Phonebloks

Dave Hakkens has previously introduced many modular phone concepts, but his creation of Phonebloks has taken innovation to a whole new level. Phonebloks is more durable as compared to its competitors in the market. The elements that this device comprises of include battery, screen, camera etc. which are conveniently removable from the device. Moreover, this phone is entirely upgradable and is made from Lego-like modules which snap together. 

This best plus point about this device is that it is customizable. Photographers can feasibly upgrade the device by incorporating a better camera to it and also by sacrificing some adequate amount of storage space. This phone is personalized by the addition of the third party components that are “Bloks” to it. These Bloks can be substituted with new Bloks in case of any breakage. Users can easily find them from BlokStore, which is an app store specifically designed for Bloks. On the store, users can purchase new Bloks for their device or purchase used ones. 

In 2013, an announcement was made in which Phonebloks and Google/Motorola declared about their willingness to come up with a modular smartphone. They also declared that Phonebloks website would become a platform for all enthusiasts from across the globe to share their perspective over the possible improvisations that can be made in Project Ara by Google’s ATAP team. The launch date of its modular phone is scheduled in January 2015. Although there are ample of challenges being confronted by this concept, consumption of large amount of money tops the list. To make this phone a strong competitor, great amount of money is required. Not many manufacturers are expected to participate in the making of these Bloks due to which there would be a limited selection of Phonebloks available. 

Besides the economic issues, there are many technical barriers erupting in the creation of this device as well. Since the Bloks are removable, the signals simultaneously are also expected to travel far within the confines of the components. Besides the connection used would also require the insertion of expensive pins along with the sockets. In the end, the final version of the Phonebloks would be very thick as compared to the average smartphone these days. This device also comes with the risk of Bloks getting dislocated from the mainboard. Many critics have also assumed that the replacement of Bloks frequently would escalate the e-waste output.

Tech Wonders!

We live in a world full of brilliant minds. These brilliant minds are always challenging themselves, always wanting to imagine more, get more, always pushing themselves to the extreme. These minds are the reason we get access to new and advanced technologies every now and then. We cannot deny the fact that the world is continuously evolving and advancing rapidly. The world as we know it, now revolves around technology where you have computers, smart phones and the limitless internet.

Let’s talk about how this world is growing and evolving. You know those Android smart phones everyone carries around and are so proud of? Yeah, the ones that keep you connected to everyone on the internet and also let you stream funny cat videos on YouTube. Well, guess what? They are now introducing smart watches for you. It’s voice activated and it’s always ‘on’. This means that anytime you say ‘ok Google’ or ‘hello Google’, it will respond. I won’t be surprised if in a few years I see people talking to their watches all the time. Oh and they’re also water and dust resistant. I’d like to see you try talking to your watch under water.

Another advancement in technology that I thought can prove to be useful in the future is the ‘WiFi for power’. It’s a way to charge your devices using WiFi or in other words, charging your devices without using wires and chords. Isn’t that awesome? Yes, it is. Well, I for one hate it when I’m on a Zombie killing spree on my smart phone and the words ‘low battery’ keep blinking on the screen every 15 seconds. I would love to have a wireless device that lets me sit however I want without worrying about disconnecting the charger. Also I’m pretty sure I’ll stop forgetting my phone everywhere because it was charging. I’ll just have it in my pocket when its charging. Chun Rim, professor of Nuclear & Quantum Engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has made this a possibility and hopefully, he will also think of a way of making it cheap and affordable.

With the new technology, there is another problem that is arising. Our devices are continuously becoming smaller and smaller and with the smaller screens, it is becoming difficult for users to interact with the devices effectively and efficiently. Well, not to worry. We will soon be enjoying the biggest screens possible! A new technology can generate images directly on to our retina. This doesn’t limit the size of the visual according to the screen and at the same time avoiding the need for weighty hardware.

These are a few new developments in technology that are already here and just need a few touch ups. Soon these will be available to all of us.

Yahoo Will Update Its Logo! | TechCrunch

Yahoo unveiled a new logo today with a sans serif font similar to the ones used in other companies’ recent image overhauls, but keeps its purple color and oft-maligned exclamation point. Don’t like it? That logo is just the first of 30 variations Yahoo will show off over the next month on its homepage and other sites before the final version is revealed on September 5 (so you’ll have plenty of other redesigns to make fun of).

The redesign isn’t a complete surprise. Last October, a TechCrunch reader told us that he’d been invited to take an online survey with a potential redesign that also featured a sans serif font. Unlike the logo Yahoo showed off today, however, the updated logo shown in the survey had its purple color toned down to a quieter hue. The user survey came just after Yahoo announced its purchase of Stamped, the first of CEO Marissa Mayer’s acquisition spree.

In a post on the company’s Tumblr, Chief Marketing Officer Kathy Savitt said that Yahoo’s new logo “will be a modern redesign that’s more reflective of our reimagined design and new experiences.”

Under Mayer, Yahoo has been busy reinventing itself with a series of more than two dozen acqui-hires, the most recent of which was social browsing startup Rockmelt. As Alex Wilhelm writes, the company’s aggressive attempts to rehaul its operation has increased its workforce morale, but it’s uncertain if it will actually reverse the company’s declining revenue.

Furthermore, Yahoo still has to win over consumers. For example, many Tumblr users threatened to quit after Yahoo’s $1 billion purchase of the site in May and it’s still unclear how the company will handle adult content as it seeks to turn Tumblr into a platform for “brand advertising.”

If you think cybercrime is scary now, just wait until hackers can control and monitor every object in your environment | Quartz

Recent work by security researchers indicates that one of the problems with having a “smart” home is that some day, it might be smart enough to attack you. The essence of the forthcoming “internet of things” is that everything we own, from our refrigerators and egg cartons to our cars and thermostats, will some day be outfitted with internet-connected sensors and control systems, allowing all our possessions, and ultimately all of our civic infrastructure, to communicate with each other and be controlled remotely.

The potential security implications of this future are fairly obvious: Imagine if the same hackers that are stealing our credit card numbers suddenly had the ability to take over or at least monitor just about every device in reach. But to date, thinking through the specifics has been tricky. Here, then, is a handy guide to the basic vulnerabilities we’ll be adding to our lives once we have connected all of our worldly goods to the internet of things:

Direct attacks that force objects to exceed their design parameters or operate in ways that are unpleasant or dangerous

If you’d like your home to be as vulnerable to cyberattack as Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, go ahead, by a smart fridge.AP Photo/Vahid Salemi

The most successful cyber-attack on physical infrastructure ever—an attack on Iran’s uranium enrichment facility, suspected to be a join US-Israeli project, that set Iran’s nuclear ambitions back by at least a year—illustrates a basic principle of internet-connected devices: Having the ability to control them remotely could mean giving hackers the ability to damage them remotely, or re-purpose them for nefarious uses.

In the Stuxnet attack on Iran’s nuclear program, software was used to spin uranium centrifuges at a speed and duration that physically damaged these delicate instruments, requiring what was probably months of subsequent repair. Similarly, at this year’s Defcon conference for hackers, security company Cimation demonstrated an attack that could damage a water treatment facility—causing a pipe to burst or a tank to overflow—or any other plant that uses a common protocol for controlling infrastructure that was invented in the 1970s.

Granted, our homes do not include uranium centrifuges or plumbing we control remotely—yet. An attack on the Inax Satis smart toilet would allow a hacker to activate this $4,000 toilet’s bidet remotely.

Misdirection leading to user error and damage

Smart thermostats can be controlled from the internet, the most insecure communications network ever invented.Nest

As with the internet itself, we will in time become ever more reliant on the internet of things. Baby and pet monitors, home automation systems and even our cars will send us information in ways that will make our lives easier but also encourage our dependence on these systems. In this way, hackers do not even need to figure out how to harm us or damage our connected devices to cause mayhem: They simply need to send us false readings from the sensor systems we’re using.

In the Stuxnet attack on Iran, the reason operators at the uranium enrichment facility did not shut down the infected centrifuges is that the same software that was spinning them at dangerous speeds made it look as if everything was normal. Some systems in, for example, the oil and gas industry are already vulnerable to attacks in which operators are led to believe that everything is fine when equipment may actually be operating at unsafe temperatures and pressures.

This could allow hackers to set up scenarios in which users would be the agents of their own undoing. For example, a smart thermostat set to keep a house at a certain temperature for pets while an owner is away could send false readings to the user, encouraging them to send instructions to it remotely, perhaps to make the house warmer, without realizing that the home’s heating system is already at full blast.

A world of new possibilities for spying

“Checking in” to your bedroom is the new “checking in” to your home, gym, place of work, or kid’s school.Good Night Lamp

Once entire homes are fully instrumented with sensors, there is no end to the kind of data that hackers and governments could gather about us and our habits. Here’s a smart lamp that transmits via the internet whether or not you’re home, and similar insights could also be gathered via your smart thermostat. Every smartphone, laptop and tablet we own is already broadcasting huge amounts of information about us—who we are, where we are, where we’ve been, what websites we’re logging onto—which can be gathered with a $57 listening device.

In the case of both mobile devices and smart connected devices, security is lax, probably because the makers of these gadgets, and the connection standards on which they rely, didn’t have to think about how they would all become part of a universal internet of stuff, whose interacting devices would lead to a wealth of unexpected vulnerabilities. This is especially true of wi-fi, which because of its ubiquity is a strong contender for the de facto connection standard for the internet of things, which means there’s little we can do to avoid these security vulnerabilities. “These are fundamental design flaws in the way pretty much everything works,” one researcher recently told the New York Times.

If these concerns seem overblown given the current state of the internet of things, keep in mind that, like other technologies, hundreds of companies are working on ways to make smart devices ever more useful. Terrorist attacks on electrical grids and nuclear power plants may grab headlines, but a whole new class of petty crime against our personal infrastructure is also on its way.

Explained: How Facebook's updated News Feed works | IBN Live

In an attempt to increase user activity on the News Feed, Facebook has announced an update to its News Feed ranking algorithm, that brings up significant posts and make them reappear at the top of the News Feed.

Facebook believes, at times, people miss the important stores as they don't bother to scroll down far enough. But with the update to the News Feed algorithm, the relevant stories will get bumped up on the News Feed, which the company believes will improve the overall News Feed experience. Facebook says it will determine the relevance of posts based on likes and comments on them. Even a few hours old post may reappear at the top of New Feed if they get lots of likes and comments.

"Previously, people read 57 per cent of the stories in their News Feeds, on average. They did not scroll far enough to see the other 43 per cent. When the unread stories were resurfaced, the fraction of stories read increased to 70 per cent," said Facebook engineering manager Lars Backstrom in a post. That way, Facebook will now show people the stories they want to see, even if they missed them the first time.

The goal of News Feed is to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time so they don't miss the stories that are important to them.

For Page owners, this means their most popular organic page posts have a higher chance of being shown to more people, even if they're more than a few hours old.

According to Facebook, the goal of News Feed is to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time so they don't miss the stories that are important to them.

Whatsapp has Introduced Voice Messaging | India Times

Whatsapp, arguably the most loved messenger service surely had the advantage of time on its side. Being one of the very first messenger apps, Whatsapp quickly rose to fame and became the most loved app. The apps ridiculously simple framework and user structure along with the ease of staying connected globally across multiple platforms endeared the app to all.

However, the success story faced a bump with the introduction of newer messenger apps with better features. While Whatsapp kept it simple and frill free, the new apps brought in a host of services from voice calling to voice messaging, features similar to social networks, the ability to connect to strangers, etc. Though Whatsapp continues to be strong, aggressive marketing by some of the other apps has threatened to topple Whatsapp from the pinnacle.

In a bid to regain market share, Whatsapp is now launching the latest fad in messenger apps. the unique voice messaging system will be rolled out with the next update. The voice messenger service will benefit many users while sending messages in multiple languages. With phones not supporting all language apps, typing often gets to be troublesome. Also, in a country like India where languages come with their own regional variations even within states, the voice messenger service will be beneficial.


Image Courtesy: AllThingsD
Whatsapp has made sending push-to-talk messages simpler too. Just holding down the button records the message and releasing it automatically sends the message. There is also a blue blinker notification light that lets users know when the message has been heard. If a user after recording the message decides to not send it, (s)he can simply swipe to the left and the message gets deleted.

There’s no time limit on how long a message you can send. So it could be a one hour long speech for your kid’s elocution day or it could be a short, 2 second Hi!. Also, the volume of the message during playback is automatically adjusted for optimal hearing.

For the first time ever, Whatsapp is pushing a feature across multiple platforms all at once. The feature, according to Whatsapp, should be available to all users as early as this week.

According to AllThingsD, Jan Koum, Whatsapp CEO wants to focus on the smaller picture rather than dive into more advanced features and options. The voice feature was apparently a pet project of Koum with the team working on it since 6 months. “We really are excited about this functionality,” he said. “We think it is going to be awesome.”, the CEO gushed.

We would sure love to see such a feature on Whatsapp and if true, the messenger giant is all set to re-enter the game, and with a bang!


Image Courtesy: AllThingsD

Twitter has introduced app-based two-factor authentication | NDTV

Twitter has now introduced a new way to authenticate logins while using the service's two-factor authentication feature. It now allows users to enrol in two-factor authentication and verify login requests through its iOS and Android mobile apps.

The social networking service had rolled out two-factor authentication in May, allowing users to opt for secondary verification through their verified mobile phone numbers. Users could choose to get a verification code on their mobile phones and verify the same while logging-in on Twitter's website. However, it was limited to select mobile carriers (for instance, only Airtel, Reliance and Tata Docomo were supported in India).

Following the rollout of app-based verification, users will now be able to verify their logins through the mobile app, without the need for receiving an SMS from Twitter. This means that anyone with access to the apps will be able to use Twitter's two-factor authentication for increased security. They'll also be able to opt for two-factor authentication while logging in, through the mobile apps.

To enable the feature, users will need to tap on the Me tab in the Twitter app, open Settings and then tap on Security (Android users will need to tap on their Twitter username before they can select Security). You can then enable Login Verification from the screen. The app will then generate a backup code which you can note down at a safe place. This code can be used to login when you don't have your phone with you.