Category: Tech

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

Sony Teases the Camera Capabilities of the Upcoming Xperia Z5

Sony has recently put out up a teaser, of what is being rumoured to be the new Xperia Z5. The teaser mentions a ‘greater focus’ feature, which perhaps suggests a phase detection system.

The company used their official Twitter account to reveal:

https://twitter.com/sonyxperiagb/status/635851614083878912

It is known that Sony has already implemented this in the Xperia M5, so therefore it seems likely. But there have been no official announcements. Even the idea of a Z-series is speculated, however, there have been many leaked images of an alleged Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact.

All we can do now, is wait for the IFA Berlin event and see what happens. Watch this space for exclusive updates.

August 26, 2015

Panasonic’s New Eluga Switch Comes With a Reversible Full HD Display

Panasonic has launched its Eluga switch today in India. This phone is touted to be the best in “The Japanese industry, technology and user experience to the Indian consumer.”

The Eluga Switch features a 5.5 inch full HD reversible display. This is an exclusive feature of the device which also claims to orient the display to face the user, even when held upside down.

“The Eluga Switch does exactly what it was imagined to do, offer two vertical screen orientations in one handheld device. A user can effortlessly ‘switch’ between an upright and inverted smartphone. The Switch is the epitome of consumer preferences, designed by keeping into consideration extensive customer feedback and expert technology.” – Mr. Pankaj Rana, Business Head, Mobility Division, Panasonic India

This handset has a 4G/LTE connection and is powered by the Qualcomm 1.5GHz Octa Core Snapdragon 615 Processor, a 13 MP rear camera, an 8 MP front-facing camera with a 84 degree wide viewing angle.

The audio technology in this phone features JBL powered 1.2W dual front speakers with Hi-Fi sound quality. The body is packaged in a 7.5mm super sleek gun metal gray metallic frame, weighing only 141 gm. It has 2GB of RAM space with 32GB of internal memory that is supported by a 2910mAh Li-on battery.

The display of this phone is protected by the Asahi Dragon Trail Glass with Oleophobic Coating while the 3D audio technology ARKAMYS and the DJ Mix music player makes it ‘every audiophile’s dream’.

Here are the specs:

OS	Android™ 5.0 (Lollipop) with Reversible UI
Display	13.97cm (5.5) FHD IPS OGS FL Screen
Display Protection	Asahi Dragon Trail Glass with Oleophobic Coating
Processor	1.5GHz Octa Core Snapdragon 615 Processor
Memory	2GB RAM / 32GB Internal memory
Camera	8MP Front / 13MP Rear camera
Audio	JBL Powered 1.2W Dual Front Speakers with Hi-Fi Sound & 3D audio(ARKAMYS)
Battery	2910mAh
Wireless communication technologies	NFC, Android Beam, Wireless Display, Bluetooth™ 4.1, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct, Global Positioning System (A-GPS), FM with RDS
USB Connectivity	USB 2.0 with OTG support for Pen Drive access
Sensors	Gyroscope, Ambient Light sensor, Accelerometer, e-compass, Proximity sensor
Connectivity technologies	GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz, UMTS 850/900/1900/2100MHz, LTE (Band 1/3/7/8/20)
Special features	Reversible User Interface with single access to apps, Smart Awake – Double Tap to wake-up screen, DJ Mix
Form factor	Unibody Design with Metallic Frame
Item Weight	141 gm
Product Dimensions	152.7×75.14×7.4
Colour	Gun Metal Grey
What’s in the box	Handset (Inclusive of Battery), Indian Standard Charger, Data Cable, JBL Headset, Screen Guard, SIM Insert Pin and Quick Start Guide

August 25, 2015

Flipkart Will Now Let You ‘Ping’ Your Friends While Shopping Online

Flipkart has announced a social networking service called ‘Ping’ today. It is a part of the Flipkart app and is an initiative by the company to bring a social element to your e-commerce shopping experience.

How does it work? Ping essentially allows you to talk to your friends and family when you are shopping for a particular product. So now, the store experience will come alive, whether you’re buying a gift for your mother on her birthday and you need your dad’s opinion or if you’re simply contemplating on buying shoes that you’ve been eyeballing for a while.

Ping allows you to share photos, wish lists and the products in your cart so that you can show them off to your loved ones and get an opinion. It automatically adds your friends through your smartphones Phonebook too. All you have to do is send them a text inviting them to Ping and if they don’t already have the feature, they will be asked to install it.

Flipkart’s Chief Product Officer Punit Soni stated that Ping’s design was original but the deign and UI look pretty similar to Facebook messenger. This app has been optimised to suit India and the network problems our country faces. Hence, Ping is 2MB in size, consuming less data, battery and is compatible with any smartphone running on Android 2.1 and above.

For now though, Ping is available only between you and your friends. However, the chat will soon become available to sellers, customer service and stakeholders in the e-commerce chain. You’ll be able to chat with anyone you like then.

Right now Ping has been launched with an invite model which means that only those who have an invite will be able to use the service and will also be able to share 10 invites with their friends.

Whatever said and done, this feature seems to be a well thought out and a convenient one.

August 25, 2015
Elephone Creates The Smallest Smartphone Run On Android KitKat

For those of us who are wary and uncomfortable with the new large smartphones, there’s a new small smartphone called, Elephone. This device is 2 inches small and runs on a custom version of Android 4.4.2 KitKat.

This smartphone can be used as an accessory to your larger smartphone, when you don’t feel like taking out your massive smartphone to listen to music etc. The camera however is said to be unsatisfactory because it is slow and displays pictures in a pixelated form.

This phone has not been officially named yet and is said to be available in markets later this year at $80, which is around Rs.5,303. Apart from this, Elephone is allegedly making a number of smartphones within China. So, maybe this is going to be the next Chinese brand to enter India.

However, the usefulness of this small smartphone is debatable. For example,One could lose this phone quite easily and it’s not that savvy looking either. So do you think smartphone companies are wasting their money trying to make older phones like the flip, slide and now a small phone? Or do you think it will work?

August 25, 2015
Leak: Samsung Might Use Snapdragon 820 For Its Upcoming Galaxy S7

Reports suggest that Samsung is already working on its next device – the Galaxy S7. A leak from Korea says that this new device might come with a Snapdragon 820 chipset.

Samsung has previously created its own processor due to the heating troubles of the Snapdragon 810. So, most of its devices, like the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5, are powered by the Exynos processor and have been successful till now. Let’s see whether the change in the processor will improve the quality of their devices.

Source: [tw-button size=”medium” background=”#07ABE2″ color=”” target=”_self” link=”http://news.dreamx.com/view.asp?articleno=21111519&classno=05″]news.dreamx[/tw-button]

August 25, 2015
Report: The Samsung Gear S2 to Include a Nano SIM

Samsung left fans excited when they teased the upcoming Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch at the S6 edge+ and Note 5 launch event. The upcoming smartwatch will be seen at the IFA Berlin, a day before the show starts, on September 3rd. At this point we know that it will have a round display and a metal build, along with a rotating bezel.

A report published yesterday stated that the Gear S2 will also come with a nano SIM slot, hence allowing the smart watch to connect to cellular networks. This seems like good news as users will be able to make calls and use the internet, all from their wrist. Naturally then, the Gear S2 will come with Wi-Fi connectivity.

Keeping these features in mind, one would think that the S2 is not very different from the Gear S as that too had a nano SIM card slot and Wi-Fi connectivity. However, appearance wise, the two devices look nothing like each other (the Gear S has a curved rectangular screen in contrast to the rounded design of the sequel).

While there has been no official confirmation on the price, the Gear S2 is rumoured to cost $462 USD ( approximately Rs. 30,000). However, September 3rd will reveal the true Gear S2, coupled with its pricing and features. Watch this space for more updates.

Source: [tw-button size=”medium” background=”#07ABE2″ color=”” target=”_self” link=”http://www.phonearena.com/news/Samsung-Gear-S2-smartwatch-rumored-to-include-nano-SIM-card_id72984″]Phonearena[/tw-button]

August 25, 2015
Huawei’s New Nexus Phablet Leak Shows An All-New Design

There have been rumours and reports about Google looking to upgrade its Nexus line, however, now we know that there are two phones set for this upgrade – the first one that is allegedly said to be made by LG and a phablet made by Huawei.

The Huawei images of the new Nexus phablet seems to have been leaked, with pictures suggesting that the display could be a 5.7 inch display and could possibly run on the Snapdragon 810 with a 3500mAh battery.

The Huawei Nexus images show a phone carrying both the Huawei and Nexus logos with a dual front-firing speakers and a fingerprint scanner on the back. The third image allegedly shows a USB Type C port along with rumours that this device could also be fully metal.

watch this space for more updates.

Source: [tw-button size=”medium” background=”#07ABE2″ color=”” target=”_self” link=”https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FOnLeaks%3Fref_src%3Dtwsrc&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFg5JeKpMiWlRSfMkdRHPTvDGRWMw”]OnLeaks[/tw-button]

August 24, 2015
Here’s a New Fuel Battery That Can Make Your iPhone Last a Week

New reports suggest that a British company called Intelligent Energy, has cracked the fuel cell miniaturization code,so that now, it can even fit in a hydrogen battery into an iPhone 6, without disturbing it’s original rechargeable battery inside. The hydrogen battery is said to have the ability to keep the iPhone 6 going up to an entire week without having to charge it.

The only inconvenience that has been spotted, is the fact that there will be some water vapour emitted through vents at the back. Intelligent Energy has not yet confirmed the pricing of the device but as of now, the prototype iPhone 6 with the weeklong fuel cell battery is recharged via an adapted audio jack socket.

August 24, 2015
Another Major Chinese Smartphone Manufacturer to Enter India

Meet ZOPO, a new Chinese smartphone company, that is planning to launch a phone called ZOPO Speed 7 in India on the 26th of August 2015. They have currently partnered with Advantage Computers India Pvt. Ltd. (ADCOM) to be their Indian distributor. The ZOPO Speed 7 will be sold online through an exclusive retailer and also through offline stores in India.

The phone is said to come with a 5 inch display and 1080 X 1920 pixels resolution along with a full HD view. It is powered by a 1.5GHz Octa-Core 64-bit MediaTek MT6753 processor with Mali-T720 GPU and a 3GB RAM. It has 16GB of internal memory which is expandable up to 64GB with the help of a microSD slot.

It is also run by the Android 5.1 (Lollipop) and connectivity features include a dual-SIM, 4G LTE / 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. The ZOPO 7 Speed comes with a 13.2MP rear camera with LED Flash and a 5MP front camera.

The dimensions of this phone are 146.1×70.6 x8.65mm and weight – 150g. The phone comes with a battery life of up to 2500mAh. It also comes in two colours – Black and White. You can buy the phone on Snapdeal from the 26th of August 2015, at Rs. 12,999.

However, the import of so many Chinese smartphones into India – Meizu, Xiaomi, OnePlus etc, providing high end services at lower rates, is really increasing the competition between Indian companies to step it up. We saw Micromax’s move of starting the Yu Yureka line up of devices to compete with the Chinese companies.

So should we allow the Chinese companies to export their products to India, or should we empower our own companies by boycotting the Chinese devices? Or should the Indian companies just stop whining and step it up? Feel free to leave your comments below.

August 24, 2015
The Kernel Source for the OnePlus 2 is Now Available

The Chinese manufacturer has officially made it possible for you to make custom ROMs for your OnePlus 2. Carl Pei, CEO, took to twitter to announce that kernel source for the OnePlus 2 is now open to the public, via GitHub.

This move means that developers will have full access to OxygenOS and can now make custom ROMs of the latest flagship smartphone in town.

The custom ROM that was based on Android 5.0 Lollipop was launched as a beta in April, this year. The company had already launched the OnePlus One with Cyanogen OS in April, last year. Later, Cyanogen partnered with Micromax, giving it full rights to sell Cyanogen-powered smartphones in India.

Because of this, OnePlus wasn’t allowed to sell Cyanogen OS based Android-powered smartphones in the country. However, they were allowed to finish selling their stock. Amidst the hue and cry, OnePlus then decided to launch its own Android- based OS. The company is well aware that their OS isn’t as popular as Cyanogen’s and hence opening its kernel source to users would make it imperative move to rope in customers.

The OnePlus’ custom ROM is now based on Android 5.1 Lollipop. It’s recent update was reportedly designed to patch the Stagefright vulnerability. Along with this, it also brought updates to the camera user interface that allows users to take slow motion videos at 120fps.

The update seems to have improved the battery life of the smartphone and also has several bug fixes. Download the kernel source from GitHub.

August 24, 2015
MIT Successfully Manages to Make 3D Printed Glass

A new development at MIT has shown us how to expand the 3D printing technology and use it to make 3D printed glass.

A method called G3DP is said to allow the creation of complex 3D glass structures to be printed in a similar fashion to plastic constructs. This process uses two chambers – one that acts as a kiln cartridge and the other that works to melt structures together. The molten glass is then distributed through an alumina-zircon-silica nozzle that pours the material out smoothly.

The entire process was developed by a team including the MIT Media Lab’s Mediated Matter group, the MIT Glass Lab, the Wyss Institute and MIT’s Mechanical Engineering Department. This new breakthrough is also said to advance the process of creating fiber optic cables that transmit data more efficiently. One of the project’s leaders, Neri Oxman, while conducting research said :

“Now [we can] consider printable optoelectronics, or the possibility of combining optical fibers for high-speed data transmission by light, combined within glass printed building facades.”

One of the research’s vision is to one day employ this technology in building facades. However, reports suggest that the entire process is slow and therefore not efficient enough, but it can still create complex structures for other purposes.

There has been no information regarding the implementation of this device by any commercial application, but the MIT G3DP is going to be showcased at an exhibit in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York next year.

August 24, 2015
Huawei Beats Apple to it; New Mate S to Feature Force Touch Tech

Year after year, we see minor yet significant new features in smartphones. At one point the fingerprint scanner stole all the attention, this year it seems it is ‘Force Touch’. According to reports, Huawei’s Mate S, that is expected to be revealed at this year’s IFA event next month, might come with the the same technology. This information was revealed in a listing that appeared on OppoMart.

The Force Touch technology is also said to feature on Apple’s upcoming smartphone next month – iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. It was first introduced by Apple with the Macbook. This feature allows a device to differentiate between a light and strong touch and reacting accordingly. Other secifications for the Mate S, that have been revealed are – home-grown Kirin 935 SoC, 5.7-inch (1080 x 1920 resolution) display, 3GB RAM, and 64GB of expandable internal memory. A 20MP rear cameraand an 8MP front camera.

It comes with a 4100 mAh battery and runs on the Android Lollipop 5.1 along with the Emotion 3.1 UI. and a fingerprint scanner. The device is currently priced at $599 which is approximately Rs. 39,815.

August 24, 2015
Reports Suggest Google’s Android Pay Might Release This Week

Apart from its burgers and fries, McDonald’s is also known for being quite tech savvy. They have free Wi-Fi, complimentary iPads and were even one of Apple Pay’s first few partners. Now, recent information also suggests that the McDonald’s is preparing employees to be ready for the new Android Pay system.

The exact date of release, that has been indicated by a leaked memo is said to be on the 26th of August 2015. The Android Pay was announced at Google’s I/O developer conference in May and is said to launch in the United States first.

Android Pay relieves users from the hassle of carrying cards and the payment is done at merchants’ contactless terminals. Simply unlock the device and as soon as you place it near the machine’s NFC reader, a card interface will pop up automatically. Fingerprint scanning isn’t a must. Pick from the virtual cards to complete your payment. With this, you are done. Payment confirmation and transaction details will be received on your smartphone. There is no need to call up Android Pay and put in a separate PIN or password to authenticate payments. Android Pay deals with all by integrating with the security of the operating system.

The Android Pay has the same results as Apple Pay – you can swipe your phone instead of using cash or cards. Further reports also suggest that the new Android Pay will run on the Android KitKat or above.

However, Google has not made any official statement about the release of their new feature.

August 24, 2015
Weekly Tech Highlights : Marshmallow, WhatsApp Web for iOS and More

This week was loaded with new product releases and announcements from around the world. We have compiled a list of news that made the rounds.

Google M Gets a Name!

We were debating over M&Ms, Malteasers and even – Malai Kulfi. However this year’s Android name is Marshmallow. This news was announced by Dave Burke, Android’s VP of Engineering via his Twitter account on Monday. Reports also suggest, that Google has released a “near-final” SDK version of the new operating system for developers.

Click here for more details.

WhatsApp Opens Up its Web Service to iOS Users – Finally!

The WhatsApp web client had been launched in January 2015 and has since been available to Google, Windows, Blackberry and Nokia operating systems. However, this is the first time it has been available for Apple’s smartphone device. This service allows you to send and receive messages on your computers and phones.

Click here to read more.

India Pricing of the Samsung S6 edge+ Revealed

The S6 Edge+ has now been launched in India as well. The smartphone is priced at Rs 57,900, and will go on sale from August 28 onwards. From what we hear, only the gold and silver colour variants with 32GB storage will be made available in India.

Click here for more info.

Apple Begins Replacing iPhone 6 Plus’ With Faulty Cameras

Apple Inc. has announced the launch of its iSight Camera replacement program for the iPhone 6 Plus. This program is said to help replace the camera module in some of the iPhone 6 Plus devices that have allegedly come with a faulty rear camera.

Click here for more info.

Upcoming Android Devices Will Come With Less Google Bloatware

Android users all around the world will soon be getting less bloatware on their phones. Therefore apps like – Google+, Google Play Games, Google Play Books and Google Newsstand will not come pre-installed.

Click here for more info.

Meet the 16 Year Old Who’s Challenging Google Search

16 year old, Anmol Tukrel is an Indian-origin Canadian citizen who is now challenging the Google search engine. He has designed a personalised search engine that he claims is 47 percent more accurate than Google and is 21 percent more accurate, on an average.

More info here.

Silent Circle Announces the Second Edition of its Super Secure Smartphone

The second edition of Silent Circle’s privacy-focused handset, called Blackphone 2 has been made official. This device is now available for pre-order, however, the price has not been announced as yet.

More details here.

Asus Deluxe Edition Zenfone 2 Comes With a Massive 256GB Internal Storage

Asus has unveiled the Deluxe Special Edition of Asus Zenfone 2 in Brazilon Friday. The feature that makes this phone truly ‘deluxe’ is the fact that it comes with a 256 GB of internal storage.

Specs and more details here.

August 23, 2015
Report: Pre-Order the New iPhone 6s, 6s Plus September 11 Onwards

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are both said to arrive on the 9th of September 2015. However, a leaked image from a company in France suggests that its employees can start pre-ordering the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, starting September 11th 2015.

This new date also would suggest that the announcement of the two new iPhones should be on the 8th or 9th September, thereby further confirming rumours. According to these reports then, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus should be available from the 18th of September 2015.

These new devices are expected to come with a 12MP camera, an A9 SoC, 2GB of RAM, and the much awaited Force Touch. Apple, however, has not confirmed any of the rumours.

Source

August 22, 2015