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Ben Lovejoy

benlovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer who started his career on PC World and has written for dozens of computer and technology magazines, as well as numerous national newspapers, business and in-flight magazines. He has also written two novels.

He thinks wires are evil and had a custom desk made to hide them, known as the OC Desk for obvious reasons.

He considers 1000 miles a good distance for a cycle ride, and Chernobyl a suitable tourist destination. What can we say, he’s that kind of chap.

He speaks fluent English but only broken American, so please forgive any Anglicised spelling in his posts.

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Lack of carrier Android updates puts user privacy at risk, says ACLU

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Apr 17 2013 - 5:15 am PT
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The failure of the four main US carriers – AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile – to issue updates and patches to the Android handsets they sell are leaving users vulnerable to hacking attacks, says the American Civil Liberties Union (via ars technica).

Civil liberties advocates have asked the US Federal Trade Commission to take action against the nation’s four major wireless carriers for selling millions of Android smartphones that never, or only rarely, receive updates to patch dangerous security vulnerabilities …
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Mobile web access getting faster, mainstream websites getting fatter

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Apr 16 2013 - 5:16 am PT
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summary

Google has published analytics data showing that mobile web access is 30% faster than a year ago, while websites designed for access on fixed net connections have gained little in speed – a fact explained by the fact that page sizes are now 56% larger, giving an effective speed boost of around 60%.

Over the last year, we have seen significant improvements in the core infrastructure that powers the Internet: the web browsers have gotten faster; there have been quite a few LTE/4G deployments making mobile networks a lot faster; and processing power on mobile devices continues to increase at a rapid pace.

Many more stats at Google.

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Sprint may remain US-owned as Dish makes counter-offer

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Apr 15 2013 - 5:08 am PT
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sprint

The FT reports that US satellite TV company Dish has made a counter-offer to the take-over bid launched last year by Japanese telecoms giant Softbank.

Dish is offering shareholders $7 in cash (versus $4.03 in Softbank’s offer), and claims that the overall offer of cash plus shares is worth 13% more than the proposed Softbank deal.

Update: AllThingsD is reporting that Softbank expects to complete the deal despite the rival bid, with Reuters suggesting that Softbank is unlikely to walk away even if forced to increase its bid.

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UK carrier O2 follows T-Mobile lead with its own version of ‘Uncarrier’

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Apr 12 2013 - 7:49 am PT
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UK mobile carrier O2 is following T-Mobile’s US lead in separating phone and airtime plans.

Unlike Uncontract, O2’s Refresh deal still requires customers to sign up to an airtime contract, but allows greater flexibility by paying off the phone plan at a faster rate, and getting more frequent upgrades.

Customers can reduce the monthly cost of the phone plan by paying an up-front amount, or trading in the old handset, and can pay off the phone plan balance at any time in order to upgrade.

A customer buys a HTC One on O2 Refresh and chooses to pay £17 per month for their Airtime Plan and gets unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB of data. They then choose to pay £20 per month for their Phone Plan and pay £49.99 up front, meaning their combined O2 Refresh tariff costs £37 per month, the same as they would pay on a standard 24 month Pay Monthly contract.

To make it even more affordable to get the latest smartphone, customers can trade in their old mobile for cash using O2 Recycle, getting up to £260 to put towards their new phone.

Refresh is focused on higher-end handsets, and will initially offer a choice of HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S3, Sony Xperia Z, Blackberry Z10 and  iPhone 5.

Android app lets NYPD cops see everything from arrest records to CCTV positions

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Apr 12 2013 - 6:51 am PT
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Photo: New York Times

Photo: New York Times

Over 400 New York cops have been given Android phones running an app that lets them access pretty much anything they might need to know while on the street – from arrest records to the locations of CCTV cameras with a view of a spot where a crime has just taken place …
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Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 and 6.3 – the largest ever phablet fills the last gap between 3 and 11 inch screen devices

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Apr 11 2013 - 5:41 am PT
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If you really, really can’t decide whether you want a phone or a tablet, Samsung has confirmed the rumor we recently reported that it is indeed to launch the world’s largest smartphone: the 6.3-inch Galaxy Mega.

Think you might want that but it’s just a teensy bit too large while the 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II is just a touch too small? Not to worry, Samsung has thought of you too: the Galaxy Mega is also available in a 5.8-inch form.

The Galaxy Mega has a 1.7Ghz dual-core processor and runs Jelly Bean. It supports LTE, has the usual dual cameras (8MP on the rear, 1.9MP on the front) and is available with 8Gb or 16Gb storage (with a microSD slot supporting up to 64Gb).

Both variants will be launched in May in Europe and Russia, with the US launch date as yet unknown.
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Microsoft plans to launch 7-inch Surface tablet?

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Apr 11 2013 - 4:43 am PT
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surface

Microsoft is planning to launch a 7-inch version of its Surface tablet later this year, according to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal.

The unnamed sources claim that the company had no plans to do so initially, but felt it had to respond to the growing popularity of smaller tablets, as research firm IDC reports that half of all tablets sold in the final quarter of 2012 were sub-8-inch. Though how successful this will be in the light of the rather lacklustre reception given to the full-sized version …

IT security consultant & commercial pilot demonstrates airliner hijack via Android app

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Apr 11 2013 - 4:20 am PT
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A security consultant & commercial pilot speaking at the Hack in the Box conference in Amsterdam yesterday demonstrated a way to take control of airliners using an Android app.

Net-security.org reports (via Techmeme) that Hugo Teso combined his IT and pilot expertise to demonstrate in a virtual environment how the app could exploit two elderly forms of radio data communication to upload data into the Flight Management System. This data can include both specific commands, which the auto-pilot would then execute, and updated flight plans, which would allow an attacker to direct the aircraft to the destination of their choice …
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Japanese billionaire claims to own a patent on a Google Glass feature

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Apr 10 2013 - 4:36 am PT
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softbank-ceo

Japanese billionaire  and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son claims to have already patented automated translation on a Google Glass type device. It’s probably one of thousands of such claims, but Engadget notes that the entrepreneur did start out by selling a translation patent to sharp for $1 million …

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 to hit US stores on Thursday (Review Roundup)

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Apr 9 2013 - 7:43 am PT
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Note-8-N5110_v_400x400_large1_HERO_2

The Galaxy Note 8.0, an 8-inch wifi-only tablet with stylus input, goes on sale in the US on Thursday priced at $399.99 – a price which leaves it competing with the iPad Mini, Kindle Fire HD and Google Nexus 7.

The device got a lot of attention when it was launched in Europe in February as the world’s largest phone. For the US launch, however, Samsung has removed the mobile data chip, leaving it a wifi-only tablet. It does, though, retain a second key selling-point: WatchON. The feature enables you to search for both live TV programming and video on demand content and view it on either the tablet directly or on a large-screen TV with the Note providing second-screen functionality.

Here’s a quick round-up of what a few of the early reviews have to say …
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