This is smart, and long overdue. Google said today that it will begin releasing an Android Platform Development Kit (PDK).
This will give Android device makers access to coming versions of Android 2-3 months before its official release. As is well-documented, most Android devices are way behind. 65% today run Android 2.3 Gingerbread which, with the release of 4.1 JellyBean today, now lags 3 versions behind.
After teasing "Something BIG" late last week, Mozilla has now launched version 14.0 of Firefox for Android, a major update to the open source mobile web browser. Described as "a snappy and dynamic upgrade" by its developers, the new release improves the browser's overall performance while also updating its user interface (UI) and adding features.
Georgia Weidman is the founder of Bulb Security. She's also a penetration tester, security researcher, and trainer.
In this video recorded at Hack in The Box 2012 Amsterdam, Georgia talks about Android permissions. She dissects the permissions granted to a very popular application and talks about the various implications that not only invade your privacy but can actually cost you money. She also offers tips on how to protect yourself.
Six men including three IT executives have been arrested in Tokyo in connection with an Android malware scam which netted them over 20 million yen (£160,740).
Japan’s first arrests for the crime of distributing a smartphone virus came after over 9,000 people downloaded malware disguised as an application designed to play videos, according to the Daily Yomiuri.
Google and Apple have upped their game in 2012, and a new crop of smartphones running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and Apple's new iOS 6 will offer consumers a tough choice when it comes to choosing a new phone.
Apple isn't expected to launch the next iPhone until the fall. But the company gave a preview of what's to come with the unveiling of iOS 6 mobile software this week at its WWDC conference in San Francisco. From what I can tell, the new iPhone will give the current crop of Android 4.0 devices a run for their money.
Linaro’s efforts have boosted Android’s performance, delivering an improvement of 30 to 100 percent in various benchmarks. They achieved these impressive gains by adapting Android 4 so that it could be built with their improved GCC toolchain.
We first wrote about Linaro in 2010 when the non-profit organization was founded by a consortium of hardware and software companies, including ARM, Samsung, TI, and Canonical. Linaro has worked to improve the quality of Linux on the ARM architecture, focusing largely on hardware-enablement and tooling.
Intel has claimed that system-on-chip (SoC) vendors have not done enough to optimise Android for multi-core processors.
Intel's single-core Medfield Atom processor enters the market at time when almost all of the big hitting ARM vendors are focusing efforts on dual-core and quad-core processors. However Intel said that chip firms should do more to optimise Android for multi-core processors as it does not effectively make use of multiple cores.
Another malicious Android Trojan has been spotted hiding in a fake Gmail app to spy and steal from those tricked into downloading it.
Discovered by the security firm NQ Mobile, the fake app hides "DDSpy," a piece of malware that, unbeknownst to the phone user, sneaks onto the device and receives commands from a remote server. Those commands, sent via text, include siphoning the victim's call log, text messages and voicemails, data that is sent to the server in an email.
Thanks to some smart lawyering or perhaps fears CEO Steve Ballmer will show up unannounced, Microsoft has negotiated envious patent fee payments from nearly all major Android licensees. So there's something fitting about the software giant giving a little something back to Android, by way of an exclusive app -- well for now -- on{X}. Or perhaps it's a Trojan Horse to undo Android phones, chopping up performance or draining battery life. Or maybe Microsoft sees Android users as easy beta testers, considering the more rigorous standards for getting into Apple's App Store than Google Play.
Mobile security researchers say they have identified flaws in Google's system to keep malware off Google Play.
