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Review: NudeAudio’s NUDE Move M

The NUDE Move M is a sexy looking portable speaker. The tiny red sliver of branding over the completely black surface stands out. We definitely love the red harness rope provided with the speakers; they both look as if they are meant for each other. The tiny rope also secures it during a pool party, so you can hang it safely away from your drunken friends who may take it to its untimely demise in the water.

So we got around to play with the speaker and did a thorough review of the speakers for you. Here is what we thought about the NudeAudio Nude Move M Bluetooth Portable Speaker.

The minimalistic design elements of the Nude M make it stand out

Build quality:

The Nude M follows a minimalistic but rugged design philosophy. The only inputs available on the device are an On/Off button, volume up and down and the Bluetooth enable/disable button. The device is quite sturdy and safe, thanks to the giant rubber that covers all its corners. The rubber cover is also removable for cleaning purposes. The device offers support for auxiliary input, micro USB for charging and Bluetooth for calls and music. Nude M is really easy to connect to the phone through Bluetooth. We especially admire the cute little power and Bluetooth notification lights.

Utility:

Apart from listening to music, the Nude M can also act as a speakerphone and works good for conference calls, though sometimes the receiver may not get a clear sound on the other side. The range of the Bluetooth though, calls for a tad bit of criticism.

Battery:

The Nude M’s battery gives a decent output. You can easily expect 6-8 hours of backup, so you can do easily plan an all-nighter without any worries of losing the groove.

The notification lights stand out on the black exteriors

Sound Quality:

Well this is the main criteria to judge the speakers and there isn’t a lot that disappoints, but we were left asking for more. The device is bass rounded so the sound is a bit echo heavy. Hip-Hop, House EDM’s and other bass heavy tracks sound great on the speakers but the output of genres like Classical, Jazz and Rock could have been better. Though the speaker is pretty loud, we compared it to the speakers lying in our office and some of the cheaper models gave louder sound output than the Nude Move M.

Conclusion:

The Nude Move M is an impressive little device which is also flaunt worthy because of its beautiful minimalistic design. Its great for folks who like tracks with a good amount of bass. So if you are looking for style points with some utility features, the Nude M can be your choice.

July 14, 2014
New Leaked Images Reveal Google Play’s Makeover

We have been introduced to Android L and Google’s new Material Design UI, which is expected to infiltrate most of Google’s own apps, at this year Google I/O. We will have to wait until Android L’s public launch this fall before we get a good look at these updated apps, but the rumor flying high these days aren’t going to make us wait that long for a peek at Google Play Store makeover.

Android Police reports that Google will be redesigning their interface and aesthetics of the Play Store for Android devices and added that the content listings focus on the new design. Screenshots also shared by Android Police purportedly reveal the Material Design version of the Play Store for both phones and tablets. When compared to the current iteration of the Play Store, the refreshed version uses larger images and album art in the background of a listing.

There is more white space between the content and the review sections are bit more colorful with the addition of color review bars. The new layout and design of the Play Store will be primarily focused on content, with the video or trailer for the item and the app icon or movie/album/magazine cover being more prominent. The content and the text describing the item is lower and you will not be able to view it upon immediate entry.

The whole store listing page has changed, to one that uses artistic layout on a largely white canvas with the new Roboto font highlighted during the Google I/O conference. However, this design is still under wraps and could change entirely by the time it is launched.

Recently Samsung has also showed off its app store with a focus on Galaxy devices. The new Samsung Galaxy Apps store will feature “hundreds of apps” exclusively for Samsung Galaxy mobile users, the company stated in a blog post. The new app store offers higher customization and includes a variety of promotions and discounts for users of Samsung Galaxy mobile devices.

July 14, 2014
5 Ridiculous Apps That You Won’t Believe Exist

App stores offers the plethora of programs that can do everything from turning your iPhone into a gaming console and a TV remote to software that helps you scout out the best restaurants. But for every useful app, there are ten fairly pointless ones. Let’s face it, stupid apps are becoming commonplace on the smartphones. So which are the worst of the worst? Narrowing them down was tough, but we’ve dug up 5 of the most painfully pointless apps:

1. Hair Clinic for Man and Woman

Your iPhone holds the power to make sure your hair looks good. Seriously? Hair Clinic For Man and Woman claims to be the “World’s First Mobile Hair Clinic System”. Its makers say the app generates inaudible frequencies that “promote blood circulation around hair root..” All you have to do is move the handset around your scalp while the app sends the frequencies. Um, hopefully nobody is stupid enough to believe that.

2. Pocket Girlfriend

Who needs a real girlfriend when you can have a pocket girlfriend. Customize her with hundreds of different options so that she’ll respond and converse with you, fulfilling your every need. The only person who would find comfort in a ‘Pocket Girlfriend’ would be Dr Rajesh Koothrappali from the TV show Big Bang Theory.

3. Yo!

Twitter with 140 words is so cliche, Yo! is the the new scene. This app doesn’t do anything apart from sending the message ‘Yo!’ to your friends. The way it works is: You choose a username. You “add friends” by typing in their usernames. Then, when you want to message them, you hit their name. It sends a “Yo”. If they hit your name, they send a Yo back. That’s all you can do with this app, it has no other use. The fact that this app has around 800,000 users makes it even more bizarre.

4. Drunk Dialer

This one was made in hoped of avoiding the embarrassment that comes with drunk dialing. Drunk Dialer is like a sobriety test: If you can type the numbers that keep jumping around on your screen, hit the Call button and you’re good to go. But if you’re not quick enough, the harder it is to hit the right key. Do we really need an app that protects us from drunk dialing?

5. Beer Opener

I can best describe the problem with Beer Opener by quoting its App Store description: “Experience the joy of opening a cold refreshing beer bottle without the inconvenience of actually consuming beer!”. Beer Opener lets you pretend to open a real-world bottle. You hold your iPhone over the bottle, grab the virtual cap that pops up on the screen, and open away – without the terrible hassle of having to drink the thing. Are we missing something?

July 14, 2014
Airtel brings 4G to Four More Punjab Towns

After successful launch of its 4G services at Chandigarh-Tricity, Ludhiana and Jalandhar, Airtel is now bringing the service to four new Punjab towns. The company has identified Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Phagwara and Kapurthala as the next stop in its LTE phases in India.

The users of iPhone 5S and 5C can immediately switch to LTE network by upgrading to an USIM (Universal SIM)/4G SIM and selecting a plan. Laptop and Computer users can access Airtel’s LTE network using an Airtel 4G dongle or a Wi-Fi CPE (Customer-premises equipment). The USIM comes free with the Dongle or a CPE. Phone users can get the SIM for Rs 49. The dongle is priced at Rs 1500 and the CPE is priced at Rs 2500.

The company also offers a special pack of Rs 999 (for postpaid – mobiles, dongles and CPEs) and Rs 995 (for prepaid- mobiles only) for heavy data users which will offer 10 GB of 4G data. For postpaid mobile customers, the plans will start at Rs 100.

The company claims that, with their 4G technology, users can watch high definition video streaming with zero buffering, download 10 movies in less than 30 minutes, upload full holiday albums in less than 5 minutes by uploading 2 high quality photos per second and also connect multiple devices without any experience constraint. Airtel has set up special demo zones for costumers to get live demos.

4G or LTE is much cheaper to install for companies in comparison to 3G technology. There is less congestion in 4G as it has a wide bandwidth. So users should get amazing speed with minimum lags.

Even though many countries have switched to LTE technology, Indian mobile companies have been rather slow in its implementation. The reason for this is that they are waiting for return on investment on the massive 3G infrastructure they had to set up.

July 14, 2014
Wear Mini Launcher Makes Android Wear Easy to Flaunt

You finally got your Android wear device and you are proud of it. You’s like to flaunt it but it is taking some time to get used to. You wish there was an easier way of getting around your smart-watch. Well worry no more, the developers have come to your rescue and they will give you the Android experience that you have come to know. So go ahead and install the Wear Mini Launcher.

A developer named Nicolas POMEPUY has introduced the Wear Mini Launcher app on the Google Play Store. The app allows the users to swipe right from the top left side of their smart-watch to display an app drawer, like the one in the phones. With this the user can scroll up and down to access all the apps.

To make the launcher work the first time you can either open the app while the watch is connected or run the app directly on your Android wear.

The app greatly reduces the amount of time spent to find and open an app. This launcher will definitely make your life easier if you own an Android Wear device or will encourage you to get one if you don’t have one already. This is also a good example to state the inclination of the developers interest in developing apps and content for the wearables. We can now be optimistic about the future of wearable tech.

You can download the app from here.

July 14, 2014
5 Ways Music Woven With Technology Sounds Incredible

The power of technology has been shaping our lives for generations. It touches everything we do, experience or listen, YES LISTEN! With the push of technology we now have a recent trend of innovative interactive music videos, apps and so much more.

We are listing 5 of our favorite music videos and albums that are inspired by mighty technology:

1. Reflektor- Arcade Fire (Interactive Geo-tagging Video)

Indie-Rock chart toppers, Arcade Fire put their video skills of HTML5 on use with the The Wilderness Downtown, directed by Chris Milk. An interactive music video which takes you to a run in your hometown. Type in the address of the place you grew up, and the stabbing piano of Arcade Fire’s We Used to Wait starts. A hooded figure begins to run down the streets you knew so well, taking you almost literally for a trip down memory lane. Sinister birds swoop over the Google Map showing your home, and dive-bomb to the ground in climax as trees explode from the familiar road.

2. House of Cards- Radiohead (Lidar Technology)

Radiohead is one of the most prolific band in the music industry.They have been known for their creativity and innovation in music. Staying true to their part, they created a video of a song ‘House of Cards’ using Lidar Technology. Without using any camera, this video was made by building data maps of Thom Yorke and lasers rotating 360 degrees to capture the scene. Beautiful blues, greens and yellows slip away as lines and pixels sketch waveforms into human shapes.

3. Biophilia- Bjork (Interactive App/Album)

Some call Bjork’s app a promotional tool, which of course it is. You have to buy the damn thing though, to use it. But it’s also a thing of beauty that it could return us to the days of heady listening sessions spent thumbing and re-thumbing through liner notes, without threat of Wikipedia, Twitter, or any of the other million new points of focus that make music an easy background character these days. This one of a kind app, first in business and a creative use of one of the most popular technology in the world right now: Smartphones.

4. Double Bubble Trouble- MIA (3-D printing and Drones)

You won’t find this video, a tech-savvy one in the first look. The lyrics of “Double Bubble Trouble” reference immigrant struggles and the outsider status of refugees; the high-rise apartments seen in the video could very well be the modest homes of refugees, now filled with technology unimaginable generations ago. Usually, talk about technological revolutions tends to emphasize the tech itself. In the video for “Double Bubble Trouble,” M.I.A. sets her sights firmly on the revolution. Some of the highly political items that appear in the video includes Quadcopters, 3-D printed guns and Anti-surveillance masks and scarves.

5. Somebody I Use To Know : Gotye (Old School Computer Remix)

Gotye – Somebody That I Used to Know – Old School Computer Remix” was created by a person in Canada who knows a thing or two about technology. A HP Scanjet 3C somehow sits in for the vocals. Two hard drives pull off drums and a cymbal and a xylophone is controlled by a PIC16F84A microcontroller. This tech wizard has hand full of videos in his youtube channel and altogether has more than 6 million views for them.

July 14, 2014
The 5 Things You Should Expect From The Upcoming iPhone 6

Everyone is certain we’re going to see the new iPhone in 2014. It’s also looking pretty certain that Apple might follow its own footsteps by releasing two iPhone handset, instead of just one. Rumours suggest there will be two versions available with two different sized screens: 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch. And the rumors are, it’s likely to be called the iPhone Air. Though we have to wait till it releases to see what Apple planning to do with next instalment of iPhone. Until then, we are listing 5 things about iPhone 6 that you should expect from the next iPhone:

1. Improved Camera

Its the feature everyone looks for the most, and Apple’s always put huge resources behind improving its cameras. More importantly, Apple’s filed a patent for a particular kind of image stabilization in a smart phone; it will reportedly increase the size of the pixels in its 8-megapixel sensor; and apparently there’s a “Super Resolution Mode” in the next version of the camera app. We have something something remarkable heading our way.

2. Online Payments Using TouchID

Apple has almost 800 million iTunes accounts and hundreds of millions of credit cards on file, and all working towards larger option for users to buy things on their phone. It would take on PayPal and Google Wallet, and could launch alongside the new iPhone. TouchID would be Apple’s ultimate weapon, paying for everything online with your fingerprint is both secure and simple, and a “Pay with iTunes” of sorts could be a huge revenue magnet for Apple.

3. Lightning Port Headphone Jack

There is a possibility of Apple killing classic 3.5mm headphone jack in favor of the company’s propriety Lightning Port. The company has introduced a new design for manufacturers in its made-for-iPhone (MFi) program that will let them to produce headphones with Lightning connectors. The new type of headphones will be able to make the change between analogue to digital audio with an elevated lossless stereo 48 kHz digital output, it would in addition convert the traditional headphones into a smart device.

4. Placement of Buttons

With the flood of iPhone 6 mockups there is a good idea of what the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 might look like. Expect a thinner iPhone between 6-7mm and more metal with curved edges that make it look more like an iPad Air or mini. The new volume buttons are slimmer to fit on this new edge and the power button is now on the right side. This new power button placement is crucial as it allows users to reach the button more easily.

5. Hiked Price

There’s one thing we can be sure about when it comes to the iPhone 6 – it won’t be cheap. Apple’s legacy is a long line of premium devices sporting premium price tags and you can expect that trend to continue with the iPhone 6. One analyst even goes as far as predicting that Apple will hike up the price of the iPhone 6, possibly by as much as $100. With a larger screen, new glass covering the front and possibly even a new, more impressive, material used in construction, we can already foresee the price being hiked.

July 14, 2014
Features The iPhone 6 Needs To Take On The Galaxy S5

With the release dates of the iPhone 6 drawing closer, the rumor mills are warming up. Almost on a daily basis one can get a leaked specs and images for the new iPhone. From its screen sizes to heapdphone jack, all are under constant speculations from tech maniacs like us. So we decided to do a checklist to figure out what the iPhone 6 really needs to have to take on Samsung’s current flagship, the Galaxy S5.

Display

In times when displays of 4.5 inch and above are fast becoming the norm for smartphones, iPhone’s 4 inch screen just doesn’t cut it anymore. Multimedia experience on the iPhone, though well appreciated seems restricted because of the screen size. There are talks of the next installment might arrive with two screen size options, one with a 4.7 inch display and the other touted to be named as iPhone air which will have a screen size of 5.5 inches. Currently the Samsung Galaxy S5 with its 5.1 inch super AMOLED full HD screen with 432 ppi is stunning to look at.

Design

Metallic designs are a must. Most of the complaints regarding the S5 is its plasticky feel. The perforated polycarbonate back panel of the Galaxy S5 received mixed reviews. The apparent leaked images of the new iPhone do not impress a lot yet, but they might as well be mock ups. A Micro SD expandable memory slot will definitely make the iPhone 6 a must buy. Considering the iPhone 5 faithfully follows the same design principals of the iPhone 4, it is time for some serious makeovers.

Battery

Now we don’t have a winner here currently. The current batteries, 1560 mAh on the iPhone and 2800 mAh on the S5 are known for their dismal performance. Considering the thinning down and increased screen size of the iPhone, battery will be a challenge. Introduction of battery saving features are also necessary. In the iOS 8 beta version, a new feature called Grayscale has appeared which seems like a battery saving feature, its efficiency though is still under consideration. A revolutionary thing that Apple can do is provide the option for removable batteries, but that’s just asking for too much.

Camera

There aren’t a lot many people who will complain about the camera of the iPhone. Optical Image stabilization is necessary. Though most phones are offering 4K recording, its not advisable to have one on the iPhone with its limited storage scenario.

Software

On the OS front, iPhone can have an easy battle considering the innovative features like handoff included in the iOS 8. The new messaging app and a turbo charged spotlight will give the iOS an edge over the Android OS. Though the Android L is not far behind and we might see some good competition in this arena but if the Kitkat situation is an indication, it will take some time to reach the Android phones.

Overall after a fantastic release of the iOS 8 and its pioneering inter-connectivity options with the OSX, the hype around iPhone’s next avatar has greatly increased. The competition is constantly updating itself and companies like LG, HTC and perhaps Motorola will pose some serious challenges to the iPhone. So the once in a year release of the iPhone this year has to be nothing short of spectacular, for its own future.

July 13, 2014
What to Expect From Xiaomi’s Entry Into The Indian Market

Xiaomi, ‘Apple of China’ as it is often called, has now become a hot topic with its entry in the smartphone business in India. Chinese manufacturer has launched its first smartphone in the Indian market, the Xiaomi Mi 3. The phone is priced at Rs.14,999 ($250) and will officially go on sale on July 15. The Xiaomi (pronounced as ‘shao-mee‘) Mi 3 is the company’s flagship device is a pleasant surprise if you take its price into consideration.

The Mi 3 has already won hearts in the east, and predictably Xioami seems to be expecting a huge turn over in India. They have an advantage since the specs they’re offering at this price, are quite good. The budget segment in our country is currently super crowded with low spec mobile phones. One of the biggest competitor Xioami has to face is the Moto G.

The Xiaomi is packed with a 5.0-inch, 1920×1080 resolution IPS panel from LG or Sharp, Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC with quad-core 2.3GHz CPU and Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage (non-expandable), 3050mAh battery and MIUI 5 on Android 4.3.

The phone has got a 13MP rear camera with dual-LED flash. Equipped with ultra large Exmor sensor and f/2.2 aperture, you can expect the camera to perform well in various light conditions. For your video conferencing needs, Mi 3 offers a decent 2MP camera on the front. The 3050 mAh battery, will give you about 500 hours of standby time; or about 50 hours of music playback, or 25 hours of talk-time or 21 hours of 3G Internet use.

Another important feature is that while the Xiaomi phones don’t come with the Play Store and Google Apps in China, the company has decided to provide support for them India. You’ll also get about 10 GB of free online storage, which you can use to store your phones contact list, photos, videos, documents and texts.

So far, no official word on retail availability is out but it is said that Xiaomi has signed a deal with Flipkart to sell this phone exclusively through them. However, this is not the only device that Xiaomi will be launching in India this year. Along with the Mi 3 smartphone, Xiaomi has also launched the Mi Power Bank in 10400mAh and 5200mAh capacities but without pricing and availability details.

Also, a recent teaser posted by the company on its official Facebook account suggests that few more devices will be launched very soon.

Although there is no word out about the phones that are going to be launched in India after this one, but there are speculations that Xiaomi could launch the Redmi series, which comprises of Redmi Note and the Redmi 1S, on 15th July as well. If the devices get launched in India sooner than expected, the other players in the market like Micromax, Karboon and Lava will have to match to the competition sent by our neighbour.

July 12, 2014
#LetsTalkShop : Asim Warsi Talks Samsung Mobile India

Samsung has been leading the smartphone and tablet race for the past couple of years and this year they don’t want to be left behind. However, the company has been dealing with a lot of flack in India pertaining to the fact that they continue to make devices that are made entirely of Plastic or the fact that India does not see Snapdragon chipsets or LTE enabled devices.

As Vice President, Mobile & IT of Samsung India, Asim Warsi also heads the Korean company’s mobility division.

A difficult man to get hold of, Asim was kind and candid enough to meet us and answer some of our questions for everyone who has been asking them.

“The company is excited about the new Tab S devices because, it is a refinement of Samsung’s tablet series” – he said. Bringing attention, to the high resolution Super Amoled display, the company has managed to make for these devices.

Asim Warsi is very confident about the fact that going forward the company will have 4G devices, and introduced the Tab S series as their first LTE enabled tablets. He was eager to tell us that Samsung is working on a whole slew of 4G enabled devices, and we will see them soon enough.

[quote text_size=”small” author=”Asim Warsi” author_title=”Vice President, Mobile & IT, Samsung India“]

We are working on a whole lineup of LTE devices in the coming months

[/quote]

Samsung may work out an arrangement in the near future to maybe offer options between 3G and 4G devices enabling the customer to make his own decisions at the time of purchase.

Asim Warsi says working at Samsung is not scary or daunting, especially not the way I (Bharat Nagpal) would describe it, he says that its a work ethic environment and driven company and hence they have reached where they have in such a short period. He says it’s not about Military Precision its about “Nuclear Precision”.

Watch the full video below for the juiciest bits.

July 12, 2014

Hands On with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4

Samsung has constantly held its position in the tablet market, a market where many have come and failed. The company has seemingly changed its perception toward the way they will devices going forward, and the first look comes from the new Tab S series of devices.

One thing that we appreciate a lot is that the Tab S 8.4 is a true little brother of the Tab S 10.5 where both slates have identical specifications from processor to display resolution and even the internal RAM and storage. What differs is the size of the screen and the battery capacity which are both reduced from the 10.5 incher to get the desired size needed for the Tab S 8.4 .

The display is just phenomenal, it’s like taking the display of the Note 3 and blowing it up to fit the size and then adding 4 times the pixels. Its bright, extremely vivid and beautifully saturated. It is also a pretty large Super AMOLED display, considering a couple of years back Samsung was dealing with issues manufacturing a 4 inch Super AMOLED panel with Full HD capabilities.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.4 comes with a 8.4 inch 2560 x 1600 pixel display that is simply awe-inspiring. The company is also calling it the highlight of the tablet as the usual features from the previous generation tend to follow suit.

The back panel on the Tab S 8.4 is also a “Smarter and Larger” version of what we saw on the Galaxy S5, even though it looks much more classier and cleaner on the tablets and especially so on the Tab S 8.4 in the titanium copper colour.

SPECIFICATIONS	GALAXY TAB S 10.5-INCH	GALAXY TAB S 8.4-INCH
BATTERY CAPACITY:	7,900(mAh)	4900(mAh)
DISPLAY	10.5-inch Super AMOLED display Resolution:2560 x 1600 pixels	8.4-inch Super AMOLED display Resolution: 2560 x 1600 pixels
CAMERA	Rear camera: 8-megapixel Flash: LED Front camera: 2-megapixel	Rear camera: 8-megapixel Flash: LED Front camera: 2-megapixel
RAM	3GB	3GB
PROCESSOR	Octa-Core Exynos 5 (A15 1.9 GHz & A7 1.3 GHz)	Octa-Core Exynos 5 (A15 1.9 GHz & A7 1.3 GHz)
INTERNAL STORAGE	16GB/32GB expanded up to 128GB	16GB/32GB expanded up to 128GB
SOFTWARE	Android 4.4 Kitkat	Android 4.4 Kitkat

July 12, 2014

inFORM: The Next Giant Leap For Touchscreens

Touchscreen is the interface of choice for interaction with digital world for quite a while now. Smartphones, tablets, laptops, cameras, refrigerators, even RO water purifiers now come with touch screens. But there is always a divide in such devices; there is no physical feedback. The devices we use, respond to our stimuli and act on our instructions. We have access to our loved ones thousands of kilometers through video conferencing services like skype, but it still lacks the physical appeal of holding hands. Now MIT’s Tangible Media Group with their Project called inFORM intend to change that.

The inFORM was created by Daniel Leithinger and Sean Follmer and overseen by Professor Hiroshi Ishiiis. It is an attempt to look at the future of interactive interfaces. The surface looks like living clay columns which rise to form shapes and graphs as instructed. The project of course is in a rudimentary stage but the practical applications are unlimited.

inFORM is great for Work and Play

The technology behind inFORM is inspired by the pin screens which are used for animation purposes. Each block in inFORM is connected to a motor and controlled by a laptop. Using the inputs you can not only move the pins to render digital content physically, but can also register real-life objects interacting with its surface , for which they have hacked the Microsoft Kinect.

The Tangible Media Group intention with this project is to assess the interfaces of the future. This can be incredibly advantageous for professionals like Designers, Architects, and Engineers who can instantly see their creations in a 3D model and access the flaws of their designs too. The best part is that they can edit and interact with their designs.

For us regular folks, it can be used for physical game of chess with your friend sitting in Australia while you sit in Norway. With Virtual Reality(VR) gaining steam with Oculus and Project Morpheus, inFORM can be used to define the missing element of touch. So while you are having a VR walkthrough in the park, the inFORM surface can stimulate its surface in accordance to where you are in your VR world, you can feel different surfaces like grass, rocks maybe even rivers under your feet. Now that would be a truly immersive experience.

InFORM will be greatly beneficial for Education.

Even in the field of education this technology can bring a paradigm shift. Now instead of just reading about the movement of tectonic plates in geography class, students can see them move in 3D models. Subjects like Science, Maths, and Geometry will get a lot more comprehensible for students who get to see their theorems and formulas in action.

This project doesn’t fail to impress even if it is in a nascent stage. Like touch screens gave way to gesture controls that is found in Kinect and Wii and they too are giving way to VR technology, inFORM might be the new claimant for the next innovative technology revolution. Maybe we are closer than we think in terms of interacting with real world atoms instead of digital pixels. We are back into the physical world; the circle seems to be complete.

July 12, 2014
National Geographic Shows Us The Future of Farming

In a new animation series by National Geographic show called ‘Food By the Numbers’, they point out that by 2050 we’ll need to feed two billion more people. The special eight-month series explores the possibility of how we can do that—without overwhelming our planet.

The episode called ‘Precision in the Fields‘ provides info about how farmers are increasingly using GPS-equipped machinery supported by computers that organize sophisticated data on plants, soil, and weather. Termed “precision agriculture,” same as the episode, this system helps them identify and manage variability within fields. David Schimmelpfennig of the USDA Economic Research Service says that farmers have always made informed choices but that access to more data expands their decision-making toolbox.

The video talks about the effective use of weather forecasting apps, agriculture drones, soil mapping, GPS guidance and many other technology as a critical tool for modern farming.

July 12, 2014
Outernet Getting Ready To Broadcast Free Internet To The World

The Outernet is a global networking project currently under development by the Media Development Investment Fund, a United States-based non-profit organization established in 1995. The Outernet team claim that only 60% of the world’s population currently have access to the wealth of knowledge that can be found on the Internet. This is because, despite a wide spread of Wi-Fi devices across the globe, many countries are unable or unwilling to provide people with the infrastructure needed to access the web.

The company’s plan is to launch hundreds of low-cost miniature satellites, known as cubesats, into low Earth orbit. Here, each satellite will receive data from a network of ground stations across the globe. Using a technique known as User Datagram Protocol (UDP) multitasking, which is the sharing of data between users on a network, Outernet will broadcast information to users. Much like how you receive a signal on your television and flick through channels, Outernet will broadcast the Internet to you and allow you to flick through certain websites. This service sounds too good to be true.

To understand Outernet better, check out their self-explanatory infographic:

July 12, 2014
HTC Releases The One E8 and Desire 616 in India

Barely a few months after releasing some great devices, HTC is back today with two new phones, The Desire 616 and the HTC One E8. Both phones are Dual Sim capable and have Blinkfeed.

The HTC Desire 616 is a premium looking package at a mid segment price.

The Desire 616 has a 1.4 GHz Octa Core Mediatek processor with 1 GB RAM. The display is a 5 inch capacitive screen with 294ppi pixel density. Surprisingly the phone only has 4GB of internal storage though it is expandable up to 32 GB. The main camera on the phone is an 8 MP shooter capable of shooting 1080p HD videos. The front camera is a 2MP selfie shooter which is capable of 720 video, so video bloggers are in for a treat. The phone is powered by a 2000 mAh battery. The phone runs on Android 4.2.2 (Jellybean).

The Red is definitely a bold color choice from HTC One E8

The One E8 on the other hand is a fashion edition of the HTC flagship series. It has a 5 inch Super LOCD 3 display with a beautiful 441 ppi pixel density. The phone gets its processing power from a 2.5 GHz Snapdragon 801. The RAM stands at 2 GB. The phone gets its juice from a non-removable 2600 mAh battery, same as the M8. Internal storage on this device is 16 GB, which is expandable up to 128 GB. The main camera on the E8 is a 13 MP and the front camera is a 5 MP shooter. Both cameras are capable of shooting 1080p videos. The E8 runs on 4.4.2 (Kitkat).

The phones come in multiple color options which add a youthful aspect to the phones and considering the launch prices, HTC definitely plans to reach out to the youth with these devices. The Desire 616 is priced at 16,990 whereas the HTC One E8 is being shipped at 34,990 for the Indian market.

July 11, 2014