At a recent conference on “the future of wearables” I was asked to speak about security. I think my presentation surprised some people because I didn’t focus on the security of wearable devices themselves. This article summarizes what I said, with a link to my slides and some free resources you might find helpful. For
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David Vávra is our team’s talented Google Developer Expert (GDE) for Android. Throughout this autumn, he attended a collection of valuable Android conferences. In this post, David walks us through his experiences and outlines his most interesting takeaways from the conferences.
Droidcon Stockholm was a two-day event held in Debaser Medis, a classic rock club in Stockholm. As you might imagine, it proved to be an interesting venue for a tech conference! The organization was a little more “punk” than most other conferences, but the conference was still jam-packed with talks containing strong content and served as a great opportunity to network with fellow industry professionals. Fun fact: Czech beers are quite popular in Stockholm. We visited a place where they served five different Czech beers on tap.
One talk that I found to be especially useful discussed building Android SDKs from Fabric, a platform for mobile developers from Twitter. It was also interesting to take a closer look at Spotify’s automated testing environment in a talk Sustainable test automation. As for me, my presentation at the conference dealt with Android TV development. All the Droidcon talks can be found here.
This year’s Droidcon Greece was the very first Droidcon event in the country. It was organized by the very enthusiastic GDG Thessalonikigroup. Based on the number of attendees present, it was a smaller conference, but I loved it. G(r)eeks (Greek geeks) showed us true Greek hospitality. We had a tour of beautiful Thessaloniki and many parties along the way. Did you know that Greeks usually go to restaurants around 11 p.m. and start eating around midnight? Needless to say, we didn’t sleep much.
All talks were recorded. I suggest watching a talk about Kotlin on Android from Jetbrains — it really shifted my point of view on the language. Java 7 is so outdated now! I also enjoyed a workshop about RxJava from Big Nerd Ranch. You can do the workshop yourself here. It’s an innovative approach to learning a new language — it’s based on tests that all fail in the beginning, and your job is to make them ‘green’. At Droidcon Greece, I delivered a talk about Doze Mode & App Standby in Android M. All talks from the conference can be found here.
Big Android BBQ is a new conference brand with roots in Texas. It’s primarily supported by Google and is known for a less formal environment (and a real BBQ party!). This autumn, the conference came to Europe for the first time, so I gave it a shot. The conference itself was fine, and the content of the talks was strong. However, I had a few reservations about the organization of the event. There wasn’t sufficient care given to speakers, and we had to organize the speaker’s dinner by ourselves. Additionally, talks were not recorded. Nevertheless, we did have a great time in the end, and Amsterdam is a charming city.
I recommend a talk, Testing it & Loving it, from Marks & Spencer; if you don’t have automated tests yet, this talk will make you start. I also enjoyed Event Buses: The @channel of Android Architecture from Big Nerd Ranch –it showed fitting examples from real life which illustrate when and when not to use event buses. I gave an updated talk about Doze Mode & App Standby in Android M. All of the talks can be found here.
The Google Experts Summit is one of the best perks of being a GDE. Google invites us once a year for the summit in Mountain View, California. It’s two days full of deep technical insights with product teams and lot of networking with other experts. The networking was probably the best — I met many exceptional people from all over the world. This year, GDEs were joined by marketing, design and product experts, making it the biggest summit ever with around 200 attendees present.
We had some really interesting sessions based on our expertise. I was part of a focus group in which Google shared some very confidential early prototypes. We were fortunate enough to be able to play with the prototypes and gave feedback directly to Googlers. I’m grateful that Googlers take the GDE program so seriously.
Android Dev Summit was a blast. I would summarize it as mini Google I/O focused only on Android. The conference was less show, more technical deep dives and direct access to Googlers from Android framework and tools teams. It appropriately took place in the geekiest venue in Silicon Valley — the Computer History Museum.
All the talks from Android Dev Summit are recorded in high quality. The highlight of the event is, of course, the introduction of Android Studio 2.0 with Instant Run, which should drastically speed up the Android development lifecycle. Watch What’s new in Android Studio to get all the details. The best talk for me was probably Android Studio for Experts. It was all live demos of various features in our favorite IDE, which included mostly tips and tricks for underlying IntelliJ IDEA. There are many small frustrations in everyday development, which the IDE elegantly solves. It was great to have direct access to Android celebrities like Chet Haase, Chris Banes, Tor Norbye, Reto Meier, Dianne Hackborn and others. Fireside chats with all of them were both funny and informative,and lots of burning questions were answered. Check out the fireside chat with the framework and tools teams.
I’m grateful that Avast supported me in attending all of these conferences and am looking forward to another conference season!
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In an recent interview, It expert Gary McKinnon has candidly revealed detail on his NASA data breach and finding documents on ‘extraterrestrial life’.
The post Gary McKinnon reveals detail on NASA data breach and ‘extraterrestrial life’ appeared first on We Live Security.
In the eight years of smartphone evolution since the original iPhone, we’ve seen 4k displays, 8 core processors, and 4G mobile speeds that give many broadband connections a run for their money.
What hasn’t changed much, is that your phone battery is mostly drained by the end of the day, your data limit gets capped before the end of the month, and your 16 GB of storage fills up after only months of using a new phone.
But it’s not always the device at fault, with apps being largely to blame for the constant use of intense graphics, out-of-control notifications, and never-ending background checks that drain the battery.
This is where our latest AVG App Performance & Trends Report comes in – Gathered from over a million anonymous devices worldwide, our statistics show which apps consume the most battery life, storage and data volume. We also provide a good idea about which apps are trending.
What are the top app sinners this month?
Download the entire App Report here.
What can you do to keep your apps under control?
First of all, an app that appears on the top of our lists for storage, data or battery drain doesn’t mean they’re ruining the performance of your phone. It is important to weigh the pros and cons of running a good mix of apps that give you the desired results you want.
Do the self-check: To see what’s consuming all of your smartphone’s battery life, storage or mobile data, we’ve developed App Manager, which is a feature within AVG Cleaner for Android. It quietly observes your phone’s performance and gives you an overview of:
Ashley Madison App Rebounding to Pre-hack Highs
AVG Technologies Android App Performance Report Q3 2015 (PDF)
AVG Technologies Android Performance Optimisation Guide 2015 (PDF)
AVG Q3 App Report: Latest Top 10 Draining Apps Identified
AVG Q3 Android App Performance Report related images (zip)
AVG Q3 Android App Report 2015 – Dating apps heat up ahead of holidays (PDF)
AMSTERDAM – December 8, 2015 – Despite its high-profile data breach and very public fallout this summer, the controversial dating app Ashley Madison is bouncing back to pre-hack user numbers, according to the findings of the latest Android App Performance & Trends Report. Compiled on a quarterly basis since Q3 2014, by AVG® Technologies N.V. (NYSE: AVG), the online security company™ for more than 200 million monthly active users, and using anonymous data from over one million AVG Android app users, the report aims to highlight app usage trends among consumers, and identify apps having the most effect on Android battery life, storage and mobile data volume.
Perhaps in anticipation of a ‘singleton’ Christmas, dating and cheating apps, in general, saw an uptick in usage over the third quarter, with Ashley Madison competitor platforms MiuMeet and AnastasiaDate both joining the app in seeing a rise in numbers from the previous quarter.
Also examining the apps most likely to negatively impact device performance, the report saw popular retail apps, Amazon Shopping and Walmart, emerge as two of the top battery-draining apps – suggesting that the holiday season could well be as tough on devices as it is on wallets.
The following 20 apps – differentiated by those run at start up or run by the user – consumed the most overall battery drain, storage usage and mobile data combined.
| Run at Start Up | Run by User | ||
| Ranking | App | Ranking | App |
| 1 | 1 | Snapchat | |
| 2 | Google Play Services | 2 | Amazon Shopping UK |
| 3 | BBM | 3 | Spotify Music |
| 4 | 4 | LINE: Free Calls & Messages | |
| 5 | Facebook Messenger | 5 | Clean Master (Boost & AppLock) |
| 6 | ChatON Voice & Video Chat | 6 | Samsung WatchON (Video) |
| 7 | Facebook Pages Manager | 7 | Netflix |
| 8 | The Weather Channel | 8 | BBC News |
| 9 | KakaoTalk | 9 | Amazon Shopping (Global) |
| 10 | WhatsApp Messenger | 10 | Microsoft Outlook |
“Over the last year, we have been focused on helping our users understand which apps have the biggest impact on their smartphone performance. Based on the findings from all four quarterly App Reports, to date, and the engagement they have driven with consumers, we have developed a tool called AVG App Manager,” said Tony Anscombe, Senior Security Evangelist at AVG Technologies.
“With AVG App Manager, Android users are able to see which apps are affecting their individual smartphone’s performance and then use this information to make better-informed choices about how to best manage their smartphone resources,” Anscombe concluded.
Available through AVG Cleaner for Android, the AVG App Manager observes the phone’s performance and gives an overview of app usage, including how each app is affecting storage, battery and mobile traffic.
The full report can be downloaded from http://now.avg.com/avg-android-app-performance-report-q3-2015
About AVG Technologies (NYSE: AVG)
AVG is the online security company providing leading software and services to secure devices, data and people. AVG’s award-winning technology is delivered to over 200 million monthly active users worldwide. AVG’s Consumer portfolio includes internet security, performance optimization, location services, data controls and insights, personal privacy and identity protection for mobile devices and desktops. The AVG
Business portfolio – delivered by managed service providers, VARs and resellers – offers
IT administration, control and reporting, integrated security and mobile device management that simplifies protection for businesses.All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Contacts:
North America:
Deanna Contreras
Tel: +1 415 371 2001
Email: [email protected]
Rest of World:
Zena Martin
Tel: +44 7496 638 342
Email: [email protected]
Press information: http://now.avg.com
Revision Note: V1.0 (December 8, 2015): Advisory published.
Summary: Microsoft is aware of an SSL/TLS digital certificate for *.xboxlive.com for which the private keys were inadvertently disclosed. The certificate could be used in attempts to perform man-in-the-middle attacks. It cannot be used to issue other certificates, impersonate other domains, or sign code. This issue affects all supported releases of Microsoft Windows. Microsoft is not currently aware of attacks related to this issue.
Revision Note: V1.0 (December 8, 2015): Click here to enter text.
Summary: This bulletin summary lists security bulletins released for December 2015.
Severity Rating: Critical
Revision Note: V1.0 (December 8, 2015): Bulletin Published
Summary: This security update resolves vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows, .NET Framework, Microsoft Office, Skype for Business, Microsoft Lync, and Silverlight. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted document or visits a webpage that contains specially crafted embedded fonts.
Severity Rating: Critical
Revision Note: V1.0 (December 8, 2015): Bulletin published.
Summary: This security update resolves a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted document or visits an untrusted webpage that contains specially crafted fonts.
