review samsung galaxy s8

HANDS-ON WITH THE NEW SAMSUNG GALAXY S8

Phones are stale. Whether it's an iPhone 7, Huawei P10, Sony Xperia XZ Premium or any other flagship phone, they all look and feel the same. But just when I thought a phone couldn't surprise and delight me any more, the Samsung Galaxy S8 proved me wrong.

From the moment I picked up the S8 – and its larger, 6.2-inch sibling the Galaxy S8+ – I realised it was even more special than I expected. On this evidence, Samsung has surpassed anything we've seen before. There are one or two concerns ahead of our full Galaxy S8 review, but right now things are looking bright.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S8 RELEASE DATE AND PRICE

The Galaxy S8 goes on sale globally on April 28 for £689.

• Pre-Order: Samsung Galaxy S8 on O2 (3GB) – £125 upfront, £35/month
• Pre-Order: Samsung Galaxy S8 on Vodafone (24GB) – £160 upfront, £37/month

SAMSUNG GALAXY S8 SPECS

• 5.8-inch quad-HD Infinity Display (AMOLED)
• Samsung Exynos 8895 (Europe and Asia) or Qualcomm Snapdragon (USA)
• 4GB RAM, 64GB storage (microSD up to 256GB)
• 3000mAh battery with wireless and fast charging
• Rear camera: 12 megapixels, f/1.7 aperture and dual-pixel sensor
• Front camera: 8 megapixels, f/1.7 and autofocus
• Iris and fingerprint scanner
• Samsung Bixby personal assistant
• Android 7 Nougat with Google Assistant 

  STUNNING DESIGN

  Let's start with the design, where nothing comes close to the Galaxy S8. It's the best-looking phone I've ever seen. The curved back nestles perfectly in your palm, while the glass shimmers as light hits it. The three colours – a dark black, bright silver and a grey with a blueish tinge – are all subtle. There’s no ugly white front plate in sight.
  The S8 is thin, and incredibly light at 155g, but it feels sturdy and precisely made. It's IP68 water- and dust-resistant, so it's good for 30 minutes to depths of 1.5 metres. The glass is a little fingerprint prone, but no worse than any other glass phone I've used.
  Like the recently launched, and still excellent, LG G6, the front of the Samsung Galaxy S8 is almost all screen. And this is really what makes the S8 stand out. Unlike with the G6, though, the display here melts away into the sturdy metal rim. There’s no ‘Edge’ version this year, because both versions have a sloping panel.
  It’s a much subtler curve than on the Galaxy S7 Edge, just like on the Note 7, and that makes it a lot easier to use. There’s still a bit of extra reflection on this portion of the screen, but it’s a small trade-off for such an eye-catching look.
  Having such a big display and tiny bezel means there’s no room for the fingerprint-sensing Home button to sit on the front. Instead it’s on the back, next to the camera. It's one of the few things I don't like – I hit the camera multiple times when testing it out – but maybe I'll get used to it. 
  

  HDR COMES TO PHONES

  There’s more to the display than just the curves – actually a lot more. First off, it has a new aspect ratio of 18.5:9, rather than 16:9. This means it’s taller, essentially giving you more space in a body that isn’t that much bigger than the S7's. While the Galaxy S7 had a 5.1-inch display, the S8 has a 5.8-inch one. It sounds huge, but the phone itself feels compact and Samsung is keen to point out that it can still be used comfortably in one hand.
  Like the majority of Samsung phones, the panel is AMOLED and has a slightly odd 2960 x 1440 resolution. It’s also ‘Mobile HDR Premium’ certified, so you’ll be able to stream HDR (high dynamic range) shows from Amazon Prime and Netflix when those apps are updated. HDR is arguably the most important evolution in TV tech is recent years, giving you better contrast and a brighter picture.
  If you have used an S7, or an S6, you won’t be surprised to hear this is a stunning display. Colours are glorious, but it manages to avoid oversaturating brighter shades. A short HDR clip showed off inky blacks, and blues and reds that looked like they were painted on the display.
  Photos struggle to do it justice, but it’s easily as good – and probably better – than the HDR display on the LG G6 and the 4K one on Sony’s Xperia XZ Premium.
  Under the stunning body is a serious amount of power, though it depends where you live as to which chip you’ll get. Brits, and others in Europe and Asia, will get Samsung’s own Exynos 8895 chipset, while those in the USA will get a version with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835.
  Whichever CPU you get, it shouldn’t make a huge amount of difference. Both are the fastest out there and they're built using a 10nm production process for improved efficiency that’ll hopefully eke some more battery life out. There’s 4GB of RAM – Samsung clearly didn’t see the need to bump that to 6GB – and a roomy 64GB of internal storage with support for 256GB microSD cards.
  Phone performance isn’t something that causes concern any more, especially on flagship devices. The Snapdragon 821 CPU in the LG G6 might be six months old, but there isn’t an app or daily task that can cause it to break sweat. So why does Samsung really need to push things further?

  THE DESKTOP EXPERIENCE...

  Well, aside from hopefully improving battery life, that extra performance is being used to power a new feature called ‘DeX’. I like to think of this as Microsoft’s Continuum, but without being terrible.
  Like Continuum, DeX requires a sold-separately £150 dock that connects to an HDMI-equipped monitor and turns your Galaxy S8 to a mini PC. The dock also has power, two USB-A ports and an Ethernet connector along with a smattering of fans in the base to keep the phone from getting too hot.
  
  Dock the phone via the USB-C port inside the cradle and a new desktop – which looks a lot like Windows 10 – pops up. Your apps are displayed in a very familiar layout and there’s a dock along the bottom that lets you access all the phone and text functions of the phone.
  What makes this so much better than Continuum is app support. Apps are resizable and bounce between phone and tablet versions depending on how much you stretch them, and you can have loads open at the same time. I opened the browser, Lightroom, Google Photos, Facebook and the whole suite of Microsoft Office apps and there wasn’t even the slightest hint of slowdown.
  You can even stream your actual Windows desktop if mobile apps aren’t quite enough. It won’t completely replace your PC, but it’s the best interpretation of this feature yet, and something I'm interested to try more.
  

  BASIC CAMERA UPGRADES

  The S8 is a sizeable improvement over the S7 in almost every area, but the camera has the fewest upgrades. There’s no dual-sensor system here, no wide-angle lens or variable aperture. Instead, there’s a single 12-megapixel sensor behind a wide f/1.7 lens that uses the same dual-pixel tech as the S7.
  The only obvious addition is a new multi-frame image processor that takes three shots every single time you snap, reducing blur and leaving you with a sharper shot. The S8 might also benefit from speed improvements thanks to the faster processor, but the core camera is very similar to the S7's. Of course, the S7 still has a fantastic camera, but I'll have to use the S8 more to see if its snapper's now as good as the Pixel's.
  The front camera has seen a bigger upgrade, with a new 8-megapixel sensor. It also has an f/1.7 aperture and there’s autofocus too, which is still a rarity on selfie cameras. There’s a secondary camera on the front, but this one is for the iris scanner that Samsung says is much improved over the version on the Note 7.
  
  
  

  SOFTWARE IMPROVEMENTS

  Software used to be one of Samsung’s weaknesses, but that’s not the case any more. In fact, the software layer on top of Android 7.0 is good-looking and functional. Icons are much more mature, and the on-screen buttons – a first for a Samsung S-series phone – are all angular and edgy.
  The stark white colour scheme is clean and crisp, and all of Samsung’s native apps have adapted that look. Google Assistant is on board, although I doubt there will be Daydream support, as that sort of clashes with the newly updated Gear VR and its snazzy motion controller.
  The biggest software addition is Bixby, Samsung’s Siri rival. This personal assistant is stuffed into the software and pops up everywhere. There’s a dedicated Bixby button on the side, so you don’t need to call out an awkward phrase to get it going, and the camera has a setting for scanning everyday items and searching online for the best price.
  The leftmost homescreen is Bixby’s home, and it feels like a souped-up Google Now. It displays news, steps, your heart rate, suggested YouTube videos and so on. You can talk to Bixby, but on release it’ll only support Korean and US English. British English is coming later in the year, as are other languages.
  Another new app is Samsung Connect. This is like Apple’s Home, and connects to a SmartThings hub to let you control your entire smart home from one screen. It’s cool I guess, but you’ll need to be heavily invested in the SmartThings ecosystem to make full use of it.
  The final piece of the puzzle is the battery and it’s an important part for obvious reasons. Samsung is taking battery safety very seriously, as those constant TV adverts running you through its procedures demonstrate.
  There’s a 3000mAh cell inside the Galaxy S8, which feels very small to me. Considering it has to power that 5.8-inch Mobile HDR-ready display, I feel it should be bigger. Still, Samsung says it’ll get you through the day thanks to the more efficient processor. Wireless charging is still here (even on the European model – take note, LG) and Adaptive Fast Charging too.
  
  
  

  FIRST IMPRESSIONS

  The Samsung Galaxy S8 is a new beginning for flagship phones. It’s a gorgeous sliver of tech that utilises its power for extending the experience beyond the 5.8-inch display, thanks to DeX.
  It crams a huge screen into a compact body, without sacrificing features such as water-resistance and expandable storage, and takes phone design to the next level. Once you’ve picked up an Galaxy S8, all other phones feel somehow less interesting.
  My only reservations are minor. Will the battery last the day? And can that camera go one better than the Google Pixel's? Oh, and it's going to be expensive – but what flagship phone isn't these days?
  Unless Apple finally innovates again with the iPhone 8 then Samsung will once again have the best phone you can buy.
  • Pre-Order: Samsung Galaxy S8 on O2 (3GB) – £125 upfront, £35/month
  • Pre-Order: Samsung Galaxy S8 on Vodafone (24GB) – £160 upfront, £37/month. 
  • contact us : service.technology-monde@hotmail.com

Apple Unveils Budget-Friendly iPad, Dresses iPhone in Red

Apple on Tuesday announced an iPad update, a red iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, and a new video-editing app for iOS.

The iPad upgrade has a 9.7-inch, 2048 x 1536-pixel Retina display with 264 pixels per inch, and Apple's A9 64-bit processor.

The unit will come in silver, gold and space gray with a starting price of US$329 for 32 gigabytes of storage and WiFi-only support. It will cost $459 for a 32-GB unit with WiFi and cellular support.

As with prior models, the battery life for the new iPad is 10 hours. It has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and 1.2-MP front-facing FaceTime unit.

The new iPad is available for order on Mach 24 from Apple's website and will be in Apple Stores next week.

With the latest upgrade, Apple's iPad lineup looks like this: iPad Pro 12.9 inch ($799); iPad Pro 9.7 inch ($599); iPad 9.7 inch ($329) and iPad mini 4 ($399).

Not Quite an Air Replacement

Although the latest iPad replaces the iPad Air 2 in Apple's tablet lineup, it doesn't quite supplant it.

"It falls somewhere between a new device and the old device," said Carolina Milanesi, a principal analyst at Creative Strategies.

"They upgraded the most important thing on the device -- the processor," she told TechNewsWorld. "Not only will the performance be better, but other components, like the camera, will be snappier."

Pricing is also an outstanding feature of the new iPad, Milanesi said, noting that "$329 for a 9.7-inch device is very aggressive."

Prying Old iPads from Users' Paws

Attractive pricing may tempt some iPad owners to upgrade their old hardware.

"The replacement cycle for iPads is getting really long," said Mikako Kitagawa, a principal research analyst with Gartner. "If you have a 3- or 4-year-old iPad, you may want this upgrade."

The pricing also could attract some new users into the Apple universe.

"They're going to stretch the iPad's market into the mid-range tablet market," Kitagawa told TechNewsWorld.

Competitive pressure also may play a role in Apple's new entry-level tablet pricing.

"It's an interesting strategic move for Apple," said Rhoda Alexander, director of tablet and notebook research at IHS Markit.

"They've held that $499 introductory price on the 9.7 for seven years now," she told TechNewsWorld. "That price is way above the competition, so this is a realigning of the product to bring it to a more competitive price point.

The lower price point for the iPad could gin up some additional iPad sales, "but not as much as many believe," said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy.

"The biggest challenge to large tablets are Windows two-in-one laptops and touch Chromebooks," he told TechNewsWorld.

A Red iPhone

Apple introduced red versions of its iPhone 7 and 7 Plus to celebrate the company's 10-year partnership with (RED), an organization that funds programs to help prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to unborn babies.

Apple customers can contribute to the Global Fund to fight AIDS with iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition.

A portion of the sales of the RED iPhone will go to the organization, to which Apple has contributed more than $130 million during the partnership.

Slated for availability in Apple Stores on Friday, the RED iPhone pricing will start at $749 for a 128-GB model.

Video Editing With Clips

Apple also announced Clips, a new video-editing app. The software is designed to combine photos, video and music without timelines or complicated tools.

Real-time filters, emoji and other effects available in Clips can add fun to any photo or video.

Its LiveTitles feature lets you use your voice to create animated titles and captions. As you speak, titles appear on the screen perfectly synced to your speech. You can edit titles with a tap.

Comic book filters are included, as well as support for speech bubbles and shapes. You can use the software to create full-screen posters with animated backgrounds too.

Dozens of music soundtracks are available for the content you create with the app. What's more, the app automatically trims them to fit your production.

Available in April, Clips runs on iOS 10.3 and is compatible with the iPhone 5s or later, all iPad Air and Pro models, the iPad mini 2 and above, and the iPod touch 6th-generation model. 

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Group Demands Apple Pay Ransom for iCloud Credentials

Apple has received a ransom threat from a hacking group claiming to have access to data for up to 800 million iCloud accounts.

The hackers, said to be a London-based group called the "Turkish Crime Family," have threatened to reset passwords and remotely wipe the iPhones of millions of iCloud users if Apple fails to hand over a total of US$700,000. They have given the company an ultimatum to respond by April 7.

Apple reportedly has denied that the group succeeded in hacking its systems, maintaining that it obtained the email addresses and passwords from previously compromised third-party services. Apple is working with law enforcement on the threats.

The data set in the iCloud hack matches the data found in the 2012 hack of 117 million accounts on LinkedIn, according to some published reports.

However, the Turkish Crime Family strongly denied that in a message to TechNewsWorld on Friday.

Correcting the Message

The initial reports of a ransom demand of just $75,000 were incorrect, the group said in response to our email query. It actually demanded $100,000 for each of its seven members, plus "extra stuff from Apple that are worth more to us than money," which it promised Apple it would keep secret.

The group also told TechNewsWorld that the only member based in London is Kerem Albayrek, who is facing charges related to listing a hacked Yahoo database for sale. It claimed that its iCloud ransom demands were in part to spread awareness of Albayrek, as well as of Karim Baratov, a Canadian resident charged earlier this month, along with a second hacker and two Russian FSB agents, in the 2014 breach of 500 million Yahoo account holders.

The group told TechNewsWorld that it showed Apple scan logs that contain 800 million iCloud accounts, and that Apple claimed the data had come from outside sources.

The group said it planned to launch a website that would list iCloud user names, last names, dates of birth and a captcha of their current location from an iCloud app.

The site will not disclose passwords initially, the group said, but it would do so "most probably in the future."

Shaking Down Apple

The Turkish Crime Family threat should be taken seriously, said Pierluigi Paganini, a cybersecurity analyst and member of the Cyber Group G7 2017 Summit in Italy.

"I consider the threat is credible, even if it is quite impossible to know the exact number of iCloud credentials in the hands of hackers," he told TechNewsWorld.

The group is known in the hacking underground for the sale of stolen databases, Paganini said.

The group reportedly has approached several media outlets directly; it told TechNewsWorld that it had been in contact with five.

However, it is unlikely that the group's efforts to stir public pressure against Apple will be effective, noted Mark Nunnikhoven, vice president for cloud research at Trend Micro, in an online post.

Apple is too large and has too many resources to give in to public pressure, he pointed out.

The group's demands are similar to a shakedown in the physical world, in which criminals demand monthly payments to "protect" a business, Nunnikhoven noted.

"In the digital world, the pressures that make victims pay (e.g. keeping your store in one piece) don't apply," Nunnikhoven wrote.

"With iCloud accounts, Apple has the ultimate safety valve ... they control the infrastructure behind the accounts," he added. "Which removes most of the pressure points criminals could use."

There is no evidence of state involvement in this cyberthreat, Nunnikhoven told TechNewsWorld.

However, there is "mounting evidence that this is a group whose eyes are bigger than their stomachs," he suggested. "Selling credentials on the underground is rather commonplace. Attempting to extort one of the biggest companies on the planet with poor quality data is quite another."

Credible Threat

A report in ZDNet appeared to lend credence to some of the hacking group's claims, however. The group provided 54 credentials to the publication, which were verified as authentic based on a check of the password reset function.

Most of the accounts were outdated, but 10 people did confirm to the publication that the obtained passwords were legitimate and that they since had changed them. Those 10 people were living in the UK, and had UK mobile numbers.

Trend Micro is urging iCloud users to protect their accounts by using two-factor authentication, and also to use a password manager.

A password manager helps users create unique passwords for every account and stores them remotely so that hackers cannot access one or two accounts and thereby gain access to many more.

The FBI declined to comment for this story.

Apple officials did not respond to our request to comment, and a Yahoo spokesperson was not immediately available. 

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Oppo F1 review

OUR VERDICT

The Oppo F1 is a top phone for those after a budget handset that most people won't be familiar with, especially as it can pass for something a lot more expensive. Its software may take a while to get used to though.

FOR

• Great value
• Stylish design
• Decent camera

AGAINST

• Intrusive UI
• Plastic edges
• Iffy auto brightness

The Oppo F1 is a phone with a mission. It wants to trick people into thinking you spent £300 ($450, AU$550) or more on a handset when you actually only forked out £160 ($249, AU$285).

It does a good job too. Thin and with lots of metal on show, it comes across as quite a bit more expensive than the Moto G, even though it's actually around the same price.

If you want a budget handset that people won't instantly recognize, the Oppo F1 is a top choice. And in the UK at least, it's much easier to get hold of than most Oppo phones TechRadar has reviewed to date.

But there is also now competition in the form of the Oppo F1 Plus. The F1 Plus is now available around the world and we gave it three and a half stars out of five - so it's worth reading our review and checking you don't want the Plus instead of the Oppo F1.

If you do want the Plus instead, be warned it'll cost quite a bit more at £299 (AU$599, around US$430).

OPPO F1 SPECS

Weight: 134g
Dimensions: 143.5 x 71 x 7.3mm
OS: Android 5.1
Screen size: 5-inch
Resolution: 720 x 1280
CPU: Snapdragon 616
RAM: 3GB
Storage: 16GB
Battery: 2,500mAh
Rear camera: 13MP
Front camera: 8MP

Design

How do you make something cheap seem expensive? That's a tough one for many designers, because if you get it wrong you might end up with a phone encrusted with plastic diamonds that you couldn't even sell on eBay.

Oppo has nailed the 'cheap expensive' look here, though. It's all about putting in 20% of the effort/cost for 80% of the returns.

The prime Oppo F1 tactic is using champagne-finish gold metal for the back, but sneakily switching to plastic for the sides. You get the feel of metal, but Oppo doesn't have to go to the trouble of cutting any ports into metal, which costs a fair bit to do right.

When I first opened up the Oppo F1 and had a close look at it, I experienced a twinge of disappointment when I realised that this was how Oppo managed to make a metal phone at this price.

However, a month on I still appreciate the feel of the metal back. Just don't enter into this relationship expecting something that feels exactly like an iPhone 6S.

It's not too far off, though. It has none of the chunk factor of some other good budget Android phones, and there's a smooth curvature to the sides of the Oppo F1 that means it doesn't feel boxy. The display is even covered with 2.5D Gorilla Glass, which is toughened and has a smoothed-off edge.

The Oppo F1 is out to deliver on a whole load of s-words: skinny, smooth, sleek. It also looks great, at least from the back – I wouldn't have flinched if someone told me the phone cost £300/$400.

The Oppo F1 isn't quite as pretty from the front, though – viewed face-on the handset exhibits a slight boxiness that doesn't affect the rest of the phone. And, like the OnePlus X, it has soft keys but they don't light up.

Still, this is one of the nicest-looking cheap handsets out there, only obviously upstaged by the OnePlus X, which costs roughly the same in the US and just £30 more in the UK, yet uses almost no visible/proddable plastic. Competing with OnePlus in the pricing stakes isn't easy, though.

Finishing touches that help the Oppo F1 'fake it to make it' include a non-removable back and a SIM card tray like you'd see in an iPhone; a lot of cheaper devices still use peel-off back covers that hide a less fancy SIM slot.

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Cracking the Shell

If you've begun to tinker with your desktop Linux terminal, you may be ready to take a deeper dive.

You're no longer put off by references to "terminal," "command line" or "shell," and you have a grasp of how files are organized. You can distinguish between a command, an option and an argument. You've begun navigating your system.

Now what?

Make It So

File manipulation -- that is, allowing users to traverse the directory structure and interact with its contents -- lies at the heart of Linux. There is a sizable arsenal of tools at your disposal. With the "mkdir" command, you can make new directories. The program takes one argument, which is a path ending with the name of the directory to be created.

$ mkdir new_directory

One nice thing about "mkdir" is that should you specify a directory that already exists, it won't overwrite the original.

Similarly, the "touch" command, taking a path to a file as an argument, can make new (empty) files.

$ touch file

As with "mkdir", "touch" does not harm existing files -- it merely updates the timestamp for its last access. This feature is very useful when making incremental backups, which only save files after a certain date, but "touch" is also great for making disposable files to practice on.

Removing files, using "rm", is a simple task as well, but you should approach it with caution. Supplying a path as an argument for "rm" will remove that file -- but once you hit Enter, it's gone forever. You won't find it in the Trash.

$ rm file

On the one hand, "rm" can't remove directories, so a slip of the keyboard won't cost you dozens of files. On the other, if you do want to remove a directory, and supply the "-r" option, there is no safety net, and the program will delete every directory it contains.

$ rm -r target_directory

If you want to give yourself the same breathing room with directories as "rm" affords regular files, you can use "rmdir", which returns an error and performs no action when the path leads to non-directories.

$ rmdir target_directory

To see file contents directly in terminal output, you can run "cat" with the file given as an argument.

$ cat /file

What's the advantage of using "cat" rather than a paging viewer like "less"? It works faster than "less", and you easily can return the contents of multiple files at once simply by adding more arguments.

$ cat file1 file2

Finally, you can edit files with a terminal text editor like "nano" or "vim". As with any other command, type in the name of your chosen editor with a path to the file and the terminal will bring up the contents in the editor interface. The "nano" editor is a good one to begin with if you're keen to start altering files, as it has usage instructions listed along the bottom.

Shell Basics

To make the most of these new commands in your discovery process, it helps to understand how the shell fits into the picture. Everything your computer runs must be in binary format, so when you type a command, how does the terminal know where the binary is?

The shell maintains an environment variable, a user- or system-wide value associated with a keyword (the variable name), called "PATH," and "PATH" lists all the directories where the shell should look for a command.

Every command, like everything in Linux, has a path, and if you want to know what it is, run the "which" command followed by the name of the command you want to find.

$ which command

You'll get the path right to the binary. Now try running "echo $PATH", which returns the value of the "PATH" variable.

$ echo $PATH

Odds are the directory containing the command you looked up with "which" was in there. This is why you don't have type out the path that "which" returns for every command you run.

There's more to the shell than that, however. To fine-tune its behavior and keep its users organized, the shell -- for Linux, Bash -- maintains a few configuration files. The first is ".bash_profile" or simply ".profile", depending on your Linux distribution, and it tells Bash what to do when a user logs in.

In most cases, it simply starts your graphical desktop, but you can tailor your startup process to your needs by adding normal terminal commands. If you decide to play around with this (or any other) Bash file, it's best to make a backup (with "cp"). The second file is ".bashrc".

This is the heart and soul of Bash, as it sets your command shortcuts, known as "aliases," and other customized variables. If you want to create a shorthand for a longer command, you can add a line to this file containing the word "alias", a space, the shortcut, an equal sign, and the command you want the shortcut to run (in quotes).

alias shortcut="command"

The Bash shell's third configuration file is ".bash_history", which contains a list of commands you've previously run, usually trimmed to the last few hundred. You will probably find this to be a valuable resource, so get accustomed to consulting it.

Last, but not least is ".bash_logout", which tells Bash what to do when you end your session. For most users, there's not much to see here -- but again, depending on your needs, you can have Bash run a normal command at logout.

Critical Resources

Here are a few more tips if I've whetted your appetite.

Manual pages provide detailed explanations of all the commands available on your system. To learn how to consult a "man" page, you actually can run "man man" to get -- you guessed it -- a reference for the "man" command.

$ man man

If you're not sure which man page to look in, by running "man" with the "-K" option and a keyword as an argument, you can search the text of all man pages simultaneously.

$ man -K keyword

This gives you every mention of that keyword across all the documentation on your system.

To locate a file you know is somewhere on your system, you can use "find". Run "find" with the following arguments: the name of the directory you wish to search in (recursively), the "-name" option (this, or a similar option, is required), and the exact filename.

$ find directory -name filename

If you're a bit fuzzy on the name, but know what it starts or ends with, you can put a "*" on the back or front of the name, respectively.

$ find directory -name partial_filename*
$ find directory -name *partial_filename

With this base of knowledge, you have more than enough to go a long way on your own. If you've been holding off on venturing deeper into your system, now is the perfect time to take the leap.

If you hit a wall, don't be afraid to look on Google, post to a user forum, or ask me about it. If you're worried that you'll break something, rest assured that you probably won't, and there's always a way to put it back together, even if you do.

I'm excited about what you'll turn up. Happy hunting! 

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IBM Launches Enterprise-Strength Blockchain as a Service

IBM on Monday unveiled the first enterprise-ready Blockchain as a Service offering based on The Linux Foundation's open source Hyperledger Fabric version 1.0.

IBM Blockchain, which lets developers quickly establish highly secure blockchain networks on the IBM cloud, is a transformative step in being able to deploy high-speed, secure business transactions through the network on a large scale, the company said.

The platform offers the world's safest Linux infrastructure, with tamper-responsive hardware security modules, a highly auditable operating environment, protection from insider attacks, and secure service containers, according to IBM.

Safe and Secure

"IBM developers were very substantial contributors to the Hyperledger Fabric project, and they have also been great at pulling developers from other companies into the center of the development process," noted Brian Behlendorf, executive director of Hyperledger.

"This means the architecture has been scrutinized by a much wider community than you might otherwise see for a commercial project, and there are many different commercial options for support available," he told LinuxInsider.

Hyperledger -- an open source consortium of companies in finance, banking, IoT and other industries -- was created to advance blockchain technologies.

Hyperledger Fabric is the project designed to implement blockchain technologies into applications or solutions.

IBM Blockchain for Hyperledger Fabric v1.0 is available through a beta program on IBM Bluemix. Hyperledger Fabric is available on Docker Hub as an IBM-certified image for download at no cost.

In a related announcement, IBM and SecureKey Technologies said they will launch a new digital identity network for Canadian consumers based on IBM Blockchain. The network currently is undergoing tests in Canada and is scheduled to go live later this year. Consumers will be able to opt in through a mobile app.

IBM also announced the world's first blockchain-based green asset management platform under a deal with Energy Blockchain Labs to help lower emissions in China.

A beta version of the platform will be released in May.

IBM Edge

IBM has an advantage from the standpoint that few companies have the skills and experience to capitalize on this emerging technology, noted Jeff Kaplan, managing director of ThinkStrategies.

Many companies are hesitant to make the investment to advance what is a relatively unproven technology, he said.

"So in the same way organizations have been able to leverage compute power via the cloud and applications via SaaS, IBM Blockchain will enable organizations to acquire blockchain functionality quickly without the risks and costs associated with buying and deploying the technology themselves," Kaplan told LinuxInsider. "It gives IBM a good method to quickly win customers and market share."

The IBM announcement is a significant step in enterprise adoption of blockchain technology, and can be likened to what Hortonworks and Cloudera did for Hadoop or what Redhat did for Linux, observed Stewart Bond, research director for data integration software at IDC.

"IBM is an industry incumbent known for enterprise-scale transaction processing, security and data management, and many enterprises trust IBM applications, processes, transactions and data," he told LinuxInsider.

"Blockchain is partly about trust, and IBM Blockchain provides a higher level of trust, security, transaction processing and manageability of blockchain data, code and deployments, Bond said.

IBM last summer entered an agreement with Everledger to use blockchain to help the company track diamonds and other valuables.

IBM is the provider best suited for transactional security at the scale required for such a partnership, said Leanne Kemp, CEO of the firm.

"As a business focused on tracking and protecting the provenance of the world's most valuable items, there can be no compromise when it comes to the security and expertise required to ensure records are stored in a trusted and tamper-proof environment," she told LinuxInsider.

IBM also is working with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Northern Trust, Walmart and Maersk on previously announced deals to run their blockchain applications in the IBM Cloud. 

Review xbox one

OUR VERDICT

Far better than it once was, and destined to keep improving, Xbox One is a truly modern piece of kit. It suffers for its catch-all approach a little, but you won't see some of its tricks on any competitor's machine.

FOR

• Excellent game selection
• Great online service
• The best controller going
• Unmatched media features
• Able to evolve constantly
• Backwards compatibility

The original Xbox One had a pretty rocky start to life. 

It launched with a compulsory accessory (the Kinect), that received a lukewarm reception, and its set-top box capabilities that weren't important for gamers. 

• Buy Microsoft Xbox One (1TB) at Amazon for $289.95

Microsoft has remedied many of these problems with the more recent Xbox One S , which features HDR compatibility and an Ultra HD Blu-ray player.  

With the new console now out, are there still reasons to consider its older brother considering how big and bulky it now looks in comparison? In short: yes. 

The first reason is price. With over a hundred dollars separating the two consoles, those on a budget stand to save a significant amount of money by opting to by the One over the One S.

Yes, you'll be sacrificing some of the advanced features like 4K output, but if you don't have a 4K TV then there's little reason for you to bother.

You have even more reason to stay with the original Xbox One if you're a fan of Microsoft's Kinect, which divided opinion when it was included with every Xbox One upon the console's initial release.

The reason for this is that the One S doesn't include a Kinect port on its rear, meaning that you'll have to buy an adaptor if you want to use your camera accessory.

It might not be perfect, but it's far better than the system Microsoft once pitched us on: an always-online console that would have allowed for disc-less play, easy game sharing on other owner's consoles, mandatory system scans and an end to second-hand purchases as we know them.

• Next Xbox: what will the Xbox Two be like and when will we see it?

With a refreshed interface and improved functionality, Microsoft's all-in-one system is taking on the PS4 head-on. Recent improvements like a new guide button that allows for easier and faster access to party chat and achievements, alongside a boost in responsiveness and more integrated community pages are empowering the system to fulfill its destiny as the epicenter of our home entertainment cabinet.

Xbox One Specs

CPU:

1.75Ghz AMD Octocore

Memory:

8GB DDR3 (2133MHz)

Storage:

500GB

Best features:

Game DVR, OneGuide, Snap, SmartGlass, EA Access, Sling TV

Price:

$349/$449 (with Kinect)

Over 20 million gamers have bought into the Xbox One philosophy so far, a number that would be really quite impressive were it not for the PS4's frankly incredible record-breaking tally of 35 million units sold worldwide.

Regardless of where you stand on PS4 vs Xbox One, it's important to understand that the Xbox One is not just a games machine; it's a clever and powerful media hub designed to sit at the center of your digital home. It offers a unified interface for your choice of cable services alongside music, movie and cable streaming options, Skype chats and more, and integrates seamlessly with Windows 10.

Over the last two years, we've seen a slew of updates that have radically changed how the system works, almost all of which have been for the better.

• What's the latest on Xbox One? New Xbox One app turns your living room into a dressing room.
• But before we talk about where the system is going, let's reflect on where it came from. The Xbox One release date was November 22 2013 both here in the US and 12 other launch markets - Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain and the UK.
• It launched to a tepid audience, one that had real concerns over what the Xbox One could do that the aging Xbox 360 could not. But, thankfully, Microsoft didn't pull the plug on its all-in-one console.
• The system continues the Xbox 360's trend of placing an impetus on platform-exclusive IPs, even in a changing gaming landscape where fewer and fewer developers want to commit to a single console. Most of that comes from inside Microsoft, but there are plenty of third-party developers like Turn 10 Studios, Insomniac and 343 that have committed long term to Xbox One.
  • Read: These are the best Xbox One games!
  Thanks to exclusive partnerships between Microsoft, DISH and EA, the Xbox One gets console exclusivity for Sling TV and trials of EA games five full days before they launch. It's the only system to have EA Access, EA's value-added game program, and the NFL app that allows you to keep tabs on your fantasy team while watching the game.
  In other news, Microsoft has also dropped Xbox One's sticker price to just $349 going forward without Kinect, which stings for those of us who dropped the five benjamins on the system and its "completely necessary" peripheral 12 short months ago. But, financially speaking, the move makes sense. The lower barrier of entry should drum up the extra business the console desperately needs in order to climb back to the top of the totem pole.
• 
• Are you ready to get your gamertag and join the green team? Read on to get our full thoughts and opinions on Microsoft's all-in-one entertainment machine, one year in the making.

  Design

  We've gone one full calendar year without Microsoft making any major tweaks, fixes, or modifications to the Xbox One's initial design. Companies like Nyko, PDP and Power A have come along to offer additional products like intercoolers and clip-on charging stations, but Microsoft's rock-solid design has stood the earliest test of time.
  Measuring in at 274 x 79 x 333 mm (L x H x W), the Xbox One's sheer size and girth harkens back to the original Xbox, an imposing black plastic beast covered in black plastic ridges. It's taller, wider and heavier than the PS4 (8 lbs compared to 7.1), and has opted for a pure rectangular design rather than copying Sony's parallelogram. You'll also have to make room for its external power adapter, a feature inherited from the Xbox 360. A common feature on both systems, though, is the button-less design: both the power and eject spaces are touch-capacitive.
• 
• At first glance it looks almost identical to an audio receiver. Which is ironic, as Microsoft's jet-black console would very much like to replace that as the center of your home entertainment system. The top of the system is where heat gets dissipated while the two sides host ancillary grilles and a single USB port. Flip the machine around and you'll see a plethora of ports. It has all your standard nodes: Ethernet, HDMI-out, power, S/PDIF (commonly used for optical audio), dual USB 3.0 ports and an IR out. Additionally, there are two proprietary ports, one for hooking in the Kinect, and an HDMI-in, which is how you feed the Xbox One a TV signal from a cable box. But if have plans to use the Xbox One's HDMI-in to hook in another console, forget it. The HDMI-in can function as a passthrough and let any old HDMI signal in, but this introduces a lot of input lag, making it no good for hooking in another system.

  Kinect

  If the Xbox One leaves behind one memory in gamers' minds, it will likely be of the Kinect. Some love it. Some hate it. Others still don't get what it is and why it was necessary. No matter what camp you fall into, Microsoft has given you a choice whether you want Kinect in your home. Starting in June, the Kinect became an optional peripheral rather than a mandatory pack-in. Buying an Xbox One without a Kinect not only saves you $100 off the sticker price, but also frees up an extra 10% of processing power in certain games that was reserved for image processing.
• 
• For awhile after launch, we stood by Microsoft's decision to keep Kinect, the all-seeing eye that allows you to shout voice commands, video chat and play full-body games, included in every box. We were told how crucial it was going to be to the next-gen experience and how innovative games were being developed that leveraged the new technology. And for about six months after launch, we believed it. Then the decision came down to cut Kinect from the basic package and instead of dozens of new, ground-breaking games, we got Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved.
  There's still a showroom factor when you use Kinect. And yes, voice commands do sometimes help to navigate around the Xbox's cluttered, convoluted interface. But at the end of the day, this mandatory pack-in is more hassle than it's worth. Apparently, Microsoft thinks so too.
• 

• Xbox One specifications

  Microsoft's bid for living room supremacy is powered by an AMD processor, backed by 8GB of DDR3 memory and 32MB of ultra fast ESRAM. For storage, most consoles come with a 500GB hard drive to keep your media, gameplay videos and game installs, though some special editions have started to pack-in a 1TB drive instead. But, unlike the PS4, there's no swapping out that mechanical drive for solid state and even attempting it will void your warranty.
  Whether the system is ultimately faster than the PS4 is up for debate. The only thing we know for sure is that several games currently play in 1080p on PlayStation while only achieving 720p or 900p on Xbox. Times are changing, though. Because Microsoft dropped Kinect, Xbox has an extra 10% of memory space available to use in future games. But, less clear however, is the role DirectX 12 will play in future releases. There's skepticism on both sides of the aisle in whether it will actually change the overall resolution of games, or if we'll just get a small bump in load times.
• 

  Features

  Microsoft captured the zeitgeist of the 21st century in the Xbox One. It's a connected system that, if you let it, can touch every area of your life, from your social habits to your media preferences and everything in between. The best features on Xbox reflect that philosophy: Game DVR lets you record, edit and share your "dude! Did you see that?" moments, while Xbox OneGuide will cull your thousand-or-so channels of cable to five or six recommended shows.
  Every month, the team adds to these technologies and the choices Microsoft is making seem deliberate. In the time since last year, the Xbox has gained a Friends section on the home screen, DLNA support, as well as improved Snap functionality. Achievements are now easier to access and we've seen the return of our digital avatars from the Xbox 360. Recently, Microsoft has made the push to connect Windows 10 PCs and Xbox Ones by giving the former the ability to stream games over a home network and has finally released the screenshot feature PS4 has had since launch. There have been some downturns in that time, too, but by and large Microsoft's media dream machine is making a comeback one first-party exclusive at a time.

  What's in the box?

  The biggest change from last year is that today Xbox One comes in two flavors, with Kinect or without. Either package will come with a power cable and adapter (aka the power brick), a headset adapter, a throw-away headset (seriously, buy a replacement from Turtle Beach ASAP), an HDMI cable and controller with batteries, but you won't get a Kinect unless you pony up an extra $100. You'll also get a 14-day free trial of Xbox Live Gold which will net you at least one game for free as soon as you turn the system on.

Setup

Setting up your brand-new Xbox One has remain almost unchanged since its launch last year, and is best described as simple and long. Simple in the sense that all you'll need to do is follow on-screen instructions to set up a Microsoft account and agree to few terms and conditions, but long in that the initial update, which is mandatory before you do anything, will take anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours depending on your connection speed. There's been quite a few firmware updates since launch, too, so it's better to start installing this stuff right before bed so that you can jump in early the next morning.

And if you plan to watch TV on the console, you'll want to run an HDMI cable from your cable box into the system's HDMI-in port. You'll then need to run the OneGuide's setup, which isn't too complex, but we'll get into that in just a few minutes. Also, it should be noted that its online requirement, which threatened to lock up the system without a daily server ping, has been dialed way, way down. Out of the box, your Xbox One will need to download a day one patch before you even arrive at the homescreen. After that, however, you can cut the Ethernet cable or smash your router; there's no further online connectivity needed for single player gaming. That doesn't mean you won't want that Internet connectivity to make the most of your console, but having a system that works entirely offline is a viable option.

Snap

Snapping is the Xbox's catchy name for multitasking, and has been the target for some of the system's biggest patches since launch. Snapping lets you run two Xbox One apps at once, giving a third of the screen to one app off to the right, and the rest to your primary engagement. It's a good way to do a little Internet Explorer browsing while you wait for a friend to join your game, but beyond that it can be straining on the eyes unless your TV or projector screen is very large.

Before this year in order to "snap" an app you needed to exit what you were doing, find the app you want to snap, press and hold the menu button and select the snap option. Unsnapping required a nearly identical process: Leave the game, find the app running on the right side of your screen and then unsnap it. Finally, thanks to Microsoft's October system update, we have finally seen a streamlined process. Essentially, double tapping the Xbox jewel button brings up a thumb stick-enabled Snap menu. Press left and you'll move back to your primary application. Pressing right specifically brings up achievements, while up brings you to the home page to choose any of your other applications. Down, as you might've guessed, closes the Snap and resumes your main application.

Kinect makes it even easier, allowing users to simply say "Xbox snap Skype" to get the side by side feature working. It's also much easier to just say "switch" for toggling between the two rather using the controller. While it's impressive that the Xbox One's hardware is capable of juggling all this without a drop in gaming performance, it comes off as something you can do, but not something you'll actually want to do, at least very often.

Xbox OneGuide

One of the Xbox One's best features is its ability to integrate with your cable or satellite feed thanks to an HDMI-in port. Anyone who's had cable installed in their home probably shudders at the thought of fooling with that precarious mix of coaxial and HDMI, but fear not, setting it up is easier than finding your cable company's service number.

After connecting your cable box to the Xbox One via HDMI there's a setup wizard to take you through all the steps. All you need to know is your service provider and zip code. Punch that in and the Xbox does the rest.The result is the OneGuide, live TV on your game console organized a lot like your cable's built-in menu. It can be navigated just like the One's general interface, with speech, gestures, the controller or Smartglass.

Once you're set up you'll be able to use OneGuide like a TiVo mixed with a top-tier set-top box. You can use it to set reminders for your favorite shows or, if you're not feeling up to finding something for yourself, get a list of recommended content based on what's trending and past viewing preferences. It's powerful, smart technology that truly integrates the Xbox into the media center in a way that it never was before

Game DVR and Live streaming

Being able to record native gameplay, without the use of an added peripheral, is something new to this generation of consoles. Both the Xbox One and PS4 are able to record, edit and share your favorite moments with your friends, but only on Xbox One will you be able to use Upload Studio to send files directly to the cloud. That may not sound like a big deal, but having the ability to manipulate the raw video file on a PC instead of having to make edits inside half-baked video editing software makes a world of difference to wannabe YouTube stars and anyone interested in starting their own "Let's Play" channel. Upload Studio has a simple suite of tools, and allows you to record a voice over commentary. Moreover, you can use Kinect's video recording ability to place yourself in the video, picture-in-picture style.

However, getting raw gameplay footage is tricky. Unlike the PS4, which keeps a running archive of your last fifteen minutes of gameplay, the Xbox One only records the last 30 seconds. To save it to the hard drive you can say "Xbox record that" to Kinect and a 720p recording of your last half-minute of gameplay will be stored to OneDrive.

A more recent addition to Xbox One's firmware modified the 30-second rule, but requires Game DVR to be snapped while recording. Regardless if DVR is snapped or not, one feature that is unique to Xbox One is that games can be programmed to automatically engage the DVR. Battlefield 4, for example, records when you rank up or earn an achievement and EA Sports UFC automatically saves footage of your best knock-outs.

At one point the only way to see this plethora of video content was to see friends' shared clips in your activity feed. Those feeds were rather buried though, so chances of finding your friend's footage wasn't likely unless they gave you a heads up of what to look for. Now you're able to embed your favorite gameplay clips directly into your gamer profile, in what Microsoft is calling your "showcase."

Showcases contain clips, achievement or pictures that you find to be the most representative of your personality and works as a great differentiator to the all-too-similar profile pages we're used to seeing.

The last feature worth pointing out in regards to video capture is live streaming, a capability the Xbox One was missing one short year ago. Setting up a stream is as simple as it is on a PC, and only requires you downloading the Twitch app and connecting it to your account by signing in. Once paired, you'll be able to stream gameplay and use the Kinect sensor as a quasi-webcam for users to be able to see and hear you. Watching Twitch is just as easy as streaming it, thanks to updates to the GUI that allow you to sort content by parameters like kill-death ratio in first-person shooters, highest combo score in fighting games or even incredibly niche values like Grimoire Score in Destiny.

SmartGlass

Smartglass is the Xbox's second screen experience. It was introduced on the Xbox 360 and lets you navigate menus and see system information on your tablet or smartphone. The app is back for Xbox One, and has greatly improved functionality. You can now launch apps from the second screen, and make purchases and start downloads on your home console while you're out and about. If you're a member of Xbox Live Gold, you can even use Smartglass to view this month's free games and, if you're Xbox is set to "remote startup," can start downloading them while you're out and about. Several games now have complimentary companion apps of their own.

Smartglass is an incredibly versatile program that keeps you connected to your online friend community when you can't be right in front of your console. It's an addicting addition to your smartphone - it's available on both iOS and Android devices - and, best of all, it's free. The Windows 8 Smartglass app has its own special features. You can throw a browser page from the console directly onto the screen of your W8 device and use it to pull up extra information on actors from Netflix in real-time while watching a movie.

EA Access

Announced in late July, EA signed a contract with Microsoft giving the Xbox One a publisher-specific download platform that gives gamers access to a vault of valuable titles and first dibs on upcoming demos. The service, called EA Access, costs $4.99 a month or $30 per year and currently has FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, Peggle 2, Need for Speed: Rivals, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, EA Sports UFC, Battlefield 4 and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, bad NBA Live 15 available for download.

Whether or not Access is a selling point for you largely depends on how many of the publisher's titles you play, and if you're willing to shell out another $30 per year on top of paying for Xbox Live Gold service. Still, if getting five days closer to the next Mass Effect game and the eight or so titles seem appealing, EA Access is well-worth its upfront cost.

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AGAINST

• Kinect is a failure
• Inferior graphics
• Xbox Live Gold-dependent
• Controller still uses batteries