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Huawei Honor 6 Review

We have witnessed a surge in competitively priced phones this year, with the likes of Lenovo, Xiaomi and Oppo aggressively battling for the crown. However, there’s one smartphone manufacturer who is yet to make a mark on the Indian smartphone market – Huawei. With the launch of its latest smartphone, Honor 6, Huawei may well be on its way to create a stir. The smartphone boasts amazing specs which have the potential to give other manufacturers a run for their money. The Honor 6 only sounds great on paper, now let’s see if its worth it!

Overview

For starters, it’s the first smartphone with the new HiSilicon Kirin 920 SoC, an octa core processor coupled with 3GB RAM and a mammoth 3100 mAh battery. Ascend series have been the flagship models from Hauwei, but it seems the honor series is the hot property these days. The smartphone features an octa-core processor made of four Cortex A 15 cores and similar number of Cortex A7 cores. Available for Rs.19,999 via online retailers only, the phone seems to justify its price with what lies under the hood.

Hardware

Probably the most talked about aspect of the phone, the brand new HiSilicon Kirin 920 SoC. It is the next iteration of the Kirin 910T, which we have seen earlier on the Ascend P7. It features 4x Cortex A7 and 4x Cortex A15 clocked at 1.3GHz and 1.7GHz respectively, coupled with 3GB LPDDR 3 RAM. Yes, a deadly combo about which we will elaborate later. The phone comes with an impressive 16GB in built memory along with a microSD slot with an expandable capacity of up to 64GB.

Specs

Specifications	Honor 6
Display	5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels)
Processor	1.3Ghz Octa core Kirin 920 processor
Storage	16GB + microSD
RAM	3GB RAM
Camera	13MP primary camera, 5MP front camera
Battery	3,100mAh
Operating System	Android 4.4

In terms of connectivity, the phone offers Bluetooth 4.0, Dual-Band Wi-Fi, 3G, GPS, FM Radio along with a 3.5 mm jack. The smartphone is powered by a non removable 3100mAh battery.

Build and Design

The design of the Honor 6 is minimalistic, and it has a sleek form factor; with thickness of 7.5mm and weight of a mere 130g. Although, it appears Huawei didn’t really spend much time making the phone as pretty as much as it made it useful. The design is pretty close to what we saw on the iPhone 4, with a glass front and rear. The back of the glass has dotted textures, which don’t stand out predominantly. The sides are made out of metallic finish plastic. As a result of the combination of plastic and glass, the phone does feel a bit slippery in the hand.

However, Huawei has done a good job when it comes to button and port placement. The power button, volume rockers, microSIM slot and the microSD slot are all placed on the right side, leaving the left side clean. The USB port is located dead center on the bottom, while the on the top lies the 3.5 mm jack. The rear houses the 13MP camera with a dual LED flash.

Performance

With a Krin 920 octa-core along with Mali T628MP4 GPU, bundled with a 3GB DDR3 RAM, we were expecting some impressive benchmark figures from the Honor 6 and it did not disappoint. The phone scored an impressive 40,000 on AnTuTu which translates into real world performance. The massive memory pool available runs multiple apps at ease without any lags.

Devices	Antutu Benchmark	NenaMark 2	Quadrant
Honor 6	41900	59.1 fps	10939
Xiaomi Mi 3	30537	60.0 fps	20376
OnePlus One	37500	61.3 fps	23178

The 3100mAh battery can easily last a day of heavy usage, could extend to a day and a half under normal usage conditions. Users are also given an option to further enhance battery life by switching to the screen and power saving mode.

Coming to the OS, the smartphone runs on the latest Android 4.4.2 KitKat with Huawei’s in-house Emotion UI 2.3 on top. The overall design of the UI comes of a bit off beat with the vibrant colourful icons. Apps and widgets are laid out on the Home Screen, which appears slightly cluttered and can be overwhelming for a new user.

The notification panel comes with colour choices. They have given two tabs on the notifications panel, the notifications and short cuts, which come in quite handy enabling users to switch easily. Other nifty feature which the EMUI offers is the ‘Smart Asssistance’ option which includes Suspend button and provides on-screen controls, motion enabled controls like flip to mute, along with a gloves mode.

Camera

The Huawei Honor 6 offers a 13 MP rear shooter with a Sony BSI sensor along with a F2.0 28mm wide angle lens and a dual LED flash. The UI provided on the camera is standard. However, the image quality does not justify the camera specs, as they have a tendency to appear grainy. The camera can take decent shots during the day. Meanwhile, the front shooter also lacks sharpness and the finer details. The camera enables video recording at 1080p, though the lack of OIS becomes quite apparent. Overall, it is fair to say that the camera of the Honor 6 is one of its weak points.

Samples:

Display and Multimedia

The Huawei Honor 6 has a 5-inch Full HD 1080 x 1920 pixels LCD display with a pixel density of 445 pixels per inch. Well, that sounds and looks good. The smartphone can render excellent brightness even in very bright conditions. However, the panel is a non IPS which makes viewing angles a bit scruffy. However sunlight visibility and colour reproduction is top notch.

With a 5-inch display, playing games and watching movies is a fun ride with the Honor 6. The phone can easily withstand those frame rates, animations and transitions without any lag or stutters. Playing Asphalt 8 was also delight on the Full HD screen. It runs most games flawlessly, even at maximum graphic settings, while 3GB of RAM allows multitasking with ease and provides enough resources to run multiple apps in the background. All in all, gaming experience on the Honor 6 is quite immersive and seamless as it can run most games without any lags and stutters. Though, I was not really satisfied with the placement of phone’s loudspeaker as its housed at the back and blocks sound output while you’re holding the phone.

Conclusion

Considering its priced for Rs.19,999, Huawei Honor 6 is strategically coupled with the state of the art hardware. The EMUI 2.3 gives a lot of additional features without hampering the overall performance of the phone. The brand new HiSilicon’s Kirin 920 bundled with 3GB of RAM is a match made in heaven. The Honor 6 is a multimedia delight along with the 3100mAh battery performance. The phone has minimalistic look and build to it, though made out of good quality. The camera may be one of the weaker links in the Honor 6, but other aspects of the phone are top notch and can beat any phone under the given price bracket.

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GOOD THINGS

Great Hardware
Good Display
Adequate Internal Memory
Easy-to-use UI

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[tw-column width=”one-half” position=”last”]

BAD THINGS

Design
Weak Camera
Prone to Scratches

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October 13, 2014

Apple Unveils New App for Easier One-Handed Typing on Big-Screen iPhone 6

Apple, the global technology giant, has introduced a new app called ‘One Handed Keyboard’ that allows iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users to type with one hand making it easier to handle the bigger screens.

The aptly titled app, One Handed Keyboard, displays what it claims to be the same size of keyboard iPhone users have grown accustomed to over the years. The keyboard is still on its initial stage, offering only a smaller keyboard that docks to either side of the screen, with extra controls to adjust the theme or color of the keys.

However, the auto-correct library is missing from the app, meaning that whatever you type is what’s displayed, the new iOS will not correct it for you. Though the App Store listing does mention that this is a feature coming in an update soon.

The California-based company has been appreciated for this as when it comes to entering text on the larger keyboards users are forced to give up one-handed use. Apple did its best to alleviate any issues for users switching to the bigger iPhone 6 and 6 Plus with its reachability feature.

October 13, 2014
PlayStation Shows Off New Superhero-Detective Series, Powers

During the New York Comic-Con 2014, the audience got a chance to witness the first red-band trailer for Playstation’s Powers series. It is an adaption of the popular graphic novel that will be coming to the PlayStation Network this December.

Powers is set in an alternate world where superpowers have become a part of everyday life. Detective Christian Walker with a new partner Deena Pilgrim has just been assigned to the “Powers” Division of the Chicago Police Department. The first story arc from writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Avon Oeming, “Who Killed Retro Girl?” follows the lead detectives as they investigate the murder of a popular super heroine.

The series stars comedian Eddie Izzard, Susan Heyward, Olesya Rulin, and Noah Taylor among others. The show will be available for download and to stream on PlayStation devices starting this winter. Those who have a PlayStation Plus membership can view the whole series for free, although Sony hasn’t said how much it will cost for non-PlayStation Plus members.

According to a press release, the show asks: “What if the world was full of superheroes who aren’t actually heroic at all? What if all that power was just one more excuse for mischief, mayhem, murder, and endorsement deals?.”

Watch the trailer below:

October 13, 2014
According to IDC, India Will be a Tough Market for Android One

Google launched Android One handsets with great promises by not just the company, but also the home grown players that collaborated with the search giant and came out with inexpensive handsets. Though the Android One smartphones, which are priced Rs 6,399 onwards, have been advertised more than any other handset launched by the three companies, they have failed to get the sort of response they expected.

“Despite significant marketing spend already in evidence on Android One, IDC believes India will be a tough crucible for Google. Blocked out of China, Google has no choice but to make a large downstream investment in the Next Billion consumer segment in India,” the research firm said.

The Android One initiative was expected to be an instant success and their manufacturers were expected to make huge profits on the ‘exceptional’ handsets that the company launched last month. They also got good reviews and Micromax’s Android One handset was called the best handset that the company had ever launched.

India is the first country where the California-based firm’s Android One devices have been launched. Roll out across other markets like Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka will follow in coming months. The reports added that the Android One will go further and effectively create a bipolar environment where the high-end will be dominated by the likes of Apple and Samsung with their iPhone and Galaxy flagship devices and the low-end will increasingly close around Rs. 6,000 average selling price.

October 13, 2014
Diwali Giveaway : Swipe Sense

Like we said, this is just the beginning. After the Asus Zenfone 4 and Xiaomi In-Ear Earphones, we are now giving you the chance the chance to win the Swipe Sense.

Simply enter the sweepstakes below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Follow the instructions carefully and read the terms and conditions on the form as well as given here. This Giveaway is open only for residents of India.

October 13, 2014
A Day with the HTC Desire Eye and HTC RE Camera

HTC recently launched the HTC Desire Eye and the HTC RE camera, both are unique and one of a kind products in their respective categories. The Desire 816 is a flagship for HTC’s Desire lineup and is a power packed smartphone. The HTC RE is a first of a kind handheld camera-only device that aims to become everyone’s Go-Pro.

We spent an entire day with both the HTC Desire Eye and the HTC RE, and even though both were prototypes, and with early softwares, certain things left us impressed , while on the other hand many things left us slightly disappointed.

The HTC Desire Eye is a flagship for the better sense of the word, it has a Qualcomm 801 Snapdragon chipset along with 2GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage space. You can expand the storage by popping in a MicroSD card upto 128 GB, if that’s your style. HTC made the Desire Eye waterproof upto 1 meter for 30 mins thanks to its IP7 certification, so you wouldn’t mind jumping in the pool with the phone.

What puts the Eye in the Desire Eye is the set of 13 MP cameras, one for the rear and one for the front. This is the first time we have seen a big combination of cameras from a global manufacturer, not including the flipping camera phones from Oppo and Gionee.

HTC has also included dual LED flashes for the rear as well as the front cameras, helping you take the ultimate selfie in the night. Some of the pictures taken from the cameras are really impressive and truly showcase good final result, especially in well lit situations. Below is a shot of the NYC Post Office building shot from a moving bus.

The New York Post Office Building

The HTC Desire Eye, has a good set of cameras that are really quick, focus fast and the camera app is familiar. The interface has been made in a manner to simplify the shooting capability of the cameras of the phone. Tap and hold to lock the exposure and white balance, which makes it really easy to click pictures against the sun.

An image taken with locked AE and White Balance

The burst mode on the Desire Eye is also sharp, sharpest since HTC began doing burst, it gets most pictures in the burst in focus. But, those which end up out of focus are basically unusable. The burst mode is also impressive in extremely controlled setups, like the one below conducted in a studio with controlled lighting.

Sample of Burst

The images however, start to break up and get noisy when the light starts to go away. We saw this starting at twilight, and the image below still had man made lighting, even then you can see some noise in the image.

Low light sample

The HTC RE however, is a different beast all together. Specs wise you are not aiming for much with a 16MP sensor shoots 1080p 30fps HD videos, a 820 mAh battery is rated enough for 1,200 photos although it drained much faster when we were shooting video and especially slo-mo video.

Colors of the RE

The concept of the RE is good, a relatively budget, go pro style camera, that allows you to capture images and video on the go. However, just like the Go-Pro camera there needs to be an exact way of using the camera. But unlike the Go-Pro you don’t have an ecosystem built around the camera. Sure HTC launched the RE with a bunch of accessories and like a completely different product. So different, that they have a separate website, and have set it like a separate segment of business.

This may be the cash cow HTC was looking for, especially considering that their smartphone business is not running them into the fortune 500 list. The Re is not a perfect example of what they were trying to do, and no where near what we were expecting from the camera. The 16 MP camera, is good and stills will shock and awe you in low light, but because you have a wide angel lens that will capture pictures in a wide horizontal frame, and no real guide to where you are pointing. This will result in pictures with the subject’s head or legs cut off, really wide unnecessary objects in frame and a fisheye sort of result from the images.

Apart from the click button and the slow-mo button you don’t really have any control of the way the camera is shooting, and there is a light learning curve to how you would start recording video. The camera is slow to startup and click a picture, but we understand that was caused by pre-production hardware and software.

Essentially you are looking at shooting in the blind and hoping to capture. You do get a companion app, that allows you to do a lot more with the camera, execute time-lapse and set the frame using a live viewfinder shown over a WiFi-N connection established using Bluetooth 4.0.. But the question truly comes down to whether the camera is good enough to go through all the trouble. The quick answer is : No.

Why not simply use a Smartphone, most will ask, and we would agree. There are lots of things that make the RE – Re-markable, and all the RE jokes you can RE-Imagine to RE-start you RE-sting c-RE-ativity aside. (time to Re-st the lame ones)

Underwater Sample

For starters the RE is IPX7 rated, without a case or cover, so as long as your micro-SD port door is closed the camera can go under water for 1 M and stay there for upto 3 mins. There is an additional cover that will give you IPX8 rating, this you will need to buy separately.

The shape and design of the camera is really ergonomic, and easy to hold. The camera is a pistol grip style shooter and therefore sort of addictive, and since you don’t know what you are shooting you will be clicking multiple pictures of everything. That being said, since you are shooting in the blind, it may cause you to get easily frustrated and missing shots that you really wanted. And since you don’t know what you are clicking you don’t know the result till you connect with a smartphone.

Slow motion video is at 120 fps at 720p and is sort of not up to the mark in terms of clarity and sharpness, and loses large amounts of color, again this may mostly be because of the pre production nature of the camera.

Slow Mo Sample

The images are not there yet, not for a $ 200 camera that requires a smartphone to frame properly. Most $200 +$50 smartphones have excellent cameras now, granted they are comparatively difficult to hold, but definitely easier to use.

The RE is fun and a lot of people will buy one, but they might find themselves leaving it at home, unless HTC can build a excellent ecosystem around the cameras, a good one and fast. The video capability requires a lot of work and the camera should have shot 4k out of the box and especially with a extended battery grip it would have worked well. The accessories are great too, a hand grip, a bicycle mount, a helmet mount and more, incase you want to use tripods or similar mounts the RE has a 1/4″ thread for standard mount tripod screws.

Due to the sheer design of the camera, you cannot add a viewfinder to it, like you can on the Go Pro. The GoPro works and it works well, and HTC is basically truing to create an easier product to use, and they have the right concept. But this camera that looks like a plumbing spare or a smoking pipe or an asthma inhaler has a long way to go, a very long way especially since people don’t trust cameras easy.

This blind shooter is a good step and in the right direction and it looks sort of pretty, but it’s not Go-Pro and they have years of the right kind of experience. You can buy the new basic Hero for US $ 130, and the Hero 3 with excellent optics with 1080p video and 5MP burst images, that according to us is definitely better than that on the HTC RE.

October 12, 2014
Public Wi-Fi Service by Airtel Launched in Hyderabad

Bharti Airtel in association with Telangana government have launched public Wi-Fi services at 17 locations in the city of Hyderabad. CEO of Bharti Airtel, Venkatesh Vijayraghavan said that people can avail these services in seventeen locations and can have upto 750 MB of daily usage per user.

Information Technology Minister, Telangana, K T Rama Rao said that the government is also trying to convince other service providers to offer similar services. “This is just a beginning. We will come to a position where the entire city (Hyderabad) will be Wi-Fi enabled in about four months. Tendering process is going on. The entire 700 square kilometers of Hyderabad city will be covered under Wi-Fi soon,” said Rao.

Vijayraghvan has revealed that optic fibre technology has been used for public Wi-Fi service, which will have a speed of 40 Mbps. Though, it will depend on the number of users who will be latched onto the network of a particular location, he said. Bharti Airtel is in the process of working out the tariff structure for the services, the initiative being a part of government’s agenda of making Hyderabad as the leading cyber city, said Rao.

Users with a valid Indian mobile number will get access to the public Wi-Fi at all seventeen locations by switching thier Wi-Fi on, after which they will receive a One Time Password (OTP) on their respective mobile numbers.

October 11, 2014
Apple’s Sapphire Glass Supplier Files for Bankruptcy

Apple had a lot of problems this year. Be it production delays or #Bendgate, the company has been in news for all the wrong reasons this year. Now, things seem to be going from bad to worse. Apple’s sapphire glass supplier, GT Advanced Technology has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with plans to shut down two production plants and lay off 890 workers.

It has been reported that GT has requested permission from the bankruptcy court to close down the Arizona plant, even after the company stated that it planned to remain operational while it reorganized its finances. In addition to requesting approval to shut down that plant, GTAT has also asked that a New Hampshire bankruptcy court terminate its agreements with Apple, which it describes in a filing as “oppressive and burdensome.”

In the original statement announcing the Chapter 11 filing, GT CEO Tom Gutierrez said, “Today’s filing does not mean we are going out of business; rather, it provides us with the opportunity to continue to execute our business plan on a stronger footing, maintain operations of our diversified business, and improve our balance sheet. Only if GT winds down these operations will it be able to stop its mounting losses and re-focus its resources on the operation of its core business of selling sapphire furnaces and other products.” the company said on Friday.

GT’s Arizona Plant

Apple, in turn responded by pointing to its earlier statement that it remains committed to preserving jobs in Arizona and was consulting with state and local officials on its next steps. “We are proud of the jobs we’ve helped create in Arizona through Apple’s domestic manufacturing initiative and our state-of-the-art facility powered entirely by renewable energy sources. We are focused on preserving jobs in Arizona following GT’s surprising decision and we will continue to work with state and local officials as we consider our next steps.” Apple spokesperson said when asked about the matter.

Earlier, it was reported that GT had failed to meet technical milestones that Apple required in order to receive the final $139 million in advanced payment. GT Chief Financial Officer Raja Bal told investors that setting up production at the Arizona plant was more costly than the company had originally estimated. Within the past year, GT has been losing money with no solid success to back it up.

October 11, 2014
New Reports Reveal Nexus 6 Will Arrive Sooner Than You Expect

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Google will announce its next flagship Android smartphone, the Nexus 6, by the end of this month. While it didn’t say the handset will be sold as the Nexus 6, the publication confirmed its internal code name, “Shamu” adding that the handset will have a 5.9-inch high-resolution display and will be sold under the Nexus brand.

The Wall Street Journal hasn’t heard an exact release date, it has heard that the Google Nexus 6 will arrive this month, and will be bigger and cheaper than the iPhone 6 Plus and Galaxy Note 4 with a 5.9-inch display. The same features have been mentioned in countless leaks that detailed Google’s first Nexus-branded phablet. Previous reports also claimed the phone will arrive by late October or early November.

Google Nexus 5

“Shamu,” or Moto S, depending on which website you follow, but those are most likely just code names, much like Hammerhead was for the Nexus 5. As you might already know, it’s been suggested that Google might shake up the naming convention. The most popular replacement for Google’s numeric tradition is to simply call it Nexus or even Nexus X.

The new Nexus device is said to be a super-sized, more powerful version of the Moto X. While there are a lot of photos and videos leaked regarding the new Nexus device, the reports illustrate that the appearance of the device is basically going to be a scaled up 2nd generation Moto X with some minor tweaks to make the larger size easier to use. It is also said that it’ll have the same aluminum frame, and the company has apparently relocated the phone’s lock and volume buttons down to make them more reachable.

Nexus devices are known for proving pricing rumors wrong every time they debut in the market. They often seem much cheaper than what the specs and user experience would demand. The only price leak we’ve seen is a relatively sketchy one from TKTechNews, who reportedly spotted a listing for a Nexus X device for $420 for 32GB and $450 for 64GB without contract.

October 11, 2014
Indian Govt and Facebook to Work Together on an App for ‘Clean India’

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on Friday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. One of the highlights of the meeting was the prospect of launching a mobile application devoted to Clean India, while they also discussed the PM’s pet projects such as Digital India and his hopes to use the networking site’s use for social causes and prevent its misuse by terror outfits. Facebook will help in the creation of the Clean India Mobile App and it would be launched soon. This would give a strong impetus to the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Facebook boss told Modi.

It was wonderful meeting @facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. We discussed a wide range of issues. http://t.co/uWIsmAXruH pic.twitter.com/GU00UY2L9F

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 10, 2014

“Connecting more than a billion people with internet is not only going to improve lives of people in India but will help the innovation and imagination of Indian people to help turn around the world and we are very excited in opportunities in India,” Zuckerberg said after his meeting with the telecom minister.

“About 2.7 billion people have access to the internet. But that’s only one-third of humanity. Almost 4.5 billion people don’t use the internet,” pointed out Zuckerberg, in Delhi on a two-day visit to India. “Connectivity cannot just be a privilege of the rich and powerful. It is a human right.”

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg in conversation with PM Narendra Modi

According to The Economic Times report, Zuckerberg told the Prime Minister that he is extremely excited about the government’s Digital India initiative. Modi, a prolific user of social media platforms with nearly 7 million followers on Twitter and around 23 million people following him on Facebook, has asked Zuckerberg to identify domains of the program that it can get involved in and work with the government.

In the conversation, the Prime Minister also expressed some concerns about social media, especially the use of such platforms by terrorist elements to recruit new members. “This is unfortunate and we need to think of the role social media can play to stop terror,” the PM said. He also urged Facebook to promote India’s rich tourism potential and look at how to enhance internet literacy along with connectivity.

October 11, 2014
Xiaomi to Offer 1,00,000 Redmi 1S Units on 14th October

After the Big Billion Day sale madness, Flipkart and Xiaomi are now readying themselves for the next Redmi 1S flash sale. There will be 1,00,000 Redmi units up for grabs on October 14, according to the Flipkart page. This news doesn’t come as much of a surprise, since Xiaomi had earlier revealed its plan to sell larger stocks every week during the upcoming festive season.

The registrations are already open for next sale, while Xiaomi claims to have received 2,00,000 registrations already. The registration window will be open till the 13th October midnight, while sale begins next day at 2PM.

The Redmi 1S is one of Xiaomi’s smartphones that sells like hot cakes, as it comes with high end specs with a price tag of Rs.5,999. The company has been accused of creating more demand than it can supply, as users have to register with Flipkart to participate in the sale. Registration only makes you eligible to buy, does not guarantee a unit.

Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset, the Redmi 1S has a Quad Core 1.6 GHz CPU the Adreno 305 GPU, 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of inbuilt storage. The front of the Redmi 1S has a 4.7 inch 1280x720p display a total of 312 ppi, it’s protected by Asahi Dragontrail glass and has an IPS panel. Cameras comprise of an 8 MP snapper with a wide f2.2 aperture and a 1.6 MP front camera. The main camera is capable of a 1920 x 1080p Full HD video capture.

Compared to other smartphones in the same category, the Redmi 1S has a larger and sharper display, meanwhile it also takes an edge over Moto E when it comes to performance. Check out our review of the Redmi 1S.

October 11, 2014
200,000 Snapchat Pictures Leaked, Company Blames Third-Party Apps

The whole point of photo sharing app Snapchat is that photos, once sent, are supposed to disappear. However, thousands of these pictures have reappeared when hackers posted a database of purported stolen Snapchat photos and videos on the 4Chan message board. 4Chan, earlier, housed the first leaked nude photos of actress Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities.

As per reports, Snapchat has been breached of as many as 200,000 photos and videos, many of them extremely personal images. However, the company on Friday released a statement on Twitter saying, “Snapchatters were victimized by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our ToU. We can confirm that Snapchat’s servers were never breached and were not the source of these leaks.”

Snapchatters were victimized by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our ToU.

— Snapchat (@Snapchat) October 10, 2014

Although Snapchat has been hacked before, this time it isn’t the company’s fault. Third party apps, such as SnapSave or SnapKeep, seem to be the source of the hacking. These apps let recipients of Snapchat messages save them permanently. According to the reports, 4chan users have downloaded 13 GB worth of photos and videos and are creating a database to search the stolen images.

Even Snapchat users who did not use third-party apps could be victims, said Patrick Wardle, director of research at crowd-source security startup Synack. “This is an interesting scenario because the sender of an image doesn’t know if the recipient is using a third party service like SnapSaved.com or other third party applications. Therefore, everyone who sends a message using SnapChat’s service could be at risk,” Wardle said.

In May, Snapchat settled charges with US regulators accusing it of deceiving customers by promising that photos on its service disappeared forever. According to the Federal Trade Commission, photos sent on Snapchat could be saved using several methods.

October 11, 2014
SwiftKey to Now Support 11 Indian Languages

SwiftKey has announced the launch of an updated version for Android which supports 11 regional languages, namely Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu, as well as Nepali and Sinhala. And to celebrate the upcoming Diwali festival, Swiftkey has released a special Diwali theme.

The company revealed that the updated Swiftkey app will be available later, however the language update will be available in beta on Google Play’s official beta channel. Meanwhile, the Diwali theme will be available today onwards.

Swiftkey had earlier also added support for Hindi to Hinglish in its language support options back in 2012. The company also mentioned that it has changed the SSL certificates for better and secure connections used for SwiftKey Cloud’s Backup and Sync services.

The availability of regional languages would certainly be appreciated by Indian customers. The app is currently taking user feedback for smoother adaption.

October 10, 2014
HTC Quietly Brings Out the One (M8 EYE) in China

At HTC’s Double Exposure event in New York, we saw the launch of the Desire EYE, a smartphone with a serious focus on the camera. Now, the company has silently put a listing for the HTC One (M8 EYE) on their chinese web store. The HTC One (M8 EYE) is essentially the same as the HTC One (M8) that launched earlier this year, but with one major hardware difference.

The M8 Eye appears to be the standard model in every respect except for the fact that the 4MP UltraPixel shooter has been replaced by Sony’s 13MP IMX214, the same sensor used on the HTC Butterfly 2 and the HTC Desire EYE. However, unlike the Desire EYE, the front-facing camera is still a 5MP sensor. The new M8 will ship with the same ‘Eye Experience’ software as the HTC Desire Eye the company announced earlier this week.

According to the official website, the HTC One (M8 EYE) includes the new HTC EYE Experience features like Face Fusion, HTC Split Capture, and advanced face tracking features for conferencing. The fact that this is a fairly silent launch from HTC seems to suggest that this may be a device exclusively for the Chinese market.

October 10, 2014
iGyaan Gift Guide : Top 5 Gadgets for Your Sister

The festive season is the time to show love to your family. From Dussehra till the beginning of the new year, Indians have a lot of reasons to celebrate and no celebration is complete without gifts. However, it is always a task to find the perfect gift for your loved ones. Don’t worry, iGyaan is here. We’ve already covered brothers and mothers, now we are listing 5 gadgets to gift your high-tech sisters this season.

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5. Portronics Bubble speaker

Music bubbles are portable rechargeable battery powered AUX speakers.They come with inbuilt AUX cable which makes them convenient to connect to mobile phones, Mp3 players and laptops. The speakers are available in 5 colour variants.

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4. Skullcandy Dime

Skullcandy Dime is a part of the company’s new offering exclusively for girls. It features amazing floral design and graphics. Not only do these look good, the sound quality is excellent. It delivers accurate levels of sound, giving good quality lows. The music does not tear up or quiver when you turn the volume up high. Overall, they deliver a balanced sound. Skullcandy engineers have done a good job with the female centric Rex drivers for the speakers.

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3. Mi 10400 mAh Power Bank

The Mi power bank has a textured anodized aluminum casing that covers the entire battery and has a smooth metallic finish and fits in your hand. It is claimed to be water and corrosion resistant. The company claims that the Mi power bank is capable of charging the MI3 for about 2.5 times, an iPhone for 4.5 times and an iPad 1.5 times to full capacity, which is quite impressive.

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2. Samsung Tab S

Tab S’s display is just phenomenal, it’s like taking the display of the Note 3 and blowing it up to fit the size and then adding 4 times the pixels. It’s bright, extremely vivid and beautifully saturated. It is also a pretty large Super AMOLED display, considering a couple of years back Samsung was dealing with issues manufacturing a 4-inch Super AMOLED panel with Full HD capabilities.

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1. Sony Xperia C3 Dual

Help your sister up her Instagram game with the Sony Xperia C3 Dual. The Xperia C3 sports an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera along with LED flash. The smartphone is Sony’s first to come with a 5-megapixel front-facing camera along with an LED flash reason, for which it is touted as a pro-selfie phone. The front-facing camera features a wide-angle view to capture a group selfies.

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October 10, 2014