HoFo Blog

More bad news for OnePlus... on the eve of a new product announcement they've been accused of backdooring their devices, allowing an attacker with physical access to gain root access without having to unlock any bootloaders— which we all know would wipe any and all sensitive data from your phone, right? Anyone? Bueller...?

Anyway, as privacy scares go, this one has been blown out of proportion just a bit. It's still bad, but nowhere near as bad as the data that OnePlus was caught harvesting last month.

The "backdoor" here is actually a Qualcomm testing app called EngineerMode. With the correct password (which has already been reverse-engineered) it will indeed grant root access via the Android Debug Bridge (ADB). What it won't do is allow malicious software with root privileges to be installed on your device. In fact, XDA has put their own spin on this vulnerability, citing it as a great new way for modders to root their OnePlus device.

OnePlus absolutely should have removed this app before shipping out hardware to their customers. As to why they didn't, signs point to laziness rather than something more nefarious. Oh, and by the way, some ASUS and Xiaomi phones were also sold with the same Qualcomm testing app on board.

Sources: Android Police, OnePlus Forums, XDA

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From The Web:

iOS 11.2 Supports Faster 7.5W Charging on iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X From Qi-Based Wireless Charging Accessories

Microsoft Edition Galaxy S8 now available from Microsoft’s online store

Canada’s Billion Dollar Wireless Cash Grab: CRTC Data Shows Overage Fees Now Exceed Roaming Revenues

Sprint to Offer Free Hulu for Unlimited Data Users

Do you actually want a folding smartphone?

From The Forums:

Open letter sent to Cricket Wireless Management re group discount

Using VPN for full quality videos.

Verizon, AT&T announce plans to build and share hundreds of new cell towers

AT&T sim to VZW sim transfer

Cricket Down No Data

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Short answer: it's an open source replacement for Google Play Services, useful for Android modders who run custom ROMs without flashing Google's proprietary apps and APIs.

Long answer: from the official project page, it's these five components:

• Service Core (GmsCore) is a library app, providing the functionality required to run apps that use Google Play Services or Google Maps Android API (v2).
  
• Services Framework Proxy (GsfProxy) is a small helper utility to allow apps developed for Google Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) to use the compatible Google Cloud Messaging service included with GmsCore.
  
• Unified Network Location Provider (UnifiedNlp) is a library that provides WiFi and cell-tower-based geo-location to applications that use Google’s network location provider. It is included in GmsCore but can also run independently on most Android systems.
  
• Maps API (mapsv1) is a system library, providing the same functionality as now deprecated Google Maps API (v1).
  
• Store (Phonesky) is a front-end application providing access to the Google Play Store to download and update applications. Development is in early stages and there is no usable application yet.

If an open source interface for Google's app store seems somewhat contradictory, consider the promising YouTube replacement NewPipe, which offers access to the same videos but removes the annoying pre-roll ads.

The microG project was first announced on XDA over two years ago, but just got a lot easier to install; there is now an unofficial build of LineageOS with microG services built-in. Device support is impressive to say the least—I'm guessing that the builds are automated from the official Lineage device tree.

With their completely unnecessary vendor image Google has already ruined their phone hardware for me; should the day ever come for me to wean myself off of Gmail and the like my fallback position would most likely be the F-Droid app store and an Android custom ROM. I've never actually tried it, though, and I honestly hadn't considered just how deeply integrated Google Mobile Services were in a typical Android device.

Love Android but hate Google? microG is here to help.

Links: microG, XDA (1) (2)

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From The Web:

Qualcomm Rejects Broadcom’s $105 Billion Acquisition Offer

How Xiaomi is winning over India’s booming smartphone market

Hackers Say They've Already Broken Face ID

Lyft Launches in Canada Next Month in Toronto, First Market Outside U.S.

WhatsApp: inside the secret world of group chat

From The Forums:

Black Friday (Week) Deals from T-Mobile

Should I give in and buy an iphone for the camera?

iPhone 8 and iPhone X Bands

Moving from AT&T Verizon Wireless - in San Diego

Will You Switch To AT&T During 2018/2019 Because Of Better Coverage Due To FirstNet?

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It's not due for its official unveiling until this Thursday, but here's an early peek at the 5-month refresh of the OnePlus 5, the OnePlus 5T. That's it on the left. The photo is from a gallery published by ZDNet's German office, since taken down. Here's their explanation, with a little help from Google Translate:

So ZDNet's gallery is gone, but savvy tech blogs have already saved copies of the photos and re-hosted them—like Android Police, for example.

The big news about the new phone is its new 18:9 screen, 1080 x 2160 pixels @ 401 ppi. Thanks to much smaller bezels (and a fingerprint sensor moved to the back of the device) the display fits into a shell only slightly taller than the current OnePlus 5. Everything else about the 5T seems to be the same; it's got the same Snapdragon 835 processor, the same 6 or 8 GB of RAM / 64 or 128 GB of storage, the same headphone jack... And unfortunately the review units are still shipping with Android 7.1.1 Nougat rather than Oreo.

Thankfully, the price of the new model is also expected to stay in the range of the current OnePlus 5, which in this age of ultra-premium flagships can only be a good thing.

Source: ZDNet Germany via Android Police

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From The Web:

Jony Ive says iPhone X will evolve and be able to ‘do things it can’t do now’ in a year’s time

Apple says software fix will address unresponsive iPhone X screen at cold temperatures

Samsung’s working on a full-screen compact smartphone

How to Unlock Bootloader and Root the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

Wareable Tech Awards 2017: All the big winners revealed

From The Forums:

T-Mobile fires up LTE-A in 920 markets, Gigabit LTE in 430 markets

Help choosing plan and provider PLEASE

Price hikes coming to Sprint

S8+ unlocked vs VSW S8+

Cricket suspended my 5 lines in the middle of my billing cycle.

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To honour the 10th anniversary of the smartphone that changed everything, I forced myself to read the entirety of Brian Merchant's The One Device. It's definitely meant for Apple fans, and seems at times to be set in a fictitious world where Android doesn't even exist.

To be fair, one of the chapters where Android is actually acknowledged turned out to be the most illuminating one, at least for me. The author visits the infamous Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China, where a surprisingly candid employee had this to say about the local job market:

So congratulations to any Huawei owners reading this; you can rest easy with the knowledge that the people who built your device were treated well while making it. And if you were wondering about that other big smartphone OEM, later in the same chapter a Foxconn higher-up had this to say:

So what exactly does Apple do? If you're not familiar with Cupertino's decidedly hands-off approach to manufacturing, check out my Christmas Downer post from 2014.

Links: The One Device on Amazon.ca / Amazon.com

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From The Web:

Samsung aborts plans for in-display fingerprint scanner in Galaxy S9

Motorola doubled its marketshare and shipped twice as many phones this year

Actually, the Pixel 2 XL’s Screen Is Great

OnePlus to Choose 10 People to Review the OnePlus 5T Early

Canadians Using Mobile Data at “Rapid Rate”, 25% Jump Year Over Year: CRTC

From The Forums:

Page Plus suspended all of my family's lines because of fraud at CallingMart

Feds Demanding AT&T sell CNN or Direct TV to approve AT&T/Time Warner Deal

Why Park on Mid-Band?

iphones

T-Mobile Has Your Home’s Back(up) with Nest Secure

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Though I will fight for the smartphone audio jack with my last dying breath I am also, somewhat paradoxically, a fan of wireless earbuds. I try to get in about four to five hours of podcast listening per week, and usually do so on a morning or afternoon walk. Wired earbuds serve this purpose fairly well, except for the cord that either gets tangled as I pull out my phone to skip through an ad, or gets caught on some random object as I walk by it. So-called "neckbuds", a set earbuds connected by a cable that goes around the back of one's head, are only slightly better; the cable has an annoying habit of snagging on my shirt or jacket collar and reminding me that it's there.

But these... these are by far the most comfortable earbuds I've ever worn. Right out of the box they fit my ears perfectly, and if they didn't I'd still have two other sets of in-ear gels to choose from.

BOSE recommends that you install their Connect app on the phone that you're pairing their earbuds with, which isn't at all a necessity—maybe when there's a firmware update to install, but otherwise no. Pairing them to my Android phone was as easy as any other Bluetooth device, and the connection has been rock solid ever since.

Sound quality is on par with any other BOSE earbud or headphone, which is to say excellent. Keep in mind, though, that I'm most often listening to mono podcasts rather than stereo music.

With their charging case BOSE seems to have solved the problem of battery anxiety. No one wants to head out on a two-hour run only to have their wireless earbuds die halfway through. These earbuds are primed for 5 hours of battery life, and their charging case is good for an additional two charging cycles. I usually go out for about an hour at a time, and find myself putting the buds back in the case as soon as I get back. The button that opens the case can also indicate the charge; pressing it lights up a row of LED lights immediately below. And if you put one bud into your right ear you'll hear a voice telling you your battery level the moment you remove the left bud from the case. Clever!

These particular wireless earbuds aren't cheap; in Canada and the United States they retail for $250 USD and $330 CAD respectively. But for comfort, sound quality and ease of use they've so far been worth it.

Links: BOSE SoundSport Free - Canada / USA

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From The Web:

Apple crosses $900 billion market cap milestone on its way to $1 trillion

iPhone X costs $357.50 USD to make, has higher margin than iPhone 8

Siri, define privacy: Why Canadian law isn’t ready for the iPhone X

OnePlus 5T price set to stay the same as the OnePlus 5

Full Body Image of the OnePlus 5T Leaks Online

From The Forums:

Why people pay more for AT&T

How far along is AT&T’s 4x4 MIMO deployment?

T-Mobile Announces Galaxy S8 Active with B71 support

Coverage maps seem exaggerated?

US Mobile super LTE

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So apparently Android celebrated its 10th birthday this past Sunday. TechRadar did up a little slideshow detailing ten (actually eleven) notable events in the history of what is now the world's most popular computer operating system, mobile or otherwise. This Android fanboy didn't agree with all of their choices so I replaced them with some of my own:

November 5th, 2007 - Android is born

October 22nd, 2008 - The first Android phone (HTC Dream / T-Mobile G1)

July 1st, 2009 - First public release of CyanogenMod (for HTC Dream, Magic)

January 5th, 2010 - The first Nexus phone

June 4th, 2010 - The first Samsung Galaxy S

December 6th, 2010 - Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" released

October 29th, 2011 - The first Samsung Galaxy Note

January 7th, 2015 - Nokia switches to Android (N1 Tablet)

May 27th, 2015 - First citation of Android as world's dominant OS

November 6th, 2015 - BlackBerry switches to Android (Priv)

Ten years ago BlackBerry was the dominant smartphone OS in North America, while Nokia's Symbian ruled Europe and Asia. I wonder where we'll be another ten years from now...

Links: New York Times, TechRadar, Wikipedia (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

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From The Web:

The iPhone X beats the Galaxy Note 8 for the world’s best display title using Samsung hardware

HTC U11+ unboxing and first look

Used phone buyer's guide: The best value for every budget (Fall 2017 edition)

Freedom is enabling LTE for customers with grandfathered 3G plans

Saygus V² smartphone gets the FCC teardown treatment, might actually ship one day

From The Forums:

Do you use prepaid because it makes sound economic sense?

LTE On Hrandfathered Plans

Unlimited hotspot or Satellite internet?

How many SUCKERS lined up to spend a Grand and a Half on the New iPhone X?

Phone prefers band 4

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Kudos to Sascha Segan at PCMag for his enlightening editorial explaining why Broadcom, Ltd.'s unsolicited $130 billion bid for Qualcomm, Inc. is bad news for all mobile users.

On the surface it doesn't seem like a bad idea at all. Broadcom makes Bluetooth and WiFi chips; Qualcomm makes chips for mobile phones. Having all this manufacturing expertise under one roof should be a win-win for both parties. I think marketing types call it "synergy"?

The problem, as Sascha points out, is that Broadcom isn't really Broadcom:

In stark contrast, Qualcomm, Inc. is described by Segan as a thin layer of marketeers keeping a hoard of geeks focused on running a successful business. And there's no denying the success of Qualcomm; the company has a target on its back only now, and only because ongoing legal battles with Apple have put them in a financially vulnerable position.

For the whole story check out Sascha's excellent screed at the second link directly below.

Links: MarketWatch, PCMag

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From The Web:

Broadcom Officially Extends Offer to Acquire Qualcomm for $105 Billion

Sprint, T-Mobile Formally Kill Merger Plans

Fake WhatsApp Downloaded More Than 1 Million Times From Google Play

iPhone users fume over letter 'i' bug

OnePlus 5T launch event on Nov 16th is open to the public (if the public is willing to pay $40 per ticket)

From The Forums:

Thinking about coming to TMobile

How long can Sprint last

alternatives to cricket 5 line $100 plan

Att Corp store manager insist on $45 restocking fee for unopened phone

Sprint, Altice USA Announce Strategic MVNO Agreement

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Canada's public broadcaster has used the 10th anniversary of the iPhone as an impetus to take a deep dive into the distraction—even addiction—of the modern smartphone app. It's published an entire half-hour episode of its popular Marketplace series on YouTube, and a feature piece on CBC News as well.

The TL;DR is that the modern smartphone app is addictive by design. One example provided is a popular technique called variable reinforcement. It involves three steps: (1) a trigger, like a notification on your phone, (2) an action, as in tapping on the notification to open the app and (3) the reward—a "like" or share of something you've previously posted. Because the reward itself isn't predictable, the action of seeking the reward becomes compulsive.

For the purpose of this CBC investigation it does seem that "app" is rather narrowly defined as a smartphone portal to a messaging service or social media network. It also seems that teens are especially vulnerable to this addictive behaviour.

As a Generation Xer (Nirvana rules!) I myself am not a digital native, and therefore have no trouble putting my smartphone down and immersing myself in some other leisurely pursuit for extended periods of time. And though I'm also a childless monster I can't help but wonder if using messaging apps is fundamentally any different for teenagers than tying up a landline phone for hours on end in those dark ages before smartphones, or even the Internet, existed.

Any parents care to weigh in on this...?

Link: CBC News

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From The Web:

iPhone X goes on sale around the world

This Photo Shows iPhone X Resellers Are Already Flipping Their Phones for Profit

iPhone X Teardown

How iFixit Became King of the iPhone Teardown

Essential Phone now only $650 no-term at Telus

From The Forums:

Cricket announces new plans Nov 3rd

AT&T Markets Without Low-Band

Verizon shutting down eHRPD

T-Mobile adds each band to the MVNO partner map

Cricket 2017 Black Friday Sales?

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Mobile Syrup has confirmed what I myself tested yesterday, that the upstart Android smartphone-maker OnePlus now has much better support for LTE Band 66 on Canada's upstart carrier, Freedom Mobile.

Here's the changelog from the official announcement on the OnePlus Forums:

After flashing the update I went for an mid-afternoon stroll through several neighbourhoods in downtown Toronto: Baldwin Village, the U of T campus, The Annex, Kensington Market and Chinatown. Everywhere I checked I had a solid 4G signal, and every time I ran a speed test I got the same results that were so elusive to my device just a week before.

Building penetration is still an issue, of course. In certain places, like the bathrooms at the back of restaurants, the best available data signal is still HSPA+ or worse. But the software update is enough of an improvement that I can now recommend the OnePlus 5 to anyone on the Freedom network—more than any other phone, in fact, since you can test a Freedom SIM in either of the phone's dual SIM slots while keeping your current SIM in the other one!

Links: OnePlus Forums, Mobile Syrup, XDA

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From The Web:

Razer Phone Megathread

Nova Launcher: preinstalled

HTC U11+ is based on 'Muskie,' the cancelled HTC Pixel 2 XL

HTC U11 Life hands on—A cheap ($349!) imitation of the U11

OnePlus 5T is confirmed… but the only official spec is a 3.5mm headphone jack

From The Forums:

Can an AT&T rep please...

Verizon LTE down in Mendocino County (rural Northwestern California)

GSM Gate Opener

Any difference between buying a prepaid iPhone on Verizon site vs regular iPhone?

Degradation of service

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... Because that's totally a thing, right? Anyone?

Just to get you up to speed, back in 2016 there was this crowd-funded Android phone called the Nextbit Robin. The company that made it was acquired last January by Razer, Inc.—an outfit known for making gaming-centric products like laptops, controllers and other accessories. And after much speculation (and a few leaks) this, the Razer Phone, was revealed yesterday.

The phone's design is similar to its blocky Nextbit predecessor, but the new model puts its large forehead and chin to good use, cramming multiple Dolby ATMOS-compatible speaker drivers into each (no headphone jack, though). But what really sets this device apart is the option to run its screen at 120Hz, with enough battery power to do so for more than a few minutes at a time. Other specs:

Snapdragon 835 processor
5.7 inch QHD LCD display @ 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz
8GB of RAM / 64GB of storage + microSD
12 and 13MP wide and telephoto rear cameras / 8MP selfie cam
4,000mAh battery with Qualcomm QuickCharge 4+
Android 7.1 Nougat (at launch)

The Razer Phone will be available in murdered-out black only, with a limited edition adding a neon green logo on the back. It will retail for $699 USD. I would think that an Android phone for serious Android gamers would also have an unlockable bootloader so that you could root it and install AdAway to kill ads on free-to-play titles; maybe that's just me.

Source: Razer via Android Police

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