How To Root The XOLO Q700 And Flash CWM Recovery

Note: By rooting the warranty will be void. PAR Forums is not responsible for any kind of loss or damage to your phone. Root at your own risk

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Just purchased the Xolo Q700? Do you want to root it? Do you want to install CWM recovery and take backups, install custom ROMs and do more? Well, here's a step by step method to root the phone and install CWM recovery. This method was cited on the XDA forums recently and we combined the procedure for you in a How-To. Lets head straight for it.

 Requirements:

• The Xolo Q700 phone fully charged
• Download the USB and ADB drivers for the Xolo Q700 
• Download the Motochopper rooting utility from here
• Download the flash tool for the recovery from here
• Download the recovery image from here

Download the necessary drivers and tools to a folder on your desktop and extract the archives to their respective folders. First, we shall root the phone and later install the CWM recovery patch. Make sure you have administrative rights on your Windows PC before you proceed.

Install the necessary driver(s)

Rooting the Xolo Q700

For this, we will need the USB and ADB drivers installed. Go ahead and install the drivers (usually one driver should work, but in certain cases, you would have to install both the drivers). To be on the safer side, install both to make your work easier. Once the drivers are installed, head over to the phone’s settings and click around 5 to 7 times on the “Build Number” in the “About Phone” in “Settings”. This will enable the “Developer Options” from where you should enable “USB Debugging”. Then head back to the “Settings > Security” and enable “Unknown sources”. Now connect the phone to the PC and let the drivers be installed for the ADB mode. Your phone is now ready for rooting. If you have installed both the drivers on the PC, make sure that the “PdaNet Desktop” utility is not running in the background. You will see the app running in the system tray. Shut it down or your phone will not be rooted. Don’t forget to do this before proceeding.

Execute Motochopper and let the exploit complete

Now all you need to do is double-click on the folder where you downloaded the files, double-click on the Motochopper folder and then again double-click on the “Run.Bat” file. This file is a DOS mode batch executable file, which will do the needful for you. Proceed with the on-screen instructions and your phone should be rooted in a few seconds. In case you see the procedure halted for more than 5 minutes, you should try repeating the method. If you still get stuck here, go to the “Settings > Security” and enable/disable “Verify Apps”. This should allow the Superuser app needed to be installed on the phone by the rooting script. Now run the batch file again till you see the last line stating “Exploit complete” and “press any key to reboot the phone”. Your phone should reboot automatically and your Xolo Q700 is finally rooted. Install any app that requires root permissions, such as Root Explorer or Titanium Backup, to verify that the rooting is successful.

Confirm the rooting with an app that needs superuser permissions

Flash the CWM Recovery on the Xolo Q700

Rooting and flashing a recovery software on the phone is considered risky and will void any and all warranty on the phone. The procedure can also brick your phone rendering it dead or useless. Do this with extreme care. 

Assuming that you have gathered all the necessary files for this process in a folder on your desktop, proceed with extreme caution. Also make sure that you have two files required for the recovery present on the recovery folder. These files are “recovery.img” and “MT6589_Android_scatter_emmc.txt”. Now head on to the folder “SP_Flash_Tool_v3.1248.0.96” in the folder you downloaded all the files. Here, execute the “Flash_Tool.exe” file and bring on the utility. Now follow the steps given below very, very carefully. Do not connect the phone as yet.

Make the necessary settings and give proper file names before flashing

1. In the Smart Phone Flash Tool utility, click on the button named “Scatter-loading” and feed the file named “MT6589_Android_scatter_emmc.txt”. The window below will fill up with some vague values and text. Make sure the “Recovery” line is the only one checked. 

2. Then click on the “Recovery” line and feed the file “Recovery.img” from the folder you downloaded. Usually this is done automatically, but we recommend you confirm this step. 

3. Next, click on “Window” in the menu, click on “Write Memory”. Make sure the check mark is present. This will bring up an additional tab “Write Memory” in the main interface.

4.  Click on the “Write Memory” tab. Here, check the box “EMMC” in the “Memory Settings” section. 

Double check the entries you type in before hitting that “Write Memory” button

5. Now click on the “Open Raw Data” button and feed it the “Recovery.img” file again. This file path should be seen in the “Write Parameter” field below. 

6. This step is crucial. In the “Write Parameter” section, you will find two mode fields— “Begin address” and “Container Length”. Enter these two values respectively:

Begin Address:            0x2d80000

Container Length:       0×600000

The above values are “Zeros” and not the alphabet “O”. Double-check the values or copy and paste them from here. Check the screenshot for verification. 

7. Once all these settings are done, hit the “Write Memory” button on the top. The utility will start searching for the phone. 

If you see the green circle, the flashing is successful

8. Now turn off the phone, remove the battery and reinsert it after around 30 seconds. Do not switch it on. Just connect the switched-off phone to the USB cable.

The drivers for the EMMC mode will be installed automatically and the utility will start writing the recovery software to the phone. You can see this happening and confirm it with the change in colours and the activity on the bottom of the utility’s window. At times, the phone’s drivers take a while to be installed. Don’t panic if the utility does not continue ahead after the drivers are installed. Give it a while more, then disconnect and reconnect the phone again after the drivers are installed. Voila! The recovery utility is installed and to confirm this, you will see a small square window pop up with a bright green circle in it. It is now safe to disconnect your phone. 

The Xolo Q700 in CWM Recovery mode.

To get into the recovery mode, simply press the “Volume UP + Power” buttons together for a few seconds and you will automatically land into the recovery mode. Now you can take backups and flash custom ROMs on your Xolo Q700. Sadly, there are no custom ROMs available as yet, but I am sure, there are a few developers already working on a few. 

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BlackBerry Z3 review

BlackBerry had been going through a rough patch since the time its BlackBerry 10-based premium devices did not find as many takers as the company had anticipated. It wanted to position the platform as a premium one relegating the legacy OS 7 devices to the economy segment. 

However, it had to change its strategy after inventory pile-ups and had to come up with a budget device after giving premium ones major price cuts. Z3 is the first BlackBerry 10 budget device, and has been manufactured by Foxconn. Though the beleagured company has cut corners on the hardware front, Z3 offers full BlackBerry 10 experience. 

But can Z3 be the ailing tech giant's saviour? We try to find out in our review.

                

Build & Design 

BlackBerry Z3 looks like a chunky rectangular glass slab with sharp corners and a rather conservative, utilitarian design. It is primarily made of plastic, but we don't have any qualms with the construction and the average build quality. There's no doubt that the phone feels solid and durable but at 164gram, it is quite heavy. 

The front of the device is dominated by its 5-inch display with the BlackBerry logo placed at the bottom, and the earpiece grill on the top. Unlike other BlackBerry 10 phones, the Power, Mute and Volume rocker keys are placed on the left side.

                    

The Power key is a bit cumbersome to reach, but the buttons offer decent tactile feedback. The microUSB port is located at the bottom edge, a first for a BlackBerry 10 device. The left edge houses a flap that hides the micro-sim and microSD card slots. The back features a textured plastic panel that enhances the grip of the phone. It features a 5MP camera, BlackBery logo and a speaker grill. 

Overall, BlackBerry Z3 feels durable even though the company has not used premium materials. 

Display

BlackBerry Z3 sports a 5-inch LCD display (540x960p). As per the company, the phone uses resolution upscaling to prevent pixellation and apps run on the same 720p resolution as that of BlackBerry Z30. However, text and graphics aren't as crisp and good looking as they appear on the BlackBerry Z10 and Z30. We even noticed some pixilation.

                           

The display doesn't look as bright as the high-end BlackBerry 10 devices and this hampers sunlight legibility too. Viewing angles looked good. Overall, we feel that the phone should have come with a 720p display, especially at its current price point. 

Camera

BlackBerry Z3 sports a 5MP rear camera with auto-focus and LED flash, and a 1.1MP front-facing camera. It comes with the Time Shift camera feature to select the best photo amongst a series of group photo captures, and additional filters. Other than that, the app lacks granular controls for settings.

                            

We found that pictures taken in daylight turned out to be above average but the ones shot in less light were quite grainy. The front camera too doesn't take good quality images, but will be handy for a quick selfie or video chat. 

The phone's rear camera is capable of capturing 1080p HD video recording while the front-facing camera can shoot 720p video. Videos captured with the rear camera were decent.

                            

Overall, the camera is not the strongest point of the device, a common issue with all BlackBberry devices. 

Software

BlackBerry Z3 runs BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2.1, the latest iteration of the OS. The OS features the Priority Hub that highlights important interactions in one place, additional toggles and settings, and the ability to install Android apps, out of the box. 

Yes, you can download APK (Android app installation) files from the web or install a third party Android app store such as Amazon Appstore or 1Mobile Market to install Android apps. 

The operating system relies on swipe gestures and doesn't come with online or hardware keys for navigation. You minimise or exit apps by swiping up from the bottom and access additional settings by swiping down from top. Similarly unlocking the screen is through a swipe up gesture. The phone offers a tutorial app in addition to making users aware of these gestures at the time of setting up the phone. 

BlackBerry Z3's big screen complements the software and makes the experience fluid. Having said that, it does have a learning curve, especially if you're used to Android, Windows Phone or iOS devices that come with dedicated Home buttons.

                                 

The UI is essentially divided into the hub, active pane and app panel. The hub stores all sorts of messages and notifications; the active pane shows the last accessed apps (4 in number) in widgetized format, offering glanceable information; and the app list features icons for all installed apps. 

We like the interface, especially the hub which makes managing multiple email and messaging accounts very easy. You can add all your social networking accounts including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Foursquare to the hub. 

Interestingly, there is no dedicated app for email. There's an app shortcut for Text messages that takes you to the hub. BlackBerry Messenger and WhatsApp can run as stand-alone apps and even through the hub. 

The BlackBerry 10 keyboard is one of the best soft keyboards we've used. It is a predictive keyboard that adapts to the user's typing style and offers intuitive suggestions as you type. 

You can choose between 'In-letter' and 'In-Column' styles to get predictions on letters or on a column above the keyboard. It works well for Hinglish (Hindi in roman script) and Hindi. In fact it's very handy for Hindi as it saves you from searching for matras and halants. 

Android apps, barring the ones that rely on Google services or Amazon services, run fine albeit with some lag. These run inside an app player that features a back button. You can hide the UI elements of the player, but then you may face difficulty in navigating through some apps. 

Android apps that make use of the phone's hardware or accessories (Bluetooth headset, Camera) also don't function as smoothly as they would on an Android phone. 

To be honest, BlackBerry Z3 is no substitute for an Android phone. As a BlackBerry user, you just don't miss out on your favourite apps (Instagram, Zite, Flipboard and the likes), but the experience is not as good. 

Z3 will receive the BlackBerry 10.3 OS update in September-October following which Blackberry will start bundling Amazon Appstore to download Android apps. 

Hardware & performance

BlackBerry Z3 is powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8230) dual-core processor and 1.5GB RAM. We did not face any issues while navigating through the home screens between the hub, active pane and app panel, and launching and switching between apps. 

However, the active pane only supports 4 apps. This means users can only run 4 apps at a time in the background. BlackBerry Z10 and Z30 phones support 8 open apps. Perhaps, this reduction is to prevent the phone from slowing down. 

We downloaded the Amazon Appstore and a couple of Android apps through it. Since the apps are running over a special runtime, performance is not at par with native BlackBerry 10 apps. Android apps, including Instagram, Shazam and TuneIn Radio take time to load and switching between them is also not very smooth. 

The smartphone comes with 8GB storage and a microSD card slot that supports cards up to 32GB. It has a 2500mAh battery, which the company claims offers up to 15.5 hours talk time and up to 16.2 days of standby time. In our use, the phone lasted us a full day (12-14 hours) with medium to high usage. You'll be able to get more out of the battery if your usage is on the lower side. 

We were able to play most video (including full-HD ones) and audio files on the phone without any hiccups. The phone offers good call quality and signal reception. It was also able to lock to GPS without any hiccups. 

The external speaker on the phone offers loud stereo sound output and the sound quality was good. Z3 comes with a decent set of earphones (non in-ear). 

Of course, the sound gets muffled when the phone lies on its back, which is a problem with all such designs that place speakers at the back. 

It also offers FM radio without recording capability. The FM radio feature is hidden in the Music app though. 

Gaming

We were able to play casual Android games like Subway Surfers and Temple Run 2 with some stutter. We did not face any issues while playing casual games like Angry Birds Go! downloaded from BlackBerry World. However, graphics-heavy games like Asphalt 8 (also downloaded from BlackBerry World) did not run smoothly and we noticed frame drops and stutter, hampering the experience. The phone is clearly not designed for mobile gamers. 

Verdict

At an asking price of Rs 15,990, we feel the BlackBerry Z3 is a competent device if you're a messaging junkie. It offers the best messaging experience with instant access to the messaging hub, the BlackBerry Messenger and a great touch keyboard. 

The app deficit problem has also been addressed to some extent with out-of-the-box Android app compatibility. But its similarly priced (just Rs 1,000 more) elder sibling, Z10, is a better BlackBerry device with its 720p display and faster processor.

                             

We strongly feel BlackBerry should reduce the price of the phone at least by Rs 3,000 if it wants to sell this phone like hot cakes and regain some mind share. 

We'd not recommend you the Z3 if you majorly use your phone for viewing multimedia content or playing graphics-rich games. You'd be better off with a Moto G or a Xolo Q1100 which cost less and offer good performance.

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iWatch coming? Apple poaches Tag Heuer senior VP

PARIS: Apple has poached a senior executive from Swiss luxury watch brand Tag Heuer, which could be to help it with the launch of its iWatch expected this autumn.

Tag Heuer, part of luxury goods group LVMH, said on Friday its vice president for sales, Patrick Pruniaux, who had been with the brand for seven years, was leaving on Monday to join Apple. It did not say what his new job would be.

Apple declined to comment.

The iWatch will be the closest the US company has come to selling a fashion accessory and marks its first foray into the personal luxury goods market.

It is in a race against Samsung Electronics and Google to turn computers into wearable fashion and must-have items as smartphones, increasingly becoming commoditized items, start loosing their appeal.

Apple has plucked several executives from the luxury sector in recent months. Burberry ex-chief executive Angela Ahrendts started as its new head of retail and online sales in May, and former head of French fashion brand Yves Saint Laurent Paul Deneve was hired last year to work on special projects.

"I think he was probably head-hunted," a Tag Heuer spokeswoman said of Pruniaux, adding a replacement had already been found.

Analysts and industry executives say the jury is still out on whether smartwatches will disrupt the luxury Swiss watch industry.

"I don't believe that an iWatch will be a threat to luxury Swiss watches," said Jon Cox, analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux in Zurich.

"But where I do see some potential impact is at lower, for example below $1,000, price points where there could be a temporary dislocation if there is super high demand for iWatches."

Jean-Claude Biver, head of watch brands at LVMH and chairman of watch brand Hublot, said he believed the threat of smart watches had to be taken seriously by the Swiss watch industry.

"The iWatch will have the same status symbol power as many other Apple products, especially at the beginning," he said. "I personally believe it has the potential to be a threat for the industry, and it should not stay with its arms crossed."

Apple applied for a trademark for the "iWatch" in Japan, a patent official said earlier this week, signaling the iPhone maker could be moving ahead with plans to launch a watch-like device soon.

Speculation has been mounting that Apple was preparing to launch an iWatch which would include multiple health and fitness sensors and access to features such as messages and notifications through integration with the iPhone and iPad.

Your next car may be powered by Linux

In-car tech has just gone open source with news of a new automotive-grade build of the Linux operating system. But what does this mean for your next car? 

Linux in various forms is already widely used in cars. But to date, it's largely been used in embedded systems, the operations of which are mostly obscured from owners and drivers. 

This new build of Linux is designed to underpin the sort of hands-on multimedia and infotainment functionality that's having an increasing impact on the driving experience. 

The idea is to make it easier for a broader range of manufacturers to include cutting-edge features like smartphone integration, streaming media, Google Maps and other apps. 

In your car, off the shelf 

Essentially, car makers would take Automotive Grade Linux off the shelf, pick their preferred feature set and skin the end result to suit their branding. 

For some car makers, this could be a huge boon. Currently, a gap is growing between those who have invested heavily over the years in infotainment and those who have not. Automotive Grade Linux could help close that gap much more rapidly at much more cheaply than doing all the work in-house. 

The Linux foundation has released some impressive looking screen shots of the default look of the new platform. It looks miles ahead of the clunky proprietary systems offered by most car makers. 

Of course, you might also wonder what the safety and reliability implications are of open-source software in cars. But that's a debate for another day.

Sources: TOI

Nurses return home, joy erupts among family members

KOCHI: Forty-six nurses, who were held captive by ISIS militants in Iraq, on Saturday returned home by a special Air India flight to a happy reunion with their families here, bringing to an end their about month-long ordeal. 

The special aircraft, which also had on board about 137 others, touched down the tarmac at the Kochi International Airport at 11.57am, a senior airport official said. 

Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy whose coordinated effort with the Union government that ensured liberty to nurses from his state, besides another who hails from Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu received them at the airport. 

Family members of nurses, on whose face a sigh of relief was writ large had assembled in large numbers to see their beloved ones return and were joined by political leaders from BJP and Congress at the airport. 

The ordeal of the nurses, who were working at a hospital in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, began when ISIS (Islamic State for Iraq and Syria) militants launched an offensive in that region on June nine.

Even as Indian authorities continued to maintain constant touch with their counterparts at Iraq for safe release of nurses, they were moved out on Thursday against their will and detained in the militant-held city of Mosul.

Efforts by external affairs ministry led to setting free the nurses held in captivity and they were transported in buses to Erbil International airport yesterday. 

The special flight that left Erbil in the early hours of today arrived at Mumbai for a brief stopover for refueling and catering supplies. 

Besides the nurses, the flight also carried 137 other Indian nationals, including 70 from Kirkuk in the northern part of Iraq, 23 crew members and three government officials, including a joint-secretary level IFS officer and an IAS woman officer from Kerala. 

Chandy thanked the Centre, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, Indian embassy in Iraq and MEA for ensuring the return of nurses from strife-hit Iraq.

"The Centre has acted in complete understanding of the deep anxieties of Kerala. The ministry of external affairs and the Indian embassy in Iraq have made sincere efforts in securing release of the nurses," Chandy told reporters here. 

Kerala government has made arrangements to enable nurses to reach their respective destinations across the state.

Sources: TOI

      How to fix corrupted files in XP

 Contents 

(1) Introduction
(2) Required
(3) Actual Tutorial
(4) Copyright Notice

 Introduction 

This tutorial has been made so people that are having problems with corrupted files, can learn how to fix them easy.

 Required 

+ Windows XP operating system
+ Windows XP cd

Right to the tutorial 

+ Place the xp cd in your cd/dvd drive
+ Go to start
+ run
+ type in 'sfc /scannow' (without the ')

Now it should all load, and fix all your corrupted file on windows XP :)


Note: We are not responsible for any loss or damage. Do at your own risk