Hacker Bikin Ponsel dengan Tombol Putar

Tak banyak generasi saat ini yang mengetahui tombol telepon berbentuk bundar yang dipakai oleh perangkat telepon rumahan jaman dulu. Namun, seseorang mencoba membangkitkan ingatan lama itu dalam perangkat telepon yang lebih baru.

Jaromir Sukuba, seorang hacker berkebangsaan Slovakia membuat perangkat ponsel dengan tombol putar, layaknya telepon rumah jadul. Perangkat tersebut diikutsertakan Sukuba dalam sebuah kompetisi membuat hardware.

Sukuba yang berusia 30 tahun tersebut memberikan nama perangkatnya "Rotary Dial Mobile Phone." Perangkat tersebut merupakan gabungan ponsel GSM dengan tombol dial putar.

Perangkat yang dibuat Sukuba terlihat sederhana karena masih merupakan prototipe (purwarupa). Perangkat itu memiliki desain bentuk kotak panjang warna hitam. Layar Monokrom di bagian atas menampilkan informasi nomor yang dipilih dengan tombol putar yang berada di bawahnya.

Terdapat tiga tombol di bagian bawah layar itu. Tombol tersebut. Satu tombol berguna untuk menghidupkan dan mematikan perangkat, satu lagi untuk menghapus nomor, dan satu sebagai tombol untuk membuat panggilan dan menutup panggilan telepon.

Sayangnya, menurut Cnet (17/6/2014), perangkat buatan Sukuba tersebut hanya memiliki fungsi untuk menelpon saja, tidak untuk berkirim pesan singkat (SMS), apalagi menambah berbagai aplikasi di dalamnya.

Mungkin suatu saat nanti jika ada perusahaan smartphone besar yang tertarik membuat konsep perangkat seperti ini, kita bisa melihat wujudnya yang lebih menarik.

Video tentang konsep "Rotary Dial Mobile Phone" bisa dilihat di situs YouTube, atau melalui link berikut ini

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Ponsel 41 MP Nokia Masih Jawara

 

Nokia 808 PureView mungkin sudah terbilang lawas. Namun soal kualitas foto, ponsel 41 megapixel ini ternyata masih lebih unggul dibanding Galaxy S5, Xperia Z2, dan iPhone 5S sekalipun.

Sebuah percobaan dilakukan perusahaan yang bergelut di bidang grafis, DxOMark. Mereka membandingkan kualitas sejumlah kamera ponsel dengan memperhitungkan beberapa aspek seperti tingkat noise, exposure, keakuratan warna dan autofocus.

Hampir semua ponsel dengan kamera terbaik diikutsertakan dalam pertandingan tersebut, termasuk Nokia 808 PureView yang sudah dirilis sejak dua tahun lalu. Seperti dikutip  Android Authority, Kamis (19/6/2014).

Nokia 808 PureView memang bukan ponsel biasa. Di dalamnya terdapat teknologi foto PureView yang diklaim dapat menghasilkan gambar dengan baik. Lalu bagaimana jika dihadapkan dengan Galaxy S5, Xperia Z2 atau bahkan iPhone 5S?

DxOMark menyatakan bahwa kualitas foto Nokia 808 PureView masih juara, lebih baik dari Galaxy S5, Xperia Z2 atau iPhone 5S. Namun soal kemampuan merekam video, ponsel jadul Nokia tersebut memang harus mengakui tiga ponsel di atasnya itu.

Pun begitu, secara keseluruhan Galaxy S5 menduduki peringkat pertama sebagai ponsel dengan kamera terbaik, sedangkan Xperia Z2 berada di posisi kedua, Nokia PureView 808 di posisi tiga, dan iPhone 5S di peringkat 4.

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2o Best Android Apps this Week

1Password for Android.

APPS

1Password (Free + IAP)
As useful apps go, one that creates and stores passwords for the various sites you use – strong, proper passwords, too – then helps you log in with a single tap on the screen is a pretty good idea. 1Password is a long-awaited release for Android, synchronising neatly with PC, Mac and iOS.

Sky Sports Football SC Brazil (Free)
Just in time for the big tournament, Sky Sports’ new World Cup app makes it onto Android. It’s a dedicated app for scores, live text commentary, tables, photos and other data from Brazil, complete with an option to set your preferred country as “My Team”.

The Great British Bee Count (Free)
The latest in a growing line of crowdsourcing-for-good apps. In this case, the good is helping Friends of the Earth and its partners build a map of how healthy (or not) bees are around the UK. Its app is used to track the bees you see in your local area, then send that data back to the scientists.

Copy Bubble (Free)
One of the joys of Android is the large number of simple, single-purpose utility apps that tweak Google’s software for specific tasks. In this case: copying and pasting, as you tap on a floating bubble to clip text and images.

Corner - Find Football Pubs (Free)While we’re on the subject of single-purpose apps… Corner is an app for quickly finding pubs near your current location that are showing football, released to capitalise on World Cup fever. You can filter by food and facilities, check on fixtures and invite friends to a match from within the app.

DinnerTime: Parental Control (Free)
Affronted by surly children texting or playing games at the dinner table rather than joining the family banter? DinnerTime aims to help, albeit by the somewhat draconian method of locking a child’s device for a set period of time. It can also be used for bedtime, revision-time or any other time you deem necessary.

Spydy Contacts (Free + IAP)
Spydy is apparently a “social launchpad and people organiser” – presumably for people whose social life remains defiantly land-bound and whose friends are un-organised. It promises a visual revamp of your contacts app, puling in Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, with group messaging included.

Peugeot Music (Free)
The challenge of “music discovery” – helping people find new songs or rediscover old favourites in streaming music services – is being talked about a lot in the music industry. How about help from… Peugeot? Yes, the carmaker has its own music app, offering a curated selection of streaming tunes.

TCS SocialSoccer (Free)
More World Cup – well, it is the week for it – with this app offering scores and stats, but with just as much focus on tweets about prominent teams and players. It’s also claiming to throw in some “big data analytics” to keep you posted on Twitter sentiment around the tournament. If it works, it could be fun.

Talking Progress (Free)
Finally, an app designed for adults suffering from depression. The idea being that you can record your feelings in a digital diary, helping you track the condition and discuss the results with your doctor. There’s also a medicine-reminder alarm built in, if that’s of use.

Angry Birds Epic switches bird-flinging for roleplaying game (RPG) action.

GAMES

Angry Birds Epic (Free + IAP)
The latest Angry Birds game sees no physics-based flinging. Instead, it’s a roleplaying game (RPG) that sees you building up a team of birds and attacking pigs through other means. Along the way, you craft and upgrade weapons, learn new skills and get to grips with its turn-based battles system.

VVVVVV (£1.99)
Ever played Super Hexagon? This is the new game from its developer Terry Cavanagh, and if anything is picking up even more buzz. It’s a platform game that’s been available since 2010 on other devices, with graphics reminiscent of the 1980s, and gameplay that grips you quickly then won’t let you go.

Band Stars (Free + IAP)
As someone who happily wasted many hours on a game called Rock Star Ate My Hamster as a child, I’ve always thought the music industry makes for cracking games. Band Stars is the latest attempt to prove the theory right: a fun social game that gets you hiring and firing members and racing up the charts.

King of the Course Golf (Free + IAP)
EA knows a thing or two about golf games from its stewardship of the Tiger Woods franchise. Its new mobile game takes a new direction – free-to-play – with famous courses, neat touchscreen controls and, ahem, boosts. Well, there had to be something to justify the in-app purchases, presumably…

Flick Soccer Brazil (Free + IAP)
First of a smattering of football games in this World Cup month. Flick Soccer Brazil comes from developer Full Fat: a new game in its very-good Flick Soccer franchise. You’ll be flicking balls past the goalkeeper or at the crossbar over several modes, even if the inclusion of “Brazilian bikini babes” feels a bit unnecessary.

Great Little War Game 2 (£1.99)
Developer Rubicon Development’s little and big war games have a fervent fanbase on Android, and this latest one looks like it won’t disappoint. It’s another turn-based strategy game where you take your troops into battle over 60 missions. “Just jump in and start shooting,” advises its Google Play listing. And thankfully, it really is that accessible.

Up, Down, Left, Right (Free)
Up, Down, Left, Right is probably one of the most frustrating games I’ve played on a mobile phone – up there with Flappy Bird – but in a way that means you play it more, not less. It sounds simple: tap the up, down, left, right keys on a virtual keyboard in time to a beat, switching one of them every so often in response to falling keys above. If you don’t throw your smartphone out of the window within 10 minutes, you’ll be hooked.

QuizTix: World Football (Free + IAP)
QuizTix is a new brand of “collectable quiz” games for Android and iOS, with this the third following versions focused on pop music and movies. Here, you’ll be answering football trivia in a range of categories, taking on friends or asking them for help with tricky questions.

Fluid SE (£1.19)
Fluid SE is being described as part racing game, part Pac-Man, which does a good job of describing its charms. There are 40 levels to speed through, collecting dots and avoiding spectres – yep, Pac-Man – with a well-worked star system to grade your times and keep you coming back to improve your score.

CN Superstar Soccer (£1.79)
Finally, one more football game, this one from Cartoon Network. It sees you playing as characters from shows including Adventure Time, Ben 10 and Regular Show. Power-shots, online multiplayer and spiffing visuals make it worth a look for children and parents alike.

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How to mend ... a slow computer

You may need a variety of bits of kit to speed up a reluctant PC or laptop.

Tired of twiddling your thumbs during downloads? Try these remedies for speeding up a dozy old PC before you almost lose the will to live. Probably the most common reason people ditch their old computer and buy a new one is not that the old one is broken in any way, but that it’s simply running slowly. There are plenty of suggestions online, as well as paid-for products, which claim to fix slowness. Many of these will make little difference and some may make the problem even worse. There are a few key things that are well worth trying before giving up on your trusty PC or Windows laptop (and many of these will work for Macs too), but before you attempt anything, it’s vital that you back-up your files.

Viruses and antiviruses

Viruses or malware on your computer are very likely to slow it down. If they manage to gain control of your computer before your antivirus kicks in, they can hide themselves. One answer is to run an offline virus scan from a CD or USB memory stick independently of Windows – Sophos or Kaspersky are possibilities. There are also free, reliable and lightweight antivirus programs available, such as Avast. Be aware that duelling antivirus programs can cause extreme slowness. If you've switched antivirus programs, make sure you uninstall any earlier programs.

Background and startup programs

Having cleaned up any viruses and made sure your regular antivirus program is functioning and up to date, the next thing to look at is whether you have any unused programs installed or running in the background. You can do this from within Windows, but it's easier if you download the free version of CCleaner and run it. Click the Tools tab on the left and select Uninstall.

If you use Adobe Reader you can download a lightweight alternative such as Foxit Reader or SumatraPDF for viewing PDF files and then uninstall the Adobe offering. The same applies for video players. Media Player Classic is a lightweight alternative to Windows Media Player.

Resist the urge to hit your computer with a baseball bat, or to dropkick it through the nearest window.

If you haven't yet, you should experiment using Opera or Chrome, which are the fastest browsers available, and can perform significantly better on old hardware.

Programs which start up along with Windows, as well as browser plug-ins, can really slow down computers. The Startup button on CCleaner shows these start-up programs. It’s hard to give specific advice on what you can disable, but learn more about the things you don't recognise and get rid of what you don't need. And if you’ve collected any of those pesky browser toolbars which come along for the ride, you can disable them too.

Hard disks

A tired or full hard disk can slow a computer down. In order to keep your computer running smoothly, you need to leave 10-15% of your hard drive space free. If you're running out of space, you should consider deleting unnecessary programs or moving files you no longer need to an external drive.

Modern hard disks can suffer from low performance before failing completely. Diagnose the health of your hard disk with software such as SpeedFan, which can give you more information than Windows.
One easy and affordable way to increase the speed for some operations in your computer is to upgrade to a solid state drive (SSD). This can reduce the loading time of the operating system, as well as the time required to load and access software and files. Make sure your computer supports hard drives using a SATA connector and that you use an operating system optimised for them (anything beyond Windows XP will do).

Reinstall your operating system – or move to Linux

If all else fails then the “nuclear option” of reinstalling Windows and all your programs and data will usually help. You might also need to install more memory: 512MB is the minimum for Windows XP, 1GB for Vista, Windows 7 or later. However, if you’re still running XP then you’re living dangerously. Think about using Linux, a free and open-source operating system – there are versions that will run happily even on an old laptop from the last century.

First of all it's good to consider what sort of “flavour” you want. Ubuntu, Xubuntu Linux, and Linux Mint may appeal to those who are used to Windows. If you want the lightest and least resource-hungry system to make your older hardware really fly again, Puppy Linux and Lubuntu are two very small and effective options. Most Linux distributions are designed to run directly from a CD or USB stick as a “live installation”. This enables you to try the operating system out before you commit to installing it.

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