Android Phone

After many days we are back on TheTodaysTech, very happy to start writing again in this blog. Striking back to the topic, if you are on earth then definitely you know about Android :-D, at least would have heard the word Android before. Android is one of the best mobile operating system and is widely accepted all over the world.

What is an Android Phone :

Any phone, precisely smartphone which runs on Android Operating System is called Android smartphone, its evident by the name itself isn't it?. Major smart phone manufactures like hTC, Samsung are shipping their phones with Android Operating System. Samsung has adopted Android for most of its smartphone and tablet categories. When something is buzzing around its obvious that it will have rivals, in this case Apple's iOS and Windows Phone OS are the rivals for android. Actually Windows Phones are emerging recently so the most competitive would be Apple's iOS.

Android operating system is basically a Linux based operating system. Android is open source, which is one of the reason which adds tremendous developers for Android app development. In its initial stage of development, Android operating system was only for touch screen phones, but now its is used widely on qwerty as well as typical keyboard phones. Android has official app store called Google Play, which has more than 7,00,000 applications for downloading onto your android devices. 

Android History:

Back in Oct 2003 Android Inc. was founded by the group of tech experts i.e., Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears, Chris White. Later Google acquired Android Inc. on August 17, 2005, making it completely owned by Google. On November 2007, in the Open Handset Alliance (syndicate of many phone manufacturers)  Android unveiled itself.
The very first phone with Android operating system was hTC Dream and was released on October 22, 2008.

Versions of Android.

• 1.5            Cupcake
• 1.6            Donut
• 2.0-2.1      Eclair
• 2.2            Froyo
• 2.3-2.3.7  Gingerbread
• 3.1-3.2     Honeycomb
• 4.0.x ICS Icecream Sandwich
• 4.1.x        Jelly Bean
• 4.2.x        Jelly Bean

It was started with its first version named Cupcake. Now we are using latest version Jelly Bean, which is next to the ideal operating system for phone. Latest version of Android "Key Lime Pie" gonna be released sooner.

Android over iOS:

Brief discussion of Android over iOS, if you go in detail its never ending. We will try to give a very brief discussion about this. We will compare with the latest version.

Android 4.2 over iOS 6.1

• Google Answers Your Questions Before You Ask Them.
• Better, Faster Voice Search Results - Google Voice answers are better and faster than Siri.
• A Digital Wallet That Can Buy Things Today. - Google Wallet.
• Better Sharing Between Apps.
• Associate Multiple Gmail Accounts with a Single User.
• More Advanced Multitasking.
• Android is Open Source.
• A Better and More Open App Store- Google play better appstore.

Why Android: What makes android special

When you are buying some stuffs, always your mind would ask "why this?". Isn't it?.
So here, Why Android operating system. There are lots of operating system for phones like WP,Symbian many more. So among all these why to choose android is a big question. My words makes sense Ryt?.

• Android is open source, which gives the flexibility of customization. More over there is no need to pay a buck for operating system.
• Android has over 7,00,000 applications, Applications are the one which makes difference. Smartphone without apps is a shit. Android has lots of applications.
• Android is widely used. Android shares 51% of overall smartphone market. 

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Pinterest: How to Pinterest

What is Pinterest :

Pinterest is an image based bookmarking website that gives you the ability to "pin" online images and videos which you like. It is similiar to other famous social bookmarking sites like digg or reddit, but here its limited to images.
Pinterest allows to create virtual boards where you can categorize by topics. You have the option of "follow", by following a profile you will get their updates on your home feed.

Getting started with Pinterest :

1. Signing up : 
Go to http://www.pinterest.com/ . If you don't have an account, for signing up you are given with 3 options, you can either signup using your existing facebook or twitter account or you can signup with your email. 

2. Log in :
Pinterest gives you the option of login from your facebook as well as twitter.

3. Area of interest :
After signing up, you are given to Click on images and follow the topics of your area of interest like shopping, technology, recipes.

Pin boards : 

1. What are pin boards : 

Boards is a place where you can categorise your pins by topics. For example you can create a board for your website which gives images of your website. Pinterest gives you the flexibility of making boards either private or public. You can invite your friends to any of your boards  to pin it.

2. Creating a pin board : 
You can start with your favourite stuffs like technology, android. You can also choose a website name also.  Here I will show you a snap shot of creating a board. You can even make the board private.

3.Add a pin : 

You can start pinning on your newly created boards.Either you can upload images from your PC or you can import from an existing website.

4.Create a pin :
After adding your image you should create pin. While creating a pin you are asked with to which board you wanna add up and also a short description of it.

5. Repin a pin & Like it :
You can repin the existing pinned stuffs. Pinterest gives you the option of liking the pins of other people.

Adding pinterest addon for chrome for your ease :

You can download "Pinterest" add on for your chrome browser from here. This Pinterest extension for Google Chrome adds a new button to your browser which lets you pin from any website, quickly and easily just with a mouse click.

Pinterest is the emerging image social media which gets over 4 million daily unique visitors. Start creating boards, pin all your favourite images online in a single place.

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Linux Virus

Do you think that Linux is Virus Free? Do you believe that Linux Antiviruses don't exist?? then you are absolutely wrong. Viruses on Linux do exist!!. Linux Viruses are not wild in nature and don't pose threat like Windows Viruses because of the super user privileges in Linux Operating System.

Most of the Viruses on Linux infect the most common file type in Linux i.e., ELF(Executable and Linkable Format) file. Even though there are not many Viruses on Linux, but Linux Viruses are increasing!! as Linux is getting popular day by day. Here is the list of viruses detected on Linux platform.

1)STAOG
Staog was the first Linux Virus which was detected in the year 1996. Staog virus are memory resident and infects ELF files when they are executed. Staog virus is written in assembly language and was written by VLAD, a Australian based group who wrote the first computer virus for Windows 95 named Boza or Bizatch.

2)BLISS
Bliss is the second known Linux Virus and it was written to prove that viruses can be written for Linux Operating System. Bliss was detected in the year 1997 and it infects Binary files by overwriting its own code. Bliss virus is very easily detectable and hence it did not pose any major threat.

3)KOOBFACE
Koobface is a multiplatform virus which infects Windows, Mac and Linux Operating Systems. Koobface spreads through social networking sites once infected the compromised information is used to send infected messages to all the friends. Koobface virus was detected in the year 2010 and the Koobface gang did earn lot of money because of this virus.

4)BADBUNNY
Badbunny is a multiplatform worm which infects Windows and Linux by replicating itself to reach other systems mostly through networks. Badbunny was detected in the year 2007 and it spread through OpenOffice in Linux Operating System.

5)SLAPPER
Slapper is a Linux worm which makes use of network resources to replicate itself and causes damage to the network. Slapper worm was detected in the year 2002 and it spreads through the flaws detected in OpenSSL libraries.

6)ZIPWORM
ZipWorm virus affects Zip archives. It spreads by adding its copies to the Zip archives in the current directory. ZipWorm may have one of the five names in the current directory archive as shown below

• Ten motives why linux sux!
• Why Windows is superior to Linux!
• Is Linux for you? Never!
• Is Linux immune to virus? NO!
• zipworm!

7)WINTER

Winter is a harmless non memory resident virus which is very small in size of just 341 bytes. It infects the ELF files by copying itself to the middle of the ELF files. This virus contains the text " LoTek by Wintermute ".

8)KAGOB
Kagob is a non memory resident Linux Virus which infects ELF files. Kagob virus itself is a ELF file!! it finds other ELF files and infects them.

9)KAITEN
Kaiten is trojan horse which was detected in the year 2006 which opens back door of the compromised computer. It poses very low risk level and it is capable of ending processes, download and execute remote files, spood IP address, flooding the server etc.

10)WINUX

Winux virus affects both Windows and Linux Operating System. It is also known by the names Peelf and Lindose. It spreads by checking the size of ELF files in the current directory and replacing it with the virus code if the size of the ELF file is smaller than the virus. 

These were some of the Viruses on Linux and many other viruses like Alaeda, Satyr, Vit, Ramen, Rike etc are present and Linux Viruses pose very little threat when compared to the Windows viruses. 

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[How To] Dual Boot Windows 8 and Ubuntu 12.10

Computer users who want to work on two different Operating Systems such as Windows and Linux by dedicating all the resources available to a single Operating System unlike making use of virtual machines like VMware or Oracle VM VirtualBox can try Dual Booting.

Steps to dual boot Windows 8 and Ubuntu 12.10:

1) First of all you need to have Windows 8 Operating System installed on your PC.

2) Then go to Device Management -> Right Click on any of the drive which has free space -> Shrink Volume then enter the amount of space to shrink in MB and press Shrink.

3) Now you have unallocated space, Right Click on it and press New Simple Volume and assign it a Drive Letter. And remember the size of the drive so that you don't mess Windows 8 Operating System by installing Ubuntu 12.10 on a different drive.

4) Insert the Ubuntu DVD or Ubuntu USB Bootable device and follow the instructions till you reach the below window.

Now click on something else and press Continue.

5) Select the free space you had created and press on "+" symbol.

You may also like How To Make openSUSE USB Bootable

6) Now we need to create two partitions i.e primary and logical. First we need to create logical partition for swap area. For this we need to select roughly around ten percent of the total free space and in the drop down menu select swap area and click OK.

7) Now again select free space available and click on "+" symbol. Now select the partition as primary and in the drop down menu select Ext4 journaling file system and in Mount point drop menu select "/"(Root) and press OK.

8) Here select Ext4 device from the list of devices and press Install Now and follow the instructions and enjoy both Windows 8 and Ubuntu 12.10 Operating Systems.

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Motorola Mobility shuts down its Indian Website

If you are in India and you are a Motorola Mobile fan then you got a bad news to go through. The world renowned mobile company Motorola has shut down its Indian website, a step to shut down Indian Sales. Motorola was taken over by giant search engine Google Inc in May 2012.

If you go through Motorola mobility Indian website, you will get the following message:

We are streamlining our business and support systems,
and unfortunately, we'll no longer have a dedicated website
for India.
Your local support site will remain open well into the future,
and we'll continue to provide support for our existing products.
If you are interested in viewing our current products,
you can still do so here.*

Google Inc had announced earlier that it has plan of streamlining its sales in these regions. Motorola also added that the services for the existing systems will be continued and all the service centres will be open as before.

 Along with Indian website, Motorola has displayed the same for Africa, Europe, Asia and Middle East local websites. Motorola also said that it wont be giving new software updates for the existing phones in these regions.

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Call Of Duty Black Ops II is available now | system requirement

            Black ops II released today by activision. It is marked as the ninth game of Call Of Duty series.   This game is launched for  PS3, Xbox 360 and MS windows. Frank wood and Raul memendez of black ops are added with many other characters. Many new weapons are added. COD fans who like Zombie mode have good news. The Zombie mode in this game allows player to make choices,this effects the story of the game. Black Ops II supports the 3D gameplay.

System requirement :

Minimum :

OS - windows vista SP2  or  windows 7  [32 bit]
CPU - Intel dual core 1.6 GHz  or  Athlon X2 dual core
RAM - 2 GB
VIDEO MEMORY - Nvidia GT 430  or  Radeon HD 4650
HD Space : 10 GB
Directx - DX 11

Recommended :

OS - windows vista SP2  or  windows 7  [64 bit]
CPU - Intel core 2 duo 2.66 GHz  or  Athlon II X3
RAM - 4 GB
VIDEO MEMORY- Nvidia GTS 450  or  Radeon 4850x2
HD Space : 10 GB
Directx - DX 11
                                       

Official Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

         This game is expected to release for Wii U in the next few weeks in North America, Europe, Japan. Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3 had made $1 billion in 16 days. Now expecting this game to break the record.

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Samsung Introduces Galaxy S III mini

Samsung, on customers' demand has come up with a smaller device i.e. Galaxy S III mini. The big bro Galaxy S III had made lots of buzz, but many users like to have smaller smartphone which fits onto the pockets. Galaxy S III mini is a boon to all the customers' who were thinking that Galaxy S III will be quite large as a phone. Samsung  unveiled Galaxy S III mini on 11 Oct 2012 .

Features of Samsung Galaxy S III mini

Samsung Galaxy S III mini comes with 4 - inch SuperAMOLED screen, rest all features are almost same as that of Galaxy S III. Galaxy S III Mini runs Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). Its  powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor, which will be less powered when compared to that of  S III's 1.4GHz quad-core processor. The phone will be available with in built memories of 8GB and 32GB variants, which will support microSD card up to 32GB.

Galaxy S III Mini's rear camera has been reduced from the 8MP of S III to 5MP . The battery of S III mini has also been reduced to 1,500mAh in S III Mini from that of 2,100mAh in the S III . Galaxy S III Mini also comes with S Voice, the digital voice assistant of Samsung. Other features of S III mini remains the same as that of its big bro , such as NFC, 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and S Beam.

Specifications of Galaxy S III mini :

Display : 4 - inch SuperAMOLED touchscreen.
Operating System : Latest Android 4.1 ( Jelly Bean)
Battery : 1400mAh
Processor : 1GHz dual-core processor
RAM : 1 GB
Storage : Internal Memory of 8GB and 16 GB , Expandable to 32GB via MicroSD card.
Support : NFC, 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and S Beam.

Samsung Galaxy S III mini availability and price :

Samsung didn't speak anything on availability and price of this phone. Hope Samsung comes with lesser price tag, as it comes under mid-budget phones.

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[How to] Download Firefox without any browser

Here you go with few simple steps to download the latest version of Firefox without any browser . Here we will be using cmd prompt to download the Firefox browser i.e., no IE, no application is required. I have worked out on windows 7 Operating System, but it holds good for Windows XP, Vista . And the same works with Linux also with few alterations.

How to Download Firefox using cmd/ without any browser :

• Go to Start > Run > cmd . Enter and you will be in cmd prompt

• Just type ftp and press Enter . Now you will be in file transfer protocol.

• Now type "open releases.mozilla.org" and [Enter] .

• cmd prompt asks for username type "anonymous" and [Enter].

• Now it asks for password type anything you want.

• Change your directory to latest releases of windows by the following command.
  "cd pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/latest/win32/en-US"

• Now view the contents in the directory by using listing files command i.e., "ls".

• Type "type image" which is a command to switch to Binary mode.

• Choose the drive where you want Firefox to get downloaded by this command "lcd F:\".
   [Note : Instead of F you can use any drive which is present in your pc]

• Look for the files which were listed in "ls" command and type this command
  get "Firefox Setup 15.0.1.exe" (with quotes) to download that file.
  [Note: Firefox 15.0.1.exe is the latest release as of now, there might be changes for you if you are using this trick later] 

• Now go to the specified folder ( F:\) and check for "Firefox Setup 15.0.1.exe" file which was downloaded.

• Type "bye" to come out of ftp. And type "exit" to close the cmd prompt.

This is how you download Firefox browser without any browsers installed into your PC with few of the simple steps. Download latest Firefox directly with cmd prompt than any application software.

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Five Reasons Why Linux Is Better Than Windows

Linux distributions are better than Windows for many dominating reasons. Well many say that Windows is better than Linux distrubutions! but there are many reasons where we can see the dominance of Linux distributions on Windows operating system. Let's see some of the admirable features of Linux distributions.

1. Linux is free.

 Linux is an open source software this is were Linux distros does maximum damage to Windows operating system. Linux operating system being free we can install it in any number of machines without spending a penny and also it has multiuser feature which allows many users to work on a single Linux operating system.

2. Linux is freedom.

As Linux in open source software we can overcome the hassles of licensing the software. Linux distros come with large number of software repositories where almost every software is available for free to use. In Linux we have so many number of distributions available, we have freedom of choosing and working on any Linux distro we like. And also we have the liberty of making any changes to the Linux operating system.

3. Linux is secured.

Linux has got many developers working on it when compared to Windows operating system as it is open source software. In Linux bugs are found and fixed by the developers worldwide and there is less chance of security flaws when compared to Windows where only few people hired by Windows work on the security flaws.

4. Linux has huge support.

Linux has huge online support there is possibly every solution to your problems in Linux forum. Every Linux distribution has its own forums where you can get solution to your problems. It is supported by large number of developers working on it to fix bugs so there is every possibility of getting your problem solved in less time when compared to Windows.

5. Linux is easy to upgrade.

Linux can be upgraded in a single click without having to reinstall the whole operating system. Whenever a software crashes there is no chance of the Linux operating system to crash as the Linux kernel which is the core of the operating system is isolated from the applications. Linux can be easily installed on a slave hard disk (secondary hard disk) whereas Windows operating system can only be installed on a primary or master hard disk drive.

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Microsoft's Windows 8 AppFest enters Guinness book of records

Microsoft's AppFest makes a record with 2,567 developers coding non-stop for 18 hours.

Microsoft had arranged Windows 8 AppFest, the non stop coding arena at Karnataka Trade Promotion Organization (KTPO), Bangalore. This has entered Guinness book of records . The event started at 2pm on Friday ended 8 am Saturday, which became the world record.

Microsoft's AppFest is crowned with "Most participants in a software development marathon in one location".

O’Neill, who had supervised the coding fest on behalf of Guinness World Records, said the following words. “Congratulations to all of the developers at the Windows AppFest for setting an official Guinness World Record for the Most Participants in a Software Development Marathon in One Location. The spectacle of thousands of developers toiling through the night has demonstrated great commitment to their work,”

Microsoft India Chairman, Bhaskar Pramanik said, "Microsoft is making significant investments and working with 1.2 million developers, over 1000 Independent Software Vendors and more than 2000 System Integrators to empower them with the tools, technologies and training required to develop high end skills and compete in a global marketplace."

The event was powered with 2 GB bandwidth. Microsoft has taken care of power failure with six power generating stations . Windows 8 release date was confirmed to be on 26th September by officials of Microsoft.

Via : pcw

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Samsung unveils Champ Neo DUOS

Samsung has come up with another budget phone i.e., A dual-SIM Champ Neo featured phone. Samsung gives a tag line of  "Saara Zamana Touch Ka Deewana" for Champ Neo Duos . Samsung claims this phone as a budget touch screen phone with lots of features, with the power of hot dual sim swap and integrated social networking apps.

Samsung Champ Neo DUOS features and specifications :

• Samung Champ Neo DUOS comes with a 6cm touch screen, which gives the full power of touch

• Champ Neo DUOS is powered with a VGA camera.

• Champ Neo DUOS comes with 20MB of internal memory, which is quite less. But expandable to 32GB with microSD.

• Champ Neo is powered with Hot Dual sim swap.

• Its a USB chargeable device.

• Champ is fully integrated with Social Network. Preloaded with facebook , twitter apps.

• It is packed with ChatON, Yahoo, MSN, Gtalk apps pre installed.

• It supports push mail with Active sync.

Samsung Champ Neo DUOS is priced with  Rs. 3,260/- on samsung india website as of now.

Samsung doesn't want to share the O.S on which this phone works. Champ Neo DUOS seems to be a good phone at its price of Rs.3260/- . A touch screen phone with few of the latest features. The price and details are subjected to change as per the samsung website . 

For more details or to buy "Champ Neo DUOS" you can visit the official website of Samsung India.

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What is svchost.exe And Why its running?

If you are a Windows 7 or Windows XP user then you might have opened task manager. If you have a keen look on Processes onto your task manager you will find svchost.exe, which will be running all the time. Ever wondered what is and what is its function?. If yes then you are at the right place. So here you go,

What is svchost.exe

According to microsoft "Svchost.exe is a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries (DLLs). "

Few years back, Microsoft decided to convert all of its .exe files into .dll files. If seen from  programming aspect .dll will give extra power of re usability. But the constrain here is .dll files cannot be launched directly from Windows, it should be loaded by running .exe file. So svchost.exe is used.

Why there are multiple svchost.exe keep running:

Multiple Svchost.exe can run at the same time. During startup, svchost.exe checks the services part of the registry that is just to construct a list of services that it must load.  Every Svchost.exe session can contain a certain group of services. So that separate services can run,depending on how and where Svchost.exe is started. This kind of grouping services allows for better control over Windows and debugging could be easier. 

Location of svchost.exe

svchost.exe is located in %SystemRoot%\System32 folder.

You might also like : [How to] change MAC address

svchost.exe in registry :

You can find svchost.exe in registry by navigating to this below file.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Svchost

How to check Svchost.exe from command line

1.Click start button and click run.
2.Type cmd and Press enter.
3. Type tasklist/svc and press enter.

tasklist /svc

This was just the basics of svchost.exe, just like introduction to svchost.exe. We are going to write many posts on processes of Windows, linux and many more. Keep visiting our blog for day to day updates on technology. 

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