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CyanogenMod unveils Device Finder, a secure way to track a lost device Aug 20th 2013, 19:46, by Dima Aryeh Google recently released a device tracker that allows you ring your device, see your device’s location or completely wiped the device, all from a web interface. It is without doubt an awesome feature that will help with the recovery of your lost phone. But according to the folks at CyanogenMod, it’s simply not secure enough. See, if Google’s servers were compromised (by a hacker, or even the government), everyone would suddenly be traceable. The info is sent to Google’s servers, and it can be used by someone else. CyanogenMod’s upcoming service is a bit different. Instead of sending the information through the server, your browser instead sends a public key. The phone authenticates the public key and sends an encrypted key back. The server cannot decrypt this key; only the browser can. This establishes a secure connection that cannot be decrypted on the server side, even if someone manages to get hold of that data. Using this connection, you can track or wipe your device. It isn’t a foolproof service. If the server was compromised and you entered your password, you would become traceable. However, that would make one user traceable, instead of all users at once. It’s not perfect, but it’s far better than Google’s service. The service is not out yet, but will be eventually. The source code has been fully published, and the CyanogenMod devs encourage people to check the security and safety of the service. Remember, services like this are improved with the help of the users. Would you be interested in using this over Google’s service? Is this important to you? Leave a comment! Source: CyanogenMod Blog, +CyanogenMod Via: Engadget YouTube updated to version 5.0, adds redesigned UI and multitasking Aug 20th 2013, 18:45, by Dima Aryeh To me, the developers of the YouTube app made a strange design choice. The left slide out menu, through many updates, used the old arrow icon at the top left instead of Google’s new hamburger button. They never fixed it, despite other apps getting the quick and easy fix. But now we know why: they had a full redesign of the app in the works. This redesign employs Google’s love of the white Holo UI. It also includes the new hamburger button in the corner, symbolizing a slide out menu. The menu has direct links to favorites, watch later and playlists, which is a fantastic decision. The rest of the UI is based on cards, much like Google Music. Playing a video opens up an entirely new UI, and it’s also far better than any of its predecessors. There are like and dislike buttons, no longer hidden behind a menu button. And instead of ignoring your auto rotation settings, it will follow it. Luckily, you won’t have to turn on auto rotate every single time you watch a video; there is a new full screen button. The closed captions and high definition buttons are now in a menu, but are nice and big and easy to press. Probably the coolest thing about this update is the new multitasking feature. Pressing back while watching a video, or pressing the down arrow on the video itself, will make the video small and put it at the bottom. You can now search and explore more videos while the previous video is still playing. Swiping it up will bring the page up again, while sliding it left or right will dismiss it. The UI has been reworked for 7-inch tablets with a new landscape UI. Previously, going landscape would enter full screen, like with phones. Now, there is a nice UI with the same functions as portrait. That’s definitely awesome, don’t you think? There are also a lot of minor improvements. The icon is new, foregoing the white box for just a simple red logo. The TV queue is improved, you can search for playlists and various other things. It’s a big update and should be fairly well received. it doesn’t contain anything that would make it less usable as far as we can tell, unlike the new Maps update. It’s starting to roll out now, so hopefully you’ll all get it soon! And tell us what you think in the comments. Source: Android Police

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