Quote:Vulnerabilities in Qualcomm's DSP (Digital Signal Processor) present in the company's Snapdragon SoCs may render more than a billion Android phones susceptible to hacking. According to research reported this week by security firm Check Point, they've found more than 400 vulnerabilities in Snapdragon's DSP, which may allow attackers to monitor locations, listen to nearby audio in real time, and exfiltrate locally-stored photos and videos - besides being able to render the phone completely unresponsive.

The vulnerabilities (CVE-2020-11201, CVE-2020-11202, CVE-2020-11206, CVE-2020-11207, CVE-2020-11208 and CVE-2020-11209) can be exploited simply via a video download or any other content that's rendered by the chip that passes through its DSP. Targets can also be attacked by installing malicious apps that require no permissions at all. Qualcomm has already tackled the issue by stating they have worked to validate the issue, and have already issued mitigations to OEMs, which should be made available via software updates in the future. In the meantime, the company has said they have no evidence any of these flaws is being currently exploited, and advise all Snapdragon platform users to only install apps via trusted locations such as the Play Store.

Quote:Security researchers spend a lot of time poking and prodding the software on the myriad smart devices that dominate our lives, but what about the plugs that recharge them? Modern fast chargers are essentially tiny computers, and a team of Chinese researchers has now shown it’s relatively simple to target the charger with an attack called BadPower. It can make your device overheat, smoke, and possibly even catch fire.

Until the last few years, the cables we used to keep our phones, tablets, and other devices running would deliver just a couple watts of power no matter what you plugged in. So, if you forgot to charge your phone overnight, it was impossible to get a full charge before it was time to head out the door. Modern fast charging systems can ramp up the voltage and current to get more power into your battery in a shorter amount of time, getting you hours of battery life in just a few minutes of charging. The chargers need their own tiny electronic brain to make that happen, and this is the target for BadPower.

The researchers from Tencent’s Xuanwu Lab showed that a smartphone could transmit BadPower to chargers, where it can modify the embedded firmware. Just plugging in a device with BadPower can scramble a fast charging plug and turn it into a phone-killing fire hazard.
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Xuanwu Lab tested 35 fast chargers of the 234 models available in China. The team found that 18 models from eight different vendors were vulnerable to BadPower. Security flaws are fixable on most smart devices, but chargers are barely smart, and many of them don’t have upgradeable firmware at all. Xuanwu Lab says that it tested 34 fast charging controllers and found that 18 of them lacked any firmware update mechanism.

The researchers recommend that vendors develop patches that can be deployed to upgradable plugs and included on future models. It also suggests manufacturers harden fast charger firmware to guard against attacks like this. Tencent says it notified all affected vendors, but some of these chargers are unfixable.

Quote:Smartphones are, unfortunately, disposable pieces of technology. They’re hard to repair, have limited software support, and carriers constantly push upgrades. However, AT&T has taken things to the extreme with its latest email to customers. Using clumsy and profoundly misleading language, AT&T has advised some people with recent phones that they need to upgrade or risk losing service.
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First, the impending network upgrade to which AT&T is referring won’t happen until February 2022 — the email does not explain this. That’s when the carrier will shut off its 3G network, moving to 4G and 5G only. Bugging people to upgrade new-ish phones that will work fine for a further 18 months is questionable on its own, particularly during an unprecedented global pandemic and economic disruption, but the problem is of AT&T’s own making.

Phones like the S10e have 4G, but AT&T has chosen to only whitelist select unlocked devices for voice over LTE (VoLTE). So, when 3G shuts down, these devices will lose the ability to make calls because AT&T has arbitrarily decided it should be that way. The version of the S10e and other phones sold by AT&T will continue to work normally for the foreseeable future.

If you received this email, you don’t need to do anything right now — your phone will keep working for a while longer. Sadly, this is not the first case of AT&T intentionally misleading its customers. Who can forge the fake 5G fiasco? You can safely ignore the hard-sell in the email and upgrade at your leisure, and possibly move to a different carrier. No one would blame you.

Quote:A few years ago, the best smartphones on the market might cost you $500 or $600 if purchased without a carrier subsidy. My, how times have changed. The best phones from companies like Samsung and Apple now cost about twice as much, and a new report from Gartner suggests consumers are getting fed up. According to Gartner, emerging Chinese brands are growing larger thanks to their comparatively low price tags and improving designs.
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Consumers may be looking for alternatives as smartphone prices keep creeping higher, and Huawei is not the only company offering more budget-friendly options. Other Chinese firms like Oppo, Xiaomi, and Vivo are also on the rise, offering hardware that’s comparable to Samsung or Apple with a much lower price. Gartner says that consumer sentiment about the brands is shifting, too. People are increasingly proud to carry a Xiaomi phone like they used to be with Apple devices.

Selling $1,000 phones isn’t completely wrecking the leading OEMs, but it might not be a sustainable strategy. Samsung’s decision to launch a nearly $2,000 foldable phone suggests it’s not ready to learn that lesson, though.

Quote:Among the five top smartphone brands worldwide, Huawei and Xiaomi were the only companies that witnessed significant year-over-year (YoY) growth in terms of smartphone shipments last year. That's according to a new report from Counterpoint Research, which also revealed that global shipments for smartphones fell 4% annually in the last calendar year.

Tarun Pathak, Associate Director at Counterpoint Research, said that 2018 marked the first time that the global smartphone market saw a full-year decline, owing to "lengthening replacement cycles in developed markets like US, China, and Western Europe." This was despite the efforts of smartphone OEMs to bake new features into their mobile device offerings including artificial intelligence, multi-lens camera modules, full-screen displays, and under-display fingerprint sensors.

Pathak added that consumers chose to hold onto their device longer due to a lack of innovation and higher price tags of newer smartphones.

Quote:Russian politician, TV anchor, and actress, Ksenia Sobchak, is being sued by Samsung for violating a brand ambassadorship contract that specifies she must use the company's phones exclusively.

The development took place as a result of Sobchak using an iPhone during a TV appearance. While the Russian starlet was conscious enough of her obligations to make an attempt to hide the phone's identity using a piece of paper and her hands, she was ultimately unsuccessful.

Samsung's lawyers noticed the slip, and are now suing her to the tune of 108 million Russian rubles ($1.6 million) for the breach of contract. Sobchak, a known socialite, is also reported to have used an iPhone at social events and TV appearances previously, and it seems Samsung is now saying enough is enough. The company has also faced similar difficulties with other brand ambassadors - like Adam Levine and David Ferrer - using iPhones instead of Samsung-made phones.

Quote:It's been a long road for Apple and Samsung's legal dispute over accusations that the latter copied ideas from the iPhone back in 2011. Since the case first came about, we've seen the judge rule in Apple's favor back in 2012, and an endless series of appeals since then. Fast forward to May of this year, and Samsung was ordered to pay $539 million in damages in the case, but it was thought that the company might, once again, appeal the decision.

Now, almost seven years since the feud begun, the companies have finally reached a settlement and the case is being closed, according to a court document.

Quote:Apple has a history of pretending nothing is wrong with its products when it’s obvious to all outside observers that there’s something very, very wrong. Such was the case back in the days of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus when buyers claimed the phones bent too easily. Later, many owners had issues with so-called “touch disease” when the phones would stop responding to touches. Apple denied these problems were widespread. Newly revealed documents suggest that not only was Apple aware, but it was actively working on engineering changes to mitigate the issues. All the while, it continued gaslighting iPhone owners.

Quote:Back in 2016, Apple was caught bricking devices that had previously been repaired by third-party companies. The company initially attempted to claim it had performed this task for the good of users in the name of security before reversing course. Apple has long attempted to maintain that customers must use authorized repair centers, in flagrant violation of US (and Australian) law. Now the company appears to be up to its old tricks again.

According to Vice, the iOS 11.3 update that Apple released in March is now killing touchscreen functionality in devices that were previously repaired by third parties. “This has caused my company over 2,000 reshipments,” Aakshay Kripalani, CEO of Injured Gadgets, a Georgia-based retailer and repair shop, told Vice. “Customers are annoyed and it seems like Apple is doing this to prevent customers from doing 3rd party repair.”

Apple actually had a similar issue surface last fall, separate from the Error 53 debacle, but fixed it shortly thereafter. The company’s decision to reintroduce it with iOS 11.3 is another example of Apple’s fundamental hostility to US law on this point. The FTC has been extremely clear on this point. Manufacturers, including Apple, are not allowed to prevent end users from using third-party repair services. They are not allowed to tell end users that doing so will void their warranties. They are not allowed to refuse warranty service simply because a third-party repaired an unrelated issue.
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Cupertino, however, may have picked the wrong time to pick this fight. The FTC literally just sent out notification letters to six companies, including one identified as a cell phone manufacturer. We don’t know which firms were picked, but we haven’t exactly read much lately about how Samsung or LG was sabotaging third-party repair businesses. Statistically, Apple is the more likely candidate for this kind of message, particularly given how hard it has fought to argue that certain kinds of legal activity (like jailbreaking) are actually illegal.

Quote:This essentially means that a potentially rogue customer service agent who accesses the first four characters can generate the remaining part of the passwords with relative ease using a brute-force method. And if there's a data breach, the passwords will be available to the attacker in plain text. When this was explained to the T-Mobile representatives, they went on to state how there is nothing to fear because T-Mobile's security is "amazingly good".
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While T-Mobile Austria customers have genuine reasons to be worried, T-Mobile CEO John Legere has clarified that the company's US division doesn't store passwords in plain text.

Quote:As you can see from the 360-degree render, the upcoming G-series handset will have a sleek design. The front of the display will have a cutout towards the top and the phone will also have a 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom. On the rear, there is a dual camera sensor, along with a fingerprint reader. From what has been rumored, the handset will feature a 6-inch 3220 x 1440 OLED display, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 processor, could arrive with up to 6GB RAM, and up to 128GB of internal storage.

Quote:In a post on its website, the firm starts off by addressing its letter to its users and friends in the media. It claims that the reports that surfaced are false and that it would like to clear the air. The firm stresses that despite infections being detected on its phones in early 2017, these were in fact, false detections caused by certain APKs on the handsets that were intended for advertisements. Since that time, the firm has updated its Android OS to address the issues so that false detections will not take place anymore.

Furthermore, Leagoo will now be taking legal action against the media that published reports of infections being present on its handsets, stating that the new report that surfaced towards the beginning of the month has caused damage to the company's reputation. In closing, the firm states that the issues that are detected on its phones are caused by "different virus detection mechanism and algorithm between Chinese and foreign anti-virus software" and that all its phones are tested for viruses prior to shipping out to customers. But, to make sure that it will not have issues in the future, it will "integrate the foreign algorithm" into its virus testing process.