Posts by Markl2011

Love in the time of the GPS sees chap propose with Google Map

Lordina?

It looks like Loonib to me! Maybe she said no though

Android busted for carrying Fake ID: OS doesn't check who really made that 'Adobe' plugin

"Could be, but I'd have expected them to be crowing about it as soon as Google pushed the update, especially once it had been pushed to Nexus devices. As it is, at least 3 months after release to ASOP, I'm not convinced."

From the article.

"We appreciate Bluebox responsibly reporting this vulnerability to us; third party research is one of the ways Android is made stronger for users," a Google spokesman told El Reg in an emailed statement.

And the reason they waited 3 months is probably to give OEMs a chance to push the update too.

Google kills fake anti-virus app that hit No. 1 on Play charts

The fact it required no permissions should have been enough to alert a potential buyer it was a scam. Also doesn't the play store give you 15 minutes to use the app and cancel it if you don't want it after that time?

First batch of Firefox OS phones sells out in hours

"The two developer devices offered for sale included the Keon, an entry-level model with a low-resolution screen; and the Peak, a version with more generous hardware specs. "

Wow! They sold two devices. Samsung must be shaking in their boots.

Samsung under fire over copy-paste bricking

Re: its a reboot issue for me

Which phone and version of Android are you using?

When I had this problem on my S3 it was with every other application apart from Chrome. It looked like Chrome worked around the problem using their own clipboard buffer because Chrome would quite happily cut and paste while every application would crash or just not paste store anything in the clipboard.

Björk gives up trying to Kickstart Android music app

Re: I would have thought

Spot on. Particularly when it's for an app to deliver her music, which makes her more money!

That reminds me. I must check my Kickstarter project to buy me a helicopter so I can get to work on time.

The Register Android App

Re: After the update ...

"Doubly ironic, as the reason you can't read the comments on this article is the comments you posted earlier have broken the thread so the app can't read it. D'oh."

It will be the signed byte you use to store the number of comments ;-)

Re: Installed ...

Ditto Galaxy S3 Android 4.1.2

Apple serves up 25 BEEELLIONTH iTunes download

This is about iTunes song downloads so you're playing it wrong.

If farting is music to you though can I interest you in my latest album? It includes some classic songs

Wind Beneath My Wings

Raspberry Beret

BSkyB to flick switch on network-level smut-'n'-violence filters

Re: Block smut & violence

So there's stuff on the internet that's not smut or violent? Well you learn something new everyday.

Apple regains 'el numero uno' market-value crown

Pot meet Kettle, Kettle meet Pot.

Sympathetic Scots scoff-house offers hard-up Apple fanbois a discount

Is he hoping to get a free cup of coffee from his local barista in return?

Android Trojan taints US mobes, spews 500,000 texts A DAY

Re: Did you read the blog post, Mr Register?

@AC 18:37

"Granting permissions implies that the person using the app is experienced enough to know what all of that means."

If they're not, they're probably not experienced enough to to enable the installation of 3rd party applications that's also required.

I agree with your point about denying permissions by default though.

Did you read the blog post, Mr Register?

From the article..

"SpamSoldier infects smartphones and spews out thousands of SMS messages without the user's permission."

From the blog http://blog.cloudmark.com/2012/12/16/android-trojan-used-to-create-simple-sms-spam-botnet/

"Then you have to grant permission to the app to do all sorts of things that no Angry Bird should ever need to do, like surfing the web and sending SMS messages"

Samsung: Smart TV security hole is so minor we'll fix it immediately

Re: Can it, for example, turn on a camera

If you're wanking to Babestation you've got bigger problems than a security hole in your Smart TV

Troll sues Apple for daring to plug headphones into iPhone

Re: Not to state the obvious...

It might be just me being pedantic but 1/8" = 3.175mm and according to the Apple web the iPhone does have a 3.5mm jack.

Re: Not to state the obvious...

Isn't it a 3.5mm jack on the iPhone not a 2.5mm jack?

Apple sticks finger in dyke, cuts off Dutch flood of Galaxy S, SII, Ace

They've already put the ruling up on their web site

Android seven-inchers swipe rug from under Apple

It's still got 55% of the market two years after launch. If that's a fail what do you count as a success?

Bah humbug! Google cancels Christmas

Re: I shudder to think how much abuse Apple would have taken if they had done this

Speaking of copy and paste..

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=35732

Two scam apps stink up iTunes store, pulled thanks to Reg reader

Never mind this. There's an app on my wife's iPad pretending to be a map application

Analyst: There are LOADS of iPhone 5s, Apple is keeping them back

"SGIII owners, laugh, hardly and loudly at iPhone 5 buyers"

"Laugh, hardly"? What, you get an errection thinking about iPhone 5 buyers?

Android adware capability a vulnerability, claim boffins

From the Symantec article

"To send a spoofed SMS message there is no need to send a text message over the air. In fact, a message is never sent or received, instead, the system service in charge of receiving text messages is tricked into thinking a message has arrived—and it will happily store the text message and notify the user of the event. One can specify any arbitrary "from address" for the SMSishing attack and no special permissions are required to insert a spoofed message."

Based on the number of actual SMS messages that I receive with SMSishing attacks in though, it's nothing new.

That reminds me I must find out what's happening about my PPI claim. Funny thing is I don't remember taking it out...

Apple must apologise for its surly apology on its website on Saturday

It can't be this Register it say's it's "highly respected"

Hmm, I think I'll order an iPad Mini on Amazon ... Oh no I won't

That's fair enough. The only non Apple tablet mentioned on the Apple UK site is a Samsung Tablet which sounds rubbish based on a UK judges description

Apple loses UK 'Samsung copied us' appeal: Must publicly GROVEL

They might also want to point out what the Judge said about the Samsung tablets.

""From the front they belong to the family which includes the Apple design; but the Samsung products are very thin, almost insubstantial members of that family with unusual details on the back."

The iPHONE 5 UNDERMINES western DEMOCRACY: 5 reasons why

@Obvioisly!

You do seem a little bit obsessed with Apple. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Jury awards Apple $1bn damages in Samsung patent case

Re: I'm so surprized...

@AC 6.36

Fandroid's never read the article. They just keep spouting (copying) the same rubbish.

Beak explodes at Samsung's evidence leak in Apple patent spat

Re: Emails

Reply,

I've not heard about Apple deleting emails. Where did you hear that?

More reports that Apple plans iPhone 5 September surprise

Re: "sources who have proven accurate in the past"

I'm sure El Reg. would quote you. They've quoted everyone else

Samsung: 'Apple's proto-iPhone Jony is a Sony phone phoney'

...or if Sony want to make a similar phone they can lay their hands on some CAD designs!

UK judge hands Samsung win for being 'not as cool' as iPad

Re: ahhh man

and uncool = NOT cool, so...

Cheers

"Now NOT being cool IS the NEW cool!"

So what's happened to the OLD cool? Are they now NOT cool? And if they're NOT cool does that make them the NEW NOT cool which means they're the NEW NEW cool?

Apple's UK smartphone lead shrinks

"Though I still won't want one! Don't want people thinking I'm a complete twat"

It's a bit late for that

Asus: We are NOT killing off Transformer Prime

Re: Got to love it

It rebooted due to an app falling over? That's pretty worrying. An application falling over shouldn't cause a reboot. On Android each Dalvik application runs in it's own process with it's own instance of the Dalvik VM and even a native app shouldn't bring down the machine.

Fondle my slab, baby: Inside the tactile world of Apple-fan iDating

"In my house, we have 1 MacBook Pro, 1 PowerBook, 3 iMacs (of various generations and shapes), 1 iBook, 3 iPod Touches, 2 iPod videos, 1 Apple TV, 4 iPhones, and a G4 Tower

I'm probably missing something."

A life perhaps?

How Apple won the West (and lost the world)

i think you'll find

...that S60 is a software stack running on top Symbian, of which S^3 is the latest iteration and S40 is Nokia's mid teir os and has nothing to do with Symbian.

Steve Jobs action figure set for shop shelves

Why are you holding the iPhone wrong? Don't you know it won't work if you do that.

Arcade emulator MAME slips under Apple radar

It looks like it's been removed then. I downloaded it this afternoon.

Malicious apps infiltrate Google's Android Market

Replying to my own post it seems from the article on Sophos that the applications requested permission to send SMS, so nothing wrong with the Android permission system.

" I'd be wary of the lawyers if I were to call them malicious."

Well my dictionary defines malicious as " motivated by wrongful,vicious,or mischievous purposes" and since they were copying over peoples work I'd call that malicious.

There's something wrong here

...either with the article or Android.

If the applications only asked for permission to “edit SMS or MMS, read SMS or MMS, receive SMS” how was it able to send sms? That requires the "SEND SMS" permission.

Android, BlackBerry phone owners favour Apple tablet

"And why fandroids are the new fanbois. Smug, arrogant and humourless? Check!"

No he's that because he's a bigot not because he's a fandroid.

Early 2012 date for UK Kindle Fire debut

Surely any self respecting Register reader who wants one has already got one, haven't they?

No Samsung ban for Apple in US

Maybe Apple should try to get it banned as an environmental hazard

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/369772/samsung-galaxy-tab-screens-marred-by-oil-slick

Android glitch allows hackers to bug phone calls

Yes, some of this is exploited using Intents that apps have exposed and it is a powerful mechanism but as the paper says it's not tightly controlled on some of the applications. If an application is exposing a function that requires permission, the application (or ideally Android itself) should check that the requester has sufficient authority. It's the equivalent of locking your front door but leaving your windows open.

And your statement that "If anyone is that concerned it is fairly trivial to decompile applications to see what they are up to" is quite frankly ridiculous. Are you seriously suggesting that the average Android user would be able to decompile and understand what an application is doing?

Actually it appears to be that there are applications installed on these phones that expose an unprotected public interface for doing things that are usually protected by the permissions system. For instance rather than getting permission to make a call, a malicious application could just broadcast a particular message (for which it doesn't need permission) and the rogue application picks up the message and makes the call.

The Nexus rogue application doesn't actually sound too serious. Apparently a malicious app can uninstall the com.svox.langpick.installer application! Which sounds like it stops you installing voices for the speech synthesiser.

James Bond savages the Kardashians

Quote of the Week

"You filmed it for us and showed us the placenta and now you want some privacy?"

BUSTED! Secret app on millions of phones logs key taps

1 - It depends where the app is storing it's data. I believe the memory usage in the settings screen shown just indicates memory used by the application in it's "authorised" storage area. It could look to see if an SD card is available and store it there in which case it wouldn't show up on that screen.

Apple iPhone owners are the most loyal smartphone buyers

"In the case of Apple, migrating would also require the re-purchase of all the apps you've bought. "

You'll get flamed by the droid boys for that remark. Don't you know all the Android apps are free and just as good as the Apple ones.