DECCAN HERALD

Cyber SpaceDecember 15, 2014.

Tips and Tricks

J D Biersdorfer, Dec 15, 2014 ( INYT):

Free word processor

Online productivity tools like Google Docs, Microsoft Office Online and Apple’s iWork for iCloud beta are among the services that let you create and edit documents without having to pay for a dedicated word-processing program.

However, if you do not always have an Internet connection, or would prefer to keep the files locally on your computers, both Windows and Mac OS X come with a built-in word processor that does much more than simple text editing.

Microsoft’s WordPad program (found in the Start menu’s Accessories folder in Windows 7 or in the Windows Accessories area of the All Apps screen in Windows 8.1) uses a simpler version of the Ribbon toolbar similar to that in Microsoft Word. Documents created in WordPad can include embedded photos and graphics, bold and italic text styles and other formatting features like bulleted lists.

Apple’s TextEdit program for OS X offers similar formatting tools. In OS X 10.8 and later, the Mac’s Dictation tool can be used to convert spoken words into type in TextEdit. While the standard Dictation software requires an Internet connection, the Enhanced Dictation program for OS X 10.9 and later works right on the Mac - 

turn on the Enhanced Dictation checkbox in the Dictation & Speech area of the System Preferences to download the necessary software.

Q & A

Dec, 15, 2014,(DHNS):

Q:  What is Microsoft fixing every month when I get Windows Update notices on my PC?

Those Windows Update notices usually contain Microsoft’s latest security patches and improvements to its Windows operating system. The company tends to release all its non-emergency updates on the second Tuesday of every month, a day that has come to be known as Patch Tuesday, although additional updates during the month are not uncommon.

Although it can be a bit technical, Microsoft posts information about its security updates at technet.microsoft.com/security/bulletin if you want to find out what each patch is supposed to repair. While the updates are intended to plug security holes and take care of other issues, the new code can sometimes break other programs.If an application does not work properly after you have installed Windows updates, a quick Web search (or a visit to the support forums for the affected program) may offer workarounds until yet another patch is issued. Q:  My Mac has been acting weird, and I’m worried it might be because of spyware. How can I find out and remove it?

Although Macs have been targeted far less than Windows systems, malware can still invade through things like security flaws in Java or “free” programs from the Web that also include spyware.

Apple has warned about the Flashback and Mac Defender malware that have targeted its systems and recommends that you download and install all the security

patches available thought the Mac’s Software Update tool, which is available under the Apple Menu.If you suspect your Mac is infected, scan your system with security software from a reputable company. The independent institute AV Test has reviewed more than a dozen security programs for OS X, including paid programs like Bitdefender, as well as free utilities like those from Avast and Sophos.

Will we finally be able to search FB posts?

Vindu Goel, Dec 15, 2014 (INYT):

Facebook is expanding search capabilities to allow free-form searches of anything posted on the service. INYT

Nearly two years after Facebook publicly promised to give its users the ability to search the social network for past posts made by their friends, the company is finally ready to turn it on.

Facebook recently said it was expanding the capabilities of its search box to allow free-form searches of anything posted on the service. The improvements will be rolled out to English-language users of Facebook in the United States soon on desktop and iPhone versions, with Android to follow.

In theory, that means you will soon be able to dredge up, say, that post your best friend made about the best croissants in Paris three years ago, or that cute photo from your niece’s first birthday party, or your witty, impromptu review of the original “Hunger Games” movie. Type in a few keywords and whatever else you might remember about the original post, and Facebook says it should come up.

If it works — a big if, given the company’s record of overpromising on search — it could unlock all that information that Facebook has so eagerly asked us to share on the service and make it a helpful digital archive of moments both trivial and

important in our lives.

“We have indexed all the content on Facebook,” said Rousseau Kazi, a product manager at the company who works on the search team.

That’s a lot of indexing. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and chief executive, told investors in January that users had posted more than one trillion pieces of content that needed to be analyzed for post search to work.

Until now, search on Facebook has been limited to certain categories of information, such as city of residence or pages your friends have liked. To get even that, you needed to type your query in a certain syntax, such as “My friends who live in Seattle and like Starbucks.” And search worked only on the desktop version of Facebook, not mobile.

In a world where Google’s search engine encourages you to type the way you speak, fixes misspellings and tries to anticipate what you are looking for based on your location, your email, your calendar and your past searches, that meant that Facebook’s search function was woefully inadequate.

Kazi said the new version of search spent about nine months in testing before the company decided to roll it out widely. To keep the universe of possible results as relevant as possible, you will only get posts that you or your Facebook friends interacted with in some fashion. And Facebook says it is still applying its normal privacy rules so that you cannot see anything you did not already have the ability to see based on the original post’s privacy settings.

He gave the example of a Facebook search manager whose friend was looking for an earlier post that recommended pediatricians in Seattle. The Facebook employee did a quick search, brought up the old post immediately and sent it to her friend.

“We keep the content quality really high on this,” Kazi said.Facebook is not doing this purely out of a desire to be more useful. The company has tested advertising that can be run against particular keywords in Facebook posts. Google has made many billions of dollars from search ads, and as the search technology is refined, Facebook could eventually offer marketers the ability to show targeted ads based on the content of status updates.

Set your agenda for the days ahead

Kit Eaton, Dec 15, 2014 (INYT):

Smartphones are slimmer and smarter calendar managers and event planners than the options of yore. But not all calendar apps are created equal.

Sunrise is my favourite. It adds features that prove how a powerful net-connected calendar can do so much more to keep you organised.

The app presents a lot of calendar information at a glance. You can see your calendar entries in two ways: a summary weekly view, which lists coming events in a long, scrolling list; and a detailed agenda view, which shows several days in column format, with hours displayed vertically down the page. This means that with just one tap you can get a quick update about what is on the week’s schedule and see what is going on in a few hours or tomorrow afternoon.

Entering a new event into Sunrise is simple and straightforward. The app has a feature that lets you tag a calendar entry with an icon matching the event - options include “Coffee” dates and a serious “Meeting.”

The app automatically syncs with many other calendar programs, including those from Google, Apple and Microsoft, and apps like the one for the online ticketing service Eventbrite. It can pull data like friends’ birthdays from Facebook, and if you connect it to your LinkedIn account, it can even show the faces of other attendees at meetings.

Sunrise has a long list of built-in events that you can add to your calendar - from national holidays to more tailored events like Formula One races.

Tempo Smart Calendar, a free iOS app, is another excellent example of how clever a calendar app can be.Tempo starts off as a full-featured time planner, but it goes much further. Like Sunrise, Tempo has clear visuals that make the jobs of reading what is on the agenda and entering new events simple - and almost pleasant. It also integrates with a wide range of existing calendar services and apps.

Tempo has a host of extra features. You can sign up for a free conference phone call via a partnership with Speek, a conference-calling startup, for up to five attendees; post birthday greetings to friends’ Facebook pages from inside the app; check for up-to-date information about flights you have planned and entered into the app; and view maps and directions.

Best of all, the app can add events to your calendar in natural language - simply type something like “Coffee meeting with Kenton tomorrow at 11,” and the app automatically works out what you mean and adds an event. You can use Apple’s voice entry system to make this process even more natural.The app has a few other nice touches, too, like the ability to add photos as backgrounds, and its gesture-based controls feel very intuitive.

Fantastical 2 is another iPhone app that offers bells and whistles similar to Tempo’s. For example, Fantastical 2 has an easy-to-read interface and features like natural-language event entry, but it is more of a straightforward agenda-planning app with an emphasis on its excellent built-in reminders system. This may be to your taste, and this might make the $5 (Rs 313)  price tag worth it.

On Android, Google’s Calendar app comes with Google’s signature look and feel. It’s a highly functional calendar that fully integrates with Google’s other services, as you might expect. But if you are not a fan of Google’s sometimes strange design, Cal is a great free alternative.Cal has a beautiful look that incorporates minimalist menus and photo backdrops that make dealing with your calendar feel somehow more personal.

Sometimes the app reacts a little slowly and feels as if you need a lot of taps to create a new event. But it’s free, so it is definitely worth checking out.

One final mention goes to Calendars 5 by Readdle. It’s the most expensive app I’ll mention, at $7 (Rs 438)  for iOS devices, but it has lots of nice features.

Enjoy filling your schedule with these apps, but remember that a wise man once said, “There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want” - and that’s something you can’t plan for.

Picking your car's computerised brain

Dec 15, 2014 ( INYT):

Even with their high-tech gadgets and computerised machinery, most cars still do a pretty poor job of providing helpful information about things like mechanical problems and fuel use - and of connecting to the devices we use the most, our phones.

Improvements are on the horizon. Wireless connections are available in some new models, which could lead to more helpful tools. But even for many older models, there is an easy way to get better information about your car, including fuel usage, diagnostics and data about your driving habits.I tried out two new devices that can connect almost any car, back to the 1996 model, to a smartphone. Mojio, released in October, and Automatic, released last year, both use apps to offer an interesting look inside your car.Neither offers entertainment, multimedia or navigation elements, but both can give you useful information about your car, especially if there are mechanical problems. Of the two devices, Automatic is the one I’d recommend.

The devices take advantage of a standard port that federal law has required every car since 1996 to have: the onboard diagnostics, or OBD-II, port.

The port is most often used by mechanics and dealers. It outputs a standardised set of information about a car, like codes that indicate mechanical problems. It also uses sensors throughout the vehicle to gather data on power, emissions, fuel use and more.

Many consumer devices already use this port, including some that offer driving tips to help save gas or that can block cellphone signals inside the car to make driving safer.

And a growing number of them integrate with your smartphone in some way.Mojio has grand ambitions to become an app store for cars. The company’s $150 (Rs 9,396) device, which plugs into the port and uses Bluetooth to connect with a smartphone app, has both GPS and a 3G cellular connection, so it’s online practically everywhere. The device includes a free year of service; after that, it’s $5

(Rs 313) a month.

The service does basic monitoring out of the box, including translating diagnostic codes and tracking trip mileage and fuel efficiency. It can also remind you where you parked and can tell you whether the car has been towed or stolen.

And the app provides contextual information while you drive, like where you can find parking. The app can also, with just a tap, send a text message to friends whose contact information you add to the app. The text lets them know if you’re on your way, with updates on your route so you can avoid texting while driving.

For all of Mojio’s potential, though, it feels unfinished. Its app is available only for iOS, so Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry users are out of luck.

It’s also bare-bones and often puts the burden on the user to figure out what to do - even when installing the device. There are no instructions on where to find your OBD-II port, for example - and how many people are familiar with that?By contrast, Automatic’s app shows you a diagram of common locations of the port in vehicles, putting emphasis on the three likeliest options.

And when my Mojio device failed to connect to my phone, there was no indication of how I might try to reconnect or why it failed.

The Mojio app interface is a little clunky, too. The app tries to organise every event on your calendar into a “trip,” even if it’s a birthday or something without a location. And for navigation, you must switch to the Google Maps app.

Worse, Mojio is downright distracting while you’re driving. The app requires you to look at it, to some extent, while you’re moving; otherwise you won’t see things like pop-ups that direct you to parking. Moreover, the directions are tiny, the parking signs aren’t tappable and looking at them for any length of time could cause swerving or worse.And although Mojio offers some neat features, paying $5 (Rs 313) a month seems like a stretch, considering that other apps can do most of its tricks. Google Now can tell me where I’m parked, Glympse can let people know I’m on my way home, and several apps can help me find parking nearby.

Sure, those apps are not organised into one interface as they are with Mojio, but those apps are free, not $60 (Rs 3,758) a year.Automatic keeps it simpler: The device costs $99 (Rs 6,201) and focuses primarily

on improving things like fuel economy, tracking driving habits and providing car diagnostics - with no monthly fee. Setup is straightforward and took just a few seconds, and its app is available for Android and iOS.In terms of the data it provides, Automatic is a little like a wearable activity tracker. There’s information that’s interesting to look at, like how far a trip was and how much gas you used. But unless you drive for a living or are focused on minimising your fuel use, it’s not always obvious what to do with all that information.You also get a driver score for good behavior, like avoiding speeding, rapid acceleration and hard braking. That sounds like a buzz kill for those who like to drive for sport, but it’s helpful if there’s a teenager in the house or if you’ve had a lot of speeding tickets.

Alittle abracadabra on your smartphone

Kit Eaton, Dec 01, 2014, INYT:

Though few of us will ever be as deft at prestidigitation as Penn and Teller, or as slick at illusion as David Blaine, most of us already possess a tool for performing impressive conjuring tricks: a smartphone. With the right apps and a bit of practice, your smartphone can help you learn classic magic and even play a part in some 21st-century sleight of hand.

IForce by Rostami Magic, $3 (Rs 185) on iOS and Android, demonstrates that some of the best magic tricks are the simplest. With nothing more than a bit of chatter, some pretend dabbing on the screen and a good memory, iForce can trick someone into thinking you have psychic powers.

The setup is classic: You ask your targets to think of something, then you pretend to guess the answer, and finally show them the correct answer from a prearranged

set.

IForce’s main interface pretends to be a simple drawing app, and you demonstrate a sketch to your targets to fool them into believing you. For the trick, you ask them to, for example, think of a number from one to four, and pretend to draw it on the screen. Then you put your phone down on its face, ask them the number they have been thinking of, and then pick up the phone to show them that you correctly “drew” the right answer.

The trick is how you flip your phone over. The app uses your phone’s sensors to detect how you are turning it over (flip up from the right, for example, or flip up from the left), and shows a number that correlates with your action. If you’re chatting with your target and are deft with flipping the phone over, that person will be fooled, though probably only once and only if the person has not read this article.

The interface makes it easy to activate the setup. You can make a number of psychic “guesses,” including world foods and predicting heads-or-tails coin tosses. You select the right answer for each category by turning your phone over a certain way and at a certain speed. It takes practice, but it can be amazing.

ISensorMagic is $1 (Rs 62) on iOS and does a similar trick, but only with one set of symbols. It’s limited, but good for a laugh or two.

If you’re more interested in learning some classic magic routines, then my choice is Magic Tricks Pro. It’s free on Android and on iOS, but you have to pay for some extras.

Magic Tricks Pro offers a long list of the classic card and coin tricks you probably have seen close-up magicians perform. You get an indication of the trick’s complexity, and videos to demonstrate the tricks.

In the first video, you watch the trick being performed; the second video walks you through how to perform the trick, including the skills you will need to learn, like how to hold your props properly.

With the help of one of the videos and just five minutes of practice, I was able to make a salt cellar “travel” through a table.

The app is straightforward, and the videos are effective teaching aids. But not all

the tricks are stunning, and you have to pay as much as $3 (Rs 185) each to view many of the videos. This could become expensive.

Fans of card tricks may prefer the free Android app Magic Card Tricks by Montysmagic. Like Magic Tricks Pro, this app also teaches you classic close-up routines, focusing on card tricks. But instead of videos, it uses text-based instructions and lots of diagrams.

The illustrations are good, but I found it easier to learn from videos. Your experience may be different.

For a close-up card trick that involves using your phone, look no further than Magic Trick #1 by Mikael Montier, $1 (Rs 62) on iOS and $2 (Rs 124) on Android. This is another “guess the card” trick, but the reveal involves rubbing your phone’s screen to uncover the correct card.

You won’t need much practice or memorization, and if you follow the video instructions closely you will look very clever indeed. I won’t tell you how it works, but you will love its simplicity.

The same maker has other apps on Google Play and in Apple’s store, all with similar great-looking design.

Just remember to practice first.

Tech toys minus the video screen

Dec 01, 2014, International New York Times:

When we talk about children’s access to digital technology, we often focus on “screen time,” but that term is a bit antiquated. Across the industry, the Internet is escaping the screen.

Today thermostats, bathroom scales, automobiles and even slow cookers can be controlled and updated through a live connection with the online world. Tomorrow, our toys will have similar powers, too. And that digital connection may forever alter how we think about play.

“We want to draw kids out of a two-dimensional screen, to blend a hands-on physical experience with an app, and make something new come to life,” said Vikas Gupta, a co-founder and the chief executive of Wonder Workshop, a startup that makes Dash and Dot, two programmable toy robots that will begin shipping to early backers this holiday season.

Dash and Dot are controlled by a mobile app, but they can also be taught to understand and react to events that happen in the real world - to play a real tune on a xylophone, say, or to bark in response to a child’s clap.

Wonder Workshop is on the vanguard of a trend that threatens to overrun much of the traditional, mass-manufactured toy business. The Internet is infiltrating just about everything your child plays with, promising to make transform it.

Because connected toys can acquire new capabilities over time, the Internet might even make toys less disposable. As soon as your child becomes bored with a toy, it might be able to do something new.

Some manufacturers, including Gupta, say digital toys could also revolutionise education. While disguised as playthings, toys like the Dash robot are teaching children the basics of computer programming.

But most important, the Internetification of toys might finally break the spell of the screen. When a generic toy like a ball or a car is sprinkled with digital pixie dust, it becomes something like a real-life video game. But because these are physical gadgets that move in the real world, they often make for a far more powerful experience than a game rendered on a two-dimensional tablet.

“I think the heart of the toy industry is going to move from purely physical toys to what I call 'phygital play,'” said Richard Gottlieb, the chief executive of the consulting company Global Toy Experts.

Forgive Gottlieb’s ugly coinage; the convergence he is describing between physical and digital toys is a powerful force, and it is already being felt by large

manufacturers. He notes that one of the world’s most popular series of action figures is an add-on for a video game, “Skylanders: Trap Team,” which is published by Activision. In the game, physical action figures can be added to the on-screen action, each taking on a different role in game play.

“A few years from now, it won’t be unusual to have that kind of play,” Gottlieb said. “I think that will be the norm.”Along with my 4-year-old son and 1 1/2-year-old daughter, I’ve been playing with some of the latest such connected toys: the Dash and Dot robots, which sell for $228 (Rs 14,130) as a pair, or $169 (Rs 10,473) for the larger Dash; Anki Drive, a robotic, artificially intelligent slot-car track, whose starter pack costs $149.99 (Rs 9,296); and Sphero 2.0 and Ollie, an app-controlled ball and a rolling robot, which go for $99 (Rs 6,135) each. And I found these toys thoroughly absorbing.

The first thing I noticed is that because they are powered by software, they can offer different experiences to various ages.

For instance, the Dash robot comes with four different apps, each meant for a slightly different age. The simplest apps work like remote controls, allowing any child who can draw on the screen to move the Dash along a path or to command the robot to change colors or make animal sounds.

The more advanced apps offer capabilities that approach a full-functioning programming language. Older children will be able to get the robot to interpret its sensor data as it traverses a room and to perform different actions based on that data.

All that might sound a little dry, but the Dash dresses up its capabilities in approachability and fun. When my children spent much of one Saturday morning playing with the robot’s music app - in which musical notes on the screen prompt the robot to play a real tune on its xylophone - it was clear to them that this was a toy, not a mere educational tool.

My son was also thoroughly captivated with the Anki Drive racing car set, which uses software to give each car on the track a different personality and set of powers, similar to the characters you would see in an on-screen video game. There are evil cars, canny cars, cars with special weapons and cars that prefer to go on the defence.

“There used to be this growing gap between the toy side and the video game side,

where there was a depth of character and personality and interaction in the virtual side that was never possible in physical toys,” said Boris Sofman, a co-founder of Anki and its chief executive.

One of the ways toymakers have fought the power of video games is through licensing and merchandising; they make toys in the images of characters from TV and movies to imbue some personality into otherwise static figurines. But Sofman says apps allow toymakers to create physical toys with their own personalities that aren’t necessarily borrowed from other media.“You can start thinking about this as Pixar in 3-D,” he said. “You have this blank slate where you can build whatever you like, because you have software controlling it.”

Android phones spreading malware

Nicole Perlroth, Dec 01, 2014, INYT:

For years security researchers have warned that it was only a matter of time before nasty digital scourges like malicious software and spam would hit smartphones.

Now they say it is has finally happened.

A particularly nasty mobile malware campaign targeting Android users has hit between four million and 4.5 million Americans since January of 2013, according to an estimate by Lookout, a San Francisco mobile security company.Lookout first encountered the mobile malware, called NotCompatible, two years ago and has since seen increasingly sophisticated versions, which have infected 50 million users.

Criminals infect smartphones primarily by infecting legitimate websites with malicious code. When victims visit the site from their mobile phone, they inadvertently download the code, in what is known as a “drive-by download.”In

other cases, the attackers sent spam from hijacked email accounts to their victims. That technique, Lookout’s researchers say, successfully caused more than 20,000 infections a day. More recently, researchers say, attackers have been tricking their victims into installing the malicious code by disguising it as a “security patch” in an email attachment. 

The attackers goal, researchers say, is to infect as many smartphones as possible and turn them into a so-called botnet, a network of infected devices that can be used by attackers for various malicious purposes.

Lookout says the malware, now on its third iteration, allows infected devices to search for and communicate with other infected machines and share intelligence. Attackers also have found a way to encrypt communications between their command and control centre and infected devices, which makes it more difficult to detect and decipher.

The latest version, Lookout said, “has set a new bar for mobile malware sophistication and operational complexity.”

All this malicious activity can be costly. The criminals are incurring data charges on phones that, ultimately, victims are held responsible for. As if that weren’t annoying enough, researchers say the malware causes tremendous battery drainage.

As with most malware discoveries, Lookout, the company sounding the alarm, has a stake in raising concerns about the security of mobile devices. Its mobile security application is able to identify the NotCompatible malware and keep it from infecting Android devices that have downloaded the Lookout app.