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Android Market gets a Bouncer
 Google has released an automated service for the Android Market to help detect malicious apps when they are uploaded.
The new service - code-named Bouncer - "provides automated scanning of Android Market for potentially malicious software without disrupting the user experience of Android Market or requiring developers to go through an application approval process," VP of Engineering Hiroshi Lockheimer wrote in a blog post.
"Once an application is uploaded, the service immediately starts analysing it for known malware, spyware and Trojans.
"It also looks for behaviours that indicate an application might be misbehaving, and compares it against previously analysed apps to detect possible red flags."
Once scanned, if the app has been identified as malicious it will be scanned manually for confirmation. Following that, the app could be blocked or removed from the store altogether. If it's an instance of known malware, the app won't be uploaded to the store at all.
The Android Market has come under fire for not policing apps more closely, with critics arguing users were being made vulnerable to malware on their smartphones. Unlike Apple, which inspects every app before it's made available to users, the Android Market doesn't require pre-approval for its apps.
Prior to the announcement, Google tested 'Bouncer' for a number of months, reporting the program resulted in a 40 per cent decline in the number of malicious app downloads in the second half of 2011.
"While it's not possible to prevent bad people from building malware, the most important measurement is whether those bad applications are being installed from Android Market - and we know that rate is declining significantly," Lockheimer said.
"Our systems are getting better at detecting and eliminating malware every day, and we continue to invite the community to work with us to keep Android safe."
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Apple pulls iPad and iPhones in Germany
 Motorola has dealt a double-whammy to Apple in Germany.
Following a December ruling by a German court that Apple failed to license one of Motorola's wireless intellectual properties and the ruling's subsequent patent injunction, the Cupertino-based company has now begun to pull older iPad and iPhone models from it German online store.
In a separate lawsuit, Motorola also won a permanent injunction against the push email service of Apple's iCloud and any devices that can access the services in Germany.
The sales ban relates to a Motorola-owned patent for a "method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system."
The separate push email ban would only come into effect if Motorola decides to enforce the judgement, which deals with a patent relating to two-way communications between pagers and other devices.
Apple isn't taking the news sitting down, however, and has vowed to appeal the rulings and to keep its products available elsewhere for its German customers.
"While some iPad and iPhone models are not available through Apple's online store in Germany right now, customers should have no problem finding them at one of our retail stores or an authorised reseller," Apple said in a statement.
"Apple is appealing the ruling because Motorola refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite have declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago."
The ruling could also pit Apple against its arch-nemesis, Google, in the near future, as the search giant recently acquired Motorola for its patent portfolio.
The ruling only applies to Germany, but could have implications for other European lawsuits. The European Union allows member-states to reach different legal conclusions,but they must explain why.
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Facebook finally files IPO
 It pays to have friends, especially as Facebook finally files its long awaited IPO.
Reports have been swirling for months over Facebook's looming IPO and it's finally happened. The company filed initial public offering papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday evening.
In the filing, Facebook, which has more than 845 million users across the globe, indicated it was seeking to raise $5 billion - making it the biggest IPO by a web company since Google in 2004 and could place the company's value as high as $75 billion (£45bn) to $100 billion (£63.5bn).
CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg owns a 28.4 per cent stake, but will retain control of the company under a share structure that gives him 56.9 per cent of the equity voting rights.
According to the filing: "Mr Zuckerberg has the ability to control the outcome of matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors and any merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets."
Zuckerberg was paid a base salary of $500,000 in 2011 and his total compensation came to $1.48 million (£935,583). As his shares in the company could potentially be worth $28 billion (£17 billion) following the IPO, he will take home a salary of just $1 a year starting in 2013 - following in the footsteps of Apple founder Steve Jobs.
Yet, despite all the cold hard cash Zuckerberg and Co are raking in, Facebook would have you believe it's not really about the money.
In a letter to investors included in the filing, Zuckerberg wrote: "Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission - to make the world more open and connected."
He added: "Facebook aspires to build the services that give people the power to share and help them once again transform many of our core institutions and industries. We don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services."
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Pinterest catches up to social networks with referral traffic
 Pinterest is the fastest growing referral site on the net, eclipsing the likes of YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+, according to new stats released by Shareaholic.
"According to our findings based on aggregated data from more than 200,000 publishers that reach more than 260 million unique monthly visitors each month, Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google Plus, Linkedin and YouTube combined," head of marketing Janet Aronica wrote on the Shareaholic blog.
The virtual pinboard lets users gather and organise things they find on the web, sharing them with other users on the site.
Users can add photos to their own pinboards, as well as browse other users and discover new things based on interests including clothing, food and interior design.
"Pinterest grew from 2.5 per cent of referral traffic in December to 3.6 per cent of the referrals in January. That's impressive growth from just owning 0.17 per cent of the traffic back in July," Aronica said.
In just six months, the invite-only site has jumped ahead of Google+, MySpace, Reddit YouTube and LinkedIn - coming up against traffic driving titans like Facebook and StumbleUpon.
In contrast, Twitter accounts for 3.61 per cent of referral traffic while Google accounts for 3.62. Unsurprisingly, Facebook is the top traffic driver at 26.4 per cent, followed by StumbleUpon with 5.07 per cent.
Though still leagues away from the top traffic driver, Pinterest received 4000 per cent more visitors than six months prior - earning it the title of 'Number 10 social networking-site' - and if growth continues, Pinterest will soon be one of the top three traffic drivers on the net.
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Sony names gaming chief Kazuo Hirai CEO
 Sony has tapped Kazuo Hirai to replace chief executive Howard Stringer when he steps down from on 1 April.
Mr Hirai has long been considered the heir-apparent for the CEO position - as a savvy gaming executive; he has been credited with turning things around at the company's unprofitable PlayStation business and was promoted to head of consumer products last March.
He takes the helm just as Sony is predicting its fourth year of net losses for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2012. The company is likely to announce its third quarter results tomorrow and provide more information on the company's management shake-up.
Sony was once the darling of the technology industry, having given birth to the game-changing Walkman music player, but has struggled to compete in the digital era - falling behind the likes of Apple, Samsung and LG.
Additionally, conditions in Japan for the Tokyo-based company haven't helped matters. The global recession coupled with the earthquake and tsunami have stymied any meaningful comebacks for the company recently.
However, in an initiative started by Mr Stringer and likely to be accelerated under Mr Hirai's leadership, Sony aims to connect all of its electronic products to an emerging network offering music, games, movies and other services to increase consumer engagement.
"As challenging as times are for Sony now, were it not for the strong leadership of Sir Howard Stringer these past seven years, we would have been in a much more difficult position," Mr Hirai said in a statement.
"The path we must take is clear: to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses."
Mr Stringer will remain executive chairman until June and then become chairman of the board.
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