1. Not setting a password
Setting a password on your phone is the first line of defense so that only you can access the important data on your phone. Your phone contains valuable information you want to keep safe: contacts, appointments, files, social network sites, passwords… if this information falls into the wrong hands, a password will help keep all of your sensitive data private.
2. Using public Wi-Fi
The recent explosion of free, public Wi-Fi has been an enormous boon for smart phone users. Since these free access points are available at restaurants, hotels, airports, bookstores, and even retail outlets, you are rarely more than a short trip away from access to a network. The same features that make free Wi-Fi hotspots desirable for consumers make them desirable for hackers, therefore, freedom comes at a price.
3. Shopping online through browser
Like desktop browsers, mobile browsers are susceptible to attack by Trojan viruses. People use plug-ins to protect their online shopping when using PCs. However, there are no plug-ins for mobile smart phones.
4. Clicking on links in text messages
Sending messages designed to trick the recipients into clicking on a deceptive link was once reserved for fake but real-looking email scams trying to fool users into visiting malicious sites on their PC, but scammers have realized there are far fewer protections on smart phones, and no small number of potential victims.
5. Making phone calls while charging
Using a cell phone while charging is dangerous due to increased radiation and potential for explosion or electrocution.
Apple might be the largest tech company in the world with fantastic products like the iPhones, iPods, iPads, Macbooks and a legacy left behind by the great Steve Jobs. Given the company’s recent history, it almost sounds like everything that Apple touches turns gold!
You’ll be surprised to know that Apple has had its fair share of product failures. Right from its Macintosh computers to attempts at making Video game consoles, Apple has learnt things the hard way in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Here’s a look at all the failed Apple products, many of which were developed under the leadership of Jobs.
1) Apple Pippin (1995-1996)
Yes, Apple actually tried its hands at building a gaming console to take on the powerhouses Sony Playstation, Nintendo and Sega (Xbox was yet to enter the scene). Retailing at $600, the Pippin was supposed to sell over 300,000 units in the first year. Apple burnt and crashed with estimates between 12,000 to 42,000 units.
2) Apple QuickTake (1994-1997)
Apple QuickTake was one of the first digital cameras available. It costed around $750 and took photos at a fantastic 640×480 resolution (awesome at that time). It was jointly made by Kodak (Kodak’s self-branded digital camera had been in the market for over a year). With stiff competition from photography/ camera brands like Kodak, Fuji Film, Canon and Nikon, QuickTake didn’t last long. Wonder what would’ve happened if Apple had actually stuck on.
3) Apple III (1980-1981)
Apple II was the computer that built Apple. After the astounding success of Apple II, the company moved on to Apple III, which seemed like an obvious transition.
Except, this machine like its predecessors was not designed by Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak. Also design was given a lot more importance than logic.
A very buggy machine with major design flaws, the Apple III overheated very quickly. This product cost Apple very dearly to a point that Apple II having been in the market for long was still outselling Apple III comfortably.
4) Apple Lisa (1983-1985)
Designed by Apple in the 80’s, the Lisa was introduced at almost $10,000 which as way too expensive for the product. Named after Steve Jobs daughter, this product flopped almost instantly.
5) Apple Newton (1993-1998)
Behold, Apple’s first attempt at creating the “iPad”. Okay, not an iPad but a tablet- PDA hybrid with handwriting recognition. Its size, poor battery life and hard to read screen ensured that the device flopped. Apple got back into the game with the iPad in 2010 and we all know how good it is.
Behold, Apple’s first attempt at creating the “iPad”. Okay, not an iPad but a tablet- PDA hybrid with handwriting recognition. Its size, poor battery life and hard to read screen ensured that the device flopped. Apple got back into the game with the iPad in 2010 and we all know how good it is.
6) Macintosh TV (1993)
Macintosh TV was an attempt to combine computers with television sets. It was essentially a computer with a TV screen attached, with no integration between the two. You could either watch the TV or use the computer. At a price of $2,000 it was a bit too expensive to succeed.
7) Macintosh Portable (1989-1991)
A product that weighed 16 lbs. and was 4” thick should not be called Portable. Besides this, the device wouldn’t even turn on when plugged thanks to its battery design. This was Apple’s first attempt at portable computers and luckily they’ve come a very very long way since then. Yes, the Macbook series is amazing and has set a bench mark in portable laptops.
8) Apple ‘Hockey Puck’ Mouse (1998-2000)
This mouse which looked like a hocky puck was small in size and its awkward shape made it difficult to use. The puck failed to score any goals.
9) Apple eMate (1997-1998)
The eMate, a hybrid between a laptop computer and a PDA wasn’t particularly a bad product. As it was sold only to educational institutions, its reach was severely restricted and was pulled out of the market within a year.
10) 20th Anniversary Macintosh (1996-1997)
As the name suggests this product also known as TAM was introduced to celebrate the 20th Birthday of Apple. It wasn’t a bad machine as much as a very average one and it was priced at close to $ 8,000. On the bright side, it was one of the first products to be designed by Jony Ive who is now the Chief Design Officer at Apple and the man behind iPod, iPad, iPhone, Macbooks etc.
11) The U2 iPod (2004)
The special edition U2 iPod was priced at $50 more than the regular/ identical white model of the iPod. Apparently the black color and signatures of the band was not enough to boost sales of this iPod. All that glitters ain’t no gold!
Your smartphone is a bit of everything. You have all your photos, important documents and friend’s contact list on it. Losing one or having it stolen is the worst nightmare one shall have. Taking that into perspective, we have narrowed down few steps one should carry in case his/her smartphone gets lost.
How to Track Your Lost or Stolen Android Phone
STEP 1:
First and foremost thing after buying a smartphone is to write down the IMEI numberof your phone. Every smartphone has a unique IMEI number (International Mobile Equipment Identity Number). A dual SIM phone will have 2 IMEI number. It will be printed on the back of your device. If you are unable to find the number, you have to launch your phone app and dial the number*#06#. This will give you the IMEI number of your phone. Store this number in a safe place so that it helps you in locating your phone when it is lost. Another way of finding an IMEI number is by logging intogoogle dashboard account.
If your phone gets lost, you canfile a Police complaint by dialing 100. You have to provide IMEI number of your phone while filing a police complaint and then your service provider (NTC/NCell) uses this IMEI number to track your phone.
How IMEI tracking works?
Your Network provider will blacklist the given IMEI number and when the thief inserts a new SIM on that phone, the BTS (Tower) will receive the details of the new SIM inserted. From that details of the new SIM, you will know the thief’s name and all the details.
STEP 2:
Download Google’sAndroid Device Manager (Link). If you lose your phone, you can just visitwww.google.com/android/devicemanagerwebsite and locate it with your Google account. Using this, you can find it on a map, ring it, lock it, or remotely erase it. This service will be the best option for most Android users.
STEP 3:
Turn onPhotos syncon Google photos or use DropBox. Syncing your camera photos can be a good idea. A clever idea indeed, if it works. The suspected thief can use your camera and click some selfies or photos and you can view their photos from your google plus account.
STEP 4:
Inform your friends and familyof the theft. It’s possible that the thief may try to impersonate you through social media or via SMS.
Integrated Mobile Solutions Pvt. Ltd., the authorised distributor of Samsung smartphones in Nepal, has launched the latest iteration of A-series — Galaxy A8. Like other A-series of Samsung lineups, Galaxy A8 also sports a full metal build and is indeed company’s thinnest smartphone till date measuring at just 5.9mm. The phone is priced at Rs.53,900 in Nepal.
Galaxy A8 features a 5.7-inch Full HD SUPER AMOLED display and is powered by Samsung’s in-house 32bit octa-core Exynos 5430 SoC with four Cortex A7 cores clocked at 1.3GHz and four Cortex A15 cores at 1.8GHz. It is coupled with 2GB RAM and 32GB of inbuilt storage with a microSD card expansion slot up to 128GB.
It features a 16MP ISOCELL rear camera with optical image stabilisation, f/1.9 aperture, a wide-angle lens (120 degrees) and LED flash which is exactly the same camera seen on the flagship Galaxy S6. The phone also has a 5MP front-facing camera.
The phone is extremely thin measuring just 5.9 millimeters in thickness, in fact thinner than the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6. Despite being so thin, it comes with a huge 3050 mAh battery. It also has a fingerprint sensor and runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with TouchWiz UI. In terms of connectivity, the phone supports Dual hybrid SIM, 4G, Bluetooth 4.1 and GPS.
Full Specs Samsung Galaxy A8:
5.7-inch FHD Super AMOLED display with 386ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 4 Protection
Exynos 5430 SoC
Octa-core Processor with 4 Cortex A7 cores @1.3GHz and 4 Cortex A15 cores @1.8GHz
2GB RAM
32GB internal storage up to 128GB via microSD
16MP rear camera with LED flash and 5MP front camera
4G LTE, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, A-GPS
5G is the successor to the current generation of mobile networks 4G. Although, the 4G networks is still not prevalent in most of the countries including Nepal, but that has not stopped engineers and scientists in developing the even faster 5G mobile internet.
The current 4G system reaches speeds of up to 42mbps which should be more than enough right? But, Companies like Nokia and Samsung thinks differently. They demonstrated 5G speeds of up to 10Gbps which is 40 times faster than the current maximum speeds achievable on 4G and users can download 2 hours of HD films in the blink of an eye. They think by 2020, 3D movies and games, real-time streaming of ultra HD 2K content, and remote medical service will be common on a smartphone, resulting in the need of 5G networks.
symbiotic integration of existing and new technologies
5G Network is not just about being fast, but also supporting tens of thousands of users simultaneously without any compromise. For e.g. Let us consider a scenario where over 50,000 people in a stadium are trying to use mobile data on their smartphones. The current 4G antennas (masts) cannot handle that number of simultaneous users and you cannot even upload a selfie on instagram that you just took inside the stadium. Deal breaker, Right? However, the 5G could be the solution for such cases. 5G innovative technology can allocate each users with their own antennas. A small Base Station (BTS) can have up to 256 antennas closely packed together. Using smaller millimeter wavelength (mmW) makes this tight packing possible and they are operating at higher frequency, 10 times higher than current 4G frequencies resulting in vehement fast speeds.
The 5G’s advanced antennas tech forms data beams that will track and focus on the devices only when needed. This results in enhanced Spectral efficiency (data volume per area unit), less battery consumption, better coverage, and higher bit rates in larger portions of the coverage area.
All the contemporary mobile networks range between 800 MHz and 3500 MHz, but the 5G cellular technology uses the spectrum above 6GHz. The use of the high frequency not only improves the data speed, but will also offer ‘virtually zero’ latency (time taken by a packet of data to get from one designated point to another). Latency or Delay plays a big role in real-time response for e.g. while playing online games where you don’t want any delays or the game is ruined. Moreover, the future generation mobile communications system will not be used for human communication alone. Instead we will see different types of devices talking to each other on their own, sometimes referred to as the ‘Internet of Things (IOTs)’. Therefore the IOTs requires more reliable communication links but also lower transmission delays (latencies).
5G technology is nowhere near launch and will take some time to get unveiled, but it will certainly bring higher data rates, lower latency, better coverage, and lots of other features in the coming future. Although the 5G comes with a hefty infrastructure costs, however, lower infrastructure deployment costs, higher versatility and scalability, as well as higher reliability of communication means it will benefit the economy in a long run.
Windows 10 brings a lot of great features to the PC, but one that power users are greeting with an exasperated “finally” is virtual desktops.
This longstanding productivity powerhouse has long been standard on OS X and Linux distributions. Windows has actually supported the feature for a while despite not making virtual desktops available natively, but now the feature is going mainstream as part of Windows 10.
Windows has had something similar for years—you’ve seen it if you’ve ever used the keyboard shortcut Alt + Tab to cycle through open programs. But the Alt + Tab feature disappears as soon as you let go of the keyboard. Task View takes a different approach by showing all your open windows in a permanent view that doesn’t disappear until you dismiss it or pick a window to be in the foreground.
Starting with the taskbar
Task View in Windows 10.
The simplest way to get to Task View and multiple desktops is to click the new icon next to the Cortana entry box on your taskbar. We’ll start with that, but let me stress this is neither the easiest nor the most efficient way to use the new feature. For that, you’ll need to learn a few keyboard shortcuts, which we’ll discuss shortly.
But first let’s click on the new Task View icon. As you can see above, it shows all my open windows so I can quickly return to a specific program or document. This is an extremely helpful feature for those times when you have tons of windows open at once.
Quick note to multi-monitor users: Task View will only show what you’ve got on a specific monitor. When you hit the icon, Task View is displayed across all your monitors to help you find what you’re looking for, but don’t expect to see all your open windows on one display. If you’re running a full screen video on a specific monitor, then you won’t see Task View on that monitor at all.
Task View and Snap
Task View works with Snap to make life easier.
Windows 10 still supports Snap, a fantastic feature that lets you set a window to take up half your screen. Windows 10 has also bumped up this functionality with a new feature called Quadrants that lets you snap programs into a four-rectangle grid on your display.
To use Snap, hit the Windows logo key and then one of the side arrow keys. The two side keys snap a window to the corresponding half of your display. If you then use the up or down keys, Quadrants activates and snaps the window to the upper or bottom half of that side.
So why am I talking about this? Because to make Task View more beneficial, it automatically shows up on the empty half of the screen whenever you use Snap with multiple apps open. So instead of having to set manually two separate windows, you just snap one window and then Task View lets you pick the next one to fill in the blank space.
Things aren’t so easy with Quadrants, however. With that layout you have to fill in three windows first before you’ll see Task View fill in the fourth.
Virtual desktops
Virtual desktops are a fantastic way to stay organized.
You could, for example, create three virtual desktops. On the first, you put your current work project in Microsoft Excel, Word, Adobe Photoshop...whatever. The second desktop is where you keep all your communication and daily planning stuff, such as calendar, email, and Skype. Then the third can be for your music player, or distractions for those quick five minute breaks—like YouTube or a game.
Windows 10 lets you use a seemingly unlimited number of virtual desktops, but if you’ve ever used OS X or Linux, don’t expect Microsoft’s take to work the same way. On non-Windows systems, you’re typically given at least the impression that those desktops are always there. With Windows, you have to actively create a new desktop, which can take a few seconds the first time you do it.
To create a new virtual desktop open Task View.
To create a new desktop, click on the Task View icon on the taskbar, and then—with the Task View interface open—click the text link that says "+ New Desktop" in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.
Windows 10 with two active virtual desktops.
Hit that, and a new desktop appears at the bottom of the Task View. To navigate between them you can choose between Desktop 1 and Desktop 2. From Task View, you can also drag-and-drop open program windows from the current desktop into a different one, or onto the "+ New Desktop" link to create a new virtual desktop housing the software.
By default, each virtual desktop shows only the active programs and windows for that particular desktop. If you’d rather know what programs you have open regardless of the desktop you’re on, you change this by opening the Settings app in the Start menu and going to System > Multitasking > Virtual desktops.
Keyboard shortcuts
Those are the basics of Task View and virtual desktops, but to get really proficient with these features it’s better to forget the mouse and use keyboard shortcuts instead. Jumping into Task View is as simple as hitting the Windows logo key + Tab.
To create a new virtual desktop, hit the Windows logo key + Ctrl + D. To close the current desktop you’re on, it’s Windows logo key + Ctrl + F4.
Unlike OS X or Linux, which use grid layouts, Windows 10 organizes virtual desktops in a straight line. To shift between the desktops, use the Windows logo key + Ctrl and the left or right arrow keys.
New desktops are always created on the right side of the line. Once you navigate to the last desktop, you can’t hit the right arrow key to loop around to first one. Instead, you have to navigate backwards using the left arrow key.
Just a quick note about the virtual desktop navigation shortcut: It’s very easy to forget what you’re doing and hit Ctrl + Alt and the arrow keys instead of the Windows logo key +Ctrl. If you do that, which I’ve already done many times, you’ll change the orientation of your display.
In other words, your desktop may suddenly move to portrait mode. If that happens, just hitCtrl + Alt + the up arrow key to return to regular landscape mode.
That’s about all there is to Task View and virtual desktops. Enjoy the extra desktop space and improved efficiency, and be sure to check out PCWorld's mammoth list of Windows 10 tips and tricks for more nifty tweaks.
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