With the Pixel 8a unveiling, Google expanded its Pixel brand to Poland and the Czech Republic. The company is gradually expanding its footsteps to Global markets, bringing the Pixel phones and other products to more and more consumers.

Yesterday, Google launched the Pixel 8a smartphone, slated to go on sale next week. 9to5Google spotted that Google now has an official store webpage for Poland and the Czech Republic, with available products including the latest Pixel 8a alongside the Pixel 8 series.

Google entered key markets including India with the Pixel 6a launch. The US tech giant has also expanded its footsteps to more markets in the previous year. The latest entry of Poland and the Czech Republic shows Europe is playing a key role in the Pixel brand expansion.

With Google officially availing Pixel devices to consumers in Europe, they won’t have to bother about after-sales support. Previously, consumers had to import the device from nearby religion where the Pixel phones were launched, compromising guarantee and network problems.

• Pixel 8a – PLN 2,449 | 14 490 Kč
• Pixel 8 – PLN 3,599 | 20 990 Kč
• Pixel 8 Pro – PLN 4,999 | 28 490 Kč

At present, Google Store in both new countries selling the Pixel 8a, 8, 8 Pro, and Pixel Buds A-series alongside some other accessories such as the Google 30W charge brick, USB-C to USB-C cables, official smartphone cases, and a small selection of third-party accessories.

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Microsoft revealed risky Android apps downloaded by over 4 billion users worldwide. Microsoft announced it had discovered a vulnerability pattern in multiple Android apps, giving a cybercriminal full control over how an app behaves.

Not that all but risky Android apps can even give threat actors access to a victim’s account and sensitive info, Microsoft disclosed. The vulnerability centers around the improper implementation of app isolation that can let threatful apps trick another app into overwriting files.

Two of the apps mentioned in the report include Xiami’s File Manager, which was installed more than a billion times, and WPS Office, which was downloaded over 500 million times. Microsoft notified the developers about the threat and worked with them to fix the problem.

Microsoft noted that more apps may be at risk due to the same vulnerability. The best part is that the company has shared its research so developers and publishers can check their apps for similar issues fix them as appropriate, and prevent introducing such vulnerabilities into new apps or releases.

“We identified several vulnerable applications in the Google Play Store that represented over four billion installations.” – Microsoft.

If you are using Xiaomi’s File Manager on your Xiaomi phone or the WPS Office app, ensure installing the latest version from the Google Play Store. As the vulnerabilities have been fixed, a regular app update from the official app market would address the risky flaw.

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Android 15 is expected to introduce a new Enhanced Confirmation Mode. It will safeguard your privacy from risky sideloaded applications. Google seems to be working on addressing an OS loophole concern, ensuring enhanced security in Android.

Google is developing a new Enhanced Confirmation Mode for Android 15. It would be an advanced variant of Restricted Settings functionality. The ECM dialog will say, “for your security, this setting is currently unavailable” when you try to enable an app’s Accessibility or Notification Listener service.

When triggered, the dialog will expand on the reasoning a bit by adding that “this app has requested the %1$s permission, which is a restricted setting because it can put your security & privacy at risk. Restriction to this permission may prevent this app from working.”

The expanded dialog will also feature two buttons entitled “Learn more” and “OK.” Android 15’s Enhanced Confirmation Mode checks an allowlist, which is preloaded in the factory image. This allowlist determines which packages and installers are exempt from any restrictions.

If you try to assign Accessibility or Notification Listener service permission to a sideloaded app, you won’t be able to skip the Restricted Settings window. It will also disable unwanted approvals leading to permit malicious third-party apps to gain highly privileged permissions.

Image: AndroidAuthority

Stay up-to-date on Google Pixel, Android & Tech Stuffs by following I M Judge on X/Twitter where you can also discover the latest news, polls, reviews, and new features for Google Apps, Pixel Phones, and the Android operating system.

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