With the inauguration of the National Internet Registry under Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers (IRINN), the adoption of IPv6 is bound to not only get cheaper, but also widespread.
Some time ago, the Indian Government had sanctioned a reworking of the internet infrastructure of the country, requiring a push for the adoption of IPv6 protocol. The move was geared to help combat cybercrime, but in the process, also made it a lot easier for the ISPs to acquire IP addresses.
Buying IP addresses is going to become a whole lot cheaper now with the official launch of the National Internet Registry (NIR), which will allow the ISPs to buy the IP addresses locally, instead of from the Australian based Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC).
This means that the ISPs will be purchasing these IP addresses in Indian currency, bringing the cost down by up to 70%, instead of shelling out the money in Australian Dollars. Communication and IT Minister Kapil Sibal said during NIR's launch, “Setting up of NIR will not only reduce cost in procuring IP address but will also facilitate faster access to information for cyber-crime investigators and Government authorities.”
The importance of switching to IPv6 is quite significant in the war against cybercrime, which is definitely on the rise in India. The current IP address system, IPv4 only allows roughly 4 billion addresses, a number that was exhausted on February 3, 2011. What this has done is that it has allowed the allocation of one address to multiple users, making it very difficult to track the source of an attack.
Facebook Timeline is now much cleaner and easier to browse. The update follows the recent major update to News Feed that also focused on cleaner interface.
Facebook has announced rolling out improvements to Timeline in a bid to make it easier for users to express what they find important to them. The update, among other things, includes revamped sections that allows users to have one segment to keep music, movies, TV shows and books.
Keeping in line with recently launched clutter-free News Feed,Facebook is now providing a cleaner Timeline layout. Users can now see their latest posts on the right side of the Timeline, while photos, music, and other activities on the left panel.
“We heard from you that the current timeline layout is sometimes hard to read. Starting today, all posts are on the right side of your timeline, with photos, music and other recent activity on the left,” says Facebook about the new layout.
Users can now add other apps to share more things on the site. For an example, users can include Instagram photo stream as a section on their timeline. Users can remove the app from their About page, using the Activity Log.
Facebook's update to the timeline comes days after the social networking rolled out the much-awaitedupdate to it News Feed with special focus on minimalism in design, and greater visibility for shared media – photos and videos. The News Feed now looks more uniform to the company's mobile apps for Android and iOS.
Facebook News Feed is now more topic specific, allowing users to have a better tap on the info they are looking for, but equally, the advertisers would have a more precise platform to target.
As it continues to look for alternatives to passwords, Google has developed data-encrypted rings and small USB keys that can be used to log in to a computer or an online account.
Google had first revealed its plans to replace passwords in the near future in an academic paper published online last month. Google's efforts were aimed at providing users a small USB-like device that will help log in to a computer. Google also mulled over using a jewellery-like device for this purpose.
At a recent conference, Google's product engineer Mayank Upadhyay revealed using personal hardware to log in will eliminate the possibilities of users using passwords or writing them down. He also cited the example of the ATMs used for monetary transactions.
According to Upadhyay, Google's experiments focussed on an USB key that can carry out a cryptographic transaction with an online service to authenticate the key’s validity when it’s plugged into a computer. The USB key comes with a contactless chip that can be future used to log in via mobile devices.
It's notable the devices under trial do not have a static password which could be copied. The cryptographic key unique to the device is stored inside and never gets transmitted. On plugging in with key, it authenticates “validity by correctly responding to a mathematical challenge posed by the online service it is being used to log into, in a way that doesn’t produce any information that could be used to log in again,” says a Mashable report.
Upadhyay said that the company also built a prototype ring that could take the place of a password token, although he didn’t give details on how it works. “Some people are not comfortable with a [USB] token,” he stressed.
Google has already initiated talks with other companies to lay the groundwork for using the technology. “It’s extremely early stages, and we’re trying to get more partners,” said Upadhyay.
Hashtags are quite popular on Twitter. Users use the #tags alongside keywords, making it easier to search and group content on the social networking platform. The hashtags are utilized innovatively, with a number of users using them to strongly emphasise. Now, reports suggest Facebook is eyeing the popularity of Hashtags and may soon add them to its service.
The information comes from The Wall Street Journal, which quotes anonymous individuals familiar with the matter. According to the report, the hashtag feature will enable aggregate events and trends as well as users will be able to click on the hashtag to see a group of status/posts with same keyword. The WSJ sources, however, have not revealed the timeframe for the rollout of the hashtags.
The WSJ report says Facebook's plans to include hashtag indicates the growing competition between the two social networking giants, as they both try to tap the mobile users and generate revenue.
Though hashtags are commonly associated with Twitter, they are also used on a number of other services across the web, including Instagram. Facebook also uses certain tags such as “@”.
Facebook recently rolled out a major update to its search engine, allowing users to search public status on the networking site. The company is also stressing on users having more public content than those shared only with friends.
Facebook has just announced it is going to index its posts and comments to make them searchable through Open Graph.
"We are also extending our search capabilities to do better text processing and ranking and have better mobile and internationalization support. Finally, we are also working on building a completely new vertical to handle searching posts and comments,” says Facebook in a post.
Google’s decision to shutdown Reader on July 1 has left plenty of users miserable. While the service never managed to gain mass popularity like some social networks, it did have a sizable number of passionate users, users who probably subscribed to hundreds of feeds and spent time customizing those feeds according to their specific needs. If you’re one such power user and you’re not sure how to keep a hold of your subscriptions, and keep using them even after the July deadline, don’t worry we’ve got your back.
Getting back on your feet and preparing for a life after Google Reader will require you to do two things: acquire all your personalized data from Reader and then try out a bunch of alternative RSS readers to see which one suits your needs best.
How to Get Your Data Back
For Google Reader power users, nothing is more important than the mountain of data they’ve generated by using Reader for years. This personalized data includes subscriptions, read counts, favourites, starred items etc., all information that reflect how Reader was used and what are the user’s habits when it comes to RSS feeds.
To Google’s credit (which still does not absolve it of its evil, evil decision), the company has made it easy for current Reader users to export all of their personal data from Reader. In order to do so, you need to:
Click the ‘Create Archive’ button at the bottom of the page, and let Google organize and prepare you archive for download.
Click the ‘Download’ button.
Verify your Google account details.
Download the .ZIP file to a location of your choice on your PC.
If you haven’t already done so, install a tool capable of opening .ZIP files such as WinZip or WinRAR on your PC.
Now open the Reader archive you downloaded from Google with one of the tools mentioned in the previous point.
Extract the files to a folder in an easy to locate spot like your Desktop.
After this, you should have all your personal data generated within Google Reader with you. You can now let other RSS readers import this data in order to replicate your Google Reader feed inside those readers.
Alternatives to fill the Google Reader-Shaped Hole in your Heart
Even though the July 1 deadline is still some months away, it’s a good time to try out some alternatives so that you’re ready to smoothly transition to the new service by the time Google shuts down Reader.
There are a bunch of good alternatives to Google Reader out there, some of them web based like Reader, some of them local desktop software, some mobile apps and some that offer you both a mobile and a web/desktop version of the same service. Here are a couple you should consider:
1. Feedly
Arguably, the best alternative to Google Reader, Feedly is also well-prepared to let you smoothly transition from Reader. Kudos to the Feedly team for making sure that Google Reader users had someplace to turn to, in very little time. Feedly is more customizable than even Reader in its looks and design and you can choose to view your feeds as lists of headlines, cards with headlines and images, or a magazine format that organizes your feeds like a magazine with featured stories and big images.
A big advantage of Feedly is that it has its own well-designed mobile app as well and if you do your RSS reading on both your PC and mobile (Android and iOS), this is a handy feature. You can also install Feedly as an extension in your browser (Firefox and Chrome) in order to you use it on your PC.
2. The Old Reader
The Old Reader is another web based alternative to Google Reader that sports more traditional looks and design than Feedly. If you’re looking for a basic looking Reader service, that manages to pack in a whole bunch of ‘old-school’ Google Reader features like making friends within your RSS reader circle and sharing articles between those friends. Of course, The Old Reader also has built-in Facebook integration.
Some disadvantages with The Old Reader is that it is possibly moving to a paid subscription model although the details of that are still not clear. Also, with the heavy influx of Google Reader users, importing your data into The Old Reader will take some time. The Old reader also doesn’t have a mobile app right now so you may have some difficulty managing your reading habits across mobile and PC.
3. Feed Reader
Feed Reader is an RSS feed service that offers both a desktop client and an online version. Unfortunately,the online version doesn’t let you import your feeds from Google Reader so that limits its usability. However, the desktop version does let you do so and if you’re more comfortable using a desktop tool to read your feeds, then Feed Reader is a good option.
4. Flipboard
Many call Flipboard one of the reasons for the death of Google Reader but you can’t deny the fact that the popular mobile app manages to marry usability with powerful features very well. If you’re an old-school Google Reader user who wants dozens of headlines crammed on top of each other, then you won’t like Flipboard. However, if you’re a Google Reader user who prefers using your tablet/mobile to run through your feeds, then you may learn to like Flipboard.
Flipboard lets you import your Google Reader feeds without much hassle and you can even incorporate your Twitter and Facebook feeds and some content curated by the Flipboard team. Flipboard will arrange all your data into visual cards and unfortunately, you can’t really change the way your feed looks apart from arranging what shows up where.
Flipboard is available for download for iOS and Android devices.
5. Pulse
Pulse is another news aggregation app that lets you import your feeds from Google Reader. Like Flipboard, Pulse is also a very ‘visual’ app but it also lets you see more content at a single time than Flipboard by organizing content into horizontal strips. Like Flipboard, Pulse lets you incorporate your Twitter and Facebook friends and share articles among them.
Samsung and Apple better beware – the HTC One combines stunning design, a supreme screen and explosive power to offer one of the best smartphones around.
It's got a full HD screen crammed into 4.7-inches, which brings a 468ppi – well above what's needed for the eye to discern, but it does definitely bring sumptuous sharpness throughout the use of the phone.
On top of that there's a CPU and RAM combo that is barely bettered, a more-than-enough 32GB of storage and top-end Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3G / 4G connections, all topped off by a completely re-imagined version of HTC Sense. What's not to like?
It's at the sharp end of the smartphone price scale, although can be had for around £34 per month on a two year deal in the UK, which isn't too bad at all compared to the competition.
The design of the HTC One is something that you simply have to experience in the hand. Where those that pick up the Samsung Galaxy S3 will go ' Oh, it's a bit plastic, isn't it? But ooh, it's quite light' and those who encounter theiPhone 5 will, to a person, say 'Ooh, it's very light isn't it? You don't expect it to be that light!' those that try the HTC One will simply say 'Oh, that's really nice. Really, really nice.'
And do you know why? Simple: the HTC One is one of the best-designed phones on the planet. Not content with inventing a new machining process to allow the body to be all aluminium, the Taiwanese firm has extended the screen to the edges of the chassis further than ever before, meaning you're getting a 4.7-inch Full HD display without the additional heft you'd probably expect.
It's even thinner than its predecessor, the HTC One X (we know, that naming strategy leaves a lot to be desired) and as such slides nicely in the pocket. It's not light either, weighing more than most of the competition, but rather than feeling overweight, combined with the metallic chassis is oozes a premium build. Samsung is probably hoping not a lot of people hold this phone side-by-side with the new S4 as otherwise the buying choice is going to be a lot more of a worry for the Koreans.
On top of that, there's a whole host of little design wins that delight when you first try the HTC One. For instance, the machined holes that allow sound toe emanate from the dual front-facing speakers (can you say BOOMSOUND?) looks amazing, and the lines on the back of the phone give a nice textured movement to things, helping to break up the constant greyness of the aluminium.
You could argue that straight on it looks far too much like either an iPhone or a BlackBerry Z10, and you'd have a good point as this phone doesn't reinvent the rectangle-with-rounded-edges formula that we're so used to, but in the hand the curved back brings a whole new dimension to things.
There's a zero-gap construction at work here as well, which means that you won't find any gaps, holes or light leakages to make you feel like you've not spent your hard-earned cash on something wonderful.
The volume control on the right-hand side of the phone is in the same dazzling metal, and contrasts nicely with the rubber/plastic that makes up the sides. Our sample actually showed a fair amount of wiggle in this area, and slightly detracted from the overall premium feel.
The power button resides on the top, and doubles as the infra-red blaster - however, this is one of the poorer points as it doesn't have a whole lot of travel.
Similarly, the placement of this button, even on a phone that's been shrunk down while accommodating a larger screen, is still a bit inconvenient. We had to shuffle the phone around in the palm to turn it on and off on many occasions, and a lot of the time we couldn't use our thumb to hit the whole of the screen without jiggling the phone up and down.
That's another problem with the design: it's pretty slippery thanks to the metallic chassis. We thankfully only ever suffered two serious drops when we were about a foot off the carpet (basically scrabbling for it to turn off the alarm in the morning) but there have been a few near misses when trying to manoeuvre around the screen.
If only that power button was on the side, or a physical home button unlocked the phone, this whole issue would be negated for a large part.
But as we mentioned, HTC has wandered away from the physical buttons - where once it put a trackpad in the Nexus One, now it's stripped the capacitive buttons down from three to two, with the multi-tasking option going the way of the dodo. You can still get the same functionality by double tapping the home button, but it's not the same.
Overall though, you can guess we're impressed with the construction and design of the HTC One. We're not even looking at final hardware here - although we appear to have got lucky with our sample, as there are few design flaws in sight - so the chances of metallic chipping ('because that's just what it does....' OK, Apple) are slight to say the least.
We thought we'd scuffed it so many times during our test, but each time it was simply a slight amount of dirt or dust that wiped right off. Tick from TechRadar on the design front, HTC.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 brings a huge Full HD screen, an improved camera and faster innards, and fits it all in a chassis the same size as the Galaxy S3.
However, many will struggle to tell the differThe Samsung Galaxy S4 brings a huge Full HD screen, an improved camera and faster innards, and fits it all in a chassis the same size as the Galaxy S3.
However, many will struggle to tell the difference between the S4 and its predecessor, as the polycarbonate chassis is still in use, although the metallic banding around the side, while still plastic, is much sturdier and feels more premium.
We've already seen a lot of the Samsung Galaxy S4, as it's been snapped multiple times in leaks – some more accurate than others, it has to be said – and the specs mooted have turned out to be pretty bang on.
But that doesn't matter – megapixels and gigabytes don't mean anything if they're not wrapped up in a decent package, so how much of an improvement is the Samsung Galaxy S4 over the S3, and more importantly, the competition?
Design
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is built on four foundations: an improved camera, better connections with others, health and wellbeing improvements and simply making life easier.
While this is all a little hyperbolic, the S4 at least brings an integrated feel to things while improving nearly every spec on offer. The outside is still plastic, but harks back to the mesh design, if not feel of the Galaxy
ence between the S4 and its predecessor, as the polycarbonate chassis is still in use, although the metallic banding around the side, while still plastic, is much sturdier and feels more premium.
We've already seen a lot of the Samsung Galaxy S4, as it's been snapped multiple times in leaks – some more accurate than others, it has to be said – and the specs mooted have turned out to be pretty bang on.
But that doesn't matter – megapixels and gigabytes don't mean anything if they're not wrapped up in a decent package, so how much of an improvement is the Samsung Galaxy S4 over the S3, and more importantly, the competition?
Design
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is built on four foundations: an improved camera, better connections with others, health and wellbeing improvements and simply making life easier.
While this is all a little hyperbolic, the S4 at least brings an integrated feel to things while improving nearly every spec on offer. The outside is still plastic, but harks back to the mesh design, if not feel of the Galaxy s2
Colour wise you've got a choice of 'White Frost' and 'Black Mist', which adorn the large device, which runs in with dimensions of 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm, despite still having to pack in a 5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED screen.
That means it will have a larger screen, but smaller chassis than the Galaxy S3, which is a superbly impressive feat of engineering, especially when you consider the specs.
But like its predecessor, the plastic feeling of the Galaxy S3 won't appeal to all. It feels very lightweight (tipping the scales at 130g) in the hand, and while people have been conditioned against this feeling cheap, compare it to the HTC One and you'll see that it's a long way from premium feeling.
However, it's exactly the same sensation as we found on the Galaxy S3, and given the record numbers of sales that had Samsung is sticking with a winning formula, plus there's more than a market for a phone that you'll barely notice in your pocket most of the time.
Compared to rest of the Galaxy line, the S4 continues in the same vein as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and the S3, (as well as myriad other devices) showing the Koreans are keen on creating a design heritage here.
The home button is roughly the same size and the same menu and back buttons remain from the prequel.
Overall, the effect is a much more well put together Galaxy S3 – so this means that when you take it out down the pub people won't notice you've got the latest phone, which is a bit of a shame.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 feels like much more of an iterative update than new design, and while it will probably sell well there's very little to wow you when it comes to the overall shape. Specs are important, but if there was such as thing as a Samsung Galaxy S3S, this would be it.
But away from all that negativity! We have a new phone to check over, so let's take a minute and talk about the screen: it's even more beautiful than before.
Display
We almost feel sad that this isn't the first Full HD screen we've seen on a mobile phone, as it's kind of lost its lustre since the likes of the HTC One and Sony Xperia Z have all managed the same trick – but it improves the sharpness a lot, even though you're not getting that much different from the S3.
Side by side you can see the difference close up, and the brightness and efficiency have been tweaked to make this a more compelling screen in a phone. Talk all you want about the benefits and colour saturation of LCD – the Samsung Galaxy S4 is leagues ahead when it comes to jaw-dropping screens.
The 441ppi pixel density doesn't match the HTC One, but is more than good enough for the average user.
We'll be mightily surprised if the combined popularity of the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 don't prompt Apple into a re-tooling of the screen with the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6, as the sharpness will definitely wow users on the shelves.
Aside from the initial impression of the design, in the hand the Samsung Galaxy S3 feels just dandy. The design contours well against the palm, and while the screen size may be a little big for some (you'll need a bit of shuffling to reach the upper section of the screen) it's definitely useable in the hand.
So in short: if you don't mind plastic and you like cutting-edge HD screens in your pocket, this is a phone definitely worth checking out.
Interface
Samsung hasn't really re-tooled the Touchwiz overlay for the Galaxy S4, but has added some clever upgrades that will have some users talking about innovation.
For instance, the lock screen doesn't have the water rippling any more, but does register your finger from up to two centimetres away, so a little beam of light will follow your digit as you unlock. It's something you'll definitely play with for ages.
It's clear with the Galaxy S4 that Samsung has worked out there's only so much it can do on the hardware side these days – not to say that we're pretty impressed with the spec list - and as such has tried to bring the unique flavour through the interface instead.
As before with Touchwiz, there's a definite sense the whole process has been simplified, as the phone has got a much easier feel to it when swiping around. That's not to say there aren't loads of widgets to be played with, but there is less clutter on the larger screen.
The dock at the bottom of the display pervades, and there are more widgets to play with. Thanks to the Galaxy S4 running Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 you've now got an addition in the notifications bar of a toggle in the top-right hand corner where you can turn on and off pretty much anything, from NFC to Group Cast to eye-tracking.
Swiping around the display was easy as pie – it's not exactly taxing on the processor, but we did note that there was a slight pause as we swiped through the menu screen on this pre-production model.
However, there is a worry that the octo-core (yes, you read that right) 1.6 GHz Exynos 5 CPU, with 2GB of RAM as well, could suck power a little too dramatically – but we've yet to hear the full details of how the CPU will work before we can pass any judgement on that.
Smart Stay, which tracks your eyes to tell if you're looking at the screen, has stablemates now. Smart Pause will note if your gaze leaves the screen and will pause the video, and Smart Scroll will check when you're reading a web page and scroll up and down as you tilt the device.
It's a novel idea for replacing things you do already but in practice we didn't find either that useful. Smart Pause takes a second to register your gaze has gone, which means you'll still miss part of the video, and Smart Scroll (again, pre-production model) was far from accurate when we tilted the phone.
Smart Voice hasn't been upgraded beyond improving the accuracy of the voice recognition and Driving Mode, which will give you more voice-related feedback when you're in your motor.
Smart Alert has been upgraded: now it's joined by Air Gestures, which allow you to swipe the phone without touching the screen. So this means you can flip through pictures or music tracks ("good if you have messy fingers" says Samsung) flick to the top of a list by wiping upwards on the screen and Air Call Accept starts the camera… no, we're joking. It accepts a call without touching the screen.
On top of that there's Hover mode, which is the same as Air View on the Note 2 which used the S Pen and tracked when it was near the screen to give previews of emails, video scrolling without disturbing the action, and seeing who is on speed dial.
A quick test with this saw the preview being activated a little too easily, but it's definitely a neat feature and something we could get used to.
But overall the good news is the large screen looks great, the improved CPU might not be needed but is welcomed and the little touches like the shining lock screen do actually feel like a real step forward.
Media
The Samsung Galaxy S4 follows in the footsteps of its predecessors in that it's designed for media – which is what you'd expect from a phone that's the sequel to the phone we dubbed the best out there for media on the go.
The video player is obviously taking centre stage here on the Galaxy S4, and combined with the improved Full HD Super AMOLED screen is just magnificent for watching movies.
The video hub now contains both personal and downloaded content in one place, and it looks really, really nice when viewing it on the 5-inch screen.
It's an understandably excellent experience, with the screen veritably shining with quality contrast ratios and decent colour reproduction.
The navigation experience is easy as well, and slipping up and down the timeline to move through a video seems very intuitive.
AllShare Cast is included as well, powering up the ability to stream to and from other devices. In addition to being able to send content from the phone to a TV and receive from a PC in your home network, you can also do this remotely now, as long as the device is turned on obviously.
Another feature is mirroring, where you can send whatever is on the screen of your Galaxy S4 and have it show on a larger display. We've seen this on a number of devices, and while it's not going to allow big screen gaming on the go, as we've often noted that there's a lag between input and its realisation on the screen, it could be good for movies if it's less jumpy than found on the S3.
Samsung has managed to stay ahead of the pack when it comes to internal storage too – it will be available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB flavours plus up to 64GB through a microSD card as well. That's more storage than most will ever need on it's own, right?
This will be a killer feature for a lot of smartphone users, as while the internal storage is generally good enough for most things, many love the idea of having the choice to expand if they so wish – so combining this with an expandable battery is a great idea from Samsung once again.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy S4 camera is a step up from its predecessor, with a 13MP sensor on the back, which now has to bulge slightly from the chassis.
Samsung promises excellent low-light snaps from the S4 as well, but we doubt it can take on the might of the HTC One when it comes to low light conditions, as the Galaxy S3 was decimated by the might of HTC's Ultrapixels - and that's before we even get onto the Nokia Lumia 920.
From a blindingly bright flash to a backside illuminated sensor, our quick snaps came out crisply and clearly – and when we say quick, we mean it.
The UI has changed a bit to mimic that found on the Samsung Galaxy Camera, with a special mode wheel to move between items like the Macro, Beauty shot and smile setting, and while it's a little slow it's definitely an easier to use interface.
Burst mode is predictably back, but it now comes with a 'Drama' setting, so you can take one shot and see all the pictures merge into one. It works really well as long as you don't have something that's just too close to the camera or too large – in our tests it showed you need a lot of space between each movement.
Eraser mode and Cinema mode also come straight from the Nokia Lumia phones we've seen recently – the former works extremely well though, noting an unwanted object moving in the background and erasing it by drawing a pink outline around the thing and letting you delete.
However, you have to have the mode enabled, which takes multiple pics, rather than the standard shot, so you probably won't be able to make good use of it most of the time.
Cinema mode lets you shoot a short video and choose the part to keep static – this means you can have a background moving while the person stays the same, and is created in a GIF to make things properly early noughties.
You also get a 2MP camera on the front of the phone for some decent personal snaps – plus you can also get HD video recording too.
This has been updated to allow you to record video and pictures with the front and back cameras simultaneously, which doesn't really make much sense in the grand scheme of things, but at least you can put some clever frames around your face to make it more relevant.
Battery
Samsung has managed to lower the thickness of the Galaxy S4 compared to the S3 but upgraded the battery from 2,100mAh to 2,600mAh, promising a much larger capacity and therefore longer life.
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