Conducting Business Is Not What It Used to Be

The world has dramatically changed the way it does business in the past 30 years. This is mainly due to the development of technology in the areas of productivity and communications. Three decades ago, face-time relationships were what mattered, and paperwork could wait. If an employee was not at his or her desk, they were basically out of contact, and sending documents and contracts was mainly done through snail mail.

What Changed?

The two most important changes came with the fax machine and email. All of a sudden, business could be conducted at a faster more connected pace. Documents and contracts could be sent and signed within hours instead of days. Today, these breakthroughs are seen as old-tech. Business is conducted at an even faster and more effective pace with smart phones, tablets, social networks and web-conferencing.

Communication is not only fast, it’s cheap, and with digital signatures documents can be securely signed within minutes. Videos made anywhere in the world can be sent to almost anyone in the world who has access to the Internet. No employee, whether it is the CEO of a big company like Bobby Kotick or a sales associate right out of college, is ever out of reach.

Computer programs and business software has allowed employees access to more information much faster than before. Some of these tools have allowed businesses to reduce the number of employees required to run the business efficiently. They also allow the business to expand without adding more employees. This saves on salaries and employee benefits.

For a small business, outsourcing may be an option for customer service and technical support. It is vital for any business to have excellent customer support, because feedback is almost instantaneous online and you want only good testimonials. If your customers feel you are there to help them, you have a better chance satisfying them.

What Does the Future Hold?

Rather than a webinar, your business will send a hologram of you to another office to virtually attend business meetings, give a lecture in a college or a speech on a stage.

With wearable displays and other devices, people will be able to consume information while traveling or doing other tasks.

Businesses around the world will be able to work closely together as if they are in the same room. This opens up a huge area of collaboration and new market development for any size business. The huge corporations will no longer be the only people with a global presence.

In the not-so-distant future, robots will be performing many of the mundane tasks that humans perform now. This will seem natural for those who grow up with robots, but for older people, it may take time to get used to having robots around.

Adapt or Die

Businesses will need to reevaluate their business plans and five and ten year goals to accommodate changing technology. Just 10 years ago if you didn’t have a social media presence, you could still have a profitable business. Today, many people, especially youngsters, find what they want on social media sites before they make a purchase. If your business in not there, you may not survive.

Technology is the way forward for any business, but especially for small start-ups. They can have excellent communications and presence on the Internet to compete with much larger companies.

Why Eel Drones Are the Future of Naval Warfare

Eel Drones – Underwater Reconnaissance

The U.S. Navy comprehends the importance of developing updated technology to keep up as well as ahead of other countries and according to recent reports it indicates that at least twelve countries have focused their resources and energy on autonomous underwater vehicles.

It is looking into Eel drones for underwater reconnaissance and/or attack which probably this tech had been around since the 50s though it is now making some progress in several countries which include the US while Russia had begun to explore the capabilities of undersea Eel drone in order to protect battleships and any underwater attack for divers.

The Eel design has been chosen since it has an ideal shape with the capacity to conserve the most energy as well as being undetectable. Aerial drones tend to be an important part of U.S. military strategy and looks more like an aircraft rather than an owl, butterflies or birds. Recently a robotic eel design prototype was debuted by a team of researchers from Singapore led by Jianxin Xu which could signal the future of undersea warfare.

Navy Drone – Slocum Glider 

Presently the most well-known Navy drone is the Slocum Glider from a company – Teledyne Benthos, which received over $200 million this year to develop further, the Glider for the Navy and Xu debates that the Glider, an inflexible torpedo drone leaves much to be desired as well as that nature has provided them with a better design.According to Xu who informed `Defense One’, he states that `Anguilliform’, an eel like fish utilises less energy on a long distance journey than a regular autonomous underwater vehicle. He comments that they are highly manoeuvrable as well as flexible, which makes them more appropriate than Gliders for navigating small spaces.

 Moreover the noiseless propulsion is an added advantage for the military and is less detectable than robot subs which propel themselves like conventional subs. Anguilliform locomotion is derived from the Latin word anguilla for eel which involves wide undulation in the body and is also common to sharks. Due to anguilliform movement, undulation takes the form of a wave which moves down the length of the body of the animal and pushes the water away, from side to side. Research for many years speculating in fluid dynamics, considered thunniform to be faster as well as efficient though recent research disagreed on this issue.

Eel Bots – Less Guidance/Operation 

Eel bots can explore and navigate reefs which tend to be difficult, hulls and undersea geological formations the way other fish are unable to do so. Xu states that the future prototype of his robot would need less guidance for operation and can self-navigate amidst difficult or dark crawl spaces resulting in less operators presiding over robots and make it more cost efficient for the Navy. Its most attractive feature is it adaptability and with the same undulating movement which propels it through the water, can also move forward on land too.

The Pentagon office of Naval Research had provided funds for project and research across the country for the sole purpose of developing UUVs for their military and these underwater drones would probably be used for underwater surveillance purpose like search and rescue operations, attacks on small boats and divers, checking for mines, mapping the sea floor as well as weather data collection. These drones could be powered by hydrogen which would help them in never running out of fuel.

PuzzlePhone Ready to Give Competition to Google’s Project Ara

One of the most complicated topics of discussion these days is the modular computing in mobile devices and any conversation pertaining to this issue becomes very complex. Today, almost all the companies in the market are so much involved and focused to venture into making one of the most powerful and most thinnest machines they can make and that too falling under $ 800.

They are working on aspects like environment, which primarily does not lend itself to being able to hot-swap the camera during a flight to even for the users to add any sensors when they need it. Although all this might sound exciting, it becomes difficult to see as to what is happening with Google’s Project Ara and its prototypes and still feel impressed.

To add to this condition and take things to rather a more interesting level is the fact that a new player has entered this arena with the same aspirations of modular computing, but having an approach, which is far less complicated than that of Google.

So, who is this new player? 

Compared to what we have seen in Google’s Ara, there is a back plate, which is filled with removable options; the Finland-based PuzzlePhone is much more easier as they have only three pieces. Similar to that of Ara Endo, apart from the basic collection of sensors, the largest piece of the device is the display.

On the back of the PuzzlePhone, the user will have the option of a battery pack that can slide in; this also includes user’s choice of extra sensors, and also a secondary module, which will contain the user’s choice of camera and processor.

The configuration has been extended into three containers, all of different sizes. However, the main idea is still the same across all these three containers. The end result of the outcome is the fact that the user will have less number of components to assemble and build their phone, but at the same time it will encourage a situation, wherein the user will pay for the experience they are looking to have from their Smartphone.

Although at the moment, there has been no information or details have been revealed about the release window or even any hint about the long wait time that we can have for these stylish PuzzlePhone. However, the company can release a smaller footprint of this device and make it available in the market as soon as possible.

As if now, if you check on the PuzzlePhone official website for the design, then you can definitely be sure that you will be satisfied but at the end, what will matter is the overall functionality of the device. Although as if now the concept of PuzzlePhone sounds much more easier when compared to the Google’s efforts in the space.

Lack of complete details and any release plan can only generate more excitement among the people. Irrespective of the competition both the companies can expect good response from the customers who are eagerly waiting to get their hands on modular phones.

Email App Developer Acompli acquired by Microsoft

On December 1st, 2014, Microsoft made the official announcement through their blog post about the acquisition of Acompli. According to Re/code, the acquisition amount was whopping $ 200 million. Acompli is the developers of the email client app for android and iOS. The Acompli Email is very well known for its wide range of features which includes Microsoft Exchange support, ease of use with attachments and files and easy navigation to access recent contacts and emails.

As far as this acquisition is concerned, it is a definite a push forwards towards the company’s recent approach to increase their mobile productivity, which includes the introduction and inclusion of office in the iOS. Microsoft has been able to roll out continuous updates towards the iOS versions of Office as well, apart from addition of third party fonts, printing capability and counting the most recent update rolled out for optimizing the iPhone versions of Excel, PowerPoint and word for their smaller screen phones. So, Acompli has joined Microsoft and has become part of their wide range of productivity-based offerings.

According to the information posted on the blog, the company is very excited about their current work as well as the app that can be developed in the future and bringing these apps together with the work being done by the Outlook team. The main goal of the company is to develop as many apps as possible, which will allow people to use these amazing cross-platform apps, meant to primarily support a whole range of email services used by the people.

They want these cross-platform apps to encourage people and help them to achieve more. According to the blog, they also appreciate this acquisition due to the fact that they are getting an innovative technology based app apart from very talented people focused on reinventing the means of communication and email on mobile screens.

The company believes that this acquisition will expedite their work and help them to deliver the full power of Office to the mobile devices. At present the company has also indicated about some hidden surprises stating that people have to wait for some more details in the next few months.

What was the issue? 

Due to the unavailability of the proper Outlook app for iOS, many of the mobile users were forced to resort to third-party apps. These apps also lacked certain features, especially Exchange support and insufficient prove. At present, it might be easy to see how Microsoft can fit this new aspect in their wide mobile productivity suite of apps, but still there is no official statement has been released about the use of Acompli apart from using it to boost the Outlook effort.

At present, Acompli email is very much available for free download on the App Store for the time being. According to Javier Soltero from Acompli, their company always focused on building app to make mobile email better but now joining the Market giant will enable them to reach out to millions of people as never before.

FBI warns of ‘destructive’ malware in wake of Sony attack

According to the recent reports, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) has already intimated all the businesses in The United States of America, that the hackers have been using malicious software to launch a destructive cyber attack in the United States of America.

This was announced post the devastating breach that took place at Sony Pictures Entertainment last week. As per the Cyber security experts, the malicious software that has been described in the FBI alert looks to be describing the software that affected Sony.

This can be considered as the first key destructive cyber attack waged against a company operating on the soil of the United States of America. Until now, these kind of attacks has been seen in the Middle East and Asia, but nothing has been reported in the United States of America. At present, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had not disclosed as to how many companies have actually been victimized by these destructive attacks.

Confidential "flash" warning

According to Tom Kellermann, who is the chief cyber security officer with security software maker Trend Micro Inc, this synchronized cyber attack with the destructive payloads against a business in America clearly represents a turning point event.

For these destructive cyber attacks, Geopolitics will serve as the forerunners. The 5 page confidential "flash" warning issued by the FBI was released for the businesses on Monday; it has all the technical details pertaining to the malicious software that was used on this attack.

As per the reports, the malware has the ability to overrides all data stored on the hard drives of computers, which includes the master boot record. Due to this, the computers will not be able to boot. The reports also highlights that if the companies are unable to restore their data through the standard forensic methods, then overwriting of the data files will become more costly and extremely difficult.

This document was sent through mail with the clear instruction of not sharing the same with anyone else. This document was released post the unprecedented attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, which affected the entire systems and the email line of the company. This has affected the company as they have crucial movies to be released during the holiday season.

The company’s spokeswoman stated that they are working with the federal and law enforcement officials to check on this issue and the company has been able to restore some of their important services. She declined to comment on the warning issued by FBI.

Actions currently being taken

Currently the FBI is working along with the Department of Homeland Security to investigate these attacks while FireEye Inc's has been hired by Sony to carry out the post attack clean up. Although FBI didn’t reveal the name of the victim of this attack; cyber security experts stated that it is a California-based unit of Sony Corp.

According to technical section of the report, some of the software used in this attacks have been compiled in Korea but no correction has been established with North Korea.

Intel Launches ‘Digital Skills for India’ Programme

World’s renowned US-based Chip maker Intel is going to launch the programme, “Digital Skills for India” with Government of India to digital literate in more than 1,000 panchayats and it is expected that by the end of 2015, this move will impact five million citizens.

As the part of programme 'Digital Skills for India', Intel India has launched a digital skills training application, which includes the modules on digital literacy, healthcare and cleanliness and financial inclusion in five Indian languages. According to Intel officials, that app will be free on Android Play Store from December 6, 2014 in five different languages such as; Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, English, Kannada and Gujarati. Whereas the similar offline training module will be available in seven different Indian languages.

Intel India is also working with BBNL (Bharat Broadband Network Limited) to provide the facility for digital literacy training to key person in the first 1,000 panchayats of India under the NOFN (National Optic Fiber Network) roll-out in India. According to of DeitY (Department of Electronics and Information Technology), R S Sharma, “Digital transformation in India, it’s essential that Government of India and corporate works together to create the sustainable model for the education in digital sector”.

The main aim of this program is to digitally empower the citizens of India. PM, Narendra Modi was stated on Independence Day while addressing the nation, “We will transform the whole country with Rs.1 lakh crore projects and soon country will witness the digitally empowered economy and he asked the private sector to join the government for the success of this vision”.

Intel’s Digital Footprints in India: 


i. In past few decades, Intel has trained more than 18 lakh teachers via; Intel Teach programme.
ii. More than 4,500 faculty 2.35 lakh students in 450 institutes have been impacted with the help of Intel Higher Education programme.
iii. Intel Learn programme has reached more than 1.8 lakh students in India.
iv. In 2012, NDLM (National Digital Literacy Mission) was launched by Intel along with Nasscom.
v. More than 16,000 youth were trained by 400+ volunteers with the help of 10 NDLM partners just in 7 days during Digital Literacy Week in Dec. 2102.
vi. Intel has achieved 100% digital literacy in some villages.
vii. Intel has adopted 3 villages in Andhra Pradesh, Tripura and Rajasthan and set up digital literacy training camps.

Recently, Intel has announced the 'Innovate for India Challenge', to create the solutions that are relevant for the country like India. Earlier, in 2012, US-based firm had launched the same National Digital Literacy Mission and it was able to reached more than 38 lakh Indian citizens.

According to Timothy Q. Parker, GM Asia Pacific Japan and Vice- president of sales and Group of marketing, “As we all aware that India is developing very fast with technological innovations and that why we are strive to provide Indian citizens with computing solutions in affordable cost with easy accessibility”.

Bringing Your Medical Practice into the Present

This is the computerized age. Everything is accessible via technology and that means your medical practice needs to catch up. If you've been old school, it's time to modernize. You're not going to change your bedside manner or the way you approach your patients.

If they are happy with you as a doctor, make them happy on all levels when you make life simpler for them. When you tap into all of the innovations that surround you, you'll actually give back more to the people you serve on a daily basis. Happy patients will be healthier, thanks to your efforts.

Create a Website

It doesn't matter if everyone in the area knows where you are because you've been around for twenty years. You can still create a website that will provide your patients with more ways to interact with you. Turn to a skilled website team to design a site that suits your practice.

This is an ideal way to provide people with background information, directions to your office, answers to typical questions, and online communication. Make it clear that your website is not for emergencies. You can still connect with patients when they have questions. Your receptionist can sift through e-mail and take care of online appointments.

Make Information More Accessible

Find ways to communicate more clearly with your patients. From spending more time for consultations to using patient friendly statements, you need to remember that their satisfaction is key. Your livelihood depends on your patients. If they are not happy, they can always go elsewhere. Establish an area in your office that has free literature for your patients.

Provide them with a list of important phone numbers that pertain to health concerns. Have a licensed practical nurse or nurse practitioner on your staff who can field questions when you are not available. Stay on top of things and respond to phone calls when your patients need personal interaction with you.

You need to give your patients the impression that the door is always open at your office. When you are not available, always have someone on call to assist any patients in need. When you have true loyalty, your patients will keep coming back. You'll also have more referrals coming your way.

Discover and Monitor Your Wi-Fi Network

Who doesn’t love a speedy Wi-Fi connectivity and in order to accomplish our task faster we get a Wi-Fi network connected. But do we have any idea about the Wi-Fi network on which we rely? Many times we complain that our Wi-Fi speed is slow or not up to the mark, but do you know that most of the time the problem is from the user end rather than from the ISP or the service provider. You should always be aware of your Wi-Fi network connection, its setup and also should be aware who is using your connection and when.

Fing application 

Fing is that android/iOS application which shows all the devices, manufacturer, IP address and host name that are connected with your wireless network. It is free and fast application which can be used in order to control your network and use it efficiently. Most of the time an individual may configure a weak or default password but with the help of Fing application we can verify the users those are connecting with our network. If we find a doubtful user we can directly deny their access by changing the password and include couple of more strong security mechanisms.

Amazing features of the application

The features of the app that cannot be missed out are stated below.

• Firstly, helps the user to identify the devices those are connected to their wireless network. 
• The application is relatively accurate and fast. 
• Accurately displays the MAC address, IP address and the manufacturer of the device. 
• It is user friendly. 
• The application is free from the banner ads and also it is free of cost. 
• You can easily assess the security levels, detect invaders and solve several kinds of network related issues easily with the help of  app.
• For further usage the history of all the discovered wireless networks will be securely stored. 
• If you feel like sharing any kind of stuffs you can do it easily via E-mails, Facebook, Twitter and text message. 
• The launching of application for particular ports like FTP, SSH and browser is possible. 
• Within fraction of seconds you can find hundreds of open ports. 
• For comfort access of the app you can sort by name, MAC, state, last change, IP address and Vendor. 
• The application merges with the Fingbox to backup and sync the customization, monitor remote network and much more. 
• The application is available for android, windows, iOS and Linux.

On September 13, 2014 the application was updated and if your handset have an android version of 2.1 and above you can easily install this application in your handset. The application has seen the total downloads from 1,000,000 to 5,000,000.

So what are you waiting for? Get that app installed in your handset and secure your wireless network from unwanted users and maintain the speed of your network. Stay connected stay safe and be in the race of high speed.

Mycestro - 3D Mouse, Thumb Activated Wireless Mouse

The latest in the tech world is now the Mycestro 3D mouse, a thumb activated wireless mouse which can be attached to the index finger. A computer mouse which wraps round the finger could be good for a while though it could get a bit awkward. `Mycestro’, as the device is named is like a bulky futuristic ring which is around 4.5 cm long and appears like a sort of an arrowhead placed on the index finger, presently for now, only the right one.

The side closest to the thumb comprises of touchpad with three small buttons for scrolling, selecting and clicking and to use the Mycestro, one needs to plug a small Bluetooth dongle which comes with it in a USB port on the computer. Thereafter one can slide the ring on and touch the thumb anywhere on the side touchpad and begin waving the hand to see the movement of the cursor.

Though this mouse weighs only half an ounce, it tends to feel heavy really quickly and wearing it for more than half an hour while typing is a challenge. When it comes to human computer interface scenarios,we face these days; the traditional mouse has its limitations, which led to the original inspiration for this design.

Prototype Utilises 3D Space Recognition 

Nick Mastandrea, Founder of Ohio based Innovative Developments LLC, worked on the design for about two years. The present prototype utilises 3D space recognition in order to control the computer without the need for dedicated mouse space or a touchpad on the device.

Mycestro, which is the size of a Bluetooth earpiece is designed to be worn on the index finger and uses a combination of sensors as well as algorithms to collect finger movement information with a touch sensitive panel which is located at the side of the finger closest to the thumb.If the hand is removed from the mouse, the it remains inactive till it is touched and held anywhere on its side panel indicating that one can type or make a coffee without having to remove it. When the cursor gets active, finger movements together with the active thumb press directs it to the desired location while further thumb motions on the touch panel button provides a full range of mouse clicks as well as scroll functions.

Compatible with Bluetooth Smart Ready Devices 

The 3D mouse helps users to personalize programmable gesture commands along with the usual mouse functions like a flick or swipe movements. This device started at Kickstarter project in 2013 and presently being sold online for $149. The Kickstarter campaign is on to raise funds for tooling as well as preproduction prototype run. This mouse uses BLE – Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy Protocol in order to provide a range of 30 ft. and is compatible with Bluetooth Smart Ready devices which include iPads, MacBooks as well as any PC with a compatible BLE dongle. Android devices should probably be online by the end of the year according to its creators. The present version has two interchangeable clip sizes for different digits and can be charged through USB where a single charge is believed to provide eight hours of battery life based on its usage.

NSA's Auroragold spies on carriers to breach cell networks, report says

The Inside Story 

The Intercept reports that the US National Security Agency has the ability to collect information at will by targeting cellular networks around the world.It is called Auroragold, and allows the NSA to exploit and also introduce new security vulnerabilities in cell networks, which helps it to eavesdrop on calls and text messages.

The report says that the Auroragold program has been operational for a few years now; continuously monitoring communications with over 1,200 e-mail accounts associated with major cellphone networks.The Intercept claims that the chief target is the UK-based GSM Association.

Its members include some of the largest tech and telecom companies in the world, like AT&T, Microsoft, Vodafone, Cisco and Samsung. The technical documents, of the GSMA’s, connected to roaming arrangements have been of particular interest to NSA. Mobile phone owners can use their devices while traveling abroad using this. These documents highlight encryption methods as well as new technologies being used by carriers.

The Information Leak and Further Reports

The former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, leaked certain copious files containing this information. Reporter Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of The Intercept, obtained the files.Snowden, in 2013, had revealed reams of information to a fellow journalist Laura Poitras and Greenwald about the inner workings of the NSA. Since then, regular reports containing classified information about NSA have kept appearing, this being the latest.

The Intercept further states that Auroragold is operated by a "specialist" unit within the agency.It is called the Wireless Portfolio Management Office, with a logo that says its three charges are to "predict, plan, prevent."The Intercept's report also states that technical information have been obtained, and potentially exploited, from around 70 percent cellular networks around the world by the NSA.

These include almost all in North Africa, scores in the Middle East, and almost three-quarters in China. On the list of network information obtained, the US is surprisingly low. The NSA’s reputation has been scalded in public perception and caused tensions with international intelligence agencies, after the subsequent leaks.

NSA’s Reaction

NSA spokesperson Vanee Vines, not confirming the latest Snowden leak details, said in an e-mail that it operates within legal spheres when attending to everyday means of communication, as it obeys a presidential mandate, which signals that intelligence activities should consider the globalization of trade, information flows and investments seriously-- and the commitment to an interoperable, open and secure global internet.

The NSA has, of late, tried to play nice with technology companies, at least publicly. Adm. Michael Rogers, NSA Director, stated his keenness to work with Silicon Valley for ensuring the establishment of an open line of communication between the parties. He also indicated that he understands the technology companies’ point of view, although he might not always agree with them and their collective displeasure over the NSA's practices.

Rogers spoke to about 100 students, professors and reporters at Stanford University. He said that it’s no good to discredit either side of the argument and also that logical and reasonable people can come to various conclusions regarding what is appropriate and what is not.

The Importance of Long Term Planning for Your New Website

There’s few things quite as exciting as launching your brand new website. You’ve got everything in place, you’ve run all your tests, and now you can’t wait to set it out into the world and wait for all those visitors to flock by in their droves.

The day comes, you upload the last of your files and there you have it, your very own website, live on the Internet. Thrilled with the results, you tell everybody you can about the site. Your friends and family hear about it through texts, phone calls and even around the dinner table, your colleagues and clients receive an enthusiastic email, and your social media followers are urged to check it out.

Many of them do. They swing by, take a look around and tell you how great it is. Then they leave again. Sure, some may come back on occasion, but after that first visit, most have already seen everything they want to see and have no real reason to visit again.

Weeks go by. Weeks turn into months, and soon that sparkling new website you launched with such gusto now languishes in some dusky corner of the Internet, unloved, uncared for, and neglected.

What a waste of time and resources, right?

Not really. With a bit of long-term planning, you stand a much better chance of keeping that initial momentum running strong long after launch.

Fresh content

Nothing works quite as well at keeping your visitors coming back to your website like a frequent stream of fresh content. After all, why would they return time and time again to see the same old thing they saw last time?

Updating your website with a regular stream of new material such as blog posts, articles, or even photo galleries and videos gives those visitors a reason to return. They liked what you posted last time, so when they see you’ve posted something new, chances are they’ll like that too and want to check it out.

Fresh content also has the added advantage of helping with your Search Engine Optimisation. The more quality material you post on your site, the more favourably those major search engines are going to look on your site, and the further up those search results you soar.

Cheap hosting

When you first set out to create your website, it’s all too tempting to get drawn into those bargain deals offered by cheap web hosting companies, though again, here’s where a little long term planning can really come in handy. Some of the best web hosting deals are in fact some of the cheapest so it's always best to look at the options by using sites like this.

Those deals usually only last for a single year term. After that, you’ll be asked to pay the full price, or at least something close to it.

To make sure you can still afford to keep your website live after that first year, look into how much its going to cost you once the honeymoon period is over, and set that aside in your budget.

Marketing plan

That initial influx of traffic that comes when you tell everybody about your new website is great, but once that early hype dies down, how are you going to continue to attract new visitors to your site?

We’ve already talked about the importance of adding new content to hit those search engines and keep your existing audience returning, but to increase that audience base, you’re going to need to do a little bit of marketing.

This is neither as complicated nor as costly as it sounds. With a bit of planning and forethought, you could create compelling social media campaigns, set up a newsletter or even reach out through offline media to draw attention to your new site and ensure you keep the momentum up long after you launch.

Signup Begins For Google Fiber in Austin

Finally the wait is over for the residents of Austin, and now they can get the gigabit-speed connectivity, which is 100 times faster than other the speed of other of ISPs provides. 

Now residents of South and Southeast Austin can sign up for high-speed Internet service Google Fiber, Google Fiber representatives said. Before some days Google Fiber has unveiled its Downtown “Fiber Space” and payment plan options. In an official event company announced the launch of Google Fiber, a gigabit-speed service for the residents of Austin, Texas. As per Mark Strama, Google Fiber Head, “As we all know that the greater speed can bring the tons of opportunities for the city as well as for country, perhaps at this time we can’t even predict those opportunities”.

Earlier in April 2013, Google was announced the launch of Fiber into Austin, and residents have been eager to start using the service ever since, but due to some reasons its take too long. David Anthony, a Technical program manager, stated that “We have three stages before the launch of Google Fiber and they are planning, permitting, and construction”. The more he added that Google Fiber service is now ready for the south and southeast portions of the city as here we got the permits earlier to build the infrastructure.

Google Fiber plan for residents of South and Southeast Austin: 

In normal plan all the Google Fiber customers have to pay the $70 a month and then they will have the download and upload speeds up to 1 Gbps in an addition of 1 TB of cloud storage across Google Drive, Google+ photos and Gmail. For premium service customers need to pay the $ 130 per month and they will get the TV plan with over 150 channels including HD channels and they will be able to record up-to eight shows simultaneously as package offers. In both plans customers need to pay the $ 300 as construction fee with a commitment of one-year. Whenever, the speed is limited to only1 Mbps upload speeds and 5 Mbps download speed. Google Fiber is also available for professional organizations where small business owners need to pay the $100 a month for the plan which will include super-fast Internet speed with a 1 static IP in $ 20 a month or 5 static IPs in $ 30 a month.

Signup deadline for Google Fiber: 

All the five regions in Austin have different deadlines to sign up for Google Fiber as; the region of Bluebonnet has the deadline of January 19, 2015, but in closer look at Bluebonnet shows the split into smaller portions and each portion need to get the certain number of sign-ups to get the Google Fiber connectivity. On the other hand region of Onion Creek have the deadline of July 16, 2014 to sign up for Google Fiber, however in all 28 regions no none have met the sign-up goal yet.

The other cities for who will get the Google Fiber connectivity are Provo, Utah and Kansas City, but the people might have to wait for some more time, as the Sign-ups process for the 2 counties in Kansas City is expected to open in 2015.

Everything That You Need to Know About Snapping

Marketing and sales plays a major role in a business to get it flourish. Snapchat is one that application that has become popular among the teens within short period of time. You must be amazed by couple of facts about the Snapchat that,

• It was founded in 2011, as a class project at the Stanford University. 
• Over 20 million snaps were sent per day in October 2012. 
• In the mid year of 2013 that is around in the month of June, over 200 million snaps were sent per day.
• Today in the present time around 400 million snaps are sent per day. This is around 1,750 percent in just a year.

Teenagers response to snapchat’s leaked images

Secretly several thousands of snapchat images and videos were hacked by the third party applications but the recent news confirms that the hacked images and videos have been released by the third party online sites after reserving them for long period of time. The most shocking part of the news is that total of over 90,000 personal snapchat pictures and 9,000 snapchat videos of the teenagers have been leaked online. The users of the snapchat were mostly aged between 13 and 17; news is confirmed by the officials.

But can the snapchat alone be questioned for this negligence? Another app that is being investigated is the Snapsave. Snapsave is an android application that allows users to save their snapchat pictures and videos.

The snapsave application

When the representative of snapchat Georgie Casey was questioned about the leaking or snapping of the pictures, he replied, “Our application has nothing to do with it and we have never logged usernames or password and neither the snapchat runs on a cloud setup.”

Another popular app which came into limelight was Snapsaved which is similar to that of snapsave. Snapsaved impersonated the original app which allows the users to save their pictures permanently. This snapping scam has not only affected the common people but its impact has also affected several Hollywood celebrities like Rhianna, Kate Upton, Jennifer Lawrence, and Kim Kardashian. The nude pictures of these popular celebrities were also leaked.

Many users have downloaded the leaked images claiming that the images downloaded by them were not searchable unlike any other images from viralpop.com. Several cases and objections have been logged against the app but the app is constantly declining the responsibility for the snapping of the leaked pictures issuing a statement snapchatters were victimized by their usage of the third party apps to save the pictures, a practice that we prohibited in our terms and conditions of use.”

The popularity of the snapchat among the teenagers can be easily revealed by a fact that universal studio’s production movie; Ouija’s 19 sec promotional trailer was launched in the snapchat as Universal Studio’s have been collaborated with the snapchat. According to the news the movie Ouija got massive opening, topping the charts and made over $20 million in its first week and 75 percent of its visitors were under the age of 25 years and 61 percent of the visitors were female.

3-D-Printing Bio-Electronic Parts

Print Functioning Circuitry from Semiconductors

With 3D printer making a prototype or spare part out of metal or polymer, researchers at Princeton University have taken a step in expanding the technology’s capabilities by creating a way in print functioning electronic circuitry out of semiconductors as well as other materials.

They are also trying ways of combining electronics with biocompatible materials and even living tissues that can pave the way for new implants. According to Michael McAlpine, assistant professor at Princeton states that with cartridges that are full of semiconductor `inks’, it can be possible to print circuits of all types of tasks and to demonstrate it, the researcher printed a light emitting diode within a contact lens.

The display circuitry and processors in computers do not have the provision to 3-D printing since they need several complex components fabricated on the nanoscale though it could be utilised in making medical devices or implants incorporating electronics.

 For instance, researchers could print a scaffold for growing nerve tissue according to McAlpine and suggests that if they could print LEDs with circuits within the scaffold, the light could stimulate the nerves where the electronics could be used to interface with prosthetic arm

3-D Printing – Bio-Electronic Ear

McAlpine had used 3-D printing last year, to make a `bio-electronic’ ear which was made from living cells together with supportive matrix of gooey hydrogel and had conductive ink which was made from a suspension of silver nanoparticles that formed an electrical coil and could receive radio signals.

Thereafter his group worked to expand 3-D printing to semiconducting materials which enables a printed device to process incoming sounds. Semiconductors seem to be the key ingredient of information processing circuits which can be used to detect as well as emit light.

McAlphine’s team, to broaden the 3-D printing palette, built its own printer and several of them in the market presently, are only designed to print plastic The bionic ear, for example had features on the millimetre scale. In order to make LEDs they had to go to the micrometre sale.

Quantum dots were taken to make the LED by the Princeton researcher, semiconducting nanoparticles which emitted bright light in response to electrical current. Besides this, two types of metal were also used to make electrical leads and contacts for the device together with polymers and silicone matrix in order to hold it together.

3-D Printing - Various Development 

While printing with so many inks, the challenge was that they bled into each other and hence the researchers had to ensure to suspend each material in a solvent which would not mix with either of them. His team had made a cube of eight green and orange LEDs which were stacked 2 x 2 x 2 and printed the LEDs on contact lens after they were scanned in order to make the shape of the printed devices matching to the curvature of the lens surface.

McAlpines’ team are not the only ones working in expanding the possibilities of 3-D printing. Chemical engineer, Michael Dickey from North Carolina State University in Raleigh who was not involved with McAlpines’ work, states that `most 3-D printing is like a glorified hot glue gun just printing polymers.

His group developed a liquid metal which can be printed into stretchable, self-healing wires while a professor of biologically inspired engineering at Harvard, Jennifer Lewis has developed 3-D printing for tissue engineering on combining various cell types in complex patterns including blood vessels.

Sony Malware May Be Linked To Other Damaging Attacks

Identification of Technical Evidence at Sony Corp’s Hollywood Studio

Researchers of Cyber security have identified what according to them is technical evidence linking massive breach at Sony Corp’s Hollywood studio with the attacks in South Korea and the Middle East. Kaspersky Lab, a Moscow based security software maker stated that it has uncovered evidence that all the three campaigns could have been launched by one group or it could have been facilitated by an individual organisation who are well versed in working with destructive malware.

Cyber attackers had damaged thousands of computers at Saudi Arabia’s national oil company as well as Qatar’s RasGas with virus known as Shamoon in 2012, which is one of the most destructive campaigns till date and Iran has been blamed by the U.S. officials.

A year ago, over 30,000 PCs were affected at South Korean banks as well as broadcasting companies by similar attack that cyber security researchers were of the belief that it was launched from North Korea. Kurt Baumgartner, Kaspersky researcher informed Reuters that there are `unusually striking similarities’ which are related to the malicious software and techniques in both the campaigns and the Sony attack on Nov. 24 in which a malware was dubbed `Destover’, was used.

Perpetrator Access to Confidential Information 

The attack had crippled the computer systems giving the perpetrator access to confidential employee information which also included the executive salaries. The attack is said to have used a so called wiper virus which can erase data and has the capabilities of bringing down networks with thousands of computers thereby preventing companies in conducting their business.Similarities were described by Baumgartner in depth in a technical blog which was published recently on Kaspersky’s website.

He stated in an interview that `it could be a single actor or it could be that there are trainers or individuals who float across groups’. According to him he states that the evidence indicate that the hackers from North Korea were the cause of the attack on Sony though it is unclear whether they work directly for the government.

Several of the cyber security researchers are not in agreement with Kaspersky’s interpretation of the technical evidence. Symantec Corp. a California based company had stated in a blog post that it also sees similarities between the attacks against Sony and the Shamoon campaign and attributes it to being copied stating that there does not seem to be any evidence that the same group is behind both attacks.

Critical Infrastructure At Risk

Chertoff co-founder and executive chairman of The Chertoff Group, which is a global security consultancy based in Washington commented in an interview that `either for political or economic reasons at some point, sophisticated actors are going to be more willing to use destructive malware.

He adds further that Sony attack shows that critical infrastructure is at risk and the potential for cyber weapons to be deployed continues to increase. Cyber security companies fear for more destructive attacks in the forthcoming months.

Chief executive officer, Ron Gula, for Tenable Network Security Inc., which is based in Columbia, Maryland comments, `if attacks like those against Sony continue against other U.S. companies, 2015 could be a year of disrupted services’.

Smart sports equipment turns phones into coaches

CNN

What if you have just won the match and walking proudly out of the court and meet the other person, who has just lost the match. You think he will also storm out of the court in anger and grab his water bottle but, instead you find him picking up his phone and checking in the mistakes that he had made during the match.

New discovery

Now we have new range of tools available in market which will allow you to check on the speed of a pitch, the arch of a basketball toss, the quality of a serve and the speed of a pitch, the strength of a putt. These tools are not meant for professional players or even touring golfers. These professional level tools are meant for using as part of the casual sports, starting from a beginner’s level to league level. So what makes this gadget so unique? It is the technology behind these tools which is mainly the amalgamation of increasingly affordable and small sensors such as gyroscopes and accelerometers. Every smartphone is loaded with these sensors giving boost to the developing fitness tracker industry. These sensors have already the total experience biking and running by coming up with different apps like Strava and other wearable apps like Fitbit. Now, companies are installing these unique sensors in different kinds of existing sports equipments like running shoes, tennis rackets, golf clubs and basketballs.

Similar technology is being used by Babolat, which has been making tennis rackets for nearly 20 years. Year 2013 saw a completely new kind of racket being launched, which was priced at $ 399 called Pure play drive. This was the very first kind of connected racker having a trio of sensors hidden in the hollow handle of the racket which has the ability of tracking down the vibrations and the movements of the user. The sensors have the unique ability to track the exact spot where the ball touched the racket, the spin was given by the players and the force it hit the racket.

All these statistics are sent to smart phone app that will reflect this through easy diagrams. The app has been equipped to track even the length of the game and even the total shots, misses and hits. Similar types of tools are coming up for different range of sports. Another example will be the 94Fifty Basketball even though looks like real ball, it has the ability to measure the intensity of dribble, the arch of each shot, and the speed as well. Adidas has also developed football which has the ability to collect information about every kick. But the main point to remember is that these sensors are meant for practice matches are not for the team games.

Professional athletes have always relied on the phone camera and now even the beginners are starting to depend on the smart phone cameras for a quick slow motion replay. One of the biggest challenges is that these sensors need to turn the raw data into understandable information. Well now people can expect every action of their sports activities to be tracked with the increasing usage of sensors.

How Are You Planning To Save Money in 2020 with out Checkbooks and PIN Number

Image credit:FNB

I don't think anyone of gives much importance to the checkbook and its mere existence. Frankly speaking, the checkbook can be clearly called out dead. We have practically moved over to cards and no longer depend on carrying out checkbook for any banking or monetary transactions.

If you are among the people who are always worried about someone following you in the ATM or peeping over your shoulder to get a glimpse, then the days of getting worried are coming to an end. You will no longer have to pay high fees to carry out transfers between the banks. As if now, we can see how the banking has improvised over the years.

But in the coming years, we can actually forget about all these problems. We can expect our finance and banking control to take change drastically. According to Gi Fernando, founder and investor of Free Formers, the continuous growth and increasing space in the technological world has started scaring everyone. The company currently works on digital training to unemployed adults and businesses. As per Gi, the technology will take over the banking and finance in such a way that it would be out of the recognizable limits.

So, going by the predictions what are the things that we might not require in the coming 5 years:

Card readers and PIN numbers: 

With increasing number of companies opting for biometrics, clumsy card readers and outdated PIN numbers will become history. So we can certainly expect retinal scan, belt buckles, fingerprints, contact lenses and watches to completely replace our traditional card readers and pin numbers. According to global lead banking analyst at Ernst & Young, Steven Lewis, biometric usage will increase over the years. We can certainly expect eye scanners and fingerprints will become more prevalent. A simple example would be a buyer entering a store and picking up what they want and simply paying through their wearable device.

Banks: 

According to Fernando, even though physical banks will be available in the future but many of them will exist in the coffee shops, cafe and supermarkets and even pop-up stalls. This new banking environment will serve the purpose of making people meet face to face. So, in simple, although there will be bank branches, they will start to look more or less like Apple store.

Checks and Cash: 

It doesn't matter how advanced we get in terms of technology, cash will always have it's place. Even though it will be a long time for cash to fade out, but shopping for clothes and groceries over smartphones and other contactless payment method will gain lot of importance. But the same can't be said for checks as the use of checks have declined over the past couple of years. With the advancement in technology, people might find it hard to completely switch over the financial usage methods.

Wire transfer: 

There have been an increasing number of private companies venturing into the money transferring and the trends can be expected to grow in future as well.

Corning Taking over the Fiber Optics Division of Samsung

According to the recent reports, Corning, which is the U.S. specialty glass maker, will be taking over the fiber optics operations of Samsung. Samsung electronics have agreed to sell over their fiber optics division to Corning. After this deal, Samsung will be exiting another non-core business as they want to focus on enhancing the poorly performing key areas like smartphones. Terms of the sales deal and also the plants in South Korea and China are completely confidential. So this might be a good reason to get disappointed by this development. Due to the increasing competition in the market this news was declared by both the parties involved in this sale. South Korea firm's (Samsung electronics) exiting there for the second time from a business line has not come to shock anybody in the market including the market experts. The company is expected to be hitting the lowest annual profit in past 3 years and this approach has been attributed to the stiff competition in the market. This deal has happened as part of the company's recent management changes.

What made the difference? 

One of the top makers of the smartphones around the world, Samsung has been facing quite a competition from market rivals and stuck between the Apple’s iPhones at the top and Chinese rivals like Xiaomi at the lower end. If we see the performance of Samsung Electronics in the last 3 quarters, then we can clearly see that the company's share in the global smartphone industry has declined every year and consistently in every quarter. The company has recently sold out a large amount of shares in the defense as well as chemical divisions.

According to the spokeswoman of Samsung Electronics, they are selling out their fiber optics business as they want to increase their focus on our core business areas. When contacted, Samsung Electronics denied passing any comment regarding the revenue generated by this division. According to the statement generated by the company in October, they are also looking towards putting an end to their light emitting diode lighting business mainly outside the home country. They stated that this business was always considered as  a non-core business.

According to Corning, which supplies glass for Apple Inc smartphones and Samsung, they are considering this deal to further empower their optics business especially in the Asian market. Through this deal Corning is looking forward towards strengthening their position in the Asian market. The company is world known for making the Gorilla Glass.

There has been an increasing use and growth in the technological industry in the Asia Pacific market, and every company is looking forward to encase on this opportunity. While coming to this the perfect time for them is to expand their business and functions. If the reports have to be believed, then this deal is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2015, simple reason being that the deal is being carried out on a high magnitude.

NASA Wants To Launch Tiny Moon Satellites on Its Next-Generation Rocket

NASA is keen on launching tiny moon satellites on its Next Generation Rocket and December 4th unscrewed the launch of the Orion spacecraft. The vehicle was proposed to bring the astronauts in the solar system in the next decade and NASA is thinking ahead to the next space test somewhere in 2017 or 2018.

The Cube Quest Competition which was sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission directorate Centennial Challenge Program has been offering around $5million to those who meet the challenge objective of designing, building as well as delivering flight qualified small satellite which would be capable of advanced operations anywhere near and beyond the moon.

The team members of Cube Quest would have the opportunities of competing for a secondary payload spot on the first mission of NASA’s Orion spacecraft that would be launched atop the agency’s Space Launch System – SLS rocket.

There are three stages to the competition namely: Ground Tournaments, Deep Space Derby and Lunar Derby wherein all the teams could compete in any one of the Ground Tournaments. The team which rates high on mission safety as well as probability of success would be receiving incremental awards. The Ground Tournaments would be held every four to six months providing opportunities to earn a spot on the first integrated flight of SLS and Orion.

Innovative Solution to Deep Space Communication

Focus of Deep Space Derby would be on finding innovative solution to deep space communication with the use of small spacecraft while the Lunar Derby would be focusing mainly on propulsion for small spacecraft and near Earth communications.

With the combinations of these challenges, it is expected in making a contribution to the opening of deep space exploration to non-government spacecraft for the first time. Small spacecraft capabilities in advancements may not only provide benefits to the future missions but also make it possible for new mission scenarios and the Cube Quest Challenge seems to establish priority for all subsystems in need of performing deep space exploration with the use of small spacecraft.

If all goes well, riding atop of the new Space Launch System rocket, it will be a suite of CubeSats which will explore the Moon as Orion journeys out to our largest nearest celestial planet.CubeStats, tiny satellites are so small that they are within the reach of universities as well as other similar institutions which may desire to perform science in space without the help of cost on operating a huge mission.

NASA – CubeStats Challenge

The concept has been of great success resulting in some companies using it as a base for their entire business model like the Planet Labs which is a company that is performing Earth observation with the small machines.

The competition would be divided in several sections inclusive of ground tournament in order to see if the CubeSats could fly on the SLS, s lunar derby ensuring that they could communicate at a distance of about 10 times the Earth moon distance with a deep space derby to put the CubeStats in stable lunar orbit and function well there.

NASA states that `the Cube Quest Challenge seeks to develop and test subsystems necessary to perform deep space exploration using small spacecraft and advancements in small spacecraft capabilities will provide benefits to future mission and also enable entirely new mission scenarios including future investigations of near-Earth asteroids’.

EFF and Mozilla Join Forces- Encrypting the Entire Web and Giving Free HTTPS Certificates

The year 2015 will see HTTPS being finally enables in every part of the world, every person will be able to acquire free, and most of all officially approved SSL/TLS certificate for the enabling process. This new service which is also called Let’s Encrypt (a certificate authority (CA)), have been led by EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), the University of Michigan, and the Mozilla apart from their major joining partners Akamai and Cisco. This can be considered as one of major offering for the people who actually know the importance of HTTPS, TLS, and SSL. But, if you among you don’t have much knowledge about this, then just go by the word that this is a very big deal.

Importance of HTTPS: 

If you have noticed, every time you try and surf the net, the email url will show HTTPS or HTTP. It is not easy to explain the content and the process by which they work, but the simple difference is in the letter “S”, which primarily means secure. If your browser gives HTTP in the url, then be aware that it becomes easy for any hacker, Verizon or even the NSA to track down and observe as to what you might be doing. With an additional S, you get the security and confidence that you two people are aware about what you are doing; this includes you and your web browser.

TLS or SSL is used by a web browser to enable the HTTPS in your system, which provides a strong encryption. Usually this process of enabling is not hard for any website administrator, as they just need to generate an encryption key that takes less than a few seconds. The major obstacle comes in, when the key needs to be signed by the CA (certificate authority).

At the end it is the job of the certificate authorities to get all these things added up. Certificate authority mainly prevents random numbers of servers to be created by people, who claim to have websites, have their own certifying signature, and claim to be enacting like any big company. In simple, when you see a simple symbol depicting a lock, it clearly indicates that you are fairly visiting the secured website and not some hacking website in another country itself.

It is not easy to get certificates authorized as there are very few authorities around the world and they charge heavy on your pocket. Symantec, VeriSign and Comodo are major names in these authorities. If someone is not able to pay for these, they go by HTTP.

Let’s Encrypt (CA) 

Let’s Encrypt is expected to launch in 2015, which will be providing completely free and authorized certificates to anyone. The complete process is supposed to be completely automated. The service is expected to be free as the signing and renewal process is fully automated.

The corporate world can be expected to create a sense of resistance as using the Https in their system will now allow them to monitor anyone in the organization. As far open web is concerned, this services comes as the biggest boon ever.

Now Watch The Single Cells Moving Inside The Brain- MRI Sniper Scope

When it comes to a living brain, all that matter is the stimulation and recording of neurons. The main aspect of a brain is the presence and functioning of the neurons. The brain interface can be expected to be much better, if we are able to set more dialogs with the neurons. The truth basically lies in the presumption that the electric chattering between the neural cells (the ones which are in feral protists) are now covered in the cranial vault and undertake the full spectrum activities inside their writhing mass. Now researchers from Osaka, Japan have found the perfect way to see these cells in the brain and watch them in their actual elements and activities. They have developed a clear way to watch the activities of the brain and their functions.

Brain Sniper scope: 

The first and the vital requirement of the brain sniper scope is the need of tremendous power. Researchers were able to get this power from a top-of-the-line MRI, which basically generates rivet-popping 12 Tesla magnetic field. The main fact to know here is that the current upper bound of physiological safety is known to be 12T and is is also almost double in potential when compared to any implantable medical device manufacturer can ever acknowledge even exists or can be made. Differentiating between the cells is now easier with the single cell resolution that comes with a resolution that comes with a higher power. The main trick here lies in the tiny magnetically active particles also called as SPIOs as they provide super-paramagnetic nanoparticles of iron oxide.

The researchers started testing their ideas by insjecting the SPIOs into the blood stream of the mice and they were able to see that these particles got rapidly absorbed by the blood immune cells also known as macrophages. These immune cells can easily travel throughout the vasculature of the brain and depending on the movements of the cells; we can take look at their movements.

The researchers injected the LPS (lipopolysaccharides) to increase the natural macrophage curiosity. These LPS has been derived out of gram-negative bacteria. Under these situations, the immune cells undergo lots of craziness similar to the septic shocks these bacteria’s will go through. Through this method, the researchers were able to see the movement of the cells in and out of the brain vessels. At present if, we see almost all the neural transplant procedures are carried out with a hope of giving auxiliary nourishing function to the existing faulty neurons rather than acting as the primary neural cells.

We already know that science has developed so much that at present we have the exceptional ability to track down the immune cells. These cells invade the brain at the time of any inflammation or infection and this has already been found very useful. However, this discovery will be more useful in neural dysfunctions and movement disorders. By using SPIOs and other technique now, we will be able to see the flux of whole cell bodies axonal emissaries.

US DOJ States iPhone Encryption Could Lead to Child Death

Government worried with the new tougher and stricter encryption schemes which are being implemented by Apple in its iOS and Google in Android have the ability to prevent the law enforcers from getting their hands on the user’s data.

Snowden whistle blowing incident has accused major upheaval in the tech industry which has resulted in the plummeting of their trust rating. Now the tech companies are scrambling around to reinstate their image and business by using much aggressive and strong encryption for saving users privacy.

Tech Giants Moving Towards Advanced Encryption

Apple is first company to include the encryption by default in its recent iOS 8 version while Google is working towards bringing the encryption on all the devices with its Android 5.0. Past week the Facebook owned messaging service provider WhatsApp has flipped the switched and had enabled the much needed end-to-end encryption on its messaging platform. These encryptions are seen as the boon for the users and consumers as it will give much more privacy but it is also acting as a major tumbling block for the government.

Government Worries Grows With Widespread Use Of Encryption

The government officials are extremely worried regarding the rampant use of advanced encryption in the consumer products by the tech companies. Officials had asserted that these very same features which protect user’s privacy could end up in protecting the criminals. In earlier times the tech companies were extremely cooperative as well as complacent in providing the government with essential information which was taken as shock by the general mobile phone and network users. But the advanced encryption works through not storing the encryption keys on the Apple’s or Google’s servers, thereby the concerned authorities won’t be able to get their hands on it even if they possess the required warrant.

Apple Could Become A Reason For Child Death

The Wall Street Journal reports that a Department of Justice (DOJ) official had eventually told the Apple executives during a classified meeting that in near future their company could be directly responsible for the death of a child.

The logic behind stating such grave point is that government officials believes that one day criminals probably a kidnapper could rely on the Apple’s encrypted devices for hiding themselves from the law enforcement authorities. Such inability of law enforcement in accessing the data on that person’s phone could inevitably allow him to evade detection and kill a child as well.

Apple had rubbished such accusation and even calls it inflammatory as well as inaccurate. Apple further said that the government have much more better means in such cases like taking help of the cellular carriers which would pinpoint the location of the suspect in a faster and convenient manner.

This incident reflects that in the future with advent of strong and advanced encryption method government would be kept at bay from large chunk of information and at the same time the privacy of the users would become more stable. However government should take more advanced steps in strengthening its reach but not at the cost of citizen’s privacy.

Florida Trade Commission Shuts Down Two Tech-Support Scam Companies

A federal court had temporarily shut down two companies which were providing bogus ‘tech support’ for computer throughout the country. It is been believed that these companies had managed to dupe an estimated $120 million.

Both of the accused companies modus operandi were fuelled by the greed and lack of knowledge on the part of honest customers. These companies have sold consumers unneeded software by tricking them to believe that their computers are under imminent threat or suffering from grave security threats which needed quick and instant technical help.

FTC Building Strong Case Against Scamming Companies

Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection has stated that these companies operations were essentially based on the lack of technical knowledge by the honest consumers. They had resorted to malpractices like the use of deceptive sales pitches accompanied with high-pressure tactics to sell their useless software and services and wreak millions of dollars out of it.

This isn’t the first time that the FTC has shut down the company resorting to scam based operations or business tactics. Earlier it had also shut down another fraudster company which ran an alleged scam wherein the callers pretended to be tech support for the giant tech-companies like Facebook (FB) and Microsoft (MSFT).

How These Companies Worked? 

Consumers are required to download an unpaid version of the software which is supposed to improve their computer’s performance. That software simply runs a system scan and identifies all sorts of problems, errors and threats. Later on users are asked to get their computer repaired and errors fixed by buying that particular software for $29-$49. Once they had bought it, they would be gently directed to a call a phone number which supposedly activate the software. Even after buying the consumers are pounded with more sales pitch to buy more number of computer repair services for better reason.

These companies also used to take remote access of the computers and promised to solve the technical issues and remove the threats from the devices for a whopping charge of $500.

FTC Gears Up For A Decisive Fight

A federal court in Florida has already taken the initial steps of temporarily shutting down these companies and their partners. Even appointed receivers and froze their assets until the case could be heard. Furthermore court has also ordered the respective authorities to disable their websites and phones numbers.

The FTC lawsuits have alleged these companies of violating the federal consumer protection laws along with telemarketing sales rules and the Florida Deceptive & Unfair Trade Practices Act.

The defendants are California based PC Cleaner Inc, Netcom3 Global Inc., dba Netcom3 Software and Florida based telemarketing companies PC Vitalware LLC; Inbound Call Experts LLC, Super PC Support LLC and Advanced Tech Supportco.

The defendants in another suit are Massachusetts-based Boost Software Inc and Florida based telemarketer OMG Total Protection, Vast Tech Support LLC, dbs OMG Tech Help, OMG Back Up, OMG Tech Help LLC, Success Capital LLC, downloadsoftware.com and softwaresupport.com.