On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

For retailers & distributors, AuthenTec and Dolphin will demo at CeBIT a solution to safeguard family digital life: for parents (protecting access to personal and financial online info) and for children (protecting their social time and playtime online).

With all the security you need these days, no one at home or work finds managing password security easy. At CeBIT, AuthenTec will present a security solution that is literally at your fingertips for family or business: Eikon® Digital Privacy Manager that includes their USB fingerprint reader bundled with TrueSuite Identity Management Software.

Your customers can swipe their finger to allow Eikon to log on to Windows.  Or they can quick launch their protected web accounts (like webmail. Facebook, Twitter), their favourite websites, and log on to their online bank accounts—again by a swipe of a finger.  They can also swipe to lock and unlock their protected PC files, folders or apps.

AuthenTec’s main goal for participating in CeBIT is to find European retailers and distributors who understand their customers would prefer to make their digital lives easier. This is the next big wave in consumer security software after the growth in anti-virus software:  sooner or later most families will recognize the need to protect their kids while online, like they recognize they need to protect their PCs from the bad folks online.

That’s why AuthenTec, who has grown their business by building fingerprint security into PCs for PC makers, expects an aggressive market for their new retail solution, a hardware/software bundle-in-a-box.

Already in the German market with a family solution, AuthenTec works with Dolphin Digital Media who bundles a retail package that combines parental internet controls (Dolphin Secure) to monitor and guide a child's online experience with AuthenTec’s state-of-the-art fingerprint identification technology.

Dolphin Secure lets children surf the Internet through pre-approved websites that can be customized by parents on a per-child basis. Parents will also be able to select who their child can chat with online, the signature tool of Dolphin Secure that protects against the twin threats of cyber-bullying and sexual predators.

Dolphin Secure includes AuthenTec’s award-winning Eikon fingerprint reader which easily connects to a PC or Mac via USB port.

Go AuthenTec

Go Dolphin Secure, for German market

[Photo caption: How do your customers control passwords in a cloud era where more and more of their life relies upon on-line resources that need protection from the dark forces? That "cloud" take-up will create a new wave of interest in personal security, password control and identity management.]

The GSMA announces the winners for its 16th Global Mobile Awards at Barcelona's Mobile World Congress.

The final awards winners got honoured at the event's evening awards ceremony-- Best Mobile Device and Device Manufacturer of the year.

Apple's iPhone 4 takes home the award for the year's best mobile device. The device needs no introduction-- now with 2 cameras (1 frontfacing and 1 backfacing), high resolution Retina display, HD video recording and multitasking (or rather fast app switching). It's also Apple's thinnest iPhone yet, with only 93mm's worth of thickness, as 2 panels of aluminosilicate glass sandwich a stainless steel band alongside all components.

Meanwhile HTC takes the device manufacturer award, thanks to its impressive handset range, beating the likes of Samsung and Apple. HTC already won the the best mobile phone prize last year, with the HTC Hero. As well as taking the award, the company launches its new smartphone series carrying its Sense technolgy-- the Desire S, Wildfire S and Incredible S.

Finally Vitality and AT&T take home the Best Embedded mobile Product (non handset) award with their Vitality GlowCaps. Users fit the device on their medicine bottles, which lights up and sends a phone call or text message to remind them to take their medication. The device also keeps track of users' opening of their pill bottle, recording data that can be used to create progress reports for both users and their caregivers and family members.

Go GSMA Annual Global Mobile Awards Winners

Go iPhone 4

Go HTC

Go Vitality GlowCaps

US startup ecoATM offers an innovative way for consumers to dispose of their unwanted CE-- buying them back for recycle through automated kiosks.

In its recent investment call ecoATM now receives $14.4m in funding from Counstar, Claremont Creek Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank, alongside a grant and patent from the National Science Foundation.

The company also has a global network of 50 buyers for the used CE it collects-- with its trial kiosks collecting "tens of thousands" of device in the US . The kiosks identify and calculate the devices' value, paying customers in cash or gift cards.

Go ecoATM

The New York Times reports sources close to Apple say the company is looking into making the device less expensive to produce-- but not in a smaller form factor, as some other sources are saying.

The report continues that the next iPhone will also work with voice commands but will come in a size similar to the iPhone 4's.

Meanwhile Bloomberg says the new iPhone will come in a cheaper, smaller package, with a focus on streaming media and cloud-based storage.

However the New York Times' predictions are more convincing-- a smaller screen would only cause app store defragmentation (and wouldn't be necessarily cheaper to produce) as developers end up rewriting their apps. Steve Jobs himself describes the iPhone's uniformity is its "huge strength".

Either way we'll surely continue getting more news and rumours on whatever Apple's iDevice sequels will develop into.

Go Apple is Weighing a Cheaper iPhone (NYT)

Go Apple is Said to Work on Cheaper, Smaller iPhones (Bloomberg)