How does Google keep me safe while using Chrome?

What Google does to keep you safer and let you know they’re doing it in Chrome.

You’ve probably heard that the Chrome browser helps make sure you don’t visit websites that may be harmful on accident. That’s true, but like most things in Chrome, there’s also more information available for every web page you visit when it comes to trust. It’s actually right there in front of us all the time right in the omnibar. Let’s have a basic look at what Google does to make sure your safe on the web when using Chrome.

Every website is given a trust rating by Google. There are based on what’s called a certificate and data collected by Google’s Safe Browsing program. Google’s Safe Browsing is an index of the web (yes, all of the web) that will warn you before you load a site that may be unsafe by pausing the loading of the page and warning you. You’ll see some information that tells you what Google thinks is wrong and the option to continue to the page or to go back a step to the last page you visited.

We blocked the website address in this image to make sure nobody tries to visit it, but you would normally see it in the text. Any web page that Google’s Safe Browsing engine suspects of having malware or collecting your user data will be flagged this way. Safe Browsing is built into Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Safe Browsing isn’t something that was made to compete in any sales market. It’s a service from Google’s web security team that other companies can use and help make better so we’re all safer on the internet.

Safe Browsing stops you from going directly to a web site that Google has flagged as harmful.

Chrome also has another safety check in place that uses a site’s SSL certificate. A certificate is a small data file that is uploaded on a website’s server that binds a cryptography key to that particular site. When a proper certificate is installed on a server, it activates the HTTPS protocol so secure connections between the web server and you are possible. This way, things like credit card transactions, personal details, and data transfers stay between you and the site you’re visiting. A certificate also ties a site’s domain name, hostname, company name, and location together.

Google has a list of companies that provide these SSL certificates who are trusted. Anyone can create an SSL certificate, and if you work for a company with a big intranet (web pages for internal use) or that uses their own VPN credentials you probably have a custom certificate from your IT department you need to mark as trusted in some applications. Those don’t go into Google’s master list but are treated the same way because you (or your IT department) explicitly said they were trustworthy.

Using the SSL certificate (or lack of) Chrome will give a website one of four ratings.

• Secure. This web page is using a valid SSL certificate and all the data going back and forth is only available to you and the server you’re visiting.
• Info. This site isn’t using a valid certificate, but there is no reason to suspect any hanky panky is going on. You can click the icon to get the details.
• Not Secure. There is something wrong with this site’s privacy settings and someone else might be able to see the data you’re sharing with it.
• Dangerous. Avoid this site because your private information is at risk. If you didn’t disable Safe Browsing you’ll get the warning page before you arrive at a site with this rating.

You find these icons in the omnibar (Chrome’s version of an address bar) in your browser. You can click on any of them and you’ll get all the details Google has about the site as well as links that might help explain what you’re seeing.

SSL certificates are becoming more and more necessary and common. You’ll find that most companies with a big online presence use them. But you also might need to make sure you’re using the right URL to get there!

Android Central is an example. We have a recognized SSL certificate, and you’ll be able to use it with Chrome if you visit https://www.androidcentral.com. You’ll see the lock icon along with our company name in Chrome’s omnibar and that means that everything you type or otherwise enter on one of our pages is encrypted so that only you and we can read it.

SSL certificates are a great way to make sure the data you send to any web page is encrypted and secure.

But we also need to be legacy compatible. We want someone with an old Android tablet or one they bought that doesn’t have Google’s software available to be able to visit using a browser that can’t use certificates or might have difficulty rendering sites that have them. If you visit http://www.androidcentral.com (notice the use of http versus https) you’ll see the info icon. You can click on that icon and it will tell you that your connection isn’t secured.

Many sites are this way, so be sure to update all your bookmarks to use the https address!

Chrome isn’t the only browser that helps make sure you’re safe on the web. Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple and everyone else wants your experience to be the best it can be so you keep using their products. But Chrome gives plenty of details to help you know what’s going on and we want to make sure you know how to find them.

From The Editor’s Desk: An immigrant

There’s more to tech than conflict, and there’s more to life than tech.

When I was nine years old, I was sitting on the sill in my kitchen talking to my mother, and as I looked out on to the driveway a man sprinted through the front gates towards me, holding a gun that looked, to my young eyes, the size of a bazooka. He motioned for us to be quiet as he hid behind my father’s truck, and as I sat there, paralyzed, my mom picked me up and sprinted to the other side of the house.

If Google’s CEO issues a memo to his employees citing the “personal cost of [President Trump’s] executive order on [his] colleagues,” we are going to mention it.

What I learned later is that the man was trying to break into the heavily-fortified compound of a neighbor a few houses down, and as he fled to seek shelter behind my father’s truck, more than a dozen police officers were setting up a perimeter. Once established, a group of six stormed the driveway from each side, cutting off the would-be burglar and arresting him. I learned of this, and many similar incidents, in the months and years since emigrating from Johannesburg to Toronto, where I have now lived for over 20 years.

I’ve long taken for granted that Canada is my home, and that I am relatively safe from persecution just by being a citizen of this particular nation. Back in the early 90s, during Apartheid South Africa, I was a bit too young and sheltered to realize what my country’s government was doing, and had done for 40 years, to systemically reduce the rights of a majority of its population — but my parents weren’t. They were keenly aware of the system of imbalance that kept people poor and desperate, and that enormous change was necessary — and imminent — in that beautiful country. Change came, and kept coming, and for many reasons we left for a nation that proudly codified its constitution around inclusiveness and stability. And though I miss South Africa intensely, I understand and empathize with my parents’ decision to leave a precarious situation.

We at AC are often told, when reporting on topics outside the immediate tech sphere, to pare back, to focus on “what we’re good at,” to resist the temptation to politicize our rhetoric or inflame the readership. As much as I like the idea that Android Central is a soothing balm, a respite from the divisive nature of political discourse in early 2017, the reality is that we are just as inextricably linked to the decisions of elected officials as the rest, and to avoid it entirely would be a disservice to our readership.

Respect and listen to one another this week, folks.

If Google’s CEO issues a memo to his employees citing the “personal cost of [President Trump’s] executive order on [his] colleagues,” we are going to mention it, even as we continue to recommend great products and report on rumors of this year’s flagships.

I also feel a personal obligation to stand up for the rights of immigrants, for the millions of good people whose decisions to move between nations often comes at enormous personal and financial risk. That I am an editor at an Android-related website is a privilege that I may not have been able to achieve without the personal and financial risk taken by my parents 22 years ago.

A few notes from the week:

• The Note 7 saga is over, and while I wasn’t thrilled with the results, I appreciate Samsung’s thoroughness, and I expect that outcome to be positive for the entire industry.
• The Galaxy S8 is shaping up to be one hell of a follow-up.
• So is the LG G6, but will it have enough to really differentiate itself from the high-end competition?
• I received Nougat on my OnePlus 3 and HTC 10, and now I can’t decide which implementation I like better.
• Both, however — all phones upgraded to Nougat, in fact, are enormously improved. This is the most significant “minor” Android update I’ve ever used.
• I was quite amazed as how far-reaching Alex’s investigation on which Android phone Trump uses went. It was picked up by Vanity Fair, Fox News, Vice, The Telegraph, Quartz, Yahoo Finance, Politico, Daring Fireball, The Guardian, Der Standard, El Mundo and many more news outlets.
• Had a blast playing and writing about Myst, which came to Android this week.
• Also having a blast reading through the first week of Ask Jerry. Join us in the forums if you haven’t already!

Respect and listen to one another this week, folks.

-Daniel

The making of Dell’s XPS 13 2-in-1

By Mark Spoonauer

It’s the laptop that made Windows notebooks cool — and knocked the MacBook Air off its pedestal — thanks in large part to the machine’s head-turning borderless screen. But when Dell launched the XPS 13 in 2015, many observers believed the company simply scored an exclusive part with the new screen.

Wrong.

Dell actually spent two years in deep collaboration with Sharp, perfecting the display on a new laptop that was then internally known as Project Dino. In fact, Dell helped fund the development of the panel.

“We didn’t go to Sharp and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to make a computer. What do you guys have?” said Ed Boyd, senior vice president for product design at Dell. “We said, ‘We want to make this.’”

For the new XPS 13 2-in-1 (codenamed Aventador), Dell did a lot more than tweak a winning formula. The company achieved an even thinner and completely fanless design while taking a risk on an entirely different processor, one that doesn’t necessarily have the best reputation.

On the eve of the 2-in-1’s launch, Dell gave me an exclusive look at how the company brought one of the most compelling convertibles of the year to life, from drawing board to store shelf. Along the way, I got a behind-the-scenes tour of the design, performance and durability labs, as well as access to the engineers, designers and competitive analysts who are dreaming up the future of computing.

MORE: Best 2-in-1s (Laptop/Tablet Hybrids)

A Row of Risk Takers

Staring at a long row of groundbreaking laptops from the last several years in Dell’s design center in Austin, Texas, I instantly got a jolt of deja vu. There was the Adamo from 2009, whose scissors-like design raised the keyboard at an angle when opened. At that time, the Adamo was the thinnest laptop in the world, at 0.4 inches.

I also instantly recalled the innovative Dell XPS 12, which was ahead of its time in 2012. Its nifty flip-hinge design enabled you to rotate the screen without turning the system itself around. But Dell couldn’t use this kind of design for the new XPS 13 2-in-1 and have supernarrow bezels around the screen.

“There was too much mechanical baggage here,” said Donnie Oliphant, director of the XPS line.

Then I reminisced with the XPS 11 from 2013, which was quite thin and featured a 360-degree hinge that let you quickly switch modes, but there was one nagging issue. The keyboard was completely flat, similar to today’s Yoga Book from Lenovo. “We got a little too cute, and we went with a nonmovable keyboard,” Oliphant admitted.

The lessons from these and other devices led to the new XPS 13 2-in-1, which is thinner and lighter than the regular XPS 13, and also completely fanless. The device is just 0.32 inches at its thinnest point, and it weighs only 2.7 pounds. Like the regular XPS 13, it crams a 13-inch screen into what has traditionally been the chassis for a device with an 11-inch screen.

Dell had to ditch some ports to achieve this svelte profile — there’s USB-C but no standard type-A ports — but the company wasn’t willing to compromise keyboard comfort for the sake of thinness.

“We were looking at shaving, literally, just one-tenth of a millimeter off of the travel,” said Oliphant. “But it didn’t test to our satisfaction, so we threw that 0.1 millimeters back into the design.”

Lab Rats on a Mission

Dell took a big risk with this convertible by opting for Intel’s Y Series processor, as opposed to the more powerful U Series chip found in competing systems from HP and Lenovo. But as my trip to the lab (and our subsequent benchmarks) showed, Dell managed to strike an impressive balance between portability and performance.

“There was an incredible amount of focus and investment on optimizing performance, because the XPS 13 2-in-1 uses a Y Series processor,” said Frank Azor, vice president and general manager for Alienware and XPS. “We wanted to correct all the misconceptions out there that it’s an inferior part.”

That reputation comes from Intel’s Core M chip, which is what the Y series was called before the company changed the name. In our tests, Core M laptops, like the 12-inch MacBook, have been on the sluggish side. But the XPS 13 2-in-1 is different.

“You need to go right to the edge of power thermals and get there as quickly as you can.”

Dell worked closely with Intel to implement a new Dynamic Power Mode that keeps the CPU running longer at its highest level of performance.

“We have a group of technologists that focus on the way the world could be, and then we have a very robust process that takes us from the way the world could be to way the world will be,” said Leo Quintero, vice president of performance engineering at Dell.

MORE: Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 Review

That world needed to have a Y Series processor punching above its weight class, but Dell had to put in such a processor without it generating too much heat. As I stared at screens of data coming back in real time from the XPS 13 2-in-1, Alex Shows, a performance engineer at Dell, explained that the system was delivering significantly higher performance than Intel’s reference spec for the Y Series chip.

Dynamic Power Mode offers short bursts of speed when you need them up to 10 percent better performance versus the previous-generation XPS 13. Dell did this by balancing the amount and duration of the power boost while monitoring the internal and external surface temperatures of the system.

Think of Dynamic Power Mode as a turbocharger on a smaller car that’s fuel-efficient under normal driving conditions.

“You need to go right to the edge of power thermals and get there as quickly as you can,” said Shows. “You have to be able to go right to the edge and not fall.”

And to make sure Dell’s system can ride that edge as long as possible, the company made the XPS 13 2-in-1 measure the temperatures in real time at dozens of points in and around the system. These measurements are then plugged into an equation to dynamically throttle the power.

In our review, the XPS 13 2-in-1 indeed scored higher than a close competitor powered by a similar Y series chip, and it didn’t get too toasty during use either. Part of the credit for that goes to Dell’s choice of materials; carbon fiber simply isn’t as conductive as, say, aluminum.

Tearing Down the Competition

It’s not unusual for laptop makers to buy and then tear down their competitors’ top products, but Dell has turned that tactic into a multiday event. And attendance is mandatory.

“It’s not just, ‘buy some systems, do a teardown in the lab and let’s learn a bunch of cool stuff,’” said Oliphant. “It’s a very organized two- to three-day event with a structured set of participants, and each [person] has a role.”

From engineers and product planners to marketers, the goal is to learn what the competition does well and where Dell can gain a competitive advantage. This is part of Dell’s rigorous process of putting together a game plan, which the company does for every product and product line.

“How wide a system is doesn’t matter as much in the real world as how tall a system is when it’s open.”
— Donnie Oliphant, director, XPS line

During one recent teardown event, Dell went to town on the HP Spectre x360, a well-reviewed 2-in-1 that takes a page from the XPS 13’s playbook.

“It’s a nice-looking box. I can say that,” said Azor. “Obviously, they started going to narrow bezels. But based on this, we didn’t want to go down the same path.”

“Having small bezels on the sides helps one dimension, but then exploding the ‘chin’ below the display means you’re focused on the wrong dimension,” said Oliphant. “How wide a system is doesn’t matter as much in the real world as how tall a system is when it’s open.”

He cited the tray table on an airplane as one situation where the more compact frame of the XPS 13 2-in-1 would come in handy.

Dell definitely went its own way when it came to the efficiency of the panel used in the display. The regular XPS 13, which has a 58-watt-hour battery, lasted 7.5 hours longer on Dell’s internal battery tests, versus the larger, 60-watt-hour battery in the Spectre x360.

MORE: Best Dell and Alienware Laptops

“They put some emphasis on narrowing the left and right bezels, but they didn’t invest in the areas where we think there’s a huge customer benefit,” argued Oliphant, which is the efficiency of the panel and the technology behind the panel.”

To be fair, the XPS 13 2-in-1 lasted 8 hours and 27 minutes on our web-surfing battery test, compared to just over 10 hours for HP’s 2-in-1. But the Dell has a more compact design and makes due with just a 46-watt-hour battery.

What’s Next: Looking 5 Years Out

“Backcasting.” It’s a term I heard a lot during my trip to Dell’s campus, and it’s an integral part of the company’s innovation process. In a nutshell, backcasting is trying to anticipate consumer behavior as much as five years into the future and then mapping out the steps needed to get there.

“We have a small team of 12 to 15 people, and they look at all of the areas of differentiation we could have,” said Oliphant. “And they narrow it down to a shorter list of 20 to 30 [areas] that we believe have a shot to get there by the time a product would launch.”

Dell creates playbooks for all sorts of technologies, whether it be LCDs or graphics cards, so a product planner could pick one up and see what the trends are. But it’s the way Dell imagines how people will be using cutting-edge technologies five years from now that truly fascinates.

In one recent Dell concept video, a struggling student gets personalized lessons from a digital assistant that tailors these offerings based on skill level, suggesting extra work to help the student catch up. He uses augmented reality glasses in combination with digital devices, such as a tablet whose screen expands into a semitransparent canvas on either side of the slate. He’s technically writing in thin air, but the cloud-powered gadget still recognizes the input.

“We’re doing this agnostic of Dell,” Boyd shared. “We do all this because we want to think about what people will be doing based on the technology trends and user trends in five-plus years’ time.”

The reason Dell looks so far out is because the company wants to differentiate itself in a crowded market, and because it simply needs time to incubate new technologies to bring the experiences people want to life — even if the end result means tipping off some of the company’s biggest foes on where they should focus next.

“We have a very robust process that takes us from the way the world could be to way the world will be.”

“So, obviously we’re going to enable the competitive set by doing this,” said Oliphant. “But if we continue to focus on what the customer is trying to do, the rest will take care of itself.”

MORE: Why Your Next Laptop Should Be A 2-in-1

As I left Dell’s campus, I thought about how I might be using tech in five years, and how I might “backcast” that into a product I wanted. Would it be a phone, laptop and tablet in one? A digital implant? Whatever that thing winds up being, I now have a deeper appreciation of how it will come to be.

Bitcoin wallets get a key approval in Switzerland

Bitcoin companies offering virtual wallets sometimes face a difficult legal question: do they have to operate as a bank (with all the regulation that entails), or can they function as something else? In Switzerland, at least, that matter is settled. Xapo has received “conditional approval” for running its bitcoin wallet service from the country. It’ll have to participate in a self-regulatory organization and meet other unspecified terms, but it won’t have to secure a banking license. As of now, it’s classified as a financial go-between.

Xapo was likely helped by its insistence that it doesn’t take deposits. The firm adds that it won’t serve American customers, potentially due to legal uncertainty surrounding bitcoin.

The approval isn’t coming completely out of the blue. Switzerland plays a key role in the financial community, and it has been aggressively courting bitcoin operations in a bid to future-proof itself. Nonetheless, the legal footing granted here is important. It opens the door to other wallet businesses that want to use Switzerland as a home base, and could set an example for other countries to follow.

Via: Reuters

Source: Xapo

Three UK Now Supports Native Wi-Fi Calling on iPhone

British carrier Three has seeded a carrier settings update—version 27.1—that enables native Wi-Fi calling on iPhones.

Three previously required iPhone customers to use its free Three inTouch app for Wi-Fi calling, but the carrier settings update released on Friday introduces system-level support for Wi-Fi calls and texts under Settings > Phone > Wi-Fi Calling.

We know that sometimes you can’t get signal when you’re indoors, but that shouldn’t mean that you have to go off the grid. With Three inTouch Wi-Fi Calling, you can call and text whenever you’re on Wi-Fi in the UK, even if there’s no mobile signal.

Three joins EE and Vodafone among carriers in the U.K. with native support for Wi-Fi calling on iPhones.

Tags: Wi-Fi calling, United Kingdom
Discuss this article in our forums

Buying with bitcoin helped make this homebuyer a $1.3 million profit on his new house

Why it matters to you

While this may not be a common tale for bitcoin, it shows that the cryptocurrency is an increasingly accepted tender.

Sometimes, making a payment results in a big payday — for you. At least, if you’re making that payment with a volatile cryptocurrency that has a tendency to undergo rather large swings in worth. One bitcoin enthusiast managed to luck into not only a new house, but a $1.3 million profit as a result of his payment choices. Rather than taking out a mortgage, cutting a check, or arriving with a suitcase of cash, a recent California homebuyer decided to purchase a $4 million estate with the cryptocurrency.

As Bitpay CCO Sonny Singh told Speaking to Bloomberg Markets, a real estate developer approached Signh and his company to discuss an offer for an expensive property made using bitcoin. Singh helped the developer understand the logistics of the payment method, and after some negotiations, the final asking price of $4 million was settled upon.

More: Bitcoin anonymity no longer guaranteed; summons served to U.S. exchange

But while the developer was deciding on the price, bitcoin was experiencing some major movement of its own. When the transaction was initiated, bitcoin was worth just $750. But by the time it was time to make the cryptocurrency payment, the value of the tender had actually increased to over $1,000 (for the first time since 2013, actually). That meant that the buyer ultimately made about $1 million on his $4 million purchase.

“The buyer actually ended up making about 25 percent in the currency exchange rate, essentially, in the appreciation,” Singh said. “He got a house for pretty much 25 percent cheaper.”

Such stories, though not apocryphal, are certainly rare, so we’re not necessarily suggesting that you make all your future purchases with bitcoin with the hopes that a good exchange rate will end up benefiting you. But all the same, it looks as though bitcoin is becoming an increasingly accepted manner of payment, which may just spell opportunity for the savvy buyer.

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