Researchers build a mobile botnet from smartphones.

March 9 2010 by Bill Foust in Android, App Development, iPhone |No Comments

A story about the seedy cyber underground AND mobile devices at the same time? It’s too good to pass up!

Zombie iPhones, oh my!

So this story emerged last week about a pair of researchers that created an application called WeatherFirst for iPhone and Android handhelds which demonstrated how easy it would be to add malicious code to an application, and they ended up netting over 8000 iPhone and Android smartphones! They specifically targeted distribution channels outside of the vendor stores, which didn’t have such thorough testing, as high standard, or maybe just to avoid the army of lawyers ready to pounce on them once the story was published.

For an iPhone, it meant that the phone had to be jail-broken, but, the Android phone didn’t have the same requirement.

To their credit, this application is actually useful. It was created as a proof of concept though to show how easy it is to trick users into installing an application that might be malicious. The WeatherFirst application retreived the GPS coordinates of your location and sends them back to a server so it can be converted into a Zip Code, which is used to get local weather from the Weather Underground. This app by itself isn’t harmful, but  they also created a version, which was not publicly available, that was malicious and running botnet code capable of turning the device into a zombie.

Botnets are a collection of machines that have been compromised and which report back to some server for instructions to carry out. In addition to being able to collect sensitive information, they are often used to send spam. Here is a related story about a real botnet that might be good background.

For a developer, this isn’t any big news really. We know that there is potentially sensitive data on a user’s device and that there are APIs to get access to it. There are safeguards in place when downloading apps from the iPhone AppStore, Android Market, and BlackBerry App World to prevent this, such as code signing. Apparently though, there are enough people willing to take their chances with applications from less reliable distribution channels.

Flash on Slate

March 8 2010 by Dante Sarigumba in Slate, iPad |No Comments

With the tech community in full attention to iPad’s upcoming release (read Bill’s post), the future of iPad correlates what would become of Adobe Flash, which at this point enjoys the majority share of what you and I uses for viewing media content in the web. Apple’s decision not to support Adobe Flash is making a big debate in the tech community. Apple uses the argument of protecting digital media rights using their DRM technology as opposed to Adobe Flash where it’s open and without any digital rights protection. Obviously, major publishers welcome Apple’s decision on this regard. However, for you and I, this is a draconian move and more than irritating. Just as an example, most of Facebook’s games are written to run in Flash. So, no Farmville for you future iPad owners.

Not surprisingly, Adobe is not happy with Apple’s decision and to that end they’re doing a marketing campaign to support iPad’s competitor, which is quite obvious on this youtube video. Here they’re showing off HP Slate running Flash.

iPad release announced and commercials!

March 8 2010 by Bill Foust in Wi-Fi, iPad |1 Comment
Apple iPad
Apple iPad

Lots of iPad news this weekend! First off we saw that the iPad is now officially available for preorder from Apple on Friday of last week. Preoders are available starting March 12th, and 1st incarnations of the device itself will ship April 3rd. We know that Apple doesn’t announce a product until it is close to being done. They aren’t the type of company to announce a product just to grab headlines with some hot idea of the moment and then never follow through. However, this release date is surprisingly quick considering they just announced it a mere two months ago!

It was also something of a surprise to find out that there will be two versions released within a short  time of each other. The first version will only support Wi-Fi and be available on the April 3rd release date. Another version which will support AT&T 3G wireless will be at some unspecified time later in April. Will the Wi-Fi only version be upgradable to support 3G later? It doesn’t seem so.

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Microsoft releases its’ first application for android

March 4 2010 by Bill Foust in Android |No Comments

Engadget is reporting that Microsoft has released its’ first android application and something about that just makes me want to laugh. I guess it’s called irony.

Rest assured though, Microsoft is doing this for its’ own selfish reasons. It seems the Softies have created a colorized pseudo bar-code standard that can be used to put a ‘Tag’ on any printed media. Of course once the Tag is in place, something has to be available to read it, and thats what this application does. By capturing a picture of the Tag, the application will fetch whatever content is attached to the Tag for the user to see. This might be a video, web page, coupon or practically anything that can be served over the web.

It’s an interesting idea, but one that seems like it might have a steep adoption curve and an uphill battle for public acceptance.

Regardless of the use or application, this is one ‘First’ that I just couldn’t pass up.

Skype for Nokia now available in OVI Store

March 3 2010 by Dante Sarigumba in Nokia Apps, Symbian |No Comments

A press release is not only about company news, it’s also a venue for company executives to use big words. Here’s a quote from Larry Berkin, Head of Global Alliances and GM USA, Symbian Foundation, “Skype, the king of Internet communications, running on Symbian, the world’s dominant smartphone platform, makes for an explosive combination.”

What it really boils down to is if you are using Skype and also have a Nokia smartphone,  can your device run the Skype app? Here’s a listing of Nokia smartphones that supports the app: Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia X6, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia 5530 and the following non-touch devices: Nokia E72, Nokia E71, Nokia E90, Nokia E63, Nokia E66, Nokia E51, Nokia N96, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8Gb, Nokia N85, Nokia N82, Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8 Gb, Nokia N79, Nokia N78, Nokia 6220 classic, Nokia 6210 Navigator, Nokia 5320.

Source

Blogs a buzz over new BlackBerry leak

March 3 2010 by Bill Foust in BlackBerry |No Comments
new BlackBerry slider?

new BlackBerry slider?

The blogosphere is buzzing over the possibility of a new BlackBerry coming down the pipe with, of all things, a vertical slider.  There is plenty of debate going on at BBLeaks and CrackBerry whether this is a fake, a proof-of-concept device or a near production quality device that we might see on the market soon. The bottom line is that no one really knows and the pictures don’t really offer a great deal of detail.

Whatever the case may be regarding these leaked photos, the fact that there is a great deal of buzz about some new news speaks volumes for the BlackBerry handheld landscape.  The fact is that since the release of the Storm, there hasn’t been much coming out of the our friends up north in the way of exciting new handheld news. We’ve seen rehashes of the same styles. Updated Bold, revamped Curve 2, touch-pad vs track ball changes, etc. There just hasn’t been much though about any handhelds that are new and fresh and are more than just an update or stepping stone.

Quite frankly, the product line has gotten tired and I think BlackBerry is losing market-share and mind-share as people move on to the next ‘big thing’. It’s high time for RIM to make some noise again and shake things up in the mobile phone space, but can they do it?  They have come through many times in the past; making major moves when major moves were needed.

Is a slider styles phone the answer? Eh, I’m not so sure. Still, It’s nice to see people get excited again about a new leak.

More attacks on internet openness

March 2 2010 by Bill Foust in Mobile Industry, Wi-Fi |No Comments

I don’t know about you, but I really enjoy the abundance of free public wi-fi hotspots available at a number of fine retailers. Many times I’ve chosen to eat at Panera because I know I can also use the free wi-fi while there, so there is no question to me that it’s a service that works and improves the bottom line for the business.

Italy boots Google

Italy boots Google

The internet is a wonderful tool, but like any useful tool, it can be used for good or evil. Is that the tool’s fault? Common sense would say it is not, but there is a disturbing trend that indicates governments may think otherwise.

Recently, an Italian court found Google executives liable for content which was hosted on the high profile video site YouTube. Obviously, the court believes that Google should view every video and approve the content before publishing it. This idea is of course utterly absurd and impractical, but that doesn’t mean anything to a judge.  Sadly, the people of Italy will lose out because the easiest and most practical way to comply is to simply block access to traffic from Italy.

I think most people aren’t too surprised to hear of such nonsense from Italy. Italy’s long history is filled with glories that are obviously faded and tarnished.  You’ve come a long way from the center to culture and learning during the Renaissance period Italy!

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Waterproof case for Amazon Kindle

February 24 2010 by Dante Sarigumba in Accessories, Amazon Kindle, eReader |No Comments

The picture of poolside, a mojito and a Kindle makes me think of summer. But a body of water with an electronic gadget always makes one uneasy. Soon, you don’t have to worry about your Kindle getting wet if you get the Guardian case from M-EDGE. They just announced it today and said that it will be available sometime in the spring.

Get ready for an App store showdown.

February 24 2010 by Bill Foust in Android, App Development, BlackBerry, Mobile Industry, Windows Mobile, iPhone, webOS |No Comments
There has been a lot of news recently about app stores that, I think, is going to lead to a showdown of sorts in few years. I think we’d all be a lot more entertained if they would just strap on six-shooters and get it over with a high noon like the cowboys did, but more likely this one will be fought on the battlefields of the board rooms and court rooms.
Today, Pocketgear announced that it had purchased Handango to make the largest independent app store. It’s a good move for both companies I think because with more and more heavy-weight players getting into the space, there is no way they could have survived independently. As it is, I think the independent app stores are going to have a hard road ahead against the giants in the industry which both control the platform and offer a competing service. It wouldn’t be hard for any of the device manufactures to follow Apple’s path and only allow apps to be distributed from one place and effectively put the independents out of business.
Earlier in the week we saw a story from Dante that the various carriers around the world will join forces to create one Wholesale App Community. Wow! Suddenly there is a new contender in this market that is big enough to throw it’s weight around and make something happen – if it can get all the members to get along long enough to get it done. Sounds like a jockey trying to ride a dead horse to me. I’m not even sure I like the idea even if I felt like they could make it work. Carriers need to focus on providing a channel, and not try to provide content. I don’t pay for my broadband connection to get the dorky home page with news and other stuff on it. Don’t even bother with that junk, just give me a nice fat connections at a good price.

Apple seems to be feeling pretty comfortable right about now.  At the Mobile World conference Distimo showed a nice slide that showed apple ruling the roost when it comes to sheer numbers of applications in the app store. Maybe this has something to do with Apple’s recent decision to remove potentially offensive apps from the app store. Don’t worry Apple, I’m sure that for every person you stopped from being offended by an app, there is a developer who hates your guts right now.

I sure hope somebody out there figures out a way to distribute iPhone apps without using iTunes so all of those developers can thumb their noses at Apple later on. Though, there is always the army of Apple lawyers to be concerned about. No, on second thought, the best revenge a developer can have is to take that app to another platform and forget about the iPhone all together.
Okay, back to the slide. This slide is misleading as well because all of the other carriers allow apps to be distributed through third party channels such as Pocketgear, which isn’t even included in this slide.  And then there is the question of quality of the applications as well. Want a piece of crap? There’s an app for that.
Lastly, there was another slide that is very interesting as well showing average price of an application in each store.  Palm actually came in as the winner here with the lowest prices applications on average. Wait, winner? Since revenue is determined by sales price, I’m not sure this is a good thing, for Palm at least. BlackBerry was the real shocker with the highest price, by a lot, but does that mean the users are happier and the product is better?
With these other observations aside, I come back to my original point. I think the App Store space is set for some major shake down. For better or for worse, I see the vendor’s app stores becoming the standard and companies like Pocketgear and the Wholesale App Community losing out. The bottom line is that when you control the device and the App Store, you have an unfair advantage over a competitor who controls neither. I love to see capitalism at work though, and I hate to see iron-fisted rule like Apple has been doing for some time now. But, I have to say that I think that is the trend that will continue.

Mobile blogging through Posterous

February 24 2010 by Dante Sarigumba in BlackBerry, iPhone |No Comments
Mobile technologies are here to help us on our day to day activities and
when I started writing blogs for Mobile Computing Authority, the first thing
that I looked for is how to post a blog using my Smartphone. So, I started
to do some experiment if it is in fact easy or at least feasible. Using my BlackBerry, I
opened the BlackBerry Browser and login to our admin page. Page loads okay.
Navigating to the page is a bit clunky though and in fact very annoying.
Formatting a post is very difficult. I gave up quickly.
Posterous to the rescue (Insert drum rolls here…:)). Posterous.com is a
blog site but they have a neat feature that allows you to send an email to
their site and the content of the email will be posted to your blog. And not only that, you can configure it to also
post to your other blog sites. One neat feature is the ability to attach
media files and according to their site, media files will be formatted.
That’s just perfect, total mobility. Use your Smartphone for what it is good for and let their service do the rest. So, as an experiment, I signed up and configure my account to post here. This is my first post that’s all done from my BlackBerry Curve. Let’s see!

Posted via email from danters’s posterous

Update: After looking at this post, I found out that there are little things that’s not set. For instance, no tags and the post is uncategorized. And you don’t have any control of where the picture should be inserted. The convenience though makes this service very appealing and I’ll most likely use Posterous from time to time.

Craig also pointed out that there are iPhone apps just for blogging. A sample one is Wordpress for iPhone.

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