About Gary Sims

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May 21 2013

Sony Xperia Tablet Z now available worldwide starting at $499 in the USA

Sony Xperia Tablet Z aa 600px (4)At long last Sony’s Xperia Tablet Z is available world wide. According to an official statement released by the huge Japanese electronics company the device is now available for purchase through Sony’s retail stores and via third parties.

The Tablet Z is generally seen as the best tablet Sony has made to date and so its global release has been greatly anticipated. Sony are touting the device as “the world’s slimmest, lightest premium Android tablet.” The 10-inch 1080p tablet has a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU, 2GB of RAM and a minimum of 16GB of internal storage. Along with a microSD slot for additional expansion, the device comes with an 8MP Sony Exmor R camera and optional 4G LTE connectivity.

Until this official word from Sony there has been several different rumors about the Tablet Z’s launch including hopes of a mid-April launch in the UK. This was then pushed back to May. In the USA Amazon.com are currently listing the 16GB version for $499.99. The current estimated delivery date is May 24th. In the UK Clove are listing the 16GB LTE version of the device for £499 with a slightly later delivery date of June 1st.

According to Sony’s UK website there will be three versions available the 16GB Wi-Fi version for £399. A 32GB Wi-Fi version for £449 and the 4G at £499 as Clove are listing. In the US the official Sony prices are $499.99, and $599.99 for the 16GB and 32GB Wi-Fi versions.

As well as weighing just 1.09 lbs (495 grams), the Sony Xperia Tablet Z is water and dust resistant. Sony reckons the device can be submerged in up to 3 feet of water for 30 minutes without any problems!

Now that the device will be hitting the stores are you going to get one? If you can’t make up your mind, checkout our Sony Xperia Tablet Z vs Google Nexus 10 comparison and watch our hands on video below.

    


By Gary Sims • News, Sony, Sony Xperia Tablet Z • 0

May 20 2013

ThL W100, the cheapest branded quad-core smartphone on the market

thl-w100-promo-imageSome people mistakenly think that all Android phones that come out of China are white-label devices with no support and no hope of future upgrades. That is true of some phones, but not all. China has several popular international brands including ZTE, Huawei and Lenovo. ThL is another brand that is popular in China where it has over 340 stores across the country. Its phones are also for sale internationally from places like Chinavasion. The ThL W100 is its latest smartphone and it was launched only this week. Not only does this phone have a 4.5 inch IPS display, sport a quad-core Cortex A7 based processor, include an 8MP rear camera along with an amazing 5MP front-facing camera, it only costs $169! That makes it the first branded quad-core Android smartphone to be offered internationally for less than $200.

Hardware

At the heart of the W100 is the MTK6589, a quad-core A7 processor designed for low power but yet quad-core performance. A7 cores are becoming increasingly popular and are starting to replace the Cortex A9 cores that were popular in dual-core phones. By using the A7 core the MTK6589 is able to reduce its energy needs, but at the same time offer quad-core performance. Here are the full specs of the ThL W100:

  • 4.5 inch, 960 x 540, 5 point multi-touch IPS display
  • Android 4.2
  • 1.2GHz MTK6589 quad-core CPU
  • PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU
  • 8MP Rear Camera + 5MP Front-Facing Camera
  • RAM: 1GB
  • Dual-SIM
  • 3G: WCDMA: 850/2100MHz
  • 2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
  • WiFi: 802.11 b/g/n
  • GPS
  • Bluetooth
  • Full support for Google Play
  • Micro SD Card Slot
  • Proximity Sensor
  • Accelerometer Sensor
  • Light Sensor
  • Magnetic Field Sensor

thl-w100-in-the-box

The device is 134 mm long, 70 mm wide and 9 mm thick which is reasonable considering the 4.5 inch display. However the phone is amazingly light. It weighs just 102 grams and when I first picked it up I thought I had forgotten to put the battery in! Much of this lightness is achieved by using lots of plastic, so no aluminum uni-body designs here, but still it is pleasure to hold.

The phone only comes with 4GB of internal storage that is divided into 1GB phone storage and 3GB external storage. This can be a problem for larger apps or games as they simply won’t fit into the 1GB of phone storage. However the good news is that a microSD card can be added and in the settings the microSD card can be set as the default write location. This helps keep the price down but doesn’t leave the user frustrated with no hope of expanding the storage.

Although the resolution of the screen is “only” 960 x 540 the display is remarkably high quality. The IPS screen has excellent viewing angles, the colors are vibrant and when on full brightness the screen doesn’t look washed-out.  Below is a photo comparing the same image on a HTC One S, a Nexus 7 and the ThL W100. Although the HTC One S offers deeper coloring, I think the W100 is actually the best of the three displays (in terms of color at least).

thl-w100-display-test

Connectivity

The phone has all the standard connectivity options like Wi-Fi ( 802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth, 2G GSM and 3G. It doesn’t have NFC nor does it support LTE but for only $169 that isn’t a problem!

There are two SIM card slots both of which can be used for normal GSM services and messaging but only one of which can be used for 3G. It doesn’t matter which slot is used for 3G as everything is configurable via the settings. Which SIM is used by default to make calls, which SIM is the default for SMS and which SIM should be used for 3G can all be set accordingly. Both slots are unlocked and will work with any SIM card, contract free.

For 3G the phone only supports 850 and 2100MHz.  The latter number is the “normal” 3G frequency and should work in most places around the world, however a lot of carriers also use a secondary 3G spectrum range. In Asia this tends to be 850MHz, as supported by the W100, while in Europe it tends to be 900MHz. I tested the 3G slot with a local carrier which uses 2100MHz and 900MHz networks. The 3G worked fine but the range and effectiveness wasn’t as good as a phone that also supports 900MHz. The 3G connectivity will be optimal in areas with only a 2100MHz network or with a 850MHz/2100MHz network.

I compared the Wi-Fi signals strengths of the W100 with a HTC One S and a Nexus 7 using the free “Wifi Analyzer” app from the Google Play Store. The W100 performed just as well as those two devices and I was able to access the Internet from all around the house and outside without any problems.

Software

The phone runs Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean and includes Google Play and Google Now. The phone is running a slightly tweaked version of stock Android. The most noticeable difference is the transparency of the app draw. When the app draw is opened the background (but not the desktop) can still be seen. It is visually pleasing and a nice touch from ThL. The other thing I noticed was that the settings app uses color icons. Other than that, everything looks to be stock Android.

The device supports Google Play and although not all the official Google apps like YouTube etc are pre-loaded, it is a simple matter to install them via the Play Store. Using Google Play was simple and I didn’t encounter any “incompatible” apps. All the top free, paid and essential apps like Twitter, Yahoo! and Facebook all reported compatibility with the W100. For those who like customization it is worth noting that the phone isn’t rooted by default.

thl-w100-software-diffs

Performance

The MediaTek MT6589 is becoming increasingly popular at the lower end of the quad-core smartphone market and since it uses one of the the latest core architectures from ARM, it is a good choice for this phone (and other in the range).

I previously tested the 5.8 inch, 720p Mithril phone which uses the same processor and the results are very similar with the W100 getting slightly higher benchmark results mainly due to its smaller screen (and hence less effort needed by the CPU/GPU).

The phone scores 13,041 on AnTuTu (compared to the Mithril’s 12,737). Putting that into some context it means that AnTuTu rates the W100 as being faster than the Google Nexus 7, the Asus Transformer Prime (both of which are Tegra 3 quad-core devices) and faster than the Samsung Galaxy Note. Similarly the W100 scores 4006 on Quadrant putting it on par with the Asus Transformer Prime. For further comparison the ThL W1, which is powered by a 1GHz dual-core Cortex A9 based MT6577, scored 6436 on AnTuTu and 2737 on Quadrant. Older dual core phones like the HTC One S score just under 7000 on AnTuTu. Overall the phone performed well and there was no lags or annoying pauses. It felt as fluid and usable as any of the Android devices I have at hand, maybe even better.

thl-w100-benchmarks-645

A quick test using Epic Citadel showed that the W100 can manage an average of 47.4 frames per second at 960 x 544 using the high resolution mode. The Tegra 3 based Asus Transformer TF300 manages 46.5 FPS and the Nexus 7 53.7 FPS.

Camera

The W100 includes an 8MP camera which takes vibrant pictures and is certainly well beyond what to expect in this price range. Also the inclusion of a 5MP front facing camera is remarkable. The built-in camera app includes features like face detection, HDR, continuous shooting and panorama. The camera works well for quasi-macros shots and I was able to get a good focus lock on objects even when quite close. The dandelion picture below demonstrates this the best.

thl-w100-camera1

thl-w100-camera2

thl-w100-camera3

Battery

In the box ThL provide two 1800 mAh batteries. The advantage of two batteries is that you can leave home with both fully charged and know that you will get double the battery life during long journeys or times away from a mains socket! The device includes a fairly standard USB mains charging adapter and the phone can also be charged from a laptop or PC since charging only requires 500mA. My battery tests revealed that the ThL W100 can play video for about six hours on one charge. In another test I found that a full battery will allow you to watch YouTube videos over Wi-Fi for about five hours or play heavy 3D games for about three hours.

Conclusion

For those with questions about buying electronics online from China, see our guide (part one, part two) – it isn’t as difficult as you might imagine. For $169 this phone could be missing half the features it has an I would still recommend it! OK, this isn’t a Samsung Galaxy S4 or a HTC One, but it costs a lot less than they do. The W100 has a quad core processor based on ARM’s low power consumption Cortex A7, a vibrant IPS display, good connectivity options, reasonable battery life and a nice 8MP camera. The support for only 850MHz and 2100MHz on the 3G  side could be limiting to some, but there are other advantages like dual-SIM support plus features like GPS and a compass. All that from a branded Chinese company for just $169.

    


By Gary Sims • Cheap Android Phones, china, Quad Core Phones, reviews, ThL • 0

May 16 2013

Android Studio first impressions

android studioDuring the Google I/O 2013 Keynote presentation Hugo Barra announced that Google is working on a new integrated development environment (IDE) for Android app development called Android Studio. Based on the open source version of the already popular IntelliJ, Android Studio aims to resolve some of the difficulties that Android developers face when developing apps.

Besides all the sophisticated features like code completion, code analysis, and Android specific code re-factoring, the new IDE includes a built-in layout previewer. This will be a big bonus for app developers for a couple of very important reasons. First getting an app’s user interface right can be hard. Although actually adding the different components to a UI is relatively simple, actually making that design easy to use and intuitive can be difficult. By adding new design tools including the preview mode Google is trying to make that job easier. Often the difference between a good app and a bad app can just be the design of the UI, regardless of the level or completeness of the functionality. The new preview window is live in the sense that it reflects changes to the XML in the layout file as the developer types. As soon as a new component is added it will appear in the preview without the need to manually re-render it.

The second reason the new design preview is important is that it allows developers simultaneously to see how the app looks across a range of devices. The new “preview all” function will populate the preview pane with all of the currently defined virtual devices. This means that the current UI can be previewed across phones and tablets (in a landscape or portrait) simultaneously. This is a huge benefit for developers as getting an app to look good on a a 3.5 inch phone, a 5. inch HT phone and a tablet can be a significant challenge. The IDE also understands custom layouts meaning that if the app uses a different layout for tablets then the preview will show the right layout on the right device.

This preview mode also extends to translations. The IDE includes built-in functionality to create multi-language apps. The IDE is language sensitive and when editing the code it can look up the hard coded strings and show the actual string in the editor rather than the function calls which gets the right string for the current language. Likewise the preview can be set to display all the languages simultaneously meaning that verifying the design across the different languages becomes a lot easier. For example if the font size of a label is increased it might look fine in English, but in Spanish the label may become cropped. This can be easily spotted in the preview mode.

The new IDE is available for Windows, OS X and Linux. To run Android Studio and to create Android apps you need to install the Java Development Kit which can be downloaded from Oracle’s web site. Google is still working on the IDE and at the moment it is considered to be only a preview version, however it is worth downloading and taking a look at where Google is heading with its Android app design tools.

    


By Gary Sims • Android developers, android studio, Apps, Google I/O, Google I/O 2013, News • 0

May 15 2013

Google Play Store updated with new button design and other UI tweaks

new-google-play-store-4.1.6A new version of Google Play is starting to role out across the Internet. It tweaks some minor aspects of the store’s layout and design. The biggest change is a new design for the Apps, Games, Book etc buttons. Google released a major redesign of its Play Store last month and the latest update refines some of the visual aspects of the app.

At the top of the Store there are buttons for Apps, Games, Music and so on and the redesigned store used a fairly unattractive grey box look for these buttons. The new store uses lots of color with some fading towards the end of the button. These make the different sections look more inviting and the design is a better fit overall.

Google has also tweaked the way wishlists work on phones. On a tablet when items are added to the wishlist (which is now listed as ‘My wishlist’ rather than ‘My Wishlist’) they appear using a card index style, however on phones it was a visual list. With the new Play Store update the wishlist items on phones are now displayed using the card style previously used only on tablets.

There are also a few minor, but welcome, changes in functionality. When a update to an app is considered large, the Play Store will now warn you about downloading it when you are using a  mobile data connection. Also ”Update All” now works for apps with new permissions. When updating these you will be asked to approve each new set of permissions.

As with previous updates to the Play Store it can take a few days for it to reach everyone, so if you don’t get it today just wait a bit, it will surely arrive!

    


By Gary Sims • google play store, News • 0

May 14 2013

CyanogenMod 10.1 nightly builds now available for the HTC One

htc-one-cm10.1-nightlyThere is some good news for all those HTC One owners who are keen to try out CyanogenMod 10.1, official nightly builds are now available for the GSM version and the Sprint variant.

Codenamed M7 – after the internal development name of the device, the nightly builds aren’t yet considered stable but are working sufficiently well for enthusiasts to use. The biggest bug at the moment seems to be that the audio on outgoing calls can be “hit or miss”. The current workaround is to enable the ‘touch sounds’ and start a call using the dial pad, that way you will have audio on the outgoing call. This doesn’t affect incoming calls which are behaving normally.

The steps to get CM10.1 on your HTC are pretty much the same as for other devices. The bootloader needs to be unlocked and ClockwordMod-Recovery installed. The the CM10.1 build needs to be copied over along with the Google apps. A quick boot into recovery mode will allow the CM10.1 firmware to be flashed onto the device (along with the Google apps) and after a reboot CyanogenMod 10.1 should be running rather than the factory version of Android supplied by HTC.

CyanogenMod is a free, custom firmware based on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and is designed to increase performance and reliability over the stock version of Android. But be warned, you flash at your own risk and by replacing HTC’s firmware you void your warranty. If you hate HTC Sense 5 and don’t get on with BlinkFeed then CM10.1 might be the way to go, but it is worth noting the other features which don’t currently work including the IR blaster and Wi-Fi Calling for T-Mobile.

There are wiki pages for the M7 (GSM) and the M7 (Sprint) variants  with some preliminary information and the nightly builds can be downloaded from the two different M7 download sections (GSM or Sprint) of the CyanogenMod site.

    


By Gary Sims • CM10.1 nightlies, cyanogenmod, CyanogenMod 10.1, HTC One, News, ROMS • 0

May 14 2013

Galaxy S4 mini to use Exynos 5210 dual-core processor and pack an 8MP camera, report says

Galaxy S4 mini 645pxThere has been lots of speculation about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4 mini which is rumored to be released in the next few weeks. According to a new report from Samsung and Korea Investment & Securities the S4 mini was developed side-by-side with the S4 in an attempt by Samsung to improve on the lukewarm reception received by the Samsung Galaxy S3 mini.

The leaked specifications show that the S4 mini will be powered by a 1.6 GHz dual-core Exynos 5210 processor. This is a vast improvement over the S3 mini which used the almost unheard of NovaThor U8420 from ST-Ericsson. At the moment little is known about the Exynos 5210 as it doesn’t appear to be the same processor as the “standard” Exynos Dual which was previously known as the Exynos 5250.  Some reports suggest that the Exynos 5210 is in fact a big.LITTLE architecture processor using two A7 cores (for power saving) along with two A15 cores (for performance).

The S4 mini’s screen will use a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 540 x 960. Although this is quite low and at least 720p would have been nice, it is again an improvement over the S3 mini’s 480 x 800 display.

In terms of memory the S4 mini is expected to provide 1GB of RAM, however there is a possibility that the LTE version will have 2GB. The phone is expected to pack an 8MP camera on the back (again better than the S3 mini’s 5MP) and there will be some form of front camera, but its resolution has yet be revealed. What is interesting is that the specifications for the memory and the camera are similarly to those of the Galaxy S3. Even the 2GB of memory for the LTE version is the same as the S3. Does this mean that Samsung have taken the S3, put a smaller display on it and called it the S4 mini? An interesting notion. If that is so then we can expect at least a 1.9 megapixels front facing camera which can record 720p HD video at 30 frames per second.

The only strange thing about the report is that it claims the Galaxy S4 mini will run Android 4.0. Clearly this is a typing mistake or a misunderstanding as even the S3 mini runs Android 4.1. Probably the S4 mini will use Android 4.2, most likely 4.2.2 like the Galaxy S4.

What would you like to see in the Galaxy S4 mini and would you buy one?

    


By Gary Sims • Exynos, News, samsung, Samsung Galaxy S4 mini • 0

May 10 2013

Android powers 59% of smart mobile devices shipped in Q1, what can Apple and Microsoft do?

high end phones

Latest figures show that Android was the operating system of choice for over 182 million smart devices that were shipped during the first three months of this year. According to a new report by research company Canalys, 308.7 million smart mobile devices (which includes notebooks as well as tablets and smart phones) were made in Q1 and Android powered 59.5% of them!

What is interesting about these numbers is that Canalys has added notebooks into the equation. This gives Microsoft a better representation and means that this isn’t just another set of Google vs Apple statistics. If you include notebooks and Microsoft Windows then Apple only has a 19.3% share of the market (with iOS and OS X) and Microsoft has an 18.1% share (with Windows 8 Pro, Windows 8 RT, Windows Phone 8).

Tablets continue to be the fastest growing segment with worldwide tablet shipments growing by 106.1% year-on-year to 41.9 million units. Apple’s dominance in this area can’t be denied and iOS has a 46.4% share. However Apple’s market share is shrinking and Q1 was the third consecutive quarter where Apple lost market share to Android.

The bulk of the 308.7 million smart devices shipped in Q1 were smartphones with just over 216.3 million shipped. Android was the dominant OS with 75.6% of smartphones shipped using Google’s open source OS. Samsung continues to dominate increasing its volume by 64.3% year-on-year, while Apple saw only a modest annual growth  of 6.7% in its smart phone shipments.

The growth in sales of the iPhone is at its lowest level since the launch of the original iPhone back in 2007 and clearly the Cupertino company faces some strong challenges. To be fair it isn’t the end of the world for Apple (yet) as it did ship over 37 million iPhones but clearly Android phones like the Galaxy S4, the HTC One, the LG Optimus G Pro and Sony’s Xperia Z are more than a match for the iPhone.

Canalys Smart mobile device shipments exceed 300 million in Q1 2013

What can Apple do?

All the current Android flagship smartphones use much bigger displays than the iPhone (which now even at 4 inches is looking small). They all have quad-core processors, they all have 2 GB RAM and they have HD (1080p) displays and they all offer NFC. None of these things are true for the iPhone 5.

For Apple to maintain its momentum the next iPhone can’t be just a tweaked version of the iPhone 5. Traditionally Apple released a new design (iPhone 3G, iPhone 4 and iPhone 5) every two years and in the in-between years it released a tweaked, faster version (iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4S). If the next iPhone from Apple is the iPhone 5S with just a faster CPU and a few tweaks then the company will be in serious trouble. Product naming aside it needs to release a new design (an iPhone 6) with a HD display, a bigger screen and more CPU power. Apple also needs to embrace NFC.

But that isn’t all. iOS needs to be updated radically. Sir Jonathan Ive is now hands-on with the design of iOS after Scott Forstall left (was pushed) Apple. He needs to radically refresh the current iOS UI which is six years old and is missing lots of “standard” features that Android smartphone users are used to.

What can Microsoft do?

This is a tough question. I will go out on a limb here (bullet proof vest on, helmet secure) and say that Windows Phone 8 isn’t actually that bad. Please don’t shoot! The problem Microsoft has is that it’s business model is broken. Google went open source with Android which means that every manufacturer from Samsung down to some small Chinese outfit can make Android phones. Second, Google went into the hardware business (with partners like LG and Asus) in a way that actually boosts sales of Android. When Microsoft went into the hardware business it just annoyed its OEMs.

Apple is different as it is at the “high end”. The iPhone is seen historically as a premium product. Its marketing is based on a small number of models at the top end (compare how many models of iPhone there are to how many Samsung devices you can buy). Microsoft are stuck in an old business model with only one or two major hardware partners (Nokia and HTC) trying to convince the world that Windows 8 on the desktop is just like Windows 8 on a phone or tablet!

What Microsoft need to do is lure developers and handset manufacturers to Windows Phone 8. There are several ways it can do this, it will never open source Windows Phone 8, but it could open source parts of it and offer developers (and manufacturers) the freedom to tweak the OS. It could also tempt developers with special handsets at reduced prices etc. To get more handset manufacturers it could also relax the procedure for becoming a OS partner, maybe waive some fees etc. Once developers and handset manufacturers are truly keen on Windows Phone 8 and once they have some freedom to tweak and differentiate then the consumers will come.

What do you think, is Android destined to be the dominant mobile device OS? What can Apple and Microsoft do?

    


By Gary Sims • android, apple, google, iOS, Microsoft Windows Phone 8, News, Opinions • 0

May 9 2013

Sony makes a profit after five years of losses, Android helped!

sony logo [aa] (2)

The electronics and entertainment giant Sony Corporation has made its first profit in five years and according to its fiscal report the company saw its sales increase by 4.7%, primarily due to the benefits of folding Sony Mobile, what was Sony Ericsson, completely into the company. This is good news for the Japanese company which in the same period last year made a loss of around $4.6 billion. Although this year’s profits aren’t in the billions, it is just $435 million, its turnaround has been impressive.

Looking just at the mobile segment, Sony reckons that its phone revenues have increased 18%. This substantial rise was partly due to higher unit sales but mainly due the shift in the market from feature phones to smartphones. Since smartphones are more expensive then the total amount of revenue is higher. Looking at just the last three months, Sony’s mobile phone unit saw an 82% jump in revenue, to roughly $3.6 million. Unfortunately overall Sony’s Mobile Products & Communications business, which also includes personal computers, made a loss of just over $1 billion.

Other parts of Sony are also doing well. Its movie business managed to make $509m in profit because of some big box office successes like The Amazing Spider-Man and the 007 blockbuster Skyfall. Similarly Sony Music reported a profit of $396 million. Its gaming unit managed to make a small profit of $18 million but Sony is still struggling after a 12% decrease in sales of its PlayStation range of products.

Sony is confident that it can keep making a profit and its mobile phone division is expected to see significant increases in sales during 2013-2014, primarily due to anticipated sales of its high value-added smartphone models (i.e. its Xperia range). It also hopes to make more money in the PC arena by introducing more high value-added PCs.

Do you think Sony can compete with Samsung and HTC at the high end of the Android smartphone market?

    


By Gary Sims • News, Sony • 0

May 8 2013

In the US 1.4 million devices were infected with real malware during 2012

security-breaches

NQ mobile, a mobile security company, has released a report which claims that 2012 saw a 163% increase in mobile malware and that over 65,000 new pieces of malware were discovered during the year. This kind of news isn’t new and we have heard it all many times before. However when you dig through the fluff and hype there are some real figures which should at least make every Android user aware of the dangers of downloading apps from third parties.

Anti-malware companies have a propensity to exaggerate the number or severity of threats against Android because they think it is good for business. But in reality such scaremongering is just causing Android users to ignore mobile security altogether. Like the boy who cried “Wolf!”, the Android anti-virus companies are crying “malware! malware!” and everyone is getting tired of it. NQ’s latest report says that the number of new pieces of mobile malware went up by 163% and that over 32.8 million Android devices were infected with malware. 32.8 million infected devices is a serious problem.

But… 25.5% of infected mobile devices were in China, followed by India (19.4%), Russia (17.9%) and Saudi Arabia (9.6%). This means that over 70% of infections occurred in countries where piracy and (illegal) third party app stores are popular. In China for example, Google Play doesn’t offer paid-for apps, users can only download free apps. One side effect of this is that to get hold of premium apps users turn to other sources for their downloads. Unfortunately these third party app stores are often full of malware. This situation is improving, slowly. For example, Amazon just recently opened-up its app store to China.

top_5_infected_markets_for_android_malware-645w

So leaving China and India behind what about the USA or Europe? The NQ report says that 9.8% of infected Android devices were in the USA. A quick bit of maths: 9.8% of 32.8 million is 3.2 million. That is still a serious number. But wait… According to NQ, 65% of malware discovered in 2012 were classified as Potentially Unwanted Programs. PUPs are program which aren’t malicious but could be annoying, for example those with aggressive advertising. So of all the “malware” found, only 45% of it is real malware. More maths: 45% of 3.2 million is 1.4 million. And this is the real number.

What it means is that during 2012 1.4 million Americans fell victim to malware on a mobile device. This is a problem. If each one of those devices sent a single premium rate SMS message the malware authors could have earned over $1 million for their efforts. Not a bad payday for a cyber criminal!

Moral of the story

Android malware is a huge problem in places like China and Russia, but so is cyber crime and malware on PCs. It is all related. But America and Europe aren’t immune. The best thing for every Android user is to install a mobile security suite (see our 2013 antivirus apps for Android roundup) and avoid suspect third party download sites. Don’t follow links to download apps that you get from unsolicited SMS messages or from emails. Stay vigilant.

    

By Gary Sims • android malware, malware, News, security • 0

May 4 2013

Samsung to boost performance of Galaxy S4 by 10% with software update?

samsung-exynos-5-octa-official-1

Without a doubt the Galaxy S4 is one of the major Android smartphone launches of 2013 and so far it looks like Samsung is going to sell millions of these devices. However the Galaxy S4 isn’t without controversy as Samsung has chosen (or has been forced) to ship the Galaxy S4 with two different processors. One model contains the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 and the other Samsung’s very own Exynos Octa. What most consumers don’t know is that Samsung might be in a position to increase the performance of Exynos Octa based Galaxy S4 devices by as much as 10 percent this summer just by releasing new software.

The head of Samsung Mobile and the co-CEO of Samsung Electronics J. K. Shin has previously told buyers that it doesn’t matter which processor is running in their new Galaxy S4 and in many respects he is right. However there is one key difference between the Snapdragon 600 and the Exynos Octa. The Snapdragon is a quad-core while the Octa has eight cores. But here is the thing, the Octa is used in such a way that only four cores are used at any time. The chip has four low power Cortex A7 cores and four Cortex A15 cores. The A15 core is vastly superior  in terms of performance, compared to the A7, but the A7 is great for battery life. So the Exynos Octa uses the A7 cores by default and then when things get busy the A15 cores are activated while the A7 cores are shut down. This means that the Exynos Octa only uses a maximum of four cores at once, making it the same as a quad-core processor but with some clever power saving technology.

This 4 + 4 configuration is all part of ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture – a design that the Cambridge company has licensed to several big names including Samsung, Fujitsu Semiconductor and MediaTek. The marketing of the Exynos Octa has come under criticism because it portrays the idea that the Exynos Octa is an eight core processor with all eight cores running and all eight cores having the same processing power. A quick wander through the Internet will found lots of comments about how great the Exynos Octa is because eights cores are better than four.

In computing an architecture where all the processing units are equal is called Symmetric Multi Processing (SMP), as there is a symmetry (an equality) among all the processing units. But ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture isn’t an SMP design and nor is it tied to the 4 + 4 configuration of the Exynos Octa. Other CPU manufacturers will release different combinations like 2 + 2 during 2013. But something else will also happen later this year. ARM and Linaro, a not for profit organisation which optimizes Linux and Android for ARM processors, are working on a way to activate all the cores in a big.LITTLE processor and make a CPU like the Exynos use all of its cores at the same time.

The switching from one core to another isn’t actually handled by the chip itself, it is done in software. In this case the Linux kernel which is found at the heart of Android. Currently the switch from one core to the next is handled using a technique similar to the way that the CPU frequency is changed to save battery life. But instead of increasing or decreasing the CPU frequency the A7 cores and A15 cores are  deactivated or activated according to the load. If ARM and Linaro can get the software right it is possible to create a scheduler in Linux/Android which understands that the CPU isn’t symmetrical but rather asymmetrical. This is known as Heterogeneous Multi Processing (HMP).

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According to ARM’s website, Linaro have been working on a HMP scheduler for Linux for several months and the code is available to ARM’s partners including Samsung. ARM plans to have the HMP processing ready for the second half of 2013. As there are no hardware changes needed to run a big.LITTLE processor in a HMP mode it is is possible for a silicon vendor (like Samsung) to release a CPU using A7 / A15 migration and then upgrade to full HMP  with a kernel update.

ARM’s initial tests show that a big.LITTLE processor running in HMP mode is 10% faster than a big.LITTLE processor running in migration mode but with the same power efficiency.

The problem for Samsung is that less than one third of Galaxy S4 phones use the Exynos Octa and if Samsung suddenly activated the full use of all eight cores in just those phones then  it would rather annoy the customers who get the Galaxy S4 with the Qualcomm Snapdragon! As a result Samsung might be tempted to only roll out such an upgrade to future products like the Note 3.

    

By Gary Sims • ARM, ARM big.LITTLE, ARM Cortex, ARM Cortex A15, kernel, News, Samsung Exynos 5 Octa, Samsung Galaxy S4 • 0

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