Difference between NFC and Bluetooth

We have been getting many question regarding communication system to know what NFC is and how it’s different than Bluetooth. Keeping that in mind we will try to explain the differences between NFC and Bluetooth starting with a brief history then moving onto their current status and future. We will also mention their Advantage and Disadvantage and try to make it as understandable as possible.

NFC (Near Field Communication):

Radio frequency identification (RFID) was the base upon which Near Field Communication (NFC) started back in the 80’s. This technology permitted the user to direct radio information to a receiver where it was recognized. The initial form of this technology was used for tracking and security purposes at retail locations. As time progressed so did this technology, and the two strong companies NXP semiconductors and Sony came to invent NFC or “Near Field Communication” in 2002. In 2010 this technology evolved and got incorporated in Android smartphones.

Basically NFC is a data transfer technology that works at a short distance or another way to put it is that it’s a sort of extremely short range wireless-communication. By a process called inductive coupling two compatible devices can transfer the data in the form of beam. For NFC to work both devices should be at distance of no more than 4 centimeters for data transfer to effectively take place.

In fact in one of Samsung’s ads for their Galaxy S 4 smartphone they showed this as a very neat and nifty function where pictures and video were transferred by simply touching two Galaxy S 4’s together.

Upgrade to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8

Windows 8 users who have been waiting for a better user experience do not have to wait any longer. Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 is available as a free upgrade for any system running with Windows 8. With just a few simple steps, you can get important new features, including the ability to see multiple windows in Modern User-Interface, a Start Button and a search function that returns results both from the web and your hard drive.

* First make sure your system has all recent Windows updates. If you have been using Windows 8 steadily you are probably up to date, but if it has been a few days since you last logged in to your PC.

Here’s are the following steps to upgrade your Windows 8 system to Windows 8.1:

• Click settings on the charms menu.

• click on Change PC settings.

Microsoft Office for the iPad is coming soon, Ballmer

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has let slip that Microsoft Office for the iPad is on its way, although it's unlikely to arrive any time soon. Ballmer revealed that Microsoft is developing a version of Microsoft Office for the iPad.

He said, "Word, PowerPoint and Excel are all authoring tools. They are optimized for use with keyboards and mice. The last time I checked, the iPad didn't have a paradigm for keyboard or mice.

"The iPad will be picked up when we do what I would call not just a touch-enabled, but a touch-first user interface for Office. That is in progress for both Windows 8 and other platforms."

While there's already an iPhone version of Microsoft Office available, this is the first time the company has mentioned developing it for Apple's iPad, despite it having long been called for by users of the tablet.

However, as Ballmer's comments suggest, it seems Microsoft is plotting to bring touchscreen friendly Office apps to its own Windows 8 operating system first, likely to make its Surface tablets more appealing to buyers.

Ballmer didn't reveal any more details about the upcoming Microsoft Office applications, nor did he drop hints about a release date. However, if speculation is to believed, Microsoft Office for the iPad is likely to arrive in early 2014.

According to analysts, the firm should release the applications sooner rather than later though, with Morgan Stanley researcher Adam Holt claiming earlier this year that the firm has missed out on "billions of dollars" by not releasing Microsoft Office for the iPad.

USB 3.0 chip controller boost PC performance up to 50%

Silicon Motion Technology last week announced it has begun shipping USB drive manufacturers samples of a new USB 3.0 controller chip for flash drives that could boost their performance by up to 50 percent.

The company said the new SM3267 integrated controller is expected to deliver up to 160 megabyte-per-second read times and 60 megabyte-per-second write speeds through a single channel; that would be a 30 percent to 50 percent performance improvement over today's USB 3.0 flash drive technology.

Even though the USB 3.0 specification has the capability to support 4.8Gbps throughput speeds, the speed of a USB 3.0-enabled flash drive is dictated by the speed of the accessing flash devices in the drive. Today, most consumer-USB 3.0 flash drives support about 100MB/s read speeds.

"We are pleased to announce that SM3267 has received design-ins from most of our current USB controller customers, including many top-tier OEMs, and we expect SM3267-based USB 3.0 flash drives will be commercially available starting in the fourth quarter of 2013," Wallace Kou, CEO of Silicon Motion, said in a statement.

The new integrated chip will also be able to run at lower voltages, from 5 volts to 1.2 volts, enabling a 25 percent to 30 percent lower USB flash drive device temperature compared with other USB 3.0 flash controller products in the market, Silicon Motion said.

How to Root Samsung Galaxy Note 3

By rooting your Samsung Galaxy Note 3, you can not only  uninstall bloatware, install a custom ROM and run rooted apps, but also allow additional apps to appear in Samsung’s floating “pen window.” Fortunately, if you have the T-Mobile or Sprint version of the Galaxy Note 3, you can root your phone in just a few simple steps.

 You must use a Windows computer to complete this steps:

1) Download the root package you need from the XDA Developer’s forum and save it to your Desktop. At present, there are packages for international versions or T-Mobile and Sprint in the U.S.

2) Extract the .zip file:

3)  Open Odin by right-clicking and selecting Run as Administrator from inside the extracted folder:

4) Click on PDA and select the .tar.md5 file inside the extracted folder:

Nokia ending support for Symbian and MeeGo OS from 01 JAN 2014

Nokia announced that it will be dropping support for the Symbian and MeeGo operating systems at the end of this year. Moreover, Nokia's developers support team sent out an e-mail to the saying that they would not be allowed to continue distributing MeeGo or Symbian applications through the Ovi Store from January 1st , 2014 onwards.

While apps will still be available for download to customers and developers will still continue to receive revenue for published apps till 31 Dec 2013.

The Nokia Developer Team has said the reason for the imminent shutdown is so that the company can focus on its Asha and Windows Phone lineup and not have to worry about products it no longer makes.

There are countless loyal fans out there still using the handsets, and right now they are being very vocal that the platform is effectively being switched off. Nokia have access to the traffic and download stats for their Stores, so will be aware of the volume of users till using the Store for third party applications.

It’s perhaps understandable to stop the uploading of new applications, but to deny the opportunity to update applications is going to lead to a number of issues. One immediate thought is what happens when Facebook updates their API, all the social functionality in these apps will be broken.

Toshiba unveils his new lightest and thinnest Workstation: Tecra W50

A renown Japanese computer firm TOSHIBA launched a raft of business focused laptops on Monday, including its first mobile workstation, the Toshiba Tecra W50.

Designed for intensive applications and heavy duty tasks, the 15.6in Tecra W50 is powered by a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia Quadro graphics with GDDR5 memory. There are also four memory slots for up to four 8GB DDR3L memory modules for a total of 32GB RAM.

This high performance Tecra W50 workstation system, Toshiba said, will "accelerate graphics intensive applications and help speed through detailed tasks such as video editing".

Toshiba said the Tecra W50 is designed to withstand the pressures of office and mobile environments and has undergone "Highly Accelerated Life Tests" (HALT) by TÜV Rheinland, which saw it tested against drops of up to 76 cm and keyboard spill-resistance up to 30 ml.

The option of a dedicated docking station opens up more ways to connect to essential peripherals as well as offering more flexibility around the office. The docking station lets users add even more ports to the Tecra W50 to extend their working environment further - whether it's to backup files onto a hard drive, connect to the network or work on multiple documents across dual screens.

The W50's non-reflective 15.6in Full HD screen has LED back-lighting for a brighter and more vibrant display. It will run either Windows 7 Pro 64-bit or Windows 8 Pro 64-bit from either a HDD or SSD configuration.

The Toshiba Tecra W50 has standard WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0, as well as a full set of ports, including five USB ports, two of which are USB 3.0, and a Gigabit LAN port. There's also Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) and a Display port for connectivity to external monitors.

The Tecra W50 will be available in Europe in the fourth quarter.

As part of the W50 launch, Toshiba also unveiled its latest range business ultrabooks, which include the new Z series family and the new Portégé R30, the successor to the Portégé R930.

Comprised of the Tecra Z30, Z30T touch edition, Tecra Z40 and Tecra Z50, all models feature the same ultrabook design, but in 13in, 14in and 15in screen sizes, respectively. Toshiba said they all feature full working day battery life, advanced security features and a common docking configuration throughout making it easy to buy right across the range.

Difference between IPS and AMOLED Screen

We have been getting many questions with regards to mobile display technology the most frequent one being what is the difference between IPS and AMOLED, so we decided we should right an article detailing the pros and cons of both and try to make it as understandable as possible.


IPS:

IPS (in-plane switching) the technology was made primarily for LCD (liquid crystal display) to overcome the limitations of the regular LCD or TFT-LCD display, the problem with the regular display TFT-LCD was a slow response time, that means a degraded touch response and bad news for gamers as games usually require screens with good response times.

Another thing was a limited viewing angle, you could make out the screen if you’re looking at it straight ahead with a little variation, but move to the side a bit and you wouldn't be able to see the screen, it was great for guys who’d be texting one girl while sitting with another. But now is the age of sharing is caring where you wanna show off what you’re watching, so something had to be done.

IPS was the answer allowing for better response times meaning good touch response and better gaming. Also it allowed for a better viewing angle meaning you could watch the screen while having others watch it too.


Advantages:
• Better response time as compared to regular LCD's.
• Better Color reproduction.
• Better viewing angle.
• Sharper Images.

Disadvantages:
• Requires a stronger backlight.
• More power hungry.
• Screens (cell phones) are usually much more thicker (bulkier) due to back-light source.


AMOLED:

AMOLED or (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) is an upgrade to OLED, this tech basically consists of organic compounds which when are introduced to an electric charge produce luminosity or light.

AMOLED was the tech that allowed for smart-phones to become even sleeker, basically since it does not require any back-light as compared to its IPS counterpart it is less bulky.  At the same time it provided better viewing angles and better contrast as compared to the simple LCD. The main factor that really set apart the AMOLED was its power consumption, it uses less battery power as compared to the IPS tech or regular LCD's.


Advantages:
• No Back-Light Required.
• Screen is slimmer, less bulky phone.
• No back-light, less battery usage, greater battery life.
• Great Contrast.

Disadvantages:
• Difficult to produce, more expensive tech.
• Images Not as sharp IPS.
• Less Bright as compared to IPS, so less daylight visibility.
• Display Colors Degrade over time.

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean is uses on just 1.5 percent of devices

Google has revealed the state of Android fragmentation this month and reported that Android 4.3 Jelly Bean is now available on almost half of Android devices, although the latest iteration has yet to make its mark.

Google's updated Android dashboard figures show that Android Jelly Bean versions 4.1.x, 4.2.x and 4.3 are now on 48.6 percent of Android devices worldwide in total. This is up 3.5 percent compared to September's statistics, and reflects a rise of over eight percent compared to Google's August numbers.

However, while this paint a fairly positive picture of the Android ecosystem, Google's figures also reveal that just 1.5 percent of devices are running the latest Android 4.3 Jelly Bean version.

It's also worth pointing out that there have been more iterations of Android Jelly Bean than any previous version of the mobile operating system, which has helped to push up the percentage of devices running it.

Unsurprisingly, Android 2.3.x Gingerbread is still the second most common version of Google's mobile operating system, running on 28.5 percent of devices. This is followed by Android 4.0.x Ice Cream Sandwich, which still has a 20.6 percent share. Android 2.2 Froyo and Android 3.0 Honeycomb still account for 2.2 percent and 0.1 percent of Android devices worldwide, respectively.

These numbers don't show the whole picture however, as Google only counts devices that have accessed Google Play during the month, rather than attempting to detect and analyse all of the one billion plus Android devices that exist.

It's likely that a new version, Android 4.4 Kitkat, will be added to the mix soon, with rumours claiming that Google's next mobile operating system release will appear later this month.

Internet Information Service (IIS) 8.5 will arrive this month

Microsoft's Internet Information Services 8.5 Web server will be arriving soon and bringing a few new improvements.

IIS 8.5 will be released with the Windows Server 2012 R2 product on 18 Oct 2013, which is the "general availability" product date. With IIS 8.5, the IIS team continued its focus on scalability and manageability improvements. The aim has been to improve support for organizations with a large number of Web sites to manage.


Scalability Improvements:

IIS 8.5 has two scalability improvements. One of them, called "dynamic site activation," is designed to reduce the startup times and memory use of Web sites for organizations that have a lot of sites. The Dynamic Site Activation feature, by default, only activates sites when they are requested for the first time if an organization has 100 sites or more. If there are less than 100 sites, then all of the sites are activated at startup by default.

Erez Ben-Ari, a program manager for IIS at Microsoft, explained in a July blog post that past IIS releases work by creating queues and bindings in the process of activating sites, which can take up system memory resources. In contrast, IIS 8.5 creates one queue "and will create specific queues for specific sites only when a request actually arrives for it" for organizations that have 100 or more sites. The end result of this redesign is faster Web site startups along with reduced memory consumption, Microsoft claims.

The second scalability improvement in IIS 8.5 is called "idle worker process page-out." It's designed to reduce the memory resource demands of organizations with a lot of Web sites that aren't busy all of the time. IIS typically terminates the worker process of a Web site if it hasn't been used for 20 minutes or so. However, IIS 8.5 introduces the ability to suspend those worker processes instead of terminating them, according to Microsoft's description of the new IIS 8.5 features.

"The idea is that instead of a process termination upon time-out, the process remains alive, but suspended and consuming little resources," explained Ben-Ari, in a June blog post about the Idle Worker Process Page-out. "Then, if the site is being requested, it wakes up from suspension almost instantly."


Manageability Improvements:

IIS 8.5 has three new manageability improvements. First, Microsoft added logging enhancements for monitoring HTTP requests in IIS 8.5. The logging enhancements use a new Windows Server 2012 R2 service called "W3C Logging Service," according to a July blog post by Ben-Ari. Organization can now customize the logging to store request headers, response headers and server variables. The customization can be used to get information such as the IP addresses of connecting clients when the network has a load balancer, for example, Ben-Ari explained.

The second manageability improvement in IIS 8.5 concerns support for Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) in the logging process, which can be used to better monitor IIS in real time and debug Web applications. With ETW support in IIS 8.5 turned on, events are shown "immediately," according to Ben-Ari. In contrast, text-file logging can take about 30 seconds to flush to the log, he explained in a July blog post. It's also possible to use Microsoft's recently released Message Analyzer tool to capture events in real time, he added.

A third management improvement is an option to automatically rebind renewed certificates for Web sites. Expiring site certificates need to be tracked by IT pros, but their renewals require an extra step in which the certificate gets rebound to the site. Microsoft previously added a "certificate services lifecycle notifications" capability in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, and that capability can be used to log and track expiring certificates. However, what's new in IIS 8.5 for Windows Server 2012 R2 is the ability to use that notification tracking capability to "automatically re-bind a certificate that has been renewed," according to September blog post description by Ben-Ari. IT pros can set up this capability using the Task Scheduler and simply automate the certificate renewal process, he noted.

Most of the new changes in IIS 8.5 were driven by Microsoft's private-public cloud focus, according to the IIS team. IIS 8.5 underlies Microsoft's new Windows Azure Pack for hosted and private clouds, as well as Windows Azure Web Sites in the public cloud, according to an explanation by Wade Hilmo, principal development lead for Microsoft's IIS project, during Microsoft's TechEd Europe event in June. In recent years, the IIS team has been focusing its development resources more toward fitting IIS into those cloud-based scenarios, he explained. Microsoft typically ships IIS with Windows about every 12 to 18 months, he said.