Posts tagged Miscelaneous
Malware Found on HTC Android phone, really? UPDATED
Mar 10th
Looks like an antivirus firm called Panda Security has found malware on a HTC Android phone that they recently received from Vodaphone. Now I know most of use are in the US and don’t purchase from Vodaphone, but I think this is still interesting and makes me a little curious on what the creators of the malware might have in store for the rest of us. Could this problem be a global problem soon? Could we soon all need to use antivirus software on our Android devices? Here’s some of what CNET has reported on the issue-
“Today one of our colleagues received a brand new Vodafone HTC Magic with Google’s Android OS,” researcher Pedro Bustamante wrote on the Panda Research Blog on Monday.
“The interesting thing is that when she plugged the phone to her PC via USB, her Panda Cloud Antivirus went off, detecting both an autorun.inf and autorun.exe as malicious,” he wrote. “A quick look into the phone quickly revealed it was infected and spreading the infection to any and all PCs that the phone would be plugged into.”
It has also been reported that the malware began “phoning home” for instructions. And I thought Android was safe from all this virus/malware stuff. I guess there is really no true brick wall security for anything these days. More on this at CNET
Do we need to start counter acting these viruses and malware more aggressively? Are the days of peace of mind over? Do we need to have to “update” our virus dictionaries every morning to stay on top of these kinds of things? Or is this a stunt creatively done by companies that provide antivirus/malware protection? What are your thoughts? Let the comments commence
Update: Android Central has reported that the malware has come from an sd card, not the HTC phone itself. Good news!
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Backing up your Android’s mail: An important chore
Mar 10th
Admit it. You are guilty. Personal and professional emails that you send and receive from associates, friends, and family buzz between your Android device and the Google servers with ease, and you rarely, if ever, think about what would happen, if someday, that relation ship were to fail.
All that data is stored in “the cloud” on Google servers in what some consider the most state-of-the-art, redundant and reliable network of data centers located all over the globe. Your personal data is syncing with out a hitch. After all, if you can’t rely on what is arguably the largest, most talent rich of cloud providers in the world, who can you rely on?
A quick Google search — yes, I understand the irony — reveals that there are plenty of people, who, like you and many other Android users, thought that their data was safe with Google – only to find that their sense of security was false. With just a little planning, research and sweat, you can avoid a similar fate and further protect your data. In order to minimize the chance of data loss, I have my Google-based email synced and backed up on two redundant off-site locations (other than Google’s own network). Firmly place your tin foil hat on your head and take a short journey with me…
I own a small hosting and web design/consulting business and rent server resources from a data center. On that server, I have installed getmail along with a few custom configuration files based on those described by Googler Matt Cutts‘ blog posting. The files tell getmail where to pull my email from; in this case, from the Gmail servers, using a secure IMAP connection. Each config file also tells getmail which folders to retrieve from (eg. “Inbox”, “[Google Mail]/All Mail”, “[Google Mail]/Sent Mail”, etc.);, to only get “unseen” messages; and in which format to store the messages, if not Maildir, then the native Gmail format, Mbox. Getmail runs every hour from a cron job and stores all new messages in the format of my choice: Maildir on my server. The mail is then encrypted and backed up nightly with all my other data on an off-site server using Duplicity.
I know, I know… not everyone has a shiny tin foil hat like mine that reads “Caution: Geek Below!” That does not excuse you from protecting your data. There are many more less intense, more GUI based options to protect yourself. Here are just a few:
While not an exhaustive list of options, these give you a taste of the many ways that you can help keep your Android phone and the tightly integrated Google services that you rely on working together with the peace of mind that should the impossible happen (think Titanic) you have enough life boats to carry your email data to shore.
So, what is your excuse for not backing up now?
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Accessorize your kitchen with Ikan?
Mar 10th
Do you hate apps? Does their low price and strictly virtual footprint bring you down? Well, have a look-see at the Ikan grocery scanner doohickey! The idea is that you scan the bar code on empty packages before throwing them in the trash and the gadget builds a list that can be automatically sent to your phone on a regular basis or even straight to your grocer for home delivery or pick up (if you are one of the very lucky few whose grocer participates). Did I mention that it can recognize your voice? This thing replicates functions of the current generations of Androids. Makes sense, because this gadget also runs Android. So basically, it’s $400 worth of plastic that could be replaced by a $5 app. Don’t mean to be a cynical nay-sayer, but… come on.
As Android Guys points out, the $400 price tag is a bit daunting. And yes, this gadget would be at the absolute bottom of my financial priority list. However, it’s not the money that puts me off – it’s the lack of grocery store participation. I would absolutely love for my list to be checked off and delivered by my local market once every two weeks, and I think that luxury would be worth a $4oo initial investment. However, I would not bother spending 6 months lobbying the manager of said local grocery store to implement the Ikan system, and I’m guessing that’s what it would take to get them involved, if they would at all. I just clicked the “check available retailers” over at the Ikan Yahoo! store, and the result was a glaring read block of text notifying me that there are no retailers in my area who participate. The system also provides recipes and I’m sure coupons are in the mix but without local support, this thing is worthless to me.
The fact that I can scan my packages before tossing them is a huge bonus, and it would be great to have the list regularly sent to my phone, but I think I’ll just use the first $5.00 app in the market that can reference the bar codes of everything I purchase and put them in a list with prices. Recipes are free online and $400 buys me a lot of Vitamin Water and taco supplies.
Via Android Guys
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Android is taking iPhone’s lunch money
Mar 6th
We told you a couple of days ago that the Apple v. HTC lawsuit is all about Android; that the lawsuit is Apple’s response to Android’s skyrocketing popularity. We now have some data to back that up, and the guys at Cupertino are rightfully worried. Quantcast – a web analytics firm – recently released some juicy statistics. Quantcast tracks mobile web consumption by OS, and they’ve noticed that Android has started taking away market share from the iPhone.
Let’s dig in, shall we? The iPhone is clearly the market leader in Web consumption with 63.7% of the market. But that might not last for long, in February the iPhone lost 3.2% of its market share while both Android and RIM gained market share. Android has been gaining ground on the iPhone for more than a year now, but the growth has accelerated considerably over the last four months. For example, Android’s market share has grown 44% over the past quarter, and has doubled over the past year. All the while, the iPhone has lost 5% from last quarter and 10% from last year.
This data certainly doesn’t look good for the iPhone. If this trend continues, Android could surpass the iPhone by Fall of this year or early 2011. That can’t be good news for the Cupertino-based company. The iPhone is Apple’s main cash cow, and any decline in iPhone sales will be truly felt throughout the company. Apple must have seen this going on for the last six months and felt like they needed to do something quickly, rather than waiting for the new iPhone that they’ll announce in the Summer. ‘Cause by then, Android’s market share might be 30% and it could be too late to turn things around. I suggest we all go grab some popcorn, it’s certainly going to be interesting to see Apple scramble to try and slow down the Android avalanche that’s headed their way.
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For many devs, Android is still a dilemma
Mar 5th
It’s rare that you’ll hear a software developer say anything negative about the Android platform itself. Finding a coder who will rave about what Google is doing and the implications of their mobile OS is much more common. But when it comes to running a successful app business, iPhone is still the place to be – at least for the programmers that have made a name, and bundle of cash, for themselves in the Apple App Store.
Jeff Smith is one of these success stories. His company, Smule, produced two of the App Store’s ten top sellers in 2009, and has sold 4 million apps to date. Despite making a huge chunk of change from sales and securing over $13 mil in VC, Smule doesn’t feel that reaching in to the Android realm is a safe endeavor. Fragmentation, the requirement of starting a new division and training…For Jeff, Android is more trouble than it’s worth. While I recognize that Smule is a business and that profitability determines direction, I can’t help but wonder what new ground could be broken on the Android front by such a competent mobile app publisher with such seemingly vast resources. Video after the break:
Via Android Central
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DivX support coming to HTC Desire
Mar 5th
The yet-to-be-released HTC Desire seems to have some tricks up its sleeve. Desire is one of the most highly anticipated devices since the launch of Nexus One. And the lovely Sense UI on top of already beautiful Android 2.1 – Eclair – is just like the extra toppings on the the…eclair. Now, we are finding that it will feature internal tasty treat as yet unknown, and one of them is DivX support.
According to Mobile Tech World, they had some hands-on time with the Desire at a local showing of HTC’s Desire, Legend, and HD2 mini. As far as the physical device and UI were concerned, no recent changes were readily apparent. However, a small mention of DivX support did pop up. Though the support for 720p encoding was yet to be clarified, we know that, in future updates Desire will get a DivX support on the device. Because the support was not going to be available by launch date, they pushed it back to be included via update. So, when is this device coming out? We are not sure yet. And when it does, it will be a must have device that anyone would want to get their gadget loving hands on.
via AndroidCommunity
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Noah goes on Fox Business Live to discuss Apple v. Google
Mar 4th
Check it out: PhoneDog’s EIC goes on Fox, via Skype, no less, to discuss what this whole Apple/HTC lawsuit debacle. So, what does this all mean for technology, for the market, and for you?
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