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Category: Tech

Latest Technology News, Alternative, Bio-Tech, Medical, R&D and Innovations

  • “Hey Google” Can Now Wake Up Your Device

    “Hey Google” Can Now Wake Up Your Device

    The Google Assistant was introduced with Android 7 Nougat and with it, came the ability talk to your AI assistant. There has been the ability to search for anything on the Google app via voice commands but, a new feature is rolling out to devices that have Google Assistant which is different than just a voice search. Using the hotword “Hey Google” or “OK Google,” people can launch the Google Assistant and invoke a search.

    This feature was introduced back in October but, it was only available on a handful of devices. Now, a larger rollout of this feature has begun for devices that have Google Assistant support. Google also recently started seeding out Google Assistant support for Android 5 Lollipop users.

    A notification asking people to re-setup the voice model (which is required for the new command to work) has appeared on many devices. If a user has not received any notification of this kind, they can head over to Settings > Google > Voice and re-setup the voice model.

    Once you re-setup the voice model, you can use either “OK Google” or “Hey Google” to open Google Search/Assistant. Just like with the old phrase, it even works when your screen is off, on some devices.

  • Upcoming iPhones Will Be A Lot More Expensive

    Upcoming iPhones Will Be A Lot More Expensive

    Apple recently broke the thousand dollar barrier in the US and the 1 lakh barrier in India with the iPhone X. Over the years, every iteration of the iPhone has launched in India pricier than its predecessor, which has become a norm for every other smartphone maker. However, comparing the price of iPhones in the US and India brings out the image of how inflated the price of an iPhone in India is.

    This news might not be good for future iPhone aspirants. With the implementation of GST this year, it was obvious that all mobile phones will become expensive even if they’re made in India. But, the government’s duties on phones and their components imported into India will result in higher price tags compared to those made in India. Now, the government has hiked the import tax on various electronic products including mobile phones and TVs.

    The import tax was initially 10% but, the latest hike pushes the limit to 15%. This might not be good news for Apple itself especially after it recorded a slow growth in revenue for the 2016-17 year in India.

    Tarun Pathak, an associate director at Counterpoint Research said:

    It will impact Apple the most as the company imports 88 percent of its devices into India. Either this will lead to increase in iPhone prices or force Apple to start assembling more in India.

    According to Counterpoint Research, eight out of ten phones sold in India were made in India.

  • Google’s Tango Will Shut Down On March 1

    Google’s Tango Will Shut Down On March 1

    As smartphone makers and other tech giants move towards virtual and augmented reality, Google has announced that its first foray into AR, Tango will be shut down come 2018.

    Tango, originally Project Tango, was launched in 2014 and used special sensors and cameras on devices to display virtual objects. ATAP, Google’s advanced technology and projects lab, developed Tango but it was soon succeeded by ARCore.

    With ARCore now progressing quickly, Google feels that it doesn’t make sense to carry on supporting Tango. Google announced today that it will end the project on March 1, 2018.

    https://twitter.com/projecttango/status/941730801791549440

    Back in 2014, Project Tango was a new and exciting prospect as it enabled devices to utilise cameras and IR sensors to track and place objects, and was one of the first mobile options to do so. But, Tango soon started falling off the radar due to speed and accuracy issues. Also, the phones that supported project Tango were pricey due to the required hardware.

    As of right now, ARCore only works on Pixel devices and the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. But, Google already has a host of other companies on board like LG, Huawei, ASUS and more.

    Google believes ARCore is the future of AR and VR for the company thanks to its implementation. Even though ARCore can’t see in 3D, it works with the hardware already found on phones. That means that unlike Tango, no special sensors or cameras are required to make use of the software. Machine learning, something that Google showed off in the new Pixel 2 devices, is used to accomplish the same tracking that Tango required hardware for, which gives ARCore a leg up.

    Even Apple’s ARKit focuses on the future of AR and VR, and other company’s decision to support ARCore means that more smartphone makers want to make use of the technology in its upcoming phones.

  • Google Chrome Will Now Let Users Mute Auto-Playing Videos

    Google Chrome Will Now Let Users Mute Auto-Playing Videos

    People who use Chrome on a daily basis for web browsing must be aware of how annoying auto-playing videos can be. Although there are a few tricks you can try and use to disable auto-playing videos, but disabling the wrong thing can completely break a website you actually wanted to use.

    Google has rolled out a beta version of Chrome which will enable users to mute websites which auto-play videos.

    You can download the beta version by heading to this link to get the beta version of Chrome on your machine, for Linux, Windows, or macOS. Since this is the beta version, it is worth noting that it is more likely to be buggy, consume system resources or crash, so it’s better to do this on a machine you don’t rely on for daily important work.

    Once you have the beta installed, it’s a simple process to permanently mute a website that has auto-playing videos. Click on the lock icon next to the website’s name, which normally is an indication it’s using HTTPS to encrypt its website. There should be an option to Allow or Not Allow sound from the website. If you access websites that regularly auto-play websites, just set the sound to Not Allow by default, and you won’t have any more problems with auto-playing videos making noise in the background.

  • Huawei P11 To Be Launched At MWC 2018

    Huawei launched the Huawei P10 in 2017 at Mobile World Congress, and it appears that its new iteration, the P11 will be launched at MWC in 2018.

    A reliable online leakster has also claimed that the Huawei P11 flagship would be debuting in Q1 2018. In addition, he claimed that the company will be focusing more on a stellar camera and AI experience on the upcoming flagship Huawei P11.

    There have been a few rumours that have indicated towards a number of functionalities and features of the upcoming Huawei P11. A recent advertisement design was leaked which revealed that an upcoming Huawei phone will have a triple-lens camera at the back. According to the images, the next generation P11 will feature a 40MP Leica triple-lens camera setup with 5x hybrid zoom and a 24MP front-facing sensor.

    Huawei announced its new facial recognition technology and claimed that it is faster and more accurate than Apple’s Face ID. While it did not reveal which smartphone will be the first one to feature this technology, many speculate that the Huawei P11 might be the first phone to come with Huawei’s own rendition of Face ID and the famous animojis.

    There are rumours that just the iPhone X, Huawei P11 will also have a notch at the top of the display to house all the sensors required for facial recognition.

    The tweet also suggests that Huawei will concentrate on AI this time around. The P11 will, in probability, have the the Kirin 970 chipset that has a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU). The P11 may arrive with more AI capabilities than the Mate 10 smartphones which were launched in October.

     

  • Motorola Will Now Rent Out Moto Mods

    Motorola Will Now Rent Out Moto Mods

    Motorola announced its partnership with RentMojo to offer customers the facility to rent out Moto Mods for Rs. 399 a week. The rental service will be available from December 23 across top 8 cities, including the metros.

    Along with this announcements, the smartphone maker also announced three new mods, JBL SoundBoost 2 speaker Mod, Moto TurboPower Pack battery Mod and the GamePad Mod which will go on sale from the 17th of December via Flipkart and all Moto Hub stores across the country.

    Motorola Mobility India Managing Director Sudhin Mathur said:

    This is an India-first initiative. We want people to experience the magic of mods before (they) go ahead and buy it. So, whether it is extra battery life or great sound that they are looking for, we will have a mod for that.

    RentMojo is an online portal wherein you cant rent anything from furniture to a bike.

    Motorola Mods are compatible with Moto Z phones and essentially add a functionality to the phone which you would not have experienced with any other phone. The Moto Z lineup’s USP is their modularity.

    Motorola also launched a polaroid camera mod for the Moto Z devices. Just like any other mod, it clips on to the back of your phone and connects to the Moto Z’s camera to turn the phone into a tiny Polaroid camera. The mod even has a dedicated shutter button to make clicking photos relatively easier. You can also use the mod to print out photos you’ve already taken, and other pictures you have stored on your phone. You can even add text to photos before printing them.

    With Moto Mods costing almost as much as an Android phone, the idea of renting out Moto Mods makes sense for consumers to try out a mod before deciding whether they want to spend so much of money on an accessory or not.

  • Google Pixel 2 For Rs. 39999 And Other Top Smartphone Deals During The Flipkart New Pinch Days Sale

    Google Pixel 2 For Rs. 39999 And Other Top Smartphone Deals During The Flipkart New Pinch Days Sale

    As we approach the end of 2017 and holidays begin, Flipkart is back with a new sale where you can save quite a lot money on the best of smartphones from 2017. Let’s take a look:

    Google Pixel 2

    Arguably one of the best Android phones of 2017, the Google Pixel 2 might be a better choice than its bigger sibling, the Pixel 2 XL for a lot of people. It shares the same hardware with the Pixel 2 XL albeit, a smaller display and an old design.

    It has all the flagship phone specifications like the Snapdragon 835 chipset, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage. It has a superior primary camera and a front-facing camera.

    Flipkart is offering a flat Rs. 11000 discount and an extra Rs. 10000 cashback which will essentially bring the price down to a whopping Rs. 39999.

    Read our full story here.

    Samsung Galaxy On Nxt

    Another budget-friendly offering from Samsung, this one is powered by the Exynos 7870 processor coupled with 3GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. Samsung Galaxy On Nxt 64 comes with a beautiful 5.5-inch 1080p display and a 3,300 mAh to give you a day’s battery life with ease. Grab it on Flipkart at a flat Rs. 6000 discount for Rs. 11,900.

    Xiaomi Mi A1

    One of the best budget smartphones of 2017, any deal on the Xiaomi Mi A1 will be a great deal. A few days ago, Xiaomi announced that the Mi A1 had received a permanent price cut of Rs. 1000 which got its price down to Rs. 13999. The new deal on Flipkart brings the price down to Rs. 12999.

    The Xiaomi Mi A1 is the first smartphone from Xiaomi to run stock Android OS. It also has a dual-camera setup at the back which is one of the best in the category.

    Read the full story here.

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    Samsung Galaxy S7

    2016 and 2017 were great years for Samsung, barring the Galaxy Note 7 debacle. 2016 saw the launch of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge which still hold up for well for mid-range smartphones in late-2017.

    The Galaxy S7 is available at a price of Rs. 29990 during the Flipkart sale. The Galaxy S7 still has a great 5.1-inch Quad HD AMOLED display and a great camera.

    Under the hood, it runs a slightly dated Exynos 8890 chipset but, it is still a flagship chipset and will handle all sorts of gaming and day-to-day tasks with ease.

    Honor 8 Pro

    Flagship specifications under Rs. 30000 was the USP of the Honor 8 Pro at the time of its launch, similar to the OnePlus 3T. The Honor 8 Pro has a Quad HD display and the Kirin 960 chipset, and a 4000 mAH battery.

    The Honor 8 Pro is available at a price of Rs. 25999 after a Rs. 4000 discount.

    Read the full story here.

  • Xiaomi Mi A1 Launched In A Red Colour Variant

    Xiaomi Mi A1 Launched In A Red Colour Variant

    One of the best mid-range smartphones of 2017, the Xiaomi Mi A1 has been launched in a new red colour variant but, it is not available in India yet. The new red colour variant is only available in Indonesia as of now for a price of IDR 3,099,000 which roughly translates to US $215 or Rs. 14,600. Reportedly, it will be available in limited numbers.

    The Xiaomi Mi A1 is available in Gold, Black and Rose Gold colour variants in India. Seeing its popularity in India, it will be interesting to see if Xiaomi decides to launch the red colour variant as well especially since other OEMs have launched phones in colours other than the usual black, gold and pink. The new Honor 7X is priced at Rs. 12999 and comes in a blue colour variant which definitely makes it stand out from the crowd.

    All is not gloomy for the Xiaomi Mi A1 users and aspirants, iGyaan reported that Android 8.0 Oreo beta version for Mi A1 had started seeding which means that the official update to Android 8 Oreo is not far away.

    As far as specifications go, it has a 5.5 inch IPS LCD display with a 1920 x 1080 px resolution.

    Gold colour variant of Mi A1 available in India

    The interesting bit about this phone lies in its software and camera department. It is the first ever Xiaomi phone to run stock Android OS thanks to Android One program. It also has a dual-camera setup at the back.

    Watch Our Full Review Of The Xiaomi Mi A1:

  • Apple iMac Pro To Go On Sale In India At A price Of Rs. 4,15,000

    Apple iMac Pro To Go On Sale In India At A price Of Rs. 4,15,000

    Apple iMac Pro will go on sale in India at a price of Rs. 4,15,000. Apple recently announced that the iMac Pro will go on sale in the US from the 14th December at a price of US $4999.

    The iMac Pro has a 27-inch Retina 5K display with a 5120 x 2880 px resolution and 500 nits of brightness. The iMac Pro will be available in only one colour variant, Space Gray.

    Under the hood, the iMac Pro’s base model comes with an 8-core Intel Xeon processor which can go up to 18 cores, 32GB of 2666MHz DDR4 ECC memory RAM with the other two variants having 64GB or 128GB of RAM. The base model has 1TB hard drive with 2TB or 4TB being the other two options. Handling the graphics in base model will be the Radeon Pro Vega 56 graphics processor with 8GB of HBM2 memory, this can also be configured up to Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphics processor with 16GB of HBM2 memory.

    Just above the display is an improved 1080P FaceTime camera.

    In terms of the number of ports and connectivity, it has four Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, SDXC card slot, and an Ethernet port.

    Along with the iMac Pro, the consumers will also get a Space Gray Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad, and a Space Gray Magic Mouse 2 along with the essential cords.

    Apple has not confirmed the date from which the iMac Pro will go on sale in India. We will keep you updated on all the news and the date of sale of the new iMac Pro.

  • Vivo Will Launch The First Smartphone With An In-Display Fingerprint Sensor

    Vivo Will Launch The First Smartphone With An In-Display Fingerprint Sensor

    Turns out, Vivo is one of the top five OEMs Synaptics was talking about. A couple of days ago, Synaptics announced that it had started the mass manufacturing of its in-display fingerprint sensor with “one of the top five OEMs.” While many speculated that the timing is ideal for the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+, it has been confirmed that Vivo will be the first smartphone maker to launch a phone with an in-display fingerprint sensor.

    Analyst Patrick Moorhead detailed his experience with a pre-production Vivo phone equipped with the in-display fingerprint sensor technology. Moorhead describes the sensor as “fast and simple,” and Synaptics has claimed that it is twice as fast as 3D facial recognition like Apple’s Face ID. That might be a hard comparison to make since both the technologies use different mechanisms.

    Vivo has come off as a surprise and it will be a considerable blow for Qualcomm which has also been working on a similar technology for a long time. In fact, Qualcomm and Vivo showed off a Qualcomm-powered fingerprint-sensing display prototype earlier this year, but it was said to be noticeably slow since it was not a finished product.

     

  • Samsung Might Launch A HomePod Competitor In 2018

    Samsung Might Launch A HomePod Competitor In 2018

    Smart home tech is the new thing and tech giants like Google and Amazon already have a vast variety of products to offer in this segment. Apple unveiled its HomePod back in June and it was slated to be launched in December 2017 but, its release has now been pushed to early-2018. To compete with the HomePod and possibly the Google Home Max, Samsung will be launching it Bixby-powered smart speaker in early-2018 as well.

    Apple HomePod Powered By Siri

    Sources briefed on the plans tell Bloomberg that Samsung’s smart speaker “will have a strong focus on audio quality and the management of connected home appliances such as lights and locks.”

    Like a lot of smart speakers, beyond just playing music and syncing up with your phone, the Samsung speaker will also join the SmartThings ecosystem. The report did not include any further details, but theoretically, you will be able to talk to your Samsung speaker to turn on lights, set the temperature in your home and more.

    Amazon Echo Powered By Alexa

    Although the pricing and availability of the speaker are still not confirmed,  Samsung is said to be targeting somewhere around US $200 for the price point of the smart speaker. That would place it in between of the US $100 Amazon Echo and the $349 HomePod that Apple will release early next year.

  • Siri Might Soon Start Whispering To You In Public

    Siri Might Soon Start Whispering To You In Public

    It is no secret that a lot of companies believe that machine learning and AI is future of smartphones. Big tech companies like Apple, Google and Samsung have already invested big in Artificial Intelligence and have their own AI assistant in their smartphones. One such assistant is Apple’s own Siri. Siri, just like many other assistants can play music, set reminders and make a shopping list according to your text or voice commands.

    But, it can get a bit embarrassing if you’re in a public transport talking to your phone and this robot is responding to you in full volume. And no matter how much you whisper, Siri responds in the default volume. This new patent from Apple might solve this issue, and make Siri smart enough to understand when you’re whispering.

    First spotted by Gizmodo, the patent details a feature that would enable Siri to discern when a user is whispering to it and, in turn, offer up a response in a silent whisper. Alex Rudnicky, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Language Technologies Institute, told Gizmodo:

    The technology could come out any time because the component technologies are pretty straightforward. The ways that they’re doing this is kind of textbook speech processing but, working up an algorithm to decide when to go into “whisper mode” would be more complicated. I can’t really say why nobody’s come up with this solution. But once you hear it, it sounds really reasonable. Why not?

    This feature won’t make someone start using Siri every day and neither will this feature make it into an ad for the next iPhone but, it will surely make other companies strive to make their AI assistants smarter.

  • New Galaxy S9 Renders Might Be The Closest Thing To Reality So Far

    New Galaxy S9 Renders Might Be The Closest Thing To Reality So Far

    The Samsung Galaxy S9 will be the most talked about smartphone of early-2018. It will be a revision of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and there are conflicting reports as to how the Galaxy S9 might turn out to be. While there are leaks that suggest that it will be an incremental upgrade over the Galaxy S8 and the bigger sibling, the Galaxy S9+ will be the one packing all the new features, some suggest that there will be barely any design differences between the S9 and S9+.

    A new render from a reputed online leaker suggests that the Galaxy S9 at least, won’t be that different from the Galaxy S8. The renders reveal shrunken top and bottom bezels, and a new placement for the fingerprint sensor. This will be a welcome change for all the Galaxy S9 aspirants as the Galaxy S8 and S8+ had an awkwardly placed fingerprint sensor. No matter how advanced the iris scanner will be on the Galaxy S9, a majority of users will choose to unlock their phone using the fingerprint sensor instead. However, Synaptics recently announced that it had started the mass manufacturing of its in-display fingerprint sensor with one of the top 5 OEMs. A lot of people have speculated that it could be Samsung and if this render is true, then the Galaxy S9+ could be the device which comes with this feature.

    Apart from that, there is a single camera at the back which, just like the Galaxy S8, might be an incremental upgrade over its predecessor. This detail falls into place with a previous report that suggested that the Galaxy S9 will have a single camera while the Galaxy S9+ will have a dual-camera setup at the back.

    The Galaxy S9 is expected to have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset (for the US and South Korean market) and Exynos 9810 (for the rest of world) under the hood. The Galaxy S9 could be launched at a price similar to the Galaxy S8+ and the Galaxy S9+ could break the thousand dollar barrier and be priced similarly to the iPhone X.

  • Unboxing The Star Wars Limited Edition OnePlus 5T

    Unboxing The Star Wars Limited Edition OnePlus 5T

    Everything that is limited edition is special, and when it signifies one of the most famous movie franchise ever, it becomes even more special. To celebrate its third anniversary in India, OnePlus has launched the Star Wars limited edition OnePlus 5T in India at a price of Rs. 38999. It will be sold via Amazon and various OnePlus experience stores in Bengaluru and Noida from the 15th of December.

    With a limited edition box in our studio, let’s unbox the Star Wars OnePlus 5T and see what we get inside:

    • Star Wars OnePlus 5T
    • Kylo Ren Case
    • Documentation
    • Dach charger
    • USB Type C Cable
    • Sim ejector tool

    Initial impressions

    Right off the bat, the thing that shines is the colour combination and attention to detail on this special limited edition OnePlus 5T. It has a white coloured back panel with a sandstone finish as a homage to the Planet Crait and a red Star Wars logo. The interesting thing here is that the alert slider is also red in colour. Just like the OnePlus 5T, the device has a nice build quality and fits well in the hand. The buttons are well-placed for an easy reach.

    Kylo Ren Case

    Specifications

    The limited edition Star Wars OnePlus 5T will be available only in the 8GB RAM variant with 128GB of onboard storage. Apart from the colour scheme and the Star Wars logo, there is nothing different in terms of hardware.

    The OnePlus 5T has a 6-inch Full Optic AMOLED display with a 2160 x 1080 px resolution and an 80.5% screen to body ratio.

    OnePlus 5T and Star Wars OnePlus 5T

    Under the hood, the OnePlus 5T has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, a 2.4GHz octa-core processor, 6GB or 8GB of RAM, 64GB or 128GB of onboard storage which cannot be expanded. Powering the device is a 3300 mAh battery which supports OnePlus’ DashCharge technology.

    The OnePlus 5T runs stock Android 7.1.1 Nougat with customisability options thanks to the Oxygen OS on top.

    One big change in the OnePlus 5T is in the camera department. Unlike the OnePlus 5, the OnePlus 5T no longer has a secondary telephoto lens at the back. Instead, OnePlus has decided to focus on the device’s low-light photography capabilities. The cameras do not have OIS and OnePlus has decided to go for EIS on the dual camera setup at the back. The device has a 16MP camera with an f/1.7 aperture coupled with a 20MP sensor with the same f/1.7 aperture and field of view, ie no optical zoom. On the front is a 20MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture.

    Buy it here

    Watch Our Full Unboxing Video Here-

  • Star Wars Limited Edition OnePlus 5T Launched In India At A Price Of Rs. 38999

    Star Wars Limited Edition OnePlus 5T Launched In India At A Price Of Rs. 38999

    Star Wars Limited Edition OnePlus 5T has been launched in India at a price of Rs. 38999. The new iteration of the recently launched OnePlus 5T will be sold via Amazon and various OnePlus experience stores in Bengaluru and Noida from the 15th of December.

    The main difference between the regular OnePlus 5T and the limited edition Star Wars OnePlus 5T is the colour combination. The new OnePlus 5T has a white back panel with a sandstone finish as a homage to the Planet Crait and the alert slider is now red in colour. There is also a Star Wars logo at the back of the phone which is red in colour.

    The limited edition Star Wars OnePlus 5T will be available only in the 8GB RAM variant with 128GB of onboard storage. Apart from the colour scheme and the Star Wars logo, there is nothing different in terms of hardware.

    The OnePlus 5T has a 6-inch Full Optic AMOLED display with a 2160 x 1080 px resolution and an 80.5% screen to body ratio.

    Under the hood, the OnePlus 5T has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, a 2.4GHz octa-core processor, 6GB or 8GB of RAM, 64GB or 128GB of onboard storage which cannot be expanded. Powering the device is a 3300 mAh battery which supports OnePlus’ DashCharge technology.

    The OnePlus 5T runs stock Android 7.1.1 Nougat with customisability options thanks to the Oxygen OS on top.

    One big change in the OnePlus 5T is in the camera department. Unlike the OnePlus 5, the OnePlus 5T no longer has a secondary telephoto lens at the back. Instead, OnePlus has decided to focus on the device’s low-light photography capabilities. The cameras do not have OIS and OnePlus has decided to go for EIS on the dual camera setup at the back. The device has a 16MP camera with an f/1.7 aperture coupled with a 20MP sensor with the same f/1.7 aperture and field of view, ie no optical zoom. On the front is a 20MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture.

    Buy it here

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