Android Exploit Could Expose Billions of Devices to Hackers

A new bug found in the native Android software has been discovered by security firm Zimperium. This flaw is similar to the Apple Text hack from a few weeks ago, except that the hack could expose your valuable data and encrypted passwords. Zimperium says that control of your microphone could be taken over to record your calls, credit card details could be acquired and private emails and data could be accessed.  

"The targets for this kind of attack can be anyone from Prime ministers, govt. officials, company executives, security officers to IT managers,"

The hack works by embedding a string of code into a multimedia text message and then that text message is sent to your phone. This is where the issue comes in. Your phone is designed to parse that text message instantly and it is at that point that the malware has been injected into your device. That means you could exposed even before the notification sound has gone off in your phone. The potential for a completely silent attack on your phone is quite alarming.

In post on Zimperiums website, they say 95 percent of Android devices worldwide are vulnerable. "The targets for this kind of attack can be anyone from Prime ministers, govt. officials, company executives, security officers to IT managers," they warned.

But the good news is, as soon as this exploit was discovered, Zimperium sent the fault to Google and also the patch to fix the issue. Google has responded by saying "This vulnerability was identified in a laboratory setting on older Android devices, and as far as we know, no one has been affected. As soon as we were made aware of the vulnerability we took immediate action and sent a fix to our partners to protect users."

So it looks like the issue has been fixed before anyone has been affected, but these fixes are rolled out in the form of updates to your phone's software. So if you have pending updates due, make sure you apply them! If you don't know how to update your phone, come see us at Techrevive.



Don't forget to check out our website for all of your phone repair needs! www.techrevive.com.au

Wireless Smartphone Monitor Charging News from Dudes do Digital

Check out the latest from our experts in Gadgetry, Dudes Do Digital!

Samsung's latest computer monitor just announced in the US and include a built in wireless charging area for smart phones.

The upcoming SE370 monitor will come in two sizes - 23.6 inches and 27 inches and includes AMD FreeSync technology.

Only certain devices will be able to take advantage of the wireless charging feature, however. Specifically, ones that use the Qi wireless charging standard, such as the Samsung Galaxy S6, the LG G4 or the iPhone 6/6 Plus.

Don't forget to check out our website for all of your phone repair needs! www.techrevive.com.au

Google Maps adds Suggestion from User

It's not every day you hear about your every day person making a pretty big impact on a massive global company, but in today's connected world, well, anything is possible!

Take this story for example; a Redditor, who goes by the user name Webbs10101, made a suggestion to the Google Maps team to add private names to pins that he drops on places with no address. Being a construction worker, often times this user will travel to many locations that have not been assigned addresses yet and it is difficult to keep track of all those pins. 

Well, Google listened and a few weeks later Webbs10101 got an email back saying thanks for the suggestion and that they have added that feature to the maps program. So now all the Places you give private names to will be on your map, under the quick suggestions and in the ''Your Places screen".

Good on ya' Google!

Credit Webs10101

SD card storage and Proximity Sensors in Smart Phones

Check out the latest from our friends over at Dudes Do Digital!

Howdy all! In this episode of Tech 101 we talk about SD card storage and the Proximity Sensor in smart phones :)

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Oh the remarkable feeling that permeates though the very essence of your soul when struggling to recall if your password had a capital letter at the beginning or where you elusive tucked away that little ampersand. So you tip tap away again and press 'login' and then you are treated with a Las Vegas style slot machine feeling, hoping you come up 7s. You cross your fingers, your toes and even your eyes in the hopes that the stupid little spinning wheel gatekeeper on the screen will disappear and grant you access to your precious data. But lo, you are DENIED again! The temperature of your blood takes a tick up and you die a little inside. What's even worse is when this feeling is compounded by sites or services which limits your attempts and promptly locks you out for a predetermined amount of time, often expanding exponentially with each unsuccessful attempt. This is also not to mention that this password is required to be changed in 2 weeks time anyway, and you get to repeat the whole thrilling experience again!

But these security measures are here for your protection. You gotta admit, if it's keeping you out, it's very likely keeping everyone else out. So what is the secret to remember your passwords? The truth is, there is no one key to remembering. But as a user of any particular site or service, you agree to remember said passwords and that responsibility lands squarely on your shoulders. So you need to do what ever it takes to remember.

Some people will keep a notebook of passwords, and while this is typically a fool proof method, it does leave you exposed to potential intrusion should you lose that notebook. Highly effective, but highly risky.

So why not just make your password 'password'? This is fine I suppose, but it is the digital equivalent of leaving your house key under the front door mat. Besides that, the more security concious sites and services out there will generally not allow easy to guess passwords.

Then there is just relying on your good old memory. This is great if you happen to have an eidetic memory, but unfortunately, most of us don't. And sure as the sun sets, you'll be squaring off against a particularly stubborn login screen soon enough.

So I thought I would chuck out a few tips and trick I have employed over the years to make password management a little more palatable.

Categorize your passwords. I use a particular password for certain things. Emails, and social contacting are a group to which I apply a certain password. This way I don't have to remember 10 passwords, just the one and I know that I apply it to this type of site.

Use a pattern as your password. No need to tell you that this password I am about to use as an example is completely bogus, but it will demonstrate what I am talking about. Consider the following password "##33EEee". When you view this on a keyboard, you can see how easy it is to enter and remember the pattern that you have created. Two taps on the 3 key while holding shift, two with out, then move down a little and do the same on the E key. Simple! It uses 8 characters and includes capitals, lower-case, numerals and special characters (which are often required in many passwords). And the best part is, when you go to change your password, simply shift the whole thing over by one ($$44RRrr). Easy! It has the added benefit of being quite random so it becomes much harder, if not impossible, for someone to guess. I'd recommend developing your own pattern and then you need only remember that sequence.

There is another solution to the password remembering problem, and that is to use a password locker on your phone. This allows you to store all of your passwords which are then locked using 1 master password. Not a bad idea, but it also means that suddenly ALL of your passwords are only as strong as your master password.

The last thing that I wanted to add, for the very security continuous, is Two Factor Authentication. Google offers a great service, which is compatible with many other services to add another layer to your security. What it basically does is generates a random 4 to 6 digit number that refreshes every 60 seconds or so. When you log into a site, you will be required to enter your password, and also enter the randomly generated number into the site. The numbers appears in the Google authentication app and there is loads of security measures that you take to set it all up. Check out the app here!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.authenticator2&hl=en

Device Batteries Explained

Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rage at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I swear, sometimes I think the battery in my phone reads Dylan Thomas. It's all very dramatic having a phone with a dying battery. The phone takes eons to charge, the percentage displayed on the screen is no longer an accurate indicator of how much gas is left in the tank, and then the phone shuts of at the most inopportune times.

Having a dying battery is only marginally better than one that is completely dead.

Modern phones use lithium ion batteries as their power source and it's actually quite amazing, but over time, every battery's performance will suffer. There is a finite number of charges in every battery before it starts to act up. So here are a few tips on how to get the most out of your battery.

Don't let your battery fully drain. Allowing the battery to go down to 0% will put a strain on it and over time will affect performance. Always try to keep a bit of charge in it.

Unplug the phone once it is fully charged. Another thing that will put strain on the battery is charging when full, like Mr Cresote's last wafer thin mint.

Water damage is a killer on batteries and in most cases, a battery replacement will be required. If you carry your phone everywhere you go, consider not taking it into the bathroom when you shower. You know all that condensation on your bathroom mirror? Yeah, that gets into your phone as well and is no bueno.

If you notice that your battery has inflated kind of like an over stuffed pillow, for goodness sake, take it to a professional to be repaired. In our industry, we call this an exploded battery, but if anything should accidentally pierce your battery, a real explosion could follow. Check out this video for what I mean (do not try this at home!).

So what do you do if you suspect your battery is no good any  more? Well, you know your phone best and if you are contentiously aware of a decrease in performance, you are almost certainly right. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done for that battery. The only option is replacement. If you have a phone with a removable battery, terrific! If you don't, no worries, just bring it in to Techrevive and we can replace your battery.


Don't forget to check out our website for all of your phone repair needs! www.techrevive.com.au

The Importance of Back-Ups

As a phone repair shop, we’ve seen a lot of dead phones. Some phones decide to take up swimming as a hobby, others try to play stunt-man by seeing how long they can hold on to the roof of a moving car (as far as I know, the record is held by a particularly resilient Nokia from Wangaratta who managed to hold on for a whopping 12 seconds before it’s untimely demise, (mayherestinpeace) . A great number of phones have mastered the art of altering the very fabric of space and time, rendering themselves entirely more susceptible to the forces of gravity. In an age where we can instantly share our thoughts and ideas across the entire globe from a device that fits perfectly in our pockets and in what this writer can only describe as complete and utter cockamamie, we have yet to see the invention of tiny parachutes for our phones. Inconceivable!

The unfortunate part is that if the phone experiences catastrophic failure and refuses to come back to life, any data stored on the device is unrecoverable (unless you feel like spending several thousands of dollars on highly specialized recovery processes). But this article isn’t about recovering data, it’s about making sure your data is safe before disaster strikes.

Typically, photos are the most important data on your phone, so we’ll start with some of the more noteable services and apps to keep your photos safe. All of these serves work on a fairly simple concept; when you take a photo, it is uploaded to a server somewhere else so you can retrieve it later on.

A word of warning, all of these services will use your data (mobile or wifi) so if you have a skimpy data plan, you may consider extending it a bit to avoid excess data charges or be sure you only use wifi as your data option.

On iOS, the main service built right into the phone’s software is Photo Stream. By default, this service should be switched on, but you can turn it on by going to Settings>iCloud>Photos and turning on photo stream from there. With Photo Stream, you can view your photos from many Apple products seamlessly.

Another app, available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone, is Dropbox. This is my personal preference as it not only backs up photos, but it can backup almost any kind of file. When you install it on your device, it will ask you to choose if you would like to upload your camera roll to the dropbox servers and then it will ask if uploads should occur over mobile data and wifi or just wifi. I personally have mine set up to upload over wifi only. This saves on my mobile data plan and since I have a pretty hefty data plan at home, the uploads do little to affect my allowance. The risk here is if you take a bunch of photos and your phone breaks prior to connecting to wifi, you will lose whatever photos have not been backed up.

And finally, the Google+ photo app also backs up your photos in a similar way to dropbox. This is tied to your google account, so when you sign in you google details to your new android phone, you photos will automatically come across with your login (as long as you have the photo app). I also back up to this service. You can never have too many backups!

Your phone doesn’t just have photos on it though, you may have important text messages, call logs, settings and calendars. For the best backup of all these things (and more!) each phone manufacturer has their own computer suite to perform the backup. Apple has iTunes, Samsung has Kies, Sony uses PC Companion and HTC has Sync Manager just to name a few. A simple google search will bring you to a download page to find the relevant software for your device. It is highly recommended to use these products in conjunction with the other apps mentioned above to provide maximum backup of your important data.

The golden rule is to have 3 copies of your important data; one on your phone, one on your computer and one on a server.

For the more hardcore Android users who have rooted their phones (not the Australian “rooted” but have gained root access to their phone), there is Titanium Backup. This bit of software is basically the benchmark in deep level system backups. This will help you to back up so much more than just your data including system data and deep level user data. The details of this app go beyond the scope of this particular article.

I hope this article has helped you to begin your data backup journey. It’s something that is usually in the back of our minds, but when our phone breaks, it certainly comes to the forefront in a hurry! So, if you do not have your important data backed up, go do it now. Seriously. Do it.


Don't forget to check out our website for all of your phone repair needs! www.techrevive.com.au

iPad Repairs

Confusion, shock, dread, despair, maybe just a wee hint of hope. If you’ve ever dropped your iPad face down onto a hard surface, then you know these feelings. 9 times out of 10, picking up the iPad to reveal the other side is followed by a colourful expletive.

A knee jerk reaction is typically to blame the closest thing around you (Oh great! Of course! That stupid ray of light filtering through the window caught my RIGHT IN my peripheral vision causing me to adjust my gait just so, putting me slightly off balance when I wanted to take what SHOULD have been my USUAL step size thus I leaned precisely 9 degrees too far to the right causing the slightest tilt in my hand which released pressure from my thumb thus MAKING me drop the iPad! ….stupid sun).

Well, now that you’ve gone through the necessary psychological stages to deal with the fact that your device is busted, it’s time to start thinking about getting it fixed. This part, while you may not realise, can have wildly varying results.

Not all iPad repairs are the same. In fact, a lot of repairs are so slap-dash awful, they end up breaking again or the glass refuses to stick to the frame. Some are ok, but parts of the iPad have to be fitted with extreme care to get the best possible result.

A funny little fact about iPads, certain ones are more susceptible to gravity than others. True story!

We see a lot of iPads come into our store that have been repair previously and we can always tell if it was done well or not before. The process for properly fixing an iPad is not a short one, so beware of anyone fixin your iPad in less than an hour. At Techrevive, we put a 2 hour minimum on iPad repairs to ensure we go through all the steps required to achieve the as close to 100% as is possible.

A lot of times, an iPad that has been dropped suffers damage to the frame, especially around the corners and that needs specialised tools to repair effectively. Needless to say, we have the tools needed to do it right.

What it comes down to is experience and care. As the head Technician at Techrevive, I have made it our goal, no, our mantra to treat every iPad (and device for that matter) as if it were our own. So what would I do if it was my iPad I was fixing? I would take the time to do it right. This involves a lot of elbow grease and patience. I never complete a device wondering if I could have done it any better. I am fully confident that it is the best possible repair. And that is what we will do for you iPad as well.

We also achieved amazing results by only using the highest quality parts available. So we spend more on our replacement parts but we do not increase our prices because of it. We believe in fair pricing for the best parts. That means greater value to you!

These are the reasons why we do so many iPad repairs and are also the reasons why we very, very rarely have any returned for warranty servicing.

What it comes down to, is that if you have your iPad repaired with us, you can be confident that the job will be done to the highest standards of quality possible at great value!

So don’t despair if you have a broken iPad, just call Techrevive!


Don't forget to check out our website for all of your phone repair needs! www.techrevive.com.au

iPhone 7 Rumors

Rumors are flying! It’s that time of year when google searches for the current model of iPhone start to rise with a slight caveat; an “S” tagged onto the numeral. So this year it’s the iPhone 6S (however, some rumors say that it’s different enough from the 6 models that they may just go ahead skip to iPhone 7), and there is enough new goodies here to make that fancy iPhone 6 in your pocket feel like mere peasantry. So let’s round up some of those rumors and try to piece together what Apple’s new flagship might be sporting.

Right off the bat is iOs 9 at launch. Since the new software was previewed at the Worldwide Developer Conference on the 8th of June, it’s a pretty safe bet that the iPhone 6S will have the new operating system out of the box. Also, it’s said that the new system will launch sometime in August so owners of previous iPhone models can check out the new software features prior to the launch of the new phone.

One of the less surprising rumors is the upgraded Aluminium to be used for the frame of the phone. After the Bendgate fiasco of 2014 showed just how malleable the frame actually is. As a phone repair shop who has seen a LOT of iPhone 6 phones, we can confirm that this is regrettably true. The current model bends far too easy and can actually cause a lot of headache when fitting a new screen to it. But the bright side is, it’s very easy to bend back to it’s original shape (with a bit of patience and a sharp eye). The upgraded aluminium is the same Aluminum 7000 used in the Apple watch and is supposed to be 60% stronger than the original. Sounds a bit like a lofty claim, but if it’s true, then this is a great feature for iPhone owners.

If we look under the hood of the new phone, we may find Apple’s new A9 chip which will boast 2GB of Ram. While this actually quite low when compared to other phones currently on the market, the processor is completely optimized to run iOS thus users should definitely notice a performance boost over the current model.

Moving onto the the touch screen, we could see a few new features here. The first is Force Touch which is featured on the the new Mac Book and Apple Watch. The touch screen will be able to distinguish a tap from a touch from a press, as the name implies, likely from some kind of pressure sensitivity within the screen. This can actually open up a lot of possibilities for new user interactivity on the phone (I am reminded of one of the first iPhones where the “swipe” to use your phone was groundbreaking interaction, oh how far we have come!).

The second rumored feature is the Touch ID security scanner moving house from the home button onto the screen itself. An interesting move and certainly is cool, but it leaves me wondering about screen replacements in the future and previous Touch ID systems in home buttons are coded to the individual phone and has made that particular part not interchangeable on some phones. So if the same holds true for a Touch ID system integrated into the screen itself, will it have to be somehow coded before the feature will work again? I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

The one rumor that I am particularly excited about is the reversible USB. Apple has already successfully made the bi-directional lightning cable and we may just see a similar implementation on the other end. This would replace the current “omni-directional” standard USB plug (you try to plug in the USB and it doesn’t fit so you turn it over and try again only to discover you were right the first time and turn it back over and succeed).

Finally, the last rumor is a cosmetic one. A softer Rose Gold colour frame to match the Rose Gold Apple Watch could be the new colour. I think this would look pretty sharp, even if Apple isn’t the first to decorate their phone this colour.

Well that wraps up the rumors for now. Maybe we’ll see these features and maybe we won’t. Maybe Apple will through in a new feature that will completely blow our minds! The only thing we know for sure is that we’ll have to wait until September to find out.


Don't forget to check out our website for all of your phone repair needs! www.techrevive.com.au

1 Year of Business

Milestones come in a variety of flavours. Sometimes for age, sometimes for major life events. In business, some of these milestones are extremely difficult to attain. In fact, an alarming 50% new businesses fail within the first year. YIKES! So, we at Techrevive, are happy to say...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TECHREVIVE!!

That’s right! Techrevive is celebrating 12 months of business with it’s head office and main repair lab operating out of the East Geelong Newsagency. As with any new businesses, there’s times of uncertainty and times of monumental triumph! Thankfully, we've experienced the latter far more than the former.

It may sound like boring old business talk, but we’re pretty excited when we put this last year into retrospect. What started out as a tiny little seed of an idea has grown into a business with a life of it’s own. We currently have 2 agency locations servicing rural locations, in Colac at the Colac Lotto and in Horsham at the Horsham Newsagency,  for their phone repair needs.

One of our main philosophies is to always use the highest quality parts available for all of our repairs. We have spent a lot of time refining our supply lines and ensuring that our stringent quality measures are always maintained. We've identified this part of our business as being one of the most important because we believe our customers want the best out of their repairs. We always work to make your device as close to 100% perfect as is possible. We will never skimp on cheaper products just to aid our profit margins.

We are expanding our outreach and have recently launched a weekly news column in the Geelong Independent called “Tech Talk” which, of course, coincides with our online version which you are reading right now.

We launched our website when we first opened and have have had 2 major updates to it since then to ensure our customers get the best experience possible.

But most of all, we have repaired thousands of mobile devices in that time. If you are one of our customers that has used our service, we want to thank you, from the bottom of our hearts. You are the reason we exist and the reason why we can continue to do the work that we do.

If you are not one of our customers, we would ask you to please consider us or keep us in mind should you need a repair done. We know that broken devices are an unforeseen expense and it can be a real pain the whatsit when you have to get one done. We always try to make the experience as painless and as smooth as possible so you can get back to your everyday life, with your device intact.

So once again, thank you to everyone that has supported us throughout this year with their insights and wisdom, thank you to the management and owners for believing in this business and giving us the ability to flourish and most of all Thank You again, our customers.


Don't forget to check out our website for all of your phone repair needs! www.techrevive.com.au