Sony smartphones are sending data back to servers in China

Own a Sony phone? You may be transmitting data
back to servers in China without knowing it, even if
you haven’t installed a single app.
That’s not something you’d necessarily expect from a
Japanese company, particularly one that was already
busted for shipping a rootkit in its software. Sony
has been struggling to stay afloat in the smartphone
market, and the last thing they need is a privacy
debacle rattling consumer confidence.
So what’s going on? A Baidu folder is appearing on
affected Sony phones. Delete it, reboot the phone,
and the folder comes right back like the proverbial
cat who wouldn’t stay away. The folder isn’t the real
cause for concern, though; it’s the fact that the
phones open a connection to servers in China that’s
making users nervous.
Several Reddit users have reported finding this folder
on their phones, too — and not necessarily phones
made by Sony. One owns an HTC One M7, another an
HTC One X, a few others the OnePlus One. There’s
even a Nexus 5 owner claiming that he’s seen the
Baidu folder pop up.
Now, obviously on a stock Nexus 5 running Google’s
vanilla Android ROM there’s no Baidu folder and no
software running that would make one appear after
the fact. The most likely culprit, then, is a third-party
app that’s being installed is communicating with
Baidu servers and creating the folder.
As for why it’s happening on new Sony phones out
of the box or immediately after performing a factory
restore on them, that’s up to Sony to explain. Right
now it looks as though it’s the MyXperia app that’s
to blame — and some are guessing that Sony might
be leaning on Baidu for location services.
For their part, Sony has promised to issue a software
fix. Their wording in the Xperia forums doesn’t make
it clear, though, whether they’re simply going to
make sure the Baidu folder disappears and doesn’t
come back or whether they’re going to shut down
the mysterious connection completely.
Those of you who own a Sony phone, have seen the
Baidu folder, and find the whole situation a tad
unsettling, check out the Sony forum discussion for
instructions on blocking MyXperia from establishing
the connection. It’s a good workaround until Sony
comes up with a permanent fix.
Via : geek

Last quarter proved Xiaomi is the 3rd largest smartphone manufacturer

The company sold 19 million smartphones in the third
quarter of this year, the vast majority of which were
sold in its home nation of China. In the second
quarter of the year Xiaomi managed to sell 15.1 million
smartphones, 14.6 of which were sold in China,
according to Strategy Analytics. This suggests a quarter
on quarter sales growth of 26 percent, which is very
high indeed. Rival Huawei, which was ranked third
last year, managed 16.8 million smartphone sales in
the third quarter.
Looking at Xiaomi’s longer term sales, you can see just
how sudden its rise to the top has been.
That is pretty remarkable growth spurt for a company
that was only established four years ago. The
company’s growth has mostly been led by the
explosion of the Chinese smartphone industry and
heavy local demand, but this trend is unlikely to
continue forever.
Recently, Xiaomi has been attempting to expand
beyond its core Chinese market, selling smartphones
in Singapore, Hong Kong, and most recently in India
too. Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra recently announced that the
company was expanding its data centers around the
world to better reach consumers outside of China.
Xiaomi still hasn’t released any sales or profit figures
of its own, neither yearly or quarterly, so it’s hard to
tell just how much money the company is making
from this huge growth in sales. Despite the cutthroat
pricing of its handsets, the sheer volume of customers
is sure to leave plenty of cash around for future
investments and expansion.
We will have to wait and see just how ambitious
Xiaomi is and whether the company can become an
equally well known brand outside of China over the
next few years.
Via : GforGames

Office 365 subscribers get unlimited OneDrive storage

Microsoft is removing its OneDrive storage limits for
Office 365 subscribers. If you’re an Office 365 Home,
Personal, or University subscriber then OneDrive storage
will be unlimited in the coming months as Microsoft rolls
out its changes to every account. OneDrive for Business
customers will also get unlimited storage as part of
Microsoft’s Office 365 roadmap. While Microsoft's
unlimited OneDrive storage is rolling out to all Office 365
accounts in the coming months, you can opt-in to be
upgraded early over at Microsoft's OneDrive preview site .
The surprise move comes just months after Microsoft
gifted 1TB of OneDrive space to Office 365 subscribers.
At the time Microsoft also doubled its free space and
aimed to beat competition from Google and Dropbox to
widen the storage gap. Today’s unlimited storage
announcement changes things significantly, and
Microsoft claims it’s all part of the company’s plan to
make "OneDrive the world’s cloud storage leader."
Microsoft’s latest offer means unlimited OneDrive storage
and a copy of Office that works on Mac or PC, tablets,
and smartphones is only $6.99 per month. Google and
Dropbox charge $9.99 a month for 1TB of space alone,
without the additional Office software. Google also offers
Drive for Work to business for $10 per user per month
with unlimited storage.
Via : The Verge

Samsung finally responding to their dwindling market share

Samsung is especially noticing declining marketshare
in China, India, Thailand, and the Philippines. These
are markets where companies like Xiaomi, Lenovo,
and Huawei work exceptionally well, due to their low-
cost upfront pricing.  So, what is this “pressure”
Samsung is feeling? On Thursday, Samsung is expected
to report a 60% loss in profits since September of last
year, mainly due to “increased competition” in China.
On top of this staggering statistic, analysts are
reporting that the mobile phone division will fall by
8.1% in the third quarter, down from 19.8% in Q1.
As a counter measure of sorts, Samsung is slashing the
prices of their current handsets by 20% in China. As
the company has spent years building up their
reputation as a premium brand, the last thing they
want is to spend more time on budget phones but that
may be the only move they have left to play. For now,
details are still scarce regarding the company’s new
budget-friendly line of smartphones but it is great to
see that they’re finally doing something about their
dwindling marketshare.
Via : Android Authority

Tim Cook explains why Apple discontinued iPod classic

Cook said Apple primarily stopped making the device
because it was no longer possible to source the
necessary parts from anywhere in the world. Apple
does not have plans to reintroduce the iPod classic
due to a shrinking audience and the engineering
costs that would be needed for a new version, but
Cook pointed towards the iPod touch, which has
almost the same amount of storage space, as a viable
option.
Observers had speculated Apple was waiting for a 128
GB iPod touch before discontinuing the iPod classic,
but while the iPhone and iPad have gained 128 GB
options, the iPod touch has yet to do so. Still, with
Apple unable to source parts for the iPod classic, the
company was left with no choice but to end sales of
the descendent of the original iPod.
The iPod classic's 1.8-inch hard drives were typically
supplied by Toshiba, with the last generation using a
160 GB drive. Toshiba launched a 220 GB version in
early 2011 that gave some hope the iPod classic
might receive an update, but one never came to pass
and Toshiba has long since discontinued its entire
line of 1.8-inch hard drives.
Via : MacRumors

Iphones 6 and plus expected to outsell Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Pre-orders for the new phones hit 100,000 on the first
day of pre-orders compared to 30,000 units for the
Galaxy Note 4. Analyst Lee Seung-woo, an analyst with
IBK Securities said that he expected the iPhone 6 and 6
Plus to outsell the Galaxy S5 and Note 4 by some factors.
The Note 4 is Samsung’s latest large phablet.

LG G3 to get Android 5.0 Lollipop later this year

After weeks of complete silence, a post on LG’s official
German Facebook page reveals that the company will
actually be one of the first to have Lollipop ready for
its latest flagship. LG is promising to have the update
for the LG G3 out before the end of the year. That
might be even faster than HTC’s 90 day promise.
However, regional and carrier update timeframes
could vary. An update for the LG G2 is scheduled to
follow shortly afterwards, although a specific
timeframe hasn’t been given.

Via : BGR