Lenovo K10 Note – Review | Good Buy For The Budget

Are you planning to buy a new smartphone within a specific budget? Lenovo has recently launched three new smartphones which cover a wide spectrum of the price. The Z6 Pro, K10 Note and the A6 Note. However, the K10 Note is placed in a mid-range budget segment. But how does the K10 Note perform in the real world? We have used the K10 Note for more than 10 days now and this is the review of the Lenovo K10 Note.

Look, Design and Hardware

The Lenovo K10 Note comes with a simple and minimalistic design. But do not be fooled as it looks quite elegant and has a great build quality. The body has been constructed from plastic which makes it even more lightweight. Even with a lot of usage, it never felt heavy to hold. The plastic back is prone to getting fingerprints which I personally feel is a tradeoff all smartphone makers so to use the back area for incorporating designs and patterns. You can wipe the back clean with a soft cloth and it should not be a problem. The rear is also the home for the triple camera setup and an LED flash. The fingerprint scanner is placed at the back as we have seen with most of the phones. On the right side, you have the power and the volume rocker keys while the left side houses the sim-card try. The bottom houses the USB Type-C port and the speaker grille and the still beloved 3.5mm headphone port. On the top, you can notice the small port for the secondary microphone. The overall design is simple and it looks quite stylish, especially if you consider its budget tag.

Now turn over the phone to the front, you will come to see the 6.3-inch Full-HD+ LCD display which gets a water drop-shaped notch on the top. It has an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The bezels are quite thin except for the chin area at the bottom. Lenovo has skipped on Corning’s Gorilla Glass to use Panda Class for protection. The screen is quite bright and vibrant and is quite consistent at different viewing angles. Not only this, but the legibility of the screen in bright sunlight was also very good as I had no difficulty in reading whatever was on the screen.

Hardware specifications of the K10 Note include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 SoC which is paired with up to 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. The phone draws its power from a 4050mAh battery which also has support for 18W fast charging. The camera trio consists of a 16 MP primary camera, an 8MP secondary lens which gets 2X optical zoom and a 5 MP depth sensor. The front-facing camera is a 16 MP unit for selfies and video calling.

Now coming to the software of the smartphone, it runs Android 9.0 Pie out of the box. One noticeable factor is that you only have a very little level of customisation leaving with you a pure Android experience. Even with a high amount of multitasking, the phone did not face too many lags or stutters. You can enable gestures on this K10 Note via the 4D U-Touch in the settings menu. The K10 comes with a few additional applications installed but not all of them can be removed.

Performance and Camera Quality

Now moving towards the performance department of the Lenovo K10 Note, it appeared to run very smoothly for the entire duration of use. There was no lag observed while launching multiple applications or while switching between tabs. If you like playing games, you might encounter a bit of heating on continuous gameplay. However games like Asphalt 9: Legends on long session got the phone warm only slightly. The beautiful surprise is the battery life. The 4050mAh battery easily lasts a day of usage including a lot of multimedia content consumption and browsing social media applications, maps etc. The fast charger in the box means the phone could be fully charged in around two hours. Talking about multimedia, the sound output on the K10 Note is pretty impressive considering the fact it features Dolby Atmos and even with a single speaker, the sound output felt adequate. The fingerprint scanner of the K10 is fast and sometimes even faster than the facial recognition.

Now it is time we talk about the camera. The images from the K10 Note produced accurate colours and were evenly exposed with good amount of details. Focusing is not an issue when pointing at faraway objects but when going too close to the subject, it takes a moment to lock focus. In low lighting conditions, the images were decent. Turning the night mode on slightly enhances the images taken in dimly lit situations. The shots taken in the portrait mode worked well however, you cannot adjust adjust the level of blur like you can in some of the other smartphone portraits. The 16 MP selfie camera does a good job of taking selfies.

Final Verdict

For a price of Rs. 13,999/- the Lenovo K10 Note ticks all the boxes for a budget smartphone user. It comes with a bright display, smooth performance and a good battery life. The cameras could have been better but that is me, nitpicking on a budget device. If you are looking to not spend more than 15 thousand on a smartphone and a good software experience, then the Lenovo K10 Note is a very good contender waiting to be picked up.

GoPro App Integrates Quik App to Enhance Mobile Editing Experience

GoPro’s new app update will now combine Quik, a free video-editing app into a single app structure. By this way, GoPro can help you view, edit and share it faster and fresher with its new GoPro app update. Previously GoPro distributes two separate apps for iOS and Android. The GoPro app connects with a GoPro action camera, while the Quik app can edit the video. The new update introduces a fresh visual design, improved storytelling tools and enhanced filter capabilities, all powered by a revving new software engine.

GoPro app users will immediately notice design updates, from a visual refresh and a more modern UI to a more intuitive navigation. The update also bring users the more than 20 filter options and the option to apply multiple filter types within the same multi-clip video.

The GoPro app update offers additional creative flex by removing draft limitations of the previous editing model. Now QuikStory video will remain in an always-editable format so changes can be done any time.

From today, GoPro app users can get the new update and experience the benefits of the merge with Quik. The GoPro’s roadmap for the one-app experience is rich with improvements, including single clip editing to unlock a full editing suite for single clips, new themes to make your photos and videos look more like the content that GoPro produces, and expanded platforms for integrating third-party content into GoPro edits.

Cryptocurrency, The Future Of Money

Some say it’s the future, some say it’s just a scam, others call it ‘Magic Internet Money’. But what is it exactly? What is cryptocurrency and why it is taking the world by storm? Well, to begin with, Cryptocurrency is defined as the mediums of exchange, they are a means of carrying transactions, digitally. It uses cryptography to secure and verify transactions as well as to control the creation of new units of a particular cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is incomplete without three terms – Blockchain, Bitcoin, and Ethereum. But before that, let’s dive into the history of crypto.

HISTORY

With systems like Flooz, Beenz and DigiCash, the beginning of crypto can be traced back in the 90s, but did not work at that time. Fraud, financial problems and even frictions between companies’ employees and their bosses can be touted as the reasons for this inevitable failure. Hence the Trusted Third Party approach had to roll in the system to run behind the companies to get them verified and also to facilitate the transactions. But as the companies failed miserably, it was said that the digital cash system had no future and we have to wait to ace the crypto game.

The web based money again came back and was a hit considering the previous failures in the space. It was the season of startups and they created payment solutions and virtual money systems using the same digital payment system. The clear winner for this would be PayPal as it was the first company that thought about what the customer wanted. PayPal offered a seamless peer-to-peer transfer mechanism and a neat way of accepting payments for the merchants. And today, nobody can compete to the level of Paypal.

Then, in early 2009, an anonymous programmer or a group of programmers under an alias ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ introduced Bitcoin. Satoshi described it as a ‘peer-topeer electronic cash system.’ It is completely decentralized which means there are no servers involved and no central controlling authority. The concept closely resembles peerto-peer networks for file sharing.

CRYPTO & INDIA

India with a population that is over 1 billion strong has been on something of an economic renaissance in the last few years. More than 40 percent of the country’s population has access to telecoms and internet services. A country steeped in mystery, history, and culture, it is also not one to fall behind when it comes to technological advancement. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been operating within the country for a number of years now.

In 2012, small scale Bitcoin transactions were already taking place within the country. By 2013, Bitcoin was beginning to gain a level of popularity that was spreading across many countries. In a short space of time, cryptocurrency exchanges began to spring up within the country. Pioneers like BtcxIndia, Unocoin, and Coinsecure began offering cryptocurrency exchange and trading services in India. Over time, others like Zebpay, Koinex, and Bitcoin-India were added to the list. Apart from these online exchanges, there are also a number of over-thecounter (OTC) crypto shops in the country and you have the makings of a crypto economic hub.

Then the Demonetization happened in 2016. It became common practice for some to buy large orders of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies and then sell them at a later date. Many Indians, especially those in the 40 percent bracket with access to the Internet began to take up Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency investments. Despite its vast population, India only contributes 2 percent of the total global cryptocurrency market capitalization. The small role being played by such a large economy can be attributed to the following reasons.

Later in 2018. the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) warned the citizens about the risk associated with cryptocurrencies. The Finance Ministry in the country has labeled cryptocurrencies as not being legal tender. The government has also been in talks to develop modalities for some form of a crypto crackdown. Earlier in the month, it was reported that the major banks in the country also froze some accounts of a few cryptocurrency trading platforms.

Given that despite sanctions like this, blockchain technology and decentralized finance look like they will be an inevitable part of the future of the global economy, whether the RBI’s move will succeed in achieving a permanent embargo or entail only a short term inconvenience for India’s crypto ecosystem, remains to be seen. Somehow, Cryptocurrency will be the future of money.

In Crypto We Say…!

1. HODL:

The term which went viral, is popularly abbreviated for ‘Hold On For Dear Life’. It refers to the common sentiment among Bitcoin enthusiasts to hold on to their investments in the face of market volatility.

2. ALTCOINS:

Coins that are not Bitcoin are usually known as Alt(ernative) coins. In reality, this coin serves no true unique purpose and should, in a fair market, fall back to their original low value.

3. FUD:

FUD is the short form for ‘Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt’. Just like rumours, FUD is baseless negativity spread intentionally by someone who wants the price of certain coins to drop. This may sound funny but they are usually used as “xxx spreading FUD again” and someone who is spreading FUD is known as a ‘FUDster’.

4. TO THE MOON:

For all the romantics out there, this one’s for you! To the moon is a phrase used to refer to a price going up to astronomical levels. There are many cryptocurrencies that Bitcoin have ‘mooned’ in the past years for instance Bitcoin that went up in price almost 15–18 times.

5. PUMP AND DUMP:

This term means a recurring cycle of an altcoin from getting a ton of attention that leads to a fast price increase and then, of course, followed by a huge crash. Traders who pump, buying huge volumes, may invoke greed from the uninformed investors and then dump i.e.sell their coins at a higher price.

6. BULLISH AND BEARISH:

Bullish:It is like an expected rise in price of the bitcoins. It is expected that the price of bitcoin rises to about $300,000- $400,000 by some optimistic analysts.

7. BEARISH:

An expectation that price is going to decrease. Many altcoins (or the shitcoins) would have a generally bearish sentiment if people do not see value in them.

8. BAG HOLDER:

A bag holder is someone still holding an altcoin even after a crash in the market. A bag holder can also just refer to someone holding a coin that is sinking in value with few future prospects or people who believe in their dumped coins..

9. ATH:

Yes, just like we refer it, ATH is the short form for “All-Time High” and in crypto it means the highest historical price of a specific coin. For example, in 2017 Bitcoin reached an ATH at $19,000.

10. WHALES:

A wealthy trader who owns absurdly huge amounts of cryptocurrency can be called whale. Whales are often the market movers for small altcoins too, thanks to their huge capital.

11. Shilling:

The act of endorsing the coin in public is called shilling. Traders who bought a coin have an interest in ‘shilling’ the coin, in hopes of igniting the public’s interest in that particular coin and leading to an eventual pump in price.

12. CRYPTOGRAPHY:

The study of making information unreadable so that it can be kept secret is called as Cryptography. Hiding words in images, using micro dots and computer programs are the few uses of cryptography. The information can be unlocked and made readable using a code also known as a key. The key is made up of a string of letters and numbers.

13. MINING:

The process of creating new blocks i.e. new pages where the new digital blockchain can be stored, recording and verifying information is all a part of mining.

14. DISTRIBUTED & CENTRAL LEDGER:

An agreement of shared, replicable and synchronized data, in this case spread across multiple networks, across many CPUs is known as Distributed Ledger. A central ledger is the opposite in that all of the data, while being synchronized and replicable is controlled by a singular network or individual.

15. BOTS:

A bot is a type of software that can execute trades on exchanges. It may seem like cheating but bots do play an important in many ways too. They can help implement strategies like trailing stop losses for you as well. Like people, bots aren’t good or bad, they are neutral and depend on the ethics of the user.

16. HALVING:

The reduction of minable reward every so many blocks is called Halving. For Bitcoin the reward is halved after the first 210,000 blocks are mined and then every 210,000 thereafter.

17. NODE:

A node is essentially a computer connected to the Bitcoin network. A node supports the network through validation and relaying of transactions while receiving a copy of the full blockchain itself.

18. P2P:

P2P stands for peer-to-peer which has become a very large focus of blockchain as one of the biggest selling points is decentralization. Nearly every interaction on the blockchain can be fulfilled through P2P, or without a centralized variable like a store, bank or notary.

19. FUNGIBLE:

The positive quality where two or more of the same thing have identical value is known as fungible. So basically, it’s one of a group of things that can be used as a substitute for another without changing the value.

20. BEARWHALE:

A bearwhale is a person with large quantities of cryptocurrency that uses his massive account to drive the price down and profit from it.

21. BEAR MARKET:

A bear market is a decreasing set of prices for various types of assets and a bearish investor wants to profit from that.

22. FLIPPENING:

The flippening is the shift of other cryptocurrencies growing bigger, more important and more valuable than bitcoin. If the value of the coin cross that of bitcoins then we say that it’s called flippening.

23. MERKLE TREES:

The data structure that is used in computer science applications to organise cryptocurrencies. Merkle trees serve to encode blockchain data more efficiently and securely.

24. SHITCOIN:

Shitcoin is nothing but the Altcoin with no potential value or use. Shitcoin value may disappear because interest failed to materialize, because the altcoin itself was not created in good faith, or because the price was based on speculation.

The Crypto We Know

BITCOIN

The first ever cryptocurrency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank.

RIPPLE

Is a technology that acts as both a cryptocurrency and a digital payment network for financial transactions and it is an iterative consensus process which makes it faster than Bitcoin but also makes it vulnerable to hacker attacks.

NEM

A peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and blockchain platform which is used in a commercial blockchain called Mijin, which is being tested by financial institutions and private companies in Japan and internationally. It encourages users to spend their funds and tracks the transactions to determine how important a particular user is to the overall NEM network.

IOTA

IOTA is a distributed ledger designed to record and execute transactions between machines in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. IOTA has a cryptocurrency called mIOTA and a breakthrough ledger technology is called ‘Tangle’.

DASH

Dash is the first digital currency with a decentralized blockchain governance system. It’s a two-tier network that was forked out of Bitcoin to offer faster and more private transactions to users. The former is significantly faster than Bitcoin, whereas the latter is completely anonymous.

MONERO

Monero is a digital currency that offers a high level of anonymity for users and their transactions. Like Bitcoin, it is a decentralized peer-to-peer cryptocurrency, but unlike Bitcoin, it is characterized as a private digital cash.

ETHEREUM

Ethereum is an open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system featuring smart contract (scripting) functionality.

BITCOIN CASH

A fork of Bitcoin that is supported by the biggest Bitcoin mining company and a manufacturer of ASICs Bitcoin mining chips. It has only existed for a couple of months but has already soared to the top five cryptocurrencies in terms of market cap.

LITECOIN

Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency and is based on an open source global payment network that is not controlled by any central authority. It is also a fork of Bitcoin, but unlike its predecessor, it can generate blocks four times faster and have four times the maximum number of coins at 84 mln.

NEO

It’s a smart contract network that allows all kinds of financial contracts and thirdparty distributed apps to be developed on top of it. It has many of the same goals as Ethereum, but it’s developed in China, which can potentially give it some advantages due to improved relationship with Chinese regulators and local businesses.

QTUM

It’s a merger of Bitcoin’s and Ethereum’s technologies targeting business applications. The network boasts Bitcoin’s reliability, while allowing the use of smart contracts and distributed applications, much how it works within the Ethereum network.

ETHEREUM CLASSIC

An original version of Ethereum. The split happened after a decentralized autonomous organization built on top of the original Ethereum was hacked.

Cryptocurrency: Is It Worth It?

Talking of investments, a lot of us have varied opinions. While some might be in favour of mutual funds, there are others who rely more on ‘Fixed’ and ‘Recurring’ deposits. But, a major part of our financial plans are comprised by cryptocurrencies or discussions encircling around them. Over the days, people have expressed a lot of interest in the same. But do we actually know what cryptocurrency is?

WHAT EXACTLY IS CRYPTOCURRENCY?

As per the web and Wikipedia, cryptocurrency is a ‘digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses strong cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets.’ To simplify it further, cryptocurrencies are virtual or alternative currencies. We may further classify cryptocurrencies as; Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH), Zcash (ZEC), Dash (DASH), Ripple (XRP), Monero (XMR), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), NEO (NEO), Cardeno (ADA), and EOS (EOS).

IS IT GOOD OR BAD?

Like every other time, people have placed their viewpoints. But how do you know which is real and which fake? We have selected some thoughts from industry leaders who might help you get an inkling.

PRO-FOLKS

“In the next few years, we are going to see national governments take large steps towards instituting a cashless society where people transact using centralised digital currencies. Simultaneously, the decentralised cryptocurrencies – that some even view as harder money – will see increased use from all sectors.” – Caleb Chen, London Trust Media. “While it’s still fairly new and unstable, relative to the gold standard, cryptocurrency is definitely gaining traction and will most certainly have more normalised uses in the next few years. Right now, in particular, it’s increasing in popularity with the post-election market uncertainty.” – Sarah Granger, Author and Speaker.

Some industry leaders feel that within two years, the world would come to a place where people can shove their money under virtual mattresses through cryptocurrency. Japan has widely accepted cryptocurrencies, it has removed the 8 percent sales tax while buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Popular currencies in Japan are Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, XEM, and MonaCoin.

ANTI-FOLKS

Jason Bloomberg, Contributor to Forbes Magazine says, “Enjoy the world of permissionless, blockchain-based cryptocurrencies while you can, because its days are numbered. And don’t lose your shirt when it all comes crashing down.” American economist Nouriel Roubini tweeted, “Cryptocrazies are also criminal Cyber-Terrorists.” He also claimed that his consulting firm, Roubini Global Economics, was targeted in a 2015 denialof-service attack because he criticised bitcoin.” Bitcoin has lost half its value since mid-December 2017. Billionaire Warren Buffett said on 11th January 2018, that he would never invest in bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, and also predicted that the wildly popular assets were in for a fall. “I can say almost with certainty that cryptocurrencies will come to a bad end,” Buffett told CNBC in an interview.

OUR VIEW

We have tried to acquaint our readers with both sides of the coin, as the authenticity of this currency is questionable and debatable. Analysing both sides, we leave it to you, to decide whether to invest in it or not!

How To Take Great Pictures On Your Smartphone

Smartphone photography has vastly improved in the last few years. It is relatively easy now to carry and get the best images from a vacation from just your phone. All you need to do is get used to your phone camera settings and use its capabilities to improve the quality of the images you take.

While most of us prefer to use our phones for taking most of the pictures, be it a casual vacation or a few images for your Instagram blog, it is important for the images to convey the message. Here are a few tips which cover most of the aspects which you can use and see how much better your images become, especially for those serious photography sessions.

Check the Lighting – Light can make or break an image. Proper lighting around your subject and you will be amazed by the quality of it. Similarly, when you shoot an image in poor light, the image quality will be poor even if the smartphone camera is capable. For heavily sunlit or ambient lit images, take your subject to a shade. The light in the shade is diffused and that is exactly what you need for a portrait of a person. Harsh light creates very hard shadows which make the image look very contrasty and uneven. For indoors, place your subject near to the windows where you will have the external light coming in and evenly lighting the subject’s face.

2. Tap to focus and meter – Your smartphone camera can focus as well as meter reading for an image all by itself. You need to keep your camera steady and tap the subject in your frame. Similarly, you can tap for it to meter the settings of the shot. At times, you will have to deal with the part of the day when the background is brighter than the subject. Such situations can create very poorly lit images, especially the subject. You can also choose to override the automatic settings and use the manual/professional mode of the camera for a better picture. I this way you will have more detail in the image, especially in the shadow regions. Using the HDR more is also helpful, however, sometimes too much of HDR in an image can ruin it.

3. Set shortcuts – When you are an avid shutterbug, you need to set the available shortcuts for your smartphone camera. This will allow you to quickly open the camera app and shoot whenever you come across something interesting. On some android phones, double-tapping the power button launches the camera, while one can also set the volume up/down button for a physical shutter button. For iPhones, a quick swipe is enough to fire the camera app. You can also go to the control centre, long-press the camera icon to display multiple options like taking a selfie image or to record a video. You should be able to access the camera app quickly, regardless of the phone you have,

4. Use portrait mode often – You might think that the portrait mode is handy only when shooting portraits but no, you can use the portrait mode more often. The portrait mode can actually help you isolate the subject (both human and still) and create a background blur. You can use to portrait mode to take good images even when the background is disturbing. However, a clear background makes a better image as so as placing your subject far away from the background does. Not only this, you can use the telephoto mode (which most smartphones have these days, courtesy, more cameras on smartphones, you can easily create the depth effect on the image.

5. Shoot RAW/High-Quality JPEG image – Smartphones are blessed with amazing features. One of them is the ability to shoot in RAW or high-quality JPEG images. RAW image files have the most amount of details captured. Some smartphones allow capturing RAW or DNG files for maximum quality. For those smartphones with JPEG only output, you need to set your JPEG to ‘Large’ or the maximum setting available. This will allow you to extract the best out of the image later in a post-processing application like Snapseed.

6. Keep it clean – Well, who wants to have a dirty phone or a dirty camera lens for a matter of fact. You should take care or at least take the effort to wipe your camera lens before shooting. Since most smartphones have a bigger camera module which is slightly raised from the rest of the smartphone back, use a cover to protect the back of the camera as well as the smartphone itself. A clean/unscratched lens will go a long way in taking good images. So what are you waiting for, go ahead and make some great looking images?