Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Smartphone Makers Bow to Demands for More Openness
Google's Nexus S is one of a number of phones to come with an unlocked bootloader, giving users more access to modifying their phones. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
For many Android enthusiasts, “openness” is almost an 11th commandment. So when manufacturers began restricting full access to Android smartphones a couple years ago, many saw it as a cardinal sin.
Good news for you smartphone modders: Some manufacturers are beginning to see the light.
“Today, I’m confirming we will no longer be locking the bootloaders on our devices,” wrote HTC CEO Peter Chou in a Facebook post on Thursday evening. “There has been overwhelmingly [sic] customer feedback that people want access to open bootloaders on HTC phones.”
Essentially, the bootloader is like the backstage area where preparation for a show goes down. When you first turn on a phone, the bootloader is the program that loads the operating system software into a phone’s memory and then launches the OS. If your bootloader is unlocked, you can gain “root access” to your phone, which allows for full administrative privileges. That means more control over what’s on your device.
For many Android phone owners, “openness” is a major draw to the platform. Google’s open-source operating system software is published publicly for all to peruse. The Android Market doesn’t require a vetting process for app submissions like Apple’s App Store does. And being able to modify an Android device via unlocking the bootloader has been very attractive to phone geeks.
HTC has long been seen as a relatively modder-friendly phone manufacturer. Although many of their phones have had locked bootloaders, workarounds were easy enough for software developers to spot in order to gain superuser access to their phones.
That changed recently, however, when modders discovered that two new Android phones — the HTC Sensation and Evo 3D — would come with software that prohibited bypassing locked bootloaders.
“The system was locked but exploitable before,” Android enthusiast Irwin Proud told Wired.com in an interview. “Suddenly they required signature checks,” or digital verification of software that allows it to load. An Android activist, Proud has organized online campaigns to fight against locked-down phone releases.
After hearing this, the modding community wasn’t happy. Users launched WakeUpHTC.com, a web site which gave upset modders all of HTC’s contact info, encouraging them to bombard the company with requests for a change in its bootloader policy. On Thursday, the company relented.
However, HTC wouldn’t tell Wired.com which of its upcoming phones would be unlocked upon release.
Following in Motorola’s Footsteps
The HTC bootloader saga played out much as it did with another Android manufacturer: Motorola.
“When the [Motorola] Droid X was first released,” says Proud, “people were disappointed to hear that there was a software and hardware component that blocked them from flashing custom kernels,” which means modifying the layer of software between the hardware and the operating system.
After users complained about Motorola’s policy via YouTube, a Motorola employee retorted with a not-so-PR-friendly response: ?If you want to do? custom roms [i.e. modification software], then buy elsewhere, we?ll continue with our strategy that is working thanks.?
The Motorola employee’s comment was picked up by multiple Android blogs, inciting developer outrage. Motorola later apologized for the comment.
But after finding out his newly-purchased Motorola’s Atrix came with a locked bootloader, Irwin Proud decided an apology wasn’t enough. He started an online petition at Groubal.com, urging Motorola to change its bootloader policy. The petition garnered closed to 10,000 signatures.
In April, the company finally caved. ?Motorola will enable an unlockable/relockable bootloader, currently found on Motorola Xoom, in future software releases where carrier and operator partners will allow it,? Motorola said in a statement provided to Wired.com. ?It is our intention to include the unlockable/relockable bootloader in software releases starting in late 2011.?
The More Things Change…
Motorola and HTC aren’t the only two companies to start warming up to modders.
Sony Ericsson’s 2011 Xperia line releases — the Play, the Arc, the Pro and the Neo — all come with unlockable bootloaders. The company even launched a web site with detailed directions on how to unlock its phones.
LG’s recent G2X also comes with an easily unlocked bootloader, as does its U.K. counterpart, the Optimus 2X.
But not everyone is convinced we’re undergoing a sea change in bootloader policies. Koushik Dutta, the creator of the very popular ClockworkMod, a program which lets you install custom modification software on your phone, remains wary.
“I am highly skeptical as to whether HTC actually has the influence to enforce such a broad unlock policy,” Dutta told Wired.com in an interview. “They don’t control what ships on their phones, carriers do.”
And the carriers have the biggest incentive to prohibit unlocked phones. When users root their devices, they always run the risk of “bricking” their phone, essentially rendering them useless. This often results in requests for returns and replacement devices, a headache for carriers to deal with.
Even more than this, it’s about controlling carrier’s revenue sources. Installing a custom modification like CyanogenMod gives a user the ability to tether other devices to their phone, a service that carriers want to block unless you’re paying them a monthly fee. Further, Google pays carriers a cut of the app sales made on the Android Market, which gives carriers incentive to restrict which apps are allowed on phones. Until recently, AT&T didn’t allow its users to “sideload” apps onto its phones that came from sources other than the official Android Market.
“That’s why the Motorola unlock announcement came with a caveat,” reminds Dutta. “We will unlock all our phones on carriers that allow us to do so.”
Ultimately, modders don’t care who is responsible for unlocking the phones or why — they just want their phones unlocked.
Rhane Thomas, an Android user, summed it up quite nicely on HTC’s Facebook page “What I want is a highly capable and flexible operating system.”
- Motorola Plans More Hacker-Friendly Phones
- The 7 Most Hackable Android Smartphones
- G-Lab: Xperia Play, Cyanogen, Mac Malware – Video – Wired
- G-Lab: Xperia Play, Cyanogen, Mac Malware – Wired
- Modders Make Android Work the Way You Want
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/RYx8CgZdfa4/
Light Up Your Life With LEDs, Sewable Circuitry
In the future, we'll all be wearing glowing, light-up, circuit-laden fashions.
Wait, the future? You can do that now!
If you've always dreamed of colorful, glowing accoutrements, or just have some ideas for an upcoming Halloween costume, grab your soldering iron and a sewing needle: Here are a couple of products you can use to get a real 21st-century look.
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/1eHP5w_P1NI/
HDTVs are catching fire ... literally
Full story at http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/27/6732999-hdtvs-are-catching-fire-literally
Hackers hit PBS, post 'Tupac still alive' story
Full story at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43214259/ns/technology_and_science-security/
Robot Wars Prepare Kids For Manufacturing Jobs
Robot battles can be violent, noisy, and fun. High tech companies hope these clashes also turn on students to careers in industries that need their skills. "Getting into this definitely got me interested in the engineering aspect of things," says high school senior Dakotah Cleaver of Bloomsburg, Pa.
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Full story at http://www.npr.org/2011/05/31/136716245/robot-gladiators-prepare-kids-for-manufacturing-jobs?ft=1&f=1001
Monday, May 30, 2011
Smartphone Makers Bow to Demands for More Openness
Google's Nexus S is one of a number of phones to come with an unlocked bootloader, giving users more access to modifying their phones. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
For many Android enthusiasts, “openness” is almost an 11th commandment. So when manufacturers began restricting full access to Android smartphones a couple years ago, many saw it as a cardinal sin.
Good news for you smartphone modders: Some manufacturers are beginning to see the light.
“Today, I’m confirming we will no longer be locking the bootloaders on our devices,” wrote HTC CEO Peter Chou in a Facebook post on Thursday evening. “There has been overwhelmingly [sic] customer feedback that people want access to open bootloaders on HTC phones.”
Essentially, the bootloader is like the backstage area where preparation for a show goes down. When you first turn on a phone, the bootloader is the program that loads the operating system software into a phone’s memory and then launches the OS. If your bootloader is unlocked, you can gain “root access” to your phone, which allows for full administrative privileges. That means more control over what’s on your device.
For many Android phone owners, “openness” is a major draw to the platform. Google’s open-source operating system software is published publicly for all to peruse. The Android Market doesn’t require a vetting process for app submissions like Apple’s App Store does. And being able to modify an Android device via unlocking the bootloader has been very attractive to phone geeks.
HTC has long been seen as a relatively modder-friendly phone manufacturer. Although many of their phones have had locked bootloaders, workarounds were easy enough for software developers to spot in order to gain superuser access to their phones.
That changed recently, however, when modders discovered that two new Android phones — the HTC Sensation and Evo 3D — would come with software that prohibited bypassing locked bootloaders.
“The system was locked but exploitable before,” Android enthusiast Irwin Proud told Wired.com in an interview. “Suddenly they required signature checks,” or digital verification of software that allows it to load. An Android activist, Proud has organized online campaigns to fight against locked-down phone releases.
After hearing this, the modding community wasn’t happy. Users launched WakeUpHTC.com, a web site which gave upset modders all of HTC’s contact info, encouraging them to bombard the company with requests for a change in its bootloader policy. On Thursday, the company relented.
However, HTC wouldn’t tell Wired.com which of its upcoming phones would be unlocked upon release.
Following in Motorola’s Footsteps
The HTC bootloader saga played out much as it did with another Android manufacturer: Motorola.
“When the [Motorola] Droid X was first released,” says Proud, “people were disappointed to hear that there was a software and hardware component that blocked them from flashing custom kernels,” which means modifying the layer of software between the hardware and the operating system.
After users complained about Motorola’s policy via YouTube, a Motorola employee retorted with a not-so-PR-friendly response: ?If you want to do? custom roms [i.e. modification software], then buy elsewhere, we?ll continue with our strategy that is working thanks.?
The Motorola employee’s comment was picked up by multiple Android blogs, inciting developer outrage. Motorola later apologized for the comment.
But after finding out his newly-purchased Motorola’s Atrix came with a locked bootloader, Irwin Proud decided an apology wasn’t enough. He started an online petition at Groubal.com, urging Motorola to change its bootloader policy. The petition garnered closed to 10,000 signatures.
In April, the company finally caved. ?Motorola will enable an unlockable/relockable bootloader, currently found on Motorola Xoom, in future software releases where carrier and operator partners will allow it,? Motorola said in a statement provided to Wired.com. ?It is our intention to include the unlockable/relockable bootloader in software releases starting in late 2011.?
The More Things Change…
Motorola and HTC aren’t the only two companies to start warming up to modders.
Sony Ericsson’s 2011 Xperia line releases — the Play, the Arc, the Pro and the Neo — all come with unlockable bootloaders. The company even launched a web site with detailed directions on how to unlock its phones.
LG’s recent G2X also comes with an easily unlocked bootloader, as does its U.K. counterpart, the Optimus 2X.
But not everyone is convinced we’re undergoing a sea change in bootloader policies. Koushik Dutta, the creator of the very popular ClockworkMod, a program which lets you install custom modification software on your phone, remains wary.
“I am highly skeptical as to whether HTC actually has the influence to enforce such a broad unlock policy,” Dutta told Wired.com in an interview. “They don’t control what ships on their phones, carriers do.”
And the carriers have the biggest incentive to prohibit unlocked phones. When users root their devices, they always run the risk of “bricking” their phone, essentially rendering them useless. This often results in requests for returns and replacement devices, a headache for carriers to deal with.
Even more than this, it’s about controlling carrier’s revenue sources. Installing a custom modification like CyanogenMod gives a user the ability to tether other devices to their phone, a service that carriers want to block unless you’re paying them a monthly fee. Further, Google pays carriers a cut of the app sales made on the Android Market, which gives carriers incentive to restrict which apps are allowed on phones. Until recently, AT&T didn’t allow its users to “sideload” apps onto its phones that came from sources other than the official Android Market.
“That’s why the Motorola unlock announcement came with a caveat,” reminds Dutta. “We will unlock all our phones on carriers that allow us to do so.”
Ultimately, modders don’t care who is responsible for unlocking the phones or why — they just want their phones unlocked.
Rhane Thomas, an Android user, summed it up quite nicely on HTC’s Facebook page “What I want is a highly capable and flexible operating system.”
- Motorola Plans More Hacker-Friendly Phones
- The 7 Most Hackable Android Smartphones
- G-Lab: Xperia Play, Cyanogen, Mac Malware – Video – Wired
- G-Lab: Xperia Play, Cyanogen, Mac Malware – Wired
- Modders Make Android Work the Way You Want
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/RYx8CgZdfa4/
Light Up Your Life With LEDs, Sewable Circuitry
In the future, we'll all be wearing glowing, light-up, circuit-laden fashions.
Wait, the future? You can do that now!
If you've always dreamed of colorful, glowing accoutrements, or just have some ideas for an upcoming Halloween costume, grab your soldering iron and a sewing needle: Here are a couple of products you can use to get a real 21st-century look.
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/1eHP5w_P1NI/
Top 10 ways iOS outdoes Android
Full story at http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/27/6732897-top-10-ways-ios-outdoes-android
Hackers hit PBS, post 'Tupac still alive' story
Full story at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43214259/ns/technology_and_science-security/
Army Nurse Helps Soldiers Heal From Burn Wounds
As part of NPR's ongoing series, 'The Impact of War,' guest host Allison Keyes explores one of the tragic consequences of combat - burn wounds. Such wounds can subject victims to a painful and unpredictable recovery. Army Lt. Col. Maria Serio Melvin shares her experiences at the military's largest burn center, the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, TX, where she treated service members injured in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
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Full story at http://www.npr.org/2011/05/30/136721504/army-nurse-helps-soldiers-heal-from-burn-wounds?ft=1&f=1001
Sunday, May 29, 2011
One Year In, iPad Apps Get Less Wacky and More User-Friendly
Released April, Apple's iPad 2 is faster and skinnier than its predecessor. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
One year after the iPad’s release, third-party apps have improved dramatically in usability, according to an interface scientist.
Jakob Nielsen, often hailed as “king of usability,” published results this week on a follow-up study examining iPad app interfaces. He found that iPad apps today are considerably “less wacky” and therefore easier to use than they were last year.
“We really came quite a long way in a year, and a year is a short amount of time,” Nielsen told Wired.com in a phone interview. “If we think back to when the web came out … there were five years when the web got worse before it started getting better.”
For software makers, interface design can be a tricky thing, because digital experiences are purely subjective. The ultimate question: What do customers want? For instance, where do they want this button, or what do they want to happen when selecting this menu? Software makers often must poll groups of testers before releasing their apps to the public to determine the most user-friendly design.
On the iPad, it can be especially challenging to nail usability, because multitouch gestures are invisible, and it’s up to the user to figure out which gestures do what. Compare that to the desktop PCs we’ve grown accustomed to, which deal with physical keyboard and mice, mouse pointers, windows and icons ? usability is a bit more clear-cut in this environment.
The initial issue with the iPad, Nielsen pointed out last year, was that before the original iPad was released, Apple didn’t give developers iPads to test their apps on. Apple only allowed a select group of programmers access to iPads to test their apps in an isolated room with blacked-out windows at Apple headquarters, meaning they couldn’t do any user testing prior to the iPad’s release. Therefore, the earliest iPad apps were coded in the dark.
As a result, user interfaces in the initial batch of iPad apps were all over the map, with little consistency among the various apps. Apps would behave differently when we swiped or pinched, and some apps used complex interactions such as running three fingers diagonally across the screen, Nielsen said.
Today, iPad apps have become more simple and user-friendly, Nielsen said. He found that magazine apps, for example, would display a cover with the top stories, and tapping on a top story would bring you straight to the content, rather than make you turn to the table of contents and flip to the article manually. His study also found that more apps included Back buttons and broader use of search.
“For the average user, technology is a means to an end,” Nielsen said. “People want to jump in and get results. If I see a cover with three interesting [stories], I want to tap and read right away.”
To conduct his study, Nielsen recruited 16 iPad customers with two months of experience using their iPads. Nielsen’s team watched the test subjects as they launched and interacted with 26 different apps and six websites.
See Also:
- iPad Developers Code Their Apps in the Dark
- 10 Apps You Should Download for iPad 2
- Adobe Shows Three Amazing iPad Apps for Photoshop
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/E_sq4QOOXik/
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