Tag Archives: mobile

3GPP Long Term Evolution

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3GPP Long Term Evolution, usually referred to as LTE, is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals. It is based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies, increasing the capacity and speed using new modulation techniques.[1][2] The standard is developed by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project).

via 3GPP Long Term Evolution – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Although commonly referred to as a type of 4G wireless service, LTE release 8 currently in use does not satisfy the requirements set forth by the ITU-R organization. Future releases of LTE (referred to as LTE Advanced) are expected to satisfy the requirements to be considered 4G.

Urban Airship

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Urban Airship was launched in May of 2009. Steven Osborn had been tasked with implementing a backend system for push and in-app purchase for a popular gaming company. While developing the solution, he discovered how resource-intensive the project was. He realized that if he could devote the time, energy, and money to create the perfect solution, he could provide a valuable product for other smart phone app developers. Osborn reached out to former colleagues Scott Kveton, Adam Lowry, and Michael Richardson and the seed of the new company was planted.

via Company | Urban Airship.

An Android smartphone has been trying to use port 1237 to contact this outfit.  I will open up that port and see what’s going on.

Update 10/17/2012:  Quite a few random wifi platforms contact this company using this port with a very short TCP session.

3GPP – About 3GPP

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3GPP – About 3GPP.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) unites [Six] telecommunications standards bodies, known as “Organizational Partners” and provides their members with a stable environment to produce the highly successful Reports and Specifications that define 3GPP technologies.

These technologies are constantly evolving through – what have become known as – Generations of commercial cellular / mobile systems. 3GPP was originally the standards partnership evolving GSM systems towards the 3rd Generation. However, since the completion of the first LTE and the Evolved Packet Core specifications, 3GPP has become the focal point for mobile systems beyond 3G.

OsmocomBB

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OsmocomBB.

OsmocomBB is an Free Software / Open Source GSM Baseband software implementation.

It intends to completely replace the need for a proprietary GSM baseband software, such as

  • drivers for the GSM analog and digital baseband (integrated and external) peripherals
  • the GSM phone-side protocol stack, from layer 1 up to layer 3

In short: By using OsmocomBB on a compatible phone, you are able to make and receive phone calls, send and receive SMS, etc. based on Free Software only.

Attackers have all they need from leaky cellphone networks to track you down

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The researchers demonstrated how easy it was to track down a cellular device within a 10-block area in Minneapolis using a T-Mobile G1 smartphone and open source technology. They never contacted the service provider to conduct the test.

via Attackers have all they need from leaky cellphone networks to track you down.

PDF can be had here.

Move to mobile will bring big changes for Linux

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This may present some messaging problems for the big commercial Linux vendors, by the way: if the distribution underneath becomes less important, then Red Hat Enterprise Linux RHEL and SUSE Enterprise Linux Server may soon have a serious fight on their hands. In the past, one of the big differentiators has been that these “big” distros provide solid infrastructures in which business applications can be developed. If this Linux-is-Linux-is-Linux idea takes root, that will undercut a big marketing tool for Red Hat and SUSE Linux.

via Move to mobile will bring big changes for Linux | ITworld.

But I don’t think that’s going to last. The Linux community may be cocky now, but let’s think through this Linux-is-everywhere scenario a bit. If the operating system becomes just a background component that runs more web than native apps and app development for the platform itself becomes de-emphasized, then the obvious question then becomes: what does it matter it it’s Linux running on the operating system layer?

You still need a reliable OS to run the web servers which is the space RHEL and SUSE enterprise sell into.

Offensive Mobile Forensics

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There are many different locations containing interesting data on iOS devices. Data often resides in SQLite databases, the chosen format for local storage on mobile devices. The next best place to find sensitive information is in plist, or property list files – these are the primary storage medium for configuration settings in iOS, and they are also a fantastic source of sensitive information. User credentials are often stored here, instead of inside the KeyChain where they should be. Rounding out the top three data sources are binary or binary-encoded files, such as the device’s keyboard cache and pasteboard. Although storage locations commonly change with the release of new iOS firmware, it is fairly simple to poke around the general area and find what you’re looking for.

via Offensive Mobile Forensics.

Similarly to the configuration files for iOS, the XML files storing preferences for Android applications commonly include user credentials and other sensitive information.

DoCoMo to ask for changes in Android

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The leading Japanese mobile phone service provider identified an Android application, which enables free-of-charge voice communication, as a major cause behind a service disruption that occurred on Wednesday, the business daily said.

Some Android applications send out control signals once every three to five minutes even when not in use. This translates to ten times that of a conventional mobile phone, placing additional strain on the network, the newspaper said.

via DoCoMo to ask for changes in Android -Nikkei | Reuters.

Yahoo Challenges Apple with a Cocktail of Mobile Publishing Tools

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It turns out that Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) has ambitious plans to help publishers get more efficient about how they push content out to mobile devices. Specifically, Yahoo wants to become the new middleman of the mobile publishing world, giving media companies software that they could use to reach users of iPhones, Android devices, Windows phones, and other gadgets without having to bow to the programming approaches favored by their powerful makers—namely Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

via Yahoo Challenges Apple with a Cocktail of Mobile Publishing Tools | Xconomy.

The first thing you need to understand about Yahoo’s publishing vision is that it’s coming from the Platform Technology Group. This is the same part of the company that created and then open-sourced key technologies that are now part of the Web’s infrastructure, such as Hadoop, which allows companies to run big, distributed software systems,