Revamped ‘privacy’ phone launched

Security firm Silent Circle has revamped its smartphone that helps people manage personal data.

The Blackphone 2 adds software to the basic Android operating system so people can fine tune what each app, service and site can know about them.

The phone costs $799 (£525) and is aimed at businesses keen to oversee the information employees expose.

The launch comes as Blackberry readies an Android phone that also has improved privacy features.

Paranoid Android

Blackphone 2 owners manage data sharing via the phone’s security centre that lets them tweak settings for each app.

“At the moment it’s often about accepting everything or denying all the app permission requests,” said David Puron, head of engineering at Silent Circle. “We wanted it to be more fine-grained than that.”

In addition, he said, the phone lets people create separate virtual “spaces” in which they can set up different permissions for apps depending on whether they are using the phone personally, for work or are letting children play with it.

The phone also enables encryption by default, can be wiped remotely and Silent Circle has committed to fix bugs and issue updates within 72 hours of discovery.

In addition, said Mr Puron, Silent Circle had worked on the hardware to ensure it was fast and looked good. The original Blackphone demanded people “compromise” if they wanted to do a better job of managing their privacy, he said.

The next version of Android, known as Marshmallow, is expected to introduce some of the features in the Blackphone 2 to mainstream handsets.

“The industry is moving in the right direction and is incorporating the permission controls which is something we have done for 18 months,” he said. “It’s a good sign that these technologies are being progressively adopted.”

Ben Wood, a mobile analyst from CCS Insight, said the phone was one among many devices targeting the “long-tail” of the smartphone market.

“With 1.5 billion smartphones set to sell in 2015 there are small niches which companies like Silent Circle can target,” he said. “There are always going to be paranoid users that feel they need a higher level of privacy, which is something the encryption on the Blackphone offers.”

The Blackphone 2 launch comes soon after Blackberry spoke more about its upcoming Priv Android phone which will include more privacy management tools.

Plusnet outage leaves thousands without phone or internet access

A fault in Plusnet’s Domain Name System left thousands of customers across the UK without phone or broadband access

Plusnet customers throughout the UK were left without phone and internet services on Wednesday and Thursday, following a major network outage.

The problem was flagged up shortly after midnight and was acknowledged by the company on its Plusnet Help Twitter page, where customers from across the country had reported a loss of service.

“We are in the process of investigating this now. I will provide on this thread, and our Twitter pages as soon as I receive more information,” wrote Matty Cassell, a Plusnet customer relations representative, on the company’scommunity forum.

“Our systems where we provide the service status are also unfortunately down, but I will endeavour to get one up as soon as I have the facility to. Really sorry for the inconvenience caused.”

Matthew Wheeler, another Plusnet representative, updated customers a little while later, advising them to do a manual reboot of their router in order to fix the issue.

Most customers following the instructions saw their services return to normal on Thursday morning. However, those still experiencing problems are advised to consult the Plusnet Help page or try rebooting their routers.

“We’ve worked throughout the night to resolve this and have made a lot of progress with most of our customers now up and running,” a Plusnet spokesperson said in a statement emailed to The Register.

“However we still have a few issues which we’re working to solve as soon as possible. We would like to sincerely apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused.”

It appears that the issues were caused by a Domain Name System (DNS) malfunction at Plusnet’s headquarters. The DNS converts text-based web addresses into number-based IP addresses, enabling it to route traffic over the web, so if it goes down, pages are unable to load.

Anyone still suffering issues can switch their DNS server to Google’s Public DNS, which has the memorable IP address 8.8.8.8. Instructions on how to do this are available here.

Aviva ‘revenge’ phone hacker jailed for 18 months

A man has been jailed for 18 months for hacking into 900 phones belonging to the insurance company Aviva.

Richard Neale, 40, pleaded guilty to carrying out the attack as revenge after falling out with colleagues.

He was previously a director at Esselar, a company contracted by Aviva to run its security network. Prosecutors said data had been wiped on hundreds of devices.

Esselar missed out on £500,000 of future business deals as a result.

Neale admitted to hacking into the Aviva system in May 2014, on the night that Esselar was giving a security demonstration.

Prosecutors said that this had led Aviva to end its relationship with Esselar, meaning that the latter had missed out on an £80,000-per-year contract.

Neale had also created a fake identity within his former company’s system and used it to reject expenses claims from his erstwhile colleagues, the court heard.

In a separate offence, he hacked into Esselar’s Twitter account and replaced its logo with a bleeding heart – a calling card meant to make it clear that its security had been compromised.

‘Damaged confidence’

At a sentencing hearing at Guildford Crown Court on Monday, judge Neil Stewart said that Neale’s actions had “damaged confidence and reputations in a way that can be far-reaching and serious”.

According to a report of the case in the Daily Mail, the prosecutor, Fiona Alexander, said: “The aim of the attack was to ridicule Esselar. There was a degree of sophisticated planning.

“The offending persisted over a period of five months. The defendant was motivated by revenge – a serious aggravating feature. There was a grave breach of trust.

“It wasn’t intended to target just Esselar but also… Aviva. Over 900 devices were wiped by the defendant’s actions.”

‘Incalculable losses’

She told the court Esselar’s “tangible” losses amounted to £528,000. But the company said the full extent of its losses was “simply incalculable”.

“Yes, we survived, but there were times we thought we may not. Our brand was damaged to the point we felt we needed to rebrand,” it said, in a statement read to the court by Ms Alexander.

Neale, who set up Esselar with Shane Taylor and Simon Rogan in 2009, sold his shares in the company after a falling out over an insurance payment in 2013. He had subsequently harboured resentment, according to his lawyer, Kevin Barry.

In mitigation, Mr Barry had told the court that the relationship between Esselar and Aviva had been “on a knife edge” before Neale’s actions, the Mail reported.

‘Foolish and childish’

According to the newspaper, he had said that Neale’s resentment “festered” and that his actions had been “foolish and childish”. He added that “no data was actually lost or permanently compromised”.

Judge Stewart told Neale: “You parted on terms and in circumstances that left you nursing resentment.

“The prosecution describe these offences as revenge; you use the expression causing mischief. What form of words you use is beside the point: it was plainly borne of your resentment.”

Neale had pleaded guilty to four counts of unauthorised or reckless acts with intent to impair computer operation, under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, at an earlier hearing.

Introducing the smallest phone charger in the world

Two university students have created a tiny £12 charger which uses nothing more than AA batteries to give your phone a boost on the go

Ever been at a festival and had to stand in a queue for hours to charge your phone at great expense? Or been camping and found yourself with no battery, miles from the nearest plug? A key ring could be the answer to all your problems this summer.

Two students from Brunel University have created the world’s smallest phone charger, capable of boosting your charge on the go using just two AA batteries and a magnet.

The latest offering in wearable tech, this tiny charger – called ‘The Nipper’ – weighs in at 10 grams and is small enough to fit on a key ring or be shoved into a pocket or handbag.

“Bringing the Nipper along with you in your everyday life should be intuitive – when all else fails, in situations where you desperately need to use your phone but have no access to laptops, electrical sockets, wind turbines or solar panels the Nipper will be there for you,” says Chris Tait, who along with his business partner Doug Stokes launched the product straight out of university in April after entering a national competition to find the best ‘everyday fix’ gadget.

Newly graduated product design and engineering students, Tait and Stokes entered the competition – run by insurance company Direct Line – on a whim with an idea they came up with at the kitchen table of their student digs the night before the pitch.

Days later, they had won backing to commercialise the product and their new company – appropriately named ‘Design on Impulse’ – was up and running in Somerset House.

Mr Stokes says: “One moment we were doing our finals and the next we were in the centre of London, working on a product we’d come up with in our flat which we’d been given support to make into a reality.

“A lot of people who have just graduated are spending the summer travelling or trying to find a job and move out of home. But being able to go straight from university to working in Somerset House every day, where you’ve got Parliament on one side and St Paul’s on the other, is pretty amazing.”

With a variety of colours up for grabs, as well as the option to get a leather strap, gold-plated neodymium magnets, or even have it embossed with your name, Tait and Stokes have tapped into the growing obsession with wearable tech, billing their product as a fashion statement as much as a piece of technology.

Many chargers now use a micro-USB connector, meaning one charger can suffice for multiple gadgets  Photo: ALAMY

Produced using a 3D printer (what else?), the device is made from two magnets and a micro USB. When you need to charge up on the go, you simply place two AA batteries between the magnets and plug it into your phone.

Mr Tait says: “It attaches to your key ring and needs only a couple of AA batteries to power it so it’s not so much a portable charger as it is an emergency power source that you carry with you all the time.

“Wherever you are in the world, whether hiking a trail, in a festival campsite or a foreign city, you should be able to either find somewhere that sells AA batteries or pop them out of a torch or remote control.

“Every corner shop, camping store and festival stall should sell them. They’re cheap and readily available and don’t require you to be anywhere near a plug.”

‘It’s not so much a portable charger as it is an emergency power source that you carry with you all the time’

And with the most basic Nipper costing just £12, the pair have already taken pledges for upwards of £8,000 on Kickstarter since it was launched last week.

The Nipper, which can be used on most Android phones and Kindles, will go into production as soon as the Kickstarter funding comes in next month.

So with hundreds of chargers to manufacture, an iPhone version in the planning stages and a fledgeling business to get off the ground, it’s set to be a pretty big year for these two young graduates.

EE recalls Power Bars after portable phone charger explodes

EE has been forced to recall half a million portable battery packs it gave away for free, after several were found to put customers at risk.

The UK’s biggest mobile operator, which has almost 30 million customers under the EE, Orange and T-Mobile brands, said around 500,000 Power Bars may carry a fault which makes the devices prone to overheating.

Last month, a medical student in Aberdeen was seriously burned when her battery pack exploded, setting her bedroom on fire.

On Wednesday EE said it found five Power Bars, all of a particular batch marked “E1-06”, to be faulty, and asked customers to return the packs.

Around a third of the 1.5 million Power Bars in circulation are marked E1-06, meaning hundreds of thousands of customers could potentially be at risk, although many of the battery packs are in stores rather than public hands. The E1-06 models are one of seven batches of Power Bars, and no issues had been detected with other versions.

EE announced a UK-first in April when it said it would give customers free rechargeable power packs, which allow them to charge smartphones when out and about. Customers can also replace empty ones with fully-charged Power Bars at EE stores..

Power Bars contain a relatively standard lithium-ion battery, which are used in almost all modern electronic devices. Lithium is less dense than other metals, which allows batteries to store more power, but can be highly reactive.

Although dangerous incidents are rare, minor faults can cause heat to become trapped, and batteries can become so hot that they explode.

EE urged customers to return the E1-06 models to stores, and said it was investigating the matter. The Power Bar programme is already on hold due to huge demand for the programme, which 1.5 million customers have joined

Fire Phone one year later: Why Amazon’s smartphone flamed out

The failure of the Fire Phone, which hit the market a year ago on Saturday, offers some lessons on what companies need to do — and avoid — when trying to create a successful smartphone.

There are times when being the first person with a new gadget will elicit cheers and envy — like outside New York’s Fifth Avenue Apple Store, surrounded by applauding salespeople, curious fans and gawking media.

Then there’s buying the Amazon Fire Phone.

Marlena Solomon learned first-hand the hazards of being an early adopter when she jumped at the chance to buy Amazon’s first-ever smartphone a year ago.

Her excitement quickly turned to frustration after she realized the phone didn’t have many of her favorite apps — including Google Maps and Starbucks — and she was annoyed at how difficult it was to import her Apple iTunes library. On top of that, instead of marveling at her new gizmo, some people asked, “Why did you buy that?” Three months after she got the device, it went back in its original box and was tucked away at Solomon’s home. She went right back to owning an Apple iPhone.

“It’s the one time being a first adopter really kicked me in the butt,” said Solomon, 45, a marketing specialist for an automotive lubricants company who lives northwest of Houston. “As soon as I put it back in the box and charged up my iPhone, I didn’t think about it again.”

Solomon’s experience is just one of the many negative reactions to the online retailer’s smartphone, which first hit the market a year ago this weekend. It became an uncharacteristic and high-profile failure for a top tech company known for thrilling customers and boldly expanding into new markets. The Fire Phone also serves as a warning to other would-be phone makers as proof that the smartphone market is incredibly difficult to break into, and offers lessons on what sort of pitfalls to avoid.

“I think the silver lining, if there is one,” Baird analyst Colin Sebastian said, “is that Amazon learned a lot about mobile and that everything they do won’t be a success.”

It’s a far cry from a year ago, when CEO Jeff Bezos took the stage at an event, held in Amazon’s hometown of Seattle, that was electrified by the excitement of the super fans the company had invited to sit alongside industry and media folks.

“Can we build a better phone for our most engaged customers? Can we build a phone for Amazon Prime members?” Bezos asked before taking a dramatic pause. “Well, I’m excited to tell you that the answer is yes.”

Amazon declined to make any executive available for this story.

It didn’t take long for reality to take hold and for the Fire Phone to flame out. Within two months, AT&T dropped the price from $200 to just 99 cents with a two-year contract. (It can be had for $179 without a contract.) Three months after the launch, Amazon took a $170 million charge to wipe out the lost value of its unsold Fire Phones, adding that it still had $83 million in inventory at the end of that period.

But the Fire Phone wasn’t a complete bust. For anyone looking to get into the smartphone business, the device offers a few critical lessons.

It’s all about price

There are a handful of reasons the Fire Phone flopped, but its starting price proved a major snag and may have turned off many potential customers.

Consumers and analysts were expecting Amazon to follow its familiar playbook of offering a cheap, but good-enough product that could undercut other devices already on the market. That strategy proved a success for Amazon in tablets, as its inexpensive plastic-and-glass Fire devices (originally the Kindle Fire) offered a cheap alternative to Apple’s iPad and helped Amazon become a major player in that market four years ago.

Ubuntu smartphone offers alternative to apps

An Ubuntu-powered smartphone is coming to the market a year and a half after a previous attempt to launch a model via crowdfunding failed.

The Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu edition relies on a card-like user interface that is not focused on apps.

Unlike the original proposal, the handset does not become a desktop PC when plugged into a monitor.

It is initially being targeted at “early adopters”, who developers hope will become advocates for the platform.

The British company Canonical, which developed the Linux-based operating system, said it hoped to emulate the success of Chinese companies including Xiaomi with its launch strategy.

This crowdfunding campaign raised nearly $13m but still fell short of its target

This will include holding a number of “flash sales” in Europe beginning next week, in which the device will be sold for short periods of time – giving the developers an opportunity to gauge demand and respond to feedback before committing to a bigger production run.

“It’s a proven model – we’re making sure that the product lands in the right hands,” Cristian Parrino, vice-president of mobile at Canonical, told the BBC.

“We are way away from sticking this in a retail shop in the High Street. [But] it’s where we want to get to.”

Millions of PCs used by schools, governments and businesses already run the desktop version of Ubuntu.

“The Ubuntu fan base will clamour to buy the phone just because they will be curious to see what it is, how it works and how they can develop for it – they’ll want to be one of the few that have it,” said Chris Green, from Davies Murphy Group Europe.

“But for the broader, more mainstream, early adopter market, I think demand will be constricted because people are more app-focused.”

Scope cards

The Ubuntu handset can run apps written in either the HTML5 web programming language or its own native QML code.

However, its operating system effectively hides them away. Instead of the traditional smartphone user interface – featuring grids of apps – it uses themed cards that group together different facilities.

Canonical calls these Scopes, and they are reminiscent of the swipe-based card system used by the Google Now personal assistant.

Device owners can configure the Scopes to add the services they prefer

The phone’s home screen is the Today Scope. It presents a selection of widgets based on the user’s most frequent interactions on the phone.

These can include the local weather forecast, the headlines of the day from third-party news services, Twitter trends and a list of the owner’s most commonly contacted friends.

By swiping to the right, the owner can make a call or access some of the other default Scopes, including:

• A Music Scope, with favourite tracks sourced from Soundcloud and other streaming music providers, as well as offering details of forthcoming concerts via Songkick
• A Video Scope, which presents clips from YouTube and other services
• A Photos Scope, which collects together images stored on the phone as well as pictures stored on Flickr, Picasa, Facebook and elsewhere
• A Nearby Scope providing location-specific details, including traffic conditions, public transport options and restaurant recommendations
• An Apps Scope, which provides access to the camera, calendar software and programs from other companies

Users can create and configure their own Scopes, and individual services can also be set to have Scope cards of their own.

Third-party services can be set to have separate cards to themselves in the user interface

Mr Parrino suggested that the benefit to the user was an “unfragmented” experience, while developers would gain by being able to make their products available via Scopes at a fraction of the cost of creating full apps.

“If you come out with a new [OS] that’s based on apps and icons then you’re just a ‘me too’ platform,” he said.

“You’ll only be as relevant to developers as the number of users you can bring to them, because you’re adding the burden of supporting a new platform. And for users you’ll only be as good as the apps that you have.

“We’ve had to switch that model around and deliver an experience that is valuable in its own right – clearly the more services that plug into it the better it becomes, but it’s not fully dependent on them from day one, and for an early adopter audience it’s a great product.”

Certain services will, however, be missing at launch, including Whatsapp, Skype and several of Instagram’s core features.

‘Stopgap’ features

Canonical makes money by charging organisations for support services.

The phones themselves are being made and sold by a Spanish company, BQ, which already has an Android variant of the hardware.

They include an eight-megapixel rear camera, a 5MP front one and one gigabyte of RAM memory. They will cost about 170 euros ($195; £127).

“It’s a good-looking device and a very slick interface at a realistic price,” commented Mr Green.

“Scopes are an interesting stopgap between a full third-party app environment and a fixed feature phone.

“However, they are just that – a stopgap. They will interest very early adopters and the Ubuntu faithful in the short term. However, it won’t take long before people start wanting a full add-on app experience akin to the other existing platforms on the market today.”