Linked List: August 2, 2012

Thursday, 2 August 2012

Peter Bright:

But sources are telling us that this is coming to an abrupt end after the company’s Legal and Corporate Affairs team sent out a memo banning the word “Metro.” LCA’s memo reportedly says that Microsoft has been threatened with legal action for infringing on “Metro” trademarks held by German retailer Metro AG.

From now on, the new terminology that Microsoft is using is “Windows 8-style UI” when talking about Windows 8 applications, and “New User Interface” when talking about the company’s full product line-up.

“Windows 8-style UI”. That’s catchy.

Black Hat Hacker Gains Access to 4 Million Hotel Rooms With Arduino Microcontroller ★

Sebastian Anthony, writing for ExtremeTech:

I wish I could say that Brocious spent months on this hack, painstakingly reverse-engineering the Onity lock protocol, but the truth is far more depressing. “With how stupidly simple this is, it wouldn’t surprise me if a thousand other people have found this same vulnerability and sold it to other governments,” says Brocious, in an interview with Forbes. “An intern at the NSA could find this in five minutes.”

Update: I got a nice email from Cody Brocious, the security researcher who discovered this. He wrote:

One thing I’d really like to clarify (which ExtremeTech still hasn’t) is that it did take me months. In fact, the work I released is the product of 3 years of reversing the entire system. The simplicity of the result really hides the work that was done to reach this point.

That said, thanks for covering this; anything that gets the word out about the (lack of) security here is a Good Thing (TM).

The Woman Who Went to Every Country ★

Lovely piece by Alison Agosti for The Atlantic.

$13,238.86 Left in a NYC Taxi ★

“I gave him $500. It’s a lot more than I could afford, but a lot less than he deserved.”

Developers Dish on iCloud’s Challenges ★

More on the challenges iCloud presents for developers, from Lex Friedman at Macworld.

The Problem With iCloud ★

Kyle Baxter:

Both as a user and developer, I want iCloud to live up to its promise. I hope it does soon. But the reality is that right now, it isn’t there yet, and for developers, choosing between iCloud and their own custom sync service is no easy choice.

It’s the iPad ★

Guy Podjarny, commenting on Jason Grigsby’s post analyzing the disparity between iOS and Android web browser usage stats:

On non-cellular networks, Mobile Safari accounts for ~67% of mobile browser activity. iPad accounts for ~43% of that, and iPhone/iPod-touch for the remaining 24%. Android WebKit’s share is ~18%. So iPhone still had a notable lead over Android on non-cellular networks, but the gap isn’t as big if you don’t count the iPad.

On cellular networks, Mobile Safari accounts for ~35% of mobile browsing, and only ~7% of that comes from iPads. Android WebKit’s share is ~38%, and less than 1% of that comes from tablets.

TPM PollTracker Mobile App ★

New free app from TPM. Josh Marshall writes:

And if you’re a real campaign junkie like me: real-time notifications. Just choose the races you want to follow on the app and you’ll get notified the moment a new poll from that race is released. For me, finding out a day or even a few hours later that a big presidential poll came out isn’t good enough. I want to know right away. Like — gimme my crack! — right away.

I’ve been using it for a few days and it’s great.

Fraser Speirs on the Nexus 7 ★

Fraser Speirs:

Before I received the Nexus 7, I had expected to like the hardware and hate the software. I thought it would be like test-driving a Citroën car: great design ideas - can’t wait until the Germans or Japanese put them in their cars. The reality was a little more subtle.

Thoughtful review.