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Android Lollipop, Google’s latest mobile platform is unveiled

After months of speculation and testing, Google has announced the latest version of its most popular mobile operating system. Called as Android Lollipop, this recent mobile platform equips more than 5,000 APIs. It has a fresh artistic style called Material Design, which is designed to give consistent look and feel across different Android-based devices. As far as the user interface is concerned, this time it is more responsive and intuitive with natural motions and realistic lighting elements including shadows.

According to the search engine giant Google, “Lollipop made for a world where moving throughout the day means interacting with a bunch of different screens—from phones and tablets to TVs. With more devices connecting together, your expectation is that things just work.”

Google further revealed that when using the one-of-a-kind battery saver feature of this most recent version of mobile OS, the life of the devices running on Android Lollipop will be extended by as much as 90 minutes. This particular feature of the phone will prove to be of great help for anyone that has to recharge their devices again and again. Using this feature, you can see the battery level of your device and how long will it take to charge it. It is the first time that battery saver feature has been included in a mobile platform.

The new operating system also includes some outstanding security as well as notification features. In order to offer you optimum security, the operating system supports a kill switch, which makes using a stolen device quite completely impossible. This time, Google has also turned on the encryption by default to keep any kind of security snafus at bay. Notifications have also been updated that will enable users to hide sensitive updates and prioritize notifications accordingly. Furthermore, you can view and respond to messages right from the lock screen. And if you want, you can schedule a quiet time to silence notifications.

Right now the current version of Android, Lollipop will come on devices, including Nexus 9 tablet, Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 smartphones and the Nexus Player set-top box. And in the coming week, it will be available for download on Google Play devices and Nexus 4, 5, 7 and 10.

Fitness app can threaten your privacy

You walked half a mile and your fitness app calculated every calorie you burned and counted kilometers you ran. Isn’t it smart? Surely it is but have you noticed that a fitness app tracks down your location and activity that you have been doing throughout the day?

A fitness app not only knows a user’s location, but also whether he or she got there on foot, bike or bus. In spite of having numerous benefits of using a fitness app, the users run the privacy risk by inadvertently leaking the details of his or her whereabouts. Such information if finds its way into the hands of prospective employers, insurers, or mortgage lenders can put you to risk as it could be used to discriminate you based on intimate information.

The Facebook recently acquired fitness and activity tracking app, “Moves” for iPhone and Android mobile device. It is used to track the distance covered by the user in a day, however this app can tell a user’s location and other related information, all with the help of motion sensors and GPS information.

As per the reports the companies like Apple and Google too are working on sensor technology to develop the devices like iWatch (Apple), Google Glass, and other wearable technology that can easily locates a person’s position. Google is also working on Contact lenses, which can be used to read tears to find out the glucose levels of diabetic patients. It too contains some personal information of the person using it however Google confirms to Lorenzo Hall, chief technologist at Center for Democracy & Technology that data collected by the contacts would be kept secured.

The problem with the fitness app is that no one really knows who’s keeping an eye on the data collected by fitness apps. The traditional medical watchdogs like Food and Drug Administration and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability don’t keep any information of the fitness app as it doesn’t qualify as medical devices.

The FDA along with FTC is responsible for regulating health-related apps but it still needs to figure out whether it can punish companies if they break their promises made to customers.

Windows 8: Create a Shortcut for Shutdown and Restart

Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 8 comes equipped with a range of advanced features and options. It enables you to get all the latest live updates at a glance and access anything just with a click or a tap. However, with so many intriguing features, Windows 8 also boasts some shortcomings. One of them is the missing Start menu. Yes, Windows 8 comes without the Start menu. And all those who have been an ardent user of Windows operating system may have a really tough time to navigate through the system, especially when it comes to Shutdown or Restart your system. Fortunately, there is a solution to every problem. And this problem can also be rectified merely by creating a shortcut.

Create Shortcut for Shutdown on Windows 8

As the newest Windows 8 doesn’t sport the Start menu, at time it gets extremely complicated and time consuming to find the commonly used shortcuts like shutdown and restart. The below given step-by-step process will help you create shortcut for Shutdown and Restart in Windows 8.

Step 1: In order to create a shortcut, first switch your Windows to desktop view. For this, you can either press the Windows logo + D on the keyboard. Or else, just right click anywhere on your desktop.

Step 2: From the small list of options, select ‘New’ and then go to ‘Shortcut’ from the context menu. You will get a ‘Create Shortcut’ window. Under ‘Type the location of item:’ type ‘shutdown –s-t 00’.

Step 3: Click on ‘Next’. You will get a ‘Create Shortcut’ window. Under ‘Type a name for this shortcut’, type ‘Shutdown’.

Step 4: After that, choose an icon to the shortcut key for identifying easily. For this, right-click on the shortcut you just made. Then in the context menu click on ‘Properties’ and select ‘Shortcut’. Go to ‘Change Icon’ and choose a desired picture.

Step 5: To display the shortcut as Windows tile, create a shortcut on the desktop. For this, go to the shortcut you made and right-click on it. Then select ‘Pin to Start’. Immediately, you will be able to see the shortcut as a tile on your Windows screen.

Create Shortcut for Restart on Windows 8

Step to create shortcut for Restart button on Windows 8 operating system are same as mentioned above steps to create Shutdown button. You can also watch this video for instructions to create Restart button.

Wasn’t that really simple! You see, sometimes, choosing shortcuts can really make our lives simpler.

Apple® OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion unveiled at WWDC 2012

At the grand WWDC 2012 keynote, Apple unveiled a number of noticeable enhancements for the world’s most cutting-edge desktop operating system- OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. This new operating system is certainly a prime release with hundreds of state-of-the-art features including Notification Center, Messages app, Sharing, Facebook integration, Power Nap, AirPlay Mirroring, and the improved security of Gatekeeper.

Some top features that were highlighted about OS X Mountain Lion are:

iCloud: The new OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion will enable users to sync data, calendars, contacts, and e-mails across all Apple devices.

Dictation: It is one of the most enthralling features of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Dictation will automatically convert spoken words into text. According to Apple, this feature will successfully work for Microsoft Word and Facebook as well.

Up-to-date Safari browser: The advanced Safari browser in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion will include a History list of all the sites you visited on any of your Apple devices. Also, it will flaunt the fastest JavaScript engine and a new tab view for gesture-driven view of the opened tabs.

To experience the amazing features of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, you can download the operating system from the Mac Apple Store, July 2012 onwards.

Microsoft® launches Windows® 8 Release Preview

Software giant Microsoft Corporation has launched the Windows 8 Release Preview one day before its scheduled date of 01 June. The Release Preview is the third and final in Microsoft’s trio of Windows 8 pre-releases. This is the last major update of Windows 8 before the client code is released to manufacturers.

Features of Windows 8 Release Preview

According to Microsoft, the Windows 8 Release Preview, which is available for download in 14 languages, delivers a fast and fluid experience, along with a new user interface that responds equally well to touch as it does to keyboard and mouse.

Windows 8 Release Preview offers new apps from Microsoft and its partners. The major apps include Bing Travel, News and Sports apps, as well as Gaming and Music XBOX apps that integrate with Microsoft Zune pass. The Windows 8 Release Preview also features improvements to the Mail, Photos and People apps that were released with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

How different is Windows 8 from previous versions of Windows OS

It is not just the Metro Interface and the Microsoft store that have garnered considerable interest, but other aspects of Windows 8 too may be important to users who are considering upgrading. Here is a brief detail of back-end improvements to Windows 8:

• Smaller memory footprint: Windows 8 uses memory more efficiently and requires less memory to run. This is important for systems like Ultrabooks, which often come with 4GB of non-upgradable RAM.
• More-efficient performance: Windows 8 and its underlying sub-systems consume less of the CPU’s resources than previous Windows OS do.
• Reduced disk-space requirement: As solid-state drives become increasingly common, disk space for user files will be at a premium.
• Built-in SkyDrive integration: Cloud storage is now an integral part of the operating system.

What Next?

The next stop after Windows 8 Release Preview will be Release to Manufacturing (RTM), and after that, the retail release. If we consider the scheduling of Windows 7 as a benchmark, it is expected that the RTM sign-off may occur around August and retail availability around October.

News source: Microsoft

Microsoft® to offer Windows® 8 Pro upgrade deal

Microsoft Corporation is going to allow buyers of Windows 7 PCs to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for US $14.99 from 2 June. This promotional deal seems to be a step to prevent the slump in sales of PC before the launch of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system.

When the offer will start?

The offer is believed to make its debut at the same time when Microsoft will launch Windows 8 Release Preview, which the software giant has pegged to the first week of June. The most likely date is 5 June, assuming Microsoft follows the same schedule it used in 2009 to deliver Windows 7 release candidate.

The blog post of Paul Thurott indicates that this time around, Microsoft is only offering two mainstream versions of the product to consumers – Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro.

Image by: Daeee-i via Flickr (CC)

OPS Technical Solutions : +1 315-226-4249

Android Lollipop, Google’s latest mobile platform is unveiled

Fitness app can threaten your privacy

Windows 8: Create a Shortcut for Shutdown and Restart

Create Shortcut for Shutdown on Windows 8

Create Shortcut for Restart on Windows 8

Apple® OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion unveiled at WWDC 2012

Microsoft® launches Windows® 8 Release Preview

Features of Windows 8 Release Preview

How different is Windows 8 from previous versions of Windows OS

What Next?

Microsoft® to offer Windows® 8 Pro upgrade deal

When the offer will start?

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