Technologies of the future: why 2020 gadgets are ahead of their time

Some of 2020's iconic gadgets come equipped with tech that won't be used by the mainstream user, Business Insider says. Among these devices, the portal distinguishes smartphones that support 5G, as well as next-generation game consoles. However, electronics manufacturers claim that their devices that support “future technologies” will become irreplaceable in a few years. Why offer consumers functions that he cannot yet use - Gazeta.Ru was trying to figure this out.

2020 saw the premiere of gadgets supporting technologies that just yesterday seemed like something futuristic and unattainable - among them 5G, augmented reality, foldable screens, the 120Hz refresh rate, and much more. Moreover.

However, as Business Insider notes, these innovations may not be ready for mass adoption.

These technologies are already present in modern life, but not all consumers can benefit from them.

At the same time, manufacturers use these functions in their marketing materials, presenting them as a selling feature of their devices.

Supports 5G networks

For example, in early October, Apple unveiled a new line of iPhone 12s that can support 5G networks, offering increased data transfer speeds compared to networks of the previous generation. The introduction of this feature was positioned by CEO Tim Cook as a breakthrough and “the start of a new era for the iPhone”.

The fact that 5G connectivity has become the norm for the latest iPhones means that millions of Apple smartphone users will now have access to the next-generation network.

However, there is an important "but": 5G is not everywhere.

For example, in Russia, there are only a few experimental areas where it is possible to pick up the signal from the fifth-generation cellular network. In other countries, including the United States, 5G only works in a few cities and is beyond the reach of most people.

Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group, believes it is unreasonable to buy a device that supports 5G in the hope that tomorrow the user can catch this network. According to him, the fifth generation of cellular communication can only become widespread in 2021-2022.

“It all depends on where you use your smartphone. 5G networks are gradually emerging, a number of countries are already introducing them, for example, Japan and South Korea. It's another question that there are no such networks in Russia today, ”says Murtazin.

Thus, the presence of 5G in a smartphone does not guarantee that the user will be able to enjoy all the benefits of next-generation communication, as the necessary infrastructure is lacking everywhere in the world. At the same time, the smartphones of many global brands, including Samsung, Huawei, and other industry leaders, already support this technology.

New visual possibilities

In November, two next-gen game consoles will hit the market at once: the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5.

Many gamers are eagerly awaiting the release of consoles that promise better graphics to their users. However, it is very likely that not all players will be able to take advantage of it.

As the manufacturers are promising against Sony and  Microsoft, their consoles will be able to support 4K resolution and a screen refresh rate of 120 fps.

However, TVs capable of "pulling" such picture parameters are only just beginning to appear on the market, and not everyone can afford them.

Thus, in June Sony released televisions specifically "ready for PS5".

The cost of ZH8 TV models ranges from 650,000 to 1 million rubles. depending on the diagonal.

Gaming journalist and blogger Anton Logvinov told Gazeta.Ru that the ability of new consoles to reproduce high-resolution graphics is a common marketing ploy.

“Manufacturers are just installing new ports. One of them supports 120 fps, TVs with these ports also support this frame rate. But in reality, there is a minimum of games that will generally run at this frame rate. Maybe esports or indie games, but modern titles can only shoot 60 frames per second. And that is no problem.

We're a long way from the fact that modern games support 120 fps frame rates, which probably never will happen and nobody needs.

We need new technologies, new graphics, ”says Logvinov.

"The consumer needs new items"

The launch of the next-generation consoles and the evolution of cellular networks is a major step in the future, but so far only a small number of users can feel this step. Gazeta.Ru polled experts to find out why manufacturers are introducing technologies that mass consumers are unable to appreciate.

Alexei Chigadaev, head of Asian projects at the iMARS communications group, believes that there is meaning in “technologies of the future”.

“First the wheel appeared - and only then the roads were adapted to driving. The situation is similar with cars, game consoles, and cell phones, ”Chigadaev said.

The expert believes that when launching "technologies of the future" are available only to a limited number of people - mainly due to the high cost and the limited number of gadgets themselves.

“The greater the volume of production and the degree of distribution among consumers, the cheaper the product is and the price of gadgets gradually decreases, making the product accessible to a growing number of consumers. It is an important economic component ... In the near future it will kick off a new class of gadgets, development of telecommunications equipment, advertising, games industry - the simple introduction of 5G phones will lead to colossal changes in various industries, ”says the expert.

Chigadaev also recalls the advertising component.

“The consumer wants new products - there's a lot of pure marketing too. Over the past two decades, consumers have grown accustomed to the fantastic growth in technological progress - and as a result, their appetites are growing.

None of the current customers can imagine spending the next 5-6 years with the same phone.

Consumption is a stimulus for economic development, and at the same time, a new religion of the 21st century ”, concluded the expert.

Oppo Product Manager Maxim Dyachkin believes that if companies stop developing technology for the future, progress in the industry will stall.

“Innovative companies are always striving to create technologies for the future. This is part of the technological advancement that regularly creates new devices for the whole world. Indeed, at first, innovations may be available to a few users, but as they develop they become part of the daily life of most consumers, ”explains Dyachkin.

Tatiana Danielyan, vice president of project management at ABBYY, believes companies want to stay ahead of the competition in this way, by offering something that others don't.

“At the same time, bringing new products to market, whether it's phones, company programs, or even self-driving cars, always involves testing hypotheses. For this, most companies have early adoption programs. They choose a group of people with given socio-demographic characteristics, income level, education, tasks, or “pains” that they can heal with the help of the future product.

Early adopters help identify new use cases for everything: devices, programs, apps, drone, VR glasses, Amazon email client, new Facebook interface design, and more.

In this group, new functionalities are tested, corrections and improvements are made ”, explains Danielyan.

The expert noted that “technologies of the future” were available at the early stage for a limited number of users. They are the target audience of the product, which can then become massive and for which people with similar characteristics will then pay.

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Check if your router has been hacked with the F-Secure TooL

Most of the users usually care about your computer and its operating system to avoid hackers for example installing antivirus programs, a firewall, applying privacy measures, etc. However, computers are not the only items vulnerable to computer attacks.

Routers The routers, which users usually don't care about, are the elements that handle the most data. As it redirects all information that is created in all computers and devices on the Internet, so hacking these devices can negatively affect the security and privacy not only of the user but the entire network.

Protecting a router is simpler than protecting a computer, as we generally need to pay attention to changing the Wi-Fi password to avoid close attacks and disrupt administration connections from outside the local network. Nevertheless, even if the password is strong, it can often provide hackers with access. Remote, allowing them to control your devices.

Faced with this risk, security company F-Secure has launched a new tool that

allows us to verify if our router's router has been compromised and is under the control of hackers. This tool called Router Checker can be run from the web fully

gratis from the link below.

By clicking on the Check Your Router button, the tool will analyze several parameters of our router and by doing so will inform us whether it is safe or hacked.

As we can see, the new tool for checking routers will help us see if we can be victims of hackers, and if so, then a solution should be put in place soon to avoid being a victim of them.

Link:  F-Secure Router Checker

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The Most High-profile Cyberattacks of 2020

2020 became a challenge, including for hackers, who had to adapt to new realities and invent new methods of attacks. The cyber threat landscape was dominated by ransomware viruses, attacking schools, hospitals, and private companies. Not without massive takeovers of social media accounts. The loudest cyberattacks of the current year

Hack SolarWinds

One of the most devastating attacks of 2020 occurred in the last month, when hackers, considered "Russians" in the Western press, compromised the internal systems of SolarWinds, a software maker used by tens of thousands of companies.

Attackers were able to remotely download the software update to 18,000 SolarWinds clients, after which they were able to steal, destroy and modify data on the networks of these clients.
The largest victims of this attack were a number of US agencies -  the Treasury Department, the National Informatics and Telecommunications Administration under the Department of Commerce (NTIA), the National Institutes of Health under the US Department of Health (NIH), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Agency,  Department of Homeland Security,  State Department USA, National Nuclear Safety Administration, and US Department of Energy. It is also reported that the hack affected Microsoft's cloud service.

The consequences of this hack may not appear until a few months later, but it is already clear that the attack on SolarWinds is one of the largest acts of cyber espionage in the past few years. The situation was greatly complicated by the fact that the attackers started their campaign back in March this year, but it remained unnoticed until the winter of 2020, which aggravated its effect.

Hijacking Twitter and Nintendo accounts

In July of this year, Twitter's internal systems were hacked by a gang of attackers who hijacked a number of celebrity accounts to promote a cryptocurrency scam. 

Among the victims are  Bill Gates,  Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk,  Mike Bloomberg,  Warren Buffett, Barack Obama,  Joe Biden,  Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, and some other public figures.

In the hacked profiles, cybercriminals posted information about the "distribution of bitcoins" - the attackers asked users to transfer $ 1,000 in bitcoins in order to further double this amount. Using the hacked accounts of respected people, the criminals gained confidence in their followers - some of them actually transferred money to the specified wallet, not even suspecting that they were being deceived. It is reported that cybercriminals were able to earn about $ 117,000.

In April, a massive compromise of user accounts occurred at Nintendo. As a result of the attack, 300 thousand people were injured.

Charges, in this case, were brought against three young men - 19-year-old Mason John Shepard from the UK, 22-year-old Nima Fasely from Orlando, Florida, and 17-year-old Graham Ivan Clark, who was detained by law enforcement agencies. Also, American intelligence agencies believe that a 16-year-old teenager from Massachusetts could also have been involved in the attack on Twitter, who allegedly played an important role in the planning and implementation of the hack.

Unidentified cybercriminals have gained access to the Nintendo Network ID (NNID) assigned to each user. The attackers obtained personal information of Nintendo customers, such as dates of birth, regions of residence, and postal addresses, as well as billing information if it was added to the profile. The company promised to compensate the cash costs if the user loses part of his funds due to hackers.

Dusseldorf hospital attack

In September, a hacker attack using a ransomware virus took place in Germany, which indirectly led to the death of a person. The woman, who needed urgent hospitalization, was not admitted to a hospital in Dusseldorf due to hacking of computer systems and was sent to the neighboring city of Wuppertal, 32 km away.

Due to the fact that the time for salvation was lost, the patient died.

The Düsseldorf hospital battled the aftermath of the hacker attack for a week. According to the press service of the medical institution, the investigators found that the attackers had taken advantage of a vulnerability in "widely used commercial software." As a result, the hospital's computer systems went out of order one by one, as a result of which severe patients were sent to other hospitals, and all planned operations were canceled.

As it turned out later, the attackers did not know that the hospital was damaged as a result of their attack - initially, their target was the university to which the medical institution belongs. When the Düsseldorf police contacted the criminals and informed them that the patients were in danger, they provided law enforcement with a digital key to unlock the servers. After that, contact with the hackers was lost.

The goal is a low-cost airline

In May, it became known that the low-cost airline EasyJet had lost the personal data of its customers due to a hacker attack. Criminals have taken possession of the email addresses and flight histories of people using EasyJet's services. In addition, the data of bank cards fell into the hands of scammers. In total, 9 million of the company's customers were affected by the hack. 

It is known that the company learned about the leak back in January 2020, but it was not until early April that the passengers whose cards were compromised were notified.

“It was a very advanced attack. It took us time to assess its scale and determine who is affected, ”the airline’s press service reported, noting that hackers were able to gain access not only to bank card numbers but also to the CVV code, which allows them to perform any transactions.

Vulnerability in iPhone

Another important hacker attack of 2020 is the humane iPhone hacking by Google Projekt Zero Ian Beer. He carried out a successful attack on an Apple smartphone to alert the world of the existing vulnerability.

According to Beer, using an exploit, an attacker could reboot an iOS device and take full control over it - including reading emails, chatting in instant messengers, downloading personal photos, and even possibly tracking the owner of the gadget using a microphone and a camera.

At the same time, the attack took place remotely via Wi-Fi networks - thus, a hacker could literally hack the iPhone without using hands.

The researcher admitted that it took him six months to carry out such a hack and demonstrate its capabilities, but he does not believe that such vulnerabilities should be ignored.

“After reading this study, you shouldn't think like this: no one is going to spend six months of my life hacking a smartphone, so I'm safe. You should think like this: only one person, working from his bedroom, was able to compromise the iPhone, ”said the security expert.

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Seven more amazing apps that improve your mood and help you relax

 You may often go through a hard day, and you may feel a lot of tension and psychological pressure, especially if you are one of those strenuous tasks that may put you in an atmosphere full of constant tension and anxiety. This condition often results in the depletion of all your essential and essential energy.

In this post, I will suggest some great applications that are mainly specialized to help you relax and get rid of daily stress, but they will also help you in resisting the states of frustration and anxiety, which anyone may experience during a certain stage of his life.
The first application: Calm

A more than wonderful application, as it contributes to enhancing your sense of inner comfort, and improves your mood by increasing the sense of calm and relaxation, in order to restore your focus, in addition to it, helps you to do meditative sessions that do not usually exceed 10 minutes per session.
The second application: Pacifica

This application helps you customize all the means and tools available to you in order to get rid of psychological pressure, and it also motivates you to exercise, especially kinetic ones that do not require much effort. Among the wonderful things that the application offers, quiet and positive music clips, with light sounds such as the sound of sea waves or rain, aimed at helping you to relax and feel comfortable.
The third app: Happify

It is considered one of the most distinguished applications in its field, as it helps you to overcome negative thoughts, and know your strengths and weaknesses, in order to overcome them in order to overcome feelings of frustration, anxiety, and daily stresses.
The application follows five basic principles, based on scientific studies concerned with the psychological health of the human being, as it provides you with an organized picture of how to take care of your internal and external health, and summarizes it in organizing the causes of true happiness, which are: food, thanksgiving, ambition, giving and sympathy for others.
Fourth application: Omvana

This application monitors your mental health, constantly monitoring in order to collect the necessary information about your condition, and provide it in the form of advice and recommendations that will help you overcome all forms of anxiety and psychological tension, in order to obtain the best state of rest and relaxation.
The app mainly relies on a wide range of soothing music and sounds, as well as measures your heart rate and blood pressure, and then guides you to the best methods that will help you overcome your daily stress.
Fifth app: Do Nothing for 2 Minutes
 

The idea of ​​the application is that it prevents you from doing anything within only two minutes, except to look at the beautiful landscape in the background while hearing the sound of the accompanying waves. If you move from your place, the word "Fail" appears, which means that you have not relaxed yet, and then begins counting the two minutes again.
Sixth application: Relax Melodies

This application is completely different from the rest of the previous applications, as it shows you dozens of natural and quiet music parts that give you comfort and relaxation, and it also offers you the option to rearrange your favorite clips, by setting their start and stop times after a certain period when you sleep.
Sixth app: Sleep Pillow Sounds

This application provides a scientific feature that has proven effective in helping people who are going through states of psychological stress, this feature is called "white noise", which is based on the compilation of a group of musical melodies and other rhythms, mainly derived from some household instruments as well as natural sounds, this musical form Contributes to the expulsion of negative energy from the person and enhances his positive energy.
The seventh app:  Brain. FM

Finally, we come to the latest application that represents a completely different experience, as it is based on your question about the type of activity that you would prefer to relax, such as sitting in a moment of contemplation or sleep. After that, the app starts suggesting you the best clips that will help you relax and unwind.
I hope these apps are helpful and helpful to you so that you can accomplish your daily tasks with greater comfort and with more positive energy.

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