Most dangerous way to hack Android - KALI LINUX 2016.2 Episode-1 You...

Should I Keep My Laptop Battery Plugged In All The Time?

Here's The Answer!

While we talk about new gadgets and software all the time, we often ignore the batteries that provide the juice to power them. Similarly, our laptop batteries are one of the most important parts that often get ignored in the high octane discussions involving RAM and GPUs. Still, some battery-related questions keep on popping up regularly —  Should I keep my laptop plugged in all the time? Should I drain my laptop battery completely before charging?

Well, the answer to this question isn’t that simple. Before solving this query, let me tell some facts about your laptop battery that’ll help you understand the answer.

Here are some battery basics!

Most laptop batteries are either lithium-ion or lithium polymer. These batteries are designed to withstand numerous charge cycles. These batteries can not be overcharged, which means that as soon as they are 100% charged, they stop charging. These batteries stop receiving energy which is bypassed directly to your laptop’s power supply. So, keeping it plugged in won’t harm your battery and cause much difference to the overall battery life. But, there are some other critical factors that we’ll be discussing later.

Another concept that one must keep in mind is that there are some good practices that extend the life of your laptop battery. Your battery has a finite number of charge-discharge cycles, so, discharging your battery completely repeatedly is going to harm its life.

Overheating is your battery’s biggest enemy!

You’ll be surprised to know that overheating is the most critical factor when it comes to the prolonged life of a battery. We told you above that keeping your laptop plugged in won’t kill your battery. True. But, you also need to take care of the excessive heating caused by laptop hardware.

So, if your laptop’s CPU/HDD temperature is around 40ºC, keeping the laptopplugged in is fine. But, if your laptop has got a removable battery and you wish to use your laptop intensively, you are advised to remove the battery from the socket.

So, what should I do? What’s the final answer?

Nowadays not all laptops come with removable batteries. So, removing the battery from the socket to cool it down isn’t a viable option. Instead, there’s a simple method that can help you extend your battery’s life in a different manner. According to the tests performed by Battery University, a battery that is charged to 100 percent will have only 300-500 discharge cycles. One the other hand, if it’s charged to 70-80%, it’ll get 1000-2000 recharge cycles.

Based on what I’ve told you in this article, here are some notable points:

Avoid discharging your laptop completely after charging it. The best thing you can do is try to keep the battery level between 40 percent to 80 percent.

Make sure that your laptop doesn’t get too hot and your cooling fan is working properly.

Your laptop battery can’t “overcharge” and harm itself due to excessive charging. It’s smart enough to bypass the charging energy.

Did you find this article helpful? Don’t forget to drop your feedback in the comments section below.

Acer’s Predator 21X

This Gaming Laptop Is a Monster

Acer unveiled an insane gaming laptop with 21-inch curved display, dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics Cards and much more.

Acer’s Predator 21X: This Gaming Laptop Is a Monster

If we look around, we will find laptop manufacturers are trying hard to make smaller and thinner laptop designs because laptops are meant to be carried and a lightweight laptop could make life much easier.

Acer At IFA 2016 in Berlin had unveiled the laptop that undoubtedly is a beast. Acer has unveiled the world’s first curved-screen laptop which is especially focused for gaming purposes. Acer’s new laptop name is Predator 21 X.

Acer’s New Predator 21X shares a much bigger screen than average which measures 53.3 centimeters (21 inches). It weighs about 8 kilogram that’s too almost four times more than average laptops. However, it’s unique shape, design and curved glass screen are world’s first.

As we already mentioned this is the gaming laptop it carries Dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs which supports the awesome G-sync technology which promises “unmatched graphics performance”. It will be packed with Intel Core i7 processors from the Kaby Lake Series. However, Kaby Lake processors are yet to be released.

Apart from this Acer’s New Predator 21X offers four DD4 slots and 64GB RAM also 4TB of SSD storage with RAID-0 support. Acer’s new predator 21X had full-size LED RGB mechanical keyboard with CherryMX switches and a SoundPound2+ sound system (4 speakers and 2 subwoofers). It carries five cooling fans and it had a Numpad that can flip over to become a touchpad.

One of the interesting features is it includes Tobii eye-tracking technology, which the company explains “To bring gameplay immersion to the next level, the notebook also integrates Tobii eye-tracking technology for a new method of control that’s more intuitive and natural. Built-in eye-tracking hardware (infrared sensors and software) unlocks a completely new facet in gaming.”

“By tracking a gamer’s eye with software, the notebook introduces new interactions like aiming, identifying enemies and taking cover simply by gazing at objects on the screen. Eye tracking also enhances the experience by providing infinite views whilst navigating treacherous paths and roads in a game.”

So, these are the specifications of the World’s first laptop with a rounded screen. Acer didn’t give an exact release date. However, by looking at its specifications we could easily assume that it would be pretty expensive. You can have a look at the laptop in the video below:

DuckDuckGo!

Some Geeky DuckDuckGo Tricks That Make It Better Than Google

Short Bytes: DuckDuckGo is an anti-Google search engine that claims that it doesn’t track you. In this article, we’ll be telling you some cool DuckDuckGo tricks that will change the way you use your search engine.

You might have heard about DuckDuckGo search engine. If not, it’s the search engine that doesn’t track you at all. But, this is not the only great cool thing about it. There are several other cool features, called “goodies” by DuckDuckGo, that will make you think about changing your default search engine.

In this article, I’ll be telling you about some geeky DuckDuckGo tricks that make it better than Google and much more work-friendly:

Quick Navigation

If you are more of a keyboard guy, DuckDuckGo is the place for you. You can easily navigate through the search results with the help of some keys. Here are some shortcuts:

• <j>: To move down through the results
• <k>: To move up through the results
• <l> or <Enter>: To open the highlighted link
• <h> or </>: To go to search bar
• <s>: To go to misspelled link
• <t>: To go to the top of the page

Cheat sheets

This is an awesome feature of DuckDuckGo. If you’ve had a hard time remembering keyboard shortcuts, for example the list I’ve given above, and you’ve to go through the entire manual or a blog post just for a quick reference, DuckDuckGo has got you all covered.

They’ve got most of the applications, like Vim, covered for which there are a number of key bindings. Just type the application name followed by “cheat sheet”. For example, look at the Firefox cheat sheet below.

Similary, you can look for the DuckDuckGo cheat sheet at DuckDuckGo.

Instant Answers

DuckDuckGo provides instant answers on several queries. Here are some results.

Movies with

Type “movies with” followed by your favorite actor’s/actress’ name and you’ll get what you wanted. Let’s search for “movies with Jesse Eisenberg”.

Soundcloud

Listen to music directly through DuckDuckGo. In the search bar, type artist’s name followed by “Soundcloud”. For instant, “Daft Punk Soundcloud”:

Recipes

Search for recipes directly from DuckDuckGo. Looking for pizza recipe? Type “pizza recipe”.

Weather

Check out the weather. Just type “weather” or “weather <location name>”.

And much much more…

There are hundreds of more cool instant answers. Try these queries at DuckDuckGo: “stopwatch”, “password strong”, “lose yourself lyrics”, “rhymes with cool” etc. It’s a pretty cool feature for a search engine.

Bang Search

It is my favorite. For instance type “!a blazers” in the DuckDuckGo search bar. What bang search does is, it directly redirects you to the site you wanted to search for. For this example, “!a” refers to amazon. So, you’ll see the available blazers directly at amazon. No more clicking links in the search results. There are thousands bang searches available (currently 6396) and increasing. You can search for a movie, say “Ant-Man”, directly at “Imdb”, through DuckDuckGo by searching “!Imdb Ant-Man”.

Customize

People can easily customize DuckDuckGo according to them. Click on the menu at the top right corner of the page for customization options. As DuckDuckGo does not store your information, it depends on the browser cookies for remembering settings. So whenever you’ll reset your browser, your settings will be gone. To prevent this, they provide an option to store your settings in the cloud. That’s a pretty good feature too.

Did you find these DuckDuckGo search tricks helpful? Tell us in the comments below.

7th Generation Intel Core Processors

Intel Unveils Kaby Lake — 7th Generation Intel Core Processors For “Immersive Internet”

Short Bytes: Intel has announced its next generation processors based on the 14-nm Kaby Lake architecture. The 7th Gen Core chips support viewing and editing of 4K UHD content without the need for a discrete graphics chip. Intel expects computers packed with Kaby Lake chips to hit the markets by next month.

Intel Inc. has finally put the curtains off its 7th Gen Intel Core processors based on the 14-nm Kaby Lake architecture. Continuing its legacy of launching more powerful processors in every successive Core series, Intel has enabled the Kaby Lake-based chips to have improved support for 4K UHD and 360-degree video content.

As Intel demonstrated earlier, this would allow you to stream 4K videos as well as edit and share them right out of the box. You can combine multiple 4K video streams and watch a UHD movie at the same time.

The 7th Gen Core processors include upgraded versions of Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, and Core m3. Intel has managed to improve the performance and reduce the power consumption at the same time. The Kaby Lake processors can improve the battery life up to 3-times when 4K videos are played on the computer.

Intel has also partnered with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to bring their ULTRA 4K movie streaming service (launched in January this for Sony’s 4K TVs) to the users of the 7th Gen Intel Core processors. The movie rental service will commence sometime in the first quarter of 2017.

Intel aims that its next-gen Core processors would power most of the laptops and 2-in-1s in the market. Let’s see, how they perform in comparison to the recently announced Zen architecture-based processors by AMD.

“We are incredibly excited about the strong partnership with our OEM customers and expect more than 100 different 2 in 1s and laptops powered by 7th Gen Intel Core to be available starting in September through this holiday season,” writes Navin Shenoy, corporate VP and GM for  Intel’s Client Computing Group.

To say we are excited about our new 7th Gen Intel Core family is an understatement. I don’t think there has ever been a better time to check out what a new Intel-powered PC can do.

— Via Intel Newsroom

If you have something to add, tell us in the comments below.

First Movie Trailer Using AI

Morgan: IBM Watson Creates World’s First Movie Trailer Using AI

Short Bytes: The 20th Century Fox teamed up with IBM Research to create the world’s first cognitive movie trailer with the help of the AI bot IBM Watson. It chose 10 moments out of the horror flick Morgan and then a human editor stitched them to come up with a trailer.

The IBM Watson is getting better every day. Last time, we heard about it when it detected a rare form of leukemia in a patient’s body and when it was used to drive a bus. Now, doctor IBM Watson is preparing for a Hollywood debut. The supercomputer IBM Watson was used to create the trailer of the 20th Century Fox horror movie Morgan.

For a scary movie, an important thing is how a person digests it. “Our team was faced with the challenge of not only teaching a system to understand, “what is scary”, but then to create a trailer that would be considered “frightening and suspenseful” by a majority of viewers,” writes Michael Zimmerman for IBM.

Over 100 horror movie trailers were fed to the IBM Watson in order to give IBM Watson the “feel” of a horror movie. Though in reality, it is just some binary numbers for the AI bot.

The trailer videos were segmented into small moments on which IBM Watson performed an analysis of audio, video, and how each scene was composed. It helped Watson detect what scenes were depicting, for example, a frightened person or an eerie moment.

After watching the 90-minute Morgan, IBM Watson came up with 10 moments (6-minutes of total length) that “would be the best candidate for the trailer”.

The final trailer, however, required the help of a human as the AI-bot didn’t have editing capabilities. “Our system could select the moments, but it’s not an editor. We partnered with a resident IBM filmmaker to arrange and edit each of the moments together into a comprehensive trailer.”

An average time of ten to thirty days is required for the creation of a movie trailer. The editing team manually analyses every moment of the movie that could become a part of the trailer. The eligible candidates are then stitched together in such a way that it gives an overview of the movie. Watson’s involvement shrunk down the whole process to a matter of around 24 hours.

“Reducing the time of a process from weeks to hours –that is the true power of AI.”

The combination of machine intelligence and human expertise is a powerful one. This research investigation is simply the first of many into what we hope will be a promising area of machine and human creativity. We don’t have the only solution for this challenge, but we’re excited about pushing the possibilities of how AI can augment the expertise and creativity of individuals.

Source: IBM

Windows 10’s Worst Feature!

Cumulative Updates: Windows 10’s Worst Feature Arrives On Windows 7/8.1

Just in case you were wondering “how will Microsoft encourage Windows 10 installation after the expiry of free Windows 10 upgrade offer”, we have an answer. The company is looking to take away the user control from Windows 7 and 8.1 and make them just like Windows 10. Starting from October 2016, Microsoft will enable a cumulative update model in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, just like the one in Windows 10.

Now Microsoft is changing the way your good-old Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 operating systems received updates. The company is making a switch to the controversial cumulative update model that’s similar to the one seen in Windows 10. This marks a shift from the individual patch release approach for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

In Microsoft’s words:

“Each month’s rollup will supersede the previous month’s rollup, so there will always be only one update required for your Windows PCs to get current. i.e. a Monthly Rollup in October 2016 will include all updates for October, while November 2016 will include October and November updates, and so on.”

If you haven’t figured out Microsoft’s plan to push Windows 10 yet, let me explain further —

Till now, Redmond’s older operating systems got some individual patches each month. If you chose to avoid some updates for a couple of months, you needed to download many Windows updates while patching your system in future.

On the other hand, Windows 10 gets just one or two updates per month. This single cumulative update has all the updates from previous months, making your computer up to date in one go. Sounds simple and great, right?

Well, there’s a plot twist. This shift to Windows 10’s monthly roll-up gives Redmond complete control over your Windows installation and its updates. Now, after October 2016, individual patches won’t be available for download.

Here’s the scariest part — just like Windows 10, now Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users will have only two choices. Either they need to accept all the updates pushed by Microsoft or stop upgrading and leave their systems vulnerable to hacking attacks. This approach of installing upgrades also hinders the ability to recover from a bad update.

The same update model will also be followed when it comes to security-only updates. From October 2016 onwards, Microsoft will release just one security-only update each month and no individual patches will be made available. However, the security-only update won’t be pushed via Windows Update.

So, if you’ve avoided Windows 10 thinking that Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 let you choose what updates to install on your PC, think once more. Yes, this is what Microsoft wants. It wants you to think that Windows 10 is now a better option as compared to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

Did you find this article helpful? Don’t forget to drop your feedback in the comments section below.