Top Five Cloud Storage Services

Cloud storage lets you access (and store) your text or other files, folders irrespective of their size. The cloud phenomenon is spreading like wild fire and of late more new cloud services have surfaced leaving us with more options to choose from. Here we share with you the top five as deemed by the experts.

 

1. Mega : It is a sequel to Megaupload. The website became active earlier this year. Kim Dotcom, the founder of Megaupload, who is stationed in Kiwiland registered this website as mega.co.nz.

Mega gives 50GB free storage. This is an encrypted service for security reasons which relies on advanced version of AES rules.

2. Ubuntu One : This is a personal service that combines personal cloud and digital world. It boasts of various services like heavy storage, storing, It includes storage, synchronisation, file and data sharing, and audio visual streaming.

With 5GB free storage, a/v streaming, there is a bonus of up to 20GB extra storage free of cost courtesy the referral programme. As of now, Ubuntu One is compatible with Windows XP and higher versions, Mac OS X 10.6, and Android platforms and a few Apple devices.

3. SpiderOak : It is used for making back up files, data sharing, data storage, and synchronisation. It uses encrypted rules for security reasons.

SpiderOak has two account types, a free version with 2 GB storage, and a paid one for higher capacity. Referral links can be created and as a bonus with every new link, you get 1GB. You can use it for Windows, Android, Mac, Linux, N900 Maemo and iOS mobile platforms.

4. Microsoft SkyDrive : From the house of Microsoft, it lets you upload files, sync them, access them from your browser.

It offers 7GB free storage for the debutants and for students it gives 3GB free storage for one year.. you can get it via SkyDrive for Windows and OS X.

5. MediaFire : It is a free file and image hosting web site that offers up to 50GB storage. MediaFire lets you form your own image galleries, view/share document, make a/v presentations. It is fit to be used as a transient podium for back up. MediaFire supports Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows on the desktops and Android and iOS on smartphones and tablets.

Source: EFY News Network

What is “Touchscreen”? Which one is best?

What is “Touchscreen”? Which one is best? “Capacitive touchscreen” or “Resistive touchscreen”?

A touchscreen display is one that is sensitive to touch. They are often used on smartphones and similar devices. In the cell phone industry there are two major categories of touchscreen displays: “Capacitive touchscreens” and “Resistive touchscreens”.

What is “Capacitive touchscreen”?

Capacitive touchscreen displays rely on the electrical properties of the human body to detect when and where on a display the user touching. Because of this, capacitive displays can be controlled with very light touches of a finger and generally cannot be used with a mechanical stylus or a gloved hand.

Examples of devices with Capacitive touchscreens are the Apple iPhone, Nokia Lumia 620 and the Sony Xperia p.

What is “Resistive touchscreen”?

Resistive touchscreen displays are composed of multiple layers that are separated by thin spaces. Pressure applied to the surface of the display by a finger or stylus causes the layers to touch, which completes electrical circuits and tells the device where the user is touching. As such, resistive type touchscreens require much more pressure to activate than capacitive touchscreens.

Examples of devices with Resistive touchscreens are the HTC Touch Diamond, Nokia Asha 305 and the Samsung SGH-i900

The Smallest Android Stick Out !

Over the years we’ve become accustomed to the trend of Android powered USB sticks that act as a plug-n-play device, which can be mounted on a TV, which converts a normal TV into Android running desktop. These USB sticks are generally larger is size than the original USB drives but today we have come across one of the smallest in the market.

It is a little hard to differentiate between a USB drive and mini-PC but with SmartCandy all that can be forgotten.

SmartCandy is the latest Android TV stick that looks like a USB drive in terms of size and weight but is a mini-PC in terms of functionality.

SmartCandy was spotted at a recent trade show. In terms of the hardware, the stick packs a 1.6 GHz ARM processor coupled with 1 GB RAM. It runs Android 4.1 aka Jelly Bean version. The stick also has a microSD slot.

However, unlike other USB sticks, SmartCandy does not offer in-built Wi-Fi or USB port but the company is giving an external adapter for Wi-Fi and USB. The stick also comes with an option of dock with Ethernet and 3 USB ports. Pricing details have not been mentioned but we assume this will be priced under $100 like all the other sticks.

Other than the above mentioned device, the company also has a model that packs a Telechips processor with 512 MB RAM, and 4 GB storage. This is how the smallest mini-pc looks like.

Source-EFY News Network

All That You Need To Know About Rooting

What is “Rooting?”

The Android phone that you have learned to love and enjoy is running an operating system that was designed for commercial and private use. Like most any operating system, several features have been disabled, either for future use or to prevent the casual user from causing permanent damage to the operating system. “Rooting” is the process in which the limitations are removed and full-access is allowed. Once rooted, the Android phone owner will have more control over many settings, features and performance of their phone. Basically, “rooting” means to get to the root of the operating system and to have the ability to make global changes. it is possible to ruin the performance of the phone, and/or brick the device altogether. So here are some reasons why it may, or may not be worth it to root and customize your phone. Keep in mind, be careful what software you flash, and make sure its the right software for your phone.

So read the para below for ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES of ROOTING

ADVANTAGES of ROOTING:

1. Unlock Bootloader: First and foremost, with root access and an unlocked bootloader, you now have an infinite amount of customization options, from launchers, ROMs, themes to custom kernels.
2. Freeing up memory: When you install an app on your phone, it is stored on the phone’s memory. “Rooting” allows you to move installed applications to your SD card, thus freeing up system memory for additional files or apps.
3. Custom ROM’s-This is the most powerful feature of “rooted” phones. There are hundreds of custom ROM’s that can do anything from speeding up the processing speed of your phone to changing the entire look and feel of your phone. The software and hardware on custom ROMs are also usually better optimized, leading to more fluidity, which is always a plus. This is also due to the fact that custom ROMs get updated on a daily to weekly basis, compared to stock software.

DISADVANTAGES of ROOTING:

1. Rooting immediately voids your phone’s warranty: Once rooted, don’t try to take your phone to service center for warranty
2. Rooting involves the risk of “bricking” your phone:  if the wrong software gets flashed there are chances that your phone gets brucked, a “bricked” phone is no better than carrying around a brick in your pocket. The phone is dead when it has been “bricked.”
3. Poor performance: Though the intention of “rooting” a phone is to give the phone more performance, several users have found that, in their attempts to speed up the phone or add additional features, that their phones lost both performance speed and features. Remember that when you “root” your Android phone, you are making changes to the stock operating system.
4. Viruses: Yes, even phones can get viruses. A common practice that people do with “rooted” phones is to flash their ROM’s with custom programs. Whenever you make changes to the code of a software, you run the risk of introducing a virus.

CONCLUSION:

Rooting and customization isn’t for a lot of people, but I would suggest everyone try it at least once, its worth the experience to see what you can really do with an open source OS. It gives  you the option to do whatever you want with the software, because its open, and you can change it to suit your needs.

If you are not a techie guy then dont go for it- In my opinion as long as you’re cautious and obtain the knowledge needed to root, unlock and customize your specific device(s), then you should go give it a try! It’s really a mind blowing experience to realize what you can really do with the mini computer in your pocket.

NOTE: this articles does not motivate to root your phone. In case of any damage techieCode will not be held liable.

All that you need to know about Graphic accelerators in Smartphones

The development of modern smartphones is similar to the development of computers, only sizes are different. It means that smartphones have processors, RAM, memory drive and, surely, graphic accelerator. Graphic accelerator is a chip which provides realistic and colorful graphics for 3D games.

Most of the smartphones at the market have one of the three types of graphic accelerators. These are Mali, Adreno, PowerVR SGX and GeForce Ultra-Low Power (ULP).

British company ARM is involved into the development of Mali graphic architecture. These chips are components of different systems on chip (SoC). Mali is used in the products by Samsung, Gigabyte, Rockchip, and others. For example, Mali-400 MP is a component of SoC Samsung Exynos 421x, which is used in Samsung Galaxy S II and S III.

PowerVR is a development of the Imagination Technologies company, which earlier developed graphic accelerators for desktops. PowerVR chips are used by Samsung, Apple, Motorola and others. Thus, different PowerVR chips generations are installed in all Apple iPhones.

Speakinh about the Adreno, I can say that at the moment Adreno department of mobile graphics is owned by Qualcomm. They bought the technology from AMD. And I think it’s be enough to say that today Qualcomm is the leading supplier of hardware for most mobile developers.

GeForce ULP is a mobile version of desktop graphic accelerator NVIDIA, which is a component of Tegra SoC of in all generations. The main advantage of Tegra before its competitors is a specialized content which is intended only for devices based on this SoC. This is due to the close cooperation of NVIDIA with game developers who optimize their games for GeForce graphics. All games optimized for Tegra can be found in a special app store Tegra Zone.

Techivian has done its own testing of the most popular video chips and has got the following results:

In other words, if you need a smartphone that will be able to work with “heavy” 3D games a year after its release, then you need to buy a device with top graphic accelerator. These are Mali 400, Adreno 225 and Adreno 320. For casual 2D games a smartphone with graphic accelerator of medium class, such as Adreno 200 and 205, PowerVR SGX543, and Mali 300. They will provide graphics on the PSP level.

But very soon we may expect that mobile chips will provide the graphics of best gaming devices. For example, chip Mali-T658, which is to be released this year, will improve efficiency up to 10 times if compared to Mali-400.