Monday, September 15, 2014

INSTALLING WINDOWS 7 FOR BEGINNERS

A couple more Windows Phone features are apparently headed to Windows 9, with signs of Wi-Fi Sense and Storage Sense showing up in the latest leaked preview builds.
Wi-Fi Sense is a feature of Windows Phone 8.1 that automatically signs users into public Wi-Fi hotspots. It can accept terms of service on the user's behalf, and fill out a phone number, name and e-mail address if required, so the user can quickly get online with little effort. Wi-Fi Sense also share network credentials with Outlook, Skype, and Facebook contacts, so they can connect to your local Wi-Fi without knowing your password.Below are some screenshots from the alleged new Windows 9 that is yet to be released.

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQZZPJYVyRfmS28QZfI0-Gzb-Ahzc5SGHe-rHoqGFp7KtWOTnUCgkN5jzGD

Gadgets

HTC's Android Wear watch might not be dead after all

HTC might not have killed its plans for a smartwatch, despite an earlier rumor to the contrary.
Unnamed sources now tell CNET that HTC will release a smartwatch in early 2015, refuting an earlier report that said HTC was scared off by “rising costs and a lack of wow factor.”
If anything, those are just challenges that HTC plans to address when it finally does release its first wearable. Details on the device are still unclear, but CNET says that HTC is working on a design and features that stand out from other devices on the market, while basing the watch off Google's Android Wear platform.
However, HTC may be limited in how much it can do on the software side. Google isn't allowing device makers to skin Android Wear the same way they can with Android phones, as the company aims for a more consistent experience across devices. “The device manufacturers can brand it, and they might have services that they want to include with it, but otherwise it should be the same,” Google engineering director David Burke told Ars Technica in June.
Still, there's room for HTC to stand out, especially on the design front. With smartwatches, the form is just as important as the function, and Android Wear watch makers are still struggling to accommodate a wide variety of wrists. HTC has shown that it can design slick-looking smartphones, so hopefully it hasn't given up on bringing that same stylishness to wearable tech.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

iPhone 6

Bigger than bigger

The latest version of Iphone which is the Iphone 6 has just been released,below you can find information on the specifications and latest functions.

iPhone 6 isn’t simply bigger — it’s better in every way. Larger, yet dramatically thinner. More powerful, but remarkably power efficient. With a smooth metal surface that seamlessly meets the new Retina HD display. It’s one continuous form where hardware and software function in perfect unison, creating a new generation of iPhone that’s better by any measure.

iPhone at its largest. And thinnest.

Developing an iPhone with a larger, more advanced display meant pushing the edge of design. From the seamless transition of glass and metal to the streamlined profile, every detail was carefully considered to enhance your experience. So while its display is larger, iPhone 6 feels just right.
Learn more about Design

Not just a bigger display. A better display.

It’s one thing to make a bigger display. It’s something else entirely to make a bigger Multi‑Touch display with brilliant colors and higher contrast at even wider viewing angles. But that’s exactly what we did with the new Retina HD display.
Learn more about the Retina HD display

Hugely powerful. Enormously eﬃcient.

Built on 64-bit desktop-class architecture, the new A8 chip delivers more power, even while driving a larger display. The M8 motion coprocessor efficiently gathers data from advanced sensors and a new barometer. And with increased battery life, iPhone 6 lets you do more, for longer than ever.
Learn more about Technology

64-bit

ARCHITECTURE

A8

CHIP

M8

MOTION COPROCESSOR

The camera that changed photos now does the same for video.

More people take more photos with iPhone than with any other camera. And now the iSight camera has a new sensor with Focus Pixels and new video features, like 1080p HD at 60 fps, slo-mo at 240 fps, and time-lapse video mode. So you’ll have more reasons to capture more moments on video, too.
Learn more about Cameras

All-new sensor supports Focus Pixels and enables even faster autofocus.

Faster wireless. Far and wide.

iPhone 6 has faster LTE download speeds,* and it supports more LTE bands than any other smartphone so you can roam in more places. And when connected to Wi-Fi, you’ll get up to 3x faster speeds.
Learn more about Connectivity

Security. Right at your fingertip.

The breakthrough Touch ID technology lets you securely access your iPhone with the perfect password: your fingerprint. You can also use it to approve purchases from iTunes, iBooks, and the App Store without having to enter your password.
Learn more about Touch ID

Your wallet. Without the wallet.

We completely rethought how you pay to make shopping faster, easier, and more secure. Apple Pay combines the convenience and security of Touch ID and Passbook with NFC technology. So you can use iPhone 6 to pay in stores and within apps with a single touch.
Learn more about Apple Pay
Coming in October

The biggest iOS release ever.

iOS 8 is the world’s most advanced mobile operating system. And with incredible new capabilities and features designed to make the most of a larger display, iOS 8 doesn’t just work seamlessly with iPhone 6. It makes every experience feel bigger and better.
Learn more about iOS 8

Monday, August 25, 2014

One of the best password managers for your PC, devices, and the cloud

D. asked me to recommend a good password manager.
Everyone who uses the Internet absolutely must have a password manager. Without one, you'll forget some of your passwords. Or you'll use the same password for different sites, which allows a thief who's hacked one password to know them all. Or you'll use simple passwords that are easy to remember but also easy to hack.
A password manager program stores your passwords and other login information in an encrypted database. If you need to log into a website or a secure application, you open the password manager, type the password to your password manager (which is the only password you'll ever have to memorize), and get the information that you need.
But which password manager should you use?
[Have a tech question? Ask PCWorld Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector. Send your query to answer@pcworld.com.]

KeePass Password Safe

I use KeePass Password Safe, which is both free and open source. (Of course, there are plenty of other options.) Thanks to the recent Heartbleed and Truecrypt vulnerabilities, I'm not as big a fan of open-source security software as I used to be. But I've seen nothing to convince me that open source is less safe than closed source--which could have a backdoor that we'd never learn about.
Popular open-source programs tend to be cross-platform, because anyone with the skills can create a compatible program. I use Android and iOS password managers that are compatible with KeePass, and use the same database file with them and my Windows PC.

You can set up a KeePass database to be opened with a password, a keyfile, or both. A keyfile can be any sort of file, but if that file changes in any way--even a single flipped bit--the database will become inaccessible and you'll lose all of your passwords.
If you go the password route, you'll need a password that you can remember, but is too long and complex for anyone else to hack. If you forget your password, you'll lose access to all of your other passwords (that's the disadvantage of not having a backdoor). And if it's too short or simple (such as a single word), it can be hacked.
KeePass has other useful features. You can organize your passwords into folders--like files on a drive. It can generate long, complex, and random passwords of any length. And with the click of an icon, it can automatically insert the appropriate name and password into a web page.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE WITH NO FUEL SPACE ENGINE

NASA has carried out tests on futuristic no-fuel quantum space engine which works

A study conducted last year by NASA scientists has become the latest, and by far the highest profile, piece of evidence in favor of a seemingly impossible space thruster design that’s been evoking worldwide skepticism for some time now. Apparently annoyed by the persistent boosters of several similar but distinct designs, the space agency finally agreed to test an American-made variant called the Cannae Drive. “Alright!” they said. “We’ll test your stupid drive that won’t work.” Except it did work. Seemingly in contravention of the law of conservation of momentum, the team confirmed that the device produces thrust by using electricity, and nothing else. Supporters call them microwave thrusters or quantum vacuum plasma thrusters (QVPT), while most others use the phrase “anomalous thrust device.”
First, the results of NASA’s experiment, since that’s all the team itself wants you to be talking about. Seemingly wanting to avoid unproductive controversy about the nature of existence, they’ve totally ignored the question of how the drive works in favour of simply reporting the data. With controls in place to avoid any confounding forces or variables, the NASA team recorded a reliable thrust between 30 and 50 micro-Newtons, less than a thousandth of the output of some relatively low-powered ion thrusters in use today. Still, the ion thrusters require fuel to operate, and the original QVPT inventor claims the version NASA tested is flawed, leading them to collect far lower thrust readings than his original can provide.

This is an older version of the concept than the one NASA tested, though it may still produce more thrust.

This is an older version of the QVPT than the one NASA tested, though it may still produce more thrust

If confirmed, the practical upshot of this technology would be amazing. Solar panels could provide the electricity needed to keep the thruster working, meaning that propulsion would be low-thrust and long-term with virtually no associated cost. That would not only drastically reduce the cost of keeping satellites running and in orbit, but it could make interstellar travel much easier; Harold White, of warp drive fame, predicted that a beefed up version of the QVPT could reach Proxima Centauri in about 30 years (assuming the concept actually works at all).

"Warp" drive isn't such a hare-brained concept any more, so why should quantum drives be?

Warp drives aren’t such a harebrained concept any more, so why should quantum drives be?

While NASA might not want to talk about it, though, for us it’s worth discussing just how this drive’s creators hypothesize the thruster works. By now, most people are aware that the laws of classical physics tend to break down at the quantum scale, and exploiting that fact can give you interesting little physical impossibilities like infinitely accelerating negative-mass photons. However, the effects of these quantum-scale impossibilities have always stayed at the quantum scale; sure one atom could theoretically phase-shift through another, but we still can’t run through walls.
The central insight here (assuming this isn’t all a big mistake) is that something called quantum vacuum fluctuations will occasionally spontaneously create particles all throughout the vacuum of space, and that these short-lived particles can be put to useful work. Thus, this thruster actually does use fuel — it just finds and uses that fuel as it goes. The thruster essentially turns these virtual particles into a plasma and expels them out the back of the ship, much like a conventional fuel source. The quantum fuel, though, spontaneously appears inside the thruster’s reaction area without even the need for collection or injection hardware. All things considered, that’s more than a little exciting.

Ion thrusters are another low-powered solution, applying weak but constant acceleration

The original design, called the emDrive by creator Roger Shawyer, should get significantly more attention in the coming months, which ought to feel good given the long struggles he’s had with professional apathy and skepticism. As mentioned, the version tested by NASA is distinct from the emDrive, but still (they think) makes use of the quantum vacuum particles as the propellant. There are very preliminary plans to test a version of the drive in space, but such orbital work is expensive; now it might finally have the juice to warrant such a plan.

Update Your Java to Patch 20 Vulnerabilities Or Just Disable it

Today, Oracle has released its quarterly Critical Patch Update (CPU) for the month of July, as part of its monthly security bulletin, in which it fixes a total of 113 new security vulnerabilities for hundreds of the company’s products.

The security update for Oracle’s popular browser plug-in Java addresses 20 vulnerabilities in the software, all of which are remotely exploitable without authentication, that means an attacker wouldn't need a username and password to exploit them over a network.

MOST CRITICAL ONE TO PATCH FIRST

Oracle uses the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) to provide an open and standardized rating of the security holes it finds in its products. One or more of the Java vulnerabilities received the most “critical” rating according to Oracle’s Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), i.e. base score of 10 or near.

Although, numerous other Oracle products and software components addressed in the latest security updates, which address around 29 vulnerabilities in Oracle Fusion Middleware out of which 27 enable remote code execution, seven vulnerabilities in Hyperion products and five apiece for Oracle database and E-Business Suite. But, Java was the only impacted with security issues scoring the highest critical rating.

So, Java patches are the most urgent and should be at the top of your list, as one of the Java SE vulnerabilities (CVE-2014-4227) in this patch update, scores ten out of ten in the common vulnerability rating system, and seven of the other Java SE client vulnerabilities received a CVSS score of 9.3.

Oracle Database Server will also be updated for five vulnerabilities, one of which is remotely exploitable, while there will be 10 patches released for MySQL Server, but none of them are remotely exploitable.

JAVA WILL CONTINUE TO SUPPORT WINDOWS XP

The company recently announced that it would no longer support Java on Windows XP, though it expect Java 7 to continue to work on Windows XP platform and Oracle security updates for Java on XP machines will continue.

“This end of support announcement has been misread as ‘Java no longer works on Windows XP’ or ‘Oracle will stop Java updates from being applied on Windows XP.’ These statements are not correct,” said Oracle vice-president of product management in the Java Platform Group Henrik Stahl.

“We expect all versions of Java that were supported prior to the Microsoft de-support announcement to continue to work on Windows XP for the foreseeable future. In particular, we expect that JDK 7 will continue to work on Windows XP.”

However, Java 8 is not designed even to install on Windows XP operating system. So, the installer for the developer releases of Java 8 will not run on it without manual intervention.

PATCH OR SIMPLY DISABLE JAVA?

Java runs on more than 850 million personal computers and on billions of devices worldwide, therefore protecting against Java zero-day exploits is a rising concern among millions of Windows, Mac OS, and Linux users.

Security experts recommend not installing Java if you don't already have it, and perhaps even disable it if you have it if you do not regularly use an application or visit any Web site that requires Java.

UPDATE YOUR SYSTEMS NOW

The company is urging its customers to update their systems as soon as possible. "Due to the threat posed by a successful attack, Oracle strongly recommends that customers apply Critical Patch Update fixes as soon as possible," the firm warned.

Oracle has published the full details about the list of patches here.

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