Is Samsung Ready to Leave Android?

Samsung is getting a lot of buzz for being the first company to unveil a Windows Phone 8 device, beating the mobile OS' flagship manufacturer, Nokia (NYSE: NOK [FREE Stock Trend Analysis]), by roughly one week. Is this a sign of things to come for Samsung? Or will the company stand by Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) beloved operating system?

Not likely. Samsung makes too much money with Android to leave the platform behind. That said, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has yet to sue Samsung for building Windows Phone 7 devices. It did, however, sue Samsung for developing a multitude of Android devices. In the United States, those lawsuits have already cost Samsung more than $1 billion.




By developing for Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) platform -- which appears to be free of patent disputes with Apple and other tech companies -- Google might have a reason to be concerned. If the Windows Phone 8 devices prove to be big sellers, Samsung will have fewer reasons to develop for Android. In time, the company's biggest and most important phones could move to the Windows Phone platform. If that happens, the entire market is likely to shift.

Again, this is not likely to happen any time soon. Samsung is still a big supporter of Android. In fact, without the Galaxy Note 2 (an Android-based phone), Samsung would not have any hope of undercutting the iPhone 5's unveiling. Without Android, Samsung would not have beaten Apple's smartphone sales figures by more than 20 million units. And without Android, Samsung could not have sold a ton of smartphones after losing a silly lawsuit.

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Dropbox makes a post-hacking security fix, Introduces two factor user authentication

 DIGITAL LOCKER SERVICE Dropbox has added two factor authentication that it promised customers following a data security breach it suffered in July.

The cloud storage provider implemented the new user authentication scheme on Monday. The change means that users will now need their password and a security code that will be texted to their mobile phone to verify their account.

"Two-step verification is one of several steps that we're taking to enhance the security of your Dropbox. We've also created a way for you to view all active logins to your account on the Security tab, and we're working on automated mechanisms to identify suspicious activity," said Dropbox in a blog post.

The new verification system is one of several security features promised by Dropbox. The new features were announced in August after the company admitted suffering a data breach.

The breach saw a number of customers email addresses and account details become compromised after criminals managed to successfully hack into a Dropbox employee's email account.

"A couple weeks ago, we started getting emails from some users about spam they were receiving at email addresses used only for Dropbox. We've been working hard to get to the bottom of this, and want to give you an update," read Dropbox's statement.

"Our investigation found that usernames and passwords recently stolen from other websites were used to sign in to a small number of Dropbox accounts. We've contacted these users and have helped them protect their accounts."

The data breach was taken as evidence by security vendors that Dropbox remains unsuitable for business use and caused massive damage to the company's reputation.

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