Top 5 Tips on How to Secure your Computer

Let’s get one thing straight before we start- The internet can be a spooky place. There are viruses potentially around every corner and nothing to give you a heads up about them other than experience. So before we go any further on how to protect your computer from the nasty little buggers, let’s get right on that experience!

Tip One:
First off, common sense. Common sense may prove to be your greatest ally when battling the baddies of the internet and the viruses they may throw your way. If you find anything fishy or overall just… not “right” looking, it’s probably best to look away and avoid it at all cost. Remember: The first step to getting a virus relies heavily on you, the person in control. A virus won’t knock on the door to let you know it’s coming in, but it will surely wait on the front porch for you to open it before slipping in unnoticed.

Tip Two:
Now, that’s enough for cheesy metaphors. You want to know how to secure your computer! Chances are you know about anti-virus software. Anti-virus software is a must have when browsing the web, even when you’re searching trusted websites. Viruses and worms have no bounds and can infiltrate just about any corner of the internet, so keep this in mind. Most anti-virus software is cheap and reliable. You can find hard copies of it all over the internet, or if you’d rather get a look see in person before you buy, you can always check your local pharmacy – PC world or Wal-Mart. They always have anti-virus software.

Tip Three:
No shady sites! Shady sites are as follows: They won’t have standard URLs (this is the address of the website at the top of the web page) meaning that they often won’t have “.com” or “.net” after them. These are always good places to avoid unless you are absolutely sure that you can trust the website in question.

Tip Four:
Scammers! Scams are abundant throughout the web. If someone you don’t know contacts you via email or perhaps social networking site asking you for personal information or insisting that you know them, do a little research and NEVER give your personal information to anyone on the internet unless you are shopping and see the green “https” lettering before the URL address. The internet is full of hooligans who will do anything to get what they want.

Tip Five:
Pop ups. Ignore pop ups. Pop ups are classified as follows: They pop up! And then they inform you (usually) of some sweepstakes that you’ve one, one that you’ve never entered to begin with, or how you’re the lucky visitor- Ridiculous! Never click a pop up advertisements for any reason. Not all ads are bad, but chances are that you’re not going to come out unscathed when clicking one of the ones implying you’re a winner.

Now take these five tips to heart and get out there brave internet warrior! Set up your anti-virus software and practice these steps so that no one may harm you or your computer.

Tags: Computer Security, Software Security

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

Apple iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S III: The aftermath

So, you’ve read our Apple iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S III comparison, but there’re still some questions you had that left unanswered? Well here is the place to post them – we’ll answer them right here in our blog.

We’ll start with some of those posted in the comments section of the comparison itself. By the way we are considering making this type of articles a regular feature on our blog, so we’d appreciate any feedback you might have on the idea, too.

Unless I’m wrong, iPhone 5 offers USB-OTG as well. Lightning cables to connect USB drives and microSD cards have been shown.

Not quite. The iPhone 5 does have the camera connection kit, which lets you import images from various storages, but that’s not full-featured USB. For example, the Galaxy S III can connect to mice and keyboards. Not to mention that you can access the full file system of any memory cards and thumb drives you connect to it and not just import the images that are stored on them.

How the hell it was a tie in phone and SMS!!!! GSMArena even the web browsing, when SGS3 shines you call it a tie?!

Actually, it’s not – we called the telephony and web browsing chapters in favor of the Galaxy S III. But let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good argument, eh?

Compromising is going nowhere. With this abstract topic, you can make the most phones come in same story. Sorry, but even Canon vs Nikon, even the best warriors, even if they’re both good, just One is the winner. In every fight there is a Winner. Choose one, you made a site, a topic, a blog, you decide. The consumer don’t understands generally like you, that’s up to his choices, he’s…”not so informed” let’s say.

Of course, there’s a winner in every fight, but in this case things aren’t quite so simple. You see the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S III are both great smartphones and each has its strengths and weaknesses (actually not weakness, really, just area where they are not the best).

Which smartphone suits you best depends mostly on your usage pattern and even though we’d love nothing better than saying X is better than Y, we just can’t. You see this site is visited by about 1.5 million people daily and each of them has their unique needs and preferences, so how could we say that the iPhone 5 is better because of its build quality or the Galaxy S III is the winner just because it supports more video formats?

One might decide to put a protector case on their expensive new smartphone to protect it from drops (in which case looks hardly matter) or they might not watch video on their smartphone at all (so what’s the use of a great video player?).

What we decided to do instead is compare the two most popular smartphones of the season in various real-life scenarios and call which is better in each of them. You should then decide which of those matter to you and which are irrelevant and pick the best one for your personal needs. You can hate us all you want for it, but we feel that is the right thing to do.

I don’t think you can award any extra points for iMessage, considering the SGS3 comes with not only ChatOn, but Google Talk, a cross platform messaging service that works through your GMail address. It’s got a wider platform base, working on all Android devices, plus any computer that can access GMail (probably iOS too, but I’ve never looked).

First of all, GTalk is available on any device with a browser and that naturally includes the Apple iPhone 5 – all you have to do is go to the GMail website and login to your account. But that’s not really the point here – you can install of kinds of IM clients on either device – Viber, Whatsapp, Skype, you name it.

The thing with iMessage is that it is seamlessly integrated in your messaging app, so sending messages through it doesn’t require you to do anything different from what you would do to send a regular SMS. It’s a nice way of saving you some charges when you are texting your iOS-rocking buddies and that’s why we believe it’s actually a good thing to have.

Is it just me or is GSMArena Becoming a Samsung Fanboy? Example: how does one Tie in Battery Life when iPhone 5 beats the GS3?

Given that the Apple iPhone 5 scored an endurance rating of 51 hours and the Galaxy S III got 50 hours, we couldn’t see this chapter ending in anything but a tie. The 1 hour difference means that if you use the two smartphones as in our testing procedure (an hour of calls, an hour of web browsing and an hour of video playback per day) you’d have just under 2% battery left in you iPhone by the time the Galaxy S III dies. Not exactly a huge difference, is it?

Furthermore, some iPhone users aren’t exactly getting to experience the same kind of longevity we did with our test unit (including Chavis from our team).

I think you guys are biased towards the iPhone on some of those. So… the SGS3 has a micro USB… But the iPhone has a fancy suite that you have to install to download pictures from the camera folder via a cable that costs 30$ so it’s a tie! Wuut?!

No, it’s a tie in the picture browsing department, because the two can import images from all kinds of memory cards with an optional accessory. Also the iPhone 5 has more accurate color reproduction, while the Galaxy S III makes everything livelier.

It’s true that the iPhone 5 camera connection kit costs a fortune, but the official Samsung USB host adapter is hardly going for pennies either.

GSMarena, I’ve been your loyal review reader even before the trend of touchscreen hitting everyone of us. but to be frank, this is by far your WORST review ever. perhaps its because you will not like to hurt the feelings of iPhone naive users, or even afraid the Apple company will not give you anymore products to review in the future by reviewing the TRUTH. only brainless and blind-worshipers of Apple will really think that their god-like Apple thingy is better than S3, or any other flagships (Optimus G, Lumia, One X etc.) as a longtime reader, I felt extremely bad about this one-sided, biased review.

You got us there – it’s the fear of losing our Apple PR connections that motivated us to do the article in the first place. Tim Cook himself called and told us to do it or else he wouldn’t let us purchase the next iPhone from the store (because that’s what we did this time to get a review unit). We were also extremely afraid that we won’t get invited to the Apple press events anymore… Oh, wait…

Smells like apple paid advertising…

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Steve Jobs return in another epic rap, this time about the iPad mini

A hotly anticipated Apple event will take place later today and the rumor mill is adamant that the star of the show will be the iPad mini. We’ve seen a long, LONG stream of leaks of just about every component of the iPad mini, so let’s unwind with a bit of lighthearted humor before the big event begins.

First, there’s an animated music video that tells the story of the creation of the iPad mini and features a couple of surprising cameos.

In case you missed it, the same people behind this video also made an iPhone 5 parody (where you can see the Steve Jobs rap that the video above refers to).

Then is a mock promo video, which asks a legitimate question – where does the iPad mini fit between the full-size iPad and iPhone/iPod touch.

Jokes aside, we’ll be covering the Apple event (it starts at 6pm GMT / 10am PDT), so make sure to check back with us for info on the iPad mini – and anything else Apple might announce (a 13″ MacBook Pro with Retina display and new Mac Minis are also likely attendees).

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

A layman’s field guide to tech trolls

The world of technology can be a wonderful one. But travelers beware: There are trolls in our midst.

The world of technology can be an amazing, awe-inspiring place, where a torrent of innovation constantly makes gadgets faster, slimmer, cheaper, and more useful to mankind. But lurking in caves and under shadows, travelers will find a savage varmint unlike all other creatures who call this world home: trolls. So strap on your mud boots, and travel with us into a stank, hideous underbelly of the tech world, where skepticism reigns and causing misery is the order of the day. Here are some of the creatures you’ll spot along the way.

Common Internet troll

Description: First discovered in Usenet groups from the early 1990s, the common Internet troll finds intense pleasure in the frustration of others. This pleasure most often presents itself in the form of “lulz,” a kind of high-pitched cackle that has been known to drive weaker breeds of Web users to the brink of suicide. As a species, Internet trolls are highly allergic to genuine sincerity, and react violently when confronted with any human emotion other than outrage. Internet trolls survive best in environments with high levels of gullibility.

Habitat: Forums, Facebook Pages, Yahoo News

YouTube troll

Description: While not a separate species from the common Internet troll, the YouTube breed is distinct in its vicious streak and unique inability to spell. The YouTube troll can often be spotted building crude piles of racism, sexism, and homophobia around the video-sharing site where they reside.

Despite its highly confrontational demeanor online, the YouTube troll shows intensely timid behavior when disconnected from the Web, a characteristic that some have likened to the manure of the common chicken. Around age 13, the YouTube troll begins to build a fragile cocoon, which it enters for a period of one to three years. When it emerges, it has miraculously transformed into a human being. Some YouTube trolls fail to go through this metamorphosis.

Habitat: YouTube

Patent trolls

Description: Leech-like in nature, the patent troll feeds off of the hard work of others. It does so by harvesting patent claims off the corpses of bankrupt companies, then using a fist-full of its bounty to bludgeon healthy companies until they cough up cash, which is subsequently gobbled up at a staggering rate. The seed of a patent troll is so potent that the very presence of one can cause other beings to grow new patent trolls on their backs. A refusal to pay out-of-court settlements is the only known defense against a patent troll.

Habitat: Back-room offices of most major technology corporations

Copyright trolls

Description: A direct descendant of the patent troll, copyright trolls are known for their miserly nature and ability to hoard endless amounts of intellectual property, which they use for the sole purpose of causing others irritation and a loss of cash flow. The copyright troll needs out-of-court settlements to grow, and can only be killed by judges with a keen nose for anything that smells like extortion.

Habitat: Pornography studios, and low-rent publishing houses

Xbox trolls

Description: A close cousin of the YouTube troll, the Xbox troll most often has a bulbous, oozing body that is 40 percent sphincter, 60 percent mouth. The Xbox troll has a generally limited vocabulary, but is uniquely adept at spouting vulgarities at a near-constant rate, in a nasally high-pitched tone. While Xbox trolls are known for their tenacity, the species has a short life span, and can generally not survive past age 9.

Habitat: Grungy basement dens

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Spike Lee’s Oldboy remake now officially coming to America

With a distribution deal now officially in place, it looks like Spike Lee's worrying remake of Korean thriller Oldboy is officially on track.

When it was first announced that Spike Lee would be directing an English-language remake of Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy, fans of the film were understandably worried. The original film was, quite simply, a masterpiece. It’s a tragedy that’s almost Shakespearian in quality, and every element of the film, from the actors to the set design to the special effects, is perfectly designed to tell this harrowing tale. Plus, it contains what may be the most viscerally impressive fight scene ever committed to film. In short, it’s a great movie that works brilliantly on a number of levels, and honestly, it seems unlikely that anyone, Spike Lee included, could do a better job with the story than Park Chan-wook.

Of course, the original Oldboy had one glaring flaw as far as Hollywood is concerned: subtitles. No matter how great a film is you just can’t expect American audiences to seek out a movie that forces them to read. The Constitution guarantees us all the right to be as illiterate and lazy as we’d like, and that goes along nicely with our collective desire to use our brain meat as little as possible. Yes, it’s a depressing point, but you can’t really deny its validity: How many foreign-language movies have been actual, legitimate hits here in America?

With the assumption that we’ve impressed upon you readers that this remake is potentially a very bad, depressing idea, on to today’s news. According to The Hollywood Reporter, FilmDistrict snapped up the US distribution rights for Lee’s version of Oldboy at the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival. Given that FilmDistrict co-founder Peter Schlessel has an executive producer credit on the film, this agreement isn’t entirely surprising, but it is something of a final nail in the coffin of hope that somehow Lee’s Oldboy might not be made. This movie is happening people, and according to THR the production starts shooting a mere month from now.

So, now that pessimism is utterly fruitless, we may as well make the best of this imminent situation. As much as the remake itself seems like the very definition of a cynical, money-driven Hollywood decision, we do like some aspects of the idea. Specifically, that Josh Brolin has been cast to portray protagonist Oh Dae-Su (or whatever he’s called in the American version; probably Bill or Steve). While we’re unconvinced that Brolin can trump the performance given by Min-sik Choi in the complex lead role, we do enjoy everything we’ve seen him in, and are quite curious to see how he will interpret the character. Likewise, when we heard that Samuel L. Jackson would be joining the cast, our excitement for the film greatly increased. Not because we think Jackson’s presence somehow validates this remake’s existence, but simply because Mr. Jackson is entertaining in any movie. We could watch that guy read a phone book, as long as he occasionally drops a few angry F-bombs along the way.

While we continue to wait for the studios to offer up a release date for this project, we’d like to recommend that you all visit your favorite Netflix device and watch the original, 2003 version of Oldboy. It was recently added to the service’s instant streaming option, and it’s absolutely worth two hours of your Friday afternoon.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

The amazing science behind the Nokia Lumia 920 camera – the second phase of PureView

The Nokia Lumia 920 comes with an immense amount of camera innovation. It’s the first time we see a cameraphone with real optical image stabilization system in place and surprise, surprise… it doesn’t come with a huge hump on its back. While only having 8MP of maximum image resolution, the Nokia Lumia 920 also wows with the high-quality Carl Zeiss optics, a last-gen backlit image sensor, multi-aspect shooting, the extra wide viewing angle (up to 26mm in 16:9 mode), a new type of high power/short pulse LED flash and finally, the extra bright F2.0 aperture.

As you see, with the Nokia Lumia 920, PureView development has zoomed on low light performance rather than class leading sharpness and dynamic range. But the results we get should be as impressive as ever. It’s just that this time Nokia’s R&D team is focusing in another direction.

PureView becomes a marketing buzzword

But before I get to the nitty-gritty details, I’d like to get something out of the way. I find the reuse of the PureView moniker for pure marketing’s sake a letdown. What was once the name for a pioneering image technology using a high-megapixel sensor with pixel oversampling to produce sharp images with wide dynamic rage is now turned into a dumbed down name of a series of camera-centric smartphones by Nokia.

I get it, it’s their trademark name, they are free to use it however they like. But it still feels like cheating, sorry. “Whilst some may associate the PureView moniker with specific features, specifications or functionality introduced along with the 808 PureView, Nokia’s ultimate intent for PureView is to be synonymous with high performance imaging.”

And while the announcement of the Lumia 920 yesterday was marred by other forms of cheating too, I still can’t help but be fascinated by the amount of innovation that has gone into making the Lumia 920 camera system.

Capturing light

The backside illuminated image (BSI) sensor or the “backlit sensor”, as it’s commonly called, usually delivers superior pixel performance in low light situations. The advantage you would expect from this type of sensor is getting lower noise levels at a given ISO sensitivity compared to a similar frontside illuminated sensor (FSI). Nokia’s Damian Dinning claims they’ve utilized the absolutely latest generation BSI sensor, which reportedly, has gotten rid of most inherent disadvantages of the technology.

Much like in the Nokia 808, the sensor is oversized (it’s actually 8.7MP rather than 8MP) to allow for higher resolution 16:9 aspect shooting mode. In 4:3 shooting mode the Lumia 920 captures 8MP stills, and in 16:9 aspect mode, the stills turn out 7.1MP, which is a lot more than what competing cameraphones without this multi-aspect oversized sensor would turn in.

When you are aiming in letting as much light as possible to the image sensor, you can hardly go wrong with a wider aperture. The wider the aperture, the wider the “hole” through which light gets to the camera’s sensor. Nokia has gone for a F2.0, which is really wide.

And good-quality wide aperture optics are pretty hard to make and most importantly, usually, they are bulkier.

Keeping it steady

Much like zooming, optical image stabilization (OIS) has long been among the mainstays of digicams, something that’s been out of reach for cameraphones up until now. Creating their OIS system, Nokia has gone for a complex design that is more advanced than the one used in your regular-sized digital camera.

The diminutive optical system on the Nokia Lumia 920 allowed the engineers to create something they call “floating optics”. Rather than shifting a single lens element inside the module to compensate for camera shake, Nokia’s OIS system moves the entire optical assembly to counter the camera shake. “The benefit of this approach is that the amount and form of camera movement that can be compensated for is much greater.” And as Damian Dinning himself puts it, this has been their “most challenging opto-mechanical design to date.”

Reportedly, the new system is performing even better than the OIS on some dedicated digicams catering for about 50% more movements per second than conventional OIS systems. It’s also capable of responding to new movements surprisingly quickly without much lag, as they’ve implemented a system that constantly monitors the position of the lens assembly, allowing continuous updates to the movement pattern regardless of how random it is.

Internal tests have revealed that the OIS on the Lumia 920 is able to compensate for shutter speeds, which are up to three stops lower. So instead of a minimum handheld speed of say, 1/30 of a second, the Lumia 920 can have its shutter shooting wide open for 1/4th of a second – an 8x longer shutter speed – and that’s again, handheld.

The following figure shows the exact benefit of having the OIS on board as the shutter speed goes down. There’s already a big difference at 1/30 and the gap only widens as shutter speed lowers.

In video recording, the OIS system is tuned slightly differently. It makes sense of the movements you are making with the camera and will only compensate for the unintended ones, so panning for example is uninterrupted. This is not evident on the video below, but it still the conveys what an amazing feature OIS is in video recording.

Lighting it up

Unlike the Nokia 808, the Lumia 920 lacks a xenon flash. Instead, it makes use of Nokia’s latest generation LED. It’s reportedly, over 2x more powerful than their previous best LED flashes and Damian Dinning would like to have us believe the new short pulse mode would help “freeze” subject movement in much the same fashion as a xenon flash would.

Now, good flash pictures depend on the force of the flash burst rather than on its duration, so I am not quite sure about the advantages of this new short pulse mode. The technical details are scarce at this point so I’ll just give it the benefit of a doubt.

Of course, nothing can beat a xenon flash with a big enough capacitor for freezing the moment in low light photography but that’s one of the compromises they had to make. Also, the LED can also be used as a video light and as a flashlight.

Making it smarter

Using the Windows Phone 8 new imaging framework has allowed Nokia engineers to integrate into the Lumia 920 a wide range of their proprietary image processing algorithms concerning the autofocus, the exposure metering and the white balance among others. Damian Dinning shares that one of the most important new algorithms is Nokia’s new denoise algorithm for reducing visual noise while keeping the image’s natural look.

Another area of advancement is the new lens add-ons that you can install under the Windows Phone 8 camera app. Nokia’s Damian Dinning eagerly promised that the Lumia 920 will come pre-installed with a nice set of lens apps, which are “to be followed in the future by yet more magic.”

Wrapping it up

Unfortunately, we failed to get the awesome big megasensor from the Nokia 808 in a Windows Phone. Instead, Nokia’s R&D decided to spend their efforts on optimizing low light performance. The integration of a real OIS system inside a phone is an exciting feat and I’d really like to see some more from where that innovation came from. The Lumia 920 seems like a well rounded smartphone/cameraphone and its market release cannot come soon enough. Then the real hands-on testing will continue in our over eager hands.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

This new startup wants to inject some Ooomf into the App Store

Ooomf launches its app discovery and creation platform, a place to participate and curate app products and collections. Take that, App Store.

The app market has become a very important one, and it comes down to numbers: As of May, 50.4 percent of Americans used smartphones, according to a Nielson report; we’re seeing new statistics on how they invade our personal lives; both the Google Play Marketplace and iOS App Store are well beyond the 20 billion download mark at this point; and, perhaps most telling, using a smartphone to make a call comes in as the fifth most popular function — most of it is spent using apps.

Suffice it to say that apps are big business.

Singular app developers aren’t the only ones who’ve noticed the trend, and a new wave of app creation and management platforms are hitting the scene to help with monetization as well. And that includes newly launched Canadian import, Ooomf.

The Montreal-based Ooomf began as a Startup Weekend pitch that pivoted during the team’s time in an accelerator program. “We had two major evolutions,” founder Mikael Cho tells me. “The first idea was to help people market their products online with influencers, and we saw that what we were doing with that was incremental, and not a big change. We had feedback from our users and we started thinking about our backgrounds in user experience and design and marketing, and thinking about the problems we could really solve there. So we started thinking about mobile and we saw that our expertise really aligned with mobile.”

The other piece of Ooomf’s evolution was nailing down the specifics of how it would help app developers. So for starters, the service creates a Website for its users. “One of the things they had to do in getting their app out there was make a site, because Apple requires it,” says Cho. “And we were like “oh, okay, right away, we’ll do that for you.’” He describes the process as incredibly simple — we’re talking Tumblr simple, people — and says it takes less than a minute to have your app’s Web landing page up and running. Sure, it’s a little thing, but it’s an effective one; the caliber of an app’s proprietary page is sort of like a book cover — we’re not supposed to judge it, but lots of us most certainly do.

As the team has refined the product, it’s added a community element to Ooomf. “We allow people to participate in the creation of an app,” says Cho. “So if you have an idea or a prototype or a design, you can put it on Ooomf and let the community vote on features and participate in it.” Crowdsourcing leaves no stone untouched, and that’s quickly including app creation. There are a handful of companies pre and post-launch who are doing this exact thing, though using a variety of mechanisms to encourage audience participation. But the idea remains the same: Everyone has an app idea, and this is a place to put them.

The other beast of a problem Ooomf is tackling is app discovery. If you haven’t noticed, the consumer and developer world largely hates the App Store’s feeble attempts at showcasing apps and helping us find new ones. In addition to supporting and participating in app creation, users can also make their own curated app catalogs. “You identify as a creative, or a traveling nomad, or a hustling innovator, and we have different apps in each category,” Cho tells me. “But the entire idea is to be a part of the whole life cycle of an app, from idea to creation.” Ooomf also offers a “Coming Soon” category to help with discovery of upcoming apps — something that developers fear in the App Store: If you don’t crack the top on your debut day, you can sink fast and furiously.

Apple’s lack of App Store discovery upgrades has been a boon to teams like Ooomf: It’s basically ceded an entire platform to outsiders. Of course, we now have word that Apple is about to flip a switch and turn Genius on for the App Store, and that some of that Chomp acquisition will finally be making its debut. I asked Cho if there’s any fear on Ooomf’s part about this, and he seems to feel the way that I do about it: Too little, too late. He also mentions that Apple’s App Store algorithms still allow the Ooomf team to offer something useful.

At the moment, everything on Ooomf is free, and will remain so for pure users. Cho says that within the year, paid-for features will be introduced on the developer-side and it will either be based on the number of apps someone is making or the numbers of things they use Ooomf to help them do. He also talks about working with developers on incentivizing user participation — offer people early beta testing or future discounts on in-app purchases if they were there from day one.

Clearly, Ooomf’s strategy is to give developers a stage — which is surprisingly becoming tricky territory these days. “I definitely think it’s important to really cater to developers. You’ve seen with Twitter the massive growth that occurred because, yes, there were users, but because every developer was building a Twitter client or something for the application,” Cho says. “There was so much open data and Twitter was able to grow massively because of that.”
“Eventually, we’ll have our own data and open our own API, and we’ll use the App.net approach.”

Today, Ooomf is available via Web and also has optimized its site for mobile. The iOS app will launch this November. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Human Immortality in 33 Years Claims Dmitry Itskov’s 2045 Initiative

Twentieth Century Fox/AP Photo

Although James Cameron’s “Avatar” took place more than 140 years into the future, a Russian billionaire has teamed with  dozens of scientists to lay out a plan that would use avatars to transfer human consciousness into an artificial form. The goal:  human immortality by 2045.

The 2045 Initiative, a life-extension project founded by 31-year-old Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov in February 2011, offers a timeline for immortality over the next 33 years. Beginning with remotely controlled robotic avatars and re-creating the human brain through computer models, the end result would be human immortality in the form of holographic avatars.

The 2045 Initiative, which has  had a major social media blitz, brought together 30 top Russian scientists to develop the “imortal” technology, laying out  the plan for human immortality on its website.

“The first phase  is to create a humanoid robot dubbed ‘avatar,’ and a state-of-the-art brain-computer interface system. The next phase consists of creating a life-support system for the human brain and connect it to the ‘avatar.’ The final phase … is to create an artificial brain in which to transfer the original individual consciousness into,” reads the plan.

Got that?

Here’s the 2045 Initiative’s timeline for this feat:  

2015 – 2020: A robotic copy of a human body remotely controlled by a brain-computer interface

2020 – 2025: An avatar is created in which a human brain can be transplanted at the end of  life

2030 – 2035: An avatar that  can now contain an artificial brain in which a human personality can be transferred at the end of  life

 2040 – 2045:  A holographic avatar emerges

In addition to taking the Internet by storm, the 2045 Initiative has  also launched its own political party, called Evolution 2045, pushing a  new strategy for human development. The Russia-based party takes a global approach, encouraging other countries to follow in its footsteps “not in the arms race, but in the race for building a bright future for mankind.”

Last  month Itskov appealed to members of the Forbes World’s Billionaires List, urging  them  to take heed of  the “vital importance of funding scientific development in the field of cybernetic immortality and the artificial body.

“Contributing to cutting-edge innovations in the fields of neuroscience, nanotechnology and android robotics is more than building a brighter future for human civilization. [It's also] a wise and profitable business strategy that will create a new and vibrant industry of immortality — limitless in its importance and scale. This kind of investment will change every aspect of business as we know it,”  read Itskov’s open letter.

Itskov plans to host a Global Future Congress meeting next year in New York. A previous event was held last February in Moscow.

This  massive hypothetical technology would give the “new” mankind amazing survival abilities, according to the Initiative.

“The new human being will receive a huge range of abilities and will be capable of withstanding extreme external conditions easily: high temperatures, pressure, radiation, lack of oxygen,” claims the Initiative on its website.

And according to a slick video produced by the 2045 Initiative, once the hologram-like avatar reinvents mankind’s scientific and social structure, war and violence will go by the wayside as “spiritual self-improvement” becomes mankind’s primary goal.

But what about the average Joe who  just wants to live forever?

The cost of these avatars should be on par with that of an automobile, the Initiative’s website assures, as soon as mass production begins.

So start saving up.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Opinion: Are you ready for the physical Web?

The Web might not just be a place you visit on your laptop anymore. Wearable computers and ubiquitous sensor networks promise to bring the benefits of connectivity to all aspects of life in the near future.

You are sitting in a park when a small child tugs on your pant leg and warns you not to step on the magical creatures under your bench. Odds are she doesn’t have a vivid imagination; she’s just playing The Hidden Park, an iPhone app.

In this game, kids point an iPhone around the park, and they follow a map that tells them where the magical creatures live. They have to solve riddles and puzzles, and they take pictures along the way — which can serve as “proof” to doubting adults that we are not alone.

Welcome to the early signs of the “physical Web,” where everything in our world is as digital and interconnected as the Web is today. It will change your career and your life, so let’s take a quick tour.

The Webcam Social Shopper lets people turn any webcam into a mirror, so you can find clothes online and hold them up to see how they will look on you.

Electric Foxy takes things a step further, by connecting clothing with technology. The company is experimenting with Ping, a ring that gives you feedback when you exercise, and Move, a line of clothing designed for athletes and dancers to help them understand precisely the movements of their bodies.

Not every innovation will necessarily represent a step forward for society. A Japanese gadget enthusiast hooked up a Kinect (from Microsoft Xbox 360) sensor to a pair of video glasses and created a virtual girlfriend named Hatsune Miku, who follows him around. She’s a pretty good, if somewhat creepy dancer; no word on how good the developer is.

Here’s one thing I’m pretty sure about: Looking through a computer will be dramatically different than looking at a computer. You look at your laptop and smartphone, but when companies start offering smart glasses we will literally look at the world through computers.

When this happens, Hatsune will have lots of competition. Zombies, athletes, movie stars, game tokens, fact sheets, cooking demonstrations, and, yes, advertisements will be everywhere. At this point, we all will have three choices: ignore the changes, dig deeper, or escape the real world.

#1 Ignore the changes

Since my intention is to write about entrepreneurial opportunities arising from technology, this isn’t the option I’d recommend. Sure, you could stick your head in the sand and reject new technologies. But the people likely to do that stopped reading five paragraphs ago.

#2 Dig deeper

The Physical Web will bring humanity closer to the truth than we have ever been before. I don’t mean “the meaning of life” truth. I mean the truth as in, “Is it time to water my garden?” or “How long will it take me to drive from my office to home if I leave right now?”

Nearly everything will have data connected to it, or will become data itself. BigArtMob lets people position art — from graffiti to museum art — onto a map, where people can then access it and it can become the foundation for, say, personalized art tours.

You probably know that smart glasses are nearly here. More than 17 million people have watched Google’s Project Glass video showing how data will be overlaid on nearly everything you see.

This data will make you smarter, which is another reason not to choose option number one. If you do, everyone else could be smarter than you.

Of course, you won’t need to don a pair of smart glasses to benefit from the physical Web. You could instead just connect sensors around your home, yard and office… and then tell your stuff what to tell you.

To get a sense (no pun intended) of what this will be like, stop by IFTTT. Here you can already tell the Web what to tell you. For example, I use IFTTT to send me a text every time the word “snow” is in the forecast in Vermont. Even better interfaces will spring up for sensors.

#3 Escape the real world

Watch for escapism to get a lot more powerful.

I have no inside information whatsoever, but you can bet that one of the first power users of smart glasses will be the porn industry, which is always the first to embrace new tech. “In your face” will take on a whole new meaning.

So if you buy your teenager a pair of smart glasses, you might also want to think about limiting what he or she can do with them.

Game companies will be close behind porn merchants, with new offerings that bring zombies, aliens and monsters into the real world. Players will be able to hunt and “kill” real-life people and animals, as well as imaginary characters that the rest of us don’t see.

I’m not a fan of movies or TV shows in which the viewers get to choose the ending, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see new types of entertainment spring up that allow people to escape far away from everyday life. As I write this, the Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset is blowing the doors off its $250,000 funding goal on Kickstarter. The headset will bring gamers inside the game, in a way no device has done before.

And it’s a pretty safe bet that by this time next year even Oculus Rift will seem tame.

So what does this mean for your career and your life? Keep in mind three things as you make decisions about what to buy, where to work, and how to invest your savings. The emerging physical Web will:

1.) Link devices to other devices, plus devices to people and vice versa.

2.) Cause sensors to be built into nearly everything, and they will be connected, too.

3.) Let you tell all this stuff what to do, and what to tell you.

Bruce Kasanoff is a speaker, author and innovation strategist who tracks sensor-driven innovation at Sense of the Future. Kasanoff and co-author Michael Hinshaw teamed up to explore more of the opportunities unearthed by disruptive forces in Smart Customers, Stupid Companies.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com