Nokia 6 Android phone: Specs, prices, release date and everything you need to know

Nokia announced its return to the global smartphone stage with the launch of the Nokia 6, Nokia 5 and Nokia 3, a trio of Android smartphones designed to attack the affordable segment of the market.

The Nokia 6 first launched in China as a JD.com exclusive and by all accounts, it was very well received. The Nokia 6 saw 1.3 million pre-registrations in 4 days and once it went on sale, demand outstripped supply.

Now this affordable Nokia comeback phone is coming to the rest of the world. Here’s everything you need to know about the Nokia 6.

• See the Nokia 6 on Amazon.com for a Prime exclusive discount
• Nokia 6 preview: A solid start for the new Android Nokia

Nokia 6: Design and build

• Aluminium body, anodised
• 154 x 75.8 x 7.85-8.4mm
• Sculpted Gorilla Glass

The biggest thing outlined by HMD Global when announcing the launch of the Nokia 6 was talk about the process and the quality of the build. The company details that it takes 55 minutes to machine the Nokia 6 from a block of 6000 series aluminium, before it’s anodised twice and polished five times, taking 10 hours to complete. It’s the sort of attention to manufacture that we’ve become used to from companies like HTC or Apple.

There’s 2.5D Gorilla Glass on the top, giving nice soft curves to the edges of the display, leading into the bodywork. There’s a central fingerprint scanner beneath the display, flanked with back and recent app buttons.

One of the interesting details is the antenna lines which stick to the ends of the phone very much like the iPhone 7. There’s a 3.5mm headphone socket, but this handset uses Micro-USB rather than the newer USB Type-C.

One of the interesting details is that this Nokia phone offers dual speakers with amplifiers that claim do be able to create a Dolby Atmos effect, although that’s something we need to hear for ourselves before we get too excited about it.

We’re left with no doubt that this is a premium quality metal unibody handset and it certainly feels that way in the hand.

The Nokia 6 comes in blue, black, silver and copper, but there’s also an Art Black special edition. This version of the phone has a wonderful glossy finish (as pictured below), and slightly boosted hardware specs, which we’ll also detail below.

• Nokia through the years: 30 best and worst phones, in pictures 

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Nokia 6: Hardware specs and display

• 1920 x 1080 pixels, 5.5 inches, 403ppi, IPS LCD
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 430, 3/4GB RAM
• 32/64GB storage + microSD

The Nokia 6 has an octo-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset. There’s 3GB of RAM onboard and 32GB of storage, There is a microSD card slot for storage expansion. This chipset is mid-range, so this isn’t a powerhouse and the 3GB of RAM is good enough. 

However, the Art Black special edition handset has 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage (matching the specs of the Chinese version of this phone), but you will have to pay a little more for this version of the phone.

The 5.5-inch display offers a full HD resolution, which again sees this as a mid-range device, but it’s a resolution that’s worked at this size for companies like Huawei or OnePlus. That gives you 403ppi and having seen this phone, it looks like a nice, vibrant display that will be great in most conditions.

There’s a 3000mAh battery, which sounds like a great capacity for a device of this size and we suspect it will give day-long battery life.

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Nokia 6: Cameras

• Rear: 16-megapixel f/2.0 rear camera with 1.0µm pixels, PDAF
• Front: 8-megapixel f/2.0 front camera with 1.12µm pixels, AF

The Nokia 6 has a 16-megapixel rear camera, offering phase detection autofocus, so it should be nice and fast. The pixels are reported to be 1.0µm, which is a little small compared to some of the 2016 flagship devices, meaning that they might not be as well equipped to capture light, which could affect the quality. The f/2.0 aperture should help with this though.

The front camera is 8-megapixels and takes a small bump to 1.12µm, again with f/2.0 aperture. It reports a 84 degree field of view, so it’s fairly high resolution and wide aperture, so should be good for selfies. It is also autofocus, so those selfies should be nice and sharp.

On the camera front, the Nokia 6 offers automatic scene recognition and an exclusive camera app.

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Nokia 6: Software

• Android Nougat
• Monthly software updates
• Google Assistant expected

Despite jumping off the Symbian train and falling into the Windows Phone quagmire, the new Nokia is all about Android. The Nokia 6 launches on Android 7 Nougat. This is pure Android and the only change is the camera app that we’ve mentioned.

Other than this, the aim, according to Nokia, is to deliver and experience as close to the Google Pixel as possible. We discovered Google Assistant and round icons on the Nokia 6 when we looked at it, but we’re waiting to see exactly what the final version of this software looks like.

There is no bloatware however, no pre-installed apps, other than the standard Google apps, and there’s no changes to other areas of the phone: it’s just Android.

Nokia also promises monthly security updates and that new Android features should be implemented quickly.

Nokia 6: Release date and price

• Announced globally on 26 February 2017
• Available 10 July 2017
• Priced at €229, or €299 for the Art Black special edition
• Amazon Prime exclusive in US

Nokia announced the global version of the Nokia 6 and the pricing of €229 for the standard version of the phone, or €299 for the Art Black edition of the phone.

In the US, Amazon has announced that the Nokia 6 will be an Amazon Prime exclusive and that it will be available from 10 July 2017. The discounted version comes with lockscreen offers and ads, but gives you a $50 discount.

• See the Nokia 6, 32GB, Amazon Prime exclusive on Amazon.com

There is no word on when it might be coming to the UK, but we suspect it will be soon.

Nokia 6 preview: A solid start for the new Android Nokia

The Nokia 6 launched in China, breaking records for pre-orders and instantly putting HMD Global on the back foot. With demand outstripping supply, you could say the Nokia 6 got off to a solid start as a JD.com exclusive.

As guardians of the Nokia brand in phones, HMD faces a challenge: resurrecting one of mobile phone’s icons, without becoming generic. It’s perhaps ironic, then, that there’s little about the Nokia 6 that makes it stand-out from other Android phones. 

• See the Nokia 6 on Amazon.com – with Prime exclusive discount

It’s a pure Android experience, it follows many of the norms for smartphone design that we’re seeing across the board and the specs don’t elevate this smartphone to be anything special. Yet there’s a certain je ne sais quoi about Nokia’s new handset. Perhaps it’s nostalgia, perhaps HMD has just got it right. 

Nokia 6 preview: Design

• 154 x 75.8 x 7.85-8.4mm
• Solid 6000 series aluminium build
• Sculpted Gorilla Glass

Nokia’s biggest selling point is build. When the Nokia 6 first launched, it was perhaps surprising that HMD put so much emphasis on the manufacturing process. This is the sort of language that Apple or HTC uses for its smartphones that cost more than double, but craftsmanship has become the new smartphone trend.

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The Nokia 6 starts life as a solid block of aluminium. So serious is HMD about this process, that it was the first thing that we were handed when we sat down with Juho Sarvikas, chief product officer at HMD, and Florian Seiche, president of HMD, to meet the new phones. There’s no stamping of sheet metal: this phone is machined from a solid block of 6000 series aluminium, anodised and polished, as Sarvikas said, to “go beyond the specification.” 

The result is a phone that feels very solid. Metal phones aren’t anything new and they are even plentiful in the mid-range from the likes of Huawei. But the Nokia 6 doesn’t feel like it is metal to tick a box on a spec sheet, it feels like it’s been built to last. Durability is an important factor, it seems, in carrying Nokia smartphones to a new level. 

The Nokia 6 is slim, but has a slightly curved back to help this 5.5-inch phone settle into your hand. The glass of the display flows into the edges for an almost seamless finish, but the exposed diamond cut chamfer that meets it is deliberately evident to again hammer home the message of solidity.

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The Nokia 6 might not have the immediate sex appeal of the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, it’s perhaps not as iconically designed as the iPhone 7, but there’s huge value in that understated Nokia branding on the rear. Avoiding the plastics and the colours that typified the Lumia family, this new Nokia identity helps throw off the spectre of the Windows Phone past. 

While the “tempered blue” colour will remind you of that old 3310 that you loved, the real story is about the Arte Black special edition (pictured here). This carries a glossy black finish, aping the iPhone 7’s Jet Black. This special edition phone has a more lustworthy finish, even if it adds some €60 to the asking price. When the regular Nokia 6 costs just €229, that’s a price we suspect many will be happy to pay. 

Nokia 6 preview: Display and hardware

• 5.5-inch, 1920 x 1080 pixels, 403ppi, IPS LCD
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 430, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, microSD
• Art Black gets 4GB RAM, 64GB storage
• 3000mAh battery, Micro-USB

Sitting atop the Nokia 6 is a 5.5-inch full HD display. This is where the mid-range story really starts, as the 6 offers a 1920 x 1080 pixel display. That might not offer the detail that you’ll find crammed into the likes of many flagships, but form what we’ve seen, this is a great display. 

We’ve not had the chance to really put it through its tests in a range of environments, but at first glance it’s bright and vibrant, with Nokia saying its rated at 450 nits.

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The core hardware also tells a mid-range story. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset sits at the heart of this phone, with 3GB RAM in the regular model, or 4GB RAM in the Art Black special edition. The Snapdragon 400 series chipsets are a common feature of mid-range handsets and in many cases provide plenty of power for a smooth day-to-day experience.

We’ve not had the chance to fully assess the power and performance, but we know from previous devices that things like social media, browsing and email crunching will be perfectly fast. Limitations are likely to come in on some games, video capture and other power hungry tasks.

The positive point is usually that these chipsets are less power hungry than some of the top-tier models, so the 3000mAh battery should put in a respectable performance, although we’re sure that there will be some who question why the Nokia 6 doesn’t step up a level, at least to match the Moto G4’s Snapdragon 617.

One of the features that’s perhaps missing is USB Type-C: this phone carries the older Micro-USB connection, but it does have a 3.5 socket for your headphones, along with claims of being able to produce Dolby Atmos audio, something we’ll need to investigate further.

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Nokia 6 preview: Cameras

• Back: 16-megapixel, 1µm pixels, f/2.0, phase detection AF
• Front: 8-megapixel, 1.12µm pixels, f/2.0, wide angle autofocus camera 

Nokia is known for its cameras. From the 808 PureView to the Lumia 1020, camera power was at the forefront. There were big sensors offering crop zooming, optical image stabilisation and Zeiss lenses. Nokia became synonymous with quality camera offerings. 

We’ve not had the chance to fully test the new camera on the Nokia 6, but you may have to temper your excitement a little when it comes to the camera. In paper, at least, this is a fairly standard offering, eschewing some of those previous highlights. There’s no premium lens branding and the pixels themselves (at 1µm) are rather small compared to some 1.5µm rivals.

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Without testing the camera, however, there’s no telling how it performs. The camera app is the one thing on the software side that Nokia has changed, making a few tweaks, but on first glance, it all appears to be fairly standard stuff.

The front camera is an 8-megapixel sensor and interestingly it offers autofocus, which is a little more advanced than many fixed focus offerings. This should lead to nice sharp selfies from this wide-angle lens, but again, it needs a good testing before we can really call out the Nokia 6 on camera performance. 

Nokia 6 preview: Unsullied Android Nougat

• Android Nougat
• No bloatware
• Monthly security updates

When it comes to software, many will be happy to hear that Nokia isn’t following the party line with its Android phones. Many are bundling in apps and services, reworking menus and changing a whole load of features, but Nokia is doing nothing.

We’ve mentioned the camera app, but that’s the only change that Nokia will be making to the software experience. “We’re happy with what Google is doing,” says Sarvikas and we’re fans of that experience. There’s no blaming the manufacturer for destroying the experience though software: the Nokia 6 is designed to be as close to the Google Pixel, that pure Android experience, as it can be.

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The phones that we photographed weren’t final software, but we were happy to discover a lot of features familiar from the Pixel. We were invited to sign into Google Assistant, there’s pop-up app shortcuts and otherwise a Nougat experience that’s unsullied. Whether or not the Pixel launcher ends up on this phone remains to be seen, but we like the purity.

Nokia has also promised that that means monthly security updates as you get on Pixel phones and it should mean a rapid turn around on updates. We’ll wait to see what happens on that front: Motorola made the same promise and that hasn’t always rung true. 

First Impressions

The Nokia 6 isn’t a flagship phone and that will disappoint many who wanted Nokia to come out swinging and take the fight to the big Android brands. At the same time, Nokia is following a strategy that it attempted with the Lumia brand: it’s going mass market, punching into the cheaper segment with a quality product. It’s lower level Sony and Samsung phones that should be worried, because Nokia has the product and the brand to make this a success. 

Like the Moto G series, Nokia’s new phones – the 6, 5 and 3 – present options for those who can’t afford to spend €700 on the latest flagship. The aim, it seems, is to capture this section of the global market, and we’re told that this is a starting point, suggesting the rumoured Nokia 8 could still be a going concern. 

There’s a lot for us to still discover about the Nokia 6: the camera, the performance and the battery life are important elements we can’t yet judge. Whether this phone has the grunt to take on the Moto G is the real question, something we’ll investigate closer to launch.

Amazon has confirmed that the Nokia 6 will be selling as an Amazon Prime exclusive in the US. It’s priced at $229 for the 32GB version, but with lockscreen adverts – like the Kindle or Fire tablets – you can get it for $179.

Nintendo SNES Classic Mini official pre-orders now open, at £69.99 a pop

Nintendo has officially opened its own pre-orders for the Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or SNES Classic Mini for short.

You can order one for £69.99 from Nintendo.co.uk now.

One only unit is available per customer, but you’d still better be quick. Its predecessor, the NES Classic Mini, sold out in a very short time.

This comes after Amazon, Game and Smyths Toys all listed their own pre-order sites last night, but have since sold out of their stock.

The SNES Classic Mini is a small version of Nintendo’s 16-bit console from the 80s. It comes pre-loaded with 21 games, including Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Country and the never-before-released Star Fox 2.

• Nintendo SNES Classic Mini: Release date, pre-order details, price, games and more

Two controllers come in the box with the machine, plus a USB power cable. However, you have to supply a USB plug adapter yourself.

Previous rumours, mainly sparked by initial pricing on sites such as Game.co.uk, was that the SNES Classic Mini would set you back £79.99 – it’s $79.99 in the States. But Nintendo has opted to push it out for a tenner less.

It’s still more pricey than last year’s NES Classic Mini, which was £49.99, but still represents great value for such an excellent piece of gaming history.

Pandora’s CEO is stepping down as digital music evolves

The rumors were true: Pandora CEO Tim Westergren has announced that he’s stepping down from the company he co-founded 17 years ago. He’ll remain in the leadership position while the company searches for a replacement. President Mike Herring and marketing chief Nick Bartle are also leaving, the streaming music company says. While Pandora isn’t clear about why the executives are bowing out, it comes after efforts to “refocus and reinforce” the firm by selling its ticket business and taking a $480 million cash infusion from SiriusXM. In other words, it’s likely looking for fresh blood as it adapts to a changing digital music landscape.

Case in point: the company is replacing a former board member with Jason Hirschhorn, best known for his executive roles at MTV Networks, Myspace and Sling Media. He’s no stranger to the digital media world, but his different perspective (his resume revolves around the social side of music) could prove useful as Pandora shifts its strategy.

Whatever happens next, Westergren’s departure is more than a little symbolic of both the company’s troubles and its eagerness to turn the corner. Pandora was hot in its early years, when streaming music was relatively new and just having customized internet radio was special. Now, however, on-demand streaming is where it’s at — and there’s no question that Pandora is late to the party. Westergren has guided Pandora through some tough times, most notably a royalty battle with the recording industry, but he faced a particularly daunting challenge in keeping his service relevant at a time when Spotify and Apple Music dominate. While his successor won’t necessarily fare any better, his exit is an acknowledgment that the status quo simply isn’t good enough.

Source: Pandora

Facebook Messenger’s AI assistant helps you save links for later

Two months ago, Facebook finally rolled out M, its AI-powered personal assistant, to the general public. Well, sort of. Instead of the limited edition of M that would answer your every beck and call (it had a lot of human help), the public version of M has to be triggered with certain words. A few features at launch include suggesting stickers to use in conversations or prompting an Uber ride if M detects you need to get somewhere. Today, Facebook is adding even more M suggestions to the mix: a “save it for later” function, birthday wishes and call initiations.

The save-for-later function is pretty self-explanatory. If M senses that the people in the conversation are sharing URLs with each other, for example, it’ll pop up with an offer to save them for later consumption. Facebook says that this applies not just to URLs, but also Facebook posts, events, pages and videos. And if you want to share that saved content later, you can easily do so thanks to Messenger’s ‘Saved’ extension.

Next are birthday wish reminders, which is certainly something you’re already familiar with if you’re a Facebook user. Starting today on Messenger, whenever you chat with someone on that person’s birthday, M gently reminds you to send him or her a birthday wish, which can be in the form of a sticker, a card or a video.

Last but not least are call initiations. Basically, if someone in the Messenger chat says something along the lines of “want to call me?” M will appear with either a voice or video call shortcut, letting you start one straightaway within the Messenger interface.

Perhaps M’s biggest rival is Google Assistant, which is present in Allo, Google’s relatively recent chat app. Using machine learning smarts, Google Assistant will tell you the weather, figure out your flight status and show nearby restaurants while you’re in conversation with someone else. This is certainly a lot more than what M can do at the moment, but since M is in Messenger, a much more widely used platform, it’ll likely be used by a lot more people.

Facebook Messenger will get these M suggestions starting today. Also, M suggestions will be rolling out in Spain today, in both English and Spanish.

A biometric ring could replace your passwords, cards and keys

Smart rings aren’t a novel idea — there are plenty of fitness tracking, notification-sending, payment or even protective finger ornaments around. But none have the ability to identify you and authorize your transactions wherever you go. That is, until Token hits the market. It’s a biometric ring that can be used to open house doors, start cars, make credit card transactions and sign in to your computer. That all sounds nifty in theory, but without any real cooperation from the third parties that enable those authorizations, Token is all but useless. The good news is that its makers managed to get support from an impressive list of partners including MasterCard, Microsoft, Visa and HID.

That last company is responsible for 80 percent of the keyless security systems in the market, according to Token’s makers. Even if the physical readers at your office aren’t made by HID, the protocol behind them most likely is. Setting up your Token to work as an entry card is therefore as simple as getting a keycard issued, except your profile is stored on your ring instead of a physical card.

Another intriguing application for Token is as a payment card for public transport, via a MasterCard partnership. By the end of the year, you’ll be able to tap on card readers to enter train and bus systems around the world. US cities slated to support this by 2017 include Chicago, Salt Lake City, Miami and Philadelphia, while the company expects service in New York City to be activated in the first quarter of 2018, although a recent report puts that date closer to 2021. Whether that could mean greater convenience or more potential for breakdowns due to glitchy technology remains to be seen, but at a recent demo, Token worked well with sample card readers and card-payment terminals.

The way Token works is simple: With a fingerprint sensor on the inside, it can confirm that you’re the authorized user. Then, you slide on the ring, and an onboard IR optical sensor makes sure the device is still on your finger. As long as you have not taken it off, you can authorize transactions with a tap of your hand. Once removed, you’ll have to place your finger on the sensor again before the Token can be used for access. You can add credit cards, login passwords and set up other profiles via a companion app, and afterwards, you won’t have to choose which transaction to authorize. The signal that is continuously broadcast (when you’re wearing the ring) can be interpreted by a variety of readers. Only one fingerprint can be assigned to each Token, as the company wants to prevent multiple users sharing such a personal product.

Speaking of — personal taste may also affect whether you like the Token. It’s a relatively chunky, half-inch-tall ring that looks somewhat basic. It is prettier when stacked with a slimmer, shinier ring, though, and that’s up to the wearer to pair. Not everyone is going to want to put on a ring, but Token’s makers believe (and say their research shows) that the function provided by the device can persuade most people to use it. Thankfully, the Token is water-resistant up to 50 meters so you won’t have to remove it when washing your hands.

Security is also a big concern for Tokenize, the makers of Token. As its name suggests, the company uses tokenization to add a layer of protection to credit card transactions. In addition to that and the fingerprint-and-IR-sensor combination, Tokenize says it stores credentials on an EAL5+ certified secure element for safety. It’s not immediately clear what other security measures are in place, but Tokenize is part of the FIDO alliance, and its partnership with major financial institutions like MasterCard and Visa lend it some credibility on the security front.

Token transmits the authentication signal over NFC in most situations, while Bluetooth is used when signing into existing laptops. NFC requires close proximity between devices for an authorization, so it’s not as easy as Bluetooth to exploit. But since few notebooks have NFC support yet, Token has to rely on Bluetooth for those logins, which you trigger by knocking your finger on a surface twice. When web authority W3C releases its new guidelines later this year, major browsers are expected to enable NFC or Bluetooth-based logins to websites in place of passwords. While that feature isn’t live yet, you can already sign into your laptop with Token. During my demo, the company’s owner unlocked her MacBook simply by rapping her ring-bearing hand on the table.

Tokenize estimates that Token’s battery will last up to three weeks on a charge. Each ring comes with its own wireless charging holder, and houses LED lights that will blink red each minute when your battery is down to 30 percent, which the company says is about a couple of days away from dying.

There are many more applications for Token that we don’t have time to get into, including an NFC-capable smart lock for your house door and a car starter for convenient setup in vehicles with the start button. These two are made by Tokenize, and cost $100 each or $399 as a kit bundled with the basic flavor of the ring. The wearable itself starts at $249, and more-premium 14K rose gold and black rhodium versions cost $299. They’re available for pre-order now (in US sizes 6 to 12) on the Tokenize website and will ship in December. That gives the company’s partners some time to get the infrastructure in place so all of Token’s promised applications will work when it’s released. And let’s hope they hurry up already.

Volkswagen and NVIDIA want to help humans and robots work together

After just confirming its plans to help Volvo create self-driving cars, NVIDIA has now revealed that it’s also working with another leading car manufacturer. Announcing a partnership with Volkswagen, the tech company states its artificial intelligence and deep learning tech will be used to help VW expand its AI business beyond just autonomous vehicles.

While this collaboration may sound surprising, the move actually looks to help expand Volkswagen’s existing AI-focused research division – The VW Data Lab. The two companies have suggested that this sharing of tech could be used to help the pair optimize traffic flow in cities and even to devise solutions that make human and robot collaboration easier.

In a statement, Volkswagen’s CIO Dr. Martin Hofmann says that AI is “the key to the digital future of the Volkswagen Group” describing its collaboration with NVIDIA as “a major step” in expanding the company’s proficiency in the field. This deal won’t just benefit VW’s Data Lab, however. The tech company and the car manufacturer have also announced a startup support program beginning this fall, where The Data Lab and NVIDIA will be assisting five small business who specialize in machine learning. The two companies are also offering to share their expertise with students too, launching a Summer of Code camp that will be kicking off shortly.

While NVIDIA is primarily known for manufacturing graphics cards, this is far from the company’s first expansion into the motor industry. With the tech giant now powering cars made by Toyota, Volvo, and the VW-owned Audi, NVIDIA is quietly becoming one of the leading names in autonomous vehicle AI. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll see AMD making the fighter jets of tomorrow.

Via: Tech Crunch

Source: Volkswagen

The high-tech war on Tibetan communication

Each year, March 10th in Tibet brings more police onto the streets, closer online censorship of terms like “Free Tibet” and “Dalai Lama” and a spate of cyberattacks.

“Every March 10th, almost all major Tibetan organizations in Dharamsala are targeted with Distributed Denial of Service and other cyber attacks,” said Tenzin Dalha, a researcher at the Tibet Policy Institute, part of the Central Tibetan Administration. Four years ago, that happened to the Voice of Tibet (VOT), a nonprofit media outlet run out of the Indian hill town of Dharamsala, bringing its website down for several days.

The reason for the crackdown is that the date commemorates March 10th, 1959. On that day, rumors spread in the Tibetan capital Lhasa about the impending arrest of Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, by the Chinese, who had invaded the territory in 1950. Tibetans rallied to support their spiritual leader and the mass protests led to a violent crackdown. The Dalai Lama and his entourage escaped to India, where he and the Tibetan government-in-exile remain.

When VOT started in 1996, it was one of the few channels of communication between Tibetans and their government-in-exile across the border, as all newspapers, television and other print materials were heavily censored. Using shortwave radio, it transmitted its news service across the border into Chinese-occupied Tibet, both in Tibetan and Mandarin Chinese.

“Of course the Chinese Government tries to jam our program consistently, and we try to fight with them by broadcasting our programs on different frequencies, at different times.”

“We are a news organization, and we spend [our time] making stories,” said Tenzin Peldon, editor at VOT. “Of course, the Chinese government tries to jam our program consistently, and we try to fight with them by broadcasting our programs on different frequencies, at different times, so if one program is jammed, other ones get through.”

China’s control of information is key to its control over Tibet. Propaganda has been key in pushing its own version of history — that the 1959 invasion was a “liberation” and that Chinese rule has been a boon to Tibet — both at home to the global community. In the following decades, most of the country’s Buddhist monasteries and temples were destroyed, while many Tibetans were put into forced labor camps or, in many cases, killed.

Vast mining operations and dams run by Chinese companies are strewn across the plateau but have not benefited Tibetans. Lhasa, once a forbidden, holy city where foreigners could enter only in very limited instances, is now a Chinese-majority city that Tibetans from outlying regions have to get special permissions to enter. Yet as development spread across the plateau and China opened during the economic boom of the 1990s, Tibet appeared seemingly docile and increasingly integrated with the mainland.

This image fell apart in early 2008. It was, again, March 10th. This time, just a few months before China was to welcome the world to the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, decades of discontent erupted into protests in Lhasa, which quickly spread across the occupied country. Tibetan exiles helped to spread images of monks protesting spread online, which, together with a powerful human-rights documentary, triggered protests across the world, and calls for countries to boycott the Olympics.

It was a huge embarrassment for the Chinese government. Martial law was quickly declared, and the years since have seen an even greater clampdown on free expression through the pervasive monitoring of Tibetans, both those inside Tibet and out.

What was once a low-tech information battle over radio waves has now being reshaped by the internet and smartphone access that have spread into Tibet. Yet while China operates the world’s most powerful digital-security apparatus, there are only around 6 million-7 million Tibetans in Tibet, and about 150,000 exiles scattered around the world. For the small Tibetan community with limited resources, to face off with Beijing is a David and Goliath situation.

Pro-Tibet demonstrators near the European Union-China summit in Brussels earlier this month.

Reuters/PA Images

The attack on Voice of Tibet four years ago was a common distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, but others have been far more sophisticated.

The scale of China’s operation was not clear until a report released by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab in 2009, titled “Tracking Ghostnet.” This clearly showed, for the first time, the extent of cyber espionage and how deeply it had infiltrated the Tibetan movement, including the office of the Dalai Lama. For Lobsang Gyatso, this was a major wakeup call.

“The report was a huge eye-opener … until then, we didn’t have proof or an understanding,” said Lobsang, the digital-security-programs manager with the Tibet Action Institute. “This made it very concrete and showed it was state-sponsored … it was pretty clear to us who was behind it.”

“Every single organization affiliated with the CTA or with the Tibetan freedom movement in India has been targeted with severe cyber attacks.”

Citizen Lab uncovered 1,295 infected hosts in 103 countries across the entire Tibetan spectrum. Signs all pointed to China as the culprit.

“Every single organization affiliated with the CTA or with the Tibetan freedom movement in India has been targeted with severe cyber attacks,” said Dalha. “The website of CTA, [in particular] the Chinese website, has been hacked several times.”

The most common method of spreading malware was simple –- email attachments. Citizen Lab documented the use of suspicious emails with links to complex malware in a 2013 follow up report on what they called APT1’s Glasses, which it sourced directly to the People’s Liberation Army in China. Tibetans switched strategies, from sending attachments to using more-secure services such as Google Drive and Dropbox to share files.

“Most NGOs by then had developed this practice of sharing everything with Google Drive,” said Tenzin Jidgal with the International Campaign for Tibet. Not too long thereafter, some organizations noticed some of the emails they were getting with Google Drive attachments were being sent from malicious servers including links that led to malware.

This time, however, they were prepared. They shared data with outsiders, such as Citizen Lab, to better understand the problem. It was no accident, but a meaningful, organized response to a genuine threat.

‘Free Tibet’ banner outside the Beijing National Stadium at the 2008 Olympics.

Leading the fight to protect NGOs from digital threats is the Tibet Action Institute (TAI) founded in 2009.

“We fill a supporting role for others doing advocacy,” said Lobsang. “How to make their work more effective, so that there are not attacked, and they are protected.”

TAI does not focus on getting users to select the best or safest tools. Instead, it wants people to understand the Chinese threat and make small changes. It models its campaigns after those in the public-health sector, and works both with the exile community and Tibetans in Tibet, making sure they understand how to send information outside the country safely.

“Tibetans in Tibet tend to have this idea: ‘If the information gets out, I don’t care what happens to me.’ It’s very courageous,” said Lobsang. “But we want to help them get over that mentality, making them understand that [their well-being] is very important to the movement.” That often means teaching simple tasks — helping them understand how mobile networks and SIM cards work — so that they can use low-risk communication methods.

This behavior change is key to TAI’s mission, as a system is only as secure as its weakest link. If regular Tibetans are not secure, then potentially no one is.

“It’s more about behavior and understanding security, and making sure you understand once you install an app, what those permissions mean, so you’re better informed before doing anything.”

“Our focus has been on what tools people are using already, and then what practices that can actually support that to be more secure,” said Lobsang. “It’s more about behavior and understanding security, and making sure you understand once you install an app, what those permissions mean, so you’re better informed before doing anything.”

Also key to the effort are partnerships with institutes such as Citizen Lab or other NGOs facing similar threats from Chinese state actors. Since that 2009 report, Citizen Lab has been releasing regular updates on the latest tactics being used by hackers to try to access Tibetans’ and Tibet organizations’ data, which directly inform TAI’s training tactics.

It is a nonstop game of cat-and-mouse. As the Tibet movement’s digital-security abilities and training improve, the Chinese government implements more-sophisticated hacking techniques. Members of the Tibet movement credit the integration of digital-security thinking for allowing it to keep pace with threats. According to Bhuchung K. Tsering, Vice President at the International Campaign for Tibet, the everyday use of digital tools requires people and organizations to make security second nature.

“The best thing that we can do is be mindful of what we do all the time,” said Tsering. “If we are mindful, then we will be more prepared to take those steps that might prevent the … Chinese, or anyone else, from getting into our system.”

A Tibet Action Institute workshop.

No one really knows what Chinese hackers will attempt next — it was only a few years ago that China even admitted to having a cyber army. But one thing that worries many is that the most ubiquitous app used in China is also commonly used among the exile community — WeChat.

At core an instant messenger, WeChat was initially popular with many Tibetans as it allowed, for the first time, regular communication between those still in Tibet and those in exile.

“In Dharamsala, a lot of Tibetans use WeChat to just talk to their friends in groups,” said an expert at Free Tibet, a UK-based NGO who preferred to remain anonymous. “By using WeChat outside of China, Tibetans are willingly giving up their security and privacy.”

WeChat has serious security issues, and many believe it is readily sharing data with the Chinese government. Citizen Lab found line by line censorship of content when analyzing information flows between India and Tibet earlier this year around the Kalachakra teaching, which China deemed “illegal,” held by the Dalai Lama in Bodh Gaya, India.

In China, several Tibetans have been arrested for sharing content deemed politically sensitive on WeChat. While more and more members of the community understand that discussing political topics or sharing images of, for example, the Dalai Lama, can put people at risk of being arrested, Lobsang is worried about something else entirely.

“Information is key. They want to know how the exile community thinks, and from a political perspective, that’s a huge plus for them.”

“Instead of them coming to hack us, we are going to a platform that is run by [China] in some ways, and sharing all of that information there,” said Lobsang. “Information is key. They want to know how the exile community thinks, and from a political perspective, that’s a huge plus for them.”

Moving Tibetans to a more-secure chat app, such as Signal or Telegram, is a nonstarter due to the challenge of getting enough people to switch simultaneously. So TAI focuses instead on ensuring users understand what types of information WeChat can access, and, if possible, use the app on a separate dedicated phone when communicating with those inside Tibet. But getting users to understand how China could use even the simple, daily, nonpolitical communication to their benefit is a major challenge.

“There’s a line that needs to be drawn, but it’s hard to get people to understand how the concept of big data actually works,” said Lobsang.

Chinese military march in front of the traditional residence of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa, Tibet.

Getty Images

Tibetans are, of course, not the only targets of Chinese government hackers. While their unique situation puts them in line for scrutiny, more recent targets have included the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong and US corporations. China’s digital state could even, soon, include Facebook, which has been making overtures to enter the country and is creating censorship software that could make it more amenable to Chinese authorities.

While, at first, for small exile community to face off against a massive digital-security apparatus may seem insurmountable, size actually plays to Tibetans’ advantage. The exile community is closely knit, and the near-constant threat of hacking since the 2008 uprising has helped create a culture of security throughout the movement.

“We have become more aware, more informed, and more literate … about digital security and online security,” said Jigdal. “We may be smaller, but if we were able to develop this practice on a day-to-day basis, it spreads faster, and therefore it’s more doable.”

For VOT, this meant hiring an IT consultant after the initial DDoS attack, conducting in-house training, and working with TAI to improve its own security culture. While its shortwave broadcasts still face jamming, its website has remained online, and information is, against all odds, getting through.

“No matter how much the Chinese repress Tibetans, they can’t stop the flow of information.”

“No matter how much the Chinese repress Tibetans, they can’t stop [the flow] of information,” said Peldon. “So even though the Chinese government constantly jam our programs and send attacks to our website, I’m surprised how Tibetans inside Tibet find different ways to bypass the censorship wall and hear us.”

Tibetans in exile are more prepared digitally than ever before.

“Tibet Action Institute’s awareness-raising work with Tibetans played a big role in making sure that it wasn’t worth China’s while to continue to spread malware the ‘old way,’” said an expert at Free Tibet, who preferred to remain anonymous.

But the big picture still looks dire. Today, the situation in Tibet is deteriorating even more, with Freedom House ranking it the least-free country in the world. Tibetans are facing increased travel restrictions, fewer cultural rights and more arrests for even simple online transgressions.

“A risk from a … different angle is Chinese online propaganda campaigns that attempt to normalize the current situation in Tibet or drown out social media posts about Tibet that criticize the occupation or attempt to publicize human-rights abuses,” said John Jones, campaigns and communications manager at Free Tibet.

The 60th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising is approaching. China is expected to ramp up measures, online and offline, and do all it can to ensure that no protests, either like the ones in 1959 or 2008, or the recent spate of self-immolations, take place in Tibet — and if they do happen, that the rest of the world won’t hear about it. After years of digital fortification, this may be the greatest test of the exile community’s ability to go toe-to-toe with a Goliath in cybersecurity.

Image credits: Balint Porneczi/AFP/Getty Images (Chinese and Tibetan flags); Reuters/Press Association (Pro-tibet demonstrations); Wikimedia (‘Free Tibet’ banner); Tibet Action Institute (TAI workshop); Bernardo De Niz/MCT/Getty Images (Potala Palace).

UK copyright body throws idle threats at Kodi box owners

Audio-visual enthusiasts know and recognise that Kodi is the swiss-army knife of media centres. But for lots of people around the world, the software is synonymous with movie and TV show piracy. “Fully-loaded” Kodi boxes have made the open-source platform a huge target for copyright authorities and rights holders, who are now using the courts to punish people who sell ready-made illegal streaming solutions. The end user has typically escaped punishment, but the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) is now warning UK owners that they too could see the long arm of the law tap them on the shoulder.

The warning comes by way of The Independent. It includes lots of scare quotes, but none that should get Kodi box owners too worried, at least at the moment. According to Kieron Sharp, the chief executive at FACT, investigators could begin tracing the buyers of fully-loaded Kodi boxes by using the customer lists of sellers they’ve already raided.

“What we’ve been looking at in conjunction with many of our clients and members are the different levels of crime being committed,” Sharp told the Independent. “There’s the manufacture and importation of devices, and then the distribution and selling of those. We’re also looking at the people who are providing the apps and add-ons, the developers. And then we’ll also be looking at, at some point, the end user. The reason for end users to come into this is that they are committing criminal offences.”

Kodi remains a free and open software that can be installed on an array of devices. Sharp’s comments appear to single out users who neglected to build their own media centre and instead opted to acquire theirs via more questionable means. There’s nothing to say that if someone has modified their own Raspberry Pi or Amazon Fire Stick to run Kodi that they’ll be tracked.

In April, the Europe’s highest court ruled that selling pre-configured pirate streaming boxes is illegal, giving domestic courts across the EU the power to convict and penalise the people that operate such services. In the UK, a landmark court case involving a Middlesbrough resident will soon decide whether sellers of illegal streaming boxes can be punished.

“It’s part of the work that we do with the police that we have to look at the whole business there, and start investigating those that have been buying these devices.” Sharp also noted. “At the moment, where that will lead we don’t know. We have a number of cases coming before the courts in terms of those people who have been providing, selling and distributing illicit streaming devices. It’s something for the very near future, when we’ll consider whether we go any further than that, in terms of customers.”

While FACT’s position on users of fully-loaded Kodi boxes is warranted — using piracy add-ons is illegal — its main focus is still those who profit from the sale of such devices. If Sharp’s words deter people from buying one then it’s a bonus, but those who have built their own device or have bought a fully-loaded box simply to complete their own media centre will likely fall outside of those investigations (for now).

Via: Gizmodo UK

Source: The Independent

Greenpeace Combats Planned Obsolescence in New Repairability Campaign, iPad and MacBook Score Low

A new campaign by Greenpeace today has rated the repairability of six Apple devices against the smartphone, tablet, and laptop market at large, the purpose of which is to highlight planned obsolescence in the technology industry. Greenpeace partnered with iFixit to assess over forty different devices that debuted between 2015 and 2017, with iFixit’s teardown repairability scores serving as the basis for the data.

Apple’s products looked at in the campaign included the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, iPad (fifth generation), 13-inch MacBook Pro, and 12-inch MacBook (refreshed in 2017). All products were rated in the following categories: battery replaceability, display replaceability, no special tools needed, and spare parts available.

Scoring worst on the list were the two MacBooks, which each got a 1/10, and the two iPads didn’t fare much better, both getting 2/10 marks in the campaign. The new iPhone 7 models were much higher, both receiving a 7/10 with positive check marks in display replaceability but red x’s in all other categories.

Microsoft had trouble in the ratings as well, with its Surface Pro 5 and Surface Book both rated at 1/10. Conversely, the brands abiding by Greenpeace’s repairability mantra included Fairphone, Dell, and HP, which all had products rated at 10/10 on the campaign’s scale.

Ultimately, Greenpeace wants to bring awareness to the phenomenon of planned obsolescence, which the company’s IT sector analyst, Gary Cook, said “adds to growing stockpiles of e-waste,” due to difficult repairability shortening device lifespan. Cook noted that, “improving the repairability of electronic products is technically achievable and brands should be prioritizing this in their product design.”

“Electronics take a massive amount of energy, human effort, and natural resources to make,” said iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens. “And yet, manufacturers produce billions more of them every year—while consumers keep them for just a few years before tossing them away. E-waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world. We should be able to make electronics a more sustainable part of our lives.”

In an environmental report earlier this year, Greenpeace awarded Apple with an “A” rating, calling it the most environmentally friendly technology company in the world, for the third year in a row. That report looked specifically at energy transparency, renewable energy commitment, energy efficiency and mitigation, renewable procurement, and advocacy.

Tags: iFixit, Greenpeace
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