TechTalk: Exploring the Latest Technology News, Updates, Reviews, and Gossip

How do you choose between the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4? On the one hand, the iPhone 5 is an entirely known entity that just works. You might not be getting the most exciting or feature-rich smartphone, but at least you know exactly what you’re getting. Samsung’s Galaxy S4, on the other hand, is world’s apart from the iPhone 5: It’s huge, and massively powerful, and it has a ton of features that might be awesome or gimmicky, depending on your point of view. The best bet, if you need help choosing between the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4, is for us to start at the beginning: the hardware. We’ll then work our way up through the software, first- and third-party support, and other features that might break the tie.

Like ballistic weapons and automobiles, the basic working principle in audio equipment has largely been the same for a long time. All improvements over the past few decades have been incremental at best, especially since there hasn't been any fundamental shift in the underlying technology. This means, we are used to having a clear idea of capabilities and limitations of any product within a given price range. Take the low-end IEM segment for example. Although the sub-Rs 1500 range is home to excellent offerings from JVC, SoundMAGIC and Sony, none of these alternatives are without their fair share of niggles. These are niggles that we have grown accustomed to, because what's gained in terms of value in a budget IEM invariably has to be balanced out with a compromise in audio fidelity. This was believed to be the norm—that is, until we got our mitts on Cowon's EM1 in-ear earphones.

If you’re worried that China will grow to one day rule all things and become the world’s biggest and most feared superpower, it probably doesn’t help to know that a computer security firm published a report that states hundreds of terabytes of governmental and industrial data have been stolen by a single Chinese hacker unit. Computer security firm Mandiant claims that a single hacker unit of the People’s Liberation Army, dubbed Unit 61398, is a prolific hacking force with which to be reckoned, accounting for hundreds of terabytes of stolen data tracing all the way back to 2006. Of course, China’s Defense Ministry denied the reports of a government-backed hacking unit, and said Mandiant’s accusations were unprofessional — not that a government would willingly own up to clandestine security missions that could conceivably start a war with another country of significant power. Mandiant claims it released the report in an effort to “arm and prepare” security experts in the face o...

Security flaws are inevitable in operating systems and applications. Modern software is incredibly complex, and even the best developers in the world aren’t perfect. How the public responds to security flaws largely depends on how the developer reacts to the exploit. If it responds quickly with a promise to patch the flaw, and then delivers the fix in a timely manner, all is forgiven most of the time. Sadly, an exploit found in Internet Explorer that tracks mouse movement and certain key presses — even when IE is minimized, or the tab is in the background — isn’t getting patched by Microsoft.

Airtel has dished out a ‘Call-me-back’ service for its prepaid consumers, where a user can request their family and friends to call them back if they have a balance of less than Re 1. This feature is useful for users to stay connected to their family and friends, claims Airtel. Commenting on this feature, Airtel say the company is here to help its users with the Airtel 'Call-me-Back ' service. The Call-me-back SMS service will allow a prepaid user to get a call-back from another Airtel number (prepaid or postpaid) in case of insufficient balance.

WishTel, a manufacturer of tablet PCs, netbooks and mobility solutions in association with India’s largest PSU Telco operator BSNL will be announcing the launch of an 'ultra-mobile and durable' tablet PC, the IRA ICON, on October 1, celebrated as BSNL Day. WishTel’s latest generation of the ICON-series of tablet PCs delivers an optimized experience in Voice (using 3G GSM and VOIP Technologies), Video (using 3G video conferencing and Mobile TV applications) and Data, providing a good experience in mobility, durability and connectivity that mobile professionals require across key vertical markets. The Triple Play 7-inch tablet PC, IRA ICON is an 800 x 480 pixel capacitive multi-touch screen that runs on Android 4.0. It’s powered by a 1.2 GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. It features a built-in 3G SIM from BSNL as well. The IRA ICON supports calling, features 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and also comes with built-in stereo speakers and a microphone.

NSS labs had announced the results about the best browser which can protect against leading forms of malware.The tests carried out on different browsers like Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari,how far they can protect users from bank fraud, password theft, fake antivirus scams and click fraud.These results were announced on yesterday. Results highlighted that Internet Explorer offered users significant advantages pertaining to overall malware protection, preventing 95 percent of malicious activity; Chrome blocked only 33 percent, Safari and Firefox less than 6 percent each. Click fraud malware was blocked at a significantly lower rate by 3 out of the 4 browsers tested. Here again, the results highlighted that Internet Explorer continued to do better than the others by blocking 96.6 percent of click fraud activity; Chrome managed only 1.6 percent, Firefox and Safari blocked only 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively. Block rate sc...