Weekend tech reading: Massive HTC Android vulnerability exposed

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Massive security vulnerability in HTC Android devices, exposes phone numbers, much more I am quite speechless right now. Justin Case and I have spent all day together with Trevor Eckhart (you may remember him as TrevE of DamageControl and Virus ROMs) looking into Trev's findings deep inside HTC's latest software installed on such phones as EVO 3D, EVO 4G, Thunderbolt, and others. These results are not pretty. In fact, they expose such ridiculously frivolous doings, which HTC has no one else to blame but itself, that the data-leaking Skype vulnerability Justin found earlier this year pales in comparison. Android Police

How bad is PC piracy really? "Make no mistake," said SEGA this week, "if one quarter of the people that usually pirate [Football Manager] switch to purchasing Football Manager 2012, the sales of the game worldwide would more than double." That was the eye-opening statistic used to justify Football Manager 2012 requiring Steam to play. In other words, more than 80 per cent of people playing Football Manager are doing so with a pirated copy. Is PC piracy really that bad? EuroGamer

Fed plotting to monitor critics, tailor propaganda The Federal Reserve is seeking contractors to build a tool that will monitor and analyze blogs, news reports, and social-media chatter about the central bank and its policies, with a goal of being able to use "public relations" strategies to counter the growing barrage of negative publicity. But critics quickly added to the institution's troubled image as the news spread by lambasting the half-baked scheme as "Orwellian" spying and "intimidation." TNA

AMD: Ultrabooks will have hard times competing against Apple MacBook Air AMD does not consider Intel's ultrabook initiative as an imminent success. The chip designer claims that the market of expensive laptops is dominated by Apple with its MacBook series and ultrabooks will have hard times competing against them. AMD believes that its own approach to offer different chips for inexpensive ultra-slim and multimedia-rich mainstream mobile computers is a very balanced one. X-bit labs

IBM beats Microsoft in tech giants ranking IBM's closing price on 29 September was $214bn (£137.4bn) while Microsoft's was a shade behind at $213.2bn (£136.8bn). The values cap a sustained period in which IBM's share price has moved steadily upward as Microsoft's has generally been in decline. The growth means IBM is now the second largest technology company by market value. Apple still holds the top slot with a value of $362bn (£232bn). BBC

HP to not finalize its spin-off plans until year-end 2011; trying to revive employee morale Hewlett-Packard (HP) reportedly will not finalize its plans to spin off its PC units until the end of the year and is trying to revive morale among its employees. HP will continue to serve as the world's top notebook vendor in 2012 with total shipments of 40 million units, according to sources from upstream suppliers. DigiTimes

Psystar loses its appeal; licensees have no first-sale rights; costs awarded to Apple The ruling is in on Psystar's appeal of aspects of its loss in Apple v. Psystar, and as expected, the appeals court has affirmed Judge William H. Alsup's decision in that case on all the issues that truly matter. Yes, it's the same judge who is presiding over Oracle v. Google. Groklaw

Google's first store pops up in London The world's first "Google store" opened not in California but in the less glamorous setting of PC World in Tottenham Court Road at 9am. The 285sqft pop-up "shop within a shop", which only sells Google's Chromebook laptop and a few accessories such as headphones, will run for three months up to Christmas. London Evening Standard

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/45706-weekend-tech-reading-massive-htc-android-vulnerability-exposed.html

 

[Guest]

An easy way to find out if PC pirating is that bad is to see if football manager 2012 sales quintuple.

 

[Lurker101]

What they fail to mention is that a fair amount of people who pirate, tend to buy afterwards, so their 'pirated to sold' ratio is wrong.

 

[ramonsterns]

So here's the gist of it:

Ubisoft: Our PC sales are down due to pirates and totally not because we screw over our legitimate customers with DRM! We keep the right to protect our product, even if you can't use it properly after buying it!

Well, I keep the right to not buy your sub-par games with archaic DRM and then laugh and pour salt on the wound when it fails entirely and is actually cracked before it comes out because the DRM you put on all your games can be bypassed with the same crack from a previous game.

It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal. YOU LOSE, GOOD DAY, SIR.

 

[Kibaruk]

If it sucks they don't buy, if it is a good game with possibilities for good multiplayer gaming it will most probably sell.

 

[gwailo247]

Yawn.

"If every person who pirated a song actually bought it, music sales would quadruple." - RIAA (1999)

Oooh. I know. How about we make the games MORE expensive, release them full of bugs requiring 1d6 months of patches, and then let's complain that people don't buy them.

 

[SammyJames]

IBM beats Microsoft in tech giants ranking

Hey -- what's a stray billion between friends...?

 

[Guest]

The piracy crap will always go around in circles. "We the enforcers of commerce whom to you should conform consume and obey, will continue to make up random figures with no evidence. Just excellent spin. Of course some journalist who is willing to publish this BS will do so for a small fee, and you in turn shall pay fines and fees to settle debts before it goes to court as we have no proof to back up anything we say."

I hate the whole boring piracy crap. Its about greed and nothing more. And of course I dont care now that Team America have decided they can without going through proper channels can just shut sites down in other countries. Why the countries didnt just F U i dunno tho.

I blame the increase of the population for every problem on this planet, makes sense for several reasons one being that humans now are lame consumers who will buy anything and everything. And nothing is now worth buying. Games are all the same movies are all the same. Nothing is new and we all sound like are parents, by the time we are ten. Theres just nothing left other than joining a cult and mass suicide. YAY. At least there are drinks and food.... And no doubt at my cult party, we will be watching another comedy, with adam sandler, doing the same stuff he always does, being unfunny, with his mates, the same mates he uses in most films, like they do, coz they like to keep each other rich, and thats the only reason the churn films out non stop.

On the HTC android police article... Google+ permissions say something about using your phone to record.... yes record, video and sound. So being a google+ member means that if they so wish they can record you and your conversations, or perhaps you're a terrorist walking down the street talking about a target, they could in theory go hey look where this guy is and work out ya location ?? is this the case ?

i got an android phone, and i install games and apps, and then i see the permissions this things have, and i think, is apple as retarded as google/android ? i dont want a game going thru my texts or checking my contacts, i want the least amount of spam and the most amount of privacy. android seems to have this back to front. So i uninstall most things.

 

[tonylukac]

IBM the #2 technology company? I am completely oblivious to what they do. Perhaps I lead a sheltered life. As a possible hypocrite I worked in the IBM mainframe sector once, but where are they found now?

 

[dividebyzero]

IBM the #2 technology company? I am completely oblivious to what they do. Perhaps I lead a sheltered life. As a possible hypocrite I worked in the IBM mainframe sector once, but where are they found now?

Where are they found now?
The mainframe sector.

IBM are pretty much synonymous with big iron.

 

[agissi]

Fed plotting to monitor critics, tailor propaganda The Federal Reserve is seeking contractors to build a tool that will monitor and analyze blogs, news reports, and social-media chatter about the central bank and its policies, with a goal of being able to use "public relations" strategies to counter the growing barrage of negative publicity. But critics quickly added to the institution's troubled image as the news spread by lambasting the half-baked scheme as "Orwellian" spying and "intimidation." TNA

I thought this was the most interesting tidbit hands down. Did no one else catch that?

 

[yRaz]

I wonder if there is any statistic on the decline of developers putting out demos and the rise in piracy.

 

[ramonsterns]

yRaz said:
I wonder if there is any statistic on the decline of developers putting out demos and the rise in piracy.

How about a statistic on the condition of videogames (price hikes, inexcusable amount of bugs, intrusive DRM, privacy violating programs, etc.) and the rise of piracy?

 

[Darkshadoe]

yRaz said:
I wonder if there is any statistic on the decline of developers putting out demos and the rise in piracy.

The only real statistic that video game companies have to worry about is if piracy is putting them out of business. With EA, Activision and the other major game companies making billions, I would have to say that is a big NO.

With the billions they ARE making, are they putting out bigger and better games consistently? Again..NO

 

[gwailo247]

darkshadoe said:

yRaz said:
I wonder if there is any statistic on the decline of developers putting out demos and the rise in piracy.

The only real statistic that video game companies have to worry about is if piracy is putting them out of business. With EA, Activision and the other major game companies making billions, I would have to say that is a big NO.

With the billions they ARE making, are they putting out bigger and better games consistently? Again..NO

You are completely right. Although I would like to see what their profits are in the PC division. If they're making most of their money from consoles, then we really can expect, at best, to see console ports.

I wouldn't be surprised if MS actually released Xbox external device for the PC. Plug it into your computer, and you can run Xbox games over it.

 

[Per Hansson]

On story #3, how cute, the private organization "Federal Reserve" wants it's very own Echelon system, they must be feeling left out by the US Goverment

 

[NTAPRO]

In other words, more than 80 per cent of people playing Football Manager are doing so with a pirated copy.

I lol'd

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

darkshadoe said:

The only real statistic that video game companies have to worry about is if piracy is putting them out of business. With EA, Activision and the other major game companies making billions, I would have to say that is a big NO.

With the billions they ARE making, are they putting out bigger and better games consistently? Again..NO

I agree completely... I should be allowed to steal from you up to the point that you can't afford to eat, and then it should be illigal. I also think game companies should make games 'better'... nevermind that 'better' is different for everyone. That's no excuse!

Sarcasm aside... Electronic Arts LOST $276,000,000 last year, and Activision MADE $418,000,000. Notice Activision/Blizzard is the company that requires WoW/SC2 to login to protect against piracy. I don't know EA's policy, but don't be suprised if they spend more next year on security than new game development.

 

[ramonsterns]

milwaukeemike said:

I agree completely... I should be allowed to steal...

Oh please, don't start with this nonsense. Since when have developers been allowed to let the quality of their games squander because of those who *didn't* buy their game? Exactly, they're willing to spend extra money on inane bullshit like DRM and mass marketing (5 billion people didn't buy our game? We need more TV Ads to expand our demographic!) instead of maybe hiring a testing group and ironing out all the bugs so I can actually play a game when I buy it instead of a week later when they patch it so it is actually playable.

Also, Activision has the largest following of zombies who will buy everything next to Blizzard, can't really expect them to even put effort into anything anymore.

 

[tonylukac]

Thanks for the articles. Seems they run a lot of Blade servers like I think the Watson computer on Jeopardy was.

 

[tonylukac]

The preceding reply was for dividebyzero.

 

[Vrmithrax]

yRaz said:
I wonder if there is any statistic on the decline of developers putting out demos and the rise in piracy.

I think the real problem is there ARE no statistics. Every single piece of "statistical data" regarding piracy is conjecture, assumption, and flat-out hail mary guesswork. The one actual fact available in the entire debate is number of units sold. That's it. There is absolutely no way to get any clear and solid figures on how many people pirate a software title. Just a lot of smoke & mirrors and scare tactics by the outfits that write or promote DRM solutions. Well, and the "sales are bad because of piracy" cop-out that many software studios like to use, rather than taking the blame for their overpriced and underwhelming products being a fail right out of the gate.

 

[Guest]

"Ubisoft told me that their PC game sales are down 90 per cent without a corresponding lift in console sales"

Surely that couldn't be partially caused by their invasive DRM. I know I'm not alone when I say I have not purchased any of their games since Assassins Creed 2.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

ramonsterns said:

Oh please, don't start with this nonsense. Since when have developers been allowed to let the quality of their games squander because of those who *didn't* buy their game? Exactly, they're willing to spend extra money on inane bullshit like DRM and mass marketing (5 billion people didn't buy our game? We need more TV Ads to expand our demographic!) instead of maybe hiring a testing group and ironing out all the bugs so I can actually play a game when I buy it instead of a week later when they patch it so it is actually playable.

Also, Activision has the largest following of zombies who will buy everything next to Blizzard, can't really expect them to even put effort into anything anymore.

They're not allowed to produce sub-quality games because of piracy. My point was, sub-quality games are NOT ok to steal because they're crappy. People all the time say, 'I wouldn't steal them if they were good.' or 'They have tons of money, who cares' Which a) is a load of crap, and b) is as stupid a justification as me saying it's ok to steal from you if you're rich. It IS nonsense. Justifying piracy is nonsense.

Let's be fair... Blizz puts out some good games. Sure, WoW and SC2 (the ones I've played) have their faults, but they're high quality... and many of buyers/subscribers agree. You don't get a following without quality. Case in point... Apple.

 

[ramonsterns]

milwaukeemike said:

They're not allowed to produce sub-quality games because of piracy. My point was, sub-quality games are NOT ok to steal because they're crappy.

What difference does it make if someone pirates the game or doesn't play it at all?

Are people who play demos obligated to buy the game? No.
Are people who rent the game obligated to buy the game? No.
Are people who see an ad on TV obligated to buy the game? No.
Are people who buy used games obligated to pay the developers? No.
Are people who borrow the game from friends obligated to buy the game? No.
Are 5+ billion people guilty of not buying a videogame? No.

Hypothesize all you want on whether or not a sale (paying the dev/publisher) could have happened if none of the factors above existed, the simple fact is, it didn't happen. No money was lost, it simply wasn't made.

Companies no longer understand the basic concept of loyalty. They see fit to make a giant pile of cash off as many people as possible with as little effort needed to make a product look complete, then complain when their profits go down because no one buys their crap anymore (see HP).

I eagerly await a crash of the videogame industry some day. Will there be less games released? Yes, but at least I'll be able to trust the guys who made it actually put effort into the game instead of finding way of getting it on my TV and every bus outside, and finding ways to "protect their product" (a.k.a. screw over the legitimate costumer while the pirate dances around it.)

Piracy isn't justifiable, but neither is what the industry is doing and yet they get away with it, and the ignorant welcome it because they don't know any better.

EDIT: It seems like RAGE is our latest example.