trends

Security firm Trend Micro is launching its second annual "What's Your Story" contest to encourage youth and others to submit short videos on Internet safety and privacy.

Categories include being a good online citizen, using a cell phone wisely, and maintaining your online privacy.

The contest is open to anyone 13 and older in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., including students, teachers, and entire classrooms. In addition to the first-prize winner there will be six $500 prizes. Three will go to the best school entries in each category and three will go to the … Read more

Mobile devices are the frontier for malicious hackers and other technological ne'er-do-wells, which means that the Android operating system sheriffs can't be far behind. It's an unusual space to be in at the moment, because while malicious mobile apps have been proven to exist and indeed are legitimate threats, there's very few of them for one simple reason: there's no money in it. At least, not yet.

You can bet your last horse bound for the glue factory that as phones replace credit cards and are increasingly used to conduct transactions, the threats will increase. … Read more

The bottom line: Trend Micro Mobile Security for Android introduces its sharp Smart Protection browsing protection to Android users, and the parental controls are good if you've got children. But is it worth the price tag?

Trend Micro has brought its recently revamped cloud security network to Android devices, and the result is a well-designed security application with a strong set of features that anticipate explosive Android growth.

Trend Micro Mobile Security responds to a threatscape that hasn't fully materialized yet, although malware has been proven to infect the Android OS when specific settings have been tweaked. As … Read more

When it comes to mobile security, Apple's iOS platform might get the nod over Android, according to security software maker Trend Micro.

Speaking to Bloomberg yesterday, Trend Micro Chairman Steve Chang said that "Android is open-source, which means the hacker can also understand the underlying architecture and source code." Apple, he said in the interview, has been "very careful about it. It's impossible for certain types of viruses" to run on the company's iPhone.

Chang specifically pointed to Apple's "sandbox concept that isolates the platform, which prevents certain viruses that want … Read more

Trend Micro recently upgraded its security system for desktop computers to rely heavily on cloud-based detection and protection, and now it's bringing that same network to Android devices.

Trend Micro Mobile Security for Android secures your device in four ways. It offers a "safe surfing" feature that prevents phishing attacks and illicit access to your identity and banking information. It also powers the parental controls for Web site content blocking. There's a customized blacklist for call and text filtering, and a download guard that prevents malicious or fraudulent apps from installing on your device.

Trend Micro … Read more

LAS VEGAS--There was once a time when a 4.3-inch screen on a GPS device was considered huge, but now that's just the entry level. These days it takes a retina-searing 5-inch display or larger to stand out among a sea of navigators and GPS-enabled smartphones. Along those lines, Garmin has just pulled the wraps off of its new, supersized Nuvi 2400 series of GPS navigators.

Snarky comments about the ever-enlarging portable navigation device form factor aside, the 2400 series' 5-inch screen can aid in visibility and reduce the amount of time spent scrutinizing a tiny digital map.

More … Read more

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Twitter releases its top trends of 2010, and I sit down with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone to discuss them

YouTube releases its top video views of 2010

Google finally launches a Latitude app for iPhone

T-Mobile says a 4G tablet is on its way

Google indexes search results by reading level

Twitter just released a year-end list of top trends for 2010, much as search engines like Google and Bing release their top queries. But it's a little different here.

Given Twitter's status as a chattery network of rapid-fire conversations, both breaking news stories and pop culture--including, notably, pop-culture phenomena with small, devoted cult followings--dominate the list. Twitter's algorithm for calculating top trends favors "novelty over popularity," meaning that a sudden, unexpected spike from the death of a C-list celebrity may ultimately outrank an ongoing major news story on Twitter's year-end list.

But in the … Read more

Justin Bieber is the only living human on Twitter's list of top trends of 2010. The young singer holds the No. 8 spot behind Google Android and Apple iPad.

The top three terms are, unsurprisingly: Gulf oil spill, FIFA World Cup, and "Inception," referring to the Leonardo DiCaprio blockbuster film.

We interviewed Twitter co-founder Biz Stone about the list on Friday.

Other top trends included the vuvuzela and Pulpo Paul, the World Cup-predicting octopus. Stone said that nothing was particularly surprising. But when it comes to Twitter trends, he has learned not to be surprised.

Twitter breaks … Read more