Forget Samsung, Xiaomi is China’s new smartphone king

The upstart Chinese smartphone maker has knocked Samsung off its throne in China, shipping more units than its South Korea-based rival for the first time in the second quarter.The performance is the latest indication that Xiaomi has evolved from niche player in China to a major force in its home market.
The company, founded just four years ago by Lei Jun, captured 14% of the Chinese market in the second quarter. That translates to 15 million smartphones, a 240% improvement over the same period last year.
In a nod to the competitiveness of the smartphone business in China, Xiaomi has only a narrow lead over its rivals. Samsung, Lenovo, Yulong and Huawei all have more than 10% of the market. Samsung, in particular, is expected to rebound in the third quarter.
Xiaomi does now need to deliver LTE products in China to address growing demand for 4G services if it is to retain its momentum.
Xiaomi is still relatively unknown outside China, the destination for 97% of its shipments in the second quarter. But the company has been quietly stockpiling tech talent as it builds a business worth more than $10 billion.
The turnaround is rapid, and Xiaomi updates its Android operating system every Friday, much to the delight of its obsessed fans.

Stop sharing USB Flash drives – right now!
It’s time to start thinking of smartphones and USB Flash drives like toothbrushes or razors -for personal use only.
German security researchers have discovered that USB-connected devices have a fatal flaw. Anything that connects via USB can be reprogrammed to pose as another device.
That means a stranger’s USB stick could dupe your computer into thinking it’s a keyboard, then type in certain commands and quietly take control of your laptop.
Or it could pose as a network card, rerouting your Internet traffic so everything you do can be spied on.
Identity theft, bank fraud, extortion – you name it. Anything follows. And any talented computer engineer can tamper with a device’s firmware to dupe a computer.
The problem is made worse, because modern day antivirus and protection software won’t catch it. USB duping isn’t technically a computer virus in action, just a device masquerading as another one. So, there’s no solution for it right now except simply barring Flash drives. So next time you lend your flash think before you act!

Microsoft Announces August Update To Windows 8.1, But Don’t Call It Update 2
Microsoft has a number of upgrades coming for Windows 8.1 on August 12, but the company announced in a blog post that the new features and tweaks don’t constitute an “Update 2″ to the operating system.
So what is coming in the non-Update 2 August release? Trackpad improvements, better SharePoint Online integration, and Wi-Fi API updates for external developers. Good stuff, but not on the same size-scale as Update 1.
Update 1 to Windows 8.1 was a large release, improving the boot preferences of the operating system, expanding device support, and also adding new user interface elements that made the platform far easier to use.
The company explains that by saying that it is committed to shipping updates more rapidly, and not saving up new code to release as a group, as with Update 1. If you use a Windows machine, in other words, you can expect your machine to improve month-by-month.

Russian criminals steal 1.2 billion passwords
Russian criminals have stolen 1.2 billion Internet user names and passwords, amassing what could be the largest collection of stolen digital credentials in history.
That the trove includes credentials gathered from over 420,000 websites — both smaller sites as well as household names.
Hackers from Russia and Eastern Europe are known for launching sophisticated cyber-attacks for financial gain. Beyond spam, organized crime syndicates in the region have engaged in more sophisticated activities like corporate espionage and the theft of credit-card details.
The extent of the theft shows people need to better manage their credentials. Most people keep the same password for multiple services, such as banking, email and social media accounts. That allows hackers to turn a single password database into a treasure trove. My advice is to use different passwords for different accounts. Add special characters, numbers, symbols…make it strong!