j-j.co.za
Sharing thoughts and ideas on business, security and photographyMajor update of DSTV Android client (30 new devices)
Posted on May 25, 2012Without much fanfare DTSV Mobile have snuck out a “beta” release of their Drifta client software for Android devices. This is a mammoth release (compared to prior ones) and now supports an extra 30 odd devices covering a number of different manufacturers including :
- Sony (XPeria Range – X10, Play, Ray, Active, Pro, S, Arc, Neo, Pro)
- LG (Otimus range, Prada, Tablet)
- Motorola (MB860, Atrix, RAZR)
- Vantium (V1)
- Huawei (Ideos X5, U8800)
- HTC (Flyer and Sensation)
There are also a couple of extras on the Honeycomb and Standard release, nothing major though.
Check out the full supported device listing in the FAQ : j-j.co.za/gofaq on supported devices. Don’t forget that rooted devices can be made to work using OTA Rootkeeper.
Thanks to DSTV Product Development manager @neilinspace for tweeting about the update, even though I did miss it for a week or two 
The OFFICIAL DStv Drifta app now compatible with many more Android Devices
Posted on September 09, 2011Update 2 : Confirmed for 3 HTC devices, the Desire, Desire HD and Wildfire S.
Other devices appear to be able to download but not run the application.
Update : The app downloads and install but fails the whitelist authentication test. I hope DStv fixes that this morning otherwise I see many of us going with the unofficial application (see here)
As of this morning, despite the Android Market place description of the software saying otherwise, the official DStv Drifta app from the marketplace is now compatible with a number of new devices.
Currently the following are confirmed :
- Sony Ericsson X10
- HTC Desire
The DSTV Drifta application for Android has already been hacked to work on “non supported” devices
Posted on September 08, 2011Update (9/9/2011) : As of this morning many more devices are supported. The application description still only lists the initial Galaxy devices but if you have an HTC, Sony Ericsson (and maybe others) the Market Place now shows up the app for your phone whereas before it was listed as incompatible. Try the official application before any of the hacked ones!!
For those who are still desperate:
There have been a number of posts around the net with users expressing their annoyance and dismay at the limited number of Android devices that are supported by DStv mobile.
It didn’t take long for users to start making their phones look like a Samsung Galaxy S to get the software to run, which worked quite well but required some modification of the phone (rooting it and changing property files).
Some kind soul (anonymously known as PeterJoe) then hacked the install file to allow it to run on rooted devices as well as fake the check to make it work on any phone (posted to MyBroadband.co.za). This doesn’t work on every device but many are supported. Sadly the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 doesn’t seem to be one of them.
See how to do this in the FAQ : http://j-j.co.za/faq/getting-the-drifta-software-to-work-on-unsupported-devices/
Enjoy the World Cup.
Sony PlayStation Network hacked, the mea culpa letter and some tidbits
Posted on April 29, 2011Update :
So now it turns out that Sony have been hacked again, this time it is the turn of Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), the publishing division responsible for maintaining Sony’s numerous online gaming titles, like EverQuest, EverQuest II, DC Universe Online and Free Realms. This affects 12,700 credit card numbers and 24.6 million accounts, including accounts in Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Spain.
Read more here : Source: http://www.lazygamer.net/#ixzz1LIYYzCK4
A copy of the press release can be see here : http://www.soe.com/securityupdate/
After the previous PR disaster Sony have been quicker to react this time around, their situation does however go from bad to worse. The Sony PSN is supposed to be coming back online shortly, along with a few “freebies” to say sorry to all their users. If you are still willing to trust Sony with your info there may be some goodies in there that interest you (the specific ones available to SA haven’t been announced yet), and 30 days free use of PSN+.
Out of interest, there are over 100 000 SA users of PSN : http://www.maxconsole.net/content.php?45820-Revealed-PSN-account-numbers-broken-down-by-country
Original post :
After days of hearing about the Playstation network breach on Sky News and on various sites, and reading about it on various hacking sites, that elusive mea-culpa email finally arrived from Sony.
It says a lot without really saying it. We might have lost your credit card details? Watch your statement?
This really isn’t good enough. Currently being out of the country for a few days, having to cancel a credit card and get another issued would be a real real pain, apart from being rather expensive. There is no talk of compensation for loss in the mail, but then I guess if you have managed to “lose” the details of millions of customers that could be a rather expensive exercise. My card replacement fee is in excess of R150. 7million x R150 = over R1 billion just for card replacement fees, before any fraud claims. Expensive mistake? Sony do claim that the database had an encrypted table of credit card details, with no CVS numbers or expiry dates, so perhaps the risk is not all that high of widespread abuse.
It shall be interesting to watch what happens from here on in, and see how the class action suites already being filed play out. Sony has already lost a lot of support and goodwill with the “OtherOS” fiasco and the GeoHot saga. Neither of which are really satisfactorily resolved.
Out of interest, it seems that when Sony first found out about the hack, it was more in the context of people being able to access paid for content without paying. Seems they had insecure methods of requesting that content, and the changing of a simple flag meant you didn’t need to pay. Hackers had produced custom firmware for the PS3 which allowed these changes to be made. It seems that there wasn’t a whole lot of security in the client/server requests. Read some of these here on IRC logs. No certainty on the validity, but sounds plausible enough.
Mocking of Sony abounds on the net (Source: tweet by @mxatone (Thomas Garnier) : http://img.clubic.com/04217086-photo-hack-psn.jpg):
Would you like to download some credit card details?
For those of you who didn’t get the mail (lucky you), here it is :
This is an email from Sony Computer Entertainment Australia Pty Ltd. If you can’t see the images in this email, please click here (link removed)
Valued PlayStation Network/Qriocity Customer:
We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011, certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network. In response to this intrusion, we have:
- Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;
- Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and
- Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure by re-building our system to provide you with greater protection of your personal information.
What people say
Close block