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May 18, 2011 11:13 AM PDT
Google has plugged an Android hole that could have allowed someone to snoop on an unencrypted Wi-Fi network and access calendar and contact data on the smartphones.
"Today we're starting to roll out a fix which addresses a potential security flaw that could, under certain circumstances, allow a third-party access to data available in Calendar and Contacts," a Google spokesman said in a statement. "This fix requires no action from users and will roll out globally over the next few days."
Basically, the fix forces all Android devices to connect to Google Calendar and Contacts servers over https (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) so that someone snooping on an unprotected wireless network won't be able to grab authentication tokens used by the operating system to validate devices. Android customers will not have to do anything for the fix, which could take a couple of days to roll out to everyone.
The latest release of Android, 2.3.4 for smartphones and 3.0 for tablets, did not have the issue. But the fact that more than 99 percent of Android device owners are still using older versions was likely a factor in Google's decision to expedite a fix.
Meanwhile, Google is still looking into the whether the problem affects Picasa Web Albums, too, as was claimed in a report on the security issue by German researchers released on Friday.
Apple wasn't the only one making cloud-related announcements today. Microsoft's Xbox Live will also get cloud storage later this year.
"Yes, cloud storage is coming to Xbox LIVE. Your profile and game saves available wherever you are," Larry Hyrb, the director of programming for Xbox Live, tweeted on Monday afternoon.
The update will allow Xbox Live users to sign into their accounts from any console at any time to access game saves and full profile, including items like Microsoft Points for purchases, Achievements, and friends.
"Cloud storage will allow you to enjoy the same great Xbox Live gaming experience even when you're not in your own living room by giving you the option to store your 'game saves' securely in the Xbox Live cloud instead of on a portable memory unit or your console's hard drive," Microsoft said in a statement. "Gone are the days of 'gamertag recovery.' Now all you need to do is sign in, no matter where you are!"
Microsoft said the update will be added "later this year," but did not specify a timeline. The cloud option is just one of several updates coming to the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. Also scheduled is a new dashboard that Microsoft said will be simpler, cleaner, and easier to navigate. "All of your favorite content is categorized in a way that is easy to browse and find what you're looking for, plus you can use voice anywhere in the dashboard to effortlessly navigate and get to what you want," the company said.
The voice component was a big part of Microsoft's larger press event this morning at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles. There, Microsoft unveiled Live TV, a new experience that adds live television streaming, built-in DVR functionality, voice-powered Bing searches, and a content deal with YouTube to the Xbox platform. "Quite simply we believe TV is more amazing with you as the controller," said Marc Whitten, vice president for Xbox Live.
Microsoft also unveiled a number of new games for the Xbox platform, some of which will have voice-control functionality thanks to Kinect.
"We want Xbox Live members around the globe to experience the magic of Kinect's voice recognition technology so we are committed to bringing voice to eight additional markets by the end of this year with a total of 13 markets that will have Kinect voice," Microsoft said. "We are also exploring some innovative new ways to enable the Live community to help us accelerate the refinement of voice models in new markets, and look forward to sharing developments on that front soon."
Another addition to Xbox Live will be Beacons, which will let you notify Xbox and Facebook friends that you want to play a game on Xbox Live. Set a Beacon and tell Xbox Live what you want to play, and Xbox Live will let you know when friends are playing or if they want to play the same game.
"With Beacons, no matter what you're currently doing on Xbox Live your friends know that it's ok to ask you to play your Beaconed games," Microsoft said. "Imagine sending out a Beacon to let your friends know you're interested in playing 'Halo,' while watching a movie on Netflix."
Computerworld - Apple today said it would ship Mac OS X 10.7, aka "Lion," next month, and sell it exclusively through its own Mac App Store for $29.99.
Steve Jobs takes the stage to discuss the iCloud service at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. (Beck Diefenbach / Reuters)
The news came as CEO Steve Jobs introduced several other Apple executives during a keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which opened today in San Francisco. "If the hardware is the brain and the sinew of the product, the software in the middle is the soul," Jobs said at the beginning of the two-hour presentation.
Philip Schiller, Apple's vice president of marketing, and Craig Federighi, the company's vice president of Mac software engineering, spelled out 10 of the new features in Lion (see our continuing coverage page), which Apple will release in July.
Apple will offer Lion only through the Mac App Store, the e-mart that launched last January for Snow Leopard users. The upgrade will be a 4GB download.
The new operating system can be installed on all a user's personal Macs, said Apple, which puts an end to the multi-license Family Pack it's sold previously. And it will sell for $29.99, the same price as the Snow Leopard upgrade in 2009.
Last week, analysts speculated that Apple would retain the low price for Lion.
"Reducing the price [of Snow Leopard] did not negatively affect revenue," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, in an interview last Tuesday. "I expect them to offer a low-priced upgrade to Lion as well."
Doing so would let Apple again contrast its upgrade pricing with Microsoft's, as it did in 2009 prior to the debut of Windows 7, Gottheil added.
Lion will ship in July, but Schiller did not put a specific date to the release. Developers can download a new preview -- there have been several issued since earlier this year -- starting today.
Most of the features Schiller and Federighi demonstrated were ones Apple disclosed last year when it first announced Lion, including full screen applications, a tool dubbed "Mission Control" that combines several previously-separate interface elements into a single screen, and Mac App Store, the online e-mart Apple launched last January for Snow Leopard users.
"This stuff is useful, but it looks even more useful than it is, and that's going to sell Macs," said Gottheil in a Twitter message posted during the Lion demo.
In Lion, the Mac App Store will get additional features, said Schiller, including in-app purchases -- similar to what's available in iOS' own App Store -- push notifications, and anti-exploit "sandbox" technology that isolates those apps from the rest of the Mac.
Lion will feature additional tools, such as system-wide automatic document save, the ability to revert to an earlier version of a document, and a resume mode that restores a previously-closed application to the state before it was shut down.
During the WWDC keynote, Apple also revealed its iCloud service and ran through several of the new features slated for iOS 5, the mobile operating system upgrade scheduled to ship this fall.
But Gottheil was more impressed with Lion than with iOS 5.
"So far, Lion innovations are far ahead of iOS innovations," Gottheil said, again on Twitter. "As Spock would say ... 'interesting.'"
So Apple’s iCloud was launched yesterday (June 6) and you can be sure that there will be dozens of thinkpieces all over the Internet on what this means for the music industry. The iCloud is free—you’ll get 5GB of space in which you can upload anything you want, but there’s also a deal specifically targeted at iTunes users.
For $25 per year iTunes will scan your music library and allow you to access copies of all those songs from their cloud. In other words, you’ll be able to stream them on a mobile device without needing to cart round thousands of MP3 files. The only snag? Well, iTunes may not have every song you own, but that may be a small price to pay for such an affordable service.
The best part of this deal is that the songs that iTunes matches in its cloud doesn’t count against your 5 GB iCloud limit, meaning that music obsessives won’t quickly fill it up if they go with Apple’s new service. The iTunes cloud songs will all be encoded at 256 kbps, which may be an upgrade in quality for some users. Gizmodo claims this will all work just fine even if you’ve been heavily downloading pirated music online. With that in mind, the RIAA statement on all this should be well worth waiting for.
Less than 24 hours after Apple executives took to the stage at this year's WWDC and announced iOS 5, hackers already took to Apple's upcoming mobile OS and jailbroke it. (Shocking, I know!)
Word of the jailbreak first surfaced on Twitter, when user MuscleNerd linked to some proving pictures. The linked photos showed a jailbroken version of iOS 5 running on a fourth-generation iPod Touch (screenshots above).The images show that MuscleNerd gained root access to the device, and was able to install a couple jailbreak-only apps.
MuscleNerd is a well-known member of the iOS jailbreaking scene, forming part of the Dev-Team blog--a group known for rooting various versions of Apple's mobile operating system.
This new jailbreak, which makes use of the GeoHot Limera1n method, requires some patience to use as the jailbroken device will need to be tethered to a PC each and every time the device is rebooted.
It's not perfect by any means, but either way this means that iOS 5 has been jailbroken. And if past experiences hold true, an untethered jailbreak will probably come out sooner or later
Nintendo on Tuesday unveiled the Wii U, a new gaming platform that adds a small screen to a controller that can interact with the larger TV screen or be used as a standalone handheld device.
The white Wii U controller features a built-in, 6.2-inch screen, as well as the usual control and circle pads and buttons. It also includes a microphone, speakers, an accelerometer, gyroscope, and front-facing camera.
Much of the focus at the E3 press event today was on that controller rather than the console. In demo videos, the console appeared in the background and wasn't much larger than the Wii U controller.
The Wii U will make its debut in 2012; Nintendo did not discuss pricing.
In addition to usual Wii gaming, however, the Wii U adds casual games, video chat, a Web browser, drawing app, motion controls, and other tablet-esque features. If you're playing a game and someone wants to watch something on TV, for example, you can switch your game to the Wii U controller. Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's global president, however, stressed that the Wii U "was not designed to be a portable video game machine."Even though you can operate the Wii U like handheld device, it won't function without the console. "The images displayed are generated only by Wii U [and are] wirelessly transmitted without latency issues," Iwata said. "We decided on this new structure because we want to create a strong bond between games, your TV and the Internet." Still, the Wii U will be compatible with all existing Wii games, controllers, and other offerings, like Wii Fit. To weigh yourself, for example, you don't need to turn on the TV; just use the Wii U controller's screen.
"It's a new structure for home entertainment. But to be sure, the most important part for gamers is how this new structure can be incorporated into game play," Iwata said.
Nintendo America president Reggie Fils-Aime described the Wii U as "a system we will all enjoy together, but also one that's tailor-made for you."
Nintendo did not discuss specific specs for the device, but stay tuned for more details. For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.
