PDA Reviews & News - Smartphone Reviews & News

Mobile Security: Keep Your Screen Clean

August 27th, 2010

Miles

The University of Pennsylvania just released an interesting paper on the security risks of an unclean touchscreen. That’s right, your fingerprints could lead to bigger problems than a dirty screen, they could lead to a clever hacker getting your password.

If you’re using a mobile device with a touchscreen you may be leaving indications about your personal data behind with each swipe of the finger. For example, each time you enter your voicemail password, you’re leaving one fingerprint over each number your’re pressing.

To make matters worse, you may have even left a small trail next to that fingerprint that indicates the direction of the next number in the sequence.

It gets worse. From certain angles, a photograph of your touchscreen might be enough to get an idea of what your password is. By taking a picture of your touchscreen device from just the right angle, a nefarious hacker might be able to figure out your voicemail (or other phone related) password, and use it to break into your account.

So what can you do to keep yourself safe? For starters, keep your screen clean. A screen protector might be a good idea, if it’s one of the ones that’s also smudge resistant. Also, try to remember to wipe your screen down after you enter any sensitive data on it.

That way, you can lower the chances that anyone will take note of your password pattern based solely on your screen smudges.

While the issues raised in the UPenn doc are all valid, you probably don’t need to return your iPhone over this security hole. While it is possible for someone to get your personal data this way, it’s not probable.

You would have to either leave your phone unattended, or ignore someone taking pictures of you while you’re holding your phone out in front of you. Still, if you lose your phone, and the last thing you did with it was enter your password to unlock the phone, there’s a good chance that whoever finds it could get into it very easily.

All things considered, this isn’t the biggest security breach we’ve ever seen. Still, it’s a good idea to keep your screen clean, and keep your phone away from prying eyes. The UPenn document makes for an interesting read, and if you’re interested, you can download the PDF here.

Older Apple iOS Still Have PDF Vulnerability

August 26th, 2010

Miles

You may remember just a couple of days ago, Apple released an update for iOS 4 users to patch out a vulnerability that made it possible for users to jailbreak their phones.

That same vulnerability exists in older versions of the iOS on older iPhones, and iPod Touches, but Apple didn’t really bother to patch the flaw out of their older devices. Fortunately there’s hope… ironic hope.

The vulnerability leaves Apple devices open to jailbreaking, but it also leaves them open to more malicious attacks. Granted, Apple is more worried about the jailbreaking, but the more malicious uses for this exploit shouldn’t be overlooked.

If an iPhone, or iPod user under an older version of the iOS should happen across a site with a malicious piece of code running on it, they might find themselves with a severely damaged device, or they might just wind up with some spyware on their iPhone, or iPod. Fortunately, there’s hope.

Jay Freeman developed a fix for the PDF vulnerability under older versions of the iOS. The ironic part? You’ll have to jailbreak your device to implement the fix. That’s right, in this case, a jailbroken iPhone or iPod is actually more secure than its non jailbroken counterpart.

It’s actually somewhat surprising that a third party developer actually beat Apple to the punch here. Apple is very aggressive about patching holes in the iOS, and security fixes take priority over all other updates for their mobile operating system. It’s uncharacteristic of them to let a flaw go unpatched, even in an older version of the iOS.

We’re curious to see whether or not Apple patches older versions of iOS in the coming weeks to remove this vulnerability. Users with some relatively new devices are still at risk. iPhone 3G users have been either skipping the iOS 4 upgrade, or downgrading after taking it due to some serious issues.

iPhone 3G’s running iOS 4 have been running extremely slow. In the grand scheme of things, the iPhone 3G isn’t that old, and there are still a lot of iPhone 3G users out there.

Apple hasn’t given any indication that they intend to patch the vulnerability out of older versions of the iOS, so for now, your only option is the patch created by Jay Freeman. We’ll be sure to let you know if Apple decides to update older versions of the iOS to fix the patch.

Review: Tweetdeck Open Beta For Android

August 25th, 2010

Miles

Tweetdeck has long been one of the best apps for managing your social networks on PC’s and Macs, and just recently, they also launched an iPhone app. Today, Tweetdeck has begun the open beta for it’s Android app.

The Tweetdeck Android app lets you manage your accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, and Foursquare all from within one simple, and clean app. Each service is color coded to make it easier to identify the difference between a tweet, and a Facebook wall post.

It’s a good thing they did that, because, by default, all of your accounts will show up in the same column. You can, however, add new columns for each account you have added to Tweetdeck. You can also add a column for different searches, lists, and specific users you want to follow closely.

Overall, the interface is simple, clean, and easy to organize. Posting a tweet, or other similar message was a simple, hassle free experience, and we were impressed with how quickly messages posted to our accounts.

Though our impressions were mostly positive, there were a few hiccups (the software is in still in beta). For starters, when we went to leave a comment on a Facebook post from our Motorola Droid, the app’s on screen orientation didn’t change when we slid out our keyboard.

Not a huge deal, but a little annoying. Also, for some reason, two of our twitter accounts didn’t migrate over to the Android app from our Tweetdeck account.

Again, not a huge deal – neither account was our default account, but it is still a little frustrating. Still, it only took a few seconds to manually ad them to the app, so it’s hard to really hold that error against Tweetdeck.

We haven’t spent enough time with the app to make a definitive call on this one, but we strongly suspect that it will drain your phone’s battery fairly quickly. One of the best features, and biggest detriments of the app is that it updates constantly.

That’s great because you’ll never miss a tweet. It’s not so great because each tweet it grabs puts more strain on your phone’s processor, memory, and ultimately, its battery.

Tweetdeck is still in beta, so it does have a few bugs. Still, it’s shaping up to be a solid app well worth checking out. If you’re interested in giving it a try, you can sign up for the beta here.

Google Brings New Functionality To Android Phones

August 24th, 2010

Miles

Google’s Android OS has been getting more and more popular, and robust over the course of the past year. Today, Google announced two new features that bring additional functionality to the OS

Chrome To Phone allows users to send information from Google’s Chrome web browser to their phone. For example, if you’re getting directions to a new restaurant on your computer, you can then quickly send that information right to your Android phone so that you can take the directions with you.

Certain apps will actually take over for your phone’s browser when it’s contextually appropriate In the “getting directions” example, if you are getting those directions from Google Maps on your PC, the Google Maps app on your phone will open the link, and allow you to use the built in navigation functionality to get you where you’re going.

All you have to do is install a Chrome browser extension, and the Chrome To Phone app for your Android phone. The browser extension is open source, so chances are you’ll see versions of it for whatever browser you use.

The app on the other hand, is exclusive to the Android OS for now. It’s possible that Google will release a version of it for other phones, but we’re not holding our breath.

Google’s other big announcement today was Voice Actions. Voice Actions allow you to use the Google Voice Search app to do a wide variety of things, including set a navigation point, write an email, send a text message, and visit a website. This new feature is also available now as part of the latest version of the Google Voice Search app.

Just download the new app, launch it, and tell your phone what you want to do. It’s that simple. The app works well, and in our testing, we only had to correct one typo it made in a two paragraph email. Your results may vary though. Everyone speaks differently, so it stands to reason that this app will hear everyone a little differently.

These apps are great additions to an already outstanding app library provided to Android users by Google. The Android OS just keeps getting more and more feature rich, and we’re looking forward to seeing what new features Google rolls out in the coming months.

iOS 4.0.2 Hits iPhone, 3.2.2 Hits iPad

August 23rd, 2010

Miles

Apple has launched the latest version of the iOS for both the iPhone, and the iPad. The iPhone is now up to version 4.0.2, while the iPad is up to version 3.2.2. So what exciting new features can we expect to see in the latest version of the iOS? Well, actually there aren’t any exciting new features. There aren’t even any boring new features.

That’s alright though – bugfixes can be pretty exciting depending on what bug is getting fixed… but you won’t find any of those here either. The only thing the new version of the iOS does is remove a PDF related vulnerability that allowed users to jailbreak their devices.

For those not in the know, jailbreaking an iPhone or iPad allows you to run software on it that wasn’t acquired through the Apple app store. Many developers are making useful and entertaining apps for Apple’s line of devices that don’t make it on to the app store for one reason or another.

Often, a useful app just won’t make it through Apple’s approval process. If your iPhone, or iPad is jailbroken, you can download, and install these apps that Apple rejected, and others that were never submitted to the app store to begin with.

Jailbreaking your Apple device doesn’t damage it in any way, and in fact, you can still use the app store to download apps to your device without any issues. The only difference between a jailbroken iPhone or iPad and a stock iPhone or iPad is that the jailbroken one can run unsigned code.

So, with all of the issues facing the latest version of the iOS, why did Apple spend their time worrying about something so innocent? Well, it’s not actually entirely innocent. In addition to running third party software, jailbroken iPhones and iPads can also run pirated software.

Additionally, Apple has worked hard to ensure that all the software on the App store functions properly and won’t have any harmful effects on your device. Third party software for jailbroken Apple devices can’t always make the same claim.

Piracy and stability concerns aside, this update is still indicative of Apple’s priorities. Fixing the hole that was allowing their devices to be jailbroken came before fixing the issues plaguing iPhone 3g users, and that’s got everything to do with Apple’s focus on creating a “walled garden” experience for their users. Love it or hate it, it’s the Apple way.