QuickPWN » Hans

Google has over 30,000 Android Apps in Android Market

Hans — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:23:07 +0000

Google recently told MobileCrunch that they have a total of 30,000 Android applications available in the Android Market. This is a good number, but it is still 5 times less than the number of apps currently available in Apple’s App Store.

Apple announced in a recent press release that the App Store has over 150,000 apps, most of which will also work with their upcoming iPad device. Apple will also be creating a separate App Store for just books which will be available to iPad users on April 3.

Will Google’s Android Market ever be able to catch up to Apple’s App Store? I don’t see this happening any time soon because Apple has made a very good easy to use SDK for developers, and the iPhone OS is still more popular than Google’s Android operating system.

How to: Pre-order iPad

Hans — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:56:37 +0000

Apple’s iPad will start shipping on April 3, but if you want to get it as soon as it comes out you can pre-order iPad online at Apple.com. Below are step-by-step instructions to pre-order an iPad.

1. Go to http://www.apple.com/ipad/pre-order/, read through the page and click on the Pre-order now button.

2. Choose the iPad you’d like: 16 GB iPad ($499, $629 w/3G), 32 GB iPad ($599, $729 w/3G), 64 GB iPad ($699, $829 w/3G). Click the Pre-order button.

3. Choose the accessories you would like for your iPad.

4. Click Add to Cart. A page with a summary of your order and total will show up. You can click the green Check Out Now button to pay for your order. If you don’t have an Apple.com ID, you can still check out as guest and create an Apple ID later.

If you ordered the iPad without 3G it should arrive on April 3, but if you ordered it with 3G it will arrive some time in late April.

‘Professional’ thieves steal $26,000 of MacBooks from NJ Best Buy

Hans — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:40:48 +0000

On Wednesday morning an unknown number of thieves managed to break in to a Best Buy in South Brunswick, New Jersey and steal 20 notebooks valued at $26,000. For the record, these were all MacBooks so no Windows computers were stolen (phew!). These thieves were clever because they were able to avoid cameras, motion sensors, and alarms.

Police believe the thieves broke in to the Best Buy by cutting a hole through the roof using a saw, and slicing a 3-foot wide square in the metal roof. Detective James Ryan said that there was a “high level of sophistication” involved in this robbery since the thieves didn’t set off any alarms or motion detectors, and were also able to avoid cameras. John Harris, a security expert said “I would say they were a professional crew”, and “At least I’ve never dealt with anything like this. From time to time, people break in, but not usually through the roof.” Police are still investigating, and they think that at least 2 or 3 people were involved in this roberry and they may have hit other locations before as well. Anyone with additional information on this incident should call Penney at (732) 329-4646.

[via NJ.com]

Police are still investigating, and they think that at least 2 or 3 people were involved in this roberry and they may have hit other locations before as well.

23 Macbook Pros, 14 iPhones, 9 iPod Touches – Gone in 31 seconds!

Apple starts Patent war with HTC

Hans — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:12:16 +0000

Today Apple sent a press release announcing that they’ve filed a lawsuit against HTC for infringing 20 of Apple’s patents related to iPhone interface and the underlying architecture and hardware. The lawsuit was filed with U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in U.S. District Court in Delaware.

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

Apple is specifically going after HTC’s phones that are running Google’s Android software rather than the phones that are running Windows Mobile. By suing HTC for using Android’s operating system, is Apple trying to scare other manufacturers from using Google’s Android operating systems on their future devices? This is what it looks like to me. Going through the boring list of patents Apple listed in their complaint, I noticed that one of the patents they complained about was the “Swipe to unlock” feature. I find it ridiculous that a company can patent these types of simple features, and hope that Apple looses this case. If you are bored you can see a list of all the patents here.

[via Apple Press Release]

90 MILLION copies of Windows 7 sold to date!

Hans — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:24:20 +0000

It’s only been about 4 months since Microsoft released Windows 7. Today at Morgan Stanley Tech Conference, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Peter Klien announced that more than 90 million Windows 7 licenses have been sold to date. We don’t know how many of these copies are from OEM sales because Microsoft has not revealed this information.

Klein also announced that Microsoft will be launching an Office 2010 Tech Guarantee program before the end of this month. The Office 2010 Tech Guarantee program runs during March 5th to September 30, and will allow customers that purchase a copy of Office 2007 during that period to upgrade to Office 2010 for free once it’s out.

[via Microsoft Twitter feed]

Use your iPhone with Verizon

Hans — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:21:08 +0000

It comes to no surprise that many of our readers here don’t like AT&T and would rather prefer to use their iPhone on Verizon. Unfortunately Verizon operates on a CDMA network, so the iPhone needs to have a CDMA chip to work on Verizon. There would need to be a new iPhone, the iPhone 4G for this to happen. While this may not be happening any time soon, you can still use your iPhone with Verizon if you want by following the steps below.

How to get a “Verizon iPhone”

The goal of this tutorial is to get your iPhone to work on the Verizon Wireless network. Thankfully, you can do this because iPhone supports WiFi. Verizon offers a product called the MiFi (link here), which is basically a device that serves as a hotspot and allows you to connect up to 5 WiFi-enabled devices to Verizon’s network. You will only get Internet access on your iPhone if you use this, but you won’t get any phone service because the iPhone doesn’t have a CDMA chip! The good news about this is that you can still download VoIP apps like Skype, and use your iPhone like a phone on Verizon’s MiFi service. Plans for the MiFi start at $39.99/mo. so this is definitely a cheaper alternative to AT&T if you don’t use your iPhone as a phone much but need Internet access on-the-go.

Get the MiFi from here.
Connect to your MiFi, just like you would with any WiFi hotspot. You can do this by go to Settings -> WiFi and selecting your MiFi network.
If you want to phone, download a VoIP app from the App Store, like Skype.

HTC Desire Specs

Hans — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:56:39 +0000

Here are the specs for the HTC Desire Superphone that HTC announced during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Operating System: Android 2.1 with HTC Sense user interface
Processor: 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon
Screen: 3.7 inch AMOLED capactive touch screen with a 480 x 800 WVGA resolution
Battery: 1400 mAh Rechargeable Lithium-ion
Camera: 5 megapixel color camera with face detection capablity. auto focus and flash, widescreen photo capture, and geotagging
Connectors: 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, micro-USB 2.0
Sensors: G-Sensor, digital compass, proximity sensor, and ambient light sensor
Memory: 512 MB ROM, and 576 MB RAM
microSD™ memory card with up to 32 GB support
Network bands:
- Europe
  - HSPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz
  - GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
- Asia
  - HSPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz
  - GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Internet: 3G with up to 7.2 MBPS download speed, and up to 2 MBPS upload speed, full HTML browser with Flash 10.1 support
WiFi: IEEE 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.1 with Enhanced Data Rate, A2DP for wireless stereo headsets, FTP and OPP file transfer, and support for the following profiles: AVRCP, GAP, GOEP, HFP, HSP, PBAP, SPP, and Service Discovery Application Profile
Multimedia: Supports .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma, .amr, .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv, and .3gp
Location: Internal GPS Antenna, Google Maps, and HTC Footprints

HTC Desire Superphone

Hans — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:31:04 +0000

HTC has just announced their new smartphone named HTC Desire. HTC calls the HTC Desire a superphone rather than a smartphone, just like Google calls their Nexus One a superphone as well. This phone will run on Android 2.1 and have the beautiful HTC Sense UI just like HTC’s other phones. The HTC Desire has a 3.7 inch AMOLED capacative touch screen with pinch-to-zoom, and a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It will ship with Adobe Flashplayer 10.1 software.

Unfortunately the HTC Desire won’t be available in the US, but the Nexus One is a good alternative for US users. Te HTC Desire will be available to customers across major European and Asian markets in early Q2. The HTC Desire will also exclusively be available in Australia through Telstra. You can see HTC’s full press release here.

iPad virus

Hans — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 01:03:24 +0000

Wi-Fi versions of the iPad will be released in late March, while 3G versions are shipping in April. With less than two months left until the release of the iPad, people are wondering if a security researcher, Charlie Miller will discover an iPad virus in the operating system that the iPad uses. Back in July Charlie Miller discovered an iPhone virus SMS exploit, and Apple took more than 6 months to patch it and release an update.

If an iPad virus is discovered, it isn’t likely that Apple will issue an update very quickly so iPad users must be prepared to defend themselves against viruses. Usually computers have anti-virus systems in place, but the iPad uses iPhone OS and doesn’t have much protection. Thankfully iPad users can still get rid of any potential iPad viruses by following the instructions below.

How to stay safe from future iPad virus

If you ever get a virus on your iPad, connect it to iTunes and click the Restore button. This will restore your iPad to the default factory conditions and you can re-download any iPad apps you downloaded before. If you have the iPad 3G, you can additionally put your iPad in airplane mode to prevent viruses that log your data by doing the following: Go to Settings -> Airplane Mode and slide the button to Off.

iPhone 3.1.3 05.12.01 baseband unlock imminent, Sherif Hashim discovers exploit

Hans — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:33:38 +0000

Just a week after Apple released the iPhone 3.1.3 update, Sherif Hashim has discovered an exploit that could allow iPhone users to unlock their iPhone on the iPhone 3.1.3 firmware on baseband 05.12.01 and use it with other carriers like T-Mobile in the US, for example. We get these a lot, but no the iPhone can’t be unlocked to work with Verizon because Verizon operates on a CDMA network. Apple always updates the baseband with each update, causing many iPhone users to loose their unlock so this is good news for the iPhone users that had their baseband updated and lost their unlock.

For now, download iPhone toolbar (works on Windows/Mac on Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer browser) and you’ll receive an alert once the unlock is released, and instructions on how to install it.

The exploit Sherif Hashim uses has not been revealed yet, but iPhone Dev Team member MuscleNerd has confirmed that it works. The iPhone Dev Team will most likely wait for Apple to release the next generation iPhone 4G before releasing this unlock so that Apple does not patch the exploit before then. For now, all iPhone users that are unlocked/jailbroken are advised to be extremely cautious of future firmware updates and avoid updating before the jailbreak tools are updated.