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Monday, 9 March 2015

Stratos Card is Just About to kill Credit Cards

Stratos is all set to replace your credit, debit, loyalty and gift cards obsolete. Stratos is yet another smart card to simplify our lives. Stratos slims down our wallets and also secures personal information.

Stratos Card:How it Works?

All the credit card information is stored–>The information is fed to the app–>From the app it is transmitted to the Stratos Card.

So everytime you got to pay, you can take out your Stratos. The card when delivered to you via e-mail comes with a card reader. The card reader plugs into the phone’s headphone jack. All that you need to do now is swipe your cards and the reader will load all the card’s information. The app can save a number of card details. But the Stratos card can only hold three cards. This enables quick access. As it is anticipated that 95% of the people use only three cards most of the time. There are three touch sensors on the front of the card. Each sensor corresponds to quick access cards. It allows you to choose which of the cards you would like to use at each tap. A Bluetooth connection is required in case you are not using one of the three cards.

Stratos Card: Design

It has a slick design and looks like a traditional credit card. It is also thin and light like a business card. The logo is printed on the front. Also the owner’s name and Stratos card number is printed. The touch sensors are placed near the edge on the right side.Magnetic strips are at the back just like smost smart cards. There is also the signature stripe on the back side of the card.

Stratos Card: Selling Points

->> Superior acceptance and reliability:With compatibility to all current U.S. merchant infrastructure, the Stratos Card is the only connected card you can use everywhere, including ATMs, restaurants, retail stores and gas stations

->> Superior security: Stratos’ patented Security Lock-Down feature lets members automatically program their card to shut down if it’s not in proximity to their smartphone for a specific amount of time. Other security features include bank-level encryption and card details securely stored behind a PIN or Touch ID

->> Superior intelligence: Stratos leverage the mobile lock screen for instant, real-time notifications, including information on member’s top three favourite cards and their last four-digits for card verification. The Stratos Mobile App centralizes, tracks and manages all cards securely. Coming soon, geo-location and history-based card suggestions and insights to help make better payment decisions

->> Superior style: The Stratos Card features five distinctive colors: Slate, White, Blue, Salmon and Green. The card is beautifully designed, yet durable – unlike smartphone-based mobile payment systems, it’s waterproof and passed ISO 7810 and 7816 tests that include bend, static shock, abrasion tests and more

(#Source BGR.com)

Stratos Card: Membership

Superior experience: Stratos offers a unique membership that ensures cardholders always have the most complete experience. Membership includes:

A Stratos Card, the Stratos Mobile App (for iOS and Android) and a Stratos Reader (for adding cards).
Free annual Stratos Card upgrades (or replacement cards), so your investment is never obsolete – members have first access to the latest technology, as soon as it’s available.
Personalized member support including phone, email and social communication.
Future Stratos features, including geo-location based recommendations, card insights, virtual card downloads and card tokenization.

Stratos Card: Security

It uses the bank’s level of encryption. For additional security a unique credit card token is generated eac time the card is used. Whenever the bank receives and decrypts the token it charges the card. By this level of masking the retailer never gets to see your actual credit card numbers.

The first version of the smart card will not have a chip. It is also incompatible withcontactless NFC card readers. The company said it is working to add these features soon. Users can receive alerts in case you leave your card somewhere. Alerts are received on your smartphone through Bluetooth. As the card is tethered through Bluetooth. You may cancel the three cards in case you doubt the card is stolen.

Stratos Rivals

The competitors Plastc and Coin have screens in front. But Stratos does not display card info on the front. Stratus too lets you shut off your cards. Since information is not displayed on the screen, it is potentially safer to use.

Stratos Card Pricing

It costs about $95 a year and $145 for one and two year memberships. The cost is inclusive of manufacturing , cloud storage and security of the card. The pre-orders are open currently. Shipping will begin in April.

Stratos Card Availability

Stratos cards can be preordered beginning on the company’s website.

Sneek Peek into Stratos Card

Stratos Card:Drawbacks

It is slightly expensive. As there may already be yearly payments for other credit cards.
For online purchases this card cant be used. You have to enter your credit card number only. This card works only in physical shops.

Bottom line

Good option to consolidate your wallet into a device. For those who can afford the orice its a good deal. But do keep in mind that your details will be accessed by another company through an app.

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Comments

Feeling fat’- Is that a feeling at all?

Feeling fat lately? Everybody faces the “fat” day once in a while. Thanks to the salty snacks, ham burgers, chicken pops and all the more skinny jeans. Not to forget thanks to the hormones too. There isn’t anyone left who as atleast once in a life time moaned to their friends about feeling fat.

But for the women who suffer eating disorder or poor self image the fat days can now be shared through the feeling Fat emoji of Facebook. The fat days can morph into your life and suck out the image of hearing other women talk about their fat woes. What is even worse is that the situation has gone out of hand. The fat talk has become so contagious that a petition has been files to ban the feeling “fat emoji” from Facebook.

Emoticons on Facebook

Facebook lets you to announce to your friends just how you are feeling excited, sad, happy, annoyed, sick each of this feelings come with its own emoticon. But the feelingfat emoticon has seriously taken options out. The option does not sit well with body-positive activists.

The Petition

The petition was filed by Catherine Weingarter. Catherine Weingarter was so infuriated after one of her friends took to Facebook and posted the chubby emoji. As she writes with the feeling fat emoji she says as someone who has struggled with and overcome the disordered eating. She also added that having spent many years with her life consumed in negative thoughts. She knows how it feels. Starving away days, in an effort to shed some weight. Not to forget the many hours spent in front of the mirror about what others thought about her.

When users set their Facebook status to ‘feeling fat’, its just a feeble way of making fun of people who consider themselves fat. Overweight people with eating disorders are disguised by this. This is not OK for the society she takes on.

Below is the video of the Petition

Lets take on feeling fat

Researchers have also come in harmony to agree that, calling fat talk is in fact harmful . Fat is not a feeling. Being fat is a natural part of our bodies. All bodies deserve to be respected and cared for no matter what the weight is.

You may Click here and sign Catherine’s Petition. You can voice your opinion and letFacebook know how you feel and that is not FAT. Catherine’s is the US version of thepetition.

A group called Endangered bodies has launched the similar campaign and persuadedFacebook to remove the dreadful emoticon. The activists believe that the status normalises the body shaming.

According to Facebook

The social media does not have any plans to change the emoticons options. The company representatives have been looking into the concerns of the activists. AFacebook spokesperson took on to say that people used facebook to share their feelings and support each other. These options let you express your feelings and add the feeling to your post. There are over 100 of them and you can create your own too.

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iSkin: Touch Sensitive Stickers for Mobiles

All that one wearing a smartwatch is to take a glance at his or her wrist and look at e-mails or the calendar. But the interface is fixed and small. This kind of makes it difficult to hit the buttons precisely. So here are renowned team of scientists fromSaarbrücken along with some researchers from Carnegie Mellon University in the USA who have a solution- ‘iSkin’. They have come up with touch-sensitive stickers that can be worn on the skin. These touch sensitive stickers are made out of flexible silicon and electrically conducting sensors. The experimental setup allows us to control mobile devices using stickers that adhere to the users skin.

iSkin: Enlarging Input Space

These fancy touch sensitive stickers are capable of acting as an input space. The space receives and executes the commands to control the mobile devices. The sticker allows users to enlarge the input space. This input space can be attached to any part of the body. It all depends on the amount of pressure that is applied to which type of sticker. iSkin has enabled the human body to be closely knot with the 21st century technology.

iSkin: What more the iSkin patches or stickers can be designed of your choice!

The users design the patches beforehand as per their taste. The special silicone that the sensors are made of are flexible and stretchable. It is this quality that make it suitable for designing. For instance one sticker is based on music notation. Another sticker is in the shape of a circle like LP.

The iSkin can control music and phone calls. Also the iSkin can be used for many other applications. What makes it so interesting is that music player can simply berolled up and placed anywhere. Typing and sending messages can also be done just like it is done on the mobile device. The sticker also recognizes simple gestures likeswiping. The sticker is also capable of multi-touch functionality.

As of now the sticker is connected via a cable to the computer system. May be in the future in-built microchips be used to facilitate the skin-worn sensor to communicate. It may then be able to communicate wirelessly with other devices too. The iSkin stickers contain capacitive and resistive sensors. These sensors are specially designed to respond to touch. Also as stated the funky tech stickers can be made in any shape and size. It can be temporarily applied to any part of the body. The stickers is stuck on your skin using a medical grade adhesive. It can be attached to your finger, forearm or even your ear.

Catch a Glimpse of the Video

iSkin: Research

The iSkin aims to convert smartwatches into mini portable devices. The research and publication of iSkin was awarded the best paper at the SIGCHI conference. This conference is ranked the best among most of the human computer interaction forums.

Libon Reach Me: Now Get Calls Even When There Is No Network

Have you ever been doomed at a place with no signal? But wait, there is Wi-Fi around? Then there is absolutely nothing to fuss about. You are all set to receive phone calls made to you even when your network provides no bars! Provided the location you are set in has Wi-Fi. You can receive calls that are made to your regular phone number. And how is that possible. The new service Reach Me from Libon has it all worked out for you.

Libon owned by Orange had announced this feature at the Mobile World Congress 2015. Libon , the Whatsapp competitor has come up with a feature called Reach Methat allows people to make and receive calls through Wi-Fi. Calls can be made orreceived over your phone number. What is ever more highlighting is that regardless of the actual carrier the feature works. The Libon app has been sticking around for about two or more years now. The app allows users to make calls through special offers. These deals are made through the local service providers.

Libon-VoIP Magic

Even with absolutely no reception you will still be available on your phone. Thanks to the little VoIP wonder. Are you looking to being away for sometime? If you don’t like the idea of always being available no worries. You can alternatively choose to direct calls to voice mail. It can be redirected based on who is calling also. VoIP is a method in which voice communications and multimedia are delivered over Internet Protocol (IP). Also VoIP devices have simple user interfaces so the users can make simple configuration changes for the system. Many VoIP service providers allows its callers to configure the caller ID information. VoIP is also the best benefit to reduce infrastructural communication costs.

Free Calls: Enjoy unlimited national and international calls towards all your Libon contacts, from all around the world, for free.

Free Chat: Use the free Libon chat and send text messages, pictures and audio recordings to all your contacts, from all around the world.

Visual voicemail: Listen to your voicemails when you wish and in the order of your choosing. Moreover, Libon can transcribe your voicemails into text.

Libon Out Calls: Make cheaper calls to landlines and mobiles in more than 100 destinations around the world with your Libon Out minutes.

Customized Voicemail: Surprise all your friends by creating customized greetings for each one of your contacts or groups of contacts!

Libon Web: Access Libon from any connected device. Now you can find your conversations and voicemails on your tablet or computer or any other device.

Libon-Reach Me

Reach Me is a very interesting proposition to those people who can’t afford to miss calls. For instance those in the business world, doctors etc. Their profession just needs them to be available all the time. Reach Me could be so useful to them.

What is it that makes Libon different?

The major advantage that Libon offers is that it works on any network. But the servicehas to enabled in that particular country.

What Lobo has to say?

Libon CEO Dominic Lobo reckoned that it is a good proposition for travellers. Especially for travellers that travel overseas often. They can avoid roaming voice fees. But kept it mind that Wi-Fi connection is needed. Also Libon has to be enabled in that country. He also added that the Reach Me feature is throwing light to get around poor indoor mobile coverage. With Reach Me and Wi-Fi you can never miss a call.

Libon Reach Me: Availability

The Reach Me feature is first said to be available on Android. The iPhone solution is still in its final stage of development. Libon app has been available on iOS and Android. It started as a voicemail service. The Libon app offers instant messaging too. The app is available in over 100 countries. The Reach Me feature will be available slowly based on country by country basis. It will first be available in the end of Marchin Italy. Italy has enough existing Libon users. With Orange not having any carriers in Italy it could be a good roll-out.

Libon Featured Videos: See how it Works

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Kazam Thunder 450L and 450W are Windows Phones Previewed at MWC 2015

Kazam is an up-coming smartphone brand and it is launching two new Windows Phone devices called the Kazam Thunder 450W and Thunder 450L. Kazam under its band has five product families namely Life, ToughShield, Trooper, Tornado and Thunder.

The Kazam Thunder 450W is a 3G phone while the Kazam Thunder 450L phone supports 4G LTE, this being the main difference between the pair. 4G is meant for extra-fast Internet connection allowing faster browsing and smoother streaming of videos and music. But still, the phone being relatively new it is required to check on if the network covers local area with decent signal before getting one.

Specs and Features of Kazam Thunder 450L and 450W Phones:

Of the pair, the 450L is designed with extreme care that gets rounded corners along with a textured case letting your fingernail run over with fun. On concerning the 450W’s design it gets a kind of more impetuous design along with bright colors matching the colorful home screen of the Windows Phone. The neon yellow case that is the only shade available seems certainly bold.

The phones come with 5-inch screen displays with 1280 × 720 pixels resolution. Yet this could not be considered as eye-popping full high definition but yes they are sure to give detailed movies and games. Powering both the phones is a 1.2GHz quad-core MSM8212 processor coupled with 1GB of RAM. 8 GB storage is available in both the phones while some is occupied by the phone’s firmware and the rest is available for apps, movies, music and snaps. And if needed, the storage can be further expanded via a microSD card up to 32GB. Also built-in FM radio is available with the phones.

The main camera available on both the devices is an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera capable of shooting 1080p HD video. A 2-megapixel front facing camera good for video chat comes with both the phones. And there is built-in Skype with the devices.

The differences between the phones is the LTE Support, dual SIM support (450W is dual SIM supporting device) and the battery capacity. A 2200 mAh removable battery is present in the 450W model while the 450L gets a 2500 mAh sealed battery.

According to Kazam, the phone’s batteries are claimed to last up to 340 hours (two weeks) but on absolute no use of the devices. Talk time could be about six and a half hours.

Running on both the phones is the Windows Phone 8.1 software, the phones are well prepared for the arrival of Windows Phone 10 software as well. Microsoft operating system for phones is the Windows Phone software. This has live tiles, a home screen with colourful squares with each app. A Windows Phone has the unique ability of its device’s home screen being customizable to display useful information without the need to open apps each time. To explain better, the calendar live tile in a Windows Phone shows the users next appointment, likewise the photo gallery live tile shows out thumbnails or recently captured pictures while the messages tile pop up with the latest text. Now the tiles size can be altered and moved as desired.

Windows Phone, also like Android and iOS allows downloading of apps to customize phones. Many big shots like Twitter, Facebook, Evernote and Spotify do offer Windows Phone apps for Windows Phone devices. But still when noted, the priorities of app-builders’ have in the order of iOS, Android and then Windows Phone, pushing it the third always.

Windows Phone’s biggest advantage is that it’s ability to run well on any type of phone. So when comparing with a cheaper Android phone that could appreciably be slower, any Windows Phone at any cost can prove to be as efficient to use with its quick swipes and fast animations.

Another question that could probably be hinting everyone’s mind is that when Microsoft itself is making its own Windows Phone devices at a very competitively-price why is the need to go for a small brand Windows Phone device. So at this case, Kazam in a way to attract more users diverting them from Microsoft is offering a three-year warranty with its devices along with free screen replacement incase of cracked display within a year.

The Kazam Windows Phone devices are to be available in Europe sometime in March or April. There are various operators to offer the phone around the globe, in UK customers can get Kazam devices at stores such as Tesco, Argos and Amazon. The costing of these phones are to be revealed close to their release date.

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