Feb 08
When it comes to security, this hasn’t been Snapchat’s year. First hackers leaked a massive amount of private user data
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Feb 07
Flappy Bird has to be one of the more popular games available for Android at the moment. In fact we’re not sure if its developer even expected for the game to be raking in the money to begin with, but it’s one of those things that you never expected to be so fun, addictive, and incredibly frustrating at the same time. Well if you’re looking to improve your technique with the game, a video has been posted on YouTube under Dumb Stupid Videos in which the video’s narrator promises to teach you how to “cheat and beat” the incredibly popular game. While we won’t spoil it for the rest of you guys, let’s just say that there is a very unexpected twist at the end of the video which might also be a great, but expensive way, of curbing your addiction of the game. So if you have a couple of minutes to spare and are looking for a hilarious video to end your Friday with, sit back an relax and check it out in the video above!
Hilarious Video Teaches You How To Play Flappy Bird original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Feb 07
Does popular IM app Snapchat have security flaws? Yes it does, as you might recall it wasn’t too ago that Snapchat experienced a data leak that resulted in millions of user names and phone numbers getting public. Now we would think that having that one security scare was enough to send the developers at Snapchat scrambling to make their app as secure as possible, but perhaps there could be more work left to be done, thanks to a recent report by cyber security research, Jamie Sanchez. Sanchez recently discovered a security vulnerability that would allow hackers to flood a Snapchat user with thousands of messages in seconds, essentially leading to a denial of service.
“By reusing old tokens, hackers can send massive amounts of messages using powerful computers. This method could be used by spammers to send messages in mass quantities to numerous users, or it could be used to launch a cyber attack on specific individuals.” Sanchez demonstrated this hack by flooding the phone of a reporter for The LA Times, essentially freezing the reporter’s iPhone which had to be hard reseted for it to work again. Now the right thing to do would be to inform Snapchat of this vulnerability, but Sanchez is apparently declining to do so, claiming that the company had no respect for the cyber security research community when they previously ignored the vulnerability that led to the data leak.
Snapchat Vulnerability Could Lead To iPhone DDoS Attacks original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Feb 07
Mooshimeter Is A Smarter Multimeter That Works As A Wireless Extension Of Your Smartphone
Posted in: Today's Chili
The presence of Bluetooth LE/4.0 in the latest generations of smartphones and tablets has let to an explosion of hardware/sensor add-ons that extend the capabilities of the mobile devices we all now carry around with us.
The low power wireless transfer tech is also allowing for full digital devices to be re-conceived as smartphone add-ons — leveraging the phone’s processing power and larger, colour touchscreen display to support improved performance and capabilities.
Here’s the latest example: an updating of the digital multimeter, called the Mooshimeter, that brings circuit testing abilities to your smartphone in app form.
What’s the point of upgrading from the standard digital multimeter to a wireless box that works as an extension of your smartphone? There are several advantages, according to Mooshimeter’s makers.
Firstly, going wireless means you don’t have to be tethered to the item whose circuits you’re testing — so you can test from further away (up to 150 feet away, depending on what’s between you and the Mooshimeter), which may be more convenient or safer. It’s also easier to test electronics that are moving around.
The traditional digital multimeter also usually requires the user to switched between modes, making it harder to track relationships in an active system — unless you start using multiple multimeters. And even if you do that you’re still having to monitor multiple displays to figure out what’s going on. The Mooshimeter maps all the activity on a single display; i.e. your phone’s screen.
And boy does it look good. Out with plain old LCD numbers, in with gorgeous real-time graphs.
And not having to incorporate a display on the device itself (being as your phone is the display and the interface hardware) has allowed Mooshimeter’s makers to spend on upping the measurement resolution — so the device has a 24-bit ADC, which is higher than a lot of standalone multimeters.
They note:
This gives you up to 7 digits to work with, though for most measurements expect 5-6 noise free digits. Combined with the graphing capability of your smartphone, this allows you to pick up the smallest and most subtle signals.
There’s also a slot on the Mooshimeter for a microSD card, with support for up to 32GB, so the device can log data for months, i.e. rather than you having to hang out next your multimeter making notes.
And that’s just a few of the advantages of transferring multimeter functionality from a standalone digital device to wireless hardware-plus-software (more on the advantages here). In short, you’re getting an altogether smart(er) multimeter.
The Mooshimeter remains a prototype for now, albeit one that has been put through its paces by a network of testers. Mooshimeter’s makers have taken to Dragon Innovation, the specialist hardware crowdfunding platform, to raise funds to get the device to market.
They have already passed their funding goal of $52,000 — with more than $71,500 raised at the time of writing, and another 13 days left on their campaign.
The device costs $99 to crowdfunding backers, and will retail for $120 after the campaign. The aim is to ship to backers in August.
As the Internet of Things starts cooking, more developers are going to have to start playing around with hardware — making a multimeter an everyday tool for more of you guys. So this smart updating of the multimeter is pretty timely. Happy measuring.
Feb 06
Dungeon Keeper was a game originally developed back in 1997 by Peter Molyneux and was designed to be a game in which you play as the bad guy, where you build a dungeon in an attempt to keep invading heroes out. We’re sure many gamers have spent countless hours on the original game back in the day which is why many were excited when EA released a remake of the game onto mobile devices. Unfortunately it looks like EA might have taken the free-to-play model a bit too far, leading to many criticizing the company for it. (more…)
EA Responds To Dungeon Keeper’s Criticisms original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Feb 06
Back in the day of Windows Phone 7, Yahoo released a Flickr app for the platform but has not bothered to update the app since. Heck, even the design of the Windows Phone button on the Flickr website is that of the old one, and given that we’re approaching the release of Windows Phone 8.1, will Yahoo ever come around to updating its app for the Windows Phone platform? Sadly it appears that the answer is no, at least not anytime soon. This is according to a post by a Yahoo product support admin who responded to a question posed by a user back in 2013 (yes it took them that long to respond).
According to the admin, he replied by saying, “At this point, we are focusing our mobile development efforts on iPhone and Android apps. If this changes, we’ll let you know in the forum here.” Flickr was one of the more popular websites for sharing and hosting photos for websites back in the day. However with social media growing faster than ever, websites such as Facebook and Instagram started to overshadow it, which might explain why Yahoo might not see the app as a priority at the moment. In any case there are probably a handful of third-party alternatives if you really want to use Flickr, such as 2flicka and Flickr Central just to name a few.
No New Flickr App For Windows Phone Anytime Soon original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Feb 06
Flappy Bird is one of those games that no one really expected to take off the way it did, but somehow proved itself to be quite a major hit. Last we heard, the app, despite accused of using stolen graphics, was pulling in about $50,000 a day from ad revenue alone. It is apparently lucrative enough for a clone to be created for the Windows Phone platform where the game has yet to be launched. As you can see in the screenshots above, the clone of the game is literally a copy and paste job as the graphics and gameplay have been copied from the original game.
Then again like we said, Flappy Bird has been accused of copying graphics from older games, so we’re not sure if the original developer really has the right to be mad about that. The app could eventually be taken down at the original developer’s request, but in the meantime for those interested in seeing if the clone is just as good as the original, you can get your hands on the game via the Windows Phone Store. For those who would rather play the original, you can rest assured that it will be making its way onto the Windows Phone platform in the next week or so. In the meantime has anyone figured out what the fuss is over that game?
Flappy Bird Clone Flaps Its Way Onto Windows Phone original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Feb 06
We’ve been looking at app design from the very beginning here at Gizmodo, breaking down apps in all their various forms—from music streaming
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Feb 06
Looking at this Android-powered landline handset which U.K. telco BT has just started selling — christened with the (relatively) catchy name of Home SmartPhone S — you really have to wonder what took them so long.
BT is a broadband provider however its legacy business was copper telephone wires and landline phones — so its Internet packages, even the fibre ones, require subscribers to install a traditional landline too. Ergo, the company still brands (and flogs) a lot of landline phones.
Recent landline handsets BT was pushing on its customers included the likes of the BT6500 (see what I mean about relatively catchy) — a handset that looks like it was forged in the yuppie fires of 1985.
From there it really is a revolution to the Home SmartPhone S which is a smartphone in all ways except for being tied to the house being as it lacks the cellular radio bit — using Wi-Fi to hook into your Internet router to support web browsing, apps, and the rest.
The price-tag for this 3.5 inch touchscreen device is £150 — so pretty pricey for a landline phone, sure, but it’s far from being the traditional dumb button-pusher.
The BT Home SmartPhone S is by no means the first Android-powered landline phone. It’s just the latest slice of old school hardware Google’s mobile OS has found its way onto — as Android continues its onward march from mobiles to tablets, TVs, cars, cameras, smartwatches, fridges… and so on.
Android domination marches on. smartphones, tablets, TVs, smartwatches and now home phones: j.mp/1kYvmR7 http://t.co/DX9jFjVS8a—
Ben Wood (@benwood) February 06, 2014
Other Android-powered landline handsets on the market include the likes of the Panasonic KX-PRX120 and the Gigaset SL930A, both released last summer.
BT itself has sold Skype phones and videophones for years, but those devices were still coupled with less than user-friendly fiddly old interfaces.
Such legacy interfaces are steadily being replaced on more devices, whether it’s car stereos or landline phones, with touchscreen panels running Android, as the platform proves itself capable of leveraging the user familiarity built up on mobile to make the leap onto more device types.
Back in May Google pegged Android activations at 900 million, up from 400 million in 2012. This year there’s no doubt Mountain View will break a billion active Androids, the question is how much it will break that figure by.
As Android continues its spread, pollinating more electronic devices, that growth can keep on coming.
Feb 06
At the Apps World North America conference in San Francisco, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak gave WIRED a wide-ranging interview. His most interesting comment? Apple should release an Android handset.
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