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Remote iPhone Shutter: Maxstone Hits Kickstarter

The MaxStone Kickstarter Project is a remote iPhone and digital camera shutter. This new project is hoping to combine some popular recent gadget trends with normally sought after pro DSLR photography features for a Bluetooth connected gadget, that is distinctive and more multitalented than others in the same category. The MaxStone is a Smartphone controlled camera shutter, Bluetooth device locator and remote Smartphone shutter trigger in one device.

The device is a small tool powered by a solitary watch battery, which is attached to your camera via a straightforward loop strap. It connects in such a way that it covers the camera’s shutter button and has a small, pebble-like main body in front of your camera’s IR sensor. This contains an IR blaster that connects to your Smartphone via Bluetooth, to enable you to trigger the camera’s shutter remotely from your device. The simplicity of the device means MaxStone is much more compatible with a variety of camera models and brands.
There are a variety of applications to the device. You can either trigger the camera’s shutter instantly or via time delay or you can even program it to take photos at intervals for time-lapse photography spanning nearly a year, according to the firm’s Kickstarter page and you can maintain operation even if your phone is powered down or loses a connection. It can also handle simple video recording operations on certain models of camera.

These features alone would be impressive in a tool that is priced at $29 for a starting pledge. The Maxstone also offers a Bluetooth proximity alarm sensor, which makes it possible to receive alerts if you move away from your camera, or whatever else it’s attached to. It can also be used in a kind of visa versa way, to locate your phone, as it triggers an alert on your device when you press the button. Did I mention it could also operate as a remote shutter for your iPhone camera too? Which is vitally important for those of us who are of the Selfie generation.
The MaxStone was created by Will E and Lia Zhang, a husband and wife team who created the original prototype and design. Radio engineer Will Griffith helped refine the RF communications technology and Shawn Han has developed and continues to build the MaxStone iOS application. The team is based in New York-based and they are seeking $50,000. The company has already raised around $6,500, with a just under a couple of months left in their campaign. The firm plans to ship the MaxStone by March, 2014.

250K Devices Infected By Cryptolocker Ransomeware in UK Alone

A research team specialising in security has revealed that the form of Ransomeware, Cryptolocker, could have managed to infect anywhere between 200,000 to 250,000 devices and could also have collected over £600,000 ($980,000, AU$1,000,000) in the virtual currency Bitcoin.

Dell’s SecureWork’s specialist counter-threat unit has scrutinised the infection rates of Cryptolocker and claims that the malware has been developed in either Russia or Eastern Europe. The earliest infection this year would have happened around 4 months ago (September 5) this year. But just how the malware is distributed is still unclear.

Ransomware is a successful new variety of malware and virus that finds and locks away system/essential files on a victim’s computer. The encrypted files are held locked away until the user meets the demands of payment within 72 hours – displayed ominously in the form of an on-screen timer. What is more worrying is that, it targets, mapped drives and all locally connected, network attached or cloud-based storage such as Dropbox.

Unlike traditional malware, which can be removed with the use of antivirus software, Cryptolocker cannot currently be removed. If a user can root out the virus, there is still no way to access the files, which it encrypts. All decryption keys are located on one of Cryptolocker servers; the files are only released again, if the user pays the ransom.

“By using a sound implementation and following best practices, the authors of Cryptolocker have created a robust program that is difficult to circumvent,” SecureWorks notes in a blog post. “Instead of using a custom, cryptographic implementation like many other malware families, Cryptolocker uses strong third-party certified cryptography offered by Microsoft’s CryptoAPI.”

Audaciously, Cryptolocker also has its own dedicated support system for people who pay their ransom but miss the deadline! There have been reports of the author of the program actively answering help question on online forums, such as this thread.
Dell’s SecureWorks estimates that the Ransomware has infected 250,000 systems in the first 100 days of its active lifecycle.

Cubli The Robotic Cube Can Walk & Jump

Swiss researchers at Zurich’s ETH Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, have built a cube-shaped robot that can walk around and balance itself on its edges or corners. The Cubli is able to accomplish these feats because it has three internal spinning wheels, which provide a gyroscopic balancing force. The Cubli device can be commanded to fall in any given direction. Combining these three abilities — jumping up, balancing, and controlled falling — the Cubli is able to, in effect, ‘walk’.”

The Cubli is aware if its position and orientation, because of Inertial sensors connected to an embedded processor and controller, these allow it to stand up on one edge, then move up from there to a single corner and even spin around on an axis.
The principles used are similar to those used in satellites to stabilise them in orbit, so they don’t end up spinning around uselessly. The practical uses for the Cubli’s unusual method of locomotion include walking around on planets during space exploration and it may also be used as a way to develop self-assembling robots.

Info From 40 Million Credit Cards Stolen From Target

For a store that’s logo is a giant bulls-eye, Target recently found itself in the crosshairs of some credit card thieves. And, if you shopped at a physical Target location in the United States between November 27th and December 15th and used a credit or a debit card, your financial information may have been stolen as well. At the end of the day, Target fears that the information from up to 40 million debit and credit cards were stolen during that few week period. It doesn’t matter where in the United States you shopped as Target is seeing signs of fraud all over the country. This is definitely not the kind of publicity Target was looking for during the 2013 Christmas season.
This news is not something for shoppers to take lightly. If you are one of the approximately 40 million people who used their credit or debit card at Target between those dates, Target is encouraging you to keep a close on all of the activity with your card(s). If you see anything suspicious, you should definitely alert your financial institution immediately. They are also recommending that you look at your credit report every so often.

Just What Can The Thieves Do With Your Information?
According to Techland, the thieves can use the magnetic stripe information from your card to make fake cards which they can then use. If they were able to retrieve your PIN number from a debit transaction, they would also (in theory) be able to take out cash from ATM’s. What Target knows for sure the thieves obtained were the names, credit card numbers, expiration dates, and the CVV from the back of the cards.
What’s even more interesting with this large security breach is that it appears there was some tampering with Target’s credit card machines themselves. Obviously, Target has no idea how this happened and is investigating with help from the Secret Service.
Target has offered affected customers discounts and free credit monitoring. Was your account one of the 40 million that were stolen?

Oracle Buys Responsys For $1.5bn

The rumours floating around regarding the Responsys buyout have been confirmed. Oracle will buy cloud-based marketing company Responsys for $1.5bn. Oracle has finally reached an agreement to obtain the cloud marketing company, for $1.5bn (£945m), as they continue to build up their cloud services portfolio.
The deal also continues a sequence of recent acquisitions involving marketing firms, including Salesforce.com’s purchase of ExactTarget earlier this year for $2.5bn, Adobe’s buyout of Neolane for $600m and Oracle’s own acquisition of Eloqua last year for $871m, as well as the purchase of Compendium recently, back in October. Microsoft has also been spending time and money in this area, buying MarketingPilot back in 2012.

Shares in cloud marketing firm Marketo, which went public earlier in the year, rose 9% after the announcement of the Responsys deal last Friday, as traders looked toward more consolidation in the sector. Possible buyers for Marketo could include NetSuite or SAP, according to a memo to investors from FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives, “Marketing automation is one of the hyper-growth areas within cloud,” Ives wrote, adding that “investors want Oracle to put more fuel in the growth engine”.

The Responsys contract has been approved by its board of directors and is likely to close in the first half of 2014. Obviously it is still subject to shareholder approval mind you. Oracle’s offer of $27 per share is a premium of about 38 percent over Responsys’ closing price on Thursday last week.
Oracle noted that with Responsys, which focuses on business-to-consumer marketing, and Eloqua, which specialises in business-to-business selling, the company is now in the rare position of being able to offer both types of marketing under one roof. Oracle co-president Mark Hurd in a statement,

“The Oracle Marketing Cloud is now the only platform to unite enterprise-class leaders in these historically distinct marketing-automation fields.”

Responsys allows firms to run marketing campaigns across different channels including and social media, email and the web, as well as building customer profiles and tracking advertising performance. Its customers include LinkedIn and United Healthcare.

iPhone 6 to come with larger screen, due May 2014

Rumors of new iPhone and iPad models with screen larger than current ones have been doing the rounds for a while now. The latest report indicates that the large screen iPhone 6 may launch sooner than expected.

Digitimes reports citing their sources that the iPhone 6 release is planned for May 2014. The publication in its report says, "Apple is also rumoured to be planning a larger size iPhone for May 2014, using a 20nm processor manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company."

Digitimes doesn't give any more details on the specifications for the iPhone 6, except that the screen will be 'larger' than one seen on the current generation iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. We have already seen multiple agencies reporting about the rumored bigger 5-inch display in Apple iPhone 6.

5 Minute iOS 7 Jailbreak Released

It never takes hackers too long to figure out how to bypass Apple’s security rich features of their latest iOS and provide the world with details of how to Jailbreak their nice and shiny iPhones. And iOS 7 is no exception. The iOS7 Jailbreak has finally arrived and it promises a simple, untethered solution in just five minutes. If you are going to attempt this, (and I am, in no way advising you to do so) please proceed with caution.

A team of clever hackers have used their skills and abilities to smash through Apple’s walled garden and have released a simple but effective jailbreak for iOS 7. The tool, which has only taken three months to arrive after Apple launched its revamped mobile software, comes from the Evasi0n team and works on iOS devices running iOS 7.0 to 7.0.4.

Apple's latest patents cover heart rate monitors and hover touch displays

Apple was granted two patents on December 24 for new tech that could be integrated in future iPhones and other iOS devices.
One patent covers a heart rate monitor that could be integrated directly into portable devices.
The other is for a touch panel display that can detect hovering fingers and improve accuracy by automatically compensating for "signal drift."
Both patents were filed in 2010 and approved on the day before Christmas.

Improving hover interactions:

Some non-Apple smartphones, like the Samsung Galaxy S4, already include hover controls called Air View, allowing users to interact with the device's display without actually touching it but by hovering a finger nearby.
But Apple's hover-related patent notes that integrating both hover and touch interactions in a single device is difficult, as the display can get confused.
The patent focuses on a variety of ways to improve a device's accuracy at detecting inputs when both touch and hover interactions are available.
It also focuses on improving accuracy when signal drift, i.e. environmental factors confusing a device's sensors, are present.
The patent proposes, among other solutions, recalibrating the sensors periodically so that environmental factors are considered when the device determines whether it's receiving touch- or hover-based inputs.

Groove is in the heart:

The other patent in question today concerns a "seamlessly embedded heart rate monitor" for iOS devices.
The heart rate monitor reads a user's EKG data for authentication or mood determination purposes. The monitor's sensors can be embedded in a number of places in a mobile device.
As always with these patents it's not clear whether Apple will ultimately use any of the features or solutions they describe.
But as it did with the fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5S, it seems Apple might be experimenting with even more new smartphone features in 2014.

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga Comes To iOS

I have some very good news for Lego fans, Star Wars fans, and those who own an Apple device that has been updated with at least iOS 6. It seems that “a galaxy far, far away” has now decided to take up residence in the app store. That’s right, fans can now download Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga onto their iPhones, iPads, and more. The game is free to download, but users should be aware that only the first episode (The Phantom Menace) is completely free to play. Once you complete that chapter, you have to fork over $14.99 to play the rest of the series. If you break down that price, it comes to right around $2.99 for each subsequent episode, which may or may not make it more justifiable for you to purchase. To me, it seems like such a small price to pay to carry around the entire Star Wars universe in your pocket.

A Galaxy Not So Far Away Anymore…
The Lego Star Wars games have proved to be major successes in the video game world over the years. Who would’ve originally thought that joining Lego and Star Wars would lead to Lego joining forces with Harry Potter, Superman, Batman, the Avengers, and the Pirates of the Caribbean? It seems that Lego is willing to go just about anywhere Hollywood decides to go these days.
Having played through the Lego Star Wars complete series on the Wii, I can vouch that it is a very fun and entertaining game to play. In fact, it might even be easier to play on a phone or a tablet than on the Wii. Nothing beats getting to play as Lego Obi-Wan Kenobi as he avenges Qui-Gon Jinn at the end of the Phantom Menace.
If you’d like to download Lego Star Wars: The Complete Series, you can click here. As of right now, it’s only available for iOS devices.

Increase Your Arm Strength With A Titan Arm

A group of college students in Pennsylvania really want to lend you an arm in the near future. Or, to put it more accurately, they want to provide you with a way to increase the strength of your current arm. For their senior capstone project, 4 engineering students from the University of Pennsylvania decided they wanted to create something that would really help out their fellow men and women around the world. What they ended up creating is a wearable exoskeleton known as the Titan Arm that is connected to a backpack and attaches to your arm. Once attached to an arm, the Titan Arm automatically allows the wearer to lift 40 pounds more than usual.

The student’s ultimate goal seems to be to help individuals who require rehabilitation, and to also assist individuals who have jobs that require them to lift heavy objects frequently throughout the day. Take a look below to see just what the Titan Arm looks like.

The Future Of Physical Therapy?
As you can see in the picture above, the Titan Arm looks fairly futuristic, and appears to be something that wouldn’t look too out of place on a cyborg. But this neat looking arm might just be part of the wave of the future. It has already taken home top honors in several contests and is currently garnering interest among potential users.

Possibly the best feature of the Titan Arm is its price. It was created for less than $2,000 and is almost made completely out of aluminum. The students can see the day when its low cost will make it a staple in hospitals and rehabilitation centers. But the Titan Arm will surely come in handy in other places as well, such as the kitchen and the garage. After all, we could all use a little extra arm strength sometimes. It is unknown whether they are working on a dual arm prototype, but I for one certainly hope so.

Universal Laptop Charger Standard To Come Next Year

The average household today has more than one laptop, and it is always such a pain to have to find the appropriate charger, isn’t it? It’s a different story if family members have the same laptop, but that is not always the case. Then there’s the other story of going somewhere else and forgetting your laptop charger. Unless you find someone in the area with a laptop that has a compatible charger, you’re more or less screwed.

The International Electrotechnical Commission [IEC] Technical Specification 62700 just might make things easier for laptop users. This is the new universal laptop charger standard that the IEC is pushing for, which will allow a wide range of laptops to share the same charger. It is not unlike the standard that has been set for mobile phone chargers (although we know how specific manufacturers have adhered – or not – to that).

The IEC’s push for a universal laptop charger standard will certainly make it more convenient for people with multiple devices, but there is also another aspect – the lessening of e-waste. Obviously, the fewer chargers needed, the less waste produced.

“The IEC International Standards for the universal charger for mobile phones has been widely adopted by the mobile phone industry and is already starting to help reduce e-waste. A single power supply covering a wide range of notebook computers is the next step in lowering e-waste and its impact on our planet. I am proud that the IEC has yet again managed to make the best possible technical solution available,” stated IEC general secretary and CEO Frans Vreeswijk. (Source)

If things go according to plan, the universal laptop charger should be ready early next year (next month!). The question now is exactly how laptop manufacturers will adopt the standard, how quickly, and how prevalent it will be. The key is in the authorities making sure that manufacturers adhere to this new standard. Otherwise, there will still be fragmentation, defeating the purpose.

Researchers in Canada Send Text Using Vodka & A Fan

Researchers at York University in Canada have used vodka and a desk fan to send a new type of text message. The team were able to encode the alphabet in evaporated alcohol and assigned different concentration levels to represent bits 1 and 0.

During the experiment, the chemical signal was sprayed 12 feet and then decoded by a receiver measuring the increase and decrease in alcohol concentration. The resulting message due to the varying concentration levels was “O Canada”.

Professor Andrew Eckford, who led the study, explained the reason for this experiment saying that chemical signals can reach places that wireless signals cannot. Dr Weisi Guo from the School of Engineering at University of Warwick, who also worked on the research team, said that these types of chemcial signals could be used to eventually communicate on a nanoscale to “carry out a specific task such as targeting drugs to cancer cells.” Although this may seem a little far-fetched, if the scientists can develop the right concentration levels then it becomes a nearer possibility.
Molecular communication happens all the time in nature, with plants and animals using pheromones to transmit long-range messages. Humans have never been able to control sending continuous data this way, so this research is very exciting.

The Battle to be the Best Smart Watch

With reports stating that over 5 million smart watches will be shipped in 2014, it makes sense to look at smart watches as one of the key emerging markets for communication technology in the near future. The watches are meant to be accessories that work with the user’s smartphone, making it easier for the user to run applications or keep up with emails and text messages.
Most smart watches also have GPS capabilities. Many of the these devices use Bluetooth as a means of connection, though more and more smart watches are able to use Wi-Fi in order to communicate with smartphones, tablets, and other devices. Wi-Fi internet capability is an important factor for most smart watch users, and ease of access to Wi-Fi could make all the difference if manufacturers want to see smart watches used more widely.

There are rumors that Google, Apple, and other big manufacturers are going to be getting in on the smart watch game soon. Many companies both large and small are producing their own smart watches, so here is a critical comparison of some of the smart watches available for purchase.

Samsung Galaxy Gear
The Galaxy Gear was released in the summer of 2013 and reviews have been largely mixed. The smart watch has received praise for its attractiveness and easy-to-read screen, but it has also faced some criticism. The device connects to the parent phone through Bluetooth, meaning that it has no Wi-Fi capabilities.

Apple’s new iPhones were announced with a lot of noise, as usual, and while there are people who (correctly or not) say that there isn’t anything revolutionary about the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, the fingerprint sensor certainly got a lot of attention. Unsurprisingly, Android is reported to be close behind Apple when it comes to incorporating this technology in phones running the system

The FIDO Alliance, which is composed of tech companies, is the driving force behind this initiative. Big names are associated with this group, including Lenovo and PayPal. Basically, they want to achieve a technical standard that will benefit both manufacturers and users. According to Michael Barrett, the president of the group, the intention of FIDO is “absolutely that it will allow consumers to have access to mobile services that they can use with very low friction, while keeping good security. That’s explicitly what we want to build.”
Sounds absolutely good to me.
Then again, there is the question Apple’s Touch ID technology. In spite of some glitches it has encountered, it is out there; and the thing is, it is NOT FIDO-compliant.
What’s that going to do with the goal of establishing technical standards? Are we going to see a coming together of tech giants, or is this only going to further serve to splinter the scene? Barrett does say that Apple is a potential user of FIDO, although not in the next few years.
In any case, according to Barrett, Android users should not be envious of iPhone users due to the lack of fingerprint sensors from the former. (As if Android enthusiasts would envy iOS users of anything!) Within six months, he says, your Android phone will have a fingerprint sensor – if you buy a new one.

However, there is little information about Android phone manufacturers who have taken on the FIDO standard. There has been talk about the HTC One Max and Pantech Vega Note getting the fingerprint sensor, though.

IPad Mini 2 Rumours

As always there are numerous rumors doing the rounds about Apple’s next update for one of its iOS products the iPad mini 2. Over the past few months, there have been various leaks, speculations and reports which have all added to the mystery around the next generation of iPad mini.

Better Resolution

For the iPad 2 and the iPad mini, both displays saw 1024 x 768 pixel resolution which wasn’t too impressive at all. Users complained that they could easily make out the 163 pixels per inch on the display. Now though, there are rumors that the iPad mini2 will feature 324 pixels per inch.

Patently Apple have encouraged rumors saying that Apple have been discussing the possibility of building a premier display with LG to push the pixel count per inch to over 400 for the iPad mini 3.

It’s Got The Looks

After a Chinese website leaked a photo of what looked like a gold iPad Mini 2, there is now also speculation that the new version of the mini iPad will be available in different colors. The picture in question also appeared to show a touch ID fingerprint scanner like the one featured on the iPhone 5s. There’s also supposed to be a 8MP camera on the latest mini iPad.

When Will It Be Out?

There is some speculation about the fact that Wallmart has dropped prices for the iPad mini. Certain people believe this might be because Wallmart have information on an updated version of the iOS product coming out soon. Normally, Apple have been keeping to a yearly update schedule for such things but then the iPad 4 was released only 6 months after the 3rd generation of the iPad sparking rumors that Apple might be leading towards a bi-annual release for the iPads.

One thing is for sure though, whether any of the above rumors are true or not, Apple have certainly got a buzz around their iPad mini 2.

Improved Camera For The iPad 5 & iPad Mini 2

According to the KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi-Kuo, we could see the iPad 5 and second-generation iPad Mini with far better cameras when they are unveiled.
Kuo, whos predictions aren’t always correct, thinks that both of Apple’s new tablets will be launched in the fourth quarter of this year and will be sporting upgraded cameras. The analyst has said that the rear camera, which currently has five megapixels, will be updated to have an eight megapixel sensor.

He also expects the aperature to be increased, improving picture quality, much the same as the iPhone 5S. It could be that Apple also throw in some of the new software-based camera features from the iPhone 5S, like the slow-motion shooting capability.
The iPad 5 is thought to keep the 9.7-inch screen but have a significantly smaller surface area.
As for the iPad Mini 2, thinks are a little more uncertain. A Retina display was on the cards for this model but according to a report, the work has only just started on manufacturing the displays. So it is possible that will not see a launch of this tablet until next year, or maybe a very small number will be available at the end of this year.

Instant Translation Glasses For 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Japan’s NTT Docomo has sparked new excitement for the Tokyo Olympics by announcing that a 5G network 100 times faster than LTE and augmented reality glasses that can do instant translations, will both be ready by 2020.

These new innovations were displayed at the CEATEC 2013 event in Tokyo this week. The network technology is still early on in the development stage but it does reveal that NTT Docomo plans to deliver a very fast network with 1,000 times the capacity of LTE.

However NTT isn’t the first to announce plans for 5G. Huawei spoke of a similar super-fast network back in August and Samsung too has demonstrated 1Gbps wireless technology.

NTT hasn’t provided much detail about the network but apparently the firm is hoping to tap higher frequencies with small cells used to boost coverage in certain areas.

As well as the network, NTT Docomo also showcased augmented reality glasses which can instantly translate text. So far the translation time is five seconds but this is likely to improve as the technology is refined.

These would certainly be a useful tool for those visiting Japan in 2020 but they will need to be spot on to avoid embarassing and albeit hilarious mis-translations.

The glasses also have the ability to interact with a flat surface as if it was a touchscreen. It works with a specially designed ring that records and relays hand movements of the user.

It will be interesting to see how these two technologies enhance the enjoyment of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

IMotion 3D Controller Could Replace The Mouse

Singapore based company, Intellect Motion started to design the iMotion 3D controller a few years ago with the hope of utilizing the controller to help in the field of sports rehabilitation. Sometime last year, the company started making moves to bring the controller to the Gaming world and have now announced the launch of a crowd funding campaign on Kickstarter. The small controller will allow people to replace their mouse and simply wave their arms to move the controller/character on screen.

The iMotion 3D controller straps to the hand and uses a combination of LED sensors, accelerometers and gyroscopes to track the movements of a player’s body and use the player’s hand as the controller. The team at Engadget had a little practice with the controller and found that after a little getting used to, the controller worked quite well with Angry Birds and a shoot ‘em up game.

One of the highlights about the controller is the fact that it can be used with any app or game without any special equipment other than the controller itself and the iMotion software that will come with it. Intellect Motion plan to release an SDK with the controller to enable developers of games and apps to tweak their products for a better user experience with the iMotion controller and game, making certain actions more precise for example.

Raising Funds

The developers of the controller are intent on bringing the controller to the public and are asking for interested parties to get involved with raising funds to complete development. People can help do this by pre-ordering the controller for $49 which will go towards the $100,000 target that Intellect Motion has set. Anyone who misses this offer will be able to purchase one for $59 (up to 2000 controllers at this price) and the final price for the 3D motion controller will be $79.

Scientists Charge Nokia Phone With Lightning

Bringing something to life through the power of lightning sounds more like a theme from a novel or movie but scientists have been able to charge a mobile phone with the help of a lightning bolt.

Scientists from the University of Southampton have got together with Nokia and carried out a proof-of-concept experiment. It is hoped that by harnessing this natural power source, areas with a short electricity supply could use this as an alternative energy source.

The team used a transformer to recreate a lightning bolt in the laboratory by passing 200,000 volts across an 11-inch air gap.

Samsung’s Next Phone May Not Bend The Way You Thought

There has been alot of hype recently over certain smartphones being developed with bendable screens. Samsung, LG and Nokia have all been reported to be experimenting with kinetic displays, but contain your excitement because it is more likely that these smartphones will have a contoured display.

So what is the difference? Well a bendable screen is one you can actually wiggle and bend, a contoured display is a screen that has a glass topper molded into a subtle stationary arc.
Some devices already feature the curved display, such as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus S. The YotaPhone, which is curently in development, achieves the desired curve through formed Gorilla Glass 3 as the cover glass material.
Seeing as Samsung can already produced contoured displays, it is likely that the new smartphone, which is expected this month, will feature a curved screen allowing its face to fit to your cheek, making it alot more comfortable to conduct long phone conversations. It will also help the smartphone to stand out from its competitors, changing the standard shape of phones from a box-like form and into something far more interesting and appealing.
But what about bendable displays. Well unfortunately that is still something for the future. A material that is flexible enough but still strong so as not to break is a big ask.
Major advancements in engineering and the necessary materials are needed before the tech industry can start to think about selling us a truly bendable device.

Charge Your iPhone By Hand

Mipwr, the mobile technology innovation group have been thinking long and hard about emergency power sources for mobile phones and they have come up with a solution that relies on years old technology. With the Mipwr case, you can protect and charge your iPhone by hand.
Dynamo Electricity
The team at Mipwr have used the 182 year old principle of Electromagnetic induction to enable people to use their phones in an emergency situation. Electromagnetic induction uses magnetic fields to control electricity. The plastic casing that will slip easily over the iPhone will contain a magnet. As the user pushes the paddle attached to the case, the magnet will be turned and begin to create an electric charge which in turn, gives the phone some juice (after the Mipwr backup battery that gives an additional 2 hours talk time has died as well).

John McAfee is a very unusual man. He was previously employed by NASA, in the 1980′s he began developing software to combat computer viruses and in 1987 he started up McAfee Associates, his Anti Virus Company. He is now 68 years old and still very active in the technology markets. He is currently and for the last couple of year has been involved with bacterial quorum sensing. The company QuorumEx‘s headquarters is in Belize.

Keep your files and photos safe with Network Attached Storage (NAS)

If you're anything like us, you'll have several tablets, phones or computers in your home. Multiple device use has increased significantly over the last decade – and that's before you get to other home entertainment devices such as smart TVs or digital photo frames. The trouble with all these devices is that they can all create or display content, so the challenge is increasingly about knowing where your photos, music and files are stored.

And, while your photos may sync between your iPad and iPhone, do you have a plan so you can get them onto your PC or display them on your TV? You almost need to have a strategy in place just to deal with your photos! After all, the danger is that you could lose the precious photo you snapped on your iPad just because you'd forgotten that was where you'd left it. No longer is backup just about making a copy of all the important stuff on your main computer's hard drive.
That's why network storage is the best option. NAS (or network attached storage) uses a hard drive that sits on your network, can be accessed by all devices and can have its storage expanded when necessary – no longer is there the need to spend out money on incremental USB thumb drives, burning DVDs or spend time copying to short-term external hard drives. What's more, copying to something on your own network is far faster than using cloud storage services.
Not only is it a central repository for files, photos and music in your home, but you can access all your stuff from any device that connects to your network or even over the internet when you're not in the house. You can also easily share your files within your home or office, with user accounts and user privileges that you decide upon. What's more, you can also back it up to a cloud-based storage service such as Dropbox, too, while many NAS boxes with multiple drives can back themselves up with RAID technology.
Inside a NAS box there are standard size 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard drives that you find in laptop and desktop PCs respectively. But while standard hard drives are designed for reliability within a PC or Mac, it's better to have purpose-built drives for use with network storage because of the always-on nature of network storage and the fact most NAS boxes can be configured for self-backup. That's where the WD Red family of hard drives come in – WD Red is the best drive for NAS and has been certified to work with many of the big name NAS boxes.
When choosing a hard drive for a specific application, it's important to consider the level of reliability that will be needed and the strain that might be placed on that drive. That's why WD Red has been designed specifically for use in NAS applications.
With WD Red drives for NAS, Every component and decision was built on a passion and determination to deliver the best NAS experience. WD Red delivers, with massive capacity and our NASware 2.0 software, which further improves drive reliability and protects your data in the event of a power loss or power disruption.

Well, this is a surprise. Having long expected version 5.0 of Android to be given the code name Key Lime Pie, Google has instead handed the 'K' release name to Android 4.4 and in a weird cross-promotional deal it's called it Android KitKat.
As part of the deal Nestle is running a contest to win a Nexus 7 or Google Play credit through specially branded Kit Kat bars.
So, apart from the fact that the chocolate bar has a space between Kit and Kat and Android 4.4 doesn't. what do we know about KitKat so far?

Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2014 Review

In a world where free anti-virus software is commonplace for pretty much every platform, the likes of Trend Micro need to offer comprehensive coverage if they want consumers to fork out money for a similar service.
The latest refresh of Trend Micro's Titanium Maximum Security suite has done just that, combining a series of both preventative and post infection measures to keep not only your PC or Mac virus safe, but also your Android device.

Android in 2020: the future of Google's mobile OS explored

Cast your mind back to late 2008, when the first Android-powered handset saw the light of day. Obama won his first Presidential election, Apple launched its App Store (the iPhone had appeared the year before), Google announced its own Chrome browser and we got our first look at the company's new mobile OS on the T-Mobile G1.

HP Chromebook 14 Is The First Chromebook With Intel Haswell

Say hello to the new HP Chromebook 14: Hewlett Packard’s new laptop is the first of the Chromebook series with an Intel Haswell processor.The UK model will only have 3G, but there is a 4G version available in US markets. Selected deals in the US can get consumers up to 200MB of data per month for two years on a T-Mobile contract. On making enquiries to HP as to whether there will be a similar sort of deal with a 4G network here in Britain and the currently there isn’t.

Why Intel's Bay Trail is the next big thing in mobile computing

Intel's Atom processor was always a good idea. Shrink the power profile associated with the full-power x86 instruction to ultra-mobile proportions.
Or rather, it was a good idea ahead of its time. In fairness, Intel probably had to get the Atom project rolling when it did, back in 2009.

That's because mobile is such an epically important market. Intel not only had to be seen to be doing something, even if manufacturing technology wasn't quite ready to do x86 justice in ultra-mobile form factors like phones and tablets.

Why Valve wants Steam to be the Android of gaming

The second of Valve's trio of announcements this week has landed - Steam machines: hardware from a wide range of manufacturers that runs SteamOS.

"Entertainment is not a one-size-fits-all world," the company said in its announcement. "We want you to be able to choose the hardware that makes sense for you, so we are working with multiple partners to bring a variety of Steam gaming machines."
It works like this: Valve makes its new SteamOS software available for free, then anyone in the world (including you) can build a machine that runs it and sell it to someone else.
The manufacturer (or you) profits by selling the hardware, Valve profits by selling games on the platform, the person who buys it profits by trading some useless numbers in their bank account for some entertaining videogames. Everyone's happy.

How to optimise your LAN and WAN in a small business

Small businesses now rely heavily on the networks that they have created. These were initially Local Area Networks (LANs) that connected their on-site servers to the computers and other devices in their businesses.

Today with the rise of bring your own device (BYOD) and the need for more flexibility, companies are building Wide Area Networks (WANs) that give them the flexibility they need.
Andrew Ferguson, Editor at thinkbroadband.com, says: "The distinction between LAN and WAN has gone full circle in some ways. The speed of internet connectivity means many businesses are now using the cloud to store data, making it easier for staff working from home or off-site to access data. So in some ways the modern LAN is just an extension of the WAN."

Sony SmartWatch 2 arrives in Europe to battle Samsung Galaxy Gear

It's a smartwatch battle and Apple is nowhere to be seen

Unconvinced by the Samsung Galaxy Gear, but still want a wrist accoutrement to work in tandem with your smartphone? Well, Sony's SmartWatch 2 can now be strapped on in the U.K. and parts of Europe.
The Android-based device, announced in June this year, is now on sale for £149 (about US$240, AU$258) with a rubber wristband or £169 (around US$272, AU$292) with a fancy metal strap.
The release of the touchscreen device also sees the launch of a new accompanying smartphone app from the Google Play Store.
The SmartWatch 2 SW application, which is a free download, will enable the wearable accessory to play nice with other Android smartphones via Bluetooth.
Waiting for an iWatch

Microsoft cleverly sets Windows 8 and 8.1 app roaming limit to 81

Windows Store apps under one account could be accessed by 81 devices

Microsoft picked a really odd number for the total machines on which Windows users can install their apps, but 81 makes sense when you realize Windows 8.1 is just around the corner.
This new limit means that the company made good on its Build 2013 promise to increase the roaming app ceiling that's currently cutting off Windows 8 users at just five devices.
"We heard growing feedback from many developers and from our most enthusiastic customers that the limit of five was not enough for their needs," wrote the Windows Apps Team in an official blog post today.
"Developers asked for more flexibility in implementing their business models, and customers wanted to run those apps on the variety of tablets, laptops and desktops they owned."
It'll be a win-win situation for both Windows app developers and users starting on Oct. 9.
Scratching the Surface

Tokina Makes Rain Dispersion Filter

One of the major problems with videography is the unpredictability of the weather. Wet weather can mean extra cost for production due to the fact that the majority of the day is spent trying to wipe the camera lens clean. Eventually the cloth stops working as it’s saturated with rain water and all that’s left are unusable, rain smeared shots. Crew and cast get more and more fed up as the day goes on and the whole project can seem like a drag. Now though, the Japanese lens manufacturer Tokina is bringing the first rain dispersion filter to the market to put an end to drippy frames once and for all.

Carbon Nanotube Computer Technology Breakthrough

Researchers at the Stanford University announced on Wednesday that they have created the first-ever working carbon nanotube computer.

They published their discovery in this week’s edition of Nature. The researchers, led by professors Subhasish and H.S Philip Wong call it “CEDRIC”, which they say loosely stands for carbon nanotube digital integrated circuit.

The reason for the excitement over this advancement comes as current silicon transistor computing is soon reaching its limit as the transistors can not get much smaller due to quantum effects. The new carbon nanotube transistors are the way forward because they can conduct electricity better than silicon and on a smaller scale.

Put into practical terms, carbon nanotube-based computers will be faster and more energy-efficient, which is always a challenge for manufacturers every time there is a new generation of processor.

The future is not problem free however. This technology is still new but the Stanford researchers have been able to solve some of the problems surrounding error connection. The system they have developed can switch off defective carbon nanotubes and come up with an algorithm which addresses misaligned carbon nanotubes that can short-circuit the system.

“People have been talking about a new era of carbon nanotube electronics moving beyond silicon,” Mitra said in a statement. “But there have been few demonstrations of complete digital systems using this exciting technology. Here is the proof.”

Although this is a key breakthrough for the technology, CEDRIC is still not able to carry out complex computations like a normal PC but the future looks promising. No doubt carbon-nanotube computers will be what our children use in the coming years.

Welcome Back To Life, Simplenote!

Simplenote has been dubbed as the “first great notes app“, and in spite of a rocky recent history, it seems that its fans have not lost enthusiasm for the app. The notes app scene has not been idle, with many apps coming into the picture, but with Simplenote’s comeback, the classic app might just be the talk of the town again.

If you think about it, Simplenote may not be up to par with all the other notes app out there, especially with developers making sure their new apps can do practically everything. On the other hand, Simplenote does what it says on the tin: keep notes on a day-to-day basis. Simple. Plus syncing with the cloud.

Apple Releases New IMac With Iris Pro

Following the release of the new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, Apple has given its iMac a small revamp. The new release brings Haswell cores from Intel, new NVIDIA Corp. GPUs, improved Fusion drives and more ports.

Last October Apple made major changes to the iMac line, which included a new 5-mm thick aluminum frame. This time round the changes are more subtle but nonetheless contribute to making Apple’s all-in-one (AIO) personal computer a serious contender in the bid for the best value in the market.

Currently Lenovo dominate the AIO PC market after over-taking Apple. So what does the new iMac have to offer? Well the revamped model comes with 8 GB (upgradable two 32 GB for 27-inch, 16 GB for 21.5-inch) of 1600 MHz DDR3 and a 1 terabyte “Fusion” drive, a mostly hard disk hybrid drive with an undisclosed amount of NAND flash onboard (upgradable to 3 TB traditional HDD, a 256 GB SSD, or a 512 GB SSD).

James The Robot Bartender Knows When You Want A Drink

James The Robot Bartender will chat, serve and recognize when you want drinks thanks to the partnership of a team of professors from Germany, Scotland and Greece.

The birth of robot bar tenders isn’t particularly newsworthy as there have been other attempts before James. However James, the Joint Action in Multimodal Embodied Systems robot is different to its predecessors due to his social skills.

People are Messy

While it’s been proven that robots are more than adept at mixing a whole host of drinks, the reality of them functioning as well as a human bar tender in a real life situation has always been unlikely. As a rule, robots like clean orderly situations. The chaotic atmosphere of the average pub serves to confuse robots. Robot bartenders in the past have only been able to mix drinks for patrons that have expressly ordered the drinks via a smart device. In reality though, patrons don’t like to use devices to order drinks, they prefer to use the traditional signals to indicate that they want a drink.

The Dish On YouTube’s Offline Videos

There is no arguing that YouTube is the site to go to for video content. Whether it’s music, how-tos, or simply stupid, fun videos, YouTube has got something for everyone. And while there are some people who would not touch the site with a 12-foot pole, YouTube’s stats show that they have the upper hand.

Did you know that more than 1 billion users – unique! – visit YouTube each month? Even more mind blowing is the fact that more than 6 billion hours of video are watched each month. That equates to almost an hour for every single person on Earth! And according to Nielsen, YouTube bests any cable network in the US, reaching more US adults in the age range 18-34. (Source)
So what’s up with YouTube? There’s the saying that you should not fix it if it ain’t broke. Why are they making some considerable changes?
Well, it’s not exactly NOT broke. Or, at the very least, there are certain things that needed improvement, and that’s what the YouTube team has done with recent updates.
I don’t know about you, but where I come from, mobile Internet still has a lot of room for improvement. While things have really looked up in recent years, there are still times when I want to curse my telco for being so dumb. And that’s where the ability to watch YouTube videos even without a net connection comes in very handy.
In a blog entry last week, YouTube announced that they are going to soon launch a feature that will allow viewers to watch offline videos. There are some important details to know about this upcoming feature:
The YouTube mobile app is necessary to take advantage of this feature. Ads included.
The offline videos are time sensitive. You only have 48 hours to watch them without an Internet connection.
This feature does not cover movies and TV shows YouTube offers for rent/purchase.
If you’re a content producer, then you also need to know that this will be the default setting, so if you do not want your content to be available offline, you have to manually change the settings.

Valve Announce SteamOS, The Operating System For Living Room Gaming

Valve has revealed its very own Linux-based operating system called SteamOS, which is designed for living room gaming PCs. This is the first step towards it achieving its vision for an open video game console, which it has named Steam Box.

“It will be available soon as a free stand-alone operating system for living room machines,” said the company.

This Is What People Are Doing With Their Cell Phones In 2013

Cell phones have gone a long, long way since the days when they were too bulky to carry around. Back in the day, it was such an uncommon sight to see people staring intensely at a small (or rather huge) block of plastic, pressing buttons, or doing whatever it is they did on their mobile phones. Today, cell phones are more ubiquitous than sliced bread, and they can do practically everything – from sending text messages to taking pictures to browsing the Internet to playing games. But what do we really use cell phones for?

Respected research entity, Pew Internet, has released the results of a study, which takes a look at just how Americans use their cell phones in 2013. The results are not exactly intuitive, with sending and receiving text messages topping the list.

Record Your Dreams With ‘Shadow’ App

How many dreams can you remember these days? How familiar is the feeling that you’ve had an extraordinary dream but the more you focus on it the faster it slips away? The new mobile application titled ‘Shadow’ aims to change all of that by enabling you to track and record your dreams.

There has always been an interest in finding out just exactly what goes on in our brains when we’re not thinking about it. It seems that the ‘Shadow’ app will help us to find out exactly what sneaky our subconscious mind is trying to tell us, or hide from us during our sleep.

Voyager Officially Leaves Solar System

In 1977, two unmanned space crafts were launched to explore space and report back to NASA with information about the major planets: Voyager 1 and 2. Within the first 12 years of launching, both Voyagers returned information about Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Now though, after 36 years of being in space, NASA is extremely proud to announce that Voyager 1 has left the solar system.

Delayed Response

In actual fact, although NASA announced the Voyager’s departure from the solar system quite recently on September 12th 2013, it appears the leaving date itself was way back in 2012 – August 25th to be precise. So why the big delay on the celebrations?

Google Working On Cookie Alternative

Google is working on an alternative ad tracking system that could potentially replace cookies.

Cookies are used by advertisers and web sites to track your web history, so that they can tailor adverts based on your possible shopping interests.

Google Cookies with Sesame Street Cookie Monster
Google is working on a system called “AdID”, which would allow them to abandon the cookie system completely. It is currently the only browser that allows all cookies as the default setting.

Rival companies to Google’s Chrome have all taken a stand against cookies, with Microsoft’s default setting in Internet Explorer being “do not track” and Apple’s Safari browser blocking third-party cookies altogether.

For browser makers, maintaing a robust cookie environment offers little financial reward, whereas keeping users happy yields better financial incentives.

If Google can prove that its new AdID system is more useful for advertisers and more private for users than cookies, then Google could be on to a winner.

Apple has its own cookie alternative called the “identifier for advertisers” or IDFA. AdID could be the thing that helps Google compete not just with Apple but with all its rivals.

How Do You Make The Thinnest Pane Of Glass? By Accident!

On face value, it appears to be a scientist’s version of a ‘knock knock’ joke. In actual fact though, graduate student Pinshane Huang and Professor David Muller of Cornell and Germany’s University of Ulm were laughing all the way to the Guiness Book of world records with the thinnest pane of glass in the world.

A Happy Accident

The two scientists were originally trying to form graphene, which is a two dimensional form of carbon. While they were at work on the project, they discovered a mark of some kind on the graphene. As they examined the unwanted blemish on their desired graphene, the electron microscope picked up a silicon/oxygen composition which was the same as glass.

IPad App Mem:o For Design Lovers

I bet you’ve been very busy with your iOS device. As it usually goes when a new version of iOS hits, users are also hit with a flurry of app updates. Everyone complains, but in a good natured way. Me, I am rather miffed as my iPad seems to be forever stuck in the restore loop. Whether it’s a fluke or the device is broken, I am going to have to do without playing with this new iPad app called mem:o that I discovered the other day.

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