Thursday, June 2, 2011

MobileCrunch

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Bond Mixology for iOS Helps You Booze Like Bond

Posted: 01 Jun 2011 02:46 PM PDT

Uh oh. It’s your turn to host your crew’s weekly Movie Night, and you’ve gotta come up with a theme. The Austin Powers guy made bangers and mash and forced everyone to speak in a British accent. Harry Potter girl pulled out all the stops with a wand-making craft hour and lightning-shaped temporary tattoos. How ever will you top that?!

Don’t worry, you’ve got a trick up your sleeve: You’ve got James Bond. And Booze.

Bond Mixology for iOS is to alcohol in Bond flicks as Mr. Skin is to nudie scenes in every movie ever.

From Dr. No to Quantum of Solace, Bond Mixology provides a minute-by-minute breakdown of all of the on-screen libations, recipes and all, so you and your friends can drink as Bond does. Take Casino Royale, for example: at 0:32, Bond downs a rum and coke. At 0:37, it’s champagne. 0:58? Bourbon. 0:59? Red wine. (At 1:15 there was a scene where Q was flown in to treat Bond for alcohol poisoning, but they cut it out and replaced it with 2 more minutes of Daniel Craig smirking, playing poker, and crashing cars, or whatever the hell Casino Royale was about.)

Actually, in hindsight, it’s probably a terrible idea to try and drink everything that Bond drinks on screen. Maybe you should just have a Lord of the Rings marathon and make everyone glue fur to their feet, instead. For 2 bucks, though, Bond Mixology [iTunes Link] is a fun and clever lil’ app to have around in your spy armory.

[via Daring Fireball]

30+ New Malicious Apps Spotted In The Android Market

Posted: 01 Jun 2011 02:26 PM PDT

Over the holiday weekend, another batch of malicious apps were found in the official Android Market. According to the Lookout Security Blog (who, it should be disclosed, makes an anti-malware product for Android), at least 34 applications have been infected with a variation of DroidDream, the same malware found in the Android Market back in March. Researchers are calling this iteration of the malware “DroidDreamLight (DDLight)”, and expect that between 30,000 and 120,000 users have already been affected by the malicious apps.

DDLight begins its trouble-making upon receipt of an incoming call, rather than waiting for the user to manually launch the application. From there, the malware grabs the IMEI, IMSI, model, SDK version and other information about installed packages, and can seemingly download and install other applications (though not without prompting the user).

As it currently stands, malware like this is a mostly unavoidable caveat of open (read: loosely regulated) markets like Android’s. It’s the unfortunate wart hiding amongst Android’s many strengths. For now, we’ll just have to hope that Google and the security research firms out there stay vigilant in weeding out these baddies quick.

Here are the apps in which Lookout Security Blog found DDLight:

GluMobi:

  • Tetris
  • Bubble Buster Free
  • Quick History Eraser
  • Super Compass and Leveler
  • Go FallDown !
  • Solitaire Free
  • Scientific Calculator
  • TenDrip

DroidPlus:

  • Quick Cleaner
  • Super App Manager
  • Quick SMS Backup

BeeGoo:

  • Quick Photo Grid
  • Delete Contacts
  • Quick Uninstaller
  • Contact Master
  • Brightness Settings
  • Volume Manager
  • Super Photo Enhance
  • Super Color Flashlight
  • Paint Master

E.T. Tean:

  • Call End Vibrate

Mango Studio:

  • Floating Image Free
  • System Monitor
  • Super StopWatch and Timer
  • System Info Manager

Magic Photo Studio:

  • Sexy Girls: Hot Japanese
  • Sexy Legs
  • HOT Girls 4
  • Beauty Breasts
  • Sex Sound
  • Sex Sound: Japanese
  • HOT Girls 1
  • HOT Girls 2
  • HOT Girls 3

So, how can you avoid it? A good first step would probably be to avoid downloading apps with names like “Beauty Breasts” or “Sex Sound: Japanese”. Unfortunately, a number of these applications are cloned/hacked versions of otherwise legit (but not necessarily super popular) downloads. Always check the developer’s name, the reviews, and other such items for any glaring red flags. Last but not least: doublecheck the features that the app requests permission to use before installing. If something called “HOT Girls 4″ is requesting the ability to view your contacts and send out SMS messages, something probably isn’t right

Motorola Droid X Gets Android 2.3 Gingerbread OTA Update

Posted: 01 Jun 2011 11:15 AM PDT

Earlier this week, Android 2.3 Gingerbread became available to Droid X owners online, as a tethered manual install. For some, manual updates are a walk in the park, and for others, a complete nightmare. Anyone's whose impatience led to a bricked phone knows exactly what I'm talking about. Luckily, Motorola‘s Droid X will be receiving an OTA (over-the-air) update to get Android 2.3 Gingerbread, starting today.

Features of the updated OS aren't anything too spectacular, when compared to the jump from Eclair to Froyo, but they're not snub-worthy either. Android 2.3 Gingerbread includes faster navigation, a customizable dock, and a revamped camera application, so if any of that sounds worth your while, an update to Android 2.3 is that much easier, as of today.

[via Engadget]

Acer Announces First Windows Smartphone: The Mango-Flavored W4

Posted: 01 Jun 2011 10:15 AM PDT

Back in February, we heard that Acer had plans to join Nokia on Microsoft’s Windows platform and release a Windows Phone in September or October of this year. Luckily, September and/or October are just around the corner, and Acer has officially announced its first Windows Phone, dubbed the W4, during the Computex trade show in Taipei. The Acer smartphone will launch with the rest of the forthcoming "Mango" handsets, alongside the consumer release of the Mango update.

In terms of specs, the W4 sports a 3.6-inch WVGA screen at 480 x 800 pixels of resolution, a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus, and supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1. Under the hood, a Qualcomm 1GHz processor will power the phone, with Windows Phone Mango running the show on top. The phone offers 8GB of storage. As you now know, the W4 doesn't tout any extraordinary features, as many manufacturers are just meeting the minimum requirements Microsoft has for Windows Phone devices, rather than putting flagship-level effort and dollars into the uncertain OS.

[via TNW]

Facebook For BlackBerry Gets A New Beta Build

Posted: 01 Jun 2011 09:45 AM PDT

Remember that one time when there was no Facebook app for the iPad? And everyone was really upset about it? And we all just wished that Zuckerberg and Jobs could find some common ground, whether it be in Flash or not? Yeah, we haven’t quite woken up from that nightmare yet, but BlackBerry users certainly have something to celebrate: Facebook for Blackberry Beta v2 (Beta 3!) just went live in the BlackBerry Beta Zone.

While Facebook for Blackberry is nothing new, Facebook has been crackin’ away at a pretty massive overhaul for their Blackberry app since around the middle of March.

With the update to v2 (Beta 3), Facebook for BlackBerry gains much needed Wi-Fi support, which includes the ability for users with a BlackBerry data plan to receive push notifications while connected to a Wi-Fi network. The updated version of the app also gives users the ability to delete unwanted comments and posts from their wall, and even sends a prompt asking whether the user would simply like to delete this comment from Facebook for BlackBerry, or from their entire account. You must register to be a BlackBerry Beta Zone member and receive a keycode to download the latest version of the app.


Qualcomm, Adobe Optimize Flash For Snapdragon-Powered Android Phones

Posted: 01 Jun 2011 07:10 AM PDT

Adobe Flash is to the smartphone as an unwanted cousin is to your wedding: necessary, yet painstaking. Apple CEO Steve Jobs seems to hate the software, neglecting to support it on all four models of the iPhone. Google's done a better job of incorporating Flash support into the Android operating system, but still, most of the time Flash ends up being a battery killer, a security risk, not to mention a total bandwidth hog. That could change very soon though, as Qualcomm and Adobe have announced the development of optimizations for better Flash Player support in mid-level to high-end Android smartphones powered by the Snapdragon family of processors.

The first chip to get the upgrade will be the 800MHz MSM7x27 processor, which will finally have a more stable and web browsing experience with regards to Flash. Following shortly thereafter, Flash optimizations will be added to the MSM8x55 family of chips, to ensure smooth HD video support for Flash Player on the smartphones that boast a rich video viewing experience, such as the HTC ThunderBolt, LG Revolution, HTC Inspire 4G, Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc and Xperia Play, and the T-Mobile myTouch 4G.

"Qualcomm and Adobe have developed a lasting relationship driven by both sides' desire to bring an exceptional Web experience throughout all tiers of smart mobile devices," said Rob Chandhok, president of Qualcomm Internet Services. "Bringing Flash Player to the mass market segment of smartphones and HD video to higher end smartphones with Qualcomm's processors will expand the scope of possibilities on a mobile device."

The first demo of an enhanced Flash performance on a Snapdragon-powered smartphone will go down either today or tomorrow at the Uplinq conference, sponsored by Qualcomm.

[via Phone Arena]
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