Hack Android and you could win $200,000.

There are essentially two types of hackers out there. Those who use their skills for good and those who use them for evil. Google has recently called upon the former group for an extremely important bit of research; to see if there's an exploit that can remotely affect a wide variety of android devices over the globe, with no information about the target devices given except the phone numbers and Gmail addresses.

However Google does not expect from the hackers to give up this information out of the kindness of their hearts. Google is offering $200,000 for the next six months to whoever finds such a flaw , while the second will get $100,000. Google already rewards people who find bugs and exploits in Google's software but this is on another level. Google's Project Zero team , on Google's blog posted about this contest. What makes this contest special is that before this , the most a person could win after finding a bug was $10,000.

Since there is a lot of money involved , google firstly advises researchers to submit each bug as soon as they find it , rather than waiting until several bugs are found and then strung together into an exploit chain. Google will only allow the person who first submitted the bug to use it as a part of their exploit chain later on. 

The exploit must work on Google's current flagships , The nexus 6p and 5, and they must be running any Android  (7.x) build. The contest includes users to begin with nothing but phone number and email addresses and then compromise that phone without having any kind of physical access to it. 

While the first and the second person to submit the complete exploit bug will win $200,000 and $100,000 respectively, there's another $50,000 to be won by people who come up with other clever bugs.

While many researchers will be down with Google's contest , there will also surely be people that realize that these exploits, to the right party, could mean a lot more than $200,000. Google has posted the rules for its contest on this site as well as a short FAQ. The contest will be over in March 2017, Specifically the 14th of March. Well then, get cracking!

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10 hidden features of iOS you probably weren't aware of.

It's only been a couple of days since the release of Apple's iOS 10 but as usual, the new version of the software was a hit. In just around 24 hours , approximately 15% of Apple's enormous user base upgraded to iOS 10  and after 48 hours of its release over 20% of the user base upgraded to the newer version of the OS. There have been many upgrades over the iOS 9 in this newer release but some of these features are hard to find as they may not have been included during the unveiling of the Software.

Here are 10 of them for you to try out:

Turn your phone camera into a virtual magnifying glass

Thanks to a new accessibility feature , iOS 10 users can now use their iPhone cameras to really zoom in on text or an object at a distance. To try out this feature go to Setting > General > Accessibility > Magnifier. Once enabled , you can activate the magnifier by clicking the home button thrice. The zoom feature with the Magnifier on is much more powerful than the normal camera zoom you would normally use in the camera application.

Quickly access your camera from your lock-screen

If you cant get those important shots at a time of need because it simply takes too much time unlocking your phone and then going into the camera app, with iOS 10 you can directly take a picture from the lock-screen. Just swipe up to the right and iOS will open up the camera app.  

Use Siri to find hard to find photos 

This is a really handy feature for those times when you're not in the mood to search your galley for a particular photo. Siri now lets you search a photo based on the time, date and location of the photo. So for example in iOS you can simply open up Siri and say "show me photos from January 6th"  and you will get a list of photos that were taken that day. You could also add a location and Siri would then provide you with all the photos taken in that location. Furthermore you could use all three variables to get a specific photo. This is a feature which is unrivaled through all mobile platforms and a personal favorite of mine.

Quickly Access related photos.

Apple's Photos app in iOS received a major overhaul. One of the features worth mentioning here is that you can swipe up on any particular photo and iOS will give you a list of related photos. This feature is also very useful and cool. 

Find your misplaced Apple watch with ease

If you have an Apple watch running watch OS 3.0 , iOS 10 allows users to find their watches using the Find my phone app. From within the app the user can erase the contents of their apple watch , place it in lost mode, or simply have the device play a sequence of sounds (if the watch is connected to the internet) for easy tracking.

Quickly browse through only your unread emails

From within the mail app if you click on the icon in the lower left hand corner of the screen , Mail will only show you the list of emails that are still unread. hitting the icon again will bring you back to the normal view.

Limit what can be seen on your Lock-Screen

Thanks to the new "Raise to Wake" feature, iOS 10 users can now conveniently pick up their phones to look at important notifications. This can be quite a useful feature but at times when you have to keep your privacy in check , it can be a worrisome feature as well. 
 However dont worry as iOS 10 has got your back. It lets you control what shows up on your lockscreen so that your personal info does not show up whenever someone picks up your phone. Simply go to Settings> Touch ID and Passcode and scroll down until you this screen 

        
Intelligent photo searching

With iOS 10 , searching for photos has become a lot easier as you can now search for photos by specific people (thanks to facial recognition) For example users can now search for photos that have a dog in them and iOS will give you a list of photos that have a dog in them. You can also search by environments. For example if you search for photos that have a beach in them then iOS 10 will give you just that.

Re-Enable touch to unlock

If you're not a fan of physically pressing the home button first and then putting your finger on the fingerprint sensor to unlock your phone, Then iOS 10 has a fix for that too. You can now just rest our finger on the sensor to unlock your phone. Activate this by going into settings > general > accessibility > Home button and then selecting "Rest finger to open"

Send Handwritten notes and doodles in Messages  

If you turn your iPhone into landscape mode you will notice a squigly line in the bottom right had corner of the keyboard. If you tap that you will be able to send handwritten notes and doodles to the other person in the messages app.

  

 Thats it folks! Hope you learned something new by reading this article. Will you try it for yourself now? Let us know by commenting down below. And also Share if you think this article was helpful!
 
  

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The iPhone 7 does not like razor blades.

 As is the case when any new phone from a tech giant is released, Apple's latest iPhone was also put to through the torture test by none other than the famous you-tuber , JerryRigEverything.

In his video he showed us the many ways he beat, cut and scorched Apple's iPhone 7. He bent the phone until it would bend or break , he scratched the fingerprint sensor and the back plate of the phone with a full blown razor blade.

The Youtuber uses special tools to test the durability of the phones. he has accounted varying degrees of sharpness to each tool and he notes that normally phones would start to scratch at level 6 ( on a scale of two to nine in terms of sharpness). This was the case with the iPhone too as we see in the video. When he got to level 6 , the phone began to show noticeable scratches and at level 7 the scratches were even deeper. According to the Youtuber , Coins and keys wont easily scratch the screen on the phone but anything sharper would most definitely would. 

The real fun then began when he took out his keys to use them to scratch the back plate of the iPhone 7. As expected the matte black version of the iPhone 7 held up pretty well but was still no match for the razor blades. Other than the back plate, JerryRigEverything also tested out the lens on the camera. He came out with the same results as he did while testing the screen. The lens had a resistance level of 6 to scratches , again meaning that keys and coins wont easily scratch it.

After testing the back of the phone he moved back to the screen again. However this time he took it to another level. He took a lighter to the screen to see how much could the screen take before buckling up. The iPhone 7's screen took about 10 seconds before the pixels started getting hot and turned black , but soon after the pixels recovered and the screen became "cool to the touch" , he said.

Then to end it all, He grabbed hold of the iPhone 7 by both hands and performed his spine test. Not even the iPhone was able to survive this as not long after he kept bending the device, JerryRigEverything found out that the display would start to detach from the body of the phone itself meaning it isn't that flexible. he also added that bending it in the wrong way could cause the waterproof adhesive to give way , leading to less protection against possible water intrusion. 

To end his review of the durability of the iPhone 7, he stated that he was happy with the build quality that Apple provided with its latest offering.

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Samsung's Galaxy S7 is better than The iPhone 7 in terms of camera optics.

Among the most hyped features of the newly released iPhone 7 is its camera performance. Therefore it only seemed normal to compare it to one of the best camera phones out there. The Galaxy S7. The Galaxy S7 has one of the best camera's in the smartphone industry right now and perhaps many would even say it is "the best".

However when the iPhone was compared to the Galaxy S7 , the S7 came out on top.  Its a surprise and a little disappointing as we know apple as the company that makes world class shooters to tuck into your pocket.

The Apple iPhone 6s was also compared to the S7 back in March but the S7 still blew it out of the park.  Since then no other company could challenge the smartphone camera King, Until, the iPhone 7.  Everyone had high hopes for the iPhone 7 but were once again let down by apple.

However Apple did manage to surprise us with the dual cameras on the iPhone 7 Plus. The two cameras when combined take great shots but the main feature associated with dual cameras is not currently present in the iPhone. This makes it even harder for people looking to buy that perfect camera phone. 

See for your self the difference betwween the pictures taken on both the S7 and the iPhone 7. 

First: Iphone 7
Second: Galaxy S7

  
Another set:

And another:

Dont get me wrong. The camera on the iPhone 7 is excellent. Its greater than most other smartphones currently in the market and is also one of the best Smartphones in terms of camera performance, Its just that the camera on the Samsung Galaxy S7 (Apple's arch rival) is better. 

Which camera performs better in your opinion? let us know in the comments section down below. 

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Still playing pokemon Go? Pokemon Plus accessory now available for $34.99

Even though Pokemon go isn't as popular now as when it was first released , many users still actively play the game. We've got good news for you if you are one of those people. The Pokemon Go Plus accessory is now available for $34.99 . The package includes a wrist band and a poke ball shaped Google maps maker.

When paired with an android phone running 4.4 or above that supports Bluetooth 4.0, you can catch Pokemon without even looking at your phone. Whenever you're near a Pokemon the device will vibrate and flash green .Then all you have to do is press a button to throw a poke ball. If you successfully catch the Pokemon the device will flash and vibrate again.

You're probably wondering if you can interact with Pokestops with the device. Well you can. The device will flash blue and vibrate when you are near a stop. Then by pressing a button you can receive items. Walking with the Plus accessory also counts steps so those can be used in hatching your eggs.

The accessory is currently available at several retailers such as Amazon, GameStop, and the Nintendo UK  online store . The Pokemon go plus requires 0.37 version of the Pokemon or above and this version of the game currently cannot be played on rooted devices.

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Android Nougat 7.0 has 4 hidden treasures.

Excited to download Nougat?Once you get past the core new features , you'll find that theres even more that you can do. There are a series of hidden features that you can explore to tune up your phone. Some of you might already know these features but for those who dont, here are the 4 big hidden features in Android Nougat 7.0.

1.Clear all button for apps

In previous versions of android whenever you pressed the overview button (recents button) , you would get a list of apps that are currently open and you had to swipe one by one to clear every single app. This could be fine at first but over time could get really annoying. However Android Nougat has a fix for that. The "Clear all" button. Although available in custom android roms, stock android never had this feature baked into it.  

2.System UI Tuner

The system Ui Tuner gives you even more power to customize your phone. To enable it, pull down the notifications bar and go tot he quick setting menu. From there press and hold the settings icon until it spins and you'll get a prompt to enable System UI Tuner. From there you can adjust what you want to see in your status bar and in which order should the icons appear. While marshmallow also had the System UI Tuner, android nougat steps it up a bit and lets you rank different types of notifications in order of importance. 

  
3.Emergency info and contacts screen.

Android Nougat comes with a neat new feature which is also very practical in real life situations. It lets you input some information on an emergency screen and then once you save it , anyone can view that info even if the phone is locked.

You access it by clicking on "users" in your main settings menu and then tapping "emergency information"   

Once there you will have two screens, on the first you can input a variety of information for emergency purposes , such as your blood type , medications you take etc. The second screen lets you list your emergency contacts. Apple had made this feature available in 2014 but this is the first time the feature has natively arrived on android.

  
4.Make any app work in split screen mode

A major new feature that android nougat came with was the multi window function. However now all apps were supported to run in this split screen mode, but theres a way you can do that too. 

Just go into your settings , then go to about phone and software info. Then tap the "build no" repeatedly until a popup shows that you are now a developer. You have now successfully enabled the developer options in your settings. Now go back to the main settings page and go to the developer options. 

At the bottom of the page you will see an option to make all activities resizable. Now you can use any app in split screen mode whether or not its supported.

One of the main attractions of Android is that you can customize the user interface according to your liking and these features will further help you do just that.


 

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Android Vs iOS. How should you Choose your next phone?

Apple's recently unveiled iPhone 7 is a very tempting upgrade , whether you currently have an iPhone or have been considering buying one. But for a lot of people the yearly bazaar encompassing Apple's iPhone event is a reminder that they aren't really certain where they stand between the Android versus iOS debate.

It has been a tradition of Google to make a few jabs at Apple when ever it releases a new version of Android or a new nexus. On the Flip side, not a single Apple event passes by without Apple bragging about how iOS is better than Android. Each smartphone company , whether it be Apple, HTC, Samsung, LG or Huawei, has their own style of building phones and presenting them to the consumers. 

So the question a hand here. iOS or Android? Nowadays the answer to this question depends on less concrete factors. For example the phone's features, specs ad price. People look more at the theoretical factors while looking to buy their phone like a specific operating system that suits them best. This is because on paper , all flagship phones are looking increasingly alike, with comparable specs and focused competitive price points.

In the end it boild down to your own preference, whether you like a particular OS over the other, since most smartphones are capable of doing all the required tasks anyways. Its about the ecosystem that you perform those tasks in , and that matters most these days. For example if you opt for an android phone, you will have to choose from literally hundreds of option and each phone will have a different user interface on top of android, because the only "pure Android" are the nexus devices.

The question about iOS versus Android is a pretty personal one , and while you'll find opinionated people on both sides of the spectrum, its not until you consider your priorities and your preferences that you'll be able to make the decision thats right for you.

 

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Remix Os is now available as simple to use Android emulator for Windows

Remix Os is basically a desktop version of Android , with floating windows and start menu style app drawer. However previously, Remix Os was only available as a separate OS that you could install on your PC. Jide , the company behind Remix OS, thus decided that they should also release the OS as an emulator for your PC.

Enter Remix OS player, a free downloadable emulator of Android for Windows running PCs. Its always been very simple to install Remix OS on your PC by creating a bootable USB stick  , However now you don't need to do any of that to experience The OS on your PC. Just download an .exe file and run it. Its that simple.

Remix OS Player is based on the virtual machine in Android Studio and runs inside a dedicated window. It runs on top of Android Marshmallow and comes with access to the Google Play Store. You can do anything on it that you could previously do on an android phone, but Jide recommends that you use it primarily as a gaming emulator for android meaning you could play clash of clans right from your desktop or your laptop.The specs requirements are also very accessible. The Minimum requirement starts off at having Windows 7 , a Core i3 processor, 8GB of storage and 4Gb of RAM. Remix Os is a very simple to use clean OS running Android. SO what are you waiting for. Try this out!
   

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DualToy Windows Trojan Attacks Android, iOS Devices

 

A Windows Trojan called DualToy has been discovered that can side load malicious apps onto Android and iOS devices via a USB connection from an infected computer. Researchers from Palo Alto Networks said DualToy has been in existence since January 2015, and it originally was limited to installing unwanted apps and displaying mobile ads on Android devices. About six months later, the Trojan morphed and began targeting iOS devices by installing a third-party App Store in hopes of nabbing iTunes usernames and passwords.

See more at: DualToy Windows Trojan Attacks Android, iOS Devices https://wp.me/p3AjUX-vms

A Windows Trojan has been discovered that can sideload malicious apps onto your iOS or android running devices. The Trojan is transferred to your phone when you connect it to the infected computer via a USB cable

Researchers say that this Trojan has been around for quite some time, Specifically from January of 2015, However it was initially only limited to installing unwanted apps and displaying mobile ads on Android devices. 6 months later the Trojan changed and began targeting iOS devices by installing a third party app store in hopes of gaining access to iTunes usernames and passwords.

Researchers say that once Dual Toy, The Trojan, infects a windows machine, it looks for the Android debug bridge (ADB) and iTunes . and downloads drivers for both if they're missing in order to infect mobile devices once connected. According to the team of researchers, they have encountered approximately over 8,000 unique samples of the Dual Toy variant to date and are still not sure how many mobile devices were affected because of this malicious bug.

During the past two years there have been similar cases of windows and iOS malware designed to attack mobile devices via side loading techniques.So far the Trojan only affects Chinese users but researchers say that users from the United States, United Kingdom,Thailand,Spain and Ireland have also been affected.

Its still unclear as to how the Dual Toy Trojan actually infects a Windows machine. But once its on a windows PC it downloads from a command and control server file called adb.exe , which is standard Android Debug Bridge on Windows clients. However more recent variants of Dual Toy drop a custom ADB client called tadb.exe, onto the victim's PC. The malware also downloads two installers, "AppleMobileDevicesSupport64.msi" and "AppleApplicationSupport64.msi" , which is part of Apple's official iTunes for windows software.

On Android devices , Dual Toy installs several Chinese language apps that researchers suspect attackers are getting paid per install by the game developers. On iOS devices the Trojan installs a fake iOS app store , trying to trick users into giving their iTunes email and password.

The use of a fake iOS app store is not unique. There are several other examples of a malware like Dual Toy including ZergHelper and AceDeciever. What these do is , as soon as the user opens the fake app, they are prompted to provide the app with their iTunes i.d and password and not knowing that this is a scam, they willingly give the attackers their account.

 

A Windows Trojan called DualToy has been discovered that can side load malicious apps onto Android and iOS devices via a USB connection from an infected computer. Researchers from Palo Alto Networks said DualToy has been in existence since January 2015, and it originally was limited to installing unwanted apps and displaying mobile ads on Android devices. About six months later, the Trojan morphed and began targeting iOS devices by installing a third-party App Store in hopes of nabbing iTunes usernames and passwords.

See more at: DualToy Windows Trojan Attacks Android, iOS Devices https://wp.me/p3AjUX-vms

A Windows Trojan called DualToy has been discovered that can side load malicious apps onto Android and iOS devices via a USB connection from an infected computer. Researchers from Palo Alto Networks said DualToy has been in existence since January 2015, and it originally was limited to installing unwanted apps and displaying mobile ads on Android devices. About six months later, the Trojan morphed and began targeting iOS devices by installing a third-party App Store in hopes of nabbing iTunes usernames and passwords.

See more at: DualToy Windows Trojan Attacks Android, iOS Devices https://wp.me/p3AjUX-vms

A Windows Trojan called DualToy has been discovered that can side load malicious apps onto Android and iOS devices via a USB connection from an infected computer. Researchers from Palo Alto Networks said DualToy has been in existence since January 2015, and it originally was limited to installing unwanted apps and displaying mobile ads on Android devices. About six months later, the Trojan morphed and began targeting iOS devices by installing a third-party App Store in hopes of nabbing iTunes usernames and passwords.

See more at: DualToy Windows Trojan Attacks Android, iOS Devices https://wp.me/p3AjUX-vms

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Run Android Marshmallow on your Pc. Android x86 Project unveils first stable release.

to tun

The movement to get android on your pc is still strong and the folks over at the Android x86 project - who basically code android to run on x86 platforms like desktop PCs rather than common ARM based mobile devices, have another feature on  their hat as they release their first stable version of android Marshmallow , for your desktop PC.

The Android x86 project has released two release candidate builds , one in June and the other one in August, thus its all good news as we welcome Android x86 6.0 for our laptops and PCs. The build contains most of the recent security patches and seems to be based on Android 6.0 AOSP (Android Open Source Project).

Digging a bit deep into the build, we learned that Both modern UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) and legacy BIOS PCs are supported. So no need to worry as the guys over at the Android x86 project have got you covered. The build also uses a updated graphics stack based on the Mesa 12.0.2 3D Graphics Library. It also supports Samsung's F2FS file system for SSD drives and better wifi support after resume and suspend. Audio through HDMI is also supported so you can connect to a bigger display for consuming media.

Another thing that you would notice on this build is that the cursor/mouse pointer is taken out directly from Android Nougat instead of the circle cursor used in the previous beta releases. Android x86 is distributed as 32-bit(x86) and 64-bit(x86_64) Live ISO images , and you can download them from the official Android x86 download page. 

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Samsung considering replacing the 3.5mm headphone jack with its own proprietary port for the Galaxy S8

Although Samsung proudly boasts the 3.5mm headphone jack on its current flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S7 and the S7 edge, recent rumors suggest that Samsung may follow in Apples footsteps and remove the headphone jack, placing its own proprietary port on their next flagship Galaxy, the Galaxy S8

The reports state that the phones , internally named "Dream" (Galaxy S8) and "Dream2" (Galaxy S8 edge), may not have the industry standard 3.5mm headphone port. The South Korean conglomerate is said to be "actively" and "aggressively" exploring the possibility of releasing a proprietary headphone jack to see how viable it would be.

According to the report Samsung's proprietary port will be designed considering all Android manufacturers , with easy and cost free (or extremely low cost) licensing to encourage adoption. Strategically , Samsung's move is being considered as a death strike against Apple, as they were the one who completely removed the headphone jack and did not replace it with one of their own ports.

using the numbers game, Samsung and many of its Android manufacturing allies hope that headphone makers will prioritize the proprietary port first, leaving Apple deprived of newer, more interesting models.

More importantly, Samsung is aiming to severely marginalize Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, which were recently acquired by Apple. Other headphone makers are standing behind beats but could rally behind the competing Samsung jack to effectively marginalize beats.

if this rumor turns out to be true then people who have both iPhones and Galaxies would have to carry around two adapters with them as Samsung's proprietary solution most certainly would not be compatible with Apple's Lightning technology. Samsung is also pushing to boost the overall sound quality of the new jack however very few believe that a fidelity boost would be realized or noticed.

As you all know , Apple has solved wireless audio quality , reliability and power consumption with its in-house W1 chip.

Samsung should be unveiling its new series of Flagship smartphones at MWC in Barcelona in February 2017 or maybe hold a separate event in March 2017 for the release.

Apple's justification of the removal of the headphone jack is both philosophical (the future is wireless) and pragmatical reasons (more space inside the phone for things like a bigger battery and better camera)

However im now very eager to hear about Samung's excuse for replicating Apple's move.
 

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Google's Burrito-delivering drones tested.

We've got or first good look at Google's burrito delivering drone in action. We have some of the footage of one of the first test fly's of the drone under Project Wing.

This is run by X (formerly known as Google X) , and experimental lab owned by Google's parent company , Alphabet. The drones are currently being tested in Virginia , on the Virginia tech university campus. The very famous company Chipotle and X have teamed up to deliver burritos using the advance drone technology. Previous reports also state that X initially intended to deliver burritos from the food truck to students of the city via the drone. The test footage wasn't made by the best camera and the video only shows the prototype version of the drone but we could very be seeing advance drone tech like this in the near future. Have a look at the footage :

via GIPHY


Also note, Google isnt the only company testing out advanced drone technology. It seems that Amazon is also interested in the practical uses that a drone has. We could also possibly see our orders from amazon be delivered by drones.

We're definitely moving into the age of robots where we practically use robot such as drones to do all our work for us, But we've already seen what happens if we do that. yes that right, Fear Cybernet!

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Google patches two major Android security bugs - but are you still at risk?

As you all may or may not have known, Google has been working hard at patching some potentially serious Android mobile security flaws.

The company has thus fixed two major security issues that could have left millions of devices at risk of being hijacked by criminals.The flaw that i mentioned includes a variant of of the stagefright bug (which was uncovered last year and affected nearly a billion Android devices across the world). This flaw however is not the same as stagefright but but behaves similarly to it. This virus would allow hijackers to hack your device using a specially created j-peg image file , sent through Gmail and other Google services. This would allow the attackers to gain control of the device and have access to personal information or would also let them shut it down completely.

Users, who don't even download the image will be hit by the malicious bug . This means that anyone who even views the bug ( The J-peg image file) would be affected the by it. 

The other bug was similar to this bug. By the same process (the J-peg image file) hackers would gain control of the device and this would allow them to execute malware or gain access to personal information or programs on affected devices by escalated local privileges.

Know as CVE 2016-3861, Google says that it was designed only for research purposes but if in the wrong hands , could be used for some serious damage. The updates are included in Google's latest security patches ,which are available to nexus device users now , and will be rolling out to other devices very soon. However even users who have installed the update could find themselves being attacked by criminals. It seems that the Google Play store hosted apps that contain two nasty forms of malware. 

The offending apps have now been removed by google , but there's no word on how many times the apps were downloaded , meaning millions of android users could be at risk of being affected by the bug. 

Make sure that you only download the essential apps and report any app that seems fishy on the Playstore.

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Even if you delete Google Maps, you will still be tracked by Google.

Think you're safe? That you have your privacy? Well you dont. Research shows that Google, through its Google play store app, keeps track of our activities.

It seems Google is keeping a much closer eye on its android users than previously thought. 
Security researchers have recently found out that Google is able to track our location using our phone's Global positioning System (GPS). Th playstore seems to be at the root of the problem though. The service is constantly running in the background making it possible for Google to track your whereabouts. This can only be prevented by completely disabling location tracking all together.

The security researcher found this out as when he was entering a nearby McDonalds, The Google Playstore prompted him to download the McDonald's app. having thought that Google Maps was to blame ,as that is the app associated with tracking and locations, he immediately uninstalled the app. However the problem was still not solved. Thus he concluded that The Google Playstore itself and not The Google Maps app was to blame.

According to Google, They need access to your location to keep your apps up to date and provide you with up to date information for example , deals in a nearby restaurant. However since Android Marshmallow, you can set individual permissions of a single app your self. Therefore you can attempt to bock Googles access to your location yby going to settings > apps > Google play store> permissions and disable the permission for locations.

Alternatively you can go to the nuclear option and delete the Play store as well as the Google Maps app. Google is rolling out several updated to its Google Maps app which enables it to constantly monitor your location and provide you with info like promotions at shops near you, deals at restaurants in your vicinity and even local clinics that are open and local pharmacies/Shops that sell a particular item. . 

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