Yen fall returns Nintendo to profit

Yen fall returns Nintendo to profit

TOKYO â€" Nintendo is making money again courtesy of a weaker yen but its business selling game machines is ailing, with sales of its flagship Wii U console still lackluster.

Nintendo reported an 8.6 billion yen ($88 million) quarterly profit Wednesday, a reversal from losses the previous year, thanks to a cheaper yen that offset the damage from dipping sales.

April-June sales sank nearly 4 percent to 81.5 billion yen ($832 million) as it managed to sell just 160,000 of its new Wii U video-game console worldwide.

Nintendo Co. has sold 3.61 million Wii U machines since they went on sale late last year, and stuck to its target of selling 9 million Wii U units over the fiscal year through March 2014.

Nintendo has in the past lowered its sales goals for the Wii U, which has a touch-screen tablet controller called GamePad and a TV-watching feature called TVii.

One thing Nintendo has going in its favor is the yen's recent weakness. A cheap yen is a boon for Japanese exporters such as Nintendo as it boosts the value of overseas earnings when converted into yen.

The company suffered red ink of 17.2 billion yen in the April-June quarter last year, partly because the yen was stronger then.

The Kyoto-based maker of Super Mario and Pokemon games got a nearly 17 billion yen ($173 million) gain from the yen's decline against the dollar and the euro for the April-June period.

What's more crucial for Nintendo is how its machines and games do during the holidays, including the year-end shopping season, when children and the young-at-heart may receive Nintendo products as gifts.

Such sales hinge on the popularity of game software in the pipeline.

Nintendo said new Wii U games are coming in the latter half of the year such as "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD" and "Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze."

"Pikmin 3," the latest in another popular series, went on sale in Japan and Europe in July, and is set to go on sale in the U.S. in August, according to Nintendo.

Video games have been hurt in recent years by the popularity of smartphones and other devices that also deliver online entertainment.

But Nintendo has repeatedly insisted that game machines aren't cellphones and make up a different entertainment category.

Nintendo's 3DS hand-held machines held up relatively well in sales despite the passage of time, selling 1.4 million units in April-June. Nintendo is expecting to sell 18 million 3DS machines around the world for the fiscal year through March 2014.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Android fragmentation surges, but is that a bad thing?

Android fragmentation surges, but is that a bad thing?

Brand fragmentation in the Android market is immense, but Samsung still leads the charge with 47.5 percent of the market share.

(Credit: Open Signal)

The fragmentation of the Android market is both a strength and a weakness for users and developers, according to a new report by Open Signal.

On the one hand, it can be difficult to find and make apps that function across the entire Android ecosystem, while on the other hand there are literally thousands of options to choose from. Not only is the Android ecosystem fragmented by operating system -- such as Jelly Bean, Ice Cream Sandwich, and Gingerbread -- it's also chock full of different devices made by dozens of brands.

"For consumers, extreme fragmentation means that they can get exactly the phone they want -- big or small, cheap or expensive, with any number of different feature combinations," Open Signal writes.

Open Signal makes an Android app that crowdsources where the strongest and weakest cell signals are. Along the way, it's also managed to amass a ton of data about what kind of Android devices are out there. The company says that it has seen 11,868 distinct devices download its app over the last few months. For comparison, it only saw 3,997 last year.

"From a developer's perspective, comparing fragmentation from this year to the previous year, we see that it has tripled, with even more obscure devices from around the world downloading the app," the report reads.

While there are many lesser-known brands hitting the scene, Samsung is still leading the charge with 47.5 percent of the market share -- most notably with its Galaxy line of smartphones. In a distant second place is Sony-Ericsson with 6.5 percent of the market share.

While device fragmentation is exploding, Android is better known for its OS fragmentation. It's taken quite some time for Google's latest OS Jelly Bean to finally topple the older and uber-popular Gingerbread. In fact, according to a Google report from earlier this month, the first time that Jelly Bean pulled ahead gaining 37.9 percent adoption was just a couple of weeks ago. For comparison, 95 percent of iOS users are on Apple's latest operating system.

Android and iOS fragmentation comparison.

(Credit: Open Signal) Google has been working to reduce OS fragmentation by both pushing Jelly Bean and supplying developers with code that lets older software take advantage of newer OS features. However, one of the reasons Google develops Android and gives it away free is to accelerate use of the mobile Internet. And, in doing that, Google chooses to encourage diversity and spur the growth of device and brand fragmentation.

"While fragmentation certainly poses a headache to developers who have to test and optimize on an ever-increasing number of devices, the success of the Android ecosystem cannot be separated from its fragmented, free-for-all, nature," the report reads. "What is clear from this report is that Android fragmentation, of all varieties, is increasing. Too often this is treated as a problem with Android, rather than a strength, but we feel that this misses the bigger picture. While there are certainly problems associated with fragmentation (and as developers we know them all too well), it is wrong to suggest that it is only a downside."

Report Reveals Apple Is Working on a Cheaper, Plastic-Backed iPhone

Report Reveals Apple Is Working on a Cheaper, Plastic-Backed iPhone

While the packaging may not be legit, it seems Apple’s purported cheap iPhone may be called the iPhone 5C. Photo: WeiPhone

The signs are all pointing to one thing: Apple is indeed working on a cheaper, plastic iPhone model for debut this fall. The most damning evidence thus far is a report from New York-based labor rights organization China Labor Watch detailing production of such an iPhone.

China Labor Watch investigated working conditions at Pegatron, one of Apple’s Chinese iPhone manufacturers and issued a report (.PDF) disclosing their findings. Inside, it made some curious references to a plastic iPhone â€" a product that doesn’t yet exist on the market:

Today’s work is to paste protective film on the iPhone’s plastic back cover to prevent it from being scratched on assembly lines. This iPhone model with a plastic cover will soon be released on the market by Apple.

The task is pretty easy, and I was able to work independently after a five-minute instruction from a veteran employee. It took around a minute to paste protective film on one rear cover. The new cell phone has not yet been put into mass production, so quantity is not as important. This makes our job more slow-paced than in departments that have begun mass production schedules.

A low-cost iPhone makes sense for Apple as it looks for new ways to grow its mobile hardware business, says Forrester analyst Charles Golvin.

“Producing a lower-cost model will enable more people in the world to afford an iPhone,” Golvin says in an email. “Even in developed markets like the U.S., with operators reducing subsidies, many consumers are experiencing sticker shock as they comprehend the true cost of a smartphone.”

Golvin says this approach is analogous to what Apple did with the iPod. Eventually, it developed a product lineup broad enough that anyone could find an iPod within their budget. If (or when) Apple debuts a lower cost iPhone model, Golvin expects the unsubsidized price to fall in the $299-$329 price range for an 8GB. By our own estimates here at WIRED, that would put the subsidized price somewhere at or below $100, which opens up the possibility that this cheaper iPhone would be made available for free with a new service contract on some carriers. Even if you’re buying one unsubsidized, $330 is a far cry from the $650 a full-price iPhone 5 would set you back.

The Wall Street Journal reported back in January that Apple was developing a low-priced iPhone that would feature a polycarbonate shell rather than the aluminum used in the current iPhone 5. Business Insider says it will be called the iPhone 5C, with the “C” potentially standing for “color” (though the public will no doubt read the C as “cheap”). A well-sourced story from iLounge also previously reported that Apple’s cheap iPhone would be called the iPhone 5C.

Over the past few months, a number of photos (most of questionable trustworthiness) have also surfaced supporting the idea that Apple is developing a plastic-backed iPhone. With photo “evidence,” it’s difficult to discern what could be the real thing, and what’s just a knockoff. But with that in mind, one shot reveals an array of color options including yellow, blue, and green. Another likely fake photograph purportedly shows packaging for an iPhone labeled with “iPhone 5C.”

Apple’s Tim Cook has hinted on more than one occasion â€" most recently during its Q3 earnings call â€" that the company has great things in store for the fall and 2014. Apple has introduced new iPhone models in the fall rather than the summer since the iPhone 4S in 2011.

Bob Mansfield bio vanishes from Apple executive leadership page

Bob Mansfield bio vanishes from Apple executive leadership page

Apple's Bob Mansfield.

(Credit: Apple)

Bob Mansfield, the Apple executive at the center of a mysterious executive shakeup last year, has disappeared from the company's executive leadership page.

The Apple technology chief's bio vanished from the page in the past 24 hours, according to MacRumors, which first reported on the development. However, a version of his page retrieved a week ago is still accessible on Google's Web cache.

Mansfield, who was formerly Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, announced his intention to retire in June 2012, and the company said that he would be replaced by Dan Riccio, Apple's vice president of iPad hardware engineering.

That decision was soon overturned as part of a change-up in Apple's top ranks that left him as an adviser to CEO Tim Cook on "future products." Two months later, Apple changed his role once again, putting him charge of the company's technologies group.

Apple never commented publicly on the latter developments, but the selection of Riccio as Mansfield's replacement apparently did not sit well with some of the company's top employees, who went to Cook to protest the choice, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. After several senior members on Mansfield's team voiced concern that Riccio was not prepared for the job, Cook reportedly approached Mansfield and offered him a pay package worth $2 million a month to stay with the company.

A leaked companywide e-mail from Cook last October noted that Mansfield would be staying on with Apple for another two years. A month later, Mansfield, who joined Apple when the company acquired Raycer Graphics in 1999, sold 35,000 shares of Apple stock, worth just over $20 million, leaving him with about 30,000 shares.

CNET has contacted Apple for comment and will update this report when we learn more.

Updated at 8 p.m. PT: An Apple spokesperson told Reuters that Mansfield has been removed from the executive team but remains employed by the company on special projects.

Now that we have Chromecast, is it time for 'Xbox TV?'

Now that we have Chromecast, is it time for 'Xbox TV?'

Some of the many video apps for Xbox

A funny thing happened to me when I made a comparison chart this week listing what you can watch on Google's new Chromecast versus Apple TV and Roku. A few people asked why I didn't list the Xbox. The answer is that the Xbox is a different class of device, to me. And if I'm not thinking of it alongside streaming media devices, consumers might not, as well. That's an opportunity for Microsoft.

I love my Xbox for gaming. But I've also streamed Internet-based video content through my Xbox, just as I have through my Apple TV and my Roku. Usually, it's HBO Go content, because of whatever is the ridiculous licensing issue that prevents DirecTV subscribers from enabling HBO Go on the Roku.

There's no question that the Xbox is a great streaming media device. Indeed, here's how it compares to the other three devices, in terms of support for what I consider to be the essential app-based "channels" that an Internet-to-TV device should include:

My article for Marketing Land, What You Can Watch On Google Chromecast, Apple TV, Roku Xbox, explains more about the chart, why I consider these channels (Netflix, Hulu Plus, HBO Go) important and more on how they work, so I won't repeat that here.

Natively, without having to open up a laptop or play around with settings, Xbox supports even more major options than the others. So what's the problem? Why wouldn't everyone buy an Xbox to stream video material?

The problem is that the Xbox is also a streaming media device, a capability added on to what I'd argue remains its main function, being a gaming console. That leads to two issues for consumers who may consider it versus one of the other devices:

• It's overlooked or not thought of alongside the others
• It's at least twice the price or more than the others

I think if you're a consumer not already considering Roku or Apple TV, and the now sold-out Chromecast has got you reassessing the space, you might take a closer look at the other two. But would you contemplate an Xbox? It's probably not showing up in comparison reviews for the same reason it wasn't in my article, because it's really a different class of device. It does more; the primary purpose still seems game-oriented, and it sure costs more.

That's where Microsoft's opportunity lies. Why not make an "Xbox TV" streaming media device, of a similar nature to the Roku, Apple TV or Chromecast? Lose the gaming functionality, focus on the video (and perhaps music), and Microsoft might have a way into people's living rooms who might otherwise dismiss the Xbox.

Why can't I have that in a much smaller box, at a much smaller price -- and which doesn't take longer to load than my Apple TV or Roku, or make as much noise operating? That might be a hit for Microsoft in the way the Chromecast may be turning into for Google.

When I was discussing on Twitter about my initial omission of the Xbox in my comparison, that's where I thought of the "Xbox Live" idea, that it seemed such an obvious move that Microsoft should make. Then Tom Warren pointed out to me his article in The Verge, on rumors that an Xbox TV-type of device is coming.

Warren says Microsoft's plans have put this type of device back until next year. Xbox TV may be coming, and if so, perhaps Microsoft should accelerate its development.

Weekend Roundup: New Google Nexus 7 tablet, Google Chromecast, Sky's £10 ...

Weekend Roundup: New Google Nexus 7 tablet, Google Chromecast, Sky's £10 ...

New Google Nexus 7, Chromecast and Android 4.3

I’m going to eat my humble pie. I was not expecting Google to come up with a tablet as good as the new Nexus 7. This is a £199 tablet that comes with the highest pixel density of any traditional models on the market and is essentially an LG Nexus 4 smartphone with a bigger display and no voice capabilities. It is thinner, lighter and more expensive than the existing Nexus 7 and you can get the 4G version for a whopping £299, making it the cheapest 4G tablet on the market at the time of writing.

Last month, I wrongly claimed that the Asus MeMoPad HD7 might be the true follow-up to the Nexus 7. Turned out that Google was more ambitious than I was. The MemoPad HD7 is actually a refined version of the original Nexus 7 at a much lower price point and without the (minor) quirks that afflicted Google’s ground-breaking tablet.

The second iteration of the Nexus 7 is as jaw dropping as the first one although it will not meet with the same success as the first because (a) rivals are likely to quickly catch up (b) this model is more expensive. Still kudos to Google for delivering a second generation mainstream tablet that continues to pile pressure on its rivals.

Another announcement that took place at Pichai’s breakfast event was the launch of the Chromecast TV dongle. This is essentially a   glorified HDMI dongle like the one we saw back in April, one that is essentially an ARM-based tablet without a battery and a display. It allows Android device owners to make their television sets smarter, on a budget. It is the right heir of the beleaguered Google TV, the direct competitor to the Apple TV and the final nail into the coffin of so-called smart TVs.

Expect many clones especially from South East Asia to follow suit and unveil similar products, all based on the same embedded version of Chrome OS, which, we should remember is the other mobile open-source operating system from Google. Which brings us very nicely to Android 4.3 which was officially unveiled at the same event and looks more like an evolutionary, intermediate step, one that prepares for the big Kahuna, Android 5.0. Unsurprisingly, it still retains the moniker “Jelly Bean”.

Sky’s surprising £10 box

This week also saw the launch of Sky’s NOW TV box. It is a £10 box that transforms your television into an internet-connected smart TV. Once installed, it offers free access to Sky News, BBC iPlayer, BBC News, Demand 5, Spotify, Facebook and flickr with additional content likely to come later (ITV, Channel 4 possibly). The device looks like an entry level, dumbed-down version of the Sky Box. You won’t be able to record anything but you will still get access to Sky Sports and Sky Movies (at a cost). It is a rebranded and customized Roku box (the LT), one which retails for £50. Sky made a significant investment in Roku last year so it is not surprising to see that NOWTV box landing now. The NOW TV box is an interesting venture along the lines of the Chromecast and one which contrasts starkly with the strategy adopted by rivals such as Virgin Media or Talktalk. We’re set to get a hands-on one of those boxes next week and will evaluate what else it can do followed by a teardown.

Apple’s splendid summer sizzlers

Last week saw the announcement by Apple, of its third quarter results, one which saw Apple sell of its iPad tablets and iPhone smartphones, a lot less (around 46 million compared to 57 million last quarter). Perhaps more importantly though, profits for the quarter, while still representing a chunky £4.5 billion, were down Y-o-Y and Q-o-Q by a long, long way. Which goes to prove that competitors (Samsung being the most aggressive) may finally be getting the upper hand as Apple’s revenue-to-profit ratio increases from 3.97:1 to 5.11:1. We’ve seen that Apple has had to be much more aggressive when it comes to pricing. We’ve seen iPhone 5 handsets starting from under £400, a massive discount compared to the SRP, something unheard of in the early days of the iPhone.  Ditto for the average entry level contract prices which have fallen from high £30s to as little as £25 per month. Perhaps more worrying for Apple though is that the company launched a brand advertising c ampaign, its first in recent memories and an acknowledgement by the firm that it is probably not as invincible as many would have thought.

Hands On: Google's New Nexus 7 Tablet With Android 4.3

Hands On: Google's New Nexus 7 Tablet With Android 4.3

Google unveiled the second-generation Nexus 7 on Wednesday. It wasn't a huge surprise given widespread rumors that the company was planning to lift the curtain on the follow-up to the original 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet released last year, an ecosystem-prodding device that wound up being the best-selling Nexus-branded device ever.

The big reveal at Google's San Francisco event turned out to be a $35, thumb drive-shaped dongle called the Chromecast which plugs into your TV and streams video and other media content from the cloud, using mobile devices and laptops as de facto remote controls. That's an intriguing play by the search giant, but the new Nexus 7 is based on a tried-and-true platform and also ought to move quite a few units, if history is any guide.

I got my hand on the new Nexus 7 following a press event led by Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Android, Chrome, and Apps. The tablet features a black-on-black design that looks a whole lot like the original Nexus 7. It's slimmer and lighter than the first Nexus 7, but unless you're holding the original slate and the new one in either hand, you're probably not going to notice much difference.

Hands On: Google's New Nexus 7 Tablet With Android 4.3

For me, the big deal with the new Nexus 7 is the display. As I tooled around on the take-home unit Google gave us, surfing the Net and playing some YouTube videos, I found the screen resolution much crisper than the first-generation, even approaching Apple's Retina display for its 10-inch iPad, but on a 7-inch device. In fact, the Nexus 7 has a 1,920-by-1,200 display and 323 pixels per inch, which Google said is the highest resolution for a 7-inch tablet and the highest PPI for any tablet on the market.

Following the event, I spoke with Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst with Moor Insights Strategy, and he seemed to agree with me that the improvement to the Nexus 7 display was key. He also offered some thoughts on the rest of the tablet's hardware specs.

"The new Nexus 7 has some very solid specifications, particularly around the 1920-by-1200 display with HDMI out and LTE, a massive leap forward. Google chose the Qualcomm S4, and with its embedded Adreno 320, users will see some very good performance. 802.11ac would have been a nice addition, but Google instead opted to invest that money into a second camera," Moorhead said.

The tablet's new GPU and support for the latest OpenGL standard definitely does mark an improvement from the original Nexus 7. I didn't spend enough time with the new tablet to really make a call here—stay tuned for PCMag's full review in the coming days—but on video playback there was less stuttering than I've experienced with the older version and frame rates seemed better.

Google is also touting some new features built into Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. In my brief hands on, I didn't get to explore the "Restricted Profiles" feature, but it allows for more parental controls on the new tablet, as well as uses in point-of-sale operations. The new version of Android also supports the Bluetooth Smart protocol, which manages power usage while transferring data to preserve battery life, apparently a good thing for folks using fitness apps.

Booting Up the Tablet Getting started on the new Nexus 7 is a pretty smooth experience. I was able to boot up, plow through some informational screens, set my preferred language, connect to Wi-Fi, and log in with my Google profile in about a minute or two. Once that's done, the base interface will be familiar to anyone who has an original Nexus 7, down to the home screen button and easy navigation towards apps, the Internet via Chrome, and the Google Play store.

I was a little dismayed to find that upon accessing my Google Play content, it was presented to me in the same visually appealing but hard to navigate way as on the original Nexus 7. For example, instead of a simple list of your music, you see a few big album covers with no clear way to find the rest of your music. With the older tablet, I found out after considerable effort that it's possible to adjust things so you get the content you own/have stored with Google in a simple list format, but it's odd to me that the default presentation actually makes it difficult to discover and access every bit of stuff you've accumulated for your mobile device.

I snapped a few photos using the 5-megapixel rear-facing camera on the new Nexus 7. It's certainly not the most powerful camera available on a mobile device, but I was pretty happy with the results and even began to get used to the somewhat fiddly, touch-sensitive focus adjustment tool that pops up when you're in photo-taking mode.

As for the battery life, I didn't take precise measurements, but playing music on full volume for more than an hour didn't seem to dent the battery too much, and when I plugged the device into a wall socket, the charging rate appeared to be fairly rapid. We'll tackle that in our full review, but Google promised an extra hour over the original.

There will be a 16GB Wi-Fi model priced at $229 and a 32GB Wi-Fi model priced at $269, both available on Tuesday, and a 32GB 4G LTE version that will go on sale "in the coming weeks" through Verizon, T-Mobile, and ATT in the U.S. market.

Apple Developer site hack: doubts cast on Turkish hacker's claims

Apple Developer site hack: doubts cast on Turkish hacker's claims

A Guardian investigation has cast doubt on claims by a UK-based Turkish researcher that he hacked into Apple's Developer portal, which has been offline for more than a week.

Ibrahim Balic, who describes himself as a security consultant, claimed on Sunday that he had discovered a number of weaknesses in the site at developer.apple.com which allowed him to grab email addresses of registered developers.

Apple took its developer portal offline on Thursday 18 July. On Sunday it emailed developers warning that the site had been hacked and that some of their details might have been stolen. It has not given any more details of how the hack was carried out.

In all, Balic said he had been able to grab the details of 100,000 people registered on the site, and that h e included 73 of them in a bug report to Apple. He claimed that he exploited a cross-site scripting (XSS) bug in the site, and noted 13 issues in a bug report to Apple between 16 and 20 July.

However XSS attacks generally require the attacker â€" which in this case would be Balic â€" to "infect" a page, in this case Apple's, with a malicious piece of Javascript or HTML which would then be used to extract data from a visiting user. If Balic's claim is correct, he seems to have used the XSS exploits against his own system.

Balic offered to provide proof of his hack by sharing some details of the file with the Guardian, and provided the emails for 19 people; the Guardian also extracted another 10 from an email Balic put on YouTube in which he apparently showed how he hacked the site. (He has since made the video private.)

But attempts by the Guardian two days ago to contact 29 of the group whose details Balic claims to have acquired found that seven of the emails bounced â€" because the email is no longer operational â€" and not a single one of the others has responded to a request to say whether they are registered with Apple. Nor could any of the emails or names be discovered online â€" which would be unusual for any active developer.

Many of the emails also belong to defunct services such as Freeserve, Demon and SBC Global â€" which makes it unlikely that they would have signed up as developers, as that only became possible in 2008.

Graham Cluley, an independent security consultant, commented: "Many of the names and email addresses either don't look like they would belong to Apple developers, or appear to have left no footprints anywhere else on the net." Of the set of 10 emails which appeared in the video, he said: "It's almost as though these are long-discarded ghost email addresses from years ago or have been used by Balic in hi s video for reasons best known to himself."

Balic told iMore that the user information that he showed in a video came not from an exploit against a developer portal, but from Apple's iAd Workbench, for targeting advertising campaigns to users. He said that a malformed web request to those servers containing just a first name or last name meant he could get more data â€" including a full name, username and email address for those users.

He then said that he wrote a script that generated "random" users to get more account information wherever there was a match of some sort, and used that to acquire the user details.

Balic did not respond to a request by the Guardian to explain why the emails he had apparently collected were defunct or apparently inoperational.

Apple refused to comment on the method used to hack into its site. It would not comment on whe ther it has called in law enforcement over the hack, or whether it has identified any suspects.

Even if the hack was not carried out by Balic, Apple has still been the target of a significant attack. However, standard iTunes Store and App Store accounts belonging to non-developers have not been affected.

The increasing delay in bringing its developer portal back online may also create problems for Apple in its preparation for the launch of iOS 7, the updated version of its iPhone and iPad software. It released the third beta for the software on 8 July, and has generally aimed for a fortnightly cycle of releases. That would imply that the fourth beta should have been released last Monday 22 July â€" although a year ago there was a three-week delay, from 16 July to 6 Aug ust, between the releases of the third and fourth betas for iOS 6, the current iPhone software.

The company meanwhile has set up a new "system status" page, which on Friday morning showed that only two of its 15 developer systems â€" for updating apps, and reporting bugs â€" are online.

Android 'Master Key' DEMON APPS sniffed out in China

Android 'Master Key' DEMON APPS sniffed out in China

Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery

Virus-hunter Symantec says the Android master key vulnerability is being exploited in China, where half-a-dozen apps have showed up with malicious content hiding behind a supposedly-safe crypto key.

The simple, straightforward and utterly stupid vulnerability arises because, as Bluebox Security demonstrated recently, someone with evil intent and hardly any expertise can pack an Android APK package (a Zip file under another extension) with files carrying the same name as those in the archive.

As noted by El Reg here, Android's crypto system verifies the first version of any repeated file in an APK â€" but the installer picks up the last version. On 22 July, BitDefender identified a number of apps popping up on the Google Play store.

Now, Symantec has joined the party, identifying apps in China that have been exploited with the vulnerability to plant malicious code. There's two apps designed for doctor-finding, a news app, an arcade game, and a betting/lottery app.

The good news for Androiders outside the Great Firewall is that all the malicious apps were being distributed on Chinese Android marketplaces rather than Google Play.

Symantec's post states that the same attacker embedded code in all the compromised apps. The aim of the attack is to remotely control devices, steal data such as IMEI and phone numbers, send premium SMS messages, and on rooted devices, disable some Chinese mobile security apps. ®

Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery

Google shows off new Chromecast video streaming device, Nexus 7

Google shows off new Chromecast video streaming device, Nexus 7

At the San Francisco event announcing the new feature, Google’s vice president of product development, Mario Queiroz, said the video component will work with devices running Google’s Android mobile operating system, Apple’s iOS operating system and Chrome for Windows, Chrome for Mac and any device running the Chrome OS.

Many companies have been racing to find the best way to get content from mobile devices to the largest screen in the house. Microsoft’s newest game console, the Xbox One, is designed around the central function of streaming video and other multimedia content from one user device to another. Google itself has experimented with smart television products that can connect TVs to the Web and the company’s multimedia library. And it’s been rumored for years that Apple will update its Apple TV set-top box to enable more seamless sharing to the telev ision â€" or that it might just make a smart television of its own.

With the features Google showed off Tuesday, that race just got a lot more competitive. The Chromecast not only works with a range of devices and Google’s own YouTube video site and music content, but also with popular services such as Netflix. The Washington Post announced Wednesday that it will be working with Google to broadcast online news PostTV videos.

Google said that support for more services, including Pandora, are coming soon.

The Chromecast is now available on Google Play, Amazon.com and BestBuy.com, and will be available in U.S. Best Buy stores starting July 28.

Google also announced a new Nexus 7 during the press event, touting the device as slimmer, faster and having the crispest display for a tablet of its size on the market.

 Pre-order pages for new tablet are already up on the Web site for Best Buy. The Nexus 7 will be available next Tuesday with 16 GB or 32 GB of memory and packs a 5 MP rear-facing camera and a 1.2 MP front-facing camera. The 16 GB version will cost $229.99; the 32 GB version is $269.99. Best Buy, GameStop, Amazon and other major retailers will carry the tablet at launch.

Barra said that there will also be an LTE-enabled version with 32 GB of memory, which will be available in the coming weeks on ATT, Verizon and T-Mobile. It will cost $349.

The new tablet, made in partnership with Asus, will have an unlocked version that works on the LTE networks of ATT, Verizon and T-Mobile, said Google’s vice president of Android product management, Hugo Barra. The event was also streamed live over Google’s YouTube video site.

The new Nexus 7 owes its slimmer profile to smaller bezels around the screen, and runs a new update of Google’s Android operating system also announced Wednesday, Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

The new operating system will ship with the new Nexus 7 and will also ship in an update to the Nexus 4, current Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus. It features upgrades such as better graphics processing, easier text input and support for additional languages, including Hindi and Swahili.

Google’s head of Android and Chrome, Sundar Pinchai, was at the event and discussed how Google is doing in the tablet market overall, saying that the company has hit 70 million tablet activations, and has 1 million apps on its Google Play store. Pinchai said that the original Nexus 7 accounted for abou t 10 percent of all Android tablet sales.

Google Android 4.3 is here, and it tastes like Jelly Bean

Google Android 4.3 is here, and it tastes like Jelly Bean

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Months later than we initially expected, Google finally took the wraps off the next version of its Android operating system at an event on Wednesday in San Francisco. The barely changed Android 4.3 isn't the giant leap we expected, but it is noteworthy, particularly for its performance improvements and new Restricted Profiles feature.

Officially, Android 4.3 is still a version of Jelly Bean, which makes sense, considering the minor nature of its changes. But of course, this may disappoint Android fans whose mouths have been watering for Key Lime Pie since Google I/O in May.

For the most part, Android 4.3 appears to be much like its predecessor. The general makeup of the home screen and app drawer looks the same, and Google Now, Search, and Notifications all feel familiar. That said, the updated Jelly Bean does have some important additions that are worth mentioning.

A bigger bite of Android 4.3 Jelly Bean (pictures)

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Multi-User Restricted Profiles
One of the biggest additions to Android 4.3 is the Multi-User Restricted Profiles feature, which lets you control the usage of apps and other content on a user level. It's worth noting that iOS currently does not support multiple user profiles, and the functionality has long been requested by Android users.

The people most obviously to benefit from the new profile controls are parents. We saw this in Google's demo; being logged into a restricted user profile caused an app to behave differently. Specifically, a freemium game showed up without all of the in-app purchasing functionality, which is clearly going to be common for parents with young children who use the device.

The ability to create restricted user profiles can be useful for businesses and families that share devices.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

As well, retail kiosks that use tablets for customer service or as POS systems will be able to make use of the feature. By enabling multiple user profiles, businesses will be able to take advantage of the versatility of tablets by using them in different contexts.

With Restricted Profiles, Google is obviously trying to lure more users -- specifically parents and businesses -- away from iOS, a platform that still lacks the functionality.

Bluetooth Smart technology
Support for Bluetooth Smart technology is another addition to Android 4.3 that wasn't all that unexpected, considering it's been available on iOS since early 2012. With this, the updated Android now allows you to connect with the newer generation of power-efficient accessories that use Bluetooth Smart. And of course, the Smart connection should be less taxing on your device's battery.

During Google's presentation, we saw an Android device connecting with a Bluetooth Smart-enabled heart-rate monitor that was being powered by the popular Runtastic app.

Open GL ES 3.0
A big deal for gamers, Open GL ES 3.0 makes the new version of Android more efficient and just plain better at displaying graphics. Google's demo showed us impressive textures, lens flares, and reflections that the older OS would have had trouble displaying. While the upgraded graphics might be indiscernible to the average user, Open GL ES support is still important because of the new possibilities it opens up for developers.

With Open GL ES 3.0 support, Android 4.3 displays textures and reflections with stunning detail.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

What we think
Is Android 4.3 something to get excited about? Probably not. The bulk of the improvements appear to be under the hood, and the biggest front-end addition that Google demoed -- Restricted Profiles -- was geared to parents and businesses.

While many Android users have been crossing their fingers for the OS' next iteration to be version 5.0, Key Lime Pie, this performance-focused update says that Google is taking a slower development route, possibly to minimize fragmentation as device manufacturers play catch-up. If that is, in fact, what's going on, then the move, as unexciting as it is, might be better for all Android users in the long run.

Stay tuned, as we'll be updating this story throughout the day with more details.

Motorola Droid Maxx

Motorola Droid Maxx

Verizon took the wraps off its new line of Motorola Droid phones during a press conference today in New York. Among the new devices is the Droid Maxx flagship, the Droid Ultra, and the Droid Mini. Preorders begin today, and devices will ship out August 20.

The Droid Maxx, however, certainly was the star of the show. On the surface the device looks like your typical high-end handset, sporting a unibody design and 5-inch AMOLED Gorilla Glass screen with a 720x1,280-pixel resolution.

Inside its 8.5mm-thick construction, though, is the Maxx's ace in the hole: a gargantuan 3,500mAh battery that boasts 48 hours of continuous battery life. (As a comparison, its Razr Maxx HD predecessor lasts 32 hours and is 9 percent thicker.)

The Droid Maxx's CPU is also reportedly 24 percent faster. Inside is a proprietary eight-core X8 mobile computing system, which includes a quad-core graphics processor, a dual-app processor, one contextual computing processor, and a natural language processor.

From left to right: Verizon's Motorola Droid Ultra, Maxx, and Mini.

(Credit: Brian Bennett/CNET)

Meanwhile, the $199.99 Droid Ultra has a 7.18-millimeter profile, making it the thinnest Droid ever. While it definitely feels thinner and lighter than the Maxx, it doesn't look much slimmer to the eye.

The Ultra has a 5-inch AMOLED 720p display as well, comes in both black and red, and features a 2,130mAh battery that has a reported usage time of up to 28 hours.

The Ultra's back features a glossy coating that feels slippery to the touch. Frankly, we prefer the backing seen on the Maxx. Its soft-touch matte coating doesn't attract grease or fingerprints like the Ultra's, and it feels easier to grip.

The Droid Ultra flaunting its thin profile

(Credit: Brian Bennett/CNET)

Finally, finishing off the new line is the 4.3-inch Droid Mini, which will sell for $99.99 with a carrier agreement. It has a TFT 720p screen and a 2,000mAh battery that also has a reported usage time of 28 hours.

Unlike the other two, the Mini doesn't have an AMOLED screen. As such, the display was less impressive; colors weren't as vivid, and images didn't appear to have as high of a color contrast.

In addition, compared with the Droid Razr M (which was Verizon's lower-tiered Droid model of last season), the Mini's screen doesn't seem to have that chic edge-to-edge feature the M's flaunted. We were told, though, that the display comes within a millimeter of the phone's width.

As for memory, the Maxx will feature 32GB of internal storage, but both the Ultra and Mini will only have 16GB of storage.

All Droids, however, will be equipped with a 1.7GHz dual-core processor with the same X8 system, Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, 2GB of RAM, a 10-m egapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p HD recording, and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.

The devices also have a few touchless controls. This enables users to make phone calls and search for directions without touching the screen -- a useful function when driving. Even more interesting, and no doubt borne out of Motorola's recent assimilation into Google's corporate empire, the new Droids will constantly listen for your voice commands. Essentially you'll be able to speak to your handset, saying something along the lines of, "OK, Google," and the gadget will immediately perk up and await your instructions.

The rise of Verizon's new Droids (pictures)

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Furthermore, these enhanced Droids offer other nifty tricks such as a Quick Capture camera launch feature, wireless charging, and Droid Zap. Zap allows you to send images within 300 feet of you, and you can swipe with your fingers to share media files.

Additional software functions include an Active Display that will light up certain parts of your screen for important notifications, and a Droid Command Center (a revamped version of Motorola's handy Circles widget) where you can launch Miracast TV for wireless media streaming to compatible HDTVs and other devices.

Itching to get your hands on the Droid Maxx? You can preorder it now; Verizon says it will ship the handset on August 20 for $299.99 under a two-year contract.