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From Ars Technica: Google’s official app market found hosting malicious Android apps—again


Google has removed at least 15 Android apps from its official Play market after receiving outside reports they were malicious trojans that siphoned names, telephone numbers of email addresses of every person in the phone’s contact list.

The apps, which were reported here by McAfee researcher Carlos Castillo, masqueraded as video players offering trailers of Android games and anime content. In the background and without warning, they also obtained the phone number and a unique identifier of the infected device and sent the information in clear text to a remote server under the control of the software developers. Statistics provided by Google Play (formerly the Android Market) indicated they had been downloaded at least 70,000 times, according to Castillo, who didn’t provide the name of the apps or the developers marketing them.

The discovery marks at least the second time Google servers have been caught distributing Android malware since the company announced a new cloud-based service that scours its online bazaars for malicious apps. Two weeks ago, a separate set of researchers found malicious extensions in the Google Chrome Web Store that could gain complete control of users’ Facebook profiles.

A Google spokesman declined to comment on Friday’s report from Castillo. Japanese researchers appear to have been the first to uncover the malicious apps, according to this translation from hatena.ne.jp.

The repeated discoveries of malware hosted on Google servers underscore the darker side of a market that allows anyone to submit apps with few questions asked. Whatever critics may say about Apple’s App Store, which is significantly more selective about the titles it hosts, complaints about malware aren’t one of them. Why outsiders are making the all-too-frequent discoveries of trojans in Google Play and the Chrome store before the company’s security team does is a question that has yet to be answered.

 

from Ars Technica

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From Ars Technica: Valve looking to hire hardware engineers for unknown project


Those of you who reload the Valve job postings page every morning hoping to find a way out of your meaningless, dead-end career may have noticed that the esteemed game developer is now looking for a couple of hardware engineers to “conceive, design, evaluate, and produce new types of input, output, and platform hardware.”

The job postings don’t go into any specifics on what kind of hardware Valve is looking for help with exactly, but the company says it wants to “invent whole new gaming experiences” that can “enhance” the kinds of software it’s already making. Some might immediately try to connect the job postings to recent rumors of a PC-based “Steam Box” game console designed to run Valve’s digital distribution service. But it’s just as likely that the company is looking for people to further develop the kind of biofeedback devices it talked about at last year’s Game Developers Conference, or even work on its patent for a “pivotally translatable handle” controller that came to light last year. Or maybe it’s something the company hasn’t spoken about publicly at all.

In any case, it seems clearer than ever that Valve has its sights set on expanding out of the software business, even as it says it’s “a long way from… shipping any sort of hardware.”

 

from Ars Technica

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From Engadget: Japanese watchdog agency wants to fine Olympus $2.5 million

Japanese watchdog wants to fine Olympus $2.5 million

Wondering how this whole Olympus accounting scandal is gonna wrap up? Well, it might simply come to a close with a 200 million yen (about $2.5 million) fine. That’s the seemingly tiny amount the Japanese SESC (Securities Exchange and Surveillance Commission) is recommending the company be fined. Ultimately the FSA (Financial Services Agency) will decide how large of a monetary punishment is appropriate for the $1.7 billion scandal. And, don’t forget, there’s still the drama of Olympus suing its own presidentand other executives to look forward to.

 

from Engadget

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From Engadget: Student’s push to make Raleigh more walkable relies on homemade signs and QR codes

Guerilla urbanism campaign walks the walk in Raleigh with QR code signs

Walking is apparently underrated. So University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student Matt Tomasulo decided to engage in some “guerilla urbanism” in January with fellow fans of bipedal activity, posting 27 signs at three Raleigh, NC intersections as part of the “Walk Raleigh” project. The cardboard and vinyl signs contained snippets about how many minutes it would take to walk to must-see destinations like Raleigh City Cemetery, as well as QR codesfor downloading directions. Like the activity it promotes, Tomasulo says the idea behind the project is simple: It’s OK to walk. Apparently, Tomasulo and his buddies did such a great job with the signs that it took the sharp folks at the city government a month to catch on and take the stuff down. The city has since walked back its opposition to the signs, however, and put them back up as part of a 90-day pilot project. In the meantime, Walk Raleigh has turned into a Walk [Your City] Kickstarter campaign to put your wallet where your feet are.

 

from Engadget

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From The UberReview: Man Nearly Becomes PSA for Dangers of Texting and Walking… Around Bears


By now most of us have at least heard that walking and texting can be a dangerous pastime – I mean there are all sorts of things that could go wrong: you could walk into a pole, step in front of a moving vehicle, or as this man proves – wander into the path of a confused bear. Fortunately nobody was hurt and while I am not certain that turning around and running as fast as you can is what you are supposed to do in these situations, it worked for him – so the young man will live to text and walk another day.

Click here to view the embedded video.

–Thanks Michael

from The UberReview

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From Engadget: Boeing to launch super secure Android phone, hopes it takes off

Boeing to launch super secure Android phone, will it take off?You know what we’ve always wondered? Why doesn’t Boeing just hurry up and release a phone? Joking aside, this is really happening. The news comes via National Defense Magazinewhich reports that the airplane manufacturer is developing an Android handset which will have strong security credentials. Currently dubbed “the Boeing phone” we hope the firm puts more thought into its aircraft than its project codenames. Before you start folding out your green, however, be warned that despite running Google’s popular OS, and being a cellular device, the price point is still likely to be more jumbo jet than paper plane, with a Boeing exec pointing out that competitor offerings typically float around the $15-20,000 mark. He goes on to point out that it won’t cost as much as this, but will still likely be out of our reach back here in coach. No word on any sort of specification at the minute, but if you fancy yourself as a high-flyer (or more likely, you work in defense) keep an eye out for this landing later on this year. Now, what if Samsung made a plane..

 

from Engadget