All New HTC One M8 (2014) - First Impressions

After Weeks of Leaks and updates, the Device has finally launched. The HTC One M7 (2013) was one of the best android smartphone evers but did not sell too any units and could not turn HTC's fortunes (even with Iron Man helping!). The New HTC one has pretty high hopes and pretty big shoes to fill in for. Overall, Our first impression is that it's impressive that HTC, after making the best-looking Android  phone of 2013, has managed to make the All New HTC One (M8), a phone crammed full of power and great features while improving the highly impressive design. It improved in some key areas which Customers had complained but can we say that it can be best Android phone of 2014? Well, That might still be a No.Here is a Quick update of the first impression that we have for the device.

HTC One (M8)

All New HTC One M8 Design:

This is one area where HTC had set up the Bar higher than everyone else. It is good to see HTC improving on the good points of its Beautiful design for the original One. At first glance not much looks to have changed, but on closer inspection HTC has made a number of subtle yet very welcome improvements. HTC has increased the amount of metal in its handset aiming to make every point of touch from metal. The back is now 90% metal (with the antennas built in the body to avoid blocking signal) and there are fewer parts and seams with the metal now reaching right up to the glass.On the new HTC One M8, Metal goes all around the sides of the phone, making it feel great in the hand.This is in contrast with the 2013 HTC One which had plastic set into the edges. 

A Welcome addition in the new Design is a memory card slot. On various consumer forums and tech websites, customer had always complained about lack of memory card slot on flagships in favor of better industrial design and sleeker look. Its a good thing to HTC has incorporated a memory card as part of its design - An Excellent design too.

All New HTC One M8 : Specifications

Parameters	HTC One M8 Specifications
Body Dimensions	146.4 x 70.6 x 9.4 mm (5.76 x 2.78 x 0.37 in)
Weight	160 g (5.64 oz)
Colors	Gunmetal Gray, Glacial Silver, Amber Gold
Display	Super LCD 3 with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. 1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.0 inches (~441 ppi pixel density)
Processor	Qualcomm MSM8974AB Snapdragon 801 Chipset - Quad-core 2.3 GHz with Adreno 330
Memory(RAM)	2 GB
Storage	Internal: 16 GB / 32 GB ; External : microSD, up to 128 GB
Camera	Front: Dual 4.1 MP, 2688х1520 pixels, autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash 1/3'' sensor size, 2µm pixel size, automatic simultaneous video and image recording, geo-tagging, face and smile detection, HDR, panorama Back: Yes, 5 MP, 1080p@30fps, HDR
Battery	2600mAH
Connectivity	Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP, NFC , Infrared, USB OTG, MicroUSB, LTE
Operating System	Android 4.4, Sense 6.0 UI

All New HTC One M8 : Launch Date

The HTC One M8 is being released in over 230 carriers and over 100 countries. The phone is widely available online from a slew of carriers and partners, but the in-store and global launch date is April 10th, 2014. Meaning a day before the April 11th Galaxy S5 release date. If you are in US and on Big Red's Network, you can walk to Verizon stores across the USA  and it will be available in store! Or you can buy it online after 1 PM Eastern from one of the following US and Canadian carriers.

• AT&T
• Sprint
• Verizon Wireless
• Rogers
• Bell
• Telus

Price starts at $199 to $249 on-contract (depending on the carrier), while buying it off-contract will set you back $599 to $649. There will also be a Google Play Edition that will cost $699, but that version is coming later.

Iphone 6 to feature Bigger and Wider Screen [Rumor]

In the past, a number of unreleased smartphone designs have been revealed long ahead of their announcements by early protective cases shown off by third-party case makers. Apple is also no stranger to this and we have seen in past how cases for Iphone 5C were released much before the actual announcement of the device.
Looks like Apple is finally going to bite the bullet! After Sticking to 4" Screen size to maintain one hand usability, looks like apple is going to finally increase the screen size of their flagship iPhone 6 to around 4.7". Just a few days back, we had heard another Rumors that the Iphone 6 will launch with a 4.7" screen (389 PPI), with a 0.22" thick Body. The other rumored specs included an improved Camera and 20nm A8 chip from TSMC.

According to images leaked on a Japanese Case maker's blog, Apple's Iphone 6 seems to have a display which is much taller that the previous iterations and also much wider.

This does suggest Apple might actually manage to do the impossible with the iPhone 6 and launch a smartphone with a much larger display that is still comfortable to use with one hand. As Motorola and Google had previously pointed out using various researches that 4.7" is the sweet spot for Mobile handsets, looks like Apple is ready to walk through that path as well. Based on the image of the case, the device seems to be around 4.64". Aside from the larger display, you can see expect thinner bezel on the sides of the screen. Also, a couple of interesting things in the post was that the device will be launched with Sapphire Screen and with 441PPI. I, for one highly doubt that Sapphire glass has become so much cheaper that Apple can launch a device with 4.7 " screen completely made of Sapphire.

This might please some always wanted Apple to release a phone with bigger screen to keep up with its Android rivals but it might just angst its Hardcore loyalists who think Apple should not get involve in the Android phone maker's slug fest and keep it separate from the competitors. Whatever the case might be, Iphone 6 seems to be the most Awaited Apple phone in recent times

HTC One M8 (2014) Leaked in 14 minute Video

Well, we have previously seen lots of leaks coming of devices before their launch date. Well, this might be one of the best leaks that we have heard in recent times. HTC one has been completely leaked in a German video. This is not some images which might be photoshopped or some information from supplier, this seems to be full review of the device.

HTC One (2014)

In the 14 minute leaked video you are shown complete preview of device and you get to see how the device looks and performs before the expected release date of Tuesday 25th March. And if you are a Verizon subscriber, you might be able to pick the New HTC One on the release date itself

The video shows off all sorts of different aspects of the device’s software and hardware. Some time is spent focusing on the new One’s dual camera setup he post-capture focus alteration does look pretty impressive. There's also some sort of "extreme" power-saving mode. Interested, go check this out. And if you are German, please let us know about what you make out of this video as well :)

Source: Android Police

All New HTC One (2014) to be Verizon Exclusive for 2 weeks [Rumor]

If you are a Big Red Subscriber, you wouldn't have probably forgotten what Happened last year with the launch of HTC one. Verizon was the last one to the major US carriers to launch the device. They had to wait till end of August to get their hands on their device. It seems like this has changed this time around. We had heard rumours previously that the device will be released on verizon along the same time as the other carriers. Seems like Verizon has gone even farther than that. According to HTC source, Verizon will be calling the dibs for two weeks on the latest HTC one handset. According to the Source,that the all new HTC One will go on sale in the US starting at 1PM EST on March 25th. This However, will be only Verizon exclusive.

 I know you'll love to go to a T-mobile or AT&T store and pick up the phone on 25th but looks like you'll have to wait for at least two weeks if you are not on Big Red's network! The source was not able to confirm Verizon’s pricing for the all new HTC One, but since the suggested retail price for the unlocked phone is set at $600, it’s safe to assume that you will be able to buy the all new HTC One from Verizon for $199.99 with a new two-year contract.

Well, 2-weeks isn't that long, especially when you consider most devices don’t launch until at least a few weeks after they’ve been announced anyway. Verizon Wireless just gets it sooner, that’s all. And for all of you globally, expect it to be launched in 110 markets two weeks after the release date.

iPhone 6 to be launched with 389 PPI Ultra Retina Display and 0.22" Body [Rumour]

iPhone 6 is arguably the most awaited handset of this year. Both the Apple fanboys and Android loyalists are waiting to see what apple has to offer this time for its flagship phone. The Company is largely expected to make some major changes on its iPhone to ward off increasing competition from the Android camp. Recently, New rumours have started to surface online for Apple's upcoming iteration of the iPhone handset. These rumours hint the iPhone 6 will arrive with a much thinner body, better camera, super powerful processor and a higher pixel density screen.

The rumours come from Sonny Dickson. For those of you who do not know he is, he is the Australian teen who rose to fame by leaking largely accurate information about Apple iPhone 5S. So, It would be interesting to see if he gets it right this time as well! Dickson has bone to microblogging site twitter and posted information about the upcoming iPhone. Dickson, in one of his four tweets on the subject, said, "iPhone 6 will be 0.22 inches thick #JustSaying."

On the other tweets about the iPhone 6, Dickson mentioned the inclusion of an Ultra-Retina screen, which will pack 389 pixels per inch (ppi). His Tweet read- Ultra-Retina screen will be 389 ppi #JustSaying. This is as per previous leaks which had tapped sources in the display supply chain to analyze panel sizes and resolutions currently under development. Those leaks had suggested that Apple could be exploring a 4.7-inch 1600x900 with a 386 ppi screen and/or a 5.5-inch 1920x1080 with a 401 ppi screen.

He furthermore talked about the chipset that might arrive in the next Apple iPhone. His Tweet on the topic was - "The new Apple A8 processor will run at 2.6GHz #JustSaying," his tweet read. The iPhone 5s incorporates a 64-bit A7 28-nanometer chip manufactured by Samsung. Previous leaks on this had suggested that Apple's iPhone 6 will reportedly incorporate a 20-nanometer A8 chip from TSMC, which will be both smaller and more energy efficient.

Dickson finally tweeted "These specs could be the real thing #JustSaying." Well, we would have for the actual iPhone to arrive to see if that is the case but these leaks and various others do indicate that Apple is finally making some drastic changes on its iPhone line after iPhone 4. I, for one,  am very excited

Source:
Sonny Dickson's Tweets

LG G3 Leaked screenshots allegedly confirms 2K Display

Mobile Technology is going at a blitzkrieg pace nowadays. All the companies are jumping in to the battleground to come with the best specs for their flagships and to outgun the other flagships. Samsung Galaxy S5 was expected by many to be launched with a 2K display but this time Samsung decided to disappoint its fans. Well LG wants to take this vantage point and come with first ever 2K Display on a mobile device.

Well, don't we just love the time before the launch of any Flagship device. The Leaks have started to surface again for the next flagship from LG and with every leak there is an iota of confirmation that LG will be launching a 2k Display. According to the rumors courtsey the Dutch blog lgg3open.nl, LG G3 is said to arrive on the scene with a stunning 2K display Well. The Dutch site  just published the first screenshots allegedly taken from the upcoming LG G3 device with a resolution of 2560 X 1440 Resolution (2K).According to the cited source, the South Korean company might unveil the LG G3 no later than April, though an exact release date has yet to be confirmed. Now, We for one can't wait to see the device in action.

Check out the full High resolution images below. The clarity is stunning on these images. Well, after this I would sure look at my Nexus4's display (720p) differently.

Source:
LGG3Kopen.nl

Twitter's Vine bans porn with New Terms of Service

So, Years of campaigning and complaints have finally worked. The California based firm Twitter which bought the micro-video messaging service Vine in 2012 has revised the terms of service with the aim of banning "pornographic or explicit sexual content. Vine users are no longer allowed to post sexually-explicit content on the popular six-second video sharing service.

Company announced the new policy on the vine blog via  a post titled 'A change to Vine content rules'. In tne post, the company said that there is a very small percentage of videos that are not a "good fit" for the community, prompting the change in policy. Twitter said the changes will not affect 99 percent of Vine users, adding, "we don't have a problem with explicit sexual content on the Internet - we just prefer not to be the source of it."

Vine was launched by Twitter in January 2013, with an iOS app. In June 2013, it introduced the Vine app for Android, and finally brought the service to the Web in January 2014.Within days of the app's official launch in January 2013, sexually explicit and pornographic clips began to appear and Twitter has been heavily criticized for not enforcing this ban sooner.

 The original minimum age for Vine was set at 12-years-old, but this was raised to 17 shortly after the app was launched, in part because of the high level of explicit content on the site. Twitter also had to apologize weeks after the official launch when an explicit clip was made an Editor's Pick. The site claimed the video appeared at the top of the homepage due to a 'human error' but had refused to take down such pornographic videos because it didn't want to censor its users

With this move, Twitter distances Vine from the notorious 'sexting' reputation other photo and video messaging apps such as Snapchat, Kik, and Between have built for themselves.

Twitter has put up a 'Vine explicit sexual content FAQ' page on its Help Center, that includes a list of what's acceptable (artistic or documentary depictions of nudity, Breast feeding) and what's not okay to post (nudity that is sexually provocative or in sexual context).Twitter has put up a 'Vine explicit sexual content FAQ' page on its Help Centre, that includes a list of what's acceptable (artistic or documentary depictions of nudity, Breast feeding) and what's not okay to post (nudity that is sexually provocative or in sexual context).Vine defines explicit sexual content as any content that 'includes depictions of sex acts, nudity that is sexually provocative or in a sexual context, and graphic depictions of sexual arousal.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think the ban is justified? Leave a comment to let us know.

Read More:

1. Vine Blog
2. Twitter Help Centre

No Its Not a Router : Cerberus INDIEGOGO - The Mini PC

The Desktop market has recently seen lot of changes. While Laptops are being replaced by Tablets, PCs are being replaced by All in one or boxes with really small form factor. Small is the new bug currently in the PC market. There is greater demand for Computers which take up less space and can be hooked to a HDTV and can also be used for editing spreadsheets if required. We have recently seen companies like Alienware and Lenovo making the shift towards smaller form factor. If you are one of those who does not have too much space at your house, you would love this device.

If you take a close look at the device, you might think that this is a router. But do not let the looks fool you. It is a fully functional Computer. This can perform any task that you throw at us, you can connect it with your TV, add a Keyboard and mouse and you have a fully functional PC. Cerberus is an all in one solution which allows you to:

• Stream movies and TV shows from the web, any source, anywhere, any time
• Access your email, your work content, run all your PC Productivity Apps such as MS Office, CAD, Web Design, Photo Editing, etc
• Read, Update and Post your Social Content, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc
• Play games with your friends, on-line or local multiplayer games, on any PC supported game platform, including Chrome Apps, Windows 8 Apps, and more
• Share your content at Gigabit speed to other TV's and devices including tablets and phones anywhere in your house
• Store and serve up content from the internal 500GB Hard Drive (expandable up to 2TBytes), or use the internal Solid State Drive (expandable up to 480GB) for Ultra-Fast Access, or both!
• Wide-spaced USB ports let you use those fat dongles that don't fit anywhere else.
• Add a Blu-ray Player/Recorder via USB3 or Network Attached Storage via Ethernet
• Add a Camera and Stereo Mic for HD Video Calling on the big screen (and show off those new bunny slippers you got for your birthday)

The rig is powered by AMD 2Ghz Quad-core processor with 4 GB of RAM. It also includes a Desktop Class 3D GPU for a solid mid-range PC gaming experience. Port selection includes  two USB 3.0, two USB 2.0, two HDMI, Ethernet, and audio jack. For Internet, it has High-Speed Network Access via 802.11AC Gigabit Wifi (backward compatible with 802.11b/g/n) along with Gigabit Wired Ethernet

It supports Linux/Windows (8.1/8/7) and Chrome OS and the size enclosure is 153mm x 110mm x 38mm (6" x 4.33" x 1.5").

Excited? They are currently holding a crowdfunding campaign to fund and market the PC. you can also be on board. The Base model costs $599 but for $999, you cna get it two months ahead of scheduled Aug 2014 delivery date. Interested? Check out their Link

Windows Phone 8.1 Personal Assistant "Cortana" - Preview

Have you heard about - Cortana?  She is the personal assistant on the Windows mobile 8.1.

We have a video for you which shows cortana in Action. The video starts with Cortana introducing herself, saying that she "can help make life a bit easier for you. She then asks you about your Microsoft account information to you this feature. Once you set that up, you are good to go. Also, user will be able to set the name that Cortana will refer to he or she as. She also asks the user what do they do at evenings. Under the question of what are the most enjoyable parts of one’s evenings, Cortana presents options like Cooking something, Going out,Hanging out with friends or Spending time with family

From the video it appears that Cortana is a cross between Apple's Siri and Google Now. We would be interested to see if this a good merger or have gone horribly wrong.

But the leaks seems promising and it sure looks like a huge improvement over current voice search of Bing.

Cortana is a small blue circle that will animate when its responding to a user query. Also, leaks have suggested that Cortana will reportedly collect information related to a user's identity, contacts, behaviors, emails to deliver features of Google Now. The Personal assistant feature would be like Apple's Siri. For example, as shown in Video, there is a setting for Quiet mode. During this mode, cortona can handle a User's incoming call and messages and silence nay other notifications. The user can also ask for specific notifications to be enabled or disabled.

Enough Said, Check out Cortana in action below:

Source:

1. The Verge
2. Unleash the Phones

New Trojan 'Dexter" Stealing Card Information from Indian POS Terminals

A new Trojan horse is currently wreaking havoc on Indian Point of Sale (POS) machines which steals the customer's card information. This Trojan horse appears to have been in picture after India's Central Bank, RBI made it mandatory for the debit card holders to enter their PIN every time they swipe their card for a purchase at a POS. Cyber-security sleuths recently detected this Trojan horse and have alerted consumers about the potential risk

The trojan is named as "Dexter, black PoS, memory dump and grabber". The severely potent and quickly spreading trojan can acquire as much as seven different aliases when infecting a system. After successfully breaching all the security measures and protocols of the POS,  it steals confidential data like card holder's name, account number, expiration date, CVV code and other discretionary information. The information can then lead to financially compromising and phishing attacks on the card at a later stage. Indian Cyber security experts are reporting it as one of the most potent ones they have recently seen! The malware has built in routines which  collect and parse personal sensitive information of the Swiped card from the running processes in memory by enumerating the PoS related process. The Malware also has procedures which can exfiltrate directly without interim storing in the hard disk and thus leaving no trace in the system

Meanwhile Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-India) has issued an advisory about the attacks to the public

"It has been reported that malware campaigns targeting payment card processing, point-of-sale (PoS), check out systems or equipment are on the rise. The common infection vectors for PoS system malwares includes phishing emails or social engineering techniques to deliver the malware, use of default or weak credentials, unauthorised access, open wireless networks along with the methods of installing malware as a part of service"

The actual impact of this is still not known but the number of infected machines is on the rise. The Merchants operating POS terminals need to follow certain steps to counteract this malware infections. All the PoS computers should be thoroughly updated including PoS application software. Also, they need to follow certain other measures like restricting access on PoS systems to PoS related activities only to prevent the Trojan form entering their system. This will also ensure that networks where the PoS systems reside are properly segmented from non-payment network. There are certain other measures which can be followed to prevent any malware attack at POS terminals. PoS counters should "maintain good security policy on the PoS computers (including physical access), disable autorun or autoplay, install and scan anti-malware engines and keep them up-to-date and exercise caution while visiting links within emails received from untrusted users or unexpectedly received from trusted users while also enabling firewall at desktop and gateway level.

95% of the ATMs still run XP!

Even though we have seen Vista, Windows 7 and recently Windows 8, there are still a lot of us, who would not give up on XP. My old thinkpad still rocks XP without any problems and I cannot seem to let go of it. This is a case with lot of people especially businesses who are still running XP at their heart.  Microsoft has recently said that they will extend the support for its Windows XP security products through July 2015 and we keep hoping that it will be extended. But Microsoft has warned that this will be the end and added that “the effectiveness of anti malware solutions on out-of-support operating systems is limited.” So incase you still have an XP somewhere, you might want to upgrade the one. But we can do that as it is easy for us to upgrade or or two systems. But what about the businesses?

 Bloomberg Businessweek reports that some of the most important machines that desperately need to upgrade from Windows XP are ATMs, of which an estimated 95% still run on Microsoft’s older operating system! Now that some big number. Imagine, if they are not upgraded and how this can potentially expose almost all of our ATM's to an hijack by someone. Now, this means that Banks have to get all the machines on their Network upgraded and this might be almost all of their machines.  There is some good news here as well as Banks would be able to upgrade their newer and more advanced machines to a newer version of windows through their network. However, Older ATMs, will still have to have a new version of Windows installed one by one! This means that technicians will have to make lot of visits to these ATM's and get the system upgraded! This might be costly for the business but in the end , everything can be sorted out! Well, I remember going out yesterday to withdraw some money out of an ATM near my house which has always been there! When I take a look at that machine, I am sure that there is no way this old soul can rock an operating system like Windows 7. This means that many of the older machines like the one near my house will have to get a major revamp to their internals or get simply discarded as junk and sold as scrap! The effects of technological progress as some would say.

Source:

Bloomberg Business Week

Google Chrome now comes with Data Compression

Many people including Google's executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has admitted that 2014 would be the year of the smart phones and number of people who would access the internet using the mobile will increase significantly. However, many of us use internet on our mobile phones but have limited mobile data plans and extending these limits might be expensive for many of us.

There are some websites which automatically switch to mobile modes which saves data usage. Also, Browsers like Opera Max can compress the data significantly. But not many people use that. But now it will change as Google has announced Data compression feature on Mobile app of chrome for both iOS and android. The number of users who browse Internet using chrome from both android and iOS is huge and this will help them cut their Data usage. Google has claimed that this feature can cut the mobile data usage by as much as 50%. The updated app is now live and can be downloaded from play store for android devices and app store for iOS devices. To use this feature, download the latest update and then go to settings and then to Bandwidth management. You can tap on reduce data usage option there to enable this feature.

India to overtake US in smart phone sales

US is constantly being challenged in lots of fields by the likes of Brazil, china, India and Russia. China is currently has the maximum number of smartphone users in the World followed by the USA. According to a report in Guardian, this is going to change. India will overtake US to become the second largest Smart phone market in the world

Overall, it is expected that users in India and China will together buy more than 500m smartphones in 2014, comprising half of the total that will be sold in 47 key countries, according to a new forecast. India will be the country where the largest proportion of smartphones sold will go to new users, according to the report. After India, the countries where the largest proportions of smartphones will go to first-time users are Indonesia (86%), Vietnam (82%), Brazil (82%), Romania (80%), Turkey (77%), Ukraine (76%), China (76%), Nigeria (75%) and Japan (75%).

The ten largest countries for sales will be China (283m), India (225m), the US (89m), Brazil (47m), Indonesia (46m), Russia (31m), Japan (30m), Mexico (23m), Germany (22m) and France (18.7m), just ahead of the UK with 17.7m.

Source:
The Guardian

Samsung Galaxy S5 Specs reportedly confirmed

Samsung Galaxy S5 is the currently the phone everyone is waiting for. There have been lost of rumours going around this and everyday we see some new report or leak published about the device. Recently we put together a dossier for you which had shown Everything that is known about Galaxy S5.  Even after so many reports and leaks, we are still not sure on the key aspects of the phone?Will it be in metal or in plastic or will  have 2 variants? Will it be launched with Snapdragon 805 or Exynos 6? How will the camera be? Will OIS finally come to Samsung S5? Will Samsung launch Galaxy S5 with QHD screen?

Sam Mobile has been able to confirm some of the key aspects of the Galaxy S5. Here is a list of reportedly confirmed specs of Galaxy S5

Galaxy S5 Confirmed Design

This is the area where we have seen maximum buzz this year. Previously, we have seen reports and pictures leaked of Galaxy S5's metal frame. This put very strong credibility to the rumours that S5 would indeed be launching in a metal this year. We also had rumours previously that Galaxy S5 will be launched in both Metal and Plastic. This made sense as apple has taken the same route last year and Samsung will be able to keep users wanting a new design from Samsung and also its loyalists who love plastic frames. Sam Mobile seems to have confirmed that there will be two versions of the flagship - one in metal and another one in plastic. The Metal Galaxy S5 will be a premium model and would cost around 800 euros, while the plastic Galaxy S5 will be costing around 650 Euros. Will the new model be called Galaxy F or anything else is still not clear

Galaxy S5 Confirmed Display

Display is also one of the most awaited features on Galaxy S5 where Samsung is expected to do a major bump in the specifications. We have heard rumours previously and most of them pointed to the display being a 5.25" QHD display.There were numerous leaks surrounding these and Samsung was also responsible fro some of those. Samsung confirmed during their Analyst Day event that their 2014 Flagship phones will be launched with QHD screen. As expected, the Galaxy S5 will sport an AMOLED display of 2,560×1,440 resolution though it is yet not confirmed that what will be the size of the device. All the previous rumours point to a size around 5.25", so we can expect that to be true. So this will give the new Galaxy S5 an amazing 560PPI resolution! 

Galaxy S5 Confirmed Processors

Every year especially in Android ecosystem, we eagerly await the launch of new flagships to see how their internal have been ramped up. This year seems to be no different. The rumours this year are mostly pointing to two configuration- either an Exynos 6 processor with true 8 Core or an Snapdragon 805 processor which will give a significant boost to Graphical processing. Well, the report seems to confirm that the Galaxy S5 will be launched with both the Exynos chip and the Snapdragon chip under the hood. This does seem likely seeing the previous track record of Samsung but we have heard claims that LTE issue of Exynos processors have been solved now and there should not be any hindrance in launching them in any of the regions with LTE. Still this might be a possibility as report points out. Also, another entirely different possibility is that Samsung might launch its Metal Galaxy S5 with its own Exynos processor and the plastic one will be launched with Snapdragon. Well, that can be the case as well, if indeed there are two versions.

Galaxy S5  Confirmed Camera

Another area where smartphones are constantly improving is Camera. The report seems to confirm that the S5 will indeed come with an 16 Mega pixel camera. However, it still unclear if this will be a Hardware Optical Image Stabilization Module! 

Other than this, the operating system will be Android 4.4 with Touchwiz on top. The  device is expected to be announced in March in London followed by a Global launch in April

Source:
SamMobile

Paypal introduces Seamless online payments

Paypal is one of the biggest payment platforms out there which is used by millions of users worldwide for their online shopping. However, currently if customers want to use paypal, they have to leave the merchant's website and go to Paypal where they enter the details and after payment is confirmed, they are redirected back to the merchant's website.

Paypal has introduced In-Context checkout, to deliver a simplified payment solution across all devices and platforms. With this service, instead of being directed to Paypal's website, customer need not leave the Merchant's site for payment. Instead they authorise the transaction by logging on to Paypal using the company's website. Even when customers switch devices, their experience on the eCommerce site doesn't change. In-Context Checkout delivers the same experience across smartphones, tablets, and PCs, making it smoother than ever to check out with PayPal. This service is currently being tested just across a few retailers but Paypal plans to introduce it across multiple eCommerce platforms soon. Paypal is also planning to bring new features like support for authorization capture, recurring payments,  reference transactions adn adaptive payments.

Source:

Paypal

Top 10 Torrent Sites of 2014

This year again we present to you list of top torrent sites of 2014. We had previously created a similar list which showed Most Popular Torrent sites of 2013 . This time we are back with our top torrent sites list.

Which is the best torrent site to Download movies? Where can you get best software? which is the best torrent site to download movies and music? We are presenting you over list of top torrent sites. This list is based on traffic rank and reports from Compete, Alexa, quantcast as well as calculating backlinks.

Top Torrent site # 1 : Pirate Bay

Alexa Rank: 74 ; Quantcast Rank: 100 ; Compete Rank: 150 : Last Year: 1

The Pirate Bay (commonly abbreviated TPB) is synonymous with BitTorrent.The Pirate Bay  is a Swedish website that hosts magnet links, which allow users to share electronic files, including music, computer games and software, via BitTorrent.

The site was founded more than a decade ago and even after being shut down in 2009, The Pirate Bay refuses to stay down. This latest TPB Swedish domain name version claims to have over 1.5 million torrents available.The Pirate Bay currently has well over a billion page views a month.

Top Torrent site # 2 : Kick-Ass Torrents

Alexa Rank: 100 ; Quantcast Rank: 534 ; Compete Rank: 452; Last Year : 3 (+1)

KickassTorrents was founded in 2009 and now is slowly becoming one of the most popular sites to download torrents. there have been various attempts to shut them down and they had to migrate from kat.ph to kickass.to but they still remian very popular. They have a really nice interface and results are displayed in well structured format including health of the torrent. 

Top Torrent site # 3: Torrentz

Alexa Rank: 152 ; Quantcast Rank: 435 ; Compete Rank: 1400 ; Last Year: 2(-1)

Torrentz has been the leading BitTorrent meta-search engine for many years. Torrentz does not have any torrents of its own, instead it searches on all the popular torrent sites to give you the list of torrent. It indexes torrents from various major torrent sites such as kick ass and offers compilations of various trackers per torrent that are not necessarily present in the default .torrent file, so that when a tracker is down, other trackers can do the work A nice feature of this site is to search only for verified torrents. The site uses several domain names with .eu being the most popular. 

Top Torrent site # 4: Extratorrent

Alexa Rank: 322 ; Quantcast Rank: 1864 ; Compete Rank: 2286 ; Last Year: 6(+2)

ExtraTorrent is one of the fastest growing BitTorrent indexer which is based out of ukraine. There are many special features, which make it way very user-friendly and easier to use. If you are looking to download movies or videos, it is a very good choice for you. The homepage features 10 most popular torrents and also daily updated list of latest CAM/DVDRiP movies.Most of the popular torrents are checked and verified and they include a comprehensive description together with pictures, covers and image samples in case of movies and videos.

Top Torrent site # 5 Yify-Torrents

Alexa Rank: 809 ; Quantcast Rank: N/A ; Compete Rank: 6245 ; Last Year: New

This is the baby of our list. If you haven't used torrent to download movies for a couple of years, you might not have heard of  this. This is a new site in our list and debuts at number 6. This has recently become very popular to to its pirated movie torrents. The popularity did not go completely unnoticed as it was recently banned by UK ISPs. 

Top Torrent site # 6:EzTV 

 Alexa Rank: 1057 ; Quantcast Rank: N/A ; Compete Rank: 10,790 ; Last Year: 8(+2)

Unlike the other sites in the top 10, TV-torrent distribution group EZTV is a niche site specializing in TV content only. Its popularity as such is more volatile compared to others on the list and depends on seasons. But if you have to donwload a TV torrent, you know where to go!

Top Torrent site # 7: Bitsnoop

Alexa Rank: 1721 ; Quantcast Rank: N/A ; Compete Rank: 5,633 ; Last Year: 9(+2)

Bit snoop is another torrent indexing site that allows Users to search through a database of millions of torrents from different sites. They are relatively new in the torrents world but have a popular following. 

 One primary advantage Bitsnoop has compared to other torrent search engines is feature called TrackerMatch. Before a torrent appears on BitSnoop they make sure that the torrents include as many reliable backup trackers as possible. Duplicate and fake trackers on the other hand are carefully removed.

Top Torrent site # 8: 1337X

Alexa Rank: 1389 ; Quantcast Rank: N/A ; Compete Rank: 11,445 ; Last Year: 10(+2)

1337X focuses more on the community aspect than some competitors. The site’s owners say they started 1337x to “fill an apparent void where it seemed there was a lack of quality conscience ad free torrent sites with public trackers.” Its 8th place this year proves that they’re getting the success formula right

Top Torrent site # 9: Isohunt

Alexa Rank: 2986 ; Quantcast Rank: N/A ; Compete Rank: 2286 ; Last Year: 4(-5)

This is technically a New entry as Isohunt was shutdown last october. However after just 2 weeks afterwards, Isohunt is reborn!  After being shut down by the MPAA on October 17, 2013, Isohunt has been resurrected with a new domain name in a new country. They are now back with Isohunt.to domain name. They are a different team though who are trying to resurrect Isohunt name. So, we will regard them as replacement of previous Isohunt

Here is what they have to say 

" Hey everyone! IsoHunt is back online! It’s the same old isoHunt from the outside but very different from the inside. We have nothing in common with the isoHunt Inc. that made the original website. We proudly copied it and are happy to share. Isn’t that what we’re all here for? "

They have recently introduced some nice features like filter by verified only which helps in spotting fake torrents. 

Top Torrent site # 10: Torrent Reactor

Alexa Rank: 3114 ; Quantcast Rank: N/A ; Compete Rank: 6604 ; Last Year: New

The Old timer is back. One of the oldest torrent sites out there, torrent reactor has completed 10 years like pirate bay and isohunt. It had its fair share of ups and down and its once again back in the top 10 list.

Disclaimer: We not condone illegal sharing of copyrighted material. While P2P file sharing technology is completely legal, many of the files traded through P2P are indeed copyrighted. Uploading these copyrighted files puts you at risk of a civil lawsuit in many countries. Usually we donot see any action taken against individual downloaders, you do run a risk of such lawsuits

We Recommend: Use a good VPN service. Also You can use services like BT Guard to anonymize your bit torrent traffic. 

Facebook sponsored stories to be phased out

It seems like the Social network giant is finally listening to what its users are saying  and has revealed that they will be phasing out their controversial Sponsored Stories by April 9 this year.

Facebook’s Sponsored Stories ad campaign, which saw user actions on Facebook being converted into advertisements for various companies, will be phased out of existence a little later this year. This was criticised heavily by privacy groups as well as users and now facebook has moved back on this feature. These ads were the subject of a class-action lawsuit in 2011 for which Facebook agreed to a $20 million settlement in that suit. The amount might not be huge but the company's image took a dent and amidst reports that Facebook's Monthly active users are declining, facebook decided to roll back this feature. We, for one are pleased that it won't be appearing in our news feeds anymore!

GigaByte Aorus X7 : Ultimate Gaming Laptop

Last Year we saw Razor Blade and MSI release laptops which break the notion that Gaming laptops have to be 2" thick and bulky. they introduced laptops with same power under the hood as an alienware but with an chasis resembling Mac Book pro. Its the new year and at CES, Gigabyte has stepped up the ante. They just introduced their Gaming Laptop Aorus X7.



 17.3-inch Aorus X7 has a height of just 0.9 inches (22.9mm), and weighs 6.9 pounds (2.9kg). That’s about the same size as the Razer Blade Pro, but Aorus packs in twice the graphical power, with two of the same Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M GPUs found on the Blade Pro. By comparison, Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display has a height of 0.71 inches (18mm) and weighs 4.46 pounds (2.0kg). That’s about the same size as the Razer Blade Pro, but Aorus packs in twice the graphical power, with two of the same Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M GPUs found on the Blade Pro.

Aorus X7 : Under the Hood

The Laptop is powered Powered by Intel® 4th gen (Haswell) Core™ i7-4700HQ processor. This brings 15% performance gain than its predecessor and 25% less in power consumption.

 For Graphics performance, It has two Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M GPUs cards! The pair of GTX 765M graphics chips comes with a ravishing P7393 in 3DMark 11 which you can be sure can run almost all games in high resolution. Impressively, the X7 packs two 512GB SSDs as well a 1TB hard drive -- a massive 2TB of space. Furthermore, it has four memory slots that can fit up to  32GB RAM.

Aorus X7 : Design

The acclaimed ultimate gamer-oriented flagship of Aorus has a Full HD 17.3" display and an aggressive aluminium chassis which has been inspired by "futuristic concepts of vehicles. This is a really good looking machine which can really maintain its own when kept next to any professional sleek laptop.


 The signature theme of the stunning chassis emphasizes a style that blends minimalism and fluidic sculpture.  According to the company, they describe it in following words

"The aerodynamic streamlines connect expanded vents, giving the ultimate gaming flagship a breath of speed. The flowing sculpted lines scents the quality matte black with understated luxury without losing its original aggression. "

Aorus X7 has also introduced a new cooling technology Thermal + cooling technology which introduces combination of 5 intakes, 4 Air vents and 2 fans to deliver a cooling technology which enables them to have this much power under a laptop so slim!

Aorus X7 : KeyBoard and TouchPad

For a Gaming laptop, an important part is how good is the keyboard? The full-size backlit keyboard is designed to create snappy and responsive typing experience. 

This one would please both the gamers and professional users who have to do lots of typing. They have introduced a new feature - 'AORUS Anti-ghost'. This has been developed to  to eliminate possible conflicts between key combinations. This is designed to make sure for gaming, every key stroke is perfect and gives you that edge is Gaming.

They have introduced Scissor-switch Macro for  Crisp Typing, Pure Dominance. Macro keys which are  otherwise  rarely available on gaming laptops have been made a X7 standard. AORUS exclusive macro hub & keys have been designed to automate and simplify routine tasks in gaming. According to the company, "The scissor-switch key structure guarantees lightning response and crisp touch, turning every single command into a deadly pouch"

Aorus X7 : Display

The Display features a 17.3" Full HD 1920x1080 LCD backlight with 72% NTSC color gamut to provide a  more a vivid visual experience.The response time is 8ms to reduce motion blur in gaming. 300 cd/m2 of luminance is used to enable clarity even in bright surroundings. 

The laptop uses built-in NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround Technology which can support video output upto  3 displays for expanded vision and overwhelming visual impact.

Aorus X7 : Complete Specification

Features	Aorus X7 Specifications
Dimensions	392(W) x 263(D) x 22.9(H)mm
Operating System	Windows 8.1,Windows 8.1 Pro,Windows 7 Home Premium,Windows 7 Professional
CPU	4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4700HQ Processor (2.4GHz-3.4GHz)
Display	17.3" Full HD 1920x1080 LCD backlight
System Memory	4GB/8GB DDR3L 1600, 4 slots (Max 32GB)
Chipset	Mobile Intel® HM87 Express Chipset
Video Graphics	NVIDIA GTX 765M SLI GDDR5 4GB
Storage	Supports Triple-Storage System,mSATA 128GB/256GB, 2slot, 2.5” HDD 500GB/750GB/1TB 5400rpm , 1 slot
Keyboard Type	Backlit Keyboard
I/O Port	USB 3.0 x3, USB 2.0 x2, HDMI, D-sub, RJ45, Surround port, mini-Display port, SD card reader,microphone-in, earphone-out(SPDIF)
Audio	2 watt speaker*2, woofer*2, Microphone, AORUS Acoustic + technology
Communications	Killer LAN Chip, 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0
Battery	Li Polymer 73.26Wh
Weight	2.9kg