F-Secure and FortiGruard both reported that a new worm,Yxes.A, is spreading on Nokia smartphones based on S60 3rd Edition platform (and probably higher, too). According to FortiGuard:
* "It gathers phone numbers from the infected device's file system, and repeatedly attempts to send SMS messages to those. The messages feature a malicious Web address (URL); upon "clicking" on the address in the received message, the recipients will download a copy of the worm (provided their phones/subscriptions allow for internet browsing)." That is, it's a Trojan.
* Beyond propagating to as many users as possible via the strategy mentioned above, the worm's aim is to gather intelligence on the infected victim (such as serial number of the phone, subscription number) and post it to a remote server likely controlled by cyber criminals.
* It's also noted that worm can mutate easily: "As far as our analysis goes, the worm currently does not take commands from the remote servers it contacts. However, since the copies hosted on the malicious servers are controlled by the cyber criminals, they may update them whenever they want, thereby effectively mutating the worm, adding or removing functionality." It's not that simple, though. It's not like download a new EXE from the Net and it will just work. No new EXE or DLL (a plug-in, for example) can be installed without the assistance of Application Installer, which will eventually require user's attention and approval. Some files that don't have to be installed can be downloaded, though, containing instructions for the worm to execute, however, it's becoming a science fiction if we think that any malware author will put THAT much effort in developing such a system. I'm highly sceptical on that it would be a real threat and refuse to be threatened by that.
* It's also reported that "On launch, the worm executes as the process 'EConServer.exe', which is likely meant to camouflage alongside the existing legitimate system process 'EComServer.exe'". This simply doesn't mean anything: if a process name is only similar to another (system) process name then it doesn't imply anything. And anyway, EComServer.exe is never launched by hand (but by the system upon device start), consequently it's not a valid scenario that the malicious EXE gets launched instead.
* It's a very agressive application, since it "will also automatically run every time the device is rebooted / power cycled. Further, it bears a destructive nature and will kill certain processes such as the application manager (AppMgr)." If that's true then the program must hold very strong capabilities that cannot be granted by a self-signed certificate.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Mobile worm, Yxes.A spreading on Nokia smartphones
Expansys posts N86 Available for Pre Order
Expansys is a major online retailer in Europe and have quite some good reputation and if they are to believed, its good news folks!
Yes, they have posted on their website that Nokia N86 is available for pre-order from them. And what is more inviting and mouth watering is that they have also given it a release date which also coincides with the predicted date conformed by Nokia, which is, July 22, 2009, that does lie in the 2nd Quarter doesn’t it.
Though the Expansys price — €549.99 (about $853) — is a lot higher than the €375 quote we’ve heard. As always we would get it at a cheaper price once the taxes are announced and the days go by.
Friday, February 20, 2009
MWC 2009 Barcelona
Check out MWC 2009 barcelona video:
Highlights:
- Nokia E75 and Nokia E55
- Nokia 6710 Navigator and Nokia 6720 classic
- Nokia N86 8MP
- Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-214 and Nokia Speakerphone HF-310
- Skype and Nokia partnership
- Publish to Ovi
- USD 10 million Open Screen Project Fund from Nokia and Adobe
Nokia N97 Hands-On
Nokia N86 8MP Hands-On
Samsung l7410 Mobile Projector Phone
Sony Ericsson Idou 12.1 MP Cameraphone
Nokia WRT Plug-in for Aptana Studio
Following a public beta trial in December 2008, Forum Nokia announced this week the release of the commercial version of the free Nokia Web Runtime (WRT) Plug-In for Aptana Studio, which helps developers create, edit, test, and deploy WRT widgets for Nokia S60 devices, using either Aptana Studio or Aptana Studio Pro.
"Aptana Studio is an ideal platform for us to bring these capabilities to market" said Craig Cumberland, Head of Nokia WRT Tools and Technologies team at Nokia, the team that was responsible for creating the Nokia WRT Plug-In for Aptana Studio. "Aptana's tools, combined with Nokia's WRT Plug-in for Aptana Studio, give web developers of all skill levels a great platform to go mobile and deliver widgets and web technologies to WRT capable devices."
Using the Nokia WRT Plug-In for Aptana Studio, developers can take advantage of standard web technologies – such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS – to easily create mobile applications for Nokia S60 devices.
The plug-in can be used on either PC or Mac computers, and it can be used to create WRT widgets for a variety of WRT-compatible S60 devices.
“This new Nokia WRT plug-in will literally plug Forum Nokia in to the web developer community in ways that we have not been able to do before,” said Ung-Ping Tian, Web Technology Marketing Manager, Forum Nokia. “Providing development environments and tools that web developers already know and use on a regular basis has helped us to differentiate what we do from our competitors.”
Upcoming Forum Nokia Webinar: Nokia WRT Plug-in for Aptana Studio v1.0
Join Forum Nokia on 22 January to learn about the Nokia WRT Plug-in for Aptana Studio, which provides features for using the Aptana Studio to develop Web Runtime (WRT) widgets. Register for the Forum Nokia Webinar »
Learn more about the Nokia WRT plug-in for Aptana Studio.
Nokia and Qualcomm plan to develop advanced mobile devices
Nokia and Qualcomm Incorporated announced that the two companies are planning to work together to develop advanced UMTS mobile devices, initially for North America. The companies intend for the devices to be based on S60 software on Symbian OS, the world's most used software for smartphones, and leverage Qualcomm's advanced Mobile Station Modem(TM) (MSM(TM)) MSM7xxx-series and MSM8xxx-series chipsets for cutting-edge processing performance and ubiquitous mobile broadband capabilities. The first mobile devices based on this collaboration are expected to launch in mid-2010 and be compatible with the forthcoming Symbian Foundation platform.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Vodaphone vs MyToday
This is really unfair. Vodafone India has now blocked opt-in SMS services from MyToday. I've been using MyToday for more than a year now. Its simple you ask for SMS's and you get them for free. There are a lot of choices like cricket/word/horoscope/stock/bible etc... See the full list here. The best part is you can stop the SMS's whenever you wish by just sending STOP
It's anytime better than paying 50 Rs a month per service to the operator. I've subscribed for Cricket/Word and News. I get one SMS for each of the latter two. For cricket may be around 10 I think. I dont mind the ads shown at the end of the messages. Infact sometimes the ads are useful. MyToday has around 3.8 million subscribers and Vodafone clearly knows that this is a straight competition to their services. Earlier MyToday had the same issue with Airtel, don't know its status now. Vodafone goes even further and has blocked mobile portal http://mytoday.com
Check out Rajesh's blog more on this.
N86 8MP Nokia phone
This handset is seen as an upgraded N85
Interesting features
- Wide-angle Carl Zeiss optics and an 8 megapixel sensor.
- promised to excel in both bright and low light condition.
- Optimized for both video and still imaging.
- Built in GPS
- Kick Stand like N96
- Camera’s got Dual LED Flash - Not Xenon as we anticipated
- N-Gage Gaming
- Stereo Speakers
- a built-in compass, along with an integrated 3-months license for full voice and pedestrian navigation
- 8GB internal memory -expandable to 16GB. 72MB dynamic memory
The N86 8MP will have a price of EUR 375 or Rs.25000 approx in India and will be available in June 2009
Skype and Nokia partner to integrate Skype into Nokia devices
Friday, February 13, 2009
Video Maps for Bangalore
Interesting concept of Video Maps from a start-up company in bangalore..
VidTeq:
We are a Bangalore based startup on a mission to help people with providing driving directions and locating a business.
We are proud to introduce unique and innovative navigation concept based on Video Maps. Video Map is a feature rich next generation navigable map built on a traditional digital map. Video Map is a video clip of the complete route between source and destination with rich features (business logos, background music, turn-by-turn audio overlay, road names etc.) embedded into it. Video Map is built of individual geo-tagged video segments.
Driving directions provided traditionally consist of digital map and turn by turn text directions. These directions are easy to follow provided all the streets are marked with clearly visible street nameplates, which is usually not the case in countries like India. This is where need for visual navigation aid arises and our Video Map product would address this space.
Video Map is meant not only for navigation but is also useful for locating businesses and exploring the streets, all sitting in front of your computer. We have surveyed a list of prominent businesses, points of interest with their accurate location and also captured their photographs. This information in turn is embedded right inside the video and also on the digital map. You can explore the streets i.e. virtually navigate through the streets, and find out what is where even before you step out of the door.
As part of the navigable solution, we provide the following - Video Map of the complete route, Digital Map with Route overlay, Image (Point-of-Interest and Decision-Points) integration and Landmark based Text directions. The Images are integrated both into Digital Map as well as Text directions.
We are the first ones (not just India but World) to come up with a Video Map based solution for Road navigation and we at VidTeq are really proud of it. Our mission is to be the world's leading provider of Video Maps and our vision is to be the leader in road navigation for developing countries like India and Others.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
13 reach semi-finals at Navteq Global LBS Challenge EMEA region
Thirteen applications selected and competing in the finals for the Grand Prize during Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona, Spain.
Nokia owned Navteq, a global provider of digital map data for location-based solutions (LBS) and vehicle navigation, has announced the finalists of the EMEA edition of the Navteq Global LBS Challenge.
The Global LBS Challenge is a world-wide developer competition which invites developers to build and submit original, pre-commercialised applications using dynamic positioning technology and Navteq maps. There are five categories: content, enterprise, entertainment & leisure, navigation and social networking.
Over 180 companies registered for this year’s Global LBS Challenge in EMEA. During the preliminary round judging in Paris in December, all competing applications which had passed the eligibility criteria were evaluated on the basis of commercial feasibility, functionality and design by a panel of judges from Navteq and the industry.
Thirteen contestants were been selected to move on to the final judging and awards ceremony during the Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona, Spain.
The Finalists for Navteq Global LBS Challenge in EMEA are:
Entertainment & Leisure
• MSG Software (While on the Move), Finland: SkiInLapland: A ski-guide application that lists the top ski resorts and allows ski enthusiasts to share text, images and videos about the places they visit. Accurate pin points allow you to locate specific areas easily and store comments and evaluations of places visited. It also lets you swap images and videos with friends about the places of interest in that area.
• Connecthings, France: ezStroll: An advertising application that allows you to select a geographical area and receive promotional messages from surrounding businesses and visitor sites (shops, museums, etc).
• Yoose GmbH, Germany: Mobile Coupons: A “mobile wallet” application replacing plastic loyalty cards and paper coupons from stores and travel providers, delivering them directly to your mobile. The mobile phone becomes a one-to-one marketing tool with measurable response rates for each individual user. The consumer can save shopping lists on the phone and benefit from greater savings and personalised offers always readily available.
Social Networking category
• Birkett Enterprise Ltd, UK: PhoneLocator, a native S60 realtime GPS tracking application for Nokia S60 phones. It allows you to view the location of your phone and a trail of where it has been using this website. Phonelocator has advanced features like "Intelligent Update" that reduces the amount of data sent by the application and "Battery Saver" that turns off the GPS when the phone is stationary or the GPS signal is too weak. Phonelocator can be run in the background and started when your phone is booted.
Enterprise category
• Carbon Hero Ltd, UK: Carbon Diem: An application using GPS technology to track a person’s carbon footprint based on his/her transportation choices. It tracks your travel and informs you as to how much energy you could save while using different means of transportation (walking, bus, train, car etc). It also keeps track of all the places you have visited.
• MobGeo Ltd, UK: MobGeo: A location-based advertising application that delivers mobile coupons / vouchers to your phone when you select a geographic area on a map along with food or store preferences.
• NaviExpert Sp. z.o.o., Poland: MONAPI (Mobile Online Navigation API): An emergency services application for reporting an emergency event in a specific location. Browse a map, select a point and send an emergency request with a brief text description of the situation. Emergency services' employees are alerted on their mobile phones and can be guided to the emergency location by means of turn-by-turn voice navigation.
Navigation
• CCC, Hungary: Quest4POI: A mobile application that helps you find interesting Points of Interest (POIs) for specific locations. You can move around the map and it will highlight the number of attractions in a particular area to help make the most of your time available for sightseeing.
• Crambo Labs, Spain: Econav: A driving application that helps you save fuel through efficient routing, enabling you to select the most economical route to get to your chosen destination.
• T+1 Solutions, Estonia: EcoRide: A location-assisted car pooling application that allows you to develop your own car pooling community to save fuel costs and be more environmentally friendly by reducing the number of cars on the road. It enables you to find a ride, share a ride or even offer a ride and also gives you the option to share the application with a friend.
Content
• Kishonti Informatics Bt, Hungary: NaviGenie: Mapping information presented in a route planning application using high quality perspective mode 2.5D and 3D views of city and street maps as well as building footprints. There are several different user-customisable view options, including bird, satellite and street-perspective views.
• PH Informática SA, Portugal: CityGuide: An enhanced POI application with high level of clarity and accuracy photos, images and video imagery not typically available on today’s devices. The application also has a simplified process to set up appointments with friends.
• Skobbler GmbH, Germany: Skobbler: An application that allows young, urban consumers to share information, personal comments and recommendations on places and activities around the city. Skobbler provides useful tips on their mobile phones, combining local search of, for example, Navteq dynamic content such as events or movies with sponsored advertising links and GPS navigation to the advertised place.
The final judging will take place on Sunday, 15th February, on site during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The official judges are:
• Dr. Christoph Grote, VP Information and Communication Systems, BMW
• Rakesh Mahajan, Director, Global Mobility Marketing, BT
• Marc Prioleau, VP Marketing & Business Development, deCarta
• François René Letourneur, Partner/Board Member, I-Source Gestion • Jure Sustersic, Business Development Manager, LBS, Forum Nokia
• Steve Glagow, Vice President, Orange Partner
• Dr. Jay Han, Ph.D., Principal Engineer, Advanced Technologies Group, Samsung
• Jens Greve, Senior Manager, Head of Sony Ericsson Developer World, Sony Ericsson
• Carlos Marín Escriche, Telefonica Innovation Lab
• Martin Wirsing, Head of Business Development Special Projects, T-Mobile International AG, T-Mobile International AG (Deutsche Telekom)
• Sergio Cozzolino, VP of ICT Mobile Solutions, Telecom Italia
• Philipp Schläfer, Sr Manager, Internet Partnerships, Vodafone
• Vlad Mihalca, Head of Wind Innovation Lab, Wind
The EMEA winners will be announced during an awards ceremony at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain on 17 February 2009.
For more details: EMEA Finalist 2009
