12 Million historic images being uploaded on Flickr by Kalev Leetaru which can be downloaded and used without permission

In perhaps what is a boon to historians, researchers, bloggers and image enthusiasts, American academian, Kalev Leetaru is creating a searchable database of 12 million historic copyright-free images. Leetaru says that anybody and everybody can copy, paste and use these images for any purpose.  Do remember that many of these images are of historic and archival value and would cost you a bomb if you did want to buy them for other sources.

Kalev Leetaru has already uploaded 2.6 million pictures to Flickr, which are searchable thanks to tags that have been automatically added.  Leetaru's database contains photos and drawings which are are sourced from more than 600 million library book pages scanned in by the Internet Archive organisation. As said above, these images of ancient artifacts and historic value were difficult difficult to access up until now.

Mr Leetaru said digitisation projects had so far focused on words and ignored pictures.  Which means that the images are tagged with proper labels making the search easy for a wannabe downloader.

"For all these years all the libraries have been digitising their books, but they have been putting them up as PDFs or text searchable works," he told the BBC. "They have been focusing on the books as a collection of words. This inverts that. Stretching half a millennia, it's amazing to see the total range of images and how the portrayals of things have changed over time."  Interestingly  Mr Leetaru wrote his own software to work around the way the books had originally been digitised.

Leetaru was able to circumvent the copyright provisions by uploading images only upto 1922 the year when copyright restrictions started.  He said that these huge database will range images from 1500 to 1922. Mr Leetaru began work on the project while researching communications technology at Georgetown University in Washington DC as part of a fellowship sponsored by Yahoo, the owner of photo-sharing service Flickr.

The Internet Archive had used an optical character recognition (OCR) program to analyse each of its 600 million scanned pages in order to convert the image of each word into searchable text.

So next time you want a historic image, you know were to find one.

UniverCell SYNC comes to Mumbai, brings deli-tronics smartphone experience

I had the pleasure of visiting the newly launched UniverCell Sync digital store due to indiblogger.  Here I pen out a few of my thoughts about the newly launched lifestyle smartphone deli-tronical experience I had with them. Though the store is situated in rather endish point of South Mumbai at UniverCell, Cecil Court Building, Next to Regal Cinema, Cause Way, Mumbai and quite far off from my residence but all the tiredness of driving all the way from Borivali to Regal was washed off at the sheer tech-seperience of the store.

The store deals in providing maximum smartphone tech experience and I just love mobile and mobile tech so the UniverCell Sync was a love at first site for me.  As informed by the staff, each of the stores have been divided into four clear zones with each zone offering a different mobile experience. 

For the selfie enthusiasts and the self proclaimed creativity experts there is a specialised camera phones zone.  Music lovers and music junkies get a music phone zone with the accessories like headsets and Apps blended in.  For the business consumer there is the work and play segment where one can be connected to work even at home.  And best of all and perhaps the one that would get most footfalls for them, the Junior Syc zone for kids.  This zone offers every mobile offering under sun for the kids which are preloaded with children only Apps and educationational content. The staff was courteous and store filled with all the right kind of mobiles, mobile accessories and tech stuff.  I jumped to my first love, business smartphones.   UniverCell has created the right ambience for a tech lover.  The arrays of products are set up beautifully in a eye catching manner.  

UniverCell Sync is a recent startup which started from South India and is slowly and steadily expanding into whole of India.  It already has a setup of 405 stores in South India and has entered Mumbai with a bang; virtually with 10 stores located at following locations :

1. Bandra Linking Road, Unit No.1, Kenil Worth Building, Linking Road, Bandra (W) Mumbai 50
2. Neptune Magnet Mall, Neptune House, Karma Stambh, Vikhroli(W) Mumbai 83
3. Cecil Court Building, Next to Regal Cinema, Cause Way, Mumbai 1
4. Grovel Mall, Grovel House, Akurli Road, Kandivali (E), Mumbai 101
5. Phoenix Market City, Kurla Market City, L.B.S. Marg, Kurla (W) Mumbai 11
6. Phoenix High Street, Phoenix Mills Compound, 462 Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai 13.
7. R Mall, L.B.S. Marg, Mulund, Mumbai 80
8. Saroj Furnishings & Carpets, Shop 5/6, Mira Mansion, Next to BoI, Sion Circle, Mumbai 22
9. Madhav Niwas, Shop No.2 & 3, Gokhale Road, Naupada, Thane, Mumbai 602

With these 9 stores it has probably covered Mumbai and the company says it plans to open 11 more stores in Maharashtra out of which one is in already operational in Phoenix Market City, Pune. Apart from above it is the only physical mobile store in India to receive a QC  ISO 9000-2001 certification. This certification assures buyers that the UniverCell Sync will deliver quality both product wise and service wise.  

Keeping in line with the certification, the company offers a to the doorstep service.  Called Sync Squad, it is the first mobile phone retailer to offer such a  device setup support at customers' doorstep. The company also offers dedicated 24x7 technical helpline for its patrons.  The staff said the the company plans to launch a dedicated 24 x 7 helpline smartphone App in near future, that completes the whole service setup.

UniverCell Sync is not just a store, it is a out of the box full mobile experience store where you get good value for money. It is the only mobile phone retailer to offer a multi-party loyalty program through Payback.  So if you are a Payback member, you gain lot of loyalty points which can be redeemed across channels.

The other zone to interest me was the complete musical setup smartphone zone.  It had all kinds of enviable accessories from headsets to docks. 

UniverCell has played a very smart and strategic move in this zone both from buyers point of view as well as marketing strategy. It offers a complete setup of music mobile with a bundle offer which includes high quality headphones and memory card plus phone cover.

Most smartphone users will agree that the service of all major makers sucks.  More so with users who own a iPhone or S5/S4. Waiting in that queue at the service centre till your number is called out is a headache and a resource strain.  UniverCell Sync has addressed this issues directly with the following plans:

This plans are intended to relieve the smartphone buyers of their obvious worry, the after sales service.  All in all, UniverCell Sync has got all the right ingredients in place for smartphone buyers. As I normally get smartphones to review, so I couldnt buy one but would definitely urge readers to give UniverCell Sync a try when you embark on your audacious smartphone buying journey.

HTC announces a mid range 4G LTE Android smartphone called HTC Desire 510

Taiwanese smartphone manufacturers HTC have announced their new mid range smartphone offering today.  Called HTC Desire 510 this will be the first mid range phone to support 4G, though final price of the handset has not been revealed by HTC. The affordable price may lure many customers but not much can be said at this stage regarding its market performance.  HTC which was one the top Android smartphone maker has been gradually losing its market share to Samsung world over.  The HTC official blog speaks of very promising specs but only time will foretell the future of Desire 510

HTC says the Desire 510 will be available in “selected regions in Europe and Asia as well as through select carriers in the US”  but as said above, there’s no word on the exact price yet.

The HTC Desire 510 which will have a 4.7 inch FWVGA screen, giving a resolution of  854 x 480 pixels.  It will run on Qualcomm's latest quad-core 1.2 GHz Snapdragon™ 410 processor.  It will have 1GB RAM and will be powered by a 2100 mAh battery. 

It will have an internal memory of 8GB with a microSD card slot for future expansion upto 128GB.  It will feature HTC's signature Sense UI and BlinkFeed™, and will be available in two colours, Terra White and Meridian Grey. 

Quick peek of new HTC Desire 510

MODEL	HTC DESIRE 510
OPERATING SYSTEM(OS)	Android KitKat with HTC Sense UI6.0
Display	4.7Inch FWVGA touch screen with854X480pixel
PROCESSOR	2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410
RAM	1 GB RAM and 2,100 mAh battery
STORAGE CAPACITY	8 GB internal storage and expandable Via  microSD  upto 128 GB
CONNECTIVITY	4G LTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, DLNA, micro USB 2.0, HTC Connect, GPS with GLONASS
CAMERA	5 Mega Pixel Rear Camera and a VGA front Camera

Apple's iPhone 6 to be available for pre-order on 12th September, complete roundup of leaks and rumours of iPhone 6

With the most technical glitches save the screen snag fixed, Apple is most likely to announce the iPhone 6 on 9th September and will probable make it available for pre-order on September 12th.  The latest offering from Cupertino based company will have a larger screen than its predecessors iPhone 5s and 5c as many experts expect it to unveil the new iPhone 6 with both 4.7 inch (11.94 cm) and 5.5 inch (13.97 cm) screens.  

The 4.7″ inch iPhone screen will have a  HD resolution of approx. 1334 x 750 (332 ppi) and the 5.5″ inch model will have a HD resolution of 1920 x1080 (400 ppi).  Though this article is based on leaks and rumours, but expect many of the rumours to be true as was the case with iPhone 5c and 5s. iPhone 6 is to continue the colour coding used in iPhone 5s, it will be available in three stunning colours, viz Champagne, Space grey and Silver.  

As seen from the above image, one can notice a larger camera which in turn suggests higher resolution for iPhone 6.   The sources iPhone App development unit claim that iPhone will feature a all new A8 chip with a quad-core 64 bit-processor.  Remember, iPhone 5s sported a all new A7 chip with 64-bit processor.  This new chip is expected to  revolutionize the entire gaming industry for iPhone app development within the iPhone environment allowing them to bring more details and power to their games.  On the memory front, iPhone 6 is supposed to have three versions, 16GB, 64GB and 128GB internal memory.  There is no 32GB version.

The iPhone 6 will be unimaginably thin as per the rumours.  The new version are expected to be as thick as 6.2 mm. While the new iPhone may be super cool and super thin, it is going to be a very expensive smartphone in the market, keeping in tradition with the old Apple products. The 16GB version is expected to be $649,99 US, while the higher models such as the 32GB at $749.99 US and finally the 64GB at $849.99 US.

Another new concept being tried by Apple this time around with iPhone 6 is different sizes and chargers.  Apple is completely recasting the charges and it is expected to bump up the battery life of iPhone 6.

Apple is said to be facing snags at the screen manufacturing facility. Two supply chain sources said display panel production suffered a setback after the backlight that helps illuminate the screen had to be revised, putting screen assembly on hold for part of June and July. One said Apple, aiming for the thinnest phone possible, initially wanted to cut back to a single layer of backlight film, instead of the standard two layers, for the 4.7-inch screen, which went into mass production ahead of the 5.5-inch version.

Come September, and the iPhone 6 unveiling will be the most watched news in the world.

India's First Firefox OS powered Spice Fire One launched in India for Rs.2299.00

India is getting its first Firefox operating system run smartphone from Spice.  Called Spice Fire One, this smartphone will be available in India for Rs.2299.00 ($39.00).  

Mozilla’s Firefox OS had created quite a buzz when it was first showcased in February 2012 but was panned by techies at Mobile World Congress 2013 including tech blog CNET. When it was first announced, many smartphone manufacturers including Sony and Samsung were interested in carrying the Firefox on their products but nothing really worked out.  Telefónica launched the first commercial Firefox OS based phone, ZTE Open for $90.00 (Rs.5400.00), in Spain which was quickly followed by GeeksPhone's Peak+ which was marketed for $197.00 (Rs.11600.00).  However Firefox run smartphones  as a smartphone didnt create the buzz in terms of sales in many markets like India. In many ways it remained a developers OS and smartphone with only geeks to cater to.  

At Mobile World Congress 2014, Mozilla had announced plans to give a blueprint for any phone maker to make $25 Firefox OS smartphones  Spice became the first company in India to latch on to that offer and announced Spice Fire One, priced at Rs.2299.00.

Spice Fire One is a low specced entry level dual SIM smartphone and is meant to give users the basic experience without being too much geeky but at this price its a steal and will manage to have a major churn in the mobile prices in India.  It has a 3.5-inch HVGA screen and will be powered by a 1GHz processor. Spice has not divulged the internal storage capacity, RAM or the battery capacity.  Spice Fire One will feature a  2MP rear camera and a 1.3MP front shooter. 

It should have an expansion slot, however the external memory supported by the device has not been mentioned by Spice.  For connectivity it will have 2G Edge, Bluetooth and WiFi. Firefox OS is based on HTML5 and will offer Adaptive App Search or the Single Window Search.  It is also expected to be come pre-loaded with almost all web based Apps like Facebook, Twitter etc.  It supports Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil and Bengali.  Firefox has a dedicated marketplace from where users can download Apps.

Sneak peek at Spice Fire One Mi – FX 1 

• 3.5-inch (320 x 480 pixels) HVGA capacitive touch screen
• Dual SIM (2G + 2G)
• 1 GHz Processor
• 2MP rear camera
• 1.3MP front-facing camera
• 2G (EDGE), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

The Spice Fire One Mi – FX 1 will be available for order from 29th August, 2014 exclusively on Snapdeal.  Spice later will make it available in all major retail stores, Spice HotSpot stores and Saholic. 

Pebble SmartWatch DoSed through message bomb method, does a factory reset and loses all user data

If you have read this article you may be knowing about Pebble SmartWatch.  Pebble smartwatch has been developed by Pebble Technology Corporation and was released in September, 2013. Pebble smartwatch which ran on Android operating system was a instant success and PTC has sold over 1 million units of all versions of Pebble smartwatch as of July this year.  However Pebble is vulnerable to a DoS (Denial of Service) attack through message bombing.  The Proof of Concept for this DoSing was published Hemanth Joseph of White Hat Pages today.

As per Hemanth, he tested the Pebble smartwatch with firmware version 2.4.1 aboard it.  As published on his blog he,

1.    Connected  Pebble smartwatch to Sony Z2 smart phone

2.    Tested notification.

3.    Did a message bombing to through his own WhatsApp Account        through 1500 messages in 5 secs.

What he got was a garbled screen and a automatic factory reset. The auto reset caused him to lose all his data on the smart watch. Carrying the PoC a bit further, he message bombed it with 300 WhatsApp Messages in 5 secs and as expected the result was same. After testing various times he found out that during some of testing though the screen got garbled, the Pebble smartwatch didnt go for a auto factory reset.  He has noted that, to bring the bricked Pebble back to normal working, he had to reset it thereby losing all the saved data.  This is what his Pebble smartwatch looked like after the DoS testing.

As per the PoC given by him, any attacker who wished to DoS any Pebble smartwatch has to just get the potential victims Mobile number or Facebook id.  Once the attacker gets any of these, he can message bomb your Pebble smartwatch to death (reset). The smartwatch it seems is unable to handle large amounts of message transfers in limited time and has a auto reset mechanism which PTC should look into. 

Microsofts cheapest Lumia 530 available in India for Rs.7349.00 with Windows 8.1 onboard

For all the Lumia and Windows 8.1 fans, Microsoft has officially launched its cheapest Lumia series smartphone, Lumia 530 on its official India store for Rs 7349.00 ($122.00). 

The Lumia 530 will have dual-SIM 3G support and a 4 inch FWVGA LCD screen which will give you 854 x 480 pixels resolution.  Lumia 530 will run on a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor and have 512MB RAM.  It has internal storage capacity of 4GB and supports extended 128GB via micro SD card slot.

Lumia 530 has a 1430mAh battery which will give upto  22 days standby and 13 hours of 2G talk time as per Microsoft website. For connectivity, Lumia 530 has HSPA+ 21Mbps/5.76Mbps, Wi-Fi (b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0 and micro-USB for PC transfer.

The real damper is that it will only sport a 5MP rear camera which is a shame for smart phones of this day and age.  This and the fact that it has only 512 MB RAM is likely to a bit too much for the prospective buyers even though it is the cheapest Lumia available. Motorola E which runs on Android and has 1GB RAM is available for Rs.7000.00 in India.  

However for those who are interested in owning a Lumia, the Lumia 530 will run the latest version of Windows Phone 8.1 and comes with features such as the one-swipe notification from Action Center, and the fast Word Flow keyboard. Users will also get an additional 15 GB of free cloud storage on Microsoft OneDrive. It is available in four colours, green, dark grey, white and orange.

Microsoft is offering free 500MB 2G/3G data package worth Rs.250.00 in collaboration with Airtel and this offer valid till 31st Oct, 2014.  At present the Microsoft website says that the Lumia 530 is out of stock.  Below are the detailed specs of Lumia 530.

General features

Sales package

Nokia Lumia 530 Dual SIM, Nokia Charger AC-18, Nokia Battery BL-5J, Quick guide

Model name

Nokia Lumia 530

Input type

Touch Screen

Form factor

BAR

Handset colors

Green

Camera

Primary camera

Yes, 5 MP

Video recording

Yes, 30 fps

Call records

Yes

Memory

Phonebook

Yes

Internal memory

Yes, 4 GB

Expandable memory

Yes, 128 GB

Card slot

Yes

Card slot type

MicroSD

Multimedia & entertainment

Music player

Yes

Supported format

3G2, 3GP, AAC, AAC LC, AMR-NB, FR, HE-AAC v1, HE-AAC v2, M4A, MP3, MP4, WMA, WMA 10 Pro, WMA 9, 3GPP formats (H.263), AVI, H.264/AVC, M4V, MOV, MP4, MPEG-4, VC-1, WMV

Video player

Yes

Fm radio

Yes

Games

Yes

Messaging

Yes

Mms

Yes

Platform

Operating system

Windows Phone 8.1

Processor speed

1.2 Ghz

Processor

Snapdragon 200

Processor type

Quad-core

Phone size

Dimensions (lxbxh)

119.7 x 62.3 x 11.7 mm

Weight

129 gm

Battery

Battery type

BL-5J

Talk time

13.4 (2G), 10 (3G) hrs

Standby time

22 Days

Internet & connectivity

Email

Yes

Browser

Yes

Wlan

Yes

Wlan class

IEEE 802.11 b/g/n

Gprs

Yes

Bluetooth

Yes

Bluetooth class

v4.0

2g network

Yes, 900/1800/850/1900

3g network

900/2100

Wi-fi

Yes

Usb

Yes, micro USB 2.0 High-Speed

Gps

Yes

Audio jack

3.5 mm

Java

Yes

Maps

Yes, Here Drive Plus , Bing Maps

Display

Touch screen

Yes

Screen size

10.16 cm

Screen resolution

854 x 480 Pixels

Colors

24 bits

Sounds

Ringtones & alert types

Vibration/MP3/WAV Ringtones

Loudspeaker

Yes

Sim type

Gsm

Yes

Dual sim

Yes

Warranty

Warranty

1 Year Manufacturer Warranty

ADATA XPG series Z1 DDR4 RAM modules to be available in India, Rs 7,400 for 4GB and Rs 14,900 for 8GB kit

World's top RAM module maker, ADATA Technologies has announced its XPG series DDR4 RAM modules for Indian market. As per the press statement issued by ADATA, it will offer 4GB and 8GB kits at Rs.7400.00 and 14900.00 respectively with a lifetime warranty.  The XPG Z1 DDR4 RAM modules will be available whole over India through authorized distributors and channel partners of ADATA.

This news assumes significance because Intel will be launching its Haswell-E platform and it is already showcasing its X99 boards through various mediums.  The Intel X99 which has a new socket and chipset, will need a new RAM kit to fill in.  As per ADATA, the XPG Z1 RAM modules will support the latest Intel Haswell E platform.   

RAM modules are must a for gamers and  overclockers because they let you get the full potential of the system. The XPG Z1 can reach speeds upto 2800MHz with timings of CL 17-17-17 and can handle transfer bandwidth upto 22GB per second. ADATA has also brought down the operating voltage of the DDR4 RAM modules from 1.5V to 1.2V making it energy efficient.

The XPG Z1 modules will be available in red and uses Thermal Conductive Technology and 10-layer PCBs and the chips in the XPG Z1 are in contact with the heatsinks directly helping keep the heating under control.

The speed of 2800 MHz comes at a price because the older ADATA XPG 4GB DDR3 1600MHz module was available in India for Rs 2800.00 while ADATA will be pricing the new modules at double the cost at Rs.7400.00.  But hardcore gamers and overclockers would know the difference that the extra 1200 MHz will give them.

If you are interested in buying this RAM module visit the ADATA website here to get more details about the channel partners.

How to Root LG G3! [All U.S Variants]

It's finally here! After many people asking where the root method is for the Sprint LG G3 or any other U.S LG G3 variant it finally came out thanks to IOMonster and the team! Root allows you to get "admin" access to your phone. Without being rooted you are extremely limited, even with an Android phone. 

Root will allow you to install custom ROMS like Cyanogenmod, AOKP, Paranoid Android, and many other ROMS. You can also use root apps like Titanium Backup that allows you to backup and restore your app + app data, I use this app every time I get a new phone! 

Follow the simple guide below to root your Sprint LS990 or any other U.S LG G3 variant! 

1. Go into Settings > Security > and check mark "Unknown sources". 

2. Download Stump-v1.0.0.apk to your phone using the link below.

Download Stump-v1.0.0.apk

3. Install "Stump-v1.0.0.apk" by tapping on it. You can install a file manager app from the Play Store to find it. If you downloaded the apk directly to your phone it will be located in your "Download" folder. 

4. Open up the installed Stump app and tap on "Grind". 

5. When it says "Reboot to root", reboot your phone. 

6. Download and install SuperSU from the Play Store using the link below. 

Download SuperSU

7. Open up the SuperSU app and update anything with "Normal" if asked.

8. Congrats, your LG G3 is now completely rooted. Enjoying flashing ROMS, using root apps, and using your LG G3 to its fullest! 

Credits - XDA
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Bitcoin made Anonymous and off the blockchain by BitcoinDark’s Cryptocurrency Teleport Technology

Tracking Bitcoin based transactions will get that more difficult with the launch of next generation anonymous Teleport technology. Being implemented BitcoinDark, the new technology will ensure all transactions made through this portal will be completely private and off the blockchain.  

The company, BitcoinDark today in a pressers, says that it aims to create a decentralized currency and payment system with supporting decentralized trading, a P2P asset exchange and constructive collaboration across the cryptocurrency ecosystem. As of now bitcoin transactions can be tracked through the blockchain which give Bitcoin wallet information.  BitcoinDark’s exclusive anonymous teleport technology will also make Bitcoin itself fully anonymous. 

BitcoinDark  is already available for trading on cryptocurrency exchanges Bittrex, Atomic Trade, Cryptsy and Poloniex.  To have the teleporting capabilities, Bitcoindark is getting the infrastructure in place.  The technology will use BitcoinDark’s open source Teleportation technology to keep the transactions away from prying eyes and keep them fully confidential.  Once the network and infrastructure is in place, it will give coin developers access to all of BitcoinDark’s cutting edge tools such as the being able to trade on decentralized exchange InstantDEX, run tradebots for their coin, auto convert bridges to get their coin accepted anywhere BTC is accepted, and earn dividends from InstantDEX.

BitcoinDark is a peer-to-peer Proof-of-Stake cryptocurrency. 1.2 million BitcoinDark coins were mined during the PoW phase. With 5% new coins per year from staking, it will take until the year 2020 to reach 1.5 million coins. With an ultimate maximum of 22 million coins, BTCD will generate 5% annual staking revenue for holders for more than 60 years. In addition, BTCD holders will earn revenue from InstantDEX and Teleport fees: BitcoinDark is the only cryptocurrency that will reward holders with income denominated in Bitcoin.

“I want to openly reach out to other coins to join BTCD revolution. I am making libjl777 that can be integrated into any coin in a few days and this will allow the creation of a super network that will dramatically increase privacy levels, not to mention InstantDEX trading volumes and revenue sharing that will be earned by these other coins. BTCD will help other coins teleport for a minimal fee and it is quite possible that with the revenue sharing that they would actually get paid for integrating into BTCD network!” explains BTCD head developer jl777.

Anonymous teleporting of funds occurs off the blockchain but is verified using the blockchain utilizing the benefits of a public record without leaking any personal information. 

The dark world of Bitcoins may get darker with the implementation of the teleporting protocol.

Latest updates issued by Microsoft for Windows 7 and Windows 8 cause Blue Screens of Death™

The latest updates/fixes issued by Microsoft have resulted in bizarre results for the Windows 7 and Windows 8 users.  Microsoft had released a total of 4 patches namely KB2982791, KB2970228, KB2975719 and KB2975331 for all users of Windows 7 and Windows 8 Pro excluding Home Basic and Starter editions. The users who downloaded these patches complained getting the dreaded Blue Screens of Death™ 

The fixes which were issued on Tuesday were supposed to address privilege escalation bugs but an apparent font cache clearing issue lead to Windows users getting the dreaded blue screen.  The bad patch triggered crashes with a "x50 Stop error message (bugcheck)" after any of four updates (KB2982791 KB2970228 KB2975719 or KB2975331) were installed.

The Microsoft Community forum was filled with user queries asking Microsoft engineers for a remedy for the sudden crash caused due to the updates.  At the time of writing of this article the forum had already added 43 pages of complaints from users.

Microsoft has urged users to remove a update and reboot the machine even as it has removed the download links to the offending patch after reports emerged it caused the dreaded blue screen of death.  In addition it has also removed two more patches which were to problems with the incorrect location of fonts that couldn't be changed and rendering issues. Altogether three updates were pulled for download from the Microsoft website.

You can check if you have installed the said patches on your machines with the PowerShell scripts written by Edward Langley of US consultancy Business Intelligence Goals.  You can also read the Microsoft FAQ page regarding any queries about the update.

Mobile Apps are here to stay!!

Beginning with simple question? Do you own a mobile phone or a smart phone? And hoping your answer is yes, I am sure you must be accessing the Internet through it as well.  Apart from watching videos and chatting, you could even shop online through your mobile. No need to log on through your desktop or laptop any longer. 

Since the times, Internet has been made available on the mobile, new developments leading to mobile technology have evolved. These aim at providing more and more intuitive experience to the users in the form of mobile apps.  Through these mobile apps you could play games, check weather updates, get calendar information and much more. With mobile apps enjoying heavy traffic, ecommerce stores developed their own mobile apps encouraging customers to shop through their mobile as well.  

Users downloading the ecommerce stores mobile apps are offered additional discounts and freebies too. Working out advantageous to both the parties, these apps have become very much popular and preferred. Most working individuals and shoppers have high end smartphones which work perfectly in sync with these mobile apps to offering them the convenience of mobile shopping. 

Going ahead with the mobile user interface, many ecommerce stores have even gone ahead offer mobile versions of their websites or modified their websites to suit mobile screens enabling customers to check their products right on the mobile screens. 

What more, you will find coupon aggregators such as Couponraja offering Couponraja apps which help customers in locating the best discount coupons and deals while helping them visit the merchant page directly. This ensures you get the best deals and shop at their convenience.  Couponraja mobile apps are available for download through their website and also through Apps store of Apple and Google Play too. 

Well, if you are hesitant to do download the app or consider it a marketing gimmick, you are mistaken for mobile apps are truly convenient. Imagine situations where you have been invited to birthday parties or have forgotten your spouse’s birthday or your own wedding anniversary and have been too busy to select a special gift. At such times, these mobile apps come handy and you can easily make your purchase while on the move or whilst traveling to and fro from work. Isn’t it time saving and convenient?

Mobile Apps are truly going to be popular and with the virtual marketplace operating 24x7, accessing them through a device which is with you 24x7, it makes sense to use them.  So, if you are about to step out for shopping, wait, download the Couponraja app and check out the best online deals on the offer. Make sure you check them out as visit offline stores and make the best purchase decision ever. 

Shopping and staying connected is surely going to be through wire-free devices such as smartphones, tabs and so on. So, it’s better to be on par with the latest technology and be a smart shopper!! Look out for more exciting technology revolution in the coming times.

@evleaks, the smartphone industries most prolific leaker retires due to financial pressure

For a man who gave the entire mobile crazy world a clue into the next launches of smartphone majors like HTC, Motorola and Microsoft, this must be a sad day.  @evleaks aka Evan Blass who had been giving us engrossing tips about smart phones and tablets today announced retirement due to financial pressures.

Evan Blass who leaked major smartphone and tablet news to the world under the handle @evleaks had revealed his identity last year. He ended his prolific leaking career with announcement on Twitter saying, “All good things must come to an end. Thank you for an amazing two years.” Check out his tweet below.

All good things must come to an end. Thank you for an amazing two years. [RETIREMENT]
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) August 3, 2014

Though Blass leaked news about almost every smartphones manufactured in last two years, he says his proudest leak was the HTC M8 Prime.  His first leak was the HTC Inspire 4G AT&T model.  He was nostalgic on Twitter about his past career and seen thanking everyone

.@noo7na7 Actually, first leak was here: http://t.co/Qbn5CtCd7Y
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) August 3, 2014

You guys rock. The amount of support and well-wishing I've seen today have been truly humbling and uplifting. pic.twitter.com/AgTBJ9hssQ

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) August 4, 2014

Giving reasons for his retirement in an interview to The Next Web, Blass said that he had arrived at this decision due to monetary pressures. He told the website, “These matters are always somewhat complicated, but like many things, it mostly comes down to money. Trying to monetize a stream of Twitter leaks is not easy. First I tried monthly sponsorships. Then weekly. Then single sponsored tweets. I took donations — felt like online panhandling.”  He added that, “Most of my tech-savvy-heavy audience seem to be pretty heavy ad-block users.”

Sadly Blass was also diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and is in need of funds. Evan Blass, worked with the popular technology blog Engadget from 2005 to 2008 and later he was Managing Editor at Pocketnow.com.

BTC.com domain sold for a record $1,000,000 to a Bitcoin mining hardware company called GAWMiners

Bitcoins have been a favorite subject in technology sector for a while now and to own a domain called BTC.com is amazing for all purposes but to buy it for 1 million USD is a differnt ball game all together.  As per a report published on domaininvesting, the BTC.com domain was sold to a Bitcoin mining hardware company called GAWMiners owned by Josh Garza for $1,000,000 by domain brokering company, Domain Guardians.

Domain Guardians announced the sale through Twitter with this tweet :

We are very excited to announce the sale of http://t.co/n0SeSwq00N to @GAWMiners for US$1,000,000! #bitcoin #domains
— Domain Guardians (@domainguardians) August 4, 2014

As per Domain Investing, btc.com domain name registration remains under privacy, and the landing page is being set up.  The new owner of btc.com says that "Something Amazing is coming soon."  The news of the sale was leaked by Domain Investing two month back but the deal took place over this weekend. Jen Sale, Co-Founder of Domain Guardians while commenting on the sale said that, “Your domain name is the foundation of your online brand.” Sale further added the virtues of owning a domain like btc.com, “Flagship domains like BTC.com solidify brands by empowering users to easily discover, remember, share and recognise your company online. The right domain name can take your brand to new levels.”

According to Domain Guardians, this is the largest public Bitcoin-related domain name sale of all time. BitcoinWallet.com sold for $250,000 back in February, and the domain name is already being used for a startup in the Bitcoin space. There have been a number of other Bitcoin-related domain name sales in the last several months, and CoinDesk published an article about this market.

Domain Investing also made a interesting observation that it now appears to me that most of the best exact match Bitcoin.com domain names are owned by end user companies.