YouTube Builds Castle to Make Slow Loading Videos Cute

Reuters

For over a decade we have seeing the default spinning circle on YouTube while watching video on a slow connection. YouTube has taken a hint of this monotonous situation and has started to spice up the so called ‘loading’ experience with an innovative and fun castle animation. People who rely on Wi-Fi network or slower mobile networks or simply possess a standard broadband connection which offers satisfactorily internet experience has to deal with loading animations all the time. Opting for faster internet connectivity isn’t a cheaper option so YouTube decided to make their waiting a playful and fun experience by creating a new castle animation. Sadly this innovation doesn’t speeds up the loading process rather gives a respite from the old age spinning circle animation.

Castle animation isn’t new

If you are thinking that this a new feature brought about by the YouTube then you be further shocked to know that it has been present for several weeks. But recently it has started appearing on wider range of videos and networks on the YouTube which has brought it wider audience. There are a millions of users who never get to see this cute animation feature on the YouTube because of their blazing fast network but other relying on slow network will get to see it more often while waiting for their video to buffer.

When would you see the castle animation? 

Sadly YouTube isn’t completely doing away with the staple spinning animation at the moment. YouTube users will get to see the castle animation only at the first load of their video and in between if video buffers again then they will be greeted with the usual spinning circle. YouTube has brought this change in order to bring a visual change for the users on slower network but as stated earlier it wouldn’t wonder for your networks by speeding up the process.

Google set to enhance user experience on slower connections

YouTube is owned by Google and it is a widely known fact worldwide. For past some time Google is actively working on enhancing the user experience across its range of services and offerings. Google has been critical about the slow connection wherein it brought some major changes in its services and platforms capability to ensure smooth transitions and users experience for its users with slow connection.

Quite recently Google has brought an update to its Google Search for Android functionality which allows it to save user’s queries during bad signal reception and it quickly produces the results when connection resumed. Google has named this feature Offline Search wherein it makes use of its Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMP technique which allows users on slower internet connection to access page by consuming minimum amount of data. This feature isn’t new as Opera already has similar kind of feature in store. But Google is widely favored by the users all around the world for searching tasks and this move will be beneficial for millions of users in the long run.

Five reasons why your next accessory should be a smartwatch

Unlike other revolutionary pieces of technology, the release of the first smartwatch a few years ago wasn’t met with a viral trend on Twitter or any other form of acclaim for that matter. Not only was it too expensive by watch standards, customers simply didn’t see the need to have a second smartphone-like device on the hand.

Fast-forward to the present, and the situation is the same, if not worse. Smartwatch sales from leading manufacturers are either stagnant or plummeting. A technology that had great promise has now become the subject of many critical blogs, and even fans of the gadgets are now reconsidering their position. Nevertheless, smartwatches still have a place in the world. Here are five reasons why you should consider getting one today.

1. Notifications

Gone are the days where a landline phone on your desk was the only means of communication you needed in the office. Smartphones have enhanced the way we pass on information in a great way. However, having a phone can be an unpleasant distraction as much as it can be a benefit.

Every day, we receive countless notifications, and wherever we may be, we always feel compelled to check the phone everytime it beeps or vibrates. But with a smartphone, instead of reaching for your phone when a notification comes in, you can quickly glance at your wrist and decide whether it’s important or not, before opting to take action.

Moreover, instant notifications through smartwatches eliminate the need of always moving with your phone to avoid missing important phone calls, texts or emails.

2. Fitness

We all want to live a healthier life, but staying fit requires quite the effort. With a smartwatch, however, you can make your journey towards a more active life a lot easier.

Many modern-day smartwatches come with apps that help track our daily fitness progress. They will help you monitor your pulse rate, exercise routines, and the rate of calorie burn. Some watches even offer
 tracking solutions for joggers and runners. They use GPS to determine how far to run or which routes to take to achieve the desired goals.

3. Making purchases

If you’ve ever experienced the hassle of having to pay for something when your hands are too full to reach for the wallet or phone, you will undoubtedly appreciate the smartwatch.

Both Samsung and Apple watches have “Pay” applications, which enable a customer to pay for goods or services by just clicking on a button and bringing the watch close to the payment terminal.

4. Easy navigation

Navigation has come a long way. It is almost ludicrous to imagine a time when we used paper maps to know the direction to take. Google Maps was the first major leap towards the success of electronic navigation, but just like a paper sheet, there was the inconvenience of always having to pull out your phone for directions.

Voice navigation came in soon after, and although an outstanding innovation, some still viewed it a distraction to walk around while listening to audio navigation tool.

With smartwatches comes the latest in navigation technology. Samsung has won the hearts of many by incorporating the overly useful HERE WeGo app on the Gear S, Gear S2 and the recently launched Gear S3. HERE WeGo is a stand-alone app that offers navigation features without the need to be synced to your smartphone.

Even more impressive is the Apple Watch, which in addition to looking at the screen, provides directions using its taptic engine. Admittedly, it’s not perfect, and you do have to learn what each haptic feedback means. But with only subtle taps on your wrist to tell you which turn to make, you can get around without even having to look at your watch.

5. Customization

Regardless of their complexities, at the end of the day, a smartwatch is essentially a watch. And in addition to telling the time, a watch is meant to compliment the wearer’s physical look.

Unlike buying a traditional watch which gets you stuck with one design, smartwatches are available in different colors and bands. For further customization, you could also personalize your watch by reorganizing the widgets and tweaking some settings.

Final words

Contrary to what you may have read online, smartwatches are very handy gadgets to have. This is why, despite disappointing sales, leading brands are still unveiling new devices. Even more gratifying is the recent influx of cheap smartwatches, which albeit lowly priced still have a lot to offer.

Smartwatches have an important part to play in the future of communication and modern electronics as a whole.

Samsung Android 7.0 Nougat Update

Android keeps bringing new OS each passing year but OEMs fails to get their smartphone up to date with new Os features but that isn’t the case with Samsung. Samsung has started roll out of Android 7.0 Nougat update to its flagship devices. This update will first come to the premium Galaxy devices namely the Galaxy 7 and Galaxy 7 Edge.

Users with these devices are simply required to the Settings followed by About Phone section then System Updates to get the latest Android Os update. Samsung isn’t offering the latest version of the Nougat as Google’s own smartphone lineup of Pixel devices already comes loaded with the version 7.1.1 while Samsung is bringing 7.0 version update. The area of improvisation is slight between the two versions of the Nougat but it simply crowns Pixel device as the sole bearer of latest Android update.

What’s new in 7.0 Nougat?

Google has brought a wide range of functionalities and improvements on its Android platform with Nougat update last year. This includes support for the DayDream i.e. its VR platform in form of Screen Saver which offers splendid graphics and visuals to the users, quicker multi-tasking, multi-window support, viewing two Chrome tabs, Clear All button for recent apps, new installer animation and list goes on.

It also brings bundled notification for quickly getting through notification at a single go. A ‘Notification Importance’ setting is present in Nougat to set dedicated notification for important apps on the device. An enhanced version of the ‘Data Saver’ functionality comes with Nougat which helps users in saving ‘more’ on their mobile bills. Data Saver allows users to actively monitor their network usage data and even setting up notifications for the same effect.

Some new updates to the Samsung Galaxy S7 & S7 Edge

Samsung Galaxy S7 & S7 Edge comes loaded with the fingerprint scanner but Samsung has bumped up its functionality with a latest update. It brings the support for Samsung Pass which allows users to use their fingerprint to not just to unlock the device but also open certain apps, sites along with a pop-up window wherein users can run as many as five apps simultaneously.

This functionality of running five different apps together shouldn’t be confused with the spilt screen functionality already available on these flagship devices.For heavy users Samsung has brought a Performance mode which allows them to optimize certain aspects of the device to answer their specific needs. This includes making tweaks in device for enhanced gaming, entertainment, multimedia consumption or improving the battery life for longer usage.

Samsung is bring Nougat to a wide range of devices

In the next few months Samsung will be rolling out the Nougat update on its wider range of devices which includes Galaxy Tab A with S Pen, Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge Plus, Galaxy A3, Galaxy A8, Galaxy Note 5. By the mid of this year most of the premium Samsung devices will start running the Nougat which is a great new for the Samsung users.

Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro Review

Samsung is gradually building up its premium range of Smartphone after the premature demise of the Note 7 which seriously affected its yearly revenue predictions. Samsung has launched its lasts Galaxy C9 Pro 9 at the price of 36,900 INR in India. Currently Samsung is pre booking for this elegant Smartphone from 27th January and it is expected to start shipping from February. The talking point for this Smartphone among the plethora of Galaxy series devices is 6GB Ram. Samsung is cluttered its Smartphone lineup by following the nomenclature of Galaxy for almost all of its offering from the budget, mid range to high end devices.

The launch of Galaxy C9 Pro is quite late as it launched first in the Chinese market in October 2016 followed by the launches in Indian sub-continent countries namely Thailand, Malaysia and Bangladesh. The launch of the C9 Pro is quite late as the Indian Smartphone market is flooded with devices with similar specification at a margin of Samsung pricing. In terms of specification Samsung will have to compete against the offering of Chinese devices such as LeEco LeMax 2 and OnePlus 3 but its holds on its own due to its premium build and amazing display.

C9 Pro specifications to watch for

Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro comes with an awesome AMOLED display of 6.0 inches with full HD (1080p) rendition. This Smartphone is powered by the mid range Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 processor with eight cores and for gaming purpose it has Adreno 510 GPU. On storage front it comes with 64 GB of internal storage and can easily be expanded up to 256 GB via microSD card. Samsung has brought the 6GB of RAM on this device which results in a splendid user experience with amazing multitasking opportunities.

It is a dual SIM Smartphone with 4G LTE support along with the regular GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11 and Bluetooth 4.2. It comes loaded with the Android Marshmallow not Nougat which might be a bummer for some the consumer but one should understand that it is around four months old device. Samsung C9 Pro does offers the best of the specification to the users but it fails on the price tag as there are already a number of devices available in the market at lower cost.

Notable features of the C9 Pro

Samsung has brought a high performing camera on this device with a 16 MP rear and 16 MP front camera for selfies. Rear camera comes with dual tone LED flash which helps in taking highly enriching and detailed pictures and it possess the capability to capture videos in 1080 pixels.

This device comes with now standard USB Type C port and possesses a mammoth battery of 4000 mAh – a sensible effort on Samsung’s part given its large screen size. Furthermore, this device has a fingerprint sensor which has become a staple feature on majority of devices launching nowadays and Samsung has also brought an audio enhancer in form of Cirrus Hifi Codec.

Gmail phishing: Latest Cyber Attack

Email phishing isn’t going to be dead anytime soon. Scammer, cyber attackers and hackers are getting smarter with each passing day and they are evolving new ways of convincing people that their mails are true. A new kind of sophisticated phishing technique has been in vogue wherein hackers compose highly convincing emails for the target users. In this technique past messages and attachments of the target users are analyzed before composing such mails which breathes of originality and normality and urges users to click to divulge their critical information.

The Gmail-phishing trend

This particular trend of phishing has been uncovered by Mark Mauder, the CEO of WordPress’s security plugin is called Wordfence. In this particular kind of evolved phishing attack hacker first sends across an email which appears to the user as a normal mail containing a PDF which possess a similar file name as seen earlier by the user.

Another gruesome thing about this PDF is that it carefully contains a disguised image which when clicked by the users launches a new tab will appears just like official Gmail log-in page. In is extremely tough for a normal users to find the minute details which reveals it isn’t the real Gmail sign in page. This can only be found by closing looking at the address bar revealing a script running right there.

So real, so convincing

As stated earlier it is extremely difficult for anyone to find flaws in the webpage design which results in targeted user entering their log-in details without any second thought. Once a user has entered the details then it can be used by the hackers to gain access to account for stealing the data or simply forward one mail to other recipients from the very same mail. In one such incident hackers has successfully hoodwinked an athlete believing their mail and link to be the true Gmail sign-up page.

Thereby they used his accounts log-in details to similar mails to other athletes in the team and within a short whole team’s emails and data were compromised. Hackers don’t waste much time after getting the log-in details. They use target users email account to send out multiple mails with user’s actual subject lines to other people in the contact list.

How to protect yourself from such phishing attack

There are some smart ways to outwit the hackers and stay safe from such attacks. One should always check upon the address of opening links when clicked on any kind of email. In this case the legitimate Gmail page has ‘https://’ address while the phishing attacks links possess ‘data:text/html.https://’. This clearly shows the given link brings the fake url of the Gmail’s sign-up page and it is also too long in nature. The best way to secure your Gmail account is to enable the two form authorization on Gmail wherein users has to insert not just their id and password but they also have to enter a passcode sent to their mobile device to enter their email account.