Apple will hold a press event in March where it will announce new Apple Watch models along with a new and updated iPad Air. Latest update from this front comes in the form of a leaked case design for the iPad Air 3 which suggests potential design changes.
The image that appeared online shows a cut-out for the Smart Connector. Apple had introduced this feature first in the iPad Pro, to ensure stable connections with other devices. Looks like the Smart Connector could feature in the iPad Air 3 as well.
The leaked design also shows four cut outs for speakers -a feature reported only a couple of weeks ago. The cut-out for the camera on the back is also longer and bigger, hinting at the presence of rear camera flash for the device.
However, rumours that stem from cover designs should be taken with a hint of salt. Cover designs are often conceptualised and circulated without an official confirmation from the company, as is true for this iPad Air case as well.
The iPad Air 3 is expected to be launched in March, alongside iPhone 5se and the new Apple Watch variants.
1. LeEco Comes to India: LeEco, formerly called LeTV, launched Le Max with the tag-line”Go Big, Go Bold”, and Le 1s, along with revealing the new logo for the company, in India. While the Le Max boasts of big specs inside a big frame, the Le 1s is aimed at the mid-range market.
2. Samsung Launches Gear S2 and Gear VR Headset in India: The Gear S2 and Gear VR headset were launched in India in January, after being unveiled for the first time at IFA Berlin last year. The new smartwatch comes with a 1.2-inch screen with a 360×360 resolution (302ppi). To power the device, Samsung has used 1GHz dual-core processor and provided the option of 3G Connectivity.The pricing for the smartwatch starts at Rs. 24,300 while the head-set is priced at Rs. 8,200.
3. BlackBerry Priv Launches in India: The Priv, which was first unveiled in October, is a make or break project for BlackBerry as it sees it leaving its own OS behind in search of greener pastures that Android provides. This shift by BlackBerry is being seen as a move aimed at helping the ailing company’s return to its previous highs. It comes with a price-tag of Rs. 62,999.
4. Microsoft Launches Nokia 230 Dual-SIM in India: The Nokia 230 Dual SIM brings some flavour to the feature phone category with a premium look and feel to it thanks to its metallic construction. The phone is designed for those who want a high-end phone as far as feature phones are concerned, and are not too fond of making that leap to touchscreen devices. The phone costs Rs. 3,949
5. Motorola Cannot Stop Talking about the ‘Shatterproof’ Moto X Force: The phone was launched globally last year as Droid Turbo 2 and is all set to arrive in India now with its much talked about ‘shattershield’ display. On the specs front, Moto X Force packs a 5.4 inch Quad HD display with a resolution of 2560×1440 pixels. It is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core chipset along with 3 GB of RAM. Moto X Force is expected to be priced around Rs.40,000.
Right ahead of the Mobile World Congress which kicks off, we have some more updates on the design of the Galaxy S7. If Evan Blass (@evleaks), who has been a reliable source for news in the past, is to be believed, the design of the Samsung flagship would be very similar to its predecessor, the S6.
He also confirmed that a microSD card slot for storage expansion would also be part of S7. The device will have an IP67 rating which makes it dust and water-resistant.
As it had been reported for some time now, the S7 would come in two variants, the S7 Edge, and the flat screen S7. The curved screen Edge is expected to sport a Snapdragon processor with a 5.1-inch QHD screen along with 4 GB of RAM. The other model, the Galaxy S7 will come equipped with a Exynos processor. The devices are expected to be unveiled next month at the Samsung Unpacked event on the 21st of February. Watch this space for latest developments.
Lo and behold as Apple plans to come out with its own TV shows to be introduced alongside the new iPhones at the September event this year. Rumours about Apple working on its own streaming-service with original content have been milling around for the longest time. Looks like Netflix may have found itself a strong competitor.
According to a report, Apple is expected to produce its exclusive TV shows for iTunes. It reads as follows,
“The Cupertino-based tech giant began sounding out Hollywood’s creative community late last year, but has yet to sign any agreements, according to two people with knowledge of the overtures. One plan is to have deals in place so Apple can announce exclusive content as part of a cable-like offering in September, when it is expected to unveil its iPhone 7.”
But before we get too excited -we have heard some pretty incredible things the past couple of weeks. They include Apple taking over Time Warner, which would inadvertently mean acquisition of HBO. We will have to wait and see if there is any truth to these rumours.
Just ahead of the Mobile World Congress, rumours and renders and leaks are doing the rounds like there is no tomorrow. The latest update to be added in this list is of a bezel-less design for the Xperia C6.
Sony will hold a press conference at the MWC where it would announce new devices, Xperia C6 will be one of them. @OnLeaks have come up with a new render of the device based on its factory schematics. Xperia C6, with its bezel-less display, seems inspired by an older mid-range Sony device, Sony Xperia C5 Ultra, another device which has a near-bezel-less display.
The device is expected to be powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 processor. Many believe that Sony is pretty much committing commercial hara-kiri by opting for MediaTek Helios P line. Sure they have low TDP, and Snapdragon 800 is a more expensive series but it’s definitely more reliable.
Coming back to the design of C6, the render also suggests three colour variants. This is all the dope we have on the new Sony device. Watch this space for more.
Apple is working on wireless charging which would allow devices to be charged even at a distance from the charging port. The Cupertino-based company is reportedly collaborating with American and Asian partners to develop this tech.
Currently, the Apple Watch is capable of getting charged even from a few millimetres away from the source. But that isn’t really a groundbreaking development. Also, increased distance between the device and the charging source means a fall in efficiency. Apple is currently focusing on overcoming these problems and making wireless charging smoother. We can expect to see this kind of technology in 2017.
If this development is adopted in future Apple devices, the user could charge their phone while walking around the room. Charging your phone could be like using any other wireless tech like Wi-Fi. Apple made a patent application in 2010 which makes an iMac a source of wireless charging for Apple devices at a distance of 1 metre using a technique called near-field magnetic resonance.
Though wireless charging still exists, it’s only in its nascency. There is a long way to go before it can be employed in a useful and productive way. Let’s see if Apple becomes a pioneer in incorporating this kind of charging in its devices.
Because many retailers still don’t offer NFC support for payments, life is still not as easy as it could be if among other things smartphones could also be used to do ATM transactions as well. This is precisely what Bank of America and Wells Fargo are working on offering at their ATMs in the US.
“We’ve been working on the technology that allows us to hook to digital wallets, leveraging NFC on mobile phones to replace the card at the transaction at the ATM. Right now the wallet that we support is Android Pay,” says Jonathan Velline, Wells Fargo’s Head of ATMs.
Similarly, Bank of America is also working of employing NFC at its ATMs. It should be made available in February in some ATMs in Silicon Valley, New York, San Francisco, Charlotte and Boston. Even though Bank of America has not explicitly mentioned which wallets would be supported, we can assume them to be Apple and Android Pay for now.
While these potential developments sound fancy and appealing, there is no news on when they will be available in India as well. Hold your breath until we update you about the next development on this front.
OnePlus X goes invite-free and is now on open sale…forever. A video of an incredibly excited Bobba Fett (pay attention, Star Wars fans) doing a happiness-jig is here to convey the same.
The announcement was made on OnePlus’s official forum. The post also announced free standard shipping for orders above $100 (about Rs. 6,800).
“…we hope that this development will make the process of purchasing your very own OnePlus X as smooth and effortless as it can possibly be,” says the company..
OnePlus also announced a slight hike in the price of its power banks. After seven calendar days from the day of the announcement, the OnePlus Power Bank would be priced at $19, instead of the previous $14.99. Additionally, shipping regulations inhibit the order of more than two Power Banks. If the order includes 4 units, it would automatically be split into two separate orders.
Coming back to OnePlus X, find below our hands-on video and the complete specifications of the device.
Specification
OnePlus X
Display
5-inch full HD AMOLED screen, Corning Gorilla Glass 3
The Anaheim Police Department has just made life creepier for everybody. The authorities have been using stingrays, a kind of mobile surveillance system, to keep track of people’s location. Dirtboxes, which are plain-mounted sting-rays, were employed by the Department in 2009, followed by land-mounted stingrays in 2011.
These stingrays are attached to aircrafts that fly over Southern California city. The region is home to Disneyland, one of the most frequented places by tourists in the world.
“This cell phone spying program—which potentially affects the privacy of everyone from Orange County’s 3 million residents to the 16 million people who visit Disneyland every year—shows the dangers of allowing law enforcement to secretly acquire surveillance technology,” says Matt Cagle, technology and civil liberties policy attorney for ACLU-NC.
The surveillance tech in question here works by impersonating cellphone towers tricking mobile phones into connecting to them. This connection ensures that whoever is controlling the impostor-tower has full information of the phone’s location and unique ID. Stingrays send out signals stronger than other towers in the vicinity, ensuring the phone’s connection with them. Also, they are not selective in getting devices to connect with them -all devices in the location would inadvertently connect with them.
Additionally, the surveillance also causes disruption in services for innumerable users in the Orange County when they are connected to one of the stingray devices. However, the authorities have ensured that the surveillance system is capable of identifying calls made to 911 and letting them through minus any disruption. This also implies that emergency calls made to non-911 numbers would have trouble getting through.
In the past, there have been reports about other American cities using these Dirtboxes as well. Chicago and Los Angeles are two such names that pop up. Anaheim by far, however, is the smallest city to have been using this kind of surveillance tech.
Cagle comments on this and says, “If a city of this size possesses a Dirtbox it really begs the question what other cities smaller than Los Angeles and Chicago were able to buy these devices in the six years since it has had one.”
Though the extent of control Anaheim’s stingrays and Dirtboxes are unclear at this point, it doesn’t leave us with a very comfortable scenario. These are one of the few kinds of surveillance we are aware of. Nobody truly knows what goes on under the facade of the supposed transparency of the administration. Does this piece of news leave you uneasy about your privacy? Let us know in the comments below.
BlackBerry Priv launches in India today, after having been unveiled for the first time in October, at a price of Rs 62,999.
The Priv, which was first unveiled in October, is a make or break project for BlackBerry as it sees it leaving its own OS behind in search of greener pastures that Android provides. This shift by BlackBerry is being seen as a move aimed at helping the ailing company’s return to its previous highs. BlackBerry in its previous interactions with the media had also hinted the company may soon unveil another Android phone this year.
BlackBerry Priv
In terms of specs, this offering from the Candian company comes loaded with decent firepower. The Priv on the outside has a 5.4-inch dual-curved Plastic AMOLED screen with a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels (540ppi). Under its beautiful display, the device packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 Hexa-Core, 64-bit processor with an Adreno 418 GPU clocked at 600 MHz.
BlackBerry Priv further boasts of 3GB low powered RAM and internal storage of up to 32 GB, which is expandable up to an impressive 2 TB. The battery pack that makes this device run is rated at 3410 mAh. It is also equipped with an 18 MP dual-flash Schneider-Kreuznach certified camera to click amazing pictures.
BlackBerry, which has dubbed the Priv as the ”secure smartphone powered by Android”, is going to roll out the smartphone ‘pre-loaded with the brand new BlackBerry DTEK application, designed to help you manage and protect your privacy.’ BlackBerry claims that the DTEK app will tell you which apps access your personal data and shows the overall security assessment of your device.
In today’s update about the iPhone 7, we have speculations from Ming-Chi Kuo, the Apple analyst from KGI. In the latest KGI memo, Kuo further strengthens the rumours of a dual-camera set-up for the iPhone 7 Plus.
The note was released on Wednesday in which Kuo talks about Apple maintaining its trend of coming out with two iPhone models in 2016 as well. We expect to see iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus at the September event this year.
The iPhone 7 would be a 4.7-inch model with the regular iSight camera built on LinX imaging technology. The iPhone 7 Plus, however, with its 5.5 inch screen will have two variants – one with a single camera, while the other would feature a dual-camera design. This design would include two sensors, both marked at 12 MP each. While Optical Image Stabilisation is a feature iPhone users are already used to, optical zoom is something we can look forward to in the new device, along with a whole new set of features like bokeh effects and variable focus this design change is likely to bring.Kuo further speculates that all iPhone 7 Plus models will not have the new dual-camera set-up. Only 25%-35% of shipped models will sport the new feature. Apple is gearing up for some complicated production that involves high costs with two variants of just the iPhone 7 Plus. It would be interesting to see how it pans out for the Cupertino-based company.
Nanotechnology is the study and use of incredibly small components and structures. The word small is an over-estimation -these components are no more than 2 nanometres (the width of a strand of DNA), or 50 thousand times smaller than human hair. Yes, we are talking tiny.
Needless to say, it is one of the most interesting things about the world of tech and holds immense promise for the future. However, there is a flipside to it -the line between harvesting the enormous power of nanotechnology and letting it overcome humanity is thin and easy to blur. This notion has been explored deeply in video games, art, and has begun to spark off debates in real life lately. Here’s a quick look at some of them.
Nanotech in Film
One of the most recent examples of nanotech in cinema is the 2014 animated film Big Hero 6. The 14-year old protagonist of the movie, Hiro, presents his little army of microbots at the science fair of the robotics centre of the university his elder brother, Tadashi, wants him enrolled in. Thus begins a series of extremely unexpected events, to say the least. The plot of the film centres around microbots which Hiro had initially made for his science project, but now in the wrong hands -they have the potential of wreaking havoc all over, which is precisely what the antagonist aims to do.
List of other movies to have used nanotech is endless, but some of the most famous names include i, Robot, Terminator and Transcendence. These films show the effects of nanotech, being used judiciously, as well as gone terribly wrong.
Nanotech in TV
Sketch of a Nanite
The 2012 TV show Revolution uses the idea of nanotechnology and spins its plot around nano-bots called Nanites in the show. The setting of Revolution is a post-apocalyptic, dystopian 2027, a world which has been engulfed in darkness post a global electricity blackout in 2012.
The Nanites have only two functions -to absorb electrical energy, and to replicate it. The former activity led to the artificially-created ‘Blackout’, thereby making Nanites solely responsible for the current order of things in the show. Furthermore, the Nanites are also capable of performing various medical functions -from curing cancer to repairing damaged lung tissue.
Nanotech in Video GamesIn Metal Gear Solid 4, PMC soldiers are equipped with nanomachines that enhance their abilities on the battlefield. The nanomachines form an integrated network called “Sons of the Patriots” which ensures delivery of drugs like adrenaline, and nutrients to the required body part of the soldier. Additionally, the nanocarriers also provide information about the physiological characteristics of the soldiers’ bodies including their heart-rate, body temperature, blood pressure and injuries, enabling the commanders to make an efficient and informed choice about their plan of attack.
The storyline of the game is interesting because it comes very close to what we have been up to with nanotech in real life. Metal Gear Solid straddles sci-fi with real-world nanotech and makes the game a fun experience. Another fantastic game to make use of nanotech is Crysis. Check it out below.
Nanotech in MedicineJust last year Harvard released a research about an electronic device that can be injected directly into the brain. Connecting it to a monitor ensures nano view of the brain, enabling the doctor to keep a track of neural activity. This, in turn, is capable of helping with treatment of neurogenerative disorders as well as diseases like paralysis.
Nanotech has been used in the past to treat diseases by targeting symptoms and the affected area within the body itself. Target treatment for diseases like cancer has been made successful using nano-tech where the medicine is delivered directly to the infected region using nanocarriers, thereby reducing contact with adjacent regions and the consequent side-effects.
Conclusion The origin of nanotech goes back to 1959 when Professor Richard Feynman spoke about using matter on a very small scale.
“It is a staggeringly small world that is below. In the year 2000, when they look back at this age, they will wonder why it was not until the year 1960 that anybody began seriously to move in this direction.” – Richard Feynman
And now over half a century later, here we are, with another name added to the list of human activities threatening our existence. As nanobots are developed that could live in the bloodstream of soldiers, as has already been seen in popular culture art and video games, could nanotech be the future of violence? Perhaps only time will tell.
Would you allow these tiny nanobots in your bloodstream?
While paranoid sceptics struggle with the notion of Artificial Intelligence, Transhumanism and now nanotechnology ending mankind as we know it -what do you think -does nanotech positively hold the answers to a better future or could it be a factor that wipes out the human race?
Just this morning Apple couldn’t stop talking about its quarterly profits. But now comes another update from the company which it would try its best to shove under the carpet. The Safari browser is crashing all over the world when the user tries to run a search from the address bar in both iOS and OS X.
We hate to say it but a glitch like this would have been unthinkable when Steve Jobs was around. But ah, gone are the good old days as users struggle with crashing browsers globally.
Steven Troughton-Smith, an iOS developer, says Safari’s search engine suggestion feature is to be blamed for this. The problem can be taken care of by disabling this feature or by using the browser in private mode for now, according to Smith. Additionally, not everyone has faced this problem because some users have the search suggestions cached locally or they’re still able to reach Apple’s servers owing to a DNS cache.
Apple is yet to release an official comment -we’ll update you as soon as it does.
If Korean sources are to be believed, Samsung is expected to launch a new upgrade program for its devices. This upgrade would go hand in hand with the sale of the new Galaxy S7 devices in March, reports Korea’s ET News.
The S7 family of smartphones would be the first devices to benefit from this upgrade. It will initially be available only in South Korea and soon the upgrade would be rolled out to other markets as well.
The upgrade is a direct reminder of the same move by Apple which allowed customers to get the iPhone 6s for a monthly rent, and allows them to trade it in for a new device every year. Now, Samsung is going to do something similar. The program would involve a fixed amount of payment to be made by customers on their Galaxy devices. In return, they would be able to upgrade them year after year.
The latest additions to Samsung’s Galaxy line-up -the S7 and S7 Edge – are expected to be unveiled at the company’s Unpacked event prior to the Mobile World Congress next month. Watch this space for all the latest developments on the Galaxy S7 front.
The desire to innovate and come up with new things is pretty much making everyone lose their marbles in the tech world, and we are definitely not complaining. Some of these innovations are useful, some redundant and some plain bizarre. We’ll let you decide which category this new Microsoft app should fall under.
The company has developed an alarm app called Mimicker Alarm which includes games and tongue twisters for the user to complete before the alarm can be turned off. The activities are divided into three categories -Express Yourself, Color Capture, and Tongue Twister.
https://youtu.be/VWJyCYkMc3Y
Once the alarm goes off, the user has thirty seconds to click a selfie or complete a tongue twister or find the right coloured object before the alarm goes off again. While answer to existence for some, the app has the potential of being super-annoying for others. Microsoft, however, has left no loose ends. The app is user-friendly enough to allow you to customize these games. You can still look for a red coloured object within the confines of your warm room without having to brave the cold.
“We’re a lot nicer than other alarms. You start with dismiss or snooze. If you snooze, the default is five minutes to delay the game. If you dismiss, we mute the alarm – but then you have 30 seconds to complete this challenge. And if you don’t complete that game in time, we assume you’ve fallen back asleep and then the alarm will start ringing again. You only need to complete one game to shut off the alarm. You can choose the sounds and which games you want to play,” says Allison Light, a program manager on the team.
Once you’re done looking pretty for your morning alarm, the app also allows you to share the “mimics” on various social media platforms. Share it around and get phones buzzing all over. Why should others sleep when you’re up, right?
Mimicker Alarm is up for free download on Google Play.
Kuo further speculates that all iPhone 7 Plus models will not have the new dual-camera set-up. Only 25%-35% of shipped models will sport the new feature. Apple is gearing up for some complicated production that involves high costs with two variants of just the iPhone 7 Plus. It would be interesting to see how it pans out for the Cupertino-based company.
In Metal Gear Solid 4, PM
Just last year Harvard released a research about an electronic device that can be injected directly into the brain. Connecting it to a monitor ensures nano view of the brain, enabling the doctor to keep a track of neural activity. This, in turn, is capable of helping with treatment of neurogenerative disorders as well as diseases like paralysis.
