Samsung+ app brings tech support to your phone fdr
Apple’s Genius Bar is one of the big reasons people love the company. If you’ve got a problem with a device, you can just go to your local Apple Store and get it fixed in no time. Unfortunately, you can’t get the same kind of help with many other products.
Samsung wants to change that, though, with the latest version of its Samsung+ app. Available today, Samsung+ 3.0 is designed to provide you with all of the information you need to deal with any and all of your connected conundrums from the comfort of your home.
Though it’s on version 3.0, chances are you’ve never heard of Samsung+. That’s because Samsung actually launched the app last summer but didn’t make much of it, as the company said it wanted to continue adding more features.
Several other journalists and I got the chance to use Samsung+ 3.0 in action, and it feels well thought out enough to genuinely make customer support easier for Samsung users.
Samsung says the app is designed to provide you with personalized support for all your Samsung devices.
From the home screen, you can see highlights about your device, get simple tips on how to better use it, or browse various Samsung promotions. That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t do much to help you when your phone is on the fritz.
Tapping on the question mark icon at the top of the screen brings you to the Samsung+ Support page. From here you can perform a diagnostic check on your device, find answers to frequently asked questions, and get live help.
The live help feature is what makes Samsung+ so compelling. Previous versions of the app already offered phone support and live video support, but with Samsung+ 3.0, the company now lets support representatives remotely take control of your device.
During a staged demo, Samsung walked us through the process of letting a customer support rep take over our phone. According to Samsung, customer support reps can access only areas of your phone that you specifically allow them to. So if you don’t want them to look at your photo gallery, they won’t be able to.
In the staged demo, we saw the customer support rep remotely access a test phone and reset its Bluetooth settings. The rep demonstrated how he could draw on the phone’s screen to show users where specific settings they might need to use in the future are located.
Samsung isn’t the first company to make live video and remote customer support a feature of its products. Amazon has been doing the same thing for quite some time with its Mayday button on its Fire tablets.
The one downside to Samsung’s service is that it has tiered levels of support ranging from Silver to Gold and finally Platinum. The base tier is Silver, but if you own a number of Samsung devices, you are automatically bumped up a level.
Why does that matter? Because higher tiers give users access to things like 24-hour video chat support, while lower tiers can access video support only during business hours.
Gold and Platinum tier members also get things like discounts on shipping and repairs.
Overall, Samsung+ feels like a solid customer support service that should help users deal with some of the simpler problems they face with their devices.
That said, something like Samsung+ will never replace the kind of service offered by Apple’s Genius Bar. Sure, going to the Apple Store to get your iPhone fixed can be a pain, but being able to talk to someone face to face is still far easier than talking with someone over video or voice chat.
FBI Won’t Be Able To Hack Into iPhones For Much Longer, Say Apple Engineers vyreyf
Once Apple engineers identify the security loophole that allowed the U.S enforcement agency to hack into a locked iPhone 5c, the tech firm will be able to fix the encryption hole, its engineers say.
Last week, the FBI dropped its legal request for Apple to hack into the iPhone belonging to San Bernardino killer Syed Farook, after the agency managed to crack the handset’s security without Apple’s help.
Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, were shot dead after killing 14 people in San Bernardino in California in December 2015.
The FBI has since offered to unlock an iPhone for a local police force investigating a murder case, and is likely to carry on unlocking handsets while it can.
If the FBI continues to help local police forces to unlock iPhones, it could soon be forced to reveal its methods under cross-examination in court.
An unidentified third party reportedly helped the FBI in unlock the Farook’s iPhone.
This raises concerns that the third party could sell the technique to hackers.
It’s likely that the FBI will only be able to use the hacking method for a short time before Apple fixes the security hole.
iPad Pro 9.7-inch review: A dazzling tablet, but still no PCfff
Wait, what?
What does the old-PC statistic have to do with the iPad Pro? He might as well have said, “Eighty-seven percent of Americans don’t eat enough vegetables. These people could really benefit from an iPad Pro.”
An iPad is not a PC. Never has been. There are so many things that you can do only with a real computer:
1.run full versions of Photoshop, Quicken, Microsoft Office, Final Cut, etc.
2.organize files and folders at the desktop
3.open multiple windows, multiple apps
4.type on real keys
5.plug in peripherals like keyboards, mice, flash drives, musical instruments, cameras, etc.
Now, the Microsoft Surface is a different story. It’s an actual PC. It runs actual Windows — with a desktop, multiple windows, real USB jacks — and actual Windows programs. It’s got all five of the things a real PC has that an iPad doesn’t.
Even so, Apple has been making steady strides toward closing the gulf between an iPad and a real computer. First, in November, it introduced the enormous iPad Pro with a folding keyboard cover that’s a lot like Microsoft’s:
Last week, it introduced a 9.7-inch (standard-size) version of the same thing. It’s a smaller iPad Pro, accompanied by its own keyboard screen cover. That takes care of item 4 (“type on real keys”).
Apple also released a new adapter that lets you plug all kinds of interesting PC-like gadgets into the iPad (more on that shortly), so that’s difference number 5.
And on the Pros, you can split the screen between two apps. Not all apps can be split like this, and the mechanism to trigger this feature is completely hidden and nonintuitive. But it can be done.
So all of this brings up two questions. First, how is the new, normal-size iPad Pro? Second, is using it as a PC replacement as silly an idea as it sounds?
Meet the normal-size iPad Pro
Of course, “normal-size” isn’t Apple’s official terminology. The new device is known as the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. But it is, in fact, the size of the regular iPad — the iPad Air 2 — which remains on sale and which looks identical.
HTC One A9 Reviewtyt
Let's just get to the elephant in the room immediately: yes, the HTC One A9 bears a strong resemblance to the iPhone 6s (Review). The flat metal back, thickness, unibody design, curved corners, antenna lines, protruding camera, and speaker grille at the bottom are all similar to design cues on Apple's flagship. However, the One A9 is larger than the 6s, has prominent HTC logos at the back and in front, and has its rear camera positioned at the centre instead of in the upper left corner.
It's also important to note that the some of these design elements such as the antenna lines, metallic unibody and curved corners were used by HTC long before the iPhone 6 and 6s launched. Additionally, the front is patently different from the iPhone and borrows cues from the HTC One M9+ (such as the fingerprint sensor). While there are certainly similarities, we are of the opinion that it is unfair to say that HTC has blatantly copied the iPhone, or designed the A9 with the sole intention of piggybacking on the success of Apple's design.
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Now that we have that out of the way, we feel that the HTC One A9 is a fantastic looking smartphone. It's slim, sleek, stunning in all of its colour options, and still easy to handle. The power and volume buttons are on the right; the speaker grille, Micro-USB port and 3.5mm socket are at the bottom; and the SIM and microSD slots are on the left. The power button has a rough texture to help you distinguish it from the volume rocker, which is a useful touch.
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The front of the phone has the selfie camera, earpiece, and proximity sensor at the top, and the fingerprint sensor at the bottom. The phone doesn't have capacitive Android keys, instead using on-screen keys for those functions. The fingerprint sensor doubles up as a home key, but this can be disabled if you prefer. The phone can be woken using motion launch gestures or by touching the fingerprint sensor. If you've activated the sensor, simply keeping your finger on the scanner will quickly unlock your phone; first waking it and then reading your fingerprint. You can store up to five fingerprints, which can be used to unlock the phone and interact with supported apps such as 1Password.
htc_one_a9_back_ndtv.jpg
The screen of the HTC One A9 is a 5-inch full-HD Amoled panel with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. As is the case with Amoled screens, there is a hint of warmth in the colour tone, although this isn't bothersome in any way. We personally prefer a little bit of warmth in the tones, as this makes the screen easier on the eyes. Colours pop and blacks are deep, which makes visuals appear more dramatic and dynamic. Above all, sharpness is absolutely fantastic, and on the whole the screen is nothing short of brilliant for a full-HD panel.
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Specifications and software
The HTC One A9 is powered by the 1.5GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 SoC, and is one of only a handful of phones that have adopted this processor. Compared to its series predecessors, the 615 and 616, the 617 has been designed to offer better performance and battery life as well as higher LTE speeds, better Wi-Fi handling capabilities, and support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0. The HTC One A9 supports Quick Charge 2.0 out-of-the-box, but unfortunately doesn't ship with a compatible charger, which is annoying, and feels to us like a blatant case of cost cutting. However, we tried charging the one with a third-party Quick Charge 2.0-compatible charger, and charging was noticeably quicker, with the phone drawing power much more rapidly than before.
Apart from that, the One A9 also has 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage (expandable by up to 200GB using a microSD card), Wi-Fi 802.11n as well as 802.11ac, and 4G connectivity on its single nano-SIM slot (FDD Band 3 and TDD Band 40 both supported). There's also a 2150mAh battery, Bluetooth 4.1 with apt-X, and HTC's Boomsound audio enhancement software built in. The A9 is incredibly well-specced, and is practically flagship-grade in many ways.
htc_one_a9_marshmallow_ndtv.jpg
After the Nexus 5X (Review) and Nexus 6P (Review), the HTC One A9 was one of the first smartphones to launch with Android 6.0 out-of-the-box. All of Marshmallow's key features are present and proper, including Doze Mode, Now On Tap and app permissions. Performance and snappiness around the system is brilliant as well.
HTC, gave us assurances of quick system updates at launch, promising the latest firmware updates within 15 days of Nexus devices getting them. Sure enough, an OTA update to Android 6.0.1 was available when we checked. Apart from incremental fixes and security updates, it also brings support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0.
htc_one_a9_bottom_ndtv.jpg
Layered on top is HTC's Sense UI, now in its seventh iteration. The A9 runs a slightly tweaked version of the interface called Sense 7.0_g, which minimises Sense's influence, relying more on core Android functionality for certain things. This doesn't mean that the phone lacks the typical HTC touches, as Sense is still firmly in control of the device, but the optimisation makes the phone a little bit better when it comes to performance and functionality.
Key differences we noticed in this version of Sense are that the Quick Settings menu, notifications shade and app switcher are the same as those on stock Android, and certain HTC apps such as HTC Backup, HTC Music, the HTC Internet browser and Scribble have been removed. Instead, focus is placed on using Google apps such as Drive, Chrome and Play Music for those functions. However, a lot of signature Sense apps, such as Calendar, Clock, Gallery, Camera, Weather and Sense Home remain present, giving the One A9 the best of both worlds. Sense itself is as good as it has always been, with an excellent combination of aesthetics, ease of use and performance.
htc_one_a9_camera_ndtv.jpg
Camera
The HTC One A9 has a 13-megapixel primary camera with dual-tone LED flash, and a 4-megapixel 'Ultrapixel' front camera. Both are capable of recording full-HD video, and modes such as manual, hyperlapse, slow-motion video and panorama are all present. HDR and optical image stabilisation are both in place as well.
The HTC Camera app is a little bit different from the ones we've seen on previous HTC devices, but remains as easy and comfortable to use as always. Basic controls such as the flash, camera switcher and HDR buttons are within easy reach, while specific modes such as panorama, pro, hyperlapse and slow-motion video can be reached through a mode menu. Recording video is a one-step procedure, and various settings can be tweaked, such as photo and video resolution, geotagging, grid and more. It's quick and easy to use, and you can also set up motion launch gestures to quickly launch the camera from sleep mod
Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro With 4GB of RAM, 5000mAh Battery Launchedfhf
The Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro aka Galaxy A9 Pro (2016) is available to purchase from an e-commerce website in China at CNY 3,499 (roughly Rs. 35,700). Samsung is yet to reveal the availability details of the device outside the region, or even list the smartphone variant on its China-specific website. The China launch was first reported by MyDrivers. To recall, the Galaxy A9 was launched in China at CNY 3,199 (roughly Rs. 32,600).
The dual-SIM (Nano-SIM + Nano-SIM) Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro (SM-A9100), as compared to the Galaxy A9, features a better rear camera, more RAM, and a larger battery. Rest of the specifications remain the same. While the Galaxy A9 comes with a 13-megapixel rear autofocus camera with LED flash, f/1.9 aperture, and optical image stabilisation (OIS), the Galaxy A9 Pro features a 16-megapixel camera with the same specifications. The 'Pro' version also houses 4GB of RAM with 5000mAh battery as compared to Galaxy A9's 3GB RAM and 4000mAh battery.
(Also see: Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy A9)
The Android 5.1 Lollipop-based handset sports the same metal frame and glass body design as seen in other premium Galaxy handsets such as Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6, and more. It features a 6-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) resolution Super Amoled display with 2.5D curved glass and is powered by a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 SoC, formerly known as Qualcomm Snapdragon 620 clocked at 1.8GHz, clubbed with Adreno 510 GPU.
Also included is an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with few specific modes such as wide selfie mode, self-portrait mode, palm selfie mode and others. As seen in majority of the Galaxy devices, the Galaxy A9 (2016) Pro camera app can be fired by double pressing the home button, which also houses a fingerprint sensor with Samsung Pay support. Connectivity features housed inside the smartphone are Bluetooth v4.1, GPS, Beidou, NFC, Wi-Fi, and USB 2.0. it is available in White and Gold colour variants.
Download the Gadgets 360 app for Android and iOS to stay up to date with the latest tech news, product reviews, and exclusive deals on the popular mobiles.
Intex FitRist Reviewhg
Intex FitRist Review
While Xiaomi's Mi Band is our favourite activity tracker at the sub-Rs. 1000 price level, its lack of a display can be a deal-breaker for some. Micromax's Yu YuFit had the right ideas but fell well short of the mark in our tests, which means there is plenty of room for competitors. Intex has decided to step in with the FitRist, a Rs. 999 activity tracker with a display. We used it for a couple of weeks to see if it can displace the Mi Band as our top budget activity tracker.
The FitRist is made of a very comfortable material with a rubber-like finish. In the time that we spent wearing the device, it didn't irritate our skin at all. We wore it for long hours - practically the whole day - without any issues. The display is glued to the band. This makes it meld seamlessly and ensures that the rubber-like material is the only thing that comes in contact with the wearer's skin.
There is a button on one side of the display, which you use to switch between time, date, steps taken, distance covered, calories burned, music control, and camera control, but it doesn't show sleep data. To check your sleep tracking statistics, you will have to use the FitRist's Android or iPhone app.
We tested the FitRist with an iPhone and felt that the app needs improvement. Its design is rather crude and clunky - a far cry from the slick Mi Band app. Pairing was a big headache. Even though the process appears simple, we found that the app sometimes wouldn't detect the band at all and even when it did, it wouldn't always pair with it. We managed to pair the device after multiple attempts but when the band did get disconnected, pairing it again gave us similar issues.
The app has some other oddities, such as having your activity history and sleep tracking data hidden under a strangely named "Record" feature in a menu.
We're willing to excuse a sub-par app if the band itself does a good job. We used an iPhone 5s to compare activity data against the Intex FitRist and results weren't good. On an average the iPhone 5s's built-in motion sensor recorded around 25 percent more steps than the FitRist. We checked this data on multiple days and the FitRist consistently under-reported our activity. A small difference between the two devices' data is acceptable, but an activity tracker ceases to be useful if it is off the mark by such a huge margin.
The FitRist also lets you control music playback and trigger your phone camera's shutter button using its own button, but the process is too clumsy to be useful. You need to press the button till you reach the relevant control and then hold it until a song starts playing on your phone or until the photo is captured. Doing the same things via your phone is a lot faster. The FitRist does have pretty good battery life - we had to charge it just once a week.
To sum it up, even though the Intex FitRist is very comfortable to wear and has an attractive price tag of Rs. 999, we can't recommend it because of its inaccurate activity data reporting. The app could use a lot more polish too, but Intex needs to fix its activity tracking first. If you're looking for an affordable fitness wearable in India, the Xiaomi Mi Band still remains the one to get.
Pros
- Display - Battery life - Pricing
- Display - Battery life - Pricing
Cons
- Inaccurate activity tracking - Clunky app - Pairing isn't smooth
- Inaccurate activity tracking - Clunky app - Pairing isn't smooth
Ratings (out of 5)
Design: 4
Design: 4
Tracking: 1
Other features: 2
Value for money: 1
Overall: 1
iPad Pro Super. Comp4 uter. Now in two sizes.ttr
12.9-inch iPad Pro
An epic screen that turns advanced tasks into brilliant, immersive experiences.
Watch the film
9.7-inch iPad Pro
Incredibly portable, with an unprecedented combination of versatility and performance.
Retina Display
An awesome display of progress.
The key to the iPad experience is the display. It’s how you interact using Multi-Touch, and how you view content in spectacular detail. So we created our most vivid Retina display ever. The 12.9‑inch iPad Pro has the highest resolution of any iOS device. And the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro screen — our most advanced display — is the brightest and least reflective in the world.
FBI hacks attacker's iPhone, daarops Apple suitagg
Apple, backed by a broad coalition of technology giants like Google and Facebook, was fiercely opposed to assisting the US government in unlocking the iPhone on grounds it would have wide-reaching implications on digital security and privacy.
A key court hearing scheduled earlier this month to hear arguments from both sides in the sensitive case was abruptly cancelled after the FBI said it no longer needed Apple’s help because it had found an outside party to unlock the phone.
Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California on December 2 before dying in a firefight with police. Two other phones linked to the pair were found destroyed after the attack.
“Our decision to conclude the litigation was based solely on the fact that, with the recent assistance of a third party, we are now able to unlock that iPhone without compromising any information on the phone,” US attorney Eileen Decker said in a statement.
In a court filing asking that the case be dismissed, federal prosecutors said the US government had “successfully accessed the data stored on Farook’s iPhone and therefore no longer requires assistance from Apple Inc.”
It was unclear who helped the FBI access the phone and what was stored on the device.
But news reports have said the FBI may have sought assistance from an Israeli forensics company.
In a statement late Monday, the FBI declined to say who that party was, or what technical steps were taken to unlock the phone.
“The full exploitation of the phone and follow-up investigative steps are continuing. My law enforcement partners and I made a commitment to the victims of the 12/2 attack in San Bernardino and to the American people that no stone would be left unturned in this case,” said David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office.
The goal of the probe is to determine if the California attackers worked with others, were targeting others and were supported by others, the FBI said.
“While we continue to explore the contents of the iPhone and other evidence, these questions may not be fully resolved, but I am satisfied that we have access to more answers than we did before and that the investigative process is moving forward,” Bowdich said.
Apple said the FBI case should never have been brought before the courts and that the company would continue to increase the security of its products.
“Apple believes deeply that people in the United States and around the world deserve data protection, security and privacy,” it said. “Sacrificing one for the other only puts people and countries at greater risk.”
- ‘Hit a new low’ -
Tech companies, security experts and civil rights advocates had vowed to fight the government, saying it would set a precedent to compel companies to build backdoors into their products.
The government had fired back, insisting that Apple was not above the law and that its request for technical assistance concerned only Farook’s work phone from the San Bernardino health department.
Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future, a non-profit that supports Apple, said Monday’s announcement was proof the government had an alternative motive in the case.
“The FBI’s credibility just hit a new low,” he said in a statement. “They repeatedly lied to the court and the public in pursuit of a dangerous precedent that would have made all of us less safe.
"Fortunately, Internet users mobilized quickly and powerfully to educate the public about the dangers of backdoors, and together we forced the government to back down
Review: iPhone SE puts the same engine in a smaller exteriordgrg
On March 31, you’ll be able to buy the newest member of the iPhone family: the iPhone SE.
What does SE stand for? Apple says Special Edition, but you could also sum it up this way: Same Engine, Smaller Exterior. Because Apple has crammed the chips, guts, and camera of the iPhone 6s into the crisp-cornered body of the tiny iPhone 5s.
On one hand, Apple now seems to be following the Samsung model of spewing out phones and tablets in every conceivable size, rather than innovating in more substantial ways.
On the other hand, Apple is correct that a certain chunk of the population doesn’t like the jumbo-ification of smartphones, such as the big iPhone 6s and even bigger 6s Plus. Some people, small of hands, still cling to the three-year-old iPhone 5s (with its 4-inch screen) despite the gigantic improvements in speed, camera power, and wireless abilities in the newer phones.
Three things about the SE are newsworthy: First, the battery life is about 30 percent better than the iPhone 6s’s (good for 13 hours of Web browsing, Apple says) — a side effect of having a screen the same size as the 5s.
Second, at $400 without a contract (for the 16GB model), the iPhone SE is the least expensive iPhone that Apple has ever offered. Finally, with its 4-inch screen, the SE is now the smallest brand-name smartphone sold in America.
The SE is loaded with features (Apple Pay, Live Photos, fingerprint unlocking, 4K video recording, hands-free “Hey Siri” voice commands, and more), but not a single one of them is new in the SE.
It actually lacks one modern feature of the iPhone 6s: It doesn’t have 3D Touch, which makes shortcut menus pop up when you apply additional pressure to the iPhone 6s’s screen. (Compared with the 6s, the SE screen isn’t quite as colorful, the front camera not quite as good, and the fingerprint reader isn’t quite as fast, either.)
In other words, a review of the iPhone SE would, for all intents and purposes, be a re-review of the iPhone 6s. Therefore, to save us both time and effort, here’s what I said about the 6s, in lightly updated form. After all: If Apple can recycle its finest ideas, why can’t I? (You can skip to the final paragraph for my final thoughts on the new phone.)
Things you’ll appreciate all day long
The biggest new thing is speed.
The processor inside: Apple says it’s “up to 70 percent” faster than the iPhone 6. Opening apps, switching apps, processing things — it all happens faster.
Apple also says that it has tuned both its Wi-Fi and its cellular (LTE) antennas to make them faster. This, too, is screamingly obvious when you call up websites side-by-side on the old and new phones. Who doesn’t like faster Internet?
Things you’ll appreciate occasionally
Apple makes much of the iPhone’s new camera. It takes 12-megapixel photos, up from 8. And it can capture 4K video (that is, four times the resolution of high definition).
But as Apple itself has pointed out many times, having more megapixels does not mean you take better photos. More megapixels can be useful when you want to crop a wide photo down to a smaller subject and still have enough resolution for a print. Otherwise, more megapixels just means bigger files — and your phone will fill up faster
How to trick your iPhone into freeing up storage spacejjrt
Read More: How to password-protect the iPhone Notes app in iOS 9.3
Redditor eavesdroppingyou posted a tactic for clearing up extra space that involves renting a movie from iTunes (don’t worry, it won’t charge you). Eavesdroppingyou suggests picking a long movie like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, because the trick requires that the movie’s file size exceeds the amount of storage left on your phone.
After you hit the Rent button on a movie, a dialog box will come up, which will prompt you to hit OK or Settings. Hit Settings.
(image credit: Mashable)
Your phone will take you to the Settings menu. If you take a look at General > Storage & iCloud Usage, you’ll see that your phone’s available storage space has probably gone up. My iPhone 5S with iOS 9.3 started at 890MB and jumped up to 1.6GB available.
If you hit your home button, you can see your iPhone working through different apps, graying them out and replacing their names with “Cleaning…” This likely means that your phone is removing a bunch of unused data and things like cookies, caches and histories. Your iPhone might automatically do this when storage space gets very low, but this is a great way to force the process to happen.
When I tried this, my phone went for Safari first, and also cleaned my Twitter, Snapchat and Imgur apps.
Read More: Apple releases iOS 9.3.1 update to fix bug that caused iPhones to freeze up
(image credit: Mashable)
The Reddit post suggested renting the movie multiple times to free up more space, and it works. After three more cleanings, my iPhone had 3.9GB of available storage, and I didn’t even have to remove any apps, photos or podcasts.
(image credit: Mashable)
Try this out for yourself to get your phone to do some cleaning for you — it could save you from deleting some items you’d rather not give up.
Samsung+ app brings tech support to your phone mmj
Samsung wants to change that, though, with the latest version of its Samsung+ app. Available today, Samsung+ 3.0 is designed to provide you with all of the information you need to deal with any and all of your connected conundrums from the comfort of your home.
Though it’s on version 3.0, chances are you’ve never heard of Samsung+. That’s because Samsung actually launched the app last summer but didn’t make much of it, as the company said it wanted to continue adding more features.
Several other journalists and I got the chance to use Samsung+ 3.0 in action, and it feels well thought out enough to genuinely make customer support easier for Samsung users.
Samsung says the app is designed to provide you with personalized support for all your Samsung devices.
From the home screen, you can see highlights about your device, get simple tips on how to better use it, or browse various Samsung promotions. That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t do much to help you when your phone is on the fritz.
Tapping on the question mark icon at the top of the screen brings you to the Samsung+ Support page. From here you can perform a diagnostic check on your device, find answers to frequently asked questions, and get live help.
The live help feature is what makes Samsung+ so compelling. Previous versions of the app already offered phone support and live video support, but with Samsung+ 3.0, the company now lets support representatives remotely take control of your device.
HTC 10's Speedy, Smooth Performance Touted by Company Ahead of Launch jhty
HTC 10's Speedy, Smooth Performance Touted by Company Ahead of Launch Gadgets 360 Staff , 30 March 2016
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HTC 10's Speedy, Smooth Performance Touted by Company Ahead of Launch
Ahead of the April 12 launch, HTC has once again teased its upcoming flagship - anticipated to be called the HTC 10 - talking about its performance. In the meanwhile, the handset allegedly now passed the GFXBench benchmark, revealing its specifications.
HTC India on Tuesday tweeted a teaser image of the HTC 10 showing the physical home button, and the two capacitive touch buttons at the front below the screen. "Not all phones are created equal. The fastest and smoothest Android. You'll feel it," the tweet mentioned.
In the meanwhile, as per the alleged HTC 10 listing on GFXBench, the smartphone will run Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out-of-the-box. It will feature a 5.1-inc QHD (1440 x2560 pixels) resolution display and will be powered by the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, clubbed with 4GB RAM and Adreno 530 GPU.
The listing also suggests the HTC 10 to house 32GB inbuilt storage, along with an 12-megapixel rear autofocus camera with face detection and LED flash, and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. While the rear camera can record videos in 4K resolution, the front-facing camera can record videos in 2K resolution. Nothing more has been mentioned about the device. The specifications too corroborates with the ones previously rumoured.
HTC will be launching the smartphone on April 12 and is expected to bring the device to markets by April 15. The rumoured release date however, is only for Taiwan.
The handset is also said to arrive in three variants, all of which will be launched at the same event. All three HTC 10 variants will reportedly sport a 5.15-inch QHD (1440x2560 pixels) resolution Super LCD 5 display, 12-megapixel rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, OIS, and a laser autofocus mechanism, and a 3000mAh battery. All will run Android 6.0 Marshmallow out-of-the-box with the Sense 8.0 skin on top. However, they are said to differ based on the processor, inbuilt storage, and RAM.
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Xiaomi Mi 5 India Launch Todaysr
With the launch, India will become one of the first markets with Xiaomi Mi 5 outside China. To recall, the Xiaomi Mi 5 was announced in three variants - but, it is unclear if Xiaomi will launch all three variants in India.
Xiaomi Mi 5's standard edition featuring 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 32GB inbuilt storage is priced at CNY 1,999 (approximately Rs. 21,000), while the prime version featuring 3GB LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB inbuilt storage is priced at CNY 2,299 (approximately Rs. 24,000), and the pro version featuring 4GB LPDDR4 RAM and 128GB inbuilt storage priced at CNY 2,699 (approximately Rs. 28,000).
(Also see: Xiaomi Mi 5 Top 5 Features: 3D Ceramic Body, Fingerprint Scanner, and More)
The dual-SIM (Nano + Nano) Xiaomi Mi 5 features a 5.15-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) with curved 3D Ceramic glass, and a pixel density of 428ppi. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor coupled with Adreno 530 GPU. It sports a 16-megapixel Sony IMX298 camera sensor with PDAF (phase detection autofocus) and LED flash. The rear camera also sports 4-axis OIS (optical image stabilisation) and sapphire glass protection lens. The smartphone supports 4K video recording. It also sports a 4-UltraPixel front camera, with 2-micron pixels. Both cameras feature an f/2.0 aperture.
It measures 144.5x69.2x7.25mm and weighs 129 grams. The Mi 5 packs a 3000mAh battery and supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0. The company says that the Quick Charge 3.0 is 20 percent faster than its predecessor, the Quick Charge 2.0. Also onboard is a USB Type-C port. Connectivity options include VoLTE support, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/ac, 4G, Bluetooth 4.2, Glonass, and NFC.
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iPhone SE a new hot launch by Apple dfff
Many of the folks who bought the larger screen phones seem to have had enough of them and are ready to go back to a smaller phone that fits more comfortably in their hands. In a nutshell, you could say that these users are so over their larger phones and want something that is easily pocketable, lighter and that is easier to hold.
i-Pad Pro which is 12.9-inch version is mostly used by the people than the iPhone 6 as it is not handy . People like to do everything on i-Pad Pro. And for seeing time people like to use more often Apple Watch than 6 Plus. It is just a big phone that is heavier and doesn’t fit in people pockets. It is far bigger and heavier than people can actually need .People feel that yes the big screen looks good , but what they can do on larger screen similarly they can do on smaller one too. Switching from 5.5-inch screen to a 4-inch screen is weird for you but people literally don’t want that much big phone.
The difference in weight and size of both the phones make the one very handy while the other very difficult to use for several hours. People are waiting to grab the 64GB Space Grey model and immediately as it are going to be released on Thursday. People are just waiting for the new launch and they are literally going to dump their 6s , 6 plus and going to switch to this phone in spite of having a smaller size because what they want is a Smartphone which is handy and which just don’t make their hands tired . So just go for it in Apple stores or booking or them online and get them , use them and give your reviews.
Apple’s New Challenge: Learning How the US Cracked Its iPhonefewe
Now that the United States government has cracked open an iPhone that belonged to a gunman in the San Bernardino, Calif., mass shooting without Apple's help, the tech company is under pressure to find and fix the flaw.
But unlike other cases where security vulnerabilities have cropped up, Apple may face a higher set of hurdles in ferreting out and repairing the particular iPhone hole that the government hacked.
The challenges start with the lack of information about the method that the law enforcement authorities, with the aid of a third party, used to break into the iPhone of Syed Rizwan Farook, an attacker in the San Bernardino rampage last year. Federal officials have refused to identify the person, or organization, who helped crack the device, and have declined to specify the procedure used to open the iPhone. Apple also cannot obtain the device to reverse-engineer the problem, the way it would in other hacking situations.
Making matters trickier, Apple's security operation has been in flux. The operation was reorganized late last year. A manager who had been responsible for handling most of the government's data extraction requests left the team to work in a different part of the company, according to four current and former Apple employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the changes. Other employees, among them one whose tasks included trying to hack Apple's own products, left the company over the last few months, they said, while new people have joined.
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The situation is in many ways a continuation of the cat-and-mouse game Apple is constantly engaged in with hackers, but the unusually prominent nature of this hacking — and the fact that the hacker was the United States government — creates a predicament for the company.
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The official seal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is seen on an iPhone's camera screen outside the J. Edgar Hoover headquarters on Feb. 23, 2016, in Washington, D.C.
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"Apple is a business, and it has to earn the trust of its customers," said Jay Kaplan, chief executive of the tech security company Synack and a former National Security Agency analyst. "It needs to be perceived as having something that can fix this vulnerability as soon as possible."
Apple referred to a statement it made on Monday when the government filed to drop its case demanding that the company help it open Mr. Farook's iPhone. "We will continue to increase the security of our products as the threats and attacks on our data become more frequent and more sophisticated," Apple said.
Apple has been making many long-term moves to increase the security of its devices. The company's chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, has told colleagues that he stands by Apple's road map to encrypt everything stored on its devices and services, as well as information stored in Apple's cloud service iCloud, which customers use to back up the data on their mobile devices. Apple engineers have also begun developing new security measures that would make it tougher for the government to open a locked iPhone.
For now, with the dearth of information about the flaw in Mr. Farook's iPhone 5C, which runs Apple's iOS 9 operating system, security experts could only guess at how the government broke into the smartphone.
Forensics experts said the government might have attacked Apple's system using a widely discussed method to extract information from a protected area in the phone by removing a chip and fooling a mechanism that blocks password guessing, in order to find the user's password and unlock the data.
The authorities may have used a procedure that mirrors the phone's storage chip, called a NAND chip, and then copied it onto another chip. Often referred to as "NAND-mirroring," this would allow the F.B.I. to replace the original NAND chip with one that has a copy of that content. If the F.B.I. tried 10 passcodes to unlock the phone and failed, it could then generate a new copy of the phone's content and try another password guess.
"It's like trying to play the same level on Super Mario Brothers over and over again and just restoring from your saved game every time you kill Mario," said Jonathan Zdziarski, an iOS forensics expert.
Newer iPhone models may be less susceptible to NAND-mirroring because they have an upgraded chip known as the A7, with a security processor called the Secure Enclave that has a unique numerical key not known to the company and which is essential to the securing of information stored in the phone.
Security vulnerabilities in Apple products have become increasingly prized by hackers in recent years, given the ubiquity of the company's mobile devices. Yet as interest has grown in attacking Apple's hardware and software, the company's own security teams have been in flux.
Apple previously had two main security teams — a group called Core OS Security Engineering and a product security team. The product security team included a privacy group that examined whether data was properly encrypted and anonymized, among other functions, according to three former Apple employees. The product security team also had people who reacted to vulnerabilities found by people outside Apple, as well as a proactive team, called RedTeam, which worked to actively hack Apple products.
Last year, the product security team was broken up and the privacy group began reporting to a new manager, the former employees said. The rest of product security — the proactive and reactive pieces — was absorbed by the Core OS Security Engineering team, which itself experienced shifts.
The leader of the Core OS Security Engineering team, Dallas DeAtley, left the security division last year to work in a different part of Apple. Mr. DeAtley was one of the few employees who over the years had taken care of government requests to extract data from iPhones. Mr. DeAtley did not respond to requests for comment.
A few other members of the team also departed. Others joined Apple as the company acquired a handful of security outfits last year, including LegbaCore, which previously found and fixed flaws for Apple.
Some of the departures had more to do with market forces, the former Apple employees said. Security professionals are some of the most sought-after engineers in the technology sector.
Whether Apple's security operation will ever obtain information about how the government hacked into Mr. Farook's iPhone remains unclear.
It's possible that the government won't say how it opened the iPhone because the method is "proprietary to the company that helped the F.B.I.," said Stewart A. Baker, a lawyer at Steptoe & Johnson and the Department of Homeland Security's first assistant secretary for policy.
Within the security community, researchers and professionals said they were incensed that they — and Apple — may not find out how the F.B.I. was able to crack Mr. Farook's iPhone.
"There is very little debate that it is in everyone's best interest that Apple find out about this vulnerability and everyone should be asking why that is not the case," said Alex Rice, the chief technology officer at HackerOne, a security company in San Francisco that helps coordinate vulnerability disclosure for corporations.
Ancient fossil was 'nearly a spider'dfs
Easily pre-dating the dinosaurs, the 1.5cm creature lived alongside the oldest known ancestors of modern spiders but its lineage is now extinct.
The specimen was dug up decades ago in France but never identified, because its front half was encased in rock.
Now, researchers have made a detailed reconstruction using CT scans.
Their findings are reported in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
"This fossil is the most closely related thing we have to a spider that isn't a spider," said first author Russell Garwood from the University of Manchester.
Legs and jaws
Now christened Idmonarachne brasieri, the arachnid was among "a box full of fossils" that Dr Garwood's co-author Paul Selden, from the University of Kansas in the US, had borrowed from the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris in the 1980s.
It originally came from a rich region of fossil-bearing deposits near Montceau les-Mines, in eastern France.
arachnid fossilsImage copyrightGarwood et al 2016/MNHN, Paris
The front half of the fossil, buried in rock, could only be revealed by CT scans
"By CT scanning it, you can actually extract the full front half of the animal from the rock, to try and better understand its anatomy," Dr Garwood told BBC News.
First of all, as well as the animal's eight spidery limbs, he and his colleagues spotted some imposing jaws. These confirmed that it was a new species and not one of the more distant cousins of spiders known from the same period.
It also lacked the tail-like appendage of the older, similarly long-extinct arachnid family that included Attercopus, living some 80 million years earlier. Those earlier critters could produce silk, probably to line their burrows or make a trail to follow home, but did not have the spinnerets that allow spiders to weave webs.
As such, Dr Garwood explained, the new arrival I. brasieri fills a gap - having spider-like legs and jaws but still lacking spinnerets.
"Our creature probably split off the spider line after [Attercopus], but before true spiders appeared," he said.
illustration of the creatureImage copyrightGarwood et al 2016
The creature dates to the late Carboniferous period and belongs to a now-extinct lineage
"The earliest known spider is actually from the same fossil deposit - and it definitely has spinnerets. So what we're actually looking at is an extinct lineage that split off the spider line some time before 305 million years ago, and those two have evolved in parallel."
To confirm that the extinct critter definitely lacked spinnerets, the team switched from a regular laboratory CT scanner to using the high-powered X-rays of the Diamond synchrotron in Oxfordshire.
"We had to consider the fact they could have fallen out, and just left a hole in the abdomen," Dr Garwood said. "You need a quite high-resolution scan to be able to spot that distortion."
With all the evidence in place, the team was able to name their discovery. They chose to commemorate a colleague: Martin Brasier, an Oxford palaeobiologist who died recently in a car accident.
"He was a very supportive academic," said Dr Garwood.
Hull set for City of Culture mass nude photographgg
Hull has been chosen as the latest place to stage a mass nude gathering, all in the name of art.
Internationally-renowned photographer Spencer Tunick is to create a new work there to celebrate its year as UK City of Culture.
The gathering is to be photographed in the East Yorkshire port on 9 July, with the resulting work unveiled in 2017.
Organisers hope hundreds of people will strip to become part of the work, entitled Sea Of Hull.
Participants are to be covered in cosmetic body make-up, before assembling to form the multiple colours of the sea and create abstract shapes for the camera.
New York-based Tunick has created more than 90 similar human installations worldwide, including at the Sydney Opera House, Place des Arts in Montreal, Mexico City and Munich in Germany.
His work in the UK has used places including Gateshead and Folkestone as backdrops.
AFP/Getty Images
"I'm very interested in the history of the city and its place as a seafaring centre and its relationship to a rich maritime past," Tunick said of Hull.
"It intrigues me that in some places where there are major streets or parks today, previously there was water."
He said he hoped he would create "a sea of humanity flooding the urban landscape" and the body paint would help many people to overcome their inhibitions to posing naked.
Kirsten Simister, of Hull's Ferens Art Gallery, said: "It's an opportunity to involve people directly in an amazing live performance that will temporarily transform the city."
PA
The artist is to also create a second installation on 10 July inviting a select group of participants to take part in another event in North Lincolnshire.
Anyone over 18 can take par
Apple remains in dark on how FBI hacked iPhone without helpdh
The government said it was able to break into an iPhone used by a gunman in a mass shooting in California, but it didn't say how. That puzzled Apple software engineers — and outside experts — about how the FBI broke the digital locks on the phone without Apple's help. It also complicated Apple's job repairing flaws that jeopardize its software.
The Justice Department's announcement that it was dropping a legal fight to compel Apple to help it access the phone also took away any obvious legal avenues Apple might have used to learn how the FBI did it.
Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym vacated her Feb. 16 order, which compelled Apple to help the FBI hack their phone, on Tuesday.
The Justice Department declined through a spokeswoman to comment Tuesday.
A few clues have emerged. A senior law enforcement official told The Associated Press that the FBI managed to defeat an Apple security feature that threatened to delete the phone's contents if the FBI failed to enter the correct passcode combination after 10 tries. That allowed the government to repeatedly and continuously test passcodes in what's known as a brute-force attack until the right code is entered and the phone is unlocked.
It wasn't clear how the FBI dealt with a related Apple security feature that introduces increasing time delays between guesses. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to discuss the technique publicly.
FBI Director James Comey has said with those features removed, the FBI could break into the phone in 26 minutes.
The FBI hacked into the iPhone used by gunman Syed Farook, who died with his wife in a gun battle with police after they killed 14 people in December in San Bernardino. The iPhone, issued to Farook by his employer, the county health department, was found in a vehicle the day after the shooting.
The FBI is reviewing information from the iPhone, and it is unclear whether anything useful can be found.
Apple said in a statement Monday that the legal case to force its cooperation "should never have been brought," and it promised to increase the security of its products. CEO Tim Cook has said the Cupertino-based company is constantly trying to improve security for its users.
The FBI's announcement — even without revealing precise details — that it had hacked the iPhone was at odds with the government's firm recommendations for nearly two decades that security researchers always work cooperatively and confidentially with software manufacturers before revealing that a product might be susceptible to hackers.
The aim is to ensure that American consumers stay as safe online as possible and prevent premature disclosures that might damage a U.S. company or the economy.
As far back as 2002, the Homeland Security Department ran a working group that included leading industry technology industry executives to advise the president on how to keep confidential discoveries by independent researchers that a company's software could be hacked until it was already fixed. Even now, the Commerce Department has been trying to fine-tune those rules. The next meeting of a conference on the subject is April 8 in Chicago and it's unclear how the FBI's behavior in the current case might influence the government's fragile relationship with technology companies or researchers.
The industry's rules are not legally binding, but the government's top intelligence agency said in 2014 that such vulnerabilities should be reported to companies.
"When federal agencies discover a new vulnerability in commercial and open source software — a so-called 'zero day' vulnerability because the developers of the vulnerable software have had zero days to fix it — it is in the national interest to responsibly disclose the vulnerability rather than to hold it for an investigative or intelligence purpose," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement in April 2014.
The statement recommended generally divulging such flaws to manufacturers "unless there is a clear national security or law
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