bug - 3/4 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Apr

Fixing The "Couldn't Install On USB Storage Or SD Card" Problem On Android

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, Froyo 2.2, Tips

Today, for the first time ever, my EVO 4G had an unexpected failure installing updates for some of my Android apps. All update attempts would inevitably end in an almost instant failure with the message that read:

Installation error
Couldn't install on USB storage or SD card

The weird part was that some apps installed OK but some got stuck in a perma-fail mode and could no longer be updated. After mucking around for a bit, I dug into the logs and found the following relevant log line:

Failed to create secure container smdl2tmp1

Aha! Now what the heck is smdl2tmp1?

Apr

[Updated] Exclusive: Vulnerability In Skype For Android Is Exposing Your Name, Phone Number, Chat Logs, And A Lot More

Posted by Justin Case in Dev, News

Last Updated: April 15th, 2011

Update #1: Skype is investigating the issue, we've been told.

Update #2: Skype's official first response can be found here.

The safety of our personal information is often a concern of mine - who has my email address, my phone number, my date of birth? How can I keep my private information safe while still enjoying the internet? These concerns have prompted me to take a deeper look at Android apps more than once, and often this can yield some frightening information.

On April 11, a leaked version of Skype Video hit the web and, having a Thunderbolt, I had to try it.

Apr

Critical Vulnerability Found In Adobe Flash For Android, Probably No Cause For Concern

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Apps/Games, News

With a great plugin comes great responsibility - to avoid malicious Flash files, that is. A zero-day exploit has been discovered in Adobe Flash that affects all Android versions of the software, Adobe announced today.

The most common vessel for the exploit is (fortunately) a Microsoft document (.doc) email attachment with an embedded Flash file (.swf) - and I'm not aware of any Word document viewers/editors in Android that support embedded Flash. Once the Flash file is executed, the exploiter can run malicious code on the target device. How, or whether, this could affect Android is unknown.

Still, it's important to remember that Adobe's products, ever the target of hackers and shady enterprise, share common elements across operating systems - including, at times, potentially dangerous flaws and exploits.

Apr

PowerAMP Updated With App To SD, Dolby/SRS Support, Open API For Developers

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Apps/Games, Dev, News

The popular Android music player PowerAMP received an update this morning with new features and numerous bug fixes. Take a look at the change log below:

New:
- PowerAMP now has open API for 3rd party developers. Please check PowerAMP site for reference, samples, and complete Widget Pack sources
- PowerAMP now can be moved to SD card. You can still use PowerAMP widgets if you install PowerAMP Standard Widget Pack
- added Dolby/SRS support for HTC Desire HD (and few other HTC phones with Dolby/SRS) (Equalizer => DHD button)
- added song number/total counter (Settings => Look And Feel Tweaks => Show Track Counter)
- auto-advance option for queue (Settings => Auto-Advance Settings)
- PowerAMP now re-shuffles lists on repeat
- playlist/queue reordering can be now toggled on/off via special icon in list headers
- PowerAMP now shows embed lyrics from tags in its Album Art area.

Mar

Google's Android Market Copyright Infringement Form Wins The Troll Awards - Just Says 'crap' Upon Submission (Not An April Fool's Joke)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Dev, Google, News, Off-Topic

Among all the awesome (or really bad, depending on your mood) April Fool's jokes today, Google's web form for submitting Android Market copyright infringements towers above all, especially considering it's not a joke, at all. We really doubt that it's intentional because this behavior was present before April 1st arrived to California, and it is mind boggling that something like this would fall through the cracks and get past Google's Quality Assurance. Alas...

Upon submitting the relatively lengthy form that is meant to report copyright violations in the Market, instead of a Thank You message, the [most likely innocent smalltime] copyright holder is presented with the following:

So, imagine that you spent hundreds of hours developing an application and suddenly found that someone ripped it off, stuffed it with ads, and submitted back to the Market.

Mar

ATRIX 4G To Receive First OTA Update - Doesn't Include HSUPA Or Call Quality Fixes, But You Can Sign Up To Test It

Posted by David Ruddock in Atrix 4G (Olympus), Motorola, News

Motorola is preparing to release its first over-the-air update for the ATRIX 4G (beta signup link here, open until Friday at 12PM EST), which should be exciting news for owners of the device, though it may end up inspiring more angst than joy.

The ATRIX 4G has been known in particular for two problems since its release: first, a lack of HSUPA (high speed upload) support in the software and, second, poor voice quality on phone calls. Motorola has promised to address both of these issues - just not right now. Moto has yet to release the change log for the incoming update, but the admin on the Moto forums who posted on it has made it a point to confirm that neither of the ATRIX's biggest annoyances are being taken care of in the impending release.

Mar

Google Squashes A Potentially Serious Bug In The Android Market

Posted by Will Shanklin in News

Google has responded to the alarm raised by an Android security expert of a bug related to the Android Market that could have caused a lot of trouble. The security hole was related to the recent implementation of the Android Web Market, and would have given hackers the ability to install malicious software fairly easily.

Co-founder and chief technology officer at Duo Security Jon Oberheide discovered the flaw last month and notified Google, who fixed it within "the last week or so." Users would have merely had to click on a malicious link on either their phones or on their desktops to activate the unwanted installation of rogue software.

Jan

Updated: Notion Ink Halts Adam Update, Gives Recovery Fix For Bricked Devices

Posted by David Ruddock in Adam, News, Notion Ink

Update: Shortly after the update botch was noticed by Notion Ink, they halted distribution of the update in question because it was not downloading completely. If you have a bricked Adam, here is the fix as e-mailed to Notion Ink Fan:

No one here at Android Police has a device to test this fix on - so be careful, and read the warning.

How to flash your Adam and get it working again
WARNING
This fix is recommended only if your Adam has stopped booting up after installing the over-the air system update on 24 January. Please don't use the method indicated to flash your Adam with any ROM not from Notion Ink, as it would probably damage your Adam irreparably.

Jan

HTC EVO 4G: Fix Music Streaming And (Maybe) Boost Your 3G Speeds With A Simple Hack

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, Mods, News, Sprint

This morning, I noticed an interesting thread in the EVO subsection of the XDA forums that claimed to be able to fix music streaming (which was broken in some apps after the latest OTA), while boosting 3G speeds by .2 to .6 Mbps. As the process is very simple and easily reversible, I gave it a go - but decided that I was going to use SpeedTest to benchmark the changes. Unfortunately, what I found wasn't what I expected.

Before doing anything, I ran the test three times. Before the fix my average download speed was 938.67 Kbps. After I ran the fix, my speed dropped to an average of 782 Kbps.

Jan

Nexus One 2.2.2 And Nexus S 2.3.2 OTAs Rolling Out - Hath The SMS Bug Finally Been Conquered?

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Froyo 2.2, Gingerbread 2.3, HTC, News, Nexus One (Passion), Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Samsung

As disappointing as it may be to see the Nexus One - Google's first officially anointed developer phone - still getting Froyo-based updates, that's exactly what just happened. According to several Android Central forums members, a 558kb update to Android 2.2.2 (or build number FRG83G) is currently rolling out over the air to the N1, bringing "important bug fixes" with it.

In related news, the Samsung-built Nexus S - Google's second developer phone - also received an update today, though this one is Gingerbread-based. Its version number is 2.3.2, and, coincidentally, it is also said to bring "important bug fixes."

So here's the question: Given the fact that the two updates are rolling out at almost exactly the same time with the exact same description, could they both contain a fix to the infamous SMS bug?