Top 5 paid iOS apps which are now free, for a limited time

By tech2 News Staff /  20 Mar 2015 , 20:00

Most users miss out on downloading some apps because they come with a hefty price tag. Luckily, a few paid apps have been made free for just a short duration. We take a look at 5 iOS apps which are free, as of now.

1. Dark Echo

This one is a sound-based creepy game which makes you walk through the dark, simply using sound waves to detect walls and threats. The aim is to find your way to an exit without getting yourself killed. The sounds created will bounce off obstacles and reveal the shape of the surrounding world. The app is available in various languages and has no advertisements whatsoever. The game has 80 levels and some of them include puzzles as well. It is said to be one of the scariest games on the app store.

Normally priced at $1.99.

2. Heart Run

This fitness application measures and records your heart rate and sports activities which include jogging, biking or even hiking. This app measures your tracking or jogging activities using GPS. The app also records your heart rate and performance. Users can share this data on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter as well.

Normally priced at $0.99

3. Stock Gain

Stock Gains is a simple and neat app to view your portfolio. It allows you to see the value of your portfolio in the currency of your choice, see historical data and selected key numbers for your stocks, calculate your actual capital gain after taxes and also stay updated and read about the most recent news about your stocks. The app downloads data from more than 55 international stock exchanges and supports over 150 different currencies.

Normally priced at $2.99.

4. KitCamera

This premium app is perfect for clicking pictures in any location. This simple and easy to use app’s most popular feature is that it allows a user to click a picture as well as make changes to the image (in terms of filters, contrast adjustment, etc.) in real time. After the picture is taken, users can edit the photos and remove the effects previously applied while taking photos too. It allows you to take shots in TIFF format without compressing the image nor compromising on the quality. It also allows you to adjust the focus between three modes namely normal, micro and macro.

Normally priced at $19.99

5. Pilots Path

Pilots Path is an old school top-down view helicopter flying game which has been optimised for Retina Display. This app is one of the  very few games specifically designed to provide a better experience for players having a second iOS device, an Apple TV or a TV Out cable. The game tells a story of a former USAF pilot who was dishonorably discharged after an accident with an expensive military plane. He then makes his way back to the sky carrying out missions for criminal underground bosses.

Normally priced at $3.99

Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari - all major Web browsers hacked by security researchers

Hamburg eliminated traffic jams. Can Mumbai do the same to accelerate your journey? Click to read to more.

New Delhi: At the Hewlett-Packard Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) sponsored Pwn2Own hacking challenge, security researchers were able to exploit all major web browsers and take home a total of $240,000 in prize money.

The second day of the event saw Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Apple Safari being exploited by the researchers. One of the researchers took less than a second to exploit Firefox's out-of-bounds memory vulnerability.

Daniel Veditz, principal security engineer at Mozilla said that it is not surprising that a well-crafted exploit in advance would not take much execution time and given the micro seconds that the researchers exploited the browser, it is understood that they had been working on exploits long before coming for the challenge.

One of the researchers took less than a second to exploit Firefox's out-of-bounds memory vulnerability. (Hacker, via Shutterstock)

#pwn2own #security researchers #web browsers #hacking

A report on Eweek noted that Mozilla Firefox was exploited twice at the Vancouver event. Another researcher demonstrated three different browser exploits against IE 11, Chrome and Apple Safari.

Overall, Brian Gorenc, manager of vulnerability research for HP Security Research, said that one of the surprises at the Pwn2Own 2015 event was the amount of Windows kernel vulnerabilities that showed up.

It is to be noted that the Pwn2Own 2015 event, every browser was exploited, even though all the browsers had been patched by their respective vendors. However, it is important to remember that the people who come out to compete at Pwn2Own are some of the best security researchers in the world.

WhatsApp voice-call feature comes to India; available on invite-only basis

Representational image.

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By tech2 News Staff /  03 Feb 2015 , 08:29

WhatsApp has rolled out its new free voice-calling feature to a few users India which appears to be available on invite-only basis, as of now. The invite-only basis basically means that users will get a call through WhatsApp from someone who already has the feature updated. The feature is also restricted to Android only and you will need the updated 2.11.508 version to access the app.

A report by GSM Arena pointed out that one Reddit user called pradnesh07 was able to get the feature activated on his Nexus 5 smartphone running on Android 5.0 Lollipop.

He posted saying that, “I can’t seem to send invites to other people, the only thing I can ensure is that it works in India for people running Lollipop 5.0.x on a Nexus 5. Other Indians without the earlier combo don’t get it.”

According to the images posted, users who receive the voice-calling feature will notice an icon for it, beside the Chats and Contacts tabs. The call interface seems to quite similar to a smartphone’s contact directory. The app keeps a record of recent WhatsApp calls as well.

Image: GSM Arena

Earlier, a few WhatsApp screenshots showcasing this voice-calling feature were leaked online by Androidworld.nl. WhatsApp also released WhatsApp for Web users which simply mirrors whats’s on your smartphone to the screen. WhatsApp for web is currently available through the Google Chrome browser and also supports Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone. However iOS users can’t access WhatsApp for web.

WhatsApp’s voice-calling roll-out comes soon after rival Indian app Hike rolled out for free voice-calling on 2G and 3G for their app. Of course in terms of user engagement, WhatsApp is ahead of it rivals. Facebook, which bought WhatsApp last year, recently revealed that the app has 700 million monthly active users and that over 30 billion messages are shared on WhatsApp everyday. With voice-calling feature coming soon, it’s likely that WhatsApp’s engagement number will rise further.

Becoming Steve Jobs: Jony Ive was almost fired, Disney CEO Iger knew about Jobs’ pancreatic cancer

Steve Jobs with the iPhone in 2007. Reuters

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By tech2 News Staff /  21 Mar 2015 , 16:30

The new biography by Brent Schlender (who had interviewed Jobs frequently) and Fast Company executive editor Rick Tetzeli titled “Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader”, will be out on March 24.

According to the new book, Disney CEO Bob Iger was among the first people to learn about Steve Jobs’ pancreatic cancer in 2006, reveals FastCompany.  Iger learnt about Jobs’ illness just 30 minutes before the $7.4 billion deal between Pixar and Disney was sealed on January 24, 2006.

“My cancer is back. I’m telling you because I’m giving you a chance to back out of the deal,” Jobs told Iger. he decided not to tell anyone about it, except Disney’s VP Alan Braverman, and the deal went through.

The books also talks about how Jony Ive was almost fired. “He came over to the studio, I think, essentially to fire me,” Ive told the book’s authors. The reason was the products that were being shipped at that time weren’t good.

However, the report adds, “You know Jony. He’s kind of a cherub. I liked him right away. And I could tell after that first meeting that [former Apple CEO Gil Amelio] had wasted his talent,” Jobs later told Schlender.

The book also talks about how musician Neil Young tried to make peace with Jobs. “In Young’s worldview, analog recorded music is unequivocally the best, and the shift from records to CDs to compressed audio files has led to inferior sound fidelity. And he certainly wasn’t shy when it came to speaking his mind about the iPod and iTunes,” adds the report.

However, Jobs took the criticism quite seriously. “Young tried to quash the beef by offering him a set of remastered vinyl editions of every album in his catalog,” Schlender reportedlywrites in the book.

Samsung to launch Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones in India on March 23

Samsung to launch Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones in India on March 23 Buy Online @ ShopClues®

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Samsung Galaxy S6 might be priced between Rs 49,990 and Rs 54,999 while the Galaxy S6 Edge to cost between Rs 64,990 and Rs 69,999. (Source: Express Photo by Nandagopal Rajan)

The new Galaxy flagship smartphones from Samsung will be launched in India on March 23. Samsung has already sent out media invites for the same. The company will launch both Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones in the country which was unveiled recently at its Galaxy Unpacked Event 2015 in event in Barcelona, Spain ahead of Mobile World Congress 2015.

READ: First impressions of Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge

SEE: [Pictures] Check out the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge 

We are expecting the Samsung Galaxy S6 to be priced between Rs 49,990 and Rs 54,999 while the Galaxy S6 Edge to cost between Rs 64,990 and Rs 69,999.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 comes with the same hardware in simple looks. (Source: Nandagopal Rajan)

The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge sports a similar spec sheet apart from the Dual Edge, battery and a slight difference in dimensions. The S6 is powered by a 2,550mAh battery while the S6 Edge has a 2,600mAh battery. Both comes with built-in wireless charging- WPC1.1(4.6W Output) & PMA 1.0(4.2W) compatible.

The new Galaxy devices run on Android 5.0 Lollipop OS along with quad 2.1GHz + quad 1.5Ghz, octa-core application processor. The devices sport a 5.1-inch Quad HD(2560×1440)Super AMOLED display at 577ppi.

On the memory front, the S6 and S6 Edge comes with 3GB LPDDR4 RAM and will be available in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB internal storage variants with support for Universal Flash Storage 2.0.

The dual curved display of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is more for awe than effectiveness. (Source: Nandagopal Rajan)

Both the devices comes with a 16MP OIS rear camera and a 5MP front camera. Camera features include: Quick Launch, Tracking AF, Auto Real-time HDR(Front & Rear) , F1.9, Low Light Video(Front & Rear), High Clear Zoom, IR Detect White Balance, Virtual Shot, Slow Motion, Fast Motion, Pro Mode, Selective Focus.

On the connectivity front, the devices offer WiFi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz), HT80 MIMO(2×2) 620Mbps, Dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, Mobile hotspot, Bluetooth v4.1, A2DP, LE, apt-X, ANT+, USB 2.0, NFC and IR Remote.

READ: First impressions of Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge

SEE: [Pictures] Check out the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge 

Feel free to share your opinion about the new Samsung flagship smartphones in the comment section below. 

Microsoft launches affordable Lumia 430 Dual SIM smartphone

#MICROSOFT LUMIA 430

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Microsoft has added a new model to its affordable range of Lumia smartphones with the introduction of the Lumia 430 Dual SIM.

Featuring the latest Windows Phone 8.1 software, the phone will retail for an estimated price of $70 (approximately Rs 4,400) making it the most affordable Lumia that will be able to upgrade to Windows 10.

The device sports a 4-inch WVGA LCD display with a 480 x 800 pixel resolution. It offers a pixel density of 235ppi. It also features a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with a dual-core CPU running at 1.2GHz, and comes with Microsoft Office, Skype and OneDrive pre-loaded. It is paired with 1GB RAM.

In terms of memory, it has an internal storage at 8GB and can be further expanded up to 128GB via microSD card. It has a 2MP fixed-focus rear camera along with a 0.3MP front facing camera. The handset is powered by a 1,500mAh replaceable battery.

Set to come in orange or black, the Lumia 430 Dual SIM will launch in select markets in the Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus from April 2015, and in India toward the end of April 2015.

LG G Flex 2 to be launched in India at Rs 55,000

LG has launched in India its second curved smartphone the G Flex 2 smartphone and the world’s first 105-inch 5K television. The two devices were part of the 200-odd products showcased by the Korean company as a part of its annual tech show in New Delhi.

Soon Kwon MD of LG Electronics India said 2014 was a year of strong growth for the company. “India is a strategic market for LG. So we have been thinking in terms of a product mix based on global products as well as locally designed products. This is important to stay ahead,” he said.

The LG G Flex 2 has a 5.5-inch curved Full HD display powered by a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor and a 3100 man processor. The Android Lollipop phone will come with a 13MP rear camera with optical image stabilisation. Priced at Rs 55,000, the G Flex 2 smartphone is expected to arrive by the end of this month.

The LG G Flex 2 on show at MWC

 LG also announced the availability of the world’s first 5K television in India with the magic remote and running TV Web OS. The premium television will be priced Rs 59,99,900 (approx Rs 60 lakhs).

The company has also updated its smart inverter range of refrigerators with Smart Connect which switches on inverter mode when there is a drop in voltage or a power cut.

The LG Watch Urbane. (Source: Express Photo by Nandagopal Rajan)

On the wearables front, the company showcased the LG Watch Urbane. This smartwatch comes in two versions –  Android Wear version and LTE version with LG’s custom interface. The LTE version also has a SIM card slot. It runs on a 1.2GHz processor with 1GB RAM) and  4GB of internal memory. The smartwacth features plastic OLED display like the one on the G Flex 2 smartphone. The smartwatch will be priced around Rs 30,000 and is expected to be available by end of April.

New bugs uncovered in encryption software

New bugs uncovered in encryption software

"You need to take all vulnerabilities seriously, but I’m kind of disappointed. There's been a week building up to this," said Cris Thomas, a strategist with cybersecurity firm Tenable Network Security Inc.(Reuters) - New bugs in the widely used encryption software known as OpenSSL were disclosed on Thursday, though experts say do not pose a serious threat like the "Heartbleed" vulnerability in the same technology that surfaced a year ago.

"Heartbleed" triggered panic throughout the computer industry when it was reported in April 2014. That bug forced dozens of computers, software and networking equipment makers to issue patches for hundreds of products, and their customers had to scour data centers to identify vulnerable equipment.

Cybersecurity watchers had feared the new round of bugs would be as serious as "Heartbleed," according to experts who help companies identify vulnerabilities in their networks. The concerns surfaced after the OpenSSL Project, which distributes OpenSSL software, warned several days ago that it planned to release a batch of security patches.

The OpenSSL project released updates for four versions of the software, covering 12 security fixes for vulnerabilities reported to them in recent months by several cybersecurity researchers. The threats include one that makes affected systems vulnerable to so-called denial-of-service attacks that disrupt Web traffic, though none threaten the "crypto" technology used to encrypt data, Ristic said.

Ivan Ristic, director of application security with Qualys Inc, said he was not too concerned about the new bugs because most involved programming errors in a new version of OpenSSL, which is not widely used.

"It doesn't seem a big story," Ristic said. "I think people feared it would be bad, which is where all the hype came from."

(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston and Eric Auchard in Frankfurt; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Lenovo A6000 to be available without flash sale

Lenovo A6000 to be available without flash sale

NEW DELHI: Lenovo A6000, the cheapest 4G-enabled Android smartphone in the market, will be available without registration during March 23 and March 25, 2015 on Flipkart. The sale is part of Flipkart's Big App Shopping days promotion as part of which the ecommerce giant will be offering discounts and freebies to users of its mobile app. The A6000 is usually available via a weekly Wednesday flash sale on Flipkart and requires consumers to register in oredr to purchase the smartphone. Lenovo will not host a flash sale for the phone next week. 

Following last week's flash sale, Lenovo had claimed that it has sold 1,80,000 units of the A6000 smartphone in the Indian market. 

Available at Rs 6,999, the Lenovo A6000 sports a 5-inch IPS HD (720x1920p) display. Powered by a 64-bit 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor and 1GB RAM, the phone comes with 8GB of storage space. 

The phone runs Android 4.4 KitKat with Lenovo's Vibe UI 2.0 custom interface. 

A6000 sports an 8MP rear camera (with auto focus and LED flash) and a 2MP front facing camera. 

The dual sim phone supports 4G LTE connectivity with support for both FDD 1800MHz (Band 3) and TDD 2300MHz (Band 40) in addition to other popular connectivity options including Bluetooth 4.0 and 3G. 

Featuring a 2300mAh battery, the phone has two speakers and Dolby Digital Plus sound. 

Lenovo will also offer its Vibe X2 and Z2 Pro smartphones at a discounted price of Rs 17,999 and Rs 29,999, respectively during the FlipKart Big App Shopping Days. The Vibe X2 sells at Rs 19,999 while the Z2 Pro retails at Rs 32,999. The Vibe X2 is a premium mid-range smartphone that offers 4G connectivity and a faux-layered design. Lenovo also offers Xtensions or rear covers that fit tightly with the phone and enhance functionality. The company will also bundle a battery layer with the phone without any extra charges during the 3 days. 

The Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro on the other hand, is a 6-inch display-equipped phablet that comes with a 2K resolution display and a 4,000mAh battery. Lenovo says it will sell the last few units of the phone during the sale.

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In Pics: Lenovo A6000, India’s cheapest 4G phon...

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Lenovo has launched its recently unveiled budget 4G smartphone, A6000, at Rs 6,999. At this price, it is the cheapest 4G-enabled smartphone available in the market.

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