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Posts Tagged ‘Wallpaper’

Android smartphones can become soft bricked if you use the wrong photo for a wallpaper

05 Jun

A number of Android smartphones are at risk of suffering a fatal system error if the user sets a specific image as their wallpaper. The discovery was first publicized by popular Twitter account Ice Universe and has since been confirmed by users who tested the warning for themselves. The issue, it turns out, is the image’s color space and Android’s current inability to deal with it.

There’s nothing inherently malicious about the image shared by Ice Universe; it shows an idyllic landscape complete with water, mountains and clouds. The problem, investigators have discovered, is that its color space is incompatible with Android, which currently doesn’t have a method in place to detect this incompatibility and convert the image to color space it supports.

Setting the image as an Android wallpaper will cause the phone to crash; it will reboot, but soon crash again, in most cases doing this too quickly for the user to change their wallpaper to something else. As a result, the user is forced to factory reset the device, losing any images and other data that wasn’t backed up beforehand.

As expected, this issue isn’t limited to only this particular image — any non-sRGB image may potentially cause the same crash. Android Authority recently spoke with a developer who shed light on the problem with a long, technical answer for those who are interested. Put simply: Android can only deal with sRGB images as wallpapers and doesn’t currently know how to handle certain non-sRGB images, triggering an infinite loop of fatal errors that forces the user to factory reset their device.

As noted by multiple Android developers, as well as 9to5Google, not all Android phones are vulnerable to this bug, though many major ones are, including older Google Pixel phones, Samsung smartphones and more. 9to5Google‘s Dylan Roussel reports that the Pixel 4 XL running Android 11 doesn’t not crash from this image while the Pixel 3 XL on Android 10 does.

In Android 11, the system will detect if the wallpaper’s color space isn’t supported and will convert it to something it does support. Though Android 10 doesn’t have this same capability, it seems Google is already working on a fix for this problem, which means older Android phones that don’t update to Android 11 will eventually be protected from the bug, as well.

Until that happens, however, there’s a big problem for Android users: now that the bug has been widely publicized, there will no doubt be some people who deliberately seed these problematic images to mobile wallpaper websites in an effort to crash devices.

Though the bug doesn’t totally brick the device, it does often force a factory reset; many users report being unable to resolve the issue in Safe Mode. This means that many users who aren’t careful may end up losing some of their data.

Ice Universe notes that when the image is uploaded to other social media websites, it is converted and becomes safe to use with Android; only the image uploaded to Twitter retains its problematic color space.

To protect one’s self, Android users can avoid publically offered wallpapers until the Android 11 update arrives, they can limit their wallpapers to their own images or official manufacturer theme stores or there’s always the option of manually checking that an image is compatible before setting it as one’s Android wallpaper.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Vertigo Wallpaper: Warped 3D Room Illusions Transform Flat Gallery Surfaces

31 Dec

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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You could be forgiven for cautiously entering one of these rooms full of wavy sketched lines, stepping over obstacles that aren’t really there, uncertain whether parts of the walls are really projecting out toward you. Artist Peter Kogler creates spatial illusions that take over every surface of a gallery, turning it into a ‘virtual maze.’ A master of the large-scale print, he’s spent the last 30 years perfecting his techniques. The ones involving grids of lines pull off the most disorienting effects.

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Pictured here are installations from the last few years, including work displayed at the ING Art Center in Brussels this year, the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna in 2015 and the Galerie im Taxiplalais in 2014. His computer-generated works have even adorned the exterior walls of pavilions and museums, and often feature imagery of snakes, ants and pipes.

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According to his artist statement, “Kolger has been interested in new, innovative art practices, not only in the field of visual, but also in performative arts, sound and music. He continued his work by shifting the boundaries of artistic expression and developed a very impressive, emotionally and artistically convincing world, whose layered meanings open communication paths to the widest public.”

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“After several years of research at the beginning of his artistic career, in painting, performance and experimental film, since 1984 Kogler has used computer technology. Heralding the future development of computer-generated art already in the ‘60s, in the spirit of that positivist-optimistic time, Michael Noll wrote: ‘The computer is an active medium the artist can interact with at a new level, liberated from many physical limitations of all former media. The artistic possibilities of this kind of creative medium as the artist’s helping device are truly exciting and challenging.”

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[ By SA Rogers in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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Wallpaper Paint Rollers: Cool & Classic Patterns, DIY Style

30 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

Applying wallpaper is nothing if not frustrating – you have to line everything up just right, and if you ever want to take it down, it is nowhere near as easy as painting over an existing color on primed drywall.

But what might be more amazing than this nifty do-it-yourself patterned paint roller tool is that it is nothing new, as explained on The Painted House: “When I stumbled across these paint rollers in a market in Romania I was so excited ….”

“They have been used there for the last 100 years or so as an alternative to wallpaper. As an ardent upcycler I have been using them ever since to bring unloved fabrics and wonky old walls back to life.“ The resulting new-version rollers can put patterns to paper, walls and fabrics, adding substantive decor to more than just mere walls.

The company is beyond enthusiastic about their product and its various applications: “So far we have made metres of fabric, curtains, bunting, cushions, stationary, lampshades and wrapping paper, covered books and furniture, printed on walls, and someone is in the process of rollering the inside of their bell tent!”


Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

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Hanging wallpaper is made much more fun when you get to paint and peel it, revealing intricate geometric patterns that won’t be found on any other wall.
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Inside Out: Print-Crazy Wallpaper Made for Exterior Surfaces

Outdoor wallpaper brings bright colors and bold prints out to exterior walls in an eye-popping series by Italian design company Wall & Decó.
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[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

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Friday Freebie iPad Wallpaper – Big Sur Surf

08 Feb

This Weeks Friday Freebie iPad Wallpaper: Big Sur Surf
Friday Freebie features an image to liven up your iPad display with images from my travels… all for free.

Last week I received some inquiries to desktop wallpaper. For the time being I’m going to stick to iPad wallpaper, but inevitably I will expand to include desktop wallpaper. Stay tuned.

This particular photo was taken the same day I photographed Big Sur Crashing Surf. As I waited for golden hour light I couldn’t help but explore capturing the motion and color of the water. If there is one iconic characteristic of the coastal waters off Big Sur it is the amazing aqua and blue tones seen in this image. If you’re fond of similar surf photos be sure to check out my my photography collection of surf pictures.

Before you run off to start your weekend click the iPad above or here to download your free iPad wallpaper. Have a great weekend!

Note: This image is distributed for personal use only and all rights are reserved. If interested in using this photograph commercially please contact me.

Technorati Tags: Photography, surf, ocean, Big Sur, Free, Friday Freebie, iPad, Wallpaper

Copyright Jim M. Goldstein, All Rights Reserved

Friday Freebie iPad Wallpaper – Big Sur Surf


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