Jailbreak! Upgrading a Non-Upgradable Android

Android practically demands to be hacked and modded. A whole subculture of Android hackers has emerged, hell-bent on making the ‘Droid something its manufacturers never intended it to be. What’s more, some Android phone makers now regard hacker-friendliness as a selling point; HTC even saw fit to announce recently that it will allow customization of bootloaders on future phones.

Predictably, one of the most popular Android hacker activities is altering older phones to run newer Android versions. And that’s exactly what I intended to do.

Read on…

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PayPal Android App Offers P2P Transfers Using NFC

PayPal announced a peer-to-peer (P2P) near field communications (NFC) solution for Android, designed to support direct payments between Samsung Nexus S owners. Due late this summer, the technology will be followed later this year by an expanded NFC solution that will compete with Google Wallet by supporting retail payments, PayPal says.

Read on…

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List of Companies that Pay Royalties to Microsoft for Using Android OS

According to Microsoft, Google’s Android OS is infringing on many of its patents and hence those manufacturers who use Android for their devices owe royalties to Microsoft. But the intriguing fact is that, instead of suing Google itself for infringing on its patents, Microsoft is finding it easy to sue or threaten smaller firms which don’t have the financial muscle to fight a legal battle with the Redmond troll giant.

Following is the list of companies who are already paying royalties or being sued by Microsoft for using Android.

Read on…

[Barnes and Noble is not paying - they are fighting this out in court. [PDF]
Microsoft bully’s extortion at its finest. Come on Google, force Microsoft to state exactly which patents are being infringed… I am betting that they are all vapor.]

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Droid 3 Adds a Little Muscle but Where’s the 4G Beef?

The Droid 3, the latest edition in Motorola’s Droid Android smartphone series, has made its debut on the Verizon network. The phone features a 1080p HD video camera and Motorola’s ESP smart dock technology, first seen in the Motorola Atrix. However, the phone’s lack of 4G capabilities has raised eyebrows, considering Verizon’s efforts to push its new LTE network.

Read on…

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Android Trojan Captures Credit Card Details

A team of security researchers has created a proof-of-concept Trojan for Android handsets that is capable of listening out for credit card numbers – typed or spoken – and relaying them back to the application’s creator.

The team, comprised of Roman Schlegel from the City University of Hong Kong and Kehuan Zhang, Xiaoyong Zhou, Mehool Intwala, Apu Kapadia, and Xiao Feng Wang from the Indiana University Bloomington, call their creation ‘Soundminer’ – and its implications are far-reaching.

Read on…

Watch the demo of the trojan:

[Nice. But how do you get this app installed on the phone in the first place? Are not all apps in the Android marketplace vetted before being accepted?]

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