Turing Robotic industry today confirmed that, the Turing Phone will be delivered in the month of April 2016. The company also announced that, they have chosen to drop Android and use Jolla’s Sailfish OS.
According to the company – “Sailfish OS is now running perfectly on the Turing Phone and they have started the final OS software testing phase. Sailfish OS runs exceptionally fast on the Turing. You will not have to worry about performance issues with Turing’s Snapdragon 801 because Sailfish OS has been optimized to run fast on your Turing Phone.”
In case you aren’t aware, MeeGo mobile software platform was created through the merging of Moblin and the Maemo OS originally developed by Nokia; the Nokia N9 was one of the very good devices which ran MeeGo OS. The Sailfish OS is an evolved continuation of the Linux MeeGo OS previously developed by an alliance of Nokia and Intel. Jolla also announced mobile phones last year which as running Sailfish OS. Few months ago, Jolla had also proposed its first Sailfish Tablet as a crowd sourced campaign, which was an instant hit. Last year at MWC, Jolla had also introduced Sailfish OS 2.0 and announced that it was ready for licensing to OEMs and other Partners.
With SailFish OS, The Turing Phone will also be able to run Android Apps without issue. An Android application store will be available for the users to download apps. The Turing Robotic Industry (TRI) also announced that, it will be hosting its first Turing Developers Conference (TDC) during Q2 2016.
Let’s wait and watch, what this brings onto the table!
Thanks to smartphones, tablets, laptops, e-readers, and other portable digital devices, we are now used to carrying our entire world with us everywhere we go. Friends, partners, and bosses especially are no longer as understanding about an inability to respond, and saying you are on the go is no longer an acceptable excuse for not getting the job done or responding to someone. Even though it is easier than ever to be able to check e-mails, update files, and communicate, you still need the right device to do all these things. Here are three things to consider as you are picking out the right device for your needs.
Are You Using a Device Powerful Enough to Suit Your Needs?
If you are expected to be on call at work, as well as on the go, you need a portable device that can handle all the programs you need to do your job well. It is important to run the latest programs and most up-to-date systems to be compatible with as many coworkers and clients as you can be while out in the field. For business purposes, you will often need to use programs and apps like Skype, Microsoft Word, Excel, or Quickbooks among others to get everything handled in a way that pleases clients and coworkers alike. It is also extremely important to have a device with a powerful processor, so that you are not waiting around for programs to load and documents to be sent when you are expected to be delivering top quality results.
It is also very important that your device not sacrifice these performance needs for portability or convenience, which is why a tablet is often a better choice than a more standard laptop when you need to accomplish a lot on the move and may not have a space to sit down to do so at all times. An example of a high performance tablet is the Panasonic Tablet, which also happens to be a “tough” model, suited for rugged conditions. This particular tablet features an i5-2520M vPro processor, a third-generation 2.5GHz processor, and up to 8GB of RAM, which is definitely enough to do everything you need for most business purposes. PCMag conducted a variety of tests and found it to be just as high-scoring as other premier Windows tablets like the Microsoft Surface Pro, which won their Editor’s Choice award, and the Kupa UltraNote X15 Ultra, which are not active-lifestyle models.
2. Can The Device You’re Using Withstand The Physical Pressure Of Your Active Lifestyle?
If you have a very active lifestyle, find yourself in the field, and are contending with all sorts of physical pressures – you need a device that can handle all of those factors. It is also important that your tablet not encumber you by being too heavy, even while being strong and able to withstand the elements. The toughpad tablet is a good example of a tablet that is attractive yet rugged, as Top Ten Reviews notes. The tablet features a silver-magnesium alloy chassis that hardly looks like it belongs outside, but can withstand a lot of abuse. This device is MIL-STD-810G compliant for drops and IP-rated for resistance to dust and water.
TechRadar espouses about the tablet’s ability to withstand drops of five feet, and notes that it does not feature a fan so that dust and rain can not harm it. These design features make it able to handle vibration, high altitude, extreme humidity, shock, and intense temperatures. It also has an elastomeric guard at the edges to reduce force if it is dropped, and to protect the display. It is also important to be able to see your screen in bright sunlight, and it is easy to do that with this tablet, because it a matte screen that isn’t obscured when you are in imperfect light. It is important that there isn’t a situation that would cause your tablet to buckle and under-perform, so you need to choose a tablet that is designed for extreme circumstances.
Is Your Device Convenient For You To Bring Everywhere?
Despite needing something strong, you still don’t want to carry something around a bulky tablet. Even though you want a powerful machine, it is also desirable that you don’t have something that is significantly larger than the average, non-rugged tablet. If you have something extremely bulky, it may look out of place in the boardroom, even if it appears just fine out in the woods or on a construction site. Having features that can be customized for different situations is also a good idea, such as being able to switch out batteries if you are away from an outlet for too long of a time, and a number of docks to attach other devices.
Overall, it is best to weigh your options and find something that suits your needs if you are going to be out in the field.
In this article, let’s review the Honor 5X, a budget mid range smartphone from Honor. Though, this device is priced as a budget phone, features, design and the user experience give it a feel of a good high end smartphone.
Honor is Huawei’s Smartphone e-brand for digital natives. Honor has been expanding aggressively in global markets, and has successfully launched in 74 global markets, entering the bestselling charts in most of the European countries honor launched. This is also the first Honor phone which is available for the US market at just 199 USD. The Honor 5X was announced early this week in India at a price of 12999 and is available in three colors – gold, silver and grey. The phone will be sold on both Amazon and Flipkart and is available for pre-orders. The sale of Honor 5X will commence starting 1st February midnight.
Alright, Lets look at how this phone performs in these 4 key areas –
Hardware, Look and Feel:
The phone is made from brushed metal alloy that adds to the premium look and feel of this phone; and not many companies offer a metal body in this range as of now. The top and bottom of the phone are made up of plastic. The phone comes with a premium aircraft grade metal that also offers 5 layer heat sinks with copper shielding cover. The phone is neither heavy, nor very thin. Its a good weight in the hands; and doesn’t slip-off easily. The curved back is quite ergonomic and the rear flows very well to the front. There is a LED notification on the top of the phone as well.
The power button and volume rockers are placed on the right side which feels vey neat and also offers a good amount of tactile feedback. The buttons also have a textured feel to it making it more comfortable to use.
The rear of the phone sports the camera and the finger print sensor. The finger print sensor is an impressive feature on this phone (or in any Huawei phone in that matter). The finger print reading is fast (the company says 0.5 seconds to unlock) and also, has worked well all the times for me, 10/10. Kudos to the team. When compared with other phones in this segment, the accuracy is pretty neat.
The emotion UI provides you way more options to further make use of the finger print sensor, than to just unlock your phone. Gestures help you do that. For e.g.: Swiping up on the finger print scanner shows the recently used apps. Swiping down brings in the notifications page to quickly read through and toggle settings. A tap can be configured to take you to back screen or even click a picture while you take a selfie. You can even take a call, or use it like a home button with customisations available. Here are some of the options, you can set.
The phone is powered with a Snapdragon 616 processor, an Adreno 405 GPU and a 2GB RAM; thats a bummer. There are 3GB variants available in China. not sure, why they weren’t made available here in India and the US. The phone has a onboard 16GB ROM, expandable upto 128 GB. The performance is slightly sluggish with some screen refreshes when you toggle between the running apps. There is a bit of delay on the load when you launch apps; not a major deal breaker. Probably, it would’ve been better with a better processor and the 3GB RAM; however, must appreciate the Emotion UI for making the OS much user friendly and providing some good sneaks that help in better performance when compared to other phones which are running on a 615/616 processor.
The left side is for the SIM and SD card slots. This phone has 2 seperate slots for a nano SIM & Micro SIM and a Micro SD card. Unlike few other phones which offer Hybrid SIM models, you do not need to sacrifice on a SIM to add up a Micro SD card.
The Display is very impressive and sharp. I find it to be one of the real good features of the phone. Its a 5.5 inch, IPS Panel display powering a full HD resolution of 1080 * 1920. The quality and the details are neat. Images aren’t over-saturated or too warm/cold. the colours are vibrant and the brightness on the screen is impressive as well. Reading text on the phone is pretty good. I like the fact, it isn’t too sharp giving a realistic clear text.
The phone has a 3000 MAH battery which offers a good battery life of over a day; It gives me SOT of 6.5 hours which is pretty impressive. With Emotion UI, there are tons of more customisations which you can do, to make your phone even better in terms of battery saving. Thanks to the patents Huawei has on the same.
The Headphone Jack on the top and Micro-USB port and speaker grill towards the bottom. The sound quality on the phone isn’t great when you play music on loud speaker; it gets slightly better with a headset. However, The call quality is very impressive and the volume is good too.!
Software, User Experience:
The Honor 5X is running Android 5.1 out of the box with the customised version, the Emotion UI 3.1. The company has announced that, this phone will get the Marshmallow update with the Emotion UI 4. These days, Every company have their own android skins for their phones. Out of all, my personal favourites have been the Flyme OS, MiUI and Emotion UI. They are not just basic customisations, but give users few features which are actually worth trying. Lets talk about that some other time!
This phone offer Emotion UI 3.1. There are few software features which makes the phone pretty good. My personal favourite is the notifications window. They show a lot more detail on a timeline about the app notifications and your system. Shake to re-align icons is cool as well. Themes would also fancy some people. If something is lacking on the EMUI, its the performance. It definitely needs some improvement.
Camera
The camera is powered with a 13MP sensor, a f2.0 aperture which does allow a lot of light and a Dual LED flash to use in low-light conditions. In outdoors, the camera performs very well and is quick. The quality of pictures is pretty neat and the details are sharp with colors being good as well. Thankfully, the software doesn’t over-sharp the images and hence, images feel realistic. Emotion UI also offers a great camera software which gives you options for smart selfies, food mode etc.
Here are some samples pictures I clicked. will upload few more as I use the phone.
The phone doesn’t come with an optical image stabiliser built in. You can shoot a 1080p video on this phone. The video processing on the phone can be better, but is certainly good enough for a mid range smartphone.
The slo-mo and time-lapse features are also there. Here is a sample time-lapse video, I shot early this morning. Not the best, and certainly not the worse either. One point worth mentioning is that, when I used this camera for a longer time to shoot this time-lapse video, it didn’t warm the phone – Thats a very neat behaviour.
The follow-focus on the videos is a pretty good addition. The front camera performance is decent and does take some good pictures; and if you’re a selfie lover, there are tons of more options to play around.
Pros and Cons, Value for Money:
With a brushed metal, premium design and a gorgeous display its impressive. Talking about value for money, At USD 199 USD, its definitely worth considering the phone in the US. With devices like LeEco Le1S, CoolPad Note 3 and Mi Redmi Note 3 in India, I would’ve preferred, if Honor had priced the phone a little more aggressive. Today in the market, There are few other devices in this range which offers better specs; however, its not just about the specs at times. Its more on the user experience. I personally love how the honor phones offer a good user experience with its Emotion UI; and of course the accurate finger print scanner which doubles with great gesture controls. I believe, software updates with Honor aren’t going to be an issue either.
I would’ve loved had Honor brought in the 3GB variant model in India and the U.S. Not sure, if they have plans to bring it in as a limited edition phone at some point this year.
Summing up, This phone offers a good design, beautiful display and most importantly, finger print scanner which is accurate and does a lot more things than just unlocking your phone.
Do let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!
Today at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Lenovo announced the development of the first consumer mobile device with Project Tango in collaboration with Google. Google’s Project Tango is a technology platform that uses advanced computer vision, depth sensing, and motion tracking to create on-screen 3D experiences, allowing users to explore their physical environments via their device. Specialized hardware and software combine to let the device react to every movement of the user, when they step forward, backward, or lean side to side. App developers can transform your home into a game level, or create a magic window into virtual and augmented environments.
Project Tango-enabled devices can recognize places they’ve been before, like your living room, the office, or public spaces. Unlike GPS, Project Tango motion tracking works indoors, allowing users to navigate precisely through a shopping mall, or even find a specific item at the store where that information is available. Using the sensor in the device, Project Tango devices can also capture the 3D dimensions of the room, giving measurements that can be used to help you when shopping for furniture or decorations.
The Project Tango Tablet Development Kit can be purchased in the Google Store here. Google and Lenovo have also started a incubator platform where developers can submit their Project Tango app proposals for a chance to win funding and the chance to have their app featured on Lenovo’s upcoming smartphone. The submission period closes on Feb.15, 2016.
Lenovo, Google, and Qualcomm Technologies are working closely together to optimize the software and hardware to ensure consumers get the most out of the Project Tango platform.
Google India today announced the much awaited launch of its latest range of Nexus phones in partnership with leading smartphone makers LG and Huawei. These two devices were first unveiled at an Event held at SF a couple of weeks ago. Both Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P offer a pure stock experience of Android running Marshmallow 6.0.
Nexus 5X will be priced at Rs 31,900 (for 16GB variant) and Rs 35,900 (32GB), while Nexus 6P will be available at Rs 39,999 (32GB) and Rs 42,999 (64 GB) in India. Available for pre-orders starting today – Product Page on Amazon and Flipkart.
Colour options available: The Nexus 5X will be available in Charcoal Black, Quartz White and Ice Blue colours whereas the Nexus 6P is available only in silver & black colour.
Google has also partnered with E-zone, Croma, Reliance Digital, The Mobile Store, Bajaj Electronics, Vijay Sales, Jumbo and other offline retail chains to sell the new Nexus Devices across India.
Both these devices also offer an enhanced version of “Now on Tap” allowing users to get additional information, take actions or navigate between apps. Essentially “taking Google out of the search box,” users can quickly invoke Google from any screen by a simple tap-and-hold on the home button. Google then provides relevant information and answers based on the context of what you are looking, in the moment.
The Nexus 6P camera is optimized for low-light photography. It has 1.55 micron pixels; the sensors are much larger than the iPhone 6S Plus. The Google test results are pretty impressive. Well, Both these devices shoot 4K videos and also does Slow-Mo videos; The Nexus 5X does it at 120 frames per second. The Nexus 6P can do 240 fps.
The Nexus cameras also offer Smart Burst Pictures, which takes photos at 30fps to make GIFs with. – Similar to Nokia Live Images and Apple Live Pictures.
The Nexus 5X is manufactured by LG and comes with a 5.2-inch Full HD screen and 2700 mAh battery. At the back is a 12.3MP camera with laser-assisted autofocus while at the front is a 5MP camera. The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 SoC with 2GB of RAM.
The Nexus 6P is manufactured by Huawei and is a first full metal-body phone that comes with a larger 5.7-inch WQHD display and 3450 mAh battery. It is powered by a Snapdragon 810 v2.1 SoC and 3GB of RAM. The 6P also has the same 12.3MP rear camera as the 5X but comes with an 8MP front facing camera with HDR+ shooting mode.
Honor today announced their flagship smartphone Honor 7. This is a fully metallic phone which offers some smart functions and multimedia capabilities though a dedicated button and a gesture based finger print sensor. The Honor 7 is priced at Rs 22,999, and will be available to buy starting October 15th exclusively via Flipkart. The phone is quite well priced and competes with OnePlus 2 and Zenfone 2 in this segment.
The Honor 7’s fully metallic body is air-brushed with a ceramic coating, offering an unmistakably premium finish. The device’s 5.2-inch encasing and carefully positioned buttons and sensors allows for an ergonomic single-handed operation.
The Honor 7’s frame-free metallic fingerprint reader allows for rapid 360-degree fingerprint authentication from various angles and even boasts a self-learning capability that allows scanning accuracy to be enhanced through the subtle re-recording of registered fingerprints during use. The reader also supports intuitive gesture control that enables users to do everything from answering calls to take photos to check notifications.
The phone is powered with HiSilicon octa-core Kirin 935 processor with its A53 and a 3GB RAM. The phone claims to eliminate the possibility of overheating with the Its L-shaped circuit board in place. The battery on the phone is a 3,100mAh battery, also has a reverse-charging capabilities. The phone runs on Emotion UI v 3.0 and also is powered with Huawei’s Signal+ technology and a dual-antenna design.
The fingerprint technology integratesdual hardware security defense systems, protecting your private data through the safe, app lock and visitor mode. It provides a solution that requires a smaller fingerprint touch area and screen unlock within shortest time span of 0.5 seconds. It allows the user to swipe down on the fingerprint sensor to open the notification panel and double-touch on the fingerprint sensor to dismiss all notifications.
Speaking at the launch, Mr. Zhao Gang, Vice-President, Honor International Business said that: “We are enthusiastic to introduce the Honor 7 in India today. The phone is a testament of our commitment and growth across markets. As a global pioneer, Honor travels wide and this is currently demonstrated by its efforts in key markets such as India, Russia, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. The device’s precise dimensions and metallic finish offer an optimal form-factor and premium feel, while its smart and multimedia capabilities inspire action and creativity.”
Lets see a detailed review of this device, when I get a chance to play with it later this month.
We all know, When we search for any product, google lists out ads from all potential brands who are related to the product. However, you will likely see more ads soon from companies that already count you as a customer, and not only when you search.
Well, This isn’t too new. Facebook and Twitter have been doing this for a while now.
Reports say, Google is beginning to let advertisers upload lists of their customers’ email addresses in order to target those people with ads when searching on Google, watching videos on YouTube or checking email on Gmail. Thereby, brands may be able to target people that Google identifies as having similar characteristics to the people in their email lists.
To accomplish this customer matching, Google will be cross-referencing email lists from brands with the email addresses tied to people’s Google accounts (considering the number of Gmail users). Google will use a process called “hashing” to disguise the email addresses on both sides of the match and prevent any personally identifiable information from being exposed.
There is a way to opt-out of their new third-party email address ad targeting system.
How to Opt-Out:
You can do this by switching off Ads based on your interests on the Google ad settings page (for logged-in Google users) at: https://www.google.com/settings/ads. This page gives you direct control over how your interests are used when displaying ads via Google-associated sites. Though the descriptions on this page do not currently explain that the new third-party email lists case is included, turning off the interest-based ad preferences will also turn off the use of the third-party email address lists for your logged in account.
ASUS, today announced that, it will start the manufacturing the smartphones in India (Sri City, Andhra Pradesh) in a move to expand its presence in India. The company has partnered with Foxconn to Manufacture ASUS Smartphones in India. ASUS will kick-start its manufacturing operations with Zenfone 2 Laser which will soon be followed by ZenFone Go. The company pledges its support to the Government’s ‘Make in India’ projects.
The company aims to manufacture 150,000 smartphones per month by the end of the current financial year which will account for almost 80% of sales in India.
The ASUS Zenfone 2 Laser delivers a high-definition (HD) 1280 x 720-pixel resolution. It offers 5 MP front camera and 13 MP rear camera with laser- assisted auto-focus that locks the focus on an object in as low as 0.3 seconds. The phone comes with Anti-Scratch Corning Gorilla Glass 4 which has better scratch resistance than any protection film for smartphones in the market. The phone also boasts of dual microphone with noise cancellation for the best phone call quality, and full HD video recording 1080p@30fps capture with video stabilization and one-touch still-capture facility.
Last month, at the first edition of Zen Festival in India, the company launched its brand new offerings – Zenfone Selfie, Zenfone 2 Laser and Zenfone 2 Deluxe.
India offers us a huge opportunity as smartphone penetration is just 10%. We are excited to announce our local manufacturing facility that will cater to the growing demands of the market. The Indian government’s focus on ‘Make in India’ has opened a plethora of opportunities for international companies. It is an opportune time to make the announcement as it will enable us to bring our cutting edge products to consumers who are looking for features and design sensibilities of a high-end smartphone at an economic price. We are aggressively targeting the Indian market. We aim to achieve 5% market share in the country by next year and empower all our customers with luxury.- Peter Chang, Regional Head – South Asia & Country Manager – System Business Group – ASUS India.
Google had its event this morning at San Francisco where it unveiled few latest product lines and also showcased the next generation Android Operating System that would be pre-loaded on the version of Nexus devices. Here are few highlights of the event.
1. Numbers – Well, as every event, it all started with numbers. Google now has 1.4 B active Android devices; 20 million chrome-cast sales globally. Google Play is now over 1 billion active users. Sundar also highlighted the need of making new devices and how they guide the ecosystem. Well, played smart.
2. New Nexus Devices – 5X and 6P.
Like the rumours and leaks suggested, we have the new Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P announced. For more details on the device, check this page. The Nexus 6P is a full-metal bodied Nexus, Anodized aluminum. 7.3mm thick and is made by Huawei. Both these phones are equipped with USB Type C adapters (similar to OnePlus 2), laser-detect autofocus, Nexus Imprint (Rear Finger Print sensor), Stereo forward-facing speakers and it runs Android 6.0, Marshmallow.
Nexus 5X and 6P available for preorder today in US, UK, Ireland, and Japan. 5X starts at 379 USD and 6P starts at 499 USD. Will be available later in October. Both of these Nexus phones would also work with Project Fi, Google’s wireless MVNO network.
3. Camera – The Nexus 6P camera is optimized for low-light photography. It has 1.55 micron pixels; the sensors are much larger than the iPhone 6S Plus. The Google test results are pretty impressive. Well, Both these devices shoot 4K videos and also does Slow-Mo videos; The Nexus 5X does it at 120 frames per second. The Nexus 6P can do 240 fps.
4. Smart Burst Pictures: There’s a new “smart burst” feature in the camera, which takes photos at 30fps to make GIFs with. – Similar to Nokia Live Images and Apple Live Pictures.
5. MarshMallow Features – You can voice search from the lock screen, the notification bar gets simple. A simple app drawer which sorts applications based on your usage or the time of the day. ‘Now on Tap’ seems to be really cool, not sure how many people love sharing so much of their app data. Lets see that later. More features here. Marshmallow rolls out next week to existing Nexus devices.
6. Nexus Protect Program – This is the new warranty program from Google in the US. As of today, Google gives you a 1 year protection against hardware. They are now expanding it to two years, along with accidental damages. 24/7 support and device replacement in a working day. This program would cost 69 USD for the Nexus 5X and 89 USD for the Nexus 6P. No light of this program’s availability outside the U.S.
7. Google Play Music family plan is coming later this year. It would cost you $14.99 for up to 6 people; No limit on the number of devices.
8. Google Photos brings in three new features. You can now easily pool photos and videos into a single shared album. You can “label” people in Google Photos and thats private; and the third feature being Chromecast support. You can now showcase your photos on TV and its basically not mirroring your phone, but you get to choose which picture gets slide-show on TV, while you browse through your phone.
9. A new Google Chromecast. This thing looks funny; it would basically hang behind your TV. it comes in 3 colours. With a new adaptive antenna system and Wifi which supports 5GHz. The chrome cast app has been completely redesigned as well. You can now play games through your Chromecast. Its not mirroring your phone but extending the game to the TV and giving you controls on your phone. You could do a voice search through your phone as well. Available starting today at 35 USD. A new Chromecast Audio device which would plug into a speaker to stream audio over Wi-Fi from your existing apps. This device is 35 USD as well.
10. Preview of the Pixel C
A convertible computer from Google. The Pixel C runs android and the keyboard is a separate piece connected via Bluetooth; you slide the tablet and attach using the magnetic connection. It’s adjustable from 100 to 135 degrees of viewing angles. It has a 10.2-inch screen with a 308 ppi screen. 2560 x 1800 resolution. A Nvidia X1 processor. Maxwell GPU powered with a 3GB RAM. This would be priced 499 USD for the 32GB version and 599 for the 64GB one. Will be available end of this year. The Magnetic Keyboard would be priced at 149 USD. Its interesting that, you need not charge the detachable bluetooth keyboard. The tablet inductively charges the keyboard so you never have to charge it.
According to Business Insider, Google has been hiring engineers and software developers out of Amazon’s Lab126 for the initiative now called Project Aura. Project Aura will work on other wearables, as well, and will remain under Google’s supervision instead of being established as a separate entity under the Alphabet umbrella. Aura is run by Ivy Ross, who previously ran the Glass project. She reports to Tony Fadell, head of Google’s connected-home business Nest, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The initial version of Glass, which sold for $1,500, prompted a privacy backlash because users could record video in public places without others noticing. Google stopped selling it in January and also closed the Explorer Program few months ago.
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt had said earlier this year that the company wasn’t giving up on Glass because wearable technology is a potentially big new market. Reports also say, Google is quietly distributing a new version of Glass to companies in industries such as health care, manufacturing and energy.
Google have been taking some swift steps in their Self Driving Car Project as well, they recently hired John Krafcik as the new CEO for the project.
The new Aura group provides a much-needed re-branding to the Glass image and also opens the door for a more broader scope of wearable technology initiatives to help Google compete against compeition such as Facebook, Apple and Microsoft.
