A Tool To Prevent Malware On Android OS - NCSU Research

In this e-world, everyone wants to secure their electronic devices such as smartphones or tablets and want to remain uninfected by viruses and malware. For this purpose we have mobile security applications to prevent our smartphones from getting infected by viruses and malwares. But these applications are not efficient and make user-experience of the smartphone dull (by consuming more RAM). To tackle this issue, researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new tool named “Practical Root Exploit Containment” to detect and prevent malware in downloaded applications, which tries to root exploit in Android devices.

Root exploits take control of system administration functions of the operating system (Android, in this case). If a hacker successfully root exploits an Android smartphone then, it gives hacker an unrestricted control of user’s smartphone. The PREC tool is developed for the sole purpose of preventing root exploits done by malware. This tool improves the existing technique called 'anomaly detection' which is used to compare the behavior of particular smartphone's application. This technique will check whether the application is behaving properly (as expected) or not. If there is any change in the normal behavior of application, the anomaly detection technique reports the unexpected behavior. With this new tool called 'PREC', the researchers have been able to analyze the problem and check whether the unexpected behavior is malicious or harmless ’false positives’.

PREC targets the code written in C language, which is usually used by hackers to create malware. According to the co-author of this research paper Dr. Will Enck, anomaly detection technique is old and reports lots of false positives. Enck says they are focusing solely on C-code which helps to write this Android root exploits. Other co-author of this research paper Dr. Helen Gu believes, this approach will drive down the number of false positives reported, reduce the disturbances faced by user and make anomaly detection efficient.

Many application vendors upload their product for malicious purposes. Malware programmers have developed techniques that hide malware until the application is installed on the smartphone. Researchers want to take advantage of vendor’s screening efforts to create database of application’s normal behavior, by introducing PREC software into their application’s assessment. The research team also assures that PREC software will not affect the screening process by creating external database for storing application's normal behavior.

Jaguar XE Global Roll Out In Mid 2015, Features At Glance

British car maker Jaguar has officially announced the name of its long awaited compact sports sedan to be Jaguar XE. It will be powered with a new generation of Ingenium engines, which will offer a class-leading performance. XE will also be the first Jaguar to use the advanced aluminium-intensive architecture, which was first exposed on C-X17 crossover concept at the Frankfurt Motor show last year. Jaguar claims XE to be the most advanced, efficient and refined sports sedan in its class. This will be the first aluminium monocoque vehicle in this segment. Designers of this compact size Jaguar XE claim that they have focused mainly on its design, size and exciting look.

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The structure of XE is exceptionally light for engine to be mounted longitudinally and drive the rear on four wheels. About the exteriors it has an aggressively sloping rear glass which is Jaguar sedan design hallmark. It looks more or less like the company's larger four doors. Jeff Curry, Brand Vice President of Jaguar, North America claimed that this all new Jaguar XE will bring Jaguar into the largest segment of luxury car market with a dynamic new entry which will change the status-quo of the luxury car brands.

• The Ingenium Engine:
  
  This new modern Jaguar will be the first Jaguar to come with this new range of engine. Ingenium is a new family of premium, light-weight, low- friction and low emission engine. It is high-output, fuel-efficient 2.0 liter, Four-cylinder engine and comes in both gasoline and diesel versions. These engines are efficient, powerful, capable of emissions of less than 100g/km CO2 and claimed to achieve a top speed of over 186 mph. It is designed for rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive compatibility. It is aimed at offering latest innovations in fuel-efficient technologies without sacrificing its drivability.
  
  

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  Aluminium-intensive architecture:
  
  This scalable aluminium architecture will help Jaguar to achieve best-in-class fuel economy. Its features include lightness, stiffness for unbeatable handling and performance along with refinement and efficiency. Jaguar claims that the new engine and aluminium chassis complement each other perfectly.
  
  

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  Jaguar XE can be viewed as a legitimate small sports car which it desperately needed to compete with segment icons like BMW 3-series lineup, Audi's A4, Mercedes C-class and latest Lexus IS. As Jaguar's sedan is currently limited to highly priced, gorgeous and great XF and XJ models. The launch of this model can be expected to act as a catalyst in boosting its sales. For buyers, it offers a smaller, less-expensive entry point to the brand. Also the launch of this car will finally banish any remaining memory of the Ford Mondeo-based X-type from a few years back. What are your views in this context? We would certainly like to hear from you. Share your views in comment section below.
  
  Source: Jaguar

   

Roku Streaming Stick

• Compact stick design. Plugs discreetly right into the HDMI port. Great for wall-mounted TVs.
• 1,000+ entertainment channels and counting. By far the most movies, TV episodes, sports, news, music, kids’ shows, and free channels of any streaming player.
• Control with included remote. Comes with a simple-to-use remote that the household can share. With RF technology, you can use your remote without pointing it at the TV
• Or control with your smartphone and tablet. Download the free Roku® iOS® or Android™ app to choose what you want to watch on your Roku player via your mobile device. It’s your choice.
• Send to TV from mobile. With apps from Netflix and YouTube, cast videos from your smartphone or tablet straight to your TV.

• Display personal media. Send your videos, photos and music stored locally on your smartphone to your TV screen with the Roku app.
• Find what you want to watch. Roku® Search makes it a snap to find your favorite movies and shows from top channels like Netflix, Hulu Plus, HBO Go, Amazon Instant Video and VUDU. Even compare pricing.
• Channel shortcut buttons. Jump straight to favorite channels such as Netflix and Amazon Instant Video with the push of a button.
• Stunning HD video quality. Immerse yourself in the action with rich, vibrant video streaming in up to 1080p HD.
• Dual-band wireless N. A robust extended-range wireless connection seamlessly streams video with ease and speed.

source:roku

XMLMATE: Software Uses Genetic Algorithm For Error Detection

Manual testing is a tiring job and when it comes to large software products, it better be not talked of. According to the recent studies, software developers have been found investing a lot of time into the bug discovery and resolution, making it an expensive task. However, engineers have seen the rise of automated testing, the cheaper counterpart, but where do the required test cases come from? This is exactly the point raked up by Andreas Zeller, professor of Software Engineering at Saarland University. But Zeller, with other two computer scientists Nikolas Havrikov and Matthias Hoschele, seems to have developed a solution for generating the test cases and processing them as well.

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The software named XMLMATE works by automatically generating the test cases and using them for testing the given piece of code. As the input given is used to generate initial set of cases, hence it should be structured in a specific way. The XML inputs are parsed into a central structure called tree. Collections of these trees, termed as chromosomes are provided to the genetic algorithm. This algorithm is responsible for the generation of different test cases. The testing of input is modeled on biological evolution, hence, the input that is processed by the maximum units of code survives. Havrikov who implemented XMLMATE admits that finding the errors is a tough task and the real challenge lies in maximum code coverage. according to the developers of the system, the generator mutates, recombines, generates and evolves the input to produce cases.

XMLMATE is developed in java programming language. The inputs are defined in XML and presence of XML schema could be an advantage. However, if the programming input is not XML supported, it can be configured accordingly by using various tools. The software is already on the open source and is being used by many developers. The creators believe that with their framework they can test various spheres ranging from computer networks to car sensors.

Source: AlphaGalileo

Mozilla Launches 'mozjpeg' JPEG Encoder To Reduce Webpage Loads

JPEG has been in the market for quite a long time and it has been showing no signs of disappearing. It is the only lossy compression format which has achieved universal compatibility across all the browsers and software that can display images. That is the reason why Mozilla has announced a new project called mozjpeg, which promises to reduce the file size by up to 10% and aims to compress images more intelligently. The goal of this project is to provide a production-quality JPEG encoder that improves compression rates. However, the company wants to continue compatibility with the majority of deployed decoders.

According to a report, since HTML, CSS, JS files are relatively smaller, Mozilla points out that images make up for the bulk of network traffic for a web page to load. Smaller the file size faster will the web pages load. Moreover, JPEG has been ruling the image compression format across the globe since 1992, so the company wants to reduce the size of these files for optimization and reduce load on the network. Therefore, Mozilla feels that optimization of the compression format is worth trying, even with search on for a better successor.

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This will be challenging for libjpeg-turbo, an existing open-source toolthat is used to create JPEGs. Mozjpeg version 1.0 comes with ‘jpgcrush’ functionality added, that picks the best compression options without sacrificing the image quality. Mozilla has conducted tests shows that the encoder squeezes 10 percent off a sample of 1,500 images on Wikimedia. Further, mozjpeg can also compress PNG file sizes by 2 to 6 percent. Google has also tried to improve the web speed by including a variety of new graphics format like WebP but so far Mozilla does not use WebP. The mozjpeg software is now at version 1.0 but more updates are likely to be added- Trellis quantization being one of them.

FreeKall Offers Free Voice Calling Without Internet, Brings Advertisements In Calls

Engineers from M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore have come with a new free voice calling service called 'FreeKall'. Developed by a trio of Yashas Shekar, Vijayakumar Umaluti and Sandesh Eshwarappa, FreeKall service makes it possible for users to make free voice calls without the need to access Internet using data packets on their phones. All this is being offered for no cost, because FreeKall will be incorporating advertisements between your voice calls. So, if you have no problem in listening to some ads in the middle of your conversation, this service is the right thing for you.

Here's how it works - You dial the FreeKall number or give a missed call on it. On doing that, Freekall calls you back on your number. Once you answer the call, you have to enter the number of the person with whom you want to talk. Finally, FreeKall will dial and connect you with that number and then you can start talking for free. The great part is that even if you have a basic phone like the classic Nokia 1100 or a high-end smartphone such as iPhone, FreeKall will work on all devices. When the call is connected, the user hears an ad instead of a ringtone. And at intervals of two minutes, the caller and the called party will have to pause the conversation and hear an ad.



Currently, if you are an unregistered user, you can make a call that lasts three minutes, while if you register, the conversations can last 12 minutes. The folks behind the FreeKall project have promised that after a month there will be no limit to the amount of time a person can FreeKall. We will also have facility to make International calls within a month, once the team obtains legal clearances.

Jarvis Corp - An Indian Startup Developing Tony Stark's J.A.R.V.I.S System From Iron Man

Jarvis Corp is a startup from India founded by Chiragh Dewan from Delhi and Himanshu Vaishnav from Jaipur and they are developing Tony Stark's famous J.A.R.V.I.S. operating system used in Iron Man comics and movies. The duo are calling their product Jarvis, an AI-based life automation system. JARVIS which stand for Just A Rather Very Intelligent System is a highly advanced computer system developed by Tony Stark to manage almost everything, especially matters related to technology, in Tony's life. Replicating the sci-fi system in reality, Dewan and Vaishnav have developed an interactive system that allows the user's machine to learn based on voice recognition and natural language processing technology.

Jarvis can help users in performing routine tasks, provide home entertainment, access internet to handle user's questions, work as a smart media server and also control the appliances and electronic devices in your house. So basically, a do-it-all system. Unlike the conventional way in which OS is designed, Jarvis features a completely different architecture that allows it to adapt itself according to a specific user without making changes to the underlying code. (I bet you recalled the recent movie 'Her' for its personalized operating system.)

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With just a 14-people developer team collaborating virtually via Internet, Jarvis Corp has been able to showcase their product in the following video. The team has been working without little or no funding and though Jarvis project is at its nascent stage of development, it has achieved a lot. It can interact with the user, answer questions, access Facebook, Twitter & emails and control lights using voice command among other things. According to a report on Forbes, the team has Version 0.2 almost ready complete and new video might demonstrate it soon. To see what all has been made possible by the JARVIS system so far, take a look at this video 

Windows Phone 8.1's Cortana App Screenshot Spotted

Microsoft’s Windows phone 8.1 update is becoming the most awaited update for windows phone users and developers. Some features of Windows Phone 8.1 were revealed when WP8.1 emulator was demoed. The feature missing in the previous demo was Cortana, a digital voice assistant brought by Microsoft to compete the present digital voice assistants such as Apple’s Siri and Android’s Google Now. Screenshot of this voice assistant application is spotted on 'The Verge' and it is replacing the Bing search service on Windows Phone.

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Cortana is a digital voice assistant named after Halo game series. On display, Cortana will take a form of animating circles instead of a female character. This shows that cortana is going to be similar to Apple’s Siri. Another feature of Cortana which matches it with Siri is that you can set your nickname i.e. it will set a name which voice-assistant will use to address you and it can be accessed in the setting menu of Cortana. Due to Artificial Intelligence, Cortana can learn about the user through his/her usage of phone and search queries he/she does on the phone. A rather important and interesting feature of this digital voice assistant is that it stores all the information and data in a Notebook. Notebook helps this assistant to access information like location, reminders, behavior of user, personal and contact information. Remember that cortana will store information and data after device administrator’s confirmation for storing.

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When it comes to the reminders, Cortana has a nice phrase recognition ability. Cortana can read the messages and email on the device and can set reminders or calendar events accordingly. For example if a message contain ”Tomorrow is Adam’s birthday”, Cortana will ask you whether to set a reminder or calendar event for birthday. Cortana will also generate notifications for reminders, calendar events and status of flights too, just like Google Now. This digital voice assistant will run on data services like Bing search, foursquare and some others to get similar contextual powers of Google Now.

Microsoft is using the name Cortana during their testing phase and it is not clear that Microsoft will use the same name in the final build. They will release the Windows Phone 8.1 update in upcoming developer build conference and will provide developer preview of Windows Phone 8.1 on the same day.

Source: The Verge

Facebook May Acquire Titan Aerospace For Internet-Beaming Drones

oogle reportedly blew netizens' mind away with its Project Loon, and Facebook is following up close in its pursuit of becoming the 'dial-tone of the Internet'. As per Mark Zuckerberg's long term plan for his social network, that involves bringing free internet to the world, the company is now in acquisition talks with the Titan Aerospace - one of the leading drone manufacturers.

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TechCrunch reported that Facebook being one of the key players in the internet.org initiative, shall employ Titan Aerospace made drones (namely Solara 50 and Solara 60 drone models) to extend internet to sections of world that have little or no internet at all. The report values the deal at $60 million, and even adds that the company shall develop 11,000 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the social networking giant.

The UAVs developed by Titan Aerospace can fly for five straight years without landing or refueling. This shall be extremely crucial for projects shouldered by Internet.org in the coming future. If Facebook indeed materializes this deal, and if the project kicks off, this shall be a huge win - specially for the developing countries. The report added that Facebook is also somehow revamping its recently acquired WhatsApp so that people may share messages in these parts of the world.

Attesting this long-term vision is Facebook's acquisition of Onavo, a data compressing firm that shall develop technologies wherein Internet shall be accessible to all even with the slowest of speeds.

Motorola Is Next In Line To Launch Smartwatch This Year; Plans Revealed

The smartwatch war is surely going to heat up as Motorola is planning to jump back and take on the likes of Google, Samsung and Apple in the wearables market. Smartwatches and wearables are one of the hottest segments in mobile technology today. With the launch of MotoG and MotoX, Motorola is riding high on success and now it plans to launch a smartwatch later this year.

According to a report in The Verge, the senior vice president of Motorola Rick Osterloh has shared the plans about their smartwatch being customer-centric so that it addresses consumer issues like style and battery life. Osterloh promised that the finished item will be more a like jewellery piece than any ugly tech. As it can be noticed the majority of the smartwatches at the MWC -- the Samsung Gear 2, the Huawei TalkBand, the Sony Smartwatch 2 -- are all high on tech and low on looks. This news was revealed at a panel discussion at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Currently, the wearables market is completely dominated by the Pebble and Samsung’s line of Gear watches with a Google smartwatch, built by LG is expected to be announced next month which will be available in the market later this year. An Apple smartwatch is also round the corner.

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Motorola’s earlier efforts weren’t known for being stylish or having a great battery life. The ill-fated MotoACTV didn’t have a good battery backup. So it looks like the company is taking efforts to overcome these problems. No further details about the product such as probable release date, price was not disclosed but Osterloh did mention that it was an important area for the company. Let us hope that company’s next watch is a marked improvement over company’s last attempt to build a smartwatch. With Moto G and Moto X receiving critical acclaims, expectations are high.

Do you think Motorola can make it three in a row? Share your views in comments.

Source: TheVerge

Gesture Recognition On Smartphones Can Become A Norm With New Technology From Washington University

he time has come to say goodbye to touch screens and sensing technologies. Yes, controlling smartphones via gestures can soon become a reality and we can do away with sensing technologies which consume a lot of battery power. You will be able to mute the song playing on your smartphone in your pocket by flicking your index finger in the air. This kind of gesture control for electronics could soon become an alternative to touchscreens and sensing technologies. The team who developed this gesture technology is led by an Indian-origin researcher with computer scientists from University of Washington. It is a low-cost gesture recognition system that runs without batteries and lets users control the device with hand movements even if it is out of sight.

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Called ‘AllSee’, the prototype uses existing TV signals as a power source and means for detecting a user’s gestures. An assistant professor at University of Washington, Shyam Gollakota claims that this is the first gesture recognition system that can be implemented for less than a dollar and doesn’t require battery. The researchers have built a small sensor that can be placed on a smartphone or a tablet. The sensor uses an ultra-low-power receiver to extract and classify gesture information from wireless transmissions. When the user gestures with his hand, it changes the amplitude of the wireless signals in the air and then the sensors recognize unique amplitude changes created by specific gestures.

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Although, gesture recognition system is already available on some smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy S4 but users have to first manually enable this feature and if left on, it drains out the phone’s battery very fast. On the other hand, AllSee consumes only tens of microwatts of power and can always be left on. The user could gesture at the phone in a pocket or handbag to change the volume or mute the phone without having to touch or see the phone. This technology can further be implemented on other household electronics and make it possible to interact with devices using gestures.

AllSee has already been tested on smartphones and battery-free sensors and the gestures could be identified more than 90 percent of the time. Eight different hand gestures were used from more than two feet away from the device. The response time of the technology was found to be less than 80 microseconds, 1,000 times faster than blinking an eye.

The new technology is set to be showcased at the 'Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation conference' in Seattle between April 2-4, 2014. Can this technology bring a new storm in the tech world? Share your views with us in comments.

Source: Washington University

Google Chrome 34 Beta Gets Hands Free Voice Search Feature

Google has announced the integration of voice-assist feature to its latest Beta version 34. Until now Chrome users had to use Google's Voice Search Hotword extension to enable the same functionality. This new feature is the highlight of the release and packs several other features which include responsive images along with an unprefixed version of Web Audio API. The latest addition of in-built Voice Search for Windows, Mac and Linux will allow users to do voice searches by simply saying "Ok Google". User will have to open a new tab or visit Google.com in chrome, say "Ok Google" and then start speaking the desired search.

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This functionality needs to be enabled. For that, the user will simply have to visit Google.com, click the mic icon at the right of the text input field and finally hit "Ok Google". The Voice functionality isn't limited to performing searches, answering various questions, doing regular searches, measurements and conversions. This feature can be utilized to do other important tasks such as set a timer by saying "Ok Google, Set a timer of 30 minutes" or make a Google Now reminder by saying "Ok Google, remind me to watch movie at 6 pm tonight".

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Google is also introducing 'srcset' to allow developers to display images based on the resolution of the device. This new version of chrome also supports the Web Audio API for processing and synthesizing audio in web apps out of the box. It comes with new feature called "Supervised Users". This feature allows user to add other user to one account and the account holder can add and supervise multiple users on multiple devices.

To use this feature the admin users will have to navigate through 'Chrome menu' located on the toolbar and enter 'settings' page. On this page, under 'users' section, admins will have to click on 'Add new user' followed by 'import an existing supervised user' and finally select the supervised user. This improvement to supervised users is currently supported on Windows, Mac and Linux. However, it will soon be made available on chromebooks.

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This Beta version 34 will be launched in end of March or start of April. This move adopted by Google can be viewed as a big challenge to Siri and other firms working on voice recognition systems. Does anyone already use this feature in chrome using the optionally installed extension? Share your experiences with us in the comments section below.

source:chromblog