Author: Anna Galvez

Categories
Tech

New iPhone 2018 Models, Dubbed XS, XS Plus, and XC, To Launch In Just A Couple Of Days

This Wednesday, September 12th, Apple will hold its common September event in which it will present the new iPhone 2018 models. And it is already known that this year, there will be three new models, namely, iPhones XS, XS Plus, (or Max) and XC.

The new iPhone XC would be a Dual SIM iPhone

iPhone XC would be the most economical version among the three new models, and it will boast a 6.1-inch LED screen, along with a single rear camera, like on iPhone 6, 7 and 8, while it will also pack wireless charging feature.

The new iPhone XC will come in several colors that are presumed to be white, spatial gray, pink, and red.

The cheapest iPhone 2018 model will also have dual SIM capacity, although it is not yet known whether this option will be global or limited to specific markets such as China or India, among others.

Its price would be around $700, and it will be marketed in both 64 and 256 GB versions.

The upcoming iPhone Xs and Xs Plus will boast the new 7-nm A12 CPU

As for the new iPhone Xs and Xs Plus (or Max), these two will come out packing OLED displays of 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch, respectively.

More important, Apple confirmed that both iPhone Xs and Xs Plus or Max would boast the new 7-nanometer A12 chip, under the hood, which will place these models among the best ones on the market regarding the processing speed and performance, as well as the battery life.

Additionally, the new iPhone Xs and Xs Plus would come out in the same colors as iPhone X to which Apple added the gold color option.

Their prices will start from $900 for the iPhone Xs and $1,000 for the Xs Plus model, and the new handsets would come out in three variants with different internal storage capacities, namely, 64 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB.

Categories
Tech

XPrivacyLua Privacy Manager Helps You Protect The Sensitive Data On Android Smartphones

There are so many apps available for Android, either on the Google Play Store or as APK files or on third-party marketplaces, that it’s virtually impossible for someone to verify the authenticity and credibility of its developer before getting an app. The truth is that many applications for Android need access to different sections of your device and, obviously, it would be easy for devs to put their hand on some of the sensitive data you store on your devices. Therefore, a privacy manager such as XPraviacyLua helps you keep your private data safe.

Also, since you’re using Android smartphones, you might be already aware of the fact that Google’s OS for mobiles is not as safe as iOS, for example, but this one comes with an advantage. Android devices are much more customizable in comparison to Apple handsets. But, with that, there comes the most significant disadvantage of Android, namely, the high risk of sensitive data leak.

XPrivacyLua is the ideal privacy manager to protect the sensitive data on Android smartphones

Applied to both the system apps and user-installed applications on Android devices, XPrivacyLua blocks the apps from accessing specific categories of data on a smartphone which are known as sensitive data.

However, don’t get it wrong, XPrivacyLua is not blocking apps’ permissions. If it would do so, those apps might crash or misbehave. Instead, this privacy manager sends fake data to the apps, thus restricting them to access the real, sensitive data.

Whenever an app performs sensitive actions, XprivacyLua applies restrictions as follows:

  • Get applications (hide installed apps);
  • Get calendars (hide calendars);
  • Get call log (hide call log);
  • Get contacts (hide contacts, including blocked numbers);
  • Get location (fake location, hide NMEA messages);
  • Get messages (hide MMS, SMS, SIM, voicemail);
  • Get sensors (hide all sensors);
  • Read account name (fake name, mostly e-mail address);
  • Read clipboard (fake paste);
  • Read identifiers (fake build serial number, Android ID, GSF ID, advertising ID);
  • Read network data (hide cell info, Wi-Fi networks/scan results/network name);
  • Read telephony data (hide IMEI, MEI, SIM serial number, voicemail number, etc.);
  • Record audio (prevent recording);
  • Record video (prevent recording);
  • Use camera (fake camera);

XPrivacyLua is available for Android 6.0 Marshmellow or later but requires Xposed to work. For more information, installations guidelines, and download go to the official GitHub page of the XPrivacyLua project.

Categories
Crypto News

BitFury Uses Eco-Friendly Technologies To Cool Down Its Crypto Mining Equipment

Crypto mining equipment manufacturer BitFury is using low environmental impact refrigeration technology to maintain crypto-mining equipment at its mining farm in Tbilisi, Georgia. A report published by Bloomberg relates the experience of this company, which currently immerses Bitcoin (BTC) mining devices in 160 tanks containing a non-conductive liquid to keep them cold while extracting cryptos and contribute to maintaining the state of the network updated.

The system was designed and created by Allied Control Ltd., an engineering company based in Hong Kong, which was acquired by BitFury in 2015. About it, the director of the firm, Valery Vavilov, pointed out that they thought about this type of technology when they realized that the data centers would be used both for Internet searches and to secure Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain.

The Valery Vavilov also announced that BitFury is betting that this technology will have higher demand from cloud computing companies in urban areas. An idea that is supported by the founder of Allied Control, Kar-Wing Lau, who agrees with Vavilov regarding the advantages of the system, adding that the crypto mining farm is visited by bankers and tech companies’ representatives who want to see the system for themselves.

BitFury crypto mining company fight for a cleaner environment

This immersion cooling technology has been on the market for some time and has had several uses. The fluids have been used to cool servers, and have even been used to extinguish race car fires, according to Bloomberg. In this regard, 3M executive Michael Kelly says they are working with ten high-capacity data centers that use immersion cooling.

The system involves locating the hardware in an open liquid coolant tank with a low boiling point. Once the equipment is heated, the fluid boils, and this causes the heat to exit the components. The fluid becomes steam, rises and condenses into a water-cooled coil. Then it returns to the tank. That results in energy savings of 95%, depending on the company’s size, with a minimal fluid loss.

With this system, BitFury lowered the costs related to the crypto mining activity. Regarding the subject, a group of researchers and professors from a technical education institution in Singapore is looking for solutions for the miners of Litecoin (LTC), together with the 3M company.

In this way, these systems are gaining popularity and are likely to replace some of the techniques used by crypto mining farms, which include dipping their miners in oil tanks.

Categories
Crypto News Tech

Crypto Collectibles Feature Added In Opera Wallet

Opera, the famous Internet browser, announced that it is now possible to send cryptos from the Ethereum (ETH) network directly between users of its integrated crypto wallet.

“We believe that an important part of our lives is developed online, and so will be the things we collect,” said the Opera team on their blog.

Now, users will be able to make transactions with their cryptos by exchanging them with each other from the browser, without the need to enter exchange platforms or massive online markets. Opera intends to integrate a wallet that allows holding and exchanging crypto collectibles.

“We are big fans of crypto collectibles. They are unique digital objects that can be kept in the blockchain and collected in a wallet […] These digital objects are known in the crypto world as ‘collectibles,’ ‘unique tokens’ or non-fungible tokens or NIFTYs. Although they are still in an early stage of adoption, baseball cards or CryptoKitties can already be collected and stored in a wallet. We believe that this is just the beginning of a trend,” said Opera devs.

Crypto collectible adoption rates might skyrocket thanks to Opera wallet once it becomes public

Referring to the fact that the transactions in the blockchain are not instantaneous, they implemented in this version of the Opera wallet a notification system that warns when a transaction is made and when it is confirmed.

The wallet is available in its private beta version, which gives reason to think that, if it is implemented publicly, the adoption of blockchain crypto collectibles can skyrocket to never-before-seen levels. This result, on the one hand, looks positive, but on the other hand, it can evidence the network’s shortcomings. A successful mass adoption requires that the blockchain in which these smart contracts are executed has a high processing capacity to handle the subsequent volume of transactions generated.

At the moment, the Opera wallet is only available in the Opera browser for the Android, and, because it is based on the Ethereum (ETH) network, it only supports ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens.

Categories
Tech

Microsoft Extended Windows 7 Support Until 2023, But It Won’t Be Free

Are you still running Windows 7? The fact is that Windows 7 still has a large market share nowadays and it appears that Microsoft plans to expand the support for this OS even more, as part of the “Windows 7 Extended Security Updates” program. However, Microsoft will charge for security updates for Windows 7.

Microsoft extended the support for Windows 10 until 2023, but it will charge you for it

The Windows 7 official support will expire on January 14th, 2020, but because of various factors such as its large market share, Microsoft has agreed to launch a special program known as “Windows 7 Extended Security Updates.”

The new “Windows 7 Extended Security Updates” essentially means extended support for Windows 7. In other words, Windows 7 will keep getting security updates until 2023, three years after the end of its official support in 2020.

However, there is a very significant point. Namely, Microsoft will charge for this extended support for Windows 7. For “Windows 7 Extended Security Updates” you will be charged since it will be marketed for a single device and its prices, which are yet unknown, will rise year by year.

Only Microsoft Windows 7 Professional and Enterprise will be eligible for “Windows 7 Extended Security Updates”

Microsoft announced they extended the support for Windows 7. However, only Windows 7 Professional and Enterprise versions of the renowned Microsoft’s OS will be eligible for the “Windows 7 Extended Security Updates.”

This program will be available for Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise. Likewise, all those clients who have Office 365 Pro Plus will be free to use this suite on Windows 7 as long as they have purchased this bundle.

After 2023 there will not be much more to be done than to upgrade to Windows 10 Home or to the Pro version to get in line with the latest security updates. However, Windows 7 will remain there permanently for all users or companies that would like to keep on using it, but with no security updates.

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