TechieGroups

WE LIVE IN A WORLD that’s increasingly full of technology. However, along with technology comes malware and mobile devices are no exception, as the popularity of smartphones and tablets surges.

On the whole, mobile malware seems to be proliferating, and it’s happening quickly too. It’s been around for the last year or two and already has financial gain at the root of it, something which crept into desktop malware only after more than 10 years.

Mobile malware is pretty much at the stage that desktop malware was in 1986 or 1987 in terms of the number of threats, Tom Parsons, a senior manager at Symantec Security Response told me recently. The number of threats is into the thousands now.

Around half of threats involve premium text messages that the malware automatically sends without the user’s knowledge. Typically four are sent costing between £4 and £8 each. In my opinion, there is a big potential for this to get worse with upcoming technologies like near field communication (NFC), which will be used for day-to-day payments instead of a debit card.

Of the main mobile operating systems, it’s no surprise that Android is targeted the most. Parsons doesn’t think this will change this year and as a user of Android, I agree.

Google has made Android open, which has its benefits, but not when it comes to security. It’s not very tricky to get an app on the Android Market, especially when compared to Apple’s strict approval regime.

It’s partly this process, along with Apple’s walled garden ethos that makes IOS a less attractive target for attackers. At the moment Windows Phone has a very small share of the mobile market so unless this picks up there’s no point in choosing to target it over Android.

As I highlighted in a recent news story, a problem with Android is that malware is finding its way into legitimate apps. When a user downloads and installs an app they give it various permissions, but this can also let hidden malware contained in an advert module wreak havoc.

In this instance something needs to be done by Google. For starters it could change its permissions so the user can agree to different levels of access for the main app module and other parts including adverts.

Other attacks are far more obvious, such as apps that claim to remove Carrier IQ type monitoring and one that tempts users to unlock supposedly hidden features on the device that the manufacturer has held back.

It’s cases like this that highlight how naive some users can be and how easily they are fooled. They should really think twice before clicking on something that sounds and looks too good to be true. Common sense often goes out the window when it comes to clicking, however.

Luckily this seems to be changing. On the subject of mobile malware, Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure told me the firm is getting more and more queries from users concerned about the level of access applications have to their information on their mobile.

Consumers need to be aware of the risks when using devices such as smartphones, rather than assuming that nothing bad will happen to them. Vendors need to put some investment into educating users on the subject, but more than anything they have to take responsibility for their products and fight the criminals that are attacking them.

Hypponen says that users should carefully review the rights they grant to apps and complain to the vendor if they feel the app is looking for rights it can’t justify. He told me, “I know this is not an easy advice, but if app developers get no criticism for overreaching rights in their app or in their apps’ ad module, they aren’t going to change.”

I agree, as companies tend to respond to issues if their user base makes enough noise. People upgrading to smartphones or tablets for the first time need to deliberately learn the ins and outs to avoid becoming at risk. It’s often these types of users that get sucked into scams because they don’t know any better. There are also mobile versions of anti-virus software available and countless blogs that detail the latest threats. It’s time to educate users before, not after, malware attacks. µ

WE LIVE IN A WORLD that’s increasingly full of technology. However, along with technology comes malware and mobile devices are no exception, as the popularity of smartphones and tablets surges.

On the whole, mobile malware seems to be proliferating, and it’s happening quickly too. It’s been around for the last year or two and already has financial gain at the root of it, something which crept into desktop malware only after more than 10 years.

Mobile malware is pretty much at the stage that desktop malware was in 1986 or 1987 in terms of the number of threats, Tom Parsons, a senior manager at Symantec Security Response told me recently. The number of threats is into the thousands now.

Around half of threats involve premium text messages that the malware automatically sends without the user’s knowledge. Typically four are sent costing between £4 and £8 each. In my opinion, there is a big potential for this to get worse with upcoming technologies like near field communication (NFC), which will be used for day-to-day payments instead of a debit card.

Of the main mobile operating systems, it’s no surprise that Android is targeted the most. Parsons doesn’t think this will change this year and as a user of Android, I agree.

Google has made Android open, which has its benefits, but not when it comes to security. It’s not very tricky to get an app on the Android Market, especially when compared to Apple’s strict approval regime.

It’s partly this process, along with Apple’s walled garden ethos that makes IOS a less attractive target for attackers. At the moment Windows Phone has a very small share of the mobile market so unless this picks up there’s no point in choosing to target it over Android.

As I highlighted in a recent news story, a problem with Android is that malware is finding its way into legitimate apps. When a user downloads and installs an app they give it various permissions, but this can also let hidden malware contained in an advert module wreak havoc.

In this instance something needs to be done by Google. For starters it could change its permissions so the user can agree to different levels of access for the main app module and other parts including adverts.

Other attacks are far more obvious, such as apps that claim to remove Carrier IQ type monitoring and one that tempts users to unlock supposedly hidden features on the device that the manufacturer has held back.

It’s cases like this that highlight how naive some users can be and how easily they are fooled. They should really think twice before clicking on something that sounds and looks too good to be true. Common sense often goes out the window when it comes to clicking, however.

Luckily this seems to be changing. On the subject of mobile malware, Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure told me the firm is getting more and more queries from users concerned about the level of access applications have to their information on their mobile.

Consumers need to be aware of the risks when using devices such as smartphones, rather than assuming that nothing bad will happen to them. Vendors need to put some investment into educating users on the subject, but more than anything they have to take responsibility for their products and fight the criminals that are attacking them.

Hypponen says that users should carefully review the rights they grant to apps and complain to the vendor if they feel the app is looking for rights it can’t justify. He told me, “I know this is not an easy advice, but if app developers get no criticism for overreaching rights in their app or in their apps’ ad module, they aren’t going to change.”

I agree, as companies tend to respond to issues if their user base makes enough noise. People upgrading to smartphones or tablets for the first time need to deliberately learn the ins and outs to avoid becoming at risk. It’s often these types of users that get sucked into scams because they don’t know any better. There are also mobile versions of anti-virus software available and countless blogs that detail the latest threats. It’s time to educate users before, not after, malware attacks. µ

CABLE AND HEADPHONE ALCHEMIST Monster Cable has listed a number of blacklisted retailers and warned consumers to be on the lookout for people selling low priced knockoffs of its high priced products.

The firm lists a number of potential sources for its hardware on its home page, including Ebay and Facebook and big high street retailers like Sears.com.

Hundreds of web stores are listed by the firm, which warns that they might sell cables that break easily, as presumably Monster’s do not. As well as Ebay and the other more mysterious choices, the firm has also named other obvious targets such as “guccishoeschina.com” and “beats-bydre-outlet.net”.

“If a price for a product being sold as Monster from a non-authorized dealer seems ‘too good to be true,’ most likely it is, and is not a genuine Monster product,” warns the firm.

“Counterfeit Monster products do not meet the high standards of quality and performance you expect from Monster. For example, many of the counterfeit HDMI cables will not carry a 1080p signal properly. You may pay less, but you will not get the performance you expect.”

Earlier this year The INQUIRER spent some time trying to work out what it was that made Monster’s cables so expensive, and thanks to some documentation from the firm we realised that they just are.

In a rather large document on HDMI it said, “Monster may cost more, but it’s worth it,” and claimed that its products are made with precision manufacturing techniques and exceed current specification so that they don’t need to be upgraded. µ

In our Galaxy S 2 review we highlighted an extremely unique aspect of Samsung's latest: its Exynos 4210 SoC. The 4210 features two ARM Cortex A9 cores running at 1.2GHz and an ARM Mali-400 MP4 GPU. The A9 implementation is equal to that of TI's and a bit better than NVIDIA's Tegra 2 (MPE + dual-channel memory controller), and the Mali-400 MP4 is the fastest GPU we've benchmarked in a smartphone. The SoC is built on Samsung's own 45nm process.

Today Samsung announced a 32nm addition to the family: the Exynos 4212. CPU clocks jump up to 1.5GHz, while GPU clocks are unknown. Samsung claims GPU performance improves by up to 50% "over the previous processor generation" but that is a bit too ambiguous for me to extract anything real from. The move to 32nm could have simply enabled a 50% increase in GPU clock speed.

Samsung's 32nm process uses high-K + metal gate transistors, similar to a transition Intel made at 45nm. According to Samsung, these new transistors allow for either a > 40% increase in performance at the same leakage or a 10x reduction in leakage current at the same speed. Density also improves by 2x enabling even more complex chip designs (more cores, bigger GPUs, more integration) or smaller die with the same feature set (eventually improving supply and profit). 

Specific to the Exynos 4212, Samsung is claiming a 30% reduction in power compared to its predecessor (presumably the 45nm LP Exynos 4210?).

Exynos 4212 will be sampling in Q4. I'd expect to see it in handsets sometime in 2012.

ENTERPRISE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FIRM Oracle has hit back at a lawsuit from HP that complains about its plans to stop supporting servers running Intel’s Itanium chip.

The argument is already pretty grubby, with both parties alleging that the other is privy to sensitive information that it is abusing, and now Oracle has flung some more mud and accused the maker of expensive printer ink of attention seeking.

In a court filing (PDF) filed in response to HP’s complaint, Oracle let fly, saying, “This case is an abuse of the judicial process-a publicity stunt in a broader campaign to lay the blame on Oracle for the disruption that will occur when HP’s Itanium-based server business inevitably comes to an end.”

“HP untenably has put itself and thousands of customers out on the end of a very long limb because HP, almost alone now, clings to a decades old microprocessor architecture-Intel’s Itanium chip line-that has no future. Intel has wanted to discontinue Itanium production for years, and HP knows it.”

This is a retread of Oracle’s earlier arguments, and perhaps rightly so, as this is all that this case is likely to involve – the sort of he said, she said argument that exposes what we all suspect is going on behind closed doors anyway. µ

JAPANESE ELECTRONICS FIRM Fujitsu has announced that its Stylistic Q550 tablet will be available at the end of June, despite Amazon having the device listed as ‘In Stock’.

Confusion has set in over the tablet, as Fujitsu claimed shipment has started from its Japanese manufacturing facilities. On the contrary, Amazon.co.uk shows that the WiFi only model is in stock.

Fujitsu told The INQUIRER, “The STYLISTIC Q550 tablet (Wi-Fi only) is available in the UK at the end of June, with Wi-Fi and 3G variants arriving in July.”

The 3G versions of the Q550 appear on Amazon also but with the statement, “Usually dispatched within 1 to 2 months”, and Fujitsu told us, “Amazon shouldn’t have it.”

The dates of June and July are a considerable delay from Fujitsu’s original announcement of April availability. Fujitsu dismissed our questions about this, saying that all had gone to plan with the release of the tablet despite the earthquake in Japan. Clearly, Fujitsu was somewhat economical with the truth there, given its previous announcement, perhaps in order to save face.

We were alerted to the delay by a Fujitsu representative at trade show CeBIT in March, where we were told it would arrive in June. At the time, the tablet on display was just a prototype.

If you’re trying to decide on a tablet then the Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 will offer Windows 7 on a 10.1in LED backlit touchscreen. It brings various security features such as a smart card reader, a finger print scanner and a solid state drive with full disk encryption.

Like the HTC Flyer it comes with a stylus pen, with prices starting at £749 for the WiFi only model. µ

It started off as a simple enough memory review, but somewhere along the way we decided to dramatically expand  the scope of our discussion and avoid the monotony of a typical memory piece. The end result? An in-depth look at some of the more fundamental aspects of SDRAM operation. If you'd like to expand your understanding of memory transaction minutia while learning more about which key performance factors need to be tuned and why, then have we got the article for you! Set some good time aside, grab a tall mug of your favorite, frosty beverage, and prepare for an exercise in reasoning. You're not going to want to miss what we have to share.

UK ROAD RECOVERY SERVICE, the Automobile Association (AA), is warning drivers to be on the look out for ‘zombie’ Ipod users or ‘podestrians’, through its insurance arm.

“‘Ipod oblivion’ – a trance-like or Zombie state entered by some people using MP3 players, phones and electronic organisers on the move – can be lethal for pedestrians, cyclists and car drivers”, it warned when launching an awareness campaign.

These ‘zombies’, the AA said, wander blindly around the roads of the UK, probably listening to Dan Brown audiobooks, Kenny G, or avante-garde funk on their Ipods, with nary a second thought about traffic and other non-cool things like that.

“AA patrols have noted a marked increase in the number of ‘Ipod zombie pedestrians’ and joggers oblivious to traffic around them as they cross busy roads,” it said. “It is thought that pedestrians’ lack of attention may be a factor in some of the 500 pedestrian deaths or 26,887 pedestrian casualties last year.”

Ipods are not the only tool of the devil, and ambulance chasing solicitors and the AA also fingered smartphones and the band Motorhead in its release. “It appears that more people are using communication technology on the move,” it added, pointing its oily finger at email checking business men, heavy metal joggers and smartphone app using, restaurant hunting tourists.

The warnings do not just apply to pavement slugs that mooch into the road with the vacant air of the lobotomised, but also to drivers that wear headphones while in control of a car.

AA president Edmund King said, “We can’t stop the march of technology but we need to halt the ‘Ipod pedestrian, cycle and driver zombies’. Whether on two feet, two wheels or four, too many people are suffering from so-called ‘iPod oblivion’.

“When on the move our brains have much to take in and using technological gadgets means that our brains can’t always concentrate on so many things at once. This is when we walk into traffic, don’t hear the truck or drive cocooned from the outside world.”

The AA will look for the term ‘podestrian’ to catch on, and reports that more drivers making claims for minor shunts are citing ‘podestrians’ or Ipod wearing pedestrians as the cause than ever before.

It is urging people to be more concerned about their personal safety than whatever ear gum is coming next, or whatever foppish Facebook updates their friends might have made. µ

There's an age-old battle between form and function. Some users will give up performance and features for a devices that looks cool, while for others the benchmarks are all that really matters. The ASUS U33Jc doesn't totally eschew function, with plenty of high-end features, but it does pay more than lip service to aesthetics by placing bamboo surfaces on the top panel and palm rest. The result is a unique look with an organic vibe that is sure to turn a few heads.