Protect Yourself From Common Crypto Scams: Trust a Canadian Exchange

 When you first start your crypto journey, you’ll find yourself asking a ton of questions.

‘How do I buy a Bitcoin?”

“What are the best cryptocurrency exchanges in Canada?”

“Are cryptocurrencies safe?”

And asking questions is great. The world of crypto is daunting to many, especially due to its associations with scams and money laundering. So it’s important to get into the space armed with the right knowledge. It’s fair for people to want to do their due diligence before committing to digital currencies. And to do that, you should know what common scams are out there and what to look out for.

Related: How to Buy Bitcoin in Canada

Here you can get free Bitcoin!

After all, progress in any field means a new territory is available for exploring. And along with all the innovators there will inevitably be scammers. Scammers take advantage of the misinformed within the new financial frontier, unfairly damaging the reputation of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. They do this through hacking and fraud. Sadly, the cryptocurrency revolution has not been immune to the plague of scammers tarnishing the system.

Indeed, the overwhelming majority of security breaches are not at all related to the security encoded into the cryptos, but rather the security measures taken by crypto holders in storing, trading, or transferring their cryptocurrencies. There is also scamming involved with Initial Coin Offerings (or ICO) for more on that visit: How to identify ICO scams. For now we’ll focus on online storage and transaction scams.

So what are some common crypto scams and frauds?

Identity Theft

Cryptocurrency exchanges in Canada are targeted with identity theft by scammers, as is common with online platforms. This is a low tech means for the fraudsters to take control of online accounts so they can plunder them.

Financial institutions, including crypto exchanges in Canada, gather detailed information about their clients in order to build a security profile that would authenticate them. This measure is called Know Your Client (or KYC for short) and it helps weed out anyone trying to impersonate a client and access their account. The idea is that in the event a scammer has managed to access some of a client’s personal information, they’ll still not have enough to successfully trick the system.

Naturally this means the more tediously detailed the client profile is with questions the more secure the KYC safeguard will be These are questions like: ‘where was your first ever trip with your parents?’ Of course, the system also has to be reasonably user friendly; there’s a balance to be struck between depth of details for security and ease of use.

Fake Cryptocurrency Exchanges

It turns out identity theft works both ways. Most instances are cases of fraudsters assuming the identity of clients in order to gain access to their funds on a website or platform. However, it can just as easily work the other way around.

There are examples of fraudulent exchanges where the owners of these exchanges stole from clients. They did this by setting up accounts and transferring client funds into their own wallets. Unfortunately, cryptocurrency transfers are irreversible. Therefore it’s not really possible to track the journey of a payment and halt or send it back if fraud is suspected.

So in such cases, even if the scammers are caught, the victims have little chance of recovering their deposits which will have been rerouted and stored offline as soon as the scammers received the funds. The case of BitKRX was a major wake up call to the cryptocurrency sector not too long ago. More on that here: South Korean Government Concerned With Scams in Bitcoin Market, Fake Exchanges

It’s important to apply due diligence when searching for a reputable cryptocurrency exchange in Vancouver, Toronto, or anywhere else in Canada. This means looking for signs of accountability by the crypto exchanges.

For example, the Netcoins cryptocurrency exchange is licensed by the Money Services Business (MSB) Registration, complies with the British Columbia Security Commission standards and is publicly traded, which means regular audits. These detailed factors are evidence of credibility that only a well established and secure exchange could offer. For other such examples you can look here: 10 Best Canadian Cryptocurrency Exchanges

SIM Swapping

As an added measure of protection, online financial services introduced 2 Factor Authentication (or 2FA). This technique makes it even more challenging for identity theft fraudsters to trick security systems by using the stolen information from a client. The system sends a notification to a personal device of the account holder, which normally includes a temporary pin that is then used on the login device to grant access.

However, thieves have countered this by resorting to SIM card swapping for crypto scams. Using the same personal data they’ve gathered on their targeted victim, they trick the victim’s mobile service provider into providing them with a new SIM card that gives them access to all the victim’s communications. This means the 2FA message sent to authenticate an account holder can be intercepted and used by the scammer instead. The key takeaway here is using SMS for 2FA isn’t quite as secure as using a third party app tied to a device (like Google Authentication for example).

For more on Two Factor Authentication check out our blog: What is Two Factor Authentication

https://bit.ly/3mxdMd7

Conclusion Although a great leap ahead in technological advancement, cryptocurrency is still just a tool. It’s therefore limited by the experience and judgement of its human user. It’s paramount for crypto holders to take the time to familiarize themselves with the intricacies of crypto trade, the pitfalls laid out by scammers, and how to best protect themselves from scams.

But the road ahead needn’t be daunting for consumers, because service providers like Netcoins are leading the way into a secure and stable future for cryptocurrency trading in Canada. Visit www.netcoins.ca to safely explore just how easy it is to start trading in cryptocurrency today.

Written by Ayelen Osorio of Netcoins

Bitcoin Is So Famous, But Why?

 Blockchain technology. It’s the underlying technology that Bitcoin and all other digital currencies rely on in order to provide users with a decentralized, democratic platform for exchanging value in a peer-to-peer fashion.

The inventor of Bitcoin (Satoshi Nakamoto) and the community of developers who successfully worked together to launch the network’s genesis block certainly deserve a lot of credit for making blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies a reality. That said, digital currency is only one use case for the blockchain. The reality is, blockchain technology and other exciting decentralized tools like smart contracts are revolutionizing product and service offerings across many different industries and verticals.

Time and time again, learning that blockchain technology applies to so much more than cryptocurrency – ironically enough – inspires Canadians everywhere to buy Bitcoin in Canada and get in on the action. There are many other resources to consider in trying to learn about Bitcoin and other digital currencies specifically. In this post however, let’s focus more on the ways the blockchain is changing other aspects of our lives.

What is Blockchain Technology? What is a Blockchain?

A blockchain is essentially a decentralized database. Decentralization means there is no focal point of attack for hackers to expose. Instead, information stored on the database is secured by computers who validate data as genuine. In the world of digital currency, the data happens to be related to transactions and payment information. In a broader sense however, the data can literally be anything. It can be the deed to a house, the rights to a piece of land, the rights to a rare antique, or an agreement between two parties that stipulates all of the details of a service agreement.

A blockchain can be either public or private. Again, most digital currencies like Bitcoin exist on top of public blockchains. This means everyone can see the data stored on the blockchain and there is no special permission required to contribute to its development or access the information stored on it. In a private blockchain, a central authority or any number of constituents might have special administrative power over who can look at the details stored on the blockchain and what those individuals can access. Some digital currency blockchains, like Ripple, allow partial access to the public while at the same time maintaining ownership of the blockchain as a private entity.

Let’s explore some more specific use cases for blockchains and how public and permission blockchains differ from one another in real-world scenarios.

XRP, Ripple and Central Banks

The Ripple cryptocurrency is represented by the XRP token. Anybody can own the token and profit from its price appreciation. In that sense, Ripple is a publicly funded project. However, the token and the blockchain that facilitates the exchange of its value is owned by a private company called Ripple Labs. Public blockchains that host cryptocurrencies allow the community of users to secure the network and benefit from its improvements or the price appreciation of its token or currency.

The team that owns Ripple however is interested in profiting privately. The goal of the project is to serve central banks, which is something cryptocurrency purists don’t like because serving central banks means serving a centralized authority, which in the minds of many libertarians means facilitating the privatization of value exchanges, not democratizing value. Ripple’s end game is to allow central banks to exchange large volumes of money at a fraction of the costs those banks are used to paying. The goal is to increase profit and put it into the pockets of business people and bankers, not hard-core libertarians.

Ethereum and Smart Contracts

Ethereum is built on a public blockchain and is the world’s second most valuable cryptocurrency according to market capitalization. It was developed by a team including Russian-Canadian programmer Vitalik Buterin.

Related: 10 Canadians to Watch in the Crypto Space

The project introduced the world to the concept of the smart contract. A smart contract is a digital agreement between two parties that lives on a blockchain. In hosting a smart contract, the blockchain stores all the relevant data related to terms and conditions, and outcomes that render the contract fulfilled. With smart contracts, there is no need to use an intermediary or escrow service to guarantee a transaction.

Consider the way a company, like online auction website eBay, guarantees transactions using their payment service, PayPal. PayPal guarantees the product gets delivered to the buyer upon receipt of payment. The seller gets paid once they provide proof of shipping details to the buyer and the shipping company notifies PayPal that delivery is complete. In exchange for facilitating all of this, PayPal and eBay charges as much as 15% in selling fees, and also charge the buyer for withdrawing money into their bank account. Transactions like these occurring on a public blockchain using a smart contract mean fees can amount to mere pennies, because there is no central authority or profiteer taking a cut.

Other Use Cases for Blockchains

As mentioned, blockchain technology doesn’t just store data related to monetary value. There are many other reasons to use it. The space industry will one day be able to use satellites above the atmosphere as nodes for storing or validating information. The industry will also be able to store data related to energy consumption and construction details related to projects orbiting our planet.

IBM already uses blockchain technology to store data related to every aspect of its global supply chain. This allows the company to track the shipment and servicing of every aspect of its business on a permissioned decentralized database that gives key stakeholders access to all of the relevant information they need to do their work.

Blockchain technology is also being used in artificial intelligence as a way of storing machine learning data in a secure fashion. It’s exactly what allows an artificial intelligence robot like Sophia to carry on a detailed conversation with Hollywood actor Will Smith during a dinner date. It also gives her inventors insight into how fast she’s learning and ensures that malicious hackers aren’t manipulating her progress in any way.

The Future of the Blockchain

The number of use cases for the blockchain are virtually limitless. As long as data needs to be secured, stored or quickly transmitted to another party, using the blockchain as a part of the solution is always a possibility. As the world of technology and cryptocurrency continues to evolve, so will broader use cases for blockchains.

Thanks for reading. Written by Ayelen Osorio of Netcoins

The Reasons Why You Should Invest In Bitcoin

There are now 8948 crypto and Bitcoin ATMs worldwide, with Canada hosting the second highest number of any country after the U.S. Canadians can now buy crypto from 819 locations across the country. The number of these machines has exploded worldwide since Netcoins’ president, Mitchell Demeter, helped install the first ever Bitcoin ATM in Vancouver in 2013. There are now crypto ATMs in 71 countries with 544 new ones installed in July alone.

What are Bitcoin ATMs?

Bitcoin ATMs differ from regular ATMs in that they do not allow you to withdraw cash unless you have that amount in your digital wallet, held as cryptocurrency. You can withdraw cash by selling your accumulated cryptocurrencies for a fee. You can also purchase Bitcoin and other digital assets directly through the ATM.

A Bitcoin ATM connects you directly to an exchange. This exchange and its buying/selling fees will vary based on the facilitator, in the same way they do on other exchanges. You can find your nearest bitcoin ATM, its manufacturer, fees and available coins on coinatmradar.com. The price of a coin may be listed on the ATM at a substantially higher rate than the current listed price, which is worth considering before using an ATM out of sheer convenience.

Are Bitcoin ATMs vulnerable?

The primary use of Bitcoin ATMs is to allow the unbanked and other investors easy access to acquire cryptocurrencies. As such, they are placed in locations you might not associate with security – tucked away in convenience stores, shopping malls and even supermarkets. This is a reflection on how cryptocurrencies are designed for everyone, not just the wealthy. Ease of access does not mean lax security, however.

Bitcoin ATMs are safe to use. However, some have found the registration process to be intrusive, with a phone number, scanned driver’s license, password and a selfie required. For some, these drawbacks are worth it if they do not have a bank account or are determined to leave the existing banking system behind.

As with any piece of technology or financial platform, there are those who seek to exploit people through these ATMs. The US government recently took down a $25 million operation, seizing 17 Herocoin machines set up by an unlicensed operator. The man running Herocoin, Kais Mohammad, now faces up to 30 years in prison.

As we mentioned in our last post, Bitcoin ATMs are sometimes used by scammers as part of a larger scheme. They will cold call people and talk them into exchanging their fiat currency for Bitcoin, then send it to the scammers’ own wallet as an irreversible transaction. As an update to that story, two Ontario residents have now been scammed out of almost $80,000 using similar methods.

The takeaway here is to always take time to research and understand a new technology, especially in the world of finance. If you’re new to Bitcoin and looking to buy crypto in Canada, start by educating yourself and using a trusted Canadian exchange (like Netcoins). Never purchase from a Bitcoin ATM or make any transfers before you know what you’re getting into and do not comply with anyone you don’t know demanding payments in crypto.

If you want to read more about buying Bitcoin in Canada, check out our post here or sign up here.

2016 BATCH 'B' (STREAM II) ORIENTATION COURSE COMMENCES 24TH JANUARY 2017

2016 BATCH 'B' (STREAM II) ORIENTATION COURSE COMMENCES 24TH JANUARY 2017

The NYSC Management wishes to inform prospective Corps members and other stakeholders that the 2016 Batch 'B' (Stream II) Orientation course will commence on Tuesday, 24th January, 2017.

PRINTING OF CALL-UP LETTERS BY THE 2016 BATCH ‘B’ (STREAM II) PCMs

Prospective Corps members of the 2016 Batch ‘B’ (Stream II) are hereby informed that the printing of Call-up Letters will commence on Saturday, 21st January, 2017.

The lineup of activities for the course is shown below:

a. Tue 24th - Wed 25th, Jan 2017- Registration/verification exercise

b. Thursday, 26th January, 2017 - Swearing-in ceremony

c. Monday, 13th February, 2017 - Closing ceremony

Prospective Corps members are advised to report to camp at the scheduled date as registration/verification will end at midnight of January 25, 2017.

All are also to note that original copies of academic credentials and other documents uploaded during the online registration MUST be presented on camp for physical verification.

In addition, all Prospective Corps members MUST present medical certificate from a government or military hospital showing their health status before they will be registered and admitted for the Orientation course.

Management wishes prospective Corps members safe journey to their respective camps as well as a successful Orientation course.

Thank you.

Management

TECNO Releases a Flagship Pad WinPad 2 In Nigeria

TECNO Releases a Flagship Pad WinPad 2 In Nigeria

After a global launch of flagship mobile phone in Dubai, TECNO, one of the international mobile giants, is taking another big step in the pad market, launching its flagship pad WinPad 2 in Nigeria.

A new generation product solution
Understanding the big demands for mobile computing, TECNO WinPad 2 is launched to fill this market gap particularly for those senior executives, young professionals and colleague students. As the latest flagship pad by TECNO, WinPad 2 actually solves a series of common problems in traditional laptops, for example, bulky size, dull design, poor battery life or frequent breakdown. Users are now able to enjoy an artistically designed device that is easy to carry like pad, while it also offers an uncompromising computing performance.

Perfect 2-in-1 device for business and education needs
As "Your Mobile Office", WinPad 2 is running the latest Windows 10 OS along with Microsoft Office Mobile. Considering that users usually concern about battery life, this new generation WinPad improves the battery capacity. It is equipped with 7000mAh battery providing up to 10 hours for work or fun. What's more, it supports 4G LTE/3G/WIFI/Bluetooth to make sure users always stay connected no matter which telecom circumstance they are in.
Steven Huang, Director of TECNO tablet business unit, said, "We are glad to bring WinPad 2 to Nigerian consumers. This 2-in-1 mobile device offers the benefits of both a powerful touchscreen laptop and a fast, detachable tablet, which combines real productivity and mobility in one device, not to mention that it is half lighter compared to most laptops. "
"This latest WinPad 2 has gone through a number of quality tests in order to secure the best user experiences. It is designed for those who desire to do multiple tasks together, allowing them to handle work, study and entertainment at anytime and anywhere. We believe this product will lead another trend in 2-in-1 mobile device market." Steven Huang added.

PRODUCT SPECIFICATION (3G VERSION)
Processor Intel® Atom™ X5-Z8350 Cherry Trail  Quad-Core 1.92GHz Operating System Windows 10 Band GSM: 900/1800MHz, WCDMA: 900/2100MHz Sim Micro SIM Battery Capacity 7000 mAh Audio Dual Stereo Speaker Ports USB 3.0 * 1; USB 2.0 * 2; Mini HDMI * 1; Micro SIM * 1;
Micro SD * 1; Micro USB * 2
Dimension Pad:260.5*164.9*9.2mm；keyboard:260.5*164.9*9.8mm Display 10.1″ 1280*800 IPS Touch Screen 10 Dots Multi-Touch Memory 2GB ROM+ 64GB ROM Camera Front Camera: 2.0MP Rear Camera: 5.0MP AF Connectivity 3G, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 Accessories Keyboard , Travel Adapter, USB Cable, Elegant Pouch
WinPad 2 is now available in Nigeria at a satisfied price of 120K for the 3G SKU and 105K for the Wi-Fi SKU.

iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus are the best-selling smartphones in US (again)

Apple traditionally enjoys very strong iPhone sales after it launches new smartphones. And this is certainly true of the three months ending November 2016, when the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus topped the sales charts in US and helped iOS close in on Android in Great Britain.
In US, it is actually an all-iPhone podium, with the iPhone 6s joining the newer models in the top three, according to a new Kantar Worldpanel ComTech report. Apple saw its share rise to 43.5 percent, while Google's Android dropped to 55.3 percent of the market.
Year-over-year, iOS gained 6.4 percentage points (from 37.1 percent in the three months ending November 2015), while Android lost 5.1 percentage points (from 60.4 percent a year prior). Judging by the numbers provided in the report, iOS stole market share from both Android and Windows, which a year prior had 2.3 percent of the market.
Platforms other than Android and iOS are basically irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, as the two control 98.8 percent of the US market. Kantar does not say exactly how much share Windows has left, but it could be around one percent based on the bar graph it provides with the report. So called "other" platforms also register there.
What is particularly interesting is that Google's Pixel line of smartphones, comprised of the Pixel and the Pixel XL, seem to have performed well in the three months ending November 2016, with Kantar estimating that they accounted for 1.3 percent of sales. The Pixel line was released on October 20, making the "figure [...] even more impressive when you take [that] into account".
"Verizon booked nearly a quarter of all US smartphone sales during the Black Friday period, playing a vital role for all brands, including Apple and Samsung", says Lauren Guenveur, Consumer Insight director for Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. "Buyers were motivated by Verizon's promotions on both Apple and Samsung's top phones, including offers of free iPhone 7, 7 Plus and Galaxy S7 phones after trade-in and purchase requirements were met".
In Great Britain, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus helped iOS reach a 48.3 percent market share. That puts it extremely close to Android, which holds 49.6 percent of the market. In the three months ending November 2015, Apple held just 39.2 percent of the market, while Android was on 51.3 percent of the smartphones sold in Great Britain in that respective period.
Just like in US, Apple's gains in Great Britain come at the expense of both Android and Windows. Microsoft's share in the market dropped sharply, to 2.1 percent from 9.1 percent a year prior.
Looking at the five biggest European markets -- namely Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain -- both Android and iOS gained market share. This happened at the expense of Windows, of course. Google's OS is now at 72.4 percent, up from 70.6 percent, while Apple is up to 24.6 percent, from 21.8 percent a year before.
Since Kantar does not cover the fourth quarter of 2016 in this report, we will have to wait until later this month (or the next) to see what sort of effect December sales had on the market share of Android and iOS. Apple is typically very strong during the last part of the year, which is typically also its best quarter.
Worth noting there is that, while Kantar says that Pixel devices performed well, a recent report from Flurry claims that Google's duo "struggled to drum up excitement this holiday season". Based on its data, which covered the period between December 19 and December 25, sales didn't get past the two percent mark in US.
Meanwhile, iPhone accounted for 44 percent of sales. That would still put Android ahead, with up to 56 percent of sales), but likely slightly down compared to Kantar's figures. It remains to be seen whether the likes of IDC and Gartner agree.

MMM NIGERIA IS BACK

MMM NIGERIA IS BACK

Ponzi scheme, MMM Nigeria just announced their long awaited resumption a day earlier to their official resumption date via their official twitter handle.

The scheme officially tweeted their resumption with a caption "this is to officially inform you that MMM Nigeria is open for business a day earlier than promised! Let's go there Nigerians!"

The popular financial scheme which announced its 'freeze' in mid-December 2016 assured its over three million subscribers to resume January 14, 2017 unexpectedly resumed a day earlier, January 13, 2017.

The scheme via its website apologized to its participants and cheered them with its popular slogan 'together we can change the world', assuring them to have no fear of expecting any emergency.

The founder furthermore pleaded with the authorities and mass media to leave attacking the scheme.

"I'd again like to call on the authorities and the mass media: please leave us alone! Have mercy on us." He pleaded.

Read tweet below:

This is to officially inform you that MMM Nigeria is open for business a day earlier than promised! Let's go there Nigerians! pic.twitter.com/9zAb28OeYI

— MMM Nigeria Support (@MMMNigeriaHelp) January 13, 2017

Gionee Steel 2 with 4,000mAh Battery Launched at $187

Gionee Steel 2

Gionee Steel 2, today became the Chinese brand's first smartphone to go official this year. The latest budget smartphone is a part of its China-exclusive 'Steel' series. As expected by its name, the compact budget device indeed comes with a metal unibody design and packs a large battery on the inside.

Up front, the Gionee Steel 2 packs a 5-inch HD display flanked by black borders to give the smartphone a bezel-free look. Below the display lies a rectangular home button which apparently houses a fingerprint sensor and two capacitive keys. Powering, the Gionee Steel 2 is a Mediatek MT6737 quad core processor with cores clocked at 1.3GHz each. This is again clubbed with a Mali T720 GPU and 3GB RAM. Coming to storage, the Gionee Steel 2 comes in two variants – 16GB and 32GB. That said, there's room for memory expansion upto 128GB.
Talking of the cameras, the Gionee Steel 2 packs an 8MP rear sensor with LED flash. In an interesting design cue, Gionee has made use of a black glass strip to flank the camera module and the flash. This however makes the back of the smartphone looks eerily similar to the Huawei P9. The Gionee Steel 2 also packs a 5MP front facing shooter for selfies. Coming to the battery, the budget smartphone features a large 4,000mAh non-removable Li-ion cell on the inside.
The dual SIM smartphone comes with support for 4G VoLTE. The rest of the connectivity options include Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS and WiFi 802.11 b/g/n. The Gionee Steel 2 runs on Android Marshmallow 6.0 and comes in Gold and Black colors. As for the pricing, Gionee has marked the smartphones at 1299 Yuan (Rs 12,748/$187 approx.) It now available for sale in China. With that said, we highly doubt whether this smartphone would ever make it to the Indian shores.
Gionee Steel 2 Specifications

5 inch HD (1,280 x 720p) LCD Display

1.3GHz quad core Mediatek MT6737 processor with Mali T720 GPU

3GB RAM

16GB/32GB Internal Storage + Upto 128GB of External Storage via MicroSD card

8MP Rear Camera with LED Flash

5MP Front Camera

Fingerprint Sensor, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS

4,000mAh Battery

Dual SIM with 4G VoLTE support

Android Marshmallow 6.0 with Amigo 3.5 UI

Colors: Black, Gold

Nigerias first non-interest commercial bank to list on Nigerian Stock Exchange

The Nigerian Stock Exchange is set to list Nigeria's first non-interest commercial bank, Jaiz Bank. The council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has approved the bank's listing of its entire issued share capital on the exchange.

The Bank is already quoted on the NASD OTC Plc–a securities exchange for the trading of unquoted public companies–, however, would be the first company to transfer from the NASD OTC to the NSE.

Jaiz Bank will be listing a total of 29.46 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at 1.25 naira, indicating a start-off market capitalisation of 36.83 billion naira. The non-interest bank would be working with three investment firms–Finmal Finance Services Limited and Kundila Finance Services Limited and Inverness Wealth Management Limited to facilitate the listing.

Jaiz Bank was founded from in 2003 was created out of the former Jaiz International Plc, but got regulatory approval in 2011 and started full operations in 2012. Jaiz Bank was created out of the former Jaiz International Plc, which was set up in 2003-2004 as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to establish Nigeria's first full-fledged non-interest bank.

The bank has more than 20,000 shareholders, including shareholders such as the former Chairman of First Bank, Umaru Mutallab, industrialist Aminu Dantata, and development finance institution- Islamist Development Bank.

The listing will be executed by way of an introduction, however, the company has indicated its interest in an Initial Public Offering (IPO). An IPO by the bank could make it the first public offering 2017. The NSE has had a setback in IPOs as there was no recorded public offering in 2016. Interswitch, which was supposed to be listed on the exchange through an IPO in 2016, suspended its listing.

MTN Nigeria has stated their plans in 2016 that it would undertake an IPO on the NSE in 2017 to raise an investment of $1 billion. The IPO is part of the company's conditions in the reduction of their fine for failing to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered subscribers.

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CommuniTake Technologies Announces Global Distribution Agreement with American International Radio Inc. for IntactPhone Mobile Security

CommuniTake Technologies Announces Global Distribution Agreement with American International Radio Inc. for IntactPhone Mobile Security

ATLANTA, Jan. 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --CommuniTake, a leader in enterprise mobile security solutions announced today it has signed a distribution agreement with American International Radio Inc., (AIR) a premier distributor of professional communications solutions and products. With this agreement, CommuniTake will further extend the selling of its IntactPhone secure mobility solution, to enable in-depth protection against mobile cyber-attacks, to multiple markets.

With this agreement, American International Radio, Inc. extends its communications product portfolio to include IntactPhone and provide its global reseller community with an advanced mobile cyber security solution to address the threats many organizations are now facing.

Mobile cyber-crime has become a significant threat to any organization. It drives a need to create a new, higher level of security to enable organizations connect and operate more safely. CommuniTake's IntactPhone utilizes holistic mobile security approach that far exceeds the capabilities of other alternatives in the market and represents a paradigm shift in the advancement of protected communications. It combines dedicated device and purpose-built operating system along with encrypted communications, fused central governance and built-in remote control technology to enable always-on and always-secure enterprise mobility environment.

"It's CommuniTake's pleasure to cooperate with AIR for our one-of-a-kind Intact Mobile Security Suite. We are happy that AIR recognized the quality, robustness, and innovation of our products," Said Ronen Sasson, CEO of CommuniTake Technologies. "With AIR's world-class IT expertise and superior chanel coverage, we believe we can provide organizations a highly secure mobile experience, combined with a strong support by local partners."

"With mobile becoming a key enabler to conducting business these days, data sensitive organizations are increasingly interested in protecting mobile endpoints and precisely controlling the use of mobile devices," said Dorel Nasui, CEO at AIR. "With cyber security becoming such a significant challenge to our customers, we decided to provide our customers with the best solution we could find. After careful evaluation, we selected CommuniTake's IntactPhone. The addition of IntactPhone to our broad portfolio of solutions improves organizations' ability to protect wireless communications while assuring seamless device performance. Together, we will be able to provide our customers with top-tier solutions that prevent eavesdropping, protect data, and improve productivity."

About CommuniTake Technologies

CommuniTake delivers a game-changing mobile security and productivity platform. It natively integrates a specially manufactured mobile device, custom-built security-rich OS, encrypted communications, virtual private network, command and control center, and remote takeover technology to provide organizations with powerful in-depth protection against mobile cyber-crime. CommuniTake personnel are a combination of developers from elite military cyber units, as well as hacking experts, ensuring cutting-edge technology. CommuniTake products are used by foremost operators and businesses worldwide.

About American International Radio Inc.

AIR is a premier technology company, one of the largest Motorola Distributors within EMEA and System Integrator providing Professional Communication Solutions and Mobility & IT Applications for Public Safety, Government, Commercial, Industrial and Transport sectors. AIR began in 1990 and has since grown to direct offices in nine countries and partners in over 60 countries all over the world, including U.S.A, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. AIR corporate headquarters is located in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Visit us online at www.airadio.com

Contacts

CommuniTake Technologies Inc.

Itai Bass; (650) 515-3578

140650@email4pr.com

www.IntactPhone.com

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:Click Here

SOURCE CommuniTake Technologies Ltd

Certified ethical hacker bootcamp online courses for $45

Interested in becoming well-versed in the realm of white hat hacking? Are you ready to start a career in web and network security? StackSocial is currently offering up a suite of online courses that will teach you exactly what you need to know to begin your way down the path of ethical hacking. Certified ethical hacker bootcamp online courses for $45 (List price: $5207)

 

From tip to tail, these courses are designed to help even newcomers understand how ethical hacking really works. Spread out over 15 courses, 144 lectures, and 45 hours worth of content, it contains what you need to know to pass the CEH v9 certification provided by EC-Council. For one low price, you'll get courses on enumeration, sniffing, denial of service, session hijacking, web app hacking, SQL injection, wireless network hacking, evasion, cryptography, trojans/backdoors, viruses/worms, buffer overflows, the payment card industry, penetration testing, and test prep. And once you've done everything, you'll earn a certificate of completion.

 Even if you're not seeking a new job right now, it never hurts to learn more about how malicious people and organizations go about exploiting flaws. If you have even the slightest interest in cyber security, this is money well spent. While this course lists for over $5000, StackSocial is offering a massive discount for a limited time. When you purchase the certified ethical hacker bootcamp from the StackSocial website, you'll only end up paying $45 for lifetime access.

  

 Note: All sales final. Terms and conditions apply. See the StackSocial website for more information.

 For more great deals check out TechBargains Our commerce group sources the best deals and products for the ET Deals posts. We operate independently of Editorial and Advertising and may earn a percentage of the sale, if you buy something via a link on the post. If you are interested in promoting your deals, please contact us at commerce@ziffdavis.com.

Fighting off against rising mobile attacks

Despite the fact that our lives are becoming increasingly more reliant on digital technologies, most of us are still largely unaware of the various threats online. There is one simple idea that people should understand; you are responsible for the protection of your data. Security breaches in major companies are not uncommon at all, unfortunately.

Major attacks and threat statistics

Recently, Yahoo revealed that a data breach in August 2013 had compromised more than 1 billion user accounts. Earlier in September, they also revealed that a data breach sometime in late 2014 gave hackers access to data from more than 500 million accounts. In November, Friend Finder Networks also announced a breach with a resulting leak of over 412 million accounts.

Threats in the online world at constant and entirely unrelenting. Poor security is the number one reason for such breaches and they do not only occur at the enterprise level. In the mobile world, trends are largely the same. Securelist reports that Kaspersky Lab alone detected 3,626,458 malicious installation packages in Q2 2016 alone. One of McAfee's latest reports indicates very similar findings.

Major security companies like them constantly warn of the rising threat levels. Unfortunately, the vast majority of users ignore these types of warnings. SplashData's annual list of 'Worst Passwords' is shocking, after all.

Protecting against mobile attacks

As a single user, you may think that there is nothing to do to protect yourself against data breaches like the ones I mentioned above. The truth, however, is that you would be mistaken. While you cannot stop attacks from happening, you can at least minimize the risk posed to you as a user.

1. Use password managers

This is, by far, the easiest thing you can do to protect yourself. Instead of reusing the same passwords in every service, just use a password manager. This way, you will be able to have an unlimited number of strong, randomly generated passwords. And the best part is that you will only have to remember one of them.

Coming up with a strong password is much easier than you might think. Those randomly generated passwords that you might have come across probably look like this: &s9-vf(32*[q2. While this is obviously a strong password, it is impossible to remember.

Instead of that, simply come up with a sentence and turn it into a password. For instance, the sentence 'Cheesecake is the best dessert' could be turned into 'CheesecakeTheB3stDessert' or something similar. And yes, that way you will have a very strong password on your hands.

2. Enable multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication for important things like email addresses and bank accounts should be a no-brainer. That way, your phone will become a security device on its own.

3. Phishing and social engineering

Even secure systems can easily fall prey to human error. An example of phishing would be a fake website for your bank posing as the real one. And while regular people are less likely to fall victims of social engineering, you should always be aware of your rights and never share sensitive information unless you are in control of the situation.

4. Protect your device

Both Android and iOS make it extremely easy to protect your device. Both Google and Apple are heavily invested in you, after all. Use a pin, password, or pattern lock. Install security updates as soon as possible. Take advantage of security services and secure apps like encrypted messaging services. Do not perform sensitive actions while you are using a public Wi-Fi.

Conclusion

Protecting ourselves against mobile attacks can be daunting but it is far from impossible. Once you actually get into the habit of securing your accounts, you will feel extremely vulnerable without these extra steps. The threat levels are only going to rise as we move forward and it is high time that we understood how to protect ourselves in a more effective manner.

About Adam Pothitos Adam has been keenly interested in the mobile and marketing industries for as long as he can remember. He believes that the mobile and digital evolutions have completely transformed our world and wants to be a close part of that ever-shifting landscape. Towards that end, he has written for a number of online publications on matters of the mobile market, the computer industry, and all kinds of technology. When he's not dealing with technology, he's always interested in some good discussions on psychology.

How can the U.S. prevent future hacking efforts against our people and institutions?

Every American, Republican, Democrat or independent, should be appalled and concerned about the Russian hacking of Democratic Party computers, whatever the purpose.

Most likely the Russians were trying to affect the outcome of America's Nov. 8 presidential election. An intelligence report made public on Friday says that is the case, the Russians wanted to help Donald Trump win the election.

If so, they failed in that effort. Oh, Trump did win, but not because of Russian "help." By all accounts, the election was fair and the results clear. In less than two weeks, the winner of that election, Donald J. Trump, will be sworn in as our 45th president.

But what if the Russians had been trying to help Hillary Clinton? Would the foreign interference have been any less troubling? Absolutely not.

One of the hallmarks of our democracy is the right and the ability to elect those who would lead us in fair and free elections. Those elections, obviously, aren't without drama and tension, but there is little evidence of wholesale tampering with the outcome. Despite continuing protests by anti-Trump Americans, Trump won fair and square. He didn't need the help of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Friday's report indicates the Russians have been hacking into America's political assets for some time, without our knowledge. If they can do that, what else are they hacking? Are any secrets safe?

How many Americans have been the victims of hacks into banks and stores with which they do business? Are those hacks meant to prove that the hackers can do so, or are they meant to cause harm to our personal information? Either way, it is troubling.

Many medical organizations have our personal health information available online. Our doctors can review it and we can access it by providing an appropriate user name and password. The system seems safe, but is it really? Can bad actors learn all of our medical information?

And is it just the Russians we have to worry about. Are other unfriendly -- or friendly? -- nations hacking into our political and governmental accounts? Are we hacking into their's?

The question becomes whether there is any way to keep governments and people from hacking into our internet accounts. The internet and the worldwide web are marvelous tools of modern life, but we must find a way to keep our information safe, at whatever level.

Another concern of this whole matter is President-elect Trump's oft-broadcast refusal to accept the information provided by America's numerous intelligence agencies showing that Russia, indeed, was behind the Democratic Party hacks. It is certainly understandable to be skeptical about intelligence agency conclusions, but to do so publicly and so often causes many of us to doubt those who work so hard day-in and day-out to keep us safe. Americans must have trust in our intelligence services to do their job well and completely. Without that trust, we'd be afraid to leave our homes every day.

As president, Trump must learn that people, not only in America but around the world, listen to what he says and Tweets. He must learn to moderate his speech and actions, to think long and hard before speaking or Tweeting.

After being briefed Friday morning, Trump said the meeting with intelligence officials was "constructive," but he stopped short of agreeing with their conclusion. He did pledge that his administration will develop a plan within its first 90 days to "aggressively combat and stop cyber attacks." That is encouraging and we urge him to follow through on that pledge.

We need to continue to investigate the Russian hacks to learn how they were done and what we can do to prevent them in the future. No matter who was or who might be hacked.

Hottest new CES 2017 tech: Home robots

Some of the hottest tech coming to CES this year includes home robots, Super UHD TVs, and the latest in PCs.

Artificial intelligence in the home has been making big gains at CES over the last several years, according to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) in a statement released Tuesday. CTA projects 2017 unit sales for voice-controlled, stand-alone digital assistant devices with a cloud-based operating system -- including Amazon's Echo and Google Home -- to reach 4.5 million units, a 52 percent increase, and reach $608 million in revenue, up 36 percent.

And with home robots, companies at CES in 2017 will be looking to upstage intelligent home assistants like Google Home and Amazon Echo.  

Kuri: This home robot from Mayfield Robotics is all about personality. An erstwhile Pixar animator was one of the lead designers of Kuri, according to Robotics Trends. The robot has "emotive eyes and a friendly disposition" and cruises around your home "smartly avoiding obstacles," says Mayfield Robotics. Kuri's eyes are equipped with a camera that can capture photos and video, recognize faces, and monitor your home when you're away. It will be priced at $699.

Olly: This is a "tabletop bot" that that "recognizes different household members and adapts it personality to suit each one," according to Jordan Edelson, CEO of Appetizer Mobile, in a statement about CES trends this year. More specifically, Olly's personality "evolves" depending on interaction patterns," says Emotech Inc., the company behind the robot. Olly's AI engine was created by a group a neuroscience and machine learning scientists.

APPLE'S COMING ATTRACTIONS IN 2017: RADICAL NEW IPHONE, RESIZED IPAD?

Intelligent Vision System: Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), one of Taiwan's leading high-tech applied research institutions, announced it will show off an Intelligent Vision System for Companion Robots. "ITRI invites...attendees to booth 2015, Tech East, Westgate, to play chess and have coffee with a robot commanded by ITRI's Intelligent Vision System." 

Aristotle: Mattel's Aristotle is an Amazon Echo assistant that is programmed to understand your kid, since a child's speech patterns are different than an adult's. Aristotle "is built to live in a child's room—and answer a child's questions—rather than rule the entire home," according to FastCompany.com's Co.Design. It is expected to be priced at $300.

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CES 2017 proves intelligent, voice-controlled digital assistants are here to stay. "We've had more progress in voice-activated digital assistants in the last 30 months than in the first 30 years," Shawn DuBravac, CTA chief economist, said in a statement on Tuesday. "Word recognition accuracy has improved from nearly zero percent in the 1990s to 75 percent in 2013 to about 95 percent today - enabling these devices to enjoy immense consumer adoption."

TVs:

TVs are a CES mainstay and companies like Samsung and LG will be showing off the latest in TV tech.

Samsung: The tech giant will show off its QLED TV, based on Quantum Dot technology, which allows deeper blacks and better detail no matter how light or dark the scene is or whether you're viewing it in a brightly lit or dark room, Samsung said. The new TVs can also reproduce 100 percent color volume. "For example, a leaf can be perceived as different colors from yellowish green to turquoise, depending on brightness of the light," Samsung said.

LG: LG is rolling out its newest Super UHD TVs, the SJ9500, SJ8500 and SJ8000 featuring Nano Cell LCD technology, which creates "more subtle, accurate colors that can be viewed from widerangles than other TVs."

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Computers:

Lenovo: The computer maker has announced its X1 Carbon, X1 Yoga, X1 Tablet. With its popular X1 Carbon, Lenovo has shrunk a 14-inch display into a 13-inch chassis, among other, more subtle improvements to all three portables.

HP: HP is bringing out a new lineup that includes the EliteBook x360 for business, a redesigned 15.6-inch Spectre x360, and a HP ENVY Curved All-in-One, the AIO 34, with a massive 34-inch display.

Dell: Dell has updated its popular XPS 13 with a 2-in-1 design, the first XPS 13 with a 360-degree hinge. Like the previous XPS 13 laptops, it sports a very-high-resolution QHD+ InfinityEdge touch display and fits a 13-inch laptop into a 12-inch chassis.

Samsung Smart TV Smart Hub update goes beyond watching TV

These days, watching on the TV, especially on smart TVs, goes beyond the mere act of actually watching something. In addition to gathering content from multiple sources instead of just one live broadcast TV, time on the "tube" is also usually spent organizing those sources, searching for relevant videos, or keeping up to date with various bits and pieces of information. To cater to all those use cases, Samsung has updated its Smart Hub with features to augment your watching experience, be it on the TV itself or even on your smartphone.

As Samsung already alluded to before CES 2017, it was bringing some new features to its Smart TVs, specifically those surrounding sports and music. Especially sports. In Samsung's new Smart Hub experience, you no longer have search each and every channel or streaming service to see where your favorite team is playing. The process actually works in reverse. You let the Smart TV know who your favorite team is and then it tells you the channels, schedules, and even scores.

As for music, Samsung is bringing Shazam to your big screen. The Music section of the Smart Hub will identify the song currently playing and help you find information about the song, artist, and everything related to it. Of course, it is powered by Shazam.

Watching TV hasn't only gone beyond the scope of merely watching TV, it has also gone beyond the TV itself. Our smartphones have become extensions of the TV as much as they have become extensions of us. That's why Samsung has introduced a Smart View app for iOS and Android that lets you do the same convenient searching of content on your smartphone. Even better, it also mirrors notifications from TV to smartphone to make sure you won't miss a beat.

These are just some of the user experience enhancements that Samsung has promised Smart TV users for 2017. More will be coming soon, so better hang on to your couch.

SOURCE: Samsung

DirectTrust Outlines Five Health Information Technology Trends to Watch in 2017

WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwired - Jan 9, 2017) - DirectTrust today released a list of five health information technology (health IT) trends to watch in 2017. DirectTrust is a health care industry alliance created by and for participants in the Direct Exchange network used for secure, interoperable messaging of personal health information (PHI) between provider organizations, and between provider and patients, for the purpose of improved coordination of care.

"One has to begin any set of predictions about health care and health IT for 2017 with the caveat that with Donald Trump as President almost nothing is certain except uncertainty itself. It may be months or even longer before we know the full impact of his and a Republican Congress' leadership on the crucial levers of legislation and regulation affecting healthcare funding, insurance coverage, and the uses of health IT," said DirectTrust President and CEO David C. Kibbe, MD, MBA.

With this caveat, Dr. Kibbe offers his thoughts about trends and counter-trends he expects could develop over the next year that would shape the ecosystem of health IT as an industry. These predictions are Dr. Kibbe's personal opinions and analyses, and not necessarily those of DirectTrust's 130-member organization.

1. Efforts to repeal ACA and pass Medicare legislation will lead to months of uncertainty. If members of the Republican Congress carry through on their promises to repeal the Accountable Care Act, and at the same time pass new legislation moving Medicare to fixed contributions towards insurance in the private sector, then we are in for a period which might be characterized by the phrase 'more questions than answers.' Even if Congress simply begins the process in a serious way in January 2017 -- which is certainly expected -- and what follows are months of debate and controversy, the effect will be felt by the entire healthcare industry as uncertainty about the future. This could possibly lead to a number of months of inaction that might feel like paralysis, including failures to invest in health IT infrastructure and innovation.

2. Health IT economy will remain stable as industry continues to leverage health IT to improve care coordination and interoperability. In the short term, not much will change; uncertainty discourages change. For the time being, I don't expect any major shocks to the health IT economy or to the professionals working in it. The themes of using health IT to improve care coordination, to manage patient populations through better collection and data use, and the value of advances in telemedicine, will continue to be heard and supported by both the private sector and the federal government in a bipartisan fashion. Interoperability of systems will remain an important trend for hospitals, physicians, and federal providers of care like the VA and DoD. The 21st Century Cures Act, now federal law, will, if anything, increase transparency with respect to health IT technology vendors and their products' usability, while at the same time discourage blocking of access to and transport/exchanges of health information. But the advisory groups the Cures Act establishes -- and the recommendations forthcoming from them -- will not be felt for at least another year or so and, even then, they will seem iterative and not much of a rocking of the boat.

3. Value-based payment and risk sharing arrangements will gain momentum. Expect a gradual but steady increase in the momentum by which value-based payment and risk sharing arrangements influence policies aimed at EHRs and their uses by providers and provider organizations. Concomitantly, regulatory oversight will slowly but surely be diminished. It would not surprise me to see MU Stage 3, still in place for hospitals but replaced by the Advancing Care Information component of MIPS for most physicians, to be significantly delayed or even retired completely and replaced with something similar to and aligned with MIPS. Given that there is strong bipartisan support for MACRA in Congress and incoming Secretary of HHS, we can expect to see value-based payment reforms for Medicare and Medicaid become the main drivers behind incentives for the uses of health IT, with much less policy momentum behind the adoption of "health IT for its own sake.

With more than 90% of hospitals and over 70% of all physicians now using ONC-certified EHR technology, we can expect Congress and the new White House to leave it up to the private sector how to make the best uses of the emerging national health IT infrastructure. Does this mean a decreased role for ONC? Not necessarily, in my opinion. It's not a secret that many Republicans dislike ONC and do not want its influence to grow. That said, the EHR and health IT certification role for ONC is important to the statutory integrity of MACRA and is protected under the 21st Century Cures Bill, now law. There is grudging support, even among most Republicans, for a surveillance role for ONC if it's limited to issues of safety and public health in EHR use.

4. Security will finally become important to the health IT market. Look for security, including the issues of encryption, authentication to networks and identity management to -- finally! -- become important to the market for health IT and digital systems used in health and healthcare. It is simply shocking to witness the ransoming and accompanying breaches of healthcare data currently taking place, and remediation of this situation will be one of the major stories of 2017.

5. Emergent health technologies will attract a lot of attention. The wild card will be what happens with emergent health technologies capable of aggregating personal health data from multiple providers, managing it for clinical guidance, and channeling big data under the control of patients -- not their providers. These include, among others, telemedicine, FHIR RESTful queries via APIs, permission-based blockchain, wearables and PHR platforms. The latter are particularly interesting as a space open to and likely to be dominated by technology giants Microsoft, Apple, Google, IBM, Facebook and Twitter, as these companies pair up with specific providers and aim their initiatives at specific diseases and conditions.

About DirectTrust DirectTrust is a five-year old, non-profit, competitively neutral, self-regulatory entity initially created by and for participants in the Direct community, including Health Internet Service Providers (HISPs), Certificate Authorities (CAs), Registration Authorities (RAs), doctors, patients and vendors, and supports both provider-to-provider as well as patient-to-provider Direct exchange. In the period 2013 to 2015, DirectTrust was the recipient of a Cooperative Agreement Award from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as part of the Exemplar HIE Governance Program. DirectTrust serves as a forum and governance body for persons and entities engaged in the Direct exchange of electronic health information as part of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN). DirectTrust's Security and Trust Framework is the basis for the voluntary accreditation of service providers implementing Direct health information exchange. The goal of DirectTrust is to develop, promote, and, as necessary, help enforce the rules and best practices necessary to maintain security and trust within the Direct community, consistent with the HITECH Act and the governance rules for the NwHIN established by ONC. DirectTrust is committed to fostering widespread public confidence in the interoperable exchange of health information. To learn more, visit www.directtrust.org.

Culture-defining iPhone turns 10 today

Steve Jobs at the iPhone launch in January 2007.(Photo: Apple, for USA TODAY)

SAN FRANCISCO — Steve Jobs proudly offered one of the first iPhones backstage, beaming as he asked for feedback on Apple's groundbreaking smartphone.

It was a decade ago today, at the Moscone Center here, and Apple's iconic co-founder had a hunch it was about to change computing as we know it. In a sit-down interview with USA TODAY, Jobs made a convincing case, demonstrating how iPhone users could make calls while viewing content on the Web and exchanging e-mail — all at the same time.

"This is a revolutionary product that has the chance to really impact people's lives," Jobs told me, comparing the iPhone to the original Macintosh and iPod. "This is the ultimate digital device."

USATODAY

Jobs unveils long-awaited iPhone - USATODAY.com

Jobs' words proved prophetic.

Analyst Tim Bajarin, who was in the audience that Tuesday morning, was instantly convinced Apple would create a new category in mobile computing. "We had mini computers, desktop computers and now with the iPhone, pocket computers," he recalls. I felt it could be Apple's biggest hit ever."

In the decade since its inception — it was announced in Jan. 9 but did not ship until June 2007 — iPhone redefined the burgeoning smartphone market, kick-started Apple into years of hyper-growth and became the flagship product of the company known for bringing Macintosh to the world. Roughly two-thirds of Apple's revenue comes from iPhone.

Along the way, Apple ushered in the App Store and sold more than 1 billion iPhones, propelling it to a current market value of $628.7 billion.

"iPhone set the standard for mobile computing in its first decade and we are just getting started," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. "The best is yet to come."

The rise of iPhone meant the demise of BlackBerry, at one time the leading mobile device, and a reordering of smartphone designs. Samsung was among several vendors to closely hew the iPhone's distinctive design, leading to a years-long legal dispute that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court. (Samsung won.)

"The iPhone completely changed the way businesses connect with their customers. We've only scratched the surface in terms of mobile engagement and personalization," says Localytics CEO Raj Aggarwal, who worked alongside Jobs on the launch of the iPhone.

The FBI also had a keen interest in the phone, and its contents, when it pressed Apple to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino, Calif., terrorists. Apple declined, sparking a national debate on the security vs. privacy of consumers. (Apple won.)

"The engineering is in the background, so the front end is really easy to use, with just a swipe or a poke of the finger," says Peter Krapp, professor of film & media studies at the University of California, Irvine. "That's the success of the iPhone and why it's has been so colonizing over the last decade."

Not every product is unflappable, however.

Apple CEO Tim Cook at the iPhone 7 introduction last year. (Photo: Jon Swartz, for USA TODAY)

As the worldwide smartphone market saturated and copycat competition from cheaper models intensified in Asia, iPhone sales slackened the past few quarters, depressing Apple's overall revenue.

Analysts accustomed to blow-out iPhone sales began to scale back their estimates.

Even iPhone, which wowed consumers and corporations with technology such as Touch ID, its fingerprint identity sensor, and dual-lens Portrait photo mode, has been criticized for incremental innovation updates of late.

Indeed, the death of Jobs in October 2011 underscored such sentiment. His passing, for some, symbolized the end of a brilliant decade-long stretch in which Jobs introduced iPod, iPhone and iPad.

But, like Apple and Jobs, iPhone may be in store for a comeback.

Things could change dramatically in September when Apple is expected to unveil the 10th-anniversary iPhone, which could feature a radical redesign and other goodies. It just might be the kind of evolutionary consumer-electronic blockbuster it was in the beginning.

Just as Jobs predicted 10 years ago today.

5 quintessential Nokia features we hope HMD will bring back in its Android smartphones

5 quintessential Nokia features we hope HMD will bring back in its Android smartphones

Nokia has always been a brand closer to most of our hearts. Of course, for most of us in the early and mid-2000, we started our journey with a basic Nokia phone. Nokia was also one of those brands that started the early smartphone revolution. After Microsoft acquired Nokia's handset division in 2013, the company had been out of the market for close to three years. After all these years, Nokia is back in the smartphone game with an Android smartphones — something that Nokia loyalists had been waiting for since Google introduced Android OS. Making its grand comeback, just yesterday HMD launched the Nokia 6 smartphone in China that runs Android 7.0 Nougat out-of-the-box.

However, with market dynamics completely changing over the years, Nokia and HMD will need more than the brand name and legacy to succeed. The Nokia 6 packs in 'decent' hardware, but the oomph factor that would crave Nokia fans to go gaga over the brand's comeback is missing. To be honest, I'm disappointed in the Nokia 6.

The smartphone not only lacks the much-needed punch, but also does not offer anything special than what its competitors are offering. For once, smartphones like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and LeEco Le 2 offer better hardware for less, Lenovo Z2 Plus and LeEco Le Max2 offer top of the line hardware for around the same pricing of the Nokia 6. In fact, smartphones like the Honor 6X and Coolpad Cool 1 Dual that are priced lower than Nokia 6 offer some USP in the form of dual rear-camera setup. With Nokia 6 being just like any other mid-­range smartphone, here are five things we expect from the upcoming Nokia smartphones. ALSO READ: Blast from the past: These are our favorite Nokia phones till date

Design Innovation: Design has always been a strong point of Nokia phones. Take an example of the early phones such as the Nokia 3310 — it had a nice design, sturdy and durable body that made it near impact resistant. The Nokia 2100 featured a semi-transparent matte plastic, feather light body and white backlight under the keypad. The Nokia 3650 with circular dial pad, the Nokia 3250 with swiveling bottom half to reveal MP3 controls for play / pause, go forward and back, the Nokia Communicator with geometric box-like design, the Nokia 6810 with an unusual fold-out QWERTY keyboard and more. And who could forget the gaming centric N-Gage and N-Gage QD?

In fact, look at the Nokia N-series, the N90 with 270-degrees swivel design to transform into a clamshell phone or a camcorder, the N92, N95 and more – Nokia has always set the bar with innovative designs. More recently, Nokia experimented with polycarbonate shells in bright neon colors, which made them stand apart from the crowd.

However, the same is missing from the latest Nokia 6. It features a metal unibody design along with a sleek and slim form factor; however, there is no design innovation here. We saw Nokia going all crazy with its whacky designs in the decade between 2000 and 2010, but as a Nokia fan, it's sad to see the latest Nokia phone lacking 'innovation' that I've always seen. In the current competitive market, where price vs specifications war has been cut-throat, HMD and Nokia need to seriously bring in that innovation to the table. Nokia has been one of the brands that had dared to be different in the past and it can do the same going forward. ALSO READ: Nokia 6 vs Redmi Note 3 vs Le Eco Le 2 vs Coolpad Cool 1 Dual: Price, specifications, and features compared

PureView Camera: Besides innovative designs, Nokia has also been known for its camera prowess. Be it the phones with VGA camera, or the N-series or Lumia-series running Windows Phone OS, camera has been a key pitch. Not because of the megapixel count, but because of the superior quality results the camera could offer. Besides Carl Zeiss optics and camera sensor, the software that does the post processing of the image plays a crucial role, and Nokia has been good at it.

In fact, Nokia was the one to bring optical image stabilization (OIS) to smartphones with the Lumia 920. It allowed for taking sharper, blur-free photos even with shaky hand movements. With the Lumia 920, Nokia also focused on low-light photography and the smartphone truly excels at it. I still have the smartphone as a spare device and occasionally use it for clicking photos. The one thing that I admire about the Lumia 920 is that despite being four-years old, it gives tough competition to the recent camera smartphones. ALSO READ: Nokia 6 with 4GB RAM, Android 7.0 Nougat announced: Price, specifications and features

Then there were PureView 808 running on Symbian OS and Lumia 1020 running on Windows Phone OS – both featuring 41-megapixel PureView cameras, and there is no need to talk about the quality of photos they can capture. If I had to say something about these devices, I'd say – they are 'cameras' disguised as 'smartphones'. With all that being said and done, the same thing is missing from the Nokia 6, and it needs to be addressed in the upcoming Nokia phones.

Software Experience: One of the reasons why Nokia has been a people favorite is the fact that the phones are easy to use – thanks to the simple software. Be it the black-and-white phones, Nokia Asha-series, or Symbian OS, people never really faced issues getting used to the User Interface (UI). Nokia can very well go with 'Pure Android' OS, just like the Nexus and Pixel-series. It will make software update process easier, but the Nokia centric addition in the form of customizations to even better the UI will be missing. It will be sad to see Nokia not putting in its two-cents to distinguish its smartphones from the ones already available out there. But at the same time, Nokia also needs to work on delivering updates faster, so that users don't miss out on the latest features and security updates.

Hardware: In this era of specifications battle, customers choose a smartphone not just on the brand name but also looking at the hardware. When you're out spending money, you'd obviously want a smartphone that is powered by the latest hardware, and also an assurance that it will be future proof. Take an example of the Nokia 6, it is giving a pre-cursor as to what we can expected in 2017 — that being, 4GB RAM + 64GB onboard storage to be seen on most upcoming devices. However, when we talk about the SoC, its rather disappointing to see Nokia use a decent Snapdragon 430 octa-core chipset rather than going for Snapdragon 650/652 which we have seen on smartphones priced lower than Nokia 6.

Addition of fingerprint sensor on the home button is also something that we have already seen, but it's time to move away from the current technology to ultrasonic ones. Also, take a look at Lumia 920, Lumia 1020, Lumia 1520 and so on, all these featured Wireless Charging technologies, something that we haven't seen on many Android phones, except the Galaxy S6-series, Galaxy S7-seires and the Galaxy Note 5. Addition of wireless charging and fast charging technology, and more could really get Nokia in the game.

Target Every Segment: Now this is one core area that could open the 'door to success' going forward. Nokia has always had its phones in every price segment, be it the basic feature phones and Asha-series for entry level users, the N-series in the higher end segment and more, there was something for everyone. Brands like HTC and Sony tried to replicate the same, but it lost the battle to Chinese smartphone brands such as Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Lenovo and others. Currently, Samsung is the only brand having its smartphones right from the sub-Rs 5000 level, and going all the way up to Rs 60,000 price bracket. Also, the presence – both online and offline, along with a number of service centres across the country has helped it gain people's trust. Nokia had done the same during its glory days, and doing the same again is what could help customers buy Nokia smartphones once again.

I am glad to see Nokia make a comeback and hope it manages to go back to its glory days. What do you think about Nokia making its comeback? Let us know in the comments below.

Amazon store of the future has no cashiers, but humans are watching from behind the scenes

The promise of Amazon's new futuristic convenience store is no line, no wait and, frankly, little to no human interaction. But for now, the machines still need some help from our species.

Recode has learned that Amazon has staff on call behind the scenes to assist the computer vision system that is supposed to detect which items a shopper pulls off a shelf and carries out of the store.

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the setup and said that Amazon staff is asked to help out when the system used in the new Amazon Go store can't make a determination.

"[W]hen the machine vision system isn't sure, it asks a human for confirmation," she said. "It happens a small fraction of the time."

The spokesperson said that the review work is being done "in house" and not through Mechanical Turk, the Amazon-owned website that pays out pennies per item for tasks similar to this one. She did not immediately provide answers to several follow-up questions, including queries about the frequency of the human intervention, who exactly is doing the work and whether they are reviewing still images, video footage or something else.

Amazon announced its first Amazon Go store last month in Seattle, though it is currently only open to company employees. The store's technology allows customers to take items like sandwiches and drinks from shelves and leave without checking out; items are charged to the payment card a customer has on file with Amazon. The company has dubbed its system "Just Walk Out Technology."

While Amazon wouldn't describe it this way, customers are essentially being tracked by cameras inside, which help identify which products are removed and by whom. An Amazon patent application unearthed by Recode in 2015 suggested that such a store may also include microphones to locate someone and track their movements. (Update: A spokeswoman said the store does not contain microphones.) The company has said that sensors also play a role.

It is not unusual for humans to help train computer vision algorithms, and the Amazon spokeswoman said fewer manual reviews will be necessary over time as the technology gets smarter.

But knowing there are people working behind the scenes does makes Amazon's announcement video seem a little less picture-perfect.

Alphabet Waymo says it has cut the cost of crucial self-driving car technology by 90 percent

If self-driving cars are going to become the norm, they are going to have to get cheaper to produce. Waymo, the self-driving initiative recently spun out of Google, says it has already made a bunch of progress on that front.

The company has slashed the cost to produce Lidar sensors, the radar-like systems crucial to many driverless car efforts, by 90 percent over the last several years, Waymo CEO John Krafcik said in a presentation at the Automobili-D conference in Detroit on Sunday.

One key to bringing the cost down from an off-the-shelf price of about $75,000 in 2009: Building the technology in-house.

In addition to software, Waymo is also designing all of the hardware in its systems inside of Waymo. That includes two new types of Lidar sensors in addition to the mid-range ones its had from the start. They are short-range sensors, to detect objects in the immediate vicinity of the vehicle, and long-range ones to detect potential obstacles from afar.

In the long run, the nuts and bolts of how autonomous technology works won't be the way car companies differentiate themselves. But in these early years of the industry, building a better suite of sensors and hardware can be key to securing the right partners.

While Waymo is building both self-driving software and hardware, it is not building actual cars. Instead, the company has partnered with Chrysler to outfit 100 Pacifica minivans with self-driving technology and has been in talks with Honda too. The Chrysler vehicles are scheduled to hit the road later this month in both Arizona and California, Krafcik said on Sunday.