Apple unveils 'iCloud' storage, new operating system

Apple's Steve Jobs on Monday announced a new service called "iCloud," which lets Apple product owners store documents and music on the Internet instead of on their own computer hard drives or mobile phones.

iCloud expands on the trend of cloud computing, which refers to the idea that computer users are storing more of their information "in the cloud" of the Internet rather than on their own storage drives.




All of a person's Apple devices -- iPhone, iPads and Mac computers -- sync wirelessly with Apple's iCloud, giving users access to their documents, photos, apps, calendars and e-mails from any location, not just on a specific gadget. "We think this is going to be pretty big," said Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, who has been on medical leave since January. But the service does have some limits.

iCloud stores photos for up to 30 days, and mobile devices store the most recent 1,000 photos. Users can store only 5 gigabytes of documents, which is more than some competitors allow. And in order to sync music that wasn't purchased from Apple's iTunes store, users must pay Apple a fee of $25 per year. All iCloud services except that music add-on are free, Jobs said. "This is the first time we've seen this in the music industry," he said. Consumers can use the iTunes portion of iCloud now, but only if they have iOS version 4.3. The rest of the features will be available to everyone in the fall.

The service replaces an old Apple product called MobileMe, which cost $99 per year. Daily back-ups on iCloud happen automatically in the background when a device is connected to the Internet over Wi-Fi, the company said. Big tech players like Amazon and Google, as well as smaller companies like Dropbox, already operate cloud storage services with various features.

Amazon created a stir in March when it announced a cloud music player. Apple typically uses its Worldwide Developers Conference or WWDC, as the event is called in tech circles, to announce a new version on the popular iPhone. But not this year. "If the hardware is the brain ... of our products, the software is their soul. And today, we are going to talk about software," Jobs said before a packed audience, wearing his standard uniform of a black mock turtleneck and jeans.

Analysts expect a new iPhone in September.

If anyone was doubting that iOS and OS X are converging, the use of the trackpad for gestures should convince you. It's incredibly tablet-like. But I wonder how much getting used to it'll take?" Gizmodo wrote on its live blog of the event, which started at 1 p.m. ET. A new version of Apple's mobile operating system -- called iOS 5, which is due out in the fall -- introduces a system of alerts for iPhones and iPads. A "Notification Center" organizes alerts by app, and these alerts pop up at the top of the screen where they can be more easily ignored. Currently, these alerts show up in the center of the screen and interrupt users.

The mobile operating system also integrates with Twitter, allowing users to tweet photos from within the Camera and Maps apps. "We want to make it easier for all of our customers to use Twitter," Apple's Scott Forstall said at the event in San Francisco. A new built-in app called Reminders lets users create to-do lists, and an update to the iPhone and iPad e-mail system will let people create messages in bold or italics, as well as encrypt the messages they send from mobile devices.

The new mobile operating system will also debut a new app called iMessage. With it, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users will be able to send text, photo and video messages to each other without having to pay the cell-carrier fees associated with texting.

Research in Motion has a similar feature called BlackBerry Messenger, which is quite popular among owners of those phones. App developers have been selling similar software for iOS and other platforms, and those will likely continue to be popular because they allow, say, an iPhone user to contact an Android phone. An update to the Camera app lets people take photos by pressing the volume-up button on the side of the iPad or iPhone.

The new Camera app also lets users edit photos on the fly, simulating features already available from many third-party app developers. iOS updates will be available for the first time "over the air," meaning users won't have to sync their devices with desktop computers to get new software. Users can also sync phones with iTunes over Wi-Fi.

Android Secret Codes

Android is going to be very popular now these days.Android market provides wide range of applications for fulfill all your needs.As a Android user all you need to know about Android OS. So here i m sharing with you some secret code. This code helps you to access some hidden option which are generally not given as default.Plz use this code carefully because if you are unaware of these advanced settings then it may be harmful for your phone.

*#*#7780#*#*   - This code is used for factory restore setting.This will remove google account setting and System and application data and settings.

*2767*3855#   -  This code is used for factory format, and will remove all files and settings including the internal memory storage. It will also reinstall the firmware.

*#*#4636#*#*   - This code show information about your phone and battery.

*#*#273283*255*663282*#*#*    - This code opens a File copy screen where you can backup your media files e.g. Images, Sound, Video and Voice memo.

*#*#197328640#*#*    -  This code can be used to enter into Service mode. You can run various tests and change settings in the service mode.

*#*#7594#*#*   -  This code enable your "End call / Power" button into direct poweroff button without asking for selecting any option(silent mode, aeroplane and poweroff).

*#*#8255#*#*  -  This code can be used to launch GTalk Service Monitor.

*#*#34971539#*#*    -  This code is used to get camera information.Plz avoid update camera firmware option.


WLAN, GPS and Bluetooth Test Codes:

*#*#232339#*#* OR *#*#526#*#* OR *#*#528#*#*   -  WLAN test (Use “Menu” button to start various tests).

*#*#232338#*#*    -  Shows WiFi MAC address.

*#*#1472365#*#*    -  GPS test.

*#*#1575#*#*    -  Another GPS test.

*#*#232331#*#*   -  Bluetooth test.

*#*#232337#*#    -  Shows Bluetooth device address.


Codes to launch various Factory Tests:

*#*#0842#*#*   - Device test (Vibration test and BackLight test)

*#*#0588#*#*    - Proximity sensor test

*#*#0*#*#*    -  LCD test

*#*#2664#*#*   -  Touch screen test

*#*#2663#*#*    -  Touch screen version

*#*#0283#*#*   -  Packet Loopback

*#*#0673#*#* OR *#*#0289#*#*    -  Melody test

*#*#3264#*#*    -  RAM version


Code for firmware version information.

 *#*#1111#*#*   -  FTA SW Version

*#*#2222#*#*   - FTA HW Version

*#*#44336#*#* - PDA, Phone, CSC, Build Time, Changelist number

*#*#4986*2650468#*#*   - PDA, Phone, H/W, RFCallDate

*#*#1234#*#*  - PDA and Phone
 
Keep Trying  :)

Learning time : CAPTCHA

We’re going to learn how how CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) works and how it minimizes automatic sign-up of forms. We will also be creating a simple CAPTCHA script in PHP to illustrate this.

Basically CAPTCHA works in the following manner:
  1. Create Random Value: Some random string is generated, random values are often hard to guess and predict.
  2. Generate an Image: Images are used as these are generally a lot harder to read for computers while being nice and readable to humans. This is also the most important step as simple text in images can be read (and CAPTCHA cracked) quite easily. To make it difficult for them, developers employ different techniques so that the text in the image becomes hard to read for computers. Some create zig-zag lines for background while others twist-and-turn individual characters in the image. Possibilities are many and new techniques are being developed all the time as crackers are always into finding ways to break them.
  3. Store it: The random string generated (which is also in the image) is stored for matching the user input. The easiest way to do so is to use the Session variables.
  4. Matching: After the above step, the CAPTCHA image is generated and shown on some form which we want to protect from being abused. The users fills in the form along with the CAPTCHA text and submits it. Now we have the following:
    • All submitted form data.
    • CAPTCHA string (from form), input by user.
    • CAPTCHA string (real one, generated by us), from session variable. Session variable is generally used as it can keep stored values across page requests. Here, we needed to preserve stored values from one page (form page) to another (action page-that receives form data).
  5. If both match, it’s okay otherwise not, in that case we can give the user a message that the CAPTCHA they had entered was wrong and their form could not be submitted. You could also ask them to verify it again.

CAPTCHA Generation and Matching

From the above image it’s quite clear that when someone requests the form page, the CAPTCHA text is generated and sent back to requesting user, but only in the form of an image. If the requester is a human he’d not have much difficulty reading the image and inputting the text when asked but if it’s a bot it might face difficulties guessing whats in the image. In the next step when we match the string generated and the one the user had input, we can restrict automated form submissions.

The following is the code that does this, it’ll just output the CAPTCHA image to the browser when the script is requested:

/********************************************************
* File:        captcha.php                             *
* Author:      Snehal Masne                            *
* Date:        12-Mar-2009                             *
* Description: This file can be embedded as image      *
*              to show CAPTCHA/                        *
********************************************************/

// The number of characters you
// want your CAPTCHA text to have
define('CAPTCHA_STRENGTH', 5);

/****************************
*        INITIALISE        *
****************************/
// Tell PHP we're going to use
// Session vars
session_start();

// Md5 to generate the random string
$random_str = md5(microtime());

// Trim required number of characters
$captcha_str = substr($random_str, 0, CAPTCHA_STRENGTH);

// Allocate new image
$width = (CAPTCHA_STRENGTH * 10)+10;
$height = 20;

$captcha_img =ImageCreate($width, $height);

// ALLOCATE COLORS
// Background color-black
$back_color = ImageColorAllocate($captcha_img, 0, 0, 0);

// Text color-white
$text_color = ImageColorAllocate($captcha_img, 255, 255, 255);

// Line color-red
$line_color = ImageColorAllocate($captcha_img, 255, 0, 0);

/****************************
*     DRAW BACKGROUND &    *
*           LINES          *
****************************/
// Fill background color
ImageFill($captcha_img, 0, 0, $back_color);

// Draw lines accross the x-axis
for($i = 0; $i < $width; $i += 5)
ImageLine($captcha_img, $i, 0, $i, 20, $line_color);

// Draw lines accross the y-axis
for($i = 0; $i < 20; $i += 5)
ImageLine($captcha_img, 0, $i, $width, $i , $line_color);

/****************************
*      DRAW AND OUTPUT     *
*          IMAGE           *
****************************/
// Draw the random string
ImageString($captcha_img, 5, 5, 2, $captcha_str, $text_color);

// Carry the data (KEY) through session
$_SESSION['key'] = $captcha_str;

// Send data type
header("Content-type: image/jpeg");

// Output image to browser
ImageJPEG($captcha_img);

// Free-Up resources
ImageDestroy($captcha_img);

How To Lock Your Computer With USB Drive

Tired of people starting your computer when you are not around and messing up custom settings? Wouldn’t it be cool if you could lock your computer by just removing your USB stick from it? I’ll show you how you can use your USB stick, Flash Drive or Pen Drive what ever you call it to lock your computer, among other things…


Boot Lock
 
This trick will allow you to use your USB to BOOT into Windows. If someone tries to start the computer without your USB stick, it will display boot errors. Before begin, you playing with the BIOS and boot files of your computer may result in you not being able to boot into your Windows partition; so continue at your own risk! 

Things you need: A 64MB or larger sized USB Stick, Windows Recovery Disk (just in case). Unhide hidden and protected files : Go to Tools > Options > View, check Show hidden files and un-check Hide protected system files.
  • From the drive where Windows is installed (normally C:\), copy the files boot.ini, ntdlr and NTDETECT.COM to your USB Stick.
  • Now, we need to go into your BIOS, so restart the computer and keep jabbing [F8] as soon as the computer starts.
  • Once in the BIOS, enable USB Drive as the first boot device. You might have to enable USB Legacy  Support on older BIOSes.
  • Restart your computer, if all goes well, you should be able to log into Windows. If not, then unplug the USB Stick, return to the BIOS and change the First Boot device to your hard disk drive and repeat the steps above.
  • Once you are logged into Windows, go to your Windows drive and rename boot.ini to boot.bak.
  • To check if you have setup everything correctly, eject your USB stick and reboot the computer. You should get error messages on the screen such as Invalid Boot.ini” or “Windows could not start”.

That's it !   :)