Jordan Kahn

Earlier this week we told you that the Defense Department was nearing a decision on approving the three major mobile platforms through new security approvals that would allow widespread use of devices by government agencies and the DoD networks. While the department is yet to grant approval to Apple’s iOS 6 for for nonclassified communications by military agencies, today the Wall Street Journal provides an update noting that both Samsung’s Knox security software and BlackBerry 10 have now received the approvals ahead of Apple:

RIM announced late Thursday that the Department of Defense approved smartphones and tablets running on BlackBerry 10, the company’s new operating system, for use throughout DOD networks…Samsung devices outfitted with Knox, the company’s new security software offering, also received Pentagon approval Thursday, according to a DOD spokesman. Apple’s approval is still expected in the “next few weeks,” according to the spokesman.

As of February, BlackBerry made up the majority of the 600,000 devices on the DoD’s networks. Currently the networks consist of around 470,000 BlackBerrys, 41,000 Apple products, and 8,700 Android devices, although that could quickly change thanks to the new security approvals allowing more government agencies to adopt Samsung and Apple devices.

Google is beginning to roll out a new feature in Gmail today that will allow users to quickly and easily create or add an event to Google Calendar without ever leaving their inbox. Once the feature has been enabled, users will be able to click the date and time within emails to add or create an Google Calendar entry using the data from the email (as pictured above). The calendar entry  can be edited before added and will also automatically include a link back to the original email for reference:

When you click on one of these underlined dates, you’ll be able to preview your schedule for the day and change the title, date or time of the event. Clicking “Add to Calendar” will do exactly that — add the event to your calendar, and for extra convenience, the calendar event will include a link back to the original email.

Keep an eye out for the new feature rolling out to everyone using the English (US) language setting over the next week.

While there might not be much information surrounding Google’s recent hire of Noah Falstein, the company’s decision to pick up the game design veteran as its “Chief Game Designer” certainly gives the impression Google has something big planned in the way of first party titles. TechCrunch first spotted the job title on Noah’s LinkedIn page and notes that an earlier cache of the page shows his new gig at Google used to be listed as “Chief Game Designer at Android Play Studio.” That’s a pretty good indication that whatever Falstein is working on is likely Android related.

Google of course has its feet into gaming through Google Play and Chrome apps, but it has not been active in developing its own titles for Android or Chrome OS. Falstein has worked as a game designer and producer at a number of studios over the years including LucasARTS Entertainment, DreamWorks Interactive, and the 3DO Company. More recently he has been active in developing the concept of serious games. 
Expand
Expanding
Close

The iPhone and iPad have already been cleared for use by a number of US government agencies, and in February the US Defense Department confirmed plans to open its networks to 100,000 new devices from Apple and Google by February of next year. Today, The Wall Street Journal reports the DoD is about to grant two more important security approvals that could increase the number of agencies allowed to deploy iPhone, iPads, and Samsung Galaxy devices:

The Defense Information Systems Agency, or DISA, the agency that sanctions commercial technology for Pentagon use, is set to rule that Samsung’s Galaxy line of smartphones, preloaded with Samsung’s Knox security software, conforms with the Pentagon’s so-called Security Technology Implementation Guide, according to people familiar with the approval process. That would allow it to be used by some Pentagon agencies for things like sending and receiving internal emails, according to these people.

Separately, DISA is expected to rule that Apple’s latest operating system, iOS 6, conforms to a different security-requirement guide, these people said. That would allow iPhones and iPads to be used by military agencies for nonclassified communications, like email and Web browsing.

The report from WSJ explained Samsung has been steadily increasing its attempt to break into corporate and government markets by hiring a new team of security experts and former RIM employees to reach out to Western governments and corporations:
Expand
Expanding
Close

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JHGlUpO634g

Today AT&T made things official for the upcoming US release of the LG Optimus G Pro, confirming that preorders for the device will begin this Friday on May 3rd. The device will officially become available on May 10 and, as expected, will sell for $199.99 on the usual two year contract. The device will also be available through AT&T just launched Trade-in promo that will offer up to an additional $100 off the device.

As for specs, there aren’t too many surprises following earlier leaks of the device with AT&T confirming the 5.5″ 1080p Full HD IPS display with 400 ppi, 1.7 GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon CPU with 2 GB RAM, a 13 MP Full HD Camera, and a 3,140 mAh battery. The device will also run Android 4.1.2 out of the box and including a 2.1 megapixel front facing cam, and 32 GB on board storage expandable to 64GB of memory via microSD.

We’ll be covering LG Optimus G Pro making its official US debut today at an event schedule for 8pm in New York City. Full specs from AT&T below:
Expand
Expanding
Close

Google announced today on its Google+ Developers Blog that it will be working with app and site developers to integrate what it is calling “app activities” into search results. In other words, when searching for an app or site through Google search such as SoundCloud, users will now be greeted with a section to the right of search results showing related SoundCloud content that’s popular among Google+ users. Google is initially teaming up with music and movie apps Deezer, Fandango, Flixster, Slacker Radio, Songza,SoundCloud and TuneIn but plans to add more soon as the feature begins to roll out on desktops in the coming weeks.

Below Google compares the current search results for Fandango to the new improved results page with app activities:
Expand
Expanding
Close

According to a post on the YouTube Google+ page today MLB fans are about to get access to free live streams in addition to highlights and other content. The only catch is the free live streaming, which is limited to two live games per day, will only be available to viewers outside the US, Canada, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

The updated MLB YouTube page, however, also includes a bunch of new content that WILL be accessible to viewers in all countries. Among them is highlights from regular season MLB games a day or two after airing, as well as “tens of thousands of hours of archived games dating back to 1952, clips from Baseballs Best Classics and Best Moments, and more.”

Samsung focused blog SamMobile, which has been accurate with details surrounding product launches in the past, today claimed Samsung is set to introduce a number of new devices in 2013 including an 11-inch Nexus-branded tablet.

According to the report, Samsung is working with Google on the Nexus 11, a 11-inch tablet that will debut as the world’s first octa-core tablet and including an “Octa-Core A15 / A7 (Exynos 5410)”, 8 megapixel main camera, and 2 megapixel front cam. The blog also claims to have details on another 11-inch tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 11, that will include similar specs but with a dual-core processor.

The report also says Samsung has a 7-inch Galaxy Tab, not unlike the Galaxy Tab 3 announced this morning, that will be equipped with a DUOS option for dual-SIM card support.

Finally the report claims to have details on an 8-inch Galaxy Tab coming this year that will support some decent specs including an 8-inch 1080p AMOLED display, a quad-core A9 processor, and 5 megapixel camera, although the SamMobile notes “Samsung need to solve AMOLED burning problem first.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cUiRThvCp8E

Samsung posted the video above today on its YouTube channel featuring interviews with some of the designers and executives that worked on the just launched Galaxy S4. With the hardware of the Galaxy S4 not changing too dramatically from previous Galaxy devices, it’s not much of a surprise that Samsung focuses on many of the software features it crammed into Android for the S4. The device just started selling through AT&T, hits T-Mobile today, and will be making its way to other carriers in the coming weeks. 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Samsung has finally made things official for the Galaxy Tab 3 today, announcing in a press release on its website that the 7-inch tablet will become available globally starting next month. Samsung didn’t confirm pricing on the new tab, but did reveal specs including a 1.2GHz dual for process, 7 inch WSVGA (1024 x 600, 169 PPI) TFT display, 1GB of RAM, and 8 and 16GB variants expandable to 64GB via microSD.

The new Galaxy Tab 3 will be running Android 4.1 out of the box, but Samsung will only be shipping the Wi-Fi version of the device when it begins selling next month.

Other specs include a 4,000 mAh Li-ion battery, 3-megapixel main camera, 1.3 -megapixel front facing cam, A-GPS ＋ GLONASS, WiFi Direct, and Bluetooth 3.0. Rather underwhelming specs, so we assume pricing will be on the low end of things when Samsung finally decides to fill us in.

As for those waiting out for a WiFi + 3G variant, the company currently plans on beginning sales of that model in June with rollouts happening gradually and availability varying by market.

The guys and gals over at iFixit are once again performing their usual teardown ritual and this time they have gotten their hands on the just released Samsung Galaxy S4. It probably won’t be the most exciting teardown you’ve ever read, as the internal design of the device, like the outer design, hasn’t changed much since the Galaxy S3. The good news is that the S4 gets a higher 8 out of 10 score for repairability.

• Snapdragon 600 APQ8064T 1.9 GHz Quad-Core CPU
• Qualcomm MDM9215M 4G GSM/UMTS/LTE modem
• Qualcomm PM8917 power management
• Samsung K3QF2F200E 2 GB LPDDR3 RAM
• Qualcomm WCD9310 audio codec
• Skyworks 77619 Power Amplifier Module for Quad-Band GSM / EDGE
• Qualcomm WTR1605L Seven-Band 4G LTE chip (same part found in the Nexus 4)
• Broadcom 20794S1A standalone NFC chip
• Maxim MAX77803 microcontroller
• Silicon Image 8240BO MHL 2.0 transmitter
• Qualcomm PM8821 Power Management

Check out a full list of highlights from the teardown below and head over to iFixit to see the full teardown step by step:
Expand
Expanding
Close

We already knew that Google Glass would be running Android 4.0.4 and got a look at the official tech specs straight from Google, but until now we didn’t know some of the specifics such as how much RAM and what processor the device is using. Today we details via developer +JayLee (via Selfscreens) that Google Glass reports running a OMAP 4430 CPU similar to that used in the original Kindle (although not other details are available on the processor) and 682mb of RAM. Lee speculates Glass might actually pack in 1GB of RAM:
Expand
Expanding
Close

looks like root is easy too: reboot-bootloader gives you fastboot oem unlock. There is fun to be had here…

— Liam McLoughlin (@Hexxeh) April 26, 2013

Update: A post from Google employee Dan Morrill clarifies that, although the original developer claimed a “root is easy”, the process developers are using is actually a ‘fastboot oem unlock’. Rather than exposing a security exploit, Google has actually intentionally left Glass open for devs to tinker with, as further explained by Googler Stephen Lau:

Not to bring anybody down… but seriously… we intentionally left the device unlocked so you guys could hack it and do crazy fun shit with it.  I mean, FFS, you paid $1500 for it… go to town on it.  Show me something cool.

Updated 2: Founder of the Cydia jailbreak store @saurik provided some clarification on his earlier tweets, informing us that he did not use fastboot oem unlock:

Actually, my device’s bootloader is still locked: I did not use fastboot oem unlock, and in fact that would not have been useful without the source code to the Glass kernel, which was not made available until this morning. I relied on a race condition in the adb restore process, a bug that existed in Android 4.0 (and even Android 4.1). As the Glass ships with Android 4.0.4, the bug was easy to exploit. This exploit was not one that I found, to be clear (unless you count “using Google” ;P): I pulled apart an implementation by@Bin4ryDigit, and adapted it for use on Glass (which required very small modifications to the backup; the entire process of learning the exploit and fixing it took 2 hours).

Saurik later published an article explaining some of the ins and outs of the potential for writing apps for Glass and the exploit he originally took advantage of.

Have you been wondering how long until developers crack into Google Glass to provide full root access and start creating some interesting mods? It appears we might not be too far off with Google intern on the Chrome OS team and hacker Liam McLoughlin confirming on Twitter that a root might be easier than many people think (via selfscreens).

McLoughlin first tweeted that, “There’s a “debug mode” option on Glass that appears to enable ADB access. I got a shell on my Glass :D (no root yet!).” Shortly after it appears he also figured out a root method, tweeting, “looks like root is easy too: reboot-bootloader gives you fastboot oem unlock. There is fun to be had here…”

He isn’t the only one working on a root for Google Glass, hacker @chpwn tweeted today that founder of the Cydia jailbreak store @saurik is in the process of unlocking his Google Glass and Saurik later confirmed:
Expand
Expanding
Close