Sunday 6 September 2015
Saturday 5 September 2015
Google takes another step into your living room with its Nexus Player (hands-on)
We've already taken a look at what Android TV wants to be, so let's talk a bit about the Nexus Player specifically. You can pre-order one now and it's expected to ship in early November, so feel free to think of it as the vanguard of Google's latest television invasion. Aesthetically, the Nexus Player won't raise any eyebrows -- it's basically a flattened hockey puck with the Nexus logo emblazoned right on top of it. Sure, the thing might not jibe with the rest of your home theater setup, but that's hardly a problem -- Google seems to hope you won't pay attention to the little guy at all.
You see, once everything's hooked up, the Nexus Player basically does what Amazon's Fire TV does -- it acts as a conduit to all the video Google's got in its Play Store coffers. Diving into movie categories and skipping through menus is generally a breeze with the (honestly chintzy) included remote, but what's more reassuring is the fact that the remote's tiny microphone seemed to work well in a room full of clamoring nerds. Why's that so important? Well, chalk it up to the magic of the Knowledge Graph. Holding down the mic button and uttering a query (say, "Oscar nominees from 2012") prompts the Player to tap into Google's vast web of information to highlight just the films that got the Academy Award nod that year.
Of course, the broad expanses of the Google Play Store contains more than just movies -- developers can create (or, you know, modify) apps to run on bigger screens through the Nexus Player, and you can use the remote to power through a few games that don't require much in the way of input. For the trickier fare, you've got the option to bust out ASUS' $39 gamepad. It (like plenty of its contemporaries) completely apes the layout of the Xbox 360's venerable controller, but the shoulder buttons lack resistance and the d-pad is decidedly on the squishy side. Good luck using it to fire off all those hadoukens. Meanwhile, the list of compatible video apps doesn't seem to have swelled much since the last time we saw it (still no HBO Go, alas), but at least there's still Netflix and Hulu to cling to. We'll be exploring what the Nexus Player brings to the table in greater detail as we work on our full review, but just remember this: Even if you don't buy one of these things, there's a still a decent chance Android TV will worm its way into your life. Sony? Sharp? Philips? All three have committed to making Android TV-powered sets come next year, so escaping Google's clutches from the couch may be tougher than you'd think.
Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.
Lukup Player Review: An ambitious service marred by avoidable hardware
While there have been many attempts to create a Netflix-like service in India, Lukup attempts to bring a hardware piece into the equation as well. India still lacks a quality (in terms of content) video streaming service and Lukup hopes to change that with officially licensed content.
Unlike other streaming service, you'll have to buy the Lukup Player and then pay for whatever you want to watch - choose between a monthly subscription and pay-per-view.
Hardware
The Lukup Player is a colorful, though oddly-shaped, device. It's not very classy choice of color, but if you are a pop-art fan, maybe it will appeal to you better than a boring black. The cheap plastic though strikes on first glance, and honestly, it wouldn't look premium in any color. It looks like a prototype from the lab - unfinished and creaky.
The unit packs in a variety of connectors to string the Lukup Player with your TV and DTH set-top box. There's an Ethernet port, power inlet, HDMI ports, and DIN-style breakouts for component AV in and out. There's also a USB port on the side that lets you plug in a USB drive for media playback.
The remote handheld device, or the player, sits upright on the base attaching itself with a magnet. It's just there to hold the player, with no docking or charging mechanism. The player charges via regular micro-USB and you can utilize the USB port on the base unit. Also, since the charging port is towards the bottom of the player, you can't place it on the base while charging. It's not an issue really, but is an awkward design choice.
The handheld player is even tackier. Cheap plastic, sharp edges and the build quality looks quite appalling. It looks like a beaten down device. The touchscreen is atrocious in form and function. It's grainy and washed out, and the touch response is sluggish and inconsistent. The player has five touch-sensitive buttons, which work randomly, and would sometimes not register a tap or light the button.
Experience
Once you've set up, the user experience is cumbersome and sluggish. In most cases, it took me a lot of trial-and-error to figure out a way to proceed. If any product needs an instruction manual, this one it is, but unfortunately, it comes without one.
The Lukup Player looks awkward initially. The handheld is not a remote, as I assumed it to be, but a player and has its own menu independent from the display on the television. That made me shift focus between the two repeatedly which isn't the best approach for a secondary screen. For a non-geek user, it will be really difficult to figure this out.
Working your way through the player's UI is another challenge. Only after a call with the tech team at Lukup, I figured out that a long press brings up a menu of options where I can purchase content. Yes, it's that unintuitive. Once you've managed to pay for the content, it starts playing on the TV and the player displays limited playback controls - a slider and pause and stop button. You'll have to be very careful to stay on this screen, because if you exit to browse through the menu, there's no way to jump back at it and stop the video! The player's screen stays on all the time. The 650mAh battery runs out within a few hours, sometimes before a longish movie ends.
Content
For somebody like me who has an OCD for arranging digital content properly, Lukup is an axe on the head. Content is poorly labelled, and there isn't a way to sort movies by any attribute or browse your purchased content in one place. It's random and much disorganized.
The catalogue is limited as well at the moment, but we'll hope it improves as we go along. I could find about 50 movies in Bollywood and Hollywood sections - although pretty less, they were a decent selection. The pricing ranged from INR 65-100 which is ideal, and buying a package discounts per movie price even further. There are about 15 TV shows as well. Any pay-per-view content can be watched unlimited times for three days.
Performance
One of the good things of Lukup Player is seamless network connectivity. It connected to my home Wi-Fi in a jiffy, and also easily snugged in with my Tata Sky set-top box.
While Lukup claims 720p streaming, the actual bitrate depends on quality of the internet connection, which is fair. On a basic 2Mbps connection, the movies took only a couple of minutes to buffer, and the playback was seamless. Of course, a faster connection will make things better. On an 8Mbps connection, while the movie played well in 720p, skipping forward to a different point on the timeline led to random freezing. Sometimes, I had to restart the movie to get out of the black hole.
One of the unexpected disappointments is local media playback via USB. Nothing really plays without stuttering or in most cases, wouldn't even play. I thought it was the easier nut to crack.
The Best Part
- Reasonable content pricing
- Works with existing set-top box
The Tragic Flaw
- Terrible build quality
- Unintuitive UI
- Multiple bugs and glitch experience
- Overpriced hardware
Summary
I struggled with the device, and had to find answers with two support calls from the company. Any non-tech savvy person would have a sour experience. It's really surprising that the company would launch such an apparently buggy product with atrocious build quality. The company also could've done better in guiding a user because unlike me as a technology columnist, a regular customer won't have access to the product team.
Interestingly, Lukup has an accompanying Android app, and iOS one was in the works, which works better than the Lukup Player for the service. It's an interesting option if the content catalogue is scaled, although a confusing one since that would make the Lukup Player more or less an expensive redundancy.
While the content pricing is perfect, the ₹12,000 price tag on the device is just pushing off the option from the rather empty table. I hope the company works on the content catalogue and hardware for the next iteration because the market is still wide open in India.
Sony Xperia M4 Aqua Review: A solid mid-range smartphone undone by price
What is it?
The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua is the latest mid-range smartphone from Sony. The M series has always featured phones that offer great design and feature-set. With a few compromises here and there from the company's flagship devices, making them true mid-range devices Sony concentrates on a segment that has been shaken by the recent onslaught by Chinese brands.
Who is it for?
Any mid-range smartphone, and not just the Xperia M4 Aqua, is for anyone who prefers a superior smartphone experience without spending a bomb. Of course, there are a few corners cut from the flagship Z series, but the Xperia M4 Aqua is a pretty good phone for the most, especially those who prefer a premium design and have faith in the Sony brand.
Design
The Xperia M4 Aqua carries the design identity of the Xperia series of smartphones - the omni-balance design as the company prefers to call. While a tempered glass display protects the 5-inch panel, the phone features a metallic frame with matte silver colour. It not only makes the phone elegant, but the M4 Aqua exudes style. Also, the side panel makes the phone very easy to grip. The glass finish on the front and back panels, and the aluminum power button on the right edge make it stand out to say 'It's a Sony'.
The Xperia M4 Aqua is the first Sony smartphone outside the flagship Z series to be IP65 water-proof (hence the 'Aqua' in the name) and IP68 dust proof - a terrific addition to a mid-range smartphone. It's even more commendable since the M4 Aqua features a cap-less microUSB port (the audio port too does not have a flap) and you wouldn't need to open and close the flap each time you plug your phone to a charger or a cable to transfer files to/from a computer.
There's also a dedicated camera button on the right edge that takes care of one my usual cribs about most Android smartphones. What's also impressive is that Sony manages to pack in all that design elements and functional additions in a 7.3mm thick device that weighs just 136 grams.
Display
The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua sports a 5-inch HD (1280 x 720) IPS display. There's no Corning Gorilla Glass protection, but of course there's the tempered glass. The display offers great colours and is quite vibrant. While the viewing angles are pretty good, the screen is a little reflective. Unfortunately, the display is a fingerprint-magnet. It's not really a problem, but the smudges are very apparent when the display is turned off and gives me a sad face.
Hardware
The Xperia M4 Aqua is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 1.5GHz octa-core processor with 2GB of RAM. There's 16GB of internal memory, expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card. In terms of performance, the M4 Aqua is quite impressive for a mid-range smartphone.
The UI response, launching the camera, and switching between the apps is pretty smooth, and there's no apparent lag in everyday usage, even while playing graphic-intensive games - although the launch and resume in the latter is noticeable but far from annoying.
The M4 Aqua is a dual SIM device, and one of the SIM slots supports 4G LTE. The device packs in 2,400 mAh non-removable battery, but the battery life exceeds the expectations from the rating. On most days with regular use, I could carry the phone through the day, and ended the day with appreciable battery juice still left. Using the Stamina mode extends it even further.
Software
The Xperia M4 Aqua runs Android 5.0 Lollipop with the latest Xperia UI. Sony's customizations have always added vibrancy and ease to the stock Android user interface without overwhelming an average user. There are some handy customizations like the option to arrange the apps in different order.
There's the usual Sony apps like What's New which curates videos, games, and songs from different online sources in a neat UI and TV SideView, the remote and TV guide app.
Camera
One of the highlights of the Xperia M4 Aqua is its camera. There's a 13MP rear camera with Sony ExmorRS sensor and a 5MP front-facing camera. The camera app packs in several features from the more expensive Sony devices like the AR Effects, Style Portraits, et al. There's a Sound Photo mode that allows one to add sound to a photo while the Face Touch mode adds neat touches to the selfies.
While the outdoor images in daylight are crisp and the colour reproduction is brilliant, the low light shots are a little blurry. Sometimes, when I clicked some objects indoors, the captured shots were slightly off-colour. Sony claims that the M4 Aqua excels in low-light photography. The real world performance justifies the claim, although, I would've liked sharper photos.
The front-facing shooter on M4 Aqua packs in an 88-degrees wide-angle lens so that you can accommodate more people in your selfies. Again, pictures taken indoors with the front camera weren't too great, but outdoors, they were pretty good.
The rear camera allows 1080p full HD video recording, while the front-facing camera allows 720p video recording. The recorded videos are decent, and at par with most phones in this segment.
The Best Part
* Premium design
* Water-proof and dust-proof
* 4G support
The Tragic Flaw
* Expensive than other phones in the segment
* Camera performance could have been better
Summary
The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua has a lot going for it. There's decent specifications with 4G support, a pretty good camera, nice display, and a very premium design. For an outdoors person, the waterproofing and dustproofing certifications are handy additions.
However, at ₹24,990, while it matches up with competition from Samsung and HTC, the likes of Xiaomi have spoiled the customers with better priced options on the table. Available in white, black, and an interesting coral colour, the M4 Aqua id a great phone - a mid-range smartphone beefed up with flagship features - which I would love to recommend but you need to find in-store discounts or promotional offers to make it a better value.
Review: Xiaomi Mi3
What is it?
Xiaomi (pronounced as shao-me), the latest Chinese brand on the horizon, is often called the 'Apple of the East' and has garnered quite a fan following in the little time that they've started selling outside of mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Xiaomi sells premium hardware at mid-range prices, at almost the cost price of the bill of materials, and makes money over the life cycle of the product and by selling accessories with higher margins and add-ons like themes. For consumers, Xiaomi phones pack in top-of-the-line specifications and user experience at a fraction of the cost of phones with similar specifications from other tier one OEMs.
Who is it for?
Xiaomi Mi3 is the company's first flagship smartphone in India, and offers terrific specifications at an affordable price. If you are a looking for an Android smartphone without spending a lot, the Mi3 is a great option to consider.
Design
Xiaomi Mi3 looks and feels premium, and the matte finish plastic on the back panel could almost be mistaken for metal. In India, Xiaomi has launched the phone in only metallic grey color.
The phone's built from an aluminum-magnesium alloy frame that gives it a kind of sturdiness that should translate to durability. At 8.1mm, the Mi3 is not slim by any measure, and the long frame has sharp corners. That makes it different, but not awkward, and the phone is pretty comfortable to use and hold in one hand.
In an aberration from the latest trend, the Mi3 features a regular-sized, mini SIM card, and not a micro-SIM.
Hardware
The Xiaomi Mi3 sports a 5 inch Full HD IPS LCD display which offers crisp text and pictures with pretty good viewing angles. The color rendering of the 1080 p display with 441ppi density is impressive and quite vivid. However, the screen is very reflective, and has sub-par legibility outdoors in sunlight.
The phone offers three modes for color temperature - Warm, Standard, and Cool - and two for saturation - Brilliant and Standard.
Powered by a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB RAM, the phone packs quite a punch and the performance is snappy. The phone breezes through the UI or with HD videos and even while playing graphic-intensive games.
The 16GB internal storage with the absence of a memory card slot would disappoint most. There's about 12GB of memory available to the user, and while that should work for a majority of average users, content hoarders would find it tough.
The phone packs in a 3,050 mAh non-removable battery which lasts the day on average use, but pushing it a little doesn't augur too well for the battery life. While this could be just me, but for the big battery the phone boasts of, the mileage could be better.
Software
Xiaomi smartphones are powered by MIUI, a heavily customized Android fork based on AOSP (Android Open Source Project). The MIUI version in Mi3 runs on the latest Android 4.4.2 KitKat but mimics iOS a lot. Unlike in China, the MIUI includes Google suite of apps and services as well as the Play store in India.
MIUI is not just a UI customization skin, but adds many nifty features to enhance the functionality and experience. MIUI, like Gionee's AmigoOS, does not feature an app drawer and all your app icons and widgets stay on the home screen panorama. For a traditional Android smartphone user, this is an awkward shift, but it's well thought and should only take a few days of getting used to.
Xiaomi provides users with a number of downloadable themes that doesn't just change the basic look-and-feel of the phone, but completely transforms the user interface. Since the company hasn't set up their payment channels in India as yet, all the themes are free to download.
MIUI allows uninstalling pre-loaded apps, and is a welcome feature. In most Android smartphones, most of the bundled bloatware apps continue to take a lot of space and be an eye-sore since there's no way to remove them. If I had to give star ratings in my reviews, just this feature would get the phone an extra half star maybe!
Few security features included in MIUI are pretty good and take care of the usual Android annoyances. There's a built-in virus scan and an innovative permission manager for apps through which you can allow or deny an app access to a certain feature or functionality. The MIUI app switcher also includes the ability to free up memory by killing background tasks and clearing the cache.
Camera
The Xiaomi Mi3 features a 13-megapixel camera that works pretty well in good lighting conditions. The photos are sharp with good level of detail, and the color reproduction is great. A little noise in some photos could be ignored.
In low light conditions though, the photos turn out to be a little grainy and washed out. It isn't too bad, and mostly happens with photos where you zoom in, and still is one of the best cameras at the price point.
The camera app offers a Simple as well as an Advanced mode, apart from the useful HDR, Panorama, and Burst modes as well as filters. The camera packs in an anti-shake feature to stabilize photos, although it's a poor sibling of optical image stabilization (OIS), a feature missing on the Mi3.
Should you buy it?
If you are looking for a mid-range Android smartphone, at Rs 13,999, the Xiaomi Mi3 is an automatic choice. In fact, even if your budget is higher, you'd want to consider the Mi3 since it packs quite a punch to rival higher-priced smartphones in the market. The Mi3 doesn't come with headset or a case though, clearly to cut costs.
The exclusive partnership with Flipkart to sell the phones in India and the limited stocks available though would turn off a lot of potential customers. To zero in on the device, and still not manage to get your hands on one is frustrating. It's a crowded market, and you might want to move on.
The best part
- Checks all the boxes on the specifications sheet
- Enhanced functionality over stock Android as part of MIUI
- Great value for money
- Lack of microSD slot for expandable storage
- Hard to purchase
Xiaomi looking to enter the PC business soon
We first came across rumors of a Xiaomi laptop being revealed sometime last year, but that didn't materialize. So it is hoped that the company will take it through this time. In any case, there hasn't been any confirmation yet, so we suggest you take this report with a grain of salt until there's more evidence to prove otherwise.
The report from Bloomberg further suggests that the first laptop in this range will hit the markets sometime in early 2016, so there's still some time till we see this idea coming to fruition.
Given the nature of Xiaomi's business model, expect a new product such as this to be exclusive to China for the first few months while an Indian launch should follow shortly after.
Titans of the PC industry like Lenovo, Dell etc have a lot to be worried about if Xiaomi's laptop business takes off. Right after this news was broken, Samsung's shares saw a slight increase in its home region of South Korea, while PC industry titan Lenovo saw its shares shrink by about 4.3%. So it's clear that the market wants this partnership between Xiaomi and Samsung to bear fruit.
Source
WhatsApp now has 900 million monthly active users
According to a new announcement made by WhatsApp founder Jan Koum on Facebook, the service now has over 900 million active users on a monthly basis. The company breached the 800 million barrier in April, so it has been growing at a rapid pace since then.
While WhatsApp has been growing since it was acquired by Facebook, the revenues are still quite slim for the company. The paid model for its app didn't quite work out as most of its users originate from developing countries, where free apps are preferred.
Not to mention the number of rivals messaging apps out there that have been growing steadily. Bharti-Softbank owned Hike Messenger is a very good example of this.
WhatsApp has nearly 1 billion installs on the Android platform alone, which speaks volumes about the growth seen by the company. The app has a decent number of users on the iOS and Windows Phone platform as well.
Oppo R7 Lite and R7 Plus: First Impressions
The Chinese smartphone maker Oppo launched two new smartphone in the
Indian market yesterday-- the Oppo R7 Lite and the Oppo R7 Plus.
Here are our first impressions about the Oppo R7 Lite.
Even in the past, Oppo has managed to keep its smartphone high on design and the latest additions are no exception. The phone comes with a uni-body metal design. The corners of it are well rounded and the build-quality looks good. Also, the smartphone feels nice to hold and oozes style.
The phone runs on Android 5.1 along with a layer of Color OS version 2.1. In whatever time that we managed to spend with the phone, it looked snazzy and the OS seemed stable. It is a 4G LTE-enabled Dual-SIM smartphone.
There is a 5-inches Super AMOLED display screen with HD resolution. The text, images and video were looking ultra-fine on this screen. The viewing angles also seem to be decent.
It comes with 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC along with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (out of which 13GB is available to the user), which ensured a lag-free performance. We did not encounter any crashes during the initial few minutes that we had with the smartphone.
The other department that Oppo likes to highlight in this smartphone, is the camera. The Opp R7 Lite comes with a 13MP rear camera, which is fast to snap up and manages to take some crisp shots even in the low-light conditions at the launch event.
Now, let's talk about Oppo R7 Plus. This phone is also equally good looking, thanks to the metal uni-body design. At 7.8mm and 192 grams, the Oppo R7 Plus, just like the R7 Lite, is also lightweight and slim.According to us, the back of the Oppo R7 Plus looks very akin to Samsung Galaxy S5. Given that it is a 6-inch device, Oppo R7 plusis also slightly difficult to operate using just one hand.
The Oppo R7 Plus sports a 6-inch Full HD IPS Super AMOLED display with a 1080x1920 pixels resolution and 367 ppi pixel density. There is also Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the screen. We really loved the display on the phone. It was truly a treat to watch HD YouTube videos on the same.
There is a 1.5GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor tucked in Oppo R7 Plus. On the storage front, this smartphone carries 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage that can be expanded by up to 128GB via microSD card. From whatever time, we managed to have with the handset, we witnessed no lags or drop.
However, given that it is a phone worth Rs 30,000, many people will not like the fact that it comes a modest 615 processor and not the 808 or 810. Also as we got our hands on this device only for a very brief period, we are not sure whether Oppo R7 Plus has heating issues or not.
On the software front, the Oppo R7 Plus adopts Android 5.1-based ColorOS 2.1, which looked fairly decent and not drastically different to the stock Android. And navigating through the same was breezy.
Coming over to the impressive part, the Oppo R7 Plus comes with 13MP rear camera with laser autofocus. The same manages to do a great job even in low light conditions. The phone was fast to focus and the images clicked looked vibrant on the phone screen.
The Oppo R7 Plus comes with a huge 4,100mAh battery. Just like the other phones from the Oppo stable, this one also supports its proprietary VOOC fast charging technology. The company claims that, the Oppo R7 Plus can go from 0 per cent to 50 per cent in just 30 minutes. We are yet to try this out but this sounds very impressive.
From an overall specifications and usage point of you, there is very little scope to not liking the Oppo R7 Plus. However, we feel that the phone is priced pretty steeply for a mid-range smartphone. However, we shall reserve our complete verdict for the review, which too will be coming out shortly.
Here are our first impressions about the Oppo R7 Lite.
Even in the past, Oppo has managed to keep its smartphone high on design and the latest additions are no exception. The phone comes with a uni-body metal design. The corners of it are well rounded and the build-quality looks good. Also, the smartphone feels nice to hold and oozes style.
The phone runs on Android 5.1 along with a layer of Color OS version 2.1. In whatever time that we managed to spend with the phone, it looked snazzy and the OS seemed stable. It is a 4G LTE-enabled Dual-SIM smartphone.
There is a 5-inches Super AMOLED display screen with HD resolution. The text, images and video were looking ultra-fine on this screen. The viewing angles also seem to be decent.
It comes with 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC along with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (out of which 13GB is available to the user), which ensured a lag-free performance. We did not encounter any crashes during the initial few minutes that we had with the smartphone.
The other department that Oppo likes to highlight in this smartphone, is the camera. The Opp R7 Lite comes with a 13MP rear camera, which is fast to snap up and manages to take some crisp shots even in the low-light conditions at the launch event.
Now, let's talk about Oppo R7 Plus. This phone is also equally good looking, thanks to the metal uni-body design. At 7.8mm and 192 grams, the Oppo R7 Plus, just like the R7 Lite, is also lightweight and slim.According to us, the back of the Oppo R7 Plus looks very akin to Samsung Galaxy S5. Given that it is a 6-inch device, Oppo R7 plusis also slightly difficult to operate using just one hand.
The Oppo R7 Plus sports a 6-inch Full HD IPS Super AMOLED display with a 1080x1920 pixels resolution and 367 ppi pixel density. There is also Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the screen. We really loved the display on the phone. It was truly a treat to watch HD YouTube videos on the same.
There is a 1.5GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor tucked in Oppo R7 Plus. On the storage front, this smartphone carries 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage that can be expanded by up to 128GB via microSD card. From whatever time, we managed to have with the handset, we witnessed no lags or drop.
However, given that it is a phone worth Rs 30,000, many people will not like the fact that it comes a modest 615 processor and not the 808 or 810. Also as we got our hands on this device only for a very brief period, we are not sure whether Oppo R7 Plus has heating issues or not.
On the software front, the Oppo R7 Plus adopts Android 5.1-based ColorOS 2.1, which looked fairly decent and not drastically different to the stock Android. And navigating through the same was breezy.
Coming over to the impressive part, the Oppo R7 Plus comes with 13MP rear camera with laser autofocus. The same manages to do a great job even in low light conditions. The phone was fast to focus and the images clicked looked vibrant on the phone screen.
The Oppo R7 Plus comes with a huge 4,100mAh battery. Just like the other phones from the Oppo stable, this one also supports its proprietary VOOC fast charging technology. The company claims that, the Oppo R7 Plus can go from 0 per cent to 50 per cent in just 30 minutes. We are yet to try this out but this sounds very impressive.
From an overall specifications and usage point of you, there is very little scope to not liking the Oppo R7 Plus. However, we feel that the phone is priced pretty steeply for a mid-range smartphone. However, we shall reserve our complete verdict for the review, which too will be coming out shortly.
We Tried LG's Roll-Up Tablet Keyboard
In the middle of the throng at LG's IFA 2015 booth, one little gadget
got a surprisingly large amount of tech geek attention. The compact,
portable and aptly named LG Rolly Keyboard is a super-convenient
contrivance for tablet and smartphone typists.
We all know that sending long emails, responding to briefs or writing stories can be an absolute pain on a touchscreen-that's why I'm a big fan of portable Bluetooth keyboards like the Logitech BLOK or Pro Tablet Case.
But cases can be annoying and troublesome, especially if you already have a case on your smart device that precludes you using it with an attached keyboard accessory. Standalone keyboards, though, are bulky and cumbersome and rarely useful. The Rolly Keyboard solves all that-as long as you have a bag that's long enough to store it, and the tablet that you're likely pairing it to, you're sweet.
Folding keyboards are nothing new, but this is actually really special. It folds itself after each row of keys, so combined with the controller and built-in stand it effectively forms a cute little rectangular prism you can slide into the bottom of your bag. Once unfurled, you get four rows of QWERTY keys and a function map that gives you additional ones for number input.
The Rolly Keyboard has a couple of magnetic tabs that hold it in place when it's rolled up; those are easy enough to break with one hand, and then a quick flick of the wrist in the air unfurls the Rolly into its flat layout. The key layout is a little unconventional, but that's true of any Android-compatible Bluetooth keyboard out there. The Rolly is made for Android, but it'll work with an iPad too.
I tested it out with LG's new G Pad II 10.1, and it was perfectly responsive and quick to mirror any typing to the onscreen app-that's more rare than you think; I've tried Bluetooth keyboards with nearly a second's lag that make fast typing almost impossible. Key travel is OK, although I'd still prefer my MacBook's keys at an equally shallow travel depth.
It's the two little fold-out prongs that make the Rolly genuinely useful and versatile, though. Leaning out both to stabilize the keyboard against whatever flat surface you're using it on, and relying on the weight of the Rolly's thick top section for support, the prongs will hold a tablet or even a 5-inch-plus phone in landscape mode securely-and that means you can actually see what you're typing.
According to LG, the Rolly Keyboard will come to the United States in September, then Europe, Latin America and Asia by the end of the year. No price yet, and no word on whether it's coming to Australia. At least international shipping will be cheap.
We all know that sending long emails, responding to briefs or writing stories can be an absolute pain on a touchscreen-that's why I'm a big fan of portable Bluetooth keyboards like the Logitech BLOK or Pro Tablet Case.
But cases can be annoying and troublesome, especially if you already have a case on your smart device that precludes you using it with an attached keyboard accessory. Standalone keyboards, though, are bulky and cumbersome and rarely useful. The Rolly Keyboard solves all that-as long as you have a bag that's long enough to store it, and the tablet that you're likely pairing it to, you're sweet.
Folding keyboards are nothing new, but this is actually really special. It folds itself after each row of keys, so combined with the controller and built-in stand it effectively forms a cute little rectangular prism you can slide into the bottom of your bag. Once unfurled, you get four rows of QWERTY keys and a function map that gives you additional ones for number input.
The Rolly Keyboard has a couple of magnetic tabs that hold it in place when it's rolled up; those are easy enough to break with one hand, and then a quick flick of the wrist in the air unfurls the Rolly into its flat layout. The key layout is a little unconventional, but that's true of any Android-compatible Bluetooth keyboard out there. The Rolly is made for Android, but it'll work with an iPad too.
I tested it out with LG's new G Pad II 10.1, and it was perfectly responsive and quick to mirror any typing to the onscreen app-that's more rare than you think; I've tried Bluetooth keyboards with nearly a second's lag that make fast typing almost impossible. Key travel is OK, although I'd still prefer my MacBook's keys at an equally shallow travel depth.
It's the two little fold-out prongs that make the Rolly genuinely useful and versatile, though. Leaning out both to stabilize the keyboard against whatever flat surface you're using it on, and relying on the weight of the Rolly's thick top section for support, the prongs will hold a tablet or even a 5-inch-plus phone in landscape mode securely-and that means you can actually see what you're typing.
According to LG, the Rolly Keyboard will come to the United States in September, then Europe, Latin America and Asia by the end of the year. No price yet, and no word on whether it's coming to Australia. At least international shipping will be cheap.
How Could Google's New Logo Be Only 305 Bytes, While Its Old Logo Is 14,000 Bytes?
The old logo uses a complicated serif font which can only be created
using bezier curves. All together, it has 100 anchor points, resulting
in a 6 KB (6,380 bytes) file. When compressed, the size comes down to 2
KB (2,145 bytes).A simplified version of the new logo, on the other
hand, can be constructed almost entirely from circles and rectangles
(with the exception of the lower-case g):The entire logo consists of:10
circles (2 each for the capital G and lower case g, 2 for each O, and 2
for the e)5 rectangles (2 for the capital G, 1 for the lower case l, 2
for the e)1 shape made with 7 anchor points (the descender on the
lower-case g)While Google hasn't released the optimized 305 byte logo
and it doesn't seem to be available online, I believe that they got the
size down to 305 bytes as they claim.To verify this, I recreated the
first letter (G) in the SVG format, resulting in a file that's 302 bytes
uncompressed, and 195 bytes compressed. Here's the entire uncompressed
graphic, consisting of two circles and two rectangles:This
generates the graphic on the right:As another user pointed out, there
is also a way to generate the new logo using strokes rather than fills.
This is also something that wasn't possible to do with the old log, and
can result in an even smaller file. The code for the entire logo
(courtesy of Jaume Sanchez Elias) is 290 bytes:Using
this approach, the entire logo can be drawn using 2 circles (for the 2
o's) and 4 paths (for the G, g, l, and e).About the author: Ilya
Yakubovich, UI DesignerHow could Google's new logo be only 305 bytes,
while its old logo is 14,000 bytes? originally appeared on Quora. You
can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.This answer has been
lightly edited for grammar and clarity
8 Tasks You Should Outsource to a Virtual Assistant
Are you feeling like you’re drowning in work? Is your to-do-list not
getting done? Is your productivity at an all time low? Well maybe it is
time you hired some help.
Usually the smaller, simpler tasks in our to-do list consume all our time and leave us little room to focus on bigger and more important things. These are the routine tasks that can be easily delegated to someone else. If you feel that your productivity and performance is being affected by such tasks, it is time that you hire a full time or on-demand virtual assistant that can take away the burden from your shoulders.
Here are 10 tasks that are perfect for being outsourced to a virtual assistant:
Usually the smaller, simpler tasks in our to-do list consume all our time and leave us little room to focus on bigger and more important things. These are the routine tasks that can be easily delegated to someone else. If you feel that your productivity and performance is being affected by such tasks, it is time that you hire a full time or on-demand virtual assistant that can take away the burden from your shoulders.
Here are 10 tasks that are perfect for being outsourced to a virtual assistant:
1. Set Up Appointments/Reservations
As a busy professional or entrepreneur, you might not have time to spend on booking appointments or making reservations. Assign this task to a virtual assistant. Provide details of what, where and when; and you are done.2. Proof Reading & Editing
Self editing is sometimes not very reliable and also time consuming. A virtual assistant can be of great help for proofreading your content, finding errors and suggesting edits.3. Find a Local Service
Finding a local service can be hectic since you would need to go through reviews and feedback in order to choose the best option. A virtual assistant can take care of this dreaded task for you and provide you the best options to choose from and also set up appointments on your behalf.4. Personal & Business Research
In order to make important decisions in personal and professional life, time consuming research is required. You can get a virtual assistant to do the initial research for you and provide you with reports and presentations for you to move forward.5. Manage To-Do-List
Your Virtual Assistant can be help you in staying on top of your to-do-list, give you reminders for important tasks and deadlines.6. Get Quotes
Virtual Assistants can help you find the products and services you are looking for and get price quotes from them. They can also help you in doing price & features comparison.7. Plan Events
Virtual Assistants can help you in planing your event from start to finish. They can find venue, get menu options and prices, caterers etc., and enable you to have the perfect event with little or no hassle.8. Prepare Presentations
Your can provide notes and basic outline to a virtual assistant for preparing your power point presentations for you, while you work on other thingsHiring a Virtual Assistant – Is It Worth It?
We’ve talked to a lot of people about their thoughts on hiring an
assistant to outsource small tasks and projects, and two of the major
points of friction for people are whether it’s worth the trouble to
outsource tasks form a to-do list, and also whether the results achieved
will be high enough quality and easy to check.
Problem 1: Is it worth the time and trouble to outsource my tasks?
Delegation is a skill that improves with practice. There are some tasks that make more sense to delegate than others. We’ve made our service flexible enough for a 10 minute phone call, or hours of event-planning or research, and we’ve seen users get value from both ends of that spectrum. But some things just take too long to explain to make it worth delegating – it’s a very case-by-case sort of thing that takes getting used to.
A lot of Perssist’s first-time users, especially people that have never used an assistant before, send in tasks that aren’t really the right thing to ask an assistant to do. For example, “find me an apartment, this is what I’m willing to spend.” There are too many taste-based variables involved in that process to come away with a good result. However, “find me all the apartment buildings with an in-house leasing office in these neighborhoods, then make sure they fit my budget and allow dogs” is something that would make a lot more sense to ask an assistant to handle.
Problem 2: Checking and coordinating the results of another person’s work is yet another distraction
We hear you loud and clear that you don’t always trust someone else’s work, and the process of checking it can take as as doing it yourself. We train our Perssist Assistants to present information in a way that tries to answer any initial doubts/questions a user may have when they see the result. For example, providing sources and (briefly) explaining their process to get to the answer. Secondly, it’s important to understand that no one can do a task the exact way you would do it yourself, and figuring out what types of tasks that’s ok for, and what types it’s not, is part of learning to delegate.
Get started learning to delegate with a free trial from Perssist, and remember if you’re new that you should try request a few different things rather than one big thing so you can get a better feel for outsourcing the mundane tasks from your life.
Problem 1: Is it worth the time and trouble to outsource my tasks?
Delegation is a skill that improves with practice. There are some tasks that make more sense to delegate than others. We’ve made our service flexible enough for a 10 minute phone call, or hours of event-planning or research, and we’ve seen users get value from both ends of that spectrum. But some things just take too long to explain to make it worth delegating – it’s a very case-by-case sort of thing that takes getting used to.
A lot of Perssist’s first-time users, especially people that have never used an assistant before, send in tasks that aren’t really the right thing to ask an assistant to do. For example, “find me an apartment, this is what I’m willing to spend.” There are too many taste-based variables involved in that process to come away with a good result. However, “find me all the apartment buildings with an in-house leasing office in these neighborhoods, then make sure they fit my budget and allow dogs” is something that would make a lot more sense to ask an assistant to handle.
Problem 2: Checking and coordinating the results of another person’s work is yet another distraction
We hear you loud and clear that you don’t always trust someone else’s work, and the process of checking it can take as as doing it yourself. We train our Perssist Assistants to present information in a way that tries to answer any initial doubts/questions a user may have when they see the result. For example, providing sources and (briefly) explaining their process to get to the answer. Secondly, it’s important to understand that no one can do a task the exact way you would do it yourself, and figuring out what types of tasks that’s ok for, and what types it’s not, is part of learning to delegate.
Get started learning to delegate with a free trial from Perssist, and remember if you’re new that you should try request a few different things rather than one big thing so you can get a better feel for outsourcing the mundane tasks from your life.
'Halo,' 'Destiny' composer Marty O'Donnell wins lawsuit against Bungie
[Image credit: Matt Sayles/Invision/AP]
The bad blood between Bungie and O'Donnell started when O'Donnell composed all of the music for the Destiny series up front, and publisher Activision chose to not release it as standalone pieces. Previous Halo soundtracks, music scored by O'Donnell, have all been released for purchase in the past, and have been featured heavily in those games' advertising and marketing. When Activision replaced the music for the game's debut E3 2013 trailer with something other than O'Donnell's, he was understandably miffed -- something that lead to where we are today. There's much, much more to this story and VentureBeat's write-up of the entire situation is incredibly comprehensive; you should definitely go check it out. If anything, this reveal clears up why Bungie's strangely been leaning so heavily on classic Led Zeppelin tracks for its TV spots.
Uber pulls down 'share your ETA' links that went public
Apple patent looks at fuel cell system for portable device
James Titcomb, Telegraph technology news editor, said the patent application suggests a number of different energy sources.
He said that "the energy could come from 'a fuel cartridge which is detachably affixed to the fuel cell system', meaning rather than recharging, one would simply replace the device's cartridge when it had run out."
Ben Lovejoy in 9to5Mac also talked about the replacing aspect. "There is, of course, no such thing as a free lunch, and fuel cell systems require the fuel to be replenished once it is exhausted, which the patent addresses by referencing removable cartridges."
The patent said that "Exemplary fuels that can be used with a hydrolysis reaction can include: Sodium Borohydride, Sodium Silicate, Lithium Hydride, Magnesium Hydride, Lithium Borohydride and Lithium Aluminum Hydride."
The fuel, said the inventors, may also take the form of pure hydrogen (e.g., compressed hydrogen gas or liquid hydrogen). In that case, "the fuel cartridge may contain components such as a metering device (e.g., a valve) and a pressure gauge. Ideally, the fuel has a relatively low life cycle carbon footprint, is not toxic, and generates a waste product that is amenable to being repeatedly re-charged with hydrogen and is not toxic."
The title of the patent is "Fuel Cell System to Power a Portable Computing Device" and it was filed in March this year by Apple. The application lists six California-based inventors.
As part of the patent application, Apple put forward its case in the context of renewable energy:
"Our country's continuing reliance on fossil fuels has forced our government to maintain complicated political and military relationships with unstable governments in the Middle East, and has also exposed our coastlines and our citizens to the associated hazards of offshore drilling. These problems have led to an increasing awareness and desire on the part of consumers to promote and use renewable energy sources."
The awareness has not been lost on electronics manufacturers, who have become "very interested in developing renewable energy sources for their products, and they have been exploring a number of promising renewable energy sources such as hydrogen fuel cells."
Discussing advantages, the patent said that "Such fuel cells and associated fuels can potentially achieve high volumetric and gravimetric energy densities, which can potentially enable continued operation of portable electronic devices for days or even weeks without refueling."
The difficulty, said the patent application, is designing hydrogen fuel cell systems "sufficiently portable and cost-effective to be used with portable electronic devices."
Why did The Telegraph suggest the portable electronic device was likely a MacBook? Titcomb said the patent seemed to relate to MacBooks because it "repeatedly mentions the MagSafe connector used on the laptop computers, and does not namecheck the 'Lightning' connectors used on the iPhone and iPad."
9to5Mac Ben Lovejoy commented: "The most likely implementation would be a mix of conventional batteries and fuel cells, allowing the MacBook to be recharged in the usual way, switching to fuel cell power only when extended wireless use is required."
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