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A report has emerged clearing the cloud of rumours around a Microsoft Surface Phone -by stating it will be launched in the second half of 2016. Surface head Panos Panay and his team of engineers, the same team which worked on Surfce Pro tablet line, will be responsible for the design of the phone.
The phone will run on Windows 10, and is expected to arrive in May. If previous speculations are to be believed, the Microsoft Surface Phone is expected to be more productivity-oriented instead of specs.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft
The device will be a Microsoft flagship, and according to some sources, could be powered by a Snapdragon 820 chipset. Others suggest it would be something much more powerful than the current Qualcomm Snapdragons. The advanced cooling technique of Lumia 950 XL will also be made part of the Surface Phone.
Many believe that the reason Microsoft is not putting in too much effort in a widespread US release of the Lumia 950 and 950 XL is because of Microsoft’s plans to bring out a Surface Phone soon. This could be a reason why the company isn’t investing too much in marketing its new flagships. Watch this space for updates.
Source: Windows Central
Samsung is back with its updated A-series of devices. The Korean giant unveiled its mid-range Galaxy A7, A5 and A3 devices, which feature OIS and fingerprint sensor.
The updated devices will come with a bunch of new features and specs.The A7 sports a 5.5-inch AMOLED screen with 1920 x 1080p resolution and a 1.6 GHz octa-core processor, 3GB of RAM and 16GB internal storage and 3,300mAh Fast Charging battery.
On the camera front, the A7 features a 13MP primary camera with f/1.9 aperture and OIS. The front camera also features an f/1.9 aperture.
The A5 upgrades to 5.2-inch AMOLED screen with 1080p resolution. 2GB RAM and 16GB storage, octa-core processor and bumps the battery to 2,900mAh as well, 13MP primary camera with OIS and a 5MP front.
Finally, the smallest of the lot, the Galaxy A3, comes with a 4.7-inch AMOLED screen and 720p resolution. The device also features 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. The A3 is the only device among the three that won’t feature a fingerprint scanner.
The device also bumps up the rear camera to 13MP with a 5MP front, with both having f/1.9 apertures (no OIS here, though). Follow this space for more on Samsung’s A-series launch. Follow this space for more on Samsung’s A-series launch.
Good news for all Nexus users -stock Android Nexus devices are all set to receive an update as well as new emoji next week. Android’s Hiroshi Lockheimer announced on his Twitter handle that the new emoji will require a “new keyboard, new font, new code”. This, in turn, means a new system update is very much on its way. These designs will be part of the Unicod 8.0 standard, already been incorporated by Apple iOS 9.1
Look! New emoji coming to #Nexus next week. Fonts and tech details shared with OEMs to include in their updates too. pic.twitter.com/GwvKw2d67p
However, those without a Nexus phone will have to wait longer for the update to arrive. Lockheimer stays mum on other new features and says he doesn’t want to “spoil all the surprises.”
Get prepared for new emoji -a lion, crab and unicorn -next week if you own a Nexus device. As for Android users without a Nexus device, hang in there for a little bit longer and the update shall be soon on its way.
Internet warfare and cyber espionage has been going on for a while now. Hackers breaking into secret government records, swindling banks off their money or just simply having a laugh on the internet is something not unheard of at all in contemporary times. Therefore it’s only natural that we talk about some of the most well-executed hacks that made the world sit-up and listen.
1. First Worm on the Internet (1990):
I only wanted to see the size of the web -is what Robert Morris said in 1988 when he was caught for creating what would be known as the first worm on the Internet. He tried hiding his online trail by releasing the worm from MIT, instead of Cornell where he was a student.
A design flaw ensured that the worm replicated itself in way larger numbers than Morris had planned or expected, until it had caused significant and noticeable damage to confidential files all over the country.
Robert Morris was the son of a famous former NSA scientist.
Robert Morris became the first person to be convicted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in 1990. He was also sentenced to three years of probation, 400 hours of community service, a fine of $10,050, and had to cover the costs of his supervision.
2. Citibank Loses Millions to Russian Hacker (1995):
One of the most important and earliest hacking scandals of banks was in 1995 when Vladimir Levin illegally transferred $3.7 million from Citibank into bank accounts of his criminal organisation.
The criminal ring-leader conducted this incredibly well-planned hack using a computer based in London. Using a list of customer codes and passwords, Levin logged into bank accounts numerous times and transfer funds to his own.
Vladimir Levin
Levin was finally tracked down by FBI at a London airport. Following his arrest, he was tried and convicted in the U.S. and was sentenced to three years in jail in 1998. A penalty of $240,015 was also levied against him by Citibank to be paid as restitution.
3. When New York Times Was Hacked by a Teenager (2002):
Hacking of tabloids and newspapers is one of the most common incidents of cyber-crime. Everyone is dying to spill the beans on the deep, dark secrets of tinsel town’s ‘who’s who’. The year 2002 saw hacking of voicemail accounts of celebrities like actress Sienna Miller, and even people of the British Royal Family. However, this NYT hack is especially important because it involves a 19 year old who broke into the records of one of the biggest daily newspapers in the world.
Adrian Lamo, the “homeless hacker”
Adrian Lamo gained access to some of the most confidential records of the New York Times which included detailed database of op-ed writers the paper had used in the past. This included names, phone numbers, home addresses and payment history of contributors like Democratic strategist James Carville and former secretary of state James Baker.
Because Lamo wasn’t done having fun yet, he added his own name under “experts” and put “Computer hacking, national security, communications intelligence”, under “expertise”. And yes, Adrian Lamo is the same person who turned in Wikieaks’ Bradley Manning to the US authorities, winning himself the title of the “world’s most hated hacker”.
4. Hacking Heist that Involved 100 Banks All Across the Globe (2015):
Hackers pulled a ridiculously high-profile Hollywood-styled heist as they broke in the accounts of about 100 banks over 30 countries, including India, China and the US, and duped them of $1 billion. It was a group of cyber-criminals from all over the world executing this hack over a period of two years.
It is beyond incredible how they left absolutely no virtual trail behind them, despite the humongous size and the long period of time involved in the heist. The attack which took place earlier this year in February was called an “unprecedented cyber robbery.” The criminal gang was dubbed ‘Carbanak’ by a Russian security firm, and is believed to include members from Russia, Ukraine, Chine and Europe.
5. When Irani Hackers Had a Field-trip with American State Secrets (2015):
Iran came up with a phony news agency in 2011 called NewsOnAir and used it to draw important details of American bureaucrats using social media and tactics like phishing (when a user is tricked into revealing personal credentials, like passwords, online). Though it hasn’t been confirmed that the hackers are Iranians, the central domain is located in Iran.
This group of hackers used numerous fake identities, like that of Reuters journalist Sandra Maler, to set an entire network online including social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, as well as WordPress blogs, to get in touch with important US officials.
Though it is unclear exactly how much data was lost, iSight Partners, a cybersecurity consulting group, comments, “a vast amount of social content was compromised in addition to some number of log-in credentials”. If reports are to be believed, this campaign has definitely been one of the most elaborate hacking operations ever.
According to reports, Yahoo might be considering to put itself or its core businesses up for sale. This could include selling off Yahoo’s internet business, spinning off its shares in Alibaba, or doing both.
Yahoo has been deteriorating slowly through the years, and CEO Marissa Mayer had been given several years to work on it, in the hope to turn things around. Despite all of that, Yahoo’s biggest asset remains its stake in Alibaba. The company was planning to spin off its holdings in Alibaba for a while, however, the plan was never executed due to tax concerns.
If Yahoo does decide on selling off its internet business shares, it will end up remaining barely anything more than a holding company for its Alibaba shares. On the other hand if they decide to keep the internet business and let go of its Alibaba holdings; that will just leave Yahoo a weaker company than it is now. Despite such worrying reports emerging, Yahoo has not made any official announcement yet.
Sony is ready to start the new year with a whole range of new products that will be revealed at the upcoming CES 2016 press conference to be held on January 5. In the invite sent out by the company, a number of products are teased that include VR headsets, hi-fi gear, a CyberShot camera, an ultra thin TV, and a smartphone.
The news of an alleged new smartphone has triggered a number of debates as to the identity of the device. While many believe it to be the much spoken about Xperia Z6 flagship, others feel that the Z6 is still a long way off from being a reality. Furthermore, a flagship device like the Z6 would practically kill the sales of the Z5 trio that came were launched as recent as September.
On the other hand, we have been hearing a lot about major OEMs like Samsung who are pushing forward the dates for their flagship launches. Samsung is planning to unveil the Galaxy S7 devices in January with a February launch. Sony is perhaps trying to join the intense rat race.
Sony Xperia Z5
A more plausible unveiling can be of the Z5 Ultra. The Z5 Ultra phablet packs some exciting features like a 6.4-inch display with 2160×3840 pixel resolution, a 23MP primary camera and 4GB RAM. In the phablet department, the Z5 Ultra could likely lead the pack, though tough competition from Samsung, HTC and Xiaomi is expected, who are all preparing to launch flagship phones early next year.
Leading up to the January event, we may see some leaked images or teasers by Sony of the Z5 Ultra device or whatever the company has in store at the CES press conference. Follow this space for more on Sony’s upcoming launch.
We are aware that Motorola’s Moto X Pure Edition will soon be receiving the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update. Further reports suggest that David Shuster, Motorola’s Senior Director of Software Product Management, announced that Motorola has started the soak test for the update.
Last month Motorola had sent out the update to a couple of devices on a simple test drive, but this time around the real soak test will begin. If everything goes according to plan, then Motorola will be ready to launch it eventually. So, the Moto X Pure Edition should begin receiving this update in a couple of weeks.
The update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow is expected to bring significant changes such as the new Google Now on Tap, a granular permission model, improved volume controls, as well as a smart battery saving feature called Doze.
https://youtu.be/Kq06uPwt188
The Moto X Pure Edition is priced at $399 and comes with a 5.7″ 1440p Quad HD display and front-facing stereo speakers, 21MP primary camera and a 5MP secondary camera, 4k video capture, has a 3000 mAh battery with TurboPower charging, is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808, has a 3GB LPDDR3 RAM, and 16GB/32GB/64GB internal memory that is expandable up to 128GB via a microSD card slot.
Newly found reports suggest that the number of Android users switching to iOS is increasing. The Consumer Intelligence Research Partners report indicates that 26% of people who bought the iPhone 6s switched over from Android within the first month itself.
“The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus launch attracted a greater percentage of Android owners compared to a year ago,” explains Mike Levin, Partner and Co-Founder of CIRP.
Statistics show that previously, Android switchers accounted for 12% of iPhone 6 buyers and 23% of iPhone 5s buyers. However, this year’s reports have exceeded both the previous stats. Here is a CIRP chart showing the percentage of iPhone buyers who are switching over from Android:
Further reports also suggest that iPhone buyers are switching to buying the larger iPhone models this year. Here’s a table:
The above table indicates that the sales for the iPhone 6s Plus accounted for 37% of sales of new iPhone models this year, whereas the iPhone 6 Plus accounted for just 25% of new model sales in 2014; and thereby proving the second point. Overall, Apple seems to be moving forward in its goal of capturing the smartphone market slowly but steadily.
If rumours are to be believed,Google will launch a new Nexus 7 tablet in 2016, and it might be manufactured by Huawei. Though Google is yet to confirm another partnership with Huawei post Nexus 6P, but scales seem tipped in Huawei’s favour.
Teaming up with Google for the Nexus device has gotten Huawei a lot of exposure in the international tech circuit. Currently, the Chinese company is the third largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world in terms of the shipment volume, and the largest back home in China.
Huawei Nexus 6P
Google launched its original Nexus 7 tablet, manufactured by Asus, back in 2012. Both the original as well as its successor fared well in the market and proved to be very cost-effective gadgets, quite unlike the Huawei Nexus 6P which is a premium device at a premium price.
Let’s see what another collaboration between Google and Huawei -if it happens at all -is likely to bring to the tech world.
OnePlus launched a cover for iPhone 6 and 6s yesterday. No, we didn’t make a mistake -it has happened. The cover is called OnePlus Sandstone Case and is available on the OnePlus website for $19.99 (about Rs. 1400).
The Sandstone Case is made of polycarbonate and is expected to provide the same tactic feeling as OnePlus devices. The measurements of the accessory are 138.7 x 70.2 x 10.5 mm, and it weighs 20 grams.
Just when you thought you’ve seen it all -there’s more. For a limited period, that is the holiday season, buyers will also find themselves a OnePlus X invite in the box of the cover. You may have paid a hefty sum to get to lay your hands on an iPhone 6 or 6s, but would you be now willing to cover it with the OnePlus logo?
Makers of the Sandstone Case clearly seem to think you would. That’s one confident -and bizarre- move, OnePlus. Many see this as the company’s attempt to move away from the image of being solely an Android vendor. Let’s see how the market responds to this.
The Snapdragon 820 is still on its way, and the rumour mills have already begun churning out information about its successor – the Snapdragon 830. According to them, it will arrive with 8GB of RAM space; which could possible bridge the gap between a PC and a smartphone. The other piece of information is that, the Snapdragon 830 will incorporate a 10nm production process for the chip
Until then, what we need to know about the upcoming Snapdragon 820 is that it comes with a mobile data bandwidth of up to, wait-for-it, 600Mbps downstream and 150Mbps up over LTE-Advanced (X12 LTE). It will use four custom 64-bit Kryo cores instead of the usual Cortex and will arrive integrated with the Adreno 530 GPU and the Hexagon 680 DSP. The GPU is said to support an HDMI 2.0 and up to 4K at 60fps output.
Apple has been obsessed with making its iPhones thinner for a while now and has consciously and noticeably worked on reducing the thickness of its devices in the past. However, it may have not always ended too well for the company -Bendgate definitely not being the highlight of Apple’s history.
Though the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus were thicker than their predecessors at a 7.1 mm and a 7.3 mm, iPhone 7 is rumoured to be slimmest iPhones so far. Since speculations about this new Apple device have already begun,let’s see what this could mean for the user.
Pros:
No Ear-Phone Port:
If rumours are to be believed, Apple is planning to get rid of the earphone jack to make the iPhone 7 thinner than any of its predecessors. This move is part of Apple’s patent which aims to make the new device waterproof by getting rid of the port, thereby reducing the number of potential entrances of moisture and liquids for the device. Voila! Say hello to a waterproof iPhone (or at least one less exposed to damage by liquids), boys and girls.
Consequently, the device will probably need to have one common adapter that makes all earphones compatible with it. Additionally, Apple could also include a standard pair of earphones that could be used with the help of a connection to a Lightening conductor. Even if the device requires third-party adapters, they will be available at a fairly affordable price. Bluetooth can also be used as a replacement for earphones.
Convenient Size:
A thinner iPhone would definitely be easier to carry around. In all likelihood, it will weigh less than the 143 gms of the iPhone 6s and the 192 gms of iPhone 6s Plus, and thus would be lighter and more portable for the user.
Also, the current iPhones -6s and 6s Plus- have a thickness of 7.1 mm and 7.3 mm respectively. With its latest devices, Apple has come a long way from Bendgate. None of that was witnessed this year as the devices seems sturdy and hardy, in addition to being water-resistant. Time to rejoice, Apple fans and loyalists.
Cons:
Yes, the Ear-Phone Port:
Users would have to use Bluetooth or the Lightning connector instead of the earphone port. A Lightning cable or a 3.5 mm-to-Lightning adapter would have to be provided by third-party sellers in order to ensure compatibility with iPhone 7. These third-party sellers and their products, the hassle of extra accessories, or the need to use adapters -all of it will make things more complicated for users.
Apple is expected to take care of earpods that would connect to the Lightning port and launch accessories specific to the iPhone 7 and its absence of an earphone port. Needless to say -if this happens, be prepared to burn a whole in your pocket for a pure and authentic iPhone 7 experience.
Might be Sturdier, But Not Comfortable:
A thinner iPhone will not be very comfortable in the hand. The device will not provide a firm grip to the user if made too thin. The attempt of making the device sleek and stylish will completely backfire if it keeps slipping out of the hands. As sturdy as it might be, it will still be an iPhone.
Apple would also have to notch-up the speaker quality to ensure a decent over-all sound experience for iPhone 7. Instead of getting rid of the ear-phone jack, the company can instead tone down its paranoia of being repetitive with design, and let go of their obsession of making tech breakthroughs with a new iPhone every year. But if that happens, Apple would perhaps cease to be Apple.
We cannot even remember the time when mobile phones were only used to make a call and send a text, today we can do almost everything on it. One of those many things include modes of entertainment; and we are here to bring you a list of six Android games that you must play this week.
OnePlus brings the ultra luxurious Hard Graft accessory to India. Hard Graft has been a popular name and a leader in luxury leather goods brand. The accessory comes with a strong design and immaculate quality that sets it apart from the rest. The designers at Hard Graft have brought their Tuscan leather expertise to the Wild Phone Case for OnePlus 2.
There is something special about washed Italian leather. It’s soft, relaxed and the rugged skin structure tells a million stories. Crafted with hand selected premium materials, the Wild Phone Case is the perfect home for your OnePlus 2.
The case is made of made of signature ash grey washed and traditionally tanned leather. The Wild Phone Case, made of premium material, uses “buttery soft leather” that gets smoother with each use. The outer leather protects your device from wear and tear while the inner lining made of wool keeps the screen clear and smudge-free.
The leather case also comes with two sleeves that lets you store your most important cards and money. The Hard Graft also has an opening to allow for headphones to be plugged in. The limited-edition accessory is available for a price of Rs. 7,499.
Microsoft started an initiative last year called Cities Unlocked and introduced its first in-ear device on a trial basis in the UK. The highlight of this device was that it allowed users to hold conversations without the headset’s audio drowning out the voices.
The initiative, which was founded in 2011 as a partnership between Microsoft and a UK based charity called Guide Dogs, is now introducing its ‘phase two’ over-the-ears headset which includes audio descriptions and instructions related to directions, navigation and over-all surroundings of the user. The ‘3D soundscape’ of the device takes into account the direction of the incoming sound as well as the one the wearer is facing.
Jarnail Chudge, Microsoft’s project leader for Cities Unlocked programme, says, “After phase one last year we started to think deeply about how we can empower people to be more independent, more mobile, and act in much the same way as a sighted person would do.”
The audio prompts would be provided by the headset using a Bluetooth connected smartphone. More information about the surroundings can also be requested by the wearer, along with the option of replaying the audio they’ve just heard. The initiative aims to help over 285 million visually impaired people all over the globe using technology.
Find out more about this new headset in the video below.
The news of an alleged new smartphone has triggered a number of debates as to the identity of the device. While many believe it to be the much spoken about Xperia Z6 flagship, others feel that the Z6 is still a long way off from being a reality. Furthermore, a flagship device like the Z6 would practically kill the sales of the Z5 trio that came were launched as recent as September.
