• Android, BlackBerry and Nokia Log Everything You Do

    // Gradly // Android, Apple, BlackBerry, blog, iPhone, lawsuit, Mobile, News, Nokia, Steve Jobs No Responses

    Android logo

    Security researchers have discovered that iPhone running iOS 4 were storing a cache of data on which GPS locations that handset had visited in an unencrypted file, it was dubbed LocationGate and later the whole debacle was just a bug but Apple has to testify in front of the Senate about the matter

    Following the incident, one user sent an email to Apple asking for answers. If he didn’t get them soon, he said, he’d switch to Droid; they don’t track him. An email from Steve Jobs, which dropped something of a bombshell: he said Apple doesn’t track anyone’s location, but that Android tracked everyone.

    Now time has proven Steve Jobs right. Android phones do track you. In fact, software that comes pre-installed on millions of Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones log everything you do with your device, and sends them off secretly to its own servers. Trevor Eckhart, the developer who discovered the software, released a video of his findings, watch it below.

    Carrier IQ will log and save each key dialed. When receiving a text message, Carrier IQ will process and log the text message, before the user even sees it. Web searches are stored by the service as well, logged in plain text. No encryption. That’s incredible. One privately held company that almost no one has ever heard of has the complete logs of every email, phone call, web search and text message ever sent or received by millions of Android, Blackberry and Nokia users.

    In a phone interview to Wired.com, a marketing manager for Carrier IQ defended what the product does:

    We’re not looking at texts. We’re counting things. How many texts did you send and how many failed. That’s the level of metrics that are being gathered.


    [via CultOfMac]

  • Xbox 360 Has Biggest Sales Week in History with Around 1 Million Units Sold

    // Gradly // blog, Consoles, Microsoft, News, Xbox 360 No Responses

    Xbox 360 Has Biggest Sales Week in History

    Xbox 360 has sold 960,000 units in the U.S. during Black Friday week, Microsoft announced today. That makes it the biggest sales week in the history of Xbox.

    800,000 of those units were sold within a period of 24 hours. Besides, over 750,000 Kinect sensors were sold during the Black Friday week, combination of standalone and bundled.

    “We have seen tremendous excitement from customers for our hot holiday gaming offers,” commented Chris Homeister, senior vice president and general manager of Home Entertainment at Best Buy. “Xbox 360 was among the best-sellers at Best Buy this Black Friday, and is a testament to the continued popularity of the gaming category this holiday.”

    Microsoft added, “Xbox 360 should deliver its eleventh straight month as the number one console in the US.  With a robust holiday portfolio and the new Xbox LIVE dashboard going live on Dec. 6, we expect holiday momentum to continue, driving Xbox 360 to finish the year as the number one console in the U.S.”

    As for the competition, Sony noted strong demand but did not provide a sales figure for PS3, while Nintendo had its best Black Friday for the Wii yet by selling 500,000 units.

    [via industrygamers]

  • Microsoft’s Tellme vs Apple’s Siri Video Comparison

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, Humor, iPhone, Microsoft, News, Rants & Raves, Tech. 1 Response

    Microsoft's Tellme vs Apple's Siri

    Microsoft’s chief strategy and research officer Craig Mundie talked to Forbes about the company’s kinect and when asked about Siri, he said that Siri was nothing special, and Microsoft’s own voice capabilities have been around for over a year. Siri is all about good marketing nothing else:

    People are infatuated with Apple announcing it. It’s good marketing, but at least as the technological capability you could argue that Microsoft has had a similar capability in Windows Phones for more than a year, since Windows Phone 7 was introduced.

    This is what Microsoft execs usually say when challenged with a tech by their competitors:

    you can pick ‘em up and say ‘text Eric’ and say what you wanna say and it transcribes it. You can query anything through Bing by just saying the words. I mean, all that’s already there. Fully functional, been there for a year.

    This is not the first time, we all know when Steve Ballmer slammed the original iPhone back in 2007 and touted it as being overpriced and not appealing to business for the lack of a keyboard.

    Jason from techau ran a test and put a video comparison between Microsoftt’s Tellme and Apple’s Siri. Watch the video below. The results speak for themselves:

  • Hideo Kojima: “it may be hard to get into Rising”

    // Gradly // blog, Consoles, Games, News, Rants & Raves, Sony No Responses

    Metal Gear Solid: Rising

    Speaking to the latest issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, Hideo Kojima head of Kojima Productions, said the latest Metal Gear Solid title, Rising, might not appeal to fans of the series’ signature stealth gameplay but it “shouldn’t be a problem” for “those willing to try new things.”

    “If somebody thinks ‘I love Snake’ and just really wants traditional stealth gameplay and that experience, then it may be hard to get into Rising,” Kojima said.

    “But for people who are more open and willing to try new things, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

    With Metal Gear Solid: Rising, they’re taking the Metal Gear Solid 4 approach to creating Raiden.

    “Raiden in MGS4 was received very well, and I wanted to keep going with that direction in Rising. The people who liked him in 4 will like him in this, but it’s a personal preference.

    “The character in the game is supposed to equal the player, so if you want to introduce things to a new recruit, you have to learn how to interact with that world along with the character. If we had Snake [in MGS 2] he was this old, experienced veteran and there would’ve been a disconnect with the [new] players. So that’s why we brought in Raiden.”

    Metal Gear Solid: Rising coming for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC.