As strange as the names may sound, LeEco has launched the Le 2, Le 2 Pro and Le Max 2 phones at their Beijing event held today.
LeEco Le 2: Has a 5.5-inch full HD (1080p) display and is powered by MediaTek’s Helio X20 with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. The primary Camera is a 16-megapixel with aperture f/2.0 with PDAF and LED flash; The front camera is an 8-megapixel shooter. The Le 2 is a seques to the Le 1s and will feature a 3,000mAh battery with fast charging support
LeEco Le 2 Pro: The Le 2 and Le 2 Pro are identical in appearance, powered by MediaTek’s Helio X25 deca-core chipset with 4GB of RAM and 32GB and 64GB internal storage variants. The Le 2 Pro has a 21-megapxiel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front camera.
LeEco Le Max 2: The Le Max 2 has a 5.7-inch QHD display with a resolution of 2560×1440 pixels. Based on the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 quad-core with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage. The phone runs on a 3,100mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0.
All the phone run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS with LeEco’s customized EUI 5.5.
Pricing for the phones is kept at 1,099 yuan ($170) for the Le 2, 1,499 yuan ($230) for the Le 2 Pro, 2,099 yuan ($325) for the basic (4GB RAM and 32GB storage) Le Max 2 and just 2,499 yuan ($390) for the high end(6GB RAM and 64GB storage) version. Pre-order starts on April 20th in China.
LeSEE Supercar concept
The LeSEE concept car has hands-free automatic drive capabilities. Along with facial recognition, emotion recognition, system recognition, and path recognition.
Delhi Metro is not the only one working on Free Wi-Fi. Google is woking with the Indian Railways and Railtel to provide High-Speed Wireless Internet access to 100 Railway stations by the end of this year and a total of 400 Stations in the coming years. A service which will be free to all passengers and visitors.
The service has already been launched at 9 stations including Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Ernakulam Jn, Kacheguda, Pune, Raipur, Ranchi, Vijayawada, and Vishakhapatnam. In January, the service was launched at Mumbai Central which makes the list a complete 10.
Google aims to make free Wi-Fi available to 10 Million Indians every day in its goal to hit 100 Railway stations by the end of 2016. The service is already a success according to Google with over 100,000 users logging in daily at Mumbai Central alone.
Google’s target of 400 stations may take a few years to come, but the service will be appreciated by everyone none the less.
DMRC or Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is working on launching free Wi-Fi for all its passengers at all 187 stations and 250 + Km of track on its 222 trains. The service will be free to passengers and will be rolled out by the end of 2016.
Delhi Metro Network is amongst the largest Metro Networks in the world with ridership touching 3.5 Million in a day. With lines launching in 2016 which will also interconnect existing lines, daily ridership is expected to increase dramatically.
The current model is set to provide seamless connectivity via the Metro app or a Third party app which will also track your location and tell you wat station you are on or if your stop has arrived.
Earlier this year DMRC had also announced smart-tags which could be managed using their app to be reloaded and used to access train stations. The DMRC is trying to catch up with the modern world. Hopefully, their execution is as exciting as these launch announcements.
Apple’s Retina Macbook had a lot of buyers last year, despite its high price tag and low specs. This year Apple has updated the Retina MacBook and added a Rose Gold option, considering a lot of people seem to like that color. Spec wise changes include :
6th Generation Intel Core M 1.3-GHz processor
8 GB of 1866 MHz memory
Intel HD Graphics 515
PCIe-based flash storage
41.4-watt/hour lithium-polymer battery
Up to 10 hours of battery life
Rose gold color option
Things that should have changed but have not include a single USB TYPE C port and the pricing which has changed in India but not for good. The new Retina MacBook comes with a 1.1 GHz dual-core Intel Core m3 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.2 GHz, 8GB of memory and 256GB of flash storage for MRP INR 106900 , and with a 1.2 GHz dual-core Intel Core m5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.7 GHz, 8GB of memory and 512GB of flash storage for MRP INR 129900. Configure-to-order options include a 1.3 GHz dual-core Intel Core m7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.1 GHz.
While the US price remains at US $ 12999 for the 1.1 GHz variant and US$ 1599 for the 1.2 GHz variant.
The Moto X-Force which has a shatter shield display is now available for Rs 34999 after a massive discount of Rs. 15000 has been applied to it. The X-Force which initially launched for Rs. 49999 received huge flack for the pricing and it looks like the company wants to make this device more affordable for the consumer.
The display on the X-Force is really the key for the handset, made up of multiple layers of clear polycarbonate the display doesn’t really shatter. We ran multiple tests of the handset to try and break the screen and found it surviving all of them. The best part is that the 64 GB variant is available for just Rs. 3000 at Rs 37999
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Specification
Moto X Force
Display
5.4 inch Quad HD AMOLED with ShatterShield technology
Apple may be working on an iPhone that may shed metal from the front and rear giving it a unique rounded glass design. A single piece of glass that goes from front to back held in place with liquid metal sides.
This may be this year’s redesign or a variant of the iPhone which may launch in 2017 as perhaps the iPhone Pro. Apple has previously used glass front and back on the iPhone 4 and 4s.
The new iPhone will also have an AMOLED display which will allow the iPhone to become lighter and thinner, which in turn will also allow Apple to utilize the Apple Watch type 3D touch technique.
According to industry reports, Apple has already placed a $2.59 billion order to Samsung which is to supply 100 million 5.5-inch OLED displays starting 2017.
Which makes the iPhone 7 launching this year a non-AMOLED display based device, leaving a lot of Apple fans disappointed. Most leaks of the iPhone 7 have shown of similar iPhone 6/6s style designs with aluminum backs. With Apple revamping the iPhone lineup in 2017, the 2016 winter may not belong to the Cupertino fruit company.
But, as with all launches, we won’t know till we know.
In the near future wearable tech, not watches and glasses, but the tech that you wear right on your skin may become something that we take for granted. However, we might be headed in that direction sooner than expected. University of Tokyo researchers have developed an optoelectronic skin whose polymer LEDs and organic photodetectors are thin enough to directly slap onto your skin. This 3 Micrometer thin display at the moment doesn’t do much more than tell your blood oxygen concentration levels.
This 3 Micrometer thin display at the moment doesn’t do much more than tell your blood oxygen concentration levels. The current prototype is a little rough and requires a lot of refinement, however it the display can be crumpled and stretches without affecting output result and may make for a great first step in finding a true wearable display skin in the near future.
Thin-film electronics intimately laminated onto the skin imperceptibly equip the human body with electronic components for health-monitoring and information technologies. When electronic devices are worn, the mechanical flexibility and/or stretchability of thin-film devices helps to minimize the stress and discomfort associated with wear because of their conformability and softness. For industrial applications, it is important to fabricate wearable devices using processing methods that maximize throughput and minimize cost. We demonstrate ultraflexible and conformable three-color, highly efficient polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) and organic photodetectors (OPDs) to realize optoelectronic skins (oe-skins) that introduce multiple electronic functionalities such as sensing and displays on the surface of human skin. The total thickness of the devices, including the substrate and encapsulation layer, is only 3 ?m, which is one order of magnitude thinner than the epidermal layer of human skin. By integrating green and red PLEDs with OPDs, we fabricate an ultraflexible reflective pulse oximeter. The device unobtrusively measures the oxygen concentration of blood when laminated on a finger. On-skin seven-segment digital displays and color indicators can visualize data directly on the body.
Apple has run its recycling program for a very long time and users often return their old beat down phones to Apple in efforts to properly dispose of the ruined smartphone. Apple’s latest Environmental Responsibility Report (PDF) shows that it recovered 89 million pounds of materials in its recycling program last year, including $40 million worth of gold.
Gold is used in many Apple portable components and circuit boards because “it has low electrical resistance and, unlike copper, doesn’t corrode.” This adds to the efficiency of the product and if recycled properly can save the wastage of the precious material.
Apple has already shown off its interests in Recycling this year, pushing the user to add to helping save the environment and the new Auto Recycling Robot LIAM.
HTC India has confirmed that it will be bringing the HTC 10 to India , that too earlier than before. While the news on which variant will launch in India remains mum, sources close to iGyaan tell us that the HTC 10 will be launched in both variants. The HTC 10 with Snapdragon 820 for those looking for a high-end device, along with the Snapdragon 652 variant for those looking for the handset in a less powerful format.
The source also tells us that the HTC 10 Life which sports the Snapdragon 652 will be cheaper and will be launched in India for less than Rs. 35000, whereas the HTC 10 with Snapdragon 820 will be launched for Rs. 47000 with 32 GB of storage. The Taiwanese company may not launch the HTC 10 with 64 GB of storage in India.
The HTC 10 will also come only in the Carbon Grey, Glacier Silver and Topaz Gold leaving out the highly coveted Camellia Red for the Indian market.
LG has just launched the K7 LTE and K10 LTE variants in India, for Rs. 9500 and Rs. 13500 respectively. For the specs available on these handsets, they cost a lot more than most of the competition.
The K7 features a 5.0 inch 480 x 854 pixel IPS display, Qualcomm MSM8909 Snapdragon 210 chipset with Quadcore 1.1 GHz along with 8GB Storage and 1.5 GB RAM. The phone has a 8 MP primary Camera that shoots 720p video and a 5 MP front camera.
The build of the phone is exciting and feels premium, the display is shabby for the price, offering roughly 191 ppi. The back panel adds a lot of grip, and the overall form factor fits well in the hands.
The K10, on the other hand has an entirely different back panel which looks and feels a whole lot better than the one on the K7. Specs wise a 5.2 inch 1280 x 720 px display, Qualcomm MSM8916 Snapdragon 410 with Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53, Adreno 306 GPU. The Phone will come with 16 GB Storage and 1.5 GB RAM. The K10 on the back has a bigger sensor with 13 MP, f/2.2 and autofocus while the front gets a 8 MP camera both offering a maximum of 1080p video.
While both these phones feature a 2.5D arc screen which curves out to the edge, only the K10 comes with an included cover offers Galaxy S7 type Edge notifications, with the use of the cover.
LG’s plans seem unsure with the K series and with such high pricing, we are not sure if people will even look to buy these handsets, thanks to mighty competition of the LeEco and Xiaomi variety.
Nextbit Robin made its debut last year for being a new concept phone which makes onboard stoareg a non issue, With the cloud integrated into Android OS, onboard storage is merged with the cloud.
The San Fransisco based tech company is launching its Smartphone in the evergrowing market of India this month. The phone features a 5.2-inch full-HD (1080×1920 pixels) display on a plastic body. It is powered by Qualcomm’s hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor coupled with 3GB of RAM and 32 GB of onboard storage and 100 GB cloud storage space. Other features of the Nextbit Robin include a 2680mAh battery, a 13-megapixel rear camera, a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.
The phone received raving reviews in the US, although early adopters complained about the experience. The dependence on high speed data may become an issue in India. So let’s see how the company will translate the US $ 400 price tag into the Indian currency, and if this phone crosses the Rs. 25000 price mark it may not make a lot of sense to the consumer.
Micromax has launched a whole lot of new phones at today’s launch, led by the Canvas 6 and Canvas 6 Pro their new flagships.
The new Canvas 6 comes with a metal unibody design and a fingerprint sensor on the back. While the Canvas 6 Pro features a Plastic body and is missing the fingerprint scanner. Both phones have a 5.5-inch 1080p display. While the Canvas 6 runs on a MediaTek chipset of an unknown moniker, the 6 Pro runs on an Helio X10 chipset. The Canvas 6 sports 3GB RAM, 32GB internal memory, whereas funnily the Canvas 6 Pro has 4 GB of RAM but lower stage at just 16 GB.
The Canvas 6 Pro will cost Rs. 13999 and is up for Pre-Order now on Micromax’s online store.
Both the Canvas 6 and Canvas 6 Pro have Dual Sim and microSD expandability. For optics the phones have a 13MP rear camera with LED Flash, with PDAF and a f/2.0 aperture, the front camera on the Canvas 6 is 8 MP whereas on the Canvas 6 Pro is 5 MP with a Wide Lens.
Canvas 6 Pro
The launch was more to talk about the Company’s plans and a newly revamped identity, which adds a cleaner look to the logo and changes the tagline, from the grammatically incorrect “Nothing Like Anything” to a more youthful “Nuts.Guts.Glory”. Equally strange if you ask us.
The company also announced that it is rebranding the “Around YU” service and calling it “Around” and it will be available across the Micromax Portfolio of devices.
Micromax also launched some laptab notebooks and new televisions at the launch.
The HTC 10 will ship in four colors: Carbon Grey, Glacier Silver, Topaz Gold, and Camellia Red, and they’ll come in two versions with different Qualcomm Snapdragon processors depending on the market, in the U.S., it’ll come with Snapdragon 820 whereas in markets like India it will come with Snapdragon 652.
That’s it for HTC’s mega event before the company could even begin the virtual launch, the details of their handset have leaked all over the internet. For specs a 5.2-inch display with 2K Quad HD resolution, a 2.2GHz Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, a 12-megapixel rear camera with “UltraPixel” capabilities, 32GB or 64GB of internal storage, microSDXC support up to 2TB, Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and a large 3,000 mAh battery. The report also says that BoomSound has been reworked in the new HTC 10, with “HTC BoomSound HiFi Edition” featuring Dolby audio technology replacing last year’s BoomSound setup.
These are not the first leaks of HTC’s next Flagship, and with the launch only hours away. There is not a lot more to expect from HTC but the global price of the phone.
At this very moment, the largest debate in the world is around Whatsapp and their brand new End to End Encryption.
With the Apple vs. FBI debacle just barely out the door, a new threat to “National Security” of many governments is the encryption of messages on the world’s largest messaging app. This app which daily carries personal data of nearly a billion users has just pushed a major upgrade that will encrypt the messages, files, images, videos, etc. of each chat from a point of origin to a point of receiving.
How does it work?
If both users of a Whatsapp message (i.e. the sender and recipient) have updated to the latest update, then their message is encrypted with a 256-bit algorithm. Which in turn means that, apart from the sender and the recipient of said message, no one will know what message was sent, including WhatsApp.
WhatsApp uses what’s called public key encryption: To send a message to User B, User A asks a WhatsApp server for a public key that applies to User B. User A then uses the public key to encrypt the message. User B’s private key—only available on User B’s phone—decrypts the message.
Image via Wired
The encryption method is so diverse the service will encrypt all messages, phone calls, photos, and videos moving among them. And that’s true on any phone that runs the app, from iPhones to Android phones to Windows phones to old school flip phones.
To get more information on how this works you can download WhatsApp’s Whitepaper here.
Why Did it Happen?
Jan Koum, WhatsApps founder, was one of the first to voice support for Apple in the Apple vs. FBI debate. The company has been encrypting some of the information on the messages since 2013.
Facebook, which is WhatsApp’s parent company, is also trying to implement encryption in their messaging systems, and with WhatsApp’s encryption out the door, this may happen sooner than later.But, why is all of this important for us as users? The answer to this question lies within our thought processes. After the biggest information leak by Edward Snowden, it has become apparent that governments have become careless in combating terrorism. To the point where they are breaking the fundamentals of privacy and collecting data on each of their citizens, breachings the basics of the law systems set in many countries.
We’ve been working for the past two years to give people better security over their conversations on WhatsApp… People deserve security. It makes it possible for us to connect with our loved ones. It gives us the confidence to speak our minds. It allows us to communicate sensitive information with colleagues, friends, and others. We’re glad to do our part in keeping people’s information out of the hands of hackers and cyber-criminals. – Said Jan Koum
But, why is all of this important for us as users?
The answer to this question lies within our thought processes. After the biggest information leak by Edward Snowden, it has become apparent that governments have started collecting personal analogue and digital data, which is an equivalent of hundreds and thousands of email, calls, personal images, videos, and messages.
Snooping in on private moments has been the biggest conversation of the past few years. With WhatsApp adding a no backdoor system the data on the service becomes completely private. No requests by the governments will be entertained, and WhatsApp has made that loudly clear.
This will ensure privacy to a billion users of the largest messaging application in the world. Which means no matter what moment you share on this app with the latest update, you can be assured no one is snooping in on it.
But it is not only the governments that this information encryption is trying to prevent. Hundreds of hackers and cyber-thieves are constantly on the lookout for an easy payday. This encryption will protect sensitive data from being easily taken and used against you. This also prevents identity theft and many other cyber crimes that one may have become a victim to in the past.
What About the Security Risk?
Many Governments and security agencies will debate, that this will help terrorists communicate easier, and security will mostly be broken. In pushing back against end-to-end encryption, the US government argues that it’s merely trying to maintain the status quo—that it has long had the power to issue a warrant for communications data.
With no backdoor, WhatsApp data will not be decrypted; no information apart from timestamps and metadata of when the messages were sent and possibly who they were sent to will be available to the app makers themselves.
Encryption is one of the most important tools governments, companies, and individuals have to promote safety and security in the new digital age. Recently there has been a lot of discussion about encrypted services and the work of law enforcement. While we recognize the important work of law enforcement in keeping people safe, efforts to weaken encryption risk exposing people’s information to abuse from cybercriminals, hackers, and rogue states. – WhatsApp
For the time being it seems that the free world citizens are winning the battle over privacy. But the security agencies and governments are not ones to sit back and watch quietly. For one there remains a significant vulnerability for privacy-concerned people using WhatsApp to communicate. The metadata about communications is not secret. The government, could, for example, demand to know from Facebook/WhatsApp with whom a particular user communicated, when he or she did so, and how frequently. They may even be able to tell where the parties to a conversation were located when the conversation took place.
The metadata and timestamps about communications are not secret. The governments could demand to know from Facebook/WhatsApp with whom a particular user communicated, when he or she did so, and how frequently. They may even be able to tell where the parties to a conversation were located when the conversation took place.
