The iOS 12.1 update rolling out to Apple devices aims to correct some niggling issues such as softening skin tones on the new iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max. The new update also brings the very controversial Performance Management toggle to iPhone 8/iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X. For those who own the newer iPhones that were launched this year, the most exciting feature to be enabled by iOS 12.1 update would be the eSIM feature, amongst many others. However, the new iOS release isn’t without its problems. A security researcher has discovered a bug that allows access to the full contact list, without having to unlock the iPhone. The bug was found soon after the update was rolled out. Researchers accessed the contacts by using FaceTime’s new group video feature. The bug is exploited by calling up Siri on the lock-screen and asking it to make a FaceTime call. After that, the phone was put into Flight Mode to turn off connections. Then, using the “add” button, the contact list could be accessed in full, including any detail that was stored for each contact. The bug, though a security lapse, isn’t something to lose sleep over. Even if a person is able to gain access to the contact list through this bug, there’s no way to copy that list or email it to an account. Short of using a pen and paper to write everything down, it is unlikely that a person would be able to do much with such access. However, it still does put every iPhone owner’s private data at risk, and given how Apple has been leading the crusade on data privacy for customers, we expect the company to patch the bug soon. Apple’s iOS, unfortunately, has a long-standing history of lock screen bugs, going all the way back to iOS 6. Apple fixes one issue and seems to break another security measure. Hopefully, Apple will figure out a way to fix the lock screen once and for all.
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Thousands of Google employees from the company’s offices situated at different locations across the globe have staged a walkout protesting against the alleged mishandling of the sexual harassment cases in which some company executives have reportedly been involved in. The incident follows a recent New York Times report in which it was claimed that the internet giant paid former company executive and the “father of Android”, Andy Rubin, a severance of $90 million when he left the company in 2014 after proven allegations of sexual misconduct. The New York Time report revealed that Rubin had allegedly forced a member in the Android team into performing oral sex in a hotel room back in 2013. It said that Google investigated the claim and found the it to be credible. The company then paid Rubin a severance of $90 million, split into $2 million a month for four years, when it had no reason to do so. Just after these claims, company CEO Sundar Pichai wrote a letter addressing the employees saying that the company is “dead serious” about making sure that it provides a safe and inclusive workplace, and in the last two years, 48 people have been terminated for sexual harassment, including 13 who were `senior managers and above. He also noted that, “None of these individuals received an exit package.” Source Following this whole incident, employees from Google’s Singapore office staged a walkout first and the wave followed to other offices in Tokyo in Japan, Haifa in Israel, Zurich in Switzerland, Berlin in Germany, London in the UK and Dublin in Ireland. Citing the organisers of the protests, The Guardian reported that the high-profile cases are just a few examples of “thousands” of similar cases across the company. According to CNN Business, more than 1,000 people walked out of Google's corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California. “It's just unfair that the women who are being attacked have to speak to the people above them in order to get change to happen. Because sometimes their abusers are the ones above them and in charge of promoting them or in charge of their jobs. It's a lose-lose situation,” Taylor Reifurth, a freelance editor at Google, was quoted as saying. This is not the first time that Google has been in the news for wrong reasons. Last year during the similar time, Google employee James Damore wrote an anti-diversity memo in which he claimed that “the representation gap between men and women in software engineering persists because of biological differences between the two sexes”. Pichai later condemned the controversial memo that argued that women are not "biologically fit" for tech roles. Pichai said parts of the 3,300-word 'manifesto' crossed the line by “advancing harmful gender stereotypes” in the workplace. Cover Image Courtesy
Apple has released the latest iOS distribution numbers as measured by the App Store and looks like users are fast adopting the latest iOS 12 operating system. Just two weeks back, Apple confirmed that 50 percent of all iOS-powered devices are running iOS 12. It also said that 53 percent of iOS devices introduced in the last four years are using iOS 12. Now, as per the latest numbers shared by the company, iOS 12 has gained even more user adoption and it now runs on 63% of all iOS devices introduced in the last four years, and 60% of all active Apple iOS devices till date. iOS 11 is naturally losing its active user base as more and more Apple users upgrade to the latest OS. The final build of iOS 12 was publicly rolled out on September 17. It brings with it a host of new features, including a performance boost for devices. Both iPhone and iPad users are able to experience quicker app launch times and more responsive typing. According to Apple, the camera app open 70 percent faster, while the keyboard reacts 50 percent faster than before. The update also brings new Digital Wellbeing features to help users take a break from their devices. When iOS 12 rolled out officially, a few of its key features were missing as they were still under development. These Apple recently released in an update to iOS 12, called iOS 12.1, bringing in Group FaceTime support for eligible devices along with dual SIM support for some iPhones and a fix for the softer selfies clicked by the new 2018 iPhones. Apple’s App Store iOS distribution numbers further show 7 percent of all iOS devices launched in the last four years, and 11 percent of all active iOS devices still run on iOS 10 or earlier operating systems.
After launching a phone two touchscreen displays on each side, Nubia is all set to launch a gaming phone that will reportedly tout 10GB of RAM. The phone was teased in a poster on Chinese social networking site Weibo and could reportedly be named New Red Magic. The gaming phone will supposedly come with physical gaming buttons with frame touch technology that relies on four-finger operation, according to a report by GizmoChina. The report also calls the phone as the Red Devil eSport. There will be a linear motor in the phone to allow 4D feedback along with DTS 7.1 sound as well as “3D surround stereo bounce.” It was previously assumed the phone will be called Nubia Red Magic 2. This time, the gaming phone is expected to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 with 10GB RAM to boot, which is similar to what the new Xiaomi BlackShark Helo has. The internal storage could be up to 256GB. The teaser on Weibo also indicates the phone will have some sort of liquid-cooling as well as air-cooling systems. Further, the phone could come with dual-sided gaming controllers and the GameBox game space that was there on the Red Magic. The phone will reportedly go on sale on November 6 in China and once it does, it will be the third phone this year to sport mammoth 10GB RAM after the Mi Mix 3 and the BlackShark Helo. Nubia is also slated to launch the original Red Magic gaming phone in India sometime in November for under Rs 40,000. The phone’s forte is its gamer-centric design replete with a RGB strip at the back along with Snapdragon 835-powered performance.
WhatsApp Vice President, Chris Daniels has said that the company will start showing advertisements in the chat service's Status tab. Daniels has said, "We are going to be putting ads in 'Status'. That is going to be primary monetisation mode for the company as well as an opportunity for businesses to reach people on WhatsApp.” There is no information available as to when users will start seeing advertisements on WhatsApp and how these ads will be regulated. Information about advertisements appearing on WhatsApp has been rumoured for quite some time now. To put things into perspective, WhatsApp has 1.5 billion users globally of which more than 250 million users are in India. For those unaware, Status is WhatsApp’s take on Instagram stories. You can post a status, image, etc. for your friends to see. Status updates are visible to your friends for 24 hours. After that, the status disappears. If you are not happy with advertisements on WhatsApp, then know that neither are the co-founders. In a conversation with Forbes, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton, said that Zuckerberg was in a rush to make money from the messaging service and undermine elements of its encryption technology. "Targeted advertising is what makes me unhappy," Acton said. This isn’t the first time WhatsApp is looking to cash in on their user base. Daniels told Economic Times, "Currently, we're approaching monetisation in two ways. In August, we launched the WhatsApp Business API, which enables large companies like MakeMyTrip to send information like tickets to users on WhatsApp. Businesses pay to send those messages. In the future, we'll place ads in WhatsApp Status, which is our Stories feature. We think this is an appropriate place for ads within WhatsApp. WhatsApp will remain free for people to use and we remain fully committed to end-to-end encryption. With our full set of features in place for both people and businesses, we believe WhatsApp will continue to contribute to economic growth here in India."
Airtel has the highest download speeds on its 3G and 4G networks combined when compared with the top telecom companies offering their services in India, OpenSignal, a London-based company which specializes in wireless coverage mapping, has said in its latest report which measures the real-world experience of consumers on mobile networks. The firm found that Reliance Jio provides the widest 4G availability and lowest latency. In the the upload speed department, Idea tops the list of networks that provides the best upload experience. The three major players - Jio, Airtel and Vodafone - scored s draw when it comes to providing the best video experience on the network. OpenSignal has published the report after accessing 10,509,371,943 data points that were collected from 1,769,711 users during the period from June 1 to August 29, 2018. The report seems to keep Vodafone and Idea as separate providers apparently because the merger of these companies was announced on August 31, 2018. India’s first LTE network launched in 2012, and OpenSignal says that in India, it is seeing some of the highest 4G Availability scores of any of the markets that it has analysed. The firm included awards for the five operators across all 22 of India’s telecoms circle regions for the first time. Video Experience OpenSignal found that there was a three-way tie in its mobile video experience analysis, as Airtel, Jio and Vodafone all posted scores within a point of each other. It says that Jio continues to impress in its 4G availability analysis, as the operator’s score continues to grow from 96.4 percent to 96.7 percent which is “remarkable in a relatively new LTE market like India.” The winners all scored around 39 points in the analysis, while Idea was very close behind the top three. “We discovered there is no link, or correlation, between the time Indian smartphone users spend on 4G (4G Availability) and the quality of the mobile Video Experience they enjoy,” OpenSignal said in a statement. 4G Availability According to OpenSignal, the 4G Availability winner is Reliance Jio. All three other major operators continued to increase their scores, passing the 70 percent mark with rises of well over 3 percentage points each in measurements. Second-placed Airtel registered the largest rise of over 7 percentage points to reach 74 percent in the 4G Availability metric. “It’s impossible to analyse recent developments in Indian mobile without talking about Jio. Coined the world’s first ‘super-disruptor’, the Reliance Industries amassing over 100 million subscribers in less than six months and launching its own range of handsets to huge success. But from OpenSignal’s point of view, one of Jio’s most impressive achievements has been in 4G Availability. The operator has managed to achieve availability scores of over 95 percent in all of India’s regions, despite huge variations in topography, and in the face of massive increases in subscribers and data consumption,” the firm said. When it comes to regional availability, OpenSignal said that Jio came top in all 22 telecoms circles scoring over 95 percent in 4G availability measurements in all regions, and topped 97 percent in 10 of them, including the Kolkata metro circle. Jio’s average 4G Availability score across all 22 circles we analysed was 96.7 percent and out of the other operators providing their services in the country, Idea scored over 80 percent in 4G Availability in three regions, while Airtel and Vodafone managed this in two each. Latency Experience Jio also won OpenSignal’s Latency Experience award, although it was Airtel which claimed the top spot for the 4G-only latency table after edging ahead of Vodafone (that grabbed the spot in this category six months ago). Jio had an average score of 72.2 milliseconds (ms), a 8ms improvement on its closest rival, while Vodafone, Airtel and Idea weren’t far behind and they were in a tight group just over the 80ms mark. Latency refers to the delay users experience as data makes a round trip through the network: If the latency of your network is high, you’ll experience a lot more lag time. Lower latency scores mean webpages begin loading more quickly and real-time communications apps and online games experience less lag. “Jio was the standout operator in our analysis of Latency Experience in India’s regions, winning in 17 circles and drawing in a further two. Jio’s best average Latency Experience score was 54.7ms among our users in Mumbai, over 10ms better than its closest rival in that circle, Idea. Of the other operators, Vodafone won two circles and drew in three others. The operator drew with Jio in Kolkata, with Idea in the North East, while we saw a three-way tie in Maharashtra,” OpenSignal said. Download Speed Experience Airtel kept its Download Speed Experience crown, surging further ahead with over 25 percent growth in measurements in the past six months. The firm says that the network provider has traditionally won the lion’s share of its mobile experience awards, and as mentioned above, tied for top spot in Video Experience and came in second place in 4G availability analysis. OpenSignal says that Airtel dominated 16 circles and drawing in two others. “Airtel’s highest score was in Orissa where we measured its average speed at 9.9 Mbps. Airtel tied with Jio in Himachal Pradesh and with Idea in West Bengal. Elsewhere Vodafone won our Download Speed Experience crown in Gujarat, Jio came top in Jammu and Kashmir as well as in Uttar Pradesh (East), while Jio drew with Idea in Uttar Pradesh (West),” it said. Upload Speed Experience With averaging speeds of 2.88 Mbps, Idea was the leading operator in the upload speed experience category, winning outright in 10 circles and drawing in a further six. Idea topped both 3G upload and 4G upload speed tables, with average scores 15 percent faster than its closest rival Vodafone in 3G and 30 percent faster in 4G. Idea achieved its best average score of 3.9 Mbps in Punjab, but no operator was able to pass the 4 Mbps mark. “Competition was high in this category, with Vodafone winning in three regions including the Delhi and Kolkata metro circles and drawing in two others. Of the other operators, Airtel won two regions and drew in a third, while Jio managed a draw in two circles,” OpenSignal noted. Meanwhile, taking a dig at the competition, Airtel has said that its focus remains on building the fastest and the best network that enables a high quality digital experience for discerning customers “who prefer network quality over deals and discounts.” “We are delighted to see a reputed international platform rating Airtel as India’s fastest network. This latest report is yet another reaffirmation of Airtel’s obsession with network excellence. Over the last 90 days our pace of deployment and investment has continued to pick up. This is allowing us to decisively win with 4G customers in the top 500 cities. We remain committed to leveraging state of the art technologies and tools to delivering India’s decisively best network and sustain our leadership,” Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel, said in a statement. Source: OpenSignal Report
It seems that LG has identified the “right time” to unveil a smartphone with a foldable display. As per famous tipster Evan Blass, the company is expected to launch the smartphone at the CES 2019. The news comes weeks after the company confirmed that it is developing a foldable smartphone. LG also noted that it is not gunning for headlines for being the first company to do so and instead, it wants to create something that consumers really need. LG has not disclosed any information on the specifications or the features of the smartphone but it is said to be working on something which could help it stand out from other reported foldable smartphones in the making. LG’s South Korean counterpart Samsung is also in the new for working on a foldable smartphone. Unlike LG, Samsung has been more vocal about the smartphone. CEO of Samsung’s Mobile Division, DJ Koh had already announced that Samsung thinks that the time has come for the company “to deliver” the foldable device. It is expected that a smartphone with foldable display will cost upwards of $1800. Koh claimed that Samsung took the decision to launch such a phone after the company carried out consumer surveys which showed that there is a market for these handsets. However, LG says that there is currently no market for a $2,000 phone. Further, Samsung is not the only company that is developing a foldable smartphone. Apparently, Apple and Huawei also have dedicated teams which are working to develop a phone with a foldable display. Meanwhile, little-known Chinese manufacturer Royole Corporation has already made a device with a display that can be folded like a book. Called the FlexPai, the device features a 4:3 7.8-inch display with 1920 x 1440 pixel resolution. The device resembles a tablet when it opened like a book and when folded backwards in the middle, it looks like a phone. The device is still a prototype but it is surely the first smartphone showcased publicly that has a foldable display. The FlexPai display doesn’t fold completely though and there is a large gap between it folds. A folded side of the display measures 4 inches diagonally. You can check the device out here.
