Samsung to launch Tizen-based smartphone in Russia and India

Samsung Electronics Co. is planning to launch a smartphone in Russia and India in the "coming weeks" which will feature its custom built Tizen operating system. The company is planning to hold an event in Moscow to unveil the smartphone. It is being said that the event will be similar to the format that Samsung uses to unveil its flagship devices.

The South Korean company is further planning to launch the Tizen-based smartphone in India right after releasing it in Russia at the "Unpacked" event. Samsung had earlier announced that it will be launching its first Tizen-based smartphone towards the end of the second quarter.

By announcing such a smartphone, Samsung will directly lock horns with rivals like Apple and Google as it takes control of the software platform on its smartphones. Samsung has been using Google's Android operating system on its smartphone and this move will likely make it more independent when it comes to designing its phones in terms of both the hardware as well as the software. Despite being its own operating system, Samsung is still using elements from Android which are being licensed to it by Google.

Having its own mobile operating system might also help Samsung push software updates even faster as it is currently relying on Google for latest updates. This will also help the company generate more revenue by sales of software and services.

Tizen is an open-source mobile operating system as well.

Source: Wall Street Journal 

Nokia Lumia 630 launched in India, starts at Rs. 10,500

After finalizing its acquisition deal with Microsoft two weeks ago, Nokia is on a roll and is already out with its new Windows Phone 8.1-based smartphone - the Nokia Lumia 630. After launching Nokia XL last week, the company has just announced the Lumia 630 in India.

The Lumia 630 will be the first smartphone to feature Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.1 operating system. Nokia is planning to launch the dual-SIM version of the Lumia 630 on 16th May. The single SIM variant of the phone will be launched later this month. 

The pricing of both the variants has also been announced. The single-SIM variant will cost Rs 10,500 while the dual-SIM version will be available for Rs 11,500.

Lumia 630 features a 4.5-inch display with FWVGA (854x480) resolution, a 5MP camera and 8GB of internal storage which is expandable via a memory card slot. It will feature 512MB of RAM. The smartphone is powered by a Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor running at 1.2GHz. The battery capacity of the phone is 1830mAh. The display features Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection with Lumia color profile and wide viewing angles. Nokia has used its ClearBlack display technology on Lumia 630's display which is an IPS LCD screen.

The all-new Lumia 630 will have the latest Windows Phone features like the Cortana search assistant and the Universal Windows apps. India is among the first few countries where the smartphone has been announced.

73 percent of children under 13 using social networking sites: Assocham study

Should children below 13 years of age be allowed to join the social networking websites? It has been one of the long debated issues globally, especially in the wake of growing case of cyber bulling, child pornography and trolling. In India, the government is already making efforts to prevent children under 13 years from accessing the social networking websites. However, a new study conducted by ASSOCHAM reveals about 73 percent of children under 13 years of age in India are using the social networking websites such as Facebook.

The study was conducted in metro as well as tier 2 cities of in India including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmadabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Lucknow and Dehradun. Survey further points out about 75 percent of the parents are aware about their children in the age group of 8-13 years using Facebook. Another shocker is about 82 percent of parents provided wrong information to create a Facebook account for their children.

“Nearly 25 percent of 13-year-olds, 22% percent of 11-year-olds and 15 percent of 10-year-old are on Facebook, while 5-10 percent of 8 and 9 year-olds are also active on the site.” Facebook has emerged as the most preferred social networking site among this age group. Other sites like flick.com, Google Plus, Pinterest are being used by 85 percent of children in the age group of 10-16 years,” adds the survey.

Commenting on the survey findings, Mr. D.S Rawat, General Secretary of ASSOCHAM, says, “Children are gaining access to social media sites at a younger age, which could expose them to content, people or situations that are out of their depth.”  He points out that such a high number of children below under 13 years of age on social networking sites could lead increase in cases of cyber bullying, which could have adverse psychological impact on them.

ASSOCHAM's new survey comes months after the Delhi High Court took a serious note of children below 13 years having accounts on the social networking websites. The court asked Facebook to put a disclaimer on its home page stating that children below 13 years cannot open account on the social network. The Delhi HC also rapped the Indian government for not having adequate laws to prevent children from abused through the social networking sites.

Apple to buy Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion: Reports

Apple Inc. is reportedly in talks to buy Beats Electronics, which is the company behind popular Dr. Dre's Beats headphones. It is being said that the acquisition might be finalized for $3.2 billion. If the deal does go through, it would be Apple's largest purchase of all time.

Beats Electronics was founded by rapper Dr. Dre and records producer Jimmy lovine. The company is most famous for its "Beats by Dre" over-the-ear headphones that are mostly used by rappers and celebrities. The headphone is a premium product and costs at around $300. Beats is generally known for making high-end headphones. 

Acquiring Beats Electronics might help Apple to increase its domination in digital music. The iPhone manufacturer is popular for its iTunes service since starting it in 2001. But, during the recent years, sales of digital music on iTunes have been reported to have been declining steadily.

Back in 2012, smartphone manufacturer HTC bought a 51 percent stake in Beats for $300 million. Later in 2013, HTC sold back the 25 percent of its share as the two companies ended their partnership. HTC had to sell its stake in Beats due to its plummeting smartphone marketshare and share price collapse. Critics say that if this deal between Apple and Beats does go through, Apple Inc. would effectively save HTC which is also its smartphone rival as the latter is still incurring loses out of the deal. After acquiring Beats in 2012, stock price of HTC fell almost 80 percent. HTC would have profited by a hefty $1.29 billion had it not sold its stake in Beats last year. 

HTC phones featuring Beats audio technology received good reception from consumers. Now, the purchase by Apple could potentially make iPhones and iPads favorites among audiophiles. Apple has a huge cash reserve of $159 billion which means spending $3 billion to buy a company which could make its products more premium wouldn't affect its reserves by much.

Apple continues to be the largest seller of digital music with its store operating in more than 100 countries around the world. Now due to competition from companies like Amazon and others, its market share has dropped recently. The new deal with Beats could also revive its iPod which has been losing popularity over the recent years.

Source: Financial Times, Via: The New York TImes

Microsoft files patent for a sports-focused smartwatch

Microsoft has filed a patent for a smartwatch with a removable display that can be docked on gym equipment. The wearable would come with a number of biometric sensors to monitor your heart rate. The patent was first flied by Microsoft in 2012, but released only last week.

The patent application also states that the smartwatch will have an inbuilt music player, alarm clock, messaging as well as other phone elements. Input sources to the processor include an optical sensor, touchscreen, and a GPS unit with internal compass. The device comes with a magnetic dock that can be used as a charger for the wearable and as an alarm clock as well. The new Microsoft watch is rumored to come with a removable band in red, black, yellow and blue colors and is stated to be made of a translucent form of the metal called oxynitride aluminium.

According to rumors, a prototype of the device was running on a modified version of Windows 8 which supports integration with other Windows devices. It is expected to have a 1.5-inch display screen, 6 GB of storage, and LTE network support. The project is believed to be headed by former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, who now leads Microsoft's Devices division.

Microsoft smartwatch will compete Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch which was released last year. Google is also planning to launch the Moto 360 smartwatch in the summer while LG is planning its Android wear smartwatch. A speculation around Apple's iWatch is also making the rounds. Apart from these electronics giants, Microsoft also faces competition from start-up's like Pebble which sold approx 400,000 smartwatches last year.

Source: Techradar

Scientists create the first living organism with synthetic 'alien' DNA

Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute have successfully created the first living organism with an "alien" DNA which contains two extra bases, X and Y. Such a DNA has never occured in billions of years of evolution on Earth. In a normal DNA, which is present in every living organism on Earth, there are only two bases of double helix that are bonded together with four bases known as T (thymine), G (guanine), A (adenine) and C (cytosine).

The new semi-synthetic alien organism has continued to reproduce normally while preserving the new alien DNA during reproduction. The research could lead to creation of highly customized organisms in future such as bacteria, animals, and even humans which could behave in a weird and wonderful ways that the already existing DNA doesn't allow.

The research has been 15 years in the making where the scientists have created the semi-synthetic organism with an expanded genetic alphabet. The addition of new letters could enable biologists to vastly expand the range of proteins that they could synthesize. “What we have now is a living cell that literally stores increased genetic information,” says Floyd Romesberg, a chemical biologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, who led the 15-year effort. 

The research team engineered a bacterium known as Escherichia coli to express a gene from a diatom which is a single-celled alga encoding a protein that allowed the molecules to pass through the bacterium's membrane. The scientists then created a short loop of DNA called a plasmid, containing a single pair of the foreign bases, and inserted the whole thing into E. coli cells. With the diatom protein supplying a diet of foreign nucleotides, the plasmid was copied and passed on to dividing E. coli cells for nearly a week. When the supply of foreign nucleotides ran out, the bacteria replaced the foreign bases with natural ones.

The alien E. coli contains just a single pair of foreign DNA bases out of millions. But Benner sees no reason why a fully alien cell isn’t possible. “I don’t think there’s any limit,” he says. “If you go back and rerun evolution for four billion years, you could come up with a different genetic system.” Potential uses of the technology could also include the incorporation of a toxic amino acid into a protein to ensure that it kills only cancer cells. This would make cancer treatment ever more advanced and effective.

It is possible that these scientists might be able to create a complete synthetic organism which could be unrecognizable. These organisms could be potentially capable of doing whatever these scientists want them to.

For now, the researchers are still trying to figure out how long the bacteria can survive and are also trying to see if its possible to produce a strain with more than one X-Y pair. The newly created organism won't be able to survive outside unless it is reverted back to the traditional four-letter DNA alphabet, as it needs to feed on synthetic molecules (that only the scientists can supply) to replicate. So according to the scientists, the organism would never infect other organisms in its current form in case it escapes from the lab because it would most likely die.

Source: Nature

Nintendo to make new consoles for 'emerging markets'

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has revealed that the company plans to make new consoles primarily aimed at ‘emerging markets’. While speaking to Bloomberg, Iwata said that it was unrealistic to sell games at $30 to $60 in emerging markets and would require a complete reworking of both the hardware and pricing. On the other hand, Iwata dismissed reports that Nintendo planned to enter the smartphone gaming segment, stating that it had been involved in console gaming for far too long to suddenly shift into a new segment.

With the recent removal of the ban on foreign consoles in China, Nintendo has focused on making a mark in the country. However, the term ‘emerging markets’ also includes India and although Iwata did not make any mention of it, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to imagine that the Japanese company has plans for India as well.

India and China, along with Brazil and Russia, could be part of a new Nintendo plan to revive its flagging fortunes because of the failure of the Wii U console. The company also announced a loss of $329 million for the quarter ending March 2014.  

Source: Bloomberg  via Polygon 

4.7-in iPhone 6 will be out August, 5.5-in variant out in Sep: Rumours

Apple is expected to launch a 4.7-in version of the iPhone 6 in August, according to supply chain sources who spoke to Taiwanese media. The reports state that the upcoming iPhone will hit stores in August, a month earlier than expected. However, the reports also state that a 5.5 or 5.6-in variant of the iPhone 6 will hit stores in September of this year.

With the rumours refusing to die down, it almost seems certain that 2014 will see a large screened iPhone, something that can compete in size with Android smartphones like the Sony Xperia Z2, the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the HTC One M8. 

Early last month, we saw leaked renders of the rumoured iPhone 6 presumably captured in a Foxconn factory in China. The pictures showed an iPhone that was similarly elongated as the iPhone 5S though it was unclear what the actual dimensions were. Other reports about the iPhone 6 that we’ve had to deal with include the rumours that like its predecessors, it will continue with an 8MP camera, it will not have a physical home button and that it will sport an “Ultra Retina” display that packs in 389 pixels per inch (ppi).  

Source: Reuters

Samsung 105-inch curved Ultra HD TV: Top 5 features and insane pricing.

Samsung today unveiled its revolutionary curved television in India which has a whopping dimensions of 105 inches with a 21:9 aspect ratio and is the World’s first curved television that supports Ultra HD (4K) resolution. The new curved TV was first shown off at CES 2014 in Las Vegas and it offers a wide field of view which creates a nice panorama effect. With this Samsung also launched other curved Ultra HD televisions which offer similar experience in a smaller package.

While the humongous size and resolution sounds mind boggling, we got some in-depth info about the new television.

1. Resolution and the curve
The new 105-inch curved TV supports 4K resolution but due to its 21:9 ratio, the actual resolution of the television is 5120x2160. So technically, the resolution is higher than 4K. With a size of 8 feet by 3.5 feet, the TV incorporates more than 11 million pixels. Samsung claims that the curved shape provides the best viewing experience as the human eye is also curved. The curve is 4200R which means the curve is bent at the radius of a 4200mm circle.

2. Up-scaling 
In a country like India, where DTH providers have just started providing HD channels and where Blue-ray movies are still scanty, 4K content is nowhere to be seen. To resolve this, the new curved TV offers an up-scaling option which can convert HD and full HD content into 4K. Samsung's up-scaling technology provides a 4-step image processing feature which gives deeper blacks and finer details even after the conversion.

3. Smart TV
The 105-inch curved UHD TV offers smart features like apps and also allows you to browse the internet as well. The TV has built-in Wi-Fi, so if there isn’t a good movie or TV show on, you can just switch over to the internet and maybe watch some YouTube videos.

4. Quad-core processor
Yes, the new curved UHD TV has a quad-core processor that powers the television to accomplish various tasks. With features like up-scaling, split-view and the capability to run apps, the quad-core processor sounds like a good choice.

5. Price
The official Indian price of the television has not yet been revealed although Samsung has confirmed that it will be available in the second of this year. At the time of unveiling in CES 2014, the television was priced at $70,000 which calculates to about Rs. 42 lakhs. For a television, this one is probably the most expensive TV on the planet.

Google Play Services 4.4 update brings great new features

Google has begun rolling out a v4.4 update to its Google Play Services. The update includes major enhancements to Maps, an introduction of Street View, new features in Location, Games Services, and much more.

Google Play services 4.4 lets developers embed Street View in third-party apps using a new Google Maps API. Developers will be able to access street view imagery including panorama views. This means that developers will now be able to show Google Maps built right into their apps, instead of simply linking a user.

Google has added new features to Indoor Maps of the API, allowing developers to turn off the default floor picker so that they can build their own. It has also added the capability to identify of when a new building comes into focus to find the currently-active building and floor. The street view inclusion will also be useful for indoor mapping for shopping mall or museum, which could provide guided virtual tours with the dedicated app.

The update also adds two new activity detectors to their location app, which permits apps to recognize when a user is walking or running and behave accordingly. This will be useful to Android powered Fitness apps and those running Android wear. Google Play services will now let users send Game Gifts to multiple recipients in apps that utilize Google Play Games. Other updates are aimed at developers including support for in-app promo ads and easier implementation of a 'Buy With Google' button in apps using the Wallet Fragment API.

Google Camera app has also got a minor update today. The app now lets you click photos while recording. Apart from that you will find that the shutter button no longer shifts from side to side during rotations. You can get the latest update from the Google Play Store.

Source: Android Authority 

Izitru to help users verify the authenticity of photos

Izitru, pronounced a bit like "is it true," is a new service that lets you upload a photo and analyze it to check whether it has been modified. The free service makes it easier for honest photographers to prove the authenticity of their images.

Izitru has been launched by a startup called Fourandsix, and gives simplistic results, telling you if the image is an original or has been modified after being extracted out of the camera. The image will help photographers who just took a potentially viral picture in proving to people whether it's real.

To use the service, a photographer can upload a photo through the web site or an iPhone app. After uploading, Izitru runs a battery of 6 forensic tests that can identify editing or authenticity of the picture including devise signature analysis, double JPEG detection, JPEG structure analysis, sensor pattern analysis, JPEG coefficient analysis and JPEG ghost detection. It then posts a version of the photo with its trustworthiness rating. Izitru will create a dedicated page for the photo that displays one of five trust levels: high, medium, potential file modification, undetermined file history and no trust.

"Our intent behind Izitru is to try to address things right at the source. Can we start at the beginning when somebody is first posting that file and certify it on the way out?" said Chief Executive Kevin Connor. "Anyone who cares enough about having people believe their photo can post it to Izitru and share it through whatever service they want, like Facebook or Twitter."

izitru: Real photos. Without a doubt. from Fourandsix on Vimeo.

Source: CNET

Over 100 tech companies join together to oppose new 'Net Neutrality' rules

"Net neutrality" has been in the news for quite a while now. It is a plan that would regulate how internet service providers manage web traffic. The Federal Communications Commission of USA has proposed the rules which could potentially threaten a "free and open Internet" according to Senator Al Franken (D-Minn).

Now, over 100 leading tech firms that include Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter and Amazon, have written to the U.S. telecom regulators. The letter to FCC's Chairman Tom Wheeler, warns of a "grave threat to the Internet." The vote on the plan has been scheduled for May 15.

Sen. Franken has said that the rules that the FCC Chairman proposes would let corporations buy into an Internet "fast lane," at the expense of consumers and smaller and emerging companies. Mozilla, Netflix Inc and Reddit have criticized the proposed rules since the creation of the proposal.

Net neutrality could potentially allow big corporations to get their content to consumers faster than their rival creating higher rates for Internet services, and new obstacles to accessing the content that users want, according to Franken.

The tech firms opposing the rules have said in the letter that "[The FCC must] take the necessary steps to ensure that the internet remains an open platform for speech and commerce."

Public interest groups have become increasingly concerned that the new rules will end “net neutrality” – the concept that all internet traffic should be treated equally on the web. “According to recent news reports, the Commission intends to propose rules that would enable phone and cable Internet service providers to discriminate both technically and financially against Internet companies and to impose new tolls on them,” the tech companies wrote in their letter. “If these reports are correct, this represents a grave threat to the Internet.”

More than a million people have already signed petitions to FCC calling upon them to enshrine net neutrality rules and prevent a tiered system.

Watch Franken’s statement in the video below, followed by a transcript of his remarks:

Source: Reuters

Speed Test: Sony Xperia Z2 vs. HTC One M8 vs. Samsung Galaxy S5

So, it’s finally time. We finally have with us the three big flagship Android phones of 2014- the HTC One (M8), the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Sony Xperia Z2 (the only one missing is the LG G3 that’s expected by the end of this month). Now, while the detailed reviews of all three phones are on their way, we thought we’d do a quick performance comparison of the three phones with the help of some popular synthetic benchmarks, to get a general idea of where each phone stands in terms of performance as compared to the others.

We ran four benchmarks- Quadrant Standard, Antutu X, Smartbench 2012 and 3DMark on the three phones. Now, we must make it a point to tell you that you should look at these numbers only to get a very, very general idea of the performance of the three phones. The phone manufacturers are known to tweak their devices to make them run better in certain benchmarks.

Anyway, before we get to the actual benchmarks, let’s take a quick look at the important specifications of each smartphone.

The HTC One M8 runs on Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) and is powered by a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of RAM. It has a 2600 mAh battery, dual 4MP cameras and a 5-inch full HD Super LCD3 display.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 also runs on Android 4.4.2 and the variant being sold in India sports a 1.9 + 1.3GHz Exynos 5 octa-core processor, a Mali-T628 MP6 GPU and 2GB of RAM. It is powered by a 2800 mAh battery and has a 16MP camera and 5.1-inch full HD Super AMOLED display.

Finally, the Sony Xperia Z2 is powered by a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, Adreno 330 GPU and 3GB of RAM. Like the above two, it also runs on Android 4.4.2 and sports a 5.2-in full HD IPS display. It also sports a 20.7MP camera and a 3200 mAh battery.   

Right then, let’s look at the benchmark scores posted by the three phones.

Benchmark	Samsung Galaxy S5	Sony Xperia Z2	HTC One (M8)
Quadrant Standard	24470	17816	25773
Smartbench 2012(Productivity)	6145	7210	9873
3D Mark Unlimited	13032	18383	17925
Antutu X	37047	33429	34940

The table clearly shows that although the HTC One M8 scores the best in two of the four benchmarks, it does not emerge as the unequivocal champion. The Sony Xperia Z2 takes third place in three benchmarks but also scores the highest in 3DMark, that points towards good gaming performance. The Samsung Galaxy S5 gets the top spot in Antutu but lags behind the One M8 and the Xperia Z2 in the other three benchmarks. 

However, if we were to look at these benchmark numbers in isolation (which we really, really shouldn’t), then the HTC One M8 looks like the best performing phone. But really, you should wait for our reviews to find out accurately which of the flagship phones is actually the best performer and the best one to buy.