Samsung launched the Galaxy Core (GT-I8262) in India last year. Russian website hi-tech.mail.ru has posted the press images and the specifications of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Core 2 Dual SIM (SM-G355H). According to the leak, the Galaxy Core 2 would have a 4.5-inch (800 x 480 Pixels) LCD capacitive touch screen display, powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor and would run Android 4.4 (KitKat).


It would come with Dual SIM support with Smart dual SIM feature, 5-megapixel rear camera with LED Flash and a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) front-facing camera, similar to the first Galaxy Core smartphone. This Galaxy Core had 1 GB RAM and 8GB of internal storage, but this would have 512MB RAM and 4GB of internal storage, says the website.

Samsung Galaxy Core 2 rumored specifications

• 4.5-inch (800 x 480 Pixels) display
• 1.2 GHz quad-core processor
• Android 4.4 (KitKat) OS
• Dual SIM with Smart Dual SIM
• Dimensions: 129.7 x 67.9 x 9.8mm; Weight 138 grams
• 5MP rear camera with LED Flash
• 0.3MP (VGA)front-facing camera
• 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio with RDS
• 512MB RAM, 4 GB internal memory, expandable up to 64GB with microSD
• 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS
• 2000 mAh battery

The Samsung Galaxy Core 2 is expected to be priced around 9990 Russian Rubles (Rs. 16800 approx) and would go on sale in Russia starting 20th May, 2014. The press image shows london and June 1st, so this could also launch globally. Samsung is expected to announce the phone officially in coming weeks.

Air quality is one of those things that many of us should be more concerned about, but aren’t. According to some people, this is because we’re not easily able to know how clean the air around us really is – we just assume it’s “clean enough.” Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego have set out to change that. They’re developing a compact, portable air pollution sensor that communicates with the user’s smartphone, to provide real-time air quality readings for their immediate surroundings.

Known as CitiSense, the device is able to measure local concentrations of ozone, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide, which are the pollutants emitted most by internal combustion vehicles. That data is wirelessly transmitted to the user’s smartphone, where it’s displayed on the screen via a custom app – along with an actual number rating, the display also utilizes the EPA’s color code scale, where green is good and purple.

Also, data gathered from a multitude of the sensors throughout a region could provide the public with much more detailed and accurate air quality reports than is currently possible. According to the university, although San Diego County measures approximately 4,000 square miles (10,360 sq km), it is currently served by only about ten air-quality monitoring stations.

The sensors presently cost US$1,000 per unit to build, but the researchers are confident that the price could be greatly reduced by mass production – they could conceivably even be incorporated into commercial smartphones. Although the constant data exchange between the prototype sensors and their paired phones is a considerable drain on the phones’ batteries, that could reportedly be addressed by limiting such exchanges to spaced intervals, or only when requested by the user.
North Carolina-based tech firm RTI International is developing a somewhat similar gadget known as the MicroPEM (Personal Exposure Monitoring device), although it doesn’t provide real-time readings. The University of Southern California has also created an Android app that uses the phone’s camera to measure particulate matter in the atmosphere, but it doesn't determine what those particles consist of.

After revolutionizing the Indian classrooms a decade ago, Educomp is now all set to transform schools across India with the launch of Educomp SmartSchool.

The launch of Educomp SmartSchool (ESS) coincides with the 10-year celebration of Educomp’s flagship product, Smartclass. ESS is the next generation of Educomp’s SmartLearning suite of products for schools which brings together 5 layers of technology adoption for schools, and integrates them into one composite solution.

This breakthrough product is the result of years of dedicated research and development by Educomp’s R&D team. A first of its kind in the world, it helps schools in enhancing the quality of learning and increasing learning outcomes while providing never-seen-before features, allowing schools to integrate, create and enhance a 360 degree relationship with all stakeholders while keeping the student at the center of the learning experience.

Addressing a gathering of School Principals at Hometel Chandigarh Hotel in the city and apprising them about the new development, Mr. Rakesh Dahiya, Regional CEO-North, SmartClass said, “With Educomp SmartSchool, we look at the school as an integrated learning ecosystem, where students can see education come alive through our best in class 3D animations, with Smartclass recommended lesson plans and cloud based real-time updates. They can create and do experiments through virtual experiments and master language though English Mentor, which uses never-seen-before technology for voice recognition. Our 3D content immerses students into a new world of multi sensory learning  and the assessment system, Educomp Insight, allows schools and parents to track where students are in their cognitive development. Through Educomp Online, schools can link students, teachers and parents into a seamless information exchange, messaging, CCE, assessments and peer to peer learning.”

The Educomp SmartSchool architecture also allows schools an unprecedented amount of customization depending on scale, size or content. Being the largest player in the sector with over 15000 schools using its proprietory products, Educomp will be able to effect a seamless transition for many existing schools to the SmartSchool eco-system.

To ensure that the benefits of the SmartSchool concept are well understood, Educomp organized a seminar for school Principals in Chandigarh today, as part of its 25-city road show. Leading school Principals listened in rapt attention while the SmartSchool concept was demonstrated along with benefits by top Educomp officials. The road show also coincided with celebrations of the successful 10


years of Educomp’s flagship product Smartclass and a total of fourteen schools including Manav Mangal Smart School and  Shivalik Public School were felicitated as among the first few adopters of digital classroom on the occasion.

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have discovered that when water droplets spontaneously jump away from superhydrophobic surfaces during condensation, they can gain electric charge in the process.

Apart from charging electronic devices, the new system could also produce clean water.
The device will have a series of interleaved flat metal plates that can be made of cheaper aluminium.
"As water droplets jump, they carry charge from one plate to the other; if the two plates are connected through an external circuit, that charge difference can be harnessed to provide power," said post-doctoral fellow Nenad Miljkovic and Evelyn Wang, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, at MIT.

The system is based on earlier findings by Miljkovic and Wang that droplets on a superhydrophobic surface convert surface energy to kinetic energy as they merge to form larger droplets.
This sometimes causes the droplets to spontaneously jump away, enhancing heat transfer by 30 % relative to other techniques. They later found that in that process, the jumping droplets gain a small electric charge. In a practical device, two arrays of metal plates - like fins on a radiator - would be interleaved so that they are very close but not touching.

"The atmosphere is a huge source of power and all you need is a temperature difference between the air and the device," Miljkovic added.

This will allow the device to produce condensation, just as water condenses from warm, humid air on the outside of a cold glass, he said in a paper published in the journal Applied Physics Letters.

According to a recent study by Larry Rosen, a Professor of Psychology at California State University, most people cannot last for 10 minutes without getting highly anxious if their smartphone is taken away.

To reach this conclusion, researchers divided a group of 163 college students into light, moderate and heavy smartphone users. Half the students sat in silence without their phones, and half with them turned off and out of sight.

Regardless of where their phone was, heavy users showed more anxiety than the light users at the 10-minute mark, said the study set to be published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior. Their anxiety continued to rise until the experiment ended.

In another survey released last week by the Bank of America, nearly half of the Americans say they could not go a day without their smartphone.

According to experts at recovery centres in the US specialising in addictions and emotional problems, heavy smartphone use is driving more and more people towards behavioural addictions like gaming, social networking, pornography and sex.

“We are dealing with more and more smartphones as part of the underlying issues. These technologies are driving addictions faster and with more intensity than ever before,” Joel Edwards, executive director of Morningside Recovery in California was quoted as saying on Market Watch website.

Google Play Store will reportedly get a revamped UI along with the recently announced Material Design, according to a report from Android Police. The design language announced at the Google I/O developer conference is expected to gradually land on popular Google platforms.

According to the leaked screenshots provided by Android Police, the Google Play Store looks more cleaner and simple UI. The new Play Store has more white space and larger header images as compared to the current Play Store. These images are mostly in the background and are similar to album art images. Also, more focus has been added on bringing the content forefront. Reviews section for apps has become more colorful with the addition of color review bars. It must be noted that these images are for Play Store for both tablet and smartphone.

Finally, the Material Design also adds the Roboto font that can be seen used in the revamped UI of the Play Store in these images.The report states that as these images are pre -release leaks, they are subject to change. There is no official word from Google regarding the UI update for the Play Store.

Researchers have pioneered a revolutionary new way to digitally navigate three-dimensional images. The new technology, called Virtual Finger, allows scientists to move through digital images of small structures like neurons and synapses using the flat surface of their computer screens. Virtual Finger’s unique technology makes 3D imaging studies orders of magnitude more efficient, saving time, money and resources at an unprecedented level across many areas of experimental biology. The software and its applications are profiled in this week’s issue of the journal Nature Communications.

Most other image analysis software works by dividing a three-dimensional image into a series of thin slices, each of which can be viewed like a flat image on a computer screen. To study three-dimensional structures, scientists sift through the slices one at a time: a technique that is increasingly challenging with the advent of big data. “Looking through 3D image data one flat slice at a time is simply not efficient, especially when we are dealing with terabytes of data,” explains Hanchuan Peng, Associate Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. “This is similar to looking through a glass window and seeing objects outside, but not being able to manipulate them because of the physical barrier.”

In sharp contrast, Virtual Finger allows scientists to digitally reach into three-dimensional images of small objects like single cells to access the information they need much more quickly and intuitively. “When you move your cursor along the flat screen of your computer, our software recognizes whether you are pointing to an object that is near, far, or somewhere in between, and allows you to analyze it in depth without having to sift through many two-dimensional images to reach it, Using Virtual Finger could make data collection and analysis ten to 100 times faster, depending on the experiment,” says Peng.

 “The software allows us to navigate large amounts of biological data in the same way that Google Earth allows you to navigate the world. It truly is a revolutionary technology for many different applications within biological science,”

Scientists at the Allen Institute are already using Virtual Finger to improve their detection of spikes from individual cells, and to better model the morphological structures of neurons. But Virtual Finger promises to be a game-changer for many biological experiments and methods of data analysis, even beyond neuroscience. In their Nature Communications article, the collaborative group of scientists describes how the technology has already been applied to perform three-dimensional microsurgery in order to knock out single cells, study the developing lung, and create a map of all the neural connections in the fly brain.

Samsung's impending Galaxy Note 4 is one of the most awaited smartphones of 2014 and now the buzz word is that the device is set to pack in a retina scanner! Possibly the current blue-eyed boy of rumors, details of the Galaxy Note 4 have leaked online plenty of times and now Samsung's chip division - Samsung Exynos - has revealed an unexpected tit-bit via Twitter.

"Security can be improved using features unique to us. That's what we envision. What would you use?" wrote Samsung Exynos on its Twitter account on Saturday, July 12. The cryptic Twitter post seems to hint that Samsung intends on introducing retina scanning for its upcoming mobile devices. The tweet is accompanied by an image which shows off a smartphone screen analyzing an eye and says "unlock the future."

The image seems to suggest that the device is likely the stylus-equipped Galaxy Note 4, the successor to the Galaxy Note 3. The image hints that the smartphone will come equipped with a retina scanner, which can possibly be used to unlock the handset - just like the fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S5 or the iPhone 5s.

Considering the retina scanning feature did not make it to the Galaxy S5, a possibility exists that Samsung was saving it for the Galaxy Note 4, which will likely launch at the IFA 2014. Traditionally, Samsung's Galaxy Note phones and iDevices launch weeks apart from each other and it could be that the Korean company is looking to throw the gauntlet to the iPhone 6 with the retina scanner on board the Galaxy Note 4.

The Galaxy Note 4 is expected to sport a 5.7-inch QHD screen and could come in two variants (one with an Exynos 5433 octa-core processor and the other with Snapdragon 805). The device is also expected to tout 3GB of RAM and 32GB of on-board memory, as well as a 16-megapixel primary camera. Noted leakster @evleaks has hinted that the Galaxy Note 4 will come in more vibrant hues to lure buyers. Rumors hint at the new hues being Copper Gold, Shimmery White, Charcoal Black and Electric Blue. Whether the Galaxy Note 4 will be a game changer and deploy a retina scanner, however, remains to be seen.

Traveling in auto rickshaws will become a more convenient and reliable experience for commuters in Delhi. If you are staying in Delhi and getting trouble in boarding an auto rickshaw especially during peak hours, now you can use your smart phone to hire an auto rickshaw with the help of a new PoochO android app.

Through PoochO app commuters will now be able to see the location of the autos nearest to them and call the auto drivers directly on their personal mobile number and book their trip. Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung launched this wonderful Android app.

Delhi Integrated Multi-Model Transit System (DIMTS) has developed this android app, “Pooch-O”, This Android app will now allow users to locate autos and it is also enabled with GPS technology so that the users can easily call its driver which are nearest to them. It is also necessary that the mobile numbers of the drivers would be registered with DIMTS. You can easily book a trip with the help of this amazing Android app.

Pooch-O app can be downloaded for only Android phones for free from Google Play store and can find out auto nearest to them through Maps.


his Android app is very much beneficial for working women who are doing night shifts and traveling in autos at night. PoochO app allows people to access the DIMTS database of registered drivers’ mobile numbers and then call them up. After booking auto through this app, user can share their travel details on Facebook and Twitter so that their friends and family members can get to know about their location.

This app also has many security elements so that user no needs to worry while sharing their personal information like mobile number and home address. You do need to make sure that your phone has GPS and leave it turned on in order to use the app. Pooch-O users can also calculate the estimated fare for their trip and even track the auto to check if it is coming towards them or not.
The users need not to pay the additional money to the driver for booking. About 24,000 autos in Delhi are equipped with GPS. The Delhi Integrated Multi-Model Transit System (DIMTS) sanctioned the development of the smart phone application which, Pooch-O on Android lets you book Delhi’s GPS-enabled auto-rickshaws.

Google has updated keyboard app with several features. For starters the app gets support for five new languages including Indian English, Basque, Galician, Swiss Italian, and Latin American Spanish. Google Keyboard was released back in June last year, but it is not available globally for all devices yet.

The version 3.1.19633, changes the position of the voice input key as previously it was next to the space bar, but now it is placed in the suggestions box on the right side. Google has also added support for spoken emoji, which enables users to add select emoji using words such as “smiley face”, “sad face” and a few others. This update doesn’t include Material theme that is available in Google Keyboard in Android L.

As always, the update is rolling out in stages in the Google Play but you can always manually download the APK from this link.

HTC’s low cost device with flagship like specs, the HTC One E8 is now a part of Indian mobile arena too. The One E8, which is quite similar to its flagship version the HTC One M8 will remind you of the HTC One X and One X+ with its polycarbonate unibody design frame. The device has already received positive comments and reviews from the users and is definite to make a mark here.
Apart from the missing aluminium body, there are some other changes too. Firstly, the One E8 comes with a 13-MP rear shooter in place of M8’s dual 4MP UltraPixel technology and secondly, the E8 houses dual SIM support. It has the same 5-inch Super LCD3 Full HD display and is powered by a 2.5GHz quad core Snapdragon 801 chipset. The device comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of in-built storage with microSD card slot that accepts up to 128GB of storage more. Like mentioned above, the E8 has 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash with 1080p Full HD video recording capabilities, while the front has a 5-megapixel Full HD 1080p selfie shooter. Perhaps, you won’t miss the dual 4MP UltraPixel camera setup of the M8 here. It is 4G-LTE enabled and runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat OS with HTC’s Sense UI on top. For Rs 34,900, the HTC One E8 will be available by the end of the month.

Major HTC One E8 specs

• 5-inch Super LCD3 Full HD display with 1080×1920 pixels and 441PPI
• 2.5GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, Adreno 330 GPU
• 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, 128GB microSD card slot
• Dual SIM, Android KitKat 4.4.2 OS with HTC Sense UI
• 13MP rear FHD 1080p camera, LED flash and 5MP FHD 1080p front shooter
• 4G-LTE, 3G HSPA+, Bluetooth v4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
• GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS, microUSB v2.0
• 145 grams, 2600mAh battery

 
The HTC Desire 616 has been announced for Rs 16,900 and will be out in the market by next week. It offers a 5-inch 720p display with HTC one series design barring the dual front facing speakers. Under the hood it has an OCTA Core 1.7GHz Cortex-A7 processor on MediaTek MT6592 chipset with Mali-450MP4 GPU. The device is Dual SIM supported smartphone that runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean OS with HTC Sense UI. There’s 1GB of RAM with 4GB of onboard storage and
2000mAh battery.

Major HTC Desire 616 specs

• 5-inch 720p display with 294PPI
• 1.7GHz Octa Core MediaTek chipset, Mali-450MP4 GPU
• 1GB RAM, 4GB storage, 32GB microSD card slot
• 8MP FHD 1080p rear camera with LED flash, 2MP 720p front cam
• Dual SIM, Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean OS with HTC Sense UI
• 3G HSPA+, Bluetooth v4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• GPS/A-GPS and microUSB v2.0
• 2000mAh battery

A thimble-like device called 3DTouch that sits at the end of your finger and allows you to interact with the virtual world in three dimensions may render the indispensable computer mouse obsolete.
The way in which humans interact with computers has been dominated by the mouse since it was invented in the 1960s. However, when we use the device, we’re limited to two-dimensional movements.


According to MIT Technology Review, Nguyen and Banic aimed to create a cheap device that works as a universal input for more or less any computing device. They want to make it as small and unobtrusive as possible so that it can be easily transported. The 3DTouch sits on the end of a finger, equipped with a 3D accelerometer, a 3D magnetometer and 3D gyroscope. Anh Nguyen and Amy Banic from the University of Wyoming in the US have created an intelligent thimble that can sense its position accurately in three-dimensions and respond to a set of preprogrammed gestures that allow the user to interact with objects in a virtual three-dimensional world.

That allows the data from each sensor to be compared and combined to produce a far more precise estimate of orientation than a single measurement alone. The 3DTouch also has an optical flow sensor that measures the movement of the device against a two-dimensional surface, exactly like that inside an ordinary mouse. Researchers have also built in a number of mouse-like gestures that allow a user to interact with 3-D objects, by selecting and dragging them. They have tested their new device to measure its pointing accuracy and say that it is reasonably good.

For now, the device is hooked up by wire to an Arduino controller which combines the data from all the sensors. The fused data is then streamed to a conventional laptop. ”This wired connection later could be replaced by a wireless solution using a pair of XBee modules,” researchers said.

Moto E, Moto X and the Moto G have done well, and according to the Times of India, Motorola has sold over one million units in the past five months.

With such sales numbers, Motorola is now placed in the top-five smartphone vendors in India. According to IDC, a total of 17.59 million smartphones in the first quarter of 2014, and Nokia comes in at the fifth place having shopped seven lakh units. This is reflected by Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal. “We believe these sales figures should put Motorola among the top five mobile brands in the country,” Bansal told ToI.

Motorola, not surprisingly, is happy with the success of its current model and according to the publication isn’t looking at making any changes. In other words, don’t expect Motorola smartphones to be available in brick-and-mortar stores.

Motorola will however soon face some tough competition from the likes of Xiaomi, as the Chinese vendor too will sell its smartphones and accessories exclusively via Flipkart. Its first smartphone, the Xiaomi Mi3, will be available on Flipkart from July 15 onwards, priced at Rs 14,999. The flagship device features a 5-inch 1080p IPS display, a 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory. It comes with 13-megapixel rear camera with dual-flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, both capable of shooting 1080p videos. The Mi3 also features dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and Wi-Fi Direct. It has a massive 3,050mAh battery as well.

On Monday Microsoft has announced that Nokia Lumia 930 will begin this week in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The company also said that “further rollout throughout the world (except the US) will continue over the coming weeks.”

Amazingly, the Lumia 930 smartphone was first unveiled in April at Microsoft’s Build 2014 conference along with the Lumia 630 and Lumia 635 device. Nokia Lumia 930 packs with amazing features like single-SIM support and runs Windows Phone 8.1 operating system. It also features a 5-inch full-HD (1080×1920 pixel of resolution) ClearBlack OLED display with a pixel density of 441ppi also. As per the display boasts of a Gorilla Glass 3 screen, the ‘Super Sensitive Touch’ feature capability, and ‘a near 180-degree viewing angle’. Lumia 930 smartphone is powered by a 2.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC coupled with 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage. Unfortunately there is no external storage memory in Lumia 930 mobile phone, if you love to store extra music, photos and video then this smartphone is definitely not for you.

Lumia 930 goes on sale on e-store (Flipkart, Infibeam, HomeShop18)
It has sports a 20-megapixel PureView camera with dual-LED flash, which has optical image stabilisation (OIS) and Carl Zeiss optics capability also. A front-facing 1.2-megapixel wide-angle camera for video calling, apart from four directional microphones and integrated Dolby Surround Sound. Nokia Lumia 930 smartphone comes in 32GB of built-in storage (additional 7GB free OneDrive cloud storage with internet only), but there is no expansion option for microSD card as we talk in above para. Friends don’t forget that you find this information on the mobile info blog.

All major connectivity options are available on the Lumia 930 include Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi direct, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, Micro-USB, 3G and LTE. The Lumia 930 runs on a 2420mAh battery capacity which is rated for up to 21.7 hours of 2G talk time and 17.9 hours of 3G talk time. Other than that the Lumia 930 smartphone also boasts of built-in wireless charging also works great with no major issues at all. It measures dimensions of 137x71x9.8 mm and weighs 167 grams, with this kind of light weight it is very easy to carry this smartphone.

Just, a creative agency based in the Netherlands, is launching a campaign named "99 Days of Freedom," asking users to completely log out of Facebook for 99 days. The purpose of the study is to find out whether the absence of Facebook will affect a person's individual happiness. The agency will administer happiness surveys on the 33rd, 66th and 99th day of the experiment to participants.

Facebook users who wish to join the campaign may download an image from the official 99 Days of Freedom website and use it as their profile picture. Participants are then told to share their last link on Facebook for the next 99 days to create a personal countdown. Participants may also send in their e-mail address to join the happiness survey.

Participants are then requested not to use Facebook for 99 days, which means no logging in to the social network to check for updates, no usage of Facebook Messenger, and no sharing of links or posts. Just wants a complete withdrawal from Facebook, to see if happiness is really affected by usage of the social network.

There is no way for the agency to monitor if the participants keep their promise, with the whole experiment banking on complete dedication from its participants. Just adds that, according to Facebook, the network's 1.2 billion users spend 17 minutes daily on average browsing through Facebook. 99 days is equivalent to 28 hours which the agency believes can be spent on more emotionally fulfilling activities such as spending face-to-face time with loved ones.
Straathof and the rest of his team are curious to see and reveal the results, but add that the experiment is in no way a protest or an attack against Facebook.

Google rolled out a small but significant update to Google Maps Tuesday, which allows you to measure the exact distance between two or more points on a map. Previously, Google Maps displayed distances when you searched for directions, but it would only tell you the distance along the planned route — not the exact distance between the starting and final destinations. For example, you might search for directions to a restaurant that's exactly 3 miles away (if you draw a straight line), but the route Google provides for driving directions might actually be 3.5 miles.

Now, desktop Maps users can measure exact distances between two or more points — even if there's no road, or viable walking or driving route — which will be particularly helpful for planning jogging paths and bike rides on a map. You can even draw characters and shapes for fun (as Google did to demonstrate the new feature).

To start using the new distance-measuring tool, right click on any point on your map, and select "measure distance." Then click on another point on the map to create a path, and you will see the distance between the selected points. You can also select multiple points to measure distances between several different places. Finally, you can view the total distance between your points in Maps' search bar in the top lefthand corner of the page.

Researchers from Prague-based security software company Avast said they were easily able to retrieve personal data from used smartphones sold online, despite consumers deleting their data.
From the used devices, Avast was able to recover more than 40,000 personal photos, emails, text messages, and - in some cases - the identities of the sellers.

"We purchased a variety of Android devices from sellers across the US and used readily available recovery software to dig up personal information that was previously on the phones," said Jude McColgan, President of Mobile at Avast. AVAST analysed 20 used smartphones whose previous owners had performed a factory reset or a 'delete all' operation on their devices.

"The take-away is that even deleted data on your used phone can be recovered unless you completely overwrite it," he said.


The researchers were able to recover more than 40,000 stored photos, more than 1,500 family photos of children, more than 1,000 Google searches, over 750 emails and text messages, more than 250 contact names and email addresses, four previous owners' identities and one completed loan application.

"More than 80,000 used smartphones are for sale daily on eBay in the US. Along with their phones, consumers may not realise they are selling their memories and their identities," McColgan said.
"Images, emails, and other documents deleted from phones can be exploited for identity theft, blackmail, or for even stalking purposes. Selling your used phone is a good way to make a little extra money, but it's potentially a bad way to protect your privacy," added McColgan.

Apple has just seeded the third-iteration of iOS 8 with build number 12a4318c to registered iOS developers via the Apple Developer Program. Apple unveiled iOS 8 at the WWDC 2014 Keynote with numerous new features and improvements including interactive notifications, widgets, support for third-party keyboards, Handoff and more.

The new iOS 8 beta update is now available for download on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch via online developer portal as well as via Over-The-Air (OTA) update.
List of Compatible Devices
iOS 8 beta 3 is compatible with the following iOS devices:

• iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5, iPhone 4S
• iPad Air, Retina iPad mini, iPad 4, iPad mini, iPad 3, iPad 2
• 5th generation iPod touch

New Features in iOS 8 Beta 3
Here is a brief description of the latest features ported to third beta iteration of iOS 8 (courtesy of iPhone Hacks):

• iCloud Drive: iCloud Drive app gets a new welcome screen.
• App Analytics: A new opt-in screen allows sharing iOS crash data and other analytics information with developers.
• Handoff: A new Handoff toggle is available via Settings > General. You can enable this option to effortlessly switch between your Mac, iPhone and iPad without dirupting your work flow.
• QuickType: Enable or disable QuickType via new toggle setting in iOS 8's new keyboard feature that predicts words for user input based on current context.
• Messages: New option in Messages app automatically preserves video and audio messages following the periodic maintenance, as messages by default get purged after some specified time.
• Notification Center: New UI for clearing notifications.
• Wi-Fi Calling: iOS 8 beta 3 introduces new Wi-Fi calling feature to enable making phone calls over Wi-Fi. Users can avail this feature via carrier support with T-Mobile being the first to add this feature.
• Camera App: The native camera app now shows how many days left until a photo is deleted via Recently Deleted section.
• Wallpapers: iOS' default wallpaper gallery gets new wallpapers for iPhone and iPad.
• Weather App: Weather app is redesigned with tweaked UI wherein the details at the bottom are horizontally centred instead of having two separate columns like in previous design.
• Find my iPhone: New enhanced version of Find my iPhone and Find my Friends app allows you to move your friend list to an iCloud account.

Google Now is already one of the greatest things to happen to mobile devices in the past few years. And every time we think that Google can’t possibly make it any better, awesome new functionality pops up that proves otherwise. The latest example is an awesome new feature that currently appears to be rolling out slowly to some users. FROM EARLIER: We didn’t think it was possible, but Google Now just got even smarter As noted in a report from Android Police, some Android device owners have begun to receive a behind-the-scenes update that brings the ability to control media playback with your voice to Google Now. For example, a user will be able to speak the words “Ok Google, next song”

Gartner has predicted that the PC market that comprises of desktop, notebook and premium ultra mobile will decline by 2.9 percent year-on-year in 2014, as opposed to the 9.5 percent drop between 2012 and 2013. Giving insights about mobile phone sales, Gartner touted that  mobile phone will grow from more than 1.8 billion in 2014 to more than 1.9 billion next year. Smartphones will increasingly make up the bulk of mobile phone shipments, accounting for 88 percent of all mobile phone sales worldwide by 2018, up from 66 percent this year, the analysts said.

In the operating system (OS) market, Android and iOS are driving the growth with a 30 percent and 15 percent increase, respectively, in 2014. Atwal concluded saying that “The next wave of adoption will be driven by lower price points rather than superior functionality”

PC shipments have declined over last year where tablets are getting heavy demand due to features like portability, lightweight and affordable prices.

“2014 will be marked by a relative revival of the global PC market. Business upgrades from Windows XP and the general business replacement cycle will lessen the downward trend, especially in Western Europe. This year, we anticipate nearly 60 million professional PC replacements in mature markets”
said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.

Telecom sector regulator Trai has notified that the minimum broadband speed has been raised to 512 kilobytes per second (kbps) from the earlier 256kbps. The amendment has been made to the Telecom Consumers Complaint Redressal Regulations, 2012 and the regulations will be called the Telecom Consumers Complaint Redressal (Third Amendment) Regulations, 2014, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in a notification.

Accordingly, the new definition of broadband is "a data connection that is able to support interactive services including internet access and has the capability of minimum download speed of 512kbps to an individual subscriber from the point of presence (POP) of the service provider intending to provide broadband service".

The Department of Telecommunications ( DoT) had revised the broadband speed in consonance of the National Telecom Policy 2012 and Trai recommendations, the regulator said. The earlier minimum broadband speed of 256kbps was as per the Broadband Policy 2004.

According to National Telecom Policy 2012, the government aims to raise the broadband download speed of to 512kbps from 256kbps and subsequently to 2Mbps by 2015. According to Trai data, total broadband subscribers in the country rose by 5.82% to 65.33 million at the end of May 2014 from 61.74 million at the end of April 2014.

While wired broadband subscribers stood at 14.95 million as of May this year, mobile device users (phones and dongles) were 49.97 million and the fixed wireless (Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Point-to-Point, Radio and VSAT) subscribers stood at 0.41 million for the same period.

BlackBerry's popular cross-platform messaging application – BBM – is set to launch on the Windows Phone platform. A beta version of the messaging app has been spotted on Windows Phone store.

BBM is listed as a free app on the store without any user reviews. The listing on the store says: “BBM for Windows beta. We're getting ready to welcome Windows Phone users to the BBM community. BBM brings you together in the moment with friends and family through instant chats, voice calls, picture sharing, voice notes and more.” According to the listing, BBM will work with Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.

The release for Windows Phone comes after launch on the iOS and Android platforms. However, BBM was launched on the latter platforms almost a half a year later. The iOS and Android apps have already received a few updates that bring some interesting features. BBM for Windows Phone will benefit BlackBerry as well as Microsoft. While BlackBerry will be able to further expand its BBM and compete with rival messaging apps, Microsoft will have another popular application to its Windows Phone eco-system, which is competing against Google's Android.

Android L is still in the developer preview phase but companies are already vowing to bring it to their devices. Motorola smartphones have mostly pure Android and get very timely updates now Moto customer support is claiming that the Moto X and Moto G will definitely be getting the L update. As for the entry-level Moto E the support team has no information yet.

Customer support isn't the most reliable source of information – the decisions to update a phone or not are made higher up and only after in-house developers have had a good look and evaluated the possibilities. Considering Android L isn't even final, it may be too early to be talking of definite updates let alone time frames.

HTC has announced that it will roll out the L update within 90 days of receiving the source code from Google. Nexus devices will get Android L in the Fall so that's as good a time frame as we have right now. Presumably Motorola can get the job done quicker than HTC as there's almost nothing to modify.

We briefly mentioned this problem during our recent post about Apple deciding to randomize MAC addresses in iOS 8. As we pointed out there, Wi-Fi devices that are not actively connected to a network can send out messages that contain the names of networks they've joined in the past in an effort to speed up the connection process. But after writing that post we became curious just how many phones actually exhibited that behavior, and if so, how much information they leaked.

In Android we traced this behavior to a feature introduced in Honeycomb (Android 3.1) called Preferred Network Offload (PNO). PNO is supposed to allow phones and tablets to establish and maintain Wi-Fi connections even when they're in low-power mode (i.e. when the screen is turned off). The goal is to extend battery life and reduce mobile data usage, since Wi-Fi uses less power than cellular data.

Response from Google

"We take the security of our users' location data very seriously and we're always happy to be made aware of potential issues ahead of time. Since changes to this behavior would potentially affect user connectivity to hidden access points, we are still investigating what changes are appropriate for a future release."

This morning was a bad day for the dynamic domain name services from No-IP.com, as its suffered from the outages on Monday after Microsoft seized 22 domain names. Microsoft have claimed that the service is being abused in malware campaign which infects million of Windows system.

Microsoft security team have been investing on the targeted traffic that is been generated from the no-ip server which are involved in the malware campaign, which went by the names Bladabindi (aka NJrat) and Jenxcus (aka NJw0rm). The order for the operation is been granted by a federal court in Nevada. Nevada-based No-IP Dynamic DNS (DDNS) service is very useful service but its sub-domains have been abused by creators of malware for infecting millions of computers with malicious software at large scale.

Assistant General Counsel at Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit, Richard Domingues Boscovich, says on the blog post-

Microsoft pursued the seizure for No-IP's role "in creating, controlling, and assisting in infecting millions of computers with malicious software—harming Microsoft, its customers and the public at large."  He added: "We're taking No-IP to task as the owner of infrastructure frequently exploited by cybercriminals to infect innocent victims with the Bladeabindi (NJrat) and Jenxcus (NJw0rm) family of malware."

Over past year Microsoft have found that more than 7 millions of windows system were infected by Bladabindi and Jenxcus malware, via which attacker have the full control of users’ computers, steal passwords, and turn on webcams and microphones.

Moreover, Microsoft attorneys said No-IP is "functioning as a major hub for 245 different types of malware circulating on the Internet."
No-IP Marketing Manager, Natalie Goguen says that Microsoft had never contacted them for the abuse of the service, or asked to block any of the sub-domains.

The latest updates to Apple's OS X Mavericks and iOS operating systems, both released on Monday, address a number of bugs and security vulnerabilities. The new version of Mavericks -- officially named OS X Mavericks v10.9.4 -- fixes issues that had prevented some Macs from automatically connecting to known Wi-Fi networks, and also improves the reliability of waking from sleep mode.
A new version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 7.1.2, was released alongside the Mavericks update on June 30. The mobile upgrade addresses issues in the iPhone 4 and later generations, as well as the iPod Touch 5 and later, and the iPad 2 and later. Apple also updated its web browser to Safari 7.0.5.

Multiple Security Fixes
The update to Apple’s operating system, its third so far in 2014, includes a number of changes. Apple’s support Web site lists fixes to Maverick’s Certificate Trust Policy, Dock, graphics driver, and Thunderbolt drivers, among others.

Most of the fixes target problems with Maverick’s WebKit rendering engine which allow Web sites to crash the browser or execute malicious code, according to a report on The Register. The security bugs also include a potential leak of iBooks logs that could reveal a user’s Apple ID, and a vulnerability in the Dock that allows malicious code execution. It also includes a fix to prevent malicious ZIP archives from executing code and to prevent remote server attacks, plus a way to circumvent the screensaver lock.

Apple’s iOS update also includes patches for a number of security problems, including one that allows the Siri voice command system to reveal a user’s contact list. The upgrade includes patches for the OS kernel, Mail, WebKit, and Safari. According to a report on Expert Reviews, the vulnerability to remote code execution makes the new iOS highly recommended, although warns that the patches could block use of the Pangu iOS 7.1.1 jailbreak.

A full description of the security upgrade can be found on Apple's support Web site. The company recommends the upgrade for all users.

India will build a broadband highway connecting 2.5 lakh panchayats across the country in the next three years to provide a host of public services, union Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Tuesday.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target of providing broadband connectivity to 2.5 lakh local bodies (spread over six lakh villages) across the country over the next three years, with 50,000 this (fiscal) year and one lakh each over the next two years," Prasad said at a meeting here with IT industry honchos.

"The prime minister shared his vision of using ICT (information and communication technology) at a meeting with my ministry recently where presentations were made to him. He wants WiFi (wireless fidelity) in cities and towns and broadband connectivity in every school across the country," Prasad said.

"I have also written to various chambers of commerce and industry and concerned agencies for suggestions to ease doing business in the country by simplifying the procedures and reducing the number of clearances for quick decision-making," he added.

"You got a good name in the global IT industry with your software and services. You should now make India a proud destination for IT products by developing innovative technologies and products that can be used for e-education, e-healthcare and e-governance," Prasad told executive council members of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom).

Nasscom president R. Chandrashekhar said the cost of providing broadband connectivity to 2.5 lakh local bodies was estimated to be a whopping Rs.20,000 crore and the potential for business by using the facility would be two-fold, with a multi ..

• The Microsoft smartwatch won't be bulky like the recently announced LG G Watch or the Samsung Gear Live that run Android Wear. Instead, it will be slim, like a thinner, flatter version of the Nike Fuelband.
• It will feature a built-in heart-rate monitor.
• The display will be on the inside of the wrist unlike most current smartwatches to make it feel more natural.
• The device will be cross-platform. You will be able to use it with iOS, Android and Windows Phone (and, presumably, Windows PCs and Macs).
• There will be 11 sensors under the hood.

America's top spy agency was authorised by a US court in 2010 to carry out surveillance on the BJP along with five other political organisations across the globe, including Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Pakistan Peoples Party, according to a classified document. BJP figures in the list of foreign political parties along with Lebanon's Amal, the Bolivarian Continental Coordinator of Venezuela, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian National Salvation Front and the Pakistan Peoples Party for whom the National Security Agency (NSA) had sought permission to carry out surveillance, says the document made public by The Washington Post yesterday.

The document lists the 193 foreign governments as well as foreign factions and other entities that were part of a 2010 certification approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The list includes India. "Virtually no foreign government is off-limits for the National Security Agency, which has been authorized to intercept information 'concerning' all but four countries, according to top-secret documents," The Post reported.

Without specifically responding to questions related to surveillance on India and the BJP in particular, NSA spokesperson Vanee' Vines told PTI that the agency collects foreign intelligence based on specific intelligence requirements set by the President, the Director of National Intelligence, and departments and agencies through the National Intelligence Priorities Framework.

Snowden leaked thousands of classified documents to media uncovering the existence of numerous global surveillance programmes, many of them run by the NSA, triggering an outrage worldwide.
Vines said that section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act authorises targeted intelligence collection.
"Under Section 702, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court reviews annual topical certifications executed by the Director of National Intelligence and Attorney General, and approves procedures to allow the US government to target non- US persons reasonably believed to be located outside the US if a specific intended target possesses, is expected to receive, and/or is likely to communicate foreign intelligence information concerning one of those certifications," she said.

"These FISC-approved procedures are designed to minimise the acquisition, retention, and use of US person information, and provide additional restrictions for certain Section 702 collection where there may be a greater likelihood of inadvertent or incidental collection of such information," she told media.

"Moreover, in January 2014, (US) President (Barack) Obama issued Presidential Policy Directive 28, which provides additional policy direction for US signals intelligence activities. Among other things, it states that US signals intelligence activities shall be as tailored as feasible and that sensitive targeting decisions shall be subject to enhanced review by senior US government officials," she said.
"The Directive also instructs the Intelligence Community to afford non-US persons with certain privacy protections comparable to those afforded to US persons to the maximum extent feasible consistent with national security.

To completely destroy any delusions of grandeur that we may have about the state of Internet connectivity in India, Akamai has released its State of the Internet report for the 4th quarter of 2011. We’ve picked out the nuggets from the report for your perusal below. If you’ve ever wondered what was the average speed of Internet connectivity in India, or the average peak Internet speed in India, or even about the countries from which the most Internet attacks originate – and how India is placed in that list – you need to look no further. The tables below should suffice. If you like reading lengthy reports and you are starved for details on Internet connectivity worldwide, Akamai’s report is available at the source link at the end of this article.

Attack Traffic
India places 9th in the list of top countries from which attack traffic originates. Reassuringly, attack traffic fell from 3.7% in the third quarter of 2011 to 3% in the 4th quarter, but this is one list that we want to be at the bottom of – not in the top ten.

Average Connection Speed
With an average connection speed of 0.9 Mbps, India, as the title of this article states, places 114th globally as far as Internet connectivity speeds are concerned. Apparently, this is an 8.6% increase over the same quarter of the previous year, so we should be happy – but diving deeper into Akamai’s report, we find that the average connection speed in India has stayed at around the 800-900 Kbps range for the past four years (as long as Akamai has been collecting this data).

The Peak Connection Speed tablet below lists the maximum Internet speed capacities of the connections available in India, so this gives us a better understanding of the average Internet connection speed that individuals/organisations are opting for – 5.9 Mbps. So if the peak speed of your Internet connection is below 5.9 Mbps, your Internet connection speed is below the average peak connection speed for a broadband connection in India.Obviously, having very low levels of broadband adoption conversely means that there’s plenty of people in the country with very slow connections. Globally, we’re the fifth largest country with Internet connections below 256 Kbps speed (incidentally, 256 Kbps is what TRAI defines as “broadband” in India). 27% of the Internet connections in our country are below this 256 Kbps connection speed. On the bright side, it’s nice to know that 73% of our country’s Internet connections are either 256 Kbps or higher speeds. If you must know, we take the top spot in the Asia Pacific region for the most percentage of below 256 Kbps connections.