Moto G5 Plus Prime Edition lock screen can be bypassed by tapping an ad

Wow, something useful came out of Twitter. Twitter user @jaraszski uploaded a video in which he shows how to bypass the lock screen of Moto G5 Plus Prime Edition. It turns out to be pretty simple; all you have to do is tap the fingerprint sensor button, receive the ”not recognized” message and hit the power button. An Amazon lock advertisement should pop up; tap on it and voila!, you now have access to the phone. While this has been reported to not work on every Prime Edition, it is allegedly working on many enough. Some say that the above trick only works for them if they have ...

Android 8.0 Oreo rolls out for regular US Moto X4

Hooray! 8.0 Oreo OS is finally coming out for the retail models of the United States’ Moto X4. News comes straight from the horses mouth, with Motorola releasing this statement:Deployment for Oreo update has started but not everyone would have it, all at the same time. Please be advised that OTA updates not just depend on the Model and the Country but with the Carrier as well. We recommend waiting for the official release of OTA update, as you will receive notification about the update once available.The grammar of the statement is somewhat lacking, but it doesn’t matter ...

Android 8.1 Oreo will tell us which of the hotspots available are the fastest

Google has just released info on one of the new features in the slooowly released 8.1 Oreo. This interesting little ditty will allow us to check the connection speed of nearby, publically available hotspots without the need for connecting with them. Hotspots’ speed will be ranked from low (0-1 Mbps), medium (1-5 Mbps), fast (5-20 Mbps) to very fast (20+ Mbps). Helpful cookie will even add descriptions to the hotspots’ status’ for those less in the know-how, like ”medium – allows the use of web browser, social media and music streaming; fast – allows ...

Newest video on (allegedly) Samsung Galaxy S9

The video, recently dug out from the depths of the Chinese internet, depicts someone testing the touchscreen of what may or may not be the Galaxy S9 smartphone. This is actually a bit of a mystery, as we are not really sure whether or not the phone shown in the video is Galaxy S9. Some details of the device, like its thin bottom bezel, suggest that it may actually be an S8. But hey, where would we be without gossip?Samsung Galaxy S9 is expected to make an official appearance in late February. The phones’ specs include a 5.8′ display and an Exynos 9810 ...

Man bites his phone’s battery. Battery blows up

Coming straight from Taiwan: an electronic store security camera caught footage of a man biting a smartphone battery, second after which the battery explodes. Thankfully nobody seems to be seriously hurt. The video, of course, went viral.According to a report from Taiwan News, the battery in question was a replacement accumulator for an iPhone, presumably one of the older models that Apple has been secretely downgrading to keep them working longer/sell more iPhones. The reason why the man was biting the battery is unclear; theories range from ”he wanted to somehow make sure that the ...

Die With Me, app that works only when your phone battery is under 5 percent

The title of the article probably says it all. Die With Me is a new application, currently available on both App Store and Google Play, that is a pretty regular group chat. The only irregular thing about it is that it cannot be activated until the phone’s power level is higher than 5%. It means that Die With Me creates a sort of an elite club only for People Whose Smartphones Are About To Die.Great. Now you can contact even more random and probably stupid to talk about more definitely stupid things. Hi guys, my phone is going to die… mine too… mine too… look, ...

Android 8.1 beta available for Nokia 8

Android 8.1 Oreo has been available for Pixel and Nexus smartphones for a while now, so it is about time for Oreo to move on. Juho Sarvikas, HMD’s Chief Product Officer has just announced that the Android 8.1 Oreo OS will be available on Nokia 8. 8.1 Oreo beta can be downloaded from the Nokia Beta Labs. Update itself might take minutes or hours, it seems to be pretty random. Update changelog can be found here. Tweet Vote on HN ...

Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and Note 8 receives their January security update

It is raining updates! One Samsung phone after another gets its security updates. Newest devices to receive these are the Galaxy Note 5 and Note 8 smartphones. The Galaxy Note 5 firmware update N920CXXS4CRA1 brings with it:– five critical Android vulnerabilities fixes,– thirteen Vulnerabilities and Exposures fixes,– multiple lesser vulnerabilities fixed.The update is now available in Morocco, Pakistan, Kenya, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Nigeria. As for Galaxy Note 8 update, it fixes:– six critical Android vulnerabilities,– ...

HTC U11 Plus and HTC U11 Eyes are now available via the US Amazon. No warranty, though

Actually they have been available there since Saturday. Sorry for the late news, my bad. Anyway, HTC has recently released three new smartphones: HTC U11 Life, U11 Plus and U11 Eyes. Unfortunately for the American customers, only Life is officially available in the US. Fortunately for the American customers, they can get Plus or Eyes anyway! All they need to do is order one via Amazon. Of course there are downsides: phones’ prices are larger than if they were sold officially ($826 for U11 Plus and $614 for U11 Eyes), they do not have an US warranty and, perhaps most importantly, they ...

Android Oreo coming to Sprint HTC U11 today

According to Mo Versi, HTC Vice President of Product Management, Sprint version of HTC U11 is getting its OS update today, upgrading its Android to 8.0 Oreo. The update should be already rolling out by the time this article is being written. Update will probably not be released to all the devices simultaneously, so if you still do not have it, do not fret – you will receive it sooner or later, if not today then tomorrow or in a few days. Tweet Vote on HN ...