Timing Problems in HTC Android Handsets

Turns out iPhones aren’t the only smartphones susceptible to time malfunctions. Phandroid reports that there have been some complaints about HTC Android handsets’ clocks. Users are reporting timing is off anywhere from five to 15 minutes.

Luckily, it’s the Friday before Memorial Day and we’re hoping any of the affected users out there don’t have too many time-sensitive appointments going on. But if you’re one of them and the issue is getting to you, go ahead and manually set it then reboot. You can also wait it out, as some users have said their phones have been fixing themselves.

Of course this is nothing like the iPhone-daylight savings time fiascoes we’ve witnessed, but seeing as the phone has become a de facto watch for many, it’s still fairly annoying.

Twitter acquires Tweetdeck

Twitter has acquired TweetDeck, an application for organizing the display of tweets, for more than $40 million in a mix of cash and stock, according to sources close to the deal.

TweetDeck has been the subject of speculation about deals for months. TechCrunch surfaced reports, citing a $40 million-$50 million acquisition. The deal has yet to be announced, but papers finalizing the deal were signed Monday.

Twitter has been known to either downplay third-party apps or acquire them. In the past, Twitter has scooped up popular Twitter iPhone app Tweetie, and partnered with photo add-on TwitPic as it launched its new interface.

After a management shakeup, with co-founder Ev Williams out and Jack Dorsey back as head of product, the company is focusing on building and owning Twitter's most compelling features and interfaces.

This information is shared from Tweetdeck.

Sharp launches it's Android Phone

Sharp has introduced the world's first clamshell Android phone to the Japanese market, where clamshell phones are still very popular. The Aquos Phone Hybrid 007SH features Android 2.3 Gingerbread and a 16 megapixel camera, all encased in a waterproof shell.

The main screen is 3.4 inches in size, and offers 854 x 480 pixels of resolution. There is a 0.7-inch OLED sub-display visible when the phone is closed that will show the time and notifications among other bits of information. The 16 megapixel camera is also capable of recording 720p HD (1280 x 720) pixel video.

As is common with many Japanese phones, the 007SH has a built-in digital TV tuner as well. It also has a digital wallet function, an infrared port, and a micro-HDMI port. All of these goodies are found in a not-so-svelte 113mm x 51.8mm x 19.3mm (4.45in x 2.04in x 0.76in) casing, and the phone weighs 140g (4.94 oz).

We are yet to know whether this model from Sharp will be released worldwide or not because in the press release only Chinese market was mentioned.

Android phones vulnerable to serious data leakage

This could be a shocking news to all the Android users all over the world. A whopping 99.7 % of Android smartphones are leaking log in data for Google services.This article is written by Adrian Kingsley Hughes for Zdnet

The problem is in the way that applications which deal with Google services request authentication tokens. These tokens are handy in that they eliminate the need for the user to login to the service, but as the researcher discovered these tokens are sometimes sent in plaintext form over wireless networks. This means that anyone who happened to be eavesdropping on the WiFi network could grab these tokens.

What’s worse is that tokens are not specific to the handset, which means that a token destined for one handset could be used on another.

The implications of this vulnerability reach from disclosure to loss of personal information for the Calendar data. For contact information, private information of others is also affected, potentially including phone numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. Beyond the mere stealing of such information, an adversary could perform subtle changes without the user noticing.

To make matters worse, tokens are valid for a long period of time (14 days for Calendar tokens), which means that someone grabbing your token could have two weeks worth of access to your data.

Here is a list of few solutions for the Android users

Upgrade your handset to Android which offers HTTPS for Google Calender and Contacts sync. However, you may have to wait weeks or months for this update from your carrier, or worse still you may never see it (Like Verizon customers, who are stuck on Android 2.2.2 despite the fact that it contains multiple known vulnerabilities). - 

NOTE: 

This update still leaves Picassa Sync vulnerable.

Switch off automatic sync when using open WiFi.

Better still, avoid using affected apps on open WiFi connections.

Seems like Android and Google together aren’t doing a good job of protecting user’s data.

100th Million Android Device Activated by Google

Another interesting fact on Android this week is that Google has activated its 100 millionth android device which never an easy achievement at all.People are now expecting the launch of Google Music and new Chrome Books which will hit the markets soon.

Google's mobile operating system was launched in the year 2008 and the company currently activates 500,000 activations worldwide.This time last year, Google was clocking about 100,000 activations a day. That number doubled by the time August rolled around, and by December of 2010, Google was activating 300,000 Android devices every single day. As it stands, the company currently activates 400,000 Android devices each day.

Barra says the company’s now got 310 devices from 36 OEMs in 112 countries across 215 carriers. He also revealed that Google’s 450,000 Android developers have cranked out 200,000 available apps and these have been downloaded a total of 4.5 billion times. The first billion downloads apparently took two years to hit but the most recent billion downloads were done in the last 60 days.

Search Globe from Google

Search globe,a tool was recently launched by Google will visualize people’s curiosity with pinpoints related to the volume of searches grouped by languages.

The Google Data Arts Team, who created Google Body, harnessed the modern browser’s ability to generate fast 3D imaging with WebGL to display a colorful globe that represents the day-to-day searches by people all over the world.

Valdean Klump of the Google Data Arts Team said “The Search Globe visualizes searches from one day, and shows the language of the majority of queries in an area in different colors. You’ll see a bright landscape of queries across Europe, and parts of Asia for instance, but unfortunately we see many fewer searches from parts of the world lacking Internet access—and often electricity as well—like Africa,” explained in a blog post.

Chrome or Firefox 4 is needed to use the tool properly. The 3D tool that navigates the human body is here.

Price cut for Nintendo Wii

The prices of Nintendo Wii game system will be dropping the prices by $50 to $150 and prics of several games will be reduced as they are going to launch the successor next year.The price cut -- the second one since the Wii launched for $250 in 2006 -- comes less than a month after the Japanese company announced the console will have a successor next year. Nintendo Co. said in late April it will show off a playable model of the new system at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, which runs June 7- 9 in Los Angeles.

The Wii redefined gaming when it launched nearly five years ago, expanding the video game audience by offering intuitive motion controllers instead of complex buttons. But the Wii isn't as technologically powerful as its counterparts from Sony and Microsoft, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. Unlike those two, it doesn't offer high-definition images.

Nintendo has sold 86 million Wiis worldwide since the system launched, including 35 million in the U.S. As such, it has outsold both of its competitors, but with the price cut the company hopes to expand the console's audience even more widely.

Price cuts extend the lives of gaming systems because more people can afford them. Sony's PlayStation 2 is still sold 11 years after its release. PlayStation 2 sold nearly half of the consoles after price cuts, at $149 and below.

Back from a long break

Guys,its been a long time since I posted.I am now back to blogsphere. There are lots of facsinating things happening in the tech world with I-pad 2 release in India,Sony Playstation data theft and Samsung Galaxy 2.The mobile market is flooded with lots and lots of new models from almost all top brands.In the coming posts you will get to know all the latest things on new gadgets,technology and mobile.