Tags - safe


After months of rumors and leaks, the OnePlus 5 has finally been unveiled and although you will still have to wait a while before the images are available, we have every specification and a few confirmed pre-release images for you. As it turns out, the budget flagship king of the smartphone world has not taken any risks this year at all.


The OnePlus 5 comes in with a flat 5.5-inch 1080p Optic AMOLED display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip and 6GB/8GB of RAM. While the higher RAM variant does look impressive on paper, we are not sure how much more it will add to the device in terms of actual performance and multitasking. The battery is 3,300mAh as predicted by rumors and support's OnePlus's in-house world's fastest charging technology, Dash Charge. There's also Bluetooth v5, NFC, a ceramic fingerprint scanner, a 3.5mm headphone jack and the interesting 20mp + 16mp dual rear camera. OnePlus has upgraded the 64GB/128GB storage options to UFS 2.1.2 which will allow for faster boot time, faster app opening, faster file transfer, faster installation and an overall smoother experience.

 

 

What do I think about the OnePlus 5? It's a very safe device that unfortunately fails to bring anything new to the field. The slimmer profile and the interesting set of cameras will need to be tested first, but my guess is that they will both be significant upgrades over the OnePlus 3T. While all this makes it a solid offering, especially if the price is kept as low as OnePlus is famous for doing, it just doesn't seem like a huge upgrade over its predecessor at this point of time.


Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)



With the majority of us owning a smartphone or tablet keeping our identity safe is vital if we are going to carry on sourcing and buying goods and services online.


Nothing is more frustrating than falling foul to a scam, and although the total amount of fraudulent conduct which was reported in 2017 dropped by 6 percent, the percentage of identity fraud is up, rising by 1 percent in 2017 to a total of 174, 523 cases.


Identity fraud remains a problem mainly by those using the internet, with 84 percent of that identity fraud taking place through online application channels.


It's no wonder then that people are becoming increasingly worried about using their smartphones to have a bet or wager online as many sites require your personal and banking details in order for you to become a member.


On a positive note, the majority of gambling sites are highly regulated and have strict rules to stick to making them a pretty safe bet to play at, but if those rules and regulations still do not convince you then maybe being able to play and pay for your games without having to divulge your banking details will appeal.


If you do enjoy using your smartphone for gaming when you have a few spare minutes in your day then perhaps using a mobile casino pay with phone credit is the way to go for you?  Using this method means that there is absolutely no need to give the site any banking derails, in fact there is no need to have a conventional bank account at all.


The way this payment option works is by either using your pay-as-you-go account taking off the cost of your games from that or adding the cost of your games to your monthly contract. Boku makes it possible to play your games without having to give any banking details to any site that accepts this payment option which will, for many, make their time online more enjoyable.


We all lead busy lives and over the last decade or so we have come to rely on our smartphones to complete tasks that would have eaten time out of our days, the thought that we could have our online identity stolen and even worse then used for some criminal activity worries many of us so taking steps to stay as safe as possible whilst surfing the net is paramount.



Just as Samsung was setting up to restart the sale of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphones with a new batch of safe devices, a new report from China has come in where a customer in Guangzhou is claiming that his brand new and "safe" Galaxy Note 7 exploded within a day from the date of purchase. Bloomberg reports that Hui Renjie, a 25 year old man from Guangzhou, China, got minor burns on his fingers after his Note 7 exploded. Ironically, it allegedly also burned his Apple MacBook in the process!


According to Renjie, someone from Samsung did contact him after the incident and asked to remove the device, but he declined in favour of going public with the incident. In reply to the incident regarding the exploded smartphone which was supposedly marked as safe, Samsung has issued the following reply via e-mail.


"We are currently contacting the customer and will conduct a thorough examination of the device in question once we receive it,"


It should be noted that Samsung had excluded China from the global recall of the Note 7, by citing the reason that the ones sold in China sport batteries that are different from the hazardous ones supplied by Samsung SDI. We will soon find out if this is an isolated incident, a faked one or if the Galaxy Note 7 really is still as "explosive" as before!


Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)



Before the faulty batteries in some of them started to explode, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was a much loved handset that was definitely one of the top contenders for being the phone of the year. However, as Samsung has managed to locate and address the issue in their new batch of Note 7 smartphones, they will resume with the sales from September 28 in South Korea. The company hopes to replace/refund a large percentage of the older models by that time and is confident that in time, all of the old devices will be safely recalled back to the manufacturer.


The date on which the Note 7 will be made available for purchase in other nations around the world has not exactly been pointed out by Samsung yet, but it shouldn't take much longer now that the replacements are almost ready to be shipped. What remains to be seen is the impact that this incident will have on the sales figure of the new Notes. Even though Samsung has vouched that the new smartphones are completely safe, will enough customers believe them in a market filled with powerful flagship grade options from various competing manufacturers? We will soon find out.


Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)



Samsung has already replaced most of the hazardous Galaxy Note 7 smartphones in the US and has even restarted selling the phone with a guarantee for safety. However, things just took a turn for the worst yesterday when a Galaxy Note 7 caught fire within a Southwest Airlines plane (994) that was heading to Baltimore from Louisville.


Brian Green stated that the phone was turned off and in his pocket when he noticed smoke coming from it. He threw it onto the floor, where it then proceeded to burn the carpeting and even scorched the metal floor beneath it. In Green's own words, a "thick grey-green angry smoke" was emitting from the smartphone. The plane was evacuated immediately after.



The box as shown by the owner clearly indicates that the device was supposed to be safe due to the black square icon that you can see right beside the model number (SM-N930A). He further added that it even had the green battery icon used by Samsung to assure safety of the device. The phone was at about 80-percent charge when this incident occurred and according to Mr. Greene, he had used a wireless charger to charge it previously.



The burned Note 7 is being investigated by the Louisville Fire Department (arson division), while the CPSC has already started an investigation on the incident. Considering that even checking the device's IMEI number with the recall eligibility checker app confirms that this was indeed a "safe" unit, things are looking VERY bad for Samsung right now. On being questioned by The Verge, Samsung had this to say;


"Until we are able to retrieve the device, we cannot confirm that this incident involves the new Note7. We are working with the authorities and Southwest now to recover the device and confirm the cause. Once we have examined the device we will have more information to share."


Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

 



Amidst the biggest mess that the company has ever had to clean up by recalling the 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 devices shipped all over the world, Samsung is already devising a strategy to let its customers know that their new upcoming batch of Note 7 smartphones will have a safe battery. Samsung will soon start selling the Note 7 once again, as soon as replacements for the potentially dangerous devices are ready of course. The safe new smartphones will sport a green colored battery icon in the UI, while the older phones will continue to sport the white battery icon that has been the norm for Samsung until this incident.


This news report by Cho Mu-Hyun from ZDNet has created a bit of confusion as well because many users who have already replaced their Note 7 with a new one are still seeing the old white battery icon. Therefore it is not quite clear at the moment whether the green icon will only be implemented in Korea or if it will be an international icon of safety. We will know more soon as Samsung makes an official statement.


Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)



Samsung had earlier announced that customers in the US should start receiving safe replacements for their hazardous Note 7 smartphones by September 21 and they have kept their promise. Reports indicate that Samsung has already started to distribute the new batch of smartphones to the customers and resellers here in the US. We guess Tim Baxter (COO, Samsung Mobiles US) meant it when he proclaimed the aforementioned deadline in an official apology video, in which he also requested all customers to immediately power down their devices and contact Samsung for a replacement or a refund.



Apparently, Best Buy is one of the first resellers in the US to notify their customers about the replacements having arrived. Although we are not sure, but Best Buy is probably also the only reseller right now that's providing the replacement Galaxy note 7 smartphones to their customers. Nevertheless, we are pretty sure that the other resellers and carriers will pick up on it before September 21. Now that Samsung has guaranteed safety with their new batch of Note 7s, will you be opting to buy one or would you choose something else from what the competition has to offer?


Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)



The exact verdict on whether or not the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 which caught fire onboard a Southwest Airline place is actually a new and safe (supposed to be at least!) unit is still unclear, but the effects of the incident are already evident. All the three major carriers have updated their contract policies in such a way that a customer can exchange even their already-replaced and supposedly safe Note 7 for any other phone of their choice as long as the model is priced equally or less.


Verizon's exchange offer is now active, starting today (October 8), and Sprint has declared that the same offer will remain active until the investigation concludes. If it is found that Samsung is really guilty of sending explosive devices once again to its customers, the steps that will be taken in reaction to that info are unclear at this point of time. If you already have a Note 7, we recommend at least checking out the other options, but if you are planning to buy one or if you are a diehard fan, just wait till things become a bit more clear.


Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)



The Galaxy S8 and S8+ are fantastic devices, but they have their flaws too. Fortunately, one of those flaws will not be a battery malfunction or more explicitly, a battery blow up anytime soon. In order to make sure that the Galaxy Note 7 disaster never repeats itself ever again in any of Samsung's future smartphones, the South Korean company has taken multiple steps; 8 to be exact! Check out the video that Samsung has released as the official release date for the S8 and S8+ draws near with each passing day.



Clearly in their attempt to take battery safety more seriously than ever, Samsung has also taken the controversial decision to stick with batteries that are practically of the same size as that of the S7 and S7 Edge from last year. While it may not be that bad for the S8+, this has had a detrimental impact on the S8 in terms of battery life. Consider the fact that both phones are pushing more pixels and a significantly larger and brighter screen than their predecessors and the problem should become apparent to you as well.


Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)



As it turns out, the Play Store isn't as safe as you may think and eZanga claims there are literally hundreds of malicious apps on the Play Store which may harm your phones to varying degrees depending on the particular app and how you sue it. The worst part is that these apps are hard to detect as they do not fit the traditional description of an Android malware. Their malicious activities range from draining the battery and your monthly data plan to collecting information about you and making advertisers pay more than they should by making use of fraudulent accounts. Perhaps the biggest threat which these apps hold is the fact that they can in the future, start selling information that they are now collecting from users unethically.



As eZanga has already plans of informing Google officially in details about the growing problem, hopefully Google will be able to sort this mess out. In the meanwhile, you can stay safe by simply making sure that you do not download any poorly rated app from a shady developer. Also, installing a trusted antimalware software may not be a bad idea. To read more about it, check the original news at Android Authority.


Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)


Chrome

 

Google is now Rolling-out the stable Chrome for Android version 42.0.2311.108 with many bug fixes, performance improvements and a couple of new features that will change the way you get contents updates from websites.

 

In this latest version of Chrome for Android, Google introduced the ability to monitor websites for content changes. Set up the monitoring feature on your favorite website, and Chrome will fire up a notification when the content is changed. Unfortunately, this new feature will not work out of the box, as web developers need to implement the new Google Push API for Chrome. Possible use case scenarios include the ability to be notified when your order status changes. To prevent abuse, the user will have to explicitly set up permissions for these notifications, and the notifications messages themselves include a site setting button.

 

chrome 42

 

Chrome for Android v42.0.2311.108 Change-log:
• Get the latest updates from sites with notifications.
• Adding your favorite sites to your homescreen is now even easier.
• Bug fixes and speedy performance improvements.

 

You can get Chrome 42 Stable  on your Android Smartphone via the Google Play Store link OR by downloading the APK from the link below. This is the Official APK from Google and has bot been modified by any means.

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Chrome 42 Stable [APK]

 

Chrome 42 Stable [Play]

 



The latest and greatest threat to Android, Widows and iOS user security is the infamous BlueBorne vulnerability. It basically enables hackers to take control of your smartphone through remote code installation via a Bluetooth connection. Once the malicious codes are installed, everything on your phone is at risk. Samsung had been dealing with this problem quite efficiently though and has patched the vulnerability on most of its newer (and some older) devices. It's time for the Galaxy A5 (2017) to receive the same treatment as well because as you read this, the BlueBorne patch is probably waiting for your A5 (2017).


The update firmware comes in version A520FXXU2BQIE, at a file size of 76MB and once you download and install the files, BlueBorne will no longer be a bother for your device. However, Samsung has not yet released this month's security patch for any of its devices yet. Given that it's already September 27, I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to just roll out the October security patch early next month and skipped the September patch altogether.


Head over to our firmware section to find all the latest available updates for your Samsung smartphones and tablets.


Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)


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