Hasta La Gadget!

Apple investors aren’t exactly getting good news today. The company’s share price dipped under $400 today, last time this happened was back on December 22nd, 2011. Now according to upstream sources in iPad mini supply chain, lacking demand for Apple’s mini tablet might result in Q2 shipments dropping by as much as 30%. Apple is expected to ship around 10 to 12 million units this quarter as opposed to the 15 million units it shipped in the previous quarter. One reason cited for this lack in demand is that prospective customers are holding off purchases because they’re waiting for the second generation iPad mini, which will reportedly tout a Retina Display.

That seems like a logical explanation, however it might not be the whole story. Smartphones such as the Galaxy Note 2 could prove to be stiff competition for the mini tablet. There’s one in particular that can almost be considered as a full blown rival, the Samsung Galaxy Mega, a 6.3″ smartphone which is likely to give iPad mini a run for its money. Smartphones that come close to the screen real estate of the 7-inch tablet would seem like a much better choice for prospective customers as they wouldn’t have to carry around a separate smartphone and tablet. Do you think such big smartphones are eroding iPad mini’s market share?

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A new security flaw has been discovered in the lockscreen of Samsung Galaxy Note II. This flaw effectively puts the entire device at risk as intruders can easily gain total control of the device. That means access to any or all sensitive data stored on it. Basically the lockscreen can be disabled even if the device is protected by a pattern, password, PIN or even face detection. The flaw is not present on stock Android from Google. It is present in Samsung’s 4.1.1 and 4.1.2 Android version for the Galaxy Note II. Only limited to the Note II, as the flaw reportedly does not have any effect on Galaxy S III.

The method for gaining total control of a Galaxy Note II isn’t exactly easy. Certain steps are required to be done to increase the timing of a screen that the Note II briefly flashes, when the back button is pressed to exit the emergency dialer. The aim is to launch Google Play Store through which an app can be downloaded to disable the lockscreen altogether. Samsung says that it will release a fix for this at the earliest possibility. This happens to be the second security flaw discovered on a Galaxy Note II in March. So while we wait for a fix to drop, its probably a good idea to be extra careful about your Galaxy Note II.

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We’ve been hearing of T-Mobile’s network possibly having 4G LTE in the near future, the latest report coming just a few weeks ago saying we could see 4G LTE come some time this year. Considering T-Mobile said that last month, we expected a rollout of 4G LTE to occur within the next 10 months, but the company is announcing it will begin rolling out the service at the end of this month.

T-Mobile’s Engineering Vice President Tom Ellefson said the 4G LTE rollout should improve their experience on its network, regardless if you have an LTE-compatible device or not. The addition of new antennas installed along with LTE hardware means all customers should experience better and faster coverage. (more…)

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It seems that a certain Terence Eden has discovered a method to access apps on your Galaxy Note 2 even when the homescreen is locked, although this particular Galaxy Note 2 runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and is a UK variant. So far, he has tried it on a rooted as well as a factory fresh model, and the same exploit still works, so you might want to take note.

Since a picture speaks a thousand words, and a video would do this homescreen exploit justice, why not check out what the video is all about above? In a nutshell, it seems that the Galaxy Note 2’s homescreen can be accessed with a very simple method – by pressing the “Emergency Call” icon, followed by the ICE button and then pressing the physical home key for a handful of seconds. This will open up a window of opportunity to click on any of the homescreen app, and if you happen to have a “direct dial” widget there, the hacker can actually place a call, which is definitely not something nice to happen to you. It seems that Terence has already informed Samsung about this five days ago, and so far he has yet to receive a response from them. Sucks!

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I am not quite sure what is it about pink gadgets, but somehow or rather, when Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, you start to see this color pop up from nowhere. Case in point, the business-like Samsung Galaxy Note 2 which was originally available in just a couple of colors, will see a new pink Samsung Galaxy Note 2 hit the market this month, ahead of February 14th for those who want to lay out a surprise for their other half. Of course, a couple of more color additions (amber brown and ruby wine) were introduced for the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 in January, but that’s beside the point.

Other than the external cosmetic change, is there anything else about the pink Samsung Galaxy Note 2 that is different from the regular device? Not really, as all underneath the hood will remain the same, including its 5.5-inch HD display, a quad-core processor, an 8-megapixel shooter, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean as the operating system of choice and the special S-Pen stylus.

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