Smartphone security exploits caused by manufacturers

With smartphones becoming more advanced, concerns of security risks and exploits also increases. A recent study by North Carolina State University shows that most security risks are actually caused by the smartphone manufacturers and not the core operating system.

Smartphones are becoming increasingly popular penetrating more and more in the cell phone market. Similarly, smartphones are also becoming very sophisticated with advanced operating systems underneath. Currently the Apple iOS and the Google Android operating system clearly dominates the market. Apple iOS can only be used on Apple iDevices and has so far managed to keep the security rather tight. However, Google Android is used by multiple smartphone manufacturers due to its open-source and license nature. This results in the, so called, Android fragmentation issue. With Google Android having a market share of approximately 80%, it is therefore also a highly attractive platform for hackers and malicious users to attack.

Google Glass user fined while driving

Using a cell phone or other distractive devices with a monitor while driving is forbidden in many parts of the world. Now, a Google Glass user has for the first time been fined by the police for driving with them.

Google Glass is in many ways an innovative product which should be released by the end of the year according to the new Google Glass version recently announced by Google. While the product itself opens up many new unexplored technical possibilities, these new things are not too uncommonly frowned upon by the ageing and slowly changing laws in the society. Recently, Cecilia Abadie from California managed to get stopped by a police and given a ticket for wearing her Google Glass while driving.

New Google Glass version released soon

Google has been testing their cyber-glasses known as Glass for a while now and apparently things are going good. Google has announced now that a new version of Glass will be available soon and all current owners of Google Glass can invite new users to the fun!

Google has been quiet regarding their Glass testing process for a while now. Recently, Google announced that it will release a new version of Google Glass and in this process also expand the number of users by a factor of 3.

Google has decided to allow anyone who currently owns a pair of Google Glass to invite up to 3 new users to the new Google Glass versions who will be able to purchase the new version from Google directly. Nothing was mentioned regarding the price, but it is very likely that the price will land at $1500 just as the original Google Glass version.

Final Fantasy VI for iOS and Android coming!

Final Fantasy VI (formerly known as III) for iOS and Android has been announced by Square Enix and will be released sometime during this winter.

Final Fantasy VI (previously known as Final Fantasy III in the North American market) is considered one of the greatest video games of all time and the SNES and PlayStation versions have almost 3.5 million copies worldwide since its release in 1994. Now, Square Enix has announced that the game is in the progress of being ported and released on the iOS and Android systems (sorry Windows Phone)!

The exact release date has not been set, but the game will be available sometime during this winter. The game will also feature improvements in graphics and the combat system. For the latter, apparently, the number of battles will be decreased somewhat. 

Fastest tablet response times for iPad monitors

The monitor in a tablets is of extremely high importance to ensure good user experience. Agawi has recently tested the response times for flagship tablets and found that Apple iPads have the fastest monitors with the lowest response times.

For computer monitors, response times down to a few ms are not very difficult to find and even budget monitors can easily provide response times of only a few tens of ms. However, for tablets, the response times are generally much longer due to the feed-back system from the touch-screen mechanisms. Since the monitor of a tablet is the major central part, a lot of emphasis has been placed by the manufacturers to make bright monitors with high resolution as well as good color representations. While these things can immediately be assessed by anyone who has seen the tablet, the response time is something which can only be assessed by using the tablet, therefore, this is also one aspect that many manufacturers neglect.

Galaxy Gear beats iWatch and launches

The Apple iWatch has been anticipated by many to be the next greatest product. Now, through a massive campaign, Samsung has launched the Galaxy Gear, well ahead of the Apple iWatch.

To many, smartwatches are believed to be the next big thing in the technology market and currently multiple of companies are working on various smartwatches products, with the Samsung Galaxy Gear and the Apple iWatch probably being two of the most well known. While the release date for Apple iWatch is not known, it is likely still at least half a year in the future, but for Samsung, the Galaxy Gear smartwatch has now been launched.

Samsung does indeed put a lot of emphasis on the release campaign. For example, it occupies 10 color pages in the New York Times to use in its ad campaign, something which costs somewhere around 1.5 millions USD alone.

Worst quarter in the history of HTC

HTC just published its quarter report which shows the absolutely worst quarter in the history of HTC, likely related to the delay and delivery problems of new models.

HTC has been a very successful manufacturer of smartphones and has since the very beginning in 2002, always made profit with popular models. However, the success story of HTC may be reaching its end according to the recently published quarter report showing a loss of 101 million USD. This is to be compared with the report for the same period in 2012, which netted a profit of 132 million USD.

Most Android brands cheat in benchmarks

Recent benchmark results by Anandtech show that almost all Android smartphone brands, excluding Google/Motorola, incorporate questionable optimization schemes to score higher in benchmarks!

As have been reported, Samsung was caught cheating through the new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 device. The cheat was elaborate in the sense that it incorporated optimizations targeting the GPU of the device. Now, Anandtech has revealed even more horrifying data, which indicates that almost all Android smartphones vendors incorporate illegal overclocking or optimization means on the CPU level to score higher in benchmarks!

Samsung caught cheating in benchmarks again

The performance of a smartphone is often used in advertisements. The performance is measured using synthetic benchmark applications and it has recently bee revealed that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is using illegal means to score higher in the benchmarks.

The recently released Apple iPhone 5S is known to have very high performance owing to its new A7 processor. Apple themselves claim that it is twice as fast as compared to iPhone 5, which is mostly confirmed by benchmarks. This apparently does not appeal to Samsung at all, who claims its new Galaxy Note 3 to be the fastest device on the market. However, Anandtech has discovered that the published data by Samsung are obtained through artificial manipulation of the performance in the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

When a benchmark app is executed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, the CPU is overclocked which results in that it scores 23% higher than an iPhone 5S. However, by simply renaming the benchmarks to something else, Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will only score 2.3% higher than the iPhone 5S. Clearly, the engineers have implemented a special "benchmark mode".

Nokia smartphone sales is taking off

The smartphone sales by Nokia have quarter after quarter delivered increasingly disappointing numbers. Now, only one month after Nokia decided to give up its phone division to Microsoft, there are indications that the Nokia smartphones are finally taking off.

Two years ago, Nokia decided to partner up with Microsoft in favor of their own Symbian OS. This essentially meant that overnight, new Nokia smartphones would be operating on Windows Phone operating system instead. At that time, Nokia was in a critical situation with competition pushing it hard from the iOS and Android camps. Nokia hoped that the partnership with Microsoft would allow it to once again become a significant player on the market, after all, it was not too long ago that Nokia was the clear dominating brand in terms of smartphones and cell phones. As the years went, the market reception of the Nokia smartphones based on Windows Phone has been less than ideal and massive losses were reported quarter after quarter. In the end, the smartphone market share became very low, almost negligible with only a few percent. Eventually, on September 3, 2013, Microsoft acquired the whole mobile phone division from Nokia. 

iMessage for Android, Huluwa: critical security threat

Users who have installed Huluwa, an app that enables Android users to use iMessage are advised to promptly uninstall the app due to recently discovered security issues with the app.

Huluwa has been available on Google Play for a while now and it promises to be an app that allows Android users to use the iMessage system developed for iOS devices. However, it has now been revealed that the app itself raises many warning flags and users concerned with security should promptly uninstall the app.

Analysis of the behavior patterns of the Huluwa app shows that all data transmission are sent to a server in China. This includes your messages, but also internal Android data, in principle all information that the app has access to is transmitted to the Chinese server. In a nutshell, the use of Huluwa causes your user credentials to be sent to a third party, which is in particularly alarming for users who have linked their credit cards with their accounts (Google Play as well as Apple-ID). 

Google makes Quickoffice a free app

Quickoffice which is one of the most competent office suites for smartphones and tablets has now become a free app following an initiative by Google.

Image src: www.flickr.com/photos/sigalakos/

Quickoffice which by many is considered to be one of the best and competent office suites for smartphones and tablets was acquired by Google in June 2012. Google has recently announced that a new version of Quickoffice has been released that is free-of-charge for all users. In addition, 15 GB of storage space is also given to the users for free during a 2-year period. 

Google improves file sharing by Bump acquisition

Google recently acquired the file sharing app Bump for the purpose of improving the file sharing capabilities of smartphones.

Bump is a popular app that is available both for iOS and Android with the purpose of making file sharing easy between the two platforms. Using Bump, the users can share photons, contact information and even files between two phones. Google apparently deems Bump to be of high interest and value and has therefore purchased Bump and its developer company.

Tablet sales surpass PC sales

PC sales have been on a declining trend for some time and now the number of tablets sold for the first time surpasses the number of PCs sold.

A recent analysis by IDC shows that the number of tablets that is expected to be sold until the end of 2013 will be larger than the number of PCs that will be sold during the same period of time. The PC market has had troubles during the last few years and this only once again confirms that particular fact. One major reason behind the numbers is that the demand for tablets is expected to skyrocket during the Christmas season, whereas the PC sales will only be moderately modified. However, if the whole year of 2013 is considered, PC sales numbers will still be greater than tablet sales numbers.

India embraces open source to save its economy

The economy crisis in India has caused both corporations and government agencies to move to open source as a way to cut costs and ensure future compatibility.

The economy in India is doing anything but good and the currency, rupier, has been free falling for some time now. This has resulted in massive increase in license costs for both corporations and government agencies since most licenses are priced in USD.

In order to find ways to cut down the cost of software the Indian magazine The Economic Times has reported that government agencies as well as private companies/corporations are investing significantly into the field of open source software and platforms, instead of the conventional solutions from SAP, IBM and Oracle. These larger corporations include Hungarna Digital Entertainment, Uttam Energy, Bilcare and IGate.

Apple iPhone market share breaches 40% in USA

Apple iPhone continues to dominate the market according to recent statistics and 2 out of 5 smartphones are now an Apple iPhone on the American market.

The American market has traditionally been a strong market for Apple iPhones. Recent data from Comscore shows that Apple had a market share of 40.4% in July, which is 1.2 percent-units higher than in April. The closest runner up is Samsung, with a market share of 24.1% and HTC with 8.0%.

However, while Apple is strong when it comes to one single company, when considering the mobile platforms in the USA, Google Android is still the largest platform currently. Google Android is used on 51.8% of the smartphones in USA and the Apple iOS platform is used on "only" 40.4%. The closest runner up is far behind, being the Blackberry with only 4.3% of the market.

Review of smartwatch facts, myths and potential

Smartwatches are expected to be the next big hit and are being developed by many big companies, including Samsung (Galaxy Gear) and Apple (iWatch). As with most new things, myths and ambiguous information is circulating on the topic of smartwatches and this review aims to provide the facts, point out the myths and highlight the potential of smartwatches.

Image: telegraph.co.uk

Smartwatches, according to many will sweep across the globe in a similar way as smartphones once did. The concept definitely makes a lot of intuitive sense. A device worn on the wrist that will provide the user with a wealth of information in an extreme accessible format certainly does sound attractive to most people. However, before purchasing a smartwatch, it is definitely worth to consider the facts and the myths. Companies such as Samsung and Apple certainly do their best to exaggerate or seed exaggerated expectations into the minds of their potential customers in order to gain an edge once the product is launched on a large scale. This review will provide some of the known and confirmed facts of smartwatches, the myths that are circulating and summarize the true potential and challenges that are still ahead for smartwatches in general, no matter if it is a Samsung Galaxy Gear or an Apple iWatch.

Demand for open source jobs rockets

Open source knowledge significantly increases the career possibilities as shown by a recent analysis by CIO magazine.

In the last decade, applications and the awareness for open source projects has increased tremendously. According to a recent study by CIO magazine, the number of job openings that involves open source is increasing in an extremely rapid fashion. 

As an example, the number of job openings in Python development has increased by 22% over the last year and similarly Ruby on rail development jobs have increased by 15%. 

Next Android version name is Kitkat

Google has announced that the next Android version 4.4 will be given the name Kitkat, which is a popular candy bar by Nestle.

As known, Google Android codenames carry the theme of popular desserts or candies. The present version is known Jelly Bean, and following the tradition, the next version will be given a name beginning with the letter 'K'. For a very long time, the next version codename was thought to be Key Lime Pie. However, Google has now announced that Kitkat will be the name of the next Android version.

Android most targeted by viruses and malware

The Android platform for smartphones and tablets is the most targeted platform by viruses and malware according to a recent study by the FBI which points to fragmentation as a key security weakness of Android.

The Android platform is by far the dominating platform when it comes to smartphones and tablets, currently having 79.3% of the global market. In comparison the Apple iOS platform only has a market share of 13.2% followed by Windows Phone with 3.7%.