Stay fit with the Google vs. Apple rivalry

Rivalry – a word often associated with duels, fights and has no remote connection to “staying fit”; in this case however could make you more fit. As wide spread urbanization is evident with increasing job schedules and busy timelines, our body is becoming lethargic and prone to diseases never seen before. Thus, there is a spurt of general awareness about keeping oneself fit and running.

Technology in inherent in modern life and exists in every sphere – fitness is no exception. Thus, the demands for fitness gadgets and such apps on smartphones are on the rise. The fact that Google and Apple are the two titans of the smartphone race along with forays in other gadgets, it is no surprise that both are up with corresponding tools to help developers and customers in this fitness race.

Google Fit vs. Apple Health Kit

Apple’s health kit is basically a SDK (Software Development Kit) which is already available to the developers on iOS8. Along with a dedicated dashboard to track your fitness data, the SDK comes with access to the health data for developers as well as user permissions. Thus, your fitness data could be handed over to a fitness app that relays it back to your doctor for a real-time monitoring of your conditions. Google’s Fit is basically the same package just built for Android and integrated with Google’s services. The SDK for developers is available by a developer preview version of Google’s upcoming Android L this fall.

Taking Sides

As with choices, people are bound to take sides. While Android leads in market share worldwide, Apple reaps in the most profits – which tells you a lot about customer behavior in respective platforms. Thus choosing one over other will boil down to the fact that which one you prefer or which eco-system you are tied onto. Further, both have lines up numerous companies to support these SDK and develop augmenting hardware and software. While Apple has paired up with many clinics to analyze and send personal recommendations to your information collected, Google has partnered with Hardware manufacturing units (as it is primarily a software vendor), which form the likes of Motorola, Asus, Adidas, Intel, Nike, Runtastic and RunKeeper.

The Future of Staying Fit

As we embrace technology more, it creates wonderful opportunity to help with your daily lives. With improving medical diagnostics, electronic device miniaturization and improved sensors, tracking your blood glucose levels or your pulse rate is becoming ever easy. This is probably a start in perhaps a long run of more sophisticated and advanced fitness regime coupled with equally advanced hardware and software to help you in those. Thus your gadget – smartphone/tablet/ultra-book might be your savior one day.

The future looks bright for technology augmented fitness gadgets. Moreover,Apple and Google both realize this and have promptly released their Health-based SDKs to developers and will soon release features for consumers on their various OS/devices. With an ever-increasing demand in fitness gadgets and more adoption of such technology, the future is surely spicing up as the giants lock horns to bring new tools enabling developers tap the potential.

Using Technology to Improve Business Functions

The way businesses operate these days is a lot different to how things used to be. At one time there was no email, software or even computers. Businesses had a real struggle to reach out to new customers and provide a high quality service. Nowadays however, technology has exploded into practically every aspect of the business world. There’s software for everything these days including situational awareness software and it can really help to improve your business functions.

More marketing opportunities than ever before

Companies rely heavily upon marketing to draw in new customers and build up their brand. If you’re looking to reach a larger audience, the internet can help. From social media to mobile marketing; there are hundreds of ways you can get your business name out there. Not only allowing you to benefit from free advertising, social media helps with customer interaction too. Being able to interact with your customers helps to build trust; especially if you use it to answer any questions or complaints your customers may have.

Reducing employee workload 

One of the main benefits technology has had for businesses is the fact it’s lightened the load for employees. All sectors within a business can benefit from a variety of software that helps to improve efficiency. Situational awareness software is a good example. Helping to improve the security of your company, this software can be an essential investment. You can even cut costs by having your security cameras, devices and sensors converged. HR software is also available, helping out with payroll and document management.

You can find out more about how technology can help to cut costs in the free white paper produced by the MakingITClear blog.

Boosting productivity

If you’re looking to make your workplace a more productive one, technology is there to help. The right software can free up time that can be spent on other parts of the business. Helping your employees to achieve more in their working day can only benefit your business. Whether it is helping them to print out marketing materials or keeping in touch with customers via email; providing up to date software can really help to boost productivity in every sector of your business.

Improving staff morale

For employees, one of the biggest advantages technology has brought to the workplace is flexible hours. Employers are now able to offer their staff more flexibility. Free video tools such as Skype have made it possible for employees to keep in touch with the office no matter where they are. Many are able to work from home and fit their work around their family’s needs. This has really helped to boost morale in the workplace and has in turn helped to boost productivity. You can find out more about the telecommuting benefits that technology has delivered on the Small Business website.

Overall there are many ways technology can help to improve your business functions. As advancements are continually made, businesses can expect to see further improvements as time goes on. Investing in the right software is the first step to improving your company.

Bioluminescent Sharks Strengthens its Survival with Newly Evolved Eyes

According to a recent study promulgated in the journal ‘PLUS ONE’, it has been observed that the luminescent sharks that used to dwell in the ‘Twilight Zone’ have gone through a certain evolution that allows them to see through the dark. These animals thrive at a depth of about 650 to 3,300 feet (200 to 1,000 meters), a bleak region known as the mesopelagic twilight zone, where hardly any sunlight can penetrate through.

The eye with the Superpower

Bioluminescence appears as brief as a flash and the ability of the sharks to see and tell whether it is a potential mate, lunch or a predator is an ability possessed by these species. These creatures possess a greater density of light sensitive cells in their retinas or to be more precise, higher amount of rod densities inside their eyes, while some have even acquired ocular adaptations allowing them to see the glimmering lights they use for signalling each other.

To predate they can camouflage themselves in the realms where hardly any light can perforate through. Nevertheless, this light also helps the sharks to find partners both for predating and mating purposes, one of the best examples, being the glowing lantern shark that possesses evolved sexual organs with light-producing capabilities that help attract its opposite sex, even in the dark.

Result from further studies...

Now, there always arises a question when it is about an optical system, be it an eye or a camera, whether there is a compromise in either the light sensitivity or the resolution, as most deep-sea animals are visual modality for light sensitivity and not resolution.

So, Claes and his confrères examined the shape of the eye, the structure and mapping of the retinene cells of the five known species of deep-sea bioluminescent sharks namely four lantern sharks (E. splendidus, E. spinax, Etmopteruslucifer andTrigonognathuskabeyai)and one dalatiid or kitefin shark (Squaliolusaliae) have been observed to have undergone through these evolutions, using a light microscope and other ophthalmic instruments.

The research workers compared the eyes of other non-bioluminescent sharks that account for the 45 of the 50 known shark species, and discovered that the luminescent ones have a higher density of photo-sensitive cells in their eyes, cognized as rods than the others, which gives the luminescent ones improved temporal resolution, or to be more precise “faster vision”. (For example, Persons possessing slower vision, when they would watch a tiger chasing its prey, they would only see disjointed frames of the chase compared to a smooth movement of the chase.)

Thus having more immobile vision allows them to quickly see the modifying light patterns, they usually use to interact with each other.

A further study has helped the scientists find a layer of tissue, just behind the retina which helps reflect and increase the light available to the photoreceptors. Gaps between the lens and iris have also been found that allows extra light to reach the retina, along with light absorbing rods at the back of their eyes.

A Few Words for Thought

Thus, it is well evident that with evolution taking place in almost every form of living, the ocular system of the bioluminescent sharks have also co-evolved with their photoluminescence, thus allowing its species to endurefrom getting endangered or extinct.

1.2 Billion Passwords Snipped: Secure Your Online Account with a Strong Password

Technology represents a new identity with the extensive improvement and thus you can easily acknowledge the optimistic features helping you to set up a new identity online. However, along with the advanced attributes also you may be the victim of a negative impact such as hacking. Nowadays it appears as one of the biggest concerns that you need to take care of maintaining a suitable profile online. Manifold users complain that they have been hacked and the passwords are stolen, which lead to lose the confidential and important data.

The newspapers and the online news channels reveal the entire fact specifying the dark side of technology. According to the authenticated information, a particular Russian group hacked about 1.2 billion passwords from nearly 500 accounts. Therefore, all the users using the accounts faced serious problems recovering the entire set of data.

How to maintain the privacy of your account? 

From the above fact, it emerges as the essential feature to sustain a suitable privacy that blocks the hackers stealing your password. You need to set a password that is really difficult to retrieve. The passwords accumulating the common characters or figures can be easily tracked by the hackers that may be threatening for your account.

Incorporate other security features such as the secret questions that protect your account from the unauthorized access. So, all your information remains safe and you would not have to worry regarding the spamming activities. Furthermore, nowadays the webmail providers and the other social sites are implementing multiple security attributes to safeguard their users from the unruly bustles. Follow the regular news and other technical periodicals that depict useful information helping you to know how you can incorporate more safety measures to your account. Hence, you can prevent the leaking out of the data that may bring a tragic episode in your life.

Cyber Security to safeguard the Online Users

Furthermore, the administration employs a specific cyber security feature that protects the privacy of the users and thus you can carry out the online activities without any worry. The entire society is therefore convinced that they attain the ultimate safety over the web that leads to the flawless execution of the operations. Browse the various online sites that consist of other information revealing the particular facets for the cyber security. Acknowledge certain software and other equipment installing which you can increase the safety of your account online.

Eliminate the Negative Technical Brunt

Once, you are able to put a complete barrier to the hackers and other unqualified persons entering your personal account the overall theft will decrease to the large extent. It comes out as a significant feature that is really useful to affix a strict blockade to your top secret data. Employ the feasible security measures and ensure the effective account free from the spamming activities that destroy your useful information. Make sure that you are on the safe hands protecting your account from every type of unscrupulous bustle. Finally, you are able to set up a complete well-organized online account that achieves the ultimate safety.

How Does Antivirus Work?

Nowadays Antivirus companies are increasing at a rapid rate because every day hundreds of new viruses are generated and every hour new virus definitions are defined. So in order to make our computer virus free we need an Antivirus. So an antivirus can be defined as the software that takes care of the computer by removing any kind of threats as soon as possible. So the job of antivirus is to eradicate the virus before they can actually infect our files and data. So, for this happening the antivirus should be very responsive and active. An antivirus eliminates the nasty and malicious computer virus.

Viruses are very dangerous. They not only degrade the performance of the computer but they also infect the data and files that are stored in it. Some virus deletes all the data that promotes the automatic shutdown of computer again and again. Some try to hide and corrupt the files and some viruses delete the data permanently. There are also some viruses that enter into our web browser and try to steal our personal details and passwords. So, one should avoid downloading any items from untrusted websites that hold fake certificates. So always try scan the downloaded item immediately so that if ant threat is there it can be fixed as soon as possible.

Viruses can enter to your system in many ways like during internet browsing you may click on some suspicious ads or they can also enter through the data cable that is connecting your phone to PC. The main source of the viruses is the pen drive of your friend. Seriously, it contains lot of viruses because it has already been used in so many other computers. So always scan the pen drive before you open it to view its content. Always keep you virus definition update because every day new viruses are created, so updating antivirus is really very important.

So the working of antivirus is really amazing to understand. So let us see that how does it actually works. All the antiviruses use two basic approaches to remove the virus: first is Signature based detection and second one is suspicious behavior based detection. So let us discuss them one by one in more detail:

Signature based detection

This approach is mostly used by most of the antiviruses available in the market and is also very effective. In this approach a library is created that contains the definitions of all the viruses present in the form of code. So when you scan the file it compares all the programs with the available library of viruses and if the definitions match then a virus is caught and then based upon the user action the virus is removed and eradicated from the computer. For example: if there is a virus with definition code “3t5y” so the antivirus will try to match this definition with the available library and if the code matches it is a virus which has to be removed. So this is the logic of this approach. But the library has to be updated from time to time because new viruses are generated every day.
Suspicious behavior based detection

In this approach the behavior of the program is identified. If the program is suspicious and is preventing another program from running then such files are removed. Such kinds of antivirus software may be in effect for the fresh viruses but the precision is not there or such software are less as they may recognize genuine files as virus. So many times this approach fails to give accurate result.
So these are some basic methods that are used by antivirus to detect the malicious computer program. But still many much complex algorithms are designed these days but they are also based on this approach only. In later posts we will also discuss about some most dangerous viruses like malware, Trojan horse and many more, so stay connected.