Rabu, 30 Maret 2011

Smallest computer being made

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Seriously, the world's smallest computer. It barely covers the “N” on a penny. The prototypical sensor device developed by researchers at the University of Michigan is intended to monitor eye pressure for glaucoma patients. It connects wirelessly to other computers and is charged with a solar cell, needing just 1.5 hours of sunlight or 10 hours of indoor light to reach full power.
The mini-computer has potential for a plethora of applications, from sensing pollution, structural integrity, tracking and surveillance -- virtually any way one could think of to make an object “smart.” Furthermore, researchers can control the size and shape of the computer's antenna, dictating how it communicates with other devices. So the chip's radio doesn't need tuning from the outside; a number of the tiny computers could automatically start talking to each other as soon as they turn on then, as long as they are built to pick up the same frequency.
The size of this gadget may seem shocking, but a computer science prophet, Gordon Bell, predicted in the '70's the evolution of computer “classes” such that this revelation is, perhaps, to be expected. Bell's Law says that roughly every decade a new class of computer –- think PC, netbook, smartphone –- enters the stage and changes the industry. This law is often presented as a corollary to Moore's Law, which states that about every two years, the number of transistors that can fit on an integrated circuit -- essentially the computing power of a chip -- doubles.
If Daft Punk were writing this blog, they might have titled it “Smaller, Better, Faster, Stronger.”
Greg Chen/University of Michigan

Acer Iconia Pricing, Release Date, and Images


 has finally and formally pulled the lid off of its unique Windows 7 dual-screen tablet. The Iconia-6120 Touchbook, which sports an Intel Core i5 CPU, 640GB drive, HDMI out, USB 3.0, and twin 14-inch LCDs made of Gorilla Glass, will cost $1,200 in both Canada and the United States and will be available in April. The Iconia-6120 is available for pre-sale now at major retailers.
Maximum PC was intrigued enough by the Iconia to give it our coveted FTW award at CES 2011. The team loved that this is a Windows 7 device, which makes it more versatile, even if the Core i5 540M proc Acer originally stated would be in the system is a little moldy. (Acer has not formally confirmed that this will be the CPU in the Iconia.) 
A series of proprietary interface enhancements includes the Acer Ring Control, which appears when you place your hand on the tablet's lower screen and allow you to instantly access designated applications, a virtual keyboard, screen captures, and photo-oriented apps. 
acer-iconia-6120-acer-ring_0.jpgUltimately, with this kind of product, actions and images speak louder than words, so we'll say no more except that we're excited to get our hands on the Iconia for an extended period of time. Check out the images and videos below, and let us know what you think. We're curious to hear your thoughts on this one, that's for sure.

iPad in the Enterprise: 3 Big Worries Remain


Like a sucker punch, the iPad's popularity has taken the enterprise by surprise. Forrester Research analyst Ted Schadler recently held a teleconference with 241 IT pros to talk about the impact the iPad and other tablets may have on their organizations.
Did they have questions? You bet.
Of the 15 million iPads on the street, Forrester figures half make their way to work. Forrester released results of a survey of 2,300 IT executives last week that shows one out of four companies using or planning to use tablets.
These figures are sure to rise given the hugely successful iPad 2 debut earlier this month. Demand continues to outstrip supply, with Apple stores selling out of their daily iPad shipments within an hour. Global rollout this week has been impressive, too.
There's no question iPad productivity apps are gaining momentum, such as QuickOffice, DocuSign, SoundNote and Salesforce Chatter. One company plans to upgrade senior executives to the iPad 2 so they can leverage a new feature on the device: high-def video projector mirroring output.
The enterprise embrace of the iPad has happened quickly, even surprising Apple. "I've never seen an adoption rate on the enterprise side like this in my life," said Apple COO Tim Cook late last year, well before the iPad 2 hit the market.
Such fast enterprise adoption--a trend largely driven by employees--often leaves companies feeling more than a little panicked. Here are three pressing questions about the iPad, based on Forrester's research:
What's the business benefit?
Let's face it: Making an ROI (return on investment) case for a major iPad spend could be a tough job for a CIO. Even Forrester's Shadler admits the business benefits are "still materializing." But there are signs that the iPad does improve productivity, especially in areas where perception matters--board meetings, sales presentations, and field service engagements.
"We have heard this from almost every major company: It makes you and your IT organization look great when you can give your C-level staff and board of directors an iPad instead of handing them a 400-page binder," writes Schadler in a research note.
At Conceptus, a Silicon Valley medical device manufacturer, nearly every executive (as well as salespeople) has an iPad. One top executive rarely touches the iPad, while the head of legal uses it every day. She always brings the iPad to meetings where she's often asked a legal question. Rather than sift through reams of paper notes, she quickly finds answers on the iPad.
CIO Rob Rennie of Florida State College at Jacksonville, an early adopter of the iPad, has witnessed first-hand solid productivity gains action. In a budget meeting, for instance, department executives with iPads now answer questions about the cost of impromptu items on the spot. Money is allocated or denied based on the real-time information during the meeting, rather than the issue being tabled to another meeting weeks later.
What's the status of security?
Apple has made the iPad 2 pretty darn secure, says Forrester. Many companies with strict security requirements have jumped on the iPad bandwagon, such as Lloyd's of London, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase.
Forrester also expects the upcoming RIM PlayBook to have top-notch security, perhaps besting the iPad. Forrester's take: iPads and PlayBooks are safe enough for most business scenarios.
What about Android tablets? Not so much. Forrester says Android lags about 18 months behind Apple. When it comes to security, it'll be a two-horse race between iPad and PlayBook, with Android far behind, Schadler says. Does this mean Android tablets aren't ready for enterprise primetime?
"While they are much less secure, you can't put a blanket statement on it because companies have different security requirements," Schadler says.
Do we have enough bandwidth?
More than security, the strain iPads will put on wireless networks has everyone concerned. There's simply not enough mobile broadband bandwidth available. While moving from 3G to 4G will help, Schadler says, "It won't take many FaceTime video chats for the thing to drag down to a halt."
On the 3G side, this means a company might not be able to deliver mission-critical iPad apps to mobile workers when they need them.
On the WiFi side, companies will have to ramp up their capacity. It's already expensive to provide WiFi access points for all the employees that want to wirelessly connect to the network on their laptops.
CIOs have been coming up with ways to throttle down the strain on the wireless network, such as limiting the use of desktop video and Youtube streaming. Now iPads, which can only connect wirelessly, along with Apple's FaceTime video chat, will only exacerbate the problem.
"If you're a company," Schadler says, "you're worried."

Tablet sales to soar as prices drop through 2015, says Gartner


Gartner Wednesday revised its worldwide IT spending forecast upward, mostly in response to strong 2010 sales of media tablet computers like Apple's iPad.
And, Gartner noted, as sales of tablets increase , the average price of the devices in 2015 will be about half of what it is today.
Price reductions, of course, are expected as electronics products are commoditized, but in this case Gartner is forecasting a significant rate of decline.
The Gartner report notes that in 2010, there were 17.6 million tablets, mostly Apple iPads , sold at an average price of $543 apiece,.
In 2011, Gartner expects 69.5 million tablets will be sold worldwide in a more competitive market. It expects an average sales price of $423.
Gartner said it expects the average price of tablets will continue to decline from there, hitting $300 in 2013 and $263 in 2015, when the consultant expects that nearly 295 million tablets will be sold.
Some of the tablet growth is coming at the expense of PC spending, a trend that PC vendors have noticed .
Gartner today said sales of Apple's iPad and other tablet computers have prompted it to raise its 2011 IT spending forecast to $3.6 trillion, 5.6% more than it previously estimated. Gartner releases a spending forecast each quarter.
Of the global total, U.S. IT spending in 2011 is estimated at $1.022 trillion, 4.6% higher than 2010, said Gartner.
Richard Gordon, an analyst at Gartner, gives tablet sales a large measure of credit for the revised worldwide IT spending forecast increase.
Gordon said this latest forecast is able to take into account last year's tablet spending, which gives analysts a better understanding of what's ahead.
"The market has gone from essentially zero a couple of years ago to fairly healthy growth," said Gordon.
Worldwide tablet spending is expected to total more than $29 billion this year, up from some $10 billion in 2010, Gartner said.
The big question this quarter is how global events, such as Middle East battles and the repercussions from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, will impact spending, said Gordon.
"At this stage, we're not ready to make any radical changes to the spending figures, because we're still kind of looking at the impact," said Gordon. But, referring to Japan, he said "as time goes on it looks like the disruptions are not going to be as bad as first thought."
"The supply chain is probably flexible enough to smooth out some of the disruptions," said Gordon.
The Middle East share of global IT spending is approximately 2%, said Gartner.
Patrick Thibodeau covers SaaS and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @DCgov , or subscribe to Patrick's RSS feed . His e-mail address is pthibodeau@computerworld.com .

Tablets present new mobile cost management challenges


With tablets invading the enterprise, IT departments are facing new challenges around controlling mobile connectivity expenses.
"These tablets now have cellphone plans and that can be expensive if you don't understand what's included," said Gregg Davis, CIO for Webcor Builders, a general contractor company. "It can be more complicated than with cellphones."
That's because people want to use more applications on their tablets than on their phones. "The kinds of applications people are likely to use are more data intensive," said Kitty Weldon, an analyst with Current Analysis. "My appetite for wanting to watch a video on a mobile phone is really low but I can see it on a tablet."
Some of Davis' tablet users start out on the lowest-price data plans and find it difficult to know when they are going to hit their limit, he said. Since they don't know they're almost out, they may use data-intensive services, like streaming a movie, and easily surpass their limit, he said. They also may not know how to easily flip between Wi-Fi and cellular as a way to cut costs, he said.
"Some people end up being great and having almost no usage and others will have astronomical bills because they're in a foreign country streaming a movie," he said.
He uses Visage Mobile to monitor users' cell and tablet mobile services and to make changes to cut costs. The hosted tool aggregates all usage from the multiple mobile operators that Webcor uses. With it, Davis can easily spot everyone who is using expensive 411 calls on their phones, people who are roaming or workers who are clearly attached to a plan that's not a good match.
He can also at a glance look at the total utilization of data and voice plans across users and devices. "We want to keep that pool utilization anywhere around 80 percent," he said. That would mean that users are on the correct plans so that they have a bit of room in case they have a heavy usage month but aren't paying too much for service they don't use.
That feature came in handy recently when Webcor upgraded around 350 BlackBerry phones. The operator erroneously put users onto a more expensive plan. A few months later, Webcor noticed that utilization had dropped to around 30 percent. After looking into it, the company noticed that the workers were on a more expensive plan that included minutes and data they weren't using.
When it told the operator about the mistake, Webcor got a $53,000 refund for the 90 days that people were on the wrong plan, Davis said.
Without the tool Webcor would be hard-pressed to closely examine bills from the phone companies. Its bills are typically around 1,300 pages long, he said. "It's mind-boggling to figure out who's doing what, where," he said.
Such expense management products can help IT administrators better manage mobile costs on tablets and phones, Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner, said. Some products will let administrators send bills to supervisors so they see the cost overages and can talk to the users. Tangoe is another company that offers telecom expense management services, as do some of the service providers like AT&T, he said.
Businesses can instead give workers a monthly stipend and have the bills sent directly to workers, he said. That can help ensure that workers are careful about expensive overages.
Davis doesn't expect operators to go back to the unlimited plans, but such plans would be ideal for him. "The unlimited all-you-can-eat is best for us, even if you have to pay a little more," he said. He would prefer a fixed cost that he can budget for and that allows users to not have to worry about data usage. Sprint currently offers an unlimited data plan but users may want devices that Sprint doesn't offer, he said.
Challenges with managing mobile rate plans will likely grow as an issue for IT managers as more tablets enter the workplace. "Our number of devices with the cell carrier exceeds users," Davis noted, since now some of his workers have tablets in addition to phones.
Deloitte recently projected that this year, more than 50 percent of computing devices sold around the world will be smartphones, tablets and non-PC netbooks. More than a quarter of the tablets sold this year will be bought by businesses, Deloitte said. Many of those devices will have Internet connections that enterprises will need to manage in order to keep costs down.

Fujitsu Taps Into Mobile 3D Trend, Ships Lifebook AH572


While Nintendo's 3DS gaming device has hogged the 3D limelight of late, Fujitsu quietly began shipping its 3D-capable Lifebook AH572. This laptop's claim to fame is the dual function 15.6-inch widescreen display for both 2D and 3D (with 3D glasses) viewing. The Lifebook AH572 is now shipping for $999.
Previously we've wondered whether 3D laptops and 3D smartphones were just gimmicks--and questioned the higher cost for both the hardware and media, as in pricey Nintendo 3DS games. But the Lifebook AH572 may actually make more sense, when you consider it's not really selling a niche 3D gaming experience-Fujitsu is touting the laptop's 3D movie and video capabilities. You can watch 3D movies on its widescreen display via the integrated Blu-Ray drive, wirelessly send movies to your HDTV, and record videos in 3D with its dual cameras. That said, even though 3D TV dominated this year's CES, the biggest problem with 3D displays is that most of them require 3D glasses-something the 3DS doesn't require but the Lifebook AH572 does.
If you don't mind wearing the glasses, though, Fujitsu has also outfitted this laptop with some other nice specs, including a second-gen Intel Core i5 processor. The Lifebook AH572, which runs Windows 7 Home Premium, comes with: 4GB of memory, a 500GB 5400rpm drive, integrated Blu-ray combo drive, Intel Wireless Display technology, an HDMI port, a generous 5 USB ports, and a 6-cell battery that lasts nearly 8 hours (at least enough for a couple of 3D movies on one charge). The laptop weighs 6.7 pounds.
One pair of 3D passive (requires no battery) glasses is included, but you can purchase additional pairs for $19. How easy it is to share the 3D viewing experience on the 15.6-inch display with others, however, is up in the air.
Hungry for "a new dimension in mobile computing"? The Lifebook AH572 is shipping now from Fujitsu's online store.

Samsung Series 9 Laptop Shows No Signs Of Spyware


Are Samsung laptops shipping with software that will monitor your every keystroke, as one security researcher claimed Wednesday? We can't say for sure, but we couldn't find any trace of spying software on the one Samsung laptop in PCWorld's Lab.
On Wednesday, researcher Mohammad Hassan claimed to have found StarLogger keylogging software installed on two brand-new Samsung R Series laptops. Hassan says he found the spyware when he was initially setting up the laptops. When he contacted Samsung support, a manager told Hassan the StarLogger keylogger was installed to "monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used."
The PCWorld Lab has a 13" Samsung Series 9 ultraportable laptop in for testing and review, so we decided to run a rigorous malware scan to see if we could confirm Hassan's allegations. (Samsung told the IDG News Service's Robert McMillan that they are investigating the claims.)
After unboxing the Series 9 review unit (identical to the Series 9 laptop a consumer would purchase from their local retailer) and making a backup copy of everything on the hard drive, our laptop analysts installed a copy of Norton Internet Security 2011 and updated it with the latest virus definitions and security updates. We subjected the Samsung Series 9 to a full scan and it passed with flying colors; PCWorld laptop editor Jason Cross also scanned the registry for the keys typically left behind by StarLogger, but found nothing.
We will continue to test the Samsung Series 9 and future Samsung laptops for any sign of malicious software, and will keep you updated with any further information from our lab or Samsung representatives. Look for our testing results and full review of the Samsung Series 9 next week.

Android smartphones now can run Firefox 4.0


Android smartphone users finally have a chance to run a mobile version of the Firefox browser. It's the first time the smartphone version has been released on a widely used mobile OS.
Mozilla, the non-profit group behind Firefox, says Firefox for Android (originally code-named Fennec) is three times faster, in page load times and performance of Web apps and games, than the Web browser that Google packages with the mobile OS. The speedup was the result of big improvements to components of the browser's JavaScript engine.
The UI is optimized for small touch-screens, so browser controls are hidden when not in use, for example. But the browser is based on the same technology foundation as its desktop cousin, including extensive support for HTML 5. So mobile users will have the same familiar tabbed browsing, bookmarks, and add-ons, along with Firefox Sync, which lets users work with browser features - such as bookmarks, data from forms and passwords - across different computers and devices.
But there's one missing feature: it doesn't yet support Adobe Flash.
Mozilla announced the Android release Tuesday. The mobile browser initially had been released for devices running Maemo, an open sourceLinux-based mobile OS developed by Nokia. It's available on Android Market, and can be downloaded on Maemo devices.
The new browser joins a crowded field of well-regarded rivals, all jockeying for space on Android smartphones, including: Dolphin HDOpera MiniSkyfire and xScope
Some of the new features in the Android Firefox release include:
- Sharing website pages via on-board applications such as email, Facebook, Twitter and others
- Customize the user's search engine list
- End-to-end encryption via Firefox Sync when accessing browser history, bookmarks, and so on across different devices.
- Ability to choose from thousands of browser add-ons to customize the browser's look, or add new features
- Support for maturing Web standards - such as Cascading Style Sheets, Canvas and SVG - used by developers for advanced Web pages
- HTML5 support including location-aware browsing, orientation and accelerometer, and desktop notifications.
- JavaScript engine changes, including: adding the JagerMonkey just-in-time compiler, enhancing the existing TraceMonkey JIT compiler and the SpiderMonkey interpreter
John Cox covers wireless networking and mobile computing for Network World.

Kamis, 10 Maret 2011

Apple patches 62 bugs in massive Safari update

Apple today patched a record 62 vulnerabilities in Safari 5, updating the Mac and Windows browser to version 5.0.4.

Wednesday's Safari security update was released at the same time as iOS 4.3 , which fixed many of the same flaws.

But Apple's update missed the cut-off for the Pwn2Own contest , which starts today and pits researchers against four browsers -- including Safari, Google's Chrome, Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox -- as the hackers vie for $65,000 in cash prizes.

All but six of the 62 vulnerabilities patched today were accompanied by the phrase "arbitrary code execution," Apple-speak for rating the flaws as "critical."

Unlike other browser makers, including Google, Microsoft and Mozilla, Apple doesn't assign severity rankings to vulnerabilities.

According to Apple's advisory , 57 of the 62 bugs can be exploited by "drive-by" attacks that execute as soon as a victim browses to a malicious Web site with an unpatched edition of Safari.

Most of the vulnerabilities patched Wednesday were in WebKit, the open-source browser engine that powers Safari, and also Google's Chrome. In fact, more than half of the bugs Apple addressed today were originally discovered and reported by Google's own security engineers, or independent researchers who frequently earn bounties from the search company for finding flaws.

Apple also addressed several non-security issues , including one that made sites unstable when they rendered content with multiple plug-ins; another that incorrectly printed Web pages; and others that improved VoiceOver compatibility. VoiceOver is a text-to-speech tool included with Mac OS X that allows the blind and vision impaired to use a Mac and its Safari browser.

Apple last patched Safari in November 2010, when it fixed 27 flaws. Today's update was the largest ever for Safari 5, which Apple shipped in June 2010.

Today's Safari update will not be used by Pwn2Own, however, although today's patches could mean the difference between $15,000 and nothing for some contestants.

According to Peter Vreugdenhil of HP TippingPoint, Pwn2Own's sponsor, the browsers were "frozen" two weeks before today's tip-off, and so the target MacBook Air will not sport Safari 5.0.4. "Exploit development does sometimes rely on certain versions and that is the reason we have frozen the devices," said Vreugdenhil in an e-mail reply to questions today.

But the patches may still play a part. If the vulnerability used by a researcher to hack Safari has been fixed in 5.0.4, TippingPoint will not award the $15,000 prize to him or her, Vreugdenhil confirmed. Instead, the money will go to the first researcher who exploits the "frozen" version of Safari -- in this case 5.0.3 -- using a bug still present in today's update.

"As long as the latest version still has the vulnerability, and the researcher has successfully 'pwned' with the frozen version, he or she will have won," said Vreugdenhil.

Safari 5.0.4 can be downloaded from Apple's site for Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Apple also offered an update to Safari 4.1.3 for customers still running Mac OS X 10.4, aka Tiger.

Mac OS X users will be notified of the new version automatically, while Windows users already running Safari will be alerted by the Apple Software Update tool.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is gkeizer@computerworld.com .

Google still scrambling to recover from DroidDream Android attack

Last week's revelation that over 50 apps in the Google Android market were malware-laden has shaken up Google and the security industry to its core.

Background: Google Android's infected apps spotlight mobile danger

The malware-based apps, dubbed DroidDream, have been removed by Google, which says it's "adding a number of measures to help prevent malicious applications using similar exploits from being distributed through Android Market," though declining to detail yet what those may be.

But the biggest quandary from the DroidDream episode may be why any Android devices (Google says Android 2.2.2 and later versions would not be affected because the hole was closed) were vulnerable to the DroidDream attack in the first place since Google had issued patches for those exploits by last November.

One underlying problem is that the Android-device manufacturers and carriers that work in tandem to distribute Android-based updates had not uniformly issued patches to their customers for the DroidDream exploit.

While declining to name specific Android device manufacturers and carriers, Google speaking on background, acknowledges not all Android devices have been patched. While Google usually takes a hands-off approach after issuing open-source code changes to the Android code base, expecting the manufacturers to integrate them into their own customized Android builds, Google leapt into action following the DroidDream revelations, working directly with manufacturers and carriers to blast out over-the-air updates. The goal is to make sure the underlying security flaws exploited by DroidDream that may still be present in Android devices are addressed.

Google has also directly sent out an auto-uninstall tool it calls "Android Market Security Tool March 2011" to infected Android devices to uninstall the malicious Android apps that were downloaded from Google Market.

Security vendors this week are closely watching this DroidDream episode play out.

"The exploits for this malware have been fixed for months," says Kevin Mahaffey, CTO at Lookout Mobile Security, talking about what's known as "Exploit" and "rageagainstthecage" used in the DroidDream malware-laden apps that made it into the Google Market. But that doesn't mean that Google's fixes from months ago made it out to the consumer. What the industry is learning, Mahaffey says, is "it's a lot more complicated to patch a phone than a PC."

Anti-malware firm Kaspersky Lab today called Google's handling of the Android malware "debatable." The security vendor says its examination of the so-called "Android Market Security Tool March 2011" that Google has pushed out to Android devices infected with DroidDream is a "questionable approach."

The Google app uninstaller remotely installs on the affected device, and then "launches itself, obtains root privileges, uninstalls the malicious apps and then deletes itself — without ever asking any user authorization," Kaspersky says in its analysis. "This approach has a number of similarities to the practices employed by malware authors." In addition, Kaspersky criticized Google "for dealing with symptoms while leaving the cause untreated." According to Kaspersky's analysis, "the update doesn't actually close the exploited hole in the Android debugging bridge."

Kaspersky continues to say "Apparently installing patches is generally almost impossible," citing a Kaspersky researcher who believes "this is due to Android's inability to install granular patches; furthermore, regular larger patch updates are reportedly difficult because of Android's use of the 3G data connection for syncing and updating with over the air updates."

Dozens of manufacturers take Google's updates and "bundle it into their build," which vary, and eventually the user should get the update over the air, says Nicholas Percoco, senior vice president and head of Trustwave's SpiderLabs. This issue may become a factor in how corporate users bring Android devices into official use in a corporate setting. Manufacturers and carriers that can prove they are fast and diligent about updating code could end up winning more corporate customers. That might make enterprise IT managers inclined to want to push for a sort of corporate standard for an Android as the patch and security issues are closely examined.

8 essential Android security apps

The DroidDream nightmare for Android could be seen as an opportunity for security vendors with specialized expertise.

"My initial reaction to this attack is 'I'm not surprised,'" says Neil Book, vice president of Juniper's mobile division which markets the Junos Pulse mobile-management and security software for Android. Book says Juniper's Pulse for Android would have kept the Android anti-malware from running. "We recognize it because of the heuristic engine," he says.

Book says he thinks that probably less than 5% of the world's smartphones have any type of anti-malware client on them. He expects to see smartphone-oriented anti-malware start to be offered eventually on an OEM basis with the service providers installing it "for free" on devices as part of their service. Book says Juniper has had this type of arrangement with British Telecom (BT) for two years, and expects to see the U.S. market take this approach.

Trusteer, which has specialized in anti-malware software to fight banking trojans that try to launch through compromised bank customer's computers but can be detected and eradicated, has announced a partnership with WorkLight to create "secure mobile browser apps" for both iPhone and Android.

It will be rolled out in a few months, says Yaron Dycian, vice president of products at Trusteer. It won't be called Rapport, like Trusteer's current PC-based browser software and service for the banking industry, but will be sold under WorkLight's brand and will be for general enterprise use.

If a device is infected, the app simply wouldn't run, explains Ron Perry, CTO for WorkLight about one approach taken with Trusteer.

Like other security vendors, Trusteer views DroidDream as a turning point in mobile malware. "It'll only escalate from here, no doubt," Dycian said.