DAILY TECH- 16 November 2013

DAILY TECH- 16 NOVEMBER 2013

Today’s Latest News

XOLO Q1000 Opus with Broadcom chip coming by month-end

Viber update delivers Android tablet support, push to talk, and more stickers

Why Google’s Moto G may just be the perfect phone for India

Apple Inc.'s iPhone 5C price too high for India, says Gartner

Apple Inc.'s iconic brand iPhone's latest offering 5C is 'too highly priced' for emerging markets like India, aiding iPhone 4S to be the volume driver, research firm Gartner said today.

Videocon launches 3G-calling tablet at Rs 8,999

Videocon Mobile Phones, a Videocon Group company, as part of expanding its offerings in budget tablet segment, has launched 3G-calling tablet Videocon VT85C at Rs 8,999.

Video of the Day:

Red Hat Linux 5.0 Step By Step Installation.

Must See Tricks 4 Computer(Click on Image)

XOLO Q1000 Opus with Broadcom chip coming by month-end

Xolo on Friday announced a tie-up with chipmaker Broadcom Corporation to use their latest chipset BCM23550 (Java) for its new XOLO Q1000 Opus smartphone. This new phone will hit the stores by the end of this month, the company said in a release.

A release claimed the new smartphone leverages Broadcom's BCM4334 connectivity combo chip and BCM4752 multi-constellation GNSS location chip "to deliver a high performance and feature-rich experience at an attractive price". The phone promises better Wi-Fi streaming, simultaneously share and project HD video, photos and gaming applications to a larger screen via Miracast.

The phone will be powered by a 1.2 GHz Quad-core ARM Cortex A7 processor. It will also feature VideoCore multimedia support, GPS/GLONASS, WLAN, MEMs and Cell ID for the best indoor/outdoor location.

Sunil Raina, Business Head at XOLO, said the phone will deliver high-end multimedia experience and better search location technology on a large five-inch screen, but at an attractive price point.

"Driving affordability is the key to tapping into the explosive demand for smartphones in India. Our complete smartphone platform is offered as a complete turnkey solution that allows OEMs to expedite production of full-featured, high-performance Android smartphones while significantly lowering development costs," Rafael Sotomayor, Broadcom Vice President, Mobile Platform Solutions added.

Xolo is the premium smart devices brand of Lava mobiles.

Featured Technology Talk

Project Loon: Google announces prog to provide internet to all

Google has announced a new project, called Project Loon, to provide internet access to those who do not have access to internet, anywhere in the world.

Google has announced a new project, called Project Loon, to provide internet access to those who do not have access to internet, anywhere in the world.

Under this programme, Google is sending weather balloons to remote parts of the world which will provide WiFi internet to the people there.

People need a special internet antenna, attached to their building, to connect to the balloon network. "The signal bounces from balloon to balloon, then to global internet back on Earth," explained Google.

Viber update delivers Android tablet support, push to talk, and more stickers

Viber has just announced a major release that brings in a lot of treats for fans of the Internet-based messaging service. There’s even more in it for its fans on Android, as tablet users will now no longer feel like they’re using an oversized smartphone app anymore.

Viber 4.0 now fully supports Android tablets with a proper user interface that supports the device form factor. Viber on tablets now resemble more closely the desktop client, with a list of conversations located on a left panel and the message contents taking up the rest of the space. The update also brings improvements across the board on all Android devices such the ability to continue sending Viber messages even while on a Viber call.

Viber is also unveiling its Viber Sticker Market, which will provide more choices for sticker-toting Viber users. The market will also be regularly featuring content tied to popular events and major holidays. And to celebrate this new release, Viber is introducing two new mascots, a white cat named Mayo and a koala called Blu. The 4.0 release also adds Push To Talk or instant voice messaging to Viber. Users can now record, send, download, and play back short voice messages in all one easy step.

The Viber 4.0 release is now available on Google Play Store and should be rolling out to users already. If you’re still on the look out for an instant messaging service, why not download this new version of Viber from the link below and give it a shot.

Why Google’s Moto G may just be the perfect phone for India

Google’s Motorola yesterday showed off the new low-cost Moto G smartphone, which has a quad-core processor, a 4.5-inch HD screen. The smartphone will also get an update to Android 4.4 in the coming weeks.

The Moto G smartphone is priced at $179 for 8GB version, while the 16 GB version is priced at $199. For Android fans in India,the good news is that the smartphone will be available in India in early January at the same when it launches in the US. If one were to go by current pricing and include taxes, the 8 GB version could cost Rs 15,000 (or a little above) while the 16 GB could be in the Rs 18,000 and higher range.

Remember this is if one were to take taxes, etc into account, even though under the current exchange rate, the phones are priced at Rs 11,300 and Rs 12,600 for the 8 and 16 GB versions. Google launched the phone with the aim of reaching out to emerging markets and given the price it is a steal since the smartphone comes with the pure Google experience.

In a price sensitive market like India,the phone appears to be quite the deal. Key specs of the Moto G include: Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor quad-core CPU clocked at 1.2 Ghz, a 4.5-inch display with 720 p resolution(pixel density is 329 ppi.) The device also has a 2070 mAh battery, with Motorola promising up to 24 hours battery life on mixed usage. Moto G will also get Android 4.4 KitKat by January 2014. Buyers will also get 50 GB storage free on Google Drive for two years.

While the screen is not full HD and is under 5-inches, the battery life and the processor ensure that the phone offers something new. Most low-cost smartphones in India by Karbonn, Gionee, etc are using a Mediatek chip and not a Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core CPU. Add the promise of 24 battery by Motorola, and many might just be tempted to try out this smartphone. Motorola has also promised a dual-SIM version in select markets.

The biggest let-down with this is perhaps the camera, which is 5 megapixel camera (only in 4:3 resolution) and 3.8 megapixel at 16:9 (wide-screen resolution). While the camera has LED flash, 4X digital zoom, and allows slow motion video, burst mode, AUTO HDR (for better lighting) and Panorama view, the resolution might be a disappointment to India fans.

They are several cheaper phones with 13 and 8 megapixels camera that are available in the market. From Karbonn to Micromax to Intex, smartphones with a 8 megapixel camera are now standard, so a five megapixel camera might not appeal to a lot of Indian customers. The front camera is 1.3 megapixel. The cameras can record and playback video in 720p HD mode at a rate of 30 frames per second. The smartphone supports GSM and HSPA+, WiFi, and Bluetooth 4.0. Perhaps the biggest feature that favours the Moto G smartphone is the pure Google OS.

This is important from a security perspective as it ensures faster bug fixes which are available as and when Google rolls them out. Some of the features of the Android KitKat are an improved caller app, emoji emoticons in messages and a new immersive mode which automatically hides everything else when you’re reading, playing a game or watching a movie.

TECHNOLOGY

"A computer will do what you tell it to do, but that may be much different from what you had in mind."

Facebook's Revamped Messenger App Goes After SMS With Addition of Phone Numbers

Here's what isn't surprising: Facebook is trying to take over where the conventional text message left off. Here's what is surprising: that is has taken this long to get to this point. The tried-and-true phone number is a hangover technology from many generations ago, and it's actually quite unfortunate that it's still around. With so many communication efforts moving to IP-based technology, the phone number still refuses to allow us to talk via voice or text while overseas without paying outrageous roaming rates.

Thankfully, savvy tech companies are discovering workarounds. Google Hangouts began to enable chats using just one's phone number in a recent app update, and now it appears that Facebook is following suit. The company was already testing the feature within its Android app, and as of today, both iOS and Android users will find a revised Messenger app that allows users to communicate with anyone so long as you know their phone number.

The message is clear: Facebook would rather you use Messenger to text your friends than whatever your default messaging app is. It's going after SMS, Line, WhatsApp, and all of the rest in one fell swoop. The ability to chat with someone even if they aren't your friend on Facebook is a huge boon, and it represents yet another elegant way to avoid those pesky texting fees (particularly while abroad). Give it a download and try it out -- the interface sure is slick, and fits the iOS 7 motif perfectly.

Famous Scientist

Antonio Meucc

Antonio Santi Giuseppe Meucci (Italian: [anˈtɔːnjo meˈuttʃi]; 1808–1889) was an Italian-American inventor and a friend of the revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi. He was best known for developing a voice communication apparatus which several sources credit as the first telephone.

Meucci set up a form of voice communication link in his Staten Island home that connected its second floor bedroom to his laboratory. He submitted a patent caveat for his telephonic device to the U.S. Patent Office in 1871, but there was no mention of electromagnetic transmission of vocal sound in his caveat. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the electromagnetic transmission of vocal sound by undulatory electric current.

Meucci was born at Via dei Serragli 44 in the San Frediano borough of Florence,Grand Duchy of Tuscany, (now in the Italian Republic), on 13 April 1808, as the first of nine children to Amatis and Domenica Meucci. Amatis was an officer of the local police and his mother was principally a homemaker. Four of Meucci's siblings did not survive childhood.

In November 1821, at the age of 15, he was admitted to Florence Academy of Fine Arts as its youngest student, where he studied chemical and mechanical engineering.[6] He ceased full time studies two years later due to insufficient funds, but continued studying part time after obtaining employment as an assistant gatekeeper and customs official for the Florentine government. Meucci later became employed at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence as a stage technician, assisting Artemio Canovetti.

In 1834 Meucci constructed a type of acoustic telephone to communicate between the stage and control room at the Teatro della Pergola. This telephone was constructed on the principles of pipe-telephones used on ships and still functions.
He married costume designer Esterre Mochi, who was employed in the same theatre, on 7 August 1834.

Meucci was alleged to be part of a conspiracy involving the Italian unification movement in 1833–1834, and was imprisoned for three months with Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi.

Apple Inc.'s iPhone 5C price too high for India, says Gartner

Apple Inc.'s iconic brand iPhone's latest offering 5C is 'too highly priced' for emerging markets like India, aiding iPhone 4S to be the volume driver, research firm Gartner said today.

However, the firm said, in mature markets like the US and Europe the price difference between the iPhone 5C and 5S is not enough.

"In emerging markets, the iPhone 4S will continue to be the volume driver at the low end as the lack of subsidy in most markets leaves the iPhone 5C too highly priced to help drive further penetration," Gartner said.

Apple Inc. did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment on the issue.

In India, Apple Inc. is selling 16 GB iPhone 5C at Rs 41,900 and 32 GB variant at Rs 53,500, while, iPhone 5S is available at Rs 53,500 (16GB), Rs 63,500 (32 GB) and Rs 71,500 (64 GB).

"Gartner believes the price difference between the iPhone 5C and 5S is not enough in mature markets, where prices are skewed by operator subsidies, to drive users away from the top of the line model," it added.

A contract-free and unlocked 16GB version of the iPhone 5C is available for USD 549 (about Rs 34,700) in the US, while an unlocked and contract-free iPhone 5S can be bought for USD 649 (about Rs 41,000).

In the July-September quarter of 2013, Apple Inc.'s smartphone sales reached 30.3 million units, up 23.2 per cent from same quarter of 2012.

"While, the arrival of the new iPhones 5S and 5C had a positive impact on overall sales, such impact could have been greater had they not started shipping late in the quarter," Gartner said.

The firm added that there has been some inventory built up for the iPhone 5C, whereas the demand for 5S has been good leading to its stocks being sold out in many markets.

Besides, the research firm said that worldwide sales of mobile phones are expected to rise by 3.4 per cent to touch 1.81 billion units this year compared to the previous year.

The firm, while giving July-September 2013 mobile phone sales data, said globally mobile phone sales touched 455.6 million units in the third quarter, clocking a growth of 5.7 per cent from the same period last year with smartphones sales accounting for a record 55 per cent of the overall sales.

Worldwide smartphone sales reached 250.2 million units, up 45.8 per cent from the same quarter of 2012, it said.

"Asia/Pacific led the growth in both markets -- the smartphone segment with 77.3 per cent increase and the mobile phone segment with 11.9 per cent growth," Gartner added.

The regions to show an increase in the overall mobile phone market were Western Europe, which returned to growth for the first time this year, and the Americas, it said.

Videocon launches 3G-calling tablet at Rs 8,999

Videocon Mobile Phones, a Videocon Group company, as part of expanding its offerings in budget tablet segment, has launched 3G-calling tablet Videocon VT85C at Rs 8,999.

Equipped with 7” display, the Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) enabled VT85C tablet is powered by a dual-core Cortex A9 processor. It has a heavy duty 3000 mAh battery, a company statement said.

According to research firm Gartner, the budget tablet category is expected to reach 182 million end-user devices by end of 2013, it said.

“With the tablet market in the country expanding every day, we seek to become a strategic player in the mix of things who offers the best of technology at the most affordable of pricing to consumer.”, Videocon Mobile Phones, Product Planning and Development, Head, Khalid Zamir said.

The tablet comes with a 5MP rear camera and VGA as the primary camera. The memory comes with upto 32GB expandable memory and has a 1GB RAM facility, the statement added.

Tips to make your browser secure

MUNICH: Web browsers are the key to the internet. Without them the internet is an impenetrable black box.

Browsers may be among the most commonly used applications, but they also offer the greatest number of attack options for dangerous content on the net.To keep viruses, worms and other malware away from your computer when surfing,it's crucial to configure your browser for security.

The firewall on a DSL router is a good first step for protecting the computer during surfing, says Marco Rinne from the computer portal chip.de. But that doesn't hold true if your browser is out of date: “Internet Explorer 6 and 7 or Firefox 2 no longer satisfy current security standards,” he says. For optimal protection, he therefore urgesusers to keep theirbrowsers updated.

There are numeroussecurity tools already present in Firefox and Internet Explorer. The pop-up blocker,for example, prevents more than justannoying ads. It alsothrottles other windows that can be used to sneak malicious software onto PCs. Phishing filters protect personal dataagainst theft.

Firefox offers additional configurationoptions underthe Settings item in the Security tab of the Options dialog box: thisincludes the ability to block risky or forgedwebsites.It's also a good idea to prohibit websites from installing add-ons on their own. Similar settings are possible under Internet Explorer in the Security tab of the Internet Options dialog box, accessible from the Tools menu.

birds need gravity to swallow

Cartoon of Technology

PlayStation daddy says PS4 is all 'Play' and no 'Station'

The goals of Sony's PlayStation 4 were rewritten from the ground up after the company "spread itself too thin" when developing the PlayStation 3. So said Dominic Mallinson, Sony's veep of R&D for Playstation, speaking at the AMD developers conference, APU13, in San José, California, on Wednesday.

Mallinson was introduced as "Mr. Playstation", having worked on the core software for the PlayStation 1, 2, 3, and now 4 – which, by the way, will be released in North America this Friday, and in Europe two weeks later.

Recounting the days when development of the PlayStation 3 was initiated, he said "we realized with PS3 that we could do so much more" than what had been accomplished in the PlayStation 2. "And in fact, one of our brand messages at the time was that 'it only does everything'."

That PlayStation was designed around the Cell processor, which Maillinson called the precursor to today's APUs – accelerated processing units, to use AMD's lingo – in that is was essentially a heterogeneous architecture in which the CPU and GPU cores shared the same system memory.

"But unfortunately it was complicated to use," he said. "It had many distributed memories requiring [direct memory access] and synchronization, and the developers found it really tough to get to grips with." And if you throw roadblocks in the way of your developers, those same roadblocks limit hardware uptake, since content sells consoles.

“If you don't like something change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain."