2G Network is vulnerable. Your Phone can now be hacked

This piece of information suffused the Internet on December 29^th, 2011. Karsten Nohl, head of Security Research Labs in Germany says that GSM network is vulnerable to a new hack. The hack would allow a fraudsters to make calls and send messages without hinting the phone owner about it. A hacked prepaid user would soon realize this seeing the change in balance money whereas a hacked postpaid user will realize this after seeing the phone bill. 

Worse is the fact that none of the Indian network provider provides high end security to encrypt phone conversation.

How is it done?

A computer and two antenna is all that required to do the trick. A mobile phone catches the strongest tower (and hence the nearest) in a region. The computer and antenna system can pretend to be a tower and fool your phone. Once the link is established between your phone and the fake tower (the system), outgoing calls can now be extracted since the fake tower is not encrypted. Therefore a fraudsters can listen to all your outgoing calls.

Image: gizmodo.com

How to prevent the hack?

Prevention can be provided by the network provider. System software of network provider needs an update to withstand such attacks. A user can at most switch to 3G Network to be secure or rely on network provider for an update to the system software. Some phones may even warn the user before the phone connects to an unencrypted network; in that case the user must go by the warning and follow on screen instruction to prevent the phone from connecting to the fake tower.

Earth like planet found, but can we live there??

On December 5^th 2011, NASA announced that it has discovered two earth like planets through its Kepler telescope. Through this article I discuss the very basic and first hand question of this discovery. 

WHAT??

Two earth like planets named Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f in a different solar system. Thus they are exoplanets, meaning planet in a different solar system.

HOW??

They were discovered by kepler telescope. The assertion that they are ‘earth like’ was made by comparing the mass of these two planets with that of the earth.   Mass like that earth or lower then earth imply that the gravitation is also similar to the earth and hence the atmosphere is bound to the surface of the exoplanet whereas mass greater than earth imply that the gravitation pull is not similar to the earth and thus the presence of atmosphere is probably nil.

WHY??

The finding is important since mankind needs an alternative place for living in future, an answer to the rapidly growing population and fast depletion of resources. To ascertain more about the two new planets the scientist are now busy finding its density. Density equivalent to or similar to that of earth would give evidence of the presence of water in the named exoplanets.  Visiting the planet is something we cannot think of right now, it is unimaginably far.

The Kepler science team says that the best of Kepler telescope is yet to be delivered and researched and something more interesting and fruitful is in store for the future.

You can watch interesting videos and read more at CSMONITOR and NASA's official site

Source: CSMONITOR & NASA

Laptop in your bed can be fatal to your life

Today’s Assam Tribune highlighted a very important piece of news by Sudip Talukdar. A Laptop can be fatal if you fall asleep at night while using it. According to the piece of article, using a notebook in the bed causes it to overheat since the mattress of the bed blocks almost all the ventilation route.

At least two people have reportedly died while sleeping with their laptop switched on in bed, causing battery overheat and ultimately bursting of the battery with huge leakage of toxic. Not only that, Mr. Sudip adds that if a laptop battery is dead then one should consider replacing it as soon as possible because charging a dead battery will invite tragedy.

It is also highly recommended that while using laptop, especially in bed, one should use a laptop cooler and keep the laptop over it. Laptop cooler is easily available in any IT store.

STAY SAFE!!

Is Social Network becoming too social?

Courtesy: earlcapps.blogspot.com

A survey conducted over a small area of different States in north east India  which includes schools and colleges shows a dark image and future of the upcoming youth of this region. Students of classes VI to XII are so much indulged in social network like that of facebook that its impact is easily notable in falling grades, intensity of outdoor activities and indeed socializing. Being a member of a social network site has become a trend. These teens, unaware of the privacy, terms and condition of a networking site post and upload whatever they think is cool. Some even go to the extent of blackmailing and bullying beside derogatory remarks made on each other through this medium. This results in conflict between a numerous section of people and cyber crime resulting in loss of prestige & privilege. Some students even bunk school hours to surf the social network. For teens, this social network is also a good way to impress other friends. Some parents and teachers blame it on the easy availability of cell phone while the other just complains about one another's parents

It is high time that these teens be made to learn and understand the terms and condition of a networking site. Furthermore its overuse needs a check. All this is possible through parents and educators who should impart unstrained and periodic training in schools and colleges, of which not a drop is seen yet.

Steganography

It has been a long time since I wrote last. Actually many hurdles popped up, lowering the frequency of my post. Today I write about Steganography in computer technology. Steganography as defined by Wikipedia is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one, apart from the sender and intended recipient, suspects the existence of the message, a form of security through obscurity.

In this post, I restrict to write about the use of Steganography through basic computational method

A person Mr. Mac sends an image of a beautiful flower to Miss Mary. Both Mac and Mary work as spying agent for the government. Being a spy they are not allowed to share intelligence information through email or phone or fax or through handwritten letters as any such act may catch the eye of a 3^rd party which will spoils the purpose of spying. What they share is actually in the image of the beautiful flower. The image contains handful of written information which an intended receiver can extract. Attached to the image file is a hidden text file which is not at all visible to a usual person. This is Steganography, or computer Steganography. 

How is it done??

Well, we know that every image is made of up pixels. As computer understands only the language of 0 and 1 so these pixels have a binary code like 11011101, an 8 digit binary code (as 8bit=1byte). Now suppose a pixel of an image file contains the binary code 01010110, what is done is that, the last or any 1 digit of the binary code of a pixel is changed to any one binary digit of the letter of a text file. This way 1 digit of millions of binary code is changed to a digit corresponding to a letter of the text file. The intended receiver stacks the last digit of the changed binary code of the pixel and arranges them in an 8 bit order. Finally he has the hidden message.

But change in binary code should change the pixel as well?? This is true but when a single digit of a binary code is changed, the pixel does not change much, may be a little bit of quality reduction.

The image below will try to explain whatever is written above.

Click on the image for an enlarged view.

 

Well, I tried to explain Steganography by a simple example. The hidden message may be hidden in another text file, movie file or a MP3 file apart from an image file.

Now one may ask how we can change the binary code. Well, I leave it to you, google it and find out more about Steganography. A hint is that, Steganography can be done easily in Linux Operating System by use of stegohide, outguess.

Biology in Engineering

A lecture that I heard at our orientation program laid stress on the importance of Biology in Engineering. The importance is explained by an interesting example is as follows.

An employee of the famous and frontier company named OIL (Oil India Limited) once called up his mate (who is currently a professor in Gauhati University) to find a solution to his problem. His problem, a bacterial component poses threat to some of the oil component standing as a challenge to the mass production of oil. The solution as given by the professor was simple. Just introduce a microbe into the bacterial component, the bacterial dies and the problem gets solved. The employee of OIL then calls up his higher notch to know if the microbe is available in OIL laboratory. He then learns that the microbe was bought from a private firm at a cost of 45 lakhs.  

According to the professor, who heads the Biology department in Gauhati University, the microbe could be simply made in a culture for just Rs.15

By the above example the professor makes everything clear, biology can’t be neglected in engineering studies; else an engineer can be cheated.

Some of the engineering colleges in India have introduced Biological Science as a subject in Engineering and others might follow. Student often neglect this subject thinking he/she has nothing to do with it but the example as explained above shows the brighter side of biology.

News Channels in North East India, a headache.

There are around 4-5 Private News channels in north east who instead of delivering NEWS, deliver their views on almost all issue of society. They prefer to judge news as a case, create some stupid debate over it by paying and inviting eminent personality of North East. These eminent personalities can’t even turn down the invitation fearing public defamation of them in the same channel which invited them. Yes, such is the position of a news channel in north east.

Some common stupidity of these news channels include playing a background music of a bollywood movie in the so called news item, publicly supporting a particular political party, avoiding to air news which include allegations and wrong doing of a particular political party, introducing debate where the anchor speaks like a parrot. I even feel that most of the host/anchor tries to copy the style and accent of some of the renowned anchor/host of prominent NEWS channel in national and international platform.

Not only that, the worst scenario is when the anchor or the editor of the news channel interrupts a renowned personality saying, ‘I think your statement has no point since. . .’, or, ‘We are running out of time, kindly make it short’ 

My question is, what does the anchor, or editor of the news channel think of themselves compared to the eminent personality sitting adjacent or front of them. The way this anchor/host speaks, as if their no one a greater then him/her.

These News Channels even play blame game, when they no it’s not their job. They fail to understand that their main purpose is to deliver NEWS and nothing else. Debate can be created but not the way they do.

I feel pity for the entire aspiring journalist because more than half of them will be joining a private news channel and their purpose of journalism stops right there even if they earn their living.

Also, not to forget, these private news channel disclose their rivalry between them (between one news channel and the other) by creating a defamation news against their rival channel, isn’t it shit .

Who are keyloggers? How to stay safe from them?. . . A guide to all newbie.

Keyloggers are those people who can track what you type over the keyboard when you’re connected to the internet. A keylogger can thus keep a watch of which sites are you visiting and track what is being typed by you. This also means that when you type your password to access any online service, a keylogger can attempt to steal your password.

It is clear from the above Para that a keylogger is also a hacker. And if you are not destined well then you may loose everything you have over the internet.

How to protect oneself from keyloggers?

Since a keylogger can benefit by what you typed, especially when you type your password, so let’s address the protection here.

Suppose your password is, innate96p now don’t type the password in one go. Firstly type tep then with the help of your mouse keep the cursor between e and p , now type 96 , now again keep the cursor before t and type nn , following the same technique by moving the cursor again before n , type i and lastly by keeping the cursor between second n and t , type a

This way the keylogger records your password as tep96nnia whereas your actual password is innate96p.

Though the process seems time consuming but let me assure you that its not. Once you’re habitual to it, you can do it easily thereafter. The above password which I have shown is just an example and you need to follow the same technique with your password.

It is highly recommended that you follow the above procedure whenever you log in to any website through a shared computer. (eg. Cyber café)

 The article above is written by me but the actual idea was given by a thinkdigit forum member few years back. All credit to the particular member of the said forum

NPTEL...a light for engineers

Being into first semester of engineering, I was looking for resources online that could facilitate my engineering study. And to my expectations I found many and most helpful among them was the resources provided by the IITs and IISc.  Video lectures and materials on almost all subjects of engineering grouped systematically for specific branches of Engineering. Not only that, theirs even material (mostly video lectures) for semester 1 and semester 2 students. Videos are hoisted over Youtube. For the mobile browser the videos are available in 3GP format. Other format includes MP4 & FLV. Written materials are available in HTML and PDF format. These resources are a fruit of the Project named NPTEL funded by the Government. NPTEL or National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning is a project whose main purpose is to make India an Engineering Knowledge stronghold. Not only that, the site claims to deliver industries and teachers with resources which they can put into use. Since these video lectures and written materials are from the IITs and IIS Bangalore, no doubt that they would deliver the best. One can even download the videos and PDF format of materials.

Know more at www.nptel.iitm.ac.in

Similar to NPTEL project in India, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been delivering free courses on engineering for more a decade now. These MIT materials are available at http://ocw.mit.edu ,why should I continue, simply visit the site and judge yourself. I bet you would find it zakkas

You don’t enroll into any course when you visit these sites. The MIT Courseware includes forum discussion and we can expect NPTEL to follow soon.

Hope to see lot more from NPTEL. Cheers ! !

Safety in Facebook....the neglected but important part

Facebook has some inbuilt feature which goes a long way in protecting ones privacy and ensuring safety. Well, not everyone is aware of all these services by Facebook and here I am to write a post on all those services. If you don’t know about ‘secure browsing in Facebook’ and/or if you are really concerned about your privacy and safety in Facebook then read on. . .

To avail all these features it is always recommended that you register you personal cell phone with Facebook.

1. Secure browsing using HTTPS: Facebook allows its user to switch from Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). HTTPS is secure mode of browsing then HTTP.

If your browser address bar shows that you are in http://www.facebook.com/home.php    then it means that the connection between the Facebook server and your computer is unsecured.

To switch to HTTPS, Click ‘Accounts’ then ‘Account Settings’ on you Facebook homepage. Under the ‘Account Setting’ page click ‘Security’ and enable ‘Secure Browsing’.

      

            Click on the above image to get an enlarged view

A line from the famous Wikipedia explains:

HTTP is unsecured and is subject to man-in-the-middle and eavesdropping attacks, which can let attackers gain access to website accounts and sensitive information. HTTPS is designed to withstand such attacks and is considered secure against such attacks.

 

The above image shows a secure HTTPS connection to Facebook.Click on image to enlarge

2. One-Time Password: This feature can be very helpful at times. Suppose you are opening your Facebook homepage in a public computer, say in Cyber Café or in School or Office. It is a smart option not to input your normal password to prevent password tracker, key loggers etc. to open your profile, better it would be if you ask Facebook for a special password to open your page. Simply send a SMS as ‘otp’ (without quotes) to 32655 from your registered mobile number. Your will soon receive a special password which remains active for only 20 minutes and can be used only once.

3. Login Approvals: Another social service by the social giant. You can configure login approvals and I recommend that you configure it NOW. This ensures that other unrecognized devices don’t login to your profile. Suppose you log in to Facebook from your own cellphone or your personal computer or both then you can keep these two devices under recognized devices. If ever you log in to Facebook with a different device other then these two devices then you will be asked to enter a access code which will be sent to your phone via sms. This is to ensure that the log in attempt is not fake or a jailbreak.

To go to recognized devices, Click ‘Accounts’ >> ‘Account Setting’>> Under Account Setting Page click ‘Security’ and add any recognized devices under ‘Recognized Devices’.

EXTRAS

Friend Listing In Facebook: Ever if you wanted to chat in Facebook but wished one of those irritating friend stayed away from your chat box. Or if you ever wanted to share something only with friends you trust most and not your cousin or teachers. Well, that’s always been possible in Facebook, but it is unlike Google+ where these feature is easy as a cup of tea.

You can Create LIST in Facebook. On your Facebook Homepage, click on ‘Accounts’, then click ‘Edit Friends’. Here you can see ‘Create a List’

You can create list according to your convenience, for example, create a list named ‘Teachers’ and add all your teachers in that list. Similarly create a list named ‘Cousin and Family’ and add your entire cousin in that list.

Now whenever you are online, you can customize to which list you would like to show yourself online. Or, if you share something, you can customize to which list your sharing would be visible too.

 The green circle shows the 6 lists I created. Click the image to enlarge

Sharing Responsibly. Click on 'Customize' to make your sharing visible to only those people you want Click on image to enlarge

Under Chat tab. Click 'Limit Availability' to chat with only those people you want. And make yourself invisible to others.

Clicking 'Limit Availability' pops up the above window. Here you can see the list you created and become online and offline for respective lists.

Also read my earlier article to be secure over Social Network.
Keep your Social Networking Profile Safe
 To know more on Facebook Security visit Facebook's official Security Center at 

www.facebook.com/help/safety/

Sonia goes abroad for her treatment . . . Do we lack hospitals??

(Well, it’s not a tech article but thought to air my view over it.)

Don’t we have enough facility in our hospitals to serve person like Sonia Gandhi. The latest news regarding her visit to US puts a big question mark on the medical service of our country. Well, I personally feel  that we have enough super specialty hospitals especially in the metros but the high profile dignitaries wont agree with that and so they are moving abroad.

Now if Sonia Gandhi doesn’t feel that we have enough hospitals to address her needs then why doesn’t she come up with a world class hospital and research center. After all she and her followers rule our country. The actual fact is something else. In India we do have good (read best) hospitals, like Max, Fortis, Apollo, Ambani, and Medanta to name a few. But the Government’s indifferent attitude towards private hospitals compels her to plan a trip to US for treatment.  Wait a second, where is AIIMS in the list?? Well she is Sonia Gandhi (who in world doesn’t know her) and AIIMS would fail even to cure a minor pain in Sonia’s finger.

Are all these high profile Government official ignorant of common man’s health and so they ignore Govt. medical center like NEIGRIHMS (In Shillong) which is in sorry plight since a year or so?? Is the standard of medication of AIIMS being questioned by Sonia’s visit to US for medical treatment?

Thank God, they did not send Suresh Kalmadi abroad for his health check up. May be that’s because he is a useless leg for the Government now and so he landed up in AIIMS.

I can continue writing but that won’t change anything.However, I wish Sonia Gandhi speedy recovery.

This trend was even seen in the making of the film Robot. The producers and director of the film consulted Chinese firm for special effect. The Indian firm had a limited job to do. Well in one view this is justified because the producers here will look for more and more profit and for that, may be they consulted the best studio according to their choice. But again, even here the standard of animation and special effect studio in India is being questioned.

Are we really developing our India??

Are You Aware of Social Engineering??

Hacking and Social Engineering are conterminous. We often believe that a hacker steals our password, credit card information etc through electronic means or by his/her knowledge & skill in computer world, but things may be different too.

Won’t it be easy for a hacker if he finds your password simply by seeing what you typed?

A social Engineer uses social way to find confidential information. He/she would try to gain as much personal information about his/her target. He/she then uses that information gained to try all combination of password. Thus it will be easy for a hacker to crack your password or credit card details incase those sensitive and confidential words come from something related to you, say name of your pet, name of your girlfriend combined with your vehicle number or name of your teacher etc.

Social Engineering is done by following ways.

Phishing:   A person or group can create a fake website or it will be right to say that they impersonate the original website. By links in email or social network the target is tempted to click on those links (the target or victim thinks it is a trustworthy & know website to him/her) and provide confidential details like date of birth card details etc in the page of the impersonated website.

Shoulder Surfing: Let’s understand it by an example. Suppose you are into a cyber café. You log in into any of your account online. What if a person behind you sees what you have just typed? Because cyber café is a public place so theirs a huge probability that the password you typed is being noted well by a particular person. This is shoulder surfing.

Dumpster Driving: We regularly throw garbage in the dustbin. Now some people (those hackers or fraudsters) go through one’s thrown garbage to learn personal details as very few people take care to dispose of sensitive documents properly. As I told earlier personal details can lead a way to crack ones password.

Thus a social engineer will go to extreme of extent to obtain personal information. The ways may include the 3 points mentioned above and beyond.

Avoid Shoulder Surfing: Shoulder surfing can easily be avoided by tweaking your password a little bit. To avoid, make sure your password contains atleast a letter both in upper case and lower case or/and include a particular letter or number or symbol twice consecutively. This would prevent others from noting what you have just typed as typing a character twice (or more times) consecutively won’t be easily visible or noticeable to the fraudster or hacker.

Keep your Social Networking Profile Safe

Yes, with the following simple step you can increase your social profile’s security up to several times.

Step 1: Keep a strong password. Your password should be such that it contains alphabetical letters, numerical and symbols like!@#$ %^&*(). Make sure it is at least 8 characters long, mind it 8 characters and not less then that.

            THE WHY OF STEP 1

                       

With specialized software and technique (which I can’t mention here) a hacker can make an attempt to crack your account password and he/she may achieve success in that. What a hacker does is that he instructs particular software to try all combination of character present in the keyboard to be typed automatically in the password box of a social networking site. Suppose my password is 5 characters long and it is ‘cfhtd’. Now we see that the first place is ‘c’, second place is ‘f’ and so on. The specialized software can try all possible character in the first place, Keeping the first place fixed the software can try all possible characters in second place and this trend continues. When the correct match is found then voila, the password is cracked.

But even those specialized software has some limitations. It cannot find combination of 8 character password easily as it will take a lot of time to do so (years and years). Above it, if the password comes with symbol then the task becomes more tedious. It will be wrong to say that cracking a password containing 8 character or more is impossible but it is not feasible to a hacker.

Step 2: Always double check the Webpage you are opening (here by webpage I mean the Social Network Homepage).

Rather then typing the address of the Social Networking site in the browser window, firstly go to Google Home page (www.google.com). In the Search Box, type the name of your Social Networking Site (e.g. Facebook). Now open the webpage by clicking the relevant search result. Also, never open the social networking website by any link provided in your email or other source. Type it in Google search box to be secure always.

THE WHY OF STEP 2

Sometimes a hacker or a group of hacker may create a fake website that looks similar to the original one. Those hackers may send you a link with a message which would convince you to open it. Once you click, you are trapped.

It is worth taking this step rather then repenting later on.

Withing My Mobile. .all the basics related to mobile network

We hardly know a person who doesn’t have a cellphone. From an Industrialist to a cobbler, from an entrepreneur to a student all has at least one handset with them. Mobile phones are a necessity today. All of us know how to make a call or write & receive a sms. But what about its technical details? Do you know what GSM, CDMA, GPRS actually means. What does this 3G all has to do? Will there be 4G in years to come? Isn’t 2G service not enough? No doubt, some of you would say it’s a mode of network and internet service respectively. But in this article I discus all these things and more in simple yet informative way.

 CDMA Vs TDMA

CDMA or Code Division Multiple Access is a method used for radio communication. We often relate CDMA with mobile but it is important to understand that CDMA, CDMA ONE & CDMA 2000 are all different thing of a same thing. Confused? ?

One of the basic concepts in data communication is the idea of allowing several transmitters to send information simultaneously over a single communication channel. This allows several users to share a band of frequencies. This concept is called multiple accesses. CDMA employs spread-spectrum technology and a special coding scheme (where each transmitter is assigned a code) to allow multiple users to be multiplexed over the same physical channel. In TDMA or Time division multiple accesses, the transmitter is not assigned a code but assigned a particular time frame.

Lets try to understand the above statements in a simple language

Let us consider the channel to be a room and all transmitters to be people. Now, for instance let us have 20 people in a room. These 20 people can communicate with any other person they want. Suppose Person No. 5 want to talk to Person No. 3, at the same time Person No. 4 & 10 wants to talk to person No.3, in that case all the 3 person need to wait for their respective turn to talk to person No. 3 to avoid clashes in communication. This explains the TDMA mode of communication.

Similarly, let us modify the above example. Person No. 5, 4 & 10 can use their own mother tongue (considered they are all different) to communicate to Person No. 3, provided Person No. 3 knows the languages well. This way communication clash can be avoided and Person No. 3 can give each other person a due concentration and importance. This explains CDMA mode of communication.

It is to be mentioned that TDMA communication system was the network technology developed by GSM. Hence TDMA is popularly known as GSM.

THE GSM: (or TDMA)

GSM stands for Groupe Spécial Mobile, a committee constituted by administration of European Nation to works towards a unified network system replacing the old analogue network system of communication. This committee was successful in developing the digital cellular voice telephony in the year 1982. This resulted in easy way of communication within the EU nation which was nearly impossible before GSM.

This developed network was later named upon the committee, GSM.

GSM Network was first available at the 900 Megahertz (Mhz) band of the Electromagnetic Spectrum.

Later the GSM network was further developed and was available at 1800 as well as 1900 Mhz frequency.

SMS, GPRS, UMTS are all part of GSM and were born as a GSM developed.

THE GPRS:

GPRS or General Packet Radio Service is a packet oriented mobile service or we can say that data is transferred in form of packets. This service based on GSM is able to support internet protocol (IP) with other protocol thus making web browsing possible. It was first invented in the year 2000. In 2G mobile service the data speed of GPRS is around 33Kbps to 114 Kbps.

THE GENERATIONS, 1G, 2G, 3G and beyond

1G ~ VERSES ~ 2G

While in 1G where radio signals were analog, 2G introduced digital radio signal. The conversation between people is kept protected in a digital way or technically we can say that the conversation is digitally encrypted. This prevented eavesdropping.

By eavesdropping I mean that an engineer or a technical person or any such person having good knowledge about technical system could break into a person’s cellphone and steal data. That simply means that he/she could hear conversation and make calls without the knowledge of the cellphone administrator/owner.

2G allowed more subscriber to make calls at a particular time unlike 1G where only few people could make call within a same circle of coverage. This was made possible by the digital system of communication where a person’s voice is converted into digital signal and then these digital signals were compressed to a large extent. Therefore a mobile tower could allow more space thus allowing greater number of subscriber to stay connected with each other or in other words it allowed greater number of subscriber to successfully make calls.

With 2G even heath hazards were addressed. The digital systems were designed to emit less power. This reduced prolonged exposure to radio waves. Also less power was required so cellphone got smaller and smaller.

In 1G, it was possible that a cellphone being cloned. This means there could be 2 or more phones with the same number. This initiated fraud too. With digital system of communication ( 2G ) phones can no longer be cloned.

It was in 2G where SMS was introduced. SMS was not possible in 1G due to analog system of communication. With the technology of digital data transfer Short Messaging Service and Electronic mail got a kick start.

Not only SMS soon followed the GPRS & EDGE technology. When GPRS was introduced, 2G was 2.5G and when EDGE got introduced, 2.5G was 2.75G.

GPRS allowed data transfer in a more placid manner. It can be used for services such as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) access, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), and for Internet communication services such as email and World Wide Web access. GPRS allowed 56Kbps to 115KBps of data transfer speed.

EDGE: Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) was the enhanced GPRS. It allowed greater encoding of data and allowed greater speed. Speed upto 100 Kbps could be achieved. It means faster web browsing in mobile.

THE 3^rd GENERATION MOBILE TELEPHONY (3G)

As it can be understood that 3G is advancement over 2.75G (not 2G). As we can make out from the advertisements and promotion, 3G offers a wide range of services like high speed internet access, video calls and mobile TV. Recent 3G releases often denoted 3.5G and 3.75G also provide mobile broadband access of several Mbit/s to smartphones and mobile modems in laptop computers.

3G has come up following the norms and recommendation of International Mobile Telecommunication (ITM-2000).

The 3G use Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) beside other technology. UMTS was not to be found in earlier generation of Mobile Telecommunication. UMTS is a component of IMT-2000. UMTS employs wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) radio access technology to offer better efficiency and bandwidth to mobile network operators. UMTS is also referred as 3GSM.

. . . . . & beyond

4G is the successor of 3G and one day it has to come and stay like other generation of mobile communication.  Work is on for developing 4G. 4G will offer data transfer speed over the web upto 1 GB per second and for a person traveling in a high speed train can browse or download stuff over the internet at a speed of 100 MB per second.

4G has a new word, MAGIC. It stands for Mobile multimedia Any were Global mobility solution Integrated wireless and Customized services.

User would also enjoy very secure Internet Protocol (IP), Wireless Modem Smartphone, Ultra Broadband Internet Access, IP Telephony, Gaming etc.

Source: Wikipedia. For more details visit Wikipedia pages and increase your knowledge

Google +, Not a Social Network, but a ecosystem.

Yes, what we said above is cent percent true. With other services of Google like Google docs, Google Maps, Google Chrome, G Mail etc all incorporated in Google +, it therefore doesn’t remain only a social network but an ecosystem.

I predict Google + to be a Facebook killer sooner or later. But the truth will be revealed as time passes on.

Here I discuss in simply and saucy manner the features of  Goggle + and compare them with that of Facebook.

First of all, when you log in to Google +, you are greeted with a similar interface like that of Facebook. But all is not same and the major differences are mentioned below.

‘Friend Request’ in Facebook is ‘Circles’ in Google +

 Is there something that you want to share only with your friends and not with your family or cousin? That’s very simple in Google +. You just need to create circles and add all cousin in one circle and friends on other. You can create as many circles as you want and name them accordingly. Whenever you want to share something you can control to which circles your sharing will be visible to. For Example, if you want to share some family related stuff like marriage pictures, video then make a family circle, add family members there (just drag and drop) and make those stuff visible to only family circle (that's really easy to do) 

This way your tizzy friend request can be prevented and you can easily control as to whom your sharing will be visible to. Only to friends, or everyone, or a special someone (you know what I mean).

So theirs no friend list on Google+ but Circles. You add people you want to your respective circle and others add you to their respective circles. Simple!!.

Let’s come to the second important thing.

Facebook Pages are Now Sparks in Google + 

When anything did interest you in Facebook, there were those Facebook pages you could add on. Now it’s Sparks in Google+. When something interests you, those stuff are listed in sparks..

Add what sparks your interest in.

Go Virtual!!!

This is a great feature in Google +. Suppose you are logged into google+ and at the same time many of your friends. You all can hangout in a virtual room. This virtual room has live video and voice chat feature including simple text chat. At the most 10 people are allowed in virtual room. So all can chat together, have a meeting and enjoy!! You all can even watch a video in youtube together or view photos together.

Source: Techwit Magzine & My personal Experience.