Google's Key Transparency Initiative Aims to Simplify Encryption Systems Like PGPHIGHLIGHTS
Google has announced the open source release of its Key Transparency prototype, a platform that simplifies public key scanning. Google claims that this framework can be used by regular people as well, to verify a person's online information through a public key. "Existing methods of protecting users against server compromise require users to manually verify recipients' accounts in-person. This simply hasn't worked. Key Transparency is a general-use, transparent directory that makes it easy for developers to create systems of all kinds with independently auditable account data. It can be used in a variety of scenarios where data needs to be encrypted or authenticated. It can be used to make security features that are easy for people to understand while supporting important user needs like account recovery," Google's Ryan Hurst and Gary Belvin said in an announcement. This framework looks to tackle the issues that complex systems like PGP face, due to which many developers avoid even using it. This public database will be created and managed by Google, and all the log changes to any user profile will also be public - and apparently cannot be tampered with. Thankfully, a user's information can only be searched via their particular ID, and nothing else. "Key Transparency dramatically improves the situation by providing a public audit record for all changes to data. When used with account data, Key Transparency provides a public audit record of all the actual recipients (in the form of public keys) associated with an account, all the times an account was updated, and who it was updated by-all in a privacy preserving way, " Google's Ryan Hurst and Gary Belvin said in an announcement. Key Transparency looks to give developers all the data at hand to build simpler security features easily. Google claims it's just a prototype, and the framework will be improved based on the security community's feedback in the future.
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Microsoft Agrees to Windows 10 Adjustments With Swiss Data WatchdogSwitzerland's data protection czar will not take Microsoft to court after the US company agreed to adopt recommendations for improving data processing transparency for its Windows 10 operating system, the government agency said.
The Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) said on Wednesday it had concluded an investigation into the operating system begun in 2015, which it said revealed data protection gaps under Swiss law. "The FDPIC investigations revealed that data processing in connection with Windows 10 did not conform in every respect with the data protection legislation," the authority said in a statement. In response, Microsoft made proposals to the commissioner which had been agreed after adjustments by the FDPIC. "The technical implementation of the modifications requested by the FDPIC will be carried out worldwide as part of the two Windows 10 software releases planned for 2017," the FDPIC said. The Swiss government agency said the agreement with Microsoft meant there was "no need for court proceedings". A Microsoft spokesman said the company appreciated the opportunity to discuss Windows 10 with the Swiss Data Protection Authority. "As a global business, Microsoft is committed to complying with all applicable laws in the countries in which we offer our services and products," he said. Microsoft says in a blog on its website that it is committed to protecting consumers' privacy with the product. In its 2015-2016 annual report, the FDPIC said the system's quick installation or "get going fast" option automatically activated nearly all data transfer and access processes, which meant user data, including location details, browser and search history, keyboard entries and nearby Wi-Fi networks, automatically went to Microsoft. In concluding its investigation, the FDPIC said the Windows 10 "quick access" and "customize settings" pages had not fully met transparency requirements. Information was lacking on the content of browser, feedback and diagnostic data, as well as on the length of time that transmitted data would be stored, it said. Coolpad Cool 1 Dual ReviewHIGHLIGHTS
The Cool 1 Dual retails for Rs.13,999 both online and offline. The online version will have 4GB of RAM while the one sold offline will have 3GB of RAM, but the rest of the specifications stay the same. The phone will compete against the likes the Moto G4 Plus (Review) and Xiaomi Mi Max (Review), to name a few. While there’s no one-size-fits-all in the world of tech, does the Cool 1 Dual manage to strike a good balance between pricing and features? We find out. Coolpad Cool 1 Dual design and build The design isn’t terribly original or inspiring to be honest, but the build quality is reassuring. The metal chassis feels sturdy and the matte finish doesn’t attract many fingerprints. The quality and placement of the buttons are good too. The Cool 1 Dual is a bit heavy and is on the thicker side at 8.2mm due to its large battery. There’s a 5.5-inch IPS display with a full-HD resolution. Unlike the many renders of this phone circulating on the Web, the display does not have a thin bezel. It's actually fairly thick and runs all around the display. The panel itself offers good viewing angles, and colour reproduction and brightness levels are fairly adequate. Under harsh sunlight, the display can get washed out a bit but other than this, we didn’t face any issues. You also get Corning Gorilla Glass 3 to protect it against scratches. There are backlit capacitive buttons at the bottom for navigation, and a notification LED on the top. There is a dual Nano-SIM tray on the left, but it isn’t of the hybrid type so you can’t expand onboard storage at all. This wouldn’t have been so bad if the Cool 1 Dual had 64GB of storage space, but 32GB might not be enough for some in the long run. It’s a shame that there isn’t any higher capacity option available either. The Cool 1 Dual gets an infrared emitter on the top, next to the 3.5mm audio socket. The phone features a USB Type-C port at the bottom, along with the speaker grille. There’s a fingerprint sensor at the back, which is quick to authenticate you. The shape and placement is ergonomic, making it easy to use. The Cool 1 Dual is yet another phone in this price segment to sport dual rear cameras, the most recent one being the Lenovo Phab 2 Plus (Review). In the box, you get a screen guard, data cable, 10W power adaptor, SIM ejector, and instructions. Barring the generic looks of the Cool 1 Dual, the phone is built well and feels sturdy. We just wish there was a dedicated microSD card slot or at least a hybrid SIM slot to accommodate additional storage. Coolpad Cool 1 Dual specifications and features The Cool 1 Dual is powered by the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 SoC, which is the faster version of the one found in the Redmi Note 3 (Review), with two additional ARM Cortex-A72 cores. Our review unit had 4GB of RAM, which is reserved for the online variant, and 32GB of storage, which is common to both units. Other specifications include Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, USB-OTG, FM radio, and GPS. The phone also supports 4G LTE on both SIM slots, and there's a toggle in the Settings app to enable voice calls using VoLTE. Our unit wasn’t able to make voice calls over the Jio network, though data was working. LeEco’s expertise comes into the picture when you turn to software. The Cool 1 Dual ditches Cool UI in favour of EUI, which we’ve seen running on LeEco phones in the past, such as the Le 2. It’s the exact same OS, just without LeEco’s ‘Supertainment’ streaming services. Now that Coolpad falls under the umbrella of LeEco, it makes sense to have a single custom version of Android rather than multiple different ones. If you haven’t used a LeEco phone before, then EUI will take some getting used to as the layout is pretty different from stock Android. The functions and customisation options are the same as before. There are a couple of useful preloaded apps, plus the Amazon app, but apart from this, the interface is free of bloatware. Coolpad Cool 1 Dual performance The Cool 1 Dual handles multitasking and general app performance with great ease. The speedy octa-core SoC and ample RAM ensure that there are rarely any slowdowns when launching apps or playing games. Even demanding ones like Asphalt 8: Airborne run smoothly. We got 77,817 points in AnTuTu and 9,689 in 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme, which are good scores. There’s no worry of overheating here either, as apart from the expected warming up when charging or running intensive apps, the phone stayed cool for the most part. Media playback is also good, as the SoC is capable of handling 4K video, and high-bitrate files are also a non-issue. There’s a single speaker at the bottom, and thankfully, it doesn’t get blocked when you hold the phone horizontally. The speaker can put out decent volume for media and alerts, but don’t expect too much in terms of quality here. You can get better audio with headphones. The stock music player is designed well and you even get a graphic equaliser and some presets to play around with. Tap to see full-sized Coolpad Cool 1 camera samples The Cool 1 Dual has a twin 13-megapixel cameras on the back. One has a colour sensor while the other is used for monochrome data, which when used in tandem, should offer better image quality and less noise in low-light pictures. In practise, this combination didn't really produce the desired results all the time. Low-light images had noticeable noise and detail was generally poor. The colours improved when we switched to ‘Night’ mode, but not by much. In daylight, the camera struggled a bit with light metering, and we often found overexposed areas in both landscapes and close-ups. Colours were captured better in daylight, but subjects in focus lacked sharpness and ended up looking flat. Video recording goes up to 4K, and while footage looked good in daylight, it got a bit grainy and there was a lot of colour noise visible in low light. The front 8-megapixel camera is decent for selfies in good lighting but not so much under artificial or low-light. Focusing speed is good and images are saved rather quickly, with little delay. Among the shooting modes, we have SLR, which attempts to simulate greater bokeh levels, but this doesn’t always work. The camera app is easy to use and there are a good number of options to choose from for shooting, including filters. It just needs a bit more polish as, for example, the menu labels don’t change orientation when you switch from portrait to landscape mode. The Cool 1 Dual delivers excellent battery life. The 4000mAh battery lasted for 14 hours and 43 minutes in our HD video loop test. With normal usage, we were able to go a little more than a day and half. The phone charges fairly quickly too thanks to the 10W adapter. Verdict The Cool 1 Dual offers good performance for its price. It’s built well, and it has a sharp display, very good battery life plus sufficient power for most tasks. The lack of expandable storage is our only major gripe here as 32GB might not be enough a year down the line. Given a choice, you should buy this phone online as you get more RAM at the same price. Lenovo Yoga Book Review HIGHLIGHTS
Now, there’s a new product, and it is simply called the Yoga Book that retails at Rs. 49,990. Lenovo has retained the flip-around design, but that’s about all this device has in common with today’s 2-in-1s. It’s unlike any other product that Lenovo sells – in fact, it’s unlike any other product, period. What Lenovo has done is reinvent the ultraportable, and we’re absolutely dying to put the Yoga Book to use so we can figure out what to make of it. MSI Launches Powerful Intel Kaby Lake-Powered Laptops Starting at Rs. 1,29,000 HIGHLIGHTS
Talking about the specifications, MSI GT83VR 7RE Titan SLI is the company's first VR-optimised laptop with an IPS level screen. With VR optimisation, gamers will be able to experience games inside the VR headsets. This gaming laptop is powered by Intel Kaby Lake Core i7-7820HK+CM238 CPU and Nvidia's dual GTX 1080 8GB GDDR5X GPU for graphics performance. It runs Windows 10 on Super Raid 4-512GB NVMe SSD drive with 1TB 7200rpm hard drive. It is said to be the only laptop that features Cherry MX Speed Sliver RGB Switches and an ergonomic keyboard for best tactile feedback of 1.2mm mechanical actuation, light 45g key switches, and Gold contacts. The GT83VR 7RE Titan SLI comes with multi-color RGB backlighting and will be available at a price of Rs. 3,49,990. Coming to the second laptop, the GT73VR 7RF Titan Pro 4K, as the name suggests, sports a 4K LCD built-in display with a resolution of up to 3840x2160 pixels and support for 100 percent Adobe RGB colour gamut. The laptop runs Windows 10 on Super Raid 4-512GB NVMe SSD and a 1TB 7200rpm hard disk drive. It is powered by Intel's Core i7-7820HK that gives it power not only to run 4K games, but to edit 4K videos as well. The GT73VR 7RF Titan Pro 4K is priced at Rs. 3,34,990. The third laptop of the company's GS series is GS63VR 7RF Stealth Pro. It packs a 15.6-inch screen that has full-HD resolution, along with the anti-glare feature and 100 percent Adobe RGB colour gamut. The laptop is powered by a 7th gen Intel Core-i7 7700HQ+HM175 CPU, paired with a full desktop class Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU and 6GB of GDDR5 graphics RAM. For storage, it houses a 256GB NVMe M.2 SSD that can give a speed up to 2,200MBps. MSI's GS63VR 7RF Stealth Proia will be available at Rs. 1,77,990. The final members of the refreshed laptop lineup are GE62 7RE Apache Pro and GP62 7RD Leopard. Both the laptops share similar specifications like the Intel Kaby Lake Core-i7 7700HQ+HM175 processor. The GE62 7RE Apache Pro is powered by the Nvidia GeForce 1050Ti GPU with 4GB of GDDR5 RAM while the GP62 7RD Leopard utilises the GTX 1050 with 2GB of GDDR5 RAM. The GE62 7RE Apache Pro is priced at Rs. 1,29,990, and the price of GP62 7RD Leopard has not been revealed yet. Apple CEO Tim Cook's Pay Slumps Along With iPhone Sales HIGHLIGHTS
Cook still did extremely well, with a compensation package valued at $8.7 million (roughly Rs. 59.3 crores) for Apple's fiscal year that ended September 24, according to a regulatory filing made Friday. But the amount was down from nearly $10.3 million (roughly Rs. 70 crores) in the prior year. The Cupertino, California, company cited a downturn in Apple's revenue and operating profit as the main reason it cut the pay of Cook and its other top executives. (Also see: Apple CEO Tim Cook Says He Is 'Open to Acquisitions of Any Size') Apples revenue dropped 8 percent to $216 billion (roughly Rs. 14,70,204 crores), while its operating profit declined 16 percent to $60 billion (roughly Rs. 4,08,390 crores). That was mainly because it sold fewer iPhones for the first time since the device came out in 2007. It also marked the first time that Apple's annual revenue decreased since 2001, which was just before the company's late co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPod. That digital music player set the stage for the iPhone and iPad. The iPhone triggered a revolution in mobile computing and became Apple's biggest moneymaker, even as a wide range of device makers released competing products primarily running on Google's free Android software. Most of the world's smartphones are powered by Android, but the iPhone remains a popular high-priced status symbol. Even so, consumers are holding on to their existing iPhones for longer periods instead of upgrading to a newer model every year or two. That has raised investor concerns that Apple has become too dependent on the iPhone, a nagging worry that has been aggravated by the company's inability to introduce another breakthrough product since Jobs' death in 2011. Cook, Jobs' anointed successor, had hoped Apple would have another huge hit with a smartwatch unveiled in 2014, but that device has only had moderate success. Apple's regulatory filing revealed that the company was bracing for a sales drop last year, although not quite as steep as what occurred. The compensation committee for Apple's board of directors had established a revenue goal of $224 billion for last year, which would have been a 4 percent decline from the previous year. The company expected sales to rebound during the holiday shopping season on hopes that consumers would be snapping up its latest iPhones, the 7 and 7 Plus. Apple will release its quarterly results that include the holidays later this month. Vodafone Offers Unlimited 3G/ 4G Data for an Hour at Rs. 16 Telecom operator Vodafone on Friday announced a SuperHour scheme under which it will offer unlimited 3G or 4G data for one hour at a starting price of Rs. 16 for prepaid customers.
It will also offer unlimited local voice calls (within network) with one hour validity for Rs. 7. "With SuperHour, you can use and download as much data as you like for one hour at a fixed, nominal price. Moreover, with unrestricted repeat purchase, you can make every hour SuperHour," Sandeep Kataria, Chief Commercial Officer, Vodafone India said in a statement. (Also see: Vodafone Red Rs. 499 Postpaid Plan Now Offers Unlimited Calls, 3GB Data) "Customers can also buy the SuperHour pack for making unlimited local Vodafone to Vodafone voice calls for only Rs. 7," the statement added. Under the scheme, prepaid customers will get unlimited 4G/ 3G data usage for one hour, starting at just Rs. 16 which will be launched from January 7 and available to customers across all circles by January 9. The rate may vary across circles, it added. The offer is not available in Bihar-Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Andhra Pradesh-Telangana. Under the scheme, 2G customers will get unlimited data for Rs. 5. Customers can make unlimited repeat purchase of the voice and data packs, it added. The unlimited data offer can also be used to view a variety of videos and movies on Vodafone Play, whose subscription is free till March 31, 2017. Instagram Gets Better on iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus Photo sharing for iPhone users can be more fun as Instagram on Friday rolled out iPhone 7 and 7 Plus-specific features that support wide colour capture and display - and users don't need to update the app.
According to a report in TechCrunch, Instagram had first announced a series of iPhone 7-specific features - the wider colours and Live Photo conversion to Boomerang; a special colour filter; one-finger zoom on the 7 Plus; and instant access to the Instagram Stories camera with 3D touch - in September 2016 after the device's unveiling. "If you are on an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus, Instagram now supports wide colour capture and display throughout the app - writing an eng blog on it soon," tweeted Mike Krieger, Co-founder, Instagram. Users can also post GIFs to Instagram Stories even without capturing them on its stand-alone app Boomerang. Apple Live Photos can now be converted into Boomerangs. "To turn a Live Photo into a Boomerang, first open the Instagram Stories camera, swipe up to upload something from your camera roll, and select one of your Live Photos shot in the last 24 hours. Then while previewing it before you post, give a forceful 3D Touch to the screen, you will see a little loading wheel, and then the Live Photo will appear as a back-and-forth Boomerang you can share in your Story," the report explained. |