Symantec has found Windows Malware that attempts to infect Android
The Android OS has had its fair share of malware scares over the years, often drawing comparisons with its competitor iOS, who apparently has a pretty clean sheet. A new malware has reared its head in the last few days, found by Symantec, but while most Android malware targets the OS from within, this latest one takes a slightly different route. Trojan.Droidpak is its name and it is a piece of Windows Malware that attempts to infect Android.
So how exactly does it do this? Flora Liu from Symantec explains:
The infection starts with a Trojan named Trojan.Droidpak. It drops a malicious DLL (also detected as Trojan.Droidpak) and registers it as a system service. This DLL then downloads a configuration file from [a] remote server… It then parses the configuration file in order to download a malicious APK
The file also continues to do malicious things such as downloading Android Debug Bridge and searching for Korean online banking apps, prompting the user to replace them with infected versions; all-in-all, a pretty nasty piece of code. So how do you avoid the risk of becoming victim to Trojan.Droidpak? Symantec has these suggestions for you:
- Turn off USB debugging on your Android device when you are not using it
- Exercise caution when connecting your mobile device to untrustworthy computers
- Install reputable security software, such as Norton Mobile Security
- Visit the Symantec Mobile Security website for general safety tips
What do you make of these latest Android security risks? Let us know in the comments.
Android 4.4 KitKat update for HTC One hits U.S. carrier labs, certification expected next week
HTC took to the Twitterverse Thursday to announce that One owners in the U.S. should be seeing the update to the latest and greatest version of Android soon.
The company said that the final KitKat software has entered carrier labs for final testing and certification is expected next week.
The unlocked, developer and Google Play edition’s of the One have already received the update.
Over at the software update page, it also indicates that the KitKat updates for the AT&T HTC One mini and Sprint and Verizon HTC One max are in the integration phase, the Verizon HTC Droid DNA is in the certification phase and the Virgin Mobile HTC Desire 601 is in the integration phase.
For more information about the KitKat updates, check out the source links below.
The post Android 4.4 KitKat update for HTC One hits U.S. carrier labs, certification expected next week appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Reports of iTunes Radio Working in the U.K. After iPhone Restore
Over the past several months, iTunes users in the U.K. and several other countries have noticed the availability of the welcome screen of iTunes Radio on their devices, hinting at an upcoming release.
As of today, MacRumors has had a few reports from U.K. and Australian users that have been able to access and listen to iTunes Radio on their iPhones. While some MacRumors forum members in the U.K. have been able to access the service, others say that it is not yet available for them. Similar reports are coming in on Reddit and Twitter.
It appears that most of the users that are able to access and use iTunes Radio had recently wiped and restored their devices, which suggests that iTunes Radio may be accessible after an iPhone reactivates. MacRumors is not, however, recommending that users restore their devices, and it’s not clear if this is a temporary glitch as Apple prepares for the U.K. launch.
iTunes Radio, which was first announced in June at the Worldwide Developer’s Conference and later became available in September alongside the launch of iOS 7, has thus far been limited to listeners in the United States.
In October, Bloomberg suggested Apple would expand the service to Canada, the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand by early 2014, but the service has remained limited to the U.S. throughout January. While some U.K. users receiving access after a restore could indicate an imminent release, a similar situation arose back in October with some users in Canada and the U.K. temporarily able to access the service.
According to Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services Eddy Cue, launching iTunes Radio worldwide is a top priority for the company, with Apple ultimately aiming to have the service “in more than 100 countries.”
(Thanks, Mark!)
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Google glitch flooded at least one poor guy’s inbox
Users around the world dealt with Gmail woes earlier today, but at least one faced an even stranger Gmail problem. David Peck, a private banker from Fresno, California, has been receiving thousands and thousands of emails from strangers — all because of a bizarre Google search result glitch that apparently kicked in yesterday.
The culprit? A dodgy link that appeared when users perform a Google search for “Gmail.” If they were logged into a Gmail account at the time, clicking that link opened a blank email aimed at Mr. Peck’s Hotmail address, and more than a few curious users decided to fire off messages. Some of those myriad emails were questions, some were blank, but Peck told TechCrunch that he was receiving about 500 emails an hour.
Turns out, Mr. Peck may not have been the only victim here. Earlier this week, Search Engine Land reported a similar link issue that pointed to yet more people’s email addresses. We haven’t received reports of other inboxes getting slammed by strangers, but a Google spokesperson just confirmed that the now-fixed glitch caused “some email addresses on public webpages” to “appear too prominently in search results.” Peck’s story started making the rounds on the heels of a widespread Google app outage, but that was just bad timing — the company also stated that the two issues were unrelated.
Source: TechCrunch
PowerUp 3.0 obliterates its Kickstarter goal by well over $1 Million
Just before CES 2014 I showed you guys a really cool gadget, well more so a toy, that just looked like a lot of fun. It was a simple Bluetooth gadget that was housed under plastic. It was long and slender and had a prop and rudder on the back. Yes, the PowerUp 3.0 Bluetooth controlled Paper Airplane. How could you not want a smartphone controlled gadget that lets you take flight with your favorite paper airplane design?
Well, not surprising at all, but the PowerUp 3.0 is fully funded in a big way. They shot for a measly $50,000 to get the project going and are currently sitting at $1,195,785. Yes, that is over a million dollars. The PowerUp 3.0 is scheduled for release in March of this year and I can’t wait to get my hands on one. There is still 15 hours left, at the time of this post, to get in on the funding if you wish. The Early Bird special is gone, but the standard $30 package is open ended. Kick it up to $40 and you get quite a bit more. Head over to the PowerUp 3.0 Kickstarter page to check it out.
LlabTooFer breaks down the likely update schedule for HTC Devices, confirms existence of Sense 6.0
If you’re an owner of a HTC device, but you don’t own a HTC One, you’re probably feeling a little left out at the moment. While HTC has done a pretty good job sticking to their word and getting Android KitKat out to the HTC One in around 90 days, the Taiwanese manufacturer has stayed pretty quiet on what the update status of its other devices are (unless you own a HTC One X/X+; sorry!). So while HTC is busily tinkering behind closed doors, it turns to HTC guru, LlabTooFer, to appease the masses with a suggested update schedule for HTC Devices.
According to the schedule above, HTC’s second line of devices like the One Max and One Mini should be receiving Android 4.4.2 around this time as well, and HTC’s overseas devices like the Butterfly and Butterfly S will have to wait a little longer, most likely March or April for the Android 4.4.2 update.
While this was mostly expected, there are a few surprises in the document, including the fact that the Desire 601 will be receiving Android 4.4.2 and that the HTC One will be receiving an update to Sense 6.0 in “late summer/autumn”. This is probably the first time that Sense 6.0 has been mentioned, apart from rumours the HTC One 2 would be the first device with the new UI. While having the schedule is all well and good, LlabTooFer is quick to remind us that this schedule is provisional and can change at any time, so don’t get too disappointed if an update ends up being late. Well, not too disappointed anyway.
What do you think about this update schedule for HTC Devices: are there any surprises in there for you? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Source: LlabTooFer
MacMiniColo Launches $99/Month Mac Pro Colocation Service [Mac Blog]
Popular Mac colocation service MacMiniColo.net has introduced a new Mac Pro colocation service with similar services to its existing offerings.
After being the first company to offer Mac mini colocation, we’ve been at it for nine years. Starting today, we’re happy to offer colocation of the new Mac Pro. For those who need extra power in the cloud, MacProColo is the way to go.
MacMiniColo owner Brian Stucki told MacRumors that the fan in the Mac Pro “does well getting air through the machine” and that heat dissipation will not be an issue in major data centers. However, he did note that the Pro draws significantly more power than the Mac Mini that they typically use which is the more difficult commodity to come by in a data center.
The company is offering two pricing packages, one with a 12-month commitment at $99 per month for 2TB of data transfer, and another at $119 with 3TB of transfer and no contract.
Unlike its Mac Mini offering, MacProColo will only colocate Mac Pro’s that users already own, rather than offering its own units for sale, because of extremely limited availability. Once stock improves, the company will offer Mac Pro units for sale and faster setup.
Yesterday, Stucki was testing a Mac Pro in his data center and noted that using a dummy HDMI adapter — convincing the Mac Pro that it has a display attached — has the machine running significantly faster because the Mac Pro’s dual GPU’s run faster when it believes a display is attached.
MacProColo.net isn’t the only company planning Mac Pro colocation services; MacStadium plans to offer a similar service in the near future.
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NimbleBit and Milkbag Games to Team Up for New ‘Disco Zoo’ Game [iOS Blog]
NimbleBit, the developer behind freemium hits like Pocket Trains, Tiny Tower, and Pocket Planes, has teamed up with Milkbag Games‘ Matt Rix, creator of Trainyard and Owen Goss, who did Landformer and Finger Tied, for an all new animal-based game called Disco Zoo.
Through casual puzzle gameplay, rescue animals from around the world to live in your very special Disco Zoo. Earn coins from your exhibits and keep the party going for both visitors and animals with disco dancing!
According to our sister site TouchArcade, the game will offer free-to-play mechanics like other NimbleBit games and as can be seen in the trailer above, it also features a similar pixelated art style.
While a specific release date has not been made available, NimbleBit says it is coming to the App Store soon.
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Engadget Podcast 381 – 1.24.14
Ben Gilbert is in charge of today’s wild podcast ride, and he’s taking Terrence and Joseph into uncharted territory: a place where people actually make cookie dough from scratch. The discussion attempts to swerve around the real issues, but ultimately slams head on into tech-related topics. You’ll get the full skinny on Obama’s recent NSA announcements, the emotional aspect of Beats Music and Facebook’s full-on nerd feud with Princeton. It’s a feet up kind of deal, so grab a mug of your favorite tea and settle in for this week’s glorious episode of the Engadget Podcast.
Hosts: Terrence O’Brien, Joseph Volpe, Ben Gilbert
Producer: Jon Turi
Hear the podcast:
07:39 – One of the rarest games in the world just landed on eBay
13:17 – Sony teases ‘slimmest’ PlayStation device coming to the UK on January 30th
14:49 – Microsoft moved 3.9 million Xbox Ones, while Surface sales soared
19:31 – President Obama announces limitations on use of NSA-collected data, puts database in the hands of third party
25:56 – Beats Music builds a unique, if messy, listening experience around emotion
38:46 – WSJ: Apple considering two iPhones with larger screen sizes and metal casings
07:39 – Facebook gets into nerd feud with Princeton, hilarity ensues
13:17 – Pope Francis sees the internet as a blessing for communication
Subscribe to the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC).
[RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically.
[RSS AAC] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in enhanced AAC) to your RSS aggregator.
[Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace.
Download the podcast:
Contact the podcast:
Connect with the hosts on Twitter: @terrenceobrien, @realbengilbert, @jrvolpe
Email us: podcast [at] engadget [dot] com
Filed under: Podcasts
SoundCloud reportedly in talks with record labels to stem copyright claims
Both listeners and uploaders would likely agree that SoundCloud is becoming the main hub on the internet for user-created audio content. However, it seems as if the company may be looking to grow beyond that. According to Re/code, SoundCloud has started approaching “big music labels” in hopes of landing licensing deals for “some of their songs.” While a number of copyrighted tunes can already be found on the site (see above), the music labels still have full control and can easily take down any media that isn’t supposed to be there. For SoundCloud users, this would signify having access to a more robust library of songs from known artists, while the record companies would benefit by taking a chunk of money in exchange for a licensing agreement. It could be a bold move for SoundCloud, but with investors recently showing they have quite a lot of faith in it, perhaps the service isn’t far off from coming to terms with the almighty music labels.
Filed under: Misc, Portable Audio/Video, Internet
Via: The Verge
Source: Re/code
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