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Lenovo's ZUK phone puts other Chinese flagships to shame
ZUK, a Chinese smartphone brand that you may have already forgotten about, has recently joined the ranks of Moto and Vibe to become Lenovo's latest mobile sub-brand. That wasn't the plan when Lenovo started restructuring its mobile division last year, but now it's included the startup to make its earlier investment worthwhile. Which is a good move, given how awesome and good-looking the freshly-announced ZUK Z2 Pro turned out to be. The company emphasized that its new 5.2-inch device makes full use of Qualcomm's 2.15GHz, quad-core Snapdragon 820, so it also comes with speedy UFS 2.0 storage of up to 128GB, LPDDR4 RAM of up to 6GB, USB 3.1 connectivity with Type-C port, Cat 6 LTE, dual Nano SIM slots and Quick Charge 3.0 -- you'll want that for the big 3,100 mAh battery.
Lenovo's folding its own smartphone division into Motorola
Since Lenovo bought Motorola, there's been a lot of speculation as to what it will do with its existing mobile division. The company has now provided more details, saying it will run all of its smartphone operations under the Motorola umbrella and eventually shutter Lenovo Mobile. "Effective immediately, Rick Osterloh, formerly president, Motorola, will be the leader of the combined global smartphone business unit," the company told NDTV Gadgets in a statement. Lenovo Mobile employees will join Motorola, and as reported earlier, Motorola will take over all design chores.
The international version of the Lenovo-backed ZUK Z1 runs Cyanogen 12
There's a lot to like about the ZUK Z1, a Chinese flagship smartphone backed by the folks at Lenovo -- it has a USB Type-C port with support for audio output, a huge 4,100 mAh battery, a multi-function fingerprint reader and an attractive 1,799 yuan ($280) sticker price. If Cyanogen is your favorite flavor of Android, it just got a little better: today ZUK announced that the international version of the handset will come loaded with the commercial version of Cyanogen OS 12.1.
Lenovo-backed phone has reversible USB 3.0 and a big battery
Following the LeTV "Superphones" and the OnePlus 2, here's yet another Chinese smartphone that supports the reversible USB Type-C port; except this time, we're going beyond USB 2.0 speeds. The Android device we're looking at here is dubbed the Z1, which is the first product by Lenovo-backed startup ZUK (pronounced "z-u-k") to compete with affordable online brands like Xiaomi, Smartisan, Meizu and Huawei's Honor range. The competitive 1,799 yuan or $280 price point is of no surprise in today's market, but what stands out here is the presence of both USB Type-C and USB 3.0 (or USB 3.1 Gen 1) specs, which is a first for smartphones. To be exact, the Z1 boasts a USB data rate of up to 500 MB/s or 10 times that of USB 2.0, which comes in handy for its 64GB of internal storage.
Android Network Toolkit lets you exploit local machines at the push of a button
Defcon 2011 is in full hacking swing, and Itzhak Avraham -- "Zuk" for short -- and his company Zimperium have unveiled the Android Network Toolkit for easy hacking on the go. Need to find vulnerabilities on devices using nearby networks? The app, dubbed "Anti" for short, allows you to simply push a button to do things like search a WiFi network for potential targets, or even take control of a PC trojan-style. To do this, it seeks out weak spots in older software using known exploits, which means you may want to upgrade before hitting up public WiFi. According to Forbes, it's much like Firesheep, and Zuk refers to Anti as a "penetration tool for the masses." Apparently, his end-goal is to simplify "advanced" hacking and put it within pocket's reach, but he also hopes it'll be used mostly for good. Anti should be available via the Android Market this week for free, alongside a $10 "corporate upgrade." Consider yourself warned.
