<p>Over a third of customers who bought the Google Pixel 3 and OnePlus 6T during the final quarter of 2018 were previously owners of a Samsung Galaxy smartphone. How’s that for a theory? Well, that’s exactly what a recent report from Counterpoint Research’s US Smartphone Churn Tracker says. It goes on to say that despite the initial success in sales, the Google Pixel 3, which is one of the iPhone’s most immediate competitors, failed to convert a larger share of iPhone users to Android. In fact, only less than one in five customers of either phone was an iPhone user.</p> <p>Counterpoint Research’s report adds that in the fourth quarter of 2018, the Google Pixel accounted for 7.3 percent of Verizon’s total sales. On the other hand, the OnePlus 6T accounted for 2.4 percent of T-Mobile’s total sales. Despite starting strong in the same quarter of last year, OnePlus 6T sales reportedly weakened in the first quarter of 2019. The Google Pixel, on the other hand, failed to attract iPhone users because over 80 percent of the phone’s buyers reportedly came from Android.</p> <p>“The newest Google Pixel lineup was certainly successful in terms of disrupting the premium market space at Verizon. Google invested a lot of marketing money during Q4 2018 resulting in strong sales of the Google Pixel 3 lineup. Over half of all new Pixel 3 owners came from Samsung. A total of 31% of Pixel 3 sales came from previous Samsung Galaxy S7 owners,” said Jeff Fieldhack, Research Director at Counterpoint Research.</p> <p>“When the 6T was announced for T-Mobile, at a sub-US$600 price point, consumers flocked to the device. Many users upgraded their older Samsung J2 Prime and Galaxy S7 phones. In addition, over 70% of previous Apple users had an iPhone 7, iPhone 6, or older. Consumers who have older devices are looking for alternatives to the flagships that cost more than US$800 currently offered,” commented Research Analyst Maurice Klaehne. The researcher later added that the OnePlus 6T might not see strong sales in the future. “There is little marketing money spent by the OEM and older Apple and Samsung flagships have been discounted to make a similar value offer which most consumers will gravitate towards,” he said.</p> <p> </p> <p>Related Read: OnePlus 6T hits lowest price ever during Amazon Fab Phone Fest, other attractive deals on Apple iPhone XR, Vivo V15 Pro and more</p> 
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<p>The French security researcher Elliot Alderson, aka @fs0c131y, has some new information to share about flaws in Samsung devices. He claims to have found a new vulnerability in all Samsung phones, which enables an attacker to capture the victim’s network traffic without their consent, given the hacker can gain physical access to their victim’s device. Additionally, the exploit enables the hacker to record the victim’s screen for up to an hour. Alderson disclosed the vulnerability to Samsung three weeks ago. The researcher has tweetstormed the exploit with a proof of concept and it all starts by booting up the Calculator app that is pre-installed on all Samsung phones. </p> <p>Typing (+30012012732+ in the calculator app will bring up DRParser Mode app. Typing *#9900# on the DO Parser Mode app boots up the Service Mode app, which has several critical options like logging network packet data and more. Three options on the Service Mode app menu are greyed out and out of them, Elliot used the "tcp dump start" command-line packet analyzer to capture network traffic. However, tapping the button asks for an OTP, which the researcher bypassed since it is a locally implemented mechanism and doesn’t require an active net connection. Reversing the Service Mode app, the researcher was able to create a proof of concept via the CheckOTP method. This enabled him to enter the OTP key created in the prompt and enable capturing of network traffic. The network traffic capture log is saved on local storage. </p> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">THREAD: If you have a @SamsungMobile phones, whatever your phone model, an attacker with a physical access to your phone can capture your network traffic without your consent. Let me show you pic.twitter.com/2e66MglPxE</p> — Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) April 10, 2019 <p>The flaw not only enables one to snoop on network traffic, but also allows an attacker to record their victim’s screen for up to an hour. This is apparently done via the IMS LOGGER option, which is one of the three greyed-out options on the Service Mode app. Enabling the “Record Screen" option from Filter Options when tapping on IMS LOGGER is said to do the trick, and the recording is saved on the local storage. </p> <p>Related Reads:</p> <p>Asus software update utility was hacked to install malware on thousands of computers, company issues fix</p> <p>Twitter aims to combat spammers by limiting daily follows to 400</p> 
<p>Nubia already confirmed that it would launch its Red Magic 3 smartphone in India next month. Now, the company has announced that its wearable device, the Nubia Alpha smartphone with a flexible 4-inch OLED display and the Nubia Pods will also be launched in May. “The company wants to tap the huge Indian smartphone market by bringing latest innovation to India and is expected to launch the flexible smartwatch and ear pods in May’19 to bring a complete ‘new generation’ mobile experience in India,” reads the company’s media release. </p> <p>Here’s a brief look at what the three devices are all about. Starting with the Nubia Alpha smartwatch, the device sports a 4-inch flexible OLED display that features a 960x192p resolution. It snaps around the wearer’s wrist like any other standard smartwatch but has a larger form factor and comes with all the functions you will find on a smartphone like apps, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. It supports calling via an e-SIM and sports a 5MP camera as well. As for the Nubia Pods, they are the company’s first truly wireless earbuds that are designed in partnership with 1More. </p> <p>Coming to the Nubia Red Magic 3 smartphone, the company’s general manager Ni Fei has revealed the device’s key highlights. It is confirmed to come equipped with air- and liquid-cooled systems to dissipate the heat generated while gaming. There are other gaming phones which either employ air cooling or liquid cooling but no device with both techniques. It remains to be seen how effective the cooling system is and you can be assured that we will put the device through its paces when we receive it for review. </p> <p>The Red Magic 3 will run on the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip, which is paired with 12GB RAM. It might also be launched in other memory capacity variants. The phone is also touted to offer a display with “high refresh rate” but it is not known if it will challenge the 120Hz display equipped on the Razer Phone. The Nubia Red Magic 3 is also touted to feature a battery larger than the 3,800mAh unit found in its predecessor. </p> <p>Related Reads:</p> <p>Nubia Red Magic 3 specs revealed by top company executive, to come with air and liquid cooling systems</p> 
<p>It looks like Google’s payment service, Google Pay, might be in hot water. According to reports, the Delhi High Court has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) how Google Pay has been conducting financial transactions without authorisation. The service is reportedly not in the list of authorised service providers that was released by the Central Bank.</p> <p>As per reports, a division bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani issued notices to the RBI and Google India Digital Services Private Limited based on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Abhijit Mishra. The petitioner notes in his plea that he is concerned with the welfare of Indian economic banking system. Further, he notes that since Google Pay is not in the list of authorised operators, it is in defiance of Section 4, Subsection 1 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2004. The section reads as follows, “No person, other than the Reserve Bank, shall commence or operate a payment system except under and in accordance with an authorisation issued by the Reserve Bank of India.”</p> <p>We will now have to wait and see how Google and RBI respond to the PIL and what steps the Mountain View-based company will take in the coming days with regard to the Google Pay app.</p> <p>Google Pay was launched in India as Google Tez, but was rebranded in August last year, during the Google for India event. During the event it was revealed 750 million transactions are carried out on the platform everyday, with an annual run-rate of $30 billion in transactions. Besides transactions, the platform can also be used to make payments for utilities.</p> <p> </p> <p>Related Read: Google Tez may be renamed as 'Google Pay': Report</p> 
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