Sony's Google Glass Rival Expected To Be Available For Purchase by the End of March 2015

Although there has been an increase in the market space of the smart watches and as its still continuing to grow, at present none of the companies apart from Google and Oculus have taken the risk of entering the head-worn technology market. At last, now we have Apple, who is venturing into this space of wearable game. With the new approach from one of the market giants in smartphones and tablets, we can expect many other companies entering this technology category in the near future.

As Apple has already invested in the smart watches, so Sony is now looking forward to invest in the wearable technology to gain competitive advantage. The company in the process of releasing the initial software development kit for the wearable technology, and hoping to get the hardware kit available for the developers. This kit will be available for purchase by the end of March 2015. This new device is a pair of glass with an included 8-bit monochrome screen which provides the information pertaining to lenses, notification options, directions and other additional Glass-like information’s to the wearer. The company had proudly flaunted the device at the CES 2014.

New device expected to be a head turner:

Sony has developed the device considering in the mind that it should be compatible with mobile phones running on Android 4.1 or higher. The new device which has been named as SmartEyeglass, is completely packed with gyroscope, includes sensors, an accelerometer, a 3MP camera and ambient light sensor.

But in order to use the camera on the device they will need Android 4.3. Whether for better or worse, this new device might be enough or not enough to get Sony out of their financial difficulty. A handheld packet comes along with the Smart EyeGlass which includes battery, microphone for voice recognition and buttons that will be used for navigation purpose.

In comparison to Google’s device, Sony’d device uses a special overlay around the lenses, which delivers the whole thing from directions to smartphone notifications. However, there is one major problem. One will need to carry an additional battery which needs to wired to the wearable glasses. Although this is a double surprise in terms of touch sensor and microphone, but at the end Sony's SmartEyeglass can become one awkward kit to carry around. The software development kit of this device contains emulator, sample codes, tutorials for the developers to start with, in detail guide, design guidelines, API references, publishing guidelines and testing instructions.

Officially called SmartEyeglass, the new device from Sony might not make any fashion statement, but will surely win all the points in terms of the ‘holographic’ display technology. According to Sony this new technology will not cause any distraction to the users from various texts and images as it will be easy viewable irrespective of the environment.

Even though there is no information available regarding the price of the Sony's SmartEyeglass but when the Google glass has been priced around £1,000, one should be expected to pay a fortune for the Sony device as well.

RE- a New Type of Camera from HTC

It is not surprising if HTC is to be considered as a camera company. After the successful launching of One M8 and then Desire 816 phones that are regarded by many users as the most excellent Smartphone cameras, this company has now declared a small sized handheld camera named as the RE that contains a 16MP CMOS sensor as well as a latest HTC Desire EYE Smartphone with about 13MP front and back cameras.

The RE is, in fact, new product type for HTC with a little camera looking like smoking pipe. It has the capability to capture Full HD videos (1080p) with somewhat slow motion. This camera will possess146 degree of wide-angle lens and can be compared with the GoPro Hero 4 that has recently gain popularity in the market. The camera has also a distant viewfinder app in order thatthe user can manage it from a smart mechanism.

The design of the whole device-

The RE- a small, light weight device, has the size of 96.7 x 26.5mm and the weight of 65.5 grams. It makes it easy to firmly manage it one-handed. It is so small that the user can put it within his pocket or wallet and can take photographs or video footage at any moment whenever he wishes. Practically, the camera will be completely perfect for many types of situations. It takes images of 16MP, video of 1080p/30fps, and also time-lapse recording etc.

There are just two buttons on the device. There is one shutter button on the outer part that you press one time to take a photo and long-press for some seconds to record videotape, and the slow-motion capture toggle, which you have to press to activate before beginning the video. In case of power button it should be mentioned that HTC desires the camera to be always-on, and therefore, always prepared and waiting for you to utilize it. Sensors implanted inside the RE can inform when you grip it, so theoretically it should not take pictures while it is buried bottomless inside your pants.

You will also get a mic on top, in addition to an LED pointer and speaker under the slow-mo button. The microSD slot is placed on the bottom beneath a watertight label; the RE has an 8GB card that is preinstalled; however,you can replace it with any card with maximum 128GB. There is moreover a micro-USB charging and a quarter inch support built for a wide range of accessories.In the matter of connections, this product- RE utilizes Bluetooth LE to originally pair with your headset, but the remaining part of the process is assisted by Wi-Fi Direct -- transporting files, the distant shutter and the whole thing.

Facilities for launching the camera-

HTC selects RE for a number of motives: Primarily, through this Camera and other products, the company desires to dissociate the device so it is not linked with HTC phones, particularly since the app will be cross-platform.This company also thinks that the RE name is related with a few of the camera's qualities.

Advanced iOS Trojan targeting the Hong Kong protesters

Cyber researchers are clamming to discover the first iOS Trojan, which attacks on the mob of Hong Kong protesters to affect their communications. 

An iOS Trojan known as Xsser mRat is similar in function as an Android virus, and discovered by cyber security researchers, who all believe that this iOS virus is targeting the pro-democracy protesters of Hong Kong. It is computer virus, which spies the operating system of on Apple's such as; iPhone and iPad. According to Lacoon Mobile Security, Xsser mRat is absolutely similar to the spyware of Android, which has initially infected the infected mobile users in Hong Kong. Android spyware was designed to coordinates the protesters of Hong Kong, but soon after infection it launches an attack.

Significance of a cross-platform mobile attack was reported by Lacoon. This cross-platform attack targeted the both Android and as well as iOS and it indicates that it may be conducted by nation state or a very large organization. The fact behind the attack was to use it against the protesters of Hong Kong and it was executed by Chinese-speaking cyber attackers, as first iOS Trojan attack linked to the cyber activity of Chinese government.

The Xsser mRAT is significant as it is first and one of the most advanced, fully operational and functional Chinese iOS Trojan. This malicious software is known as Xsser and is well-capable to steal the text messages, call details, photos, passwords, and other data from Apple devices such as; iPad and iPhone. According to Michael Shaulov, Chief Executive of Lacoon, that Xsser is the most advanced and sophisticated malware and it used to date in any known cyber attack of iOS users.

Programming community Code4HK is working on to support the democracy movement, but in actual it has nothing to do with this phishing expedition. But iPhone and iPad devices are getting infected by single click with mobile Remote Access Trojan (mRAT), when any user clicks on any specific link and soon after that it can easily access the personal data, physical location of phone or device, and can spy on phone calls.

An anonymous attacker was responsible for spreading this Android spyware with the help of platform likes; WhatsApp. Still it’s unclear that how iOS devices get infected by Xsser. According to Michael Shaulov, it is one of the most advanced and interesting developments, as the code used in these programmers are written in Chinese. According to researchers the campaign is high quality and it is coming from somewhere China by sophisticated attackers.

Trojan is the term; used by cyber researchers for virus and it describe malwares, which can enter in the technical device and harm the same. Still Apple has to identify any specific individual, who is suffering from iOS Trojan. It is expected that, it can cross borders easily and it is possible that Chinese-speaking entity is operating the iOS Trojan to spy on foreign companies, individuals, or it can be entire governments or system.

Facebook Launches Atlas to Support the Entire Digital-Advertising World

According to Erik Johnson, the head of the new Facebook service, Atlas platform will deliver people base marketing and also help the marketing companies to reach out to real people over different types of devices, publishers and platforms. The main aim behind this was to solve the marketer's problem of cross devices. Facebook recently announced Atlas, which is a rebuilt ad platform that enables the marketing companies to access a whole range of user data and also helps them in directing high targets ads on the web.

According to Johnson, Atlas with its targeting and measurement capability will be able to connect with the online campaigns with the help of offline sales. This will help the marketer’s to analyze the effectiveness of their ads. Among the first few companies, Pepsi and Intel are the one trying out this new platform. Instagram also has been enabled with Atlas to verify as well as measure their ad impressions.

Facebook Motivation: 

For Facebook, Atlas seems to be the obvious next step. Once the user is logged into Facebook app, this service will be able to identify all the other apps the users is using and accordingly place messages in that apps. Even though Google has a similar service but Facebook has vast users in number.

Isolate Promotion: 

With Google being the leader in advertising world, Atlas seems to be looking to directly attack the service. With the digital advertising market having worth of more than US$100 billion/year, Google has been able to rake in nearly half of this amount every year. With Facebook having millions of users and their daily activities in Facebook, the company can literally deliver not only personal but also precise ads.

All this can be achieved without the company being too intrusive. This means irrespective of the device, once the user logs on Facebook, they will be given individually directed ads. The company is hoping for higher conversion rate from these ads. When it comes to winning the advertising market world, Google just because is the leader in search engine can’t expect to be a winner.

New solutions for Marketers: 

Even without the details not being released by the company, this can certainly be considered as breakthrough for the marketers wherein they have the ads option in different devices, offline as well as large target audience. The company will be able to solve one of the biggest challenges of advertising to a target audience on a multiplatform. While this might be something the company can cheer about, customers might not be on the same level. If the users are aware of the functions of Atlas, they might not be comfortable about being targeted across the web.

Whether anyone will agree or not, privacy will still be an issue concerning the users. But there are data which indicate that the users are willing to share their information as long as their privacy is not invaded over an extent. With this new platform, Facebook will be a leader and set an example for other social media sites to venture into advertising networks.

Amazon’s New Frontiers: Robotics and Data Generated from Connected Devices

The chief technology officer at Amazon, Werner Vogels, likes to move around the world about few times in a year. He is famous for giving out predictions and this time he has predicted the robotics, data from connected devices and automation will become the new frontiers for the company.

The Company is working on automating most of their functions like fulfillment centers and autonomous vehicles. He stated that with the increasing number of sensor the data can explode any time. This prediction is coming from a person who primarily runs a $150 billion retail vision.

According to Vogel, data which help in building up the analytics are extremely beneficial to the company. Companies have been using video anonymously to show the restaurants and shops about their customer base demographic. Through the video the company can identify between a Caucasian and middle-aged man who is well dressed.

Numerous companies have been using the AWS (Amazon Web Services) for managing the data which gets generated from these kinds of sensors. In India itself Amazon's cloud is being used by Tata Motors to run their management system. The cloud computing has been gaining huge importance in India and Microsoft has already announced the cloud computing centers will be opened in India. According to Vogel, Amazon has no such plan of opening data centers in India.

They say that hybrid cloud would be a much better option for India and it will be better model. They are expecting services and content to become device-independent which opens up scope for cloud computing.

According to Vogel, cloud computing has a vital role in all the areas wherein a user can have specific interfaces for different types of devices, but at the end data and services will be stored in one location which can be accessed by different devices. Vogel has visited India more than 6 times. According to the recent reports the customer base for Amazon Web services has nearly increased by 50%. Last year the company has nearly 8000 customer which has now increased to 12000 customers.

Is there any specific kind of advice or direction for organizations based on heavy engineering? Simple advice would be to stay away from trying out everything. According to Vogel, the company had ensured that they have appropriate processes in place to which required things and to build things which will be useful for the customers.

A minimum set of features is usually built by retailers. Later on, based on these features the retailers build products which consider the feedback received from the customers.

The product managers of Amazon usually send a press release in the initial stages which basically describes the product as well as its requirements. Once this has been done, the company focuses on getting answers for 20 sets of questions which are frequently asked by the customers. According to Vogel, the aim of the customer is to determine the reaction of the customers towards a product, much before they can even build the product. The company calls this as working from customer’s end.