Android

In the next step of the Apple V. Samsung battle, Apple has asked a judge to make Google hand over documents related to the Android operating system.

Finding a Facebook friend for a benefits-only rendezvous is now more convenient than ever with the hump day release of the Bang With Friends mobile apps for iPhone and Android.

Bang With Friends (Official) for Android and BWF (Official) for iPhone arrived Wednesday to help Facebook members discreetly facilitate hook-ups from their smartphones.

In recent weeks and months, the tech community has increasingly referred to the next release of Android as version 5.0, or ‘Key Lime Pie’.

Since version 1.5 (Cupcake), major updates to Android have gained a delicious codename beginning with the next letter in the alphabet, and as it has widely been assumed that the next version would make the leap to 5.0 from the current version, 4.2.2 (the latest Jelly Bean release), a dessert beginning with the letter K has seemed like a reasonable assumption.

Sophos has updated its Android Mobile Security software to version 2.5 with SMS blocking capabilities as malware over text messaging continues to rise.

The smartphone security product guards users against phishing attacks launched through SMS messages by blocking suspicious messages and SMS transmissions from known bad actors. Sophos said the product isolates the messages in a special 'quarantine' folder outside of the user's inbox.

Researchers have discovered a new family of malware that found its way into legitimate apps inside Google's official store thanks to a malicious advertising network.

The malware was detected in 32 apps across four different developer accounts in Google Play and was downloaded up to nine million times, according to Lookout researchers who dubbed the malware BadNews.

In the last months, new research has made it clearer than ever that every computer in the world is a potential target for Chinese government hackers. So perhaps it’s no surprise that smartphones appear to be among those state-sponsored hackers’ targets, too.

In a highly suggestive invitation to an April 4 event sent out on Thursday, Facebook welcomes media to "Come See Our New Home On Android," hinting the social networking monolith will finally reveal a much-rumored purpose-built operating system.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, TechCrunch says the Facebook OS will be a platform built on Android, with deep integration possibly baked into an HTC-manufactured smartphone. Speculation of a true Facebook-developed phone have been floating around for some time, though such a device has yet to appear.

Two security vendors have released temporary fixes for a flaw in some Samsung Android phones that could allow an attacker to bypass a locked screen.

The problem comes from Samsung's implementation of the emergency call feature, which allows people to dial emergency services or reveals a contact people can dial if they find someone's phone, said David Richardson, a product manager at Lookout Mobile Security.

McAfee today announced that it has delivered the industry’s first ever whitelisting security solution for Android based embedded systems. McAfee Application Control for Android is the only security solution that resides in the Android kernel, embedded in the operating system. McAfee provides protection from the installation or execution of a malicious application on an Android-based device. McAfee also provides protection at the application layer to Android devices.

When Facebook's mobile app began misbehaving on an older version of Android in late 2012, Facebook engineers had to dive deep into Android's code to figure out what was causing the mishap. In a whiteboard session today at Facebook headquarters, mobile engineering director Mike Shaver described how Facebook identified a problem in Android itself, then created a workaround for its own app so users wouldn't have to suffer.