• 800 out of 10,000 Android Apps Leak Private Information

    // Gradly // Android, blog, google, Mobile, News, Rants & Raves No Responses

    Android has had its fair share of malware problems. Whenever malware are detected, Google reacts swiftly and remove them. However, according to a report from Digitizor, security researcher Neil Daswani, around 8% of the apps on the Android market are leaking private user data.

    Neil Daswani, who is also the CTO of security firm Dasient, says that they have studied around 10,000 Android apps and have found that 800 of them are leaking private information of the user to an unauthorized server. Neil Daswani is scheduled to present the full findings at the Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas which starts on July 30th.

    This malware problem on Android has become too much. One of the main reason that we see malicious apps in the market is because of the lack of regulation in the apps that get into the Android Market.

    Sure, the lack of regulation can be good. It means that developers can make their apps without worrying if Google will accept their apps or not. It fits into the pre-existing application distribution model where anyone can develop and publish their own apps.

    I think that it is time that Google make approval of the apps a requirement before it gets into the Market. They do not need to do it like Apple, but a basic security check before an app gets on the market will be nice.

  • Twitter Now Delivers 350 Billion Tweets Every Day

    // Gradly // blog, google, News, Rants & Raves, Social Networks, Twitter No Responses

    Twitter now delivers a whopping 350 billion tweets each day, the company said on Friday by this tweet:

    Delivering 350 billion Tweets a day is a terribly fun engineering challenge. But, it doesn’t capture how passionate our users are

    The news comes just one day after Google announced that it had amassed 10 million Google+ users in just two weeks, and that these users share 1 billion items each day. This is good for a 2-week-old product though.

  • Apple Testing 2048×1536 Pixels Displays from Samsung and LG for the iPad 3

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, iPad, Rants & Raves, Rumors, Samsung No Responses

    Apple, reportedly, has begun quality testing LCD displays from Samsung and LG for the iPad 3, according to a report in the Korea Times. A source claims that the LCD displays currently being tested are QXGA with a resolution of 2048 x 1536.

    The resolution is double that in the current iPad display and taking the 9.7″ display would result in roughly 260 DPI. Although this is not above the supposed 300 DPI to be fit in Retina Display by taking into account that the iPad is normally held further away from the eyes than iPhone.

    Apple’s upcoming iPad 3 will feature an improved display to support quad extended graphics (QXGA), a display resolution of 2048×1536 pixels with a 4:3 aspect ratio to provide full high definition (HD) viewing experience, said a source close to the talks

    A new tidbit in the same manner comes from Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber who makes note of his speculations and referring to the large files found earlier which suggest a bigger resolution needed for a denser screens. He mentions that the iPad 3 will have a 2048×1536 Retina Display.

    These magazines and newspapers that render each “page” as a static 1024 × 768 image are going to look like utter ass on the iPad 3’s 2048 × 1536 retina display.

    Previous speculations pointed out the new iPad 3 (or iPad HD) will debut this fall.
    [iPad 3 Concept image by Guilherme Martins Schasiepen]

  • LulzSec Hacks Into The Sun With Murdoch Death Notice

    // Gradly // blog, Featured, Hack, lawsuit, News, Rants & Raves, Scandal No Responses

    Hacker group LulzSec has just hacked into one of Rupert Murdoch‘s paper’s websites, putting the mogul’s death-by-palladium note on The Sun page. The group announced the hack with a tweet, saying:

    We have joy we have fun we will mess up Murdoch’s Sun: http://t.co/JArvwg1 | Hi Rupert! Have fun tomorrow at the Parliament! #AntiSec

    Murdoch‘s papers of course, and several of his lieutenants have been implicated in the massive hacking scandal that began earlier this month. Murdoch is scheduled to appear before the British parliament tomorrow.

    Despite previous claims of retirement, LulzSec claimed in a tweet that visits to The Sun‘s homepage redirected to the Murdoch death notice page, though that no longer appears to be the case. And in case it gets taken down soon, here’s the full text:

    Media moguls [sic] body discovered

    Rupert Murdoch, the controversial media mogul, has reportedly been found dead in his garden, police announce.
    Murdoch, aged 80, has said to have ingested a large quantity of palladium before stumbling into his famous topiary garden late last night, passing out in the early hours of the morning.
    “We found the chemicals sitting beside a kitchen table, recently cooked,” one officer states. “From what we can gather, Murdoch melted and consumed large quantities of it before exiting into his garden.”

    Chemicals found in house

    Authorities would not comment on whether this was a planned suicide, though the general consensus among locals and unnamed sources is that this is the case.
    One detective elaborates. “Officers on the scene report a broken glass, a box of vintage wine, and what seems to be a family album strewn across the floor, containing images from days gone by; some containing handpainted portraits of Murdoch in his early days, donning a top hat and monocle.”
    Another officer reveals that Murdoch was found slumped over a particularly large garden hedge fashioned into a galloping horse. “His favourite”, a butler, Davidson, reports.
    Butler Davidson has since been taken into custody for additional questioning.

    Here’s the full page image caught by Gizmodo before it pulled down:

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