Samsung is working on the extension of the Galaxy SII brand with a device called Galaxy SII Plus, says a recent report. According to a Japanese tech blog called 'Blog Of Mobile', the company is downgrading the specifications and retaining the look of its flagship model of last year while developing this upcoming phone.




Blog Of Mobile has cited information on the China Industry and Information Technology's website, which has made the images and specifications of the device available online. Along with this, the South Korean manufacturer is working on another smartphone, called Galaxy Grand Duos, the blog says. The specifications and images of the Galaxy Grand Duos are also available from the website of China Industry and Information Technology.

According to the report, Samsung Galaxy SII Plus will have share features like 4.3-inch touchscreen, 8MP rear camera and 2MP front snapper and black/grey and white colour options with the original Galaxy SII.

However, the former will have a 1GHz dual-core processor, instead of the latter's 1.2GHz dual-core chipset, and will run on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). On the other hand, Samsung Galaxy SII comes with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) out-of-the-box, but can be upgraded to Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). The report also said that this will product will be launched globally and will only be available in an 8GB variant.

Samsung has recently revealed the Galaxy SIII Mini, which has similar specifications except for smaller screen size of 4-inch. The company has previously extended the original Galaxy S brand to include phones like Galaxy S Plus, Galaxy S-LCD and Galaxy S Advance.

Coming to Galaxy Grand Duos, the report says that this device will have a 4.5-inch LCD display and run on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). This smartphone's dual-core processor will operate at clock speed of 1.2GHz. Blog Of Mobile also said that the rear and front camera in this smartphone will have resolution of 8MP and 2MP, respectively. It is said to come in only one colour option - Indigo Gem. Going by the suffix 'Duos' in the product's name, this device is likely to support two sim-cards.

A new workshop had revealed the six easy ways to keep our inbox clutter-free as we struggle to handle high volumes of emails every day.

Productivity coach Wendy Cole, in her workshop "The Secret to Getting Things Done, and Managing 100+ Emails a Day", says majority of employees aren't trained to tackle vast volumes of emails and didn't know how to use email programs like Microsoft Outlook, News.com.au reports.

According to Cole, here are the top six ways to handle and manage an email-filled inbox .

1. Delete: Every time you read an email, decide if the information is relevant to you. If not, delete it.

2. Do: If you can do whatever the email is requesting in two minutes, do it there and then.

3. Delegate: If it can't be done in two minutes but you are in a position to delegate it, pass it on to somebody else.

4. Defer: If you can't do the task immediately but it will take longer than two minutes, pick a time when you will get it done and add it to a to-do list.

4. Diminish: Cut down your email load by making rules in your inbox and directing emails into different folders.

5. Daily: Get your unread email count down to zero and do it daily.

Cole said people should avoid keeping emails as a "messy to do list", the report said.

She added the key to staying on top of your emails was to go into your inbox with a mindset that you are "processing", and also advised on 'centralised to-do lists' to organise your work day.

Cheap mobile phones that closely resemble high-end globally-recognised devices are slowly fading out from markets across China, and are being replaced by brands looking to break into the budget phone market.

In south China's Shenzhen city, known as the "birthplace of counterfeit phones," shops with "for rent" signs can be seen everywhere, the China Daily reported Monday.

Although the city has long been known as one of the country's top sellers of electronic products, government data indicates that more than 3,500 shops, most of which were mobile phone dealers, have closed and retreated from the market.

This year's Canton Fair, the country's largest small commodities expo held in Guangzhou, featured a small number of counterfeit phones, an "unthinkable occurrence in previous years".

Industry experts said manufacturers of counterfeit phone do not have the technological know-how to compete with global brands like Apple and Samsung.

However, domestic brands have made breakthroughs that have allowed them to offer inexpensive smartphones, thus cutting into the counterfeit phone market.

Among the 10 biggest phone manufacturers in China last year, domestic brands ZTE, Huawei and TCL were ranked third, fifth and ninth respectively, in terms of smartphone sales.

Domestic smartphones cost less than 1,000 yuan ($160).

Tang Ruijin, director of the Shenzhen Federation of Mobile Communication, said counterfeit manufacturers have retreated to underdeveloped overseas markets like southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa.

At this year's Mobile World Congress, Huawei unveiled a quad-core mobile phone processor. Huawei is one of few companies that develops its own computer chips, while many foreign brands still use Intel chips.

 State-owned telecom firm BSNL's Website was hacked today by a group that demanded withdrawal of section 66 A of the IT Act.

The Website 'www.bsnl.co.in' was, however, quickly restored.

The group Anonymous India said that it hacked the Website in support of activists Aseem Trivedi and Alok Dixit, who are on a hunger strike to protest Section 66A of the IT Act.

"Our website has been hacked and our people are working on it," BSNL Chairman and Managing Director R K Upadhyay told PTI.

The site has since been restored. The Twitter account of Anonymous India (@opindia_revenge) said, "BSNL Websites hacked, passwords and database leaked http://pastebin.com/wjtiyvx4 Anonymous India demands withdrawal of Sec 66A of IT Act."

Trivedi and Dixit are on a hunger strike for the last six days in protest against Sec 66A of IT Act.

Facing public protests on the recent controversial arrest of some persons for their Facebook posts using the section 66A of IT Act, Government last month came out with guidelines where a police officer no less than the rank of DCP can sanction prosecution.

The guidelines were being issued after controversial arrests by Mumbai police under Section 66 (A) of Information Technology (IT) Act that deals with spreading hatred through electronic messages.

Early success for the iPhone 5 smartphone has helped Apple to overtake Google's  Android  software in the United States, research firm Kantar WorldPanel said on Tuesday.

Apple's US market share in the 12 weeks to October 31 more than doubled from a year ago to 48.1 per cent, putting it within reach of the record 49.3 per cent it managed in early 2012.

Android's share dropped to 46.7 per cent from 63.3 per cent, Kantar WorldPanel's data showed, but it continues to dominate in key European markets. The platform 74 per cent market share in Germany and 82 per cent in Spain.

Its combined share of the top five European markets rose to 64 per cent, from 51 per cent a year earlier, while Apple's share edged up by one percentage point to 21 per cent.

The Pakistani websites of approximately as many as 300 companies, including that of tech giants Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Apple, were hacked and defaced during the weekend by a Turkish group named Eboz. Media reports have previously attributed around 600 other instances of hacking to this group.

On one of the defaced websites, the members of Eboz posted: "Why we have wasted our time to hack Pakistani sites? Just because let us convey our message. We warned you and we were willing to fix your vulnerability but you think we are jokers and you guys took it as a joke? Yes it's time to bang you guys!!"

The group seems to have exploited and highlighted a vulnerability of PKNIC, the TLD (Top Level Domain) operator that regulates all sites with .pk domains.

Some of the other companies affected by this systematic take down of services include Cisco, Visa,HSBC, Coca Cola, Blogspot, Sony, HP, eBay and PayPal, among others. While writing this report, some of the websites seems to have been restored; however, a few still seem to be under the hacker cell's control. Those trying to access Pakistani websites of iTunes, Blogspot, eBay, PayPaletc are either redirected elsewhere or the websites simply do not open.

The home pages of Google and a few other websites had the pictures of two penguins, with a phrase in Turkish that translates to: "My homies in a friend always there for me/ Have not shot by me with every breath."