Hack Android and you could win $200,000.

There are essentially two types of hackers out there. Those who use their skills for good and those who use them for evil. Google has recently called upon the former group for an extremely important bit of research; to see if there's an exploit that can remotely affect a wide variety of android devices over the globe, with no information about the target devices given except the phone numbers and Gmail addresses.

However Google does not expect from the hackers to give up this information out of the kindness of their hearts. Google is offering $200,000 for the next six months to whoever finds such a flaw , while the second will get $100,000. Google already rewards people who find bugs and exploits in Google's software but this is on another level. Google's Project Zero team , on Google's blog posted about this contest. What makes this contest special is that before this , the most a person could win after finding a bug was $10,000.

Since there is a lot of money involved , google firstly advises researchers to submit each bug as soon as they find it , rather than waiting until several bugs are found and then strung together into an exploit chain. Google will only allow the person who first submitted the bug to use it as a part of their exploit chain later on. 

The exploit must work on Google's current flagships , The nexus 6p and 5, and they must be running any Android  (7.x) build. The contest includes users to begin with nothing but phone number and email addresses and then compromise that phone without having any kind of physical access to it. 

While the first and the second person to submit the complete exploit bug will win $200,000 and $100,000 respectively, there's another $50,000 to be won by people who come up with other clever bugs.

While many researchers will be down with Google's contest , there will also surely be people that realize that these exploits, to the right party, could mean a lot more than $200,000. Google has posted the rules for its contest on this site as well as a short FAQ. The contest will be over in March 2017, Specifically the 14th of March. Well then, get cracking!

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Android Nougat 7.0 has 4 hidden treasures.

Excited to download Nougat?Once you get past the core new features , you'll find that theres even more that you can do. There are a series of hidden features that you can explore to tune up your phone. Some of you might already know these features but for those who dont, here are the 4 big hidden features in Android Nougat 7.0.

1.Clear all button for apps

In previous versions of android whenever you pressed the overview button (recents button) , you would get a list of apps that are currently open and you had to swipe one by one to clear every single app. This could be fine at first but over time could get really annoying. However Android Nougat has a fix for that. The "Clear all" button. Although available in custom android roms, stock android never had this feature baked into it.  

2.System UI Tuner

The system Ui Tuner gives you even more power to customize your phone. To enable it, pull down the notifications bar and go tot he quick setting menu. From there press and hold the settings icon until it spins and you'll get a prompt to enable System UI Tuner. From there you can adjust what you want to see in your status bar and in which order should the icons appear. While marshmallow also had the System UI Tuner, android nougat steps it up a bit and lets you rank different types of notifications in order of importance. 

  
3.Emergency info and contacts screen.

Android Nougat comes with a neat new feature which is also very practical in real life situations. It lets you input some information on an emergency screen and then once you save it , anyone can view that info even if the phone is locked.

You access it by clicking on "users" in your main settings menu and then tapping "emergency information"   

Once there you will have two screens, on the first you can input a variety of information for emergency purposes , such as your blood type , medications you take etc. The second screen lets you list your emergency contacts. Apple had made this feature available in 2014 but this is the first time the feature has natively arrived on android.

  
4.Make any app work in split screen mode

A major new feature that android nougat came with was the multi window function. However now all apps were supported to run in this split screen mode, but theres a way you can do that too. 

Just go into your settings , then go to about phone and software info. Then tap the "build no" repeatedly until a popup shows that you are now a developer. You have now successfully enabled the developer options in your settings. Now go back to the main settings page and go to the developer options. 

At the bottom of the page you will see an option to make all activities resizable. Now you can use any app in split screen mode whether or not its supported.

One of the main attractions of Android is that you can customize the user interface according to your liking and these features will further help you do just that.


 

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Run Android Marshmallow on your Pc. Android x86 Project unveils first stable release.

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The movement to get android on your pc is still strong and the folks over at the Android x86 project - who basically code android to run on x86 platforms like desktop PCs rather than common ARM based mobile devices, have another feature on  their hat as they release their first stable version of android Marshmallow , for your desktop PC.

The Android x86 project has released two release candidate builds , one in June and the other one in August, thus its all good news as we welcome Android x86 6.0 for our laptops and PCs. The build contains most of the recent security patches and seems to be based on Android 6.0 AOSP (Android Open Source Project).

Digging a bit deep into the build, we learned that Both modern UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) and legacy BIOS PCs are supported. So no need to worry as the guys over at the Android x86 project have got you covered. The build also uses a updated graphics stack based on the Mesa 12.0.2 3D Graphics Library. It also supports Samsung's F2FS file system for SSD drives and better wifi support after resume and suspend. Audio through HDMI is also supported so you can connect to a bigger display for consuming media.

Another thing that you would notice on this build is that the cursor/mouse pointer is taken out directly from Android Nougat instead of the circle cursor used in the previous beta releases. Android x86 is distributed as 32-bit(x86) and 64-bit(x86_64) Live ISO images , and you can download them from the official Android x86 download page. 

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Is the nexus brand dead? Nexus launcher now the Pixel launcher.

We've all heard one thing or the other about the nexus branding to be dead and that Google will be launching its own Pixel brand with the two new Pixel Phones. This rumor now further cements that rumor. According to recent reports the Nexus launcher which was leaked a while back is now named the Pixel launcher.


This comes as no surprise at all as Google gave us several hints at its moving away from the Nexus branding. The new launcher ,by the name of Pixel Launcher, installs in the same way the nexus launcher did. You just sideload the app to install it. Nothing much has changed from the nexus launcher except the name. Just like previous versions of the nexus launcher , it gives you a circle based folder ui, the Google search button rather than the full bar and a slide up from the bottom to open up the app tray. The only major difference now is that the Pixel Launcher will modify the icon of the calendar app to show the correct date, a nice feature indeed.


You'll have to tweak some things here and there to have the Google now page when you slide left from the homepage. otherwise if you don't mind having the Google now page right at your disposal from the home page, you can just install he apk normally and enjoy the new experience.


Here are some screenshots of the Launcher



So, do you deem the Pixel launcher worthy enough to be the default launcher on your daily driver? Let us know down below in the comments section.



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Google Pixel Shown off in new set of leaked renders.

The iPhone 7 is out and it got its fair share of attention from tech geeks all around the world. However now that everyone's over the release of the new iPhone , everyone is anxiously waiting for October 4th, the date when Google is going to release its Pixel phones. There have been countless leaks of the phone over the past few months and this leak just adds to that.

New images have surfaced the net of the Google Pixel, aka sailfish. Being as they are full 360 renders of the phone, we get a pretty good idea of what the phone is going to look like. These renders were leaked by Android Authority and @Oneleaks , and they're ""factory leaks" which mean that they're base o factory CADs used to manufacture the device

From these renders we can see all the details that were previously leaked so this render matches the details of the phone. There is a glass panel in the back with the camera and a fingerprint reader . Antenna lines are also present on the bottom as well as on the metal sides of the phone.

From the front of the phone we can what must be the power/lock button and the volume button positioned on the right side of the device There is also a headphone jack on top (Thank God for that) and a USB type-C port in the bottom.

According to recent reports and rumors , the Google Pixel (Sailfish) and the Google Pixel XL (Marlin) will have the same design but the Pixel XL will just have a bigger display, thus having a larger overall footprint. It has also been suggested that Google will offer an aluminium version with a white front and possibly an electric blue model with a blue back and white front.

To recap the specs of the phones, The Sailfish is rumored to have a 5 inch 1080p display , a 12MP rear camera and an 8MP front facing camera, a quad core Snapdragon processor, 4 gigs of RAM and a 2,770 mAh battery which will be powering the phone. The Marlin will have similar internal specs but a larger 5.5 inch 1440p screen and a 3,450 mAh battery.

Are you looking forward to the release of the new Google Pixel Phones?

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Android 7.0 Nougat hits Android One phones.



As many of you already know Google has released its newest version of android , Android 7.0 nougat. however not many devices have received the update except a few nexus devices as well as the Lg v20( Android 6.0 comes out of the box).

Not to worry, Google is now rolling out the new update to its android one devices. One of the first Android one phones to get the over the air update was the Cherry G1. As you can see from the screenshot below, this is what the notification to the update looks like.

similar to what happened during the release of Android marshmallow, the Android one devices received the update to the latest version after Google released the factory images for nexus devices. If you have an android one smartphone then be sure to go into settings and check for any updates as you could now try the latest and greatest Google has to offer.







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Run the same app on both windows at the same time. Android Nougat 7.0

As you probably know by now , Android Nougat has some very interesting features to play with, one of them being the multi-window function which is baked into the Software itself. However you could only use the Chrome browser at the same time on two windows simultaneously. That is up till now. 

A new app just released , by the name of Parallel windows for nougat,on the play store which gives any app the ability to run in multi-window mode. If you're a fan of split screen then this will seem very useful to you. You can copy and paste text from one app to the other almost immediately. You can chat with two different friends at the same time from the same application! If you put your mind to it , the applications are practically unlimited.

The app is still in alpha release and the developer says that there are still some bugs that need to be fixed. This makes sense as Nougat is a new software version and they need time to develop the app for the new api 24.

However its still a free app on the Play Store and its definitely worth checking out if you're into the whole idea of multi-windows on a mobile device. Of course you'll need an android device running Android 7.0 Nougat to take advantage of this app and to test out its full potential But be sure to download it and give it a try if you do meet the above mentioned criteria.
 

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Lg just made the Lg V20 official!

The day has finally arrived when the much awaited Lg V20 has been released. The Lg V20 Improves many aspects of the previous generation while also keeping all the features that made the V10 a fan favorite.

As you can see from the picture above , the ruggedness that was present on the v10 is now gone and the device adopts a look similar to the Lg g5. However according to Lg this phone is made from a alloy that is also used to build airplanes and boats. Thus , this phone is durable and light weight!

The Lg V20 does take some design aspects from the Lg g5 but one thing that it didnt take is the modularity of the G5. Instead of a removable chin, the v20 has a replaceable back and a replaceable battery. There is also a fingerprint sensor just below the two cameras.

The screen is the same on the v20 . A 5.7 inch Qhd IPS LCD however Lg did change the secondary display a bit. The brightness is now bumped up to 68 nits and the display is generally longer than the display found on the v10.

In the performance side of things , the V20 sports a Snapdragon 820 with 4 gigs of ram and 64 gigs of internal memory which is also expandable via micro Sd cards.It has the same camera setup as the g5 with a 16Mp OIS camera with laser and phase detection auto focus accompanied by a secondary 8Mp fixed focus wide angle camera capable of capturing 135 degree shots. There is only one selfie camera now with a resolution of 5Mp. However this one camera can take both normal and wide angle selfies so a win win situation here.

The phone also comes with a built in D.A.C (Digital to Audio Converter) and this makes the sound coming out of the c20 sound that much better whether it be from the headphone jack or the speakers. Powering all of this is a large 3,200 mAh removable battery also capable of quick charge 3.0.

The V20 is the first phone to run Android 7.0 out of the box. With this comes all the goodies that come with Android Nougat like the dual window feature baked into the base software.

The Lg v20 will be available in Titan, Pink and Silver colors and will be available for purchase by the end of this month. Pricing of the device is still not known but since the v20 is coming to all major U.S carriers, the carriers may price the device differently. Also note that the pink color variant of the v20 will not be coming to the U.S. So, What do you think of the new V20? Comment your thoughts down below.

 

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The LG v20 will come in three colours

There have been many rumors surrounding the new Lg flagship and today theres one more to add to the much hyped phone. A report says that the Lg v20 will come in three colors.The names of the colors are somewhat "Playful" but sadly there are no previews of the colors themselves.

The colours named in the report are sweet silver, romantic pink and urban grey. The phone is set to be unvieled on Monday the 6th of September. What do you think of the new Lg V20? Comment your thoughts down below.

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Missing features(Nexus launcher, Google search assistant and new soft keys) from Nougat coming in the First update

 

Now that google has finally started rolling out the much awaited Nougat update people have noticed something odd. As we know there were reports that there will be certain new features namely The Nexus Launcher , a new google search assistant and new software keys . We even had a leaked version of the nexus launcher to try.

However to many of us it came as a surprise that google had not included these features in the first stable build of Android 7.0 Nougat. One would certainly expect them to since their were so many developer previews before this. 

Well according to recent reports directly from google , they are going to add these features in the first Maintenance Update to Android Nougat. It also seems that google is planning to release their new nexus phones , both of them made by htc may i add ,  in early October and with the new nexus phones out google will release the First maintenance update. This would make the new Nexus phones to be the first phones on the market to have these features preinstalled on them. 

What do you think about this? Was google right not to include these features in the first stable build of its new android version? comment bellow your thoughts. 

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