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Apple to Release the iPhone 6c in Mid-2016

There have been a lot of rumours lately surrounding Apple’s upcoming iPhone 7 devices. While majority of the rumours suggest that Apple is working on two versions of the iPhone 7, other rumours also hint at a third device. However, this third device will not be part of the iPhone 7 series but will be a cheaper version of the iPhone 6. Like the iPhone 5c, Apple could come out with an iPhone 6c by mid-2016.

Kevin Wang from IHS has stated that Apple is working on a budget-oriented iPhone 6 handset. This handset will be a smaller version with a 4-inch display and will come with a plastic body similar to the 5c. This rumour also aligns with an earlier report from Ming-Chi Kuo, who has an excellent track record with predicting Apple’s product pipeline. Kuo predicted the 4-inch iPhone would launch in the first half of 2016.

The scaled down version of the iPhone 6 will indeed come with a few missing features. As the device was pegged as a cheaper iPhone 7 variant rather than a 6, what’s for certain is that the 6c will not come with 3D Touch. This makes sense as Apple will still look to push sales of its main flagship devices next year. As usual, these rumours must be taken with a grain of salt. The image above of the iPhone 6c is a concept design released a couple of months ago by 3DFuture.

Source: [tw-button size=”medium” background=”#07ABE2″ color=”” target=”_blank” link=”http://weibo.com/login.php”]Weibo[/tw-button]

November 18, 2015
Microsoft Puts Android Support Project On Hold Due To Security Concerns

Microsoft had announced back in April that they were planning on supporting a quick reuse of their software on iOS and Android devices. This was so that they could create universal apps across devices. However, from the beginning this intention seemed shaky, and we finally now know that Microsoft has put Android support on hold.

Even though there hasn’t been any official statement about the discontinuity of Project Astoria (name of the Android support project), reports do firmly suggest that this collaboration is definitely on hold. The reason for this could be security and optimization problems.

“We’re committed to offering developers many options to bring their apps to the Windows platform, including bridges available now for Web and iOS, and soon Win32. The Astoria Bridge is not ready yet, but other tools offer great options to developers.” says Microsoft.

Therefore, what we can insinuate is that there still might be some hope help for Android in this sphere. Meanwhile, the company is focusing on iOS migration tools, which have in the past, proven to be more compatible with the Windows 10.

November 18, 2015
Google’s Next Glass Will Not Have Glass

The team of Google Glass, now called Project Aura, is reportedly working on three new prototypes of wearable technology. One of them happens to be a gadget which relies entirely on audio. It is unclear at this point how it will be different from any other pair of headphones or a Bluetooth earpiece. However, it is highly likely to be part of the Project’s work on hands-free computing.

Started in June as the successor to the Google Glass division, Project Aura was initially part of Google X “moonshots” lab. It’s now headed by Tony Fadell, the Nest Labs CEO, along with the reputed designer, Ivy Ross.

When Amazon laid off a bunch of its engineers, many of whom were audio experts, Google gave them refuge. Now they seem to be working on developing the audio-focused gadget for Google.

At the same time, Project Aura won’t get rid of screens altogether. The company is working on two other devices other than this audio-only gadget. The other two gizmos are likely to have screens and are reportedly meant for businesses that require head-mounted display. Let’s see how this Project and its goals pan out. We’ll update you as soon as we have more information.

November 17, 2015
Xiaomi Slashes the Price of the Mi 4i

Xiaomi is dropping the price of the 16GB variant of the Mi 4i. The new pricing will put the smartphone at Rs. 11,999 starting at 00:00hrs on 18^th November 2015 on Mi.com, as well as across all Mi India partners including Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, The Mobile Store and Airtel.

Xiaomi applied its powerful design and engineering capabilities to create Mi 4i, which was launched globally at a premiere in New Delhi in April this year. The Xiaomi Mi 4i has a 5-inch Full HD OGS IPS display with 441ppi pixel density. The processor powering the phone is a 64-bit octa-core Cortex-A53; the four cores clocked at 1.7 GHz and the other four at 1.1 GHz. It features 2GB of RAM and 16GB of non-expandable storage space. The Mi 4i runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop with the company’s MIUI 6 on top.

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Other features include a 13MP rear and a 5MP shooter. The dual-SIM device is powered by a 3120mAh battery. Connectivity options include Micro-USB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi.

November 17, 2015
Strontium Announces USB Type-C OTG Kit For New Age Devices

Strontium Technology Pte. Limited has announced a Strontium Type-C Mobile Kit which comes along with a NITRO UHS-I microSDXC card and a Type-C card reader. This feature will help the tranfering of files between new-generation smartphones, tablets and laptops equipped with USB Type-C ports and the Mac/PC with standard USB ports.

The NITRO UHS-I microSDXC card maximizes the transfer speed of up to 85MB/s. Apart from enhacing the efficiency and speed of transfers it also plays back and transfers media data with extended durations of 1080 full HD and 3D videos. This USC Type-C connector is reversible and can plug in any way.

The Strontium Type-C Mobile Kit also fits in as a mobile data solution for MacBook, smartphones, tablets, GPS and digital camcorders. It comes in two memory variants – 64GB and 128GB and is priced at Rs. 3699 /- and Rs. 9349/- respectively.

November 17, 2015
The ‘Lol’ Emoji is Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year

Language purists are not going to be happy with this latest linguistic development. In a first of its kind incident, the word of the year chosen by Oxford English Dictionary is not even a word to begin with, it’s an emoji. Oxford Dictionary’s lexicographers study linguistic trends every year and announce a word annually. In the past words like ‘GIF’ (2012), ‘selfie’ (2013) and ‘vape’ (2014) have made it to the list.

The close contenders this year were ‘dark web’, ‘refugee’, ‘they’ and ‘lumbersexual’, among others. However, needless to say, the emoticon won hands down.

“You can see how traditional alphabet scripts have been struggling to meet the rapid-fire, visually focused demands of 21st century communication. It’s not surprising that a pictographic script like emoji has stepped in to fill those gaps,” says Oxford Dictionaries’ president Casper Grathwohl.

The emoticon is a smiley face weeping tears of laughter and is officially called “Face with Tears of Joy”. The emoji is also a replacement for ‘LOL’ in virtual lingo. It is believed to reflect the “ethos, mood or preoccupations” of the times.

The usage of emojis started as early as 2003 but the past couple of months has seen a surprisingly increased use of the little pictographs to convey emotions in an otherwise dull and emotionless mode of communication, even leading to the recent addition of an emoji keyboard in the tech world.

The emoji announced by OED was chosen in conjunction with technology firm SwiftKey. It was the research of this firm which affirmed that the emoji was the most-used around the world in the last year. If you were to choose a word for 2015, what would it be?

November 17, 2015

Microsoft Begins Pre-Orders For the Lumia 950 XL

We have some good news for all the Lumia users, Microsoft has finally started taking pre-orders for the Lumia 950 XL that will come with the new Windows 10 software installed. This version will not be available at all carriers, so if you are in the US you can purchase an unlocked variant of the smartphone. Just to give you a recap, here are the specifications of the phone:

Feature	Lumia 950 XL
Display	5.7 inches
Resolution	1440 x 2560 pixels
Processor	Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810
RAM	3 GB RAM
Internal Storage	32 GB, microSD, up to 200 GB
Rear Camera	20MP
Front Camera	5MP
Battery	Li-Ion 3340 mAh battery
Connections	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, hotspot, Bluetooth v4.1, A2DP, GPS, NFC
USB	v3.1, Type-C reversible connector
Price	$649 (approx. Rs.42,844)

Reports also suggest that you will be eligible to receive a free Microsoft Display Dock through the Lumia Offers app, on purchase of the Lumia 950 XL. The phone is expected to ship by the 25th of November 2015.

Microsoft has priced this smartphone at $650 which rounds up to about Rs.42,844 and is available in two colour variants – black and white. Keep watching this space for more updates.

November 17, 2015

Apple iPad Pro Units Unresponsive and Prone to Freezing While Charging

Tim Cook has been in news lately for making confident comments about Apple devices and calling the recently launched Microsoft Surface Book “deluded“. However, the comments may have come a tad too soon in the day as some users are already complaining of glitches in the recently launched iPad Pro 4.

There have been numerous complaints on Apple Support forums -all playing to the same tune:

“I’m having the same problem. I’ve charged my new iPad Pro twice and both times it required a hard reset to get it working. Very frustrating.” Another complaint: “I have the exact same issue. When I connect my iPad Pro to the charger for more than an hour, it goes dead. It takes multiple hard resets to bring it back to life.”

The device freezes or gets unresponsive during charging. Apple is aware of the problem and has given tips like performing a factory reset and restarting the device using iTunes. Affected users can also hold down both the Sleep/Wake as well as the Home button simultaneously for a few seconds to force a restart on the tablet.

Many iPhone 6, 6s and 6s Plus units have also been facing the same glitches lately. This means it could be an iOS 9 problem which could be fixed with a simple software update. Either way, post all the confidence that surrounds the launch of every Apple device, these problems are a bit of a downer. We’ll hold our breath until Tim Cook has something to say about this as well. Is that the sound of Microsoft giggling behind the curtains?

November 17, 2015
Micromax Launches the Canvas Amaze at Rs. 7,999

Micromax has launched the Canvas Amaze in India at a price of Rs. 7,999. The smartphone is available at a variety of online retailers.

The Canvas Amaze features a 5-inch HD (720X1280 pixels) IPS display and comes with dual-SIM support. The smartphone is powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT6580 processor clocked at 1.3GHz clubbed with 2GB of RAM and runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

Other features of the Canvas Amaze include a 13MP primary camera with LED flash and a 5MP front. The device comes with 8GB of internal storage that’s expandable up to 32GB via MicroSD card slot. On the connectivity front the phone includes 3G, Wi-Fi Bluetooth, Micro-USB,and A-GPS, FM, while sensors include Proximity sensor, Accelerometer and Gyroscope, to name a few. The device has a 2000mAh removable battery pack, which will give you about 7 hours of talk time and 260 hours of standby.

Micromax is planning to host an event on November 18 for the launch of a new smartphone. No further details have been revealed as of now.

November 17, 2015
Amazon Kindle Gets More Stylish, Now Available in a New Colour

Amazon is making life a little more interesting for bibliophiles with its new colour variant of Kindle. In an official statement made today, the company announced a white colour Kindle model now up for grabs.

The e-book reader packs all the features of the previous black coloured Kindle which includes glare-free touchscreen that reads like printed page, weeks-long battery life, enough storage to hold thousands of books, adjustable text size, Goodreads, X-Ray, Whispersync, and easy access to a vast selection of books.

Additionally, the e-book reader also boasts of over 500,000 titles under Rs. 99 and 1.5 million titles under Rs. 299. The user will also have access to over a million books at a starting price as low as Rs. 199 a month.

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The new white Kindle priced at INR 5,999/- is now available on www.amazon.in/Kindlewhite. Customers will also be able to pick it up across 680 plus retail outlets in India.

November 17, 2015
Asus Zenfone 2 Series Set to Receive Android 6.0 Marshmallow Updates

There is some good news for Asus owners out there. The Android 6.0 Marshmallow update is going to make its way to the Zenfone 2 series. Google, Samsung, HTC, Motorola, OnePlus and few other companies have already made announcements about Marshmallow updates and today, Asus made an announcement as well.

Asus’ Zenfone 2 series will get the updates in the coming months, but the actual dates have not yet been revealed. The first device on the list will be the Asus Zenfone 2 (ZE550ML / ZE551ML), followed by Zenfone 2 Deluxe / Special Edition (ZE551ML).

The Zenfone 2 Laser (ZE550KG / ZE500KL / ZE550KL / ZE600KL / ZE601KL) and Zenfone Selfie (ZE551KL) will be next in line.

The list is still pretty small and many devices like the Padrone S and Zenfone 5 models have not been mentioned. Furthermore, if you happen to own a version of the Asus Zenfone 2 that hasn’t been included in the list above then you will just have to wait for Asus to make another announcement.

November 17, 2015
BLOCKS: World’s First Customizable Smartwatch is Here

Here’s a successful Kickstarter project, and it’s called Block Wearables. This start-up company has announced a gadget called BLOCKS, which is the world’s first fully customizable smartwatch. Here’s a quick look at what you can expect from it.

Modules:

The watch comes in three modes, namely, the athlete’s module, the business man’s module and the adventurer’s module. The athlete mode can be activated by adding a Heart Rate and GPS module to measure your pulse and track your location respectively.

The businessman mode can be activated by turning the NFC contactless module on; this will help you to make payments directly from your wristwatch. Apart from that the watch will also have a SIM module in order to keep you connected even without your cell-phone in hand.

Finally, the adventurer’s mode which can be activated by adding extra batteries and switching the adventure module setting on, which will alter altitude, temperature and humidity settings according to your surroundings.

Hardware:

BLOCKS has a open platform for hardware development; this means that any tech company can develop modules for its modular smartwatch. And because of its success it has announced some major collaborations with a couple of big names in the tech world.

Examples of important tie-ups include a cellular connectivity agreement with AT&T in the U.S, a heart rate monitoring module with Pixart Imaging along with inbuilt tri-LED pulse sensor, and a collaboration with Biometric Authentication for a fingerprint module to be made available via BioConnect Entertech Systems.

Design:

On the design front, BLOCKS has gone high-end by collaborating with Tateossian, which is a luxury British jeweller. Therefore, all the shells will come with a rhodium plated base along with enamel colours over alutex. So, you will be able to customize your watch just by replacing the shells accordingly.

To add to this, there will also be a limited edition version of shells made with small black and white diamonds. Here’s a couple of images for a better understanding of this smartwatch’s design –

This does sound and look like quite the smartwatch, now we just have to wait and watch how well it does in the market. What do you think of this innovation?

November 16, 2015
OnePlus Android 6.0 Marshmallow Update Cycle Announced for One, Two and X

Users with OnePlus devices, time to rejoice for the company has announced its Marshmallow update schedule. Even though the company has still not revealed exact dates, the announcement mentions updates in early 2016.

This is what the company had to say in an official statement.

“For the OnePlus One, Cyanogen OS will be updating to Marshmallow in the first quarter of 2016. We created a community build of OxygenOS for the OnePlus One, but this isn’t what the product officially ships with. We will be updating the community build of OxygenOS for the OnePlus One when time allows.

The OnePlus 2 will also be updated in Q1, and the update will include the new standard Marshmallow API for the fingerprint sensor… We are working hard to bring Marshmallow as soon as possible to the OnePlus X, and will update you on a time frame at a later time.”

OnePlus has been in news lately after releasing one device after another – OnePlus 2 and OnePlus X respectively, both having wooed customers in their own special ways. And now the Android M update will be here too to provide customers with a smoother, more efficient experience.

November 16, 2015
HTC One X9 With 5.5-Inch Display Gets Certified by TENAA

It has been rumoured for a while now that HTC is working on a new device called the One X9. Now the device has been spotted at a telecommunication certification agency,TENAA, revealing features and pictures of the device.

TENAA – the Chinese telecom authority website – has reportedly posted a document of the upcoming device containing images and a spec list. The image shows the One X9 flaunting a horizontally placed oval camera module on top not unlike the Huawei Nexus 6P. The only difference between the two is that the camera module does not protrude with the former while the Nexus 6P has a little bump.

What’s quite surprising is that this is the second device by HTC in the past month that shows strikingly similar design elements to already-existing phones. The HTC One A9 was criticised for blatantly ripping off iPhone’s design, and now the One X9 seems to be ‘borrowing’ from the Nexus 6P. If the images posted by TENAA are true, this will surely invite harsh criticism from the public.

Moving on to the specs, the One X9 will sport a 5.5-inch full HD (1920x1080p) display and run on the Android Lollipop OS powered by 2.2GHz Octa-core processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage (expandable up to 1TB). It will feature a 13MP camera on the rear and a 5MP front.

Nothing is known on the official launch of the device, but the fact that the One X9 has been listed on TENAA means that HTC will likely unveil the device soon. Follow this space for more.

November 16, 2015
Firefox OS 2.5 Comes To Android Phones

After having announced an iOS App, Mozilla Firefox now announces the launch of a Firefox OS 2.5 developer preview for all Android devices.

There are a couple of highlighted features that arrive with the app such as add-ons, private browsing with tracking protection and ‘pin the web’.

The add-ons are a feature that will allow users to use an extension of one or more apps along with the system app itself; the private browsing feature is exclusive to Mozilla’s Firefox version which allows you to browse through the web with a tracking protection; last but not the least is the ‘pin the web’ feature that removes artificial distinction between web pages and websites so that you can pin any website to your home screen.

Obviously, the app is still being tested out, and you can click here to check out the ‘developer’s preview’. Oh, just one more thing, the app runs without needing to flash the operating system over your current Android OS.

November 16, 2015