Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Thursday, 6 April 2017
How to Check If an iPhone Is Original?
Serial Number
Each iPhone has a serial number that identifies it. By looking up the serial number, you can verify whether or not it's in Apple's database. Locate the serial number on the iPhone by tapping "Settings," choosing "General" and selecting "About." Scroll down to "Serial Number," and keep the screen open or write down the number. Visit "https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do" and input the serial number. The system lets you know whether or not your iPhone is still within the warranty period. If you receive the message "we're sorry, but this serial number is not valid. Please check your information and try again," it is likely that the iPhone is a fake.
Visible External Clues
The iPhone is identifiable by its distinct hardware features. If you examine your iPhone, you should see a "sleep/wake" button on the top-right corner, a "Home" button centered beneath the screen, and a ringer switch and volume buttons on the upper-left side. Additionally, your iPhone should have an Apple logo imprinted on the back. If any of these components are missing or present in a different location, it's likely that your iPhone is a fake.
Carrier Connectivity
The original iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS were only available on the AT&T network. AT&T is a GSM network, and only one of two such networks in the country -- the other being T-Mobile. If you purchase any of these earlier iPhone models and it's designed for a CDMA network, such as Verizon or Sprint, it's not an original iPhone. An iPhone 4 with a SIM card slot located on the right side is designed for GSM networks, while an iPhone 4 without a SIM card slot is designed for a CDMA network. The iPhone 4S is designed for use on both types of networks. Any discrepancies between hardware and connectivity indicate that the iPhone is not original.
Network Connectivity
All iPhone models should be able to connect to Wi-Fi, EDGE and Bluetooth. All models, except the original iPhone, can also connect to the 3G data network. If you purchase an iPhone that lacks the hardware to connect to one of these networks, it is likely a fake or manufactured for use in another country. You can verify that it’s not simply a glitch by restoring your iPhone and seeing if the feature works. If it doesn't work after being restored, it's likely a replica iPhone.
Syncing
If you purchase an iPhone that is unable to connect to iTunes or is not recognized by iTunes it could be a fake. Before coming to this conclusion, ensure that your iTunes and iOS software are both up to date. If you cannot sync information between your iPhone and your computer, attempt to restore your iPhone through iTunes. An iPhone that doesn't connect to iTunes or the app store after being restored is either fake or damaged.
Applications
The iPhone arrives with native or built in Apple-branded apps. Unless an iPhone is jailbroken, these apps cannot be removed. Some examples of built-in applications include "Contacts," "Compass," "Settings," "Calculator," "Music" and "Photos." If any these applications are missing, the phone is jailbroken or fake. You can restore the original firmware by entering DFU mode and reinstalling the operating system. If native applications are still missing, then your iPhone is likely fake.
Apple Store or Authorized Service Provider
If your iPhone has passed several of these steps, but you still suspect that it's a fake, bring it to your closest Apple store or Apple authorized service provider. A store technician can run diagnostic tests on your iPhone to verify its authenticity or lack of authenticity.
Wednesday, 5 April 2017
Microsoft Shutters CodePlex, Will Migrate Projects to GitHub
In a move that caps off its gradual embrace of open source in a bear hug, Microsoft last week announced that it would shutter its nearly 11-year-old CodePlex project site and migrate its library of work to GitHub.
Microsoft has invested in Visual Studio Team Services as its "One Engineering Project" for proprietary projects and exposed many key open source projects -- such as Visual Studio Code, TypeScript and the Cognitive Toolkit -- on GitHub, noted Brian Harry, vice president for cloud developer services at Microsoft.
The company has been forced to deal with a couple of major issues, such as a 2015 spam epidemic and a substantial decrease in usage, he said, with fewer than 350 projects getting a source commit over the past 30 days.
Microsoft disabled the ability to create new CodePlex projects on Friday. By October, projects on the site will be read-only, and the site will be shut down completely by Dec. 15.
Project Archive
A final complete backup will be taken before decommissioning and shutting down the existing site and servers, and a read-only, lightweight archive will be available. Users will be able to browse through all published projects, including their source code, downloads, documentation, license and issues. Archived files will be available for download in JSON and Markdown formats.
Git users can migrate source code via hosting services like Visual Studio Team Services and BitBucket. Mercurial users also can use the latter to migrate.
Github is working with the CodePlex team to "streamline the experience of importing projects" said Senior Product Manager Sara Ford, and GitHub will continue to support clients who prefer to stick with Subversion [SVN] rather than Git.
Open source Revolution
Microsoft has made significant contributions to open source on GitHub over the years, claiming more than 16,000 open source contributors, which is more than any other organization.
The company made the right decision in shutting down the Codeplex site, said Peter Christy, research director at 451 Research.
"In the time since CP was created, the open source world has evolved enormously, and GitHub is clearly the sharing site of choice,' he told LinuxInsider. "If a project was very MS-Centric, the change might be slightly negative, but the broader direction of OS is to be platform-agnostic, I think."
When Codeplex made its debut, Microsoft was a great deal more protective of its intellectual property, and the company management had a pretty open disdain for open source at the time.
Bite the Bullet
The transfer from Codeplex to Github was inevitable, observed Al Gillen, group vice president for software development and open source at IDC . After taking the helm at Microsoft in 2014, Satya Nadella adopted a more pragmatic approach toward embracing the open source community.
"Steve Ballmer was ceding ground to supporting open source software within Microsoft where it was necessary, but when Satya Nadella took over the helm, the willingness to work more collaboratively with open source communities and technologies accelerated pretty dramatically," Gillen told LinuxInsider.
"Ballmer and Nadella came from very different backgrounds within Microsoft, and Nadella did not have the same 'not invented here' bias that Ballmer did," he pointed out.
Microsoft released open source Visual Studio Code for multiple .Net languages and the non-.Net language Go, and it open sourced the Azure Container Language, SQL Server and Powershell.
"Concrete actions matter more than words," said Paul Teich, principal analyst at Tirias Research .
"Microsoft is backing up its recent statements and attitudes toward open source," he told LinuxInsider.
In an important symbolic move, Microsoft joined The Linux Foundation as a platinum member, which it announced last year during the Microsoft Connect conference. John Gossman, architect of the company's Azure team, joined the board of directors.
"Long term, this means that GitHub continues to be a central technology used broadly within the industry," said IDC's Gillen, and it is "incrementally more credible today than it was a week ago.
Wednesday, 21 September 2016
Apple iPhone 7 more expensive to make than iPhone 6s: IHS
Apple Inc is spending more to manufacture its iPhone 7 smartphonethan predecessor iPhone 6S due to features such as a bigger battery and larger storage capacity, according to a teardown by IHS Markit Ltd. Including $5 in basic manufacturing costs, total cost to manufacture the iPhone 7 mobile rises to $224.80,$36.89 higher than the business research provider’s estimates for the iPhone 6S.Apple retails an unsubsidized 32GB iPhone 7 at $649. The company unveiled the iPhone 7 with high-resolution cameras and no headphone jack at its annual launch on Sept. 7.IHS Markit also said on Tuesday the iPhone 7’s Bill Of Materials (BOM), a financial estimate of the raw materials used, was “in line” with flagship smartphones made by rival Samsung Electronics but Apple ekes out better margins.“All other things being equal, Apple still makes more margin from hardware than Samsung, but materials costs are higher than in the past,” said Andrew Rassweiler, senior director of cost benchmarking services at IHS Markit.IHS Markit has not yet performed a teardown analysis on the larger iPhone 7 Plus.Supplies of Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus have been exhausted in all shades, and the smaller iPhone 7 has also sold out in the new jet black color, the company said last week.Yet, in some markets, such as China, interest in the new phone has been muted, as cheaper local brands amp up their design and marketing.Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus also come with adhesive which make them water-resistant with IP67 certification. The new iPhones also use Intel’s latest modem for LTE connection.According to DisplayMate, the iPhone 7’s LCD display is the best LCD display ever packed into a smartphone. The new A10 Fusion chipset also scores more than other mobile processors available in the market.
Monday, 7 March 2016
Read; How real is the hypersonic aircraft revolution?
change: self-driving cars, drones, artificial
intelligence.
Yet the tube-shaped subsonic airliners we keep
flying on wouldn't look out of place in the 1960s.
Take, for example, the Boeing 737.
A 50-year-old design that remains one of the
workhorses of the airline industry.
And going strong: Its latest iteration, the Boeing
737 MAX is expected to enter service next year.
To be fair, although from the outside it may look
structurally similar to its earlier versions, decades
of cumulative improvements have made the airliner
of today a vastly more sophisticated, efficient and
reliable machine.
Aircraft-making is an extremely capital-intensive
activity and, given the financial and technical risks
that launching an entirely new model entails, it's
understandable that the industry prefers to keep
milking proven concepts.
But how long before the current generation of
airliners reaches its limits?
From electric propulsion to hypersonics, from NASA
to private entrepreneurs, the quest for new, truly
groundbreaking, aircraft concepts is on.
And it has the potential to forever change our idea
of air travel.
High-voltage innovation
Airbus, for example, has unveiled its future aircraft
concept.
This isn't exactly a new aircraft program, but a
depiction of what would be possible if all of the
futuristic technologies envisaged by Airbus could be
combined to create the ideal airliner.
Across the Atlantic, Boeing is also working,
together with NASA, on a number of futurist
aircraft concepts within the framework of the New
Aviation Horizons initiative .
The SUGAR program (that stands for Subsonic
Ultra Green Aircraft Research) has come up with
some truly innovative aerodynamic and propulsion
solutions.
These include an aircraft with eye-catching truss-
braced wings and an hybrid gas-electric propulsion
system fed by liquefied natural gas.
The search for new modes of propulsion is
particularly important, as aviation remains one of
the few major industries where replacing fossil fuels
remains an unresolved challenge.
Biofuels may offer a stopgap solution, as they can
be adapted to fit current engine technology and
supply infrastructure.
But it's electrically powered flight that's captured
the attention of a handful of visionaries.
It's a technology still in its infancy, but one that
benefits from the enthusiasm and resourcefulness of
entrepreneurs, not unlike the mavericks of the early
days of aviation.
By competing with each other to break the next
record, they contribute to the advancement of the
aeronautical science.
In 2015, as the long-winged Solar Impulse tried to
circumnavigate the globe on solar power, teams
were vying to be the first to cross the English
Channel on an electric-powered aircraft.
French scientist and former yachtsman Raphael
Dinelli is also preparing a solo crossing of the
Atlantic later this year on a hybrid biofuel-electric
light aircraft called Eraole.
His plane derives part of its energy from solar
power. If successful, a derivative of Eraole might
soon be serially produced for the private aviation
market.
Beyond the boom
Electric and hybrid aircraft will make flying
greener, but what about speed?
Significantly increasing the speed of current
jetliners means, inevitably, breaking the sound
barrier, which presents a whole set of challenges,
not all of them technological.
Supersonic flight isn't exactly new: The Concorde
linked both sides of the Atlantic for more than
three decades until economic and political issues led
to its retirement in 2003.
The sleek Franco-British airliner remained an
aeronautical curiosity, an experiment without
continuity or replacement.
NASA has been particularly active in developing a
new generation of more efficient, quieter supersonic
airliners to revive commercial supersonic air travel
as a viable proposition.
It's worked on such concepts with Boeing through
the New Aviation Horizons initiative, and recently
teamed up with Lockheed to research Quiet
Supersonic Technology (QueSST).
The key is to find a way to smother the sonic boom
that's produced whenever an aircraft breaks the
sound barrier.
Concorde, for example, was only allowed to make
full use of its supersonic capabilities when flying
over the ocean, thus significantly limiting the
number of markets it could serve.
A lower sonic boom may allow a future supersonic
airliner to fly routes over land, vastly increasing
potential markets.
Speed will still come at a cost, though. This why
any supersonic comeback is likely to start with
those that are most able to pay for it.
The Aerion Corporation , a Nevada-based private
aircraft manufacturer, and Airbus have already
started work on a supersonic private jet, the Aerion
AS2.
Expected to enter service early in the next decade,
it'll be able to carry up to 12 passengers at speeds
of Mach 1.6.
Hypersonic hype
Once you've broken through the sound barrier, why
not double down?
Although still closer to sci-fi than the tangible
realities of today's aviation industry, several
research organizations, from Europe to Japan, are
making inroads into hypersonic flight.
We're talking about aircraft capable of Mach 5 to
8, five to eight times faster than sound.
Realistically these revolutionary concept aircraft --
with names like Lapcat and the Hikari -- are
several decades away, but they're starting to appear
like a very feasible possibility.
One of the most ambitious concepts in the field of
hypersonics is the SpaceLiner, being developed at
the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
The SpaceLiner applies space technology to
commercial aviation in order to achieve speeds of
up to Mach 25, enough to travel from London to
Australia in under 90 minutes.
In achieving this amazing speed, the SpaceLiner
takes its passengers to the edge of space.
In fact, it's a two-stage concept, reminiscent of the,
now retired, space-shuttle.
A booster takes a civilian-carrying stage to a height
of roughly 80 kilometers, where the passenger
vehicle detaches itself to carry up to 50 passengers
to the other side of the globe.
In line with stringent safety requirements, the
passenger cabin can also double as a rescue
capsule.
Both the booster and the capsule are fully reusable,
an essential requirement to keep costs under control.
That's a principle well understood also by SpaceX
and the emerging private space industry, that has
also focused on developing reusable space vehicles.
Dr. Olga Trivailo, a researcher at the German Space
Center, DLR, says the SpaceLiner is also an
environmentally friendly concept, using a rocket
propellant mix of liquid hydrogen and liquid
oxygen that produces only water vapour upon
combustion.
Thus, hydrogen has potential as a non-fossil fuel
alternative, although first, a way would need to be
found to manage the associated higher costs
compared with kerosene, predominantly due to new
infrastructure requirements.
Dr. Martin Sippel, head of the Space Launcher
Systems Analysis department at DLR's Institute of
Space Systems in Bremen, says it would be
reasonable to expect wider use and implementation
of hydrogen propellants in the next 35 to 50 years.
The bionic cabin
While it's difficult to anticipate which one of these
different approaches to the aircraft of the future
will prevail, one thing seems sure: The air travel
experience will be transformed.
Ergonomic and lighting improvements such as those
found today on the newest airliners are just a
foretaste of what lies ahead.
Even if Airbus' vision of a "bionic smart cabin"
made of natural, smart materials that adapt to the
needs of each passenger is only partly realized, the
scope for improvement is massive.
Paradoxically, though, and because of aerodynamic
requirements, the supersonic and hypersonic aircraft
of the future may well be windowless.
The need to make up for the lack of windows, plus
the seating solutions that it opens up, is likely to
spur a new wave of innovation that'll further
redefine the in-flight experience.
The aircraft of the future will certainly take us to
our destination in a faster, greener and more
comfortable way.
What's not guaranteed is that we'll still get our
window seat.
Miquel Ros is an aviation blogger and consultant.
An economist by background, he's worked for
Flightglobal and Bloomberg. He currently covers
the airline industry through Allplane.tv and
collaborates with luxury travel website Trovel and
other online media.
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