Nokia E7 on its way to Amazon
Though the E7 was unveiled way back in September, it has stayed away from retail shelves with unshakable determination. Nokia’s elusive E7 can be pre-ordered through Amazon, although they don’t seem to have a clue on the exact shipping date of handset as yet.
Powered by the Symbian 3 OS, the device has a 640 x 360p 4” AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, a VGA camera and an 8MP dual LED flash camera. The last mentioned features a full screen 16:9 viewfinder, geo tagging, face recognition software, up to 2x zoom for images and up to 3x zoom for video recording.
The E7 offers onboard memory of around 16GB and runs in a BL-4D 1200mAh Li-ion battery that’s good for approximately nine hours of talk time on a GSM network or around 5 hours of talk time on a WCDMA connection. Users can avail of no less than three customizable homescreens and full web page browsing with this device.
The 3G-enabled phone boasts of a slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard apart from Blueotooth 3.0, Wireless-N Wi-Fi and Flash Lite 4 support. The handset’s audio/video function is capable of playing out MP3, WMA, eAAC+, eAAC, AAC, H.264, 3GPP and MP4 formatted content.
Business users may like the integrated tools like Mail for Exchange, Microsoft Communicator Mobile and support for intranet and extranet portals based on Microsoft’s Share Point server. Other attributes span over FM radio, HDMI connectivity, Dolby Digital Plus surround sound, support for IM, a dedicated graphics processor and much more.
Amazon is currently accepting pre-orders for the E7 at $679 and pledges to inform customers about the estimated delivery date when word on the same gets in. It’s being extended unlocked and in an anodized silver hued aluminum casing with the full manufacturer’s warranty.
CES 2011 to Feature new Samsung AMOLED Display
Samsung in an official statement noted that the company will be demonstrating the next-generation AMOLED displays at the Consumer Electronics Show 2011. This year's CES was all about 3D Displays, while CES 2011 will have Samsung showcasing its next generation flexible AMOLED displays. These displays will feature on Samsung products like mobile phones, tablets and televisions.
Samsung Mobile Display will show a prototype of an advanced flexible AMOLED display that is only 0.2mm thick! This display will be 4.5-inch long and would support WVGA 800x480 pixel resolution. This AMOLED display is so flexible that it can be rolled down to one centimeter radius. These flexible AMOLED displays are made from plastic substrates that are not prone to breakage during manufacturing process.
These advanced flexible AMOLED displays are designed for smartphone and tablet PCs. An update about this display hints that the Galaxy S successor, which was rumored last month, may sport it. The Galaxy S successor was said to come with super AMOLED 2 and it seems like Samsung is going to show a similar AMOLED display technology.
Apart from that Samsung Mobile Display will also show a 14-inch and 19-inch quad-Full High Definition Transparent AMOLED displays for TV and monitors. Samsung boasts that it will be the world's largest transparent AMOLED display prototype that maintains up to 30 percent transparency whether it's on or off. These transparent AMOLED display prototypes support quad full high definition (3840x2160) video resolution with 16:9 aspect ratio.
The Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode display offers vivid color reproduction with high contrast, wider angle, low power consumption and faster response time. On mobile devices they look gorgeous; remember the Galaxy S and Wave S5800. The new flexible AMOLED and transparent AMOLED display prototypes would become actual products that might be available by the second half of next year.
IIT Bombay's Techfest from Jan 7-9
PUNE: Over 3,000 students from the city will participate in Indian Institute of Technology Bombay's Techfest, the annual international science and technology festival, to be held between January 7 and 9. The 14th edition of the Techfest will be held at the IIT Bombay campus and will see 150 events spread over the three days.
Eminent personalities, including Michael Jones, Google's chief technology advocate, Jaarp Hartsen, inventor of bluetooth, will be part of the events.
In the exhibition section, Leonardo Da Vinci's mechanical flying birds will be on display.
The National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control will demonstrate a brain-computer interface that involves the measurement of brain activity.
An Indian Sudoku and puzzle championship, workshops and robot competitions will also be conducted.
Cyber-sabotage and espionage top 2011 security fears
Cyber security continues to be a grey area and one could say that the threat perception has always been on upward swing.
The year 2010 saw the deadly Stuxnet worm among others shaking up the security system.
The year 2011 is not expected to be any different as cyber criminals will look to target major platforms such as Adroid, Apple software and those which have not yet been exposed to a security risk.
In addition to this 2011 will also see politically motivated attacks as groups are expected to repeat the WiKiLeaks paradigm.
McAfee has outlined the top threats for the year 2011 and the list comprises Google's Android, Apple's iPhone, foursquare, Google TV and the Mac OS X platform, which are all expected to become major targets for cybercriminals.
Geolocation services
Locative services such as foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places can easily search, track and plot the whereabouts of friends and strangers.
With just a few clicks, cybercriminals can see in real time who is tweeting, where they are located, what they are saying, what their interests are, and what operating systems and applications they are using.
This wealth of personal information on individuals enables cybercriminals to craft a targeted attack.
McAfee Labs predicts that cybercriminals will increasingly use these tactics across the most popular social networking sites in 2011.
Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have created the movement towards an "instant" form of communication, a shift that will completely alter the threat landscape in 2011.
Of the social media sites that will be most riddled with cybercriminal activity, McAfee Labs expects those with URL-shortening services will be at the forefront.
The use of abbreviated URLs on sites like Twitter makes it easy for cybercriminals to mask and direct users to malicious websites.
With more than 3,000 shortened URLs per minute being generated, McAfee Labs expects to see a growing number used for spam, scamming and other malicious purposes.
New virus threatens phones using Android
WASHINGTON — A virus infecting mobile phones using Google's Android operating system has emerged in China that can allow a hacker to gain access to personal data, US security experts said.
A report this week from Lookout Mobile Security said the new Trojan affecting Android devices has been dubbed "Geinimi" and "can compromise a significant amount of personal data on a user?s phone and send it to remote servers."
The firm called the virus "the most sophisticated Android malware we've seen to date."
"Once the malware is installed on a user's phone, it has the potential to receive commands from a remote server that allow the owner of that server to control the phone," Lookout said.
"Geinimi's author(s) have raised the sophistication bar significantly over and above previously observed Android malware by employing techniques to obfuscate its activities."
The motive for the virus was not clear, accoring the Lookout, which added that this could be used for anything from "a malicious ad-network to an attempt to create an Android botnet."
But the company said the only users likely to be affected are those downloading Android apps from China.
The infected apps included repackaged versions sold in China of Monkey Jump 2, Sex Positions, President vs. Aliens, City Defense and Baseball Superstars 2010.
"It is important to remember that even though there are instances of the games repackaged with the Trojan, the original versions available in the official Google Android Market have not been affected," the security firm said
