Smart Cover can be used to unlock an iPad 2, security flaw reveals

By: Todd Haselton | Oct 21st, 2011 at 07:15PM 28 Comments Filed Under: Security, Tablets

The iPad 2 Smart Cover accessory can be used to gain access to a locked iPad, 9to5 Mac reported on Friday. Here’s how it works: take a locked iPad 2 and hold the power button until the “Slide to Power Off” message appears, and then close the Smart Cover. When you lift the Smart Cover again and tap “Cancel,” the iPad 2 will allow you to access the last application that was open. This could be a big threat for anyone who was accessing contacts, viewing a website or checking email before he or she locked the iPad. The good news is any would-be thief does not have full access to the tablet, only the last application used. The bug has been spotted in iOS 5, although 9to5 Mac said it has also received reports from users noticing the flaw in IOS 4.3. Currently, the best fix for concerned users is to turn off Smart Cover unlocking entirely. A video of a Smart Cover unlocking an iPad 2 follows after the break.

Wireless company sent from God himself?

We’re a wireless company with a simple premise: Everything we do is unlimited. And we do unlimited better than anyone on the planet. For as little as $30 a month, you can get unlimited local wireless calls without a contract. For a few dollars more, you can add unlimited long distance, unlimited texts, unlimited Web access, and unlimited directory assistance. Virtually anything the other wireless companies offer, we offer unlimited for a fraction of the cost. One flat, incredibly low rate for the best unlimited menu in wireless.
MetroPCS Communications Inc. is one of the fastest-growing wireless companies in the country. Launched in 2002 by veteran telecom executives who thought wireless customers deserved a better way, MetroPCS owns or has access to licenses serving 140 million-plus people in 14 of the top 25 U.S. markets, from coast to coast. More than 6 million people are now part of our network, with thousands more joining every day.
MetroPCS wants everyone to have unlimited, affordable access to all that wireless has to offer. We are investing millions of dollars on state-of-the-art networks – technology that rivals anything in the world, that will give our customers unlimited freedom to communicate the way they want to – not by the rules of traditional wireless carriers. At MetroPCS, we unleash you from contracts, ridiculously priced plans, outrageous overages, nickel-and-dime routines that –until now – have made wireless so frustrating. We are here to change the world of wireless. We are here to make wireless truly unlimited. That’s why people call us The Unlimited Company.SM

Unfortunately their phones suck….and since they are on a CDMA network, getting this service onto an iphone is damn near impossible.

Microsoft Opening Shops Right Next to Apple Stores This Fall

Microsoft Opening Shops Right Next to Apple Stores This Fall
By Jesus Diaz

Hell froze. Microsoft is openly acknowledging Apple’s consumer electronics threat and going for the jugular. The company’s COO Kevin Turner has officially announced that they will open their own retail stores “right next door to Apple this fall”:

And stay tuned, because we’re going to have some retail stores opened up that are opened up right next door to Apple stores this fall. Stay tuned, just stay tuned.

He said it today at the Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference keynote. His words were later confirmed by a Microsoft representative. In other words, after Apple’s success in the retail channel—which has helped the Cupertino company to win the mindshare battle—Microsoft wants to fight right back right there, doing the same thine—sounds familiar?—and showing whatever cool things they want to show.

That probably includes topless girls fully oiled and playing Virtua Tenis using Natal.

There are no details about the actual strategy except that it will start happening this fall. I can’t wait. I love this kind wars. [Business Insider and CNET]

Mysterious cyber-attacker hits at federal websites, crisis averted?

It looks like a nefarious cyber-attack which affected several federal websites in the United States was a little more far-reaching than initially thought. The attack — which started on the 4th of July — targeted websites in both South Korea and the United States, including the Treasury Department, Federal Trade Commission and Secret Service. Various problems were still being reported days later, and while there’s no official word on who the attackers were, those “people familiar with the matter” we know and love seem to be pointing their fingers at North Korea. So far as we know, no irreparable damage has been done, but we’re not sure anyone would tell us if it had.

(Via Engadget)

Sony Ericsson “Rachel” Android UI gets video demo

After images of what’s said to be Sony Ericsson’s upcoming Android smartphone, codenamed Rachel, there’s now a video purporting to demonstrate the company’s tweaked UI. No word on the video’s source – and as such no telling whether it’s authentic or not – but it certainly looks appealing, covering Android with a finely-detailed and nicely animated gloss.

Sony Ericsson have not confirmed that Rachel is an official product, but they have previously admitted that they’re planning an Android device. The company’s Asia-Pacific VP of marketing, Peter Ang, said that they would be customizing Android to suit their own style, and the UI video certainly suggests that they’ve done just that.

As for hardware, details are scant but Rachel is expected to run on Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon chipset and have a roughly 4-inch touchscreen display. Falling into Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA range, the smartphone is believed to be launching later on in 2009.

(Via Slashgear)

Google Chrome OS for PCs: Look Out Windows and OS X

Ars Technica has received confirmation from two sources that Google is working on new software named Google Chrome OS, which will offer a cloud-based, OS experience around the browser. UPDATE: It’s official. It’s coming in the second half of 2010.

Google says the OS is open source and lightweight, allowing users super quick access to the web. They claim the OS will be virus free (the security architecture is entirely new), and run a newly-designed windowing system on top of a Linux kernel that will be compatible with x86 and ARM processors alike. Though they were quick to mention this was separate from Android, they also conceded there would be some overlap in concept and functionality between the two platforms.

While the discussion of specific apps (and how they will work) was vague, Google made reference to a developer ecosystem that will be heavily web-based, and apps would be compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux (obviously). In a nutshell, it looks like Google Chrome OS is about simplicity, speed, safety, and cloud computing.

The announcement of Google Chrome OS is a big step forward for a company who slowly and subtly wedged their way into web app development. Google says that Chrome OS is intended for “power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems.” So what does this mean for Google, and more importantly, what does this mean for Microsoft and Apple?

I think that Google has primed themselves to take a big chunk out of the mainstream computing market. That’s not to say that you or I will be exclusively using Chrome OS, but with the internet becoming more and more accessible from ANYWHERE, our parents, grandparents and technophobic siblings probably will be converts. Most of them are already familiar with Google as a brand, and frustrated in trying to learn the intricacies of current operating systems.

And even for those of us who consider ourselves technologically advanced, how much of the desktop experience have Google’s web apps already replaced? We’ll still have our main computers, but what will be running on our netbooks or old laptops that sit in the living room?

More and more, I find myself working almost exclusively with apps that exist entirely on the web, or with clients that connect to web services. The only apps I use that aren’t cloud-happy are either utilities, media players or photo/video editors. And even then, those are heading in that web-centric direction. Cloud computing has been bringing us closer and closer to the mainframe days of yore. Google wants to be the only backbone working behind the scenes. By saying they’re keeping Chrome OS app development web-centric and platform-agnostic, they’re slowly luring us techies into their web.

Still, Windows and OSX will always have a spacious home in the computer world, undoubtedly. Some apps will always require native architecture, and the businessmen, code-monkeys, graphic designers, video editors and other connoisseurs of nuanced computing would be foolhardy to try and work strictly in the cloud.

But the final hurdle for Google to overcome is easy, accessible online storage. Will they be able to go after Amazon’s S3 cloud servers? And perhaps more importantly, will they be able to offer the service for free? If they can let us really extend our hard drives into the cloud, look out. Chrome OS will be a force to be reckoned with.

(Via Gizmodo)

Sonos CR200 remote control’s product page reveals capacitive screen, $349 price tag

Looks like Sonos has put up a staging page for its CR200 remote control along with all the specs you could ask for, and a handful of low resolution pics to boot. That 3.5-inch VGA LCD display indeed is a touchscreen, and better yet, it’s capacitive. It’s also a good bit smaller and lighter than its CR100 ancestor, only 2.9 x 4.5 x 0.7 inches in size and six ounces in weight — you can probably give thanks to the aluminum case for at least some of that weight loss. Price is just a hair below $350 and that drops to $290 when you get it as part of the Bundle 250. The “add to cart” function doesn’t quite seem to be working, but it can’t be long now, right?

(Via Engadget)

Pandora Agreement Saves Internet Radio

Fans of internet radio can breathe a little easier today now that Pandora has reached an agreement with the music industry that puts it on secure ground for the foreseeable future.

Excessive royalty rates were the main reason sites like Pandora hovered near the brink of collapse last year, but this agreement will see a 40-50% reduction in those fees through 2015. However, Pandora will have to give up a 25% share of its revenue as part of the deal. Because these fees are higher than those of traditional radio, Pandora will also have to impose 40 hour limits on users of the free version. Should you surpass that number, you will be required to pay a $.99 fee to continue listening through the end of the month. Users of the paid version will not see a service change.

All in all, it seems like a pretty fair compromise for the listeners, but the truth is that the internet is the future of radio—and it appears that the music industry is going to screw them while they can.

(Via Gizmodo)

Sony Vaio W: It’s a Very Pretty $500 Netbook, Of Course

I love the idea of a Vaio netbook, but the only thing that actually gets me going about the first of inevitably many Sony Vaio W netbooks is the 1366×768 10.1-inch screen (which ain’t even unique). It’s pretty, though.

And that is the selling point, almost entirely, over other netbooks. It’s prettier (admittedly, it is). But that’s less compelling now that it was six months ago, when netbooks were universally miserable looking machines. When I asked what distinguishes the Vaio W from the other third wave premium netbooks–notably the Asus Eee Seashell and HP’s new aluminum and magnesium-clad Mini, which are just $430 and $450 respectively, Sony pointed at its “stunning” colors, like its “very stylish” brown. That would hold more weight if this lovely paint job and design (I dig the trackpad a lot) were applied to metal, so it came with a notably superior build quality too. But it’s plastic.

Your only choice is which of the three colors you want. There’s a single hardware configuration, and the specs are pedestrian, save for the 1366×768 10.1-inch screen: Atom N280, 160GB HDD (5400rpm), 1GB RAM, wireless N, A2DP stereo Bluetooth, and a pair of USB ports.

To their credit, Sony has learned from the Vaio P (though it has a totally different audience) and plans to make it painfully clear that users shouldn’t expect an experience comparable to a regular notebook. Talk of establishing a “clear gulf” between their netbooks and “mainstream” notebooks also made it clear to me they’re not interested in dabbling in netbooks that straddle the weird, blurry line between netbook and notebook in either with experiments like Ion, either.

I’ll withhold final judgment until I use it, but so far Sony’s first ever bona fide Vaio netbook is having the extremely odd effect of just making the Vaio P not-a-netbook look even better. (As long as it’s running Windows 7.) If I’m going to pay extra scratch for design, I might as well go all the way, right?

(Via Gizmodo)

Google Apps is out of beta

Guess what, internoodle? Google Apps is officially out of beta. Do you know what that means? It means that Gmail, Docs, Calendar, and Talk are losing that “beta” signage / language you’ve come to know and loathe. It also seems to mean that Google will be taking a much more direct and serious approach to courting businesses for its Apps suite. At first blush, it looks like the company has all but squashed the “Standard Edition” free hosted Apps package that many now use, though that isn’t the case (yet). We say “all but” because while it looks like the pro bono package has been zapped out of existence by the magic raygun of capitalism, a tiny link to the service still exists on an arcane page buried deep in the casefiles of one T. Google Merryweather III. Or just Google. To be completely clear, however, regular old Gmail will still be freely available to anyone and everyone who wants a crack at it. At any rate, you’ll be happy to know that the beta tag will be scuttled later today, and you can start getting righteously mad at Google for not taking care of their proper, released products immediately. Now maybe they can get to coding up nice native versions of Gmail for the iPhone and webOS… eh?

Update: The folks at Google, bless ’em, have posted a quick note on their blog stating explicitly that the Standard version of Apps isn’t going anywhere. In their words, “We have no intention of eliminating Standard Edition, and we apologize for any confusion.” Nice!

(Via Engadget)