SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB S

Are you looking for a the Best in Class tablet?

Samsung has come up the best tablet.

Connectivity      Wi-Fi + LTE Ready                              Wi-Fi + LTE Ready

Display               8.4" WQXGA Super AMOLED          10.5" WQXGA Super AMOLED

Processor           Quad 1.9GHz + Quad 1.3GHz             Quad 1.9GHz + Quad 1.9GHz

RAM                  3GB                                                         3GB

Memory             16GB (SD up to 128GB)                        16GB (SD up to 128GB)

Camera              8 MP + 2.1 MP                                        8 MP + 2.1 MP

Dimensions       125.6 x 212.8 x 6.6 mm                           247.3 x 177.3 x 6.6 mm

Weight              298g                                                          467g

Battery              4.900mAh                                                7.900mAh

OS                     Android KITKAT                                  Andriod KITKAT

Colors               Dazzling White, Titanium Bronze        Titanuim Bronze

Others               Hancom Office, RemotePC,                  Hancom Office, Remote PC,

                            WebEx and E-meeting                          WebEx and E-meeting                 

HACKED SIM CARDS : BEWARE OF SIM CARD HACKING

Millions of mobile phones could be at risk from hackers according to new research identifying vulnerabilities in the encryption used by Sim cards. Just by sending a specially designed text, security analysts were able to remotely download malware onto handsets.

Although often thought of as just providing a mobile phone’s number, Sim cards (it stands for subscriber identity module) often store users personal data and are the mark by which carriers authenticate individual users.
Millions of SIM cards could be putting your phone security at risk.

One security expert has revealed the SIM card in your phone could lead hackers to read your text messages or listen in on calls.

Expert Karsten Nohl from German company Security Research Labs said if you've ever shared sensitive information via text or call, such as your card details, these can be used by criminals to withdraw money from your account or make purchases using your card details.

The GSMA is looking into the findings, according to the BBC.

A spokeswoman for the GSMA said, 'Karsten's early disclosure to the GSMA has given us an opportunity for preliminary analysis.'

'We have been able to consider the implications and provide guidance to those network operators and Sim vendors that may be impacted' she said.

However, if you have a microSIM card, which most new smartphones use, you may be safer from an attack.

'It would appear that a minority of Sims produced against older standards could be vulnerable,' said the GSMA spokeswoman.

Although SIM cards can only store a small amount of data, such as your contacts and a limited number of text messages, they can also store information related to apps, such as your bank details for a banking application.

'OTA [over-the-air) commands, such as software updates, are cryptographically-secured SMS messages, which are delivered directly to the SIM,' Nohl said in his report.

Nohl said he was able to send a text message to a SIM card, just like operators can send a software update to a device, to reveal the card's authentication code that then allowed him to extract the information stored on it.

'To derive a DES OTA key, an attacker starts by sending a binary SMS to a target device. The SIM does not execute the improperly signed OTA command, but does in many cases respond to the attacker with an error code carrying a cryptographic signature, once again sent over binary SMS.

'The cracked DES key enables an attacker to send properly signed binary SMS, which download Java applets onto the SIM. Applets are allowed to send SMS, change voicemail numbers, and query the phone location, among many other predefined functions. These capabilities alone provide plenty of potential for abuse.'

Nohl said the best defences against allowing hackers to extract information from your SiM card includes:

Better SIM cards with state-of-art cryptography with sufficiently long keys
Handset SMS firewall allowing the user to decide which SMS sources to trust
Mobile networks should filter the text messages allowed through to a device
“With over seven billion cards in active use, Sims may well be the most widely used security token in the world,” says German security expert Karsten Nohl, the individual responsible for uncovering the flaw.
“The cards protect the mobile identity of subscribers, associate devices with phone numbers, and increasingly store payment credentials, for example in NFC-enabled phones with mobile wallets.”

Nohl’s research covered the different systems of encryption used to secure Sim cards, with one particular standard named DES (Data Encryption Standard) identified as particularly insecure.

Dating back to the 1970s DES has long been considered insecure, with Nohl’s method allowing the encryption to be cracked “within two minutes on a standard computer”.

By sending a text containing a specially designed binary code Nohl was able to trick phones into authenticating him as their network provider.

Once this protocol had been established Nohl could then remotely download software onto the phone allowing him to send texts, access voicemail and even receive reports on the phone’s physical location.
“These capabilities alone provide plenty of potential for abuse,” said Nohl. “This allows for remote cloning of possibly millions of SIM cards including their mobile identity (IMSI, Ki) as well as payment credentials stored on the card.”

Speaking to the BBC Nohl suggested that about one in eight of all Sim cards are vulnerable to the hack, and that Africa-based users were particularly at risk. He did, however, say that network operators would be quick to secure their software.

Nohl will give full details of his method at a Black Hat security conferenceon July 31st but has already provided industry body GSMA with all of his research.

"Karsten's early disclosure to the GSMA has given us an opportunity for preliminary analysis,” said a GSMA spokeswoman. "It would appear that a minority of Sims produced against older standards could be vulnerable."

"There is no evidence to suggest that today's more secure Sims, which are used to support a range of advanced services, will be affected".

BLACKBERRY Z10 SPECS

- STL100-3 RFK121LW model: HSDPA 800 / 850 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100, LTE 700 / 850 / 1700 / 1900
- STL100-3 RFF91LW model: HSDPA 800 / 850 / 1900 / 2100, LTE 700 / 850 / 1700 / 1900
- STL100-4 model: CDMA 800 / 1900, HSDPA 900 / 2100, LTE 700 MHz Class 13


GENERAL
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - all versions
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 - STL100-1 HSDPA 850 / 900 / 2100 - STL100-2
4G Network LTE 800 / 900 / 1800 / 2600 - STL100-2

SIM Micro-SIM

HTC ONE SPECS

GENERAL
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4G Network LTE 800 / 1800 / 2600
LTE 1800 / 2600
LTE 1900 - for Sprint
LTE 700 / 850 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 - for AT&T
LTE 700 / 1700 / 2100 - for T-Mobile

SIM Micro-SIM

SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 SPECS

GENERAL

2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4G Network LTE (market dependent)

SIM Micro-SIM

IPHONE 5 SPECS

GENERAL

2G Network    GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - GSM A1428
                  CDMA 800 / 1900 / 2100 - CDMA A1429
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 - GSM A1428
                  CDMA2000 1xEV-DO - CDMA A1429
4G Network LTE 700 MHz Class 17 / 1700 / 2100 - GSM A1428 or
                        LTE 850 / 1800 / 2100 - GSM A1429
                  LTE 700 / 850 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 - CDMA A1429

SIM Nano-SIM

SONY XPERIA Z

A screen as impressive as HDTV – Full HD Reality Display
Feel like you’re there with the razor sharp and super bright full HD screen. Xperia Z brings you the highest level of HD available – 1080 progressive scan, for incredibly crisp pictures and no jagged edges. Expertise from our BRAVIA® TV engineers goes into our mobile screens, to bring you the same quality you’d expect from a top quality HDTV. The 5” full HD Reality Display also has very high pixel density – 443 pixels per inch, for razor sharp pictures – and superior brightness. And with the wide colour gamut it gives you the widest colour spectrum, so you can view every detail in vivid colour.



True Screen intelligence – Mobile BRAVIA® Engine 2
The second generation of our acclaimed Mobile BRAVIA® Engine, Mobile BRAVIA® Engine 2 delivers an even better viewing experience by adding new real-time contrast optimisation to the sharpness enhancement, high-quality colour management and noise reduction. Mobile BRAVIA® Engine 2 is also able to analyse content type and adjust the image accordingly. Adding Mobile BRAVIA® Engine 2 to the Reality Display makes for an intelligent screen – one that adapts automatically to display your content in the best way.

IPHONE 5 UPDATE

The release date of the iphone 5 has been just an on going rumor for months now. Among the new features every new Iphone brings, the release date is just as hot a topic. People want to know exactly when it’s available so they can have it first, or have it at all. Every new Iphone release has always been a hectic yet very successful one for Apple, selling faster than they can deliver. People always want what they can’t have which just makes these launches that much more troublesome.  Fear not, when the Iphone 5 release date is leaked you can be certain that we will have it for you first.

LEICA MB SAFARI EDITION: THE BEST LOOKING CAMERA

The best looking camera in the world

It would have been easy enough to populate this entire list with Leica cameras but, if we really have to choose one above all the others, it’s got to be the Leica M8.2 Safari Edition. Quite simply, it’s stunning.

HOW TO SPEED UP YOUR COMPUTER

Is your desktop or laptop computer starting to feel a little poky? Even after just a few months of use, your PC or Mac may start to lose steam thanks to a fragmented hard drive, too many programs running in the background, or even a rogue piece of malware.

This week on Upgrade Your Life, Yahoo! News' Becky Worley serves up some quick and easy tricks for speeding up your PC or Mac, starting with …

1. Clean out your startup items

How long do you have to wait after hitting your PC's power button before you can actually get to work? Thirty seconds? A minute? Two minutes? More?

SONY PLAYSTATION REBUILDING NETWORK AFTER ATTACK

Sony "rebuilding" PlayStation Network After Attack

The outage of Sony's PlayStation Network and Qriocity service, now in its fourth day, looks set to continue after the company said on Sunday that it is "rebuilding" its system to better guard against attacks.

Sony said on Saturday that the outage was caused by an "external intrusion" into the network, but has yet to detail the problem.

The PlayStation Network is used for PlayStation 3 online gaming and sales of software to consoles and the PlayStation Portable. The Qriocity service runs on the same network infrastructure and provides audio and video to Sony consumer electronics products.

The latest update, while not explaining the intrusion, pointed towards it being relatively sophisticated.

TWITTER'S NEW NEST IN SAN FRANCISCO

Twitter on Friday said it has inked a deal to move into a new nest in a chronically downtrodden part of downtown San Francisco that local officials are eager to rehabilitate.

"Happy to say that Twitter is staying in San Francisco," spokesman Ali Rowghani said in a message fired off at the popular microblogging service.

"We've signed a lease to move our HQ to the Central Market area."

San Francisco leaders recently approved a payroll tax break aimed at keeping Twitter in the city and encouraging the startup, and other technology firms, to roost in a section of downtown that has long resisted economic revitalization.

Companies in what are referred to locally as the Mid Market Street and Tenderloin areas will not have to pay any payroll taxes on new hires for the first six years.

Twitter is undergoing a major growth spurt, with new hires coming on board weekly.

Twitter had talked of moving to another northern California city with no payroll tax, but promised it would settle into a vacant Market Street building if the measure was approved.

MICROSOFT PAYS TO KEEP TOP TALENTS

Microsoft said Friday it was raising pay for employees to retain "top talent" in the fiercely competitive market for skilled technology workers.

"Through our history, we have been THE place people came when they wanted to make a difference in the world through software, hardware and services," Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said in a statement.

"This is as true today as it has been at any time in our history, and the changes we're rolling out today will help ensure Microsoft continues to be the place that top talent comes to change the world."

A Microsoft spokesman would not disclose the amount of the wage hikes or how they were being doled out.

The raises come as Internet titans and fledgling startups compete for software and hardware engineers.

Microblogging service Twitter said it was taking new hires on weekly.

Google has awarded nearly $9 million in bonuses and another $50 million in equity to four top executives, according to a recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Internet giant announced in January that it will hire a record number of people this year, taking on more than 6,000 workers "across the board and around the globe."

Google added more than 4,500 "Googlers" to its employee ranks in 2010 and plans to easily eclipse that figure this year, senior vice president of engineering and research Alan Eustace said in a blog post.

APPLE, SAMSUNG ENGAGES IN TABLET WARS

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co has filed patent lawsuits against Apple over the US firm's iPhone and iPad in a tit-for-tat case after Apple claimed Samsung's Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets "slavishly" copied its products.

Apple filed a lawsuit last Friday alleging Samsung violated patents and trademarks of its iPhone and iPad, as the popular gadgets are being threatened by the fast rise of rival devices based on Google's free Android operating system.

The legal battle between Apple and Samsung could jeopardize business ties between the two technology companies, as the Cupertino, California-based company depends heavily on Samsung for components such as chips and LCD displays.

Operating systems have emerged as the key battlefield for dominance of the world's smartphone market.

Android became the most popular smartphone software in the United States in the three months ending in February, ahead of Apple and Research in Motion, according to a recent survey by research firm comScore.

Samsung is one of the fastest growing smartphone makers on the back of the Android boom and has emerged as Apple's strongest competitor in the tablet market, with models in three sizes.
Counter lawsuits

Samsung said in a statement Friday that Apple's iPhone and iPad infringe Samsung's 10 mobile technology patents and it called for Apple to stop infringing its technology and compensate the company.

Samsung said the suits, filed in South Korea, Japan and Germany, involved 10 alleged infringements of patents mainly involving power reduction during data transmission, 3G technology for reducing errors during data transmission, and wireless data communication technology.

"Samsung is responding actively to the legal action taken against us in order to protect our intellectual property and to ensure our continued innovation and growth in the mobile communications business," the statement said.

Global technology companies are locked in a web of litigation as they try to defend their shares of the booming tablet and smartphone market.

Strong sales of the iPhone and iPad translate into more revenue for Samsung. Apple was Samsung's second-biggest client after Japan's Sony Corp last year, bringing in around 6.2 trillion Korean won ($5.7 billion) of sales, and is widely expected to become Samsung's top client this year.

The battle comes ahead of Samsung launching a new version of its successful Galaxy S smartphone next week in Korea, a key product for the world's No.2 handset maker to meet its target of 60 million units of smartphone sales this year.

Shares in Samsung, Asia's biggest technology company with a market value of $140 billion, fell 2.5 percent by 0410 GMT after three consecutive sessions of gains, versus a 0.2 percent fall in the broader market.

Samsung's Galaxy products use Google's Android operating system, which directly competes with Apple's mobile software. However, Apple's claims against Samsung focus on Galaxy's design features, such as the look of its screen icons, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit, filed on Friday, alleges Samsung violated Apple's patents and trademarks.

"This kind of blatant copying is wrong," Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said in a statement.

Apple is bringing 16 claims against Samsung, including unjust enrichment, trademark infringement and 10 patent claims.

"...Samsung has made its Galaxy phones and computer tablet work and look like Apple's products through widespread patent and trade dress infringement... By this action, Apple seeks to put a stop to Samsung's illegal conduct and obtain compensation for the violations that have occurred thus far," Apple said in the court document.

Apple is one participant in a web of litigation among phone makers and software firms over who owns the patents used in smartphones, as rivals aggressively rush into the smartphone and tablet market which the US firm jumpstarted with iPhone and iPad.

Nokia and Apple have sued each other in numerous courts and as recently as last month Nokia filed a complaint with the US trade panel alleging that Apple infringes its patents in iPhones, iPads and other products.

Samsung is one of the fastest growing smartphone makers and has emerged as Apple's strongest competitor in the booming tablet market with models in three sizes but it remains a distant second in the space.

"If Apple fails to fend off Android, it will within a year or two find itself in a situation like Research In Motion, even if at a higher level (initially)," said Florian Mueller, a technology specialist and blogger on patent battles.

MICROSOFT SAYS "NO TO" DELAYS

Microsoft spokesman Eric Hautala on Thursday confirmed suspicions that the company would be pushing back the release of its “NoDo” update for Windows phones. Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer had previously said it would be out during the first week of March, but problems with the company’s February update have delayed the launch for a couple of weeks.

Hautala, who runs the team responsible for the phone updates, said the next update would be coming out in the latter half of March.

Microsoft announced that 10 percent of Windows Phone 7 customers had trouble with the update that was released in February, particularly those with Samsung phones. Hautala said that the company was trying to learn from the problems and will “take some extra time to ensure the update process meets our standards, your standards, and the standards of our partners.”

IPAD 2 SHIPPING ALERT

Apple’s new iPad 2 inventory appears to be completely depleted after the first weekend of availability and online order ship times have been pushed out to three to four weeks. The company’s new multi-media tablet began selling online at 4AM eastern time on Friday, March 11, and within hours was already showing up to three week shipping delays.

Despite the extended shipping delays, Apple is still letting customers order up to two units online.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the new iPad 2 at a special media event earlier this month. The new models are available in black or white, sport a dual-core A5 processor, front and rear-facing digital cameras, a built-in gyroscope, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, a thinner body, and more.

Shoppers hoping to pick up a new iPad in stores look to be out of luck, too. Apple ran through the inventory it shipped to its own stores and other retailers in a matter of hours on Friday, and the limited quantities delivered on Saturday sold out quickly, too.

Sony reveals PSP successor - the Next Generation Portable

After months of intense speculation, Sony has revealed the successor to the PSP and PSPgo game devices it currently offers. It is code named NGP or Next Generation Portable.

At a press conference in Tokyo Wednesday night, Sony unveiled the NGP and announced that it will offer 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, a 5-inch OLED touch-screen with four times the resolution of the current PSP screen, a touch pad on the back of the device as well as two analog sticks for in-depth game control.

The device, which will be launched during this coming holiday season, will also have a quad-core CPU, front and rear cameras, motion sensing capabilities and a built-in GPS, announced Kaz Hirai, President of Sony Computer Entertainment. Meanwhile, game titles will be loaded onto the machine via a new medium — "small flash memory based cards."

It’s official: Verizon gets the iPhone

Well, that's that. After more than three years of rumors, speculation, and plain old wishful thinking, Verizon Wireless finally announced Tuesday that it will soon be offering its own version of the iPhone, bringing AT&T's long monopoly on the wildly popular handset to an end.

The long-expected news came at a packed press conference at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, just a couple of days after theConsumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas wrapped up.

Verizon's jubilant CEO, Lowell McAdam, was joined onstage by Apple COO Tim Cook (no sign of Steve Jobs, by the way) and Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead. McAdam confirmed that discussions to bring the iPhone to Verizon began as early as 2008.

The iPhone 4 will become available for pre-order for existing Verizon subscribers on February 3, with general availability to begin on February 10.

The 16GB version of the iPhone will sell for $199, with the 32GB to cost $299 — both with a two-year contract. Details on data plans would be released in a future announcement, Mead and Cook said.

And in case you were wondering, no — the Verizon iPhone will not run on the carrier's new 4G LTE network. Instead, it will get 3G data from Verizon's existing EV-DO network.

So, why no LTE on Verizon's first iPhone? Because adding support for the new 4G network would force changes in the iPhone 4 design, said Cook, and Verizon customers "want the iPhone 4 now."

A nice consolation prize, however, will come in the form of the iPhone 4's personal hotspot capabilities, which will allow the handset to share its 3G connection with up to five other nearby Wi-Fi devices (probably for an extra fee).

Make sure to check out my hands-on impressions of the new iPhone — which, by the way, looks almost precisely the same as the iPhone 4 on AT&T, so don't expect any earth-shattering revelations.

By snagging its own version of the iPhone at long last, Verizon puts to an end AT&T's three-and-a-half-year monopoly on the iPhone. While AT&T managed to win millions of new subscribers thanks to the iPhone, its reputation took a shellacking as its network buckled under the strain, with users complaining bitterly of spotty connections and dropped calls.

AT&T is putting on a brave face in the wake of Verizon's coup, with the carrier's PR manager claiming that AT&T has the fastest data network in the U.S. and warning iPhone users who defect to get "ready for life in the slow lane."

The reality, however, is that AT&T is facing the prospect of losing a good-sized chunk of frustrated iPhone users to Verizon, which pummeled AT&T more than a year ago with those devastating "there's a map for that" ads.

And during Tuesday's event, Verizon Wireless' Dan Mead went to great pains to emphasize that iPhone users will have an "absolutely terrific" experience on Verizon's network.

The festivities got off to an awkward start as some crazy fellow in the audience began hollering, ahhh ... some profanity-laced words of excitement before the event had begun. Startled reporters and bloggers (myself included) slowly began chuckling once they recognized the culprit: John Oliver from "The Daily Show."

Source: Yahoo! News

PSP 3 gets Angry Birds

Rovio announced this week that their smash-hit iPhone and Android game Angry Birds will be available on the Sony Playstation 3 and the PSP consoles, according to BBC.