<p>Two engineering students in the US reportedly swindled Apple out of thousands of dollars. As per a report by The Oregonian, two students named Yangyang Zhou and Quan Jiang imported thousands of fake Apple iPhones and sent them to Apple for replacement. The two apparently received the counterfeit iPhone shipments from China and sent them back to Apple again after getting them replaced from Apple by stating that they wouldn't power on, exploiting the company’s replacement warranty policy. Zhou and Jiang’s contact in China sold the original iPhones off at a standard price and paid a cut of the profit to them. </p> <p>As per the report, Federal agents in Portland commenced investigating the import of counterfeit shipments in April 2017, after the U.S Customs and Border Protection seized five such shipments from Hong Kong. A Homeland Security agent identified Jiang as one of the alleged importers of fake phones and interviewed him. Jiang reportedly denied knowing that the phones were knock-offs and said that he received 20 to 30 iPhones regularly from his associate in China and submitted them as they didn’t turn on and sent the repaired phones back to him. His associate back in China paid Jiang’s mother in lieu of “his labor and efforts,” who deposited it in an account that the student accessed from the US. </p> <p>Jiang is said to have submitted 2,000 units in 2017 to Apple for warranty repairs, sometimes by walking into an Apple store and at times by raising service support online and shipping it to Apple. Adrian Punderson, an Apple representative, said that the company checks every device for authenticity before performing repairs and sometimes rejects them if they are not genuine, the report states. Jiang apparently had 3,069 iPhone warranty claims by either his name, email, address or IP address, all citing the reason that the device wouldn't power on. Apple replaced 1,493 of these phones and rejected the rest, which reportedly cost the company $895,800 (Rs 6 crores approx). </p> <p>Apple’s engineers were unable to find out whether the devices were fake since they wouldn’t power on, the report states. As The Verge points out, Apple apparently doesn’t ask for proof of purchase. Additionally, the company sent Jiang cease-and-desist notices to Jiang’s address, to which he didn’t respond. Jiang reportedly said that he never received any notification from Apple that the phones being returned by him were counterfeit. </p> <p>Both Zhou and Jian remain out of custody. Zhou recently completed his engineering at the Oregon State University and appeared before the U.S. District Court in Portland. Jiang is being monitored by GPS. Jiang was studying engineering last spring at Linn Benton Community College. This is not the first time someone has tried to con a conglomerate into shelling out money. A previous report claimed that a Lithuanian man duped Google and Facebook by producing fake invoices. The companies paid up the fake invoices worth $122 million without realising that the invoices listed things they didn’t even order. </p> <p>Related Reads:</p> <p>Man steals $122 million from Google and Facebook by producing fake invoices</p> 
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<p dir="ltr">HMD Global has slashed the prices of three phones: the Nokia 6.1 Plus (6GB RAM and 64GB storage variant), the Nokia 2.1 and the Nokia 1 by upto Rs 1500 in India. All these phones are available across top mobile retailers in India and on Nokia’s online store at the revised prices. Those who want to purchase the Nokia 6.1 Plus can also avail 15-percent cashback on HDFC debit and credit card cards. However, the cashback offer is valid till April 20.</p> <p>The Nokia 1 was launched at a price of Rs 4499 and will now be available for Rs 3999. The company has also introduced a Rs 1000 price cut for the Nokia 2.1. Previously, the handset was available for Rs 6499 and now customers can purchase it for Rs 5499. Moreover, the Nokia 6.1 Plus (6GB RAM variant) has received a price cut of Rs 1500 and is now available for sale at Rs 16,999, down from the previous cost of Rs 18,499.</p> Nokia 1 Specifications: <p>The Nokia 1 runs on Android Oreo (Go edition) and sports a 4.5-inch IPS display with 480x854 pixels resolution. It is powered by a 1.1GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6737M mobile platform and comes with a 1GB of RAM and 8GB of local storage. The onboard storage can be expanded up to 128GB via a MicroSD card. On the back, the phone has a 5MP camera and an LED flash, and on the front is a 2MP shooter. A 2150mAh battery powers this dual-SIM device.</p> Nokia 2.1 specifications: <p>The Nokia 2.1 ships with Android Oreo (Go edition) and features a 5.5-inch HD display offering a 720x1280 resolution display. Under the hood, the phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 mobile platform and comes paired with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of inbuilt storage, which can be expanded up to 128GB via a microSD card. In the camera department, the phone has an 8MP rear camera and an LED flash, and on the front is a 5MP shooter. The phone draws power from a 4,000mAh battery.</p> Nokia 6.1 Plus specifications: <p>Now coming to the Nokia Nokia 6.1 Plus, the smartphone features a 5.8-inch Full HD+ display with a notch. It offers an aspect ratio of 19:9 and the display is protected by a Gorilla Glass 3. Under the hood, the phone ships with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor and it is coupled with by 6GB of RAM. The phone comes with a 64GB onboard storage, which can be expanded up to 400GB via MicroSD card. The dual-SIM device is backed by a 3060mAh battery that supports Quick Charge 3.0 technology. In the camera department, the Nokia 6.1 Plus is equipped with a 16MP primary sensor and a 5MP secondary sensor with Zeiss lenses. On the front, the phone sports a 16MP sensor.</p> <p>Related Read:</p> <p itemprop="headline">Nokia X71 with 6.39-inch punch hole display, 48MP triple camera setup goes official</p> 
<p>PUBG Mobile took mobile gamers by storm with its fast-paced competitive online multiplayer Battle Royale gameplay. However, the competition is heating up since there are multiple games that are vying to surpass PUBG Mobile, with its most anticipated upcoming rival being Call of Duty: Mobile. To keep gamers interested in the title, PUBG Mobile has released the 0.12.0 beta update for the game and has added numerous new features and is fixing multiple bugs to deliver a smoother gaming experience. Digit has learned that players will get to take pet companions into the game, which will be visible only to them and their teammates. Additionally, there’s a new “Survive Until the Rescue arrives” event where users need to “survive till extraction.” Here are the details of what users will experience in the new PUBG 0.12.0 beta update.</p> Companion system: <p>With the new PUBG beta update, the game developers have introduced pet companions in the game. Based on the patch notes, the game devs will add eagles as pet companions that will earn XP in some undisclosed way. There’s no information on whether other animals will be added or not. A pet companion will be visible only to players and their teammates and not their opponents. Additionally, companions need 10,000 XP to level up and unlock new animations, and XP can be bought in the form of food where each piece of food grants 100XP to the pet. </p> <p style="text-align: center;"></p> <p>While swimming or proning, the companion will fly away and return when the said actions are not being performed. The addition of companion to the game is similar to what Fortnite did with its Season 6 Battle Pass, where players could unlock three new pets, which were passive and didn’t affect the gameplay. </p> New 'Survive Until the Rescue arrives' event mode: <p>After PUBG Survive till dawn, the game will now receive a new ‘Survive Until the Rescue arrives’ game mode. Players will be spawned on a random place on the Erangel map, and as the name suggests, will need to survive till they are extracted. Currently, the event is called 'Zombie: Darkest Night' mode.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"></p> <p>Details of the new event haven’t been revealed yet but according to the patch notes, players will now have lobbies in their inventory and one will likely be able to buy them. There will be some new achievements while playing in the new mode, along with reworked portable closet and quick chat. Some items will also light up if they are important and the player’s avatar will drop an empty gun magazine to the floor and open doors with their arm. </p> Updates to Zombies: Survive till dawn event: <p>PUBG Mobile developers are also pushing some new updates to the currently available Survive till dawn event. The RPG 7 rocket launcher is being added to the game and it will be spawned in the world with six rockets and iron sights. Explosive crossbow arrows that explode on impact and liquid nitrogen mines that slow everyone down in its range will also be available. Additionally, players won’t be able to go outside because of a “toxic gas,” as you can see below.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"></p> <p>A new jungle mag, double Assault Rifles extended mag, is being added to the game. The new extended magazine holds 60 bullets and can only be attached to ARs. This magazine will only be found in elite zombie drops. </p> <p style="text-align: center;"></p> Reticle Customisations: <p>Users will now be able to customise the red dot reticle with multiple different shapes, and can also change it to green. Holo sight/2x/3x reticle colour can be changed to green and the hip-fire crosshair will be available in more colours. Gamers will also be able to showcase their UAZ skin in the lobby and can spectate their friends from the lobby. When spectating enemies, users can now send them friend requests as well. </p> <p style="text-align: center;"></p> <p>Related Reads:</p> <p>Exclusive: Call of Duty: Mobile coming to India in November</p> <p> </p> 
<p dir="ltr">Google has announced that it is now rolling out an update in Gmail’s Smart Compose feature that will automatically suggest the subject line of an email on the basis of the content of the body of the mail. When a user finishes writing the body of an email and then place the cursor in the subject line, he/she may see Smart Compose suggesting a subject for the email that they have typed.</p> <p dir="ltr">Google says that since the announcement of the Smart Compose in G Suite last year, it has seen the feature cutting down on the effort it takes for a user to write emails and replies. Google has claimed that the Smart Compose feature saves people from typing over 1 billion characters each week on the web. Interestingly, the company had talked about this feature in Gmail’s 15th anniversary blog a few day ago.</p> <p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"></p> <p>For Rapid Release domains, the gradual rollout already began on April 4 and Google says that the roll out will complete within 15 days. For Scheduled Release domains, the gradual rollout will start on April 23 and will complete in 15 days. The feature will be available to all G Suite editions, and it will be on by default. Users can individually turn it on/off by accessing the Gmail settings.</p> <p>Recently, Google rolled out an update that lets Smart Compose adapt to the way users write an email. For example, if a user prefers to greet the receivers with “Hello”, instead of “Hi, Gmail will learn that. It can even suggest a subject line based on the body of the mail a user has written. The company also released the email scheduling feature that allows the users to choose when an email should be sent. Further, the last update also brought the ability to take an action on email, like respond to a comment thread in Google Docs, schedule a meeting, or fill out a questionnaire from within the message itself.</p> <p>Related Read:</p> <p>Google Pixel 3a, Pixel 3a XL names, specs confirmed in new leak</p> 
<p dir="ltr">OEMs are working hard to secure users' phones by pre-installing security apps. It becomes a matter of safety when it is because of these apps that users are exposed to cyberattack. Check Point research has claimed that it has found a vulnerability in the Guard Provider app, which comes pre-installed in Xiaomi phones with MIUI OS. The firm claims that this app can help an attacker to inject a rogue code to steal or track data, or even implant malware in the device.</p> <p>The Israel-based company says that because of the “unsecured nature of the network traffic to and from Guard Provider,” a threat actor could connect to the same Wi-Fi network as the victim and carry out a Man-in-the-Middle (MiTM) attack - a type of eavesdropping attack that is carried out by disabling malware protections and typing in a code to steal data or insert ransomware. It says that when the firm disclosed the vulnerability to Xiaomi, “it released a patch shortly after.”</p> <p dir="ltr">What is the vulnerability?</p> <p>The Guard Provider app uses several third-party Software Development Kits (SDKs) as part of the security service it offers. The app includes three different antivirus built-in: Avast, AVL and Tencent. Users have the freedom of selecting any one of three providers as the default Anti-Virus engine to scan the device. When that anti-virus downloads the update, the hacker intercepts the network traffic via an MiTM attack and inject rogue code as part of a third-party SDK update.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"></p> <p>Not only does the attacker target the chosen app to secure the device, it also infects the other two providers as well. This is due to the hidden disadvantages in using several SDKs within the same app. A problem in one SDK compromises the protection of all others, and the private storage data of one SDK cannot be isolated and can therefore be accessed by another SDK. “While minor bugs in each individual SDK can be often be a standalone issue, when multiple SDKs are implemented within the same app it is likely that even more critical vulnerabilities will not be far off,” Check Point said.</p> <p>With a 14.5 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth as compared to 2017, the Indian smartphone market saw 142.3 million units shipped in the Calendar Year 2018, International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker said earlier this year. According to the firm, Xiaomi topped the list by capturing 28.9 percent market share and shipping a total of 41.1 million devices last year.</p> <p>Xiaomi also grew 28.6 percent YoY in the fourth quarter of 2018 because of its affordable Redmi series devices and offline expansion with opening of rural stores. Xiaomi’s Redmi 5A and Redmi Note 5/Pro series emerged as the fastest selling devices of 2018 with 10 million shipments each in the full year. The brand also led in the online channel with a share of 47.2 percent.</p> <p>Related Read:</p> <p>Global smartphone shipments expected to drop for third consecutive year in 2019: IDC</p> 
