Smartphone maker HTC posts 70 percent profit drop

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan smartphone maker HTC Corp. has reported a 70 percent drop in first quarter profit as it faces keener competition from Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.
HTC said Friday that profit amounted to 4.5 billion New Taiwan dollars ($152 million) from revenue of NT$68 billion in the three months ending March.
Revenue was down 35 percent from a year earlier.
HTC marketed a series of new model this month, which allow a user to snap four pictures in a second while making videos simultaneously. It hopes the "HTC One" series can help boost revenue in the second quarter.
HTC has grown on the strength of the design of its handsets, based on Google's Android operating system.
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Facebook could open security hole on iOS, Android devices

By now you’ve heard that you should be careful what you post on Facebook. But it might not be prying eyes on your profile that gets you into trouble because of the social network, but a security hole open to hackers.

As PC World reports, there’s an easily exploitable security flaw in Facebook’s mobile apps for both Apple’s iOS platform and Google’s Android operating system. Neither version of the app encrypts users’ personal information, which makes it easy to steal for hacker types and identity thieves.

According to PC World’s report, all it would take to exploit the unencrypted data is “a rogue application” or “two minutes with a USB cable.” Rogue apps are less common on iOS than, say, Android because of the latter’s more open nature, but Apple’s walled garden is by no means free of the occasional malicious weed.

What’s especially disconcerting about the revelation that user data is unprotected with Facebook’s apps is the sheer volume of users that are logging in with their mobile devices. Back in February, Facebook released numbers that said some 350 million of its monthly active users were logging in with their mobile apps. That’s an insane number of people whose personal data is currently vulnerable, and who likely have no idea.

The security hole was first discovered by UK app developer Gareth Wright, who stumbled on it while using a free tool that allowed him to see the directory files on his iPhone. Before long, Wright noticed that a game made use of a Facebook token to gain access to information in Wright’s profile. Copying the token, he found it was easy to use the Facebook Query Language and the token to access information in his account. Poking further, he found Facebook’s directory files and a huge amount of unencrypted information. He even found an unencrypted key that could give anyone full access to his Facebook account.

Wright then wrote a computer program to demonstrate how easy it would be for a malicious hacker to create a worm to find and copy Facebook “plists,” the plaintext files that contain each user’s Facebook settings. Instead, Wright made his program merely add a tally to a counter every time it encountered a plist, rather than copy it. The code counted more than 1,000 plists over the course of a week.
Facebook is already working on a fix to the problem after being contacted by Wright over the issue, according to the PC World story. That doesn’t solve the problem of that plaintext token that gives apps (and potentially malicious programs) access to Facebook profiles, however; especially because that token is stored in the plists of other apps, such as games. That means there are potentially millions of Facebook-using mobile gamers out there that are currently vulnerable to having their information stolen, and may stay that way for some time.
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Court picks terms in Apple/Samsung patent case

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge largely sided with Apple on Wednesday over how several technical terms will be defined in its patent fight against Samsung over smartphones and tablets.

Deciding on the meaning of certain terms, known as claim construction orders, helps to define the scope of a party's patent rights and can often shape the course of litigation.

Apple sued Samsung in the United States last year, saying the South Korean company's Galaxy line of mobile phones and tablets "slavishly" copies the iPhone and iPad. Samsung then countersued Apple.

The claim construction order released on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, defines eight terms relating to seven different patents in the case. Koh opted for Apple's preferred interpretation on five of the terms, and Samsung's for two of them, according to the ruling.

Koh blended language that had been suggested by both companies for another of the terms, interpretation of the word "applet."

Representatives for the companies could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.

The case is scheduled for trial in July. However, the Federal U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Friday in Apple's attempt to stop the sale of some Galaxy products before trial. Koh had rejected Apple's request.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 11-1846.

(Reporting By Dan Levine)
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Sprint seeks hit with advanced-camera EVO phone

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel, the No.3 U.S. mobile service, is hoping to turn heads next month with the EVO 4G LTE, an HTC Corp phone with an advanced camera, a big screen, a high-speed wireless connection and crisper voice call quality.

However the device may not immediately support fast data services and the new sound technology as it is expected to hit store shelves before Sprint launches services based on a multi-billion-dollar network upgrade it plans to kick off around mid-year.

The EVO 4G LTE will have much of the same technology HTC is putting into phones that rivals AT&T Inc and T-Mobile USA plan to sell, but Sprint is hoping that its popular EVO brand and some design changes will help make the device a hit.

Fared Adib, Sprint's vice president for product development told Reuters that it made sense for Sprint to stick with the EVO brand as the company has sold 7 million EVO devices in the roughly two years since its first launch.

The latest device, which customers will be able to pre-order for $199.99 starting on May 7, comes which a 4.7 inch display. It also comes with an 8 megapixel camera with features that are more often found in high-end cameras than smartphones.

For example, the phone's camera can take multiple shots when the user presses a button once, a feature known as continuous shooting. It can also capture still photographs even when the camera is in video mode.

"It's something professional photographers will appreciate, but everyday photographers will also want it," Adib said.

Adib would not give the phone's exact launch date but said that the company typically launches its devices a few weeks after pre-orders begin.

The phone will support a new high-speed fourth generation (4G) service Sprint is building into its network with a technology known as Long Term Evolution. Sprint is investing $7 billion on LTE, which is expecting to increase data speeds by about 10 times its older network.

Sprint plans to launch LTE services in its first markets around the middle of 2012, according to its president of network operations, Steve Elfman, who told Reuters at a Sprint event that LTE network support "will follow" soon after the phone launch.

While this may disappoint some customers, looking to immediately take advantage of the phone's faster speeds, Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart said it may not hurt sales too much.

"Would you buy a 3G Sprint phone with a two-year contract when you know that it's about to move to 4G?" he asked.

The same will be the case with the device's so-called High Definition (HD) voice capability, which Sprint may be the first to launch in the U.S. market. HD voice makes calls clearer and reduces the amount of background noise, according to Sprint.

The technology will work once Sprint has upgraded its network and will also require both customers to have phones supporting HD Voice.

Ovum analyst Jan Dawson said that the phone should help Sprint hold the interest of its existing customers who are looking to upgrade their phone to the next new thing.

But he added, "I don't think there's anything in this phone that will make customers move from another carrier."

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TomTom sat-nav devices hit by GPS 'leap year bug'

TomTom has blamed a "leap year bug" for a fault causing some of its satellite navigation devices to malfunction.

The firm said that a problem with its global positioning system firmware - code embedded into the devices - was causing "a limited number of models" to fail to identify their location.

Affected users are presented with a grey screen and a message saying the machine lacks a GPS signal.

The firm said that it was working on a fix and promised further updates.

The Dutch company said that the issue first emerged on 31 March.

It suggested that customers should reset their devices by holding the on/off button down for 20 seconds, saying the move acted as a temporary fix.

TomTom told the BBC that it would "update customers on which models are affected as soon as we know more".

Frustration

The problem appears to affect devices worldwide, with users in the UK, Australia, Switzerland and Denmark among those complaining of the problem.

One user of the firm's Go Live 1005 model told the BBC that he had encountered the problem on Sunday during a trip from Gatwick Airport to Cornwall.

"It refused to shift its position from Gatwick and kept showing a message saying 'looking for valid GPS signals,'" Graham Pitt said.

"I assumed it had broken but when I went to check TomTom's website I saw there were similar complaints about a range of models on its discussion boards. I feel this should have been made public earlier to alert customers to the problem."

A thread titled "No GPS Signal" on TomTom's site had attracted more than 350 posts by Tuesday afternoon.

A statement from the firm said: "Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused."
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Samsung to invest $7bn in China memory chip factory

Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest memory chip maker, has unveiled plans to invest $7bn (£4.4bn) to build its first chip factory in China.

Samsung will initially invest $2.3bn in the plant, which will make chips for smartphones, tablets and MP3 players, and increase its investment gradually.

The firm has been looking to tap into the lucrative Chinese market, but there have been fears of technology leaks.

Samsung won government approval to build the plant earlier this year.

In an emailed statement to the BBC, Samsung said the new facility would help it "rapidly respond to meet the fast-growing demand from customers and further strengthen competitiveness in the memory industry".

The plant is expected to start production by the end of 2013.

'Perfect sense'

Over the years, China has become a leading manufacturing hub for consumer electronics.

Contract manufacturers such as Foxconn, have been making gadgets ranging from smartphones to tablet PCs for leading global brands.

Many of these products use memory chips manufactured by Samsung. Analysts said having a production facility in China would help Samsung to further strengthen its position with its customers.

"Inventory cycles are very short for electronics manufacturers," Tim Charlton of Charlton Media Group told the BBC. "You need to be close to your customers for inventory and delivery reasons."

He explained that being in China would help Samsung take out extra layers of transport and storage and ensure speedier deliveries to its clients.

"It makes perfect sense for them."

Domestic demand

Along with becoming a global electronics manufacturing hub, China has also seen a rise in domestic demand for consumer electronics.

China's economic growth over the last few years has seen income levels rise in the country, giving more disposable cash to its consumers.
That has turned China into one of the biggest and fastest growing markets for high tech gadgets.

Domestic demand in China is likely to grow even further in the coming years, which analysts say will result in higher demand for memory chips.

They say Samsung's decision to open a production facility in the country will help it tap into the growing market and maintain an edge over its competitors.

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