LeEco Le 1s Eco unveiled in India for ₹10,999; 100,000 units up for sale on May 12

LeEco has unveiled the Le 1s Eco in the Indian market for ₹10,999. The phone will be up for sale on May 12 at Flipkart, with 100,000 units available for purchase. To incentivize the Le 1s Eco, the vendor will offer the phone for an introductory price of ₹9,999 in the first flash sale, and will bundle a year’s subscription to its LeEco Membership — valued at ₹4,900 — for free.

The Le 1s Eco is the vendor’s first “Made for India” offering, and as such it comes with support for ten Indian languages: Kannada, Tamil, Marathi, Assamese, Bengali, Malayalam, Telugu, Gujarati, Punjabi and Oriya.

On the hardware front, the phone is identical to the Le 1s, featuring a 5.5-inch Full Hd display, 2.2GHz Helio X10 CPU, 32GB storage, 3GB of RAM, 13MP camera at the back, 5MP front shooter, 3000mAh battery, USB Type-C connectivity, and a fingerprint sensor at the back. The Le 1s Eco also offers Marshmallow out of the box.

With profits from hardware sales diminishing, LeEco is betting on its content ecosystem to drive profits. The vendor announced its content strategy in India earlier today, which includes a video-on-demand service offering more than 2,000 local movies, a live channels feature that allows you to watch over 100 TV channels live through your phone, a music service in partnership with Hungama, and a cloud storage solution with 5TB of storage.

All the services are bundled in the LeEco Membership plan, which costs ₹490 a month or ₹4,900 a year. As mentioned above, the membership plan is being offered for free for one year on the Le 1s Eco. We’ll let you know once the phone goes up for sale on Flipkart.

Australian HTC 10 now available on Telstra, starting from $83 per month

Pricing for the HTC 10, the company’s latest flagship smartphone, has been confirmed for Telstra in Australia. The carrier has the handset on plans starting at $83 a month, which bags you a data allowance of 2.5GB. As highlighted by Ausdroid, you’ll need to fork out for increased allowances, anywhere up to $137 a month for 15GB.

It’s always worth shopping around to see where (if at all) you can find the HTC 10 at a more affordable price point. Also, be sure to give our in-depth review of the HTC 10 a read through. As for Telstra, the HTC 10 is now available for purchase, so hit the link below for more details.

See at Telstra

Now you can fingerprint unlock phone using just the screen, for real

App stores are filled with joke apps that pretend to read your fingerprint as you touch the screen, but they’re now old news as the real thing has arrived. A new screen can read fingerprints through the glass.

LG Innotek has shown off the new glass panel that will make secure phone unlocking even simpler. The company also points out this can make a phone look more sleek and should help waterproofing become even simpler.

The fingerprint sensor was placed inside a 0.3mm cut in the lower backside of the glass cover, says LG Innotek. This glass is resistant to water damage and scratches while offering a high recognition accuracy. It has a false sensitivity rate of 0.0002 per cent, for those who are interested.

LG expects fingerprint recognition to become more and more popular as the mobile payment market grows. This screen will be an interesting development that could appeal to manufacturers. It will have to work better than current fingerprint reading tech if LG wants it to appeal to potential customers.

When this tech will appear is unclear. Since this can’t conceivably be added as a module on the LG G5 we’d expect it to appear in a future smartphone from the company instead.

LG

READ: 52 of the best tech life hacks

HTC One Wear smartwatch not coming until June, Petra delay reported

The prospective smartwatch from HTC, which has gone under the names HTC Petra and HTC One Wear in the past, clearly didn’t appear in April, as suggested in previous rumours and leaks. Instead, it is not said to be launched in the week commencing 6 June.

Twitter tipmeister @evleaks has posted on his feed that the HTC wearable has been pushed back to June. There are few other details, but he does tend to be right more often than not about these sorts of things.

FYI, this has been pushed to the week of June 6th. #htcwearablehttps://t.co/Ei1lT4aWoc

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) May 3, 2016

That said, it was his original tweet that suggested it would be coming in April in the first place.

.@AnthonydFlemons Nope, but the watch should be out mid-April.

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 22, 2016

There have been several rumours and alleged leaks of information about a HTC smartwatch in the past. However, few extra murmurings have come in the last year, with the most amount of discussion about a device codenamed “Petra” peaking in February 2015.

It is more than likely that in the year since, plans have been completely rejigged. It is very possible the watch that appears in June is far from the device tipped at the beginning of last year.

That was said to have a 1.8-inch PMOLED display with a 160 x 32 resolution and feature a ST Micro STM32L151 chipset. But that would leave it hideously under-spec’ed in today’s market.

Plus, with the advent of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear chipset and platform, what’s the betting that we see HTC launch with the latest tech?

Android app pirates plead guilty to copyright infringement

One of the biggest Android app pirates has pled guilty to one count of criminal copyright infringement and one count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement. Mississippi’s Aaron Blake Buckley has admitted his role in distributing over four million unauthorized copies of Android apps with a total retail value of $17 million. Buckley was one of the people who ran Applanet, which made paid apps available to users for free without consent from their developers, from 2010 to 2012.

He ran it alongside Gary Edwin Sharp II, who also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement in January. The two are scheduled to be sentenced on August 1st. Besides running Applanet, Sharp also helped operate another pirated app website SnappzMarket. It’s the smaller of the two, but it still distributed $1.7 million worth of applications to users. Both domains, along with another one called AppBucket, were seized back in 2012 — the first time authorities seized websites associated with mobile applications.

Source: Department of Justice

Amazon’s one-hour Prime Now delivery service gets a dedicated website

Amazon has launched a dedicated website for its Prime Now delivery service. The service was previously accessible only through a mobile app, but if you’re living in an area that’s covered by the service, you have the option of ordering directly through the website. To see if your area is serviceable, head to PrimeNow.com and enter your zip code.

In a statement (via Re/code), Prime Now chief Stephenie Landry said:

We have expanded the service rapidly over the last year to new cities and customers told us that they would want the option to shop on a browser as well as mobile.

Prime Now offers free two-hour deliveries, but if you need items faster, there’s a one-hour service that costs $7.99. The service offers tens of thousands of items spanning health, beauty and household items, and there’s also the option of ordering groceries and takeout from nearby restaurants in select cities including Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego, Austin, Baltimore, and Portland.

See at Prime Now

Play Store carrier billing coming to India as Idea teams up with Google

India’s third-largest carrier Idea Cellular is all set to roll out Play Store carrier billing in the country. According to Gadgets 360, the carrier’s partnership with Google will be announced later this week.

In a statement shared to Gadgets 360, Google said:

We are in the process of adding direct carrier billing to Google Play in India on Idea Cellular so that people can more easily pay for their favourite content. We will have more news to share soon.

Google mentioned that carrier billing will be available on other carriers, but initially it will be limited to Idea subscribers. In a country with very limited credit and debit card penetration, carrier billing is seen as the way forward to boost purchases of digital content.

The feature allows you to charge purchases on the Play Store to your prepaid or postpaid account. If you are a prepaid customer, the amount for the app or game you’re buying is automatically deducted from your balance. If you’re on a postpaid connection, you’ll see the items added to your monthly bill.

From a thread on Reddit, it looks like carrier billing is already rolling out to a few Idea customers. We’ll share more details once the partnership is official.

BMW has the first smart emergency system for motorcycles

While cars and trucks have long had smart emergency systems to send help in the event of a crash (think services like OnStar), motorcycles have had to go without — a scary thought if you’ve ever worried about wiping out miles away from help. That’s where BMW might just save the day, though. It’s introducing the first smart emergency tech for motorbikes, Intelligent Emergency Call, to give the two-wheel crowd a proper safety net. You can trigger it yourself, such as when you need to help a fellow motorist, but the real magic comes with its automatic responses.

IEC’s acceleration and lean angle sensors can not only tell if your bike falls or crashes, but time the call for help based on severity. A bad accident will call for help immediately, for instance, while a gentler incident provides a delay so that you can cancel the call. If things are dire enough for that call to go out, it’ll send your ride’s position at the same time.

Don’t expect to see this system in North America, at least not any time soon. IEC will first launch in Germany sometime in early 2017, and it’ll spread to other European countries soon afterward. There’s no mention of availability in other countries, unfortunately. However, you may well see equipment like this become widespread among bike makers eager to one-up the competition.

Source: BMW

Mee Audio’s X7 Plus stereo Bluetooth sports earbuds are a cut above the rest

I’ve been a huge fan of audio and music since I was a kid growing up in the 80’s. In my time I saw the evolution of record players and tape decks move to compact disks. From CDs to mp3 players, like the Rio Player and iPod, the one thing that stayed consistent over that time frame were wired headphones.

While Bluetooth speakers have been quite popular for a few years now, we’ve all been waiting for wireless headphones to catch up. Until now, most wireless headphones have been expensive, uncomfortable, have poor battery life, and sadly lack in sound quality in comparison to their wired counterparts.

I’ve been testing the Mee Audio X7 Plus stereo Bluetooth sports in-ear headphones for about two months and have something to tell you – these are the first Bluetooth headphones that have convinced me I no longer need wires for high-quality sound.

Specs

• High-quality wireless in-ear headset designed for active lifestyles
• Over-the-ear fit with moldable “memory wire” is secure for any activity
• Advanced Bluetooth 4.1 technology with Multipoint functionality
• High fidelity sound with aptX and AAC HD audio codec support
• Sweat-proof design with Liquipel Watersafe Technology
• Built-in microphone and controls for phone calls, volume, and media
• Rechargeable battery provides up to 8 hours of talk/music playback time
• Includes protective carrying case and 3 sets of eartips

Background and Usage

Sound quality is the most important feature with any audio product. The Mee Audio X7 Plus sport earbuds are fantastic in that area.

Most people think that wireless audio can only meet high quality standards over WiFi. For the most part, that is true with high-quality WiFi being streamed to speakers from the likes of SONOS or AirPlay.

Bluetooth was originally designed to connect smartphones to wireless headsets. It compressed the audio output from our smartphones in order to maintain long battery life. We could have conversations while leaving our phones in our pockets with little headsets that attached to our ear.

Music was not originally apart of Bluetooth’s plan but with the advent of better battery technology, manufacturers saw a market for Bluetooth headphones and speakers. Since Bluetooth was designed with such a narrow market, the sound quality for music lacked for many years. The sound typically came in weak, tinny and downright bad.

Mee Audio understands that most of us prefer quality over convenience when it comes to music. If music sounds bad we just won’t listen to it, because it won’t entertain us. Knowing that, Mee Audio added support for CD quality playback with the X7 plus earbuds with the AAC HD audio and aptX codec.

Enabling high fidelity sound makes the X7 sports Bluetooth earbuds some of the best I wireless headphones I have ever used.

The earbuds are made from high-quality plastic, and are coated with Liquipel Watersafe Technology to ensure they can withstand sweat and moisture from being active. The X7s aren’t designed for petite ears, but they should fit most if you put them on properly. There is just one durable wire that connects both earbuds with an in-line remote and microphone.

What also makes the X7s great is the long battery life. Mee Audio rates the X7s at eight hours of playback/talk time. I frequently achieved eight hours or more if I listened to them at about 50-60% of max loudness. There is almost no need to listen to these earbuds anywhere near max volume if you seat them properly into your ears. They can get loud and you can feel the bass in your ears.

Sound reproduction is definitely top notch. The X7s aren’t just great because they provide lots of bass like some headphones. Highs, mids and lows all shine bright, and cover a wide spectrum of frequencies that make music sound fantastic. These are the first wireless earbuds that have convinced me I no longer need a wired connection for high quality sound reproduction. They’re great for working out, but they’re also perfect for enjoying music when I am at home and am doing chores. The Bluetooth range is fantastic, and call quality is flawless even with the wire placed behind my neck.

Overall

The Mee Audio X7 Plus Bluetooth earbuds retail for $99.99, and are a bargain at that price if you prefer sound quality above all else. The eight hour battery life, water resistance, and great build quality also set them apart from the competition. I’m usually very picky when it comes to earbud sound quality, and the X7s have convinced me I no longer need wires for HiFi audio.

The Mee Audio X7 Plus earbuds are an even better deal at $79.99 right now at Amazon.com.

You can also pick the X7s at meeaudio.com.

Hacker who stole from banks ordered to pay $7 million

A hacker whose creation stole bank account details from over a million computers across the globe has been ordered to pay $6.9 million. Nikita Kuzmin from Russia is one of the three architects of the Gozi virus, which infects computers through PDF files. People unwittingly install it on their machines by downloading a PDF file they receive that’s relevant to their interests. Authorities first identified Gozi back in 2007, but by the time they did, Kuzmin and his cohorts had already siphoned millions of dollars from people’s accounts.

The feds’ computer experts identified a server that contains 10,000 bank account details pilfered from 5,200 computers, 160 of which belongs to NASA. Besides stealing money himself, Kuzmin also rented out the Gozi virus to other hackers for $500 a week. He earned $250,000 from that particular venture. However, Kuzmin helped authorities out with other investigations while he was in jail for 37 months back in 2011. While the DOJ didn’t release the details of how he contributed, it’s clear whatever he did worked: he didn’t get additional jail time.

Source: Department of Justice, Bloomberg, Reuters