As more of the story about the simultaneous cyber attack and real-world “Swatting” carried out against security researcher Brian Krebs comes to light, one of the significant details has the reported targeting of Microsoft employees for hacking. Allegedly, the hackers who targeted Krebs did so because he helped to reveal the method by which they have been compromising the accounts of “Microsoft employees who work on the Xbox Live gaming platform,” Krebs writes. The method apparently involves acquiring and then utilizing the employees’ social security numbers along with some social engineering to obtain (and apparently then sell) access to those accounts.
Last we checked, there are about six days between Verizon / HTC’s press event in New York City and November 19th. Which, by most counts, should be just enough time for the two companies to properly announce a phone, get it out to sales channels, and start moving ‘em into the hands of consumers. HTC’s Droid DNA has been leaked to death at this point, but a new mention of the product on VZW’s ‘Droid Does’ portal all but confirms the true nature of Tuesday’s event. For those willing to wait until November 19th, the carrier’s promising an internet unboxing through its Google+ page — for those who tune into our site, we’ll get you one much sooner. Hit up the source if you’re intrigued by intrigue, but don’t go poking around for pricing or confirmed specifications.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Verizon
Verizon confirms Droid DNA on its Droid Does portal, promises ‘unboxing’ on November 19th originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Nov 2012 11:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink 
SlashGear | 
Verizon Wireless, Google+ (VZW) | Email this | Comments
Ever since Samsung issued invitations for its October 24th event, it’s become increasingly clearer that the New York City gathering would center on the Galaxy Note II. After all, we’ve tried almost every US version so far, and nothing else has loomed on the horizon. Just in case there was any lingering uncertainty, though, Samsung sent us that promised formal invitation with exact details of what’s going on: it’s the US stop for the Galaxy Note II World Tour, with a press event that night followed by a “consumer celebration” later on that might bring a public side to the affair. Most American editions of the phablet have been announced or re-announced, which suggests to us that we’ll primarily get firmer release dates and prices while we’re busy hobnobbing.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Samsung confirms October 24th event is for the US Galaxy Note II, removes what doubt was left originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Oct 2012 19:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Related Posts: 
EE has just confirmed that its 4G roll out will commence on October 30th in the UK. The announcement comes direct from CEO Olaf Swantee, and reveals both the official launch of the new EE brand in the UK, along with those much sought after 4G data services. There will be 10 cities included in the initial rollout, with another six to be added by the end of the year. Once that total of 16 has been reached, EE claims it should cover at least a third of the UK population. As you might expect, more towns and cities will get the LTE treatment throughout 2013, with EE claiming it should reach 98 percent population coverage by 2014. The announcement also took the opportunity to confirm the handsets that will be available at launch, which include the iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy SIII LTE, Nokia Lumia 920, Nokia Lumia 820, HTC One XL and the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
EE confirms 4G rollout will begin October 30th, 10 cities at launch, 16 by the end of the year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Oct 2012 07:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Related Posts:
Sony only outed its newest trio of Xperia smartphones just over a month ago in Berlin, and AT&T has just announced that it’s already grooming the device for a U.S. launch.
Oh, and in case you care, the phone will also appear on-screen as James Bond’s phone of choice in Skyfall. Then again, what else is new — Daniel Craig’s version of the iconic secret agent has been using Sony phones for his two previous forays on-screen.
Here’s a quick recap of the T/TL in case you really don’t feel like clicking that link — Sony’s new flagship sports a 4.6-inch Reality display running at 720p, a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8260-A processor (the same as the one seen in HTC’s slim One S), and a fast-booting 13-megapixel camera.
In terms of connectivity, the TL will play nice with AT&T’s LTE network, and there’s an NFC chipset tucked in there as well to help facilitate one-touch file sharing (and potentially Isis-powered mobile payments?). The whole shebang runs on Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich for the time being, and while Sony confirmed that a Jelly Bean update would be pushed “following launch,” there’s no telling how long it’ll take an update like that to pass through AT&T’s testing and certification process.
Honestly though, AT&T’s announcement isn’t exactly news if you’ve been paying close attention these past few weeks. In the days leading up to Sony’s Xperia unveiling at IFA, it was revealed that Sony Mobile had filed a trademark application for “Xperia TL” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Even more tell was the fact that the Xperia T was spotted on a U.K. retailer’s website rocking AT&T’s familiar logo (see below) just a few days after Sony’s official announcement. The real meat here — when the TL will launch and how much it’ll cost when it does — is notably absent in AT&T’s release.
Microsoft has just announced that it will be providing security patches for the Windows 8 IE10-specific version of Flash, despite the software giant initially suggesting it wouldn’t. The patch will be available “shortly,” and hints at a return to the update cycles of old. More significantly, as ZDNet points out, unless Microsoft coordinates these releases with Adobe, there could be a constant cycle of IE10 being vulnerable in the future. On a positive note, the fix should be released before Windows 8 goes prime time, but for those who jumped on board early, you might want to keep one eye locked on the update page, and get it when it lands.
Filed under: Software
Microsoft confirms Flash vulnerability fix for Internet Explorer 10 coming soon originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Sep 2012 11:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | ZDNet | Email this | Comments
The new Kindle Fire range was barely out of the oven before Amazon drew flak for its plans to include Special Offers on the lock screen for US models. In plainer language, the tablets ship with ads built-in — and unlike e-paper Kindles, there’s no option to pay for an ad-free variant from the start. But don’t cancel your pre-order just yet. Amazon’s support has since confirmed to an Engadget reader that the option to remove the ads will be “announced soon.” Although full details aren’t forthcoming, we wouldn’t be surprised if history repeats and owners have to pay a fee to cover the lost ad subsidies. You can see the relevant snippet of Amazon’s response e-mail, in all its tenuous grasp of English, after the break.
[Thanks, Anonymous]
Continue reading Amazon confirms: yes, you can opt out of ads on new Kindle Fire models
Filed under: Tablets
Amazon confirms: yes, you can opt out of ads on new Kindle Fire models originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Sep 2012 11:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Related Posts: 
We already had a hunch Amazon’s tablets would move to Android 4.0 behind the scenes, and that’s just what’s happened. An Amazon spokesperson has confirmed to Engadget that at least the Kindle Fire HD’s 7-inch and 8.9-inch forms have had a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich to go with their new interfaces. We don’t know yet if the sped-up original gets the same treatment, although it’s using an older and only slightly tweaked interface. Similarly, there’s no word on any upgrade path to Jelly Bean; it’s not something to count on, knowing the conservative path for the original slate. We’re just glad that Amazon is keeping up with the times where it matters the most.
Filed under: Tablets
Amazon confirms Kindle Fire HD models use Android 4.0 under the hood originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Sep 2012 19:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Related Posts: 
A spokesman for the European Commission’s antitrust agency has confirmed that the Commission is investigating browser choice issues on Windows RT and detailed more possible charges. Antoine Colombani told Computerworld that “we will indeed look at these allegations made by third parties in the context of the investigation opened yesterday on Microsoft’s compliance with our December 2009 decision.” These allegations were primarily made by Mozilla, which has complained that Microsoft’s tablet-focused Windows RT operating system only allows third-party browsers in the Metro environment, not the more traditional Classic mode. It’s also alleged that users may find it difficult to change the default browser.
As Colombani said, the…
The Nokia Lumia 900 may not be getting upgraded to Windows Phone 8, but that doesn’t mean AT&T is ignoring it before the transition to Microsoft’s latest mobile OS. Yesterday saw the announcement of a pink Lumia 900, and today the carrier has confirmed that the phone will be getting the Windows Phone 7.5 Refresh update “in the coming weeks.” There’ll also be a usage tracking counter and what AT&T calls a “new contact sharing feature” coming to Nokia’s flagship device soon. We’d previously heard that a Lumia 900 update of some sort was on the way, but it’s good to have final confirmation — hopefully we won’t have to wait so long for the Windows Phone 8-aping upgrade to 7.8.
