Playstation VS Xbox

The console wars between these two companies has been there since the companies were started. Playstation was created in 1988 with its first console release in December 1994 and founded ken kutaragi. Xbox’s first console was released in November 2001. Xbox was created to be a alternative to the very popular playstation.

History of playstation

Like mentioned above the first Playstation console was created in December of 1994 in Japan by Ken Kutaragi.

The first console sold more than 100 million units worldwide in a decade and was followed with the playstation 2.

The playstation 2 was released in 2000 and was the company’s best selling console with over 155 million units sold by the end of 2012.

The playstation 3 was released in 2006 and sold over 87 million units by the end 2017.

Sony released their playstation 4 in 2013 selling more than a million within the first 24 hours of the console’s release.

History of Xbox

The xbox was created to be an alternative to the playstation in December 2001. The company noticed the success sony had with the playstation console so they wanted to do the same.

The first xbox was released in 2001 at a price of $299 and sold over 24 million units by the end March of 2006.

The xbox 360 followed in November 2005 at a price of $299 and sold over 84 million units by the end of June 2014.

The xbox 1 was released in November 2013 at $499 with xbox kinect and $399 without. The xbox 1 sold more than 24 million units by January 2017.

The xbox 1 s was released in August 2016 at $299 and the xbox 1 x in November 2017 at $499.

Upcoming Plans

Playstation

Playstation is planning to release the playstation 5 in November 2020 offering 2 versions to choose from, a playstation 5 and a playstation 5 digital edition.

The playstation 5 will be priced at $499.99 and will feature a dvd drive.

The playstation 5 digital edition will be priced at $399.99 and will not have a dvd drive.

Xbox

Xbox is planning to release the Xbox series x and Xbox series s. These consoles are planned to be released in November 2020.

The XBox Series X

The Xbox Series X will be priced at $499.99 at release.

The Xbox Series S

The Xbox Series S will be priced at $299.99.

Which company will be selling the most units?

The xbox series x has great specs with some specs being much better than the playstation 5 but looking at past sales my predictions is that the playstation 5 will still be selling more units than the series x.

Samsung S30 |why you should skip the note 20 and wait for the S30 | S30 vs Note 20

The Samsung note 20 series is the newest flagship smartphones released by Samsung. Looking at the new naming system of Samsung the next S line will possibly be named S30 and not S21.

Samsung Note 20

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 will start from $999 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 ultra will start from $1299.

The Storage options will be 128GB and 512GB.

The Note 20 lineup has a bigger display than the S20 lineup.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20
Image source Samsung.com

The Note 20 will have three rear cameras and one front facing camera. A 64mp telephoto camera, a 12 mp wide angle camera and a 12mp ultra wide angle camera. The front facing camera has a 10mp sensor.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 ultra

The Note 20 Ultra will have three rear cameras and one front facing camera. A 128mb wide angle camera, a 12 mp ultra wide angle camera and a 12 mp telephoto camera. The front facing camera will have a 12 mp sensor.

Why wait for the S30.

The S30 will most likely be released in april 2021.

Looking at past devices samsung normally make huge changes every two years to their devices, and since the last major changes took place in 2019 , the next major changes will happen in 2021.

Here’s some more reasons:

• The S line of Samsung is their best line up and they focus more on improving that device and using that device as a template for the Note line.
• The S30 will offer better 8k than the current 8k offered by Samsung in the note 20.
• The S30 will have faster charging than the Note 20.
• The S30 will have a better camera system than the Note 20.
• The S30 will have other major changes to like a different screen resolution and different screen layout.

So should you skip it?

Yes , it is mostly a small update to the S20 and the S30 will over much more technological improvements than the Note 20.

Spam | why you get spam

Spam has been with us since the start of the internet. In earlier years it was even worse with devices crashing because of spam.

Types of spam

Types of Spam

There’s different types of spam and different reasons for it here’s a couple of common types.

Internet Spam

Everyone has experienced this for of spam at a certain point in life. Internet spam is pop ups and adware shown when we access the internet. Pop ups leads to a bad experience when browsing the internet and can even lead to viruses.

Email Spam

Email spam acquires when you get sent spam emails from email accounts you don’t even know. Normally its used to send viruses or for phishing. (Phishing is when someone tries to get your personal information by misleading you)

Call Spam

Call Spam acquires when you get spam calls from unknown numbers or telemarketing numbers. Spam calls are used to check if your number is active or not. When you answer they normally hang up. Afterwards they send spam sms to these active numbers or sell them to companies.

Sms Spam

Sms spam acquires when you receive spam a sms or multiple. They are mostly used for phishing but also used to make you opt in to services, sometimes without you even knowing your opted in.

Reasons why you get spam

Spam acquires for different reasons here’s some reasons.

• Websites sell your information to other websites or companies.
• To steal your information or data.
• To cause damage to your device or business.

How to keep safe from Spam

• Install pop up blocking apps.
• Don’t answer calls from unknown numbers.
• Don’t open nor reply to any sms you think might be spam.
• Install spam detecting apps.
• Download an antivirus app most it will protect you against viruses and spam.
• Avoid websites that don’t start with https.
• Don’t give your credentials to websites asking for it.

Conclusion

Spam can be very annoying and distracting. It can also cause damage to your device with device via viruses or other methods.

5G vs 4G | What’s the difference?

Almost every time you see ads at least one out of 10,you see a company talking about 5G. So whats is it and whats difference between 5G and 4G?

5G vs 4G connection

What’s 4G?

4G is the successor to 3G and stands for 4 generation of mobile network. It is the standard most of us use on a daily basis. 4G tops out at a speed of 6mb per second if your connection is very good.

4G’s radius however is smaller than its predecessor thats why if your 4G signal is weak your phone switches to 3G or H+ , because their radius is bigger.

What’s 5G

5G is the successor to 4G. 5G is an average of ×10 faster but some have reported that they have seen ×100 times faster speeds. 5G currently tops out at 600mb per second if your connection is really really good. I went into more detail in a previous post about what 5G is, so click here to see that post.

Whats the difference between 5G and 4G

• 5G is faster than 4G.
• The radius however of 5G is smaller than the radius of 4G.
• 5G is limited to a few areas in big cities at the moment.
• 5G is tailored more to home setups with high data caps or uncapped.
• 5G uses more data compared to 4G.

Conclusion

5G is a growing network that will be a lot better as technology improves. So its worth investing in if you have 5G coverage because it is future proof and will only get better as time progresses.

3 tips to keep safe from identity theft | how to keep safe online

Headlines from South-Africa this past week was that 24 million people’s banking information and other information was stolen. Here’s some tips so this does not happen to you.

Tips for better and safer online banking and banking overall

Tip #1: Don’t answer personal questions

When someone calls you and says they are calling from the bank , they need your pin because they are updating their database or any other reasons, don’t answer their questions.

Go to your local bank branch and ask whether they need your information or not , 99.99% of the time they would tell you it was spammers. Banks will never ask you person information over the phone so if someone calls you and asks hang up.

Tip #2: Don’t reply to sms you don’t know

A lot of spammers send mass messages. Mass messages is when the same message is sent to multiple different numbers. Some ask your banking details saying they want to send you money because you won some contest , but you didn’t even enter a contest in the first place.

Tip #3: visit your local bank and report anything irregular

When you notice something is wrong , report it immediately. No matter how small or how dumb you might think it is. Most times small things escalates and then it might be to late

Bonus Tip #4 make sure you have a strong and secure password

Make sure your internet banking password is not just your name or your birthday, don’t write your password on a piece of paper or even worse on the back of your card. I have seen a lot of people do these simple mistakes these mistakes can make you lose a lot of money or even your whole bank account. Increase your password strength with these steps

Conclusion

Identify theft is a crime escalating across the world and when it happens it leads to court cases to prove your innocence. So stay alert and report any issues found.

5 tips to improve your battery life

The one of the worst things that could happen to you when out and about is your phone dying on you, specially if you don’t have your powerbank or charger with you.

Here’s some tips to increase your battery life.

Tip #1: Turn off your bluetooth and wifi when your not using it.

Your bluetooth and wifi uses a lot of battery power in the background when on whether your using it or not.

Turning off your bluetooth and wifi can improve your battery life up to 20%

Tip #2: decrease your screen brightness

Most people leave the screen brightness on default and never change the brightness.

Decreasing the screen brightness could make your phone last up to 40% longer making all day battery possible for most devices

Tip #3 turn off adaptive brightness

Adaptive brightness adjusts your screen brightness automatically when lighting changes, when your in direct sunlight your screen brightness increases and when your indoors it automatically lowers.

However this decreases your battery a lot because the phone changes the brightness a lot and sometimes the phone brightness is increased to max for long hours which drains your battery and makes you have very bad battery life.

Turning off your adaptive brightness could add up to 25% battery life to your battery vs to adaptive brightness on.

Tip #4 : Turn off background running

By default your phone allows applications to run in the background and keeps them open incase you want to use them again.

However this decreases your potential battery life up to 40% depending on the application running it could be even more.

Tip #5 switch off your phone location

Your GPS uses phone location to navigate you to your intended location.

However using GPS and your phone location places a lot of strain on your phone and that uses a lot of battery power it decreases your battery life up 40% depending on how long its run it could be up to 60%.

Conclusion

Your phone by default is optimized to give you the best and fastest experience possible but this decreases the amount of battery life you could have expected without these settings in place

How to increase your password strength

Ways to increase your password strength

Your password is the last defense when protecting your device or varies online accounts, a weak password can lead to your information being compromised

Five ways to increase your password strength

Tip #1: Don’t use your name or surname as your password.

Sounds obvious , but there is actually a lot of people that use there name or surname as their password because its easy for them to remember but that the first password everyone tries when trying to guess your password.

Tip #2: Change your password at least once a month.

Mark a date you want to change your password on your calendar

Changing your password regularly is one of the most important things to do if you care about your account privacy and security.

Why should you change it?

Password are often leaked because of users using weak passwords and hackers using advanced techniques to steal your information and selling it.

Someone could see you type your password in and then can access your account and steal it from.

Someone could figure your password by using brute force entry. Brute force entry is when someone keeps trying different passwords until they get the right one.

Tip #3: Add salt to your password to make it even stronger.

Example of Static salt

Salt is a random piece of characters you can add to your password to increase your password uniqueness. (EXAMPLE) If your password is “FastAccess” and you use static salt “F1s#C4” and combine it with your password the results can be:

”FastF1s#C4Access”

“F1s#C4FastAccess”

“FastAccessF1s#C4”

Doing this will make your password at least 150 times stronger than the password “FastAccess”. The first password “FastF1s#C4Access” being the most secure of the three password listed above.

Uniqueness is key when creating a password. Hackers steal passwords from accounts and creates a program that automatically checks whether your password is the same as some of the passwords they already have , if so they can access your account within a few minutes. If you use a unique password it increases the time, they will require to access your account.

Tip #4 : Don’t use popular phrases and words in your password.

Example of a Weak Password

Only using words found in a dictionary as a password in general is one of the weakest passwords you can create. Hackers use a dictionary and creates a program that test if your password matches any of the passwords found in the dictionary. This could take the program less then 5 minutes to do. Popular phrases are also used when testing if your password is a match or not.

Tip #5 : Use different passwords on all your different accounts.

Don’t use the same password on all your account , Use different password on each account.

Why use different passwords on all your account?

Doing this ensures that if someone knows one account password they don’t have access to all your accounts.

(Example) If someone knows your facebook password they might try using the same password on your bank account and if it matches the can steal all your money or even lock you out of your account .

Examples of Weak Passwords and how long it would take a computer to crack/guess your password.

Weak passwords :

Run1234

123456

Press12

Justk

Correct

Time To Crack/Guess Password :

Run1234 – 1 minute

123456 – Instant Access

press12 – 2 seconds

Justk – 10 milliseconds

Correct – 26 seconds

Strong Password Examples using a Static Salt : 5#6231@g

Strong Password:

Kevin@5#6231@g

KjsPFb5#6231@g

K j p S 5#

5#6231@gAdS

Time To Crack/Guess Password :

Kevin@5#6231@g – 204 million years

KjsPFb5#6231@g 3 – million years

K j p S 5# 53 – years

5#6231@gAdS – 400 years

The calculated time needed to crack is if the computer had to run through an database of password and match with your password, the longer your password the more secure it is.

(All the times needed were calculated using www.howsecureismypassword.net )

Why increase your password strength?

Identity theft is a crime that is raising by the day. Your password is your last line of defense against Identity theft and Account breaching and if you have a weak password it leaves you vulnerable to these crimes and also other crimes.

What is 5G? | 5G Explained

5G

Today a lot of smartphone manufacturers are advertising that their smartphones can connect to 5G, but what is 5G?

What is 5G

5G stands for fifth generation , and is simplified the fifth generation of cellular networks and is the follow up technology standard to 4G ,which most of us use nowadays.

5G Connection takes place through a local antenna in the device and connects via radio waves transmitted by a 5G tower allowing the devices to have a higher download when connected to 5G , with some reporting download speeds of 600mb per second.

The download speeds might even increase to speeds of 10 Gb per second in the coming months thanks to improved technology.

Drawback

The drawback of 5G is that those with limited data plans will run out of data even faster and thats why the connection is actually meant for desktops and laptops.

Another drawback at the moment that the connection radius is very small compared to 4G and other generations,because the technology is still so new and companies are still busy improving the technology.

Conclusion

5G will change the way we download and upload content and will make long download time a thing of the past.

Sony A7SIII VS Canon EOS R5

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Which should you buy?

This is the question everyone looking at these two cameras is asking .

The Sony A7SIII

Sony A7SIII

The camera everyone has been waiting for over 4 years to be released by Sony is finally here. But was it worth the wait? Yes, Sony took their time to perfect the A7SIII and address the issues raised with the Sony A7III.

Specs

The Sony A7SIII was designed to be a low light camera with its low megapixel count of 12 megapixels. The A7SIII can record 1080p @ 240fps and 4k @ 120fps. The Sony A7SIII takes amazing low light videos because the 12 megapixel sensor allows less noise to be captured.

The Canon R5

Canon EOS R5

The Canon R5 was a camera everyone was looking forward to when it was announced that it would be able to record 8k. That was until people started to review the camera and concerns about overheating issues were raised. (I posted more on this yesterday, so read that post if you want more info on that.)

Specs

The Canon EOS R5 is a hybrid camera tailored more towards photography with a huge megapixel count of 45 megapixels. The Canon can also shoot short bursts of 8k @ 30fps and 4k @120fps

So, which should you buy

I would say the Canon EOS R5 is the better option between the two, because you can use the R5 to record short 8k videos and take amazing pictures with it.

Do not cancel Your Canon R5 preorder just yet

By Now everyone has seen the reviews by almost everyone complaining about the 8k on the Canon and the overheating issues. Everyone is cancelling their orders and switching to other options available.

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The Canon Eos R5

So, should you cancel your order?
Well, no the Canon R5 has not been released yet so its still preproduction models being used to review and that gives Canon some time to address the issues displayed by the various reviewers. The Canon R5 was never meant to be a video camera with its Large megapixel count of 45mp it was created to be a Photographers camera that’s capable of shooting some great quick videos if you want to, but is not a video camera.

How the overheating issues can be fixed?
Firmware update
Canon can most likely address the issues with some firmware updated before the official release of the R5 , if they do this and it works the Canon R5 will be the best camera under $4000 that can be used for videos and for big photoshoots making it a better investment than the other options under $4000.

External Recorder
Atomos will be releasing a new External Recorder the Atomos Neon that will be able to record ProRes RAW and ProRes RAW HQ at 8K 24p which will decrease the processing that the Canon need to do in body and decrease the load on the camera. This will be a great investment and will increase the quality of the video and the editing capability of the footage.

Delayed Release Date
The option everyone hopes does not happen, is a delayed Release date of the R5. Canon might delay the release of the R5 to address the overheating issues, so they do not have to do a recall on the products like Samsung had to do with their Note series. But if they do this, they can properly address the issues and not release something they know has these issues. If they do this however, they will lose the race against Sony and most of the sales will go to Sony.

Conclusion
The Canon R5 has great video and photo capabilities and I would recommend the Canon any day over the other options available. Canon has some of the best colour science available on cameras, has a lot of lens options available, has Great Face detection and Auto Focus and has one of the smallest learning curves available on the market.

(My next Post will be a comparison between the Canon R5 and Sony A7S III so everyone who can’t decide which to buy, look for that post to get some more information on which to buy. )
(Thanks for reading this blog post)