New Security Method Sends Codes through Your BODY

Low Frequency Transmission

Wi-Fi together with Bluetooth are said to be areas for hackers since these techniques enables easy and anonymous stealing of passwords. In order to stall these activities, a group of students have come out with a system which tends to utilise low frequency transmission to send passwords via the human body.

On reversing the same system utilised by fingerprint sensors, they have achieved a method to generate wireless data transmission between the smartphones and the other devices. Senior author Shyam Gollakota, assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington (UW) stated that till now, fingerprint sensors had been utilised as input devices.

He further added that for the first time that fingerprint sensors can be re-purposed to send out information that is confined to the body. Fingerprint sensors had been designed for the purpose of receiving data about one’s finger which is utilised to authenticate identity. However, the UW team inverted the procedurealtering the technology into an output which tends to push the data comprising of a password or access code from the smartphone to the other device.

Works in Various Postures

Co-lead author Mehrdad Hessar, a UW electrical engineering doctoral student explain that if one intends to open a door utilising an electronic smart lock he can touch the doorknob and touch the fingerprint sensor on the phone and transmit secret credentials via the body to open the door without leaking the personal information over the air.

In experiments, the researchers had demonstrated this system utilising the Touch ID sensor of an iPhone 5s and iPhone 6s, together with the trackpad of a Lenovo laptop as well as other fingerprint scanners. During the evaluation, around ten subjects had been utilised and varied in height, weight and body type, which were capable of generating usable on-body transmissions.

The team also envisaged positive results even when the participants were moving, like walking around or moving their arms. Co-lead author, Vikram Iyer, a UW electrical engineering doctoral student commented that they had shown that it works in various postures like sitting, standing and sleeping. Good strong signal is obtained throughout the body. The receivers could be anywhere, either on the chest, hands or legs and still tends to function.

Generate Low Frequency

This ground-breaking project began by analysing smartphone sensors by the team in order to detect which one tends to generate low-frequency less than 30 megahertz and travels well through the body though does not propagate over the air. It was only fingerprint sensors and touchpads which were found to meet up with all these requirements.

These methods tend to generate signals in the 2 to 10 megahertz range and transfers energy in an electric network to sense where in the space your finger would be. Moreover, it also identifies the ridges as well as valley which form the unique fingerprint patterns. The procedure which the UW utilised is a sequence of finger scans to encode and to transmit data.

With a finger scan it tends to correlate to a 1-bit of digital data and without the scan correlates to a 0-bit. The team had also succeeded in bit rates of 50 bits per second on laptop touchpads and 25 bits per second with fingerprint sensors which were adequately fast in sending a simple password or numerical code through the body and to a receiver in seconds.

This Year’s Paris Auto Show is Très Électrisant

Electric Car Market – Tesla Motors

The electric car market is dominated by Tesla Motors with regards to the attention the small-scale car builder tends to get. In a world of contraction emission criteria as well as city-wide prohibitions of internal combustion engines, it has been jointly decided that the electric cars seems to be the solution. This has been obvious during the recent Paris Auto Show.

The Mondial de l’Automobile seems to have the usual extreme French concepts though is close-to-production EVs like those of Volkswagen, Mercedes and Porsche.Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen AG have been leading enormous changes in the approach to electric cars in the auto industry with ambitious intentions focused in ending the indifference of consumer for battery powered vehicles.

The automakers from General Motors Co.’s Opel to Renault SA, at the Paris Motor Show had been announcing their contributions on latest electric car. In contrast to the earlier years where the focus was on viability, the exhibition this year had been focused in generating mass appeal addressing concerns regarding range as well as widening the selection of options.

The I.D. concept vehicle had been unveiled by Volkswagen that had been set to create a sensation in the market by 2020. Moreover it could drive almost double as far as the future Model 3 sedan on a charge of Tesla Motors Inc.

Car - a Revolutionary

Though only a model, the VW hatchback would kick off the roll-out of 30 battery powered car in the near future since the German manufacturer intends to alter an image tarnished by the emission-cheating outrage and Volkswagen seems to have high hopes for the vehicle.

Head of the VW brand, Herbert Diess commented in a Bloomberg TV interview with Caroline Hyde, that this car would possibly be revolutionary. It would possibly have the same importance which the Beetle had in its age or the Golf and the next generation will be I.D.Mercedes on the other hand is being likewise aggressive.

Earlier depending on converting the present model to electric, the Daimler AG unit intends to now introduce almost 10 new battery-powered vehicles. The vehicles together with the related technology like the charging boxes and energy storage would be promotedunder the EQ panel, providing more visibility.

Meeting Restricted Emissions Standards

Chief Executive Officer of Daimler, Dieter Zetsche had mentioned in Paris that they are now flipping the switch and are ready for the launch of an electric product offensive which would be covering all vehicle segments from the compact to the luxury class.

In particular, European manufacturers seem to be slow in developing a rational electric car strategy with the exception of BMW AG, having two diverse cars built around a carbon-fibre architecture which seems to be on the road already. The appeal of electric cars has been widened with Tesla’s success with the buyers in the U.S. and Norway, though the U.S. manufacturer has faltered while seeking to lift output which its well-established European opponents could have less trouble in achieving.

Though the cost of batteries seemed to have dropped in making electric cars reasonably priced, the turnabout of the industry also comes from stress in meeting the restricted emissions standards. The European Union is in search of efficiency progress in the next five years which would be almost double the gains since 2010.

What is a DDoS attack? And could my computer be a weapon?

Anonymous is a notorious hackers group which has recently caused a massive cyber-attack on a web hosting service provider which offers hosting services to a number of business site in the world. Anonymous has issued a chilling warning about an impending cyber-attack through Distributed Denial of Service through its Twitter handle. DDoS attack are the most favored and common way of launching attack on any website wherein the site is overloaded with service request to such a point wherein it ceases to function.

Its servers buckled down under the pressure and the site goes offline for the users which results in millions of dollars in loss for the business house which operates the site. Furthermore coming from such attack isn’t an easier affair as it requires a lot of time, money and expertise to bring site back to its full functionality coupled with latest security measures.

Quite recently a number of major banks and popular sites & services have taken a hit by Anonymous attack which includes Twitter, Netflix and Spotify. Anonymous has not stated at which establishment or corporate sector or even the site they will be attacking next with their DDoS attack.
Anonymous hackers group has shades of white and black

Over the years Anonymous has been able to get favorable support from the people all round the world through their good work. Anonymous hackers group has launched massive attacks against the Islamic State in the past which has left the notorious terrorist organization in online turmoil.

They launched a DDoS attack against the Australian PM website when Australia was thinking about block the malicious content on the website which was direct attack to user’s online freedom. In similar fashion Anonymous took down as many as eight Tunisian government website with DDoS attacks when they found that it was subduing the freedom of the speech of the people.

Quite recently it launched a massive cyber attack against a little webs hosting service provider which helped in bringing down the Twitter, Netflix, Spotify among others. Anonymous can easily be described as a group of activists which came together in 2003. Since November 2015 when Paris attacks took place Anonymous has declared a cyber war on the ISIS. Most of the time Anonymous takes down the website offline in order to bring focus towards the social justice or censorship present in the nation.

Huge number of popular website goes down

A number of users on global scale ranging from US to European regions are reported that they were inaccessible to the major popular site which includes, AirBnB, Pinterest, PayPal as well as PlayStation’s online service.

This particular DDoS attack was targeted on the Dyn which is a little known hosting service provider for a wide number of popular high traffic websites. Currently US authorities are investing this attack while Dyn has made a statement where it accepted attack on its servers. Dyn is working towards mitigating and monitoring the attack against its Managed DNS infrastructure.

Hackers Used New Weapons to Disrupt Major Websites Across U.S.

Crucial sites were difficult to reach to individuals crosswise over wide swaths of the United States on Friday after an organization that oversees vital parts of the web's framework said it was under assault. Programmers unleashed a mind-boggling operation on the internet through some devices like webcams and computerized recorders and slice access to a portion of the world's best-known sites, a staggering rupture of worldwide web dependability. Clients reported sporadic issues achieving a few sites, including The New York Times, Spotify, Twitter, Reddit, Airbnb,Etsy, SoundCloud, and Netflix. The organization, Dyn, whose servers screen and reroute web activity, said it started encountering what security specialists called a dispersed dissent of-administration assault in the early morning.

Reports that numerous locales were blocked off began on the East Coast, however, spread westbound in three waves as the day wore on and into the night. Also, in an upsetting improvement, the assault seems to have depended on a huge number of web associated gadgets without their proprietors' knowledge — with programming that permits programmers to summon them to surge an objective with overpowering activity.

The assaults were not just more regular, they were greater and more advanced. The run of the mill assault dramatically increased in size. Besides, the aggressors were all the while utilizing diverse techniques to assault the organization's servers, making them harder to stop. The most successive targets were organizations that give web foundation administrations like Dyn.

The main cause and working of the gadgets-

Jason Read, the creator of the web execution checking firm CloudHarmony, possessed by Gartner Inc., said his organization followed a half-hour-long interruption early Friday influencing access to numerous destinations from the East Coast. Dyn is a New Hampshire-based supplier of administration for overseeing DNS, which goes about as switchboard associating web activity. Krebs, whose site was focused by a comparative assault in September, said the XiongMai gadgets are basically unfixable and will remain a threat to others unless they are completely expelled from the web.

These gadgets are thusly used to make a botnet, or robot system, to send a large number of messages that thumps the out casualties' PC frameworks. The source code for Mirai was discharged on the purported dull web, locales that work as a kind of online underground for programmers, toward the start of the month.

The assault comes during an era of increased open affectability and worry that the country's establishments and framework could confront huge scale hacking assaults. The latest illustration has been the arrival of messages stolen from the servers of the Democratic National Committee, which the USA knowledge sources say was the work of Russian Federation.

The theme has come up often amid the fall's hard-battled presidential crusade. The US Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation both were mutually exploring the late blackout. Dyn authorities wouldn't affirm the figure amid a phone call later Friday with correspondents.

It is too soon to figure out who was behind the assaults, however, it is this kind of assault that has US authorities concerned. They are concerned that an assault could keep nationals from submitting votes.

Computer Engineers Boost App Speeds by More than Nine Percent

New Method of Boosting Speed of Computer Application – 9%

A new method of boosting the speed of computer application by 9% more has been discovered by researchers from North Carolina State University and Samsung Electronics.The developments are the cause of technologies which permit computer processor to recover data much more efficiently.

To perform operations, the computer processors need to recover the data from memory which is stored in off-chip `main’ memory. The data which is utilised the most is also stored temporarily in a die-stacked dynamic random access memory – DRAM cache that is placed nearer to the process which can be recovered much faster.

The data in the store is organized in large blocks or macro-blocks so that the processor identifies where to locate whichever data is required. But for any specified operation, the processor may not need all the data in a macro-block and recovering the non-essential data tends to be time consuming.

For efficiency of the process, researchers have established a procedure wherein the cache learns over a period of time which data the processor would require from each macro-block. This enables the cache to perform two things. Firstly it can compress the macro-block recovering only the relevant data that permits the cache to send data efficiently to the processor.

Dense Footprint Cache

Secondly, since the macro-block has a tendency to be compressed, it tends to free up space in the cache which can be utilised to store the other data that the processor would probably require. This approach had been investigated by the researchers known as Dense Footprint Cache in a processor and memory simulator.

On running 3 billion instructions for each application that had been tested through the simulator, the researchers observed that the Dense Footprint Cache had raced up application by around 9.5% in comparison to the state-of-the-art challenging systems for managing die-stacked DRAM.

Die-stacked DRAM technology permits a huge Last level Cache – LLC which offers high bandwidth data admission to the processor but needs a large tag array. This could take a major amount of space of the on-chip SRAM budget.

 In order to reduce the SRAM overhead, systems such as Intel Haswell tends to depend on huge block –Mblock size. One disadvantage of large Mblock size is that several bytes of Mblock may not be required by the processor though are drawn in the cache.

Last Level Cache Miss Ratios

Dense Footprint Cache utilised 4.3% less energy. The researcher also observed that the Dense Footprint Cache had a substantial enhancement with regards to `last-level cache miss ratios’. Last-level cache misses takes place when the processors attempts to recover the data from the store though the data is not there thereby compelling the processor to recover the data from off-chip main memory.

 These cache misses tend to make the operation far less competent.The Dense Footprint Cache also tends to reduce last-level cache miss ratios by about 43%. The work had been featured in a paper - `Dense Footprint Cache: Capacity-Efficient Die-Stacked DRAM Last Level Cache’ which was presented at the International Symposium on Memory Systems in Washington, D.C. on October 3 – 6.

The lead author of the paper is said to be Seunghee Shin, a Ph.D. student at NC State and the paper had been co-authored by Yan Solihin. Yan Solihin is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and Sihong Kim of Samsung Electronics.

How to Manage Your Security Settings on Facebook

Facebook developed in the previous years to wind up the biggest online interpersonal organization in the world. It spread so much that even our neighbors, folks, and inaccessible relatives, even from remote regions of the nation, now continually utilize it. It's the place where everyone is dynamic, from family, companions, work partners, and outsiders who just chose to include us as their friends. That's why Facebook has rolled out a few improvements to its security settings over its lifetime, so it merits looking up to check whether you're still just giving the general population you need your private data and photographs.

Here are some basic approaches to ensure your security.

1. Restrain access to you and your Facebook stuff To limit access to your past and future Facebook posts, click Privacy in the left sheet of the Account Settings. At that point pick Limit Past Posts under the option of who can see it and in similar segment another option of who can see future posts. A message will pop up when you endeavor to restrain access to all your past posts without a moment's delay as opposed to changing the setting post-by-post. The alternatives under "Who can reach me?" let you confine companion demands and channel the messages you get. You can also limit your audience by restricting email address and telephone number 
2. Secure browsing A few times ago, Facebook made secure perusing the default for all clients. To guarantee you're utilizing a safe association at whatever point one is accessible, click Security in the left sheet of Facebook's Account Settings and ensure Secure Browsing is enabled. The security settings likewise give you a chance to empower sign in warnings and endorsements and see and alter your perceived gadgets and dynamic sessions. To evacuate a gadget, click Edit to one side and after that Remove beside the gadget's entrance. In like manner, to end one or all dynamic Facebook sessions, click Edit to one side of Active Sessions and pick End Activity or End All Activity, separately. 
3. Approve tags To trigger the survey of posts you labeled in before they show up on your course of events, you can choose Edit to one side of the section and select Enable in the drop-down menu. There In the timeline and tagging options you can enable or disable your posts' appearance by selection of options like "How can I manage tags people add and tagging suggestions?" , "Who can post to my timeline?" etc. 
4. Facebook Application A large portion of the most prevalent applications now associates with your Facebook profile, implying that your action on those applications may be posted on your Facebook profile. Be that as it may, to do this, the applications need to get consent, which is the place you can step in. In Settings, go to the Apps area and select "Select All" to see what authorizations applications have. You may need some of these to have the capacity to post for your sake - Instagram for instance - however, you may not need your dating applications to do as such, for instance. Click an application to alter protection settings.
5. Read and always try to be updated Set aside the time to peruse and comprehend the norms and terms of Facebook. Remain in order to the progressions that are updating regularly try to learn and read more often. The best aspect regarding Facebook is the capacity to custom yours and your companions experience. 

13 Hidden Features in Google Pixel Phone You Won’t Find in Any Manual

The unique features and overall look of the Google’s maiden smartphone is a real blend of glass and metal, which may be considered as one of the most sophisticated assets of any potential user and the envy of others. There are lots of shortcuts, useful features and above all, some exciting extras, which made the phone a pride-catch for any individual. Some of the most exhilarating and useful features of this Google’s first phone, the Pixel, are as follows:

1. Fastness: This phone is considered as one of the fastest phones and the performance is so electrifying that it can operate in a record time, without touching the screen. Just by tapping and swiping down the fingerprint sensor at the rear, the phone can be unlocked and reveal the notifications. 
2. Taking Trivia: The Google Assistant knowing it better and having the ability to perform the test of the user’s knowledge, such as; if you ask the phone to play the interesting “Lucky Trivia”, it will ask five trivia question, to be answered by you. 
3. Instant Photo: The impressive inbuilt camera can be opened up, just by double clicking of the button for instant opening and click. 
4. Hidden Shortcuts: Not only is the phone itself but the apps also having some of the most interesting hidden shortcuts, which help in the easy operation. 
5. Less Hidden Shortcuts: If the user wants to make any shortcut easier, he can do so just by dragging the same to the Home screen permanently. 
6. GIFs of Real-Life: The Pixel camera has the unique ability to save the individual photo and also having the capability of turning these photos as animated GIF separately. 
7. Too Many GIFs: In addition to the real life GIFs, this phone has the unique and hidden feature, which helps in categorizing of animated photo to a great extent. 
8. Photo Tweaks: The Pixel is one of the most advantageous features of the phone, which helps the user to have the control of focus, just by holding the finger on the screen, to make the photos brighter and sharper. 
9. Selfie Smart: The stealthy and swift switching mode is the cameras, is the basic characteristic of the Google’s phone and it’s the handiest for the user in getting intended pictures. 
10. Smart Storage: The uniqueness of this phone is; the unlimited storing capacity of all photos and captured videos. This is possible by automatic deletion of older backup photos, as when required. 
11. Reminder: The reminding option is a very important feature of this phone, which reminds the user with go-to-bed and other notifications, with proper synchronization. 
12. Just Be Quiet: If any user doesn’t want to get notified about any call or messages; he can simply use the feature “Do Not Disturb”, which will block all sorts of beeps and rings for an hour. 
13. Not The Only Guide: One can access an expert, in case it is needed, just by tapping the Support tab in the prominent setting menu for a phone conversation or text chatting.  

Researchers Show Air Bag Bike Helmets Have Promise

Foam Bike Helmets – Reduce Possibility of Skull Fracture/Brain Damages

An assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford, David Camarillo is well aware that bicycling had been the main cause of sports and activity connected concussion together with brain injury in the United States.

With bicycling accidents, he had received two concussions and though he is not doubtful that wearing a helmet would be better than no helmet at all, he is of the belief that the traditional helmets do not seem to be protective for the rider as much as they should.

Camarillo had stated that foam bike helmets have proved to reduce the possibility of skull fracture together with other severe brain damages. However he thinks that many misleadingly are of the belief that bike helmets tend to protect against concussion, which is not true.

Being aware of what he does regarding the traditional bike helmets, Camarillo whose lab tends to work on understanding and preventing concussions decided to experiment a new kind of helmet, which is available in some of the European countries. The outcomes have been included in the September 27 edition of Annals of Biomedical Engineering.

Designed to Address Situations

The helmet which Camarillo had tested has a soft pocket worn around the neck which tends to pop up like an air bag around the head of the person when it gets alerted of a possible collision.

 Initially he had been designed to address the situations that people did not desire to wear helmets for visual reasons This air bag helmet had been compared to the traditional foam bike helmets by the researchers where the results seemed to be quite remarkable.

Mehmet Kurt, a postdoctoral scholar in the Camarillo Lab commented that they conducted drop test which seemed like typical federal test to assess bicycle helmet and observed that air bag helmets with the precise initial pressure could reduce head accelerations five to six times in comparison to traditional bicycle helmet.

The drop test comprises of placing the helmets on dummy head with accelerometers and dropping it, from neck-side up from different height on a metal platform. At two different angles, the head form had been tilted, faking hits of the crown as well as the side of the head.

More Cushioned Fall

Researchers had dropped the helmets from 0.8 meters to a height of two meters and had measured the direct speeding up of the helmet when it had hit the ground. Camarillo had informed that the huge size of the air bag helmet in comparison to foam bike helmets seems to be a possible source of its achievement.

Besides being large, it can also be soft enabling a more cushioned fall. But this cushioning seems to have a possible shortcoming. The air bag helmet, during the experiment was pre-inflated and the researchers had exploited the pressure of the air in the helmet before each drop to obtain the results.

 Deprived of the maximum amount of the air, the air bag helmet could bottom out resulting in the head to hit the ground with more force than it would be in the case of a traditional foam helmet. In the present form of the air bag helmet, a chemical process tends to activate expansion that does not guarantee maximum air pressure.

Getting Robots to Teach Each Other New Skills

Google – Robots Utilising Shared Experiences

Robots have not got hold of human intelligence still but the researchers of Google have shown how they have been progressing in utilising downloadable intelligence. Just envisage if you could be better at some skill by not just learning and practising but by accessing the brains of another to tap directly in their experiences.

That would be science fiction for human, but in the case of AI powered robotics, it could be a possibility to shortcut training times by having robots to share their experiences. Recently, Google had demonstrated this with its grasping robotic arms.

James Kuffner, former head of robotics of Google had created a term for this kind of skills acquisition, six years back, naming it `cloud robotics’. It recognises the effect of distributed sensors and processing supported by data centres and quicker networks.

 Presently Knuffer, the CTO of the Toyota Research Institute where his focus lies on cloud robotics in bringing about reality domestic helper robots. UK artificial intelligence lab, Google Research, Deep Mind together with Google X continues to discover cloud robotics in quickening general purpose skills acquisition in robots. In many demonstration video that were recently published, Google has portrayed robots utilising shared experiences to learn quickly how to move objects and open doors.

Robots – Own Copy of Neural Network

Out of the three multi-robot approaches which the researchers have been utilising is reinforcement learning, or trial and error together with deep neural networks which is the same approach that DeepMind is using in training its AI, is being skilled at Atari video games and Chinese board game Go.

Every robot tends to have its own copy of neural network which assists it to decide the ideal action in opening the door. Google has constructed data quite quickly with the addition of interference. Recording the robots actions, behaviours and concluding outcome is done by a central serve, which utilises those experiences in order to build an improved neural network which assists the robots enhancing the task.

As portrayed in two videos by Google, after a training of 20 minutes the robotics arms fumbled around for the handle though ultimately managed to open the door. But in the span of three hours, the robots could reach for the handle with ease, twist it and then pull to open the door.

Google Training Robots to Construct Mental Models 

Another system which they have been exploring could be helpful for robots to follow commands in moving objects around the home and it is here that Google has been training its robots to construct mental models on how things tend to move in response to definite actions by building experience of where pixels turn out on a screen after a certain action is done.

The robots tends to share their experiences of nudging different object surrounding a table, assisting them forecast what could happen should they tend to take a specific course of action. The researchers are ultimately exploring methods for the robots to study from humans. Google’s researchers directed robots to the doors and exhibited how to open them. These actions had been encoded in deep neural network which tends to transform camera images to robot actions.

Email addiction: How to Break Your Inbox Dependence

Email - Top Blockers of Productivity 

Email seems to be a kind of productive stalling which we desire to depend on. Though we do not seem to work on our real mission we contemplate on just answering the emails for some few minutes. This thought process seems to give rise to bad habits and some few minutes of checking the emails could prolong for a longer period than intended. The outcome is that several individuals acknowledge that checking the emails frequently seems to be an issue for productivity.

In the Work Management Survey by Wrike in 2015, around 40% of the respondents identified email as one of their top blockers of productivity. Replying to email had been considered as unfavourable to productivity, than unclear significances, putting off as well as also short deadlines. A latest book, Unsubscribe – How To Kill Email Anxiety, Avoid Distraction and Get Real Work Done, states that email addiction is a time-wasting epidemic in the modern workplace and is focused in helping those who tend to feel overcome by their inbox.Individuals tend to be disrupting their own work on a regular basis without even realizing it. In order to resolve this issue, it is essential to comprehend what seems to be going on in the brain and why does one seem to be obsessed with the inbox.

Increase Stress

Some recent studies confirm this theory and one has found that an average worker tends to check their email 77 times each day, sends as well as receives more than 100 and checks their first one immediately on waking up. Another study has observed that 90% tend to check work emails regularly outside office hours. Researchers have found that we tend to make up for it by spending 3.1 hours a day dealing with personal email when at work. The author of Unsubscribe, Jocelyn K Glei states that while checking emails all through the day could make one feel production, the disagreement seems to be true. Jocelyn also mentioned that besides being a big waste of time, staying on top of the emails continually seems to increase stress also. She informed that `scientists have established a clear link between spending time on email and stress. It means that the more frequently one would check their email, the more exhausted they may feel. In order to have a healthier relationship with your box you could keep in mind the following:

Avoid checking it every five minutes

Study from Loughborough University has found that it takes around 64 seconds for recovering your train of thought after reading an email. Jocelyn adds that `the human brain seems to have a tendency to want to complete task and when it recognises a task is completed, it then release the feel-good hormone dopamine. This is why we tend to feel happy on clearing our inbox or ticking things off a to-do list. But scientists have also found out that the brains mainly likes completing small easy tasks and the impeccable example of the same is the email. Thus dealing with the emails at first tends to feel relaxing and productive, though it also seems to be a never-ending job and after some time the unread emails seems like incomplete task which makes one feel apprehensive. One could check the emails every half hour instead of every three minutes and strive to check it a few times in the day at fixed times.

Close an email conversation

Due to the `Reply to all’ button, with the to and fro conversations, one tends to waste time and focus, according to Jocelyn. She adds that email is not a forum for discussion or debate. Hence reply and politely close down the conversation. The workplace chat apps like Slack are big in the US where they permit colleagues with on-going chats which are divided by subjects and teams and thus one ends up loaded with emails with the fear of missing something of importance. Work emails should be short, simple and if it cannot be solved quickly through email, a meeting could be recommended. This could resolve getting involved with email threads which seems to be time consuming.

Hide your Inbox

Each time the user tends to stop and glance at the inbox, they seem to be incurring something which according to researchers is known as a `switching cost’. But research has shown that having your email program open in the background while working tends to reduce the performance and even if it is minimised, one can see new emails coming in, your brain is aware that they are there, devoting some amount of energy monitoring them. She recommends avoiding this by closing down the email outside your set `checking’ time or placing the screen so one cannot see it.

Create an email hierarchy 

Jocelyn states that the independent nature of email means that everyone can have access to you and your time. Your inbox seems to be a total mix of relevant as well as random individuals, though usually only 5 to 10% of the emails seem to be helpful or important. She suggests categorising the people who tend to email you.

Tackle tricky emails promptly

Willpower tends to decline during the workday and hence morning checking session should be utilised in dealing with emails which need creativity or concentration while the afternoon to deal with the lesser ones which need a quick reply or a delete button.

Not everything seems to be urgent 

Merely5 to 10% of the emails seem to be urgent or important and hence it is not essential to check them during dinner with friends or in bed.

It is OK to ignore some of the emails

While replying to every email one may be considered polite, but time is a limited factor and hence one should not feel obliged in replying to cold-call emails from strangers.

Publicise your email habits

You could inform your colleagues that you only check your emails a few times a day so they can discern what to expect from you.

Let go of the zero inbox notion 

Jocelyn informs that an empty inbox is not a measure of productivity and hence one should let go of the notion that you would ever have one.

The Water Taxi of the Future

A lot of stress has been given towards decreasing the number of cars present on the road by actively promoting carpooling, improvising the transit system and creating bike paths. These attempts will help in freeing the roads in mega cities which possess vast road system but no one has given the thought towards making transit easier in those cities where waterways are abundant.

There is a great scope in bringing such vehicles which revolutionize the use of rivers and canals among the commuters. Thankfully one company thinks about them, SeaBubbles, has come up with an elegant solution to popularize the river ways and canals by unveiling its futuristic four-passenger water taxis.

Features of futuristic water taxis

SeaBubbles futuristic water taxis will help in building city wide transportation network on waterways. These water taxis can easily be summoned by an Uber-like app and these happen to be self-driving in nature which passengers will just have to feed in the destination and get ready for a memorable ride at 30 mph.

The story of SeaBubbles

It was started literally started by water navigators namely Alain Thebault, a sailor and Anders Bringdal, a windsurfer about seven months ago. They have raised $500,000 with SeaBubbles and they have set a goal of making it up to $1million by next year.

What makes SeaBubble great? 

SeaBubble expertise comes from the experience of the team behind it. Thebault has successfully built a win-powered trimaran yatch called Hydroptere in the past. The best thing about this yatch is that it barely touches the water surface instead swiftly glides few feet in the air.

It has made a number of modification and revision to the concept art. At first it shows no room for the wings but later on brings wings for added agility. It should be understood that SeaBubble is actively working towards improving concept art and to attract funding from the prospective investors. As per the estimates of the SeaBubble its water taxi will be ready for testing in August 2016 and it will get into production phase in January 2017. It has set the target of May 2017 fo deliveries of the water taxis.

It has a number of hurdles in front of it which includes proving that boat actually works; making perfect designs for the docking stations and it abides by the local municipal laws. Furthermore drivers will be trained to make use of the self driving software and a unique sensor system will be developed to navigate the tricky water of the rivers.

Limitation for SeaBubbles water taxis

It ambitious water taxis suffer from the geographical limitation which means it can only help in connecting between the two points which borders water. Furthermore these points have to be near transit hubs or luxury or popular destination in order to appear as a prime alternative or lucrative option for the commuters. A number of cities round the globe has navigable river which means SeaBubbles ambitious water taxi will certainly find the fancy of the commuters on global scale.

Google DayDream

Google Daydream View handset

Daydream View handset has been revealed by Google together with various apps and games which can be utilised on your Daydream-ready phone. Google had also announced that the new Pixel as well as Pixel XL smartphone would be the first handsets to be Google Daydream ready.

These are said to be the best phones to purchase if one would prefer to use Daydream when the headset is launched. Google Daydream is said to be the latest effort of bringing VR to mobile devices by Google and is very much different than Google Cardboard.

 Unlike the earlier somewhat disposable VR headset of Google that had been focused in getting people in the VR door with low cost and low smartphone proficiency requirements, Daydream tends to have more tough vision which seems to have its sight set on offering higher-quality experiences to Android Nougat users.

Daydream would be bringing more exciting as well as absorbing VR experiences to users who seem unable to afford a HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. It is likely to be on sale in November in the US priced at $79 though there is no information on when it would be released in the UK or Australia.

ZTE VR – Android Nougat/VR Maintenance Software Update

Google has also claimed that Samsung, Asus, Alcatel, LG, HTC, Xiaomi and ZTE will be manufacturing phones which would be `Daydream ready’. Besides these, Huawei has also confirmed that it would be making Daydream-ready phone together with headsets and controllers.

The first smartphone, the ZTE Axon 7, has been announced to be Google Daydream compatible together with its own VR headset – the ZTE VR which requires Android Nougat as well as necessary VR maintenance software update of Google to pull it off. This would be coming in the Android Nougat 7.1 update.

Google Daydream will be running apps as well games download from Play Store thus making it simple in locating experiences in utilising the headset. Towards the end of 2016, as per Google, there would more than 50 apps and games made available to the users on the platform.

In the forthcoming months, HBO, Netflix and Hulu would be having Daydream ready apps. The New York Times would be launching an app for its VR videos also.

Clickable Touch Pad

When the platform is launched, Google would be making its own apps compatible with the Daydream platform comprising of Play Movies, Photos, YouTube and Maps. Announcement had also been done by Unity and Epic on the development support for Daydream from the gaming point of things.

The Daydream View headset portrayed by Google is said to be one choice for Google Daydream VR which enables the companies to take a hold on the tech that would probably result in various looking headsets. Limited information regarding its controller resembling a Wii remote have been provided by Google.

It shares some common physical qualities for the modern TV touch remote of Apple. It will be featuring a clickable touch pad, towards its top which will bring native touchscreen like gestures to the virtual world. Then there is an app button which tends to put your apps in view and finally the home button takes you back to the home screen of Google Daydream.

Periscope Extends beyond Phones as Twitter Tries to Take on Facebook Live

Twitter is second most popular social media platform after Facebook and it has been getting stiff competition from it when it comes to keep users engaged and entertained on the platform. Recently Facebook has launched the Facebook Live feature which allows users to create live videos and proclaim the happening in their lives to the followers in an instant. Twitter has brought a similar feature on its platform in the name of Periscope which essentially is a live-video service. Periscope services has been launched to broaden the audience reach and to keep audience engaged on the Twitter platform.

Periscope will be a delight for the individuals and media outlets alike

Twitter’s Periscope Producer will allow the media outlets and individuals to create live video feeds which will be uploaded directly on the Twitter. Periscope made its debut last year but it has strictly confined to the smartphone. Now users wouldn’t even require smartphone to record and broadcast live videos using the Periscope feature. In order to test the capability of the advanced Periscope Florida television station broadcasted a live video on its official website later it was redistributed to the same feeds on the television. In beginning Twitter will only allow major producers such as Disney and ANC News along with a number of major media outlets to make use of the Periscope.

Privacy is a huge concern for Twitter

Since the launch of Periscope service people have started using it for broadcasting the live video of TV shows and movies from their smartphone. This has resulted in the unwanted rise in the piracy issue which doesn’t go well with the video content producers such as much labels and movie production houses.

Twitter has high hopes from Periscope Service

Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey has stated that the launch of Periscope will help in increasing the popularity as well as reach of its messaging service. Twitter has already indulged in steaming the news, sports events as well as the entertainment segment based content. Twitter is aiming towards offering more to the users than just offering a great way to set out their thoughts in tweets and to keep tab on the happening in and around them. Dorsey further elaborates that inclusion of the Periscope will offer a great way to upload, share and view live videos on global scales.

Everyone wants to jump on live video wagon

A number of internet companies ranging from SnapChat to Facebook have jumped upon the wagon of bringing live-video functionality on their platform in order to generate huge advertising money later on. Some of the companies have even started to experiment with live streaming functionality for the marketing purpose. This includes General Motors which has launched its upcoming electric car named Chevy Bolt EV through using the Facebook Live at the beginning of this year. On other hand media outlets are utilizing the live video feed to broadcast the presidential debates in US.

With the launch of Periscope Twitter also jumps up in the live streaming train and joins other popular live-streaming services such as Twitch and YouTube.

The Best Project Management Software for Syncing Team Efforts

Online Project Management Software – Visibility & Control

Users looking to make their daily routines much easier to manage, should visit Wrike, an online software for project management that is utilised by high-performance teams and productivity experts around the globe. Wrike’s project management tools and features make it easier to manage tasks and projects so that teamwork and collaboration become efficient. Additionally, Wrike gives you more visibility around who does what, when tasks are due, and how each task fits into the larger picture.

The company was established in 2007 with headquarters in Mountain View California. Wrike has been acknowledged by San Francisco Business Times/Silicon Valley Business Journal as one of the Best Places to Work as well as one of the Top 100 Workplaces in 2015, by the Bay Area News Group.

Translated into 10 languages, Wrike is used in 120 countries and in 2014 was also awarded Cool Vendor status by Gartner. Being an online project management software, it provides complete visibility together with control over all tasks that must be performed. With the support of the software, project management gets easier. Wrike becomes the control point in coordinating efforts with the rest of the business. Their project management tools include being able to organize tasks into folders, time tracking, an interactive timeline, communication and feedback on the tasks themselves, and online collaboration features for teams of any size.

Heightened User Experience

 

The main purpose of the software is to assist in optimizing your workflow and enabling your company to focus on fundamental tasks. There are useful features for marketing and creative teams in the form of proofing and approval, resource and workload management, document versioning, project templates, time tracking and budgeting, together with visual dashboards and reporting. You can organize your project any which way you please and complete it all in one place.

Wrike also has mobile apps for both Android and iOS devices. With the native Android app, you can work on your tasks with ease, no matter where you are. The Wrike Android app tends to provide much more convenience and efficient project management functions. The new app has a heightened user experience that makes creating, editing, scheduling, and discussing tasks while on-the-go so much easier. The recently released mobile dashboard also provides an overview of your important tasks within seconds.

With the mobile app for iOS, one can log ideas, update tasks, or leave feedback while on the go. It almost takes away the need to open a laptop since your mobile device can easily accomplish most of the work that needs doing. More importantly, your mobile is always at handm, making important details readily available at your fingertips.
 

Sync Team Efforts & Keep Projects on Track

With Wrike, one can synchronize a team’s efforts, keep the project on the track and get additional tasks performed together in the cloud. It is an ideal real-time workspace where one can find the team collaborating in order to get tasks done with precision and efficiency. With Wrike, productive performance of every team member can be amplified, regardless of where they may be located in the world. No matter what your workflow looks like, Wrike can help improve communication and clarity as well as accountability in accomplishing the the parts of any project.

   

Microsoft New Reality Hololens Comes to UK

Microsoft has wasted no time in launching its own VR headset after the anticipation filled launch of the Sony’s PlayStation VR just a few days back. Sony’s launch of VR headset was due for a long time which helped in creating a buzz around it and Sony has carefully launched a number of game titles to with it. So far Microsoft has stayed clear of doing anything with VR as other rivals has been actively developing and launching products in this segment. Microsoft isn’t bringing a pure VR experience to the users with its VR headset rather it is bringing a ‘mixed reality’. Microsoft has also averted the use of term ‘augmented reality’ for promoting its HoloLens for popularizing its own ‘mixed reality’ concept.

Microsoft HoloLens was first launched in US 

Microsoft HoloLens will be making its way to six new countries which includes UK and preorder are opening from today while delivered will likely to be made in late-November. Microsoft has launched HoloLens in its home country ‘US’ way back in March but it has not yet emerged as a dominant player in the VR segment. It is worth noting that Microsoft HoloLens is only available for the developers and enterprises in US for a massive price of $2,700. In order to increase the popularity and to offer greater functionality and feature on its HoloLens Microsoft has partnered with a wide range of commercial partners which includes Audi, Nasa and Lowe for application creation.

Make most of the HoloLens 

Microsoft HoloLens brings vast opportunities for the users to utilize ot for variety of purposes. Users can make Skype call on the headset using the Microsoft’s Skype application especially optimized for this device. Herein users will be able to experience the true extent of the virtual reality when person face appears on the space in front of the user.

A lift making company called Thyssnkrup is already making use of the HoloLens to give direct advice to engineers in field regarding the repairs and work with Skype. Simply tapping or pinching on the holographic objects can help in moving them from one position to another or users can even indulge in core painting exercises using HoloLens.

The might of HoloLens

During the launch event Microsoft showcased the potential of the HoloLens by bringing in a live project from the Case Western which is being utilized as teaching aid for the medical students. During this a human body appeared right in the middle of the room wherein first skeletons emerged then whole set of internal organs were made visible to the people. Users can easily walk past it or interact with the image by moving away different layers with different motion centric gestures.

Headset is light weight and doesn’t cause a strain on the neck but it will take some time before you become habituated to it. Microsoft mixed reality is an unproven technology at the moment but it has shown its mettle in this short demonstration where it brought a swift mixing of the real and virtual world.

Meet Luigi MIT's Sewer Scouring Robot

Luigi – Sewer Trawling Robot

A sewer-trawling robot has been created by Underworlds, a project from Senseable City Lab of MIT which has been designed in connecting the gold mine of information prowling in the sewer.The robot in question is known as Luigi and up to now, has been deployed underground in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Boston and Kuwait as a part of an experimental program which could be spun out in various cities worldwide.

Scientists are of the belief that on researching fecal matter they would be capable of envisaging the spread of infectious diseases, provide an image of the collective health of the community together with influence policy. The Underground project, launched in 2015, has been bringing experts together from engineering, public health and biology sectors.

Carol Ratti, MIT professor, co-principal investigator and founder of Senseable City Lab had commented that `the name (Underworlds) tends to highlight the rich amount of insights hidden in our cities and in this case in sewage’. Scientists can monitor urban health patterns and diabetes, analyse drug usage as well as identify antibiotic-resistant bacteria, by sampling and interpreting human waste.

Biomarkers in Human Waste – Insight in Infectious Diseases

Co-principal investigator of Underworlds and director of the Alm Lab, Eric Alm had explained that ` we all tend to flush valuable health data in the toilet. Sewers tend to signify an exceptional opportunity where health data from everyone in a community is assembled together.

With the provision of biomarkers in human waste, they are in a position of obtaining some insight regarding infectious diseases like flu strains, which has ultimately made it possible for the scientists to expect and alleviate epidemics. Collection of fecal samples is not really a desirable task.

 Ratti recalls that initially the sampling method had been very `low-tech’ and the same was lowered to a 20-foot pole with a bottle taped to the end of it in a manhole and the sample had been scooped out. Sampling waste by hand was not enjoyable and hence they started developing the robots.

To quicken things up, the team had installed a large pump at street level. He commented that all these methods seemed to be quite messy. It was then that the first automated sewage-scouring robot, Mario had come to the rescue.

Nintendo – First Generation Model

Named after the famous plumber, Nintendo, the first generation model updated the process though was not adequately fast. Then came in Luigi, which has been much more compact and economical wherein the new model has enabled the team to streamline the collection process.

Luigi measuring around 3feet long and 3 inches in diameter comes with a motor, pump together with a filter. In order to get the task done, the remote-controlled robot tends to descend from street level to the waste water and seizes the bacteria by pumping the water through a filtration system.

 On obtaining the samples Luigi tends to return to street level for refining and dispensation. Ratti has stated that usually the examination of sewage is carried out in the treatment plants beyond the cities which tend to lose the precise data owing to the time in transport.

However they are capable of beginning the filtration process of fecal and urinary matter in situ. Moreover accumulating fresh sample seems to be critical since gut bacteria tend to die off as soon as they enter the sewer system.

Are Killer Bots About to Do Away with Smartphone Apps?

Bots - Little Digital Assistants

Smartphone app has been around and Apple tends to have two million on them in its App Store while Google Play seems to have some few hundred thousand more than that. The Aggregate downloads of app have crossed over 150 billion mark. However some have been speculating whether the apps would be replaced by something lesser, smarter and quicker.

Due to artificial intelligence software, bots have been programmed to chat to humans through text, remove the meaning and then perform on it. They seem to be little digital assistants. One would be talking to a bot at any point of time when you see a live chat box opened up on the website of a retailer or while ordering a taxi or flowers via chat platforms like WeChat and Facebook Messenger.

According to the research by Nielsen, irrespective of the various options on apps, the average number used is 27.The issue with apps and their apparently unending updates is that they tend to consume the storage volume of the smartphone alarmingly rapidly. Developers tend to often get a raw deal. One estimate recommended that 94% of the cash created by the apps in the App Store of Apple to only 1% of publishers and those firm also received 70% of all the downloads.

Bots Natural Successors of Apps

Ted Nash of Tapdaq, a veteran app developer while still a teenager, had commented that one of the worst things regarding the App Store was the App Store since it is a walled garden. He stated that oversights of Apple on all the slows down development and forces programmers of app would comprise of specific chunks of code which tends to look after adverts, usage statistic together with the other metrics.

Further to this, he added that the issue of making apps to function across various devices as well as keeping up with the changes to Apple’s software, it is no wonder some people seemed to be disillusioned. Head of mobile development at accounting software firm Sage, Kriti Sharma, stated that apps use to be the big thing but several more people seem to be messaging that posting on social media.

 This could be the reason why she is of the belief that bots are the natural successors to apps, the interface is promptlyacquainted to consumers.

Pegg – Assisting Small Business Makers

Ms Sharma had begun her career in coding at Barclays where she had co-created its Pingit banking app and supervised its mobile portfolio. She is of the belief that for companies or brands which preferred meaningful interactions with the customers, a chat intervened by a bot would work well.

A bot known as Pegg is being developed by Sage which tends to act as a smart business assistant and would be assisting small business makers in keeping track of outgoings as well as expenses, which would be making the tracking of cash flow much easier.

Ms Sharma had commented that bots do not have to be super-complicated though over a period of time they could add a lot more value for a customer. She states that bots seems to be more reliable since good progress has been made in writing artificially intelligent software.

Moreover since several companies now tend to have massive data they could utilise in fine-tuning the responses of bot. She also claims that bots also tend to have speed with which they can be developed, organized as well as updated

Facebook Messenger Just Rolled Out 'Secret Conversations'

In this digital age consumers are more concerned about their privacy than they have ever before. Facebook is trying to build its credibility in terms of enhancing the security towards safeguarding the privacy of the billion users on its social media platform. For last two months Facebook has been trialing the Secret Conversation named feature which aims to offers end-to-end encryption feature on the Messenger app. A update to the app finally brings this much need encryption to the Facebook messaging app which has more than a billion users on global scale.

Secret Conversation a much needed feature for Messenger

A number of chat apps like SnapChat, WhatsApp and others are already providing the encryption on its platform to safeguard the communication of the users from prying eyes. Over the years chat apps has cemented themselves as a central mode of communication giving way to the age old text messaging.

Having this feature on Messenger will help in placing it among the secure and reliable apps category which will certainly aid in the adoption rate among the targeted audience. End-to-end encryption offers dual benefits as not just app owners but even the hackers and law enforcement agencies wouldn’t be able to access the user information in any way.

How to Use Secret conversations? 

Facebook Messenger will require users to ‘opt-in’ to the Secret Conversations feature. Users can make use of the Secret Conversation by manually selecting ‘Secret’ each time they need to initiate an encrypted conversation with friends. Messenger users can even add expiration time for their sent messages which range from 5 to 24 hour which is quite similar to SnapChat offering. However using the Secret Conversation will limit the amount of action user can perform while sending a message such as access to chatbots, animated GIFs and businesses will be turned off.

Report on messaging apps brings incredible insight

A detailed report generated by Business Insider on messaging apps brings a more refined and valuable look on the messaging market, value and potential. Right in the beginning it states that mobile messaging apps have transformed itself as a massive market with hundreds of millions of monthly active users.

The rise in messaging service apps and their adoption is directly influenced by the steep rise in the penetration of internet and falling of data prices couple with cheaper devices on global scale. Even to reign among the top 5-10 messaging apps isn’t an easy task as user’s preference keeps shifting with time therefore apps has to come up with new innovative ideas to keep their users engaged on their platform.

Currently the leaders in the messaging app platform happen to be the Asian messaging apps such as WeChat, LINE and Kakao Talk. All of these apps commands huge user base while Messenger is still in the nascent stage when compared to the amount of features and services these established apps present to the consumers. However with Secret Conversation Facebook is bringing the challenge back to the leaders in a most credible manner.

Saving money on tech is one way to cut down on spending and it can be achieved as follows:

 

Scan bills for hidden fees

It is never a waste of time to carefully scan your bills to ensure you are not overcharged. This is because it is habitual for a majority of companies to impose extra fees that are never questioned by anyone. There is also the possibility of banks deducting money in form of service and maintenance fee in your already suffering bank account. Make a call and inquire about such charges, if possible request that they be dropped. You could make significant savings from doing just that. It does not matter even if it is just a few dollars of savings, remember that every single dollar counts in such tough economic times.

Coupons

There are numerous useful coupons that can be found online and these are readily available on the right websites. What makes it even better is the fact that a majority of these sites currently have smartphone apps. Which use the Global Positioning System technology of your phone to deliver coupons right away. A good example would be using best buy coupons +Tiger Direct that has huge promo tech deal savings of up to 70%. Alternatively, one could utilize money-saving promotion codes when they get an opportunity to. Promotion codes are strictly coupons for online shopping.

Decrease cellular bills

You should strive to cut back on your cellular service especially when you are experiencing financial doldrums. You might just be surprised on how little data you need to get you through the month. In addition, you could try installing apps that might assist you in saving data. Cancelling is never an option as you require your phone and because activation fees might be charged in order to restore your plan. Alternatively, you can use Wi-Fi on free services such as Skype that allows you to text and call even without a cell phone plan in place.

Lower internet bill

The internet bill can be regarded as one of the most financially draining monthly payments. Individuals spend hundreds of dollars on unnecessary TV and internet. However, if a person is only interested in saving money without altering any of his or her services, then they should consult their provider on waiving other charges or even equipment fee. Alternatively, they could also be able to select an affordable plan that will allow them to make savings.

Forget about replacing your computer

When your computer starts glitching or slowing down, your last option should never be to rush and replace it. Instead, you could try finding ways by which to speed it up, fix its freezing or how to personally sort out other major PC problems without replacing your computer. One way would to entirely replace Windows on an older computer with an OS that is faster such as Chrome OS. This has the ability of refreshing old gear so that it is as good as new.  

Conclusion
With the above five insightful tips, you are now well equipped on how to save money on tech.

A New Pokémon GO Update

Pokemon Go fans are delighted with weekly updates which is making this game more and more exciting and fun. Niantic is staying true to its promise about offering new updates after every few weeks to bring new features in the game. Buddy System was unveiled last month on the Pokemon Go which are highly acclaimed and loved by the players as well. So far players have accumulated a wide number of medals for various for completing certain objectives in the game.

How new update works? 

Niantic has carefully described how this new update works on the Play Store and App Store description itself. It states that players chances of catching a particular kind or category of pokemon will be boosted based on their medal tally with this update. In case a player happens to higher number of Kindler Medal then that player will get more chances at catching the Fire type category Pokemons which includes Vuplix, Charmander and Pontya.

In the game app users will get a sign ‘+1/2/3’ with catch bonus mentioned nearby. This means that players chances of capturing that particular kind of pokemon based on their medal tally will increase by 10%. Catch bonus can even be understood as XP reward for their effort and time. A number of players has argued that it get touch to catch pokemons at higher level of game which seriously limits their ability to explore the game but this update is set to remove all those hard feelings.

What does new update brings to the game? 

This new update in truth acts as a blanket nerf for all the breakout rates which have been provided throughout the game. It will make use of the existing metal tally rather than resetting all the categories of pokemons to provide a valid capture bonus. Currently gold medals are awarded for capturing Normal, Poison, Flying, Water and Psychic types, Silver for Grass, Ghost, Dragon and Bug types while Bronze for the rest of pokemons. This feature works towards making it easier to catch the pokemons at which you excel like if you have more silver medals then you will be catch new pokemons in that particular with ease.
Little bit of confusion stills surrounds the new update
Some of the things are unclear in the new update which includes the ‘+’ capture bonus. It can be 10% per level or 30% per level or even be just 1% per level. Currently it is not possible to make out the real functionality of this ‘+’ sign though it can be easily believed that it will help in making the capacity better at the end. Niantic should be applauded for its effort in continuously improving the game-play as well as keeping existing users engaged by carefully bringing game centric updates after every few weeks. So far the best addition to the still goes to Buddy System while the recent new medal/capture is filled with its own issues but once they are uncovered it can turn to be a valuable addition as well.

Meet Kirobo Mini, Toyota's adorable new companion robot

Toyota’s Robot – Companionship For Lonely People

Toyoto, the Japanese car maker has unveiled a robot which tends to provide companionship for lonely people. The doe-eyed robot is said to be only four inches tall and speaks in a high-pitched baby voice. The robot known as Kirobo Mini could also have a role as a baby substitute in Japan where the falling birth rates seems to have left several women barren. The Kirobo Mini sale prices is said to go for £300 in Japan.

General Manager in charge of the project, Fuminori Kataoka has stated that its value tends to be emotional and could be a faithful companion for the home or the car. He commented that `Toyota has been making cars which have a tendency to have a lot of valuable uses. However, this time we are just pushing emotional value’.

The Kirobo Mini features a camera, microphone together with Bluetooth that connects to a smartphone and needs to be installed with an exceptional software application. The Kirobo Mini robot is said to be launched in Tokyo, near the company headquarters in central Aichio region next year, before a schedule nationwide rollout. Presently there are no plans of selling the same outside Japan.

According to Kataoka, several people in Japan tend to live alone comprising of the elderly and young singles who seem to need someone or something to communicate with.

Softbank Corp Launched Pepper Humanoid

Mr Kataoka further commented that `this is not smart enough to be called artificial intelligence and the same is about the existence of something you can talk to. It tends to wobble a bit and is meant to compete with a seated baby that has not developed fully, the skills of balancing itself and this susceptibility is meant to invoke an emotional connection.

He goes on to add that a stuffed animal would not reply back though people do talk to it. But if it talked back, wouldn’t that be better? Isn’t this better than talking to a box?’ The awareness of companion robots has already been accepted widely in Japan. The Japanese technology and telecom company Softbank Corp had launched its £1,500 Pepper humanoid last year and the first batch of 1,000 had been sold instantly and so far had sold 10,000 in Japan.

Toyota Heart Project

With robotic experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the process of launching Jibo, a robot which tends to resemble a swivelling lamp, companion robots are being created in the United States also. Artificial intelligence is said to be a progressive part of the car production industry with the development of self-parking and eventually self-driving vehicles.

The aim of Kirobo Mini is to make people feel less lonely and had been developed as part of the Toyota Heart Project which is an initiative of helping in the development of artificial intelligence for improvement of the future world. It has been named after the Japanese word for `hope and talk, gesture besides responding to its owner’s emotions with the use of artificial intelligence and a camera that surveys its surroundings.

It is said to be so small that it can be placed in a car’s cup holder in a distinct, baby seat-like container, Toyota characterizes it as a cuddly companion which is always on hand for a heart-touching communication. According to Tribune reports it can turn its head towards people, laugh as well as talk to them though cannot recognize people.

G Suite: Google Apps for Work Updraded

Google Apps for Work is a suite launched by Google which includes Google’s popular web applications like Google Drive, Gmail, Google Hangouts, Google Calendar, and Google Docs. This September, Google renamed Google Apps for Work as G Suite. The name actually goes with it as it is a suite of collaboration software tools and cloud computing productivity and software offered by Google on a subscription basis.

Some features of G Suite

Google Apps for Work is not only renamed, it is also reframed. The renaming of the Google Apps for Work to G Suite was done to reflect the software’s mission in terms of putting the emphasis on collaboration, according to the company. G Suite contains the same apps which Google Apps for Work contained. G Suite also works the same way but with some differences.

The main difference in G Suite is that its utility is played by the machine’s intelligence. This simply means that this application will do all the repetitive and mechanical tasks quickly which used to take up your lot of time. The programs in G Suite have become smarter than before.

The smarter programs in G Suite

The first program to get smarter is the Google Drive for android. This will allow quick access in Drive on Android, which means, it will help you to pull out the files you need immediately whenever you would open Drive. Google Hangouts is also made easier to set up. Also, Google Calendar is made advanced by enabling Smart Scheduling.

This new version of Google apps for Work, i.e., G Suite has also added Explore to Google Docs, Slides and Sheets. In short, G Suite has made working with the apps very easily and quickly.

Some new information about G Suite

The main advances that G Suite made are –

• Quick Access – This will cut off about 50% of the time you would need to search a file form the Drive. It works with the machine’s intelligence which helps it recognize the file you need before you complete your typing. Quick Access is available with G Suite for all Android users. 
• Smart Scheduling in Calendar – In G Suite, ‘Find a Time’ lets you set up meetings or appointments much faster in Google Calendar. Also it helps you to find a room or place for your meetings. 
• Explore – Explore is nothing but Work Assistant. Explore will help you work better and faster in Docs, Sheets and Slides by bringing you the design tools, insights, and research recommendations faster. 
• Team Drive – G Suite will provide more granular control over team access to content. This is for early adopters only. 

Some more features will add on with these features as time passes on. G Suite has advanced working with the Google applications on Android by making it faster, easier and much better. This G Suite is very effective for those enterprises that rely upon machine learning capability as G Suite works with machine intelligence. G Suite is an interesting place for them to start with.

Have hackers turned my printer into an offensive weapon?

It was just last month that is in September one of the largest net attacks took place with pinpointed a renowned OVH a French hosting firm and a blogger. This single attack is believed to have comprised of over one trillion bits of data. Both of the hacking events marked a change in the methods used by hackers who survive by breaking into websites which hold widespread data add this form of attacks is known as Distributed Denial of Service attacks (DDoS). The data was sent to the targets through and other such "smart" devices which were hijacked by the hackers.

Can I tell if my webcam/DVR/printer is attacking someone? 

Well to be honest, not easily. If you are a medium of bombarding someone else, your internet speed may slow down however it may not be noticed at times of normal browsing while it may be evident when it comes to video or music streaming or games which will lag. For those who are tech savvy, they can make use of software’s which keep a tab on the flow of data packs on their home network, however this is not easy if you are unaware of what you are doing exactly.

Could I get in trouble for letting my webcam attack someone? 

In terms of legality, you can’t get into trouble with the police however it is believed through researches that a hacker can get into your internal network through a webcam hack and keep a tab on everything else. So in such a case you have an intruder which is best if gotten rid of by taking the necessary action.

Why are malicious hackers using these devices? 

That’s because it is way easier to hack in comparison to PCs or servers and these devices tend to make use of default passwords and fail to have any kind of security software in place. And to the benefit of the hackers, there are endless numbers that stay on all day long and it is a task to both update as well as secure. In modern days it is extremely easy for hackers, they are able to target vulnerable devices and put together an army of their own to create a botnet without having to rent hijacked machines like in the past.

What kind of devices are they scanning for? 

Web-associated cameras are especially prominent however outputs are likewise being completed for advanced TV recorders, home routers and printers. All these have a fundamental processor inside that can be subverted to pump out attack packets. Brian Krebs, the blogger who experienced an assault an IoT botnet, has ordered a rundown of gadgets known to have misused his webpage with information. Large portions of the login names and passwords for these gadgets are anything but difficult to-crack. On 1 October, source code for one IoT assault was freely shared, driving some to propose that numerous more malignant programmers will now begin checking for vulnerable gadgets. This guide made by security firm Symantec demonstrates where Europe's botnets are facilitated. Turkey is home to the vast majority of the commandeered devices and PCs.

How new are these types of attacks? 

The main DDoS assaults were seen on the web in 2000. The primary influx of information bombardments was gone for betting locales which were undermined with being thumped disconnected unless they paid an expense. The greater part of those coercion endeavors utilized commandeered PCs to send information. Presently the ascent of the Internet of Things that is populated with brilliant gadgets has commenced recharged enthusiasm for these sorts of assaults. Security scientists have cautioned about the perils of unreliable IoT gadgets for quite a while yet they are beginning to be utilized for critical assaults sooner than numerous individuals anticipated.