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

Samsung Galaxy S5 : First Look

So, the Moment has finally arrived. Samsung has lifted the wraps of their flagship device - Galaxy S5. We bring you the first look and initial impression of the Galaxy S5 Device.

So what's New here? Despite its familiar design (read plastic), the Galaxy S5 has a few new features which include improved camera, finger print scanner, heart rate monitor and a toned down version of Touchwiz on top of Android 4.4 Kitkat. Yes, there are no more tons of S branded features which are cool in the first week but are later turned off. Let's see what has changed in S5 and what's remained same

Samsung Galaxy S5 : Design

This was one area which had numerous rumors. They ranged from a flexible screen to a Metal casing. But after the launch, all those turned to be just rumors. The actual device is very close to the devices which were leaked around last week.

The front looks almost as Galaxy S4. The back however has changed slightly. Instead of a slippery plastic, Samsung has launched the device with a perforated back which makes it easier to hold and provides a better grip. Samsung says the back of the GS5 is "leather-like," which basically means it's a fancy-looking poly carbonate, but it sure looks better than the back of Galaxy S4.

 This is again User removable as other Galaxy devices. The Sides seems metallic, but they too are a mixture of poly carbonate and plastic. Although Samsung has added four colors (white, black, blue and gold), the device has not been significantly altered in look and feel.

Samsung Galaxy S5: Water and Dust Resistance : 

Sony, you better watch out for this. Water damage is the cause of over 50% of smart phone deaths. Sony was the only manufacturer actively using this in their flagship and now Samsung has followed suit. Galaxy S5 is launched with IP67 rating. IP rating means Ingress Protection rating and is a two-digit indicator to standardize the rating of protection level against intrusion of solids and liquids.

First Digit – Protection from solid objects or materials
Second Digit – Protection from liquids and fluids (water)

The two numbers in the IP67 rating code rating refer to:
6 – Dust Protected  Totally protected against dust ingress.; complete protection against contact
7- Immersion Protected ; Protected against short periods of immersion in water.Ingress of water in harmful quantity shall not be possible when the phone is immersed in water under defined conditions of pressure and time (up to 1 m of submersion). Test duration: 30 minutes;  Immersion at depth of at least 1 m measured at bottom of device, and at least 15 cm measured at top of device.

Samsung Galaxy S5: Display

This is one Area where every year we see an improvement over previous years. There were lots of rumors about the display with many of them saying that the phone will be launched with a 2K Display. 

The new Galaxy retains the same 1080p Super AMOLED panel as the GS4; it's just slightly larger, at 5.1 inches.This means at least in theory, it is little less sharper - it's down from a 441ppi to 415ppi on the new version.It's not massive and most likely not noticeable, but it is a drop when consumers were expecting something higher-res.The color reproduction and brightness  does seem to be more impressive on the Samsung Galaxy S5. If LG launches G3 with 2K screen, Samsung might fall behind in specs battle.

Samsung Galaxy S5: Processing Power

There was a lot of buzz around S5 launching with a 64 bit CPU or a true 8 core processor. But all these were untrue. S5 has a faster, 2.5GHz quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM. This is a minor bump from Note 3 and Galaxy S5 in terms of processing power but it is little sad to see the devive launched with just 2GB of RAM. Even the last year's Note 3 has 3 Gigs of RAM.

Samsung Galaxy S5: Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S5 comes equipped with a 16MP rear camera and 2MP front camera. It shoots 4K at 30 fps and there's a whole host of image functionality new in the Galaxy S5. For better low-light photography, Samsung has launched a new type of flash called Reflector- Integrated Flash. This is supposed to illuminate everyone in the image rather than the ones at centre with a wider field of view and will result in better nighttime photos.  With Galaxy S5, Samsung is also introducing a selective focus feature (remember Nokia's Refocus Lens!) in which you can change the depth of field on an image after it's taken. Samsung has also made a Shift towards Phase detection AF from the usual contract detection AF found on Smart phones. The Galaxy S5 has a hybird AF with both phase detection and contrast detection AF. This hybrid mode is usually a lot faster (upto 5X) in comparison to only Contrast AF cameras. This is a huge improvement in a mobile shooter whose primary purpose is to capture the pictures as they happen.

Samsung Galaxy S5: Bio metrics (Heart rate monitor and fingerprint scanner)

One of the biggest talking points for the GS5 is that new fingerprint scanner. This was one of the most highly anticipated features after Apple lauched it with there iPhone 5S. There is a slight difference with the Samsung's implementation of the Fingerprint scanner - you have to swipe your fingers on the middle rather rather than hold it over there. So, as long as you are doing it slow enough, it will pick your fingerprint, but chances on unsuccessful attempts would be more if you are swiping in a hurry! However, I donot see nay false positives though! The fingerprint has some useful other features too, it also lets you fingerprint-protect a private data locker on your phone, in case you have confidential information you don't want getting out there. Samsung also announced a partnership with PayPal which allows you to make online payments using the fingerprint method. Also, in case you are fearing about where your fingerprint Data will be stored, it will be encrypted and stored locally and never shared!

The other major new hardware feature is the heart rate sensor, which is built into the same rear module as the LED flash. It works in conjunction with S-Health 3.0, which acts as a personal life coach of sorts. To monitor your pulse, hold your finger up to the sensor and leave it there while the phone does the rest of the work. As you continue to do this more often, S-Health remembers your history and even goes through the effort of graphing it and offering up other relevant information. It also acts as a pedometer and food monitor

Samsung Galaxy S5: Battery

Whenever a new flagship handset is launched we expect battery life to increase. This is one area which most of the manufactures seem to ignore. Samsung has atleast paid some notice and launched thw phone with a bigger 2800 mAH battery

But more significant is that it provides 20% better battery life than Galaxy S4. This still pales in comparison with likes of G2, but is still impressive, though, with Samsung quoting: standby time: 390 hrs / talk time: 21 hrs. The more impressive is ultra power saving mode which doubles your talk time in case you feel your phone might not last through the day!

Samsung Galaxy S5: Android Kitkat

As expected, Samsung has launched the device with Android 4.4. This looks like a toned down version of touch wiz with an implementation closer to Google's version of Kit Kat. The interface looks clean and icons are nicely spaced. There is also support for OK Google commands from anywhere on the phone.

Samsung Galaxy S5: Price and Release Date

We expect this to be available globally around April. The expected price is to be around £550 / $650 / AU$700 / INR 40,000 

Samsung Unpacked 2014 (Galaxy S5 Launch Event)

Ok. The moment all of us have been waiting for has finally arrived. Samsung is ready to unveil its latest Flagship Galaxy S5 at an event @ MWC Barcelona. For Most of you who would not be attending the live event but still can't wait to see what the company has in store, Samsung is Live streaming the event.

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