Author: Swadesh Parasher

5 Things we Hate About the Galaxy Note 5

It’s easy to list off a number of great things about a brand new smartphone but today I’m going to be trying my best to round up the things worth hating about the Galaxy Note 5 instead. There are certainly areas of the new Note 5 to get hyped up about, but it’s also not without some disappointments.

No Removable Battery

The brand new Galaxy Note 5 has a unibody design just like the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. As a result, Samsung has ditched the removable battery that was seen on older Note models. If you pick up the Galaxy Note 5, getting extra battery life won’t be as easy as packing a spare battery.

You’ll now need to think about purchasing an external charger or external battery pack or battery case if the longevity of your smartphone usage is something that matters to you. You do get fast charging on the Note 5, but you’ll still be out of juice at the end of each day if you’re a power user.

No MicroSD Card

Following on from the new design theme, the Galaxy Note 5 will also not have a microSD card slot. If you’re huge on saving movies, music or other collections of files on your smartphone, no microSD card compatibility may be a bit of a deal breaker.

If you pick up the 64GB or 128GB versions of the Note 5 it shouldn’t be too much of a concern, but the 32GB version may not be enough to store your apps, entertainment and media collection.

It’s Not Cheap

Picking up a new smartphone is never cheap and the enlarged Note 5 is even more expensive than the Galaxy S6 was when it first came out and that device has now seen some price drops from some retailers.

Whilst the Note 5 is all new and fancy, you’ll have to pick it up for around $250 on a 2-year contract. The Note 4, on the other hand, is starting to become decently priced and that device is still a great smartphone.

iPhone 6 Plus with a Stylus

The new design for the Galaxy Note 5 may be liked by some – it has a great unibody metallic casing, a nice sturdy frame and a sleeker look than previous Note smartphones. The trouble is that the Note 5 now looks more like an iPhone than any Samsung device before it.

If you’re the kind of Android fan that detects Apple with a passion then the design similarities between the iPhone 6 Plus and the new Note 5 may get to you.

It’s Big

With a 5.7 inch display, the Note 5 certainly isn’t easy to handle for some. A lot of users are happy with the large display on phablets like the Note 5 but for some it’s just too large. I’ve known some people that just can’t get their head around the idea of owning such a large phone and if you fit into that category it may be best for you to pick up the slightly smaller Galaxy S6 with a 5.1 inch display. Even today’s flagship smartphones are a lot larger than they used to be. Remember the 3.5 inch iPhones anybody?

Admittedly these points aren’t hugely overwhelming – there isn’t much to hate about the Galaxy Note 5 honestly, but if you have to have something to complain about, these are some great examples.

Image credit: Samsung.com

August 16, 2015
Your VPN cannot protect you from WebRTC IP leak – truth they are hiding from you!
VPN (Virtual Private Network) is one of the most popular security measure practised by netizens to secure their online identity and privacy. VPNs are great for security, but one of the big reasons many people use one is to mask or change their IP address. It is also a great service to access the geo-blocked contents, and check whether your ISP is throttling your connection. What most of the VPN service providers doesn’t reveal when you subscribe to their services is that you’re not protected from “webRTC IP leak,” unless you manually take actions against it.

A very concerning security flaw revealed earlier this year that it’s easy to see the real IP-addresses of many VPN users through a WebRTC feature. With a few lines of code, websites can make requests to STUN servers and log users’ VPN IP-address and the “hidden” home IP-address, as well as local network addresses. Advertisers, data brokers, and governments can use it to peek through your VPN to find out where your connection is really coming from.

What is this? Is my privacy at risk?

If you’re using Mozilla Firefox version 22+, Google Chrome version 23+ or any other web browser which are based on these are vulnerable to WebRTC by default. And No, your VPN service providers cannot do anything to fix it.

Actually, WebRTC is an API definition draughted by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) that supports browser-to-browser applications for voice calling, video chat, and P2P file sharing without the need for either internal or external plugins. It is enabled on all modern web browsers by default, although it is a really useful piece of programme which enables you to utilise video calling and multimedia transmission right through your browser but due to the nature of this extension, your real IP address and privacy is in danger.

If you’re a VPN user and you didn’t block webRTC on your web browser manually, you’re at great risk. Unfortunately, Most of the VPN providers doesn’t warn you about this vulnerability that poses a higher risk to your privacy.

As far as we know, sites aren’t taking advantage of the flaw yet, but considering services like Hulu, Spotify, Netflix, and others are taking steps to identify and lock out VPN users, it’s not a stretch to assume they’ll start. If you use services like BitTorrent, have a set-top box like a Roku, or just stream music or movies on your computer through a site that’s not available in your country (or you’re an expat and live abroad), the apps and services you use could suddenly stop working.

How to check if your VPN is affected?

If you’re not using any privacy tools, then this vulnerability won’t affect you. However, if you’re using a VPN service or similar tools to hide your identity than make sure your tool doesn’t leak IP address.
- Deactivate your VPN and check your real IP address – What is my IP Address?
- Now, login to VPN and go to this page – IpLeak test by Hidester, and check if it reveals your real IP address you got from the previous step. You should look at “Your IP address – WebRTC detection.“
- alternatively,
- You can also check if you’re affected by this security flaw using the script shared by a GitHub developer – Daniel Roesler.
How to fix it?

Currently, I am personally using VyprVPN for my next article, reviewing the service they provide. I am glad they warned the users about this security flaw right after it was first reported. The fix is much easier to implement on Firefox because you can disable it without using any third party extension while Chrome users require instaling an extension to disable webRTC in their browser.

Instructions:

Mozilla Firefox:

WebRTC in Mozilla Firefox is partially supported by Firefox 22, and it’s enabled by default. To disable WebRTC in Firefox, go to about:config and toggle media.peerconnection.enabled to false.

Google Chrome:

WebRTC in Google Chrome is supported and enabled by default since Chrome version 23 (and based on it, ex. Opera, Vivaldi). You cannot disable the webRTC on Google Chrome browsers by default and it can only be achieved using a third party Official Google extension.

Disable WebRTC for Chrome (By Google)

This vulnerability is serious, but on the bright side, it’s easily mitigated. If anything, it’s a reminder to never take your privacy for granted, even if you use all the right tools to protect it.
August 16, 2015
The Different Android Display Types Explained
There is a variety of different Android display types that are used in the industry, although not much is done to explain the differences.

Different Android display types

There are a number of different Android display types that you may see being used on smartphones. For example, the Samsung range usually uses super AMOLED displays, whilst other manufacturers may opt for LCD IPS.

In the past, both OLED and TFT have been used for smartphone displays but these are far outclassed by AMOLED and IPS LCD so it’s rare to see either of the aforementioned being used. We’ll be talking a little about AMOLED and IPS LCD below as these are the most commonly used different Android display types.

Super AMOLED

AMOLED is an upgrade to OLED, a display type that uses electric charges to produce a light for the display. No backlight is required for an AMOLED or OLED display so this gives it a few advantages over the IPS LCD display.

Firstly, the AMOLED uses less battery power because of the lack of a backlight. You can also create slimmer smartphones that use AMOLED displays because of the same reason. The standard AMOLED had some issues with producing as color accurate results as the IPS LCD, but the Super AMOLED now has a great, accurate color reproduction.

The contrast on a Super AMOLED is far superior to an IPS LCD display as well. Outside viewing may be a little worse on the IPS LCD because without a backlight the displays are often slightly less bright.

IPS LCD

In older years, TFT, a version of the LCD display was used for smartphones. The trouble was that TFT had a slow response time which lead to sluggishness and what felt like delayed touch response. In simple terms, interacting with the screen would take longer for the results to show on a TFT display than it would on an IPS display.

TFT also had a terrible viewing angle. With IPS, you can view the display at all sorts of angles, making it easy to view your smartphone no matter where it is. IPS displays are still backlit which means a couple of things. Firstly, a backlight causes the display to be bulkier – you have to have extra room inside to fit the touch screen, the display panel and the backlight.

Secondly, having a backlit display does end up taking more battery power, which is a concerning point for smartphone manufacturers, especially when battery life is so important.

The plus sides of an IPS LCD display is that the images often seem a lot sharper thanks to the backlight, the color reproduction is often a lot more accurate and the viewing angle can beat AMOLED although it’s not very noticeable.

As it stands, the Super AMOLED seems to have more pros over the IPS LCD, but it won’t be long before IPS+ displays are on the market and at that point we’ll be looking at two different Android display types that both work incredibly well.

Different Android display resolutions

The resolution of a display is used to explain the number of pixels that are fit into a display. Usually, a resolution is displayed like this – 1080 x 1920, where the first number is the width and the second number is the height. The number explains how many pixels there are.

When it comes to the different Android display types, there are a number of different terms that are often used to explain the resolution of a display without having to show the actual numbers. Below, the most commonly used display resolutions are listed.
- 720p – 480 x 720
- HD – 1080 x 1920
- Quad HD – 1440 x 2560
- 4K – 3840 X 2160
In 2015, most flagships phones sit between HD and Quad HD and any display with this kind of resolution will produce some crystal clear results. Anything below HD and you’re stepping into a quality that isn’t absolutely amazing. This is something that should be considered when buying a new smartphone if display quality is important to you. Choosing between IPS and AMOLED is unnecessary for the most part unless you’re super interested about finding out which smartphone has the very best display on the market.

Image credit: Sony; Samsung; LG
August 13, 2015
This simple device can convert any flat screen TV to touchscreen

With each passing day we witness technological innovations that revolutionise the way we interact with the world around us. The internet has been a boon to these innovators who leverage this mode to their advantage and develop products that offer a great value to the consumers. Internet also helps these innovators to collate the necessary resources for the purpose of the development of their products and the latest in line has been crowd funding that has been allowing innovators to get the required funding and focus better on the product development.

Another innovative product that has received a highly positive response from the ‘crowd’ is the Touchjet WAVE; a highly innovative idea that uses simple technology. The brilliance of this product is not the technology it uses but rather how it uses the technology. The product has been listed on indiegogo.com, a crowd funding website and within a day it has been able to generate over US$ 131,000, against a target of US$ 100,000 with still 29 days to go! So what makes this product so special and what value does it deliver that it has received funding from over 700 people in 1 day? Let’s find out.

A small device that the company has named WAVE can be clipped on the top of the television. It has an infrared sensor and an HDMI output that needs to be plugged into the HDMI port of the television. The infrared sensor senses the movements of the hands or a stylus that is supplied with WAVE and sends the signal to the Light Processing Unit or the LPU of the device. The data received from the infrared sensor is translated to the taps and gestures that can be understood by the Android operating system.

The device runs on Android 4.4 Kitkat and effectively converts your flat panel television into a giant touch screen. You can operate your television using your hand gestures or a stylus. Likewise, you can also connect your mobile phone wirelessly to the device and control your television from your smartphone. The smartphone can also be connected to the device to browse the internet and t download data and apps or to stream the internet live.

Since WAVE functions on Android, users can download and install over 1.3 million Android apps that are available on the play store. The device also has WIFI connectivity enabled for directly accessing the internet.

On the technical front, the device has a 2.0 GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 8GB Flash drive, built-in optical touch sensor, WIFI and Bluetooth. It has an HDMI Output, an Audio Line out, 1 Micro USB OTG and 2 USB 2.0 ports.

Since the device runs on Android and not on any proprietary operating system, it has large number of applications. The device can be attached to a flat screen monitor and can be used for presentations, app developments, using Android apps or even for playing games.

Touchjet Wave

August 13, 2015
Windows 10 is spying on you! – Fix 35+ Privacy issues with a single click
Windows 10 has been installed on more than 70 Million computers, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Microsoft is aiming to upgrade 1 billion computers within a year or two — these numbers seems insignificant now as they have already crossed 7% of their target within 2 weeks of launch. With seamless multi-device support, Windows 10 is slated to appear on plethora of Windows-powered devices, which will only boost the numbers of active windows, 10 users.

See Also: Here’s how to force Download Windows 10 update on your computer

There is a reason everyone is recommending Windows 10 over the current OS — it is packed with amazing features, yet so familiar with the previous version of Windows OS. Microsoft finally decided to bring back start menu and similar UI functions that we are all accustomed to since windows 7, which is trying convince users who fear to use new OS simply because it is time-consuming to learn new functions.

Recently, when the news broke that Microsoft, by default, is monitoring everything you do on Windows 10 – it quickly added to the list of reasons not to fall into the trap of free upgrades offered by Microsoft to existing Windows 7 or 8.1 users. We cannot deny that Microsoft has rigged the new OS to get the automated feedback and user interaction with the computer, and they expect us to understand that it is only to help them make our experience better.This isn’t entirely unusual: recent versions of Windows, unless you explicitly say otherwise, have reported some kind of data back to Microsoft.

While Installation, a click through “Express Settings” allows Windows 10 operating system to gather up your contacts, text and touch input, calendar details, and a lot more, including:
- Location Data
- Biometrics and Handwriting data
- Advertisement and its Tracking Code
- Apps access to your personal information
- Windows Defender and Sample submissions
- Microsoft OneDrive
- Cortana & Web search
- Telemetry services
- Webcam and Microphone Access
- Sync Data with other Devices
- Using Microsoft account, Instead of local account
- Sending Feedback & diagnostics reports to Microsoft
- and many more…
Fortunately, for the privacy freaks (I am the one myself), there is a free tool which can help you disable these settings that send your personal data to Microsoft. You can do it manually if you don’t want to install third party application to tinker with the privacy settings, but it is a painful process to go through all of these sections and turn off 35+ options one-by-one – just follow this handy guide.

Simple tool to fix privacy Issue

A german developer pXc-coding, released a software dubbed DoNotSpy10 which allows you to disable a total of 37 Windows 10 privacy issue with just one click.

It is a centralized interface that features a list of options that might be tracking your activity on the Windows 10 PC. Clicking on any item will populate the description of the feature at the right side of the window. You can select the one you’d want to disable based on your preference, and click Apply.

Note: Your Antivirus may detect this tool as adware or malicious in nature, but you can safely ignore it.

Download DoNotSpy10
August 10, 2015
The Cross Platform Microsoft Office 2016

Microsoft has changed its strategies drastically with the release of Windows 10 and has shown the intent of developing products that are more customer centric and more convenient to operate. Windows 10, as announced by Microsoft is the last version of Windows that will receive frequent updates and is claimed by Microsoft to run efficiently on both desktop as well as mobile devices. What Microsoft has tried to do with this version of Windows is to pose a tough challenge for Android and iOS.

Moving another step in this direction is the latest version of Office. Office 2016 will be a cross platform application with versions for Mobile devices and computers. Microsoft Office is still one of the most preferred office suite in the world irrespective of the availability of other open source alternatives that are available for free.

What Microsoft seems to have got right this time is the fact that they have understood well is that though they are still the current market leaders, it will not be long before they may lose their leadership position to someone else. In the world of technology that is getting more inclined towards mobile devices and where users use multiple devices with different operating systems, Microsoft can no longer afford to keep its applications limited to function only on one particular platform or one particular device.

Microsoft therefore announced the launch of Office 2016 for Mac in the second week of July and the Android version will be available soon. After the release of these two versions, the company will release the mobile version of Microsoft Office 2016 for Windows devices. By the end of the year, the version for desktop will be launched.

Currently Office 2016 for Mac is available as an update to Office 365 users and the one time subscription option will be available from September. Though there have been previous versions of Office like Office for Mac 2011, by giving precedence to the Mac and Android versions by announcing their release before the version for Windows, Microsoft has displayed to have adopted a more flexible strategy this time.

Microsoft has termed this version of Office as a mobile first and Cloud first version as it is targeted primarily for mobile users. It seems to be going in the right direction with this version of Office with a more flexible approach that might turn the fortunes of the company that has just written off US$ 7.6 billion from its deal with Nokia and has decided to fire 7,800 of its staff.

August 10, 2015