What do you do when your phone screen gets damaged? You seek a replacement screen. Now, not many people would associate a replacement screen with data theft. However, a recent study shows that a replacement screen can be used to steal your data. Researchers from Israel’s Ben Gurion University of the Negev have revealed how this is possible. A malicious chip is embedded in the third-party touchscreen, and this chip can be used to manipulate the communications system on some devices, for example a Huawei Nexus 6P and an LG…
Samsung’s Galaxy S8 has Bixby Vision, a feature intended to make your pocket assistant even more useful. With Bixby Vision, you can search for images like what your camera is currently viewing, shop for items, translate text on the go, and so much more. Here are instructions on how to use it: HOW TO OPEN BIXBY VISION Open Bixby Home on your phone, then tap on the Bixby Vision icon at the top of the screen. The icon looks like an eye. HOW TO ADJUST BIXBY VISION SETTINGS There are…
Modern smartphones have taken over a lot of functions of other devices: cameras, recording devices, music players etc. Now, however, there is a device that aims to take back the camera function from the smartphone. Basically, this device, known as FrontRow, was built to recover the simplicity of mobile technology. FrontRow is a tiny, coin-sized device with two cameras, an 8MP camera at the back and a 5MP camera in front. The device shoots video in 1080p, and it can also stream to Facebook or YouTube for up to two…
Apart from the annual Android updates, Google releases security updates every month. These correct flaws in the system. The objective is to ensure continued protection for users and to react quickly to security problems that could arise. Now, to make sure that the Android platform stays secure, Google has a monthly security update program for all devices running on Android. This program has three stages: First, there is the development stage. Having identified the flaws, Google engineers develop the update and prepare it for testing. Next comes the testing phase.…
Over time, your smartphone becomes sluggish, and switching between apps becomes tedious. One thing that causes this is the amount of apps running in the background. There are a few things you can do to improve the situation, and one of these things is controlling your background processes and apps. The best way to gain control of your background processes is to check them out with tools built into Android. These vary according to device. In some cases, you will need to enable developer options. There are several ways to…
Samsung recently announced a new phone. This latest device is called the Samsung Leader 8, and it has some pretty good specifications. However, you would be surprised to learn that the device is a flip phone. But then, this flip phone is almost as capable as any other flagship phone on the market. The Samsung Leader 8 features the Snapdragon 821 processor, which you would recognize as the same processor on the Galaxy S7. Furthermore, the device boasts of 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The phone also features…
Despite Apple’s and Google’s best efforts to keep our smartphones safe, new smartphone vulnerabilities keep coming up. Most times, these are exclusive to a device, or perhaps several versions of a device’s firmware, and these are usually dealt with swiftly. However, there’s a new security flaw has been discovered that goes beyond operating systems and delivers malware in a way that has not been seen before. This security flaw attacks a phone’s Wi-Fi chip. Now, because multiple manufacturers source their wireless equipment from the same company, t can be carried…
You might have heard of the Blu R1 HD. This is the top selling phone on Amazon, and for good reason; it costs just $60. However, last November researchers found out something about the phone that raised more than a few eyebrows. The phone caught sending private data to China. The company behind the spying software, Shanghai Adups Technology, called this a mistake. However, it has been discovered that the software provider is still doing the same thing on other phones. Now, however, the software has become more secretive about…
Meizu has announced the Meizu Pro 7 and the Pro 7 Plus. These are the follow-up devices to the Pro 6 and Pro 6 Plus. Furthermore, these devices do not look like a lot of other phones. For one thing, Meizu added a screen to the back of the Pro 7. The screen does not cover the entire back of the phone, though. This secondary screen sits on the left-hand side of the rear panel. Right now, the size and resolution of the device have not been confirmed. However, reports…
Smartphones have become really important in our lives. However, the fact that they run on batteries renders them momentarily useless when those batteries run out. This means that people spend a lot of valuable time charging their phones. But then, nanomaterials researchers at Drexel University have managed to come up with a solution that would ensure that we never have to spend ages charging our phones anymore. These researchers created a material called MXene, which is a two-dimensional material consisting of a hydrogel and an oxide metal. This material is…
