Samsung enters Top 10 of global brands, thanks to Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note

According to the results of its 13th annual Best Global Brands report, which released by Interbrand a few days ago, Samsung enters top 10 of global brands, Ranks 9th On Interbrand’s Best Global Brands. While at the same time, Samsung’s biggest competitor Apple is now the Second Most Valuable Brand in the World.

Coca-Cola (KO) was able to retain its number one spot, although not by a wide-margin. Then Apple follows. The value of Apple’s brand increased by 129% in the past year, jump to second place thanks to its Outstanding sales in both developing and emerging markets ,ahead of all other technology companies, including IBM, Google and Microsoft.

But even that, it doesn’t mean that Samsung fall far behind Apple. Samsung has made a big surprise appearance into the Top 10 for the first time in history. The Korean company’s brand is now considered to be the 9th most valuable in the world, and said to be worth $32.8 billion.  And according to betanews,  Samsung brand perception rises, as Apple falls。

Samsung have become the world's largest maker of mobile phones. Interbrand considers the fact as a key reason for this. However, the consultancy also counts the amount of buzz that the Korean company has been able to generate regarding its flagship devices, the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note, as instrumental in making Samsung break into the Top 10.

Samsung’s huge campaign at the 2012 Olympic Games in London also helped its brand a lot. As the official phone of 2012 London Olympic, Samsung galaxy S3 has achieved a great success. And also T-Mobile announced through their Twitter feed that Samsung’ Galaxy S3 device is their best-selling device of all time. And it certainly looks like the company’s legal troubles prompted by Apple haven’t done anything to tarnish its brand’s value.

Other brands featured in the report and which have something to do with mobile stuff include Google at No.4, Microsoft at No.5 (down from No.3 last year), Nokia at No.19 (compared to No.14 in 2011), Amazon at No.20, and Sony at No.40.

But I think that will soon change, as Nokia will release its flagship smartphone- Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 come with windows phone 8.  The competition between Smartphone and Tablets will become more intense. Today, like Amazon and Google, Microsoft pay a lot of attention in the smartphone and tablets market.

The full Interbrand report is available here.

Related article:

• Apple is Now the Second Most Valuable Brand in the World 
• Apple, Amazon and Samsung make the biggest jump in brand value, study finds

Worm spreading through Skype and Messenger

Since Saturday, there's a worm actively spreading through (mainly) Skype as well as Messenger (Windows Messenger, Microsoft MSN Messenger).

Someone who's infected with this worm will send you the following message:

Message in German asking to check your cool pictures

The link refers to goo.gl and is actually Google's URL Shortener service. You'll land on Hotfile.com, which is a legitimate file sharing website. (it's not the first time Hotfile has been used to spread malware, read more here. The file has already been removed by Hotfile.)

Links refers to Hotfile and will immediately download a ZIP file.

 
Positive thing is that it is a ZIP file and not an EXE. This means the user still has to manually unpack and run the malware. Inside our ZIP file we'll find the following file, which is covered as a Skype setup file:

Looks like the real deal. But it's not.

When executing this file, another file (a random 4 character EXE) will be dropped to the %appdata% folder of the currently logged on user:

The icon suggests it's uTorrent. But it's not.

This file will try to connect to api.wipmania.com, waiting for instructions. Additionally, it tries to connect to the following IP addresses:

74.208.112.178 - IPVoid Result
87.106.98.157 - IPVoid Result
199.15.234.7 - IPVoid Result
213.165.71.142 - IPVoid Result
213.165.71.153 - IPVoid Result
217.160.108.147 - IPVoid Result

Now, how do we know how it spreads and which messages it can display? The file extracted from the ZIP archive - skype_05102012_image.exe looks for the following processes:
msnmsgr.exe
msmsgs.exe
skype.exe

It will then automatically send a message, based on the OS language. It uses the following list to spread:
tas ir jusu jauna profila bildes?
seo do grianghraf prl nua?
ont uusi profiilikuva?
nai aft a fotografa profl sas?
sa kvo profili lusankary aquesta
s la teva nova foto de perfil?
hey ito sa iyong larawan sa profile?
hey lanh tieu cua ban?
hey ini foto profil?
hei zhni de gn zilio zhopin ma?
ni phaph porfil khxng khun?
hej er det din nye profil billede?
hej je to vasa nova slika profila?
hej je to tvuj nov obr zek profilu?
hei er dette din nye profil bilde?
hey la tua immagine del profilo nuovo?
hej to jest twj nowy obraz profil?
hej jeli ovo vasa nova profil skila?
hey bu yeni profil pic?
hej detta är din nya profilbild?
tung, cka paske lyp ti nket fotografi?
moin , kaum zu glauben was für schöne fotos von dir auf deinem profil
hey is dit je nieuwe profielfoto?
ez az j profil ksta tu foto de perfil nuevo?
hey essa sua foto de perfil? rsrsrsrsrsrsrs
hey c'est votre nouvelle photo de profil?
hoi schoni fotis hesch du uf dim profil ppe n
lol is this your new profile pic?


It will then add the link and subsequently adds your username after the equals '=' sign :
http://goo.gl/QYV5H?img=


Let's take a closer look at the files:

skype_05102012_image.exe
Result: 23/44
MD5: 98f74b530d4ebf6850c4bc193c558a98
Anubis Report
Malwr Report
ThreatExper Report


36A9.exe
Result: 16/44
MD5: 0d4b7f4c1731c91dff56afce0ecf37c5
Anubis Report
Malwr Report
ThreatExpert Report


The malware is commonly identified as Worm.Dorkbot and Worm.Agent or Generic Trojan.

Microsoft provides a description:
Win32/Dorkbot is a family of IRC-based worms that spreads via removable drives, instant messaging programs, and social networks. Variants of Win32/Dorkbot may capture user names and passwords by monitoring network communication, and may block websites that are related to security updates. It may also launch a limited denial of service (DoS) attack.

On my testmachines there was no additional malware downloaded, even after replicating a few times. Several variants of malware can however always be downloaded, whether it's ransomware, rogueware....



Conclusion

Worms spreading through Facebook, Twitter as well as IRC, MSN and Skype is nothing new. Still, it appears to be very successful as human curiosity wins in cases of doubt:
"Do I really have (embarassing) pictures of myself on this website? Better take a look!"

No, no, no!

Never click on unknown links, especially when a URL shortener service like goo.gl is used. (others are for example t.co, bit.ly, tinyurl, etc.)
Don't be fooled by known icons or "legit" file descriptions, this can easily be altered.

Even if you clicked the link and you're not suspicious, you should be when a file is downloaded and no pictures are shown, but just an EXE file.

For checking what is really behind a short URL, you can use:
http://getlinkinfo.com/
http://longurl.org/

For checking whether a file is malicious or not:
https://www.virustotal.com/
http://virusscan.jotti.org/

Nokia Lumia 920 pricing is higher than Galaxy S3: still worth to buy the Lumia?

According to the news from CNET, now we have known that Nokia has priced its new Lumia 920 smartphone up to 25 percent higher than strong competitor Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S3, giving a surprise to all of the consumers. Many analysts were expecting the new Nokia Lumia 920 to be priced somewhere below Samsung Galaxy S3, in order to catch the Competitor, such as Apple, Samsung.

Nokia unveiled the Lumia 920 few days ago, and will have a November release date. So far at least, the Nokia Lumia 920 might be the most interesting choice when it comes to picking up a soon-to-be-launched Windows Phone 8 device, beat the Samsung and HTC window 8 phone device.

A lot of people were confused that why the device is more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy S3?  "Hardware-wise they are pretty similar, it would be hard for Nokia to justify that extra cost to consumers," said Ovum analyst Nick Dillon. Windows Phone is still largely an unknown to consumers - they would probably expect to pay less if they are taking a risk."

According to the report on Reuters, Swedish carriers will sell the new phone for a price estimated to be $860 per unit, excluding subsidies, as compared to the Samsung Galaxy S3, which goes for about $681, at one of the leading online phone stores in Europe. In Italy, the new Nokia Lumia will be trading at $770, while Samsung Galaxy S3 will trade at the same price as Sweden.

So here let’s try to give an answer to this problem by compared the two superphone, including the Specs and features comparison.  

Display (Screen): Nokia Lumia 920 is measured with a 4.5-inch PureMotion HD+ display, resolution of 1,280x768 that boasts a much higher ppi and sharper colors, and weighs 185g. For Samsung, their Galaxy S3 device features a 4.8-inches Super AMOLED HD display. The resolution stands at 1,280x720, and weighs less at 133g.  Winner:  Nokia Lumia 920 

Processor, RAM: The processor in the Samsung Galaxy S3 is the quad core Exynos 1.4GHz Cortex A9 in the international version. In the US version this is the Snapdragon S4 dual core at 1.5GHz. This is around the same clock speed as the processor in the Nokia Lumia, 920 the Qualcomm MSM8960 dual core Snapdragon 1.5GHz Krait processor. 1GB RAM is there on both the models. Winner: Draw

Camera: The camera on Samsung Galaxy S3 is 8 megapixels, while Nokia is 8.7 megapixels. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has the edge in regards to the front camera at 1.9 megapixels, while the Lumia 920 has a 1.3 megapixel front camera. But with the PureView technology, the Lumia 920 rear camera performs better in low light shots. Winner: Nokia Lumia 920

Storage: The Samsung Galaxy S3 has support for SD card up to 64GB while the Nokia Lumia 920 lacks this option. Internally the S3 comes in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions while the Lumia 920 has just the 32GB option.  Winner: Samsung galaxy S3

Battery: The Lumia 920 has a 2000mAh battery and the Samsung Galaxy S3 a 2100mAh. The winner here is the S3 by a slight margin. But Nokia Lumia 920 uses wireless charging, which other smartphones have never used before.

Both of the devices have support for 2G and 3G and also 4G LTE, NFC.

Overall: 

By comparison, it seems the Lumia 920 offers more to the consumer. In fact, there are even news form CNET consider the Lumia 920 is better than the iPhone 5. May be that’s why Samsung galaxy S3 is cheaper than the Lumia 920. Ultimately, it is up to you to decide.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2: a better human design with the S Pen

Apple on Monday just announced that iPhone 5 sales topped more than five million over its first weekend, hit a sell record compared to iPhone 4s, which have a four million opening weekend sales. But at least seen from now, it has no obvious effect on Samsung.

Samsung Galaxy S3 has sold more than 20 million already, and the Note 2 is attracting a lot of attention thanks to its better hardware and comes preloaded with Android Jelly Bean with new features. The most appealing feature of the Galaxy Note 2 is the addition of the S Pen. 

Compared to Galaxy Note, The new S Pen on Note 2 has been further improved. The new S Pen is slightly thicker and longer than the previous one. The Pen shape upgraded to an elongated cylindrical shape, thereby increasing the grip surface.

Another new feature is Air View.  It lets you hover the pen over the screen (without touching) to activate previews, such as looking inside an album in the picture gallery. The technology used with the S Pen allows it to be recognized even when it's a few millimeters away from the screen, That is to say you can browse the content without click the icon. For example, you can hover the pen over an email, and you'll get a preview of the first few lines.

With Easy Clip technology, It's also possible to draw around anything you see on the screen and cut it out to paste elsewhere. Simply pull out the pen and you'll be able to scribble stuff down in seconds.

Here is more information about Samsung Galaxy Note 2: 

• 5.5-inch Super AMOLED HD touchscreen display with 1280 x 720 resolution and 16:9 aspect ratio
• Size: 80 x 151.1 x 9.4mm thin – thinner than its predecessor
• Weight: 180 grams
• 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos processor
• 2GB of RAM
• 16/32/64GB on-board memory
• microSDHC support of up to 64GB of additional storage
• 8-megapixel rear-camera with Auto Focus, LED flash and HD video recording
• 2-megapixel front-facing camera
• HSPA+ support
• 4G LTE connectivity (in selected markets)
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
• Wi-Fi Direct
• USB 2.0 support
• A-GPS and Glonass support
• 3,100mAh removable battery with faster charging – bigger capacity than its predecessor
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on board out of the box with TouchWiz UI on top
• Colors: Marble White and Titanium Grey

The device is scheduled for launch in Germany September 27th and Italy on September 28th, and will be available in most European nations by the first week of October.

HTC Windows Phone 8X vs. Nokia Lumia 920: Camera and more

Within a month, Samsung and Nokia have released its flagship product of the new system WP 8.There is no doubt that the Windows phone 8 battle is heating up. On August 30, Samsung launched the world's first Windows Phone 8 device- ATIV S; then on September 5, Nokia released the Lumia 920, Lumia 820. Two weeks after Nokia unveiled the Lumia 920, HTC just announced its high-end HTC Windows Phone 8X ,which looks like the Lumia 920 and mid-market HTC WP 8S.

Thanks to Microsoft, Nokia didn’t have much success with its Lumia 900 even with all the hype it invested in promoting the phone, which can’t upgrade its windows phone 7.5 to Windows phone8. So maybe this is the last chance for Nokia to get its market share back.
Now HTC is the latest handset maker to commit to the Windows Phone 8 platform. Since then, there are a great competitor to Nokia, put threaten to its superphone. 

Now we compare the two head-on, HTC Windows Phone 8X vs. Nokia Lumia 920.

Camera Comparison in detail 

The HTC Windows Phone 8X, the next Microsoft superphone with a great front camera has the upper hand over Nokia's 1-megapixel contribution. Shutter lag is virtually nonexistent, and photo quality is very high. On the other hand, Nokia's 8.7-megapixel shooter could be great, with a PureView camera.  

Carrier and pricing

Right now, HTC has the benefit of enlisting carriers to help rally customers to the 8X. The phone has a price ($199.99) and not one but three carriers to help lead the charge: AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

But Nokia hasn't yet announced U.S. carriers, though there are plenty of rumors that point to an October or November Lumia 920 launch on AT&T. So Nokia should take care of this.

Totally, By compared these differences between HTC Windows phone 8x and Nokia Lumia 920, it's easy to know that the Nokia Lumia 920 is better than HTC 8X.

Which phone would you prefer? Leave your comments below.

Related articles:

• Nokia try to keep up with Samsung and Apple in the Smartphone market with Lumia 920