Android malware was cut by 50 percent in 2014
Google’s crackdown on malware has been working, at least according to them. In a new Android Security Report, Google says that the global rate of malware installs fell by 50 percent in 2014.
According to Google, only 1 percent of all Android devices had a harmful application in 2014. There’s even better news for those that only install applications from the Play Store as that number drops to .15 percent.
Google also provided device manufacturers with 79 security patches, and improved their abilities in responding to potential vulnerabilities. 73 of these patches have been released to AOSP, while the remaining 6 will get released with next AOSP update.
Google’s report is 44 pages and includes more information about the vulnerabilities, malware, and more. You will find it in the source link below.
source: Android Security 2014 Year in Review
via: The Verge
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First Gen Moto X, E and G with LTE will be updated straight to Android 5.1 Lollipop
If you own either the Moto X (1st Gen.), Moto E (1st Gen.) or Moto G with LTE (1st Gen.), you may be wondering where your Android 5.0 Lollipop update is. According to Motorola’s senior director of software product management, your devices won’t get the update, but they will get something better. In a Google+ post from earlier today, Moto’s David Schuster explained that given the improvements Google made in the most recent version of Android, Motorola is skipping the 5.0 update altogether and will update each device straight to Android 5.1.
From David Schuster:
As some of you might know, we’ve been testing Lollipop 5.0.2 upgrades on Moto X (1st Gen), Moto E (1st Gen) and Moto G with 4G LTE (1st Gen) in several regions. In parallel we have started testing Lollipop 5.1 which was recently released by Google. Given the improvements in Lollipop 5.1, we have decided to move all efforts to upgrade these devices directly from KitKat to Lollipop 5.1.
Schuster didn’t mention when the updates would begin rolling out to these devices, but we’re now sure that the company is testing it.
We know many of you may be irritated that your devices have yet to receive this big update, but this isn’t the first time we’ve heard about companies holding off until everything was perfect for users. Most notably, HTC was one of the first companies to delay the Android 5.0 update to the One M7 and M8 due to a number of issues in the first release of Lollipop. It may be difficult to wait, but this is definitely for the best.
If we get word that Android 5.1 is beginning to roll out to these devices, we’ll be sure to let you know right away.
DeNA’s Marvel Mighty Heroes fights its way to the Google Play Store
DeNA, the popular developer who has recently partnered with gaming giant Nintendo, has just released a brand new Marvel game to the Google Play Store. Marvel Mighty Heroes is a 4-player co-op brawler that pits your team of Marvel heroes up against numerous villains that we all love to hate. One of the more interesting aspects of this game is the ability to battle with up to three other players from around the world in real time, making it much more fun than just playing against computers.
Just like any other Marvel game, it’s your job to defeat forces of evil trying to take over the world. Most of the popular Marvel heroes have made their way into the game, including Captain America, Iron Man, Star Lord, The Hulk, Spiderman, Thor and many more. You’ll also be able to play against a number of villains like Green Goblin, Loki, Kingpin and Venom. The more matches you play, the more points you earn. You can use points to upgrade character attacks and abilities and even purchase new costumes that come with new attacks. DeNA has also included leaderboards and in-game multiplayer events. Additionally, the developer says the game will get regular updates that will add original content so players can stay interested.
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The game largely depends on button mashing with taps and swipes. Tap on the location where you want your character to move, tap again to attack, and swipe to avoid enemy attacks. The arenas are quite small, and since you’ll be playing with multiple people at once, each match can get pretty hectic.
The game is free-to-play, but offers a number of in-app purchases ranging anywhere from $4.99 to $99.99 per item. After playing this game for a little while, we’d say it’s pretty easy to get through the game without spending any extra cash. If you’re interested in checking it out, head to the Play Store link below.
DomiNations launches on Android for all your world conquest needs
Developer Big Huge Games and publisher Nexon have launched the free-to-play strategy game DomiNations today for Android devices.
Here’s what players can expect from this new far-reaching strategy game:
DomiNations launches on the iPhone and iPad for all your world conquest needs
Developer Big Huge Games and publisher Nexon have launched the free-to-play strategy game DomiNations today for the iPhone and iPad.
Here’s what players can expect from this new far-reaching strategy game:
DomiNations is a base-building strategy game where players will choose to lead one of the world’s greatest nations including the British, Romans, Chinese, Germans, French, Japanese, and Greeks. The timeline of DomiNations unfolds across the expanse of human history, where players must research landmark technological developments, leverage unique strategic civilization abilities, and build Wonders of the World in order to pave their way to victory. With famous generals like Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, and Napoleon at the helm, players can relive history’s most famous conflicts at the tips of their fingers.
In DomiNations, players will be able to construct more than 100 unique upgradeable structures in order to expand a civilization and defend against invading armies. Players must manage their food and economy while training troops and hiring mercenaries to colonize neighboring civilizations in real-time combat to expand their influence and earn valuable loot. The robust single-player experience in DomiNations will lead players on a campaign from the Fertile Crescent to World War II and beyond. The multiplayer mode will let players wage war against opponents from around the world while also joining alliances to cooperatively crush their enemies.
The development of DomiNations, which was first announced in October, was led by Brian Reynolds and Tim Train, who helped to design the classic PC strategy games Civilization II and Alpha Centauri. The two men later co-founded Big Huge Games where they developed the Rise of Nations titles for the PC. After working at Zynga for a few years, Reynolds and Train reformed Big Huge Games to create DomiNations for Nexon.
- Free with IAP – Download now
Source: Nexon
Google publushes stats to show that Android is safe
Google announced through a white paper that Android is safe and is only getting safer. Everyone should understand that cyber threats are not gone. We witnessed Sony get hacked in 2014, which was one of the biggest eye-openers for all of us last year. I think many of us realized, if Sony can get hacked, so can we.
Google, Apple, and Microsoft understand that security is on the forefront of everyone’s concerns when it comes to digital data. We also saw Snapchat hacks last year where thousands of private photos were leaked to the web for everyone’s viewing pleasure/displeasure. Google knows security is vital to all of us, whether we have private photos to protect, banking information, private emails, etc., most of us have something we want to keep private. If our privacy were to be violated, I am sure most of us would start looking for another platform to use.
Google has analyzed billions of data points, and in the white paper they give stats on how many people are protected.
– 1 billion devices are protected by Google Play – for perspective, the US has a population of 318 million people. That would be over 3x the population of the US. The UK on the other hand has a population of 64 million people.
– Fewer than 1% of Android devices had a potentially harmful app. That means, in all likelihood, you are safe. No system is perfect, but less than 1% if pretty good. That would be an A+ grade at a university.
– The overall worldwide rate of Potentially Harmful Application (PHA) installs decreased by nearly 50% between Q1 and Q4 2014. – Google is getting better at protecting us.
I’ve used Apple devices for years before I used Android. My own experience leads me to believe Android is the most safe environment out of both platforms.
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‘Binding of Isaac: Rebirth’ reborn on 3DS, Wii U and Xbox One
Prepare your consoles for ritual sacrifice. An edited version of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, the adorably disturbing roguelike from Super Meat Boy co-creator Edmund McMillen, is on its way to 3DS, Wii U and Xbox One. This is really happening, despite a few years of uncertainty about the game’s fate on Nintendo consoles. Back in 2012, McMillen said that Nintendo had nixed The Binding of Isaac (the version before the Rebirth expansion) on 3DS because of the game’s “questionable religious content.” It is a game about God compelling a mother to murder her own child, after all. However, Rebirth has since launched on PlayStation 4, Vita and Steam, and McMillen has remained optimistic about working with Nintendo. In July 2014, he noted that a 3DS version was still on the table.
Now, McMillen has laid out some of the edits that make the 3DS and Wii U versions possible.
“Now you know how I am about artistic integrity and trust me when I say I’d never compromise my art to make a quick buck,” he writes on his blog. “But after thinking outside the box a bit I came up with a few minor edits to the game that got more than a few suits on my side when it came to getting the green light. I’ll list out the edits below and I think you’ll agree they are so minor none of you will even notice.”
Before we dive into some of the changes, it’s worth noting that this blog post was published on April 1st. We double-checked with McMillen that this wasn’t all a cruel, cruel joke. “Something’s [sic] are true some aren’t but I’m happy with the edits we made,” he wrote back. Microsoft’s Xbox One version will be the same as the PS4 game, meaning no Nintendo-level edits, but it will “feature the green Xbox ‘X’ carved into Satan’s head (a lil’ gag to MS).”
On to the edits for 3DS and Wii U. McMillen notes three major areas that Nintendo found problematic: nudity (Isaac is a baby and is cartoonishly naked), use of the word “God” and Christian imagery. To fix the nudity issue, there’s now a fig leaf between Isaac’s legs, over what McMillen calls “questionable underage dingle dangle.” We meant it when we said this game was truly adorable and disturbing.
“God” is now “Dog” in the Wii U and 3DS versions, offering a bit of wordplay and a Son of Sam reference for good measure. As for the Christian imagery, McMillen replaced all of it with another, commonly ridiculed religion: Scientology.
“By switching out one mainstream belief system with a smaller one that’s more socially acceptable to mock in the media I turned the tides and created a game that is more socially acceptable but still brings home the strong message the game always had,” McMillen says.
There’s no release date for The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth on Wii U, 3DS or Xbox One, but McMillen says it should be “soon.” Overall, he’s happy with the edited game on Nintendo consoles.
“A few easy changes to get the game into the hands of Nintendo fans around the globe!” he writes. “An easy compromise that took us longer than a year to do… but was well worth it, artistic integrity intact.”
Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft, Nintendo
Source: The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Scrooge McDuck, Magica De Spell and the Beagle Boys go mobile in DuckTales: Remastered
I have very fond memories of my 8-bit gaming days on the NES. A few that stand out in my head were the Mario Bros series, Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Yo! Noid, Zelda and Duck Tales. Certainly one can grab all these classics and game to their heart’s content with […]
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HTC One M9+ leaks in Silver on Gold and all Gold
We are less than a week away until the HTC One M9+ is unveiled for real, but we aren’t sure what there is left to unveil? We have two more images for you to feast your eyes on.
As you can see, HTC will offer up the same Silver and Gold and all Gold options that are offered in the basic One M9.
I am still trying to figure out why HTC would offer this Plus version so close to the April 10 launch day of the basic M9?
source: @upleaks
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iPhone’s Force Touch Tech May Track Contact Area Instead of Pressure, New 4″ Model Unlikely in 2015
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a respectable track record at reporting on Apple’s upcoming plans, issued a note to investors on Thursday that claims the next-generation iPhone will have a FPC-made capacitive Force Touch sensor under the backlight, laminated with metal shielding. Kuo adds that the change may be significant enough for Apple to call its next iPhone the “iPhone 7″ instead of the so-called “iPhone 6s.”
The analyst claims that the hardware design of Force Touch will be different than the technology used in the Apple Watch and 12-inch Retina MacBook. Instead of directly detecting the pressure applied by fingers, the new improved Force Touch hardware will monitor the contact area where a finger presses to determine how much pressure is being applied. The sensor will use capacitive technology and thin FPC material to save space.
“We believe that iPhone’s Force Touch sensor doesn’t directly detect the pressure applied by fingers. Instead, it monitors the contact area on which the finger touches the screen to decide how big the pressure is.
There are two possible structural designs for Force Touch from a technology viewpoint. The Force Touch sensor can either be placed between the cover lens and the In-cell touch panel or under the In-cell touch panel’s backlight. In the first position, the technological challenge lies with how to produce the transparent Force Touch sensor; in the second position, the challenge is how to reduce signal interference from in-cell touch panel. Our understanding of the technology is that producing a transparent Force Touch sensor is more difficult, so the chances are the new iPhone this year will opt for the second position.”
Kuo adds that Apple is likely to change the hardware design of Force Touch again in 2016 by removing the metal shielding to achieve a thinner form factor. He notes that the changes should improve the iPhone user experience, but will likely create uncertainty for Force Touch module suppliers TPK and GIS, as well as metal shielding suppliers Minebea, Hi-P and Jabil.
Kuo claims that Apple is still targeting 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models for its next-generation iPhones, akin to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and notes that a 4-inch model is unlikely to be released this year. KGI Securities estimates iPhone shipments will total 25 to 30 million units in the third quarter, helping drive momentum for Force Touch components within the supply chain.
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