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Showing posts with label google innovation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label google innovation. Show all posts

Google Deodorizes Sniffable "Android Security Flaw"

Android Phone Tips

Android Phone Tips
Google has begun rolling out a patch to fix a security flaw in versions 2.3.3 and earlier of its Android mobile operating system. That flaw affects all Google services using the ClientLogin authentication protocol. It lets hackers access any personal data available through Android's application programming interfaces (APIs). "The flaw is now fixed for all versions of Android worldwide," Google spokesperson Randall Sarafa told LinuxInsider. 

If the token is used in requests sent over unencrypted networks, such as WiFi networks, hackers can steal it. The hackers will gain full access to the victim's calendar, contacts information, or private Web-based photo albums. Google's patch forces an HTTPS connection for calendar and contacts sync on Android, Sarafa said. 

Authentication tokens are widely used for online services such as eBay. There was a problem with the authentication token on Android because Google's implementation was faulty, Paul Laudanski, director of ESET's cyber threat analysis center, told LinuxInsider.

"The entry point is having an unpatched or vulnerable Android system connecting to Google services using ClientAuth over an unencrypted public WiFi network," Laudanski explained. Google services transmit the authorization token as an open text message, which can be easily stolen.

Android smartphone owners should stay away from heavily used public WiFi hotspots, Paquette warned. Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer for Unix and Windows. UDP, the User Datagram Protocol, is one of the core members of the Internet Protocol (IP) Suite. The team found that Google doesn't encrypt traffic to Google Calendar, although it properly encrypts traffic to Gmail and Google Voice. 

A few days ago researchers at Ulm University in Germany found that it was “quite easy” for hackers to intercept data from Google’s photo-sharing, calendar and contacts applications, as well as potentially other Google services including Gmail, and already Google says it has “fixed” the problem. 

The flaw worked by allowing unsecured wireless access points that imitate public Wi-Fi hot spots that the phone has accessed before to capture an authentication token. That token could then be used by attackers to access and modify personal data in calendar and contacts, as well as Google photo site Picasa. The problem may be short-lived, however for Google says the security flaw has been fixed in Android’s 2.3.4 version.

FORMER CEO Eric Schmidt has said that Google is will improve the security and privacy of Android devices by simplifying how its users define their sharing settings. According to the BBC, Schmidt, speaking at a UK conference on privacy, said that Google will simplify the app installation process and make it much clearer when and if users are expected to share their sensitive data. "It is worth stressing that we can only do this with data you have shared with Google. 
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Friday, May 20, 2011 | 0 comments | Labels: , ,

New Tasty Delights "Android's Ice Cream Sandwich"

Android Phone Tips

Android Phone Tips
Google officially unveiled AndroidIce Cream Sandwich this week at its annual I/O 2011 event in the US. The latest version follows in the footsteps of previous Android incarnations by being named after desserts, but Ice Cream Sandwich could prove the most pivotal update yet in Google’s battle to compete with Apple for phone and tablet supremacy.

Ice Cream Sandwich is designed to combine the smartphone and tablet versions of Android, therefore integrating the two. We’ve heard several times before that Android’s fragmentation holds back Google from being top dog, but Ice Cream Sandwich could see this change. Android being integrated together will provide a more solid base for the whole platform. At the moment there are Android devices running on all kinds of different Android numbers, 2.2 being the most popular.

Of course, some older Android handsets have not been updated even that far and are on 2.1 or older, whereas new top of the range devices like Samsung’s Galaxy S2 are on Android 2.3.3 – the latest smartphone version of Android. Android 3.0 (AKA Honeycomb), which will be updated to 3.1 within the next month was Google's first tablet-specific variant of Android.

Google announced its next version of the Google Android operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich, at Google I/O this week. Google I/O is the company's annual developer conference, held in San Francisco. (The different versions of Android are named alphabetically, i.e., Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, and now Ice Cream Sandwich.)

Ice Cream Sandwich will basically bring the functionality of Honeycomb, the version of the OS tailored for tablets, to your phone. This next version of Honeycomb, which will eventually make its way into Ice Cream Sandwich phones, includes features such as 3D facial detection. Though Honeycomb was designed for tablets, Ice Cream Sandwich will be a cross-platform OS. Google hasn't said exactly when Ice Cream Sandwich will launch. Google also hasn't said which devices will be first to offer Ice Cream Sandwich.

Because Ice Cream Sandwich is expected to be the "unifying" version of Android, Google has said it will be able to run on most versions of existing Android hardware. Apple has a huge app store because of this, whereas Google’s Android Market is smaller because of the difficulties that are faced with developing.

Ice Cream Sandwich will look to combine Android 2.3 and 3.0 together to produce one single platform for phones and tablets. Therefore apps will only need to be developed for one type of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich – as yet unnumbered. Because of Android’s open source nature, users and companies alike can customise their phone. This means that one user’s phone will look, feel and act differently to another user’s phone.

Despite unifying platforms, this will remain the case under Ice Cream Sandwich. Thing is, Google locked-down the source code of Android 3.0 and this meant no UI customisations, like Samsung's TouchWiz or HTC's Sense UI. First up, just how long will the unification of the Android platform take? Google didn't give specifics. 

Will it take as long for Ice Cream Sandwich to be rolled out? Google says that Android Ice Cream Sandwich will 'adapt' to the device's hardware, which means, in theory, it'll work on everything. With Ice Cream Sandwich, Google is hoping to boost its own ecosystem. Developers will be able to create apps across the whole Android platform in one go, for both tablets and phones. It seems that Google certainly isn’t.


Android has been growing bigger and bigger itself, even without Ice Cream Sandwich. We shouldn’t forget that Android is already a huge operating system across the globe. The point here is that Android can get even bigger. Google is setting its stall out when it claims Android Ice Cream Sandwich is set to be “One OS Everywhere”.

When Google says this it really means it, with suggested future plans including Android eventually running everything in your home. The plan is to unify all Android devices, but if the updating process goes wrong, it could cause more fragmentation than before.
By. Android Phone Tips


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Sunday, May 15, 2011 | 0 comments | Labels: , ,

Google Innovation Continues

Android Phone Tips And Tutorial
Android phone users with the 1.6+ versions (a.k.a. Google phone users) can benefit from two new services launched recently by Google.

Google Goggles is the new way to search the web, using images instead of typing or dictating. Mobile users with an Android version 1.6 or above can use this application
(downloadable through the Android Market) to find out information about books, artwork and landmarks simply by taking a picture. In addition, it allows users to scan a business card, save the information and later contact the person directly without having to type a thing.

As soon as the search is done, users can discard the pictures or save them to their search history to view at any time.

The YouTube tutorial of Google Goggles indicates the technology is still in its infancy and that i t works best on the above-mentioned things; not so much with food, cars, plants or animals...yet.

"We're only scratching the surface of the visual search technology. In the future, it will help you do more with these things such as suggesting a move in a chess game or taking a picture of a leaf to identify the plant," says the tutorial.

What's Nearby is the name of the second offering, a search add on for Google Maps. Users must choose their Location and What's Nearby will tell them the top 10 places to be in that region.

Available as an update from the Android Market, Google is marketing What's Nearby as an excellent tool for those who have a little time to kill in an unknown place such as someone on a business trip who's unfamiliar with the city he's visiting and has an hour or two between checking into the hotel and the first meeting.
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Wednesday, October 13, 2010 | 0 comments | Labels:
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