Tag: android

  • Why is Android still the second platform developers work on?

    Droid Life reported on why Android is still the second platform developers work on. Despite his love for Android, he and Martin were hesitant to launch on Android first: “Everything we’ve read, every number we’ve seen shows that it’s really difficult to get people to pay for apps on Android. We didn’t think we could…

  • How NSA and allies exploit Google and Samsung app stores

    Ars Technica reported on how the NSA and allies exploited Google and Samsung’s app stores. In 2011 and 2012, the NSA and the communications intelligence agencies of its “Five Eyes” allies developed and tested a set of add-ons to their shared Internet surveillance capability that could identify and target communications between mobile devices and popular…

  • Millions of Android phones don’t completely wipe data

    Allie Coyne reported for iTnews about Android’s factory reset flaw. Twenty-six second-hand Android phones running versions 2.3 to 4.3 of the operating system, sold by five handset makers, were tested. The researchers found that all retained at least partial amounts of data from contacts information, images and video, SMS, email, and data from third-party apps…

  • What does Google need on mobile?

    Benedict Evans wrote about what Google needs on mobile. Over time Android has also evolved to provide reach in collecting data as well – you’re always logged in to Google on your Android phone, and it knows where you are when you do that search or open that app, and where everyone else who ever…

  • Google backtracks from Android Lollipop encryption

    Ars Technica reported on Google backtracking from compulsory encryption for Android Lollipop devices. Last year, Google made headlines when it revealed that its next version of Android would require full-disk encryption on all new phones. Older versions of Android had supported optional disk encryption, but Android 5.0 Lollipop would make it a standard feature. But…

  • Siri is getting faster

    John Gruber wrote about Siri’s improvements. I’ve noticed over the past year that Siri is getting faster — both at parsing spoken input and returning results. I use iOS’s voice-to-text dictation feature on a near-daily basis, and it’s especially noticeable there. I’ve been using a Moto X running Android 5.0 the past few weeks, so…

  • Android password manager vulnerability unpatched after almost two years

    Ars Technica reported on Android password managers being wide open to sniffing attacks. Almost two years later, the threat remains viable in at least some, if not all, of the apps originally analyzed. An app recently made available on Google Play, for instance, has no trouble divining the passwords managed by LastPass, one of the…

  • Malicious software said to spread on Android phones

    NYTimes reported on the malicious software spreading on Android phones. A particularly nasty mobile malware campaign targeting Android users has hit between four million and 4.5 million Americans since January of 2013, according to an estimate by Lookout, a San Francisco mobile security company that has been tracking the malware for about two years. How…

  • Less than 0.1% of Android devices run Lollipop

    Business Insider reported on the breakdown of Android version adoption. Google in November launched Android Lollipop, which it called its largest, most ambitious OS update ever — but no one is using it. Less than 0.1% of Android devices currently run Lollipop, according to the company’s most recent numbers. The problem is, very few phones…

  • TAG Heuer and the future of the luxury watch industry

    Matt Richman wrote about the TAG Heuer smartwatch. TAG Heuer’s smartwatch won’t sell. There’s no market for it. Apple Watch requires pairing with an iPhone, and TAG’s smartwatch will need to pair with a smartphone to even have a chance of being as feature-rich as Apple Watch. Apple isn’t going to re-engineer iOS for TAG’s…