Asus ROG Phone 2 leaked images hint at 120Hz display

Asus is expected to launch its second gaming smartphone, the ROG Phone 2, on July 23 at an event in China. The company has also revealed that it will be the first handset to be launched running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus, which is an overclocked variant of the Snapdragon 855 SoC. Now, ahead of the official announcement and reveal, a couple of live images of the handset have leaked online, which reveal the device’s design from the front. In addition, one of the images hints at the possible refresh rate options that might be available. The images were posted on Weibo and if true, the ROG Phone 2 might not differ too much from its predecessor, at least in terms of the front panel's design. 

From the front, the alleged image of the ROG Phone 2 shows off an 18:9 display aspect ratio on the phone. There is no notch and a speaker sits on both top and bottom bezels, which are also considerably slimmer in comparison to its predecessor. The front camera can also be seen on the upper top right corner. The overall system theme of on the phone features tweaked app icons, which are similar to the ones we have already seen on the original ROG Phone. Coming to the second image, it reveals that there will be four refresh rate levels to choose from on the upcoming handset. The ROG Phone 2 might enable one to choose between 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz display refresh rates. 

The ROG Phone 2 was also previously spotted on the Wi-Fi Alliance, US FCC website, as well as the 3C Certification websites. The 3C listing suggests that it could come with 30W fast charging support but this feature was also available on the first ROG Phone. As mentioned earlier, the ROG Phone 2 is confirmed to come equipped with an overclocked version of the Snapdragon 855 chip. 

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Amazon Prime Day Sale: Best deals on Soundbars

Today is the last day of the Amazon Prime Day Sale and if you are looking to pick up a soundbar, then here are some deals for you to consider:

JBL SB155 Wireless Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer (Buy Here)

The JBL SB155, which would have cost you Rs 20,019, can be yours for Rs 11,990. The soundbar comes with a wireless subwoofer, ensuring you can place it wherever you like. The soundbar comes with a remote control along with a 3.5mm analogue cable and an optical cable in the box. It also supports Bluetooth playback.

LG SL10YG 5.1.2 ch Dolby Atmos Sound Bar (Buy Here)

If a premium Dolby Atmos-enabled soundbar is what you are looking for, you can check out the LG SL10YG. The soundbar, which would have cost you about Rs 80,000, can be yours for 65,999. The soundbar supports Dolby Atmos and DTS-X. It also supports Google Assistant and Chromecast out of the box.  The soundbar can be wall-mounted or kept on a table. It also supports Bluetooth.

Bose Solo 5 Soundbar Speakers (Buy Here)

The Bose Solo 5 Soundbar, which would have cost you about Rs 20,000, can be yours for Rs 15,435. The soundbar comes without a subwoofer. It supports Bluetooth connectivity and comes with a universal remote. 

Polk Audio AM9644-A Command Sound Bar (Buy Here)

The Polk AM9644-A Command Sound Bar, which would have cost you about Rs 50,000, can be yours for Rs 29,490 during the Prime Day Sale. The soundbar supports Amazon Alexa out of the box, 4K HDR passthrough and has a wireless subwoofer. 

JBL SB450 Soundbar (Buy Here)

The JBL SB 450, which would have cost you about Rs  32,499, can be yours for Rs 27,990. The sound bar has 3 HDMI passthrough ports and one ARC port. It supports 4K HDR passthrough and has a total output of 440W. The subwoofer connects to the soundbar wirelessly. 

Sony HT-CT290 (Buy Here)

The Sony HT-CT290 soundbar, which would have cost you Rs 17,499, can be yours for Rs 15,990. The subwoofer connects to the soundbar wirelessly and also supports Bluetooth. The subwoofer can be kept horizontally or vertically. The soundbar has 300W of output and supports USB as well as HDMI ARC.

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Twitter for web gets mobile app-like makeover along with dark mode

Twitter has announced that it has started to roll out a redesign for Twitter for web, and once rolled out to all the users across the globe, there is no option to switch back to the old design. Thanks to the added features, the web version makeover makes it look a lot like the mobile app. While this development could make some users apprehensive, some might find it easy to use because of its resemblance to the mobile app.

While the company made the announcement on Twitter, a spokesperson told Mashable that “it will take a few days for the design to change for everyone on Twitter.com,” and “there will be no going back.” Further, Twitter hasn’t introduced any way to edit the tweets. However, it brought the Dark Mode to the web as well.

As far as the redesign is concerned, the platform’s main navigation panel is on the left side of the Home page, where users can navigate between timeline, notifications, and direct messages. The trending section has been moved to the right column. A significant change has been brought to direct messages. From now on, there won’t be a small box popping up, and instead a new chat-like interface opens up, where users can quickly navigate and send messages. Twitter has also brought the “sparkle” button to the web interface. The feature, first rolled out for iOS, lets users see tweets in chronological as well as reverse-chronological fashion.

Recently, Twitter announced that it is bringing back the standalone Twitter for Mac app soon. In June, the company said that the Twitter for Mac app would be in development this summer and that it would prepare for an early launch of the app on macOS 10.15 Catalina. The development is in accordance with Apple’s Project Catalyst for the newest macOS iteration that it announced earlier this month. It enables developers to bring their iPad projects to macOS as native Mac apps.

Woah, what’s this? A shiny new https://t.co/q4wnE46fGs for desktop? Yup. IT’S HERE. pic.twitter.com/8y4TMzqBGa

— Twitter (@Twitter) 15 July 2019

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Partial lunar eclipse will be visible tonight from India, coincides with Apollo 11 50th anniversary

Get ready to witness a dimmed view of the Moon as yet another partial lunar eclipse is nearly upon us. The people of Africa, Asia, Australia, South America, and Europe will get a chance to view the cosmic spectacle from the terrace of their homes both today and tomorrow. In India, one can be expected to get a full view of the partial lunar eclipse in the early hours of July 17 (tomorrow). During a lunar partial eclipse, the Earth moves between the Sun and Moon but the three bodies do not form a straight line in space, thereby causing only a partial shadow of the Earth to fall on the Moon’s surface. The eclipse is expected to be visible for nearly three hours.

According to NASA, an umbra of two-thirds of the Earth’s surface is expected to fall on the Moon, which will form the “Greatest Eclipse”. The umbral coverage is expected to go on for 2 hours, 57 minutes, 56 seconds. The penumbral coverage, on the other hand, is expected to go on for 5 hours, 33 minutes, 43 seconds. There are four eclipse contact times that NASA identifies in tonight’s show: P1, U1, U4, and P4, where P stands for penumbra and U stands for umbra. The penumbral coverage is expected to start tomorrow at 12:13 AM IST, while the umbral coverage is expected to start a little later at 1:31 AM IST. The eclipse is expected to be most visible at around 3:00 AM IST. The umbral coverage is expected to end tomorrow at 4:29 AM IST, while the penumbral coverage is expected to end a little later at 5:47 AM IST.

The partial lunar eclipse is taking place around the same time the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, the spacecraft that put the first human beings on the Moon. On July 16, 1969, NASA launched Apollo 11 on a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida with Commander Neil Armstrong at the helm along with Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin.

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Windows 10 19H2 Insider Preview Build now rolling out, adds voice activation over lock screen for third-party digital assistants

Microsoft has announced the roll-out of its Windows 10 19H2 Insider Preview Build to Windows Insiders in the Slow ring. This new update was previously teased to be a relatively small update that brings improvements and small enhancements to features brought in the Windows 10 May 2019 Update. This is true since the new update brings only four new changes and improvements. However, one of the changes hints at a bigger feature that could soon make its way to Windows 10. With this update, Windows will enable voice activation of third-party digital assistants ‘above’ the lock screen. It seems that ‘above’ the lock screen means that one could call up a digital assistant even when their computer is locked. 

While not explicitly mentioned in the blog post, this new change might soon bring Alexa as a voice assistant that can be accessed over a computer’s lock screen. This is being speculated since Microsoft is removing its own Cortana digital assistant into a separate app in the Microsoft Store and only Alexa is officially available on the platform. Those users who are running Windows 10 May 2019 Update on their systems will receive the 19H2 update through servicing as a cumulative and not a full build update. There are some other features with the new patch but as mentioned earlier, it’s nothing major. There’s now a fix that enables OEMs to lower the latency for inking when a stylus or similar device has appropriate hardware support. 

In other Windows news, the Windows 10 May 2019 Update was halted on Surface Book 2 devices over GPU issues. The problem apparently is affecting a small number of Surface Book 2 laptops that are equipped with a discrete Nvidia GPU. The update is apparently causing problems in Microsoft’s own hardware and is now deferred till it is fixed. 

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Media File Jacking: WhatsApp, Telegram media files can be manipulated on Android devices

A new research by Symantec talks about the dangers of Media File Jacking, a type of attack undertaken by cybercriminals to target media files, which are sent through instant messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, and are stored in external storage of Android phones. The criminals can take advantage of a flaw that exposes these media files and they can then be manipulated by malicious actors, Symantec’s Modern OS Security team has found. The researchers say that this vulnerability stems from the (very short) lapse in time between when media files received through the apps are written to the disk, and when they are loaded in the apps’ chat user interface (UI) for users to consume.

“This critical time lapse presents an opportunity for malicious actors to intervene and manipulate media files without the user’s knowledge. If the security flaw is exploited, a malicious attacker could misuse and manipulate sensitive information such as personal photos and videos, corporate documents, invoices, and voice memos. Attackers could take advantage of the relations of trust between a sender and a receiver when using these IM apps for personal gain or to wreak havoc,” Yair Amit, VP and CTO, Modern OS Security, and Alon Gat, Software Engineer at Symantec, said in a blog post.

What’s concerning is that the Media File Jacking is prevalent at a time when IM apps offer, or claim to offer, immunity such as end-to-end encryption on their platforms. The team says that the end-to-end encryption is an effective mechanism to ensure the integrity of communications, but it isn’t enough when a threat expands to the media shared and stored in a mobile device. Researchers found that attackers may be able to successfully manipulate media files by taking advantage of flaws in the apps, that occur before and/or after the content is encrypted in transit. Further, the team said media files stored on external storage are more vulnerable.

“Android apps can store files and data in two storage locations: internal and external storage. Files saved to internal storage are accessible only by the app itself, meaning other apps cannot access them. Files saved to an external storage public directory are world-readable/writeable, so they can be modified by other apps or users beyond the app's control,” the blog reads. By default, WhatsApp stores media files received by a device in external storage, and by contrast, in Telegram, this happens only if a user enables the “Save to Gallery” feature.

As seen in the image above, in the time between when files are first received on a device and written to the disk (STEP 1), and when they are loaded for users to consume via the apps (STEP 3), malware can instantaneously analyse and manipulate the files (or just replace them with the attacker’s chosen files) for malicious gain (STEP 2).

The thumbnail that appears in the notification that users see will also show the manipulated image or file, so recipients will have no indication that files were changed. What’s terrifying is that the data can be manipulated on WhatsApp both when sending files (which means the attack is launched on the sender’s device) and when receiving files (that is, the attack is happening on the receiving device). (See video below)

Even the Android developer documentation mentions the threat of saving files on external storage. “Internal storage is best when you want to be sure that neither the user nor other apps can access your files.” On the contrary, “external storage is the best place for files that don't require access restrictions and for files that you want to share with other apps or allow the user to access with a computer.”

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RBI to launch a mobile app to help visually impaired identify currency

PTI has reported that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will launch a mobile application to help the visually-challenged identify currency notes. At present, there are Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50, Rs 100, Rs 200, Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes in circulation. There is also Rs 1 notes issued by the Centre. According to the PTI report, “The RBI has been sensitive to the challenges faced by the visually challenged in conducting their day-to-day business with Indian banknotes,” said the central bank. At present, Intaglio printing-based identification marks are present on Rs 100 and above notes to help the visually challenged identify banknotes.

The mobile app that is proposed would be able to identify the denomination of notes. This will be done by capturing an image of the notes by a mobile phone camera. The RBI is inviting bids from tech firms to develop the app.

It is strange that the RBI is inviting bids from tech firms when such an app already exists. Back in January, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar, had developed an app to help the visually impaired recognise currency notes. The app can recognise both old and new notes and gives audio information as to which note you are holding in your hands. The application is called Roshni and is free on the Google Play Store. The claim is that Roshni is the first Android app to successfully recognise new INR currency notes. The new currency notes came into effect after the recent demonetisation ordered by Indian Prime Minister Modi. We now have Rs 2,000 notes while the old Rs 10, Rs 50, Rs 100, Rs 200 and Rs 500 got a refresh. 

We spent some time with the beta version of Roshni back in January and you can check out our impressions of the app and a walkthrough of how it functions here.

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