Showing 1 - 10 of 15
Upgrading to the Samsung S8
Life, James Hein, Published on 05/07/2017
» So, I finally went for the smartphone upgrade and ordered a Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus. The Chinese phones are not quite there in terms of feature set, and the prices on them keep rising. The next article will cover some of the issues I faced moving from my current S5, and the wonders of the new phone as I discover them. After that, the next question will be "Do I get the docking station and VR kit or not?".
Your TV is watching you
Life, James Hein, Published on 15/03/2017
» Love them or hate them as I write this WikiLeaks has just dropped a large batch of new documents for all the world to see, this time CIA secret materials. The part that has caught most attention is the information on how to spy on people, using commonly found household items. Apple and Android devices, Samsung TV's (glad I recently changed to Sony), Macs and Windows devices can all be used to spy on people -- no one in the US of course -- and pass info back to the CIA. There are also different malware products that can be used to infect all manner of devices including a USB stick that can be used to jump that critical air-gap between your system and the outside world. For anyone living in the real world none of this will be of any surprise. All the leaks really do is confirm what everyone knows and every country does.
Arguing over social media
Life, James Hein, Published on 15/04/2015
» This week's article is a little different. The modern world is now largely based around social media. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Secret, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Taptalk, Skype, Yahoo Messenger and many others are linking people all around the planet, 24/7, 365 days of the year. Some countries like China have banned some of these sites and replaced them with local variants, but for the most part, no matter where you are, you can let people know what you are doing.
Producers don't give a 4K about Ultra HD
Life, James Hein, Published on 11/02/2015
» Will Ultra HD, sometimes called 4K, technology take off? As someone who likes new technology that provides a sharper picture, I hope so, but the industry pundits are lukewarm on the subject for the simple reason that there are very few ways to get any content with movie studios and TV producers slow out of the gate.
Window to tomorrow's technology
Life, James Hein, Published on 28/01/2015
» Windows 10 will be the best version ever. Yes we have heard it all before and all you need to respond to such a statement is Vista, Windows 8 and Windows Bob. Does anyone even remember that last one? These three versions and a couple of others were hardly the "best version ever" as Windows XP and Windows 7 has proven to all in more recent times.
Get ready, this week is Apple-heavy
Life, James Hein, Published on 30/07/2014
» At a talk given at the recent Hackers On Planet Earth conference, Jonathan Zdziarski found a number of hidden surveillance tools hidden in the iOS operating system. One provides a back door that, while not wide open, is enough to gain access to the user’s address book, account info and other bits and pieces. In this case, you can get data out, but not back into the device. The retrieved data is in a raw format and needs additional processing. There is also an undocumented packet sniffer (com.apple.pcapd) that can log and export network traffic. These items have been actively updated by Apple, meaning they are not left over from testing.
How safe is your data?
Life, James Hein, Published on 12/02/2014
» Researchers from Rutgers University have developed a smartphone tool that tracks how often applications track them. The app essentially monitors other applications and logs when they get location data and transmits it. The results indicated that lots of applications, sometimes those where it was not expected, grabbed location data and passed it along. Some apps will notify the user but the research found that others are not so forthcoming. The researchers concluded that Android permissions are not an effective method for disclosing and consenting for location data access. They also found that the flashing GPS icon is largely ignored or not registered by users. You have been warned. You can find the full report here: http://bit.ly/NrTyQN
IT industry lays off staff, more to come
Life, James Hein, Published on 29/01/2014
» I am reading more and more articles about different IT organisations dropping staff. The latest is Intel, which estimates it will drop 5,400 workers in 2014 after last year, when they were hiring new staff. Acer is another company that will be scaling down this year, as well. I expect to see more bad news like this in the coming year.
It's time for an overhaul
Life, James Hein, Published on 24/04/2013
» So the question of the next big thing seems to be, why would you need to have a watch and a phone? I have noticed that most of the younger generation, the ones with a smartphone, don't have a watch because the time is prominently displayed on the phone. One simple answer might be that a watch is still useful for when your hands are full, or swimming underwater, or when you are doing something that doesn't include pockets.
So where do smartphones go from here?
Life, James Hein, Published on 27/03/2013
» No, the upcoming release of the Samsung Galaxy S4 will not be the last of the smartphones but it does raise an interesting issue _ where do they go from here? At five inches the screen size is maxed out as far as being a comfortable handheld device and even at this size some people are already using the word Phablet to describe the cross between a phone and a tablet.