Google

Google late Friday night disabled the ability to provision new Google Preaid Cards, fallout from the discovery of a flaw in the Google Wallet app. The gist is that if someone were to find your phone, they could reset the Google Wallet PIN and gain access to your Google Prepaid Card. In a separate incident, rooted phones were found to be vulnerable to a brute-force crack.

And so, Google has temporarily disabled provisioning of prepaid cards as an interim step, and it says it will have “a permanent fix soon.”

Google also reminds us that rooted devices are by definition not as secure as un-rooted phones and “we strongly discourage [rooting] if you plan to use Google Wallet because the product is not supported on rooted phones.”

In addition, Google provides toll-free phone support 24 hours a day if you have concerns or questions about Google Wallet. In other words, just like with a traditional credit card, call if you lose it. Or have issues. Or just need a friend.

Source: Google Commerce Blog
via Android Forums

Protecting your payments with Google Wallet

Over the last few days we’ve received questions and concerns about issues related to the security of Google Wallet. People are asking if Google Wallet is safe enough for mobile phone payments. The simple answer to this question is yes. In fact, Google Wallet offers advantages over the plastic cards and folded wallets in use today.

 

First, Google Wallet is protected by a PIN — as well as the phone’s lock screen, if a user sets that option. But sometimes users choose to disable important security mechanisms in order to

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/pvpNDiKc0R0/story01.htm

As Mobile World Congress approaches, we’re starting to see more rumors and speculation about future devices. In addition to news of what’s looming on the horizon, we’ve also had plenty of launches and release dates for Android phones and tablets that’ve already been announced.

Here are a few highlights from the past week in international Android developments –

Features

• Announcing the Android Super Challenge on HyperQuiz winners!

News

• Australia to get LG Prada 3.0 in April, coming to Vodafone
• Is Google planning to open a retail store in Dublin?
• HTC says first Ice Cream Sandwich updates coming in March, adds more phones to the list
• ‘Berry pink’ Galaxy Note reportedly coming by early March
• Phones4U to offer on-contract handset upgrades every six months
• HTC, Vodafone Germany to launch first 4G LTE phone — the HTC Velocity
• Galaxy Nexus now available on Videotron, C$150 on contract
• Motorola confirms UK Motoluxe launch for late February
• White HTC Sensation XE revealed, due Feb. 20 in the UK
• Huawei Ascend P1 S reportedly coming to China in late March
• Toshiba AT200 ‘Excite’ tablet launches in the UK, is Carphone Warehouse exclusive

Got an international story? Tip us at the usual address!

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Z1fvY9mXOyE/story01.htm

Android Community Weekly: February 11, 2012

Worth Reading?

This week in tech news we finally saw the Motorola DROID 4 hit shelves, Google released an official Chrome Beta for Android, and yes – Temple Run still isn’t out. Monday, Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus was graced with a leak to Android 4.0.4, and it fixed many of the signal issues people were having. If you already have root and are running a custom ROM, you can flash the radios alone here. Don’t hesitate about this one, as they seem to be 100% effective.

Early on this week, we saw another rumor stating the Samsung Galaxy S III could be a mere 7mm thin. And unfortunately, we also found out Samsung’s March 22nd event is not going to cover the Galaxy S III. It’s too bad, because with all these rumors it would be nice to actually have something concrete.

Facebook will be bringing mobile ads to Android devices soon, the beginning of March to be exact. What do you all think about this? Those with slower network speed already have a tough time navigating through pages via the mobile app; with the addition of advertisements it’s bound to get worse. Now for some good news: That same day Swype let the public know it would be available for Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich devices really soon.

Speaking of the Galaxy Nexus, Samsung has made the white plated variant official and slated to make an appearance February 13th. Those of you with a Samsung

Article source: http://androidcommunity.com/android-community-weekly-february-11-2012-20120211/

You are here: Gotta Be Mobile » Mobile » Motorola Blames Hardware for Slow Android Updates

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It’s no secret that one of the more agonizing things about owning an Android device is the wait for major software updates. Google announced Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich back in December and only a couple of devices currently have the software on board as we head into the middle part of February. And while many blame the long wait times on the user interfaces that manufacturers put on their devices, one manufacturer is saying that hardware, not software is to blame.

Christy Wyatt, senior vice president and general manager of Motorola’s Enterprise Business Unit had some interesting things to say about Android 4.0 and the delays that handset owners have been facing.

Wyatt says that while her company realizes that Android owners would love to get their updates in a more timely fashion, companies like Motorola have been having a tough time writing code that supports hardware other than Google’s flagship Nexus devices.

More specifically, she says that:

When Google does a release of the software … they do a version of the software for whatever phone they just shipped.

The rest of the ecosystem doesn’t see it until you see it. Hardware is by far the long pole in the tent, with multiple chipsets and multiple radio bands for multiple countries. It’s a big machine to churn.

Motorola has already gone into detail about the process required to update its handsets to Android 4.0 and it’s not a simple process by any stretch of the imagination.

Wyatt also delves into why companies like Motorola don’t like to

Article source: http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/02/09/motorola-blames-hardware-for-slow-android-updates/

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Adobe has stopped developing Flash Player for Google Android and BlackBerry Tablet OS. The new Google Chrome web browser for Android doesn’t support the current version of Flash. Apple has never supported Flash for the iPhone or iPad. And now it looks like Microsoft is following suit: Internet Explorer for Windows 8 on ARM won’t support Flash.

In fact, if you pick up a tablet or other device with an ARM-based processor and Windows 8 operating system later this year, the default web browser won’t support any plugins at all, at least not initially.

In one way, this makes sense. Plugins take up system resources and can affect overall performance of an app… and even battery life in some situations. And it’s possible to do more than ever in a plugin-free browser thanks to advances in the way Javascript, HTML5, and other web technologies.

On the other hand, users who are used to customizing the features of their web browsers will likely be disappointed by the move. It’s not entirely clear at this point whether Microsoft will allow competing browsers such as Firefox or Google Chrome to be downloaded from the Windows Store (which is officially the only place to download apps for Windows on ARM), but given Microsoft’s past anti-trust kerfuffles with various governments, I’d be surprised if the company tried to keep alternate web browsers out.

As for Flash – a few years ago it was virtually the only game in town if you wanted to watch web video,

Article source: http://liliputing.com/2012/02/no-flash-plugin-for-windows-8-on-arm-another-nail-in-the-flash-coffin.html