Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

It has only been a few days since the launch of the T-Mobile / Google G1 and hackers have already bypassed the restrictions implemented on the Android platform.

This hardly comes as a surprise as Android is open source, and hackers didn't take too long to crack the closed iPhone system.

The hack allows the user to access the phone as a root/superuser.

The process seems relatively easy, you need to get PTerminal, a command line tool, from the Android marketplace. From there, you navigate to your system/bin folder (where the binaries are kept) and type telnetd to launch the telnet program which lets you login to the phone remotely.

Make sure your Wi-Fi is switched on then type netstat to get your IP address. From there, you just grab a computer on the same network and telnet in. You now have root access to the entire file system.

It is worth noting that this will essentially allow anyone to access the phone as a super user as the phone has no authentication. So it is advisable to shut everything down once done.

At the moment the hack has mainly been used to install applications onto the SD card which is prohibited normally. However it should be possible to use this technique to unlock the phone, allowing you to use it on any network.

It is expected Google/T-Mobile will try and fix this issue ASAP as T-Mobile cover the cost of the phone based on the user being tied into a long term contract.

Personally I think things like this could end up being one of the strong points of Android. When a system can be opened up and customised by individuals it tends to get a huge community following. Just look how many people contribute free work to things like Linux, Wordpress and Joomla. Granted Android is quite different than them 3 examples but you get my point.

Via: Wired

Truphone is a free piece of VOIP software that has been available on S60 phones and the iPhone for some time now.

Truphone have now launched a BlackBeryy version of this popular VOIP client allowing users to make free or very cheap phone calls with no roaming charges

Instead of requiring the user to remember what to do, Truphone Anywhere simply asks whether he/she wants to make a Truphone call whenever an international number is dialled. The user simply accepts, and Truphone connects the call. This reduces international call rates to as little as £0.03/$0.06 per minute.

The Blackberry application can be downloaded here

Press release after jump.

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Charlie Miller of Independent Security Evaluators in Baltimore has informed the New York Times that he was able to install a keystroke logging application by redirecting the G1's web browser to a malicious web site that automatically installed the software.

Google has acknowledged the security flaw and points out that the sandbox-nature of Android limits the damage to a single application. Unlike other smart-phones and PCs, this security flaw only affects the web browser and will not compromise any other portions of the phone. Google has already patched the open-source version of Android and is currently working with T-Mobile and HTC to get the security patch out to current T-Mobile customers.

With more and more phones concentrating on the camera aspect of the phone it may come as no surprise that Casio has decided to get involved in all this cam-phone malarkey.

Casio will be releasing in Japan a new EXILIM powered mobile phone featuring an 8.1 camera with a 9 Point auto-focus and a wide angle, the W63CA. The phone will also feature a 3.1-inch WVGA screen.

Casio have decided to go with a dual LED flash over a Xenon flash, which is a bit of a shame as LED flash tends to be a bit rubbish.

It is that time of the year again, companies are publishing the quarterly report card. Google have been doing well, Yahoo not so well and now Apple are showing some impressive figures.

The company posted a profit of $1.14 billion on revenues of $7.9 billion for the quarter, their sales figures for their devices were off the roofs. In the Q4 of 2008, Apple managed to sell 6,892,000 iPhone 3Gs compared to the 1,119,000 iPhones in Q4 of 2007.

Apple is now the world’s third largest mobile phone supplier in terms of revenue, trailing behind Nokia and Samsung. They outsold RIM’s entire range of BlackBerry phones. RIM sold 6.1 million phones compared to the 6.9 million iPhones.

Apple’s stock prices were up by $9.91 or 11%. Even AT&T benefited from the strong iPhone sales and its stock price rose by 85 cents or 3.3%.

Via: smokingapples

Ok so this may not be as easy to remember as the name Omnia but Samsung have announced the new I7110. This is a S60 and Symbian OS-based, and will be showcased for the first time at London's Symbian Smartphone Show. This bar type Smartphone features 2.6’’ QVGA AMOLED screen, FM radio, DNSe 2.0, GPS Navigation (Geo-Tagging, Pedestrian & Driving), optical mouse, accelerometer, 3D games (FIFA 2008, Asphalt), with DLNA compatibility.

It also comes with Bluetooth v2.0, USB 2.0, WiFi, 50MB memory, an external memory slot (up to 16GB), 5Mpix camera (CMOS with AF and LED flash). It's equipped with a video player (DivX / H.263 / H.264 / WMV /MP4, RV), and music player (MP3 / AAC / AAC+ /eACC+ / WMA / RealAudio).

Press release after jump

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I am due for an upgrade in January, and as always I find myself in a quandary about what to get. There does not seem to be a phone out there that meets my requirements, a lot of phones tick the right boxes but then will miss one or 2 important things off, leaving me with an option I am not entirely happy about.

I suppose the problem is that I want all the bells and whistles and not have to pay a fortune for it, and if a company released the "perfect phone" it would mean people wouldn't bother changing it so would harm the profits.

Anyway what I want from my phone is:

Large internal memory - The iPhone, N96, and Omnia all offer this. I would want 8GB minimum or 16GB would be nice

MicroSD - If I had 16GB internal and a 16GB card I would have plenty of room to play with! I believe the N96 and Omnia do this while also having the internal memory.

Smart OS - I'm a geek, I like functionality, and a smart OS is the best way to get it. Though one issue is that I don't want Windows Mobile. I will try it again if I HAVE to but my experience with my HTC Tytn was not pleasant. Symbian is the most likely option, though I strongly suspect Android will become a strong contender if not the main contender eventually.

3.5G (HSDA) - Thanks to reduced mobile broadband prices and decent mobile browser I find myself using my phone for browsing a lot more. I am sorry Apple but 3G is just not acceptable.

A decent camera with a xenon flash. I don't need a stupid million megapixel camera but 4 or 5 megapixel would be nice, and an LED flash is just CRAP. I believe it is the image sensor that is more important for a digital camera so I would prefer a decent one of them rather than lots of megapixels.

Large touch screen + decent screen resolution - The iPhone may fall down in quite a few areas but you can't fault its screen or the touch screen user interface! If I am going to use my phone online, it makes life a lot easier if you the screen can display a good % of a normal web page, obviously I am not going to get 1280x800 but as much width as possible would be good.

Pull out keyboard - Ok this maybe a little more disputed by people than other features, and I have to admit the iPhone does the best of a bad situation but I still think real keys are important.

Exchange Functionality - Again probably not the most important feature for the average consumer but it is important and quite a lot of phones (iPhone, S60 phones) do it so there is no excuse not too. Blackberry functionality would be helpful (not so much for me though) and decent push email.

Proper media keys / media integration - At the end of the day I am looking for convergence, I don't want 16GB of storage for nothing, I want to play my music on the phone, so I want to access the music easily! I also want it to be able to play the files I put on it, rather than having to convert them via some software.

A 3.5mm headphone jack - Again I want to listen to music, using adaptors is just annoying and proprietary adapters are the most ridiculous thing in the world! i.e the G1 apparently needs a custom ExtUSB adaptor that isn't even available immediately! What are they playing at!

Mini USB charging and PC connection - Again I hate all things proprietary. My E90 even has a mini USB but then wont charge up via it!!

Built in GPS - Not that I use it much, but it is very useful for a lot of people.

Wi-Fi + Bluetooth - Self explanatory really

A decent batter life would also be nice, oh and actually the ability to make calls!

I don't think form factor is that much of an issue, the iPhone is hardly small, nor is the G1, and the N96 is quite fat. Though the iPhone goes to show that people will happily have a large phone as long as it looks good!

I suppose that is quite a lot of phone, and looking at it, it sort of kills off the Music player AND the sat nav market but phones are moving this way anyway but I just wished they hurried up a little!

At the moment I think the Nokia N96 or Samsung Innov8 are the closest to my requirements, though the Samsung Innov8 doesn't appear to be freely available on contract.

What other features do you want to see on a phone? And I mean realistic features, I am sure I have missed a few off

One of my main problems with the G1 is the lack of MS Exchange functionality. I had it on my TyTn and I have it on my Nokia E90, and I love it.

Boy Genius Report has posted that 2 companies Wrike and Intermedia have developed a basic application called ContactSync which will provide contacting synching between the G1 and Exchange.

At the moment things are pretty basic, the application only pulls your contacts from Exchange, there is no 2 way synching or anything fancy at all really. However it is good to see that there is active development for this. Once the G1 is publicly available and people have had a few months to play around with it I can image a more functional application will be completed.

One very good point made in the comments of Boy Genius Report is

I know that Android is still too new and has not proven itself as a top notch OS but what gets everyone so excited is that it has promise. Here is a perfect example of the power android has being an open OS. The phone isn’t even out in stores yet and developer are working hard on creating apps for it. This solution is still far from being perfect, but how long did it take the iPhone to get any type of exchange support.