Developers who chose to encrypt the Galaxy Tab they were given at Google IO are having problems after an over-the-air Android update. It's a pretty serious problem that is rendering the 10.1in device unusable.
Samsung has since published a web page that urges owners of the Google IO edition Galaxy Tab to remove any device locks before they perform the update. However this information wasn't made available in advance to people who accepted the over-the-air update and no warning was given. The first clue for affected developers will be when their device changes from a sexy tablet into a useless wedge of plastic.
The developer who tipped us to this issue thinks the problem lies with the update not preserving the encryption seed. Although it's not possible to know that for sure, it's a pretty decent guess from someone who has a good understanding of Android devices.
Unfortunately, the best owners of the 10.1in tablet can hope for now is an update that lets them back into the device. Their data is going to be impossible to recover in its encrypted form. Even if Samsung could push an update to reverse what it did to break the devices it's unlikely that the data can be decrypted.
On the plus side, the device's download mode is working, so once Samsung gets around to letting affected users have a copy of the firmware a recovery will be possible. Our contact is trying to get hold of the firmware at the moment, but so far Samsung has not been forthcoming.
We asked Samsung for a comment, but it had not responded by the time of writing. If the company responds, we'll post an update.
Samsung has since published a web page that urges owners of the Google IO edition Galaxy Tab to remove any device locks before they perform the update. However this information wasn't made available in advance to people who accepted the over-the-air update and no warning was given. The first clue for affected developers will be when their device changes from a sexy tablet into a useless wedge of plastic.
The developer who tipped us to this issue thinks the problem lies with the update not preserving the encryption seed. Although it's not possible to know that for sure, it's a pretty decent guess from someone who has a good understanding of Android devices.
Unfortunately, the best owners of the 10.1in tablet can hope for now is an update that lets them back into the device. Their data is going to be impossible to recover in its encrypted form. Even if Samsung could push an update to reverse what it did to break the devices it's unlikely that the data can be decrypted.
On the plus side, the device's download mode is working, so once Samsung gets around to letting affected users have a copy of the firmware a recovery will be possible. Our contact is trying to get hold of the firmware at the moment, but so far Samsung has not been forthcoming.
We asked Samsung for a comment, but it had not responded by the time of writing. If the company responds, we'll post an update.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.