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It’s that time of the year again when Apple finally ships its gadgets all the way to India. The wait is over for iPhone lovers eagerly anticipating the launch of the 6s and 6s Plus in the country. The phones will go on sale on 16th October, according to an official statement.
“Ingram Micro India Pvt. Ltd. will offer iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, the most advanced iPhones ever, beginning on 12:01am local time on Friday, October 16th in 2,500+ retail locations across India.”
Post a blingy event in San Francisco earlier this month, Apple faced a series of glitches with its App Store, security, and the basic software and operating system of its newly launched as well as the older devices. However, it is not likely that any of these recent hiccups would bring down the sales of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Time to sit back and let the speculations begin.
What had initially begun as an Ultra Clean Holdings (UCH) office in Singapore in late 2008 materialised into the first 3D printing factory of South East Asia on Monday. This office also has a second function of operating as the Asia Pacific head-quarters of the company.
The printing factory had been made semi-functional by November of last year. Now it is fully prepared for commercial, and consumer and business related 3D printing. Printing would be possible in 17 different kinds of materials including precious and semi-precious ones like gold, ceramic and brass.
UCT decided to work on its 3D printing technology in Singapore in order to meet with the demands of its growing business with manufacturers in Asia. Other than printing, services like assembly, machining and welding are also provided by the company. With headquarters in California, UCT has five offices in the US, two in Shanghai and one in the Philippines.
Here’s a close, detailed look at what you can expect from the Samsung Galaxy A8. Watch this video-review to see how it fares when pitted against OnePlus 2 and Asus Zenfone 2 – two other new flagships .
Hardware Specs
Samsung Galaxy A8
Display
5.7-inch FHD
Resolution
1920 x 1080p
Chipset
Octa-core (Four cores clocked at 1.3GHz, and four at 1.8GHz)
Lo and behold, Snapdeal is letting buyers get iPhone 6 for as low as Rs. 37,488 for the 16 GB variant. This is followed by the 64 GB version at Rs. 45,999, and Rs. 63,344 for the 128 GB variant. The price is so low thanks to the Cash back deal being offered to SBI debit and credit card users. Considering the fact that the 16GB version of Apple iPhone 6 was initially launched at Rs. 53,500 in the country, while the 64 GB and 128 GB versions were priced at Rs. 62,500 and Rs. 74, 000 respectively, this is a major price cut.
It is not uncommon for older versions of phones to witness a drop in price once a new flagship comes out. Similarly, post the launch of iPhone 6s, the drop in price of iPhone 6 isn’t surprising news. The price had began to plummet even before the Apple event on 9th September this year in San Francisco.
If you have been eyeing the iPhone for a while now, this is definitely your chance to grab the opportunity. Knowing how erratic the market as well as the tech world are, it is not likely for these prices to remain low for long.
Blackberry CEO, John Chen, had an awkward time showcasing the new Blackberry Priv in an interview. The Priv is an Android-powered slider smartphone that combines the best of Google’s mobile OS with Blackberry’s security and productivity.
At a hands-on interview with the Priv, John Chen found himself fumbling through the device. Presumably, the CEO was not prepared for an impromptu demo such as this. Throughout the demo Chen repeatedly stated that the Priv “runs on Google,” and found it quite a task to open Chrome tipping that the handset is a demo unit.
Now, we understand that the Android operating system is a new area for the company, and it is also understandable that hands-on demos do tend to make you stumble a little (remember Satya Nadella’s faux with Cortana). Chen’s failure to name Google’s operating system is perhaps symbolic of the company’s current difficulties.
We had mentioned in an earlier post that the Blackberry Priv is expected to feature a 5.4-inch QHD (1440×2560 pixels) display, a 1.8GHz hexa-core 64-bit Snapdragon 808 SoC, 3GB of RAM, and an 18-megapixel rear camera.
While the company is confident of the success of Priv once it is out in the open, it is still hard to tell whether consumers are ready for a hybrid smartphone such as this. The phone is expected to hit the stores later this year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Silicon Valley has already created quite a buzz on social media platforms. While the likes of Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook have expressed their support for Digital India on Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg wanted to express his support by displaying it to the world on his home turf, and by that we mean Facebook. On Sunday, Zuckerberg changed his profile picture ahead of his Townhall interaction with the PM. The new profile picture has his own display picture with the Indian tricolour overlaying it.
I changed my profile picture to support Digital India, the Indian government's effort to connect rural communities to...
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Sunday, September 27, 2015
Clearly, Zuckerberg's "effort to connect rural communities" integrates Digital India with his own Internet.org initiative (now changed to Free Basics by Facebook). Following Zuckerberg, Modi changed his profile picture as well, and expressed his thanks for Zuckerberg's support.
Thanks Mark Zuckerberg for the support. I changed my DP in support of the efforts towards a Digital India. You too can change your DP at fb.com/supportdigitalindia
Posted by Narendra Modi on Sunday, September 27, 2015
Pretty soon the rest of Facebook caught on as well with thousands of users changing their profile pictures in support of Digital India. Users can visit fb.com/supportdigitalindia to have their own version of the profile picture.
It seems likely that Facebook is attempting to merge Internet.org with Digital India since the former has received strong criticism in India. In the last few months, we have been seeing advertisements by Facebook claiming how rural India will benefit from free internet.
Post your comments below if you think Digital India should merge with Internet.org or not.
If you’ve been looking for a GoPro camera that doesn’t pinch your pocket and yet has some important features such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, then the company has just the thing for you. GoPro has announced an entry-level action camera, the GoPro Hero+ that comes with (you guessed it) Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and will be priced at $199.99 (Rs. 13,200 approx). The camera is placed between the base GoPro Hero ($129.99) and the more expensive Hero+ LCD ($299.99).
Earlier, you would have had to pay a lot more if you wanted a GoPro camera that allowed you to transfer videos to your phone. However, with the GoPro Hero+ expected to release worldwide on October 4th, you won’t have to pay that extra $100. The Hero+ Wi-Fi has the best of both worlds. On the outside it pretty much looks exactly like the Hero, while the internal camera equipment borrows from the Hero+ LCD. The Hero+ will allow you to record 1080p videos at 60 fps (up from the Hero’s 30 fps) minus the LCD touchscreen. It also sees a bump in still shooting from 5 to 8 megapixels.
The Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity allows you to frame shots, change camera settings, and share the videos you capture, all from your smartphone. The company is also looking to cut the price of the Hero 4 Session action camera from $399 to $299. Before this, the Hero 4 Session had trouble finding takers since it lacked a display which could be found in the Hero 4 Silver for the same price. The price cut is likely to change that.
Click here to watch some amazing videos shot on GoPro.
We had earlier discussed the possibilty of a smartphone named Yutopia by YU launching in India. Instead the company had gone ahead to launch the low-budget Yunique. Now we’ve got confirmation from the brand that the earlier discussed smartphone would arrive with 4GB RAM in tow.
YU, which is a Micromax-owned smartphone manufacturer based in India, is all set to launch its first high end smartphone next month. YU Yutopia is expected to go on sale next month, being the first of its kind since YU launched its three smartphones, entry level YU Yuphoria, followed by YU Yureka and YU Yureka Plus, all three powered by Cyanogen OS. Let’s see what the upcoming smartphone has to offer.
YU Yutopia
The YU Yutopia will be made available in three colours – white, black and gold. It will boast of a 5.2-inch display, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage with an expandable microSD card, along with pre-installed Android 5.1.1 Lollipop and Cyanogen OS on top of Google’s operating system.
The phone would be equipped with 64-bit octa-core processor and a Snapdragon 810 chipset. Dual SIM connectivity and 4G LTE would be some of its other features. As has been the case so far with all other YU phones, Yutopia would be available exclusively in India. Details regarding shipping would be known only after the phone has been officially launched. The Yu Yutopia will come with a price tag of Rs. 21,499.
As part of the Digital India campaign, Google is all set to bring high-speed wi-fi to 100 of India’s most crowded railway stations by the end of 2016. A country which has about 13 million people spread across 7000 stations would definitely do well with better internet connections serving about 10 million people every day.
Woes of bad internet while travelling is something all Indians are familiar with. This move to high-speed internet even on railway stations would be a big relief if materialised. These plans would be executed by Indian Railways and RailTel working together in collaboration. The announcement was made yesterday at Google’s Mountain View campus in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Google promises to ensure a speed decent enough to stream HD videos. Additionally, the company plans to extend its services to 400 stations over time. Who knows if the reality of high speed internet for the entire country is just around the corner?
After the success of Xiaomi Mi 4 earlier this year, it can be easily assumed that the company’s Mi 5 will also go the Snapdragon way when it comes to the chipset. Electronic industry analysts like Pan Jiutang had earlier predicted March, 2016 as the release date for Mi 5. However, he has changed his views to December this year, provided Qualcomm manages to supply its chipset in time.
The newest Xiaomi addition to the smartphone industry is expected to have a display of 5.2 inches along with a 1080 x 1920 resolution. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 SoC is most likely to accompany a Kryo CPU core and a GPU of Adreno 530. The front camera will be of 8 MP and the main camera is expected to be of 16 MP. All of these along with a 4 GB RAM, a Type-C USB port and Android 5.1.1 are likely to be part of the package.
We all love to see a good old fashioned cat fight between Apple and Samsung. The mud-slinging between the two smartphone giants has been going on for a while now, and recent news has seen Samsung doing most of the slinging. Samsung recently trolled the Apple launch by having Galaxy S6 Edge+ show up in the Google Search engine top advertisements when people were searching for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Samsung also took to Twitter, posting images that clearly mocked the event while the event was taking place.
In a latest attempt by Samsung to get customers to shift from the iPhone to its Galaxy phones, the company is offering to pay the monthly installments for your Galaxy phone for the rest of 2015. This offer, however, is restricted only to the US. The discount applies if you buy a Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy Note 5, or Galaxy S6 Edge+ on an installment plan from T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, or US Cellular. This means you’ll get up to $120 off on the price of any of these phones if you buy one under a carrier installment plan from now until October 9th. AT&T users, however, will not be able to take part in this promotion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgmhi0Vi9oo
Moreover, Samsung is throwing in an additional $100 Google Play gift card for those users who switch from iPhone. The announcement comes just after the new iPhone 6s launched in stores. Clearly, Samsung is trying to curb the sales of the latest iPhones that is expected to create a new sales record for Apple. Samsung also released a TV spot recently that highlighted all the things the latest Galaxy phones can do that the iPhone can’t. The name of the ad is cleverly similar to the iPhone tagline: “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone”. All we can say is grab your popcorn and brace yourself for an entertaining fight.
With only a day to go before the reveal of Google’s Nexus smartphones, the leaks continue. We just did a roundup of everything we know of the Google event so far with some rumored specs for each of the flagship phones. Now we have more to tell. Imgur recently leaked images of a Nexus 6P presentation which basically confirms everything we know and a little bit more.
The slides discuss everything from design to specs, and one of the specs that caught our eyes in particular is the massive battery that’s fit into the Nexus 6P. The smartphone will come with a 3450mAh battery that should last you a pretty long time. Clearly, Google has been focusing on battery life this time around. For a little perspective we would also like to point out that the other recent phablets such as the Samsung Note 5 and the iPhone 6s Plus come with a battery of 3,000mAh and 2,750mAh, respectively. Other slides focus on camera, features of Android Marshmallow, and fingerprint sensor.
Other features that are revealed show that the phone will feature a rear-mounted fingerprint reader, a 2560 x 1440 display, a Snapdragon 810 processor, and USB-C. The phone has an all metal body and a large 5.7-inch screen. As earlier reported, the phone will come in four colours – black, white, silver, and gold.
The launch of the Nexus smartphones will take place on the 29th of September in San Francisco.
PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Silicon Valley, against the backdrop of campaigns like Digital India and Make in India, has the whole country aflutter with hopes of potential developments in the Indian tech scene. Aimed at promoting the spread of tech-literacy all over the country, the visit includes Modi meeting the CEOs of tech giants. Needless to say, the development of events led to some important announcements.
Google: Modi met Google CEO Sundar Pichai yesterday and discussed plans on introducing Wi-Fi connectivity across 500 railway stations in India, with speeds good enough to stream HD videos. Modi said that Google plans on covering 100 stations by the end of 2016. “We are expanding our public Wi-Fi hotspots. For example, we want to ensure that free Wi-Fi is not only there in airport lounges, but also on our railway platforms. Teaming up with Google, we will cover 500 railway stations in a short time,” he said. Pichai also announced that Google will roll out 11 Indian languages for Android users to type in next month.
Microsoft: Satya Nadella announced that Microsoft would use its cloud services in India. “We believe low cost broadband connectivity coupled with the scale of cloud computing and the intelligence that can be harnessed from data can help drive creativity, efficiency and productivity across governments and businesses of all size. This is turn will create global opportunities for India,” Mr Nadella said.
Qualcomm: Qualcomm announced a 10 billion rupee venture capital fund for startups. The company also announced the set up of a lab in Bangalore for product innovation. “We share Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy,” Qualcomm executive chairman Paul E Jacobs said.
Paul E. Jacobs talks about Digital India
Tesla:
A significant part of the first day of the PM’s visit to Silicon Valley was spent with two CEOs, Tesla’s Elon Musk, and Apple’s Tim Cook. The meeting with Musk was structured with the aim of securing company’s “Powerwall” invention for the Indian tech world. Powerwall is a long term storage device for solar energy capable of bringing “energy to hitherto unserviced areas of India”. This innovation is expected to include more than just solar energy, and hopes to explore alternative energy sources as well.
PM Modi with Elon Musk
Apple:
Tim Cook, the CTO of the company, spoke about India and said, “India has a special place in the heart of every Apple employee for the simple reason that Steve Jobs, when he was young man, went to India for inspiration and it was what he saw in India that infused in him the desire to create Apple.”
Apple sees immense potential for app development in the country, especially for young entrepreneurs in the field. Following the example of China, where the company has managed to give rise to about 15 lakh jobs, Apple’s involvement in India seems a huge leap for the Digital India campaign.
Facebook:
After a one-on-one meeting with Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, Prime Minister Modi shared the stage with him for a 50-minute discussion on technology, social media and Digital India. Zuckerberg mentioned how India has shaped Facebook’s history by providing a market of millions of netizens all connected through the social media platform. The PM made a comment good humouredly and said, “We used to have elections every five years. Now we have them every five minutes.”
Zuckerberg showed his support for the Digital India campaign by updating the picture on his Facebook page with a tri-coloured display picture.
The PM returns from Silicon Valley on 30th September with immense promise for the country in the realm of internet and technology. A sense of anticipation would perhaps be natural at this juncture as we await the execution of these plans. If seen till the end, a larger proportion of the country’s population would have access to internet services and those already using the internet would have smoother, faster services. Hopefully the UN is listening next time it decides to conduct a poll of internet services in the country.
Here’s some exciting news for today – Google has an event on the 29th of September 2015 where they will be releasing the new Nexus phones along with revealing more details about Android Marshmallow. Google will reportedly reveal the new Chromecast and a partnership with Spotify.
Here are a few details about what we know about the upcoming products so far via public reports and rumours.
Nexus 5X
Firstly, the LG Nexus 5X is expected to come with a bigger 5.2 inch display and a 1080p resolution. The second feature that has been suggested by leaked images, is a support for fingerprint scanners. On the camera front, the Nexus 5X seems to provide a protruding camera, however it is one that will have an increased 13MP sensor. Apart from that, there could also be a 5MP front camera. This handset is rumoured to be powered by the Snapdragon 808 processor with a 2 or 3 GB RAM along with storage options that are expected to be 16GB and 32GB. The smartphone might also come with a USB Type-C.
Nexus 6P
The next device which is the Huawei Nexus 6P will come with a new design, if reports are to be believed. The leaked images show a rectangular frame with curved edges and a flat metal pack, and is expected to come in four colour variants of silver, black, white and gold. The phone will also come with a new fingerprint scanner but a smaller display of an estimate 5.7 inches. The Nexus 6P could be powered by Snapdragon 810 and can come with a 3GB RAM. The storage of this device is expected to start at 32GB and go all the way up to 128GB. However, the camera seems to be lower in quality with an 11MP sensor at the rear but a rather impressive 7MP on the front.
Android Marshmallow
The other exciting thing that is going to be announced at the event is the launching of Android Marshmallow. Google is expected to give us a date for the release of this version. Let’s see whether Google has anything else to add apart from what we know.
Chromecast Second Gen & Audio
Google is also expected to release two new chromecast devices – the second gen chromecast and the chromecast audio. The new Chromecast second gen is expected to come with a new rounder looking design, thereby doing away with the whole ‘dongle’ look. Other upgrades include faster WiFi and something called Fast Play. The Chromecast Audio, on the other hand, supports every feature that a music lover might need, like podcasts, radio, and a multi-room audio. This device is also rumoured to partner with Spotify and thereby enhancing its features.
That is all that we know till now. So stay tuned and we’ll bring you all the latest updates from the Google evnt on the 29th of September 2015.
A collaboration between Stratasys’ Education, R&D departments and MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab has led to a breakthrough in the realm of printing. Because 3D printers were simply not fancy enough, developers decided to create a 4D printer which allows the printed objects to change their physical state with the right temperature as stimuli.
A self-folding object created with 4D technology.
Creating self-assembly technology for large scale structures is the underlying goal for this research and its results. The project is led by Skylar Tibbits, Self-Assembly Lab Director and trained Architect, Computer Scientist and Artist, and has showcased to the world Tibbits’ first 4D printer. It comes equipped with Stratasys’ Connex multi-material 3D printing technology.
The 4-D technology, developed by Georgia Institute of Technology and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) enables 3D structures to fold themselves from components that were previously flat or folded for various reasons. Though this technology is not commercially available yet, it seems to hold tremendous promise in manufacturing with least energy consumption. It’s okay for you to go ahead and get excited about the possibility of a sci-fi-inspired-world of self-automated and shape-shifting objects now.
