The Rise of Social Gaming

The way we connect to the Internet and the quality of those connections are evolving daily. Moving ever faster, the amount of information we are sharing with each other, and the gaming we are doing is astounding at times. This is why It comes as no surprise that the Internet is changing the face of social gaming as we know it.

The Rise of Social Gaming



Social gaming has been growing ever since games became more multiplayer. Even sat on a couch with our friends is a version of social gaming and a successful one. Now though we can play with people from all over the world, and communicate with them in many ways. Facebook has allowed us to even connect in casual games and pushed the rise of mobile gaming which is seeing astounding popularity.

Mobile gaming is one of the parts of the gaming world that is seeing the biggest growth. Casual games are easy to load onto our devices, and in no time we are connecting up with our friends to play the latest games that are “free-to-play”, though have a few hidden charges for those willing to pay them. This freemium model though is pushing social gaming to new heights of popularity.

With the increased speeds of the Internet, though, a new trend is to share our gaming endeavours. Whether this is on YouTube of a service like Twitch, we broadcast our gaming skill for all to see. The fact that the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 make it even easier to broadcast in this way has led to an explosion of gameplay sharing.

Another aspect of this game sharing and broadcasting of skilful play is the rise of eSports. This is where players have turned professional and are making the big bucks from play. eSports is showing real growth, and the success is sending social gaming to new heights, making the future of the industry an exciting place.

Whether you’re a casual gamer, somebody who likes pushing on with bingo game, or a person with their eyes on reaching the top of the eSports ladder, you are fuelling the rise in social gaming.

Samsung Galaxy S8 rumored to have dual rear cameras, 4K display

Samsung Galaxy S8 to also feature dual rear cameras, apart from 4K display

While there are already rumors about Samsung Galaxy S8 hitting the markets next February, the latest rumor now claims that it will have a dual rear camera system designed to compete better with the next iPhone. The next iteration of Samsung’s flagship smartphone will feature a dual camera module on the back of the phone and the dual camera lens is most likely to be engineered by Samsung motors (Semco), claims rumors. The smartphone will also come with necessary software additions to allow consumers to take advantage of the complete feature suite from the camera app.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is also expected to feature a 4K resolution screen (2160 x 3840) and measure 5.5 inch UHD AMOLED screen. Adding the 4k resolution screen would help push along Samsung’s VR prowess by delivering a better user experience. The Galaxy S8 could be the first smartphone from Samsung to sport a UHD display and dual-camera configuration.

The smartphone could be powered by the Snapdragon 830 SoC. The chip will be produced using the 10nm FinFET process, which means that it will not only provide more power, but will also be energy efficient. Other hardware details on the Galaxy S8 are not known at this time.

Samsung is working on VR headset technology for next year and since this technology rotates around small phone displays being placed into a headset device that puts the 5.5 inch screen close to the eyes, 4K resolution will be an integral part of that type of VR.

With a potential for dual cameras, a Snapdragon 830 chip, and a 4K resolution screen, the next Galaxy S device could pose a serious threat to the Apple flagship phone.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s Social Media Account Hacked

OurMine behind the hacking of Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s Quora account

In our recent article, we had reported that how new hacking group, OurMine have been targeting elite tech accounts around the world. Their recent victim was Daniel Ek, the CEO and founder of Spotify. They are also responsible for breaking into the social media accounts of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Channing Tatum, YouTubers Pewdiepie and Markiplier, Deadmau5, David Guetta, and former Twitter CEOs Dick Costolo and Ev Williams.

The recent victim to make this list was CEO of Google, Suchar Pichai. It appears that the Quora account of Google’s CEO has been hacked. The three-man hacker outfit has been posting messages on Quora through Pichai’s account. His Quora account is connected with his Twitter account. As a result, OurMine was able to tweet their hack to all 508,000 of his followers. However, the tweets have been removed now.



While it is unclear how the group is gaining access to their accounts, it likely doesn’t involve system breaches of the social networks their targets have accounts with. Instead, the group claims that it uses numerous exploits to pull passwords from celebrities’ browsers.

OurMine claims itself as a Security Firm. They said they are trying to support it’s targets so that these incidents do not happen again.

The group told TNW that it was only conducting a test. Here is what they said:

“We are just testing people security (sic), we never change their passwords, we did it because there is other hackers can hack them and change everything.”

The group also noted that it managed to gain access to Pichai’s account by exploiting a vulnerability in Quora’s platform, one that it claims to have reported to the company, but have got no response.

If you’re on Quora, it is advisable to change your password right away. Ensure that it is not the same as what you have for other services.

IBM Set To Launch A 200-Petaflop Supercomputer By 2018

Supercomputing future blast as IBM set to deliver 200-petaflop supercomputer by early 2018

Moore’s law may have come to a full stop in the transistor technology but it doesnt seem to hold true in Supercomputers. In the latest release of the Top500 on Monday, the Chinese system, Sunway TaihuLight was announced as the fastest supercomputers on the planet, with a Linpack benchmark rating of 93 petaflops and a claimed peak of 124.5 petaflops. Now IBM is set to break this record by 100 petaflops to create world’s fastest supercomputer by 2018.

Now the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory in U.S. has announced that it is having a new IBM system, named Summit, delivered in early 2018 that will now be capable of 200 peak petaflops. That would make it virtually twice as quick as TaihuLight, if the declare proves true.

The Summit will make use of IBM Power9 and Nvidia Volta GPUs. Summit will deliver over 5 occasions the computational efficiency of Titan’s 18,688 nodes utilizing solely about 3,400 nodes. Each node will have “over half a terabyte” of coherent memory (HBM + DDR4), as well as 800GB of non-volatile RAM, serving as a burst buffer or extended memory.

The DOE, in a statement responding to the news Monday about China’s supercomputer, said U.S. supercomputing capabilities “have grown exponentially by a factor of 300,000” since 1993. “High-performance computing remains an integral priority for the DOE,” the statement said.

The DOE, which buys many of the supercomputers used by the U.S. government for scientific research, has two other major supercomputers planned for 2018.

One system, named Sierra, is a planned 150-petaflop IBM system that will be located at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, and is scheduled to be available for use by mid-2018. A third supercomputer, a Cray and Intel system called Aurora, is due by late 2018, at the Argonne National Laboratory.

The latest TOP500 announcement Monday caused a little bit of a commotion. TaihuLight is not only roughly 3 times quicker than China’s Tianhe-2, the prior champion, but also it does not make use of US-sourced elements in any respect for the primary time. It is powered by Sunway 260-core SW26010 processors, which might be roughly on par with Intel Xeon Phi, in addition to customized proprietary interconnect.

Freedom 251: World’s Cheapest, $4 Android Smartphone To Start Shipping This Week

The controversial world’s cheapest $5 Freedom 251 smartphone ready to be shipped on June 30

Finally, the world’s cheapest smartphone at Rs. 251 (less than $4) will see the light of the day. Its makers, the Noida-based start-up Ringing Bells Pvt Ltd claim to have close to 2 lakh units of the phone ready for shipping. And if that’s not enough, the smartphone company is also planning to launch an affordable LED TV.

Indian smartphone maker Ringing Bells shook the entire tech world in February this year by announcing the world’s cheapest phone, Freedom 251 exclusively at a price of Rs. 251 (which is less than $4). They invited everyone to make registrations for grabbing the smartphone at an inexpensive price. However, their online payment model didn’t work as expected and there were many bugs in their website.

Also, Ringing Bells’ claim to be a part of Indian Government’s ‘Make In India’ program was found to be false. The cloud of suspicion hanging around this device further intensified when the prototype devices sent to the media were found to be disguised Adcom phones. The Android icons of the Freedom 251 also seemed borrowed from the iOS. To add to the company’s miseries, it came under the scanner of the Indian Government, which even investigated into this company. Even an FIR was lodged against the company. Finally, Ringing Bells decided to refund the money to its potential buyers and switch to a cash-on-delivery model.

Despite all the hiccups and accusations, the company has announced that it will be shipping the handsets starting June 30.

According to Ringing Bells’ Founder and CEO Mohit Goel, the company has been able to keep its promise to consumers.

“We are ready with nearly two lakh ‘Freedom 251’ handsets. We will start delivery from June 30,” Goel told IANS, adding that once he is done with this first phase of delivery (of two lakh phones), he will open registration again for those who wish to buy the handset.

The company had in mid-February this year planned to deliver 25 lakh handsets before June 30. However, it received over seven crore registrations before its payment gateway crashed within three days.

“We learned from our mistakes and decided to go silent till we come out with the product. Now we have a 4-inch, dual-SIM phone ready for delivery. I feel vindicated,” he said in one breath. “Our devices are completely ‘Make in India’ and were manufactured at our Haridwar-based manufacturing unit. We plan to sell two lakh devices every month.”

According to Goel, he is facing a loss of Rs. 140 – Rs. 150 per unit, but hopes to make profit on volumes. “We will have a loss, but I am happy that the dream of connecting rural and poor Indians as part of the ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ initiatives has been fulfilled with ‘Freedom 251’,” Goel said.

The 3G smartphone features a 4-inch display and is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor coupled with 1GB of RAM. It comes with an 8GB of in-built memory and supports external memory cards of up to 32GB. It sports an 8-megapixel rear camera along with a 3.2-megapixel front-facing shooter camera. The Freedom 251 packs a 1,800 mAh battery and runs on Android Lollipop 5.1. Ringing Bells have also ditched the iOS icons in favor of Android-themed ones.

The phone will be available in two color variants, black and white with centrally aligned rear camera and branding on the back panel. It has a speaker just alongside the branding.

The device displays the Indian Tricolour when you switch it on. The company has incorporated all the basic Google apps in the handset.

Goel also announced the launch of an affordable television set. “The company is also planning to launch a 32-inch high-definition LED television — also called ‘Freedom’. These will be the cheapest television sets in India and will be available for less than ₹10,000. Within two days, the delivery would be made and we will sell them online. We have 1 lakh units in stock,” Goel said.

In comparison, the cost of 32-inch HD LED TV sets normally begins from Rs. 13,000.

Whether Ringing Bells succeeds in making the world’s cheapest smartphone against all odds, will only be known after they deliver the Freedom 251 smartphone units to all the customers as promised by the end of this month.

Why Surfing Porn in Browser’s Incognito Mode Is Not Safe

Browsing for porn in your browser’s Incognito mode might not be as private as you think

Last week we had reported why logging out of Facebook while surfing porn websites is good because Facebook tracks users through the ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ buttons on such porn webpages. Carrying the research a bit further, we present you with another fact you didnt know. Surfing porn in any browser’s Incognito Mode doesnt make your porn habits private.

It is a fact that Incognito mode doesnt save history but that’s about the only protection it grants you. 99 out of 100 Google Chrome user think surfing porn in Incognito users is safe! Admit it, you use your browser’s Incognito window to surf porn yourself!!!

Why surfing in Incognito is not private?

Opening a private or incognito browser in either Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari or Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer only ensures your computer does not remember your online activity. As said above, any web browser will make sure your web searches and online history are not visible the next time you log in. And that is all that it does.

However that doesnt mean that Incognito surfing is private or anonymous. You Incognito browsing is stored by your ISP, your company and eventually the browser company. Your internet service provider – or ISP – is able to monitor every webpage and web search you made from your house.

Try opening your bank account or email webpage in Incognito mode. You will find that the data like your user name and password are filled up despite the Incognito mode not saving your data. It is fact that most browsers pull data from local memory to fill such details in both normal as well as Incognito mode.

Actually signing into your Gmail account in Incognito mode makes Google’s job of tracking your porn surfing habits that much more easier. 

If you haven’t disabled or paused your account’s Google Web History – you are able to log-in and track your porn surfing activity there, too.

What about other browsers? Most browsers do the same thing what Google does. Like Google, Mozilla Firefox uses an almost-identical disclaimer on its private browsing mode. But again, “while this computer won’t have a record of your browsing history, your employer or internet service provider can still track the pages you visit.”

Then there is something called Super Cookies. Many porn websites use something called Super Cookies which are able to track your movements across the web even when you are browsing in private mode. Super Cookies are like the regular, a lightweight software and sit on a website and fingerprint users who visit the page. When you return to that particular page again at a later date, the website is able to track the entirety of the user’s activity between the two visits.

Considering the above facts, it is unwise to think that your Incognito mode porn surfing habits are either private or anonymous. If you really want to be anonymous, use VPN but dont be under the impression that your Incognito browsing records are private.

Save trees by using re-writable paper

Re-writable paper is another critical development in the setting of enhancing states of contamination and inordinate deforestation. This can be reused for around 20 times. Rather than utilizing ink or graphite, bright light is utilized to print down substance and additionally pictures.


Battles on “preserving trees’ would get a break if this creation of ‘Re-writable Paper’ comes into worldwide utilization. Being ‘re-writable’, this can lessen heaps of waste that is produced every year altogether from the paper business.



Nature Communications, discharged on 2 December, 2014 Yadong Yin, University of California, Riverside has clarified about new re-writable paper. In spite of expanded prevalence and also usage of computerized contraptions, Yin has faith in persuading eventual fate of re-writable paper innovation.


This re-writable paper chips away at concoction responses of decrease and oxidation. The paper at first has the color which is shaded being oxidized. Paper is secured with nano-sized crystals of titanium dioxide which are each around a billionth-of-a-meter in size. This hued paper is secured with words or pictures imprinted on a translucent base-like a stencil. To print the information, this paper surface is presented to bright (UV) light. The UV light causes reduction reactions on the parts that are not secured by printing; subsequently decolorizing those bits. Subsequently, the fragments that were secured by stencil stay hued.



In this strategy color is artificially diminished utilizing bright light. It is the obvious little size of nano-particles on the surface of paper that permit compelling and less demanding development of electrons; quickening redox  responses. The electrons lost by other natural parts of this re-writable paper involve openings, setting up the nano-crystals work once more.


For reusing, the paper must be made shaded once more. This is finished by oxygen existing in air. Oxygen pulls in electrons and the paper gets to be prepared for utilizing once more. To stay away from this procedure amid or not long after the printing, cellulose is included. It has a tendency to diminish cooperation of oxygen and color. The printed stuff can stay in place for two or more days.



To reuse the paper right then and there, warming procedure is utilized. Oxidation can be enacted at specific temperatures bringing back the whole paper in shading in under five minutes.


Exploration is as yet continuing enhancing components and making this re-writable paper usable in conventional lives. Points of interest connected with utilizing re-writable paper are its minimal effort and natural advantages obviously. Inside of couple of years of examination and alterations, re-writable paper is required to serve proficiently.


“Numerous individuals would like to peruse news on ordinary daily papers instead of tablet PCs,” says Yin. “Additionally, one does not have to stress over charging and keeping up batteries for re-writable paper. I accept there would be an in number interest for it.”