Android Archives - Page 3 of 7

Now users can connect to Android Phones via hotspot on Windows 11

Tech giant Microsoft has launched a Windows 11 preview build with an update for “Phone Link” that will allow users to directly link their computer to their Android phone through a mobile hotspot.

The “Phone Link” feature of Windows 11 will soon allow laptops and desktop computers to instantly connect to your smartphone. The new feature only works with a restricted range of Android phones. Phone Link, which was made public as a component of the Windows 11 25231 preview build for Windows Insiders, will now enable the hotspot on your smartphone right from your desktop.

Microsoft noted in a blog post, “We’re excited to announce that you can now instantly access your mobile phone’s hotspot on your PC via the Phone Link app. The instant hotspot feature lets you securely start and connect to your phone’s Wi-Fi network without touching your phone.

When your phone is within range it will appear in the Wi-Fi network list on your PC where a single click turns on the phone’s hotspot and connects to it. No more remembering and typing passwords or searching for hotspot settings on the phone. This provides an easier and faster way to repeatedly connect to your hotspot when you are on the go.”

According to Android Authority, Windows Central has reported that Microsoft is now releasing a Windows 11 preview release that is exclusively available to the company’s Insiders on its Dev Channel.

This preview’s build version offers a few improvements and fixes. With this upgrade, users will now be able to use the Windows Wi-Fi bar to instantly link Windows 11 to the mobile hotspot on their phone.

The feature is comparable to Apple’s macOS and iPhones, which enables seamless hotspot connection without requiring passwords between the two devices. When both Apple devices are linked to the same Apple ID, users can link their Macbook to their iPhone hotspot.

Since Windows and Android belong to distinct ecosystems, the same has not yet been possible on those platforms. However, now Windows PCs and Android devices can sync via the Phone Link app. The app was first released in 2018 under the name “Your Phone,” which allowed users to get texts and other alerts from their smartphones on their PCs.

The Phone Link feature, however, is presently restricted to Samsung smartphones with Android 12 and above. Users must have a laptop or PC running Windows 11 (22H2 Build 22621), Wifi, Bluetooth, and the Phone Link app((v1.22082.111.0) in order to use this new feature.

A Samsung Galaxy device with One UI 4.1.1 (or higher) like Galaxy Z Fold 4, Galaxy Z Flip 4, Galaxy S21, or Galaxy S22 is also required. Reports suggest that Microsoft might eventually decide to support additional devices like the Surface Duo.

To modernize the experience, the Preview Build also contains changes to the System Tray and tablet-optimized taskbar. The UWP app icons’ appearance has been fixed, and the font in the Wi-Fi portion of Quick Settings has been made uniform. Another bug that caused applications like Windows Terminal and Paint to crash whenever users attempted to display a tooltip was also patched by Microsoft.

Over the past few years, Samsung has intensified its partnerships with Google and Microsoft. For over a year, Samsung was the only company to provide the Wear OS 3 OS, and now the Samsung Galaxy phones are the first to receive the new Microsoft Phone Link feature.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Android 13: When You Upgrade Your Phone Try These Features.

Google has launched the first Android 13 eventually with a collection of brand-new features comprising of a redesigned Material You together with automatic color schemes in accordance with wallpaper, end-to-end encryption for your group conservations, a kill switch that inhibits any third-party apps from using a mic, and camera and an inclusive clipboard feature between various devices.

“Android 13 comes with new capabilities for your phone and tablet, like extending app color theming to even more apps, language settings that can be set on an app level, improved privacy controls…” stated Sameer Samat, Vice President of Product Management, Google Play and Android.
Source: tech.hindustantimes.com

How to install Android 13 on your device

On any compatible Google Pixel handset, you can install the android 13 updates by using the following steps:

Step 1: Start the “settings” application on your Google Pixel Smartphone.

Step 2: Select the “system” and click on “System Update”.

Step 3: Check for any updates and then tap on the “Download” and “install” buttons in the bottom right corner. The Android 13 system will initiate the download and it may take up to twenty to thirty minutes for the installation to be completed on your device.

Step 4: Once the installation is complete, your phone will reboot automatically and voila! You are ready to use the new and exciting features of Android 13.

Advanced Features Of Android 13

Take a quick look at some of the android 13 features that you may or may not have missed.

Themed App Icons

Android 13 gives users complete control of how the operating system looks. In this update, Google supports themed app icons meaning they will change their colour in accordance with the wallpaper tint and the overall preferred themes.

Support for Bluetooth Low Energy Audio

This feature allows the user to listen to high-precision audio without consuming the battery of the device and they can stream to several devices without any loss in audio quality.

Different languages for different apps

With this feature, users can set a language for every app without modifying the system language. They can also switch between supported languages from the “App language” panel in settings only for the apps that support multiple languages.

Notification permission

In previous android versions, users had to disable the notifications from an individual app manually. But the Android 13 rolled out notification runtime permission in which apps will have to ask users to allow the display of notifications.

Quickly add custom tiles

If there is an app on your device that uses a custom tile, Android 13 allows the users to add the tile to the quick setting panel without having to exit the app.

Optimised for large displays

In the android 12L version, google enhanced how Android looked on large screens. Android 13 builds on the earlier iteration and introduces an enhanced taskbar same as the dock found on Mac devices which enables the users to switch between several apps.

The reason behind the draining of device battery in notifications

Android 13 lets the user know if an individual app is draining the battery in the background. It will display a silent notification which will allow the user to kill the app causing battery drainage.

Some other Features

It also introduces features like enhanced clipboard privacy which allows the users to edit the content, a new permission called NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES which allows the operating system to scan for nearby devices without the need to enable the location. It features a quick setting tile that can be used to scan QR codes independent of the application you’re using.

For the time being, Android 13 is only available for:

Google Pixel models – Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL, Pixel 4A, Pixel 5, Pixel 5A, Pixel 6, Pixel 6A, and Pixel 6 Pro. Handsets from other companies: Samsung Galaxy, HMD (Nokia smartphones), Asus, Motorola, Oppo, IQOO, OnePlus, Realme, Tecno, Vivo, Sharp, Sony, Xiaomi, and others will also get the Android 13 update soon.

Suhani Jain

I am a student pursuing my bachelor’s in information technology. I have a interest in writing so, I am working a freelance content writer because I enjoy writing. I also write poetries. I believe in the quote by anne frank “paper has more patience than person

Apple And Android Phones Hacked By Italian Spyware Confirmed By Google.

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Roshni Ankola

Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., revealed on Thursday that Apple Inc. and Android mobile devices in Italy and Kazakhstan were spied on by Italian Spyware using hacking tools manufactured in Italy. The story claims that tools to eavesdrop on the private messages and contacts of the targeted devices were developed by the Milan-based RCS Lab, whose website identifies European law enforcement agencies as clients.

With more businesses manufacturing intercepting technology for law enforcement, the worldwide spyware market is growing.

Anti-surveillance campaigners accuse them of assisting governments, which in some circumstances employ such instruments to suppress human and civil rights.

Google’s findings on RCS Lab come as European and American regulators consider additional restrictions on the selling and import of spyware.

“These vendors are enabling the proliferation of dangerous hacking tools and arming governments that would not be able to develop these capabilities in-house,” Google mentioned.
Source: indianexpress.com

Apple, as well as the governments of Italy and Kazakhstan, did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

RCS Lab claims that its products and services conform with European regulations and help law enforcement organizations in their investigations.

“RCS Lab workers are not exposed, nor do they participate in any activities conducted by the relevant customers,” the company told Reuters in an email, adding that any misuse of its goods was unacceptable.
Source: gadgets360.com

Google claimed to have taken security measures to safeguard Android users and to have made them aware of the spyware.

The global spyware market for governments is expanding, with more and more companies developing intercepting tools for law enforcement agencies. Anti-surveillance campaigners accuse them of assisting governments that, in some situations, utilize such tools to repress human and civil rights.

The Israeli spy agency NSO’s Pegasus malware, which was used by multiple nations to spy on journalists, activists, and dissidents, brought the industry into the public eye in recent years.

Bill Marczak, a security researcher at Citizen Lab, claims that although RCS Lab’s application isn’t as stealthy as Pegasus, it can still read messages and view passwords. He added, “This shows that even though these devices are ubiquitous, there’s still a long way to go in securing them against these powerful attacks,”
Source: indianexpress.com

RCS Lab presents itself as a supplier of “lawful interception” equipment and services, including voice, data collection, and “tracking devices,” on its website. It states that it can find 10,000 targets every day in only Europe.

According to Google researchers, RCS Lab previously collaborated with the contentious, now-defunct Italian Spyware firm Hacking Team, which also created surveillance software for foreign agencies to hack into phones and computers. After being the target of a large hack in 2015 that led to the disclosure of numerous internal documents, Hacking Team filed for bankruptcy.

Billy Leonard, a senior researcher at Google, claims that in some instances, Google implied that it believed hackers using RCS spyware worked along with the target’s ISP, suggesting connections to actors with government backing.

Roshni Ankola

I am a second-year student pursuing Liberal Arts from Nmims. I am a painter, I love reading and have a great interest in cooking. I am also a trained kickboxer. I’ve always had a passion for writing and hence in my free time, I work as a freelance writer.

New Predator Spyware Lets Government Hackers Break Into Chrome And Android.

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Roshni Ankola

Google said Monday that a rogue private surveillance firm sold access to almost half a dozen major security loopholes in Chrome and Android to government-affiliated hackers last year. These governments then employed Cytrox’s “predator” spyware to complete their hacking campaigns. Because of New Predator Spyware, your Android phone and Chrome browser may be in danger of state-sponsored hacking.

Cytrox, a murky North Macedonian business, is accused of selling access to four zero-day system vulnerabilities in the Chrome browser and one in the Android operating system. Clients included government-linked “threat actors” from a variety of nations who utilized the exploits to execute hacking campaigns using Cytrox’s invasive spyware “Predator.”
In a blog post, Google‘s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) announced the news and mentioned that they think likely government-backed entities acquiring these exploits are operating (at least) in Egypt, Armenia, Greece, Madagascar, Côte d’Ivoire, Serbia, Spain, and Indonesia, consistent with CitizenLab findings, Google noted.

Cytrox exploited n-day vulnerabilities as well as zero-day weaknesses (vulnerabilities that have yet to be patched) (ones that have been already patched by Google). This frequently occurs when consumers do not regularly update their gadgets.
Surveillance organizations like Cytrox were responsible for a large portion of the zero-day vulnerabilities disclosed last year. Pegasus, anyone? Yes, the same instrument that governments around the world use to spy on journalists, public personalities, and members of opposition parties. It was created by the Israeli NSO Group and is said to have been used by the Indian government.

How the hacking took place:

One-time URLs that were shortened and delivered over email were used to target Android users. “Once the target clicked the link, the browser was transferred to an attacker-owned domain that delivered the attacks before redirecting to a legitimate website,” Google added.
The first case was discovered in August 2021 on an un-updated Samsung Galaxy S21. This was accomplished by exploiting existing Chrome flaws and opening URLs without the user’s knowledge. And this was only one of the campaigns.

In the world of hacking, what Cytrox has done is considered incredibly advanced and clever. It is a next-level cyber company to sells access to security weaknesses that require its own spyware to exploit. The zero-day exploits were employed alongside n-day vulnerabilities, according to Google, since the spyware’s makers took advantage of the time gap between when major defects were patched but not recognized as security issues and when these fixes were fully carried out across the Android ecosystem.
In other words, the monitoring firm granted spyware rights to individuals who had not fully updated their gadgets, giving them access to security weaknesses. Google had released updates, but users took their time to install them. Google said that their findings highlight the extent to which commercial surveillance vendors have proliferated capabilities that were previously only employed by governments with the technical expertise to design and operationalize exploits.

Google stated that its Android and Chrome teams were quick to respond to the vulnerabilities and repair them. Cytrox appears to be comparable to NSO Group, which produces and distributes Pegasus, arguably the most destructive cyber weapon, to various countries for espionage on targeted devices.
In recent years, hacking scandals involving the private spy business have sparked much debate. This is bad news for businesses that must protect items that are used by hundreds of millions of people. Cytrox is making things difficult for the security teams at Google, Apple, and Microsoft, and it doesn’t appear that they’ll be getting a break anytime soon.

Roshni Ankola

Realme Pad Mini With 8.7-Inch Hd+ Display, 6400mah Battery Now Available.

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Team YTS

In the Philippines, Realme has released a new tablet. The Realme Pad mini has been announced as a low-cost tablet for the masses. Realme Pad, released in India and other markets last year, has been followed by the new Android tablet. The Realme tablet’s new mini version is expected to arrive in India soon.

The tablet’s debut in India has yet to be confirmed by Realme. We can expect the Pad mini to launch in India very soon, given how the company is expanding its product offerings across different price points. Let’s look at the Realme Pad Mini’s price, specs, and other information.

Specifications and Features

Realme’s new Android tablet has an 8.7-inch LCD panel with thick bezels all around it. The display has a 1340×800 pixel HD resolution. Despite the thick bezels, the tablet has an 84.59 percent screen-to-body ratio.

The tablet is equipped with a 6400 mAh battery. Out of the box, it supports 18W fast charging. Because it’s a budget tablet, it’s made of plastic, resulting in a total weight of 372 grammes. Moreover, it’s quite thin with a thickness of 7.6mm.

Internal storage for the top storage option is 64GB. A microSD card can be used to expand the memory up to 1TB for those who need it. A Unisoc T616 SoC provides power to the tablet. Its maximum clock speed is 2.0GHz.

The 8MP camera on the back panel can be used to scan documents. There isn’t a light-emitting diode (LED) flash module. The tablet has a 5MP front camera for video calls. Realme’s new tablet comes pre-installed with Android 11 out of the box. On top of Android, it has a layer of Realme UI 2.0. The tablet also has dual speakers and Bluetooth 5.0 support.

Price and Availability

Realme has released two storage options for its new tablet. A 3GB RAM model with 64GB storage is available, as well as a 4GB RAM model with 64GB storage. The models cost P9,900 and P11,900, or approximately Rs 14,700 and Rs 17,600, respectively.

Starting April 5, the Realme Pad Mini will be available in the Philippines. Realme has also put up offers for early buyers on the Realme Pad Mini, so we can expect the same for Indian buyers. Realme’s new tablet is available in two colours: silver and blue. It is expected to be released in India soon.

About The Company

Realme is a Chinese company with a growing presence in the rest of the world, particularly in India and Europe, where its low-cost smartphones are causing a stir in the budget and mid-range markets. However, the company isn’t afraid of high-end handsets, and the GT line, which debuted in 2021, includes a few of them. Realme, in fact, has been one of the fastest-growing phone companies in recent years, so they’re definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Realme began as a sub-brand of another smartphone manufacturer, Oppo, in 2010, but became independent in 2018. Since then, the company has produced an impressive number of phones and has expanded its sales beyond India and China to include many other countries.

Team YTS

OnePlus TV Y1S, OnePlus TV Y1S Edge With Android TV 11, Dolby Audio Now Available in India.

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Team YTS

Today, the OnePlus TV Y1S and TV Y1S Edge were released in India (Thursday, February 17). HDR10+, HDR10, and HLG formats are supported on the OnePlus TV Y1S and TV Y1S Edge. Both are powered by Android TV 11 and have Dolby Audio support. The OnePlus Y1S TV is equipped with 20W full-range stereo speakers, while the OnePlus TV Y1S Edge is equipped with 24W full-range stereo speakers. The auto low latency mode (ALLM) on the OnePlus smart TVs is said to improve gaming performance.

Specifications and Features

Both the OnePlus TV Y1S and TV Y1S Edge are smart TVs that come pre-installed with Android TV 11. Both come with a 32-inch and a 43-inch display. The former has a high-definition resolution, while the latter has a full-HD one. Both smart TVs support HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG formats. TUV Rheinland has also certified the displays for low blue light emission.

ALLM is a feature on the OnePlus TV Y1S and TV Y1S Edge that is said to improve the gaming experience for users. Google Assistant is also available on smart TVs. Users can use the Smart Manager to control a variety of smart TV functions, including system speed and storage space. Users will be able to connect their smartphones to their televisions and use them as a remote control with the OnePlus Connect 2.0. The TV Y1S series features dual-band Wi-Fi with 5GHz band support for connectivity.

Dolby audio is supported on smart TVs. A 20W stereo speaker is standard on both models, while a 24W stereo speaker is standard on the TV Y1S Edge. With both smart TVs, OxygenPlay 2.0 is included, an aggregation platform offering 230 live channels. A Game Mode is also included with the smart TVs, which activate ALLM and promises to provide an immersive experience. The Kids Mode includes a watch timer that limits how long you can watch TV and an Eye Comfort Mode that improves your digital well-being.

Price and Availability

The 32-inch OnePlus Y1S TV costs Rs 16,499, while the 43-inch TV costs Rs 26,999. The OnePlus Y1S Edge costs Rs 16,999, while the 43-inch TV costs Rs 27,999. The 32-inch OnePlus Y1S TV will be available for purchase on February 21, while the 43-inch model will be available on March 2. Starting February 21, the TV Y1S Edge will be available. The OnePlus Y1S will be sold on Amazon India, Flipkart, and OnePlus.in. The OnePlus Y1S Edge will be available at Reliance Digital and Croma stores, as well as on the OnePlus’ Indian website.

About The Company

In late 2013, two former Oppo employees founded OnePlus, a new smartphone company. Their goal was to create OnePlus phones that checked all the boxes for Android fans: great design, powerful specs, the fastest and most lightweight software, and a low price. With the launch of the OnePlus One in 2014, the dream became a reality.
OnePlus has grown from its humble beginnings as an online-only niche smartphone manufacturer to a global powerhouse since then. When you take a step back and realize it’s only been a little over eight years, it’s quite an accomplishment.

Team YTS

Android

Follow Us