Possibly taking a leaf out of its subsidiary Motorola, Lenovo has decided to ditch its custom Android skin – Vibe Pure UI – in favour of a leaner, stock approach. The upcoming Lenovo K8 Note, which comes with Android 7.1.1. Nougat, will be the first one to do so. The phones will steep keep software enhancements such as the Dolby Atmos tech – that are also found in Moto devices – but the rest of the bloatware will be gone.
“What we have done in last 11 months is we looked at what we had in terms of software perspective. We have been close to the consumers and we saw what they were asking for,” Lenovo India’s product marketing head Anuj Sharma told Gadgets 360. “There was a certain trend and we have now decided to cut the Vibe Pure UI off from our phones. So you will now get the stock Android which consumers have been asking for.”
Airtel the only winner in TRAI’s July 4G speed tests but Jio still on top
Of the big four, Airtel was the only provider whose 4G speeds increased in the month of July, according to data provided by TRAI’s MySpeed app. All the other three – Reliance Jio, Vodafone, and Idea – saw their peak speeds decline for the second straight month. That doesn’t change the order though, which sees Jio (18.654Mbps) maintain the top spot in the download section, followed by Vodafone (11.070Mbps), Idea (9.465Mbps), and Airtel (8.916Mbps).
Nokia 8 might come with Android O
A new GeekBench listing for the upcoming Nokia 8 reads ‘Android 8.0.0’ under the operating system label, which suggests that the Nokia flagship will be one of the first phones with Android O. It may also be why the phone’s called Nokia 8, though that doesn’t explain the naming of every other Nokia phone of course. Alongside, a new leak has also given us another look at the upcoming Nokia 2, which shows a lack of home button on the front.
Samsung Galaxy S8 sales cross 20-million mark
Samsung has shipped over 20 million units of its latest flagship, the Galaxy S8, according to a report by market research firm Strategy Analytics. Samsung’s mobile division chief Dong-Jin Koh told Korean media that Galaxy S8 shipments are 15 percent higher than S7 shipments for the same period last year. Korean website The Investor notes that Samsung shipped 278,800 Galaxy S8 units per day since it went on sale April 21.
OnePlus 5 to get Gold variant; OxygenOS 4.5.7 update halted
OnePlus 5 will soon have a new Gold variant, according to a new promotional image and the accompanying link. The Chinese manufacturer simply wanted to tease the upcoming announcement, but a part of the image URL contained the word ‘gold’, seemingly giving away what the surprise is supposed to be. Now we just have to wait for official confirmation.
Meanwhile, a new update for the OnePlus 5 – OxygenOS 4.5.7 – has been halted after it was revealed that the update suffers from a gaming stutter issue.
Google reportedly offered $30 billion for Snapchat
Google had tabled an acquisition offer of $30 billion (roughly Rs. 1,91,044 crores) for Snap – the company behind Snapchat – in 2016, and before the latter went public this year, according to a report in Business Insider. The offer still continues to stand, which is about twice its current value with the company’s stock having fallen from $17 to $12.9 since going public. Snap is set to announce its Q2 earnings next week.
Hacker who helped stop WannaCry arrested for separate crime
Marcus Hutchins, a British security researcher better known as @MalwareTechBlog who helped thwart WannaCry ransomware attack, has been arrested for allegedly creating and selling a malicious software called Trojan Kronos that targeted bank accounts. Hutchins was detained on his way back home from DEF CON, the annual hacker conference. The indictment alleges that Hutchins and another unnamed defendant conspired between July 2014 and July 2015 to advertise the availability of the Kronos malware on internet forums, sell the malware and profit from it.
Sony provides list of Xperia phones that will get Android O update
Sony has announced that nine of its phones will receive Android O after Google makes it available, including Sony Xperia X Performance, the Sony Xperia XZ, the Sony Xperia XZs, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium, Sony Xperia X, the Sony Xperia X Compact, the Sony Xperia XA1, the Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra, and the Sony Xperia L1. If your phone’s not in the list, you’re out of luck. Sony hasn’t given a timeline on the updates, so you’ll just have to wait.
Coolpad Note 5 Lite C launched in India
Coolpad launched the Note 5 Lite C in India on Friday, which runs Android 7.1 and costs Rs. 7,777. Available in Grey and Gold colour variants, the Note 5 Lite C is a toned-down version of the Note 5 Lite, with a 5-inch HD display, dual-SIM support, 1.1GHz quad-core Snapdragon 210, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB internal storage. In terms of cameras, you get an 8-megapixel f/2.4 sensor on the back and a 5-megapixel f/2.4 sensor on the front.