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News Hacking Update : Beware - Worldwide Ransomware Attack May Be Far From Over

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 May 2017 04:50:00 +0530

The massive ransomware attack that began last week and hit computers around the world should send a "wake-up call" to governments that have kept vulnerabilities secret to exploit them, Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith said yesterday in a blog post.

The WannaCry or WannaCrypt ransomware attack deployed a Windows exploit that the National Security Agency had used for its own purposes until it was leaked in April by the hacking group Shadow Brokers. By that time, Microsoft had discovered the bug on its own and issued a security update, but many users with older versions of Windows no longer receive such updates.

As a result, numerous organizations such as the U.K.'s National Health Service have found themselves unable to access vital data because their files were encrypted by the cyberattack, which demanded ransom payments in the Bitcoin digital currency to unlock information.

More than 200,000 victims in at least 150 countries have been hit so far by the ransomware, which has netted the party responsible at least $49,000 in Bitcoin payments, according to recent news reports. Some of the victims have reportedly regained access to their files after paying, although security experts advise against complying with ransom demands.

'Consider the Damage'

Calling for a "Digital Geneva Convention," Microsoft's Smith said the widespread damage caused by the ransomware shows that governments need to treat cyber weapons the same way they treat conventional weapons.

"The governments of the world should treat this attack as a wake-up call," Smith said. "They need to take a different approach and adhere in cyberspace to the same rules applied to weapons in the physical world. We need governments to consider the damage to civilians that comes from hoarding these vulnerabilities and the use of these exploits."

Former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden echoed that criticism on Twitter. ".@NSAGov's choices risked permitting low-skill criminals launch government-scale attacks, and then it happened," Snowden tweeted on Saturday. "There's no waving that away."

"The massive malware attack that hit multiple countries has caused chaos and has shut down vital institutions such as hospitals," U.S. Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) said Friday in a statement. "It is deeply disturbing the National Security Agency likely wrote the original malware."

Lieu, who noted on his Web site that he is "one of only four computer science majors serving in Congress," supports changing the vulnerabilities equities process (VEP) to ensure greater transparency in how the federal government notifies software companies about bugs it identifies. The VEP was established to determine whether the government should withhold or disclose information about computer software security vulnerabilities.

Cybersecurity 'A Shared Responsibility'

A U.K.-based security researcher who goes by the name MalwareTech put a stop to the spread of WannaCry on Friday by registering a domain name he discovered in the ransomware's code. Activating the domain worked as a kill switch for the malware.

As MalwareTech noted in a blog post afterward, the ransomware was written to connect to an unregistered domain and "if the connection is not successful it ransoms the system, if it is successful the malware exits."

Because it's possible for the perpetrators to alter the code to use a different domain, MalwareTech and others warned the ransomware could continue spreading. However, as of this morning, there haven't been any signs of widespread renewed activity.

Europol's European Cybercrime Centre said that anyone hit by ransomware should use the unlocking tools provided at NoMoreRansom.org, a free resource developed by Europol in partnership with the Dutch police and other industry partners.

Microsoft, which on Friday took the unusual step of issuing a custom security update for users whose systems no longer receive regular support, has urged users with older versions of Windows to patch the vulnerability as soon as possible.

"[T]his attack demonstrates the degree to which cybersecurity has become a shared responsibility between tech companies and customers," Smith said in his blog post. "The fact that so many computers remained vulnerable two months after the release of a patch illustrates this aspect. As cybercriminals become more sophisticated, there is simply no way for customers to protect themselves against threats unless they update their systems."

News Google I/O Update : Google I/O 2017 Is Coming: What To Expect From The Future Of Android And Chrome

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 May 2017 04:44:00 +0530

Google's annual I/O developer conference kicks off Wednesday, May 17 in California, and continues through the end of the week. We'll be on the ground at the show covering all the breaking news, but before then we're taking a closer look at what we can expect from this year's conference. more

Big products like Android and Chrome will likely get a bulk of the attention, and there will surely be at least a parting note about newer endeavours like virtual reality. So what are we most likely to see at the event? Here's a solid bet.

New details about Android O

It wouldn't be a proper Google I/O conference without an update on one of the company's most popular products, Android. The operating system is due for version 8.0 this year, and Google has already given us a peek of it with the developer preview that launched in March. We know the update will improve battery life on older devices; add picture-in-picture to Android TV products; and let users snooze notifications for 15 minutes, 30 minutes or 1 hour. We're hoping to learn even more about the update at the show.

Then there's the name. For now, the operating system has been unofficially dubbed Android O, following the company's alphabetical naming scheme. But Google has a history of paring the releases with a tasty dessert to make the name a little catchier. So what will the actual name be? Android Oreo? Mmm, Oreos...

A Google Home and Wi-Fi Router in One

Google debuted its artificially intelligent speaker at Google I/O last year, and rumours indicate that we could be seeing an updated version this year. As we said in our official review, Google Home was better at understanding voice requests than the Amazon Echo, but fell short of our expectations because it couldn't do enough.

We suspect that Google will be adding considerably more skills to the speaker this year, including the ability to make phone calls, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. Another rumour we've seen floating around is that Google could debut a new version of the smart speaker that doubles as a mesh Wi-Fi router, according to a CNBC report. The device is rumoured to work exactly like Google Wifi from last year's conference, only this time it would double as a smart speaker.

Chrome gets a major update

A couple of years ago, Chrome was just a tiny blip in the Google universe. Now, it's one of the company's most popular products, and that is in some part due to the increasing popularity of Google Chromebooks.

This year's conference will most likely feature some news about Chrome OS and its ability to run an increasing number of Android apps, at least based on speculation. The expectation for a couple of years now has been that Google will combine Android and Chrome into one operating system unofficially referred to as "Andromeda". One of the key pieces to this is getting more Android apps to work on Chrome.

Nothing about the Pixel 2

Google launched the very first Pixel phone back in October, so it's unlikely that we'll see a new version at Google I/O this year. Google senior vice president of hardware Rick Osterloh has even said in an interview with Android Pit that there will be a second version of the search giant's phone later this year.

The phone "will stay premium" according to Osterloh's interview with Android Pit, and that lines up with other rumours about the device. The most exciting news is Google's recent investment in LG Display, which many believe is an indication the Pixel 2 will have a curved OLED screen. With all of this said, we probably won't learn anything else at the conference.

Google Assistant gets much smarter

Google launched a competitor to Apple's Siri last year called Assistant which we thought was a little too dull to be a truly useful digital assistant at the time. That should change quickly because in April, Google launched a developer preview of Google Assistant SDK, which lets developers build new skills for the platform.

Updates on virtual reality

Google launched its new Daydream VR headset one year ago at Google I/O, so it's unlikely that we'll see any new hardware. Still, it's clear that Google is deeply interested in virtual reality. Since Google Cardboard debuted at the 2014 conference, it's become somewhat customary for Google to update us on where it thinks the future of virtual reality is going.

The company will also likely talk about less exciting products like Hangouts, which recently became an enterprise product. There could also be updates for more consumer-focused Duo and Allo messaging apps, especially since Google just announced it can make custom emojis based on your selfies.

Then there are projects we most certainly won't hear anything exciting about. For example, Android Wear 2 launched at last year's event and is still working its way onto older devices, so we don't expect to hear much news on that front. Also the Chromecast Ultra launched in October, so it's unlikely we'll get any new streaming devices.

We'll be on the ground at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Google's hometown of Mountain View, California on May 17 (May 18 in Australia).

News OnePlus New Handset Update : OnePlus 5 Image Leak Tips Dual Rear Camera Setup, 8GB RAM, 4000mAh Battery

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 May 2017 04:33:00 +0530

OnePlus 5 is scheduled to launch this Summer but leaks regarding the smartphone have been popping up online with increasing frequency for quite some time now. Now, fresh renders of the phone have surfaced the Internet and suggest that the dual camera setup at the back might feature a different design than suggested earlier.

As per the leaked renders, posted on Chinese microblogging website Weibo (first spotted by TheAndroidSoul), the phone does seem to sport a vertical dual camera setup as suggested earlier but the design appears to be slightly more refined than earlier leaks. The design on the smartphone, from the back side, seems to be somewhat similar to its predecessor OnePlus 3T but as we still have no leaks about what the front looks like.

Interestingly, the new leak also reaffirms some of the specifications that were earlier suggested for the smartphone. This includes presence of Snapdragon 835 SoC, an impressive 8GB of RAM (quite a few reports continue to point to 6GB RAM), and a humongous 4000mAh battery.

Recently, the smartphone's benchmark performance made its way to the Internet and if the leaked GeekBench scores are to be believed, the upcoming flagship from OnePlus outperforms two other smartphones that also feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC. In terms of multi-core performance, OnePlus 5 was able to outperform Samsung's Galaxy S8 and Sony's Xperia XZ Premium.

News Prevention From Hacking : How To Protect Yourself From The Global Ransomware Attack

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 May 2017 04:25:00 +0530

Security experts are bracing for more fallout from Friday's worldwide WannaCry ransomware attack, which has so far affected more than 150 countries and major businesses and organizations, including FedEx, Renault and Britain's National Health Service. But if you're just hearing about this attack - or waking up to an unresponsive computer of your own - here's what you need to understand about what law enforcement officials have called the biggest such attack in history.

-- What's ransomware?

Ransomware is a kind of malicious software that, as its name implies, takes a computer hostage and holds it for ransom. In this case, the attackers are asking for at least $300 in bitcoins for each computer affected by the attack.

With ransomware attacks, the malware locks down a target machine, encrypting its data and preventing the owner from accessing it until he or she agrees to pay up.

-- How many people have been affected by the current strain, WannaCry?

Over the weekend, Europol officials said that some 200,000 computers have been hit by the malware. But that number has almost certainly risen as people in Asia - who had logged off for the workweek before WannaCry began spreading - have returned to work. On Monday, the Japanese electronics maker Hitachi, a prominent Korean theater chain and the Chinese government said their systems had been affected. Chinese state media reported that 40,000 businesses and institutions have been hit, according to NPR, including universities, gas stations and city services.

And that's just a measure of the electronic consequences of WannaCry. The software attack has taken a toll on many people in the real world. Health care providers in Britain's NHS, for example, were forced to turn ambulances away and cancel or delay cancer treatments for patients over the weekend, though officials say 80 percent of the NHS's systems were unaffected and that the disruption is easing.

-- Are victims paying the ransom?

Some are. The news site Quartz has set up a Twitter bot to track the bitcoin wallets linked to the attack, which are growing fatter by the minute.

actual ransom tweeted: The three bitcoin wallets tied to #WannaCry ransomware have received 194 payments totaling 31.38971127 BTC ($53,453.58 USD).

-- Businesses and organizations seem to have been hit pretty hard, particularly overseas. Why?

It's largely a question of resources and attention. Security experts say the attack could have been prevented if many businesses had simply kept their machines up to date with the latest software. In reality, doing that may be more difficult than it sounds, either because of corporate cultures that don't prioritize security or because of a lack of funding to upgrade to the latest and greatest.

That raises questions about inequality in technology, said Stewart Baker, a former general counsel at the National Security Agency. Many people, he said, run pirated versions of Microsoft operating systems because they feel they cannot afford the real thing. Those people "are at risk - they're probably not getting updates," he said.

Other organizations, he said, may have stuck with legacy software because it worked and paying to upgrade to new versions of Windows didn't seem necessary.

But after the highly public spread of WannaCry, companies around the globe no longer have an excuse to forgo system updates, said one former Obama administration official.

"It's no longer a cost of doing business," said R. David Edelman, who advised President Barack Obama on technology. "It's going to be a cost of staying in business."

-- I've been hit by WannaCry. Should I pay?

Some of those who have paid the WannaCry ransom have regained control of their computers, security researchers say. Still, many are urging consumers not to pay the ransom if they can avoid it because giving in simply encourages attackers to pump out more ransomware, and victims may not get their data back even if they do pay.

Analysts have noticed an uptick of ransomware attacks in recent years, with most predicting an even bigger increase in 2017.

-- What if I don't have the luxury of fighting the ransomware?

The bad news is, you might be stuck with paying or wiping your machine and starting over from a clean install. But the next best thing you can do is help reduce the odds of being hit next time. We'll get to some tips in a minute.

-- Who's being targeted? Am I safe?

The WannaCry ransomware targets Windows computers, particularly those running Windows XP, an aging operating system that Microsoft largely stopped supporting in 2014. If you're running the most recent version of Windows, or XP with the appropriate security patches, you should be okay (though you should really stop using XP right away).

-- What about Apple and Android devices?

Apple computers appear not to be affected by WannaCry, but that does not mean that Macs or iPhones are immune to malware in general. As Apple has gained more marketshare, its products have become a much bigger target for attackers. And Android phones are notoriously susceptible to malware, in part because many Android phones run outdated versions of the system and it's incumbent on cellphone carriers to push updates. If you prefer using Android, consider switching to one of Google's proprietary handsets, such as the Pixel, which tend to receive Google's software patches as soon as they're released.

-- Who's behind the WannaCry attack?

It's unclear who the attackers are, but we do somewhat know about the origins of the ransomware. The vulnerability in Windows that WannaCry takes advantage of was discovered by the NSA for its surveillance toolkit. But word got out when a hacker group known as the Shadow Brokers dumped a bunch of leaked NSA information onto the Internet in April. Microsoft, however, had already issued a software update the month before; those that downloaded and installed the patch were protected from WannaCry, but many others lagged behind and became victims.

Microsoft is now warning that the government practice of "stockpiling" software vulnerabilities so that they can be used as weapons is a misguided tactic that weakens security for everybody.

"An equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would be the U.S. military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen," the company said Sunday.

-- How can I protect myself?

Bottom line: Make sure your device's software is up to date. Software updates often contain lots of patches that fix bugs and close security loopholes; regularly using Windows Update or the Software Update feature on a Mac will help insulate you from problems. But you can also set your devices to install those updates automatically so you don't even have to think about it. Hackers prey on complacency.

In addition, you can:

Create backups of your most important files, either by downloading them to an external hard drive or by storing them in a cloud-based storage service.

Use a password manager to create and keep track of unique, hard-to-remember (and thus hard-to-break) passwords for each of your services. It's a little counterintuitive, but experts say it's much more secure than the alternative, which is reusing the same password across multiple websites.

Check your medical and credit reports for evidence of fraudulent activity.

At work, check with your IT administrator to make sure your organization's devices are protected from WannaCry.

Remember to treat unexpected emails with caution, and read up on phishing - one of the most common types of social engineering attacks used by attackers to compromise machines.

"Ransomware is following the same trajectory as phishing," said Phillip Hallam-Baker, an expert at the digital security firm Comodo. "The criminals have worked out how to monetize the crime, and they know which types of businesses are likely to pay up - and how to collect the money without being caught."

Latest Gaming News Update : 13 Best PC Gaming Headsets 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 09:27:00 +0530

Updated: We've added a triple whammy of gaming headsets! Check out the Sennheiser PC373D in at #2, Turtle Beach 350 Stealth VR in at #4 and Sennheiser GSP 350 in at #8. If you're looking for a more affordable surround sound option, Logitech's G430, in at number #14, might be just what you're looking for.

No PC gamer worth their kill/death ratio would skimp on a decent headset. Arguably more important than a mechanical gaming keyboard or mouse, a worthy pair of cans make the difference between guessing where enemies are and hunting them down like a sonically-enhanced ninja.

Pick the right pair and you'll hear the sound of bullets envelop your ears while explosions rock your eardrums, and dialogue in games takes on a new level of clarity.

Whether you need a USB or 3.5mm headset, a surround sound or stereo pair, or simply one to communicate with friends online, we've picked out the very best PC gaming headsets for your needs.

Sometimes you're prepared to pay a premium for a PC gaming accessory that does the lot, and in the headset category that's the Siberia 840. Following on from the already impressive Siberia 800 (and the H Wireless before that from 2014), the upgraded Sibera 840 now works with Bluetooth and is lag-free within games. It also supports SteelSeries Engine 3 - a gorgeous and user-friendly app that lets you manage and tweak every element of the Siberia 840 - from profiles to equalizer settings and what to show on the OLED display on the side of the accompanying base unit.

All of that is, of course, secondary to the Siberia 840's sound qualities which are nothing less than sublime. Activating Dolby 7.1 surround sound is like dropping you into the game. Enemies' footsteps can be picked out across a room including behind you, leading to some heart-in-mouth moments in shooters like DOOM.

Expectations around any Sennheiser gaming headset are already high considering the brand's expertise in audio equipment. The company's flagship PC 373D doesn't disappoint thanks to its high-end Dolby 7.1 Surround sound that lets you pick out enemies from afar. We went for hours with minimal discomfort wearing the headset, which keeps your head cool using breathable plush velvet ear pads that offer surprisingly decent sound isolation. Our in-game team-mates had no trouble hearing us speak thanks to the noise cancelling microphone, which is decked in a red material that matches the inside of the ear-cup. The PC 373D's design is refreshingly demure, decked in matte black material and free of the ostentatious "gamer" features often found on other headsets. While it may not feature wireless connectivity, a combination of supreme comfort, flawless sound quality and a stellar retractable microphone add up to make one of the best premium gaming headsets on the market.

If you're more interested in the sounds coming out of your gaming headset, rather than glowing LEDs, macro keys and other nonessential extras, then the V-MODA Crossfade Wireless is the headset for you. These stylish cans are a treat for the ears, emitting booming sound that's bass-heavy with fantastically crisp treble at the other end. Whether you're being rocked by explosions in Battlefield or can hear the roar of the crowd in Fifa, they bring games to life and are equally suited to listening to music; You'll be able to pick out parts of your favorite tracks that you never previously thought existed.

Stepping out of the soundscape for a moment, the V-MODA Crossfade Wireless feature comfortable memory foam ear cups that don't irritate the ears even after hours of use, and you'll get around 12 hours out of its battery life when connected via Bluetooth. This headset's rugged build quality, funky travel case and optional USB connectivity add up to make it one of the best headsets on the market.

With VR headsets like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift making their way into PC gamers' rooms, specially-designed audio headsets for virtual reality were bound to follow. The Turtle Beach 350 Stealth VR is one of the most flexible out there, featuring a generous amount of adjustability thanks to its sturdy headband which can fit over the top of VR headsets worn on even the biggest heads. Sure enough, the 350 Stealth is designed for practicality rather than sharp looks. Its black-and-white color scheme isn't the most exciting design out there, but an abundance of features makes up for that. There's mic monitoring, which allows you to hear your own voice inside the headset, bass boost for booming lows, a detachable noise-cancelling headphone mic, and a groove in the ear cups that lets you tuck the audio cable out of the way. While it's perfectly suitable for owners of PC-based VR headsets, it's quite literally a great fit for PSVR gamers too.

Unlike some of its competitors, SteelSeries stresses subtlety in its headset designs. The Arctis continues this trend by flaunting sound quality and comfort over gaudy appearances.

When you pop an Arctis on your head, the goal is for your audience to see a professional environment rather than, say, a Dorito stain on your chair. The customizable lighting, however, gives you plenty of wiggle room, though, if the monochrome look isn't your thing.

The SteelSeries Arctis comes in three distinct flavors: Arctis 3, Arctis 5 and Arctis 7, each one more expensive than the last. The Arctis 3 is pretty analog protocol while the 5 ships with an external digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and the Arctis 7 is wireless with 2.4GHz connectivity. Each model comes with digital audio control built-in, with an app available for those looking to take this one step further.

The only drawback, then, is a less-than-attractive suspension headband.

Quick and easy to setup using an inconspicuous wireless USB receiver that stores inside the headset for transportation, the Razer ManO'War is a user-friendly unit that's primed for surround-sound gaming. Sure, it's a little chunkier than most other headsets, but two soft leatherette ear cups make it comfortable to wear for extended periods. They're easy on the eye too thanks to customizable Chroma RGB backlighting configured through Razer's Synapse software.

Though delivered through software, the ManO'War's 7.1 channel virtual surround sound does a fine job of ramping up immersion in-game. Doom's Imps are no longer somewhere around you – they're breathing down your neck. The ManO'War's range can reach up to 14 meters using the supplied USB extender, and its battery life is capable of stretching to just as many hours.

Arguably one of the most affordable gaming headsets available today, the HyperX Cloud Stinger is designed to give players eSports quality audio at a bargain. While there isn't much to write home about with the red on black plastic design of the headset, the stereo sound is superb. It also feels comfortable to wear for extended play sessions thanks to a set of memory foam earcups. Although this isn't the ultimate gaming headset, it's a great starting point if you're trying to game on a budget.

More affordable than Sennheiser's flagship PC 373D while still packing an audible punch, the GSP 350 carries over that headset's stellar 7.1 Dolby Surround Sound and closed ear-cup design. It's equally a suitable for marathon gaming sessions thanks to its huge comfortable ear cups, with the right cup once again featuring a volume dial. The headset uses a closed-back design with an adjustable split headband, rather than the PC 373D's more solid and thicker continuous band. The GSP 350's noise-cancelling microphone is equally as good and once again mutes when lifted up while blocking out breathing sounds, much to the relief of your in-game team-mates. If you like the look of Sennheiser's flagship gaming headset but can't quite stomach its price tag, this one is a little lighter and slightly less solid, but still superior to many of its rivals.

Logitech's flagship gaming headset packs in plenty of bells and whistles, the most useful being its cup-mounted G-keys that provide handy shortcuts to performing actions in-game. In terms of design, The G933 is certainly one of the snazziest headsets around and oozes gamer appeal, and if you're fed up of round ear-cups on headsets then you'll appreciate its large and comfortable ear-shaped ones. Logitech has ran a multi-colored lighting strip all the way down the cup, rather than placing a flashing logo on the side, which in our eyes is more appealing than the small glowing areas on Corsair's and Razer's flagship headsets. On the negative side, this cuts down battery life to around 10 hours. Turning off the flashing goodness will help you eke out a few more,

If you're looking for a pair of 7.1 surround sound cans with RGB lighting that won't break the bank, Corsair's latest entry should be high up your list. Its excellent 40-meter wireless range means you can go for a wander without your team-mates' chatter cutting off, and the Void is capable of emitting fist-pumping bass that's powerful without muddying the mix. You can configure its lighting colors using Corsair's intuitive software and even make it dance in tandem with the company's K65 or K70 mechanical keyboards. Unfortunately, there isn't any way for adjusting the fold-down mic so its clarity often suffers, but it doesn't put us off what is a solid and affordable option for surround sound gaming.

Here we have a no-frills headset that offers build quality that comes close to pairs that cost almost twice the price. You may have already come across Kingston's HyperX Cloud Revolver headset. Used by a number of eSports teams, its large interchangeable over-the-ear memory foam cups help block out unwanted noise, and the retractable mic allows clear and distortion-free communication with team-mates.

Despite its affordable nature, the Cloud Revolver is ready to rock. Its 53mm drivers have been tweaked to blast out punchy mid-range tones and pounding bass that's best described as in-your-face. Subtle they ain't. There's no surround sound support or RGB lighting to be found here, and you'll have to reach for the Cloud Revolver's braided cable to get to its in-line volume and mic controls. If those factors don't bother you then this value-focused headset comes highly recommended.

Looking like something straight out of Quake 2, Asus' Strix 7.1 wireless gaming headset immediately caught our eye thanks to its large black-and-orange ear cups that are decked in a circular pattern resembling an owl's eye. Those oversized ear cups makes them comfortable to wear for extended periods but there's no RGB lighting on them, which on the plus side provides up to 10 hours of continuous gameplay using 2.4GHz wireless to connect.

Asus claims that it provides lower latency than Bluetooth, and while it's difficult to verify that, bullets whizzing past our head in-game synched up pretty well thanks to virtual 7.1 surround sound being blasted into our ears from all directions. Asus' Sonic Studio software provides an easy method of tweaking sound settings, and we found cranking up the (already sufficient) bass in the app's equalizer particularly satisfying for both gaming and listening to music.

Aimed at PC and console gamers, using Turtle Beach's Elite Pro feels like sitting down at a command station and gearing up for war. This headset oozes gaming appeal, right down to the subtle orange ruler-type markings on the headset's automatically adjusting headband. It's a funky piece of kit that's reassuringly chunky while remaining supremely comfortable at all times thanks to its gel-infused Aerofit ear cushions. Most importantly, they sound great in the heat of battle. That's down to Turtle Beach's 50mm NanoClear drivers, which do an especially great job of bringing you into the heart of the action in shooters.

If you're particularly hardcore, you might want to shell out for the Tactical Audio Controller. At $199 (around £149) it's not cheap, but it grants an intuitive and fun of adjusting settings such as the game/chat mix, your own microphone level, in-game sounds, and there's also a mute button to cut game sound out completely. It also lets you chop and change between four surround modes (Game, Music, Movie and off), which is a lot easier than fiddling around with controls on the headset itself.

Featuring an eye-catching black-and-blue color scheme, Logitech's G430 is one of the more affordable surround-sound headsets out there. Featuring both Dolby 7.1 and FTS HeadphoneX surround sound, they allow you to detect enemies before they clock you.

They can be worn for hours thanks to their sports-like cloth on the ear cups, which pivot and rotate flat to a 90-degree angle for easier transportation. There's also a noise-cancelling mic that helps to cut out background noise, and you can easily mute yourself using audio controls located on the 2.3-meter cable.

Latest Car News Update : Audi R8 V10 Spyder: A Supercar That Anyone Can Drive

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 22:06:00 +0530

Audi is a car brand that's seen quite a transformation over the last decade or so, shedding its slightly stuffy image of a car maker that builds solid saloons and estates in favor of a more desirable one thanks to a raft of new model lines.

The original TT played a big part in this, while the likes of the first RS6 estates, with their dirty great V8s shoehorned under the bonnet, were pretty much the quickest way to transport a family of four and their dog over long distances.

Then there's Audi's success at Le Mans, winning five times with the LMP R8 before ripping up the rule book and entering the diesel-powered R10 TDi, which won the endurance event in its first year in 2006.

That same year Audi took the wraps off its most ambitious road car yet, borrowing the name from its race-winning cousin to boot: the R8 supercar.

Cementing Audi's status as a premium car brand, the R8 represented the pinnacle of the company's engineering prowess, and now, 10 years on we have the second-generation model - it'll be coming to the US in Spring 2017.

But with the supercar landscape changing dramatically as hybrid technology is embraced, is there still a place for the likes of the £129,990 R8 V10 Spyder?

Highlights:

The star of the Spyder show is its hand-built, naturally aspirated 533bhp 5.2-litre V10 engine. This stunning piece of engineering shuns turbos and hybrid technology to propel you from a standing start to 62mph in 3.6 secs, and will push onwards to a top speed of 198mph.

Audi has employed the classic supercar trick of positioning the engine in the middle; as a result weight distribution has a slight bias towards the rear axle, which when coupled up with the R8's Quattro all-wheel drive technology, should produce stunning traction and grip.

While those investing in a V10 supercar might not have fuel economy at the forefront of their minds, the engine features Audi's advanced Cylinder-on-demand technology. This sees the engine management system shut down five of the 10 cylinders when you're trundling along in traffic (or posing along the streets of Knightsbridge or Monaco) to improve fuel consumption, but within milliseconds of you hitting the throttle, all 10 cylinders will burst into life to give you the full force of that glorious engine.

While supercars of old had heavy manual gearboxes with just as heavy clutch pedals, not so the Spyder. With its seven-speed dual-clutch S tronic gearbox it's simply a case of pressing the throttle pedal and the gearbox will do the rest, while for those times when you want to move things along a bit faster you can pull up the right paddle behind the steering wheel to shift up through the gears.

Styling:

Compared to the original R8 Spyder, the design has been sharpened up quite a bit, and it's all the better for it. While it may not have quite the same in-your-face styling as some of its rivals, the Spyder's understated and purposeful looks - enhanced by the addition of distinctive sideblades, which shove air into the engine, and make the car's midriff a little wider - give it a certain presence and drama, whether it's parked up or going full pelt.

Going topless:

For purists, a cabriolet is always going to be seen as a compromise over a coupe equivalent - rigidity and stiffness are compromised by lopping the roof off, while the roof mechanism and extra engineering required to add the torsional strength lost by the roof all adds weight. But that's to ignore the sheer thrill of having the roof down, and the howl of the V10 ricocheting off the surrounding buildings and straight back into the cockpit.

Audi's done a stunning job here. The mix of carbon and aluminium makes the Spyder some 55% more rigid than the previous model, as well as being some 25kg lighter. Compared to its hardtop counterpart it's only 125kg heavier, which may seem a lot, but it's impressive given the level of engineering required.

The folding roof mechanism is a masterwork of mechanical dance, taking just 20 seconds from a single press of a button to reveal the sky, while if the urge to drop the roof is so great that you don't want to stop (or, less thrilling, if it starts to rain), this can be done on the move at speeds of up to 31mph.

Cockpit:

While it might not offer quite the same sense of occasion as slipping behind the wheel of a Lamborghini or Ferrari, the R8 Spyder's cockpit is still a very nice place to be, with lots of leather and carbon to deliver a very premium, high-end feel.

The R8 Spyder uses what's been termed Audi Virtual Cockpit, shunning traditional dials for a customisable digital display. Rather than having a multimedia interface (MMI) in the central console and the instrument panel up front, the two are combined into one high-resolution display, with the choice of three views: classic, infotainment and sport.

Google Maps is built in for navigation, while it's easy to partner your smartphone with the Spyder - provided you tick the Audi Smartphone Interface optional extra that is. This enables you to share mobile phone content via USB and display it on the MMI, either via Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. Another optional extra is the Audi Phone Box, which allows wireless charging simply by placing your phone on the storage compartment, as well as creating a wireless connection via the car's aerial.

Sound system:

If you ever tire of the stunning soundtrack of the R8's V10 engine, then you're in for a treat with the Bang & Olufsen Advanced Sound System. It's an optional extra that will set you back another £1,750, but you get yourself a 16-channel amplifier with 13 speakers dotted round the cockpit (including two in each seat headrest and a subwoofer in the passenger footwell) that will kick out 550 watts.

The sound quality is stunning - whether you've got the roof up or down, the clarity and depth are mightily impressive.

How it drives:

You'd think a £130,000+ V10 supercar would be intimidating to drive, but that's not the case at all. With the roof up, the gearbox set to full auto and the Drive mode dialled into Normal or Comfort, you've got an incredibly comfortable and cocooned cruiser that will happily demolish those motorway miles, or be quite at home just pootling around town. Find a twisty A-road, drop the roof and change the engine mode to Individual or Dynamic, and the Spyder's Le Mans-winning DNA shines through.

Put your foot down and the Spyder surges forward, with the engine note changing from a deep rumble to a loud howl as it nears its redline. Flick the right paddle behind the steering wheel and the change is seamless, while the snarling crackle that greets this change of gear is incredibly addictive.

This level of performance should be terrifying, but the grip is staggering - the all-wheel Quattro technology that saw Audi dominate the World Rally Championships in the 1980s inspires so much confidence as you travel through a bend that you'd have to do something pretty dramatic to unsettle it.

With all this power you'd naturally want to be able to stop pretty sharpish, and the optional-extra ceramic brakes that our car had deliver incredible stopping power. They can be a bit snappy to start with, but once you've generated a decent amount of heat their stopping power is immense.

Verdict:

The Audi R8 V10 Spyder is an engineering masterpiece. Unlike some supercars that can be hard to live with on a daily basis, the Spyder is a true supercar that you can enjoy every day. It's comfy and quiet when you need it to be, but a flick of the switch will see it transform into a true howling and cackling supercar that will punch you in the back as you climb through the gears at a staggering rate.

The coupe may be lighter and just a bit quicker, but you'll soon forget about that with the roof down and the sound of that glorious V10, just a couple of feet away, screaming through the rev range. The R8 V10 Spyder really does take your breath away.

Latest Car News Update : See The World As A Self-Driving Car Does In Tesla's Latest Video

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 21:51:00 +0530

If you're not already wowed by some of the work going on in self-driving car technology then Tesla's latest video might take your appreciation levels up a notch - it shows a split screen view of what one of these autonomous vehicles 'sees' during a journey.

That includes lane lines, the flow of the road, road signs and streetlights, as well as the in-path objects that need to be avoided. It's an enlightening look at just how complex these systems are and how far they've come in recent years.

The latest clip was shared by Tesla chief Elon Musk on Twitter and follows another similar clip released last month - obviously the company is keen to get as many people comfortable with the idea of self-driving vehicles as it can.

Tesla has already said that from this point on all of its cars will be fitted with the hardware and technology required to make them fully autonomous, but it can't be switched on until all the relevant safety checks have been carried out and it becomes officially legal to take an autonomous car out on the road.

The testing that the likes of Tesla and Google are doing at the moment is covered by special licences and it's going to be a few years yet before governments are going to give the legal all-clear.

These cars also need to be tested out in more extreme conditions and on more demanding routes around the world - tootling through the wide streets of California in the sunshine is all well and good, but until self-driving motors can also get across the Pennines in the snow they'll remain in beta testing.

News Technology Threat Update : Dangerous Backdoor Found In About 3 Million Android Smartphones, BLU Affected The Most

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 21:43:00 +0530

Just a few days ago, a backdoor was discovered in various Android smartphones that was being used to send call logs and text message archives to servers hosted in China. Now, an even more dangerous rootkit has been discovered, with devices from US-based smartphone brand, BLU, being found to be among the most affected.

Security research firm, BitSight has released an advisory about a rootkit found in the Ragentek firmware used in certain Android smartphones, mostly manufactured by Chinese OEMs. The firm carried out extensive tests using a BLU Studio G smartphone, which involved installing a tracking file using the exploit. Since the firmware allows installation of apps with elevated privileges, a compromised device can be used to do a lot of harm.

By monitoring the data transmitted to a couple of domains, BitSight identified nearly 55 smartphone models, which feature the backdoor. Many more devices with unknown identifiers were also discovered. US-based brand, BLU, is the worst-affected with about 26 percent of its smartphones found with this backdoor. The other brands include Chinese vendors such as Doogee, Leagoo and Infinix. BLU is said to be addressing the issue, but no details of the process are available yet.

According to BitSight, requests to the remote servers were largely made from phones used in institutions such as banks, hospitals and governments, where these devices probably were deployed in bulk due to low prices. Network admins or enthusiasts can monitor their traffic for requests to the following URLs to find out whether they have any affected devices in their network:

oyag[.]lhzbdvm[.]com
oyag[.]prugskh[.]net
oyag[.]prugskh[.]com

The recent discoveries about backdoors in smartphones coming out of China will surely raise concerns in the global market, where many of these devices are being sold with local branding as in the case of BLU.

News Gaming Update : A Hidden Trailer In Watch Dogs 2 Proves To Be More Interesting Than Ubisoft’s Entire Catalogue

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Nov 2016 20:16:00 +0530

Watch Dogs 2, the game where you play Marcus Holloway, hacker extraordinaire, has revealed an a mission where you steal a game trailer for an in-game version of Ubisoft.

Ubisoft is the company that is developing Watch Dogs 2 in the first place, but that’s not the interesting part. The trailer, reproduced below, shows off a game that actually looks rather nice. It’s so good, in fact, that many are hoping that this is a teaser for a game that Ubisoft is already working on.

As you can see, the trailer features a game with a vivid colour palette and what looks like a reasonably fleshed out space game. If I’m honest, I’d go so far as to say that the trailer actually looks far more interesting to me than the bulk of Ubisoft’s games.

If Ubisoft is indeed developing the game, I’m in two minds about the outcome. On one hand, I’m excited, on the other hand, I’m terrified; this is Ubisoft we’re talking about after all. If nothing else, the company has a reputation for dumbing down games and it has no pedigree when it comes to multiplayer gaming.

Watch Dogs 2 will be available tonight for PS4 and Xbox One and on PC by 28 November. The PC version is obviously the cheaper one, but given how badly Ubisoft ported the last game, the console version may be the one you’d want to play.

New Technology Update : A Malicious WhatsApp Video Feature Invite Is Spreading Across The Messaging App

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Nov 2016 20:01:00 +0530

WhatsApp recently announced the launch of its video calling feature which has started to roll out for Android, iOS and Windows Phone users. While a number of messaging apps offer this feature, WhatsApp has been a little late, it does however have the biggest user base across the globe.

While the news is welcoming, many users are receiving as well as sharing an unverified link on WhatsApp which is said to be an invite to activate the video calling feature. An invite system was introduced last year on Whatsapp when the voice calling feature was rolled out. It seems that certain scammers are trying to take advantage of this as they have spread a similar looking fake link for the new video calling feature.

WhatsApp has not officially released any links this time to enable any feature, so in case you get any such links, do not visit any of the links. Visiting these links could be harmful and could expose your personal data.

According to a report, the link takes you to what seems to look like an authentic page where it asks you to send the malicious link to other people on your list. It also mentions the existence of group WhatsApp video calling, a feature that is still not officially available on the platform.

If you do happen to get an invite to activate the video calling feature on WhatsApp, do ignore it. To get the feature you just need to update the app to the latest version. In case you don’t see an update, wait for a couple of days as it is rolling out in phases.

New Tech Update : Facebook Fake News Row: Mark Zuckerberg Is A Politician Now

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Nov 2016 19:56:00 +0530

I’ve long suspected that Mark Zuckerberg, who often refers to himself as the “leader” of Facebook, has dreams of high office.

This week, a taster of what that might be like has been knocking at his door in the wake of the US election result.

While Donald Trump’s visit to the White House was an apparently sobering experience about the level of responsibility he’d soon inherit, Zuckerberg has had a brutal political awakening of his own.

Facebook’s “fake news” crisis has had the normally stoic 32-year-old visibly irritated, and that’s because for the first time he is being treated like a politician, rather than just a tech CEO.

With that comes distrust and anger, not to mention disloyalty in the Facebook ranks and what for him must be the growing realisation that it’s impossible to please everyone.

Whether Zuckerberg was right to say fake news had little impact is largely irrelevant. By dismissing it apparently without second thought as “crazy”, he attracted a global pitchfork of people demanding that he at the very least acknowledge the potential role his empire had in Donald Trump’s election win.

That interview, carried out by journalist David Kirkpatrick, also contained one other exchange which should give Zuckerberg some serious food for thought - and may even represent the biggest threat the network and its leader is yet to face.

Checks and balances

Kirkpatrick first laid out the context.

Facebook, he said, was the most influential commercial enterprise ever created, with unparalleled power that is yet to be fully understood.

Zuckerberg himself is a multi-billionaire in charge of a network that has intricate personal data on 1.8 billion people and counting.

“What are the checks and balances that need to exist for this new kind of entity?” asked Kirkpatrick.

“Do you think about that? At the moment it seems like you are the check and balance.”

Zuckerberg’s answer didn’t come close to addressing the question. He said it was about “listening to what people want”, and continuing to give people “the power to share” and to make “the world more open and connected”.

But is he confident the checks and balances are in place to stop Facebook over-stepping the mark?

“I mean… yeah,” he said, peering out into the audience for support.

Even though I was watching via a live stream, I could tell the room took an awkward turn. Kirkpatrick moved on - but the issue won’t.

The accountability gap
The exchange had touched upon a problem that surely deserves more attention.

There’s an urgent accountability gap between what technology companies do and what the public is allowed to know.

This isn’t about giving up trade secrets. You can inspect KFC’s kitchen without knowing the Colonel’s secret recipe.

It’s about being able to examine the reach and influence of technology companies, where supremely powerful men, and a few women, are able to control without any genuine scrutiny other than what appears every three months on a company earnings sheet (and even that’s unnecessarily cryptic).

Revealing moments like the one Kirkpatrick summoned from the usually robotic Zuckerberg are few and far between. The depressing accepted reality in technology journalism is that if you give a company a hard time, they’ll shut you out.

And that’s because many major technology companies guard their work with barbed wire, and wrap their executives in cotton wool.

Interactions between big tech and the outside world are orchestrated and engineered to the nth degree. On those rare occasions, even the mildest scrutiny about anything other than the new product being flogged that day is swiftly shot down with tech’s unofficial motto.

“Sorry… but that’s not what today is about.”

Unprecedented power

So what, you might think. So what if technology companies want to keep their affairs to themselves - it’s not a public service or anything.

You might also think that this is a technology journalist throwing his connected toys out of his smart pram - and for the most part you’d be right, I’m not ashamed to say.

But what Facebook’s challenges over fake news reveal, I think, is that we’re in completely uncharted territory.

Never has any private company had such immediate power over the way we act, feel, think, date, buy, fight - whatever.

And it’s impossible, if you plan on living in the modern world, to avoid Facebook or Google.

Even if you never create a Facebook account, your browsing habits will be logged when you visit pages that contain the Facebook ‘like’ button. Google’s near-$500bn value is made up almost entirely from selling advertising, which is why they’re absolutely everywhere on the internet. It’s the scale that makes the money.

How the internal cogs of these sites work is a complete mystery. My colleague Rory Cellan-Jones’ recent radio documentary into Google summarised that its algorithm was so complex that no single person could possibly grasp how it worked.

At odds

This situation, this imbalance, will surely not be able to last much longer. While technology bosses, Zuckerberg in particular, talk about their “mission” to “connect the world”, we do know that under their watch unacceptable things do take place.

Thanks to whistleblowers and investigative journalists, for instance, we know that Google at one time scooped up private wi-fi data from homes as it carried out its Street View trips. We know that Facebook knowingly manipulated News Feeds in an attempt to alter users’ emotions.

You can see how both of those examples could have seemed harmless - or at least fascinating - to the engineers involved.

But what they demonstrate is that what may seem a bright idea for the tech sites may be directly at odds for what is good for the users themselves.

One person in agreement with this is Zuckerberg, in 2009 at least. That was when Facebook was at around 200m users, and he posted a video message (in a shirt and tie!) saying how he wanted users to have a bigger say in how the site is governed.

A special section - FB Site Governance - was set up. Check on it today and you’ll see there have been no significant updates since 2012 - other than to tell people about privacy policy changes.

Soft power

Zuckerberg’s political ambitions, if he has them, are off to a very rocky start. The fake news row was a big test, and he handled it poorly - dragging out the issue in the news agenda for well over a week.

Had he been thinking like a politician, as he now must, things could have gone differently. The new reality for Zuckerberg is that it’s no longer okay to be an awkward tech nerd. Instead he must deal with his users’ concerns with respect, and not call them “crazy”.

There’s a lot in it for him to get things right. Zuckerberg’s global ambitions will live or die on his ability to be an astute political operator. He already played a bad hand in India, where local businesses said he was harming their chances online.

If Facebook is to hit the potential of connecting the unconnected, Zuckerberg will need to think like a world leader and engage in soft power and openness in order to build, or restore, trust.

And he must stop using “increased engagement” as the key metric for Facebook’s success. What’s popular isn’t always good, and what’s good isn’t always popular.

Zuckerberg’s record on dealing with controversy has been pretty solid, and there’s of course no suggestion he has any bad intentions with Facebook.

But this week has demonstrated that it’s simply no longer enough for Zuckerberg to deny an issue and expect people to blindly take his word for it. Even if he is right, he’ll have to learn how to prove it.

Because the message the public appears to have given Zuckerberg, and perhaps all of Silicon Valley, is that when you’re unfathomably powerful, “no comment” is fast becoming not good enough.

News Google Tech Update : Google Launches Allo In The Play Store; Here Is How To Get Started

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 14:14:00 +0530

Image Credit: Google Play Store

Google has finally launched the much anticipated messaging app by the company, Google Allo. It was previously reported that that messaging app would launch today. Allo is the part of communication platform made in conjunction with Google Duo. Duo was released some time back by the company, and it focused on video whereas Google Allo is focused on text communication along with sending media such as photos, audio messages, stickers and locations.

Google Allo main screen

You can start using Allo by going to Google Play Store and installing it on your Android device. The interface is pretty bare bones but quite functional for a messaging app. When you launch the app for the first time, the app asks you to verify your mobile number similar to how things work on Google Duo. The SMS verification servers seem to be in place for Allo verification. After the verification, the app asks you to set a profile picture and name.

Google Assistant

The app interface is reminiscent to how Google Hangout looks like (but without all the features in Hangouts). Nothing has changed since the leaked screenshots for Google Allo in alpha stage. On launching, you get the first (and only) surprise that Google Allo holds, that is “Google Assistant”, the bot by Google while will replace Google Now in the upcoming update, Android Nougat 7.1. It is a vital part of the experience provided by Google Assistant and a step away from how popular messaging apps work. Google Assistant is what Cortana from Microsoft and Siri from Apple are, but inside a chat window currently. The bot is labelled as ‘Preview Edition’ but in the limited tests that we ran, Assistant left us impressed coming from Google Now as the previous native offering in Android.

Sticker Store, Template replies

While diving into the chat experience, Allo does the basics of sending text, photos shot from the front or back camera, pictures from gallery, stickers and location. You can send 20 photos at a time in Allo from the ten photos limited on WhatsApp. Another small change is that in the notifications area, the app shows smart response as a quick reply to contacts who message you. Machine learning is working full time to suggest bubble shape cards in the chat as appropriate message responses to the conversations. Finally, you can search inside your conversations, as against the searchless realm that Google Hangouts are.

Incognito Chats

There is nothing new when you dive in the Profile section or the General settings menu, and there are just small things like controlling the notifications, sounds, vibration and to download the media when you receive it. There is no status updates or message that you can set for people in your contact list to read.

Google Allo turns into Snapchat

The reason we mentioned that the chatting experience is different from how it is in the conventional messaging is apps is that you can summon Google Assistant in your private conversations to ask questions, play games or device on dinner options or the movie options. This brings a whole different side to the concept of user privacy and the only remedy seen is the use of incognito chat with other users.

Group conversations

Incognito mode features auto-destruct messages just like Snapchat which expire after a fixed amount of time depending on the settings. Infact, you can turn Google Allo into an almost functioning Snapchat clone except Stories or ability to check who saw your stories.

The summon behaviour is consistent across individual as well as group chats where you can call in Google Assistant to ask questions and suggestions on places nearby. However, you can’t tag Google Assistant in incognito chats. Apart from this nothing much stands out in the latest messaging app by Google, Google Allo.

News Game Tech Review : Rise Of The Tomb Raider

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 1 Feb 2016 17:07:00 +0530

When we last saw Lara Croft, she was growing out of being a victim. A victim of fate, of other people’s aggression, of her own uninspired previous playable incarnations. She’s still growing, but she’s different now.

For most of Rise of the Tomb Raider, the second installment of a rebooted Tomb Raider series, Lara Croft doesn’t go around being scared. She still faces down overwhelming odds, grapples with doubt, and absorbs a ton of trauma. The newest iteration of the iconic video game heroine displays less fumbly panic than she did in 2013’s Tomb Raider. There are more moments of steely determination and fewer moments where she pauses to psych herself up. She knows what she’s capable of—she hasn’t forgotten that one time she wiped out a supernatural army, climbed a mountain, and took down a sun god. It feels like she’s grown.

That feeling of growth is a key factor in this sequel. For Rise of the Tomb Raider to succeed, it needs to convince players that Lara has matured, but that she still has more growing to do. Yet the changes in a new installment can’t be too radical, lest this Lara become unrecognizable to old and new fans.

Rise of the Tomb Raider tells the story of young Lara Croft, alone in a dangerous place, exploring ruins, solving puzzles, and shooting lots of guys with flaming arrows. It combines hunter/gatherer elements—where you need to scavenge for the stuff you need to survive or make weapons—with a mix of melee and ranged combat with pickaxes, guns or a bow and arrow.

Rise opens yet again with Lara searching for proof of a time-lost civilization. This time, however, her motivations come from a deeply personal place. Before he died, Lara’s father was on a quest to find the Divine Source—an artifact said to grant eternal life—and the apocryphal Prophet who performed miracles with its power. Lara’s continuation of his work is directly linked to her desire to restore respectability to the Croft name—her father’s name. Her travels take her to a snow-swept mountain range in Siberia where she comes into conflict with a mysterious organization named Trinity, whose paramilitary goons are also looking for the Divine Source. Hello, cannon fodder.

Crystal Dynamics’ latest effort at a Tomb Raider game benefits from smartly imagining the psychological underpinnings of both its heroes and villains. Just as Lara is trying to contend with her father’s legacy, the main bad guy’s thirst for power is likewise driven by very personal reasons. There are moments that you feel like you’re fighting against a screwed-up worldview and not just a bunch of artificially-intelligent mannequins.

Rise of the Tomb Raider tweaks the gameplay formula established in its 2013 predecessor. There’s a new crafting system that has Lara constantly foraging for resources that she can use to make ammo, equipment or bandages. Once she has enough resources, she can craft what she needs on the go. The player holds down the left bumper and can craft, mid-action. So, collecting deathcap mushrooms lets her make poison arrows that release a fatal gas. Similarly, other new craftable items increase the ability to silently skulk through encounters if you want. If loud, messy combat engagement is your thing, then you can quickly turn bottles and cans into molotovs and hand grenades.

Lara’s newly improved abilities are a direct reflection of how much effort you put into exploring the gameworld. As her skills increase, her ability to spot resources and read the world gets more powerful. Lara buffs her mastery of ancient languages by finding murals and improves her arsenal and equipment by amassing exotic animal hides. Other combat upgrades let you pull off feats like multiple headshots at once with the bow. The way that ROTTR’s mechanics are structured feeds into the overall sense of growing or maturing.

Aside from its opening chapters, Rise of the Tomb Raider is set around the geothermal valley in Siberia where Lara and Trinity have tracked the Divine Source. It’s a gorgeously layered landscape that feels more like an open world than the terrain of the 2013 game. Whether snowy or lushly green, the terrain feels alive, teeming with plant-based resources or animals to stalk (or flee). Aside from scads of posthumous testimonials about the history of its events and fiction, the game also teases players with optional tombs. The entrances to these tombs are secreted away and you’ll need to apply some extra effort to even find them. Once you find these tombs, you’ll be faced with a single physics-based environmental puzzle—familiar to longtime Tomb Raider fans. But you’ll need to navigate through various section of the tombs to trigger various elements necessary to their solution. As a result, they wind up feeling bigger and more significant.

The game’s also got side missions—given to you by actual in-world quest-givers—that grant you new tools/weapons, like a lock pick and crafting tool. You can also use in-game currency to obtain some of these weapons and equipment from the supply shack that opens up in the first third of the game.

This is an enjoyable sequel and the reason it’s very fun is because it feels upgraded in nearly every way. When I tried for stealthier approaches in the 2013 Tomb Raider, the results felt haphazard. In this game, I was able to plan and execute better, thanks to a plethora of options that let you blind or poison enemies from afar. The feeling of being a cunning predator was a welcome change for me, especially after enduring the emotional rawness of the last Tomb Raider. Another thing I liked about Rise of the Tomb Raider is how it constantly rewards your curiosity. If you head to a seemingly innocuous cliff or stop and take in your surroundings with Lara’s survival instinct, you’ll almost always find a resource or collectible waiting for you. I leaned hard on Lara’s survival instinct because Rise of the Tomb Raider is the kind of game where I didn’t want to miss a thing.

I played Rise of the Tomb Raider much like I did its predecessor: almost exclusively with the bow and arrow and as stealthily as my patience would allow. This time around, however, I didn’t feel like a trembly twentysomething, scared of every shadow. I felt more like a hunter and explorer, systematically taking down enemies and challenges. That said, I didn’t like having to unlock the same suite of weapons as in the last game. Lara knew how to counter enemies and perform quick stealth kills in the last game—why should she have to re-learn it now?

Unlike the Tomb Raider game from two years ago, Rise doesn’t have any competitive multiplayer. Instead, it offers another gambit geared to entice players to keep returning to the game. The Expeditions feature lets you play remixed chunks of the story campaign in one of four modes—Chapter Replay, Chapter Replay Elite, Score Attack or Remnant Resistance.

In Remnant Resistance, you can create custom five-part missions by picking specific objectives, loadouts and time of day. Once you finish one of these missions, your friends will be challenged to do the same.

Completing Expeditions missions earns credits and winnings can be increased by using collectible cards as modifiers to increase difficulty, grant buffs and add challenge objectives.

So, a Lobotomy challenge tasks players to notch five headshots with the bow and arrow and using a Big Head card on enemies swells their craniums makes their torsos and limbs more resistant to damage. The credits you earn in Expeditions can be used to buy more card packs for increased variability in the missions you create. I enjoyed the handful of Expeditions missions I took on and the feature feels like a clever way of re-jiggering the work that’s already in the game.

Rise of the Tomb Raider’s greatest success is in how it encourages exploration, which in turn makes you feel more connected to its fictional world. Every hapless corpse in the frozen Russian wastes is a reminder that Lara’s moving through a place that’s killed many others. As I played, she came across as increasingly gifted, with enough spirit and ingenuity to find ways to see herself through to the other side. This Lara isn’t a wide-eyed newcomer, nor is she a flinty veteran. She’s somewhere in between. Rise of the Tomb Raider makes me want to follow her where she goes next.

Additional Thoughts on PC Version :

Sometimes you just want to play a really pretty PC game, and in walks the PC port of Rise of the Tomb Raider. I already played through the enjoyably acronymed “ROTTR” on Xbox One last fall, and at the time was struck by how gorgeous the game could be.

It stands to reason that it’d look even better at a higher resolution and frame-rate, with some extra PC bells and whistles dropped in. Then again, a few messy recent PC ports have demonstrated some of the many ways PC versions can go awry. How does Rise of the Tomb Raider’s stack up?

I’ve played five or six hours, and my verdict: solid port. The porting job was handled by the Dutch studio Nixxes, who usually handle PC porting for most Square Enix-published games (2013’s Tomb Raider, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Sleeping Dogs all come to mind). They do fine work, and from what I’ve played ROTTR is no exception.

I recently upgraded my PC, which is worth keeping in mind as I recount my experience: I’m running an i7-4770k with an overclocked 6GB GTX 980Ti, along with that 144Hz G-Sync monitor that I love so much. With that setup, I’m able to run the game at 2560x1440 (1440p) resolution at high or very high settings and, for the most part, it stays north of 60fps, occasionally dipping down to the still-playable mid-40s or 50s. I haven’t had much time with the new optimized Nvidia driver that hit today, but I haven’t seen a big difference between the game before and after I installed the driver.

ROTTR pushes my PC, but I’m actually happy to have a game that pushes my system for the right reasons. Unlike the frustrating PC ports of Just Cause 3, Fallout 4 and Batman: Arkham Knight, I have a good sense of the tradeoffs I’m making and so far haven’t felt like the game is running poorly for no discernible reason.

And it really is incredible looking, particularly in 1440p. Look at this screenshot:

Enhance:

In-engine cutscenes are gorgeous, and I’m regularly impressed by how much this latest version of Lara Croft looks like an actual human being.

I mean, like... enhance:

Jeez.

ROTTR’s PC version offers a variety of graphics settings; you can see mine here:

I’ve dropped the Level of Detail setting down from Very High to High and dropped Shadows to Medium, which keeps the game running well aside from some frame-rate drops as I enter some of the bigger open areas and some hitches in the midst of transition animations from one area to another.

Then there’s the hair. Rise of the Tomb Raider is actually the first PC game in which I’ve left the hair tech—called “PureHair” this time around—turned on, rather than turning it off to improve my frame-rate. PureHair does impact performance somewhat, but Lara’s hair looks good enough that I’m fine taking the hit.

Aside from its graphics, Rise of the Tomb Raider is another third-person action/adventure game that plays better with a controller than with a mouse and keyboard. Running, sneaking and shooting all work fine with a mouse and keyboard, and as usual I’m much more accurate when using a mouse. But platforming and puzzle-solving feel odd with a keyboard input. The game has some mechanical interactions—winding winches and breaking down brick walls, etc.—and they feel much more natural on a controller. Similarly, jumping puzzles feel awkward when navigated with a keyboard. Some of that is due to my own comfort level playing this type of game on consoles, so your mileage may vary.

News Samsung New Handset Update : Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge Images Leaked And More Details Emerge

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 1 Feb 2016 15:34:00 +0530

Samsung on Monday confirmed its pre-MWC "Galaxy Unpacked 2016" event for February 21 in Barcelona. Now, more details about Samsung's upcoming "Next Galaxy" flagship have emerged.

One of the most reliable phone tipsters, Evan Blass aka @evleaks has shared images of the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge alongside claiming other details about the handsets. The shared images show the front panels of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge smartphones in full glory and also corroborate to earlier claims that said there will be only two high-end Galaxy phones unveiled this month in Barcelona.

In a report Venture Beat's Blass cites a person who was briefed about the company's plans and claims that the South Korean company has added some of the features that were missing from the 2015 flagship pair. One of the biggest additions is microSD card expansion support, which was being rumoured for long. Both the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge are said to come with microSD card slots with a capacity of up to 200GB supported. Another notable addition is the IP67 dust and water resistance in both the new Galaxy phones. Notably, both the features were rumoured to be included in the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge phones.

According to the leaked images, both the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge look to retain the same design language as their predecessors. The Galaxy S7 is likely to sport a 5.1-inch screen while the Galaxy S7 Edge is said to come with a 5.5-inch screen. Both the handsets are said to sport QHD (1440x2560 pixels) screen resolution.

The report says that this year Samsung may use the always-on display (AOD) functionality on both the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge phones. The feature however is said to consume around one percent battery every hour.

The report adds that both the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge will get a bump in the battery capacities and will feature 3000mAh and 3600mAh batteries respectively. If this comes out to be true, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge will pack large batteries than their predecessors Galaxy S6 (2550mAh) and Galaxy S6 Edge (2600mAh). Both the smartphones are also said to sport wireless charging functionality with as little as 2 hours for full charge on the Galaxy S7, and as little as 2.2 hours for the Galaxy S7 Edge.

Samsung is said to use the in-house SoC (system-on-chip) on the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge phones. Both the devices are said to pack Exynos 8 Octa 8890 processor with four cores clocked at 2.3GHz and four cores at 1.6GHz. The company is also expected to unveil a different model featuring the Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor in some regions. All the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge variants are said to pack 4GB of RAM and are expected to come in 32GB and 64GB storage options.

For the camera, Samsung is said to have downgraded from the 16-megapixel rear camera seen on the Galaxy S6 to a 12-megapixel camera sensor on the Galaxy S7. The company is also rumoured to get rid of the camera bump which was present on the Galaxy S6. The rear camera module is said to gain f/1.7 lens aperture, a bump from last generation. The front camera is said to remain unchanged from the Galaxy S6, which sport a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

MWC 2016 is already gearing up to be the year's biggest mobile launch extravaganza with companies such as Sony, LG, Gionee, Xiaomi, and now Samsung confirming their presence at the event.

New Microsoft Tech Update : Microsoft Tests Underwater Data Center

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 1 Feb 2016 15:26:00 +0530

Companies are finding some of the oddest locations for data centers these days.

Facebook, for example, built a data center in Lulea in Sweden because the icy cold temperatures there would help cut the energy required for cooling. A proposed Facebook data center in Clonee, Ireland, will rely heavily on wind energy locally available. Google's data center in Hamina in Finland uses sea water from the Bay of Finland for cooling.

Now, Microsoft is looking at locating data centers under the sea.

The company is testing underwater data centers with an eye to reducing data latency for the many users who live close to the sea and also to enable rapid deployment of a data center.

Microsoft, which has designed, built, and deployed its own subsea data center in the ocean, in the period of about a year, started working on the project in late 2014, a year after Microsoft employee, Sean James, who served on a US Navy submarine, submitted a paper on the concept.

An prototype vessel, named as the Leona Philpot after an Xbox game character, operated on the seafloor about 1 kilometer from the Pacific coast of the U.S. from August to November 2015, according to a Microsoft page on the project.

The subsea data center experiment, called Project Natick after a town in Massachusetts, is currently at the research stage and Microsoft warns it is "still early days" to evaluate whether the concept could be adopted by the company and other cloud service providers.

"Project Natick reflects Microsoft’s ongoing quest for cloud datacenter solutions that offer rapid provisioning, lower costs, high responsiveness, and are more environmentally sustainable," the company said.

Using undersea data centers helps because they can serve the about 50 percent of people who live within 200 kilometers from the ocean. Microsoft said in an FAQ that deployment in deepwater offers "ready access to cooling, renewable power sources, and a controlled environment." Moreover, a data center can be deployed from start to finish in 90 days.

Microsoft is weighing coupling the data center with a turbine or a tidal energy system to generate electricity, according to the New York Times.

The company is targeting the lifespan of the data center to be at least 20 years. After that it will be salvaged and recycled. The company is also considering a "deployment cycle" of 5 years each, which is the anticipated lifespan of the computers in it. "After each 5-year deployment cycle, the datacenter would be retrieved, reloaded with new computers, and redeployed," according to the Microsoft FAQ.

A new trial is expected to begin next year, possibly near Florida or in Northern Europe, Microsoft engineers told NYT. The engineers even ran commercial data-processing projects from Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing service.

On community forums, some users questioned whether an undersea data center could have an environmental impact, including the heating up of the water around the data center. But Microsoft claimed on its website that the project envisages the use of data centers that would be totally recycled and would also have zero emissions, when located along with offshore renewable energy sources.

"No waste products, whether due to the power generation, computers, or human maintainers are emitted into the environment," it said, pointing out that the data center does not consume water for cooling or any other purpose. "During our deployment of the Leona Philpot vessel, sea life in the local vicinity quickly adapted to the presence of the vessel," it added.

News Google Update: Google Is Testing Solar-Powered 5G Internet Drones

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 01:24:00 +0530

As if balloons were not enough for Google, the Mountain View internet giant is testing solar-powered drones at Spaceport America in New Mexico to explore new ways to deliver high-speed internet from the air (5G).

According to a report in the Guardian , Google had created prototypes of such drones last year and is now testing them under a secret project named SkyBender.

The company has set up its own flight control centre at Spaceflight Operations Center and is temporarily using 15,000 square feet of hangar space in Gateway to Space terminal designed for the much-delayed Virgin Galactic spaceflights.

Under the project, Google is testing millimetre-wave radio transmissions which in high frequency could transmit gigabits of data every second which is more than any 4G LTE system. The drone will fly in high altitudes transmitting the data to all receptors at the ground level.

“The huge advantage of millimetre wave is access to new spectrum because the existing cellphone spectrum is overcrowded. It’s packed and there’s nowhere else to go,” Jacques Rudell, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle and specialist in this technology, was quoted as saying.

Rudell also explained Google was facing and said that millimetre wave transmissions have shorter range than phone signals and hence will die out at the one-tenth distance of a 4G signal. Google can only extend the range of this signal by using a phased array of this signal which is very difficult, complex and burns a lot of power, the professor said.

Skybender uses optionally piloted aircraft called Centaur as well as solar-powered drones developed by Google Titan, a division the Mountain View company formed after acquiring New Mexio startup Titan Aerospace in 2014.

The Guardian report quoted emails between spaceport America and Google project managers that reveal the aircraft have exclusive use of the Spaceport’s runway during the tests and can even venture above the neighbouring White Sands Missile Range.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has allowed Google to carry its tests in New Mexico till July. The company is paying $300,00 to Spaceport America which is great for the airport as it was literally closed after a prototype crashed. Christine Anderson, chief executive officer of Spaceport America, has admitted that the facility is now running out of money.

“We are transitioning to supporting all aspects of the spaceport from our operational budget, as the [state] bonds have been spent except for the amount reserved for the southern road,” she wrote in a blog post earlier this month.

“We are asking the legislature for $2.8m ... We appreciate that our request is a lot of money, but we also feel that it is a relatively small amount to protect the state’s $218.5m investment already made in the new and exciting commercial space industry.”

Currently, Google is paying Virgin Galactic $1,000 a day for the use of a hangar in the Gateway to Space building.

However, Google is not the only company which has thrown a hand with the millimetre wave transmission. Earlier in 2014, Darpa, the research arm of the US military, had announced a programme called Mobile Hotspots to make a fleet of drones that could provide one gigabit per second communications for troops operating in remote areas.

News Update On Handset : OnePlus X To Be Available Without Invite Via The Ola App On 8 December

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 8 Dec 2015 01:33:00 +0530

Ola and OnePlus announced a first-of-its-kind partnership in India, giving users an opportunity to buy the OnePlus X, on-demand, straight from the Ola app. Consumers can purchase the smartphone without an invite for a day and have it delivered at their doorsteps within 15 minutes of placing the order. The OnePlus X is also exclusively available on Amazon.in.

The partnership of OnePlus fans and Ola users will go live on the Ola mobile app only on December 8, across seven cities in India namely, Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad.

For those wishing to purchase the OnePlus X can open their Ola app and request a phone, just like they would book a cab, by clicking on the ‘ONEPLUSX’ category icon that will be available on the app between 10AM and 7PM. Once the request is received, an Ola cab will arrive at the customer’s location; along with a representative from OnePlus, with the smartphone. Customers will get a choice of paying for their OnePlus X handsets through cash or credit/debit cards.

The OnePlus X is the first ‘Make in India’ device for which local production will start in Hyderabad. In terms of specifications, the device will sport a 5-inch AMOLED display offering a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. It will be powered by Qualcomm’s quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.3 GHz. The OnePlux will have 3 GB RAM. It will include an internal storage of 16GB, and can be further expanded up to 128GB via a microSD card.

The devices will sport a 13MP rear camera along with a 8MP front facing camera. The device’s autofocus allows you to capture your subject in 0.2 seconds. The dual SIM smartphone will include a 2525mAh battery. The OnePlus X will run Oxygen OS based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

Sudarshan Gangrade, Vice-President Marketing at Ola said, “We continue to deliver unique experiences to delight our consumers by giving users a chance to buy a smartphone on-demand, straight from the Ola app and get it delivered at their doorstep within minutes. This is a testament to the on-demand nature of the mobility solutions, that the Ola platform offers and takes user engagement to an all-new level! We are thrilled to announce this partnership and take great pride in bringing this exclusive access to all Ola users.”

Announcing this unique initiative, Karan Sarin, Head of Marketing India, OnePlus said, “The enthusiasm from our fans and consumers at large around the country to get our newest smartphone, the OnePlus X, has been unprecedented. People love our products and we are enhancing the experience by making it even more convenient for our fans to get their hands on the OnePlus phone now. In an industry-first partnership with Ola and Amazon.in, we are taking a step towards engaging with consumers wherein they can purchase the OnePlus X phone in three easy steps – Book. Purchase. Delivered. All from the comfort of their Ola app.”

New Update On Handset : OnePlus 2 Now Available 'Invite-Free' In India

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 8 Dec 2015 01:29:00 +0530

The OnePlus 2 (Review) is now available invite-free in India. While OnePlus India had promised the smartphone will be available invite-free from midnight Friday, the company on Saturday issued a blog post saying the smartphone will only go on sale invite-free in India at 2pm IST on Monday.

OnePlus had last week following its Black Friday open sale announced the OnePlus 2 would be available invite-free forever starting midnight Friday across the world. It turns out that date wasn't applicable for India, with the invite-free status only official from Monday. The smartphone is available exclusively via Amazon India.

To recall, the OnePlus 2 bears the tagline "2016 flagship caller", and sports a 5.5-inch full-HD (1920x1080) display. It is powered by a 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 810 v2.1 SoC clocked at 1.8GHz and coupled with an Adreno 430 GPU alongside 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB internal storage. It sports dual 4G Nano-SIM cards (dual-SIM dual standby), as well as USB Type-C connectivity (with the cable reversible at both ends).

On the photography front, the handset rocks a 13-megapixel rear-camera, and a 5-megapixel front facing shooter. The dual-SIM capable smartphone supports 4G LTE, Wi-Fi and other standard connectivity features. It runs Android-powered OxygenOS 2.0, though OxygenOS 2.1.2 is officially available as well.

It is priced at Rs. 24,999, while a 16GB OnePlus 2 variant with 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM will be made available at a later date at Rs. 22,999.

To note, the OnePlus 2 has been made available via open sales (not requiring invites) in India on several occasions in the past, with the most recent being in October. OnePlus in October rolled out two smartphone coverage options in the form of B2X Service and B2X Protect for the OnePlus 2 in India.

New Update On Handset Launch : Android One failed In India; Could Google Possibly Avoid Failure With Version 2.0?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 8 Dec 2015 01:14:00 +0530

Android One was launched amid much fanfare in India last year. Aimed at the entry-level users of the emerging Indian market, Google had teamed up with three well-known low to mid-range players such as Karbonn, Micromax and Spice. The Android One failed. They didn’t sell well and many major retailers even refused to stock them. The news had it that eight major retailers which have 1800 stores between them refused to stock the devices.

Some reports have been pointing at Google making a comeback with the next version of Android One with Lava. This is one of the reasons why new India-born CEO Sundar Pichai is here. Here’s what Google could avoid to ensure that Android version 2.0 manages to make a mark in India’s fierce mobile world.

Focus on hardware, software can’t be the selling point
Earlier, Google launched three phones namely, Spice Android One Dream, Karbonn Sparkle V, and Micromax Canvas A1. Interestingly, due to Google’s list of rules, all three had the same low-end specs. The only differentiating factor was the brand name. Yes, they were almost identical in specs, and all you had to do is decide which brand you prefer. The hardware requirements were a small list of approved processors, cameras and other components. While reports have already been pointing out at this, it would be nice if Google went ahead and brought some lax to its rules. This will help the companies bring in better specs at affordable prices and eventually help compete with the likes of Xiaomi.

Now, the importance of Android One goes well beyond what you see. There is a reason why Android One is so important to India. China and India are the fastest growing smartphone markets, but China is a wasteland when it comes to Google service and generating revenue from them. The onslaught of Chinese vendors and their forked OS versions coupled with great hardware are getting popular in India too. To ensure not to see the same fate in India, Google is yet again trying its hand at revamped Android One. Android One is probably how Google wants to take its services to be at the forefront.

Phones models at varying budget prices
With Android One, Google is targeting new entry-level users. However, the entry-level markets have spruced up consumer expectations. A sub-Rs 3000 smartphone is a great idea, but if another device is offering much more for Rs 1000 more, wouldn’t consumer prefer that. Arguably, there are chances that first time users in rural areas may prefer a really low-end phone with alphanumeric keys. This makes it imperative to have different models and at varying price points. Thus, looking at Android One from a broader prospective is crucial.

Now, Google already has phones across price brackets. But for Android One to become a go-to phone under Rs 3000, will have to be a mix of many factors.

Brand matters
In India, brand matters. One may want to opt for a budget device, but are always looking for a value for money product from a decent brand. A Spice or Karbonn are often related to cheap, low end devices. This isn’t something what many users are looking for – especially if a Moto E from a seasoned OEM such as Motorola is selling at Rs 5000.

Online, offline marketing tactics
These days, we are seeing new ways of marketing handsets. From Xiaomi to the latest Qiku, all have formed newer forms to attract audiences. Google will have to bring more to the table in terms of marketing and selling the phones. Moreover, the previous phones were launched exclusive to an online site initially.

After they failed to capture market share, the devices went to offline stores. It should be noted that the phones are targeted at tier 2 and tier 3 cities, and offline channels would have played a bigger role in selling the phones if launched simultaneously on both platforms. Today, Android One already carried a failed tag, and wooing audiences will be even more difficult.

News Update New Handset Launched : Karbonn Alfa 112, Alfa A91 Power, Alfa A93 Pop, And Titanium S205 Plus Launched

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 19:36:00 +0530

Karbonn on Wednesday launched a range of new smartphones and feature phones in the market as a part of its festive offer. The company has introduced four new smartphones namely Karbonn Alfa 112, Alfa A91 Power, Alfa A93 Pop, and Titanium S205 Plus alongside two feature handsets - K18 Jumbo and M105.

The Android-based Karbonn Alfa 112, Alfa A91 Power, Alfa A93 Pop and Titanium S205 Plus are priced at Rs. 2,890, Rs 3,290, Rs. 3,490 and Rs. 6,790, respectively. The K18 Jumbo and M105 cost Rs. 990 and Rs. 940 respectively. The company said it would also be offering special festive season discounts of up to 50 percent on Titanium Mach Five, Titanium Mach Two and Titanium S201 via e-commerce websites.

The dual-SIM (WCDMA+GSM) supporting Karbonn Titanium S205 Plus (seen above) runs Android 5.1 Lollipop out-of-the-box and features a 5-inch HD (720x1280 pixels) resolution IPS display with Dragon Trail Glass protection. It is powered by an unspecified dual-core SoC clocked at 1.2GHz and clubbed with 2GB RAM. It also houses 16GB of inbuilt storage, which can be further expanded via MicroSD card (up to 32GB). In the camera section, the Titanium S205 Plus sports an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera with dual LED flash and a 3.2-megapixel front-facing camera as well. The smartphone supports 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS and Micro-USB connectivity features alongside proximity sensor, G-Sensor and comes backed by a 2200mAh Li-Po battery.

The Android 5.1 Lollipop-based dual-SIM (WCDMA+GSM) Karbonn Alfa A93 Pop (seen above) features a 4.5-inch FWVGA (480x854 pixels) resolution display; 512MB RAM; 8GB inbuilt storage, which can be further expanded via MicroSD card (up to 32GB); a 2-megapixel rear camera; a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 1400mAh battery. Connectivity features and processor remains the same as Titanium S205 Plus.

The dual-SIM (WCDMA +GSM) Karbonn Alfa A91 Power (seen above) runs the older Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box and features a 4-inch WVGA (800x480 pixels) resolution display; unspecified 1GHz processor; 256MB RAM; 512MB inbuilt storage, expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB), and Li-ion 2000mAh battery. The connectivity options and camera setup stay the same as Karbonn Alfa A93 Pop mentioned above.

The Android 4.2 Jelly Bean-running dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) Karbonn Alfa 112 (seen above) features almost the same specifications as the aforementioned Karbonn Alfa A91 Power but misses out on 3G connectivity and is backed by a Li-ion 1300mAh battery.

The dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) Karbonn K18 Jumbo feature phone sports a 2.4-inch LCD display, VGA (0.3-megapixel) rear camera, FM radio, GPRS, Bluetooth and is backed by a 1800mAh battery. The dual-SIM Karbonn K-Touch M105 sports a smaller 1.8-inch LCD display, digital rear camera and 800mAh battery with rest of the specifications same as the K18 Jumbo.

News Update On Intel Survey : Almost Half Of Indian Children Trust Strangers On The Web

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 19:21:00 +0530

Over 50 percent Indian children admit to meeting or wanting to meet a stranger they first met online, a new study by US-based Intel Security Group showed.

The study, named Teens, Tweens and Technology Survey, examines online behaviours and social networking habits of tweens and teens aged eight to 16 years.

The study also surveyed the concerns of parents, revealing that when it comes to online activity, 48 percent parents believe that the worst thing to happen to their children is interacting with strangers online.

"This concern is warranted given that 44 percent children polled would meet or have met someone in person that they first met online," the study said.

"As with every edition of our Teens, Tweens and Technology survey, this year too, we see some concerning issues being raised. In analysing the responses of both parents and children, what is evident is that there are a lot more open conversations and disclosures between them," Melanie Duca, Asia Pacific consumer marketing director, Intel Security, said.

"While there are open conversations, work is required on ensuring that these go beyond casual chats. It is imperative to focus on ensuring children understand the consequences of their actions as well as agree on good Internet etiquette," she added.

According to the study, the most discussed topics between parents and children are cyber criminals and identity theft (71 percent), privacy settings (62 percent), cyberbullying (57 percent), online reputation (53 percent) or popularity among friends (52 percent).

Additionally, a surprisingly low number (17 percent) of parents are interested in finding out if their children are interacting with strangers online.

"This indicates that while parents believe that interacting with strangers online may be risky, this knowledge has not translated into remedial action," the study said.

News Update On Navigation : Navigation App Waze Gets A Huge Redesign – Now Less Cluttered, But Still Needs Improvement

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 05:51:00 +0530

The Google-owned navigation app Waze has a number of standout features – its ability to alert you to traffic conditions and speed traps, and re-route you around traffic jams, for example – but its user interface was not one of its better qualities. Today, the company is attempting to change that with the rollout of an entirely made-over version of its iOS application that introduces a cleaner, less-cluttered interface designed to simplify accessing Waze’s key features, and speed up the time it takes to report traffic problems.

While traditional mapping applications, like those from Apple and Google, are still the most popular among smartphone users, Waze has a strong following among drivers and commuters thanks to its ability to alert you to traffic conditions. Beyond just telling you that traffic is slow, Waze can tell you why – maybe there’s an accident ahead, or a stalled vehicle. Users also like it for its ability to alert you when cops have been spotted nearby – something that makes Waze something of an alternative to radar detectors.

Plus, its ability to route you around bad traffic in real-time as conditions change is especially helpful, as is its ability to let you add a stop while planning your route.

Today, Waze has over 50 million active users who log into Waze monthly, the company says.

But despite having a collection of useful features, the app’s interface itself has needed work for some time. Instead of a modern, clean aesthetic, Waze previously relied on a couple of menus – one with a cartoon-ish car icon to access the main menu, and the other map pin-shaped icon with an exclamation point in the middle for reporting incidents. And the map itself was messy and cluttered, making it hard to read.

With the new version of the app, Waze offers a de-cluttered map, and it makes the alerting feature more prominent – it’s an orange icon with a rounder pin. Meanwhile, the car icon with access to the menu and other settings has been relocated to the bottom-left. When you’re in a hurry – as drivers are behind the wheel (they’re not supposed to be using the app in-route, but of course they do) – this makes it easier and faster to participate in the Waze community because it’s more obvious which button to press to add a report.

In addition, the updated app now features quick access to a contacts section (as indicated by the mail envelope icon), where you can share directions with your contacts, send your location, and your ETA with a tap.

A bottom menu also slides up when tapped to offer you easy access to things like alternate routes, the “add a stop” feature, as well as a shortcut to sending your ETA to a friend or family member.

Nearly everything you do in Waze now takes fewer taps, which is another one of the bigger improvements over the prior version. And the menus themselves have been redesigned, too, to be quicker to use. For instance, the reporting menu now uses big, brightly-colored, round buttons for things like reporting accidents, road hazards, police, and more.

Waze 4.0 also lets you sync your Calendar to the app so you can receive alerts reminding you when to leave, based on traffic conditions. The company says it has made other improvements, too, like better battery life.
Waze Still Needs Work

Unfortunately, the new app still relies on its bubbly, cartoon-ish icons. This is a personal preference, of course, but I think it’s time to move away from this sort of juvenile look. It’s frankly just sort of silly to see cars with bows on their head, or pacifiers in their mouth, or wearing little crowns in an app aimed at adults old enough to drive a car.

The new design is certainly an improvement, but Waze still hasn’t delivered a truly sleek look-and-feel. Even now, there’s too much to look at on the screen.

Because Waze already shows things other mapping apps don’t have – like the other cars and graphics like ads for business as little road signs – it needs to be even more careful about what other buttons should appear. Now it features an orange reporting button, a MPH indicator, the time, ETA, and distance, and a big button for finding your current geo-location. This latter item is positioned to the left and sort of up near the middle of the screen, though Apple and Google Maps put this feature closer to the bottom of the screen.

Plus, when you tap on the screen, tons of other buttons appear, including the compass, sound toggle, zooming feature, and when at a particular zoom level, your location finder. Combined with all the car icons and icons of signs, alert icons, and more, Waze still struggles with offering a truly clean-looking map.

Off the top of my head, I can still spot a number of things I’d change. For starters, Waze needs to ditch the MPH button entirely – drivers look at this on their car’s dashboard anyway. The geo-location feature needs to be much smaller and closer to the bottom of the screen.The bottom of the screen doesn’t need a greeting (e.g. “Good Afternoon”) when no route is in progress. And there’s no need to flag how many new messages you have and add a red dot to indicate you have unread mail – this could all be handled with a push notification and red icon badge on your iOS homescreen.

That said, Waze certainly looks better than before, if not great.
The updated app, Waze 4.0, is live on the iTunes Store now with an Android release soon to follow.