Space travel is an amazing and audacious task. Over the course of last 60 years, we have made incredible advancements in the field of space research and space travel. We were literally catapulted to the technology age just through our investments into space travel. Milestones after milestones have encouraged us to peer further in the history and workings of the universe, and how it’s connected to us. We did face some political difficulties in the middle that slowed down our efforts into space, but seems like things are looking up again with the Rosetta mission by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Rosetta mission created history today by landing the first human object on a comet.
Comets are the building blocks as well as leftovers of solar systems. The comet in spotlight currently is called 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, or if you are not in the mood for a tongue twister, you can simply call it 67P. Rosetta had to embark on an arduous journey of 10 years to reach the comet.
Image from first rendezvous of Rosetta with Comet 67P.
The planning for the Rosetta mission began almost 25 years ago. The mission was launched on 2nd March, 2004. It reached the comet on 6th August, 2014. Since then it vigilantly orbited around the comet. The space probe features 12 instruments, and the Philae robotic lander, with an additional nine instruments. It’s this Philae lander that created history by being the first human made object to reach a comet. Rosetta mission will orbit 67P for 17 months and is designed to complete the most detailed study of a comet ever attempted.
Philae did cause a bit of a scary moment for the scientists as for some hours they were unsure if the lander was able to hold on to the giant rock in space. Apparently, the comet bounced back two times before landing on the comet in its third attempt. The bouncing happened because the thrusters and anchors which were supposed to aid in landing failed to operate. Don’t blame them, they were in the cold dark space, cramped up for 10 years, might have found it hard to stretch their legs.
Rosetta and the Philae Lander will journey with 67P to uncover the roots of life.
It was not an easy feat to achieve as told by Matthew Genge, who is a lecturer in Earth and Planetary Sciences at Imperial College, London. He said, “This is the most difficult landing in space history, like landing a balloon in a city center on a windy day with your eyes closed.”
The scientists report that the lander is safe and stable, but they are unsure if they’ll be able to drill into the surface to collect samples. They say that the loss of anchors might make it difficult to drill. It is being said that the probe has landed on a soft layer of dust. But considering it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, the scientist will make the best of it.
Rosetta and Philae will tag along with 67P for its journey around Sun. The mission will be able to answer some questions that we have been asking for a long while, like where did all the water on Earth come from. It is for long been theorized that comets brought the water and building blocks of life from outer space to Earth. If Rosetta proves that, we’ll have added another ancestral root to our family tree. So, go on Rosetta, live long and prosper at a place where no man has gone before.
ESA also made a Hollywood grade short film to explain the importance of the mission. It stars Aiden Gillan from the Game of Thrones.
It is been a while since Xiaomi has launched a new product in India. While the Chinese company is busy preparing for occasional flash sales and celebrating the new tag of being the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, it seems like the company is moving forward in the Indian market with new offerings.
In a recent post on Facebook, Hugo Barra (Vice President of International for Xiaomi) mentioned that the Redmi Note is finally ready for India. The device was expected to launch a month back, however, it didn’t happen. In an interview with a popular publication last month, Barra said that the Redmi Note will come to India in late October or early November. It looks like the early November in the Chinese calendar is here.
In the Facebook post, Bara mentioned “Mi Indonesia: 10,000 Redmi Note out of stock in under 40 secs today!” adding that the next in the list will be India. The post further mentioned that the Xiaomi’s Vice President’s may have landed in Bangalore, India for the same reason – launch of Redmi Note. Xiaomi India Head Manu Jain also confirmed that the company is aiming for the end of this month or early next month for the device.
Redmi Note is a 5.5-inch phablet, which comes with a MediaTek MT6592 octa-core SoC, and has a 13MP and 5MP rear back and front cameras respectively. The device also has a 8GB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 32 GB using a micro-SD card. The company has already announced that the Redmi Note in the country during Mi3 launch will be priced at Rs. 9,999. However, it is expected the Redmi Note will be available for Rs. 8,999, once it is launched.
If you are into installing custom ROMs onto your phones, you definitely know about CyanogenMod. It is also the default OS on the legendary OnePlus One. ROM has one of the best customisation features and is regularly updated. Having said that, CyanogenMod is ready with the next in its line-up (CM 11.0 M12) for supported devices.
CyanogenMod 11.0 M12 has been released for the following devices: HTC One (M8), Samsung Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S4 Mini, Motorola Razr, Sony Xperia Z, Xperia Z Ultra, Xperia Tablet Z, Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7, HTC One Max, and Nexus 7 Wi-Fi.
The new build brings many new features over its predecessor. 9to5google reports that this new update is based on Android 4.4.2 KitKat. They also report that the new update offers “range of bug fixes and improvements: a fix for signal strength on certain devices, updates to frameworks and core apps, a list of devices connected to tethering and more.”
On its Twitter page, Cyanogen teased the new pin scrambling feature. It jumbles the numbers when asking for pin so that the perpetrator would have to work harder to get access to your phone. This seems like a simple, yet elegant solution to pin code theft.
Worry about people catching a glimpse of your PIN code strokes? Check out Scramble PIN Layout feature on Cyanogen OS http://t.co/nqJtPHfhim
If you were wondering, then yes, CyanogenMod is already working on the Android Lollipop update for its ROM. All good things ask for patience and for something as sweet as CyanogenMod, the wait has been worth it in the past, so you should do the same this time around.
It is quite evident that smartphones have become extensively useful and capable day-by-day. We have achieved so much as a society in terms of communication. However, there is still a section in our society which is not familiar with the revolution of communication in the form of smartphones, and that is physically disabled people.
Oded Ben Dov and Giora Livne, founders of Sesame Enable, want to change that. Sesame Enable is an Israel-based startup that has spent past two years developing the Sesame Phone. This phone can be controlled through voice or just with head movements.
Dov and Livne, using a Google Nexus 5 for hardware, crafted Sesame Phone with complex software that allows disabled users to use the phone with simple movements and commands. “Smartphones bring the world to us. But for people with disabilities, current smartphone technology falls short,” Sesame wrote on its Indiegogo crowdfunding page. “Sesame is the first smartphone designed for people with limited or no use of their hands. Offering touch-free accessibility in a small, mobile, and elegant form factor.”
This software works only with the Nexus 5 for now, but the duo is already working to bring it to other smartphones in the future. The software essentially uses a combination of facial recognition, gesture recognition and voice recognition to give users complete control over the phone. A cursor floats on the screen of the smartphone, follows user’s head movements which are tracked by the front camera of the phone.
Users can click and open apps with the help of simple pre-defined head gestures. Also, voice commands can be used to carry out the task, suiting the need of every user. The company has recently launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise an amount of $30,000, needed to continue developing the phone.
A girl from Pune has bagged this year’s Doodle4Google contest and Google announced it will feature the winning doodle, titled ‘Natural and Cultural Paradise – Assam’ by Vaidehi Reddy, (Army Public School, Pune) on the Google India homepage. As per the declaration, the doodle appears on their homepage today, November 14, which is celebrated as Children’s Day in India. Google’s Doodle4Google contest is held annually and was launched back in 2009. Students from class 1 to 10 are invited to draw the Google Doodle to celebrate Children’s Day in India.
This year’s theme for the contest was ‘A place in India I wish to visit’ and it saw an overwhelming 1 million entries from more than 1,700 schools across 50 cities in India. Out of million entries, Google shortlisted 12 doodles that were put up for online voting.
The winner was eventually chosen by Google’s National Jury that had Political Cartoonist Ajit Ninan, Art Director Children’s Publishing at ACK Media Savio Mascarenhas, and Google Doodle team lead Ryan Gerick.
“Doodle4Google is the perfect platform for the youth of India to showcase their talent on an international platform. It allows youngsters from not only the metros but from Tier II, III and even IV cities to participate, which is evident from the entries seen this year. The response of over 1 million entries is indeed overwhelming and the talent which has surfaced through the entries is remarkable”, said Rajan Anandan, Vice President and Managing Director, Google India.
Drones are fast becoming their own individual market. By offering an opportunity to capture images that were simply not possible some time back, they are rapidly becoming the darling of professionals and average consumers alike. They are also constantly getting smaller and better at what they do; some models are even available in an affordable consumer price range. DJI, a company that might instantly bring the thought of a drone in your head, is ready to take things further with the new DJI Inspire 1.
The Inspire 1 is one of the coolest drones out there. The drone looks like a vicious predator on the hunt. The quadcopter flaunts its 4K camera and retractable landing gear.
This latest offering by DJI sorts a three-axis gimbal on which the camera is mounted. The camera is capable of shooting 12 megapixel images and 4K video at 30, 25 and 24fps. Talk about options for a filmmaker. The camera also has a wide 94-degree field of view so you can take those sexy fly-bys. Also, as the arms go up during flights, you can also get amazing 360 degree visuals.
Stabilizing this drone isn’t too much trouble either. The device uses a stereoscopic ‘optic flow’ camera to help stabilize the drone. Using the camera, the drone can stabilize without locking on to GPS. Also using the Lightbridge, a wireless HD transmitter, you can get a live feed of what you are shooting. The range of Lightbridge is 1km, which is just fantastic.
Operating the drone is also a breeze. This drone gives you an option for two people to operate the device. One person can direct the drone while the other can control the camera. Though the second remote can set you back $500.
Inspire 1’s awesome features come at a price though. If you are thinking about getting this bad boy be ready for a lighter pocket as the price tag on this device is $2900. The average drone comes in under $1000 mark. But the Inspire One’s amazing new features definitely help justify its price. So if you got the cash and an itch for shooting epic aerial footage, the DJI Inspire One is exactly what you were looking for.
South Korean giant Samsung has announced ‘Project Beyond’ – a 360-degree camera module that captures everything around it in 3D for use with Samsung’s Gear VR headset. The announcement was done at its 2014 Developer Conference. The device has 16 individual high-def cameras which can together capture a gigapixel or 25 gigabits of data every second.
The footage captured can be streamed back to someone wearing Samsung’s Gear VR headset, transporting them into the world of virtual reality. Basically, Project Beyond can create virtual 3D world continuously wherever it is placed. Samsung also mentioned that users would be able to stream live footage from cameras located anywhere with a decent wireless connection. Moreover, the Project Beyond camera allows multiple users to look around a scene captured by the camera at the same time.
Project Beyond (Image Credits: The Next Web)
Our sources reveal that Samsung has already taken the camera at numerous locations in California to record footage that can be viewed within the Gear VR. Though Samsung hasn’t yet given a tentative release date, but they did mention that there will be new improved Gear VR headsets for future Galaxy smartphones. So, we can expect some flagships from Samsung will be launched with the headset sometime next year.
We are really excited to get hands-on this new technology. Hopefully, Samsung previews Project Beyond in India as well.
Google’s Material Design is making its way to all the company’s services to make sure its apps look consistent once the new Android Lollipop 5.0 rolls out to the larger public. Well, recently, Google’s search for Android or Google Now has got its makeover, Material Design style.
However, the new update doesn’t only come with a new design, but also with the ability to search within apps installed on your phone. That means if you want to play a track from your Spotify’s playlist, Google Now will do it for you. In case, you need to check the dates of your next flight, you just need to say ‘Ok Google’.
Of course, this won’t be working with all your apps right away, developers need to tweak their apps to enable the functionality first. Apart from this, the new update gives the app better voice search and also, the app will now prompt you regarding the plans you make on your mails and Hangout. This way, it will remind you that you have to meet a friend for a coffee on Sunday morning.
Confirming your choice will at last add the event to your Google Calendar, something we have been expecting. Interestingly,Google has added another option for when you can’t decide to go or not, Google Now will decide it for you too.
With the smartphone market getting concentrated, the companies are now being judged on the speed of update deliveries. Companies have also recognized this, and they are now working proactively to bring the updates to its consumers. With the Android 5.0 Lollipop out in the world, the race is on to be the first company to bring the update as fast as possible. Seems like Motorola, which had previously been the front runner in the KitKat race is taking the lead in the Lollipop side of things too.
Motorola has begun the process of officially rolling out the new operating system update for Moto X Pure Edition and second generation Moto G. At present the rollout is meant for unlocked GSM phones sold in the US. But soon enough the update will start showing up for users in other markets.
Motorola had previously released an update for testers and clearly the process is all done for the final rollout. This is a commendable feat as even the older Google Nexus devices haven’t received the update yet. LG is also expected to bring out the Android 5.0 update for the G3 by sometime this week.
Android 5.0 Lollipop is the best Android OS, and it’s a really good news that companies are focusing on bringing this update to its users. Lollipop comes with a refreshing new look along with several other features including increased battery life. To know more about what’s in store with the Android 5.0 update, click here.
Xiaomi has announced that it has sold 1.16 million Mi smartphones in just 24 hours in China, generating a revenue of $254 million. This number is 2.8 times over the company’s revenue of 550 million yuan generated as a part of Singles’ Day in 2013. This is quite a phenomenal performance by Xiaomi, which according to IDC has sold over 17.3 million smartphones in the whole of Q3, 2014.
For those who are not familiar with November 11 (11/11), it is known as Singles’ Day (Anti-Valentine’s day or Bachelor’s day) in China and has become one of the largest online shopping days. Heavy discounts are offered by online retailers on a wide array of products as a part of the Singles’ Day sale, which is even bigger than the Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales in the US.
Xiaomi Singles’ Day final record: 1.16 million Mi phones sold, ¥1.56B (US$ 254M) in sales in 24 hours
Xiaomi, which is just 4-year-old, has become the No.1 smartphone brand in China. The company’s VP Hugo Barra confirmed via Twitter that the sales have generated a revenue of $254 million with 1.16 million Mi units sold.
With the release of the new Lumia branded phones by Microsoft, Nokia died as a mobile phone brand. For most, it’s not just a phone brand; it was a revolutionary change maker. It created, nurtured and took the mobile business to its maturity. We have now reached a point of tremendous concentration in the mobile market and the company who started it all has bid farewell. Nokia is like a grandparent; it did its part and then departed, leaving behind a lasting legacy of a communication infrastructure that has brought gigantic leaps in the growth of human civilization.
Journey To The Mobile Business
Nokia’s paper mill on the banks of River Nokianvirta in 1868.
Nokia began as a paper mill back in 1865 with its second mill going up in the town of Nokia in Finland. The name ‘Nokia’ is derived from the river Nokianvirta, on the banks of which the company was established.
The company expanded to working with rubber, electricity, and cables. Nokia rubber boots become a bona fide design classic, still on sale to this day by the name Nokian, albeit under new owners.
Let’s fast forward to ’60s when the company made its foray into electronics. Nokia developed a host of electronic devices including radio telephones for the army. In 1979 Nokia took its first steps into telephony by creating Mobira Oy in a JV with Finnish TV maker Salora, and they created the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) service. This was the world’s first international cellular network and in the 80s, Nokia launched its first car phone called the Mobira Senator.
The Mobira Senator was the companies first car phone.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Nokia developed the Sanomalaitejärjestelmä (“Message device system”), a digital, portable and encrypted text-based communications device for the Finnish Defence Forces.
In 1987, Nokia launched the Mobira Cityman, the first mobile phone that would run on the company’s NMT network. At 800 grams and priced at $6,308, it may be heavy and pricey by today’s standards, but the device soon hit cult status when Mikhail Gorbachev was photographed using the device.
Nokia also tried its hands at personal computing.
In the 1980s, Nokia’s computer division Nokia Data produced a series of personal computers called MikroMikko, which it later sold to Fujitsu. It briefly tried its luck again in the personal computer market in August 2009 with the introduction of the Nokia Booklet 3G mini laptop. It was not commercially successful but was appreciated for its integrated 3G modem, high-resolution screen, exceptional battery life and its fan-free design.
World’s first commercial GSM call was made in 1991 in Helsinki over a Nokia-supplied network, by Prime Minister of Finland Harri Holkeri. Also, the first device to be used to make a satellite call in 1994 was a Nokia device. Nokia truly started the mobile revolution.
The Devices
Nokia E Series
Nokia 5300 Xpressmusic
Communicator
Nokia 1011 was the first mass-produced device from Nokia. The design of the device was quickly copied into making pencil boxes for kids. The memory could hold 99 numbers and had a price tag of $1600.
Nokia 3310 announced on 1st September 2000, has now become a cult classic. There are unlimited internet memes based on the “Hulk-ness” of the device. Touted in humor as the only Man-Made thing that can incapacitate the Hulk. Nokia sold over 126 million pieces of the 3310 which had a 96×48 pixel display. You could take off the front and back panel and replace it with the color of your choice. It was the first phone to allow 459 character SMS messaging.
Nokia 2110 was the first phone to come with the Nokia tune. It is estimated that the Nokia Tune is heard worldwide an estimated 1.8 billion times per day, approximately 20,000 times per second. It has been the icon of Finnish corporation Nokia since the 1990s.
Introduced in 2002, the Nokia 3510 was the first color phone from the company. It was also the first mass market GPRS device.
The 6600 was one of the most popular devices and was almost the star of the movie, Cellular.
The Nokia 6600 was a prolific device that was launched in 2003. The owners of the phone flaunted its VGA camera, Bluetooth and expandable memory. It was the first Nokia and Symbian device to sell over a million.
The devices from Nokia were also known for its superior camera performance. Thanks to its popularity amongst the users worldwide, at one point Nokia was the biggest digital camera manufacturer in the world. It surpassed all other conventional camera makers.
The company has set records after records during its stint at the top of the food chain. In fact, the Nokia 1100 is the bestselling phone yet, selling over 250 million devices. At its peak the company sold 475 Million devices back in 2008, a feat that is still unchallenged.
So What Remains of Nokia
Following the departure of the mobile and services division of the company, the company is now has three business groups: Mobile Solutions, HERE, and Technologies. The company is currently headed by India-born Rajeev Suri.
Nokia’s Mapping service Here is one of its remaining businesses.
In 2007 Nokia acquired Chicago-based company NAVTEQ, which was the largest maker of automotive. This set the path to Nokia’s Here Maps. The mapping system is one of the few business retained by Nokia following its acquisition by Microsoft. Nokia will be now selling the mapping data to navigation providers like Garmin, BMW, Oracle and Amazon.com. It will now be available as a service across multiple platforms like Android and iOS.
India born Rajeev Suri will be heading Nokia in its new era.
Nokia Networks, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nokia will also stay back with the company. It is a multinational data networking and telecommunications equipment company. They provide business services like Customer care support, fixed-mobile convergence, Hosting, IPTV, Mobile TV, WCDMA frequency reforming. It also provides connectivity solutions to governments, railways and airways.
Nokia had developed a new operating system called MeeGo. When it shifted to Windows phone, the MeeGo team left Nokia to form an independent phone company called Jolla. The phones recently arrived in India.
Another brand that is the offspring of Nokia is the luxury smartphone maker, Vertu. It was established by Nokia as a wholly owned subsidiary in 1998. For long the company used Symbian OS before shifting to Android recently. The phones are known for their stratospheric price and handcrafted luxury devices.
The journey of Nokia was long, arduous and for the most part rewarding. The company deserves credit and respect for spearheading the mobile revolution across the world. For the folks who saw the transition of the mobile world in the past two decades, the name Nokia brings a lot of memories of personal communications through what are now archaic devices. The mobile world has come a long way, but the fingerprints of Nokia will be visible everywhere. We don’t know what the future holds for Nokia, but we sure hope that it pulls a ” Motorola” and has a chance to rise from its ashes. RIP you Tech Giant.
Timeline
1982: Nokia created the world’s first car phone, the Mobira Senator. It was paired with the Nordic Mobile Telephone analog standard and weighed around 22 pounds.
1987: the portable Cityman was Nokia’s first handheld mobile phone. It weighed a little over 1.7 pounds and cost about $5,456.
1994: Nokia launched the 2100 with the now iconic Nokia ringtone.
1997: Launches Snake, one of the most widely recognized mobile games of all time.
1996: The Communicator 9000 of was the first all-in-one phone of Nokia’s kind. It had email, web browsing, fax, word processing and spreadsheet capabilities came for $800.
2000: Nokia 3310, the hulk of the mobile world is launched, and it sells 126 million units sold worldwide. Later becomes a popular internet meme.
2002: Nokia 7650 for around €600 was Nokia’s first Camera phone.
2003: N-Gage, World’s first gaming phone.
2008: 5800 Xpress Music release was Nokia’s first all-touch smartphone, but Apple was out with its iPhone and Android was coming up around this time.
2011, Nokia debuted its first Windows Phone, the Lumia 800.
2014, Microsoft acquires Nokia’s Mobile and Services business and puts an end to Nokia’s existence as a mobile brand.
Despite the reports claiming that the device will not be launched in India, the company seems ready to roll out the Galaxy Note Edge in India, Europe and some other countries, though in limited numbers. Back at the launch, Samsung made it clear that the Galaxy Note Edge would be a ‘limited edition concept device’.
SamMobile has revealed a list of countries where the device would be made available. As it’s a limited edition smartphone, it will be available in limited numbers and will most likely be priced at a premium price segment. Currently, the Note Edge is up for sale in US for $946 off-contract, which translates around Rs. 59,000.
Apart from India, the Galaxy Note Edge will be launched in Australia, Singapore, Nepal with the model number SM-N915G. The Galaxy Note Edge SM-N915FY model will sell in Germany, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, France, Nordic countries, Austria and Portugal, while the SM-N915F model will sell in Russia and Kazakhstan.
The unique feature of the Galaxy Note Edge is its flexible display panel at the right-hand side, which is a completely separate display panel alongside the primary display panel. Apart from the curved display, the phablet is more or less identical to the Galaxy Note 4 when it comes to features and peripherals.
Specs-wise, the smartphone has a 5.6-inch Quad HD 2560×1440 display and is powered by a 3000 mAh battery. It comes with Snapdragon 805 or Exynos 5433 chipset, Android 4.4 KitKat, 16 MP OIS camera and S Pen stylus. With this launch, Samsung proved that it still has an eye for innovation.
Apple’s iMessage is a free messaging service. This service was announced in 2011, and it along with other free messaging apps have been blamed for the steady decline in the usage of SMS service. There was though a major flaw in iMessage that has got Apple another visit to the courthouse.
Apparently, Apple’s messaging followed the users even after they bid their iPhones goodbye. When an iMessage user used a different device with the same number, Apple’s system was still automatically converting messages from iPhone users. This led to non-delivery of messages. This is an important issue as essential or emergency messages could have been disrupted because of this bug.
Apple has fixed the issue now, but not before getting an invite to court. The company is now facing a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company failed to disclose the bug to the users. The court specifically alleged that Apple’s intentional acts have caused an ‘actual breach or disruption of the contractual relationship.
In response to the allegation, Apple has stated that they have not intentionally kept the bug a secret. They added that there is no incentive in curbing the SMS feature considering that it needs the carriers to sell its devices.
The American multinational Internet corporation Yahoo recently acquired video advertising company BrightRoll for $640 million. The acquisition is the second-biggest purchase under CEO Marissa Mayer and was carried out in cash. The company is struggling hard to keep up with its competitors Google and Facebook in ad revenues.
BrightRoll will continue to operate independently ‘with Yahoo’s additional investment and global support.’ The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015. In turn, Yahoo is hoping to revive its share in the US digital marketing industry, which fell to 5.8% in 2013, according to analyst eMarketer, and is expected to dip again this year.
According to Yahoo Chief Marissa Mayer, this deal will turn Yahoo into the largest video advertising platform in the US. Mayer talked that BrightRoll is ‘expected to exceed $100 million this year’ in net revenues. “Acquiring BrightRoll will dramatically strengthen Yahoo’s video advertising platform, making it the largest in the US. BrightRoll is the industry’s leading programmatic video advertising platform for reaching audiences across web, mobile and connected TV. Video is display 2.0. It’s what brand advertisers love. It’s a format that elegantly and easily transitions from broadcast television to PC to mobile and even to wearables. This is why video is a key part of our strategy,” Mayer said in a blogpost.
She said that she thought video could reinvent and replace banner advertising, a mainstay of online ads. Once the market leader, Yahoo is expected to fall on to fourth place this year, according to eMarketer. It was reported in July that the Internet corporation collected less than 3% of online ad revenue last year. Google was on top with nearly 32% ad revenue, while Facebook accounted for about 6%. Microsoft is projected to exceed Yahoo this year.
Yahoo hopes to counter Google’s sheer volume of user-generated videos with professional video content produced by journalist Katie Couric and tech reviewer David Pogue among others. Yahoo was able to buy BrightRoll with cash after it sold shares worth close to $9 billion in the initial public offering of Chinese e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba this year.
LG, the South Korean electronic giant, has launched new wireless neckband ‘LG TONE INFINIM’ based on ergonomic design for better comfort and sound. The new wireless headset is engineered by Harman Kardon and can be paired with smartphones via Bluetooth. The TONE INFINIM is available in India at Rs. 10,990.
INFINIM has essentially a crisp audio rather than a bass-heavy sound. The gadget includes the company’s retractable wire management technology, a metallic finish and an ergonomic curved design. Its ‘Easy Control’ feature includes control with Jog switch to control music with one fluid motion.
It comes with a handful of features such as Current Time Alert, SMS/SNS Replay, Speed Dial, Direct Dial, Favourite Call and Advanced Vibration Alert. During incoming calls, the device alerts the user with its caller ID. The battery status of the headset can be checked on the smartphone at a glance.
The LG Bluetooth Stereo Headset reads out the most recently received SNS or text messages. Users can directly call the previously saved contacts via the headset without taking out their smartphones. Users can designate up to five contacts on their headsets using this USP. This USP can only be used after saving contacts on the application, Tone&Talk. Users can set different vibration patterns for SMS and SNS so that they always know the type of message received in advance. It also informs about the current time on the smartphone with a simple button press.
LG has given these sleek new headsets a classy look which are available in metallic silver and gold colour variants.
