Google Apps Gets a Second Layer of Security

Passwords may be by far the Web’s most common form of security, but they’re far from airtight: some get stolen, and others are alarmingly easy to figure out. Two-factor authentication, using both a password and something else–preferably a something else that’s tough for an intruder to determine–is much safer.

So today, Google is announcing two-factor authentication for its Google Apps suite of online productivity tools. A new feature lets businesses which use Apps add another layer of security by generating random codes which employees get on their phones–Google is making apps available for Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry . To get into your account, you’ve got to enter both your password and a freshly-generated code.

The new feature is free and optional, and users who adopt it can specify certain PCs as trusted machines, permitting them to access their accounts with only a password. It’s available for paid, education, and government accounts starting today; users of the freebie Standard edition will get it “in the months ahead.”

New HP Printers: One’s Got a Tablet. One Looks Like a VCR. And One’s the World’s Tiniest Color Laser

Many things have changed about printers over the past fifteen years or so. One that hasn’t is the basic form factors. Both inkjets and lasers may have gotten slicker, sleeker, and more space-efficient, but most of the change has been evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

Today, however, HP is announcing a bunch of new printers and all-in-ones–and three of them are strikingly new, in three strikingly different ways. I was recently briefed by the company and saw the new models in person.

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Contour’s GPS-equipped Helmet Cam An Interesting Duo

Helmet cams are popular among the extreme sports set as a way to capture live action shots from the perspective of the athlete him/herself. Contour is one of several companies offering these cameras, and already had a $280 1080p HD model out for quite awhile now. However, in an effort to differentiate itself from the competition, Contour has added GPS to a new higher end model which was released earlier this month.

The ContourGPS works the same as its more basic brethren, however as it records the camera saves the cameras location with the video data. What results is a awesome mash-up of video and data that is sure to delight many. Now when your skiing buddy calls you a liar than you shredded 3,000 feet of vert like it was nothing, you can now prove it to him as the system will have recorded your location, speed and even elevation.

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Goodbye Cuil?

TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington is reporting that Cuil–the dreadful search engine that claimed to be better than Google, and which later launched a bizarre automated Wikipedia competitor–is down. And maybe out for good.

Hallelujah! Google Voice Returns to the iPhone App Store

The saints be praised. After loosening and clarifying its App Store policies last week, Apple is proving that things–some of them, at least–have changed. A third-party Google Voice app called GV Connect is in the App Store, almost fourteen months after Apple removed all third-party Google Voice apps and refused to approve Google’s own one. Sean Kovacs, developer of GV Mobile, one of the programs bounced last year, says that Apple has told him his app will return tomorrow.

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dB Logic Is The Headphones Your Mother Always Dreamed Of

No doubt your mother has already told you to turn down those headphones, they’ll make you deaf. Well, in a way she’s been right all this time. The typical headphone listener will crank the volume to near its maximum, which is much louder than the 85dB “safe” levels for extended listening.

The fact is that listening to sounds for longer than two hours at levels above 85dB will cause hearing loss. That’s why dB Logic, a headphone manufacturer, has come out with head and earphones that will not allow the maximum volume to pass beyond this level.

The company does this though a technology it calls “Sound Pressure Limiting.” It reduces the decibel level to a safe level while maintaining a full sound without any distortion. dB Logic says this technology differs from other efforts to limit decibel levels, which instead choose to clip the sound wave.

In the demo shown to me, I did notice that the headphones did get up to a respectable level of volume even in the crowded noisy room I was in. While the headphones obviously allowed a lot of that ambient sound in, the earphones definitely performed better.

For those of you concerned with your hearing, this is a good solution — but for the headbangers among us, probably not. Either way, you now know that cranking up the volume is as bad as mother says. Both models will start shipping in November, with the headphones retailing for around $30, and the earbuds about $40.

Microsoft on the “Best Viewed in Internet Explorer” Question

I’m not the only one pondering whether the arrival of IE9 could lead to a more fractured Web in which sites don’t work equally well in every modern browser. ZDnet’s Mary Jo Foley wondered about the same thing–and scored an interesting Microsoft interview on the subject.

Most Android Users Still Don’t Have Froyo

For owners of iPhones and iPod Touches, the latest major upgrade to the OS is version 4. For Android users, it’s 2.2 “Froyo.” Every iOS user with a compatible device can upgrade to 4.x at will, but Android types must wait until the wireless carrier they bought their phone from releases the Froyo update. And while every new iPhone and iPod Touch ships with iOS 4, there are still new Android devices arriving–such as Dell’s Streak–that run old versions of the software.

So how does that translate into percentages of users who get to enjoy the benefits of a current mobile operating system versus. those who are stuck on something at least slightly stale? Online advertising network Chitika, which publishes stats based on aggregate data about visitors to sites on its network, shared some relevant numbers with me.

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Native Union’s Retro ‘Pop Phone’ Handsets

When you think of phone headsets, its probably a good bet that what you’re thinking of its the traditional on ear kind. Native Union has taken this and given it a retro feel, launching a line that looks like the traditional corded phone handsets that many of us older folk would be familiar with.

The Pop Phone comes in pink, yellow, dark blue, dark purple and green. The company had already offered two other less “poppy” colors in red and black. The included 3.5mm jack will plug into any iPhone, iPad or BlackBerry, and a button on the inside of the handle would allow for one touch answer and disconnect. The Pop Phone also includes noise-cancelling, which should improve call clarity in noisier situations.

Native Union says one of the most compelling uses for this is on the iPad, as the handset would work with Skype and turn the tablet into a phone. The price is about the same as most other handsets, coming in at $29.99. I have to credit the company with being creative, but will these really sell?

Also available from the company are other less pop-influenced designs including the MM04, which retails for $199.99. That unit can connect up to two phones simultaneously via Bluetooth, and seems more catered towards the business set.

Will the Pop Phone sell though? I’m guessing if you’re a frequent Skyper, maybe getting this for your iPad might be the missing link. But I don’t know how many iPhone users would be willing to plunk down $30 for that old retro feel. I guess we’ll see.

Surprise! Playstation Move is Out Today

It’s not uncommon for game retailers to get new products a day or two early and keep them stored away until launch. That makes Sony’s approach with the Playstation Move motion controller all the more refreshing.

With retailers getting the Move ahead of the official September 19 launch date, Sony gave the green light to start sales today. This may not make for the cleanest launch — Sony spokesman Al De Leon told MSNBC that the Move should be in stock at retailers nationwide, “for the most part” — but at least people who are anxious to get a Move can spend the whole weekend with it.

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Apple’s Airplay: Surprisingly Important?

When Apple unveiled its new iPods and related stuff a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t pay much attention to the new video-streaming option called Airplay. Over at 9to5Mac, Seth Weintraub is making the case (argued earlier by Gizmodo’s Joel Johnson) that Airplay is a big deal and a core component of Apple’s strategy for mattering in the living room.

Kensington’s KeyFolio Adds Keyboard to iPad

Accessory maker Kensington has debuted the KeyFolio, essentially an iPad case with an integrated Bluetooth keyboard. The $99 accessory is slated to debut by the end of the October, the company told me.

The KeyFolio offers some handy features, such as iPad-specific keys to access functions (such as home, etc.) and a stand that allows you to use your device much like a laptop. The battery within the keyboard itself must be charged; Kensington says it would last through about 90 hours of use before needing another charge.

It’s not too heavy–it only adds another pound or so to the overall weight. The keyboard is a tad small, think of it as close to netbook size- a bit larger maybe, but still comfortable to type on.

If you’re worried about the keys scratching the screen itself, don’t. This is because the keyboard itself is rubberized — a good feature too just in case you spill that cup of coffee on it early in the morning.

New and Improved Flipboard

Flipboard–the “social magazine” that’s one of the very most interesting new apps on the iPad or another other platform–has a new version in the App Store. It lets you add more sections, has some basic offline functionality, and lets you add a comment when you retweet a story. If you have an iPad, you need to try this program…

To Thine Own Self Be True

Back in the 1990s, Microsoft was king of the world and Apple seemed to face death. So everyone told Apple that it was obvious it should follow Microsoft’s business strategy and segue from building its own computers into licensing its software to other hardware makers. Apple finally tried the idea, without much success.

Fast forward to this century. Apple seems to be doing rather well, and Microsoft–though still crazily successful–is a company whose products and business models can feel like part of tech’s past rather than its future. And so everyone is telling Microsoft that it should follow Apple’s lead and sell integrated software-hardware products in certain product categories rather than licensing its code to other companies.

Sometimes, Microsoft listens. Its Zunes have been decent products, but haven’t gone anywhere. The Kin was a disaster. And now Jeanette Borzo of the Wall Street Journal is quoting a Microsoft executive as saying that the company has no plans to sell any more phones under its own name. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be any other Microsoft phones, ever, or that the company won’t try to do everything itself in other categories. But it does sound like the folks in Redmond intend to focus on successfully licensing Windows Phone 7 rather than competing with their phone-manufacturing customers.

Microsoft does have one major software/hardware hit to its name, but it’s the Xbox 360, a product in an Apple-free category. When the company tries to channel Apple, it doesn’t work. And Apple, in the second Steve Jobs era, is smart enough to avoid channeling Microsoft.

Maybe the lesson here is that it’s easier to triumph by sticking to your core competencies than by pretending to be something you aren’t?

StuffIt Deluxe’s New One-Step Toolbar

For years, I was serious about my compression software. (Anyone else remember a wonderful utility from the 1990s called ZipMagic?) In recent years, however, I’ve pretty much slipped into using the rudimentary compression and decompression features built into both Windows and OS X.

But I like Smith Micro’s StuffIt Deluxe 2011, the latest version of one of the most venerable Mac compression utilities. The new version includes a toolbar called StuffIt Destinations that automates the normally two-step process of compressing a file and then doing something useful with it–such as e-mailing it, uploading it to an FTP server, burning it to DVD, or using Smith Micro’s SendStuffNow (a YouSendIt competitor) to let other folks download large files which would choke their e-mail.

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Notebook Growth is Negative, Time to Blame Everything

Blaming the iPad for the greater computer industry’s woes is the new trend, and it just got hotter with a report from Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty on the slowing growth of notebooks.

Huberty’s research shows that notebook growth is negative for the first time in recent memory, down 4 percent in August compared to the same period last year. That doesn’t mean notebook sales are down, it just means the year-over-year increase in notebook sales is less in August 2010 than it was in August 2009. Anyway, the report fits nicely with a quote from Best Buy Chief Executive Brian Dunn, who said the iPad is stealing up to half of laptop sales.

It’s entirely realistic that some people end up with an iPad when setting out to buy a new computer. Apple is, after all, selling millions of them. Buying habits are going to change unless the iPad is only being purchased in addition to, not instead of, other computers. (It isn’t). But let’s not blow this out of proportion by pointing a finger only at Apple.

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