Micromax Canvas 2 Colours Receiving Android 4.4.2 KitKat Update in India

Micromax on Friday announced the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update for its Canvas 2 Colours (A120) smartphone. The smartphone was launched in April with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean out-of-the-box.

The smartphone manufacturer made the announcement on its Facebook page, asking Canvas 2 Colours users to reboot their smartphone to get the KitKat update notification over Wi-Fi as recommendation. Micromax also posted the announcement again on Sunday with an image providing the changelog for the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update.

The over-the-air (OTA) Android 4.4.2 KitKat update for the Canvas 2 Colours is about 283MB in size and will include Music Album art on the lock screen along with an improved user interface.

The Micromax Canvas 2 Colours (A120) is a dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) device that comes with a 5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 720x1280 (HD) pixels. It is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek (MT6582) processor coupled with 1GB of RAM.

The Canvas 2 Colours features 4GB of inbuilt storage, which is further expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB). It sports an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera with LED flash, while there is a 2-megapixel front-facing camera also onboard. On the connectivity front, the Canvas 2 Colours includes 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi, Micro-USB, and Bluetooth options.

Last week, Micromax had also rolled out the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update for the Canvas Doodle 3. The Android 4.4.2 KitKat update is sized around 387MB. The smartphone was launched in April this year with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean out-of-the-box.

The Canvas Doodle 3 features a 6-inch display and is powered by a 1.3GHz dual-core MediaTek (MT6572) processor alongside 512MB of RAM. It also includes a 5-megapixel autofocus rear camera; 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera; 4GB of built-in storage (expandable up to 32GB), and a 2500mAh battery.

Google must make Android safer – our data is at risk

Over the past few months, the Android platform developed by Google and based on the Linux operating system has been having a difficult time. Hackers, with malicious intent and those without, have been investing time in finding out how weak this operating system is.

Android runs on more than four out of five mobile devices. It is popular because it is free and its terms do not dictate to device manufacturers what hardware it must be used on.

The hacking seen so far is partly a result of this popularity. But there also seem to be inherent problems, which experts and hackers have discovered don’t exist on other mobile platforms.

What are the issues?

Android is getting the most attention from malware creators, because it has more than 40,000 different malware compromises. This is worrying especially as the same systems for Windows and Apple phones seem to have only handful such issues (on non-jailbroken devices).

In June concerns arose about an SMS worm that could propagate via Android devices. One of the primary issues is the version control system these devices uses. As new and better versions of Android have been released, manufacturers having committed their development efforts to one version cannot always allow for upgrades. This is commonplace among the lower-priced devices, which tend to be fixed to a specific version of Android. Currently new devices are using the KitKat version of Android, but previous versions, such as JellyBean and IceCreamSandwich, remain in use.

In July researchers published their analysis of Android devices purchased on eBay. Even though these devices had had the information on them deleted, they could recover and analyse it. Naked Selfies among other confidential data were found, exposing a serious flaw in the encryption used by Android. The factory reset option, which should be able to permanently wipe any historical data from the device, seemed not to work well either. (This is the same issue, which was reported earlier in August, regarding the Tesco Hudl tablet, which uses Android as the operating system.)

Now researchers have found a flaw in the Gmail application on Android devices. The flaw makes it easy to create malware to obtain personal information, effectively using the email application as a route to extract all kinds of data from your phones. The researchers have claimed that this is also possible on iPhones and Windows phones. What they neglect to share is that Microsoft and Apple have app stores that undergo a range of stringent security checks before any app is allowed on their devices. This is unlike the Google Play environment, which is not the only source for apps on Android device.

There are many non-Google Android app stores – some legitimate but many not. Worse still, the security community has also exposed issues with the official Google Play store. We can trust almost all applications downloaded on Apple and Microsoft phones, but for any on the Android platform the risk is considerably higher. Unless you have up-to-date anti-malware software and are extremely cautious, chances are that your Android phone may eventually be compromised.

Should I be concerned?

Sadly, I think all Android users should be concerned. It is an excellent mobile operating system and has enabled low-cost smartphones and tablet computers to exist in the market place. But Google needs to tighten controls on how applications can enter this device as well as some of its underlying features.

Whenever I meet someone with an Android device, the first question I ask them is if they have any anti-malware installed. They often give me a quizzical look. The reality is that, if they don’t have such security apps installed, the data on their Android is not safe.

Nexus X leak confirms monster specs and new Android L details

Various reports have recently claimed that Google’s upcoming new Nexus device will not be called the Nexus 6 as expected, but instead will get a unique Nexus X moniker.TKTechNews, one of the sources of previous leaks, has returned with more information about the Motorola Nexus X, listing several AnTuTu benchmark screenshots for the handset, which seem to reveal an important new detail about Android L.

The screenshots mention several hardware details for the Nexus X that were rumored before, including a 2K display, 2.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and 13-megapixel camera.

The images also identify the model as a Nexus X for Google, provide a 35,430 AnTuTu score for it, and list Android version as “5.0,” a detail Google is yet to confirm about Android L.

Considering the major changes coming with Android L – especially the new Material Design lines – Google is expected to move from Android 4.4.x (KitKat) to Android 5.0 (L), rather than make a small jump to Android 4.5. Assuming the images are genuine, this Nexus X benchmark seems to confirm what Google did not say on stage at Google I/O – that Android L will mark it’s move from Android 4.x (used since Ice Cream Sandwich) to Android 5.x.

A different report, extracting information from various sources, revealed that the “L” could stand for Lemon Meringue Pie.

Android App Causes National Weather Service Website Blackout

A single Android application has caused some real performance problems for the US National Weather Service  website over the past 24 hours. If you visited the site yesterday you may have received nothing, partial pages or missing forecast data. The NWS posted a message on their status page stating that an “abusing android app” was impacting their forecasts. Christopher Vaccaro, a spokesman for NWS added “We are actively working with the app developer to resolve an issue with their program which is making data requests from us too frequently”. Yes, you read that correctly. An Android application making frequent weather update requests has killed an important service, quite possibly accidentally (abusive implies malicious intent, but the frequency could just be wrong in the code). I personally suspect it was an accident as NWS did not release the name of the application and I can imagine a developer accidentally putting the update timer in milliseconds instead of seconds , or something equally silly. NWS later updated their status page to say that they have called in Akamai to add DDoS filters to block the offending traffic and resume service. The service is back up and running now, but let us briefly examine what happened and what lessons can be learned.

During this period weather warnings were not accessible and a significant number of the offices switched to distributing their updates via social media instead of the traditional automated channels. Luckily (surprise, surprise) social media sites understand Internet architecture and do pretty well at handling large volumes of traffic. On the other hand this is unfortunately not the first time that this has happened to the NWS. One of the previous communication challenges led to a failure to alert of an incoming tornado. What I find interesting about this situation is that a service that is a key part of critical weather warnings was brought down by an Android app. At a presentation 2 years ago I talked about how smartphones represented an interesting opportunity for cyber criminals as they were high bandwidth , constantly connected and received far less security scrutiny. In this case I am sure it is an accident, but the fact remains mobile phones caused a significant issue to the service.

There are a large number of ways in which weather warnings can be distributed (in severe cases mass general media including TV, Radio, Social Media or even emergency broadcast) but this service does seem to have an important central role. It begs the question why DDoS filters were not already in place (particularly as DDoS has had such a prominent position in the media over the last few years) or why a better structure of API keys (individual tokens that allow individual applications or services access so that they can be selectively revoked) was not used. More fundamentally, if this level of traffic caused a black out imagine what a very large number of people trying to hit the services in a genuine emergency would do . It sounds like the architecture (particularly caching and content delivery channels) needs to be overhauled and services to offices (and other key sites) separated from those used by Android applications. All in all it seems like NWS have more work to do than just calling in Akamai . Though at least for now you can get back to their site to find out whether you need an umbrella or not tomorrow.


If you run a website or online service which provides important (let alone critical) data you should be considering how you would handle such a scenario now, before it happens. Do you have an emergency response plan in the event technical mitigations fail?  Do you have a communications strategy (even reverting to social media, that was not a bad move by NWS)? Do you have the right network security to filter accidental or malicious attacks and most importantly do you have an architecture that can handle large volumes of traffic in the event that they occur? These are questions most of us should be asking ourselves. High visibility sites like the US National Weather Service even more so.

Update: Nik (@hvcco on Twitter) advised me of another example where a product manufacturer accidentally shipped with code that caused a significant denial of service. This example is rather old (and again shows we really should have learned our lessons by now) but is a nice description of the flaw. Most importantly this shows how bad code and accidents happen and malicious intent cannot always be assumed.

Gionee CTRL V4S with Android 4.4 KitKat Listed on Company Site

Gionee seems all set to launch a new CTRL V-series smartphone in India, as the CTRL V4S has been listed on company's India website. Notably, no pricing or availability information was listed alongside.

According to the listing, the dual-SIM CTRL V4S runs Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box and features a 4.5-inch FWVGA (480x854 pixels) IPS display.

The CTRL V4S is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 processor coupled with an ARM Mali 400 GPU and 1GB of RAM. It comes with 8GB of inbuilt storage, which is further expandable via microSD (up to 32GB).

It sports an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, while there is a secondary 2-megapixel front-facing camera also onboard. On the connectivity front, the Gionee CTRL V4S includes 3G, Wi-Fi, Micro-USB, GPRS/ EDGE, GPS/A-GPS, FM radio and Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP.

The smartphone packs a 1800mAh battery, which according to the official listing, delivers up to 10 hours of talk time and up to 230 hours of standby time on 3G networks. The CTRL V4S measures 134.5x67.7x8.07mm and weighs 85 grams. It is listed to be available in Black and White colour options.

Notably, the Chinese smartphone-maker had launched the CTRL V4 last year in June. It came with a 4.5-inch FWVGA (480x854 pixels) display and was powered by a 1.2GHz Cortex A7 quad-core processor alongside 512MB RAM. It came with a 5-megapixel rear camera and 0.3-megapixel (VGA) front facing camera. The CTRL V4 had included 4GB of internal storage expanded by another 32GB via microSD card. It was powered by a similar 1,800mAh battery as now listed for CTRL V4S.

On Thursday, the company launched its Gpad G5 phablet in India, priced at Rs. 14,999. The phablet is powered by a 1.5GHz hexa-core Cortex-A7 processor and ARM Mali-450 MP GPU coupled with 1GB of RAM. The Gionee Gpad G5 comes with an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, and a 2-megapixel front facing camera. It has 8GB of inbuilt storage with that can be expanded via microSD card (up to 32GB).

Spice Fire One, India’s first Firefox OS phone, challenges Android’s entry-level dominance

            Firefox OS in its earliest avatar 

Mozilla’s Firefox OS as a smartphone operating system has had a negligible impact on the market, but all that could change very soon as the first Firefox smartphone has been announced for India. The Spice Fire One has predictable low-end specifications and a greatly attractive price tag.

At Mobile World Congress, Mozilla unveiled plans to expand to additional markets in Latin America and eastern Europe, and also announced a blueprint for any phone maker to make $25 Firefox OS smartphones, which it has now delivered on seemingly with the Spice Fire One, priced at Rs 2,299.

Many vendors are touting their low-cost Android devices as built for the first-time smartphone buyer. But we think that Android, iOS, BB 10 and Windows Phone are so far advanced for most first-time buyers that they don’t even know how to tap the full capability of the OS. Firefox is meant for just this crowd, making it easier to get apps and simple to use for non-practiced users. Firefox OS is built specifically for low-powered phones, and is optimised to run on hardware as low as a single-core processor, which is what Spice’s Fire One sports.

The phone is expected gives users the basic experience, without the performance overhead. It’s meant to decentralise the app publishing process of the leading operating systems, by giving developers full freedom to publish Web apps. The idea behind Firefox OS is it’s a Web-first platform, and not apps-first. It uses the full suite of Web standards such as HTML 5, WebRTC or RTSP for live video streaming, to bring apps and or to convert web pages into apps. In fact, if you use an Android phone, you can check out how this works as the Firefox broswer app lets you install apps from the Marketplace, like you would a regular Android app.

There’s a handy advantage with this system. Unlike on iOS or Android, where you may have to download apps, with Firefox OS, you have instant access to all apps, since they are basically modified versions of the website or webpage. Firefox says its search-and-launch mechanism will at least partially rid the problem of searching for and installing apps, which is part of the learning curve on any smartphone. This also means that developers don’t have to be bound by app-store rules that most OSes have. A developer could publish any app for Firefox OS on the Firefox Marketplace, just as easily as they would make a webpage.

Mozilla says its currently making big changes to the OS, which will come to handsets over this year. Among the changes is one for the way users access recently used apps or the notification centre. In a bid to set itself apart from the likes of Android, Firefox is working on a cross-platform sync service with Firefox Accounts, which was introduced with the radical Australis makeover. With Firefox Accounts, Mozilla can better integrate services including Firefox Marketplace, Firefox Sync, backup, storage, or even a service to help locate, message or wipe a phone if it were lost or stolen, according to the company. It would ensure your open tabs are synced across the phone and your PC.

The latest version of the OS, v 1.3, addresses some concerns such as POP3 email support, and NFC connectivity for interfacing and triggers. Firefox has also made improvements to the camera app, with support for continuous autofocus provided the hardware is present for such a feature. It’s surely adding a lot of things that are considered crucial in modern day smartphones, but in its own way.

Of course, the big questions are always about what one can do with the phone, the apps, games and utilities available. Here’s where Firefox OS could come undone. Sure, the Marketplace boasts popular apps such as Line, Twitter, Facebook and even Candy Crush, but it’s still a very underwhelming collection. WhatsApp, for example, would be the first app most smartphone newbies look for, but it’s not yet available on Firefox. That could of course change as more devices and vendors come into the picture. But the hard fact is that Firefox OS is still quite nascent and that’s its biggest drawback. Firefox is hoping it can impress first-time smartphone users with how much can be done in so little, which is something Android has yet to convince anyone about, save for a few exceptions.

Android is clearly dominating the budget segment, and such a monopoly is never a good thing for consumers. Choice is great, and Mozilla and Spice are making options available. Make no mistake, Spice is fully invested in Android; the company’s website does not yet have a page for the new Firefox OS phone, so it’s clearly just the first step to gauging reaction. And at Rs 2,299 for the Fire One, it’s making things way easy for the undecided buyer.

Firefox OS phones might not be so revolutionary that they will change the Indian smartphone market or to dethrone Android; no one thinks Firefox OS is mature enough to do that. But Firefox has the right idea of targetting first-time smartphone buyers, and now we can wait for more manufacturers to follow Spice’s lead, if the first Firefox OS phone is a hit. 

US, German researchers create framework for core Android security modules

International security researchers have offered up a framework for Google's Android operating system that allows users and developers to plug in extra security enhancements.

The researchers, from North Carolina State University and Technische Universitat Darmstadt/CASED in Germany, have developed a modification to the core Android operating system called the Android Security Modules (ASM) framework. The framework aims to eliminate the bottleneck which can prevent developers and users from taking advantage of new security tools, and make it easier for third parties to integrate the latest cybersecurity programs on offer.

The project is described in a paper (.PDF) due for release at the Usenix Security Symposium in San Diego this week.

Dr. William Enck, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State and senior author of the paper commented:

"In the ongoing arms race between white hats and black hats, researchers and developers are constantly coming up with new security extensions. But these new tools aren't getting into the hands of users because every new extension requires users to change their device's firmware, or operating system (OS).

The ASM framework allows users to implement these new extensions without overhauling their firmware."

While the Android operating system's open and free nature makes it attractive for developers and users alike, there are many variations on both smartphone and tablet platforms. This, in conjunction with Android's popularity, means that firmware and patching can be haphazard -- and a potential risk to businesses relying on the OS, or for companies which implement BYOD (bring your own device) schemes. However, with a sufficient security underpinning, Android devices could be more adequately protected -- as well as the data they contain.

The ASM framework is one way to better protect Android-based devices, argues the researchers. Custom security control modules within the framework could receive "callbacks" for security-sensitive operations in the Android OS, which means that the OS contacts the security module directly to determine if an operation should go ahead. Enck said:

"Our ASM framework can be used in various personal and enterprise scenarios. For instance, security modules can implement dual persona: i.e., enable users to securely use their smartphones and tablets at home and at work while strictly separating private and enterprise data.

Security modules can also enhance consumer privacy. The framework provides callbacks that can filter, modify, or anonymize data before it is shared with third-party apps, in order to protect personal information."

Enck says the framework is available now for security specialists, but insists that for widespread adoption, either Google or Android handset manufacturers need to adopt the framework and integrate it within the operating system. However, the framework is unlikely to be a quick fix, as Google would need to alter the core architecture of the OS -- which is no small task.

Ignore No More: Mother creates Android app that prevents children from ignoring calls

App allows a parent to remotely lock their child’s 
smartphone until they have returned the call

Frustrated-mother-turned-evil-genius Sharon Standifird has developed Ignore No More, an Android app that gives parents the ability to lock their kid’s smartphone from afar, making it unwise to ignore mum’s phone calls.

“When you lock your child’s phone with Ignore No More your child has only two options – he or she can call you back, or call for an emergency responder,” it says on the app’s website.

“Now you have their attention. Ignore No More is an easy to install app that gives you control over your children’s phones.”

The parent sets a password that can unlock the phone, which encourages their child to call back quickly so that they can access their smartphone’s other functions and applications.

Ms Standifird, a Texas mother of two, consulted with designers and developers for months, and is finding the app popular with like-minded US parents.

“My son hates it and I love it,” Liane Parker wrote in her review of the app on the Google play store. “Love the idea, even good for bedtime when you want them off the phone,” reviewed Lamiya Keyes Mewborn.

The teens whose phone access will be impacted, however, are dismayed by the parent’s newfound control. Ms Standifird’s own son Bradley said: “I thought it was a good idea, but for other people, not me”

Google Could Have A Big Plan To Change The Way Android Phones Are Sold, And Motorola Might Be Part Of It

       Dan Frommer, Business Insider

For months, rumors have suggested that Google is working on a new brand for its mobile devices known as Android Silver.

Now, tech blog TKTechNews (via BGR) claims that Motorola may be making the first phone to launch under this brand.

Android Silver is said to be Google's attempt at making the Android platform seem more premium and unified like the iPhone, according to reports from The Information and Android Police.

With Android Silver, Google would pay some of its partners to build phones just for the platform. Each phone would come with a near-stock version of Android, and customers would have 24-7 access to support via Google Hangouts. Google may add Android Silver kiosks to carrier stores to inform customers about the program, too.

At the same time, rumors have suggested that Google and Motorola are teaming up to develop a smartphone known internally as Shamu. While previous reports said this may be the Nexus 6, newer rumors indicate this could be an Android Silver device called the Moto S.This purported Android Silver phone from Motorola is expected to come with a massive 5.9-inch screen with a resolution of 2,560x1,440, according to Phone Arena.

Google has yet to make any announcements regarding Android Silver, but both Android Police and The Information have a strong track record when it comes to reporting on upcoming Google updates.

Last year Google took the wraps off its Nexus 5 in late October, so we may expect to see new hardware debut around the same time this year.

Micromax Canvas XL2 With Android 4.4.2 KitKat Listed on Company Site

Micromax seems all set to launch a new smartphone with Android 4.4.2 KitKat, the Micromax Canvas XL2, as it has been listed on the company's site. The company has yet to announce pricing or availability details however.

The dual-SIM Micromax Canvas XL2 (A109) according to the company listing runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat out-of-the-box, and features a 5.5-inch qHD (540x960 pixels) IPS display.

The phablet is powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz MediaTek MT6589M processor, coupled with 1GB of RAM. The Micromax Canvas XL2 A109 sports a 5-megapixel autofocus rear camera and a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) front-facing camera.

There is 4GB of built-in storage on the Canvas XL2, which can be expanded via microSD card (up to 32GB). Connectivity options on the smartphone include 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, Micro-USB, FM radio and GPS/ A-GPS. It packs a 2500mAh battery, which is rated to deliver up to 255 hours of standby time, and 8.5 hours of talk time.

Micromax is yet to launch another smartphone that was recently listed on its website, the octa-core Canvas Knight Cameo A290, despite it being available online at a third-party retailer.

The dual-SIM Micromax Canvas Knight Cameo A290 runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat out-of-the-box, and features a 4.7-inch HD (720x1280 pixels) display. The smartphone is powered by a 1.4GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6592M processor alongside 1GB RAM. It sports an 8-megapixel auto-focus rear camera with LED flash and full-HD (1080p) video recording support, while there is a 5-megapixel fixed-focus front-facing camera also onboard. The 8GB of inbuilt storage on the Canvas Knight Cameo A290 is expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB).

Micromax Canvas XL 2

• KEY SPECS
• NEWS

Display

5.50-inch

Processor

1.2GHz

Front Camera

 0.3-megapixel

Resolution

 540x960 pixels

RAM

 1GB

OS

 Android 4.4

Storage

4GB

Rear Camera

5-megapixel

Battery capacity

2500mAh

Fuhu Unveils The World’s Biggest Android Tablet Made For Family Collaboration, Socialization

The Big Tab wants to be the center of attention in your home.

Fuhu, the company that builds child-focused gadgets, unveiled the 20- and full HD 24-inch nabi Big Tab today to increase collaboration and sharing in the average household.

Both tablets come with a carrying frame that acts as a kickstand, as well as a 15-point capacitive touch screen, Quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 4 processors, and 16 GB of memory. The tablets run Android 4.4.4, but have Fuhu’s Blue MorphoTM operating system over it.

The tablet’s dual mode feature allows families to switch between nabi mode and parent mode. Parent mode runs stock android and performs like your average Android tablet. If you swipe to the right, you reach the parental controls and access to the nabi mode. Nabi mode is a launcher that holds all the apps kids would use.

The nabi system has several educational apps and games, such as the Big Canvas app that lets kids draw, create animations and edit videos; the Wings Learning SystemTM , an app that features more than 17,000 lessons and 300,000 questions in Math, Reading and Writing for pre-K to sixth; and a Chore List app, a tool parents can use to create tasks for children to complete.

But some of the main features aimed at children are games, movies and books. The nabi mode houses classics such as chess and checkers as well as a game room with traditional board games and multiplayer games such as air hockey.

Fuhu also added a collection of videos and shows from Disney, Cartoon Network and Cookie Jar Entertainment. Story Time is another app that provides 35 interactive e-books from Fuhu partners iStoryTime and Speakaboos.

The nabi system also uses nabi coins, a form of currency that is used with apps such as Chore List and the Wings Learning System to reward good behavior. Children can use the coins they earn from completing a chore to buy music, movies, books and apps with these coins. These choices are curated by parents in the Parent Mode.

Fuhu has a nabi SDK available for developers to integrate nabi coins into games directly.

The folks at Fuhu want these tablets to be a product you can carry around your house that can switch from being an educational toy for kids, to a tablet parents can use for just about anything. Fuhu’s tablet is meant to be plugged in at all times, as it only lasts 30 minutes. This defeats the purpose of being a tablet if it runs for such a short period of time.

The tablets come with parental and content controls, where parents can set time controls that monitor screen time and limit app usage.

Even with several 10-inch Android tablets on the market running resolutions higher than these Big Tabs, there are still a high number of Android apps that are not optimized for the bigger screen size, so expect to see pixels for some apps.

The nabi Big Tab HD 20” and nabi Big Tab HD 24” will launch in the fall at $449 and $549 respectively. At a high price, you get a big screen that runs several unoptimized apps, 30 minutes unplugged and the usual parental controls you can find on most kid-friendly devices.

Gionee Pioneer P4 Now Receiving Android 4.4 KitKat Update in India

Gionee, after rolling-out Android 4.4 KitKat updates for Elife S5.5 and Elife E7 Mini, has now announced the KitKat update for its budget Pioneer P4 smartphone in India.

The Android 4.4 KitKat update for the Gionee Pioneer P4 is now available over-the-air (OTA) and is about 808MB in size.

The company rolled-out the Android 4.4 KitKat updates for the Elife S5.5 (Review |Pictures) and the Elife E7 Mini last month. Interestingly enough, Gionee's flagship, the Elife E7, still runs the dated Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and there has been no word from the company about the Android KitKat update for the handset.

The company also revealed the changelog for the Android KitKat update for Pioneer P4 which brings a new desktop layout design; updated Amigo paper with redesigned user interface; new gaming user interface (Game Zone) giving a better grip over gaming applications, as well as a new TouchPal input method.

The Pioneer P4 also gets several changes to applications with the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update, including updates for GioneeXender for optimised performance and improved the linking success rate; UC Browser for optimised UI and better page-loading effects; NQ Mobile Security; Kingsoft Office, updated WeChat app with new interface, and an updated Map app for one-click access to the main menu, come as a part of the OS update.

Other changes in the Pioneer P4 with Android KitKat include the addition of two games - Hitout Heroes and TexasPoker, and the removal of two games - World Cricket Champion and Real Football.

The Gionee Pioneer P4 was launched at Rs. 9,500 in April this year. The smartphone, the successor to the Pioneer P3, initially came with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

The Pioneer P4 offers dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) support, and features a 4.5-inch TFT display with FWVGA (480x854 pixels) resolution. A quad-core MediaTek (MT6582V) processor powers the smartphone, clocked at 1.3GHz, coupled with 1GB of RAM. It sports a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, while there is a 2-megapixel front-facing camera also onboard. Other specifications include 8GB of inbuilt storage; expandable up to 32GB via microSD card; Bluetooth; Wi-Fi; GPS/ AGPS; GPRS/ EDGE; 3G, and 1800mAh battery.

Gionee Pioneer P4

• KEY SPECS
• NEWS

Display

4.50-inch

Processor

1.3GHz

Front Camera

 2-megapixel

Resolution

 480x854 pixels

RAM

 1GB

OS

 Android 4.2

Storage

8GB

Rear Camera

5-megapixel

Battery capacity

1800mAh

Now you have an insanely simple way to quickly switch between Android apps

Do you wish that you have a quick and simple way to switch between your favorite Android apps that doesn’t involve returning to the home screen or clicking on the notifications center? If so then you may want to check out Last App Switcher, a brilliant new app that works for your apps the same way the “Last Channel” button works on your TV remote control.

Last App Switcher cleverly pitches itself as a solution to a situation we’ve all been in before.

“Imagine, you are browsing internet and a message arrives,” developer InPen writes in its description. “Normally, you would minimize your browser, open the chatting application, and reply to the message. Then press the recent apps button, find your browser, tap on it, and then continue browsing, huh! Suddenly, another message arrives! With LAS (Last App Switcher), you will be like ‘tap,’ chatting, ‘tap,’ browsing. Envision the figure of precious minutes you are going to save in a day.”

Last App Switcher has also recently added new options that will let you switch to your last app but holding down and swiping up on your device’s home key or by simply pressing the search shortcut. You can check Last App Switcher out and download it for free on your Android device by clicking the source link below.

OneNote for Android tablets added, with handwriting support

Microsoft released OneNote for Android tablets today with handwriting input, bringing Android users closer to the OneNote experience the company envisioned for the Microsoft Surface.

When the Surface Pro 3 was announced, OneNote figured significantly into the release. Microsoft’s Panos Panay positioned the tablet as an effective digital inking device that even launches OneNote when users click the stylus. Once inside the app, users can mix and match typed notes and text, written annotations, audio, and images. And thanks to another update today, the Windows app can also import files such as PowerPoint documents and PDFs, as well as highlight text in notes and print them.

Many of these features have now been brought to the OneNote for Android tablet app.

The addition of handwriting support is long overdue. Suddenly OneNote for Android feels like OneNote. I downloaded the app onto our Galaxy Tab Pro, a large Android tablet with roughly the same dimensions of the Surface Pro 3 and a stylus to boot.

 The OneNote app for Android includes an Office-style ribbon.                                            Unfortunately, to format text, you need to click the text,                                                                then the "Home" tab, then apply your edits.

You can’t perform the wake-on-click-the-stylus trick—clicking the button on the Tab Pro’s stylus brings up the familiar Samsung radial menu and nothing OneNote specific. But just the ability to type in a note, pull in an image, and then scrawl an inked note next to it is refreshing. You still can't import a PDF or PowerPoint presentation into the OneNote for Android app, but you can get around it with a quick snapshot or by exporting the files as JPEGs. 

By bringing new capabilities to its standard apps on various platforms at different times (Microsoft recently updated its Mac and iOS versions of OneNote, as well),  it feels a bit like watching a horse race run by Windows, the Mac, iPads and iPhones, Windows Phones, and Android devices. Personally, it’s still frustrating to pull out a Lumia phablet and be forced to either type or dictate a quick note to myself because OneNote for Windows Phone hasn’t yet implemented handwriting support. 

We gave the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro high marks for its productivity earlier this year, based on its large screen size and multi-window capability. Now, Microsoft has given the Tab Pro and its competitors an additional boost.

Microsoft’s OneNote for Android is available now in the Google Play Store.

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Microsoft had upgraded OneNote for Android. It is a new app for Android tablets.

This Android Shield Could Encrypt Apps So Invisibly You Forget It’s There

An illustration of Georgia Tech’s Mimesis Aegis encryption 
software.    Georgia Tech

In the post-Snowden era, everyone wants to make encryption easier. Now, one group of researchers has created a tool intended to make it invisible.

A team from Georgia Tech has designed software that acts as an overlay on Android smartphones’ communication apps—like Gmail or Whatsapp—and mimics the apps’ user interfaces. When users type, the text is encrypted automatically before being passed on to the application and transmitted over the internet. Likewise, the interface invisibly decrypts text received from other users of the software. The result, as the researchers describe it, is a “transparent window” over apps that prevents unencrypted messages from leaving the user’s device, an invisible communications condom for your smartphone’s secrets.

“The window acts as a proxy between the user and the app. But the beauty of it is that users feel like they’re interacting with the original app without much, if any, change,” says Wenke Lee, the Georgia Tech professor who led the developers. “Our goal is to make security that’s as easy as air. You just breathe and don’t even think about it.”

The researchers call their prototype Mimesis Aegis, or M-Aegis, Latin for “mimicry shield.” They plan to present their research at the Usenix Security conference this week.

For now, the Georgia Tech team is framing their work as pure academic research. But they also plan to release the software in some form this fall, although it initially will work only with email and chat services like Gmail, Whatsapp, and Facebook. Eventually, they hope to extend the app’s abilities to photos and audio, so multiple functions of an Android phone can be effortlessly encrypted within popular apps users already have installed without requiring them to adopt new encryption apps like Textsecure or Silent Circle.

Despite their ambition, M-Aegis prototype is far from a universal smartphone encryption engine: It can only encrypt communications with other M-Aegis users, since both phones must generate encryption keys and exchange them to allow scrambled communications. And the system only works with Android; Apple is more restrictive in controlling how the user interfaces of its iOS apps can be altered.

Aside from those limitations, the researchers claim in their Usenix paper that a lock icon added to encrypted messages will be virtually the only sign that users aren’t directly accessing an unaltered app. They tested M-Aegis with real emails—using samples taken from the Enron investigation in the early 2000s—and found it took less than a tenth of a second to decrypt even the longest emails on an LG Nexus 4, and at most around one-fifth of a second to encrypt them. They even were able to replicate the search function of the Android Gmail client, thanks to their own encryption system called “easily-deployable efficiently-searchable symmetric encryption” or EDESE, which allows the search of encrypted files with “negligible” slowdown.

Despite those impressive crypto claims, early users should be wary of the security of M-Aegis’s untested prototype. The Georgia Tech researchers say that for now, they don’t plan an open source release of the software, which may prevent the security community from identifying flaws in its privacy protections.

Maintaining the software could also turn out to be cumbersome: Given that the program is designed to exactly mimic the apps it’s overlaid on, every update to a communications app’s interface could require a change to M-Aegis. The researchers won’t yet say how they plan to support the app—through their own volunteer labor or by spinning the technology out into a non-profit project or startup. But Lee downplays the difficulty of keeping up with the apps whose communications M-Aegis encrypts. “If an update to an app is just to make it look prettier or move things around, that doesn’t effect us at all,” he says.

For now, Lee admits, the process does require a manual process of assessing new apps and updates to maintain M-Aegis’s mimicry of the underlying programs. But eventually, he hopes to automate the analysis of new applications so that they can be pulled under M-Aegis’s protective shield with minimal human effort. The goal, he says, is a future where privacy-conscious users don’t need to give up mainstream cloud-based services. But thanks to invisible encryption strapped onto the apps’ surfaces, the apps are nonetheless prevented from ever accessing raw data that could be vulnerable to hackers or intelligence agencies.

“We don’t believe that these services actually need to look at users’ communications. They’re just transporting messages from A to B, and if the user elects, they should be able to make those messages truly private.” says Lee. “That’s the approach whose potential we’re trying to demonstrate.”