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iPad Charger Explodes in UK

Tim suffered a terrible electric shock when his daughter’s iPad charger exploded in his hand. Tim Gillooley claims his eight year old girl(Chloe) could have been killed if she had been the one to reach down and unplug the device. Tim was burnt by the shock.

As reported by Mirror news, this comes a month after the family of a Chinese woman, Ma Ailun, claimed she was killed as a result of being electrocuted while chatting on her iPhone 5 as it charged. Mr Gillooley, from Warrington, bought the iPad from the Apple Store in Liverpool for his daughter.

He said: There was a huge bang and it blew me across the room. I was in shock. I was hysterically laughing for about two minutes. It was a bad shock that went down my arm. My mum was panicking and Chloe burst into tears. Nine times out of 10, Chloe would have gone to get it herself. I think it would have killed her.”

Tim noticed Chloe’s iPad had charging problems so he returned it to the Apple Store three months earlier but was told there was nothing wrong with the charger or the device. They even bought a new official charger and lightening cable to see if it would solve the problem.

He added. “We were big fans of Apple but I won’t let my daughter near her iPhone if it’s a ticking time bomb.”

Apple has asked Tim for the burnt remains of the charger to review.

[via]

August 28, 2013
iOS 7 To Be Launched On September 10

September 10 is the date we’re currently marking in the diaries for the iPhone 5S and 5C reveal, and that may have just been reinforced by a claim that we’ll see the release of iOS 7 that very same day.

According to an email sent to developers from Nuance, the company behind Siri, the general availability date for iOS 7 is set for September 10.

The Next Web contributing writer Owen Williams posted the below email from Nuance to his personal blog, it reads:

As you are probably aware, iOS 7 GA will be released on September 10th.

The NDEV Program has pre-qualified that SpeechKit 1.4.5 works properly on iOS 7, but we encourage you to conduct own testing to ensure that when the upgrade happens, your Nuance speech services continue to work seamlessly.

It asked developers using its API to conduct testing to ensure that their services work on iOS 7 even though its SpeechKit 1.4.5 is pre-qualified to work properly on iOS 7. Nuance is the voice recognition focused company which has also worked on Siri, Apple’s intelligent voice assistant.

Historically, Apple has released iOS Golden Master versions to developers on the same day as the announcement of new iPhones, giving developers time to test their apps with the final version of the new iOS before its release it to the general public a couple of days before the launch of the new iPhone.

[Via]

August 27, 2013
Facebook To Pay $20M For Sponsored Stories Privacy Breaches

A U.S. judge has put a stamp of approval on a US$20 million fund for Facebook to settle a class-action advertising suit, despite objections from groups representing minors on the site.

The ruling was issued Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The class-action suit, which was first filed in 2011, challenged Facebook’s “sponsored stories” advertising program. A sponsored story is a type of promoted post appearing in users’ feeds that may include the profile name and picture of Facebook members who have “liked” that advertiser’s products or services.

As Wired reports, “Sponsored Stories” basically turns the act of pressing the Facebook “Like” button into a potential commercial endorsement. If a Facebook user clicks the “Like” button for a product or service with a Facebook page, that user’s profile picture and name may be automatically used in advertisements for that product or service that appear in the their friends’ Facebook pages. Facebook also reserves the right to show such ads on sites other than Facebook.

U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco approved the revised deal months after he said he had “serious concerns” because it originally provided a $10 million payout to attorneys suing Facebook and $10 million to activist and research groups in what is known as a cy pres award.

Under the new plan Seeborg approved, the same $20 million pot is to be shared by charities, the class-action attorneys and the 125 million U.S. Facebook users who appeared in a “Sponsored Story” without consent.

In a statement, a Facebook spokeswoman said the company was “pleased” that the settlement had received final approval.

August 27, 2013
Samsung Exec. Confirms Sept. 4 Launch For The Galaxy Gear Smartwatch

Lee Young-hee, Samsung’s EVP of mobile business, all but confirmed its entry into wearable devices by declaring that they’ll unveil the Galaxy Gear smartwatch on September 4th.

According to an interview in the Korean Times, Young-hee stated “We Will be introducing a new wearable device concept called Galaxy Gear at our own event in Berlin on Sept. 4. The new device will enhance and enrich the current smart mobile experience in many ways. It will lead a new trend in smart mobile communications.”

The Galaxy Gear will be marketed to ‘young trend setters’ and will be available in several colour options. The final design will be shown off on September 4th, but the exec also confirmed that the Galaxy Gear will not have a flexible display. Samsung will be saving that technology for ‘future products.’ As for specs, rumours point toward the Gear coming with a 2.5-inch OLED full colour display (320 x 320 resolution), touchscreen gestures and accelerometer, dual-core 1.5GHz Exynos 4212 processor, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC.

The September 4 event will also definitely see the introduction of the new Galaxy Note 3, which will reveal what’s next for the phablet category Samsung basically pioneered with the original Note. Some new rumors suggest the Galaxy Note 3 will shoot 4K video, and be powered by a Snapdragon 800 processor with a 2.3GHz clock speed, with a 5.7-inch display and 3GB of RAM.

[Via. Via]

August 27, 2013
Blue HTC One Spotted, Early Android 4.3 Build For The Device Leaks

A blue version of the HTC One is coming, and what was previously only a render is now a fully-fledged leaked device.

A version of the device in a sea-coloured hue was spotted on a subway train in China, and was uploaded to Mobile01, a smartphone-related forum. This confirms the previous leak by evleaks and a leaked casing of the handset in the same colour.

HTC must be planning its HTC One follow-up already, as the device was announced in February and released in April. Rumours of a One Max persist, with an announcement slated for early next month.

At present, the HTC One has been released with 3 colour variants, Silver, Black and Red.

An early build of Android 4.3 has leaked to XDA, and one developer, LlabTooFeR, has already released a custom ROM with the build as a base. Build 3.09.401.1 still uses Sense 5.0, but has a number of minor improvements, including Bluetooth LE support, improved animations throughout the OS, the ability to use your own music for video highlights and, unfortunately, a task manager added to the app drawer.

[Via]

August 27, 2013
Controlling Drone With Google Glass And Javascript- Made Possible By Developer Blaine Bublitz

Developer Blaine Bublitz has hacked into Google Glass to give us a controller option which can be used to fly a drone. Ever since the Glass was released for developers, we’ve been seeing all sorts of apps being created for it. Google itself implied that tasks like clicking a picture, sending a message, translations and so on would probably need verbal input to function.

But Bublitz’s creation is the latest and probably the best. This was made possible mainly using Google Glass and JavaScript, the developer has made it possible to control and fly a Parrot AR Drone. The flying robot was controllable with help of some simple head movements. The controls were not smooth, but that can be considered keeping in mind that the project is still developing.

If you look at the video below, you will see that that drone is been controlled by the Glass. If you need more information on how this was made possible and what coding was used for the JavaScript, you can click here to go the developers blog.

[vimeo clip_id=”71405845″ width=”100%” height=”300px”]

These experiments can lead to great results which can be useful to one as a person or may be to the country in the near future.

[via]

August 27, 2013
Gionee Launches The Gionee P2 : A Budget Android Smartphone

Gionee has launched yet another phone in the Indian market which is said to be available for 6500 INR.

The Gionee P2 features a 4-inch WVGA display with a resolution of 480×800 pixels. The device is equipped with a 1.3GHz dual-core Cortex A7 MediaTek 6572 processor which is further paired with 512MB of RAM and Mali 400 GPU.

The Gionee P2 runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. It comes with 4GB of internal storage that can also be expanded up to 32GB. This device has a 5-megapixel rear camera with a LED flash and a VGA front-facing camera. The rear camera includes options like face detection, touch to focus, Panorama, face beauty, gesture & smile shot and can also record HD videos.

The device supports dual SIM. It is also powered with a 1700mAh battery. The connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM Radio, GPS, Digital Compass, Light Sensor, Face Unlock and Game Zone. This device is available at a few websites online and is available in two color variants: Black and White.

What is your take on this new device ?

August 27, 2013
iPhone 5S & 5C Show up in a Video

iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, the rumored next-generation iPhone and the so called ‘cheaper iPhone’ respectively, are supposed to be unveiled on September 10. As the date approaches closer, we’re seeing details leak out often, but this time its not an image, or group of iPhones, But a video showing the possible golden iPhone 5S and the cheaper version of the iPhone famous as the iPhone 5C.

Looking at the video, there’s no way to tell if the parts shown in this video are real, but they line up with previous leaked photos.

[youtube id=”m-Ib6NME-DE” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

The video clearly shows both the alleged upcoming iPhones together. The 5S might get launched with a faster processor as per the rumors but there is not much information about the ‘5C’ except it being made with a polycarbonate shell. We will have to wait and see if Apple will really launch two phones, specially a cheaper one ? This question will remain unanswered till September 10 irrespective of any new leaked images that might come up.

[via]

August 27, 2013
Sony Launches Two New Cameras: Alpha 3000 And NEX 5T

Camera fans have split into groups. As they choose from point-and-shoot cameras or smaller mirrorless models and alot of u like the bulky, professional look and feel of DSLR cameras.

Sony has launched two new DSLR like cameras today Alpha 3000 and NEX 5T.

Sony Alpha 3000:

The Alpha 3000 has a Sony E-mount interchangeable lens with a Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor with an effective picture resolution of 20.1 pixels. It can also capture videos in high-definition resolution at 60 frames per second. This camera has a 3X digital zoom and the focal length is 27 to 82.5 mm. It has a 3-inch display with a “live view” feature. The camera has a rechargeable 1080 mAh Lithium NP-FW50 rechargeable battery. This camera weighs 281 grams and is priced $400 and is up for pre-booking.

NEX 5T:

The NEX-5T is a 16.1-megapixel device with Sony E-mount interchangeable lenses. It has the same Exmor CMOS sensor and can shoot 10 frames per second. It has a 3X optical zoom and a 4X digital zoom. The focal length is 24 to 77 mm. The camera has a 3-inch touchscreen display that can tilt 180 degrees. It also has NFC and built-in WiFi. This is a more compact camera, with approximately half the weight of the Alpha 3000, this camera weighs 116 grams. This camera is priced $700 and is up for pre-booking.

“These target the entry-level user,” said Kenta Hanjo, a product manager at Sony Electronics, in a press briefing. “It’s for someone who owns a smartphone and point and shoot and wants to step up their photography.”

Both of these cameras have the same shipping date which is 8th of September 2013 for US. We will have to see when and for what price will these cameras come to the Indian market.

August 27, 2013
How To Keep Your Facebook Account Safe

Facebook is part of our daily routine, it is very important for us to take care of its security so that it does not harms us in some or the other way. Here are some steps you may want to follow to make sure that you have your Facebook account secured:

Privacy settings:

Set your privacy setting to ‘Friends only’, by doing this, you will be able to have control who has access to your information and pictures. For certain pictures, you can also select certain friends that you do or do not want them to see. this is known as “Custom” sharing.

Always monitor pictures:

Always monitor pictures that other people put of you and tag you on. You can see the tagged pictures of you by going to your profile, click on “Photos”- you should see “Photos of You” and the number of tagged pictures. Click on that, and look through the pictures. You can un-tag any photo of you, but people still have the ability to see it. Click “Report/Remove Tag” under the “Options” on the bottom of the picture. Also if you think that the particular picture could put you in a compromising situation, consult whoever put it up and ask him or her to remove it immediately. If they are your so called friends they should acknowledge your request.

Personal Information:

Avoid putting your phone number, mailing address, or your home address in your profile. People often use words such as pet’s names or numbers as passwords, so it is not recommended to publish them on-line.

Change your password:

Don’t make your password something obvious such as your birthday or mother’s maiden name. Try to have at least one capital letter, one lowercase letter, two numbers, and a symbol. The longer and more complicated the password, the safer you are from getting your account hacked. Always remember to log out after you’re finished with Facebook, especially on a shared computer.

Connecting Facebook with untrusted websites:

The purpose of Facebook is to connect you with people you know and not adding everyone randomly. Making your profile public means you’re sharing your information with everyone, even though you don’t know them, a risk that you would not want to take. Never link Facebook with any untrusted websites.

Add someone you know:

Don’t friend anyone out of your state/country unless you know them pretty well. Only friend people you know. Make sure they are the correct person by looking through their pictures. If they are not familiar, then remove them as a friend by getting to your friend list. Report/Block anyone that seems to threaten or harass you.

These are some steps that will help you to update and secure your much loved Facebook account. If we missed any please let us know below!

August 27, 2013
Free Messaging Apps Are Unsafe, Claims Hackers

The free text messaging app on your phone can be used to occupy your personal information. Hackers and cyber security professionals have claimed that internet companies can access a mobile user’s chat logs and phone data, which includes location, contacts, mail and much more, through some of the free texting apps.

As per TOI, a team of young hackers demonstrated on Sunday how text messages sent through a Chinese free texting app can be decrypted. They said foreign governments could also be using this method to access data for surveillance or spying.

Participants at The Hackers Conference in Delhi on Sunday said the government wasn’t utilizing the potential of hackers despite its websites increasingly coming under attack.

However, hackers are increasingly becoming part of the IT industry and contributing as security experts. “Hackers are paid around Rs 1 lakh per month by social networking sites, search engines and software companies, he said, adding that some of these hackers are just teenagers, says Kishlay who further said:

“Hacking is like an art which needs skill to master. It is also like science, extremely logical. Today private companies use ethical hackers to make themselves secure. We know of companies that pay hackers more than they spend on developing software,” said Kishlay Bharadwaj, 24, a freelance security analyst and organizing member of the conference.

White hat hackers are for the good, no matter if they work for any company or for safeguarding the nation from cyber threats.

[via]

August 27, 2013
HTC’s new Branding Campaign heats up
What does HTC stands for? Your answer might be High Tech Computer Cooperation, apparently HTC stands for ‘Happy Touching Cruise-liner’ or may be ‘Habanero Telephone Champion’, it might also stand for ‘Hysterical Turning Coconut’ or may be ‘Happy Tantalizing Catapult’.

HTC has launched a word generator. Simply click the “Here’s to change button,” and the HTC Generator give’s you a three word phrase with the initials H, T, and C. HTC is letting you think of new ideas. Try your hands on it – here.

Few combinations we think they missed on are
Did we miss any?

Once you use the generator many times, a longer version of the video that we saw before appears and features Robert Downey Jr. The video also features a Bollywood song, have a look at it below:

[youtube id=”OVE1OcfB1E4″ width=”100%” height=”300px”]
August 26, 2013

Micromax Canvas Doodle 2 A240 vs Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 : Fight

Samsung has been the leader in the “phablet” segment for quite some time, but Indian brands are trying to change that and fast. With the iBerry Auxus Nuclea N1 coming awfully close to the title. But, today its the Micromax Canvas Doodle 2 A240 vs Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 ,the Micromax Canvas Doodle 2 is almost the same when it comes to screen size and dimensions. There are pros and cons on both devices, and in most cases users tend to choose Samsung over any other brand, for the sheer brand value and service network.

The Micromax Canvas Doodle 2 has one major disadvantage in all of this, the inability to accept microSD cards for storage expansion. We saw that with just a few games and music we ran out of space which can be really crucial on Smartphones these days. However the Canvas Doodle 2 wins hands down against the Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 in a few departments including cameras, where the doodle 2 carries a 12 + 5 MP combo the Mega 5.8 carries a 8 +1.9 MP combo. The display on the Micromax Canvas Doodle 2 also leaves Samsung Galaxy mega in the pixel dust, with a 1280 x 720 pixel on a 5.7 Doodle 2 inch vs a 960 x 550 px on a 5.8 inch Galaxy Mega 5.8.

The Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 is not ready to go down without a fight simply because, what it loses in the hardware department it brings in an additional 0.5 GB of RAM and the TouchWiz experience which some like and some hate. Most can also argue that the heavy to use TouchWiz itself will be responsible for additional RAM requirements.

PHONE	MICROMAX A240 CANVAS DOODLE 2	SAMSUNG GALAXY MEGA 5.8
Display	5.7-inch 720p HD LED-backlit IPS	5.8-inch qHD TFT
Processor	1.2 GHz Cortex-A7 MediaTek MT6589 quad-core	1.4GHz dual-core Broadcom
RAM	1GB	1.5GB
Internal Storage	16GB (12GB user-accessible)	8GB (around 5GB user-accessible)
MicroSDcard slot	No (unconfirmed, but most probably ‘no’)	Yes
Cameras	12MP rear camera with LED flash, 5MP front camera	8MP rear camera with LED flash, 1.9MP front camera
Dimensions	161 x 82.5 x 9.3mm	162.6 x 82.4 x 9 mm
	240 g	182 g
Battery	2600 mAh	2600 mAh
Connectivity/ Ports	Wi-Fi b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0/ microUSB v2.0, 3.5mm audio jack	Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0/ microUSB v2.0, 3.5mm audio jack
Android version	Android 4.2 with custom interface	Android 4.2 with Touchwiz interface
Price	INR 19,990 (current)	INR 22,990 (current))

Buy Now

August 26, 2013

Epic Monday Treat : Micromax Canvas Doodle 2 A240 Unboxing

Micromax is all set to launch its new flagship smartphone the Micromax A240 Canvas Doodle 2, the phone is a revision of the original doodle which created a new pen/stylus+ phone category for the company. The new Micromax Canvas Doodle 2 has a Aluminum back with a unibody chassis and a matching two tip stylus.

The two major highlighting factors of the Micromax Canvas Doodle 2 are the 5.7 inch 1280 x 720p inch display and the cameras, a 12 MP out back and a 5 mp in the front. A few things users may not like are the non replaceable battery and the non expandable storage which is fixed at a 16 GB out of which 12.64 + 0.98 GB are user available. The Micromax Canvas Doodle 2 is powered by a 2800 mAh battery pack and runs the Mediatek 6589 Quad Core 1.2 GHz chipset with the PowerVR SGX544MP GPU, which might create a bit of stir.

The device fits beautifully in the hands and is really convenient to hold, the stylus is ergonomically for both tiny and large hands thanks to the oval-ish design which creates two differential holding points. The two tips on either side of the stylus also offer two levels of firmness which might be appreciated by artists and doodlers alike.

The Doodle 2 is fairly pocketable too, considering its size it actually fits quite well into pockets, this could also be due to the 9.3mm thickness vs the 10+ on the previous version (although the tapered edges help too.). In the box there is a usual mix up of things, a flat cable charging cable, a flat cable set of earphones + ear tips, the USB wall charger, a flip case that also converts into a stand and documentation.

When compared to the Galaxy Mega 5.8 by Samsung the Micromax Canvas Doodle 2 misses the MicroSD card Slot and also a customized UI that offers additional features, the Canvas Doodle 2 however has a higher resolution display a better build quality and bigger MP cameras .

BUY NOW

August 26, 2013
Yahoo! Buys An Image Recognition Firm ‘IQ Engines’ To Improve Flickr

Yahoo has Acquired IQ Engines, a company that develops image recognition software capable of categorizing pictures based on the people and objects featured in them. IQ Engines first made headlines back in 2010 when it snapped up a $1 million in funding for crafting an API that would allow its customers to provide a visual search engine of all sorts that could automatically categorize images on the go.

IQ Engines is supposed to be rolled into Yahoo’s Flickr team, to help and improve the widely used photo services search feature. It is the latest acquisition for Yahoo and some of the others are Tumblr, Xobni, Rockmelt, and Summly. Flickr is one of the best online resources available for photographers of all interests, but navigating through its massive photo catalog is not much user friendly. Yahoo’s purchase of IQ Engines might change that. According to the image recognition startup’s website, IQ will be applying its skills to improving photo organization and search functionality to the online photo repository. Hopefully new features will reflect in Flickr’s upcoming change log.

August 26, 2013