Android and chill: Nougat and the root question

Android is safer than ever for the people who want (and need) it to be safe. We should be happy about that.

There’s some talk about Pixel phones and root — specifically that it’s not working with any of the existing methods. All the nuts and bolts are at XDA — excellent job on that Mishaal — for those who want to dig deeper into the how and why, but I want to just talk about what it means for us.

And why it’s a really good thing. Before you grab your torches and teach me a lesson for thinking it’s good that we can’t root a Pixel phone, hear me out. I think you’ll agree when we’re finished.

This isn;t about a Pixel phone, it’s about Android 7.0 and new security methods.

Let’s start at the beginning — this isn’t about the Pixel phones, it’s about Android 7.0. There’s a very good chance this will apply to the LG V20 (nobody outside of Korea has seen the production version yet), too. It’s because of the new security methods Google has placed in Android starting with 7.0.

When Nougat boots, it checks to see if anything in the system partition has been tampered with. Google calls this Verified Boot and it’s something they also use on Chromebooks and OnHub routers. We also knew it was coming, along with a handful of other big changes on the security front. The short version of how it works — the system partitions (this is tied in tightly with Seamless Updates and Direct Boot) are verified and given a hash file. Any changes to the partition will change the crypto hash. When you boot the phone up, this hash is checked against the known “right” value, and if they don’t match your phone won’t boot. The public crypto key is stored on the boot partition and when the people who made your phone want to update (which changes the hash file) they have to verify things with their own private key to change the software. This will create a new hash file and the phone can boot. These changes also include the ramdisk (which is where systemless root worked) so modifying it is out of the picture, too. And yes, this is the short version.

What this means is new hardware designed for Android 7.0 isn’t going to boot if we try to change any files to give us root. If we change even one bit on either system partition or the ramdisk it will fail the verified boot check. There are no known root methods that will ever work with this system. Period. Very smart people will try, and if somehow they find a way Google will patch it within 30 days. And this is not an accident.

Google is always trying to beef up the security in Android. They do a pretty good job and Android, as it comes directly from the source code, is really secure. But since anyone can change any of it to their liking, much of that gets undone. One of the things this change does is fix things so that no matter what you download or what it tries to do, if it tries to inject anything that gives it elevated permissions your phone won’t start up. I love that idea, and you should, too.

Every phone that’s sold should be damn near impossible to root without custom firmware.

This means that those drive-by root exploits — both the intentional ones as well as the malware ones — all stop working if the people who made your phone update it to 7.0 or you buy a new one with Nougat installed. That means everyone who just bought their phone to chat with friends, pay for stuff at Walgreens, or even clash against other clans or catch ’em all have a lot less to worry about. The factory software (and this is the important part) is secure.

The rest of us who like to root and do “stuff” can’t do it while running the factory software, but we can still do it. With a new boot image, things can be altered so we can do whatever we want to do. Everything needed to create the Android boot image is open source and builds with no changes and little effort. Unless the Pixel phones come with a locked bootloader — and nobody thinks they will or is saying as much — you can still install your own modified software with all the root you can eat. Google truly does not care if we root the phones we bought and paid for, but they do care if we try to modify their software and make it less secure. They should, that’s the way every OEM should think. I’m sorry if that means you might have to learn how to set up fastboot or won’t be able to get an OTA, but you (and I mean the collective you which includes me, too) are not more important than anyone else who should be able to expect that the phone they bought is safe from random dumb shit they downloaded from somewhere. Get over it.

That goes for the phones that aren’t a Pixel and might not have a bootloader that can be unlocked. Yes, I mean the V20. With an unlocked bootloader rooting and everything that comes with will be trivial when all is said and done. But with a locked and encrypted bootloader, none of this applies. If the V20 ships with a dual partition setup and Verified Boot in place (and it should) with a locked-up bootloader, you might not ever be able to root it. That means LG cares about its customers more than they care about a handful of people who want to change their status bar or cheat at games or whatever we need root to do. The solution (and my advice) if you’re eyeing the V20 and will want to root it is to hold off until someone checks it out. A retail version should be in the right hands very soon. The same goes for every phone that ships with Android 7.0 or higher from now until forever.

The LG V20 should also be this secure. But will we be able to unlock the bootloader?

Getting worked up over any of it will do no good. There is no good reason why Google should make Android less secure, so us demanding it or moving to iOS (which has similar precautions in place) is silly. Adapt. If you want to root, buy phones with a bootloader that can be unlocked. Save your rage for something that deserves it, like selling phones with no headphone jack. Don’t even get me started, ’cause I’ll get stupid.

In the meantime, be good to each other. I’ll see ya next week.

ICYMI: Animals can communicate better than we’d realized

Today on In Case You Missed It: We are adding horses to the list of animals who can communicate via some form of symbolic language, now that researchers taught a group of horses how to understand three symbols related to whether they wanted a blanket covering on or not. With that, horses, primates, dolphins and birds can all communicate with us — and suddenly old masterpieces like Mister Ed and The Birds have a whole new significance.

Meanwhile Adidas is showcasing its new shoes made in a mostly robotic factory. That and the news about the purported Michelle Obama passport hacking would be great brunch conversation starters, though we also recommend reading up on the US government’s plan to address climate change with an open source, information sharing plan.

The study about fish singing at dawn is here, fyi. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.

Samsung Galaxy S8 reportedly using powerful new GPU

ARM Mali-G71 could provide the power for a 4K display and enhanced VR.

Rumors of a 4K display in the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8 have been swirling for some time, with a super-dense display offering a significantly upgraded VR experience in next year’s flagship. And now it’s reported that Samsung could use ARM’s most powerful GPU yet in its next Exynos processors.

SamMobile reports that the company will equip its Exynos 8895 processor with ARM’s Mali-G71 graphics chip. According to ARM’s own documentation, the chip offers “40% better performance density and 20% external memory bandwidth saving compared to Mali-T880.” The Galaxy S7 and Note 7 use a variant of that GPU, the Mali-T800 MP12.

SamMobile also claims the G71 will outperform the GPU used Qualcomm’s next gen chip, the Snapdragon 830.

The smaller Galaxy S8 could pack a whopping 864 pixels per inch.

The docs for Mali-G71 provide reference specs based on a 16nm FinFET process, but Samsung is likely to use a more efficient 10nm process in its 2017 Exynos chip — which potentially means it’ll be even faster than ARM’s reference numbers. Unusually, the news broke through the arrest of a Samsung employee in Seoul, who was accused of trying to sell details on Samsung’s 14nm and 10nm processes to Chinese rivals. The report from SBS states that Samsung will use a 10nm process for the chips in its next flagship phone.

All of that adds up to a serious improvement in graphical capabilities over the GS7 and Note 7 — a bump in pixel-pushing power that’ll surely be needed if the GS8 packs a VR-focused 4K display. With the next Galaxy S once again rumored to come in two sizes, that adds up to a whopping 864 pixels per inch — blowing past even 2015’s Sony Xperia Z5 Premium. The appeal of such a pixel-dense screen for VR is obvious, but as we discussed in an earlier article, Samsung might not opt to run its new display in 4K mode all the time.

If Samsung wanted to offset some of the performance and battery life headaches associated with 4K, it might take a leaf out of Sony’s book. With the Xperia Z5 Premium, the Japanese firm operated its 4K display in 1080p mode most of the time, except for a handful of applications — mainly video playback and photo-viewing apps.

Although this might sound counterproductive, running most apps at Quad HD on a 4K Galaxy S8 would be a smart way to ensure the hardware isn’t unnecessarily taxed running apps where you wouldn’t notice the difference anyway. Instead, the full resolution of the panel could be unlocked when you’re viewing native 4K content, or viewing photos in the Gallery app.

We’ll find out for sure when the Galaxy S8 breaks cover early next year. Following the damage caused by the Note 7 recall, several analysts are predicting an earlier launch for the phone.

Snapchat Announces ‘Spectacles,’ $130 Sunglasses That Record 10 Seconds of Video at a Time

Snapchat has announced its first hardware product, a one-size-fits-all pair of sunglasses called Spectacles that can record 10 seconds of video at a time, reports The Wall Street Journal. The glasses will cost $130 and launch this fall in three colors: teal, black and coral. Video will sync wirelessly to a paired iPhone or other smartphone.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel in Spectacles, Photo by The WSJ
The glasses record when you tap a button near the hinge, and each tap records 10 seconds of video footage from its 115-degree-angle lens. The lens was designed to be wider than smartphone cameras, more closely mirroring the natural view of human eyes. The video is recorded in a circular format, as Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel argues that the square and rectangle form that photos and videos currently come in are a vestige of early photos being printed on paper.

Snapchat has been developing Spectacles for years, and Spiegel has been testing the device himself for a year. He tells The WSJ that one of the advantages of Spectacles is not having to hold a smartphone in front of your face because it’s “like a wall.” Re-watching first-person footage is like reliving a memory, Spiegel argues.

He remembers testing a prototype in early 2015 while hiking with his fiancée, supermodel Miranda Kerr. “It was our first vacation, and we went to Big Sur for a day or two. We were walking through the woods, stepping over logs, looking up at the beautiful trees. And when I got the footage back and watched it, I could see my own memory, through my own eyes—it was unbelievable. It’s one thing to see images of an experience you had, but it’s another thing to have an experience of the experience. It was the closest I’d ever come to feeling like I was there again.”

Spiegel refers to Spectacles as a “toy,” and that the best use of it would be to wear it at an outdoor concert or barbecue “for kicks.” The company is taking a slow approach to launch with limited distribution, similar to Google Glass. Spiegel says Snapchat wants to “figure out if it fits into people’s lives and seeing how they like it.” When asked why they made the product and decided to enter the hardware market, Spiegel said “because it’s fun.”

Snapchat has also changed its company name to Snap, Inc as it has expanded its portfolio past its Snapchat app, similar to how Apple changed its name from Apple Computer.

Spiegel thinks of the newly-dubbed Snap, Inc as a camera company rather than a social media company, The WSJ notes. He studied the early histories of Kodak and Polaroid and how they pitched portable cameras to the public. Spectacles gives Snap control of a physical camera, bypassing the smartphone cameras, like that of the iPhone, at the heart of Snapchat thus far. Spiegel hints to The WSJ that there could be “far-reaching implications” if Snap controlled the hardware its users take pictures and video with.

Tags: wearables, Snapchat, Snap
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iHeartRadio plays catch-up with on-demand music

Although it was born out of terrestrial radio, iHeartRadio has been working hard to go beyond just streaming FM stations to your phone or Apple TV. The company set its sights on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music’s Beats Radio with last year’s introduction of personalized radio stations. Now, iHeartRadio is ready to announce two new on-demand subscription services of its own, coming in January 2017: iHeartRadio Plus and iHeartRadio All Access

All Access is the company’s shot at Spotify and Apple Music — a straightforward, on-demand streaming service reportedly priced at $10 per month to compete directly with the leading services. All Access will offer all the features you might expect from a streaming music service, along with iHeartRadio’s library of 30 million tracks and a few radio-oriented features like the ability to instantly save or replay songs from live stations and offline listening.

While it might seem like a late arrival to the on-demand streaming game, iHeartRadio already has 90 million registered users that CEO Bob Pittman thinks it can convert into paid subscribers. “There’s this huge piece of the population that does not spend money in any form on music,” Pittman told TechCrunch. “We think this is the kind of service that will begin to get them to spend on music.”

On the other hand, iHeartRadio Plus is a lower-priced service intended to bridge the gap between your existing on-demand music subscription and listening to terrestrial radio. If you’re the sort of person who still appreciates the human touch of a certain radio jockey or local radio station, Plus turns that into an on-demand experience so you can stream your favorite shows whenever you like.

Both services debut in January 2017 and, while there’s no official pricing yet, the New York Post reported All Access will come in at a $10 price point and Plus service will cost $5 per month.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: iHeartRadio

Snapchat to release $130 camera-equipped Spectacles this fall

Yes, the Snapchat Spectacles are real, and company chief Evan Spiegel presented them to a small group of people today. According to The Wall Street Journal, Snapchat’s first wearable product comes armed with a camera that can record 10-second videos when you tap the button near the hinge. The results don’t look like typical videos shot with phones or action cams, though — not when it records circular footage that mimics our own vision. Apparently, Spiegel believes that the rectangular format is “an unnecessary vestige of printing photos on sheets of paper.” And since this is Snapchat we’re talking about, the glasses can sync with your phone wirelessly, making anything it takes easy to share.
Snapchat will release Spectacles this fall for $130, but only a limited number of pairs will be available for sale. The company wants to proceed slowly in order to get a feel of how people like it, and probably to see how well the initial stocks sell, before making more. Since he obviously doesn’t expect to make big bucks out of Spectacles from the get-go, WSJ asked Spiegel why he designed them. His answer? “Because it’s fun.” If other people find the glasses fun, as well — and, hey, unlike the Google Glass, these look like something anyone would wear — then you might have an easier time finding a pair in the future.

JUST IN: Snapchat to release first hardware product called “Spectacles” this fall; video-sharing sunglasses to be priced at $129.99 – DJ

— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) September 24, 2016

Snapchat releases first hardware product, Spectacles https://t.co/LuY74KCorX 🔓

— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) September 24, 2016

Source: The Wall Street Journal