High Tech City

Hacking Today

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 03:30:00 +0000

Recent media coverage of hacker incidents against well-known Internet companies has started to promote a better understanding of the growing threat hackers pose to computer security. Despite this new publicity, many users and senior managers still do not fully understand the magnitude of the threat. Without the support of the end users, system administrators constantly have to defend against security holes inadvertently opened by the users. Additionally, without the support of management, security and system administrators cannot obtain the resources they need to protect the company. This puts the technical staff in a difficult position when trying to obtain the full support of the organization to defend against the threat. Sometimes numbers speak louder than words to show an organization's exposure to risk and to gain the support of management.
Frequently we have to convince clients that information systems security is necessary and that the threat from hackers is substantial enough to invest in proactive security measures. Since there is no quantifiable measurement of successful security tactics (other than not being hacked), it is difficult to gain support for a security project. Also, unrealistic expectations of the cost of effective security or overreliance on one or two security systems can be a fatal flaw in the network.
There are two large problems security and system administrators need to overcome. First, management often believes that the computer security threat is not a great enough risk to justify funds for protective measures. Second, there is a general misunderstanding of how complex the problem of computer security really is and how many resources are required to adequately defend against attacks. For example, firewalls are necessary components of a security architecture, but firewalls alone do not protect networks. An improperly configured firewall or a firewall without other security measures in place can be worse than an open system if it provides the company with a false sense of security.

For the last six years the Computer Security Institute (CSI) has performed a survey in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Computer Intrusion Squad to help determine the extent of computer crime in the United States. In March 2001, CSI published its “2001 Computer Crime and Security Survey,” which is based on responses from 538 computer security practitioners in U.S. corporations, government agencies, financial institutions, medical institutions, and universities. Of those organizations surveyed, 91 percent reported detecting computer security breaches in the last 12 months and 97 percent of those polled had Web sites. Of those with Web sites, 23 percent reported suffering an attack within the last 12 months and 27 percent did not know if they had experienced an attack. Of those reporting attacks, 21 percent reported two to five incidents and 58 percent reported ten or more.
These statistics may be alarming, but the actual state of computer security may be worse than the statistics suggest. Many organizations are still not equipped to detect security breaches. Only 61 percent (up from 50 percent in 2000) of those polled in the CSI survey reported using intrusion detection. Thus, it is likely the actual number of attacks and losses are greater than those reported. While it appears that organizations are starting to implement more security controls, security incidents and losses continue to grow. This could be due to the fact that the security products are not implemented correctly or that the proper policies and procedures are not built around them. In the 2001 CSI survey Patrice Rapalus, CSI director, provided this insight on why incidents and loss continue to grow:
The survey results over the years offer compelling evidence that neither technology nor policies alone really offer an effective defense for your organization… . Organizations that want to survive need to develop a comprehensive approach to information security embracing both the human and technical dimensions.

What to do with an 18in tablet?

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 02:00:00 +0000

There really isn't much to get excited about with laptops and tablets any more It seems most laptops and Ultrabooks are cut from the same cloth, with small changes differentiating a rather large set of choices. Whether it's touchscreen or not seems to be the "made for 2013" tickbox, In the tablet space, you have the market-dominating iPad family, with Android devices going along for the ride. Then there are Windows 8 tablets from a variety of manufacturers, with the Microsoft Surface being the elephant in the room.

So, you can imagine my delight at hearing the news that some vendors are launching larger devices: some 12in, a few even bigger, When I saw Dell had launched the 18in XPS 18, I went straight to the website and placed an order for next-day delivery.

This thing is huge. An 18in tablet screen is, in some ways, a thing of beauty. If you sit it in the supplied desktop stand, you can see it from the other side of the kitchen, which I guess is where it will primarily be used. Do you want to keep an eye on Twitter while kneading bread? Not a problem. Want to watch the football while cleaning the oven? Again, that isn't an issue.

It sits reasonably well on your lap, too, and doesn't suffer from the falling-down-the-gap-in-the-middle effect that plagues smaller tablets; it will rest just fine across both your knees. It would be a joy to use on a plane, assuming you have enough distance between you and the seat in front, and an adequately sized tray - think more business class than economy. Bear in mind that it's only slightly smaller than the 20in Sony Trinitron TV my parents bought in the 1970s, which was deemed suitable for family viewing (in colour, no less).

So, apart from watching TV and keeping an eye on Twitter across the room, to what other uses can you put an 18in tablet? Well, to be honest, I had hoped there would be a real revolution of thinking. For example, wouldn't it be great if you could pick up a streaming video feed and drop it onto your tablet, then change rooms and push it back to the big TV? Or if you could run lots of applets at the same time, keeping an eye on everything from Twitter to the baby cam?

Yes, all that would be nice. But it's here that cold, hard reality hits. Lest we forget, the XPS 18 employs Windows 8, so it suffers from all the problems relating to that OS. Yes, I can snap two Metro apps onto the screen - but only two. On a screen of this size, I want eight. Even if I could run that number of apps, I'd soon run into the resolution limit of the screen: at only 1920 x 1080, the display looks pixellated even from a few feet away. I'm not convinced it would work well with eight information windows open at once.

Next, there's the weight, It's made from concrete, or at least that's what it feels like. You can forget holding the XPS 18 in one hand - that simply isn't going to work. Also, the width makes it awkward to thumb-type on the keyboard. My hands aren't small, but there's a huge gap in the middle, even with both hands outstretched. Sitting the device on your lap or on a table are the only options. So, we're back to kitchen mode, since it really doesn't offer anything useful outside this space,

It's all a little disappointing. You can't simply scale up a product without giving it specific capabilities that take advantage of the increased size. Otherwise, you end up with something as pig-ugly as the oversized Mini Countryman, for example, which looks like a Mini that's been over-inflated by an air line at a garage.
And then it dawned on me. I was carrying the XPS 18 across the room by holding it on either side, as I would a medium-sized tray topped with a dinner plate and a glass, Dinner would obscure some of the screen, of course, but would that really matter? Clearly, this is an area Dell needs to investigate further for the XPS 18 Mark 2.

It already has decent rubberised feet, which prevent it from sliding around; with a little more research in this direction, its transformation into a useful device would be complete.
Except for one thing, something so blindingly obvious when you think about it that I can't believe Dell missed it: the XPS 18 needs cute little handles on each side to make it easier to carry. Then you could have advertising beneath your beef stroganoff as well as on the television screen. Perfect.

A Look At Session Hijacking

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 23:42:00 +0000

Session hijacking involves the theft of another's internet session, thereby allowing the attacker to impersonate the original user. Falling victim to a session hijacking attack could prove catastrophic because it may enable the attacker to perform any task that you, the victim, would be able to perform.
In this article I explain what session hijacking entails, and detail some of the more favoured methods for compromising a session token. I also discuss three of the tools most commonly used to perform such attacks and outline some prevention measures that you might implement, in either your home or place of business, in order to avoid becoming a victim of such an attack.

WHAT SESSION HIJACKING INVOLVES

At its most basic level, session hijacking involves the taking over of a victim's active internet session by covertly obtaining the victim's session token. Once the victim's session token has been accessed, the attacker can masquerade as the victim, and perform any tasks that the victim is authorized to perform.
The session token required to perform a hijack is normally stored within an internet cookie or URL. For most communications, authentication procedures are carried out at start up. The process of session hijacking takes advantage of this practice by intruding into the web session in real time. The ability to detect such an intrusion is dependent on both the technical knowledge of the victim and the specific nature of the attack.

ACTIVE AND PASSIVE ATTACKS

There are two broad forms of session hijack attacks which are known respectively as an active and a passive attack. An active attack involves the identification, attack, and successful takeover of an active internet session. It is regarded as the more advanced form one of attack, due to the higher level of skill which it entails.
A passive attack involves the attacker monitoring the traffic being sent across the victim's network and, as such, is nothing more than an advanced form of network sniffing. The attacker gathers information, such as login information, and then uses that information to authenticate in a separate session.

COMPROMISING SESSION TOKENS

Common methods employed in stealing a valid session token are: session sniffing; client-side attacks; man-in-the-middle attacks; and session prediction. Each of these is discussed below.
Session sniffing is the easiest approach to capturing a valid session token. It involves the monitoring of network traffic being sent between the victim's terminal and the server that the victim is connecting to, Monitoring this traffic allows the attacker to easily gather a wide range of sensitive data, including information regarding the session token as well as login details to various websites and services.
Another common means of gaining access to a session token, and other personal data, is for the attacker to use a client-side attack. One of the most common client-side-attacks involves infecting the intended victim's terminal with a malware application, such as a Trojan or Virus. This application then gives the attacker access to the target's data and allows the copying, editing and deletion of any file on the target's computer, The cross-site script (XSS) attack is another example of a client
side attack. An XSS attack occurs when an attacker sends a URL containing malicious javascript code to a potential victim. If the target navigates to the link, the malicious javascript code will be executed, resulting in a copy of the target's session token being sent to the attacker.
A man-in-the-middle attack (MITM) occurs when the attacker intercepts communications between two systems, and then assumes the role of a proxy between both parties. The attacker does this by splitting the connection into two new links: one between the server and the attacker, and the other between the attacker and the victim. By acting as a proxy for all communications between the two parties, the attacker is able to read and modify the data that is sent between the victim and the server, including the session token.
A session prediction attack, which is, in my opinion, the most amateurish of attack methods, involves the attacker trying to guess the active session's token. The attacker does this by analysing both the means by which the session token is generated and the algorithms that are used to protect it. Once an attacker understands this process, they are able to predict a valid session token value and gain access to that session, Some simple, highly vulnerable session tokens may comprise predictable information such as timestamps and usernames. Employing such basic session token assignment schemes is extremely dangerous and should be avoided!

TOOLS EMPLOYED BY ATTACKERS

There are a variety of applications that can be used to sniff networks and hijack active sessions, Three of the most commonly employed applications are as follows.
Juggernaut is a network sniffer that was developed for Linux operating systems. Juggernaut allows the user to monitor all network traffic, or alternatively, to scan network traffic for specific keywords, such as usernames, website addresses or passwords. juggernaut also allows the user to view information regarding all active network sessions, and provides the user with the option of hijacking any of these sessions. Juggernaut is a free-to¬use application and installation guides are available on a variety of websites; a basic Google search should be sufficient to find one of these guides.
A second application is T-Sight, which is a network scanning and session hijacking tool designed for use within the Microsoft Windows environment. T-Sight allows the user to monitor all data being passed over a network. When a session id has been captured, a single button click allows the attacker to hijack the session. In an attempt to prevent T-Sight being used for illegal purposes, Engarde, the company that produces and distributes T-Sight, only licenses the software to pre-determined IP addresses.
Finally, Ettercap is a free and open source network security tool that allows the user to perform man-in¬the middle attacks over Local Area Networks (LANs). Ettercap is compatible with a range of operating systems, including Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris and Microsoft Windows. It was ranked number 11 on the Top 100 Network Security Tools list of 2006. Ettercap is one of the most advanced sniffing tools available. It allows the attacker to analyse traffic using a variety of different methods, and enables the efficient location of information in the shortest possible timeframe. While Ettercap is arguably the most advanced of the three applications I have outlined, there are some known issues with its stability when operating within a Windows environment. However, it operates perfectly in Kali, a Linux distribution designed for penetration testers.

PREVENTING AN ATTACK

The following preventative measures can be taken to minimise the risk of being subjected to a session hijacking attack.

ENCRYPTION

The encryption of data, including the session token, passing between both parties can significantly reduce the chances of a successful session hijack attack. Encryption can be employed using a cryptographic protocol such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Encryption is heavily relied upon by most web-based banking applications and e-commerce services, including eBay and Freelancer. A relatively effortless means of employing encryption is to download and install the browser add-on, HTTPS Everywhere. This is the same software that is used by the Tor Project to enforce browser encryption within the Tor network. It should be noted that while encryption will dramatically reduce the effectiveness of sniffing-style attacks, there is still the potential for a session hijack to occur if the attacker uses a different method to gain access to the session token.

CONNECTIONS
Another way to mitigate the risk of having your session hijacked is to limit the number of remote connections to your network, This can be done by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) server. This enable authorised users to connect to your network from an offsite location. Employing a VPN server adds an extra layer of protection between users and your network. When combined with SSL encryption, a VPN server, acting as a middleman between your users personal terminals and your network, should offer sufficient protection against session hijacks in the majority of cases.

ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Making sure that up-to-date anti-virus software is installed an networked computers will help prevent the network being infected by malware. As discussed, malware can be used by an attacker to steal a session token.

EMPLOYEE EDUCATION
Educating employees as to procedures for safe internet use can be boring but nonetheless highly effective in preventing a range of attacks. Educating your employees about the different types of malware, how malware is spread (seam email, infected files etc.) and proper browsing habits, will assist in preventing infections that could spread across your network and reap havoc.

CONCLUSION

Whether you are operating on your personal, home, or business network, the threat of session hijacking attacks is very real. While a successful attack can be devastating to you and your business, the measures outlined in this article can assist in reducing the likelihood of an attack being effective.

Mobile Phones Of The Future

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 02:30:00 +0000

Mobile phones are changing every day. They are getting thinner, larger and more powerful, and are handling an increasing number of tasks-so much so that today many people feel that they can leave their notebooks and cameras at home for a while if they take their handsets along.This would not have been possible without advancements in mobile chipsets, which have come a long way.Today’s mobile chipsets offer more features than their predecessors, in spite of actually being much smaller in size.And they will continue to revolutionise handsets as we know them if the following prototypes are any indication of what the future has in store:

Flexible screens

Imagine a mobile phone with a foldable display that you can roll or fold from anywhere you like.It might not be available commercially yet but a prototype with a similar concept has been seen-Samsung’s Youm being the latest.It comes with a flexible panel made of some plastic material and has a shatterproof OLED display, unlike glass based AMOLED displays, which makes the device lighter and razor like thin.Nokia also developed a flexible mobile phone model named Morph that can be flexed into four different forms.And Kyocera has been talking about a folding handset concept with OLED display that could be folded like a wallet or purse.

The earphone as phone

This prototype pretty much redefines "razor thin” in handsets. Called Kambala Mobile, it comes with the earphone clip right in the middle of an ultra-thin handset, somewhere around the keyboard and upon being pushed backwards, the clip would pop out. This clip can be inserted into one’s ear and voila your handset becomes a headphone. As it is thin, it is not heavy. Kambala is still a concept and has a colour display and a keyboard.The device is made up of multi-layered polymer which holds its electronic components and the screen together.wear your phone Can you wear a phone? And we are not talking about smart watches but proper phones on your wrist. The bracelet mobile phone lets you do that.In contrast to the Nike Fuel band or the BT watches, it will not need to pair to a phone, but would actually be a full-fledged mobile phone right on your wrist. LG was the first brand to conceptualise a mobile phone made to look like a bracelet.They call it Helix and it could be practically worn on one’s wrist like a watch. Helix came with flexible circuits, had a touch-screen display and was made out of rubber and black stainless steel.The handset was attached to the belt through a magnetic charger.Another bracelet handset is the Yuxa.Made from plant fibres and biodegradable plastic, it has an OLED display running across the strap. To use the phone, one had to take the bracelet off and uncurl it. Philips also designed a similar unit called Philip Fluid smartphone, which is flat, has an OLED display and can be worn on the wrist like a flat band.

Phone like a butterfly...

LG organised a contest called Design the future, inviting participants to come up with concept designs for future mobile phones. One of the concepts that bagged an award was Flutter, a butterfly-shaped mobile phone that looks sleek when closed with a numeric keyboard and a LG button below it. Once you press the LG logo, Flutter opens like the wings of a butterfly and an OLED based display with an iPhone like interface shows up in the middle.

iPhone Camera Essentials

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 01:00:00 +0000

Using the iPhone camera couldn’t be simpler.Tap the screen, and presto, you’ve got your photo. That’s all there is to it, right? Well, not exactly. As it turns out, the iPhone camera is deceptive in its simplicity.Think of your iPhone camera as a blank slate, just waiting for you to transform it into the most amazing camera you’ve ever owned—an inspiring tool for photographic experimentation and creativity. With the help of an innovative ecosystem of photography apps, you’re able to convert the iPhone’s bare-bones camera into a magical camera-and-darkroom combo. Soon enough, your iPhone camera will be as featurefilled as a digital single-lens reflex (SLR)—and far more fun and versatile. One minute you’ll be capturing photos with the hipster look of the Lomo LC-A camera, and the next you’ll be snapping a series of images for an arcade photo booth strip.Before you know it, you may realize your Canon or Nikon is snug in its case and your iPhone is now your de facto camera of choice. If you’re looking to explore the boundaries of photographic creativity, there’s no better way than with the iPhone.

Reasons to Love Your iPhone Camera

I’ve been obsessed with photography since I was a teenager. I got an SLR when I was 15 and proceeded to spend an absurd amount of time watching the silver drift off photographic paper in my high school’s darkroom. I loved it—the amber glow of the darkroom light, the acrid odor of the fixer, the sheer magic of images appearing from nowhere.

Yet I’ve never had as much fun with photography as I have with my iPhone

camera. Here’s why:

> It’s always with you. The iPhone camera encourages spontaneity and experimentation. It’s slim, it’s lightweight, and it’s always with you. You can slip the iPhone camera out of your purse or pocket and

grab a shot.

> You can customize the camera.Other cameras have a fixed set of features.Not the iPhone.Any number of apps let you customize the camera with features such as a self-timer and burst mode.

> You have Photoshop in your pocket. By focusing on discrete tasks, the iPhone’s photography apps make Photoshop-like effects relatively easy to accomplish, without the hassles (and learning curve) of Photoshop’s menus and palettes. Just tap an app, and seconds later—right on your iPhone!—you’re altering the image’s color saturation or reproducing the look of a Polaroid SX-70 camera.

> Snap, tweak, publish. Nothing compares to the ease of taking a photo with the iPhone, creating a luscious blur or applying an off-the-wall filter, and then publishing it to your photoblog. You’re liberated from connection cables and hard-to-master photo-editing tools.

$599 XBOX ONE TO GO ON SALE IN NOVEMBER

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 03:30:00 +0000

MICROSOFT'S BIG E3 PRESS CONFERENCE DETAILS LAUNCH PRICING, AVAILABILITY AND SPECIAL EXTRAS FOR THOSE WHO PREORDER THE NEW CONSOLE

After a somewhat polarising debut of the Xbox One a few weeks ago, Microsoft has focused heavily on the games for its big E3 press conference. Not only did it answer the burning question of pricing and availability, but it lifted the lid on an assortment of exclusive launch titles for the console and went into more detail about what its Xbox Live Gold offering would bring to the table.

The biggest take-away was that the console will hit shelves in November, with Australia being included. Locally it will be priced at $599 for a package that includes the console, Kinect, one controller and a 14 day trial of Xbox Live Gold. In addition to this, Microsoft announced that it would be offering a limited edition commemorative bundle for those who preorder the console. This will include a limited edition version of the controller and a special 'Day One achievement.

In addition to the console bundle, Microsoft also announced that it would be offering special downloadable content for those who preorder the exclusive launch titles. This includes the usual assortment of maps and special characters - the full list can be found below:
• Ryse: Son of Rome - Exclusive multiplayer map and sword with bonus attributes.
• Forza Motorsport 5 - Access to four cars tuned to the top of their class,
• Kinect Sports Rivals - Exclusive sporting equipment that separates your Champion from the rest of the world,
• Dead Rising 3 - Exclusive Frank West and Chuck Greene Tribute Packs with bonus attributes.
As an incentive to keep people subscribing to Xbox Live Gold in the leadup to the Xbox One launch, Microsoft also announced that it would be giving subscribers a free downloadable game for the Xbox 360 every fortnight between July 1 and December 31st this year, while also announcing a special 'Day One Xbox live gold membership that includes access to an exclusive character for the Xbox One launch title 'Killer Instinct: Round One'.

The Start Button Definetly Returns In Windows 8.1

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 03:10:00 +0000

ONE OF THE MOST MISSED ELEMENTS OF THE WINDOWS UI IS MAKING A TRIUMPHANT RETURN IN WINDOWS 8'S FIRST UPDATE.

Windows 8 has been met with what can only be called mixed feelings. While the new operating system is a no-brainer for purely touch devices, on desktop machines it's been less than successful, with low up-take from established Windows users and at retail.

However, in the new Windows 8.1 update, one of the most missed aspects of previous releases is coming back. The Start Button will be included, and by default turned on, in Windows 8.1, the update otherwise known as Azure.

As reported by Winsupersite.com and ZDNet, the button's back, but it does behave very differently. It sits in the same spot, but clicking on it will not bring up the old (or current, if you're still using Windows 7 or earlier) Start menu.

Instead, it will open the current Start Screen. Close, but no cigar, but it will be interesting to see if this leads to more people switching operating systems.

Other changes include the ability to boot straight into the desktop, and the ability to share wallpapers between both the desktop UI, and the Start (or Metro) background, for a more homogenised experience between the two iterations of the operating system.

Windows 8.1 is available for a public preview now - if you've got an opinion on the preview of the update, please let us know!

LG RELEASES NEW ULTRA BOOK AND TABLET RANGE

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 03:01:00 +0000

LIFE'S GOOD, ESPECIALLY IF YOU LIKE THE LOOK OF THE H160 AND Z160 TAB-BOOKS AND THE Z360 ULTRABOOK.

LG's declared a return to the PC space with two new product families just announced today.

The LG Z360 Ultrabook is a sleek, light, and very white laptop with a 3rd gen Core i5 processor and a focus on the lower end of Intel's ultrabook spec. The LG Tab-Book series is the company's entry into the hybrid and tablet spaces - the H160 Tab-Book is a pure Windows 8 tablet device, while the Z160 model features a keyboard underneath a slide-away touch screen.

LG hosted a closed-door briefing yesterday on the products ahead of this morning's announcem ent, and while we didn't get our hands on the pure tablet, we did get to test-drive engineering samples of the hybrid and ultrabook. The Z360 is a departure from most metallic shell notebooks, and while the design is very clean, the white plastic does look as though it will start to grime up at the drop of a slightly dirty hat, especially on the slightly rougher fascia around the touchpad and keypad.

That said, with 408 of RAM and a Care i5 3337U processor, it's zippy enough on the general computing side of things. It comes standard with a 128GB SSD, WiDi, USB 3 and the rest of the upgraded ultrabook spec, It's also very light and slim, and feels like a great carry-with-you-at-all-times computing device, with a responsive keyboard and a bright 13.3in IPS LCD, running at a resolution of 1920x1080. If the white body doesn't scare you, the Z360 will retail for $1399 and be Harvey Norman in early July.

The Z160 hybrid tablet continues the mighty whitey look, and features a push-button mechanism that slides the touch PS display up and into a comfortable viewing angle, revealing the keyboard beneath. LG assures us that each device has the hinge and locking mechanism tested thousands of times, but it does seem a little on the light side, with the monitor ribbon and other wiring exposed between the display and the keyboard, just behind the hinged stand it all rests on.

That said, it comes with a suitably beefy spec, packing the same RAM and processor as the Z360, with a 120GB SSD. It's very much a device aimed at professionals who need a dedicated keyboard, along with tablet portability. The 2160 will also be available in early July, and will retail for $1499. The H160 Tab book will be out at the same time, for $999.

The Tablet that lets you talk to the World

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 03:00:00 +0000

ASUS Fonepad™ brings smartphone functionality to the 7-inch tablet.
ASUS is fast getting a reputation for creating quality, affordable devices that bring together technology categories; the TaiChi and PadFone 2 are two such devices. Following their success ASUS recently announced the release of a new hybrid device - the Fonepad. A 7" Android Tablet which is not only 3G capable, but has the ability to make and receive calls!
This no doubt conjures up images of Dom Jolly shouting down an oversized cell-phone on a crowded train; however the Fonepad has been designed following research suggesting that smart phone users spend only a fraction of their time making calls on their phone. The rest of that is spent browsing the web, playing games, social networking, emailing and texting. All of which are better experienced on a larger screen.And it's quite a screen; the Fonepad features a beautiful high definition 1280x800 resolution screen.With IPS technology and LED backlighting packed in, on screen images, video and web content are brought vividly to life.The inner workings feature a high powered Intel(R) Atom™ processor that gives the Fonepad the legs to provide a full tablet and smartphone experience with up to 9 hours of battery life. This is encased in a durable, rubberised, premium metallic Titanium Grey finish that is fits comfortably in the palm of the hand without the risk of slipping around. The dual mic and speakers cancel out echoes and background nois and the 1.2MP front facing camera is perfect for video calling.

Computer Security Threats

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 02:00:00 +0000

Exploit

An exploit is a piece of software, a chunk of data, or sequence of commands that takes

advantage of a bug, glitch, or vulnerability in order to cause unintended or unanticipated

behavior to occur on computer software, hardware, or electronic devices. This often refers

to things like gaining control of a computer system or allowing privilege escalation or a

denial-of-service attack.

Buffer Overﬂow

Buffer overﬂow is an anomaly where a program, while writing data to a buffer, overruns

the buffer’s boundary and overwrites adjacent memory. This is a special case of violation

of memory safety. Buffer overﬂows can be triggered by inputs that are designed to execute

code, or alter the way the program operates. This may result in erratic program behavior,

including memory access errors, incorrect results, a crash, or a breach of system security.

Thus, they are the basis of many software vulnerabilities and can be maliciously exploited.

Cross-Site Scripting

Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of computer security vulnerability typically found in

Web applications that enables attackers to inject client-side script into Web pages viewed

by other users. An XXS vulnerability may be used by attackers to bypass access controls

such as the same origin policy.

Cross-Site Request Forgery

Cross-site request forgery, also known as a one-click attack or session riding and

abbreviated as CSRF or XSRF, is a type of malicious exploit of a web site whereby

unauthorized commands are transmitted from a user that the web site trusts. Unlike XSS,

which exploits the trust a user has for a particular site, CSRF exploits the trust that a site

has in a user’s browser.

Password Cracking

In cryptanalysis and computer security, password cracking is the process of recovering

passwords from data that has been stored in or transmitted by a computer system. A common

approach is to repeatedly try guesses for the password. Another common approach

is to say that you have “forgotten” the password and then changing it. The purpose of

password cracking might be to help a user recover a forgotten password, to gain unauthorized

access to a system, or as a preventive measure by system administrators to check

for easily crackable passwords.

Rootkit

A rootkit is a malicious software designed to hide the existence of certain processes or

programs from normal methods of detection and enables continued privileged access to

a computer. Rootkit installation may be either automated or when an attacker installs it

once they have obtained root or administrator access. Obtaining this access is a result of

direct attack on a system. Once installed it becomes possible to hide the intrusion as well

as to maintain privileged access. Like any software they can have a good purpose or a

malicious purpose. Rootkit detection is difﬁcult because a rootkit may be able to subvert

the software that is intended to ﬁnd it.

Trojan Horse

A Trojan horse is a stand-alone malicious program that does not attempt to infect other

computers in a completely automatic manner without help from outside forces like

other programs and human intervention. The term is derived from the Trojan Horse

story in Greek mythology. Others rely on drive-by downloads in order to reach target

computers.

Trojan may allow a hacker remote access to a target computer system. Once a Trojan

has been installed on a target computer system, a hacker may have access to the computer

remotely and perform various operations, limited by user privileges on the target computer

system and the design of the Trojan. Popular Trojan Horses include Netbus, Back

Oriﬁce, Schoolbus, Executor, Silencer, and Striker.

Keylogging

Keylogging is the action of tracking (or logging) the keys struck on a keyboard, typically

in a covert manner so that the person using the keyboard is unaware that their actions are

being monitored. There are numerous keylogging methods, ranging from hardware- and

software-based approaches to electromagnetic and acoustic analysis.

Spooﬁng Attack

A spooﬁng attack is a situation in which one person or program successfully masquerades

as another by falsifying data and thereby gaining an illegitimate advantage.

ARP Spooﬁng

ARP spooﬁng is a computer hacking technique whereby an attacker sends fake ARP

messages onto a LAN. ARP spooﬁng may allow an attacker to intercept data frames on

a LAN, modify the trafﬁc, or stop the trafﬁc altogether.

IP Spooﬁng

IP spooﬁng refers to the creation of IP packets with a forged-source IP address, called

spooﬁng, with the purpose of concealing the identity of the sender or impersonating

another computing system.

E-mail Spooﬁng

E-mail spooﬁng is e-mail activity in which the sender address and other parts of the

e-mail header are altered to appear as though the e-mail originated from a different source.

Because core SMTP does not provide any authentication, it is easy to impersonate and

forge e-mails.

Web Site Spooﬁng

Web site spooﬁng is the act of creating a web site, as a hoax, with the intention of

misleading readers that the web site has been created by a different person or organization.

Normally, the spoof web site will adopt the design of the target web site and sometimes

has a similar URL. Another technique is to use a “cloaked” URL. By using domain

forwarding, or inserting control characters, the URL can appear to be genuine while

concealing the address of the actual web site.

Packet Sniffer

A packet sniffer is a computer program or a piece of computer hardware that can intercept

and log trafﬁc passing over a digital network or part of a network. As data streams ﬂow

across the network, the sniffer captures each packet and, if needed, decodes the packet’s

raw data, showing the values of various ﬁelds in the packet, and analyzes its content

according to the appropriate RFC or other speciﬁcations.

Session Hijacking

Session hijacking is the exploitation of a valid computer session to gain unauthorized

access to information or services in a computer system. In particular, it is used to refer to

the theft of a magic cookie used to authenticate a user to a remote server. It has particular

relevance to Web developers, as the HTTP cookies used to maintain a session on many

Web sites can be easily stolen by an attacker using an intermediary computer or with

access to the saved cookies on the victim’s computer.

ADOBE CREATIVE CLOUD

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 01:00:00 +0000

THE NEWEST VERSIONS OF ADOBE'S FLAGSHIP APPLICATIONS ARE HERE FOR
SUBSCRIPTION CUSTOMERS ONLY. ARE THE IMPROVEMENTS COMPELLING
ENOUGH TO PERSUADE CREATIVE SUITE USERS TO SWITCH TO THE CLOUD?

Adobe launched Creative Cloud in April 2012, allowing customers to lease applications on a monthly or annual basis, as well as providing various cloud services (see What's in the cloud?, opposite). So far, however, the applications on offer have been the same ones found in the regular Creative Suite 6.Now Adobe has rolled out new "CC" releases of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Premiere Pro and After Effects, exclusively to Creative Cloud customers - and has said that these and future updates will never be offered as standalone installations. Will these new releases tempt designers and creatives to switch to the subscription model?

PHOTOSHOP CC

The headline update in Photoshop is an improved Smart Sharpen filter.That may sound mundane, but the new noise-reduction slider makes it a breeze to apply sharpening only where it's wanted, allowing you to give images extra crispness without succumbing to the dreaded speckles.The software also tackles the age-old problem of blowing up small images. A new enlargement algorithm turns jagged pixels into clean lines with impressive intelligence, and again offers a noise-reduction slider for cleaning up artefacts. It won't turn a thumbnail into a billboard, but if a high-quality image isn't available, it can smooth things over.
Other updates have more niche appeal. If you work with shapes or masks, you'll appreciate Live Shapes: this lets you draw rectangles, ellipses and so on in on Illustrator-type way, with options to adjust fills and strokes. Looked as if they had been heavily sharpened and fed through a noise reduction filter.

ILLUSTRATOR CC

Two of the big new features in Illustrator CC focus on type: there's a search dialog that lets you filter fonts by name, and a tool called Touch Type, which allows you to selectively deform individual letters in a text object.It isn't quite as versatile as Create Outlines - you can stretch, rotate and recolour letters, but you don't have direct access to their handles. The advantage is that the text can still be edited, making it possible to come up with a general design, then try it out in different fonts.For those designing for the web, Illustrator CC also offers a CSS Properties panel, which shows a CSS description of the selected object, including colours, strokes, gradients, typefaces and more, for easy pasting into a website editor. The Export CSS function will export both code and PNG copies of your objects that can be easily dropped onto an HTML page.Elsewhere, you'll also find updated packaging and multiple-file placing abilities - useful if your designs use a lot of external bitmaps or fonts.

DREAMWEAVER CC

The main change in Dreamweaver is a CSS Designer panel, which replaces the old pop-up window. It's a huge improvement, allowing you to tweak CSS settings interactively and see the effect on open pages immediately.The old Spry widgets have given way to jQuery replacements, providing an easy way to drop professional-looking controls and navigation elements directly onto the page. Many of them use jQuery Mobile for maximum compatibility with smartphones and tablets. The new Fluid Grid option promises to help with responsive design, too, although when you're using this feature the design view simply shows a sequential stack of elements, losing the visual immediacy that has always been one of Dreamweaver's strengths.

INDESIGN CC

InDesign's user interface has now gone dark, matching Photoshop and Illustrator. MacBook Pro owners will be pleased to learn that it now hos native support for Retina screens, too.As with Illustrator, other updates focus on type. The font-search box makes a welcome reappearance, and stepping up and down the list with the cursor keys now gives you an instant preview of your selected text in the chosen font. We can see this being tremendously useful for non-templated work.Adobe also promises performance improvements, and we certainly haven't seen InDesign CC succumb to any slowdown. There's a 64-bit native version of the application, too, enabling big documents to make full use of your RAM - although InDesign was never a terrible memory hog in the first place.

PREMIERE PRO CC AND AFTER EFFECTS CC

Premiere Pro CC benefits from subtle but thoughtful tweaks. You can now add and remove tracks with a right-click; double-click to expandand collapse tracks; and import clips directly onto the timeline.More significant new features include duplicate frame detection, which alerts you automatically if part of a clip appears more than once, and the new audio clip mixing window.Serious shooters will appreciate new multi-cam auto-sync features that can line up clips based on either timecode or audio. After Effects, meanwhile, gains the ability to import Cinema 40 objects and scenes, a tool for creating soft matte edges and improved stabilisation and tracking.

WORTH THE SWITCH?

The improvements on offer aren't huge, but they're spread broadly, so almost everyone who upgrades to the new CC applications will see some benefit to their workflow.Adobe's insistence on subscription is problematic, though. The price of buying into Creative Cloud compares reasonably well with the CS6 Master Collection; the break-even point comes around five years down the line, by which time you'd probably otherwise have spent a bit on upgrades. But if you only need to use a handful of Adobe applications, and have no desire for supplementary cloud services, you're out of luck. You con lease a single application, or the full suite, but there's no cloud-based middle ground akin to the old Design Standard suite.As a result, we can't unequivocally recommend Creative Cloud. The updated applications bring welcome improvements, and for heavyweight art workers in collaborative environments, the subscription package isn't too offensive. But we're far from convinced that the options on offer suit everybody's needs. For most current Creative Suite users, we suspect it will make sense to stick with what you have until Adobe comes up with a better offer.

Network Security Threats

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 03:41:00 +0000

Worm

A computer worm is a stand-alone malware program which replicates itself and spreads to other devices via network by utilizing vulnerabilities on the target devices. Unlike a computer virus, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program. Worms are usually made to harm the network by consuming bandwidth, whereas viruses usually corrupt or modify ﬁles on a targeted device.

Virus

A computer virus is a program that can replicate itself and spread from one computer to another. Viruses increase their chances of spreading to other computers by infecting ﬁles on an NFS or a ﬁle system that is accessed by other computers. Recently, viruses are distributed mainly to exploit personal computers for distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

DDoS

A denial-of-service attack or DDoS attack is an attempt to make a computer or network resource unavailable to its users. Attackers typically target web sites or services such as search engines, banks, credit card payment gateways, and even servers in national security agencies. DDoS attack overloads and saturates the target machine with external communication requests, such that it cannot respond to legitimate trafﬁc, or responds so slowly as to be rendered effectively unavailable.

NEXUS 7

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 02:51:00 +0000

GOOGLE'S NEXUS 7 MAY HAVE KICK-STARTED THE COMPACT TABLET PRICE WAR, BUT IT'S NO LONGER WORTHY OF THE BEST-VALUE CROWN

When Google's Nexus 7 arrived on the scene, it was the first quality compact tablet to retail for significantly less than 5300. Now, more than a year later, the 7in tablet finds itself sparring with a wide variety of keenly priced competitors.

The Nexus 7 doesn't look or feel like a budget tablet. It tips the scales at a modest 340g, the build quality is tough and sturdy, and the dimpled rubber rear is both attractively understated and pleasingly grippy.

If you look a little closer, you'll spy the Asus logo emblazoned on the all-black rear - there's a good reason why the Nexus 7 and the Asus Fonepad look alike, with their similar button arrangements and curved backs.

Upfront, the 800 x 1280 display puts in a solid performance. Brightness reaches an ample - if not stunningly bright - 330cd/m2, and the contrast ratio of 1100:1 ensures the Nexus 7 dredges up more than enough shadow and highlight detail to make watching movies and viewing photos a pleasure.

If there's a weakness, it's that the IPS panel struggles to reproduce the most saturated, vivid colours. Next to the best models here, such as Samsung's Galaxy Note 8.0, the Nexus 7's display left our test images Looking a little cold and washed out.

With Nvidia's Tegra 3 providing the Nexus 7's power, its performance remains competitive. The

1.3GHz quad-core processor achieved a score of 1469 in Geekbench, putting it in second place overall, and the average frame rate of 5.4fps in the GFXBench test was eclipsed only by the pricier iPad mini and Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0. In fact, the Nexus 7 only fell markedly behind in the Peacekeeper HTML5 and SunSpider JavaScript benchmarks.

In everyday use, however, the Nexus 7 is well up to the job. The Nvidia hardware is capable of running demanding games such as Real Racing 3 and Shadowgun at playable frame rates, and the stock version of Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean feels snappy and responsive.

Battery life is less promising, however, and the Nexus 7's non-removable 4325mAh battery produced a middling result in our rundown test. With the display at half brightness and Wi-Fi off, the Nexus 7 lasted 8hrs 48mins. That's fine for most purposes, but with the Asus Fonepad lasting well over 12 hours, the Nexus 7 is a little off the pace.

There are some obvious omissions to keep the price down, but the Nexus 7 is still well equipped. It has 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC connectivity, plus GPS, a micro-USB port for charging and data transfer, and a 3.5mm audio output. The 32GB model is also available with 3G, too. In fact, the only glaring omissions are the lack of a microSD slot and the absence of a rear-facing camera - like the Fonepad, the Nexus 7 has only a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera.

Google's Nexus 7 is a solid all-rounder, boasting good build quality and performance in a compact, attractive package, but it's no longer the unassailable bargain it once was. With Asus' multitalented Fonepad offering just a little more for the money, the Nexus 7 slips behind in the overall reckoning.

Everything you need to know about iOS 7

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 02:04:00 +0000

Coming in the autumn, iOS 7 sports a revolutionary new design, under-the-bonnet features like Control Center and card-based multitasking, and app updates.

When taking the wraps off iOS 7 at June's Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook called it the most significant overhaul of its mobile operating system since the company got into the smartphone business in 2007. Indeed, this is a dramatic re-invention of its mobile software that goes beyond mere additions and enhancements.

Apple is overhauling the very look and feel of the operating system itself.

Something as different as iOS 7 is going to raise questions. Fortunately, we have the answers. While there's still much to be learned about the new OS between now and its arrival later this year, we can still provide an overview based on what we've seen and heard so far from Apple.

What's the biggest change with i05 7?

Where do we begin? The entire look and feel of the system has been overhauled, with flatter icons, less skeuomorphism, and thinner typefaces. That said, anybody who's used i05 will probably feel mostly at home: Apple hasn't changed the home screen much, and the basic gestures and interactions are largely the same, with a few exceptions.

How does the new design differ from the old? How did you feel about green felt? Wood bookshelves? Stitched leather? We hope the answer is "not great", because they're all gone in iOS 7. Instead, they've been replaced with a new cleaner design that's largely about simple lines and icons. While there are elements reminiscent of Microsoft's recent Windows Phone design, iOS 7 clearly has its own distinct style. These aren't just subtle enhancements either; they permeate every bit of the interface.

The operating system also takes design cues from your content too, tinting controls and panels based on the colours of the photos behind them. Apple's Sir Jony lye spoke about layering the interface, with panels such as Notification Center and Control Center visually residing "on top" of apps and the i05 home screen.

Will we have to relearn how to use the iPhone?

Not really. Launching and using apps is largely the same, though there will be some new things to learn. For example, you can now swipe up from the bottom of the screen to summon Control Center (a handy panel that gives you access to many of your most commonly used system features). There's another new swipe-from-the-left-edge gesture that means "go up a level" when you're in Mail, for example. But, as Apple's Craig Federighi described it: "iOS 7 is like getting a new phone, but one you already know how to use."

When will i0S 7 be available?

Apple says the updated i05 will arrive in the autumn, which has become something of a standard for iOS releases. i05 6 arrived last September, while i05 5 made its debut in October 2011, (Before that, both iOS and the phones that it powered were on a summer release schedule.) When iOS 7 becomes available, we expect you'll be able to upgrade the same way you could with i05 6 either downloading the update via iTunes or by taking advantage of i0S's over-the-air updating ability.

Which Apple devices will support i0S 7?

If you're looking to update to iOS 7, you'll need to have one of these devices: the iPhone 4 or later; iPad 2 or later; iPad mini; or fifth-generation iPod touch. (And, of course, whatever new mobile hardware Apple releases between now and iOS 7's official launch.)

Specific features have more stringent device requirements (see below for details on these features):

+Enhanced panoramic photos are only available on the iPhone 45 or later, and fifth-generation iPod touch.

+You can't shoot square photos or video using the iPad 2; all other devices can use this feature, though.

+For the nifty new live camera filters, you'll need an iPhone 5 or fifth-generation iPod touch. Putting filters on after the fact in the Photos app is an option for the iPhone 4 or later, third-generation iPad or later, iPad mini, and fifth-generation iPod touch.
+To AirDrop a photo or other file to your friends, you'll need an iPhone 5 or later, fourth-generation iPad or later, iPad mini, or fifth-generation [Pod touch. You'll also need an iCloud account.
+Siri continues to be limited to those using an iPhone 45 or later; a third-generation iPad or later; an iPad mini; and a fifth-generation [Pod touch. And if it's a new Siri voice you desire, for now the new voices are only available in US English, French, or German. However, we expect that a new British English female voice will available when iOS 7 launches.

THE SYSTEM

What is the Control Center?

If you've ever grumbled while navigating three levels deep into Settings to turn off Bluetooth, you're going to love the Control Center. This new panel, which you can open anywhere in i0S by swiping up from the bottom of the screen, will give you easy access to common settings, including Wi-Fi and AirPlay. There are also media playback controls, and icons at the bottom enable you to launch frequently used apps and utilities: you can turn on the iPhone's camera flash to use as a torch, or open the Clock or Camera apps. But it's not to be confused with Notification Center.

Notification Center

This has been given a complete overhaul. While you still summon it by swiping down from the top of the screen, Notification Center has a new translucent look, like much of the rest of the operating system, and offers some different information. In addition to storing your notifications, as it did in previous version of 10S, it also offers a tab where you can view only your missed notifications, as well as a Today view.
The latter acts a little bit like Google's Google Now feature, providing you with an overview of what you have to do today, including the current weather forecast, upcoming appointments on your calendar, stock quotes, and even a quick paragraph about what kind of day you have tomorrow.

Multitasking

You can still switch apps by double-clicking the Home button, but the interface for doing so has changed: it now resembles the old interface for switching pages in Safari on iOS 6. and before, where you see a thumbnail of the page. A row of app icons still appears below, and you can swipe back and forth to find the app you're looking for. Force-quitting programs is a little different, though: instead of tapping and holding on the icon, you flick a thumbnail up to dismiss it.
Behind the scenes, there are other, more significant differences. In iCS 4 and later, only certain tasks could run in the background (in order to save battery life). In iOS 7, we finally get full multitasking. So any app can run in the background, providing you with up-to-the-minute information as soon as you switch to it.

Battery life

Apple has spent a lot of time making sure that battery life won't suffer from the new multitasking. It tries to collect updates from different apps and run them all at the same time, and keeps an eye on both power efficiency and the current network situation to make sure it doesn't run down your battery.

THE APPS

Camera

Like the rest of iOS 7, the Camera has received a significant overhaul. It will offer four different modes: standard camera, video camera, a square camera, and panorama; you can swipe back and forth between them.

If you think that square camera might be Apple's way of taking a shot at Instagram, congratulations: you're spot on. The app also now includes different live photo filters that you can apply to your still or square shots. They're even non-destructive, in case you want to remove them later.

Moments and Collections

those of us that end up with thousands of pictures in our Camera Rolls, Moments and Collections offer a better way to organise those photos. Just as iPhoto on the Mac can automatically break pictures into events, Photos on iOS can use metadata like time and location to create different "Moments" — all the pictures you took on Thursday at dinner, for example, or all the photographs you snapped while on that weekend trip to the country.

Collections are larger groupings of Moments — often all the photos you took in a general area (around your house) during a time period of often several months. Beyond that, you can zoom out even further to a Years view, which breaks down all the pictures you took in various years.

AirDrop

AirDrop in iOS 7 lets you exchange files like pictures, Passbook passes and contacts between two iOS users over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, without any configuration and (as Apple's Craig Federighi pointed out) without the need to walk around and "bump" phones with people. It will appear in the Share sheet, along with more conventional items like Mail and Messages; you can even use it to share multiple items to multiple people at once. Files end up right in the appropriate app and are encrypted during transmission. You can also change permissions to determine whether everybody can share with you, or only certain people nearby (or people in your contacts).

What we don't know is whether or not iOS devices will be able to AirDrop files back and forth with Macs.

Safari

Apple's web browser - which the company likes to point out is the most used browser for mobile devices - has some new tricks up its sleeve in i05 7. There's an entirely new minimalist interface; the search and URL fields have been merged into one, which will now suggest URLs, bookmarks and search results as you type. In addition, your favourites are quickly and easily available from that screen, allowing you one-touch access to your bookmarked sites. And the interface will disappear into the background as you scroll, giving you even more space with which to view your content.

A new tab interface lets you scroll more quickly through open pages (and continue scrolling down to iCloud Tabs); there are also the same continuous-scrolling Reading List and Shared Links features that will appear in OS X Mavericks. And iCloud Keychain, a new feature that syncs your passwords between your devices and even helps you generate new passwords, should work seamlessly with Safari.

iTunes Radio

Some have argued that iTunes Radio is basically Pandora (the popular US radio service), but that doesn't mean it won't be popular. As with Pandora, you can create stations based on a song, artist or genre, then rate the songs as you go along - in case you want to hear more like that track or nothing like it ever again. You can also control the balance of your stations, determining whether they're hit-heavy, favour new music discovery, or a mixture of the two. A history tab will give you a full list of all the songs you've listened to, just in case you can't remember the name of that track that had you tapping your toes.

But Apple's new streaming service has the additional benefit of being closely tied in with the rest of the iTunes ecosystem, meaning that you can easily buy songs from the iTunes Store, directly from within iTunes Radio. Apple hasn't yet confirmed when it will launch the iTunes Radio service in the UK.

Music

Most of the changes to the Music app are cosmetic, it seems, reflecting the new design aesthetic of iOS 7, Despite the extensive overhaul of iTunes on the Mac that Apple did last year, there didn't seem to be much crossover to 105 - or, if there is, Apple hasn't revealed it yet. In particular, there's no indication that iTunes 11's Up Next feature has jumped to Apple's mobile platform.

THE REST

Siri

We don't yet know whether Siri is out of beta. Apple's virtual assistant didn't get much screen time in the keynote, and what time it did have in the spotlight was relegated to discussing its new integration features, such as in-Siri results for Bing search, Wikipedia and Twitter, as well as some new control features for things like iTunes radio.

Siri's also got new, high-quality voices and a fancy new interface - though it doesn't yet have the live-transcription feature that Google recently showed off for its voice search offering.

Activation Lock

This is a system whereby a thief who attempts to disable Find My iPhone or wipe the phone won't be able to do so without entering your Apple ID and password. While dedicated hackers may still be able to find a way around it, the hope seems to be that Activation Lock is enough of a deterrent that thieves will think twice before stealing iPhones to sell.

iOS in the Car

At the moment, Apple says that a dozen car manufacturers, including Honda, Nissan and Jaguar, have signed on to provide support for the iOS in the Car initiative, which will allow drivers to use the screen in their car to access certain lOS features, including navigation, phone, and entertainment functions.

Other changes

Apple's Federighi limited himself to previewing just 10 new features at WWDC, but one of the final slides during the iOS 7 sneak peek hinted at many more changes - everything from system improvements to

developer APIs.

Macworld's Serenity Caldwell dug into some of the iOS 7 features Apple didn't talk about during its WWDC keynote, and that's a worthwhile read if you'd like greater depth on what Apple has planned for its mobile operating system.

What's missing

There are a few things we hoped iOS 7 would offer that it doesn't yet, For example, the Maps app has no public transport directions; Sin doesn't feature live transcription, a la Google's Voice search; Home screen organisation doesn't seem to have changed; you can't apparently set third-party apps as defaults for tools like browsers or mail clients; there's no Up Next feature in iTunes; and mare. But hey, that just means there's room for improvement.

The Amazing Hyperloop

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 04:33:00 +0000

The Hyperloop is a fast mode of transport created by Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX Tesla Motors and SolarCity. Musk defines Hyperloop as a fifth mode of transport, in addition to boats, planes, cars and trains. In theory, the system would travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than 30 minutes, which is a distance of 551 km to over 1102 km / h or faster than a plane travels this distance in 35 minutes at a speed of 885 km/h1, 2.

Compared to the alternatives, it should ideally be:

Safer
Faster
Lower cost
More convenient
Immune to weather
Sustainably self-powering
Resistant to Earthquakes
Not disruptive to those along the route

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 8.0

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 02:59:00 +0000

SAMSUNG'S GALAXY NOTE 8 IS FAST, WELL DESIGNED AND PACKED WITH FEATURES, BUT IT'S LET DOWN BY A SERIOUSLY HIGH PRICETAG

You've got to hand it to Samsung: grabbing the attention in a market crowded with capable, keenly-priced rival devices is no mean feat, yet it's managed exactly that with its Galaxy Note 8.0. Not content with merely battering its rivals in the performance stakes, Samsung's petite premium slate has gone one step further by adding something altogether more unusual - a stylus.

The so-called S Pen docks neatly into a slot on the bottom right of the tablet, and compared with capacitive styluses, it's a revelation. Samsung has sandwiched a Wacom digitiser beneath the 8in touchscreen and the LCD, and this allows the Galaxy Note 8.0 to provide accurate, pressure-sensitive stylus input for scribbling notes, doodling or just tapping away at onscreen items.

A panel in the stock Samsung keyboard allows for pen input, and apps such as S Note are designed to make the most of the stylus. Handwriting recognition is quick and accurate, too.

Visually, the Galaxy Note 8.0 is a super-sized clone of Samsung's high-end smartphones. The rear of the tablet is finished in silky white plastic, and while it can't match the luxurious solidity of Apple's iPad mini - there's noticeable flex if you twist it from side to side - it feels well put together.

The screen is stunning. The 800 x 1280 resolution is nothing special, but the image quality certainly is. Brightness peaks at a vivid 500cd/m2 and the display sparkles with saturated, life-like colours.

It also ranks highly in performance terms. The 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos 4412 CPU keeps things slick and responsive, with web pages and screens sliding with impressive fluidity.

In the benchmarks, the Note's quad-core CPU dominated the opposition:

with its score of 2113 in Geekbench, it soared well clear of its closest competitor. It repeated the feat in the HTML5 Peacekeeper test, with a score of 736. Oddly, it struggled in the SunSpider benchmark, dropping into last place, although it was back on form in the graphics-intensive GFXBench test, with an average frame rate of 6.4fps, ahead of the other Android tablets and only just behind the iPad mini's 6.7fps.

The processor takes its toll on battery life, though. In our looping video test, the Galaxy Note 8.0 sat near the rear of the pack, lasting only 7hrs 44mins.

As you'd expect, given the premium price, there are plenty of features. There's a microSD slot for expanding the 16GB of onboard storage; a micro¬USB socket handles data transfer and charging duties; and an IR emitter.

The 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera is nothing to write home about, but the rear 5-megapixel camera captured crisp, detailed photos in bright conditions. Only its low-light performance let it down.
That aside, Samsung has built a fantastic tablet. Performance is excellent, the stylus works well and there's no shortage of features.

However, the Galaxy Note 8.0 is as expensive as consumer compact tablets get. With Asus' Fonepad delivering solid all-round performance and 3G for a significantly lower cost, Samsung's tablet is plainly overpriced for what it delivers.

Microsoft unveils preview of Windows 8.1

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 02:00:00 +0000

What happened?

Microsoft released a preview of Windows 8.1, the update to its latest operating system. Windows 8 hasn't been as warmly received as its predecessor and Microsoft is hoping to win over more PC users by addressing some of the most common complaints.

Windows 8 introduced a number of new touchscreen-focused features, notably the Start screen, a series of 'tiles' representing applications. While the design works well on tablets, it's less useful for people still on a standard PC with a keyboard and mouse.

Another controversial change was removing the Start button - the Windows logo in the bottom left of the Desktop that gives access to applications and settings.
To address these criticisms, Windows 8.1 will let you bypass the Start screen and go directly to your Desktop, so you don't have to use the touchscreen-oriented features if you're on an older PC. It's also brought back the Start button - sort of.

Previously, you had to nudge your cursor into the corner of the screen to bring up settings, but there was no icon to tell you to do so. In Windows 8.1, you can press the button to bring up the Start screen, which makes navigation a little easier. However, it doesn't launch a Start menu of programs, as in previous versions of Windows.

Another major change introduced in Windows 8.1 is support for smaller tablets, to make it simpler to use the operating system on devices that are 8in and smaller. Because larger tablets tend to be used in portrait mode, Windows 8's Start screen scrolls horizontally, but Windows 8.1 will rearrange application tiles to work vertically, too.

Other new features include personalised backgrounds, such as animated wallpapers, and the ability to use the lock screen to show photos. This means that when your tablet or PC isn't being used, it effectively becomes a digital photo frame.

Windows 8.1 also introduces Internet Explorer 11, which includes a system to sync tabs across different devices (a feature long available in Firefox and Chrome).

The update is free for Windows 8 and Windows RT users, and is expected to be released this autumn. The preview is available now via the Windows Store, which will let you keep all your apps and settings in place. You can also download it from bitly/windows81322, but this means you'll need to reinstall your applications.

How will this affect you?

The release of Windows 8.1 should be good news to all PC users. If you're already using Windows 8, come autumn you'll have an improved operating system, with some of the irritating and awkward aspects ironed out. The update will be distributed to computers and tablets automatically via the Windows Store, and it's free, so you don't need to do anything to get it.

If you haven't upgraded to Windows 8, your patience has paid off. While you continued to use the perfectly capable and still modern-feeling Windows 7 (or even Vista or XP), Microsoft's developers have worked at improving Windows 8. This update is a classic case of why it's often wise to wait for version two of a tech product, be it hardware or software.

What do we think?

We've always found Windows 8 a bit of a mixed bag, with some obvious mistakes that should have been sorted out before the final release. We're pleased that the improvements Windows 8.1 applies to the operating system show that Microsoft is listening to its users and taking (relatively) quick action based on their feedback. We're also happy that the update is being issued to Windows 8 customers at no extra cost.

Additionally, such regular updates are set to become standard, which means the OS will keep getting better. That's not a bad deal at all, considering that Apple charges Mac users to upgrade to new versions of OS X.

HTC ONE

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 01:00:00 +0000

After an initial period where HTC seemed destined to be the flagship maker of
Android smartphones, thanks to stellar products like the Desire

After an initial period where HTC seemed destined to be the flagship maker of Android smartphones, thanks to stellar products like the Desire, it has faltered in the face of the rising might of Samsung. In many ways it didn't help its fortunes with a myriad confusing product names and minor variations on the same theme. Even though it has delivered some great handsets in this intervening period, it hasn't managed to recapture the magic of the Desire until now.

When HTC chose to follow Samsung and shun the mobile industry's annual show, Mobile World Congress, earlier this year, we thought it might have delusions of grandeur. However, it allowed us to absorb its technical advances and learn to love the HTC One before the avalanche of new handsets swamped the market.

The thing is, despite that flurry of new phones - and the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy S4 - we still Love the One. Why? It's a combination of factors, starting with its physical design and appearance. The One is the best-looking phone on the market. Its curved, silver aluminium rear panel looks and feels gorgeous, its CNC-machined edges catch the light and glimmer attractively, and the polycarbonate inlays on the rear and around the edges provide the perfect contrast. It's 13g heavier than the Samsung Galaxy S4, and 1.4mm thicker, but we'd take that hit for the sheer beauty of the design.

DISPLAY AND PERFORMANCE

When you switch it on, the quality of the display maintains the high-class feel. It's a stunning Full HD panel, and although it doesn't match the S4 for sheer size, at 4.7in across, we've no problem at all with its quality.
Its top brightness, 481cd/m2, is considerably higher than the S4's figure of 221cd/m2, so it's easier to read in bright sunlight, and contrast levels are fine. If anything, the colours are slightly less intense than on the S4, but the difference is marginal.

Furthermore, despite an apparent disadvantage on the speed front, the One is the slicker and more responsive phone. Its 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 is clocked 200MHz slower than the Samsung's, and results in the benchmarks reflect this. It completed the SunSpider test in 1154ms, compared to the S4's 1148ms, and scored 11,617 in Quadrant, behind the Samsung's huge 12,730.

Yet, while navigating around the OS, we experienced none of the annoying pauses that afflicted the S4. Apps launched in double-quick time, as did web pages. It's the most responsive Android smartphone we've used, and there's no game you can throw at it that will make it pause for breath.

SENSE-IBLE SOFTWARE

We also prefer the One's UI. The revamped, pared-back Sense Android overlay is far easier to get to grips with than Samsung's TouchWiz, and although it doesn't boast the same richness of features, Sense 5 does all the essentials well.
We're still not entirely convinced by BlinkFeed - the HTC One's default homescreen. It presents a list of vertically scrolling tiles, combining both news headlines and social-media updates in one stream of constantly updating information. In particular, we're less than enamoured with its decision to make the feed impossible to remove (although you can move it off the main homescreen). However, it's certainly more appealing than the S4's mess of widgets and proprietary apps.

CAMERA

HTC took a risk when it decided to include a 4-megapixel sensor in the One, since so many others are pushing up to 13 megapixels; the surprise is that its camera is just as good as the S4's. Pictures snapped with the S4 are more detailed in good light, but the One's larger "UltraPixels" and optical stabilisation give it the advantage in murky conditions, producing less noisy photos.

The One also produces balanced exposures more reliably than the S4 in a range of different conditions, although its autofocus is slower, and its macro mode isn't as good.

Elsewhere, nothing is spared: the HTC is equipped with 4G, Bluetooth, NFC and dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi. Just like the S4, it has an infrared transmitter that allows you to control your TV, either through the bundled HTC TV app or via third-party software downloaded from Google Play. The free Dijit app does the job nicely.

SOUNDS GREAT

One area where the HTC One comprehensively outperforms its rival is speaker quality. The audio output from the drivers above and below the Full HD display is astonishing in both its clarity and volume - be careful, though, or you may give yourself a heart attack the first time you use the alarm clock to wake up. Call quality is second to none, too.

With outright pricing leaning heavily in favour of the HTC One, there was only one smartphone we could hand our overall award to this month. Its gorgeous design, coupled with an elegant front-end, performance fast enough for any purpose, and responsiveness that outdoes even the Samsung Galaxy S4, means our Labs winner has to be the HTC One, a deserving recipient of the title of best Smartphone of 2013.

Samsung Ativ Q

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 04:36:00 +0000

Samsung seems to have given up trying to choose between Windows and Android or laptop and tablet, and has thrown them all in together.

If that sounds like a recipe for a lumpy device and awkward boot-switching, you're in for a pleasant surprise with the Ativ Q. This sleek tablet laptop hybrid uses the same Intel Haswell Core i5 chip to run both Windows 8 and Android 4.2.2, which makes switching between them as quick and easy as tapping a screen icon. The operating systems also share a file system, and you can pin Android apps to the Windows start screen.

The most eye-catching feature of the Ativ Q is the hinged strut that lets you fold down the screen to create a tablet, flip it up to create a laptop or spin it round to create a viewing stand, which is ideal for watching video.

The 3,200 x 1,800 resolution qHD display gives a pixel density of 275ppi on the 13.3in touchscreen. For extra precision, there's an S Pen included.

The screen's resolution is superb and outclasses the Retina display on Apple's Macbook Pro range. The full-size QWERTY keyboard is thin and comfortable, with two mouse buttons and an old-school trackpoint in the middle of the keyboard.

At 13mm deep and 1.29kg, the Ativ Q feels more like a laptop (albeit a super-slim one) than a tablet, and you'd struggle to hold it in one hand for long, but it would be unfair to quibble about that, given what's packed into it. Its screen strut houses the Intel chip, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, along with USB 2, USB 3 and Micro HDMI ports, a microSD slot and a battery that lasts around nine hours.

As we went to press, Samsung was rumoured to be accepting pre-orders in Germany for €1,599 (£1,370), which seems pretty high. Sony's hybrid Vaio Duo 11 is £130 more expensive but contains an i7 chip for faster performance. The Ativ Q is an attractive machine and the dual OS is extremely convenient, but until prices fall, we're happy to use a PC and tablet in tandem.

TOSHIBA KIRA ULTRABOOK

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 03:13:00 +0000

TOSHIBA MAKES A LUXURIOUS STATEMENT
WITH ITS NEW KIRABOOK, BUT
IS LUXURY ENOUGH?

Toshiba, unlike LG, has never left the laptop market, and has been busy pushing Satellites, Qosmios, and Tecras at us for years. Its latest generation of machines includes all of those (and some all-in-ones), and a whole new product family, aimed at elegant and luxurious computing. If it feels like we're saying luxury a lot, blame the launch event, where the word was bandied about with gay abandon.

Nonetheless, Tosh does have a point. The KIRA is undoubtedly attractive, designed with subtle metallic tones, and with simple curves adding an understated grace to the product. It also sports the full Ultrabook spec, and a reasonably grunty Core i7 processor backed up by 8GB of RAM, and a relatively roomy 256GB SSD.

However, all that does come at a seriously luxurious price point. At $2199 - that's $800 more than the LG Z360 - you are getting more raw tech, and a screen with an amazing resolution for its size. 2560 x 1440 is nothing to sneeze at.

But why would we prefer the Z360 out of the pair? We like style as much as the next technophile, possibly even a little bit more, but at the end of the day we feel you're just not getting $800 worth of luxury. Despite having a higher core spec across the board, the difference in performance in our benchmarks was negligible, and while the KIRA has a tonne of resolution, the IPS display on the Z360 is simply better to look at.

Colours on the KIRA seem oddly muted, and the extra sharpness is simply wasted at this screen size. The larger storage is certainly welcome, and it feels very good to use day-to-day. The keyboard is well-made, the trackpad highly useable, and overall you are getting a high build quality. There's really nothing wrong with the KIRA, it's just that the high asking price makes it compare poorly.

Combined with how much noise the KIRA makes in operation - the whine from the Ultrabook's fans nearly drove our designer to distraction - itbecomes a hard unit to recommend.Save the money, and go with the Z360.Or ditch the constraining Ultrabook spec altogether, and go with Venom's excellent Haswell machine.

Ten Things You Might Not Know About

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 02:00:00 +0000

Bill Gates, Co-founder and Chairman, Microsoft

1-The world may know him as Bill Gates but
his full name is William Henry Gates III.

2-Gates never completed his graduation from
college. Instead, he founded Microsoft with
his friend Paul Allen in 1975. He was just 20
years old when he founded Microsoft.

3-He is known to keep his word. In school he
bragged to his teachers that he would be a
millionaire by the time he was 30. He kept
his word, and in fact, was a billionaire by 31.

4-The first computer program that Gates
wrote was a tic-tac-toe game. The game
was played in a two player format where the
computer was the opponent.

5-Considered one of the wealthiest people
in the world, Bill Gates is believed to earn
nearly 250 US Dollars every second which is
about 20 million dollars a day and 7.2 billion
dollars a year. At that rate, he can pay off
the entire United States debt in less than 10
years.

6-His children often tease him by singing the
song ‘Billionaire’ by Bruno Mars and Travis
McCoy.

7-He has a Twitter account and is very active
on it. But is not very happy using Facebook
as the friend requests got out of hand.
However, Mark Zuckerberg and he are said
to get along well.

8-If Bill Gates was a country; he would be the
37th richest country on earth!

9-He enjoys playing tennis, golf and bridge in
his leisure time.

10-He is a history buff! In an interview, he
said that the first things he would save in a
fire are the documents he’s collected from
famous historical figures like Leonardo da
Vinci’s Codex Leicester notebook, which he
bought in 1994 for over $30 million.

BlackBerry Q5: A youthful new Blackberry

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 01:05:00 +0000

BlackBerry is trying hard to get back to where it once belonged in the smartphone market. And after its twin salvo of high-end devices - the Q10 and Z10 - earlier this year, there now comes the relatively moderately priced Q5. Like its predecessors, the Q5 will also be running on the new BlackBerry 10 operating system which is upgradable to 10.1. It comes with a 3.1-inch IPS LCD display of 720x720 pixels resolution.

And below this display is the now iconic BlackBerry QWERTY keypad.The smartphone is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual core processor and comes equipped with 2GB RAM and 8GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 32GB using the microSD card.The BlackBerry Q5 boasts of a 5.0-megapixel autofocus rear camera with LED flash and a 2.0-megapixel front facing camera.

The connectivity attributes of the device include 3G, EDGE, GPRS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC.Along with all this, it houses a powerful non-removable 2,180 mAh battery.All of which makes it a bit like a watered down version of the Q10, but still very potent indeed.The company has not yet disclosed the price of the device but it is expected to cost in the vicinity of Rs 25,000

Which cloud can you trust?

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Sun, 11 Aug 2013 03:00:00 +0000

Sydney recently played host to CEBIT - Australia's largest annual business technology conference. While each CEBIT has a large trade exhibition showcasing the upcoming technology, and provides delegates a chance to meet and play, there is also an extensive conference held throughout the three days. One of the conference streams this year was focused on the cloud and the issues companies are facing when utilising cloud computing technology.

Everyone seems to have their own definition of cloud computing; at its core, however, most people will agree that cloud computing provides IT flexibility through a series of automation and standardisation techniques of traditional IT services. This allows a faster time to market, lower cost of ownership and reduced operating cost. Cloud computing comes in a variety of flavours, from personal-use cloud services to Enterprise IT systems.

Cloud computing continues to expand as people are starting to realise the benefits. Recent IDC research shows that worldwide spending on cloud services will grow from current levels by almost threefold, reaching $44.2 billion by the end of 2013.
One of the benefits of the Cloud is the ability to achieve economies of scale, While for a large company this offers a chance to grow with less cost, for small to medium companies this provides an opportunity to play on the scale of a large company - so only paying for what they are using as a service rather than the hardware costs and everything else that comes along with maintaining the hardware, This means that they can have the most up to date technology and speeds without the capital overhead, which they may not be able to afford, As we become more and more dependent on technology to run not only our businesses but the world, there is an increased focus on Disaster Recovery.

Being part of a cloud environment may provide an extra level of redundancy, generally both inside the main data centre where the environment is hosted and within an extra DR site. This means that if something were to happen to part of the cloud, such as hardware failure, then the environment can move around with minimal impact to the business.

While cloud computing has many benefits, there are always two sides that need to be taken into consideration. The biggest risk and concern for using the cloud is around security. If the data is being stored in a shared environment, somewhere in the world, how safe is it? Caution should be taken as to what type of data we are willing to store in a shared environment. Having said that, most of the companies selling a cloud solution have the most up to date security measures in place, though this doesn't mean we should not be thinking before acting.

Another factor which needs to be considered is where your data/application/service is being physically kept and any additional legal requirements that may come with it. Many jurisdictions have strict, regulations on the transfer and storage of data, especially personal or private data. Within Australia this is an issue, as many providers will base their clouds overseas due to cost, If the data is stored offshore, how can you be sure that it is being protected in accordance with Australian standards and laws? Companies choosing to turn to a cloud solution need to ensure they have performed the correct research on the company they are using. New Zealand appears to be leading the way with this at the moment, in producing the "New Zealand Cloud Computing Code of Practice". This provides standards to help protect the reputation of those providing professional services within the cloud computing industry as well as helping to define what good practice should look like in New Zealand.

The future of cloud computing will focus more on providing customers with Applications as Services, which is noticeable now for SAP and Microsoft solutions. This will provide a platform for new applications to reach the market faster and increase capacity requirements based on demand in a fast and efficient way.
The federal government has just announced a National Strategy for Cloud Computing. The strategy outlines the government's vision for using cloud to enable innovation and productivity across the digital economy. The ACS believes that this will only help the ICT industry within Australia and allow us to continue to grow, Taking a leading role in developing protocols that will promote trust and transparency will only help drive the uptake of cloud among business and consumers.

The innovation and creativity that will be available to small to medium and not-for-profit companies via the cloud offerings is only going to benefit the world in the long term. I personally can't wait to see what will be achieved by utilising this!

SONY XPERIA TABLET Z

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Sun, 11 Aug 2013 02:00:00 +0000

A SUPER-THIN TABLET, BUT TOO EXPENSIVE

TO REPLACE THE NEXUS 10 IN OUR AFFECTIONS

Full-sized Android tablets Have Been thin on the ground of late, with manufacturers concentrating on shoving INSTEAD out cheap, compact tablets by the dozen.
As Such, the Sony Xperia Tablet Z is a breath of fresh air. It's the first we've Reviewed 10in Android tablet since the Nexus 10 - our current favorite Android tablet at this size - and it's a stunner.
The first time we picked it up, it Seemed impossibly thin and light.

Incredibly, it's thinner than an iPhone 5, and you'll barely notice icts 495g weight When It's in your bag. Its squared-off, angled edges and flat glass panels at the rear and front ooze class, and Like icts smaller companion, the Xperia Z smartphone, the tablet Z is water-and dust-resistant, sealed with flaps covering all ports icts.

In a spec-for-spec comparison, the Tablet Z Does not match up with the Nexus 10. Its 1920 x 1200 resolution is lower than the Nexus 10's 2560 x 1600, and while the Nexus runs the latest release of Android Jelly Bean at 4.2, the Tablet Z is stuck on 4.1.2. It aussi costs $ 70 more than the Nexus.

Otherwise, the Tablet Z HAS much the same feature set, with 16GB of storage and a microSD slot for expansion, 802.11abgn dual-band Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth. Its quad-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor Helped the Tablet Z accomplish achieve a strong Quadrant score of 7413, intended icts SunSpider result of 2074ms was much slower than the Nexus 10's.

In practice, the Tablet Z handled all the tasks we Abebooks web sites of it falling on testing, and played Demanding games: such as Real Racing 3 smoothly. Purpose Given the price premium over the Nexus 10, you're entitled to expect more. We'd Hoped to see better battery life and a more vivid screen, the goal Tablet Z disappointed on Both fronts, with a score of 9hrs 11mins in our video loop test, a maximum brightness of 370cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of 787: 1 - all short of the Nexus 10's results.

The Xperia Tablet Z Has an 8.1-megapixel camera at the rear That Produces reasonable snaps and 1080p video at 3Ofps. It highlights tend to blow out a little too Easily in bright light, and It Is not great in low light, it's fine goal for the occasional shot When the tablet is All You Have to hand.
Embedded in the top edge of the tablet is an infrared transmitter, Z Allowing the Tablet to be used as a universal remote control. We found setup a little hit and miss, we'd figured out goal ounce All which profile to use with our TV and set-top box, it worked perfectly. The remote control app can be used in full-screen mode, or you can bring up a pop-up control That sits on top of whichever Currently app is running, making channel-hopping a breeze.

Altho the Tablet Z Does not run the very latest release of Android, we Rather like what Sony HAS done icts with user interface overlay. The custom keyboard, All which Responds To Each keypress with a light tinkle, exhibits no lag. The pop-up quick apps panel Launched via a small icon in the soft button bar at the bottom of the screen, is Reviews another nice touch, as is the way the app drawer can be re-ordered to follow your own whim. You aussi Have the Ability to "throw" Currently playing video or music to DLNA-compliant devices from Sony's proprietary media software.

Is all this enough to make up for the high price? Has to be the answer no. We enjoyed using the Sony Xperia Tablet Z, aim it's 25% more expensive than the Nexus 10, and while It boasts a more elegant design and Tougher construction, it fails to compete with That device's screen or its battery life. In short, the Tablet Z is not good enough to justify the extra cost.

Use your Mac more effectively with 10 top tips

noreply@blogger.com (Lotfi Tounsi) — Sun, 11 Aug 2013 01:00:00 +0000

Owning and using a Mac is, perhaps, one of the most gratifying experiences for any lover of technology. For every function there is an intuitive command, often accompanied by ergonomical shortcuts, and a level of control and detail that makes any task a breeze. The OS is notoriously sleek and Apple are always tinkering with it to make things just that little bit easier for you, so it was no surprise that when Lion was released it came loaded with cool features and new shortcuts. Here, we take you through our top ten tips to help you along.

Text-to-speech

Lion comes with some allnew, high quality voices for text-to-speech.

Macs have long been able to convert text to speech, but Lion ships with a series of new, high-quality voices your computer can use to read text to you.Each new voice is between 300Mb and 1Gb in size, and indicated by a yellow triangle symbol. These are downloaded the rst time you choose them, so check the boxes of the voices you want in System Preferences > Speech, and get your Mac talking back!

Spotlight

Spotlight is a little-used, but powerful search engine on your desktop.

Spotlight is one of the most powerful features you’ll nd in Mac OS X, having recently been improved. Use Spotlight to search for items, do a quick sum, or launch your apps. The default shortcutkey to invoke Spotlight is Cmd+Space, this will automatically focus your cursor on the search box (you can also click on the little magnifying glass at the top right of your screen). You can type the name of an app to quickly locate and launch it, a word to see de nitions, or even do simple sums (try 12,345 + 67,890 to see the answer 80,235 right beneath the search box).

Sign your documents using Preview

Sign documents without having to print, scrawl and scan them.

Write your signature on a piece of paper, making sure you use black ink. In preview, open a PDF document you’d like to sign and choose Create Signature from FaceTime Camera from the S icon on the toolbar. Hold up your piece of paper in front of your camera, and Preview will grab it, process it, and insert it into your document!

Versions

The all-new Versions function in OS X Lion lets you see the history of your documents.

Ever found yourself wanting to return to a document as it was four hours ago, before you made an edit? If you’ve saved your file, up until now this might have been impossible, but with the Versions function, in Lion it’s simple. Click on the document name in the window header, and choose ’Browse Versions’ to enter a Time Machine-like interface that lets you preview the document plotted over time. You can copy and paste from previous versions to the current document, or revert to an earlier version as suits.

Quickly look up any word in the dictionary

Lion has a gesture that will look up any word you choose in a pop-up dictionary.

One of the nicest features in Lion for wordsmiths is the addition of a dedicated gesture to look up words in the system dictionary. The good news is that you don’t have to launch the dictionary app to get access to de nitions – simply double-tap with three ngers on a word, and the de nition pops right up!

Use natural language to create iCal events

iCal understands what you mean by “Tomorrow at 7pm” .

You can create a new event inside iCal by using natural language rather than having to input according to strict rules. Open up iCal, and click on the ’+’ button near the top-left of the app window. Type in ’Swimming at 3pm on Tuesday’, and iCal will automatically interpret your input, creating an event to match!

Create folders

OS X Lion makes it quicker to organise your files.

If you’ve ever had to organise your desktop, reducing the clutter, you’ll appreciate this. Lion allows you to select a group of files and automatically create a folder to store them in. Simply highlight the files you wish to, er, le away, right-click, and choose ’New Folder’. Lion will grab the files, create a folder, and stick all the files inside, saving valuable seconds!

Jukebox screensaver

Your screensaver is a fully interactive jukebox connected to iTunes.

Set your screensaver to use ’iTunes Artwork’ through System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver, and you’ll be able to preview and play music by clicking on any album cover as it’s displayed on the screen. This is a great way to allow guests to play your music without letting them loose on your computer, and might also help you rediscover a forgotten album!

Automatically recover from system crashes

Your Mac is intelligent to know when it’s had a crash

There’s nothing more infuriating than experiencing a system freeze, but your Mac can help you overcome these by automatically restarting itself when this happens. To set this up, open the Energy Saver pane in System Preferences, and tick the ’Restart Automatically if the Computer Freezes’ checkbox.

Gestures

App Exposé is now easily accessed using a swipe of three fingers

If you run multiple windows from a single app, it can be a real nuisance trying to get to the window you need, especially if they’re overlapping each other. That’s why Apple created App Exposé, and in Lion you can access this function by simply swiping down your trackpad with three fingers – easy!