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The slow rollout of  Android 7.0 Nougat  to more and more smartphones continues today, as owners of the  Moto G4  and  Moto G4 Plus  in India can now finally download the latest version of the OS. In addition to the upgrade to Nougat, these new updates for Lenovo’s budget-priced smartphones also include the November Android security patches. Since this is a pretty large file to download, Moto G4 and G4 Plus owners in India are advised to connect to a Wi-Fi network to grab this major update. Their phones should also have at least a 50 percent charge beforehand. Finally, the company notes the file could take up to 20 minutes to successfully install on their phone. If you’re a G4 or G4 Plus owner in India and have yet to receive the update, head to your device’s  Settings  menu, then choose  About phone , then  System update . As always the update may take a few days roll out to everyone, so don’t worry if you don’t receive the update right away. If you’re interested in

Sneaking the big news on the long holiday weekend,  Cyanogen Inc.  has announced discontinuation of the operating system and all services by December 31. Per the official statement, CyanogenMod OS and source code will remain available for the community. The ambitious startup aimed to build a better version of Android, but the software received lukewarm response because the OEMs didn’t want to ditch the Google ecosystem. And then, there were issues with partners like OnePlus who ditched the alliance immediately after the first outing with OnePlus One. The announcement was made in a very uncharacteristic and brief bog post: As part of the ongoing consolidation of Cyanogen, all services and Cyanogen-supported nightly builds will be discontinued no later than 12/31/16. The open source project and source code will remain available for anyone who wants to build CyanogenMod personally. While surprising, the announcement isn’t shocking, really. The company had recently lai

Attending  Google I/O  is a special privilege for anyone fortunate enough to attend. For gadget nerds like us, scoring an I/O ticket is like winning the Android lottery. It’s an impressive event, no matter which way you cut it, but as many of you would have read this year, it can sometimes not go entirely to plan. Perhaps in light of the negative feedback to this year’s event at the Shoreline Amphitheater in the shadow of the Googleplex, next year’s Google I/O will reportedly return to downtown San Francisco’s Moscone West. For many, this will be a welcome change (if it is true: so far, only  Tech Crunch  is claiming the change of location). Moscone is, naturally, very well set up for conferences. The convention center has nowhere near the capacity as the unrestricted open spaces of Google’s carpark, but it does arguably provide a much better environment in which to consume what I/O is all about. This year’s outdoor event featured long lines in the hot sun, inadequate ses

The Play Store is full of many great android apps. However, there is just some android apps that Google can not accept. Below you can find the Top 10 Banned Android Apps Not On The Play Store! 1. TubeMate TubeMate is a solid android app because it lets you download youtube videos onto your android device. TubeMate has been around for quite some time, but it is the go to app if you want to download youtube videos and watch them without any wifi or data connection! Download  here 2. OGInsta OGInsta is an android app for those who are instagram heavy. OGInsta allows you to long press and zoom in on pictures. Also, it gives you the option of downloading pictures and videos on Instagram. Download  here 3. FileChef FileChef allows you to download any file you can think of. This includes: apps, movies, tv shows, mp3 songs, and much more. The interface is very simple, and there is not much of a learning curve. Download  here 4. Fildo Fildo is a new music app that al

Nokia’s fall from the top was harsh and spectacular. Once the biggest  smartphone  manufacturer in the world, it got bought out by Microsoft after a series of poor decisions such as choosing Windows Phone over  Android  drove the company into the ground.  Now, Nokia is coming back to the smartphone game and its going to launch its new Android smartphones at MWC 2017 in February 2017.  While i do know for sure that Nokia is going to launch four devices, a low end smartphone codenamed ‘Pixel’ , two flagships with the Snapdragon 820 SoC and a mid range device - the  Nokia D1C .  There's good news for Nokia fans all over India. Unlike  Google  which priced the Pixel out of the market, Nokia is going to price it’s smartphones very aggressively. According to a report by NokiaPowerUser, the D1C mid-range handset will start at around 10,000 rupees.   Everything you need to know about the Nokia D1C   As reported before, the D1C will come in two variants with di

Facebook has announced its annual Year in Review - a set of topics and videos that were discussed the most on the social networking platform. It doesn't come as a surprise that 'US Presidential Election' was the most talked about topic globally. In India, Diwali pipped Cricket and Uri attacks as the most discussed topic. Facebook says India has 166 million monthly active users with 159 million of them accessing the platform on a mobile device. 85 million people access Facebook daily and 81 million people do on a mobile device. Facebook is becoming the go to platform for not just conversation but also for news and breaking stories. Top 10 most talked about topics from India in 2016 on Facebook: 1. Diwali 2. Cricket 3. Uri attacks and surgical attacks 4. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Movie) 5. Hardwell (India Tour) 6. Priyanka Chopra 7. Rio Olympics 8. Pokemon Go 9. Pathankot 10. iPhone 7 launch Global Top Moments on Facebook 1. U

Lenovo Yoga Book, the tablet hybrid will launch in India on December 13. The company has sent out media invites for an event where the company will announce its hybrid tablet with a never seen before design.   Lenovo Yoga Book running Android or Windows was first showcased at IFA 2016. Lenovo says Yoga Book is the thinnest laptop hybrid and it is unlike anything else available in the market. Under the heart of Lenovo Yoga Book is an uninspiring Intel Atom x5-Z8550 processor, which Lenovo finds as a common thread in the world of Android and Windows. The device features a 10.1-inch IPS LED display with a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels. The interesting part, however, is the other half of the device which basically skips traditional keyboard for a Halo effect. Yes, the keyboard is literally called Halo keyboard and it appears on demand, similar to the virtual keyboard on your smartphone.   Lenovo Yoga Book's Halo surface also accepts Pen input which allows

Shoot Like a Pro with New Depth-of-Field Effect Photo by @erinrbrooks, shot on iPhone 7 Plus. In a short time,  Portrait mode  has become a favorite feature for iPhone 7 Plus users, with people capturing a range of subjects with the stunning depth-of-field effect, bringing them closer to the subjects they love. iPhone is the most popular camera in the world. And its popularity increased among photographers in 2016, according to  Flickr . Below are a few photos and tips from photographers who are finding creative ways to use Portrait mode everyday. Photo by celebrity photographer @jeremycowart, shot on iPhone 7 Plus and edited using VSCO. When he’s behind the camera,  Jeremy Cowart  is known for taking incredible portraits of celebrities. This portrait of his son is a favorite image he’s shot using iPhone 7 Plus saying, "I’m kind of freaking out. Portrait mode is unbelievable.” He recommends minimizing the background and "cut out the distractions from your sub

CyanogenMod 14.1 is now available on nine additional devices following its initial rollout last week. Based on  Android 7.1 Nougat , the latest CyanogenMod ROM delivers an Android experience currently only accessible to  Google Pixel  owners, or those running the developer preview on  select Nexus devices . To complement the first round of CyanogenMod 14.1-compatible phones – which include the Samsung Galaxy S5, LG G4, OnePlus 3 and Asus Zenfone 2 – Cyanogen has now rolled it out to: Nexus 6 (shamu) Nexus 7 2013 Wi-Fi (flo) Nexus 7 2013 4G (deb) OnePlus One (bacon) OnePlus 2 (oneplus2) Sony Xperia V (tsubasa) Sony Xperia TX (hayabusa) Sony Xperia T (mint) Sony Xperia SP (huashan) Moto G 2015 (osprey) CyanogenMod 14.1 is still in development, which means users can expect to encounter bugs and missing features. Support for more devices is likely to follow soon along with additional content. Announcing the latest build last week, Cyanogen Inc. founder Steve Kond

Software experts and open source advocates are applauding Google’s latest “make the world better” offering, its OSS-Fuzz tool. Still in beta, OSS-Fuzz is already a game changer in helping debug open source software with almost instantaneous results, allowing developers to pop back into their code, make an adjustment, and solve the problem. “Open source software is the backbone of the many apps, sites, services, and networked things that make up ‘the internet.’ It is important that the open source foundation be stable, secure, and reliable, as cracks and weaknesses impact all who build on it,” the team  announced in a blog post  on the tool last week. “OSS-Fuzz’s goal is to make common software infrastructure more secure and stable by combining modern fuzzing techniques with scaleable distributed execution.” For the uninitiated, “fuzzing” is “when bits of randomly generated code is inputted into programs as a means to discover code and security flaws,” according to a deta

The physical home button is a smartphone facet that’s slowly becoming extinct. In 2016, the flagship devices from Google, Sony, LG, and Huawei all lacked such a button on their hardware. Meanwhile, Samsung has been holding onto the physical home button – it was still in place on its most recent flagship, the ill-fated  Galaxy Note 7  – though the company is expected to ditch it on its upcoming flagship, the  Galaxy S8 . But what impact will losing physical home buttons have? To answer that, let’s first explore its origins. The move to touchscreens Though it wasn’t the first device to make use of a touchscreen, much can be attributed to the original iPhone for popularizing it. When numbers and letters could be drawn on a display, there was no longer a need for a traditional keyboard setup, meaning screens were able to occupy a larger space on the handset without increasing the size of the body overall. What’s more, the keys could be contextual: when using the dialer, for exa