Xiaomi just unveiled a brand new wearable device, the Mi Band 2. Despite the name, it’s the company’s third fitness tracking device after the Mi Band and Mi Band Pulse. It track your steps, monitors your heart rate, sleep and features a tiny display. It costs RMB 149, or a little less than $23.

The Mi Band 2 is more expensive than its predecessors, but it’s also a bit fancier. The tiny black-and-white display displays time, your step count, your heart rate, as well as approximative distance and calorie counters. You can also use the device to monitor your sleep. 

Xiaomi also borrowed a popular feature. If you’re sitting for too long, the Mi Band 2 will vibrate to remind you that you should move.

And if you have a Xiaomi phone, your phone detects if it is connected to your Mi Band so that you don’t need to type your passcode. If someone steals your phone and the Bluetooth device gets disconnected, the passcode is reactivated. This is a feature that it's predecessors have too.

Today’s new device uses  2nd gen Bluetooth 4.0 to connect to your phone and battery lasts up to 20 days. It is IP67 Certified so it is water-resistant and the silicon bands are replaceable. Xiaomi is going to start selling the device in China on June 7.

Summary Of Mi Band 2 Specs:

Size
Battery	70 mAh, Lithium polymer  20 days battery life
Weight	7.0 g
Water Resistant	IP67 Standards
Intenral Config.	0.42" OLED Display 2nd Gen Bluetooth 4.0 ADI ultra-low power acceleration sensors & Photoelectric sensors
Strap Size	235 mm total length 155 - 210 mm adjustable length Made of Thermoplastic elastomers, aluminium
Compatibility	Requires Bluetooth 4.0  Android 4.4 or iOS 7.0 and above: Mi 2 / 2S / 2A, Mi 3, Mi 4, Mi Note, Mi 4c, Mi 4i, Mi 5, Mi 4S, Mi Max,  Redmi 1S, Redmi 2 / 2A / 3,  Redmi Note / Note 2 / Note 3 iOS 7.0 or later: iPhone 4s / 5 / 5c / 5s / 6/6 Plus / 6s / 6s Plus / SE For Smart Unlocking feature support:[MIUI 6, 7, 8] Mi 2 / 2S / 2A, Mi 3, Mi 4, Mi Note, Mi 4c, Mi 5, Mi 4S, Mi Max, Redmi 1S, Redmi 2 / 2A / 3, Redmi Note / Note 2 / Note 3 Smartphones with Android 5.0 or above & Bluetooth 4.0

This post will support my previous post on Hacking , I’d recommend you check it out first and then read this to get a better understanding of what I’m trying to explain.

Hey readers! This is something that I’ve been asked a few times and I thought it would be great to explain, how you could protect yourself online or basically things you should and shouldn’t do when you are connected to the network.

Let’s get to it!

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Internet, I’m crazy about it and honestly speaking, we all are but, is it as secure as we think it is? If you did read the hacking post mentioned above then you’d know how easy it is for someone to track our data.

The government is already tracking it. Everything that we download or upload passes through their network as they act as the gateway between the transfer of data at the intercontinental  level and there’s nothing we can do about it. Luckily since the amount of data transferred today is so huge that it’s hard for them to keep track but, we also have genius cyber security professionals who have this task automated and track the data for things  that they think is against the rules or basically “illegal”.

If you don’t already know, the download of Torrents has been totally banned in a few countries and if you do download it, you get warning mails from the officials. I will be posting about Torrents in a later post but for now let’s get to the topic.

The Don’ts of the Internet

I’ll try my best to include everything I remember and if I do forget a point, please mention it in the comment section below.

• Never download TORRENTS ( This coming from me, ironic )
• Don’t ever give out your information on an invalidated or unverified site. Before giving out the information, just google about that site and find out how secure the site really is, you’ll find rants and reviews from various people,
• Download content from sites. Everything we do is a form of download and by this statement I’d like to bring to your notice, that not every site provides what it tells the customer that it is providing. Luckily google can save you and with a little search about the topic, you could avoid a lot of things.
• Use Internet Protection. This point is going to be in both DOs and DON’Ts because of various reasons. These software’s block a lot of websites that you use daily just because they seem to find something fishy in the site’s code. Some allow you to add a whitelist where you add a specific site that you don’t want the software to block and this saves you from the task of pausing the protection while you visit the site.
• Save passwords on the browser. If you don’t only know, the browser applications have the ability to share data with your computer and if someone can do that without having to hack, then you know what a hacker could do your accounts when he gets hold of the passwords. ( you might even loose your FB girlfriend ( if any ) )

The DO’s of the Internet

If you don’t already know, these are things to be done when online

• Start using the private browsing feature when using public internet.
• Use a Linux distro or an Anti Malware to avoid unnecessary data leakage or unnecessary program installations. Linux protects you upto a certain level but since the majority are on Windows , please use an Anti Malware.
•  Log out from every site that you started a session with. Even if the site automatically logs you out after a few minutes, make sure you log out right when you leave. This is might get hectic if you have a habit to re-visit the site every 5 minutes and you keep logging in and logging out but, it’s better than loosing your data.
• Use Verified Sites for your cloud storage activities and again, Google is your friend.
• Try to store your data on the cloud. Now, this might clash with a few statements I’ve made before but by storing the files on a really well known cloud service which is hard to break into, will protect your data a lot more than your own system. You could setup an old system as a cloud machine and turn it off when you are not using it, thus keeping you away from the internet and getting it hacked. ( Post will be coming up, don’t worry )

These are a few things you should keep note off. If I’ve missed a point, please mention it in the comments.

Even though doing this, might keep hackers away from you for a little time but there is no real way to be totally hacker proof. We know that technology improves and this improvement does have loopholes and cyber security professionals are paid to find these loopholes and if they miss , the hacker takes care of the rest.

One thing you could do is, use VPN’s which are private networks and might help you get the others out of your way when transferring or receiving data, but that could be hacked as well.

That’s all for now, make sure you share if you like the post and check out other articles too. I’m writing them so that humans could learn things, not for Google’s Bots.

I know, I KNOW!! I’ve been away for a really long time.. almost a month and I haven’t posted anything, well here goes.

This one is going to be a long one. I don’t expect you to stay with me all the way because it might get really boring but since it’s my work I’m gonna do it anyways.

Hacker – The official term used by normal people to identify a person who could hack a Facebook account, like that’s the base of what a hacker should know. Now let’s get to the real hacker and hacking .

Hacking is a skill, like pure awesome skill! A skill where the hacker has to be aware of a lot of events or else He’d be somewhere, where we don’t wanna be.

Once my Hacker friend said a hacker in general posses the skills of

• A Detective
• An Assassin
• A doctor

sounds odd?? Le me explain

A detective has to research everything about the given case, a hacker has to do the same to find the loop hole for him to complete his work.  An Assassin is stealthy or you can say slow , consistent and hidden and is good at what he does, taking it to the point of hacking you have to be careful and slow at times and be hidden while doing whatever you are doing.

A doctor, uses alternative ways to find the disease and then has multiple solutions to cure but chooses the best one, I don’t think i need to explain this.

But wait, what is a hacker supposed to do?

There are 2 types of Hacking

• White Hat
• Black Hat
• Grey Hat

I know I said 2 types.. but Grey Hat is like the mixture of Black and White hat hackers so let’s forget counting for a little bit.

White Hat Hackers

These are hackers that work under limitations of the company they are working for, also called as the Ethical Hackers / Cyber Security Professionals. These hack to protect you from hackers. The most common task done by these kind of hackers are identified as Anti Virus programs.

Black Hat Hackers 

These are the one you think have the power to hack Facebook Accounts (-.-) ( i need help!).
The black hats do it for the sole purpose of money or fun. Yeah, FUN! Some hackers just like to hack into things and have fun with the data. These hackers have no limitations on what they do and yeah , this kind of hacking is illegal. You’re safe till you’re not caught.

Grey Hat Hackers

Now 70% of the hackers present on earth are grey hat hackers who use their skills based on their mood. A pissed of Grey Hat hacker might hack the hell out of your connection but these are also the Ethical Hackers when normal. It’s like a girl on her… I mean … Nothing!

How is hacking done?

There is no simple explanation for this question but I’ll just try.
Being able to get into the network to get access to data using the loop holes in the security of the targeted system is hacking. This is just one of the ways this could be seen. Ability to hack Facebook accounts is not hacking (–.–). Technically it is hacking but a hacker is not someone who’s sole purpose if to fiddle with social accounts.

The complex explanation goes like this
We all live in a world where almost every electronic device is connected to the internet ( Just guessing you didn’t know this ) , this internet is a connection between several devices. So, you are now connected to me through some kind of path and an identification number is provided to your computer know as the IP Address this allows me to target your system to send data or receive data from you.

A hacker’s task is to get in between this transaction of data and change the digital signals to his liking or maybe even get the signals to transfer the data to him. The hacker could get on your nerves by sending you a virus that has the ability to send the whole systems data to him , even worse… HE COULD CHANGE YOUR Wi-Fi PASSWORD!.

These are all done by using loop holes in the network or the security issues in the targeted system. To avoid it we have various programs and tips but then again these are also created by the hackers and hackers are human and might have made a mistake which could act as an advantage to the black hats. or the white hat could go rogue and hack too…he made the system, he could obviously break the system.

What do I do to protect myself?

There is nothing you can do because you can’t stay away from the internet in the modern world and using anti virus programs or other malware avoiding programs are all made using the human brain and might contain something that could cause just enough problem, but since you need a little protection all I could suggest is don’t download stuff from unidentified sources or use Anti Virus programs that use too much of your systems resources at this might slow down your system and also lead to the point where you won’t be able to act quick when a virus hits your system because the system starts to lag and crash at the same time ( Wonderful!) .

How do I learn Hacking?

You’re in luck! Cybrary seems to be working on this and has proper guides to help you learn networking and computer basics and yeah it’s FREE!! wait wait wait!! I’m not being paid to promote them so there is no real catch behind this promotion, its been included because its a nice resource.

Plus you could continue checking the blog for future tutorials.

That’s all for now and I’ll catch  you later ( Shocked that you reached the end of the post…)

Sensors in smartphones(part 2)

In the previous post we have learned all about  " Different Sensors Available In Phone" and Here comes Part 2 of previous post .If you have not seen the part 1 then head over to previous link .

1.Hall Sensor:

A Hall effect sensor is a transducer that varies its output voltage in response to a magnetic field. Hall effect sensors are used for proximity switching, positioning, speed detection, and current sensing applications.

The main function of this proximity sensor is to detect how close your smartphone's screen is to your body. When you use your smartphone, it detects the position of ear with respect to screen and turns off the light of screen and saves battery. Also proximity sensor stops the accidental touch, unwanted input during talk. This sensor also detects the signal strength, interference sources and amplify or filter by use of Beam Forming Technique. Thus, in a nutshell, proximity sensor detect the presence of body like cheek, face or ear and stops the web surfing, music or video during talk/calling and save the battery. After the conversation, it resumes the same function which was stopped earlier during talk.

It was discovered by Edwin Hall in 1879.
wikilink for Hall effect: Wikipedia



2.Accelerometers:

Accelerometers  are  devices that can measure acceleration (the rate of change in velocity),  but in smartphones, they're able to detect changes in orientation and  tell the screen to rotate. Basically, it helps the phone know up from  down.

All accelerometers have two fundamental parts: 
1. A housing attachment to the object  whose acceleration we want to measure.
2. A mass that, while tethered  to the housing, can still move. 

For example assume a spring and a heavy ball. If you move the housing up, the ball lags behind stretching the spring.  If we measure how much that spring stretches, we can calculate the force  of gravity.

Inside the smartphone accelerometer chip, engineers have created a tiny accelerometer out of  silicon. It has, of course, a housing that's fixed to the phone, and a  comb-like section that can move back and forth. That's the seismic mass  equivalent to the ball. The spring in this case is the flexibility of  the thin silicon tethering to the housing. Now clearly, if we can  measure the motion of this central section we can detect changes in  orientation.
The motion of the springs causes a change in value of capacitance which is sensed by a sensor which scales it to current signals to communicate with the brain of the smartphone.
And all of this happens in a matter of a microseconds.


3.Gyroscope:

The gyroscope is a sensor that can provide orientation information as well, but with greater precision. Thanks to this particular sensor, Android's Photo Sphere camera feature can tell how much a phone has been rotated and in which direction. It is also used by Google's Sky Map for telling what constellation you're pointing a phone at.


4.Thermometer:

There's a thermometer in pretty much any smartphone, and some handsets might have more than one of them. The difference is that they're used to monitor the temperature inside the device and its battery. If a component is detected to be overheating, the system shuts itself down to prevent damage.

Nearly all of the main sensors are explained in previous part and this part . Biological sensors like heart rate senors , Iris Scanner etc will be explained in different part.If you have any queries about any sensor , comment below. Thanks for Reading...!!  : )

iPhone SE and iPad Pro 9.7-inch now available in India

Apple unveiled its latest iPhone at an event in California on 21 March - and it wasn't the phone many people were expecting.

The company traditionally updates its iPhone line once a year, at an event in September, but rumours had been building for months suggesting Apple was developing a new device.

Although there are plenty of rumours flying around about the iPhone 7, this is NOT that phone. The iPhone 7 is expected to launch in September 2016 - according to the usual schedule.

The phone that Apple launched on Monday 21st march is called the iPhone SE - a smaller, cheaper device that will be sold alongside Apple's iPhone 6s and 6s Plus models.It's an iPhone that has specs of iPhone 6S with the looks of iPhone 5S.

Apple has finally launched its iPhone SE and iPad Pro 9.7-inch in India.The iPhone SE will start at Rs 39,000 for 32GB storage variant, while the 64 GB version will be at Rs 49,000.The 4-inch smartphone is available both online and offline through Apple's retail partners.

The 9.7-inch iPad Pro, on the other hand, comes in 32 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB variants costing Rs 49,900, Rs 61,900 and Rs 73,900 for WiFi only models. The WiFi + Cellular models are priced higher at Rs 61,900, Rs 73,900 and Rs 85,900 for 32 GB,128 GB and 256 GB variants respectively.

Sadly there will be no Redmi Note 3 (3GB+32GB Variants) in the Next sale

We got to know that Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 next flash sale will be conducted without (3GB+32GB Variant) which is quite disappointing for all Mi fans as many people wanted to buy specially 3GB variants of Redmi Note 3.

The reason behind this given by Xiaomi is “We are overwhelm response from our Mi Fans we were not expected such response for Mi phone specially for 3GB version which is quite popular among fans and now 3GB variants stock has completely sold out and we are left with only 2GB/16GB version We also look to re-stocking 32GB model, hang in there"
Because of this Flash sales the user are getting disappointed & frustrated and you can see their frustration on Amazon Redmi Note 3 Review column were they have Rated with only 1 star and shared their frustration in the comments.

Well we can only Hope for the best, Xiaomi might come up with good news with introducing more colour variant of Redmi Note 3 (3GB+32GB variant) as you can see in the image below whenever they put on sale. While you can register for the next sale from Here.The next saler only have 2GB/16GB version.

Source