Google expected to launch Samsung 10 tablet and LG Nexus 4 smartphone next week

Reports cite internal Google video as source

Google's product unveiling event next Monday will feature a 10-in. tablet running Android 4.2, possibly named the Samsung 10, and an LG Nexus 4 smartphone, according to reports.

The Next Web said it learned of the new tablet from an unnamed source who was familiar with an internal Google video describing new products and software to be launched at the Oct. 29 event in New York City.

Google had no comment early Monday, but last week sent out invitations for the event implying a variety of announcements will be made using the phrase, "The playground is open."

The report indicated the LG Nexus 4 smartphone will have a quad-core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and a 4.7-in. display with 1280 x 768 resolution. It will also have a 2100 mAh battery, 2GB of RAM, 16 GB of internalstorage and an 8-megapixel rear camera. It will run the Android 4.2 mobile operating system, also called Jelly Bean, rather than the next-generation Key Lime Pie, the report said.

The reported 10-in. tablet, with the code-name Manta, would have a better resolution, at 300 pixels per inch, than the new iPad, which has 264 PPI. That puts the Samsung device at 2560 x 1600 pixels with a 16:10 aspect ratio.

Google's event comes at the end of a flurry of late October announcements, including an expected launch of an iPad mini tablet on Tuesday, followed by announcements from Samsung on Wednesday and Microsoft's Windows 8 unveiling with Surface RT tablets on Thursday.

Source: www.computerworld.com

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Windows RT tablets and hybrids coming soon

Microsoft, Asus, Lenovo and Samsung are launching tablets with Microsoft's Windows RT

Microsoft will open the floodgates for Windows RT tablets at a release event Oct. 26 in New York City. The Surface tablet from Microsoft will be available on launch, with more tablets from Asus, Dell, Samsung, Lenovo and Acer coming in the following weeks

The tablets are designed for long battery life and will compete with iPad and Android tablets on price and features. The tablets will come with Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 RT Preview, which will include Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote. There are things to consider such as support for older peripherals and backward Windows compatibility, but here are Windows RT tablets and hybrid devices that have been announced so far:

Microsoft's Surface

The RT tablet getting the most attention is Microsoft Surface. The tablet represents the first time Microsoft has made its own client hardware, and expectations are high.

The Surface can be ordered from Microsoft's website starting at US$499 with 32GB of storage. For an additional $100, Microsoft is offering a Touch Cover accessory, which is a magnetic cover that is also a keyboard. A 64GB model is $699 and comes with the Touch Cover. The Surface tablet is 680 grams, 9.3 millimeters thick and has a 10.6-inch screen. It has a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, which is based on an ARM processor.

Other features include front and back cameras, Bluetooth 4.0, a microSDXC card slot, USB 2.0 ports and 2GB of RAM. Microsoft is trying to differentiate the Surface from rival RT tablets with some tweaks such as a kickstand to hold the tablet. The tablet will be available initially in the U.S., Canada, Australia, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong and the U.K.

Asus' Vivo Tab RT

Asustek was the first to show off a Windows RT device with the Tablet 600, which has now been renamed Vivo Tab RT. The tablet, scheduled to go on sale later this month, has a 10.1-inch display and a Tegra 3 processor. Asus has not yet officially revealed the tablet's price, but retailer Staples hastagged it at $599.99.

At 520 grams, the Vivo Tab RT is lighter than Microsoft's Surface, and also thinner at 8.35 millimeters. The tablet has 32GB of storage, 2GB of memory, a 2-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front camera. The tablet's display will show images at a 1280-by-800-pixel resolution, according to published specifications. Other features include a micro-HDMI port, micro-SD slot, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

AT&T has announced it would offer the Vivo Tab with 4G LTE later this year. Data plans or pricing for the device were not available from AT&T.

Source: computerworld.com

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Google offers new 11.6-in. Samsung Chromebook for $249

Some analysts say it is really a netbook and won't sell wel

Google today announced a new low-priced clamshell-style Samsung Chromebook computer for $249 that runs the Chrome OS.

With an 11.6-in. display, a full-sized Chrome keyboard, overall weight of 2.5 pounds and a Samsung Exynos 5 dual-core processor, some analysts immediately called it a netbook instead of a full laptop.

That netbook moniker has negative connotions that could hurt sales, analysts said. Netbooks are seen as basically focused on browsing the Internet and accessing applications and data in the cloud instead of accessing on-board apps that are used offline. The new Samsung Chromebook will ship Wi-Fi-only.

"I don't see any benefit of getting a Chromebook," said Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates. The new device "is basically a netbook with a Web-based OS on it. Why not just buy an Android device and actually be able to use plenty of apps?"

Gold said that a cost-conscious buyer might find $249 attractive for the new Chromebook, especially if it runs some Google apps. "But for another $100 or so, you can get a full laptop running Windows. That's a much better deal," Gold added.

Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said Google might not call the new device a netbook, a category that hasn't done well in the last year. "The light computing experience of the device in a clamshell form factor says netbook, whatever you call it," she said.

Gartner has projected "small volumes for Chrome in the consumer market," Milanesi added. Eventually, Android and Chrome should merge, she said.

"Consumers do not want to choose between apps and Internet; they want both," she added. "The $249 is certainly an interesting price point, but consumers have been burned with netbooks and will be cautious and look beyond the price tag."

Other device makers have backed off netbooks, sometimes in favor of tablets or ultrabooks, including Lenovo in February and Dell last year.

Intel said earlier this year that it would supply netbook processors as long as the processors continued selling in significant volumes.

There are some avid supporters of Chrome and Chromebooks, including JR Raphael, a Computerworld blogger. who has seen the latest device and plans a full review.

Raphael has evaluated earlier Chromebook models, including the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook and Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook.

Even though Raphael said the Chromebook is close to a traditional netbook, it is a fairly unique concept that has been underestimated and that "people seem to either love or hate." Chromebooks have been compared to thin clients and have been used in schools and businesses and in areas such as call centers because those organizations don't have to pay for software updates or complex set-up.

"For people who already live in the cloud and mainly rely on Web-based services like Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, [the Chrome OS] eliminates much of the hassle of traditional computing," Raphael said. "No annoying drivers, no ridiculous OS updates, no crashes and conflicts and viruses."

Google said the 11.6-in. display will have a 1366 x 768 resolution. There will be 16GB of internal storage and 2GB of RAM, with a six-hour-plus battery.

Source: computerworld.com

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Apple financial data may be unsealed in Samsung case

Information on specific products would be made public in its suit against Samsung, but only pending an appeal

Information about sales, profits and margins for specific Apple products should be made public, the judge hearing the company's lawsuit against Samsung Electronics ruled on Wednesday, though a higher court's decision could keep the data from ever being revealed.

Apple used the financial information in a motion to hit Samsung with more damages above and beyond the US$1.05 billion award that a jury decided on in August. The jury had found Samsung copied iPhones and other Apple devices in several of its products. However, Apple wants to keep the financial information under seal, saying it constitutes trade secrets.

In an order released on Wednesday, Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said those figures should be publicly available. But she ruled that the information should not be unsealed before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rules on an appeal by Apple. Both courts have stays in place until that ruling is made.

Apple discloses its sales and profits every quarter as a publicly traded company, and it periodically gives unit sales figures for certain products. But it carefully guards other types of information about how its individual products are doing and how much they cost to make. On Aug. 9, before the jury even decided the case, Koh issued an order that said such financial data shouldn't be sealed. That order has been stayed pending Apple's appeal to the higher court.

"As this Court explained in the August 9 Order, Apple has not established that public availability of its product-specific unit sales, revenue, profit, profit margin and cost data would actually provide its competitors with an advantage," Koh wrote in Wednesday's ruling. In addition, there is great public interest in the data, she said. Since then, "Apple has not provided any new arguments for why this information should be protected," she wrote.

Koh's decision on Wednesday involves different documents from the ones covered in the Aug. 9 order, but they are subject to the same analysis, she wrote. Putting her new order into effect immediately would undermine the stays that are in place on that earlier ruling, Koh wrote.

In Wednesday's order, Koh also denied a motion by Apple to seal another set of documents, but she granted its motion to keep some market-share data from research company IDC under seal. Making that data public could hurt IDC's ability to sell reports to other companies, Koh said in her decision. (IDC is a division of IDG, the parent company of IDG News Service.)

Source: computerworld.com

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Samsung to push out Android 4.1 to Galaxy S III smartphones in US

Dates to roll out updates will be decided by carriers

Samsung Mobile on Wednesday said it would start rolling out Android 4.1, code-named Jelly Bean, to Galaxy S III smartphones in the U.S.

Galaxy S III smartphones run on Android 4.0, code-named Ice Cream Sandwich. The Jelly Bean update will be rolled out over-the-air and also via Samsung's Kies software. Individual carriers offering the Galaxy S III, including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Sprint and U.S. Cellular, will separately announce specific roll-out dates.

Google announced Android 4.1 in June, and vendors have just recently started rolling it out to smartphones and tablets.

Galaxy S III smartphones in Europe are already being updated to Jelly Bean. The updated OS offers a new user interface and new multimedia capabilities.

The OS is the first version built for tablets and smartphones. Compared to predecessors, Jelly Bean is faster, navigation is smoother, and an improved keyboard can better predict words being typed out. Other improvements include revamped notification and text and voice search capabilities. A new feature in Android 4.1 called Google Now provides voice search and also information on weather, traffic, navigation and other data in a single interface.

Samsung is also adding its own apps including "custom" integration of AllShare, which will allow wireless sharing of multimedia files between among devices including PCs, tablets and TVs, the company said. The phone maker is also building in technology to connect Bluetooth devices with just one touch.

Google already offers the Nexus 7 tablet with Android 4.1, and Asustek has pushed out the OS to its tablets. Motorola has pushed out Jelly Bean to some of its tablets and said it would update latest smartphones by end of the year. HTC has also said it would update its One smartphones to Jelly Bean in the future.

Source: computerworld.com

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Sprint to begin $300 Samsung Galaxy Note II sales on Oct. 25

First Sprint quad-core smartphone available in U.S. runs Android 4.1 and has a 5.5-in. display

Sprint will begin selling the Samsung Galaxy Note II on Oct. 25 for $299.99 with a two-year contract, the carrier announced early Tuesday.

If Sprint meets the schedule, the Galaxy Note II will be the carrier's first quad-core smartphone to go on sale in the U.S.,

The carrier today boasted that the Galaxy Note II's 5.5-in. display is Sprint's first of more than 5 inches.

The device runs Android 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean, while other smartphones are still launching with Android 4.0, or Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Galaxy Note II features a Samsung Exynos 1.6 GHz quad-core processor, and will run over the Sprint's 4G LTE network that's slated to be expanded to more than 100 cities in coming months.

The device is compatible with 3G GSM and CDMA networks as well.

The Galaxy Note II also comes with an updated S Pen that offers more precise writing and touching capabilities.

It also has an 8 megapixel rear camera and a 1.9 megapixel front camera.

Source: computerworld.com

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The Steam URL protocol can be abused to exploit vulnerabilities in games, researchers say

Attackers can trick gamers into opening malicious steam:// URLs that exploit security issues in games to execute malicious code

Attackers can abuse the way browsers and other applications handle steam:// protocol URLs in order to exploit serious vulnerabilities in the Steam client or games installed through the platform, according to researchers from startup vulnerability research and consultancy firm ReVuln.

Steam is a popular digital distribution and digital rights management platform for games and, since earlier this month, other software products. According to Valve Corporation, the company that developed and operates the platform, Steam offers over 2,000 titles and has over 40 million active accounts.

The Steam client can run on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, although as a beta version only in the latter OS.

When the Steam client is installed on a system, it registers itself as a steam:// URL protocol handler. This means that every time a user clicks on a steam:// URL in a browser or a different application, the URL is passed to the Steam client for execution.

Steam:// URLs can contain Steam protocol commands to install or uninstall games, update games, start games with certain parameters, backup files or perform other supported actions.

Attackers can abuse these commands to remotely exploit vulnerabilities in the Steam client or the Steam games installed on a system by tricking users into opening maliciously crafted steam:// URLs, ReVuln security researchers and founders Luigi Auriemma and Donato Ferrante said in research paperpublished on Monday.

The problem is that some browsers and applications automatically pass steam:// URLs to the Steam client without asking for confirmation from users, the researchers said. Other browsers do request user confirmation, but don't display the full URLs or warn about the dangers of allowing such URLs to be executed.

According to tests performed by the ReVuln researchers, Internet Explorer 9, Google Chrome and Opera display warnings and the full or partial steam:// URLs before passing them to the Steam client for execution. Firefox also requests user confirmation, but doesn't display the URL and provides no warning, while Safari automatically executes steam:// URLs without user confirmation, the researchers said.

"All the browsers that execute external URL handlers directly without warnings and those based on the Mozilla engine (like Firefox and SeaMonkey) are a perfect vector to perform silent Steam Browser Protocol calls," the researchers said. "Additionally for browsers like Internet Explorer and Opera it's still possible to hide the dodgy part of the URL from being shown in the warning message by adding several spaces into the steam:// URL itself."

Aside from tricking users to manually click on rogue steam:// URLs, attackers can use JavaScript code loaded on malicious pages to redirect browsers to such URLs, Luigi Auriemma said Tuesday via email.

Browsers that require user confirmation for steam:// URL execution by default usually provide users with an option to change this behavior and have the URLs automatically executed by the Steam client, Auriemma said. " It's highly possible that many gamers already have the steam:// links directly executed in the browser to avoid the annoyance of confirming them all the time."

The researchers released a video in which they demonstrate how steam:// URLs can be used to remotely exploit some vulnerabilities they found in the Steam client and popular games.

For example, the Steam protocol's "retailinstall" command can be used to load a malformed TGA splash image file that exploits a vulnerability in the Steam client to execute malicious code in the context of its process, the researchers said.

In a different example, a steam:// URL can be used to execute legitimate commands found in Valve's Source game engine in order to write a .bat file with attacker-controlled content inside of Windows Startup folder. Files located in the Windows Startup directory are automatically executed when users log in.

The Source game engine is used in many popular games including Half-Life, Counter-Strike and Team Fortress that have tens of millions of players.

Another popular game engine called Unreal supports the loading of files from remote WebDAV or SMB shared directories through command line parameters. A rogue steam:// URL can be used to load a malicious file from such a location that exploits one of the many integer overflow vulnerabilities found in the game engine to execute malicious code, the ReVuln researchers said.

The auto-update feature found in some games like APB Reloaded or MicroVolts can also be abused through steam:// URLs to create files with attacker-controlled content on the disk.

In order to protect themselves users can disable the steam:// URL protocol handler manually or with a specialized application, or can use a browser that doesn't automatically execute steam:// URLs, Auriemma said. "The downside is that the gamers who use these links locally (shortcuts) or online (web browser) to join servers or use other features of this protocol will be unable to use them."

Because Safari is one of the browsers that automatically executes steam:// URLs, Mac OS X users, which represent the majority of the browser's user base, might be more exposed to such attacks. "Mac OS is the secondary platform used on Steam and many games are available for this platform so it has a wide user base," Auriemma said.

"In our opinion Valve must remove the passing of command-line parameters to games because it's too dangerous and they can't control how these third parties software can act with malformed parameters," the researcher said.

Valve did not immediately return a request for comment.

Earlier this month Valve started to distribute select non-gaming software titles through Steam. Vulnerabilities found in such applications might also be exploitable through steam:// URLs, Auriemma said.

Source:  computerworld.com

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Appeals court overturns ban on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus

Court cites insufficient evidence to show that Galaxy Nexus infringes Apple patent

A ban on imports of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus into the U.S. was reversed by a U.S. appeals court Tuesday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed an earlier ruling by Judge Lucy Koh in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The district court imposed a ban on imports of the Galaxy Nexus into the U.S. based on alleged infringement of a patent related to data search sources.

In its conclusion, the appeals court wrote that "we hold that the district court abused its discretion in enjoining the sales of the Galaxy Nexus."

Apple originally filed a suit against Samsung alleging that Galaxy Nexus infringed multiple patents including 8,086,604, related to data search from multiple sources. The district court determined that an injunction should issue based on alleged infringement of the '604 patent, while the other motions were rejected.

Apple did not, however, show sufficient evidence that Samsung infringed on the patent with Galaxy Nexus, the appeals court said in its ruling. Some of Apple's claims were related to its Siri feature, in which consumers use the voice-controlled capability to search for information. 

"There is also no dispute, however, that the Galaxy Nexus does not have a feature equivalent to Siri. Apple nonetheless argues that establishing a causal nexus here is only a matter of connecting the dots," the appeals court said in its ruling.

This is one win for Samsung in a long legal battle. A jury earlier awarded Apple US$1.05 billion in damages after winning a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung, a ruling that has since been appealed by the Korean firm. Based on the ruling, Apple has also asked to ban sales of other Samsung smartphones in the U.S.

Source: computerworld.com/

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Samsung Galaxy S III display outdoes iPhone 5's, teardown reveals

HS iSuppli analyst says differences likely not enough to affect buying decisions.

Samsung Galaxy S III's display is thinner and has a greater range of colors than that of the Apple iPhone 5, an IHS iSuppli teardown analysis revealed Tuesday.

But IHS iSuppli analyst Vinita Jakhanwal noted that the differences between the displys are fairly subtle and likely don't matter to users.

Jakhanwal said Apple chooses features in products like the iPhone 5 that are designed to yield profits and "deliver a superior customer experience, rather than to provide technology for technology's sake."

The iSuppli teardown revealed that the iPhone 5 display has a 1.5 mm thickness, while the Galaxy S III is only 1.1 mm. Also, the iPhone 5 displays 72% of the colors in the NTSC (National Television System Committee) standard, while the Galaxy S III reaches 100% of those colors.

Overall, the iPhone 5 is 1 millimeter thinner than the Galaxy S III, which IHS said was most likely due to a fatter Galaxy S III battery.

Apple used in-cell technology in the iPhone 5 LCD display.

The in-cell technology eliminates the standalone touch panel layers used in the iPhone 4S, making the iPhone 5 18% thinner than its predecessor.

The in-cell technology's elimination of the separate touch overlay layer allows more light to emit from the display without added refraction and glare from added touch layers, IHS said. As a result the iPhone 5's display provides a "more vibrant and crisper image with improved color saturation than the iPhone 4S."

"The lower color gamut measurement (72% of the NTSC standard compared to the Galaxy S III's fully meeting the standard) may not necessarily make the iPhone 5 display look worse than the Galaxy S III," IHS noted.

The iPhone 5 provides more accurate and realistic colors and contrasts as a result of better calibration, higher brightness and superior power efficiency of the display, it said.

Jakhanwal noted that some reviewers of the Galaxy S III have found that its colors look "oversaturated and unrealistic."

IHS said that the Galaxy S III uses an active-matrix organize light emitting diode (AMOLED) display in contrast to the low temperature polysilicon (LTPS) liquid crystal display (LCD) of the iPhone 5.

AMOLEDs don't use a backlight and potentially have better power efficiency than LCDs, IHS said.

Still IHS said a smartphone's battery life is dependent on many factors other than the display's power consumption, and didn't draw any conclusions about power consumption in either of the smartphone displays studied.

Source: computerworld.com

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Samsung Galaxy Note 2 coming to U.S. Oct. 24?

An event invitation to reporters says the company will celebrate "The Next Big Thing"

Samsung on Thursday afternoon sent out press invitations proclaiming that "the next big thing is here" and told reporters to save the date of Oct. 24 for an event in New York.

Samsung Mobile, which sent the invitations, did not provide any details about the event other than to say it will celebrate "The Next Big Thing," but it is likely that the honored guest at the fete will be the company's smartphone-tablet hybrid, Galaxy Note 2, which has a 5.5-inch screen.

The device was released in South Korea on Wednesday, and the company said the device will be rolled out in 128 countries through 260 carriers, reaching the U.K. in early October and the U.S. later that month.

The Galaxy Note 2 follows the highly successful Galaxy Note, which was launched in February with a 5.3-inch screen. The Galaxy Note 2 can display images at a resolution of 1280-by-720 pixels. The device that shipped earlier this week had a 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos processor, which is made by Samsung.

The smartphone and tablet-hybrid offers 16 hours of talk time and storage of 32GB or 64GB. The 32GB model was priced at US$970 and the 64GB version is around $1,026.

Samsung has sold about 12 million Galaxy Note devices to date, according to Strategy Analytics. The device has created a possible market for what observers call a "phablet," a term that combines phone and tablet. Another device called phablet is Asustek's Padfone.

Source:  computerworld.com

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Samsung delivers Galaxy S3 remote-wipe bug fix

Samsung has released a fix for a critical error in its software that allowed malicious code to remotely wipe its Galaxy S3 smartphone.

The vulnerability was showcased by security researcher Ravi Borgaonkar at Ekoparty security conference on Tuesday.

Samsung later told V3 that it was aware of the issue and had built a fix, which it was distributing as an over-the-air update..

"We would like to assure our customers that the recent security issue concerning the Galaxy S3 has already been resolved through a software update," a Samsung spokesman told V3.

"We recommend all Galaxy S3 customers to download the latest software update, which can be done quickly and easily via the over-the-air (OTA) service."

The vulnerability was reportedly in the device's Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) protocol, which is used in the messaging between handset and mobile network. Potentially, hackers could use the vulnerability to send a “factory reset” command to the user's device.

The attacks could be mounted using a number of different mediums including website links, NFC tags and QR codes.

Security firm Sophos has since warned that the vulnerability may relate to several other Android handsets, including those made by other manufacturers, and urged owners of devices to back-up their phone regularly.

"Whether you choose to trust the cloud, or synchronise to your laptop, or just copy important files to removable storage, don't take the long-term data integrity of your phone for granted," warned Sophos researcher Paul Ducklin.

Source : v3.co.uk

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