Technology Mania

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro is now available in black colour in Korea

By tech2 News Staff / 16 Dec 2016 , 10:15

Samsung seems like it is doing everything in its power to overcome the disaster that followed the announcement of the Galaxy Note 7. While the only alternative in that price segment and user experience, is the Galaxy S7 edge, Samsung has also released the Galaxy C9 Pro in a 6-inch form factor in Korea.

The Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro is now available in black colour which makes it look quite appealing from the images shared by GSMArena. According to the report, only the styling has changed, whereas internal components are unchanged. The other colour variants include Gold and Rose Gold. The black model is currently only selling in Korea and international availability is still a question mark.

In terms of specifications, the Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro comes with a 6-inch FullHD Super AMOLED display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 635 chipset which has an octa-core processor clocked at 1.95GHz which is paired with 6GB RAM. It comes with 64GB storage, with a provision to add in 256GB microSD card. It runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The device measures 6.9mm thick and weighs 188 grams.

Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro comes with a 4000mAh battery. On the camera front, you get a 16MP rear as well as 16MP front camera, both having an f/1.9 aperture. The cameras are capable of shooting in FullHD resolution at 30fps.

The phone was launched earlier this year in China for CNY 3199 (approx Rs 32,000). There are no details regarding the availability in India yet.

Hackers took control of a unclassified email system in Pentagon in 2015

Representational Image

16 Dec 2016 , 08:54

Russian hackers seized control last year of the unclassified email system used by the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, CBS News reported on Thursday, citing an interview with then-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey.

Dempsey, who did not appear on camera, said he was alerted to the August 2015 attack by an early morning phone call from the director of the National Security Agency, Admiral Mike Rogers, according to CBS. The email system is used by the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, an organization of some 3,500 military officers and civilians who work for the chairman.

The hackers seized the passwords and electronic signatures used by Dempsey, an Army general who retired in September 2015, and hundreds of other senior officers to sign on to the network, according to CBS. The only way to stop the attack was to take the network down, CBS said.

The attack, which U.S. officials now blame on Russia, was not spying, but a full-on assault whose only apparent purpose was to cause damage and force the Pentagon to replace both hardware and software, which took about two weeks to accomplish, according to CBS.

The motive for the attack was believed to be Russian anger at economic sanctions orchestrated by the Obama administration in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea and interference in Ukraine, CBS said.

The Pentagon declined to comment. U.S. officials have accused Putin of supervising his intelligence agencies’ hacking of the U.S. presidential election in an effort to help Republican Donald Trump. Russian officials have denied accusations of interference in the Nov. 8 election won by Trump.

Reuters

Donald Trump meets tech leaders: Silicon Valley caught off guard by olive branch

Image: Reuters

By Anirudh Regidi / 15 Dec 2016 , 17:12

To say that Silicon Valley was caught off guard by Donald Trump’s election to the Presidential Office would be something of an understatement.

The months and weeks leading up to the election saw Silicon Valley actively do everything in its power to oppose Trump. Campaign contributions to Hillary Clinton numbered in the millions, media outlets went all out in a war against Trump and Silicon Valley’s elite were not reticent about their stance against him.

“Both sides made no secret of their disdain for each other during the election campaign,” reads a report in Reuters.

Immigration, trade, encryption, net-neutrality; Trump and the Valley never saw eye-to-eye on any of these during the election. Trump’s innate racism, talk of building walls, building an immigrants’ registry, make in America, opposition to net neutrality and more painted him as the most technology-hostile president that America had ever seen. Is it any wonder that Silicon Valley didn’t want him in power?

But Trump is in power, or will be, come 20 January. What’s the Valley going to do now?

In an unexpected twist, Trump invited Silicon Valley’s Elite to a meeting in Trump tower, Manhattan, where he planned to discuss Silicon Valley’s fears and better understand the situation there.

Given what happened during the election, Silicon Valley’s reaction to the invite would have been something to behold. Re/code’s Kara Swisher described my feelings best when she said, “Hoo boy, would I have liked to be in the room when Sheryl Sandberg/Tim Cook/Larry Page/fill-in-your-billionaire-tech-leader-here were reacting to the tech summit invite.”

Now this is awkward

How do you decline an invite from the soon-to-be most powerful man in the world, one who can directly influence the future of your company, nay, your industry, and the man who you deliberately and pointedly dissed in the past?

Awkward is hardly the word for it.

I’m still not entirely convinced that the likes of Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Satya Nadella and others weren’t just called to Trump’s castle to kiss the proverbial ring. Reports and statements made by Trump staff and various company spokespersons are quite positive, however.

Jeff Bezos claimed that the meeting was “very productive”, Elon Musk is joining one of Trump’s business advisory boards and Oracle’s Safra Catz gave reporters a thumbs-up after the meeting. The signs all seem good; but can we trust them?

Now that he’s president (or soon to be one), do any of these CEOs have the courage to speak against Trump? There’s more than money at stake, after all.

Trump still hasn’t clarified his stand on immigration, net neutrality’s fate still hangs in the balance and Trump’s belief in science and global warming is still a big question mark.

Analogue vs digital

Has the summit actually achieved anything? I honestly don’t know. Some, like Re/code and The Stranger believe that these Silicon Valley executives are just “legitimising a fascist”. Others, like Bill Gates, have compared Trump to JFK and gone on record to state that Trump will drive America with innovation.

Given Bill Gates’ response, I’m almost tempted to admit that Trump is actually doing the smart thing here. He is a businessman, he’s worth over $10 billion and he’ll soon be the president of the United States of America. That’s no small feat.

As a businessman, a traditional, brick and mortar businessman, so to speak, Trump is far removed from the cutting edge tech world that is Silicon Valley. As a businessman, Trump understands money and Silicon Valley is telling him, as, I’m sure, are his advisors, that interfering with Silicon Valley will cost the country a great deal in terms of jobs, revenue and technological edge.

Trump’s supporter and advisor, Peter Thiel, is an investor in Silicon Valley himself and he sits on Facebook’s board of directors. If nothing else, he’s sure to see the merit in ensuring that Silicon Valley functions smoothly and also the merit in ensuring that Trump sees it too.

Trump might be an opportunist, racist, fascist, bigot and anything else that comes to mind, but he seems to know which side of his bread is buttered and his olive branch to Silicon Valley is proof of that.

If this is indeed a façade, it’s in the cracks that we’ll see glimpses of the truth. If not, Trump actually might “Make America Great Again!” Either way, turbulent times lay ahead.

Synaptics has announced optical fingerprint sensors for Smartphones

15 Dec 2016 , 15:28

Synaptics, a human interface solution developer has unveiled “Natural ID FS9100” optical fingerprint sensor family for smartphone and tablets, which is capable of high-resolution scanning through 1mm of full cover glass and enables clean, button-free industrial designs. The FS9100 optical solution excels with wet finger performance, and being protected by glass, is durable, scratchproof, waterproof, and eliminates ESD concerns.

“Synaptics’ FS9100 family of fingerprint sensors represent a new breed of optical fingerprint sensor technology that is designed to meet the needs of mobile devices, including the ability to image through thick 2.5D glass,” said Anthony Gioeli, Vice President, Marketing, Biometrics Product Division, Synaptics, in a statement.

Unlike optical fingerprint sensors used for access control and public biometric identity verification, the advanced FS9100 sensor leverages unique Synaptics optical technology developed for mobile devices and breaks through key technical barriers with an extremely thin form factor and minimal power consumption. Natural ID FS9100 optical fingerprint sensors are designed for placement under the cover glass, including 2.5D glass, located in the front, bottom bezel of devices.

FS9100 optical fingerprint sensors feature Synaptics’ SentryPoint technology, offering OEMs a wide-range of unique and highly secure authentication features including Quantum Matcher with PurePrint anti-spoof technology. PurePrint examines fingerprint images using unique artificial intelligence technology to distinguish between fake and actual fingers, the company said.

Reuters

Amazon Prime Video vs Netflix vs Hotstar: How the video streaming services compare

By Nimish Sawant / 15 Dec 2016 , 13:57

Amazon Prime Video has finally arrived in India along with 241 other countries. It was officially announced on 14 December, and will be available on the Android and Apple app stores as well as on the web on PrimeVideo.com. India has seen a proliferation of video streaming services over the last couple of years. With Netflix India already present in India since January this year, and HotStar being a local favourite, there will be a fierce battle between these three, in addition to a lot more video streaming apps, to capture Indian eyeballs.

Home Page Content Categorisation

The home page is the first thing that you come across when you fire up the apps. It is a major contributor to how long you will stay on the app. Considering these are video streaming apps, the home pages are generally visually heavy, and require multiple scrolls to see the all the categories.

NetflixThe featured image on Netflix is generally an announcement with a call to action. Netflix uses this top featured image to push out its recent shows or give you an idea of which new shows have been added to its catalogue. Then you have the ‘Continue Watching’ tag which lets you resume watching the shows from your last played locations. Apart from these features, you then come across a whole list of categories: Recently Added, Trending Now, Watch It Again, New Releases, Popular On Netflix, Kid’s TV, Because you watched <insert show name>, and so on and so forth. Netflix keeps mixing and matching these categories from user to user which not only helps in keeping the categories dynamic, but also help with easy discovery of some interesting content.

HotstarWith Hotstar, the featured image at the top is dynamic. It basically presents a carousel with a mix of Live TV, free to stream movies or TV shows as well as Premium content – each having a call to action. This is followed by a multiple-scroll list of categories with Popular Movies and Popular shows up top, followed by the latest trending live TV content, Premium content, Must Watch Clips, popular Premium content and so on. Considering Hotstar also has the whole bouquet of TV channels, the categorisations on the home page are much more dynamic than Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, with playlists not just across genres, but also based on TV shows. As compared to Netflix and Prime Video, you get a lot more information than just a TV show or movie poster. At the base of the app, there are tabs such as Home, TV, Movies, Sports and More which makes navigation more easier.

Amazon Prime VideoJust like Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video also has a carousel with the most popular and premium content up front. This is followed by ‘Watch Next’ which is instead of directly playing the show from the last played moment, adds in an extra unecessary step, which takes you to the TV show page, with a button for ‘Resume Episode’. Then there are categories such as Amazon Original Series, Latest Movies, Latest TV, Exclusive Movies, Kid & Family TV, Movie Genres and so on. It would be too early to say if the categorisation on the home page for Prime Video would be dynamic at this stage, but going by what we have seen on Netflix and Hotstar, it would be safe to assume that it would. The Home, TV Shows and Movies tabs are present right at the top.

One common design element that is common on Hotstar and Amazon Prime Video is the film-strip like layout for every category with a ‘See More’ or ‘See All’ on the far right hand side. Netflix on the other hand does not have anything on the far right, you just scroll horizontally through the entire category.

Offline options

India may be a heavy consumer of videos, but bandwidth is still a question mark. There are very few among us who would stream content when we are commuting without having even the slightest nagging fear at the back of our minds of hitting our FUP limits. Hence the need for Offline viewing is paramount. Hotstar started the offline viewing feature earlier this year, which was followed by Netflix India and Prime Video offers it out of the box.

NetflixTaking a video offline on Netflix is pretty easy. Just navigate to the TV show or movie page. On the right hand side you will see a Download icon, just hit it and it will start downloading. Beware that not all TV shows or movies are downloadable. For instance, I could not find a download link for The Cuba Libre Story, whereas Stranger Things was available to download. You can view your downloaded content in ‘My Downloads’ section in the settings. You could set the app to download only on Wi-fi connection, keep the video quality as Standard or Higher. There’s also an option to ‘Delete All Downloads’ in case you don’t want to go through the rigmarole of selecting individual show and deleting it from the My Downloads segment.

Hotstar
Just like Netflix, Hotstar also offers download only on select content – TV shows and movies. For instance Premium content does not have the download button. You have to try your luck as to what is and what isn’t available. Honestly, 3 out of every 5 movies or TV shows I checked did not have a download option. Moreover there is no easy way of knowing what I can download. With Netflix and Prime Video, upfront you get a lot more featured shows with a download option. Also another pointless thing is to actually have the Download button (it’s of a light shade) for shows which cannot be downloaded. Also for a lot of TV shows and movies, the disabled download button gets activated only when you start streaming the content. Once the download starts, you can do other things while it is happening in the background. On the whole, the experience of finding download worthy content on Hotstar is a struggle. Also the whole user experience needs to be relooked at.

The only silver lining on Hotstar though is that it gives you and exact resolution and file size when you do eventually find that Download button. This is much better than Netflix or Amazon Prime Video which does not specify the resolutions or file size. Double thumbs up for that!

Amazon Prime VideoAmazon has activated the download option for most of the content. There wasn’t any TV show or movie that did not have a Download button. This feature will be present for all the content on Prime Video according to Amazon representatives I spoke to at launch event. However, while trying to download certain TV shows, I did face an issue in the sense that the downloads took quite a while to begin the process. But it’s just been a day since the launch, and hopefully this is just some glitch. The thing to note is that everything is available for download. But unlike say Netflix or Hotstar, the downloaded content for offline viewing will disappear after 48 hours. So don’t keep that show you want to binge-watch on Saturday, to download on a Monday. You may have to re-download it on Saturday. There are only two options in the Download settings – button to activate Downloads only on Wi-Fi and the Download Quality which varies from Good (1 hour video uses 0.1GB storage), Better (1 hour video uses 0.6GB storage) and Best (1 hour video uses 0.9GB storage).

Once the video starts to play

NetflixThe playback screen on Netflix shows subtitle menu, list of episodes and if you are using an iPhone, then Airplay mirroring. There is no option to change the streaming quality on the fly in Netflix simply because the resolution of streaming will depend on the plan you have taken. The UltraHD plan is for Rs 800/month, HD plan is available at Rs 650/month and SD plan starts at Rs 500/month. Even with an HD / UltraHD plan, you will have to change the streaming resolutions at a system level from the settings menu. When streaming on cellular data, you get the option to select the quality of the stream from Low, Medium, High, Unlimited, which stops playback after a GB is reached. The different settings give different durations that you can watch for.

Hotstar
The playback screen on Hotstar only has Closed Captions, Settings and display size resizing options on the top right hand corner. The Settings menu lets you select video quality on the fly, between Auto, Low (180p), Medium (360p) and High (720p). Closed captions are available in English only.

Amazon Prime VideoAmazon Prime Video has an interesting X-ray feature and IMDB integration into the app, which gives you a lot of information about characters in a TV show or movie in real time as the video is playing. Even what soundtrack is playing! This is a great value addition. When playing back a video on Prime Video, you get the subtitle menu and the Airplay mirroring option. Changing of resolutions has to be done at a system level, just like Netflix.

Regional Content

All said and done, if a streaming service has to thrive in India, regional content just cannot be ignored. India has a vast range of languages and every state has its own favourite local GEC channels where consumers watch shows and movies in local languages. For streaming services to really go mainstream, they have to attract people with regional content as well.

Netflix
Netflix content catalogue is heavily biased towards English language content, but it also has a lot of Hindi movies onboard. Regional language cinema is quite limited currently and not really well categorised. Everything falls under the ‘Indian Movies’ umbrella. This could prove to be Netflix’s Achilles heel if not checked as the other two players have got this aspect quite right

Hotstar
This app became famous as an alternative to watching TV specially as it has the entire bouquet of Star channels on board. So GEC is front and centre on this app along with the live TV option. Hotstar also neatly demarcates things according to languages and how much content it has in these languages. In fact the settings menu has a tab for Languages. It covers Hindi, English, Malayalam, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, Gujarati languages and each one shows how many movies and TV shows are available. This is one of the best categorisation for regional content.

Amazon Prime Video
Amazon has been operational in India for over three years now, so naturally it has a good grip on the Indian consumer. Keeping this in mind, not only did Amazon launch the Prime Video service with focus on regional content, but also announced around 18 TV shows which will be part of the Amazon Originals program. Languages currently covered by Prime Video include Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali and of course Hindi. It does neatly demarcate the regional content, but not as well as Hotstar. But the good thing about Prime Video is that it has added subtitles in regional languages as well. So you can watch Seinfeld with Hindi captions. But if you lose the jokes in translation, then don’t complain. Regional language captioning is a really good move as it exposes people who may have not considered watching content in a language they aren’t fluent in, now have the support of subtitles. However, not all content has subtitles in all languages.

Platform availability

Netflix
Netflix plans start from Rs 500 onwards and with the basic plan you can watch simultaneously on 1 screen, with standard plan that goes to two screens and with premium you can take that to four screens. You can watch Netflix via the Android and iOS apps, on the web browser and also through apps as part of smart TVs

Hotstar
Hotstar offers free streaming for TV content, but charges a premium of Rs 190 for international TV shows and movies or latest Hindi movies. You can only play one premium video from one subscriber account at a time. You can stream free content on multiple devices, as that does not really require a login. Hotstar is available on Android and iOS apps, on the web browsers

Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime members do not have to pay additional charges for the Prime Video service. You can watch content on three devices simultaneously from one login according to Amazon. I tried it by playing Sultan on my desktop, iPhone and an Android phone, and all three worked smoothly. The app is available on Android and Apple stores, it can be viewed on the web and it will also be part of smart TV ecosystems.

So there you have it, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Hotstar compared across different parameters. Do let us know if you would like us to test more features. We will be using Prime Video extensively and doing a full review of the app soon. In case you are on the fence between switching your Netflix connection to Amazon Prime Video, read our story before proceeding.

Nasscom Data Security Council: India can play important role in global cyber security

15 Dec 2016 , 13:55

India can aspire to build a cyber security product and services industry of USD 35 billion by 2025, generating a skilled workforce of one million in the security sector, in line with the booming global demand, a report by Nasscom-Data Security Council of India today said.

The global cyber security market is expected to reach about USD 190 billion by 2025 from USD 85 billion currently, driven primarily by increasing digitisation wave and smartphone penetration, it said.

“For India to become a global cyber security hub, a list of 16 initiatives has been formulated by NASSCOM-DSCI. These initiatives vary in terms of priority and should be pursued within the next five years,” DSCI CEO Rama Vedashree said.

These include strengthening policy and regulations, developing skilled manpower, enhancing R&D and innovation, formation of clusters and funding startups working on cybersecurity solutions, she added. “An evaluation of global cyber security clusters shows that policy and financing incentives along with opportunities for skill development emerge as pivotal factors,” she said.

These clusters have contributed immensely to the development of the cyber security industry in the respective countries and are important to promote growth of cyber security startups and SMEs as well, Vedashree said.

PTI

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

WhatsApp maybe working on separate app for Business; ability to unsend messages coming soon

Image: AFP

By tech2 News Staff / 14 Dec 2016 , 17:40

WhatsApp is working on the ability to allow users to ‘revoke’ messages using a ‘revoke’ function. Currently, the functionality is limited to the beta version of iOS where you are presented with the option to ‘revoke’ the message when you long press on a message inside a chat. The feature is available in personal chat, but there is no clarity about the feature arriving in group chat.

This new feature has not made its way in the Android beta version at the time of writing this article. After the rollout of video calling feature last month, this is the most significant feature that will make its way to WhatsApp. Once you select the ‘revoke’ option, it removes the message from the inbox of the recipient which will be a saviour for many who previously sent messages in wrong groups or to people other than the ones intended to receive the message.

Image Credit: WABetaInfo

The addition of this functionality will enrich the feature-set offered by WhatsApp, and the app shows “Sender revoked the message” in place of the revoked message. The notification of the revoked message makes it useful for people to know that there was some message and makes it impossible to make the conversation seem out of context. Still, it is too early for use to say if the feature is useful, we will have to wait and watch about how the company will strike a balance between the usability of the feature and potential misuse of the app.

Image Credit: WABetaInfo

According to reports by reliable WhatsApp information source on upcoming features WA Beta Info, WhatsApp may be working on a separate app for Business users. The second app is being referred to as WhatsApp for Business aimed at business users. It’s not confirmed if the Business app will be different or WhatsApp will let two profiles, business and personal profiles run in the same app. The profile system will not make sense and WhatsApp will probably keep a check that each device can only use one personal and one business profile.

There are concerns about the app being bloated, but let’s see how that develops. WABetaInfo also pointed out that the company will allow companies to set up Business contacts which will be verified by WhatsApp. Businesses can then use WhatsApp to send advertisements in place of SMSes and you can allow the messages or block the sender.