Apple has been rolling out one update after the other lately. After releasing the iOS 11.1.2 update just last week, the company has already started rolling out the beta version of the iOS 11.2 upgrade. Which mean, iOS 11.2 is being tested, and can be expected to be out soon.

In the update, as reported by MacRumors, Apple is rolling out faster wireless charging support for the iPhone X and iPhone 8. The report confirms that 7.5W charging is available in the latest iOS 11.2 beta. As of now, the iPhone X and iPhone 8 support the slowest Qi charging speed of 5W.

However, in line with the iOS 11.2 beta update, Apple had promised at the time of launch that the faster 7.5W speed would be coming later on. It was earlier believed that the update for faster wireless charging will come with Apple’s own AirPower mat, which is said to came out sometime in 2018, but basis today’s report, that isn’t true. 

Also, the 7.5W speed seems to be available for any Qi charger that supports the higher output, and not just on Apple’s two approved pads from Belkin and Mophie. While there is no official word from Apple as to when can we expect a full public release of iOS 11.2, but considering the beta is out now, we can expect it to be out sometime in the next few weeks. 

The news of beta release comes barely a week after the iOS 11.1.2 update, which primarily brought fixes for the iPhone X. The most important patch that the update did was to the awkward issue of the iPhone X turning unresponsive in cold weather. The other patch in the update fixed the issue that could cause distortion in Live Photos and videos captured with iPhone X. 

Apple released iOS 11 for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch back in September. The OS upgrade brought with it changes, features and improvements for these devices. Of the new changes, the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi toggles on Control Center was quite confusing for many users. Toggling off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth from the Control Center actually didn’t actually turn off these features. Apple, in the next iOS 11.2 release will feature popups to make people aware of these changes.

First reported by MacRumors, Apple released the third version of its upcoming iOS 11.2. In the beta version, when toggling off Wi-Fi or Bluetooth from the Control Center popups would be initiated. These popups will explain the user what exactly happens on when these switches are toggled off. For Wi-Fi, the popup message reads, “The current Wi-Fi network and others nearby will be disconnected until tomorrow. Wi-Fi will continue to be available for AirDrop, Personal Hotspot, and location accuracy”.

As for Bluetooth connectivity, the popup screen has this message – “Currently connected accessories will be disconnected and other accessories will not connect. Bluetooth will continue to be available for Apple Watch, Apple Pencil, Personal Hotspot, and Handoff”. These popup messages will be shown only when you the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth toggles are used for the first time on Control Center. Later, only the headline of the popup message will appear on top. Apple’s explanation of turning off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi temporarily is so that users can still connect to AirDrop, AirPlay, Apple Pencil, Apple Watch, Hotspot and Location Services. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth will be enabled again if toggled from the Control Center, if it’s 5:00AM local time, and if you restart the device. Going to a new location will also enable Wi-Fi connectivity, and adding a new Bluetooth accessory for Bluetooth. Disabling these services would require you to go to Settings and turn off directly.

Have you ever added one, two and three using a calculator? Clearly, that makes you poor at math by the snooty standards, but you can feel at home here. I too have once (or more) probably. Now, the question is if you have ever done that “major calculation” on an iOS 11 calculator. If you have, then I would seriously suggest you to go back to that math problem, because your results were quite likely wrong. But don’t be hard on yourself, blame it on iOS 11.

Turns out, the calculator app on the new iPhone OS is a wee bit flawed. A Reddituser has recently pointed out that, when you quickly type 1+2+3 on the iOS 11 calculator app, you most likely wouldn’t get six as the answer. You might get 23, or 24, or 16, or 32, or something else, depending on what buttons you tap and in what order, and, obviously, none of which is the right answer.

via GIPHY

Basically what happens here, is that when you type these numbers too fast, the app hangs a little, so instead of 1+2+3, you actually end up typing 1+23 or 12+3. Basically, you just get some or the other wrong answer. And it works similarly for other numbers too, so it is not like just the 1,2 and 3 are flawed. I tried adding 7+8+9 and got 89.

The Reddit user found that this issue was because of the new animation in the calculator app, where a button briefly fades to white when you press it. The result is that if you press an operator button (i.e., the plus sign) before the short animation finishes, the app ignores it. 

But you should know that this flaw occurs, only if you type really fast. If you type at a nice leisure pace, you are likely to get the correct results. Now, it doesn’t seem to be a deliberately done design that slows down the speed of the calculator, but you can never tell with Apple, and its “it is meant to work that way” justifications.

{BGR}

Nothing else but the word scary can define this. Google engineer Felix Krause has revealed an alarming privacy loophole in iOS that enables iPhone apps that seek camera permission to surreptitiously take photos and videos of you – without your knowledge – reports The Next Web. Krause says he has disclosed this issue to Apple.

The Googler pointed out that when a user grants an app the permission to access the camera, they basically enable the app to access both front and rear camera and your photographs. Which means, whenever the app is playing the foreground, it can “record you, upload the content immediately, and run real-time face detection to read your facial expressions”. And all of this without any notice or indication that your iPhone is snapping images of your face. No sound, no light, no LEDs.

Krause has shared a short demonstration of the documented issue on YouTube, which can be seen below.

Now the most appalling bit of this scenario is that this is not even a bug that can be fixed, but is how this privacy setting is expected to work by design. This means that when you have granted app permission to someone who wished to exploit these permissions, they could easily scrape image data to locate users, find other existing photos of the device’s owner, and even watch you while you’re maybe sitting on the toilet and upload it up on the web. 

Krause says there is only so much you can actually do to prevent this, however there are ways, but he warns that none of them make for a particularly smooth and streamlined user experience.

One way is to use webcam covers. And the other is to revoke camera access for all apps – quite definitely that would mean sacrificing some app functionality in the meanwhile, like taking and sending photos straight from apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook. 

Just yesterday security vulnerabilities were discovered in WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access II). WPA2 is used in many modern Wi-Fi networks, and eventually affects devices including Android, Linux, Apple, Windows, OpenBSD, among others. Discovered by Mathy Vanhoef, the vulnerability could allow people access to your Wi-Fi traffic. Apple has now stated that the WPA2 vulnerability has already been patched on its OS platforms.

According to imore, Apple has confirmed that the exploit has been patched in the latest beta versions of iOS, tvOS, watchOS, and macOS. These betas are currently available to developers and public, and will soon be rolled out to consumers globally. The patch will come with third beta of iOS 11.1, tvOS 11.1 beta, and third public beta of watchOS 4.1. After the stable versions are rolled out, it will essentially keep Apple devices safe when connected to a Wi-Fi router for internet connectivity.

Apple has confirmed to me that #wpa2 #KRACK exploit has already been patched in iOS, tvOS, watchOS, macOS betas.

Deeper dive to follow.

— Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) October 16, 2017

The security vulnerability uses a key re-installation attack (KRACK) in WPA2 protocol. Using KRACK, attackers can hack into the Wi-Fi’s traffic allowing them to access sensitive information like credit and debit card details, usernames, passwords, and more. In essence, any kind of vulnerable information passed through is at risk of being exposed. 

Considering how WPA2 is used to encrypt Wi-Fi connections, this vulnerability could lead to potential risks of data leaking. In an interview with The Guardian, Vanhoef said, “If your device supports Wi-Fi, it is most likely affected,” Vanhoef writes. “In general, any data or information that the victim transmits can be decrypted … Additionally, depending on the device being used and the network setup, it is also possible to decrypt data sent towards the victim (e.g. the content of a website).”

Content sent to websites that aren’t secured can be exploited by this vulnerability. Even websites with http can be exploited. It is advised that users do not connect to public Wi-Fi networks. You can opt for ethernet connections, and user VPN for browsing. 

Diwali is just around the corner and you’re probably still stuck with a pending gift list. For gadget lovers, there are a lot of products to choose from. To ease things for you, we’ve been collating best smartphones under the sub-Rs 10,000, sub-Rs 15,000 and sub-Rs 20,000 categories. Raising the price tag higher, today we’ve gathered the best smartphones you can choose to purchase or gift under the sub-Rs 30,000 category.

The Honor 8 Pro sits at the border of this category with a price tag of Rs 29,999 and offers a premium experience. The highlight of the Honor 8 Pro is its dual-camera setup at the rear which includes a pair of 12-megapixel sensors of f/2.2 aperture, dual-tone LED flash, autofocus, and 4K video recording capabilities. The smartphone is powered by in-house Kirin 960 SoC paired with 6GB of RAM. 

Just second to the flagship OnePlus 5 is the OnePlus 3T which is priced at Rs 29,999. The smartphone is a tested performer with specifications like Snapdragon 821 SoC, 6GB of RAM, 16-megapixel rear and front cameras. The OnePlus 3T is fueled by a 3,400mAh battery, and features a 5.5-inch full HD AMOLED display with a 2.5D curved glass and Gorilla Glass 4 on top. 

Oppo is known for its selfie-centric smartphones and the company’s most expensive of the lot makes it in this category. The Oppo F3 Plus features a combination of 16-megapixel and 8-megapixel front cameras. Of the two, the 16-megapixel is a wide-angle sensor allowing for group selfies. The smartphone also houses a 16-megapixel rear camera of f/1.7 aperture. Rest of its specifications include a 6-inch full HD display, 4GB of RAM, 4,000mAh battery with Oppo’s VOOC fast charging support. 

Successor to the Moto Z Play, the Moto Z2 Play also comes with modular functionality. Priced at Rs 27,999, the Moto Z2 Play features a 5.5-inch full HD AMOLED display, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. It is powered by Snapdragon 626 SoC, and armed with a 3,000mAh battery along with Turbo Power fast charging support. On the software front, the smartphone runs near-stock Android 7.1.1 Nougat. 

Another selfie smartphone is the recently launched Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Prowhich is available at Rs 23,999. Like the Oppo F3 Plus, the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro also sports a dual-camera setup at the front which is a combination of 24-megapixel DuoPixel lens of aperture f/1.8 and a 5-megapixel wide-angle lens of aperture f/2.2.

You can choose to take standard and wide-angle photos by turning on the 24-megapixel resolution. The default resolution is 12-megapixels which allows you to take photos with DSLR-like blur effects. More details on the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro include Android 7.1.1 Nougat with ZenUI, Snapdragon 625 SoC, 4GB of RAM, and a 3,000mAh battery. 

The 2017 iteration of the Galaxy A7 series, the smartphone is currently priced at Rs 25,900. With a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display, the Galaxy A7 (2017) offers 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, a 1.9GHz octa-core SoC, 3,600mAh battery. You can also avail Samsung’s ‘Never Mind’ offer of one-time screen replacement at Rs 990 with the purchase of the Galaxy A7 (2017). 

Apple iPhone 6

The Apple iPhone 6 also makes for a worthwhile purchase in this category. The Apple iPhone 6 32GB is priced at Rs 29,500 but you can get it at discounted prices on e-commerce websites. In terms of specifications, the iPhone 6 features a 4.7-inch Retina HD display, and is powered by the A8 dual-core chipset. It comes with 1GB of RAM, a 1,810mAh battery, and sports an 8-megapixel rear and 1.2-megapixel front camera. The iPhone 6 runs iOS 8 but is upgradable to iOS 10.3.2. 

How many times have you sent an email to the wrong person, and then every cell in your body wished – what if you could just make it stop? I have been through this a few times, and it could have been worst blunders ever. And to save you from that blunder, two years ago, Google rolled out an ‘Undo send’ feature on Gmail.  As the name suggests, it lets you undo your blunder email. Though an old feature, a lot of people are still unaware of its existence, and some are unsure how to enable it. And so, in this article we will tell you how this feature really works, and take you through a step-by-step process of enabling it.

To begin with, it is important to understand that the undo feature, essentially gives a user a buffer time of 5-30 seconds (depending on the settings) to retrieve a sent email. Post the chosen time, the email cannot be undone or retrieved. If you are wondering why your Gmail does not show the feature, even when it has been around for two years, it’s because you need the enable it in Gmail settings. Here’s how to go about it.

To begin with, you need to sign in to your Gmail account. Now, on the top right corner, click on the ‘gear’ icon, and from the drop-down list choose ‘Settings’. 

From there, scroll down a little till you spot the ‘Undo Send’ option. Here, check the box next to it to enable the feature, and select the ‘Send cancellation period’, which is essentially the time bracket you have at hand to retrieve your email before it is permanently sent.

Scroll down a bit more and save your changes. And done! Your undo feature is now enabled.

After you have enabled the feature, each time you send an email, right on top of your inbox, you will see a pop-up notification, which will give you an option to either undo or view your message. The notification will show up for a few seconds, depending on the time chosen in the settings post which, the email will be sent permanently. Within that time, if you tap on unsend, the email will immediately be retrieved, and your compose box will reopen. 

Do note, when you enable the ‘undo send’ feature, the time taken for the email to be delivered will also be delayed by the amount of buffer time you choose. 

{BGR}

With the next update to iOS 11, a whole new range of emojis will be unlocked. Apple announced that with the upcoming iOS 11.1, you will get access to hundreds of new emojis, which will include gender-neutral characters, more options to signify food, and a dedicated ‘I love you’ emoji.

The new emoji set will debut in the coming week’s developer and public beta previews of the iOS 11.1. Apple will soon make it available in upcoming software for iOS, macOS, and watchOS. Apple says the new emojis have been adapted from approved characters in Unicode 10. The new emoji will also include characters announced on World Emoji Day such as Woman with Headscarf, Bearded Person, Breastfeeding, Zombie, Person in Lotus Position, along with new food items such as Sandwich and Coconut. Below is the sneak peek at the upcoming emojis.

The dedicated ‘love you’ gesture has also been redesigned after the “I love you” hand sign in American sign language. In addition to that, new animal characters, mythical creatures, and more expressions have been added to the lot.

With the launch of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, Apple announced a new feature called Animoji. As a product of the ARKit, the new animated emoji can mimic your facial expressions using the same sensors that power Face ID for a more engaging experience while chatting via iMessage.

{BGR}