Google Android Wear: All you need to know

While we wait for Apple to confirm that it's been making an iWatch, Google is busy designing a wearable version of its Android operating system.

Android Wear is a new platform that extends the company's leading software to the body starting with the wrist in the form of smartwatches. As Android head Sundar Pichai penned in the announcement, these app-driven time pieces understand the context of the world around you and deliver messages and reminders beamed directly to your wrist.

Convenient Google Now notifications are literally on hand thanks to Android Wear, and the ability to seek out additional information with voice controls outfits everyone with the all-encompassing power of the search engine.

It's shaping up to be as fashionable as it is functional thanks to support for both round and square watch faces, as seen on the circular Moto 360 and boxy LG G Watch.

What Android Wear does
Android Wear is intended to provide "information that moves with you" and puts the entire world inches from your suddenly-free fingertips.

It doesn't just tell the time. The wearable operating system makes suggestions based on time and it factors location into its context-sensitive data.

The best everyday habit example involves riding on a bus and seeing a Google Maps-powered notification countdown to an unfamiliar destination. "4 stops to: Jackson St." intelligently reads the watch. The guessing game is taken out of a public transit commute.

The new technology can also tip off wearers to dangers that lurk, as demonstrated in Google's first Android Wear video. A "Jellyfish warning" prompt can be seen with a surfer's flick of the wrist.

A relevant list of nearby beaches saves the video's early adopters who can surf without worrying about the sting of the boneless and brainless ocean creature.

All of a sudden, digging a rectangular smartphone out of your pocket and pulling up a much more involved map or notification app seems so pedestrian.

Making time for families
Google seeds the idea that Android Wear can alleviate our addiction to smartphones in an effort to make more time and eye-contact with our families.

A parent is able to attend breakfast with his family while keeping a close eye on the estimated commute time to work thanks to an on-wrist Google Now notification.

"No surprises" is the unofficial goal of Android Wear. Leaving too early and breezing through traffic would have filled this parent with breakfast-skipping regret. Leaving too late would've started his day with traffic-influenced anxiety.

'Okay Google' on the wrist
Even more touching is the dad who receives a Google Hangouts message right on his Android Wear smartwatch while bathing his son. "Dude, this game is insane!" writes the token friend who doesn't have such responsibilities.

The dad doesn't run to a TV or have to awkwardly palm his smartphone with soapy hands for an update. "Okay Google, what's the Syracuse score?" he asks his watch without pressing a button.

A scorecard of 28-27, naturally in favor of his college basketball team, pops up. He cheesily shouts "Yay" while raising his hands. His young, halfway washed son does the same without us knowing if he really knows why. He could easily be cheering for having more time with his dad.
The increasingly familiar "Okay Google" voice prompt opens up a world of possibilities beyond sports score updates.

Android Wear smartwatches can handle questions like, "How many calories are in an avocado?" to more personal queries like, "What time does my flight leave?"

"Okay Google" can also accomplish tasks outsourced from a smartphone. Calling a taxi, making restaurant reservations, setting alarms and sending - not just receiving - texts is all possible to do hands-free with the Android Wear operating system.

Google Wear fitness apps
Google's Android Wear smartwatches can solve everyone's pesky pedometer gripes, whether it's always losing the easy-to-misplace device or not having it on you at all times.

This should remedy the problem we have with Samsung's S-Health app in Galaxy S4 and the forthcoming Galaxy S5. These phones aren't on us all the time and therefore robbing us of our workout goal.

Latching a smartwatch to our wrist can count every step and chart whether or not we're meeting our exercise goals. Google promises that it'll connect to our favorite fitness apps for real-time speed, distance and time data while walking, running and cycling.

This puts the Android Wear platform in direct competition with the Fitbit Force, Nike FuelBand SE and the activity tracking newcomer the Samsung Gear Fit.

But the Fitbit and FuelBand lack smartwatch capabilities and, as stylish as the Gear Fit may be, it's only accessible by Samsung smartphones, not all Android devices. That leaves the door wide open for Google.

QR codes, music and Chromecast
The company multitasks in demonstrating Android Wear fitness capabilities with a woman who runs to the boarding line for a departing flight. She's able to keep count of calories burned while flashing a QR code in front of the airline employee in order to board the flight.
Google's Android Wear introduction video also illustrates how music on another device can be activated through an Android Wear watch. Calling it "key to a multiscreen world," the watch promises to cast movies to a TV, presumably with its inexpensive Chromecast streaming device, and the video hints at the ability to open garage doors with smart home connectivity.
"There's a lot of possibilities here so we're eager to see what developers build," wrote Pichai toward the end of his announcement post.

Third-party apps in development
Android Wear is made even more convincing as a smartwatch because developers will be able to easily translate their apps from Google's mobile ecosystem.

One of the first third-party apps diving right into Android Wear is Pocket. Formerly known as "Read It Later," this deferred reading app saves longer-form articles for later consumption on a big screen.


It shouldn't take long for your favorite apps to appear on the Moto X or LG G Watch, whereas developers may struggle to navigate Samsung's Tizen platform that's limited to its Galaxy devices.

Android Wear smartwatches so far
The Android Wear smartwatch selection is limited at the moment with LG and Motorola showing off their respective designs. Samsung, HTC, Asus and Fossil are confirmed to have something up their sleeves.

The Moto 360 was front-and-center in the smartwatch announcement, even though Google has offloaded Motorola to Lenovo. There's good reason for highlighting this time piece: it's ambitious.


As the name suggests, Moto 360 has a beautiful circular face that contrasts with other watches we've seen like the square Pebble Steel and wrist-conforming Samsung Gear Fit.

Moto 360 has been confirmed to be orientation-free so that left and right-handed wearers won't see a single difference. The digital screen can be flipped and the classic-looking single knob is symmetrical. Just flip the entire thing around to get the knob on the right side.

Even better is that this beautiful watch face is rumored to comprise of an OLED screen to increase battery life that sits behind sapphire glass. That's the same protective glass that's expected to be in the Apple iWatch.

Sticking with that authentic watch styling, there are no charging contacts or USB ports to be found here, Motorola confirmed. Its so-far-secret charging method is a "special sauce," which alludes to Qi wireless charging for Moto 360 or possibly Kinetic charging.

It doesn't feature a privacy-invasive camera like the Galaxy Gear and Gear 2. This just didn't fit into the classic design, according to Motorola. Also, unlike Samsung's watches, it supports more phones than its own Moto X.

Moto 360 is compatible with Android 4.3 phones and tablets that use low-powered Bluetooth 4.0 for battery life conservation. That means even if you own a brand new iPhone 5S, it won't work with this Android-only device.

It blends familiar Android menus like Google Now and Hangouts messages with a sophisticated-looking digital watchface, and Motorola is promising just-as-premium strap materials that remain comfortable.

The company promises a variety of styles when it ships globally later this summer, starting in the US. To that point, we gleaned both a metal and flexible rubber wristband from the Moto 360 prototype render.

LG is only beginning to talk about its Android Wear watch, dubbed the LG G Watch as if it's a typo with too many Gs. Just as awkward is the fact that the Moto 360 dissed square-faced smartwatches in its unveil.



That happens to be the exact design of the LG G Watch. It doesn't seem to be offended. The company is determined to prove that it's hip to be square by a July release date.

It's square face, only seen in full in one official photo so far, is completely buttonless and roughly the same size as the Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo.

Like the Pebble Steel, this smartwatch will follow the trend of supporting swappable bands for a more personalized look and feel.

The LG G Watch price is confirmed to be £180 in the UK. That translates to about $301 and AU$322, but it could be cheaper in the US and Australia as UK prices haven't been fairly converted recently.

Where Android Wear stands
Android Wear shows more promise on day one than Google Glass has in its year of availability because it's not a stretch to imagine donning Moto 360 or the LG G Watch.

There are still plenty of questions left to be answered like what are the Android Wear smartwatch specs, how long is the battery life and cost. Google can own the wrist, like it's starting to control the TV apps ecosystem with its inexpensive Chromecast, if the price is right.

Then there's the question of iOS compatibility. Would this Android-powered watch ever be able to connect to an iOS device? Google has made plenty of its gadgets, app and services work with Apple's iPhone and iPad hardware.


We're looking forward to seeing how natural the "Okay Google" voice commands turn out, whether or not some of the watches will be waterproof and if Nest creates an Android Wear project of its own.

Expect to hear more about Android Wear and see the unveiling of the first Wear apps at the company's Google IO 2014 conference in June. More details will literally be on hand then.

'Real pay gap' between men and women: Sheryl Sandberg

American businesswoman, activist and writer Sheryl Sandberg has reportedly said that there is a real pay gap between what men and women earn.

Talking to HuffPost Live's Caroline Modarressy-Tehrduring an interview aired recently, Sandberg vehemently disagreed with a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed that argued evidence of a "widespread" gender pay gap are "fundamentally misleading," HuffPost reported.

Sandberg said that it's indisputable that there's a real pay gap, adding that people can argue about how big, but that's almost besides the point.

Acknowledging common stats that showed that women made only 77% of what men earned, she stressed that the actual gap was still inarguably real.

She said that even if all of that was taken out of the equation, there still was a pay gap of about 91 cents to the dollar, adding that while thirty percent of the children in this country are being raised by single parents, the overwhelming majority of those are single mothers, the report added.

HTML5 apps susceptible to attacks: Gartner

As you are busy sending SMSs, reading emails or listening to music on your smart phone, do you realize that these simple things can get your smart phone infected with 'worms' that can not only steal personal information from your phone, but also infect your friends's phones?

Sound scary? You can blame a new technology that is behind the development of your favourite apps.

An emerging technology called HTML5-based app development has been rapidly gaining popularity in the mobile industry.

"When the adoption of this technology reaches certain threshold, worm attacks would become quite common unless we do something to stop it," a latest report from US-based IT research agency Gartner warned.

By 2016, 50% of the mobile apps will be using HTML5-based technologies.

"All major mobile systems would be affected, including Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows Phone, etc., because they all support HTML5-based mobile apps," the report cautioned.

A notorious problem of the HTML5-based technology is that malicious code can be easily injected into the programme and get executed.

That is why the Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attack is still one of the most common attacks in the Web.

"XSS attacks can only target at web applications through a single channel (internet) but with the adoption of the same technology in mobile devices, we have found out that a similar type of attack can not only be launched against mobile apps," Gartner noted.

It can attack from Wi-Fi scanning, Bluetooth pairing, MP3 songs, MP4 videos, SMS messages, NFC tags and contact list.

"As long as an HTML5-based app displays information obtained from outside or from another app, it may be a potential victim," Gartner added.

15 Colleges With Powerhouse Entrepreneurship Programs

The nation’s top entrepreneurs don’t come from one place — not one Ivy, one city or one incubator. Sure, schools like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University have a reputation for churning out revolutionary ideas and battle-tested founders, but top-flight companies sprout from universities and entrepreneurship programs all across the country

Case in point: Jan Koum, the co-founder of mobile messaging company WhatsApp, which recently sold to Facebook for $16 billion, isn't an Ivy League MBA. Instead, he got his bachelor's from San Jose State University. 

In Depth: The tech that never arrived: whatever happened to augmented reality?

Whatever happened to Augmented Reality?

Technology doesn't always take off the first time around. We had smartwatch hype in the 1980s, VR hype (and terrible VR-themed movies) in the 1990s and tablet PCs in the early 2000s, and none of them took off. But now they're back. They're back as Android Wear, as Oculus Rift, as iPads.

Could augmented aeality be the next tech to come back from the dead?

Augmented reality (AR) is when you put computer things over real things. That could be filling your real room with virtual furniture to see what suits, seeing information about somebody when you meet them for the first time, or flashing hygiene warnings about the greasy spoon you're considering for lunch.

It's exciting stuff, and in 2009 all kinds of people were really excited about it. AdWeek said that 2010 would be The Year of Augmented Reality, while Time made AR number 4 in its 10 Tech Trends for 2010.

YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4OzNYxCy40

Four years later, however, and AR has hardly taken the world by storm. Hands up who's used an AR shop window to try on virtual clothes, an AR app to tell you all about the person you're looking at or to automatically translate the menu in front of you? No, us neither.

AR apps

There have been some interesting apps such as Ikea's virtual furniture app, which enabled you to see what its furniture would look like in your own rooms, and AR book/apps for kids such as the entertaining iDinosaur and the JK Rowling/Sony Wonderbook, but we're hardly living in the augmented future so many pundits predicted.

YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltHFtNyObsc

Metaio's Engineer is a good example of AR's usefulness. Designed for industrial use, it can overlay all kinds of data on a real-time camera feed, so for example it might overlay CAD models on an empty site, or highlight specific components in an engine bay.

It's impressive on an iPad, but it would be even more impressive in a set of smart glasses.

Other examples demonstrate both the strengths and the possible weaknesses of AR. Take Layar's slick plans for Google Glass, for example: it shows someone reading a printed magazine, which launches an embedded video and then a scrolling panorama in the corner of their eye.

It's clever, but is that something we actually need or want? Wouldn't it make more sense to have video and panoramas and the rest of the magazine in an iPad app?

YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rBPmG5mqWfI

Madden shares our concern and warns that the first generation of wearable AR is likely to be a pain in the Glass: while wearables are the stuff of many AR evangelists' dreams, "without doubt developers are doomed to make the same mistakes as the past and we'll be bombarded with find-your-nearest-whatever applications all over again."

"2014 is not the year we all become cyborgs," Madden predicts. He's not too sure about 2015 either.

A change is gonna come

So what needs to change for AR to deliver what we've long been promised? "We'll need to get over the stigma of wearing hardware," Madden says, and while that's likely to become less of an issue in purely fashionable terms - for example tie-ups such as Google's arrangement with Ray-Ban and Oakley owner Luxottica could make Google Glass considerably more attractive, and the possibilities of Android Wear are exciting too – but nice frames don't address the more fundamental issue, which is what problem augmented reality actually solves.

The prospect of AR glasses is exciting, but there's a danger that it could be like the current smartwatch craze, a whole bunch of hardware without a compelling reason to exist.

For AR to become mainstream, Madden says, we need "a killer app that everyone, including your parents, needs if reaching for your AR glasses is to become as natural as picking up your phone."

Whoever comes up with it stands to make a whole lot of money.

• Why Oculus is another company that sold its soul too early.

LG G3 Leaks Reveal Three Major Features

LG G3 Leaks Reveal Three Major Features is a post by Cory Gunther from Gotta Be Mobile.

When it comes to deciding on which new smartphone to purchase in 2014, there’s plenty of choices outside of Samsung or Apple. While the HTC One M8 is popular, many consumers are starting to pay more attention to the upcoming LG G3.

LG launched the G2 back in September of last year, and just a few months later we started hearing initial rumors about its successor, the LG G3. With the Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8 already official and now available, more and more reports have started to surface regarding what’s next from LG, and when we can expect it to arrive.

Earlier on reports and rumors suggested LG would be aiming directly at the Samsung Galaxy S5 with its new LG G3, and with each new rumor that arrives we’re starting to see exactly that. Most of the specs that are expected to arrive with the LG G3 were things we thought we’d see from Samsung, but didn’t, and this week three more impressive details have surfaced out of the rumor mill.

At this point nearly all the details we’ve heard thus far are only rumors regarding the upcoming LG G3. However, given previous releases, technology available, and LG’s aspirations it’s likely most will end up being accurate. We’ve heard everything from a fingerprint scanner on board, to a May release date and more.

Before we rundown what we’ve heard thus far, two new rumors have appeared this week that are extremely exciting for potential LG G3 smartphone buyers. The biggest being the camera. The LG G2 from 2013 launched with a 13 megapixel camera offering Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and was one of the better Android cameras of the year. Samsung’s new Galaxy S5 has a 16 megapixel camera, and HTC has the Duo Camera on the HTC One M8, so LG needs something impressive.

According to new reports from AndroidSAS the LG G3 will once again aim to top Samsung’s Galaxy S5 by offering an impressive 20 megapixel camera. Not just a small incremental update and a feature-matching 16 megapixel camera, but a larger 20MP sensor, still offer OIS, and have 4k video recording to boot. There isn’t a lot of evidence to support this, but the rumor mill has been quite accurate with LG as of late.

The second set of new details that arrived this week are regarding the screen, and the user interface. We already know that LG is aiming to offer a 5.5-inch 2560 x 1440 QHD 2K resolution display, and a new screenshot today from an unofficial LG blog confirms the resolution. It also gives us a look at what could be a redesigned interface for LG phones.

Just like Samsung, HTC, and many others, LG uses a custom software interface over stock Android, and makes it look and feel completely different. They’re once again following Samsung here, and if this photo below is accurate we’re looking at a redesigned and flat-looking UI over the top of Android 4.4.2 KitKat.

The photo above is reportedly a screenshot from the new LG G3, and with a resolution of “1232 × 2048″ being listed, it certainly lends credence to the rumors of a QHD 2560 x 1440 resolution screen. All reports are claiming an ultra HD 5.5-inch screen which will top the Galaxy S5, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Again, at this point most of the details are only rumors for now, but with multiple different leaks all surfacing with the same details, they’re likely somewhat accurate. For those that may be waiting for the LG G3 instead of pulling the trigger on the Galaxy S5, below is a rundown of everything we’ve heard so far.

If all the reports and rumors are accurate, the LG G3 will be an extremely impressive flagship smartphone for 2014, and likely blow away most of the competition. Just like the G2 last year, the G3 will be released later this summer, or possibly in August, giving LG time to get the latest and greatest hardware inside, and beat out Samsung or HTC.

LG G3 Concept Render

We’re hearing the LG G3 will have a 5.5-inch 2560 x 1440 QHD display, a 2.5 GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and possibly have a micro-SD slot for storage expansion. Multiple rumors have suggested a fingerprint scanner to battle the iPhone 5S and Galaxy S5, and we’ve even heard the LG G3 will have an IP67 dust and water resistant certification, just like the new Samsung Galaxy S5.

And last but not least is the concept render shown above. This was fan-made, but came from rumors out of South Korea suggesting the LG G3 will keep the buttons on the back, have a fingerprint scanner up front in a home button, and also incorporate front-facing speakers and an all aluminum design. Again this can’t be confirmed, but it would make for one impressive smartphone consumers will want to purchase.

The past two LG flagship smartphones were released in November and September of 2012 and 2013, but this year we’re hearing the LG G3 could make a late June debut just in time for potential buyers to pick one up this Summer.

Google makes glass visible to the enterprise

Up until this week, Google had remained reticent about speaking of Google Glass as an enterprise tool. Google is a mass-market consumer company whose main revenue streams derive from huge scale; its aspirations for Glass are, presumably, both ambitious and far-reaching. In consequence, Google's leaders want Google Glass on the faces of as many consumers as possible. Enterprise represents, at best, a bit of a diversion from that mass-market ambition.

Nevertheless, as I pointed out in January, Google has begun to tell stories about how Glass can create value in an enterprise setting. Their videos of public safety officials using Glass for firefighting tugged at the heart-strings, even as the NYPD pilots the device as well. But April has seen a flurry of enterprise-related Glass news, including an explicit posting on Google+ about enterprise.

In addition to all those consumer Glass Explorers, "Something we've also noticed and are very excited about is how Explorers are using Glass to drive their businesses forward," Google wrote. "A number of companies have already teamed up with enterprise software developers to create new ways to serve their customers and reach their business goals."

This crack in the consumer-only armor of Google's strategy for Glass is highly significant. Many vertical industries stand to benefit from Glass in the short run, including healthcare, as Fast Company described in a vivid recent article.
Google Glass for Surgery. (Source: Fast Company)



Why is Google making this move? Demand from both enterprises but, especially, developers. Developers face a bit of a conundrum: Many came to Glass with aspirations of building a killer consumer app, yet the hardware itself isn't in general release -- consumers can't buy it at any store. Selling $0.99 apps isn't going to make a developer any money selling to only the ~10,000 Glass Explorers who have the product. Enterprise offers more immediate potential rewards -- high price points, ancillary revenue streams for custom app development, and a plausible business model. Google is trying to court developers, now, for enterprise app development.

I've written a report for clients that goes deeper into this development. Google's embrace of enterprise needs will lower the barriers for using Glass to solve business challenges. As a result, Forrester believes that Glass will become a much more valuable tool for enterprises to conduct business and to serve customers. For example, Google's explicit enterprise support might help companies in healthcare navigate HIPAA regulations more effectively, if Google does this right. But there's a possible downside of Google's support of enterprise Glass as well: Will consumers start to perceive Glass as merely a tool for work? My report offers insights into the implications of Google's Glass announcement.

J. P. Gownder is a vice president and principal analyst serving infrastructure and operations professionals at Forrester. This article was first published in Forrester. 

Online security flaw exposes millions of passwords

An alarming lapse in Internet security has exposed millions of passwords, credit card numbers and other sensitive bits of information to potential theft by computer hackers who may have been secretly exploiting the problem before its discovery. 

The breakdown revealed this week affects the encryption technology that is supposed to protect online accounts for emails, instant messaging and a wide range of electronic commerce. 

Security researchers who uncovered the threat, known as "Heartbleed,'' are particularly worried about the breach because it went undetected for more than two years. 

Although there is now a way to close the security hole, there are still plenty of reasons to be concerned, said David Chartier, CEO of Codenomicon. A small team from the Finnish security firm diagnosed Heartbleed while working independently from another Google Inc. researcher who also discovered the threat. 

"I don't think anyone that had been using this technology is in a position to definitively say they weren't compromised,'' Chartier said. 

Chartier and other computer security experts are advising people to consider changing all their online passwords. 

"I would change every password everywhere because it's possible something was sniffed out,'' said Wolfgang Kandek, chief technology officer for Qualys, a maker of security-analysis software. ``You don't know because an attack wouldn't have left a distinct footprint.'' 

But changing the passwords won't do any good, these experts said, until the affected services install the software released Monday to fix the problem. That puts the onus on the Internet services affected by Heartbleed to alert their users to the potential risks and let them know when the Heartbleed fix has been installed so they can change their passwords. 

"This is going to be difficult for the average guy in the streets to understand, because it's hard to know who has done what and what is safe,'' Chartier said. 

Yahoo Inc., which boasts more than 800 million users worldwide, is among the Internet services that could be potentially hurt by Heartbleed. The Sunnyvale, California, company said most of its most popular services _ including sports, finance and Tumblr _ had been fixed, but work was still being done on other products that it didn't identify in a statement Tuesday. 

"We're focused on providing the most secure experience possible for our users worldwide and are continuously working to protect our users' data,'' Yahoo said. 

 

Heartbleed creates an opening in SSL/TLS, an encryption technology marked by the small, closed padlock and "https:'' on Web browsers to signify that traffic is secure. The flaw makes it possible to snoop on Internet traffic even if the padlock had been closed. Interlopers could also grab the keys for deciphering encrypted data without the website owners knowing the theft had occurred, according to security researchers. 

The problem affects only the variant of SSL/TLS known as OpenSSL, but that happens to be one of the most common on the Internet. 

About two-thirds of Web servers rely on OpenSSL, Chartier said. That means the information passing through hundreds of thousands of websites could be vulnerable, despite the protection offered by encryptions. Beside emails and chats, OpenSSL is also used to secure virtual private networks, which are used by employees to connect with corporate networks seeking to shield confidential information from prying eyes. 

Heartbleed exposed a weakness in encryption at the same time that major Internet services such as Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Facebook are expanding their usage of technology to reassure the users about the sanctity of their personal data. The additional security measures are being adopted in response to mounting concerns about the U.S. government's surveillance of online activities and other communications. The snooping has been revealed during the past 10 months through a series of leaked documents from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. 

Despite the worries raised by Heartbleed, Codenomicon said many large consumer sites aren't likely to be affected because of their "conservative choice'' of equipment and software. "Ironically, smaller and more progressive services or those who have upgraded to (the) latest and best encryption will be affected most,'' the security firm said in a blog post. 

Although it may take months for smaller websites to install the Heartbleed fix, Chartier predicted all the major Internet services will act quickly to protect their reputations. 

In a Tuesday post announcing it had installed the Heartbleed fix, Tumblr offered its users some blunt advice. 

"This still means that the little lock icon (HTTPS) we all trusted to keep our passwords, personal emails, and credit cards safe, was actually making all that private information accessible to anyone who knew about the exploit,'' Tumblr said. "This might be a good day to call in sick and take some time to change your passwords everywhere _ especially your high-security services like email, file storage, and banking, which may have been compromised by this bug.'' 

Planning to buy a laptop? Here are 10 aspects to consider

Laptop design has changed considerably over the years. There are so many new variables that come into play now, especially with regards to form factor, displays and functionality.

ET explain some of the improvements and answer some of the major questions you need to know before you fix on a new one.

 

 MAJOR CHANGES OVER THE YEARS

New form factors

Just a few years back, a laptop meant a simple design with a lid that opened only one way. Now, you have a much wider variety across various price points.

A popular design today is the removable display (like the Asus Transformer Book): you can detach the screen completely and use it like the tablet. You also get screens that can twist a full 360 degrees (Lenovo Yoga) which means you can use the device in many different ways.

Touchscreens

The tile and gesture-based Windows 8 interface is far easier to use with a touchscreen. This and the fact that prices are coming down is one of the reasons more manufacturers are now offering touchscreens.

In regular usage, you have the flexibility of using the touchscreen or reverting to traditional keyboard/trackpad use. A touchscreen laptop with Windows 8 can be had for less than Rs 30,000 from brands like HP, Acer and Asus.

Optical drives out, storage goes to flash

Optical drives are bulky, so they were the first to go. These days, unless you get a 15.6-inch laptop, optical drives are rare (and not without reason — their use was declining too).

Another change is the shift to flash based storage (SSDs) from hard drives or HDDs. Flash storage is more expensive but is less prone to failure, can be much smaller and offers better speeds.

Some ports have vanished, others are fewer in number

Old laptops had the space to include several ports like S-video, VGA, Firewire, multiple audio jacks, multiple USB ports and so on. Now that laptops are so much smaller, you mostly get a couple of USB ports, video out (HDMI) and a card reader.

Some ultrathin laptops have to resort to using collapsible Ethernet ports, micro USB, and micro HDMI ports.

Thinner, lighter and longer battery life

Just a few years back, it was common for laptops to be bulky (over an inch), to weigh 3kg+ and have a limited battery life of 2 to 3 hours.

As hardware components shrunk, materials and manufacturing got better and design became more important, it is now commonplace to find laptops that are just a couple of centimetres thick and weighs less than 1.5kg.

 

 The lithium ion batteries themselves are now smaller and denser while the hardware components are more energy efficient — leading to a battery life of 7 to 8 hours, good enough for a full day's work.

BURNING QUESTIONS

What kind of laptop do you need?

Consider your requirements before making a decision. Laptops with detachable screens are great if you need to show presentations, demos or if you don't want to carry a big machine all the time.

If you want a device mainly for multimedia, consider something that has a rotating display or a stand mode. For students and basic office use, stick with something that offers good battery life and basic hardware.

How much storage is enough?

Most new laptops come with a 500GB HDD by default. This is good enough for most users for documents, movies, music and photographs. If you like to store HD movies, uncompressed audio and RAW images, then consider getting at least 1TB internal storage.

Laptops max out at 1.5TB currently. More can be added via external drives if needed. You can get better performance if you opt for flash-based (SSD) storage, but you will have to compromise on storage space because SSDs are expensive.

A new middle ground is to go for a laptop with a 'hybrid drive that combines 8/16GB flash storage with the usual 500GB/1TB HDD — this gives you both speed & extra storage. Note that only a few manufacturers offer hybrid drives.

Why is screen size important?

If you travel a lot, opt for a lightweight 12 or 13-inch laptop that offers good battery life. If your usage is mainly at home/office, go for a laptop with a 14-inch or 15.6-inch display that can be carried around occasionally.

If you are a gamer or photo/video editor who prefers a powerful machine (which will mostly be kept in one place), then you can consider getting a powerful 15.6-inch or 17-inch machine.

With or without an OS?

You can save a little bit of cash if you buy a laptop without an operating system but it might just end up costing you more in the long run (taking into account lost data in case of a crash or downtime caused by malicious software).

Note that it's a lot cheaper to buy a system bundled with an operating system rather than buying a standalone operating system license at a later date.

How useful is a touchscreen?

 

 Having a touchscreen on a laptop has a number of benefits. It is easier to scroll through webpages, launch applications, browse through photos and view long documents. Especially with webpages and photographs, the 'pinch to zoom' gesture can be an incredible timesaver.

If you want a touchscreen laptop, only Windows options are available right now. There are a number of apps and games available on the Windows Store that take advantage of multi-touch capabilities.

 

 Eight signs that tell you its time to replace your laptop

- If opening or closing the lid causes the screen to flicker. - If parts of the hardware have given way. - If the keyboard is missing several keys. - Essential spares like batteries and adapters are no longer officially available from manufacturer. - If there are constant blue screens/crashes due to hardware failures. - If it's still running Windows XP or Vista. - If none of the ports you need (like HDMI or USB 3.0) are present. - If any part of it is held together with glue, tape or rubber bands.

Do you even need a laptop anymore?

If all you ever do on a laptop is check your email, surf the web, listen to music, watch movies and create/edit the odd document or presentation — you don't need a laptop. You'll be just fine with an Android/iOS tablet.

The advantages? The tablet will typically be cheaper, much lighter (at least half the weight), will have a touchscreen, will be always on, can also function as a phone (if equipped) and has a battery that will last at least twice as long.

If you feel that you can't use an on-screen keyboard for long text, a tablet can easily be paired with any Bluetooth keyboard. High quality Bluetooth keyboards start at about Rs 1,000. Other functionality (compatibility with Office documents) can be added via apps.

The major downsides of the tablet vs a laptop are limited processing power, some websites may not display correctly and that you can't freely connect peripherals to it.

Indian wearable tech company Ineda Systems gets Samsung, Qualcomm funds

It can't get better than this for India's emerging semiconductor eco-system. Hyderabad-based wearable devices chip startup Ineda Systems has received $17 million (Rs 102 crore) in funding from US-based venture fund Walden-Riverwood Ventures, Samsung, Qualcomm and UK-based semiconductor R&D company Imagination Technologies. 

This follows an earlier round of funding in Ineda by two of the most high profile individuals in global mobility and semiconductor technologies — Sanjay Jha, CEO of Global Foundries and former chairman and CEO of Motorola Mobility, and Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of Cadence Design Systems, one of the world's biggest providers of tools for chip design. TOI reported about this funding in October last year. 

The latest round also has funding from IndusAge Partners, which has an India-focused fund, as also other existing investors. 

Ineda's chips will be applicable to a multitude of devices such as smartwatches, health and fitness trackers and other wearable devices, as well as the emerging space of internet-of-things (connecting everyday devices to the internet). "This is a breakthrough technology from India. I don't believe there is an equivalent product in the world." said Ineda founder Gude Dasaradha, whose previous venture Cute Solutions was acquired by chip maker AMD and who went on to be AMD India managing director before he left to start Ineda. 

He said the worldss top 20 companies looking at wearable devices and products for internet-of-things were evaluating Ineda's products. "he feedback from everyone so far is that the processor systems are fantastic. We expect that the first products using these chips will come out by the end of this year," he said. 

"With its industry-first WPU (wearable processor unit) technology and world-class management team, we are confident that Ineda Systems will be able to meet the long battery life and high performance requirements in the wearables market," Jha said in a press release. 

India is a major global hub of semiconductor design services, but more recently, companies have started to create semiconductor IPs and products. Ineda could potentially turbo charge this process. 

Wearable devices have made headlines particularly since the announcement of the Google Glass, a device that brings rich text and notifications as well as other information straight to your eyes, and the launch of smartwatches by Samsung and Sony. A number of wearable body-monitoring devices have also emerged. 

Currently, wearable devices mostly use processors that were originally designed for smartphones. This makes for limited functionalities, high power consumption, and lower response times. "This is the reason why people don't find these devices worthwhile after a point," Dasaradha said. 

At an event in Bangalore last year, Jha noted that the same thing happened initially during the PC to smartphone transition. "People used PC components for smartphones. But the dramatic migrations to smartphones started once components were developed specifically for smartphones. There will be as dramatic a migration to wearable devices once we have new chip architectures that can reduce power consumption by a factor of ten, and enable things like sunlight viewability," he had said, but without any reference to Ineda. 

Dasaradha told TOI that his chip reduces power consumption by one-tenth to one-fiftieth depending on the nature of use, and has a variety of features integrated into it, including sensor subsystems (to monitor, say, body vitals or movements), speech recognition and always-on capability. 

"It was ground-up architecture. We have used a method called hierarchical computing, which does not require high-end processors and where different processors use different light-weight operating systems. I believe we are the first in the world to attempt something like this," he said. The new funding will be used to further develop Ineda's semiconductor and software products.