Hasta La Gadget!

The latest ComScore results from the last quarter are in, and the US mobile device wars were hotter than ever as 13% more people reported owning a smartphone. Google conquered most users’ territory with Android climbing just over five percent (now totaling 36.4%) and still claiming first for mobile software platforms. Apple’s iOS destroyer took second place (at 26%) partially due to RIM’s S.S. BlackBerry OS sinking about five percent (now 25.7%) to claim third, while Microsoft and HP / Palm rounded out the bunch struggling to stay in the fight with even lower single-digit scores. In the OEM region Samsung claimed first yet again (although slightly dropping to 24.5%), with LG and Motorola landing in second and third respectively, each keeping its place from the prior quarter. In the last two slots, Apple again bested RIM whose devices barely dropped half of a percent, but enough to let the slight growth of iDevices snatch up 4th. The source link below is waiting to be clicked if you want the full battle statistics.

ComScore: Android grows larger than ever among US subscribers, Apple belittles RIM originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re still waiting for some completely official word on the matter, but it looks like a Sprint exec has let slip the carrier’s launch details for the BlackBerry PlayBook. While the post has since been removed, Sprint Marketing Director Gerald Evans revealed on his personal blog earlier today that the WiFi-only, 16GB version of the tablet will be hitting Sprint stores on Sunday, June 5th for the usual $499.99. Unfortunately, there was no mention of the carrier’s 4G version which, last we heard, was still on track for a summer release.

Update: And RIM’s just made it official, also confirming that Sprint will support BlackBerry Bridge with no additional data charges. As for that 4G PlayBook, RIM is just saying that it and Sprint are still “working together” on it. Head on past the break for the full press release.

Continue reading BlackBerry PlayBook headed to Sprint on June 5th for $500

BlackBerry PlayBook headed to Sprint on June 5th for $500 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jun 2011 13:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry 7 OS is coming soon but, to take advantage of all those fancy features like NFC and the digital compass (ok, some of them aren’t that fancy), devs are going to need some new APIs — enter the BlackBerry 7 Java SDK. Creators of BlackBerry apps can go download the beta of the new software development kit at the source link and start whipping up augmented reality browsers and 3D games, thanks to support for OpenGL ES 2.0. There’s nothing mind-blowing about RIM’s latest update, but we’re glad to see the corporate stalwart start to catch up to other smartphone OSes, and it’s only a matter of time before Layar and Quake hit the BlackBerry Bold 9900.

BlackBerry 7 gets an SDK, NFC, AR, other acronyms originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 10:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, we’ve been waiting for a PlayBook packing something more than WiFi to rear its enterprise-friendly head, and there it is — sort of. Search Google for “Sprint PlayBook” and the number one (non-sponsored) result is a page “introducing the BlackBerry 4G Playbook tablet,” which means the companies are right about on schedule for that promised summer release. Clicking on the link just redirects you to the Sprint homepage for now and, sadly, price and exact ship date are still anyone’s guess. There’s enough detail in the search snippet to tell us that this is legit and and an announcement page is ready to go, though — so, WiMAX fans, we hope you like QNX.

[Thanks, Josh]

WiMAX PlayBook 4G announcement betrayed by Google search? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 May 2011 10:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A proper passcode will make your iOS device much harder to hack

If you trust Russian security company Elcomsoft with your credit card details, you can buy a piece of software which will let you crack the encryption on an iOS device and gain access to the juicy information contain within.

The €79 software is called Elcomsoft Phone Password Breaker, and works with both iOS and blackberry devices. What it does is to crack open the iPhone backup you have on your computer and then harvest SMS data, call logs, you address book, photos, e-mail settings, browsing history and web cache, and more.

What’s more, there’s a pro edition available only to law enforcement agencies (€199) which will allow hackers (sorry. “researchers”) to make a complete dump of the iPhone’s data and from there access passwords and encryption keys.

Don’t worry too much, though. If you leave your phone in a cab, this won’t affect you. Hackers will need both a copy of your encrypted backup and physical access to your phone. The phone is needed for some essential information such as the device’s UDID number.

Once this information has been gathered together, the app goes to work, using your computer’s GPU to make its brute-force attack on your password a lot faster. As most people use only a 4-digit passcode to lock their phone, there aren’t to many combinations to try anyway.

And if you don’t encrypt your backups, or you don’t have a passcode on your phone, you’re pretty much screwed anyway.

Given the amount of sensitive information on a smartphone, it’s worth making sure you’re covered. I keep my backups unencrypted, as I figure that if someone has gotten access to my computer I have bigger things to worry about. But I do have a proper, long password on my iPad. You can do this in the Setting app. Go to General > Passcode Lock and switch “Simple Passcode” off. Also make sure that “Require Password” is on.

Now, you can enter a password with the full range of letters, numbers and symbols on the QWERTY keyboard. Sure, it may take a few seconds longer to unlock your phone, but it’s worth it.

Elcomsoft Phone Password Breaker [Elcomsoft via Ars Technica]

See Also:

• Apple Closes JailbreakMe Security Hole
• iPhone Tracks Your Every Move, and There's a Map for That
• Anonymous IDs on iPhones, iPads Can Reveal Your Identity