The WaveSecure team have gotten in touch to say that they will be releasing a few new features for WaveSecure over the next week or so.  The Action Centre in particular looks like it could be a pretty useful feature.  Here’s what they had to say:-
In a bid to make WaveSecure even more user-friendly, we will be introducing an improved Welcome Screen and also Action Center. We are hoping to roll these out by end next week.
Welcome Screen basically steps users through a quick introduction to what WaveSecure service offers. We introduced this as many users wanted a quick overview of WaveSecure post installation.
Action Center makes it easy for users to tweak their GPS, Auto-backup settings, load uninstall protection and more. The main idea behind Action Center is to give users a set of tasks which they can check off to improve the security and experience offered by WaveSecure.

On top of this announcement, we’ve also been told that, to celebrate the ongoing World Cup in South Africa, WaveSecure will be available with 25% off until the end of June.  To get your discount, go here and use promo code ‘GOAL’.

Security researchers Christian Papathanasiou and Nicholas Percoco, from tech security firm Trustwave, have announced that they plan on demonstrating an Android rootkit at the Defcon hackers conference in July.  The rootkit, which can be activated silently via an incoming SMS or phone call, is apparently a port of an existing Linux rootkit.

“You call the phone, the phone doesn’t ring, and when the phone realizes that it’s being called by an attacker’s phone number, it sends him back a shell”

According to Papathansiou, as the rootkit runs as a Linux kernel module, it can access everything; “Because we interface with the kernel, the opportunities to abuse this are limitless“.  The rootkit could be used to steal personal data, pinpoint the owner’s location via GPS or even redirect any phone calls (such as emergency calls, or calls to banks etc) to a fake number.  Of course, any rootkit like this would need to be installed first, but it wouldn’t be the first time that malware has been bundled with an app on the Android Market, although this is a rare occurance and Google are quick to remove any offending apps.

As some commenters have pointed out though; whilst it’s very impressive that a rootkit has been created that can infect Android devices, it does seem a little pointless thus far.  After all, a rootkit is designed to infect a system silently, covering it’s tracks and avoiding detection.  There’s little point in going to such lengths to infect an Android phone when the vast majority of phones don’t have any antivirus or malware protection.

{via ZDNet UK}

We recently had the chance to put a few questions to NitroDesk Inc., the development team responsible for the superb and hugely popular TouchDown, an Microsoft Exchange client for Android.  Here’s what they had to say:-

Can you tell us a little bit about NitroDesk and your development background?

NitroDesk was founded by Goutham in the summer of 2008, with nothing as investment but a $2000 laptop, developing Windows applications with a focus on integrating web based services such as online photo sites. When the TMobile G1 was released, NitroDesk was the first to offer a solution for corporate email on the platform. For the past year and half, we have been working solely on exchange integration for Android, and we have come a long way. Goutham has been a software engineer for about 20 years, and has built applications on a variety of platforms, right from assembly language on the x86 platforms, and has helped build high performance and high security solutions for healthcare networking.  Ron has extensive experience with mobile applications and information security from his previous jobs and is our platform-loving in-house geek.

What was the inspiration behind TouchDown? Was it borne out of frustration at the poor support for Exchange integration on early Android devices?

Yes, when the G1 was released, media had jumped all over it for not having an exchange integration solution. We jumped in at that time primarily because we saw an opportunity to bring our integration and development background to build a solution that would make a big difference to people’s lives.

TouchDown is a very popular and highly regarded app, you must be very satisfied with how it’s been received? Has it been more or less successful than you’d initially predicted?

It has been more successful than what we had ever imagined. When TouchDown was first released, we did not even have an Android device to test it with. Since this was a completely self funded venture, we resolved to never buy a device unless the application could prove its fate by paying for itself. Two years and over a hundred thousand users later, we are somewhat confident that it has some significant teeth. It has ups and downs, we screw up once in a while, but we have been blessed with a few thousand users who have stood by us and provided us with valuable feedback on the application and the scores of betas we released.

What were the biggest stumbling blocks you had in developing TouchDown, and, how long overall did the development cycle take?

There have been some stumbling blocks along the way, some of them causing us tremendous grief over the past months. We had issues with Android performing uncommanded deletes on our databases, issues with manufacturers throwing out new devices with newer versions of the Android much before we ever get to validate the application on them (Froyo is probably going to kill us one of these days). The biggest frustration for us is not the 325 character limitation on android market descriptions. It is the way our customers swamp us with support requests even before we are able to get the devices. This happened for the Droid, the incredible and is right now about to happen again with Froyo. All part of the game we are in. The development cycle has taken us over a year to get us where we are, with a steady stream of updates and improvements. And we aren’t done yet.

How have you found the experience of publishing apps to the official Android Market? Do you feel that there are some features that are missing or could be improved upon to make the Market better for publishers?

Everyone knows what’s wrong with the market. The biggest problem for us lies in the way the market simply loses purchased applications when a user moves from one device to another, or sometimes when upgrading the device. There is no way for a user to transfer licenses, and we get a fair amount of support calls by users who don’t even know what gmail id was used to purchase the application. This happens a lot when customers walk into a store and the retail employee creates bogus gmail accounts for the customers to make application purchases when the customer is waiting. We simply get overwhelmed with such requests these days and it gets worse every day. Another issue is the fact that the market maintains one version of the application only, with no way for customers to roll back or forward, and no way for us to publish an app for new users only, and to suppress updating existing customers or stage such updates.

Which Android devices do the folks at NitroDesk use?

Between us we have 2 G1s, a Cliq, a Nexus, an Incredible, a Galaxy, a Droid, a Sprint Hero. Those are the devices we are allowed to talk about J.

Which are your favourite Android apps?

PureWidgets by Francois, SMS popup, Google Maps and of course TouchDown, which helps us monitor our support alias while shopping for milk.

Are there any Android developers or development teams out there whose output has particularly impressed you, and why?

Our favorite is Francois DESLANDES (http://koxx3.wordpress.com/), who has produced an impressive array of widgets that everyone likes. We also like the guys at K9, and think they do a great job.

And, finally, what’s next for NitroDesk, further updates to TouchDown or something entirely different?

We still have a long way to go before we can say that TouchDown is done. There are still features that we want to add, things like more specific support for Notes and conversations and Free-Busy lookup with Exchange 2010, integration with Office Communicator, and so on. We like to stay building applications for the enterprise, or with an “integration” twist to it. Since our livelihoods depend on what we build, and since at any given time we have over a hundred outstanding requested features in TouchDown, we tend to never get any time for “fun” and free applications.

TouchDown is available on the Android Market now as a free 5 day trial and the full license key costs $19.99.

It’s time to announce the winners of our 20 1-year WaveSecure subscriptions.  If you’re name appears in the list below, you should receive word on how to claim your prize over the next couple of days.  If you’re not one of the lucky winners; don’t fret.  Not only have the good folks at TenCube supplied us with 20 1-year subscriptions for the competition, they’ve also provided a promotional code which will provide 20% off of a WaveSecure subscription ($15.90 instead of $19.90).  Just use the promotional code WS-ANDROIDLIFE when making your purchase here.  The code is valid for one month from the time of this post.

Here are the winners of the competition:-

Jerry

Phil0446

Thinkliberty

Ryan

Paunescu Alexandry

Jaled Alcaraz

Daniel

Jazo

Eryck

Jens

Oliver Hörberg

Joakim

John Kerans

Matthew Hill

Desean

Sue Hugus

Ken

Bob Plansky

Baris CIGAL

Cavan

Congratulations to you all.  Hopefully, you’ll never need to use the security features of WaveSecure, but should the worst happen, they’ll be a godsend.

UPDATE- This competition has now ended.  The winners will be announced later today, along with a promo code for those members not lucky enough to win.

The folks at tenCube, the creators of WaveSecure, have generously offered up 20 1-year subscriptions to the WaveSecure service, each worth $19.90.  WaveSecure is a mobile security service application which was one of the overall winners of last year’s second Android Developers Challenge (ADC2).

With WaveSecure, you can

If you are unable to recover your lost phone, you can still protect your privacy. Trigger a remote wipe online to delete all private data on your phone, including your contacts, messages and photos.

If you are unable to recover your lost phone, you can still protect your privacy. Trigger a remote wipe online to delete all private data on your phone, including your contacts, messages and photos.

Back up your data

Effortlessly back up data from your phone or remotely on the web. Crucial information such as contacts, messages, call logs as well as photos and videos can be stored securely on WaveSecure web site for protection.

Restore your data

Keep your data safe. With your data securely stored online, you can access your personal data anywhere with a web browser. In the event you lose or change phones, you can restore your data easily and quickly.

Lock and secure your phone

If your phone is stolen, you can lock your lost mobile remotely to make it worthless to the thief. Display a message on the device and sound the alarm to increase the chances of recovering your mobile phone.

Track and locate your mobile

Once WaveSecure detects a new SIM card in your phone, it will auto-lock your phone to prevent misuse. Your buddy will also be notified via SMS alert so you can contact the person who has found or stolen your phone. Additionally, you can track the current location of the phone.

Wipe your data

If you are unable to recover your lost phone, you can still protect your privacy. Trigger a remote wipe online to delete all private data on your phone, including your contacts, messages and photos.

We’re giving these 20 licenses away.  All you have to do is leave a comment at the end of this article, and we’ll randomly select 20 winners in a week’s time.  Entries are limited to one per user and the competition will close on 11th May when we will inform the winners.  Good luck!

{You can find out more about WaveSecure at the official website}

Edit – Please note the competition length has been lowered from 1 month to 1 week.

UPDATE- This competition has now ended.  The winners will be announced later today, along with a promo code for those members not lucky enough to win.

Adobe have announced that both Flash 10.1 and AIR 2.0 for Android are now in private beta testing.  More importantly, they also requested that folks who would like to sign up for the public beta can do so from now.  There are two separate sign up pages, one for Flash and the other for AIR.  Sign up now and you’ll be notified when the apps enter the public beta phase.  All of this means that it’s looking hopeful that we’ll see Flash sooner rather than later, although Adobe did recently put back their initial estimate of first half of 2010 to be a second half of 2010 release.

“We just started the private betas and we are really looking forward to getting these technologies into your hands as soon as possible. There are going to be so many interesting things that you will be able to do on Android and there are also going to be many new skills that you will need to learn, especially if you are new to mobile design.”

We couldn’t mention Adobe on Android without taking the opportunity to post this great joke pic that popped over the weekend from a chap called Duty:-

{from TheFlashBlog via EuroDroid}

This isn’t, strictly speaking, a directly Android-related news article, but it does have elements that will affect Android usage.  Google have, on their Chromium blog, announced that they are working on a cloud printing method which will allow “any application (web, desktop, or mobile) on any device to print to any printer” (provided it has access to the cloud).  The new technology will do away with the need for installing printer drivers on computers, instead, jobs will be send to Google Cloud Print, which will then, in turn, send them to the printer.  When the job has finished, Cloud Print will inform the user of the status (printed or failed, etc).

This technology fits with Google’s overall vision for Chromium: running web apps, rather than locally installed apps.  Obviously, Android devices running Google’s apps, such as any of the Google Docs apps, can expect to be able to use this driverless print method too.

{via Google Chromium blog}

If you’re looking for a way to access XDA while on your mobile, we now have a great solution. The XDA Mobile Android app is free in the Market (just search for “XDA”) and lets you view forums and threads, respond to posts, and start new topics. You can even check your PMs and subscribe to favorite threads.

The XDA app is based on TapaTalk–a big thanks to our friends over there for making this happen! We’re hoping we can convince them to make a Windows Mobile version in the near future.

{via XDA-Developers}

Last year, Citrix announced that they were working on a Citrix Receiver app for Android, an app that a lot of IT professionals were quite keen to see become available.  A limited Tech Preview of the app has been available since the end of 2009, but it did not have full functionality.  Yesterday, however, Citrix announced via their blog that Citrix Receiver 1.0 for Android has been released to the Android Market.  It’s still not perfect, there are a few rough edges to smooth out and the feedback seems to be that a lot of folks have found configuring a connection confusing, but it’s early days yet.

Here’s the official description from the Market:-

Citrix Receiver delivers enterprise computing as a service so you can access your enterpise applications from Citrix XenApp no matter where you are.

Send only screen updates keeping your corporate data secure.

Requirements

PS4, XA 4.5, 5 or 6

Free demo account at http://citrixcloud.net

http://forums.citrix.com/support

Myriad Group are one of the founding members of the Open Handset Alliance, and had a key role to play in the creation of the first Android handset, the G1, as well as in the HTC Hero. Myriad Group are unquestionably one of the leading contributors to the Android platform so far, are you surprised at how quickly Android has grown?

There are now 24 different Android devices available from 61 operators in 49 countries, and last month Eric Schmidt stated that Android is selling 60,000 handsets everyday. It’s important to keep in mind that Android holds slightly less than 10% global market share, so there’s still a way to go before achieving global domination. That said, it’s not surprising that Android has been quickly embraced as there has been clear demand by the industry and consumers for an alternative to what has existed in the market. Free and open source is an attractive element and Android will continue to benefit from introducing this model to mobile.

Dalvik Turbo was demonstrated at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to much praise from the experts. How did the idea for optimizing the virtual machine come about, was it borne of frustration at limitations in the original Dalvik or was it simply that it was the next obvious step in the Android platform’s evolution?

We see Dalvik Turbo as a natural next step for OEMs, operators and developers. They’ve demanded, and we’re now able to supply through Dalvik Turbo, an increase in application execution speed and the opportunity for OEMs and operators to bring smoother delivery and more complex applications to Android phones. With Myriad’s deep heritage in dynamic adaptive compilation technology, we were able to create Dalvik Turbo as a drop-in alternative for the original VM, offering a seamless replacement that integrates directly into Android. Additionally, we’re now able to equip developers with the tools to take full advantage of Android by enabling them to implement advanced graphics and complex models into their games while retaining full compatibility with existing software.

How soon is it likely to be before we see devices running Dalvik Turbo? Will it be made available to users of existing Android devices, or will it be restricted to the next generation of phones?

Dalvik Turbo will be available for the next generation of phones and Myriad is expecting shipments beginning as early as this summer.

What’s the expected overall performance gain with Dalvik Turbo? What about for math intensive computations? Performance is hugely important to developers, especially game developers, what advantages does Dalvik Turbo offer to them?

Dalvik Turbo provides the maximum performance gain in applications where most of the code is written in Java. In the case of math intensive computations, this is exactly the type of use cases where Dalvik Turbo excels as the most “frequent” execution path will be compiled. Gains in such applications can be up to five times faster.

Perhaps most importantly, Dalvik Turbo enables developers to develop in Java without having to go native because of the original Dalvik’s performance limitations. This is a major advantage for developers and specifically for game developers who can reuse code and benefit from the productivity advantages that a managed language such as Java delivers.

You recently announced the launch of J2Android, allowing conversion of Java MIDlets to Android apps. A lot of Android developers already code in Java and then compile the bytecode to run in Dalvik themselves. What are the main advantages to using J2Android to convert the Java code?

As J2Android’s target market is really comprised of phone manufacturers, operators and mobile application stores at this point, we’re providing them the ability to more rapidly populate their Android storefronts with premium applications from launch, without the need for porting or middleware. They can either choose to spend time and money hiring a team of coders, sourcing necessary hardware and middleware and tracking down the original source code for each application – or they can simplify the entire process by utilizing a trouble-free and cost-effective solution like J2Android.Android developers can move their Java code across to

Android and rewrite their software to connect to the Android APIs. However, J2Android does not require any source code modifications and works at binary level with a very quick conversion process (seconds). This allows large collections of MIDlets to be available on Android without any need to go back to source code level.

Who do you see as being the main users of J2Android; mobile network carriers or individual developers?

At this point in time, we are focusing our efforts on offering J2Android to phone manufacturers, operators and mobile application stores.

Are you able to give us an insight in to what we can expect from Myriad Group for Android next?

We are proud of what has been achieved with Dalvik Turbo and at the same time are working on advancements in the compiler and the virtual machine arenas. We continue to work on innovative solutions for Android and across our whole portfolio, so stay tuned.

Thanks to the folks at Myriad Group for taking the time to answer our questions.