Hasta La Gadget!

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 (UK-based) 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.

Update: Tweakers.net has been able to replicate the security hole on a Galaxy S Advance, while The Verge has confirmed that it works on both the Galaxy S II and the AT&T Galaxy S III. Samsung has told us it’s looking into the issue.

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

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software, Mobile

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

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Okay, it’s not the nicest phone we’ve handled this week (heck, it’s not even the best mid-range phone), but you wouldn’t be reading this site if you didn’t enjoy gawking at new devices, right? Right. So, with that in mind, we offer you the Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE. It went on sale at Sprint last weekend, priced at $100 after a $50 mail-in rebate, but we only just got some hands-on time at a press event happening tonight.

On paper and in person, it’s a forgettable sort of handset: it has a 4-inch (800 x 480) display, 5- and 1.3-megapixel cameras, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of built-in storage and a middling dual-core Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 Lite processor, clocked at 1.2GHz. And, at 12.7mm thick, it’s one of the chunkiest phones we’ve handled in some time. Still, it redeems itself somewhat with the promise of LTE service — once Sprint gets some momentum behind its new 4G network, that is. It also comes with Google Wallet, as well as some features found on the Galaxy S III — things like S Beam and AllShare Play. Curious enough to peek but not compelled enough to buy? You’ve come to the right place. Check out our hands-on photos below and meet us after the break for some quickie impressions.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Victory hands-on: a $100 handset on Sprint with LTE and Android 4.0

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Samsung Galaxy Victory hands-on: a $100 handset on Sprint with LTE and Android 4.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 19:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) puts it into perspective right away: “Eight billion years ago, rays of light from distant galaxies began their long journey to Earth.” It’s important to hold that fact in mind, as we marvel at the first images from deep in the belly of our universe to arrive from the Chile-based Dark Energy Camera (DECam). As that name might suggest, peering at remote galaxies for purely visual gratification isn’t the camera’s primary purpose. The result of eight years of planning and hard work, involving engineers and scientists from three continents, the DECam is mounted on the Victor M. Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Sitting atop a 7,200-foot mountain, the camera is part of the Dark Energy Survey, which intends to gather information on over 300 million galaxies. The goal is to better understand dark energy — a concept that represents our best explanation for why the universe’s rate of expansion is speeding up, rather than slowing due to gravity. Gaze past the break for the background on the project.

Continue reading DECam: Gazing deep into the final frontier in search of dark energy

Filed under: Science, Alt

DECam: Gazing deep into the final frontier in search of dark energy originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 13:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We doubt this will significantly dampen rumors of a Samsung Galaxy S IV announcement in March of next year, but any optimists who were expecting an official confirmation six months in advance won’t be getting one. Our grasp of Korean isn’t the best, but here’s a tweet from the company’s official Korean account indicating rumors of a Galaxy S successor simply aren’t true. Of course, with the kinds of sales the line has seen to date it seems like a reasonable assumption that Samsung will keep cranking them out as long as the courts will let it for the foreseeable future, so it’s certainly more a question of when, than if. Throw in the fact that the original Galaxy S was announced in March, the Galaxy S II in February, and the Galaxy S III in May — and the when narrows down appreciably.

Continue reading Samsung: Galaxy S IV March 2013 rumors are not true

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Samsung: Galaxy S IV March 2013 rumors are not true originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Sep 2012 03:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s new full-fat smartphone has hinted at appearances on both Verizon and AT&T, and now an update spotted at SAM Mobile suggests that — just under two months since the original appeared — there will be a Magenta-branded version of the Galaxy Note II… too. Going under the SGH-T889 model number, firmware from September 15th is now available to try — if you have a phone that’s not yet out on any official channels. The site’s sources have said that the device runs closer to a global iteration, lacking any true LTE capabilities, but it’s more than happy to substitute that for HSPA+ support. If you’re part of Samsung’s secretive cabal of handset testers you can seek out the new build at the source below.

T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note II firmware update appears, points to Jelly Bean and HSPA+ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 03:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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