News Android

mardi 28 novembre 2017

Samsung Looking to Upgrade Bixby By Acquiring Fluenty, An Artificial Intelligence Startup

Fluenty is a smart reply assistant application, which can be run in both Korean and in English. When given a text, it can suggest automatic replies which range from witty to actual informational answers. Founded by developers previously at Naver and Daum, two of the biggest Korean search engines, the developers already have experience in creating intelligent algorithms. The service is available on KakaoTalk, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and Line. It launched in the US in 2015 and South Korea in 2016. It seems that now Samsung has acquired the firm, after investing nearly a million dollars in the company last year in September. This likely comes as an effort from Samsung to further improve their currently-lackluster AI assistant Bixby.

Bixby has been long criticised for its lack of features, launching even without voice recognition. When compared to its competitors, it’s simply no contest and Bixby loses out, even today and even though Bixby offers some innovative features. Samsung looks to be wanting to change that, and will probably be looking to integrate the team of engineers, assets and IP they have acquired into improving the artificial intelligence.

This comes after just last month Samsung relaunched its Samsung Research division, which integrates the Digital Media & Communications Research Center and Software Center into one division of the company, with the sole purpose of improving their AI technology. Samsung has already made acquisitions in the past with the intention of improving its AI when it bought out the Viv Labs startup in the US last year. Samsung’s smart home appliances are also likely to integrate Bixby at some point, so it seems Samsung is gearing themselves up for an all-out improvement on their artificial intelligence services. With the acquisition of the whole team behind Fluenty, it may be possible that soon Samsung can outpace its competitors, though they are in a position where they have to catch up, rather than put themselves in the lead.

Source: The Investor

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OnePlus 5T Lava Red is Exclusive to China

OnePlus announced the OnePlus 5T in early October, the newest in its wallet-friendly line of smartphones, and it’s since gone on to break the company’s sales records. But OnePlus isn’t resting on its laurels. On Tuesday, it announced a red-colored limited edition OnePlus 5T “Lava Red” that’ll be exclusive to China.

Source: OnePlus

OnePlus said the OnePlus 5T Lava Red will start at 2,999 RMB (about $450), which we’re assuming is for the base 6GB RAM/64GB configuration. If there’s a 8GB RAM/128GB — and that’s a big if, because OnePlus hasn’t released the Lava Red’s spec sheet yet — it’ll presumably cost 3,499 RMB (about $500).

For the uninitiated, the OnePlus 5T has a 6-inch, 18:9 aspect ratio display with a Full HD (1920 x 1080p) resolution. It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 system-on-chip paired with up to 8GB RAM, and it’s got up to 128GB of non-expandable storage. The battery is 3000mAh, and the camera — a dual module with one 16MP sensor and one 20MP sensor — can produce the sort of out-of-focus bokeh effect seen on DSLRs.

The OnePlus 5T Lava Red is exclusive to China right now, but there’s a chance it’ll come to other regions eventually. We’ll have to wait and see.

Source: OnePlus

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Xiaomi Redmi 5 Leaked by China Telecom, Has 5.7-inch HD+ Display and Snapdragon 625

Thanks to devices such as the Redmi 1s, which offers a great experience at a price point under $100, Xiaomi’s Redmi series are some of the most popular devices out there. The Redmi 1s has since been followed up by the Redmi 2, the Redmi 3/3s, and most recently the Redmi 4/4X in 2017. Now, rumors about Xiaomi’s 2017 budget smartphone, fueled by leaked TENAA listings and alleged live shots of Redmi phones, are positively flying. And on Tuesday, a China Telecom leak gave a tantalizing glimpse.

It’s tentatively called the Redmi 5, and the design looks pretty similar to the Snapdragon variant of the Redmi Note 4. The phone has a metal body with plastic caps on the rear top and bottom, and its bezels are smaller than the Note 4. That’s because the display is taller than any Redmi device released so far.

In the most drastic departure for the Redmi series yet, the Redmi 5 will be the first with a 18:9 aspect ratio. To be precise, it’ll have a 5.7-inch 18:9 HD (1440×720) screen, which translates into an area equivalent to a 5.5-inch 16:9 display. That’s a huge step up from the Redmi 4’s 5-inch 16:9 HD (1280×720) display.

The Redmi 5 is said to be powered by Qualcomm’s MSM8953 ‘lite’ system-on-chip, better known as the Snapdragon 625 (seen on the Redmi Note 4, Mi Max 2, Mi A1 and others). The ‘lite’ label might have to do with the processor clock speed — the MSM8953 ‘lite’ is said to be clocked at 1.8GHz instead of the standard Snapdragon 625.’s 2GHz clock speed.

The Redmi 5 will reportedly ship in configurations with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and all models will have a microSD card slot which supports expandable storage up to 128GB. It’s said to have a 12MP rear camera, but the sensor and pixel size remain a mystery for now. The front-facing camera will have 5MP resolution, similar to current Redmi phones, and in terms of connectivity, the phone will reportedly have a 3.5mm headphone jack, a microUSB 2.0 port (isntead of USB Type-C), and dual SIM slots. It’ll also have a fingerprint sensor.

The dimensions of the Redmi 5 will be 151.8mm x 72.8mm x 7.7mm, and it’s said to weigh 157g. Unfortunately, it’ll have a 3300mAh battery, which is a substantial downgrade from the 4100mAh batteries of the Redmi 4 and the Redmi Note 4. Coupled with the drastically larger display, it remains to be seen how the battery life will be affected.

Finally, the phone is said to ship with Android 7.1 Nougat and, strangely, Xiaomi’s in-house MIUI software (version 8.5.1.1). We imagine that even if it ships with MIUI, which is unlikely given the Redmi lineup’s history, it will soon receive an update to MIUI 9.

According to some reports, the Redmi 5 may be available starting from December 10. Stay tuned.

Source: Roland Quandt on Twitter

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NVIDIA Shield Tablet Update Patches KRACK and BroadPwn Vulnerabilities

NVIDIA released the original Shield Tablet back 2014, and followed it up with a more powerful model, the Shield Tablet K1, in 2015. It’s not terribly common to see original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) support older devices long past their launch date, but the company continues to buck the trend by regularly upgrading its entire Shield lineup’s software. Most recently, it announced Shield Tablet firmware version 5.3, which includes security patches for KRACK and BroadPwn.

Shield Tablet firmware version 5.3 adds every Android security patches through November 2017. It also fixes connectivity issues with Zagg Bluetooth keyboards, and includes stability improvements and optimizations.

NVIDIA Shield Tablet 5.3 Update Change Log

Addresses Wi-Fi vulnerabilities (KRACK and Broadpwn)
Fixes connectivity issues with Zagg Bluetooth keyboards
Overall system stability and security optimizations
Update to Android Security Patch Level November 5, 2017

The last NVIDIA Shield Tablet and Shield Tablet K1 update, which was in May, included April’s security update.

The BroadPwn vulnerability — a flaw in Broadcom’s Wi-Fi code — was patched in Android’s July 2017 security update. Along with a fix for BroadPwn, that month’s patch addressed 138 exploits and vulnerabilities, 18 of which were Remote Code Execution, which allow attackers to execute code remotely.

KRACK was more recent. Security researchers uncovered the exploit in October, which spoofs legitimate access points. If a connection to a vulnerable device is successful, attackers can use a program called sslstrip to manipulate all traffic that isn’t on port 80 to port 10,000. Once that’s done, they’re free to snoop on all of the data that’s being transmitted to and from the aforementioned device.

Needless to say, it’s a good idea to update all of your Shield devices.

Source: NVIDIA

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SwiftKey Beta Adds Location Sharing, Quick Paste, and More

Every developer debugs updates differently. Some choose to use Google Play’s built-in beta-testing feature, while others like to separate their releases into several branches. SwiftKey takes the latter approach, and folks who’ve opted into the beta program will be glad to hear that a major update’s rolling out this week.

The SwiftKey Beta offers a way to try out bleeding-edge tweaks before they make their way into the stable build, and the newest release, version 6.7.3.25, doesn’t disappoint. It adds support for languages such as Chamorro, Ju|’hoan, Lisu, Palauan, Piedmontese, Sicilian, and Scots, and new layouts including Naratgul and VEGA. It also improves on SwiftKey’s touch accessibility feature, which can now be accessed with a long-press gesture.

The update’s other two standout features are location sharing and Quick Paste. Location sharing, which is limited to users in the United States for now, lets you send your coordinates to friends and family through SwiftKey. Quick Paste, meanwhile, puts any text you’ve copied next to the SwiftKey prediction bar for quick and easy access.

SwiftKey is one of the most popular 3rd-party keyboards available for Android in the Play Store. Its meteoric growth gained the attention of Microsoft, in fact, which acquired it for $250 million. Since then, the team’s expanded it to iOS, released free themes, and introducing a number of new features.

Source: SwiftKey Via: Android Police

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Samsung Granted Patent for Under-Screen Fingerprint Sensor

Samsung’s effort to develop an under-screen fingerprint sensor is an open secret. As early as Spring 2017, shortly before the release of the Galaxy S8, the Seoul, South Korea-based was developing a fingerprint sensor that could be embedded in a smartphone screen. It reportedly tried to build one for the Galaxy Note 8 but, but couldn’t overcome key technical limitations. But if a new patent is any indication, Samsung hasn’t given up on the idea.

On Tuesday, the company was granted a patent for an under-screen fingerprint scanner by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It describes a 12 pressure point-sensor sandwiched between cover glass and a display panel, and accompanying software that unlocks applications depending on who’s using the smartphone.

Historically, Android smartphone manufacturers have placed fingerprint sensors either below phone displays (see: Lenovo’s Moto G5 Plus) or on the rear cover (Samsung’s Galaxy S8 Plus). In July, though, Vivo partnered with Qualcomm to prototype under-display technology that the company had been working on for the better part of a year. The new scanner passes ultrasonic signals through an OLED panel up to 1200 μm thick to read the contours of a fingerprint, obviating the need for direct skin contact.

As impressive as Qualcomm’s solution is, though, it isn’t as fast as traditional capacitive fingerprint scanners, and it requires an OLED panel in order to work properly. If Samsung’s sensor solves those problems, it might just give it a leg up on the competition.

Via: GSM Arena Source: World Intellectual Property Organization

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Google Talks About Detecting and Blocking Tizi Android Spyward

We’ve reported in the past on the things Google does to keep Android smartphones and tablets safe from malware — for example, the Play Store detects Potentially Harmful Applications (PHAs) using a combination of algorithms and human screening. But sometimes new malware slips through the cracks. Case in point? Tizi, a spyware program that targets a small number of devices in specific geographic areas.

Tizi is part of a larger family of malware discovered by the Google Play Protect security team in September, which spotted it on device scans of root applications that exploited old vulnerabilities. After conducting an investigation this year, the team found more applications in the Tizi family, the oldest of which dated back to October 2015.

Source: Google Security Blog

Tizi was used in targeted attacks against 1,300 devices in a number of African countries, particularly Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania. The early versions didn’t have rooting capabilities or obfuscate their code, but the malware, which works by stealing sensitive data from popular social media apps like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Viber, Skype, LinkedIn, and Telegram, gained those features over time.

That’s not the scariest part. The newest version of Tizi executes several info-stealing processes common to commercial spyware, including recording calls in WhatsApp, Viber, and Skype; sending and receiving SMS messages; and accessing calendar events, call logs, contacts, photos, Wi-Fi encryption keys, and a list of all installed apps. Tizi’s developer went as far as to create a website and used social media to drive app installs from Google Play and third-party websites.

But Tizi shouldn’t be a threat much longer. With Google’s investigation now concluded, the search giant updated its on-device security services as well as the server-based systems that search for PHAs. The changes will help discover this kind of malware in the future, Google says.

For a technical breakdown of Tizi and a five-step checklist about how to reduce your chance of being affected by it, follow the source link.

Source: Google Security Blog

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