Apple iPhone 5se and iPad Air 3 may launch on March 15

Apple may launch the 4-inch iPhone 5se, iPad Air 3, and updates for the Apple Watch in an event scheduled to be held on March 15, according to a report by 9to5Mac. The event would be the company’s first since September and is planned to touch upon three major product categories for the company. 

The 4-inch iPhone has been rumoured for quite a while now and latest reports suggest that the device will be called the iPhone 5se. The ‘e’ is said to stand for ‘enhanced’ as the device may be an updated version of the iPhone 5s. The upcoming device has been tipped to come with NFC for Apple Pay, improved cameras, and support for taking Live Photos. It was initially believed that the device would be powered by an A8 processor, but newer reports suggest that it might be powered by an A9 chip with an M9 coprocessor instead. In addition, the iPhone 5se may come in 16GB and 64GB variants. Reports suggest that the new phone may not come with 3D Touch and may use the same display as the iPhone 5s.

The dimensional drawings of the iPad Air 3 were leaked a few days ago and suggest that Apple may introduce a number of significant changes. The new device is expected to come with a quad speaker setup and a Smart Connector, like the ones found on the iPad Pro. It may also come with an LED flash at the back of the device, which would be a first for the iPad lineup. Additionally, The iPad Air 3 may be marginally wider and thicker than its predecessor.

It was earlier believed that Apple would launch the Apple Watch 2 alongside the 4-inch iPhone. However, that may not be the case. Newer reports suggest that Apple may focus on new bands and software during the upcoming event. The lineup for bands may include new colours for the rubberised Sport bands, new Hermes bands, a ‘space back’ version of the Milanese loop, and a whole new band made of a new material. Last month, it was reported that Apple had filed for a patent for a magnetic wristband. The magnets would not only help secure the watch when it is worn, but can also turn the band into a protective case for the Watch. In addition, it could be used as a stand or magnetically attach to a MacBook or iMac. In addition, supply chain sources have said that Apple has been testing a series of “high-quality” NATO-style nylon bands for the Apple Watch

Source: 9to5Mac

Here's what happens to a phone that's run over by a tank

Do you know what MIL-STD-810G means? Well, LG does. It’s a standard that a phone needs to pass in order to be called rugged enough for use in military. LG flaunted the fact that a third party lab had found the V10 to be MIL-STD-810G Transit Drop Compliant. The LG V10 has a stainless steel frame and looks pretty much like any of other smartphone in the market today. So, YouTuber Digiato decided to put the V10’s sturdiness to the test, going into rugged conditions and while he started with standard drop tests on the road, the final test includes a tank rolling over the LG V10. Did it survive? Watch the video below to find out.

Well, as you can see, the LG V10 didn’t survive the tank test, but then, did you really expect it to do so? Come on now, military conditions don’t really mean surviving being run over by a tank! What’s surprising though is that the V10 also broke quite easily in the standard drop tests, which makes you reconsider the original MIL-STD-810G certification from a ‘third party lab’. While Digiato may have added the tank just for kicks, it does bring to fore an important and serious point.

LG happily flaunted the V10’s sturdiness, but hey, the screen is still a smartphone’s weakest aspect and somehow, no matter how tough the company says a phone is, the screen may still break when you least expect it. Even Motorola’s Moto X Force, launched in India recently, doesn’t come with a 100% guarantee that the screen can’t break. In fact, we’ll take this opportunity to inform you that you should still be careful with such a phone. While the Moto X Force may not break, its screen can be dented when put to above average duress.

If you’re still wondering what MIL-STD-810G certification means, here’s a link explaining the same. LG had also promoted the V10's sturdiness through a video earlier. 

Microsoft acquires SwiftKey for $250 million: Financial Times

SwiftKey and Microsoft have confirmed the acquisition. In their official blog, SwiftKey’s co-founders have said, “We think these are a perfect match, and we believe joining Microsoft is the right next stage in our journey.” According to Microsoft's official blog, the company plans to integrate SwiftKey technology with its Word Flow technology.

Microsoft has reportedly acquired SwiftKey for $250 million, according to the Financial Times. The report also says that the founders of the London-based company, Jon Reynolds and Ben Medlock, would get about $30 million as part of the deal. The SwiftKey app is available for iOS and Android devices, but not for Windows Phone. 

SwiftKey has been installed on more than 300 million devices, but according to the report, it is struggling to find a reliable business model. The keyboard was initially available for $4, but switched to a free download model in 2014. SwiftKey is a predictive keyboard that uses artificial intelligence to learn how users type on their mobile devices. This in turn helps it predict words that may be used. Last October, the company announced that its keyboard supported more than 100 languages, including Arabic, Icelandic, as well as many Chinese and Indian dialects. SwiftKey’s technology also present the computer that is attached to Stephen Hawking’s wheelchair. The company developed a specifically designed language model in order to help him when he is speaking and writing lectures or articles.

While Microsoft has its own keyboard in the form of Word Flow, it is possible that Microsoft purchased SwiftKey for its artificial intelligence technology. Someone close to the deal told the Financial Times, “There’s a war for talent in artificial intelligence — and companies like Google and Microsoft recognise the best talent is in the UK”

Last week, it was reported that Microsoft was planning to launch its Word Flow keyboard on iOS. The keyboard was being tested internally and wasn’t available for download as yet. The USP of the keyboard was a one-handed mode, which shifted the keyboard to one corner of the device with the keys laid out like a fan. The one-handed mode works on either side of the screen. 

Uber's logo change: Here's how the world reacted

You've probably already heard about Uber's logo change. Travis Kalanick, CEO, Uber, explained the new logo in a blog post, stating, "There are many reasons for the change, but the most important is that Uber is getting ready to go global – I mean an Uber in every major city in the world. We need an identity that the world can understand and one that would get us out of the trademark infringement trouble that our BIG RED U was bound to get us into." If your Uber app has been updated, you may be looking around your phone for that magnet-shaped 'U' logo, but Uber's new logo is the bit and you can read all about it, here in Uber's blog post.

While Uber may have its reasons for changing the logo, it has left many questions in people's minds. For one, what exactly is Uber planning to do in future, that its U logo doesn't work? Well, here are some interesting reactions from Twitter.

Vodafone has launched its 4G internet services in Delhi-NCR

Vodafone has just launched its 4G internet services for the Delhi-NCR circle. The Vodafone 4G service will first be made available to customers in Gurgaon. At the launch event, Vodafone said that it will take a few months for a full-fledged rollout of its 4G services in all of Delhi-NCR. So what does Vodafone 4G mean for you? Here is a full list of the pricing, plans and of course the speed that Vodafone's 4G services will deliver in Delhi-NCR.

• All Vodafone postpaid customers can call the Vodafone customer care helpline to get free door-step delivery of a Vodafone 4G SIM card. The door-step delivery of the 4G enabled SIM card will be done on the same day of submitting the request, provided that it is submitted before 4PM.
   
• All pre-paid Vodafone customers will need to visit a Vodafone store to exhange their 3G SIM card for a new 4G SIM card. This service will also be given for free.
   
• Pricing packs range from 35MB at Rs. 11 for a trial pack to 20GB at Rs. 2,499 for a bonanza pack
   
• Free 3 month long access to TV, movies, music on Vodafone Play. This includes HOOQ video streaming services and Hungama Play.
   
• Vodafone users can also check if their SIMs are 4G enabled by sending an SMS (4GCHECK) to 199 from their Vodafone mobile numbers.
   
• There is also a seperate 4G dongle device available for those who do not have a Vodafone SIM. This dongle can connect upto 10 other devices
   

Speaking at the 4G Delhi launch event, Apoorva Mehrotra, Vodafone's Business Head for Delhi-NCR circle said, "Delhi-NCR is a significant growth market for Vodafone India with data contributing around 25%of total revenues and growing significantly. As a leading telecom service provider, our 1 crore customers in Delhi have a lot to look forward to." 

Samsung Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 launched in India

Samsung has launched the Galaxy A5 (2016) and Galaxy A7 (2016) in India. The two devices are priced at Rs. 29,400 and Rs. 33,400 respectively and will be available via Snapdeal from February 15. 

Both devices showcase dual-SIM capabilities and support 4G LTE as well. They run Android Lollipop v5.1 out of the box layered with TouchWiz UI. They also come with Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, and microUSB 2.0. Samsung has said that the two devices will receive the Android Marshmallow update soon. 

The Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) has a 5.2-inch Super AMOLED display with a Full HD resolution of 1920x1080 pixels and Gorilla Glass 4 protection. It is powered by an octa-core Exynos 7580 SoC with 2GB of RAM. It is equipped with 16GB of onboard storage, which can be expanded by 128GB via a microSD card. At the back the device has a 13MP primary camera with Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) and an aperture of f/1.9. In the front there is a 5MP camera that also has the same aperture. The Galaxy A5 (2016) comes with a 2900mAh battery and a fingerprint sensor located on the phone’s home button. 

The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) looks very similar to the A5, save for its size. The device comes with a slightly larger 5.5-inch Super AMOLED Full HD display. It is powered by the same Exynos 7580 SoC, but has 3GB of RAM. Like the new Galaxy A5, the phone comes with 16GB of internal storage that can be expanded to 128GB with a microSD card. Another similarity between the two phones is the camera. The Galaxy A7 also comes with 13MP rear camera with OIS and a front facing 5MP camera. Additionally, the device comes with a 3300mAh battery and a fingerprint sensor located on the home button.

Samsung had announced the Galaxy A5 and A7 along with another device called the Galaxy A3 in China in December. However, the company has not revealed if and when it will introduce the A3 in India. Samsung did showcase their new tablet, the Galaxy TabPro S during the launch event and the device may be available in India by Q2 2016.

5 things Netflix told us about their streaming plans in India

Netflix really wants Indians to like them. This was reiterated by Jonathan Friedland, Netflix’s Chief Communications Officer at a recent interview with Digit. Netflix launched in India just three weeks back and we caught up with the management to take stock of how the streaming service plans to evolve in a country like India, where piracy is second to religion and audiences are hungry for quality content. Here are 5 things we found out about Netflix’s future plans for India.

Content or the lack of it?

Naturally, the first question we asked Netflix was about the content on the platform or more appropriately put, the lack of it. From its inception in India, Netflix has had a gun to its head because of less content on its streaming platform in India. Just to give you an idea, if you haven’t already seen this splashed across the web, Netflix in India houses only 7% of what’s available in the US. So, what’s the reason for this exclusion, we asked.

As Netflix’s Friedland explained, “We have been streaming in the United States for 10 years, so we can afford a lot more in United States. Whenever we start out in a new country, we have a pretty small catalogue and then we add to it consistently over time. The reason why we do that is because we want to know what people are watching and we do away with the stuff that people are not watching. Licensing is still pre-internet. Studios license content per territory to one broadcaster. So, with House of Cards for instance, We made HoC in the US 3 years ago and we could not afford it in other countries. So, somebody else licensed it in India.”

Friedland makes a valid point here as later on in the interview he would compare Netflix to television channels, and point out that since the licensing regime has not evolved over the years, certain content cannot be provided in India at this moment because of pre-existent licenses owned by other television channels such as Zee Cafe, Star World etc. Although, in a ray of hope for HoC fans, Friedland told us that the stirring political drama will “soon” find its way on Netflix in India. 

What’s the deal with India specific content?

“We are trying to build out the service in a way that it’s right for India. The fact of the matter is we Indian consumers are going to like yet,” said Friedland. What users need to understand here is that Netflix does NOT specialise in Indian content. Expecting Netflix to be the next Hotstar or Hungama or Eros Now is not only unfair but it’s actually stupid! It’s like expecting Facebook to be like Linkedin. That will never happen because each has it’s own niche.

Netflix specialises in original content. To forget that Netflix is also a production house and not just a streaming service is a mistake most of us are making right now. Highlighting the same, Friedland said, “We are primarily focussed on English speaking, Credit Card holding people who live in urban centres and mostly what they are interested in at this point are Netflix’s original content. We have quite a bit of Indian content and we will be adding more. It’s too early to say when we are going to localise and when we will do a Hindi UI. It’s just very early.”We agree competition is tough and it’s too early to expect 5000 Indian movies on Netflix, but then again, the company has no qualms in accepting its core strength and not wavering from it, just to please Hindi content watching audiences. Friedland sets the record straight once and for all by saying, “We are never going to be a streaming service with this much Indian content as Indian streaming services.”

Netflix shopping for Native Indian content? 

Yes, seems like Netflix is shopping for content from India. The company has just acquired indie filmmaker Q’s film - Brahman Naman at the Sundance film festival. “We have a content licensing team that is constantly looking at different things. Brahman Naman is interesting. A bunch of us saw the movie and we made an offer for it and luckily they accepted. So, it will be available not only in India on Netflix, but everywhere in the world,” said Friedland.

No VPNs Please! - Netflix

A recent blog post by Netflix talked about the company’s efforts towards blocking VPNs used for accessing all Netflix content available in the US. This of course is something the company continues to struggle with as more and more people want access to Netflix’s full library of content. Friedland pointed out, “Anybody who is using a VPN to access Netflix has been against our terms of usage and what we’ve done is we’ve upgraded the technology alongside Hulu, BBCi and all the other streaming services.” So yes, using a VPN to access Netflix is going to become tougher, if it already hasn’t. We have also witnessed bugs in services such as SmartFlix, which essentially act like VPNs and make all of Netflix’s content accessible.

Does Netflix implement local caching servers at the ISP level in India?

Yes, they are already doing so. Although Friedland refrained from naming ISPs, he confirmed that Netflix has open connect servers in India and that they have been working on them for quite some time.

So that was Netflix’s take on its streaming service and its future in India

Mobile internet user base in India to reach 371 million: IAMAI

The number of mobile internet users in India is expected to grow by 55% to 371 million by June 2016, according to a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). The report states that this growth is driven by strong adoption in rural areas. It also says that the mobile internet user base in the country has been steadily increasing from 238 million in June, to 306 million by the end of December 2015. 

As per the report, out of the 306 million users, 219 million were from the urban areas of the country, with a user base growth of 71% year-on-year. The user base in rural India grew by 93% year-on-year to reach 87 million by the end of December 2015. The report also found out that 80% of mobile internet users in urban areas mostly use the service for online communication. 74% said that they used it for social networking, 30% for entertainment, 13% for online shopping, and 11% for online ticketing. Conversely, 52% of mobile internet users in rural areas said that they mostly use the service for entertainment, while 39% said that they used it for social networking. 37% said that they mostly used it for communication, 1% for online shopping, 0.4% online ticketing. 

The report also found that the 64% of their mobile bill was for mobile internet as compared to 54% in 2014. However, the average monthly bill reduced by 18% in 2015 to Rs. 360 as compared to Rs. 439 in 2014.

Back in September, an IAMAI report said that the total Internet user base in India was 352 million in June 30, 2015. Out of that number, 213 million accessed the internet through mobile devices. Another IAMAI report said that the number of internet users was expected to reach 402 million by December 2015.

It was also reported that India had surpassed the US to become the second largest market for smartphones. As per a report by Counterpoint Research, smartphone shipments in the country grew by 15% annually in Q4 2015 to take the user base to 220 million.

Source: PTI

Facebook aiming at 5 billion users by 2030, says Mark Zuckerberg

Social media giant, Facebook, has high hopes for growing its user base in the future. According to a report by USA Today, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg has claimed that Facebook is targetting 5 billion users by the year 2030. Just to give you some context, as of now, the population of the world is 7 billion and counting. Facebook currently has 1.59 billion users approximately.

Zuckerberg made these comments at a company event celebrating the social media giant's 12th anniversary. The report goes on to say that Zuckerberg showed off Facebook's Aquila drone, which is a solar powered fixed-wing aircraft being designed to beam internet. The Aquila has a wingspan of a Boeing 737, but will weigh less than an average car. Being lightweight is extremely important as this propeller driven aircraft will be powered using solar panels and is expected to stay airborne for about 3 months.
 
At the event, Zuckerberg also spoke about connecting the rest of the world's population by working in sync with telecom operators and governments of various countries. The company's Free Basics initiative is one such effort, which is attracting a lot of criticism in India. Free Basics is largely being viewed as Facebook securing its interests in the country, which has just recently surpassed US to become the second largest market for smartphones in the world. India's mobile internet user base is also growing at a fast pace and is expected to reach 371 million users by June 2016. This seems like a favourable environment for the popular social media platform to increase its user-base in the country.

WhatsApp update increases group member limit from 100 to 256: New business strategy?

WhatsApp, the popular messaging platform owned by social media giant Facebook, has just increased the limit on the number of members that can be added to a group conversation. According to the latest update, WhatsApp group admins will now be able to add upto 256 users in a group chat, as opposed to the previous limit of 100 members.

With the push to add more members, WhatsApp seems to be targetting those users who utilise the messaging service as an advertising platform. Amassing large groups on WhatsApp has proven to be a successful way of extending the line of communication with potential customers. Since its inception, WhatsApp has attracted everyone from real estate agents to designers to bloggers and enterprenuers, who use the platform to promote their products and listings. 

In the past, WhatsApp has also updated the app to include useful features such as Rich Preview, which generates a small preview summary of URLs along with the corresponding image from the link. The Rich Preview feature is something that's inspired from Facebook's philosophy of generating a preview with the lead image of an article or any other link. Facebook users would have noticed this feature on the social media platform's app. WhatsApp also supports a whole host of Indian languages now, which include Hindi, Urdu and Bengali.  

45% of iPhone users believe Android phones are more advanced: Survey

A survey revealed that 45% of iPhone users believe Android phones are “more advanced” than iPhones. 31% of the iPhone users disagreed, while the remainder were unsure. The survey, conducted by OnePulse, saw the participation of over 1,500 iPhone and Android users via its app. Overall, 40% of all those who participated said that Android was more advanced that the iPhone. 

However, this reception does not necessarily mean that Android will see any major growth as 68% felt that iPhones will always be more popular than Android. Even more surprising was the fact that 81% of Android users felt the same. 74% of those surveyed said that they associated Apple with being ‘expensive’. This may be explain the iPhone’s popularity as people believe it to be a gadget that people tend to aspire for.

Back in September Futuremark, the company behind 3DMark, released a report based on two years worth of data. According to the report’s Best Device Rankings, iPhones were always playing catchup to Android’s flagships smartphones. It also showed that the iPhone 6 produces “remarkably consistent (performance) scores,” while the Nexus 6 showed “signs of performance throttling.”

The battle between Google and Apple has gone beyond smartphones and has spilled over into the world of finance. A few days ago Google’s parent company,Alphabet, overtook Apple to become the most valuable company in the world. Alphabet had disclosed its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2015, which had led to a rally during after-hours trading that helped it push past Apple. The company’s shares rose by 4.2% giving the company a market capitalization of $560 billion, while Apple had a market capitalization of $539.7 billion.  However, a couple of days later, Apple had regained its crown. Its shares rose by 2% to take its market capitalization to $534 billion, while Alphabet fell by almost 5% taking its capitalization down to just above $500 billion.

Source: International Business Times

Google will block websites serving fake download buttons

Google Chrome is going to block websites that show ads asking you to do things that you otherwise wouldn’t. This includes things like fake download buttons that you see on ads, pop-ups that ask you to download certain programs or remove malware from your phones/computers and so on. The move is part of Google’s Safe Browsing technology, which you may have already seen, especially on torrent websites. For the uninitiated, it’s the red screen that opens before the website, warning you about possible malicious content on the site you’re trying to browse. While Safe Browsing on Google Chrome is nothing new, up till now, it was used to block websites that have been flagged as unsafe.

Back in November 2015 though, Google had started blocking websites that were using social engineering attacks to get users to install malicious software or asking for sensitive information. Google is expanding that today, to websites that mislead you into downloading something that you shouldn’t or at the very least, wouldn’t want to. Deceptive embedded content on websites have been growing, with even some of the best known websites online showing such advertisements. Here are the examples Google gave for the kind of advertisements it is going to block.

The change could be troublesome, to say the least, for webmasters, since such advertisements on your website can even come from ad servers, which makes them harder to monitor. In addition, they may not appear all the time, meaning you’ll have to refresh the website a few times before you can be sure that such an ad isn’t showing up. On the other hand, this will be a welcome change from the users’ point of view, since such buttons are often the reason for misclicks, which may lead to malware on your devices.

Tim Cook hints at more Apple apps coming to Android

Apple CEO, Tim Cook has hinted at the possibility of more Apple apps being made available on Google’s Android OS. During the company’s town hall meeting at its headquarters, Cook said that Apple was using the Apple Music app on Android as a test for expanding its services to other platforms. This may lead to additional Apple’s exclusive suite of apps being ported to Android. 

Google and Microsoft have already made their services available on as many devices as possible, regardless of the operating system being used. Apple however, has chosen to keep most of its apps exclusive to iOS. However, the company did launch its Music app for Android a few months ago and yesterday, it was reported that the app was updated to v0.9.5. The new update allows Android users to download music to their microSD cards for offline listening.

During the town hall meeting, Cook also answered questions about Apple’s dependence on the iPhone and how important India and other emerging markets were to Apple. He said that the iPhone is the “greatest business of the future” and that the company has room to grow the smartphone for decades. He added that 4G LTE networks were not there in many of the emerging markets. This, he believes, would give the Apple the chance to push its new devices in places like India. Cook said that India was one of Apple’s most important growth areas for the next decade. He also noted that Apple is in early preparations to introduce its retail stores in the country. China, however, is still considered by Cook to be very important to Apple’s future and he said that Apple plans to open its 40th store in the country by then end of the summer. Additionally, he noted that the Apple did not believe that it needs to release a cheaper, less feature-packed iPhone to appease growing markets. He claimed that Apple’s research indicated that people in emerging markets were ready to spend more for a better experience.

Source: 9to5Mac