Nokia Lumia 510

Nokia today unveiled its most affordable phone in the Lumia series which will be available in the country during the  first week of November 2012.

Although the company did not disclose the exact price, but said it will be at priced around INR 11,000 (150$) . “With the Nokia Lumia 510 we continue to meet our commitment to bring Windows phone to new, lower price points,” said Vipul Mehrotra Nokia India Director and Head (Smartphone Devices)  .

He described the  phone being designed with Indian consumer in mind and hence the company is launching it first in India.

The phone features a four-inch display and has 5 megapixel camera.

With this latest addition to the Lumia series, the company is looking to strengthen its position in the smartphone segment.

The Tech Spec of Nokia Lumia 510:

• Device type :Smart phone
• OS                 :Windows Phone 7.5 Mango
• Dimensions:4.75 x 2.56 x 0.45 (120.7 x 64.9 x 11.5 mm)
• Weight        :4.55 oz (129 g)

DISPLAY

• Physical size:4 inches
• Resolution:480 x 800 pixels
• Pixel density:233 ppi
• Technology:LCD
• Colors:65 536
• Touchscreen:Capacitive, Multi-touch
• Features:Light sensor, Proximity sensor

Nokia-Lumia-510

BATTERY

• Talk time:6.20 hours the average is 8 h (487 min)
• Stand-by time:30.8 days (739 hours)the average is 19 days (467 h)
• Talk time (3G):8.40 hoursthe average is 7 h (420 min)
• Stand-by time (3G):27.2 days (653 hours)the average is 21 days (506 h)
• Capacity:1300 mAh

HARDWARE

• System chip:Qualcomm Snapdragon S1
• Processor:Single core, 800 MHz
• Graphics processor:Yes
• System memory:256 MB RAM
• Built-in storage:4 GB

lumia-510

CAMERA

• Camera:5 mega pixels
  • Aperture size:F2.4
  • Features:Auto focus, Touch to focus, Exposure compensation, White balance presets, Geo tagging, Scenes
• Camcorder:640×480 (VGA) (30 fps)
  • Features:Continuous autofocus in a video, Digital image stabilization

MULTIMEDIA

• Music player:
  • Filter by:Album, Artist, Playlists
  • Features:Album art cover, Background playback
• Radio:FM, Stereo, RDS
• Speakers:
  • Earpiece, Loudspeaker

INTERNET BROWSING

• Browser:Internet Explorer
• Built-in online services support:Facebook, Twitter

TECHNOLOGY

• GSM:850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
• UMTS:850, 1900 MHz
• Data:HSDPA 7.2 Mbit/s, UMTS, EDGE, GPRS
• Positioning:GPS, A-GPS, Wi-Fi positioning
• Navigation:Turn-by-turn navigation, Voice navigation, Points of interest (POI)

PHONE FEATURES

• Phonebook:Unlimited entries, Caller groups, Multiple numbers per contact, Search by both first and last name, Picture ID, Ring ID
• Organizer:Calendar, Alarm, To-Do, Document viewer, Calculator, Notes
• Messaging:SMS, MMS, Threaded view, Predictive text input
• E-mail:IMAP, POP3, SMTP, Microsoft Exchange

CONNECTIVITY

• Bluetooth:2.1, EDR
• Wi-Fi:802.11 b, g, n
• USB:USB 2.0
  • Connector:microUSB
  • Features:USB charging
• Other:Computer sync, OTA sync

OTHER FEATURES

• Notifications:Haptic feedback, Music ringtones (MP3), Polyphonic ringtones, Vibration, Flight mode, Silent mode, Speakerphone
• Additional microphone/s:for Noise cancellation
• Sensors:AccelerometerVoice dialing, Voice commands, Voice recording

AVAILABILITY

• Officially announced:23 Oct 2012
• Scheduled release:November 2012 (Official)

SHOPPING INFORMATION

• Accessories:Battery BP-3L, Nokia Charging and Data Cable CA-190CD, Product and Safety Information Booklet

The user interface for windows 8

 

Image via CrunchBase

The interface formerly known as Metro (TIFKAM) makes the information applications present their UI, and developers need to realise that and stop polluting software with the kind of buttons and icons elements they’ve grown up with.

That’s the opinion voiced by Shane Morris of Automatic Studio, now a user interface consultant but once a Microsoft user interface evangelist, at Microsoft Australia’s TechEd conference today.
Morris’ talk was titled “How to be authentically digital”, a term used by Microsoft to describe its new ethic of letting pixels be pixels instead of imbuing UI elements with shading so they resemble real-world objects. Morris gleefully the term as “designer wank”. He also described the initial TIFKAM screen as the “Asian supermarket screen, because everything is yelling at you and you don’t know where to look.”

Which is not to say Morris dislikes TIFKAM, as he explained it uses proven design techniques and philosophies drawn from “Wayfinding” (signage in airports, train stations and other public places), typography (The Swiss School) and moving type (The opening titles to Hitchcock’s North by Northwest are apparently seminal so we’ve popped them in below).

Those influences mean TIFKAM doesn’t use the interactive vocabulary of the desktop GUI. Instead, Morris says, “We focus on content and the information people need to consume.”

Developers must therefore strive to “present the information well enough it can form the user interface.” Which is not to say that users are to be left without things to click on, but Microsoft has hidden them in TIFKAM’s Apps Bar and Charm bar, decoupling UI elements from apps.

“A consistent UI and place for people to look for search, share and settings means users don’t have to need to learn a new UI for each app,” Morris explained, adding that it’s not sensible to assume that users have discovered the Charm or Apps bars. Most users do so quickly, he said. Others take up to five minutes to do so.

Morris said Developers need to understand these new elements, and also assess whether they are right for their apps. Business apps, he said may not work in this context, with more familiar icon-driven UI elements still available for apps that just won’t fit into TIFKAM’s design paradigm.

That split, he said, is not new, arguing that Microsoft has been making content-centric interfaces since the days of Expedia CD-ROMs and has continue to do so with products like Media Centre and Zune.

Mainstream developers will therefore need to come to terms with content-centric interfaces and the elements they offer, one of which is animation. Moving images, he said, even offer the chance to tap into users’ primal instincts as we are attuned to interpreting fast-moving objects in peripheral vision as worthy of attention (if only to avoid being eaten by an approaching predator). Using animation to show users something is worthy of their attention is a new interface tactic he feels will be useful.

The bad news, Morris added, is that using animation “doesn’t come naturally to me”. He’s not sure it will come naturally to any developer, given that most are used to working in rather different ways.

But developers don’t need to get too hung up on their animation skills, he added, as good design for Windows 8 apps, or any other, starts with decisions about what an application is intended to achieve, rather than just how it will look and behave.

Related articles

• Windows 8 simplifies computing (betanews.com)
• User Interface (unrealengine.com)
• Microsoft preps for Kinect-controlled Windows apps, including new UI guidelines (venturebeat.com)

 

Samsung shows off first Windows Phone 8 handset…..

 

The Windows key is a hardware button, while the other two are capacitive.

Microsoft

The first Windows Phone 8 handset was revealed today at IFA in Berlin. Dubbed the Samsung ATIV S, it has a 4.8 inch “HD” (presumably 1280×720) Super AMOLED screen, a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor, 8MP rear and 1.9MP front-facing cameras, 1GB RAM, 16 or 32 gigabytes of storage, a micro SD slot, NFC support, and a 2,300 mAh battery—all in a 8.7mm (0.34″) thick device.

The internals are similar, then, to the company’s Galaxy S III handset. The externals, however, are very different. The front is Gorilla Glass 2. The back eschews the plastic of the Android handset in favor of brushed aluminium.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone blog, which actually scooped Samsung’s announcement, has lots of pictures of the device.

With Windows Phone 8 rumored to launch on October 29th, this doesn’t leave much time for developers to develop apps for the new platform. One possible reason is speculation that the company would rather developers continue to produce Windows Phone 7 apps instead. These apps will run fine on the new platform, but will also run on current handsets. The delay with publishing the SDK could, therefore, be an attempt to postpone the abandonment of the currently shipping platform.

 

Widely used fingerprint reader exposes Windows passwords in seconds

 

RISK ASSESSMENT / SECURITY & HACKTIVISM

 

Widely used fingerprint reader exposes Windows passwords in seconds

If your laptop uses software from UPEK, it’s exposing your Windows password.

 

An image from UPEK Protector Suite 2009.

Fingerprint-reading software pre-installed on laptops sold by Dell, Sony, and at least 14 other PC makers contains a serious weakness that makes it trivial for hackers with physical control of the machine to quickly recover account passwords, security researchers said.

The UPEK Protector Suite, which was acquired by Melbourne, Florida-based Authentec two years ago, is marketed as a secure means for logging into Windows computers using an owner’s unique fingerprint, rather than a user-memorized password. In reality, using the software makes users lesssecure than they otherwise would be. When activated, the software writes Windows account passwords to the registry and encrypts them with a key that is easy for hackers to retrieve. Once the key has been acquired, it takes seconds to decrypt the password.

“After analyzing a number of laptops equipped with UPEK fingerprint readers and running UPEK Protector Suite, we found that your Windows account passwords are stored in Windows registry almost in plain text, barely scrambled but not encrypted,” said an advisory issued by Elcomsoft, a Russia-based developer of password-cracking software. “Having physical access to a laptop running UPEK Protector Suite, we could extract passwords to all user accounts with fingerprint-enabled logon.”

When Protector Suite isn’t activated, Windows doesn’t store account passwords in the registry unless users have specifically configured an account to automatically log in. Security experts have long counseled people not to use automatic login.

That means computers that use the UPEK app are at a severe disadvantage compared with people who use a strong password to log in to a Windows account. The most obvious disadvantage is for those computers that have a Windows feature known as Encrypting File System enabled to prevent third parties from accessing sensitive files or folders. The key that unlocks that encrypted data is controlled by a Windows account password. Once the password is retrieved, the EFS-encrypted data stored on the computer can quickly be decrypted.

Further, having quick access to the account password could unlock other data that might otherwise be harder to obtain. The Windows Data Protection application programming interface, for example, is also closely tied to account passwords and controls access to credentials used by Outlook, Internet Explorer, and possibly other applications. Of course, any time a PC is physically controlled by a hacker, its passwords are vulnerable to cracking attacks that have grown significantly more powerful in recent years. But without the use of the UPEK Protector Suite, hackers have access only to one-way password hashes, which, depending on the complexity of the underlying passcode, can take years or centuries to recover using brute-force methods. Use of the fingerprint software guarantees the success of the cracking operation, and it can also significantly reduce the time it takes.

The easily cracked passwords are stored in the Windows registry even after the Protector Suite software has been deactivated, according to the Elcomsoft advisory. It is only removed when a user manually deletes it. The precise registry location of the encrypted password is not yet known. This article will be updated with instructions for locating and removing it if that information can be obtained.

Authentec no longer actively markets Protector Suite, but according to archived data from the UPEK website, the app ships—or used to ship—on laptops manufactured by 16 different companies. In addition to Dell and Acer, other PC makers include Amoi, Asus, Clevo, Compal, Dell, Gateway, IBM/Lenovo, Itronix, MPC, MSI, NEC, Sager, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba.

It’s unclear if Authentec officials plan to recall the product or issue an advisory warning laptop owners of the vulnerability. Company representatives didn’t respond to Ars Technica e-mails requesting comment for this article. The Elcomsoft findings follow research published last month that showed thatpassword hints are easily extracted from Windows 7 and Windows 8 machines.

The discovery serves as a useful reality check for marketers who portray fingerprints and other user biometrics as a panacea for the difficulty of remembering and securing passwords. In fact, biometric readers are only as secure as the software that implements them. And even when devices are free of such implementation errors, biometrics such as fingerprints and iris scans may be vulnerable to cloning, opening up the possibility of a new class of attacks on the alternate authentication methods.

According to Elcomsoft, Authentec officials have already said they’re aware of the weakness. If true, it’s disappointing that the company has yet to share that knowledge with the millions of people who likely have the software installed on their computers. A tutorial included with UPEK Protector Suite 2009 installed on a Sony Vaio touts the convenience of the application with the tag line: “Protect your digital privacy.” It goes on to emphasize the benefits of using Protector Suite to encrypt files and folders. Now that a weakness has come to light that seriously undermines those assurances, Authentec should recall the software, or at the very least warn users that it is susceptible to serious attack.