Samsung's may come with 4GB RAM smartphone soon

Think the 3GB of RAM in the Galaxy Note 3 was a lot? Samsung was only getting started. The company has just unveiled the first 8-gigabit (1GB) low-power DDR4 memory chip, which could lead to 4GB of RAM in a multi-layered, mobile-sized package. Moving to the higher-bandwidth (3.1Gbps) DDR standard should also provide a hefty 50 percent speed boost over existing DDR3-based chips, even though the new silicon uses 40 percent less power than its ancestors. Samsung is only promising mass production of the new RAM sometime in 2014, but it's already clear about the target audience. The technology will go into laptops, smartphones and tablets with Ultra HD displays, where additional memory will be crucial for powering all those extra pixels.

How secure are SD cards?

The hardware hacker Bunnie Huang gave a talk at the Chaos Compute Club Congress where he offered some good news and some bad news. The good news? SD cards contain powerful, handy micro controllers that are useful to hackers and hobbyists. The bad news? SD cards are woefully insecure.
In a detailed and readable post, Huang describes the exact problems with Flash memory. In order to reduce the price and increase the storage space, engineers have to fight a never-ending form of internal entropy that slowly but surely scrambles the data on every Flash drive.
Huang writes:

Flash memory is really cheap. So cheap, in fact, that it’s too good to be true. In reality, all flash memory is riddled with defects — without exception. The illusion of a contiguous, reliable storage media is crafted through sophisticated error correction and bad block management functions. This is the result of a constant arms race between the engineers and mother nature; with every fabrication process shrink, memory becomes cheaper but more unreliable. Likewise, with every generation, the engineers come up with more sophisticated and complicated algorithms to compensate for mother nature’s propensity for entropy and randomness at the atomic scale.

To take up arms against these errors, SD cards are essentially over-engineered to ensure an acceptable level of data retention. They also contain firmware that can, for example, change the visible available space on the card without changing the actual available space. This means you could sell a 2GB card as a 4GB card – your computer wouldn’t notice a difference until it started filling up that fake space. You can, incidentally, check your cards with this tool.
Here’s the worse news: because these cards contain firmware, this firmware can be updated. Huang reports that most manufacturers leave this update feature unsecured. In other words, don’t ever assume a Flash device is empty after you wipe its contents. For example, the card could make a copy of the contents in a hidden memory area or it could run malicious software while idle.
And the good news: Huang also notes that these cards could be reprogrammed to become Arduino-esque open source microcontroller and memory systems. “An Arduino, with its 8-bit 16 MHz microcontroller, will set you back around $20. A microSD card with several gigabytes of memory and a microcontroller with several times the performance could be purchased for a fraction of the price,” he writes.
So, in short, destroy your SD cards if you have any dirty info on them and keep your eyes peeled for ultra-small, ultra-fast Arduino hacks.

Another Android Engineer Reportedly Moves to the Robotics Team

Google has plenty of hush-hush projects at one time, most recently there was the barge in San Francisco Bay, which has had some questions answered recently. Then there is the robotics project, could it be household robot maids, delivery drivers, or simply new manufacturing systems? Whatever it is they are working on in that warehouse, they are eating up everything in sight. Google has acquired smaller tech companies, quietly, as well as bigger tech companies like Boston Dynamics, and now, they have taken another member of the Android team.

Romain Guy is a very popular Android engineer, we are used to seeing him at Google I/O and as a user on an Android subreddit. That very same subreddit is where he made the announcement, or random comment, that he has made the move, and followed fellow Android team member and creator, Andy Rubin.I’m glad you like my photos. “I am working on Andy’s new project indeed.” is all Guy had to say. In fact, the comment came from a topic of wallpapers, so it couldn’t have been more random. Though it is pretty big news, and is now being treated as such. The move made by Romain Guy, is one that just makes sense. Guy has been with Google since 2007, being one of the top software engineers, and having a masters in computer science. Guy is one of the picture perfect employees for Google, and we are all excited to see what they bring out of those warehouses.

The project has piqued a lot of interests around the world, wondering exactly what is going on in there, though little has been said. Rubin has only made comments about manufacturing and logistics, but the interweb is a crazy place, with high hopes for something bigger and better. Robots who deliver packages has been brought up, with the use of the Google self driving car. No matter what Google says they are doing with the project, people will speculate, until the day we get an official launch.

What is it that you are hoping they are working on, a delivery-bot, or a new maid-bot? Or perhaps you believe they are just trying to better the world of manufacturing for small tech devices. On behalf of the AndroidHeadlines team, and our readers, congratulations Romain Guy on the move. We are anxiously waiting to see what you have in store for us next.

Samsung to unveil new Exynos chip at next year CES

Samsung is preparing to announce some Exynos news at the upcoming CES in Las Vegas. We’re not sure whether this will be a whole new processor, or just an update to existing Exynos 5 Octa series.
For those who don’t know, the Exynos 5 SoC uses ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture and is found in some versions of the company’s flagship devices, namely Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3 (as well as some other devices like Meizu MX3). However, the Note 3 rocks a newer version of the chip (Exynos 5420) which should get the update to enable Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP) capability. This in turn will allow all eight cores (four Cortex-A7 and four Cortex A-15) to work at the same time when needed. On the other hand, the Exynos 5410 which powers some Galaxy S4 units won’t get this capability.

And that’s not all. We know that Samsung wants to make a 64-bit chips and perhaps it uses the big show to announce first such products. This chip, let’s call it Exynos 6, will most-definitely come with HMP capability as well as some other enhancements that should provide sufficient power for today’s mobile users’ needs… More to come, obviously.

Via: SamMobile

Internal documents reveals NSA reportedly planted spyware on electronics equipment

A new report from Der Spiegel, based on internal National Security Agency documents, reveals more details about how the spy agency gains access to computers and other electronic devices to plant backdoors and other spyware.
The Office of Tailored Access Operations, or TAO, is described as a "squad of digital plumbers" that deals with hard targets -- systems that are not easy to infiltrate. TAO has reportedly been responsible for accessing the protected networks of heads of state worldwide, works with the CIA and FBI to undertake "sensitive missions," and has penetrated the security of undersea fiber-optic cables. TAO also intercepts deliveries of electronic equipment to plant spyware to gain remote access to the systems once they are delivered and installed.

Der Spiegel: Inside TAO -Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit
Der Spiegel: Shopping for Spy Gear - Catalog Advertises NSA Toolbox

According to the report, the NSA has planted backdoors to access computers, hard drives, routers, and other devices from companies such as Cisco, Dell, Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor, Samsung, and Huawei. The report describes a 50-page product catalog of tools and techniques that an NSA division called ANT, which stands for Advanced or Access Network Technology, uses to gain access to devices.
This follows a report that the security firm RSA intentionally allowed the NSA to create a backdoor into its encryption tokens.

"For nearly every lock, ANT seems to have a key in its toolbox. And no matter what walls companies erect, the NSA's specialists seem already to have gotten past them," the report said. The ANT department prefers targeting the BIOS, code on a chip on the motherboard that runs when the machine starts up. The spyware infiltration is largely invisible to other security programs and can persist if a machine is wiped and a new operating system is installed.
With the exception of Dell, the companies cited in the report and contacted by Der Spiegel claimed they had no knowledge of any NSA backdoors into their equipment.
In a blog post Sunday, a Cisco spokesperson wrote:

At this time, we do not know of any new product vulnerabilities, and will continue to pursue all avenues to determine if we need to address any new issues. If we learn of a security weakness in any of our products, we will immediately address it. As we have stated prior, and communicated to Der Spiegel, we do not work with any government to weaken our products for exploitation, nor to implement any so-called security 'back doors' in our products.

The NSA declined to comment on the report but said the TAO was key for national defense.
"Tailored Access Operations (TAO) is a unique national asset that is on the front lines of enabling NSA to defend the nation and its allies," the agency said in a statement. "We won't discuss specific allegations regarding TAO's mission, but its work is centered on computer network exploitation in support of foreign intelligence collection."
The end does not appear to be in sight for the revelations from the documents obtained by Edward Snowden, according to Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who first collaborated with Snowden to publish the material. In a speech delivered by video to the Chaos Communication Congress (CCC) in Hamburg on Friday, he said, "There are a lot more stories to come, a lot more documents that will be covered. It's important that we understand what it is we're publishing, so what we say about them is accurate."

Samsung reportedly hits 40 million tablet sales in 2013

Most of you know that Samsung is one of the bigger Android tablet manufacturers around. There’s also ASUS, Acer and a few others that are pretty popular. But for the most part, you see people with Samsung tablets. Which is why I’m actually surprised to see that Samsung has only just now passed the 40 million mark for tablet sales this year. Compared to the Galaxy Note 3 which sold 10 million in just two months, and that’s just one phone. When we are talking about tablet sales, we are talking about all their tablets. Even ones not released in 2013. Right now, Samsung has released three variants of the Galaxy Tab 3, and then the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition.

During Samsung’s Analyst day back in November, the company revealed that it was looking to sell more than 40 million tablets this year. Thanks to some company insiders it appears they’ve just passed the 40 million mark. Once more, about 12 million of those sales came in the last three months. So that obviously the launch of the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition helped out. Honestly, I’d buy the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition over all of the Galaxy Tab 3′s. What else helped, is that many carriers handed out the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 pretty much for free. I know Sprint was selling it for $50 on Contract a couple months ago.

While 40 million is still a huge number, I was kind of expecting more from Samsung. Although the Android tablet market isn’t really mature like the phone market is just yet. But Samsung is already looking to step up it’s game in 2014. With rumors of a Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 and 8.4-inch Lite versions. Along with the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2-inch tablet. So Congrats to Samsung for hitting the 40 million mark, let’s see how well the others do this year. I believe ASUS may come pretty close to Samsung. Thanks to their popular Transformer line and making the Nexus 7 again this year.