CryptoLocker: Deadliest threat ever to affect PCs

“CryptoLocker, a malicious ransomware, has emerged as a potent threat to PCs around the globe.”

A malicious malware called CryptoLocker has become the scariest threat to PC's around the world. A ransomware by its application and use, CryptoLocker raked in around 5 million dollars in the last 4 months of 2013, that earlier took nearly a year for cyber attackers to acquire.

Johannes B. Ullrich, chief research officer at the SANS Institute stated that "A compromised personal computer for a botnet or Distributed Denial of Service attack is worth about a buck to a byte bandit." He added that cyber-criminals can easily make 100 dollars and more with the ransomware.

Garth Bruen, a fellow with the Digital Citizens Alliance, a consumer safety group focused on online crime, stated that the people selling the software were the same people who infected the machine, which later came to be known as ' scareware '.

What makes the malware different from other malicious software is that it uses strong encryption. Files and documents on machines infected with the Trojan are scrambled using AES 256-bit encryption. CryptoLocker holds the victim's PC hostage till they pay a ransom amount.

Jarvis, of SecureWorks states that the CryptoLocker crew is known for maintaining good customer relations. “They’re honoring people who do pay the ransom. In most cases they’re sending the decryption keys back to the computer once they receive payment successfully,” he explained. “We don’t know what the percentage of people who successfully do that is, but we know it’s part of their business model not to lie to people and not do it."

McAfee's latest report states that ransomware is becoming an increasing problem with more number of incidents reported in the first half of 2013 than in all previous periods combined. The 2013 Norton report highlighted that India has emerged as the ransomware capital of Asia Pacific.

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Best Budget Smartphone : Xolo Play T1000

Review

PROS

Crisp display and good viewing angles

Smooth multitasking

Great gaming performance

Decent images in well-lit conditions

Good build

CONS

Camera performance is bad in low-lit situations

Phone gets a bit hot after heavy use

Older gen Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

MRP : B15899

 Summary

If playing games on the go is an absolute requirement and you are looking for a smartphone around the Rs. 15,000 budget, then the Xolo Play T1000 is the go to device for you. If gaming isn't your primary concern, you have a large library of budget phones around the Rs. 15,000 price point to choose from including the Xolo Q1000, Canvas HD, Zen Ultrafone 710HD to name a few.

Phones have come a long way since the dawn of the Nokia 1100. Nokia was the first to launch a dedicated gaming phone with the launch of the Nokia N-GAGE. The phone was brilliant for gaming with a dedicated D-Pad and textured buttons. I personally think its design was the best for a gaming phone, better than the Sony Xperia Play, the PlayStation designed phone that had two touchpads that worked as analogue sticks and were more gimmicky rather than features which added utility.

Keeping the standard 4.7-inch form factor in mind, the Xolo Play boasts of last year’s Tegra 3 chipset, and is being marketed as a gaming smartphone.

At a Glance

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, 4.7-inch display and a quad-core processor are the first things that you will notice about the device. Here is a quick look at the specifications of the smartphone when compared to the other offerings in its price range.

So, apart from the Tegra 3 processor combined with the older generation Android OS, the rest of the specifications of the Xolo Play are at par with the competition.

Design

               One thing that we have really appreciated about Xolo smartphones in the past is that despite being budget smartphones, they are extremely well built. The Xolo Play follows suit in this direction. The face of the device has a 4.7-inch display with a 1280x720p resolution. The glass on the face of the smartphone is edge to edge. There are three capacitive buttons below the display.

The rear of the Xolo Play has a rubberized matte finish that adds to the grip of the device and gives it’s a nice smooth feel. The rear panel of the smartphone clamps around the borders of the device so the rubberized finish spans the border as well.

In terms of connectivity option, we have the microUSB port and the headphones jack on the top of the smartphone and the power button and the volume rocker on the right.

Overall the design of the Xolo Play picks up from the tried and tested and is something that we appreciate.

UI and Preloaded Apps

The UI of the Xolo Play T1000 is stock Android and that is a good thing. The only downside is that the device runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which is a bit old. The smartphone also has its own custom ROM. The keyboard is stock Android and you also get the stock browser for browsing the Internet.

Coming to the preloaded apps, you have the Tegra Zone app on the Xolo Play T1000, which gives you access to a large library of games. You also have a Xolo Power app that is good for managing the battery life and apps on the smartphone. The app gives you the ability to setup a synch frequency, night mode, low battery mode and more. You also get access to Xolo Secure app, which gives you the ability to back up your personal data to the cloud.

Overall, the Xolo Play has a stock Android UI that we really like. The interface is simple and the preloaded apps too are something we appreciate.

Please Note:

You can’t transfer apps from the built-in storage to the SD card like you would traditionally do on an Android smartphone. Here, you can go to settings->storage and choose the SD card as your primary storage.

Performance

The biggest competitors to the Xolo Play are the budget quad-core smartphones that are powered by the MediaTek MT6589 chipset. Here is a quick look at the benchmark scores to see how the Xolo Play performs in front of the competition.

As you can see from the above benchmark scores, the Xolo Play scores at par with the competition. In the 3D Mark Icestorm Extreme and the SmartBench Productivity benchmark however, it scores relatively high.

Coming to the other performance aspects of the smartphone, the interface is really smooth and so is the touchscreen. Navigating apps, playing games, browsing the Internet, the interacting with interface on the Xolo Play’s display was great. The screen size and form factor is very Nexus 4 like, which we liked.

The keyboard is stock Android and is well laid-out. The device is comfortable to type on too. Playing games, watching videos or navigating the browser, the navigation experience on the Xolo Play is good.

The 4.7-inch display has a 1280x720 pixel resolution giving it 318ppi pixel density. The IPS panel has really good viewing angles and the text images; games all look crisp on the smartphone.

AVI and MP4 files ran smoothly on the Xolo Play and the video from the MKV files ran but the audio wasn’t recognised. Navigating the timeline of the videos, changing orientation, all was smooth on the native player without any hiccups.

Coming to the camera performance of the Xolo Play T1000, in low-lit conditions, the performance is bad. In well-lit conditions, there are points where the detail is good where the text is large. Where the text in focus is small, there is loss of detail. Since it’s raining in Delhi, the outdoor weather is quite gloomy. We clicked images of the streets; plants and more and the result was really good. Enlarge the image to 100% and you still have quite some details retained and that is a very good thing.

In terms of its battery life, the Xolo Play has enough juice to get through the day with average use. In our continuous video playback test, where the device is set to full brightness and full volume, the Xolo Play lasted for six and a half hours and that is really good. You can get good battery life from the smartphone with effective power management tools.

Gaming Performance

Since the device is marketed as a gaming device, we decided to push the Xolo Play and play a LOT of games on it. We played some Dead Space, Into the Dead, Real Racing 3, Conduit HD, Dead Trigger and more. We are happy to say that not only did the games run smoothly, but at they are graphical great performers on the smartphone as well. The graphics of the game were sharper and textures were smoother than we have seen on any other budget Rs. 15,000 smartphone. Also, unlike the MediaTek MT6589 chipset based competition, the Xolo Play can play Real Racing 3.

While gaming for a long duration, the smartphone did heat up. Even though the Xolo Play runs on last generation’s Tegra 3 chipset, it still outperforms the current-generation MediaTek-powered smartphones available in the market.

Bottom Line

If playing games on the go is an absolute requirement and you are looking for a smartphone around the Rs. 15,000 budget, then the Xolo Play T1000 is the go to device for you. Its gaming performance is better than the MediaTek powered smartphones available and its overall performance as a smartphone is good as well. It has a simple yet sturdy design and a comfortable UI. If gaming isn’t your primary concern, you have a large library of budget phones around the 15k price point to choose from including the Xolo Q1000, Canvas A116 HD, Zen Ultrafone 710HD to name a few.

Specifications

Basic Information
Manufacturer	Lava
Model	XOLO Play T1000
Launch Date (Global)	2013-07-15
Operating System	Android OS
OS Version	4.1
Type	Smartphone
Display
Screen Size (in inches)	4.7
Display Technology	HD IPS OGS Display
Screen Resolution (in                      pixels)	1196 x 720
Display Features	Multi Touch
Camera
Camera Features	Front Facing camera,                            Video Recording
Camera Megapixel	8
Front Camera                                  Megapixel	2
Battery
Battery Capacity(mAh)	2000
Features
Sensors	GPS, Accelerometer
Keypad Type	Touch Screen Keypad
Connectivity
Wireless Connectivity	3G Internet, WiFi, Bluetooth
Interfaces	MicroUSB
Headphone Port	3.5mm
Technical Specification
CPU	Nvidia Tegra 3
CPU Speed	1.5 Ghz
Processor Cores	Quad
RAM	1 GB
GPU	ULP GeForce Graphics
Memory
Storage	8 GB
Removable Storage                          (Yes or No)	Y
Removable Storage                            (maximum)	32 GB

(-:........Thanks for being a Patient Reader

"Credit for Graphic Contents goes to ThinkDigit"

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Best Budget Smartphone : Motorola Moto G

Motorola Moto G

Review

PROS

 Excellent price to performance ratio

 Good battery life

Well built

Good display

Stock Android UI

CONS

Thick and heavy for its size

Non expandable storage

Low spec camera

MRP: B12499

Summary

The Moto G is totally worth the price tag. With great performance and a simple design, the smartphone is perfect for someone looking for a budget Android smartphone.

Google took over Motorola for about $12.5 billion and recently sold it off to Lenovo for a mere $2.91 billion. While all this was strange, the development led to Motorola producing one of the most affordable Android smartphones; coming with specs almost as good as the Nexus 4. 

The Moto G, which has launched in India as we write, has been gaining a lot of attention due to the combination of speculated pricing and healthy specifications. The smartphone has officially been priced at Rs. 13,999 for the 16GB version and Rs.12,499 for the 8GB version. Let’s check, if the smartphone does give a bigger bang for the buck.

Specifications

The smartphone features a 4.5-inch 720p IPS display, a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB/16GB internal memory, a 5MP rear camera with an LED flash, a 1.3MP front camera, 3G, Wi-Fi, a 2070mAh battery and runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat.  

Design and build

The Moto G doesn’t have a flashy design but rather has a simple no-nonsense design and it looks a lot like its elder brother, the Moto X. The display on the smartphone is an IPS panel which measures 4.5 inches with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. The quality of the display is quite good when compared to phones in the similar range. The glass on top of the display completely covers the front of the smartphone and it is prone to smudges and fingerprints.

On top of the display there is a 1.3MP camera, the earpiece and the usual sensors. The right edge has the lock/power key and volume control keys. Both have a chrome finish. The top has the 3.5mm audio jack and the bottom has a microUSB port. At the back you can see the 5MP camera with an LED flash and a loudspeaker grill. The back panel is made of plastic which is removable. Removing the panel unveils the microSIM card slot and the 2070mAh battery (which is non-user replaceable). One can also choose from a variety of colored back panels available for the Moto G.

The back of the Moto G has a slight hump which gives it a nice curve making it fit well in the hand. However the smartphone seems a quite heavy considering its size. Overall we are very pleased with the design and Motorola has done a good job with the Moto G.

OS and performance

The results of some standard benchmark tests on the Moto G including Antutu, Quadrant, Smartbench and 3DMark came out to be very good thanks to the Snapdragon 400 SoC powering the device.

Check out the results below:

 

Everyday performance on the smartphone turned out to be pleasing as well; probably because it runs on stock Android 4.4.2 so there aren’t any custom UI’s or layers which we personally like. Scrolling through the menu and home screen is smooth and multitasking didn’t slow down the smartphone at any point of time.

The camera on the Moto G has a 5MP sensor which obviously isn’t the best in class but works quite well. There isn’t a lot of shutter lag and the quality of pictures is very much acceptable. Under good lighting conditions, pictures turned out to be sharp and had decent details. Low light conditions made the pictures lose some details and you can see some amount of grain. The camera can record 720p videos which are fairly good and has a nice punch in audio.

You can check out some of the camera samples below:

A 2,070mAh battery juices up the Moto G which is ample enough as it doesn’t have a huge display. Our battery test revealed that on a full charge you can continuously run a full HD video for five and a half hours.

The Adreno 305 GPU proved to be slightly underpowered in the benchmark tests but as we have mentioned earlier, real life performance matters. Gaming was a sheer pleasure on the 4.5 inch display as the smartphone was able to run Asphalt 8 and FIFA 14 without any hiccups. The Moto G also managed to run almost every video format without any issues.

It is worth mentioning that the Moto G comes packed with a very loud speaker. It isn’t very crisp, but its loud enough to play music in a small room.

Conclusion

By far, this has been one of the best smartphones that one can buy on this budget. Simple looks, respectable specifications and a competitive price; Motorola has really done it right this time. But sadly, it is the only smartphone that the company has launched in India in the past one year and its already been called as the poor man’s Nexus.

However, if you are looking for good performance at low cost, then you should definitely go for the Moto G; especially the 16GB version which is available for Rs. 13,999. There are other smartphones that provide similar and even better specifications at the same price point but to be honest we think Moto G is truly the “no non-sense” budget Android smartphone.

Specifications

Basic Information
Model	Moto G
Launch Date (Global)	2013-11-13
Operating System	Android OS
OS Version	4.3
Type	Smartphone
Display
Screen Size (in inches)	4.5
Display Technology	HD Capacitive touchscreen
Screen Resolution (in pixels)	720 x 1280
Display Features	Multi touch, Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Camera
Camera Features	Camera Features
Camera Megapixel	Camera Megapixel
Front Camera Megapixel	Front Camera Megapixel
Battery
Battery Capacity (mAh)	2070
Features
Features	Dual SIM
Keypad Type	Touch Screen Keypad
Connectivity
Wireless Connectivity	3G Internet, WiFi, Bluetooth
Interfaces	MicroUSB
Headphone Port	3.5mm
Technical Specification
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
CPU Speed	1.2 GHz
Processor Cores	Quad
RAM	1 GB
GPU	Adreno 305
Weight (in Grams)	143
Memory
Storage	8 GB
Removable Storage (Yes or No)	N

Where to Buy

 Motorola Photon 4G MB855 Android mobile (Black)

B15,350.00

Moto G (Black, with 16 GB)

B 13,999.00

Moto G (Black, with 8 GB)

B 12,499.00

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Next Post will deal with Xolo Play T1000 

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