Facebook Launches Facebook Lite in India and Philippines

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June 29, 2015

Facebook has launched Facebook Lite, a lightweight android app targeted at making the social network seamless for users in 2G and slow networks in the Indian and the Philippines’ market.

Now your love of Facebook and hate of slow internet connection both has been addressed by the social networking Facebook.

Facebook Lite launched earlier year in Nigeria as well as a handful of countries in Africa and South America. It is just expanding to India and the Philippines.

India doesn’t have the best of the infrastructure when it comes to broadband. Many villages and even cities, connections are not fast, making it a ripe market for Facebook Lite.

Facebook Lite is tailored to work in 2G internet connections and even in inconsistent connectivity.

Facebook Lite is primarily tailored for data efficiency while simultaneously giving the same functionality as the full-fledged app.

It is just a 430kb download; hence even getting the app isn’t a hassle. And even in this small package it will include the news feed, push notifications, messaging and ads.

Video support is not currently included in the current version of the Facebook Lite, but will be available in the future.

The interface is simplified to make the app work faster. The less media or information the user have to download, the better the experience will become.

If you use Facebook to just see what friends and family are up to then the app is more than sufficient. It offers quick check-ins, doesn’t slow your phone down and is resource friendly.

If you use Facebook to just see what friends and family are up to then the app is more than sufficient. It offers quick check-ins, doesn’t slow my phone down and is resource friendly.

Currently, Facebook Lite is expending to India and the Philippines. But the social networking giant confirmed more markets will get the app in the coming weeks.

So, are you going to download the app?

OnePlus 2 On The Loose? Check Out What’s New

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Nitish Singh

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June 29, 2015

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OnePlus One was one of the most hyped phones of last year for its flagship specs and reasonable price. And now it’s time for OnePlus 2.

There has been an upload to the Chinese micro-blogging network Weibo of an apparent “Spy Sketch” of OnePlus 2. It appears that it could don a 5.7-inch display (5.5-inch is also likely), similar to that of Galaxy Note 4.

It is also going to pack a better processor, but the resolution of the screen is still unclear. But one thing for sure is that the larger display is going to give OnePlus 2 a better competing chance with flagship phablets.

However, it also a gamble as they are taking a risk of losing their customers who don’t like their phones to be large.

We also learned that OnePlus 2 will look quite similar to OnePlus One in design with minor changes- like increasing the holes for the speaker and a thinner form factor of about 5mm to 6mm.

Now if OnePlus is employing an “edge-to-edge” display and makes the surrounding bezels as narrow as possible, then the actual size of the chassis doesn’t have to increase.

Hence, we may get OnePlus 2 quite similar to size with that of OnePlus One, but with more screen real-estate, which will be a very welcome upgrade. Furthermore, OnePlus will also not risk losing customers by selling larger phablet.

What we know so far

We have already confirmed some of its specifications though. We know OnePlus has decided to power the device by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 810 processor.

OnePlus 2 is also going to be one of the first Android operated smartphones to employ USB-C technology. It’s official unveiling is scheduled on July 27 and will be available in virtual reality.

So, what’s your stake on the larger OnePlus Two? Are, you going to bargain for a larger screen or stick with what OnePlus One has to offer?

Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket exploded two minutes after launch

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Nitish Singh

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June 29, 2015

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Sunday morning 10:21 am, E.T., SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was rising above Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida when it broke up in a fiery blast after just 2 minutes.

It launched with a robotic Dragon cargo capsule headed for the International Space Station. This was the third failure of a space station resupply mission in eight months.

Debris from the launch has not caused any land damage though and has fallen into the Atlantic Ocean. A lot of important materials and pieces of equipment have been lost in this devastation.

SpaceX is now in charge of the investigation, along with co-operations from the Federal Aviation Administration. SpaceX crews are also trying to recover debris from the sea, said SpaceX’s chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell.

The primary objective of the mission was to deliver the Dragon freighter to ISS (International Space Station). A new docking mechanism was also sent, which would be needed when future astronaut vehicles-one based on the dragon itself- come to service later this decade.

It was also set to deliver two and a Half tons of supplies, equipment, and experiments. However, the astronauts are safe aboad the space station and have sufficient supplies to last until Fall.

Meanwhile, Russian and Japanese launches are scheduled to send more supplies in July and August respectively. Another SpaceX launch is also due on September.

Falcon 9 Launches Suspended for now

Until SpaceX’s findings are signed by the FAA, Falcon 9 Launches are suspended. Shotwell said that it would probably take several months but not a year.

“We appear to have had a launch vehicle failure,”

George Diller, NASA Spokesperson observed. Air Force officials said the rocket

“experienced an anomaly”

148 seconds into the flight.

SpaceX’s founder Elon Musk tweeted

“there was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid tank”.

Gwynne Shotwell, concurred with that preliminary assessment later that Sunday — but she said it was too early to say anything else about the cause of the mishap.

Samsung’s Next-Gen Tech Would Nearly Double Your Phone’s Battery Life

By

Jia Khan

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June 29, 2015

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Samsung has announced that the future generation of Samsung mobiles won’t be disappointing its customers due to low battery life as seen in its latest S6 Edge that lasts an average of 12 to 14 hours only.

Samsung Engineers from R&D center of Samsung Electronics have succeeded in developing Li-ion (lithium ion) battery technology that will provide a power boost to cell phones.

In the new technology the Li-ion batteries uses silicon anode rather than graphite used in current batteries, providing more capacity.

The researchers used graphene to enhance the battery density. In experiments the batteries were found to be 1.5 to 1.8 times denser than the normal batteries.

This implies that battery with 12 hours of battery can be boosted to up to 21 hours that is almost double the lifetime using this new technology.

Li-ion battery and Technology Trends

Graphene is directly grown over Silicon nanoparticles without forming silicon carbide. The graphene layers accommodate the battery volume expansion and make the battery denser rather than maximizing the dimensions.

When this layer is combined with Li cobalt oxide cathode, the graphene layers provide the volumetric energy of 972 and 700Wh l−1 at first and 200^thcycle.

Samsung is working to enhance the battery life, which has always been the issue for consumers as we can not seem to ever get enough battery life from them.

This advancement will provide the users a day full of mobile surfing without being worried about the battery backup.

Samsung expects to commercialize this technology in the market by the year 2018, so Samsung lovers still have to wait for another 3 years.

It is expected that Samsung would use this technology car cars. Last year, a “smarter Lithium battery” was developed by United States scientists that used to pre-alert the users of heating and fire potential.

The technology will not only be beneficial on mobile devices, it will also cause lead to enhancements in batteries used in electric cars and even airplanes.

Yahoo overhauls its Search Engine for Mobile Browsers

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Nitish Singh

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June 28, 2015

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The popularity of Yahoo as a search engine have been dipping in the last couple of years, but recent changes by the company to its search engine for mobile browsers might just pull you in. The Yahoo Search according to yahoo will reveal more relevant information to the users.

Both Google and Bing have provided us with a great user experience on both desktop and mobile phones. But, Yahoo has been left behind, hence the latest tinkering its mobile search experience.

Yahoo has now updated its mobile search engine spotlight features to include images, videos and reviews.

Yahoo search will now offer more relevant search results that you don’t have to swipe through content. It will include locations to restaurants, movie reviews and other information relevant to what you are looking for.

Currently, the changes updates are live on Yahoo search mobile on mobile browsers, but are yet to be part of Yahoo native search app.

Andrew Poon, Yahoo’s vice-president of product management said in a blog post that the change is introduced to be directly helpful and more immediate to an individual’s specific query.

This is what he said.

We know when you’re on the go, you’re often searching for a specific piece of information. So rather than delivering endless links for you to sift through on a small screen, we beautifully assemble the most relevant information in a way that allows you to take action right away.

This new search features will currently be available on browsers like Chrome and Safari, and will be put to effect when we go to search.yahoo.com, the put your query.

Yahoo, however is encouraging users to make Yahoo, the default search engine on their mobile browser to make the experience friendlier.

Do you find the yahoo new search capability appealing? Comment below and let us know!

Archos PC stick that offers Windows 10

By

Nitish Singh

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June 27, 2015

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We recently covered iBall splendo, the portable PC stick released last week. And, if you think that that’s the end of the PC stick, then be ready to become surprised by Archos PC stick.

The new Archos PC stick is probably the slickest and the most powerful PC stick in the market. With a price tag of only $99, you will get a PC stick smaller than an iPhone 4S and powerful enough to run a portable PC.

The Archos PC stick measures 1.48 inches wide and 4.45 inches long. With so small dimensions, it can easily fit into your pocket, without anyone noticing it. Smaller than a pencil? Hell, Yeah!

With no release date on sight, we hope that the new Archos PC stick comes out soon.

So, what powers the device? According to the official release blog, the Archos PC stick is powered by an Intel Z3735F processor. The processor runs at a speed of 1.33 GHz and has four cores running at the same time.

For multimedia support, the PC stick offers 32 GB of onboard storage and also offers extra space in terms of microSD slot.

Connectivity is also well laid out as it comes with Bluetooth 4.0 and a USB port, more than enough to connect keyboard and mouse to the device.

With so many competitors out in the market, the Archos PC stick is only at $99 pricetag. Other PC stick, for example, Intel Compute Stick is available for $150 and that’s expensive when compared.

The main benefit of having a stick PC in your pocket is portability. The device can act as a multimedia hub for travellers and gaming device for casual gamers.

The Archos PC stick is completely capable of rendering 1080p videos and is a great choice for multimedia junkies out there. It can also act a backup system for many.

So, why are you waiting for? Leave your opinion below!

NASA and Microsoft will send HoloLens into space by the end of this year

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Nitish Singh

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June 26, 2015

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Space is the final frontier. And astronauts are our pioneers. But our boys are very ill equipped. At least our heroes embarking on this journey into the unknown deserves a sidekick. And it turns out; Microsoft with its HoloLens has just got them covered.

Project “sidekick” launched by Microsoft in partnership with NASA will allow all the astronauts to go all IRONMAN.

Currently, astronauts take notes on pieces of paper and receive instructions from NASA by voice only. So old school for people living in space, right!

Well Microsoft previously had demoed their HoloLens technology on stage, and its basically a headsets that create interactive holographic images and embeds them in the real world creating an augmented reality.

Recently Microsoft offered a demo using HoloLens to create virtual Martian (mars) terrain, showing the power and possibilities if its augmented reality headset.

Microsoft will be sending a few HoloLens headsets to the ISS (International Space Station) in the next shipment and speculation is that astronauts will go paperless by the end of this year.

Project “sidekick” is currently said to have two modes. The Remote Expert Mode, which uses Skype to bring real-time annotations and let people sitting at NASA see through the eyes of the astronauts.

Then the Procedure Mode requires HoloLens and brings Holograms into the interactions of the space crew and items they might use.

NASA has reported that project Sidekick and HoloLens will be used and evaluated during NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operation) 20 expedition, which will commence on July 21.

A group of astronauts and engineers will go to the only undersea research station, Aquarius for two weeks, where the whole project will be evaluated.

There is no current date for the exact arrival of HoloLens to the International Space Station, but NASA said

“expects astronauts on the station will first use Sidekick by the end of the year.”

Hopefully by then some of us back home on earth would also have access to the HoloLens

Near Miss Collision by two Self-Driving Cars put a question mark on the technology

By

Jia Khan

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June 26, 2015

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Google’s Self driven autonomous cars hit the roads earlier this year but the reliability of the cars is already being questioned as the reports of a near miss between two self-driving cars, owned by Google and Delphi, surfaced this week.

The incident took place in Palo Alto, where other companies are also working on auto-driven cars. The Google car tried to cut off an Audi during a lane change test.

This incident provoked a concern in public about the future of Google cars and self driving cars in general although Chris Urmson, the director of the Google’s autonomous car projects, had made quite some claims regarding the car’s safety.

In his blog post earlier this month, Chris had declared that during 11.7 miles’ Google fleet test, 11 minor incidents were faced but none of them was the autonomous car’s fault.

Google cars are designed to work without a steering wheel or a pedal, but Google announced it will be introducing a brake, removable steering and accelerator in order to turn the car into a drivable vehicle.

Delphi Autonomous vehicles also possess a drivable mechanism as a backup and though it also has reported an accident, the car wasn’t running in self-driving mode at the time.

Google has also admitted that its self-driving vehicles have undergone 13 accidents in the past six years. But surprisingly two of these accidents occurred in the last month which is a bit alarming.

Google still maintains its safety stand and that the past 11 incidents were not the self-driven system’s fault.

A Google spokesman declared that two of the incidents occurred when their car had stopped for a red light and another vehicle crushed the rear end of the car.

Despite the reassurances form Google, the public at large remains skeptical about the safety of these self-driving cars.

Facebook Messenger can now be used without a Facebook account

By

Nitish Singh

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June 25, 2015

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Facebook Messenger is no more bounded to Facebook account. Starting today anyone can use their mobile number and full name for logging into the messenger app.

The unusual premiere of Messenger as a solo application created a fad worldwide. But that was soon to evaporate once we learnt that the feature will be limited to users in the United States, Venezuela Peru and Canada are the only applicants to use this feature.

Worldwide expansion is in the cards but no one knows for sure.

Though Facebook Messenger is untied from its parent, new users will still see an option to “Log In With Facebook”. This button will link your pre-existing Facebook account with the Messenger, synchronising your contacts.

Facebook, in the F8 conference, declared that linking Facebook with Messenger will only result in synchronising of the contacts, features like HD video calling, emoticons etc will remain the same.

Facebook Messenger now falls under the list of leading competing social applications like Whatsapp, Hike, Skype etc.

While all of them has more or less the same features, Facebook Messenger can be logged into using a Facebook account.

In the distant future, Facebook is preparing exclusive upgrades for Messenger like the Location sharing, VOIP Video calling and a platform for sharing data like images, music or videos.

Most interesting update of all is going to be the Friend-toFriend payment options. Rather than opening another third party app like PayPal or Venmo for any online transaction, you can simply use Facebook Messenger to split bills between with your friend.

Securing the application for such delicate uses is Facebook’s prime concern now.

Batman: Arkham Knight for PCs Pulled Because of Glitches

By

Nitish Singh

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June 25, 2015

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Batman: Arkham Knight has been withdrawn from the market due to numerous bugs and technical issues. Game developers confessed of improper sequence and diverse performance from the game.

Within a few hours of the game’s release, the reports said game play is unpleasant and filled with glitches.

The Batman game will be withdrawn

“While we work to address these issues to satisfy our quality standards”

Warner Brothers, owner of Batman franchise, publicly announced.

Based on the current survey on steam accounts, the game records “mostly Negative” status now. Repeated reports of audio glitches, frame rate drop, and Screen freezing covered the whole page with over 8,700 posts about numerous problems.

According to reports, the largest number of players to report issues were those using AMD Graphics in their PCs.

The game also launched on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 with zero technical issue. People enjoyed playing it on console and has already reached the climax in the game.

But, the game failed miserably on the PC with graphics and other technical issues. Overall frame rates were poor and gamers with high-end machines are also not able to play the game properly.

A refund option is available in steam or any retailer you got your game from and this announcement can save many gamers from frustration. The company is promising a refund for every piece that got sold.

Removal of bugs, glitches, and other technical problems will take time and it is in the best interest of both consumers and company to take way the game from the market.

This might not be the worst game created in the history of gaming, but for a reputed company like Warner Brothers, this type of incident is definitely a setback for them.