How do I enjoy Cardboard apps on Daydream?
When it comes to phone based VR, Google has now delivered two awesome ways to experience things with Google Cardboard, and the new Google Daydream. If you've been enjoying Daydream, you might be wondering if there is a way to enjoy your favorite Cardboard experiences with the new Daydream View. Have no fear, it's quite easy to play your old favorites, and we've got all the details for you here!
Malware used existing root exploits to target Jelly Bean, KitKat and Lollipop devices, racking up fake installations and reviews on Google Play.
Security firm Check Point has revealed a new malware campaign involving using malicious apps to root Android devices, steal Google authentication tokens and illegitimately rack up installation numbers and review scores for other apps.
The malware, dubbed "Gooligan" by Check Point, uses known vulnerabilities to get obtain root access — complete control — over devices running Android 4.x and 5.x, before using this to steal Google account names and authentication tokens. This then allowed the perpetrators to remotely install other apps from Google Play on victims' devices, and post false reviews in their name.
In theory, malware like this, which is designed to steal authentication details, may have been able to access other areas of Google accounts, like Gmail or Photos. There's no evidence that "Gooligan" did anything like this — instead, it appears it was built to make money for its creators through illegitimate app installs.
What is striking about this strain of malware is the number of accounts affected — more than one million since the campaign began, according to Check Point. The majority — 57 percent — of these accounts were compromised in Asia, according to the firm. Next were the Americas with 19 percent, Africa with 15 percent and Europe with 9 percent. Check Point has set up a site where you can check if your account is affected; Google also says it's reaching out to anyone who may have been hit.
Ahead of today's public announcement, Google and Check Point have been working together to improve Android's security.
We're appreciative of both Check Point's research and their partnership as we've worked together to understand these issues," said Adrian Ludwig, Google's director of Android security. "As part of our ongoing efforts to protect users from the Ghost Push family of malware, we've taken numerous steps to protect our users and improve the security of the Android ecosystem overall."
Check Point also notes that Google's "Verify Apps" technology has been updated to deal with apps using vulnerabilities like this. That's significant because, while it doesn't help devices that are already compromised, it roadblocks future installations on 92 percent of active Android devices, even without the need for firmware updates.
Like other app-based exploits, Google's 'Verify Apps' feature protects 92 percent of active devices from malware like this.
"Verify Apps" is built into Google Play Services, and enabled by default in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean — accounting for 92.4 percent of active devices, based on the current numbers. (On older versions, it can be manually enabled.) Like the rest of Play Services, it's regularly updated in the background, and it blocks the installation of malicious apps, and can advise users to uninstall malware that's already there.
On newer versions of Android, the underlying exploits used by "Gooligan" to root devices will have been addressed through security patches. So as significant as a million compromised accounts sounds, this is also an example of Google's security strategy for app-based malware working as designed, blocking installations of affected apps across the vast majority of the ecosystem.
If you're concerned that your account may have been affected, you can hit up Check Point's site. In future, Google's existing safeguards — a part of Play Services for the past four years — will ensure you're protected.
Let this be your extended user manual to all things PlayStation VR!
It wasn't all that long ago VR was considered either something simple you added to a phone for a quick distraction or something amazingly complex for those who could afford the lengthy requirements of ownership. Sony created a compelling middle ground by doing what they do best — making something you actually want to have in your living room. PlayStation VR is a companion for your PlayStaion 4 that elevates your current games and helps you explore and entirely new way to feel like you are the character you're playing.
Being able to fully enjoy this experience requires more than just taking one out of the box. Here's our complete user manual for all things PSVR!
The option is currently limited to Netflix's original programming.
Netflix has finally added the ability to download TV shows and movies to watch offline. The option is limited to Netflix's own shows right now, including Orange is the New Black, Stranger Things, The Crown, Narcos, and others, but the company will offer more titles for offline viewing in due course of time. Offline viewing is included with all plans, and is available for phones as well as tablets.
The feature is now live with the most recent update, which is rolling out to users today. Once you're on the most recent version of Netflix, you'll see an "Available for Download" section that lists all the titles available for offline viewing. You'll be able to download videos in either Standard or Higher quality, and all downloaded content will be accessible from the "My Downloads" section. Saved content is stored locally, and right now it looks like there's no option to move it to the SD card.
Update to build B126 fixes notification bugs and improves performance and photo quality.
Up to now we've been using the Huawei Mate 9 on pre-release firmware, as we noted in our review. Today, ahead of its December launch in Europe, the global dual-SIM version (the model reviewers currently have) has received a major software update, essentially putting it on retail-quality software.
Notifications now work as they should, and camera performance has been tweaked.
The update fixes a couple of major software issues we pointed out in our review — one having to do with parts of Gmail notifications being shown in white text, making them unreadable — squished. Huawei has also switched back to showing app icons in the top left corner of the screen for notifications, as opposed to just showing a number in the earlier build. (You can still switch back to "numbers" in the notification settings.) Notifications have long been an Achilles heel for Huawei phones, so it's great to see the Mate 9 now having a setup that basically mirrors stock Nougat.
The camera has also seen a few improvements — Huawei has added up to 6X hybrid zoom, and the zoom interface has been tweaked to quickly snap to 2X zoom. In addition to sharper zoomed photos, we're also seeing general improvements in fine detail rendering and color accuracy across the board, as well as in low-light situations (an area where the Mate 9 fell short on the older firmware.)
The new build also bumps Huawei's upcoming flagship up to the 1 November 2016 Android security patch. All in all, it's an important update that makes the phone feel like it's now done and ready to ship. If you somehow already have a Huawei Mate 9, the OTA should be pushing out to your phone today.
We'll be updating our Mate 9 review to reflect these changes in the coming days, so keep watching!
The BlackBerry DTEK60 isn't getting much attention outside of the hardcore BB audience. That's a shame because it's one of the best phones of 2016.
No, I haven't lost my marbles. The BlackBerry DTEK60 really is that good.
Like a lot of Android fans and people who write words about phones for a living, I chuckled and instantly dismissed the DTEK60 before it even arrived. BlackBerry having Alcatel make a phone for them and deigning to charge a premium price for it sounded like a recipe for disaster much like the Priv. Good phone, great phone — none of that matters when you're competing against the Samsung juggernaut, especially when you have BlackBerry's reputation (mostly unfair, in my opinion). I mean, come on. Is BlackBerry even still in business? They lost about 99% of their market in the past five years and everyone outside a small group of the BlackBerry faithful has written the company off. What could they possibly do to turn things around?
You start by making a phone like the DTEK60, that's what.
Before we go too deep here, you need to take a few minutes and read through one of the most comprehensive phone reviews ever written. Bla1ze has detailed every single feature that BlackBerry's Android has and you'll have a great understanding of how the company stands out in an ocean of companies building Android phones.
Read: CrackBerry's complete DTEK60 review
We start there because the software is what makes the DTEK60 worth looking at. The hardware isn't bad — Snapdragon 820, 4GB of RAM, QHD display, and even an SD card slot. It's the same configuration as every other "flagship" Android phone sold since last March. Drop all that into a fairly nondescript package from Alcatel parent, TCL, and you have nothing that's going to catch anyone's eye. The $499 price tag also isn't going to grab your attention and suck you in because there are other phones using equal or better hardware that hit that price or are cheaper. This is a problem almost every company that makes Android phones is up against — a good phone at a reasonable price just isn't enough in a world where Samsung and Apple exist.
A good phone at a reasonable price just isn't enough in a world where Samsung and Apple exist.
The phone itself flies. You can ask any of the people using one every day and they will tell you the same thing, From a performance standpoint, the DTEK60 will do everything you want it to do with nary a whine or whimper. The usability — good hardware combined with good software — of the DTEK60 does a commendable job making up for the one glaring hardware blunder: not including image stabilization in the camera. Honestly, that's the only real fault I can find with the phone hardware that's not a matter of opinion or preference. In late 2016, if you make a smartphone you need to have a kick-ass camera on it.
| Width | Height | Thickness |
|---|---|---|
 |
6.06 in 153.9mm |
 |
| 2.97 in 75.4mm |
0.28 in 6.99mm |
Using the DTEK60 for a busy week filled with too much running around on the T-Mobile network left me with no complaints. Battery life was between acceptable and good while syncing all my stuff and all of Android Central's stuff. Call quality was exceptional (the DTEK60 has the best speakerphone I've ever used). The data connection was great around my home where T-Mobile offers good service and as good as any other phone in the places where T-Mo can be spotty and plain bad. The fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate.
The DTEK60 has the best speakerphone I've ever used.
Bluetooth worked with my MotoROKR headphones and a handful of standalone car speakerphone setups. The screen could be better in the sun, but it's as good as the Nexus 6P which always worked well enough for me. Since I don't take a lot of pictures with my phone, I had no complaints. Everything was good, but plenty of other phones are all good when it comes to things like battery life or call quality.
The glass back is expected on most any phone built nowadays, but the addition of a programmable convenience button wasn't. It works well after you set it up to open one of the things that you often need to use. The DTEK60 is a completely unassuming package that more or less matches everything else worth buying in its price range on the outside.
So what makes the DTEK60 one of the phones I would suggest a person spend the money they worked hard to earn and buy? The software and the "total package" it brings to the table.
When you turn on the DTEK60 you know it's running Android. You also know it's a BlackBerry. The company has mixed the two to create the best BlackBerry consumer phone ever offered in a way that will appeal to people who like using Android.
That's not easy to do. Motorola does it. Every now and then a company like Alcatel will do it. But most of the time, it's not very successful and it takes some user dedication to getting rid of the things that need to go and adding the things that are missing — the ASUS ZenFone 2 was a great example of this. It was a great phone after you made it a great phone.
The alternative is to follow what companies like Samsung and LG are doing and replace everything you can replace. That's great for the Samsungs and Hauweis of the world who can afford it (software developers don't come cheaply) and whether you like the style of their products or not, you can't deny that these companies deliver a complete product filled with things that just work once you log into them. And companies have to be successful with how they change the operating system, because if every phone ran plain vanilla Android, everyone would buy either a $100 Moto E or a Pixel and we would be out of a job.
BlackBerry's take on Android is what makes the DTEK60 stand out.
Things haven't really changed since the Priv introduced Android on a BlackBerry. The software looks and feels like vanilla Android with BlackBerry's complete suite of services and software installed. But BlackBerry has improved at writing Android code, and the DTEK60 has hardware that's a good bit more powerful. BlackBerry's application suite includes the launcher (complete with swipe gestures and shortcuts), the excellent software keyboard, an OS-integrated password manager and BlackBerry Hub and Productivity tabs. To offer the Hub integration BlackBerry users expect the contacts, calendar, and dialer apps have been customized. These apps, as well as BlackBerry Tasks, work with the productivity tab so everything is where you would expect it to be if you're interested in using it.
It just so happens that I'm not a fan of either the Hub or the Productivity tab. After seeing if there were any differences specific to the DTEK60 (there are none) I turned off and disabled both. There's nothing wrong with either, but they just don't fit into the way I do things and I'm too old to adapt and try new things.
It just so happens that I'm not a fan of either the Hub or the Productivity tab.
Even without these services in use, I find my core set of communication apps, namely contacts, calendar, and dialer, are easy to use and do the things they're supposed to do in a logical and easy way. No, it's not exactly the same as the way Google does it. But it's all done well and doesn't force me to change from how the Google way does those same things. Of course, BBM is included because you can't make a BlackBerry without adding BBM to the pot. I just wish more people used BBM because the service is feature-rich and secure (unless you live in a few countries in Asia where "the man" has access). But talking to yourself gets old, and Phil is never online (read my message with the teddy bear stickers, Phil).
Oh, and a note about Nougat. It's coming, we know that. But this runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, which is fine, because it's fast as hell, but it still would have been nice to see this running 7.0.
Building software that offers expanded functionality yet is still great when you don't use any of it isn't easy, but BlackBerry nails it. What started on the Priv is now finished on the DTEK60, and I can say I like BlackBerry's take on the core Android experience. Who'd have thunk it?
Other changes are cosmetic and the rest of the vendor software — things like the clock or the settings work just like they work on a Nexus or Pixel phone even if the colors and graphics have changed. We were impressed with how Motorola managed to do this a few years back, and we're just as impressed with the way BlackBerry has done it.
Android's security features are there, too.
The DTEK60 has proven to be as secure as promised. We aren't sure of the exact details on some of the things BlackBerry does to make it so, but they take everything Android from Google offers on the security front and add to it.
BlackBerry doesn't take away any of the security features Google has implemented when they add their own.
The kernel is further hardened, the base system ha protections to keep from being modified and to stop everything to wait for the user to decide what to do if it were to happen. The boot services are secured in a similar way on top of the standard encrypted lock. Add in the fact that BlackBerry has never been even an hour late on any Android security bulletin updates (they're usually early and the first to receive them) until you add a carrier who doesn't care that you receive them on time (that means AT&T — they don't care about your online security as much as Google or BlackBerry) and you can't argue with BlackBerry's claim that the DTEK60 is the most secure Android phone available.
There's also a DTEK app (which stands for Detection) that doesn't really contribute to any of this that the company insists on keeping around and talking about. It alerts you that you may not be as secured as you could be without any advice what to do about it or any helpful information with a meter and a scary red section. It's not hurting anything, it's just not very useful the way it is. I hope BlackBerry improves it or drops it rather than spend any resources maintaining it the way it stands.
The most important thing about this security feature stuff from a user standpoint — their full disk encryption methods (FIPS 140-2 compliant if you work somewhere that makes that mean something) — doesn't bog everything down. A big part of the random 10FPS lag-glitch we see on the Priv can be attributed to file system performance. That's fixed on the DTEK60.
BlackBerry has taken Android and made it their own. The Priv showed promise but performance issues put a damper on any excitement most people would have for it; the DTEK60 is what it looks like when it all works as intended and runs well. They done good. Real good.
The DTEK60 is more than just a phone for ex-BB users.
The price is in that tough spot where you can find some great stuff. Phones between $300 and $500 are now considered cheap when they offer top of the line hardware and a great interface to do things with it. I think BlackBerry's attention to user security and privacy is something that adds plenty of value and makes the DTEK60 stand out from other good phones at the price point. Especially when it comes without any drawbacks to using it.
If the Pixel was never built, I'd probably use the DTEK60 as my phone — the one with my own SIM card that I won't be resetting or changing until something replaces it next year. The core software experience is great right out of the box and even things you've not used before work the way you would expect them to work. If a friend or family member said they were buying a DTEK60, I'd say it's a great choice, and if they were looking to buy a new phone I'd point them at it. I liked (and used) the Priv right up until I got the DTEK60 and expected it to be usable. I didn't expect it to be this good.
BlackBerry did a great job on the DTEK60, and it's more than just a phone people coming from "old" BlackBerry should look at. You should look, too.
So. Many. Features.
At an event in Beijing, Meizu rolled out its latest flagship, the Pro 6 Plus. The phone is an upgrade to the Pro 6, offering a 5.7-inch QHD Super AMOLED display with 3D touch. It is powered by the 14nm Exynos 8890, the same SoC used in international models of the Galaxy S7.
Let's dive into what's on offer. The handset has an always-on mode for the display, and the panel is reinforced with Gorilla Glass 4. You get 4GB of RAM, 12MP camera (Sony IMX386) with f/2.0 lens, 4-axis OIS, laser autofocus, dual-tone 10-LED ring flash, and 4K video recording. There's a 5MP shooter up front, support for hi-res audio (ESS ES9018K2M DAC), Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi ac, NFC, USB 3.1 Type-C, 4G with VoLTE, and a 3400mAh battery. The fingerprint sensor located at the front, and there's even a heart rate sensor.
The phone is offered in two variants: a base model with 64GB storage and a higher-end version with 128GB UFS 2.0 storage. Both models are powered by the Exynos 8890, but the 64GB variant has Exynos M1 CPU cores clocked at 2.0GHz while the 128GB has cores that go up to 2.3GHz.
On the software front, the Pro 6 Plus features the latest iteration of Meizu's OS, Flyme 6. The company claims that it added 400 new features, including a new camera app and phone finder service. There's also a OneMind AI engine, which "is able to adjust system performance according to user preference. It can identify users' favorite apps and designate extra resources to those apps to make them run more smoothly."
Overall, the Pro 6 Plus looks like a decent device to go up against the likes of Xiaomi's Mi Note 2. The variant with 64GB storage retails for ¥2,999 ($435), while the version with 128GB storage comes in at ¥3,299 ($480). No word as yet on availability outside China.
