Blog

Google Unveils Upgrade to Search Algorithm: ‘Hummingbird’

Google said it has updated the way its search engine functions so that it can respond better to more complicated and human-like queries, as it faces competition from services like Apple’s Siri, that seek to simplify searching for information.

The new algorithm which is codenamed as Hummingbird, is the first major upgrade in the last three years. It has already been in use for about a month, and affects about 90% of Google searches.

Google stressed that a new algorithm is important as users expect more natural and conversational interactions with a search engine, Hummingbird is focused on ranking information based on a more intelligent understanding of search requests, unlike its predecessor, Caffeine, which was targeted at better indexing of websites.

It is more capable of understanding concepts and the relationships between them rather than simply words, which can lead to more fluid interactions. It is an extension of Google’s “Knowledge Graph” concept introduced last year aimed at making interactions more human.

In an example, shown at the presentation, a Google executive showed off a voice search through her mobile phone, asking for pictures of the Eiffel Tower. After the pictures appeared, she then asked how tall it was. After Google correctly spoke back the correct answer, she then asked “show me pictures of the construction” and then a list of images appeared.

Google said in a blog post that it is expanding the results users get for questions without simple answers like “Tell me about Impressionist artists.” Such a search will yield links to sites with information about the artists and their paintings.

At the event, Google also announced an updated search app on Apple’s iOS, as well as a more visible presence for voice search on its home page.

September 27, 2013
Facebook Allows Editing Your Typing Errors

Facebook has started to let you edit post’s text after you publish it. The feature comes to the web and Android in an update today, and to iOS soon. Previously you had to delete your post, lose all your Likes and comments, and repost to edit something.

Android users also get emotion and activity sharing, events at a glance, and photo album creation today. Now, you are able to edit all posts and comments from the web. To edit posts, you’ll be able to click the down arrow in the top right of one of your posts and select ‘Edit Post’ to change the text, then click done editing.The revisions and original post will still be viewable if friends check your post’s edit history, though. Editing the comments came into the picture a while ago.

September 27, 2013
Latest VLC Update Makes It 4K Compatible Along With Improved Audio Support

VideoLAN has released version 2.1 of its popular video player, VLC. The update is codenamed “Rincewind” and brings new audio processing to the app. There is full support for surround sound outputs in addition to new effects and many new supported metadata formats for audio.

Whereas, for the video the update has ported the OpenGL output to OpenGL ES, making ports to iOS and Android much easier. VideoLAN says that VLC is now ready for Ultra-HD content. The app update has focused on improving MKV compatibility, including better seek performance and subtitle metadata support.

The OS of the app has some changes in User Interface as well, the playback menu can be changed according to ones prefrence and videos can now also be played as a desktop background.

[via]

September 27, 2013
BBM For Desktop Showcased By BlackBerry

If you’re a heavy BBM user, it seems that during the BlackBerry Jam Asia 2013, BlackBerry showed off BBM running on a Windows computer, essentially mirroring the app on a desktop platform, similar to how BBM would be mirrored on the Playbook tablet.

The app allowed for quick conversations, attached files, send photos and works over Wi-Fi.

BlackBerry is reportedly working on a having BBM for Desktop available to Mac users, but there’s still no indication of when or if this will officially be rolled out.

There was no mention of a release date for this feature, but what do you guys think of it? Is this something you’d like to see happen in the near future?

[Via]

September 26, 2013
Apple Ordered to Pay $3 Million Over Patent Voilation in Japan

Apple is again into the news but this time it is not because of the iPhone 5c or the iPhone 5s, it is because of the iPod as Tokyo District Court ordered Apple to pay ¥300 million ($3.3 million).

Apple is been asked to pay this amount to Japanese inventor Norihiko Saito for infringing on a patent covering the touch-sensitive click wheel used in the iPod Classic and older models of its music player.

The patent that Norihiko Saito’s company applied for in 1998 covers a technology for the Click Wheel controller that Apple has adopted for the music player in Japan since 2004, Judge Teruhisa Takano said in the ruling.

Saito’s damages come more than five years after he filed the patent lawsuit, during which time he demanded damages of ¥10 billion ($101 million), based partly on the number of iPods Apple had sold during that period. The final figure($3.3 million) that came up is way less than what was demanded ($101 million) before, Apple might not have any problems paying this amount considering the sales of the new iPhones.

September 26, 2013
Intex Launches Aqua HD a 4.7 Inch Smartphone at 15,900 INR

Intex has expanded its Aqua range by launching the Aqua HD in the Indian market, the device is available in the market for 15,900 INR, this price is the MRP so you can expect it to be cheaper in the markets.

The Intex Aqua HD has a 4.7 inch HD TFT display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. The device is powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core MediaTek processor along with a 1 GB of RAM and 4 GB of in built storage, which can be expandable up to 32 GB via micro SD card. Aqua HD runds on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and comes with dual SIM support which is GSM + GSM.

Aqua HD sports a 13 MP main camera with a LED flash, the camera is capable of 1080p videos and the device also sports a 5 MP front facing camera. The phone is powered by a 1800 mAh battery, and comes up with a couple of sensors like an accelerometer, a proximity sensor, light sensor and gyroscope. The device also has some standard features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and 3G.

September 26, 2013
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Benchmarks and Hardware

Samsung’s latest flagship the Galaxy Note 3 is now available across major cities in India, priced at 49,900 INR (you might get it cheaper) the Indian edition of the Galaxy Note 3 comes with an Exynos 5 chipset (1.9GHz Quad core + 1.3 GHz Quad core) along with 32 GB of storage and 3 GB of RAM.

Coming to our benchmark tests, we started by running Quadrant Standard on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the device performed well up to it’s hype and broke all the previous records in Quadrant Standard. We got a score of 20599 for Galaxy Note 3 in Quadrant Standard.

The Galaxy Note 3 managed to beat the HTC One and Samsung S4, which scored 11972 and 13001 respectively in Quadrant Standard.

Next up, we ran AnTuTu Benchmarks on the Galaxy S4 and the smartphone managed to better it’s competitors here as well, as it scored 34546 points, which is better than HTC One’s score of 25064 points.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Samsung Galaxy S4 HTC One

QUADRANT 20599 13001 11972

NENAMARK 60.4 59.9 61

ANTUTU 34546 28431 25064

Now, it was time to test the graphic performance of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, the smartphone scored 60.4 fps, where as the HTC One scores 61 fps and the S4 is real close with 59.9 fps in our benchmark tests.

[youtube id=”javriNIIvGk” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 did come up to our expectations and performed great, you can also check out are unboxing video here. Gaming video coming soon!

September 26, 2013
LG G2 Expected To Hit 10 Million In Sales By The Company

LG plans to rollout the G2 to over 130 wireless carriers and have already launched it in South Korea, United States and the UK. An overseas report from the China Times has LG banking on the device hitting a home run. Apparently Jin Bingheng, head of LG Taiwan, has gone on record and publicly announced that they plan on selling 10 million LG G2 flagships devices around the world. Unfortunately there’s no timing listed in the report of when LG plans to sell the 10 million units, hopefully by the end of the year.

The LG G2 intends to approach smartphone design slightly differently, by being ensuring that all of the buttons are located on the rear of the device, which would mean this is the first smartphone in the market to lack any side buttons at all. The idea for a Rear Key concept arrived after LG noticed that users found it more difficult to access the side keys properly the larger a handset is.

A spacious, 5.2-inch IPS LCD display with an amazingly thin bezel graces the front of the LG G2. Its resolution of 1080 by 1920 pixels ensures that everything on it will look nice and sharp, especially knowing that a standard RGB sub-pixel arrangement has been implemented. The screen panel will be countering the sun’s rays with 450 nits of maximum brightness output.

This is the first device announced to carry a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor (with 2GB of RAM), which will have four Krait 400 cores clocked at 2.26Ghz and the company’s new Adreno 330 GPU clocked at 500Mhz. This SoC is a huge upgrade over the Snapdragon 600, and should allow for next-generation 3D gaming (when it arrives).

[Via]

September 26, 2013
Rumoured Microsoft Surface Mini Specs Leak, Might Release Next Year

Microsoft hasn’t yet confirmed plans for a Surface Mini tablet, but sources close to the matter revealed earlier this year that a new device aimed to compete with the iPad mini and Nexus 7 is likely to arrive by December.

Analysts working at IHS iSuppli have told CNet that a Windows RT powered tablet with a 7.5-inch display is being worked on by Microsoft. This ‘Surface Mini’ tablet will use a 4:3 aspect ratio 1,400 x 1,050 pixel display and it is also possible it will be equipped with mobile broadband connectivity. Earlier analyst insights provided to CNet suggested that the device will hit mass production early in 2014.

Another report from ZDNet reporter Mary Jo Foley reads :

One of my sources who has been solid on Microsoft’s roadmap in the past says the Surface Mini is coming, but not in calendar 2013. Supposedly, this source claims, Microsoft is going to launch the Surface Mini in early 2014. The reason? The Surface Mini is going to come preloaded with a Windows 8.1 update, that is codenamed “Spring 2014 GDR.”

Of course, if the Surface Mini is coming, things certainly won’t be easy for Microsoft competing on the market against products such as the Google Nexus 7 and Apple’s iPad Mini. And there are also other players: HP with their Slate 8 Pro which runs Android and Slate 7 HD, and Toshiba with their Encore 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablet.

So are you interested in playing with a smaller tablet from Microsoft? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

September 26, 2013
Hacking Case Sentence Of Pirate Bay Founder Reduced

The court however upheld Pirate Bay founder Svartholm Warg’s conviction for hacking into IT firm Logica, meaning he will still spend a year behind bars.

The Svea Court of Appeal convicted Gottfrid Svartholm Warg of having illegally accessed the website of Logica, an international IT firm contracted to Swedish government agencies. Some of the information, including personal data, was made public. The scope of the hacking from 2010 to 2012 was sizeable, the court said.

Svartholm Warg appealed that ruling, but left the country. He was arrested in Cambodia in 2012 and deported back to Sweden after an international arrest warrant was issued against him. He has served out his sentence for his first conviction while under detention over his hacking charges.

Warg, a 28-year-old Swede, was extradited to Sweden last year from Cambodia to begin a separate one-year jail sentence, incurred when he was convicted in 2009 of Internet piracy along with other co-founders of Pirate Bay.

“The important thing is to get the higher court to review the evidence in-depth, something that the lower court definitively didn’t do,” Kristina Svartholm, the Pirate Bay co-founder’s mother told website TorrentFreak prior to Wednesday’s ruling.

Svartholm Warg and his fellow Pirate Bay co-founders Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde, as well as financier Carl Lundström, were all convicted in 2009 of facilitating copyright infringement and ordered to pay 46 million kronor ($6.9 million) in damages to the music and movie industry.

[Via]

September 26, 2013
YouTube Launches Royalty Free Music Library

Youtube announced the launch of its Audio Library on Wednesday, which offers video makers 150 royalty-free tracks to accompany their footage.

Tracks can be added to your videos from the video manager page under the Creation Tools tab. The music library can be sorted by genre, mood, instrument or duration.

As The Independent notes, the new library is undoubtedly doing amateur filmmakers the world over a massive favour – helping them cut costs by not having to pay for music licences and also meaning less video takedowns over copyright disputes.

“We searched far and wide for musicians to create tracks for us and ended up finding co-conspirators in multiple places: an acquaintance down in L.A., music houses across the country and a well-known music producer in Brooklyn,” YouTube wrote on its official blog. “And it turns out the latter produced albums for Phish and Sean Lennon.”

“Any Youtube creator now has access to more than 150 royalty-free instrumental tracks you can use for free, forever, for any creative purpose (not just YouTube videos). You’ll find a link to the library in your video manager and you can browse the tracks by mood, genre, instrument and duration. The tracks can be downloaded as 320 Kbps MP3 files.

Youtube is calling for more musicians to get involved in the project, so those who fancy donating instrumental tracks to the service should get in touch with it.

September 25, 2013
Sony Released New Walkman Devices With Android 4.1

Sony has today unveiled a new range of Sony Walkman devices. It has launched these in the form of the new Sony Walkman ZX1, F Series, S Series and E Series.

The NW-ZX1 is a premium Android MP3 player while the NW-F880 comes in three colours. Both devices run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, sport 4-inch 480 x 854 Triluminous screens and feature Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC.

The NW-F880 continues Sony’s F series and offers 24 bit/192 kHz lossless audio for FLAC or WAV files. It also has sports hardware buttons for easy access to playback controls. There will be three models: the 16GB NW-F885, 32GB NW-F886 and the 64GB NW-F887.

If you are looking for more battery life and a smaller screen then the Sony S Series might be for you offering 32GB of storage, 77 hours of music playback and a 320 × 240 LCD display.

Sony says the NW-ZX1 Walkman will be launched in Japan starting December. The company didn’t mention if it intends to commercialize its new devices in other markets.

September 25, 2013
Amazon 7 And 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX Tablets Announced

Amazon is refreshing its line-up of tablet computers with new devices called Kindle Fire HDX, which are significantly faster and lighter than the previous generation.

The 7-inch and 8.9-inch versions also have sharper, more colorful displays than older models, and both have more pixels per inch than the latest iPad.

The Kindle Fire HDX is a 7-inch slate with a 1920×1200 pixel IPS display, a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16-64GB of internal storage and dual-band WiFi. Battery life promises to be 11-17 hours.

The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 boasts a 2560×1600 pixel IPS panel with the same Snapdragon 800, 2GB of RAM and 16-64GB storage counts. Battery life is a robust 12-18 hours.

The two tablets differ in size and weight, but they’ve both been redesigned with magnesium bodies, similar to that of the Surface RT. The smaller slate has a front-facing 720p camera, while the larger sibling sports the same alongside a rear 8MP shooter.

The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 really is the belle of the ball here, with a slim 7.8mm frame and a weight of 374 grams, only slightly heavier than the iPad mini.

New features in the Kindle’s OS are aimed at making downloads quicker and making it easier for folks to use their Amazon content across devices.

The Kindle Fire HDX also comes with a new feature called “Mayday,” which provides Kindle users one-click access to technical support. According to a commercial for the feature on the company’s Web site, tapping the on-screen button will immediately connect users with a live technician over video chat.

Amazon also unveiled new “origami covers” that lie flat when closed over the screen but can be folded and snapped into place as a stand that works both in horizontal and vertical position. They’ll come in seven different colors and be sold separately for between $45 and $70.

The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX starts at $379 US for 8 GB of memory, while the 7-inch starts at $229 US also with 8 GB. Buyers can pre-order starting Wednesday. The 7-inch will ship Oct. 18, while the 8.9-inch will ship starting Nov. 7.

Indian pricing and availability should be announced soon!

September 25, 2013
Samsung Galaxy S4 now Available in Gold Brown and Gold Pink

This comes up two weeks after Apple’s September 10th reveal of a gold color of iPhone, Samsung has just revealed that they are launching a new Gold Edition Galaxy S4.

The company has given two color options, Gold Pink or Gold Brown, which Samsung has just showed on its United Arab social media outlets. While, it is not sure if theses colors would be available globally. Earlier this month we heard rumors of the Gold HTC one coming up, undoubtedly gold seems to be the new trend.

[via]

September 25, 2013
Karbonn Smart A51 Android Smartphone Available for 3,402 INR

Karbonn has introduced a new budget Android phone, the Smart A51 is available online for 3,402 INR. The device has not got an official launch yet, but the device is available on soholic.com and also on Snapdeal.

The Karbonn Smart A51 has a 3.2 MP rear camera with LED flash and also includes a front facing VGA camera, the Smart A51 comes with a 1100 mAh battery.

The device has a 3.5 inch TFT LCD display with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels and is is powered by a 1 GHz processor, no details for the chipset is available yet, the device has a 256 MB of RAM. The Karbonn Smart A51 runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and is a dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) device with dual standby time.

The Device has a 512 MB of inbuilt storage which can is expandable up to 32GB via microSD card, this budget device from Karbonn will be available in two colors, Black and White. However, the device will not have 3G support but will have some basic features like WiFi and GPS.

September 25, 2013