone’s decreasing market share may be what Steve Jobs expected — or even wanted. Apple, after all, has built its business on emphasizing profit margins over market share. It builds a Ritz-Carlton experience, with no intention of ever competing for Holiday Inn distribution.

Yes, Apple is opening up to HTML5, but this is not at attempt to open up its system. Apple will continue to jealously guard a premium iOS experience for those developers willing to write in Objective C. Its adoption of HTML5 was purely a tactical move, meant to counter Adobe’s lock on web content. In order for Apple to maintain its control of its own ecosystem, it needs to keep other proprietary standards out.

Open standards open doors for Microsoft

Microsoft is taking the opposite tack, wanting to replicate its desktop dominance in mobile. While Windows OS is finally losing a little market share to Mac OS X, according to Gartner, Microsoft recognizes the need to win in mobile, which initially means catching up with Apple. The fastest way to gain app parity with Apple’s iOS is not by forcing developers to toe the Silverlight line, but rather by embracing an open web through HTML5.

Microsoft can always lock in customers down the road through proprietary cloud services that deliver data and more to otherwise open devices. But for now, unlike Apple, Microsoft needs a relatively open app story to make Windows 7 look less like a laggard. HTML5 provides a compelling means to this end, a more open approach than RIM’s attempt to quickly add apps to the BlacBberry by supporting Adobe’s AIR and its 3,000-plus ready-made applications.

Time will tell, however, if Microsoft can use HTML5 to wrest the mass-market crown from Google. Microsoft has already taken to the courts to try to slow Android’s momentum. Perhaps it should instead focus on besting Google’s developer appeal of openness. It’s not really in Microsoft’s DNA, but it may be the only way to make its HTML5 love-fest sound sincere enough to work.

Disclosure: I work for Canonical, a Linux vendor.

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Gadget of the Week

The week was one of those rare ones in the Manor as no gadgets arrived for poking and prodding. The lack of new arrivals gave me much-needed time to think about the gadget space and especially about what upcoming devices are exciting me. This thought process kept leading me back to the one gadget that I find really appealing — the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

The Tab has several things going for it that I think set it apart from the crowd of Android tablets. Primarily, I think the 7-inch form is a good fit for maximum portability, while bringing more utility than smaller smartphones can offer. It’s designed for easy use in the hand, and that’s an advantage over the larger iPad. The build quality seems to rival that of the iPad, and the work on key apps Samsung has done to make them better fit the screen, which is larger than that on phones, rounds out the offering. I’m looking forward to using a Tab first-hand, and will probably be buying one.

Sadly, the Tab is the only Android tablet I have been scoping out that appeals to me. Other tablets the same size don’t seem to be as well constructed as the Tab, and the larger ones don’t really compete with the iPad that I already own. It’s obvious Samsung has concentrated design efforts into making the Tab a slick device that works as well as the iPad, but other tablets haven’t been given that same attention to detail, with companies choosing low cost as the main feature.

I don’t think that indicates as bright a future for Android tablets as I originally thought. Cheap tablets are going to be quickly exposed in consumer’s hands, and the user experience is going to fall short with constant use, and that will yield impressions with consumers that Android tablets are not nearly as good as the iPad. That will be a big obstacle for successful market penetration, and companies rushing to get them to the market will not be profitable. That’s the ultimate failure for a class of mobile devices.

The Galaxy Tab goes a long way to seriously compete with the iPad, but it’s not going to be cheap. It’s not clear how consumers will react to a good iPad competitor that costs roughly as much as the offering from Apple. Since it’s unlikely to be significantly cheaper than the iPad, the Tab will have to compete on quality, advertising and utility, and that may not be enough to take iPad sales away from Apple.

I do think Samsung will sell a lot of Tabs, but probably not enough to establish the Android tablet as a viable commercial competitor for Apple. Having seen the component breakdowns of both the Tab and the iPad, it doesn’t seem likely that Samsung will be able to do much with the pricing of its tablet and remain profitable. The iPad is firmly entrenched in the consumer tablet market, and Samsung may find that a formidable obstacle to consumer acceptance. It is going to be an interesting competition to watch as the Tab starts hitting the market in numbers. If any Android tablet has all of the pieces in place to compete with the iPad, the Tab sure does.

Apps of the Week

I spend a lot of time testing apps on all of the devices I use regularly. The low cost of most apps, coupled with the utility they can bring to the usage of a given device is an appealing combination. One of the apps I spent time with this week isn’t even an app. Google rolled out Instant Search for mobile, and I’ve been using it a lot this week. It was announced on Thursday of this week, but it had quietly shown up on my EVO 4G a few days prior to the rollout. My experience with it on the Android smartphone is mostly good, but not entirely.

In a nutshell, Instant Search starts presenting search terms that Google predicts you might be entering as soon as you start typing the term. As each letter in the term is entered, Google refines its prediction of what search phrase you are likely entering. A drop-down list of these terms gets refined with each letter entered, and it’s usually pretty accurate at guessing what you mean before you type the entire term. I’ve been using it to great effect on the desktop, and while it seems logical it would be even more useful on my Android phone with its more difficult text entry, I found that’s not necessarily the case.

Mobile phones, especially Android phones, have a choice of onscreen keyboards. Many of these touch keyboards have very good predictive text, where they guess what word the user is typing as each letter is entered. If it sounds a lot like Google’s Instant Search, that’s because it is. Because these keyboards with predictive text are so good, many users have been taking advantage of this method even before the appearance of Instant Search.

This means Instant Search isn’t a big game-changer on mobile like it is on the desktop. In my usage of Instant Search on my EVO, I find the keyboard’s predictive text entry butts up against Google’s Instant Search entry. It can be distracting looking at both the predictive text results from the keyboard and the Instant Search results in the drop-down list at the same time. Throw in the fact that the phone’s onscreen keyboard often covers up much of the Instant Search drop-down list, and you get a lessening benefit to the search. It’s surprising that the platform that should stand the most to gain from the Instant Search method doesn’t due to the technology already on the phone.

When I wasn’t playing with Instant Search on my EVO 4G, I was experimenting with a return to my HTC Sense roots. I love to customize the way my smartphones work, and I had done that on the EVO. I’ve used third-party widgets and apps to replace a lot of the functionality inherent in the Sense interface, primarily to build a “look and feel” to the phone that was more appealing to me. This has worked well, but this week, I decided to go back to the stock Sense interface to see what I was missing.

It surprised me to find the Sense interface to be more efficient, less trouble during use and even gentler on battery life. I also found what I knew, but had forgotten: I genuinely like the way Sense looks and works during daily use. I may not leave Sense running things forever  (I am fickle that way after all), but for now, I’m quite happy with my HTC Sense phone.

E-books of the Week

This week found me revisiting the world of Peter F. Hamilton’s Void Trilogy. I finished The Dreaming Void and started The Temporal Void, the second in the series. I love Hamilton’s view of technology in the future, and how he has worlds without much technology living side-by-side with those that do. It is an enjoyable story and highly recommended.

Wrap-up

Thanks for sharing my week, and I hope you found something to take away and help you in your own world. Who knows? Maybe a Galaxy Tab will be hitting Mobile Tech Manor before long.

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The keyboard isn’t a full-size model, due to the size of the iPad, and that takes a little getting used to for touch typists. The keys are rubbery and feel a little strange, but typing isn’t adversely affected. In the video, the case is shown open and closed, and the keyboard is demonstrated in operation. The video makes it clear how unappealing it is to use the iPad as a tablet while inside this case.

The case is sold online by Solid Line for $119.00, which is a hefty price. Those who need to frequently enter lots of text on the iPad may be able to justify that price, and get a case in the bargain. This Bluetooth keyboard is being sold under other names, as evidenced in our review of this Kensington KeyFolio case.

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The ViewPad 10 is an entirely different beast, and not just because of the larger 10-inch display. This tablet runs both Windows 7 and Android 1.6 operating systmes and features an Atom processor (1.66 GHz) and a solid-state disk for system storage. The single front-facing camera is designed for video calling. The ViewPad 10 will be available in the first quarter of next year for $629.

If the ViewPad 10 specs and photo look familiar, it is because it is made by the same ODM that builds the TEGA v2 I recently reviewed. The specs of the ViewPad 10 are the same as the v2, down to the dual boot configuration. To get a feel for how the ViewPad 10 will likely perform, check the two videos of the TEGA v2 below showing it in action with both operating systems.

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The computing power available in mobile devices, combined with the ease of use that a touch interface allows, is making it possible for consumers to take greater control over their medical treatment than ever before. This control ranges from checking information about illnesses and treatment to the replacement of physical abilities lost due to injury or illness. The days of simply doing what doctors tell you are a thing of the past, due to the smartphone and the iPad enabling you to take a greater role in your own healthcare.

There are many apps for smartphones that put a wealth of medical information at hand, from explanations of symptoms to probable diagnoses. While these don’t replace proper medical care, for the first time, the patient is armed with the ability to do simple research, ask the proper questions of healthcare professionals and better understand the care at the point it is rendered.

Doctors themselves are also taking advantage of mobile devices to provide medical care when needed: Apps enable them to remotely monitor patient vital signs in real-time, and render aid from anywhere. And individuals are also using mobile devices in conjunction with their own medical care, with sometimes stunning results.

Parents of children with special needs, for example, are finding an unexpected way to communicate with their kids that is changing their lives in a dramatic fashion: the iPad. The iPad is a recognized tool of therapy for children with autism and other medical issues that affects their ability to communicate with those closest to them. The easy operation of the iPad has resonated with these children, as professionals involved in the treatment of the kids have discovered.

The New York Times tells the story of seven-year-old Owen Cain, who is disabled due to a severe illness contracted during infancy. Owen has very restricted movement, yet to the surprise of his mother, he was able to immediately interact with an iPad placed in front of him. Owen’s intuitive reaction to the iPad is a theme commonly heard in such cases, and no doubt why the iPad is so effective for these children to start using.

During the research for this article, one app kept getting mentioned by those working with these children: Proloquo2Go is an app that works on the iPhone/ iPod touch and the iPad, but the iPad with the larger screen is the device of choice for using it. The app is designed by Netherlands-based AssistiveWare to provide a natural sounding voice to those challenged to speak coherently. It is not a simple text-to-speech app, but makes it possible for users to string coherent phrases together into complete conversations by using graphical icons, in addition to a keyboard easy to use by those with motor skill challenges. This opens the door for parents to really converse with their kids for the first time, which is an amazing breakthrough.

Laura Theriot, mother of 10-year-old Tom, knows firsthand how incredible that breakthrough can be. Using Proloquo2Go on the iPad, she has learned things about Tom through conversation that she’d never imagined over the years. ”It’s a way that I am going to get to know my child, he is a joker and loves to laugh. We know he’s laughing, but have never been able to hear about what.”

The benefits of Proloquo2Go on the iPad are not restricted to children, as blogger Glenda Watson Hyatt points out. Hyatt has cerebral palsy that affects her motor skills and her speech. She recently bought an iPad and Proloquo2Go and her account of the way it has changed her life is breathtaking. The technology has opened up things for her that most of us take for granted:

Then, I did something I had never done before: I went into one of the many Starbucks at O’Hare and ordered my first mocha frappuccino by myself. No misunderstanding or hand gesturing involved. It was so cool, like another door had just opened for me!

The combination of an iPad with Proloquo2Go is proving to be very powerful, but it is not a cheap solution. The cost of the iPad starts the pricing at around $500, depending on the model chosen, and Proloquo2go is expensive as far as apps go at $190. While this seems too expensive, it is important to remember that until the iPad, special assistive gadgets were the only options for those with this need, and those cost thousands of dollars. As the mother of an autistic child told me, you can’t put a price on the first time your child tells you she “likes apple juice better.”

Technology is already available to consumers that enables taking a more active role in healthcare. This technology can be found in free (or cheap) apps for smartphones, and it should not be overlooked. The more sophisticated methods of using technology that have been discussed may require an investment, but many are finding it to be well worth the cost. What price is too high for taking control over your life?

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When this breakdown is compared to that of the 16-GB, 3G iPad, the Galaxy Tab’s lower price to build indicates Samsung has some wiggle room when push comes to shove. Our roundup of Tab pricing shows the cheapest retail price offered is $399, and it looks like deals could bring that lower while retaining profitability. The lower pricing would help Samsung compete with the iPad, especially given the extras (such as two cameras) on the Tab that are lacking on the iPad.

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While the developer behind Firesheep claims the tool was released to demonstrate the vulnerability of private information at public Wi-Fi hotspots, it has been downloaded over 200,000 times. Unfortunately, Firesheep works because many web sites do not use the more secure HTTPS, which makes individual sessions secure even over public networks. No doubt some of those now using the tool to snoop do not have the same good intentions as the developer. FireShepherd (the nice one) kills any Firesheep sessions running over unsecured hotspots. Unfortunately, FireShepherd is a Windows program, which leaves users of other systems unprotected.

There are tools besides FireShepherd that our friends at WebWorkerDaily list, which can be used to protect hotspot sessions from hackers, but apparently as one man’s recent trip to a Starbucks in New York City proved, many web surfers don’t run such tools or ignore the threat even when it’s pointed out. Gary LosHuertos used Firesheep in the Starbucks to gather login information for 20 people surfing the web, and then sent each a warning that they had been hacked. To make his point, LosHuertos sent the warnings from each patron’s own Facebook (or other network) account. He observed that some folks dropped offline after receiving the warning, but others kept on using the account as if nothing had happened.

The threat of having hotspot sessions compromised is not that far-fetched, and Firesheep makes it even more of a likelihood that at some point you might be exposed. Windows users should definitely look at FireShepherd, and those with devices on other platforms should take other steps to protect public web interaction. Many smartphone owners are accessing the web via Wi-Fi hotspots, but those devices have the best protection against hackers in their 3G or 4G connections. As tempting as using the free Wi-Fi may be, the safest way to connect to the web is using the phone’s integrated 3G/4G data connection. These connections are encrypted at the carrier level, and are risk-free as a result.

Image credit: Flickr user Swift Benjamin.

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