The $100 Lumia 928

It was a huge week for Nokia, who announced and showed off hands-on demonstrations of two new phones. The company isn’t really seeking to make anything official until their event in London next Tuesday, but in its hands-on video discussed the phone’s specs and announced that Lumia 928 would be launching for Verizon.

The Specifications:

• - 45-inch OLED display, with a 1280×768 resolution, that is covered by a layer of Gorilla Glass in order to better protect the screen from cracks and scratches
• - 8.7-megapixel camera with a xenon flash to enable better pictures in darker areas and crisper photos with less blur than ever before
• - 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor
• - 32GB of internal storage

The phone’s camera also allows it to take beautiful videos, however it’s the three microphones working in harmony that allow those videos to be able capture some of the crispest audio with minimal distortion.
The speaker on the back of the phone allows sound to be outputted at up to one to two decibels, making it easier to hear your favorite music and allows you to finally be able to put that low-talking friend of yours on speaker.
The Lumia 928 comes ready for wireless charging and with NFC. It’s also integrated with Windows Phone 8. The phone will launch in the US on May 16^th for the low price of $99.99 with a mail-in rebate and officially replaces the Lumia 822. If you pick one up, you’ll also receive a $25 line of credit for Windows Phone apps and games.

PayPal Seeking to Get Rid of Passwords

The chief information security officer for Paypal, Michael Barrett, spoke at the Interop IT conference and advocated for a new internet security system that got rid of passwords and PINs in favor of biometric technology – specifically fingerprint scanners. To push the envelope even further, Mr. Barrett said he believed the shift towards fingerprint internet security would begin later this year in the smartphone market.

Anyone who purchased the first rendition of the Atrix should be familiar with the idea of phone fingerprint scanning security. It worked quite well for a bit, but many users reported issues with the fingerprint system and had stopped using it altogether after a few months and firmware updates. Motorola even removed the feature altogether with the Atrix 2 in favor of a more traditional password based security system.
That being said, Barrett’s ideas aren’t far off from reality. It’s a fact that passwords are becoming easier and easier to crack and that password protection systems are unable to keep up with hackers and crackers nowadays. There have also been rumors of the new iPhone and other upcoming smartphone devices making use of fingerprint scanning technology.
Barrett admitted that while the changeover to biometric online security would begin this year, it wouldn’t happen in one-fell swoop. It’ll take many years to fully replace the password system we all know and loath, but it’s glaringly obvious that something needs to be done. Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to remember twenty different passwords or worry about your one ultimate password being found out?

Mobile Wii U Possible, At Least In Theory

The Wii U’s tantalising glimpse of true traditional AAA gaming untethered from the TV is enough to make even the most stalwart home console devotees wonder at the possibilities. The Vita purports to be a AAA console away from your home console but largely fails to deliver while tablet games still largely lack the depth and sheer scale of their homebound brethren

Enter the Wii U, a console with a minuscule power draw of just 33W, the MaxPlay adaptor which allows the Wii to be plugged into any car lighter socket and Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry who were not just motivated enough to try it out, but also rolled their own completely mobile solution using a Prius battery.