"the GEEK corner on the web"
Mobile
Portable electronics like Cellular / smart phones as well and Laptops MP3 players or similar devices.
Ubuntu. TV for human beings
Jan 14th
It is just amazing how feature rich Ubuntu has become. Up next it’s Ubuntu TV. I can’t wait for this one.
iPhone 5! or not?
Jan 3rd
OK here is one for you… If this video Real or Fake? New OS and larger display? Personally I feel it’s too soon to say but I want to say FAKE at this point.
iOS 5 review
Oct 12th
Source: Engadget
By Dante Cesa 
posted Oct 12th 2011 2:00PM
posted Oct 12th 2011 2:00PM
Now well into its fifth year of life, iOS has always been known for its exceptional polish — and also, its glaring feature holes. But, just like clockwork, each year since its 2007 debut, those shortcomings have been addressed one by one in a sweeping annual update. In 2008, the platform was opened up to developers giving us the App Store, 2009 saw the introduction of copy and paste — which we’d argue is still the best implementation to date — and last year “multitasking” finally made a presence. So what has Apple chosen to rectify in 2011? Well, for starters, notifications gets a complete overhaul with Notification Center, tethered syncing dies at the hands of iCloud and messaging gets a do-over with the birth of iMessage.
If you recall, we first got acquainted with iOS 5 in May after downloading the developer preview, but how does the final release stack up? And does it have the chops to compete with the latest from Mountain View and Redmond? After drudging through seven betas, we’re ready to conquer all that the final release has to offer, so join us, if you would, past the break.
Some HTC Sense devices found to contain security vulnerability
Oct 3rd
Source:
HTC users, take note: a new security flaw has been found in some Sense-enabled handsets that allows apps with Internet permissions to gain some sensitive data on your handset that’s being collected by an HTC logging app. According to the folks at Android Police, newer HTC phones running Sense (like the ThunderBolt and EVO 3D) include an app called HTCLoggers that collects data like phone numbers in your call log, email addresses, and GPS location info and then sends all of that back to HTC. Users are given the option to not have the data sent to HTC upon first setup of a Sense device, but that doesn’t stop the HTCLoggers app from gathering the info in the first place.
The problem is that HTC’s app is built in such a way that any other app that requests Internet access could gain access to the data inside HTC’s logs. Because of this, it would be possible for someone to create a malicious app that asks for permission to access the Internet and then specifically gathers the data from this HTC app and sends it back to their own server.
HTC has responded to the issue, saying, “HTC takes our customers’ security very seriously, and we are working to investigate this claim as quickly as possible. We will provide an update as soon as we’re able to determine the accuracy of the claim and what steps, if any, need to be taken.” Android Police points out that owners of a rooted device can remove HTC’s logging app right now, but those of you that aren’t currently rooted can’t do much about the issue until HTC takes action.
Although HTC’s logging app doesn’t collect things like passwords, it’s still a little unsettling to know that a malicious app could gain access to some of your data because HTC’s software doesn’t block any ol’ app from accessing it. When we hear more from HTC on the matter, we’ll be sure to pass it along. Until then, be careful about which apps you download, and make sure to avoid anything that you feel is suspicious (which you should be doing anyway). Be safe out there, folks! A video of the vulnerability in action is below.
Lost iPhone 5
Sep 3rd
Source: GIZMODO
San Francisco Police Now Admit Participating in Search for Lost iPhone 5
The San Francisco Police Department has changed its tune. It now says officers did come to the home of Sergio Calderón, looking for a missing iPhone 5, but that only Apple employees went inside, according to The SF Weekly.
After previously telling both Gizmodo and The SF Weekly that the San Francisco police had no record of being involved, SFPD spokesperson now tells The SF Weekly that “three or four” officers did in fact take part in a July search of Calderón’s home. However, these plainclothes officers apparently did not enter the premises.
Calderón confirmed to The SF Weekly that only two people entered his home, who were apparently Apple employees. However he was under the impression that these too were police officers. None of the people who came to his home identified themselves as Apple employees. As the Weekly reports:
“When they came to my house, they said they were SFPD,” Calderón said. “I thought they were SFPD. That’s why I let them in.” He said he would not have permitted the search if he had been aware the two people conducting it were not actually police officers.
So in essence, the SFPD came over, flashed badges, seemingly made threats, and then stood by while private citizens searched the Calderón home. Oh, and then they conveniently forgot about it.
Yet, it’s still not clear exactly who questioned Calderón and his family’s immigration status (they’re legal) or why. Nor are we clear on whether or not officers were there in an official capacity. Obviously, much in this story is still developing.
Visual Voicemail (VVM) not working on your EVO?
Jul 5th
(SOLVED) Read On…
So I realized this past week that I was not getting my Visual Voicemail at all but instead I was getting a TEXT telling me to call my voice mail. Owning and paying for an EVO you expect things to work. I do not get that many messages so you can see why it took me a while to figure out there was a problem. I started to think that this was happening because of the Android Gingerbread update to my EVO.
So the first thing that I do is I start checking the Internet for posts and articles indicating the same issue. So many were found but they all said the same thing.
- Go into your VVM on your phone.
- Press MENU… Compose
- Where it lists To: activate@vvm.sprint.com then record.
- Hit Stop and then Send.
Then I wait for the messages to flood in… both of them. But nothing happened
Next I see to go to Manage Applications in System settings and clear the data.
This looked and acted like it was doing something but again nothing happened.
So I spend a good 2 hours on (and off) the phone with Sprint resetting this and that. After about 4 calls and constantly removing my battery they tell me that have no idea and have to put in a ticket. So now I wait for a call back in the next 48 to 72 hours.
Happy 4th I get a call back from Sprint and we try more of the same. Still not working so they need to escalate it to their network team. Again I am in a holding pattern to see if the “professionals” can help me.
Today I “Google” the issue again and find a post that I did not see before. I found a post on a blog in 2007 regarding the Handcent program causing a conflict when set as default. I unchecked that option, restarted my phone and just got ALL my old messages. Look at that it’s all better now and before a call back from Sprint.
My frustration is this. Clearly this is an old issue and it looks like so many others are having this same challenge so why did Sprint never ask me to look at this one basic setting? I do not want to blame any one person for the drop in communication but I would think that this information would be accessible by the Sprint team in charge of these types of things.
This may not work for everyone but it did work for me!
Is This How Notifications Will Work In the new iOS?
Jun 6th
unconfirmed
Kwame Opam — If and how Apple fixes the notification system tomorrow is anyone’s guess. But the above image, courtesy of TechCrunch, seems to suggest something akin to accessing an active phone call from the springboard will be the solution.
Any guess beyond that is an even bigger speculation. This doesn’t look as great as we hoped notifications would look like, but it does make sense. Obviously, this could still totally be ‘shopped (who knows, the 11:54 PM on June 5th is in the future but the 23 degrees Celsius would mean it’s a Euro phone) but MobileNotifier, the popular jailbreak app designed by recent Apple hire Peter Hajas, does comes to mind. At the very least, we’ll find out more tomorrow.