BMW Shows Off More Vehicles with Power-Boosting Water Injection

July 7, 2015

Last week, a presentation was arranged by BMW in Miramas (France) where the automaker exhibited their upcoming technology for vehicles.

The main focus of this presentation was the i8 technology adopting hydrogen fuel cell. The 5-Series Gran Turismo and a 2-Series Active Tourer plug-in hybrid were also in the stream but the prototype equipped with power-boosting water injection technology was of keen interest.

This technology is not a new one as we have seen such systems in other vehicles as well. However, this latest technology has typically been customized for turbo engines.

The technology works in the manner whereby a mist is sprayed both in the intake manifold and then into the cylinder chambers where it cools down the pressurized air mixture before combustion.

This cooling down is critical in order to make up the efficiency that ultimately enhances the power. BMW claims that this system gives an impressive 10% increase in power and 8% increase in the efficiency.

The best thing about this system is the maximized efficiency which makes this technology quite attractive for the sports drivers.

Underlying mechanism shows a drop in temperature of the fuel before it enters the combustion chamber thus no more fuel is required in the chamber.

All the water drains into a tank whenever the engine is switched off. This system also guards the engine during freezing temperatures because the water sink tank is itself positioned in the frost-protected place.

Water injection system has already been introduced by BMW in its M4 safety car for MotoGP. However in the previous edition,water had to be refilled every time the car set on a journey.

In the 1-Series prototype, the water in the tank is always topped-up due to continuous water recovery through the condensation process.

BMW hasn’t confirmed when this prototype will be released officially but it is expected to appear in track-focused M4 GTS set to debut this year.

Everyone wont get Windows 10 on July 29

Nitish Singh

July 5, 2015

The month of July has already begun and the official release of Windows 10 is just a couple of weeks away. But there is sad news for all you Windows lovers.

If you are currently not on Windows 10’s developer preview, you might not get Windows 10 on July 29th.

Microsoft announced this last week that Windows 10 will come out in phases. All eligible PCs will not get Windows 10 on July 29.

Who gets the first updates?

The upgrade will first be delivered to PCs enrolled in the Windows Insider beta testing program. Then the lucky people in line are users who have reserved their copies.

The news might be a complete disappointment to regular users but double fun for the “Insiders”. Not only are they getting Windows 10’s official release first, Microsoft has just launched the latest build of Windows 10.

Windows 10 build 10162 just like build 10158 and 10159 mainly focuses on bug fixes and functional improvement.

Now with all the previous build that has been released up until now, all build more or less had some new features added to Windows 10 along with polishing the overall software and bug fixes.

Build 10162 has no new features. But it doesn’t have any noticeable bugs either.

So the people using Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 can now shift to the Insiders program if they want to get Windows 10 on the release date as there aren’t any major bugs in the current build that might cause concern.

Also on the other hand there might be issues that might occur while upgrading to Windows 10. So you can just stay put with your current version of Windows and let Microsoft track and fix those problems.

After that, with millions of others, you will get the OS that’s got the world all wound up.

Casio Entering the Smart Watch Market

Nitish Singh

July 4, 2015

Casio Computer Company of Japan has just announced that they will manufacture modern-day smartwatches to compete with the likes of the Apple Watch.

The masters of watch making enter the smartwatch arena

It has been four decades since Casio had introduced the first digital watch, which basically is a point of argument that Casio was the first manufacturer of “smart” watches.

But now The Wall Street Journal reports that Casio will be introducing their smartwatches.

Currently, Casio doesn’t have any smartwatch on its product line to compete with the kinds of Apple Watch. They do have a version of their famous G-Shock Watch that can connect to Apple and Samsung Galaxy devices.

These watches can alert the wearer about incoming calls, texts and calendar notifications that are on the phone. They also allow to control music playback on your phone.

Kazuhiro Kashio, Casio’s President hasn’t disclosed the specific features of the possible smartwatch from the company, offered some idea of what to expect.

The watch will be targeted at men interested in outdoor sports and leisure activities. This will determine the design and appearance of the watch.

Kashio also stated that it will be quite comfortable to wear and have a very stylish appearance.

Casio had in the past introduced watches with some novel features, like the inclusion of a heart rate monitor and tried-out a schedule manager.

Due to the failure of execution the products were pulled off as they didn’t sell well, said Kashio.

“We are trying to bring our smartwatches to a level of watch perfection: a device that won’t break easily, is simple to put on, and feels good to wear.”

The watches are estimated to come with a price tag of around $400 and will have a tough competitive market with companies like Apple and Pebble.

Still people are very well aware of the weight that comes with the brand name Casio and they should have a good market presence.

Kashio says the company will launch in Japan and United States first and hasn’t said anything about plans of international release.

Users of Apple Music having a Nickname Crisis

Nitish Singh

July 2, 2015

It hasn’t been even 24 hours since Apple launched its Apple Music service and already users are finding that the nicknames they want to use are already taken.

Choose Your NickName before It is Taken by someone else

In Apple Music, Nicknames will be of use when commenting and sharing playlists, and if you don’t have one you can’t do those things.

Now if you want something simple and unique with which you want others to associate you, then better hurry up before someone else grabs it.

If that happens only option would be to have an alpha-numero gibberish nickname. And really who wants that?

Now the quickest way to secure your nickname would be heading to the music app on your iOS device and tap the profile button which is at the top left corner.

Your account details will show up. Then tap on the top right-hand corner and just enter a 32- character nickname.

Now if you are using iTunes via desktop to access Apple Music, just fire up the latest update of the app and go to the name on top. Click on your details from there and then enter your name as before.

There is an option to be able to change your nickname anytime you want though it is currently unclear if you can still be addressed by your old nickname if anyone wishes to.

Hence the question: can others get my old nickname after I have changed it and I’m using a new one?

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket exploded two minutes after launch

Nitish Singh

June 29, 2015

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.

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

Nitish Singh

June 26, 2015

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

Jia Khan

June 26, 2015

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.

Batman: Arkham Knight for PCs Pulled Because of Glitches

Nitish Singh

June 25, 2015

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.

Microsoft Office apps for Android Phones are live!

Nitish Singh

June 25, 2015

With Windows 10 launch near, Microsoft is introducing its popular Office apps to Android Phones. The announcement is made by Kirk Koengnsbauer in a blog post published on Microsoft’s official blog.

Microsoft Office is very popular in the PC world, but while its popularity is decent and rising in the mobile world it no where near its PC dominance. According to the blog, Excel, Word and PowerPoint apps will be available for the Android users.

With the release for Android phones, the Android experience for MS Office will be complete as the apps were already available for the Android Tablet versions.

The Office apps for Android phones have been in the testing phase for the past five weeks with hundreds of thousands of Android users participating.

Overall, the app was installed on over 1,900 Android smartphones and spanning across 83 countries, according to the Microsoft blog.

To make sure that users easily transit from Google drive, the latest Microsoft Office apps offers Google Drive connectivity.

So, what makes the App unique? According the official blog, the app offers tons of features including on the go reviews and edits, Presenting from the phone, Quick access to the documents, and of course the biggest one being that it is the most widely available Office solution.

The only limitation is that you need to login into the Microsoft Cloud account to use the app. Many users are complaining with the requirement of account login, but Microsoft needs to accumulate the documents in one place, and hence require the account association.

The downloads for now are separated as Work for Android, PowerPoint for Android, and Excel for Android.

The app has already been download by thousands of users already and the reviews are mixed for now.

We hope that the office apps bring more features compared to already available and powerful Google Drive Apps.

For more information, keep visiting!

Sony releases super thin Android powered 4K TVs

Nitish Singh

June 24, 2015

Sony’s super slim Android powered 4K TVs first unveiled earlier this year at the Consumer Electronic Show CES, 2015 have started hitting stores in the United States starting at $2,499 for the 55-inch model.

Currently, Sony has released pricing for three of the Android-powered super slim TVs. The first one, XBR-55X900C, a 55-inch 4k TV costs $2,499, while price of the 65-inch model is put at $3,999.

The top of the family X910C, which is only available in 75-inch screen will set you back $5,499. All of the ultra HD TVs are planned to release in July and are currently available in the United States for now.

So, what makes them so costly? The higher price is attributed to its super slim size. The 0.2-inch (5.08 mm) thickness is super slim, slimmer than most smartphones.

All the TVs are powered by the Android TV OS and are all Smart TVs. According to many sources, the Sony super slim TVs offers great visual quality with a great color combination.

The 4K TVs also supports Sony’s PlayStation Now, which allows users stream games on their TV.

Sony is one of the big players in the TV market, but there are many speculations from the Sony’s CEO on the future of Sony in the TV market.

The CEO is not sure on the future of Sony’s presence in the TV market. According to him, Sony will move out of the TV industry in the future, to focus on their mobiles.

So, which TV are you planning to buy? The collection is costly and will keep many buyers from buying it, but the enthusiast may have a different plans altogether.

Have anything to add to the story? Comment below and let us know!

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