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13:00
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Hack a Day
Need a quick way to tell your temperature before work tomorrow? Student maker [The Marpe] recently fashioned a sleek home-use thermal camera that even looks like a point and shoot. It works as an Android hardware add-on by integrating the readings from a MLX90640 far-infrared (FIR) thermal sensor with a STM32F042F6Px microcontroller. All this connects to an Android application via USB (MicroUSB or Type C).
On the app, users are able to view, take photos, and display the resulting thermal images from the open thermal camera. The code for the open Android application is also available on his GitHub.

The FIR sensors contain a small array of IR pixels, integrated to measure the ambient temperature of the internal chip, and supply sensor to measure the VDD. Each pixel on the sensor array responds to the IR energy focused on it to produce an electronic signal, which is processed by the camera processor to create a map of the apparent temperature of the object. The outputs of the sensors and VDD are stored in an internal RAM and are accessible through 3.3V I2C. They’re not only low-cost and fairly high resolution, but also available by order on Digi-Key.
The microcontroller is based on the STM32 platform, with 32-bit performance, low-power operation (at 2V to 3.6V and 48 MHz) and is fairly low-cost. The custom-designed PCBs are fitted inside a 3D-printed casing with M2.5 inserts to ease assembly. [The Marpe] used an Esra soldering iron to create a heat insert tool for easier assembly and more consistent results with the heat inserts, which made for a nicer overall finish.
The project has since been presented at the Ljublana Mini Maker Faire in Slovenia and the Trieste Mini Maker Faire in Italy. Here, the open thermal camera is being tested out on a faulty PCB with a shorted component, showing the location of the short on the Android application’s thermal camera display.

Other uses for the camera could be home insulation inspection, water leakage detection, wildlife observation, or even figuring out if your soldering iron is hot enough to use. We’ll say it’s a pretty useful DIY project!
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Hack a Day
Thanks to the relatively low cost of the Raspberry Pi and high resolution LCD screens, “smart displays” have become a favorite project of those looking to clear out their parts bins. Just hook the Pi up to the screen, setup some software, and you’ve got yourself a digital bulletin board for your home that can show your schedule, the weather, etc. Build it into a mirror, and you’ve got yourself at least double Internet points.
But when [John Basista] started planning his own smart display, he decided to take the path less traveled. He’s entered the resulting open source project into the 2019 Hackaday Prize, and we’re very excited to see where it goes from here. Even in these early days he’s already made some great strides, with nary a Raspberry Pi in sight.
[John] has nothing against using the Raspberry Pi for these smart displays, and indeed, it has a number of traits which make it particularly well suited to the task. But the problem for him was that it only supported HDMI, and he had his heart set on using an Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) screen. Namely the Innolux N173HCE-E31, a 17.3 inch IPS LCD designed for laptops.
He tried to find a Linux or Android compatible SBC that featured eDP, but found it to be a challenge. There were some x86 options, but didn’t want to go down that road. Eventually he settled on the Dragonboard 410c, which features a quad-core Qualcomm APQ8016E CPU running at 1.2 GHz and 1GB of RAM. This board didn’t have eDP either, but it did have Display Serial Interface (DSI), which he could convert to eDP with the Texas Instruments SN65DSI86 IC.
From there, he started developing a PCB which would hold the Dragonboard 410c and the SN65DSI86. The board also breaks out I2C and UART so he can connect it to various other sensors and gadgetry down the road, and includes all the necessary power regulation to drive everything. The whole thing fits in the palm of your hand, and judging by the renders [John] has put together, should nestle nicely into the back of the 3D printed enclosure when everything is finished.
There’s still quite a bit left to do on this project, but [John] has plenty of time to tie up the loose ends. Currently there’s little information about the software side of things, but as you can see in the video after the break, it’s now running Android which should make things relatively easy.
The
HackadayPrize2019 is Sponsored by:



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Hack a Day
In a continuing trend of ‘but does it run Android?’, enterprising folk over at the XDA-Developers forum have found a way to get LineageOS (the successor to CyanogenMod) installed and running on the Nintendo Switch using Switchroot source code. Promising to release the necessary files to replicate this effort has obviously made other people at XDA-Developers forum as well as on Reddit rather excited.
As for the question of ‘why?’, one has to remember that internally the Nintendo Switch is an Nvidia Tegra X1-based system with a Maxwell GPU, making it definitely one of the nicer ARM-based portable systems out there if one wants to do some Android-based gaming. Even better, the entire Nvidia Shield TV-derived ROM runs from the SD card, so just popping out this SD card is sufficient to return to playing Switch games.
Currently a few nagging issues still have to be worked out with this ROM, such as touchscreen issues, sleep mode not working, auto-rotation not working as communication with the sensor needs to be figured out, and so on. This should make it clear that it won’t be a production ready piece of software, but definitely something that should be used at your own risk.
While it shouldn’t harm the Switch, one should probably not try it on a Switch one cares deeply about. Just in case.
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Hack a Day
You’d be hard pressed to find a carpenter who didn’t own a hammer, or a painter that didn’t have a couple of brushes kicking around. Some tools are simply so fundamental to their respective craft that their ownership is essentially a given. The same could be said of the breadboard: if you’re working with electronics on the hobby or even professional level, you’ve certainly spent a decent amount of time poking components and wires into one of these quintessential prototyping tools.
There’s little danger that the breadboard will loose its relevance going forward, but if [Andrea Bianchi] and her team have anything to say about it, it might learn some impressive new tricks. Developed at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, VirtualComponent uses augmented reality and some very clever electronics to transform the classic breadboard into a powerful mixed-reality tool for testing and simulating circuits. It’s not going to replace the $3 breadboard you’ve got hiding at the bottom of your tool bag, but one day it might be standard equipment in electronics classrooms.
The short version is that VirtualComponent is essentially a dynamic breadboard. Holes in the same row are still electrically linked like in the classic breadboard, but with two AD75019 cross-point switch arrays and an Arduino in the base, it has the ability to virtually “plug in” components at arbitrary locations as selected by the user. So rather than having to physically insert a resistor, the user can simply tell the software to connect a resistor between two selected holes and the cross-point array will do the rest.
What’s more, many of those components can be either simulated or at least augmented in software. For example, by using AD5241 digital potentiometers, VirtualComponent can adjust the value of the virtual resistor. To provide variable capacitance, a similar trick can be pulled off using an array of real capacitors and a ADG715 digital switch to connect them together; essentially automating what the classic “Decade Box” does. In the demonstration video after the break, this capability is extended all the way out to connecting a virtual function generator to the circuit.
The whole system is controlled by way of an Android tablet suspended over the breadboard. Using the tablet’s camera, the software provides an augmented reality view of both the physical and virtual components of the circuit. With a few taps the user can add or edit their virtual hardware and immediately see how it changes the behavior of the physical circuit on the bench.
People have been trying to improve the breadboard for years, but so far it seems like nothing has really stuck around. Given how complex VirtualComponent is, they’ll likely have an even harder time gaining traction. That said, we can’t help but be excited about the potential augmented reality has for hardware development.
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Hack a Day
As a happy side-effect of the smartphone revolution, the world is now awash with tiny computers that are incredibly cheap thanks to the nearly unfathomable volumes in which their components are manufactured. There wouldn’t be a $10 Raspberry Pi Zero if the billions of smartphones that were pumped out before it hadn’t dropped the cost of the individual components to literal pennies. That also means that smartphone hardware, or at least systems that are very close to it, have started to pop up in some unexpected places.
When [Joshua Wise] recently took ownership of a Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT bike computer, he wondered how it worked. With impressive list of features such as Internet connectivity, GPS mapping, and Bluetooth Low Energy support, he reasoned the pocket-sized device must have some pretty decent hardware under the hood. With some poking and prodding he found the device was powered by a MediaTek SoC and incredibly had a full-blown install of Android running in the background.
So how does one find out that their lowly bike computer is essentially a cleverly disguised smartphone? If you’re [Joshua], you listen to who it’s trying to talk do when doing a firmware update over the Internet. He used mitmproxy
running between his Internet connection and a WiFi access point setup specifically for the BOLT, from there, he was able to see all of the servers it was connecting to. Seeing the device pull some data down from MediaTek’s servers was a pretty good indication of whose hardware was actually inside the thing, and when it ultimately downloaded some Android .apk files from the Wahoo website, it became pretty clear what operating system it was running underneath the customized user interface.
Further examination of the Bolt’s software brought to light a few troubling issues. It turned out that the firmware made extensive use of Apache-licensed code, for which no attribution was given. [Joshua] contacted the company and was eventually referred to the Wahoo’s CEO, Chip Hawkins. Refreshingly, Chip was not only very interested in getting the licensing issues sorted out, but even had some tips on hacking and modifying the device, including how to enable ADB.
Before the publication of this article, we reached out to Chip Hawkins (yes, he really does respond to emails) for a comment, and he told us that not only has he made sure that all of the open source packages used have now been properly attributed to their original authors, but that his team has been providing source code and information to those who request it. He says that he’s been proud to see owners of his products modifying them for their specific needs, and he’s happy to facilitate that in any way that he can.
Open source license compliance is a big deal in the hacking community, and we’ve seen how being on the wrong side of the GPL can lead to lost sales. It’s good to see Wahoo taking steps to make sure they comply with all applicable licences, but we’re even more impressed with their positive stance on customers exploring and modifying their products. If more companies took such an enlightened approach to hacking, we’d all be a lot better off.
[Thanks to Roman for the tip.]
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Hack a Day
By now we’ve all seen the cheap headsets that essentially stick a smartphone a few inches away from your face to function as a low-cost alternative to devices like Oculus Rift. Available for as little as a few dollars, it’s hard to beat these gadgets for experimenting with VR on a budget. But what about if you’re more interested in working with augmented reality, where rendered images are superimposed onto your real-world view rather than replacing it?
As it turns out, there are now cheap headsets to do that with your phone as well. [kvtoet] picked one of these gadgets …read more
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Hack a Day
While earlier smartphones seemed to manage well enough with individual applications that only weighed in at a few megabytes, a perusal of the modern smartphone software store uncovers some positively monstrous file sizes. The fact that we’ve become accustomed to mobile applications requiring 100+ MB downloads on what’s often a metered Internet connection in only a few short years is pretty crazy if you stop to think about it.
Seeing reports that the Nest app for iOS tipped the scales at nearly 250 MB, [Alexandre Colucci] decided to investigate. On his blog he not only documents the process of taking …read more
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Hack a Day
Vending machines used to be a pretty simple affair: you put some coins in, and food or drink that in all likelihood isn’t fit for human consumption comes out. But like everything else today, they are becoming increasingly complex Internet connected devices. Forget fishing around for pocket change; the Coke machine at the mall more often than not has a credit card terminal and a 30 inch touch screen display to better facilitate dispensing cans of chilled sugar water. Of course, increased complexity almost always goes hand in hand with increased vulnerability.
So when [Matteo Pisani] recently came across a …read more
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Hack a Day
The CAN bus is a rich vein to mine for a hacker: allowing the electronic elements of most current vehicles to be re-purposed and controlled with ease. [MikrocontrollerProjekte] has reverse engineered a CAN bus media and navigation controller and connected it to an STM32F746G-Discovery board. The STM32 is in turn connected to an Android phone, and allows the media controller to trigger a large number of functions on the phone, including music playback, maps, and general Android navigation.
When reverse engineering the controller, [MikrocontrollerProjekte] employed a variety of approaches. A small amount of information was found online, some fuzzing was …read more
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Hack a Day
In the United States, TV and radio stations have to give the opportunity of equal airtime to all candidates. In that spirit, we thought we should show you [Jayden17’s] hack that puts Google Assistant into a Teddy Ruxpin. You can see the hacked bear do its thing in the video below.
Teddy was the best-selling toy for 1985 and 1986, and is still available, so over 30 years there are a lot of these hanging around. If you never looked at how they work, the original ones were quite simple. A cassette player routed one stereo channel to a speaker …read more
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Hack a Day
We’ve all been there: after assessing a problem and thinking about a solution, we immediately rush to pursue the first that comes to mind, only to later find that there was a vastly simpler alternative. Thankfully, developing an obscure solution, though sometimes frustrating at the time, does tend to make a good Hackaday post. This time it was [David Wehr] and AudioSerial: a simple way of outputting raw serial data over the audio port of an Android phone. Though [David] could have easily used USB OTG for this project, many microcontrollers don’t have the USB-to-TTL capabilities of his Arduino – …read more
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Hack a Day
While we here at Hackaday never question why an individual took on a particular project, it surely doesn’t stop our beloved readers from grabbing their pitchforks and demanding such answers in the comments. Perhaps no posts generate more of this sort of furore than the ones which feature old audio gear infused with modern hardware. In almost every case the answer is the same: the person liked the look and feel of vintage hardware, but didn’t want to be limited to antiquated media.
That sentiment is perhaps perfectly personified by the TapeLess Deck Project, created by [Artur Młynarz]. His creations …read more
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Hack a Day
We love to hack IKEA products, marvel at Raspberry Pi creations, and bask in the glow of video projection. [Nord Projects] combined these favorite things of ours into Lantern, a name as minimalist as the IKEA lamp it uses. But the result is nearly magic.
The key component in this build is a compact laser-illuminated video projector whose image is always in focus. Lantern’s primary user interface is moving the lamp around to switch between different channels of information projected on different surfaces. It would be a hassle if the user had to refocus after every move, but the focus-free …read more
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Hack a Day
Have an ESP8266 development board such as the NodeMCU or Wemos D1? You’re currently reading Hackaday, so probably. Got an Android device kicking around? Also seems fairly likely. In that case, you should check out ESP8266 Loader by [Bluino Electronics]. This recently released application lets you not only flash new binaries to any ESP8266 board using the FTDI, PL2303, CH34X and CP210X USB chipsets, but also offers a serial monitor for debugging on the go.
You’ll need a USB OTG cable to get your ESP board jacked in to your Android device, but you don’t need root or even to …read more
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Hack a Day
I recently spent a largely sleepless night at a hotel, and out of equal parts curiosity and boredom, decided to kill some time scanning the guest network to see what my fellow travelers might be up to. As you’d probably expect, I saw a veritable sea of Samsung and Apple devices. But buried among the seemingly endless number of smartphones charging next to their sleeping owners, I found something rather interesting. I was as picking up a number of Amazon-made devices, all of which had port 5555 open.
As a habitual Android tinkerer, this struck me as very odd. Port …read more
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Hack a Day
When project inspiration strikes, we’d love to do some quick tests immediately to investigate feasibility. Sadly we’re usually far from our workbench and its collection of sensor modules. This is especially frustrating when the desired sensor is in the smartphone we’re holding, standing near whatever triggered the inspiration. We could download a compass app, or a bubble level app, or something similar to glimpse sensor activity. But if we’re going to download an app, consider Google’s Science Journal app.
It was designed to be an educational resource, turning a smartphone’s sensor array into a pocket laboratory instrument and notebook for …read more
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Hack a Day
[Lambgx02] got tired of his Android device getting bogged down and decided to dig down to the cause of the issue. His investigation led him to believe that entropy is causing the slowdown. He believes that his workaround reduces 90% of the lag on the average Android device. So how is it possible that entropy [...]
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SecuriTeam
The Vulnerability Laboratory Research Team discovered multiple cross site vulnerabilities in the iAuto Mobile APP for Android, iOS & Blackberry.
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SecuriTeam
Android kernels running on Qualcomm are prone to multiple remote code-execution vulnerabilities and a denial-of-service vulnerability.
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Hack a Day
This screen is not just cracked, it’s devastated. We can all agree that you’re not going to be carrying this around with you anymore, but it might still be useful in other endeavors. [Mr Westie] wanted to use it for the camera which is undamaged. The issue is how do you control an Android device with a [...]
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Hack a Day
[Adam Outler] and friends have been hard at work unlocking the bootloader of some Verizon Android devices. His most recent adventure involves unlocking the Verizon branded Samsung Galaxy Note II. You can’t run Cyanogenmod on a device that has a locked bootloader. This is presumably why it took no time at all for the XDA [...]
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Hack a Day
[Adam Outler] shows us how to expand the Linux tools available on Android without rooting the device. He does this by installing BusyBox. The binary is copied to the device using the Android Developer Bridge. He then opens an ADB shell, adds execution permissions to the binary, and runs it. BusyBox calls itself the Swiss Army [...]
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SecuriTeam
Android is prone to an SMS-spoofing vulnerability.
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Hack a Day
[Ward Mundy] has found something great by combining a GXP-2200 phone with Raspberry Pi to create a private branch exchange. So the idea behind a PBX setup is kind of like a company intranet. All of the phones in the system are assigned an extension number and have access to the internal system functions like [...]
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Hack a Day
[Ward Mundy] has found something great by combining a GXP-2200 phone with Raspberry Pi to create a private branch exchange. So the idea behind a PBX setup is kind of like a company intranet. All of the phones in the system are assigned an extension number and have access to the internal system functions like [...]
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Hack a Day
There’s a silly little Android game making some noise on the Interwebs. It’s called Curiosity which is a 3D cube with something inside. The thing is, every single pixel on the cube must be clicked in order to get through a layer. There are of course multiple layers, and… well, you get the point. [Stephen] [...]
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Hack a Day
Are you bored with just drinking beer? Are your friends constantly sneaking into your house and stealing your sacred beverages? If so, perhaps you need KegDroid – the Android controlled beer tap created by [Paul Carff]. Looking for a way to add more excitement to drinking his beer, [Paul] spiced up his tap with a [...]
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Hack a Day
[Hexxeh] is at it again, porting the chromium OS to whatever seems to appear in front of him. This time he’s ported it to the Nexus 7. Last time we saw him, he was raspberry chomping at the pi. The details are very scarce, so we would like to issue this request. [Hexxeh] we realize [...]
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Hack a Day
[Dan] took a $13 electronic dartboard and made it work with an Android device. The idea behind it is that these cheap electronic models feature a very sparse display. At this price that doesn’t surprise us. He wanted to add the features you’d find on a coin-op model like the ones found in bars. So [...]
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Hack a Day
This furry Halloween decoration proves to be a simple build, but it’s still quite popular with the little ones. [Chris] had a Halloween party for a group of 2-5 year olds and this monster that peeks out of a box was a huge hit. The trick really isn’t in the complexity of the build, but [...]
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Hack a Day
Making computers interact with physical objects is a favorite of the HCI gurus out there, but these builds usually take the form of image recognition of barcodes or colors. Of course there are new near field communication builds coming down the pipe, but [Andrea Bianchi] has figured out an easier way to provide a physical [...]
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Packet Storm Security Advisories
DropBox version 1.4.6 on iOS, 2.0.1 on Android, and Google Drive version 1.0.1 on iOS suffer from a file theft vulnerability due to allowing arbitrary javascript to be executed inside of the privileged file zone.
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Packet Storm Security Recent Files
DropBox version 1.4.6 on iOS, 2.0.1 on Android, and Google Drive version 1.0.1 on iOS suffer from a file theft vulnerability due to allowing arbitrary javascript to be executed inside of the privileged file zone.
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Packet Storm Security Misc. Files
DropBox version 1.4.6 on iOS, 2.0.1 on Android, and Google Drive version 1.0.1 on iOS suffer from a file theft vulnerability due to allowing arbitrary javascript to be executed inside of the privileged file zone.
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Hack a Day
Over on the XDA developers forums, something really cool is happening. Android hacker extraordinaire [AdamOutler] has managed to port the Android Debug Bridge to the Raspberry Pi. The Android Debug bridge allows hardware tinkerers full access to their Android device. This feature has been used to build everything from telepresence robots to connecting a MIDI keyboard to a [...]
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Hack a Day
This Android device can recognize faces and move to keep them in frame. It’s a proof of concept that uses commonly available parts and software packages. The original motivation for the project was [Dan O's] inclination to give the OpenCV software a try. OpenCV is an Open Source Computer Vision package that takes on the [...]
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Hack a Day
Put that old Android phone to good use by mounting it on the wall as a smart thermostat. This open source hardware and software project lets you replace your home’s thermostat with an Android device which adds Internet connectivity and all that comes with the increase in computing power. The brunt of the hardware work [...]
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Hack a Day
This hardware, which was built as a Computer Engineering project by [Bryon] and his classmates, gives you feedback and control of a car though a cellular phone network. It uses text messages to communicate with a control device. This can be pretty much any cellphone, but in the clip after the break they show off [...]
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Hack a Day
This super quick hack will be fun to do with the kids. Remember the days of View-Masters? You’d put a disk of small slides into a little plastic viewer and a stereoscopic image would jump out at you in 3D! Now you can not only view stereoscopic images on your smartphone, but make your own [...]
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Hack a Day
Look at the beautiful screen on that Nook Simple Touch. It has a lot of advantages over other hardware when used as a glider computer running the open source XCSoar software. The contrast of the display is excellent when compared to an LCD or AOMLED. That’s quite important as gliding through the wild blue yonder [...]
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Hack a Day
Hackaday readers were stumbling over each other to send in a link about this Android cellphone inside of an Entertainment Weekly magazine. Thanks to all who sent it in, and keep them coming. We’d rather get too many tips than none at all! The first thing we should address is the discomfort you will feel [...]
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Hack a Day
[Carnivore] uses a Pipo Max M1 tablet. It’s an Android device that is very responsive thanks t the 1.6 GHz dual-core processor and it runs Jellybean (latest version of Android OS). The one thing he wasn’t so happy with is battery life. Under heavy load it lasts about three hours. When reading an eBook that [...]
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Hack a Day
Here’s how you can have a hands-free, no worries about the battery, Android experience while you drive. [Steve] removed the head unit from his car and replaced it with a Samsung Galaxy SIII Android phone. The look is pretty nice, but we do have a few suggested improvements if you try this one for yourself. It started [...]
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Hack a Day
The WiFi adapter in your laptop has a special mode – monitor mode – that can be used to listen in on WiFi traffic and, with a little patience, can be used to crack a WEP password. Surprisingly, this monitor mode can’t be found on any Android device due in part to the limitations of [...]
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Hack a Day
We got our hands on this prototype of the new IOIO design. It’s a breakout board that makes adding hardware to an Android device pretty easy. [Ytai Ben-Tsvi] sent it our way, and took a bit of time to explain some of the differences between this board and the original version. You can see our [...]
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Hack a Day
This RC truck can be controlled with the tip of your thumb or the tilt of a wrist. That’s thanks to the IOIO which was inserted in place of the toy’s original controller. [Exanko] made the hardware changes in order to use his Android phone as the controller. The white circle is a software joystick [...]
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Hack a Day
As released, the Nexus 7 tablet includes a 1.2 Megapixel front-facing camera. Even though the camera supports taking pictures at a resolution of 1280 x 960, recording video is limited to a paltry 480p resolution. It turns out the inability to record HD 720p video isn’t a hardware limitation; engineers at either Google or Asus simply didn’t [...]
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Hack a Day
[stompyonos] bricked his Samsung Captivate. Not wanting to be without a phone for a while, he researched a fix online and found shorting a pair of pins on the USB port would put the phone into download mode, saving his phone. The only problem for this plan is [stompy] didn’t have any resistors on hand. [...]
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Packet Storm Security Advisories
Secunia Security Advisory - The vulnerability is reported in Cyobozu Live for Android, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's device.
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Hack a Day
Improvements in processing power really hit home when you see an eBook reader playing PlayStation games. Sure, we’re talking about a system which launched more than 15 years ago (the original PlayStation launched way back in 1995), but this is a $99 device which seems to be playing the games at full speed! [Sean] wrote [...]
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Hack a Day
Yes, that’s an android of [Phillip K. Dick]. While you don’t necessarily need to be familir with [Phillip K. Dick] to find this story amusing, we highly recommend that you take a few minutes to learn about him if you don’t recognize the name. [Phillip K. Dick], or [PKD] was a science fiction author and [...]
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Hack a Day
This is a Gemei G9T, a 9.7″ Tablet running Android 4.0. [Carnivore] shows us how to modify it to use inductive charging. The inductive charging hardware is taken from a Palm device (this uses the Touchstone charging hardware seen in several other hacks). It’s easy to interface with the tablet’s electronics, but physically placing the [...]
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SecuriTeam
Sleipnir Mobile for Android is prone to an arbitrary code-execution vulnerability and an arbitrary script-execution vulnerability.
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Hack a Day
[Jim] has an old Android phone he’d like to use as a Robot brain. It’s got a lot of the things you’d want in a robot platform; WiFi, Bluetooth, a camera, an accelerometer, etc. But he needed some way to make the mobile, mobile. What he came up with is a chassis with servos that [...]
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Hack a Day
Planning another Arduino build? If you’re just doing something simple like switching a relay or powering a LED, you might want to think about the Digispark. It’s a very small ATtiny-based Arduino compatible board developed and Kickstarted by [Erik]. The Digispark is based on the very popular Atmel ATtiny85, an 8 pin microcontroller that provides a quarter [...]
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Hack a Day
It seems that some of the Nexus 7 models have an assembly issue that makes the bezel uneven with the screen. It’s just in one spot but your shiny new toy shouldn’t have this kind of problem. Of course it comes as no surprise that Google wants you to send it back for service. What [...]
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22:30
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Packet Storm Security Advisories
Secunia Security Advisory - A vulnerability has been reported in Sleipnir Mobile for Android, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's device.
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Hack a Day
[Gus] made it to the Google+ developers vlog to show off his new Google+ hangout controlled robot. This robot, named OSCAR (Overly Simplified Collaboratively Actuated Robot), drives around according to the whims of everyone in a Google+ hangout. Not only is the robot under remote control through a Google+ hangout, it also features a camera, allowing a [...]
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Hack a Day
We have no idea why, but since we featured Botiful, the Android-powered telepresence robot a few days ago, the tip line has been awash in robot/Android mashups. Here’s a few of the cool ones. Using an Android as a remote control [Stef] used a Samsung Galaxy S3 to control an old rc tank. The Android sends [...]
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Hack a Day
[Sam] has been working on a cellphone controlled robot for a while now and with the launch of a few similar Kickstarter campaigns he thought it would be good to share his progress so far. [Sam]‘s robot is controlled by an Android device with the help of an IOIO dev board. This setup provides more [...]
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Hack a Day
Here is a telepresence robot that uses an Android device and LEGO NXT parts. [Wolfgang] had an extra phone on hand and decided to put it to good use. The Mindstorm parts make it really easy to produce a small robot, and adding the phone really ups the computing and connectivity options available to him. [...]
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Hack a Day
The folks over at the Raspberry Pi foundation are showing off their latest wares. This time around it’s Android 4.0 running on the Raspberry Pi. Although this is a pre-release announcement, it sounds like the work is rather far along. Hardware acceleration for video playback is in place, but there are still some audio issues [...]
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10:01
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Hack a Day
We can’t say the name rolls off the tongue, but it is beginning to look like the OlinuXino is going to happen. Here you can see the prototype hardware booting Android. If this is the first time you’re seeing the hardware you can think of it in the same category as the Raspberry Pi. It’s a butt-kicking [...]
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7:01
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Hack a Day
[Vincent] started building this tank (translation) with a regular hobby model: the Heng Long Tiger 1. However, after considering some goals for the project, he decided to nearly gut the tank and redesign it, basing it on the Arduino and a standard Motor Shield. The possibilities with this setup are nearly endless. In its current form, the ArduTiger detects obstacles in front [...]
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17:00
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SecuriTeam
Dr. Web Anti-Virus for Android is prone to an information-disclosure vulnerability.
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11:01
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Hack a Day
Sensordrone is a sensor-filled wireless dongle for use with a smart phone or other computer-like device. But perhaps this is better explained as the thing that makes your smart phone work exactly as the original Star Trek tricorders did. In one had you have the main unit that displays data, in the other you hold [...]
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13:48
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Hack a Day
So you need to debug a circuit and you don’t have an oscilloscope. That’s not a problem thanks to [retronics] $0 Android oscilloscope, made with parts he just happened to have lying around. The heart of every modern oscilloscope is the ADC – the chip that takes analog input and outputs a digital signal. Every [...]
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8:28
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Hack a Day
XBMC just issued the announcement we’ve been waiting to hear for some time now. The Android platform is now officially supported. Having seen the popularity of this open source media center software, and the willingness of some to spend hundreds of dollars on small computers to use it as their set-top-box interface of choice, we [...]
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7:01
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Hack a Day
It is just amazing how small the boards are for some really powerful smart phones. For instance, the diminutive size of this Meizu MX Android phone’s board is only outshone by the intricate packaging the phone arrived in. [Adam Outler] did an unboxing of the device. But for him that mean tearing down all of [...]
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17:01
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Hack a Day
Since Google announced the Nexus Q media streaming device at the Google developers conference a few weeks ago, a lot of devs have been toying around with the idea of running Android apps on this small media sphere. [Det] over at BrickSimple threw his hat into the ring with a Pong and/or Breakout app that showcases [...]
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0:45
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Packet Storm Security Advisories
Secunia Security Advisory - A weakness has been reported in Yome Collection for Android, which can be exploited by malicious people to disclose certain system information.
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10:01
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Hack a Day
[mobile_earth_explorer] sent in an Instructable he put together documenting an Android-controlled rotating monitor stand he built. The stand itself is three disks turned on a lathe out of a 18mm thick board. After turning these disks, [mobile_earth_explorer] hopped over to his bench grinder and made a semicircular tool to carve out the track for the ball [...]
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5:01
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Hack a Day
In the latest episode of XDA TV [Adam Outler] turned his Android phone into a webserver. At first this might sound comical, but the ever-increasing power of our handhelds makes it a pretty legitimate option. It’s hard to come up with concrete uses off the top of our head, but we’re sure there’s value in [...]
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17:01
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Hack a Day
[Doragasu] got his hands on one of these WM8650 Netbooks for around 50 euros (~$63.50) delivered. They come with a version of Android preinstalled, but he wanted to use them more like a computer and less like an Android device. So he set out to load Arch Linux on the ARM-based Netbook. This is possible because [...]
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16:01
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Hack a Day
This scooter starts right up with a shake of your Android device. This shake must be done from front-to-back, because a side-to-side shake is reserved for unlocking the saddle ([Brad] stores his helmet within). Connectivity is facilitated over Bluetooth, with a rocker switch near the left handle bar to disable the receiver so that you [...]
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5:01
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Hack a Day
Over on the 68kmla forums, a website dedicated to old Macs built before 1994, [zydeco] released his Android port of Mini vMac, a Macintosh Plus emulator that puts the power of a Motorola MC68000 processor and System 7 on any computer. Unlike the original Macintosh, or the subsequent revision that bumped the RAM up to 512 kilobytes, [...]
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17:00
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SecuriTeam
NetEase WeiboHD for Android is prone to an unspecified security vulnerability.
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5:01
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Hack a Day
[Matt] is the proud owner of a JGRO-based CNC router and he’s been working on a way to control it without a computer. What he came up with is a way to drive the CNC machine using this Android tablet. A big part of the hack is the CNC controller that he’s using. The TinyG is [...]
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9:01
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Hack a Day
We’re familiar with the daunting task of sifting through mountains of code in hopes you can learn how something works. So when a simple example like this SL4A LED toggle comes along we’re thankful for the trimmed fat. If you’re looking to use an Android device to control your Arduino hardware this will be huge [...]
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4:01
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Hack a Day
[Chris] has been going about his business, letting his interest guide him as it will. But always in the back of his mind is his Androcade project, and he’s spent the last year making improvements. It’s an arcade controller for playing games on an Android tablet. It connects to the device via Bluetooth, and includes [...]
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9:29
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Packet Storm Security Recent Files
Intercepter-NG [Console Edition] is a sniffer that offers various capabilities including sniffing for password hashes related to ORACLE/MYSQL/VNC/NNTP/CVS/WWW/HTTP/SOCKS/MRA/FTP/POP3/SMTP/IMAP/LDAP/AIM. It works on NT/Linux/BSD/IOS/Android and is optimized for screen size 80x30 or higher.
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9:29
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Packet Storm Security Tools
Intercepter-NG [Console Edition] is a sniffer that offers various capabilities including sniffing for password hashes related to ORACLE/MYSQL/VNC/NNTP/CVS/WWW/HTTP/SOCKS/MRA/FTP/POP3/SMTP/IMAP/LDAP/AIM. It works on NT/Linux/BSD/IOS/Android and is optimized for screen size 80x30 or higher.
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9:29
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Packet Storm Security Misc. Files
Intercepter-NG [Console Edition] is a sniffer that offers various capabilities including sniffing for password hashes related to ORACLE/MYSQL/VNC/NNTP/CVS/WWW/HTTP/SOCKS/MRA/FTP/POP3/SMTP/IMAP/LDAP/AIM. It works on NT/Linux/BSD/IOS/Android and is optimized for screen size 80x30 or higher.
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13:01
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Hack a Day
There’s a new version of the IOIO on the way and we think you’re going to like the goals this redesign aims to achieve. If you’re not familiar, the IOIO is an Android accessory board. It connects to the phone via USB and is aimed at making it easier to build your own hardware peripherals [...]
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15:01
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Hack a Day
VIA Technologies, ostensibly in an attempt to compete with the Raspberry Pi (if you can believe all those bloggers out there), is releasing a tiny single board computer called the APC Android PC. The VIA website for the APC is down, so just search Google News for all the details. The specs are somewhat similar to the Raspberry Pi [...]
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12:01
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Hack a Day
Here’s a very easy way to trigger your DSLR camera using an Android device. It’s a similar method used with IR triggered cameras, in that all you need to do is assemble some simple hardware to plug into the headphone jack. The app that triggers the camera simply plays back a well crafted audio file [...]
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4:01
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Hack a Day
[Buddhra] wanted to use a set of ear buds that also had a controller built into the wire. The headset he chose to go with is meant for use with iPod, but he figured it should be possible to make it work with Android too. He was right, and managed to alter the controller for [...]
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16:01
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Hack a Day
[Kevin Osborn] is making it a bit easier for young programmers to write programs that interact with the physical world. The device he’s holding in the picture is an Arduino based accelerometer and distance sensor meant for the Scratch language. Scratch is a programming language developed at MIT. It has kids in mind, and focuses on [...]
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5:01
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Hack a Day
[ften] was having plenty of fun running Android on his HP Touchpad, but he soon discovered that the tablet’s micro USB port didn’t provide enough juice to his peripherals when running in host mode. He started digging around and found the perfect means of providing the extra power while maintaining the device’s stock appearance. He [...]
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10:57
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Carnal0wnage
UPDATE - An easier way to do this can be found on our update post hereAndroid periodically updates it's SDK and
somtimes when this happens, old methods for importing a Trusted CA, necessary to proxy SSL traffic, will fail and you must find a new solution. Technically speaking, it's not necessarily the import that is the problem, it's saving those changes between restarts of the emulator. If you've worked with the emulator you'll note that after importing a Trusted CA such as BurpSuite's certificate, the changes only take effect once you've rebooted the emulator. In other words, you actually
have to restart the emulator, and without these steps, you'll lose your updated Trusted CA list.
Using Android SDK 19, the solution was to move a temporary file and rename it. Let's begin:
After creating your Android Virtual Device (AVD) named "test"....
Step 1 - Run the emulator

Step 2 - While running, pull the cacerts.bks file

Step 3 - Get the keytool

Step 4 - Import the PortSwigger SSL Certificate into the cacerts.bks file w/ keytoolNOTE: Exporting PortSwigger SSL Certificate instructions here - http://carnal0wnage.attackresearch.com/2010/11/iphone-burp.html

Step 5 - Remount the emulator /system folder with read-write permissions

Step 6 - Push the cacerts.bks file up onto the emulator

Step 7 - Move the tmp file to your local avd directory and rename it to system.img

Step 8 - Restart, rm cacerts.bks, pull down the copy from emulator, ensure certificate still exists in cacerts.bks file

The reason this data persisted was because we moved the temporary copy (emultor-<random string>) from /tmp/android-<myname>/ and renamed it to system.img. Lastly, we placed the image file in the ~/.android/avd/test.avd/ directory.
hack on,
cktricky
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14:01
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Hack a Day
[Andy] is taking the complexity of a smartphone-controlled garage door down a notch with this project. He’s not interested in checking on the state of the door (open or closed) using a video feed, or in controlling the thing from anywhere in the world. He just wants to use his Android as the remote control and [...]
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14:08
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Hack a Day
[Aaron] and his wife have a wonderful cat that likes to contribute to the household by bringing field mice, shrews, and voles into the house as a ‘present.’ Obviously, this leads blood, fur, and viscera staining the carpet, and chasing around mortally wounded rodents isn’t [Aaron]‘s idea of fun. To stop the cat from bringing small [...]
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4:01
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Hack a Day
A few months ago when I reviewed the Android electronic reference app ElectroDroid, I made the offhand remark that a front end app for alldatasheet.com would be a killer mobile electronic reference app. [András Veres-Szentkirályi] accepted my challenge and built ADSdroid, the unofficial Android app for alldatasheet.com. You can check out my complete review after the break. [...]
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10:01
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Hack a Day
We should have included a footnote in the title. You can say that [Thomas Polasek] installed a full version of Arch Linux on his Nook Color, but there’s one caveat. It’s running on top of the Android kernel and his proof-of-concept uses a second computer to get it up and running. But there’s potential for [...]
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14:08
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Hack a Day
What happens if you’re a prolific developer and decide to release all of the source code from your work? Well, you should get a huge pat on the back from all interested parties. And so we say thank you to [Hunter Davis] for releasing the source code for his 70+ Android apps. But just making [...]
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8:01
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Hack a Day
If you just got your hands on a shiny new Android phone and are looking for a fun project to try out, you might want to check out this simple Arduino exercise that [Mike Mitchel] put together. Everyone needs a starting off point for hacking, and [Mike] thought that combining and Arduino and Android handset [...]
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14:01
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Hack a Day
Looks like there’s a pretty easy way to install Ice Cream Sandwich, the newest version of Android, on your Netbook. Actually this is limited to a few types of hardware including netbooks like the eeePC. That’s because the ISO files used during installation have been tailored to the hardware used on those devices. As with [...]
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12:01
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Hack a Day
[Joris Laurenssen] has been hanging onto this robotic arm for about twenty years. His most recent project uses some familiar tools to add voice control for each of the arm’s joints. The arm has its own controller which connects via a DB-25 port. [Joris'] first task was to figure out what type of commands are [...]
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12:01
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Hack a Day
[Joris Laurenssen] has been hanging onto this robotic arm for about twenty years. His most recent project uses some familiar tools to add voice control for each of the arm’s joints. The arm has its own controller which connects via a DB-25 port. [Joris'] first task was to figure out what type of commands are [...]
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6:01
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Hack a Day
Don’t get your dirty fingers on the glass [Poke] sent in a video of him using Android devices with a wiimote and PS3 controller. The build uses the Joystick2Touch and the USB Joystick Center app. Root is required, but this will be very useful when tv-sized Android devices start showing up. Wonderful restoration work [John] sent in [...]
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16:31
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Hack a Day
The latest version of the Linux kernel was just released on Sunday, and there’s a little bonus which we think is worth considering. It seems that many changes from Android made their way into version 3.3 of the Linux kernel. This may not sound like much, but it’s a great example of the power of [...]
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17:54
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Packet Storm Security Advisories
Hatforce has discovered that the "wipe" function on Android does not reliably delete data on all devices. On a Nexus S running Android 2.3.6, they were able to recover user data after running a "wipe" both using the "factory data reset" from the menu and by wiping the device from recovery.
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17:54
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Packet Storm Security Recent Files
Hatforce has discovered that the "wipe" function on Android does not reliably delete data on all devices. On a Nexus S running Android 2.3.6, they were able to recover user data after running a "wipe" both using the "factory data reset" from the menu and by wiping the device from recovery.
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17:54
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Packet Storm Security Misc. Files
Hatforce has discovered that the "wipe" function on Android does not reliably delete data on all devices. On a Nexus S running Android 2.3.6, they were able to recover user data after running a "wipe" both using the "factory data reset" from the menu and by wiping the device from recovery.
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8:08
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Hack a Day
[Andrew] has been pining for an Optimus Maximus – a keyboard with a small LCD screen in each key – for years. Like a lot of people, he love the idea of a completely configurable keyboard, but balked at the two thousand dollar price tag. Although it doesn’t have full color OLED screens behind each key, [...]
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7:01
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Hack a Day
Whether you’d like to do some real-time logging of data, or just want to control a project with your Android phone, [Thomas]‘s Arduino-Android Bluetooth connection instructable is sure to be useful [Thomas]‘ build uses the very inexpensive JY-MCU Bluetooth module that’s available on eBay or dealextreme. This Bluetooth module ties directly into the Tx and Rx [...]
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10:01
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Hack a Day
Sous vide cookers aren’t anything new, but [Phil] wanted to build the first sous vide using the osPID, an open source PID controller just released in the last month. The build uses the osPID Open Source PID controller we saw last week that comes with inputs for a thermocouple and pair of relays capable of switching [...]
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9:01
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Hack a Day
[skullkey] over at the House4Hack hackerspace in Pretoria, South Africa wanted a way to get kids excited about technology and desktop fabrication labs. Wanting to give kids a visceral feel for the march of technology, he created Makerdroid, an android app that allows for the creation 3D objects on an Android tablet and preparing them to be [...]
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15:21
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Hack a Day
[Bjørn] combined some aging electronics he had around the house to create this Android media center. The enclosure is an FM-radio, but since he only listens to online media it wasn’t of much use to him. After sizing it up he realized it was a perfect candidate to receive his old HTC Hero Android phone. [...]
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15:21
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Hack a Day
[Bjørn] combined some aging electronics he had around the house to create this Android media center. The enclosure is an FM-radio, but since he only listens to online media it wasn’t of much use to him. After sizing it up he realized it was a perfect candidate to receive his old HTC Hero Android phone. [...]
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16:01
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Hack a Day
Last year, [Mark Simonelli’s] wife asked him if he could design something that would allow her to remotely check if their garage door had been left open. [Mark] jumped at the chance to tinker with electronics and designed a system around an old TrendNet IP camera. When remotely connected to the camera using IP Cam [...]
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8:01
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Hack a Day
[Lewis] wanted to control MIDI devices with the huge touch screen that is his Android phone. After he couldn’t find a simple hardware implementation of MIDI out, he turned to an IOIO board to send MIDI notes to just about any imaginable musical hardware. It’s a clean build and fills a gap in the abilities [...]
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11:01
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Hack a Day
With the coming of Android 3.1 you finally have the option of using the device as a USB host. This may be through a USB OTG (On-the-Go) adaptor, but nonetheless it’s a feature which was sorely missed until now. [Manuel] put together a guide on using Android as a USB host. As you can see, [...]
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7:01
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Hack a Day
After getting his hands on an Android-enabled wristwatch, [Paul] wanted to test the limits of his new hardware. We’ll assume he’s happy with his purchase because his finished build sends data from a Microsoft Kinect to his wristwatch, making it a night vision spy watch. [Paul]‘s new toy is a WIMM One Android wristwatch that comes complete [...]
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11:45
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Hack a Day
[Casainho] wanted to track his body weight using an app on his Android phone. He just needed a way to get the weight readings onto the device automatically. He ended up adding Bluetooth to a bathroom scale and hacking the app to grab data from it. The scale which he hacked is a digital model, [...]
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13:01
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Hack a Day
Earlier this week, fellow Hack a Day-er [Mike Nathan] reviewed Adafruit’s new iPhone/iPad app Circuit Playground. The comments on [Mike]‘s review turned to suggesting ElectroDroid as an alternative to Circuit Playground. Surprisingly, Hack a Day authors actually pay attention to the comments, so I’ve decided to throw my hat into the ring and offer up my review of [...]
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3:09
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SecDocs
Authors:
Tsukasa Ooi Tags:
Android rootkit Event:
Black Hat Abu Dhabi 2011 Abstract: Android devices have been repeatedly hacked for root privileges. Sometimes by malware authors, and sometimes by users themselves. This is because if someone gains root privileges, he or she can gain control of the parts of the system which are most useful for attackers (and for users as well). But this is not the end of the story - we need a bit more knowledge to gain much privilege inside the Android application system. On the other hand, some Japanese Android smartphones have an extra Linux Security Module (LSM) to prevent these rooting issues and protect the system from being overwritten. But because of Android's security weaknesses and incomplete LSM protection, the Android application system can still be taken over by exploitation. This presentation explains what we can/cannot do if we gain root privileges on an Android device, and introduces a new kind of Android rootkit. This rootkit needs only root privileges (no kernel-mode, no ptrace) and bypasses all existing security modules. This fact implies the possibility of advanced Android malware.
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3:09
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SecDocs
Authors:
Tsukasa Ooi Tags:
Android rootkit Event:
Black Hat Abu Dhabi 2011 Abstract: Android devices have been repeatedly hacked for root privileges. Sometimes by malware authors, and sometimes by users themselves. This is because if someone gains root privileges, he or she can gain control of the parts of the system which are most useful for attackers (and for users as well). But this is not the end of the story - we need a bit more knowledge to gain much privilege inside the Android application system. On the other hand, some Japanese Android smartphones have an extra Linux Security Module (LSM) to prevent these rooting issues and protect the system from being overwritten. But because of Android's security weaknesses and incomplete LSM protection, the Android application system can still be taken over by exploitation. This presentation explains what we can/cannot do if we gain root privileges on an Android device, and introduces a new kind of Android rootkit. This rootkit needs only root privileges (no kernel-mode, no ptrace) and bypasses all existing security modules. This fact implies the possibility of advanced Android malware.
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18:00
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Packet Storm Security Advisories
There is an issue in certain HTC builds of Android that can expose the user's 802.1X Wi-Fi credentials to any program with basic WI-FI permissions. When this is paired with the Internet access permissions, which most applications have, an application could easily send all stored Wi-Fi network credentials (user names, passwords, and SSID information) to a remote server. This exploit exposes enterprise-privileged credentials in a manner that allows targeted exploitation.
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18:00
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Packet Storm Security Recent Files
There is an issue in certain HTC builds of Android that can expose the user's 802.1X Wi-Fi credentials to any program with basic WI-FI permissions. When this is paired with the Internet access permissions, which most applications have, an application could easily send all stored Wi-Fi network credentials (user names, passwords, and SSID information) to a remote server. This exploit exposes enterprise-privileged credentials in a manner that allows targeted exploitation.
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18:00
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Packet Storm Security Misc. Files
There is an issue in certain HTC builds of Android that can expose the user's 802.1X Wi-Fi credentials to any program with basic WI-FI permissions. When this is paired with the Internet access permissions, which most applications have, an application could easily send all stored Wi-Fi network credentials (user names, passwords, and SSID information) to a remote server. This exploit exposes enterprise-privileged credentials in a manner that allows targeted exploitation.
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9:01
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Hack a Day
If you’re going to build a giant touch screen, why not use an OS that is designed for touch interfaces, like Android? [Colin] had the same idea, so he connected his phone to a projector and a Kinect. Video is carried from [Colin]‘s Galaxy Nexus to the projector via an MHL connection. Getting the Kinect to [...]
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8:01
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Hack a Day
[MarkoeZ] had an issue with keys breaking off in his door lock, and while normal people might try to simply replace the lock all together, [MarkoeZ] decided to do it the “Hackaday” way by adding a bluetooth lock to his door. His door is already setup where someone can walk up to it, page an [...]
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9:01
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Hack a Day
Even though everyone with a smart phone has a small, powerful computer in their pocket, we haven’t seen many applications of this portable processing power that use the built-in camera. [Michael] decided to change this and built an LED matrix that displays the data coming from the phone’s camera. For the build, [Michael] used two [...]
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8:01
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Hack a Day
When [trandi]‘s wife saw a cute night light at Ikea, she had to have it. She actually bought several of these for when her husband would inevitably crack one open and start tinkering with the microcontroller inside. The inevitable hack is pretty cool, and also gives us some ideas for interfacing with Android on the cheap. [...]
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8:06
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Packet Storm Security Recent Files
Security Enhanced (SE) Android is a project to identify and address critical gaps in the security of Android. Initially, the SE Android project is enabling the use of SELinux in Android in order to limit the damage that can be done by flawed or malicious apps and in order to enforce separation guarantees between apps. However, the scope of the SE Android project is not limited to SELinux.
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8:06
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Packet Storm Security Misc. Files
Security Enhanced (SE) Android is a project to identify and address critical gaps in the security of Android. Initially, the SE Android project is enabling the use of SELinux in Android in order to limit the damage that can be done by flawed or malicious apps and in order to enforce separation guarantees between apps. However, the scope of the SE Android project is not limited to SELinux.
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14:25
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Hack a Day
Next time you’re waiting in the security line in an airport, why don’t you pull out your smartphone and count all the radiation being emitted by those body scanners and x-rays? There’s an app for that, courtesy of Mr. [Rolf-Dieter Klein]. The app works by blocking all the light coming into a phone’s camera sensor with [...]
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8:14
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Hack a Day
[Ytai Ben-Tsvi] wrote in to share a little holiday project that he and friend [Al Linke] put together, a dynamic light display that takes its cues from his Android-powered smartphone. The display fits in a vase that sits in [Ytai’s] family room, and while it wasn’t exactly cheap to build, it sure looks nice. The [...]
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8:01
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Hack a Day
[Chris'] family made the mistake of giving him a hackable Christmas gift. We’d bet they didn’t see much of him for the rest of the day as he set about rooting this Android wristwatch. This thing has some pretty powerful hardware under the hood. It’s sporting an OMAP3 processor running at 600 MHz along with [...]
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2:41
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Packet Storm Security Advisories
Secunia Security Advisory - MustLive has discovered a vulnerability in Android, which can be exploited by malicious people to conduct spoofing attacks.
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14:01
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Hack a Day
This is [James'] latest android build, a set of legs that use gyroscopes for balance. He started off by planning the build with some LEGO pieces to get an idea of how each foot and leg joint would fit together. This let him achieve one of his goals. From the start he wanted to create [...]
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11:13
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Hack a Day
[Travis Goodspeed] wrote in to tell us about his work reverse engineering the Bluetooth communications on this SPOT module. He’s targeted the post as a general guide to sniffing Bluetooth transmissions, but was inspired to use the SPOT as an example after seeing this other SPOT hack. We know he’s a fan of getting things [...]
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13:58
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Packet Storm Security Recent Files
Whitepaper called Systematic Detection of Capability Leaks in Stock Android Smartphones. It discusses a weakness in the Android operating system that allows attackers to secretly record phone conversations.
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13:58
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Packet Storm Security Misc. Files
Whitepaper called Systematic Detection of Capability Leaks in Stock Android Smartphones. It discusses a weakness in the Android operating system that allows attackers to secretly record phone conversations.
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13:01
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Hack a Day
[Jbremnant] wanted to try his hand with ANT+ wireless networks. This protocol is designed for light-weight and low-power consumer electronics, like heart rate chest straps and bicycle computers (Garmin brand devices for example). There are already libraries out there for Arduino, but [Jbremnant] found that most of them were written as slave-only code. He set [...]
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9:36
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Hack a Day
Want that 70″ LCD television in your living room to be an Android device? This little guy can make it happen. With an HDMI port on one end, and a USB plug on the other for power, just plug in FXI Technologies’ Cotton Candy dongle to create a 1080p Android television. The price isn’t set [...]
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13:01
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Hack a Day
The guys over at brainwagon just finished up ANGST, the Arduino n’ Gameduinio Satellite Tracker, a build that displays 160 different satellites in Earth orbit on any SVGA monitor. The build is of course based off an Arduino and Gameduino shield. A real-time clock is always needed for a satellite tracker, so a DS1307 RTC [...]
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12:30
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Hack a Day
[Shazin] had some free time on his hands, so he settled in to do something he had been meaning to for a while – learn Android programming. He went an indirect route, and ended up using the Scripting Layer for Android (SL4A), which gave him a head start on the process. Sitting in between the [...]
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15:24
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Hack a Day
Synesthesia is a mix-up in the wiring of the brain where sensory inputs are perceived differently than what ‘normal people’ usually experience. People with synesthesia can have visual input mapped to aural perception in the mind, or driving along a highway where there’s a recent skunk roadkill can smell ‘loud.’ It’s an interesting way of [...]
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7:37
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Wirevolution
First impression is very good. The industrial design on this makes the iPhone look clunky. The screen is much bigger, the overall feel reeks of quality, just like the iPhone. The haptic feedback felt slightly odd at first, but I think I will like it when I get used to it.
I was disappointed when the phone failed to detect my 5GHz Wi-Fi network. This is like the iPhone, but the Samsung Galaxy S2 and Galaxy Nexus support 5 Ghz, and I had assumed parity for the Razr.
Oddly, bearing in mind its dual core processor, the Droid Razr sometimes seems sluggish compared to the iPhone 4. But the Android user interface is polished and usable, and it has a significant user interface feature that the iPhone sorely lacks: a universal ‘back’ button. The ‘back’ button, like the ‘undo’ feature in productivity apps, fits with the way people work and learn: try something, and if that doesn’t work, try something else.
The Razr camera is currently unusable for me. The first photo I took had a 4 second shutter lag. On investigation, I found that if you hold the phone still, pointed at a static scene, it takes a couple of seconds to auto-focus. If you wait patiently for this to happen, watching the screen and waiting for the focus to sharpen, then press the shutter button, there is almost no shutter lag. But if you try to ‘point and shoot’ the shutter lag can be agonizingly long – certainly long enough for a kid to dodge out of the frame. This may be fixable in software, and if so, I hope Motorola gets the fix out fast.
While playing with the phone, I found it got warm. Not uncomfortably hot, but warm enough to worry about the battery draining too fast. Investigating this, I found a wonderful power analysis display, showing which parts of the phone are consuming the most power. The display, not surprisingly, was consuming the most – 35%. But the second most, 24%, was being used by ‘Android OS’ and ‘Android System.’ As the battery expired, the phone kindly suggested that it could automatically shut things off for me when the power got low, like social network updates and GPS. It told me that this could double my battery life. Even so, battery life does not seem to be a strength of the Droid Razr. Over a few days, I observed that even when the phone was completely unused, the battery got down to 20% in 14 hours, and the vast majority of the power was spent on ‘Android OS.’
So nice as the Droid Razr is, on balance I still prefer the iPhone.
P.S. I had a nightmare activation experience – I bought the phone at Best Buy and supposedly due to a failure to communicate between the servers at Best Buy and Verizon, the phone didn’t activate on the Verizon network. After 8 hours of non-activation including an hour on the phone with Verizon customer support (30 minutes of which was the two of us waiting for Best Buy to answer their phone), I went to a local Verizon store which speedily activated the phone with a new SIM.
Deciding on the contract, I was re-stunned to rediscover that Verizon charges $20 per month for SMS. I gave this a miss since I can just use Google Voice, which costs $480 less over the life of the contract.
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5:01
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Hack a Day
[Nick] just finished up bis barbot build that is named after our favorite bartender. It’s an impressively capable even if it was done on the cheap. The user chooses a libation for iZac to make via an Android tablet. This drink is interpreted by an Android ADK to have the mechanics of the robot swing [...]
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9:01
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Hack a Day
Amazon’s new tablet reader, the Kindle Fire has been rooted. Early this morning [Death2All110] posted the steps he took to gain root access to his device (which is so fresh out of the box it still smells new). The heavy lifting is done by a package called SuperOneClick which aims to root all manner of phones [...]