16/08/2000

EPOC Malware

The ever growing threat of viruses on popular handheld platforms came a step closer this week as, for the first time,  McAfee added the detection of malware programs for the Epoc platform to it's dat files which contain the virus signatures for the mulititude of viruses that the various McAfee and Network Associates programs detect. Find out more about these programs by clicking here.

15/08/2000

McAfee launches WAP virus alert service

McAfee have put WAP technology to great use with their new Virus Alert service which enables  users to access the latest information about virues and virus outbreaks from their mobile phones .

09/08/2000

Palm launches new machines

A flurry of activity saw Palm release a couple of new machines early this week. The Palm VIIx with a cool 8MB of memory as standard shipped with a raft of 'web clipping' applications built in. This top of the range device can 'clip' information from web sites such as ABC news, Yahoo!, Barnes & Noble, E*Trade and USAToday.com. It retails for $449.

In addition, the $149 m100 model, (right), was also announced. Looking slick with a new rounded case, this entry level Palm is the sort of thing you could happily give to the the kids to accompany their mobile phones - or maybe even mum or dad. The screen is slightly smaller than that used in the current range, (although the resolution stays the same), and is also made of plastic rather than glass to make it more robust. This may turn out to be a bad decision, though, if the plastic isn't durable - there's nothing worse than a screenful of scratches. Looks like a good opportunity for anyone producing screen protectors.

Both machines feature Palm's new 3.5 OS. Visit the Palm website for more details .

Apple still at work on Newton technology.

As many Newton owners/users will testify, the later versions of the Newton OS incorporated very impressive handwriting recognition technologies. This was much improved over the earlier version that shipped in the original Newton Messagepads.

It comes as no suprise, then, to learn that Apple is still working on this technology - and that it will take centre stage, along with voice recognition technologies, in their upcoming portable device. Unfortunately, Mac World New York which took place on the 19th - 21st July, had no mention of this new device even though it was expected by many. The machine is not far off, however...  so watch this space!

07/08/2000

Microsoft's Stinger

Microsoft will tomorrow demonstrate it's 'Stinger' technologies which it hopes to license to manufacturers making mobile phones and other small, handheld devices. The company fully expects that mobile phones will overtake PC's as the standard way that users will access the Internet - signalling that they fully intend to grab as much of that pie as they can - especcially when the prediction for mobile phone sales in 2001 are hovering around the 500 million mark.

Stinger will blur the distinction between mobile phone and PDAs - making the phone more Internet aware and providing technologies such as micro-browsers and  intelligent calenders that tell the phone not to ring but vibrate if you are in a meeting when a call comes in, etc.

Microsoft had better be quick, however, Symbian has got a lot further down this path already - and with some heavyweight mobile phone company backing, too.

Viruses!

Thanks for the numerous emails I recieved on my article about the potential threat of viruses in the handheld arena.

I'll be doing some more work and research in this area and will be producing some follow-up articles soon. Looking through the various 'handheld' sites on the web, none of them really cater for the security side of things - and as I have a background in this area it makes sense that I 'fill the gap' :o)

IBM puts Linux on a watch!

But why would you want Linux on a watch? I suppose IBM are just doing it to show off.

:o)

That's it for now,

Rod.