Teeth that think

Scientists at Princeton and Tufts are working on a super thin tooth sensor (a kind of temporary tattoo) that sends an alert when it detects bacteria associated with plaque buildup, cavities or infection. It could also notify your dentist, adding an extra layer of social pressure to make an appointment. The sensor may have wide-ranging use: the researchers have already used it to identify bacteria in saliva associated with stomach ulcers and cancers. While the sensor won’t last long on the surface of a well-brushed and flossed tooth, Michael McAlpine, the project’s leader, says that the sensors will be inexpensive enough that you can replace them daily.

The Anti-Slouching Screen

The intelligent screen tells you how to sit in front of it while working. 

If you slump down when you’re typing on an ErgoSensor monitor by Philips, it’ll suggest that you sit up straighter. To help office workers avoid achy backs and tired eyes, the device’s built-in camera follows the position of your pupils to determine how you are sitting. Are you too close? Is your neck tilted too much? Algorithms crunch the raw data from the sensor and tell you how to adjust your body to achieve ergonomic correctness. The monitor can also inform you that it’s time to stand up and take a break, and it will automatically power down when it senses that you’ve left.

The Congestion Killer

Traffic jams can form out of the simplest things. One driver gets too close to another and has to brake, as does the driver behind, as does the driver behind him — pretty soon, the first driver has sent a stop-and-go shock wave down the highway. One driving-simulator study found that nearly half the time one vehicle passed another, the lead vehicle had a faster average speed. All this leads to highway turbulence, which is why many traffic modelers see adaptive cruise control (A.C.C.) — which automatically maintains a set distance behind a car and the vehicle in front of it — as the key to congestion relief. Simulations have found that if some 20 percent of vehicles on a highway were equipped with advanced A.C.C., certain jams could be avoided simply through harmonizing speeds and smoothing driver reactions. One study shows that even a highway that is running at peak capacity has only 4.5 percent of its surface area occupied. More sophisticated adaptive cruise control systems could presumably fit more cars on the road.

• When a quarter of the vehicles on a simulated highway had A.C.C., cumulative travel time dropped by 37.5 percent.
• In another simulation, giving at least a quarter of the cars A.C.C. cut traffic delays by up to 20 percent.
• By 2017, an estimated 6.9 million cars each year will come with A.C.C.

Electric Clothes

How would it feel when you go to a picnic and your cellphone ran out of battery...
    The electric clothes will help you in these kinds of problem.

Physicists at Wake Forest University have developed a fabric that doubles as a spare outlet. When used to line your shirt — or even your pillowcase or office chair — it converts subtle differences in temperature across the span of the clothing (say, from your cuff to your armpit) into electricity. And because the different parts of your shirt can vary by about 10 degrees, you could power up your MP3 player just by sitting still. According to the fabric’s creator, David Carroll, a cellphone case lined with the material could boost the phone’s battery charge by 10 to 15 percent over eight hours, using the heat absorbed from your pants pocket.

How the pomegranate’s design could help boost new batteries

New York: Your friendly pomegranate fruit has inspired scientists to discover batteries for your smartphones, tablets and electric cars that won’t leave you powerless midway.

An electrode designed like a pomegranate – with silicon nanoparticles clustered like seeds in a tough carbon rind – overcomes obstacles in using silicon for a new generation of lithium-ion batteries, claim inventors.

“This design brings us closer to using silicon anodes in smaller, lighter and more powerful batteries,” said Yi Cui, an associate professor at Stanford University and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Experiments showed our pomegranate-inspired anode operates at 97 percent capacity even after 1,000 cycles of charging and discharging – which puts it well within the desired range for commercial operation, he added.

The anode, or negative electrode, is where energy is stored when a battery charges. Silicon anodes could store 10 times more charge than the graphite anodes in today’s rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.

But there is a problem. The brittle silicon swells and falls apart during battery charging. Over the past eight years, Cui’s team has tackled the breakage problem by using silicon nanowires or nanoparticles that are too small to break.

In new study, researchers used a technique common in the oil, paint and cosmetic industries to gather silicon yolk shells into clusters. They coated each cluster with a second, thicker layer of carbon.

Lab tests showed that pomegranate anodes worked well when made in the thickness required for commercial battery performance. The team is now working on to simplify the process and find a cheaper source of silicon nanoparticles.

One possible source is rice husks. They are unfit for human food and could be transformed into pure silicon nanoparticles relatively easily, said the research published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Lenovo K900 smartphone with 2GHz processor launched for Rs. 32,999

Lenovo has launched its flagship Android smartphone, the K900 in the Indian market at a price point of Rs. 32,999.

The phone will be available at 3,000 Lenovo outlets starting July. Lenovo has also launched five other Android smartphones, namely A706, A390, P780, S820 and S920.

The Lenovo K900 was first showcased at CES earlier this year. The K900 packs in Intel's dual-core Clover Trail+ platform, specifically the Intel Atom Z2580 dual-core processor clocking in at 2GHz. The device features a full-HD(1080x1920 pixels) display, 2GB RAM and is expected to come with 16GB of internal storage. It has a 2500 mAh non-removable battery.

Amar Babu, Managing Director, Lenovo India, said," The journey for Lenovo smartphones in India that began last November, takes a whole new dimension witth the launch of 6 new power-packed mobile devices, which offer an excellent choice for smartphone buyers in India. Our retail footprint has grown considerably to 3000 retail stores, since we launched our first range of smartphones last year. We will continue to expand our reach in India."

The phablet comes with 13-megapixel rear camera with a new Sony Exmor BSI sensor and a 2-megapixel front camera. Lenovo equipped the K900's rear camera with an f1.8 focal length lens, making it the first smartphone to offer such a wide aperture on its camera. In addition to these improvements to the rear camera, the 2-megapixel front camera has also been widened to an 880 viewing angle, the widest available on a smartphone front camera for convenient self-portraits and video calls. It ships with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

At 6.9mm and a 162gms (that's still heavy), Lenovo claims the K900 is the thinnest phone in its class. Despite its slim profile, the smartphone is strong and sturdy unibody construction sporting a stainless steel and polycarbonate exterior.

Lenovo K900 key specifications

• 5.5-inch 1080p IPS capacitive touch display
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• Intel Atom Z2580 2GHz dual-core processor (Clover Trail+)
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• 2GB RAM
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• 16GB internal storage
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• 13-megapixel camera with Sony's Exmor BSI sensor
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• 2-megapixel front camera
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• Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

Lenovo S5000 tablet with 7-inch HD display launched

Lenovo kicked off its IFA 2013 event with the roll out of new products that also includes the new S5000 tablet.
The Lenovo S5000 tablet comes with a 7-inch display with 1280x800pixels resolution and 350nit brightness levels. It is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core MediaTek 8389 processor. It sports a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 1.6-megapixel front-facing camera. The tablet runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

The Lenovo S5000 tablet includes a USB on-the-go port for storage expansion or for charging other devices and is backed by a 3,450mAh battery that can deliver up to eight hours of Wi-Fi web browsing or up to six hours of HD video viewing. It measures about 7.9mm (sides) and weighs 246 grams. The company claims that the tablet is nearly one-fifth times lighter than other tablets. Connectivity options on the tablet include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G connectivity in select countries. There is 16GB of internal storage on the tablet.

Commenting on the launch, Wayne Chen, vice president and general manager, mobile business unit, Lenovo said, "With the S5000 tablet, these carefully crafted devices unleash a powerful blend of beautiful and smart technology to improve people's lives."


The tablet comes in two variants - Wi-Fi and 3G. The Lenovo S5000 tablet is expected to be rolled out in Q4 2013. However, the company has not revealed any pricing details for the tablet.


Other Android tablets unveiled at IFA 2013 include the Asus MeMo Pad 8 and MeMo Pad 10. The Taiwanese maker also refreshed its Fonepad 7 tablet that now comes with voice calling support.


Earlier, Toshiba which is usually more active in the laptop segment also launched a new tablet, the Toshiba Encore based on Windows.


Lenovo S5000 key specifications

• 7-inch display with 1280x800 pixels resolution
• 
  
• 
  
• 1.2GHz quad-core Media Tek 8389 processor
• 
  
• 
  
• 5-megapixel rear camera
• 
  
• 
  
• 1.6-megapixel front-facing camera
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• 
  
• 246 grams
• 
  
• 
  
• 16GB of internal storage
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• 
  
• 3450mAh battery
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• 
  
• Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

Google Glass Could Bring CRM Into Focus

Could Google Glass put an end to the laborious task of writing sales call reports? Perhaps -- and that's not all. Glass might one day recognize that familiar face you run into at a conference and jog your memory with the subject's full profile. Glass could call up a household's service history during a field call, or let a trainer virtually tag along on a sales call to dispense real-time advice.


Google last week debuted several trendy eyeglass frames for Glass, enabling the device to shed its dorky look while accommodating prescription lenses.

The more natural look means consumers likely will be more accepting of Glass once it becomes generally available -- assuming it also sports a price point more in line with most people's budgets.

The new Glass frames and support for nearsighted and farsighted people -- who make up roughly half of the U.S. population -- are also a boon for a smaller constituency, but one that is more likely to buy the first wave of devices and apps when they hit the market: businesses that decide to use Glass in their customer service and field service operations.

This embrace of Glass for business -- and customers' acceptance of a service rep wearing Google Glass -- will be far easier now that the device can be worn with less of a sci-fi effect.

CRM, productivity and field service hold huge potential for Google Glass, and apps with these use cases in mind are likely to materialize sooner rather than later.

On the Trade Show Floor

For instance, one expected CRM-type use for Google Glass -- both with and without facial recognition -- will be on trade show floors or at conferences. There are Glass apps under development that can line up profiles for people who have scheduled meetings throughout the day or who are attending a meet-and-greet. When facial recognition is part of the mix -- and despite Congress' concerns, I believe it inevitably will be -- the use cases in this scenario multiply.

The new frames also will be more acceptable to reps making sales calls while sporting Glass. Here, Salesforce.com may play a significant role, as Adam Honig indicated last year.

An integration between Glass and Salesforce.com could go well beyond pulling up contact profiles. A special feature could automatically log reports in Salesforce -- a task most sales people loathe, he speculated.

Such an integration holds real promise for sales coaching, according to Honig. An app could allow coaches to directly observe and record the calls their sales teams make.

"No more flying to Indianapolis for that sales call just to watch Joe Salesman pitch a client," he wrote. "Now sales managers can provide feedback both after the call has ended or in real time!"

Field Service Reps and Google Glass

Another intriguing use case -- which, again, seems far more likely to materialize with the new frames -- is in the field. A generation ago, field service reps were the first to adopt mobile CRM in smartphones and tablets -- and before then in specialized devices.

App developers are looking to replicate that trend in situations where Google Glass is easier to use. Sullivan Solar Power, for example, early this year announced that it had developed a Google Glass app that gives field technicians "volumes" of electrical system data.

"Having two free hands is critical in a rooftop environment," said Michael Chagala, director of information technology for Sullivan Solar Power, when announcing the app.

Sullivan Solar sees Google Glass assisting with training -- and being put to more ambitious uses too. Collaboration in the industry via live-streaming video conferencing functionality is one of its goals for Google Glass. This means a team of experts can be with the technician at the job site virtually in order to diagnose a problem.

An Awesome iWatch Is Apple's Greatest Challenge

Why isn't the Apple TV Apple's greatest challenge for the near future? It's iterative. There is less reputation at stake. Less innovation cred to be lost. But the iWatch? A stumble will open up the guts of Apple and indicate a fading company, capable of evolutionary design... but maybe not revolutionary products. Lots of Apple geeks are hoping this isn't the case.

There are two words I try to avoid connecting: "greatest" and "challenge." Clearly I've failed. I try to avoid this phrase because it reeks of hyperbole -- and yet here I am, typing it out in association with Apple's utterly mythical "iWatch."

Still, the more I look ahead, the more I realize that Apple's greatest challenge might be convincing a world that it can produce an iWatch that matters.

3 Key Reasons

Consider the abandonment of the watch. As cellphones became more and more ubiquitous, users realized that they told time very well. In fact, by connecting to cellular service towers, they automatically adjusted themselves for daylight savings time.

Better yet, as we traveled into different time zones, mobile phones adjusted. Watches lost their portable monopoly on time. People who wear watches tend to have a serious need for a wrist-handy clock, use their watch for adventure sports -- or more likely, style.

The second issue is mass market demand. Is there a vast consumer need for a smartwatch that will connect to your smartphone and show you messages and notifications? That will shoot video and let you read email? That will answer or launch a voice call? That will track your sleep and remind you to wear a rain jacket?

No. Not right now. Might that change? Of course, but only if a tangible need -- at the very least, a perceived need -- rises into global consciousness.

In 2014, demand just doesn't seem to be all that strong, despite a handful of smartwatches that have been trying to get a party going.

iWatch to Crash the Party?

Apple is most definitely late to that party. The Pebble line lit up the eyes of geeks, starting with a screamingly successful crowdsourced funding effort.

Apple's smartphone archnemesis Samsung delivered the Galaxy Gear (with a Gear 2 version looming soon); Sony delivered its SmartWatch 2; and upstarts like i'm Watch are producing some interesting options.

Meanwhile, Apple partner Nike has the popular fitness tracker bracelet, the Nike FuelBand.

There's other competition in the burgeoning health-band space, too. The most recent one to cross my path is Jawbone's UP24, which tracks how you sleep, move and even eat -- and through its smartphone-connected apps, presumably help you lead a healthier, more insightful life.

Apple has entered market segments before, redefining them with design, quality, ecosystems (stores, developer tools), and visionary leaps forward in technology and manufacturing. Can it deliver a brand new product that depends on style in addition to niche-like desire?

Apple Knows Style

Apple's design missteps, particularly under the steady hand of Jony Ive, have been few and far between. The first iPhone still looks good. A Tangerine iMac looks out of place in a flat-screen world, but the smooth curvy translucent lines? Still nice.

Fact is, day-to-day watches need to match a human's personality and identity, first and foremost. A secondary concern is the style and whether they are right for the occasion -- dressed up or dressed down, color, texture, waterproof or durable?

None of these challenges are impossible to meet, but they're hard. Maybe that's why Apple seems to be working away in its Cupertino bat cave, trying to make an iWatch more functional, powerful and useful than anything else out there -- which brings up a new point: Even if Apple's iWatch won't shoot out a spidery cable a hero could swing from, each new product that enters the smartwatch space raises the stakes for Apple. Why? There's more competition Apple needs to best -- or ignore in favor of a brilliant focus that will induce palm-to-forehead why-didn't-I-see-that-before slaps.

Even as competitors create better and better wearable bands, they're busy undermining the space through ideas that solve problems that don't exist... and terrible marketing. There's a Samsung video about a guy who woos a girl while skiing -- with his Galaxy Gear watch -- that is so freakishly bad that it makes me want to avoid all smartwatches lest I catch the disease depicted in the commercial. The disease? A strain of pure idiocy.


Meanwhile, what's Apple really doing? Apparently working like crazy. The company has hired numerous experts over the last year, presumably to help with the iWatch development, including a chief medical officer, biosensor engineers, a Nike design director, and most recently the rumor that Apple hired a sleep expert from Philips Research.

Plus, curved glass rumors persist -- not to mention a furious effort to produce sapphire glass. While a patent points to the obvious iPhone usage for super-strong glass, it might be even more important for a scratch-prone wearable device.

Other rumors have pointed to home automation uses for an "iWearable" device, but smartphones are already unlocking doors, running thermostats from afar, and dimming lights. The point is, the iWatch is potentially launching into a fast-moving environment.

Why Not the Apple TV?

So why isn't the Apple TV Apple's greatest challenge for the near future? It's iterative. There is less reputation at stake. Less innovation cred to be lost. But the iWatch? A stumble will open up the guts of Apple and indicate a fading company, capable of evolutionary design... but maybe not revolutionary products. Lots of Apple geeks are hoping this isn't the case.

As for me, I'm mostly curious. I haven't worn a watch in 10 years, much less needed an exercise band to tell me I've been busy. I'm Apple's best and worst customer rolled up into one guy: Will I want one?

IBM, Lenovo Deal Is All About Winning

Selling the x86 line to Lenovo makes perfect business sense for IBM, Lenovo and their respective customers and business partners. Lenovo has a proven record, experience in high volume x86 desktop hardware, and a long history of working with IBM. Customers and business partners can be confident that Lenovo has a very high probability of succeeding with the x86 server businesses.

Lenovo Group's US$2.3 billion deal to purchase IBM's low-end, commodity x86 Server portfolios, related resources and operations is an all-around win for everyone involved.

The sale of the IBM x86 servers has been rumored for well over a year, as Big Blue grappled with continuing pressure on its low-margin x86 servers.

In its most recently completed fourth quarter, IBM's revenue dropped 5.5 percent to $27.7 billion. Slumping hardware sales was the chief culprit for the revenue miss. IBM's x86 server sales declined by 16 percent in the fourth fiscal quarter alone, following seven straight quarterly revenue declines.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lenovo will purchase the following:

• IBM's System x servers;
• BladeCenter and Flex System blade servers and switches;
• x86-based Flex integrated infrastructure systems;
• NeXtScale and iDataPlex servers and associated software; and
• IBM's blade networking and maintenance operations.

Additionally, Lenovo gets all of the development, sales and marketing, finance, legal, integrated supply chain, operations, IT, manufacturing, and service and support (maintenance) operations associated with the aforementioned assets.

Also as part of the deal, Adalio Sanchez, general manager for System x and Pure Systems in the IBM Systems and Technology Group, will move to Lenovo and assume the same role there.

Approximately 7,500 IBM employees worldwide -- including those based at major locations such as Raleigh, N.C.; Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Taipei, Taiwan -- will be offered employment at Lenovo. Since Lenovo's U.S. headquarters in North Carolina is close by IBM's Raleigh offices, it should be an easy transition for the majority of Big Blue workers.

Digging Deeper Into the Deal

IBM will by no means abandon its high-end server business. Following are additional important provisions of the deal:

• IBM will retain its enterprise systems portfolio, including System z mainframes, Power Systems, Storage Systems and Power-based Flex servers, as well as the PureApplication, PureData and SAP Hana appliances;
• IBM and Lenovo will enter into a broad-based strategic collaboration;
• Lenovo will become IBM's preferred supplier of x86 server technology;
• Lenovo will license, manufacture and resell IBM Storwize and tape storage technologies, the General Parallel File System, the SmartCloud Entry, elements of the x86 system software portfolios, and the Platform Computing portfolio;
• Integrated systems software components will move to Lenovo;
• Higher-level management tools like System Director and Flex Systems Manager will remain with IBM and be licensed by Lenovo;
• IBM and Lenovo will work together on patches to IBM software required by Lenovo; and
• Until the transaction is completed, the two companies will continue to operate independently.

The acquisition is expected to close later in 2014, pending regulatory approval. Once the transaction is complete, Lenovo will assume related customer service and maintenance operations. IBM will continue to provide maintenance delivery on Lenovo's behalf for an extended period of time, so customers should see few or no changes in their maintenance support.

Both the IBM and Lenovo executives enthusiastically applauded the deal.

"The divestiture [of the x86 server line] allows IBM to focus on system and software innovations ... such as cognitive computing, Big Data and cloud," said Steve Mills, IBM senior vice president and group executive of the Software & Systems Group.

The acquisition of IBM's x86 server portfolio will enable Lenovo to increase its current 2 percent niche market in servers by sevenfold to 14 percent, noted Peter Hortensius, senior vice president at Lenovo and president of its Think Business Group.

To accomplish that goal and "generate costs synergy," Hortensius said, Lenovo will need to move most of the manufacturing from IBM's existing facility in Virginia to Asia, while keeping some R&D in the U.S.

The Takeaway

Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's low-end, commodity x86 server portfolios is a tactical and long- term strategic win not only for IBM and Lenovo, but also for their respective business partners, customers, and the 7,500 IBMers who will make the move to Lenovo.

IBM and Lenovo have had a long, productive working relationship. Lenovo in 2005 bought IBM's PC business, including the popular ThinkPad brand, for $1.7 billion; by 2012, Lenovo had surpassed all rivals to become the world's top PC vendor.

IBM is following the money and the market trends. IBM's server business is the world's second-largest, with a 22.9 percent share of the $12.3 billion market in the third quarter of 2013, according to Gartner.

In fact, IBM's System z Enterprise mainframe and high-end server market share and demand remain strong and solid. Overall, IBM mainframes have in excess of 90 percent market share in that segment.

The sale of the struggling x86 server line frees IBM to focus on what it does best: enterprise products and services -- most notably, cloud computing and services, and Big Data Analytics via its soon-to-be-expanded Cloud Computing group and its newly formed Watson Business Unit.

No company has broader, deeper enterprise and services portfolio than Big Blue. IBM's sale of its x86 Server business for $2.3 billion pays for its investment earlier this month of $1 billion in the new Watson BU headquartered in New York City, as well as the $1.2 billion it's investing in expanding its Cloud Computing portfolio in 40 global data centers in 15 countries on five continents.

Is the $2.3 billion sale much less than IBM's rumored $6.5 billion asking price for the x86 servers last summer? Probably. It was IBM's decision to sell the x86 commodity server portfolio and associated services and make a swift, clean exit. The alternative was to retain the x86 server line and let it continue to bleed revenue and drain resources.

IBM is simultaneously shedding unprofitable products and thereby effectively funding its expansion into leading-edge and emerging market segments.

Selling the x86 line to Lenovo is an intuitive and obvious move that makes perfect business sense for IBM, Lenovo and their respective customers and business partners. Lenovo has a proven record, experience in high volume x86 desktop hardware, and a long history of working with IBM. Customers and business partners can be confident that Lenovo has a very high probability of succeeding with the x86 server businesses just as it has with IBM PCs.

Finally, there is the human element. The IBM/Lenovo x86 agreement also positively impacts 7,500 Big Blue employees globally. They can transition to Lenovo, which also has offices in Raleigh, N.C., so few, if any, will have to move.

The IBM/Lenovo deal opens the door wider for IBM to expand its footprint in China and the Pacific Rim.

In Conclusion

To sum up, IBM's sale of its x86 business to Lenovo is the best possible outcome for all concerned.

Both companies must still execute once the transaction gets the necessary regulatory approval and closes. However, based on past history, the likelihood of success is high.

IBM will be able to forge ahead unhindered in its quest for continued innovation in enterprise systems and in the highly competitive cloud computing arena.

Facebook at 10: All Mobile Systems Go

Facebook came perilously close to missing the mobile boat a few years ago, but it saw the light -- aided, no doubt, by the glare coming from investors -- and embarked on a strong mobile strategy. Now the company appears poised to live long and prosper, as long as it can avoid making any big mistakes. The bigger they are, the harder they fall and all that.

This week in 2004, Harvard undergrads became the first group to use Facebook -- the social network launched at the college. Fast-forward a decade, and the company is a technology mammoth, with 1.23 billion users and profit of US$1.5 billion for 2013.

Facebook is by most accounts a gargantuan success, and it is putting the pieces in place for its next decade and beyond. Those pieces point to a mobile future.

Facebook was somewhat late to the game with mobile. Before its 2012 acquisition of Instagram, it had neglected the rise of smartphones in favor of the PC. Now, however, Facebook has switched focus to mobile and already is starting to see the benefits.


All About Advertising

Many investors were concerned Facebook was losing out on advertising revenue as users shifted to mobile. Yet the company revealed in last week's fourth-quarter earnings report that mobile advertising accounted for 53 percent of the $2.34 billion total advertising revenue, up from 23 percent in the year-ago period. Perhaps not coincidentally, Instagram started displaying ads for the first time last quarter.

The focus on mobile is set to intensify further with this week's launch of Paper, a new mobile app for viewing user-generated and curated content.

The application is the first to be released by the company's Creative Labs division. The unit allows small teams at the company to create standalone mobile apps outside of the core Facebook experience.

"Last week's financial results are an indication that Facebook has been closer to understanding the mobile ads business and has attracted the attention of corporate clients in trying out its mobile ad solutions," said Markos Zachariadis, assistant professor of information systems at Warwick Business School.

"Both the acquisition of Instagram and the development of Paper show that Facebook is making a move from its traditional Web-based page towards mobile solutions that will meet the demands of both its user-base and organizations that are looking to reach out to consumers in a more dynamic way," he told the E-Commerce Times.


'Good Direction'

"Predictions for the near future suggest that in 2017 nearly 4 billion people will access the Internet through their smartphone," Zachariadis added. "To put this into perspective, you need to compare with the current figure of Internet users -- less than 3 billion from both mobile and desktop devices."

Facebook is headed "in a good direction," he concluded.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, hinted at some future plans in an interview with Bloomberg last week. His three-year plan puts mobile at the forefront -- he declared at an all-hands meeting in early 2012 that Facebook would be a mobile-first company from then on.

Facebook may become a little more lax with its requirement for users to use their real names, Zuckerberg suggested. That rule that has seen many would-be users in countries with oppressive regimes turn to pseudonym-friendly Twitter to get involved in the global conversation. Future Facebook apps may not require users to log in with Facebook credentials.


Solving New Problems

Within the next five years, Facebook aims to become more intuitive and help users solve problems they may not even have considered. When users turn to their Facebook friends for advice on finding a great local dentist or restaurant, for instance, Facebook should be doing better at using its trove of data to answer those questions, Zuckerberg told Bloomberg.

Over the next decade, Facebook will work to expand Internet access to the billions of people who do not yet have it, he said. Facebook has teamed up with technology companies like Samsung and Qualcomm on Internet.org, a project that aims to help users in developing countries get access to Web services, including Facebook, through cheaper phones.

Facebook still faces many challenges in the years ahead.


Security, Cultural Concerns

"Challenges in security and privacy are two major concerns [of] global social networks, including interorganizational networks," said Warwick Business School's Zachariadis.

"Also, compliance with local and international laws and regulations is a matter that often emerges as part of the globalization agenda. If Facebook's target -- as Mark Zuckerberg suggests -- is to socially connect the whole world, these are issues that need to be addresses regardless ... of the strategy the company will choose to move forward."

Elsewhere, Facebook might have to work harder to maintain user interest.


'Household Name'

"They're going to have to continue to do things that are engaging people and getting people to share and drive traffic in that regard," said Gordon Owens, digital marketing professional at GO Digital WSI.

"It's a household name now, so no one thinks about it. They need to keep doing things that make people go back and say, 'This new thing Facebook's doing is really cool and I've gotta go check it out,'" he told the E-Commerce Times.

"With a massive audience like that, they're just one or two wrong moves away from losing a ton of people," Owens suggested. "If you have some massive security breach or people find out that Facebook has been feeding all their data to the NSA -- all of a sudden everyone stops using it. I think you sort of run that risk. Other than that, they would have to do something utterly, drastically wrong to not be able to continue to drive revenue into the future."

As new Microsoft CEO makes entrance, Sony mulls PC exit

Sony has been one of the top laptop players in the Windows market. But the Japanese company is now in talks to sell off the Vaio line.

The day Microsoft announced a new CEO, word came from Japan that Sony is trying to exit PCs.
Whatever Sony ultimately does, it's a clear signal one of the top brands doesn't see PCs running Microsoft software as an attractive market anymore.
"Sony's planned sale of its personal computer operations underscores how far this business has fallen in the eyes of Japanese and U.S. manufacturers," an editorial said in Japan's Nikkei on Wednesday.
Sony established the Vaio brand in 1996 when Microsoft and Windows 95 ruled the world. At Sony's peak, it shipped close to 900,000 units a year. In 2013, it's expected to ship fewer than 600,000 units, according to IDC estimates.

Not surprisingly, the impetus for the expected sale is financial. The company's consumer electronics operations -- of which the Vaio PC line is a part -- continues to operate in the red and it PC group is facing an operating loss, according to Japan-based reports.
Sony wouldn't be the first Japanese player to bow out of the PC business. NEC, once Japan's top domestic PC brand, handed over control of its PC business to Lenovo in 2011.
And even Lenovo, which is vying with Hewlett-Packard to be the No. 1 global PC maker, is putting increasing emphasis on smartphones these days, evidenced by its planned purchase of Motorola's handset business.
By selling the Vaio PC business, Sony intends to accelerate its shift to smartphones. And Microsoft has acknowledged this global shift in its own way with the purchase of Nokia's mobile devices unit.

Sony agrees to sell PC business, revises forecast to loss

Sony plans to sell it Vaio PC operations to an investment fund, cut 5,000 jobs, and revises full-year forecast from a profit to a loss of $1.1 billion. It will also spin off its TV business.

Sony has reached an agreement to sell its Vaio laptop business to an investment fund and spin off its TV business.
The Japanese electronics giant had been in talks with investment fund Japan Industrial Partners, according to earlier reports. That deal is now official, according to Sony.
Sony "has determined that concentrating its mobile product lineup on smartphones and tablets and transferring its PC business to a new company established by [Japan Industrial Partners] is the optimal solution," Sony said.
Sony, which plans to cut about 5,000 jobs as part of the sale, also revised its full year forecast to a loss of 110 billion yen ($1.1 billion) from a profit of 30 billion yen.
And the TV operations will be spun off into a separate unit.
"Sony has decided to split out the TV business and operate it as a wholly-owned subsidiary. The targeted timeframe for this transition is July 2014," the company said in a statement.

Here is the full Sony statement on the sale of its laptop business.

Following a comprehensive analysis of factors, including the drastic changes in the global PC industry, Sony's overall business portfolio and strategy, the need for continued support of Sony's valued VAIO customers, and future employment opportunities for personnel involved in the VAIO business, the Company has determined that concentrating its mobile product lineup on smartphones and tablets and transferring its PC business to a new company established by JIP is the optimal solution. Sony and JIP will now proceed with due diligence and negotiate detailed terms and conditions of the business transfer, targeting the conclusion of a definitive agreement by the end of March 2014. Following reevaluation of the product lineup, the new company is expected initially to concentrate on sales of consumer and corporate PCs in the Japanese market and seek to optimize its sales channels and scale of operations, while evaluating possible further geographic expansion.

As a part of the business transfer to JIP, Sony will cease planning, design and development of PC products. Manufacturing and sales will also be discontinued after the Spring 2014 lineup to be launched globally. Even after Sony withdraws from the PC market, Sony customers will continue to receive aftercare customer services. Approximately 250 to 300 Sony Corporation and Sony EMCS Corporation employees involved in PC operations, including planning, design, development, manufacturing and sales, are expected to be hired by the new company established by JIP. Sony will also explore opportunities for other employees to be transferred to other businesses within the Sony Group. For employees of Sony Corporation and Sony EMCS Corporation that are not hired by the new company or transferred within the Sony Group, Sony plans to also offer an early retirement support program to assist their reemployment outside of the Sony Group.


The company's money-losing PC business has a staff of about 1,000.
Sony established the Vaio brand in 1996 when Microsoft and Windows 95 ruled the world. At Sony's peak, it shipped close to 900,000 units a year. In 2013, it's expected to ship fewer than 600,000 units, according to IDC estimates.
This is happening against a backdrop of a shrinking PC market. Global PC shipments fell 10 percent in 2013, returning to 2009 levels, marking the worst decline ever, market researcher Gartner said in January.

10 Things to Know About Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s New CEO

Here are some key tidbits to mull over as he gets ready to take on what may be the single most challenging gig in the tech industry.

1. He was born in Hyderabad, India. And moved to the U.S. after graduating from Manipal University. That an immigrant will run this most American of companies is an inspiring story in itself.

2. He’s a longtime Microsoft insider. Nadella joined the company in 1992 from onetime Silicon Valley icon Sun Microsystems; he’s been a Microsoftie for well over half the company’s existence.

3. He’s an engineer. Unlike Steve Ballmer, who was an assistant product manager at Procter & Gamble before joining Microsoft in 1980, Nadella started out as a technologist. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Manipal University and a master’s in computer science from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

4. But also a business type. In addition to his technology-oriented degrees, he has a master’s in business administration from the University of Chicago.

5. He’s been promoted again and again. Among his other high-level positions before he was appointed executive vice president for the cloud and enterprise group last year: president of the server and tools business, senior VP of R&D for the online-services division, VP of the business division, senior VP of search, portal and advertising-platform group, VP of development for the business-solutions group, and general manager of consumer and commerce.

6. He’s currently responsible for a huge, largely invisible part of Microsoft’s business. Among the products Nadella heads up: Windows Azure, Windows Server, SQL Server, System Center and the software-development tools that are Microsoft’s original business, dating all the way back to 1975. Consumers have no reason to pay attention to these areas, but they’re thriving — a big reason why Microsoft just posted robust quarterly results despite the PC industry’s struggles and Windows Phone’s failure, so far, to make much of a dent in Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.

7. He’s played a major role in Microsoft’s transition to the cloud. The company’s very name references the era of software for microcomputers. But Nadella is leading its efforts to be just as good at Web-based services as it ever was at PC software — a battle at least as important to the company’s future as anything involving phones or tablets.

8. He does have some consumer background. Though Nadella’s career has skewed toward the business side of Microsoft, he’s also worked on some offerings used by folks in their personal lives, like the Bing search engine.

9. It’s not your imagination — he does have a low profile. Nadella is not exactly a hermit — Quartz’s Leo Mirani interviewed him about Microsoft’s future in December, when Nadella was already known to be a leading CEO candidate — but his focus on unglamorous-but-important products for business use means he shows up at public events less often than colleagues like Joe Belfiore of the Windows Phone team. (Presumably that will now change.) He also seems to have lost interest in Twitter.

10. We don’t know anything about his master plan. The fact that he’s a Microsoft longtimer might indicate he’s less likely to immediately attempt to impose massive change on the company than an outsider would have been. Or maybe not. And his background in business tools may or may not say anything about the company’s interest moving forward in consumer offerings like its Xbox gaming-and-entertainment platform. Stay tuned for more thoughts once Nadella starts to outline his vision for public consumption — and don’t be too surprised if that doesn’t happen immediately.

Xbox One updates to improve Kinect, multiplayer features

A February update will beef up the Kinect's voice recognition, while another one in March will enhance the console's party and multiplayer features.

Xbox One users can expect two major updates to hit their consoles over the coming weeks.
Revealed by Xbox Corporate Vice President Marc Whitten in a blog on Wednesday, the first update will launch on February 11 with several fixes and features. Whitten promises improvements to the Kinect's voice recognition so it can better respond to your commands. Unspecified stability and product updates are also part of the package, as are behind-the-scenes enhancements for developers.
More specifically, Xbox One users will be able to view and manage their storage space, choose the order in which certain content loads, and monitor updates as they install. A battery power indicator will show you how much life is left on your controller. And you'll be able to use a USB keyboard with your console.
Scheduled for March 4, the second update is designed to prepare the Xbox One for the launch of "Titanfall," an online, multiplayer game. As such, the update will offer new features and improvements related to the console's party and multiplayer features.
In his blog, Whitten didn't address specific complaints from Xbox One owners, who have griped about installation issues, video playback bugs, and missing features. But he did indicate that more updates will be on the way.
"This post is the first of many announcements and sneak peeks at features in the system updates," Whitten said. "We've been carefully listening to your feedback and look forward to delivering many new features that will make Xbox One even better. We're just getting started and can't wait to share more information in the coming weeks."

Smartphone surprise success Flappy Bird earns $50K per day

The free smartphone game for iOS and Android that's sucking up all of your spare time is also earning an astounding $50,000 in daily ad revenue.

Flappy Bird, the newest and most savagely addicting smartphone game to have taken the mobile market by storm, is earning $50,000 in ad revenue each day, Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen revealed Wednesday in an interview with The Verge.

While that's nothing compared with the insane $850,000 Candy Crush Saga -- the App Store's longtime leader in the top grossing charts -- earns UK developer King per day, it's certainly nothing to scoff at for a non-freemium game that was uploaded in May 2013, last updated in September, and remained virtually invisible for months. Flappy Bird relies on slightly distracting banner ads at the top and bottom of the screen to earn revenue. Nguyen disclosed that he has no intention of changing up that formula.
"Flappy Bird has reached a state where anything added to the game will ruin it somehow, so I'd like to leave it as is," he said. "I will think about a sequel but I'm not sure about the timeline." And changes to the game would indeed throw off its supremely simplistic design. After all, there's only one mechanic -- tap to fly -- and one uniform and randomly generated obstacle that you must fly through, and never touch or else you lose and must start over, an impulse that is alarmingly hard to deny.
It appears to be exactly that kind of design strategy -- a pixelated art style applied to universally known game mechanics that Nguyen's DotGears Studio has used before -- that has turned a simple, ad-based tapping game inspired by Super Mario Bros. into a phenomenon. "The reason Flappy Bird is so popular is that it happens to be something different from mobile games today, and is a really good game to compete against each other," Nguyen said. "People in the same classroom can play and compete easily because [Flappy Bird] is simple to learn, but you need skill to get a high score."
Other tidbits from Nguyen's rare interview: Flappy Bird has been download upwards of 50 million times and has earned 47,000 reviews on the App Store, many of which are hilarious five-star condemnations of the game's propensity to rip an addiction-fueled black hole in our collective conscious through which all our free time and pointless frustration seem to travel toward.
I've written here about Flappy Bird and its astoundingly genius -- and manipulative -- design, and it sounds like the app has no intention of slowing down its relentless grind to pop culture infamy. Since it secured the No. 1 spot on the App Store and Google Play Store late last month, numerous media outlets have flocked to explain our fascination with failure, mind-numbing difficulty, and titles that push us to the limits of friendly competition in the Facebook-fueled smartphone game score wars: "Why The Heck Is Everyone Playing Flappy Bird?"; "Everyone is playing Flappy Bird and no one knows why"; and "The Squalid Grace of Flappy Bird."
It's not long before we'll have another taste of Nguyen's talents, as the developer said he'll be putting out his simple take on the jetpack endless runner, made popular by games like Jetpack Joyride. Maybe this time we'll all know what we're getting into by downloading a DotGears game. Then again, that's no indication that this will stop it from becoming another fire we can't stop fueling.

Windows 8.1 update may be delayed until April

Microsoft's new ship target for its coming Windows 8.1 Update 1 may have shifted from March to April, according to sources.

I've heard from two of my sources in the past week that Microsoft's ship target for Windows 8.1 Update 1 has shifted from March 2014 to April 2014.
The idea remains to use Patch Tuesday to distribute the coming so-called "Spring" update via Windows Update, my sources said. If that is the case, Windows 8.1 Update 1 should be pushed to users on April 8, rather than March 11.

Windows 8.1 Update 1 is a collection of features and fixes for Windows 8.1. Most of the new features are aimed at making Windows 8.1 more palatable to those who prefer using a mouse to navigate the latest Windows release.

A leaked Windows 8.1 Update 1 test build (from mid-January) showed off a number of the expected new features, including the ability to pin Metro apps to the Desktop task bar; new right-clickable context-sensitive menus; and adding dedicated search and power buttons to the Start screen. A new Enterprise Mode for Internet Explorer 11 is also part of the leaked build, according to some who've downloaded it.

There were reports that Windows 8.1 Update 1 might change the default start-up experience so that the desktop, rather than the Metro Start screen became the default on all machines running Update 1. As I noted last week, I heard this is not Microsoft's plan. Those downloading the leaked Windows 8.1 Update 1 build from January noted that boot-to-desktop was not set as the default configuration.

Windows leaker WZor indicated on February 2 that a more likely scenario may be that boot to desktop will be installed by default on new PCs/devices without a touch screen. Users who are upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 8.1 Update 1 who don't have boot to desktop set as their default already also won't see their settings change to boot to default, according to WZor.

I am not sure why the ship target for Update 1 has allegedly been pushed back a month, but have heard that the original March target was fairly ambitious. OEMs are still likely to get the Windows 8.1 Update 1 bits in early March for preloading on new PCs, my sources said.

Will Nadella appointment weigh on debate over tech visas?

In what some might call an advertisement for the classic story of an immigrant pursuing the American dream, Redmond's new boss, Satya Nadella, was born in Hyderabad, India. Now he's running Microsoft.


In his first e-mail to Microsoft employees in his newly-minted role as chief executive, Satya Nadella included a brief but important section titled, "Who am I?"
Over the last week especially, the world came to know a lot more about the executive, after the news was leaked that Nadella was the expected choice for the company's top job. But still, a dark horse he was, beating out splashier choices like former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and Ford CEO Alan Mulally. So we've still got a lot to learn about the new leader in Redmond.

His answer is only a few lines long, and he mentions basic points: 46 years old, married for 22 years, three kids. "So family, curiosity and hunger for knowledge all define me," he wrote.
But also important to the story is his personal journey as a naturalized US citizen from his familial home in Hyderabad, India, which coincidentally also happens to be the home of the largest Microsoft research and development center outside the US.

As the debate over immigration reform and work visas has heated up in the tech industry, the fact that someone born and partly educated in India is now CEO of Microsoft is sure to be seized upon by proponents of issuing more H-1B visas as being in America's enlightened self interest. Sure, there are other Indian-born tech CEOs, like Shantanu Narayen at Adobe and Sanjay Mehrotra at Sandisk, but taking the top job at Redmond is an outlier.

"Microsoft is in another class. Apple, Google, Microsoft -- these are the few companies defining the future of tech," said Venktesh Shukla, president of TiE Global, a venerable Silicon Valley organization closely associated to the South Asian business community (Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures is a charter member). Nadella was even a keynote speaker at the organization's annual TiECon conference last year. Pepsi, helmed by the Indian-born Indra Nooyi, is another example of one of those preeminent global companies.

In the 2012 fiscal year, more than 135,000 people were issued H-1B visas, a type of visa that allows US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in "specialty occupations" -- fields like engineering, biotech, education or law, according to the US Bureau of Consular Affairs. The heads of many of the world's largest tech companies have called for an increase of the cap in H-1B visas, the idea being to attract the brightest minds in the world to work in the US. Critics are opposed to raising the cap during an era of high unemployment, arguing that plenty of US tech workers are still looking for jobs.

To that last point, Vivek Wadhwa, the veteran entrepreneur and outspoken Stanford professor who's written frequently on the topic, said that it is not a zero sum game: If a company like Microsoft has a good leader, then it will be adding jobs, he argues. "It should reinvigorate [the debate]," he said. "If the most qualified person for the Bill Gates job was a foreign-born person, it says something about immigration. We would have been reducing the pool."
Of course, the state of immigration in the US is utterly complicated, and can't be illustrated by one person's success. For one, Shukla concedes that things have changed a lot since Nadella first came to the US, likely on a student visa. ("The lines for green cards are a lot longer now," he said.) But he said Nadella's appointment illustrates the kind of impact intelligent, foreign-born people can have.

According to Reuters India, Nadella's father was a member of elite government organizations under the country's prime minister. Growing up, he attended the prestigious Hyderabad Public School. Later, Nadella attended Mangalore University, studying electrical engineering. He then moved to the United States to get his masters degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, then another master's in business administration from the University of Chicago. After that, Nadella went to work at Sun Microsystems before joining Microsoft in 1992.

Nadella's ascension to Microsoft's helm also sheds light on other issues. In a business climate where companies have been scrutinized over racial and gender diversity -- especially recently -- it's a rare appointment. According to Fortune, only 23 of all Fortune 500 CEOs are minorities, a term that includes African Americans, Asians, and Latin Americans.

In the tech industry, things are statistically a little better for people of Indian decent. Wadhwa cites his own research, which says that as of 2012, of all companies in Silicon Valley that have a foreign-born CEO or chief technologist, over 33 percent of them were founded by Indians.
But that track record could be undone without proper reform, he said. "How many more Nadellas are there that are being turned away?"

Biggest screen : SmartNamo Saffron 2- Dedicated to Mr. Narendra Modi

The smartphone with the biggest touchscreen in the world is SmartNamo Saffron Two, a phone dedicated to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. The device has a 6.5-inch screen with 1920x1080p resolution and 338ppi pixel density.  

Screen: 6.5 inches
Screen Resolution: 1920x1080p
Pixel Density: 338ppi

Vivo Xplay 3S: 2K screen resolution

Chinese manufacturer Vivo has launched the world's first smartphone with 2K (2560x1440p) resolution, named Xplay 3S. This phone's screen has more pixels than the current crop of 1080p displays, making text, videos, images etc clearer and sharper. The new Vivo Xplay 3S's 6-inch display has pixel density of 490ppi, which is higher than the 469ppi (the highest pixel density before this launch) of HTC One. 

Micromax Canvas 4: Blow-to-Unlock

 

Micromax Canvas 4 is the world’s first smartphone to have Blow-to-Unlock feature. You just need to blow on the handset to unlock it. This feature is also present in its successor, Canvas Magnus.

Nokia Lumia 1020: 41MP camera

Nokia’s Lumia 1020 is the smartphone comes with highest resolution camera in the world – 41MP. This is the highest pixel count for camera in any smartphone in the world today. The Lumia 1020 is fitted with a 41MP camera that utilizes a back-sided illuminated (BSI) sensor that has optical image stabilization (OIS). The lens is the aperture equivalent to a 26 mm lens with a fixed aperture of f/2.2. The camera also has a mechanical shutter which will allow for sharper images and help the optical stabilization reduce motion blur. The Lumia 1020's Zeiss camera lens is composed of six elements with a lens cover and outer protective element. Instead of a LED light to double as a flash and auto-focus assist light, the Lumia 1020 has a Xenon flash and a secondary LED light for video lighting and AF assist.

Nokia Lumia 1520

Key Features:

2.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Quad Core Processor

Windows Phone 8 OS

1.2 MP Secondary Camera

Wi-Fi Enabled

6-inch LCD Capacitive Touchscreen

FM Radio

20 MP Primary Camera

Expandable Storage Capacity of 64 GB

Apple iPhone 5S: features

Key Features:

Apple A7 processor, M7 motion coprocessor

4 inches LED-backlit LCD Retina display, 640 x 1136 pixels resolution

iOS 7

8MP of rear camera with flash

2MP of front camera

16GB internal storage

4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, Video-out to AppleTV, microUSB connectivity, fingerprint identity sensor

Sony Xperia Z1

Key Feautures:

2200MHz Quad Core processor Snapdragon

5 inches of scratch-resistant LCD screen, with fullHD resolution and 16M colour depth

Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean

800 chipset, Adreno 300 GPU

2GB RAM

16GB internal memory

Expandable to 64GB

20.7MP of rear camera with fullHD recording

2MP of front camera

4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS (with A-GPS), microUSB connectivity

3000mAh Li-ion battery

Google Nexus5

Key Features:

2.26GHz Quad-Core Krait Snapdragon 800 processor

4.95 inch Full HD IPS display

Andriod 4.4 KitKat

450 MHz Adreno 330

2GB of RAM

8MP of rear camera

1.3MP front camera

16GB internal storage (non-expandable)

3G, LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetoth, GPS (with A-GPS and GLONASS), microUSB connectivity, NFC

2300 mAh Battery

HTC One Max

Key Features:

1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 processor

5.9 inch full HD display

Andriod 4.3 with Sense 5.5

2GB RAM

4 Ultrapixels rear camera

2.1MP front camera

16GB internal memory

expandable upto 64GB

3G, Bluetooth, GPRS, Wi-Fi, and micro USB

3300 mAh battery

LG G2

Key Features:

2.26GHz Quad Core Processor

5.2 inches Full HD IPS Display

Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean OS

2GB RAM

16/32GB internal memory

13MP rear camera with OIS

2.1MP Front camera

3G, LTE, USB, WiFi, GPS, GPRS, Bluetooth connectivity

3000 mAh Battery

Samsung Galaxy S5 to feature on-screen fingerprint scanner and keys

Samsung might have sent out invitations for its "UnPacked 5" event, where the company is said to unveil its alleged Galaxy S5 flagship smartphone at the sidelines of MWC 2014 on February 24 in Barcelona, however, new leaks related to the Galaxy S5 seem to shed more details about the yet-to-be-announced device.

Itechaddict in a report, citing an insider from Samsung India R&D, has claimed that the South Korean major has abandonned the physical button on the front panel of Galaxy S5, and instead chosen to go with onscreen buttons. The quoted source also said the long-rumoured fingerprint scanner has been integrated the into the Galaxy S5's display panel.

The report claims that the fingerprint scanner has been implemented in a way that the fingerprint sensor is on the screen. The report does not share any other details about the technology used in the fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S5, but we expect the feature to work like fingerprint prank apps that are available on the Google Play store.

The report informs that Samsung has used a similar method to implement the fingerprint scanner on the S5, to what the company has been using to implement the S Pen stylus interface. According to the report, the company has been using an electromagnetic field layer to realise the stylus input.

Samsung is also rumoured to include multi-hovering touch technology on its next flagship smartphone. The multi-hovering touch technology is said to be prepared by Synaptics tech, which is expected to enhance the finger-hovering accuracy of the screen input. Notably, the Synaptics' new technology is said to detect movements from 15mm to 30mm above the display and could detect more than one finger at a time.

In addition, Sammobile has also purportedly leaked the new S Voice UI interface which is said to debut on the long-rumoured Galaxy S5. As per Sammobile, the new alleged S Voice interface is now faster compared to the last version. Further, the S Voice UI interface has reportedly been revamped, though there are no major colour scheme and aesthetic changes.

Earlier on Wednesday, the anticipated Samsung Galaxy S5's specifications were puportedly leaked via popular Russian tipster for smartphone devices, Eldar Murtazin.

According to the tipster, the Galaxy S5 is said to sport a 5.24-inch AMOLED screen with a QHD (2560 x 1440 pixels) resolution; two storage variants- 32GB/64GB; two processor variants - Exynos 6 and Snapdragon 805, and a 3200mAh battery.

The optics rumoured for the Galaxy S5 include a 16-megapixel rear camera, and a 3.2-megapixel front-facing shooter.

Apple iPhone 5C

Key Features:

1.3 GHz Dual core Apple A6 Processor

4-inch IPS Retina display

1GB Ram

8MP Camera

1.2MP front camera

16/32GB inbuilt storage

3G, 100mbps LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Samsung Galaxy S5 likely to launch on February 24

Korean handset maker Samsung has invited press to its next Unpacked event which will take place at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona on 24 February, and likely will see the launch of the Galaxy S5.

The invitation emphasises the number five, with Samsung naming the event "Unpacked 5".

Thanks to online rumours, we already know too much about Samsung Galaxy S5. The device is expected to launch in two versions - a high-end metal version, and a cheaper plastic model, and reportedly will have a 5in 2K resolution screen, a 64-bit Samsung Exynos 6 processor and 3GB of RAM.

The smartphone may come with an iPhone 5S style fingerprint sensor, a 20MP rear-facing camera, a 2MP front-facing camera, a 2,850mAh battery and an updated version of Samsung's Touchwiz user interface.

Lenovo K900

Key Features:

2 GHz Dual Core Processor

Wi-Fi Enabled

2 MP Secondary Camera

5.5-inch LCD Capacitive Touchscreen

Full HD Recording

16 GB Internal Memory

Android v4.2 (Jelly Bean) OS

13 MP Primary Camera

Samsung Galaxy S4

Key Features: 

1.6Ghz Quad Core + 1.2 GHz Quad core Processor

4.99 inch Super AMOLED display, Gorilla Glass 2

2GB RAM

Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

13 MP Rear camera

2 MP front camera

16GB storage

4G LTE, 3G HSPA+,

Wi-Fi, GPS, DLNA, NFC Wireless Charging, S-Voice Speech recognition, Eye tracking

16GB SanDisk High Speed Ultra USB3.0 Flash Drive Up to 4 times than USB2.0 Drives – Black

Main Features: 

USB3.0 flash drive up to 4 times faster than USB2.0 drives
Keep private files private with SanDisk secure access software
Up to 80MB/s read speed
Easy to read in high speed
Plug and play, portable and convenient
Good data storage stability
A perfect decoration on your bags and keys.

Price: $15.49

Oulm Men’s Quartz Cool Military Wrist Watch

Oulm Men’s Quartz Cool Military Wrist Watch with Three Movt Round Shaped Dial and Leather Band.

Price: $11.49

AK13 Quad Band Watch Phone with 1.2 inch Touchscreen Camera Bluetooth

Main Features:

Type: Watch Phone
1.2 inch Resistive Touchscreen
0.02 MP Camera
FM/MP3/Bluetooth/3GP Function Supported

Price:  $62.99

Panasonic T31 - A Stylish Installment-Free Smartphone!

India is a booming market for the telecommunications industry and provides immense opportunities





for handset manufacturers today. 

The Smartphone market continues to drive the overall growth for the phone market- given there is a huge potential for its penetration in India. As per the most recent research reports, the Indian smartphone market grew by 229 percent year-on-year to 12.8 million smartphones in the third quarter of 2013 compared to 3.8 million units in Q3 of 2012. Indian companies, having already made an impact on the basic phone market, made the progression to smartphones over the past year or so by taking advantage of the stupendous growth rate.In line with this, having a first-hand understanding of the marketplace and after a detailed understanding of the consumer requirements, Panasonic India continuing with its strong focus on Indian market, marked its entry in the Smartphone category with the launch of its flagship phone, the Panasonic P51. This phone was introduced in the market mainly targeting the young generation – the always-on-the-go college youth, and the premium executive class, who is always on the lookout for better, faster and savvier smartphones on the go!

Encouraged by the tremendous success of its P51 smartphone, Panasonic took a step further by unveiling three new smartphones: Panasonic P11, Panasonic T21, and Panasonic T11. These smartphones have been designed to deliver on Panasonic’s brand promise of “Smart solutions for

Smart people”, and come with compact and sleek designs, loaded with innovative software features to deliver superior performance thus making it an ideal companion for everyday life. With a unique combination of stylish design, cutting-edge technology and innovative convergence, the phones were brought in the market with an objective of redefining the smartphone experience for the Indian mobile phone consumer. Reinforcing its commitment to deliver superior smartphone experience to its consumers in India, the most recent phone introduced by the brand, the fifth in the Panasonic’s series of smartphones was the Panasonic T31. Through this latest offering, the brand reiterated its commitment to offer superior quality smart phone experience at affordable pricing. Latest Android Stylish Smartphone under Rs 10000 with splendid features like dual core GHZ 1.3 processor, Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, 4 inch WVGA display making it  a better, faster and savvier smartphone. T 31 is promoted by the youth brand ambassador Varun Dhawan.

With the launch of these devices, Panasonic India is assured of the fact that its new offerings will deliver a remarkable mobile experience to its consumers. Syndicating great functionality and design, accompanied by a comprehensive system of applications, the Panasonic India is positive that their consumers will yet again repose their faith in the company for A Better Life,  A Better World.

Best Gaming Laptop: Alienware 17

Alienware laptops have long been the gold standard for portable gaming, and the current-generation Alienware 17 shows why. In our tests, the laptop's high-end Nvidia GTX 780M graphics and 2.7-GHz Intel 4th Generaiton Core i7 CPU were powerful enough to play "BioShock Infinite " at 106 fps and "World of Warcraft" at 144 fps. Alienware's sci-fi-inspired design and customizable keyboard, grille and touchpad lights make the 17 as exciting to look at as it is to use.

Starting Price: $1,499

Best Budget Laptop: HP TouchSmart 11z

Who says touch screens have to be expensive? For just $399, the 11.6-inch HP TouchSmart 11z provides a responsive touch screen that helps you make the most of Windows 8 / 8.1 in an attractive, 3.4-pound package. With more than 6 hours of battery life, this affordable portable will have you pinching and swiping for most of a day.

Starting Price: $399

New and Notable Hybrid: ASUS Transformer Book Duet

It's the world's first quad-mode dual-operating laptop and tablet convertible. What exactly does that mean? The ASUS Transformer Book Duet TD300 lets you instantly switch between Android and Windows 8.1 with a push of a button thanks to Bluestacks preloaded software. A 13.3-inch, 1920 x 1080-pixel IPS touchscreen display can be detached easily and run off its own 128GB SSD. The keyboard dock, on the other hand, offers 1TB of storage space. Combined the two weigh a hefty 4.2 pounds, but thanks to a slick design this is one good-looking combo.

Starting Price: $599

Best Hybrid Laptop: Dell XPS 12

Most hybrid laptops promise the best of both worlds but end up giving you a heavy tablet and a subpar laptop for more than the cost of both. However, the Dell XPS 12 stands out from the crowd by providing a gorgeous, 1080p display that flips backward within its bezel to turn this lightweight laptop into a 12-inch Windows tablet. Add in a comfortable keyboard, large touchpad and more than 9 hours of battery life, and Dell has a winner.

Starting Price: $799

Longest Battery Life Laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad X240

Lenovo ThinkPad X240 have an 18-hour flight to Asia coming up? No problem, if you've got the 12.5-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X240. With its extended battery, this 3.6-pound business system lasts more than 20 hours on a charge -- the longest of any laptop on the market. With an optional 1080p touch screen, responsive keyboard, accurate TrackPoint pointing stick and speedy performance, the ThinkPad X240 helps you make the most of all those minutes.

Starting Price: $860

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