iPhone SE Hands On It may be Small but it sure is powerful

Hate big phones? Among today’s Sequoia sized devices, Apple has introduced the diminutive iPhone SE, a 4-inch device that pales next to the iPhone 6s Plus. But buoyed by the 30 million 4-inch iPhones it sold in 2015, Apple thought, “Hey, people still want small phones. Here is a small phone. Here is the ‘new’ iPhone SE.”

To be clear, the iPhone SE is essentially the iPhone 5s with guts that are high-end in Apple Land: A faster A9 chip, an improved camera, an NFC module for Apple Pay, and a little scribble on the back indicating that, yes, this is the iPhone SE, not to be confused with the iPhone 5s. It still comes with 16GB of storage, reminding iPhone owners that they will likely be haunted by the low storage option forever.

But, hey, it starts at just $399, or just over $13/month if you do installments. That’s a pretty enticing price for anyone looking to get their first smartphone, but it is by no means the cheapest device around—the 32GB Nexus 6P, a great and powerful handset, is the same price as the 64GB iPhone SE. Jump down a bracket and the Nexus 5X is just $299 (for a limited time).

Seeing this form factor emerge is like running into an old friend; there’s a familiarity here. I’d call it a happy reunion, because the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s were both terrific—great size, great build, great experience. But if you’re looking for the latest technology, you won’t find it here. Sure, the iPhone SE sports the same guts as the iPhone 6s, but it doesn’t have 3D Touch, something that will no doubt be a big part of Apple’s handset future.

Pre-orders for the iPhone SE kick off on March 24, with shipments expected to go out on March 31, or exactly ten days from now. If you want to pick one up, it’ll cost you $399 for the 16GB model, or $499 for the 64GB model.

Article source from Technobuffalo.

Get to know the Galaxy S7's Always On Display

According to Samsung, the average smartphone owner checks his or her device nearly 150 times a day: A quick press of the power button to view the time here, and double tap not the screen to view notifications there, apparently adds up fast.

Samsung's solution for this obsessive checking and waking our smartphones is through a feature it calls Always-On Display.

As the name implies, Samsung's latest Galaxy devices are equipped with the fancy new feature.

After locking your device, the screen will remain dimly lit. The default setting is to display the current time, with the information moving around on the screen every few seconds. Alerts for missed calls and text messages are also placed on the screen, with a few caveats (more on that in a minute).

The basics

The easiest way to familiarize yourself with the feature is to dive into its settings. On your Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge, open the Settings app, tap on Display and Wallpaper followed by Always On Display.

At the top of the settings screen, you'll find the option to disable the feature altogether.

Select the Content to show from the list, to display a drop-down menu with three options: Clock, Calendar and Image.

If you opted for a clock or calendar, you can then further change the look by tapping on the respective clock or calendar style button. There are a total of eight different clocks, ranging from basic digital and analog clocks to a dual-clock view. Additionally, clock users can set a background image for the clock on the display.

There are two different calendar options, both of which include a digital clock.

Selecting Image turns the feature into a screensaver-like feature you would expect on a computer and not a smartphone. Currently there are three different images included on the S7.

Play around with the various items and background images to find something that works best for you.

Further customization is possible

Samsung's theme store for the Galaxy S7 offers themes that include a custom Always On Display image. Currently, when you open the theme store (Settings > Themes on your S7) the first category are "AOD" themes, which is the acronym for Always-On Demand.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that you can download just the AOD portion of a theme. Instead, you'll need to download and apply the entire theme. Adding to the disappointment is that you can't set an AOD image or clock from one theme while using a different theme.

Notifications

Right now, the only notifications that will appear on the screen seem to be from Samsung's own apps. Missed calls, messages and calendar notifications in particular. Meaning, don't expect to see Gmail or Facebook notifications out of the box, hopefully that's a feature added in a future update.

LG's G5 also offers an always-on display, and it supports all alerts, so one has to think Samsung could as well.

What about battery life?

Part of the magic that makes this feature possible is the type of screen used in the Galaxy S7 (AMOLED) and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor. The combination of the two work in tandem to minimize battery usage when the feature is enabled, and should have a minimal impact on overall daily battery life.


Source from CNet.com.

As Apple vs FBI looms, WhatsApp and others look to increase encryption

As the battle between Apple and the FBI heats up over encryption, it's increasingly clear this isn't just about one iPhone. A New York Times article on Saturday reported that the Department of Justice is worried about the encryption on apps such as WhatsApp.

According to The Times, the encryption built into WhatsApp has stymied Justice Department attempts at wiretapping. Even with a judge's wiretap order, WhatsApp's encryption prevents law enforcement from reading or intercepting messages sent on its platform.

This is a problem for the Department of Justice, and it's one without a clear solution. 

This is a problem for the Department of Justice, and it's one without a clear solution. A court could order WhatsApp — which is owned by Facebook — to comply with wiretap orders, but it would face technical and legal challenges.

The problem, at least for the Justice Department, may only be getting tougher.

The Guardian reported on Monday that Facebook, Google and Snapchat are all working to increase their own encryption and privacy in the wake of the Apple vs. FBI showdown.

According to The Guardian, WhatsApp plans on adding encryption to its voice calls in a few weeks. The Guardian says Facebook is also looking at increasing the encryption used for Facebook Messenger.

Snapchat is reportedly also at creating more secure messages, though let's be clear: Snapchat hardly has the best track record with securing user data. Google too is said to be looking at ways use its encryption technology in more places.

Tech companies getting serious about encryption

Last week, Medium's Steven Levy wrote an extraordinary piece chronicling the Crypto Wars from the '90s. Two decades ago, law enforcement and technologists battled over the ideas of encryption.

For a time, it looked like cryptography won, with the Clinton administration basically accepting that for the digital revolution to happen, it would have to happen with crypto.

Standards such as AES-128 (and, later, AES-256), SSL and public keys became part of the tech lexicon and the modern computer security industry was born.

Still, as Levy writes, winning the war doesn't mean everything has been great for consumers (emphasis added):

But here's something that didn't happen: a strong crypto infrastructure that protected our information and privacy. The fact is that while the security industry has boomed, our information really isn't much safer than it was when we were fighting the first crypto war. This is because the tech world has been slow to build strong encryption into our systems as a default. It's been too hard to use, and all too often businesses and institutions don't even take obvious steps to secure data. Chronic lapses in our communications software and disasters happen on almost a daily basis.

We simply haven't used our capabilities to make our electrical grids, our credit card systems, and our ISPs bulletproof. As a result, the public has not fully reaped the spoils from winning that first crypto war.

But slowly but surely, that has been changing. Maybe it's the public realization that so much of our data is now stored on the cloud. Or perhaps it's the increase in hacks that leave private information vulnerable.

Whatever the reason, even before the most recent Apple vs. FBI nonsense, we've seen tech companies start to get more serious about building better encryption into their products.

If companies want consumers to trust them with their data, they increasingly have to prove that they are capable of protecting that data. And that's possible with encryption.

Which of course, is the big rub for law enforcement.

Two decades ago, the government agreed that the promises of the Clipper Chip — a chip that was designed to protect communications except if there was a government request for access — were simply infeasible (the Clipper Chip project was dropped in 1996 after its encryption technology was hacked). Today, it does seem that we're having similar conversations, although the stakes are different.

What's next

If Google, Facebook, Snapachat, Apple and other companies do continue to add better encryption to their platforms by default — and it seems like that is absolutely going to happen — we're going to have to have a much broader discussion in Congress about encryption and its role.

There aren't easy answers, and in a perfect world there could be concessions both sides make that balance the underlying challenges of personal information security versus homeland security.

But for now, it will be interesting to see how law enforcement handles the reality that the tools we use to communicate are going to be more and more difficult to intercept.

This article and image source from Mashable.

Google Maps on iOS now lets you make pit stops along your driving route

Google is finally updating its Maps iOS app with one of the services most useful features.

Google Maps on iOS will now allow you to add extra stops along your route without leaving the directions to your final destination. The feature first launched on Google Maps' Android app in October and is beginning to roll out to the iOS app on Monday.

Once the feature is live, you'll see a magnifying glass icon in the upper-right hand corner of the app, which allows you to browse restaurants, gas stations and other points of interests along your route. Select a place you want to stop at and Maps will redirect you to that location — and then automatically gets you back on the road to your final destination.

In addition to the nearby restaurants and businesses, you can also manually search for a specific place to stop at or search for a location with voice commands. Search results also display ratings and how long the detour will take. If the stop is very close to your route, for example, it may say "quick detour"; if it's farther away, it will list how many extra minutes the stop will take.

The feature is beginning to roll out now to all the countries where Google Maps supports navigation.

Source : Mashable.