Wednesday, 12 August 2015

“Now On Tap” is Android’s Coolest Feature in a Long Time

At Google I/O 2015 conference, Google debuted an early build of Now on Tap, Google’s new mind reader context-based search feature that looks like the coolest Android feature in a long period of time.

what is Now on Tap feature in Android?

Now on Tap is a new way to search content inside apps automatically. So, when you’re in an app, you have to hold down the home button and then Now on Tap starts its magic. Your phone’s Android will figure out the content on the screen and then perform a Google Now search. While the usual search results brings back a list of links, Now on Tap brings back organized information for you.
Let us suppose you are chatting with a friend and it mentions the movie Mad Max: Fury Road and if you hold the home button, a tiny card will pop up from the screen-bottom with information about the movie from the web and apps like IMDb.
android now on tap
Let me tell you another example: Suppose you are using Facebook and somebody posted something about the book To Kill a Mockingbird. Suddenly it strikes you that you’ve read this book long back but you don’t remember its writer. So, you’ll simply press the home button and you will get a tiny little card popping up with the information and the answer Harper Lee.
android now on tap
So as seen on Android M, Now on Tap is an intuitive search that works with apps – actually all apps – and you will have to never leave the app window and open the browser to search your query. Now on Tap is like your phone’s digital eye that reads your screen and brain to give you the desired result.
android now on tap
Now on Tap appears in a flash and you can call it whenever you want by long pressing the home button. Now on Tap makes your life easier and does the things you think of. It gives you suggestions and you are the one who decides to go with the result or ignore it.
This feature in Android M is the most exciting part of the next iteration of Google’s Android operating system and it surely has the capability to take Google’s personal assistant far past Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana.

5G Standard Finally Defined as 20Gbps Speed, Launching at 2018 Olympics

5GThe International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has agreed on a preliminary definition for 5G standard. Recently a conference was held from June 10th to 18th where the speed more than 20Gbps more than was attributed to 5G.
o if a mobile network should provide a data speed at up to 20Gbps, it would be termed as 5G. The current 4G LTE mobile networks operate up to the speeds of 1Gbps which is about 20 times slower than the 4G networks.
Now let’s talk about the real speeds that users will get. 5G is expected to deliver an actual speed varying from 100 to 1000 Mbps that is again a 10 to 100 times increase over the usual 4G speeds.  If these standards are fulfilled as promised, the current internet speeds would seem like the vintage 56k modem.
Just like the term IMT2000, which was used for 3G services, the 5G services are likely to be named IMT 2020. The currently popular 4G services were named as 4G advanced. According to the ITU, “WP 5D (Working Party) will define in detail the performance requirements, evaluation criteria and methodology for the assessment of new IMT radio interface.”
With 5G, the next-gen 4K and 8K online video playback will be more viable and this could also be used to cater millions of IoT devices inside a large are together.
The ITU expects the commercial 5G to be used from the year 2020 after its international spectrum distribution in 2019 and it is expected to be showcased at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games.

Monday, 10 August 2015

Biggest Security Update in History, Google Fixes Android Hijack Bug Stagefright

android-stagefright-bug-Android users were greeted with a shocking news last week when security researchers told the world about the Android hijack bug Stagefright. This bug lets hackers control your phones with a single text. Well, take a sigh of relief as Google is busy fixing the bug and a patch will be rolled out in the next few days. Talking at a Black Hat session, Adrian Ludwig, Android security head at Google said:
My guess is that this is the single largest software update the world has ever seen. Hundreds of millions of devices are going to be updated in the next few days. It’s incredible.
At the “Android Security State of the Union” talk at Black Hat, Ludwig shed some light on Google’s prompt efforts to fix the Android hijack bug Stagefright. This bug enabled hackers to threaten nearly a billion Android phone users. At the moment, OTA updates for Android hijack bug Stagefright are being pushed to the complete Nexus phone lineup that would train the phones to repair themselves. But, what about the other non-Nexus users?
Don’t worry people, your phones will be getting the same update this week. From now on, major smartphone makers like Google, Samsung, LG and others have committed to roll out monthly security updates. This Android hijack bug Stagefright targets Google’s Hangout messaging app. Till the update is released for your Android phone, Ludwig has advised people to use a different messaging app.
“We’ve looked at the events of the last few weeks and realized we need to move faster, and that we need to tell people what we are doing,” Ludwig said.
The Android hijack bug Stagefright is a serious flaw that affects about 95 percent devices with a single text. Considering these increasing threats, Ludwig said that the Android maker is investing heavily in blocking the harmful apps and thus hardening the Android ecosystem.

How To Fix High RAM and CPU Usage of Windows 10 System (ntoskrnl.exe) Process

windows-10-memory-leak-Microsoft released its long-awaited Windows 10 operating system last week and people have been upgrading their Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs for free. To achieve its goal of 1 billion Windows devices, Microsoft has made this upgrade process smooth. If you wish to install Windows 10 on your PC, you can skip the waiting line right now and upgrade your PC.
To help the Windows users, I’ve been writing regular Windows 10 guides on fossBytes. Yesterday, I told you about Windows 10 Phone Companion app tosync your Android phone or iPhone or iPhone with Windows 10. Today, I’m here to tell about a bug in Windows 10 that is worrying the Windows 10 users and they are voicing their problem on Reddit and Microsoft’s forums. According to them, some processes in Windows 10 are slowing down the OS by consuming tons of RAM and CPU power.
The main process that is being observed as troublesome is the System (stokrnl.exe) process. Reportedly, this process uses an increasing amount of RAM after PC starts. It remains calm for few hours, but then it eats up all the free RAM and a large portion of CPU juice.
The good people at Business Etc have confirmed the issue and we are sharing some simple fixes to fix high RAM and CPU usage issue:

How To Fix High RAM and CPU Usage of Windows 10 System (ntoskrnl.exe) Process?

Instead of changing any advanced system settings on your PC, make sure that your PC isn’t affected by some malware. Most of the users have upgraded their PCs from older Windows 7 and 8.1, thus any malware in previous OS gets migrated to Windows 10. You can install the anti-malware tools like MalwareBytes to deep scan your Windows 10 PC.
After the scan, reboot your PC. Now, move to the next solution to fix high RAM and CPU usage if this problem stills persists.
On Reddit and Microsoft forums, people have claimed that the root cause of this Windows 10 memory leak is some faulty driver. If you have RAID disk drive setup, update those drivers. Also, try updating the remaining hardware drivers as it’s a problem caused due to unmatching OS and drivers. It is a known fact that Microsoft has decided to take control of the update process. Still, we recommend you to update the network, graphics and sound drivers manually. This step has worked for the most of people.
Some discussion threads suggest that Runtime Broker is one such system process that eats large chunk of CPU power due to the poor memory optimization. This process doesn’t deliver any functionality as such, so you can disable it.
To disable the Runtime Broker, open the Settings app and go to System. Inside System window, locate Notifications & Actions and unselect “Show me tips about Windows.” Now restart the PC to bring it back to the normal and fix high RAM and CPU usage.

iOS 9: what we want to see

Apple has only just taken the wrapper off iOS 8, it's so new in fact that you can't even get it yet, but with the revelations of what will and more importantly what won't be included, we can't help but dream of iOS 9.
Nothing's yet known about it at all, but we're sure Apple is already beavering away on the next iteration and we've got a wish list of our own.

Apple Maps improvements

Apple is regularly improving its once-disastrous mapping effort and with each update it becomes ever more useful, but it's still not quite a match for Google Maps.
Apple Maps
One major improvement which was actually rumoured for iOS 8 but didn't arrive was public transport directions, which would add bus, train and subway routes, making it easier to get around.
Why it was a no show isn't clear but we're hoping it's a feature that will be picked up for iOS 9 if not before.
More ambitiously, we've also heard rumours that Apple is working on an augmented reality view that uses your camera to highlight points of interest on your screen. We never expected that to make it into iOS 8, but fingers crossed for iOS 9.

Humanise Siri

Siri is tremendously popular and with good reason. Apple's virtual assistant makes it quicker and easier than ever to find out information and does a solid job of making iOS devices hands free.
Cortana
It's getting even better with iOS 8, thanks to a handful of new features, such as Shazam integration and the ability to activate it simply by saying 'Hey Siri'.
But there's still room for improvement and Apple could do worse than taking a page out of Microsoft's book. Cortana, Microsoft's Siri rival, has an impressive amount of inflection in its voice making it sound less like a dastardly robot and more, well, human.
It's not a feature which makes it any more useful as such, but it certainly makes it more pleasant and natural to talk to and we'd love to see Apple take a similar approach with Siri.

Home screen widgets

We've been crying out for widgets for years and with iOS 8 Apple is sort of giving us them... sort of.
They live in the Notification Centre and include basic functionality or give users at-a-glance information. For example one of the widgets shown by Apple displayed live scores from sports events.
But what we'd still love to see is home screen widgets. It's understandable that Apple wants to keep its interface looking clean and neat and that's presumably one of the reasons why widgets have taken so long to arrive in any form and why even now they're tucked away in the Notifications Centre.
Live tiles
But empowering users to customise their home screens can only be a good thing and if Apple doesn't want to go as all out with it as Android has it could always look to Windows Phone for inspiration and simply make its icons 'live'.
This doesn't have to be completely different to what's there now, but folders that tell you more information about changes to the apps held within would be amazing.

Ability to default to third party apps

Although Apple still arguably has the largest and most diverse selection of apps of any mobile OS it largely keeps them at arms-length and keeps the core smartphone operations fairly locked down.
There aren't any third party SMS apps for example and while there are alternatives to the 'Mail' app there's nothing built into iOS to let you make one of them the default email app.
So we'd love it if iOS 9 let us switch to third party default apps and we'd love it even more if Apple opened up more APIs to developers, enabling them to make alternatives for other Apple apps.
Not that Apple doesn't do a great job for the most part, but choice is rarely a bad thing and as it's now allowing keyboard extensions this might not be the pipe dream that it once seemed.

The ability to hide apps that can't be uninstalled

Apple clearly doesn't want people deleting the stock apps that come with iOS, but we'd wager we're not alone in saying that we don't use all of them and having them clogging up home screens.
Even tucked away in a folder that will never be opened isn't ideal, so having a way to hide them would be great.
Android has its app drawer and we don't expect as major an addition as that, but maybe just a 'hide' option against them in the settings screen. Then you can always go back in and unhide them if and when you decide that you do want to use them.
This is a feature that would become even more important if Apple let us change the default apps as suggested above.

Less reliance on iTunes

Liking iOS doesn't necessarily mean liking iTunes and it definitely doesn't mean liking being forced to use it whenever you connect your iDevice to a computer.
iTunes
It's a rather divisive piece of software and there are times when simply being able to mount your iDevice as a drive, wade through its folders and cut and paste things would seem an easier way to go about managing it, so it would be great if Apple let us do just that with iOS 9.
It doesn't have to ditch iTunes, just give us the option to use something else.

Embrace jailbreaking rather than trying to prevent it

Apple has always done its best to prevent jailbreaking but determined users always find a way. There are numerous advantages to having a jailbroken device and we're not talking about the illicit ones.
It's a way to get new apps and features that Apple won't allow because they don't fit into its walled garden.
Often these are things that other operating systems already provide or which Apple will later add. For example folders were possible on jailbroken devices long before they were added to iOS.
Of course when Apple does add these features they're normally a lot more polished and stable, but adventurous users should have the option to get new functionality early.
We're not saying Apple should build in the ability to access these things, just that it shouldn't block it, much like Google makes no attempt to stop users from rooting their devices.
We don't see Apple ever doing a 180 on this but we'd love it if the Cupertino company did make things more lax in iOS 9.

Apple branded Spotify alternative

Streaming music is really taking off and we'd love it if Apple offered its own streaming service, much like Google did with Play Music All Access.
Not that the existing services aren't great, but one which can easily be tied into your iTunes account and include access to your existing iTunes library would certainly be welcome. Plus if Apple did make a streaming music service you know it would be slick and attractive.
Beats Music
It already has iTunes and now it's purchased Beats and has access to Beats Music, so it's not unrealistic to think that Apple might build the service into iOS 9, either as Beats Music or under new Apple branding.

TextEdit and Preview

TextEdit and Preview are two apps which were rumoured for inclusion in iOS 8 but never appeared. If you recognise those names that's probably because they're both Mac applications and it looked like we were going to get iOS versions of them.
TextEdit
These wouldn't have been hugely exciting inclusions, as according to the rumours doing the rounds at the time they would simply let you view TextEdit and Preview files stored in iCloud, rather than actually letting you manipulate them in any way, but it would still have been a useful feature to have so we're hoping they'll make their way to iOS 9.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 212 and Snapdragon 412 Announced

Qualcomm, the chipmaker which is best known for its high-end mobile processors, is becoming increasingly focused on the low-end chipsets. In an attempt to further intensify the competition against rival MediaTek, which dominates in the affordable smartphone market, the company has launched the Snapdragon 212 and Snapdragon 412 processors.
The new processors aim to add more capability to low-end smartphones. Both boast the same CPU architecture seen last year's model though the clock speed has been increased. In addition, both processors come with LTE capability.
The Snapdragon 212 features an ARM Cortex A7 quad-core SoC clocked at up to 1.3GHz. It comes coupled with X5 LTE modem with support for BT4.1 BLE and 1-stream 802.11n (2.4GHz) and Adreno 304 GPU for entry-level smartphones and tablets. The low-end processor also adds support for up to 8-megapixel camera that is capable of recording videos at full HD screen resolution (1080p). It also offers built-in support for HEVC media format, and Quick Charge 2.0.
The Snapdragon 412 processor features Cortex A53 quad-core chipset clocked at up to 1.4 GHz. The 64-bit capable SoC offers graphics and performance improvements with the Adreno 306 GPU. It supports up to a 13.5-megapixel camera and native full-HD video playback. It comes integrated with X5 LTE modem and supports up to Cat 4 speeds (150 Mbps). The 412 also supports Quick Charge 2.0 and up to 3A output.



Monday, 1 June 2015

LG invented a crazy, bendable TV that sticks to your wall like a refrigerator magnet

LG wants to make mounting your TV just as easy as sticking a magnet onto your refrigerator.
At an event earlier this week, the South Korean electronics giant showcased an incredibly thin 55-inch television with a flexible screen that you can press onto your wall using magnets.
It's just a concept, though - there's no indication when or if a product like this will actually come to market. The purpose of the announcement was really to announce LG's plans to focus on making OLED screens for products moving forward.
The TV screen itself is less than a millimeter thick, according to CNET. For context, that's about the same thickness as a paper clip. As shown in the image below, a magnetic pad holds the flexible TV screen up to the wall.
The TV itself almost looks like paper.
LGD_Wall Paper.2
LG Display
LG's new display marks yet another concept device that showcases how flexible screens could one day be implemented into everyday products.
Both LG and Samsung have been pioneering flexible display technologies over the past several years, but we have yet to really understand why gadgets with curved screens would even be necessary in the first place. A television such as the one LG showcased earlier this week begins to answer that question a little bit.
Samsung is believed to be capable of developing a fully flexible phone by 2016, a company executive said at an investor event in New York this past November, but it's unclear exactly what the advantages of a bendable phone would be. Both Samsung and LG have released phones with curved screens, but they haven't really caught on with consumers.