Firebase secures its real-time back-end service

A must read …for the network gurus

Gigaom

Firebase, the San Francisco startup behind a popular backend for real-time apps, is adding an API which should make those apps more secure. Firebase’s service is s a real-time analog to mobile backends-as-a-service from Parse, Stackmob, Kii and Kinvey. It’s gained traction among developers who want to build apps quickly with immediate feedback — they write code in one window and it renders in another. Developers says this provides an elegant way to build apps without having to mess with servers. But that model poses some security concerns, which Firebase says its new API will address.

As Firebase Co-Founder James Tamplin described it, the company built a JavaScript-like rules system that assigns every piece of data in Firebase with one or more rules. “Eg. ‘Only let a user use the app if they’re logged in or ‘only allow 5-digit numbers entered in a field,'” Tamplin…

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Samsung shows off first Windows Phone 8 handset…..

 

The Windows key is a hardware button, while the other two are capacitive.

Microsoft

The first Windows Phone 8 handset was revealed today at IFA in Berlin. Dubbed the Samsung ATIV S, it has a 4.8 inch “HD” (presumably 1280×720) Super AMOLED screen, a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor, 8MP rear and 1.9MP front-facing cameras, 1GB RAM, 16 or 32 gigabytes of storage, a micro SD slot, NFC support, and a 2,300 mAh battery—all in a 8.7mm (0.34″) thick device.

The internals are similar, then, to the company’s Galaxy S III handset. The externals, however, are very different. The front is Gorilla Glass 2. The back eschews the plastic of the Android handset in favor of brushed aluminium.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone blog, which actually scooped Samsung’s announcement, has lots of pictures of the device.

With Windows Phone 8 rumored to launch on October 29th, this doesn’t leave much time for developers to develop apps for the new platform. One possible reason is speculation that the company would rather developers continue to produce Windows Phone 7 apps instead. These apps will run fine on the new platform, but will also run on current handsets. The delay with publishing the SDK could, therefore, be an attempt to postpone the abandonment of the currently shipping platform.