Software : How virtual maps are becoming really useful for business travel

How virtual maps are becoming really useful for business travel
In depth: WireLurker: what you need to know about Apple's biggest ever threat
Google Maps gets its Material Design upgrade
Google Inbox opens its envelope to everyone for a very limited time

How virtual maps are becoming really useful for business travel

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Introduction

After a decade of work on augmented reality on mobile devices, Daniel Krause of Nokia's HERE Maps team thinks we're ready to get past the demos and start using phones that show us an X-ray vision of the world around us.

"We're moving from just a map for navigation that's a digital version of a paper map to a next-generation map that's much more contextual, that's much more active and dynamic, that fits in to the moment and really provides the information you need," Krause told TechRadar Pro.

The key to giving you that moment of information is making augmented reality fit seamlessly into the digital maps we already use, Krause says. Nokia added AR to its maps on Windows Phone last year and they quickly learned what does and doesn't work.

"People really like the idea of vital information in context and getting away from the equivalent of a paper map into the real world, but it's very important to keep the map context. If it's an augmented reality viewer that just shows stuff around you then people are confused about what it shows. Our technology, Live Sight, is integrated very tightly into the map; really it's just another map mode."

Big breakthrough

The breakthrough was building a 3D transition that morphs between the traditional overhead map view and the heads-up augmented reality view where you hold the phone up to use it like a lens on the world.

"We do a 3D transition between the orthographic map and the camera view and back," Krause explains. "We fly the camera down through the classic oblique angle and down to the ground and you see 3D buildings pop out and into the camera view." That lets you keep track of how what you can see around you fits in with the map, which Krause calls 'spatiality'. "One of the greatest uses of 3D is to provide the spatial connection between the heads-up view and the world around you."

So if you see an unusual building and you wonder what it is, you can pull out your phone. Instead of just looking on the map for a building, you can hold up the phone. "As you tilt the phone, the building would show in 3D. If you continue to push the phone up the building will tilt fully and fade into the building that's here in front of you," he explains. The sensors in your phone aren't accurate enough to do that on their own – "we've done a lot of registration work to get it right," Krause notes.

Where can I go now?

What people really find augmented reality tools useful for is exploring the world right around them. "We want to explore things within two or three hundred metres of where we're standing," says Krause. That's fun for tourists but even more useful for business travellers.

The labels you see in the camera view could tell you more than just the name of the building or business you can see, like ratings and offers. "Here are the restaurants you can see, and here are the ratings, and these two have a special on," he suggests.

If you have enough detail in your map, an augmented reality view could save you a lot of walking if you're heading into a large building like a shopping centre or an office complex. "I want to get a route to the door of the building – as a pedestrian, I could be half a mile off. Augmented reality could show me the points of interest. I want to take a quick glimpse; is it in here or how do I find it?"

HERE Maps is adding more features to make that easier. The first is showing the dynamic distance to a point of interest as you walk towards it, and the other is called Point Me There and puts arrows on-screen to point you in the direction of a point of interest.

"That solves the problem of doing a search and holding up the phone and all the Italian restaurants that are close are behind you," jokes Krause. Getting the direction is accurate up to about 20 or 30 feet he says.

Still issues to overcome

There are still some problems to solve concerning displaying the right information for where you are, such as when you're outside a large building and you want to see details of what's inside (like the different shops and services in a railway station) or you're inside the office and you want to see what's outside the building.

That's the occlusion problem: "There's something blocking what I'm looking at – should we efface things that are not directly visible? It works in the other direction too – if you're outside, you might not want to see the points of interest that are behind the building," Krause observes. Or if you're in a large venue, you might want to be guided to the exit without seeing the details of businesses outside. And what about handling different levels: how do you show if an exit is underground or the coffee shop you're looking for is on the second floor?

The Live Sight team is working on the best way to show all of these elements so they're meaningful. "It has to be so when the user pulls their phone out the information being given is really clear and accurate and in context – and it shows any deficiencies that may be there. The limitations [we face] are defined by the resolution of the location information that's available from hardware and how good we are at providing directions that are really constructive, and extremely robust."

Are we there yet?

Live Sight is the third-generation of Nokia's augmented reality technology. Krause thinks it will take off this time, partly because we have fast enough processors, big enough screens and good enough location tools in our phones, along with voice recognition that works reliably. It's also due to the fact that as smartphones have become more ubiquitous, we've started to demand ways of getting information that make sense on a phone screen – and AR is ideal for that.

"I think we're getting very close because people are interested in a simpler and more humanised experience. I don't want to stand out on the street and type in 'pizza'; I want to hold my phone up and say 'show me pizza joints'. There's a desire for simplification and speed. People want it to be simple and easy to get to. It's about searching, exploring, navigating – and making that entire workflow visual and effortless and preferably one-handed. There are lots of technologies starting to appear in phones and operating systems, like the increasing amount of voice recognition, that's starting to tie in with what we can do with Live Sight."

But he's also excited about what we get with the next generation of mobile devices. We asked him when will augmented reality become commonplace, and Krause replied: "I feel it will happen as phones get thinner and lighter, as they become transparent screens [on the world], things we hold up and look through – the glasses on your face or a tablet you hold up and unroll like a pirate map."

In depth: WireLurker: what you need to know about Apple's biggest ever threat

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Nobody bats an eyelid when malware shows up in the Windows world, but when it manoeuvres itself Mission Impossible-style into Apple's traditionally locked-down ecosystem, everything tends to descend into a frenzy.

It's par for the course, then, that WireLurker, a strain of malware that's transferred from infected Macs to USB-connected iOS devices, has caused quite a stir in the past 24 hours.

According to Unit 42 - the threat intelligence team at Palo Alto Networks that discovered the vulnerability - WireLurker has made its way onto potentially hundreds of thousands of China-based people's Apple devices. What's more, the company reckons it has the potential to spread its tentacles much further afield.

We don't want to leave you hanging, so here's a run down of the vital information that you need to know about what has been called "a new breed of threat to all iOS devices". It has been provided by Ryan Olson, Head of Intelligence at Unit 42.

What is WireLurker?

WireLurker is a strain of malware that has been discovered in a third-party Chinese OS X app store called Maiyadi. According to Unit 42, it marks a "new era in malware across Apple's desktop and mobile platforms" and poses a threat to businesses, governments and Apple device customers worldwide.

How does it work?

Rather than attacking OS X and iOS separately, WireLurker targets both platforms at the same time. It does so by monitoring any iOS device connected via USB with an infected OS X computer and installs downloaded third-party applications or automatically generated malicious applications onto the device, depending on whether or not it's jailbroken (hence the name "wire lurker"). Researchers have succesfully pulled off similar methods fo attack non-jailbroken devices before, but WireLurker is sophisticated enough to combine several techniques to make it even more dangeous than what has gone before.

Why is it a big deal?

WireLurker can boast a number of firsts - all of which make it a particularly nasty piece of work. It's the first known strain of malware that can infect installed iOS apps in a similar way to how a traditional virus on a desktop computer would.

It's also the first-in-the-wild malware family that can install third-party apps on iOS devices that haven't been jailbroken using enterprise provisioning (a way of companies installing their own apps without going through Apple's app approval process).

Additionally, until WireLurker came along, only one other malware family was known to have attacked iOS devices through OS X via USB.

Where did it come from?

WireLurker is believed to have been built by cyber criminals in China, who have trojanised (infected) 467 OS X applications in Maiyadi. Maiyadi is also a website that provides Apple-related news and resources, whereas the app store of the same name is a sub-site known to host pirated premium Mac, iPad and iPhone apps.

USB cable

What bad things will it do?

Some criminals act first and think later, which appears to be what the perpetrators of WireLurker are doing. Unit 42 reckons they're still considering their motives while developing attack plans and fine-tuning the malware to be more stealthy and harder to remove.

WireLurker is capable of stealing data - from address book contacts to Apple device information and iMessage contact details - and could be capable of much more due to its ability to communicate with a "command control server" for updates. In other words, it's constantly becoming more powerful and sophisticated.

How many people have been affected?

More than you might think. It's thought that 467 infected applications have been downloaded over 356,104 times, mainly by Mac and iOS users in China.

How can I stay safe?

Because WireLurker is only found in third-party Mac apps, you can stay safe from harm by only downloading apps from Apple's own Mac App Store. In other words: keep away from third-party app stores that aren't only infested with malware, they're of dubious legality due to reasons related to copyright and IP.

How did Unit 42 spot it?

The security vulnerability was discovered by Claud Xiao of Unit 42 after he came across a Chinese forum documenting highly suspicious files and processes on Macs and iPhones.

Xiao found that all of the apps trojanized by WireLurker included an installation interface that used a "Pirates of the Caribbean" themed wallpaper. The infected apps also use a QQ (an IM software service) account number that corresponds to the owner of the Maiyadi website. The packages also contained an application named "User Manual', which was displayed in Chinese.

So, Apple is on the case, right?

Let's be clear: although WireLurker is affecting Apple devices, it's not an Apple vulnerability. That's because the techniques that it uses are deployed using legitimate APIs either from Apple on in Cydia (a third-party app store on iOS), which is used by jail-broken devices.

However, in a statement Apple confirmed to TechRadar that it has blocked infected apps that it has identified to prevent them from launching.

Google Maps gets its Material Design upgrade

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Google has so far made good on its promise to keep things rolling with the Material Design updates, with Google Play, Google Drive, Docs, Wallet, and Play Games all getting updated - plus others.

Now Google Maps is the latest Google app to be refreshed with the new visual style, not to mention some other improvements.

Google Maps UX Designer Evelyn Kim wrote on the company's Maps blog that the new update is about improving functionality along with the app's look.

"Layers and buttons come to life so you know just where to touch to get directions, recommendations and imagery," she wrote.

Uber and OpenTable

The Google Maps Material Design update will arrive for both Android and iOS users "over the next few days," the post reads.

Besides the aesthetic changes, the new Maps app also has new ways to explore locations and better OpenTable and Uber integration.

Watch out for the Maps update this week, and more are sure to follow.

Apple Maps surging back in fight against Google

Google Inbox opens its envelope to everyone for a very limited time

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Google's Inbox is an interesting new Gmail alternative that until today has been available only to a select few.

Inbox invites have been scarce, but Google will change that when they open the email app to anyone who asks for one hour today, beginning at 3pm Pacific Time.

They're calling it "Inbox Happy Hour," and it will briefly make getting an invitation to Google Inbox as easy as sending an email.

Don't be late, act now

Google announced the Inbox Happy Hour via its @inboxbygmail Twitter account.

Just send an email to inbox@google.com between 3 and 4 PT this afternoon, and Google says you'll receive an invite by 5pm.

Invites may well become scarce again after that, so best to get in while the getting's good.

Google Inbox users can now download the web app

Yahuui Blog

Thursday, November 6, 2014