Watch the fun summary of Zuckerberg’s Jarvis AI

By Regina Dias

Source: Comicbook.com

Mark Zuckerberg introduced his virtual butler yesterday on Facebook in a video post which shows Mark, Priscilla, Max and dog Beast at home in different scenarios where Jarvis can help. The video showcases an idealized version of how the Jarvis system works.

For those of you who don’t know, the whole invention of this AI is inspired from the artificial intelligence system designed by Marvel comics’ Iron Man aka Tony Starks where Jarvis can run voice commands, respond to texts,  run music, operate the air conditioning,  doors, recognize visitors and even shoot t-shirts from a cannon in his closet.

Not just functioning like a robot, Jarvis can also take decisions like whom to tickle next and in the video it was Max. Zuckerberg has bigger plans with Jarvis by not just confining him to the walls of a home. He states, “It could be a great foundation to build a new product” he wrote on a note released on a day prior to the launch of the video post. Read the note here.

He identifies the common obstacles like the absence of common standards for communicating with connected devices, machine learning and the challenges related to speech recognition. However, he also states that challenges lead to greater inventions.

Teaching computers new things is difficult, while they are very good at picking up patterns says Zuckerberg. Everything done by him this year including natural language, face recognition, speech recognition, are variants of the same fundamental pattern recognition techniques. He says even if he spends another 1000 hours more, it won’t be possible to build a system that could learn skills on its own.

In the meanwhile being sweet to his wife Mark posted another video on his timeline showing the kind of patience she displayed while he was busy building the butler. 

Source: Hindustan Times, The Verge

Amazon to launch Cash-Free Convenience stores

No long queue’s, No checkout (No, seriously)

By Regina Dias  

While going cashless is the new big dream here, somewhere on the other side of the globe, Amazon is planning on taking the retail market by storm by launching over 2000 cash-free convenience stores according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Pic Source: CNet

Amazon’s new self-checkout technology called ‘Amazon Go’ will literally allow people to walk-in the store, pick what they want and walk out- no checkout process at all, so no time wasted! 

To test this technology Amazon has opened a 1800 sq ft store it its hometown Seattle – for its employees. If proved successful the store will be open to the general public early next year. Unlike the technology - RFID scanners used in the regular retail stores which are subject to the RFID tags on the products; Amazon Go uses a completely different approach – it uses computer vision & sensors to detect what items are taken outside the store. When walking in, you need to scan the app, do your shopping and the sensors will charge them to your account when walking out of the door and although it feels like shoplifting, remember you are being watched by numerous cameras.

In theory, it sounds fantastic! Now all we have to do is wait and watch for if it does prove successful, it will definitely transform the retail market.

Source: The Wall Street Journal ,  Vox , The Verge

Google’s new Trusted Contacts app turns Smartphone into Emergency Rescue system

Your whereabouts now can be requested and monitored by close family & friends after being added as contacts during potentially dangerous situations

Today, the internet anyway follows us wherever we go - even into dangerous situations.  One’s security is a top priority and many tech firms are thus investing their time and interest in promoting personal safety. Based on this, Google’s Trusted Contacts mobile app lets you connect with your family and friends in case of an emergency.

The app was released on the 5^th of December, 2016 coincidentally after the deadly Oakland, California fire, which led Facebook to activate it safety check feature as quoted by San Jose Mercury News.

How it works ?

The app lets you tag people from your contacts. During an unforeseen emergency like an accident, wildfire or an earthquake or any such event or simply when you are unavailable to talk; it lets you send your location and a message. If you are offline for a long period of time, it can track your last location activities as stated by Minh T. Nguyen, a Google software engineer, in a Company blogpost announcing the launch of Trusted Contacts. According to Google you can turn the location settings down or change the trusted contacts whenever you want if you are worried about privacy.

Looks like there’s lots more than what we have share which can be learnt once you use the app..

Please share your thoughts and views about the app with us…

Source: The Wall Street Journal, The Drum

Be a part of a Worldwide quantum physics experiments powered by human randomness

Researchers need people from all over the world to get involved by helping them test the laws of quantum mechanics.  Yes! The world's largest quantum physics experiment is here.

The experiment run by 12 different labs around the world, will test Albert Einstein's idea of local realism - one of the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics.

So what can you do to help?

All you have to do to help out is play a bunch of online games for science. Now isn't that fun? All the Game fanatics are going to love this one I bet!

To participate go to the quantum physics experiment page: click here

Read to learn more about the the world's biggest quantum physics experiment.

   The BIG Bell Test from ICFOnians on Vimeo.

The experiment needs at least 30,000 volunteers from all over the world, and of all ages, to take part in order to generate enough random data to properly test out Bell's inequality.

You can be a part of it.

You do this by playing a game where you have to introduce the most random sequences of 0s and 1s as possible. These sequences you generate in your game will determine the order of measurement of quantum entangled particles in each lab around the world.

The games are accessible to people of all ages, and all you need is an internet connection.
If you pass all the levels, you'll have generated enough random sequences of information to help the scientists complete their Bell's inequality test.

source: Science alert

The ‘Hand- Energy Electricity Generator’ the new portable charger in town

Who ever thought, that energy generated by the human hands can be used to charge our mobile phones or run electronics? 

Well- well ! 

The new portable charger that will be available in the market from May 2017 is now turning heads. By spinning a complex magnetic rotor and battery system that is built inside a portable charger; this Hand-Energy pocket electricity generator allows users to create clean energy. It has a featured app that enables you to track activity and wattage; this handy device will up your power when in need! Priced at $73 on Kickstart, everyone’s eyes are fixed on this one – fidgety hands can now be put to good use…

Source: MashableIndia

By: Tara Flanigan

Dear Zindagi - A beautiful Film for Indian Cinema

DON'T LET YOUR PAST BLACKMAIL YOUR 

PRESENT TO RUN YOUR BEAUTIFUL FUTURE.

‘Dear Zindagi’ is a much-needed dialogue on mental health that is spoken of only in hushed words in real life, if at all. The film finally makes it okay to talk about it, to ask for help, to not being fine. Alia Bhatt’s Kaira makes you realize how natural it is to crumble and how it could happen to the best of us and more importantly, how it’s okay, important rather, to seek therapy. It’s a disease and, like most other diseases, can be cured with the right prescription of perspective and understanding. Even at understanding Kaira’s mental imbalance, the film never categorizes it as ‘depression’— a word that’s now used as a blanket term for any and every mental illness. You never feel the need to label Kaira’s condition, you don’t know what it is, all you know is you’ve felt the same at some point in life and you know how crippling it can be. Gauri Shinde leaves it at that and that’s exactly what makes it so much more relatable.

Read More:

source: mensxp.com

By: Ankush Bahuguna

What is Megabyte (MB) and a Megabit (Mb)

This is how your internet speed is measured in Megabit (Mb)

The difference between a Megabyte (used for file size) and a Megabit (used for download speeds). People often assume that a download speed of 1 Megabit per second (1 Mbps) will allow them to download a 1 Megabyte file in one second. This is not the case, a Megabit is 1/8 as big as a Megabyte, meaning that to download a 1MB file in 1 second you would need a connection of 8Mbps. The difference between a Gigabyte (GB) and a Gigabit (Gb) is the same, with a Gigabyte being 8 times larger than a Gigabit.

You can use Google's MB/Mb converter to calculate time required to download a file.

source: opensignal.com

OneDrive's downgrading free storage to 5GB

Microsoft starts downgrading OneDrive's free storage to 5GB. You might have to say goodbye to your 15GB camera roll bonus, too.

Heads up: if you didn't sign up to keep the 15GB worth of OneDrive storage Microsoft gave out in 2014, you'll soon see a big change in your account... if you haven't yet. Redmond is not only killing your 15GB camera roll back-up bonus, it's also slashing 10GB off your account, bringing it down to 5GB. The company started sending out emails about the change earlier this year, with a warning that your unpaid storage capacity would become even smaller than its original 7GB offering by either July 13th or July 27th.

To be fair, Microsoft gave people a chance to keep their bigger storage and camera roll bonus by opting out of the July change. If you remember signing up for that before January 31st this year, there's no need to worry: you'll still get to enjoy both. But if you received an email like the one below, you may want to back up your photos ASAP. Sad, but you do have a lot of other options if you need a cloud service that offers a big free storage capacity. Google Drive, for one, will give you access to 15GB upon signing up.


source: engadget
By: Mariella Moon

Netflix on your Raspberry Pi - DiY

Turn a Rs. 3,500 Raspberry Pi into a solid home theater PC that can stream Netflix on your TV.

Things you need to complete this project are:

      Finally watch the video on how to go about the project:

10 best malware removal tools for PC

It does not matter how proficient you are when it comes to managing your PC, a single malware would be more than enough to create a clutter in your everyday life, especially if you depend upon your PC for professional purposes. Whether you are using some high-end software or simple epub readers, the clutter will effect you. The proverb has it that precaution is better than cure, but this hardly comes in practice when malware are ahead. So, the better way is to regularly check your Windows PC to detect malware and remove them instantly when you’d stumble upon something capable of destroying your system.

Here, to help you accomplish the usually-tough task, we’ve tried to bring you a list of 10 best malware removal tools for PC. In this post, we will cover both free and paid tools.

1. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
Being one of the most popular software when it comes to malware detection and removal, Malwarebytes has lots of features that can help both home and business users. The best part is that you do not have to uninstall your antivirus program to run Malware Anti-Malware, but the tool will run smoothly along with most of popular antivirus tools. Although the basic version is powerful enough to find and remove malware, you may opt for the premium version if you wan access to scheduled scanning, phishing & hacking protection etc.

Malwarebytes

Availability: Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows XP (32-bit), Android

2. BitDefender Internet Security
BitDefender Internet Security is not actually a malware-removal-oriented tool, but it can serve the role as well! Being a member of a reputed software manufacturer firm, you can expect both features and quality from the software on a condition that you are ready to pay. However, you will get more than what you expect, including protected browsing and two-way firewall.

Additional features of BitDefender Internet Security include remote management of solution, USB immunizer to get rid of viruses, autopilot, OneClick Optimizer etc.

BitDefender Internet Security
Availability: Windows, Mac, Android

3. Panda Free Antivirus
Panda Free Antivirus is one of the lightest antivirus software you will ever find, given its simple user interface and a huge number of impressive features. Along with the ability to scan for malware and other dangerous files, you would be able to grab features such as process monitor, URL filtering, etc.

Being a light malware removal tool, you shall install Panda Free Antivirus in almost every Windows PC. Thus, if you prefer simplicity along with performance, this is a great solution indeed.

Panda Free Antivirus
Availability: Windows
Price: Free

Read More: Beebom

Google celebrates Mario Miranda’s 90th birthday

Google commemorated the 90th anniversary of Mario Miranda's birthday.

Mario Miranda's 90th birthday
source: Google Doodles

Mario Miranda was a beloved cartoonist, best known for his works published in the Times of India and The Illustrated Weekly of India. Based primarily on the bustling cityscape of Mumbai, Miranda’s works often feature complex, multi-layered scenes. Humanity floods the canvas, and yet each character maintains their unique individuality.

Our guest Doodler today is Aaron Renier, another comic artist known for portraying large crowds. “I approached Mario’s work by pretending I was drawing with him,” says Renier. “I chose his most popular style, very flat with criss-crossing interactions.” In this homage to Miranda, we see a rich litany of people, each unique in their perspective. “That is what I liked most about his work,” Renier explains, “trying to pick out who knows who, who's watching who, who's annoyed by who, who's enamored by who. Hopefully people will see something of [Miranda’s] spirit in it.”

We’re pleased today to honor the legacy of Mario Miranda. His works live on throughout India, and we’re proud to provide another space for this artist’s surging style to rest.

source: Google Doodles

HOW TEENAGERS REACT TO WINDOWS 95

The majority of teenagers alive today weren’t alive in the 90s, meaning the oldest version of Windows they’re likely to be familiar with is Windows XP.

If that tidbit makes you feel old, you might not want to watch the latest React video from Fine Brothers Entertainment, in which a bunch of teenagers are exposed to the wonders of mid-90s computing and Windows 95 for the first time in their lives. They’re not impressed.

It starts with first impressions.

“The fact that the monitor is bigger than the actual computer itself says a lot” said Daniel, 17 years old, who is young enough to only have vague memories of monitors and TVs that aren’t flat.

“I’ve no clue what year this is from, but I feel like it was before the year I was born,” said Geneva, age 18, after seeing the mid-90s Dell. Her math checks out.

The design flaws we all got used to are evident right away. When asked to turn on the computer, everyone hit the big button on the monitor and waited, something we all probably remember doing at some point. When the computer was turned on, the reactions kept coming.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard a computer make these sounds before in my life,” said Morgan, age 19, making anyone who felt nostalgic upon hearing the floppy drive click instantly feel 10 years older.

Read more:
source: DIGITAL TRENDS

Why Apple users can Trash their files and Windows users can recycle files?

A Macintosh XL running the Lisa operating system. The jaunty-lidded trashcan is visible at the bottom left of the desktop. (Photo: Gerhard/CC0) 

No individual part of computing delivers the satisfaction of the trash can.

Drag in your junk, command-click, and with an amiable rustle, all those files you don’t need anymore just disappear. No need to lug anything to the curb, or wait for the city to come around.

But the trash isn’t just a useful tool. A garbage-eye-view of computing reveals three decade's worth of compelling history for the humble can—complete with a protracted lawsuit that brought the rivalry between Apple and Microsoft to new, garbage-filled heights. It may be that no icon better embodies the development of modern computing quite like the representation of virtual rubbish.

As Apple developer Andy Hertzfeld relates in an online history of Apple's first user interface, the trash was born in the early 1980s, during a five-year burst of creativity that also brought us desktop windows, text highlighting, scroll bars, and other bits of computing infrastructure most users now take for granted. When the team realized that users needed a way to delete files permanently, they called this new feature the "Wastebasket." And when the company switched over to an icon-based Graphical User Interface, or GUI, they drew up an old-school can to represent it. “The initial trashcan was this beat up old trashcan you’d expect to see in an alley, with the lid half open and flies buzzing around it,” said software engineer Dan Smith in an 1986 interview with Semaphore Signal. "We had actually talked about putting in some sound effects."

This dramatic disposal system displeased “some of the stodgier people on the team,” said Smith, and the Apple Lisa shipped out in 1983 with a less visceral version of the icon, its lid tipped jauntily to the right. Later versions of Lisa software renamed this feature the “Trash.” When Apple’s next project, the Macintosh, took over the market the next year, it featured a closed, corrugated-looking can, designed by iconographer Susan Kare.

This tiny, charming illustration soon came to symbolize everything good about the GUI. “If you can find the trash can, you can run a computer,” promised one early advertisement for the Lisa. It also provided a handy way for early adopters to describe the computing process to those who were scared or skeptical. “Cartoon-like representations, called icons, of computer parts or functions, are displayed on the screen and manipulated with a device called a mouse,” explained technology writer Myron Berger in the New York Times in 1986. “So, for example, to erase a particular program, one can simply ‘drop’ the program’s icon into an illustration of a trash can on the screen.”

Later versions of the Mac operating system added extra features–OS 4’s trash can bulged out when full, and the icon design became progressively more three-dimensional, promising infinite roominess. One optional extension for OS 7 even featured a tiny, pixelated Oscar the Grouch, who popped out of the can singing his signature tune, “I Love Trash.”

The evolution of the Recycle Bin in #Windows

تطور سلة المهملات في #ويندوز pic.twitter.com/nUGvMd2iDl

— Microsoft Egypt (@MicrosoftEgypt) 18 October 2015

Read More: Atlas Obscura
By: Cara Giaimo MARCH 14, 2016

World's Cheapest Smartphone @ Rs.251

Ringing Bells is set to official unveil the Freedom 251 smartphone, delivering on its commitment of launching the cheapest smartphone in India. Bookings for the Freedom 251 - which is priced at just Rs. 251 (approximately $4), making it arguably the cheapest smartphone in the world - begin on Thursday Feb 18th at 6am.

The Freedom 251, which Ringing Bells says has been made 'with immense support' from the Indian government, complies with the government's Make in India program. With such a price point, the little know smartphone maker from Noida is aiming to make the smartphone accessible to everyone.

The Freedom 251 understandably sports entry-level hardware specifications. It sports a 4-inch IPS display (resolution unspecified). It is powered by a quad-core SoC from an unspecified brand clocked at 1.3GHz, coupled with 1GB of RAM. The Freedom 251 comes with 8GB of inbuilt storage, which can be expanded via microSD card (up to 32GB).

Other specifications of the Freedom 251 include a 3.2-megapixel rear camera, a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 3G support, Wi-Fi connectivity, and a 1450mAh battery. The Freedom 251 smartphone ships with a number of apps pre-installed on it. Some of which include Women Safety, Swachh Bharat, Fisherman, Farmer, Medical, Google Play, WhatsApp, Facebook, and YouTube. Ringing Bells assures that it has more than 650 service centres across different parts of India, and is giving one-year warranty on the smartphone. If you are wondering how to book the Freedom 251, it will be available for purchase via a website later this week, though it may be June before all shipments are completed.

Thousands of users may not find the Freedom 251 smartphone interesting - after all, it doesn't feature impressive specifications, the main USP of most Android smartphones. However, the specifications provided at the staggeringly low price point of Rs. 251 are certainly remarkable.

A low-cost smartphone such as the Freedom 251 has the potential to make a big impact in the country. According to estimates from last year, only 14 percent of the population in the country has access to a smartphone.

At this point, Indian government's role behind the phone isn't clear - and whether or not the government is subsidising the phone. We expect to learn more about it later on Wednesday evening at the official launch event of the smartphone. The event will see a number of top Indian officials including Sri Manohar Parrikkar, Union Minister of Defence, and Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi, Member of Parliament.






source: gadgets.ndtv.com
by Manish Singh

High School Kid Develops A Wearable Device For Parkinson's Patients

UTKARSH TANDON'S ONERING STARTED AS A SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT. NOW HE'S BRINGING HIS 3-D PRINTED MONITORING DEVICE TO MARKET ON KICKSTARTER.

In 2014, Utkarsh Tandon, at the time a freshman at Cupertino High School in California, developed a machine learning model for his science fair project that collected and classified data on sufferers of Parkinson's disease. He won the fair, and, as part of his first place award, received a grant from the UCLA Brain Research Institute. A year later, the high school sophomore has turned his science experiment into a marketable product. The OneRing, now raising funds on Kickstarter, is a wearable device that monitors Parkinson's patients' tremors and delivers the data to an iOS app in the form of a digestible daily report.

The OneRing, named for the powerful ring at the center of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, is a 3-D printed plastic ring topped with a flashdrive-like box that houses a Bluetooth microchip. Using an algorithm developed by Tandon, the device senses tremors commonly experienced by Parkinson's patients, classifies them based on severity, and generates a daily report that provides time-stamped analytics about the users' movements during each hour of the day. The movement patterns of the hand are divided into three categories: dyskinesia, bradykinesia, and tremor. "With these classifications it can be packaged in these very coherent patient reports that the physicians and the patients can read and interact with in a way that better recommends medication," Tandon says.

Read More:
source: FASTCOMPANY
By: MEG MILLER

WhatsApp and Gmail join the 1 billion user club

WHATSAPP AND GMAIL both announced overnight that they now have a billion members, which means that a seventh of the world's population are using the services.

News of WhatsApp hitting the one billion user milestone was lauded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is likely to be rubbing his hands together at the thought of how much data he'll be able to get his grubby mitts on.

"One billion people now use WhatsApp. Congrats to Jan [Koum], Brian [Acton] and everyone who helped reach this milestone!" Zuckerberg said.

"WhatsApp's community has more than doubled since joining Facebook. We’ve added the ability for you to call loved ones far away. We've dropped the subscription fee and made WhatsApp completely free. Next, we're going to work to connect more people around the world and make it easier to communicate with businesses.

"There are only a few services that connect more than a billion people. This milestone is an important step towards connecting the entire world."

WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum said in a post on Facebook that 42 billion messages, 1.6 billion photos and 250 million videos are shared every day on the platform, adding that there are now over one billion groups on the service.

WhatsApp's announcement came just moments after Google revealed that Gmail had also hit the one billion user mark.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai shared the news with investors and media during Alphabet's Q4 2015 earnings call on Monday, adding that Gmail hit the milestone in the past quarter.
This is the seventh Google service with a billion users, joining Search, Chrome, Android, Google Play, Maps and YouTube.

Pichai also said that smart replies, Gmail's automatically generated suggested responses feature, account for 10 percent of email replies through the mobile app.
Alphabet's market cap rose to around $570m following the earnings call, compared with Apple's $538bn, making it the world's most valuable company.

source: the INQUIRER
By: Carly Page

An Invisible Cloud of Gas is Speeding Towards Us At 700,000 Miles Per Hour

SAXTON/LOCKMAN/NRAO/AUI/NSF/MELLINGER

This visualization of the Smith Cloud shows its size compared to the size of the Earth's moon.

An invisible cloud of gas is speeding toward our Milky Way galaxy at 700,000 miles per hour. But don't worry: It will take about 30 million years to get here.

It's a case of “what goes up must come down," according to Hubble Space Telescope astronomers who say the space cloud likely originated in our galaxy and is boomeranging back. When it returns, they predict "a spectacular burst of star formation, perhaps providing enough gas to make 2 million suns."

Astronomers are aware of many space clouds, but the Smith Cloud is unique because its trajectory is well-known.


“The cloud is an example of how the galaxy is changing with time,” said Andrew Fox of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. “It’s telling us that the Milky Way is a bubbling, very active place where gas can be thrown out of one part of the disk and then return back down into another.

NASA/ESA/A. FEILD (STSCI)

Doctoral astronomy student Gail Smith discovered the Smith Cloud in the 1960s. Researchers believe it is 11,000 light-years long and 2,500 light-years across.


Fox and his team recently used the Hubble Space Telescope to learn about the cloud's chemical composition and origin.

We only have 30 million years until it plows into the Milky Way.

Read more:

source: HUFFPOST SCIENCE 

By: Steven Hoffer

Samsung Galaxy S7 Leaked

Samsung entered the 4GB RAM territory with the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, so it’s no surprise that both sizes of the Galaxy S7 are rumored to also sport 4GB of RAM.

One of the biggest complaints with the Galaxy S6 was the battery. Not only wasn’t it removable, but it was also too small. The Galaxy S7 is unlikely to go back to a removable battery, but according to a tipster on Weibo in early January 2016, Samsung will fit a larger 3,000mAh battery, well above the 2,550mAh battery found on the Galaxy S6.

Many Samsung fans are hopeful the MicroSD slot will return with the Galaxy S7, and according to a report from Sam Mobile in early January 2016, their wishes could come true. Sources of the site supposedly confirmed that Samsung will bring back the MicroSD slot to the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. A rumor picked up by HDBlog.it also says the MicroSD card slot may finally return on the S7.

It has often been rumored that Samsung will include an iris scanner as a means of security on its smartphones. This might finally come true with the Galaxy S7 according to a report from late December 2015. Although Samsung wouldn’t be the first company to offer such a feature, it could be a way for Samsung to one-up Apple. It’s unclear if Samsung will continue to include a fingerprint scanner as well.

The Wall Street Journal reported in December that USB Type-C charging port being added, which may provide a full day’s worth of battery charge after just 30 minutes. Samsung may also be experimenting with eye-scanning technology for biometric authentication, presumably in addition to the fingerprint sensor already in place on the Galaxy S6.

The Galaxy S series’ sound quality was never anything to brag about, but that might change with the Galaxy S7. A report out of China in mid-October claims that it will feature a high quality audiophile-grade Stereo D/A converter from ESS Technology. This converter (SABRE9018AQ2M) debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2015, and is the world’s most powerful 32-bit converter. It features 129dB dynamic range and -120dB (0.0001 percent) harmonic distortion.

Camera may be major selling point

Many rumors point to the Galaxy S7 having a strong camera, and now they’re hinting at some cool software to go along with it. In mid-January, reports stated Samsung may include its own version of Apple’s Live Photos, where a GIF-style moving photo is created when taking a still on the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. Android Geeks claim Samsung’s version will be named Timeless Photo or Vivid Photo; the latter combining the word photo with the concept of a “vivid memory.” Whatever you like, Samsung.

Moving on to the hardware, a tipster on Weibo reported in early January 2016 that the Galaxy S7 will sport a 12-megapixel main rear camera, which was also previously rumored. However the tipster included new information regarding the aperture, which could be f/1.7. This is a significant increase over the Galaxy S6, which had an aperture of f/1.9. Couple this with the rumor that the sensor size could be 1/2.0″, and the Galaxy S7 could have one of the best cameras we have seen on a smartphone.

Related to this is a Samsung trademark application for “Britecell,” and according to the listing, it’s an image sensor for mobile phones. It also sounds very familiar to Isocell, which is Samsung’s current sensor technology. Isocell forms a physical barrier between neighboring pixels, thus allowing more light to be captured. The name Britecell obviously is a play on the word “bright,” which would suggest that this sensor also deals with collecting more light.

source: DIGITAL TRENDS
By: Kyle Wiggers 

Is your Safari browser crashing?

Safari is crashing for a lot of people due to this odd bug

Apple's Safari browser was crashing for a lot of users early Wednesday, both on iOS and OS X, seemingly due to a bug related to Safari's search suggestions.

Though Apple hasn't made an official statement about the issue, many users pointed out that simply turning off Safari suggestions in the browser's settings will fix the problem.

The option can be found under Preferences - Search on desktop Safari. On the iPad and iPhone, both of which appear to be affected, you can find it under Settings - Safari. Turn off the option, and your browser will stop crashing.

The bug doesn't impact all users, but it seems to affect Safari on iOS 8 and 9, as well as the latest version of El Capitan, OS X 10.11.1.

Safari crashing on phone and laptop all morning has been pretty annoying. Thankfully it's fixable by just turning off 'Safari Suggestions'

— Christopher Willetts (@cgwilletts) January 27, 2016

If Safari on your Mac is behaving like a muppet since the recent 10.11.3 update, disable Smart Search Field prefs. Wasted an hour there...

— Gavin Smith (@gvnsmth) January 27, 2016

Can't search for why Safari keeps crashing because Safari keeps crashing. Stuck in a vortex of mild inconvenience. Will get over it.

— Channel 4 (@Channel4) January 27, 2016

source: Mashable
By: Stan Schroeder

The Future - Will our machines turn against us?

When most people think of cybercrime, they think of hackers raiding bank accounts, stealing identities and pilfering credit-card numbers. Ah, the good old days. We'll come to miss them, given what lies ahead for us all.

There is a fundamental paradigm shift afoot in the world of digital crime, and it will make us pine for the simplicity of credit-card theft. Throughout the history of hacking, most of these threats have been constrained to the two-dimensional world of computer screens. The danger was only to our data. But, as the fundamental nature of the computer shifts, so too does the threat landscape.

To most, a computer is a desktop machine, laptop or server. More recently, we have come to recognise that our mobile phones, tablets and gaming consoles are also computers, as are any objects with the word "smart" -- televisions and watches. As the investor Marc Andreessen famously noted in 2011, "software is eating the world." In other words, the physical objects in our world are slowly transforming into information technologies, a phenomenon referred to as the internet of things (IoT).

The possibilities of the IoT are significant -- your Nest thermostat will save you money on your energy bill, your Fitbit will carefully monitor your activity and your car will drive itself (and you) to the office. The IoT is expected to be worth $11 trillion (£7.1tn) to the global economy by 2025, as actories modernise, city infrastructures go online, and the world of logistics is completely transformed. Intel estimates 200 billion new objects joining our global information grid by 2020.

But let's remember all of these devices are also computers and, to date, no computer has been built that could not be hacked. In July 2015, hackers remotely commandeered a Jeep Cherokee as it drove down a highway at 110kph and killed its engine mid-stream, bringing the vehicle to a halt. Modern automobiles are no longer purely mechanical devices: each has hundreds of computer chips in them, controlling everything from airbags to windscreen wipers. Today's cars are nothing more than computers we ride in.

Computers that we fly in are also subject to hacking. Recently, the FBI detained a computer security researcher who claimed to have accessed data from a United Airlines flight's engines, mid-flight, while seated on an aircraft as it flew from Chicago to Denver. The breach reportedly occurred when the hacker plugged his own laptop into an available port underneath his seat, bypassing the in-flight entertainment system software to access the plane's flight management system.

The possibilities for disaster are manifest. In this brave new world, when cybercrime goes 3D, identities aren't stolen -- lives are lost.

source: WIRED
By: Marc Goodman

Marc Goodman is a global security adviser and futurist,

founder of the Future Crimes Institute, and author of Future Crimes (Bantam Press)