Google Docs for Android: An early review!!

Since Google's native app for Docs on Android came out last Wednesday, I've been giving it a test drive. Google Docs works well enough in the mobile browser, and many apps have already come out trying to provide sync and edit functions. However, nothing integrates as nicely as a native app direct from the service provider.

When you first start the Google Docs app, you are greeted with a clean, uncluttered home screen with shortcuts to all your items, collections, starred documents, and other helpful things. Text documents, spreadsheets, and PDFs all open quickly and render nicely.

There is also a home screen widget or quick access to starred documents and quick creation of new documents or photos, which Google will run through optical character recognition (OCR) to turn a photo of a document into editable text. And the native app makes sharing a document with your contacts easy.

Now for the hard part: editing documents. The native Google app is great for viewing documents, but for editing, you'll be sent to the browser. The app opens the mobile version of Google Docs first, but you will have the option to switch to the desktop version--which just means you see the site as if you were on a regular PC. With the mobile version, there's no way to close the onscreen keyboard when using a Bluetooth keyboard, even though many other apps seem to be fine with that arrangement. If you close the onscreen keyboard, you lose the cursor, and no text is inserted. The arrow keys also won't move you around the text in the Document, but bounce between page elements instead. This would work for shorter text entry or quick edits, but I didn't last more than a paragraph trying to actually create a new document that way.

So, I moved over to try Google Docs in the mobile browser. The page renders nicely in the browser, but sadly does not function as well as it would on a desktop computer. As with most full versions of Google Apps on a smartphone browser, scrolling does not work quite right. The document renders beautifully, but you can't scroll through it. The arrow keys simply move you around page elements rather than moving the cursor through the text in the document. That means that once your document reaches beyond the bottom of the screen, you can't get to it. Text entry also lagged way behind my typing in the full desktop version.

I turned to Evernote to create a text document mainly because it played nicely with the keyboard, allowing me to close the onscreen keyboard and instead type and navigate my text with the Bluetooth keyboard. I also like the easy syncing of Evernote with my other computers, as well as easy sharing of notes via e-mail.

There are a few alternative Google Docs viewers. MyDocs--in a beta, testing version for now--offers another simple and clean interface for Google Docs, but will still send you to the browser for editing. GDocs has simple editing baked in, but still won't let me minimize the onscreen keyboard when I'm using the Bluetooth keyboard. This app will also allow download of documents for offline viewing or editing.

If you need a more full-featured office suite with stronger document-creation options, check out ThinkFree Office Mobile, Docs To Go, Office Suite Pro, or Quick Office Pro. If you have one of those fancy, bigger-screened, Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets, you'll want the HD version of Quick Office. For those who prefer open source office software, Open Office Reader can view, but not edit, .odt and .ods files. When not even that is enough, and you simply need access to the whole shebang, LogMeIn Ignition will get you back to your desktop.

The Google Docs app is a clean and simple way to browse and do minor edits to your Google documents, but not quite compelling enough for me to run out and grab an Asus Transformer for writing. Perhaps the most intriguing feature of the Android app--and the one I will definitely be testing more--is the photo document creation with OCR. For quick reference and reading of Google Docs, this is a great addition to my Android smartphone.

Android Honeycomb shows off its graphics capability!!!

Google officially unveiled Android 3.0 Honeycomb, demoing it on the Motorola Xoom which was introduced at CES 2011 last month, in an event today. The demonstration video showed a handful of features that Honeycomb OS offers like the Notification System, Application Optimization and a new built-in Render Script for hardware accelerated 3D graphics.

Here are some of Honeycomb features that came trhought the presentation:

1. Notification System

The Honeycomb GUI has been optimized for tablets and it has buttons for Home, Back and Multitasking on the lower left while the lower right has notifications and clock. The new multitasking button will show visual preview of the recently used applications and the states that they are currently in. The Notification system has been redesigned for better user experience.

The rest of the screen is entirely dedicated to applications and Google said the Home screen is not just a screen where icons can be arranged but also a developer platfrom in itself. Google also showcased different widgets for Gmail, calendar, Grid for bookmarks, Stack for news or e-books etc. One intuitive feature about is the multitouch support which enables users to scroll through more than one widget at a time (much awaited feature).

2. Application Optimization

Google said that it wants to encourage developers to build tablet optimized applications/games, so it introduced what it called Application Fragment. The Fragment will allow a static frame for the app that can be used throughout the app while the other pane can be dynamic. In the video, Google demonstrated how the Application Fragment works using the Honeycomb/tablet version of Gmail. The feature also offers drag and drop in the Gmail application and the top has an application bar which is context-sensitive based.

3. Render Script Graphic Engine

Using the Script Graphic Engine, Honeycomb is able to show fluid and smooth 3D transitions in the web or applications. The Script also enables various 3D animations and graphics for the Honeycomb OS which will be running on various devices. Google also said that it had worked hard enough to make sure that the OS will get optimized 3D for different tablet devices running on multi-core processors.

Planing for a trip to any foreign country??? Here is your translator!!!

If you've ever wandered around a foreign country completely confused by what all of the signs are actually saying, Quest Visual has the answer with its augmented reality Word Lens App for iPhone. Simply point the camera at the text you want translated and the foreign language is replaced instantly on-screen with something you can read.

While translation software has been available before, seeing the converted text in-situ without any pop-ups is both neater and quicker. The speed of translation requires a small amount of text and Word Lens was not designed to read books. Decent light and clear text are also required for the best results, with Quest Visual telling people to "brighten the text with your phone light".

Currently the app is only available for the iPhone on the App Store for free, but you have to pay $4.99 in-app for translation packs. Currently there are only two packs available, Spanish to English and English to Spanish; however Quest Visual has big plans for the software.

"We're starting out with European languages and will expand from there. We won't stop until we get all the way across the globe!" said the official website.

More European languages should be added soon and all will be available to buy in-app, with the rest of the world following after that.

What of other handset users? Quest Visual has big plans on this front too, hinting that apps are on the way for Android, Windows Phone 7, Palm and Blackberry.

"Our goal was to get a great first release on one platform. Keep in touch!" said the website.

Facebook App for Android – Version 1.4 Available

Recently, Android got a new facebook application update (version 1.4). Facebook, being the largest online social networking site, has released a major update for its Android application. The introduction of this new application has helped bring the places and groups together over an optimum utilization of space.

The groups can now share posts within a small group. You need not publish your post with all your friends. It can be done with a small group of friends now. You can even share your place with your group of friends. For example, you can let them know where you are and even have knowledge of where your friends are. Not only that, you can even discover and locate the places nearby.

Additionally, within the application, you can view your recent notifications in your profile. Hence, it creates no disturbance while using your facebook account. The new improved notification system lets you view the comments and posts published on your wall without any havoc. The new update has also fixed up a few bugs for the facebook users.

The new android facebook app update is now available to download and can be downloaded off your android device for free. Simply go to all programs, choose the market icon, click on search, type “facebook”, and simply download and install the application on your Android based phone.

Google Instant For Android 2.2!!

The fact that Google is launching increasingly new services more often and most of them are implemented, at least initially, only in the United States is not a surprise to anyone with the new Google Instant situation is a bit different. Yesterday on the Google Blog announced new optimization search service, already available on desktop or portable systems in the U.S., and portables with the latest version of Android.

Instant Google can be summed up very simply, anything you write on Google generates instant results, there is no need to press the classic search button. But the great advantage is that with each letter you write besides Google suggests search terms in real time, beginning to show results and also in real time.

In your Android phone, for example, simply go to www.google.com then, turn in the bottom of the Google.com the English version. Normally, when you are on this version of the page no longer localized results are given priority, but it can solve this problem. Click on the Locate Me.

Given that the results are displayed in real time consumes more of your Internet traffic at any point you can enable or disable Instant Google, which is currently in testing period (Beta).

In any case the feeling is great, you should not give two or three searches to get the result you are interested in the problem often is that you missed a letter or you must put a word. Everything is resolved in a single website.

BlindType to Power Android!

BlindType was missed by us until now but this is an amazing technology that Google has acquired. Before its acquisition BlindType was expected to be on iPhone and other platforms aswell but now its safe to assume that this patent pending tech will be exclusive to Android.

BlindType predicts what the user wanted to input without any relevance of the keys that were typed. As the name suggests it promoted BLIND typing. This is made possible by mapping the gestures or pattern in which the typing was done (wrt QWERTY layout) and not where the keys are placed.The claims are such that a user might not need to have a keyboard visible at all to type using Blind Type. Just typing on the interface directly would be enough, this sounds crazy! Below is a demo video of BlindType in action. Blind Type goes against the Apple iOS auto correction that is pretty popular and the SWYPE keyboard that we have seen on Android and other platforms. However all of these require user to concentrate on the screen and requires some precision wrt to the pressing of keys. BlindType makes typing completely independent of the keyboard.

Double Authentication to Boost Security!!!

Google is making it harder for Gmail and other Google Apps accounts to get compromised by adding an optional feature that will send a security code to your smartphone for logging in.

The two-step verification feature will be available to Google Apps premier, education, and government customers on Monday, and to the hundreds of millions of individual Google users in coming months, as a built-in part of the free service, a Google product manager told.

Until now, Google accounts have been protected only with passwords, which are susceptible to phishing and other social-engineering attacks.

The two-step verification feature will put an additional roadblock in the way of online criminals by generating a onetime six-digit code that will be sent to the account holder in order to be able to successfully log in. The code will be sent after the password is provided.

This type of two-factor authentication--something you know (password) and something you have (smartphone with code)--is similar to smart cards and tokens, except that the code is accessed on a piece of hardware you most likely already carry.

Google users will sign up for the service through the Settings page and will be able to specify whether they want to get the security code sent to them via text message or automated voice call, or through a Google Authenticator app they can download to their Android device, BlackBerry, or iPhone. The code is randomly generated and changes every few minutes.

Many people might find it inconvenient to have to check their phone and type in an additional code every time they want to check their Gmail. To solve this problem, Google has made it so that people using the same computer to access their accounts can check a box to "remember verification for this computer" so that they won't be asked for a code on that computer for a month.

And for those who are happy with their one-factor password security, they don't have to opt in to this new feature. Google Apps enterprise administrators will be able to turn the feature on for any user in the organization.

The impetus for the feature came about a year and a half ago, when Google engineers asked themselves, "what's the single thing we can do to improve the security for our users the most?," said Travis McCoy, a security product manager at Google.

Google is open-sourcing the software so companies can do customization and port the app to other platforms. Google also is using an open standard to generate the codes so "vendors can offer a token that will work with Google Apps," McCoy said.

Alert! Adobe Flash Player 10.1.82.76 Got Loophole in It!

Adobe has disclosed a newly-discovered vulnerability in current versions of the Flash Player and says there are reports that it is being exploited in the wild.

According to Adobe, a critical vulnerability exists in Adobe Flash Player 10.1.92.10 for Android. This vulnerability also affects Adobe Reader 9.3.4 for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX, and Adobe Acrobat 9.3.4 and earlier versions for Windows and Macintosh. This vulnerability could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild against Adobe Flash Player on Windows. Adobe is not aware of any attacks exploiting this vulnerability against Adobe Reader or Acrobat to date. 

Adobe is in the process of finalizing a fix for the issue and expect to provide an update for Adobe Flash Player Android operating systems during the week of September 27, 2010. 

While Adobe cautions owners to “follow security best practices by keeping their anti-malware software and definitions up to date”, this advice leaves Android owners in the lurch as there are no best practices or virus definition updates for this mobile OS. There are several security apps available for Android including Norton Mobile Security, droidSecurity, and Lookout, but Google’s mobile OS is a relatively young and untested platform for security applications. We really have no idea how quickly and effectively these applications will respond to a circulating threat.

Android: New Flash Player 10.1.92.10 is Available!

Do your Android phones support Flash Player? If not, Flash 10.1 has been updated to version 10.1.92.10 and is available in the market now. We can not find a changelog available, but you’ve got to figure it’s some simple bug fixes adding to stability.

You will not be asked to update, but you instead have to manually search for the application. After giving the “Install” the previous version should be replaced.

More information to follow, once it is available...

Android Gets Google Voice Widgets!!

Google on Thursday added a standalone Google Voice widget to the home screen on Android phones.

The addition is part of the new Google Voice app, which is available now in the Android Market. It includes two widgets: one for the Google Voice Inbox; and another for Settings.

"Mobile is all about getting super fast access to what you're looking for and Google Voice is no exception," Google wrote in a blog post.

The Google Voice Inbox widget brings voicemails and text messages to the home screen. Flip through messages via the widget, and selected messages will open in the Google Voice app.

The Settings widget, meanwhile, includes four icons that provide access to several features. The phone icon will provide access to the full Google Voice app. The pen and paper icon will let you quickly compose and send free text messages. The smaller phone logo lets you change what calls are placed via Google Voice on the fly. Finally, the red and white stop icon is a "Do Not Disturb" option that will send all Google Voice calls directly to voicemail.

The Settings widget also displays Google Voice credits.

To add the widgets to a home screen panel, press the menu button from the home screen and select "Add>Widgets>Google Voice Inbox or Google Voice Settings." You will need a valid Google Voice account to access them, and they are available free online.

Earlier this week, Google added a "missed calls" notification to Google Voice that will alert users of a missed call via the Google Voice inbox, e-mail inbox, or both. Last month, Google made a form of Google Voice available via its Gmail service, which lets users "chat" within the Gmail interface via free phone calls.

Google Music could be a boon for Android!

The world of Android music is about to get flipped upside down!!

We've been hearing about Google's plans to launch a cloud-based music service for some time now -- heck, Google itself gave us a peek at the plans during its I/O conference in May. (The news was largely overshadowed by word of the Android 2.2 upgrade, which was announced at the same event.) If the latest rumors prove true, the Android-centric song system could debut within the next few months.

If you happen to be a competing executive who owns way too many turtlenecks, this is probably cause for concern.

So what would Google Music do for Android? A lot. Let's face it: For all of Android's strengths, a simple and user-friendly music management system has always been something that's evaded the platform.

The freedom from being tied to a proprietary tool is fantastic, especially when that tool is a bloated and locked-down piece of junk (iTunes). The ability to drag and drop files onto your phone like a flash drive is invaluable, too. But if you want an easy way to manage playlists and sync music, your options are rather limited. DoubleTwist gets the job done, but it isn't exactly the most elegant or full-featured solution. And if you're new to Android, it can be tough to figure out where to begin.

Google Music could change all of that. First, the service will introduce a more intuitive way of buying music: From what the Android team has described, Google Music will be integrated right into the Android Market. You'll click on songs on your PC, and within seconds, they'll be sent to your phone over-the-air. This purchasing system will likely also be available in some form through regular Google Web searches.

Purchasing aside, the upcoming Android music service will allow you to stream songs from your PC directly to your phone -- no downloads required. Thanks to Google's acquisition of a company called Simplify Media, you'll be able to access your entire music library without having to store a single MP3 file on your device.

Those two features combined will give Android a powerful new edge in the realm of mobile music. If Google is smart, it'll build functions for importing existing music and managing playlists into these tools as well. All put together, it could mark the beginning of a robust and intuitive music management system for Android.

Of course, none of this would prevent you from using a third-party alternative or copying music to your phone manually -- hey, we aren't talking about Apple here. But for users who want a simple, one-stop solution, it'd offer a hassle- and confusion-free way of getting everything accomplished. And you've gotta admit, the cloud-based downloading and streaming sound pretty damn cool.

Android has undoubtedly been a work in progress. Since the launch of that first Android phone nearly two years ago, the platform has grown in leaps and bounds, filling in the gaps and adding in more power and flexibility with each passing turn.

The Latest Android Hacks: Jailbreaking A PS3 With A Nexus One!

If Sony’s PS3 gaming system took a step backward in functionality when Sony disabled its ability to install Linux, it’s just taken two steps forward again.

t4nav, a Senior Member of xda-developers has just discovered a method to hack the PS3 using a Nexus One or a Desire! All you have to do is:

"Download this 

http://www.mediafire.com/?cgst1aw26i26b60

and place it’s contents onto the root of your SD-card.

Then download my flashable boot.img 

http://cl.ly/83b21dd1818a791d857e 

Place that on the root of your card, Reboot into recovery and flash the PS3-signed.zip

Reboot your phone.

Launch terminal emulator…

Then type the following… 

Code: 

#cd sdcard 

#su 

#insmod psfreedom.ko 

Now turn your PS3 off at the wall, and plug in your phone. 

Turn the PS3 back on at the wall. 

Press the PS3 power button followed by the eject key in quick succession…"

"To get back to normal…

Download this… 

http://cl.ly/428e11e2b0c81369761e

Go into recovery… 

Enable USB-storage 

Copy .zip 

Flash .zip"

So far, it’s only been confirmed to work with the Nexus One and Desire, though we’re sure that with proper attention from the dev community, the hack could be ported over to other devices, such as the EVO 4G or Droid X. 

Source: Android Police

TVs Gonna Be Great With Android!

Samsung to equip its TVs with the hot trend Android, and compete with Sony Corp in offering television sets that surf the Web and double as computers. 

TV makers such as Samsung and Sony are looking to tap into the growing demand for Web-based programming and a slice of the $175 billion TV advertising market. The companies are betting on Google's Android operating system to compete with Apple Inc, which earlier this month released a $99 TV set-top box that delivers movie and TV show rentals from the Internet. 

Sony in May unveiled the prototype of a Bravia set that will deliver video and music over the Internet in partnership with Google. The TVs are expected in stores by Christmas. 

Apple TV will rent high-definition TV programs for 99 cents, first-run movies for $4.99 and will work with Netflix Inc's online service, Apple's Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said last week. To provide the TV rental service, Apple forged deals with Walt Disney Co's ABC and News Corp's Fox, Jobs said. 

Samsung Galaxy Tab Rooted Even Before Release!!

Samsung grabbed a fair bit of attention with the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy tablet and also entertained us with the tablet commercial. But rooting Android OS devices is something that strikes our attention all the time.

The folks at Sera-Apps, a German group of Android developers, have not only managed to get the Samsung Galaxy Tab a month before the device goes on sale, but they managed to root the device at IFA, the world’s largest consumer electronics show being held in Germany.

Whether the final version of the Galaxy Tab that’ll be released in the US can be rooted the same way as the trade show model remains to be seen. And how exactly Tim at Sera-Apps did the rooting isn’t exactly clear, but he did get a screen that shows he’s been granted superuser rights.

Now that Samsung Galaxy tablet has been rooted successfully, the absurd pricing for the device seems to be justified. But then, Samsung may patch up the loopholes before making the product publicly available in US and UK. In anyway, this is an encouraging sign for the Android enthusiasts and those who are looking forward to buy the Galaxy tablet.

Will this lead to Samsung’s locking down of release models of the Galaxy Tab? Or will Samsung let hackers do what they want with this tablet? Or will this pave the way for performance upgrades, improved keyboards, and more implementation of multitouch for the Galaxy Tab? Let us know your ideas in the comments!

Live Wallpaper Creation Tool for Android Phones!

With the use of mobile phones gone much beyond the average call answering and dialing, an extra touch of personalization sure doesn’t hurt!

OwnSkin thinks along similar lines and has released a new Live Wallpaper creation tool for phones running on the Android platform. The application is intended to be pre-school friendly.

When in a mood to customize mobile phones individually, this user generated tool offers a facile solution for wallpapers that are SkinLet filled. The latter is known to be an active component present in the live wallpaper and aids in personalization via animation, phone information and live data from the internet.

The makers believe the wallpapers proffered are among the slickest in the world. Nevertheless, they’re simple to use and cater efficiently to individual requirements. This tool should strike a chord with the digital community and social network enthusiasts alike. After all, innovative and entertaining mobile content doesn’t miff anyone.

Allowing seamless upload of photos for building SkinLet, users can look forward to animation, clock compass and battery details. This interactive wallpaper can also be shared with friends and it doesn’t involve download or installation of any complicated SDK either.

The free application can be downloaded from the Android market and the OwnSkin website.

Android is Gaining in The Mobile OS Market

The Android mobile Operating System is ruling the mobile web market in comparison to Apple's iOS-based devices. The latest mobile-web-browsing numbers from Quantcast show that Android continues to grab mobile share from the iPhone and RIM.

The device which got the third place had a mobile web consumption of 11 percent, while RIM was the last one who managed to exist in the list at the last spot with 10 percent. RIM and other devices have suffered serious losses but the web use on iOS devices has suffered the most due to Android's growth in the mobile web market. 

Now, obviously, when the percentage of one platform goes up, the percentage of another platform must go down. It turns out that Android is the ONLY platform whose mobile consumption percentage did NOT go down.

The August Statistics from the Quancast show that Apple has saved itself for the time being but Mobile web use of iOS devices (excluding iPad) dropped significantly remaining at 56 percent. While RIM and "other" devices dropped down to 9 percent and 10 percent respectively. Android is the only progressive mobile operating service to jump up 2 percent to reach 25 percent, its best achievement since November 2009.

Quancast is expected to reveal the August web consumption details next week. However last month's statistics show that Apple iPhone topped the chart with 36 percent. But the company's iPod line of devices was down to 20 percent. HTC an Android vendor for the first time appeared on the chart with 11 percent of total smartphone web consumption and Motorola was at 10 percent.

In addition to that, it appears a significant number of iPhone users have figured out how to make good decisions. This is great news for Android and Google. They are clearly poised for a win in the mobile industry. I don’t think it will be too long before we see feature-phones disappear entirely and the iPhone lose its rank as king of mobile devices.

Froyo Leaked Again!! This Time for Samsung Galaxy S!

The Samsung Galaxy is one of Samsung’s most popular handsets of all time. Not only is it running the great Android mobile OS from Google but it has recently been made known that Samsung has shipped over 1 million units in the United States.

Unfortunately, just like about every other device currently on the market the manufacturers have delayed the Android 2.2 roll out. While not giving an official confirmation as to what is causing the delay we can only assume that it has something to do with the TouchWiz UI that Samsung developed to lay over the Android platform.

Luckily, for those of you who have an international version of the phone, reports have surfaced today that say the official Android 2.2 update has leaked out. If, however, you have a Vibrant or Cpativate, you’re out of luck as this version is made specifically for the international versions, as I already mntioned.

A number of smartphones recently have had Android 2.2 builds leaked with all of them being Beta builds with a few things broken. You might want to take this in to consideration if deciding to test the leaked build.

It isn't clear when the official build will land, but we have head September as well as later this year. It all really depends on which Galaxy S model you have got and when your network gets it ready to be pushed out.

Of course, it’s expected that Samsung will roll out the update for the platform soon enough so for those who don’t like to break any rules... 

Fennec 2.0 Is Coming For Android Users From Mozilla!

Mozilla today released an alpha version of its mobile browser for smartphones running Google's Android operating system.

Fennec 2.0., which is considered to be the power of Firefox 4, has included integrated synchronization. Moreover, it is responsible for boosting performance by rendering processes as well as user interface.

Apart from that there is Electrolysis, due to which the browser interface is able to run in a separate process. With the help of this process Fennic can react faster to user input. The Electrolysis technology also is able to operate with add-ons.

This release includes Electrolysis, which allows the browser interface to run in a separate process from the one rendering Web content," said Parmenter in a post to the Mozilla blog today. "By doing this, Fennec is able to react much faster to user input while pages are loading or CPU intensive JavaScript is running.

Mozilla added its Firefox Sync service into Fennec 2.0., with the help of the service one can keep passwords, browser history, bookmarks, open tabs as well as other data.

Users of earlier editions could take advantage of Sync by means of add-on. In fact, it was the first time when it was decided to add Fennec.

It is possible to install Fennec 2.0 on many smartphones that are based on Google’s Android operating system.

Although Mozilla did not disclose a final release date for fennec 2.0, still it was noted that September 7 is a final deadline for Beta.

We've not had a proper chance to see how stable Firefox is on a mobile phone, but early indications show a surprisingly usable little web browser, though as yet little advantage over the one built in.

Froyo: Adobe Flash 10.1 Available in Android Market

Flash 10.1 is available in Android Market now!. If you're running a device with Android 2.2 Froyo and don't have Adobe Flash 10.1 Mobile yet, you can head to Android Market to download the latest Flash, which will give you access to most of the videos, games, and interactive Flash-based content on the Internet. 

Depending on your device and your operator, you may have already received Flash as part of the firmware OTA upgrade, like the EVO 4G, which was the first device in the U.S. to get updated to Android 2.2. 

In the case with Verizon Wireless with the original Droid, the OS update is now being pushed out for that device to get to Android 2.2, but the OTA firmware upgrade does not come with the Flash package built-in. Rather, the carrier is advising users to head over to Android Market to get Flash installed. 

If for whatever reason you don't want to install Flash from Android Market and you are running a supported device, then you can head over to Droid-Life to get the update. 

Android app licensing cracked in less than a month!!

There has been some concern about smartphone apps in recent weeks after a malware app worked its way into the Android store that sent premium-rate text messages to make money for criminals.  What’s more the BBC demonstrated a proof-of-concept Java app that seemed to be a simple game of noughts and crosses, but was copying contacts and emails in the background.

A spokesperson for Google told the BBC about the malware app…

“Google has a system in place that can revoke malicious applications and stop them running on handsets.  Our application permissions model protects against this type of threat.  When installing an application, users see a screen that explains clearly what information and system resources the application has permission to access, such as a user’s phone number or sending an SMS.  Users must explicitly approve this access in order to continue with the installation, and they may uninstall applications at any time.  The spokesperson said the firm advises users to “only install apps they trust”.

In response to developers’ complaints of unauthorized usage of their wares, Google has set up a licensing service, by which – via a set of libraries – an application can hit Google’s server, which stores sales records. Every time an app with this protection is launched, it checks with Google to be sure the copy is legit.

The new system was to replace the old copy protection method within few months, and were considered to be more secure and less problematic. 

Now, NeoWin is reporting that the new licensing scheme for Android apps has been cracked less than a month after coming on-line!!!

The “Licensing Service for Android applications” was supposed to provide developers a “secure mechanism to manage access to all Android Market paid applications.”  In theory, the new licensing system would verify against the Android Market licensing server, which would in turn verify the application against existing sales records. If no sales records were found, the application would show an error explaining that it was not properly licensed.

The man responsible for cracking the security has published a paper on his website in which he details how to reprogram a Java app, which is the language most Android apps are written in, to change its status from unlicensed to licensed.

He says…

I am very much against piracy, and very much pro-Google. I have spent more time researching copy protection for my applications than development of the applications themselves.  Our findings show that most (any?) apps can be easily patched and stripped of licensing protection, making them an easy target for off-Market, pirated distribution. By corollary, this means that sites dedicated to pirating apps can continue to do so, using a few automated scripts mixed with some smarts.

He also provides a video demonstrating his findings.  Google have not yet commented on the crack.