Nick

Smartphone malware attacks get a lot of attention, but you’re much more likely to lose your device than you are to contract a smartphone virus infection. And you’re just as vulnerable to other problems--such as phishing and spam--on a phone as you are on a PC. No need to panic, however: The following Android and iPhone security tools will help to protect your phone from all kinds of threats.

Android Apps

MyBackup Pro: The Android OS has built-in backup and restore functionality, but handset makers sometimes don’t enable this feature on their phone models. And Android’s basic recovery program won’t bring back your call logs, text messages, or photos if you lose them.

Attendees at the Conference on Human Factors in Computer Systems (CHI) this week saw a device that looks something like a lamp shade and houses a projector and camera, designed to let a worker share a physical desktop with another, allowing the two to collaborate on a project in ways not otherwise possible.

In one example at the show, two attendees were able to draw a picture of a house, with a pen and paper, simultaneously with each person adding different components. On one side, IllumiShare, a project from Microsoft Research, used a camera to capture the desktop and a projector to display the other side's. That means that each person received real time video of what the other side was doing.

Two Microsoft Research projects presented at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems used unique methods, completely absent of any cameras, to sense gestures.

Called Soundwave, one project used a laptop's standard speakers and microphone to detect what motions users were making with their hands. The system emitted an inaudible ultrasonic tone that bounced off a user's hand. Because of the Doppler Effect, the sound waves shifted in frequency and the microphone could hear that shift. The computer then interpreted the shift and turned it into an action, explained Sidhant Gupta a former Microsoft Research intern.

ZeroTouch, the inexpensive technology that turns regular displays into touchscreens, can be fitted to larger screens, is more responsive and is almost ready for commercialization, according to researchers working on it.

The project debuted at the Computer Human Interaction conference in 2011 and this year has been outfitted to track up to sixty fingers. The sensing area expanded from 27 inches to 55 inches. It's also more responsive, tracking at about 120 hertz versus last year's 60.

A research project at the Computer Human Interaction conference in Austin experimented with adding electricity to food to change its taste.

Check out the experiment in one of my video diaries on YouTube.

Researchers have turned a display annoyance into a way to show two different images simultaneously. When an LCD is tilted, colors change and become difficult to see, but with Dual View from Microsoft Research Asia different images and video can be shown.

"We're actually exploiting this property by using a special algorithm to render the image in a special way so that we can hide or show different images at different angles," said Xiang Cao, a researcher with Microsoft Research Asia. "Basically making a bug into a feature."

Echoing the words of science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, former YouTube user experience director Margaret Gould Stewart advised an audience of design researchers to think about creating magical experiences for their users.

"Magic disrupts the notion of reality. It elevates good design into great design," Stewart said Monday, at the opening keynote of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Austin, Texas. She praised Internet services such as Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube for creating new ways for people to interact and tell their own stories, through successful user design.

Pizza chain owner Melissa Ferriman wanted to boost business using an online social deal promotion. She tried services like Groupon, but eventually chose Boston-based Privy because it connected her restaurant with customers who weren't just looking for the next promotion.

Ferriman started building Crazy Dough's social presence about a year ago and begans working with Privy in December. Since then, she's done several promotions that she sent through emails and posts on Facebook.

[Photo: Robert W. Darabos on Kickstarter]Discovered in 1974, the Terracotta Army is a vast collection of sculptures that depicts an army that dates back to the 3rd century B.C. It's mind-blowing, and it serves as the inspiration for a recent Kickstarter project.

Artist Robert W. Darabos wants to re-create this wonder of the ancient world, expect using sculptures of Lego minifigures. According to Robert's Kickstarter page, the project started a something of a joke after he made six Lego minifigure sculptures out of clay. A student of his suggested making an "army" of clay minifigures, and after mulling it over for a while, Robert decided to go ahead with the project.

Microsoft Security Essentials 2.1, the fifth-place finisher in PCWorld's 2012 free antivirus roundup, is something of a mixed bag. I like its interface, and it is reasonably good at cleaning up infections, but it falters at stopping new malware, and it plods through its chores.

Security Essentials' user interface is particularly straightforward--perfect if you don't want to waste time messing around with your antivirus software.

PC Tools AntiVirus Free 2012 has its strong points, but it was the worst of the products tested in our April 2012 antivirus roundup when it came to blocking new malware. In our real-world blocking tests, PC Tools managed to stop only 57.1 percent of malware samples, placing it well behind its competition in this roundup.

On the plus side, PC Tools detected 99.96 percent of known malware from the past four months. It is also one of the best free antivirus programs at disinfecting a PC. It detected all infections on our test system, and it successfully disabled 93 percent of the infections. It removed all traces of malware in 73 percent of the cases.

Comodo Internet Security Premium 5.9 has an accessible interface, and it comes with a firewall. It's the only freebie we tested in our April 2012 free antivirus roundup that has a firewall, but in both malware blocking and cleanup, it ranks be­­hind other free antivirus products we tested. Since this testing was completed, Comodo has released version 5.10, which has not yet been tested.

Comodo's performance in our real-world tests was acceptable: It blocked 78.6 percent of new malware, slightly above average compared with other free antivirus programs. It partly blocked an additional 21.4 percent of attacks. But Comodo protected poorly against well-known malware. It detected 98.2 percent of zoo samples. Though that may sound like a good score, only two of the nine products we tested performed worse.