Google unveiled its first prototype of a self-driving car built from scratch. The self-driving car is essentially a two-seater that looks quite similar to a Tata Nano and has no steering wheel, accelerator or brake pedal. On the inside, the car doesn’t offer much in terms of luxury and all you will find are two seats with seatbelts, a bit of space for the passenger’s belongings, a start-stop button and a screen that shows the route to one’s destination. The car is driven by an onboard computer and has a top-speed of 25mph.
The blog post mentions that Google plans on building around a hundred prototypes later this summer for testing and a pilot program is likely to kick off in California in the next couple of years. The Google self-driving car project was started initially in 2009 under Sebastian Thrun, CEO and cofounder of Udacity. Since then the car has evolved a lot with features like pedestrian and cyclist detection and sign reading among others. Recently these cars were allowed for use on public roads in California, and Google demonstrated the car’s abilities.
LG G3 was announced just minutes ago with a 5.5″ QHD display, Snapdragon 801 chipset and a 13MP OIS+ camera with laser auto-focus. The device will be hitting South Korea tomorrow, while the rest of the world will get in in the next couple of weeks.
We have a lot of coverage about the phone’s announcement but we thought you may also enjoy the first official G3 promo video.
Enjoy!
You order a pizza, and as always, 30 minutes later the door bell rings. You’re expecting a cheery delivery guy with the hot cheesy pizza you ordered. But wait, what if instead it’s being delivered by a flying drone?
A lesser-known pizza chain in Mumbai called Francesco’s Pizzeria, did just that last week. It succeeded in making a test-delivery, less than 3km away from its outlet in Lower Parel by using a remote-controlled, GPS-enabled drone. A four-rotor drone took off with the order from its outlet in central Mumbai’s Lower Parel area and delivered it to a high-rise building in adjacent Worli area. It dropped the 13-inch plain margherita pizza, weighing half a kilo, on the 21st floor rooftop before taking off again for the return journey. The speed with which the delivery was made thus beat the record for most leading pizza chains, which manually deliver pizzas within 30 minutes. The company claimed that it was the first time a drone has been used for such a purpose in the country.
The drone used was custom-made, said an official from the pizza chain, adding that an auto engineer friend of his had helped him make the flight possible. The official said the chain had carried out the test-delivery as an experiment because they want to be ready for when regulations in India loosen.
Since commercial deliveries by drones is not allowed in India, the ‘customer’ was a friend of the chain’s CEO. It may not be considered an official sale, but in a way, it was a first time for an aerial product delivery.
Several roadblocks have ensured their limited use and drones are mainly used in India by filmmakers. Legal restrictions make it clear that they are only allowed to fly between the altitude of 200 to 400 feet. They are also barred from flying over security establishments, and then there are the technical difficulties such as the limited operating radius of 8 km, after which their batteries go dry.
In the past, Taco Bell and Dominoes USA have attempted similar strategies. An idea called the TacoCopter — an app that would dispatch a drone to deliver a taco to your door — went viral last year, but the service is illegal under U.S. law as well. Dominoes USA tried pizza delivery which help of drone called ‘Domicopter’. Even Amazon has been in the news for testing and planning an unmanned aerial vehicle delivery system since quite a while.
It’ll take some time for them to figure out the nitty-gritties, but this seems to be the future of quick-deliveries. Till then, it is working well for the companies as a marketing gimmick.
As expected, Apple has launched the iPhone 5C 8GB in India for Rs 37,500/-. Mobiindia earlier reported about Apple’s plans to launch the iPhone 5C 8GB in India and had reported about stocks being shipped into India earlier this week. Apple might also offer an inaugural discount of Rs 3,000 and throw in a case worth Rs 2,300 for a limited period, NDTV Gadgets reports. Mobiindia could not verify the additional offers.
The pricing isn’t very exciting at the moment as one can buy the iPhone 5C 16GB for Rs 34,400/- with a buyback scheme worth Rs 7,500/-. The official price of the iPhone 5C 16GB is Rs 41,900/-.
We expect Apple to become more aggressive with the iPhone 5C 8GB pricing. Hopefully, the company would launch a similar buyback scheme, which would bring its price down to Rs 30,000/-.
Micromax today launched the Unite 2 Android smartphone, which is essentially the company’s take on the Motorola’s recently launched Moto E budget smartphone that is already selling well in the market. With this phone, Micromax has ensured to offer a similar or better set of specifications on its phone to place it against the Moto E smartphone. The Unite 2 runs on the latest Android 4.4.2 KitKat version, which is also one of the major attractions of the Moto E smartphone. Micromax has in fact even priced its newbie at Rs 6,999/- to match up the price point of the Moto E.
As far as the specifications are concerned, the Micromax Unite 2 comes with a 4.7-inch display WVGA display with 800×480 pixels resolution. Inside, it has a 1.3GHz quad-core processor coupled with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. It sports a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.
The phone runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat. Moreover, just like Motorola, Micromax too is guaranteeing an upgrade to the software. In addition to that the phone will come pre-loaded with several apps including Micromax’s own apps like Mad which allows users to get paid for watching advertisements, M!Games, M!Live, and others like Hike and Opera Mini.
On the connectivity front, it comes with dual-SIM support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. Other features in the phone include of support for 21 languages namely English, Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Odia, Bengali, Assamese, Marathi, Nepali, Bodo, Dogri, Konkani, Kashmiri, Maithili, Manipuri, Sanskrit and Sindhi. The phone is available in red, white, green and grey colors.
With this phone, Micromax is clearly targeting the Moto E smartphone, which sold out on Flipkart. The Moto E comes with a 4.3 inch qHD (960×540 pixels) display with a pixel density of 256ppi and protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. It is powered by a Snapdragon 200 dual-core SoC clocked at 1.2GHz, while the Micromax’s phone boasts a quad-core chipset. Both the phones have 1GB of RAM and 4GB internal storage, which can be expanded by up to 32GB using microSD card. Both the phones have 5-megapixel primary camera, however while the Moto E lacks a front-facing camera, Micromax offers a 2-megapixel camera on the Unite 2. Motorola’s Moto E is the first phone to offer Android 4.4.2 out of the box, guaranteeing further updates to the software at the earliest. What sets the Moto E apart is that the phone comes with a nano coating on the inside as well as the outside, which can protect is against the accidental splash of water, which is missing from the Micromax’s Unite 2 smartphone. As mentioned already, the Moto E is priced at Rs 6,999/- and is available exclusively through Flipkart.
Its not often you see a phone sell out hours from launch, especially in our country India. The Motorola Moto E saw sales skyrocket the minute the handset went on sale, and there is a good reason behind it. The Moto E is built on the philosophy of the Moto X and the Moto G, two phone essentially responsible for bringing Motorola back into the same game they had originally started back in the day. But is the Moto E good enough to live up to the hype? Lets find out!
Overview
Motorola is trying to change the need of the hour, by re organizing spends and delivering Android in the purest form. The Moto E is a perfect example of what a user needs from a budget device. It lives up to almost any needs in this spend, however there is no kitchen sink.
Build Quality and Hardware
The Moto E is exceptionally well built, in fact if you put the Moto E and the Moto G side by side, there is hardly any noticeable difference in the build quality of both devices. The Moto E has a brilliant mix of quality materials and reinforced design along with a gorilla glass 3 front that will ensure that no one is disappointed with the phone. The Moto E also boasts water resistance and has an unknown IP coating that we will be soon putting to test. However the company claims that the handset is splash proof, just like the G and the X.
The Moto E also comes with customization options like replaceable back panels and special rubberized grip panels that will add color and strength to the already solid phone.
Hardware wise Moto E runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 chipset on dual cores with 1 GB RAM and 4 GB storage, an Adreno 302 GPU completes the mix. You have a 5 MP camera at the back, that does not live upto anything, and then there is the 1980 mAh battery which is simply wow. The display is a 4.3 inch 960 x 540px capacitive panel with great color reproduction and brightness.
The Moto E is a dual sim phone, which will create mobile hotspots using your 3G connection and can tether upto 5 devices for the use of 3G data. Battery life does not drain and the hotspot feature is very stable. The phone also has a nice white notification light on the right of the earpiece, that breathes once you get a new notification and goes away the minute you pull down the notification panel (you can disable this from the settings panel)
UI and Android
There is less to say here, it runs a sort of pure, yet tweaked version of Android 4.4.2 Kitkat out of the box. You do get two bloatware apps which can be uninstalled and some useful Moto apps like Moto Assist, Migrate and Alert. You might find yourself using these more than once. The great thing about Motorola’s intention behind a pure Android experience, unlike other manufacturers, is that the company plans to deliver updates almost as soon as Android gets updated in Mountain View. The Moto E also has a FM radio which will be appreciated by many, the FM reception is solid and the earpiece is needed as an antenna.
lives up beyond expectations and still remains very responsive. The OS is buttery smooth and honestly you can’t ask for more from the handset, it lives up beyond expectations and still remains very responsive. This phone will be the benchmark for all phones going forward in this price bracket.
Battery
The Phone will beat all odds and defy all logic when it comes to battery performance. The Moto E can even run some heavy games, albeit one at a time, but games like Asphalt 8 runs on this 7000/- phone and it is actually playable.
Battery life is also excellent from this dual sim handset, once you get over the initial phase of playing with the phone, most users should expect a good 1.5 days of use on this phone, with talk times running into 6+ hours in most cases with both sims installed.
Basically Motorola has a beautifully built rom of Android, that does not leak RAM and drain power, cellular antennas are strong so network searching is minimal and hence battery is saved there as well.
Phone and Networks
The dual sim capability is just like the Moto G, and there is no surprise there. Calls are smartly forwarded to the next number once a SIM is busy. The network strength, as mentioned in the previous segment is surprisingly powerful and we are happy with the overall quality of networks and the call drops or the lack thereof.
Microphone and earpiece speaker are great and both sides will be pleasantly happy with the loud volumes.
Display, Camera and Multimedia
For all the coverage you have already seen, you should be aware by now that, the Moto E has the best possible display in this price bracket. Stop looking at specs and look at the actual quality of the display. It is crisp and bright, even outdoors, its got great viewing angles, its got gorilla glass 3 and smudge proof coating, which is very convenient for most humidity like climate and it is insanely responsive for an under 10k or even under 8k phones.
The Camera is there, because its there. Honestly don’t plan on becoming a lifestyle fashion photographer with this phone. The fixed focus camera is there because they wanted people to have a camera, and it solves purely that purpose. That being said whatever pictures are clicked in good lighting and end up in focus, have good color reproduction and almost no noise.
The LED flash is missing which is quite a shame. More than the need of a flash for the camera, consumers in this price bracket would have appreciated the LED flash as a torch. We really love our phone torches Motorola, our streets are not very well lit or atleast during power cuts..
Multimedia wise, Motorola did a few good things; the speaker is now in the front, and not easily blocked by the hands, so it doesn’t muffle with ease. The audio is loud and clear, with a balanced output and an impressive sound from the 3.5 mm headphone jack. Lose the included handsfree for some real headphones to truly enjoy that audio bit. Display, like mentioned, is good so watching video or playing games is really enjoyable on this powerful budget device.
Conclusion
The Moto was sold out within hours of launch of sales in India, on the online shopping website Flipkart. This phone leaves little to complain about, it is well built, has great specs and features bundled with a unique and stock Android experience that will leave many happy. This is the best “first phone” for those wanting to jump the feature phone/Blackberry ship to a uber – budget Android device. It is also customizable with panels on the exterior and has a Gorilla Glass 3 and splash proof front making it a pseudo rugged, long lasting handset.
There are, however, major flaws in the current positioning of the phone. The handset is supposed to be an average mans everyday phone. It is supposed to be a emplacement for a feature phone and it’s supposed to be a phone for the masses and on a low end budget. This category of user is currently not happy or capable of shopping online. So by the time the phone gets sold from Flipkart and reaches the masses, the price escalates to Rs. 10000 and more, thanks to black market dealing and short supplies on this impressive product.
Motorola has made a fantastic phone, a phone that is truly a reason to switch from an old gen phone to Android on a budget. Why should you have to spend tens of thousands, when all you want is a phone that works well and gives you some basic functionality. Well the Moto E is here and it has changed the perception of the budget phone in our eyes. If you want to take our word for it, then the Time to Switch is Now!
Keeping infected apps off your Android requires common sense more than anything
It's not exactly a secret that Android's pretty open, and that it's possible for bad people to do bad things with apps. That's possible with any computer system, of course. And like any other computer system, Android has checks and balances that help keep you safe. Most of them are done without you having to lift a finger. There are gates that have to be opened for malware to get through, and chances are the bad guys are hoping you'll hand them the key in the first place.
There are basic steps you can take to help make sure that doesn't happen.
I'll walk you through five easy ways for keeping virus- and malware-laden apps off of your Android.
1. If you don't know what it is, don't install it
Treat your apps like you treat your food. Well, like you should treat your food. If you don't know what it is or where it came from, you might want to think twice about installing it.
It's not all that unusual to get e-mail with links to an app — but we'd advise against blindly installing full apk files (that's the file type for Android applications) you receive in email, or may be are linked to in spammy text messages. Or even that you find in various forums around the Internet. You simply have no way of knowing what's in there without some serious hackery.
2. Only install from Google Play or other reputable app stores
Where would you rather buy your meat? From a tent on the side of the road? Or from the refrigerated case at the well-known grocery store? You've got a far smaller chance at getting food poisoning at one of those places.
Where else do we recommend? The Amazon Appstore, for one. There's a good bit of duplication between it and Google Play, but you should also be able to download in safety and comfort. Well, in safety, anyway. And Amazon's always running deals on apps.
What would we avoid? Random download locations on the Internet. App stores that seem too good to be true. Anything that promises scores of paid apps for free (and not in a "deal of the day" sort of situation, ya know?).
3. Protect ya neck: Uncheck "Install from unknown sources"
So, yes. There's some scary stuff out there. The good news is that, by default, there's a pretty simple mechanism in place that keeps you protected.
By default, every Android phone that has access to Google Play ships with a lock that keeps applications from outside Google's store from installing themselves. It's a safety feature, is all, and not about stifling competition. With that lock in place, you'll get a warning should an application try to install itself from outside Google Play — whether you initiated it, or not.
Should you need to, disabling that lock is just a matter of ticking the "Unknown sources" box in your security settings. And you'll need to do it if you want to, say, install the Amazon Appstore.
4. Read the permissions
This part's hard. We have to force ourselves to do it, too. But any time you install any app on your Android phone — whether it's from Google Play or anywhere else — the app will declare permissions. That is, it's telling you what it has access to do on your phone. Maybe that's having access to the camera. Or to the Internet. Or maybe it has access to record your keystrokes. Or to know your precise location. Or access to your contacts. Or to send and receive email.
Some of those sound more scary than others. But they all have functions. Keyboard apps need to record your keystrokes. Anything that uses GPS will know where you are. If an app can send email or place phone calls for you, it'll need access to your contacts.
Google still needs to do a better job explaining in plain English what permissions do, and why an app might need them. Good app developers will list the reasons in their app listings. (There's another reason to make sure you're using good app stores.) But you as an end user can also be vigilant. The classic case is an app that lets you download and change your wallpaper on a regular basis. Does it need access to the Internet? Sure. Does it need access to your camera? Maybe, if it lets you set a wallpaper by taking a picture of something. Does it need to be able to record your keystrokes? Probably not.
5. Yes, you can use a virus scanner if you want
We get asked this all the time: "Should I use an antivirus app on my phone? Do you use one?"
Some of us here do. Some of us don't. Do you need to? Probably not. Google scans everything that goes through Google Play. It has the ability to check apps that you've sideloaded to your phone. That's not 100 percent foolproof, of course. There have been a few instances of fake antivirus apps being purchased off Google Play. (We'd stress that that's the exception and not the norm.) And there have been plenty of times that antivirus apps cause false positives.
If you're really that worried, then by all means, use an antivirus app. We'd recommend sticking with one of the big names out there. And we'd recommend finding one that has a bunch of extra features, like the ability to locate and wipe your phone if you lose it. (Though that's another feature that Google does for free, too.)
See, it's really not all that hard to avoid malware and viruses on your Android device — never mind what all the fear-mongers say.
Microsoft today launched the Surface Pro 3 that comes with a bigger 12-inch display and running on Intel’s fourth generation Core processor. Microsoft is positioning the Surface Pro 3 as a no-compromise PC that can double up as a tablet. It has a 2,160×1,440 pixel 2K display and is just 9mm thin, and Microsoft is promising up to 9 hours of battery, which is 10 percent better than the Surface Pro 2.
The Surface Pro 3 will be available in Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 configurations and will come with a choice of 4GB and 8GB RAM with internal storage starting from 64GB going all the way up to 512GB.
Microsoft has also improved the pen input that can be used to jot down notes, mark presentations, clip and share notes, or take screenshots. The kickstand has been improved too offering custom tilt angles.
Microsoft Surface Pro 3 specs:
Operatingsystem
Windows 8.1 Pro
Exterior
Dimensions: 7.93 in x 11.5 in x 0.36 inWeight: 1.76 lbs
Casing: Magnesium
Color: Silver
Physical buttons: Volume, Power, Home
Storage
64 GB, 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB
Display
Screen: 12-inch ClearType Full HD displayResolution: 2160 x 1440
Aspect Ratio: 3:2
Touch: Multitouch input
Pen input
Pen input and pen (included with purchase)Pen features 256 levels of pressure sensitivity
CPU
4th-generation Intel® Core™ i5-4300U (1.6 GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost up to 2.90 GHz) with Intel® HD Graphics 4400 4 GB or 8 GB of RAM — dual-channel LPDDR3TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module — for BitLocker encryption)4th-generation Intel® Core™ i3/i5/i7 Processor
System memory: 4GB or 8GB memory options
TPM 2.0 chip for enterprise security
Wireless
Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11ac/802.11 a/b/g/nBluetooth 4.0 low energy technology
Battery
Up to nine hours of Web-browsing battery life
Cameras and A/V
5MP and 1080p HD front- and rear-facing cameras Built-in front- and rear-facing microphones Stereo speakers with Dolby® Audio-enhanced sound
Ports
Full-size USB 3.0microSD card reader
Headset jack
Mini DisplayPort
Cover port
Charging port
Along with launching the Nokia XL last week, Microsoft today also launched the X+, and this completes the trio of Android devices Nokia unveiled at the MWC. The Nokia X+, which is identical to the X except the bigger RAM, is priced at Rs 8,399/-
As far as specifications are concerned, the X+ is near identical to the X, which means it flaunts a 4-inch WVGA (800×480 pixels) display and is powered by 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core chipset paired with 768MB of RAM. Also included is 4GB internal storage that can be expanded up to 32GB using a microSD card.
The smartphone also features a 3-megapixel camera at the back, no front camera and a 1,500mAh battery that the company claims is good enough for 10.5 hours of talktime. On the software front, it runs on Nokia X software platform.
In comparison, the Nokia XL features a 5-inch WVGA (800×480 pixels) display, 1GHz Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor, 768MB of RAM, and 4GB internal storage that can be expanded up to 32GB using a microSD card. It is priced at Rs 11,489/-, but is already available on e-commerce sites for as low as Rs 11,049/-.
Features
Nokia X
Nokia X+
Display
4-inch WVGA (480×800 pixels) with 233 ppi
4-inch WVGA (480×800 pixels) with 233 ppi
Dimension, weight
115.5x63x10.4 mm, 128.7 grams
115.5x63x10.4 mm, 128.7 grams
Processor
1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core chipset
1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core chipset
Memory
512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal memory, up to 32GB external memory using a microSD
768MB of RAM, 4GB of internal memory, up to 32GB external memory using a microSD
