Minecraft Pickaxe Touchscreen Stylus

Minecraft has definitely been a success on many unprecedented levels for sure, which is a good thing, as it shows that the world is still not short on creativity when it comes to churning out new gaming titles for the masses. Well, as with any self-respecting game, there will be addicts at the scene as well, and Minecraft is no different. In fact, you might be classified as hardcore should you decide to actually play Minecraft Pocket Edition on your touchscreen-capable mobile device using the $19.99 Minecraft Pickaxe Touchscreen Stylus.

HTC announces HTC One

There is a new flagship smartphone in the Android side of town, and it will bear the HTC name this time around. Simply known as the HTC One, do not mistake this for its previous HTC One series that came with suffixes of alphabets such as the HTC One S, the HTC One X, and the HTC One X+. This is simply called the HTC One,

Nokia Lumia 720 announced

Nokia has certainly gotten into its stride where the Windows Phone 8 operating system platform is concerned, where the Finnish smartphone company has churned out yet another two models, making an official announcement over at the Mobile World Congress event that is current happening in Barcelona, Spain. The first of two new Lumia models to be introduced would be the Nokia Lumia 720,

Huawei Ascend P2 announced

So, you are in the market for a new Android-powered smartphone, but with so many makes and models to choose from, just which model would you want to settle for? Well, here is another that will not make your choice easier, but rather, add to your selection headache as Huawei has just announced the Huawei Ascend P2 officially at Mobile World Congress which is currently happening in Barcelona, Spain. Huawei is so bold as to claim the Huawei Ascend P2 to be the “world’s fastest smartphone”, with the basis of that claim being a quad-core 1.5GHz processor.

Nokia Lumia 520 delivers more bang for your buck

Now here is another smartphone from Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia that runs on the Windows Phone 8 platform that will maintain a balance between features and price, ensuring that your pockets will not be burnt and yet you will have a smartphone that will be able to duke it out with the best of them in terms of productivity. The smartphone in question? The all new Nokia Lumia 520.

Touch-Sensitive iPhone Case

When will smartphones read our minds?! I don’t know about you but sometimes I think “touching the screen is too much hassle.” Sure it is lazy, but you know the day will come. So what happens in the meantime? A Minneapolis-based company wants to bring us closer to the future of further interaction with our phones thanks to touch.

Written about in the Fall, showed off at CES and shipping in the Summer is the Sensus™ iPhone case from Canopy.

NEC Medias W N-05E offers dual displays

So you think that you have got a pretty swanky set up at work with a couple of monitors (not because you are a showoff, but simply because you need it as your eyes have to go through a whole lot of data each day)? Well, here is something that would definitely be worth boasting about – the NEC Medias W N-05E that will be hitting NTT DoCoMo of Japan this coming spring.

Dash – Your new Smartphone Car Stereo

When I’m in the car I never know what to do with my phone, if it’s in my purse I may not find it again for days, I stick it in the cup holder and then I have no place for a drink. Recently I found a way to wedge it in the door handle, it leaves it nicely accessible, but I have had a few incidents where someone opened the door unexpectedly from the outside… so it’s not really the solution I had hoped for, and I’m not getting the most out of my phone.

TaskOne iPhone case

Protecting your spanking new iPhone is definitely high on the agenda of many folk, even more so if this is the first smartphone that they have ever owned. Well, there are tons of iPhone cases out there to choose from, and the sheer number of it all can be very overwhelming, especially for the most meticulous folks out there who love to do research on all of the upcoming devices and accessories that they intend to purchase. The TaskOne iPhone case that you see here will be very different from all the other cases out there in the market as it does far more than just deliver an adequate amount of protection for your iPhone which you will find out right after the jump.

3-D Customizable iPhone Case

In the run up to the International Consumer Electronics Show CG wants to keep you informed of the hot products. The Best of Innovations winner in the Software & Mobile Apps category proves to change how we think about our iPhone case. Admit it, the phone is an extension of us. As you are unique and individual, your case should be too!

Griffin announces Survivor + Catalyst Waterproof Case for iPhone 5

You know that your smartphone is one of the more expensive impulse purchases that you can make (from the technological point of view that is unlike jewelry or an expensive watch, where the final price point is not to say that expensive, and yet it is crucial enough to warrant a purchase), so it makes perfect sense to do your bit and purchase adequate protection for it. Case in point (pardon the pun) would be Griffin’s Survivor + Catalyst Waterproof Case for iPhone 5, where it will bring together Catalyst’s expertise in designing waterproof products alongside more than two decades of experience at Griffin as one of the most established companies in the iOS accessory space.

Magnetic iPhone Friend

iPhones have really set the bar for smartphones. Those of us that have them certainly appreciate MOST of the technology. But that darn keyboard still creates issues. Without tactile reminders of where our fingers are or what we touch our fat fingers and typing speed give ample job security for the spell check programmers.

A ChargeCard…Literally

Anyone who goes travels – whether across the globe or across town – knows the importance of keeping chargers on the ready. You never know when you may have a few seconds to charge up. Keeping the cables organized is a different story though. Personally, my travel bag always resembles a hornets nest. Between cables and headphones. Bleeeech! It’s a mess. And gosh forbid you are totally on the go and don’t have a place to put a cable. Some smart folks in California took a look at this very dilemma and came up with a perfect solution that received some attention at CES last week.

Huawei Ascend W1 arrives at CES 2013

Things are all abuzz on the CES showfloor, as there are tons and tons of gizmos to choose from, but you certainly cannot fault the presence of Huawei as they have their fair share of interesting devices to check out as well. Case in point, the Huawei Ascend W1 that has just been announced, which is the first Windows Phone 8 device from the Chinese manufacturer. Just what kind of performance and specifications that comes packed with the Huawei Ascend W1? For starters, it will come in a body that measures 10.15mm thin – not the thinnest kid on the block by far, but it should not bulk up your pocket too much, either.

Apart from the 4-inch IPS LCD 480 x 800 touchscreen display with OGS Technology, the Huawei Ascend W1 will also be powered by the high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8230 dual-core 1.2GHz processor and Adreno 305 GPU. There is a 1,950 mAh battery to keep it going for the entire day, and Huawei boasts of 470 hours of standby time, although we would like to put that claim to the test as most figures on paper rarely live up, let alone surpass, real world usage and performance.

Since it runs on Microsoft’s most recent mobile operating system version, the Huawei Ascend W1 will come with the Windows Phone 8 Start screen that allows you to customize and pin Live Tiles with topics of personal interest, providing real-time updates that are truly yours and yours alone. Not only that, there is a dynamic lock screen which enables you to select the photos or updates that are most important to you and have them ready at a glance, never mind that the device is locked. Useful for those who love to take a sneak peek, no?

No idea no pricing just yet, but the Huawei Ascend W1 is said to hit China and Russia from this month onwards, while Western Europe, Middle East, USA and other selected countries will follow soon.

Let Your Phone Feel & Act Like a Camera

How many of you non-photographers out there even bother with a camera anymore? Smartphone photography is taking the world by storm. With faster speeds, more megapixels, better lenses and bigger capacity on our phones there remain few reasons to carry a camera. Yet becoming a professional photographer may not be totally possible with these handheld devices. Let’s face it, holding onto the delicate sides of your phone while trying to take quality photos does pose a challenge sometimes.

A funded Kickstarter project in the UK is launching a solution to help you enjoy smartphone photography while letting you literally ‘feel’ like you are using a camera. snappgrip, compatible with iPhone 4, 4S, 5 and Galaxy SIII, includes a case and camera controls.  Pop the case on your phone then slide in the snappgrip controller when the moment arises. Synced via Bluetooth, the controller enables you many of the conveniences of a camera. Press the shutter button to take a picture or press halfway to focus. Shoot in portrait, landscape or video mode zoom in and out and use flash. On the bottom you have micro-USB port for charging the controller and standard tripod too.  iOS and Android companion photo apps are available. Black/silver and silver/white/brown color options are available and snappgrip is anticipated to begin shipping in February. Pick one up for £29 on Kickstarter now or £69 once launched. And get that camera feel back into your photography.

Don’t let your site be a sitting duck for hackers

Be hack smart on the World Wide Web

Let me start by saying that I love, love, love WordPress. However, since it is an open source content management system, you must be careful what you download and you must be vigilant with the management of your site at all times. My blog is just a very tiny guppy in the big ocean that is the World Wide Web. So, how shocked was I to learn that my site was hacked? Honestly, I didn’t think it would happen.

It took me 4 weeks to completely clean my site. I am not a computer programmer. I don’t know code, it all looks gibberish to me. I don’t have deep pockets to pay someone to help, but I got through it and here’s what I learned in the process.

Update, update, update

Update WordPress, themes and plugins in a timely manner. I believe (though I’ll never know for certain) that the hacker got through a vulnerability in my theme as it was not updated. This was a conscious decision I made as each time I updated the theme, it would reset my settings back to default. It was a royal pain but not close to the pain I felt having to fix the mess the hacker created.

Go with a paid theme

I should have known better, but at the time I started my blog, I was excited that there were so many free themes to choose from. I didn’t need all the bells and whistles that came with paid themes, so off I went to download different themes to see how they would look. What I didn’t realize was that free themes have more vulnerabilities than paid ones that makes them less secure. After some research, I switched to a paid theme by StudioPress and I couldn’t be more pleased.

Install a plugin that scans your files

Plugins such as Exploit Scanner or Wordfence may not prevent a hack, but can help you find the source should you be hacked. The plugins scan files for anything suspicious, files that have been modified or files that have been added. To an untrained eye, looking for an obscure line of code that’s been added to your site is like finding a needle in a haystack. That’s where these plugins come in handy.

Verify your site with Google Webmaster Tools

If you haven’t verified your site with Google, you really should. Not only will Google send you a message that it has detected an issue on your site, but it also allows you access to a number of tools that can help better optimize your site. Once I received the dreaded message, it didn’t take Google long before it tagged my site with the infamous “This site may harm your computer” as a warning to others. Obviously this is not what any Webmaster wants but you can’t fix something if you’re not aware it’s broken. Once you deem your site clean, submit a request to Google to review your site.

Get help

Within 72 hours, I made over a dozen calls to my hosting company to see if they can help me find the source of the malware. I was not so lucky in my first few attempts. Most reps were not able to help, not because they didn’t want to, but I believe they did not have the experience to do it. I hit the jackpot one night as the rep found the source in under 2 minutes (this was before I realized there was a backdoor).

I purchased a package from my hosting company that essentially works similarly to the plugin I installed. This all happened around the same time so I got to see what worked. I was surprised to learn that the free plugin detected anomalies that my hosting company did not. However, because I paid for the service, I was able to speak directly with the security team which was a big help.

There are also numerous forums that you can reach out to for help. People are generally very supportive and willing to help. The one I reached out to was theGoogle product forum for Webmasters.

Change your password

If you still have the default “admin” username, change it immediately. All hackers know this and will try to gain access to your site with it. Partner that with a strong password. If you’ve been hacked, change your password just to be safe.

If malware persists, look for a backdoor

Within a week of my first malware notice from Google, I thought I nipped it. However, I soon received another  warning. I went back to those same files and sure enough the unwanted code was back. I deleted it and hours later it came back. It was then that I figured there was a backdoor to my site. The key is not only to find and delete the malicious code within the files, but to also find the file that was creating the backdoor. Until you do, the code will keep coming back.

In the end, I learned many hard knocked lessons, including the fact that I can be hacked. I’ve changed my way of thinking. Question is, have you?

Great news for Galaxy Nexus owners as Google Android Jelly bean 4.2 update has been reported by several users across the globe.

Google has quietly released the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean update for Galaxy Nexus devices. The update has started rolling out as of now and has been reported by various users from various regions. The update is available right now for some regions and will continue to being made available to users across all the regions but only for the GSM Galaxy Nexus devices as of now.

The Jelly Bean update will bring considerable changes form the existing Android operating systems such as the new Photo Sphere feature in the camera app that will let users take great panoramic photos with 360 degree coverage. Apparently, the camera app lets you click photos in every direction and then stitches all those images together to form a sphere.

Google has also tried to improve the native keyboard’s effectiveness. Android 4.2 brings Gesture Typing which, in a way, mimics the mechanism of Swype. One simply has to glide a fingertip over the letters and it will show up a list of words by predicting the most likely ones.

The text-to-speech libraries have been tweaked to be more accurate and relevant. Voice typing has also gets better with this update and it would now work without a data connection too.

The notifications tray now offers quick settings that can be accessed by swiping the screen from top to down. Quick Settings is like the mission control panel where the user can quickly switch a feature on or off. For instance mobile data, Bluetooth, GPS, airplane mode and brightness can be adjusted through Quick Settings.

Apparently the notification updates are now expandable and the relevant action can be taken directly from the bottom of the notifications.

Google has tweaked the transitions and graphics a bit more to make them enjoyable without any hiccups or lag. Even the lock screen will now be able to host your favorite widgets.