Category: Apps and Software

Games, Apps, Softwares, Operating Systems and Software Hacks

MIUI 9 Update In India To Start Rolling Out In November

At an event in Delhi on the 2nd of November, Xiaomi announced that MIUI 9 update will start rolling out to compatible devices in November. The compatible devices for MIUI 9 are

Mi 2, Mi 3, Mi 4, Redmi Note 4G, Mi Note, Mi 4i, Redmi 2, Redmi 2 Prime, Redmi Note 4G Prime, Redmi Note 2, Mi Mix, Mi Note 2, Mi 5, Mi 5s, Mi Max, Mi Max Prime, Redmi Note 3, Redmi 3, Redmi 3S, Redmi 3S Prime, Mi Mix 2, Mi Note 3, Mi 6, Mi Max 2, Redmi Note 4, Redmi Note 4xX, Redmi Note 5A, Redmi 4, Redmi 4A, Redmi Y1 and Redmi Y1 Lite.

Faster App Launching Speed

One of the main criticisms of MIUI has been its sluggish nature and the slow speed of general usage even in the flagship devices. Keeping that in mind, Xiaomi has promised much faster app launching speeds and navigation between multiple apps will be snappier as well. Performance enhancements are always welcome and this looks to be a step in the right direction for the Chinese giant.

Under The Hood Updates

Xiaomi has also introduced MIUI 9 with a few features that run in the background for example application prioritisation. This basically means that apps in the foreground will use up more power, but that has been on Android for a while. It also has better cache management, a new file system and a bunch of other tweaks to make the user experience crisper and snappier.

The ‘Smart’ Features

Xiaomi has also launched its Smart Assistant to compete with the likes of Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa and even Bixby. The voice assistant will be available in China only for the time being as localisation of the software may take time. Image search allows you to search your image talliers by image context keywords, so if you a looking for pictures with dogs that you have clicked you will be able to do that. The Smart App Launcher is a feature that makes a lot of sense as well. It basically means that you can open up a relevant app on the basis of the content on your current app. For example, if a friend sends you a restaurant’s name, you can open up Zomato to look up the restaurant.

Split-screen Is here, Finally.

The split-screen feature was one of the major upgrades in Android Nougat and a plethora of phones from mid-rangers to flagships have embraced this handy little feature. Xiaomi, on the other hand, has launched it just now with MIUI 9 and it’s a welcome update.

Here's the update schedule for MIUI 9 Global Stable ROM. For more information, check the thread here – https://t.co/c7Rm5YrZOv pic.twitter.com/81fp96rvpH

— Xiaomi HyperOS India (@XiaomiHyperOSIN) November 2, 2017

The beta version of MIUI 9 will start rolling out to Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, Mi Mix 2 and Mi Max 2 on the 3rd of November.

November 2, 2017
New Redmi Phone And MIUI 9 Global ROM Coming To India On 2nd November

Xiaomi has announced that its latest version of custom skin, MIUI 9 will be launched in India on the 2nd of November along with a new smartphone which will focus on selfies. MIUI India took to Twitter to announce that MIUI 9 will enter the Indian market on the 2nd of November.

We listened to your requests. Global MIUI 9 is coming to India on 2nd Nov. Are you excited? #LightningFast ?
500 RT & we'll reveal more. pic.twitter.com/FCdpM286Zv

— Xiaomi HyperOS India (@XiaomiHyperOSIN) October 27, 2017

This means that all eligible Mi and Redmi phones will eventually receive the MIUI 9 Global Stable ROM update very soon. Xiaomi’s MIUI 9 brings in a lot of new features like split screen, faster app launching speed, application prioritisation and more. It will be interesting to see if the Smart Assistant launched with MIUI 9 in China will make its way to India or not.

Just saying #YourBestSelfie pic.twitter.com/ZPvFdgpskX

— Redmi India (@RedmiIndia) October 26, 2017

The next big announcement was from the Twitter account of Redmi. Redmi confirmed that the new phone launching will not be the Mi Note 3 or even a new Redmi Note phone.

The Xiaomi Mi Note series has been hugely popular in China and after the success of the Redmi Note series, it was speculated that the Mi Note series will also debut in India albeit a higher price tag. Xiaomi teased the launch of the Mi A1 in a similar way back in August and it looks like the new phone will be an India-centric phone and compete with other mid rangers that claim to have the “best selfie camera.”

Xiaomi recently launched the Redmi 5A in China earlier in October which is the successor to the Redmi 4A. In August, Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 5A in China, with a 16MP front camera which focuses on selfies. It might be possible that these two phones will be launched with new names and start a new lineup of mid-ranged selfie phones in India.

October 28, 2017
WhatsApp Is Rolling Out The Delete For Everyone (Recall) Feature For All Users

After months of being in beta testing, it appears that WhatsApp is finally happy with its recall feature. WABetainfo now reports that the new feature called ‘Delete for Everyone’, has started rolling out to some Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone users. It only works if both the recipient and sender have the latest version of WhatsApp installed and it also works on WhatsApp Web version.

The website notes that the rollout is slow and may take some time to reach out to all the users. The feature is said to work for all kinds of message like texts, images, videos, GIFs, voice messages, contact, files, location, quoted message, and status replies on WhatsApp.

It is worth noting that the feature works only within 7 minutes of sending the message, after that, the message can’t be recalled. Deleted messages will be replaced by “This message was deleted for everyone.” Once the sent message is deleted by the sender, WhatsApp will remove the message from the chat page as well as from the notifications window.

One of the most widely requested feature on the most successful instant messaging apps is finally rolling out to all the users. Because the roll out will happen in phases, don’t get anxious if you haven’t received the update yet.

October 27, 2017
Last Chance To Get Amazon Prime Membership At Rs 499, Price To Increase To Rs 999

Amazon introduced its prime membership along with its Prime Video service in India in 2016 at a yearly charge of Rs 499. At that price with Amazon’s fast delivery and a decent amount of streaming content, the deal is a steal. But, this won’t be for too long as the membership charges will increase to Rs 999 from the 31st of October.

Prime is designed to make your life better every single day. Tens of millions of members around the world enjoy the many benefits of Prime. In India, Prime members enjoy unlimited free 1 day and 2 day delivery over 11 million products online, free standard delivery without minimum purchase, exclusive deals on bestselling products and instant access to Amazon Prime Video with the latest movies and TV shows. Amazon Family, offers members who are young parents a 15% off on diaper subscription all year-round and soon adding to this bouquet of many benefits, Prime members will have instant access to a strong catalogue of songs across International and national selection with Amazon Prime Music.

Amazon Prime Video services has lesser content than Netflix or Hotstar but, the convenience of 1-day or 2-day delivery across the country makes it a good deal.

You can buy the membership here.

October 27, 2017
As The Google Pixel 2 Launch Approaches- This App Is A Must Have

Google launched the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL on the 4th of October at a launch event at the Google HQ. Google talked about the integration of software, hardware and AI in their new range of products. One nifty feature that combines the three is the ‘Now Playing’ feature. When activated, it uses the always listening microphones of the Pixel 2 smartphones to detect a song in the background and display the name and artist of the song on the lock screen. In the notification window, it then displays links to buy or stream the song. The differentiating factor from Shazam here is that the phone doesn’t need to be connected to the internet for this feature to work. The music-identification feature uses an offline library of “tens of thousands” of songs to identify tracks.

You may also like – Google Pixel 2 And Pixel 2 XL To Launch In India On 27th November – Everything You Need To Know

This feature will come in handy more than you think. If you are always reaching into your pocket and struggling to open Shazam just in time for it to catch the song and show a result, this feature can be priceless. One catch though, is that what if you want to listen to a song that was played a while ago at the restaurant and now you’re in the car and you can’t recall the name of that particular song?

That’s where Now Playing History comes in, and if you are planning to buy a Pixel 2 device and music-identification is something you frequently do or need, this could be a must-have app for you. As the name suggests, Now Playing History essentially lets you view a list of songs that your Pixel 2 has been listening to. Not only does it display the exact time at which the song was recognised but it also lets you play the song via Google Play Music, YouTube, or Spotify (not yet available in India) once you click on each song. As handy as it is, the app however, is not free.

October 26, 2017
Apple Sued By A Japanese Company Which Owns ‘Animoji’ Trademark

Legal battles just doesn’t seem to go away for Apple at the moment. The Tokyo-based company, Emonster, which owns the trademark for “Animoji” in the US, is suing Apple for using the word to name its iPhone X feature. Legal worries continue for Apple with an ongoing legal battle with Qualcomm and recently losing a lawsuit against VirnetX.

Emonster filed the suit on Wednesday in US federal court, saying,

Apple made the conscious decision to try to pilfer the name for itself.

Emonster owns an iOS app called Animoji that was launched in 2014, which lets people send emojis that are animated in a loop like GIFs. The app asks its users to compose the message in the lines of how you would format a line of code in Python or Javascript, with parentheses and brackets that separate the kinds of effects you want to add to text or emoji. The app costs US$0.99 on iTunes.

The iPhone X’s Animoji feature, meanwhile, lets people transform their face into customised moving emoji. This is done using Apple’s face recognition technology. Apple tried to put a “fun and quirky” twist on its new flagship smartphone but, this suit couls cause some troubles to the American tech giant. The lawsuit alleges that because both the Animoji app and the iPhone X feature are on Apple’s platforms, and because both involve motion animation, the court should rule one out.

According to the suit, Apple knew about Emonster’s ownership of the Animoji trademark since the app is in the Apple Store. Apple allegedly offered to buy the trademark, and when that didn’t work out, it kept using the name anyway. Emonster is seeking an undisclosed amount of money in damages and a court order to block Apple from continuing to use the name “Animoji” with immediate effect.

It is reported that Emonster has owned the trademark for Animoji since 2015, Apple filed a petition in September 2017 to cancel the trademark, so the registration is now under review. Apple said that because of a filing error, Emonster registered the trademark to a nonexistent business and therefore can’t actually own the trademark for ‘animoji’.

October 23, 2017
WhatsApp Will Now Allow You to Share Your Location Live
What many will take as a safety solution, a location sharing feature that will share your location live with anyone you enable this feature with, hits the worlds most popular messaging application, WhatApp. With this new capability users can share their live location via a message help their friends/loved ones track them live.

Since all communicating between two parties is encrypted, WhatsApp claims this private location sharing will remain secure and encrypted for the privacy protection of the users.

The feature will go live across platforms whether iOS or Android and users will be able to initiate it though the location shirring menu in their apps. Whats even more interesting is that, if in a group chat, several members share their location, it will be seen in a common map.

How to Activate Live Location:

As an incremental update the feature will automatically show up within your app if your hardware ( smartphone) supports this feature.

How to Share Live Location:
- Open a chat with the person or group you want to share with.
- Under “Location” in the attach button, there’s a new option to “Share Live Location.”
- Choose for how long you want to share and tap send
- Each person in the chat will be able to see your real-time location on a map
- And if more than one person shares their Live Location in the group, all locations will be visible on the same map.
- Once done you can stop sharing the location by tapping the “Stop Sharing” button
Live Location is available on both Android and iPhone and will be rolling out in the app in the coming weeks.
October 18, 2017
Portrait Mode May Be Coming To Samsung Galaxy S8 With A Future Update

The portrait mode on smartphones is the new rage. Every new flagship phone is almost entirely judged by how good the camera is and how good the portrait mode is nowadays. Smartphone makers went the dual-camera route in order to create that bokeh effect but, Google showed that great software can do just the right amount of work in a camera with the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. Now, there are reports that Samsung wants to keep its flagship S8 and S8+ relevant, and a ‘portrait mode’ might be added with future updates.

When Samsung Galaxy S8 was launched in early 2017, the dual-camera craze was just starring to pick up and it as understandable why Samsung stuck to a single camera setup on it flagship smartphone. A customer inquired if such a feature is inbound and the response from Samsung Electronics support read: “there is no information yet, but we hope that you will get portrait mode update with the next SW”. The usual support responses would have only contained the first part, but this one not only suggested that the feature is a possibility, but also gave hope that it’s just around the corner.

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ lack a telephoto lens but, can achieve this feature with software, just like the Pixel 2 smartphones. There are no details as to when the software update will come but, since the Android 8.0 Oreo update is around the corner, Samsung might just add this feature in the next big software update.

October 17, 2017
All WiFi Devices Vulnerable To KRACK Attacks

Security researchers claimed to have found severe vulnerabilities in WPA2 ( WiFi Protected Access II). This is an extremely popular security protocol, so much so that it used by almost every WiFi device on the planet. The vulnerabilities can allow anyone near your your router to access the WiFi traffic being sent through it.

There is a dedicated website called krackattacks.com, named after the proof-of-concept attack called KRACK (Key Reinstallation Attacks). Researcher Mathy Vanhoef of imec-DistriNet, KU Leuven.

Concretely, attackers can use this novel [KRACK] attack technique to read information that was previously assumed to be safely encrypted. This can be abused to steal sensitive information such as credit card numbers, passwords, chat messages, emails, photos, and so on. The attack works against all modern protected Wi-Fi networks.

The attack targets WiFi clients using WPA2, and compromises the encryption protocol used for communicating with the router. Once this is done, any data or information that the victim transmits can be decrypted. He adds that the attack is exceptionally devastating against Linux and smartphones running Android 6.0 or higher, though devices running Apple’s mobile and desktop operating system, Windows, OpenBSD etc. are all vulnerable, too. To protect yourself against attacks, it’s Wi-Fi clients like laptops, smartphones, smart home devices, and the likes, will need to install security updates.

Our main attack is against the 4-way handshake, and does not exploit access points, but instead targets clients. So it might be that your router does not require security updates

The vulnerabilities have been assigned Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) identifiers: CVE-2017-13077, CVE-2017-13078, CVE-2017-13079, CVE-2017-13080, CVE-2017-13081, CVE-2017-13082, CVE-2017-13084, CVE-2017-13086,CVE-2017-13087, and CVE-2017-13088.

October 17, 2017
Android Oreo Update For OnePlus 3, 3T Beta Testers

When Android 8.0 Oreo was officially announced, OnePlus was one of the first few smartphone makers to announce its imminent availability to it smartphone portfolio. Now, OnePlus has rolled out the Open Beta build based on Android 8.0 for the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T devices, signalling a full-blown release isn’t too far away. OnePlus wrote:

We are very excited to announce that we are ready to put out the first Open Beta build based on Android 8.0 for the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T devices.

The company also pointed out the issues pertaining to the beta build:

Known issues:

Fingerprint actions may be slower than you are used to.

Shortcut to access Google Photos is unavailable

Some stability issues with NFC and bluetooth Performance and compatibility of 3rd party apps will continue to be optimised

Back in August, OnePlus subsequently announced that Android 8.0 Oreo will be OnePlus 3 and 3T’s last major software upgrade. This news didn’t go down too well for the owners of the two phones as they were launched recently in 2016 only. But, OnePlus continued its pattern of dropping support to its previous generation flagship phone and concentrate on the new and upcoming flagship smartphone.

This news comes days after the company was exposed to be collecting personal data of its users. While the company has come out and said that users can disable this function, it has still left a blemish on the perception of OnePlus.

October 16, 2017
Apple Wants To Launch Apple Pay In India

Apple is planning to bring its payment service, Apple Pay in India. During his recent visit to India, Eddie Cue, SVP for internet services and software admitted that seeing more and more international payment mechanisms entering India has encouraged Apple as well. Earlier in September, iGyaan had reported that Apple has begun testing Apple Pay in India and launch the payment service by the end of 2017.

It is great that all of these payment mechanisms is coming out in India because it empowers people to be able to pay. What Apple pay does is make that process easy, integrated and safe. We absolutely want to bring Apple pay to market here

Apple Pay securely stores credit cards, debit cards, or other sensitive payment information from the Wallet app and lets the user pay for goods directly from their mobile device. For Apple Pay to work, the merchant needs to have a contactless machine which is compatible with Apple Pay. During the transaction, TouchID or FaceID is required to authenticate the payment. Once the authentication is successful, a subtle vibration confirms that the transaction was successful.

India has seen a floury of different payment services entering the country. Tech giants like Google, WhatsApp and Samsung has launched their payment services in India in the last couple of years. Other online payment apps like PayTM also allow its users to make cardless payments directly through the PayTM app, although, you need to top up your PayTM balance before making any transactions. In the case of Samsung and Apple Pay, transactions are made directly from the credit or debit card synced with your account.

Google launched Tez in early September in India. The app has a widespread support of banks and has already hit over 5 million downloads on the Play Store.

Apple may be late to join the online or cardless payment services party but, Apple is India’s second largest premium smartphone maker along with Apple Pay’s integration with iOS 11 and the Apple ecosystem will be a huge factor.

October 16, 2017
Samsung Might Announce Bixby 2.0 In Late October

Samsung may launch a new version of its AI assistant, Bixby at the company’s developer conference in San Francisco. A report from The Korea Herald claims that Samsung has appointed a new executive to lead the Bixby development team. Samsung Research America’s Vice Chief Chung Eui-suk is now the head of developing Bixby as well as other artificial intelligence services. Rhee In-jong, Samsung Mobile’s CTO, who headed Bixby in both Korean and English versions, will reportedly be in charge of smartphone development excluding Bixby.

The report claims that Bixby could also be introduced to third party products beyond smartphones. Expect the AI to receive major upgrades in an attempt to compete with other AI assistants like Google Assistant, Siri, and Amazon’s Alexa, which are already available in a lot of countries.

Bixby was launched alongside Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ in early 2017. Such was the push from Samsung that all the three flagship smartphones in 2017 have a dedicated physical button to access Bixby. When Samsung introduced Bixby, there was a general consensus of it being exactly like Google Assistant. The new Galaxy Tab A also has Bixby, though without the physical button.

Similar to other AI voice assistants like Google Assistant, Siri, and Amazon Alexa, Boxby allows you to verbally communicate with your phone and perform tasks such as googling something, open apps or even make calls or send text messages. You can even point your phone to a certain object and Bixby will be pull up links to buy that product.

In India, Bixby was announced along with the Galaxy Note8 and the roll out of Bixby Voice began in late September. Samsung has said that it has optimised Bixby for India in away that it will understand different Indian accents. This means that your Galaxy flagship phone will respond to you regardless of which region of the country you are from.

How much of an improvement Byxby 2.0 will be over Bixby ‘1.0’ is yet to be seen. Whether Samsung will continue pushing Bixby through its successful flagship smartphones lineup in 2018 is also a question that will be answered in months to come.

October 13, 2017
You Can Scan QR Codes From The Camera App In iOS 11

The new version of Apple’s OS, iOS 11 started rolling out to compatible devices on 19th of September. The new iOS 11 brings an overhaul of the control centre, notification panel and other new features. However, there is one hidden feature which hasn’t been talked about is the ability to scan QR codes directly from the camera app. All you need to do is point your phone to the QR code and your phone will instantly display relevant information.

This nifty little feature can come in handy in a lot of cases and might go unnoticed. In a case of shopping, simply pull out your iPhone, open the camera app and scan the QR code. A second later, a small notification will drop down from the top of the screen with a preview of the link to the relevant webpage.

iOS 11 has received mixed reviews so far. New features in the Notes app, ability to customise the control centre and subtle animations have been appreciated but, the overall instability and battery drain issues has left a bad taste in consumers’ mouth.

You might also like : iOS 11 – Top New Features

October 13, 2017
Google Adds Video Calling Through The Phone, Contacts, Android Messenger Apps

Google is finally bringing a feature that has been in the iOS ecosystem for a while, video calling without leaving your phone app. Apple devices have had this feature for a while and it’s been appreciated by the users as well. Google posted a blog on October 12th to announce that it has integrated video calling feature in its Phone, Contacts and Android Messenger app.

We want to make it even easier to start a video call from your Android device, so we’re making video calling an integrated part of your phone. You can now start a video call directly from where you call or text message your friends, through your Phone, Contacts, and Android Messages apps. Later this year, we’ll also add the ability to upgrade an ongoing voice call to video with just a tap.

Google has accomplished this integration by tying up its video calling app Duo and the ViLTE standard, the latter of which is an extension of the existing VoLTE that focuses on increased video call quality over an LTE network. The video calls will be routed through ViLTE but, Duo will be the fall back option if your network doesn’t support the standard. This move by Google ties the Duo app deep in the Android ecosystem. Google has also promised that by later this year it will add the ability to upgrade to an ongoing voice call to video with just a tap.

There are a few things to keep in mind, the first being that you and the person you’re calling must have Duo installed and activated if ViLTE isn’t used. Next up, you must also have the latest versions of the Phone, Contacts, Android Messages, and Duo apps installed.

This feature is rolling out to Google powered devices namely the Pixel, Nexus and Android One smartphones. Google said it is working with carriers and device manufacturers to have integrated video calling across a wider variety of devices.

October 12, 2017
This Could Trick You Into Giving Away Your Apple ID Password
If you are an iPhone user, you must be used to the random popup asking for your Apple ID and password because of some app running in the background. It is as normal as it gets and we barely think twice before entering the password. However, there is a new phishing attack which can trick you into giving up your password and cause serious privacy concerns.

A blog post from developer Felix Krause explains how a fake popup could be easily used to trick someone into handing over their Apple ID and password. The developer explains that creating a fake popup doesn’t require extraordinary coding skills. Any iOS engineer can make the Apple ID password prompt and send that popup. The password can then be logged in the app for anyone to access it. It takes less than 30 lines of code and could seemingly be dropped in any legitimate iOS app and sneak past App Store review teams.

Showing a dialog that looks just like a system popup is super easy, there is no magic or secret code involved, it’s literally the examples provided in the Apple docs, with a custom text. I decided not to open source the actual popup code, however, note that it’s less than 30 lines of code and every iOS engineer will be able to quickly build their own phishing code.

He says he’s already filed this issue as a radar with Apple and explains that it could be fixed by Apple not allowing passwords to be entered in popups, but rather only in the Settings app/App Store. He notes in his blogs that this has been an issue with desktop browsers for years, with websites sending popups which look identical to the system popups.

This seems like a serious issue and until Apple comes up with a solution, Krause has pointed out a few ways you can protect yourself from this phishing attack:

Hit the home button, and see if the app quits:
- If it closes the app, and with it the dialog, then this was a phishing attack
- If the dialog and the app are still visible, then it’s a system dialog. The reason for that is that the system dialogs run on a different process, and not as part of any iOS app.
- Don’t enter your credentials into a popup, instead, dismiss it, and open the Settings app manually. This is the same concept, like you should never click on links on emails, but instead open the website manually
- If you hit the Cancel button on a dialog, the app still gets access to the content of the password field. Even after entering the first characters, the app probably already has your password.
October 11, 2017