TECH NINJA

How to install Nougat on your Nexus right now without waiting!! You’ve been waiting for it, and Google finally delivered it: Android 7.0 Nougat is here, which means you can install the first stable release version on your Nexus device, provided it’s still supported. We already told you how to do it, but what if the update isn’t available for you yet as an OTA download? There are things you can do to grab the download right away, rather than waiting for Google to push it out to your device. First things first: you need to have a Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 6, Nexus 9, Pixel C Tablet, General Mobile 4G, or Nexus Player at hand to get the job done. Older Nexus hardware, such as the Nexus 5 and aging Nexus 7, won’t do. If you’re already on the Android N developer preview, then you’re going to find that update waiting for you – and we already told you how to get it. However, if you’ve stayed about from betas before, now’s the time to join the program. And since yo...

Motorola Moto Z Review: Hello Modular Moto Under Google, Motorola defiantly swam against the natural current of the smartphone market. The Moto X, unlike other Android flagships at the time, was not a specs hero but instead offered lean, effective software and the ability to personalize the device through Motomaker. The Moto X defined the company’s time as an extension of Mountain View; fun and vibrant, but it wasn’t enough. In 2014, Google pulled the plug on the Motorola experiment and sold the company to Chinese tech giant Lenovo. We had to wait several years to see what affect the new ownership would have, and in 2016 we finally have our answer with the Moto Z. Like the Moto X it replaces, the Z defines the company’s time under its new owners, and Lenovo has certainly made its mark. The first “Lenovorola” product does away with everything the company forged under Google. And that’s not a bad thing. A New Era The Moto X, and its various successors, were g...

Android 7.0 Nougat likely releasing Aug 22 AddThis Sharing Buttons The latest installment of Android, version 7.0, also christened as Nougat is all set to be launched and we are counting moments. According to Canadian mobile operator Telus, the all-new Android Nougat will be available to Huawei Nexus 6P and LG Nexus 5X users starting August 22. The Canadian carrier mentions that Nexus smartphones will receive the Nougat update from the coming Monday. However, Google is yet to announce a date for release. Here are five interesting things you would love to know about Android Nougat and why it is one of the most important release for Google: 1. Manual Exposure Control And A Lot Of Other Camera Features We have seen a couple of preview builds of Android Nougat earlier and we couldn’t find any such feature that could actually allow users to control exposure manually instantly from the camera app. However, Android Police has recently reported that the final build wi...

Samsung to Unveil Gear S3 on Aug. 31 In the market for a new smartwatch? You might want to hold off on buying one for a few weeks, because Samsung is gearing up to launch a new model soon. The Korean tech giant on Monday sent invitations to members of the media for a "mobile event" at the IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin on Aug. 31, strongly hinting that a Gear S3 smartwatch is on the way. "Talk about 3," the invite reads alongside an image of a circular watch face. The bottom of the invite includes a Gear logo, all but confirming what we'll hear about at the event. As for what to expect from the Gear S3, we'll just have to wait and see. PCMag will be at the event, so stay tuned for all the details later this month. Samsung unveiled its Gear S2 smartwatch (pictured) last summer ahead of IFA. The Gear S2 sports a 1.2-inch circular Super AMOLED 360-by-360 display with 302ppi. It runs a dual-core 1GHz processor and comes with 4GB...

OnePlus 3 price and release date OnePlus today announced that a flash sale would be held for the OnePlus 3 on June 6 at 10am CST (10pm ET). This offer is for 1,000 units and pre-order only. The device will not be shipped until after the unveiling on June 14. The flash sale price will be around 2999 CNY, which comes out to around $455 (see banner below). But since we expect the base price to be far lower, well below $400, we have to wonder why this is being called a flash sale. As this price seems quite high, it's possible that these first 1,000 buyers could get some sort of limited edition. Or the other possibility is these buyers are paying more because they're getting it first. But it could be that the flash sale price is lower than the retail price, but this is unlikely. A leak in early May suggested the OnePlus 3 base model was to sell for $310, while a premium version, with more memory, was said to come in at $38...

Yu Yunicorn smartphone was launched in June 2016. The phone comes with a 5.50-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels  The Yu Yunicorn is powered by 1.4GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 processor and it comes with 4GB of RAM. The phone packs 32GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 128GB via a microSD card. As far as the cameras are concerned, the Yu Yunicorn packs a 13-megapixel primary camera on the rear and a 5-megapixel front shooter for selfies.  The Yu Yunicorn runs Android 5.1 and is powered by a 4000mAh non removable battery. It measures 153.30 x 75.00 x 8.50 (height x width x thickness) and weighs 172.00 grams.  The Yu Yunicorn is a dual SIM (GSM and GSM) smartphone that accepts two Nano-SIM. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, 3G, 4G (with support for Band 40 used by some LTE networks in India). Sensors on the phone include Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Accelerometer, and Gyroscope.  ...

The 4G-enabled Micromax Canvas 6 and Micromax Canvas 6 Pro have been priced at Rs. 13,999. While the latter has already gone up for pre-orders via  the company's own site from Wednesday, the former is expected to become  available soon. Both smartphones features a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixel) display with a pixel density of 401ppi. While the Canvas 6 is powered by an unspecified MediaTek octa-core SoC, the Canvas 6 Pro is powered by a 2GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio MT6795m SoC.Both smartphones bear a 3000mAh battery and a 13-megapixel rear camera, while the Canvas 6 bears an 8-megapixel front-facing camera, and the Canvas 6 Pro a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. Both phones come with Around UI on top of Android, and feature the Gaana app as the default music player app.The massive scope of the Micromax's launch event on Wednesday is understandable, given recent reports that the company is currently struggling in the Indian market - an ima...

Apple has built a one-of-a-kind iPad Pro that features a bright yellow aluminum case. In support of a Design Museum Charity auction on April 28th, Apple's Jony Ive and his team has developed a unique version of the 12.9-inch tablet.The brightly-coloured tablet also comes with accessories including a French leather Smart Cover and an orange Pencil case in Italian leather. Auction partner Phillips expects the yellow iPad Pro to fetch anything between $14,200 to $21,300. VIE

The User Experience and User Interface When it comes to visual appeal, both of these ROMS look closely related to the  stock Vanilla Android  experience offered by Google which is great as the overall performance increases when the unnecessary skinning is offloaded, however, both of the alternatives to stock have some tricks up their sleeves to offer customizations to the ones seeking it. Audio When it comes to fine tuning the audio, Cyanogen OS relies on Audio FX (earlier known as DSP Manager on CyanogenMod) whereas OnePlus takes a similar approach to the feature with its Audio Tuner app.Both are equally good. Root Access On Cyanogen, it is literally just 7 taps away. Just tap your Build number 7 times on the about section of the phone to enable Developer Options and you will find the option to enable Root Access inside it. On Oxygen OS, you have to take the conventional route to root. Customization Cyanogen OS has a clear win in this department wit...

The HTC 10 spec sheet is right up there with the rest of the 2016 flagships. There's a 2.15GHz Snapdragon 820, 4GB of RAM, and decently fast storage. As a result, the HTC 10 does about as well as everything else released this year. The Snapdragon 820 dumps the ARM Cortex CPU architecture that was present in the Snapdragon 810 and switches to Qualcomm's new 64-bit Kryo cores. The 820 has a four-core architecture with two 2.1GHz Kryo cores for heavy lifting and two 1.6GHz cores for idle and background tasks. Since it's only four cores, it's not going to dominate multi-core benchmarks compared to the eight-core Snapdragon 810—there's a big boost in single core performance, but there are also fewer cores. If there are still any loyal HTC customers out there, a move from last year's HTC One M9 to the HTC 10 will be a bigger upgrade than most. Overall a phone to boost the sales of HTC as a brand.

 LG announced its K series of smartphones this year at CES. The South Korean giant has now launched the  K10  smartphone in India at a price of Rs 13,500. This is the first 'Made in India' handset by the company and it promises to offer great performance and camera capabilities.                                                                LG K10 smartphone is powered by 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor coupled with 1GB of RAM. The inbuilt storage of the device stands at 16GB, which can be expanded up to 32GB using a microSD card. The device functioned properly without any hiccups.                                                             ...

LG on Thursday launched a new budget smartphones, which are leveraging the Make In India programme. The K7 and K10 are the new phones, but they seem like weak offerings in the face of stiff competition from Chinese brands like Xiaomi and even global giants like Samsung.                 LG says the K7 is its first Made in India smartphone.The LG K7 is powered by 1.3GHz quad-core and it comes with 1GB of RAM. The phone packs 8GB of internal storage that can be expanded via a microSD card. As far as the cameras are concerned, the LG K7 packs a 5-megapixel primary camera on the rear and a 5-megapixel front shooter for selfies.                  The LG K7 LTE is a dual SIM (GSM and GSM) smartphone that accepts two Nano-SIM. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, 3G, 4G (with support for Band 40 used by some LTE networks in India). Sensors on the phone include Proximity sensor, Ambient light...