Microsoft Combats Tech Support Scammers with Lawsuit

Microsoft is currently trying to fight one of the biggest frauds in the recent days by means of lawsuits. What lead to this legal battle? There are people who have received calls from people claiming to be with Microsoft and informing that their computer has got affected by the virus.

They claim to fix the issue after the payment of a fee. On 18th Dec, a civil lawsuit was filed by Microsoft's Digital Crimes unit in the Central District of California. This lawsuit was filed against the company called as the Omnitech Support and other firms, citing the reason as "unfair and misleading business practices and trademark encroachment.

According to the blog pertaining to this lawsuit, Microsoft has charged Omnitech Support, a division of Customer Focus Services for misusing the Microsoft name, service and the trademark, with the ultimate aim of defrauding the customers out of their money and other personal information. They pretended that the customer’s PC was affected by a virus.

Pattern of these scams

Most of the computer related scams follow a similar pattern wherein it starts with a phone call from someone pretending to be working with Microsoft or claiming to be the partner’s of Microsoft. They will give you some technical details about how they identified the virus on your computer. They will them convince the customer to install the remote control software on the PC and then take full control over the computer of the customers. They will use a scareware to show that there is a virus affecting your system and they can have it fixed after paying a certain amount of fee. If the customer agrees, they can now get additional details about the customer apart from the access to the customer’s credit card.

According to the information on the Microsoft Blog, the scammer have been able to create security issues as they have installed malicious software, which includes password grabbers to get all the financial and personal details of the customer.

Microsoft with the help of investigators has been able to back up their lawsuit by contacting the defendants’ names in the lawsuit. Each investigator contacted the defendant with a computer having no virus or malicious software but were convinced by the latter that there is a virus and need to pay a large sum of fee for them get that removed and get the corrupted windows work again. Many of the customers had contacted Microsoft stating that computer is not in good shape post the repair. According to Microsoft, around $1.5 billion each year is lost by customers due to these kinds of frauds.

Due to the action of the Omnitech Support, Microsoft has claimed that they lost their goodwill and looking forwards for claiming financial damages apart from permanent injunction on the actions. Microsoft has requested for a jury trial as per the details mentioned in the lawsuit. According to the Microsoft spokesperson, all the details pertaining to the lawsuit and the scam has been updated in their official blog but Omnitech Support denied to comment of any of these.For complaining to FTC

Lightning: The New iOS Standard Charger

For years, the vast majority of Apple products were compatible with the same type of charger, the standard 30-pin connector. This wide, flat input type provided a stable connection, but could only operate if inserted into the phone in a specific direction and often experienced problems with build quality over time – read more at iiNet.

To address these issues, Apple developed the proprietary Lightning charger, a new connection type designed to be faster and more reliable than the old charger style. The Lightning-type connection is required for all current generation iOS devices and is only available through Apple authorized retailers.

What’s the Difference? 

While the Lightning charger is still used for all of the same functions as the old connection type, including charging and managing content between an iOS device and a computer, several key differences help set this new connection type apart. The new Lightning charger is 80% smaller than a 30-pin connection, and is specifically engineered to be sturdier than its predecessor. Lightning chargers are reversible, meaning they can be inserted into a device while facing in either direction.

Why the Switch? 

Apple introduced the Lightning charger to iOS users for a number of consumer-focused reasons. Along with presenting a superior functional alternative to a 30-pin charger, the streamlined design of the Lightning charger allows the company to produce sleeker phones as the terminals for the connection take up less space internally.

Establishing the Lightning charger as an iOS standard also discourages 3rd party accessory use. Apple intends this measure as an effort at consumer protection, as a 3d party accessory could experience unexpected issues when used with an iOS device and even void the warranty with their use. As a result, most current generation iOS devices will display an incompatibility message indicating device rejection when a 3rd party accessory is used.

Adaptors

Apple makes 30-pin to Lightning connection adaptors available to enable some functionality with older Apple accessories. The 30-pin adaptor may affect the way the compatible device fits with cases, stands and other accessories, but nevertheless gives long-time Apple device owners a chance to get continued utility out of their older Apple accessories.

The move to the Lightning standard provides a substantial upgrade to a standard 30-pin connection in a number of technical aspects, but unfortunately makes older Apple accessories incompatible with newer iOS products. These efforts at innovation and consumer engagement are at the core of Apple’s legacy and represent a natural progression of the iOS experience.

“FacePile Read Receipts”- The Latest Feature in Facebook Messenger

When it comes to chatting, every millisecond counts. The lesser time is takes for the interaction, the more lively you feel in the chat room. However, when it comes to texting, concepts like hmmm, or nods have completely lost, there is no indication whatsoever to tell that the other person is listening to you.

Facebook’s Latest steps: 

Now Facebook messenger has taken a giant foot forward in terms of improvement in speed in their entire version apart from adding the new animation, which indicates the sender if their message is sending, sent, delivered, as well as read. According to the company, they have not followed the currently used concept of grey text indicating the information but the new animation will use the photo of your friend and indicate who is actually in conversation with you.

The company came up with the concept of Facepile design nearly 5 years ago and it was initially meant for a plug-in to show if your friend liked any website. It has now be modified for broader usage and to indicate as to which friend has seen and read your text messages. At present, the new messenger design will be rolled out in Europe and United States of America on Android and iOS platform. The company is planning for a worldwide release later on.

According to Lexy Fraklin, Product manager, they wanted a messenger, which will let the user feel Facebook messenger as the fastest and the most reliable mobile messaging product. In order to improve the efficiency of the application on all types of devices, the company has made lot of modification and put in lot of efforts towards minimizing the latency. As per Facebook’s new head of Messenger and former PayPal president, MarcusDavid, whether anyone agrees or not, speed is very important and everybody wants to feel the speed.

The FB is expecting to gain a competitive advantage with this new chat feature. When it comes to the slickest and the fastest chat application, KakaoTalk, WeChat, Kik and many among other are all racing together. Apart from messaging, Facebook have other global competitors in the form of Line’s stickers, Snapchat’s visual messaging, Twitter’s worldwide town square, and Google’s video chat. At present the company’s strategy is to focus on utility, which will drive lock-in to their completely social platform, while there competitors are still trying to pull out money from the direct messaging. The company has already been making lot of money from the number of ads that are being posted in the newsfeed.

What is more? 

The company has also launched “Stickered For Messenger”, which is an app for pasting stickers on top of photos before being sent. According to Franklin, the company has many things in their mind and working on more to make the user’s experience very cool. The first thing they have achieved is the fastest and clearest chat platform. Now the company is looking towards the newsfeed. The main aim of the FacePile was to ensure that you can check the message read as soon as possible and get on with work, rather then waiting for response.

Surprising Apps That You Might Have Missed- 2014

Each year ends with a list of apps released for televisions, phones and camera in that year in terms of features. However, when it comes to smartphones it becomes very difficult to make a list of the applications, which have topped the chart, and the ones, which we may have missed out. If someone will ask as to what they think about the best apps for 2014, we might end of scratching the head with tons of apps in play-stores for Android and iOS. However, ask anyone about the apps that they will not recommend their friends and family, and then you will have a whole list of apps in front of you.

Surprising apps:

Some of the apps that you might have missed out this year and are worthy of atleast one try are:

1. Vainglory :

It is free and for iOS only. This game achieved something, which was never achieved by anyone in the past, and it was not a surprise that it featured in the iPhone 6 Apple event. It showed people how to play MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) game in a very simple way. Everybody was able to access the game due to the simple explanation of the rules and the objectives of the games. It explains the part of the game, like for example it will explain the player that minions are used like a barrier to soak up the damage and keep their character safe. The game explains the player how to gain advantage over their enemies.

2. Tastemade :

This is also free and meant for Android and iOS. This is completely foodie app. This app allows the users to use perfect tools to make video reviews of the restaurant in professional way. Although the app was launched in 2013 but due to some makeovers, it was released in 2014. This app is all about self-made reviews.

3. QuickPics Photo Manager :

There are lots of apps available in the app store similar to this one. As it is only available for iOS, it does most of the job that is required for iOS photos. This app allows users to tag people in their photos in the gallery and if you are searching for photos of your app, you need to select the tag. This app at present is not available in iOS 8. It is quite surprising that Apple has not come up with this idea of tagging the picture on the phone and it was started by a third party. If you like to tag photos to remember the person in future, then this app is something you should not be missing.

4. Trial Frontier:

Even though this game is available for desktops and consoles, the iOS version has garnered lot of attention. The players have to cross through endless number of obstacles before reaching the finishing line. It is very amazing for a mobile game. You can have more than 50 hours of game-play and nearly 70 different tracks.

First Virtual School for Internet-Addicted Teens in Japan

With the growing population of internet-addicted teens in Japan, the country is now working towards opening the world’s first ever virtual school. This school will be opened with the aim of catering to the growing needs of the teens in Japan and the ones who find it difficult to function normally in the real world.

The Cybernation School

With the increasing importance of education, the Cybernation School on the outskirts of Tokyo will allow the dropout students to complete their secondary education at their own convenience and comfort of their own bedroom. The school works with the motto of making the Smartphone as the student’s classroom. The school is expected to be launched and started from April 2015 and it has already received nearly 1000 inquiries regarding the first 300 seats, which are available. The school is planning to allow their students to create their own avatars to attend the necessary classes and they can also make friends with other avatars of their classmates. The home works completed and submitted by the students will be checked the teacher’s avatars.

According to the reports published in the Times, the virtual classes for the students will be made of pre-recorded lectures, which will be streamed online. The students will be able to collect necessary study points and gain knowledge that will help them in graduating after 3 years.

It has been observed in Japan that pupils fail to attend to school due to many psychological reasons in 2013. The number is as high as 120,000. Most of these pupils are the recluses or the hikikomori, who find it difficult to make and develop human relationships and prefer to have an anonymous virtual reality online. According to the government statistics, there are nearly 700,000 hikikomori in Japan as of 2010. These people voluntarily take the decision of staying alone and away from society and public.

Meisei High School

Meisei Cyber, which is an initiative of the private Meisei High School in Chiba region, will also offer tests and classes through computer, tablets, and computers in a three-year high school curriculum. Similar to that of Cybernation school, even Meisei school will allow students to study at the comfort of their home, but the students will still have attend the regular school for 4 days every year. Students will be able to consult with friends regarding their students and enjoy their student’s life at the same time. The students will be able to play games through a farm and the fishing spots provided for them.

According to Kota Hasegawa, Meisei spokesperson, this virtual school will be a blessing for the students’, who are scared of attending day school to earn a graduate degree. Although the school agrees that face-to-face education and communication is vital, they are taking another approach to reach out to the students through online education and communication.

As far as online education and learning are concerned, it is not a new phenomenon is Japan. Japan is thinking about giving all the opportunities to educate their children.