Page 885 – GadgetByte Nepal

Indian Hacker is Awarded by Facebook

Featured

GadgetByte

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September 19, 2016

A young hacker from Kollam, India has received Rs. 17 lakhs bounty after finding a vulnerability in Facebook code. And the hacker is Arun S. Kumar, a 20-year-old computer engineering student at the MES Institute of Technology and Management in Chathannoor. He exposed a critical vulnerability in Facebook Business Manager which would allow a hacker to take control over the Facebook page in less than 10 seconds.

After finding the vulnerability, he said- “Since the hacker would be able to manipulate the page of any Facebook user, the damage it would bring is beyond imagination.”

dc-cover-1n1l4um1pnt8mj85pb3lcsf1d0-20160919032923-medi — Arun S. Kumar

Facebook began the bug bounty program in 2011, under which people who notify flaws on its website are given a reward. He detected the bug on August 29 and reported it to the Facebook security team. One of them wrote back to him the very next day saying how his discovery helped them to prevent a massive security breach. The team fixed the bug by September 6 and after three days Arun got a mail from them informing him of their decision to reward him.

Facebook had invited him along with three other hackers from different countries for a meeting with its security members at Las Vegas. He was also awarded the tenth place in the Facebook’s hall of fame of the white hat hackers. He is the only Indian to be honored in the website’s hall of fame.

The young hacker has a history of bug hunting. Before this, he had spotted many bugs in Google and Facebook itself in the past. The young techie has received about Rs. 50 lakhs in payouts for hunting down bugs in the past three years.

Huawei GR5 Mini Receives Price Cut in Nepal

Huawei

Yural Maskey

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September 19, 2016

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Huawei GR5 Mini Receives Price Cut in Nepal

Huawei Mobiles Nepal has slashed the price of recently launched Huawei GR5 Mini. The phone, previously priced at Rs. 23,500, is now available for a discounted price of Rs. 21,500. (official MRP is Rs. 21,999)

The Huawei GR5 Mini features a 5.2-inch 1080P display and is powered by an Octacore Kirin 650 SoC that comes with 4 cortex A53 cores clocked at 2Ghz and remaining 4 cortex A53 clocked at 1.7Ghz. The kirin 650 SoC also sports an intelligent i5 coprocessor that provides hardware support for tasks like speech recognition, low-power consumption MP3, sensor hub, fused location provider (FLP) navigation, and more efficient location-based tasks.

In terms of memory, the GR5 mini has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage with dedicated microSD card slot upgradeable upto 128GB. On the back, the phone houses a 13MP autofocus BSI camera with single LED flash, and a fingerprint scanner V2.0 which the company claims will unlock the phone in 0.5 seconds. The fingerprint scanner can also be used to answer a phone call, click photos, or shut down alarm.

Up front, the Huawei GR5 Mini has an 8MP snapper which is the biggest asset of the phone. Powering the device is a rather sizeable Li-Po 3,000mAh battery which looks decently sized for a 5.2-inch display and energy efficient Kirin 650 SoC. The phone is currently running on Android Marshmallow 6.0 with Emotion UI 4.1 layered on top. As far as connectivity is concerned, it has dual SIM slot with 4G LTE, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, and GPS.

Quick Comparison | Huawei GR5 Mini Vs Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro

Huawei GR5 Mini	Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
5.2-inch Full HD IPS display	5.0-inch HD IPS display
2.0Ghz Kirin 650 Octacore Processor + i5 Coprocessor.	1.7Ghz Snapdragon 616 Octacore Processor
2GB RAM/ 16GB ROM (dedicated microSD slot)	3GB RAM/32GB ROM (hybrid microSD slot)
13MP rear camera/ 8MP front camera	13MP rear camera/ 5MP front camera
3000mAh battery	4000mAh battery
Rs. 21,500	Rs. 23,500

Talking about the design, the phone is well-built just like the Huawei GR5. It has a brushed metal back with a compact form factor that helps for better one hand operation. It measures 147.1 x 73.8 x 8.3 mm in dimension and weighs 156gms.

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Huawei Mobiles Nepal has also announced a month-long Dashain Festival Scheme starting from 9^th September to 8^th October (24^th Bhadra to 22^nd Ashoj). According to Huawei, every customer will win various gift hampers on the purchase of Huawei smartphones of both low and high price ranges. Under Prize Ek-sa-Ek, Yo Dashain Ma Bhagyashaali Anek, Huawei will give out the prizes to its the lucky customers on a weekly and fortnightly basis. The weekly prizes include:

100 Power Banks
20 Huawei Smart Phones
4 Giant Cycles with Kit

The winners will be announced on the official Facebook page of Huawei (Huawei Mobile Nepal). The fortnightly prizes will be given out to two lucky customers and those prizes include:

1 Vespa
1 Royal Enfield (Classic 350 CC)

The fortnightly lucky draw will be aired on Nepal Television via Huawei Namaste TV Show. Not only this, Miss Nepal 2012 and the face of Huawei, Shristi Shrestha will hand over the weekly and fortnightly prizes to the lucky winners.

How to participate in a lucky draw?

You need to buy any Huawei smartphone
SMS Huawei (space) 15 digit IMEI no. to 32200

According to the official statement issued, under this scheme total of 500 winners will be benefited and every customer will win various gift hampers.

LifeCom Launches the Lenovo K5 Note in Nepal

Lenovo

Yural Maskey

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September 19, 2016

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LifeCom Launches the Lenovo K5 Note in Nepal

LifeCom, the sole authorised distributor of Lenovo smartphones in Nepal, silently launches Lenovo’s latest flagship smartphone, the K5 Note, for Rs. 27,950. The company has bundled the phone with ANTVR headset for an immersive VR experience.

The Lenovo K5 Note is the successor of the K4 Note which is priced at Rs. 27,500 in Nepal. The K5 note offers substantial improvements over its predecessor in the form of the full metal body and superior hardware specs. It features the same 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display, with 178-degree wide viewing angle, 450 nits brightness , and 1000:1 contrast ratio. It is now powered by a 1.8GHz Octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 processor which is a big jump in performance compared to 1.3GHz Ocra-core MediaTek MT6753 processor of K4 Note.

In terms of storage, the K5 Note has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage which can be expanded via microSD card upto 128GB. it is running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Vibe UI layered on top. Camera wise, it has a 13MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, Phase Detection Autofocus, and f/2.2 aperture lens. The front houses an 8MP front-facing camera with 77.4-degree wide-angle lens. Like the K4 Note, the K5 Note features a dual front firing Dolby ATMOS speaker and a fingerprint scanner on the back.

The Lenovo K5 Note is fueled by a 3500mAh battery which should provide decent battery life. Connectivity options include Dual SIM with 4G LTE, WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.1, and GPS. Compared to the Indian pricing of INR. 11,999 (NPR. 19,200), the price of K5 Note in Nepal at Rs. 27,950 doesn’t make any sense just like Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro and Huawei GR5.

ZTE Blade S7 Launched in Nepal for Rs. 26,500

ZTE

Yural Maskey

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September 19, 2016

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ZTE Blade S7 Launched in Nepal for Rs. 26,500

For all the buyers looking to buy a decent midrange phone — you can now buy the S7 smartphone. This is the ZTE Blade S7 we are talking about, not the Samsung Galaxy S7. So what kind of smartphone with a name like S7 get you? Let’s find out.

Priced at Rs. 26,500, the ZTE Blade S7 is currently being sold exclusively from kaymu — one of the largest eCommerce website of Nepal. Prebookers of the ZTE S7 gets Rs. 2,000 cash back and a free Bluetooth speaker worth Rs. 3,000. So, you are getting quite a lot for not much money. The pre-booking period starts from today and will end on 21st Sept.

Specs wise, the ZTE S7 has a lot to offer. It comes with a 5.0 inch 1080P IPS panel with 2.5D curved glass on the front and back. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC which is a capable octacore processor for day to day needs. The 64-bit octacore processor is backed by 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. If that’s not enough, you can expand the storage by 64GB thanks to the microSD card slot.

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Camera wise, the ZTE S7 boasts a 13-megapixel rear camera with Phase detection auto-focus and laser Autofocus; both these technology helps the camera to focus fast. The front facing camera is also a 13-megapixel shooter with Autofocus and LED flash and 14 beautification modes. Fueling the device is a non-removable 2500mAh battery. Connectivity wise, the ZTE S7 has a dual hybrid SIM with 4G LTE, dual band WiFi ac, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS. The phone also sports a fingerprint sensor on the home button.

Another distinctive feature of the ZTE S7 is its design. It has a gorilla glass on the front and back, weighs only 131gms with a thickness of 7.2 mm and has a narrow bezel with Screen to Body Ratio of 72.1%. On the software front, the phone is currently on Android 5.1 Lollipop with Mi favor UI. Since the phone has first announced in October 2015, it’s evident that it won’t receive any further updates.

The ZTE S7 is available for purchase from kaymu as of now, but the phone should be available from retail outlets in coming days. The phone is available in 2 color options — Lemon Green and Diamond White.

[where-to-buy buy_id=21541]

Is Google Play tracking you?

GadgetByte

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September 16, 2016

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Security Researcher Mustafa Al-Bassam from London after entering McDonald’s, his Android phone prompted him to download the fast-food chain’s mobile app. After the incident, he checked his phone which is running Android newest builds and soon discovered that it’s almost impossible to prevent Google Maps collecting your location.

As you may know, Google Play services are capable of constantly tracking Android users’ movements because it uses features like nearby to create “location awareness.”

As Google explains in a blog post:-

“One of the unique features of mobile applications is location awareness. Mobile users take their devices with them everywhere, and adding location awareness to your app offers users a more contextual experience. The location APIs available in Google Play services facilitate adding location awareness to your app with automated location tracking, geofencing, and activity recognition.”

In other words, Google Play’s APIs are responsible for this continuous tracking, not Android’s location APIs.

That means if a mobile user with one of the newest Android builds tries to switch off location for Google Play (Apps > Google Play Store > Permissions), they’ll get a pop-up window warning them that turning location off for Google Play will disable that feature on every single app installed on their device.

What if you uninstall Google Play and/or Google Maps?

You won’t be tracked but you’ll have to manually update each of your apps. Some app might not even work anymore without the installation of Google Play services.

According to the recent reports, Google has acknowledged that was a bug and stated:-

“We identified a bug affecting a small number of users in a recent release of the Google Play. For users in the error state, the Google Play app was unable to obtain GPS, causing it to make frequent unsuccessful requests and use the battery. We will be rolling out a fix in the next few days.”

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Hack an Android phone and win $200,000 from Google

GadgetByte

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September 16, 2016

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Hack an Android phone and win $200,000 from Google

Google has announced a hacking contest, Project Zero offering a $200,000 first prize to vulnerability hunters around the world if they can find a way to remotely hack an Android device knowing nothing more than its phone number or email address.

Although $200,000 is being offered to the first winning entry, there are other prizes on offer (a second prize of $100,000, a third prize of at least $50,000 offered to additional winning entries.)

As exploit researcher Natalie Silvanovich explains, the competition hopes to improve the security of Android: –

“There are often rumours of remote Android exploits, but it’s fairly rare to see one in action. We’re hoping this contest will improve the public body of knowledge on these types of exploits. Hopefully this will teach us what components these issues can exist in, how security mitigations are bypassed and other information that could help protect against these types of bugs.”

Google’s competition will run for six months, with exploits that successfully target Android Nougat on Google Nexus 5X and 6P devices eligible for entry.

Click here to know the Project Zero security contest rules

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Nokia set to make a comeback with two new android phones

GadgetByte

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September 15, 2016

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Nokia set to make a comeback with two new android phones

The rumor mills have been going on for quite a while about Nokia phones making a comeback. And it certainly looks like HMD global (or HMD), the company set to release the Nokia-branded phones, will release two new Android-powered devices by the end of 2016. And if some rumors are to be believed, the company might release three mobile phones. But first, let’s talk about HMD.

HMD is a new Finnish company that has struck a deal with Nokia to use the Nokia-brand on phones. So, the Nokia that is releasing, isn’t made by the old Nokia company we know. Currently, Microsoft has the sole rights of all types of Nokia phones. But that deal is going to end in the second half of 2016. After this transaction ends, HMD will be the sole global licensee for all Nokia-branded products for the next decade.

In a press release, HMD said, “the remainder of Microsoft’s feature phone business assets, including its Hanoi manufacturing facility, and global distribution, fulfilment and supply chain networks, will conditionally be acquired by FIH Mobile Limited (FIH), a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industries (trading as Foxconn Technology Group). HMD has signed an agreement with FIH and Nokia Technologies to establish, on closing of the Microsoft transactions, a collaboration framework to support the building of a global business for Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets. This agreement will give HMD full operational control over sales, marketing and distribution of its Nokia-branded devices, with exclusive access to the pre-eminent global sales and distribution network to be acquired by FIH from Microsoft, as well as access to FIH’s world-leading device manufacturing and engineering capabilities, and its growing suite of proprietary mobile technologies and components”.

HMD has also mentioned that the company’s board will consist one Nokia representative. And it will be investing $500 million dollars in the next three years.

The phones that will be released will be packing lots of features. If rumors are to be believed, HMD will release two new flagship phones. They will sport a 5.5-inch and 5.2-inch quadHD AMOLED display. These devices will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 821/820 chipset with octa-core processors. Nokia phones’ camera have been nothing short of amazing in the past and the trend is set to continue with these devices. These phones will feature a 22.6 MP graphene camera. They will be running on Android 7.0 Nougat. The larger version will run on 3GB RAM while the smaller version will run on 2GB RAM. Please note that the specs might be different once the device is released.

New Nokia phone's rumored design. — New Nokia phone’s rumored design.

One of the devices is rumored to be named Nokia C1 while the other device’s name isn’t known until now.

I am really excited about an Android-powered Nokia phone and think that it will be a hit. People all over the world have loved Nokia for a long time and it has a lot of history. But the journey will sure be extremely hard for HMD. The company needs to make a powerful device with a price that can fit people’s budget or it could fail miserably like Blackberry, or Nokia itself.

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ZTE Launches Budget-Oriented L5 and L5 Plus Smartphones in Nepal

ZTE

Yural Maskey

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September 15, 2016

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ZTE Launches Budget-Oriented L5 and L5 Plus Smartphones in Nepal

Evolution Enterprises, the official distributor of ZTE smartphones in Nepal, has launched 2 affordable smartphones — ZTE L5 and L5 Plus. The ZTE L5 is priced at Rs. 8490 and the L5 Plus carries a price tag of Rs. 9,990.

Both the ZTE L5 and L5 Plus comes with a similar look and feel (candy bar), but the L5 has inferior specs compared to the L5 Plus. Both the phones have a big 5-inch display, but the L5 has a 480P resolution and the L5 Plus has a 720P resolution. Both these phones are powered by a 32-bit MediaTek processor clocked at 1.3 Ghz, but L5’s CPU is a dual core compared to the quad-core processor of L5 Plus. Memory wise, both offers 1GB of RAM and 8GB of onboard storage with microSD card support upto 32GB.

Like with the display and processor, there’s a slight difference between the camera of the L5 and L5 Plus. Both these phones use the same sensor, but L5 has a modest 5MP rear camera and the L5 Plus has an 8MP shooter. Up front, both the phones offer 2MP selfie camera.

Despite google announcing the Android 7.0 Nougat last week, the ZTE L5 and L5 Plus are still running on 2-years old Android 5.1 Lollipop. Obviously, this shouldn’t be a major letdown for first-time smartphone buyers and for someone looking to get an entry level phone, but we kind of hoped the phone had Marshmallow 6.0 at least. In terms of connectivity, both the phones have two dedicated SIM card slots with 3G support, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth, and GPS. Powering these device is a 2150mAh battery which should provide decent battery backup considering the specs.

ZTE L5	ZTE L5 Plus
– 5-inch 480*854 IPS display	– 5-inch 720*1280 IPS display
– 1.3Ghz Dualcore SoC (MT6572)	– 1.3Ghz Quadcore SoC (MT6580)
– 1GB DDR3 RAM	– 1GB DDR3 RAM
– 8GB ROM; microSD upto 32GB	– 8GB ROM; microSD upto 32GB
– 5MP rear camera with Flash/ 2MP front	– 8MP rear camera with Flash/ 2MP front
– 2150mAh battery	– 2150mAh battery
– Price: Rs. 8490	– Price: Rs. 9,990

Lalitpur Mobile Complex organizes Bloggers meet; updates about Lalitpur Mobile Expo

GadgetByte

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September 15, 2016

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Lalitpur Mobile Complex organizes Bloggers meet; updates about Lalitpur Mobile Expo

Lalitpur Mobile Complex organized a Bloggers meet on 14th of Sept. at Lalitpur Mall. Purshottam Basnet, chairman of the Mobile Complex, started the program by giving a brief information about Lalitpur Mobile Expo that had started on the 9th September.

The Mobile Expo has been an annual event for the last three years. And this year it’s better than ever as it features smartphone companies like Samsung, Huawei, Gionee, Microsoft, Lava, Lenovo and DTC. All these brands are giving discounts on most of their products. Basnet said, “All the items sold in the expo are genuine products. We are also offering a warranty on the products”.
Click here if you want to know about the deals you can get at the Mobile Expo.

The organizers claimed that almost 15,000 people have visited the expo in the even with the current weather conditions of the valley. They also mentioned that the visitors have been more attracted towards Chinese mobile companies, this time around. Lalitpur Mobile Complex is set to donate Rs. 10 to Mahabir Pun’s led National Innovation Center on every purchase of a smartphone for 1 year.

The organizers are also set to conduct a Subway Surfer gaming competition on the 16^th and 17^th of September in the Mall itself. The one who scores the highest points will be declared the winner, and win a smartphone. Lastly, the company shared their plans about opening a multi-brand showroom in Pokhara stating that the necessary work has already started. The Expo ends on the 18^th of September, after which the Dashain schemes will begin in the complex.

Gionee launches new S6s in its Selfie Master lineup

Gionee

GadgetByte

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September 14, 2016

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Gionee launches new S6s in its Selfie Master lineup

After recently bringing out the F103 Pro, Gionee has launched a new handset in its Selfie Master lineup – the Gionee S6s. The S6s boasts a 13MP SONY IMX258 rear Camera and an 8MP f 2.2 aperture front camera with LED front flash and screen flash that promises clear selfies even in low light.

The phone has a metallic unibody build that carries a 5.5-inch 1080p Full HD 2.5 D water-drop glass display (with Gorilla Glass 3 protection). S6s is powered by a 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6753 processor and a Mali T720MP3 GPU. The phone has 3GB RAM and 32GB of inbuilt storage (expandable to 128 GB).

S6s also features a fingerprint scanner which can also be used for clicking photographs. The dual SIM phone (hybrid dual SIM slot) has a 3150 mAh battery and runs on Gionee’s own Amigo 3.2 UI based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. Amigo 3.2 has improvements on several fronts including Image + (Gionee’s camera software) which has time lapse, slow motion, text recognition and pic note functions.

The phone comes equipped with Gionee’s own video editor. It also allows split- window functionality so that 2 apps can run on the same screen. The phone is available in Mocha Gold and Latte Gold at a price tag of Rs. 25,999. Gionee expects the S6s to be well received in the Nepali market with around 3,000 sets sold every month.