18
Jul
gavel

UK Judge Orders Apple To Publicly State On Its Website That Samsung Didn't Copy The iPad

Posted by in News, Samsung

Well, that certainly didn't go the way Apple would've liked. A UK judge presiding over one of many lawsuits involving Apple products—specifically concerning the Galaxy Tab line's alleged infringement of the iPad's design—has ordered Apple to publicly post on the UK version of its website that Samsung did not copy the iPad. Said the internet, "Oh, snap!"

The UK judge presiding over the case was the same one who made headlines recently for saying the Galaxy Tab lineup was "not as cool" as the iPad, and thus unlikely to be confused for Apple's slates. It's really hard to imagine an outcome that could be less flattering to both sides.

04
Oct
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HTC Acknowledges Data-Exposing Vulnerability In Some Devices, Promises Over-The-Air Patch Shortly

Posted by in HTC, News
Last Updated: October 5th, 2011

HTC acknowledged the vulnerability in some of its devices that Android Police together with Trevor Eckhart posted Saturday night. The privilege escalation vulnerability currently allows a potentially malicious app that uses only the INTERNET permission to connect to HTC's HtcLoggers service and get access to data far exceeding its access rights. This data includes call history, the list of user accounts, including email addresses, SMS data, system logs, GPS data, and more.

HTC added that a software fix is already in the works and will be pushed to affected devices following a brief testing period (hopefully carriers won't end up delaying the OTA roll-out too much due to additional testing and bureaucracies).

06
Jul
nav1

[Updated x2] Google Maps Updated To Version 5.7, Brings Public Transit Navigation, Downloadable Maps, Other Improvements

Posted by in Applications, News

A new update for Google Maps was released today and brings some impressive new functionality. Artem put it well (although perhaps not exactly eloquently): "it's #$%^ing amazing... Google keeps blowing minds." In a nutshell, Transit Navigation (as it's officially dubbed) brings exactly what you'd expect - it helps you navigate public transport. In their words:

Transit Navigation (Beta)
Google Maps Navigation (Beta) currently provides over 12 billion miles of GPS-guided driving and walking directions per year. Now, GPS turn-by-turn (or in this case, stop-by-stop) navigation is available for public transit directions in 400+ cities around the globe with Transit Navigation.

Transit Navigation uses GPS to determine your current location along your route and alerts you when it’s time to get off or make a transfer.

18
May
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[Updated] Google Rolling Out Fix For Wi-Fi Security Vulnerability To All Affected Android Devices

Posted by in Android OS, Development, News, Tips & Tutorials

Well, that only took one media firestorm. Google, in response to widespread reports of a potential credential security hole in Android (which not only affects Android, but any OS using authTokens), is starting to roll out a fix for the public Wi-Fi vulnerability to all affected Android devices today. Google's statement, below:

Today we’re starting to roll out a fix which addresses a potential security flaw that could, under certain circumstances, allow a third party access to data available in calendar and contacts. This fix requires no action from users and will roll out globally over the next few days.

The vulnerability could only be exploited on public Wi-Fi networks - either by a sniffing attack, or SSID spoofing (a much more common method), and allowed an attacker to take a user's authToken for a particular service (eg, Calendar, Twitter, Facebook, etc.), and then use it to log in to the respective service and engage in whatever unscrupulous behavior they so desired.

17
May
hi-256-2-b3249d7fa4ffbd07f7870072be147a482f9fcabb

Dolphin Browser HD Ends The Private Beta, Decides To Give All Users Some Beta Love

Posted by in Applications, News

Last week we told you that the private beta for Dolphin Browser HD 5 had leaked, and I guess the Dolphin Team decided that since the cat was already out of the bag, they should go ahead and give the users what they want and officially make the beta public.

UI-changes

This version includes all of the same features as the private beta, plus some speed and stability optimizations. If you want to give this updated beta a shot, head over to the Dolphin Blog for download.

[Dolphin Blog]

15
Dec
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Google App Inventor Leaves Private Beta, Now Open To Everyone

Posted by in Apps/Games, Google, News

Remember Google App Inventor, a Google Labs project that lets people without programming experience create Android apps for personal use? It is an interesting project, but so far, it has only been available as a private beta, which meant you needed an invitation to get in. According to the App Inventor team, their experiment has generated more interest than they had ever hoped for, with people creating apps ranging from vocabularies and SMS to marriage proposals.

To unlock the full potential, Google is now opening up App Inventor to anyone with a Google account - just head over to the App Inventor home page and sign up.

15
Oct
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[Updated: Now In The Android Market] It's Live! Download The Full Version Of Angry Birds Right Now [v1.3.5 + Mirrors]

Posted by in Games, News

The moment we've all been waiting for is finally here. A few hours ago, the full version of the most anticipated Android game ever, Angry Birds, has hit the Android Mar... errrr... GetJar Market, exclusively. Instead of uploading to the official Market first, Rovio decided to go for an alternative market called GetJar, probably in a deal to promote it. The Market version is promised "soon," which would be good right about now, as GetJar apparently wasn't prepared for the influx of visitors and promptly crashed for a couple of hours. It seems to be back up now, but who knows what is going to happen to it when the West Coast wakes up.

23
Sep
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SwiftKey Keyboard, One Of Android's Best Keyboards, Sheds Beta Status, Goes Premium; On Sale For $0.99 Until September 30th, $3.99 After

Posted by in Applications, News

SwiftKey Keyboard has been in beta ever since its introduction to the Android Market a few months ago. Having tried Swype, I also jumped on SwiftKey to give it a fair shot and ended up sticking with it. Yes, it was that good.

SwiftKey is different from other keyboards because it uses predictive recognition based on both tons of statistical information and your own typing habits. In fact, you can make whole sentences without typing a single key and just picking default suggestions.

SwiftKey-reads-mind 

Every company needs to make money at some point, and so today, having shed the beta status, SwiftKey is turning into a paid app.

13
Jul
Swiftkey

Swiftkey Keyboard For Android Now Available In The Market As A Public Beta. Swype Begone - It's That Good!

Posted by in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Swiftkey For those of you who don’t like your stock or alternative add-on keyboards on your Android device, have I got good news for you: the Swiftkey beta is now available in the Android market.

I’ve been using Swiftkey through a private beta for the past few weeks and there’s one word I have to describe it: fantastic. I replaced my Swype keyboard with Swiftkey and haven’t looked back since.

Predictive Text

One of the best features of this keyboard is the predictive text. I’m not talking about predicting the rest of a word that you’ve already begun to type. I’m talking about actually predicting the next word that you might type based on what you’ve already input.

16
Jun
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The Bad News: Swype Beta Expired Today. The Good News: Swype Will Be Re-Released Today, June 16th, This Time To Everyone

Posted by in Applications, News

Swype, an alternative Android keyboard, that pretty much turned the whole texting industry upside down a couple of months ago when it debuted, is coming to all Android handsets, regardless of the manufacturer, today, June 16th (hey, that's a nice birthday present for me!).

Previously, you could only get your paws on Swype if you acquired one of very few handsets that came with it preinstalled, downloaded it as part of a limited beta, or mooched a leaked version online.

The latter 2 groups felt some sadness yesterday as it marked the last day of the beta period. However, Swype cleared the bad mood right up as it announced a that the new beta version would be available to everyone, without the need for an invitation.