Common Paradox Tech Blog

An unsuspecting Vodafone customer got quite a nasty surprise when she got her new HTC Magic (MyTouch 3G in the states). Upon plugging it into her Windows PC, Panda Antivirus sounded the alarm. It turns out that the new phone contained several malware programs including an installer for the Mariposa botnet.

This wasn’t just any poor soul, lost in the wilds of technology though. Nope, the victim of this sneak attack works for Panda Security. As you can imagine, her coworkers were terribly interested in the phone. Closer examination showed an autorun.inf and autorun.exe that would load the malware on any PC the phone was plugged into. Panda confirmed that the botnet was active, and when installed the software “phoned home” for instructions. They also found a Confiker variant and a password stealer.

Vodafone recently discontinued the Magic, so after current stocks are sold out no one will need fear the phone baddies. Well, until the next time this happens. So how did a Spanish hacker group get their malware on this phone? And more importantly, are more phones affected? It seems unlikely there was just one infected phone, and that it happened to be sold to a Panda employee.

According to Oppenheimer’s Yair Reiner, Apple’s lawsuit against HTC didn’t come out of left field as most of us thought. Really, Apple had warned handset manufacturers that they were going to be stricter about enforcing their patents.

“Starting in January, Apple launched a series of C-Level discussions with tier-1 handset makers to underscore its growing displeasure at seeing its iPhone-related IP [intellectual property] infringed. The lawsuit filed against HTC thus appears to be Apple’s way of putting a public, lawyered-up exclamation point on a series of blunt conversations that have been occurring behind closed doors.”

Note: Reiner doesn’t mention Apple warning HTC specifically, but as a tier-1 handset manufacturer, it’s hard to imagine their exclusion from such conversations.

As Reiner tells it, Apple’s actions have sent “rival software and hardware teams…back to the drawing board to look for work-arounds” while lawyers look for holes in the suit. That’s not fantastic news if you don’t either produce or carry an iPhone. [Brainstorm Tech]

We’ve come across plenty of robots that were controlled by phones before, but usually those phones were being controlled by human hands. Some California hackers, however, are building bots that put Android to work for their robo-brainpower.

Their first creation, the TruckBot, uses a HTC G1 as a brain and has a chassis that they made for $30 in parts. It’s not too advanced yet—it can use the phone’s compass to head in a particular direction—but they’re working on incorporating the bot more fully with the phone and the Android software. Some ideas they’re kicking around that wouldn’t be possible with a dinky Arduino brain: face and voice recognition and location awareness.

If you’re interested in putting together a Cellbot of your own—can you even conceive of a cooler dock for your Android phone?—the team’s development blog has some more information. The possibilities here are manifold; mad scientists, feel free to share your Android-bot schemes in the comments. [Wired]

Image credit Miran Pavic / Wired.com

This isn’t a Nexus One celebrating Gay Pride month—it’s CNET Crave UK’s broken Google phone. According to HTC’s technical support, “they don’t go in pockets,” lest the screen gets cracked.

Only thing is, Crave UK swears up and down the Nexus One suffered the damages while charging on a desk—with no tampering by vicious iPhone users recorded. After being recommended by Google to speak to HTC’s technical support, Crave was told that “putting a phone in a tight pair of jeans and sitting down would usually cause the kind of damage,” and that “people sometimes forget that they don’t go in pockets.” Say what?

Here’s the second stinging lash—the cracked screen will cost £180 to fix. That’s $270, or $100 more than the whole phone’s parts cost, according to iSuppli. Yeouch. [Crave UK]

As you’ve undoubtedly heard by now, Apple has filed a lawsuit against device-maker HTC over 20 patents they control. As you might imagine, Google has something to say about it too.

“We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it,” a Google spokesperson emailed us.

As you’ve undoubtedly heard by now, Apple has filed a lawsuit against device-maker HTC over 20 patents they control. As you might imagine, Google has something to say about it too.

“We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it,” a Google spokesperson emailed us.

What fun would the tech world be without its patent lawsuits to keep us amused? Not wanting to disappoint us, Apple has opened up another round of patent lawsuits, taking direct aim at potential competitor HTC, alleging violation of twenty Apple patents related to the iPhone’s user interface and underlying architecture and hardware.

In a statement that sounds all too familiar, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said: “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.” Reminiscent of its current battle with Nokia, Apple will fight this one out concurrently in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in U.S. District Court in Delaware.

Is Apple out only to curb the ambitions of HTC? TechCrunch speculates that the real target might be Android, which mimics many of the characteristic features of the iPhone OS. In which case, TechCrunch surmises, this is but a “shot across Android’s bow and a warning to all Android manufacturers.”

Image Credit: Apple, HTC, Google

Earlier today, Apple issued a press release stating that it is filing suit against cell phone manufacturer HTC for patent infringement. No mention of Android or Google was in the press release. But one of the actual legal complaint, which we’ve obtained and embedded below, makes no bones about it. As expected, this lawsuit is about the Android. HTC, of course, is one of the largest manufacturers of Android handsets.

The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware targets: “certain mobile communication devices including cellular phones and smart phones, including at least phones incorporating the Android Operating System (collectively, “the Accused Products”).” By going after the biggest Android manufacturer, Apple is putting all Android cell phone makers—and by extension Google— on notice. Is there any doubt now why Google CEO Eric Schmidt had to resign from Apple’s board last year? The battle lines are now drawn.

The patents that it says are being infringed include:

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, gather round for the latest round of: Patent Lawsuit Theater! The players in this round are Apple and HTC. Apple is alleging that HTC infringes on 20 of its patents related to the iPhone user interface.

As in the Nokia/Apple skirmish, Apple filed its lawsuit concurrently in both the U.S. District Court in Delaware and with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC).

The ITC, as fans of this ongoing mobile patent circus may recall, is investigating Apple’s alleged patent infringement at Nokia’s behest.

We haven’t been able to pull the full lawsuit from the U.S. District Court, so it’s unclear what exact patents or claims Apple is claiming that HTC violates — although we highly doubt that it has anything to do with the Sense UI, seeing as that pre-dated the iPhone — but we’ll update this post with a link as soon as that appears.

The most interesting aspect of this particular case (for now) is actually in the announcement. In it, Apple CEO Steve Jobs says:

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it… We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

Seriously, this whole game is getting ridiculous. I know these are multibillion-dollar companies, but perhaps their resources could be better spent, I don’t know, innovating their products rather than trying to sue one another into oblivion?

What do you think?

[img credit: Thomas Roche]

Tags: apple, htc, ITC, lawsuits, patent theater

Apple announced today that they are suing Windows Phone and Android hardware manufacturer, and Sense UI developer, HTC for patent infringement. The suit, filed in US District Court in Delaware, alleges violation of “20 Apple patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware”. Says Apple CEO Steve Jobs:

“We can [...]

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