Security flaws are very much the order of the day currently, with both the iPhone and Galaxy Note II finding themselves in the middle of a lock screen-related security storm that just won’t go away, even after software releases that were supposed to correct the issue.

Over the last few years, “phablets”, the new product category defining devices that are too large to be considered smartphones but still too small to be considered tablets, has become increasingly popular. One of the most popular players in the field, Samsung, is said to be readying the release of the Galaxy Note III, which is expected to sport a 5.9-inch screen opposed to a 6.3-inch one as previously reported, according to a Korean newspaper.

The ability to maintain a secure digital environment from which we can manage our affairs is something we rely on the mobile software makers – Apple on iOS, Google with Android – to pursue with unflappable efficiency. But human error is something these companies can only ever partially make provisions for, and as such, there are occasions when security flaws are realized. iOS has been in the news lately for a series of such mishaps, but this time it’s Android’s turn, and those on the Galaxy Note II may be alarmed by the news that on Android 4.1.2, the home screen can be viewed (albeit for a split second), even if the device is locked with a passcode.

If you are a Galaxy Note II and had it unlocked, you might have been disappointed when Verizon sneaked a new bootloader last week and re-locked it. Thankfully, a new solution is available now through a new exploit and a slight update for the user-friendly CASUAL tool.

The success of a smartphone these days depends on a lot of factors, and for that reason, it’s hard to single out devices that have been successful with all sorts of crowds. For Apple, success comes mainly from the immense ease of use that their phones and tablets deliver, and from the fact that the company sells on its brand name, too. When it comes to Android. a lot of other factions come into play. For instance, the device’s hardware specifications, the Android version that it’s running, and equally importantly, how much customization friendly it is. On the last front, advanced users are more concerned with how much hackable the device is. Recently, Samsung’s high-to-middle range phones have been on a roll, not just receiving rooting methods, but also, a lot of community support.

Some developers in the Android community had been inspecting the internal CSC file of their Galaxy Note 2 smartphone in order to find out what possible features and handy little shortcuts Samsung had decided to prevent users from gaining access to in different localities on the phone. In an extension of that work it seems that the same developers have dedicated a little bit more time to the cause and have provided a list of modifications that can be made to the system CSC file in order to enable a few hidden and secret features that lie dormant on the international Galaxy Note 2.

If you prefer your mobile operating experience to be of the Android variety and always opt to let Korean based Samsung handle your hardware requirements then the discovery of a new exploit within certain Samsung devices should be more than enough to peak your interest. The vulnerability in the Samsung hardware has been discovered by a keen-eyed developer over at the XDA Developer forums and has been classified as being at the kernel level that allows malicious applications to gain access to all physical memory on the affected device.

Samsung’s smartphone-tablet hybrid, known as the Galaxy Note II, has managed to turn many heads since its announcement this last August. Should your bank balance be way too uncomfortable to get your hands on one, no worries: there’s a new knockoff in town that might actually be convincing enough to trick your less tech-savvy friends.

One of the biggest hindrances with buying a top-of-the-line smartphone, is the premium price that you have to pay for it. There are usually two ways of how high-end phones are sold; either you pay the full price to the manufacturer and get an unlocked device, whereby getting the freedom to go with whatever network fancies you. Or, you may opt to buy the phone through a wireless carrier, where you pay a much subsidized rate for a big trade-off: getting stuck with that carrier for the term of your contract. In the latter case, the carrier pays the full price to the manufacturer but sells you the device at a much lower rate, and in turn, locks down the smartphone to their network, so you cannot use a SIM card from another network just like that. That’s a generally agreeable rule for most users.

The Samsung Galaxy Note was something of a revelation when it first released last year, and with a ludicrously large display pushing on the kind of diameters we’d only seen with tablet devices, the term “phablet” was subsequently phrased. The surprisingly successful niche product has since evolved into the Galaxy Note II, and as with all of the Korean company’s Note products, it has been marketed as a device for the creative mind. Some took the S-Pen stylus and drew some of the most fantastic drawings and sketches ever seen on a mobile device, but others – such as the artists and designers at Steak Studio – have put their heads together and come up with something truly spectacular.

Those who regularly keep abreast of what is going on in the smartphone industry will be more than aware that Samsung and Apple are constantly battling it out for sales supremacy, with Samsung managing to come out on top thanks to their array of extremely popular Android powered devices. Samsung have relied on their Galaxy S II and S III smartphones to bring in the big sales numbers, but it was only the start of this month that they announced the Galaxy Note II had been received extremely well with three million units sold. Less than four weeks later, the statistics are back with Samsung announcing that an additional two million second-generation Notes have flown off the shelves in November.

The Samsung Galaxy Note II is a very inviting device. Once you’ve got over the intimidation of it’s phablet form factor, you can begin to enjoy some of the perks an incredibly large display brings, and the Multi Window feature of the new Samsung smartphone epitomizes the usefulness of the 5.5-inch Super AMOLED HD display.