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Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts

How Bitcoin Mining Works

 

In traditional fiat money systems, governments simply print more money when they need to. But in bitcoin, money isn’t printed at all – it is discovered. Computers around the world ‘mine’ for coins by competing with each other.

How does mining take place?

People are sending bitcoins to each other over the bitcoin network all the time, but unless someone keeps a record of all these transactions, no-one would be able to keep track of who had paid what. The bitcoin network deals with this by collecting all of the transactions made during a set period into a list, called a block. It’s the miners’ job to confirm those transactions, and write them into a general ledger.

Making a hash of it

This general ledger is a long list of blocks, known as the 'blockchain'. It can be used to explore any transaction made between any bitcoin addresses, at any point on the network. Whenever a new block of transactions is created, it is added to the blockchain, creating an increasingly lengthy list of all the transactions that ever took place on the bitcoin network. A constantly updated copy of the block is given to everyone who participates, so that they know what is going on.

But a general ledger has to be trusted, and all of this is held digitally. How can we be sure that the blockchain stays intact, and is never tampered with? This is where the miners come in.
When a block of transactions is created, miners put it through a process. They take the information in the block, and apply a mathematical formula to it, turning it into something else. That something else is a far shorter, seemingly random sequence of letters and numbers known as a hash. This hash is stored along with the block, at the end of the blockchain at that point in time.

Hashes have some interesting properties. It’s easy to produce a hash from a collection of data like a bitcoin block, but it’s practically impossible to work out what the data was just by looking at the hash. And while it is very easy to produce a hash from a large amount of data, each hash is unique. If you change just one character in a bitcoin block, its hash will change completely.

Miners don’t just use the transactions in a block to generate a hash. Some other pieces of data are used too. One of these pieces of data is the hash of the last block stored in the blockchain.
Because each block’s hash is produced using the hash of the block before it, it becomes a digital version of a wax seal. It confirms that this block – and every block after it – is legitimate, because if you tampered with it, everyone would know.

If you tried to fake a transaction by changing a block that had already been stored in the blockchain, that block’s hash would change. If someone checked the block’s authenticity by running the hashing function on it, they’d find that the hash was different from the one already stored along with that block in the blockchain. The block would be instantly spotted as a fake.

Because each block’s hash is used to help produce the hash of the next block in the chain, tampering with a block would also make the subsequent block’s hash wrong too. That would continue all the way down the chain, throwing everything out of whack.

Competing for coins

So, that’s how miners ‘seal off’ a block. They all compete with each other to do this, using software written specifically to mine blocks. Every time someone successfully creates a hash, they get a reward of 25 bitcoins, the blockchain is updated, and everyone on the network hears about it. That’s the incentive to keep mining, and keep the transactions working.

The problem is that it’s very easy to produce a hash from a collection of data. Computers are really good at this. The bitcoin network has to make it more difficult, otherwise everyone would be hashing hundreds of transaction blocks each second, and all of the bitcoins would be mined in minutes. The bitcoin protocol deliberately makes it more difficult, by introducing something called ‘proof of work’.

The bitcoin protocol won’t just accept any old hash. It demands that a block’s hash has to look a certain way; it must have a certain number of zeroes at the start. There’s no way of telling what a hash is going to look like before you produce it, and as soon as you include a new piece of data in the mix, the hash will be totally different.

Miners aren’t supposed to meddle with the transaction data in a block, but they must change the data they’re using to create a different hash. They do this using another, random piece of data called a ‘nonce’. This is used with the transaction data to create a hash. If the hash doesn’t fit the required format, the nonce is changed, and the whole thing is hashed again. It can take many attempts to find a nonce that works, and all the miners in the network are trying to do it at the same time. That’s how miners earn their bitcoins.

Google launches wi-fi network in Kampala, Uganda

 

Google has launched its first wi-fi network in Uganda's capital Kampala, as part of a project to broaden access to affordable high-speed internet.
The company is making the broadband wireless network available to local internet providers, who will then charge customers for access.
The web giant says the network is now live in 120 key locations in Kampala.
Official statistics show Uganda has about 8.5 million internet users, making up 23% of the population.
Google hopes that by improving internet capacity in the city, local telecom companies will then be able to offer faster, cheaper broadband access to their customers.
The company estimates that one day's unlimited data using the new network should cost 1,000 Ugandan shillings ($0.30, £0.20), although local providers will decide how much they want to charge for the service.
Critics say it would have been better to focus on Uganda's rural areas, where high-speed internet access is very limited.
The wireless network forms part of a wider project to improve web infrastructure in Africa, which has seen Google lay 800km (500 miles) of cables in Uganda to establish a fibre optic network.
There are now plans to expand the project to the Ghanaian cities of Accra, Tema and Kumasi.
In October, Facebook announced its own initiative to increase access to the internet in Africa by using satellites.

Kia announces £1.3 billion investment in driverless car technology

 


Kia has revealed ambitious plans to develop entirely driverless cars by 2030.

The Korean car company has said it will invest £1.3 billion into the development of the technology by 2018. The first goal will be to introduce partially-autonomous driving technologies, such as a remote parking system that will make a car park itself at the press of a button on the keyfob. Cars with this technology could be on the road by 2020.

Hyundai Group’s vice president, central advanced research and engineering institute, Tae-Won Lim, said: “Fully-autonomous vehicles are still some way off, and a great deal of research and rigorous product testing will need to be carried out to make the ‘self-driving car’ a reality. Kia is still in the early stages of developing its own technologies, and we are confident that the latest innovations – both partially and fully autonomous – will ultimately make driving safer for everyone.”

Smart Kia cars of the future will have a range of technologies focusing on three areas so they can function without a driver.

They will have new sensors so they can detect other vehicles, read the road ahead and identify poor driving conditions. Advanced computing systems will enable the cars to make decisions based on the information gathered by the sensors. And the computers will use their active mechanical and electronic systems to drive the car.

In order to reach this stage Kia will first work on three semi-autonomous systems. Highway Driving Assist will comprise a lane guidance system and smart cruise control. Traffic Jam Assist will take over around town and prevent the vehicle getting too close to the car in front. And, our favourite, the Remote Advanced Parking Assist System, will enable a driver to park their car simply by pressing a button on the keyfob.

Drone Maker DJI Adds Technology to Limit Where Its Machines Can Fly

 

DJI, a Chinese company that makes more small-scale drones than anyone else, announced on Tuesday a new, so-called geofencing system, which is a way to better control what a drone is flying over.
The system, built on flying restrictions DJI first introduced in 2013, promises continually updated information on a machine’s airspace. Information on something like an airport is already in the system; this might add something like a request by emergency personnel not to fly over a forest fire. 

“This is an example of the technology empowering operators to make smart decisions,” said Brendan Schulman, vice president of policy and legal affairs at DJI. “It’s an example of how technology solutions can address concerns.”

What action to take is often up to drone’s pilot, though it is clear that freedom of the skies faces increasing limits. The system has built-in restrictions around sensitive locations such as prisons and power plants, where potential payloads, not the flying itself, are a concern. 

By default, the drone won’t be operable in such places, though users who open DJI accounts will be able to self-authorize flights in some locations. 

Registering for those accounts will require verification from a credit or debit card, or a mobile phone number. DJI will apparently make the information available if there are legal investigations of flights, but it won’t collect or store the information for any other purpose for the free service. For national security locations (the company mentioned all of Washington as a “prohibited area”) even the override won’t work.

The move appears to be at least in part an effort to curb increasing regulation of drones.

Mr. Shulman spoke about privacy and safety issues expressed by individuals and regulatory authorities.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which is responsible for the conduct of most of what flies around, wants to register drones, and is mulling how to further control an airspace suddenly plied by millions more operators.

As a result of new regulations, many companies besides DJI have taken steps to influence the rule-making. A number of interested parties, including Google, Amazon, GoPro, Parrot and 3D Robotics, are participating in the F.A.A.’s registration task force.

While DJI’s effort, which will go live in December, is proprietary, it shows a trend of building more awareness into the systems, which may become common among drone makers. It also shows an interesting conflict in building this artificial intelligence: DJI is leaving how to treat information about new “no fly” areas up to individual pilots.

One reason for this may be to avoid liability, either from offering a product that unnecessarily limits its buyers’ or from offering a product whose artificial “fencing” technology fails, opening it to lawsuits.
To Mr. Schulman, the new industry of drones is being unfairly singled out. “There is no other technology whose functionality is disabled by geography,” he said. “Your car’s speedometer goes to 100 miles per hour or more – it’s up to individuals to use that properly.”

Whether the government, from federal agencies to local municipalities, feels the same way about robots in space remains to be seen.

Lenovo Y50 review: Good for gamers.

 


Lenovo Y50 review: Design

The 15.6-inch Lenovo Y50 isn't a hybrid, something that tries to be a portable laptop as well as a gaming powerhouse. But, at 2.4kgs, it is a lot lighter and less bulky than one of its obvious rivals, the Asus G751. Hardly a featherweight, but that's as much as a kilogram lighter than some of the competition. Just taking it from one room to the other isn't going to make your groan.
It's 24mm thick too, getting us dangerously close to the sort of shape and weight that makes it seem you could slip it into a rucksack and use the Lenovo Y50 as a proper portable machine. Let's be clear: it's not one. If an Ultrabook is what you're after, then go buy one.

The Y50 isn't the loudest-looking gaming laptop around, though. Perhaps we've just been desensitised by stacks of laptops that look like they've had supercar exhausts bunged onto them, but we wouldn't be worried to pull this thing out in public as if it were a standard laptop. The Lenovo Y50 has a hint of gamer style, but it's not to excess.

Its lid is cross-hatched metal, as is its underside. The inner bits are soft-touch plastic, which feels nice on the fingers. There's not much in the way of obvious design compromise, although the metallic bits do feel like an ultra-thin veneer on top of a plastic frame when compared to something like a MacBook Pro. Still: how else do you get a gaming laptop this thin and light?

Lenovo Y50 review: Heat

The downside of making a laptop with a serious CPU and GPU combo this petite is how to deal with heat. The Lenovo Y50 is very much a case of when the screen's on, the fan's going on too. Even the lightest of tasks sits on a bed of subtle whirring caused by the fan. Its sound isn't offensive, but it's something to bear in mind if you're going to be working in quiet rooms half the time.
It's reasonably good at dispersing heat evenly, though, with outlets in the hinge and a big grille on the bottom ensuring there are no worrying hot spots. Just make sure there's room for that bottom grille to breathe, ok? It's also fairly happy with a bit of on-the-knees gaming, the grille seemingly positioned to avoid that area.

Lenovo Y50 review: Screen

One part of the gaming laptop's setup that can often be overshadowed by the specs of the GPU is the display. This spec matters, a lot.

Screen quality was perhaps the biggest issue with the 1920 x 1080 panel in the 2014 Lenovo Y50, but that has been radically improved by switching to IPS panels across the board for the 2015 model. None of that TN rubbish to be found here.
There are two options: a 4K (3840 x 2160) screen and a regular Full HD (1920 x 1080) one, the latter lower-resolution one which we're looking at here. Like an awful lot of game machines, it's a matte finish and is not touch-sensitive.

The big improvements over the older 1080p Y50 versions are in colour fidelity and angled viewing, having gone from pretty dreadful to pretty good. Colours look natural and while there's a bit of brightness loss at the steepest angles, what's being displayed is still visible from any angle you pick.
There are just two bits that could be better. Maximum brightness isn't going to sear any eyeballs, so we ended up using maximum brightness even with normal indoors conditions. Anything much lower just looks dim. This isn't a killer flaw when the Lenovo Y50 has a reflection-reducing matte screen, but its matte finish isn't quite the best we've seen at defusing those light sources either.

Lenovo Y50 review: Specs and performance

Upgrading to the 4K version is tempting, but a 1080p panel is actually a pretty good pairing for the hardware here. The Lenovo Y50 has a GeForce GTX 960M GPU and an Intel Core i7-4720HQ quad-core 2.6GHz CPU, enough to play just about any game at 1080p with high or medium settings, at a good (30fps-plus) frame rate.
Real gaming nuts might want to upgrade to the GTX 980M, but good luck finding such a laptop for under £1,500. This will do the trick for most of you.

What it doesn't have, though, is a proper SSD. Instead, the Lenovo Y50 uses a 1TB 5400rpm (i.e. slow) hard drive with an 8GB SSD partition to help grease up its performance when booting up and coming out of sleep. We've been spoilt by using so many SSD options over the last couple of years, and a hybrid drive just isn't the same. Booting up is a touch slow, as is returning from sleep.
It's funny to think that, while incredibly powerful, the Lenovo Y50 can at times seem slower than a much less capable machine. Still, if you care more about playing high-end games and editing video than how quickly it loads Windows 10, then this laptop is a great deal.

Having such a power-focused processor means the Y50 doesn't last too long off a charge though. We got around three hours before it shut off, which just isn't close to enough if you're after a portable work computer. Go with 4K and we suspect that'll be even less. Gaming performance is also severely throttled when not plugged-in.
So it's slim-ish and light-ish, but the Y50's portability is limited.

Lenovo Y50 review: Keyboard and trackpad

There are just a few other little niggles you need to consider before taking the Y50 plunge too. First, while the keyboard is pretty neat in some respects, with an attractive red backlight and decent key action, in fitting-in a numerical keypad it has had to seriously chop into some of the important keys. The shift keys are small, as is the backspace. You'll probably get used to it before too long, but it's not every typist's dream.

Then there's the trackpad, which we found a bit more of a long-term niggle. The size, the texture and the feedback of the click are all fine. However, a combo of picky zoning and that it's shifted a bit too far to the left of the Y50 mean it can feel unresponsive in use unless you shift your right hand unnaturally close to your left. Next to a good Ultrabook pad or a gaming one with properly contoured buttons, it's just a bit annoying and feels fiddly. This Lenovo, therefore, works best with a mouse attached.

There are also no ultra-hardcore macro buttons on the keyboard, used to programme sequences of key presses for tasks you'll have to repeat a lot. Still, the Lenovo Y50 isn't really a laptop for that crowd.
It even caters for those older gamers out there who, shock horror, still own a collection of disc-based PC games. Nope, there's no optical drive on the Lenovo Y50's side - instead there's an external drive in the box that just plugs into a USB port without needing its own separate power.
There are also plenty of connections on the Lenovo Y50's sides. There are three USB ports, a full-size SD card slot, HDMI and Ethernet. That's more than enough to let the thing work as the brain of a desktop-style setup.

If the Lenovo Y50 is going to sit on a table or desk somewhere as a home gaming rig, you'll probably want to get a headset or some speakers involved, though. While a little sub unit at the bottom of the laptop gives the sound a good thud of low-end output, the actual sound quality is just OK, without the bass/treble integration, balance or simple fidelity of the best laptop speakers.

Verdict

The Lenovo Y50 is a good-value gaming laptop, and a pretty aggressive competitor to other laptops in this class like the Acer V Nitro and the various MSI options around the price, including the GS20.
Last year the Y50 was a bit of a dodgy option given its limited screen quality, but in the 2015 upgrade to IPS panels (for both the 1080p and 4K resolutions) and the bump from a GTX 860M to GTX 960M GPU (a slight but worthwhile upgrade) Lenovo has solved some, if not all, of its problems.
We don't love the trackpad or the battery life, but if you're after a sub-£1,000 gaming laptop with a bit of gamer-style design flair, this is one of your best bets.

Dell reportedly launching takeover of EMC to create computing colossus

 


Dell is reportedly offering about $US33 a share to acquire EMC Corp, in a deal that would create a computing colossus and help both companies cope with a demand slowdown.

The proposal includes a tracking stock in VMware valued at about $US8 a share that would be issued to EMC shareholders, said a person familiar with the story. A deal may be announced as soon as Monday, the person said.

Dell is speaking to banks about raising at least $US40 billion to finance the purchase, a person with knowledge of the matter has said.

A deal would bring together the largest storage maker and the No. 2 server company as the industry undergoes rapid change with the shift to mobile and cloud computing.

Dell, which was taken private for about $US25 billion in 2013, will use the combination to expand its product lineup in high-end data storage equipment as it tries to lure customers away from Hewlett-Packard Co. and other rivals.

For EMC, the agreement resolves a long overdue leadership succession and a standoff with activist investors.

The current plan would have Michael Dell run the combined entity, a person with knowledge of the matter has said.

EMC and Dell both need ways to manage a slump in their main businesses, with EMC weighing strategic options amid pressure from shareholder Elliott Management Corp.

Though the combination would be costly and difficult to finance, it would provide a one-stop shop for EMC's digital storage products with Dell's servers, which help businesses tackle mammoth computing tasks.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays Plc, Bank of America Corp., Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG are among the banks that have been approached about financing the deal, people said.

SanDisk introduces 'Industrial' line-up of flash for even the toughest jobs

 


SANDISK HAS ANNOUNCED a new Industrial range of products for connected industry applications particularly honed towards Internet of Things (IoT) enablement.
The new range is designed to work even in extreme environments, such as digital signs for a walk-in freezer, surveillance in a steel mill and all points in between.

Suggested use cases include factories, utilities, industrial computing, medical equipment, surveillance cameras, digital signs, robotics, PoS solutions, large-scale printing and energy management.
"Just as NAND flash helps consumer electronics and mobile devices handle complex applications, overcome connectivity limitations and optimise bandwidth costs, we are now seeing it causing disruptive change in a wide array of industries,” said Oded Sagee, senior director of industrial and connected home solutions at SanDisk.

"We have architected our new high-endurance SanDisk Industrial flash storage portfolio to be the ideal storage for the growing ‘Industrial IoT’ market. It delivers exceptional long-term reliability and performance, even in rigorous environments that operate in extreme temperatures or require massive real-time processing and data integrity for a long duration."

The range consists of SD cards, microSD cards and iNAND embedded flash drives. All come in capacities of up to 64GB and are built with endurance in mind in terms of environment and continuous use. All are hot-swappable.

The SD cards sacrifice read/write speeds, but at 20MBps read/write under optimum conditions, it's not a figure that will be too noticeable when applied to these relatively small capacities.
The NAND flash is based on e.MMC 4.41 and e.MMC 4.51 H200 specifications with sequential read/write of 30/120MBps. It also benefits from Enhanced Power Immunity in case of pesky surges, dual-boot and dual-partition support and enhanced user-definable area SLC partitions.

SanDisk was announced yesterday as one of the founding partners of Openchain Workgroup, a Linux initiative designed to remove ambiguities in the workflow of software development.
The company announced an elastic computing focused SSD, the Cloudspeed Ultra SSD2, in August.
The Industrial range is available for sampling now across the world. These certainly aren't the fastest flash devices on the market, but they'll survive even if you're an ice cream vendor in Death Valley.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces fraud charges in a lawsuit

 



Fraud charges leveled against Zuckerberg in a land case in Silicon Valley

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook has reportedly been charged with fraud wherein a developer has alleged that the billionaire failed to keep his promise of introducing him to Silicon Valley’s elite as part of a land deal. The lawsuit was filed by Real Estate Developer Mircea Voskerician.
A state judge in San Jose, California, denied 31-year-old Zuckerberg’s request to dismiss the claims that he did not keep his word in a $1.7 million deal that ended plans for a mansion construction and business referrals by the founder.

In the meantime, in yet another twist, Voskerician’s attorney David Draper also appealed the court to withdraw from the case, without disclosing the reason, just week before the trial.
The case grew out of a deal gone wrong in 2012. According to the court documents, a key email exchange occurred on November 24, 2012, between Zuckerberg and his financial advisor, Divesh Makan. Zuckerberg wrote: “Feel free to use meeting me as a negotiating carrot with them. That likely has real soft value to them and may make them more likely to want to give us a good deal.”

When setting up the meeting with a Zuckerberg assistant who wanted to know where the venue should be, Makan replies: “… it would be wherever (Zuckerberg) wants though the (Facebook) office is ideal. WE are trying to ‘wow’ these schmucks so they will accept an offer for the home that is reasonable. The plan is to have (Zuckerberg) spend 15min with them, make them feel special etc. Perhaps you can prepare 2 goodie bags as well.”

The court documents stated that Voskerician had owned the rights to buy the property adjoining Zuckerberg’s house in Palo Alto. He offered to sell his interest in the land to Zuckerberg so that the Facebook CEO could gain more privacy.

Zuckerberg opted to buy the rights, but Voskerician rejected that deal. That’s when things got messy.
The developer claims that he gave Zuckerberg a 40 percent discount on the property rights, while agreeing to drop plans to build a 9,600-square-foot home with a view overlooking Zuckerberg’s bedroom. In return, Zuckerberg promised introductions and referrals to boost Voskerician’s business, an ‘oral’ promise, as alleged, which he failed to keep.

Judge Patricia Lucas on Thursday rejected most of Zuckerberg’s requests to have individual claims decided in his favor without need of a trial. She also ruled that Divesh Makan must face a claim that he was part of a conspiracy to defraud Voskerician.

In her tentative ruling issued before the hearing, Lucas refused to dismiss the contract claim, saying the evidence shows the alleged agreement “is not so uncertain or indefinite so as to be rendered unenforceable.” She said she will make a final later.

Sara Petersen Graves, a lawyer for Makan refused to comment on Thursday’s ruling. The case is Voskerician v Zuckerberg, 114CV264667, Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara (San Jose).

Samsung Galaxy S6 Vs iPhone 6S

 







The iPhone 6S will launch its international sales starting this Friday 24.
Now that this phone is here, many are asking how it compares to what is basically its closest rival, Samsung Galaxy S6.
Our team has compiled for you a fine comparison of these two smartphone flagships from Samsung and Apple.

The Specifications
The rivalry between Apple and Samsung is not something new to the tech world. However, the latest models take this rivalry to the next level thanks to the fact that Apple has made an upgrade to the rear and front snappers, something that brings it whiskers close to the Galaxy S6.
When screen matters are on the table, the clear winner is the Samsung Galaxy S6. However, Apple has introduced 3D Touch technology, something that puts the iPhone 6S on its level. It’s the same technology that has been installed on the Apple Watch and some of the latest MacBooks, but here it’s known as Force Touch. A problem could arise for Apple with respect to storage as the company went for a base model of 16GB in comparison to Samsung’s 32GB.

Dimensions and material build
The iPhone 6S has a thickness of 7.1mm, which is slightly thicker than the 6.8mm offered on the Galaxy S6. The thickness of the new iPhone is brought about by the new material that Apple used – 7000 series aluminum. Nonetheless, Samsung has finally done away with the mediocre materials it used on their flagships as the current flagships spot a more attractive look, arguably better than the iPhone.

Display
As noted earlier, the Galaxy S6 has better screen resolution and size as well. The iPhone 6S has a screen size of 4.7 inches and a resolution of 750 by 1334. This is quite poor from Apple since Samsung’s model manages a larger screen size of 5.1 inches and a much better resolution of 1440 by 2560 pixels.
As a result, the iPhone ends up with a much lower pixel density of 326 pixels per inch as opposed to the massive 557 pixels per inch you get on the S6 smartphone. While the naked eye might not notice this distinct difference in the pixel density, Samsung feels that it is what they need, to enhance the display quality of their flagships.

Photography
Apple has been using the 8MP snapper on most of its latest iPhones. However, things have changed with iPhone 6S and 6S Plus as these two phones have improved the snappers, both front and rear. The rear now has 12MP while the front has 5MP. This means now 4K video shooting is now possible on the iPhone 6S, just like it is on Samsung Galaxy S6. However, the latter has a much better snapper on the rear, a 16MP sensor, but the front snapper is similar to what Apple puts on its latest flagships.

Processing power and memory
Apple has remained discreet about the number of cores in the iPhone processors as well as the amount of RAM installed. However, we are aware that the new iPhone 6S comes with an A9 chipset with 64-bit architecture and an embedded M9 motion co-processor. According to the Cupertino tech giant, this is the fastest, high-performing processor ever made by the company.
It remains to be seen whether the hype that the A9 chip has already received will be of any concern to Samsung Galaxy S6’s octa-core Exynos 7420 processor, which is clocked at 2.1 GHz and 1.5GHz. Further inside the S6 you will come across a RAM of 3GB, which is decent enough to run multiple apps and processes.

In terms of storage, Apple might be lagging behind as far as the base model is concerned. The iPhone 6S has 16GB for the lowest model, but there are still 64GB and 128GB variants available. On the other hand, Samsung’s base model starts at 32GB, but the rest is the same as Apple. In addition, both models have no slot for a microSD card, something that Samsung seems to have borrowed from Apple.

Price
This is where matters get really hot. The iPhone 6S will launch official sales this week and Apple has priced the base model at $649. The price gets higher as the storage increases, with the 64GB model selling at $749 and the 128GB model trading at $849.
On the other hand, the prices of Samsung Galaxy S6 have somehow been affected ever since the release of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. At the moment, the base model is trading at $599 and just like Apple’s model, the price starts increasing as the storage increases. The 64GB model is available for $700 while the 128GB model costs $800, $49 less than the top model of the iPhone 6S.

Microsoft Surface Pro 4 vs Dell XPS 12

 


Dell is one of the mainstay contenders in the mobile workstation industry, particularly when it comes to laptops. With the confirmed introduction of its new XPS 12 professional-level tablet, Dell is how also entering the hybrid 2-in-1 tablet market. Meanwhile, fans are already expecting that another industry giant, Microsoft, is almost ready to unveil the latest iteration in the successful Surface Pro series, the Surface Pro 4.
Although the Redmond-based giant still has to confirm the specs sheet of its upcoming hybrid, will Dell compare with the new device from one of the cornerstones of the 2-in-1 hybrid segmentt?

Many observers think that Dell has come out with a Surface Pro clone in XPS 12. But the Verge thinks that instead of a clone, the XPS 12 as an alternative. Although the XPS 12 reportedly has many parallels with the Surface Pro series in terms of design, this is to be expected, as Microsoft is the one to revolutionize the hybrid tablet industry.

According to rumors, the displays for both devices will offer 4K screen resolution and an almost invisible bezel. This might be particularly true for the XPS 12, which will reportedly use the Infinity Edge design of another Dell bestseller laptop, the XPS 13. In addition, in a report by TechNewsToday, Dell will also reportedly come out with a lower-end model version having a 1920 x 1080 resolution display. This might be to the advantage of Dell, allowing it to corner both the premium- and mid-ranged budget users with two XPS 12 versions.

Under the hood, the XPS 12 will reportedly run on the latest Intel Core M Skylake chip. It will have different features that would clearly be advantageous to professional users like a maxium of 8 GB of RAM, speedier M2.SATA SSDs, and Thunderbolt 3-enabled and USB Type-C ports. Meanwhile, not much is known about the Surface Pro 4, but rumors say that it will be unveiled on Oct. 6 with two display versions, a new Intel processor with Skylake architecture, and an improved stylus system.

Technavio has published a new report on the secure sockets layer (SSL) certification in India From 2014-2019

 



About the Report
The latest report by Technavio draws attention towards the growing adoption of e-commerce, which is a major driver for the SSL certification market in India. The surge in the number of online services provided by various companies is leading to an increase in online transactions.

“The increase in online transactions is leading to an increase in security threats such as phishing and identity theft. Thus, the surge in online transactions, coupled with the rise in security threats, is driving the adoption of SSL certificates, further supporting the growth of the market,” says Faisal Ghaus, Vice President of Technavio.

The latest report by Technavio also underlines the increase in awareness initiated by companies such as Google in making end-users aware of the security offered by various websites and web pages.
“Consumer awareness about website security and SSL certification is increasing, which is compelling organizations and website owners to implement SSL certificates for their web pages,” adds Ghaus.

Market Scope and Calculation of Market Size
The new Technavio report covers the present scenario and growth prospects of the SSL certification market in India from 2015-2019. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the sales of various types of SSL certificates by certification authorities (CAs).

Key Information Covered in the Report:
  • Key Vendors:
    • Comodo
    • GlobalSign
    • GoDaddy
    • Symantec
  • Market Growth Drivers:
  • Market Challenges:
    • Issuance of unauthorized certificates
    • For a full detailed list, view our report.
  • Market Trends:
Technavio currently has more than 3000 market research reports on a huge range of topics, including 100+ reports on the SSL market:
If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com.

Buying tricks that can save you a lot of money from ebay

 



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Sellers who post incomplete or partial descriptions will see fewer visitors. Use that to your advantage to bid low. Using eBay’s advanced search tools, put a parenthesis around keywords separated by commas to pull up more listings. For example - (notebook, laptop, computer) would return all listings containing the words notebook or laptop or computer.

If you are getting too many results, use a minus sign in front of a word to exclude those returns. You can also search eBay Stores if you only want to see sellers that specialize or have a lot of inventory.

Bad Spellers

Sellers aren’t required to know how to spell, and eBay’s search engine doesn’t pull up similar words. That means poorly spelled listings don’t get many views or bids. Take advantage of this loophole by using a misspelling search tool to find listings and get great deals. Try out these sites search in multiple countries for advanced searches easy single search

Buy Local

Working with sellers in your community can save you money, especially if they list the ‘pickup only’ option. You will be competing with fewer bidders and avoid shipping charges. If the seller is not in your community, but still require ‘pickup’, research the cost of having someone else pick it up and ship it to you.

Unwanted Gifts

Sellers often post items they don’t want, and really don’t know how to list them properly or know much they could get for them. That gives savvy buyers an edge. BayCrazy offers a search for unwanted gifts to help you find bargains.

Research

Research the Listing

Read the listing details carefully, including the description, warranties, shipping policies and payment options. You can bid lower if there are flaws, but don’t make any assumptions. Ask the seller questions and make a special note when the auction ends so you can enter last minute bids.

Research the Value

Compare prices with similarly sold items by doing an advanced search using the completed listings option. You can also do a Google search or look at other online marketplaces to see how much the item is worth. This will help you determine the maximum you should bid and keep you from overpaying when the auction gets heated.

Research the Seller

Read the seller’s Feedback Profile by clicking the number in the parentheses next to the seller’s user ID. Members who have at least ten ratings get a feedback star. While you may be taking more risks buying from someone with a lower rating, you could also get a better deal since many bidders will shy away from people with negative ratings.

Bidding Techniques

Best Offers

Get an idea of how low you can go by viewing the seller’s history. Seeing how much they accepted for previous Best Offers can help you save money, especially if they sell repeated items. On the seller’s profile, simply click on ‘Items for Sale’, then ‘Completed Items’. Sellers can make this private, but many never get around to it.

Negotiate

Ask the seller a question about their product to start a conversation. Then, ask if they will consider taking a lower bid. You may also consider asking them what their Reserve price is, if they have one. It can’t hurt and could save you a lot of money. To make sure the conversation stays private, contact them through their profile - not the listing page.

Watch the Clock

eBay traffic peaks on Sunday nights in the U.S., which means more people bidding on the same items. Instead, look for auctions that end at odd hours, or when people are likely to be heading to and from work. You can find off-hour bids using a search engine like BayCrazy.

Buy It Now

You can find great deals on items, if you know what they are looking for and how much the item usually costs. This is best for things that you have personal knowledge about and are pretty sure the value of the item exceeds the Buy It Now price.

Win the Auction

Automatic Bidding

You can set up an automatic bidding system through eBay that will automatically top anyone’s bid until you hit your limit. Keep in mind, other bidders could use the same process, pushing the bids higher than needed.

Sniping Websites

Sniping is when buyers swoop in and enter a bid with just seconds to spare. You can do it manually by opening two browser windows in the minutes before an auction ends - one to watch the bidding, the other to make a final bid. One trick is to bid an off number that will throw off other bids. For example: instead of bidding $15.00, bid $15.27. There are many tricks to sniping, so do some research before you try it out.

Automatic Snipes

You can also download a service that will automatically bid for you in the final seconds of an auction. Esnipe gives you a free trial period, after that it charges 1% of the final price. Goofbid is a free site based in the UK that accepts donations for similar services. Whichever site you use, make sure there is no spyware on the download as you are giving out your eBay username and password.

Mobile

eBay also offers mobile apps to help you make bids anytime from your cell phone. They can help you stay on top of hot auctions and keep up with bids manually.

After the Sale

Complete the Transaction

You’ll want to send your payment as soon as the auction ends. Starting in April 2013, you must pay the winning bid within two days or the seller could open an unpaid item case. Additional new rules state that Buy It Now or Best Offer auctions will remain open to new bids until the buyer actually makes a payment.

Problems

If you have problems with your purchased item or it is never delivered, you can take advantage of eBay’s Buyer Protection Policy. You’ll need to contact the seller through the Resolution Center to start the process so eBay can get involved and refund your money.

Warnings

Beware of sellers who ask for checks or money orders to purchase items as it may be part of a bigger scam. PayPal is the safest route because it comes with consumer protections. Another warning, never send money to a seller outside eBay, especially if they request you contact them before bidding or sent the payment through Western Union.

If You Lose an Auction

Second Chance

If you lose an auction, consider writing a personal note to the seller. Let them know you are still interested in the item if the first buyer falls through or if they have similar items for sale. If the wining bid falls through, the seller may also send you a Second Chance Offer to buy the item, but it will be for your last bid. This may be an opportunity for you to negotiate lower.

Other Options

eBay may not always be the cheapest option or your only option. There are many online marketplaces where you can find comparable items at low prices. Avoid wasting time searching individual sites by using the PricePirates website to see price comparisons between eBay, Amazon and other sites on Shopping.com.

Go Global

To see more options, check out eBay International’s biggest sites based in USA, Australia, Canada, France, Germany and Spain. You can get great deals, just make sure you fully understand how the item will work in your country. Pay attention to things like power requirements, video usage, shipping charges and customs duties.

Amazon bans Google’s Chromecast and Apple TV

 



Amazon is to stop selling devices from Apple and Google that compete with its own streaming media players, escalating the entertainment battle between the major tech companies. Apple TV and Google’s Chromecast are popular items in Amazon’s electronics store. But the devices are in a brawl for market share with Amazon’s Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, which were introduced in 2014. The Fire Stick delivers Amazon’s rapidly expanding video offerings to its customers. Apple TV and Chromecast do not.

Amazon’s move to ban competitors is not a retailing gambit. In fact, the company is willing to risk annoying customers who cannot get what they want because it is pursuing a much bigger prize. The stick is crucial to Amazon’s ambitions to move from being just a retailer to a multifaceted provider of everything virtual and physical.

“It’s unlike Amazon to be this territorial,” said James McQuivey, an analyst with the research firm Forrester. But he said it was a logical and perhaps inevitable move. Amazon Prime, which began as a frequent shipping service, now has tens of millions of subscribers. In the effort to build out its ecosystem, Prime’s video and music components are becoming as important as quick package delivery. Apple, Google and Amazon once made very different products. Apple made hardware like computers and smartphones, Google ran a Web search behemoth and Amazon was an online retailer. But the three companies’ business models are converging with a vengeance, with each offering a combination of hardware, like the competing video streaming devices, as well as software and entertainment like music and video.

“We’re seeing a turf war play out between Apple, Amazon and Google,” said Ben Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies. Apple and Google declined to comment. Some analysts said there was one immediate loser here: customers. “It really just hurts the consumers and creates confusion at a time when all of these companies are trying to build up these products,” said Paul Verna, media analyst at eMarketer.

Dell reveals new UP-series monitors

 



Dell's monitors have always delivered solid pixels at a pretty good price, and the company's latest releases look to continue that trend.

The 31.5in, 3840 x 2160 UP3216Q is aimed firmly at professionals. Its PremierColor feature allows for wider color coverage, with two new colors spaces - 100% REC 709 and 87% DCI-P3 - in addition to the previous model's Adobe RGB and 100% sRGB. It also boasts a colour depth of 1.07 billion colours, and a Custom Color mode, and an accessible hardware look-up table.

The UP3216Q also features HDMI 2.0 connectivity, as a well as DisplayPort, and a media card reader.
The 27in, 2560 x 1440 UP2716D also has PremierColor (with the same four color spaces), and extra thin bezels for a multi-monitor setup, and a 178 degree viewing angle. It also has a built in KVM switch so you view content from two PCs at once. Connectivity includes HDMI 1.4, mini DisplayPort, four USB3 ports, and two upstream USB3 ports - for the KVM functionality.

Finally, there's the 24in, 2560 x 1440 UP2516D. It's basically a smaller version of the UP2716D, with much the same funcationality and connectivity.

All three models should be released next month, though we don't have any Australian pricing yet. TFT Central spotted them on the Asia-Pacific Dell site, where they're listed in HK dollars. There's no price at all yet for the UP3216Q, but the UP2716D and UP2516D cost $HK8299 and $HK5799 respectively.

Iphone 7 release date

 



According to some new rumors, the iPhone 7 will be released in September 2016, exactly after the iPhone 6S will complete one year cycle in the market. In concordance with Geek, Apple has already started placing orders for the parts that will be needed to build the iPhone 7 device. The mass production of the A10 chip (that the iPhone 7 will come with) will start sometime in March 2016.
According to Geek, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (also known as TSMC) has secured an exclusive supply contract for the A10 chip, which will be a 16nm part.
Apple will most likely NOT reveal details about the upcoming iPhone 7, but according to more reports, the home button will no longer be found on the upcoming iPhone 7. With other words, this means that Apple will be able to increase the display size without changing the overall size of the upcoming device. The 3D Touch technology that was seen in the iPhone 6S can also indicate that Apple can actually give up on the Home button anytime they want.

According to DigiTimes, Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst from KGI Securities, hinted that the upcoming iPhone 7 will be ultra-slim. It seems that Apple is planning to make the upcoming iPhone 7 between 6 and 6.5mm thick, which means that it will be as thin as the iPod Touch and the iPad Air 2.
Business Insider, a source close to Apple’s supply chain, claimed that the company is ordering six-element lenses for a future iPhone device (most likely iPhone 7). With other words, the camera of the upcoming iPhone 7 will be better than the 12MP camera that iPhone 6S came with, since it has only five-element lenses.

EMV Chip on Your Credit Card Will Soon Be Put to Good Use

 


Now when you make a purchase at your favorite store you will “dip” your payment card instead of swiping the magnetic strip. And while the change on your end is nothing more than a flick of the wrist (or lack there of), it’s a huge step forward in terms of securing payment card data.


Why the change? Because by dipping your payment card you are able to transmit data using the more secure microchip. This new method is known as EMV. (Commonly referred to as chip cards, smart cards, chip-and-pin, and chip-and-signature.)

EMV is a set of standardized protocols for microchip-embedded cards and the specialized payment terminals required to accept these cards. EMV terminals read card data from a small microchip — you might already have one on your debit or credit card, if not, your bank will likely be automatically replaced it with a chip-enabled one.
The chip provides added security in two ways:
  1. EMV makes it more difficult for card data to be “skimmed” by cybercriminals.
  2. EMV makes it hard to create counterfeit cards.
Many developed nations migrated to EMV more than a decade ago; however, the U.S. is just now widely implementing EMV thanks to the impending “Payment Liability Shift.” This shift will take effect October 1, 2015.
Here’s an EMV breakdown and what it means to consumers:

How does EMV secure my information?

EMV reduces the risk of point-of-sale data exposure as well as card-present fraud by using a unique code for every transaction.
When you make a purchase, card data is transmitted from the microchip on your credit card to the payment terminal. The chip creates unique transaction data that will only be used once. Traditionally, magnetic strips transmitted static transactional data, which used the same information for every transaction.
Hackers would target point-of-sale devices — the Target and The Home Depot data breaches are prime examples — to steal this data and make counterfeit cards or sell the information on the black market. Now these terminals will prove less fruitful for hackers and other fraudsters.
EMV also thwarts card-present fraud by preventing replicated payment cards. If a counterfeit credit card attempts to reuse transactional data that was stolen from an EMV card, it will be denied since this unique code will only be used once.

What does EMV stand for?

EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa, the three companies whom originally created the security standard.

What is the Payment Liability Shift?

The Payment Liability Shift is an industry-wide movement that will hold merchants liable for card-present fraud starting on October 1.
Card-present fraud includes physically stolen and counterfeit chip cards. This liability was traditionally the obligation of the issuing-bank. Merchants will still not be liable for card-not-present fraud (such as online or over-the-phone transactions).
This shift was spearheaded by the Smartcard Alliance.

How do I “dip” my card?

At chip-enabled terminals, insert your card with the chip pointing towards the payment terminal. Make sure your chip is facing up. Once inserted, do not remove until the transaction is complete. You will be prompted to enter either a signature or a PIN.
If a payment terminal is not chip-enabled, you may still swipe your card’s magnetic strip. As the consumer, you will not be liable for fraudulent charges when using either method.
How to Use a Chip Card [Video]

Is the card dip my only option?

No, EMV also supports Near Field Communication (NFC or tap-and-pay). Your card must have dual-interface to be scanned using NFC. There will be a small symbol on both the card and the payment terminal indicating that contactless payments are supported.

How much will it cost?

Consumers lucked out in this regard. Your bank is eager to send you a chip card since it saves them money by shifting the liability to incompliant merchants. It is likely you will receive a complimentary chip-embedded card from your financial institution, if you have not already.
However, merchants will have to bear additional costs for both migrating to EMV technology and future fraud costs for not complying with the Payment Liability Shift.

How has EMV thwarted fraud around the world?

There are an estimated 1.24 billion EMV-enabled payment cards and 15.4 million POS terminals currently in use, most of them in other countries.
The UK has been the poster child for EMV adoption. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta reports that in 2004, prior to EMV, the UK’s card fraud rate stood at .14 percent per transaction value, compared to .05 percent in the U.S. — providing the necessary incentive for early adoption in the UK.
Upon rollout of EMV, domestic fraud in the UK plummeted by over 34 percent. It was clear EMV had successfully mitigated losses in card-present fraud — something the U.S. should also anticipate. Unfortunately, card-not-present fraud began to pick up within a few years, especially due to the growing popularity of online shopping.
The U.S. should accept a similar outcome and should anticipate online retailers becoming bigger data breach targets, as their credit card data would be less secure.

So my credit card is now fraud-proof, right?

Sorry, that’s not how it works. Since EMV doesn’t protect over the phone transactions or online payments (card-not-present fraud), fraudsters still have viable methods of exploitation.
You should continue to review your bank statements for signs of fraud and check your credit report to ensure no new lines of credit were opened in your name.
So what do you think? Will the EMV rollout be a success in the U.S.? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section. And be sure to subscribe to Fighting identity Crimes to stay up-to-date with the latest identity theft and fraud news.

Project HoloLens: Our Exclusive Hands-On With Microsoft’s Holographic Goggles

 

In several months, Microsoft will unveil its most ambitious undertaking in years, a head-mounted holographic computer called Project HoloLens. But at this point, even most people at Microsoft have never heard of it. I walk through the large atrium of Microsoft’s Studio C to meet its chief inventor, Alex Kipman.


 Alex Kipman



The headset is still a prototype being developed under the codename Project Baraboo, or sometimes just “B.” Kipman, with shoulder-length hair and severely cropped bangs, is a nervous inventor, shifting from one red Converse All-Star to the other. Nervous, because he’s been working on this pair of holographic goggles for five years. No, even longer. Seven years, if you go back to the idea he first pitched to Microsoft, which became Kinect. When the motion-sensing Xbox accessory was released, just in time for the 2010 holidays, it became the fastest-selling consumer gaming device of all time.

Right from the start, he makes it clear that Baraboo will make Kinect seem minor league.
Kipman leads me into a briefing room with a drop-down screen, plush couches, and a corner bar stocked with wine and soda (we abstain). He sits beside me, then stands, paces a bit, then sits down again. His wind-up is long. He gives me an abbreviated history of computing, speaking in complete paragraphs, with bushy, expressive eyebrows and saucer eyes that expand as he talks. The next era of computing, he explains, won’t be about that original digital universe. “It’s about the analog universe,” he says. “And the analog universe has a fundamentally different rule set.”

Translation: you used to compute on a screen, entering commands on a keyboard. Cyberspace was somewhere else. Computers responded to programs that detailed explicit commands. In the very near future, you’ll compute in the physical world, using voice and gesture to summon data and layer it atop physical objects. Computer programs will be able to digest so much data that they’ll be able to handle far more complex and nuanced situations. Cyberspace will be all around you.

Zuckerberg, Gates make bid for universal Internet access

 


Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates on Saturday threw their weight and resources behind the goal of bringing Internet access to everyone in the world by 2020.
The pledge is part of a United Nations effort to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030, a goal set on Friday during a special summit at the global body.

The Internet became commonplace in developed countries in the 1990s, but UN officials estimate that half the world does not have reliable access -- especially women and girls, whose education is vital to development.

"When people have access to the tools and knowledge of the Internet, they have access to opportunities that make life better for all of us," said a declaration signed by Zuckerberg and Bill and Melinda Gates, who have devoted their wealth to philanthropy.

"The Internet belongs to everyone. It should be accessible by everyone," the declaration said.
Zuckerberg, writing on Facebook, said that for every 10 people connected to the Internet, one is lifted out of poverty.


"If we connect the more than four billion people not yet online, we have a historic opportunity to lift the entire world in the coming decades," he wrote.
Other signatories included Jimmy Wales, co-founder of free online encyclopedia Wikipedia, and U2 frontman Bono on behalf of his One anti-poverty campaign.
Jamie Drummond, global executive director of One, called on every country to come up with an "urgent plan" to meet the Internet access goals.

The campaigners did not announce funding on their own, but the United Nations has said that meeting the new global goals will cost between $3.5 and $5 trillion per year.



The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Saturday launched its own roadmap, which put a top priority on improving the health and education for girls.

Releasing the report, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that more than $25 billion has been committed so far to meeting the goals, led by $3.3 billion from the United States and large pledges from Canada, Germany and Sweden.

Melinda Gates, speaking to reporters in advance of the launch, said that the health and education of girls was critical to anti-poverty efforts and that the issue had not been sufficiently emphasized in the UN's previous Millennium Development Goals.

"When we look at investing our own money or asking governments to invest their money... we have to make sure that those investments make a difference," she said.
For a girl, "for every year she is educated, she increases her income by 20 percent when she goes out to get a job," Gates said.

Gates said that family planning was also "hugely important" to fighting poverty by ensuring that parents can adequately provide for children.

Apple sells record 13 million iPhones in first weekend for 6S, 6S Plus

 


Apple said Monday it sold 13 million iPhone 6S and 6S Plus units from Friday through Sunday, the first three days of sales.
The tally represents a record for Apple, which sold 10 million iPhones over the same period a year ago when the previous models hit stores.

This weekend's sales continue the momentum for Apple's smartphones, which contribute roughly two-thirds to the Cupertino, California, company's revenue. Apple's success stands in contrast with the broader mobile industry, which has been beset by slowing growth and increased competition from cheaper handsets.

"Sales for iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple's history," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.

Apple launches have typically seen huge early numbers because of pent-up demand for the latest-model iPhones, so one weekend's sales aren't necessarily an indication of long-term success. But last year's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which brought a larger display and new design, stayed hot after a strong start and went on to become the company's best-selling smartphones.

The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, unveiled three weeks ago, offer few design changes, although Apple added a sharper camera and a pressure-sensitive display that better responds to touch. Also helping the launch was Apple's move to offer the new iPhones in China at the same time they debuted elsewhere. Last year, China was not part of the initial launch weekend because the phones didn't yet have regulatory approval.

How to send and receive encrypted email for free

 



First, it’s necessary to make a few basic points. Programs like Outlook and services like Gmail will talk about offering “encrypted” email to their users, and they certainly do, but that’s not what we’re talking about. Their encryption keeps your data safe while it’s traveling through the various lines on its way from one user to another — very important. This can (often) stop eavesdroppers with access to the physical lines of communication from abusing that access to read the bits going through them. If that’s what you want (and it’s not a bad idea at all), that’s as easy as changing a settings option.



For most of us, the email messages we send wouldn't be classified as sensitive. They can be personal, yes, and once in a while you'll want to make sure the content of a message is kept confidential between sender and receiver.

But sometimes, sending sensitive information — Social Security, passport or credit-card numbers, for instance — via email is necessary. At such points, consider sending an encrypted email message.
Standard email messages are sent in plain text, so it's possible for someone else to snoop on you and read them. When you encrypt mail, on the other hand, it makes the messages completely unreadable to anyone who doesn't possess a decryption key.

"It's like locking a message in a safe, then shipping that safe," said Terence Spies, chief technology officer of Voltage Security, an enterprise-security company in Cupertino, Calif. "If you trust the safe, you no longer need to trust the people moving it."

Methods of encryption

There are several ways to encrypt email. The simplest way is to use a bit of extra software that plugs into your existing email client, such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird.

Many security-software companies offer such plug-ins, with some of them being free and others being available under a commercial license.
Andrew Schrage, of the Chicago-based personal-finance news site Money Crashers and a frequent user of encrypted email, recommends instead that you download and install an email certificate from a site like Comodo. PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is the most common encryption certificate standard.
"It only takes a few seconds, and once your certificate is installed, you will receive instructions to configure it to your email account," Schrage said. "With this certificate come a public key and a private key. Your public key is what you send to people who want to send you encrypted emails, and your private key is what you use to decrypt them."

Public-key certificates are great because neither you nor the intended recipient of your encrypted email need to exchange secret information beforehand.
"Historically, when you wanted to send secret information to someone, you'd first need to agree on some kind of cipher or password and exchange that with them in some very secure manner," explained Charles McColgan of Telesign, a communications-authentication firm in Marina del Rey, Calif. "Using certificates, I can send part of my key to everyone, and you can encrypt whatever you want to send me with that part of my key."
Another option is to use the website of a third-party encryption email service, which may be ideal for those who aren't terribly computer savvy and who don't feel the need to frequently send encrypted emails.
Such sites, such as JumbleMe.com, make sending encrypted mail as simple as writing out someone's email address, and are usually fairly safe to use.

Potential pitfalls

However, if you are encrypting an email message using a third-party service, you need to make sure that the person to whom you are sending the message has the tools to be able to decrypt it and read it, pointed out Michele Neylon of Blacknight Solutions, a Internet-hosting provider in Carlow, Ireland.
"Otherwise, the recipient could end up getting emails that he either won't be able to open or will be random characters without any meaning," Neylon said.

"In most scenarios, the person receiving the email will have to have similar software installed on their computer so that they can use the sender's public key to 'unlock' the email."
Sending email through a webmail service like Gmail is secure in that your computer's connection to the service is encrypted, but the email message you sent out from that service is not encrypted.
"'Encrypted' means complex cryptography is used make your messages unreadable when they're stored and traveling in clouds from the likes of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo," explained Kevin Bocek, vice president of marketing at CipherCloud, a data-protection firm in San Jose, Calif.
"Secure email offered by online providers is usually not encrypted when it's stored," Bocek said. "Without encrypting your email, an employee, support vendor and hackers might be able to read your personal messages."

Email is a fantastic technology, but you need to be careful about what you use it for.
"Consumers using email to conduct personal business should at least consider email encryption as a way to keep data private," Spies said. "As people are using email as an efficient way to exchange high-value documents, it's a good, prudent way to avoid being bitten by many of the breach problems that are so prominent these days."









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