Apple Obtains Touch ID-Related Patents From Biometric Security Firm Privaris

Apple Procures TouchID Patents from Privaris 

As reported by David Goldman to CNN, Apple has been trying to procure the property assets of Privaris, a Charlottesville, Virginia based biometric security firm. It is probably more likely that Privaris has gone out of business and Apple has obtained the company’s patent portfolio together with other property though the possibility of an acquisition cannot be ruled out entirely.

Privaris mainly makes tiny fingerprint readers which are attached to key chain. Several of the patents of Privaris portfolio are made up of fingerprint and touchscreen technology for the purpose of transaction, control machine and to back up personal data. It was reported that Privaris had recently transferred 26 of its 31 patents to the iPhone maker, inclusive of the 4 patents in December 2012 together with a dozen more in October 2014. The patents are mainly connected to fingerprint and touchscreen technology which could lead to Touch ID enhancement on the future devices.


Updated Touch ID with Reduced Errors

KGI Securities’, well known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, in February last, had informed investors that the next iPhone would be having updated Touch ID with reduced errors. For instance, one of the patents of Privaris shields the ability of using a touchscreen and fingerprint reader simultaneously while another invention enables the user to open a door with the iPhone on scanning the fingerprint and holding the phone up to a reader just the way one would pay for items with Apple Pay.

Although the transfer of patents have created achievement rumours, the website of Privaris has not been updated since 2010 and none of the company’s senior officials or employees seem to have updated their LinkedIn profiles with status at Apple.It has been reported that Privaris had raised $29 million in funding, had developed a line-up of PlusID personal biometric devices in order to access computers, websites, networks, software, VPNs, online apps and secured printers. Its products serve as a device to unlock office door and can add to security for an RSA SecureID token before logging into a computer.

Products & Services – Access Control System

Besides this, the company had also provided other products as well as services connected to access control systems, biometric computer security, fingerprint authentication, biometric security software together with access cards, technologies of which fall within the margin of Touch ID. Mikhail Avandy, founder of SmartUp, a company which offers legal advice to startups had commented that they have found Apple’s next acquisition while Goldman reports that Avady who had first discovered that Privaris’ patents had been transferred to Apple had observed that none of Privaris founders had changed their LinkeIn profiles to Apple, presuming that the deal could not have been completed.

Privaris also had some patents which could make the iPhone’s TouchID sensor quite useful. However, it is not clear about Apple’s purpose with the technology. Apple purchases licenses and patents a lot of intellectual property which it never utilises. No comments have been made by Apple and Privaris in this regard. The company has also sold in August 2012, 4 smart card patents to 1PerfecId and has held only one patent of its original 31.

Free vs. Premium Website Builders - What’s the Difference?

At first glance, online website builders seem like the perfect option for those of us looking to create a new site on a budget. After all, many of them offer completely free plans, meaning we can get our websites up and running without investing so much as a penny.

Since most of those plans seem to offer everything we need to get started, you may be wondering why anybody would even bother to splash out on those premium, paid-for plans that your site builder of choice offers alongside its free package.

Whether you’re wondering whether or not to invest in a paid plan, or aren’t sure how it could ever benefit to your site, here’s our look at the major differences between free and premium website builders.

Domain names 

As any web expert with their salt will tell you, your domain name plays a crucial role in the success of your website. Something short, simple and reflective of who you are and what you do will stick in the minds of your audience, help you establish a professional image online and can even do much to help with your Search Engine Optimisation efforts.

To get a domain like this (such as mycompany.com) for a site you create with a website building platform, you’re going to have to break out the wallet and pay for a premium plan, most of which come with a top-level domain name included.

Decide to stick with the free plan, and the only way visitors will have of checking out your site is by going to a sub-domain of your site builder, such as mycompany.websitebuilder.com or sitebuilder.com/mycompany. Either way, it’s hardly as memorable, or as professional as the paid alternative.

Branding 

Speaking of presenting a professional image, few things are likely to create the wrong impression of your business than having somebody else’s branding plastered all over it, and that’s what you’ll get with a freebie.
In order to make their money back from free plans, a lot of website builders put their own advertising on your site. If you want to remove this, you guessed it, it’s time to upgrade.

Storage and bandwidth allocations 

If there’s anything more important to your website than your domain name, it’s the amount of storage and bandwidth you’re allocated when you sign up to a plan. Though small, seldomly-visited sites may be just fine with a very minimal amount of other, let’s face it, your goals with your new site are to be neither small nor seldomly visited.

If you’re going to grow, add new content, and make sure your users can access it without waiting a long time for it to load, you’ll need a decent amount of storage space to host your files, and plenty of bandwidth to serve them up.

As you may have already worked out, you get much more resources with a paid plan than you do with a free one. A good web builder comparison site like Best Website Builders Now looks at the kind of resources you can expect to receive when you sign up with one of the major platforms.

eCommerce 

Though some platforms do offer a minimal eCommerce support with their free plans, these are few and far between, and often limited to the ability to sell just a single product.

If you’re planning to launch a full online store, that’s the sort of thing that’s only really achievable with a premium plan.

Support 

Since most site creators are designed for those with no technical skills, it’s very rare that you should run into any problems, but if things aren’t quite going the way you planned, it may be time to turn to support. In the majority of cases, free users can access a knowledgebase and potentially email support, whilst telephone, live chat and other means of support are often only available to those on paid plans.

Google's Nest Labs Unveil HD Security Camera

Google’s Home Sensing Unit – Security Camera/Smoke Alarm 

Nest Labs, which is Google’s Home sensing division has revealed its latest set of a new version of home security camera enhancing technology connected to smart homes. The so called Nest Cam has been designed on technology obtained when Dropcam had been purchased by Nest last year for US4550 million. Dropcam founded in 2009, permitted users to install cameras in their home for the purpose of live viewing and recording combined with the option for night vision.

 The camera had the potential of shooting video at full 1080p high definition an improvement from the Dropcam’s 720p. It provides an 8X digital zoom, motion sensors, as well as leverages 8 infrared LEDs in order to capture flawless footages especially at night. Besides this it also had the capabilities of differentiating between the various kinds of movement in the videos together with alerts to the users should some untoward incidents takes place at home in their absence. The videos which is captured is said to be uploaded directly to the Nest Aware cloud storage wherein live feed could be run on a smartphone or a computer thus enabling Nest Cam with the capabilities of accurate alerts to the users in case of movement in the house.

Modernize Home Gear – Intelligent/Connected Devices 

It is said to be available in seven countries, inclusive of US, Canada and several parts of Europe, namely Germany and the U.K. Google’s Nest unit is putting in resources in its product line-up in convincing consumers that they need to modernize their home gear with intelligent, connected devices while competing with rivals like Apple and Samsung. If users intent to review recorded videos, they would have to buy a subscription and customers can pay subscription fee of £8 and £24 per month in order to keep the video for 10 and 30 days respectively.

Nest Product – the Protect smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector, another product unveiled, detects fire quicker than the first generation product according to Nest and comes at a price of $99 and will be shipped next month. It appears to be thinner and has various features which automatically ensure its working while it avoids false warnings. Nest is said to be partnering with home insurance companies which includes American Family Insurance and Liberty Mutual Insurance with its Protect product.

Mobile/Desktop App – Control Nest Devices 

Qualified consumers could get their device for free or at reduced cost to receive discounts on insurance premiums through reward program. Tony Fadell, co-founder of Nest Labs has his focus in getting the product paid off when he was at Apple, where he had worked during the rise of the company in 2001. He had been a long time deputy to co-founder Steve Jobs as well as central to the development of the iPod and iPhone.

At the time of the event in San Francisco, the company also unveiled a new mobile and desktop app which will help users in controlling all their Nest devices and with the inclusion of the Nest Cam, the company has now three products inclusive of the Nest Protect and Nest thermostat. These products are a part of internet connected devices collecting sensitive data which come under Google’s umbrella. According to Nest’s senior product manager and head of its developer program, Greg Hu commented during an interview following the announcement, that Google will not gain any data unless authorised by the users. That authorisation, which was announced earlier, enables a variety of third party services and Google services to inter-relate with Nest devices.

This Might Be the Most Beautiful Keyboard Ever Made

When it comes to computer, very less attention is given to the good old as well as the humble keyboards. They are considered like the utilitarian devices which are meant for helping people to carry out their computer functions as well as let the computer know our commands.

However, if these keyboards can be turned out to become a piece of art, something people might find pleasure looking at it for being gorgeous and waiting to get their hands on it. This is the main idea behind the new Keyboardio Model 01, which is a unique keyboard and has been able to pull lots of money being on Kickstarter. A single glance at the model is enough to let you know that it is different. There are many of us, who have already seen split keyboards, but nothing can match or look this till not.

It can be considered as a simple hint that it might a good time to mix nature with our automated world and technology. The Model 01 has been given a butterfly shape in the body and has been made out of hardwood maple, which allows smooth tree rings all around the keys.

The key switches have been made mechanical and the creators of 01 made them similar to the ones which are found on the Apple II. Each Keycap has been custom sculpted but still the layout of the keyboard has been based on the QWERTY layout. But despite this all the keys swoop all over the board in waves. The description of the product looks and sounds to very poetic, it sounds like someone was trying to make the keyboard feel like a musical instrument. The Model 01 is nothing like the previous keyboards, it is dynamic. The users can keep it laying flat, split it apart, it can be raised in the center and make it look like tripod, and it suits the typing style of every person. People, who are into flair, will truly appreciate the LEDs which have been tucked under every key and that too these are programmable.

This keyboard is piece of modern art which is functional. The project has got potential and this is the reason it has managed to pull in $250,000 as backup in early phase, it has $120,000 in funding and still got 28 days left to complete the project.

Despite all the features the company has already stated that they cannot confirm that this model will be ideal for everyone since each one will have their own learning curve. Usually it might take just couple of hours to get a hang of the new keyboard but with this new keyboard it can take more than 2 months to master the keys. If time is not a constraint for people who are excited about getting this new keyboard, they can puck the Model 01 by paying around $299 in US, bout £190, AU$389 and expect the delivery by April 2016.

Samsung Galaxy: What You Need to Know About Reported Security Risk

Reports suggest that millions of owners of Samsung Galaxy Smartphone might be at risk dealing with calls eavesdropping, data theft and malware installation. Downside to this problem is the fact that no action can be taken by the owners to avoid this situation. The security flaw has been found in the Swiftkey keyboard software that has been preinstalled on nearly 600 million smartphones made by the South Korean electronics giant.

This security flaw was reported by Nowsecure, mobile security company. Since the users have no option to uninstall this software they are basically powerless and more prone to this vulnerability. According to the reports some of the devices which have been disclosed to have been affected include Galaxy S6, S5, S4 as well as S4 mini. Statement released by Samsung has suggested that they are working on releasing out a solution to this problem in the coming few day. This fix will be accessible to the uses through their Samsung Knox service. This fix will be like a security policy updated which can be downloaded and installed on the phones.

The statement of the company also indicated that they are taking any emerging security threats seriously. They are not only working on the security policy update but they are working on the Swiftkey to avoid any potential threats in the near future.

Customers are already getting upset with the increasing instances of security flaw and security breaches in terms of their data getting compromised as well as getting held by banks and retailers. Now if the same happens on the mobile device, we can understand their fury? According to the reports released by Target, nearly 40 million people has reported their credit cards to be stolen at the sale terminals and this was followed by increasing hacks on email addresses, names as well as phone numbers that affected 70 million customers. According to Nowsecure, Samsung was already informed about this problem in December 2014.

Even though Samsung has already started giving patch to their mobile network operators but they cannot confirm if the carriers are providing the same on the devices as well. According to the devices lists which have got affected, all these phones have unknown patch condition or they do not have the patch available. The phones are becoming highly vulnerable to flaws and attacks from various fronts.

For instance a small time hacker might be able to gain access to the phone by using unsecured Wi-Fi connections on the other hand and sophisticated hacker will take a professional approach to gain access through proper sources. Some of the security experts have stated that this latest attack might fetch many returns for the hackers.

They stated that users should avoid using insecure Wi-Fi networks to avoid risks, try using different types of mobile devices as well as keep updated about the patch update and timing. They stated that lots of things were not in place which can make it difficult for the hackers to extract any benefits. It looks to be very unusual path taken by people to hack into computers and devices.

Now Experience Your Sense of Touch in VR through These Gloves

As if now people have seen sensing virtual reality by means of sound as well as sight so far. Now you will be able to experience the sense of your touch in the virtual world as well. You will be able to touch any virtual objects as thanks to this new pair of gloves. This new green and black gloves have been developed by a Spain-based tech company NeuroDigital Technologies and the glove are currently being called as "Gloveone". These gloves will make you feel all the sensations like that weight as well as shape during the interaction of the user with the virtual objects.

According the reports published, the developers of the gloves are claiming that the wearer of the gloves will be able to feel the fire and the rain as well as something very ethereal like the wings of butterfly.

What is the technology all about? 

The technology has the ability to translate the touch sensation in the form of vibration and each of the pair has nearly 10 sensors which have been placed in the fingertips and the palm. Four of these sensors which have been placed in the thumb, plan, middle as well as index fingers have the ability to detect out each other. They will allow the users to grab an apple and even fire a gun.

These gloves also comprise of a 9-Axis inertial measurement unity also known as the IMU sensor and this can be easily placed under the gloves. An IMU sensor is mostly used in a manoeuvre aircraft, which has the ability to record orientation, velocity as well as gravitational forces by means of gyroscopes, accelerometers, as well as magnetometers.

When it comes to Gloveone, this sensor will be tracking the hand movements of the users within the virtual work and be able to offer more realistic experience. The company has been able to further describe the sensation behind wearing these gloves in simple words stating that it is like a realistic perceptual illusion. This means that the users will not be able to feel the actual weight of the virtual object which should be similar to that one the same object in the real life.

But the users will be able to compare the weight of the items inside the virtual world. Reports suggest that the company has finalized the prototyping the product and has been able to create a Kickstarter page that will allow them to raise finance for manufacturing the gloves.

Currently people have the option of buying the gloves as they are available in three sizes. Each of these sizes is sweat proof as well as anti-bacterial and also has been fitted with a Bluetooth wireless connection. A pair of gloves has the ability of offering the user more than four hours of overall battery life. The only downside for the customers is that they have to wait till 2016, till they will be able to enjoy any of the virtual work experience by means of this Gloveone.

Kirigami-Based Stretchable Lithium-Ion Batteries

Battery Created on Origami variant Kirigami

Researchers at the Arizona StateUniversity have developed a battery which can stretch up to around 150%, giving rise to a wide range of potential applications in wearable technology. Created on the origami variant kirigami, the team was capable of transforming a larger battery into various smaller one through chains of folds and cuts.

Associate professor Hanqing Jiang in the School of Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, one of ASU’s Ira A, Fulton Schools of Engineering, together with the researchers created the battery utilising slurries of graphite and lithium cobalt dioxide, then coating them on sheets of aluminium foil making positive and negative electrodes, from which they added bends and cuts to begin the patterns. The outcome was a battery that could stretch while still maintaining full functionality.

 The team has stated that regardless of using origami as inspiration by the engineers for foldable batteries which can flex in the past, it marks the first time that a lithium-ion battery has been made stretchable. To test the efficiency of the battery, the kirigami-driven prototype battery, was sewn in an elastic wristband that was attached to a Samsung Gear 2 smartwatch. As the strap was stretched in various ways, the battery was capable of providing power to the watch for its functions inclusive of playing video.

Replace Bulky & Rigid Batteries

Jiang had commented that `this type of battery could potentially be used to replace the bulky and rigid batteries that are limiting the development of compact wearable electronic devices and this type of stretchable batteries could be integrated into fabrics, which include those used for clothing’.In the research journal Scientific Reports, a paper was published on June 11, describing how the team had developed kirigami based lithium-ion batteries with the use of a combination of folds and cuts creating patterns which permitted a significant increase in stretch-ability.

Hongyu Yu, an associate professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering and the School of Earth and Space Exploration; Zeming Song, a material science doctoral student and Xu Wang, a mechanical engineering doctoral student, are some of the leading members of his ASU research team. Song and Wang have been praised by Jiang for utilising several kirigami patterns and for conducting experiments as well as characterising the properties of the materials that have been utilised in the development of the technology.

In-Depth View in Progress & Obstacles – Origami-Based Lithium-Ion Batteries

Others who have also made their contributions comprise of ASU engineering graduate students Change LV. Yonghao An, Mengbing Liang, Teng Ma and David He, a Pheonix high school student together with Ying-Jie Zheng and Shi-Qing Huang from the MOE Key Lab of Disaster Forecast and Control in engineering at Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.

Jiang together with some of his research team members as well as other colleagues, in an earlier paper in the research journal of Nature Communication, had provided an in-depth view in the progress and obstacles in the development of origami-based lithium-ion batteries where the paper clarified technical challenges in flexible battery progress which Jiang states that the teams’ kirigami based devices are helping to solving.

Windows 10 PC Squeezed Inside Quanta's Compute Plug

Reports suggest that a Taiwanese company has been able to create a plug like computer which is capable of running on the forthcoming version of Windows operating system (Windows 10) from Microsoft. Compute plug of Quanta has been designed in such a manner that it can be pushed directly into the wall power socket. It has an HDMI port that can be used for TV connections apart from having two USB sockets.

However we need to know that this is not the first time this kind of device has been made by any company or available in the market. A similar form of PCs was earlier promoted in 2009 by US Chipmaker Marvell. As if now, the Marvell's computers have not been able to set up a strong appeal in the market despite of targeting the device for being eco-friendly and best for use at schools and smart homes.

Fingerprint PCs

Microsoft released out details pertaining to the new Wi-Fi enables windows device on their official blog. The details indicated that the device has been designed in such a manner that it can e cable linked to any screen and turn the screen into voice-controlled portable computer. The blog also indicated that the new compute plug is like a mini PC as well as a power adaptor, which can be inserted into any outlet as well as connect with a TV and turn them into a smart computer. These can be controlled by using Bluetooth remote, Bluetooth headset and using Cortana.

Microsoft also revealed another device which was quite unusual and made by Foxconn. It is Taiwanese company who is popular for carrying out the assembling process of products of other companies. It has been currently names as Kangaroo. These devices squeezed Windows 10 powered PC in a box that pretty much looks like a portable hard disk which has been fitted with a fingerprint reader on the top of the device.

Microsoft has described this device as ultra-portable computer having the capability of turning a TV into a complete Windows 10 PC. At present no details has been released about the pricing or the specific launch date of the device. But market is expecting to get more details at the same time as that of Computex trade show. We have numerous concerns about the availability of the device.

According to Peter Bryer, CCS Insight consultant, none of the companies are out boasting about the computing power that can be achieved from these devices. People are waiting to use tiny computer and if they want, they are other products available in the market as well. Each day companies are coming forward with product creating a challenge for other companies.

From the customer’s perspective, we hope that we are able to see new designs and additional features. Today, computer are no longer categorised into being luggages but they have now transformed into tiny, short plug-in devices. One can only wait for the release of these devices to get details and reviews.

A Computer Just Solved a 120-Year-Old Mystery - Without the Help of Humans

A 120 years old mystery surrounding the regeneration of flatworm cells seems to have been solved by a computer. This computer was programmed to help in the development of scientific theories and that too without any assistance from humans. This machine has been built by the biologists at Tufts University. It has been able explain the process which show how the sliced-up flatworms genes are able to regenerate the sliced-up called into a new organism. This process is being called as Planaria.

Planaria: 

The computer has scanned the information that’s has been gathered from various studies performed in the same field and then it stimulated numerous networks that has been formed by the genes of the work till it was able to find an exact match for this study. Every time the system was able to successfully match the data will the study, it saves results and manipulated the entire system and restarted the search to find a new match again. This process was continued for 3 days before the team came up with the needed answers.

Virtual Assistance: 

According to Michael Levin, the senior author of the paper highlighting the details of this discovery, this can be considered as the most comprehensive and detailed model of planarian regeneration every found, until now. He also added that little assistance was taken from the artificial intelligence for carrying out the computations, the outcomes of this research is completely a theory based on the activities of the worm. Levin also stated that it was quite remarkable that the outcomes were a comparatively simple model that will be easy for humans to understand and not get tangled in the overall mess.

This clearly indicates that artificial intelligence can be very much used in every aspect of science and not being limited to data mining. It can be extended to understand the meaning behind the data. Levin stated that they this problem for finding out solution because mainly it was very interesting and these worms and primarily immortal. Even if they are cut in pieces they have the ability to continuously transform into new organisms.

Is it the rise of new computer scientist? 

Despite the fact that it just took 3 days for the computer to find a solution, it took the team years to design and develop the computer program. Levin states that if the computer-driven trial-and-error approach can be used for developing scientific theories, it can be very much used in all disciplines of science, especially the ones that involve too much of complicated data.

This program shows that it is important for the approach and the problem to be universal. They are hoping that this program is used for getting valuable insights into some basic science. Levin hopes that this approach will be used for finding solutions to different questions in biology be it cancer metastasis. All it requires is the change in the formal language, building of the database with the necessary facts and adding stimulator.

Google to Offer Mac-Friendly Version of Chrome

Much after people reduced the use of old-school Microsoft Internet Explorer and chose the most beloved browser Google Chrome, Google finally announced Mac friendly version of the web browser, which will consume less battery and will offer better performance. It was high time for US tech giant Google to spread their wing into iMacs and Mac OS, as the company now expects the Chrome to work with its full potential in Mac computers. According to tech pundits, Google have placed a well-planned and firm bet by releasing Mac-friendly Chrome, only to triumph Apple’s own web browser, Safari. Though Safari works just perfectly as a web browser on Apple systems and offers lot additives, Google officials and developers are confident enough to beat the likes of Safari and to claim the favourite spot for Mac-freaks.

The news got proper shape when Senior chrome engineer Peter Kasting recently announced an update to Google chrome with some intelligent tweaks are coming very soon. Though Google have not announced any launch date, but the update details are coming from trusted official sources. According to official sources, Google developers’ team is currently testing the latest tweaks, which are expected to reduce the load by chrome on the processor and also promises for longer battery life and enhanced performance.

What is coming with Mac-friendly Chrome! 

Last week Casting posted on Google+ about the Chrome update for Mac users and stated that the new Chrome version will change how it processes the idle tabs, which are not in use at that point of time. In technical words, the new chrome will render the tabs differently and the unused tabs will be less prioritised further. The tests conducted have showed better browsing performance, better idle wake up time and also showed less battery consumption, which have been always a great concern on Mac systems. Google have also integrated some intelligent moves with new Chrome, like waking up from low-power mode to check necessary tasks and it will reduce idle wake time.

For Mac systems, some of the biggest problems reported for Chrome are huge battery consumption, high memory acquisition. Google tech team have been preparing Chrome for this launch for a long time now and stated that the team has been restless during this time as they could not allow their users are having issues with their product. Also the newer version of Chrome is coming with stable enabled flash service.

Vs Safari

According to the technology experts, Google Chrome is going for a direct assault with Safari by matching their performance graph on Mac systems. Certain quality check tests have been conducted and showed significant boost in performance level. For example, a test showed the consumption of processing power by new version of Chrome reduced to 0.1 percent from 0.3 percent.

According to the official source, Google will be releasing the new version of Chrome through its beta channel in a while and the final version will be launched in next month or so.

5 Future Car Technologies

A spanking new vehicle is a dream buy and high on anyone’s aspirational list. The auto industry is all about constant change. The new generation consumer also wants new technologies to make their drive more comfortable. The automotive engineers at the R & D department of all the manufacturers are bringing us new technologies from time to time. There are innumerable new technologies in the department of safety, infotainment, and innovation. Here are 5 future car technologies that we may see in our cars in the near future. Also check Upcoming car in India.

1) A car that will make its own decisions is not going to be that far in future. Driver Override System is a new technology that may be ready in the next five years. Even now there are certain cars which kill the engine when there is a fault in the engine or when it over speeds. The driver override system will apply the brakes even if the driver has the gas pedal floored. The increase in using of sensors in the cars will force the cars to take decisions. This is a shift in priority.

2) Over are those days when you had to search for your car keys. The Biometric Vehicle Access is the new future of starting your car. Recently we had seen the switch to keyless entry and start. In the future get ready for a key-fob-less entry and start. One will be able to unlock and start your car with your fingertip or retina iris. This technology follows the same procedure used at high security areas where the user or, here, the owner/driver, is recognised by the pattern on the finger tip or the pattern on the iris.

3) Another technology one may find in the future cars is the Reconfigurable Body Panels. How would it seem to have a car which looks like an SUV, but has the powerful motor of a truck? Imagine an SUV with lightweight body panels and advanced motors that retract the roof and side glass into the lower body panels. Reconfigurable Body Panels may be the future of body of the cars.

4) We know of single, double and three-cylinder cars. How about a four-cylinder supercar? We already have a Ford GT supercar which has a twin-turbo V6. By 2020 we are expecting to see the first full-fledged, 200 mph supercar with a four-cylinder engine.

5) Now, the idea of a self-driving car is not a new idea. We have already seen James Bond and other super heroes owning self driven cars which can even park by themselves. But a truly self-driving car means exactly that, one that can drive itself, and they are probably closer to being a reality in the very near future.

For more information on new cars & bikes log on to Autoportal.com & BikePortal.in

Texting Lanes Solve Walking Bumps

Text Walking Lane – Smartphone Specialist MLab

Recently, a game changing text walking lane by a local smartphone specialist MLab has been introduced in Antwerp department store, Shopping Stadsfeestzaal together with other locations. Consumers could use the special lanes for walking and texting without colliding into one another, thus making it easy to communicate with their colleagues while indulging in shopping.

However, the Antwerp city council is said to be less impressed with this project since it seems that the MLab had not discussed the marking stunt strategy with the officials. The authorities have stated that on discovering the texting lanes, the drawings utilised in creating the lanes would be removed as no permits were obtained as well as advertising has been prohibited in Antwerp. Besides this, it has also not been confirmed on how much the removal of the lanes would cost. Committed walkways have been marked with white paint with signs of `text walking lane’, now tend to line busy pavements in the city centre in order that people who are busy with their devices don’t bump into the other pedestrians.

Smartphone Users – Their Own Designated Lanes

Antwerp has given users of smartphone, their own designated lanes which are considered to be a publicity stunt of Dutch smartphone specialist MLab with his focus in eliminating `text walking’ disasters, who states that several smartphones are broken during collisions between the pedestrians. If the lanes are tried to reduce the number of accidents causing broken screens, buttons or cases, officials are of the opinion that they could be made permanent.

These were intended to be temporary only, however people have been taking to them and the developers are hoping that there is a chance of it catching up in the near future. The markings on the ground are visible white paint though some of the lanes wind through narrow cobbled streets. However, negotiating corners would probably remain to be challenging for people who tend to have their eyes fixed to the phone screens.

Everyone Textwalks – Don’t Pay Attention to Surroundings

A MLab spokesman informed Yahoo news - `Everyone textwalks, you probably walk through the streets while texting or sending Whatsapp messages to your friends and don’t really pay attention to your surroundings, only to whatever is happening on your screen. This causes collisions with poles or other pedestrians. You could unknowingly, even be endangering your own life while you textwalk when you cross the street without looking up’.

A similar initiative was launched though on a smaller scale in Washington DC last July by the National Geographic TV channel, but Antwerp’s is said to be the first in Europe. Several walkers, in Washington, had ignored the markings, though some took out their mobiles to photograph the lane markings and the `no cell phones’ since that were painted elsewhere on the pavement.

Chinese authorities had a lane on a 100 ft. stretch of pavement, marked out for mobile users in a theme park called `Foreigner Street’ in the city of Chongqing in September. According to officials it was said that the markings were intended in reminding people that it is best not to play with your phone while walking. There is a belief that there are more mobile phones in the world than people. As per figures provided by telecommunications companies, while the global population is estimated to be around 7.2 billion, there are about 7.5 billion mobiles around.

LG G Flex2 With 5.5-Inch Curved Display Launched

LG G Flex2- First Revealed Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 Smartphone

At CES 2015, LG has launched the G Flex2 smartphone which would be made available by the end of January in Korea and will be released in the global market, thereafter. The flexible phone could probably cost more than the LG G3. The LG G Flex2 is the first revealed Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 smartphone and is coupled with the Adreno 430 GPU together with 2GB of LPDDR4 RAM. This single SIM smartphone features a 5.5 inch full HD curved P-OLED display with a 1080 x 1920 pixels resolution and a 403ppi pixel density and runs Android 5.0Lollipop.

It has a display of 700mm radius curvature and the back is a bit sharper with a 650mm radius curvature for the purpose of gripping. According to LG, the Corning Gorilla Glass 3 has been toughened to around 20% from the earlier generation with the firm’s own special chemical treatment technology and LG calls this Dura-Guard glass. The complete phone is apparently 30% more durable than the original one. Besides this, the company has also enhanced the `Self-Healing’ back from the earlier LG G Flex which will now get healed at room temperature within 10 seconds, that is considerably lower than the last generations’ of three minutes to recover.

Curved Embedded 3000mAh Non Removable Battery

The new LG smartphone also features advance 13.0 megapixel main camera with laser based auto focus technology which is seen in the company flagship G3. It has a 2.1 megapixel snapper with gesture shot feature in the front, where the user could use hand gesture in order to take a selfie from a distance of 1.5 meters away from the phone.

LG G Flex2 would be competing against top tier brands such as Samsung Galaxy S6 & S6 Edge, HTC one M9+ as well as Apple iPhone 6 & 6 Plus. With regards to connectivity, the LG G Flex2 comprises of 4G LTE-A together with tri-band carrier combination, HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth Smart Ready (Apt-X) 4.1, NFC, GPS/A-GPS, SlimPort, GLONASS and USB 2.0. It measures 149.1 x 75.3 x 7.1 – 9.4mm, weighing 152 gms. It packs a curved embedded 3000mAh non removable battery

Gesture Shot/Glance View/Fast Charging

Other features include simple hand `Gesture Shot’ recognisable from around 1.5 meters distance, and `Gesture View’ helps to check the last clicked shot. For `Glance View’, one could swipe down for notifications even when the screen is off while `Fast Charging’ can charge the better up to 50% within 40 minutes. Presently the smartphone is available in Titan Silver/16GB variant. The LG G Flex2, at first glance seems every bit of a premium device from LG.

 It is equipped with a fast processor, a decent camera and sharp display and is comparatively a good improvement from the first gen LG Flex. We need to wait and see how fast it would be over its contemporaries as this is the first Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC sporting phone to be launched in India. The company has confirmed that the product would be made available all over India in stores as well as on e-commerce sites like Flipkart and will be priced at Rs.54,990.

Online Shoppers Must Protect Themselves from Cybercrime Theft

High Profile Data Breaks – Cyber Theft

Online shopping can be very comfortable but most of these shoppers are falling prey to cyber criminals as the fraud rates is on the increase. High profile corporate data breaks have been taking place and a number of the country’s huge corporations from retailers like Target to major web presences such as EBay have conveyed instances of cyber theft which has caused thousands of lost consumer records as well as financial data. Cyber-attacks have not only targeted businesses’ assets and reputations but have also progressively exposed their millions of consumers to identity theft.

This has resulted in making online shoppers a bit apprehensive in indulging in shopping online for fear of cyber theft. Shopping online had become quite popular and convenient from the comfort point of view and also to get to know detailed information of the product intended to be purchased. Recent poll conducted by USA Today, indicated that around 24% of online shoppers are taking a pause on their buying habits due to the possibility of identity theft brought on through submission of their details together with credit card information provided online.

Online Fraud – Biggest Challenges for Payment History

Chris Hamilton, chief officer of APCA commented that online fraud tends to be one of the biggest challenges facing the payment history. He stated that somehow some bad guy tends to get hold of the card number with adequate information to pose to be you and purchase something from an online merchant and consumers should deal with merchants which are reputable that you know. When consumers tend to hand over their details online, by phone or through post, the card-not-present fraud rose by 42% in 2014 reaching nearly $300 million and new figures indicated by the Australian Payments and Clearing Association also found that card skimming at the ATMs is far from dead, had gone up by 17% in 2014 reaching a total of $42.1 million.

The report had outlined that the healthcare and education sectors, together with financial institutions, retailers, government bodies and computer software providers seem to be high objects for cybercrime. This issue has become so serious that the payments industry is now proposing in introducing – tokenisation, which substitutes sensitive information, for instance the use of card numbers with tokens which tend to be useless to a fraudster.

Need to Check Bank Statement Frequently 

The report also indicated the $650 billion worth of transactions that were made on Australian payment cards in 2014, were fraudulent by 0.06% and the average fraud debt was $224. Steven Munchenberg, chief executive of Australian Banker’s Association, said that the customers need to check their bank statement frequently to make sure they are not the victim of fraud.

 He further added that banks are equipped with sophisticated systems in place to detect fraud and if customers are innocent victims of fraud, they tend to bear the loss and not the customers. In 2014, frauds through `tap and go’ payments was comparatively stable around $33 million in lost and stolen fraud which went up by only 2%. In all these situations, fraudsters tend to use cards having contactless payment abilities in making transaction below $100 without the need of a four digit Personal Identification Number.

EaseUs ToDo Backup Review

If ever you need help to clone hard drive, then you should take note of this software - EaseUSTodo Backup. It has helped more than 6 million home users worldwide to clone partition, backup and disaster recovery. Plus it supports a one-click system for you to automate the entire process. Best of all, it is absolutely free to get started.

No matter what system you are using, it supports all of them. This includes the very latest Windows 10 right up to the quite old Windows XP. Also no matter where you are in this world, you can understand and use it with English, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano,Português, Polski, 日本語, 中文 (繁體), 中文 (简体) being supported. In short, whatever platform that you are on; it makes the clone partition job very easy for you.

In this latest version 8.3, you can now solve the issue of super-long file path backup optimization. Also it has a favorable Microsoft Exchange backup under different conditions and an unrestricted email notification. All these things are very important if you are a system administrator and wants more control over some of the settings, rather than the usual stuffs like clone hard drive.

The other features and functions that you may find useful is System Backup. It is used to back up your entire system which includes all of your applications, configurations and Operating System in a single compressed file. So whenever you need to recover or clone hard drive, just run the process and you should be back to its original state.

Next we have Disk Imaging which is used to perform block-level disk imaging quickly and efficiently to back up your entire disk or volumes. Then there’s the File Backup where you can select to back up only certain files, folders or file types. This is very convenient and saves a considerable amount of time.

If you are looking to clone hard drive or clone partition, you can use the Migration and Clone feature. It is a fast and safe way to migrate your entire system to the faster SSD or a bigger HDD, especially if you had just upgraded. It is never this fast and convenient, as you can get your new disk drive up and running in minutes, rather than hours or days.

No wonder EaseUS Todo Backup is wildly popular within the home users and highly recommended by the software experts. It makes the difficult tasks like clone hard drive or clone partition becomes very easy, that everyone can perform it. You don’t have to be a computer expert to be able to perform all the tasks.

Rumor-Detection Software IDs Disputed Claims on Twitter

After the seven days of Boston marathon bombing, a group of hackers release a bogus tweet from the official account of Associated Press which was containing a message that “Breaking News: Two Explosions in the White House and it if found that Barack Obama is injured”. Before some organizations such as; Associated Press or White House could clarify the false statement, the stock market of NYSE responds very fast and within minute it record the drop of 140 pints, where millions of people lose billions of dollars.

Stock market recovered very fast, but analyst stated that there was a chance of long time frame which was enough for hackers to make a good some of money through trading. We all knew that rumors and the negative effects of rumors spread very fast in hyper-connected times as per the statement of Qiaozhu Mei, who is Associate professor in Information and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan School. To deal with these kinds of situations Prof. Mei and team of researchers have developed software which will help the society by identifying the rumors and correcting the erroneous claims on Twitter.

This software was introduced at the International World Wide Web Conference, Italy. But in the summers of 2015 they tested it live on the website which they are developing and named it as the Rumor Lens. Sometimes we found there are few posts on the social media which are spreading beyond the control of anyone and due to that our goal is to detect the emerging rumors in very less time, said Mei, who is an expert on text mining process and the processing of natural language.

The whole team demonstrated the capacity of software and for that they had done the analysis of two sets of tweets: First; a random sample of more than 1.2 billion tweets of November 2013 and Second; 30 million tweets related to the Boston Marathon bombing. In the sample testing they collected the second set from Twitter's Gardenhose with 10 per cent of its real time stream however; data was representing the unpredictable as well as high-profile events which was the rumors with less span of time.

In the whole process software correctly detected more than 110 rumors and about the Boston Marathon bombing, so after the testing software find more than 50 per cent accuracy on an average. The percentage of accuracy in both sample testing was higher than the 10 per cent accuracy of hastag and trending topic tracking rumor detection process. Researchers pointed out that there software are so fast in identifying the fishy statements. Prof Mei, stated that our method can detect the rumors 3.5 hours earlier than other methods which use hastag tracking and trending topics.

Rumor Lens is the sites of researches and it is expected that site will be available in the couple of months. In the statement researchers define the rumors as a controversial statement.

How Wearable Will Shape the Future of Mobile Payments

Mobile – Banking & Finance – A Necessity 

The adoption of mobile for the purpose of banking and finance section is no more an option to the users and stats indicate that most of the time is spend in mobile apps than in web with estimates that by 2020, around 80% users in the world would be in possession of smartphone. As per Visa, Australia has been leading the world in adopting contactless payments while Apple Pay will be hurrying over it.

Mobile now, no longer seems to be an option but a necessity and a key channel for delivery of financial services. This seems to be a good opportunity for banking and finance sector and with Apple Pay together with introduction of wearable, developments in mobile technology had given way to various opportunities for financial services businesses in redefining on how consumers could interact with banking as well as financial services. We tend to live in the age of entitled consumer where consumers expect more, trust their peers, have options, a voice, are informed and feel that they are entitled to –

• Access to their financial information whenever they intend to
• Real time and 24/7 banking services
• Real time, secure and convenient transactions
• Intuitive, simple and seamless user experiences

Wearable Technology – Important Part of Companies Game Plans

Executives from Capital One, MasterCard and PayPal participated in an animated discussion on the future of mobile payments at the Wearable World Congress in San Francisco and explained on why wearable technology is an important part of the companies’ game plans. MasterCard’s Vice President of start-up engagement and acceleration, Stephane Wyper commented that MasterCard is aimed on leveraging the latest as well as the greatest gadget which includes wearable, in creating loyal customers.

He added that looking at the future; consumers are interacting with updated devices which extend beyond plastics or the devices in their pocket. The question for MasterCard is that `how to enable all of those connected devices to be payment devices’. Wearable in the market is on the rise and Capital One is of the opinion that it could be used in drawing and retaining customers. Capital One’s Vice President, Angie Moody, of new product innovation, comments that the company is looking to wearable to `reinvent the way consumers interact with finance on daily business’.

Wearable Provide Connectivity when Mobile Apps Unable To Do So 

Capital One intends to extend the experience of payment in order to help consumers with more informed, responsible payment options by using the data that is collected by wearable which include location as well as data it collects as per Moody. It states that wearable would offer new ways in learning who you are, when you are and where you go.

Varun Krishna, of PayPal, Sr. director of its consumer wallet division envisages wearable computing as an opportunity for the company which could give rise tomore connect as well as a personal experience. He states that wearable could provide connectivity when mobile apps are unable to do and by nature they are more connected to the user than a phone.

Progress in data analytics tends to also play an important part in the evolution of wearable based or wearable assisted, mobile payment since they tend to help the financial institutes to make better use of consumer data. Presently, payment companies tend to request data regarding customers and enter information as they wish, in sharing into mobile apps or websites. Future wearable and other devices will tend to automatically collect data when users opt in, delivering relevant and contextual information which will be less of a pull and more of a push according to Moody.

Improve & Extend Process of Payment

He adds further that `wearable could improve and extend the process of payment though there could be balance between ease of use of friction removal with a need in providing all necessary information in making informed financial decisions.

One needs to balance reduction of friction with the need in making people comprehend the process where they tend to spend money without a thought. By eliminating friction one could take the customer away from the tangibility of cash’. Moody quotes the recent decision of Uber in making the customers confirm that they are willing to pay for `surge pricing’ prior to their request of a driver.

This confirmation was added since Uber had removed too much friction making it easy for individuals in requesting a ride in peak hours thereby getting stuck with high charges as per Moody. Moody is also of the opinion that a balance between ease of use as well as providing relevant information defends consumers as well as helps in building trust between them and the service providers and if one tend to break that trust, it does gets difficult to get it back.

The application ecosystem for wearable as well as mobile payments is progressing and providers will learn from their initial mistakes. Capital One is also keenly attempting in establishing itself as a player in mobile payment section through promotional offers and discounts in popular mobile apps which includes Uber.

Google’s Security News: Malware’s Down, and You’re Heeding More of Its Warnings

According to the Google’s security product manager, the company defines their success in simple term- invisibility. As per Stephan Somogyi they are targeting as the main outcome when we encountered a blank browser window appearing in front of him. He was able to give some insight on the status of the online security, during the Google’s I/O conference at the half-hour presentation called the Second annual Google Security update at I/O.

Phishing and Malware Sites: 

He gave some more details on the Safe Browsing service of the company. He calls them as a collection of systems that have the ability to hunt down the badness all across the net. It has the ability to protect the visitors who are searching the web using the Google search site or even Chrome, Safari as well as Firefox. This indicates the total reach to the audience amounting to 1.1 billion people.

According to the reports released by the company, they have located that the Malware is becoming is not a huge problem anymore. But they have also found that phishing sites that are able to fool the customers into entering their details like password and more financial details are increasing in numbers.

During the last week of Mat, they were able to detect nearly 14,977 malware sites and nearly 33,571 phishing sites using the safe browsing. The Malware has shown a big drop and Phishing has shown a bigger increase. Somogyi has given all the credit to the enhanced security in all their operating system in every device. Due to this the Malware authors are now more concentrating on the phishing sites and targeting the software’s.

The much needed push for encryption: 

Google has been among the first companies who were advocating the use of encryption to avoid people from snooping on users online. The acceleration to this push came in the form of the revelations made by Edward Snowden, who confirmed that NSA has been eavesdropping on their traffic from quite some time. He further expressed his anger pertaining to the effort that is being put forth by Google to get other emails providers to try and adapt the TLS, which is the Transport Layer security encryption. Through this all the third party companies care unable to reading the messages when they are transit.

The company is hoping to reach to larger companies that work in sending email and find out the reasons why they are unable to implement TLS. But from the perspective of the company, they do not want to resort to public shaming.

They are not ready to disclose the names of the company who have still not followed or implemented TLS. Compared to TLS, Google has been able to attain much more success in terms of encouraging different websites to implement HTTPS encryption to completely secure the user visit to websites. The company is making all effort to ensure that the users feel completely safe when spending their time online.

Google: Your Hands May Be the Only Interface You’ll Ever Need

Project Soli – Hands Only User Interface

Wearable devices tend to get smaller and smaller and our hands and fingers find it difficult in keeping up with them. Hence gearheads at Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group – ATAP have been working on ways in controlling devices with simple hand gestures. Google ATAP is aware that the hand is the best method for interaction with devices though not everything seems to be a device. Project Soli the latest wearable is not a wearable one would think, neither a watch but ‘you’.

Project Soli intends to make the hands and fingers the only user interface that would be needed. It is actually radar which is adequately small to be fitted into a wearable like a smart watch where the small radar tends to pick up on the movements on real time, utilising the movements made to modify its signal. While the hand rests, it is actually moving slightly which tends to end as a baseline response on the radar and moving the hand away or from side to side with regards to the radar could change the signal and amplitude. Crossing the fingers or making a fist could also change the signal.

ATAP to have APIs

In order to make sense of the signal to a service or app, ATAP would be having APIs which could tap in the deep machine learning of Project Soli. However, it is still early for the new entry though it has got the people at Google I/O eager and instead of going hands-free, Project Soli would make the hands the UI which could be a better option than voice control could be. Ivan Poupyrev, technical program lead for Google ATAP comments that `should Project Soli become a reality someday, users would be able to control smart watches, fitness trackers as well as other devices with the use of gestures in utilising their smartphone, only without the phone’.

 He informed the audience at Google I/O that their hands tend to be always with them and are ergonomic and could be the only interface ever needed in controlling wearable devices. Nevertheless, gesture based interfaces tend to already exist and several of them such as the Kinect or PlayStation Move utilise camera in detecting the hand movements. Thus they work only when there happens to be clear lines of sight which are worthless in the dark.

Flares out Radar Signals – Numerous Antennae

The Soli chip is said to flare out radar signals from numerous antennae, thousands of time each seconds creating an arena that could measure the minute movements of the fingers, detecting when the fingers are crossed or record signals at once from both hands. It is a kind of software developers generating a vocabulary in interpreting each gesture, translating it into action similar to deleting a message or taking a call on the smartwatch.

The latest radar chip has the capabilities of a range of 5 feet or more, enabling it to be integrated to all types of devices which include the walls of the home. Probably there may be a time in the near future that one may be capable of turning on the lights on snapping the fingers or turn up the volume on Sonos by turning an imaginary dial in the air. Presently Project Soli is just a research project.            

Google's 'Smart' Food Diary Is Actually Kind Of Dumb

Google – Automated Food Diary to Estimate Calorie Count

Google has been building an automated food dairy which could help to estimate calorie counts from the images taken of our meal according to a report in Popular Science. Named Im2Calories, the project is said to utilise technology from DeepMind, which is an AI start-up Google acquired in 2014. Google has filed a patent for Im2Calories, however there is no mention yet on when the service is likely to be made available.

Meanwhile, several other companies are making similar attempts on the projects like Im2Calories which are being supported by equally questionable science. Im2Calorie is said to measure the size of the food, in absolute terms as well as relative to what is on the plate and could also identify the condiments. According to the report, it does not even matter if the picture tends to be high resolution or not. Presently, the technology is still imprecise in estimating calorie counts.

According to Kevin Murphy, a researcher at Google acknowledges as much to Popular Science stating that `it’s okay fine, maybe we get the calories off by 20%. It does not matter’. The focus for Google is in minimizing those inaccuracies over a period of time, claims Murphy. There does not seem to be any doubt in Google’s ability in collecting and processing data from large section of users though the company would still have to solve a big problem for the function of Im2Calories – calorie counting could be unreliable.

Counting Calories – Look at Kinds of Calories Eaten

A main study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2011 observed that the quality of food is a main contributing factor than quantity. Dr Dariush Mozaffarian, lead author of the study informed the New York Times - `Conventional wisdom – to eat everything in moderation eat fewer calories and avoid fatty foods, isn’t the best approach.

Just counting calories won’t matter much unless you look at the kinds of calories you’re eating’. However if calories seems to a good measure for health, food labels, - the basis of Google’s date, has also considered to be inaccurate. In 2010, there has been much uncertainty with regards to calorie counting where David Kirchoff, the CEO then of the Weight Watchers acknowledged that `calorie-counting has become unhelpful’ for those intending to lose weight. Since then the company is said to have abandoned its calorie first approach.

Im2Calories – A Potential Tool

Im2Calories, which is the potential tool, had been announced at the Rework Deep Learning Summit, recently. Murphy had unveiled a project that utilises `sophisticated deep learning algorithms to analyse a still image of food, estimating how many calories could be on the plate. In one instance, the system viewed an image and counted `two eggs, two pancakes and three strips of bacon.

Although the food stuff does not seem to be a universal unit of measurement, the system could scale the size of each piece of foot with regards to the plate together with the condiments. Murphy has no intention of shaming users with this new system but wants to have the `process of keeping a food diary and awareness of foods and this seems to be much easier than feeding information manually to a food app which could include portions of food items, types of food and much more.

It is assumed that the latest tool Im2Calories could be popular especially in the US since obesity tends to be a crisis. However, even if Im2Calories does not seem to be accurate, Murphy is of the opinion that the new system will tend to have an impact on the users.

Google's Project Vault Is a Security System Disguised As a MicroSD Card

The search engine giant is coming up with new project where it is planning to use make phones much more secure than ever by the use of microSD card which will act as the security powerhouse. In present both web and mobile security is the primary concern of consumers and enterprise companies because both have to secure their personal information such as; financial detail, clients detail and other very sensitive data, so it is expected that Google’s Project Vault will be much useful in future.

Recently, at the I/O developer conference, Google unveiled its latest projects. In Project Vault, Google is trying to make phone more secure, without changing the way to manufacture the Smartphones. On last Friday, the company announced its Project Vault, which will enable the microSD card to act as the the digital security system apart from traditional use where computers and phones was recognizing it as the storage device.

According to the statement of Regina Dugan, who is Team lead for ATAP or Google's Advanced Technology and Projects group, Project Vault will make your mobile devices more secure than ever which is also known as big security in the small package. Google is trying to cater the need of consumers where due to advanced technology today users are able to get each and every service at on their Smartphones, but still the cyber security is their primary concern. It is expected that Project Vault will be useful for all the platforms such as; Android, iOS, Windows and OS X.

The Vault card will be the secure way to protect the data and personal information of phone or computer users. For an example:- It will be able to encrypt the chat messages which will be on app and by doing this it will provide the extra levels of security or secure authentication, so that device will be able to identify your correctly. In industry, the Google will be the first company to develop this kind of technology for personal use as well as for the use of enterprise companies.

According to Google officials it will easily meet the standards of consumers and high bar of well known companies. The card will have the NFC or near-field communication, chip for communication to contact to the nearby devices and 4 gigabytes of storage as well.

According to experts, unfortunately the consumer segment will not able to secure their mobile or other device anytime soon because in present, Google is developing its microSD card for enterprise companies and later it will focus on the consumer segment.

The idea behind this concept is that enterprise companies need to secure the data of their customers, clients and product information as well. Project Vault will provide the secure way to communicate and store data as well for free services such as; Gmail email service, Google Maps, Chrome Web browser and more. Officially, Google has not stated that when it will launch the SD card as this tech giant is involve in several other projects.

Polaroid Mobile Zip Printer

Polaroid Zip – A Small Box – Photo Printer


Polaroid Zip, a small box which is a little bigger than a deck of cards, is around an inch thick and can be utilised as a photo printer. It is a compact little pocket printer producing high quality photos straight from the smartphone. Polaroid has been in business for instant printing for more than 65 years and there is something amazing about being able to get photos and a physical copy within a matter of few minutes.

The procedure has undergone a tremendous change since the original Polaroid instant camera went on sale in late 1948. Way back then, the film packs were used in the cameras which comprises of sheets of plastic negatives that were covered in reactive chemicals which could develop when they were exposed to light. Currently, Polaroid, digital instant cameras tends to use Zink paper containing dye crystals and when an image is printer, the film is hit with 200m pulses of heat that tends to melt the crystals creating a wallet sized colour photograph.

Its technology is built into some of Polaroid’s products which compriseof the Z2300 instant camera though presently the company has launched a stand-alone portable printer that enables to print off wallet-sized photos from their phone.


Printer Size of a Smartphone


Size of the printer is around the size of a smartphone that measure 2.9 x 4.7 x 0.9 inches with approx. weight of 186 gm. which can be carried around in one’s handbag or else in a pocket. It can connect to phones with the use of Bluetooth or NFC where an app could be used in selecting and editing an image, to apply filters, enhance the brightness, saturation and contract as well as to create collages.

A 2 x 3 inch photo image is obtained within a minute and the Polaroid Zip has the potential of printing around 25 photos with a single charge where the Zink paper is backed with adhesive and once printed, the photos could also be used as stickers.

Bluetooth can be used if one has an iOS or a non NFC phone. For NFC, the same can be turned in `on’ position, on an Android phone and touch it to the top of the printer. This enables the Polaroid Zip app to launch on the phone and thereafter you could take a picture or select a photo from the gallery of the phone. An option to edit the photos or adjust the position, adding text and emojis or embed a hidden message in the form of a QR code is also available.


Appropriate for Events – Weddings/Graduation


Obtaining a print of a photo takes around 40 minutes, once the blue smart sheet passes through the deviceThe prints tend to be a little bit pixelated from the normal print from PhotoBox or Snappy Snaps while the colours seems to be a bit faded, nevertheless the size of the print does not seem to damage the whole effect. The Polaroid Mobile Zip Printer could be appropriate for events such as graduations and wedding which would make it possible to get instant memento prints for any given occasion.

It is recommended that Polaroid could be utilised in creating business cards and the app offers several template as well as the option to add in images together with personal information. It could be a good idea, though a laboured way in the making of business cards. It could also make a nice choice in adding pictures to scrapbook at the time of travelling since the size of the printer enables the user in carrying it along with the ability to print images whenever needed with the sense of spontaneous functions in creating images.


Can Be Connected to iOS/Android Devices 


The Polaroid Zip is priced at £110 and being provided with instant images whenever needed could give the recipient, especially when most of the images in the present age tend to remain only in the digital format. The Zip mobile printer when compared to the Fujifilm Instax Share SP-1 is priced at $129.99 and can be connected to an iOS or Android device through Bluetooth. With the use of free app, one can change the photos on the phone or tablet into small 2 x 3 inch border less prints.

The firm `Ammunition, which designed Polaroid’s Cube camera, also worked on the Zip and its results can be seen. The Zip seems to be an attractive simple device similar to the Cube, which looks somewhat like a portable hard drive than a printer. Besides, the glossy plastic cover, it picks up quickly hairline scratches and fingerprints but one would want to check down a microfiber pouch to make it more attractive since it is not included.

The only port is Micro-USB for charging and the only button is for power while the battery is built-in which tends to last for around 25 prints, meaning that for a long event, it may have to be plugged in to keep the prints going. The top area tends to slide off easily and reveals a compartment which holds 10 sheets of paper.

Sony to Roll out 'Ultra Street Fighter IV' PS4 Patch

Sony has announced to release patch for its recently launched Ultra Street Fighter IV by next week for the PlayStation 4 (PS4) users. The gamers have already complained about the lag in the game in form of unwanted glitches, lag in inputs and some silly but important shortcomings like the button which starts the screen is non-existent along with other issues. In short this game doesn’t provide optimum level of gameplay experience which Sony games are known to deliver.

The Much Awaited Patch For PS4 Users

A tweet has revealed about the much awaited patch by none other than the Sony Director of Third Party Production, Gio Corsi. Tweet had shared the information that patch had been successfully completed by the game developers and it will be tested to analyse its performance. Once this patch successfully passes in the test it will be rolled out for the all the legitimate game users.

The Problems Faced By The Game Players

Ultra Street Fighter IV was launched in March by Sony with a huge fanfare and great expectations of providing a demanding and adventurous game for the gamers. But it turned out to be plagued by a huge number of bugs along with menu slow down. Play Station platforms are designed in such a way that it offers an exclusive and dominant version which can be easily used for the tournaments and other purposes. Furthermore Play Station 4 offers better graphics and gameplay functionalities over the predecessor PS3.

Ultra Street Fighter IV Fails To Feature In Game Tournaments

Due to the number of reports relating to the glitches and problems along with input lags in Ultra Street Fighter IV, Capcom decided not to include this exciting fighting game for tournament play. Capcom certainly won’t be allowing this game in the tournament for aggressive gameplay until the issue is rectified or resolved from the Sony. Even other tournament organisers are dwelling on their decision whether to use this game on the PS4 platform or not. Sony has maintained that this game is very much playable on the Xbox 360 platform without suffering any glitches or problems. Sony and Capcom are required to address this problem and rectify it as soon as possible; otherwise it will certainly destroy its reputation on the PS4 platform.

Patch Expected To Resolve All Issues

Ultra Street Fighter IV had suffered problems both on the online and offline gameplay which seriously diminished the quality of game in all essential sections of graphics, audio and video retention. Menus happened to load terribly slowly along with jagged textures and numerous technical glitches which were subsequently reported by the game players. Sony has confirmed that it will be releasing patched to fix the bugs present in the game through a synchronized roll out plan. The Ultra Street Fighter IV fans are delighted by this development and they are hoping that Capcom will reconsider its decision of excluding the game from EWO 2015.

Facebook Users Can Now See Biographical Information from New Friends

The messenger application of Facebook has been updated and user will now be able to see publicly biographical information such as job title and current city right above the message thread, from contact they have not even chatted before.

As per sources, the update was launched on iOS Android in the U.S., U.K., France and India.The Messenger will be displaying the information about the sender together with the prevailing Facebook friend that one had not messaged earlier and this latest update is said to fill the gap which LinkedIn as well as other social networking sites seemed to have lagged behind on their mobile applications.

For instance, if a person has received a message form one who is not your friend, Messenger tends to show that they are a `Food Blogger from `Seattle’. This bit of information could help you to recall that perhaps you could have met that person some time back and make you more likely to reply and get on with the conversation. Moreover, Messenger also tends to retrieve this type of information for existing Facebook friends one has never messaged before.

This sort of information could be helpful when messages are received from friend one may have not contacted earlier but on the information provided through the Messenger application, it tends to get easy to get on with the conversation after knowing that you could have met someday, that long forgotten friend.

Whatever may be the situation, whether about non-friends or people already added, Messenger tends to display information that is public or else visible to the user on Facebook, and does not overstep the privacy terms.

The new feature which is referred to as chat ID follows the release of Facebook’s Hello, where Android only caller ID app tends to intercept the phone and are capable of showing the information visible to the user on Facebook with regards to the caller, or block it, if it is from some unknown spammer.

The chat ID as well as the caller ID features displays Facebook’s rising interest in connecting the user and providing context about the people in one’s life and not just friends. This could help in developing new friend connections on the social network.

However it could also place Facebook as a larger tool for professional life also. Earlier Facebook had been sensitive about messages from user who were not friends and in some cases directing them to the often forgotten,`Other inbox’, which was usually filled with spam.

Many are not aware about it and while it protected people from unwanted message it also caused a bit of a problem when the user tends to miss out on a message from a long lost acquaintance due to the message going into the `Other inbox’.

Facebook informs that nothing seems to be changing on how the `other inbox’functions and one has been able to use Messenger in contacting non-friends. Younger generation tend to seem less dedicated to LinkedIn that feels as if it is lagging behind with regards to mobile and messaging and Facebook could be happy to fill in.