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Apple Music Reaches 10 Million Users in 6 Months, Spotify took 6 years

It’s only been six months since Apple started operations at Apple Music, and in that short span of time, this promising service has outdone market expectations, and already managed to reach half the number of paid subscribers that the market leader, Spotify has. Noteworthy is the fact, that it took Spotify, its main rival, 6 long years to reach this milestone of 10 million subscribers.

What makes this feat even more impressive, is the fact that Apple’s streaming service which because of it’s bug ridden, and clustered interface met with a lot of criticism at its launch. It was only after iOS 9 came in that many of these issues were cleared.

This growth of Apple’s premium music streaming service, which launched in more than 100 countries, not only raises the competition in the music streaming service space, but more importantly raises hopes for the future of the music Industry itself, which has been fighting a losing battle against Piracy for the last decade or so.

Deciphering this music industry analyst, Mark Mulligan had this to say,“It’s good news that Apple is making streaming work but it is also going to accelerate the decline of downloads.” Apple is rapidly gaining on Spotify and at its current growth rate has “the potential to be the leading music subscription service sometime in 2017.”

Streaming is slowly becoming the preferred form of consumption of music, and is growing rapidly as people give up on downloads. In the US, demand for streaming increased more than 50 per cent, with 164bn songs streamed in total.

Apple despite all of this has a long way to go before it comes close to overtaking Spotify. Spotify last reported its number of subscribers in June, and it is expected to have grown substantially since then. Back then it had 20 million paid members, and in total it reported 75 million users.

January 11, 2016
Apple Working on a ‘Move to Android’ App

Update: Apple has denied the development of any such app. “There is no truth to this rumor. We are entirely focused on switching users from Android to iPhone, and that is going great”, says Apples spokesperson, Trudy Muller

Say hello to tech world where things keep getting stranger. Earlier we had talked about an app which allows you to shift from an Android device to iOS. Developed by Apple, the app is available on the Google Play Store and lets users transfer their images, contacts and other important data to an iPhone from their Android device.

Now there are rumours of Apple working on an app that allows iOS users to shift to Android. Though there is no news on when the app will be up and about, speculations about it have already begun. We can perhaps expect to see the move-to-android app sometime this year.

Reports emerging from the UK have suggested that many users stick with iOS simply to avoid the trouble of transferring or losing their data to an Android device. The app is being developed to ease such migrations from one OS to another.

Earlier, following the launch of ‘Move to iOS’, there had been an adequate response from the Android community as they mocked it with their own ‘Stick With Android’ app. Let’s see what response is triggered by this latest development.

January 11, 2016
Xiaomi Mi 5 Leak Reveals Black Variant Design

We’re all eagerly awaiting the launch of Xiaomi’s Mi 5 flagship smartphone. It’s only normal for alleged images and specs to surface prior to a launch. Earlier today, Weibo posted some images of the Mi 5 in its black variant which has since been removed.

The images concur with past renders of the device. The 5.2-inch QHD device sports a slimming frame and a wide display. The handset also comes with a thick lower bezel.

The Mi 5 is slated to feature a 5.2-inch display with Quad HD resolution. The handset is confirmed to feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 chipset. Other rumored specs include 3GB or 4GB RAM, with a minimum of 32GB internal storage. The camera on the device is expected to be a 16-megapixel at the back, and an equally impressive 13-megapixel snapper at the front.

This power hungry device is set to pack a battery of 3600 mAh with support for Quick Charge 3.0 technology. At the software end, the handset will run MIUI 7 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Xiaomi is set to launch the Mi 5 on January 21.

January 11, 2016
Samsung’s Profit Forecast Misses Expectations

South Korean tech giant, Samsung has announced expected operating profits for Q4 2015. The company foretold an operating profit of 6.1 trillion Korean won (around $5.08 billion), which is up 15% compared to the 5.3 trillion won figure the company reported in Q4 2014.Analysts had expected the figure to be closer to 6.6tn won, fueling growth concerns. This comes after Samsung products got hit by weak demand in China and currency woes. Operating profits also fell 7.5% from the previous quarter. Sales of the world’s biggest maker of memory chips, smartphones, and other consumer devices also missed forecasts at 53tn won for the period.

These figures, point towards what could be a tough year for not just Samsung, but the tech industry itself.

Samsung is facing strong competition from Apple at the premium end of the market, while cheaper Chinese rivals are eating into the mid to low level range for mobile devices. As such, this next year could well be crucial for Samsung if it wants to protect its supremacy in the market.

January 9, 2016
BlackBerry Confirms Security Updates for BB 10, New Android Device for 2016

BlackBerry has seen a lot of ups and downs in the past couple of months. From being one of the most popular mobile brands at one time with its innovative BlackBerry Messenger to becoming a company struggling to keep itself on its feet -it has seen it all.

We recently heard rumours about how BlackBerry might be letting go of its operating system BB 10. However, these rumours have been proven false by a post on the official BlackBerry blog. John Chen, the company’s CEO revealed that the operating system is “far from” dead and that BlackBerry devices like Passport, Classic and other phones by the company running on BB 10 would receive updates for the operating system soon.

There will be security and privacy updates for BB 10 this year, along with an enhanced 10.3.4 version of the OS slated to arrive later this year with more security and privacy related features.

Additionally, BlackBerry which is all set to bring out more of its own Android devices in the future also confirmed that 2016 will see the launch of only one such device. Would you be willing to put your trust in BlackBerry’s Android devices?

Source

January 9, 2016
MSI Launches GT72S Gaming Laptop with Tobii Vison Tracking

The future of gaming is here, and it’s amazing! Case in point, the GT72S Tobii from the stables of MSI is as cool, as gaming laptops can be. Using Tobii eye tracking hardware, this laptop lets you control games with just your eyes. For all you non-believers out there, this tech is more than just a gimmick, and comes in handy while playing games and even while logging into Windows 10.

Three infrared sensors placed behind the laptop’s display, track the users eye movements and translate them into inputs. What this would mean in a First Person Shooter like Batllefield, or Counter Strike will be aiming at a target just by looking at them, or aiming at a location in strategy games. This laptop could also be a natural for Racing games such as Project Cars, and Dirt.

The setup of this alien tech is surprisingly simple. A small calibration test is all it takes to get the hardware acquainted with the users sight. Tobii also helps your laptop to do basics tasks such as recognize when you’re sitting in front of the computer and tie it to Window’s screen dimming and sleep times.

This Gaming Laptop also comes equipped with a 2.9GHz Intel Core i7-6820K processor, and unlike the GT72S Dragon only sports a Nvidia GTX 980M GPU. It will feature 8GBs of DDR5 VRAM. Other specs include 32GB of DDR4 RAM, plus a 256GB SSD with another 1TB HDD.

This piece of fancy tech can be yours for a meagre sum of $3600 ( Approx Rs 2,50,000) so yeah, better start saving up.

January 9, 2016
Motorola Explains its Next Step as a Brand

Yesterday, news around the world focused on Lenovo killing off the Motorola brand name from its phones. Lenovo’s decision to do this was to bring its phones under one name. It followed that any upcoming smartphone by the company will be branded under “Moto” and “Vibe”, removing Motorola’s name, but keeping the “M” logo.

A day after, Motorola released a statement in its blog to address the news. The company reassured that ‘Motorola Mobility’ will continue to exist and Lenovo will still use the name for its phone division. “As a wholly owned subsidiary, we remain the engineering, design and manufacturing engine for all of the Mobile Business Group’s smartphones and wearables,” Motorola said in its blog.

Motorola went on to assure that though the Motorola name will disappear, the brand will continue to live on with ‘Moto’. The company explained that the focus for the past few years has always been on ‘Moto’ and its batwing logo remains its most important symbol, both of which will continue to carry the Motorola image.

“Moto” is synonymous with Motorola, and it conveys the Motorola brand to consumers in a contemporary and engaging way. That wasn’t the only thing that evolved — the iconic batwing was static blue or red for many years, and we made it fun and colorful. That symbol, which has come to represent the “Moto” brand, continues to play a prominent role, and will remain on our products and in our marketing.

The company reaches the point most talked about yesterday in that the company will focus its marketing efforts on “Moto” and “Vibe”, but also conceded that the products will under Lenovo solely. “This latest move is all about where we focus our brand marketing efforts in the future. That will be on our two hero smartphone brands: Moto and Vibe, with the Lenovo corporate brand tying all of our consumer and commercial products together more holistically.”

January 9, 2016
Microsoft Lumia 650 Gets FCC Approval, Design Confirmed

Just yesterday, rumors about Microsoft’s Lumia 650 had emerged with a leaked image and some specs. Today, the alleged handset had passed the FCC hurdle, which means a launch is imminent. The leaked live image of the device also confirm a metal frame for a more premium finish.

The 5-inch 720p display device is likely to come bearing the Snapdragon 210 chipset clocking at 1.1GHz. A 2,000mAh battery pack in the 650 is small, especially when compared to the Lumia 640 (2,500mAh) and the Lumia 550 (2,100mAh).

Furthermore, it is the single-SIM variant that has been cleared by FCC with the model number RM-1152 suggesting the device will first launch in the United States. Microsoft will also offer a dual-SIM variant for the device.

From what the specs tell us, and this is yet unconfirmed, the Lumia 650 lacks both juice and power, but does well with the exterior design, and a pricing of under Rs. 10,000 (similar to the Lumia 550) will be needed for this device to tempt the masses.

January 9, 2016
CES 2016: Alienware 13 Gets a Beautiful OLED Display

CES 2016 has seen a number of firsts. From the world’s thinnest TV to the world’s first transparent display, the technological fest has seen it all. Now, Alienware has joined the league of firsts by unveiling the world’s first OLED gaming laptop.

Those familiar with OLED displays will know why this is a big deal for a gaming laptop. OLEDs offer deeper blacks since there’s no need for a backlight and lower latency. Alienware has claimed that its new Alienware 13 laptop will have a one millisecond refresh rate thanks to OLED.

The reason behind the delay to embrace OLED screens for gaming laptops is that OLED panels used to be expensive in larger sizes, but they are now affordable enough to be used by Alienware without having its laptops cost and exuberant amount.

The Alienware 13 will be priced similar to its Quad-HD display variant. The starting price of the OLED model is $1499 and the laptop is expected to launch mid-April.

January 8, 2016
HTC Launches Desire 728 Dual Sim in India

After the launch of the HTC Desire 828 Dual SIM and HTC One A9 in India last month, HTC today has launched the Desire 728 Dual SIM in India – priced at Rs. 17,990.The phone will be made available for purchase only through major offline retailers starting next next week and will have two color options -White Luxury and Purple Myst.

The Desire 728 runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with HTC Sense and features a 5.5-inch HD (720×1280 pixels) IPS display. It packs a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, and a 5- megapixel front facing shooter. Also, the handset is powered by a Octa-core MediaTek MT6753 SoC (clocked at 1.3GHz) and 2GB of RAM.

It comes with 16GB in-built storage which is expandable via microSD card (up to 2TB). Connectivity options on the handset include Wi-Fi, FM radio, Bluetooth, GPRS/ EDGE, GPS/ A-GPS, 3G and Micro-USB and 4G LTE TDD connectivity with support for Indian networks.

According to official listing of the HTC Desire 728 Dual SIM, the handset is backed by a 2800 mAh battery that can offer up to 21 hours of talk time and up to 485 hours of standby time in 3G. The dimensions are 157.9×77.84×7.87mm and it weighs at a measly 153 grams. It also comes with HTC proprietary BooMSound Technology, and Dolby audio for all audiophiles in the market.

January 8, 2016
CES 2016: Panasonic Transparent Displays Give Us a Peek Into the Future

For most smart-homes a shiny looking, flat-screen panel in the living room is the heart of everything smart, and beautiful. Over the years, display manufacturers have gone to great extents to create gorgeous looking TVs that not only add a dash of class to your home, but also are an embodiment of the latest technology available in the market.

Panasonic, in a bid to take things in this already heavily competitive space to another level, has come up with a new experimental screen that fades to total transparency when not in use.The display technology has such potential, that when it eventually gets retail release, it could well turn out to be one of the biggest TV advancements since the advent of the flat screen.

The Japanese company revealed its transparent TV screen on the floor of CES 2016, and was greeted by never ending crowds gathered around it. The display on show was a thin LCD panel with adjustable dimensions.

According to reports, the display has a slight tint to it which the engineers at Panasonic aim to get rid of in the future. The display also for now cannot process resolutions over 1080p, but be that as it may, this concept display is still nothing short of amazing!

Just thinking about the real life applications of this tech brings a smile to our faces at iGyaan. Imagine a warm morning couple of years down the line, when you wake up to look outside your window, and lo and behold, a notification pops up on your windowpane intimating you of the weather forecast for the day, or plays a video of the goal you missed from last night’s Champion’s League game! Yes, all that, and more could well become real in the future.

January 8, 2016
CES 2016: Lenovo Smartphone the First to Implement Google’s Project Tango

Third day of the Consumer Electronic Show 2016 has seen Google and Lenovo announce plans of a partnership to build, and sell the first smartphone that can make use of the former’s take on 3-D Augmented Reality technology. Google likes to call this tech fondly as ‘Project Tango.’

This tech will help support smart devices figure out space and motion just like humans do, allowing the devices to understand their surroundings in a 3-D view, and track their path as they move through them. Using ‘Project Tango’, a device can map the dimensions of the room, essentially projecting it on the screen in a 3-D form.

Project Tango Development Kits were earlier launched to help developers create apps to better use this technology. Future uses of Tango could be apps that use 3-D augmented reality technology to help you decide how a piece of furniture will look in your room. Several interactive games could also be made using ‘Project Tango’. Possibilities, in all honesty, are endless.

The Lenovo smartphone that will be the first to do the ‘Tango’ with Google’s latest tech, is going to be priced at $500(approx Rs 35,000), and will be out sometime during the “Summer of 2016″. Not much has been disclosed in terms of specs, but the phone will be powered by a Qualcomm processor, sport three cameras (RGB, Fisheye, and Depth) for it’s 3-D mapping needs, and could have a display as big as 6-6.5 inches.

Vice President of Lenovo, Jeff Meridith stressed at the event that this will not be a niche product, but a device for the masses He stressed,” We locked arms with Google to bring out a consumer device based on Tango. The goal here was to create a mainstream device. We don’t want this to be a niche technology. Lenovo is extremely proud of where we are at this stage of the effort.”

January 8, 2016
You Can Now Buy the Galaxy S5 for Rs. 17999

If you’re looking to buy a Samsung phone, now is the time. The Samsung Galaxy S5 is available in a sale at a price of Rs. 17,999. This price is for the Charcoal Black, Electric Blue and Copper Gold variants of the phone that can be purchased via the Flipkart app for mobile phones.

Rs. 17,999 is an excellent price for the 2014 flagship device of Samsung. The device is water resistant, among other cool specs that it includes.Galaxy S5 features a 5.1 inch Full HD Super AMOLED display, a 2 MP selfie camera capable of Full HD video recording and a 16 MP ISOCELL main camera with autofocus and LED flash.

Samsung Galaxy On5

On5 has seen a fall in prices too. All these devices can be purchased off Flipkart while the offers last. The On5 is priced at Rs. 7,990 from its initial Rs. 8,990. On5 is one Samsung’s first devices of the On-series.

The device sports a 5-inch (126.7mm) HD touchscreen display, and is equipped with a 5 MP front camera and an 8 MP main camera. It has 8 GB of internal storage and a 1.3GHz quad-core processor.

January 8, 2016
iPhone of the Future To Be Self Healing

According to reports, Apple Inc, has pretty interesting, and possibly ground breaking plans in works for its future iPhones. The Cupertino based tech giant, famous for its innovation, and creativity, has been granted patents for some really cool ideas.

Apple, has plans of bringing to life what seem to be iPhones that could heal, and clean themselves while you sleep peacefully in your bed.The newly granted patents reveal a system to fix dead pixels on a screen, and even dry the handset’s speaker and internal components all without human intervention.

The idea is for the phone to run an automatic, screen diagnostic overnight which last a couple of hours while you sleep to help fix issues of dead pixels. The smartphone will also run other diagnostics while you sleep, like testing the camera, as well as checking on the handset’s components to make sure your phone is able to connect to the internet properly, make calls and send texts.

The patent also has information on how the phone will deal with a situation in which it has been accidentally dunked in a drink. Showcasing intelligence beyond its processing power, the future iPhone would wait until you take it somewhere loud, like a concert, and then play a special tone that would expel the water stuck in the speaker grill.

Such fancy ideas by Apple would only result in greater customer satisfaction, and hence increased sales. After-all, none of us like the dreaded visit to the repair centre. Do we?

January 8, 2016
Pricing of the New Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge Revealed

We cannot stop talking about the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge all set to be unveiled on 21st February. The S7 frenzy is churning out rumours endlessly and here is the latest from the front.

A spec sheet put up on Weibo has revealed the expected pricing of the two smartphones. The 21 GB S7 is expected to be priced around $755 (close to Rs. 50,000), while the 32 GB S7 Edge will cost about $863 (close to Rs. 58,000). The 64 GB variant would cost about $85 (close to Rs.5,700) more than the price tag of the 32 GB variant. The spec sheet also reveals 12 MP main camera with f/1.7 lens, and 4 GB RAM for the two devices. We recently did a round-up of all the rumours of the S7 devices so far. Find out specs and other details of Samsung’s flagship smartphones on iGyaan and watch this space for the latest updates on S7 and S7 Edge.

January 8, 2016