Falling sales graph

The smartphone craze is over in China, as shipments decrease

China's smartphone market has declined year-over-year for the first time in six years, according to a new report from IDC. In the first quarter of the year, shipments decreased by 4.3 percent compared to the same period from 2014, with the likes of Samsung and Lenovo posting huge drops.

Apple leads the pack in China, shipping 14.5 million iPhones in Q1 2015, 62.1 percent more than a year ago. Meanwhile, rival Samsung, which comes in fourth place, saw shipments of just 9.6 million units, a whopping 53 percent lower compared to Q1 2014.

By Mihăiță Bamburic -
wearables

Safety is an essential concern for the future of wearables

Wearables, from smart wristbands to smart clothing, hold vast potential to enhance everyday life, from a person’s health to workplace productivity.

Their potential is vast as demonstrated by predictions of the market growth for wearables, anticipated to exceed more than $100 billion (£64 billion) in annual sales by 2018, according to Generator Research. The recently launched Apple Watch only adds momentum to this promising new technology category.

By Anura Fernando -
Apple announces its first wearable -- the Apple Watch

Apple Watch and web browsing don't match (yet)

After getting an Apple Watch, some folks may wonder what it would be like to browse the web using the new device. It should be pretty interesting, right? After all, Apple Watch is, at least theoretically, capable of displaying a web page and equipped with the right features to allow the user to navigate it.

Renowned iOS jailbreaker Comex has decided to put it to the test, after managing to get a browser up and running on the device. Considering that Apple does not offer Safari on its smartwatch, the results should not surprise anyone.

By Mihăiță Bamburic -
Malware virus detected

The ILoveYou legacy -- how malware has changed in the past 15 years

Where were you when the 'ILoveYou' bug started spreading on 4 May 2000? Was your computer one of the tens of millions of PCs the Love Letter attacked?

Fifteen years ago, email messages with the subject line 'ILoveYou' and the message 'Kindly check the attached LOVELETTER coming from me' started propagating to millions of inboxes. The malware-laced attachment was named LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.txt.vbs. Since the vbs extension was hidden by default, it seemed to recipients that the attachment was a harmless txt file. Once the attachment was opened, a VBS script would overwrite image files and send the LoveLetter email to all contacts in the victim’s Outlook address book.

By Deborah Galea -
A third of people would rather lose a finger than their internet connection

A third of people would rather lose a finger than their internet connection

Losing a finger is something that you might more readily associate with horrific industrial injuries, or the result of failing to pay back a gangland loan shark. In the UK, however, broadband access is now seen as such a vital service that people would rather lose a digit than lose their high speed internet connection.

An incredible one in three people would be willing to live without a phalanx rather than coping without a broadband connection. Being online is now seen as a lifeline and losing that connection can lead to feelings of social isolation.

windows 10 dark

How to enable Windows 10's hidden dark theme

Windows 10 Insider Preview has a dark secret… Well the newly released Build 10074 does anyway.

If you open the Windows Store and hit Ctrl-T, the app will switch from a light to a dark theme. Pressing the same key combination will restore the app’s lighter look. As far as we can tell this trick only works for the Store, but you can enable the dark theme on other apps with a spot of registry editing.

By Wayne Williams -
apple-watch-mio-graph

So just how accurate is Apple Watch's heart rate sensor?

Can you trust the Apple Watch heart rate sensor? Well, it’s pretty darn accurate it seems, going by some testing performed by a Wisconsin-based engineer who's into Mac and iPhone development.

That would be Brad Larson, who tested the Apple Watch on a run alongside the Mio Alpha. Slashgear spotted Larson’s experiment and the resulting graph on Twitter (see above), with the engineer tweeting: "Extracted the raw Apple Watch HealthKit heartrate samples after a run and compared it to an HR monitor I had on".

By Darren Allan -
Terminator Genisys: Revolution is the first Android app you can pre-register for

Terminator Genisys: Revolution is the first Android app you can pre-register for

To be first in line to download a new app, you need to be quick off the mark. You might hear about a game or app weeks ahead of launch, and it's all too easy to miss the launch date. You might be wondering why it has taken Google so long to do something about it.

For Android users this is now a thing of the past thanks to the introduction of pre-registration. The first title in Google Play to offer this is Terminator Genisys: Revolution. You can now register your interest in the game and you'll be notified when it is released and is ready for download.

ImageUploader200-175

Share files on 50+ hosting services with Image Uploader

Image Uploader is a free Windows application which uploads your chosen selected files (not just images, despite the name) to any of 50+ image or file hosting sites: Flickr, Imageshack, Imgur, Picasa, Twitpic, Dropbox, Google Drive, SendSpace and generic FTP servers, amongst many others.

Getting started is easy. Once you’ve set up a default service, you can upload files or folders by dragging and dropping them onto the program window, or right-clicking them in Explorer and selecting Image Uploader > Upload…

By Mike Williams -
hackers-ahead

Cybersecurity firm accused of hacking potential clients, extorting them to buy its services

There have been numerous instances in the past where anti-virus companies have been accused -- and in many cases caught -- of creating malware their products combat. We’re learning of yet another similar case. A former employee of cybersecurity firm Tiversa is accusing the company of fraud.

Richard Wallace, one of the former investigators at the firm has testified against the firm in a Washington DC courtroom. Wallace says that Tiversa employees would hack their potential clients to force them to buy services from the firm.

By Manish Singh -
pc-google

At just $9, Chip is the cheapest computer to be a reality soon

Raspberry Pi, a credit card-sized computer carrying a dirt cheap price tag has become insanely popular in the last couple of years. But what if we told you that there is a similar computer that sports miniature form factor and costs even less? Meet CHIP, a $9 single-board computer that is capable of running light Linux-based distros.

As for the specifications, CHIP packs in a 1GHz processor coupled with 512MB RAM, and 4GB of internal storage. The board comes with optional ports for VGA and HDMI, and supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity options. The variant with VGA port costs $19 while the HDMI capable CHIP will set you back by $24 bucks.

By Manish Singh -
Cloud visibility

Anonymous Tor Cloud project closes down

The Tor browser is used by many to stay anonymous online -- and it's something that has been embraced by the likes of WikiLeaks as a way to safely gather information whilst hopefully avoiding the surveillance of the NSA. One lesser known project from the same stables is the Tor Cloud service, and Tor has announced that it is closing down.

Based on the Amazon EC2 cloud computing platform, Tor Cloud provided a way to share computing resources and allow faster uncensored access to the internet. However, the project is plagued with "at least one major bug ... that makes it completely dysfunctional" and after failing to find anyone to undertake the work, the decision was taken to shutter Tor Cloud. This does not mean that Tor itself is dead -- far from it -- and developers are being encouraged to create their own forked versions of Tor Cloud.

vatican

Vatican believes that open source is the way to preserve history

Vatican wants to save the human history in a digital form, and the best way to do so is to use open-source, non-proprietary software that will still be easily accessible and usable in 50 years, it says.

During the EMC World conference in Las Vegas, Vatican Library CIO Luciano Ammenti argued his case. A total of 82,000 manuscripts were digitized, as there was never enough room in the reading rooms.

By Sead Fadilpašić -
EasyAcc DP100

EasyAcc DP100 Bluetooth 4.0 speaker [Review]

There are lots of Bluetooth speakers on the market, so which one you choose really comes down to the features you value most. Is sound quality your top priority or is portability and long battery life a bigger attraction?

The EasyAcc DP100 certainly qualifies on the portability front. It's a compact design, about the size of a Coke can, feels nicely weighty and has a rubber base so it won't slip around. The design is quite stylish in matt black with a shiny highlight around the top. There's an on/off switch and sockets for charging and aux-in at the back. Playback controls are operated by a grey, rubbery button on the top, this works well enough but doesn’t have a particularly nice feel.

By Ian Barker -
Cyanogen-12

OnePlus One users in India to receive future updates from Cyanogen as companies resolve dispute

Indian mobile manufacturer Micromax and Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus have withdrawn their respective lawsuits against each other. As a result of this the flagship One smartphone will now resume the impending over the air update from Cyanogen Inc.

OnePlus announces that both the companies withdrew their respective lawsuits against each other through mutual consent. In a statement to BetaNews, OnePlus says that it will be working with Cyanogen to ensure that the OnePlus One Indian variant continues to receive updates from the software firm. These updates also include the next in line to CM 12S software version.

By Manish Singh -
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