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Why Did Samsung Launch a Huge 18-Inch Tablet/TV?

Samsung’s newest addition to the tech world includes an 18-inch device which is a hybrid between a TV and a tablet. With its size and measurements and a handle in its design, the device is meant to be carried around like a briefcase. It’s clear from the start the main purpose of this gadget, Galaxy View, is video streaming and viewing. But honestly, don’t we already have laptops and television sets for that? The physiological need to watch videos to the extent of lugging around an 18-inch device is a little hard to imagine.

The Korean company claims that Galaxy View is an attempt to achieve a middle ground between a TV and a tablet. However the screen has no 4K, QuadHD or Retina display. What it does have is full HD 1920X1080 resolution display instead. The screen specs were chosen keeping in mind the battery life. The Galaxy View can provide up to 8 hours of viewing with 5,700 milliamp-hour battery.

The team at Samsung cannot have enough of their little baby. Sean Bornheimer, a senior manager of product for Samsung Design of America says,

“Multiple people can view, which is very difficult with other kinds of portable devices. It’s really about the experience and less about the specs.”

The operating system of the device -since we’re unsure of what else to call it – is Android 5.1.1 Lollipop and it comes with a 1.6 GHz octa-core processor and 2 GB of RAM. The two variants are marked at 32 GB and 64 GB memory respectively expandable up to 128 GB. The base model is wi-fi only but an LTE model would be made available soon, claims Samsung.

It is unclear what exactly Samsung aims to achieve with this device, or who exactly is the target audience. However, because the specs of the device are not high-end, the price can be expected to be low enough to draw customers. Either way, all the best with being adventurous, Samsung.

October 29, 2015
Why Apple Shouldn’t Have Killed the iPod Classic

When Apple launched the first iPod 14 years ago on October 23, 2001, very few imagined the impact it would create in the way we consume music. For all the hate Apple receives today by dedicated groups out there, even they would have to agree that back then when Apple said it would come out with something revolutionary, it meant it.

The iPod was perhaps one of the best inventions of the 21st century. The device literally changed the way we listen to music and single-handedly dethroned the traditional Walkman and CD player. 13 years later, on September 9, 2014, Apple quietly decided to kill the classic iPod.

The sixth generation 160GB iPod Classic was the last Apple product in the iPod line to use the original 30-pin iPod connector and the Click Wheel. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the iPod Classic was discontinued because the parts were unavailable and a redesign was unwarranted given the small amount of consumer interest in the product.

Blame it on a generation that was moving towards all things touchscreen, the iPod Classic indeed was seeing low demand. But that doesn’t diminish the fact the Apple had made a serious dent in technology and the music world with the iPod Classic.

Walkman of the 21st Century

The idea behind the invention of the iPod was to create a portable music device that was not “big and clunky or small and useless”. One of the reasons Apple is what it is today is because its founder, Steve Jobs, was bent upon making technology sleek and beautiful. This is what they wanted to with the music player. Successive generations of the iPod Classic saw not only a sleeker, beautifully crafted device but also having a sturdy construction and a massive storage capacity to the pleasure of music lovers.

The Feel of the Iconic Wheel

iPod (3rd Gen)

One of the main reasons the iPod Classic was so successful was because of its simplicity. The device had a decent sized screen and a Touch Wheel that was replaced with a Click Wheel with the 3-gen iPod. The wheel made using the iPod ridiculously easy. A scroll from left to right or right to left let you navigate through thousands of songs and artists in your collection. There was also a center select button, and four auxiliary buttons around the wheel. And that’s really all one needed.

The wheel added that extra bit of flair that came with the device’s sturdy yet sleek design. Navigating through your library was simply too easy. One could even do it without lifting one’s thumb. In all honesty, touchscreens may be the present technology, but even that can’t compete with the wheel’s functionality. Music needed a device that made listeners feel the music; that made them want to listen to music all day. That kind of feel of a personal music player died with the iPod Classic.

A Hundred Albums, A Thousand Songs

It started off with a 5 GB storage and went up to 160 GB by the sixth-gen model. But even an iPod with 30 GB or 60 GB storage was enough for music lovers. The point is that Apple provided a device that had a massive storage for users to keep their entire collection of music all in one place. Spotify and Apple Music is useful in certain circumstances, but you can never get the feeling of owning your own music with them. For years Vinyl collectors bemoaned the emergence of MP3 players as it meant you couldn’t own a physical object. Now music streaming has literally killed the idea of owning music.

iPod (6th Gen)

The iPod Classic let you access hundreds of albums and thousands of songs in a single device. The Guardian‘s Will Dunn lamented the demise of the iPod: “There’s still a huge affection for the iPod Classic and it’s not hard to see why – Spotify might offer 20 million songs, but 120GB of music is more than most people need, and your iTunes library doesn’t carry data charges or a subscription fee. Also, I think the Classic is a more distraction-free listening experience – I’m more likely to get through a full album on one.”

A Pure Music Experience

Today, one is surrounded by the latest in technology. You probably have a phone with 32 GB space or higher. And yes, you do have songs in them too. But they’re still devices that are used primarily for other purposes and can never provide one with the same feel as a dedicated music player. Another point one should remember about the iPod was the massive battery life. You could go through a week of music on a single charge.

Do we really have a device today that looks and feels like a music player? Even the iPod Touch models don’t really look the part. If you go on Amazon or Flipkart today and type in music players, you’ll be surprised to see that there is not one good music-dedicated device that would take your fancy.

People Still Want a Portable Music Player

It’s true. Technology may have changed, but people haven’t. The need for a small, portable music player still exists in the world. Don’t believe us? Well, when Apple decided to call it a day with the iPod Classic, a lot of people rushed to Apple retailers to buy the last of the remaining stock. The sales of the iPods (what was left of them) suddenly saw a rise and even saw some of them being sold for four times the actual value.

What one can take away from this is that the news reminded people just how important the music player was. until a few years ago, before streaming become the new thing, music was something that people loved to ‘own’. Steve Jobs was against the idea of music streaming and he pretty much summed up what music meant to him as well as to many others:

“These services treat you like a criminal. And they are subscription-based and we think subscriptions are the wrong path. One of the reasons we think this is because people bought their music for as long as we can remember. When you own your music it never goes away. When you own your music you have a broad set of personal use rights – you can listen to it however you want.”

Maybe instead of discontinuing the iPod Classic, Apple could have thought of ways to refashion it, adding present-day technology while still keeping the ‘Classic’ look and feel. It probably would have been worth a try. Maybe some day a company might come along and bring back the love for music the way Apple did.

October 29, 2015
Apple Owes 30% of Last Quarter iPhone Buyers to Android Switchers

Following the official announcement of its revenue and profits for the fourth quarter, Apple reported that one third of iPhone buyers during the quarter had been using Android devices before the switch. The company also claims this shift to be the largest ever since they started tracking people’s movements from one OS to another, three years ago.

Needless to say, Tim Cook is more than just glad about the news, especially in the light of the lukewarm response the new iPhones have received since their launch in September. Cook comments on the switch of so many users to iOS and says,

“That number is the largest that we’ve ever recorded since we began measuring it three or so years ago. It’s a huge number and we’re very, very proud of that number.”

No doubt this movement has been one of Apple’s goals for a while now and the company has left no stone unturned in achieving it. The recent ‘Move to iOS‘ app of the company which allowed users to switch their Android devices to iOS is one such attempt.

The fourth quarter ended on the 26th of September, which means it could include only two days of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus sales. With the new iPhones not faring as well as Apple expected or would have preferred, it would be interesting to see Apple’s report for the next quarter. There will be more colourful bits of news for both Apple loyalists as well as haters once that report is made public. Hold your breath until then.

October 29, 2015
Apple Continues Its Money-Making Spree

Apple -that one company everyone loves to hate is in the news again. And this time for making incredible amounts of money at the end of another fiscal fourth quarter. The California-based tech giant announced its revenue and profit for the quarter which ended on the 26th of September. The company reports a quarterly revenue of $51.5 billion and a quarterly net profit of $11.1 billion. This is in contrast with numbers in the same quarter last year which were $42.1 billion along with a net profit of $8.5 billion. Yes, that’s a lot of money.

There was an increase in the sales of iPhones, Apple Watches and Macs in the final quarter, helping the company increase its revenues. However, since the quarter ended on the 26th of last month, only a two day sale period of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus can be taken into account for this. Even though Apple fell a little short of the expected sales of these new iPhones they are still faring well in the rest of the world. However, this is not true for India where these devices have not received a very enthusiastic response. Owing to a price difference of almost Rs. 20,000 in India and the US.

“This continued success is the result of our commitment to making the best, most innovative products on earth, and it’s a testament to the tremendous execution by our teams.”

This is what Tim Cook has to say about the new reports. Yes, it has definitely got nothing to do with some brilliant marketing strategies and publicity tactics which is responsible for a good chunk of attention Apple always manages to draw to itself. With companies like Samsung and Microsoft making devices with similar or better specs, Apple should be commended on always managing to convince customers to shell out just that extra wad of cash and opt for its devices instead of cheaper, better counterparts. Would you be willing to stake your money on Apple or do you think other companies have better to offer at a far less price?

October 28, 2015
BlackBerry Priv: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

We’ve been hearing about it for a while now. BlackBerry will soon be out with the BlackBerry Priv and we will know if the company’s Android-powered gamble has paid off or not. Over the past few weeks, there have been a lot of rumours and leaks about the device that have revealed everything there is to it.

But now that we know what to expect, let’s see whether BlackBerry can bounce back with the Priv or not. Let’s have a look at what’s going for the Priv and what isn’t.

The Good

The BlackBerry Priv is the company’s last lifeline. BlackBerry is literally going all in with this one, which means that it will do everything it can to make sure the device is everything a BlackBerry fan (if there are any left) hopes for. This is a good thing. This means that the company will look to work on some key areas that were a problem with its previous phones such as having more native apps and freedom to customise.

This is also one of the reasons the Priv is the company’s first Android-powered device. BlackBerry knows that its own OS has been far too restrictive. Furthermore, every mobile brand (except Apple) has either adopted Android or has left the game. So, there really was’t much of an option for BlackBerry.

Let’s talk about the device now. Yes, it’s Android-powered, but it is very much a BlackBerry phone. Privacy and security is of major importance here and that’s what Priv stands for. The handset is a hybrid. It has a full touchscreen as well as a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. This means the phone caters to both touchscreen fans as well as keyboard loyalists. And given that very few devices today offer a keyboard, this may just work in BlackBerry’s favour.

The phone looks sleek despite having a slide-out keyboard. It has the traditional BlackBerry feel to it and a bit of nostalgia is always welcome. From the promo of the Priv, the UI and overall functionality looks smooth, but one can’t judge everything from a video clip.

Finally, renders of the handset suggest that the Priv will have a curved display similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Edge series. Sure, BlackBerry is borrowing ideas here, but at least it’s open to trying something different.

The Bad

It has been a few years since BlackBerry has been in the game. In today’s world, a break of 2-3 years can be really bad. You have a number of new players today. Startups like OnePlus have done well to gain a fan base. The competition is fierce, to say the least. Can BlackBerry take them on?

Two years is enough for loyalties to change. No doubt there were and perhaps still are BlackBerry loyalists. But it is also safe to assume that BlackBerry has lost a lot (and we mean a lot) of customers over the years. So the company may not see sales of the Priv take off initially, as was the case with Z10, its previous handset. Sales of the phone will mostly rely on how initial customers take to it and by word of mouth. Yes, it is not easy to convince people to buy your product today. Especially when it comes to a smartphone.

The Ugly

It all boils down to the price, really. And from what we have heard and is pretty much confirmed now, the Priv will come with a not-so-modest price tag of $699. What’s more, the Indian pricing of the device is rumoured to be over Rs. 50,000. Now this is a serious gamble by the company. Many potential buyers were hoping that the Priv will be reasonably priced. Given that this is a comeback phone, one would have expected the company to focus on getting as many units out as possible. But at $699, we’re just not sure how many handsets will make it out of the stores.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nO8EdLtJj0&feature=youtu.be

The price is especially ridiculous given that there are loads of other phones out there that are cheaper and provide better specs than the Priv. In case you’re wondering, the Priv is said to come with a Snapdragon 808 processor and 3 GB of RAM with 32 GB extendable storage. It features a 5.5 -inch curved display with a 1440×2560 pixel resolution and 537ppi. Finally, the Priv has an 18 MP primary camera and a 5 MP front. Now while the specs of the Priv aren’t bad, it certainly doesn’t deserve a Rs. 50,000 price tag.

But this is just what we feel right now. The phone will be out soon enough and so will the verdict. For now, you can leave your comments below on whether you think BlackBerry has a win with the Priv or not.

October 28, 2015
Samsung Galaxy View Tablet Listed Online: Specs and Features

Samsung is trying to work its way into every section of your home. With a slew of smartphones, tablets and TVs being offered, the company wants to cater to the kitchen as well. Kitchen tablets are becoming a thing now after the recently launched Alcatel OneTouch Xess and Sony’s two-year-old Tablet Z Kitchen edition. Now Samsung is bringing its own kitchen device with the Galaxy View tablet.

The massive 18.3-inch tablet was first teased at IFA 2015 in September and has now been listed on Andorama with some key specifications. The listing suggests that the tablet sports an 18.4-inch full HD (1080p) display with a density of 120ppi, which means the tablet should not be used at arms length. It is powered by a 1.6GHz 64-bit Carmen2 (Exynos 7580) octa-core processor paired with 2GB of RAM. Carmen2 chip is a new moniker and very little is known about it as of now.

Further specs of the Galaxy View include 32 GB internal storage, expandable up to 128 GB via MicroSSD card slot. It also features a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera. No word yet on the rear camera. It also features a rather modest 5,700mAh battery capacity, and Samsung promises up to 8.5 hours of video playback.

The tablet comes with the usual connectivity options such as Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, A-GPS and GLONASS, with quad-band 3G and Cat.6 LTE, and a Wi-Fi only option may be available too.

The Galaxy View is Samsung’s answer to what comes in between the Galaxy tablet and Samsung TV. The company has yet to announce a launch date. Pre-orders for the tablet had already begun on Andorama and was priced at $599 until the site took it down for unknown reasons.

October 27, 2015
Asus Launches Windows 10-Powered VivoBook with 4K Display

Asus has been on a spree, launching laptops both low-end and high-end. October has seen 4 laptops already by the company (three A-series and one ZenBook). The new laptops have been releasing with the new Windows 10 operating system. Many, if not all, OEMs have been slowly updating their existing and upcoming laptops with Windows 10. Asus launched the Asus ViviBook 4K on Monday. This laptop falls under the high-end bracket, similar to the ZenBook UX305LA.

As the name suggests, the Asus VivoBook 4K is a 4K UHD (2160×3840 pixel) laptop with wide 178-degree viewing angles. The model comes with a choice of fifth or sixth-generation Intel core i7 processor, with the base model powered by a dual-core Core i7-5500U. The VivoBook comes with 8 GB RAM (expandable to 12 GB), 2 TB hard drive storage or SSD, and NVIDIA GeForce 940M graphics.

Of course, the highlight of the VivoBook is its 4K UHD display. The 15.6-inch, 3840 x 2160 resolution display has 8 million pixels and a 282ppi pixel density. That’s about 4 times the pixel density of a standard Full HD display. The laptop will be available in Icicle Gold, Glacier Grey, Black, and Navy Blue colours.

Other features include a Super-Multi DVD player, a 3-in-1 card reader, a VGA camera, two USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port, an HDMI port, one VGA port, and one LAN RJ45 jack. The laptop also features 2W stereo speakers and a 2-cell 37Whr battery, and weighs about 2.3kg. The company has yet to unveil the price of the VivoBook, but since its understood that it is a high-end laptop similar to the ZenBook, you can expect the price tag anywhere between Rs. 80,000 – Rs. 1 lakh.

October 27, 2015
Tips and Tricks to Survive With a 16 GB iPhone

So you have a 16 GB iPhone and you don’t really know why. You just do. Or you might be planning to go for the new iPhone 6s series, but you’re not sure whether a 16 GB storage is worth it. Well, even we don’t know why Apple hasn’t already killed off the 16 GB variant. But the fact is that they haven’t and there are people around the world who have to deal with living with a 16 GB iPhone.

Moreover, it’s not really 16 GB, is it? It’s actually about 10 GB as Apple’s OS and pre-loaded apps like iBooks, Photo Booth and others eat up about one-third of your storage. So, considering all that, close to 10 GB is what you’re left with that you can actually call your own.

With new technology comes new, faster ways to fill up your limited storage. A single graphic-intense game like GTA can take up 1-2 GB of storage. An HD movie can take up to 5 GB. So 16 GB users feel the storage blues at least once a month. But don’t worry, we’re here to give you some tips and tricks on how you can easily manage with your 16 GB device.

1. HDR Comes With a Price

If you have an iPhone 4 or higher, you have the ability to take amazing High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. Yes, the images are crisp and spectacular, but heavy on your storage. What HDR does is that it combines multiple pictures at different exposures and then combines them to give you one great shot. This is what makes the camera in your iPhone one to beat.

But what HDR also does is that it saves the original picture as well, so that you can see and compare the detailing. Depending on whether the HDR has come out better or not, you can choose to keep the former and delete the latter, or vice versa. Either way, double photos take up double space, which is not good if you’re a 16 GB iPhone user. You can choose not to save your original photo if you know HDR images is what you want by going to Settings > Photos & Camera > Keep Normal Photo and unselecting it.

2. Thank God for Apple Music

Say what you may about Apple Music, but it is definitely a godsend for 16 GB iPhone users. One of the major storage eaters is music. We tend to store a lot of music because we need it for our morning office trips, exercising, studying, everything. And we tend not to realise that in our excitement to store every new song that takes our fancy, we eat up that precious storage space.

Along came Apple Music to save the day. The music streaming service that began three months ago lets you stream unlimited music and lets you add as many songs and albums to your library without taking a single megabyte.

To delete your stored music, head on over to Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage > Manage Storage > Music and left slide on artists you want to delete or delete them all together via All Songs. Once you’ve deleted all your songs, you can go nuts and start loading up your library with music from Apple Music that won’t leave a mark in your storage.

3. Get Religious

iPhone users have to practice a specific religion. This religion requires you to check in on your storage every once in a while, see the apps that are consuming a lot of storage, delete them, and download the app(s) again.

With a 16 GB storage, you can download any app you want. Go crazy with it as long as you remember to check back on them every once or twice a month. Apps like WhatsApp and Instagram take up a lot of space over time because of all media files that you end up downloading, or the hundreds of pictures you scroll through. When you find yourself approaching the 16 GB limit, head over to Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage, find out whats bulking up and delete that app. You can always download the app again.

4. Don’t Let Your iPhone Download Without Your Permission

Apple tends to choose certain settings on your behalf. You may not even be aware of it until much later. One such setting is the Media Auto Download on WhatsApp, which is set on both Wi-Fi and Cellular by default. This means that any media file sent your way, be it in a group or individual, will automatically be downloaded to your media folder, whether you like it or not.

So, if you want to control the media you download, open WhatsApp and go to Setting > Chats and Calls > Media Auto-Download where you’ll find three separate options: Images, Audio and Video. You can then make the changes to each option accordingly.

5. iCloud’s the Limit

The best way to beat storage woes is to pay for it. Along with the launch of iOS 9, Apple also bumped up the storage offered on iCloud as well as cut the prices of its plans. You can now get 50 GB of cloud storage at Rs. 65 ($0.99) per month, 200 GB at Rs 190 ($2.99) and 1 TB at Rs. 650 ($9.99). That comes to around Rs. 650 a year for a the base tier, which is not bad considering a 64 GB iPhone would cost around Rs. 10,000 more. You can purchase more storage by going to Setting > iCloud > Storage and click on ‘Buy More Storage’.

To activate iCloud, all you have to do is go to Settings > iCloud and log in using your Apple ID. Once your Cloud is set up, you can choose the options like Photos, Mail, Contacts and Calendars that you want stored in the Cloud. Next thing you’ll want to do is go to Photos via settings and turn on the ‘iCloud Photo Library’ option so that your entire library gets uploaded in iCloud.

6. Stay Up-to-Date

By this we mean always be on the latest update. iOS 9 has made some neat changes and the company has tried to focus on storage solutions more than ever before. Apple also introduced “app thinning”, which is a combination of enhancements that result in apps taking only as much space as they need in the moment. With this feature, developers are working on improving their apps so that it doesn’t take up unnecessary space.

Apple has also reduced the amount of storage space required by the iOS 9 OTA update from 4.6 GB to 1.3 GB. The difference won’t show in your storage, however. iOS 9 doesn’t free up storage for users, but it does make updating your iPhone easier with lighter files over the air.

October 27, 2015
Latest Leak Reveals OnePlus X Design and Pricing

We earlier mentioned to you that the OnePlus X is set to come to our markets by the end of this month. Now, official leaks of the much awaited phone reveal what seems like its final design and price tag.

The OnePlus X is said to be 5-inch which will be smaller that the current OnePlus’ that are both 5.5.” The phone is expected to sport a 1080p display, in a 140 x 69 x 6.9 mm chassis and will sport a 13 MP rear camera, an 8 MP camera on the front, 3 GB of RAM, and 16 GB/32 GB of expandable storage space.

The device is likely to be announced on 29th October which is just three days away. The poster also showed the highly anticipated price tag which is 1699 yuan (Approximately Rs. 17,362). This doesn’t seem cheap considering that competition phones are cheaper and also because it was first rumoured to be three thousand rupees cheaper. It isn’t yet clear if that is the pricing of the 32 GB variant as there is another 1099 yuan price tag, present on the poster. However, that is probably going to be the price for event attendees.

Whatever said and done, the OnePlus X has caused a great amount of stir and the 29th of October will answer all your unanswered questions so watch this space for more.

October 26, 2015
Xiaomi to Host a 3-Day Sale for the Diwali Season

With the festive season just around the corner, and companies all over are offering all sorts of Diwali offers, Xiaomi too has taken to social media to tease a sale. The company put up Twitter updates on its Indian handle which read as follows:

CCCXLV – is it a website, is it time or is it pointing to some exciting days ahead? #DiwaliWithMi pic.twitter.com/mEhnJ5QwCU

— Xiaomi India (@XiaomiIndia) October 26, 2015

The hashtags and the numbers all hint at a Diwali sale between 3rd to 5th November. The sale could include discounts and attractive offers across e-commerce websites like Amazon and Flipkart as well as on mi.com itself. Discounts and free gifts were already available on Xiaomi devices, along with exchange offers, last month.

CCCXLV – is it a website, is it time or is it pointing to some exciting days ahead? #DiwaliWithMi pic.twitter.com/mEhnJ5QwCU

— Xiaomi India (@XiaomiIndia) October 26, 2015

The company has been hinting at sales and exciting offers for two days now. It is only natural for us to speculate about these social media updates. Diwali this year might indeed turn out to be brighter than always.

October 26, 2015
‘Steve Jobs’ Fails to Woo Fans, Leaves Makers Even More Disappointed

Dampening the spirits of a lot of Michael Fassbender fans, ‘Steve Jobs’ has bombed at the box-office. Hopes had been incredibly high regarding the movie, and thus, this unexpected blow hits harder.

“‘Steve Jobs’ was too brainy, too cold, and too expensive to make it a success,” says Variety’s Brent Lang.

Nothing sums up the reasons for the failure of the eponymous biopic about Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs than the above statement. Hollywood has proved once again that meaty content is not enough for a film to work.

Fassbender (left) and Jobs (right)

Despite the lack of physical resemblance, Michael Fassbender had fans excited all over the world for his portrayal of the Apple founder. Post evidence of his acting prowess in films like ‘Twelve Years’ A Slave’, there was not much to doubt about his brilliance for an on screen rendition of Steve Jobs.

However, Fassbender still failed to draw as much attention of the mainstream movie-goers as much an actor like Robert Downey Jr., or Leonardo DiCaprio would have. Incidentally, Caprio, along with Christian Bale, were one of the two actors the role of Steve Jobs was first offered to for the movie. When both of them turned it down for various reasons, Fassbender was approached next.

The film shows an insensitive, emotionally abusive protagonist, distanced and detached from his wife and daughter. For all his technological brilliance, the audience clearly did not prefer to root for a character who was a complete jerk to his family. So while Jobs tackled his God-complex, less and less names were added to his fan-list.

‘Steve Jobs’ debuted to a puny $7.3 million, not too far ahead from the $6.7 million of the Ashton Kutcher starrer ‘Jobs’. The former needs to make at least $120 to make up for the investment cost and cash in on a minimum level of expected profits. It has made $10 million so far.

Despite being critically acclaimed, ‘Steve Jobs’ has failed to strike a chord with the audience, primarily because of a dialogue-oriented script and the lack of a more popular name than Michael Fassbender, speculate Hollywood experts.

Audience’s reaction to ‘Steve Jobs’ have further revealed how precariously balanced films are in Hollywood, with absolutely nothing, not even strong scripts and top-drawer performances by the likes of Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet are a surety of a project doing well. If you have managed to take a look at ‘Steve Jobs’, tell us what you felt in the comments below.

October 26, 2015
Apple Gets Sued Over iOS 9 Wi-Fi Assist Feature

It seems everyone loves to sue Apple left, right and center these days. And sometimes the lawsuits come from the most unexpected reasons possible. In one such case, a California-based couple has filed a class-action lawsuit accusing Apple for not informing iPhone owners of the potential data charges over Wi-Fi assist. The feature silently uses cellular data when Wi-Fi quality is poor. According to the plaintiffs, this feature has caused over $5 million in data charges to potentially affected customers.

Apple has a tendency to add new features and set defaults without informing users. This is part of Apple’s philosophy of deciding features for users so that they don’t have to, and letting them discover the features on their own, if they can. While most features do not actually dip into your pockets and are quietly working in the background, others can cost you, if you’re not aware of it.

Wi-Fi Assist was added in iOS 9 to ensure that you get seamless internet connectivity at all times. But apparently, the feature does more harm than good, according to some people. The exact damage is not known, yet. The lawsuit doesn’t mention the amount of charges incurred with W-Fi Assist, though the couple believe that it exceeds $5 million. In the off chance that the couple actually do win the lawsuit, this could be potentially problematic for companies like Samsung as well, who have also implemented similar Wi-Fi boosts.

October 26, 2015
Benchmark Tests Prove Microsoft Surface Book Not Twice as Fast as Macbook Pro

At the launch of its first laptop, Surface Book, Microsoft had claimed it to be a machine twice the speed of the 13-inch MacBook Pro. However, when benchmark tests were carried out by PCWorld and Geekbench 3, these claims were proved incorrect. In terms of CPU benchmarks, the Apple device was slightly faster than the Surface Book.

Having said that, it should also be noted that when it came to the graphic card, some models of the Surface Book are ahead of its Apple counterpart. Additionally, processing tasks that are shared with the GPU also were performed better by Microsoft laptops as compared to Macbook Pro. A reason for this could be the dedicated GPU of Surface Book as opposed to the integrated one of the 13-inch MacBook. But it is the costlier model of the Surface Book, costing around $1700 (about Rs. 1,10,000), which has a dedicated GPU. The one which costs as much as the 13-inch MacBook Pro at $1500 (about Rs. 98,000) is the base Model Surface Book which too has an integrated GPU.

Despite tall claims by Microsoft of its device’s doubled speed, the difference showed up only in a pure graphics test. When running Tomb Raider, the Surface Book achieved 74fps against the 23.6fps of the MacBook. But, once again, this can also be achieved by a GeForce graphics card. It would be interesting to see how the Surface Book fares against the MacBook Pro 15.

October 26, 2015
Samsung and Xiaomi to Incorporate 3D Touch-like Technology in Future Devices
3D Touch is the new cool thing in town and everyone wants to have a piece of it. It is indeed true that the touch-sensitive feature has opened up new possibilties in the way your phones works for you. It is also a feature many gaming companies are excited to ‘tap into’. We had earlier reported that Samsung was in talks with Synaptics to bring the 3D Touch feature seen in Apple’s iPhone 6s series into its 2016 flagship Galaxy S7. Samsung plans on calling it ClearForce.

Now, fresh rumours suggest that Samsung is not the only brand looking to incorporate the pressure sensitive feature into its phones. Reports emerging from China tell us that Xiaomi too is interested in having this technology for its future flagship devices. This could be one of the reasons the expected Mi5 announcement has been delayed.

G for Games cited Weibo that said that Xiaomi is working on a 3D Touch-like feature for its upcoming devices. Whether Xiaomi is going solo on this project or is seeking help from Synaptics (as it did with the Mi 4c, which uses Synaptics’ ClearPad S3708 capacitive touch controller) is not yet known. Meanwhile, Synaptic claims that its ClearForce technology will be superior to 3D Touch feature.

ClearForce – What We Know So Far

For those unaware, 3D Touch enables the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus to understand three distinct levels of pressure. This, then, enables new gestures such as Peek and Pop that lets you quickly see inside an app without actually having to open it. Users need to press the screen lightly to get a ‘Peek’ at a photo, email, web page or other content, and if pressed a little deeper, they can ‘Pop’ into the content itself.

ClearForce, on the other hand, is planning to take the feature up a notch. From what we know so far, the ClearForce technology, besides the expected 3D Touch functions, will have the ability to understand the difference between speed scrolling, zoom, gaming, texting and even operate photo editing tools by noting subtle variable pressure on the surface. Some of the new features, according to Synaptics, are as follows:
- Variable speed scrolling
- Picture zoom and panning
- Function preview and selection
- Continuously variable gaming control functions
- Unlock and wake up
- Right-side mouse click behavior (open contextual menus)
- Line thickness control while drawing (e.g., when writing Chinese characters and creating artwork)
- Image editing (brightness, contrast, saturation)
- Upper case and symbol selection (to bypass keyboard mode changes)
The rumoured tie-up between Xiaomi and Synaptics is not yet confirmed and we will have to wait and see for more information on that. Synaptics has also mentioned that it plans to work with other OEMs as well. So we could see brands other than Samsung and Xiaomi making use of ClearForce in the months to come.
October 26, 2015

Huawei Announces Availability of the Nexus 6P in India

The recently launched flagship Nexus phone, the Nexus 6P, will be available in India starting November. The phone has been up for pre-orders on Flipkart and other offline retailers since October 13. The response for the the Nexus 6P has been very positive and Huawei has ensured a smooth supply-demand cycle. The company will send out the smartphones in batches to be delivered across India from the first week of November.

The 6P features a 5.7-inch QHD touchscreen, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chipset, with 3 GB RAM, a 3450mAh battery, and a USB Type-C port. The camera sports a 12.3MP sensor with laser autofocus, dual-LED flash at the rear and a rather impressive 8MP on the front. This pure Android phone will run on the latest Marshmallow operating system.

The Nexus 6P is priced at Rs. 39,999 for the 32GB, Rs. 42,999 for the 64GB, and Rs. 47,999 for the 128GB variant. The handset is currently out of stock on Flipkart due to overwhelming responses. Have a look at the specs list below to know everything about the Nexus 6P.

Specs	Nexus 6P
Display	5.7-inch QHD Corning Gorilla Glass 4
Resolution	2560 x 1440 pixels, 518 ppi
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon octa-core 810 v2.1
GPU	Adreno 430
RAM	3 GB
Storage	32 GB/ 64 GB/ 128 GB
Rear Camera	12.3 MP, laser autofocus, dual-LED flash
Front Camera	8 MP, 720p@30fps
Expandability	N/A
Battery	3450mAh battery
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac; Wi-Fi MIMO support; Bluetooth 4.0 LE; GSM bands 850/1900; 3G bands; GPS with AGPS; NFC, USB Type-C
OS	Android 6.0 Marshmallow
Price	Rs. 39,999 (32 GB)/ Rs. 42,999 (64 GB)/ Rs. 47,999 (128 GB)

October 24, 2015

Category: Brands and Companies

Walkman of the 21st Century

The Feel of the Iconic Wheel

A Hundred Albums, A Thousand Songs

A Pure Music Experience

People Still Want a Portable Music Player

The Good

The Bad

The Ugly

1. HDR Comes With a Price

2. Thank God for Apple Music

3. Get Religious

4. Don’t Let Your iPhone Download Without Your Permission

5. iCloud’s the Limit

6. Stay Up-to-Date

ClearForce – What We Know So Far

Specs

Nexus 6P