Galaxy Grand Prime 4G launches in India for Rs 11,100
Samsung has today launched its Galaxy Grand Prime 4G in India with a price tag of Rs. 11,100, which equates to around $175. The Galaxy Grand Prime 4G is Samsung’s latest 4G smartphone in the rapidly growing market and brings the total number of LTE-enabled Galaxy devices in India to 14.
Samsung Galaxy in video:
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The handset was announced alongside the Galaxy Core Prime 4G and Galaxy J1 4G back in February this year but Samsung missed its expected release date; the handsets were meant to go on sale in March but the Core Prime 4G was only released in June and the J1 4G is yet to make its debut.
The Galaxy Grand Prime 4G is a dual-SIM smartphone with almost identical specs to the non-LTE variant aside from the addition of Band 3 and 20 LTE and Android 5.1 Lollipop. The specs also include a 5.0-inch qHD display with 540 x 960 pixels resolution (and a lowly density of 220 pixels per inch), a 1.2GHz quad-core processor with 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage and a microSD slot.
On the back, the Galaxy Grand Prime 4G has an 8MP rear camera with single LED flash that is capable of Full HD video while the front facing 5MP snapper is also able to capture in 1080p. The handset has a comparatively large 2600 mAh battery which is removable, NFC, an FM Radio, the usual array of connectivity options and will be available in White, Grey and Gold.
HTC pushes Fantastic Four notification ads to its One handsets
We have all probably accepted the need for advertisements to help pay for our favourite free services, but HTC seems to have upset a number of its customers by recently using push notifications for advertising purposes. A number of HTC One M9, M8 and M7 owners are reporting a notification advertisement for the Fantastic Four movie.
Poorly disguised as a new recommended theme for the handset, the advertisement is also plastered with the release date for the film, along with a couple of company logos. What is perhaps most jarring about the advertisement is that it’s up front and center on the display, on a phone that retails with a $600+ price tag already.
The advertisement seems to be tied in with HTC’s Sense Home and Blinkfeed technology. Customers using other third party launchers don’t appear to have seen the same notification.
A couple of months ago, HTC already openly announced that it would be bringing advertisements to its software in select countries, but these were supposed to appear alongside regular news feed pieces. This is the first that we have heard of notification based HTC ads.
The US, UK, Germany, Taiwan and China were listed as taking place in the pilot program. At the time, HTC stated that it would be implementation a way for customers to opt out, but there doesn’t appear to be a setting implemented directly to address HTC specific advertisements yet. Some affected users have simply been disabling Sense Home notifications and that seems to do the trick, but it’s far from ideal.
See also: HTC will soon bring advertisements to BlinkFeed in select markets
HTC has been struggling to keep its mobile business in the black over the past few years, so the company may see advertising as a way to help boost its disappointing revenue. However, judging by the responses, this may end up putting off existing customers and might hurt the company’s reputation in the longer run.
Have you spotted the ad on your HTC One? Do you think this ad is intrusive or did you just swipe it away and forget about it?
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OS X flaw leaves Macs vulnerable to attacks, no password required
The latest version of OS X contains a serious flaw that hackers can use to attack your computer without ever needing your password. The issue is around a hidden document — Sudoers — which is effectively a list of permissions as to which pieces of software are allowed to mess around with your computer. Unfortunately, a change to how Yosemite stores the list means that it’s now possible to add malware to the register. As such, if you inadvertently run an offending script, hackers can take advantage of your computer’s unwitting hospitality to install crapware like VSearch and MacKeeper.
The vulnerability was discovered by old-school iOS jailbreaker Stefan Esser who, according to MalwareBytes, is accused of publicly revealing the flaw before telling Apple. That’s a big faux pas in the security community, with Google going toe-to-toe with Microsoft about revealing as-yet un-patched flaws that have a real risk of harming users.
Esser has offered-up his own kernel extension that could protect your machine against such attacks, which can be downloaded here. As Ars Technica says, however, installing a patch that didn’t come from the original developer can be a risky business and you should do so only if you know what you’re doing. Naturally, we’ve reached out to Apple in the hope of getting some official comment on when a patch will be released, but the company had yet to respond at the time of publication.
Via:
Ars Technica, AppleInsider
Source:
MalwareBytes, GitHub
Tags: apple, Flaw, Malware, OSX, Security
Acer Aspire One Cloudbook gives you a full Windows laptop for $169
Hey, HP: you’re far from the only one who can play the ridiculously low-cost Windows laptop game. Acer has unveiled the Aspire One Cloudbook 11 and 14, a pair of thin-and-light Windows 10 portables that promise a ‘real’ PC experience even if you’re on a shoestring budget. They respectively cost a mere $169 and $199 in the US (a good $30 less than HP’s Stream 11 and 13), but still manage to pack 1.6GHz Celeron processors, 2GB of RAM, full-size keyboards and expansion that includes USB, HDMI and SD card slots. Neither is going to be a screamer, then, but they may do the job if you’re looking for a back to school system that’s just good enough to handle your class notes and reports. Slideshow-308844
So how did Acer manage to undermine its biggest rival? By cutting a few corners, apparently. The company tells us that the $169 11-inch model has a very modest 16GB of built-in storage (you need to jump to higher-end versions to get 32GB or 64GB). The two Cloudbooks also have shorter battery life than the Stream series (between 6 to 7 hours), and there’s a 480p webcam instead of HP’s “HD” unit — these are not the ideal machines for video calls with your parents. You do get free year-long subscriptions to both Office 365 Personal and 1TB of OneDrive space, though, so you won’t have to pay a lot up front to be productive. If you want to give Acer’s minimalist PC concept a shot, you can get the Cloudbook 11 in August and the Cloudbook 14 in September.
Source:
Acer
Tags: acer, aspireonecloudbook, celeron, cloudbook, computer, laptop, pc, windows, windows10
Researchers develop multifaceted insect eyes for UAVs
A team of researchers from the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) have developed a tiny new set of electronic eyes for drones that are based on the multifaceted peepers of insects. These eyes are built specifically for the next generation of very small surveillance UAVs — like that origami quadcopter EPFL developed earlier this year — and operate very differently than the conventional cameras currently employed. Insect eyes aren’t capable of generating a high spatial resolution (that is, the number of pixels you can pack into a single image) so they instead rely on quickly reacting to changes in how light reflects or objects appear as the insect moves. The new camera works the same way.
It’s comprised of a lens on top of three triangular electronic photodetectors. By measuring how quickly objects appear in and move across each detector, the UAV can figure out its speed and direction. The sensor measures just two cubic millimeters square and weighs a paltry two milligrams but can still detect motion three times faster than your standard housefly. What’s more, the sensor can operate equally well in both low, indoor lighting and exterior sunlight.
To help the drone see everywhere at once (thereby making it impervious to swatting attempts) the team also developed “vision tape” which is, basically, a strip of tape with a bunch of these eyes attached. The strip can reportedly be affixed to any curved surface — whether that’s another robot, industrial machines, even furniture and clothing.
[Image Credit: Getty Images/Flickr RF]
Via:
Technology News
Source:
Royal Society Publishing
Tags: drone, epfl, eyes, hdpostcross, imaging, insects, Intelligent Systems, micro-uav, sensor, spy, surveillance, switzerland, uav, vision
Love fishing? Help the USA track endangered species using FishBrain
Anglers across the USA are the most likely to come across endangered species, so why not harness their activities while trying and protect some of our aquatic animals? That is exactly what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the government agency in charge of animal & habitat conservation) intends to do.
The government organization aims to convince users to participate in logging sightings of species at risk. They are doing this by partnering with FishBrain, the largest social network for fishing enthusiasts. The application would feature a new section, allowing you to log sightings of up to 50 endangered species. This would be done during their fishing trips, which they already take and everyone can now benefit from.
Participating would aid conservationists and scholars in keeping track of how often a specific species is sighted, hence giving them an idea of population. In addition, they could keep tags on where the fish type is seen more often, its habitat and what we could do to improve preservation.
“The first step towards conservation is always education and engagement, and we are excited to work with FishBrain to help us reach a new audience. Anglers are extremely important to protecting and maintaining healthy aquatic habitats. This is a unique opportunity to synthesize recreational anglers’ information and knowledge in local waterways and expand our understanding of various species.” -Gary Frazer, Assistant Director of the Service’s Ecological Services Program
The endangered species will not only include aquatic animals. The final list adds other types of creatures protected under the Endangered Species Act. This includes fish (of course), birds, reptiles, amphibians and even larger mammals like the white-tailed deer. This means even hunters could help out!
You can go ahead and download FishBrain to be part of the action. By the way, the application is free to use, so you don’t need to worry about a thing! How many of you plan on helping out? Do you often find yourself in a situation in which you may run into rare animals? Share your thoughts, experiences and doubts in the comments below!
Largest plane in the world to perform test flights in 2016
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen started planning to build the largest plane in the world in 2011, along with several partners like Elon Musk. Now, that plane called Stratolaunch is already under construction at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California and is even expected to undergo testing as soon as 2016. Allen’s company, Stratolaunch Systems, isn’t building an oversized aircraft just so it can get in the Guinness Book of World Records, though: its primary goal is to perform air launches of satellite-carrying rockets.
Air launches make it possible for rockets to take off despite inclement weather and could save fuel because they don’t have to blast off and start moving from 0 mph. The plane can be used again and again for multiple launches and engineers and scientists can choose the best location to drop a rocket. That ensures the spacecraft can easily insert satellites into their planned orbits, though the amount of payload it can carry will be limited due to weight constraints.
A company called Scaled Composites — its founder Burt Rutan is also one of Stratolaunch System’s founders — is in charge of building the plane using two Boeing 747s. It will have a 385-foot wingspan once it’s done, around 123 feet wider than the wingspan of the Airbus A380, which is the world’s largest passenger airplane. Scaled Composites president Kevin Mickey told KGET in an interview that if you put the plane on a football field, “its wingtips would extend beyond the goalposts by about 15 feet on each side.”
It will need around 12,000 feet of runway to take off, though, which is a bit of an issue. Most commercial planes only need around 7,000 to 8,000 feet, and runways are designed for them, not for gargantuan ones like Stratolaunch. Still, Allen and his team are hoping that the plane will make air launches more common: they believe the practice could make space travel more affordable. We guess we’ll see next year whether their dreams are feasible once test flights begin.
Filed under:
Transportation
Via:
Extremetech
Source:
Yahoo
Tags: paulallen, space, stratolaunch
Samsung ready to spend 100 billion won to compensate cancer-affected employees
It’s no secret conditions at factories are not always optimal, often even bringing health risks to the workers that make our beloved devices. Even the biggest Android manufacturer has been involved in issues like this one. You may have not heard of it much, as it was a 12-year old dispute that was only resolved last year, when Samsung issued an official apology to affected employees and families.
As you can expect, though, these long lawsuits are not resolved simply by saying “sorry”. Money is absolutely in between – Samsung is creating a 100 billion won fund to compensate cancer-stricken workers and their families, as well as improving working conditions in their chip and display factories. This amount equates to above $85 million USD.
But just how big was this ordeal? According to Sharps (South Korean activist group), there’s around 200 victims acquired illnesses such as lymphoma and leukemia, thanks to prolonged exposure to radiation and other chemicals Samsung factories had in use. Around 70 of them have been deceased.
By the way, Samsung factory issues are not only a thing of the past. Like with many other factories across the world, Samsung has been under significant fire for their working conditions. They have been recently accused for child labor and poor working conditions. Not the best thing to be recognized for, but this is an issue that expands far beyond a single company. It’s something that needs to be tackled industry-wide, and across the globe.
Zettaly Avy review – the Android music box you didn’t know you needed
The folks at Zettaly have been busy in the last couple years, taking to crowdfunding to help get a few products to market. One device that has succeeding in finding its way to a retail outlet near you is the Avy, an Android powered 7-inch tablet built right into a speaker dock.
We’ve been playing with the Avy for the better part of the last month, and we are prepared to offer up our verdict, join us as we explore if the Zettaly Avy is the device for you.
Design
You will notice straight away that the Avy is not your typical tablet. Despite providing a competent 7-inch display and offering up the full Android KitKat experience you might find on an outdated Nexus 7, Avy is more music box than tablet.
A pair of speaker grills sandwich the display, creating an almost 14-inch by nearly 5-inch flat front surface. The large half circle designed casing of Avy is made more for optimal audio and posture, it is certainly not made for comfort in the hand, unless you count the convenient finger slot handle on the back side, which makes carrying Avy simple and comfortable.
The overall design gives the display and speakers a slight upward slant, making Avy ideal for setting on the table beside you. The back side houses an arrangement of ports you are not likely to find on a typical tablet, including a microSD slot and HDMI port. There is also a headphone jack, micro USB port and a power plug, but we’ll talk more about that later.
The back casing has a shiny plastic finish to it, which looks pretty nice in white, but we haven’t seen the black version up close just yet. As mentioned, there is a comfortable slot-style handle near the top of the back that makes carrying Avy very easy. The bottom of the device has three rubber pads to land on, providing a sturdy and quiet stance, but also allowing Avy to transfer sound vibrations into the table, enhancing the lower tones of your music.
The top edge of Avy houses three buttons, simply your power and volume controls.
Display
The 7-inch display offers up 1024×600 screen resolution, which is again fairly comparable to your first generation Nexus 7 tablet. Display brightness ranges from not too bright when viewed in the dark of night, to slightly visible in direct sunlight.
Although the brightness abilities are a little lacking as compared to modern tablets, the viewing angles are right on the mark. That is, viewing side to side and from the top down is crystal clear, but viewing from the bottom up does fade out a bit. Assuming you have your Avy sitting in its proper position, this shouldn’t cause you any problems.
Performance
The Zettaly Avy is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core SoC made of ARM Cortex A7 chips. Combined with 1GB of RAM, Avy is capable of processing 3D acceleration and up to 1080p video. I did put 1080p video to the test and it performed flawlessly, even if the display is not 1080p itself. The same can be said when pushing the same video over HDMI out to a proper 1080p external monitor, making Avy a surprisingly good set-top box.
Now, to the point of Avy, music playback. With the built-in 10 Watts of power pumping to two speakers, audio is crisp and clear. The device is more than capable of pumping out your favorite mp3s for hours on end. This performance does not change when you are plugged to the wall or running off the internal battery, which is enough to keep your screen on for a couple hours, or music playing for over 5 hours at a moderate volume, at least in my testing.
It is important to note that we all have different tastes in sound when determining quality. For me, Avy is a wonderful device that pumps out pleasant sounds at lower volume levels, it sits beside me now playing my normal ‘thinking’ playlist of instrumental and low-impact music.
I choose to plug my favorite headphones into Avy when I need to listen to my ‘get-stuff-done’ playlist, Avy’s built-in speakers distort more than I’d like when you really push them, and overall bass output is less than you might find from the more expensive Sonos or Bose speaker systems.
I suppose those conclusions are to be expected, Avy is a unique device with no real direct competition from mainstream manufacturers. So, allow me to say that, as a gut reaction, I would rank Avy as good as a typical $50-$60 Bluetooth speaker dock, in terms of sound quality.
Hardware
In the hardware department, Avy rocks that 7-inch TFT display, quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. As this is a music player, it is good then that you can expand storage with up to 32GB microSD.
Audio is driven by 2x5W speakers, and a built-in microphone. Enabling video conferencing from the device, Avy packs a front facing VGA camera. Do not expect miraculous quality out of it, but it is more than enough to say hi to mom.
Rounding out the specs list is that HDMI port, headphone jack, microSD slot, and micro USB port. The device is powered by a proprietary plug, leaving that micro USB port exclusive to OTG connections for peripherals or external storage. On the inside you’ll find Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity.
Finally, and possibly something I should have mentioned much sooner, Avy comes with a 15 button remote control. Control your music, volume and more with a single press, or use the directional buttons to manually navigate your device. Speaking for myself, I use the remote a lot more than I thought I would, and I think you will too.
Software
We’ve already mentioned that the Zettaly Avy is powered by Android 4.4.4 KitKat. This version of Android did not change during a very recent OTA update, but the smattering of bugs proves the company is backing their device. They informed me that Android 5.x Lollipop is in the works for the device, but no ETA was provided.
In addition to your standard Android KitKat experience for tablets, Avy adds a few little tricks. Hidden in the Settings menu you’ll find a HDMI section, to take control of your external display settings. You will also find a Screenshot Settings entry. Avy does not take screenshots by way of pressing physical buttons, instead there is a software button that lives with the added volume control buttons alongside your Home button and more in the navigation bar.
The folks at Zettaly have been very receptive and responsive to a few little concerns I have had with Avy. Bug reports have been submitted for a little issue with Android’s Daydream feature not keeping the display turned on. Just one of those cases where the default actions of Android are not good enough. Considering how great of a digital photo frame Avy makes, I am happy to see this update sooner rather than later.
From there, they were very patient helping me diagnose a frequent audio skipping issue, turns out it was my fault, I must have just had a corrupt file on my microSD card. Of course, it possibly relates to a headphone audio routing issue that they are already working on repairing.
Expanding on your expectations, I will specify that Avy provides access to the full gamut of Google software. This includes Google Play Services, the Google Play Store and everything in between. My point is, whatever your other Android devices can do, Avy can also handle.
When all else fails, try ignoring the fact that Avy has its own operating system, connect to it via Bluetooth and stream your favorite music straight from your phone.
Pricing and final thoughts
The Zettaly Avy is a very respectable first entry from a new company. Especially one that found its start on Kickstarter and is now producing gear on scale to sell through Amazon. As I can best describe Avy as a dream product from and for its designers, it is easy to see the passion that has gone into it, but I can also see the acceptance of some lower-end hardware to make this product a financial viability.
Despite the compromises, Avy is a solid unit that provides a complete and fluid Android experience as well as providing great sound for your small audience settings. The going price is $199.95, and can be had from Amazon.com or Amazon EU.
Bottom line, if you are picky about your audio quality and accustomed to high-end audio gear, please give Avy a listen before you expect it to perform as well as similarly priced portable speakers. Remember that Avy includes a display and all the benefits of Android, in addition to being a set of speakers, which makes the overall package well worth your consideration.
Have you seen the Zettaly Avy in action yourself, what did you think of it? Are you willing to buy an all-in-one Android tablet and music player?
For more details, visit http://www.zettaly.com/avy/
This post originally appeared on our sister site TabTimes.
EFF is building a stronger ‘Do Not Track’ browser setting
Despite “Do Not Track” being a standard option on Firefox, Chrome and Safari (but not Microsoft Edge), many unscrupulous advertisers are still secretly tracking the browsing habits of internet users. That’s why the Electronic Freedom Foundation has teamed with Adblock, Medium, Mixpanel and DuckDuckGo to create a stronger standard.
“The failure of the ad industry and privacy groups to reach a compromise on DNT has led to a viral surge in ad blocking, massive losses for Internet companies dependent on ad revenue, and increasingly malicious methods of tracking users and surfacing advertisements online,” Disconnect CEO Casey Oppenheim said in a statement. “Our hope is that this new DNT approach will protect a consumer’s right to privacy and incentivize advertisers to respect user choice, paving a path that allows privacy and advertising to coexist.”
The new standard will work hand in hand with ad- and tracker-blocking software to more fully protect users against commercial snooping attempts. It basically allows domain operators to declare that they’re onboard with DNT so that privacy-protecting software knows how aggressively to block or anonymize communications with the site.
Filed under:
Internet, Apple, Microsoft, Google
Source:
EFF
Tags: adblock, advertising, apple, browser, chrome, DoNotTrack, edge, EFF, firefox, google, microsoft, privacy, projectspartan, safari, security, standards
AIVAnet 