Friday, April 28, 2017

iPhone Users Warned About Potentially Dangerous "Siri 108" Prank

Siri 108

Caution – Viral Social Media Campaign 


The police department all across the United States are annoyed over a viral social media campaign which has encouraged iPhone users in saying the number 108 to Siri as a prank, which has gone viral. The police have stated that the scam has been spreading all over Facebook as well as Twitter and when iPhone users tend to test the Siri command `just for fun’, they are in reality tying up phones lines at the emergency call centres.

 If you dial 108 you will hear `calling emergency services in five seconds and within a span of five seconds, you will be transferred to 911. Sergeant Adrian Page with the Lonoke Police Department in Arkansas in a Facebook post which had gone viral with over 1,100 shares, had informed users not to fall for it, since it seems to tie up emergency lines. It has been designed specially as a panic code. The number 108 is in fact the emergency services number in India.

 As reported by sources, Apple desired to make it simple for people to contact emergency services from any location in the world and so telling Siri any emergency number of a country would get the user connected to the service for any location. You could ask Siri to call 911 if one is visiting the U.K. and it would dial 999 for local help.

Phone System Preventing Emergency Calls


The Annapolis Police Department in Maryland had mentioned that this prank has been spreading among Annapolis teens and has the possibility to tie up dangerously the 911 phone system preventing emergency calls from being instantly answered.

They have cautioned users not to fall for this trick. According to the National Emergency Number Association , around 240 million calls are said to be made to 911 each year in the U.S. most of which are made from wireless devices and placing prank call to 911 is said to be an offence.

The Marshall Police Department in Wisconsin had warned recently that this prank is problematic since it tends to use resources which are important for others attempting to receive help in case of genuine emergency conditions.

 The police has informed that essentially, telling Siri to call 108 is not a jest and the same should not be done unless in genuine emergency cases. The police agencies all over the U.S. have been cautioning iPhone users of a probable dangerous viral social media prank.

Users Call Emergency Services From Any Location

Pranksters are attempting to trick users into saying `Hey Siri, 108, prompting the digital assistant to contact emergency services wherein the number in India is equivalent of 911. Siri tends to begin a five second countdown on hearing `108’ enabling the users with the opportunity to terminate the call before it goes through.

 But pranksters who seem to share the trick tell users to `close their eyes and wait for 5 seconds before looking at their phone. Though 108 is said to be the emergency service number in India, Apple has made it that way in order that users can call emergency services from any location they may tend to be in the world, according to CNET.

 Users sharing the trick on social media may consider it as harmless but a similar incident had resulted in the death of a six month old boy wherein the caregiver had called 911 thrice on T-Mobile phone and was kept on hold each time she had called and resulted in the death of the infant.

See All the Mac’s Open Windows at Once

mac nyc times

See All the Mac’s Open Windows on a Single Click

In the contemporary world, where some of the most excellent developments have taken place, those are having great importance in the life of an individual and also in the society. The computer technology is one of such inventions that have changed the basic approach of our life to a great extent, as there is a bit of the computer in almost every single product or service in present days.

It is known to all; there are lots of computer manufacturing companies throughout the world and Apple is undoubtedly one of the front runners in this particular segment. The Mac operating system of Apple is the most popular one and since its inception, millions of people have tried it and find it very user-friendly. The constant upgrading of the system is considered as the key reason behind the success of the Mac system. Now there are some unique features available in this system, which are quite helpful for their users to get the best result, with extreme ease and comfort.

Issues to be noted

It is often found that a new user of Mac operating system unknowingly hit some button, which may be shown some of the most interesting and surprising results that caught the user in a baffled condition. It means, by tapping some buttons on the keyboard, some sorts of commands got generated and the unknowing incidents occurred and these can be rectified by some specific actions, made on the keyboard.

If someone is working on his system and suddenly hit some buttons and find that all kinds of open programs shrank down and get back to the normal position by hitting another button. This entire episode made the person concerned baffled and clueless of how these things are happening!!

It is a very simple thing; while anybody found that all open windows are on the top on the desktop, it means, the person hit the Mission Control feature. If in any case, the Mission Control is summoned intentionally; it can of great help in locating any particular program on the cluttered desktop. The temporarily move aside the specific program in the split view or full-screen modes or may be seen any of the alternative desktops spaces that have been created for a different task on the Mac.

Conclusion

The most important part of the Mac operating system is; The Mission Control screen can be used in several ways, depending on the hardware of the system. Some of the laptops, having a shortcut on the F3 key on the system keyboard.

While on Mac's dock; the Mission Control can be seen, which features three numbers of color squares on the black background. This same icon can be seen in the famous Launchpad, which is basically a system tool, displays the important clickable icons of entire installed applications at the center of the screen.

It can be done by pressing the all important F4 button or clicking silver rocket icon on the Mac laptop, which helps the user to get the intended and prompt result.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

SmartPhone Motion Sensors Can be Used to Crack Your PIN

SmartPhone
Image Credit:AP
So you thought that the PIN lock present in the modern Smartphones is best way to safeguard your device from others. Apple’s tussle with government authorities where they were unable to unlock the iPhone without the rights set of PIN has also helped in cementing this notion. However a recent study conducted by the cyber security experts at Newcastle University in UK presents a completely different view with facts and figures. Their study has successfully showcased that the hackers can make use of the sensors present in the Smartphones to crack the four digit PIN which will give access to wide amount information.


In their study the researchers found that when a mobile user visits a website then code present on the page can be utilized in accessing the phone’s motion as well as orientation. This allows the hackers to correctly guess the PIN present on the device lockscreen. During this study researchers were able to guess the PIN in the first attempt for 75 percent of the time and in the third attempt for 94 percent of the time. This might be shattering news for a number of die hard users of smartphones but it also helps in showcasing how vulnerable modern devices are.


People are tired of being asked for Passcode


The major reason behind the feasibility of hacking into the device through analyzing the motion and movements of users is very simple. Most of the people are tired of being asked for permission therefore they tend t accept anything present on the website or app while installing or accessing them. Websites usually collects a lot of information about the users in order to bring better users experience but this can be used by the hackers for their own benefit. They can direct the users to such websites which is specifically designed to collect the location data as well as the motion sensors data in order to unlock the device remotely.


Today more number of websites is concerned with collecting the location information by bringing location pop up on the site. Secondly sensors are going to be become more commonplace in near future once people start adopting the smart home and kitchen based electronic products. This study shed light on the way hackers can make use of the motion sensors present on the Smartphones but later on it can be brought to other devices as well to gain access to critical information.


Preventive measures to take


The best way to get over this problem is to make use of highly complex passcodes on the Smartphones. An earlier research has already showcased that the Smartphone users tend to make use of dead easy combination of 1111 and 1234 in 27 percent cases when they have to opportunity pick anything in the 4 digit set. The major reason behind it is that people find it easy to remember and it is highly convenient to unlock the device quickly. Secondly one should always keep the mobile operating system up to date by receiving and installing the latest security and system upgrade patches on regular basis. Thirdly one should always download apps on their device from the trusted sources like App Store, Google Play store and other credible third party stores. And don’t forget to kill the apps after using them.











How to Keep iPhone Autocorrect in Check

Autocorrect
If you write a lot with the virtual iPhone keyboard, you will likely get used to the auto-correction, but you can deactivate it if necessary. If the auto correct is deactivated, it is recommended to leave the normal correction activated at least. This still indicates errors but does not automatically repair them. The relevant options can be found in the General and Keyboard settings. Regardless of whether Auto Correct is activated or deactivated, errors sometimes occur when typing quickly. So far you have probably deleted the erroneous word to the point where the error happened and rewritten it from there on. It does not have to be! Here you can learn how to correct your words faster.

Actually, we would just like to tell a friend or a friend that we can still have a coffee after the meal. However, we are typing "sitll" instead of "still".

Instead of deleting the wrong word and re-writing it, just press the backspace key on the virtual keyboard of your iPhone. If the blue bar is at the end of the wrong word, a correction suggestion should appear which you select by tapping. Of course this does not work with every word. If necessary, press the Backspace key a couple of times until you reach the end of the wrong word.

If you have selected the correction, the incorrect word is replaced by the correct one. The correction function becomes annoying when you write with friends and use a dialect or dialect phrases. The iPhone does not recognize the various dialects and therefore makes relatively nonsensical suggestions for improvement or directly makes improvements in the case of auto-correct. We'll show you how to disable this feature easily. 

Disable iPhone Auto Correction

If you want to disable the auto correct on the iPhone, go to the settings and select the General item. Scrolls a little down and taps on keyboard. There you will find the menu point Auto Correct, which you can activate and deactivate with a fingertip.

If you have problems with automatically corrected dialect or abbreviations, you probably work with auto-correction. You should disable it in this case. Apple has put the Auto Correct function so deep into the system settings. After all, iOS devices are selling around the world and one can assume that people with the most diverse dialects write texts on their iPhones. However, there is still no way to switch the function on and off quickly.

What you should consider when writing the text with the iPhone

The relatively small keys on the screen keyboard and some pre-set automatisms can be terribly annoying when writing to the otherwise exceptionally user-friendly iPhone:

When typing, keep in mind the upper / lowercase key. At the beginning of the block and after a block end character, the capitalization is activated automatically, recognizable by the white arrow symbol. Unfortunately, this really meaningful automatism is in some cases inappropriate, for example if you have a shortcut like "etc." insert.

Even more annoying are unwanted suggestions, because if you do not tap the cross symbol on the top right, your text will quickly get mixed up.

Especially if you want to go fast, you can quickly get to wrong keys - if a wrong word suggestion is inadvertently inserted or the capitalization unintentionally activated, the chaos is perfect.

Monday, April 24, 2017

Apple's Self Driving Car Program Detailed in DMV Training Doc

iCar

Apple – Automated System – Self-Driving Vehicles

Apple had been granted permission recently by the California Department of Motor Vehicles to publicly test the autonomous driving technology on the Californian roads.

A new document of Apple has come up detailing the self-driving car training program for drivers. The new document offers more evidence that Apple is actively operating on autonomous driving technology internally. The official papers were obtained by Business Insider entitled `Development Platform Specific Training’, which tends to refer to the `Apple Automated System’, utilised in self-driving vehicles.

Apple had established an `Automated System’ for self-driving vehicles and intends putting select staffers through a training program in order to control the vehicles. As per the documents, the drivers of Apple need to pass seven various tests before their complete training. Every driver is given two practice runs together with three trials in order to pass each test which is said to be a private course.

The documents specify that the technology utilised by the drivers comprise of Logitech hardware as well as basic driving schemes such as tight U-turns with sudden braking or acceleration. Every test includes a goal together with steps to supersede the autonomous system while training with the scheme.

Focus on Self-Driving Software

Though Apple has the liberty to test anything internally and privately, it is the California permit that enables it to test three 2015 Lexus RX450h hybrid sport utility vehicles as per the DMV documentation that had been published recently, which is the same vehicle utilised in the self-driving tests of Google.

Though it had been presumed for some months that Apple had been constructing its own electric vehicle, the recent rumours have claimed that presently Apple has been focusing on self-driving car software instead which is shown by the latest public-facing development. A letter to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in December had shown that disclosed first hand work on self-driving technology of Apple. Self-driving car technology is said to be one of the most prominent arenas in Silicon Valley.

Earlier known as self-driving car unit of Google, Waymo is presently in a high-stakes combat with Uber over its autonomous car tech and analysts have estimated that the industry could be worth trillions of dollars. Apple had refrained from commenting on this issue.

Possibility of Self-Driving Car Platform

For the past three years the work of Apple had been something of an open clandestine and the company initially had intention of creating its own autonomous vehicles. However it turned to an autonomous driving software platform resulting in internal strife and leadership problems.

The company is now creating a driving system under the management of Bob Mansfield wherein the car team have been given till the end of this year in order to substantiate the possibility of self-driving car platform. Such a type of structure would probably permit Apple to partner with car manufacturers as a type of development of CarPlay.

 Apple being ready in testing the software on public roads shows that the development seems to be fairly far-off. If the company tends to take the vehicles out on the streets of California, its works would require to be publicly shared with the DMV established on the law of California.