Simplocker Ransomware is getting even more powerful.

Before we get into detail, a ransomware is a type of malicious software designed to block access to a system ny encrypting files and other data until a sum of money is paid.

Simplocker is one such ransomware targeting Android. It was first discovered 2 months back but in the time till now, it has made itself more efficient in what it does. It can now encrypt even more data and get even more control of your device. According to a Slovakia based security company ESET, Simplocker has been evolved to show ransom warning in English instead of Russian and it now demands payments in Dollars instead of Euros. With this latest version, it can gain Administrator access and make it harder for a user to remove it once the device is infected.

It still cannot automatically get Administrator access of your device but it does ask you to do so. And you probably would give it the access it needs without much thinking. Yes that's right. You yourself could have been guilty. How it does so is pretend to be an app that requires Administrator Access and certainly will ask you to give permissions. After you hit the Agree button, you've pretty much lost the control of your device. Next it displays a warning telling the user that they have been caught with the kind of data they shouldn't have had like child pornography or bulk spamming and asks for a fine via MoneyPak voucher to release your phone from lockdown.

But as ESET has discovered the ransomware, they also have come up with a solution for it. You can remotely download ESET's Simplocker Decryptor App and get your phone Decrypted and also uninstall Simplocker for you.

Now this article will sure come up with the topic about amount of Malware that Android has. Lets get this straight. Downloading apps from Google Play won't do any harm to our device whatsoever. But people often become greedy and try to save money by downloading paid apps from untrusted sources. This is where the problem starts. That unknown source wants you to think you're saving money while it loads up a money eating ransomware on your phone ready to take control. So the security of your device in entirely in your hands. Unless you're doing something illegal and are been tracked down by NSA. 

MediaTek working hard. Launches MT6795 True Octacore with built in LTE support.

When it comes to MediaTek, people know it because of its low cost mobile processors powering the smartphones of emerging world. You wouldn't hear the name too often if you don't live in Aisa. Most of the high end phones use processors made by Qualcomm so its quite understood if you haven't heard the name in the West. But MediaTek is the chip manufacturer that first ever brought to the world the True OctaCore Processor..

MediaTek at a press event today has announced a new processor that is quite worthy to grab your attention. The new chip in MediaTek's army, the MT6795 is a beast of performance and power that can set Qualcomm to break out in cold sweat.

The MT6795  is an Octacore processor much like the MT6592 except for the performance part. It will have four 2.2 Ghz cores for intensive tasks and four 1.7 Ghz cores for normal utilities. It will be working on ARM's big.LITTLE architecture, uses heterogenous multi-processing and it comes packed with PowerVR Series 6 GPU to bring in intensive graphics. It as well has a dual channel LPDDR3 clocked at 993MHz for top end memory bandwidth in a smartphone.

The MT6795 is capable of handling screen resolutions upto 1600*2560 pixels that are used on most high end tablets these days. So it can easily handle the 2k (thats 1440*2560) displays on phones at 120Hz too. It also supports camera sensors upto 20 MP and 4k video recording or else you can choose a 1080p resolution for recording at 480 fps. It can be set upto a frequency of about 2.2 Ghz. Talking about benchmarks may not be worthy as more and more OEMs try to crank up benchmark tests by software enhancements if lets just take a look. It is also said to be the first Octacore SoC with LTE built in.

All this being said, MediaTek has still to work a lot on making its source code open to developers. So this might just not be the time when more developers and expensive devices start using MediaTek chips. After all, developers can't live without tinkering their gadgets.

This maybe MediaTek's perfect chance to make a dent in Android One program and get itself included as an official partner for Android One phones.

Xiaomi launched 3 new smartphones in India giving tough competition for home grown companies.

Xiaomi recently launched 3 of their devices in India expanding their sales. India is said to be the fastest growing market so it seems like a wise move to concentrate here. The chinese giant is giving a real tough competition to Indian companies like Micromax, Lava and others mainly due to low prices.

Xiaomi launched Mi3, Redmi Note and Redmi 1S in India.

Xiaomi Mi3

The Mi3 is the costliest of the trio going for sale at Rs.13,999. At this price, the phone is powered by a Snapdragon 800 at 2.3 GHz under the hood, 16GB base model, 5" Full HD screen, 13MP primary camera with dual flash and a 2MP front facing camera. And the standard slew of sensors. There is no SD Card support in the Mi3. A 3050 mAh battery gives juice to the beast.

Getting a smartphone at this dirt cheap price has its own catch. The Mi3 comes with Android 4.2.1 Jellybean instead of Kitkat. 

The Mi3 is made of magnesium-aluminium allow and weighs 145 grams and is 8.1 mm thick. 

Xiaomi Redmi Note

The Redmi Note will be priced at about Rs.9600. This price gets you a 5.5" HD display, It packs about 8GB of internal memory but also gives you an option of SD Card unlike Mi3. There are 2 variants available, cheaper one with a gig of RAM and the other with Two. Its got the same Rear facing camera as the MI3 (13MP) with LED flash but has a 5MP front facing camera for the selfie centered crowd. 

Powered by a MediaTek MT6592 octacore processor clocked at 1.4 GHz and 1.7 GHz. That's four and four.  

Xiaomi Redmi 1s

Redmi 1S is then the cheapest of the trio. Going in retail at Rs.6999. Compared to rest of the trio, its got an updated version running Android 4.3. Its also the smallest out of 3 at 4.7" HD display. The storage options are the same as Redmi Note but only 1 gig of RAM is what you get at this price. Juiced by a 2000 mAh battery it is a pretty good deal to what local manufacturers have to offer. 

Talking about the camera, 8MP primary with LED flash and a 1.3MP secondary camera is packed. But don't let the pricing confuse you. Its powered by a Snapdragon 400 clocked at 1.4 GHz. Now 400 is a bit outdated but performance shouldn't be a question. That's not to say the MT6592 isn't worthy. 

Conclusion

Talking about the company's India operations, Manu Jain, Indian operations head, Xiaomi said "We are looking to provide the best in class experience to our MI fans in India. We are starting with 35+ service centera across top 20 cities, a hotline that operates 7 days a weel, and a vibrant MI India Facebook page. Our partner Flipkart, with its world-class technology and customer service, will be the key to providing this experience."

The Mi3 sales will start from July 22 at 12 afternoon on Flipkart. However interested buyers will nees to pre-register before the date to become eligible. The company will have a dedicated helpline to track orders. Xiaomi will have 36 service centers in India with two of those in Delhi and Bangalore. 

Hugo Barra, vice president of Xiaomi assured that Mi3 will get timely updates to both Android and MiUi but considering the Android version that the phone is launched with, this word needs to be seen. 

Google shows more of their core apps in Material Design

The first time we got a clue of major redesign in Android was when the Gmail's Material look was leaked. Although we haven't got Gmail redesign yet, we did get a taste of what Material's going to be when Google+ got its update.

When at I/O, Google revealed Android L, it was proven that we were getting a major design change to the stock Android UI in rather long time.

Material Design is a set of design guidelines set by Google for app developers to follow and Google has got some great references for developers by showing off their core apps in the L look.

Calendar app across various screens

Calendar on mobile

Chrome Browser

Contacts

Photos

Gmail or Email Mobile

Gmail or Email on various screens

Play Music/NewsStand/Play Games

Google Keep

Maps on Tablets

Maps Mobile

Play Music Mobile

Play Music on Tablet

Gmail on tablet

Youtube

Dalvik on its death bed. ART to be the default runtime in next major Android release.

Google has removed Dalvik from the master branch of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and replaced it with ART (Android RunTime). ART was initially introduced in Kitkat as an experimental feature. But now it looks like ART is ready for prime time as Dalvik has been removed from AOSP (the open source base of Android) and ART takes its place. But what exactly is Dalvik and ART.? What is all this fuss about.?



What is Dalvik.?

Dalvik is the process virtual machine (VM) in Google's Android operating system. It is the software that runs the apps on Android devices.

Most of the apps that run on Android are written in Java. Applications written in Java require the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to run, but Google has chosen to abandon the both Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and Java Micro Edition (JME) in favour of Dalvik Virtual Machine. Why did Google take the alternative instead of using the Java Virtual Machine.? Licensing. The Java language, Java tools and Java libraries are all free but not the Java Virtual Machine. The license for Java Virtual Machine is free and Open Source, but when used on a mobile device using a JME, it is not.

How does it work.?

A standard Java compiler turns source code (written as text files) into Bytecode, then compiled into a .dex file that the Dalvik VM can read and use. Still Confused.!!

Think of it this way -- when you make a java application for computer, a JVM reads the code and executes it to give the output. Thus the work of reading the code is done by the Virtual Machine instead of the OS on which it runs. This is the reason Java runs on just about any Operating System. Dalvik is the mobile optimised version of the Java Virtual Machine, and designed for easier multi-tasking.

Oracle (who bought Java from Sun Micro Systems) is not happy with Google's of Java and Dalvik. While Oracle claims Google to have used Oracle's code for Dalvik, Google denies.

Dalvik used Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation of the programs (or Apps-as we know them now). That means, each time you opened an app, its code was to be compiled into byte-code to be executed. Yes.! Everytime you use that app. This results in increased opening time of the apps. Not to forget everytime.



ART and its Working.

When Google launched Android Kitkat, ART happened. ART which stands for Android RunTime, was introduced as an experimental feature when Kitkat launched. ART used Ahead-Of-Time (AOT) compilation. In simple language, the entire code of the app will be compiled only once during the installation of the app. With no need for JIT, the code should execute much faster. (Almost twice as fast as Dalvik according to Google).

Except for the speed increase, the use of ART provides another benefit. As ART directly runs byte-code, it doesn't hit the CPU as hard as JIT. Less CPU usage ultimately results in less battery drain which is a big plus for portable devices.

What are the downsides of ART.?

ART uses Ahead of Time compilation. Meaning that all the code of your app is compiled into byte-code when it is installed on your device. As the code needs to be compiled during installation, it increases the installation time of apps. Also note that the whole app is compiled into byte-code unlike Dalvik that compiled only a part of the program, This results in larger memory foot-print of the apps. This ultimately reducing multi-tasking capabilities as more memory is used. (Unless we get 64bit Android with mammoth amount of RAM in mobile devices).

But there are Benefits that overcome the downsides.

While ART reduces multi-tasking ability, it does show faster multi tasking. Confusing, right.? This just means that you can run less apps at once but those running can run faster than before.  

Benchmarks show a significant improvement in CPU, RAM and Storage operations. There's one more benefit of ART. When iPhone users are asked for their opinion about Androids, they often complain about Android being laggy, despite the fact that Android is better in terms of raw hardware specs. This lag is the result of JIT which disappears significantly after switching to ART.

Looking at the benefits of ART, it makes me pleased as punch to see ART come out of experimental phase and replace Dalvik as the Default RunTime for Android. With Google IO about a week away, I hope to see Google launch the L word Android all with a redesigned UI as seen in leaks with ART running the show.

What are your thoughts about ART.? Any good.?

Google I/O is around the corner. What are the expectations.?

For those non-techies reading this post, Google I/O is an annual developer-focused conference held by Google in San Francisco, California. Last year at Google I/O, we expected a lot of new announcements like new Android version, new Nexus 10 and what not. But we learned that last year's was a more developer focused conference. They announced more software features than hardware. But is this going to happen again in 2014.?   Last year Google announced a slew of new software features like the PlayStore beta testing program, Android Studio, an IDE specially made for Android developers, Play Games and also did improvements to Google Cloud Messaging. They didn't announce a new full size tablet, a new Android version, or the Moto X that everyone thought Google would do.. But this year, we do expect Google to announce more hardware products unlike last time.

A refreshed Full Size Tablet.... The last full size that we got from Google was announced back in October, 2012.. That a lot of time for one product to retain the badge of flagship... So a revision to Google's Nexus 10 is really expected this time. If this time we are kept from a refreshed Nexus 10, We may start to believe that Google has lost faith in 10 inch tablets.   We'd also be happy if Google shows us a Nexus 8 that's been pegged for long.

Chromebook Pixel 2 I do agree that the original Chromebook pixel had a pretty hefty price tag but such a high resolution screen doesn't come in cheap.. Its also redundant for a tablet that's based solely on the cloud to have such a hefty price tag, but the Pixel did set a benchmark for other Chromebooks. But that was then. Time's changed, we need better specs under the hood let alone the display. Maybe beefed up RAM and solid state storage for storing more movies offline... And how can we forget battery life. Getting better battery life won't do any bad.

Android Wear When Google announced Android Wear, Moto and LG were the first to jump the ship. Both have their smartwatches running Android Wear under development for quite sometime. Some online retailer did accidently reveal specs of both the smart watches but thats to be taken with a grain of salt. The tech community expects that the LG G Watch will be given away at Google I/O this year. I can't swear to it unless Google actually does it...

Google Glass NOT going public. Google Glass has been a controversial topic all year long after several incident of people getting beaten up to banning Glass in various Public places. So we can't expect Google to put up Glass for consumers to buy just yet.

Android in Car. Google announced the Open Automotive Alliance this January but nothing has come to fruition yet. With Apple already working with CarPlay, We expect Google to work fast with the OAA (Open Automotive Alliance) and show us some its rival to CarPlay..

Project ARA We did see a lot of development here. They partnered with several companies like 3D Systems and Sennheiser for making modular parts. Now we want to see the ARA devices in hands of developers to tinker.

New Version of Android We're not sure what it'll be called or even if its going to be announced here at I/O but the hope goes on. With all the leaks of Google's redesign to Android and unifying UIs across all platforms with the Quantum Paper, we expect the new Version of Android to be a major UI overhaul after IceCream Sandwich.

DART
Dart is an open-source Web programming language developed by Google. It was unveiled at the GOTO conference in Aarhus, October 10–12, 2011. The goal of Dart is "ultimately to replace JavaScript for of web development on the open web platform". There are quite a few sessions dedicated to Dart this year. So after seeing Apple announce Swift, Google should move fast with Dart in hands..  

What are you expecting from Google this year.? Hit up in the comments.

What iOS8 features would Android users not care about..

WWDC  2014 has just kicked in and Apple announced its new mobile Operating System, iOS8 along with the new OS X Yosemite. Here we'll focus on the new features that iOS8 introduced and discuss those that Android users have been using for quite sometime.

Spoiler Alert- I'm an Android Enthusiast so this might seem a biased review to those iSheeps out there.

There were a whole lot of new features announced in iOS8 and developers can already get their hands on iOS8 on their device with a registered Developer ID. Among the most significant new features was Interactive notifications. Herein users can, on getting notifications like a new message, choose to either reply, mark as read or delete the message. This has been a feature that all Android users running JellyBean and up are enjoying. That makes up about 60.8% of Android users in the wild. And if we add those using KitKat, it comes in at 69.3% of people already use the actionable notification.
Update: I forgot to mention The only thing missing on Android is the ability to reply to messages directly from notification shade.



Another improvement was the new Keyboard with predictive texting. Apple calls its "QuickTpye" Keyboard to be the most accurate ever but lets face it. Predictive texting isn't a new thing. Nor is it an innovation. Android users all the way down to Gingerbread have been using predictive keyboards. Even BB OS10 had a Predictive keyboard that did more than just typing. So advertising this feature as Ground breaking or most accurate won't do any good except to those Apple loyalists. With the new QuickTpye keyboard, they also introduced support for 3rd party keyboards. This again is a feature that goes down the drain where we find Android Froyo users using 3rd party keyboards.

Apple also showed us the new iCloud Drive, Apple's new rival to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive etc. iCloud drive gives support to many new file types than originally supported by iCloud. This gives you privilage to store your Documents, Presentations, Spreadsheets, PDFs, and Images in the could. While iCloud gives you 5GB of free storage, Rival Google's Cloud storage gives you about 15GB of free storage and 10GB extra to those using QuickOffice. Also to note here is a plethora of file formats that Google Drive supports. So iCloud Drive was nothing than just a new competitor to the market like many others. Why care about it when you already get more storage for free and more file formats supported.



Apple's voice assistant Siri is now going to start responding to your, "Hey, Siri" command. Now this is a feature that I think Apple copied right from Moto X and GNL and said, "Magic happens when you call "Hey Siri"". Also to note is that "Hey Siri" works only when you are in car mode. While on GNL, you can "OK Google" from any of your HomeScreens. Whereas on the Moto X, this feature can work anytime as long as your phone can hear your voice. Siri now also recognizes songs thanks to shazam. Not just recognizing but you can also buy sings directly from Siri.



Apple didn't announce an iWatch-tied Healthbook app at WWDC, but it did unveil a more plainly named Health app and the developer-focused HealthKit API. Just when Google already had its fitness API launched to the market.

But other than the features copied from Android and other OSes, Apple did show us some new goodies. Apple plans to tie together smart home electronics with its HomeKit framework for connected devices so that you control everything without getting up off the couch.



Locking doors, turning off lights, adjusting the thermostat and shutting the garage won't even require tapping your iPhone 5S touchscreen, it turns out. Instead, these actions can be triggered with Siri voice commands as simple as saying "Siri, I'm going to bed" in order for the computerized assistant to put you into something of a human "safe mode."

Update 2: As Doug mentioned, Using Home Automation has also been done on Android. But this feature can't be included in this article as its not natively supported by Android right now.

iOS camera also got new features like burst mode for older phones, time-lapse recording and timer. These again are features that I enjoyed on my Android Froyo phone there's nothing new here that I can envy given that Apple's camera quality is better than most Android phones. When iOS7 brought Cellular data usage feature Android users felt really bad for those iSheeps who didn't even know what it was if they hadn't used a 3rd party app for it. With iOS8, Apple did the same thing but with battery life. Now you can see what apps use how much of your battery. Nothing we don't already use.



Now I know there will be a lots of people iSheeps who'll shout out that Android users don't have the latest version or that they don't have the newest set of APIs. But in reality, Android users don't really need the latest OS to use the new APIs. They just need the latest version of the Google Play Services to enjoy the latest APIs. Google Play Services is Google's way to fight fragmentation where Google can always add new APIs with updates through the Play Store. And for the features that iOS8 got, Android users have been using these features all the back up to Gingerbread and Froyo.

It seems like innovation at Apple has stopped and its more like Tim Cook is trying to catch up with other mobile OSes rather than showing us something Ground Breaking.

 

This post does not list all the features that iOS8 got, but just some of those that it copied from other OSes. So for a list of all the new features, you can jump over to google to find out more.