smartphone

Infopackets Reader William O. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a Samsung smartphone with a 16 GB SD card, which I use to store all my pictures and videos. I have taken the SD card out of my smartphone and placed it into an SD card reader, so I can copy ... files over to my computer. I get about 13% through the transfer and then I get an error message that says: 'Error 0x8007045D: the request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.' I then have the option to skip the current file; when I click that, the transfer resumes, but then it says it will take over 1 day to complete the transfer ... (view more)

Varying attitudes around the world to cellphone use are reflected in two new policies. India is to mandate 'panic buttons' in cellphones, while a German city has taken drastic measures to keep phone users safer. The Indian rules begin to take effect ... next January when all cellphones on sale will have to include some form of panic button. The measure is designed to deal with growing fears for safety on the streets, particularly among women. Officials reportedly concluded that while cellphones make it much easier to call for help than in the days of relying on payphones, the process of ... (view more)

A new manufacturer plans to sell ultra-secure smartphones for as much as $15,000. They won't be the most expensive ever made, but will be the costliest outside of gimmick "luxury" handsets. Sirin Labs, a company based in the United Kingdom and ... Israel, has raised $72 million in investment funding. It plans to launch its first handset in a dedicated retail store next year. (Source: reuters.com ) The company has released relatively little detail about the handset, but has been working on it for almost three years. It says the big selling point is that it will offer military level ... (view more)

Computer and mobile device owners have been warned to carefully review links before clicking on them, after the creation of a website that can either slow down or crash smart phones completely. The site in question uses a simple but effective ... technique to cause the problem. The site's web address is simply the words "crash" and "safari" next to one another (with no space in between), and is a "dot com" domain name. Trouble-makers online have been spreading links to the problematic site through email and social media. It's worth checking links carefully as ... (view more)

Google is testing a login method that doesn't require a password. The problem is that the method doesn't necessarily add any convenience and isn't as secure as it could be. Reports of the new method have come from a user at the discussion site ... Reddit, who was invited to test the new system. As part of the test, the user must have a smartphone registered. (Source: reddit.com ) The user posted screenshots which show the normal login screen but only asking for an email address (the Google equivalent of a user name) and not for a password. Code Sent To Mobile Screen The screenshots ... (view more)

Facebook is to tweak the way it selects and displays content in user news feeds. The idea is to make life easier for users on slow, inconsistent, or wireless Internet connections. Part of the changes affect how the content will be shown; for ... example, users on a slow connection will see more text-based content such as status updates, rather than showing more videos. There will also be a change affecting how media content is downloaded as a priority. Facebook has already switched to an image format known as Progressive JPEG that displays low quality images first, then gradually downloads into a ... (view more)

Microsoft plans to show off a range of new Windows 10 devices on October 6. A $20,000 wall-mounted giant tablet may be the most eye-catching of the rumored products. The official release about the event in New York City contains no details other ... than the fact that "[Microsoft has] some exciting news to share about Windows 10 devices." However, the most plausible theory is that the company plans to unveil or update information on a wide variety of non-traditional computing devices, with the idea being to promote Windows 10 as a versatile system. Surface To Come In Diverse Sizes The ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Steve T. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just read yesterday's survey article entitled ' Are Smartphones a Vital Tool in 2015? ' and was intrigued with its findings. Personally, I don't own a smartphone because I cannot afford to pay for ... the data plans. I would like to know, is there a cheap mobile device that I can use that is similar in size to a smart phone, but doesn't use a mobile data plan? " My response: Yes. You can use a small sized tablet (around 8 inches or so) but it's not very mobile in the sense that won't fit very nicely in your pocket. As such, I think best choice ... (view more)

A newly-published study shows that the average person could manage without a smartphone for many common tasks. However, for a select group, smartphones are the only realistic option for accessing online services. The report comes from the Pew ... Research Center, which brought together several surveys, each of around 2,000 smartphone users. The results provide very differing meanings, depending on how they are viewed. (Source: pewinternet.org ) Most Tasks Achievable Without Phones On one hand, the study suggests smartphones are by no means vital for many everyday tasks. Participants were asked if ... (view more)

Windows 10 will support a key standard for security measures designed as an alternative to the traditional password. It could make it easier to use methods such as fingerprint recognition or a "key-like" USB stick. Microsoft has confirmed the ... operating system will support the Fast Identity Online (Fido) standards. That's an industry-wide specification supported by tech firms such as BlackBerry and Google and financial firms such as PayPal, Discover and Visa. (Source: windows.com ) Fido isn't specific to any one device, but rather is a specification about the way computers ... (view more)