tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84605641491368834412024-02-28T15:43:28.659-08:00PhenomTech News and Tutorials"Your most fun source for news and tutorials in the fields of technology and home & garden."Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.comBlogger177125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-32362336532776753392015-03-13T06:37:00.000-07:002015-03-13T06:56:42.385-07:00iPhone: Repair black/white and corrupt photo thumbnails in camera roll<h2 style="text-align: left;">
The iPhone camera roll photo thumbnail database can become broken and corrupt. This results in either black/white thumbnails and fully functional photos or functional thumbnails but black/white photos. Typically this happens when the users backup their iPhone camera roll photos to a computer without using iTunes, which is not even available for the popular Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora Linux distributions. The fix, which is described here, is to regenerate or repair the photo thumbnail database.</h2>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4GYQ-_ZoZuLU9rJybSIGWL379JlbYoDRneM1Vn2EZLDzRikhPKUhraJ3Iftx9t1lXUZ_lF6VTxKoO2jEa2lRSeSNYTTTcoOvHCj9Fmtk6CeLJvcFzY2N2PEZsZQEqAjccRH2Zpn03jQ/s1600/iPhone_photo_thumbnail_corrupt.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ios, fix, tutorial, guide, black, white, missing photo, missing thumbnail, photo error" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4GYQ-_ZoZuLU9rJybSIGWL379JlbYoDRneM1Vn2EZLDzRikhPKUhraJ3Iftx9t1lXUZ_lF6VTxKoO2jEa2lRSeSNYTTTcoOvHCj9Fmtk6CeLJvcFzY2N2PEZsZQEqAjccRH2Zpn03jQ/s1600/iPhone_photo_thumbnail_corrupt.png" height="320" title="How to repair iPhone photos and thumbnails in camera roll." width="304" /></a></div>
Everyone should ensure that they back up the photos on their phones from time to time. Whether this is done to the cloud or to their home computer, a working routine is extremely important to prevent irreparable damage if one loses the phone. For iPhone users, backup to iCloud of the camera roll photos can be easily set up, although in the long run this is not a sustainable solution due to the space limitations on the iPhone itself as well as on iCloud. Simply put, keeping all photos ever taken on your iPhone is not a sustainable solution. Therefore, users should occasionally backup their photos to a computer to free up the storage space of their iPhone as well as iCloud account.<br />
<br />
The process of backing up the iPhone photos from the camera roll can be performed through iTunes, although many users find it slow, bloated and sluggish. For Linux users, such as the popular Ubuntu and Debian users, iTunes is not even available. Thus, the use of a file manager to transfer the data in the DCIM folders is preferred by many for its transparency, and effectiveness. Unfortunately, it has been shown that backing up photos in this way may corrupt the photo thumbnail database, causing it to lose its sync with the camera roll. This results in either non-existent (black/white) photos, or black/white thumbnails when the users attempts to access their iPhone photos. This tutorial shows how to fix and repair the camera roll photo thumbnail database. </div>
<a name='more'></a><!-- adsense -->
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">How to repair photos and thumbnails in camera roll </span></h3>
The likely most thorough fix to repair the iPhone photo and thumbnail database is to completely regenerate the database. This may sound like a daunting task, although the process is in actuality completely safe and every modified file can (and should) be backed up until the user can ensure that the photos and thumbnails in the camera roll are properly functioning.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Preparation:</b><br />
For Windows and Mac OS X users, a utility (file manager) which can explore the file system is needed. Good free alternatives here are <a href="http://www.i-funbox.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">iFunBox</a>, <a href="http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">iExplorer</a> and <a href="http://imazing.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">iMazing</a>. It really does not matter which one you choose, since we will simply delete a few files in a directory on the iPhone itself.<br />
<br />
For Linux users, access to the file system is already implemented in the popular file managers, for example, Nautilus in Ubuntu and Debian.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Regenerate and repair iPhone photo and thumbnail database in 3 simple steps:</b><br />
<!-- adsense2 --> <b><u>Step 1:</u></b> Now that we have the proper utility to modify the iPhone file system, applying the fix is a relatively simple task. On the iPhone, use your favorite file manager and navigate to:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Media -> PhotoData </span></blockquote>
<b><u>Step 2:</u> </b>In the PhotoData directory, <b>delete</b> (or move them to your computer) the following three files:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">- com.apple.photos.caches_metadata.plist<br />- Photos.sqlite<br />- PhotosAux.sqlite</span></blockquote>
<b><u>Step 3:</u></b> Once the files are deleted, simply reboot your iPhone. </div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>Do not be alarmed</b> if upon rebooting your iPhone you find that your camera roll is empty. This is expected as iOS will completely regenerate the thumbnail database that will link to all photos on the iPhone. Give the iPhone some time and the thumbnails will pop back into the camera roll as each photo in the camera roll is indexed!<br />
<br />
<br />
For me who use several operating systems every day, relying on iTunes for anything is extremely impractical. Hopefully this tutorial will help some of you out there to repair your photo database in case you have managed to corrupt it! </div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-20113927187763642982015-03-06T07:24:00.001-08:002015-03-06T07:47:13.345-08:00How to ping BackupPC hosts behind a NAT router or firewall<h2 style="text-align: left;">
BackupPC is a very capable open-source enterprise-grade backup system that is readily available for most Linux distributions, e.g., Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora. However, since most computers today are behind a NAT router or firewall, this completely breaks the ping command that a remote BackupPC server uses to check if a host client is alive or reachable. The most common solutions which allow BackupPC to ping host clients that are behind a NAT router or firewall are discussed here.</h2>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivOvvANPCLwnWgu7DjnYdlgzgpbzJADgqwJvq919G3erDrQLGnBObqN5DbClTD8d_q0WUJTvHQ9SDdRbh5_x0u7ap2WifMBIPLh-L7fFqXl1zq2RwqaI52yyi0CNyaoR3HggdLB42N1g/s1600/backuppc_nat_router.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu, debian, linux, pincmd, pingpath, tutorial, hping3, alive" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivOvvANPCLwnWgu7DjnYdlgzgpbzJADgqwJvq919G3erDrQLGnBObqN5DbClTD8d_q0WUJTvHQ9SDdRbh5_x0u7ap2WifMBIPLh-L7fFqXl1zq2RwqaI52yyi0CNyaoR3HggdLB42N1g/s1600/backuppc_nat_router.png" height="256" title="BackupPC ping clients behind NAT/firewall fix!" width="400" /></a>BackupPC, being open source and free, is great in many aspects and thus has also become the backup system of choice in many enterprise environments as well as home networks. Although it usually works out-of-the box in most popular Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora, some quirks do exist. For example, the <a href="http://www.phenomtech.net/2014/02/ubuntu-broken-backuppc-web-interface-fix.html" target="_blank">broken GUI interface caused by Apache</a>. Another example, which is discussed here, is the ping system that BackupPC uses to check if a host computer client is alive. In addition, it will be argued why some common solutions provided on the internet are better than others based on experience and logic.<br />
<br />
The scenario that is particularly considered is the case of a remote BackupPC server attempting to backup <b>multiple</b> computers that sit behind a NAT router with firewall, as illustrated in the picture above.</div>
<a name='more'></a><!-- adsense -->
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
By default, BackupPC uses the ping
command (<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">$PingCmd, /bin/ping</span>) to check if a host client is alive and reachable, if it is,
BackupPC will backup the host according to a schedule. If no ping
response is received, BackupPC will eventually add the host to a
prioritized backup schedule, which means that BackupPC will ping it each
time it wakes up and issue the backup command as soon as the host is
alive again. This behavior certainly works great in a local area
network, unfortunately, it completely breaks down if BackupPC attempts
to ping hosts behind a NAT router or firewall. This is also the default
scenario for users wishing to have a remote BackupPC server to backup multiple of
their home computers that, today, almost always will be behind a NAT
router. Fortunately, there exist ways to fix the broken BackupPC ping
command to allow it to properly ping host clients to check if they are
alive. It is just too bad that the internet is flooded with either poor
alternatives, or highly questionable and strange answers, such as,
"disable ping", or "make your router always respond to pings". Here, we
suggest the
best way to ping hosts behind NAT routers or firewalls and also discuss the alternatives to "fix" the ping issue.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Use <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">hping3</span> to send custom TCP/IP packets to ping hosts behind firewalls and NATs</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWhPNSOutkzSnPNBEqBvOWMqhFn-c_P3Ne0cggH8DAaGcAAI9oPaDo1hYbO5TozYatP2AoTUvOpzdPYlAhAMDL94XSa_xfDM0le2V53uDCwZs5Th7OPn7Fl4FwStti2FflExPXyS-60Q/s1600/hping3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu, debian, pingcmd, pingpath, alive, fix, tutorial, how to" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWhPNSOutkzSnPNBEqBvOWMqhFn-c_P3Ne0cggH8DAaGcAAI9oPaDo1hYbO5TozYatP2AoTUvOpzdPYlAhAMDL94XSa_xfDM0le2V53uDCwZs5Th7OPn7Fl4FwStti2FflExPXyS-60Q/s1600/hping3.png" height="204" title="BackupPC ping check through NAT router and firewall with hping3." width="320" /></a>Using <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">hping3</span> is arguably by far the best and most versatile way to "ping" hosts to
check if they are alive. While there are plenty of tools available to
send custom TCP/IP packets, <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">hping3</span> has proven to work out-of-the box with BackupPC. The reason being that BackupPC uses the two regular expressions:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">- rtt\s*min\/avg\/max\/mdev\s*=\s*[\d.]+\/([\d.]+)\/[\d.]+\/[\d.]+\s*(ms|usec)<br />- time=([\d.]+)\s*(ms|usec)</span> </blockquote>
to look for a response from its $PingCmd. <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">hping3</span>
by coincidence (or not) actually returns data that matches the regular
expressions.<br />
<br />
In the following example, a host client is reachable
through SSH on port 17000 which is forwarded on the NAT. Running the
regular PingCmd (<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">/bin/ping</span>) yields,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">$ ping bhost1 -c 1<br />PING bhost1 (1.1.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.<br /><br />--- bhost1 ping statistics ---<br />1 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 0ms</span></blockquote>
No wonder, as ICMP ping replies are disabled for this NAT. However, running <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">hping3</span> gives us,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">$ sudo hping3 bhost1 -p 17000 -c 1 -S<br />HPING bhost1 (eth1 1.1.1.1): S set, 40 headers + 0 data bytes<br />len=46 ip=1.1.1.1 ttl=55 DF id=0 sport=17000 flags=SA seq=0 win=29200 rtt=3.5 ms</span></blockquote>
Great! BackupPC actually understands the reply and a host that is offline is
actually caught as well!<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Setting up <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">hping3</span> with BackupPC in Ubuntu and Debian</b></span></h3>
<b> </b> </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">hping3</span> is readily available in most Linux distributions and setting it up is easy through the following 3 steps.<br />
<ol>
<li> For Ubuntu and Debian we first need to install it. Using the terminal this is achieved by, <br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">$ sudo apt-get install hping3</span></blockquote>
</li>
<li>Secondly one needs to execute hping3 as root. Thus, we must modify the sudoers list to allow BackupPC to run hping3 as root without being prompted for a password. This can be done by editing the file<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> /etc/sudoers</span> and append,<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"># Allow backuppc to run hping3 without a password<br />backuppc ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/hping3</span></blockquote>
</li>
<li>Finally, we need to modify the PingCmd in BackupPC. This can be done through the web GUI under the Backup Settings heading. Cross the <i>Override</i> button and edit it to be,<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">/usr/bin/sudo /usr/sbin/hping3 $host -p <port_number> -c 1 -S</span></blockquote>
</li>
</ol>
To back up multiple hosts behind a NAT router and firewall, simply repeat step 3 on the settings page for each individual host, adding the proper port number to the PingCmd override line!<br />
<br />
While the above only shows an example for a host that is reachable through SSH, the same can be used for hosts that are reachable through <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">rsyncd, smb, ftpd,</span> or any other protocols, <b>as long as</b> the listening port itself is properly forwarded on the NAT router.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Less optimal ways to fix BackupPC ping checks</span></h3>
<!-- adsense2 -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpP_bNyDQCfvBvifVsEwG4WeaILBa87Lz1E75S-yYr-Ko93VanHPsX6K5MRzRd2Uy80Y7qgKOluH1jPjAU_OL64xG1Dw1yJ1M5oul719cN3EgWn07s48lxpjeOxdXzElly5k4sYQr_5Q/s1600/backuppc_confused.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu, debian, pingcmd, pingpath, router, nat, client, port, tutorial" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpP_bNyDQCfvBvifVsEwG4WeaILBa87Lz1E75S-yYr-Ko93VanHPsX6K5MRzRd2Uy80Y7qgKOluH1jPjAU_OL64xG1Dw1yJ1M5oul719cN3EgWn07s48lxpjeOxdXzElly5k4sYQr_5Q/s1600/backuppc_confused.png" height="200" title="How to not fix BackupPC ping check of firewalled hosts?" width="118" /></a>Using<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> hping3</span> has so far solved the issues in my varieties of backup constellations while using BackupPC. However, there are of course alternatives. Two of the absolutely most commonly suggested ones are discussed below. The reason being that I do not understand why anyone would settle for these incomplete workarounds.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">1. Disable BackupPC ping checking</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></h3>
Probably the most commonly suggested solution for users that cannot ping host clients behind a NAT router or firewall is to disable the ping keep-alive check for BackupPC altogether. This is not surprising as the BackupPC documentation even states:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>If you want to disable ping checking, set this to some program that exits with 0 status, eg: <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">$Conf{PingPath} = '/bin/echo</span>';</i></blockquote>
What the above does is to trick BackupPC into always thinking that the host is alive, regardless of if it is true or not, a poor man's solution. <br />
<br />
<b>Pros: </b>Simple and straight-forward to implement and works well with hosts that are almost always online and alive, i.e., hosts that would have responded to a ping request anyway.<br />
<br />
<b>Cons:</b> This solution has obvious problems with hosts that are only occasionally online. By disabling ping checking, BackupPC thinks that the client is always alive and available and thus will strictly follow its schedule and blackout periods. In the worst case, clients that are only online within the blackout periods will <b>never</b> be backed up! Not optimal at all!<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">2. Enable ICMP ping response on NAT router/firewall </span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></h3>
Many routers and firewalls are configured by default to not reply to ICMP ping requests. In addition, some users may have manually turned this off. In either case, this will make BackupPC fail its ping check and thus mark the hosts as unreachable.<br />
<br />
It is debatable if one should disable ICMP ping responses or not. Some claim that it increases security and others claim that this only adds pseudo security as it is easy to discover if the destination is online anyway. This debate is outside of the scope of this article, however, for a remote BackupPC server trying to access clients behind the firewall, this is a nonsense solution since it completely breaks down regardless of how ICMP ping responses are configured as seen in the pros-and-cons list below.<br />
<br />
<b>Pros: </b>It is usually simple to enable ICMP ping responses and similar to the first solution, this one will work if all hosts behind the router are almost always online.<br />
<br />
<b>Cons: </b>Again the problems are obvious here as this is almost the same as disabling ping checking on BackupPC altogether, since a NAT router is almost always online anyway. In addition, this does not address the issue of backing up multiple hosts behind a NAT router, since it is impossible to discover if each individual host is alive or not through ICMP ping packets. Again, in the worst case, one can end up with clients that are <b>never</b> backed up if they are online reachable during the configured blackout periods!<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">3. Use SSH instead of ping</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span> </h3>
In addition to the above alternatives, there are also more involved ones. A popular one being the use of SSH tunnels from the client side. The basic idea here is to make all clients establish an SSH connection to the BackupPC server, the server then checks the established connections to determine if the host clients are alive or not. It may sound like a somewhat elegant way, since it requires the clients to actively do something, there are again obvious downsides with this 'fix'.<br />
<br />
<b>Pros: </b>In contrast to the above two alternatives, this one actually does allow BackupPC to correctly determine if individual hosts behind a NAT router is reachable and alive.<br />
<br />
<b>Cons: </b>The requirement that the clients need to establish a connection to BackupPC kind of defies the purpose the autonomous design. In addition, this may work great on Linux, *nix or Mac OS hosts, but what about Windows? One should not be forced to install cygwin just to be able to use BackupPC (encryption of the data stream can be achieved in other ways than SSH). This workaround is also more messy to maintain, since we would need to verify that the SSH connection is properly established on boot. A small thing perhaps, but the added complexity does not make sense when simpler ones exist. The beauty of BackupPC is after all that it does not explicitly require each client to install client software!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
In conclusion, through my own experiences, the use of <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">hping3</span> on a remote BackupPC server for host clients behind NAT routers and firewalls is the best way to ping-check. Although I respect that there certainly are other alternatives out there, they do not make much sense to me, but I may have missed some fundamental values in the BackupPC and *nix community...<br />
<br />
In any case, I hope that this post will be of help to some of you out there who are wondering how to ping BackupPC hosts behind a NAT router or firewall!</div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-6832179376463037132015-03-03T03:36:00.001-08:002015-03-03T03:46:29.003-08:008 amazing Google Easter egg hacks and games in Search, YouTube and Chrome<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Google has plenty of secret Easter eggs and hacks hidden in their products that can make everyone's day a little bit more fun! Here are the best Easter egg hacks found in Google Search, YouTube and Chrome.</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSWHK75vuPH0s5ZM9P2hqriPLdaB5vlb9C1xqf7NnXMPTOe3tjsxFw8qy1UOgTh5WstlPY6PDDwQtAl9QjeXai4LJkcs9zXJbCBp2WE9n2KRYG_8-EbrC4n5EE_O5oMctDALfJ6fJBGQ/s1600/google_easter_eggs.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="secret, hidden, game, snake, t-rex, breakout, atari, tilt, zerg, rush, top, lolz, lulz, funny" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSWHK75vuPH0s5ZM9P2hqriPLdaB5vlb9C1xqf7NnXMPTOe3tjsxFw8qy1UOgTh5WstlPY6PDDwQtAl9QjeXai4LJkcs9zXJbCBp2WE9n2KRYG_8-EbrC4n5EE_O5oMctDALfJ6fJBGQ/s1600/google_easter_eggs.png" height="320" title="Best Easter eggs and hacks in Google Search, Youtube and Chrome!" width="263" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
For software developers, hiding Easter eggs in the software is an old tradition. An Easter egg is typically an undocumented feature or function in the software usually made for humorous reasons. When a user executes a certain set of commands or in interacts with the software in some secret pre-defined way, an unexpected chain of events may occur. Easter eggs can be as simple as actually showing a picture of an Easter egg, reveal a hidden game within a software or simply displaying a picture/animation of something interesting or funny.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Of course Google has also embraced the Easter egg tradition and plenty of Easter eggs have come and gone throughout the years in the Google products. Some of the best Easter egg hacks, however, appear to be here to stay. Read on for the top best Google Easter egg hacks in Google Search, YouTube and chrome guaranteed to make your boring day not so boring anymore!</div>
</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">1. YouTube: Play Snake Game in any YouTube clip</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span> </h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQJQar4fE4iz6C7OU9YQoBrHD4MRUbrSNyIAqgwTA91BrQi2e9xbNUs2fqFXuFxqpZFQ-X4nmw1UnNlxXxLhAXxuw3Bm4lyxHl3Jd_o4Db_2PDyI7qFhEdFKUffTFqB2W3ykLmyLxZHg/s1600/Youtube_snake.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="google, hack, atari, breakout, t-rex, runner, zerg, rush, tilt, hidden" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQJQar4fE4iz6C7OU9YQoBrHD4MRUbrSNyIAqgwTA91BrQi2e9xbNUs2fqFXuFxqpZFQ-X4nmw1UnNlxXxLhAXxuw3Bm4lyxHl3Jd_o4Db_2PDyI7qFhEdFKUffTFqB2W3ykLmyLxZHg/s1600/Youtube_snake.png" height="237" title="Best Youtube secret Easter egg Snake game!" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Bored by the YouTube clip you accidentally started to watch, or is it simply too slow? Perhaps one of the most well made and thought through Easter egg is the one which allows a user to play the classic game <i>Snake</i> in all YouTube clip! Start playing Snake in YouTube by following the below instructions:</div>
</div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Go to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/" target="_blank">YouTube</a> and start any YouTube clip.</li>
<li>Press and hold either the <b><i>left</i></b> or <b><i>right</i></b> arrow key for 2 seconds. </li>
<li>Press the <b><i>up</i></b> arrow key while still holding the arrow key from step 2.</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Immediately after pressing the up-key a small in step 3, the secret Snake game is started!</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Control your snake with the arrow keys and collect the small dots that appear randomly over the YouTube clip which will continue to play in the background. Just as the traditional Snake game, your snake will grow longer for each dot (goodie) that you collect and the goal is to make the snake as long as you can without crashing into the borders or biting yourself!</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Great fun and secret that can make any boring YouTube clip endurable!</div>
<!-- adsense -->
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">2. Google Search: Play Atari Breakout game</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDc2zKw7dKqfEQ4d3-Z1DdWvuuj3lrBw6ZMMuzLg26DunlyQrwBVUrceINarMMU0HtdQDcRqeDL5PSxAQYqEkhyphenhyphenWTISy5NwEB1Tjth1rslLUlAzLSEe-YYyRKx4xOzMTEK2XTR51Pg6A/s1600/google_atari_breakout.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best, snake, youtube, zerg rush, tilt, t-rex, runner, hack, chrome" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDc2zKw7dKqfEQ4d3-Z1DdWvuuj3lrBw6ZMMuzLg26DunlyQrwBVUrceINarMMU0HtdQDcRqeDL5PSxAQYqEkhyphenhyphenWTISy5NwEB1Tjth1rslLUlAzLSEe-YYyRKx4xOzMTEK2XTR51Pg6A/s1600/google_atari_breakout.png" height="252" title="Secret Atari Breakout Easter egg in Google Search!" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Many of us remember the classical Atari Breakout game that we spent hours and hours in front of as kids, and some of us even spent countless of pennies on it in arcade halls. Now everyone can enjoy Atari Breakout for free right on Google Search in in the web browser through this hack!</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This Easter egg is very polished and activating it is actually really simple, the trick is to know and use Google Images Search as follows:</div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Go to <a href="https://www.google.se/imghp" target="_blank">Google Images Search</a>.</li>
<li>Search for <b><i>Atari Breakout</i></b> and hit enter.</li>
<li>Wait a few seconds for the images from the search result to load.</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: left;">
After the images have loaded, the Atari Breakout game will load. Notice that the bricks in the game are actually small thumbnails of the search results from Google Images! How cool is that?</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Control the game with your mouse or your left and right arrow keys. The goal here is of course not to miss the ball.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>Alternatively from going directly to Google Images Search, Atari Breakout can also be activated by simply searching for Atari Breakout on Google and then hit the Images tab in the search results.</i></div>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">3. Chrome: Play Endless T-Rex Runner game</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvIzM6n_n6zL1HSU2viuO7FjEB9E0Y4PW47KDqlH023lSs4KU1HH9OkhQyuO5Agdx0qh80QDQtvswpTJ0aLU24ds4cHIinA348-7JXPR3YylEjgUwdy-IVykRJZFCzcZfvYXBKRoL32A/s1600/chrome_t-rex.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best, hack, snake, youtube, atari breakout, zerg, rush, tilt, secret, hidden" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvIzM6n_n6zL1HSU2viuO7FjEB9E0Y4PW47KDqlH023lSs4KU1HH9OkhQyuO5Agdx0qh80QDQtvswpTJ0aLU24ds4cHIinA348-7JXPR3YylEjgUwdy-IVykRJZFCzcZfvYXBKRoL32A/s1600/chrome_t-rex.png" height="275" title="Google Chrome T-Rex Runner game Easter egg!" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<!-- adsense2 -->
I have to admit, this Easter egg is a bit of an oddball, but it is definitely worth for everyone to try out. Finding this particular hidden Easter egg is very easy and to activate it the user simply has to try and navigate to any URL when no internet connection is available, i.e., no wi-fi or ethernet cable plugged in.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
A user which attempts to go to a website without an internet connection will be greeted by an error message but also a small picture of a T-Rex dinosaur. By pressing the <i><b>space bar</b></i> key, the T-Rex will start to bounce and run while a desert landscape appears in front of it!</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Control and make your T-Rex jump over the obstacles with the space bar key. The goal here is of course to run as far as possible without being hit in the face by a nasty cactus.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The next time you are sitting in an café with crappy wi-fi connection, at least you have something to do when the wi-fi goes down for the millionth time for no apparent reason while you yell at the staff. </div>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">4. Google Search: Play Zerg Rush game</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj1to29ebAPBI2vwuED8NleZ4i2QppPorVEArI1gCgXNFBUkFsPB-iTMrljBfo-fbw5p3t2URWCqgr9FdAD5rb1lhqFCrynj85K5Gj-OlcbN2TD1DmrcACtfqH8jNVkyxptPTF4RCaag/s1600/Google-zerg-rush.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="easter egg, hack, snake, skew, barrel roll, breakout, hidden, secret, best, top, youtube, chrome" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj1to29ebAPBI2vwuED8NleZ4i2QppPorVEArI1gCgXNFBUkFsPB-iTMrljBfo-fbw5p3t2URWCqgr9FdAD5rb1lhqFCrynj85K5Gj-OlcbN2TD1DmrcACtfqH8jNVkyxptPTF4RCaag/s1600/Google-zerg-rush.png" height="228" title="Hidden Zerg Rush game in Google Search!" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This hidden Easter egg hack in Google Search is either very annoying or very amusing depending on the mood and personality of the 'victim'. To activate this Easter egg:</div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Go to <a href="http://www.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Search</a>.</li>
<li>Search for <i><b>Zerg Rush</b> </i>and hit enter.</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The search results will load but immediately after a swarm of <i>O</i>'s from <i>G<b>oo</b>gle</i> (zergs) will pop up from the perimeter of the screen and eat away the search results! </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Kill as many zergs as as you can and protect your search results by clicking (shooting) them with your mouse. Be aware that the zergs will invade from below as well!</div>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">5. Google Search: Tilted or skewed search results</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisEvXh_3RGmunqJF1X_Drja38ThEwZkLB4X3Cn_k3KkPks6eGN0ZKDYM44z2bJaxs_jGkD2-xuBM7-agMzEyN5yWQUZO1bnE7g6Jwc-FOmsvD7Zs36xuC1kauAlCd3j5bySWSIWeYRkQ/s1600/google-tilt.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="easter egg, secret, best, barrel roll, hitchhiker, breakout, game, zerg, snake, youtube, chrome" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisEvXh_3RGmunqJF1X_Drja38ThEwZkLB4X3Cn_k3KkPks6eGN0ZKDYM44z2bJaxs_jGkD2-xuBM7-agMzEyN5yWQUZO1bnE7g6Jwc-FOmsvD7Zs36xuC1kauAlCd3j5bySWSIWeYRkQ/s1600/google-tilt.png" height="263" title="Google hack to show skewed search results!" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This is one of Google's more subtle secret Easter eggs. This hack is very simple in its design yet surprisingly beautiful and will make you wonder if something is wrong with your computer, monitor, web browser or eyes (or all of the above). Activate this Easter egg as follows:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Go to <a href="http://www.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Search</a>.</li>
<li>Search for <b><i>Tilt</i></b> or <b><i>Askew</i></b> and hit enter.</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The search results will appear as usual but the whole screen will be tilted! Annoying Easter egg or not it is quite a view. Try navigating and reading the search results and experience that you will slowly go into insanity or become nauseated by this simple hack!</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
To actually view the search results without having to become seasick, search for <i><b>"Tilt"</b><b> </b></i>or <i><b>"Askew"</b></i> with the quotation marks instead.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">6. Google Search: Barrel rolling search results</span></h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1vf-tnIP-icVm8a82MEnyDhVttdasCd6PerjhyphenhyphenNHm_uMkDWWpoOsTovTZpDYwAnAavKImo8yT4CrHRzRvzLfi9OX4rZxuwlUonhwxetqD9dygTkl2z0OnvBICOVYnFXGMaQ4zzVtMBQ/s1600/google-barrel-roll.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="eater egg, hack, zerg, snake, youtube, chrome, answer, recursion " border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1vf-tnIP-icVm8a82MEnyDhVttdasCd6PerjhyphenhyphenNHm_uMkDWWpoOsTovTZpDYwAnAavKImo8yT4CrHRzRvzLfi9OX4rZxuwlUonhwxetqD9dygTkl2z0OnvBICOVYnFXGMaQ4zzVtMBQ/s1600/google-barrel-roll.png" height="238" title="Barrel roll just as Z or R twice in the game!" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This secret Easter egg is implemented into Google Search and when executed, the search results will do a barrel roll, that is, rotate a whole revolution. Similar to the above, there are actually two ways to activate this Easter egg hack:</div>
<ol>
<li>Go to <a href="http://www.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Search</a>.</li>
<li>Search for <i><b>Do a barrel roll</b></i> or <b><i>Z or r twice</i></b> and hit enter. </li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Watch the awesome barrel roll that Google does! Similar to the above one can disable this by adding quotation marks around the search terms, although in contrast to the tilted search results, this one actually ends up in a non-distorted results page, so there is no risk for following motion sickness.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><i>For the curious:</i></b> <i>The syntax "Z or R twice" originates from the classical Nintendo Star Fox game series. In the game, Peppy instructs the pilot (Fox McCloud) to "do a barrel roll", which for the player achieves by pressing the "Z or R" key twice!</i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">7. Google Search: The answer to life, the universe and everything</span></h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGidVxXGSjewnwURZnkXpYd7o__XhKWMAy4mn3rmPi2zqk3KEjKAVmO6KkgSRj6EA7WRRJsWxEC3a0VzAuwy2DNaYW4WZEDmmSumd1ba_rRAgLQcp-OhiaNq20VV5IUSMxCuF6AE6G9w/s1600/google-answer-to-life.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="42, hack, recursion, barrel roll, snake, breakout, atari, calculator, secret, hidden, tips, best" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGidVxXGSjewnwURZnkXpYd7o__XhKWMAy4mn3rmPi2zqk3KEjKAVmO6KkgSRj6EA7WRRJsWxEC3a0VzAuwy2DNaYW4WZEDmmSumd1ba_rRAgLQcp-OhiaNq20VV5IUSMxCuF6AE6G9w/s1600/google-answer-to-life.png" height="257" title="Google Easter egg answers question about life, the universe and everything!" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Everyone who has read the <i>Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</i> will definitely smile about this one. Google will here provide the same answer as the supercomputer <i>Deep Though</i> in the book. This secret Easter egg is easily revealed as follows:</div>
<ol>
<li>Go to <a href="http://www.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Search</a>.</li>
<li>Search for <i><b>The answer to life, the universe and everything</b></i><b><i></i></b> and hit enter. </li>
</ol>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">8. Google Search: Recursion that leads to recursion...</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9dZNscb-EShbdvDRapPmnSbmJZoD2R2kfEbtLMrX5rHksIqbnJBdktT9VaXrrbzkCFgbxrMQMRm0DQgzT-9JtWSKJ9rwAWPBadhR-7x0n69Cz2rxssJ5xO1eaRQ1xU4rSEVNnB3wBjA/s1600/google_recursion.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="easter egg, barrel roll, breakout, zerg, rush, game, skew, cool, amazing, best, top, toplist" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9dZNscb-EShbdvDRapPmnSbmJZoD2R2kfEbtLMrX5rHksIqbnJBdktT9VaXrrbzkCFgbxrMQMRm0DQgzT-9JtWSKJ9rwAWPBadhR-7x0n69Cz2rxssJ5xO1eaRQ1xU4rSEVNnB3wBjA/s1600/google_recursion.png" height="221" title="Google Search recursion hack that leads back to recursion!" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Finally, one of my own nerdy hidden Easter egg favourites that is revealed through the steps below:</div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Go to <a href="http://www.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Search</a>.</li>
<li>Search for <i><b>Recursion</b></i> and hit enter.</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Notice that Google suggests "<i>Did you mean: recursion</i>". The more nerdy ones amongst us will definitely smile when seeing this, since recursion is a term commonly used in mathematics and computer science referring to an entity that repeats itself.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Google is after all around us everywhere these days and I hope these 8 of the best newly found Easter egg hacks will make your slow day a little bit more fun! At least I have wasted lots of time killing zergs in Zerg Rush, bouncing a small ball in Atari Breakout, running in the desert with a T-Rex, and passing time by playing Snake in crappy YouTube clips! Feel free to leave a comment or add any other fun secret Easter eggs that you feel should be in the top list!</div>
</div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-26691846668615093912015-02-27T03:10:00.001-08:002015-03-02T11:14:35.319-08:00Top 6 new diseases and syndromes caused by modern technology<h2 style="text-align: left;">
The benefits of modern technology on our daily lives are immense and many of us cannot imagine living without our gadgets, such as, smartphones, tablets, and desktop/laptop computers. Unfortunately, as more and more time is spent on interacting with modern technology, some previously rare or even unknown disorders and syndromes have appeared. This article describes the top worst syndromes that many of us have but few of us know about as well as some tips and remedies.</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnjSwqWwQNjC4HFAA4Lj6l-en8li4UBgjfHxeN-NQ-QgzpYdb69boSOR2GQx70FMVCi-Al0Q4bsNU4fg5SyG_phDcq3fIbxY_bWNvvDqP8CZ5aHhej0qaT-nyOmgtYz9MF6XXvYetLzA/s1600/sick_disease_tech.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="health, disease, disorder, ipad, iphone, laptop, smartphone, tablet, computer" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnjSwqWwQNjC4HFAA4Lj6l-en8li4UBgjfHxeN-NQ-QgzpYdb69boSOR2GQx70FMVCi-Al0Q4bsNU4fg5SyG_phDcq3fIbxY_bWNvvDqP8CZ5aHhej0qaT-nyOmgtYz9MF6XXvYetLzA/s1600/sick_disease_tech.png" height="213" title="Technology and gadgets are making us sick without us knowing!" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Most of us associate diseases caused by our modern society and lifestyle to cancer, diabetes, obesity or various kinds of epidemics. While these diseases will not affect most of us (luckily), few of us consider the much higher risks of developing syndromes and disorders simply caused by our over-use of high-tech gadgets. Think about it, when was the last time you or someone you know complained about pain or strain in your arms, hands, neck, eyes, or back? Chances are that most of us are developing chronic pain or infections without even knowing about it, simply because we spend too much time in front of our laptop, tablet or smartphone.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Since awareness is one of the most effective ways to prevent any kind of disease from spreading, the top 5 most common disorders and syndromes are presented as well as cures, remedies and prevention tips.</div>
</div>
<a name='more'></a><!-- adsense -->
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">1. Texting thumb/finger syndrome</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKv76vYgeXMtCRZr9GVH4VFTUMqVFueMxMEFovpvlniE0g1flTWNypdbhyphenhyphenYUFVuDj7bZJNbiyWmvfwS-Mz5bz55Omo3K-VNIQcPKkTsbQ6JDwJ3VcIXGFgW8QR1wxELsQoS_jFXK4sKQ/s1600/thumb_sad-public.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="thumb, disease, sick, typing, broken, disorder" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKv76vYgeXMtCRZr9GVH4VFTUMqVFueMxMEFovpvlniE0g1flTWNypdbhyphenhyphenYUFVuDj7bZJNbiyWmvfwS-Mz5bz55Omo3K-VNIQcPKkTsbQ6JDwJ3VcIXGFgW8QR1wxELsQoS_jFXK4sKQ/s1600/thumb_sad-public.png" height="200" title="Extensive texting can break finger joints and knuckles!" width="197" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This particular disorder started to pop up when cell phones started to become popular and puzzled doctors and physicians for a long time before the cause was found. The cause turned out to be related to the increasing number of text messages sent by each person. In particular for the older phones with physical dial pads which use the T9-type input, the use of a single thumb to type was the common input method. This, in addition with the sheer high number of presses to send even the simplest text messages resulted in overload of the muscles and tendons attached to the thumb.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Today with smartphones and touch displays, this disorder is still commonly found. Although the difference is that it is no longer restricted to the thumb, but rather any finger(s) that the user mainly uses to interact with their device. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><b>Symptoms:</b> Pain and needle like sensation at the joints and knuckle of the affected finger with disorder.<br /><b>Remedy and cure:</b> Alternate the finger that you use to interact with your smartphone.</i></div>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">2. Sweeping finger disorder</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></h3>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXIrBnt6VR1hB563-iYJLloLw89Ny2cl0mbX4QWYzEi0BzfbuInSo7wRj5JjEVKKb7Y8bOjUUKVPgFRjkIqJc4l5x8QbcF1EcnQLFsEXmqd7kNxPy3r8A-ezNF6KB8sAcxNPnkGzd4gg/s1600/finger_blister_commons.wikimedia.org.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="disease, disorder, pain, iphone, ipad, smartphone, touch pad" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXIrBnt6VR1hB563-iYJLloLw89Ny2cl0mbX4QWYzEi0BzfbuInSo7wRj5JjEVKKb7Y8bOjUUKVPgFRjkIqJc4l5x8QbcF1EcnQLFsEXmqd7kNxPy3r8A-ezNF6KB8sAcxNPnkGzd4gg/s1600/finger_blister_commons.wikimedia.org.jpg" height="150" title="Blister on fingertip from sweeping touch screens!" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image: http://www.wikimedia.org</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The touch screens on our modern device are certainly great in many aspects. However, our sensitive fingertips are not made to repeatedly sweep over surfaces. Consider that some of the most popular games for Android phones and iPhone platforms easily can have the user sweeping a distance of 12 m (470 inches) every minute, it is not surprising that some individuals end up with fingertips with blisters, wounds or other disorders and pain.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
For non-gamers, the situation is much better, although one should still not underestimate the distance we sweep with our fingers to simply scroll around the apps and pages we use!</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><b>Symptoms:</b> Sensitive fingertips with blisters, wounds and calluses.<br /><b>Remedy and cure:</b> Alternate the sweep finger. As a last resort, use touch enabled gloves.</i></div>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">3. Texting neck or cell-phone/tablet neck syndrome</span></h3>
<!-- adsense2 -->
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhE5RysP5lPeXDMvYAnwULCG0dd4Y1fqmXTd7kF7RNwH2LNVgvV52_vz87gnCe6BNkAhtSGbR97Yksq27Vz4WPk3MN3FJZgPYeTZaN4HRCgCiCr0Ov_88AjWMB90TD2X8zy5ONxVaJTA/s1600/smartphone_excitement-public.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="pain, stiff neck, migraine, headache, posture, iphone, ipad" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhE5RysP5lPeXDMvYAnwULCG0dd4Y1fqmXTd7kF7RNwH2LNVgvV52_vz87gnCe6BNkAhtSGbR97Yksq27Vz4WPk3MN3FJZgPYeTZaN4HRCgCiCr0Ov_88AjWMB90TD2X8zy5ONxVaJTA/s1600/smartphone_excitement-public.png" height="200" title="Bent neck while using your device can hurt your neck!" width="83" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The natural posture when using a smartphone or tablet is with the device situated at a level way below our eyes. This means that we typically lean our head downwards and sometimes also extend our neck in the forward direction. Research has shown that by leaning our heads downwards at an angle of 60 degrees the strain on our neck is approximately 27 kg (60 lb), which is equivalent of the weight of a 7-years-old child.<br />
<br />
Based on the above, it is of no surprise that our modern devices cause us to stiffness and pain in and around the neck. For many individuals this also results in headaches, and in the worst case migraine attacks.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<br />
<i><b>Symptoms:</b> Neck pain and stiffness as well as headaches and migraine attacks.</i><br />
<i><b>Remedy and cure:</b> Be aware of your posture, try and hold the device in use more in level with your eyes to keep your neck straight.</i></div>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>4. Laptop thigh disorder</b></span></span></b></h3>
<h3>
<b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b> </b></span></span></b></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiwXBrhAch2RYYkU0x-PiWDHVGfatvTcVZp62garRoWXD6TL6tJB3n4mrqsSdN26dWqyRz7Nc48GWsNRK00ctqdNVhw1Y4WGSauUB0xtgdCvvoey5ulJ29zAqfJ5ibk-b6fdUZOiBs5g/s1600/laptop_hot.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="erythema ab igne, hot water syndrome, rash thigh, cooler" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiwXBrhAch2RYYkU0x-PiWDHVGfatvTcVZp62garRoWXD6TL6tJB3n4mrqsSdN26dWqyRz7Nc48GWsNRK00ctqdNVhw1Y4WGSauUB0xtgdCvvoey5ulJ29zAqfJ5ibk-b6fdUZOiBs5g/s1600/laptop_hot.png" height="112" title="Laptop surfaces are hot and can burn your thighs!" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Back in the days, people would seek care for rashes on their thighs caused by extensive use of hot-water bottles, heating blankets or car-seat heaters. Today, with powerful laptops replacing the traditional desktop computers, this syndrome has returned. The medial term of this syndrome is erythema ab igne, and it is caused by prolonged skin exposure to a hot surface with a temperature higher than 42 C (110 F), something which is obviously simple to achieve for a modern laptop computer.<br />
<br />
Simply put, having a hot laptop surface on your lap for too long is not healthy and for male individuals, research has also shown that prolonged use of laptops resting on the thighs has negative impact on the reproduction abilities. In addition, this particular syndrome can even become permanent rashes and could increase the risk of developing some cancer types in the future.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Symptoms:</b> Net-like rashes the skin, typically the thighs which are exposed by the hot laptop surface.</i><br />
<i><b>Remedy and cure:</b> Try and place the laptop on a desk. There are also laptop pads and coolers that can be place between the thighs and the laptop. </i></div>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">5. Digital eye strain syndrome</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZKhv8yY4xxyL3WP9DxTQIW80GjwLRk1uxjjY0i7VhQc5cQTrIBrWDTO2luXQjCHqpYlxrOr3E4JZjpmvC5Drc-DEJlfb2c2tvGxqTfpYxQBNbztRSsBUH3LPQVo47Nk0rUbqgncVn5A/s1600/eye_strain-public.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="red eye, swollen eye, headache, vision disorder" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZKhv8yY4xxyL3WP9DxTQIW80GjwLRk1uxjjY0i7VhQc5cQTrIBrWDTO2luXQjCHqpYlxrOr3E4JZjpmvC5Drc-DEJlfb2c2tvGxqTfpYxQBNbztRSsBUH3LPQVo47Nk0rUbqgncVn5A/s1600/eye_strain-public.jpg" height="150" title="Looking at a screen can cause bloodshot eyes, eye strain and migraines!" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Our eyes have obviously not evolved to be used to stare at a computer screen for extend periods of time. However, in the modern technological society, this is the reality for many of us. When working with a computer screen, we tend to blink less, and also move our eyes around less. Thus, the eyes dry and the characteristic red-eye appears. Other symptoms are eye strain, itching eyes and swollen eye lids. <br />
<br />
While most symptoms are only present temporarily and disappear when we start to do something else, in the worst cases permanent vision changes may occur. Research has shown that 70% of the American population has experienced digital eye strain.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Symptoms:</b> Reddish eyes, itching eyes, eye strain, swollen eye lids, headache, vision disorders (e.g. double vision).</i><br />
<i><b>Remedy and cure:</b> Remember that our eyes are not adapted for screen work. Try to rest and look at other objects during extended periods of time in front of a screen.</i></div>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">6. Tennis elbow disorder</span></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-FoppKnZLlctWlihINZYMOTKfVAX11AWJcc28IXhOtn8tTfKIQx_P1wD88IOQLbG3xMfNN2OBJzevQLVJ9O-Fm3qYNfLWcC3VuW_RP0aTqSzUOPJyUxpG-O7jTcS4dmKjcIZk78GMEw/s1600/tennis_elbow-public.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="elbow pain, forearm, pain grip, difficulties grip, finger" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-FoppKnZLlctWlihINZYMOTKfVAX11AWJcc28IXhOtn8tTfKIQx_P1wD88IOQLbG3xMfNN2OBJzevQLVJ9O-Fm3qYNfLWcC3VuW_RP0aTqSzUOPJyUxpG-O7jTcS4dmKjcIZk78GMEw/s1600/tennis_elbow-public.png" height="200" title="Heavy computer or video game usage can cause tennis elbow disorder!" width="118" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Perhaps the most known disease caused by modern technology. The medical term is lateral epicondylitis, while it has historically affected tennis players, today it is actually not fair to call it tennis elbow as it affects computer users much more than tennis players. Tennis elbow can occur during repetitive movements of the fingers and wrists as a result of overload in the involved muscles which are attached to a region around the elbow. This is often followed by inflammation and pain around the elbow region and the forearm making it difficult to grip and lift objects, even the very light ones.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<br />
<i><b>Symptoms:</b> Pain around the elbow region and forearm while gripping objects.<br /><b>Remedy and cure:</b> Try exercise the wrists and fingers occasionally. There are also more ergonomic keyboards and mice available.</i></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i> </i><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
Clearly the society that we live in today may make it difficult to avoid all of the above. However, it is worthwhile to note that by simply remembering to take breaks, stretch and alternate working positions many of the disorders and syndromes can be avoided altogether. Always remember that our bodies are built to move and not for monotonic or repetitive work!</div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-83915337971040710012015-02-17T11:12:00.000-08:002015-02-22T14:03:18.313-08:00Fix for iPhone not charging through USB on Ubuntu Linux<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
Connecting an iPhone/iPad/iPod to Ubuntu or a modern Linux system is usually a plug-and-play experience. However, with new iOS versions, sometimes the device simply fails to charge through USB even if it is recognized by the system. While rebooting Ubuntu solves the problem, it is actually possible to resolve the problem without a reboot. </h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxoJ2ylX5Yq4-xp6JGfpNnlZnG-BxfazXFW8jgoXDFp3b522SLofgBXttOHe4Cm85aKXRAg35i0n_7JBMS3enSJqd9qER8KKfQKkuU7Tjw0xqUJmmNJRFXXu06S-INyxtpXFLL-hnCMw/s1600/iPhone_out_of_battery_fix_ubuntu.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="battery, linux, debian, fix, tutorial, charge, USB, iPhone, iPad, iPod" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxoJ2ylX5Yq4-xp6JGfpNnlZnG-BxfazXFW8jgoXDFp3b522SLofgBXttOHe4Cm85aKXRAg35i0n_7JBMS3enSJqd9qER8KKfQKkuU7Tjw0xqUJmmNJRFXXu06S-INyxtpXFLL-hnCMw/s1600/iPhone_out_of_battery_fix_ubuntu.png" height="174" title="Fix broken Ubuntu iPhone charging through USB cable." width="320" /></a></div>
The Ubuntu Linux distribution is certainly great in many aspects, although when it comes to supporting the newest iOS versions on Apple devices, the support is usually lagging behind and also buggy and lacking. Many users of the newer iOS versions have run into cases where they have plugged in their iPhone to their Ubuntu system with everything working smoothly, and all of a sudden (while the iPhone is plugged in), the iPhone simply cease to charge or become unreachable on Ubuntu. Rebooting the computer does bring the iPhone back to life, however, the problem is more easily solved if we understand it better. </div>
<a name='more'></a><!-- adsense -->
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Investigations show that an iDevice, in particularly, iPhone can end
up in a locked state, from the perspective of Ubuntu, if the user
receives a phone call, text message, or any other notification event
that actually activates a closed or iOS-frozen background process and
making it active. Thus, this indicates that something on the Ubuntu
system which deals with the USB communication with the iPhone must be
the culprit. Remember, a reboot of, for example, Ubuntu actually does
make everything work again.<br />
<br />
The culprit turns out to be the daemon known as <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">usbmuxd</span> (USB Multiplex Daemon) which communicates with iPhone/iPod/iPad devices by opening TCP ports and connections through the <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">usbmuxd protocol</span>. Unfortunately,
full and proper support for the newest iOS versions is usually lacking,
which can throw the usbmuxd process into weird states that fails to
properly establish communication with an iPhone. In such cases, the
iPhone may simply not charge, even though the user can otherwise access
the iPhone in Ubuntu Linux, or the iPhone may not be visible at all from
the high-level user interfaces.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguEjuMR0h56JEzmQ6EZWeLF7TcwSFYO-BUtNgYZp8RgV4ACjLgUM_ofi_nwXbRUm79pqFFPlclwvOAR3FqEIzAEYW-edNIcHJOI3fSDkY5Jk16Vy03d5jbP9GzvPRe7zra3uynmRcpdQ/s1600/iphone_out_of_battery_charging.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="iphone, battery empty, charging, charge, usb, ubuntu, linux" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguEjuMR0h56JEzmQ6EZWeLF7TcwSFYO-BUtNgYZp8RgV4ACjLgUM_ofi_nwXbRUm79pqFFPlclwvOAR3FqEIzAEYW-edNIcHJOI3fSDkY5Jk16Vy03d5jbP9GzvPRe7zra3uynmRcpdQ/s1600/iphone_out_of_battery_charging.png" height="133" title="iPhone failing to charge in Ubuntu, fooling users through the symbol." width="200" /></a></div>
A particularly interesting case, illustrated to the left, is when the iPhone detects a plugged in USB cable, but it simply does not charge at any measurable rate, even though the symbol from the lock screen indicates it. This means that usbmuxd has failed to communicate properly with the iPhone to put it into charging mode.<br />
<br />
Perhaps the "correct" way to fix the problem is to either commit a fix to bring full support to usbmuxd for new iOS versions, or to manually install a newer version of usbmuxd, if it exists. However, the former alternative is probably too technical for most users, and the latter is really not the way Ubuntu is designed to be used. Ubuntu should be user-friendly, and one such aspect is to remove the need of users from having to manually install libraries and packages from sources outside of the default repositories (hardcore Windows users will probably disagree, that is fine, you can continue your internet treasure hunts). For me, when I encounter the error of my iPhone not charging anymore on my Ubuntu and Debian Linux systems, a simple restart of usbmuxd has by far been easiest way to resolve the issue. This is easily accomplished through the following steps:<!-- adsense2 -->
<ol>
<li><b>Identify the usbmuxd process: </b>Open up a terminal and type,<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">$ ps aux | grep usbmux</span></blockquote>
which should return an output like<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">usbmux <span style="background-color: #ffe599;">6781</span> 0.0 0.0 230120 6584 ? Sl 09:30 0:00 /usr/sbin/usbmuxd -u -U usbmux</span></blockquote>
</div>
</li>
<li><b>Kill usbmuxd: </b>The highlighted number (6781) above is the process id/number for usbmuxd (unique for all systems and the state of a system). What we want to do is to kill this process and restart it. This can be done by the following command in the terminal,<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">$ sudo kill -9 6781</span></blockquote>
</li>
<li><b>Restart usbmuxd:</b> With usbmuxd dead we need to manually start it again in order for Ubuntu to one again recognize the iPhone/iPad/iPod. Bring up the terminal once again and type,<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">$</span> <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">sudo usbmuxd -u -U usbmux</span></blockquote>
here, the flag -u means to run it in udev operation mode and -U to change the user of the process to usbmux after startup. </li>
</ol>
Note that for steps 2 and 3, we need to use <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">sudo</span> since the process is owned by the user "usbmux" and starting it in step 3 requires USB priviledges.<br />
<br />
Following this the iPhone should automatically be picked up by the Ubuntu Linux system and starting to charge and to transfer data! Hopefully this will be useful for some of you out there who, like me, had been forced to restart the whole computer when the issue popped up. As mentioned above, for me, this typically happened when I received a phone call, text message or certain push notifications while my iPhone was plugged into my Ubuntu or Debian machines through USB.</div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-32798906183965649212015-02-12T04:35:00.000-08:002015-03-02T11:29:05.805-08:00How to put Matlab icon/shortcut on Ubuntu Unity launcher bar<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
The Ubuntu Linux is one of the most popular distributions to run Matlab on *nix systems. However, the Unity launcher used by Ubuntu does not support Matlab by default and putting a shortcut to Matlab is a confusing and non-trivial task. This tutorial demonstrates an easy and straight-forward way to integrate Matlab with Unity in Ubuntu.</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOE8gGQyXXeRIEzfDBZfcQG4wV-sa_CgQ2-rmHW-KT4tSMSiM_1nPJuA4I6dv6oBvTlF39qbyM7hyvdakrB4Q9ClNf-wao_jHPNxZSBokn9GEyT9fYrjeKxaZF6OVO2qtj9xWT6Eag6w/s1600/ubuntu_matlab_unity.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="unity launcher, linux, ubuntu, matlab, shortcut" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOE8gGQyXXeRIEzfDBZfcQG4wV-sa_CgQ2-rmHW-KT4tSMSiM_1nPJuA4I6dv6oBvTlF39qbyM7hyvdakrB4Q9ClNf-wao_jHPNxZSBokn9GEyT9fYrjeKxaZF6OVO2qtj9xWT6Eag6w/s1600/ubuntu_matlab_unity.png" height="283" title="Matlab shortcut in Unity launcher Ubuntu" width="320" /></a></div>
The powerful scientific computing tool, Matlab (Matrix Laboratory) from Mathworks is certainly a widely used tool in the scientific world. While Mathworks does provide good Windows, Linux, *nix, Mac OS X support for Matlab out-of-the-box, one overlooked aspect is the integration of Matlab to the Unity launcher used in Ubuntu. </div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Most users will find the installation process itself smooth across all platforms (kudos to Mathworks), however, the Ubuntu user will quickly after the <span style="background-color: white;">installation wonder how on earth they are supposed to launch Matlab, as it does not show up on the Unity launcher bar and does not show up either when searching for it through the Unity lenses. While it is of course possible to use the terminal to launch Matlab through, for example,<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span></span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: white;">$ matlab -desktop</span></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: white;">$ /usr/local/MATLAB/R201Xa/bin/matlab</span></span></blockquote>
</div>
<!-- adsense -->
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
this approach is certainly not optimal, and most definitely rhymes badly with the user-friendliness of Ubuntu. Fortunately, integrating Matlab with Unity in Ubuntu can be made relatively easy by following these steps: </div>
<ol>
<li><div style="text-align: justify;">
Make sure that the Matlab binary already has a symbolic link in your default path by typing the following into a terminal:</div>
<br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: white;">$ sudo ln -s usr/local/MATLAB/R201Xa/bin/matlab </span><span style="background-color: white;">/usr/local/bin/matlab</span></span><br /><br />obviously by replacing the capital X in "R201Xa" with the proper path.<br /><br /> </li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Make Unity launcher in Ubuntu aware of Matlab by creating the hard link:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">$ sudo ln /usr/share/app-install/desktop/matlab-support:matlab.desktop /usr/share/applications/matlab.desktop</span><br /><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="background-color: black;"></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Edit the </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">/usr/share/app-install/desktop/matlab-support:matlab.desktop</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b> </b>file with your <a href="http://phenomtech.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-top-5-best-text-editors-for-linux.html" target="_blank">favourite text editor</a> which will show:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">[Desktop Entry]<br />X-AppInstall-Package=matlab-support<br />X-AppInstall-Popcon=3<br />X-AppInstall-Section=multiverse<br /><br />Version=1.0<br />Type=Application<br /><span style="color: red;">Terminal=false</span><br />Exec=matlab -desktop<br />Name=MATLAB<br /><span style="color: red;">Icon=_usr_share_icons_hicolor_48x48_apps_matlab</span><br />Categories=Development;Math;Science<br />Comment=Scientific computing environment<br />StartupNotify=true<br />StartupWMClass=com-mathworks-util-PostVMInit<br /><br />X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=app-install-data</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Change the following (<span style="font-family: inherit;">marked in red above</span>) two lines to be:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Terminal=true<br />Icon=/usr/share/app-install/icons/_usr_share_icons_hicolor_48x48_apps_matlab.png</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">After saving the above file, Matlab will be fully integrated and appear in the Unity launcher. Thus, it is possible to use the lenses to find the installed Matlab application (<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Meta/Windows-key+A</span>) and also to lock the Matlab icon to the launcher by right clicking on it when it is running. Of course, it is also still possible to launch Matlab from the terminal and then lock it to the launcher if one so wishes! </span></div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-31770745396993334292014-02-26T08:35:00.002-08:002015-02-24T11:45:52.651-08:00Cell phone radiation levels safe for humans<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme study shows that radiation from cell (mobile) phones are safe and not harmful to the human health.</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLR5SbRvReUXnOW4pTDo9v0l48kd_XqkrB6vnkwYAk84eylHhDgd8QQVwDmfEPFcEwrPwG8UsTnuOJpMWqjsL5HZPbsxbcipXBaRmzjCdLPLl21vsul3LrFmcBgANLqRC2jR-U9I79ew/s1600/mobile_radiation.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="phone radiation cell cancer protection health" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLR5SbRvReUXnOW4pTDo9v0l48kd_XqkrB6vnkwYAk84eylHhDgd8QQVwDmfEPFcEwrPwG8UsTnuOJpMWqjsL5HZPbsxbcipXBaRmzjCdLPLl21vsul3LrFmcBgANLqRC2jR-U9I79ew/s1600/mobile_radiation.png" height="318" title="Radiation from mobile phone proven to be safe for human health." width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Our world is surrounded by sources which emit radiation. During the last decades, the number of radiation sources in our vicinity has exploded with the availability of wifi networks and cell phones. The question of whether or not radio waves used by these sources are harmful for humans has been up for debate for a very long time. The critics, for example, claim that cell phone radiation causes brain tumors and affect the general well being of humans in various negative ways. The critics have primarily based their conclusions on some studies performed on small animals (rats/mice) which indeed have shown adverse effects when the animals were exposed to large amounts of radiation from radio waves. However, physics clearly shows that the energy in radio waves carry insufficient energy to ionize atoms or to affect the biological functions. Thus, to most people in the scientific community, the radiation from cell phones and wifi networks is considered to be safe. Often it is also pointed out that the small animals were exposed to enormous amount of radiation, which are off-the-chart to induce any effect on the health. </div>
<a name='more'></a>
<!-- adsense -->
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Regardless of the arguments proposed by both camps, so far, the lack of long-term raw data has made it impossible draw any final conclusions. However, a recent study by the Mobile Telecommunication and Health Research Programme (MTHR) may now once and for all settle the debate. The study has been conducted for 11 years and has so far costed 13.6 million GBP. This study has collected data published for the last 11 years from 31 different projects and 60 published theses. The results, as claimed by the researchers, show no adverse health effects that could be related to the use of cell phones or the exposure of radio-wave radiation. These results hopefully settles one of the arguments by the critics, which is that no long-term studies have been conducted on humans. </div>
<!-- adsense2 -->
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The report does not end the study by the MTHR which are dedicated to continue collecting data for many years to come. However, no indications show that the results after, yet another decade, would be any different. Thus, for now, it is more than safe to disregard the myths about cell-phone radiation and cancer or other unscientific claims.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The full report of the radiation study can be found from the MTHR homepage <a href="http://www.mthr.org.uk/documents/MTHRreport2012.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-31259683876272617152014-02-21T02:40:00.000-08:002015-02-22T14:12:28.857-08:00Ubuntu: Broken BackupPC web interface fix<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h2>
Ubuntu recently updated the Apache version to 2.4. However, this new version is unusable with BackupPC out of the box and breaks the web interface. Fortunately, the fix is easy as described in this tutorial.</h2>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh44-0dbUr6amn0Ege9BC9eEW3A91U3CU8JpoBC-rAoC8IVRGVvsAJh9_C7jI6D9usgSqerCvYTSKXR8eqH8bV1nYlrTpeWssEqER8gHSgVAbEbTcB_r78aDXTMi5KzMwRQCWe8R5U0Mw/s1600/linux_fix.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu saucy trusty 14 backuppc apache web fix" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh44-0dbUr6amn0Ege9BC9eEW3A91U3CU8JpoBC-rAoC8IVRGVvsAJh9_C7jI6D9usgSqerCvYTSKXR8eqH8bV1nYlrTpeWssEqER8gHSgVAbEbTcB_r78aDXTMi5KzMwRQCWe8R5U0Mw/s1600/linux_fix.png" height="185" title="Ubuntu Saucy BackupPC web interface Apache fix through symbolic links." width="200" /></a>During an upgrade process of a distribution, naturally, a large number of packages (software) will simultaneously be upgraded as well. One main task for distribution managers is to ensure that compatibility is ensured to the greatest extent. However, as the number of combinations of package dependencies is extreme, it is unavoidable that practical problems which may render some software useless from time to time. Fortunately, in most such cases, a fix is relatively easy to find.</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Starting from the Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander distribution, the apache2 (Apache 2.4) package was introduced. This new Apache version, however, no longer reads the configurations from <i>/etc/apache2/conf.d/</i> directory and instead reads the configuration files from <i>/etc/apache2/conf-enabled/</i> directory. This had the side effect of breaking, for example, the web interface for the popular backup tool known as BackupPC.<br />
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Since BackupPC is built with an easy-to-use web interface in mind, with no other GUI options integrated, it is rendered useless out-of-the-box in Ubuntu 13.10. Luckily, the core functionalities of Apache remain, and a remedy for the situation is relatively easy.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<!-- adsense -->
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
Symbolic link fixes BackupPC web interface in Ubuntu 13.10</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The easiest way to fix the web interface is to make a symbolic link from the "old" Apache path to the current Apache 2.4 configuration path.</div>
<ol style="text-align: justify;">
<li>In Ubuntu, press: <i>Alt + F2</i></li>
<li>Type: <i>terminal </i></li>
<li>In the terminal type: <i>sudo ln -s /etc/backuppc/apache.conf /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/backuppc.conf</i></li>
<li>Restart Apache by: <i>sudo service apache2 restart</i></li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After a restart of the Apache server the web interface should once again be accessible through the web browser with the default URL <i>http://localhost/backuppc</i>. </div>
<!-- adsense2 -->
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
BackupPC fix in future Ubuntu versions</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The above bug is already known by the Ubuntu developers and, perhaps more importantly, the Debian teams. Thus a fix should have been easy. Unfortunately, it has been reported the bug still exists in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr as well as Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn. Hopefully this will be remedied in 15.04 making BackupPC once again functional out-of-the-box.</div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-4726456816981957912014-02-14T07:43:00.000-08:002015-02-22T14:23:42.856-08:00The top 5 best text editors for Linux<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
Good and excellent text editors have a long tradition in the Linux/*nix world. These text editors, which initially may appear simple and trivial, are paramount for programmers around the world and are still very actively developed. This article lists 5 of the best text editors available today.</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXUR9GU2AkuEsOsONar6M4ctuZWLN95K4Ayli4gPLag9dZ6_QxAV0YohWVfL7AA9QXMOnkqlg6Hnkaf5pEAkuXJu-zBdfXgjvkl-SvRFNOAFuvL0E5efPmNOO03Hq2Yo6b4KBBwlgDEg/s1600/editor.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best editor top word office programming" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXUR9GU2AkuEsOsONar6M4ctuZWLN95K4Ayli4gPLag9dZ6_QxAV0YohWVfL7AA9QXMOnkqlg6Hnkaf5pEAkuXJu-zBdfXgjvkl-SvRFNOAFuvL0E5efPmNOO03Hq2Yo6b4KBBwlgDEg/s200/editor.png" height="169" title="Top 5 great text editors (IDEs) for Linux/*nix." width="200" /></a>There certainly is no lack of text editors under various forms of licenses. Most people may think of Microsoft Word in the Office suite or Apple's Pages as text editors, they are actually better referred to as word processors than text editors. Instead, text editors are usually composed of a simplistic layout, with little to no typesetting features. However, they greatly excel over the word processors when it comes to software development for programmers and in addition usually support a large number of programming languages and script languages. This article summarizes 5 of the most useful text editors for a Linux/*nix environment.</div>
<a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">1. Gedit - Excellent and user friendly text editor</span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib_6C6kvilViXgL_uGFlEnc8i7CiNZWxmukFm5BoKC1wyBUaEZ7-TvNqJzB5Vd_j0HCtTYcQ8qPAjJkGM3EN_dpkY_Q5fp_Z0WJi4uPpvXOPpvQOT2ACGkZ5ecnz9nnjMTSpG_mFTB2Q/s1600/gedit.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best word office text editor linux" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib_6C6kvilViXgL_uGFlEnc8i7CiNZWxmukFm5BoKC1wyBUaEZ7-TvNqJzB5Vd_j0HCtTYcQ8qPAjJkGM3EN_dpkY_Q5fp_Z0WJi4uPpvXOPpvQOT2ACGkZ5ecnz9nnjMTSpG_mFTB2Q/s1600/gedit.png" height="216" title="Gedit is a good text editor focusing on usability and simplicity." width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Gedit is the official text editor in the Gnome desktop environment and was initially released in the early 1999. Since then Gedit has focused on user friendliness and simplicity and for me has definitely the most used text editor for my day-to-day duties.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Gedit supports a large number of markup languages. In addition, there are a large number of plugins available for Gedit that make it possible to do just about anything provided a well used programming or script language. For example, plugins are readily available for the typesetting package, LaTeX that make it easy to convert code directly into PDF while also ensuring that BibTeX is properly executed.</div>
<!-- adsense -->
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">2. GNU Nano - Good command line text editor for most tasks</span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnVNwUGDXq0Xzj-SX1sbBSnY1Paj9QRV4Pbo2nVdrE6xJS871ktmoyhhohe_BpOmD-qC8rzG4ZHCiZSlTl564K_PrDF3oKuHqILqvW8mTuFQ6Ih2qN8HRn1FEhAmvitsskNnjpprnECQ/s1600/nano.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="top text office word editor microsoft nix" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnVNwUGDXq0Xzj-SX1sbBSnY1Paj9QRV4Pbo2nVdrE6xJS871ktmoyhhohe_BpOmD-qC8rzG4ZHCiZSlTl564K_PrDF3oKuHqILqvW8mTuFQ6Ih2qN8HRn1FEhAmvitsskNnjpprnECQ/s1600/nano.png" height="203" title="Nano is a good CLI text editor found in most *nix envorinments." width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Gnu Nano text editor was initially created as a free clone to Pico and was first released under the name Tip in 1999. The name was later changed to Nano in 2000.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Gnu Nano is a command line interface text editor that is among one of the easiest to get started with for new users, much owing to its intuitive command/help bar at the bottom. In addition, it has become widely popular and is now found by default in most Linux and *nix environments, including the BSD environments such as Mac OS X. Despite its ease of use, Gnu Nano is very capable for programmers and supports language markups for multiple languages. In addition, regular expressions (regexp) are supported for find and replace functions.<br />
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">3. Kate - One of the top text editors for KDE users</span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPQr-myEqJ5Amwp5bIZ8wfGrH05UjrTVe8MjJRa7087sQcE9VIOF_G_lH6gIG_oW5y9UQkafX0Rv9KWfgwSJD9oMaFNo34exldUPwoE4cHHTJTEtHZmrWkwpqx7libp7xYiJ9Kw5jsKQ/s1600/kate.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best top text word office software linux windows" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPQr-myEqJ5Amwp5bIZ8wfGrH05UjrTVe8MjJRa7087sQcE9VIOF_G_lH6gIG_oW5y9UQkafX0Rv9KWfgwSJD9oMaFNo34exldUPwoE4cHHTJTEtHZmrWkwpqx7libp7xYiJ9Kw5jsKQ/s1600/kate.png" height="218" title="Kate is one of the best GUI text editors for KDE users." width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The name Kate stands for KDE Advanced Text Editor, and not surprisingly Kate is designed for KDE users and part of the KDE Software Compilation since 2001.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Kate is a text editor designed with programmers in mind and is used in, for example, the Kdevelop software development suite. Kate naturally supports a large number of programming languages, but it is also designed with project development in mind, meaning that it, out of the box, is highly capable for larger development works. Perhaps not the most user friendly text editor out there, but definitely a very capable one.</div>
<!-- adsense2 -->
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">4. GNU Emacs - The King of CLI text editors</span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4XHvjHEonRRp2LflAzVnDZm1wUqjJNQhYx5IgBDz5yu9SdxXciWl2wQ0dGjOI-No5Zfhuie0v-B7NPhCnkQOVVLc8T5mfsJBk2F-e2xNbqu8jtq1f8gxUEkrqKJSwvPBudrB7Qa8c6Q/s1600/emacs.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best top editor office word text windows linux" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4XHvjHEonRRp2LflAzVnDZm1wUqjJNQhYx5IgBDz5yu9SdxXciWl2wQ0dGjOI-No5Zfhuie0v-B7NPhCnkQOVVLc8T5mfsJBk2F-e2xNbqu8jtq1f8gxUEkrqKJSwvPBudrB7Qa8c6Q/s1600/emacs.png" height="218" title="Emacs is one of the most powerful text editors available." width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Emacs has been around since 1979 and the time is derived from Editor MACros. The text editor has, from the very beginning, had professional use in mind.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Despite that most of its life it has been primarily a command line tool, it is extremely powerful and has a large number of followers. The graphical shell was not added until much later. Yet, today, most Emacs users still use the tool as a command line text editor due to its powerful keyboard commands. Emacs is commonly considered to be somewhat difficult to learn although it is very efficient in code development for the more experienced users.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">5. Vim - Blazing fast text editor with steep learning curve</span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjrHDKfb9qhrRSy8hhfcl3JS2rWJNazSb_9AxyteTTESsxCeXzdfnQ2N5A9917XeB8e3VjAs_S7ilD8DTDvOVe2NO7xna8dFg5taGwVL46FgDL0TvWUuB4IGeREJfcNzwQU9CwBFb_cQ/s1600/vim.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best fast text word editor office ubuntu" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjrHDKfb9qhrRSy8hhfcl3JS2rWJNazSb_9AxyteTTESsxCeXzdfnQ2N5A9917XeB8e3VjAs_S7ilD8DTDvOVe2NO7xna8dFg5taGwVL46FgDL0TvWUuB4IGeREJfcNzwQU9CwBFb_cQ/s1600/vim.png" height="217" title="One of the fastest text editors available." width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Vim is yet another text editor that has a long history and was first released in 1991. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Today Vim is considered to be one of the fastest text editor available. Its low footprint allows it to be run on virtually any system with excellent performance. However, Vim being command line tool, is also considered to be one of the editors with the steepest learning curves. As expected, Vim supports a large number of languages (~200) and is has a huge (justified) fanbase.</div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-88084516922681196142013-12-04T03:25:00.000-08:002013-12-04T03:28:31.082-08:00Apple patent turns Touch ID into a trackpad <h2 style="text-align: justify;">
The Touch ID fingerprint sensor technology launched with the iPhone 5S has been receiving plenty of attention. Not too surprising, patents have started to emerge now related to the Touch ID technology. One such patent intend to use the Touch ID fingerprint sensor to create a form of trackpad through tracking the movements of a finger.</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEC6IeENAaFRw4oeWbstTYubmDKXLKqqTVSJIpcIiN5J-lqgWjoTrtSZW2wu3VQ178F28dilqXCXB8k-4sjEf9wyhdNCUocU8uqJDXKOR5J_109ditJPnAnOziyAgjdcY7FYqcwgMoAw/s1600/AppleTouchIDPatentcrop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="top touch id patent apple fingerprint trackpad" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEC6IeENAaFRw4oeWbstTYubmDKXLKqqTVSJIpcIiN5J-lqgWjoTrtSZW2wu3VQ178F28dilqXCXB8k-4sjEf9wyhdNCUocU8uqJDXKOR5J_109ditJPnAnOziyAgjdcY7FYqcwgMoAw/s400/AppleTouchIDPatentcrop.png" title="Apple makes trackpad out of Touch ID through PCT/US2013/041868 patent." width="205" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Source: Apple PCT/US2013/04188 <br />Touch ID patent WIPO [www.wipo.int]</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Touch ID fingerprint technology launched with the iPhone 5S promised to change the way biometric information was used on smartphones. So far, the technology seems to have divided the users into two camps: those that love the Touch ID technology and those that are sceptical, mostly due to <a href="http://phenomtech.blogspot.com/2013/09/iphone-5s-sacrificing-your-fingerprint-privacy-with-touch-id.html">security and privacy concerns with Touch ID</a>. However, Apple appears to be convinced that Touch ID contains revolutionary technologies that are worth to protect. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Recently, an international patent application (PCT) under the reference PCT/US2013/04188 by Apple has been made public as it enters its final states of review. This patent application deals with means to use the Touch ID fingerprint sensor to act as a joystick as clearly indicated in the first claim of the patent application stating:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>"1. A method, comprising:<br />at an electronic device with a fingerprint sensor and a display:<br />displaying, on the display, a first user interface;<br />while displaying the first user interface on the display, detecting movement of a fingerprint on the fingerprint sensor; and<br />in response to detecting movement of the fingerprint on the fingerprint sensor:<br />in accordance with a determination that the movement of the fingerprint is in a first direction, navigating through the first user interface; and<br />in accordance with a determination that the movement of the fingerprint is in a second direction different from the first direction, displaying a second user interface different from the first user interface on the display.</i></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>"</i></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br /></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The technology is based on sensing the orientation of the fingerprint, such as a revolving, twisting or translating finger tip purely by tracking the fingerprint pattern. This is certainly very different from conventional trackpads that use either resistive or capacitive sensing to track the fingers. However, considering that fingerprint readers have been around for a long time and most have to implement some sort of finger tracking in order to extract reliable fingerprint data from a user, it is difficult to say to what extent the claims in the patent will be approved. Although the idea still makes a lot of sense as it is probably the most straight forward way to implement a trackpad or joystick-like device on the limited space that is available on modern smartphones. </div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-66968891058189210702013-11-28T03:12:00.001-08:002013-11-28T03:14:59.381-08:00iPad Air review: worth the upgrade vs old iPad models?<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
The iPad Air is significantly thinner than the previous iPad models and carries several upgrades and improvements compared to its predecessor, the iPad 4. This article reviews the most important features in the iPad Air which will be helpful for those considering an upgrade from a previous iPad model.</h2>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8pAh5X1OI5T5A1zD68B43Y30U_Fd_4iA317cfZmVxNztKD4Idq_Z7dqAUwk-8oqyFklH3510td9nX1hQGxV_o3CTd2R46cHkFTd2vxzYbsAbYKhorlztDD1ZBPbLo-L575oL4Myp9PQ/s1600/ipad_air_www.flickr.com_photos_johnkarakatsanis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="ipad 5 air upgrade review features changes updates" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8pAh5X1OI5T5A1zD68B43Y30U_Fd_4iA317cfZmVxNztKD4Idq_Z7dqAUwk-8oqyFklH3510td9nX1hQGxV_o3CTd2R46cHkFTd2vxzYbsAbYKhorlztDD1ZBPbLo-L575oL4Myp9PQ/s320/ipad_air_www.flickr.com_photos_johnkarakatsanis.jpg" title="A review of if the iPad Air is worth the upgrade?" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Img: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnkarakatsanis/</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The iPad Air (iPad 5) is the successor of the iPad 4 and was released on November 1, 2013. As with every new iPad generation, several upgrades and improvements are made, most which will be found under the hood. For the iPad Air, just as the name suggests, it is significantly thinner and lighter than the previous iPad models. However, the improvements on the hardware should not be neglected either.<br />
<br />
For those that already own an iPad model, a clear question is if upgrading to the new iPad Air is worth it. Depending on the individual user preferences, the answer will certainly vary. This article aims to review some of the most significant upgrades and improvements made to the iPad Air that can be useful to decide if the iPad Air is worth the upgrade.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<h3>
iPad Air weight and size reduced</h3>
The iPad Air carries a name with plenty of association with the Macbok Air, both which emphasizes portability. This has resulted in the, by far, lightest iPad model to date weighing in at only 469 g (1.034 lb) for the wifi model and 478 g (1.054 lb) for the wifi/cellular model. The light weight of the iPad Air is to be compared to the iPad 4 wifi at 652 g (1.4374 lb) with older iPad models weighing even more.<br />
<br />
The reduction of the weight of the iPad Air is also reflected on its smaller size, with the iPad Air being as slim as 240 mm x 169.5 mm x 7.5 mm (9.4 in x 6.67 in x 7.5 in). The height and width remain relatively the same as the iPad 4, with the iPad Air being approximately 10% more slim in width. However, the thickness (depth) has been considerably reduced. The iPad Air is more than 20% thinner than the iPad 4, something which definitely is immediately noticeable and results in a device that is easier to handle.<br />
<br />
The achievement by Apple to shave off almost 30% of the weight and up to 20% of the size on the iPad Air as compared to the previously lightest and most portable iPad 4 model is truly impressive. These portability improvements will without a doubt make a huge difference for those that use the iPad during extended periods of time. It is worth to remember that one of the most common complaints with the iPad is that it is too tiresome to hold it up over longer time periods due to muscle strains.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Display upgraded and more efficient on the iPad Air</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWgnlLUi4FwRCjOKPVPIz7QGE-4zaAbvNOw8NgLr5N-3If_m9EoHowGeiqVaAD3_bAXQDbrZ_8fkpAZcnC9YE3-BxGtTUVuXwN7g5JUSKtw0H1U5gYz5e2N3VPjKgEoO-N4jcjNoKOEg/s1600/LCD_matrix-public.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best IGZO iPad air display advantage review IPS TFT" border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWgnlLUi4FwRCjOKPVPIz7QGE-4zaAbvNOw8NgLr5N-3If_m9EoHowGeiqVaAD3_bAXQDbrZ_8fkpAZcnC9YE3-BxGtTUVuXwN7g5JUSKtw0H1U5gYz5e2N3VPjKgEoO-N4jcjNoKOEg/s200/LCD_matrix-public.png" title="iPad Air IGZO display is superior than IPS LCD displays." width="200" /></a></div>
One of the heaviest and largest element in an iPad is the battery. With the reduction in weight and size of the iPad Air, the battery size has also been reduced. The iPad Air has a lithium polymer battery with a 8827 mAh (3.7 V) capacity whereas the iPad 4 has a battery capacity of 11560 mAh (3.7 V). This is almost a 25% reduction in battery capacity. Therefore, for the iPad Air to still retain its battery life, the hardware has to be more energy efficient.<br />
<br />
Since the display on an iPad is among the most energy hungry elements, Apple has switched the display type in iPad Air to the IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) display. Compared to the IPS LCD display used in former iPad models, the IGZO display is extremely more energy efficient and in the best cases will draw only 10% of the power of conventional LCD displays. In addition, the IGZO display can also produce images with higher contrast (brighter and darker) and less refractions. The downside with IGZO displays is that it is at present more expensive than LCD displays, something which may not be of too high importance here.<br />
<br />
Apple has also done a great job in retaining the image quality even though the display technology was completely altered. The iPad Air display, similar to other iPad models (iPad 3 & iPad 4) with Retina display, has a resolution of 2048 px x 1536 px with a size of 9.7 inches giving it a pixel density of 264 ppi, which is identical to the pixel density of previous iPad Retina displays. <br />
<br />
In practice this means that those who already own an iPad with Retina display will notice a minor improvement in image quality. However, those that have an iPad 2 or iPad 1 will definitely notice huge improvements in terms of image quality.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
iPad Air performance takes a big leap</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrA1Bq_eSv97uRxV7LKa8bkBZ6rDbCvsZIvdENWAUlhqgj5KFSxnRUJDIdWtCVhdYmkapquxTgfon9Sl_2QDVqFn8r72_OVvfnkaHGso3ncao53RRmGH5P5MVrupghVvntfvdzCOu-cw/s1600/ipad-air-sc.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best speed ipad air comparison review fastest" border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrA1Bq_eSv97uRxV7LKa8bkBZ6rDbCvsZIvdENWAUlhqgj5KFSxnRUJDIdWtCVhdYmkapquxTgfon9Sl_2QDVqFn8r72_OVvfnkaHGso3ncao53RRmGH5P5MVrupghVvntfvdzCOu-cw/s400/ipad-air-sc.png" title="iPad Air almost twice as fast as iPad 4 shown in the benchmark by Geekbench." width="400" /></a></div>
The iPad Air is powered by the A7 CPU, which is the same CPU that powers the iPhone 5S. Although the clock speed is set to 1.4 GHz, being 100 MHz faster than the A7 CPU in the iPhone 5S. In addition, the M7 motion co-processor is also included, with it running under identical specifications as in the iPhone 5S. <br />
<br />
As shown in the graph from Geekbench, compared to previous performance gains over iPad generations, the new A7 architecture results in a huge boost in the performance. The iPad Air is 80% faster than the iPad 4 in single core workloads but similar performance boost is found for multi core workloads as well.<br />
<br />
The performance leap by the iPad Air in itself is impressive and for now it looks like Apple has taken the right approach to stick to the dual-core architecture instead of going into the multi-core architectures found in most Android tablets. However, for the end users, even though the iPad Air is significantly faster, it is difficult to motivate an upgrade if the user already has an iPad 3 or iPad 4. The reason being simply that the apps are not computationally intensive enough for the users to notice any clear gains in user experience. At present, the computing power in the iPad 3 is far from being insufficient for the apps in the Apple App Store, and the iPad 4 will definitely be able to cope with the new apps for several more years to come.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Memory and storage remain the same on iPad Air</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimGt5jJ2vXeb3nUYvtc5_rRP1hmCgkCMn-kQ40BP8zVClwJ9CBqok6PDg-tlrFSYpjMJCdqGWd3saVxarQjemWG0pq7hmKcHBjTGj-TXFo-MG3J9BILM7nbBsaLBuDR-WOD0TeuaDU8A/s1600/flash_memory-public.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best iPad memory storage capacity review" border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimGt5jJ2vXeb3nUYvtc5_rRP1hmCgkCMn-kQ40BP8zVClwJ9CBqok6PDg-tlrFSYpjMJCdqGWd3saVxarQjemWG0pq7hmKcHBjTGj-TXFo-MG3J9BILM7nbBsaLBuDR-WOD0TeuaDU8A/s200/flash_memory-public.png" title="iPad Air memory and storage identical to previous generations." width="200" /></a></div>
In terms of memory and storage the specifications for the iPad Air remain identical as compared to iPad 4. This means that the iPad Air has 1 GB internal RAM and comes with a built-in storage of 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB.<br />
<br />
While it makes sense to keep the 1 GB internal RAM, in the multimedia intensive society today, the 16 GB version makes little sense. With the iPad apps being of high-definition type, even simple apps can easily take more than 50 MB of storage. In addition, as the iPad is an entertainment device, 16 GB will not go very far for the majority of people who uses the iPad as a portable video player. To be quite frank, Apple should drop the 16 GB model altogether as users who end up with the 16 GB model due to lack of funds will certainly quickly experience a severe usage limitation of an otherwise splendid entertainment device.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
iPad Air camera slightly upgraded</h3>
The camera on the iPad Air has been altered slightly. Just as the iPad 4, the front camera delivers 720p video while the back camera delivers 1080p video. However, new optics and imaging chips have made the cameras slightly more sensitive in low-light conditions. This is similar to the camera improvements made to the iPhone 5S.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOaW9Pbwnl2PBcsVLNP1HZZ_Mbx-yJjPDS5iyZtCVnsmopTG1PWhOme3wZNh4L_F28Jvt6Ygi2OzjNcHzgXq4hGIqatH0EuhhPS9dItPDJhbJ7uAQvcKgE963I5d4yvsGjoActQLmxUQ/s1600/iPad_taking_photo_www.flickr.com_photos_simononly_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best ipad camera review comparison upgrade" border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOaW9Pbwnl2PBcsVLNP1HZZ_Mbx-yJjPDS5iyZtCVnsmopTG1PWhOme3wZNh4L_F28Jvt6Ygi2OzjNcHzgXq4hGIqatH0EuhhPS9dItPDJhbJ7uAQvcKgE963I5d4yvsGjoActQLmxUQ/s320/iPad_taking_photo_www.flickr.com_photos_simononly_.jpg" title="iPad Air has a slightly upgraded camera although taking photos as always looks weird." width="320" /></a>For most people, the camera feature on the iPad is really not all that important. Running FaceTime on an iPad is a fun and good experience, but the camera is seldom the bottleneck for the end user experience, instead the network bandwidth and latency are almost always the limiting factor. For the rear camera, most people would agree that using an iPad as a camera to film or photograph scenes is way to cumbersome. It just looks comical whenever someone holds up an iPad to take a picture in a public setting. Instead, the rear camera is rather an auxiliary feature which can be used to capture occasional moments.<br />
<br />
Since many people already carry smartphones with very capable cameras, upgrading to the iPad Air to gain access to the improved camera makes very little sense.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Battery life is comparable to previous iPad models</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG35BQHgn3eDROuvoPaHV2SmEF3IYIOzrEJ2gyMMWT58RcdJB3B7d6OjPqJJwy9rfutQKI1jgV55TsPl1fo5J2IU5Y_BT7S6X7xMAOfZCFdNcGIcuZsTmCFaLXayvkxWtmCY0Yz3rWHQ/s1600/batter_full.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best ipad battery review time increase upgrade" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG35BQHgn3eDROuvoPaHV2SmEF3IYIOzrEJ2gyMMWT58RcdJB3B7d6OjPqJJwy9rfutQKI1jgV55TsPl1fo5J2IU5Y_BT7S6X7xMAOfZCFdNcGIcuZsTmCFaLXayvkxWtmCY0Yz3rWHQ/s200/batter_full.png" title="iPad Air battery life not improved over previous iPad models." width="120" /></a></div>
As described above, the iPad Air, being lighter and smaller, comes with a battery with 25% less capacity than the iPad 4. However, due to the new CPU architecture and the much more energy efficient IGZO display, Apple has managed to keep the battery life comparable to previous iPad generations. Therefore, there is no reason to upgrade to the iPad Air for the purpose of gaining additional battery time.<br />
<br />
Of course one point to remember is that batteries ages and degrades rather rapidly. Therefore, users with very old iPads will likely still experience significantly longer battery time than they are used to.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
iPad Air connectivity</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQxvcrU2MJ4HvI4H4eeVaTs-XAWIr3T_eUSPwK6aWZDfVRv2w6pZorRT2nRKLtQ7_bN2jpWhrx6rJ97MPXAYEglM3jT6_w8wnIgXZ6SXEhK1WONbsCsn_mVpcGJ1L1Dtczk2Nc-ByR1Q/s1600/connectivity-public.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best ipad 4g 3g mhz ghz frequency support" border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQxvcrU2MJ4HvI4H4eeVaTs-XAWIr3T_eUSPwK6aWZDfVRv2w6pZorRT2nRKLtQ7_bN2jpWhrx6rJ97MPXAYEglM3jT6_w8wnIgXZ6SXEhK1WONbsCsn_mVpcGJ1L1Dtczk2Nc-ByR1Q/s200/connectivity-public.png" title="iPad Air upgraded to support more LTE 4G frequencies." width="200" /></a></div>
The iPad Air supports LTE similar to the iPad 4 although the LTE support has been expanded to include more frequencies. For American users, this may not be interesting. However, for international users or users who want to use their iPad Air abroad, the extended support for LTE frequencies will definitely come in handy.<br />
<br />
In terms of Bluetooth and wifi the iPad Air supports Bluetooth 4.0 and wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n, respectively, which is identical to the support for iPad 4.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Conclusions and summary of an upgrade to iPad Air</h3>
As seen, the iPad Air does carry several improvements over previous generations. However, for those that already have an iPad 3 or iPad 4, upgrading may only be justified if the user wants to have a lighter and more portable device. Otherwise, most of the improvements only offer negligible to none impact on the overall user experience.<br />
<br />
For those that own an iPad 1 or iPad 2, upgrading does make a lot of sense. Primarily, an upgrade to iPad Air will provide the Retina screen, but also the computing power may be of importance, in particular for those using heavy apps, such as games.<br />
<br />
At present, the 16 GB (not recommended) iPad Air wifi is priced at $499 with the 32 GB (recommended) iPad Air wifi priced at $599. This is certainly a lot of money. However, the iPad Air without a doubt is the best iPad model so far, and while the price can be considered steep, the new A7 CPU architecture will ensure that it will remain viable for many years to come. As an example, it is worth to remember that Apple is still selling the iPad 2, even though it was released on March 11, 2011.<br />
<br />
The table below summarizes the most significant improvements and changes on the iPad Air as compared to the iPad 4.</div>
<style type="text/css">
table.tableizer-table {
border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif
font-size: 12px;
}
.tableizer-table td {
padding: 4px;
margin: 3px;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
}
.tableizer-table th {
background-color: #DC7600;
color: #FFF;
font-weight: bold;
}
</style><br />
<table class="tableizer-table">
<tbody>
<tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th>Specification</th><th>iPad Air</th><th>iPad 4</th></tr>
<tr><td>Height:</td><td>240 mm (9.4 in)</td><td>241 mm (9.50 in)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Width:</td><td>169.5 mm (6.6 in)</td><td>186 mm (7.31 in)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Depth: </td><td>7.5 mm (0.26 in)</td><td>9.4 mm (0.37 in)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Weight (wifi):</td><td>469 g (1.03 lb)</td><td>652 g (1.44 lb)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Weight (wifi+cell):</td><td>478 g (1.05 lb)</td><td>662 g (1.46 lb)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Display type: </td><td>Retina display, 9.7" IGZO </td><td>Retina display, 9.7" IPS LCD</td></tr>
<tr><td>Display specs:</td><td>2048x1536 pixels @ 264 ppi</td><td>2048x1536 pixels @ 264 ppi</td></tr>
<tr><td>Chip:</td><td>Dual-core A7@1.4GHz & M7 coprocessor</td><td>Dual-core A6X@1.4 GHz</td></tr>
<tr><td>Performance (Geekbench):</td><td>1465</td><td>771</td></tr>
<tr><td>Camera (rear): </td><td>iSight 5 MP full HD</td><td>iSight 5 MP full HD</td></tr>
<tr><td>Camera (front/FaceTime):</td><td>1.2 MP 720p HD</td><td>1.2 MP 720p HD</td></tr>
<tr><td>Price Wifi (16/32/64/128 GB):</td><td>$499 / $599 / $699 / $799</td><td>Out-of-production</td></tr>
<tr><td>Price Wifi+Cell (16/32/64/128 GB):</td><td>$629 / $729 / $829 / $929</td><td>Out-of-production</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-17679769080105356992013-11-21T04:47:00.001-08:002013-11-21T04:47:15.856-08:00Smartphone security exploits caused by manufacturers<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
With smartphones becoming more advanced, concerns of security risks and exploits also increases. A recent study by North Carolina State University shows that most security risks are actually caused by the smartphone manufacturers and not the core operating system.</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy4Kz6jVVrzgzTy82Z5erH1DS26TY7R0aGzcpNnYuFDlvi-mrVhK3sDWh0OYtY7-7WYYSMlZQ1JH_yojoIGV6ESB5F0ykU63a8wnmM2HkvM_3a52pUpw9SFSXW7iXOPQpF1CWvhDsrtA/s1600/smartphone_virus_exploit.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy4Kz6jVVrzgzTy82Z5erH1DS26TY7R0aGzcpNnYuFDlvi-mrVhK3sDWh0OYtY7-7WYYSMlZQ1JH_yojoIGV6ESB5F0ykU63a8wnmM2HkvM_3a52pUpw9SFSXW7iXOPQpF1CWvhDsrtA/s200/smartphone_virus_exploit.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Smartphones are becoming increasingly popular penetrating more and more in the cell phone market. Similarly, smartphones are also becoming very sophisticated with advanced operating systems underneath. Currently the Apple iOS and the Google Android operating system clearly dominates the market. Apple iOS can only be used on Apple iDevices and has so far managed to keep the security rather tight. However, Google Android is used by multiple smartphone manufacturers due to its open-source and license nature. This results in the, so called, Android fragmentation issue. With Google Android having a market share of approximately 80%, it is therefore also a highly attractive platform for hackers and malicious users to attack.</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A recent thorough study by the North Carolina State University has shown that up to 85% of the vulnerabilities and security exploits found on smartphones (primarily Google Android phones) are not caused by the core operating system itself, but rather by the customizations made by the manufacturers.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As we know, most manufacturers tend to put their own theme and skin on the phones while also installing customized default apps on the phone. In some cases, the customization does bring value to the users, while in other cases the customization merely function as eye candy and even slows down the phone. The problem, however, arises when the manufacturers do not have strict quality and security control on the customizations, which results in exploits being exposed which otherwise does not exist in the default operating system.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In addition, a major problem with the customizations is that patches tend to be pushed out extremely slowly. This is due to the nature of the smartphone ecosystem. For Google Android, a very bad case is formed when Google has to push out a patch, the smartphone manufacturers would then have to customize the patch and add it to their repository. Finally, the manufacturers have to push the patch out to the operator which only then will reach the users. This process tend to take several months, even if the exploit is critical.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
An interesting fact found by the study is that the Google Nexus devices clearly contain the least number of vulnerabilities. Google does pay clear attention to security in the Android operating system and it makes sense that with every addition, customization or tweak, the manufacturers introduces new potential attack vectors into the phone.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fortunately, not everything is bad with third party phone manufacturers, and some manufacturers, such as Sony Mobile actually even patches bug in the Android source code by themselves!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The list below summarizes the results from the study of the major models and the number of security exploits found.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<style type="text/css">
table.tableizer-table {
border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif
font-size: 12px;
}
.tableizer-table td {
padding: 4px;
margin: 3px;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
}
.tableizer-table th {
background-color: #DC7600;
color: #FFF;
font-weight: bold;
}
</style></div>
<table class="tableizer-table" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; text-align: left;">
<tbody>
<tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th>Model:</th><th>Security vulnerabilities:</th></tr>
<tr><td>HTC Wildfire S: </td><td>40</td></tr>
<tr><td>Samsung Galaxy S3: </td><td>40</td></tr>
<tr><td>Samsung Galaxy S2: </td><td>39</td></tr>
<tr><td>LG P880: </td><td>26</td></tr>
<tr><td>LG P350: </td><td>17</td></tr>
<tr><td>HTC One X: </td><td>15</td></tr>
<tr><td>Google Nexus S:</td><td>8</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sony Xperia Arc S: </td><td>8</td></tr>
<tr><td>Google Nexus 4: </td><td>3</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-62312748921950359872013-11-15T02:40:00.001-08:002013-11-15T02:41:43.487-08:00iOS 7.0.4 released: Summary changes in iOS 7.0.4 <h2 style="text-align: justify;">
iOS 7.0.4 was released November 14, 2013 by Apple. This point release only carries minor changes and updates, summarized in this article.</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDCARufCmbSrsK3tRx59vhICFC8-f9IIB6JPlupqIlNUD9iwrmgEcAs2-ThNQfnK6h7aYfNO4tGH4iXO4W2m9evyNNy1aIEg12LUhx2d4WPOI5ZFwQXrL1PNfDs3ALmajAygPDH3jV4A/s1600/iOS7.0.4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ios 7.0.4 changelog ipad iphone ipod" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDCARufCmbSrsK3tRx59vhICFC8-f9IIB6JPlupqIlNUD9iwrmgEcAs2-ThNQfnK6h7aYfNO4tGH4iXO4W2m9evyNNy1aIEg12LUhx2d4WPOI5ZFwQXrL1PNfDs3ALmajAygPDH3jV4A/s320/iOS7.0.4.png" title="iOS 7.0.4 upgrade brings new updates and changes to iPhone!" width="160" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Apple has been working very hard on improving the iOS system since its release and already within 2 months of the initial iOS 7.0.0 release the fourth point release has arrived. This time, however, the iOS 7.0.4 release brings very few changes and users who are affected by outstanding bugs may be disappointed. For example, the <a href="http://phenomtech.blogspot.com/2013/10/iphone-4s-wifi-problems-in-ios-7.html">iOS 7 wifi problems are not fixed</a> or mentioned in the release notes, something which <a href="http://phenomtech.blogspot.com/2013/11/apple-censors-ios-7-wifi-problem-in.html">Apple has deliberately kept quiet through censorship on their forums</a>. Hopefully, outstanding bugs such as the above will be fixed in the next point release that should not be too far away.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The changes of this iOS 7.0.4 update for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices are summarized
below, and anyone on iOS 7 should update their devices as soon as
possible. Updating can be accomplished by either going to <i>Settings -> General -> Software Update </i>or
through iTunes from a computer. As always, before updating the users
should make sure that they have a full backup of their phone first!<br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
iOS 7.0.4 version history (changelog)</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
</h3>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
iOS 7.0.4 update bug fixes:</h4>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><b>General bug fixes and improvements</b> which should improve the overall user experience although most are under the hood and may not be immediately visible by the users.</li>
<li><b>FaceTime calls</b> had a bug that caused the calls to fail for some users. This is now fixes and FaceTime connection should be more stable and reliable.</li>
</ul>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-50464733634100638942013-11-12T03:58:00.003-08:002013-11-12T03:58:41.021-08:00iOS users prefer Apple Maps over Google Maps<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
Apple Maps replaced Google Maps iOS 6 and has had its great share of problems. Initially users flocked to Google Maps due to large inaccuracies with Apple Maps. However, now, it appears that most users are choosing Apple Maps over Google Maps.</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqqOpPKNzMI8lw5_BM_KIU4jkzVc364KR6EcBpPJFFDOu6RKOfnVorYKK25IKo2JKmfA6MvUgJDPmo8b-EAJEvHeFgONRJo3H4VdLr6bn4ur102Swk2ohuMgb2MWcsHIzX1wLe2mtGnQ/s1600/Maps.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best map app ios android iphone" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqqOpPKNzMI8lw5_BM_KIU4jkzVc364KR6EcBpPJFFDOu6RKOfnVorYKK25IKo2JKmfA6MvUgJDPmo8b-EAJEvHeFgONRJo3H4VdLr6bn4ur102Swk2ohuMgb2MWcsHIzX1wLe2mtGnQ/s200/Maps.PNG" title="Apple Maps wins the war against Google Maps?" width="116" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When Apple Maps was released and replaced Google Maps as the default Maps app, users criticized it for being largely inaccurate and downright embarrassing in many contexts. As a result, users flocked to the competing Google Maps, even though initially the users had to use it through the Safari web browser. Now, however, it appears that Apple Maps has regained its lost users.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
During the last year, the number of Google Maps users has decreased from 29 millions to 9 millions while Apple Maps has went from 10 millions to 35 millions, according to Comscore. These numbers show clearly that the users has given up Google Maps in favor of Apple Maps.</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The above numbers are interesting in the sense that they demonstrate the power of giving users default apps. Despite the fact that Apple Maps in several instances is still much less accurate and correct than Google Maps, most users simply prefer to use the standard apps without having to bother with third-party apps. This also reflects the reasoning behind several rulings, in particular in Europe, against Microsoft's actions involving pushing Internet Explorer onto its users without offering alternatives.</div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-51401890638664961162013-11-12T02:57:00.003-08:002013-11-12T03:59:21.517-08:00Apple censors iOS 7 wifi problem discussions in forum<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
iOS 7 brought many good changes but also some bugs. One such bug causes some users who upgrade to iOS 7 to completely lose wifi functionality on their phones. However, Apple apparently wants to pretend that there is no problem and even censors forum posts concerning the issue.</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgLB8dwWWLDjjycSE5aQxWDgF5gy698aJhEEojhvD1e_WtpG0PjFOn1iq82X7ISzU2PPOUU1SFL3yANOuRmAcyHdy3MLZmqp72vUjJIcZLDYGEVtCCbVNH_8nq_3sYDbNs9Vbr4Pn7DA/s1600/iphone4s_wififail.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ios 7 wifi problem fix censor" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgLB8dwWWLDjjycSE5aQxWDgF5gy698aJhEEojhvD1e_WtpG0PjFOn1iq82X7ISzU2PPOUU1SFL3yANOuRmAcyHdy3MLZmqp72vUjJIcZLDYGEVtCCbVNH_8nq_3sYDbNs9Vbr4Pn7DA/s200/iphone4s_wififail.png" title="Apple censors forum posts on iOS 7 wifi problems dealing with warranties." width="107" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
New major releases and changes of most software always introduces bugs. Usually, such introduced bugs and quirks are nothing to be ashamed of and the developers are quick to release fixes and communicate the issues with the users. Apparently, Apple is having some problems with this common practice that is seen as respect and courtesy to the users.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As reported previously, some users are having <a href="http://phenomtech.blogspot.com/2013/10/iphone-4s-wifi-problems-in-ios-7.html">wifi problems after upgrading to iOS 7</a>. iPhone 4S users seem to constitute the largest group of users experiencing problems, with some reporting wifi becoming completely useless, regardless of the strength of the wifi signal. However, when the users report on the wifi problems in the forums, Apple apparently deliberately censors (removes) posts with fixes and answers that suggest the users to claim a new phone through the warranty program. </div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The action by Apple is very questionable. An iPhone with a malfunctioning wifi function due to an upgrade of the iOS should certainly be covered by the warranty program, in particular as the users even cannot downgrade back to iOS 6. Some users may not be aware of this, and it is then natural for others to suggest and inform them of the coverage of the warranty program, which they have paid indirectly for and have the right to. Apple, on the other hand, apparently does not want the information to spread, out of nothing but being cheap and greedy it seems, since Apple has not either released any official statement of the issue. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Regardless, the actions by Apple is frowned upon and definitely do not show much respect to the customers. Although it is worthwhile to point out that despite this, some Apple fanboys have already come to the rescue, claiming that the Apple censorship is warranted since the forums are for solutions and fixes, and turning in an iPhone for warranty is apparently not considered to be a solution...</div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-12014931474868496012013-11-07T07:29:00.002-08:002013-11-07T07:29:37.156-08:00Google Apps blocks Internet Explorer 9<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
Google has announced that Internet Explorer 9 will be blocked from Google Apps within the next few weeks due to it considered to be a too old version.</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirpIt830t3rlz_5x0fWDUDJzZlItpIqcGHuH7FeTslVrCPLi_ajl7KXhN04Onklds_CB8OLlxdNOxSJvRGUOT-vVe359iCz1PRrNYU6BCrrTrfz9aiE-q1WXZuQmGx9okxjxVWu7M0aw/s1600/Internet_explorer_block-public.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best google apps compatible internet explorer browser" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirpIt830t3rlz_5x0fWDUDJzZlItpIqcGHuH7FeTslVrCPLi_ajl7KXhN04Onklds_CB8OLlxdNOxSJvRGUOT-vVe359iCz1PRrNYU6BCrrTrfz9aiE-q1WXZuQmGx9okxjxVWu7M0aw/s1600/Internet_explorer_block-public.png" title="Internet Explorer 9 blocked from Google Apps due to it being outdated." /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Google has a policy to only support the newest version and two major versions back of the dominating web browsers, being Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari and Firefox. Since Internet Explorer 12 has now been released, this means that support for Internet Explorer 9 will end in the coming weeks. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While it makes sense for Google to focus on the newest web browser versions, the drop of Internet Explorer 9 is in particular troublesome for users using Google Apps. The reason being that Internet Explorer 9 is the newest Internet Explorer version for Windows XP and Windows Vista users. Essentially, by blocking Internet Explorer 9 from Google Apps, Google is simultaneously shutting the doors for Windows XP and Windows Vista users. </div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At present, Windows XP is still used by 31.24% of the users and Windows Vista by 3.63%, clearly there will be a large number of users who will be affected by this drop of support. For web browsers, most users have migrated to Internet Explorer 10, although users of Internet Explorer 9 and older still account for 37%.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For users using too old versions of Internet Explorer, Google recommends them to use an alternate web browser, such as Chrome, Firefox or Safari. </div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-89367478394693758792013-11-06T01:48:00.000-08:002013-11-06T01:48:07.838-08:00Apple's Report on Government Information Requests shows that 33% result in data disclosure<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
It is known that governments request information from various companies around the world. Now Apple has published a report on how it has handled the information requests by the governments around the world in the period of January 1, 2013 to June 30, 2013.</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9v-qHb6Ko7D0U-ooZwxvtN6S423OMYk4LaUR9wLtfpeFYSr0RfcHKLn0o5H4LWPkdXGKYvuz49FPLLxg7zEgzgH76ugVD5Zn6oBR3fGswsDrqyVjDXw8IVNsuJ4CauKnmTrnOnAL8UQ/s1600/capitol_building-public.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="top government information request risk privacy concern" border="0" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9v-qHb6Ko7D0U-ooZwxvtN6S423OMYk4LaUR9wLtfpeFYSr0RfcHKLn0o5H4LWPkdXGKYvuz49FPLLxg7zEgzgH76ugVD5Zn6oBR3fGswsDrqyVjDXw8IVNsuJ4CauKnmTrnOnAL8UQ/s200/capitol_building-public.png" title="Apple reveals stats on government information requests." width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
More and more people store an increasing amount of personal information on their smartphones. When such smartphones are subsequently linked up to various cloud storage services, such as the Apple iCloud for Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices, all of the sudden, private companies will have a wealth of personal information about their users. Governments around the world of course knows this and therefore requests information from the companies in, so called, appropriate cases. The companies, subsequently may disclose personal information on their users if legal support exists.</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Apple, who uses a completely closed ecosystem has already been criticized by the users who are most concerned about their privacy, such as the <a href="http://phenomtech.blogspot.com/2013/09/iphone-5s-sacrificing-your-fingerprint-privacy-with-touch-id.html">fingerprint privacy in the Touch ID technology</a> and also <a href="http://phenomtech.blogspot.com/2013/10/imessage-security-encryption-easily-cracked.html">the iMessage security and privacy issues</a>. Now, Apple has published a report with statistics on how it has handled government information requests for the first half of the year of 2013.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The table below shows a snippet of the countries with the most total number of government account information requests and the whole report can be found <a href="http://images.apple.com/pr/pdf/131105reportongovernmentinforequests2.pdf" rel="nofollow">here</a>. For data on the United States, unfortunately, Apple is prohibited from publishing such data by the US laws and only states that the United States by far is the country with most government information requests every year. In addition, one can easily make an educated guess based on the numbers from other countries. While it is very refreshing to see the government information request data published, at the same time, it is shocking to also realize that about 1/3 of all information requests result in private user data being disclosed to the government.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Certainly, the laws are set and in some cases companies simply must disclose the information they have in their archive. However, what makes less sense is the amount of information that the companies store about their users in clear text, or at least encrypted forms that can be decrypted easily when requested. Considering that it has again and again been revealed that, for example, cloud storage companies such as <a href="http://phenomtech.blogspot.com/2013/09/dropbox-opens-and-reads-uploaded-files.html">Dropbox easily can read the data from their users in clear text</a>, it is difficult to trust the security of anything uploaded to the cloud. Hopefully, with cloud storage being used increasingly, the companies will also take the appropriate course of action and use one-way encryption on most of the user data to protect the privacy of their users. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<style type="text/css">
table.tableizer-table {
border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif
font-size: 12px;
}
.tableizer-table td {
padding: 4px;
margin: 3px;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
}
.tableizer-table th {
background-color: #DC7600;
color: #FFF;
font-weight: bold;
}
</style></div>
<table class="tableizer-table" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; text-align: left;">
<tbody>
<tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th>Country</th><th>Number of requests</th><th>Data disclosed ratio</th></tr>
<tr><td>United Kingdom</td><td>127</td><td>37%</td></tr>
<tr><td>Spain</td><td>102</td><td>22%</td></tr>
<tr><td>Germany</td><td>95</td><td>6%</td></tr>
<tr><td>Australia</td><td>74</td><td>54%</td></tr>
<tr><td>France</td><td>71</td><td>24%</td></tr>
<tr><td>Italy</td><td>60</td><td>37%</td></tr>
<tr><td>Japan</td><td>42</td><td>24%</td></tr>
<tr><td>Hong Kong</td><td>32</td><td>75%</td></tr>
<tr><td>Singapore</td><td>23</td><td>57%</td></tr>
<tr><td>United States</td><td>1000-2000</td><td>N/A</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-72512778540207759002013-11-05T02:40:00.000-08:002013-11-05T02:40:13.300-08:00Sapphire glass on future iPhones and iPads?<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
The screen on a modern smartphone or tablet is the most fragile component and cracked or broken screens have been seen by most people. Now Apple appears to intend to remedy the fragility of screens by introducing the super hard sapphire crystal glass instead of using the currently used Gorilla Glass.</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivXZBr6f5nex1Q0rQksoDh5yXCOwGb82_YWAg7OS-UmRyLmAsD-VjKqgPCIx_q48e39qsNZHtciG9tJIs0TzxWJOHjpBVEvNCEu-x9bLB6PsyWWTBV5L8qmbXm-uPvJaaPO-K4mugvsg/s1600/sapphire.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="iphone ipad monitor scratch break fix best resistant" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivXZBr6f5nex1Q0rQksoDh5yXCOwGb82_YWAg7OS-UmRyLmAsD-VjKqgPCIx_q48e39qsNZHtciG9tJIs0TzxWJOHjpBVEvNCEu-x9bLB6PsyWWTBV5L8qmbXm-uPvJaaPO-K4mugvsg/s200/sapphire.png" title="iPhone and iPad monitors to use scratch resistant and unbreakable sapphire glass?" width="173" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Apple and many other smartphone manufacturers have so far been relying on Gorilla Glass to make scratch resistant and sturdy monitors. However, Gorilla Glass itself is definitely not unbreakable and there are plenty of devices out there with cracked or partially broken monitors. Now, it looks like Apple is going to take the next step through a partnership with GT Advanced Technologies Inc. who specializes in creating sapphire glass surfaces. According to GT Advanced Technologies Inc., the interest and investment by Apple should be considered as advanced payment for the development and production of the Advanced Sapphire Furnace factory, which can produce high-quality sapphire crystals at low costs.</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sapphire glass is nothing new and have been used for a very long time on wrist watches to create scratch resistant glass. In fact, many wrist watches with sapphire glass are even promoted as having unbreakable glass. This is to no surprise as sapphire itself has a score of 9 on Moh's scale of mineral hardness, with only diamond being harder with a score of 10. If one takes a look at used watches, many will have a flawless glass but several dents on the metal pieces, which demonstrates the toughness of sapphire.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The total investments made by Apple is worth $578 million and the idea is for GT Advanced Technologies Inc. to pay back Apple on a period of 5 years once the factory is up and operational, which is planned for the year of 2015. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If Apple manages to incorporate sapphire glass in its future iPhone and iPad models, then it will be one of the largest technological leaps forward in the smartphone and tablet segment in a long time, creating devices that is tough enough to handle most kind of punishment. Hopefully, this will also make other brands interested and likewise invest into research of creating more sturdier glass surfaces.</div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-10731720750238216022013-11-04T01:15:00.000-08:002013-11-04T01:15:07.346-08:00Touch ID security more elaborate than we thought?<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
The security of the Touch ID fingerprint sensor in iPhone 5S has been a controversial topic with plenty of discussions around it. New data, however, reveal that Apple may have paid more attention to secure the technology than what was initially thought by locking each Touch ID sensor with one single A7-CPU.</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZdHXBIrIw5kA9EEX6_-5NMHqt0XX95ZVQ4u6esPz6XdmaWAd9FdFifETaqSDqTNC_tPxZuICbx4Zgix96ok2o3sSmR81cpo3LYpdLCkutUl6ccv-COZqtc0rJl3ybRGeyPcJoRXKBMw/s1600/fingerprint-iphone5S.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best touch id hack crack security bypass" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZdHXBIrIw5kA9EEX6_-5NMHqt0XX95ZVQ4u6esPz6XdmaWAd9FdFifETaqSDqTNC_tPxZuICbx4Zgix96ok2o3sSmR81cpo3LYpdLCkutUl6ccv-COZqtc0rJl3ybRGeyPcJoRXKBMw/s200/fingerprint-iphone5S.png" title="Touch ID security more robust with added security layers." width="104" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When the iPhone 5S was launched, one of its main features was the incorporated fingerprint reader technology known as Touch ID. Using Touch ID, the users could, for example, unlock the phone and approve app purchases in the App Store. However, the security of the <a href="http://phenomtech.blogspot.com/2013/09/iphone-5s-sacrificing-your-fingerprint-privacy-with-touch-id.html">Touch ID fingerprint sensor has been a very controversial topic</a>. Apple claims that the fingerprint data is stored locally on the phone inside the A7 CPU securely with no possibilities to retrieve it remotely. However, for privacy concerned users who have to take Apple's word for it, this is not enough. In addition, the security itself offered by the Touch ID is questionable and the <a href="http://phenomtech.blogspot.com/2013/09/touch-id-fingerprint-reader-easily-hacked-on-iPhone-5S.html">Touch ID itself is relatively easily bypassed through the use of fake fingerprints</a> (provided that this is done within the Touch ID active period of course). </div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In any case, Apple has since published elaborate descriptions on how Touch ID functions in an attempt to convince people that it is indeed safe to store their fingerprints on their iPhone 5S devices. However, now new data has been published by iMore and Mendmyi who claim that Apple has incorporated an additional layer of security into Touch ID.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It was found that each Touch ID sensor is paired strictly to one unique A7-CPU. This means, that it is not possible for a user to change the Touch ID sensor as it will not be authenticated by the A7-CPU and vice versa. The likely reason for this is to prevent tampering with the security. For example, this pairing means that it is not possible to use a fake or modified sensor which has the fingerprint data pre-stored on it to bypass the Touch ID. Similarly, it is not possible to use a similar fake or modified sensor to extract the fingerprint data from the A7 CPU. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Whatever the true reason, this added layer of security does indicate that Apple has taken security seriously this time, and may convince some additional users to start using the Touch ID technology. Although, for those who are truly privacy concerned, this is probably still not enough to convince them otherwise. Whatever Apple says, nothing is really preventing them from uploading the fingerprint contents to, for example, iClouds or directly to them if they wanted due to the closed-source nature of the whole iOS ecosystem. Considering the recent NSA events, it is worth to think twice for anyone concerned about their privacy.</div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-24333189899390063052013-11-03T06:04:00.000-08:002013-11-03T06:04:00.469-08:00Google Chrome panic button resets the settings<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
Since Google Chrome 30, a panic button now exists which users can use to reset the browser settings. Its primary use is to restore the functionality of the browser if addons, extensions or toolbars have hijacked the browser and modified the settings without user control.</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOQAD-g64hRKkUSeJxV53oCDSSPzoIeyZSfkvObb4Hsxs3oophcZAjgbjJGeuVr3ucm6VzVfQOtrw9A8dQ9lIbxlE6Gz9RoR713oXuYPVsECgur-KZTch8BElu0ujkVQgK583jTRZ4Rw/s1600/panic_elegant-public.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="how to chrome hack fix reset restore" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOQAD-g64hRKkUSeJxV53oCDSSPzoIeyZSfkvObb4Hsxs3oophcZAjgbjJGeuVr3ucm6VzVfQOtrw9A8dQ9lIbxlE6Gz9RoR713oXuYPVsECgur-KZTch8BElu0ujkVQgK583jTRZ4Rw/s200/panic_elegant-public.png" title="Google Chrome introduces a panic button that restores and resets the settings." width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Extensions, themes, toolsbars and addons are indispensable for many users who may have several active at the same time. Unfortunately, not all extensions are safe and while some may cause troubles as an indirect effect of being poorly written, others could actually purposely trick users into installing them to hijack the browser for their own gain, such as user-data collection or directing users to alternate websites and search engines. </div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In order to make it easier for the users to restore functionalities to a web browser that is mis-behaving as a consequence of modified settings under questionable conditions, Google has introduced a <i>panic</i> button in Google Chrome 30. The settings is formally known as <i>Reset browser settings</i> and can be accessed by:</div>
<ol style="text-align: justify;">
<li>Click <b>Chrome menu<i> </i></b>on the browser toolbar.</li>
<li>Click <b>Settings.</b></li>
<li>Click <b>Show advanced settings</b>.</li>
<li>Click <b>Reset browser settings.</b></li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The new <b>Reset browser settings</b> button will in turn have the following effects on the Google Chrome browser:</div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><b>Default search engine</b> will be restored.</li>
<li><b>Homepage button</b> will be removed (default for Chrome) as well as the website it is associated with.</li>
<li><b>Automatically opened tabs</b> when Chrome starts will be reset and the browser will start without opening any tabs.</li>
<li><b>New tabs </b>will be empty.</li>
<li><b>Pinned tabs</b> will be removed (unpinned).</li>
<li><b>Content settings</b> will be restored to their default settings.</li>
<li><b>Cookies and site data</b> saved by Chrome will be deleted.</li>
<li><b>All extensions and themes</b> will be disabled but the users can easily enable those they trust afterwards.</li>
</ul>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-31729840372756604362013-10-31T07:18:00.001-07:002013-10-31T07:18:26.406-07:00Google Glass user fined while driving<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
Using a cell phone or other distractive devices with a monitor while driving is forbidden in many parts of the world. Now, a Google Glass user has for the first time been fined by the police for driving with them.</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpGDZFOZZnecD4LapvZVJuRIqtBu_0GFTAbUqMVb2Ur_6_Q7vAdbtqbddsbfojsSn_y_zq7_GkLIFILgNSzmDfjgVy0xRSVmOFd03VPDdnHRZQ7yS0K5ywLo7hgw3KUu_y9_RlHqlrBw/s1600/Policeman-public.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="illegal google glass driving ticket fine" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpGDZFOZZnecD4LapvZVJuRIqtBu_0GFTAbUqMVb2Ur_6_Q7vAdbtqbddsbfojsSn_y_zq7_GkLIFILgNSzmDfjgVy0xRSVmOFd03VPDdnHRZQ7yS0K5ywLo7hgw3KUu_y9_RlHqlrBw/s200/Policeman-public.png" title="Do not Google Glass and drive! " width="141" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Google Glass is in many ways an innovative product which should be released by the end of the year according to the <a href="http://phenomtech.blogspot.com/2013/10/new-google-glass-version-released-soon.html">new Google Glass version recently announced by Google</a>. While the product itself opens up many new unexplored technical possibilities, these new things are not too uncommonly frowned upon by the ageing and slowly changing laws in the society. Recently, Cecilia Abadie from California managed to get stopped by a police and given a ticket for wearing her Google Glass while driving.</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Driving while using a cell phone is illegal in many place in the world, similarly to using any other distractive devices. However, so far, few have thought about if driving while using Google Glass is illegal or not. Apparently, for the case of cell phones, it is definitely warranted and using such devices while driving possesses significantly elevated risks. For the case of Google Glass, driving while using them is a bit of a grey area. While the applications for Google Glass certainly can be distractive, simultaneously, they could also provide value that improves the security for the drivers such as GPS overlaid so that the driver can keep their vision at the road.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In any case, Cecilia Abadie has now uploaded the ticket on the Google+ to ask for consultation on how to proceed with it. Clearly, this grey area will need to be further investigated as no prejudices exist.</div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-61014393999666940712013-10-31T06:40:00.005-07:002013-10-31T06:40:53.403-07:00Facebook not cool any longer for teenagers<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
There is no doubt that Facebook is a very successful company. However, recent events may indicate troubles at the horizon as apparently Facebook has lost its coolness factor which has resulted in it being less popular among teenagers. This has already reflected itself on the Facebook shares which dropped by almost 20% following the last quarter report.</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEielZvZ1Dg2g88aVrJmZS3Adn05ZB8VEpd_dmdcfGDOfzbbEwYmKj2FvUZZ4EASnoHDfRQ6OtJAWxmCs0eYALMvot6DA5JGmy3lfzqNlT3hwlVND8ytRiUV0I0ziyAdkzlq1SvtU0Hn4A/s1600/not_cool.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="facebook cool fail young teenager juvenile" border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEielZvZ1Dg2g88aVrJmZS3Adn05ZB8VEpd_dmdcfGDOfzbbEwYmKj2FvUZZ4EASnoHDfRQ6OtJAWxmCs0eYALMvot6DA5JGmy3lfzqNlT3hwlVND8ytRiUV0I0ziyAdkzlq1SvtU0Hn4A/s200/not_cool.png" title="Facebook loses popularity and users among young teenagers." width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The last quarter report by Facebook revealed both positive and negative aspects of the company. On the positive side, the mobile ads appear to finally gain some traction and accounted for about half of the incomes. The turnover also increased by over 50% compared to the same quarter last year and the number of users had also increased by 25% reaching a total of 728 million active users. This resulted in the share prices jumping up by 15% and reaching a price of $57.98.Unfortunately, a few hours later, the increase was completely eradicated by a statement by the CFO, David Eberman who said:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<i>We did see a decrease in daily users specifically among younger teens."</i><br />
<a name='more'></a></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This statement alone indicated to the market that teenagers may no longer look at Facebook as <i>the</i> social network and therefore will pay more attention to other social networks. As a consequence, these 12 words costed Facebook $18 billion of value, due to the Facebook shares immediately being penalized and dropped down to $47.25 (later recovered to $49.01). </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The above statement, however, has to be considered in light of what Mark Zuckerberg said in September, where he mentioned that the coolness factor for Facebook is gone. Therefore, the statement by Eberman just further emphasizes this resulting in a strong market reaction.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Today, the young teenagers besides Facebook also spend considerable time on other social networks such as Twitter, Snapchat, Tumblr and Instagram (owned by Facebook). In essence the market is more competitive and one really has to be innovative to continue to attract new users, especially young users. Considering that many parents for the current young users are on Facebook, this could also influence the decisions by the young users regarding the social network to use. Obviously, no-one wants to have their parents monitoring their Facebook activities.</div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-54849597236633955322013-10-30T08:01:00.000-07:002013-10-30T08:01:32.995-07:00Swallow a tablet and forget about your passwords<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
Usernames and passwords are something that we are all haunted by daily. Now researchers from Motrola has demonstrated a tablet that stores the user credentials on a chip and activates once it is swallowed by a user.</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ChUD4P1dkYeNI141zJh4M19YMJs7wpgm5F8sPF_UbW9F09Blzz_C8L6oZ_i2pUWAj64kKhTcvN85E4z6spw10P2U6G5_lEJTebI735LU2xYYfTvZKIOtCuMcrF82TVQU7Ft6mYCTSw/s1600/tablet_capsule-public.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best tablet login authentication credential password username" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ChUD4P1dkYeNI141zJh4M19YMJs7wpgm5F8sPF_UbW9F09Blzz_C8L6oZ_i2pUWAj64kKhTcvN85E4z6spw10P2U6G5_lEJTebI735LU2xYYfTvZKIOtCuMcrF82TVQU7Ft6mYCTSw/s200/tablet_capsule-public.png" title="Motorola scientists invent a tablet that can replace login credentials." width="141" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Motorola recently announced the <i>Proteus Digital Health</i>, a somewhat unconventional technology which is a tablet that the users are to swallow for the purpose of authentication. The tablet itself is equipped with a small chip that once swallowed begins to harvest power from the acid in the stomach of the user. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Once powered, the chip will emit a 18-bit EKG-like signal that can be picked up by proper equipment. This signal obviously can then be made unique and therefore can authenticate the users against other units or accounts. </div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
According to Motorola, the tablets are approved by the FDA and can safely be taken by the users once a month. So far, the technology has been used to authenticate against phones but the applications are endless if there is a need. However, Motorola does stress that the product will likely not be released for the public anytime soon and so far is primarily used as a showcase and only for customers with special needs.</div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-75085784469323134692013-10-29T05:34:00.001-07:002013-10-29T05:34:37.739-07:00Apple attacks Game Center cheaters<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
The top-scores of Game Center games have since the very beginning been plagued by impossible scores created by cheaters who in one way or the other manipulate the scores. Now, Apple has decided to do something about it and has given the developers the tools to ban cheaters from Game Center top-score-lists.</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3xnIdBynv-UQis6a611qAKS5CQ3go5xnPMMs297h_gietOfIIk3FA1C2oqzQkfaz_0emPQb56_8hJlmBiv3zK_Uyfghqsg8RBafpWhVLYOTSLujA-adsvhAw8LEGxk1hNtnORy9P3Bw/s1600/gamecentericon.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="top game center cheat ban block" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3xnIdBynv-UQis6a611qAKS5CQ3go5xnPMMs297h_gietOfIIk3FA1C2oqzQkfaz_0emPQb56_8hJlmBiv3zK_Uyfghqsg8RBafpWhVLYOTSLujA-adsvhAw8LEGxk1hNtnORy9P3Bw/s1600/gamecentericon.PNG" title="Game Center score toplist cheaters to be blocked and banned!" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Game Center in iOS has many functions such as allowing multi-player modes but also allows users to upload their top scores and achievements and be ranked among other Game Center players. However, so far, the top rankings of the Game Center for almost all games have very clearly been occupied by cheaters with impossible scores and no-one has been able to do anything about it. This has changed now, and Apple has now given registered developers the power and tools to block and ban users who cheat from the top score lists. </div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The new introduced function to the developers also allow them to restore users in case they accidentally ban an innocent user. As of right now though, this is a purely manual action that the developers must make and not any automatic anti-cheat solution commonly found in modern computer games. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One limitation with the blocking function is that the developers can only block scores uploaded within the last 30 days, which means that those who have cheated in the past will still have their scores and rankings retained. Hopefully, this will change in the future once Apple has properly evaluated this recently introduced functionality.</div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8460564149136883441.post-78528730494100585712013-10-29T04:56:00.003-07:002013-10-29T05:34:47.428-07:00New Google Glass version released soon<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
Google has been testing their cyber-glasses known as Glass for a while now and apparently things are going good. Google has announced now that a new version of Glass will be available soon and all current owners of Google Glass can invite new users to the fun!</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbtdCKiqQtgbvreESxEBai4mq_qb8BtJGeOZ96hu6UN-ywt9fAPkCV3ISWKEA6HYj_YmyNR4jgZwhHZQeZMmHWCmfH8opubuaOoOyYkVMNcmsOFsuqUqinvAGCFJ29okt7j59AC-XEOw/s1600/glasses-public.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="best google glass alternative samsung" border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbtdCKiqQtgbvreESxEBai4mq_qb8BtJGeOZ96hu6UN-ywt9fAPkCV3ISWKEA6HYj_YmyNR4jgZwhHZQeZMmHWCmfH8opubuaOoOyYkVMNcmsOFsuqUqinvAGCFJ29okt7j59AC-XEOw/s200/glasses-public.jpg" title="New Google Glass released to testers soon!" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Google has been quiet regarding their Glass testing process for a while now. Recently, Google announced that it will release a new version of Google Glass and in this process also expand the number of users by a factor of 3.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Google has decided to allow anyone who currently owns a pair of Google Glass to invite up to 3 new users to the new Google Glass versions who will be able to purchase the new version from Google directly. Nothing was mentioned regarding the price, but it is very likely that the price will land at $1500 just as the original Google Glass version.</div>
<a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The biggest change to the new version is that they will work together with conventional glasses, similar to how Samsung's competing product works, the new version will additionally also be equipped with an earphone.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Finally, Google has promised that those who already own a Google Glass will be able to trade in their old version for the new version free of charge.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Considering the new invite program that Google has established, things do look good that the final product will indeed have a release date set to later this year as has been announced by Google earlier.</div>
Xorachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16746047200637536069noreply@blogger.com0