It's hard to read in-store signage, magazine, or newspaper advertisements or product brochures these days without seeing a quick response Code (QR Code) -- the blocky, square two-dimensional barcodes that let smartphone users quickly jump to a Web address by simply taking a photo of the code block.

The codes have proved to be popular with marketers, even if they are not well understood by many mobile users: a recent survey by analyst firm Russell Herder suggested that more than half of all respondents -- including more than 80 per cent of respondents in the 18-24 bracket -- had seen QR codes, while around 16 per cent of all respondents had actually scanned one.

Tellingly, however, one out of five respondents had no idea what a QR code is. That's around the same percentage -- 22 per cent -- of Fortune 50 companies that are experimenting with QR codes in their marketing, and not entirely without success: a separate study by Comscore suggested that 14 million U.S. residents scanned QR codes in June 2011 alone.

PC World has the details HERE!

Five U.S. mobile phone carriers will launch databases allowing customers to report stolen phones and prevent them from being reactivated, in a wide-ranging effort also supported by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and police chiefs to attack a growing problem of smartphone thefts.

A database for stolen phones on GSM networks will launch by Oct. 31, and U.S. carriers will launch a common database for LTE smartphones by Nov. 30, 2013, mobile trade group CTIA announced Tuesday. Carriers AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, Sprint Nextel and Nex-Tech Wireless, which have more than 90 percent of the mobile customers in the U.S., have committed to the mobile phone theft prevention program.

Smartphone theft is a huge problem in many cities, several police chiefs said during a press conference in Washington, D.C.

Read the full story HERE!

Competition in the smartphone arena is incredibly fierce. Apple's mobile devices seem to enjoy the kind of profitablity that others can only dream of, while Android continues to grow at a phenomenal rate, capturing a massive share of the market, from flagship handsets to the most basic entry-level smartphones. Further down the food chain, Windows Phone slowly increases its sales and grows its platform - gradually nudging it towards becoming the 'third ecosystem' - while Research In Motion goes on making questionable decisions and reporting disastrous results.

But there’s one area in which RIM continues to excel: security. A report entitled ‘Enterprise Readiness Of Consumer Mobile Platforms’ has crowned the BlackBerry 7 OS as being by far the most secure mobile operating system in broad usage. Based on the findings of extensive research carried out by software security specialists Trend Micro (PDF link), in conjunction with Bloor Research and Altimeter Group, RIM’s mobile OS was tested alongside Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango), Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and Apple iOS 5.

Neowin has the details HERE!

Our phones are valuable, but they're easily replaced. The data on them, however, is often much more important. Cell phones carry all kinds of personal and business information these days, so preventing them from getting in the wrong hands is key.

While a stray personal address book won't matter much to an unsavory type who finds a lost iPhone—they'd much rather just sell the phone—cached online banking passwords, corporate documents, and VPN access are better off kept secure. That's why many of today's smartphones support a mobile kill switch, also called "remote wipe" capability. Remote wipe lets you or an IT employee remotely erase the handheld's data in case it's lost or stolen.

All of the major smartphone platforms have some kind of remote erase capability. There are several ways of doing it, such as installing apps on the handset, using a management console on the IT side, or signing up for a cloud-based service. Here's a rundown of what's out there for each platform.

PC Mag has the details HERE!