Once upon a time, sharing a file from one mobile device to the other was limited to infrared.. then along came Bluetooth, WiFi and then Infrared 2.0(you probably know it as NFC – but in reality, what is the difference between NFC and infrared? Think about it). I’m sure most of you – regardless of your mobile platform, have one file sharing app or another. Ranging from flash share to Xender to Shareit etc – all of which use WiFI for communication and file sharing.

This time around, a developer has decided to harness the power of Ultrasound and use it to share files from one device to another. Remember how sharks and dolphins use waves inaudible to the human ear to communicate? Well, our devices have just been given that ability… This kinda makes me fee Ultron is not too far away; if devices can interact using ultrasound. Oh well, that is probably just me being paranoid.

Anyways, this app is called Radon and would utilize bluetooth WiFi and ultrasound in conjunction with Google’s nearby API to share links. This might be a normal thing to most of us but for those who are on a locked down platform(*coughs*..Apple), hope this works for you. The only down side I do see is the fact that it is used to share just links(that’s kinda …shallow?). I don’t know if this would be a permanent thing or if it would integrate the option to share files too like the aforementioned apps. And like these apps and like you’ve probably figured out, the other party needs to have Radon installed.

This bears a lot of similarities to pushbullet and pocket – hey, these guys outta pay me for giving them ideas like this…#justsaying. You could try the app out yourself; get it from the play store here. Oh, one more thing, this app is exclusive to Android(for now at least)

Read More

April 28, 2016

A lot of talk has been stirring about ramping up the use of biometrics for authentication and authorization methods in various different venues.  Examples are in automated teller machines or other device based access to different facilities or services.

One area that is standing out, is the rise of biometric capabilities in smartphones.  From accessing the phone itself to being used as a secondary authentication method for applications or to access some more secured areas of the phone.

We probably need to rethink some of these methods to make sure that they truly apply as a security method for biometrics in smartphones and just how much they should be trusted.  Phones are getting packed with more features and functions than ever and smartphones have all of the capabilities to support visual, audible or finger print biometrics.

The maturity for these functions varies from phone to phone.  Visual functions have grown in maturity over time the most.  Most smartphones are offering the combination of both front and rear camera for ease of use.  Megapixel photo quality levels that seem to increase with every model released.  These factors make the use of smartphone cameras for doing facial recognition or other types of visual verification a good possibility.  Advanced features that can handle low light or excessive light make these cameras exceedingly good for biometrics, document recognition and for optical character recognition.

Audible recording capabilities of phones have dramatically matured in being able to cancel out surrounding noise and gather a high quality digital representation of a user’s voice.  Leveraging these features as a way to perform voiceprint style biometrics can easily be achieved.

A new function in smartphones lately has been the use of fingerprint scanning functions as an option for unlocking the phones.  Do not rely on these devices for biometrics authentication.  These devices are obviously not as mature as the other technologies within the phone and many have proven through various YouTube videos that most phones can be easily fooled with scotch tape or imprints of the fingerprints in glue or clay.  Obviously these are not the border security grade components being put into smartphones.  They are essentially the absolutely cheapest components that can provide the functionality that is available on the market, thus they can be easily fooled.

Biometrics can be an excellent primary or secondary authentication model and smartphones are rapidly growing as an enabler for these types of authentication.  Another critical point to make here is that the validation of these biometric methods should be happening odd-device.  With the ease of either tampering with the device or its content means that the factors being maintained for comparison and validation shouldn’t be stored within the device and the engines that are being used to perform the matching function should also not be living within the device.  These functions should always be performed off device and in the cloud!

Read More

April 27, 2016

With the BlackBerry Priv, came Blackberry’s desperate efforts to hold on to its dwindling share of the hardware market. Though despite the hype, the Priv can’t be said of living fully to its rotund expectation of launching the largely anticipated recovery for an ailing BlackBerry. Yet Bkackberry has not given up on the Priv as it has brought on more technical cosmetics to make it more good-looking to customers in the market. And now Blackberry has unveiled the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for the Priv.

Android 6.0 Marshmallow coming to BlackBerry Priv

With the updates comes in very handy Marshmallow features like Doze, which is popular for helping to elongate battery life. BlackBerry has also made the additions of extra security to the phone as Blackberry revealed it has been in work with a lot carriers with the aim of relapsing monthly security updates.

Also to come with the update is the capacity of the physical keyboard to be compatible with swipe input. We have not really seen this feature on a hardware keyboard so far. Though BlackBerry Priv’s on-screen keyboard is capable of responding to swipe input too.

With the updates, the camera brings in 24fps modes for 1080p and 720p, in addition to a 120fps slow-motion mode. The autofocus is quite at an improved speed but then these updates don’t really have much as changes to image quality.

Read More

April 27, 2016