Samsung Galaxy S IV codenamed 'Altius' to go on sale in April

The countdown to the Mobile World Congress (MWC) is on with just a month left to go. And over the past few days, rumours surrounding Samsung's next line of devices are beginning to churn out pretty fast. (Also see: Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 image leaked, likely to compete with iPad mini) The latest one, as reported by Samsung prominent blog SamMobile indicates that the Galaxy S IV has now been codenamed "Altius" and is expected to go on sale in April. Samsung Parts The blog mentions that Samsung is indeed planning to "ship the Altius starting from week 16, which simply means April 15". It goes on to say that the Korean manufacturer is likely to announce the device at a special mobile unpacked event at MWC or maybe sometime in March in London or New York. Furthermore, the blog claims that earlier rumours suggesting that the smartphone will support wireless charging are in fact real. The company plans to sell a separate dock and a back cover with wireless charging capabilities for the device. The wireless charging kit is expected to be made available a couple of weeks later after the Galaxy S IV goes on sale. This means that the successor in the Galaxy S line will have a removable back cover, just like company's current flagship device the Galaxy S III. An earlier report mentioned that Samsung plans on using an alternate technology based on resonant magnetic coupling that is different from the electromagnetic induction found in the current wireless chargers. It also stated that the Galaxy S IV will not come integrated with wireless charging compatibility, but will rather sell the charger and a backplate, which is required to enable wireless charging separately. Other rumoured specs of the device so far include a 4.99-inch Super AMOLED display with full-HD resolution, 13-megapixel rear autofocus mobile phone lcd camera, Android Jelly Bean, Exynos 5 Octa chipset and an S-Pen stylus.

Nokia Xpress Browser servers found to decrypt HTTPS traffic, an update issued

Nokia’s Xpress Browser is the default web browser on the Nokia’s Asha lineup and it’s also an optional download for the Lumia phones, running on Windows Phone. Nokia prides on the capabilities of the web browser to compress data and reduce traffic. To accomplish this Nokia servers process and compress all data to and from the mobile device. But has it occurred to you that in the process Nokia’s servers are also decrypting the information sent over the allegedly secure HTTPS protocol iPhone 4 Parts, which you may have thought no one has access to. Nokia does not refuse that, but claims you shouldn’t worry, as nothing is recorded. But can we trust it? The Xpress Browser is advanced enough to translate web pages, search for keywords you tap on and even re-format pages into a nice magazine-like reading layout sans distractions. But this amazing piece of software also communicates all your sensitive data to Nokia servers where it’s temporarily decrypted to plain text form, as security researcher Gaurang Pandya has discovered. “From the tests that were preformed, it is evident that Nokia is performing Man In The Middle Attack for sensitive HTTPS traffic originated from their phone and hence they do have access to clear text information which could include user credentials to various sites such as social networking, banking, credit card information or anything that is sensitive in nature. In short, be it HTTP or HTTPS site when browsed  through the phone in subject, Nokia has complete information unencrypted (in clear text format) available to them for them to use or abuse,” – Pandya  points out. Nokia’s statement on the matter is as follows: “Importantly, the proxy servers do not store the content of web pages visited by our users or any information they enter into them. When temporary decryption of HTTPS connections is required on our proxy servers, to transform and deliver users’ content, it is done in a secure manner. [...] Claims that we would access complete unencrypted information are inaccurate.” Other competing proxy browser services take a different approach with HTTPS packets. The all popular Opera Mini web browser, for instance, simply routes the packets to their destinations without decrypting them. mobile phone housing Amazon’s Silk browser or the Skyfire mobile browser detect those packages and don’t even transfer them though their servers. In contrast, Nokia’s Xpress Browser actually impersonates you and the visited site in a Man In The Middle style. An update from today (Jan 11) by Gaurang Pandya tells us that Nokia has released a browser update. “[...]They are no more doing Man-In-The-Middle attack on HTTPS traffic, which was originally the issue, and the bad news is the traffic is still flowing through their servers. This time they are tunneling HTTPS traffic over HTTP connection to their server” – he writes. The fact that unknown servers read my usernames and passwords just so that they can compress them, is enough to send shivers down my spine. What about you? Worried?

IBM crowned patent king for 20th year in a row

IBM has always been known for raking in more U.S. patents than any other company, but this year signals a landmark: not only is it IBM's 20th consecutive year of earning more patents than any other company, it also made a single-year record with 6,478 issued patents, according to the annual tally published today by IFI Claims Patent Services.iPhone 4 Parts "We are proud of this new benchmark in technological and scientific creativity, which grows out of IBM's century-long commitment to research and development," IBM chairman and CEO Ginni Rometty said in a statement. "Most concretely, our 2012 patent record and the two decades of leadership it extends are a testament to thousands of brilliant IBM inventors." Coming in second and third place were Samsung with 5,081 issued patents, and Canon with 3,174 issued patents. Both Google and Apple made the top 50 list, in the 21st and 22nd places, respectively. And while they weren't at the head of the list, they both did far better than in year's past. According to the New York Times, Google, with 1,151 patents issued, had a 170 percent jump over last  year. mobile phone flex cable And, Apple, which was awarded 1,136 patents this year and 1,236 last year, has had a 68 percent jump since 2011. "Google and Apple are clearly taking intellectual property very seriously, and playing to win," chief executive of IFI Mike Baycroft told the New York Times. Of IBM's granted patents, around 200 were security related, showing that the company is looking toward technology's growing emphasis on security and privacy. Other IBM patents issued were in areas of health, analytics, cloud, mobile, banking, social networking, and more. From 1993 to 2012, IBM has received almost 67,000 U.S. patents. This year, 8,000 of the company's inventors worked on developing the record 6,478 granted patents.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Design and build If you've seen the Samsung Galaxy S3, then the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 holds few surprises. Start with the Galaxy S3's round corners, high-gloss surfaces, scant bezels and bubbled-out screen, then blow it up a size and add a stylus slot. Samsung unabashedly carries on its plastic tradition in the face of rivals that have much more premium-looking, and possibly heartier, build materials. Though attractive, the Note 2 wins no awards for construction, and the highly reflective surfaces sometimes bounce back light in distracting ways. This is a large phone, a handful to be sure, but the weight feels proportional to the phone's dimensions, and any lighter could mean a smaller battery, which is one trade-off we wouldn't want. Like the Galaxy S3, the Note 2 manages to look relatively sleek and slim, despite its girth. Side by side, the Note 2 isn't a whole lot larger than the original Samsung Galaxy Note, and is much more palm-able than a 7-inch tablet. Still, we won't blame anyone for feeling anxiety over the Note 2's in-hand feel or portability. As with all phones, your ultimate judgement of what feels right depends on your hands. Over the course of testing, the Note 2 moved through a range of hands and pockets. Mine are fairly small, and I wanted to see what people had to say about its size and comfort. Most of the women I spoke with had no trouble fitting the Note 2 into a bag or purse, but questioned the phone's usability and their ability to reach the corners of the screen one-handed. Of the men who tried out the phone, responses were 50/50. Some felt fine slipping the Note 2 into a front pants pocket, others didn't. Some enjoyed holding the larger phone once they got used to its size; others found it too expansive, even with their bigger hands. I was able to slide the Note 2 into my back jeans cell phone parts pocket and go about my day. It stuck out and looked terrible, but it didn't impede my walking around, and most of the time, I didn't really notice it. I even sat on the phone a few times; it wasn't especially uncomfortable, and the phone didn't break. I also became quickly accustomed to the phone's size. After a day or two staring at its screen, the Galaxy S3's looked small in comparison. The iPhone 5's 4-inch screen looked shockingly tiny, which just proves that device size is all relative. If you don't have one already, you'll want to invest in a Bluetooth headset for answering calls. The Note 2 looks comically large on the ear. Beyond the phone's physical properties, you'll find helpful hardware buttons and ports. There's a front-facing camera above the screen, along with a light and proximity sensor. There's a physical hardware Home button below the display, sandwiched between touch-sensitive buttons for Menu and Back. The power button is on the right spine, the volume rocker is on the left and the Micro-USB port is on the bottom. The top houses the 3.5mm headset jack. On the back, you'll find the camera lens and LED flash. At the bottom of the back panel is the stylus slot with the S Pen. Behind the back cover rests the microSD card slot, which can hold up to 64GB in external memory. Screen and OS The Note 2's 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED screen (1280x720-pixel resolution) is bigger than the original Note's 5.3-inch display. That translates into a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio rather than the 16:10 aspect ratio of the first Note. This helps it fit right in with more standard graphics and video playback. The Note 2's vast HD AMOLED screen is as lovely as ever, with deep blacks and vibrant colours. However, the resolution isn't as tight as on the Samsung Galaxy S3, which puts more pixels on a comparatively smaller screen. The naked eye would be hard-pressed to detect the looser resolution while watching videos and reading text, but when you hold the phones side by side, the fine details don't look as sharp on the Note 2. This is especially noticeable when compared with an even smaller HD screen, like the iPhone 5's 4-inch Retina Display. The S Pen stylus is an integral part of the complete Note 2 experience, but to control the phone, fingers are all you really need. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean runs the Note 2, with Samsung's TouchWiz interface on top. I've said it before: TouchWiz mostly adds terrific functionality that extends Google's Android vision, but it's getting a little outdated and lacks the elegance or edginess of its competitors' overlays. There's a great deal of customisation, from lock screen shortcuts to a wide variety of motion controls — some of which I love and others that I completely ignore. You'll be able to access system settings from the notifications menu, which, by the way, offer Jelly Bean's deeper interactions. Seven home screens are fully customisable, and Samsung even gives you the option of booting up "easy" mode, which drops in widgets of most-used apps, settings and contacts on the home screen. It's all editable, of course. You can also enable Page Buddy, a context-relevant home screen that temporarily pops up when you do things like remove the stylus, plug in headphones and dock the phone. Pull out the stylus, for instance, and you'll see a page with shortcuts to S Note files and templates. Samsung's default virtual keyboard lets you touch type or trace words. I love that numbers get their own row and I appreciate predictive text. Unfortunately, there's no spell-checker, and mistakes require manual correction. This oversight bothers me on all Samsung phones, but with the Note 2 being so focused on writing, the lack of a default spell-checker is really inexcusable. I'm also put out that there's no one-touch way to insert commas and question marks. On the plus side, each navigation button also doubles up on functionality. Hold down Menu to get the revised Google Search App, with the newly designed Google Voice Actions and Google Now. A long press on the Home button pulls up your list of most recent apps; a double-press activates Samsung's own take on a voice assistant, S Voice, which I still don't think is very good. Pressing the Back button on this global version pops up the menu for split-screen multitasking (more on this below). S Pen stylus If you never unholster the phone's signature stylus, you can still enjoy full use of the Note 2 and all its Android-given glory. However, if you do wield the S Pen, drawing and productivity tools await. The S Pen is redesigned from the original Note's. Like the Galaxy Note 10.1's, the Note 2's stylus has four distinct surfaces and squared-off sides. Its button is ridged, so you can click by feel. Compared with the Note's round, thin, twig of a wand, this stylus is more comfortable, less likely to roll away, and less prone to accidental button presses. Of course, I mistakenly pressed it anyway, which led to its own set of issues while using the device. Samsung licenses Wacom's technology to bring mobile phone flex cable its S Pen 1024 levels of pen-pressure sensitivity, which means that you can press lightly or hard for different results. Like the Note tablet, the Note 2 smartphone merges pen-and-paper sensibilities with a healthy dose of cursor-and-mouse functionality. Take air view, a cursor/mouse combo that reveals tool tips and drop-down menus when you hover, and also pops up thumbnail previews for photo and video. You can also scroll up and down, and from side to side. Manipulating the S Pen also zooms in and out, takes a screen shot, and opens a new, blank memo on any screen. You can also highlight text and lasso objects to capture them. Writing with S Pen The S Pen is a natural, comfortable extension of your own hand, and using it gives your fingers a break. Dig a little, and you'll find quick commands and gestures of all sorts. Gestures can be faster and more efficient; other times not. You can also create some of your own.