Bootloader Unlocker Tool By HTC

The good news is that as promised phone-maker HTC has launched a new web tool that you can use to unlock the bootloader on selected Android smartphones. The bad news is that right now selected smartphones means the European version of the HTC Sensation… and that’s it.
Soon HTC plans to add the HTC Evo 3D and HTC Sensation 4G phones from Sprint and T-Mobile in the US to the list, but for now US customers are going to have to stick with unofficial bootloader unlocking tools.
The bootloader is a program that loads the operating system on your device. By locking the bootloader HTC could tighten security on a smartphone. But by giving users the ability to unlock their own bootloaders, HTC is making it easier for customers to load custom software such as CynaogenMod or other complete operating system replacements onto their phones.
While HTC is making it easier for users to unlock their bootloaders, the company is not officially supporting phones once the bootloader is unlocked. In other words, if you use the HTC tool to unlock your device you’ll void your warranty.
The unlocking process is a little complicated, and requires you to have the Android software development kit installed, Java running, and HTC Sync software.

Fore More Information Click Here

-News Source (HTC & Mobiputing)

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Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Will Be Used BY HTC in Early 2012

The HTC Sensation, Sensation XL and Sensation XE were named as the first HTC smartphones lined up for the Ice Cream Sandwich update early next year, as well as the HTC Rezound, EVO 3D, EVO Design 4G and Amaze 4G, which will receive the update over-the-air “through close integration with our carrier partners,” HTC said. The new HTC Vivid, going on sale this week, is also on the upgrade list.
Owners of HTC phones will have to wait until early 2012 for their device's mobile OS to be upgraded to Google’s Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0. In a post to its Facebook page HTC wrote not just phones with fast multi-core microprocessor chip architectures would get Android 4.0, but also HTC phones with fast single-core processors, such as the HTC Sensation XL. Android 4.0 is meant to be Google’s OS that bridges the smartphone and tablet gap – currently served by two different versions of the OS. Ice Cream Sandwich refreshes the navigation methods on Android phones by removing the need for the hardware navigation buttons, as well as a sleeve of improvements and gimmicks my colleague Armando Rodriguez discusses at length.

For more info about Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich click Here

-News Source (PC World, HTC)

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HTC Patched Wi-Fi Vulnerability In Its Android Phones

HTC Patched Wi-Fi Vulnerability In Its Android Phones 

Wi-Fi vulnerability in Android Phones of HTC has been pacthed. The company has provided a firmware update to fix a "small" security hole which allowed Wi-Fi credentials to be easily stolen. Both HTC and Google were informed of the problem last September. 

Chris Hessing and Bret Jordan, security architects at Open1X Said:-

"There is an issue in certain HTC builds of Android that can expose the user's 802.1X Wi-Fi credentials to any program with basic Wi-Fi permissions, When this is paired with the internet access permissions, which most applications have, an application could easily send all stored Wi-Fi network credentials (user names, passwords, and SSID information) to a remote server."

HTC said it had developed a fix for the issue. "Most phones have received this fix already through regular updates and upgrades. However, some phones will need to have the fix manually loaded."

Affected devices include the Desire HD, Glacier, Droid Incredible, Thunderbolt 4G, Sensation, Sensation 4G, Desire S, Evo 3D and Evo 4D. Despite the big time lapse between the discovery of the issue and HTC releasing a fix, Hessing and Jordan commended the two firms' handling of the problem.

"Google and HTC have been very responsive and good to work with on this issue. Google has made changes to the Android code to help better protect the credential store and HTC has released updates for all currently supported phones and side-loads for all non-supported phones," they said.

-Source (v3.uk & HTC)

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HTC Is Going To Release First Windows Phone 7 Handset (HTC Kaixuan) For China

HTC Is Going To Release  First Windows Phone 7 Handset (HTC Kaixuan) For China

Finally the Microsoft Mobile OS reached the key market of China. Taiwanese smart phone maker HTC has planed to release what could be the first Windows Phone 7 handset for mainland China. The HTC Kaixuan (triumphant return) will be launched later this month, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. HTC is already accepting pre-orders for the device on its online store in China for 4,399 yuan (US$698). Microsoft had said it expected its Windows Phone 7 mobile OS to launch in China during the first half of this year. Handset makers Nokia and ZTE also plan to release Windows Phone 7 smartphones in 2012.
HTC, however, said the Kaixuan is different in that its Windows Phone 7.5 OS has been localized for Chinese users. For instance, the Kaixuan comes installed with Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter. Windows Phone 7 is however coming to China at a time when Google's Android OS is dominant, with a 56 percent share of the market in 2011, according to research firm Canalys. Android's open source nature has been the big reason behind the success of the OS, said Canalys research director Nicole Peng. This has allowed Chinese companies and developers to build a strong ecosystem around Android, resulting in localized versions of the OS and apps specially built for average Chinese consumers, she added. To compete with Android, Microsoft will need to develop the same kind of ecosystem for its Windows Phone 7 OS, which it so far lacks in China. "For Windows Phone 7, the biggest problem is the system is not localized enough," Peng said.

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Vulnerability Found in HTC Android Devices, Leaking Personal Data

Massive Security Vulnerability found in HTC Android Devices (EVO 3D, 4G, Thunderbolt, Others) Exposes Phone Numbers, GPS, SMS, Emails Addresses, and many more.

Vulnerability:-
In recent updates to some of its devices, HTC introduces a suite of logging tools that collected information. Lots of information. LOTS. Whatever the reason was, whether for better understanding problems on users' devices, easier remote analysis, corporate evilness - it doesn't matter. If you, as a company, plant these information collectors on a device, you better be DAMN sure the information they collect is secured and only available to privileged services or the user, after opting in.

That is not the case. What Trevor found is only the tip of the iceberg - we are all still digging deeper - but currently any app on affected devices that requests a single android.permission.INTERNET (which is normal for any app that connects to the web or shows ads) can get its hands on:-

• the list of user accounts, including email addresses and sync status for each

• last known network and GPS locations and a limited previous history of locations

• phone numbers from the phone log

• SMS data, including phone numbers and encoded text (not sure yet if it's possible to decode it, but very likely)

• system logs (both kernel/dmesg and app/logcat), which includes everything your running apps do and is likely to include email addresses, phone numbers, and other private info

Normally, applications get access to only what is allowed by the permissions they request, so when you install a simple, innocent-looking new game from the Market that only asks for the INTERNET permission (to submit scores online, for example), you don't expect it to read your phone log or list of emails.
But that's not all. After looking at the huge amount of data (the log file was 3.5MB on my EVO 3D) that is vulnerable to apps exploiting this vulnerability all day, I found the following is also exposed (granted, some of which may be already available to any app via the Android APIs):

•     active notifications in the notification bar, including notification text

•     build number, bootloader version, radio version, kernel version

•     network info, including IP addresses

•     full memory info

•     CPU info

•     file system info and free space on each partition

•     running processes

•     current snapshot/stacktrace of not only every running process but every running thread

•     list of installed apps, including permissions used, user ids, versions, and more

•     system properties/variables

•     currently active broadcast listeners and history of past broadcasts             received

•     currently active content providers

•     battery info and status, including charging/wake lock history

•     and more

Affected Phones:-

•     EVO 4G

•     EVO 3D

•     Thunderbolt

•     EVO Shift 4G?

•     MyTouch 4G Slide?

•     the upcoming Vigor?

•     some Sensations?

•     View 4G?

•     the upcoming Kingdom?

Note: Only stock Sense firmware is affected - if you're running an AOSP-based ROM like CyanogenMod, you are safe.

Here is Video to Show you  The HTCLoggers.apk Vulnerability:-

HTC's Response:-

After finding the vulnerability, Trevor contacted HTC on September 24th and received no real response for five business days, after which he released this information to the public (as per RF full disclosure Policy). In my experience, lighting fire under someone's ass in public makes things move a whole lot faster, which is why responsible disclosure is a norm in the security industry. (This is where we come in.)
As far as we know, HTC is now looking into the issue, but no statement has been issued yet. HTC, you got yourself into this mess, and it's now up to you to climb out of the hole as fast as possible, in your own interest. The ball is in your court.

-News Source (Android Police)

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Samsung Galaxy S3, S2 & HTC Android Phones are Vulnerable to 'remote wipe' Hack

Samsung Galaxy S3, S2 & HTC Android Phones are Vulnerable to 'remote wipe' Hack

Yet again a large number of Android users have been warned of a security hole. Security experts have uncovered that millions of Android handsets including the Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy S2, HTC One X and HTC Desire can be wiped just by visiting a malicious website that embeds particular code in weblinks. A user with a vulnerable handset who visits a page and clicks a link containing the malicious code would see their phone wiped, losing personal data such as photos and texts as well as repleaceable data such as contact details and apps. The flaw is caused by a security hole in some versions of Android's dialler software, which allows the "tel:" URL prefix to be used on a webpage to perform functions on the phone's dialling software. Normally that is useful for functions such as initiating a call on the handset directly from a site. But the tel: prefix can also be used to pass a string of non-numeric data to the dialler.

Special strings of characters can perform other functions; for example typing #06# on the dialler will display a phone's IMEI number. The flaw exploits a string that activates a factory reset of some phones because they do not force a user interaction before carrying out the function encoded in the string. The code would have to be embedded as a link to cause the user to activate it - but it would be easy to represent it as an innocent link to Google or any site. Pressing the link would initiate the wipe.

Users of vulnerable handsets may be able to install a third-party dialler and make that the default as protection against the "remote wipe" attack. Experts also pointed out that not all Android handsets have the capability for a remote wipe built in - although the number of models discovered with the vulnerability has grown since it became known on Tuesday.

Dylan Reeve, a New Zealand-based TV editor who first brought the flaw to wide notice, says that Samsung Galaxy phones which use Android 4.1 will be safe from the hack. But that still leaves millions of Galaxy S2 and some S3 models which will not have had the correct revision of the firmware rolled out to them and which could be hit.  

Though the vulnerability was fixed in Android's core code earlier this year, that code has not been propagated to every handset in use. The fact that the flaw existed in handsets from Samsung and HTC - the two biggest vendors of Android handsets - also suggests that a huge number of existing handsets could include the outdated code.

Samsung said in a statement that it has already provided a patch for the Galaxy S3, but it is not clear how long that will take for operator approval and rollout. In general software updates to any phone have to first be tested and approved by the carrier supporting the phone. Samsung said it is testing a patch for the Galaxy S2, but had no information on when it will be available or how it will be distributed. But HTC has issued a statement saying that "our devices do not support a USSD code to factory reset option." This means that they should not be vulnerable to the exploit described below.

-Source (Guardian)

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Facebook & HTC Developing Facebook Phone Codenamed "Buffy"

Facebook is working with HTC to develop a phone that has a much deeper integration with the social network than any previous "Facebook phone." That's according to a report from All Things, which says the phone is probably 12 to 18 months away from hitting store shelves.

Codenamed "Buffy" after the vampire slayer of the same name, the phone will run a modified version of Google's Android, but Facebook is reported to be tweaking the system "heavily."

HTC is known for modifying Android on its phones with its HTC Sense interface, and both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have created tablets with highly customized versions of the Android, so it's possible that Facebook is adopting a similar strategy.

Part of the package would be serving up Facebook apps via HTML5 support. This would allow users to play games like Farmville and Poker directly from the Facebook app. While most developers offer their apps as separate downloads from Facebook, that prevents them from tapping into active Facebook users, while cutting Facebook off from potential revenues. Buffy would presumably bridge the gap.

Both HTC and Facebook told media that they don't comment on rumor and speculation, though the Facebook spokesperson added, "Our mobile strategy is simple: we think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social. We're working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers to bring powerful social experiences to more people around the world."

The collaborative picture Facebook paints is a far cry from the ultra-competitive war among mobile platforms with Google, Apple, Facebook, and others vying for consumers' hearts and minds. Perhaps the most telling aspect of the rumored phone is the codename. With a name like Buffy, the Facebook phone's mission is clear: slay all comers.

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Android Exploit Allowing Malicious Application To Record Calls,Take Pictures, Video, Log SMS, & Track Locations

If you are an Android user then you are in lack of  privacy. Recently scientists from NC State have identified an exploit in select Android phones that allows an app to get permissions to do nearly anything: record calls, take pictures or video, log SMS, and track locations. 

The researchers found security holes in phones from HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and Google — including the EVO 4G, Nexus One, Legend, Epic 4G, and Nexus S. They say the glitch relates to manufacturer supplied enhancements; this could refer to custom UIs like HTC Sense and Samsung Touchwiz, but that wouldn’t apply to the vanilla Nexus phones.

The team created a custom diagnostic app, Woodpecker, which tested the permissions vulnerabilities on eight phones. The least secure was the EVO, which leaked camera, location, SMS, and audio data. The Legend logged six leaks, with the Epic 4G tallying three. The Nexus One and Nexus S leaked one permission. The worst perpetrators are well over a year old, but many customers still use them under their original contracts. The frightening part is that, before going public with the findings, the NC State scientists approached the manufacturers and were largely ignored. Google and Motorola confirmed the holes, but Samsung and HTC haven’t given the researchers the time of day. As this is an enormous security threat, the lackluster response is beyond disappointing. Skeptics can see the egregious exploits demonstrated in the following video. This isn’t for the faint of heart, as it demonstrates the app recording audio and sending text messages without user knowledge or consent. 

Video Demonstration By The Scientists:-

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NQ Mobile Security & Antivirus (Advanced Security Tool For Android)

NQ Mobile Security has released a security tool & Antivirus to remove malware, Spyware & Viruses. Award wining mobile security and privacy protection company NQ has claimed that NQ Mobile Security will protect your android phone and tablet from viruses, malware, spyware, trojans and phone hacking. Download NQ Mobile Security & Antivirus is a free Antivirus which will enhance your privacy protection, phone locator, data backup, safe browsing, traffic monitoring and safe apps recommendations for your Samsung Galaxy, HTC Desire, HTC Evo, LG Optimus, Motorola Droid, Milestone, Huawei etc.

Video Demonstration:-

Key Features:- 

ANTIVIRUS & SECURITY PROTECTION:-

• Antivirus: blocks viruses, malware, spyware and trojans, and uninstalls malicious apps to protect you from phone hacking
• Safe browsing: protects you from phishing, fraud sites and malware while browsing the Internet
• Safe download: scans apps in real-time during download
• FREE virus database update ensures you’re always protected from the latest threats

NETWORK MANAGER:-

• Traffic monitoring: provides real-time updates on data usage to ensure you don’t go over your plan’s limits
• Traffic usage trends and statistics over the past 30 days
• Traffic consumption ranking of the apps
• Monitors traffic usage details of your apps

PRIVACY PROTECTION:-

• Privacy protection: monitors apps that access your private data without your permission

SYSTEM OPTIMIZATION:-

• One-touch device optimization: ensures your Android phone is running at top speed by closing apps that run in the background without your knowledge
• Traffic monitoring: provides real-time updates on data usage to ensure you don’t go over your plan’s limits

BACKUP & RESTORE:-

• Backup & restore: allows you to easily backup and retrieve contacts and messages on mobile phones running on different operating systems, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry or Nokia phone and manages your backup data from web with a free account at NQ Space (i.nq.com)

FIND YOUR PHONE:- 

• Remotely locate your lost phone

NQ Mobile Security is freely available to download from Android Market. 

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Adobe releases Flash Player 10.3 update for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android

Adobe has released the latest update for Flash Player, version 10.3. The update works with all Flash-enabled platforms, including Windows, Mac OS, Linux and Android, with support for the most recent 3.1 update to Honeycomb. You can nab the download on the web at Adobe.com or through Android Market on your mobile device

The latest Flash update is all about squashing bugs and making things work more smoothly. On the Android side, that means NEON optimizations for OMAP4-based devices (pretty much just the BlackBerry PlayBook for now), various fixes for the Samsung Galaxy S, HTC EVO and some Motorola devices and some optimizations for Android 3.0+. All of the fixes are detailed on Adobe’s Android patch notes page. There are a variety of fixes on the non-mobile side as well, along with a handful of new features.
In addition to some new developer tools for measuring video and acoustic echo cancellation, there are also now new controls for managing local storage that have been integrated directly into your browser’s privacy settings, with support for Mozilla Firefox 4, Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 and higher, Google Chrome 11 and “a future release of Apple Safari.” The update also adds a dedicated Flash Player Settings Manager to Control Panels/System Preferences on Windows, Mac and Linux computers, and auto-updated notifications for Mac OS. 
Download Adobe Flash Player 10.3

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Your Car At Risk, Hackers Can Attack Modern Cars Remotely

Hackers could attack modern cars without even touching them, as new car models roll off the line loaded with complex IT systems running millions of lines of software code, it's become evident that hacking a car to gain external control of it is possible. While actual cases in the field are rare, the industry is moving to secure its systems and prevent cars from becoming a major target said by Brian Jackson a security researcher. In the exclusive report he said: An unsuspecting driver opens her door and steps into her new car, placing her smartphone on the dash as it connects with the in-car infotainment system for hands-free features. Little does she know there's a Trojan virus on her phone just waiting to be connected to a car – and it executes malicious code on the vehicle's embedded software. Suddenly a hacker has the ability to track her car, unlock the doors, or even control the climate controls and speaker volume.

It sounds like a scene out of the next James Bond film, but the above scenario could be a reality today. As auto makers look to woo consumers with snazzy in-car technology features, they are also opening up personal vehicles to the underground community of hackers that have long targeted computer users. In-car IT systems such as Ford's Sync or General Motor's OnStar could be opening up exploits that allow hackers to take control of your car without even laying hands on it.

While complex in-car IT systems are so new that actual car hacking cases in the field are virtually non-existent, researchers have demonstrated it's possible. But investigations into car hacking by police may be impossible at this point because of a lack of forensics capability to detect malware. All the more reason for security vendors like McAfee, now a division of Intel Corp., to push car manufacturers to pay serious attention to security.

“It shouldn't be the responsibility of the consumers to have to secure these systems,” says Tim Fulkerson, senior director of marketing at McAfee embedded security group. “Just as manufacturers have built in seat belts and air bags, now that they're moving to software innovation, they need to bring software security into these vehicles.”

Best known for its PC antivirus software, McAfee is now working with car makers to build secure enough systems that consumers won't end up buying virus scan software for their ride. When it comes to car makers and securing IT system, Fulkerson says it “is certainly not their area of expertise.”

Perhaps that's why a team of car-hacking researchers from the University of Washington and the University of California at San Diego have had so much success. Dubbed the Center for Automotive Embedded Systems Security (CAESS), the team demonstrated in May 2010 how a criminal with physical access to a car could implant malware. Then in August 2011, the team showed an external car hacking attack could be mounted through various paths including Bluetooth and cellular radio.

One such attack was executed after the researchers reverse-engineered a car's telematics operating system and found the program responsible for handling Bluetooth functions. From there, they planted a Trojan horse (a piece of malicious software) on an HTC Dream smartphone that monitors for new Bluetooth connections and if it finds a telematics unit, sends the payload.

Researchers were also able to use special hardware to “sniff” the MAC address of the Bluetooth connection needed for pairing new devices with the telematics unit. After cracking the password through brute force, or machine-assisted repeat attempts, the Trojan could be uploaded from a device in the attacker's hands.

But seeing such an attack executed in the wild today is unlikely, according to Patrick Neal, a program coordinator for crime and intelligence analysis at the B.C. Institute of Technology (BCIT). He had his students explore car hacking methods identified by the CAESS group and others. 

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Skype 2.0 for Android Released and Also Hacked

It was only yesterday when Skype 2.0 for Android was released, but the latest version of the popular instant messenger has already been hacked to allow video calls to be made over Wi-Fi or 3G/4G using non-supported devices as well. Thanks to that, it is not only Google Nexus S, HTC Desire S, Sony Ericsson Xperia neo and Xperia pro owners who can enjoy Skype's newly-added and long-anticipated feature.
The hacked Skype 2.0 version has been intended to run on the Samsung Galaxy S II, and our test showed that it works without a hitch. However, the program has been successfully tried out on a number of other smartphones and tablets. So far, the list of devices that reportedly run the unofficial Skype

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Microsoft Patches Windows Phone Against Comodo Hack

Microsoft is rolling out updates to devices and platforms, including Windows Phone 7, affected by the fraudulent SSL certificates issued by Comodo. It is nice to see Microsoft both willing and able to get updates out to its phone platform in a timely manner. After the delays of the February 2011 update and the March NoDo update, people were beginning to wonder.

Just this week Microsoft started rolling out NoDo to the HTC Surround on AT&T and to customers of Optus in Australia. Telestra customers are in the "scheduling" phase which means they should get the update in a few days. NoDo was released in March, so for some this is coming six weeks late. 

As a result of being forced to wait by some carriers that didn't take their customers' desire for copy and paste seriously, some people took a shortcut. There was a hack (by the same people that gave us Chevron7) that would download the update directly from Microsoft, bypassing the carrier entirely. Microsoft warned that this wasn't a smart thing to do. The consequences of this rogue update process may leave the phone in an unpredictable state and prevent further updates. Turns out Microsoft was right.

The Comodo issue involved mail.google.com, login.live.com, login.skype.com, www.google.com, and five other popular sites. While Comodo has added the bad certificates to its certificate revocation list, Microsoft decided to patch Windows Phone 7 as well as most of its supported desktop platforms. Windows Mobile 6.x, the Kin, and all Zune devices are affected as well, but no word yet on whether or not they will get updated. 

As Microsoft began releasing the new update, dubbed 7392, it discovered that phones that had the Chevron7/NoDo hack wouldn't take the update. Their response? "We told you so" about sums it up. Honestly, I see no other reasonable response for Microsoft to make. Why should they spend any resources customizing an update to work on a device that has been hacked and configured in an unexpected way?

That said, the creators of Chevron7 developed another fix to undo the mess they made and Microsoft worked with them to verify it put the devices back the way they were so 7392, and presumably future updates, would take.

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Linux-based mobile OS Targeting Android

A Linux-based mobile OS is set to launch in China, presenting a possible threat to competitors as they vie for smartphone and tablet customers in the Asian market.

Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba says it will launch its Aliyn OS at the end of the month, after working on it for three years. Phone manufacturer Tianyu intends to sell the Aliyn-based K-Touch Cloud-Smart Phone W700 for $416 in several days, with plans to market a tablet soon.

Aliyn's main features include the ability to run Android apps in the cloud, as well as those created with JavaScript and HTML5. It offers users cloud-based email, data, text message and photo storage too, besides regular web search and GPS.

"Introducing cloud apps to mobile devices not only brings a whole new user experience, but also greater ease for third-party mobile software developers who will be able to use Internet technology such as HTML5 and JavaScript to reduce the complexity in the app development process," said Wang Jian, president of Alibaba Cloud Computing.

In most regions of the world, Aliyn would face fierce and nearly devastating competition from Google's Android and Apple's iOS. But in China where Tianyu's new phone is set to launch, the OS may have a chance. The country's mobile broadband infrastructure is still underdeveloped and essentially up for grabs to whoever can create the biggest presence there first.

China is still behind in the smartphone market, though 3G subscriber numbers jumped nearly 50 percent to almost 70 million last April. But given the country's enormous population, 70 million is a small number compared to the U.S. market, in which nearly half of phone owners have smartphones.

If Aliyn can create a foothold in time, then, it may stand a chance against planned marketing onslaughts from rivals Apple, Google and Nokia, which are also angling for the Chinese market.

Apple's COO Tim Cook reportedly held talks with China Mobile to introduce the iPhone on its network. Doing so would give it 600 million more customers in the country, especially if Apple also decides to provide a cheaper, prepaid version of its iPhone 3GS.

Android smartphone maker HTC also reports increased success in the Asian market, shipping 11 million smartphones inside China this last quarter.

Other Android phone manufacturers too have their eyes on the populous country, as analysts predict over one billion people there will own smartphones in the next five years.

Nokia too is looking to push into Asia with lower-end handsets, which could take a chunk out of smartphone sales since the latter tend to be more affordable.

The competition is fierce, but this unexplored market is up for grabs, and upstarts like Aliyn may see success if it can grapple with rivals for the upper hand. 

-News Source (Mobiledia)

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Microsoft Admits to More Windows Phone Update Problems

Yet another problem has cropped up preventing some Windows Phone 7 users from getting two software updates, adding a new chapter to the update saga that started in February.

Microsoft acknowledged that some Samsung Focus owners in the U.S. haven't yet received notification that the updates are available for them. "They're looking into the situation, but I'm afraid there's not much to report yet," wrote Michael Stroh, a Microsoft employee who is answering questions posted to the comments section on the Windows Phone blog.

On another Microsoft forum, some Focus users who haven't received the updates noticed that they have a more recent build version of the phone. While people with version REV 1.3 have gotten the updates, some of those with REV 1.4 haven't.

In addition, Stroh said that Microsoft has stopped sending updates to the Omnia 7, a phone available in Europe. "The team discovered a technical issue with the update package for this model. The work of fixing and testing the package is nearly done, and the team hopes to resume update deliveries soon," he wrote.

These are the latest issues to plague Microsoft as it tries to send out new software to Windows Phone 7 handsets. Microsoft started in February by pushing out software designed to make the update process smoother. It pulled that update shortly after because it made some Samsung phones unusable.

The company then delayed the first update of substance, known as NoDo, which adds the capability to cut and paste, to try to avoid similar problems. It is now pushing out both pieces of software simultaneously.

In the U.S., the software is being delivered to all phones except the HTC Surround, according to astatus page from Microsoft about the process. The updates are being delivered in most international markets as well.

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<a href=">Microsoft Admits to More Windows Phone Update Problems"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/04/microsoft-admits-to-more-windows-phone.html</a>

Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) Source Code Released

Google officially released the source code of long waited Android 4.0 also known as Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). Although the repositories will also contain the source code of Android 3.x, Honeycomb, it will be scattered through the history of the various files. Honeycomb was not released as open source because, according to Google, the company took numerous shortcuts in the development of the tablet version of Android. The Google developers are not globally tagging (marking in the history) the 3.x releases of Android in the repository. Queru said: "since Honeycomb was a little incomplete, we want everyone to focus on Ice Cream Sandwich", though he later backed off on this position slightly saying he was considering tagging some of the 3.2.x release in the frameworks to help developers. 

The release comes with ICS 4.0.1, the one Galaxy Nexus will ship with, so it’s the latest version. Unfortunately the device build target, full_maguro, can be used for building a system image for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, though we will get builds for more devices soon, according to Queru. Hopefully developers will be able to port it to other devices pretty soon, because I would really like to see how ICS runs on my Galaxy S II.
There were many rumors that Google will release the Galaxy Nexus at the November 16th event and once with this release we can be nearly sure that’s what the event will be about. All we have to see next is if Google will have more luck with their new device in comparison with the other Nexus-branded smartphones. They will probably be able to take advantage of the fact it will be only ICS smartphone, though I am pretty sure Samsung, HTC, Motorola and all the others will do their best and move fast to release ICS smartphones and updates for the ones currently on the market. Ice Cream Sandwich is the latest and probably the biggest Android update, which unites all devices into one OS and promises a lot of improvements, like speed and battery life. It also comes with exciting new features and an all-new design. It will probably boost Android’s sales even more.

To download the ICS Source Code Click Here

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<a href=">Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) Source Code Released"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/11/ice-cream-sandwich-android-40-source.html</a>

SMS Attack Vulnerability In Windows Phone 7.5

Khaled Salameh discovered a serious vulnerability on Windows phone 7.5 "Mango". He reported this vulnerability to WinRumors & Microsft.  If and when a security patch will be released from Microsoft's end to fix the issue is still unclear.

In an exclusive report it has been said that the Messaging Hub on Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango" devices can be completely disabled using a specially crafted SMS message. When a Windows Phone device receives the message, it causes the device to reboot and prevents the Messaging Hub from loading despite repeat attempts to open it. This Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack can also be exploited by sending a message from Facebook chat or Windows Live Messenger to the phone.

Video Demonstration:- 

Tom Warren fo WinRumor says that the only way to fix a device affected by the problem is to perform a hard reset and wipe the device, during which all personal data will be lost. They have also tested the attack on several phones such as the HTC TITIAN and the Samsung Focus Flash. These included devices running the 7740 build (7.10.7740.16) of Windows Phone 7.5 and Mango RTM build 7720 (7.10.7720.68). 

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<a href=">SMS Attack Vulnerability In Windows Phone 7.5"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2011/12/sms-attack-vulnerability-in-windows.html</a>