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Tag Archives: Android

Severe WiFi security flaw puts millions of devices at risk

Written by Modar HIJAZI 3:34 pm on 16 October, 2017 — Leave a Comment

by: Steve Dent

Researchers have discovered a key flaw in the WPA2 WiFi encryption protocol that could allow hackers to intercept your credit card numbers, passwords, photos and other sensitive information. The flaws, dubbed “Key Reinstallation Attacks,” or “Krack Attacks,” are in the WiFi standard and not specific products. That means that just about every router, smartphone and PC out there could be impacted, though attacks against Linux and Android 6.0 or greater devices may be “particularly devastating,” according to KU Leuven University’s Mathy Vanhoef and Frank Piessens, who found the flaw.

Here’s how it works. Read more »

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Microsoft Is Developing Software That Converts Android Phones To Windows 10

Written by Modar HIJAZI 8:32 am on 19 March, 2015 — Leave a Comment

Microsoft dropped an interesting piece of information today amid its confirmation that Windows 10 will go on sale this summer.Near the end of its announcement, the Redmond-based company casually revealed that it is testing Windows 10 with “power users” of Xiaomi’s flagship Mi 4 Android smartphone. The initiative, which Xiaomi stressed is not a partnership but merely assistance with the trial, is an interesting one because it again shows Microsoft’s new ‘platform agnostic’ approach.

Neither Microsoft nor Xiaomi provided specific details of the Windows 10 software being trialled, but TechCrunch understands from sources that it effectively overrides Android, turning the Xiaomi phone into a Windows 10 device complete with Microsoft services. (Which the company hopes will dazzle Android owners into making the switch.)

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Firefox OS Apps run on Android

Written by Modar HIJAZI 12:15 pm on 20 June, 2014 — Leave a Comment

and

At Mozilla we believe that apps and browsing are best viewed as cooperative and symbiotic, each better when working together. We are working to strengthen that relationship by building an apps ecosystem that is built using the Web technologies that so many developers are already familiar with.

We built Firefox OS as a mobile OS that puts the Web and Open Web Apps at the centre of the mobile experience. The efforts to reduce the performance gaps between the Web and native are paying rich dividends and our work on exposing device capabilities to the Web via WebAPIs, have made web first app development a viable alternative to native platforms.
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Religions and OSes metaphor of the day

Written by Modar HIJAZI 4:27 pm on 3 January, 2014 — Leave a Comment

Over-Extended Metaphor for the day
By Charlie Stross

Yesterday, after writing my way past the notional halfway point (both of the current novel manuscript, and of the trilogy it’s the middle volume of), I went and over-indulged in food and drink with friends.

Over the beer, the conversation turned—for no sane reason—to computer operating systems. There being some non-technical folks at the table, I then had to cough up a metaphor to contextualize the relationship between Mac OS X and UNIX, thuswise:

There is one true religion in operating systems, and it is UNIX. Or maybe it’s not the one true faith: there’s an earlier, older, more arcane religion with far fewer followers, MULTICS, from which UNIX sprang as a stripped-down rules-deficient heresy in the early days of the epoch. Either way, if MULTICS is Judaism (and the metaphor is questionable at this point, for unlike MULTICS, Judaism is still alive), then UNIX is Christianity. Read more »

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Easter Egg Brings Offline Mode Back To Google Maps App

Written by Modar HIJAZI 1:51 pm on 10 July, 2013 — Leave a Comment

Greg Kumparak

The new Google Maps for Android just started shipping late last night, but folks are already bein’ all grumpy about the sudden disappearance of one of Maps’ old features: offline map mode. In previous releases of Maps, users could save chunks of the map for later use (like when you’re traveling abroad on a roaming plan and downloading a few megabytes of data would cost you somewhere between seven and eight billion dollars.) In new Maps, you can’t.

Google says the feature just wasn’t totally ready for the new version yet. But wait! There’s an easter egg that kinda-sorta brings it back.

egged
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