HTC One A9 Reviewtyt

Look and feel
Let's just get to the elephant in the room immediately: yes, the HTC One A9 bears a strong resemblance to the iPhone 6s (Review). The flat metal back, thickness, unibody design, curved corners, antenna lines, protruding camera, and speaker grille at the bottom are all similar to design cues on Apple's flagship. However, the One A9 is larger than the 6s, has prominent HTC logos at the back and in front, and has its rear camera positioned at the centre instead of in the upper left corner.

It's also important to note that the some of these design elements such as the antenna lines, metallic unibody and curved corners were used by HTC long before the iPhone 6 and 6s launched. Additionally, the front is patently different from the iPhone and borrows cues from the HTC One M9+ (such as the fingerprint sensor). While there are certainly similarities, we are of the opinion that it is unfair to say that HTC has blatantly copied the iPhone, or designed the A9 with the sole intention of piggybacking on the success of Apple's design.

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Now that we have that out of the way, we feel that the HTC One A9 is a fantastic looking smartphone. It's slim, sleek, stunning in all of its colour options, and still easy to handle. The power and volume buttons are on the right; the speaker grille, Micro-USB port and 3.5mm socket are at the bottom; and the SIM and microSD slots are on the left. The power button has a rough texture to help you distinguish it from the volume rocker, which is a useful touch.

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The front of the phone has the selfie camera, earpiece, and proximity sensor at the top, and the fingerprint sensor at the bottom. The phone doesn't have capacitive Android keys, instead using on-screen keys for those functions. The fingerprint sensor doubles up as a home key, but this can be disabled if you prefer. The phone can be woken using motion launch gestures or by touching the fingerprint sensor. If you've activated the sensor, simply keeping your finger on the scanner will quickly unlock your phone; first waking it and then reading your fingerprint. You can store up to five fingerprints, which can be used to unlock the phone and interact with supported apps such as 1Password.

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The screen of the HTC One A9 is a 5-inch full-HD Amoled panel with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. As is the case with Amoled screens, there is a hint of warmth in the colour tone, although this isn't bothersome in any way. We personally prefer a little bit of warmth in the tones, as this makes the screen easier on the eyes. Colours pop and blacks are deep, which makes visuals appear more dramatic and dynamic. Above all, sharpness is absolutely fantastic, and on the whole the screen is nothing short of brilliant for a full-HD panel.

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Specifications and software
The HTC One A9 is powered by the 1.5GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 SoC, and is one of only a handful of phones that have adopted this processor. Compared to its series predecessors, the 615 and 616, the 617 has been designed to offer better performance and battery life as well as higher LTE speeds, better Wi-Fi handling capabilities, and support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0. The HTC One A9 supports Quick Charge 2.0 out-of-the-box, but unfortunately doesn't ship with a compatible charger, which is annoying, and feels to us like a blatant case of cost cutting. However, we tried charging the one with a third-party Quick Charge 2.0-compatible charger, and charging was noticeably quicker, with the phone drawing power much more rapidly than before.

Apart from that, the One A9 also has 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage (expandable by up to 200GB using a microSD card), Wi-Fi 802.11n as well as 802.11ac, and 4G connectivity on its single nano-SIM slot (FDD Band 3 and TDD Band 40 both supported). There's also a 2150mAh battery, Bluetooth 4.1 with apt-X, and HTC's Boomsound audio enhancement software built in. The A9 is incredibly well-specced, and is practically flagship-grade in many ways.

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After the Nexus 5X (Review) and Nexus 6P (Review), the HTC One A9 was one of the first smartphones to launch with Android 6.0 out-of-the-box. All of Marshmallow's key features are present and proper, including Doze Mode, Now On Tap and app permissions. Performance and snappiness around the system is brilliant as well.

HTC, gave us assurances of quick system updates at launch, promising the latest firmware updates within 15 days of Nexus devices getting them. Sure enough, an OTA update to Android 6.0.1 was available when we checked. Apart from incremental fixes and security updates, it also brings support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0.

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Layered on top is HTC's Sense UI, now in its seventh iteration. The A9 runs a slightly tweaked version of the interface called Sense 7.0_g, which minimises Sense's influence, relying more on core Android functionality for certain things. This doesn't mean that the phone lacks the typical HTC touches, as Sense is still firmly in control of the device, but the optimisation makes the phone a little bit better when it comes to performance and functionality.

Key differences we noticed in this version of Sense are that the Quick Settings menu, notifications shade and app switcher are the same as those on stock Android, and certain HTC apps such as HTC Backup, HTC Music, the HTC Internet browser and Scribble have been removed. Instead, focus is placed on using Google apps such as Drive, Chrome and Play Music for those functions. However, a lot of signature Sense apps, such as Calendar, Clock, Gallery, Camera, Weather and Sense Home remain present, giving the One A9 the best of both worlds. Sense itself is as good as it has always been, with an excellent combination of aesthetics, ease of use and performance.

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Camera
The HTC One A9 has a 13-megapixel primary camera with dual-tone LED flash, and a 4-megapixel 'Ultrapixel' front camera. Both are capable of recording full-HD video, and modes such as manual, hyperlapse, slow-motion video and panorama are all present. HDR and optical image stabilisation are both in place as well.

The HTC Camera app is a little bit different from the ones we've seen on previous HTC devices, but remains as easy and comfortable to use as always. Basic controls such as the flash, camera switcher and HDR buttons are within easy reach, while specific modes such as panorama, pro, hyperlapse and slow-motion video can be reached through a mode menu. Recording video is a one-step procedure, and various settings can be tweaked, such as photo and video resolution, geotagging, grid and more. It's quick and easy to use, and you can also set up motion launch gestures to quickly launch the camera from sleep mod

Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro With 4GB of RAM, 5000mAh Battery Launchedfhf

Samsung last year in December launched its metal-clad Galaxy A9 aka Galaxy A9 (2016), soon after which rumours and leaks for the more powerful Galaxy A9 Pro started brewing up. The handset passed certification websites and went through benchmarking websites as well. However, the South Korean tech giant has reportedly finally made the device official by launching it in China.

The Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro aka Galaxy A9 Pro (2016) is available to purchase from an e-commerce website in China at CNY 3,499 (roughly Rs. 35,700). Samsung is yet to reveal the availability details of the device outside the region, or even list the smartphone variant on its China-specific website. The China launch was first reported by MyDrivers. To recall, the Galaxy A9 was launched in China at CNY 3,199 (roughly Rs. 32,600).

The dual-SIM (Nano-SIM + Nano-SIM) Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro (SM-A9100), as compared to the Galaxy A9, features a better rear camera, more RAM, and a larger battery. Rest of the specifications remain the same. While the Galaxy A9 comes with a 13-megapixel rear autofocus camera with LED flash, f/1.9 aperture, and optical image stabilisation (OIS), the Galaxy A9 Pro features a 16-megapixel camera with the same specifications. The 'Pro' version also houses 4GB of RAM with 5000mAh battery as compared to Galaxy A9's 3GB RAM and 4000mAh battery.

(Also see: Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy A9)

The Android 5.1 Lollipop-based handset sports the same metal frame and glass body design as seen in other premium Galaxy handsets such as Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6, and more. It features a 6-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) resolution Super Amoled display with 2.5D curved glass and is powered by a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 SoC, formerly known as Qualcomm Snapdragon 620 clocked at 1.8GHz, clubbed with Adreno 510 GPU.

Also included is an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with few specific modes such as wide selfie mode, self-portrait mode, palm selfie mode and others. As seen in majority of the Galaxy devices, the Galaxy A9 (2016) Pro camera app can be fired by double pressing the home button, which also houses a fingerprint sensor with Samsung Pay support. Connectivity features housed inside the smartphone are Bluetooth v4.1, GPS, Beidou, NFC, Wi-Fi, and USB 2.0. it is available in White and Gold colour variants.

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Intex FitRist Reviewhg

Intex FitRist Review

While Xiaomi's Mi Band is our favourite activity tracker at the sub-Rs. 1000 price level, its lack of a display can be a deal-breaker for some. Micromax's Yu YuFit had the right ideas but fell well short of the mark in our tests, which means there is plenty of room for competitors. Intex has decided to step in with the FitRist, a Rs. 999 activity tracker with a display. We used it for a couple of weeks to see if it can displace the Mi Band as our top budget activity tracker.
The FitRist is made of a very comfortable material with a rubber-like finish. In the time that we spent wearing the device, it didn't irritate our skin at all. We wore it for long hours - practically the whole day - without any issues. The display is glued to the band. This makes it meld seamlessly and ensures that the rubber-like material is the only thing that comes in contact with the wearer's skin.
There is a button on one side of the display, which you use to switch between time, date, steps taken, distance covered, calories burned, music control, and camera control, but it doesn't show sleep data. To check your sleep tracking statistics, you will have to use the FitRist's Android or iPhone app.
We tested the FitRist with an iPhone and felt that the app needs improvement. Its design is rather crude and clunky - a far cry from the slick Mi Band app. Pairing was a big headache. Even though the process appears simple, we found that the app sometimes wouldn't detect the band at all and even when it did, it wouldn't always pair with it. We managed to pair the device after multiple attempts but when the band did get disconnected, pairing it again gave us similar issues.
The app has some other oddities, such as having your activity history and sleep tracking data hidden under a strangely named "Record" feature in a menu.
We're willing to excuse a sub-par app if the band itself does a good job. We used an iPhone 5s to compare activity data against the Intex FitRist and results weren't good. On an average the iPhone 5s's built-in motion sensor recorded around 25 percent more steps than the FitRist. We checked this data on multiple days and the FitRist consistently under-reported our activity. A small difference between the two devices' data is acceptable, but an activity tracker ceases to be useful if it is off the mark by such a huge margin.
The FitRist also lets you control music playback and trigger your phone camera's shutter button using its own button, but the process is too clumsy to be useful. You need to press the button till you reach the relevant control and then hold it until a song starts playing on your phone or until the photo is captured. Doing the same things via your phone is a lot faster. The FitRist does have pretty good battery life - we had to charge it just once a week.
To sum it up, even though the Intex FitRist is very comfortable to wear and has an attractive price tag of Rs. 999, we can't recommend it because of its inaccurate activity data reporting. The app could use a lot more polish too, but Intex needs to fix its activity tracking first. If you're looking for an affordable fitness wearable in India, the Xiaomi Mi Band still remains the one to get.
Pros
- Display - Battery life - Pricing
Cons
- Inaccurate activity tracking - Clunky app - Pairing isn't smooth
Ratings (out of 5)
Design: 4
Tracking: 1
Other features: 2
Value for money: 1
Overall: 1
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iPad Pro Super. Comp4 uter. Now in two sizes.ttr

Pad Pro is more than the next generation of iPad — it’s an uncompromising vision of personal computing for the modern world. It puts incredible power that leaps past most portable PCs at your fingertips. It makes even complex work as natural as touching, swiping, or writing with a pencil. And whether you choose the 12.9-inch model or the new 9.7-inch model, iPad Pro is more capable, versatile, and portable than anything that’s come before. In a word, super.

12.9-inch iPad Pro
An epic screen that turns advanced tasks into brilliant, immersive experiences.
Watch the film
9.7-inch iPad Pro
Incredibly portable, with an unprecedented combination of versatility and performance.
Retina Display
An awesome display of progress.
The key to the iPad experience is the display. It’s how you interact using Multi-Touch, and how you view content in spectacular detail. So we created our most vivid Retina display ever. The 12.9‑inch iPad Pro has the highest resolution of any iOS device. And the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro screen — our most advanced display — is the brightest and least reflective in the world.

FBI hacks attacker's iPhone, daarops Apple suitagg

Los Angeles (AFP) - The FBI has unlocked the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terror attackers, officials said Monday, ending a heated legal standoff with Apple that had pitted US authorities against Silicon Valley.

Apple, backed by a broad coalition of technology giants like Google and Facebook, was fiercely opposed to assisting the US government in unlocking the iPhone on grounds it would have wide-reaching implications on digital security and privacy.

A key court hearing scheduled earlier this month to hear arguments from both sides in the sensitive case was abruptly cancelled after the FBI said it no longer needed Apple’s help because it had found an outside party to unlock the phone.

Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California on December 2 before dying in a firefight with police. Two other phones linked to the pair were found destroyed after the attack.

“Our decision to conclude the litigation was based solely on the fact that, with the recent assistance of a third party, we are now able to unlock that iPhone without compromising any information on the phone,” US attorney Eileen Decker said in a statement.

In a court filing asking that the case be dismissed, federal prosecutors said the US government had “successfully accessed the data stored on Farook’s iPhone and therefore no longer requires assistance from Apple Inc.”

It was unclear who helped the FBI access the phone and what was stored on the device.

But news reports have said the FBI may have sought assistance from an Israeli forensics company.

In a statement late Monday, the FBI declined to say who that party was, or what technical steps were taken to unlock the phone.

“The full exploitation of the phone and follow-up investigative steps are continuing. My law enforcement partners and I made a commitment to the victims of the 12/2 attack in San Bernardino and to the American people that no stone would be left unturned in this case,” said David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office.

The goal of the probe is to determine if the California attackers worked with others, were targeting others and were supported by others, the FBI said.

“While we continue to explore the contents of the iPhone and other evidence, these questions may not be fully resolved, but I am satisfied that we have access to more answers than we did before and that the investigative process is moving forward,” Bowdich said.

Apple said the FBI case should never have been brought before the courts and that the company would continue to increase the security of its products.

“Apple believes deeply that people in the United States and around the world deserve data protection, security and privacy,” it said. “Sacrificing one for the other only puts people and countries at greater risk.”

- ‘Hit a new low’ -

Tech companies, security experts and civil rights advocates had vowed to fight the government, saying it would set a precedent to compel companies to build backdoors into their products.

The government had fired back, insisting that Apple was not above the law and that its request for technical assistance concerned only Farook’s work phone from the San Bernardino health department.

Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future, a non-profit that supports Apple, said Monday’s announcement was proof the government had an alternative motive in the case.

“The FBI’s credibility just hit a new low,” he said in a statement. “They repeatedly lied to the court and the public in pursuit of a dangerous precedent that would have made all of us less safe.

"Fortunately, Internet users mobilized quickly and powerfully to educate the public about the dangers of backdoors, and together we forced the government to back down

Review: iPhone SE puts the same engine in a smaller exteriordgrg

On March 31, you’ll be able to buy the newest member of the iPhone family: the iPhone SE.
What does SE stand for? Apple says Special Edition, but you could also sum it up this way: Same Engine, Smaller Exterior. Because Apple has crammed the chips, guts, and camera of the iPhone 6s into the crisp-cornered body of the tiny iPhone 5s.
On one hand, Apple now seems to be following the Samsung model of spewing out phones and tablets in every conceivable size, rather than innovating in more substantial ways.
On the other hand, Apple is correct that a certain chunk of the population doesn’t like the jumbo-ification of smartphones, such as the big iPhone 6s and even bigger 6s Plus. Some people, small of hands, still cling to the three-year-old iPhone 5s (with its 4-inch screen) despite the gigantic improvements in speed, camera power, and wireless abilities in the newer phones.
Three things about the SE are newsworthy: First, the battery life is about 30 percent better than the iPhone 6s’s (good for 13 hours of Web browsing, Apple says) — a side effect of having a screen the same size as the 5s.
Second, at $400 without a contract (for the 16GB model), the iPhone SE is the least expensive iPhone that Apple has ever offered. Finally, with its 4-inch screen, the SE is now the smallest brand-name smartphone sold in America.
The SE is loaded with features (Apple Pay, Live Photos, fingerprint unlocking, 4K video recording, hands-free “Hey Siri” voice commands, and more), but not a single one of them is new in the SE.
It actually lacks one modern feature of the iPhone 6s: It doesn’t have 3D Touch, which makes shortcut menus pop up when you apply additional pressure to the iPhone 6s’s screen. (Compared with the 6s, the SE screen isn’t quite as colorful, the front camera not quite as good, and the fingerprint reader isn’t quite as fast, either.)
In other words, a review of the iPhone SE would, for all intents and purposes, be a re-review of the iPhone 6s. Therefore, to save us both time and effort, here’s what I said about the 6s, in lightly updated form. After all: If Apple can recycle its finest ideas, why can’t I? (You can skip to the final paragraph for my final thoughts on the new phone.)

Things you’ll appreciate all day long

The biggest new thing is speed.
The  processor inside: Apple says it’s “up to 70 percent” faster than the iPhone 6. Opening apps, switching apps, processing things — it all happens faster.
Apple also says that it has tuned both its Wi-Fi and its cellular (LTE) antennas to make them faster. This, too, is screamingly obvious when you call up websites side-by-side on the old and new phones. Who doesn’t like faster Internet?

Things you’ll appreciate occasionally

Apple makes much of the iPhone’s new camera. It takes 12-megapixel photos, up from 8. And it can capture 4K video (that is, four times the resolution of high definition).
But as Apple itself has pointed out many times, having more megapixels does not mean you take better photos. More megapixels can be useful when you want to crop a wide photo down to a smaller subject and still have enough resolution for a print. Otherwise, more megapixels just means bigger files — and your phone will fill up faster

How to trick your iPhone into freeing up storage spacejjrt

A trick to get more storage space on your iPhone has been circulating around the Internet today — but you have to have less than a gig of available space left on your phone to make it work.

Read More: How to password-protect the iPhone Notes app in iOS 9.3

Redditor eavesdroppingyou posted a tactic for clearing up extra space that involves renting a movie from iTunes (don’t worry, it won’t charge you). Eavesdroppingyou suggests picking a long movie like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, because the trick requires that the movie’s file size exceeds the amount of storage left on your phone.

After you hit the Rent button on a movie, a dialog box will come up, which will prompt you to hit OK or Settings. Hit Settings.




(image credit: Mashable)


Your phone will take you to the Settings menu. If you take a look at General > Storage & iCloud Usage, you’ll see that your phone’s available storage space has probably gone up. My iPhone 5S with iOS 9.3 started at 890MB and jumped up to 1.6GB available.

If you hit your home button, you can see your iPhone working through different apps, graying them out and replacing their names with “Cleaning…” This likely means that your phone is removing a bunch of unused data and things like cookies, caches and histories. Your iPhone might automatically do this when storage space gets very low, but this is a great way to force the process to happen.

When I tried this, my phone went for Safari first, and also cleaned my Twitter, Snapchat and Imgur apps.

Read More: Apple releases iOS 9.3.1 update to fix bug that caused iPhones to freeze up




(image credit: Mashable)

The Reddit post suggested renting the movie multiple times to free up more space, and it works. After three more cleanings, my iPhone had 3.9GB of available storage, and I didn’t even have to remove any apps, photos or podcasts.




(image credit: Mashable)


Try this out for yourself to get your phone to do some cleaning for you — it could save you from deleting some items you’d rather not give up.

Samsung+ app brings tech support to your phone mmj

Apple’s Genius Bar is one of the big reasons people love the company. If you’ve got a problem with a device, you can just go to your local Apple Store and get it fixed in no time. Unfortunately, you can’t get the same kind of help with many other products.

Samsung wants to change that, though, with the latest version of its Samsung+ app. Available today, Samsung+ 3.0 is designed to provide you with all of the information you need to deal with any and all of your connected conundrums from the comfort of your home.

Though it’s on version 3.0, chances are you’ve never heard of Samsung+. That’s because Samsung actually launched the app last summer but didn’t make much of it, as the company said it wanted to continue adding more features.

Several other journalists and I got the chance to use Samsung+ 3.0 in action, and it feels well thought out enough to genuinely make customer support easier for Samsung users.

Samsung says the app is designed to provide you with personalized support for all your Samsung devices.

From the home screen, you can see highlights about your device, get simple tips on how to better use it, or browse various Samsung promotions. That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t do much to help you when your phone is on the fritz.

Tapping on the question mark icon at the top of the screen brings you to the Samsung+ Support page. From here you can perform a diagnostic check on your device, find answers to frequently asked questions, and get live help.

The live help feature is what makes Samsung+ so compelling. Previous versions of the app already offered phone support and live video support, but with Samsung+ 3.0, the company now lets support representatives remotely take control of your device.