Category: Brands and Companies

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HP Expected to Unveil a New Form Factor PC Called ‘Sprout’ Next Week

After phones, tablets and smartwatches, seems like the world needs to now get ready for a PC with a new form factor. HP is about to unveil a new device which is expected to be different from anything we’ve seen till now. The product is called ‘Sprout’.

Sprout is expected to bring a whole new way of interacting with computers. Its components are minimal. It is made of one large flat screen which will be similar to HP’s Pavilion Touchsmart line. Apart from the display, there’s a touch-enabled surface and a 3D scanner and projector placed in an overhead device.

Sounds like something interesting is being cooked behind the curtains at HP. Though its functionalities are not clear yet but looking at components, it looks ready for some advanced tasks. Re/code reports that the device might project an image on the surface from the overhead device. Users can manipulate this image with their hands or a stylus. Adding new objects to this image is fairly easy. By just keeping an image on the surface, the 3D projector captures it and introduces it in the image. It seems like a great proposition for at least the graphics industry.

The target consumers for this device are businesses and prosumers so one can expect the price to be on the steeper end. But like every technological innovation, its success will lead to cheaper copies, so there’s no worry in that. For long, Keyboards and Mouse have been our way of interacting with computers, it’s good to see HP bringing a new approach to interface with the digital world.

Sprout would be unveiled at a function in New York on the 29th of October. The device is expected to run on Windows initially but may even run Android OS in the future. We’ll be keeping an eye on the release and will bring you the latest. Keep checking iGyaan for more.

October 24, 2014
In a Post-Nokia World, Microsoft Unveils the New Microsoft Lumia Branding

With the era of Nokia coming to a close, a new phone ecosystem will take its place. Microsoft has unveiled the new branding for its smartphone line-up which will now be known as Microsoft Lumia. As a part of the transition, the websites and social media pages are already on the move from the old Nokia to new Microsoft’s mobile pages.

To make its name prominent on the device, the Microsoft name will be featured prominently on the front and back of devices. According to the acquisition agreement, Microsoft had a good 18 month long period for them to transition from the Nokia brand for its smartphone business. The Nokia name will not be completely scratched out yet. Microsoft still has a 10-year license to use the Nokia brand on basic phones. This was a really shrewd move by Microsoft as Nokia has immense brand recognition in the basic phone market. Microsoft can use it to their advantage to have a constant stream of income through this channel. It is not a resource intensive segment either so Microsoft can literally make easy cash off Nokia’s heavy lifting.

Microsoft won’t have an easy ride in the market. Though its devices have been commended for superior performance and with the 8.1 update, the Lumia ecosystem have got an immense boost. But the devices have failed to find users in the market that is ruled by Google and Apple. Mobility segment is important for the future of Microsoft as an institution. With the speedy shift towards mobility by the enterprise segment, Microsoft’s core consumers are at stake. With the one platform ideology of the upcoming Windows 10 OS, the company can make some gains in the mobility market too. We just need to wait until next year to see how it all works out for Microsoft.

October 24, 2014
LG Set to Release New Smartphone Featuring Company’s Own Chipset

We have heard for long about LG’s homegrown chipset. It was its effort to catch up with its compatriot and consumer electronics powerhouse Samsung. The chipset is supposedly going to be called Odin. Now it seems that the Chipset is well cooked, and it’s ready for the world to see.

LG has said that the processor will be inducted in the upcoming LG G3 Screen, which will be unveiled in South Korea. The processor will be called the NUCLUN (pronounced NOO-klun) and will boast of an Octa-Core (1.5GHz Quad-Core +1.2GHz Quad-Core) processing capability.

Nuclun processor is LTE Category 6 ready.

The company claims that the Nuclun processors are designed to handle LTE Cat.6 and can provide download speed of up to 225Mbps. It also provides backward compatibility with current LTE networks.

Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company said, “NUCLUN opens up a new chapter in LG’s history of innovation in the mobile industry. With this in-house solution, we will be able to achieve better vertical integration and further diversify our product strategy against stronger competition. NUCLUN will give us greater flexibility in our mobile strategy going forward.”

Samsung’s Exynos processors are still trying to find their mark and LG needs to bring an efficient chipset if it wants to take on the leader of the market; the Snapdragon family. The LG G3 Screen with its 5.9 inch Full HD display won’t make it to India anytime soon, but we’ll know pretty soon if LG has a worthy competitor for this ever-saturated market.

October 24, 2014
Heeding to Privacy Concerns, Xiaomi Shifts User Data Out of Beijing

Xiaomi has taken into consideration the massive privacy scares regarding their devices and are taking proactive steps towards addressing them. The company is planning to shift non-Chinese user data out of its Beijing data center. This comes after the directive issued by the Indian Air Force for its personnel, asking them or their families to refrain from using Chinese phones.

The Air Force had cautioned its employees, warning that Xiaomi was secretly sending user information to a secret location in China. Xiaomi has been a favorite amongst the young population because of high spec devices which are available for attractive prices. The buzz around it has led to a figurative stampede to get the device on Flipkart.

One of the most popular phones in India, the Xiaomi Redmi 1S sells out within seconds on Flipkart.

Seeing this accusation by the Air Force could cause trouble for its business in India, Xiaomi quickly went into damage control mode. Xiaomi’s Vice President of International, Hugo Barra wrote a detailed blog post on how the company plans to take on the issue.

Mr.Barra said that the company has been setting up servers in multiple locations and will be moving user data outside China. All international user data will be shifted to Amazon AWS data centers in California (USA) and Singapore. This migration process will be completed by the end of October and will benefit its users in Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan.

It was also said in the post that by next year the company will try to set up a local data centre in India and Brazil itself. This will give users faster access and privacy can be maintained in-country.

The Chinese authorities have been facing heavy criticism for engaging in a man-in-the-middle attack on Apple iCloud account. Considering the interfering nature of that government, it is rather safer to keep your data away from their prying eyes. We have to wait and see if these measures taken by the company offer some good solutions to the concern. People love these irresistible devices, but the importance of privacy cannot be overlooked.

October 24, 2014
Apple Protects Chinese Citizens from the Government Attacking Their Security

Reports have been circulating about a massive piracy attack on iCloud. It is being alleged that hackers and Chinese authorities were deploying man-in-the-middle(MITM) attacks in order to compromise Apple ID’s from Chinese users that visited Apple’s iCloud website.

The latest report by the Wall Street Journal suggests that Apple has officially confirmed that it is aware of the organized attacks on its iCloud users, however their own servers have not been compromised.

“Apple is deeply committed to ‘protecting our customers privacy and security. We’re aware of intermittent organized network attacks using insecure certificates to obtain user information, and we take this very seriously. These attacks don’t compromise iCloud servers, and they don’t impact iCloud sign in on iOS devices or Macs running OS X Yosemite using the Safari browser”.

Apple has come out with a support document that clearly specifies the importance of digital certificates, advising users who come across an invalid certificate alert in their web browser while visiting iCloud. The company has also issued guidelines as to how users can verify that their web browser is connected to iCloud and not a fake third party MITM website.

Apple has asked its users to make sure the green lock icon is visible and see the following message “Safari is using an encrypted connection to www.iCloud.com” when the lock icon is clicked.

But the main problem lies in the fact that users are not using secure browsers to access their cloud storage. A report indicates that many users in China access the Internet via a popular Chinese browser named Qihoo. It does not alert users when a fake site is getting their information, it rather redirects Chinese users to a fake website identical to the iCloud website. Users who eventually log into the fake site inadverently give the attackers their login and passwords that can be used to access personal information.

Chinese authorities are suspected to be a part of this attack. According to CNBC, a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry said that Beijing was “resolutely opposed” to hacking.

Chinese users are being advised to switch to secure browsers like Chrome or Firefox, or use a VPN to bypass the redirection and log in directly to iCloud. Two factor authentication is also required to be turned on as it restricts unauthorized users from logging into an iCloud account even when a username and password is compromised.

October 22, 2014
Samsung and Airtel Team Up to Bring an Integrated Digital TV

The biggest consumer electronics company and India’s prominent mobile and DTH operator are partnering to bring hassle-free entertainment to the Indian shore. Airtel and Samsung have teamed up to bring India’s very first Integrated Digital TV (iDTV).

An integrated digital television (iDTV) set is a television set with a built-in digital Tuner. They make the set-top box obsolete, which is great. Unfortunately, they still require that dish to catch the signal. It would be cool if the electronics market can do away with that too; we’ve had enough of our roof’s looking like a television station.

Coming back to the matter at hand, the iDTV also gives you freedom from the dual remote system that we use presently. On this TV, a single remote system also makes life easy as it comes accompanied with an intuitive user guide.

Shashi Arora, Bharti Airtel’s CEO – DTH & Media said, “The in-built Airtel DTH smart card supports direct signal reception from the dish antenna, thus enabling crystal clear audio-video quality and making these Samsung TVs the smartest available in the marketplace today.”

These iDTV’s will utilize a Smart Card from Airtel, which goes directly into the TV. The devices come in the category of Samsung’s SmartDirect TV. This TV range will start at Rs. 44,900, which seems like a fair price. It also comes coupled with 4 months free subscription as an introductory offer.

So if you wanted to do away with that mess of wires and just kick back in your couch potato mode with just one remote, this might be what you were looking for.

October 22, 2014
Satya Nadella Becomes One of the Highest Paid Tech Executives

Indians love the sound of the phrase, ‘pay package’. It rings a mental cash register in their heads when they hear it followed five or six figure numbers. It figuratively goes “cha-chinng”. But listening to what Hyderabad-born Satya Nadella has achieved will make all the traditional Indian fathers sigh that they can’t ask him to marry their daughters.

Satya Nadella has scored a whopping $84 Million pay package. This, of course, will be dispensed to him in a long period of time, but it still is more than what normal Indians can think of and what corrupt politicians might make in a year.

Mr. Nadella is the third in the line of Microsoft CEO’s, after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. He is though the first one to not score a multi-billion dollar holding in the company. But for running the biggest tech company in the world, the $84 Million package sounds alright.

Satya Nadella is the Third CEO for Microsoft in its 38 year history.

This package is indicative of the total remuneration that will be received by Satya Nadella over the years, but his annual gross isn’t low either. He is expected to take home a luxurious $11.6 million.

There have been mixed news coming out of Microsoft’s stable ever since Mr.Nadella took the helms of the company. He was recently heavily berated for saying that women should not ask for a pay rise but have “faith in the system”. He is also the person who oversaw the biggest job cuts in Microsoft’s history, most of them were ex-Nokia employees.

Now you might be imagining him in a Darth Vader helmet but he helped out the business too. He led the development of one of the largest cloud infrastructures in the world. He will be responsible for the audacious Windows 10 which hopes to do away with all the headaches Windows 8 brought.

For the first non-American CEO in the 38-year history of the world’s biggest tech company, there is still a lot to achieve. We’ll be keeping a vigilant eye on this homeboy and will keep a track on how he plans to keep Microsoft valid in the mobility era.

October 21, 2014
Nokia Mobiles Will Soon Be Officially Known as Microsoft Lumia

Well, we had been dreading for this day to arrive and it’s here. The Verge reports that Microsoft might announce that it is killing off the Nokia brand. The transition is expected to begin soon in which all the branding of Nokia will be replaced by Microsoft Lumia branding.

We had reported this summer about how Microsoft had planned to do away with the Nokia’s brand identity in its mobile business and seemed like the process has started. The devices are moving to Microsoft’s new mobile site. The French division of Nokia will be one of the first one’s to make the transition and adopt the “Microsoft Lumia” for its Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts. Microsoft had once claimed that the reason they are quitting the Nokia brand name for their phones is because they felt it comes from a bygone era.

This move is done to absolve all relation to the original Nokia, which will now become a separate entity under the leadership of another Indian, Rajeev Suri. This Nokia will concentrate on Network, Software’s and Maps divisions. It also has a huge patents division which can ensure its profitability at least for the coming future.

Considering the initial presentation of Windows 10, it seems like Lumia phones are only going to get better

Back at the beginning of the mobile era, Nokia was a brand name that everyone trusted. It had a stature of titans in the mobile phone industry. Now it will limit itself into a tiny corner of the tech industry. We still hope that the company can make a turnabout and see it making a return to compete in the market. Till then we’ll keep our eyes on how Microsoft plans to take on the mobile business. It has great products and a great operating system, it just needs to attract customers to them.

October 21, 2014
Apple Decides Against Offering EMI Options for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in India

In response to the unprecedented high demand for the new flagship iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in India, Apple has decided not to offer any EMI options. The reason quoted for this is that they are not able to cope up with the supply. Apple had tied up with Bajaj Finance and Capital First to offer a zero-interest finance options on their earlier products. However, the schemes are not applicable to the new line-up.

It has been said that the company will furthur evaluate the decision to offer EMI options for the new iPhones in the January quarter. Meanwhile, EMI options are still available on older models which include iPhone 5s, 5c and 4s.

Both phones deliver a good battery backup even with their massive displays.

The iPhone 6 has gone out of stock in India just days after its official release. In the nation’s capital, Apple’s ardent fans had even lined up at midnight to be the first to buy the device.

Apple had brought in a stock of 55,000 devices for sale in India on the midnight of 16th October. The entire stock got sold in just 3 days. Now the company is planning to bring 25,000 new devices soon to quench the demand for the latest bestseller. It was said that there will be a delay of three days before the devices are available again.

October 21, 2014
Lenovo Reportedly Bidding to Acquire BlackBerry

Blackberry was once a device of choice for major celebrities and business professionals alike. Now after the emergence of the touch-screen revolution, it has found it hard to cope with the competition. Even though its features have been well appreciated, there have been fewer takers of its devices every quarter.

Now Lenovo, the Chinese company which has gobbled up some iconic business such as IBM’s workstation and Motorola Mobility, is now making a bid to acquire the Canadian firm. Benzinga claims that Lenovo might put forward the bid as early as this week.

The company is expected to make the starting bid of $15.00 per share and is expected to be closed at around $18.00 per share. BlackBerry shares have been hovering around the $9 mark, and this would seem like a profitable option for the company’s shareholders.

Lenovo had previously made a bid for BlackBerry last year. It was though blocked by the Canadian government. One of the major causes cited for the block was that Lenovo is a Chinese company, and the government didn’t want any mobile infrastructure falling into the hands of a Chinese Company.

Though it is unsure whether the Canadian government will allow a merger this time around. It sure will be a long process to convince the government the security of data. It is especially a concern because Blackberry is still used by entrepreneurial and government officials. They deal with sensitive data, and it might be a cause of concern for everyone using the device. This is a developing story, and we’ll keep our eyes on it. Come back for more.

October 21, 2014
OnePlus One Finally Up for Pre-Orders

The OnePlus One has been sold on an invite system from the get go. In doing so, the company continued to receive the orders, yet restricted orders enough to ramp up production. It might come across as a surprise at this point, but OnePlus One will be available for pre-orders on October 27th at 11am. Why, you might ask, are we specifying the time? Well, here’s the catch – the phones will be up for pre-orders only for an hour.

Although the time limit is unfortunate, however people finally get the chance to own the phone, without waiting for an invite. If you are able to place an order within that hour, you will be entitled for a OnePlus One smartphone. The phone’s shipping date will be determined by factors such as how many total orders are placed and how quickly one places their order. To further simplify the process, OnePlus is allowing customers to set up their shopping carts early. This way, all you need to do is to checkout when the clock hits eleven. All OnePlus accessories will be up on sale as well.

If users happen to receive an invite after an order is placed, the phones will be shipped immediately.

It was previously reported that the company will be doing away with the invite system for a pre-order system. Carl Pie said, “We understand that our current method may be slowing our growth down, but we’d rather grow slower and in a healthy way than take too much risks and go out of business. Risk management is extra important in our scenario where we don’t have hardware margins.”

We were really impressed by the device in our review, if you really want to get your hands dirty on this slick device, head over to preorder.oneplus.net and be prepared. Sadly, preorders are not available in India yet.

October 21, 2014
Canvas 5 Might be Micromax’s First CyanogenMod-Based Smartphone

We had reported a few weeks back of a possibility of a CyanogenMod powered device coming from Micromax’s stable. Now DroidGoblin is reporting that the device can be Micromax Canvas 5. The phone is expected to be launched at a price of about Rs. 22000.

The phone is expected to sport a 5-inch full HD display. It will get its processing might from the Octa-Core processor from MediaTek, which it has been using in its top-end phones. It will come with 2GB of RAM and might have 16GB internal storage with an option to expand it through a MicroSD card. All of this is expected to come in an aluminum outer shell.

According to the report the phone isn’t light in the camera department either. It is expected to offer an 18-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

The CyanogenMod on the device will be based on Android Kitkat 4.4.4 which will probably make it the most updated Micromax device out there. CyanogenMod is definitely the most popular custom Android ROM and the news of the device from Micromax has met with wide appreciation. As of now, there are over 12 million active installs of CyanogenMod till June 2014.

On the spec-sheet, the device sounds great and will easily find a lot of takers here in India. This will be a great news for people looking for a device that offers regular updates. There are also tons of customizability features on the ROM, which will let you own a unique device designed by you. This seems like a great new step for the Indian company, and we can’t wait to check out the device.

October 21, 2014
iOS 8.1 Now Available for Download, Here’s Everything You Need to Know

Apple had launched the iOS 8 with some key features missing, which was a let down for many. One of the major problem with the update was that it demanded close to 5GB of free space on your device before you could update, which only meant users had to delete a lot of music, photos and apps to make space. The second important feature missing from iOS 8 was the absence of a Camera Roll.

When the iOS 8.0.1 update released on September 24, Apple ended up pulling the update just hours after it became available. The bug-laden update has caused iPhones to lose cell network and affected the Touch ID.

Apple studied and considered the user feedback before launching iOS 8.1. Now it has finally brought some key and impressive features to its mobile platform that were missing earlier. However, to have the best possible experience of these features, users will need to have the OS X Yosemite installed. If you have an iPhone 5s or higher, here’s what to look forward to in the latest iOS 8.1 update.

Apple Pay

Apple’s rumoured payment platform finally hits on iOS 8 devices running with the 8.1 update. In order to use Apple Pay, users need to add a card to Apple Pay by taking a snap of their card. After the card is verified from the bank, it is added to passbook, where users can finally access it for future purchases. Users can now open their Passbook in retail stores, a finger print scan via the Touch ID sensor completes the process. Though as of now, the feature is U.S locked, UK availability is expected to start some time early next year.

Personal Hotspot

The 8.1 update brings about a significant improvement in communication sharing features between desktop and mobile. The new personal Hotspot allows the iPhone’s 4G LTE compatibility to be accessed from a nearby Mac. Once connected, the Mac acts as a phone.

Camera Roll is Back

When Apple launched the iOS 8 last month, it was missing the Camera Roll feature which was a major let down for users. Now with the 8.1 update, this feature is back where users can house all their photos again in one single folder.

Beta iCloud Photo Library Access

iCloud Photo Library returns as a beta in iOS 8.1. It stores as much as you want, provided you have purchased that much space in iCloud. Previously, iCloud only stored your last 1000 photos for 30 days. Therefore, all photos uploaded in the iCloud Photo Library will be a part of your total iCloud storage. You get 5GB of free storage for starters, with 99 cents a month you get 20GB, while $3.99 will get you 200GB.

SMS Relay

A feature you’d probably already know about, deserves another mention here. With the SMS and Phone integration, you can send and receive text messages as well as phone calls across all Apple devices. This is definitely the future of interlinked digital devices. Apple definitely was to be the first company to benefit from this because of its enormous hardware ecosystem.

The iOS 8.1 definitely looks much more promising from the the iOS 8, and is now available for download. Apple seems have really made an effort to bring about some refreshing changes based on consumer feedback that were missing earlier.

October 21, 2014
China Rages a Massive Privacy Attack on iCloud

Just when Apple fans were setting up their new iPhones, they discovered that they are being misled to an identical looking page. Web censorship watchdog Great Fire is reporting that the Chinese authorities are staging a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack on Apple’s iCloud. The attacks coincide with the new iPhone launch, thereby giving the authorities’ access to a massive number of passwords of people setting up their new phones.

According to Wikipedia, a MITM attack is a form of active eavesdropping. The attacker makes independent connections with the victims and relays messages between them. It makes them believe that they are talking directly to each other over a private connection, when in fact the entire conversation is controlled by the attacker.

When a person tries to log into their iCloud, they are instead redirected to an identical looking page. When using a Firefox or Chrome browser, there is a warning that you are not on the authentic website, but when using China’s most popular browser, Qihoo there is no warning. Microsoft’s Live.com, Github, Google and Yahoo have also faced such attacks in the recent past.

It is being said that this is a massive effort from the Chinese authorities to fish out usernames and passwords from a huge population. Doing so will give them access to all the data including personal documents, pictures and videos stored on the cloud. For folks who set automatic syncing to the cloud for their entire data, this news might be troublesome.

It’s being said that the recent addition of encryption system might have attracted this unfriendly attention from the Chinese authorities. The system faced disapproval from security institutions like the FBI.

China is infamous for censoring the internet using its giant firewall, known as Golden Shield Project or better known as the Great Firewall of China. But fishing out user information is a recent phenomenon which by the looks of it is gaining steam. There are few ways you can circumvent the impositions. The user can use a VPN service to access their real accounts just make sure that the VPN service is also not blocked by the country’s firewall.

Internet freedom are considered a part of human rights and right to privacy is one of the cornerstones of a civilized society. But this recent surge of privacy theft should concern all.

Here’s a TED talk by Glenn Greenwald who explains why privacy is such an essential element for our society:

October 21, 2014
Gmail’s Redesigned App to Support Yahoo and Outlook Accounts

After the release of the long awaited Android L and its associated Material Design, it seems Google wants to take its feature a step further. Android Police has accessed Gmail 5.0 app for Android and discovered support for Yahoo and Outlook accounts. This will be a big blow to the independent apps of these mail clients; people might find it more convenient to access all their accounts from one place.

The new Android OS was appreciated for its ease of use and simplified view with updated iconography and tweaked buttons. A companion video shows how the new update keeps the interface similar to what we have gotten used to, but adds more functionalities to the app.

This will be a great new feature for folks who use multiple accounts for different purposes. It will work out for business and personal users and by using a single app to access all the mails will save a lot of precious time. Ok Google, we are waiting for our updates!

October 20, 2014