Tech News

Friday, 27 January 2012


Posted: 27 Jan 2012 03:33 PM PST
Ah yes, behold the long-awaited Verizon ZTE V66 tablet in all its glory. We already knew it was on its way as we saw it make a brief appearance last month, but we hadn't heard any further news about it until now. The V66 comes in at 7-inches and will carry Honeycomb 3.2 along with a handy custom lock screen among its noteworthy features. Furthermore, rumor has it this nice tablet could arrive around "February 2x", which means it will possibly arrive right in the middle of Mobile World Congress.
Naturally we expect Verizon to give the mysterious tablet a more formal name, though we have no indication of what it will be just yet. Keep it locked with Talk Android for further updates, especially as we approach MWC.
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 03:13 PM PST
We know Samsung is pushing its Exynos line of processors in its devices. That's a given. However, we all know Sammy has yet to really push the boundaries of its impressive chip. It's exactly why the brand is hard at work on its Exynos 5250 series of chips. According to Phandroid, Sammy is looking to take the ARM Cortex-A15-based processor and push it into 2GHz territory. You read that correctly folks, it is looking to have its chips at a whopping 2GHz. Moreover, rumor has it that while the chip will be insanely fast, it will suck less power than that the earlier chipsets. As it stands, the chips are currently in testing right now and we can expect to see them in devices by Q2 of this year.
Naturally you can't have a chip in the works without a device made for it. That's why Sammy is also rumored to be developing a special Galaxy Tab that will take full advantage of the Exynos 5250 series of chips. The tablet can support a resolution of up to 2560×1600, all in a WXQGA display of greater than 10-inches of course. Further details are scarce at the moment, but we expect to see something demoed or previewed at the upcoming MWC.
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 02:14 PM PST
Well if you are wanting a XYBOARD, the sequel to Motorola's first tablet the Xoom, but didn't want to give your hard earned dollar monthly to Verizon to own one, today is your lucky day. Motorola is releasing the wifi version of the Xoom 2… er… XYBOARD and it's available on their web site as you read this. You can purchase either the 10.1-inch or 8.2″-inch tablet in either 16GB or 32GB versions. The 8.2-inch 16GB model will run you $399 and the 10.1-inch starts at $499. So if you're wanting the "RAZR" of tablets (form factor) with the freedom of no carriers, head on over to the links below to check them out and while they don't have ICS just yet, they will be getting it down the road. Also if you haven't heard much on these tablets you can check out both the initial hands-on review and a full review of the XYBOARD 8.2. Enjoy!
10.1-Inch XYBOARD – Link
8.2-Inch XYBOARD – Link
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 11:59 AM PST
At the beginning of the week we told you about the leaked LG CX2, the successor to the LG Optimus 3D, and that it's believed to make an appearance at MWC in February. According to new reports, the new CX2 will soon sport the 3D Max market name, and will be dubbed the LG 3D MAX, or Optimus 3D Max.
For those who missed out on the leaked specs, the 3D Max is said to have a 1.2GHz dual-core processor (TI OMAP) and sport a glasses-free, 4.3-inch WVGA NOVA auto-stereoscopic display capable of improved 2D-3D conversion. The device will manage to stay at 10mm thin even though it packs dual 5MP cameras for shooting 3D pictures. The real question remains, will those cameras be able to shoot 3D 1080p videos? Among other goodies, you can expect DNLA and NFC capabilities as well.
Hopefully we will see the LG 3D Max at the end of February alongside the quad-core LG X3 flagship phone. My only concern with the 3D Max is that it's reportedly running Android Gingerbread. What gives?
source: GSM-Israel
via: Pocketnow
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 11:08 AM PST
We had a chance to get our hands on the upcoming Xperia S at CES, the first Xperia phone to be branded by Sony (without Ericsson in its name). They showed off all the wonderful specs, but for whatever reason they didn't bother to tell us about a couple of interesting features.
The first is that it will come with an anti-stain coating. It will be a special nano coating that is not only a dirt repellent, but also UV active. The second is that will have the ability to charge quicker than normal. It will supposedly charge in half the time, and word is a 10-minute charge can keep the phone going for an hour.
source: pocketpc
via: briefmobile
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 10:45 AM PST
Since Google is transitioning to a buttonless style OS with Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich, it isn't a shock they are telling developers to move their menu functions to the action bar. All phones up to this point have a dedicated menu button, but that won't be the case moving forward. Google has instituted an action bar that includes the three dots that work as the new Menu.
The problem with some apps is they're still pointing towards a physical menu button and since Ice Cream Sandwich, and particularly the Galaxy Nexus, doesn't have a dedicated menu button, the system shifts the three dot action overflow button beside the system navigation. Normally this is on top.
According to Google, this is doesn't provide an ideal user experience. I will say that for me personally, I have noticed the action button moving from top to bottom (and vice versa) between apps, and it's a little annoying. Google recently posted instructions for developers on how to migrate to the action bar or remove it all together. Hit the source link to find out more.
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 10:29 AM PST
It looks to be another great week for buying discounted phones from Amazon. Hot on the heels of the freshly marked down Galaxy Nexus, Amazon just listed the DROID RAZR MAXX at only $199.99 for new customers, and $229.99 for existing. As always, to get this deal you must sign a two-year agreement but I'm sure your used to that by now.
In case you need a refresher, the RAZR MAXX has the same specs as the OG DROID RAZR only it has a much larger 3300mAh battery. The device is only 8.9mm thin and still manages to maintain a reported 21 hour talk time. To see this device in action, check out our hands on from this years CES.
This is a great deal for a great phone considering you could buy it right now from Verizon for $100 more. I mean who wants to pay retail, right? Although, as you can tell from the image above, there will be a slight wait for delivery because the device is on backorder and will ship within 1-2 weeks. Hit up the link below to get your discounted MAXX on!
Thanks, Trent!
Source: Amazon
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 09:10 AM PST
Going thorough my Google+ stream this morning I noticed  an entry from Koush, the man behind CloworkMod and CWM Tether, and boy does he have something awesome up his sleeve! As you can see in the video below, Koush is working on a new touch version of ClockWorkMod Recovery that is going to make things a heck of a lot easier, especially for the uber sensitive Galaxy Nexus.
I know that other forms of "touch" recovery are available, like TWRP from TeamWin, but Koush's new method that he is working on will allow for swiping and tapping your selections rather than using buttons. Although Koush is teasing his new recovery method via Google+, this is still just a tease. Currently downloads are not available, and according to Koush, "there will be better graphics and whatnot later." By that I assume the text might be a little easier to read and the UI might get a slight makeover. Whatever it ends up as, I'm sure it will be an amazing finished product. In the meantime, check out the video below and be sure to let us know what you think. Who else is looking forward to some swipe recovery action ?
Jump past the break to see it in action.

Click here to view the embedded video.
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 08:36 AM PST
The other day we gave you that
wonderful
news that the Samsung Galaxy S III might not be revealed at next month's Mobile World Congress. During their recent earnings conference call, Mrs. Younghee Lee said they're "still reviewing" options for the launch. Meanwhile, Samsung's support site is showing model GT-i9300, but it doesn't exist yet. Looking back at past models, the Galaxy S was in the i90xx range and the Galaxy S II had i91xx. The Galaxy Nexus used i9250, so one would assume that the Galaxy S III would jump to the i93xx range. Sounds logical to me. Either way, we know a Galaxy S III will launch this year, the only real question is when will it be officially unveiled?
source: samsung
via: pocketnow, sammyhub
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:50 AM PST
Google Music is awesome right? Even if you don't use it, I always recommend everyone to upload their tunes anyway because it's a free and safe backup for your collection, not to mention you will have access to your music from anywhere in the world. The only problem with the backup argument was the fact that you couldn't download your tunes back to your desktop if you computer crashed. Well Google just took care of that because with the latest update to the Music Manager, you can download all your music back to your desktop, including tunes you uploaded and tunes you purchased. Now we can feel safe knowing we can restore our music if we ever need to.
Google also added the ability to easily share YouTube videos for the songs you've uploaded. As you know you can easily share full plays for songs you've purchased to your circles on Google+, but this gives us an option for the music we already own.


Posted by at 21:28 0 comments

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 07:09 PM PST
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Time to gird your loins, ladies. The Leftover expansion for Shadowgun is now finally available for your Android device. The expansions is a thank you gift from Madfinger Games featuring giving players the chance to battle it out in 4 all new levels while expanding upon the original story.
Best of all — it’s all free. All you have to do is jump into your Android Market and update the app. If you’re looking for the Tegra 3 optimized version for your Transformer Prime, you’re going to have to sit the bench. That version will be coming sometime in the near future.
[Market Link]
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:05 PM PST
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When it comes to hacking and modding a device’s software, it’s always played out like an episode of Tom & Jerry. A developer will take advantage of an exploit in the software that allows them to root the device, followed by the hardware OEM who will release an update to patch up the software, and things start all over again. Such is the case with the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet, after B&N’s latest update, shall we say, complicated things a bit.
But now, as to be expected, a new root method has found its way to the N-Tab, making it possible once again to not only root the device, but get that precious Android Market up and running on the ‘old e-reader. It’s a little tricky in that you will have to use an SD card to get the Google apps on the device but if you’re at all familiar with partitioning SD cards (like the oldschool G1 days) using ADB, Linux and ClockworkMod, you’ll feel right at home.
The boys on on XDA put together a nice, quick tutorial further explaining the whole process, complete with download links to get everything working properly. Good luck and godspeed, folks.
XDA | Via Liliputing
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 03:08 PM PST
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If Samsung doesn’t make any drastic changes to their model numbering conventions, the Samsung Galaxy S III may very well have just appeared on the company’s official support site. Listed among Samsung’s various smartphones is the GT-i9300, a model number that sequentially follows the GT-i9xx series (Galaxy S), GT-i91xx (Galaxy S II), and GT-i92xx ( Galaxy Nexus and Note). There is always the possibility that this turns out to be some other upcoming handset or a variation on a current design, as clicking on the device model doesn’t reveal any further information. We may not have an answer as soon as we’d like, as Samsung is rumored to be shelving the announcement of the GS3 until sometime after Mobile World Congress. The annual trade show for the mobile industry was expected to serve as a coming out party for the new flagship handset.
[via Engadget]
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 02:02 PM PST
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Lumigon first announced their Lumigon T1 smartphone at Mobile World Congress way back in February of 2010. The company will be back at MWC this year, this time showing off…the Lumigon T1. If you aren’t familiar with the device, it was one of a set of handsets initially unveiled by the mobile hardware startup. Plans for S1 and E1 designs were abandoned as Lumigon focused its efforts on their flagship device, which was promised to launch by the end of 2010. After throwing an unveiling party for the T1 the handset never managed to surface. Two years later Lumigon is at it again and looks to be unveiling a redesigned T1 at this year’s MWC.
When originally announced the T1 was specced with a 3.5-inch display, HDMI output, 5MP camera, and a 1GHz CPU. Later a partnership with Bang and Olufsen promised to bring premium audio to the handset. The phone was positioned as an industry leader in terms of hardware, so the assumption is Lumigon will have an updated device to show off at this year’s event (if they plan to stay at the head of the premium market). We’ve been tracking the smartphone equivalent of Bigfoot since its first announcement. Perhaps this year we can bring you a hands-on overview.
[via AndroidCommunity]
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 01:19 PM PST
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Inching one step closer to completely eradicating the Ericsson name from all future Xperia handsets, the European Commission has approved Sony’s takeover of Sony Ericsson. The deal comes as Sony looks to integrate its line of Android smartphones more deeply into its product lineup, allowing for greater interoperability between Xperia handsets and internet-connected televisions, tablets, and media devices. Complete ownership for Sony comes at a price of €1.05 billion and includes the acquisition of a selection of patents and cross-licensing with other Ericsson intellectual property.
[Reuters via AndroidCentral]
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 01:05 PM PST
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There’s a new sheriff in town according to Flurry, an analytics company tracking tens of thousands of Android applications. After crunching the numbers on Android tablet usage the firm found that the Amazon Kindle Fire has quickly closed the gap with the Samsung Galaxy Tab. In November, the Galaxy Tab (no specific model is named) accounted for 63 percent of the Android tablet market in terms of application sessions tracked by Flurry. The fledgling Kindle Fire only accounted for 3 percent  during its first month on the market. Fast forward to the new year and the Kindle Fire has exploded in popularity, joining the Galaxy Tab at the top of the heap with both devices holding a 36 percent share.

Given Flurry’s method of collecting data, the percentages presented do not necessarily represent a true picture of actual market share. In this case, the Kindle Fire’s close ties to Amazon’s online content have led to a greater ratio of paid downloads and perhaps greater engagement with the Android-based tablet. There is also the possibility that Flurry’s tracking software appears in a higher proportion of apps in Amazon’s applications store as compared to the Android Market. Still, the numbers offer a generalized view of the current tablet landscape and the results are clear: the Kindle Fire has been a wild success.
Flurry attributes the Kindle Fire’s success to its low retail price, with Amazon expecting to reap most of their profits from the sale of digital goods via their online storefront. So far the model appears to be working, but devices like the Galaxy Tab still hold an important place in the tablet world for those looking for a powerful device with greater functionality
[via Flurry]
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 12:12 PM PST
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LG’s followup to the Optimus 3D recently surfaced under the LG CX2 name. The new handset, which looks to be unveiled at Mobile World Congress in February, is said to feature a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU from Texas Instruments, a glasses-free 3D NOVA display measuring 4.3-inches, and dual 5MP cameras for capturing 3D content. It’s also expected to launch under a name other than the CX2 (surprise, surprise). The latest rumors suggest the final moniker of the handset will be the LG Optimus 3D Max, a fitting name for a phone that improves on the original Optimus 3D without completely re-inventing the concept. The handset is expected to be available in the spring.
[via UnwiredView]
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 10:40 AM PST
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The Sony Xperia S has made the prerequisite visit to the FCC en route to release and had all sorts of connectivity in two. The handset’s quad-band GMS/EDGE radio was put through its paces on the 850/900/1900/2100 UMTS bands along with HSPA, RFID, Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and GPS. We also can’t forget ANT+ connectivity for fitness tracking devices such as heart rate monitors. You’ll notice the broad swath of radio waves covered includes bands compatible with both AT&T and T-Mobile though there are no plans for an official US release at this time. AT&T will get the very similar Xperia Ion. The government committee’s approval nonetheless is an important step towards the release of handset.
[FCC via Engadget]
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 09:54 AM PST
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Amazon’s posted another great deal for another great Android phone. The all-day battery having DROID RAZR MAXX is normally $300 in Verizon stores but Verizon’s willing to let it go for just $200 if you’re a new customer signing a new two-year contract. Existing customers will naturally have to pay more, but even your discount is quite desirable compared to the MSRP.
You’ll be able to get it for just $230. The device boasts all of the same features from the original – dual-core processor, 4G, 1GB of RAM, 4.3 inch qHD display and more – but has a 3300 mAh battery that Verizon claims will get users 21 hours of talk time. Check it out here if you’re interested. [via AndroidGuys]
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 09:01 AM PST
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While some are wondering what’s going on with a quad-core Exynos processor of some sort, most of us know that Samsung still has yet to push the boundaries of dual-core. Their Exynos chipset series is one of the most efficient, fast and capable chipsets around and the Exynos 5250 will take things a step further.
It’s an ARM Cortex-A15 chipset that will boast a 2GHz clock speed, all the while sucking even less power than some of their earlier chipsets. The chip has begun sampling, according to Samsung, and will hit mass production sometime in Q2’12.

This gives them a good timeline to put the chip into an early device and showcase it at a recent event. Taylor Wimberly from Android & Me says that recent device could be a new Galaxy Tab and that the show could be Mobile World Congress in a new rumor.
The device they’re looking to bring out is reportedly bigger than 10 inches. Yes, I know – it’s hard to imagine anything bigger than 10 inches to be considered wieldy enough for practical use. “Well what if the device is just 10.1 inches,” I asked myself. That’d be plausible if not for the belief that it will come with a WXQGA display (2560×1600), something that the Exynos 5250 will indeed support.
Wimberly reportedly saw a prototype device of the same cloth but was unable to take photos of it. We’re not sure if his rumor stems from that device alone but we can’t say excitement will drape all over us if it did.
Prototypes and development devices are usually specced well beyond what is usually necessary for consumer use. We do hope to see a device of some sort with the Exynos 5250 at MWC, though.
I can confirm that Samsung System LSI was indeed on-hand at CES showing off top secret prototypical Exynos devices, however I was not ultimately granted permission to take a look myself.
In my meeting with them they sounded like they had a product ready to show off in the very near future. We’re hoping this rumor holds true and we’ll be at Mobile World Congress to see whatever they’re willing to show.
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 07:24 AM PST
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Strategy Analytics took some time to crunch some numbers in the tablet space and came up with very encouraging Q4’11 numbers for Android. First of all, Android tablet shipments tripled from 3.1 million units in Q4’10 to 10.5 million in Q’11.
This is, of course, due to many OEMs jumping into the tablet game in 2011 and looking toward Android for their software needs just as most do with phones. The holiday season introduced a great deal of new tablets, including the oft-desired Amazon Kindle Fire.

They also found that Android shipments accounted for 39% of the share in this quarter, up from just over 29% in the same quarter last year. They attribute Android’s growth to cheap, yet highly marketable options such as the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet. Apple’s iPad took 57.6% of the share and that was down from 68.2% a year ago.
It’ll be interesting to see if Android’s momentum can sustain and seriously attack iOS as it has been able to do in the phone space. Attractive pricing and a good software ecosystem are just two of the many things that need to be maintained in order for Android to have a chance and it would appear that both facets are doing quite alright.
It’s worthy to note that when referring to Android tablets, the number of items shipped are just that – shipped to retailers. With the iPad, shipped is considered sold. Find the full press release below.

Strategy Analytics: Android Captures Record 39 Percent Share of Global Tablet Shipments in Q4 2011

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global tablet shipments reached 27 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011. Android jumped to a record 39 percent global share, while Apple iOS maintained its strong leadership at 58 percent.
Peter King, Director at Strategy Analytics, said, "Global tablet shipments reached an all-time high of 26.8 million units in Q4 2011, surging 150 percent from 10.7 million in Q4 2010. Demand for tablets among consumer, business and education users remains strong. Apple shipped a robust 15.4 million iPads worldwide and maintained its strong market leadership with 58 percent share during the fourth quarter of 2011. Apple shrugged off the much-hyped threat from entry-level Android models this quarter."
Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, "Android captured a record 39 percent share of global tablet shipments in Q4 2011, rising from 29 percent a year earlier. Global Android tablet shipments tripled annually to 10.5 million units. Dozens of Android models distributed across multiple countries by numerous brands such as Amazon, Samsung, Asus and others have been driving volumes. Android is so far proving relatively popular with tablet manufacturers despite nagging concerns about fragmentation of Android s operating system, user-interface and app store ecosystem."
Other findings from the research include:
  • Global tablet shipments hit 66.9 million units in full-year 2011, surging 260 percent from 18.6 million in full-year 2010. Consumers are increasingly buying tablets in preference to netbooks and even entry-level notebooks or desktops;
  • Microsoft captured a niche 1 percent global tablet share in Q4 2011. The upcoming release of Windows 8 this year cannot come quickly enough for Microsoft, so its hardware partners can start competing more effectively in the tablet space.
Exhibit 1: Global Tablet Operating System Shipments and Market Share in Q4 2011 1
Global Tablet OS Shipments (Millions of Units) Q4 ’10 Q4 ’11
Apple iOS 7.3 15.4
Android 3.1 10.5
Microsoft 0.0 0.4
Others 0.3 0.5
Total 10.7 26.8
Global Tablet OS Marketshare % Q4 ’10 Q4 ’11
Apple iOS 68.2% 57.6%
Android 29.0% 39.1%
Microsoft 0.0% 1.5%
Others 2.8% 1.9%
Total 100.0% 100.0%
Growth Year-over-Year % N / A 150%
The full report, Global Tablet OS Market Share: Q4 2011, is published by the Strategy Analytics Tablet & Touchscreen (TTS) service, details of which can be found here:http://tinyurl.com/78qpf5u.
About Strategy Analytics:
Strategy Analytics is a global, independent research and consulting firm. The company is headquartered in Boston, USA, with offices in the UK, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and China. Visit www.strategyanalytics.com for more information.
1 Shipments refer to sell-in. Numbers are rounded. The definition of tablet does not include e-book readers.
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:20 AM PST
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ASUS remains one of the more vocal OEMs these days as they have identified the widely-reported ASUS Transformer Prime lockup issue that has sprung up after the update to Android 4.0. They hope to have a fix out this February but couldn’t give a more specific window than that.

They also plan to fix some WiFi and Bluetooth dropout issues with a server side fix, something they are also aiming to fix next month. ASUS is currently collecting serial numbers from users through technical marketing manager Gary Keys on XDA.
They’ll be trying to mirror your device to see if it’s affected with the problems identified. Are any of you experiencing these things following your Ice Cream Sandwich update? [XDA via The Verge]
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:58 AM PST
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Our friend Koushik Dutta has posted a new teaser video to his Google+ page showing a touch-based recovery that he’s been working on. This isn’t quite like the touch-based recovery we saw before that simply had on-screen buttons for navigating. Koush is going all out with the project, implementing the ability to scroll and select list items, all via touch and without the use of buttons, virtual or otherwise. While we’re not sure how far off we are from seeing a stable release and while we don’t know how many devices this will be intended for we’re glad to see that progress is looking good. Check it out in the video above. [Thanks Micah!]
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:47 AM PST
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Vlingo has taken a verbal and public beating, lately, for findings that suggested their application was doing more than it was supposed to. Users found that their application would send more data than it really needed to and had folks wondering which data was being sent, for what reason and where. Asked to comment on the findings, Vlingo blessed us with a better explanation than we’d normally expect.
Firstly, they said that an issue with the way they present their privacy policy for certain devices was misleading. As you know, Vlingo partners with OEMS, one of the most notable being Samsung, to integrate Vlingo into their software and sometimes the OEMs want additional features.

One such feature is controlling the playback of music. In order to control that, Vlingo needs to be able to process the artist and track name and that takes up data, even if it’s a negligible amount. The issue comes where Vlingo doesn’t state this in their privacy policy because the same notice is used for all integrations of Vlingo.
This causes an unexplanatory discrepancy in what Vlingo reports and what’s really going on. To combat this, they’ll simply be sure to update their privacy policies for each specific implementation that they developer.
Vlingo also says that increased data usage may come from a couple of bugs they’ve found, including one that allowed a service to run after it should have been stopped as well as one that accidentally sent location data. We’re not sure where the app “sends” that data to, but we’re glad that it was acknowledge.
Vlingo has provided a full rundown of everything that can be read below, courtesy of Android Central. Be sure to head to Android Pit, the outlet who brought these issues to the forefront, for more information.
We take any claims about our customers privacy and security very, very seriously. We certainly appreciate that we have individuals who are passionate enough about Vlingo s products and about their own privacy rights to conduct this sort of in depth investigation. No question it has raised some real issues, and we have already begun to address the bugs internally.
First, to be clear, Vlingo does make use of information about each device in order to improve the quality of our service. Some examples of this include:
  • We use the current location of the device to improve search results, for example, to display nearby restaurants when the user does a restaurant search.
  • We use the device make & model to improve recognition accuracy since microphone characteristics can vary from one type of device to the next.
  • We use names from the address book on the device to improve speech recognition accuracy (and to spell those names correctly) when users speak those names while performing tasks like voice dialing or SMS dictation.
  • We use song titles and artist names from music on the device to improve speech recognition accuracy when users speak those names while requesting that specific music be played.
  • We use the carrier information to work around some issues we ve found on some carrier-specific wap gateways
  • While we transmit and store this information, Vlingo itself does not store any user-identifiable information--meaning we have no way to associate a list of songs or contact names to the user they came from.
Even though we intend to be very transparent about what information we are using in our Privacy Policy, we have discovered that our Privacy Policy is somewhat out of date. For example, we are not mentioning the fact that we are sending song titles and artist names from the device. We will be updating the Privacy Policy to reflect this.
The above information is currently being sent via the HTTP protocol. We are in the process of migrating our communication protocols from HTTP to more secure HTTPS. Already, some of our client applications are using HTTPS, and new versions of our applications will be using HTTPS in the future.
In many cases, we are using the device IMEI as the unique identifier to distinguish communication from different devices to our system, which matches the convention used by many other mobile applications to identify unique devices. The IMEI cannot be used to track the actual identification of the user, but we understand that in some rare cases, the IMEI can be abused. We re investigating switching to other mechanisms like cookies in the future.
We have found several bugs that are causing us to send more data than we intend:
  • If you start the application for the first time using the widget (and only using the widget) and then cancel out of the initial disclaimer, we are currently sending some device-specific data to the server erroneously.
  • Our application is currently including the device location information with device information like contact names and song titles. Our intention is to only send location with a speech recognition request, and the location should be omitted from background device-information transmissions.
These issues are errors and are by no means intentional. We plan to fix them as soon as possible and will release updates to the user community as well as through our OEM partners. In addition, we will be improving our processes to ensure that our application behavior with respect to privacy matches our intention.
For users who are happy with the Vlingo application and want to continue using it, we thank you and recommend that you continue using the service. For users who want to stop using Vlingo and are concerned that our servers can still contain data from your device, you can contact support@vlingo.com with your IMEI, and we will remove sensitive information such as contact names from our servers.
Again, we are grateful to the individuals that uncovered these security issues. We are all very proud of the service that Vlingo provides to millions of happy active users, we apologize for these mistakes, and we are doing all we can to ensure that our users can continue accessing our application in full knowledge that their personal information is secure.
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:24 AM PST
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It’s no $99 fire sale but daily deals site Woot.com is offering the HP Touchpad at a pretty good price, all things considered. You can get the 9.7 inch 32GB WiFi variant for $220 + shipping. If you have been unable to find this thing this long after the TouchPad fire sale this is a great chance to get one.

It’s also good timing considering recent developments in the community. CyanogenMod 9 is as stable as it’s ever been on the TouchPad, even if it is unofficial right now. Once stable, you’ll have one of the cheapest, yet most capable Android 4.0 tablets around. Take a look at its section on RootzWiki to see what’s available for it so far. Most aren’t even 80% stable yet but still worth checking out.
As for those who will opt to stick with WebOS, you’ll be happy to know that HP will soon be open-sourcing the software so that the hard work put in by the Palm team doesn’t go to waste. Exciting times, indeed. Find the 32GB version here. For what it’s worth, sellout.woot also had the 16GB version for $170 but, as you can imagine, it has sold out. [Thanks Razzle!]
Posted by at 21:26 0 comments
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