AppLock - Nice catchy name for a "lock application". The only problem is , it only hides the files.

They called it APPLOCK , not "APP-ENCRYPT" so , they don't have to protect your files.

From the Article.

A researcher is claiming that the app, which is supposed to securely store photos, videos and other apps, doesn’t really use encryption to do so, it simply hides the files elsewhere on the phone, where an attacker could theoretically read them. 

The second issue, the weak lock mechanism vulnerability, allows an attacker with root access to the device to either see the PIN code associated with an app, or change it.

that’s perhaps the most dangerous as it could give an attacker full control of the app. By exploiting its password reset function, an attacker could potentially reset a user’s PIN code and “gain full access to all functionalities of the application without any kind of special permission,”

For more info:

https://threatpost.com/encryption-lock-mechanism-vulnerabilities-plague-applock/114500

Here is what Google play says about the app

============

Most downloaded app lock in Play Store

★ #1 App lock in over 50 countries.

★ Over 100 Million users, supporting 24 languages.

☞ AppLock can lock SMS, Contacts, Gmail, Facebook, Gallery, Market, Settings, Calls and any app you choose, with abundant options, protecting your privacy.

☞ AppLock can hide pictures and videos, AppLock empowers you to control photo and video access. Selected pictures vanish from your photo gallery, and stay locked behind an easy-to-use PIN pad. With AppLock, only you can see your hidden pictures. Privacy made easy!

★ With the help of App Lock, you may:

Never worry about a friend borrow your phone to play games again!

Never worry about a workmates get your phone to have a look again!

Never worry about private data in some apps may be read by someone again!

Never worry about your kids may changing phone's Settings, paying games, messing up it again!

===========

Quad-core phones better than Octa-Core?

This is common knowledge for those who have followed server technology. Adding more processors does not mean increase in performance.

From the article:

As cores shut off, overall performance rises, particularly at the dual-core mode. With most of the chip offline, performance jumps. One potential conclusion that would explain these results is that applications are poorly threaded, which prevents them from taking advantage of higher core counts. But the fact that performance increases at the two core mark suggests something more fundamental at work — the chips in question are hitting their thermal trip points unless more cores are shut down.

As things stand, there are some benefits to quad-core devices and virtually no gains from octa-core. In a few cases, moving to more cores actually makes things worse.

For more info:

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/209760-that-eight-core-smartphone-isnt-as-fast-as-you-think-it-is?

Wearable Tech - A third of the "early adopters" turn into "early droppers"

Apparently, Marketing and Hype and reality are not in sync here.

I find one of the reasons funny (obviously painful to the buyer)

The other came from someone who definitely wanted it, and used it - but was disappointed when it was superseded within months by the newer version, released by Samsung at Mobile World Congress. "Is that the old one?" the owner was asked by informed friends

According to the article:- 

The advert was blunt: a second-hand Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch for sale, priced at "£100 ONO". For a device which cost £299 in September, surely that's a bargain?

Yet after a week advertised on the intranet of an non-technical organisation with more than 10,000 staff, it was still unsold

That observation is strengthened by research from Endeavour Partners in the US, which found that one-third of American consumers who have owned a wearable product stopped using it within six months. What's more, while one in 10 American adults own some form of activity tracker, half of them no longer use it.

The link below has more information:-

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/01/wearables-consumers-abandoning-devices-galaxy-gear

Is it "whole food" or "hole food" (I mean, with a lot of holes about their scientific explanantion)

Still, there’s a lot in your average Whole Foods that’s resolutely pseudoscientific. The homeopathy section has plenty of Latin words and mathematical terms, but many of its remedies are so diluted that, statistically speaking, they may not contain a single molecule of the substance they purport to deliver.

Nearby are eight full shelves of probiotics—live bacteria intended to improve general health. I invited a biologist friend who studies human gut bacteria to come take a look with me. She read the healing claims printed on a handful of bottles and frowned. “This is bullshit,” she said

 a significant portion of what Whole Foods sells is based on simple pseudoscience. And sometimes that can spill over into outright anti-science 

The link below has more details:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/23/whole-foods-america-s-temple-of-pseudoscience.html