Mobile Miscellany: week of October 7th, 2013 Mobile

If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought a sneak peek of HTC Sense 5.5, along with an exclusive HTC One in Vivid Blue to Carphone Warehouse and the beta release of Nokia Glance Background for Lumia smartphones. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of October 7th, 2013.

NOKIA GLANCE GAINS BACKGROUND IMAGERY

In exchange for a bit more battery drain, Lumia users can now gussy up their smartphone with the beta release of Glance Background. This should be familiar territory for users of Sleeping Screen on Nokia's older Symbian platform, as the app allows users to choose up to four images to showcase on the Glance screen, which provides the time and simple notifications while in a low-power state. Glance Background requires the Amber software update from Nokia, and isn't supported by the Lumia 625 or 520, but you should otherwise be in good shape to check it out. [All About Windows Phone]

HTC SENSE 5.5 LEAKS WITH CUSTOM QUICK SETTINGS

Thanks to custom ROM developer mike1986, we're now able to see a handful of the changes that HTC is cooking up for the Sense 5.5 release. First and foremost, the company is building a customizable quick settings menu, which allows users to reposition the various options such as airplane mode, auto rotate, brightness and WiFi hotspot. Sense 5.5 will also gain a new 'Do Not Disturb' mode -- also accessible from the quick settings panel -- along with the ability to disable BlinkFeed. Changes are also in store for the camera app, which introduces two new functions called Panorama+ and Dual capture, along with new emoji in the keyboard and a redesigned app switcher. [Android Revolution HD]

HTC Sense 5.5 leak

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HTC ONE ARRIVES IN VIVID BLUE AT CARPHONE WAREHOUSE

Following on the heels of Best Buy, UK shoppers now have a blue version of the HTC One to call their own. The color is described as Vivid Blue, which is close to teal and features light blue accent stripes. Carphone Warehouse is currently offering the Vivid Blue model as an exclusive, which is available for £490 outright or free on contracts of £32 or more per month -- certainly more affordable than the 18 carat gold option. [Android Central]

Microsft dropped the "RT"

Microsoft's product marketing manager for Surface, Jack Cowett, recently admitted thatMicrosoft dropped the "RT" from its latest ARM-based Surface tablet to reduce customer confusion. Microsoft reportedly blamed "customer confusion" for the lack of sales of its first-generation Surface RT model, which ended up costing the company $900 million in fiscal Q4 2013. Removing the "RT" will supposedly help alleviate that confusion even though Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 use two different architectures.

"We think that there was some confusion in the market last year on the difference between Surface RT and Surface Pro," Cowett said. "We want to help make it easier for people, and these are two different products designed for two different people."

The new Surface 2 will feature a 10.6 inch ClearType 5-point screen with a 1920 x 1080 resolution, powered by Nvidia's Tegra 4 SoC, 2 GB of RAM and Windows RT 8.1. Other features will include a 3.5MP camera on the front, a 5MP camera on the back, an SD card reader, Wireless N and Bluetooth connectivity, HDMI output, 32 GB or 64 GB of internal storage, and more. It will also have a new two-stage kickstand based on customer feedback from the previous model.

"We got quite a lot of really good feedback from the original Surface Pro, but one thing people said to us was, 'hey if you really want us to use this thing on your lap, you need to make it easier to use as a laptop'," he said. "We've added a second angle for the kickstand, so it's much more comfortable to use on your lap. It's a tiny change but it makes a huge difference."

The problem Microsoft will face, whether it uses "RT" in the device name or not, is that customers purchasing the Surface 2 won't be able to install their favorite x86-based desktop apps. Granted, Microsoft made a bad choice in offering Surface RT exclusively in Microsoft Stores and Microsoft's website until the end of 2012. Surface Pro's faring better (even though it costs a bit more) shows what customers seemingly want in a Windows device. Yanking the "RT" out of the device name could be seen as a little deceptive to customers who don't know the difference between ARM and x86-based architecture.

Recently, there's been a lot of talk about Microsoft moving to one storefront and eventually merging Windows Phone and Windows RT. The Windows team is even shooting for one silicon interface, one cloud service, one set of APIs and one marketplace spanning both architectures. A big push in this direction is supposedly beginning in Spring 2014, but we'll see.

Back on October 2, the Surface blog was updated with news that pre-order stock of the Surface 2 (64 GB) and Surface Pro 2 (256 GB and 512 GB) were close to selling out, even at Microsoft Stores. How many units were actually available to pre-purchase is unknown, as Microsoft will likely avoid the same overstocking misstep it took with the original Surface RT.

However, the Register reports that Microsoft only shipped a total of 2,000 Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 units to nine resellers in the UK, 1500 of which were Surface 2 models. That said, Microsoft may be "selling out" of Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 pre-purchase stock, but this stock could be highly limited in numbers.

MORE REVELATIONS FROM EDWARD SNOWDEN

Edward Snowden has some 58,000 GCHQ files

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger says he plans to publish more revelations from Edward Snowden despite MI5 warning that such disclosures cause enormous damage.

Mr Rusbridger insisted the paper was right to publish files leaked by the US intelligence analyst and had helped to prompt a necessary and overdue debate.

His comments come after criticism from the new head of MI5, Andrew Parker.

Making public the "reach and limits" of intelligence-gathering techniques gave terrorists the advantage, he said.

Mr Snowden, a former CIA contractor, fled to Russia with a wealth of secret data including some 58,000 files from GCHQ, Britain's electronic eavesdropping agency.

The stories that followed in the Guardian newspaper, based on material provided by Mr Snowden, revealed the huge capacity of British and US intelligence agencies - GCHQ and NSA - to monitor communications.

Mr Rusbridger said more stories would be published in the future as the leaked documents were "slowly and responsibly" worked through.

In his first public speech since his appointment to director general in April, Mr Parker said intelligence gathered by GCHQ had played a vital role in stopping many UK terrorist plots over the past decade.

Without mentioning Mr Snowden by name, he said ''it causes enormous damage to make public the reach and limits of GCHQ techniques".

He warned that terrorists now had tens of thousands of means of communication "through e-mail, IP telephony, in-game communication, social networking, chat rooms, anonymising services and a myriad of mobile apps".

Mr Parker said it was vital for MI5 to retain the capability to access such information if it was to protect the country.

Mr Rusbridger said those on the security side of the argument wanted to keep everything secret and did not want a debate.

"You don't want the press or anyone else writing about it. But MI5 cannot be the only voice in the debate," he told BBC Radio 4's World at One.

He added that his newspaper had revealed the "extent to which entire populations are now being potentially put under surveillance".

"I just spent a week in America where everybody is talking about this, from the president down."

He added: "It's quite surprising to me that the number of MPs in this country who have said anything at all in the last four months can be counted on one hand - Malcolm Rifkind, Tom Watson, David Davis.

"So, if Parliament's not going to have this discussion and if the courts can only do this in private then I think absolutely it falls to the press to stimulate a discussion, which as I say, throughout America, throughout Europe, is one that the public are intensely interested in."

Asked about Mr Parker's suggestion that publishing the documents was helping terrorists, Mr Rusbridger said: "They will always say that. You read histories of intelligence and you go back to the 1990s and the security people were saying the same."

The independent MP Patrick Mercer said intelligence data should not be published if it compromised public security.

"If in any way our security is compromised by revealing too much, that's a mistake. Just imagine if we had revealed the whole Enigma secret during the Second World War.

"That might have been in the public's interest - but we'd have lost the war."

Curved screen

Samsung launches curved-screen phone

Samsung said the curved screen will help users navigate the phone better

Samsung Electronics, the world's best-selling smartphone maker, has launched a handset with a curved display screen.

Called the Galaxy Round, the smartphone will feature a 5.7in (14.5cm) display.

The launch comes just days after rival LG said it would begin production of curved-screen phones next year.

Digital display technology has been progressing towards curved screens. Both Samsung and LG already offer curved organic light-emitting diode (OLED) television sets.

Samsung said the curved screen display would help consumers use some of the features on the phone, including those that enable users to check information such as date, time and missed calls when home screen is off, with more ease.

At the same time, users can also change music tracks on their phone, even while its display is off.

The Galaxy Round will initially be launched only in South Korea. The firm gave no indication of its plans for a global launch.

'Internet of Things'

The global smartphone market has been growing rapidly.

According to research firm CCS Insight, worldwide smartphone sales will hit nearly one billion in 2013 - accounting for more than half the total of 1.7 billion mobile phones sold.

As as result, smartphone manufacturers have been keen to offer new products to win consumers.

With display technology moving towards flexible and bendy screens, it is one area that companies have been looking at.

Some analysts said that while the initial offering of curved-screen phones may not see huge sales, the segment of flexible displays was one to keep an eye on.

"These phones may not be a game-changer today, but they are definitely an indication of things to come," Manoj Menon, managing director of consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, told the BBC.

Samsung has already launched TVs with curved screen displays

"Flexible displays have a huge role to play as the market place for 'internet of things' grows."

This refers to the idea that many things in homes or offices - not just typical computers - will soon be connected to the internet.

The sector is tipped by many to be a major industry in the near future.

Mr Menon said that as flexible screens became more advanced and cost-effective to make, it was likely to speed up growth in the sector.

CYBERCRIMINAL

Russian police have reportedly arrested a man on suspicion of masterminding two infamous hacking tools.

He is suspected of being the man behind the alias Paunch - the nickname used by the creator of the Blackhole and Cool exploit kits, sold to cybercriminals to infect web users with malware.

The Russian authorities have not confirmed the details.

But security firms said they had already detected a decline in the programs' use.

A spokesman for the law enforcement agency Europol told the BBC: "Europol and the European Cybercrime Centre has been informed that a high-level suspected cyber criminal has been arrested.

"We can only refer you to the Russian authorities, they are the ones who should speak about this topic."

The Russian police's press office said it had nothing to add at this time.

However, Alexander Gostev, chief security expert at the Moscow-based internet protection provider Kaspersky Lab, said the arrest had been confirmed to him by "anonymous sources".

Spreading malware

The Blackhole kit, released in 2010, dominated the crimeware market throughout 2012 and the start of 2013, according to Fraser Howard, a researcher at the anti-virus company Sophos.

He said the code had been sold for an annual licence of $1,500 (£940) or could be rented from its creator for $200 (£125) for one week's use, among other price plans.

The software targeted a range of vulnerabilities in the Java programming language, Adobe's Flash media player, Windows software and PDF files.

It had two ways of doing this:

• adding malicious code to hundreds of thousands of legitimate websites, which then copied malware to visitors computers

• creating links in spam messages to specially created sites that infected PCs

Sophos said that Blackhole was used to send links that directed users to sites that downloaded malware

Among the malware downloaded was:

• fake anti-virus software that falsely claimed the PC was infected and urged the user to pay a fee to remove viruses

• Trojans that attempted to steal financial records stored on the PC

• the ZeroAccess rootkit, which downloaded other software that hijacked the PC for use in a botnet - a facility used to overwhelm websites with traffic and force them offline

• key loggers that took a record of what was typed on the PC

• ransomware that attempted to blackmail the PC owner

Although Mr Howard said Blackhole was once the biggest threat of its kind, he added that in recent months it had been overshadowed by rival kits, including Sweet Orange and Neutrino.

According to the researcher, the Blackhole and Cool kits put together were only involved in about 4% of all malware detected by Sophos in August, down from 28% the previous year.

The figure had since dropped to 2% in recent days, he added.

Another independent security blogger stressed that the arrest was still significant.

"If it's true that the brains behind the Blackhole has been apprehended it's a very big deal - a real coup for the cybercrime-fighting authorities, and hopefully cause disruption to the development of one of the most notorious exploit kits the web has ever seen," said Graham Cluley.

"However, it's worth remembering that nature abhors a vacuum, and there would surely be other online criminals waiting to take their place, promoting their alternative exploit kits and malicious code."

Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, agreed.

"If indeed it is Paunch that they arrested, that is a major arrest - he is a big deal," he told the BBC.

"He was clearly the biggest player in providing exploit kits - not just by selling them, but also renting and leasing them to online criminals.

"Both Blackhole and its successor Cool have been very popular.

"Users didn't have to be very technical to operate them - there was a manual that came with them - they just had to get them running and be able to break into a high-profile website, or create a new one from scratch, to install something bad on your computer."

Chinese firm controls UK porn filter

The pornography filtering system praised by David Cameron is controlled by the controversial Chinese company Huawei, the BBC has learned.

UK-based employees at the firm are able to decide which sites TalkTalk's net filtering service blocks.

Politicians in both the UK and US have raised concerns about alleged close ties between Huawei and the Chinese government.

The company says the worries are without foundation and prejudiced.

Huawei has had considerable operations in the UK for almost a decade

On Monday the Prime Minister said TalkTalk had shown "great leadership" in setting up its system, Homesafe, which it has offered to customers since 2011.

TalkTalk told the BBC it was comfortable with its relationship with Huawei, and that the service was very popular.

Homesafe is a voluntary scheme which allows subscribers to select categories - including social media, gambling and pornography - that they want blocked.

Customers who do not want filtering still have their traffic routed through the system, but matches to Huawei's database are dismissed rather than acted upon.

Accountability question

Mr Cameron has demanded similar measures be adopted by all internet service providers (ISPs) in the UK, to "protect our children and their innocence".

He said ISPs would be monitored to ensure filtering was done correctly, but that they should choose their own preferred solution.

However, one expert insisted that private companies should not hold power over blacklists, and that the responsibility should lie with an independent group.

"It needs to be run by an organisation accountable to a minister so it can be challenged in Parliament," Dr Martyn Thomas, chair of the IT policy panel at the Institution of Engineering and Technology, told the BBC.

"There's certainly a concern about the process of how a web address gets added to a blacklist - who knows about it, and who has an opportunity to appeal against it," he added.

"You could easily imagine a commercial organisation finding itself on that blacklist wrongly, and where they actually lost a lot of web traffic completely silently and suffered commercial damage. The issue is who gets to choose who's on that blocking list, and what accountability do they have?"

'Policing themselves'

For almost a decade, Huawei has been a core part of telecoms infrastructure in the UK - its biggest client, BT, has routinely said it has no concerns about using the firm.

Huawei's founder Ren Zhengfei, a former officer in China's People's Liberation Army, visited Downing Street last year after his company made a £1.3bn investment into its UK operations.

But Huawei's position was recently the subject of an Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) report. It criticised the lack of ministerial oversight over the firm's rapid expansion in the UK.

The committee said "the alleged links between Huawei and the Chinese State are concerning, as they generate suspicion as to whether Huawei's intentions are strictly commercial or are more political" - but added that it had not found any evidence of wrongdoing.

It said it had worries that a UK-based testing centre set up to examine Huawei products was staffed by experts employed by the Chinese firm.

The ISC said Huawei was "effectively policing themselves".

In the US, intelligence committees have gone further, branding Huawei a threat to national security.

For its part, Huawei strongly denies having close ties with the Chinese government, pointing out it is 98.6% owned by its employees - with the remaining amount held by Mr Ren. It welcomed the ISC's call for a review of the testing centre.

Huawei executive Chen Li Fang said the company should not be treated unfairly just because it was Chinese.

The UK government said it too agreed with the ISC's call to review the testing centre, adding that it works with all major communications providers to ensure security.

"Our work with Huawei and their UK customers gives us confidence that the networks in the UK that use Huawei equipment are operated to a high standard of security and integrity," a spokesman said.

Policy enforcement

Web filtering, which is not considered critical national infrastructure, was not covered in the ISC's report.

But the logistics of how Mr Cameron's plans will be implemented have been the subject of much debate.

Initially, TalkTalk told the BBC that it was US security firm Symantec that was responsible for maintaining its blacklist, and that Huawei only provided the hardware, as previously reported.

However, Symantec said that while it had been in a joint venture with Huawei to run Homesafe in its early stages, it had not been involved for over a year.

TalkTalk later confirmed it is Huawei that monitors activity, checking requests against its blacklist of over 65 million web addresses, and denying access if there is a match.

The contents of this list are largely determined by an automated process, but both Huawei and TalkTalk employees are able to add or remove sites independently.

Illegal websites - including ones showing images of child abuse - are blocked for all customers with the help of a list maintained by the non-profit Internet Watch Foundation.

Mr Cameron said that the actions of ISPs would be monitored to ensure filtering is done correctly.

Communications regulator Ofcom is expected to play some role in this, possibly by auditing the firms and reporting back to ministers regularly.

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

Nokia wants more

The question of "Do apps really matter?" when it comes to a smartphone ecosystem has been asked numerous times over the past few years, and although it's clear that apps do matter, it's still seems unclear exactly how apps matter - is it the quality of apps that matter, or the quantity? Would people be willing to switch by having enough alternatives, or do the apps need to be mainstream? In the eyes of the dominating manufacturer of Windows Phones,Nokia, it really comes down to producing mainstream applications to help draw in initial interest and sales.

According to an interview with International Business Times, Nokia vice president Byran Biniak is "positive about about the future of Windows Phone platform but believes Microsoft need to change its ways to make it a success." In other words, while Nokia is confident that it can keep making hardware that takes care of the needs within Windows Phone, Microsoft has to step it up when it comes to what Windows Phone has to offer. It takes two to tango, and Microsoft seems to be banking on Nokia's hardware success alone to stay afloat in the smartphone market. In Nokia's eyes, this just won't work.

Nokia isn't doing that badly for itself in regards to sales. In fact, the company recently announced that it sold 7.4 million Lumia units, which is a fairly big number by itelf but when you compare it to the 100 million units that Samsung and Apple were able to sell it doesn't seem to be doing that great either, especially considering Nokia's sales actually fell 24 percent in the second quarter, according to Businessweek.

Although Nokia smartphones are mostly well-known for producing top-of-the-line cameras in smartphones (especially with the recent announcement of the Lumia 1020 with all its 41-megapixel glory) asmartphone cannot depend on great cameras alone to produce sales. Phones like the the iPhone 5, which features an 8-megapixel camera, or the Samsung Galaxy S4, which features a 13-megapixel camera, also have fantastic application selections with both mainstream and third party applications to choose from. Customers don't have to choose between decent smartphone cameras or a good app ecosystem when it comes to iOS or Android. This in turn could be seen as getting more for your money when choosing which platform to choose from.

Biniak had a lot to say on the matter, with quotes like "People rely on applications for their day-to-day life and if you don't have something which I use in my day-to-day life I'm not going to switch [operating systems] because I don't want to compromise the way I live my life just to switch to a phone," and "It's not just about the hardware, it's about the tools that are on the hardware. You can't sell a phone without the apps, you just can't."

Quite frankly, I find it hard to argue with points like that coming from a business that's trying to make sales with the company it partnered with. Microsoft did a good job with the minimalist design on Windows Phone; it is truly a unique smartphone platform that can't follow the age-old argument of "They totally copied iOS/Android." But Microsoft is still missing that third important component when it comes to a truly successful smartphone, and that is, of course, the types of applications offered on the market. Although the Windows Phone app store isn't totally lacking in mainstream applications, there are still key applications missing that customers, and Nokia, think should be there.

As mentioned in the International Business Times article, it is important to consider that Microsoft is important in a lot of other industries besides just smartphones - computers, XBox, Office, etc. It seems thatMicrosoft isn't seeing the smartphone industry as one of their top revenue resources, but in my opinion, if there is ever a time to take the smartphone industry seriously, that time would be now. Other operating systems are starting to pop up and who knows how long it will be before these other operating systemscan compete with Android or iOS? Windows Phone has an edge right now and they need to take advantage of it while they can.

I think it's important to have more than just two main competitors in the smartphone market, and I think that Windows Phone has a lot of potential. It's one of the most basic platforms that doesn't require a lot of heavy specs in order to operate smoothly. Microsoft has a good thing by being partners with Nokia for hardware, but Nokia needs Microsoft to start helping them out in order to succeed - something that evenNokia sees. Perhaps now that Nokia is being more vocal about the push, we can start seeing more effort from Microsoft to get the application support it needs in the market.

Readers, what are your thoughts? Are you happy with Windows Phone the way it is, or do you think it could benefit from more app support? For non-Windows Phone users, would you switch to Windows Phone in its current state? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!