GOOGLE+ "SHUTDOWN"

You’ve all be hearing about Google + being shut down and coupled with the recent announcement that Vic Gundotra, who is the head of the social network, would be leaving the company effective immediately. From all this news around it is almost certain that the rumor might be true. So let me clear the air.

Actually Google appears to be testing new “Sign in with Google” button to expand sign-in option beyond Google+. This new Google sign in logo is actually viewable through developer accounts alone, which means the average user won’t see it on any site. The goal behind the improvements is to expand Google’s social sign- in options to support all types of Google accounts.

Vic Gundotra leaving does not affect the social network, with Google claiming that it “has no impact on our Google+ strategy—we have an incredibly talented team that will continue to build great user experiences across Google+, Hangouts and Photos.”

Though Google has a history of closing popular services listed but I do not think the Google+ is one of those services they would be wanting to shut down. It is a superb social networking service pitching it’s tent right next to the likes of Facebook and Twitter and it also has a wide user base and also recent new improvements were made to it.

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HEARTBLEED

Hey guys, we are going to be looking at the internet stunner bug populary known as the Heartbleed. Yeah, a lot of you guys have been hearing about it so I would like to make the name make a meaning to you today and for those of you who know about it already, I guess you just going to be adding to your already acquired knowledge.

The Heartbleed  Bug is a serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSl cryptographic software library. This weakness allows stealing of our ‘so called’ protected information. SSL/TLS protects our information under normal conditions by provides communication security and privacy over the internet for applications such as web, email, i.m, and some virtual private networks.

The Heartbleed Bug allows anyone on the internet to read the memory of the systems protected by the OpenSSl software. This compromises the secret keys used to identify the service providers and to encrypt the traffic, the names and passwords of the users and the actual content. This allows attackers to eavesdrop on communications and steal data directly from the services and users to impersonate services and users

Unluckily for us, unlike other bugs that come and go, same thing has been done to this particular bug with the release of a newer version but it leaves a big scar on the internet because it has left amount of private keys and other secrets exposed to the internet.

As long as the vulnerable version of OpenSSl is in use it can be abused. Fixed OpenSSl has been released and now it has been deployed. Operating system vendors and distribution, appliance vendors, independent software vendors have to adopt the fix and notify their users. Service providers and users have to install the fixes as it becomes available for the operating systems, networked appliances and software they use

Google security researcher Neel Mehta was the first to discover Heartbleed though it has been found that the Hearbleed flaw has been in in OpenSSl for two years. The Bug was introduced to OpenSSl in December 2011 and has been out in the wild since OpenSSl release 1.0.1 on the 14^th of March 2012. OpenSSl 1.0.1g released on 7^th of April 2014 fixes the bug

According to Google all android version are immune to the Heartbleed bug except for jelly bean 4.1.1. So if what google says is anything to go buy, about 10 million users of the Android OS would be affected.

My heart is currently bleeding from the effect of Heartbleed *winks*. Please guys let’s try to quickly upgrade our phone’s OS in time.

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WONDERS OF 3D PRINTING

Wow. Yeah guys, don’t be surprised I’m starting with a Wow. What am about to talk about really deserves a wow, a very big one, I don’t know who was behind the inception of 3-D printing but trust me guys; it’s been a great success to me though it has not gone escalated commercially because of the price of the printers.

Enough of that, in this article and the next we would be taking a look at the great milestones 3-D printing has been reaching. Today we would be taking the printing of a skull. Yeah, you heard me right, 3 –D printing has gotten to that level.

A Dutch woman with a rare medical condition needed a new skull, Surgeons 3-D printed one for her and put it on her brain like a cap. 3-D printing has been doing a lot of wonders lately with the printing of a fingertip, a hand, a prosthetic eyes, arms, a jaw, and even a new foot for a duck. And now the human skull has been added to the growing list.

The plastic skull was made by an Australian firm and placed on the brain of a Dutch woman at Utrecht University’s University Medical Center in the Netherlands. The operation, which lasted about 23 hours, took place about four months ago, and Dutch news just reported that the patient has resumed her normal life including her work.

“The patient has her sight back entirely, is symptom free, is back to work, and it is almost impossible to see that she’s ever had a surgery”  lead Neurologist Ben Verweij said in a statement.

Prior to the procedure, the woman’s skull was more than three times thicker than a normal skull due to a rare condition. The increased thickness caused the woman’s skull to press on her brain, leading to severe headaches and vision loss. Although the report doesn’t name the condition, Camurati-Engelmann disease is among ailments that can cause skull bones to thicken

“Implants used to be made by hand in the operating theatre using a sort of cement which was far from ideal,” Verweij said of the procedure, according to Dutch News. “Using 3-D printing we can make one to the exact size. This not only has great cosmetic advantages, but patients’ brain function often recovers better than using the old method.”

Verweji says that although portions of skulls have been swapped out in the past, this is the first time an entire cranium has been replaced in a patient. And I bet this is the first time you’ve ever seen a plastic skull get attached to a real live brain.

This is kind of unbelievable for me because am wondering how the operation was carried out. Thumbs up to 3-D printing technology and the Doctors. I love technology.

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GIONEE PIONEER P2

Whats up guys, please do not answer with the sky, have been getting that answer a lot lately. Today we would be taking a look at another phone but guess what guys it’s not going to be Tecno, yeah I promised that back sometimes that I would not be only writing on Tecno phones, so today we would be looking at the Gionee Pioneer P2. Yeah, my first Gionee phone and trust me it’s not going to be the last. So guys without so much ado let’s take a look at the Gionee Pioneer P2. It’s a great phone guys so sit tight as you take a walk past the world of the Gionee Pioneer P2.

Design: The Pioneer P2 comes with what some call moderate sized screen, it stands at about 4.0”. It has dimensions of about 126*64.4*11.5mm. it comes in both white and black variety to suite your taste.

Operating System: Like most Android phones produced now, it runs on the Google Android Operating System version 4.2 which is also known as Jelly
Bean. Like I always say, if you’ve got one of this or you are planning to get it trust  me you would be using one of the latest Google Android OS out there with a lot of cool features.

Memory: It comes equipped with an internal memory of about 4GB, but like every other phone out there, don’t be expecting it to be complete because of the applications that have already been installed on it from the factory. But as usual no need to entertain fear because it has an expandable microSD card space which can accommodate up to 32GB of microSD card.

It has 512Mb Ram.

Processor: Guess what, this phone is not also ready to let you down as it comes with 1.3 GHz Dual core. It’s quite cool.

Camera: Yeah, the camera, also what some of us really like about a phone. It comes with a dual camera like every other phone, with the rear being equipped with 5.0MP of camera with flash while the front camera is about 0.3 MP. So I don’t really advice selfies with this front camera, cause I believe it won’t be that great.

Battery Life: Since the screen isn’t so large, I guess the battery should last a little bit long provided you are not running all those applications at once and you are not really using it. But trust me who does not browse, run applications, play music, or play games daily. So the battery to me wouldn’t last as long as you want. It comes equipped with a battery capacity of 1700mAh

Price: Like most other producers out there who are trying to break even in the market, the phone isn’t going to tear your pocket if you want to get one. It costs about 114 dollars.

17, 000 (114 USD)

Below are the full specifications of Gionee Pioneer P2

GIONEE PIONEER P2 FULL SPECIFICATIONS.

·         Camera:                           Primary          5.0MP with LED Flash

Resolution      2592*1944 pixels

Secondary VGA camera (0.3MP)

·         Operating System:         Android 4.2 Jelly bean

·         Display:                            Capacitive TFT touch screen

Screen Size 4.0 inches

480*800 pixels

Light sensor, Proximity sensor

·         Processor:                        1.3GHz Dual Core

·         Internal Storage:            4GB expandable to 32Gb    

·         RAM:                                512Mb Ram

·         Connectivity:                   2G/3G

GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

HSDPA 900/1200 MHz

Wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n

Wifi Hotspot

Usb

            Bluetooth 3.0

            GPS

            NFC not present

·         DUAL SIM:                       Yes

                             

·         Battery:                            1700mAh Li-Ion

§  Other Features

G-sensor, GPS Navigation FM  Radio , and so on.

Whatsapp Defends Android Security Flaw

Whatsapp is challenging the security report claiming weakness in it Android app, calling the threat “overstated” and the report inaccurate.

Whatsapp on Thursday said that reports of a security flaw in its system were “overstated”, earlier this week, Bas Bosschert an IT consultant released a report warning that an exploit in the app’s Android encryption would enable another app to access WhatsApp chat transcripts and use them for any purpose. The key to the hack, according to Bosschert, is that WhatsApp uses a phone’s SD card to store messages, which “can be read by any Android application if the user allows it to access the SD card.” However, WhatsApp denies that Bosschert’s methods are accurate, and said in a statement viaTechCrunch :

“We are aware of the reports regarding a ‘security flaw.’ Unfortunately, these reports have not painted an accurate picture and are overstated. Under normal circumstances the data on a microSD card is not exposed. However, if a device owner downloads malware or a virus, their phone will be at risk. As always, we recommend WhatsApp users apply all software updates to ensure they have the latest security fixes and we strongly encourage users to only download trusted software from reputable companies. The current version of WhatsApp in Google Play was updated to further protect our users against malicious apps. So whatsapp is saying is that it’s not a security problem from their side, that if we the users download malicious app that can access other information on the SD card, it puts us on the brink of losing vital informations ot hackers, Whatsapp data included.

So guys, like the solution proffered in the earlier article, when we are installing applications, please lets make sure we set the restriction by simply reading through the permissions and also like what Whatsapp said, we should download apps from trusted creators.

Candy Crush Creator claims 7.6 Billion US Dollars IPO Valuation

Like we all know sometimes back in February this year, it was reported that the creator of the game Candy Rush *which have been stuck in level 30 for some weeks*, King Digital Entertainment Plc would file the company for an IPO.

Yesterday, the 12^th of March, according to Reuters, it was reported that King Digital Entertainment expects to be worth up to 7.6 billion dollars whenit goes public later this month.

The recent surge in Facebook share price as well as the successful IPO of twitter back in November of last year have fuelled speculation that a number of technology firms are considering filling for IPO in the near future.

Now King Digital Entertainmentis hoping to take advantage of the strong demand for technology investments. However a company with only a couple of popular game titles to its name might end up being yet another Zynga.

King Digital Entertainment is scheduled to be priced on March 25^th 2014 and stock will start trading on March 26^th , tow underwriters have divulged to Reuters who explains’:

“The Dublin based company will sell 15.5 million shares in the offering, while stockholders, including Apex ventures, will sell 6.7 million shares, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissionon Wednesday.

In February, an average of 144 milliondaily active users played the company’s game more than 1.4 billion times per day, the filing showed. The king IPO will raise as much as 532.8 million at the top end of the planned range. It filed for a 500 million dollars placeholder in February.”

Just my opinion, Woooooow, I want to create a game *laughing*, I cannot program, guess my company would be valued at about ……...

Though 7.6 Billion Dollars is quite a worth though.

WHATSAPP CHAT HISTORY AT RISK

Some days ago, Whatsapp updated its Android application with improved privacy settings that gives you control over who can see your “last seen, profile photo and status update.”

Cool right, Yeah, I agree with you but guess what guys, it isn’t so cool though. A loop hole has been found in this update all thanks to Bas Bosschert an IT consultant. I guess some of us know that Whatsapp chat history is usually saved on the memory card and if you do not, I guess you’ve added a few knowledge to that you’ve got before. Bosschert noted that for those of us *like me* who do not pay attention to the app permissions before installing them from the play store, we are at a great risk.

Developers can easily ask users for permission to access the storage contents and upload the chat history file to their own servers putting the user’s privacy at risk.

People would only see a loading screen when they start the game”. Bosschert said in an email to Business Insider. “They wouldn’t notice that their Whatsapp database has been uploaded.”

Not too long ago, Whatsapp was acquired by Facebook for a whopping 19 billion US Dollars, and privacy concerns of the users might have increased since then, as what the company does with the app Facebook, on the other hand, has been under same scenario with users concerned about their privacy and information they save on the social networking websites.

Well, users can take precautions, and make sure to check the permissions required by the app before installing them. Let’s hope Whatsapp will comment on this issue as well.

*No wonder the rate of usage reduced shortly after the acquisition notably in Germany because of privacy issues.*