Lenovo Vibe K4 Note with Dolby Atmos Audio, FingerPrint Sensor and 3GB RAM Launched for Rs 11,999

After tasting major success with the K3 Note, Lenovo has launched its successor, the Vibe K4 Note at an event in India. The new Note has been teased from quite some time and it does seem to live up to its hype. The K4 Note comes clad in a Metal rim and it will boast of other novelties including a Fingerprint sensor and a NFC Chip.

The Lenovo Vibe K4 Note comes powered by the good old octa-core MediaTek 6753paired with 3GB of RAM as opposed to the 2GB on the K3 Note. On the storage front, the memory is still 16GB along with an microSD card that can further accommodate another 128GB. The Lenovo Vibe K4 Note is fitted with a 5.5-inch FHD display which offers a pixel density of 401ppi, a contrast ratio of 1000:1 and 450 nits brightness.

Lenovo K4 Note sports a curved design which the company claims is aimed at making a greater ergonomic sense when it comes to media consumption. Unlike its predecessor, the K4 Note comes clad in a polycarbonate back surrounded by metal rims and this instils a premium look for the device. The front dual speaker setup is yet another measure from Lenovo to appease the audiophiles and bring about a better media experience on the phablet. This is actually the first instance wherein the Dolby Atmos has designed speakers for a smartphone. Lenovo has not just stopped at that and has also incorporated the TheatreMax technology for better sound propagation and a theatre like experience.

On the imaging front, the Vibe K4 Note features a 13-Megapixel primary sensor (with f/2.2 aperture) along with a 5-Megapixel secondary sensor. The primary camera comes with PDAF and ISOCELL technology which will help you to focus better and click clearer pictures respectively. The Lenovo Vibe K4 Note will be running on Android 5.1 Lollipop flavored with Vibe UI. The device is backed up by a 3,300 mAh battery and supports fast charging.

Lenovo will now also allow customers to choose between premium back panels including the Leather and wood finished ones and these panels would not just add to the aesthetics but also provide an additional layer of protection for the phone. The deal is further sweetened with the Lenovo Skullcandy Ando Headphones which are bundled with the device and would otherwise cost Rs 1,299.

At Rs 11,999, we must say that the Vibe K4 Note is priced competitively, in fact this is the sort of final call for Xiaomi to bring in their Redmi Note 3 to India and LeTV to launch the Le 1S as well. The Lenovo Vibe K4 Note seems to have all the right ingredients to make it a Killer Note, the looks, hardware, accessories and of course the pricing. Lenovo dropped a bombshell when they said that at Rs 12,499 they would bundle a AntVR Kit along with the smartphone. The Vibe K4 Note will be available exclusively on Amazon and the registrations will begin at 3PM today with the sale set to happen on 19th of January.

ISIS Ruling Aims To Settle Who Can Have Sex With Female Slaves

 ISIS theologians have issued an extremely detailed ruling on when "owners" of women enslaved by the extremist group can have sex with them, in an apparent bid to curb what they called violations in the treatment of captured females.

The ruling or fatwa has the force of law and appears to go beyond the ISIS's previous known utterances on the subject, a leading ISIS scholar said. It sheds new light on how the group is trying to reinterpret centuries-old teachings to justify the sexual slavery of women in the swaths of Syria and Iraq it controls.

To read the fatwa click here: http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/doc/slaves_fatwa.pdf

The fatwa was among a huge trove of documents captured by US Special Operations Forces during a raid targeting a top Islamic State official in Syria in May. Reuters has reviewed some of the documents, which have not been previously published.

Among the religious rulings are bans on a father and son having sex with the same female slave; and the owner of a mother and daughter having sex with both. Joint owners of a female captive are similarly enjoined from intercourse because she is viewed as "part of a joint ownership."

The United Nations and human rights groups have accused the ISIS of the systematic abduction and rape of thousands of women and girls as young as 12, especially members of the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq. Many have been given to fighters as a reward or sold as sex slaves.

Far from trying to conceal the practice, ISIS has boasted about it and established a department of "war spoils" to manage slavery. Reuters reported on the existence of the department on Monday.

In an April report, Human Rights Watch interviewed 20 female escapees who recounted how ISIS  fighters separated young women and girls from men and boys and older women. They were moved "in an organized and methodical fashion to various places in Iraq and Syria." They were then sold or given as gifts and repeatedly raped or subjected to sexual violence.

Dos And Don'ts

Fatwa No. 64, dated Jan. 29, 2015, and issued by ISIS's Committee of Research and Fatwas, appears to codify sexual relations between ISIS fighters and their female captives for the first time, going further than a pamphlet issued by the group in 2014 on how to treat slaves.

The fatwa starts with a question: "Some of the brothers have committed violations in the matter of the treatment of the female slaves. These violations are not permitted by Sharia law because these rules have not been dealt with in ages. Are there any warnings pertaining to this matter?"

It then lists 15 injunctions, which in some instances go into explicit detail. For example:

"If the owner of a female captive, who has a daughter suitable for intercourse, has sexual relations with the latter, he is not permitted to have intercourse with her mother and she is permanently off limits to him. Should he have intercourse with her mother then he is not permitted to have intercourse with her daughter and she is to be off limits to him."

ISIS's sexual exploitation of female captives has been well documented, but a leading ISIS expert at Princeton University, Cole Bunzel, who has reviewed many of the group's writings, said the fatwa went beyond what has previously been published by the militants on how to treat female slaves.

"It reveals the actual concerns of IS slave owners," he said in an email.

Still, he cautioned that not "everything dealt with in the fatwa is indicative of a relevant violation. It doesn't mean father and son were necessarily sharing a girl. They're at least being 'warned' not to. But I bet some of these violations were being committed."

The fatwa also instructs owners of female slaves to "show compassion towards her, be kind to her, not humiliate her, and not assign her work she is unable to perform." An owner should also not sell her to an individual whom he knows will mistreat her.

Professor Abdel Fattah Alawari, dean of Islamic Theology at Al-Azhar University, a 1,000-year-old Egyptian centre for Islamic learning, said ISIS "has nothing to do with Islam" and was deliberately misreading centuries-old verses and sayings that were originally designed to end, rather than encourage, slavery.

"Islam preaches freedom to slaves, not slavery. Slavery was the status quo when Islam came around," he said. "Judaism, Christianity, Greek, Roman, and Persian civilizations all practiced it and took the females of their enemies as sex slaves. So Islam found this abhorrent practice and worked to gradually remove it."

In September 2014 more than 120 Islamic scholars from around the world issued an open letter to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi refuting the group's religious arguments to justify many of its actions. The scholars noted that the "reintroduction of slavery is forbidden in Islam."

Android 6.0 Marshmallow beta update now available for Huawei Honor 7 in India, limited to ‘registered’ users

Here is a good news for all the Huawei Honor 7 smartphone users. Huawei has released the beta version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow update in India. The OTA (over the air) update is limited to only those users who register through this link. Users will be asked to register their current software version along with their device’s IMEI number.

After the form submission through the above given link, the next step will be the verification of submitted information by Huawei.  The company will then start pushing the OTA update after 24 to 48 hours of form submission and verification. The update will bring along a variety of new features to the EMUI 4.0. We would like to inform our readers that this update is merely a “beta version” of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The final version of the update for the Honor 7 smartphone is expected to be rolled out sometime in January or early February.

For other Honor smartphones users, Huawei had already promised to roll out the Marshmallow update for the Honor 6, Honor 6 Plus, Honor 4X and Honor 4C smartphones by February 2016.

Meanwhile, here is the change log for Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for the Honor 7 smartphone:

Camera

• New added professional mode. Under this mode, you can use professional parameters in any combination to achieve the desired effect
• New Added document readjustment function. When enabled, you can clearly capture the text content appearing the lens.

Gallery

• New added Paint filter, Feminine filter, and Photo filter. You can get more amazing images now.
• New added various labels, you can change the font size, color and location now.
• New added creating a memo on images supports you customize the unique memo for every image, and then set it as unique lock screen wallpaper.
• New added sports watermark element. Now you can add altitude data and your note on your travel photos.
• Optimized album functions. Now you can bulk add photos for the new album. This greatly simplifies the process of creating an album and then adding photos to it.
• Support you to print multiple images one time. It can save all selected images for printing as PDF and print them together.

Contacts

• New added Smart group function will help you to group your contacts according to company or organization names. If you want to group your contacts by this way, you just need to add company or organization names in contacts’ information. Your contacts will be automatically grouped.

Messages

• New added quickly reclaiming sending message, within 4 seconds after sending a message, you can reclaim it if you regret.

Application

• New added a compass application, it integrated the functions of level gauge and compass.
• New added alarm ring duration selections, now how long the alarm will ring all depends on you!

System

• New added screen recording function, with it enabled, you can easily record your screen operating steps, then make it to a small course and share with others.

Settings

• New added eyesight protection mode in Display settings when enabled, the backlight will be soft. It’s very helpful to relax your eye muscles keeping your eyes healthy.