Vijay Tank — Tech, Code & Game Dev

In December 2015, Chinese smartphone brand Gionee launched the Marathon M5 Plus in China, expanding its battery-centric smartphone lineup with a 6-inch AMOLED display and a front-mounted fingerprint sensor. Specifications Overview Display 6.0-inch Full HD (1920x1080) 2.5D AMOLED (368 ppi) Processor MediaTek MT6753 octa-core 64-bit Memory & Storage 3 GB RAM / 64 GB internal storage Battery 5,020 mAh (fast-charging support) Biometrics Front fingerprint scanner (0.38-second unlock) OS Android 5.1 Lollipop with Amigo OS 3.0 Launch Price 2,499 CNY (~Rs 25,500) Balancing Slimness and Endurance While the standard Marathon M5 featured a dual-cell 6,020 mAh battery, the M5 Plus scaled down to 5,020 mAh to maintain a slimmer profile while powering a larger 6-inch panel. Gionee claimed up to 34.5 days of standby time, targeting power users and business travelers who prioritised battery endurance above all else.

In late December 2015, Facebook began testing an upgraded local events discovery feature designed to help users find activities, concerts, social gatherings, and community events happening in their immediate geographic vicinity. Personalised Social Recommendations The feature leveraged Facebook's social graph to deliver tailored event suggestions based on past check-ins, expressed interests, page likes, and events friends were attending. Categorised filters for art, music, food, sports, and nightlife allowed users to browse upcoming weekend activities with a single tap. Competing for Local Search Intent By connecting event organizers directly with nearby audiences, Facebook sought to establish its mobile app as a daily utility for offline planning, competing against local discovery platforms like Yelp and Foursquare. The initiative helped establish Facebook Events as one of the platform's enduring standalone features.

In December 2015, Microsoft released a dedicated app called "Microsoft Apps" on the Google Play Store. Functioning as a curated directory, the application organised approximately 80 Microsoft-developed Android apps across productivity, education, communication, entertainment, and finance. The Mobile Reality for Redmond By late 2015, Windows Phone's global smartphone market share had fallen to 1.7 percent according to Gartner. Recognising the reality of the mobile platform market, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shifted the company's strategy toward a cross-platform, cloud-first service model. Promoting a Rich Mobile Portfolio Beyond flagship staples like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Skype, Microsoft Apps promoted newly acquired utilities like Wunderlist and Sunrise Calendar alongside experimental Microsoft Garage projects. The move signalled Microsoft's commitment to delivering first-class software experiences wherever users were, regardless of the underlying oper...

In December 2015, cybersecurity researchers Hector Marco and Ismael Ripoll from the Universitat Politècnica de València disclosed a surprisingly simple vulnerability in the GNU GRUB2 bootloader: pressing the backspace key exactly 28 times at the login prompt could grant root-level access to a locked Linux system. An Integer Underflow in Memory The flaw had existed in GRUB code since version 1.98 (released in December 2009) through version 2.02. When a user pressed backspace 28 consecutive times on an authenticated boot prompt, an integer underflow error corrupted memory structures in the bootloader. This caused the system to abort password validation and drop directly into the powerful GRUB rescue shell. Physical Security Realities From the rescue shell, an attacker with physical machine access could read unencrypted hard drives, deploy malware from a connected USB drive, or overwrite system partition tables. The researchers published remediation patches immediately, reminding syst...

In November 2015, an unintended consequence of automated content moderation came to light when Facebook erroneously disabled the personal account of San Francisco-based software engineer Isis Anchalee. The suspension occurred after automated filtering systems flagged her first name, confusing it with the acronym used for the extremist group ISIS. The Ordeal and Viral Appeal Despite submitting passport identification and verification documents, Anchalee remained locked out of her account for over a day until she shared screenshots of the lockout on social media. The incident quickly went viral within the developer community, prompting a public apology from Facebook and immediate account restoration. Lessons for Automated Moderation Systems The episode highlighted the real-world pitfalls of rigid algorithmic keyword matching. For internet platforms managing billions of user accounts, the case demonstrated why human-in-the-loop review mechanisms and nuanced linguistic context are esse...

After a sluggish initial October debut in India caused by steep import pricing, shipments of Apple's iPhone 6s and 6s Plus surged dramatically in November 2015, driven by aggressive Diwali trade-in promotions and expanded distribution partnerships. Import Surge Following Festive Buybacks According to import data from Cybex Exim, Apple imported 562,500 iPhones into India between October 1 and November 15, with the new 6s series accounting for nearly 74 percent of the total. In its first month alone, Apple shipped over 413,500 units of the 6s lineup — almost matching its entire sales volume from the corresponding quarter of 2014. The Buyback Solution The turning point occurred when Apple and its retail partners introduced structured buyback schemes offering trade-in discounts of up to Rs 34,000 just ahead of the Diwali shopping season. Counterpoint Research analyst Tarun Pathak noted that Apple's strategy focused on lowering the barrier to entry for its ecosystem, capturing a...

In November 2015, a Finnish startup led by entrepreneur Kristoffer Lawson unveiled Solu, an eccentric pocket computer encased in sustainable wood with an edge-to-edge square touchscreen. Solu was designed not as a phone replacement, but as an entirely new paradigm for desktop computing and collaboration. A Node-Based, Cloud-Native Interface Instead of traditional desktop files and nested folders, Solu's operating system used a zoomable, mind-map-style node canvas where applications, documents, and contacts lived in associative clusters. The device functioned as an autonomous pocket computer on the go, and automatically adapted into a high-resolution desktop workstation when plugged into an external monitor and keyboard. The Subscription-Driven Software Model Solu introduced a monthly subscription model that granted unlimited access to its app ecosystem and cloud storage, eliminating software licence purchases and local storage constraints. While the ambitious hardware struggled...