Today’s top tech stories

February 22, 2012

Mobile operating system Android has overtaken Apple and now has the largest share of the installed base of smartphones among consumers in the UK, according to the Guardian.  New figures provided by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech show Google’s mobile OS has a 36.9% share of the smartphones in use among consumers in the UK, the company says in its latest survey, which covers the four weeks to 23 January 2012. Apple’s iPhone models have the next biggest share, with 28.5% of all handsets in use. The company does not split out brands, but it is likely that Apple is the most-used brand, with Android sales split among brands including Samsung, HTC, LG and Motorola.

A partly government funded ‘dirty lab’ has been set up in Malvern to test the vulnerability of computer security systems at small businesses and simulate attacks from hackers and test measures against viruses in a secure environment. The lab is run by the Malvern Cyber Security Group, a partnership of six local computer security companies. Dibble Clark, the chairman of Malvern-based 3SDL, said: “My way of looking at it is that if you have a disease or virus that’s dangerous to humans, you don’t take it to a hospital ward to look at it. See the full story in BBC News Online.

According to The Telegraph, an iPad version of Microsoft Office is set to be launched soon. As reported in The Daily, the new design is influenced by ‘Metro’, which is Microsoft’s name for the look and feel of Windows 8 and its current Windows Phone operating system. Word, Excel and PowerPoint files can reportedly be created and edited locally and online, although it’s not clear whether the new software is likely to primarily run natively on iPads or be a remote version of desktop software. It remains unclear whether Microsoft plans to launch other apps from its productivity suite, which is currently significantly more profitable than its entire Windows division.

Facebook’s nudity and violence guidelines have been exposed by a document leaked from the outsourcing company oDesk. These demonstrate a rather arbitrary policy that includes banning images of breastfeeding if nipples are exposed – but allows “graphic images” of animals if shown “in the context of food processing or hunting as it occurs in nature”. Equally, pictures of bodily fluids – except semen – are allowed as long as no human is included in the picture; but “deep flesh wounds” and “crushed heads, limbs” are OK. See the full story in The Guardian.

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