First Android Bootkit Virus Has Infected 350,000 Devices:

An anti-virus company is warning about what it says could be one of the first mass-distributed bootkit viruses seen on Android smartphones.

Russia based Doctor Web says that the Trojan resides in the memory of infected devices and launches itself early on in the OS loading stage, acting as a bootkit. This allows the Trojan to minimize the possibility that it will be deleted, without tampering with the device's file system.

It's currently estimated that the virus has infected more than 350,000 mobile devices belonging to users in various countries. Although the bulk of the devices are in China, they have also been detected in Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia, Brazil, the USA and some Southeast Asian countries.

To spread the Trojan, which entered the Dr.Web virus database as Android.Oldboot.1.origin, attackers have used a very unusual technique, namely, placing one of the Trojan components into the boot partition of the file system and modifying the init script which is responsible for the initialisation of OS components.

Google Updated Play Services for Android Smartphones:

Google has started rolling out an updated version of the Google Play Services app to Android smartphones with a number of software updates.

App developers won't be able to start adding support to their apps for the new functions until Google says that the rollout to the handsets has been completed, so no chance of apps being downloaded to incompatible app stores.

As part of the upgrade, they have added support for turn-based multiplayer games Developers can build asynchronous games to play with friends and auto-matched players, supporting 2-8 players per game. When players take turns, their turn data is uploaded to Play Services and shared with other players automatically.

There is also an optional new "Connecting to Play Games" transition animation during sign-in, before the permission dialog appears. This helps contextualize the permission dialog, especially in games that ask for sign in on game start.

BlackBerry Adds Channels and Voice Calls to Android BBM App:

BlackBerry has released an update to its newly launched BBM software for Android smartphones that includes the promised support for BBM Channels and voice calls.

The update is however just a beta release and currently only available to Android users who have signed up to that service.

In addition to Channels and Voice Calls, the updated mobile app includes what the company says is easier sharing of photos, more emoticons and increased BBM Group sizes.

There is currently no mention of an iPhone app, although the company has previously said that it will roll out the upgrades to both platforms.

Archos Shows Off Two LTE Based Android Smartphones:

French consumer electronics firm, Archos has shown off two new Android smartphones for launch at the CES trade fair.

The Helium 4G range is the company's first LTE capable devices, and will released unlocked from any mobile network.

The basic model, the Archos 45 Helium 4G features a 4.5-inch screen with IPS technology, Quad Core 1.4 GHz processor and is capable of transferring speeds at up to 150 Mbps using a 4G/LTE network. The phone will be sold for around US$200.

The Archos 50 Helium 4G, a slighter larger offering, comes equipped with the same technology but has a 5-inch HD 1280x720 screen, 8 GB of storage and a 8 MP camera. This model has a recommended retail price of US$250.

Both models are based on Qualcomm processors and come with Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean), upgradeable to 4.4.2 (KitKat).

The smartphones support Micro SD card for easy memory expansion, have dual cameras with autofocus and LED flash, utilize Micro USB 2.0 connectors to sync and charge, and can supports a variety of multimedia files.