India is the largest democratic country in the world. The power of a citizen comes with the tool called 'vote', which decides the authorities. In partnership with Election Commission of India, Facebook has launched the 'voter registration' reminder button. Starting from 1st July, every Facebook user, who is eligible to vote, will be reminded with the voter registration feature. The reminder will be available in 13  languages - English, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Assamese, Marathi and Oriya.

I am pleased to announce that the Election Commission of India is going to launch a ‘Special Drive to enrol left out electors, with a particular focus on first time electors. This is a step towards fulfilment of the motto of ECI that ‘NO VOTER TO BE LEFT BEHIND’. As part of this campaign, on 1st July, 2017, Facebook will run a voter registration reminder in multiple Indian languages to all the Facebook users in India. I urge all eligible citizens to enrol and VOTE i.e. Recognize your Right and Perform your Duty. I am sure this initiative will strengthen Election Commission of India’s enrolment campaign and encourage future voters to participate in the Electoral Process and become responsible Citizens of India. - Dr.Nasim Zaidi, Chief Election Commissioner, Election Commission of India

Though Facebook has launched the voter registration reminder during 2016 and 2017 elections, that was limited to individual states. But, this is the first time ever such feature is launched by Facebook across India. Once the user click the 'Register Now' button, the user will be redirected to the National Voters' Service Portal. This links contains a sequence of steps to get registered with the EC as a voter.

Voter Registration Drive by Facebook

People use Facebook to connect, share and get involved with issues that matter to them. We want to build products that support this type of civic engagement - on Election Day and every day. We believe that democracies are stronger when more people are engaged. On July 1st, you will get a voter registration reminder in your newsfeed, so if you are not registered to vote, enrol & Jet Set Vote! - Ms. Ankhi Das, Public Policy Director for India, South & Central Asia.

The Facebook users across India is estimated to be around 180 million. With this huge number, the Government of India is trying to create awareness of vote and the power of voter online.

Right to vote is one of the fundamental rights of every Indian citizen. - Constitution of India.

Source: Facebook

EC election commission of India facebook voter registration

June 28, 2017

The security firm Bitdefender has identified another malware into action in the European countries and encrypted data on many of the computers. And now, it has extended to Australia. The Cadbury chocolate manufacturing unit in Tasmania, Australia was shut down due to the cyber attack by the Petya ransomware.

This is the second major attack across the world in past two months, preceded by WannaCry. The WannaCry attack has happened in late April, which was reported by Britain's National Health Service in early May. This attack affected more than 2,50,000 computers across the globe. Just like WannaCry or WannaCrypt, Petya also infects the computers with Microsoft Windows.
What is ransomware?
Ransom means the money paid to do a favour. The same way, post attack, the attackers decrypt the system under attack only after receiving the demanded ransom.
Read more: Judy Chef malware
What happens with ransomware?
When a computer is infected with ransomware, all the files are encrypted, which can be decrypted only by the attacker. The attackers demands ransome for decryption; otherwise the data is lost.
How does Petya ransomware work?
Unlike WannaCry, Petya demands ransom in Bitcoin currency. The exploit for the rasnsomware is called EternalBlue vulnerability of older versions of Windows version. Though Microsoft has released patches to the vulnerabilities, the attack took advantage of the ignorance of the users. The other vulnerability through which Petya can attack is the administrative tools of Windows. The exploit is deployed into a PC by through the links they click.
Read more: Fireball malware
Symantec and Kaspersky claim that their anti-virus applications are capable of detecting the malware through the links which they spread. On the other hand, Microsoft is instructing the users to update their system with the latest patches available from Windows. Though Microsoft froze rolling out updates for Windows XP, official patches are available for a better protection. One of the very basic ways that this ransomware does not affect is through the perfc.dat. If the exploit finds C:\Windows\perf.dat, then the attack is dropped off in the first attempt. Of course, this is NOT complete protection.

Accroding to Ukraininan Cyber Police, the major target of Petya is to get the confidential data from the Ukrain government. Starting from the Europe, the ransomware has spread across US and it's now reached Australia.

Read more: Trickbot malware
What to do if you are attacked by ransomware?
Your computer needs a reboot, in order to encrypt your files and the ransomware needs at least an hour before the PC reboots. When the PC reboots, you can switch off the computer and take care of the data. The following is the screenshot that appears during encryption of your PC data. This is the point where you need to turn off your computer, may be abruptly.

Screenshot of data encryption during reboot

Beware of the links you click on the internet. More than data source, it has become a source of data breach these days!

Read more: Wanna earn bounty from Google?

Petya ransomware

June 28, 2017

Android is the mobile based OS developed by Google. The OS dominated all other mobile operating systems. Though there are huge brands of mobiles coming with Android, the demand for the Google's very own Nexus and Pixel devices has its mark on the market. There are many rumours about the next Pixel device. Here is the most likely information about the next Pixel.
Google is working on the next Pixel devices with the code names Walleye and Taimen. Though three variants - 5-inch, 5.5-inch and 6-inch devices were opined, Google has finalised the 5-inch and 6-inch variants with the code names Walleye and Taimen, respectively. LG is likely to be the manufacturer of these devices.

Code name Taimen:
Taimen is the code name for the 6-inch pixel device. Strictly speaking, the device comes with a 5.99 inch display with a 1440 pixel OLED. The research work regarding the display is carried out be LG, invested by Google. It is expected to be powered by Qulacommm Snapdragon 835 SoC, which likely operates at a frequency of 2.4GHz. It sports 4GB RAM and 128GB will be one of the variants available. The design and finish of the device looks very similar to that of the predecessor Pixel devices, including the fingerprint sensor. It features single camera with dual LED flash.
Code name Walleye:
This is the 5-inch variant, which 4.97-inch, to be specific. It comes with full-HD resolution. It is expected to come with stereo speakers. Just like the Taimen, the Walleye device will be powered with Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset and 4GB RAM. But, this will be available as a 64GB variant rather than the 128GB variant.
Both the devices are expected to be rolled out towards the end of October. Coming to the operating system, they will be available with Android N and OTA updates for Android O will be provided.
Source: xda-developers.

Google Pixel

June 26, 2017

Nokia is back into its mobile market. The latest Nokia mobile Nokia 3 has been launched in India. It is noted that Nokia 3 smartphone is available on Croma at a price 9,499 INR at an offer price, which was originally 10,299 INR. As of now, the home delivery option for this sale is very limited, not even available in Delhi.
HMD Global has relaunched Nokia and Nokia 3 is the first mobile after the relaunch. Another mobile, Nokia 5, is also expected to be launched within a week or two. HMD Global is following is classic mode of marketing strategy in launching these two mobiles. As an agency Croma is selling these two mobiles online. Otherwise, HMD Global has planned to market them as exclusive offline products.

Nokia 3 on Croma

HMD Global is also planning to launch another mobile in this series - Nokia 6. But, the marketing of this smartphone will be completely online and will be available by the end of July or in the first week of August. Nokia 6 is going to be an Amazon-exclusive.
Initially, all the three mobiles were scheduled to release by the end of June. But the effect of GST delayed the launch and had split the three launches apart.
Hardware specs:
The design of all the three smartphones seems very similar. Nokia 3 comes with a plastic body and the other two variants with metallic body. Coming to the specifications of Nokia 3, it comes with 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MTK6737 chipset. In terms of memory specs, it has 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM, with an extendable memory limit of 128GB. It sports 8MP front and rear cameras each. It is powered by a 2,650mAh battery with a microUSB 2.0 connecter. As all regular mobiles support, Nokia 3 also supports Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB OTG and 4G LTE connectivity.
The device comes with Android N and HMD Global states that the hardware will be compatible with next two major Android updates. Once there is an official Android O launch, the users will get the OTA updates. The smartphone will be available in four colour variants - Black, Silver White, Tempered Blue and Copper White. HMD Global collaborated with Vodafone to provide 5GB free data to the users per month, with monthly plan of Rs 149 for the first three months.

HMD Global Nokia Nokia 3 Nokia 5 Nokia 6

June 26, 2017

Windows 10 S is the latest update from Microsoft for its Surface laptops. But, the update will also be available to all the Windows 10 users across the world. In May 2017, Microsoft has introduced a new set of educational products and services through Windows 10. Also, Microsoft has announced the introduction of Windows 10 S in the same context. Windows 10 S comes with improved security and performance. Windows 10 S is ideal for all classes of users with its Microsoft-verified app program, faster boot-up time and longer battery life. This update includes Cortana, Windows Hello, Windows Ink, Microsoft Edge, Paint 3D and many more features.
Here are the six features of Windows 10 S that you need to know!

1. Windows 10 S is designed for superior performance. Start-ups are quick and designed to stay that way.
2. Upgraded Edge browser. Edge is the default browser that comes with Windows 10. In view with the latest security breaches online, Microsoft has upgraded the security levels of the Edge browser. When compared to Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge is capable of defencing against many of the phishing sites over the internet. With the Windows 10 S update, Microsoft has introduced a new feature to the Edge browser - Microsoft Ink. With this feature, the user can easily make notes over the webpages and share them.
Another feature added is with the Bing search engine. Bing is the default search engine of Edge browser. With this update, users can easily save the tabs of the browser including the search results of a given search term.

3. Microsoft-verified security. Judy malware has affected the Google PlayStore. To avoid such attacks from the Windows store, Microsoft introduced Microsoft-verified program. This program guarantees that the apps available on the Windows store are "securified". Also, Microsoft takes the responsibility in verifying the app by running it in safe "container" to ensure intended purpose of the app. This provides a secured experience to the users with the apps from the Windows store.
As of now, the Windows Defender is one of the most trusted anti-malware applications. With the Windows 10 S update, Microsoft has introduced higher levels of security by adding the latest malware signatures to the database. After the update, Windows Defender will be getting updates frequently updating the signature database.

Upgraded security in Windows 10 S

4. More apps into the store. Microsoft has announced that iTunes and Spotify apps will be available on Windows store, recently. Microsoft is working with the partners to expand the number of reputed apps available in the Windows Store just like Google PlayStore.

5. Better Office 365 experience. The major motto of Office 2013 and latter versions is to provide rich user experience. With the Windows 10 S update, Microsoft has upgraded the Office 365 experience, so that the user can access all the applications available in the suite with single click.

6. Built-in Windows experiences to keep you productive and inspire creativity. Windows 10 S offers familiar Windows 10 experiences like Cortana–your digital personal assistant–password-free sign in with Windows Hello, Windows Ink, the Xbox app, Paint 3D, and more.
Source: Windows blog

microsoft microsoft surface Windows Windows 10 S

June 26, 2017

ISRO has created wonders in the space history of India. This is one more gem into the crown. ISRO is going to launch a chip system that will alert the civilians to get the information about the trains passing through the given unmanned railway crossing. On the other hand, this chip provides real-time updates of the trains. As an initial prototype, the Mumbai-Guwahati Rajadhani express will be embedded with this system.

This system warns the users around the unmanned railway level with hooters, whenever a train is approaching. As far as this trial run route is considered, there will be 20 such unmanned railway crossings, which will be undergoing rigorous testing in real-time. Once the attempt is successful, many other trains will be equipped with the system.
This chip activates hooter when the train at a distance of 500m from the crossing. Also, the magnitude of hoot will be increasing as the train comes into the proximity of the crossing and finally diminishes as the train crosses.

There will be hooters at 20 unmanned level crossings on Rajdhani routes for Guwahati and Mumbai, - A senior railway ministry official involved with the project.

Besides the safety at the unmanned crossings, these systems help to get the real-time tracking of a particular train. Though there are many systems that track the location of a train, these are not 100% efficient; with this chip, a user can get minute-to-minute status of the train.
Indian railway system is one of the largest railways systems in the world, out of which 10,000 level crossings are unmanned. 40% out of the railway accidents are being caused by these stations and this implementation of ISRO is expected to improve the safety of these crossings.
During the year 2014-15, Indian railways have eliminated 1,148 unmanned crossing, which was 1,253 for the year 2015-16. For the year 2016-17, the Indian government is going to eradicate every single unmanned crossings across the country.
The other side of the coin is more useful with this tracking chip. There has been several mishaps in the recent times during train journey. With the advent of advanced technology, the Indian government can also address them effectively and save people on time.

Indian railways ISRO

June 25, 2017

Beta Archive has posted that the source of Windows 10 was leaked earlier this week. This source code included the module of code related to USB, storage and Wi-Fi drivers. Beta Archive is the enthusiast that closely follows Microsoft's releases. The leaked source code of Windows 10 was made available on the Beta Archive's FTP.

Our review confirms that these files are actually a portion of the source code from the Shared Source Initiative and is used by OEMs and partners - says Microsoft spokesperson in an email to The Verge.

The report from The Register exposed that 32GB of data was leaked. Also, The Register claims that this leak included most of the yet to be released Windows code. The Register compares this leak to that of the Windows 2000 leak that occurred in 2004 and claims that this is even bigger and is going to cost enough price to Microsoft. Several builds of Windows 10 related to different hardware support are also included in the leak.
But, the owner of Beta Archive Andrew Whyman claims that only 1.2GB of data. He adds that the data was removed on own decision of Beta Archive. After enough investigation, Beta Archive suspects that two person from Lincolnshire and Bracknell were responsible for the leak, as these two were arrested in UK. However, the identities of these two culprits were note revealed.
Out of all these arguments, if the leak is true, then this helps attackers to exploit Windows 10 based machines easily. If this really happens, internet is in huge trouble in its very existence.

microsoft windows 10

June 25, 2017

Video conferencing is one of the most glitching experiences to the employees in the IT industry. Often, the employees end up with the conversation of connection verification rather than any productive information exchange. Subjected to solved such video conferencing issues, Owl labs is going to launch a Qualcomm Snapdragon based audiovisual tool called Meeting Owl.

Inspired by the perception abilities of owls, the Meeting Owl was developed mimicking the same capabilities. This is a 11-inch device resembles a feathered owl and its unique feature is to turn its head around - 360 degrees. This device is equipped with 360-degrees fish-eye lenses, speakers and microphones. The microphones of the device are designed to respond and grasp to every corner of the environment. The Meeting Owl is powered by Snapdragon 410 chipset, which can capture 1080 pixel videos with a quad core CPU of 1.2GHz clock speed. Also, it support 802.11 n standards of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1.

The Meeting Owl has a really powerful processor, it’s connected to the internet, and it has high resolution sensors in the microphones and camera. If you’re looking at it as a robot, there are a lot of ways you can combine its features to create new device features. - Owl Labs CTO Mark Schnittman.

The Meeting Owl support video conferencing include the panoramic view of the room along with the close-up views of every single person available in the room. This device is also capable of creating collages from the video it is capturing. The major advantage in hardware perspective is that is can be connected through USB and hence is compatible with every host irrespective of the operating system.

Meeting Owl prototype

The major factors of concern to design the Meeting Owl with Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 chipset are price, form factor and power consumption. The device will connect to the internet through Wi-Fi and will receive OTA updates every month. The Meeting Owl owns a compute vision that helps it to detect the objects and people in the room. It can automatically focus on the person who is speaking.

As Schnittman wrote in a recent Medium post, “Our mission is to help remote participants truly feel included during team meetings because, unfortunately, more often than not they don’t.”

As a plug-and-play video conferencing gadget, Meeting Owl is available at a price $799 and can be availed at Owl Labs page. However, there is no word on the availability of the gadget in India.

Meeting Owl Owl labs Qualcomm

June 25, 2017

Attacks over the internet is increasing everyday. It's now the turn of UK parliament to be affected. On Friday, hackers attempted to compromise the e-mails of the MPs and their staffers of UK. MPs of the house reported that they were unable to access their e-mail accounts. As a rescue, the Westminster estate's digital security made several changes to regain the control over these accounts.
More: Read about TrickBot malware and Judy malware.

On this note, after regaining the access, the digital security has sent a mail to all the affected accounts stating that they have been working with National Cyber Security Center to provide better security. In this context, they mentioned that they're investigating the method of attack and the source and purpose of the attack. This attack is targeted in compromising the e-mail accounts related to the Westminster officials and that has been the reason for dismissal in the access to the accounts. Though there has been several attempts, there has been no security breach or data loss.
More: Read about Fireball malware and WannaCry ransomware.

Warning to everyone we need more security and better passwords. You wouldn’t leave your door open at night. We know that there are regular attacks by hackers attempting to get passwords. We have seen reports in the last few days of even Cabinet ministers’ passwords being for sale online. We know that our public services are attacked, so it is not at all surprising that there should be an attempt to hack into parliamentary emails. - The international trade secretary, Liam Fox.

In order to investigate the crime scene, the National Crime Agency (NCA) is working along side the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC). They have also stated that the level of security will be enhanced at the earliest possible to avoid such mishaps to repeat.

NCA about the cyber attack on UK parliament

The Houses of Parliament have discovered unauthorised attempts to access parliamentary user accounts. We are continuing to investigate this incident and take further measures to secure the computer network, liaising with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). We have systems in place to protect member and staff accounts and are taking the necessary steps to protect our systems. - A House of Commons spokesperson.

More: Firms like Facebook and Google provide bounty for you!

Source: The Guardian

Cyber attack

June 25, 2017

Gavriel Iddan, translated as Given Imaging is an Israel-based company that works on medical technology. They manufacture diagnostic products for visualisation and detection of disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. They have worked on capsule endoscopy and designed a pH monitoring system, called PillCam.

PillCam is a little equipment that is capable of performing a process called capsule endoscopy. It is about 1 inch in length and half inch in diameter. At a glance, it looks like a capsule but its applications are helping medical field for different diagnoses. It consists of a camera, flash, plastic capsule and a transceiver. The capsule is small enough to be swallowed by the patient. There are different version of the PillCam. On the other hand, there is no need of sedative, when PillCam is being used.

PillCam for Colonoscopy and Endoscopy

Once the patient swallows the PillCam, it captures the complete observation and transmits the data to a receiver via Bluetooth. 

PillCam SB:
PillCam SB - PillCam Small Bowel. Bowel means intestine. This is used for diagnosing the small intestine. The upper part of the small intestine is usually diagnosed with endoscope and the diagnosis related to large intestine is done by colonoscopy. But neither of the two procedures support the diagnosis of the upper part of small intestine. Hence, PillCam SB is used. It is just enough to swallow the capsule for the diagnosis.
PillCam ESO:
PillCam ESO - PillCam ESOphagus. The diagnoses related to esophagus are done by the PillCam ESO capsule.
PillCam COLON2:
The PillCam COLON2 provides the features like adaptive frame rate, advanced optics for improved image quality and environment perception and an extra-wide angle view. The PillCam COLON2 has every feature that helps to perform the colonoscopy. When a patient is not willing to under go colonoscopy, PillCam COLON2 comes into rescue. Here are the technical specifications of PillCam COLON2.

PillCam COLON2 speicifications

PillCam Express:
In May 2010, Given Imaging has released a new PillCam "swallowable" device. Unlike the previous PillCams, the PillCam Express can be guided manually. When the patient's anatomy is not supporting the passage of the PillCam, PillCam Express is directly placed into the small intestine with the help of endoscope.
Technology is advancing with a fast pace and is emerging into different fields day-by-day. PillCam is one of the major advances that is helping medical field in the best possible way.
Images source: Wikipedia and Extremetech

Medical Technology PillCam

June 24, 2017

Which file system to use when you format your memory drive? 
This is one of the most omitted questions. For a normal user, this question doesn't make any difference. But if you are more into using and operating your PC, the file system makes much difference both in terms of efficiency and time take to copy. The entire metadata you see in the properties of a file is stored by the file system. It include all the details about a file.

What is a file system?
A file system is the organised way in which the operating system maintains the files. The file system holds different metadata about a given file. It contains the file type, access privileges, soft link or hard link, date of creation, date of latest modification etc.
There are three file formats that the most used Windows OS supports - FAT32, exFAT and NTFS.
FAT file system:
FAT in FAT32 stands for File Allocation Table and 32 represents the number of table elements in a precursor. Though this file system does not support many features provided by NTFS, this is highly compatible with the wide range of operating systems. Every memory-related device comes with FAT32 file system. For example, you bought a new USB drive. By default, the files on the drive are set to use FAT32 file system, unless you change the format explicitly. Limitation of file size to 4GB is the major drawback of this file system i.e., you cannot hold a file that has a size greater than 4GB. But, this file system is very efficient in working with file lesser than the limit size.

If the maximum file size is less than 4GB, FAT32 is the best file system for your memory stick.

exFAT file system:
exFAT stands for Extended FAT. As the name suggests, this is the upgraded version of FAT file system. Though this file system provides very similar features to that of the NTFS, it hasn't gained reputation. This file system is compatible with both Windows and Mac OS. Though this file system was developed by Microsoft, Apple has got the license of using this file system and many Macbook implemented this file system. On the other hand, Microsoft broke the file size limitation with this new file system. The exFAT file syste can store up to 16 exabytes files i.e., 16 to the power of 10 Giga bytes of data! When you need to copy large files, this file system outperforms FAT32 file system. However, as quoted before reputation problems suppressed the extensive usage of exFAT file system.

exFAT is very efficient in copying large files when compared to other file systems.

NTFS file system:
NTFS stands for New Technology File System. It is the file system developed and owned by Microsoft. The is the default file system available in modern Windows operating systems. Every modern memory-storage device, including SSDs, supports this file system. Unlike the other two file systems, the NTFS has no file size limitation. This file system added extra features for server admins. The NTFS exactly suits the requirements of the modern day file management in every possible aspect.

Be updated. Use NTFS. It provides compatibility across platforms and efficiency when compared to other file systems.

The following data can provide you the technical details of the differences between some of the file systems used.

Comparison of File systems

Image source: Internet
Next time you format your drive, identify your need along with the compatibility with the OS. 😊😊
Note that there are other file systems. But this article is confined to FAT32, exFAT and NTFS as these are the major file systems used in the modern days.

Article exFAT FAT File system NTFS

June 24, 2017

The world is now recovering from the effect of WannaCry ransomware, Judy malware, Fireball malware and other loopholes in streaming apps. Hold on! The attacks are still making their way. But this time, the name of the malware is Trickbot. This malware is targeted towards the banking sector, which allows the attacker gain control over a victim's account. The startling news is that this malware is mainly targeted in India, as India is getting more digitised.

Dyre is another malware that works very similar to Trickbot - redirection through URLs resulting in credential robbery. Both these malware prompts a banking-related URL to the victim and a sequence of redirection URLs allow the malware to acquire banking credentials from the user. Once the credentials are acquired, the attackers just empty the victim's bank accounts within seconds. This is technically called Phishing. Here is an illustration of Trickbot exploit.

Trickbot illustration

Image source: Security Intelligence
Reports uncover that the URLs related to State Bank of India and related banks, and ICICI, as they have huge customer base in the recent times. The internet security solution provider eScan has reports that these URLs will be used to exploit millions of online bank accounts in the coming weeks. It is expected that other banks like Axis can also be added in the list, targeting especially the Indian online banking accounts.
Other than banking sector, many Trickbot-like malware may exploit the Indian cyberspace. In this note, eScan is advising the users to update their security levels. Recently Microsoft has released patches to XP, to fight against several malware, though they've halted support for XP. Install online security apps even in the mobile devices. Also, DO NOT neglect the patches or updates released for these banking apps. For organisations, eScan is advising to tighten the e-mail gateway systems. Here are some of the stats related to the latest malware over the internet.

Malware stats

Every penny we earn is our effort and wishes to fulfil. Be cautious about the links you are clicking, be safe. Here are some tips for a better password.

malware TrickBot

June 24, 2017

VidCon is an online conference, where online video viewers, video data creators and officials of industry all over the world. Here are some of the updates form VidCon.

Image source: Forbes

Numbers on number of viewers:
How many people are online, watching YouTube videos? It was revealed that 1.5 billion users visit YouTube every month. On an average, this means that, one out of every five people all around the world are viewing YouTube. On the other hand, these users are spending at least one hour everyday viewing YouTube, only on their mobile devices.
Making VR for everyone:
Virtual Reality is trending these days. But, it is not very easy to create VR360 videos. Also, the cameras to capture VR360 are very expensive. Hence, YouTube and DayDream, together, has introduced VR180. To shoot VR180 videos, new cameras will also be available with affordable prices. YouTube is also working with companies like LG, Yi and Lenovo to integrate these cameras to the mobile devices.

YouTube VR180

YT Desktop site and app: 
YouTube always wants to provide best experience to the users, irrespective of the original resolution of the video. Hence, both the desktop site and app UIs will be updated. YT is also introducing the Dark theme that provides a better experience to the user.

Flexible full resolution YT

Sharing is caring: 
YT is updating the "sharables" available. This helps the YT content creators reach more users and help them provide better content to the targeted users.
More markets for YT TV: 
In a couple of weeks, YouTube TV is going to introduce ten more markets in many othe countries of the USA. Now, with this expansion in YouTube TV will be able to provide their services to the users.
New slate of YouTube Red: YouTube Red has launched 37 original series and movies, which has generated more than quarter billion views. YouTube has announced its 12 new projects for YouTube Red.

I always have an incredible time at VidCon and this year is no different. I met amazing fans and inspirational creators and I experienced, first-hand, the wonderful sense of community and belonging between them. I hope some of these features and announcements will make their YouTube experience—and yours—better than ever. - Susan Wojcicki, CEO

Image source: YouTube blog

VidCon youtube YouTube Red

June 23, 2017

MediaTek has powered  more than 1.5 billion devices.Most of the budget mobiles are now being powered by MediaTek processors. Now, MediaTek is working on other platforms also. Recently, MediaTek has announced its latest chipsets and their features.

For Cloud-connected applications, integrated with Voice Assistant Devices (VADs), MT8516 comes handy. It's a quad-core 64-bit ARM A35 processor. The processor operates at a frequency of 1.3GHz. It comes with the Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n standard and also supports Bluetooth 4.0. It comes with integrated the Google Voice Assistant Google now. It supports wide variety of memories - LPDDR2, LPDDR3, DDR3, DDR3L and DDR4. This helps the developers to be more application specific, with optimised RAM.

The MT5597 is an advanced SoC that powers mainly the Smart TVs. On the other hand, it support Ultra HD displays with MediaTek's very own 4K60p MEMC (Motion Estimation Motion Compensation). The MEMC provides a better experience to the user by removing the motion judder and producing a smoother picture. In terms of audio, it supports Dolby Atmos. Also, this chipset is integrated with SRS algorithm of enhance the details of the scene.

The other three chipsets MT7682, MT7686 and MT5932 are for Smart Home applications. In competition with the latest advancements in Smart homes, MediaTek has launched these three SoCs. These chipsets support a wide variety of communication protocols like UART, I2C, SPI, I2S, PWM and auxiliary ADC. All the three chipsets find their applications majorly in connected devices. Here is the comparison of these three chipsets in terms of hardware.

MT5932 vs MT7682 vs MT7686

Smart home products are growing in popularity and MediaTek’s expertise is making connected devices smarter, smaller and more power efficient without sacrificing performance. Our dedicated Android support will help expand the market for voice-based intelligent devices. - Joe Chen, Executive Vice President and Co-COO of MediaTek.

MT7668 Reference Platform

All these chipsets will be commercially available from Q4 of 2017 and Q1 of 2018. On the other hand, MediaTek is going to release many other application specific chips by the end of this year.
Image source: MediaTek blog

MediaTek

June 23, 2017

DeepMind is the one the world's leading agencies working on Artificial Intelligence. The company has been carrying out researches on spatial reasoning. The major application of spatial reasoning is into AI. This is the aspect where the AI world is failing these days. Because, spatial reasoning is the intuitive ability of human beings.

Spatial reasoning means identifying the objects based upon its three dimension. In 2D, it may be a circle but in 3D, it is a sphere. Such perception of object is very natural in human beings. This is also called spatial visualisation ability. The performance of spatial visualisation with certain user interfaces through several cognitive tests. Form board, paper folding, surface development are some of the cognitive tests for spatial reasoning.
**The Form board is the test for shape perception. The task is to get similar objects with smaller shapes to construct a final bigger shape. The participant has to identify which smaller shapes combination can result in the bigger one.
**The paper folding test consists of a paper through multiple folds and finally, several holes are made. The participant has to make the same folds with reference to the holes for a new paper.
**The surface development test involves in indication of the numbers and alphabet combination, where a pre-configured flat surfaces with alphabet and numbers mentioned.
DeepMind has recently published a proposal that with all its advancement in this context, particularly distinguishing objects and grasping the relation between objects. Here is a sample from the proposal.

DeepMind Spatial reasoning

The machines are generally "trained" by machine learning. Supervised learning is the sub-discipline of machine learning, which deals with the training of pattern matching. As of now, the computers has surpassed the capabilities of humans in pattern matching. There are other aspects that the computers are toe trained in order to compete the capabilities of humans. As AI is extending its wings, DeepMind is involving itself more into the research.

ai artificial intelligence DeepMind

June 22, 2017

Unless you belong to stone age, you need an introduction about Google. But, you need to belong to the modern age to know the other Google search engines. We all know Google search engine, but there are other Google search engines which are specific to a targeted data.

Google Images:
This is one of the better known Google search engines when compared to the other search engines. You can access this search engine with images.google.com. You can search any image over the internet either with the URL of the image or with the image directly.

Google Image search

 By the way, Google has introduced the image search feature with the very famous Jennifer Lopez's green outfit when she attended the Grammy awards events in 2001. Click here to check if JLo's dress is green! ;)
Google Goggles:
This is exclusive for mobile searches. Just open your camera and click a picture and let Google do the rest. Google will fetch you the related results to your input image.

Google Goggles search

The Google Goggles is very useful when you need translation. This app helps you convert the image into direct text on your mobile. This app is very similar to the Google's image search, but an instant image will be available with you. Also when compared, you can use Google Goggles on-the-go! To download it, click here.
Google Trends:
This search engine displays the trending topics over the internet. You can filter them based upon several filter conditions. You can choose by location, category etc. The major advantage can be gained through the analytics related to search topic. This is one of the methods of Google's data acquisition. You can access this search engine at trends.google.com.

Google Trends search

Google Books:
If you are an engineer, you might have referred Google Books at least once. This is the database of all the authorised books available. This database varies over a wide range of genres. You can find technical books, novels, references and every "BOOK". However, only the previews with certain pages missing are available in Google Books. You can upgrade to access the complete book and save them. Get Google books at books.google.com.

Google Books search

Google Scholars:
Suppose that you are curious about Einstein's Theory of Relativity and you want to explore the "relative" stuff, then Google Scholars is for you! You will get all the scholar articles and papers published in different journals with this search engine. This is completely related research stuff. You can access Google Scholars at scholar.google.com.

There are many other ways that Google simplifies your search needs. Check some of Google's tips for effective Google search.

Google Google books search Google Googles Google image search Google scholar search Google search Google trends

June 21, 2017

CAPTCHA is one of the most commonly heard term for differentiating humans and robots. Google has made its API for the new reCAPTCHA available to the developers. This article is to give you an idea about CAPTCHA and its features.

CAPTCHA is not a word, it's the acronym for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. 

A CAPTCHAs are designed based upon three different abilities - invariant recognition, segmentation and parsing.
Invariant recognition:
Whatever may be the degree of variation of the letters in a CAPTCHA, they should be recognisable. Practically, there are infinite number of ways, a human brain can recognize a particular character, which a computer cannot. Hence, CAPTCHAs are to be designed in such a way that a computer cannot recognise the variations in the characters of a CAPTCHA.
Segmentation:
All the characters in a CAPTCHA are to be segmented in such a way that no two characters merge with eachother, but they should be seeming so, where only a human can recognise the individual characeters.
Parsing:
Parsing through the characters of the CAPTCHA should be clear. For example, the letter 'm' should be designed in such a way that it can be parsed as 'm' but not two 'n's.
When such complexities are introduced into the text, the text becomes more to be recognised by a human being rather than a computer. The same method of CAPTCHA is being used by many of the websites over the internet. However, with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), these kind of text CAPTCHAs can be solved with 99.8% accuracy by the computers. Hence, there has been several forms of CAPTCHAs that involved in different combinations, geometries and multiple words.

Multiple word CAPTCHA

Google has introduced a new kind of CAPTCHA, which Google calls it reCAPTCHA. This CAPTCHA deals with perceiving images rather than text. In this kind of CAPTCHA, the user have to select the appropriate images based upon the instructions. For example, the website may instruct you to select the squares that contain vehicles or the squares that contain street signs. This kind of perception-based inputs from the user makes the computer smart in differentiating humans and computers.
Later, Google has introduced the new technology of Invisible reCAPTCHA, that serves the same purpose of reCAPTCHA. But, in this context, there is no need of selecting the square based upon the instructions. All that you need to do is just 'tick' the box I'm not a robot. Based upon the history of user activities, the computer itself differentiates human and robot. But, I still wonder, why do we need that 'tick' too!

Invisible reCAPTCHA

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of CAPTCHA, on 10th June, Google made the API used to implement the reCAPTCHA available to the Android developers. Click here to get the instructions and usage of this API.

android api captcha Google recaptcha

June 20, 2017

Our life is incomplete without Google. But, there are many times, we could not find what we are searching for. There are many more times, when we are left with inappropriate search results. Here are some the tips that make you a power user of Google search.

Double quotes:
To search for a phrase, use double quotes.

Hyphen:
To exclude a search term, use hyphen.

Site:
Use site: to search within a website.

Related:
To search similar or related websites with a reference website, use related:.

All in text:
Find pages where all the terms appear in text using allintext:.

In text:
To find pages where the one term appears in the text, and the other term appears elsewhere in the document, use intext:.

All in title:
Find pages whose title contains all words in the search using allintitle:.

In title:
Find pages whose title contains a particular word in the title, with other terms appearing elsewhere in the document using intitle:.

All in URL:
Find pages with the search query mentioned in the URL, using allinurl:.

Location:
To find news related to a particular location, use location:.

File type:
To retrieve a particular file type results only, use filetype:.

Quantity ranges:
Separate numbers by two periods (..) to set it as the range of search terms.

Asterisk:
Asterisk works as a wild card. If you miss certain words in your search term, use *.

OR:
If you want to find pages with one of several words, use a capitalised OR. Without OR, results would show pages that include all the search terms.

Punctuation of Google search:

Here some fun Google searches. Try them out!

Google fun phrases

Google Google search

June 19, 2017