Keep Your Children Away From These 5 Apps And Websites!

As a responsible parent to your children you must be quite concerned about the safety and well-being of them. Social media platforms are easily accessible these days which makes online security of minors more vulnerable. But if you are not enough tech-savvy, then it may be a huge problem for you to know about which apps and websites are the most dangerous ones for your kids. Here is a list of such apps and websites which every parent needs to ensure that their children are not able to access without knowing the proper safety measures:

1. Instagram: 

In a recent survey it has been proved that the photo-sharing social network, Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms among teenagers. On Instagram, the minimum age to have an account is 13. After signing up the user profile is available for public view by default. It means whenever a picture is uploaded to the app, it can be seen by anyone. It opens up chances of cyber bullying and stalking like vulnerabilities. If you are allowing your child use Instagram, here are some measures which you should adopt fast. First, turn the profile visibility to 'private' so that only the approved followers can view the photographs and secondly, make sure your child knows how to block users and report abusive images.

2. Snapchat: 

Snapchat is also a social media platform for sharing photos and videos. It makes users take a snap and send it to various friends. The receiver can see the image or the video for maximum 10 seconds and then it disappears. This app is also authorised for 12+ teens. The danger lies when the snap doesn't disappear completely. If misused, this app can lead to extensive harassment and bullying. Its parent guide says parents should know some basic things like Snapchat should be configured in such a way that messages are received only from those who are on the friend list, and snaps don't disappear fully as it can be easily saved to the receiver's phone within those 10 seconds.

3. Tinder: 

Tinder is a dating app, so a minor below 18 years should not have access to it ethically. This app locates 'singles' in your location. You get to see an image of a person who is 'single' and if you find him/her attractive enough, you just swipe right and if that person also swipes right to you, then messaging starts between the two. This app has several hazards. It demands that every person should be physically attractive enough to attract the opposite sex, and it also ends up in meeting strangers online and then in person, without knowing much about their backgrounds. Being a parent it's your responsibility you should protect your child from such an app by making them understand the stranger danger.

4. Yik Yak: 

It's a completely free app which requires no registration and allows complete anonymity too. It has an anonymous chat room and it connects around 500 nearby users. As registration is not required, users of any age group can use this app and it's quite popular among teens too. The app was originally made for college-goers and above, for college campuses. It was supposed to act as a virtual bulletin board. But younger people misuse the app a lot. Cyber-bullying is quite common surrounding this app and as it's anonymous, a writer who writes anything offensive cannot be traced easily.

5. Omegle: 

It's another chatting site which identifies you as 'You' and a stranger as the 'Stranger'. This chat is also anonymous and it allows a text or a video conversation. Though they are anonymous, still some users share names, age and location through actual messaging. This app also opens up the potential for stranger danger. Keep your child safe from online predators and resist them from meeting strangers. Sharing private information can be scary for your entire family too.

Courtesy: Lifehack 

Samsung Galaxy S6 to have smaller battery than Galaxy S5

 The launch of Samsung Galaxy S6 is just around the corner, and the rumour mill keeps on revealing new details about the upcoming smartphone.

 

The latest report comes from Chinese social media website Weibo, saying Samsung will decrease the battery capacity in its next flagship compared to last year's Galaxy S5. 

Photos taken inside a Samsung supplier's plant show the batteries with 2,600mAh capacity and speculation is rife that these are headed to Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. This means that the two phones' powerhouse will be 200mAh lower than that of Galaxy S5. 

However, smaller battery capacity does not necessarily mean relatively lower battery performance for Samsung Galaxy S6. The South Korean giant recently announced that it will use Exynos 7 chipsets made on 14nm process in its upcoming smartphones. These chips reduce battery consumption by 35%, while increasing productivity and speed by up to 35% and 20%, respectively. 

Compared to Galaxy Note 3, Samsung had given only a 20mAh capacity increase to the battery of its Galaxy Note 4. During our review, we found that both smartphones last perform equally well on this parameter. 

Samsung had earlier teased that the next-generation Galaxy S smartphone will have an "intelligent" camera that can take "amazing pictures under any condition." The company is expected to showcase the new top-end models on March 1 in Barcelona, Spain, though it has not been made official yet. 

Samsung’s mobile payment plans mean bad news for Google

Samsung made one of its most clever and strategic acquisitions on Wednesday when it bought LoopPay, a mobile payments company developing a rival platform to Apple Pay and lesser-known systems like CurrentC.

LoopPay has one key advantage over Apple Pay: It can work with just about any standard credit card reader. LoopPay's technology uses a metal coil to emit a magnetic field that can talk to most credit card terminals and securely transfer your card's information. Apple Pay, on the other hand, requires the merchant to have a special payment pad with near field communication (NFC) technology that's not available at most retailers.

As Jason Del Rey of Re/code first reported, Samsung is expected to integrate LoopPay in one of its new phones this year, likely the Galaxy S6, which the company will unveil at an event in Barcelona on March 1.

But as the largest Android phone maker in the world, Samsung's decision to go with LoopPay over Google's own system, Google Wallet, threatens any hope for Google creating a unified mobile payments system for Android.

Now, Google is losing control of yet another piece of the Android platform by ceding control of mobile payments space to the two biggest companies in mobile: Apple and Samsung. It failed to turn Google Wallet into a viable option, essentially forcing its biggest partner Samsung to take matters into its own hands.

This is going to be a problem for Google and the Android platform in the long run. Other Android phone manufacturers like HTC, Motorola, LG, and Lenovo have yet to come up with a payments system as good as Apple Pay or LoopPay. So far, there's no indication that those other partners will be able to rely on Google for the answer, meaning they'll also have to come up with their own separate solutions if they want to remain competitive, just like Samsung is doing with LoopPay. With Apple Pay taking off and Samsung about to implement a system that it claims will work at 90% of retailers that accept credit cards, Google's chances of owning mobile payments seem slim.

Android is already fragmented enough as it is. And when it comes to a mobile wallet, the next must-have feature in phones, most Android users will have to choose from a hodgepodge systems, whereas Samsung and Apple users will have their own integrated solutions. A Google spokesperson declined to comment.

There is one small glimmer of hope for Google: According to TechCrunch and a few other scattered reports, Google may buy Softcard, a mobile payments platform backed by Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.

Having the blessing of three major wireless carriers is a good start, but so far Softcard (which was formerly called ISIS, but had to change that unfortunate name recently), hasn't taken off the way Apple Pay has and LoopPay will likely be able to. And I'm not very confident Google will be able to change that, considering what a dud Google Wallet turned out to be.

Once again, Google is losing control over Android and letting manufacturers take over instead.

1,500 mobile phones to be launched in 2015: Report

 As mobile phone brands like Xiaomi, Asus, Motorola, Obi etc slug it out to increase their market share in India, around 1,400-1,500 new models are expected to be launched in 2015, a report has said. 

"We expect around 1,400-1,500 phone launches in 2015, up around 20% from 2014," 91mobiles.com said in a report. 

Last year witnessed 1,137 total phone launches whereas in 2013 the number stood at 957. 

The research and comparison website for mobile phones and gadgets, has a database of over 20,000 devices and claims over 40 million people visited the website in 2014. 

"The trend will continue as the new brands such as Xiaomi, Motorola, Asus, Obi etc look to intensify their presence in the Indian market, while the incumbents are likely to put up a strong fight by launching several devices that cater to a larger variety of consumer preferences and price points," Mathur said. 

The report said second or third-time smartphone buyers were moving up to higher-end devices in 2013 and 2014. 

"However, in starting early to mid 2014, offerings from several new brands like Xiaomi, Motorola, Lenovo and Asus started providing the specs and reliability of higher end devices within the Rs 5-15,000 price range." 

It said such devices also allowed consumers to opt for faster upgrade cycles instead of buying Rs 40,000+ phones, which they would then have to use for longer. 

"This led to average selling price of smartphones to fall by 18% in 2014," it added. 

The report said this trend of value for money devices dominating is likely to continue in 2015, although the Rs 15,000-25,000 range is likely to grow in popularity.

How to upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1

Although it will be some time before Windows 10 becomes generally available, it’s never too early to start thinking about the process for upgrading from the current Windows platform. The smart money is currently on a September or October 2015 public release, so savvy system admins can start looking ahead to some inevitable upgrade tools and techniques, along with a few extra tips to help ease the process along.

[ Related: Why Windows 10 Isn’t Named 9: Windows 95 Legacy Code? ]

The Windows Upgrade Assistant

Along with new Windows releases, Microsoft usually makes pre-install evaluation tools available to help users anticipate and prepare for the upgrade process. For the past couple of releases, this has involved a downloadable tool called Upgrade Assistant (here’s a link to the FAQ page for the Windows 8 and 8.1 versions of that tool, by way of example).

[ Related: After Windows 10, Cortana May Cozy up to Office ]

In addition to providing a tool that typically works for recent versions of Windows -- for Windows 10, that will probably mean Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 Update 1 -- this page also provides useful information about which platforms the tool will support as valid upgrade sources, including required Service Packs that must be installed for the tools to work correctly.

Running the tool usually produces a compatibility report that either indicates that the upgrade can proceed or describes what kind of remediation is necessary to result in a successful upgrade. The items that can appear in such reports generally focus on hardware and software.

[ Related: Microsoft to Detail ‘Next Chapter’ of Windows 10 on Jan. 21 ]

For hardware, there may be some devices in use on the source system that will no longer be supported in the target OS, and a warning will be issued to that effect. In some cases, devices may need to be uninstalled prior to upgrade, so that new drivers can be installed for those devices during the upgrade process. In other cases, it may be necessary to hunt down those new drivers after the upgrade is complete. The compatibility report from Upgrade Assistant usually provides information about all such cases.

That said, the occasional unknown device will pop up after an upgrade that will require its identification so that the proper driver can be located and installed, if such a drive is available. Several good tools to help resolve the appearance of unknown devices in Device Manager are available, including Unknown Device Identifier and the SourceForge project UnknownDevices.

 [Related: What You’ll Love and Hate About Windows 10 ]

For software, certain programs may in some cases be identified as no longer supported under the new target OS. In other cases, it may be necessary to update to a newer version of a program currently in use. In still other cases, it may be necessary to uninstall a program prior to an upgrade, then reinstall the program following the upgrade.

Admins will want to carefully consider building new reference images for widely used systems instead, especially if they already plan to use automated deployment tools to drive their upgrade process along. To that end, eligible parties may want to compare the capabilities that a Software Assurance license from Microsoft will convey via its Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (particularly if used in tandem with System Center), or the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit versus any number of excellent third-party products from vendors such as SmartDeploy and PDQ Deploy.

The Big Problem With Software Upgrade/Migration

Applications can serve as an elephant in the room when it comes to Windows upgrades. This is because there will be occasions where mission-critical or line-of-business applications can’t make the move from current standard Windows platforms to some newer target OS version. In these situations, a remedy must be researched and worked out before migration can proceed, or else some or all users will find themselves suddenly unable to do their jobs.

It’s possible to set up VMs running older OS versions and make them available to users who need them to access otherwise incompatible software, but this simply kicks the can down the road in terms of resolving compatibility issues. Another solution is to replace older applications that can’t be upgraded with newer ones that provide the needed functionality in an alternate form.

For Windows 10, applications are something of a good news/bad news scenario. The underlying APIs for desktop applications do not change much from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, so what you test for compatibility now with Windows 8.1 has an excellent chance of remaining unaffected by the introduction of Windows 10. The good news: If the application works with 8.1, it will also likely work with 10. The bad news: If it doesn’t work with 8.1, it won’t work with 10, either.

That’s why it’s time to start testing -- and getting remediation underway -- if must-have applications don’t work with Windows 8.1 now. This also means you can start with the Windows 8.1 Upgrade Assistant to get a quick read on applications by running it against a typical reference or standard image for desktops, notebooks and/or tablets right away.

Preparing for the Upgrade: Managing Device Drivers

Another bit of good news for Windows 10 is that device drivers are more like those for Windows 8 or 8.1 than they are different. If you can build a reference or standard image for your PCs running that OS, you can create an excellent working set of drivers for the upcoming upgrade by backing up those drivers into a reference or standard driver library.

Most deployment tools support explicit construction of such a library, or you can use a driver backup tool of some kind to make a snapshot of the drivers associated with any given image instead. SourceForge DriverBackup! is a great free tool admins can use to quickly and easily kick this process off for themselves.

Measure Twice, Cut(over) Once

In general, planning for an upgrade involves a great deal of initial testing and analysis, followed by a concerted planning effort to create the necessary install images and processes and then to work through a carefully staged deployment. If you use what we already know about Windows 10, and the tools already available for Windows 8.1, you can get a considerable leg up on the process well in advance of general availability.

By following our advice, and using some of the tools and techniques we recommend, you can keep this process under control. Be prepared to spend some time and to expend considerable elbow grease along the way.

This story, "How to upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1" was originally published by CIO.

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