Thursday 27 February 2014
Boeing to sell phone that can self-destruct
NEW YORK - It's the smartphone every "Mission Impossible" fan would love to have.
Boeing is set to debut a new secure phone for government agencies and defense contractors that will self-destruct if it's tampered with. It just won't be won't be quite as dramatic as it was on the old television show. There won't be any smoke or explosions, but the contents of the device will be completely erased.
"Any attempt to break open the casing of the device would trigger functions that would delete the data and software contained within the device and make the device inoperable," explained a company filing with the Federal Communications Commission, posted on the FCC's Web site Wednesday.
The company is giving few details about the phone, which will be called "Boeing Black." Pricing and an exact release date have yet to be disclosed, though it is expected to be out by this summer. But it won't be available your local Verizon or AT&T storefront.
"It's geared towards defense and security customers. It's not aimed at the consumer," said Boeing spokeswoman Rebecca Yeamans. The phone will use Google's Android operating system, but calls and stored data will be encrypted.
Yeamans said the security measure would use a combination of software and hardware on the phone.
While Boeing Black will be the company's first foray into cell phones, the company has a long-established history of providing secured communications, according to Yeamans.
"It seems like a new endeavor for Boeing but for a long time we've been in business of connecting our customers and providing trusted communications to them," she said.
Monday 24 February 2014
Samsung Galaxy S5 revealed: Water and dust proof, 16MP camera, fingerprint scanner
By Nimish Sawant / 25 Feb 2014 , 09:40
Samsung finally announced its latest flagship – the Galaxy S5 – a phone that had set rumour mills buzzing for months prior to its launch. Be it the finger-print scanner or the waterproof body or even its colour we were covering everything. So let us see how true the leaks were.
Samsung Galaxy S5 sports a 5.1-inch full HD screen
The Samsung Galaxy S5 is a 5.1-inch upgrade to the year older Galaxy S4 and sports a full HD screen with the same Super AMOLED panel. So clearly, the rumours of the S5 having a 2560×1440 pixel were just that. But where the rumour mills got it right was about it being dust-proof and water-proof.
“With the Galaxy S5, Samsung is going back to basics to focus on delivering the capabilities that matter most to our consumers,” said JK Shin, President and Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung. “Consumers are looking for mobile tools that inspire and support them as they improve their everyday lives. The Galaxy S5 represents an iconic design with essential and useful features to focus on delivering the ultimate smartphone on the market today through people inspired innovation.”
The Galaxy S5 has a 16MP camera on the rear with a heart-rate monitor just below it
Design
In terms of design, there are no major visible improvements in the front. However, the home button also functions as a finger-print reader. It comes with the same plastic cover, though there is a metal variant of the S5 as well. On the rear-side, just below the camera module, you have a heart-rate monitor. The Galaxy S5 seems to be taking the health and fitness tracking to the next level with the Galaxy S5.
Finger-print sensor
The rumour mills got this one right as well. Samsung Galaxy S5 does indeed come with a finger-print sensor, a feature introduced by Apple with its 5S. Samsung however claims that their implementation is different. It can recognise three separate finger prints and it takes eight swipes to register, instead of holding down on the home/fingerprint scanner button. You can unlock the phone using finger-print recognition and can even authorise PayPal to make payments.
Samsung Galaxy S5 comes with a 16MP camera and features such as improved HDR and Selective Focus mode
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy S5 comes with a 16MP camera with improved menu and user interface. It claims to have an autofocus speed of 0.3 secs and an advanced High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode. The Samsung S5 rear camera will feature phase-detect and contrast detect AF, which is generally seen on high end cameras. This really should boost up the AF speed. On the front there is a 2.1MP camera. The new Selective Focus Feature allows users to focus on a specific area of an object while simultaneously blurring out the background. It also comes with a post-capture refocus feature. Another interesting feature is its ability to shoot 4K video, although you will need to watch the full res video on a 4K TV.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 comes with a 16MP camera with improved menu and user interface. It claims to have an autofocus speed of 0.3 secs and an advanced High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode. The Samsung S5 rear camera will feature phase-detect and contrast detect AF, which is generally seen on high end cameras. This really should boost up the AF speed. On the front there is a 2.1MP camera. The new Selective Focus Feature allows users to focus on a specific area of an object while simultaneously blurring out the background. It also comes with a post-capture refocus feature. Another interesting feature is its ability to shoot 4K video, although you will need to watch the full res video on a 4K TV.
Connectivity
Samsung Galaxy S5 supports the fifth generation 802.11ac WiFi and it uses LTE Category 4 standard. A feature called Download Booster allows you to bond the WiFi and LTE connections simultaneously to improve download speeds.
Samsung Galaxy S5 supports the fifth generation 802.11ac WiFi and it uses LTE Category 4 standard. A feature called Download Booster allows you to bond the WiFi and LTE connections simultaneously to improve download speeds.
Samsung clearly plans to leverage its wearable devices with the Galaxy S5
Health and Fitness
The very fact that Samsung has placed a heart-rate monitor under the camera module speaks volumes about its commitment to health and fitness tracking. With the new S Health 3.0, the Galaxy S5 provides a personal fitness tracker with tools such as pedometer, diet and exercise records and a new built-in heart rate monitor. An optical heart-rate monitor which works with your fingertip is also included on the Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch.
The very fact that Samsung has placed a heart-rate monitor under the camera module speaks volumes about its commitment to health and fitness tracking. With the new S Health 3.0, the Galaxy S5 provides a personal fitness tracker with tools such as pedometer, diet and exercise records and a new built-in heart rate monitor. An optical heart-rate monitor which works with your fingertip is also included on the Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch.
Internal specs
The Samsung Galaxy S5 runs on a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 800 SoC with 2GB of RAM. It will ship with Android 4.4.2. It comes in the 16GB and 32GB variant with microSD slot for adding in a microSD card upto 64GB. It packs in a 2800mAh batter which gives talk time of 21 hrs. A new feature called the Ultra Power Saving mode, claims to give you a 24-hour battery even when your phone shows the battery capacity at 10 per cent. It weighs 145g and is just 8.1mm thick.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 runs on a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 800 SoC with 2GB of RAM. It will ship with Android 4.4.2. It comes in the 16GB and 32GB variant with microSD slot for adding in a microSD card upto 64GB. It packs in a 2800mAh batter which gives talk time of 21 hrs. A new feature called the Ultra Power Saving mode, claims to give you a 24-hour battery even when your phone shows the battery capacity at 10 per cent. It weighs 145g and is just 8.1mm thick.
Essential device protection
The Galaxy S5 is IP67 dust and water resistant. It also offers a Finger Scanner, providing a secure, biometric screen locking feature and a seamless and safe mobile payment experience to consumers. The Ultra Power Saving Mode turns the display to black and white, and shuts down all unnecessary features to minimize the battery consumption. It’s said to let your phone be in standby mode for 24 hours even at 10 percent battery.
The Galaxy S5 is IP67 dust and water resistant. It also offers a Finger Scanner, providing a secure, biometric screen locking feature and a seamless and safe mobile payment experience to consumers. The Ultra Power Saving Mode turns the display to black and white, and shuts down all unnecessary features to minimize the battery consumption. It’s said to let your phone be in standby mode for 24 hours even at 10 percent battery.
Pricing details are yet to be released. We will update it as soon as its up. The Samsung Galaxy S5 will hit the markets on April 11th. Stay tuned for more updates on the Galaxy S5.
Lenovo S860 is a beefy bruiser with a blockbuster battery
BARCELONA, Spain -- Just when Lenovo was starting to make its name as a phone maker, with chunky, big-screen handsets such as the Vibe X we saw at IFA in September, and the Vibe Z that was unveiled at CES, the Chinese company went and bought Motorola.
It's unlikely to give up making own-brand phones in favour of pumping out new Motos, however, and three new mobiles are on show here at MWC.
The S860 is the most high-end of the bunch. Retailing for $349 unlocked later this year, its headline feature is prodigious battery life. Its massive 4,000mAh battery promises a whopping 24 hours of 3G talk time, or 43 hours on 2G.
The huge cell makes the S860 a massive beast. It's a meaty 10.3mm thick, and weighs a hefty 0.42lbs (190g). The weight lends it a sturdiness, and the brushed metal back feels classy, but make no mistake -- you'll feel this great lump in your pocket.
The S860 has a bright 5.3-inch screen.
(Credit: Andrew Hoyle/CNET)
It's a pretty impressive spec for the price. The 5.3-inch screen has a decent 1,280x720-pixel HD resolution, with a bright IPS panel that seemed just hi-res enough to make text easy to read. It has a mid-range 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, which isn't expandable. In my brief hands-on it felt quick and responsive.
It falls down in a few areas. It doesn't do 4G LTE, and it has a fairly old version of Android (4.2 Jelly Bean) although Lenovo says it will get an update to 4.4 KitKat at some point. There's only an 8-megapixel camera on the back, which I wasn't able to properly put to the test, but the 1.6-megapixel camera on the front for video calls is perfectly respectable.
The camera lens sits in the top center of the brushed metal battery cover.
(Credit: Andrew Hoyle/CNET)
Lenovo's new suite of "DOit" apps will come as standard, with some really handy features such as Wi-Fi sharing, security and performance, backup and photo management. My favourite is the SNAPit camera app, which adds filters before you shoot, and automatically beautifies your subjects afterwards.
The S860 will go on sale in June for $349 in the following regions: China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and other Asian countries; Russia, Ukraine, and other Eastern European countries, Mexico and other Central American countries; Saudi Arabia, UAE and Nigeria. Lenovo doesn't sell phones in the US or Western Europe.
Friday 21 February 2014
No ads, no games, no gimmicks: WhatsApp founders’ early struggles highlight magnitude of Facebook deal
The whopping $19 billion that Facebook is paying for the service is also unusual (Image: AP)
21 Feb 2014 , 13:44
WhatsApp isn’t your average Silicon Valley startup. The company’s founders Jan Koum, 38, and Brian Acton, 42, shun the media spotlight and are much older than your typical college dropout-turned CEO. And at a time when social media companies are focusing on advertising to generate revenue, WhatsApp rejects the idea of showing ads to the 450 million people who use its mobile messaging app.
The whopping $19 billion that Facebook is paying for the service is also unusual, even as other startups with no profit, or even revenue, are commanding sky-high valuations.
Koum and Acton are at the center of the largest buyout deal ever for a venture-backed company. How did two former Yahoo engineers who witnessed the late ’90s dot-com boom — and bust — create the world’s hottest app and make 10-year-old Facebook seem a tad grizzled?
“Jan keeps a note from Brian taped to his desk that reads ‘No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!’ It serves as a daily reminder of their commitment to stay focused on building a pure messaging experience,” wrote Sequoia Capital partner Jim Goetz in a blog post about Thursday’s deal. Sequoia is WhatsApp’s sole venture capital investor.
The Ukraine-born Koum, WhatsApp’s CEO, move to the US when he was 16. Acton was born in Michigan. “We’re the most atypical Silicon Valley company you’ll come across,” Acton told Wired in a December interview that the magazine will publish next month in its U.K edition. “We were founded by thirtysomethings; we focused on business sustainability and revenue rather than getting big fast; we’ve been incognito almost all the time; we’re mobile first; and we’re global first.”
The pair started WhatsApp in 2009, two years after they left their jobs at Yahoo and five years after Facebook got its start in Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room. The service is simple. People use it to send text, photo or video messages to their contacts, bypassing text messaging charges and other fees from wireless carriers.
“WhatsApp is simple, secure, and fast. It does not ask you to spend time building up a new graph of your relationships; instead, it taps the one that’s already there. Jan and Brian’s decisions are fueled by a desire to let people communicate with no interference,” writes Goetz, who along with Sequoia also stands to reap a hefty sum from the deal.
Much like Zuckerberg did during Facebook’s early years, WhatsApp’s founders shun ads. But unlike Facebook, which now relies on advertisements for the bulk of its revenue, WhatsApp remains ad-free. Users who download WhatsApp on their phones are greeted with a link that reads “Why we don’t sell ads.” The link leads to a quote from Tyler Durden, the anti-establishment character from the 1996 novel “Fight Club.” “Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need,” it reads. A note from Koum follows with more details.
“These days companies know literally everything about you, your friends, your interests, and they use it all to sell ads,” writes Koum. “No one wakes up excited to see more advertising, no one goes to sleep thinking about the ads they’ll see tomorrow. We know people go to sleep excited about who they chatted with that day (and disappointed about who they didn’t). We want WhatsApp to be the product that keeps you awake.”
Koum then goes on to call advertising an insult to users’ intelligence and an interruption to their train of thought. Take that, Facebook.
While WhatsApp rejects ads (it charges 99 cents per year after letting people use it free of charge for the first year), Facebook works to gather as much information as possible about its 1.23 billion users, their tastes for coffee and music, where they live and travel, their friendships, marriages and breakups. WhatsApp doesn’t ask users their age, gender or where they live.
In a conference call with financial analysts, Zuckerberg talked about the acquisition and said he doesn’t think ads are “the right way” to make money from messaging services. Koum agreed. Although WhatsApp is profitable, Koum told analysts on the call that making money “is not going to be a priority for us.”
“This is why I actually respect Mark and his vision, is that he takes a very long term on everything they do at Facebook. They focus on something that is not just tomorrow, but something that’s 5 or 10 years from now, and that’s the same about with our company,” he said. “We always talk about where mobile is going to be, not today, not next year, but in 2020 or in 2025. And as we look forward to the next 5 or 10 years, 5 billion people will have a smartphone and we have a potential to have 5 billion users potentially giving us money through the subscription model.”
Koum, who is now a billionaire, at least on paper, lived on food stamps when his family first moved to the U.S. He told Wired of growing up in a communist country, where “everything you did was eavesdropped on, recorded, snitched on.” That’s another, more personal reason for his insistence on not collecting information about users. WhatsApp doesn’t store your chats history on its servers because it doesn’t need to, since it doesn’t need it to target advertisements to you.
Though he’s known Zuckerberg for a couple of years, the Facebook deal wasn’t in the works yet when Koum spoke to Wired late last year. He brought up Facebook, Google, Apple and Yahoo as examples of “great” companies that never sold, and signaled that WhatsApp would like to stay independent.
Acton, meanwhile, expressed worry about what a bigger company would do with WhatsApp’s users, to whom the company has made such an important promise of “no ads, no gimmicks, no games.”
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