Philips earphone unboxing

https://youtu.be/MU7fw0d_1S4

Samsung galaxy S8.. Everything we know so far.

Samsung Galaxy S8 rumors.

•  First phone to feature Snapdragon 835.
• Complete new Design.
• No headphone jack.
• 4k Display
• USB type-C 
• 5.2 inch Screen
• 6gb Ram.
• Edge to Edge display.
• Iris scanner.
• Quick Charge.
• Wireless Charging.
• More than 90% of screen  

After that unexpected disappointment with Galaxy Note7, Samsung is reportedly doing everything it would take to make Galaxy S8 a grand success. The company has been rumoured to introduce new features like dedicated button for its AI assistant based on Viv while keeping focus on the device's overall design.

Samsung has been widely rumoured to introduce Galaxy S8 with bezel less design and the smartphone is also reported to drop the fingerprint sensor. Samsung Galaxy S8 is expected to ditch the home button and the

Searching for the best audio gear have a look at the list of best audio gear

The most impressive audio gear of 2016

From a Hi-Fi vinyl turntable to futuristic 3D-scaping headphones, the following are the most impressive audio gear from 2016.

Audio makers always come up with awe-inspiring, unique audio gear that make you step back and appreciate the beauty of innovation. Like every year, 2016 is no exception, and the year has seen a number of fine gadgets being unveiled. While some have come from the big players in the field of audio, a few others have their origin in ambitious crowdfunding campaigns that achieved and exceeding funding goals.

 Without further ado, we talk about the pick of our most impressive audio gear that we’ve seen in 2016. Each of these have added to the world of audio innovation with new technology that takes personal audio further, or revives the glory of the olden days with digital wizardry.

1.Sony PS-HX500 

Hi-Fi vinyl turntable

We begin with a throwback to the glorious days of circular records and playback turntables. The Sony PS-HX500 support both 33.3rpm and 45rpm LPs, and has an analogue-to-digital converter along with being based on Sony’s Hi-Fi engine. It also has a highly stable belt drive, a more accurate tone arm and a dedicated Phono EQ for precise audio reproduction. This one is truly impressive for its sheer finesse, and the fact that very few in the world would have actually, probably bought this.

Prized: 599.99$

2.Google Home

Sure, the concept is not really “new”, but the Google Home is actually a great presentation of how audio equipment will be in our future. It is also more equipped for the masses, responding to OK Google, has universal compatibility, and more mature AI in Google Assistant, and even makes for a future-proof connected home speaker. Google Home impressed us with its simplicity and versatility, all at the same time.

Prized: 130$

Amazon Prime video vs Netflix

Amazon Prime Video Vs Netflix: Global streaming services battle it out in India

Flipkart offers one plus 3 lesser than Amazon

Flipkart's 'Big Shopping Days' teasers included the OnePlus 3 for under Rs. 20,000, much to company founder Carl Pei's surprise. OnePlus' devices have so far been exclusive to Amazon India.

Flipkart is hosting its 'Big Shopping Days' sale from December 18 to 21 and ahead of the event, the e-commerce platform is teasing OnePlus 3 on its shopping platform. In a sneak peek, Flipkart is teasing OnePlus 3 at a price lower than 20,000 but the smartphone is available only on Amazon India.

OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei expressed his surprise by directly tweeting to Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal but neither Flipkart nor its founders have offered any explanation. We reached out to OnePlus India where the company spokesperson confirmed that OnePlus 3 and the newly launched OnePlus 3T will remain Amazon exclusive and they have no plans to make the device available on Flipkart. For now, it remains a mystery how Flipkart plans to sell a device available only on Amazon India.

Flipkart has also put out a landing page for OnePlus 3 soft gold variant where it is listed at Rs 27,999. It is likely that under Rs 20,000 teaser could be inclusive of cashback and other exchange offers.

In a statement, OnePlus India says the company "is focused on creating premium flagship smartphones. We have an exclusive partnership with Amazon in India. We advice customers to purchase OnePlus products only through official channels as we cannot guarantee the authenticity of the products sold elsewhere."

OnePlus 3 is one of the most important smartphone launches this year. In our review, we noted how good the smartphone is for its sub-Rs 30K price range. OnePlus recently announced updated version of OnePlus 3 dubbed OnePlus 3T with Snapdragon 821 processor and 3400mAh battery. OnePlus has already killed OnePlus 3 in the US and European markets and it plans to continue selling OnePlus 3 here and will eventually shift focus to OnePlus 3T. OnePLus 3T is priced at Rs 29,999 for the 64GB variant while the 128GB storage model costs Rs 34,999.

Kickass Torrents is back!

Kickass Torrents has been resurrected by its old community members!

The once-massively-popular Kat.cr was taken down after a sweeping fight against piracy also saw the arrest of its owners, but its old community is putting the site back together as we speak.

Kickass Torrents, the popular online platform for downloading torrents online, has sprung back to life. After going down in July 2016 following founder Artem Vaulin’s arrest, Kickass Torrents has been reinstated by some of its ex-staffers.

The second half of 2016 has seen rampant takedown of torrent websites, with Kickass Torrents being among the most popular of the lot. The website came back to life for a brief moment soon after its demise, but it didn't survive for long on the Internet. Starting today, Kickass Torrents has a new, fully functional website, which looks similar to the older website.

A torrent site depends entirely on its uploaders and the KAT.cr team claims to have all of its uploaders onboard. Since Kickass Torrents went offline, there have been number of sites that tried to take advantage of the opportunity. Some websites even put up interfaces that were just blatant rip-offs from the original site.

With Artem Vaulin still under trial, it is unclear how long the new site will survive. Incidentally, KAT's new site seems to be completely frozen at the moment. The new homepage is broken, and community/forums are not even opening. Just now, KAT’s community issued this message stating server overload and work currently being in progress.

Microsoft credits Macbook Pro “disappointment” for best month of Surface sales

Microsoft credits Macbook Pro “disappointment” for best month of Surface sales

Microsoft’s numbers includes consumer sales for Surface Book, Surface Studio and Surface Tablet

Microsoft says November was the best month for consumer Surface sales, by volume. Microsoft’s list excludes the Surface Hub electronic whiteboard. The Surface Studio and Surface Book are included in the numbers. The former is Microsoft’s new iMac alternative, meant for creators, which went up in November.

Microsoft credited disappointment over Apple’s new Macbook for the success of its Surface series. “It seems a new review recommending Surface over Macbook comes out daily,” said the company in a blog post.

Apple’s new Macbook has indeed taken flak from consumers and reviewers alike, who didn’t find the Touch Bar to be fruitful innovation. In addition, the company’s high prices for its newest devices, do surely play a role as well. While Microsoft’s Surface devices aren’t particularly cheap either, they have suddenly become the more obvious choice, especially for professionals.

In fact, Apple’s newest innovations have been said to mark a move away from creative professionals, which has always been a big base for the company. Microsoft on the other hand, had been successful with its Surface tablet over time, and the Surface Book, launched earlier this year, had also received much accolades. However, Microsoft hasn’t received more praise in recent times, than it did for the Surface Studio recently.

What will happen if Google starts charging for every search?

What will happen if Google starts charging for every search?

This - unreasonable by any way, shape, or form - scenario would mean the rise of a new search giant.
Or rather the rise of one that has been in the shades:
It would probably be Yahoo, following its deal with Mozilla over FireFox.
Yahoo Steals Search Share From Google Following Deal With Mozilla

As of march 2015, the Search Engine global usage share is:

​
and browser share, as of October 2014:

​
I mention browsers because they are pretty much synonymous to search engines, at least highly correlative.
Had google lost it and started charging for search (...) it would also mean the end of Chrome.
So -
 
the disgruntled ex-Chrome users, who by definition find IE as inferior, 
would adopt one the contenders.
Immediate suspect: FireFox. 

We will never find out, but let me assure you, that no matter what, 
it would't the new giant would never have been Microsoft's Bing.

Let's play pretend they do and people are mildly ok with that and don't move to other search engines!
In this alternate universe, I can picture:

• People searching less stupid things.
• People searching more effectively. If I am going to get charged for searching, I'll better enter a correct search term that's bound to give better results.
• Fewer misspelled search terms. For the same reason as above.
• People actually going past page 1 of results. If I paid for a search I'd better read every damn result!
• If they get greedy and start charging per pagination of results as well, then we would see a fiercer battle to get on page 1 of results.
• On top of that, what if they ordered it so the best results are on the last pages? Only those with a lot of money would have access to the best information! :o
• No more ads, maybe? If I am paying for a search, you'd better not push me sponsored results.
• More people searching for Q&As on Quora instead of Googling "My question + Quora"

Controversial Tech in 2016

Controversial tech in 2016

What caused dispute and who earned the wrath of critics? Here are the most controversial tech stories of 2016.

At the end of each year, we at Digit take stock of the bygone 365 days in technology. Now, we are just a few days shy of calling it a new year and from some of the biggest stories, to the smartest gadgets, we have already recounted many glorious moments of 2016. But, not everything was hunky dory in the industry, riling up public opinion and putting the lense on some of the biggest names in tech. What caused dispute and who earned the wrath of critics? Here are 2016’s biggest controversies in tech.

The Facebook bias

Facebook, everyone’s friendly neighborhood social media network, was accused of feeding biased information through newsfeeds and trending topics on the platform. The controversy erupted when a group of journalists from Tech blog, Gizmodo, alleged that the social network told them to suppress news related to conservative parties. This led to an eventual US Senate inquiry where Facebook was found using certain websites for feeding its news algorithms. Facebook eventually amended its algorithms and acknowledged possible “isolated improper actions or unintentional bias”.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Fiasco

No tech tale of 2016 will be told without a mention of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 bust, or shall we say burst! Till date, there is no conclusive explanation as to why the Galaxy Note 7 batteries were exploding worldwide. Leading all the way up to a class action lawsuit, bricks of moolah from Samsung’s pocket, and hundreds of disgruntled (or in many cases physically hurt) customers, the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco definitely earned a seat at the table with the most controversial tech stories of 2016. The company eventually recalled the device, which is currently in its last few remains.

The Apple-FBI Clash

Apple and FBI locked horns over privacy and security of iOS devices and sparked one of the biggest tech debates in 2016. The issue arose when FBI asked Apple to give it a peek into an iPhone that belonged to a terrorist involved in the San Bernardino case. Tim Cook took a firm stand for encryption and data security, warning of an eventual hole in user privacy for time to come. The FBI eventually hacked into the controversial iPhone 5C on its own accord and without Apple’s assistance. Did Apple win the battle and lose the war?

The Twitter CEO expulsion

No, not from the company, but from the microblogging platform itself. In a hilarious “internal error” Twitter deleted the account of its own CEO, Jack Dorsey, thereby also deleting his 3.9 million followers. The matter resulted in public outrage over accidental account deletions by Twitter, and it became the subject of a very sensational debate. Dosey’s account was later reinstated and his followers restored. Twitter may have managed to shove this controversy under the rug, but the company is now struggling to find buyers for its business. It is well known that Twitter is up for sale, but the the company has been tight-lipped about it. However, with potential buyers Disney and Salesforce backing out of the bids, it seems like Twitter’s declining popularity and low profits are to blame.

The Samsung factory revelations

Technology stalwart Samsung was accused of withholding information from its South Korean factory employees, about the hazardous effects of chemicals used in their chip and display manufacturing facilities. This information came to light with a supporting investigation conducted by the Associated Press. Workers in Samsung’s South Korean factories reported numerous health problems due to chemicals used during various processes of manufacturing chipsets and displays and some even suffered loss of life. Turns out, Samsung had asked authorities not to disclose information on the chemicals used in its factories, stating “trade secrets” as a reason. Whatever happened to that investigation?

The end of BlackBerry smartphones

The underwhelming reception of the BlackBerry Priv was the last straw for BlackBerry, which announced that it will not be making smartphones anymore. Does this mean BlackBerry phones are dying? Well, not really. While the company may have said it will not make smartphones anymore, it also announced that third parties may manufacture BlackBerry branded phones, while the company concentrates on the software side of things. True to their word, the recently launched BlackBerry DTEK50 and DTEK60, are manufactured by TCL, and have so far failed to make an impression, one that BlackBerry phones used to command back in the day.

The forced Windows 10 upgrades

When Microsoft decided to skip 9 and go to Windows 10, it was a controversy of its own. This year, the Redmond-based software company caused widespread dissention with its forced Windows 10 upgrades. With upgrade notifications the size of an entire desktop screen, Microsoft faced the wrath of its customers, who didn’t appreciate this overwhelming push to switch over to the latest OS. The company even force-installed the update on a woman’s PC, resulting in a lawsuit and an eventual $10,000 settlement. The company mended matters by making it easier to decline Windows 10 updates and that was the end of this controversy.

The 251 rupee mistake

It’s what you made, when you booked the Rs. 251 ($3.7) smartphone, Freedom 251. No one could fathom how cheap this phone was, and that it was made by an Indian company, was all the more scintillating. So much so, that the price of the smartphone seemed too good to be true and resulted in an investigation from the Indian Department of Electronics & Information Technology. Somehow, Ringing Bells, the company behind the phone, managed to scrape through the controversy and even announced a second product, the Freedom TV. A fresh rumour of the company shutting shop also surfaced recently, but for now, Ringing Bells has denied any such plans.

The Reliance Jio effect

This year, Reliance Jio, the firebrand telecom entrant in India announced free unlimited voice calls for life along with free 1GB data per day. The deal crazy Indian lined up outside Jio stores, resorting to bribing and blackmailing, just to get that coveted SIM card. Giving incumbent telecom operators such as Airtel, Idea, Vodafone a run for their money, Jio fought a long drawn battle for fair competition, a war on mobile number portability and then some. Now, a few million call drops later, Jio continues its journey to the top thanks to a regulatory nod for its free-calling services and an extended free data offer. Will it be a Happy New Year for Jio? Let’s wait and watch.

Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 likely to launch with 8GB RAM, Intel processor

Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 likely to launch with 8GB RAM, Intel processor on December 30

Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 is expected to run Windows 10 out of the box and offer optional keyboard accessory

Xiaomi Mi Pad 3

Xiaomi is expected to introduce its own iPad Pro competitor soon in the market. The next-generation Mi Pad 3 is expected to arrive with larger display, bigger battery and better chipset in order to take on Apple's iPad Pro series.

Tablet sales have come down sharply in the past few quarters but Xiaomi feels it can compete in the competitive market with its Mi Pad 3. Its been a year since the launch of Mi Pad 2 and its successor is exactly what Xiaomi needs to not compete but stay relevant in the space. Xiaomi is not directly teasing or speaking about the device but the device has already leaked revealing a bunch of its specifications.

First things first, Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 is expected to go big this year with a 9.7-inch 2048 x 1536 retina display. It is unclear why the term 'retina display' now famous with Apple products is being used here. The Mi Pad 3 will feature an all metal unibody design and is expected to be just 6.08mm at its thinnest point.

Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 is likely to aim those looking at thing beyond media consumption by using a seventh generation Intel m3 processor coupled with 8GB RAM and option of 128 or 256GB eMMX storage. Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 will launch with Intel HD graphics and expected to run Windows 10 out of the box.

Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 is also likely to house a bigger 8290mAh battery, which should help those looking for some mobile productivity on the go. The new Mi Pad 3 is also expected to come with 16MP primary camera and an 8MP front camera. Tablets are still unconventional for photography but it is nice to have decent cameras if the need ever arises.

According to GizmoChina, Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 will only come with Windows 10 and also offer bundled Microsoft Office. There is also an optional keyboard accessory for expanding the usability of the product. Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 is expected to start at 1,999 Yuan (approximately Rs 19,990) for the 128GB variant while the 256GB version is expected to hit the shelves at 2,299 Yuan (approximately Rs 22,990). The leak indicates the keyboard accessory will cost another 99 Yuan (approximately Rs 990).

The pricing is where Xiaomi has been able to beat its peers over time and again. The company has been successfully able to deliver cost-effective devices and these leaked prices do suggest Xiaomi is ready to refuel excitement in the tablet space and thus make Windows tablet viable for a lot of audience.

How These Two Students Cheated Flipkart Of Rs 1.05 Crore And 152 Smartphones

How These Two Students Cheated Flipkart Of Rs 1.05 Crore And 152 Smartphones

An engineering graduate and a student pursuing the same course allegedly duped an e-commerce company of Rs 1.05 crore and 152 expensive mobile phones by falsely claiming that they were delivered empty boxes.

Rajasthan Police on Wednesday claimed to have busted the inter-state gang of online fraudsters with the arrest of its two members - Rahul Meena (20), a B.Tech student in Gwalior and Dharamraj Meena (20), an engineering graduate from Jaipur.

Flipkart had filed a complaint regarding the fraud following which police initiated investigation and arrested the duo yesterday.

They were produced in a court that sent them on six-day police remand. "The zonal manager of Flipkart, Manoj Chudhary had on September 24 complained that some persons had duped the company of Rs 50 and 55 lakhs and 152 expensive phones," Sawai Singh Godara, Superintendent of Police (city) said.

According to the e-commerce website, Dharamraj and Rahul had been ordering expensive mobile sets with different names, IDs and addresses. Then, they used to get refund from the company by falsely claiming that they have received empty boxes.

"They were involved in duping the company for last one-and-a-half-year. The doubt arose when the company officials noticed that two bank account numbers sent for refund were same," the SP said.

The two had been leading a lavish and expensive life and owned luxury vehicles, he added. Both are the residents of Beech Gawndi village in Madhya Pradesh.

Meanwhile, police have also arrested five other persons involved in purchase and resale of the mobile phones from the duo, Anil Joshi, SHO at Anantpura police station said. More arrests in connection with the case are possible. Interrogation with the seven accused is underway, he added.

PayPal Cries Foul, Accuses Paytm Of Stealing From Its Logo, Hilarity Ensues Online

PayPal Cries Foul, Accuses Paytm Of Stealing From Its Logo, Hilarity Ensues Online

All’s not going well for Paytm, the unheralded “messiah” of India’s demonetization scourge, off late. The e-wallet and online payment app service has been facing technical issues and not working properly over the past couple of days, and while it has doused that fire, a new inferno has erupted.

PayPal -- one of the early pioneers of online payment systems, with a shrinking user base -- has accused Paytm of infringing on its logo. No kidding. The US-based PayPal filed a complaint in the Indian trademark office, claiming the Alibaba-backed Paytm’s redesigned logo “slavishly adopted the two-tone blue colour scheme” which is the trademark of the original PayPal logo.

The trademark infringement claim was filed on 18th November, on the final day of the four month window for any party to raise any objections -- Paytm had filed for its new logo trademark on July 18.

Is the Paytm logo “deceptively and confusingly similar” to the PayPal logo? Is PayPal’s argument moot and the US-based company trying to stir a controversy where none exists? We’ll let you decide.

Amazon Makes Its First Air Delivery Through Drone, Merely 13 Minutes After The Order Was Placed

Amazon Makes Its First Air Delivery Through Drone, Merely 13 Minutes After The Order Was Place

Today, everything is a stone’s throw away. From our pizzas to our headphones, we have our necessities at our doorsteps in no time. As if that wasn’t enough, Amazon has now delivered a package by a drone, just 13 minutes after the order was placed.

 The order, an Amazon Fire TV Box and a bag of popcorn, was delivered to a customer named Richard B near Cambridge, England.Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and chief executive, proudly shared the news on Twitter:

View image on Twitter

Jeff Bezos 

✔@JeffBezos

First-ever #AmazonPrimeAir customer delivery is in the books. 13 min—click to delivery. Check out the video:http://amzn.to/primeair 

7:28 PM - 14 Dec 2016

 
•  6,2156,215 Retweets
 
•  6,7856,785 likes

 The delivery was done in the rural countryside near Cambridge, an area that has been authorized for drone test flights by British aviation. 

Amazon published a video explaining how the fully autonomous delivery was made, without any human pilot.

The use of drones and autonomous machines is being eyed by companies like Amazon as a great way to not only expand their user base and increase efficiency but to also lower the cost of delivery of small packages. Amazon Prime Air aims at speedy delivery of packages through unmanned aerial vehicles.

Drone deliveries have been made by companies like Flirtey and Project Wing in the past, and it remains to be seen how effective the system proves to be, considering the vehicles are unmanned. 

Want to increase the performance of your android phone just in 1 minute ?

Want to increase the performance of your android phone just in 1 minute ?

Follow these 1 minute hacks :

• If your phone has amoled display then keep the wallpaper as black to save the battery.

• To speed up charging put your phone onairplane mode, it will increase the rate of charging by 50%.

• Change animation speed for faster performance, as if you decrease the scaleit will take less time to open and close apps.(you need to enable developer options by clicking build number several times).Try keeping the scale below 1x to see effect. (Scale 1x is recommended for all three options)

• Put limit on number of processes that will run in background then it will stop consuming extra data and rest of processes get killed.(you need to enable developer options by clicking build number several times)(max 3 processes are recommended )

• By putting your phone in ceramic bowl the sound loudness will increase approx. by 30%.

( Image source: Google images)

What are some interesting smartphone hacks?

Unique Way to use your smartphone:

Thanks to USB OTG, you can expand your Android smartphone’s functionality in numerous ways, and use it to do extremely cool things . Some of us know it but most of us have used OTG to connect to Flash drive only.

Use Mouse and Keyboard with Android Phone

Tired of typing in that small screen of smartphone just connecting keyboard to your smartphone makes it so simple.

I have typed C programs,text documents,played games and done many interesting stuff with smartphone.

Gaming Controller

If you cannot buy PS3 or PS4 no problem just connect the controller through OTG and play awesome games. Play Asphalt8 , Real Racing, Modern Combat and Dead trigger etc.()

Other things to OTG can be connected to are

Ethernet

Printer

Create Music on Android with MIDI Controller Apps Using Musical Instruments

USB accessories like LED light , Fan , Selfie Stick ,Microphones.

Make the best use of your smartphone connect to USB hub and discover the endless possibilities.

Update 1:Transfer charge from one device to another.(mentioned by Anand Kumar)

All you have to do is connect the two phones, and the phone acting as the USB host (the one directly connected to the USB OTG cable) will start charging the other device.

Update 2:Control DSLR Camera with Android Smartphones.(soure:Google)

DSLR Cameras offer best in class image quality, complete with extensive manual controls, and a range of accessories. However, you can also control your DSLR camera and tweak its manual controls using your USB OTG connected Android phone, via numerous apps available for the same. One such app is DSLR Controller, which can be used to adjust focus, zoom control, shutter speed, ISO, and then some more, directly from the Android smartphone. It can even be used to record Time lapse videos.

Connect USB Modem with Android Mobile

Update 3: Fignerprint Scanner .

I came across this when I went to buy Relaince Jio Sim . The verification of the documents was done using the eKYC method to speed up the process. The sim was activated within 1 day because of this cool feature.

eKYC :- To simplify the process, eKYC uses your Aadhaar card to verify your details quickly. This is a service offered by the UIDAI, and enables businesses to quickly carry out KYC norms. To do so, you need to give the store you Aadhaar number, and then your fingerprint is scanned in the store and matched with the Aadhaar database to verify your identity.