Google gives Calendar love for BlackBerry & Picasa love for iPhone

The Official Google Mobile blog announced some calendar love for BlackBerry & Picasa love for iPhone.

Google Sync for BlackBerry
You can now use the Google Sync for mobile to sync-up your Google Calendar with your BlackBerry's native calendar. Just point your BlackBerry's browser to http://m.google.com/sync and download Google Sync. From then on, any changes to your Google Calendar will appear on your BlackBerry calendar, and vice-versa.

Google Sync will two-way synchronise your BlackBerry with the default calendar associated with your Google account. You have the option of selecting other calendars to download, but you cannot update them from your BlackBerry. You have automatic or manual synchronization options. The automatic sync option checks for updates every two hours. You can also decide how far into the future you want to sync your BlackBerry and Google calendars. You can set the option to sync from 4 to 24 weeks.

Warning: If you use Reset Sync on the Options menu of Google Sync, it will delete all events on your BlackBerry calendar. Not just the ones inserted by Google Sync.

Picasa for iPhone
After Google's main page (as opposed to the iGoogle homepage) got a special version for the iPhone, it is now Picasa's turn. From the Google Mobile blog:

Today, I'm happy to tell you that we've just released this new iPhone interface for Picasa. After you go to Picasa on your iPhone and log in, you can quickly see all your albums that you've uploaded to Picasa Web. If you click on any of the albums, you can get a full view of your picture with comments from your friends. Or you can click on Slideshow, sit back and watch the pictures scroll. You can also search for photos in your album or through community photos. Finally, with one of my favorite features, you can view your friends' albums through favorites.

What are you waiting for? If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch go to http://picasaweb.google.com and check it out.

Compared to any other mobile browser, the only extra feature for Picasaweb on the iPhone seems to be the slideshow feature. And I am sure the pictures look much better on the iPhone, of course.

It is worth noting that Google is targetting recent features and updates to the BlackBerry, the most popular phone in the enterprise space, and to the iPhone, the most [insert iPhone/Apple fanboy adjective here] phone in the consumer space. This is a sure sign that Google wants to play on the mobile phones of both the business users and the non-business users.


[via Official Google Mobile blog]

Android's and iPhone's security compared?

When you see an article grandly titled, "Google's Android vs. Apple's iPhone: Which is More Secure?", what might you expect? That somebody has managed to compare the Android and iPhone systems in terms of:

1. How easy it is to hack into the system, snoop around for information, control the system, etc.
2. How easy it is to infect the system with virus, spyware and other such malicious software.
3. How easy it is to prevent or clean-up after such attacks.

And similar other questions.

Instead, Kenneth van Wyk, a "20-year veteran of IT security" and "co-author of two security-related books", compares the two systems on the following basis and gives them the following grades:

1. In Android, each application is assigned its own unique Linux user-ID at the time of installation and this ID is used to run the application. Where as, in the iPhone, "applications appear to all run with root (administrative) privileges on a single UNIX kernel". Based on this difference (and appearance), Android gets an A- grade and iPhone gets an F or "F-, if that’s possible".
2. Android is an open system, which has led to at least one product vendor announcing the development of security applications. We have heard of no such thing about the closed iPhone system. Grades: Android B, iPhone D.
3. iPhone has a well-developed and easy system for providing updates and patches through iTunes. We don't know of any such thing for Android. Individual handset makers will probably have to come up with their own update and patching process for their particular phones. Grades: Android INCOMPLETE, iPhone B+.

And, after this very arbitrary and subjective comparison, he declares Android to be the more secure platform!

Granted, at the very beginning of the article, Kenneth van Wyk, admits that there is no Android handset available right now for him to compare with the iPhone. So, this is an "apples and oranges" comparison. Nevertheless, this comparison and conclusion is not convincing enough.

In fact, it is very obvious that the open nature of Android, the ease of development of applications which control the phone's features and functionality, and the corresponding ease in installing such applications will see a proliferation of malicious software for the phone. The more popular Android becomes, the more threats there will be. It is actually a pretty scary situation to imagine something as personal as the cell phone being compromised. Imagine someone getting access to all your most personal information and conversations. Imagine someone using your phone to silently route expensive calls, for which you get dinged on your bill!

I think it is too early to comment on how secure future Android handsets will be. We can comment only on what is available now - Android SDK. And, it is certain too early to compare just the SDK with the iPhone to reach any convincing conclusion right now.


[via Earthweb]

New Google interface for iPhones

Good news for iPhone (or iPod Touch) users. The Google Mobile blog has announced a new Google interface for iPhones which it describes as "fast and fluid":

Our guiding principles were "fast" and "fluid." We think we've achieved both, thanks to some AJAX magic made possible by the iPhone's Safari browser. To try it out, just go to www.google.com on your iPhone.

There are some screenshots posted, but screen shots are not the best way to show a "fast and fluid" interface. Why didn't they just post a video on Youtube? I am sure someone will post a video of this soon enough. I will keep an eye out for the video and update this blog soon as it is available.

Considering that iPhone's Safari browser is based on the same WebKit engine as Android's browser, will this be available for Android as well? If not, when? I have posted the question on the blog post.


[via Google Mobile blog]