This robot valet will park your car

In Germany, high tech has come to airport parking.

Last week, Düsseldorf airport (DUS) introduced robot valets to take the hassle out of parking for travelers.

Travelers can leave their cars at the arrival level of the ParkingPLUS structure. As they leave, they confirm on a touch-screen that no one is in the car. The robot valet, nicknamed "Ray," takes it from there.

The robot measures the vehicle, picks it up with a forklift-like system, and takes it to the back area, where it will position it in one of the 249 parking spots reserved for automated valets. The machine is capable of carrying standard cars weighing up to 3.31 tons.

The robot valet is even connected to the airport's flight data system, and by checking customer trip data with the database, Ray knows when the customer will return for the vehicle. A traveler can note any itinerary changes in a parking app, which is available for iOS and Android.

Düsseldorf's airport is relatively small, and officials touted the convenience of heading to the terminal from the parking structure entrance. Ray "makes the distances between planes and passengers' vehicles even shorter," according to a statement from the airport.

"Our product is especially appealing to business travelers, who arrive at the airport shortly before the flight, seek efficient parking, and return within a few days," said Thomas Schnalke, the airport's managing director.

The introductory rate for robot valet parking at Düsseldorf is 29 euros ($39.59) per day or 4 euros ($5.46) per hour. Although the airport is targeting business travelers in a hurry, the service is open to anyone.

If airport customers use the robot valet, airport officials said they would consider expanding the system.

Ray was produced by Serva Transport in the Bavarian town of Grabenstätt. Serva previewed the robot valet in 2013; Düsseldorf is the first installation of the system.

Watch this video

 

Samsung's Galaxy S5 can be tricked by the same lifted fingerprint hack as the iPhone 5s

Remember in my previous post when a couple of researchers figured out how to bypass the iPhone 5S' fingerprint lock with a fancy fake rubber finger?
Turns out, the fingerprint sensor on Samsung’s new Galaxy S5 falls victim to the very same trick. They didn’t even have to make a new mold.

While the executions are nearly identical, the end result is somewhat more severe in Samsung’s case. Apple limits fingerprint-authenticated payments to the App Store, whereas Samsung’s PayPal tie-in (allowing users to log in to PayPal with their fingerprint) potentially puts a user’s larger financials at risk. But of course, tricking either phone’s fingerprint sensor opens up access to any email account configured on the device and really, that’s about as bad as it gets.
The big lesson here: a fingerprint password is better than no password at all, but it’s not bulletproof. If you’re a secret spy shuttling important documents around on your phone? Maybe pick something else.
For the curious, here’s the original iPhone 5S video that shows the entire finger-faking process:

Hackers Bypass Apple's Touch ID with Lifted Fingerprint

Fingerprint scanners have always been vulnerable to hackers who are willing to go the extra mile to bypass them. Over the years, we've seen everything from peoples using sophisticated techniques to bypass these biometric scanners. It's not really a surprise them, that Apple's Touch ID fingerprint scanner on the new iPhone 5s is vulnerable to these kinds of hacks as well. As Germany's Chaos Computer Club (CCC) announced last September, it has managed to bypass Touch ID by creating a fake finger that uses lifted prints to fool the scanner into perspective. Getting this ti work isn't quite as easy as CCC hackers make you think it is in their press release or this video:

First you need some kind of colored powder or superglue to lift the fingerprint. Then you have to scan the fingerprint, invert it and print it with a resolution of 1200dpi or more onto a transparent sheet. After that, you build your fake finger by smearing pink latex milk or white wood glue into the pattern that the toner created onto the transparent sheet and wait for it to set. Finally, the CCC writes, “the thin latex sheet is lifted from the sheet, breathed on to make it a tiny bit moist and then placed onto the sensor to unlock the phone.” This method should work for virtually every fingerprint scanner on the market today.
If somebody is willing to go through all of this to break into your phone, chances are you have bigger issues than fingerprint security. Also, given that most iPhone users probably don’t even use a PIN code to secure their devices today, Touch ID still marks a massive step forward in smartphone security — even given the remote chance that somebody would lift your fingerprint and go through the trouble of bypassing it.

Samsung Galaxy S5

Samsung has just announced the Samsung Galaxy S5 and it is going to be released on April 11, 2014. As with the S4, the S5 is an evolution of the prior year's model, placing a particular emphasis on an improved build quality, dust and water resistance, a more refined user experience, new security features such as a fingerprint reader, and an updated camera now with 16MP back camera and 2MP rear camera. It has a powerful hardware with the System chip in Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 8-core Exynos 5422, 2.5 GHz quad-core (Snapdragon variant) processor and an Adreno 330 GPU.  It also helps you support a healthier lifestyle with the S Health and the Heart Rate sensor.

I'M BACK!

For almost 2 months of not posting, I'm BACK! Stay tuned for tech updates and tech stuffs and if you have some questions or if you want some requests please don't hesitate to email me or pm me on facebook. :)

Do smartphones really need a 1080p or 2K resolution?

Mobile phones are devices which you use in communicating other people by sending a text message or receiving calls from different people. Right now, mobile phone have evolved, it now has a camera, a powerful hardware, nice GUI, and more. Manufacturers are in a fierce battle in the field of smartphones. There are now manufacturers that built  a smartphone with 1080p. Some of the manufacturers says that they are going to build a phone with 2K display and that is rumored for the Samsung Galaxy S5.

If you compare this phones to Nokia 3310, they are still related. They are still phones. So if you want a phone with 1080p or 2K display if you want to watch videos, just buy an UHDTV or HDTV and a DVD. You can have a better experience with it in your living room. If you want a phone with a 1080p or 2K display if you want to play games, just buy a UHDTV or HDTV and a PS3 or PS4. You'll enjoy your games using those. I'm not saying that a phone sucks because it has a good display, but for me it will just be stupid to have it for a phone. This is just my opinion. No hard feelings.

What's you opinion about smartphones with 1080p or 2K resolution?
Just comment below! Thanks!

7 things you'll hate about the iPhone 5S

1. It's even more expensive

The iPhone has never been the most affordable smartphone, and the iPhone 5S is the most expensive yet; it starts at a whopping $749.18 US dollars for the 16 GB which is $27.26 more than the outgoing iPhone 5.



2. It's ruined the trade-in value of your iPhone 5
Here's how the smartphone Circle of Life is supposed to work. Apple unveils a new thing, you trade in last year's new thing, you put the money towards the new thing. Easy.

Here's how it worked this year. Apple unveiled the iPhone 5S and discontinued the iPhone 5, causing recycling sites to rush to their computers and brutally slash their iPhone 5 trade-in rates so severely that a mint iPhone 5 will soon be worth less than a pocket of mints.

And as I've mentioned, the iPhone 5S got a sneaky price hike too, which adds to the injury.

3. It should be scratch-proof, but it isn't

Apple can call the dark colored one Space Grey all it likes, but its real name should be Scratchy McRubbish, that anodised aluminum casing is so prone to scratching that you can scuff it by playing an episode of itchy and Scatchy in iTunes.

The white one's a bit better, but only because white is closer to the color of bare aluminum and as a result, the scatches aren't as obvious. The gold one should be fairly resistant too, because gold is comparatively easy to anodise.

4. Apple's gone bling

iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5. What do they all have in common? That's right. None of them are GOLD.

There's a reason for that, and that reason is simple, gold things are for magpies, old people and idiots. Sit back and imagine the kind of people who would just love a gold iPhone.

5. There's a bigger, better one due next year

The networks would really like you to take you iPhone 5S in a two-year contract, but we all know Apple's modus operandi by now. The big hitters come out every two years with a new design and lots of new goodies, and the S models are relatively minor upgrades released in the years in between.

This is an in-between year, an "S" year, and we know what that means. A bigger, better iPhone 6 this time next year that will make you rue the day you put a cross in the box of a two year contract. Just imagine what it might do.

If an S model can read your fingers, maybe the 6 will be able to read your mind. To be honest, I'd be quite delighted if it just had better battery life and a slightly bigger screen.

6. The irrational fear that somebody's going to steal your fingers, or maybe photocopy them

Now that Apple's embraced fingerprints to unlock your iPhone and authorise iTunes purchases with Touch ID, try not to imagine someboddy stealing your phone and then coming back for your fingers so that they can unlock it.

7. You'll have to wait for it

If you've already ddecidedd you want an iPhone 5S, nothing here will change your mindd, but that doesn't mean you can just order you iPhone 5S todday andd embark on a new life gaddget-fuelledd cosiness.

Nope: you'll have to wait until September 20, or longer still if you don't live in one of the nine launch countries. (US, Australia, Canada, China, France, GErmany, Japan, Singapore and the UK).

Apple iPhone Price: Why is the iPhone so expensive?

Every time Apple announces a new iPhone, there is an inevitable backlash over the huge price. How does Apple get away with charging such a significant premium for its phone when there are plenty of other affordable, quality phones out there? More importantly, why do buyers keep paying so much for Apple's hardware?

The obvious answer to why Apple asks so much is because it can. Anybody would if they could. As for why we continue to pay so much for the iPhone, the answer is a little more complicated. First off, most buyers don't pay $500 for their phones. On contract in the U.S. and other top markets, the entry-level price for an iPhone 5S is just $199. It's the phone carriers that pay the upfront costs, so now the question shifts to them.

Why do so many operators pay so much for Apple's iPhones? When someone purchases an iPhone from a carrier on contract, he or she is more likely to subscribe to a higher revenue data plan as well, which brings in aprofit for the carriers. $10 - 15 of an iPhone owner's phone bill goes to paying off the phone. By the time a two-year contract runs out, the phone has nearly been paid for in full, and that's before adding up other costs associated with owning a smartphone.

Servitization, which is when products begin to become indistinguishable from the services they offer. Apple is not in the business of selling phones. It's in the business of enabling and creating services.

Disadvantages of the iPhone 5S

The iPhone 5S as all of you know has its new Gold version and it is a device accompanying fashion and class. It has similar specifications with the iPhone 5, but there are various improvements in certain aspects such as the camera with a reconstructed flash that can blend its two LED lights to preserve a scene's natural color balance or the Touch ID which is a fingerprint built right into the home button. The iPhone 5s comes with an amazing M7 processor that continuously measures motion data, has accelerometer, gyroscope, compass and enables a new generation of health and fitness apps.

Disadvantages of the iPhone 5S

Battery life is always a major concern in smartphones and is one division of technology that just lacks innovation and improvement. Apple along with other companies in the industry have failed here. The batteries in the 5C and the 5S offer insignificant improvement, with a few extra hours of talk-time and internet use, but it's just not enough of a difference

Motion data can be handled by the M7 processor separately, which is something Apple have shown some sense in manufacturing, making it drain less battery on the 5S, but there is surely more that could have been done. For example, Google's Moto X has managed to chip in more than a day's worth of power from a similar battery by introducing a host of minor improvements including Active Display (notifications that don't mean you have to unlock your phone) and dedicationg processor cores to specific tasks (For example: one for natural language taks and one for "contextual computing").

For short, Apple could have done better in improving battery life, but nonetheless the iPhone 5S is definitely a device worth showing off.

Malware Vulnerability for Android; Increasing?

According to security firm McAfee, mobile malware has made its way in other parts of the world. McAfee discovered almost 700,000 new variants of malware aimed at Android-based mobile devices.

While the Google Play store continues to weed out most malware, countries in the Asia-Pacific region, where McAfee counts a significant number of its mobile-security users, have a far greater problem with infections, Mike Fey, chief of technological officer for McAfee, told eWeek. Approximately 7 percent of all users in the APAC region had a device attacked by malware each month, he said.

McAfee's Q3 threat report noted an ongoing increase in the number of malware of samples that use a digital signature to attempt to evade operating systems' defenses. More than 1.5 million samples, nearly 8 percent of the total, were signed using a digital signature.

The amount of malware aimed at computers running Mac OS X grew at the same rate as the previous quarter, with only about 300 new threats detected in Q3, according to McAfee's report.