World's first 4TB solid state drive (SSD) by Sandisk

 

 

SanDisk, an American multinational corporation which designs and develops flash memory storage solutions and software, has developed world's first 4TB SSD named Optimus MAX SSD.

 

 

 Optimus MAX SSD produces less heat and consumes lower power than HDDs. According to SanDisk , Optimus MAX SSD provides read/write speeds of up to 400MB/s of up to 75,000/15,000 I/O operations per second (IOPS) through its 6Gb/s interface. 

 

 

John Scaramuzzo, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise Storage Solutions at SanDisk says, "We believe that the Optimus MAX will be a disruptive force within the storage industry, catalyzing many organizations to make the switch from their HDD-prominent data center infrastructures to SSDs."

 

 

The detail of pricing of the SSD has not been detailed by Sandisk. It will come with a 5-year limited warranty. The Optimus MAX SSD and renewed Optimus family of drives will be available with TCG Enterprise Security Subsystem Class compliance to select OEMs and through the channel in Q3-2014.

 

Facebook reveals anonymous app login

“Apps can no longer require you to publish to all your friends in order to sign in to an app,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the company's F8 developers conference in San Francisco. “Today, we want to do even more to put control and trust back in people's hands. You can change line by line what you share with the app.”

Zuckerberg has also revealed that in the future FB users will be able to log in to third party apps anonymously using their Facebook login. He also launched a mobile ad network, branded the ‘Facebook Audience Network’, that will help brands serve ads on third-party apps using user data collected by Facebook. Both announcements were made at Facebook’s F8 conference which took place after a two year gap in San Francisco.

Regarding the anonymous login, Zuckerberg explained that many users did not feel comfortable sharing their details with an app that allowed Facebook login, without trying the app first. By selecting the “Log In Anonymously” option, users will now be able to log in to apps and services trusted. If the users are afraid that logging into a certain app will result in their friends being spammed with requests, then they can opt for the anonymous login. When you anonymously log in, it will ensure that the app developers do not get to see your identity or details and will only be able to do so once you choose to sign in to the app in a regular manner.

Facebook is now focusing on its users. The social network will now allow users to see and control all data that an app requires when you’re logging in. The new login screen will allow users to uncheck any part of their data they don’t want the app to receive before actually logging in. It means that if users choose to let an app see their likes and email address but not their friends list and birthday. Users will also get a newly designed app control panel that gives them a better view of the apps they use and control their permissions.

Zuckerberg also revealed that the company will now pledge to fix all major bugs within 48 hours and will ensure that all APIs and platforms will be supported and stable for two years even if the company changes them, something that will come as good news to developers.

Source : Facebook (1) (2), The Verge (1) (2), Ars Technica

10 tips to extend battery life on Windows Phone 8

10 tips to extend battery life on Windows Phone 8

We love our smartphones, but one issue that always come up with us is battery life. If you’re a heavy user, you want to find ways to be able to use the phone as long as you can before needed to recharge. There are 10 tips to extend your Windows Phone 8 battery life, but many of these tips involve turning off services and features. You don’t need to follow all of them, but following some will help extend the battery life on your Windows Phone 8 device.


1. Use battery saver

You can set your phone to automatically save power when the battery level is low. Head to settings > battery saver, and turn it on. It turns off some services while in standby to help preserve battery life, but you will still receive calls and texts.

2. Set glance to peek (Lumia only)

Glance on Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 8 lets you to take a look at clock and notifications when your phone switches to standby. You can choose to turn this off, but it’s a cool feature to have. Head to settings > glance, then select peek. This option lets you see the glance screen when you hand over the phone. Don’t forget to set the start and end times.

3. Turn off double tap to wake up phone (Lumia only)

Double tap to wake up phone is another cool feature to have on Nokia Lumia devices, but you can turn this off to save battery life. If you’re happy with pressing the power button to wake up the phone, then there shouldn’t be any problem turning off this option.


4. Lower the auto screen brightness

By default, your screen brightness is set automatically on medium. You can change this. Go to settings > brightness. Switch off the automatically adjust option and switch the level to low. Turn back on the automatically adjust option for a lower auto screen brightness that can help conserve battery.


5. Prevent some apps running in the background

Some apps may run in the background unnecessarily. If you don’t want them running in the background, go to settings > swipe to applications, then select the background tasks. Tap the app you want to block, and click block.

6. Set to check for new mail less frequently

If you have added email accounts that don’t need to be checked frequently, you can change how often your phone downloads new content from those accounts. Instead of 30 minutes, change it to manual request only. Go to settings > email+accounts, then if u want to check mail , click on a mailbox app. click “Download new content.”


7. Decrease screen time-out

You can set the screen to automatically switch off after a short time. Go to settings > lock screen, then scroll all the way down to where it says “Screen times out after.” The shortest time you can choose is 30 seconds.


8. Disconnect Xbox Live

If you don’t care about uploading games scores and achievements to Xbox Live, you can prevent your phone from connecting to the service. Go to settings > swipe to applications > games, then turn off “Connect with Xbox.” This is really helpful if you actually have more games listed under “other” compared to Xbox Live compatible games.

9. Close apps you are not using

If you know you’re done using an app, press the back button to exit instead of pressing the Windows Phone key. If you have the latest Windows Phone 8 update 3, you can also exit apps by pressing and holding the back button then clicking the X’s on the upper right corner of the apps you want to close.


10. Use power cases or portable USB chargers

Another way to extend the battery life of your Windows Phone 8 device is to use accessories. There are portable USB chargers like the Nokia DC-18 and cases with built-in extra battery like the camera grip for the Nokia Lumia 1020.

So those are some tips to help you extend the battery life of your Windows Phone 8 device. You don’t have to follow all our tips, but following some of them may help.


If you feel like your battery is draining unusually fast, restart your device by pressing and holding the power and volume down keys simultaneously until the phone vibrates. Release and the phone will restart. If you feel it’s still draining fast, the battery may be wearing out and requires replacing. You may need to contact the manufacturer for support.

Updated Google map search can help users find their parked cars

Now Google map search can help users find their parked cars, and more.

If you often struggle to find your parked car in a crowded parking lot, then a new feature of Google Now in the updated Search app for Android will be useful for you. The update to the Google Search app (version 3.4) has also brought some other features, such as new reminders, a centralized list of nicknames, and more.

The update to Google Search bringing the 'Parking location' card to Google Now has not yet been rolled-out to the Google Play store, however, Android Police has the signed apk available for download. The application will upgrade the existing Google Search app, though we recommend you to update it once it's available via Google Play in your region. 

The update brings the ability to automatically detect where users have parked their cars, and find the approximate location later, displayed in the parking location card on Google Now. It also keeps the previous location data where a user had recently parked the car, but Google notes in its blog that the information remains private and isn't shared with anyone else.

The automatic parking detection can lead to a few false positives, showing users where they've parked even if they just used a bus, because Google uses the smartphone's location sensors, and detects when a user leaves any moving vehicle.

Keeping that in mind Google has already detailed the steps in a support post with which users can customise parking location cards in terms of when it should pop-up, and can even turn it off.

Other than the Parking location card feature, Android Police notes the updated Google Search app brings a new centralized list for nicknames under "Accounts & privacy", a new reminders interface with better arrangement of past reminders, and the integration of 'Help' and 'Send feedback' into a single 'Help & feedback'. The updated app also allows some settings to be opened by voice, and allows removes the clearing of cards when switching to offline mode.