iPhone 5 set for unibody redesign?
Apple's next iPhone will feature a unibody casing, resembling the company's MacBook laptops, one industry analyst has told investors.
The sixth generation iPhone, which is expected to launch in October 2012, will also boast a 4-inch screen and 4G LTE connectivity, according to Brian J. White of Topeka Capital Markets.
White's information, which suggests the device will go into production in June, arises from a recent trip to Taiwanese and Chinese suppliers.
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Sleek new look
In a note to investors, he says the redesigned casing will be a primary reason for current iPhone users to upgrade to the so-called iPhone 5.He wrote: "In our view, this will be the most significant iPhone upgrade with a four-inch screen and a new, sleek look that we believe will require a Unibody case.
"This new, sleek look will be the most important reason that consumers decide to upgrade."
White also affirmed last week's reports from Daring Fireball's John Gruber, who claimed Apple is working on a 7.85 iPad mini.
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Nokia Pureview Windows Phone images leak
Leaked presentation slides, purportedly showing a Windows Phone-flavoured Nokia Pureview device, have emerged online.
Nokia first debuted the 41-megapixel technology on the 808 Pureview cameraphone, running the Symbian Belle operating system, at MWC in February.
Soon after, the Finnish company soon confirmed plans to equip future Windows Phone devices with the impressive sensors, although it refused to be drawn on when that might be.
Now the IT168 site has uncovered slides, which display a strangely-shaped, curved 4.3-inch device with a 1.5GHz dual-core processor.
1080p video on board too
Alongside the 41-megapixel camera, which would boast a Carl Zeiss lens, the slides boast of 1080p video recording.The limited spec sheet also shows Windows Phone is on board, but does not state which version.
The real deal?
Before you get too excited, there's definitely cause for skepticism here.As you can see, the phone boasts a very different form-factor, looking more like a TV remote than a traditional candybar smartphone.
The screen certainly looks too thin to properly display the Windows Phone operating system effectively, so we'll retain a leery position on this one.
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Microsoft adds more than 800 patents from AOL in $1B deal
Beleaguered AOL went on the offensive Monday, announcing a $1.056 billion deal with Microsoft that will transfer more than 800 patents to Redmond, while buying the once-mighty online company time to fight off unhappy shareholders.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that AOL Inc. agreed to sell more than 800 "patents and related products" to Microsoft for $1.056 billion, a move Wall Street immediately rewarded with a nearly 45 percent surge in AOL's share price upon word that a "significant portion" of the sale will find its way into the hands of shareholders.
AOL Patent Portfolio's True Value
According to patent advisory firm M-Cam Inc., AOL's patent portfolio is valued at $290 million, so the $1.056 billion sale was quite a nice surprise to shareholders, who responded by pushing up the stock price to $26.40 per share -- the highest in nearly a year and a half.
"Most on the Street viewed $300 million as the likely maximum value," explained Benchmark analyst Clayton Moran. "Relative to this expectation, AOL has created $7.63 per share in stock value." The analyst believes a one-time cash dividend "would be appropriate after the close of the deal."
AOL CEO a Bit Cagey
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong offered little insight as to what the internet patents in question covered, instead jokingly referring to them as "beachfront property in East Hampton." The patents were initially acquired from Time Warner Inc. when the entertainment giant sent AOL packing in 2009, effectively ending the failed marriage of the companies.
The news likely came as a blow to Starboard, who owns 5.2 percent of AOL and has been actively pursuing "a proxy campaign to win seats on AOL's board" after voicing dissatisfaction with CEO Armstrong's attempts to buoy ad sales for the company's various online portals.
Starboard has been planning a showdown with AOL at the company's annual shareholder meeting on June 14, but had no immediate comment on today's news.
Beyond the press release, Microsoft also had no further comment on the sale, which will grant AOL a license to the patents in question as well as "a nonexclusive license for Microsoft to AOL's remaining portfolio of 300 patents, which include those for advertising, search, content generation, social networking and mapping technology."
Via: The Wall Street Journal
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Nokia's new Lumia 900 Windows phone tops Amazon sales
Nokia's brand new Lumia 900 has officially become Amazon's top-selling phone, beating out Motorola's Razr Maxx and Samsung's Galaxy Nexus, two of Android's top phones, for the top spot. The black Lumia 900 has remained steadily at No.1 all day, though the Cyan version has fluctuated between second and third.
The Lumia launched over the weekend, and Nokia celebrated by taking over Times Square on Friday evening. The Finnish company commandeered nine of the New York landmark's enormous LED displays and projected 200-foot graphics displays onto numerous buildings. A-list singer Nicki Minaj was even on hand as a "secret guest."
Techradar reviewed the Galaxy and Razr Maxx favorably, though both phones were found to be not without faults. Technological superiority likely isn't the only factor in the Lumia's recent dominance, though.
Lumia release on Easter weekend raises eyebrows
The phone's Easter launch has been questioned numerous times, including by the NYT Bits blog, who noted that most retailers selling the phone (including most of New York's 39 AT&T stores) were closed on the national holiday.
But that may have helped boost online sales of the Windows phone by leading frustrated customers to head to Amazon rather than wait a day until the physical stores once again opened their doors.
Lumia's price point driving popularity
Another factor is likely the Lumia's affordable price point. At just $49.99 with a two-year contract from AT&T, it's $20 cheaper than the Galaxy and a whopping $150 less than the Razr Maxx. It's also $50 cheaper to purchase the phone on Amazon than directly from AT&T, a distinction consumers weren't likely to miss.
Windows phones are historically popular on Amazon, as well, with the top three slots for highest-rated phone currently occupied by the HTC Trophy, the HTC Titan and the Samsung Focus, all running on Windows. Only two of the top ten are Nokia devices, although they're both Lumias — the 710 in white and black at No.9 and No.10, respectively. If the Lumia 900 continues on its current path, it'll likely join their ranks soon.
Via TechCrunch, NYT Bits Blog
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Sony cutting 10,000 jobs in attempt to return to profitability
Sony will cut 10,000 jobs, a hefty 6 percent of its total employees, in a bid to send the company back into the black, reports Japanese newspaper Nikkei.
Sony previously laid off 10,000 workers in 2005 and axed 8,000 temporary positions in 2008 in similar moves, according to Slate. Apparently they weren't enough to rescue the company's ailing TV business, a division these layoffs are expected to address.
Sony's History of Losses
The company's been posting losses for the past seven years, says VentureBeat (though Slate pegs the losses at only four straight years), due in part to fierce competition across the PC, mobile, game, and especially TV sectors. And they're not the only company that's suffering; for example, Panasonic has forecast heavy losses for 2012 due to their struggling TV business.
Slate cites last month's "semi-bailout," when the Development Bank of Japan purchased Sony's chemicals unit, as a factor in Sony's current predicament.
New CEO Cleaning House
Other speculation points to Sony's newly appointed CEO, Kaz Hirai, as the source of the layoffs. Hirai took the reigns from former CEO Howard Stringer on April Fool's Day, which must have made it an interesting day to work at Sony. Any laughs that were had have likely transformed into melancholy, though, since the news of the layoffs continues to spread.
Hirai is scheduled to brief investors this Thursday on his strategies for making the conglomerate profitable again, including but not limited to the layoffs. He's expected to discuss re-focusing the company to concentrate more on its "core businesses," though it's unclear what those actually are at this point.
Prior to moving up the corporate ladder, Hirai helped popularize the PlayStation brand in North America, so it's expected that the newly launched PS Vita and Sony's currently under-wraps next home gaming console will factor heavily in those plans.
Gratuitous Product Placement Didn't Help Either
Other signs of Sony's growing desperation include a trailer earlier this year for the company's latest Resident Evil movie. Almost half the trailer is inexplicably dedicated to promoting several of their latest mobile devices, a puzzling conceit that garnered substantial criticism.
Watch out for more Sony news on Thursday after Hirai speaks with investors.
Via: Slate, VentureBeat
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Facebook buys Instagram for $1 billion
Facebook has just announced that it has bought the Instagram photo-sharing service for a cool $1 billion (around £630 million).
The shock acquisition comes just days after the filter-friendly application launched an Android app to sit alongside the iOS service, which has over 30 million users.
The social networking giant will pay Instagram $1 billion in cash and stock from its upcoming IPO. The full team, including CEO Kevin Systrom will stay on.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the deal on his Facebook page, saying hook-up will help to create the best possible experience for sharing mobile photos.
Committed to growing Instagram
Zuckerberg also said that Instagram will remain as a standalone service that Facebook is committed to developing as independent entity.He wrote: "I'm excited to share the news that we've agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook.
"For years, we've focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we'll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.
"We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram's strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.
"That's why we're committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people."
Systrom psyched
In a post on the Instagram blog, Systrom moved to assure users that the app will remain separate with all of the features members love, while the team will continue to develop new features.He said: "It's important to be clear that Instagram is not going away. We'll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We'll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience.
"The Instagram app will still be the same one you know and love. You'll still have all the same people you follow and that follow you. You'll still be able to share to other social networks. And you'll still have all the other features that make the app so fun and unique.
"We're psyched to be joining Facebook and are excited to build a better Instagram for everyone."
Huge growth
Instagram has become comfortably the most fashionable, and often the most simple way to edit and upload photos over the course of the last year or so.With a range of simple effects and filters giving photos a decidedly retro feel, snaps can be shared in just one click.
The app, which grew from one million users in January 2011 to 15 million by the end of the year, and doubled again to 30m at the time of writing, was named App of the Year by Apple for 2011.
The newly-minted Android app obtained one million downloads in the first week.
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Interview: Digital love: how data can help your dating
Data and dating
With the rise of social networks and a trend to revealing more than we should about ourselves online, the stigma that used to be attached to online dating websites is fading fast.In fact, it's now just as common for singletons to log on to find a partner as it is for them to go to the pub and sheepishly eye someone up in the corner.
When it comes to dating sites, though, it's not as much about love at first sight but love at first insight – and one website which reckons it has got this nailed is eHarmony.
Founded in 2000 in the US by a marriage councillor who decided to turn his decades of experience with warring couples into a website, eHarmony is well known for its rather laborious sign up process.
This equates to around 250 questions a member needs to answer before they even get a sniff of a date.
According to eHarmony…
1. Yoga is the most popular exercise among members
2. Foodies have more of a chance of finding love
3. Men prefer woman who don't fritter money
4. Women prefer men who don't shop
5. Those with a dark humour prefer people with a lighter humour
(8,000 people surveyed)
It is these questions, though, which act as your very own Cupid, giving the site the data it needs to crunch so that it can match you up to a prospective partner.1. Yoga is the most popular exercise among members
2. Foodies have more of a chance of finding love
3. Men prefer woman who don't fritter money
4. Women prefer men who don't shop
5. Those with a dark humour prefer people with a lighter humour
(8,000 people surveyed)
"The questionnaire helps us build our psychological profile. This also qualifies upfront the people who are serious and the ones who are less serious," explained Joseph Essas, the head of computational science and technology at eHarmony to TechRadar.
"We then get our members into groups and tell them that this or that group of people fit their profile. This is where the computational science kicks in."
Long-term love
According to Essas, its members aren't there for a quick fling – "we don't allow any searching, the site isn't a meat market" – eHarmony is strictly for those looking for long-term compatibility and its algorithm can spot these signs that are normally invisible to those who date in the analogue world.eHarmony: "Netflix and Amazon can show you a movie you might like but in eHarmony's case the movie has to like you back."
"We help you with the chemistry; we highlight things you have in common," explained Essas. "The only thing that you need to solve for yourself is the physical attraction part."As well as the mountain of data the site mines from you in its questionnaire, eHarmony also analyses real-life couples who haven't found love through its own system and uses this data to bolster the information it already has.
"We have a lab where we bring couples to and we track them over time and see what parts of their personality work with each other and what parts don't," said Essas.
"My team then works with all the data to narrow down the compatibility. We have 40 million people in the database, so with the questions we can narrow this down for members to say 500."
From there, those looking for love can pick and choose the members they feel they will have fun with and take the dating into the real world.
All about the recommendation
If you liked her…
Recommendation engines have become part and parcel with the internet – you only have to go on Amazon once and the site will cater itself to you the next time you log on, offering up goods it believes you will like – but Essas notes that eHarmony's recommendations are a little different from the norm."If you look at other recommendation engines, like the ones used by Netflix and Amazon, they can show you a movie you might like but in our case the movie has to like you back.
eHarmony: "Even if privacy is disappearing on the web, it is a feature people cherish a lot more in the dating world."
"So we can't just recommend someone to you – it has to go two ways. That's a challenge, because someone may be perfect for you but you may not be perfect for them."
A cynic would suggest that eHarmony's long, drawn out process for finding love is all there to keep people as members of the site for as long as possible – you pay a monthly fee to be part of it – but Essas believes that it takes shorter than you think to find love online.
"We just finished a study of 8,000 couples that were picked out of our pool of successful couples and we analysed their patterns and how they got to the point they did. And we found it takes about a month before you find someone to go on a long term date with," said Essas.
"And it takes about five to six two-way interactions with people before you have a date that could go long term.
"We did this study as we wanted to understand how people use the site. We found it takes time but it was eye-opening how fast it was. I expected it to take a lot longer."
The love network
As eHarmony has been around for 12 years, the site has survived through massive changes on the web. Now social networks rule the roost, something you would assume would take people away from dating sites but Essas doesn't think this is the case."Social networks and dating is a tricky proposition. People tend to try and keep their dating activity out of the social graph.
"If your friends see you go on one date and that goes nowhere, then another and then another… suddenly you are seen as a loser.
"People try and keep them separate. In general social networks are a self promotion tool. You usually post things that make you look good and not really things that make you look bad.
"When you sign up to eHarmony your whole social graph doesn't know – that would be creepy."
Essas also believes that dating sites like eHarmony are relief from today's 'open' web, where people post more about themselves online than they ever have.
Given that when signing up to eHarmony you have to reveal more about yourself than you have to even your closest friends, this is a interesting way to look at it but Essas believes it all has to do with the sensitivity of finding love.
"Even if privacy is disappearing on the web, it is a feature people cherish a lot more in the dating world," said Essas.
"If you dig deeper into demographics, the much younger they are, they find privacy isn't important. When you get older you realise that what you put online matters – when you go for a job and your potential boss checks you Facebook and sees your drunken images, it's not exactly going to go in your favour.
"In dating you deal with people's feelings, emotions – occasionally their heartbreaks. And people are a lot more protective of that."
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Tutorial: 8 ways to squeeze more power from your Mac's battery
Get more from your Mac's battery
Fully charged, your Mac notebook can feel like it will last forever, such is the quality of the battery supplied with it. However, we've all experienced that moment of annoyance when the battery indicator drops into the red and we desperately need to use the machine for longer.That's why we're going to show you two things: firstly, how to look after the battery in your Mac, which will help it hold its charge better as it gets older. Secondly, we'll show you some simple ways to squeeze vital extra minutes out of your battery as it runs low - you may well be surprised what a difference these tips will make.
Looking after your battery is important because all modern Apple notebooks have them built in. Gone are the days you could carry a spare in your bag and pop it in when one ran out: now, all you've got is what's in your Mac. Having said that, the modern lithium-ion polymer batteries are much better than the nickel-based ones of yesteryear.
First and foremost, you can safely recharge a lithium-ion polymer battery at any time, regardless of how much charge it's got left in it. Recharging a half-full battery won't harm it or reduce its life.
Let's now introduce the concept of a charge cycle. A cycle is completed when you use up the full capacity of your battery and then recharge it. Importantly though, this need not be in one go. If you run your battery down to 50% and then recharge it, you have completed half a charge cycle. Do so again, and you have completed a full cycle. The effect is cumulative.
Lithium-ion polymer batteries do degrade as they rack up cycles, but this process is very slow. Officially, Apple says that the batteries in the latest models should be able to go through 1,000 full cycles and still hold 80% of their original full capacity.
To keep your battery healthy, it's important to run it through a full charge cycle at least once a month. If you use your Mac notebook at a desk and always leave it plugged in, it can be easy to forget to do this, so it's best to set yourself a recurring monthly reminder in iCal to unplug your Mac and run down its battery, before giving it a full charge.
How to squeeze vital extra minutes out of your battery
1. Dim the screen
One of the most power-hungry parts of your Mac is the screen. To save power, turn down the brightness by pressing F1. You can also adjust the brightness in the Displays pane in System Preferences. Just drag the slider as far to the left as you can comfortably work with.
2. Faster display sleep
If you're looking away from your Mac for any period, save yourself power by setting the display to switch off after a short time. Go into System Preferences > Energy Saver > Battery and drag the lower slider to the far left. Make sure the top three checkboxes are ticked, too.
3. Turn off Wi-Fi
It's easy to forget that you can switch off your wireless connection when you're not using it. Click the Wi-Fi menu and choose Turn Wi-Fi Off to disable it temporarily. When you need it again, you'll find the option to switch it back on in the same menu.
4. Disable Bluetooth
Using a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse? If you're low on power, we suggest you switch to your Mac's built-in keyboard and trackpad, and switch off Bluetooth. Do this in the Bluetooth menu or its System Preferences pane. Simply switch it back on when you next want to use it.
5. Kill the keyboard light
Being able to light up your Mac's keyboard is great when working in the dark. But it does place added strain on the battery. Switch it off by holding down %. If you find you really need it to be able to work, turn the brightness to the lowest level you can.
6. Unplug external drives
A USB drive plugged into your Mac also sucks up power. If your work is on such a drive, copy it to your Mac's hard drive and then eject and remove the USB drive by right-clicking it and choosing Eject. Disconnect anything else you don't need, including your iPod or iPhone.
7. Quit unused apps
Running apps require processing power, even if they don't appear to be doing anything. Look for any in your Dock that have light symbols under them, but that you're not using. Right-click them and choose Quit, or click them once, then press Command+Q to close them.
8. Reconsider usage
Some work requires a lot of processing power - video editing, for example. The less demand you put on your processor, the less power your Mac needs, and the longer you'll be able to use it for. Bear this in mind when working on a Mac with a dwindling battery.
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Tutorial: How you can hide your personal data in Windows
How to Hide data in Windows
Criminals aren't the only ones who need to keep the sensitive data on their computers safe from prying eyes. Unsurprisingly, if you're on the move, the chances of your laptop being stolen are greatly increased.If a thief is intent on discovering your secrets, your Windows login password won't protect your data for long when it's possible to boot your machine using a Linux live CD distribution and simply mount your hard disk for reading.
There are plenty of ways in which Windows itself can help you hide the things you want to keep safe. These are fine for keeping things like Christmas lists away from little eyes, but there are also several free third-party utilities available to download that will keep your more important secrets safely locked up and private.
Hide in the streams
Ever since Windows 2000, Microsoft has supported something called Alternate Data Streams (ADS), which allows you to add a secret section to a filename.Open a command prompt. The directory it opens into will be your home directory (C:\ users\
Enter the command notepad.exe secret_file.txt:hidden and press [Enter].
The text file secret_file.txt won't exist, so Notepad will ask if you'd like to create it. Click 'Yes' and enter some text. Save the file and exit Notepad.
Open Windows Explorer, then navigate to c:\users\ and into your username's directory. There you will find secret_file.txt. Double-click to open it and, lo and behold, there's nothing visible in it.
Go back to the command prompt and enter type secret_file.txt. Again, there's no content, but if you enter the command more < secret_file. txt:hidden.txt, the content returns. You can also read it back into Notepad using the command notepad.exe secret_file.txt:hidden.txt
The extra file extension after 'hidden' is added by the OS when the file is created, and is necessary to access it.
There are some restrictions to using ADS in filenames. First, the disk must be formatted as NTFS. Second, though Explorer and the command prompt's dir command will show secret_ file.txt as having no bytes stored in it, we can discover the ADS portion of the filename by adding /r after dir. This reveals the filename as secret_file.txt:hidden. txt:$DATA, indicating that ADS is being used.
However, as a first line of defence on a computer that you must share with others, ADS is a good temporary measure.
Hiding folders
To defeat dir /r, we can hide the folder containing secret_ file.txt, and the file itself. In Windows Explorer, create a folder called 'Hidden', then drag secret_file.txt into it.
Next, right-click the folder and select 'Properties'. In the sub-window that appears, down in the 'Attributes' section, select the tick box for 'Hidden'. Click the radio button to apply the change to any sub-folders and files contained within Hidden and click 'OK'.
The folder disappears from Windows Explorer. Back in the command prompt, the dir command doesn't reveal the hidden directory, but there are ways around this.
Type dir /a to show all files. The hidden directory appears. Enter the command cd Hidden to move to it. Type dir again and the command prompt says that there are no files here. However, dir /a does show the file, but doesn't show the ADS extension. Anyone attempting to type the file as is will see an empty file, just as we did earlier. Entering dir /r will show the ADS extension, but an interloper must know about both the /a and /r switches to the dir command to stand a chance of revealing your concealed files.
Because of this, simply placing sensitive documents in a hidden folder under your home folder isn't a very good idea. A more sensible approach is to put them out of harm's way in another part of the filesystem - under a subdirectory of Program Files, for example, or within an installed program's folder.
For this, you need to close the existing command prompt and open a new one, but this time right-click it and select 'Run as administrator'. This gives you the privileges necessary to create ADS enhanced files and folders in parts of the filesystem with restricted access.
Easy File Locker
Hiding files this way is fine for keeping things away from kids on the family computer at home, but for more serious applications we need better options.
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One free utility you can use is Easy File Locker from XOSLab, available to download from www.xoslab. com. This provides you with centralised control over individual documents and complete folders. You can make them invisible, password protect them, and make them undeletable in the command line and Windows Explorer. Hands on: Windows 8 review50 Windows 8 tips, tricks and secrets
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To install Easy File Locker, simply download the installation executable, double-click it and accept the defaults. Easy File Locker will run after installation.
The first thing we need to do is password-protect the locker itself. To do so, click the button marked with a key, then enter and confirm the password. Whenever you run Easy File Locker, you will need to enter this password.
This also goes for when you uninstall it, because the act of uninstalling will return all the files that were protected by Easy File Locker to their original, unprotected status. We don't want someone to simply come along, uninstall the program and read all our fi les!
Now create a file that you want to protect. To protect it in Easy File Locker, click the button marked with a plus sign. A dialog box appears. Click the button to the right of the path to navigate to and select the file you just created.
A selection of tick boxes appears and controls the protection options. By default, the file will not be visible but will be accessible in all other respects. This means that if you created a text file, you can still access it with notepad.exe from the command line by entering its filename, but it will be invisible in Internet Explorer and the graphical user interface to Notepad.
The other protection options give us greater control over the file's access. First, 'Accessible' means that the file can be opened by anyone. However, the file will still be read only as long as the 'Writable' box is not ticked.
We can also make the file unable to be deleted by un-ticking the 'Deletable' box. To take the file out of the locker for editing, simply select it in Easy File Locker and then click the button marked with a half moon symbol. This toggles the file's protected status on and off. If you made the file invisible to Internet Explorer, this action instantly makes it visible again.
To protect entire folders, simply click the button marked with a cross surrounded by a square. The same protection options are available. You can leave files and folders you no longer wish to protect inside Easy File Locker and simply open up their access rights by double-clicking them and selecting all the tick boxes.
Finally, as hinted at above, you can empty the locker by uninstalling Easy File Locker, but you will need the password you set initially.
TrueCrypt
For heavy duty data protection we need encrypted storage, but Microsoft has only put its BitLocker encryption system in the high end versions of Windows.
Luckily, there's an open source solution in the form of TrueCrypt. This lets you check files in and out of an area of the disk called a volume, which is protected with strong encryption. Download TrueCrypt from www.truecrypt.org, then run the executable to install.
As before, simply accept the defaults during installation. Once complete, run TrueCrypt and the user interface appears.
Our first task is to create a volume, so start by clicking 'New volume'. A wizard appears to guide us through the process. We'll create a file container, so simply click 'Next' to accept this option. Also accept the option to create a standard TrueCrypt volume by pressing 'Next' again.
On the next screen, click 'Select file', enter a filename and click 'Save'. This creates the volume as one long block of space within a file. Clicking 'Next' takes us to the selection of the encryption algorithm.
Leave this as AES. Clicking 'Next' again lets us enter the size of the volume we want to create. The size will be down to the amount of data you want to store, but 10MB should be sufficient for things like accounts and other personal information. Pressing 'Next' again asks us to set a password on the volume. Make this as long as possible.
Next, TrueCrypt needs a source of randomness. To obtain this, it asks you to move the mouse about. Do this for a few seconds and the hex on the screen changes. Click 'Format', then 'Next' to end the wizard.
To mount the volume, click 'Select file' and select it in the file browser. Next, click one of the drive names (we'll use E:) in the main window and click 'Mount' to mount the volume we just created as logical drive E:. Enter your password and the new drive becomes visible to Windows Explorer.
The TrueCrypt volume is currently unlocked, meaning you can use it like any other disk to store files and folders. If you dismount it by clicking 'Dismount all' in TrueCrypt, or by right-clicking the logical drive associated with it and selecting 'Dismount', it is no longer available to the OS, and is locked.
If you now go into Windows Explorer and double-click to open, you're asked to associate it with a program. Click 'Browse' and associate the TrueCrypt executable with it. Clicking 'OK' opens TrueCrypt with the file selected. Click 'Mount' and enter your password.
If you exit the TrueCrypt interface, the service keeps running in the background. You can still access files stored on drive E:, but if you reboot, the drive and your protected files will not be available to the system.
To remedy this, we can automount the volume when Windows boots up. In TrueCrypt, right-click the mounted volume and select 'Add to favourites'. This opens a new menu with lots of useful options. Here, you can enter a name for the volume, as well as opt to mount it read-only. Select 'Mount selected volume upon logon' and when you next log on, TrueCrypt will pop up its password input box and mount the volume when the correct one is entered.
Another option is to open Windows Explorer on the mounted drive to access the files it contains. You should change your passwords regularly. To do so in TrueCrypt, select a volume, then click 'Volume tools > Change volume password'.
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