Samsung Set To Unveil New Smart Watch

Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung's mobile business, said the gadget had been in production for a long time but was very much a "future" product. He told Bloomberg News: "We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future and the watch is definitely one of them." No information on the 'phone's features or its release date have been given, but a source told Reuters news agency it would perform many of the functions of a smartphone. Google's new 'smart' glasses The development follows speculation that Apple is also busy working on a similar watch device. It is thought Apple's product might include health-related functions such as a pedometer or heart rate monitor, alongside regular features like 'phone and mapping capability. The company has yet to officially comment, however. With technology becoming increasingly compact, wearable gadgets are expected to become more popular in future. Google recently showed off Glass, its hands-free glasses which use voice-activation to connect to the internet, take pictures and perform other functions. Samsung has previously launched several 'watch-phone' devices which failed to catch on. However, by tapping into its recent success with Android 'phones it could be a different story this time around. It looks as if the two big smartphone companies are set to carry on their tit-for tat rivalry in a new sector. Samsung overtook Apple as the world's biggest-selling smartphone maker last year but Apple still has a slightly larger market share in the US. The American firm is expected to update the iPhone this summer, just months after its Korean rival releases its new Galaxy 4 handset. Source : Skype News

Cyberwar manual lays down rules for online attacks

  A copy of the Tallinn Manual, a rulebook on cyberwarfare, is held up in a posed photograph in London, Tuesday, March 19, 2013. Even cyberwar has rules, and one group of experts is publishing a manual to prove it. The handbook due to be published later this week applies the venerable practice of international law to the world of electronic warfare in an effort to show how hospitals, civilians, and neutral nations can be protected in an information age fight. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) Even cyberwar has rules, and one group of experts is putting out a manual to prove it. Their handbook, due to be published later this week, applies the practice of international law to the world of electronic warfare in an effort to show how hospitals, civilians and neutral nations can be protected in an information-age fight. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-03-cyberwar-manual-online.html#jCp "Everyone was seeing the Internet as the 'Wild, Wild, West,'" U.S. Naval War College Professor Michael Schmitt, the manual's editor, said in an interview before its official release. "What they had forgotten is that international law applies to cyberweapons like it applies to any other weapons." The Tallinn Manual—named for the Estonian capital where it was compiled—was created at the behest of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence, a NATO think tank. It takes existing rules on battlefield behavior, such as the 1868 St. Petersburg Declaration and the 1949 Geneva Convention, to the Internet, occasionally in unexpected ways. Marco Roscini, who teaches international law at London's University of Westminster, described the manual as a first-of-its-kind attempt to show that the laws of war—some of which date back to the 19th century—were flexible enough to accommodate the new realities of online conflict. The 282-page handbook has no official standing, but Roscini predicted that it would be an important reference as military lawyers across the world increasingly grapple with what to do about electronic attacks. "I'm sure it will be quite influential," he said. The manual's central premise is that war doesn't stop being war just because it happens online. Hacking a dam's controls to release its reservoir into a river valley can have the same effect as breaching it with explosives, its authors argue. Legally speaking, a cyberattack that sparks a fire at a military base is indistinguishable from an attack that uses an incendiary shell. The humanitarian protections don't disappear online either. Medical computers get the same protection that brick-and-mortar hospitals do. The personal data related to prisoners of war has to be kept safe in the same way that the prisoners themselves are—for example by having the information stored separately from military servers that might be subject to attack. Cyberwar can lead to cyberwar crimes, the manual warned. Launching an attack from a neutral nation's computer network is forbidden in much the same way that hostile armies aren't allowed to march through a neutral country's territory. Shutting down the Internet in an occupied area in retaliation for a rebel cyberattack could fall afoul of international prohibitions on collective punishment. The experts behind the manual—two dozen officers, academics, and researchers drawn mainly from NATO states—didn't always agree on how traditional rules applied in a cyberwar. Self-defense was a thorny issue. International law generally allows nations to strike first if they spot enemy soldiers about to pour across the border, but how could that be applied to a world in which attacks can happen at the click of a mouse? Other aspects of international law seemed obsolete—or at least in need of an upgrade—in the electronic context. Soldiers are generally supposed to wear uniforms and carry their arms openly, for example, but what could such a requirement have when they are hacking into distant targets from air-conditioned office buildings? The law also forbids attacks on "civilian objects," but the authors were divided as to whether the word "object" could be interpreted to mean "data." So that may leave a legal loophole for a military attack that erases valuable civilian data, such as a nation's voter registration records. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-03-cyberwar-manual-online.html#jCp Source taken from PHYS

New Samsung Galaxy S4 Launched In New York on 14th March 2013

Samsung has unveiled its new Galaxy S4 smartphone, a handset which allows users to control the screen using their eyes. The range of new features were revealed at a global launch in New York, including a dual camera function that can take two pictures at once and "smart pause", which lets users pause a video by looking away from the screen. "We have taken technology and innovation forward to help us get closer to what matters in life, to help us live a richer, simpler and more full life," said JK Shin, the president and head of IT and mobile communications at Samsung. The highly-anticipated smartphone is predicted to pose a major threat to Apple and its dominance of the US market. But investors have largely shrugged off the launch. Shares in Samsung were 2.3% lower in Seoul on Friday. The device will be on sale in the UK from April 26, and will be available through 327 mobile operators in 155 countries, including Orange, EE and Vodafone. Samsung is said to be expecting sales of its new handsets to be as high as 10 million per month, largely driven by its new features, which were demonstrated in a theatrical launch event at the Radio City music hall and Times Square. A heavily emphasised feature was the Galaxy S4's remote technology which allows users to control functions without touching the 5in (12.7cm) screen. "Smart scroll" lets users browse through emails without touching the screen, the S4 detecting the movements of the eyes and wrist. Users can also change music tracks or accept a call with a wave of a hand. Performers on the Radio City stage acted out role-plays to demonstrate other features. A "doting father" took photos of his tap-dancing son to show off the dual camera function, which means you can take photos or video using a 13 megapixel rear camera and a two megapixel front camera at the same time and blend the images together, even recording voice tags with them The phone also has an in-built translator, which can translate voice or text, can measure temperature and humidity, allows users to activate commands via voice control when driving and even monitors your health. The S4 also automatically creates "story albums" of photos and videos, which can be synchronised with devices at home, while a "group play" function lets people enjoy music, photos and games with people around them. Marketed as "slimmer and stronger", the S4 weighs 130g and is 7.9mm thick, while its AMOLED technology means the screen has a resolution of 441 pixels per inch. But technology critics have been divided in their opinions, with some saying the phone was just an update that did not feel "revolutionary". Web magazine Engadget said it felt the new product "fell flat next to the competition" and it had an "unabashed focus on features over designs". But Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at uSwitch, said the handset "more than" lived up to its hype. "With brains as well as beauty, Samsung's latest effort looks set to be the biggest handset of the year - and that's in spite of an inevitable iPhone sequel," he said. "However, several manufacturers are trying to fan the flames of a revival, and a string of strong recent launches from BlackBerry, Sony, and HTC will give Samsung some stiff competition." Technology website The Verge said: "There's a baffling collection of new software here." Paul Thompson, managing director of mobile advertising company BlisMedia, said the S4 "set" the benchmark on how a mobile device can be integrated into daily life. He praised the eye-controlled features as "ground-breaking innovation that could change the face of how we use technology", adding: "There is certainly enough to set the Galaxy S4 apart from the iPhone 5 by some distance."

Source taken from News Sky