Hasta La Gadget!

Yesterday’s lab installment gave us an opportunity to pit the Lumia 920 against competing smartphones in a low-light capture scenario, but Nokia’s standard battery of tests is used to evaluate and improve far more than stills shooting. Several stops throughout the day brought us to a foam-filled sound chamber tasked with analyzing call quality in a variety of environments, a room with industrial freezers and ovens used to push the limits of operability, and a rig that can shoot with interchangeable sensors and apply image quality algorithms in real-time, without a handset in sight. Unfortunately, due to proprietary technologies and processes, we weren’t permitted to photograph these first facilities, though we did manage to snap away at two other stations — a platform that shifted up and down at adjustable speeds to test the Lumia 920’s optical image stabilization, and a machine that drops smartphones against a block of concrete, used to simulate that all-too-frequent occurrence of handsets plunging towards pavement.

We’ve seen plenty examples of the 920’s OIS capabilities this week, so we won’t go into much more detail on that front, but specialized (and pricey) equipment enables engineers to introduce consistent processes — this machine simulated hand shake at different speeds, and even with exaggerated movement, the benefits were clear. A separate building contained the drop test contraption, which releases devices from an adjustable height, letting them land directly on a block of polished concrete. We tested both the 808 PureView and a Samsung Galaxy S III in this manner (with roughly 100 Lumia prototypes currently available, Nokia wasn’t quite willing to risk sending one to its death). Both smartphones remained in perfect working order following the drop, so it’s likely that they’ll be able to handle a similar fall during regular use as well (company reps offered to test our iPhone 5, but we declined handing it over). That wraps up our week at Nokia’s facilities in Finland — there will be plenty more to explore once we have a Lumia sample in hand, but you’ll find the OIS test and concrete plunge videos ready right now, posted just after the break.

Continue reading From the lab: Lumia 920 image stabilization and 808 drop test at Nokia R&D (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Mobile

From the lab: Lumia 920 image stabilization and 808 drop test at Nokia R&D (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 17:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Samsung‘s flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III will officially be making its way to MetroPCS starting in October. Of course, the S III has been around for a few months already on a number of carriers, but if you’ve been interested in picking one up at a smaller regional carrier, now is the time to do so.

The Galaxy S III will be the most powerful smartphone that MetroPCS has ever offered. The device comes with a 4.8-inch SuperAMOLED 720p display and runs off of a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor clocked at 1.5GHz. It also packs 2GB of RAM and an 8MP rear camera capable of shooting 720p video.

It also has all the amenities anyone could ask for, like Wi-Fi, 4G capabilities, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, and a barometer. If you’ve never played around with a Galaxy S III before, we recommend giving our full review a look-over and even watching our hands-on video below.

You can also check out our many hands-on sessions with different versions of the Galaxy S III, including AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s versions, as well as Verizon’s version that comes packing with 4G LTE. Samsung also just recently started rolling out Jelly Bean to the Galaxy S III, which will certainly be a nice addition to a phone that’s already pretty great. We ended up getting a hands-on on with a Jelly Bean version as well.

The exact date that the Galaxy S III will be available at MetroPCS is unknown, but we’re sure we’ll hear more about it soon, since the first of the month is just right around the corner and anxious minds will certainly want to know when they start to use this bad boy on a cheaper carrier. To celebrate, MetroPCS is hosting a giveaway where participants will have a shot at winning a free Galaxy S III.

[via Unwired View]

Samsung Galaxy S III coming to MetroPCS is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you were worried about stumbling onto a malicious website and accidentally wiping your Samsung Galaxy S III or other TouchWiz smartphone or slate, you can probably breathe easy. It’s likely you already have firmware on your device which isn’t vulnerable to the so-called dirty USSD code, and if not, you can download it now, according to Samsung. The company issued the following statement on the matter: “We would like to assure our customers that the recent security issue concerning the Galaxy S III has already been resolved through a software update. We recommend all Galaxy S III customers download the latest software update, which can be done quickly and easily via the Over-The-Air (OTA) service.” It turns out we couldn’t reproduce the bug earlier as we already had the latest update, and you should probably check to see that you do, as well. Meanwhile, we’re also checking to see if other Touchwiz devices have been patched, so don’t forget to watch what you click.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software, Mobile

Samsung has already patched ‘dirty USSD’ vulnerability for Galaxy S III originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 05:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

The Factory Reset. One of those last ditch efforts that many of us have a fair bit of experience with. However, a malicious embed code could potentially do the exact same thing to your Galaxy S III. The Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code (which we won’t reproduce here) apparently only works on Samsung phones running Touchwiz, and only if you are directed to the dodgy destination while inside the stock browser (rather than Chrome, for example). This means the Galaxy Nexus is unaffected, but it can work the same dark magic on the likes of the Galaxy S II.

We’ve been trying to murder a GS III here at Engadget, but with no luck as yet — we can cause the malicious digits to appear in the dialer, but we can’t force the stock browser to visit them as a URL, even when trying a bit of URL forwarding and QR code trickery. However, this particular GS III has been rooted in the past, even though it’s now running an official TouchWiz ROM, and that may be interfering with the process.

Aside from our own experiences, the evidence for the vulnerability is certainly strong. It was demonstrated at the Ekoparty security conference last weekend, during which time presenter Ravi Borgaonkar also showed how a different code could even wipe your SIM card. See the video after the break for the evidence.

Continue reading ‘Dirty USSD’ code could automatically wipe your Samsung TouchWiz device

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software, Mobile

‘Dirty USSD’ code could automatically wipe your Samsung TouchWiz device originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Sep 2012 08:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Tom Scott (Twitter)  |  Alejandrospamloco (YouTube), Ekoparty security conference  | Email this | Comments

The iPhone 5 has been the most anticipated mobile device of 2012 together with its cousin the iPad Mini, which we expect to be seeing shortly. Apple has made displays their most prominent marketing feature because it determines the quality of the visual experience for everything on a smartphone or tablet—including apps, web content, photos, videos, and its camera. The retina displays on the iPhone 4 and the new iPad were significant advancements—not just in sharpness but in picture quality and color accuracy, which is what provides the display’s real wow factor. More »