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)