Psst. Hey, do you carry a spare Smart Cover around with you? Well, if you’re an unscrupulous sort, you can actually use it to bypass the lock screen of any iPad running iOS 5. This multi-step security hole will let you browse whatever’s running behind the passcode screen, whether that’s email, apps or the homescreen.

To take advantage of the flaw, hold down the power button on the locked device until the power off slider appears, then whip the Smart Cover on, open and tap cancel. Fortunately for iPad owners, the rest of the tablet remains locked-down, but the main problem here is any sensitive information left on-screen.

If you unlock the tablet to the main screen, you won’t be able to open new apps, although anyone feeling particularly nefarious can apparently delete apps from that meticulously arranged home screen. See how it’s done in the video after the break.

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Stylus and Android haven’t exactly been strangers as of late — with devices like the HTC Flyer and Samsung Galaxy Note offering pen-based input — but it looks like that option will soon be even easier to implement with Ice Cream Sandwich. As noted on Reddit, Google’s recent overview of some Android 4.0 platform highlights includes a small tidbit towards the end that details the “full support for stylus input events” in the OS — including features like pressure sensitivity and the ability to distinguish motion events from different sources (i.e. a pen and your finger). Of course, it still requires some hardware-level assistance from tablet and smartphone makers, but native support in the OS could well open up some interesting possibilities, especially when it comes to third-party apps.

SOURCE via Android Develpper

Less than a week after it disappeared from iTunes, the Apple-friendly Google Voice app is back and declared iOS 5 friendly, per its official Twitter account. Also improved is operation when you don’t have a data connection, as there’s no data required for all numbers previously called. Hit the source link below for v1.3.1.1891 — we’ll never go back to the dark days of v1.3.0.1771.

SOURCE via Google Voice (Twitter)

The bad times keep on rolling in for Samsung in their bitter, worldwide legal battle with Apple. The South Korean electronics powerhouse has already experienced the agony of defeat in Australia, where Apple succeeded in getting Galaxy Tab 10.1 injuncted. Very quickly thereafter, Apple added another notch on its belt by getting Samsung’s tablet banned everywhere in the EU, except the Netherlands. And yesterday, things got even worse for Samsung when their last toehold in the Eurozone sided with Apple: A Dutch court in The Hague has rejected their claims of patent infringement, and denied their request for an injunction against all Apple mobile products.

Though the fact that Apple may continue to sell in the Low Countries while lording over the rest of Europe unopposed has to sting, it isn’t a total loss. The court also refused to grant Apple’s request for a similar injunction against Samsung. The court ruled that Samsung’s 3D patents “were part of essential standards which should be open to license under FRAND,” and directed the two companies to negotiate. However, the ruling will certainly have an impact on court cases currently unfolding in France and Italy, where Samsung hopes to ban iPhone 4S. Though a major setback, Samsung can at least take comfort in their lucrative deal with Microsoft. While it won’t help them in the fight against Apple, it deals a blow to Google and nothing is more fun than seeing a battle between superpowers turn into a world war, right?

Netbooks might not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, when you’re targeting a market that has poor access to any form of computing device, netbooks are a good balance between the practicality of a larger laptop and achieving the lowest possible manufacturing cost. Add a free (as in freedom and beer) operating system into the mix which has been tested and tweaked for the hardware and what do you come up with? The Vodafone Webbook.

The specs for this machine aren’t going to blow you away. It’s a standard 10.1″ netbook form factor weighing in at a feathery 2.14 lb (0.97 kg), including the 2200 mAh battery. With a mere 512MB of DDR2 RAM and 4GB of flash storage, users of the Webbook won’t be running any intensive applications or storing their entire family photo album. Assuming that Unity 2D is the default desktop shell being used, RAM consumption by the operating system should be low enough to allow common preloaded software such as LibreOffice (the fork of OpenOffice.org which ships with 11.10) and Firefox to be run relatively smoothly. No specific tweaks were made to improve performance or battery life, with the primary modification being the addition of content relevant to the market.

Most of the hardware specs are reminiscent of the original ASUS Eee PC. The most interesting hardware feature for the Webbook is its processor. In order to cut costs and power consumption, Vodafone went with an 800 MHz Freescale iMX515 (based on the ARM Cortex-A8), making this netbook the first to ship with a mainstream Linux distribution compiled for the ARM architecture, rather than x86.

“Ubuntu’s founding principle is to remove the barriers of access to computing for everyone,” said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical, the primary commercial backer of Ubuntu.

The base unit will cost 1499 ZAR (~190 USD). Adding a prepaid SIM and modem with 100 MB of data per month for 12 months will increase the cost to 1899 ZAR (~240 USD). There are also contract options.

It is with no doubt, that the man who made your iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Mac dreams come true, is dearly missed, there are even some <strike>mad</strike> people who misses him so much they even tried to reincarnate him, but the man is gone. In Memory of Steve Jobs, all Apple Stores across the United States were closed to commemorate him, including a 24 hours Apple Store located in Fifth Avenue, Manhattan.

The flagship store was closed on Wednesday afternoon from 1pm to 3pm, an employee-only memorial for the Apple co-founder and former CEO. The man passed away on 5 October left many fans shocked, miserable, and some even created their own memorials outside Apple Stores with things such as letters, candles, and even apples.

Unfortunately, it looks like not everyone agrees to such move. The closing of the stores made many customers frustrated, one man was even angry because he couldn’t access the store in Fifth Avenue to get his iPhone fixed. But who could blame them? According to customers, they were frustrated because the guards failed to explain what was going on. Well, it may have been two weeks since he left, but he definitely still lives on in the hearts of his fans and employees.

Sub-$100 entry level smartphones will soon get a little extra skip in their step thanks to the ARM Cortex-A7 MPCore processor. Revealed on Wednesday, ARM claims the new chip is the most energy-efficient application class processor ARM has developed to date, delivering 5x the energy-efficiency and significantly greater performance while remaining one-fifth the size of the Cortex-A8 processor.

The company also revealed what it calls big.LITTLE processing which essentially controls two compatible but different processors installed within a single SoC. Power management software will select the appropriate processor for the task at hand, using the “LITTLE” lowest-power processor like the new Cortex-A7 for running the operating system and basic apps. Gaming and navigation would be handled by the faster Cortex-A15 processor, or both, depending on the app’s hardware demand.

“The time for this migration is in the order of 20 microseconds,” the company explained on Wednesday. “The efficient and seamless switching of workloads between the two processors is supported by advanced ARM system IP, such as AMBA 4 ACE Coherency Extensions. This ensures full cache, I/O and processor-to-processor coherency between the Cortex-A15 and Cortex-A7, and across the complete system. Software and applications can therefore continue to run unhindered, and unnoticed by the user, as the tasks are rebalanced to provide the optimum big.LITTLE user experience.”

As for the new processor, ARM claims that it will deliver sub-$100 entry level smartphones in the 2013-2014 timeframe with an equivalent level of processing performance to today’s $500 high-end smartphones. Manufactured using 28-nm process technology, it will occupy less than 0.5mm2 of space. ARM Partners already supporting both technologies include Broadcom, Compal, Freescale, HiSilicon, LG Electronics, Linaro, OK Labs, QNX, Redbend, Samsung, Sprint, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments.

“TI’s OMAP platform success relies on superior mobile computing at ultra-low power to deliver extraordinary experiences on smartphones, tablets and ultrathin laptops,” said Remi El-Ouazzane, vice president, OMAP platform business unit, Texas Instruments. “Our mobile processors’ smart multicore architectures have long been complementing main ARM processors with specialized engines and accelerators better suited to perform certain tasks at the lowest possible power. We are excited to see ARM’s introduction of Cortex-A7 with big.LITTLE processing. We see it as a natural continuation of our innovative approach to smart mobile computing as it presents new opportunities to advance the industry overall enabling even lower power general purpose CPU performance.”

For more information on the Cortex-A7, head here. Further details regarding big.LITTLE processing can be acquired here.