Boot up: RAT at Play, Ballmer at volume, solar system to scale, and more

Plus how shoppers shop, the coming consumer PC plunge?, 'Satoshi Nakamoto' in wider context, and more

The main bodies of the solar system: they’re actually slightly further apart. Photograph: AP

A burst of 7 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team

Malware designed to take over cameras and record audio enters Google Play >> Ars Technica

The scourge of the remote access trojan (RAT) — those predatory apps that use Web microphones and cameras to surreptitiously spy on victims — has formally entered the Android arena. Not only have researchers found a covert RAT briefly available for download in the official Google Play store, they have also detected a full-featured toolkit for sale in underground forums that could make it easy for other peeping Toms to do the same thing.
The specific RAT in Google Play was disguised as a legitimate app called Parental Control, according to Marc Rogers, principal security researcher at Lookout Mobile, a provider of antimalware software for Android phones. He doesn't know exactly how long it was available on Google servers, but he believes it wasn't long. It was downloaded 10 to 50 times.

Small, but worrying. The app was able to evade Google's "Bouncer" - which searches for malicious apps.

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Microsoft's Nadella manages legacy of Ballmer-board split >> Businessweek

Ballmer's relations with the board hit a low when he shouted at a June meeting that if he didn't get his way he couldn't be CEO, people briefed on the meeting said. The flare-up was over his proposed purchase of most of Nokia Oyj, and part of an ongoing debate: Should Microsoft be a software company or a hardware company too?
Several directors and co-founder and then-Chairman Bill Gates - Ballmer's longtime friend and advocate -- initially balked at the move into making smartphones, according to people familiar with the situation. So, at first, did Nadella, signalling his position in a straw poll to gauge executives' reaction to the deal. Nadella later changed his mind.
"Nokia brings mobile-first depth across hardware, software, design, global supply chain expertise and deep understanding and connections across the mobile market," Nadella said yesterday in an emailed statement. "This is the right move for Microsoft."

Great reporting by Dina Bass, Beth Jinks and Peter Burrows; it shows that the cracks have been widening at Microsoft for some time. And that the board is concerned about Windows Phone's lack of traction.

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Android personalization apps: the battle for app, content and service discovery >> Flurry

Discovering relevant content and services within apps has also been a big challenge. Consumers want such a service. As an example, if a consumer is searching for a flight to Las Vegas, in an ideal scenario the phone or discovery service would launch whatever flight booking app is installed on the phone and send the consumer directly to the reservations page. But apps (alongside the content and services in them) can't be crawled. They are not just about index and links, and hence are hard to "page rank." As a result it is difficult for a search engine to discover apps and offer consumers an entry point.
Consumer behavior on mobile is very different than the desktop web. The de-facto behavior on the web is to launch the browser to google.com, type a sentence and be re-directed to content. The de-facto behavior in mobile is to launch an app (previously installed on the device) and enjoy the comprehensive experience offered within it. You are rarely, if ever, linked out to a mobile webpage from an app or sent to another app. Each experience is essentially an island unto itself, completely reliant on the consumer to come ashore.
The industry and some major mobile players are looking to solve this problem and the battle is raging for the "gateway" for mobile apps, content and services. In short, the Google position for mobile is up for grabs and billions of dollars are at stake.

Facebook Home was just the stumbling start - a bit like the early Yahoo pages.

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Satoshi: why Newsweek isn't convincing >> Felix Salmon

The Reuters blogger explains it so both sides can understand it:

As befits a debate which is centered on bitcoin, a lot of the incomprehension comes down to trust and faith. Bitcoin is a protocol which requires faith in no individual, institution, or state — all you need to believe in is cryptography. Dorian Nakamoto could have told Goodman explicitly that yes, he invented bitcoin — and still a lot of the bitcoin faithful would not be fully convinced unless and until Dorian proved that assertion cryptographically.

Note that "isn't convincing" doesn't mean "is wrong".

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Chart: smartphone shoppers rarely close the deal >> Statista

According to research published by Monetate, a provider of e-commerce solutions, tablets and smartphones accounted for 27% of e-commerce website traffic in Q4 2013, up from 18% in Q4 2012.
Tablets account for more traffic than smartphones do, and the conversion rate on tablets is much higher than it is on smartphones. The data suggests that tablet users actually make purchases on their device while smartphone users browse products and check prices on the go but turn to bigger devices or actual brick-and-mortar stores to make the purchase.

Differences between platforms too.

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If the Moon were only 1 pixel: a tediously accurate map of the solar system >> Josh Worth

Lots of scrolling involved. Space is really very big, isn't it?

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Get real, IDC - PC sales will plummet in 2014 >> InfoWorld

Woody Leonhard:

One year ago today, IDC predicted "the second half of 2013 [will] regain some marginal momentum partly as a rubber band effect from 2012, and largely thanks to the outcome of industry restructuring, better channel involvement, and potentially greater acceptance of Windows 8. We also anticipate a new refresh cycle momentum in the commercial segment driven by the end of Window XP life support." At that time, the group changed its prediction for 2013 PC shipments, from an increase of 2.8%, to a decrease of 1.3%. The freshly restated figures from IDC show a 9.8% decrease in 2013. Somebody missed the boat. Hell, they missed a flotilla of boats.
We're supposed to believe that 2014 shipments will only fall 6 percent? Pshaw. Somebody needs a wakeup call.

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