siliconbits writes “A Trojan posing as a media player for Android smartphones automatically sends text messages to premium rate numbers, according to Kaspersky Lab. Company officials say the Trojan, dubbed Trojan-SMS.AndroidOS.FakePlayer.a, is the first of its kind for the Android platform, even though SMS Trojans are currently the most widespread type of malware on mobile phones.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
tomhudson writes “Despite all the hype about Apple’s latest iPhone, Android has sold more in the last 6 months (27% of all smartphone sales) than Apple (23%). The gains for Android are coming at the expense of RIM (still #1 at 33%, down from 45% a year ago), Windows Mobile (11%, down from 20%) and the iPhone (down from 34% at it’s peak 6 months ago). If the current trend continues, Android is expected to be #1 within the year.”
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WrongSizeGlass writes “CNet is reporting that a fifth of Android apps expose private data. The Android market threat report details the security issues uncovered. Dozens of apps were found to have the same type of access to sensitive information as known spyware does, including access to the content of e-mails and text messages, phone call information, and device location. 5% of the apps were found to have the ability to make calls, and 2% can send text messages, without the mobile user doing anything.”
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An anonymous reader writes “Forbes is reporting that Moxie Marlinspike and Stuart Anderson’s startup, Whisper Systems, has released a public beta of two Android applications that provide encrypted call and SMS capabilities for your Android phone. In the wake of recent GSM attacks, it’ll be interesting to see if smartphones end up providing a platform that fundamentally changes the security we can expect from mobile communication.”
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anethema writes “iPhone hacker planetbeing, from the iPhone Dev Team, has successfully ported the Android OS over to the iPhone. He is doing it on a first-generation iPhone, but others may be possible. The port is pretty functional, with data, voice, and many apps working, although it is running a bit sluggish and buggy at the moment. There appears to be much work left.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Verizon’s highly awaited Droid phone lands November 6th, but Geek.com was able to get their hands on one and post early impressions. This will be the first phone shipping with Google’s Android 2.0 operating system, giving it a big advantage over some of the competing Android handsets on the market. Not content to win people over on software alone, Motorola included a 5MP camera, 16GB of storage, and an 854×480 WVGA display.
xchg passes along a WiseAndroid piece on the drop in value of Garmin and TomTom shares following Google’s announcement yesterday of Google Maps Navigation. “Shares of GPS device makers Garmin and TomTom plummeted… through a combination of their quarterly results and the launch of Google Maps Navigation. Following both low guidance for Garmin’s next quarter as well as poor results from TomTom, shares for the two fell 16.4 percent and 20.8 percent respectively and remained low through the entire trading day after news of Google’s free, turn-by-turn mapping service became public.” Today Lauren Weinstein posted a number of reasons why standalone GPS won’t go away any time soon.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Early this morning, Sony Ericsson took the wraps off of its first Android-based handset, the 1 GHz Snapdragon-powered Xperia X10. With a huge 4″ touchscreen, an 8.1 megapixel camera and the elegant custom user interface named “Rachael,” Sony Ericsson moves the Android platform a step further by giving it almost no mention in announcements and commercials.
Sony Ericsson mentions the Android Market, and notes in the spec sheet that the operating system is Android Donut 1.6, but otherwise it does not ride the point, and strives to make the device stand out as a distinct product.
This is where Android is headed, and it’s a good thing.
As anyone with a zealous interest in technology is sure to tell you, most people don’t give a damn what version of which operating system their phone is running. They only care if it works and their signals are strong. So rather than try to start an “I’m an Android / I’m an iPhone” battle like Verizon did with its Motorola Droid “iDon’t” advertising campaign, Sony Ericsson avoids even mentioning Android and the X10 in the same breath.
Instead, it gives its custom Android build its own name (UX Platform “built on top of the Open OS”) and talks about the uniquely Sony Ericsson experience it can provide with it.
It’s owning the Android experience, and in doing so, it’s giving the user less to think about and more to drool over.
Like Motorola did with MotoBLUR, Sony Ericsson has developed a new face for its Android devices which attempts to closely integrate the user’s mobile device with his various social networks and media sharing sites. Sony Ericsson calls the two applications Timescape and Mediascape, and we first had a glimpse of them back in January when a video runthrough of Rachael leaked. Timescape takes all communications with another person — be they through SMS, voice calls, e-mails, IMs, or social network wall postings — and ties them with that person’s contact information in your phone. If you hit the “infinite” button, you can pull up a chronological view of a contact’s online activity, something like an in-phone Friendfeed.
Mediascape is a highly visual media manager which integrates content stored on the phone with content on media Web sites. If you are listening to music, for example, pressing the “Infinite” button here would pull up relevant and related online content such as artist information, videos, downloads, and so forth.
As Sony Ericsson’s Head of Application Planning, Erika Kato Marcus, said in the joint venture’s new blog, “It’s about quick access to your music, videos and photos in one application…What we try to do…is to blur the boundaries between what is online and local.”
One of the few areas where the X10 is similar to other Android devices is in application acquisition, as its primary app store is the Android Market. However, Sony Ericsson has put its stamp here as well, and includes PlayNow Arena into the mix for additional games, applications, themes, wallpaper, ringtones, and music.
Like the company’s whole Xperia line, the X10 is a luxurious device. It has a 4″ (480 x 854) scratch resistant capacitive touchscreen, a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon (QSD8250) processor, 1 GB of onboard memory with 8 GB microSD included, quad-band GSM, UMTS, and HSPA 900/1700/2100, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi, and A-GPS. The camera is 8.1 megapixel with 16x digital zoom, geotagging and face recognition of up to five faces simultaneously.
Though the public’s attention has been captured by the Motorola Droid and its aggressive advertising campaign, it’s a move like this which makes big strides toward Android ubiquity.
PureMobile sent us in the GSM version of the HTC Hero, one of the most popular Android-based smartphones out there. There are already a number of in-depth reviews about this phone out there (here’s one), but here’s my own take on what I liked, and what I disliked. Read more on this exclusive OSNews article…
