Category: Brands and Companies

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Canon Brings the World’s Highest Resolution Full-Frame DSLR Cameras to India

Today, the imaging and optical product label Canon, made official an array of high-resolution full-frame DSLR cameras in India – the 5DSR and 5DS DSLR. Both the cameras are said to be a cut above the highly-appreciated 5D series and are claimed to be the world’s highest resolution DSLR cameras in its segment. Besides this, the company also unveiled a professional yet compact camcorder XC10 4K that is convenient for 4K/Full HD video shooting and captures images at 12MP resolution.

The class apart 5DSR and 5DS DSLR feature 50.6-megapixel 35mm full-frame CMOS sensor that set them high in Canon’s range of high-res cameras. The processor powering the devices is the latest dual DIGIC 5 that offers users a continuous shooting speed of 5fps at 50.6MP maximum. The Fine Detail Mode on Canon’s latest camera line-up allows users to capture the finest image. The mode configures the sharpness, therefore giving a detailed image which can be cropped extensively. All new 1,50,000-dot RGB+IR Metering and automatic exposure system is also installed on the cameras.

Canon has set the price of the 5DS at Rs. 2,52,995, while the 5DSR will cost you Rs. 2,65,995.

Coming on to the XC10 4K, the camcorder is built of Canon’s proprietary components. It features a Canon 10x Wide-Angle Zoom lens with 2x Digital Teleconverter and Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) that offers a zoom ratio of 27.3-273mm for movies and 24.1-241mm for photos. The handy camera packs a specially designed Canon 12 MP one-inch CMOS sensor that the company claims can “deliver 12 stops of exposure latitude”. The densely packed powerhouse will come for Rs. 1,70,000.

In the past years, Canon has recorded an extraordinary growth report in India. It has carved a niche in almost all the segments, whether photography and videography. With the launch of the two flagship EOS cameras, Canon aims to get hold of 50% market share in the DSLR segment.

June 10, 2015
OnePlus 2 is (Almost) Here

We all agree that it’s about time OnePlus brings out its next flagship. And the OnePlus One, which released a year ago in June, needs to take a back seat.

We have an inkling that the Chinese-based tech company agrees with us as well. We know this because, yesterday, the company began promoting its next flagship.

OnePlus released a teaser for a contest on its Instagram account. The winner of which gets a chance to be one of the first to experience the OnePlus 2, at the company’s headquarter. This includes an all-expenses-paid trip to Hong Kong. The company also promised that the winner gets to play an important role in a secret project they have planned for the OnePlus 2 launch. You can click here, if you wish to participate.

Another thing to point out – with this, OnePlus also confirmed the name of their next smartphone as OnePlus 2 (barely a surprise.)

Share your photos for #PhotoMania2015 and you could be one of the first to try the #OP2! http://bit.ly/OP2pm

A photo posted by OnePlus (@oneplustech) on Jun 9, 2015 at 5:40am PDT

A few days ago, the company also announced that they will be permanently dropping the price of the One; a clear indication that they’re clearing stock to make room for the next iteration. The price of the One now starts at $249 (Rs. 15,899 approx) in the US and in select European countries. However the price of the handset has not reduced for India as of yet, it still remains Rs. 18,998 (16GB) and Rs. 21,998 (64GB.) However, if you’re a potential OnePlus One customer, we’d advise you hold off adding it to your Amazon cart just yet.

Based on everything we’ve heard about the OnePlus Two till now, it seems to be a solid step up. The much-awaited device is expected to make a debut in the third quarter of this year. India will be one of the first countries to see the launch of the next probable flagship killer.

If you’d like more information about the upcoming smartphone, click here.

June 10, 2015
New Photos Reveal Apple’s Insane Spaceship-Shaped Campus

Apple is in the process of setting up a new campus in Cupertino, California and its architectural design is what’s drawing the attention of the world. Their second campus, which has been under construction since 2013, will reportedly the biggest with exceptional “spaceship-like” structure. Thanks to Nearmap, we now got a glimpse of sleepy Cupertino transforming into a fully developed space centre from the future.

Nearmaps, which is a geospatial mapping and visual analytics company, made public some images of Apple’s new headquarter that illustrates the campus taking shape in the sand. The released GIFs given below give a bird’s eye view of the under construction site. The developments happened in the past few months can be seen below:

The idea of a spaceship-shaped property was proposed by the then-CEO Steve Jobs on June 7, 2011. The new campus, built on 175 acres, is said to house 13,000 employees, a cafe with 3,000 strong seating, extensive landscaping and a parking – both underground and in a parking structure.

Other services include an auditorium with 1,000 seat, R&D facilities on 300,000 square feet, a fitness centre, an orchard, and a dedicated generating plant to produce electricity. The power plant will generate electricity through natural gas and other environment-friendly measures. It will reportedly cost Apple $5 billion, up from $3 billion estimated in 2011.

June 10, 2015
Apple Music Rivals Are Not Impressed

At the Worldwide Developers Conference last night, Apple introduced to the world its new music streaming service. Over the past few months, we’d heard multiple rumours that this service was in the works, and last evening, Apple finally threw the covers off.

There’s a lot going on with this service. You can use Apple Music to stream songs, listen the Beats 1 radio, watch music videos, follow your favourite artists. The company claims that they’ve managed to combine the best ways of consuming music, into one consolidated app. While this all sounds super, our first reaction to the Apple Music was, how is this going to affect its competitors?

Just like us, Apple Music rivals not only followed the event minute-by-minute, but also decided to comment on it.

Daniel Ek, CEO and Founder of one of the successful music service, Spotify, was the first to publicly snark Apple music. He tweeted a sardonic ‘Oh ok.’

The tweet was deleted minutes later, but the damage was done.

Rdio, an online music and radio streaming service, perhaps gave the most brutal response to Apple. They copied Apple’s old advertisement from 1981, and welcomed Apple to the party as a latecomer. The original Apple ad was released two weeks after the debut of IBM PC back in 1981 by Apple, in a way to ‘welcome’ IBM into the PC marketplace.

Welcome, Apple. Seriously. #applemusic pic.twitter.com/AnoeKZ5ZIa

— Rdio (@Rdio) June 8, 2015

Slacker Radio also sent out a similar message in a less hostile way, tweeting that Apple is too late for the race.

Great radio = artists + DJs + curation. Welcome to the party, @AppleMusic: http://t.co/LihSRb09kV #WWDC15 @Beats1 pic.twitter.com/4qmvfYuhKl — Slacker Radio (@SlackerRadio) June 8, 2015

Finally, 8tracks responded to an Apple critic.

HA, true…but we don’t need one celebrity DJ when we have millions of people like you making beautiful playlists. ???? https://t.co/IfyigzmEfq

— 8tracks (@8tracks) June 8, 2015

While it’s easy to conclude that Apple Music may not be the “revolutionary” service the company claims it is. The music service has, however, managed to consolidate various forms of music consumption into one single widget on our phones. Not only that, it will be available for Android and Windows, later this year.

With the absence of services like Spotify in India, we’re quite excited to find out if Apple Music will arrive in our country.

June 9, 2015
Samsung Galaxy S6 Active Adds Power, a MicroSD and Ruggedness

Samsung’s Galaxy S6 when launched earlier this year lacked a few features that people actually liked about the Galaxy S5. The S6 is not water resistant nor did it have a replaceable battery. Samsung had also left out a microSD card slot aiming for a more Apple-like approach towards storage.

The Galaxy S6 Active is a more rugged version of the Galaxy S6 from Samsung and it has been presently launched in the US exclusively for AT&T. The S6 Active is an IP-68 rated dustproof and water and shock resistant handset from Samsung.

AT&T confirms the phone has a 5.1-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED screen, a 16-megapixel camera and a 5-megapixel wide-angle front-facing camera. It also packs a large 3,500mAh battery, an Exynos 7420 processor and Android 5.0.2 Lollipop.

Like many other handsets in the US the galaxy S6 Active will go on sale starting this Friday for a price of US $ 199 on a two year contract. The handset will be available in two colours : Black and Camouflage white.

June 9, 2015
Apple Pay Steps Out of the US For the First Time, Arrives in UK Next Month

The WWDC 2015 kicked off in style. Along with introducing iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan, another set of important announcements made by the tech giant were about Apple Pay, the company’s NFC and Touch ID-based mobile payment solution.

Jennifer Bailey, Vice President of the Online Store of Apple, came up on stage to talk about the service. She announced that it will finally be made available in the UK, from July 2015. People will now be able to make quick transactions at Boots UK, BP, Costa Coffee, Dune, JD Sports, KFC UK & Ireland, Liberty, LIDL, Marks & Spencer (M&S), McDonald’s UK, Nando’s, New Look, Post Office, Pret A Manger, SPAR, Starbucks, SUBWAY stores, Wagamama and Waitrose.

Apple is partnering along with HSBC, Santander, Natwest, Nationwide, First Direct for the UK launch, and many more. Users will also be able to redeem reward cards from Kohl’s, Walgreens and Dunkin’ Donuts. The biggest news of all was that Apple even managed to rope in Transport for London to accept Apple Pay. So you can use your iPhone or Apple Watch to pay for your travel or daily commute.

Physical stores aren’t the only places where this service comes of use, you can use Apple Pay to pay within apps; cutting short the procedure. Apps that will accept Apple Pay in the UK, include Addison Lee, Airbnb, Argos, Booking.com, British Airways, Domino’s, easyJet, Hailo, HotelTonight, hungryhouse, JD Sports, Just Eat, lastminute.com, Miss Selfridge, Ocado, Stubhub, thetrainline.com, Top 10, Topshop, Uncover, Vueling, YPlan, Zalando and Zara, among others. To pay within apps, Apple Pay is compatible with iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3. Another important advancement to Apple Pay is that later this month, Pinterest will launch ‘buyable pins’ that will allow you to buy things from Nieman Marcus and Macy’s using the Apple Pay.

Other than the UK, Apple also announced Apple Pay will be adding support for rewards programs and store-issued credit and debit cards. Apple Pay has managed to expand merchant acceptance to over one million locations in the coming month. With this addition, Apple Pay will accept credit and debit cards across all major card networks, issued by the most popular banks, representing 98 percent of all credit card purchase volume in the US.

Paying using Apple Pay is as simple as holding your iPhone near the contactless reader in the store, while keeping a finger on the Touch ID. With Apple Watch just double click the side button and hold the face up to the contactless reader to make a purchase right from your wrist. For now, Apple Pay is currently supported for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and the new Apple Watch, allowing you to pay for items. Apple uses the NFC technology and the Touch ID fingerprint reader to authenticate purchases for buying goods in a store. Keep on checking iGyaan for more updates.

June 9, 2015
All the Important Apple Announcements From WWDC 2015 in One Place

At this year’s WWDC, Apple made a string of announcements about its future. From the new Mac OS X El Capitan to the now widely accepted Apple Pay, here’s everything important that the California-based tech giant disclosed at the event:

Launch of Mac OS X El Capitan

The new OS brings out a lot of new visual changes, as well as enhanced performance. The OS comes with several features like a new Safari browser, improved ‘Spotlight’ and enhancements to mission control. It has improved gesture support and the ability to snap windows to fill the sides of the screen.

Click here to read more about Apple’s latest operating system.

Siri Gets ‘Proactive’

In an attempt to beat Google, Apple has brought in significant changes and new features for Siri. Instead of scouring through the cloud, they have given their Digital Assistant the permission to monitor a user’s daily habits to help give them better suggestions. Overall, it’s a step towards making Siri more intuitive, and subsequently, more helpful. The Calendar app supports the cause.

Read more about it here.

The New Power Saver Mode

Battery life was one of the most important issues discussed at WWDC 2015. A new low-power mode will allow devices to reduce power consumption and restrict to only phone call capability; improving the last few minutes of battery to upto 3 hours of usage.

Click here to read more.

Apple has Open Sourced their New Coding Language “Swift”

For faster bug fixing and developing new features, Apple has open sourced their coding language, Swift, for developers. But, does this mean other manufacturers will be able to make iOS devices?

Click here to know more.

Multi-Tasking is Here!

The company brings in the much-awaited multi-tasking feature, which was missing on Apple devices. Multitasking has been broken down into three fundamental characteristics – Slide Over, Picture in Picture, and Split View. There is a basic version that can multi-task on the most recent iPad models, while the newer iPad Air 2 will support full screen split with any app.

Click here for more details.

Watch OS with Improved Performance and Native Apps

Apple has added new updates to the Apple Watch OS 2. Apple has now allowed moving the logic and processing directly to the Apple Watch; improving the long and nagging load time everyone has been complaining about.Developers create applications that run on the Watch itself rather than in the background on a paired phone.

For more details about the improved Watch OS, click here.

A Truly Consolidated Music Streaming Service

Yes, the rumours were true. The Cupertino-based tech giant introduced its new music streaming service. Apple Music will be available 30th June onwards. For the initial three months, the service is available free of cost. After which, it will cost 9.99$ per month. Click here for more.

June 9, 2015
Apple Finally Introduces its Very Own Music Streaming Service

Apple has always been about building a secure, healthy ecosystem. They’re now bringing this philosophy to their new music streaming service. At the Worldwide Developers Conference, the company announced ‘Apple Music’, a service that seems to have the capabilities to put several successful music companies out of business. Provided it’s successful, of course.

On Apple Music, all the ways you love music can live together.

Here’s how the company plans to do it – with the new app, millions of tracks will be available to stream, and can be saved offline (bye-bye Spotify.) This library will also give recommendations an the playlists would be curated by popular musicians such as Drake, Will I Am and Pharrell.

At the launch, the company emphasised on how they’d like established, as well as emerging artists to interact with the users. For this, Apple introduced ‘Connect’, where artists can share pictures, music and messages with their audience. Fans can then comment, like, or share it via Messages, Facebook, Twitter and email. This feature takes SoundCloud a step ahead.

Lastly, an introduction that seems the most refreshing, is Apple’s new 24/7 global music radio station – Beats 1. With the radio feature, more than 100 countries worldwide will be listening in to programming and stations created by some of the world’s most popular musicians. It will have genres such as Indie rock, Hip-hop classical, etc.

Apple Music will be available 30th June onwards. For the initial three months, the service is available for free. After which, there will be a charge of 9.99$ per month. There is also a family plan providing the service for up to six family members, for $14.99 per month.

June 9, 2015
With iOS 9, Apple Finally Brings Multitasking

The Side-by-Side multitasking feature has been sorely missed on Apple devices. At the Worldwide Developers Conference today, the company finally introduced how they plan on taking it forward. Apple has only introduced it on iPads, for now.

Multitasking has been broken down into three basic features – Slide Over, Picture in Picture, and Split View.

New multitasking features and tools on iOS 9 help you do more of the things you love — at the same time.

‘Slide Over’ allows you to open another app, without leaving the app you’re working on. All you have to do is, swipe the screen from the right to bring in another app. Next, using the ‘Split View’ Mode, two apps can be open and proactive on the same screen, at the same time. As expected, using the Split Screen, you can drag and drop between the two working apps. Lastly, the ‘Picture in Picture’ feature allows you to watch a video, while you work on another app on your iPad. These features will be available when iOS 9 releases. According to the company, the developer API will be made available for the three new features.

Stay tuned, more details coming up soon.

June 9, 2015
WWDC15 | Apple’s Biggest Stab at Android is Open Source Swift Code

Apple’s new launches at WWDC 2015 showed off many new features and capabilities of both the new iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan. However, the highlight of the evening was when Craig Federighi announced on the stage today that one of the most powerful coding languages, Swift, would become “Open Source”

Swift 2.0 adds a bunch of features that developers have been asking for, to ensure that apps written in Swift are faster and can do more.

“Open source” means that any developer, anywhere in the world, can contribute new features and updates to a software project — totally for free.

Google’s popular Android mobile OS, for example, is open source, which is how smartphone manufacturers can release devices with versions of Android that are slightly different from each other.

Does this mean other manufacturers will be able to make iOS devices – probably not. However with the code becoming open-source, bug fixes and features would develop faster. Swift becoming Open Source will also allow other operating system manufacturers including Google and Microsoft to utilise the features and apply them to their code if they so choose to.

This will allow Android forks like Cyanogen and MiUi to add enhancements to their performance and capability. However, this will also depend on inclination and need to do so from others.

June 9, 2015
With These New Features, Siri Might Actually Become Helpful

At the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2015, Apple announced major software changes. Amongst other things, Apple threw light on how they’ve been spending time further improving their digital voice assistant. It seems that Siri is trying hard to keep up with Google Now, its arch enemy, which has speedily raced ahead in the game.

However, at the event Apple claimed that Siri takes over 1 billion requests per week. They expect the new and improved Siri to further improve this number. According to the company, on iOS 9, Siri is going to be 40% faster, as well as 40% more accurate.

Here’s how the company plans to achieve that:

Like we had suspected, Siri gets more ‘Proactive’. The easiest way to explain this would be the fact that the new and improved digital voice assistant not only answers to your requests, but is present at all times, noting your daily habits and patterns of how you use your phone. Apple gave an example, when you plug in your headphones, Siri would read the sign and automatically launch iTunes.

Siri can now also view the apps you’re viewing, and help you make plans accordingly. The Calendar app helps the cause. It gives you suggested times when you should leave your house, based on the traffic on your way to your destination.

These announcements seem reminiscent of Google’s introduction of Android M. Android’s new feature ‘Now on Tap’ can also be used while you’re viewing a particular webpage or an app. For example, if you’re viewing a friend’s Facebook profile, you can use Now on Tap to find out more details about the person. It may then link you to the person’s Twitter and Instagram profile.

While the world squabbles about which company came up with the idea first, we feel that Google, as well as Apple may have found the perfect formula on making their digital assistants more useful.

June 8, 2015
iOS 9’s New Low Power Mode to Allow an Additional 3 Hours on iPhones

Apple at the WWDC 2015 has just announced the new iOS 9, with many new enhancements to the OS and new apps including the new News App. One of the most important issues addressed at the launch was the battery life of iPhone devices.

Apple claims that the new iOS 9 will reduce overheads and improve battery life in general by upto 1 hour. A new low power mode will allow for devices to reduce power consumption and restrict to only phone call capability, hence improving the last few minutes of battery to as much 3 hours of usage.

June 8, 2015
Apple Launches Mac OS X El Capitan

The new OS for Apple’s personal computers is out and it’s called El Capitan. The new update numbered 10.11 brings not only new visual and usage changes, but also performance improvements.

Mac OS X El Capitan features a newer Safari web browser, which allows you to pin windows with web addresses that you visit frequently. The websites that you pin to Safari will remain active and consistent on the same page.

Pinned Sites
New Spotlight features allow you to do custom searches that work for you. These searches can be based on what is in your documents, current events or even weather conditions.

Enhancements to mission control and the way windows are laid out improve productivity. Pulling windows to the top right allows them to be added to a new desktop. If you want to make a window full screen, dragging it in between two active desktops will launch a full screen desktop for that particular window.

New Mission Control
Adding another app/window to the fullscreen desktop will allow split screen.

Full Split Screen
The mail app gets gestures to archive or trash emails with two finger swipes on the Mac trackpad. New Spotlight search capability will also be available on the new mail app in OS X El Capitan. Left you perform conversational searches like : “Mail that I ignored from Jack”.

New Mail App
When you put the Mail app in fullscreen mode, you can actively pause your drafts, just like in iOS. You can also drag and drop attachments between mail windows.

Mac OS X Yosemite was the most adapted OS for personal computers. With over 55% Mac users shifting to Yosemite since its launch in Oct 2014. Apple has included Mac OS X El Capitan in their public beta in July and will ship as a free update to all Mac users later this year.

On the performance front, Apple claims that opening windows or apps is considerably faster on El Capitan due to the reduction in processes that are performed before executing an action. Bringing Metal to Mac from iOS has allowed Apple to replace OpenGL and enable enhanced graphics for developers and gamers while reducing the CPU overhead by upto 70%. This will also considerably improve battery life on portable computers.

June 8, 2015
What Happened to the iPod?

The annual Worldwide Developers Conference begins tonight at 10.30PM IST, with a special event hosted by Apple. Every year, the company hosts the event in the first week of June, to unveil major changes in software and relatively minor hardware upgrades. While the iPhone launches are slated for later in the year, the company uses this event as an opportunity to announce the upgrades they’ve made to their various software offerings. Last year, Apple introduced us to the iOS 8, OS X Yosemite and a range of continuity features. This year, we expect them to announce iOS 9, a revamped music service and something more. Having tracked Apple’s movements closely, we’re wondering if we’re in for a surprise iPod announcement.

The Apple iPod, when it was first introduced by Steve Jobs in 2001, single-handedly took over the online music industry, subsequently killing the MP3 CD movement. A music device, which could hold a 1000 songs and portable, was unheard of at the time. Much like the iPhone, it was a game-changer in its own field.

Apple Computer Inc. chief executive Steve Jobs gestures as he introduces the new iPod during Apple’s launch of their new online “Music Store” in San Francisco, Monday, April 28, 2003. (AP Photo)

Since our smartphones are now compact devices that have been designed to cater to our every need (including music), the spotlight on the iPod has faded. Apple continues to retail the iPod Touch, iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle, however, the last time the Cupertino-based tech giant announced an iPod was back in 2012. The 5th Generation iPod arrived the same year iPhone 5 did. In the past three years, the company has advanced by leaps and bounds, to say the least. We’re now impatiently waiting on the next iteration to arrive.

The 5th generation Apple iPod Touch comes in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB variants, with a 4-inch retina display. The device comes with a 5MP iSight Camera and a 1.2MP FaceTime camera.

Evidently, Apple currently has an empty canvas to paint on. There is a buzz that the 6th generation iPod will be made available in two sizes – a choice between a 4.7-inch and a 5.5-inch display. The multimedia device would come with iOS 9, out of the box; and may even come with the Apple Pay feature. There is also a high possibility we will see more action from Apple’s go-to ingredients such as USB Type-C, Force Touch and their ever-favourite, Finger-Print Scanner.

According to the rumour mill, the sixth-generation iPod is expected to arrive until later this year, along with the iPhone 6s. However we suspect otherwise; although tonight’s conference focuses on developers, Apple is known to make surprise hardware announcements. While the company is yet to confirm the details, we think it’s about time that Apple unveils another consolidated entertainment device. One with an endless battery life and a massive storage capacity.

June 8, 2015
Apple Expected to Fine-Tune its Music Service

As the WWDC excitement continues, we can see that Apple is expected to make new announcements of its breakthrough in technology. The tech giants always make new disclosures at the Worldwide Developers Conference and this year, we hope to see the company’s new revamped streaming service, against the likes of Spotify and Pandora.

Apple’s acquisition of Beats for $3.2 billion had a reason last year in May. We can now see what the reason was. The company’s new streaming music service- Apple Music- will be based on the service of Beats Music. Explaining how Beats will reshape Apple’s digital music, the company has made a musician the main man for overhauling the music streaming service. Trent Reznor, frontman of Nine Inch Nails, who was the chief creative officer for Beats, had been playing a major role in designing the music app, along with two other Apple employees.

Sony Chief Executive, Doug Morris, who also shares a long history with Beats Co-Founder and Apple Music Boss, Jimmy Iovine, announced ‘It’s happening tomorrow’ to the audience at the Midem Music Conference in Cannes.

Apple plans to retain the idea of asking people their favourite genres of music when signing up. Not much detail was revealed by Morris, but it is expected to be priced at $9.99/month for individuals and $14.99/month for the family plan with a three-month free trial period with ads. Morris said that Apple’s entry into the paid subscription market would majorly shift the industry from downloads to streaming.

Morris said:

What does Apple bring to this? Well, they’ve got $178 billion dollars in the bank. And they have 800 million credit cards in iTunes. Spotify has never really advertised because it’s never been profitable. My guess is that Apple will promote this like crazy, and I think that will have a halo effect on the streaming business.

If the service is stashed along with the upcoming iOS 9 and is being offered for a free trial, this could guarantee millions of customers for Apple.

While iTunes had changed the way music was sold, the new streaming service will help Apple build an exclusive relationship with artists and labels. Apple has been approaching big name artists reportedly, like Taylor Swift, to sign up to guest DJ on a revamped iTunes Radio service, or enter into an exclusive streaming partnership.

June 8, 2015