Category: Blog

Android, Apple, Blog, Google, Instagram, iOS, News, Tech Talks

Instagram’s New “CLOSE FRIENDS” Feature is here

Paras Garg

Ever wanted to send an Insta Story of your face-mask selfie (or drunk selfie on a bad Tinder date) to just your best friends instead of your entire Instagram following? Well, starting today, you can with Instagram’s newest feature: “Close Friends”.

 

“With Close Friends, you’ll have the flexibility to share your personal moments with exactly who you want — whether that’s inside jokes with your team or showing off your new relationship to your inner circle,” the company said.

To use the new feature, you first have to designate who you want in your Close Friends list. You have complete control over that list, since no one can request to be added.

To use, open up the Stories camera and take a photo or video. After you finish your shot, you’ll notice a new green circle with a white star in it. Tap it, and you’ll be brought to the close friends list where you can add people to your inner circle. Instagram will suggest friends to you based on the people you interact with most, or you can use a search box to finish your list. In testing, people typically added around two dozen people, says Robby Stein, product lead at Instagram.

You can also edit the list from your profile page. The list lives in the right-hand panel of your profile, where you can find your Saved posts, Nametag, Your Activity. To access it, simply click on the green “Add” button next to your friend’s handle to include them on your list.

Screenshot_20181201-140602

Now when you go to post a Story, you’ll find a green-starred “Close Friends” button on the bottom left corner of your screen that you can press to send your personal content to your handpicked group — for the moments you want to share but not with your entire following (including you know, your mom’s friend from college or your aunt or your boss).

Screenshot_20181201-135450

Once you do, your close friends will see a green ring around your story in the tray at the top of the feed. It’s a visual signal that a close friend has shared something more privately with you, and it should stand out from the standard pink-purple gradient rings.

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Friends are never notified that you added them to, or removed them from, your list. Unlike a Finstagram, people can’t request to join your circle of close friends. If they’re on your list, they’ll see the green rings when you post to your close friends; if they’re not, they won’t. But you’ll still maintain “plausible deniability,” Stein says, as most people will simply assume you haven’t posted anything to your close friends group.

 

Android, Blog, Google

Google has modified their OEM agreements to include provisions for regular security patches.

Paras Garg

At the annual Google I/O developer conference, the company holds several sessions about updates to the Android platform. During the “What’s new in Android Security” talk, Google’s head of Android platform security David Kleidermacher talked about the upcoming security changes in the Android P release. Near the beginning of the talk, Mr. Kleidermacher discussed how the company was making it easier for OEMs to roll out security patches thanks to the architectural changes implemented with Project Treble. He followed this statement with a small, but incredibly important tidbit of information: Google has modified their OEM agreements to include provisions for regular security patches.

“We’ve also worked on building security patching into our OEM agreements. Now this will really … lead to a massive increase in the number of devices and users receiving regular security patches.” – David Kleidermacher, Google’s head of Android platform security

Google releases monthly security patch bulletins that list patches for known vulnerabilities. These security patch bulletins are released to the public generally in the first week of each month, however, OEMs and vendors receive the monthly security patches a month in advance. This gives OEMs and vendor times to patch vulnerabilities before the security bulletin is made public; it’s how companies like Essential are able to provide security patch updates on the same day as Google.

Google hasn’t required OEMs to update their devices with the latest security patches, though generally, larger OEMs offer them for at least their flagship devices to assure customers that their devices are secure. A recent report revealed that some OEMs have missed patches from monthly Android security bulletins, and data shows that many devices fail to receive security patch updates in a timely manner. Google wants to change that.

The company has a few programs in place to bind their partners to certain terms. One of them is the GMS partner program, and another is the Android partner program. Companies in the latter program work closely with Google to make sure their devices are compliant with Google’s requirements for the latest version of Android. Android partners also receive new Android releases faster than other companies; it’s why companies like Xiaomi, Essential, and OnePlus received early access to the Android P Developer Preview 2 while other companies seemingly did not. Now it seems that Google is reworking the agreement with their Android partners to include terms requiring regular security patches.

Unfortunately, there are few details available about the updated Android partner agreement. We don’t know how often Google will require their OEM partners to implement patches. Google is likely requiring OEMs to roll out security patches on a monthly basis as Google doesn’t want Android devices to stay unpatched, but we aren’t sure about the timeline in the agreement. We also don’t know if Google has provisions in place to verify that security patches are being properly implemented. Still, the Android partner program is hugely beneficial for OEMs to be in, so it’s in their best interests to abide by the changes even if there may be some internal disagreements with the decision. Hopefully, as Mr. Kleidermacher stated, this change will make sure that millions more Android users are kept secure against the latest security threats.

Android, Blog

Redmi S2 Unveiled in China

Paras Garg

Highlights:-

  • Redmi S2 Unveiled in China.
  • Powered by Snapdragon 625 SoC clocked at 2.0 GHz and Adreno 506 GPU.
  • 5.99″ HD+ Display.
  • Finger print sensor.
  • AI assisted 16MP Front Camera.
  • Dual Camera (12 MP + 5MP ) with EIS at back.

Today Xiaomi unveiled the Redmi S2 in China. The device is positioned below the Redmi Note 5 in its domestic market, although it kept some of the features like dual cameras and tall screen.

The Redmi S2 is powered by the Snapdragon 625 chipset and runs MIUI 9 over the latest available stable Android version – 8.1 Oreo. The SoC has an octa-core CPU, clocked at 2.0 GHz and Adreno 506 GPU.

The Xiaomi Redmi S2 sports a 5.99” screen with HD+ resolution. There are no buttons on the front – the fingerprint scanner is on the back, while the UI navigation is done via onscreen keys.


There is a 16-megapixel front camera with soft LED flash that supports AI beauty feature and uses pixel binning technology, combining the information from four pixels to create one large 2.0µm pixel. It also has face unlock. The rear setup is the same 12 MP + 5 MP combo with EIS that we saw on the Redmi Note 5 Pro.

The Xiaomi Redmi S2 comes in two versions – 3 GB RAM + 32 GB storage and 4 GB RAM + 64 GB storage – and they both come with a dedicated microSD card slot.

Xiaomi Redmi S2 specifications

  • 5.99-inch (1440 × 720 pixels) HD+ 18:9 2.5D curved glass display with 1000:1 contrast ratio, 450 nits (typ) Brightness, 70.8% NTSC color gamut.
  • 2GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 506 GPU.
  • 3GB RAM with 32GB storage / 4GB RAM with 64GB storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD.
  • Android 8.1 (Oreo) with MIUI 9.
  • Dual SIM (nano + nano + microSD).
  • 12MP rear camera with LED Flash, 1.25μm pixel size, PDAF, f/2.2 aperture, secondary 5MP camera.
  • 16MP front-facing camera with LED flash.
  • Fingerprint sensor, Infrared sensor.
  • Dimensions: 160.73 × 77.26 × 8.1mm; Weight: 170g
  • 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS.
  • 3080mAh (typical) / 3000mAh (minimum) battery.

The Xiaomi Redmi S2 comes in Rose gold, Champagne Gold and Platinum Silver colors, is priced at 999 yuan (US$ 156 / Rs. 10,560 approx.) for the 3GB RAM with 32GB storage version and the 4GB RAM with 64GB storage version costs 1299 yuan (US$ 204 / Rs. 13,735 approx.) .

Source

Android, Blog, News

Asus unveils the Zenfone Max Pro M1 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC, Stock Android and 5,000 mAh battery

Dishant

Highlights:-

  • Zenfone Max Pro M1 launched in India.
  • Snapdragon 636, Adreno 509 GPU.
  • 5.99 inch Full HD+ Display with 18:9 aspect ratio.
  • Dual Camera Setup.
  • 5000 mAh Battery.
  • Stock Android 8.1 Oreo with 2 major updates promised.
  • 2 nano sim card slot with a dedicated micro SD card slot.
  • Starting at RS.10,999 and available exclusively on Flipkart from 3rd May.

Today in India was the world debut of the new Zenfone Max Pro M1. Asus in partnership with Flipkart revieled a new phone here specially for the Indian Market.
The phone comes with Snapdragon 636, a very powerful SOC with custom Kryo 260 Cores with 8 cores made on the 14nm FinFet process. It has Adreno 509 GPU and CPU is clocked at 1.80 GHz. This is 1.54x faster than the Snapdragon 625. It is 1.03% faster than Note 5 Pro.
The phone comes with 5.99 inch Full HD+ display with 18:9 aspect ratio and contrast ratio of 1500:1. Max Pro has 2.5D glass on the front with metal all-round.

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The phone comes with Dual Camera Setup (13+5 megapixel) 13 megapixel main camera and 5 megapixel depth sensor with Softlight LED flash. This depth sensor enables bokeh mode even in the night. To the front there is a 8 megapixel camera with the same flash as there is on the rear.

You can take a look at the pictures/ camera samples Asus India showed at the event with a link they provided goo.gl/VQhG2r .

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The phone comes with a huge 5,000 mAh battery. Asus promises 30 mins faster charging with the charger included in the box than the 4,000 mAh battery of Redmi Note 5.

The phone comes with Stock Android Oreo 8.1 with promise to updates to 2 major updates but the Android One support is not there. It comes with 5 magnet speakers as compared to 3 magnet speaker with NXP amplifier with a Max box amplifier accessory free in the box which increases the audio up to 2 times.

Max Pro contains a Triple SIM Slot that means you can put 2 nano SIM cards and a memory card at the same time. As expected it comes with a face unlock feature and fingerprint sensor to the back. It supports 4G VoLTE.

asus-zenfone-max-pro-m1-7

MaxPro comes with 3/32GB at a price of Rs.10,999 and 4/64GB at a price of Rs.12,999 with expandable storage up to 2TB in Black and Titanium Grey colours exclusively on Flipkart from 3 May. An upgraded version with 6/64GB with 16+5 megapixel rear camera and 16 megapixel front camera will be launched soon at a price of Rs.14,999.

Links to Flipkart page are given below:

Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1

Asus Zenfone Max Pro Launch Store

Flipkart’s offer exclusively for the ZenFone Max Pro M1

The entire warranty package for this phone will be available for only Rs 49. There is also no cost EMI for 12 months as well on the deivce.

At this price point it competes with the likes of Honor 7X Redmi Note 5 and 5 Pro.

Android, Apple, Blog, Instagram, iOS, Tech Talks

Instagram’s ‘Active At’ Feature on Direct Messaging; Screenshot Alerts for Stories Also Coming Soon

Paras Garg

Highlights:-

● Instagram added last seen feature in Direct Messaging (DM) Service

● Instagram testing text-only stories and screenshot alerts for stories

Instagram is now even more of a stalker’s paradise.

Everyone’s favorite photo and video sharing app has just added an “Activity Status” that lets all your friends and followers “see when you were last active” on the app, just like on Facebook Messenger.

When you open up Instagram Direct, the messaging section of the app, you’ll now see it shows whether your friends are “active” on the app or when they were last active on it.

Interestingly, the feature works even if the person is not following your account. The Activity Status will be shown to accounts you and anyone you message.

For Instagram stalkers — don’t pretend like you don’t do it — this is change that’ll let you keep even closer tabs on who is and isn’t ignoring you on the app.

Did your crush just read your DM (you’ll know because it says “seen” underneath the message) and not respond? Well, by default, you can now see if they’re really ghosting you or not. The new Activity Status is enough to give Instagram addicts even more anxiety .

So Instagram got its own version of “last seen” called “activity status”

Fortunately, there’s a way to stop this creepy activity broadcasting: Go Instagram’s app settings (the gear icon) inside of your profile, and then toggle off the “Show Activity Status.”

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“When this is turned off, you won’t be able to see the activity status of other accounts.”

Apart from that, Facebook owned – Instagram is testing a new ‘Type’ feature that enables text-only, written stories on the mobile app. While Instagram Stories have always been based on images and video, Instagram has been testing the new Type feature that apparently shows up next to other choices such as Boomerang, Rewind, and Superzoom. Users can choose from different fonts, different backgrounds, and even apply filters on Type. Screenshots of some of the Fonts and Colors that I was able to use are attached here.👇

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Another report from WABetaInfo suggests Instagram is testing out a security feature on its app. The feature will send notifications to users if someone takes a screenshot of their stories. Instagram currently notifies users of a screenshot only if the image or video is sent on Instagram Direct. Now, like Snapchat, the feature will be expanded to public stories as well.

As Instagram becomes ever more popular, it’s also becoming more and more like Facebook, and that’s, to be honest, kind of scary. The reason why Instagram was great was because it wasn’t Facebook. It didn’t have creepy activity status trackers.

But now that it does, it might be time to consider deleting Instagram off your phone, just like people are doing with the Facebook app.

Deleting Instagram is the new deleting Facebook!!!

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Air Pods, Apple, Blog, iOS, Science

The new iOS 10.3 is here

Paras Garg

 

iOS 10.3 introduces new features including the ability to locate AirPods using Find my iPhone and more ways to use Siri with payment, ride booking and automaker apps.

 

Find My iPhone

  • View the current or last known location of your AirPods
  • Play a sound on one or both AirPods to help you find them

 

Siri

  • Support for paying and checking status of bills with payment apps
  • Support for scheduling with ride booking apps
  • Support for checking car fuel level, lock status, turning on lights and activating horn with automaker apps
  • Cricket sports scores and statistics for Indian Premier League (IPL)and International Cricket Council.

CarPlay

  • Shortcuts in the status bar for easy access to last used apps
  • Apple Music Now Playing screen gives access to Up Next and the currently playing song’s album
  • Daily curated playlists and new music categories in Apple Music

 

Other improvements and fixes

  • Rent once and watch your iTunes movies across your devices
  • New Settings unified view for your Apple ID account information, settings and devices
  • Hourly weather in Maps using 3D Touch on the displayed current temperature
  • Support for searching “parked car” in Maps
  • Calendar adds the ability to delete an unwanted invite and report it as junk
  • Home app support to trigger scenes using accessories with switches and buttons
  • Home app support for accessory battery level status
  • Podcasts support for 3D Touch and Today widget to access recently updated shows
  • Podcast shows or episodes are shareable to Messages with full playback support
  • Fixes an issue that could prevent Maps from displaying your current location after resetting Location & Privacy
  • VoiceOver stability improvements for Phone, Safari and Mail.
Android, Blog, iOS, Tech Talks

First Android Phone (Android Alpha) v/s First iPhone (iOS 1)

Dishant

Today we all have these massive phones with big and sharp displays packed in with all these crazy features but did u ever thought what did the originals looked like? Steve Jobs considered android as a stolen product and wanted to destroy android for copying the iPhone. So let’s see which one was better at that time and who copied who (will get to that later read till the end!).

Display:

Talking first about the display both these devices had a big or massive displays (Massive by 2008 standards) (let’s not forget about Nokia and Moto phones popular as smartphones at that time). The first version of iPhone was quite big with a 3.5 inch display. On the other hand Google G1 had a smaller display that was a 3.2 inch display but both of them had the same resolution of 320×480 which meant that Google G1’s display had more PPI. On the other hand Google G1 display had a TFT panel due to which it looked weird and had bad viewing angles while iPhone was using the HVGA which looks much nicer than what was found on G1.

Design and Hardware:

The iPhone and the G1 had a night and day difference in terms of hardware. The iPhone was twice as thin as its competitor. iPhone had only one input method whereas G1 couldn’t actually make up its mind what it wanted to be- it wanted to be fully touch screen phone or it wants to be navigated like a blackberry with scroll wheel or an actual keyboard to control only some things like typing when you get bored with other two of them. It did seem like an identity crisis because it really didn’t know what it really was but still people loved to have so many choices whereas apple on the other hand used only a touch display for everything and had no stylus like the one found on the Note series these days. On the iPhone there was a tiny or miniscule 2MP camera on the back with the bottom made up of plastic with the antenna bands. The back was non removable whereas G1 had a removable back and it could accept a SD card of 8 GB. The feature which today the iPhone7 doesn’t have was present on the earlier versions of iPhone ….. Yes I am talking about the headphone jack. The first iPhone had a built in headphone jack. Yay no adapters! But take that back actually you did need one because it was recessed so that one could use only apple-branded earphones. G1 did had a unique design which made it look like a J-shaped device and made it more comfortable in hand but it couldn’t stand the test of time like the iPhone.

Software:

Even though iPhone won the hardware race with its nice design by quite a margin but the winner of the software race is simply android because of its more advanced features. This thing was pretty crazy that on android you couldn’t set a lock screen wallpaper whereas on the iPhone you couldn’t set the background of the home screen(it had a plain black background). You could even set a pattern unlock on the android. One more thing which the iPhone didn’t had at that time was pages. If you tap on any app it would simply open the app whereas if you do so on android one could simply move and rearrange the apps as per your liking and create new pages. Multitasking which we take for granted these days didn’t even existed at that time on the iPhone which works very well on the newer versions. This where android steps up as there was a way to multitask in the G1 by pressing and holding the home button. One more thing which didn’t exist at that time were personal assistants-no Siri, no Google Assistant. Also the very first version of android didn’t have an app drawer where all the apps were organized. There was no notification center on the first ever iOS whereas android had a built in notification center. Adding widgets, changing wallpapers, adding app shortcuts-customization like these were only on android at that moment. One biggest thing iPhone didn’t had at that time was the app store. G1 did came with a play store which was known as ‘Market’ at that time.The first ever version of android didn’t have a virtual keyboard which did came in later versions of android. Even though virtual keyboard came later, it just didn’t feel good, nice and natural as the iPhone’s virtual keyboard felt.

Now the thing I was talking about in the starting. Rumors were that Google tried to copy apple’s iPhone design. The first design that came out before they saw the iPhone was similar to what Blackberry, Nokia etc. phones looked like- a small 1.0 inch display with a QWERTY keyboard at the bottom and all business feature like mail to call it a smartphone of that time. But when they saw the original iPhone they just came to know that their blackberry rip-off couldn’t compete with the iPhone so they had to go ahead and re imagine and bring a touch screen to it.

I hope you enjoyed this long journey into the past where we all learnt how the first version of smartphones which we use today looked like….

Please hit that like button if you liked the article and do share it with your friends and do check out our blog for other amazing articles.

Blog, Tech Talks

Ransoc – An unusual ransomware that threatens to expose your personal information

Paras Garg

MOSTLY a ransomware encrypts YOUR Files and demands money in exchange for a key that can decrypt the data. And the payment is demanded in Bitcoins. Ransoc is different in the way it works and the medium it uses for the payment.

How does Ransoc work?

Once your computer is infected by Ransoc, it gathers your personal information from your Skype and social media profiles and scans your system for Torrent files and other sensitive information. It then displays a ransom note. Interestingly, the ransom note is customized for a particular user and has their social media details including their profile picture. The ransom note threatens the victim with a fake legal proceeding and also that the ‘sensitive’ information found on their computer will be made public if the ransom is not paid.

Now, some mportantt points to note here:

  • Ransoc, unlike other ransomware, does not encrypt any files on the infected computer.
  • Reportedly, the ransom note is displayed only in a case where the ‘sensitive’ information found by the ransomware includes child pornography or illegally downloaded Torrent media files.

    So basically, the creators of this ransomware are targeting the victim’s fear of facing legal complications and losing their reputation instead of their data.

    Further, where all ransomware creators use Bitcoin to remain hidden from law enforcement, Ransoc asks its victims to pay via credit card; this kind of payment approach has been unheard of in ransomware attacks till now.

    How to stay safe from ransomware attacks

    • Never click on links or download attachments that arrive in emails from unwanted, unknown or unexpected sources.
    • Apply all recommended security updates (patches) to your Operating System, and programs like Adobe, Java, web browsers, etc.
    • Take regular backups of your files. Remember to disconnect the Internet when you are backing up on a hard drive. Unplug the drive before you go online again.
    • Avoid using outdated browser plugins or plugins that you do not use anymore.
    • Invest in an antivirus software that comes with several layers of security such as Web Security that blocks infected websites, Email Security that blocks infected emails, Phishing Protection that blocks fake websites, etc.
    • Always keep your antivirus software up-to-date to stay safe against new threats.
    Blog, Tech Talks

    What happens to the deleted files?

    shivam_278

    Have you ever thought what happens to the files and data you delete? Where does it go? Is it gone forever?
    Deleting is like forgetting about something for humans but how does a computer forget things? Moving files to a trash is just a starting. To prevent accidental deletions a file deleted remains in your trash or recycle bin, in a temporary directory a sort of isolation from the other files on your computer. It can be restored from the trash bin if you wish but If you empty the bin where does the files disappear or go?

    Marked Empty but the contents still exist.

    Actually a file deleted is not actually deleted it is just marked as EMPTY! The files does not show anywhere on the pc but the fact is that it hasn’t moved out either only the pointers are gone away. Pointers are another type of data on your drive that point to places in memory where the actual file they are referencing  can be found. They are like a table of contents which means on most operating systems deleting a file or emptying the trash is like deleting a chapter from a book. It’s like turning to the table of contents and marking it as empty. Like there is nothing here but it actually is there hidden in some sort of way.

    wp-1480759629480.jpg
    Therere special data recovery tools that look through the memory and mark empty data as AVAILABLE. If u get lucky they can even find a file and save it. Bring it back from dead, basically undelete it. So you must be wondering now if the data is not deleted then why don’t you run out of space on your drive. Well those files which are marked as empty are overwritten. Yes OVERWRITTEN!

    If you want to delete a file completely without it being recovered back. You will need to overwrite the unwanted file completely. Overwrite it, corrupt it’s data so it’s completely gone once for all. One complete overwrite of that data should be fine but some people do over 30 overwrites but even 30 overwrites might not be enough to completely erase a file because of bad sectors. Now what are bad sectors, they are parts of the drive that devices can’t access beacause of failed transistors or physical damage so an overwrite won’t be able to reach them meaning that any data that was stored there remains there. So if that’s a confidential file and you want to completely get rid of it. You need to destroy that drive physically or maybe burn it.

    So if u want to perform a complete delete to a file destroy the drive. I mean literally destroy it burn it or time will do it for you . Scientists believe in billions of years the universe will witness dark era and eventually sun will become big enough to swallow earth as as whole and universe will come to an end that means end to any file, photo even you and actually everything ever created! But that will happen  in a very very long time.