Nokia X, X+, XL: Nokia launches its first Android-based Budget phones

Nokia introduced a new family of smartphones, the Nokia X series of phones. The first three phones in the family - the Nokia X, X+ and XL - run on the new Nokia X software platform, that is based on Google's Android.

The phones under the Nokia X family are not pure Android phones; these phones instead run a forked variant of Android, similar to the way Amazon does for its Kindle Fire lineup. Nokia has taken the open-source elements of Android and has pulled in other elements of Asha and Windows Phone to offer users a different experience.

The downside here is that Nokia X users can't have access to the Google Play Store for apps. However, the phone will run Android apps, but Nokia will curate a list of such apps. A recommended source for the apps is the Nokia store, says the company. In other words, the new platform, Nokia X, is based on the Android Open Source project (AOSP).

CEO of Nokia Corporation Stephen Elop presents the new Nokia XL at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, on February 24, 2014.

All three phones are dual SIM phones and are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor.

Nokia ditches many of the Google services that come with Android, which Google lets phone makers customise at will. Instead, the new Nokia X phone announced will emphasise Microsoft services such as Bing search, Skype communications and OneDrive file storage. Its home screen sports larger, resizable tiles resembling those on Windows phone.

Nokia X, Nokia X+ and Nokia XL form a new family of Nokia's affordable smartphones. The Nokia X is the entry-level model in the family, will cost 89 euros, and will be available immediately in select markets. The Nokia X+ offers more memory and storage. It's priced at 99 euros and will be available in early Q2 2014. Finally, the Nokia XL packs a 5-inch screen, 5 megapixel rear-facing and 2 megapixel front-facing camera. It will be priced at 109 euros and be available in early Q2 2014.

These phones feature a brand new, tile-based home screen. The new OS also reintroduces a redesigned version of its Fastlane notifications centre - a second Home screen if you like - from the latest Asha devices.

"The X family boasts Nokia's exciting, high quality hardware design and a range of bright colours. The brand new, tile-based Home screen offers you a simple, elegant way to manage your apps and phone functions and also reintroduces a redesigned version of the enormously popular Fastlane notifications centre - a second Home screen if you like - from the latest Asha devices," said Nokia.

Here Maps with turn-by-turn navigation and offline maps are also included. Free cloud storage from Microsoft OneDrive with 7GB of space for free is included out of the box. There's also access to Outlook.com as your email service. And there's Skype with a month's free calls to international landlines in selected markets.

All three devices are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor and are dual-SIM phones. A range of third-party apps comes pre-installed, including BBM, Plants vs Zombies 2, Viber, Vine and Twitter.

At launch, leading global apps will be available for the Nokia X family of devices, including Facebook, LINE Free Voice and Messages, LINE Camera, LINE Bubble, Picsart, Plants vs Zombies 2, Real Football 2014, Skype, Spotify, Swiftkey, Twitter, Viber, Vine and WeChat, among others. And in a first for Nokia customers around the world, BBM will also be available on the Nokia X family of devices in addition to Windows Phone.

Jussi Nevanlinna, Nokia's vice president for product marketing, said the Finnish company is positioning the Nokia X as a bridge to high-end Windows smartphones under the Lumia brand.

Everyone Who Thinks Facebook Is Stupid To Buy WhatsApp For $19 Billion Should Think Again!

Facebook made a breathtaking move yesterday, buying messaging app WhatsApp for $19 billion.

Even for Facebook, that's a staggering amount to pay for a company with estimated 2013 revenue of only $20 million. It represents almost 10% of Facebook's overall value.

And in the wake of the announcement, the usual chorus of armchair pundits took to Twitter to snicker together and pronounce Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, brain dead.

But Facebook buying WhatsApp for $19 billion isn't brain dead.

It's just bold.

Very bold.

Like other bold moves, Facebook's WhatsApp deal could end up looking brilliant.

Or moronic.

That's what makes it bold.

If it were guaranteed to end up looking brilliant, it wouldn't be bold. It would be obvious.

I don't know how Facebook's WhatsApp deal will end up looking - and neither, it's worth noting, do any of the pundits who are pronouncing it brain dead. Based on everything I do know, though, I think the odds are that it will end up looking brilliant.

Here's why:

WhatsApp has both offensive and defensive value to Facebook.WhatsApp is the fastest-growing company in history (in terms of users). If the company's growth continues, and it can continue to "monetize" its users, it will be worth an even more mind-boggling amount of money someday. At the same time, WhatsApp's growth is gobbling up user messaging and connection time that once could have belonged to Facebook. Now those users and their time do belong to Facebook. So buying WhatsApp allows Facebook to both own "the next Facebook" and prevent "the next Facebook" from eating Facebook's lunch.

WhatsApp's growth and usage is absolutely mind-boggling. Five years after its founding, the company has 450 million active monthly users, of which a staggering ~315 million use it every day. WhatsApp is adding 1 million new users a day - 1 million! Facebook thinks WhatsApp could have 1 billion users in a few years, and this estimate seems conservative. (Facebook itself only has 1.2 billion users.) WhatsApp also does a lot more than "text-messaging." It allows users to send photos, videos, and voicemails to each other and keep the conversations forever. In short, it allows users to do a lot of what Facebook does. So, again, Facebook really does appear to be buying "the next Facebook."

WhatsApp already has a powerful revenue model, and other successful messaging apps are showing the potential for it to add many more. WhatsApp ostensibly charges its users $1 per year after the first year. ("Ostensibly" because I've never heard of anyone actually paying this $1). Assuming most current users end up paying the $1/year, that's a potential revenue stream of several hundred million dollars a year from WhatsApp's current revenue model alone. Meanwhile, other messaging apps like Line and WeChat have demonstrated the power of "stickers," user-to-user payments, ecommerce, and other revenue streams. When you have as many users as WhatsApp, generating even only a few dollars per year per user creates a massive business.

WhatsApp has very low costs, so it should eventually be wildly profitable. WhatsApp currently has only 55 employees. Assuming an all-in cost of $200,000 per employee, that's a total cost base of $11 million. Let's assume WhatsApp grows to, say, 300 employees over the next few years. Then it will have a cost base of only $50-$75 million. Meanwhile, if the company's growth trajectory continues, it could easily be pulling in more than $1 billion a year of revenue in a few years. Almost all of that would be profit.

The names of all the smart people who pronounced Facebook itself a "fad" or "worthless" and dissed every new investment in the company as "moronic" could fill a book. Most people have consistently underestimated the power, growth potential, and value of the leading social platforms, including Facebook. Facebook's $1 billion acquisition of Instagram, for example, which was then a revenue-less company with 13 employees, was seen as proof that Mark Zuckerberg was a clueless kid who had no business running a major company. Meanwhile, Facebook is now valued at $175 billion, and Instagram is considered one of the smartest pre-emptive acquisitions in history. $19 billion for WhatsApp is a much bolder bet than Instagram, but it, too, could end up looking a lot smarter than most people think.

The bottom line:

This is a very bold move.

Like other bold moves, it might end up looking stupid, but it also might end up looking brilliant.

It's also a long-term move, a bet on what the future will look like 5-10 years from now, not next quarter.

In that way, this deal is a vintage Mark Zuckerberg move.

Zuckerberg continues to be one of the few CEOs in the world (Jeff Bezos is another) who is willing to sacrifice near-term earnings and expose himself to short-term ridicule in order to make bold long-term bets. This approach has worked out great for Facebook so far. And it has worked out great for Amazon.

In short, Facebook buying WhatsApp for $19 billion isn't stupid. It's just bold.

How to determine whether a USB 3.0 device is operating at SuperSpeed?

How to know whether you are using USB 2.0 or USB 3.0? How to determine whether a USB 3.0 device is operating at SuperSpeed?  TechProceed will let you know the differences.

Note: The information provided in this blog post applies to Windows 8.

In this blog post, I will describe some ways in which you can determine whether a USB 3.0 device that is attached to a PC running Windows 8 version of the operating system, is operating at the optimal connection speed - SuperSpeed.

USB 3.0 introduces a new operating speed called SuperSpeed. Compared to USB 2.0 bandwidth of 480 Mbps, SuperSpeed supports 5.0 Gbps making it 10 times faster than USB 2.0. USB 3.0 also supports lower operating speeds: high speed, full speed, and low speed. Along with increased bandwidth, USB 3.0 host controllers and devices come with the promise of compatibility. USB 3.0 controllers are required to work with all existing USB devices. The fact that current PCs ship with both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports presents an interesting challenge: how should you determine whether a USB 3.0 device is indeed operating at SuperSpeed?

Here are some ways to determine the operating speed of the USB device:

• Make sure that you have USB 3.0-capable hardware
• View device information in Device Manager
• Look for Windows 8 UI messages
• Use USBView to view the bus speed
• Determine the bus speed programmatically
• Troubleshooting
• Make sure that you have USB 3.0-capable hardware

Typically, newer PCs with USB 3.0 support have both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 controllers, and both those ports are exposed. The receptacles on USB 3.0 ports are usually blue to distinguish from the receptacles on USB 2.0 ports, which are black. So, if the PC has a blue port, that is a good indication of USB 3.0 support. Note this is not a requirement of the official USB specification, rather a convention adopted by some PC makers.

Figure 1 shows a typical USB 2.0 port.

Figure 1. USB 2.0 port with a black receptacle

Figure 2 shows a typical USB 3.0 port.

Figure 2. USB 3.0 port with a blue receptacle

If the PC does not use blue receptacle for the USB 3.0 ports, it might have a USB 3.0 logo () next to the port.

Figure 3 shows the USB 2.0 logo.

Figure 3. USB 2.0 logo

Figure 4 shows the USB 3.0 logo.

Figure 4. USB 3.0 logo

You should also look for the logo on USB 3.0 devices and cables. Figure 5 shows the USB 3.0 logo on the connector of a USB 3.0 cable.

Figure 5 USB 3.0 logo on USB 3.0 cable

View device information in Device Manager

Next, confirm that Windows enumerated the host controller as a USB 3.0 controller. To confirm that, open Device Manager and locate the controller under the Universal Serial Bus controllers node. If Windows recognized it as a USB 3.0 controller, USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller is appended to the device description as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6. USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller in Device Manager

Look for Windows 8 UI messages to determine whether the USB 3.0 device is operating at SuperSpeed

To indicate whether the USB 3.0 device is operating at SuperSpeed, Windows 8 shows UI messages in specific places. If the PC has USB 3.0 controller to which a USB 3.0 device is attached, Windows 8 shows Connected to USB 3.0 when the device is operating at SuperSpeed. If the operating speed is lower than SuperSpeed, the message isDevice can perform faster when connected to USB 3.0.

You can view those UI messages in PC Settings.

Open the Charms Bar by dragging the cursor to top right of the screen or by pressing Win + C.

Select Settings and then Change PC settings.

Select the Devices under PC settings application.

Figure 7 shows the UI message when the USB 3.0 device is operating at SuperSpeed.

Figure 7. PC settings – UI message for a USB 3.0 device that is operating at SuperSpeed

Figure 8 shows the UI message when the USB device is operating at a bus speed that is lower than SuperSpeed.

Figure 8. PC settings – UI message for a USB 3.0 device that is operating at a speed lower than SuperSpeed

You can view similar messages in Devices and Printers, as shown in figures 9 and 10.

Figure 9. Devices and Printers - UI message for a USB 3.0 device that is operating at SuperSpeed

Figure 10. Devices and Printers – UI message for a USB 3.0 device that is operating at a speed lower than SuperSpeed

If the USB 3.0 device is a storage device, Windows Explorer shows similar messages when the volume label is selected, as shown in figures 11 and 12. Note that the View -> Details pane must be selected for the message to be visible.

Figure 11. Windows Explorer - message for a USB 3.0 device that is operating at SuperSpeed

Figure 12. Windows Explorer - UI message for a USB 3.0 device that is operating at a speed lower than SuperSpeed

Use USBView to view device information about the bus speed

If you are writing a device driver, the USBView tool might be more useful for verifying the bus speed. The tool is included in the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) 8 Release Preview (RP), which is available for download at this Web site. USBView in this release has been updated to display SuperSpeed information.

Figure 13 shows a USB 3.0 device operating at SuperSpeed in USBView.

Figure 13. USBView – Message for a USB 3.0 device that is operating at SuperSpeed

Determine the bus speed programmatically

If you are a device driver developer, the USB driver stack exposes a new IOCTL,IOCTL_USB_GET_NODE_CONNECTION_INFORMATION_EX_V2, which you can use to query speed information for USB 3.0 devices.

Troubleshooting

Here are a few things to try if you find that your USB 3.0 device is capable of operating at SuperSpeed but is operating a lower bus speed:

Make sure that you do not have a USB 2.0 hub between the device and the PC. That is because USB 3.0 devices that are attached to a USB 2.0 hub can only operate at high speed. In this case, either switch to a USB 3.0 hub or attach the device directly to the USB 3.0 port on the PC.

Ensure that the USB 3.0 hub that your device is attached to appears correctly in Device Manager. For certain unsupported USB 3.0 hubs, Windows may disable the SuperSpeed portion of the hub and report it as “Non Functional” in Device Manager.

Figure 14 shows a non-functional hub in Device Manager.

Figure 14. SuperSpeed USB Hub is not functional

Make sure that the cable that is used to connect the device is a USB 3.0 cable. It is also possible that the USB 3.0 cable has signal integrity issues. In that case, the device might switch to high speed. If that happens, you must change the USB 3.0 cable.

Update the firmware for the USB 3.0 device by obtaining the latest version from the manufacturer site. Some USB 3.0 device manufacturers release fixes, for bugs found in the device, as firmware updates.

Update the firmware for the USB 3.0 controller by obtaining the latest version from the manufacturer site. Some USB 3.0 controller manufacturers release fixes, for bugs found in the controller, as firmware updates.

Update the BIOS for your system by obtaining the latest version from the manufacturer. On some motherboards, the BIOS can incorrectly route a device that is connected to a USB 3.0 controller to a USB 2.0 controller. That incorrect routing allows the USB 3.0 device to operate at high speed but not at SuperSpeed. A BIOS update might fix such a problem.

Summary

In this blog post, we discussed ways of making sure that you get optimal experience with your USB 3.0 device attached to a USB 3.0 controller on a PC. If you have any questions, please leave us a comment.

How To Password Protect Your USB Stick/External HDD in 3 Easy Ways

USB thumb drives/ external HDD are small, portable, and can be read on any device with a USB port. These features make them the perfect vehicles to transport data between computers. Due to their portability, however, they are also easily lost. Thus sensitive files callired on a USB stick should always be protected.

Unfortunately, you cannot simply password protect your entire USB stick, like you have password protected your Facebook account. Tools that will seriously protect your your data, all work with encryption. Unless you want to invest in a secure flash drive with hardware encryption, you can use freeware applications to achieve a similar level of protection. This article summarizes some of the easiest ways to password protect files and folders on your computer.

1. Manually Save Files With a Password

As mentioned above, you can’t safely password protect your entire USB stick without using encryption. However, if you shy away from the time consuming encryption process of entire folders and need a really quick way to only protect a few selected files, maybe you can simply save those with a USB password.

Many programs, including Word and Excel, allow you to save files with a password. For example in Word, while the document is open, go to > Tools > Options and switch to the Security tab. Now enter a Password to open, click OK, re-enter the password when asked, and finally save your document and don’t forget the password.

2. Create An Encrypted & Password Protected Partition With Rohos Mini Drive

Many tools can encrypt and password protect your data. Most, however, require Administrator rights to run on any given computer. Unfortunately, this is also the case for one of the best encryption tools: TrueCrypt. Tools like these are not a viable solution if you need to securely transfer data to a computer where you do not have Administrator rights.

Rohos Mini Drive, on the other hand, is a tool that will work whether or not you possess Administrator rights. The free edition can create a hidden, encrypted, and password protected partition of up to 2GB on your USB flash drive. The tool uses automatic on-the-fly encryption with AES 256 bit key length. Thanks to the portable Rohos Disk Browser, which is installed directly on your flash drive, no encryption drivers need to be available on the local system. Subsequently the protected data will be accessible anywhere.

Once you have created a password protected and encrypted container on your external drive, you can open it by clicking the Rohos Mini.exe icon from the root folder. After entering the password, your Rohos disk will be mounted and accessible via your Computer, i.e. the directory of all drives and partitions connected to your system. To close your Rohos partition, right-click the Rohos icon in the Windows taskbar notification area and select Disconnect.

A more detailed description of Rohos Mini Drive can be read in my PDF guide The Office Worker’s 101 Guide to a USB Thumb Drive.

3. Lock Your Flash Drive with USB Safeguard

Like Rohos Mini Drive, USB Safeguard is a portable app that runs directly from your flash drive and thus does not require Administrator rights on the local computer. It uses on-the-fly AES 256 bit encryption. The free version is limited to drive size of 2GB.

Download the usbsafeguard.exe and copy it to your USB flash drive. Run it from your flash drive and enter a password to lock the drive. To unlock it, run the file again and enter the password. The locking procedure must be repeated every time you want the drive to be locked as the tool will remember its last status, i.e. locked or unlocked. This also means that you can change the password every time you use USB Safeguard.

Let me know your questions here :  Snehal[at]Tehcprocee[dot]com. Stay Tuned.