World's first flexible smartphone that bends it like Beckham!

 

Researchers at Queen's University's Human Media Lab developed ReFlex - a full-colour and high-resolution smartphone that combines multi-touch with bend input allowing users to experience physical tactile feedback when interacting with their apps through bend gestures.

"This represents a completely new way of physical interaction with flexible smartphones," Roel Vertegaal, director of the Human Media Lab at Queen's University, said.

"When this smartphone is bent down on the right, pages flip through the fingers from right to left, just like they would in a book. More extreme bends speed up the page flips," Vertegaal explained, adding: "Users can feel the sensation of the page moving through their fingertips through a detailed vibration of the phone."

Published on EurekAlert.com, the report said the bend sensors are placed on the back of the display to sense the force with which a user bends the screen. The amount of bend is read by the sensors and is made available to apps for use as input.

ReFlex has a high definition LG Display Flexible OLED touch screen and is powered by an Android 4.4 (KitKat) with boards mounted to the sides of the display.

The smartphone also features a voice coil that allows the phone to simulate forces and friction through highly detailed vibrations of the display.

"This allows for the most accurate physical simulation of interacting with virtual data possible on a smartphone today," Vertegaal noted.

India’s cheapest phone set to launch at Rs 499

 

 Domestic handset maker Ringing Bells is all set to disrupt the booming handset market in the country by launching India’s most affordable smartphone ‘Freedom 251’ for under Rs 500 on Wednesday (Feb 17).

The launch is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for “empowering India to the last person, transforming India’s growth story”, the Noida-based company said.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikkar will launch the smartphone ‘Freedom 251’ on February 17. “The phone will be popularly priced at under Rs 500… this event and launch stands as a true testimony of success of the latest initiatives taken by the Government of India,” according to a media invite sent by the firm.

At present, smartphones available in the market are priced around Rs 1,500. Last year, DataWind had announced that it is teaming up with Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications (RCOM) to launch the world’s most affordable smartphone, priced at Rs 999. The phone is yet to hit the market.

Established last year, Ringing Bells will start with the assembly of handsets in Phase-I and aims at full indigenous development of the feature-rich smartphones, it said. It did not disclose any other details about manufacturing, products and pricing.

A new entrant in the Indian mobile phone market, Ringing Bells had launched one of India’s cheapest 4G smartphone at Rs 2,999, recently. It has launched two other feature phones in the market.

All you need to know of Samsung Galaxy A7, A5; prebook on Snapdeal with offer

 

The A5 will be sold at Rs. 29,400, and A7 is priced at Rs. 33,400.

A series Galaxy smartphones are featured with glass and metal finish. The smartphones can transfer high-quality videos and flies at incredible speed.

Enabled with 4G LTE Cat6 and Download Booster, the Galaxy A7 (2016) & A5 (2016) offer you upto 300 Mbps Downlink and upto 50 Mbps Uplink. 

With the Fingerprint Recognition feature, your fingerprint is all you need to unlock the device and enjoy a secure smartphone experience. 

The company claims that selfies keep getting better with the Galaxy A7 (2016) & A5 (2016). The f/1.9 aperture, 13MP rear and 5MP front camera will enable you to take brilliant shots, even in low light. With Palm Gesture and 120o Wide Angle features, you can click selfies with a simple gesture and take in more with every frame. 

Captivating colours are the hallmark of the new Galaxy A Series (2016 Edition). Gold, White or Black, choose a colour that compliments you.

Details of Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016):

The smartphone is powered by an octa-core Exynos processor clocked at 1.6GHz clubbed with 2GB of RAM and has 16GB of inbuilt storage.

Galaxy A5 (2016) features a smaller 5.2-inch full-HD (1080x1920-pixel) Super Amoled display.

The phone has 13-megapixel rear cameras with LED flashes and optical image stabilisation (OIS), and 5-megapixel front-facing cameras.The rear cameras on both the handsets feature f/1.9 aperture lenses.

It supports 4G LTE.

Comes with dual-SIM support and Samsung has specified that the microSD card slot is separate from the second Nano-SIM slot.

Allows up to 300Mbps downloads.

Other features are Wi-Fi , Bluetooth and and NFC connectivity options.

Details of Galaxy A7 (2016):

Equipped with 1.6GHz Octa Core Processor, the Galaxy A7 (2016) has a 3GB RAM that provides faster multitasking and seamless shuffling between games, songs, apps and movies.

The smartphone has 16GB of storage

Galaxy A7 (2016) sports a 5.5-inch full-HD Super Amoled display. 

The phone has 13-megapixel rear cameras with LED flashes and optical image stabilisation (OIS), and 5-megapixel front-facing cameras.

The rear cameras on the handset feature f/1.9 aperture lenses.support 4G LTE.

Comes with dual-SIM support and Samsung has specified that the microSD card slot is separate from the second Nano-SIM slot, so you aren't forced to choose one or the other.

Allows up to 300Mbps downloads.

Both phones run the company's custom UI on top of Android 5.1 Lollipop.

Google and Microsoft apps, as also seen on other high-end Galaxy phones, are displayed prominently. Make sure you never run out of charge. The Galaxy A7 (2016) comes with a 3300mAh high-capacity battery and fast charging feature.

Both phones run the company's custom UI on top of Android 5.1 Lollipop. Google and Microsoft apps, as also seen on other high-end Galaxy phones, are displayed prominently.

Intex launches two budget smartphones –Aqua Craze, Aqua Lite

Both the phones have been priced very affordably, with the Aqua Craze coming at Rs 6,190 and the Aqua Lite at Rs 3,199.

Aqua Craze is a dual SIM smartphone that features a 5-inch (720x1280 pixel) IPS display. Powered by a 1GHz quad-core processor the phone is coupled with 1GB of RAM.

It has an 8-megapixel rear with autofocus and a 2-megapixel front-facing shutter.

The Aqua Lite is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor coupled with 512MB of RAM. It houses a 2-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 2 MP front camera. 

iPhone 7 to come with wireless charging?

As per the latest report, based on a sketch image, the iPhone 7 would come with wireless charging.

Media reports also say that the latest iPhone would come with Liquidmetal body that makes it waterproof too.

So far,  we have known from various reports that the iPhone 7 would not have antenna bands across the rear and no 3.5mm headphone jack.

The iPhone 7 is expected to be unveiled in September this year.

Lava unveils brigade of 4G smartphones –A71, A88, X11

Lava A71, comes with a guaranteed upgrade to Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It features a 5 inch HD IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass. The smartphone is powered by a 1.5GHz Quad Core processer, 1 GB DDR3 RAM and offers 8GB internal memory which is expandable up to 32 GB. It sports a 5.0 MP rear camera with LED Flash and 2.0 MP front camera. The smartphone is priced at Rs 6,499 and will be available in Royal Blue, Dream Black and Regal Gold colours.

The Lava A88 comes with a 5 inch Display, resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. It is powered with a 1.5GHz Quad Core processor and 512 MB RAM. The smartphone comes with a 5MP rear camera and 2MP front camera, both with LED Flash. The device runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop and is backed up with a 2000 mAh battery. Internal memory is 4 GB that is expandable up to 32 GB. The smartphone is priced at Rs 5,499 and will be available in Black and White colours from February third week.

The Lava X11 comes equipped with a 5-inch HD IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass. The device runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop and promises a guaranteed upgrade to Android 6.0 Marshmallow.  The smartphone features an 8MP rear camera and 5MP front camera, both with an LED Flash. It is powered by a 1.5 GHz Quad Core Processor, 2GB DDR3 RAM and 8GB Internal memory that is expandable up to 32GB. With a 2500 mAh Li-Poly Battery the phone boasts of (3G) talk time of more than ten-and-a-half-hours. The smartphone is priced at Rs 7,999.

Huawei Honor's first dual SIM phone Holly 2 Plus on sale from Feb 15

Holly 2 Plus will be available for Rs 8,499 in dark grey, white and gold colours from February 15 midnight.

“Holly 2 Plus is a smartphone specially designed for the India market with dual SIM 4G support and also one of the only smartphone which supports 2G/3G/4G LTE and CDMA at this same time," P Sanjeev, vice president sales, Huawei India, said in a statement.

The dual-SIM phone boasts of 2G RAM and 16GB in-built memory and runs on a 64-bit high-speed processor to offer consumers more power.

Holly 2 Plus offers a 4,000 mAH battery with reverse charging to share your power with your friend via Micro-B USB to Micro-B USB cable.

The device also has 13-megapixel rear and 5-megapixel front cameras and offers 16GB internal storage and a MicroSD card slot for storage expansion.

Honor would be providing to its customers regular software updates. It has already come up with the Android 6.0 (marshmallow) update for Honor 7 which is available for download on the Honor official website.

Apple's iPad Pro to go on sale this week in 40 countries

WASHINGTON: Apple said Monday its iPad Pro goes on sale this week in 40 countries, its new computing device aimed at reviving a slumping tablet market.

The California tech giant said in a statement the new iPad—a large-screen tablet aimed at replacing portable PCs—would be available online Wednesday and in stores later in the week.     

The new tablet with a 12.9-inch (32.7-centimeter) display also includes a detachable keyboard and stylus.    

The iPad Pro starts at $799 for US customers, with a keyboard option for an additional $169.     

"The early response to iPad Pro from app developers and our customers has been incredible, and we're excited to get iPad Pro into the hands of customers around the world this week," said Apple senior vice president Philip Schiller.    

The iPad Pro includes a stylus called Apple Pencil -- despite insistence from late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs that consumers did not want such an accessory. 

A report last month by market tracker IDC showed a 12.6 percent year-over-year decline in tablet sales in the July-September quarter. IDC analysts said tablet owners are not replacing the devices as frequently as in the past.  

And some are shifting to large smartphones, or "phablets," or to lightweight PCs, some of which have detachable keyboards.         

But analysts have seen some growth in the "hybrid" category of lightweight computers like the Microsoft Surface, which have detachable keyboards.

Candy Crush company sold for $5 9 billion

 The company behind the hugely successful "Call of Duty" video games is launching an all-out attack on the mobile gaming market by shelling out USD 5.9 billion for the maker of "Candy Crush Saga." Activision Blizzard's purchase of King Digital Entertainment will help it keep pace as video gaming continues to move away from TV-connected consoles to smartphones and tablets.

And it's bound to add new players to Activision's ranks, such as women, who haven't been especially interested in the company's violent games up to now. But the move comes at a hefty price, especially for a company that has seen its sales and profit drop in recent years. And while "Candy Crush" is notoriously addictive, it has waned in popularity for some time, and it's unclear when or if King Digital's next hit mobile game will come.

It's becoming increasingly important for video game companies to make their products accessible in both console and mobile formats, making Activision's move an expensive but necessary one, said David Lord, CEO of JumpStart, a Torrance, California, company focused on educational mobile games for kids. "This gives them access to the mobile market at a time when the console market has had a tremendous year," Lord said, "but we're not sure where it's going to go." And it's not just console games that are moving over to mobile devices; mobile games are being played on consoles, too. It's about being able to reach players wherever they may be, Lord said. The takeover will create one of the world's biggest entertainment networks, with a combined total of more than a half-billion monthly active users in 196 countries, by Activision's count. 

Activision said it sees tremendous potential in the mobile gaming market, predicting it will generate more than USD 36 billion in revenue by the end of 2015 and grow more than 50 percent by 2019. But while people might not mind spending USD 60 for the latest "Call of Duty" game, many balk at the idea of handing over a few dollars on a game for their smartphone, making it tough to make money off such products. Most people play "Candy Crush" for free. The company makes money by charging them for more lives or other extras that allow them to play more often. "It's always harder to monetise on mobile, but on the same token you have many more people in mobile," Lord said. He said that if only a small fraction of the millions of people playing a hit game pay for extras, it can be a windfall for the game's owner.

Honor smartphones to receive Android M update by February 2016

Android smartphones have started to receive the latest Android v6.0 Marshmallow update. While LG’s G4 was the first smartphone in the world to receive the upgrade, Honor India has also announced that starting February 2016, the Android Marshmallow update will be rolled out to Honor smartphones.

Among various other features that will come in with latest Android Marshmallow upgrade, the new operating system will feature much more simplified permissions and a doze mode, that shuts down the background processing of certain apps when the phone’s not being used, which would be a great way of saving the battery to drain out fast.

Beware! Snapchat now has the right to use all your photos, however they want

Snapchat, the platform for messaging in text, voice, video or photo, was used world-wide for one basic and undoubtedly the best feature—self destructive messaging. However, the social platform went down on its knees when the recent spate of private photos, which contained nudity, was spilled online. Snapchat’s servers were hacked earlier and millions of photos which contained regular to nude selfies were all over the internet. Snapchat was being via third-party applications, which had the ability to store all messages that passed through it, even though they were self-destructible ones.

Last year, Snapchat admitted that the app wasn’t truly secure and admitted that they were not ‘actually’ automatically deleting the messages that were sent across by users. It was actually possible to recover the messages from the user’s device.

‘While we were focused on building, some things didn’t get the attention they could have. One of those was being more precise with how we communicated with the Snapchat community. This morning we entered into a consent decree with the FTC that addresses concerns raised by the commission. Even before today’s consent decree was announced, we had resolved most of those concerns over the past year by improving the wording of our privacy policy, app description, and in-app just-in-time notifications,’ wrote Snapchat on their blog in May 2014.

Now that Snapchat has changed their terms and conditions on October 28, 2015 (see 2. Your Content), this means that every content, be it text messages, voice messages, photos or videos, will now be royalty-free and transferable to the host to store, use, display, modify, publish, publicly perform, broadcast and a lot more by Snapchat.

‘Many of our Services let you create, upload, post, send, receive, and store content. When you do that, you retain whatever ownership rights in that content you had to begin with.

But you grant Snapchat a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, sub-licensable, and transferable license to host, store, use, display, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, publish, create derivative works from, publicly perform, broadcast, distribute, syndicate, promote, exhibit, and publicly display that content in any form and in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed). We will use this license for the limited purpose of operating, developing, providing, promoting, and improving the Services; researching and developing new ones; and making content submitted through the Services available to our business partners for syndication, broadcast, distribution, or publication outside the Services. Some Services offer you tools to control who can—and cannot—see your content under this license. For more information about how to tailor who can watch your content, please take a look at our privacy policy and support site,’ mentions the T&C.

It goes on to add, ‘While we’re not required to do so, we may access, review, screen, and delete your content at any time and for any reason, including if we think your content violates these Terms. You alone though remain responsible for the content you create, post, store, or send through the Services.’

So photos you are taking, decent or nude, could be temporary from your side, but it could appear on Snapchat’s promotional material, on its website or on their social accounts.

Therefore, you better read through and accept the terms and conditions before you use the services fromSnapchat. Else, if you are a ‘sexter’, you will never know how and where your explicit photos could be used. So if you are blindly accepting the T&C, it means that you are granting consent to the app for doing whatever it likes with your photos. The Mirror UK reported that the new T&C has come under scrutiny from parents groups and online communities who have flagged the service for potential cyber bullying and sexting.