Required Ingridients:

• A computer with The GIMP installed
• Your handy smart phone with a 5MP or better camera
• A good pen and paper.

So anyway, here’s the process from top to bottom, with pictures:

1. Sit down at a proper table, and using a good black heavy-line pen on a white clean high-density paper, write what you need to write – slowly and deliberately but without pauses. Try not to smear the ink so you get clean continuous lines, otherwise the quality suffers a lot.
   
2. Now take your phone and start the camera app. Make sure that flash is on (not auto – always on), and if your camera supports it, set the “auto focus” mode to “Macro”. Position the camera close to the paper so that it sees your whole text and hold the shutter button (don’t release it yet) to let the camera focus. If you don’t get a clean focus then don’t take the shot, move the camera a bit away and try again until you get a clean focus.
3. After the picture is taken, load it into the computer. This part is usually the most complicated part of the whole process. On my phone I have “Google Docs” app installed, so I “Share” to “Docs” and I then use the browser to go to Google Docs and download the image file.
   
4. Now its time to start GIMP, load the picture and do the magic:
   
5. The first tool to use is the “Crop” tool from the toolbox – we need the image contain only the actual hand written note we want to convert, and specifically we need to get rid of the edges of the picture where the flash didn’t highlight the paper well (because the camera was so close to the paper
   
   The “Auto Shrink” feature is normally very useful for these kinds of jobs, but because of the inherently “noisy’ background of the paper, it wouldn’t work at all – just do your best manually and leave a bit of margin around the text. When you’re done setting up the box around the text, then click the center of the selection to make the crop.
6. Next we need to clear the image of most of the background noise of the paper before the real work can begin – to do this we will use the popular “Unsharp Mask” filter
   
   When the “Unsharp Mask” dialog comes up, push both the “Radius” and “Amount” sliders all the way to the end, while leaving the “Threshold” value at its default small value (I usually set it to 5, but any small number will work fine)
   
   After you apply the filter, the image would look drastically different, as you can see in the example below, but we’re not done yet
   
   If you look closely you’ll see that there are still some color artifacts present. In this example the photograph source is of rather high quality, but with less high quality input you may still see here some blobs and spots which should get taken care of by the next step.
7. To completely separate the hand written text from the background, we will use the “Threshold” command from the “Colors” menu – this will highlight in black only the ink from the photograph and will clear everything else to white. When the “Threshold” dialog opens, click the “Auto” button to automatically select the correct threshold value.
   
   At this point we are basically done with the major part of the work. We need only prepare the image for embedding and possibly due a bit more clean up if the original wasn’t of a good enough quality and we still got some black blotches where there shouldn’t be any.
8. The next step is to remove the white background from the image so it can be later embed the image into another document without having a white box around the text, that hides whatever we were supposedly “writing over”. From the “Colors” menu select the “Color to Alpha” command and apply its default setting (which should be to have the color White converted to transparency)
   
9. If we still got some inky looking blotches, left from the previous stage that we want to remove, you can clean them up manually by adding a layer mask
   
   And set it up to start completely white (opaque – which is the default)
   
   Once that is done – and you can see the layer mask as a white box to the right of the layer preview in the layers tab, take a paintbrush from the toolbox, and touch it to where you have noise that you want removed, careful not to touch actual lines
   
   Finally apply the layer mask by right clicking the layer in the layers tab and selecting “Apply Mask”
10. The last step is to save the result as a PNG file – so that we keep the transparency of the background.

The new image is now ready for import into your PDF editing software of choise, or into any other document where you need to fake ink on paper. You can also, obviously, keep the digital file and use it many times without bothering your hardware (pen, paper and camera) again.

Good luck.

Lately I’ve been having problems updating software on my Motorola Milestone (1, as in A853) running CyanogenMod 7.1 (thanks to Nadalbak who maintains an unofficial and unsupported port of CyanogenMod for this old device). When I start the Android Market and do an update of an existing application, I get the error “Package file is invalid” for any application. Sometimes removing an application and reinstalling it will work, but often not.

There could be several problems that cause this, apparently a problem with the file permissions on the file systems is common, and if this is your problem then it can be fixed by opening the terminal emulator, executing “su” to gain super-user permissions and then running “fix_permissions” (it will take a while to complete).

If this doesn’t solve the problem for you, then likely the problem is that you ran out of space on your “data” partition or “cache” partition. This is very common if you have a large “apps partition” on your SD card and you are in the habit of installing tons of applications – I know I am .

The problem is the “Dalvik cache” that gets full and apparently the operating system doesn’t clear old files from it so it will eventually run out of space.

I’ve tried cleaning the Dalvik cache, using Titanium backup and the OpenRecovery menu – but that doesn’t clean the cache properly for some reason, likely because it expects the cache to be on the “data” partition but in CyanogenMod 7 for Milestone the Dalvik cache is on the “cache” partition.

To solve the problem, boot into OpenRecovery then select “Wipe cache” from the main menu. Please note that you must wipe the entire cache partition and not just the Dalvik cache. Also make sure not to choose the similar option to wipe the data partition as that will remove all your personal data from the phone…

Good luck.

Update:

If your /cache partition is constantly overloaded in your Mileston A853 running CyanogenMode 7.1, you can disable the hosting of the apps dalvik cache under /cache by editing the system’s build.prop file. To do it follow these instructions.

1. Start a terminal in your phone using the terminal emulator app (or an alternative – I use ConnectBot).
2. Execute su and approve the super user mode.
3. Execute mount /system -o remount,rw to allow editing the build.prop file.
4. Execute vi /system/build.prop to edit the file.
5. Find the instruction dalvik.vm.dexopt-cache-only – you can type /dalvik<ENTER> to find it. Move the cursor to the end of the line and press on “A” to start editing. Delete the “1″ at the end of the that line and write “0″ instead.
6. Issue an “ESC” button (in ConnectBot you can do it by pressing the camera shutter button) and then type “:x” to save the changes and leave the editor.
7. Execute mount /system -o remount,ro to return the system files to read only mode.
8. Reboot to OpenRecovery and use it to clear the dalvik cache and the cache partition, and then reboot the phone.

Your device should now have enough space in the /cache partition.

Related articles

• CyanogenMod 7.1 Released (beast4romtheeast.wordpress.com)
• Netflix for Android Officially Recognizes CyanogenMod ROMs (pocketnow.com)

So everyone copies from everyone else – that’s how a market should behave: if one product comes up with a better idea, then it is only expected that other products can build on that idea – and sometimes do it better. And don’t get me started on the patent thing – patents allow an inventor to protect the technology and implementation of a specific idea, it does not give one a monopoly on ideas (even though many today try to use the patent system like that).

The question that, I think, is more interesting to ask is – who is more willing to play this game and who treats idea as their sole domain and exclusive property?

The answer, not coming as a surprise to anyone, can be found in Apple’s founder new biography: “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson, as reported by AP review of the book set to be available tomorrow, here are some choice quotes (taken from AP’s review):

Jobs told Isaacson in an expletive-laced rant that Google’s actions amounted to “grand theft.”

“I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product.”

Jobs told Schmidt [Google's CEO at the time] … ” I want you to stop using our ideas in Android”

While I haven’t seen anyone from Google complaining about Apple “stealing ideas” from Android, apparently Steve Jobs really feels very strongly that no one is allowed to “steal” his ideas (while there is no problem for his devices to be inspired by others’ ideas – says the cynical Android fan-boy in me).

So it is clearly the case that while Android designers believe in an open arena where everyone is free to innovate without limitations, Apple believes in a one-way street style of innovation – ideas cannot be used without permission, unless they are not Apple’s ideas, in which case they are free for all.

BTW, as just another perfect example of how Apple treats other people’s innovations, compare this story about how Apple’s newly introduced Wi-Fi Sync feature “rips off” a third-party developer’s iOS application that was rejected from the Apple’s application store, up to and including the icon, while a third-party developer (working on iOS applications) is not allowed to use the string “todo” in its icon because Apple has a trademark on the word.

Related articles

• Steve Jobs Was Willing To ‘Rip Off’ Everyone Else… But Was Pissed About Android Copying iPhone? (techdirt.com)
• Jobs vowed to ‘destroy’ Android (bbc.co.uk)
• Early View: iOS 5 vs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (techradar.com)

This deal is very good for me, as a consumer of high-end smart phones, for several reasons: one reason is the more obvious patent issue: the Google smart phone OS has come under fire from competitors (mostly Apple) in a host of patent lawsuits, though none of them actually targeted Google itself: the main advantage of Android is its availability to any small manufacturer – which enabled the amazingly rich ecosystem that is the Android world, but its also its main disadvantage as competitors can target “small fish” for their patent extortion, companies that are too small to afford a real legal battle. Google wasn’t in a good position to help defend their OEMs or developers, and I believe this is what they were trying to do with their Nortel patents bids, that didn’t come through – but they had an ace in their sleeve: even as the Nortel business was going on, Google was probably already deep in negotiation with Motorola Mobility that hold a portfolio of around 18,000 patents and patent applications – compared with Nortel’s paltry 6,000 patents. With this arsenal, and once the deal comes through, expect Google to come out swinging.

But as I mentioned – this is only part of why I’m happy about this deal. The second, and likely more important reason as I will be looking for a new phone at about early 2012, is that I think Motorola Mobility is one of the best makers of Android running hardware – if not the best. They definitely have the market in keyboard slider phones, which is the kind I’m using. The problem is, I’m a power user – I like to use the latests and best software available and the whole point of having a small computer (read: user programmable device) in your pocket – is the ability to install and upgrade whenever something new comes out (about every couple of months). And this is where Motorola devices fail me: Motorola like to keep a lock down on any user modifications to the phone’s operating system and their devices are notoriously hard to mod – installing a new firmware on a Motorola phone is a dangerous game of “will it brick?”.

Motorola has come out with promises of freeing up the phone “bootloader” (the part of the phone’s firmware that makes sure you don’t install “unauthorized” software) but so far we haven’t see any results. I have hope that under the new ownership, Motorola Mobility developers will find it easier to keep to this promise and allow us power users to buy hardware on which we can run whatever Android-based operating system we want.

Lets forget, for the sake of the discussion, the technical attacks as these are relatively easy to handle and Linux operating systems are already pretty well protected against such. The main vector of attack for malware these days is Social Engineering anyway – this is how Mac OS-X users get attacked by malware: you browse a web site, and an image that looks like a a blinking dialog box notifies you that your computer has been infected by a virus and prompts you to download this “fix”.

Most of us, technically inclined users, sneer at this type of “threat”, but most people aren’t technically inclined and there are enough people out there that will be fooled by this practice time and time again. Click the image and a binary gets downloaded to your computer and if it is in the correct format it will get executed.

This is where the Linux side of business starts (and where the “Mandatory Access Control” part of the title comes to play) – a binary that you just downloaded and executed cannot just go and do anything. Most Linux operating systems these days (at least the more popular ones) employ some sort of “Mandatory Access Control” – be it SELinux or AppArmor – which means that unless you specifically say, ahead of time, that some program can do something – then it can’t. This applies to all access including access to user files.

The thing is – Linux users are already well protected against the user of “downloading an executable file” and running it: You have to download the file and save it somewhere that you can find, then double click it. At which point a dialog box pops up and tells you that you can’t execute files with out the “execute bit”, so you have to open the file properties, go to permissions, figure out what the “execute bit” is and set it, click OK and try to run the file again. That is on Ubuntu – other OSs have even a worse user experience. So you see – no worries there: if a user is gullible enough to download just any file of the internet and try to run it – there’s no way they’re going to be able to do it.

So what’s the problem?

The problem is that if you can target Mac users and get them to download a Mac specific binary file (vs. a Windows specific executable for Windows users), then you can easily target specific (and popular) Linux distributions by getting their users binary files formatted with the appropriate software installation package format (“.deb” for Ubuntu, Debian and related OSs and “.rpm” for Fedora, SuSE and related OSs). All these operating systems, when you start downloading a file with the appropriate format, helpfully pop up a dialog that allows you to easily type in your password and install the “helpful software” right into your operating system!

Unlike getting a user to just execute a program, which will run with the user’s access level and at worst will trash the user’s files, this procedure lets loose an unverified piece of software into your operating system with full administration privileges. With that kind of access, such software can easily install its own “Mandatory Access Policy” that lets itself do whatever it wants.

And how does your operating system protect you from this vector? Very little if at all. At least in Ubuntu you get the very detailed “dpkg UI” dialog which presents a lot of information on the software you are going to install before you click OK – which may also expose you to additional social engineering. Fedora on the other hand does very little except show you the file name and allow you to click OK.

At no point there are warning to help the user decide what is the right thing to do – not that I expect this will do any good: uneducated users are very prone to just click “OK” to any dialog box that pops up without ever reading what it says, let alone considering it.

The Android styled “Mandatory Access Control” that has programs request specific permissions and the user is presented with this list for approval is not any better – for most users this is just another dialog that they don’t have to read if they just want to click OK.

What can be done about it?

Very little I’m afraid. Linux users are currently around 1~2% of total internet traffic and as long as it stays this low it unlikely malware authors will invest the extra effort to target us. But if we want to get more market share – and that means getting more uninformed people to use Linux based operating systems, then this will change.

I think its unhelpful to think that we can educate people to the point that these type of social engineering attacks will fail. If we really want to tackle the problem we have to be pro-active about defense, and as they say – “the best defense is a good offense”

What I propose should be done is that whenever a user tries to install a software using the “single click install” procedure, the confirmation dialog will be much more verbose and ask the user, not for their password, but to fill a simple multiple selection quiz: choose one of the provided reasons you want to install this software (or click “other” and type your own) and a couple of other questions like you get when you try to subscribe to a website – “where did you hear about it” and such. Not something truly drastic, just enough to get the user to think a bit more about what they are about to do.

After completing the dialog, the system will file all this information, along with the URL from which the software was downloaded, to a central repository on the internet (without any personally identifying information of course, not even the IP address) and interested individuals can look at these reports and vote if the software is valid or malware. Whenever an operating system is trying to install a specific piece of software from the internet, it can first look up the target in this database and if the consensus on the internet is that this is malware, then the operating system can refuse to install – very similar to how the website verification process that Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox use.

Advanced users can be spared this process (if they want to) as command line installations will not trigger this behavior and if you are really inclined there would be a checkbox in some system settings dialog that says something like “stop harassing me when I install software off the internet”.

So this is my proposal. What do you think?

Microsoft is understandably concerned, as they currently hold a “perpetual, royalty-free” license to all patents (which means that if the buyer doesn’t get to re-license with existing license holders, then they won’t get any more money from Microsoft on these patents), but what I’m ranting about is not their legitimate concern, but their attempt to color this as “unfair” – quips Techcrunch:

Microsoft says that’s unfair. And while they don’t specifically mention Google, it seems pretty clear who they’re thinking about when they write that a termination of existing licensing agreements “would result in considerable disruption in the development and enhancement of various existing technologies and give the prospective purchaser an unfair competitive advantage”.

This may be unfair, but Microsoft has done this exact same thing in the past, including the very near past where immediately after buying Skype, and just a few days after Microsoft promised that Skype will continue to be offered on non-Microsoft platforms, the “Skype for Asterisk” product was terminated disallowing Digium to sell any more Skype integration module for their successful (and open source) VoIP solution.

Obviously this is a move perpetrated to allow Microsoft’s competing VoIP product (Lync) an unfair competitive advantage by offering features that Digium can no longer offer – not because of technical issues but because Microsoft will not allow it.

Taking that into account, Microsoft claiming the sale of this patents to Google is unfair is just the pot calling the  kettle black.

Related articles

• Microsoft wants guarantees if Google buys Nortel patents (zdnet.com)
• Apple gets antitrust OK for Nortel patents bid (news.cnet.com)
• Google’s $900 mln Nortel patent bid OK’d: Report (marketwatch.com)

One, more industrious, individual went a step further and reproduced the HDCP master key as a Python program to generate sink and source keys according to the leaked instructions – which is reproduced here fully for the purpose of mirroring (no copyright notice was added so I don’t know who to thank for this). More musings about the meaning and purpose of all this – after the break:

"""
hdcp.py

Generates HDCP keys (sink and source)

Based on the anonymous post of the HDCP master key
posted here: http://pastebin.com/kqD56TmU

Relevant instructions included in post:
  This is a forty times forty element matrix of fifty-six bit
  hexadecimal numbers.

  To generate a source key, take a forty-bit number that (in
  binary) consists of twenty ones and twenty zeroes; this is
  the source KSV.  Add together those twenty rows of the matrix
  that correspond to the ones in the KSV (with the lowest bit
  in the KSV corresponding to the first row), taking all elements
  modulo two to the power of fifty-six; this is the source
  private key.

  To generate a sink key, do the same, but with the transposed
  matrix.
"""
import random

# Matrix (used for source keys)
m = [["6692d179032205", "b4116a96425a7f", "ecc2ef51af1740", "959d3b6d07bce4", "fa9f2af29814d9", "82592e77a204a8", "146a6970e3c4a1", "f43a81dc36eff7", "568b44f60c79f5", "bb606d7fe87dd6", "1b91b9b73c68f9", "f31c6aeef81de6", "9a9cc14469a037", "a480bc978970a6", "997f729d0a1a39", "b3b9accda43860", "f9d45a5bf64a1d", "180a1013ba5023", "42b73df2d33112", "851f2c4d21b05e", "2901308bbd685c", "9fde452d3328f5", "4cc518f97414a8", "8fca1f7e2a0a14", "dc8bdbb12e2378", "672f11cedf36c5", "f45a2a00da1c1d", "5a3e82c124129a", "084a707eadd972", "cb45c81b64808d", "07ebd2779e3e71", "9663e2beeee6e5", "25078568d83de8", "28027d5c0c4e65", "ec3f0fc32c7e63", "1d6b501ae0f003", "f5a8fcecb28092", "854349337aa99e", "9c669367e08bf1", "d9c23474e09f70"],
["3c901d46bada9a", "40981ffcfa376f", "a4b686ca8fb039", "63f2ce16b91863", "1bade89cc52ca2", "4552921af8efd2", "fe8ac96a02a6f9", "9248b8894b23bd", "17535dbff93d56", "94bdc32a095df2", "cd247c6d30286e", "d2212f9d8ce80a", "dc55bdc2a6962c", "bcabf9b5fcbe6f", "c2cfc78f5fdafa", "80e32223b9feab", "f1fa23f5b0bf0d", "ab6bf4b5b698ae", "d960315753d36f", "424701e5a944ed", "10f61245ebe788", "f57a17fc53a314", "00e22e88911d9e", "76575e18c7956e", "c1ef4eee022e38", "f5459f177591d9", "08748f861098ef", "287d2c63bd809e", "e6a28a6f5d000c", "7ae5964a663c1b", "0f15f7167f56c6", "d6c05b2bbe8800", "544a49be026410", "d9f3f08602517f", "74878dc02827f7", "d72ef3ea24b7c8", "717c7afc0b55a5", "0be2a582516d08", "202ded173a5428", "9b71e35e45943f"],
["9e7cd2c8789c99", "1b590a91f1cffd", "903dca7c36d298", "52ad58ddcc1861", "56dd3acba0d9c5", "c76254c1be9ed1", "06ecb6ae8ff373", "cfcc1afcbc80a4", "30eba7ac19308c", "d6e20ae760c986", "c0d1e59db1075f", "8933d5d8284b92", "9280d9a3faa716", "8386984f92bfd6", "be56cd7c4bfa59", "16593d2aa598a6", "d62534326a40ee", "0c1f1919936667", "acbaf0eefdd395", "36dbfdbf9e1439", "0bd7c7e683d280", "54759e16cfd9ea", "cac9029104bd51", "436d1dca1371d3", "ca2f808654cdb2", "7d6923e47f97b5", "70e256b741910c", "7dd466ed5fff2e", "26bec4a28e8cc4", "5754ea7219d4eb", "75270aa4d3cc8d", "e0ae1d1897b7f4", "4fe5663e8cb342", "05a80e4a1a950d", "66b4eb6ed4c99e", "3d7e9d469c6165", "81677af04a2e15", "ada4be60bc348d", "dfdfbbad739248", "98ad5986f3ca1f"],
["971d02ada31b46", "2adab96f7b15da", "9855f01b9b7b94", "6cef0f65663fbf", "eb328e8a3c6c5d", "e29f0f0b1ef2bf", "e4a30b29047d31", "52250e7ae3a4ac", "fe3efc3b8c2df1", "8c997d15d6078b", "49da8b4611ff9f", "b1e061bc9be995", "31fd68c4ad6dc6", "fd8974f0c506dd", "90421c1cd2b26c", "53eec84c91ed17", "5159ba3711173b", "25e318ddceea6a", "98a14125755955", "2bb97fd341cea2", "3f8404769a0a8e", "bce5c7a45fb5d4", "9608307b43f785", "2a98e5856afe75", "b4dbead4815cac", "d1118af62c964a", "3142667a5b0d14", "6c6f90933acd3d", "6b14a0052e2be4", "1b1811fda0f554", "12300aa7f10405", "1919ca0bff56ea", "d3e2f3aad5250c", "4aeeea5101d2ec", "377fc499c07057", "6cb1a90cdb7b11", "3c839d47a4b814", "25c5ac14b5ec28", "4ef18646d5b9c2", "95a98cc51ebd3b"],
["310e98028e24de", "092ffc76b79f44", "0740a1ca2d4737", "b9f38966257c99", "a75afc7454abe4", "a6dd815be8ccbf", "ec2cac2df0c675", "41f7636aa4080f", "30e87b712520fd", "d5dfdc6d3266ac", "ee28f5479f836f", "0bf8ee2112173f", "43ae802fa8d52d", "4e0dffd36c1eac", "3cbda974bb7585", "fb60a4700470e3", "d9f6b6083ef13d", "4a5840f02d0130", "6c20ef5e35e2bf", "dad2f85c745b5b", "61c5ddc65d3fc9", "7f6ec395d4ae22", "2b8906fb3996e2", "e4110f59eb92ac", "1cb212b44128bb", "545afda80a4fd1", "b1ffea547eab6b", "fac3d9166afce8", "3fe35fe17586f2", "9d082667026a4c", "17ffaf1cb50145", "24f27b316acfff", "b6bb758ec4ad60", "995e8726359ef7", "c44952cb424035", "5ec53461dbd248", "40a1586f04aee7", "49ea3fa4474e52", "c13e8f52c51562", "30a1a70162cfb8"],
["ccbada27b91c33", "33661064d05759", "3388bb6315b036", "0380a6b43851fb", "0228dadb44ad3d", "b732565bc37841", "993c0d383cfaae", "0bea49476758ac", "accc69dbfcde8b", "f416ab0474f022", "2b7dbcc3002502", "20dc4e67289e50", "0068424fde9515", "64806d59eb0c18", "9cf08fb2abc362", "8d0ee78a6cace9", "b6781bd504d105", "af65fab8ee6252", "64a8f8dd8e2d14", "cb9d3354e06b5b", "53082840d3c011", "8e080bedab3c4c", "e30d722a455843", "24955a20397c17", "82495c1c5114e8", "656e71c31d813d", "1f0a6d291823a1", "6327f9534353fa", "b89529c2f034fb", "70e9b12205c7b3", "a06c87969407a2", "520bfa2fe80f90", "da1efc3d345c65", "313936ec023811", "a8cc87128be2fa", "4cd0e8645ee141", "be7975519e2b63", "9543d23113c2a8", "3d87b0da033f22", "df0464c704e9d4"],
["7e1a30947e867e", "014ae464b37935", "5c4babf689fa4e", "c4aec0cb01cc35", "328c0e4a0230e4", "fdacb93b419594", "26deefc8a553e6", "6e75a2d790cb55", "2c4554518f7396", "94b77184cb145d", "95f883f620a8bb", "edff42866a2783", "7b4ee6304b711d", "ed56e077a4b9fb", "c4e60e687ff6c3", "0cbf144b8f64d5", "023dd10a35eddd", "beaa3323e999c6", "d2e016b31c38c4", "8d2917a888f799", "18c3abd28e736b", "8d38e69b4966cc", "624db0143dd2e7", "5e2fa510f632b7", "ee6e64d45b139a", "a1c6d852e74be7", "429843b9e6bb7e", "db9ab07c8dc267", "9efa092299f071", "dcca9e0e61e960", "94406fac95f1d8", "d19122f3f88782", "1b11a662e9c83f", "d161fd6fb7f032", "89f7d984da9d48", "a3583fea45fe58", "885e2c4839e254", "47e87235f713b1", "f4732e05b71aee", "ae026d063f4349"],
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["5009b61262ab9c", "0161bb90668bf4", "a314e46c502058", "447250d9698fed", "c3e4ceaa255d41", "5ba4045c2fdba8", "17b0720f52e736", "0eb0036d8439d0", "9e15116b8245e2", "3dad88738ceab0", "260986d154e9a9", "56cd13e67e508e", "9895906f7a2bc2", "4970647a63ed02", "5e192810f2e040", "02e7f4cad9b4cb", "18d5850dc181a2", "05204ea9653f18", "2d3b188124823d", "f9b34ca3d2c93b", "2e5ba515010f68", "7308114d65f874", "acbf4d6286131d", "46681d439816a8", "15fc07b05c47fe", "f0ef6a332c3132", "c4630529dd2021", "a743a1e9423e63", "b12af7fe3d806e", "0cb7d03c2afdae", "7abe068af28323", "fe75b567a2c0c7", "069313cf6c1f44", "a39aeec0ddcc87", "747c3bd20c1471", "876af6b8558b0f", "eb0b357c5d8f97", "c64ac9dcac22f2", "856e4341b42b50", "663b16ec5eb01f"],
["0d31dd990e70cc", "f7203530ab3d19", "6d42eb5412ec69", "dc9e4fcaf97880", "e0dcd2d94a10fc", "b5f39a9e831217", "4b084adf9c02c4", "d3cabf53a97846", "4c331980146846", "3c9f7c840833be", "b0cb542c3108b1", "9dcf7401e6f79a", "c1f27ed5dd4e0e", "509cf69e83c56c", "15ca00d43e1758", "5948602f5bf14d", "1d129ae6b9f4ee", "2b58f973ae2956", "6a6c792feb0c13", "62474058c00758", "caab48f22b2e6a", "ed88328618842d", "0418ebd349eb34", "846eda10087342", "e8b6c21b95cbf9", "cc90523ed0cb59", "4c9374718e79ca", "60c8fa29dd489a", "41f2190a03e88f", "8ac12bebb17c5e", "3195835960d662", "2317a3d2d90ead", "5f5aeb6d34f4e1", "7a39957a01179f", "3f88d79fc83f9c", "edb1049a771b1e", "30a85067c640ed", "06cac8047923de", "59bdda0f1b1b9d", "7a014eaecf61b7"],
["292e8b0f865638", "4dc1de3d7f5dda", "d9b1b7557b4db8", "54813ab90c75a3", "9b35f03246f1e4", "20f760465bc347", "0da41ba5991181", "a6a49de8fdf505", "60b1ea116f81a6", "ce2716aa9919a7", "e3fce68f208dd3", "05d5b9594f643d", "ded74364c812db", "16b6e7e4269696", "ad975ff975a727", "4d6e503b6ae9a9", "9ce664850ed1da", "a714650763250b", "944b7b251c3e6b", "0d37d4e4854c4c", "06c7e1c3d4b917", "5602bc69558908", "92f5ddd9a20bbd", "84d12a16b5963d", "d1426dd7f44f09", "06cca7d8cd71ba", "710072c1b4ea7a", "ebabe1e8242f72", "69960c6c0d5bf3", "2084edb90ada1d", "235ed7d8a9fe39", "3b133ed8a3fec1", "132c4509579af1", "203ca5447787a5", "ca938128fcd756", "ca569d31b6f05d", "edec4129270543", "ff17078079c2aa", "f642caa8568a3b", "8d1f6c3bf9b5e7"],
["c947c61701ce12", "1a3808b18cb73c", "d1d7543be23892", "9917eefd8b4b7d", "0eabef30f24b08", "b72c10d49c60a3", "c01344f22cc2a2", "b97c57f2a37b00", "f82a2f9338e520", "5a8b9c9ce0dc1d", "8a4d7e7260e257", "62046c5551c0e9", "19811c1011cf28", "dc158db4a957c2", "b516e794206aa4", "4a9e535622d8df", "bea44b252b2ab8", "7284568528acd5", "239ab1d64c7025", "bad538907922d6", "57fb163fcb9eca", "ad97c1507e480a", "78e8cfc81ca935", "14eee2413bbe9d", "e349073d92ab5c", "8ed191d530d9af", "f3a72b6e194e41", "d26925b22eb6c5", "f709c6088bb419", "8527923aa6f4f3", "1345fcb8916f88", "9f82d7a298174b", "b0a41e5d16d9d4", "28c7eab4098fe2", "f34abb591392d4", "a5084515586118", "71f3fcfcee19ff", "180d1b40c23b7c", "c18c22be085cc3", "edeb86d04f3c78"],
["c56c61899b8011", "2cf78b1bcd5b77", "99247be60f0cdb", "4c8a9aa7a58409", "e2bf0ad4cfe9b6", "f79b501f91d364", "5fd2c40e48e881", "c650973fb8e681", "7c8ae6d3aca02c", "7a01c329e3bf17", "3b126f2cda1e76", "229d405bbc41d3", "5e028a9f388566", "97e13e1dfee5e2", "aa02da00a5271a", "be2abd92296fc2", "e380153ffa1a5d", "dc3c184ca2fd9a", "8dd7381eccc7e0", "55a7fef2252572", "76da25ac98ef00", "3e12a21d43ef92", "28c5f1d9e71a96", "b7cd9a47a9c9d8", "aaf77a03539742", "9f8854a9983a9c", "2bcde940d64350", "6986616ba3f75f", "e80cc522c68b65", "f03f78b91d9f6c", "fdf9170e4ac9f1", "c84c3819797def", "03bbfca0340880", "2893d145bda408", "df07456e5388bf", "cbadcc8ac22dc9", "365807ab820d70", "29da8be4c0de87", "756ee3a7865bfe", "46439df366b70b"],
["ab960b51e728db", "e2e3c346921e4e", "74c6317baa49fb", "b3efd421fb40bd", "979d2df24bca93", "98d5bd5de71195", "bc030746a50c59", "02cf2a4b1b9812", "467af79145cfaa", "0ed643c7b530e4", "181ef7d406026a", "f6ea606e325377", "a302d06af1f7cc", "c7658f6ae6defa", "bbe5314d959e1f", "bb5757386c8799", "8759670183f618", "58e0cc3816f883", "c113183a0578ee", "ce5456e86ee96b", "c04285b8c56bb1", "74e5fb66d586e6", "9d8eea215e70c8", "f4a00feb7bc2f6", "369c2bf470063d", "5b267be08f0594", "c26fb2440b1ac6", "8610ef5a140769", "bb3d5b50a536d4", "df6c30bc09f971", "74e572ca84d171", "2deb91e812d860", "b17ac9ae5be211", "c95a0e3f542c78", "46397245b13a99", "1806ab9ceb6646", "1b4161b0ec2edc", "fc536e2a24abf8", "9f7207bf519f1b", "abf95b0d0d3cae"],
["d9e17ba1bf7678", "6526f524fad677", "ec243ad271d0cb", "9b1c06cf737605", "0a36697c74beaa", "fa0f0056a6bd7e", "9f2d03db497a93", "027d76e6e8692a", "72ceb29c5913a7", "55eb297dae3330", "eb676e7345fb39", "7021192efd5b47", "462906905e7511", "e005f52fd8da5e", "1288c01960d735", "3460b18eafd2d8", "faa9b1c3caf426", "5035e585d9fd2d", "85636dff1d4e42", "600c4b7f664267", "02b21e6a8c7a03", "79ce25c264e2f4", "035a7f32c227ea", "bf8f711445a7d7", "d0b5e3b336f71e", "c454a416321483", "bdc1a7a9d20dea", "e1ee4744e83143", "5b6969f2864529", "17a6b42d6346ab", "ff0fb6edf2265a", "ba75b0991f6dfb", "6638c1d7243ff8", "e7806af6600486", "dfe3bc58f31717", "b0c4adc2717922", "c11abff0b4a290", "43598e076f60be", "2ef17ad2f77605", "3a41a09d974da6"],
["ee787846e7ff26", "ce05d869fecf18", "fde916d95f9357", "4c1b4dd723b90d", "b1f024400d61a2", "f51dfebc71b770", "461e7f725d9637", "2b1587ff40035e", "a2cafbcd0c6b17", "2e9efaf6986045", "80e339a823ea56", "febfaa02609bb2", "a33955624e1602", "a137b84639ef0c", "6e2ecf420a6d6b", "69f13acbea8f97", "b4d36c41e3a867", "1352aee4798c08", "e3ec254ddf35cb", "ab600d90f13919", "d00cc1d401fd2c", "1c629e621756d2", "090f8d6e0895fa", "701bd1b0a355ce", "a53c7c91b15eb4", "dd8579d4dd92e4", "03d1c960c63d55", "215a8fbc09cc85", "59c1e6069b6dd1", "a0428bfb223cca", "46d131153e9982", "c5dab0c9ffb93d", "682db866d6503c", "a481c48384a087", "a417c564567258", "2ec7b9722b5c5f", "2d491f9cf79086", "30cd268b1088d0", "f02e69b1441963", "d9841b5339d18f"],
["a26deb7b957527", "337f3bd67d3c51", "e6839a4d5fe4cf", "1619c18889be68", "d971f0f57d1016", "56213ebf152a2d", "9c0e0394832c92", "9e6fc90ca28ba5", "9c5151dfbb8394", "f49fe4cf2a3f7a", "97f4db054b2b34", "2a4c21abf6406f", "eb941a80bee3f8", "7615468e80e77a", "0f935ebe8e8842", "959f2b3ba1f50c", "d6bc8b614e39de", "3c43d13746983a", "7956e617131247", "56de3547cf1010", "c16d5d1fce2bcc", "3e73e5ef9fd691", "1211c1a27803ad", "f1c9644aac4ba2", "8d67134e3be189", "d8aee617c607cb", "f62677b30d8ece", "e7df69402b2291", "6ec102f220e09f", "a6223e874c3e53", "fb474983ebdb9f", "806832bde2f4e6", "7c25ef688134b3", "4aadca3409a6b3", "bdccd638f3b19a", "2b01f18625fdd1", "0f5e91c28af081", "f28e4dcd9077cd", "9229d87caebbfb", "072b846b4d2ce0"],
["fd7a25e195d67a", "ec9546899268d2", "ff3068a2e9d0c2", "af9f2fc2de9978", "01b47566d0faef", "fc5a8eab966720", "4b981c9fe7ff10", "b4a0aa0873484e", "25a8b544ed8801", "c72530c2e5d37f", "94b0483e74e4fa", "bc5ac97d82cd68", "1a23d34cce0d52", "6e4d17a8475b19", "63493b14551149", "d36db24ae5ced3", "a24a53ea6aada0", "230cbe502aa32e", "2aa07485f281e6", "66777be0d719c7", "5d3ab65be78916", "06076f42e71bd2", "273e56dd3eccfd", "5ef1c9394b6a9e", "42f1f49590ffa2", "1e6ab6994e56a8", "8d54a339e301c2", "efff698c46e74e", "6721df7c5334d0", "f36cf6a93bf3ff", "91d8979d8fe631", "321dc8b5eccceb", "a237eb1423c395", "4623a16cc50b79", "83f616f60d8114", "32c15a65536b82", "e4a00d384d99cd", "369206bbef6fb4", "42a720e294a9e4", "768a1c77e94dac"],
["31d4798dffbd75", "da46bbd77e908b", "0fc027a69fcccc", "4204ee745159f5", "c14155873d42b2", "7ce0c031527eae", "22fb1c9d6da9a7", "33c940531510c9", "d938e52464ce71", "385b73fa95a2d3", "597bf6362dd268", "f9901921654409", "7c8d064cd5b4ea", "80e8fe2f1b3288", "ee188609ef2cdf", "beee34a1c48fe2", "459cefca35857f", "33b5320fbbca79", "7789297027b6a4", "f1debe5a09d013", "fd5d818a56bf63", "19a092fb1ec45c", "526f5d3ff64331", "9b8295291aef56", "d6963c3a92c34c", "065482a033fbbb", "9b9ab43410d764", "44ebbd99c86a86", "4c087234311b85", "db6e5a803ba13f", "760c159ce2a619", "d58d83243fe0ba", "1c1e5e83aa79b5", "75c8bbae9baabf", "2ed91bdb632ae8", "8e46b443cfffe5", "afa4f53f148577", "0be538701c4afa", "3fd89c44ef7ced", "060dcdc21e9368"],
["0a5b9e2ba4a53b", "63db0419a96d30", "f68e038377a61e", "aa15b78389ec74", "5f532809ff80f1", "f2892acc49ca4e", "e2d68174c08e81", "378254a38f5138", "0b060222bb20b1", "8013f6f4745c47", "ef08e87e2c197d", "b69d5ddaadf417", "7bc66fe482b730", "f4bd76d3bb1dfc", "09492b63f2935b", "43875dd685ab00", "e15a528f666486", "aad1fac042ef90", "b3bb7b8ef9c2e9", "c78967b9392a1c", "2f05fd5ca0230b", "1008345afdd18c", "dac73c313ace60", "346d535e500b62", "12e6357496459b", "ecccdac5a34926", "3b880f7098608f", "e66c3352a9cdd6", "049b176ff1a04d", "897d9569948066", "806230e9740d6e", "179ebf2b7952ab", "3a2c5079b5bbea", "73261b85c35fb1", "5b917dc1bf7e57", "9c55b95581c1d5", "e1fb86e6219639", "c72a22d8404448", "95dc5d7b966027", "457f3fec730d5d"],
["469cd82a2b3cec", "021d9de560b8d6", "85b4d126933886", "c8265dafb87325", "8741d99af7f420", "1329e52d3e66f8", "7d37c458a6ad05", "1241c5ccbc355b", "7fdcad3c3c269d", "05f04a0a23acc7", "ce076aba97cc18", "74b36afc4645b2", "cd7adaad8f5b91", "bd0651649dc722", "3d9b6437c667fb", "6827ec09eed45e", "8ad6102faa934f", "1a80658c0bfe1e", "ef1749235ab59f", "75478ad5949a06", "49ce6e19841851", "8df41dc39cc628", "bd9dc9bec89c8b", "7771a21fe8028c", "65082929b051f3", "c657798a3aebd1", "ce9c37c494cfc8", "156efce8330e42", "d0d95860d39040", "dfb0fb66f814c4", "4b421540a0aece", "9e767cbf7e9c49", "eeea5b5c866a9e", "e2026ca4bfb067", "ec9fff1a5d41c0", "290ed4da32d333", "65208d00dba471", "99e1d15a83b736", "5585401976a265", "1668daeb4aad72"],
["cdabffa646baca", "7a6c7bb29875f7", "1a87a53a2139c1", "1ecf7ae823158a", "b1087bf595f7f2", "d8e668fe076e4e", "b0794cf137a863", "81e2a419a320ac", "8090b1d39e5171", "813903d5f1a68c", "ba31f8211e56bb", "52413eefa30a66", "af88d053eb8a4a", "4d2235fdb9bf91", "69a947973d3ed3", "0dbcf583c26ffd", "b6bfbee58458b7", "5a12f3e625e5d8", "53ae22c2b1bc6a", "8e6f7e7bbde691", "2b692a6746d3be", "686438e4ac66e4", "aa77be21178471", "36aed3fc3ff079", "8c9373ebb1c2f7", "bb99fd5bfaebc1", "665902d08610e8", "8af0db91b80b6e", "00d4995f9a6ce8", "1d503d26442bd9", "e61b181dfd0949", "2a02f5075a277e", "76caa7ddc435fe", "5cedae4cae7a57", "4b5f7c58c4f214", "1446a05c1023ab", "459c93a9f5ad37", "1ea5f5aa4060b2", "a48215350fcd60", "ac21e2a4729a51"],
["f18cf87ecf430f", "0fd48c241ac6bc", "33964cd2e3d9ec", "8bebeffc2e848e", "bb84a5c2ea9b0e", "311f20ff7ce601", "752573f4effe98", "79dbe4d184dce5", "6bb04def99d322", "7d2d5f23c2475b", "7f93f7dbddf04e", "fff303e751fffe", "08d205f8999a3d", "5750d14f75e056", "1107a3f96ca8e9", "f62b50c8ad9f20", "53e7fcc55d72d8", "6345dec1054cb6", "01d52c21dc654a", "aa0bd78e39c594", "2265b675381cd5", "57cc03dd65f821", "1fa373049059a8", "9885886b48085f", "8357ab98192a14", "5bb6cfbf84048b", "5cf862f25ff6ab", "c9382e36ab2dbd", "2357b5ade91fcf", "2db77558ceef24", "d4a0cb3ba50a2a", "12c3cb633dfe47", "db805410168807", "a5e635ac766e1a", "25252810f49fad", "cae296fce18ed4", "b9932d5822c519", "4b7006cc54ea84", "2546d761d284cf", "2346d0a11b1ed9"],
["81ce0d028c4474", "c8002fd0315372", "8670db1a6ad6eb", "4c7f942260e9c9", "822bb2c423cc53", "e3b67febea3672", "59c24223d913c3", "6f4b196f69400f", "51bfb6cc7f3603", "fb9fbef84ffaf4", "7c1632636806f6", "a50ec42076931f", "f68b2be9e5e7ad", "7603302a518bd4", "d7cd9bb97ffa3c", "acf1faaebf7412", "f55d55d548bd86", "5b34112ed53d06", "1b58692e1e33b7", "cc7e3cb6d32fe2", "8f7b35c14a744f", "9a4ed599399554", "8eb369e71641af", "d4a6d1a5c74123", "8cc7ec376acf04", "ec0a470647b248", "2fd9e8eea1f10e", "94439285677960", "4d11f6e6a426e0", "06378817230b68", "ec14f2df152cb7", "199a8c0bd5f05d", "ecad5aab44ac2b", "ca87ab2ba6e905", "69c0bf2acdb36c", "d66279737bc807", "4dd946eb19d81b", "4e9c473b5e9846", "5a016f7ca86f9d", "d02c2b7dca744a"]]

# Transposed matrix (used for sink keys)
tm = map(list, zip(*m))

# Generate a random KSV (40-bit number with exactly 20 zeroes and 20 ones)
def gen_ksv():
  random.seed()
  ones = 0
  zeroes = 0
  ksv = ""
  for i in range(0, 40):
    if ones == 20:
      bit = 0
    elif zeroes == 20:
      bit = 1
    else:
      bit = random.randint(0,1)
    if bit == 0:
      zeroes += 1
    else:
      ones += 1
    ksv += str(bit)
  return ksv

def sum_row(row):
  sum = 0
  for item in row:
    item = long(item, 16)
    item = item % pow(2, 56)
    sum += item
  return sum

def gen_key(matrix, ksv):
  key = 0
  for i in range(39, -1, -1):
    if ksv[i] == "1":
      key += sum_row(matrix[39-i])
  # Key is the first 56-bits of this
  return key & ((1<<56) - 1)

ksv = gen_ksv()
source_key = gen_key(m, ksv)
sink_key = gen_key(tm, ksv)
print "KSV: %s" % ksv
print "Source key: %s (%d)" % (hex(source_key), source_key)
print "Sink key: %s (%d)" % (hex(sink_key), sink_key)

Obviously one way to look at all this is to say that some free-spirited individual in Intel with access to the original master (and a twitter account, as linked above) has decided the world would be a better off place if Chinese manufacturers could create dongles that convert HDMI ports with HDCP encoding to something I can connect my old TV tube to.

At least this is the angle the major media outlets have been taking, and don’t get me wrong – I’m all for that! (The about to be released Boxee Box has only an HDMI out -quite probably HDCP protected- and digital flat panels for TV viewing is still one bandwagon I’m not on.)

But let me offer a different angle on this story:

In Ed Felten’s article Understanding the HDCP master key leak, he mentions the 2001 paper from Carnegie-Mellon and Berkley – A cryptoanalysis of high-bandwidth digital content protection system that explains how an attacker that can gain access to private keys from 40 different HDCP compliant devices can recreat the original HDCP master key in full. Gaining access to 40 different consumer devices and cracking their fail-safes to get at the private key may sound like a lot, but I reckon that a dedicated person can do that when you take into account that having the single device that breaks HDCP protection can be very profitable.

So one way to look at the recent leak, is that Intel has simply taken countermeasures against the future proliferation of HDCP cracking hardware on the market – they deliberately leaked the key, then when suspicions were raised as for its authenticity, they publicly confirmed the leak and made not-so-veiled threats that are easily seen as not applicable to some markets closer to the west side of the pacific.

Either the key is really genuine in which case the angle is probably just to make it less likely that such devices will hit the market soon cheaply and in bulk, by raising the risk of investing in such an enterprise – as many other manufacturers can hit that market just as easily; or more nefariously – that the “confirmed authentic key” is a fake and building devices based on it will yield no actual results – this would throw a very real stick into the wheels of any one currently trying to break the HDCP security: they can’t ignore this new possibility, and getting this key to work in an actual testing environment is still costly and time consuming. After investing a lot of time and money in reverse engineering CE devices, then “getting  the easy way out” to finally found that it was all a hoax – this can really break the spirit of a devoted entrepreneur…

So that’s my take on this, what do you think?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Intel is investigating how a master key for the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (robbiz1978.blogspot.com)
• Confirmed: Intel says HDCP ‘master key’ crack is real (engadget.com)
• Intel Threatens To Use The DMCA Against Anyone Who Uses The HDCP Crack (techdirt.com)
• HDCP Master Key Leaked (blogs.securiteam.com)
• HDCP Master Key Is Real, But It Won’t Do You Much Good [Security] (gizmodo.com)

After getting a terminal application installed, you find that most stuff that you want to do require “root access” on your android phone – it appears that on Android they don’t really use “user permissions” but instead each app is its own user id with its own set of permissions (an ingenious way to handle different permissions per application).

To do most interesting things you need to make sure you can get root access. As a normal phone user you aren’t expected to need this so this feature is disabled on phones and to enable access to the root account you need to crack the phone’s security model.

Apparently its very easy to do as someone already packages the system vulnerability exploit in a neat little Android application that you simple install and run!

Get “root” on your Android phone in 3 easy steps

1. Go to system settings and open “Applications” and mark the first checkbox to allow installation of applications from external sources. If you’ve done this already (its the first thing I did on my phone), then good for you – then you only need 2 steps .
2. Go to the Universal Androot developer’s web site and install the latest stable version (1.6.1 at the time of this writing). The easiest way is to go to the website from your phone’s browser and just download the APK, though if you have a barcode scanner installed then you can scan the barcode on the site to get the APK.
3. Install the APK you downloaded and run it. You will get a simple screen with the buttons “Root” and “Unroot” – you can figure it out from there.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Universal Androot App Offers One-Click Root On A Multitude Of Devices (G1, Nexus One, Droid, Droid X, Hero, X10, Streak, And More) (androidpolice.com)
• The Easiest Method to Root Samsung Galaxy S on Android 2.1 [Video] (ithinkdiff.com)
• Get Root Access to Your Motorola Droid 2 [Android] (lifehacker.com)
• 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Root Your Android Phone (brighthub.com)

[Updated: 29/7/2011]

One of the reasons to get a new mobile internet device, is to get a better pod catcher to use in order to feed my podcast listening habit . Its not that Escarpod for Symbian was bad – it was a very good application and any new podcatcher I’ll get will be measured against it – but my P1i was kind of dying and regardless all new development in Escarpod was happening in the S60 version and not for UIQ that the P1i was running.

Once I had an android device, the next order of business was to find the best podcatcher (for me). I’ve downloaded and tried all the podcatchers I could get my hand on, so here’s the summary of my trials and tribulations. If I missed any podcatcher that you know of (and want me to compare against those listed below), then drop me a note about it.

Beyondpod:

One of the best podcatchers for Android, possibly the best. Costs $7 to “unlock the free version”. They use the annoying (but effective) full-featured-trial + free-version-with-less-features method to hook users into using the application and when the trial expires the application turns into a nag-ware. The main problem with that is that the “free version” only appears to work – it doesn’t actually do anything useful other then play your already downloaded content: it doesn’t let you update feeds (even manually) or download new content (even manually) or even play other content you downloaded yourself from outside the program. It basically stays on your phone like a large ad for the payed version.

The user interface is pretty if a bit annoying (also, too much iphone-like), and the download buttons in the feeds are really small and easy to miss.

Other problems I had was that it tends to always download last X items (as configured) from a feed even when they are marked as read, and you can’t cancel downloads after they are started – you must complete them and then delete.

Other then that, its one of the best applications in the category and by a long distance from any other except Dogg Catcher and Listen (see below). The downloaded items screen is incredibly useful as it shows how much you played from each podcast with a very nice effect of the background being a progress bar. It also has very nice swipe and page turn effects when you move between views and basically its the best looking podcatcher you can get.

If you’re willing to pay $7 for your podcatcher application, then you should check BeyondPod out. Its not my top recommended application, but as it came a close second and you can download it for free (unlike the winner of this comparison), then I do recommend you give it a try.

Listen:

This is Google’s idea for a pod catcher, and its very well done although a bit limited in functionality. The main idea with Listen is the “queue interface” – you have a screen where you get a list of all new items from all your feeds, ordered initially by ascending date (i.e. new content is added to the bottom of the list), and the list is separated into a “queue” and “incoming” (or some such). You need to move new podcasts that came in to the queue part, at which point Listen will download them. You can also reorder items that are already in the “queue” part, if you want to listen to them earlier or later. The queue is also your playlist and when you finish playing one podcast, the player will move to the next item in the queue while the old item will be removed from the queue (and eventually deleted).

Another very interesting feature of Listen is that it doesn’t work with OPML feeds or other import/export methods – instead it uses Google Reader: after you tell Listen your Google account details, all your current feeds will appear under a “Listen Podcasts” category in Google Reader. When you add or remove feeds from that category in Google Reader, the changes are automatically picked up by Listen.

The application itself is very simple – there are almost no settings to configure and as such there are also very limited features. You can’t even read the show notes except for the very small excerpt that Listen displays when you open an item. Also it doesn’t handle HTML or Unicode for non-Latin texts in the show name or text. The last problem, and its also the reason why I don’t use Listen any more, is that it does not download new items automatically – it just shows you the new items and you have to manually put them in the queue. If you forgotten to do that then you may find yourself with no new content to listen on a long drive. It does support streaming for content that is not downloaded yet, so you’ll at least have that – although streaming over cellular IP can get quite expensive.

Another problem is that it doesn’t support the bluetooth headset play/pause button, which is something that is important to me as I almost always listen to podcasts through my bluetooth headset and I need to be able to stop and resume the podcast without taking the phone out of my pocket.

To summarize, Listen is very well built, though simple. It might fit your needs if you just want to listen to a bunch of shows and the Google Reader management is a nice touch. For me it ranks as number 3, but as the only good free (as in beer) pod catching application – if you rather not pay for your software then Listen is the application I recommend for you.

Dogg Catcher:

This is another commercial application that you are expected to pay for, but this one has no demo/free version – you either buy it from the Android market (where it isn’t listed in most cellular providers markets – only in those that have support for paid applications) or you can download it directly from the developer’s web site and pay using Paypal.

The application is useful and supports both classic podcasts that are audio only, as well as video podcasts that it plays using the Android video player and standard text only feeds where you can read their excerpt internally in the application and click a button to read the rest using the web browser. Its the only application I’ve seen that supports full show notes, though it doesn’t support Unicode so you can’t read show notes in languages other then English.

Other useful features I like are that the audio player is always visible no matter in what view you are; You can configure how much to rewind or to skip when pressing the back/forward buttons of the media player; You can configure how many items to download from each feed, so if it downloaded as many as configured and you haven’t listened to them yet then it won’t download new content and there by blow up your storage, until you finish listening to some of the old stuff.

The main view in Dogg Catcher is the feed list, from which you can jump to the audio playlist (showing only downloaded audio items), the video playlist (showing only downloaded video items), the news list (showing new text items) or the download queue. The main problem I have with Dogg Catcher is that when you switch back to it after going to another application, it always reverts back to the main view – while for me the most useful view is the audio playlist and I have to manually switch back to it if I switch to another application and back. Another annoyance is that in horizontal display mode (which is mostly how I’m interacting with DoggCatcher – in my car or on the media dock) the title and the navigation buttons take up so much space that you can see less then two items in the actual content display and that makes it very hard to manage the long content lists I have. The last major problem I’m going to complain about is that if an item failed to download (probably due to network connectivity problems) then DoggCatcher will try to redownload it immediately up to 5 times and then give up and show a notification that there was an error, and you have to go to the download queue and use the “Queue failed/partials” button to retry. That being said, aside from that its operation is fully automatic – it updates the feeds automatically and downloads new content when it becomes available and I don’t have to think about stuff like that any more.

On the plus side, it supports the bluetooth headset just fine, it can pause playback when detecting disconnect from the bluetooth headset or headphone jack so you don’t lose anything when changing connectivity, it has a desktop widget that you can use to play and pause the current podcast, you can switch between full autoplay or play one item at a time and in autoplay mode you can choose whether to play items in chronological order or to batch them by the originating feed.

Initially I managed to get my hands on an older version of DoggCatcher through an illegal download site, and I tried it for a while. Quickly I figured out that this is the podcatcher that I want to use – it gives me full control over things that I want to do, and doesn’t bother me with things that are easy to automate – so I went to the developer’s web site and payed the $7 for the application (about the same as BeyondPod, my runner up).

The developer is active and keeps fixing bugs and releasing new versions that as a registered user you can download immediately (the application comes pre-configured with the RSS feed for the release announcements, so its a useful and unobtrusive update notification mechanism which is a must for people that get this app not through the Android market). I had a problem with the date sorting on my system (which we eventually figured was due to the Israeli locale) and the developer was very helpful and forthcoming and eventually we got the problem fixed. As a result I highly recommend DoggCatcher as the podcatcher of choice for Android users.

PodKicker:

Update: A new comer to the party, PodKicker was released on June 2011 – a long time after this review was already posted, but it is a worth opponent and it deserves its spotlight, so I’ve reviewed it and added it here (Thanks for ST2 for mentioning it).

PodKicker’s premise is to be very simple – as the author says in the market review “all those features that most people never use has been left out”, which indeed it does. It offers the most important features – it collects all of your audio RSS feeds and shows you which items each one has; a “New” view shows all the items from all the feeds in reverse freshness order and clicking on an item in either view will open the item’s summary page and allow you to download or stream the podcast. It has a download manager – which interestingly downloads two items at the same time instead of the standard 1 active item, I guess its utilizes bandwidth better but I suspect that it’s less ideal for the battery life of your android device. Once an item has been downloaded you can click it to add the postcast to the playlist and the player shows you the playlist and allows you to skip between items as well as rewind and fast-forward.

And this is basically it – there are no hidden features, the global setting screen has so few options it doesn’t even take up a full screen and there are no feed specific options – all you can do is list feeds, list items, download and play (though the main tool bar lists them in a different order for some reason). The UI is also no-frills dead-simple to use, and the horizontal mode is interestingly useful in that it has an additional view port, so that you can select an item from the list and see it on the right side instead of the items detail view taking over the screen. My main gripe with PodKicker is that its so simple there is absolutely no automation or help to the user: the only automation it has is that the player skips to the next podcast in the playlist automatically and (optionally) it can delete items after you finished listening to them. There is no automatic download of new items, no automatic queuing of downloaded items and it doesn’t even mark items that you’ve already listened to in the item list – so when you look at the “New” list you have to figure out by yourself that is new and what you’ve already discarded.

The main things PodKicker is good at are: dead simple to use; can stream podcasts directly instead of downloading; supports bluetooth headsets that can pause/play the stream; supports the pcast:// schema so if your podcast offers a subscription link like that then a click in the web browser will open the PodKicker subscription dialog; OPML import with automatic file detection – it doesn’t require you to browse to an OPML file or put it in some directory like other pod catchers, instead it simply scans the entire SD card looking for a valid file. It also has a nice icon.

But PodKicker also has these problems: no automation whatsoever, so that basically makes it useless to me; no “skip to the next item” control in the player – if you are fed up with the current podcast you have to fast-forward manually to the end to get rid of it, or stop and delete it manually; it has some annoying bugs, for example if you add a podcast by clicking a pcast:// link in the browser, it will open up the “add feed” dialog with the pcast:// URL but refuse to accept it until you change the “pcast” to “http”, and after that whenever you come back to the application it will always start with the “add feed” dialog with the URL of the podcast you’ve already subscribed to. Also I found out that while PodKicker is playing, my phone is dead slow and everything I want to do takes ages – I think the internal audio player it uses hogs the CPU.

All in all, if you are looking for something very simple, I recommend giving PodKicker a chance, especially as it is brand new and I expect the author to work out most of the kinks out of the system in the next few months.

The rest of the contenders, in no particular order and are mostly presented here for completion, are:

ACast:

This is an interesting podcatcher but I found its user interface to be way to complex and clunky. The on-screen “menu buttons” are mostly annoying and could have easily gone into a standard Android menu bar (which is not available). It also had severe problems during playback while switching to another application or while downloading a postcast.

Finally it can import OPML, though only from a URL, which you have to type manually by hand. So you have to either manage your feeds online or upload your OPML somewhere before you can import your feeds. The only other option for adding feeds to it was to hunt for your feeds one by one and add their RSS URL manually. I didn’t like this application at all and can’t recommend it.

Carcast:

This is a very basic podcatcher. As you can probably guess by its name, it was meant to use in a car, and not anywhere else – and as such the UI is minimal and you can’t do almost anything with your podcasts: You can’t look at episodes before downloading, you can’t update feeds selectively and you can’t schedule updates – its just manually update all, and finally there is no import/export support at all.

I found Carcast very lacking and I can’t recommend it.

Dpod:

Another simple pod catcher with a no-thrills interface. The main problem I had with it is that it doesn’t have an internal playback UI – it relies completely on the Android media player for the playback UI. When you start to play a podcast it simply drops you into a media player and when playback is done you can get back to the podcatcher UI. The problem with the Android media player is that it doesn’t have a skip/rewind buttons – if you missed something and want to hear it again, or the podcasts goes into a “sponsor message” that you want to skip, then you need to try to use the seek bar to aim at what you want. Try to do that while driving.

Other then that this is a nice pod catcher that can import feeds from Google Reader similar to the Listen functionality, it can show the full show notes for podcasts (though without active links) and it also has a download manager and can update feeds automatically and download new content (but only on a daily basis – you can only choose at which hour to update each day), and it also integrates with Locale if you have that installed so you can trigger podcast updates according to Locale criteria. But the media player dependency is a show stopper so I can’t recommend this one.

Esobi mobile:

Esobi offers a set of service to synchronize content between your computer, web and mobile, and this application is just the mobile counterpart. I’m not sure how well it works if you subscribe to their entire model (please forgive the lousy pun), but using just the mobile application by itself is not such a rich experience: it lets you subscribe to feeds, and if the feed has media then you can download it and play. And that’s it – there is basically none of the features that I’d expect from a pod catcher, such as scheduled updates and downloads, playlist or queue, etc’. Another annoying thing with Esobi is that any operation you do is modal and synchronous with the entire UI – for example f you start an update on a feed, the UI is stuck while updating the feed and you have to wait for the update to complete before you can do anything else. It also does not support Unicode. Highly not recommended.

Feed droid:

This is basically a feed reader (aggregator) application with basic podcatching support. It supposed to be support OPML import, but I get crashes when I tried that. Other problems are that scheduled updates can be configured in time frames from 1 minute to two hours – which is way to frequent for pod catching (I usually schedule updates between daily to 3 times a day). Also it does not support Unicode and has no background playback – it does use an internal player UI, but when you play a podcast you can’t get back from the playback UI without aborting the playback, nor do you get any playback controls such as skip and rewind.

If you need just a feed reader with an occasional media playback ability, this might do the trick, otherwise – stay away from Feed Droid.

Hapi (xulun):

This is a nice podcatcher with a simple enough interface – the main UI is just a menu with a few options for managing feeds, managing downloads or showing the playlist. Once you go into the playlist you can play items one by one. Unfortunately the player does not have a rewind button – only to skip forward and to reset to the beginning of the podcast. Similarly you can’t mark a podcast as “read” if you don’t want to listen to it – you need to open it and then close it, but you can select to mark played items as “unread”. It does support Unicode apparently, but I had a lot of problems with showing Hebrew text on the item lists – it shows garbles until you scroll to it, at which point it displays fine.

Another thing that troubled me is that it tended to revert back to the main UI sporadically and without warning while I was doing something in one of the internal screens. One important feature that I was missing was supported the bluetooth headset play/pause button – it plays fine to the bluetooth headset, but if you press the play/pause button on the headset then the Android media player picks up the command and start playing in the background to the podcast. Very annoying. If they fix all these problems, then it might be a good podcatcher for general use, but it was to simplistic for me and I didn’t feel like I had good control over my podcasts.

MyPod:

This podcatcher features a very nice and colorful UI, though it was rather complicated and its not often clear how the colorful icons relate to the actions that you want to do, and the available options (or their descriptions) are not really intuitive. To help with this problem they have inline help pages that popup whenever you go into a view, with lots of explanation text. The help pages popup every time you go into each function until you dismiss each with the “do not show again” button. An interesting solution to a problem that shouldn’t have been created in the first place.

An interesting feature in MyPod is that it has two players – a “foreground player” and a “background player”, supposedly so you can listen to both music and podcasts at the same time – you can actually select in which player you want to play each downloaded content and if you start playing an item in one player, you can go back to the item list and start playing another item in the second player and the output of both will be mixed together. This sounds weird to me and I can’t really see how that is useful. Furthermore the UI for the players does not make it very clear at which player you are looking and how to switch to the other one.

Other things that I found confusing are that there is no option to mark item as read/unread (not even an automatic “mark read when viewing”) but there is a checkbox “flag” that you can set on downloaded files, which is not clear what it does, and also there is a menu option to “toggle listened flag” which doesn’t appear to do anything or interact with the previously mentioned flag. This podcatcher also does not support the bluetooth headset play button, but at least it prevents the Android media player from grabbing it so it simply doesn’t work instead of starting to play another track in the background.

On the other hand, MyPod has lots of low level options such as limiting the space that podcasts take, limiting download speeds or handling pausing while using the phone, but there is a huge amount of not very Android-like UI to support it and it is all very confusing (for example, it has a cancel button for the settings screen instead of relying on the “back” button like normal applications do).

You can import OPML feed descriptions by browsing the web with an internal browser (a very nice feature) or load feed descriptions from a local file – but then only from its own directory, so you have to copy the opml file to its MyPod directory using a third party file manager, and in either method you can’t just import all the feeds in the OPML file with a single click – it lists all the feeds in the file and you have to manually open each one, wait for my pod to query the feed, set options and apply. Tedious.

Another problem in MyPod is that when it update a feed, it takes a long while to parse the RSS file that it downloaded (sometimes it may take a couple of seconds or more), and if you ever want to go into the feed’s item list and see it again, you can choose whether you want to download an updateed RSS or to parse the old RSS file that it cached – but either way you have to wait for it to parse the files again.

This application might speak to some people, but for the life of me I can’t figure out who – as an advanced user who doesn’t shun complex interfaces (if they’re useful) this was way too much for me.

NowPod:

This podcatcher is very simple. It has a simple but useful user interface, it can do OMPL export and import (for import it requires the 3rd party application OI file manager to be installed, but its better then limiting you to a single directory). On the downside, it has no download queue – you can download just one item at a time, it has no “downloaded items” list – you have to access downloaded items through the feed item list, and there is really no distinction between listened and unlistened items , it simply does not record that information.

For a good pod catcher I do require at the least to have control over downloaded items, which this application lacks – so I can’t recommend it.

Summary

As you can see, there’s a lot of bad applications out there – which is one thing I can say for Android: it has a lot of options. In UIQ there isn’t a tenth of this many pod catchers and Symbian (S60 and the current version) hasn’t that many more. That being said, from the top of the top you have three podcatchers you can select from, even one that is completely free of charge.

As usual I’d appreciate any feedback regarding my selection of application or my comments, and if you think I need to check or re-check something, please let me know by commenting below.

Related articles

• Five Best Mobile Podcast Catchers [Hive Five] (lifehacker.com)
• 8 great apps for listening to podcasts on Android and iOS (thenextweb.com)
• DoggCatcher top rate podcatcher and RSS/news feed reader for Android (technology-headlines.com)

Its a pretty cool device and (to my surprise) it allowed me to abandon all the other phones I was carrying with me, pretty much with in a couple of days (I expected it will take me at least a week to transfer all the things I was doing with mobile connected devices to a new device). So now – probably to the surprise of many of my friends – I carry just one phone instead of 3.

I’m using the Cellcom provided Milestone, as it comes with a very cost-effective plan, and less so because it comes with complete Hebrew support in its Android firmware.

After 1 week of usage, I have to say that I’m very happy with what it can do and it has definitely upgraded my communication experience – I get a better email experience (and that was hard to improve on the Ericsson P1i I was using previously), better synchronization for the address book and calendar (now I get both Google calendar and the company’s calendar synced) and I even have IM connected most times (which is to say – if you try to IM me and I’m less then responsive, likely I’m driving or something).

Things that I’m still not happy about:

• I can’t get tethering for dial-up to work. I haven’t tried USB tethering yet, but bluetooth tethering doesn’t work for me (though at this point it looks like more a problem with my computer then with the phone).
• It has crashed a couple of times on me so far (which is to say – much less then my previous phones at about the same amount of time, but still).
• It eats battery like crazy – if I’m not really playing with it all day, let say: 1 GPS drive to work, some emails and a few calls during the day, maybe some IMing and when its time to go home the battery can be dead. If I actually do any battery intensive usage such as playing games, listening to podcasts or stuff like that – it will be dead withing 3 to 4 hours. I’ve put the complimentary car charger, I got with the phone, in my car and I keep it connected while driving. This usually (but not always) allows me to get away without the battery dying on me at inconvenient times.
• The system’s software update does not work – I know there are updated firmwares from Motorola, but when I try to run the software update from the system settings it tells me it can’t connect to the server and to try again later.
• There are some annoying bugs in the system, such as: the music player starting itself when the headset disconnect, the market fails to install applications if Google Talk isn’t connected (sometimes, but not always) and a couple of other minor stuff.
• The bluetooth headset disconnects sporadically, and also sometimes looses the A2DP connection. This is less frequent, less serious and much less annoying then it was with the P1i, but its still a menace. Maybe it is the headset after all.
• The “application drawer” is a useless UI. The default way to launch applications in Android (at least those that you don’t have shortcuts for on the over-crowded home screens) is the application drawer – a huge list of any application and plugin that you installed order by alphabetical name. You can’t re-order them and you can’t put them into sub folders or anything. If you’re like me and installed a bunch of stuff on your phone, then you are forced to scroll through several screens full of icons before you find what you need (at least kinetic scrolling is fun). When you get a new Android device, the first thing you should do is install a launcher replacement that allows you to put folders on your home screens, then treat the folders like subfolders in the Symbian menu system.

That’s the bad stuff, now for things that are awesome!

• The UI is pure joy. The touch interface is fast and responsive, and easy to work with. And unlike the Nexus One, the “Android Experience” buttons (the static buttons under the screen) work easily and always react properly.
• WiFi works great! It even notifies you if you are roaming about outside your home WiFi network and come across an open hot spot.
• The hardware keyboard is really nice, and even has a dedicated language button to switch between Hebrew and English. I’m still missing a few keys but its no where near the problems I had with the Nokia E90. Specifically I couldn’t figure out how to type a comma when in Hebrew mode, and a few useful characters where relegated to a special “Symbols” menu that in some applications is not accessible.
• Surprisingly enough – I kind of gotten used to the software keyboard as well. Although I hated the iPhone virtual keyboard, I find the Android one quite useful. I wouldn’t presume to say that the Android keyboard it better then the iPhone’s – most likely I simply gotten used to it.

The next order of business is to find a good pod-catcher. I’ve already checked and my favorite mobile pod-catcher, Escarpod, is not available for Android so the search continue. This probably warrants its own post so expect that in the near future.

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• Motorola Milestone XT720 Unveiled (phonereport.info)
• Adobe Releases Flash Player 10.1 for Android (wired.com)
• Motorola Droid Tethering Options (brighthub.com)