Maruti Suzuki will be launching an all new version of its immensely popular WagonR hatchback, called the Stingray. The Stingray will sit above the current base WagonR and will be much sportier looking. With a redesigned front and rear end, the WagonR Stingray will hope to draw back attention to the Maruti brand and help spur sales in what is turning out to be a poor economy for automotive manufacturers.
The front end gets a slimmer grille flanked by sleek headlamps which may house projector-beam units. A flatter bonnet and an all-new bumper with a bigger air dam make for an aggressive look. The rear also adds slimmer tail lamps with clear-lens units and a new rear bumper. Alloy wheels may come as standard, but the side-profile of the tall hatchback is expected to remain largely unchanged.
The WagonR Stingray will also get minor interior upgrades in the form of different colours for the upholstery and other tweaks. Power is expected to come from the same 67bhp three-cylinder 1.0-litre K10 series engine as offered in the current WagonR.
The Maruti Suzuki WagonR Stingray is to be launched in the coming months. Expect the car to carry a premium of around Rs. 30,000 – Rs. 50,000 more than the standard WagonR.
[Image shown is of the Japanese Suzuki WagonR Stingray]
US carrier Verizon today launched three new Motorola phones which may truly change the way the world looks at the Google owned mobility company. Motorola and Verizon have launched a trio of phones which focus on all those things that have come to be the envy of smartphone owners,
Starting with the Droid Ultra which is a 5-inch smartphone that the company claims is “all about thin,”. The Droid Ultra sports a glossy, unibody Kevlar shell that makes it thinner (7.18mm) yet stronger than its predecessors.
The Droid Ultra sports a dual-core X8 Mobile Computing System delivers about 24 percent faster processing and double the graphics capabilities on all aspects. The Droid Ultra ships August 20th for $199, and pre-orders are starting today.The Droid Ultra will be available in Black and Red models.
The Droid Maxx on the other hand is designed for a long lasting Android experience, it sports a massive 48-hour battery life and is apparently 9 percent thinner than the RAZR Maxx HD. Just like the Droid Ultra, the phone is said to be 24% faster and double in the graphics department 10-megapixel camera out back that’s capable of shooting 1080p HD video. The Droid Maxx has wireless charging and a 3500mAh battery.
Droid Mini
Droid Maxx
Droid Ultra
Finally the Droid Mini comes with a 4.3 inch display 1.7GHz dual-core processor, 16GB of onboard storage (with 2GB of RAM), a 2130 mAh battery and a 10-megapixel camera with 1080p video capture. The Droid Mini goes on sale for US $ 99 and comes with wireless charging capabilities.
The Motorola Verizon Droid phones aim to focus more on experience and less on the specs of these handsets. The handsets get the new Droid Command Center homescreen widget with access to notifications, weather updates and more, as well as quick capture to take photos with a double-shake.The three phones will also include voice capabilites as leaked in the Moto X and the Droid handsets can apparently be woken on voice command by saying, “Ok Google Now.”
[toggle title=”Press Release”]Trio of New DROID Smartphones Coming to Verizon Wireless
MINI, ULTRA and MAXX: Cutting-edge design meets strength and agility.
A new family of exclusive DROID smartphones is coming soon to Verizon Wireless: DROID MINI, DROID ULTRA and DROID MAXX by Motorola. Keeping up with the DROID tradition, these devices give users what’s expected from a DROID on Verizon – intelligence, strength and endurance.
It starts with DROID Command Center, an exclusive homescreen widget for users to easily access notifications for text messages, missed calls, battery level and weather. It also serves as the gateway to new features including Wireless Display to mirror what’s on the screen onto a compatible HDTV to play games, browse the web and share pictures on a big screen.
Taking a picture and sharing it is now as easy as shake, tap and swipe. Quick Capture lets users access the 10-megapixel camera by shaking the phone twice, then tapping anywhere on the screen to snap a pic or a selfie. Sharing with a friend or a group of friends nearby is simple with the DROID Zap feature. Swiping up on a picture instantly shares it with fellow new DROID owners nearby, all they need to do is swipe down on their screen to receive it.
Hands are full or messy? Wake up the DROID by saying “Ok Google Now” and then tell it what you want to do. And for those users who constantly lose their phone under the couch or around the house, they can simply say “Ok Google Now, call my DROID” and it will start ringing. And Active Notifications lets users preview messages and app alerts without waking their phone.
These Touchless Controls and Active Display let users make calls, send texts, get directions, play music, set a reminder and preview notifications hands-free without having to unlock the phone, giving DROID users a whole new way of interacting with their phones.
The first DROID launched in November 2009 and included features new at the time such as Google Maps Navigation. It was also the first smartphone to feature Android 2.0. The new trio of DROID devices continues to give innovative features.
DROID MINI: A compact design with an edge-to-edge 4.3-inch HD display and wireless charging capabilities.
DROID ULTRA: The thinnest 4G LTE smartphone available, measuring 7.18mm, and with a 5-inch HD display. The ULTRA will be available in Black and Red models.
DROID MAXX: Features wireless charging and a 3500mAh battery that gives users nearly two days of battery life on a single charge, making it the longest lasting 4G LTE smartphone available.
These DROID smartphones are made with DuPont Kevlar fiber unibody design and will be available for pre-order online starting today, July 23, at 1 p.m. ET. The DROID ULTRA and DROID MAXX will be available for purchase starting Aug. 20 and the DROID MINI will be available starting Aug. 29. The DROID MINI will be $99.99, the DROID ULTRA will be $199.99 and the DROID MAXX will be $299.99, all with a new two-year customer agreement.[/toggle]
After over a year of speculation, Bentley has finally confirmed that it will produce an SUV. The new model line will be built in Crewe and will go on sale in 2016.
The new model will will represent the brand’s hallmarks of “luxury, performance, quality and craftsmanship”, and Bentley says that it will be the “most luxurious and most powerful SUV” on the market. The announcement of a production SUV follows the Bentley EXP 9 F concept, which was shown at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show. The as-yet unnnamed SUV will help create 1,000 jobs in the UK.
To prepare for the fourth model in its lineup, Bentley will be investing 800 million British pounds (around $1.2 billion USD) into its Crewe headquarters and production lines over the next three years.
This £800 million investment and a thousand new jobs from Bentley is fantastic news for both Crewe and for the UK as a whole. It is another important milestone in strengthening our economy. I am delighted that Bentley will be building their new vehicle here, not only creating a thousand jobs, but safeguarding many more, as well as increasing training opportunities for highly skilled apprentices.
– David Cameron, Prime Minister, United Kingdom
The Bentley SUV is likely to share its platform with the next-generation Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne. Past rumors have indicated that the SUV could look completely different from the 2012 EXP 9 F Concept shown above, be renamed the Falcon and offer options like a plug-in hybrid version and three-row seating.
With a mere week and a couple days remaining before the Moto X launches, the device’s camera user interface was leaked in the wild by Android Police.
Instead of an overwhelming amount of on-screen options, the Moto X’s camera interface is surprisingly minimalist and primarily controlled by swipe gestures.
Swiping in from the left side of the screen brings up a control wheel that contains typical camera settings, while swiping in from the right side opens up your photo gallery. You can take a picture simply by tapping anywhere on the Moto X’s screen and zoom by swiping up and down.
We also get a glimpse of the Quick Capture mode, which allows you to open the camera app with two flicks of the wrist. This can be done while the phone is off or from any app.
Whether or not this is the next stock Android camera UI isn’t known at this point, but we should know soon enough, maybe before this phone is made official.
Aside from the above features, the Moto X’s rear camera is also said to include Clear Pixel technology and, for the bare essentials, a 10.5-megapixel sensor.
We’ll keep you up-to-date on everything that’s happening, so be sure to check back often!
Canonical’s big pans on how the mobile world and the computing world would merge in the future has started to take shape. The new Ubuntu Edge smartphone aims to deliver the benchmark on what future mobile devices could be based on. The Ubuntu Edge will hit the markets in May 2014 for a price of US $ 830, a first day promotion of US $600 has already sold out.
The Ubuntu Edge is a very ambitious smartphone that’ll be capable of running a full-fledged Ubuntu desktop operating system alongside Android. While the specs have not been finalize the company talks of a 4.5 inch 720p display made of sapphire crystal glass on the Edge with a quad-core CPU, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. For optics and sound an 8MP rear with a 2MP front-facing camera and stereo speakers. The Ubuntu Edge will come with globally unlocked LTE, dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC, along with MHL support.
The Ubuntu Edge will only see the light of day if the expected US $ 32 million funding comes through, because the company claims:
none of the phone manufacturers are yet ambitious enough to try to put both things in one package.
The Ubuntu Edge will dual-boot both the Ubuntu phone OS and Android, and convert into a fully integrated Ubuntu desktop PC.
Get the full details on the project at the funding site in the link below.
Samsung is eager to show off their new chipset based on the Exynos 5 which will most probably land up in their next version of the Galaxy Note aka the Note 3. The new 5420 variant of the SoC is based on Mali-T628 MP6 chip and pairs a Quad Core ARM Cortex-A15 at 1.8GHz alongside a quad core 1.3GHz Cortex-A7 BigLittle configuration with smart switching.
Samsung’s PR claims that the new chip is not only 20 more effective at processing, it also has twice the graphics prowess. The memory is also a faster Dual-channel LPDDR3 at 933MHz with a memory bandwidth of 14.9 GBps. Thanks to the configuration the chipset will support multiple full HD WiFi displays.
The Chipset is on track to be made available to OEMs by August, which means it might as well end up in Samsung’s September baby.
[toggle title=”Press Release”]Samsung Brings Enhanced Mobile Graphics Performance Capabilities to New Exynos 5 Octa Processor
SEOUL, Korea, July 23, 2013 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced semiconductor solutions, today introduced the latest addition to the Exynos product family with top level of graphic performance driven by a six-core ARM® Mali™-T628 GPU processor for the first time in the industry. With mobile use case scenarios becoming increasingly complex, Samsung’s newest eight-core application processor gives designers a powerful, energy efficient tool to build multifaceted user interface capabilities directly into the system architecture. Samsung will demonstrate the new Exynos 5 family at SIGGRAPH 2013 in the ARM booth, #357; Exhibit Hall C at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Samsung’s new Exynos 5 Octa (product code : Exynos 5420), based on ARM Mali™-T628 MP6 cores, boosts 3D graphic processing capabilities that are over two times greater than the Exynos 5 Octa predecessor. The newest member of the Exynos family is able to perform General-Purpose computing on Graphics Processing Units (GPGPU) accelerating complex and computationally intensive algorithms or operations, traditionally processed by the CPU. This product also supports OpenGL® ES 3.0 and Full Profile Open CL 1.1, which enables the horsepower needed in multi-layer rendering of high-end, complex gaming scenarios, post-processing and sharing of photos and video, as well as general high-function multi-tasking operations.
“ARM welcomes the latest addition to the successful Exynos Octa 5 series, which uses ARM’s Mali GPU solution to dramatically improve graphics performance,” said Pete Hutton, executive vice president & general manager, Media Processing Division, ARM. “ARM big.LITTLE™ and ARM Artisan® Physical IP technologies continue to be at the heart of the Octa series and now complement the new functionality brought by ARM GPU Compute. This combination enables unprecedented capabilities in areas such as facial detection and gesture control, and brings desktop-quality editing of images and video to mobile devices.”
“Demand for richer graphic experiences is growing rapidly nowadays,” said Taehoon Kim, vice president of System LSI marketing, Samsung Electronics. “In order to meet that demand from both OEMs and end users, we developed this processor which enables superb graphical performance without compromising power consumption.”
The newest Exynos processor is powered by four ARM Cortex®-A15™ processors at 1.8GHz with four additional Cortex-A7™ cores at 1.3 GHz in a big.LITTLE processing implementation. This improves the CPU processing capability by 20 percent over the predecessor by optimizing the power-saving design.
In addition, the multiple image compression (MIC) IP block inside this System-on-Chip successfully lowers the total system power when bringing pictures or multimedia from memory to display panel. This feature results in maximizing the usage hours of mobile devices with a high-resolution display such as WQXGA (2500×1600), in particular when browsing the web or doing multimedia application requiring the frequent screen refresh.
The new Exynos 5 Octa processor also features a memory bandwidth of 14.9 gigabytes per second paired with a dual-channel LPDDR3 at 933MHz, enabling an industry-leading fast data processing and support for full HD Wifi display. This new processor also incorporates a variety of full HD 60 frames per second video hardware codec engines for 1080p video recording and playback.
The new family of Exynos 5 Octa is currently sampling to customers and is scheduled for mass-production in August.[/toggle]
LG G2 is scheduled to be launched on August 7 thanks to a brand new video by the company that says “Come See how the G2 is Learning from you”. The Video also shows off the rumored back mounted volume buttons. While most of the information about the phone has been leaked or teased, LG claims to have a lot more to show off at launch on the 7th of August 2013.
Mercedes-Benz has introduced a new nine-speed automatic gearbox as standard equipment on the Mercedes Benz E350 BlueTec, which is the diesel version and is sold internationally. The new ‘box has been developed in-house, and is known internally under the name 9G-Tronic. According to reports, Mercedes has been working on the 9G-Tronic for a long time, and even denied its existence officially until this past weekend.
Now though, Mercedes-Benz’s German language website configurator has gone live with various updates for the E-class line-up and the 9G-Tronic is shown to be available on the standard rear-wheel-drive E350 BlueTec. It replaces the older seven-speed ‘7G-Tronic’ automatic gearbox.
The 9G-Tronic gearbox does not affect the 6.6 seconds 0-100 km/h acceleration time of the E350 BlueTec. However it improves the stop/start function and helps increase fuel efficiency while reducing emission levels.
Not: If you don’t see the Development Panel, enable it by tapping several times on the Build Number in the Setting > About screen .
Once enabled connect your Canvas 4 to your PC via the USB cable. (make sure all the drivers for the phone are installed, this will happen automatically)
Step 3:
Download the iGyaan Root Tools zip file above and unzip them into a folder called “root” on the Desktop.
Step 4:
Open this new “root” folder and launch Run.bat and press Enter.
The Process will begin and your device may reboot several times, DO NOT REMOVE THE CABLE until the process is compete.
Once completed you will find “SuperSu” in the application list. You now know how to root the Micromax Canvas 4 A210.
UN Root Micromax Canvas 4
Simply Open SuperSU > Settings > Full Unroot
Your Micromax Canvas 4 A210 will reboot and Unroot.
The leaks of Motorola’s upcoming Moto X just keep on coming. We’ve already seen a plethora of pictures, videos and event official press shots, but now a few more images have arrived online that confirms the specs.
AndroidPolice have managed to score themselves a few shots of the device and the ‘About” screen reveals the following mid-range specs of the model number XT1058:
– 1.7GHz dual-core Qualcomm S4 Pro processor, Adreno 320 GPU – 2GB of RAM – confirmed by our photos – 4.7-inch display with a resolultion of 720×1184 (about 4.5? without on-screen buttons) – 10.5MP rear camera with flash – 2.1MP front-facing camera – 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, NFC – Android OS 4.2.2 Jelly Bean – 16GB internal memory (12GB of which is user-accessible) – 2,200 mAh non-removable battery
It has an AnTuTu score of about 18.7K and about 7.1K in 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme – decent scores for a mid range device.
Speaking of the camera, Motorola has also spread a bland Tweet on their Twitter account. This shows four blurred images of a child, with the remark: “Either this kid is really fast or the phones of today are really slow,” This tells us that the camera of the Moto X will most likely be capable of shooting high speed, blur-free images too. But we’ll wait to see the evidence first hand.
Up to 750 million mobile phones around the world carry SIM cards that contain a programming flaw that could leave their owners vulnerable to fraud. The bug allows a hacker to remotely access personal data and authorise illegal transactions within minutes.
The flaw in question is found in SIM cards using DES (Data Encryption Standard) for encryption, which is an older standard that is slowly being phased out by most manufacturers, but the point is that it is still baked into hundreds of millions of SIMs across the world. The founder of German firm, Security Research Labs, Karsten Nohl, found that sending a fake carrier message to a phone prompted an automated response from 25% of DES-based SIMs, which revealed the cards’ 56-bit security key.
Once the sequence key is obtained hackers will be able to send a virus to the SIM card. This will allow eavesdropping on calls or allow mobile purchases with payments charged directly to the mobile account.
Nohl added that “We can remotely install software on a handset that operates completely independently from your phone. We can spy on you. We know your encryption keys for calls. We can read your S.M.S.’s. More than just spying, we can steal data from the SIM card, your mobile identity, and charge to your account.”
Nohl says his team had been unsuccessfully attempting to breach SIM cards since 2011, using over-the-air-programming (OTA) – unseen text messages that are sent by the mobile phone operator to change settings on the phone of a user within their network.
Mr. Nohl is a well known figure in the security industry. In 2009, he has published a software that can easily decode the 64-bit key needed to encrypt GSM-based conversations. This has caused the industry to scramble for a better safeguarding strategy. His Germany-located company, Security Research Labs, acts as advisor to multinational companies around Germany and the U.S on any issues involving mobile security.
Last Thursday iOS developers had been unable to login to Apple’s Developers Portal. Most people assumed it was maintenance or a simple website upgrade. As it turns out, hackers broke into the website and stole an indeterminate amount of data.
The portal was originally designed to provide developers with access to materials and session videos relating to application development for both the iOS and OS X platforms, as well as the tools necessary to change information relating to their applications published to the iTunes App Store.
Members of Apple’s developer portal had begun receiving password reset emails en masse. In the email, Apple states that an intruder managed to get into the system, and while it’s not certain at this point, it’s not ruling out the fact that the perpetrator could have snagged names, mailing addresses, and email addresses. The company is clear to state that all sensitive information is encrypted, so passwords and potential financial information stored should be considered safe.
Techcrunch confirmed today that “The hack only affected developer accounts; standard iTunes accounts were not compromised Credit card data was not compromised They waited three days to alert developers because they were trying to figure out exactly what data was exposed There is no time table yet for when the Dev Center will return”
Apple pulled the Developer Center site and is “completely overhauling our developer systems, updating our server software, and rebuilding our entire database.”
Prolific leaker @evleaks has shared some press shots that give us a clear look at the front and rear of the new Nexus 7. The upcoming ASUS-made slate showed up in a BestBuy print catalogue as well.
According to a number of previous reports, the next Nexus 7 will sport 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 7-inch full HD display, wireless charging, 2/4GB of RAM, Android 4.3 and the aforementioned 5-megapixel rear camera and a 4000 mAH battery. We’ve also seen mentions of the upcoming tablet show up in a retailer’s inventory, so really all that’s left is for Google to make the device official.
Perhaps most tantalizing is the possibility that the Nexus 7 redux will offer up our first real glimpse of Android 4.3, unless you count those leaked builds that started trickling out soon after Google began selling its Google Play Edition Ones and S4s.
It would have been nice to see Google stick to the sub-$200 price point for the Nexus 7, however considering the spec sheet on this revised Nexus 7 it is actually a bit surprising that they are managing to hit $229. Safe bet we’ll be hearing more about the new Nexus 7 from Google this week so all will be revealed soon.
It’s also possible that the event will bring the official reveal of Android 4.3, which has been leaking quite frequently lately.
The Ford Fiesta EcoBoost has bagged the 2013 Women’s World Car of the Year award. The Fiesta won the economy car category, and edged out other finalists Mazda CX5 and the Range Rover in the final round, to be announced as the Supreme winner.
Women pack powerful purchasing power, representing a huge market opportunity. The fact that a respected panel of published and specialist women motoring writers selected the Ford Fiesta 1.0-litre EcoBoost is a significant accolade as we work to design, develop and market our vehicles, technologies and services in a way that captures the attention of this very influential buying group.
– Craig Von Essen, product and communications manager, Ford, Asia-Pacific and Africa
Judges were also asked to nominate their ‘Dream Car’. This was won by the Aston Martin Vanquish, ahead of the Jaguar F-type.
According to Chief Judge, Sandy Myhre of New Zealand, the judging categories changed for 2013 and the three-tier voting system makes it hard for any car to be selected as a category finalist, let alone winning. Judges supply their own shortlist from 2013 model year cars they’ve tested. From there a shortlist is formed to determine the finalists and from the finalist list judges choose their supreme winner and the podium finishers.
The official results in each category are:
Family Car: 1st – Audi Allroad, 2nd – Volkswagen Golf, 3rd – BMW 3 Series
Luxury Car: 1st – Range Rover, 2nd – Mercedes Benz SL550, 3rd – BMW 6 Series
Sports Car: 1st – Porsche Boxster S, 2nd – Audi RS5, 3rd – Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ
Four-time IZOD IndyCar Series champions Andretti Autosport has announced that it will field a team in the upcoming FIA Formula E Championship, the all-electric racing series that will debut next season. Andretti Autosport is the first U.S.-based team to sign up for the new racing series.
The Andretti team plans to create a two-car program for the series, which will compete in 10 cities around the world. The American outfit now the third team to sign on so far for Formula E’s inaugural season, joining China Racing and British-based Drayson Racing.
Andretti Autosport is run by none other than former racer Michael Andretti. Michael Andretti, who is the son of racing legend Mario Andretti and father of current Andretti Autosport driver Marco Andretti, was the 1991 CART IndyCar champion and raced in Formula One for McLaren in 1993. He has led Andretti Autosport to the status of IndyCar champions on four occassions, with drivers Tony Kanaan, the late Dan Wheldon, Dario Franchitti and last year’s title winner Ryan Hunter-Reay. Andretti Autosport also won the Indianapolis 500 with both Wheldon and Franchitti.
It’s an honour for Andretti Autosport to have been selected as one of the 10 founding Formula E teams for the inaugural season. I look forward to further exploring the series and helping build the future of open-wheel racing across the world.
– Michael Andretti
Interestingly, Andretti Autosport plans to run one of its cars for the Formula E championship but potentially use the second as a “star car” for well-known drivers. This in turn could mean appearances in the new category from their stable of IndyCar pilots – defending series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe and E.J. Viso.
We are absolutely delighted to welcome Andretti Autosport to the series; a team with an incredible racing pedigree and track record who I have no doubt is going to make a big contribution to the FIA Formula E Championship. It’s fantastic too for such a highly-established outfit to show its commitment to sustainable motoring and with two US races on the inaugural calendar – Los Angeles and Miami – I’m sure American motorsport fans will have a lot to cheer come race day.
– Alejandro Agag, Chief, Formula E
Formula E’s first season will run from September 2014 to June ’15, running entirely on street circuits, including one in London. Berlin was unveiled as the final venue on the calendar last week.
