Friday 29 July 2016

Google’s free Wi-Fi: This is why it chose railway stations to connect India

Google was pondering over where the they could see the 'experience divide' plaguing Internet users in India the most and that is when they zeroed in on railway stations

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced that over two million people are using the free Wi-Fi deployed by the search giant along with RailTel at major railway stations across India every month. He said they are using 15 times more data than they would on their cellular networks an average day.

But there is a sound logic behind Google collaborating on bringing free high-speed Internet to railway stations.

“Railway stations are the one place in India where you can get reliable power, fiber thanks to RailTel and most importantly almost all of the demographic of India passes through these stations. Imagine the amount of population that will pass through the top 100 stations of the country in a year or two. Being a point of transit, it is not not the same 10 million people every day,” explains Gulzar Azad, Head of Access Programs, Google India.

Since the first station, Mumbai Central, in January 2016, Google has connected 23 stations including Pune, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Ranchi, Patna, Ernakulam Junction and Vishakhapatnam Central. The plan for the world’s largest public Wi-Fi project will cover 100 railway stations.

Google was pondering over where they could see the experience divide plaguing Internet users in India the most and that is when they zeroed in on railway stations. “Imagine the span of population that passes through a station within a span of a year. For the top 100 stations that we are going to address this year, 10 million will be passing by those stations every single day,” says Azad. He adds that since these stations are places of transit, it will not be the same 10 million people who experience the free Wi-Fi every day. “We will actually be going through the population of the country over a period of time.”

For Google to bridge this experience divide, it was crucial to provide a “township kind” of experience. “So there is full coverage and very high capacity with every station being backed up by 1Gbps plus backhaul through fiber. And there are n number of access points across the station so that every single user is able to access a HD video stream, which needs a reliable consistent and low latency network,” says Azad.

Google wants to offers the same experience across all stations that it is connecting. So a person travelling on a long distance train from say Ernakulam Junction to New Delhi, gets the same experience at all connected stations along the way. “Even in the first phase the idea was to go across the country and this is why we have already connected at least one station in all of the Indian Railways’ 16 subdivisions,” says Azad. He says the project is actually Google engineering at work, in terms of designing the network and ensuring the experience is great.

ALSO READ: How to use Google’s free Wi-Fi at stations

While Pichai says that users on its free Wi-Fi consume 15 times more data than their mobile network a day, what is startling is that this is done in transit within an hour — as there is a cap on usage at the stations.

There have been anecdotes of people buying platform tickets just to use the Wi-Fi and finish work. Azad says he doesn’t have any data to back this up, but adds that some people who are using the service daily see this as a convenience and at times come early so that they can finish some work or download some YouTube videos. “We have seen students doing that. I see this as a good problem to have.”

Google’s free Wi-Fi in the stations is capped at one-hour per user, but there is no cap on volume of data for now.

Mozilla Firefox for iOS update promises more speed and flexibility

Mozilla has rolled out Firefox web browser update for iOS users. When Mozilla Firefox was launched as a web browser for iOS, it received warmly by the industry with millions of app downloads. The browser however lacked the features available on its desktop equivalent, but Mozilla has released some major improvements in its latest update. Mozilla claims that, “These improvements will give users more speed, flexibility and choice.”

The testing of the updated Firefox showed a 40 per cent reduction in CPU usage and 30 per cent reduction in memory use, which will make for faster web browsing and conservation of precious battery. The updated browser allows for search engines from websites like Wikipedia (One tap access) to be searched on directly from the address bar.

Firefox has reworked on its menu for the mobile browser, and has added a brand new menu on the toolbar for quick access, giving easier navigational access to frequently used features. The browser will also let you easily recover closed tabs and navigate opened tabs.

Mozilla Firefox will now have a “home” button in its menu that will make for a quick return to your designated home page. The update is already available on the Apple App Store.

Mozilla, the maker of Firefox web browser had recently announced that it will stop Flash support starting August. The company says Mozilla and the Web have been taking steps to lower the need for Flash content in everyday browsing of a typical user. Flash makes for interactive content, but often leads to unstable experience and performance issues.

Source ---http://indianexpress.com

Whatsapp on iOS doesn’t delete your chats fully

WhatsApp is not fully deleting your chats even after you delete your chats from the app, says a new post by iOS researcher Jonathan Zdziarski. Zdziarski claims to have examined the disk images take from the latest version of the app where he found the app retaining traces of chat logs even after its being deleted.

WhatsApp recently activated end-to-end encryption but it seems the data is still very much exposed to anyone with physical access to the device. Zdziarski further notes in his report that the data can be recovered using any remote backup systems.

In his research, Jonathan Zdziarski found that the data is deleted by the app but it is never overwritten. Zdziarski considers use of SQLite library used in coding the app as the reason behind for app default. He says forensic trace is common among any application that uses SQLite, since it does not overwrite data by default.

“The core issue here is that ephemeral communication is not ephemeral on disk,” Zdziarski wrote in the post.

Zdziarski further adds that this problem is not limited to WhatsApp. The iOS researcher has criticised Apple’s iMessage for similar for leaving similar forensic traces. He notes simply keeping deleted data on a secure device is not an issue but the bigger problem is when the data comes off the device. In the case of WhatsApp, the data comes off in the form of WhatsApp Database.

This very idea puts our otherwise encrypted data in the hands of law enforcement to create backup of your deleted chats with access to physical device.

Does that mean you should panic? Well Zdziarski thinks no but he definitely wants iOS users to be aware of this WhatsApp algorithm.

Is there a way to mitigate the potential threat?

1. Using a really strong iTunes password
2. Disabling iCloud backups
3. Periodically deleting application from the device and reinstalling to flush out the database.

Can WhatsApp fix the small little flaw to make it completely secure? Zdziarski notes that WhatsApp developers should eradicate SQLite database from backup completely. He also attributes techniques that allow developers to overwrite SQLite record.

While Zdziarski talkling primarily about iOS, its unclear whether the flaw applies to Android too.

Source --http://indianexpress.com

Tim Cook keen on setting up retail stores in India

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said the tech giant is “looking forward” to setting up retail stores in India to tap into the booming smartphone market in India.

“India is now one of our fastest growing markets. In the first three quarters of this fiscal year, our iPhone sales in India were up 51 per cent year-on-year,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said on an investor call.
He added that the company has announced setting up of a design and development accelerator to support Indian developers creating innovative applications for iOS and opened a new office in Hyderabad to accelerate maps development.

“We’re looking forward to opening retail stores in India down the road, and we see huge potential for that vibrant country,” he said without disclosing further details.

Mr. Cook, who visited India in May, had discussed issues including manufacturing and setting up retail stores in the country with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“On a personal note, during the past quarter I visited China and India, and I am very encouraged about our growth prospects in those countries,” he said.

Recently the government issued new norms allowing single-brand retail trading and exemption from local sourcing for ‘state-of-the-art’ and “cutting edge” technology with a waiver for three years, and the option to extend it for five years.

Sources had said Apple may have to submit a fresh application for the same.

The Cupertino-based tech giant had on Tuesday reported its revenues rising to USD 42.4 billion in the third quarter, driven by markets including India, Russia, Brazil, Turkey and Canada

Saturday 23 July 2016

Earn 100 Rs in CCD App

Tuesday 19 July 2016

Pokémon Go

Pokémon Go (stylized as Pokémon GO) is a free-to-play location-based augmented reality mobile game developed by Niantic. It was released in July 2016 for iOS and Android devices.

The game allows players to capture, battle, and train virtual creatures, called Pokémon, who appear on device screens as though in the real world. It makes use of GPS and the camera of compatible devices. The game is free-to-play, although it supports in-app purchases of additional gameplay items. An optional companion Bluetooth wearable device, the Pokémon Go Plus, is planned for future release and will alert users when Pokémon are nearby.

Pokémon Go was released to mixed reviews. Reviewers praised the overall experience of the game and the incentive to adventure the real world, while noting the obvious technical issues that were apparent at launch; two of the more common issues mentioned were the constant crashes and server issues. The game quickly became one of the most used smart device apps after launching, surpassing the previous record held by Candy Crush Saga in the United States, and was a boon to the stock value of The Pokémon Company andNintendo. The game was credited with popularizing augmented reality, and was praised by some medical professionals for potentially improving the mental and physical health of players, but also attracted some controversy due to reports of causing accidents and being a public nuisance at some locations

Gameplay

After logging into the app for the first time, the player creates their avatar. The player can choose the avatar's gender, hair, skin, and eye color, and choose from a limited number of outfits.[1] After the avatar is created, it is displayed at the player's current location along with a map of the player's immediate surroundings. Features on the map include a number of PokéStops and Pokémon gyms. PokéStops provide players with items, such as eggs, Poké Balls, and potions and can be equipped with items called lures which attract wild Pokémon.[2][3] Gyms serve as battle locations for team-based king of the hill matches.[4] These are typically located at places of interest.[5] These locations are re-purposed Ingress portals, Niantic's previous augmented reality game.[6]

Regional availability :

The game was released in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States on July 6, 2016.[33][34][35][36] Due to server strain from high demand upon release, Niantic CEO John Hanke stated that the release in most other regions was "paused until Niantic was comfortable" fixing the issues.[37][38] Pokémon Go was released in Germany on July 13,[39]in the United Kingdom on July 14,[40] and in Italy, Spain and Portugal on July 15.[41] Pokémon Go was released inAustria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Greenland, Hungary,Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia,Sweden, and Switzerland on July 16.[42] It was released in Canada on July 17.[43]

In South Korea, like most other Asian countries, Pokémon Go has not been released yet.[44] The country, which is still technically at war with North Korea, has major restrictions on the use of online mapping data. However, due to a glitch, a small area around Sokcho in the northeastern part of the country is considered a part of Niantic's North Korea mapping region, making the game fully playable in that area.[45][46] Numerous people have taken advantage of the gap to play the game. Bus tickets from the capital city of Seoul sold out and people living within Sokcho shared information on free Wi-Fi areas to tourists.[47] Players also discovered a gym in Panmunjom, North Korea, along the Korean Demilitarized Zone; however, Niantic later removed it from the game.[48]

In China, Google services are banned by the Great Firewall. Players of Pokémon Go in China bought Australian App Store IDs and used a GPS spoofing app to use Google services and because there are no Pokémon to catch in China. Many Chinese people downloaded a clone known as City Spirit Go, which was released shortly after Pokémon Go's beta test in Japan