Hasta La Gadget!

Yesterday Yahoo! suffered a major security breach as it saw over 400,000 passwords leak out. The group responsible for the hack claimed it was to expose the shoddy security methods employed by the company, and wasn’t intended as a malicious attack. It looks like Yahoo! wasn’t the only victim, as several other companies have had their databases exposed and pasted onto the internet due to similar security lapses.

ZDNet reports that Phandroid suffered from a hack on its Android Forums, which exposed usernames, email addresses, and hashed passwords. Its not known how many users have been affected by the hack, although the forum has over a million registered users. The administrators of the site say the exploit has been found and fixed, with the hack most likely an attempt to harvest email addresses.

Last night, Billabong and NVIDIA also suffered from hacks. Around 35,000 plaintext passwords are said to have been extracted from Billabong’s database, but only 1,435 were located in a CodePaste.net post. Like the Yahoo! hack, it looks like the hackers took advantage of a MySQL injection exploit to get at the data.

NVIDIA also shut down its Developer Zone last night after in response to a hacking attack on the website. In a statement, NVIDIA says that it shut down the site “in response to attacks on the site by unauthorized third parties who may have gained access to hashed passwords.” There’s no word on how many passwords were taken as a result of the hack, but unlike Billabong, all of the passwords are hashed.

[via The Next Web]

Billabong, NVIDIA, and Android Forums all affected by hacks is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week the meteoric rise of Kickstarter-started Android device Ouya has been the subject of some massive amounts of attention – today the doubts begin. It’s Craig Rothwell, part of the team that created the ill-fated open-source handheld gaming device Pandora. His trip down terror lane with the development and production of both the software and the hardware for said device have allowed him to lend some knowledge today to Pocket Gamer on how hard the team behind Ouya are about to have it, $4 million dollars in funding or not.

Speaking up on how the Ouya team expects to be able to present a $99 Android-based gaming device with a quality wireless controller and an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor inside, Rothwell made it clear that it’s more than likely a pipe dream. “Even a Chinese semi-slave production line won’t hit $99 at that spec, as the big name parts they are talking about are a set cost.” He continued by noting that by his calculations, the Ouya team may have to bite the bullet:

“My feelings are that at that price – and remember you have to take off the Kickstarter fees, which brings the console and touchpad-equipped controller in at less than $99 – they will be making a loss on each unit sold.” – Rothwell

In addition, Rothwell warns of a possible DOA situation with developers, a situation which he, his team, and quite a few other hardware manufacturers know all too well:

“What they are doing with regards to developer fees is also nothing new; they want to charge developers 30% to release a game on their console. What’s the point in doing all that work for their comparatively tiny audience when you can get a better deal releasing on iOS or ‘normal’ Android via Google’s popular Play Store? You might as well get a HDMI cable and an iControlpad and use your super-powered Android Tablet on the TV. You can do that right now, without the need for the Ouya.” – Rothwell

Check out the rest of the Ouya news in the timeline below and feel free to head to their Kickstarter page to drop a few bucks on a possible future unit now – but beware! Nothing is certain until it’s certain!

Ouya hits $4m while Pandora device creator pans the idea is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The gaming public at large has spoken. In less than 12 hours, Yves Behar’s Android-based Ouya gaming console has reached its lofty funding goal of $950,000 on Kickstarter. To refresh your memory, the $99 system (which was only $95 for 1,000 swift early adopters) packs a Tegra 3 CPU, 8GB of storage, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, a USB 2.0 port and an SD card slot — that price also grants you a single controller with a touch sensor. Most notably, the system is aimed at being extremely developer-friendly, having open hardware and software with a push for free-to-play content. There are only about 5,000 units (out of 10,000) (update: that number has been bumped to 20,000, with just under 10k available) left at the $99 price, so feel free to check out our in-depth chat about Ouya with Behar himself here before you head over to Kickstarter. It appears that the traditional business model for gaming consoles just got rocked, and we can’t wait to see the final results.

Update: If you thought that was fast, you’d be right: Kickstarter has confirmed that Ouya achieved the biggest first day ever for one of its hosted projects, and it’s just the eighth project ever to crack the million-dollar mark, joining an esteemed company that includes Double Fine’s upcoming adventure game and the all-time champion, the Pebble smartwatch.

Ouya’s $99 Android-based gaming console meets Kickstarter goal: $950k in under 12 hours (update: it’s a record) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A handful of details briefly slipped out about the project earlier, but now it’s here: the Ouya, an attempt not just to delve into the cutthroat world of TV game consoles but to try and shift the goal posts. At its heart, the design sounds more like a smartphone than a gaming rig with a quad-core Tegra 3 and 8GB of storage running Android 4.0. The upscale, RF wireless gamepad’s standout is a built-in trackpad for playing mobile games alongside the familiar sticks and buttons — clever, though not entirely new. But with completely open hardware and software, an emphasis on free-to-play gaming and an all-important $99 price, the system is a gamble by a handful of game industry luminaries that at least a subset of players are frustrated with the status quo enough to want a real break. Read on for the full details, including a Kickstarter project as well as added details from our chat with Ouya (and Jambox) designer Yves Behar.

Continue reading Ouya’s Android-based, hackable game console now official: we chat with designer Yves Behar

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

Ouya’s Android-based, hackable game console now official: we chat with designer Yves Behar originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 07:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Before the Nexus 7 was official announced, NVIDIA hinted that low cost tablets featuring its quad-core Tegra processor were on the horizon thanks to its “Kai” strategy. That would pair the silicon with low-cost internals to drive down the price to an affordable $199. Could the same strategy be applied to smartphones? MyDrivers seems to think so, with the site saying NVIDIA is working with a Chinese OEM to bring a low-cost smartphone with Tegra 3 to the market.

They don’t say which market, however, although we doubt NVIDIA would restrict such a move to just China. The site goes on to say that it could be a ploy to help accelerate its LTE plans in the wake of handsets featuring Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 and integrated LTE modem. As for the manufacturer, candidates could include ZTE or Huawei.

ZTE announced a handful of new phones at MWC 2012, with the ZTE Era among them. That was a 4.3-inch handset with a qHD resolution and NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processor. The company said the phone was due to be released in the third quarter of this year, but we haven’t heard anything about the phone since its MWC unveil. When you take that information into account, it’s not hard to imagine ZTE working with NVIDIA on Kai to bring a low-cost quad-core smartphone to market.

[via Unwired View]

NVIDIA reportedly bringing Kai strategy to phones is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.