Topps blog brings you allround news from all around the world: Technology, Political, Science, Entertainment
It's not just the cost of labor -- building an iPhone in the US would be massively complex. China has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure, while Apple's entire supply chain for the product is tuned to Chinese manufacturing. Revamping those decisions would cost a great deal of money.
The post Why iPhone production isn’t coming to the United States appeared first on ExtremeTech.
If there's one day where everyone wants to move out cars, it's New Year's Eve day. Automakers want sales bragging rights, dealers want to meet the next quota level, sales reps want bonuses. You're in the driver's seat. And you can always walk.
The post Five reasons you should buy a car right now appeared first on ExtremeTech.
Today, Dell is offering up a substantial discount on the Inspiron 15 5000 laptop. If you're in need of a powerful 15.6-inch device, this is the perfect time to buy. With a full HD display, a Skylake CPU, a dedicated graphics card, and a sizable hard drive, this laptop offers a complete computing experience wherever you go.
The post ET deals: Dell Inspiron 15 5000 15.6-inch laptop for $549 appeared first on ExtremeTech.
The push for cashless India has been aggressive in the recent past, thanks to the ongoing demonetization efforts and the apparent shortage of cash. Today, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has launched BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money), an app that will make use of Aadhar card authentication to make cashless transactions. As of now, the app is only available for Android but soon we can expect the same to go live for iOS and other platforms as well.
Provided the app gains sufficient traction it can further ease the burden of people and also compete with the likes of other payment systems including PayTM, Freecharge, and MobiKwik. That said, as of now, BHIM app is mostly centered around making and receiving payments, unlike PayTM and others who offer an array of services including mobile recharge and bus ticket booking. Also, it’s not a wallet per se as it’s directly linked to your bank account(s).
Must Read: 8 Things You Should Know About Narendra Modi’s BHIM App
Downloading and installing the app shouldn’t actually be a problem since it is already up on Google Playstore and will be soon launched for other platforms.
This is the part that is quite impressive, unlike other apps, BHIM has aimed for a simplistic approach and due to this, it doesn’t distract you with a slew of other services. The app links up with your bank account with just your phone number. I just had to punch in my phone number and all my bank accounts associated with the mobile number cropped up. In the background, the app will request for an OTP and authenticate the same before letting you access. That said, you don’t need any bank account credentials and just a cell phone number will suffice. Please note that you must have linked your Aadhaar account number with your bank for the account to appear in the list.
The BHIM UI is simplistic and is made up of three primary functions, Send Money, Request Money and Scan and Pay. Send Money, lets you send money by typing in the UPI address which is the “phone number@UPI” Similarly one can request the money from a user by punching in their UPI address in the “Request Tab”. Additionally one can also scan the QR code of the merchant in order to send/receive the money, just like how it works with PayTM and other mobile wallets.
The app offers a feature to check your account balance by heading over to “Bank Account” and selecting “Request Balance,” However this feature started throwing up an error and is most likely to be fixed in the future builds. The app currently supports Hindi and English and new languages might be added soon.
The QR code will ease out the payment process as all one needs to do is simply point out their mobile camera at the code without the need to punch in the numbers. The merchants can simply download the QR codes and take a printout and display it at the payment counter. The app doesn’t levy charges for the transfer but however since it is based on UPI the nominal transfer charges will still be levied by the concerned Banks. Again on this front, I faced a problem, the QR scanner on the app refused to work and asked me to restart my device and even after restarting the app showed the same error.
As of now, the app doesn’t allow linking multiple accounts and in case you want to change your account, go to the Bank Accounts and unlink your current account and add a new one, however, this means that you will no more be able to access the unlinked account. So, it’s not a typical “switch”, but “change” of accounts. Also, note that your UPI username will remain the same even after you change the accounts.
UPI PIN is a four digit number that is needed to authenticate the transactions, akin to the four-digit ATM PIN. Changing UPI is pretty easy, head over to Bank accounts and select “Reset UPI PIN.” Subsequently, you will be prompted to enter the last 6 digits of your debit/ATM card and then will receive an OTP. Please note that the UPI PIN will be common for all the UPI apps.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post How to use BHIM App to Send and Receive Money in India appeared first on Technology Personalized.
As 2016 draws to a close, we asked the team at TechPP to list out what in their opinions were the best products and the biggest disappointments of 2016. And what they were looking forward to in 2017. The result was quite a collection. Read on.
For me, the best of 2016 has to be the Google Pixel. And this may sound fanboyish and even typical but the truth is I have been waiting for a phone like this for years. I always considered iPhones to be the best smartphone lineup there is in the market, however, my deep hatred towards Apple’s constrained ecosystem never let me buy one. And its Android counterparts always seem to be lacking at least one major aspect – the Samsung S7 was too glassy for my usage, the Nexus 6P was huge, the Nexus 5X wasn’t powerful enough, the HTC M9 didn’t have the best in class camera… you get the idea. The Google Pixel showcases Android in its true glory while not compromising on the rest of the features. The smaller variant too packs the same punch and best of all, Google has taken control of both software and hardware leading to a significantly better experience.
Unfortunately, there were a lot of gloomy periods of 2016. However, if I had to select just one product, it has to be Twitter (wearables too but I don’t really care that much about them). The social network couldn’t fix even a minuscule percentage of the issues haunting it and hence, its share has been gradually declining ever since the start of this year. The return of Jack Dorsey as the CEO back in October 2015 did not bring any substantial alteration and each and every shortcoming Twitter is facing has only worsened in the past year. Problems such as it being too intimidating for new users, its news and social dilemma, not allowing users to edit tweets, the algorithmic timeline change, and a whole lot more still persist. Numerous reports revealed the social network is looking for buyers and at this point, I am not particularly surprised by that.
I’m looking forward to how personal computers shape up in 2017. As of now, the PC space is highly scattered throughout the industry and there are numerous manifestations of how they function and look. There are Chromebooks which are betting their entire future on the Web, Apple’s ambitious MacBook that bets on a wireless life, ultrabooks which attempt to encapsulate powerful hardware in a relatively portable aesthetic, tablets like the iPad Pro, two-in-ones such as the Surface Pro, and a couple more. Your phone is also playing a vital role here as companies continue to crown it with the ultimate mobile device, especially Microsoft which recently managed to implement its complete operating system on Qualcomm ARM processors. So, yes, personal computing currently is going through an experimental age and it’s a fascinating one as every technology’s fate depends on upon it. It may not reach a conclusive stage in 2017 but it will truly come out with something which will roughly give us a glimpse into the future of the computer.
I loved the kind of comeback Microsoft and Amazon made. Microsoft, in particular, has been more and more open to various competing platforms such as iOS and Android – perhaps the biggest shocker was Microsoft becoming a part of the Linux foundation which was once regarded as cancer by the Redmond company. I also loved the aggressiveness of Amazon. The company ventured into a brand new computing platform via Echo and found success. Apart from that, Amazon’s aggressiveness in India was stunning. The company unveiled its Prime membership program at rock bottom prices and quickly followed the same with the roll out of Amazon Prime Video which was again free with Prime and otherwise also available at a very low price.
There had been quite a few hiccups in products by big tech companies but I would not want to go into that – most of the big companies have enough resources to be able to make a solid comeback or improve their products down the line (just look at Microsoft Surface as an example). What kills me the most are the small companies that could not survive 2016. The two companies, in particular, are Pebble and Cyanogen. Pebble basically jumpstarted the whole smartwatch revolution and gave people reasons to believe and invest money in Kickstarter projects. Now that Pebble is dead, not only has the smartwatch industry lost a major player but this will significantly reduce the confidence of people in Kickstarter which will have effects on other companies. Next in line was Cyanogen, the company was a go-to alternative for many people who wanted to customize their smartphone, make it truly theirs. However, this too is dead now and with it a major way to circumvent the software that ships on Chinese smartphones.
I look forward to 2017 where a new computing platform starts gaining a lot of traction. Let us admit it, smartphones are getting boring with every passing release. There are improvements with every new release but the “wow” factor simply is not there anymore. Most of us would do just fine with the smartphone we bought last year. There are new computing platforms like AR/VR/conversational computing platforms, etc. I want one of these emerging computing platforms to have their iPhone moment next year, that one moment where a new product would kick start the entire category and get the innovation wheel spinning again. I also look forward to better broadband connections. I know it sounds lame but so many activities in India like gaming and streaming have been held back because of the poor broadband connections that most of us are plagued with. Here’s hoping that initiatives like Airtel V-Fiber and the impending launch of Jio FTTH improve the situation in India.
Last year we saw laser auto focus and PDAF becoming common in mid-range and flagship smartphones, and this year, it’s the dual camera setup! Apple implemented it for better zooming, LG did that for wide-angled shots and others like Huawei for sharper/detailed images. And each of these implementations has been good in its own right, in the price ranges they come in. And as we end the year, we already see signs of this making its way in more phones and will continue to get better in 2017.
Fraudulent attacks on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Skype, Yahoo and so on have been truly alarming. It always existed but the scale at which it occurred in 2016 brings up hundreds of questions on the safety of user’s data. As companies and governments increase their spending, only time will tell how effective they’d all be.
Smartphones are getting boring. The game of numbers (about specifications) is no more exciting. As we now have the midrange phones in the striking distance of matching the flagships, there needs to be something that will excite the buyers. Far away from being predictable. And this is where the software can make such a big difference. We look forward to operating systems that are far smarter, UI elements that will hold the intelligence to change shapes and forms based on the user’s need, preference and behavior. We have seen this in many apps but would be amazing to see these coming integrated into the software. But then, there’d be a right balance that needs to be achieved in keeping it light, at the same time make it feature rich – a challenge worth cherishing for the OEMs and an experience worth buying for the end users.
Snapchat Spectacles was one of the most compelling releases in 2016. It was indeed impressive how Snapchat took something as rudimentary as a spectacle and turned it into a cool-looking toy. Snapchat fuelled the kindled the hype around the product by deciding to go with Snapchat vending machines, instead of online stores or retail stores. It is noteworthy how Snapchat built funky looking spectacles that would work in conjunction with their app – glasses could record videos for 10 seconds and this could be directly uploaded onto the Snapchat. Then there was Amazon Go. Amazon seems to have brought the future into the present with their Amazon Go. The Go is Amazon’s fully automated stores, with no cashiers, no queues, and with automated billing and seamless sync with your Amazon account. The customers can buy all that they want and simply walk out of the store and the bill will get generated automatically and will be charged to their Amazon account. A public opening is scheduled in early 2017. Exciting!
What started out as an isolated event soon snowballed into one of the biggest recalls in the tech community. Yes, as you may have already guessed I am talking about the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. As per the last report from Samsung, it had already recovered a staggering 2.5 million Note 7 phones, a debacle that clearly overshadows Nokia’s recall of BL 5C, though the latter was not handled with the same gusto. That said, Samsung made no efforts to hide the anomaly and this is most likely to have softened the blow to a certain extent. I personally feel that it will not be an overkill or an exaggeration of any kind to label the Galaxy Note 7 debacle as one of the worst Tech mishaps in 2016.
The MacBook Air has been around for a while and despite receiving an upgrade last year the laptop has been given a step-motherly treatment as opposed to its Pro cousin. Well, the new MacBook Pros are great so are the 12-inch MacBooks, but they do not even come close to the Air when it comes to affordability. While the MacBook is currently selling with some discounts it certainly cannot match up to the $800-$950 price tag a MacBook Air with 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD commands. With this, Apple is inadvertently setting up a barrier for first-time users and folks who want to switch over to a Mac without the wallet troubling base price. Apple, please pump some life into the MacBook Air lineup, and yes please resurrect it. Uncannily this was one thing I expected from Apple this year!
2016 witnessed various technological breakthroughs and many new concepts were highlighted in this year. But one thing which made my eyes literally pop was something which was launched in India just as the year was about to end. Lenovo’s Yoga Book has to be my favorite device of 2016. Although I have not used the device thoroughly but the company certainly has done a commendable job on its design. The Lenovo Yoga Book actually looks like a thin book (thanks to the metallic hinges on the side) and has introduced some really interesting features like the Halo Keyboard, the Stylus, the Book Pad and Real Pen Ink Refills with the device. With the Book Pad and the Real Ink Refills, you can write anything on the paper pad and it will appear on the Lenovo Yoga Book’s display. And all this for Rs. 49,990 which is actually lesser than the cost of the latest iPhone or Google Pixel for that matter. The device has some limitations but I have to hand it to Lenovo for trying out something completely different which came to me as a wave of fresh air.
Call me crazy but I think iPhone 7 by the Cupertino giant was THE DISAPPOINTMENT of 2016 for me. Apart from the new color offered by Apple for the iPhone 7, I do not think there is anything exceptionally different in the new iPhone 7 as compared to its predecessor. I can still let the iPhone 7 Plus breathe because of the dual camera stacked on its back. But apart from the removal of the 3.5 mm jack, the displacement of the antenna bands from the back, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 6 look almost identical. And as for Tim Cook’s statement about the new iPhone 7 being the best iPhone created so far, wait till next year and you will see him saying the exact same thing for the next iPhone as well. The world was waiting to see something new and so was I but I think I would have to wait for another year or another year or another year to see something radically different from Apple on the iPhone front at least.
Had there been no Yoga Book, my favorite thing about 2016 had to be the Moto Mods. I loved how the Motorola made the complete concept of modularity so easy to use. One can just slap them on the back of the device, the Mods get magnetically attached and Voila! the Mods will start working. You do not need to pair the Mod, turn the device off and then turn it on or any other headache of that sort. But the one complaint I had was: THERE WERE NOT ENOUGH MODS!! I would love to see some new Mods from the company which will change the way we look at modularity. For example, I would love to see a new Polaroid Mod from the company which can be slapped on the back and can print pictures instantly. After all, a little greed never harmed anyone.
Just like any other year, 2016 came with its fair share of good and bad. One of the most interesting announcements that took place this year was the launch of the long-awaited services of Reliance Jio. It not only became India’s first 4G only network provider but with its unique data-centric tariff plans and free calls, it gave the traditional network operators a run for their money. Besides that, Jio’s ‘freemium’ policy made people flock in to opt for their services. While critics may not be convinced by Jio’s current market policy, there is no doubting the fact that it has indeed shaken up the dormant telecom market from its slumber. Virtual Reality too took baby steps towards a promising future during the past few months. Going beyond entertainment, virtual reality based gadgets founds their way into healthcare, wherein they are now being used for a wide variety of processes, starting from hands-on surgical training to phobia rehabilitation by means of virtual therapies. Artificial Intelligence backed with machine learning and 3D printing technology too made huge advancements during the past year.
2016 was not a great year for a number of brands, and among them, the worst hit was Samsung. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7, one of the most anticipated phones from the Korean electronics giant turned out to be a major debacle for the company. Not only did the brand lose a huge amount of money, it lost some vital ground in terms of customer comfort due to the security threats posed by the exploding battery of their flagship smartphone. Another major happening was the death of Nexus range from Google, which was replaced by a new Pixel range. Apple too disappointed many of its hardcore fans this year, with their new range of MacBooks Pros, mainly due to the sky high price tag of the laptops.
Talking of the smartphone market, 2017 is expected to bring a number of key changes, especially in terms of specs. Expect dual curved displays becoming a mainstream component of mid-range smartphones, and not being restricted to the top of the line devices. Considering the current scenario of the smartphone market and the competition brands face from each other, we can expect to see smartphones with a sub Rs 20,000 ($300 approx.) price tag coming with such display technologies. Apart from that, dual rear camera setups too are expected to be found in a wide range of smartphones next year.
Personally, there were very few drool-worthy hardware products in 2016. Most of the things were on expected lines with little tweaks in terms of design or a bump in specifications. But it got crazy exciting on the software side, thanks to Artificial Intelligence (AI). Although we have been hearing about it for several years now, it’s accessible to end consumers more than ever, and it’s really making a difference. From Google Allo/Assistant to Amazon Alexa to Tesla’s autonomous cars to Netflix’s recommendation engine, AI has become a part of our lives.
When the year started, wearables promised a lot. Now, as we end the year, they are probably not even on most people’s holiday wish list. I would blame Google and Android Wear majorly for this. Although, it always had issues, the sheer reach and ‘openness’ of Android should have rubbed off on Android Wear as well, but it was not to be, at least not in 2016. The Android Wear 2.0 update was delayed to 2017 and most of the major players in the game like Moto and LG temporarily shelved their plans to release the upgrade. An absolutely forgettable year for Wearables in general and Android Wear in particular.
I expect 2017 to be relatively dull for the most part. The smartphone market continues with iterative upgrades and is badly looking for some real inspiration. Apple is rumored to be betting big on Mixed Reality, but that’s expected to come in 2018. Till then, I expect the specs race to continue. I will be looking forward to advancements in AI with better functionality and cool (niche) gadgets coming to the market. All in all, I expect software to excite us more than the hardware in 2017.
It came in right at the end of the year and it proved my initial impressions about it to be totally wrong. When I had first heard of the Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pros, I had dismissed the whole notion as a bit of a stunt. Having used it for a couple of weeks, I have to confess that I have had to eat my words. The Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro is simply the best blend of touch and type I have seen on a notebook and while it is very pricey indeed at the time of writing, I really hope it will pay the way for a new UI in notebooks. God knows we need one beyond the routine touchscreen!
The year 2016 was supposed to be the one in which wearables would really take off. They did not, and while part of the blame for this can be laid at the rather static Android Wear scene, I cannot help but feel that the Apple Watch could have done more. It was the flag bearer and benchmark of the smartwatch segment, and I honestly expected something much more radical from its second edition. Don’t get me wrong – I think the Apple Watch Series 2 is easily the best smartwatch out there, but my complaint is that I expected it to do far more for the category than the water resistance and the spec upgrade. The smartwatch is still something you can leave home without, and I had expected the Apple Watch Series 2 to change that. Alas, it did not.
Yes, yes, Apple again. Because truth be told, one does tend to expect radical innovation from the Cupertino giant. And that has been largely missing on the iPhone front for a few years with incremental changes being the rule. Yes, the iPhone remains the gold standard for most smartphones out there, but I really believe that it is due a radical overhaul, a bit like what Apple did with the MacBook Pro and the Touch Bar – could it add a “real” keyboard to the iPhone? Who knows. All I am asking for is something radically different in 2017, which makes the phone unlike any other. Come along, Tim, Cook us something.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post Tech Hits & Misses of 2016 and What Lies Ahead in 2017: the TechPP Team Report appeared first on Technology Personalized.
Demonetization has finally given the long-overdue push to digital payments in India. Platforms such as Paytm or even POS services have been at their peak position as the citizens continue to struggle due to the lack of cash. Now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a new UPI-based app called BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money). Hence, here are eight things you should know about it.
Unlike Paytm and Freecharge, BHIM is not a digital wallet and is actually based on UPI (United Payments Interface) that government announced a few months ago. This essentially, means you don’t need to load any money as it’s directly connected to your bank account. Therefore, whenever you transfer or receive money, your account will be automatically updated.
In case, the receiver’s bank doesn’t support UPI which is actually quite unlikely since almost every other bank is compatible from Axis Bank to Bank of Baroda, money will be sent through IFSC (Indian Financial System Code), Ã la normal net banking.
The cashless future mainly depends on the people who currently don’t own a smartphone as everyone else has gradually boarded the digital bandwagon after the cash crunch issue. Keeping that in mind, the NCPI has adapted USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) platform. Hence, they can access these features by dialing a number which in this case is, *99#.
Just like most other similar services out there, BHIM also has a daily limit – you can transfer a maximum of Rs. 10,000 per transaction and Rs 20,000 in total.
For users who don’t want to reveal their phone numbers, a QR code can also be generated from the app which can be scanned by the sender to make the payment.
As the government is primarily targeting the users who aren’t particularly accustomed to these platforms, BHIM has an exceedingly simple interface. There are three main buttons for sending, receiving and generating QR code. Below that, there are options for viewing past transactions, profile, and bank account.
BHIM also supports multiple accounts and interestingly, the setup only takes a couple of seconds. You just need to feed in your mobile number and the app will immediately add all your bank accounts linked with that number. Though you can’t “switch” between accounts, you can easily “change” the account as you need.
BHIM utilizes your Aadhar card information for quickly authorizing these connections. Hence, your bank account will have necessarily have to be linked with it.
BHIM is definitely one of the most promising attempts towards the cashless economy of India. However, without proper education and marketing, this might also not take off. So go ahead and give it a shot. The app is only available for Android right now, iOS support is coming soon.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post 8 Things You Should Know About Narendra Modi’s BHIM App appeared first on Technology Personalized.
Supernovae, gravitational waves, exoplanets, a solar flare in 4K, and... space Hammer pants? It's been a wild year.
The post The year in space: Supernovas, gravitational waves, theoretical planets, and Hammer pants appeared first on ExtremeTech.
Going with Prime Minister’s vision for a cashless economy, the Government of India has now announced a new Aadhar based payments app that aims to take on the likes of Paytm and Airtel Money. Bharat Interface for Money, in short BHIM, is currently available for download only on Android. With that said, National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) plans to launch a iOS version of the same soon.
The BHIM app can be regarded as a rebranded version of the Unified Payments Interface or UPI app that was launched by Narendra Modi earlier this year in August. The app aims to minimize the use of debits and credit card besides allowing people from rural areas make payments without the need of a smartphone or mobile data. With the app in place, users can make payments by simply using their Aadhar number, bank name, and fingerprint. To receive payments using the BHIM app, merchants would to install the app onto a smartphone and connect it to a biometric reader, which is currently available in the market for around Rs 2,000. With that said, it’s worth noting that the customer making payment using this method needs to have their bank accounts linked with their Aadhar card. Currently, around 40 crore Aadhar numbers across India is seeded with bank accounts, claims a government report. The aim is to link all Aadhar number with bank accounts by the end of March 2017.
The Aadhar based BHIM app has the potential to drive PoS terminals to extinctions. For those unaware, the machine where you swipe your card after a purchase at a merchant’s place is referred to as a PoS terminals. It’s worth noting that only 15 lakh PoS terminals are available across India and that mainly because merchants need to dole out 2-3% as charges for every transaction made using the terminal. The BHIM app further enables users to send money to non-UPI supported banks. That said, the list of banks supporting UPI is quite exhaustive. These include Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Canara Bank, Catholic Syrian Bank, Central Bank of India, DCB Bank, Dena Bank, Federal Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, IDFC Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, IndusInd Bank, Karnataka Bank, Karur Vysya Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank, RBL Bank, South Indian Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, State Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, Union Bank of India, United Bank of India, Vijaya Bank.
To start using the BHIM app all you need to do is to download the app and register by filling in relevant details like bank name, account number etc. Follow this by generating a UPI pin from the app. In order to do so, you would need to feed the app with the last 6 digits of your debit/credit card and a OTP will be sent to your registered number. Thereafter simply enter this OTP and set up your UPI pin. Apart from that the BHIM app won’t be charging users to making payments using the app, however your bank may deduct nominal charges for UPI transactions. The BHIM app works in a similar way like Paytm. To send money using this BHIM app, you would be required to enter the receiver’s mobile number or payment address or Aadhar number. Then type amount you want to send and your default bank account gets selected automatically. After that simply enter your UPI pin and proceed with the transaction. Alternatively, you can always opt for a paying by scanning the QR code of the merchant or the person you want to send the money to.
The BHIM app may not pose a big threat to Paytm but it indeed emphasizes on government’s commitment towards a near cashless economy. Besides, with this new payment system in place, the unified Aadhar number of Aadhar cards is finally being made to good use.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post BHIM App is an Aadhar Based Payment Portal that Aims to Take on Paytm appeared first on Technology Personalized.
The FBI and DHS have released a joint report into the hacking attempts against the United States, while President Obama announces specific sanctions against Russia.
The post FBI, DHS release report on Russian hacking as administration-ordered sanctions take effect appeared first on ExtremeTech.
Oculus, the Facebook-owned company which shot to fame with the launch of its VR headset has now acquired an eye movement tracking startup The Eye Tribe. The startup’s claim to fame is a $99 tracking device that can bring gaze-based interfaces to smartphones.
The virtual reality segment has been seeing a major spike in the last few years. Oculus, which was once among the handful of players in the VR segment now faces competition from smartphone first OEMs like Samsung and HTC. With eye tracking now being deemed as the potential way forward for Virtual Reality headsets, the latest acquisition by Oculus couldn’t have come at a better time. The Eye Tribe’s budget eye tracking device is a rectangular shaped bar that can be connected to any device including tablet, laptops and smartphone to enable gaze based navigation.
The device basically tracks your eye movements and navigates through the screen depending upon your action. Just think of a situation where you are browsing a web page and you want to scroll down the page. In normal conditions, you need to grab hold of the mouse and scroll down, however, with The Eye Tribe’s device connected to your computer, a simple gaze at the bottom of the display would help you scroll. Well, that’s how simple it is!
With that said, The Eye Tribe’s recently developed foveated rendering technology that allows Virtual Reality based devices save computational power by generating graphics of only those parts you are looking at. It tries to imitate the way we look around and finally focus on a single object. This eye tracking ability will also help provide a near real life experience to users. The acquisition of The Eye Tribe may result in Oculus including their gazed based focusing technology for their upcoming wireless standalone headset dubbed Oculus Santa Cruz. Besides, it would enable the headset to render more complex scenes at higher frame rate despite its mobile form factor.
Although, Oculus has officially confirmed that a deal between the two firms has taken place, but it refused to divulge information regarding the monetary aspect of the same. The Eye Tribe recently raised around $3 million from investors including Startup Bootcamp, apart from taking a $2.3 million grant from The Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation. In recent times, the startup was even rumored to be acquired by Facebook. The Oculus acquisition comes at a time when the entire technology world is running after eye-tracking startups. Very recently, Google bought an eye-tracking firm in the form of Eyefluence. That said, with the Oculus deal in place it is still not clear what will be happening to The Eye Tribe’s current team or its existing users.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post Oculus Acquires The Eye Tribe, the Eye-Tracking Startup appeared first on Technology Personalized.
The Android play store already has thousands of productivity apps you can employ to get things done. However, Samsung thinks there’s a place for another and hence, they’ve launched a new one called “Focus” today. Samsung Focus mainly exists because of two things – a unified view of your contacts, emails, calendar and a universal search for all of them.
Exclusively available for Samsung phones running Android Marshmallow or higher, Samsung Focus does sound quite appealing especially given its wide support for backend services which include IMAP, POP3, and Exchange ActiveSync. Therefore, it can satisfy requirements of most consumers and enterprises which rely on platforms like Office 365, Outlook, IBM Notes Traveler and more.
Advertised as a “unified productivity application”, Samsung Focus features five primary pages. The main view which combs through everything and displays detailed cards in a Google Now-inspired feed with appointments, emails. There’s even a floating action button if you’d like to compose a new message or meeting and you can also execute some quick actions such as replying to emails, deleting events and others. The rest of the tabs serve as dedicated views for email, calendar, memos, and contacts. It even supports automatic calendar events and multiple accounts. Furthermore, you can configure keyword alerts, so Focus will alert you when it’s matched in any emails.
Samsung Focus definitely looks quite interesting, unfortunately, it’s limited to the company’s own lineup. In case you own one of Samsung’s phone, head over to the Play store and give it a shot as it’s entirely free. It’s also possible Samsung might include this by default in their upcoming smartphones such as the Galaxy S8 which is rumored to sport an entirely new AI-powered digital assistant.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post Samsung’s New Focus App Brings Email, Calendar and Contacts into One Unified Hub appeared first on Technology Personalized.
Windows 10 is getting a new Game Mode in its upcoming Redstone 2 update, but Microsoft is keeping quiet about what the new mode means or offers for PC gamers.
The post Windows 10 may get new dedicated gaming mode in upcoming Redstone 2 update appeared first on ExtremeTech.
It can be hard to sort through all the options available for home security cameras. We've rounded up some of the leaders in each segment to give you a starting point to choosing one.
The post Choosing a security camera: A roundup of options appeared first on ExtremeTech.
If you're interested in learning how to program, you won't want to miss this awesome package on StackSocial. Simply pay more than the average price for the bundle, and you'll get ten online courses that are designed to make just about any of us into competent coders.
The post ET deals: Save hundreds with the learn to code 2017 bundle appeared first on ExtremeTech.
Facebook's first foray into political censorship must err on the side of falsehood, or it will steer us toward ignorance, censorship, and even higher levels of polarization.
The post Facebook’s censorship regime is a dangerous gamble appeared first on ExtremeTech.
2016 has been a roller coaster ride when it comes to tech advertising. There were some great ups and some exceptional lows as well. We have seen some of the really good advertising this year and well, some ads which were not quite up to the mark. So, as we come to the end of the year, here is a list of our favorite and not so favorite tech ads of 2016.
(Note: this list is based on ads that were aired in India, as that is the country we are based in)
Although the 4G hype was created by Airtel with those annoying Internet speed test ads and the Airtel Girl, there is one player which advertised 4G like a total boss. India’s second largest telecom service provider, Vodafone has time and again given us some amazing ads and speaking for myself, the company has been among my favorites in terms of advertising. After Airtel came out with those very direct, in your face, fastest network ads, Vodafone very cleverly took over the minds of the audience by steering the ship more creatively.
“Be a super dad with Vodafone SuperNet” is part of the SuperNet campaign by the company. The 1.01-minute ad impressively summed up the essence of the product with on-point humor appeal.
The ad begins with a mother dressing up her son in dhoti and crown for a function at school and tells her husband to drop him to the bus. But as the father-son duo walks up to the school bus, the kid’s dhoti comes swirling down. The father tries to tie it back again but fails miserably. As the kid is getting late for school and the bus conductor and the other kids are looking, the father takes out his phone, streams a video about how to tie a dhoti and saves the day!
There is the Vodafone SuperNet background music in the ad and it comes with next to zero copy.
The ad is simple, straight and talks about the product. The utility factor has been clearly highlighted in the advertisement and it comes with a humor appeal. The audience can connect to the storyline and it is so not like two people in an arena, testing their internet speed (who does that, anyway). Incidentally, the ad breaks a stereotype, showing a dad running his kid to the school and helping his son with a costume when there is no help (generally we have just seen the mothers doing it in the ads). This hands down has been our favorite 4G ad of 2016.
Google introduced a new instant messaging application earlier this year and it is going head to head with many well-established instant messaging applications like WhatsApp, iMessage and Facebook Messenger. Google’s ad for the application brilliantly shows how the app works and the USP of the app. The one-minute advertisement starts with the Allo logo on a phone illustration and other phone illustrations around on a plain white background and has very smartly included the Google logo colors in the illustration.
The ad, in just one minute, gave us three different story lines and each of them showed us different uses of the app, and how Google Assistant helps you with messaging. The ad shows how the app allows you to reply to messages you have received with minimum trouble and in your own style, after learning your pattern. The ad shows how you can change the font size of the message. The ad also highlights the use of the Google Assistant where you just type @google in any conversation and search for anything on Google from exercise to videos, nearby restaurants and whatnot without closing the application. There is very funky background music in the ad as all the three conversations are very casual. All three conversations are catchy and funny. The best part is the fact that the ad simply puts the features of the app out there without actually bombing you brain with terms and instructions. Most of the copy is just between the messages and there is nothing as such in person or in voice over. The viewer inevitably has to read the copy which makes it more interactive than a simple voice over or a dialogue exchange between two people. There is a very small voiceover at the end which tells you about the application but that is it. We absolutely love the Indian context in the app which makes it more so interesting and relevant. We do not know how many people will actually switch to Google Allo after watching the ad but we know they certainly will remember the conversation in it.
We loved the Moto Z and the Moto Mods ad for all its cattiness and let’s just say for throwing direct darts on Apple’s board. The one-minute ad took us straight back to 2007 and how smartphones were back then. The supersonic voice over (it speaks rather fast) moves along with the rapidly changing visuals and it all falls in sync. The ad obviously talks about the Moto Z and Moto Mods and how the technology is revolutionary and, to be honest, it is kind of cool.
We liked the popping colors used in the ad and obviously the copy which talks about how nothing has changed from 2007.
The ad highlights the fact that Motorola is experimenting and Moto has brought in the modular and different phones in the market. The copy is just direct and aims directly at other smartphone companies for not making exceptional changes in the device. And then explains how Moto Z with Moto Mods is different. The ad explains the products have got vibrant colors, popping music, and also tries to pull the leg of its competition just in one minute. Some people might have to look at the ad twice to understand what is going on but otherwise, we think Lenovo/Moto has got this one in the bag.
Okay, let’s just put it out there. We do have a soft spot for the ads with an Indian context. And the Micromax Canvas Unite says ‘Indian’ out loud. Although there was a Hugh Jackman phase in the middle but Micromax has always played the ‘Indian brand’ card really well.
The ad came out around six months ago and used emotional appeal to get to the audience. The 45 seconds ad highlighted a phone that supported Indian languages.
The concept sounds simple and straight, right?
But we think Micromax elevated this feature of the smartphone and tried to build a connection with the audience around it.
In the ad, the voiceover talks about how feelings can not be dubbed in English. The ad is particularly dark which we thought went well with the overall feel of the ad at some places but got a little out of hand at some. The best part? Hands down, it has to be the copy. The copy is engaging and tries to hit the patriotic side of the coin. We loved the fact how a fingerprint sensor on the phone derived the tagline for the smartphone and the execution because it all goes hand in hand. The USP of the device is highlighted with an emotional ad, and therefore, this one had to be on our favorites list. (Note: there was a version of the ad featuring well-known Comedian Kapil Sharma as well. Unfortunately, it did not ring our bells, proving out theory that celebs and tech advertising do not often mix)
It was very difficult for us to choose one ad from the “Shot on iPhone” lot but we have managed to do the impossible. ‘Shot on iPhone- The beautiful game’ ad is one of our favorite ads from 2016. The ad came out prior to the UEFA Euro 2016 soccer championships, and the description reads, “The beauty of football, captured by fans and their iPhones”.
The camera of the iPhone has undoubtedly been one of the USPs of the device and the series of ad called the “Shot on iPhone” tries to showcase just that. The 30-second ad features the images of football fans and players in action delivers the tried and tested pictures, music and voiceover combination which is capable of moving anyone. If we look at the bigger picture, the ad is just a bunch of pictures and small videos clicked by iPhone users around the world slapped together with some background music and voice over. This is as simple as it gets. But it is this sheer simplicity of the ad that has pushed it into the list. Each picture in the ad tells a story without really getting into the complex bits. The voiceover tries to strike an emotional chord by being the cohesive force between the visuals and the music. The ad features a song “Wings” by UK hip-hop artist Little Simz which obviously can be downloaded from Apple Music.
Images. Music. Words. Just a little editing and voila!
This has to be one of the cutest tech ads of 2016. This one is a 47-second ad that features an elderly couple. Titled “Because reading should never stop,” the ad essentially highlights one of the USPs of the device which is the fact that one can read in bright daylight or at night without any trouble, which is a huge thing for all the book lovers out there. There is almost no copy, just very peppy background music going along with the visuals. The ad features an elderly couple that loves reading, and very cleverly shows both, day and night aspects of the story and how Kindle makes the reading experience easy on the eyes.
The ad shows the elderly couple is playing with light in order to distract each other from reading on Kindle in the cutest possible way (from switching bedside lamps to moving garden umbrellas) and then highlights how one can read any book on Kindle in bright daylight or even at night or with no lights at all. The ad in 47 seconds, builds the story, puts the product in the limelight and explains how useful the product is. And also puts a smile on our faces. What more can we ask for? This is why it definitely cuts it for us.
Apple has been known for creating some magnificent ads (we had so much trouble choosing a “shot on iPhone” ad ), so we were expecting something special for the company’s iPhone 7 ad. For some reason, Apple decided to do things differently this time. Well, the ad was different but not good.
Apple in its 30-second teaser came up with a very dark concept. There were weird elements in the ad which in some way represented the features of the iPhone 7. There was an owl, two spotlights which we assumed represented the dual cameras; water representing the water resistant bit; there was a male deer in the frame which we think represented speed and a boxer representing strength and other random objects in the ad.
Unlike previous ads from the company, this came with a very dark setting which was to represent the new color variant that has been introduced. But after watching the ad over all, we could just not figure out what was it about. There was not any direct appeal in the ad and there was no connection – just a lot of darkness reminiscent of a horror film. Yes, there might have been some message, but it was very complex and Apple is at its best when playing it simple.
Gionee must have spent big bucks in order to get Alia Bhatt on board for the ad but after watching the ad we suspect the company did not spend enough money on creatives.
The 30-second ad shows Alia Bhatt getting a photoshoot done and obviously, there are a lot of lights in the picture. Suddenly there is a power cut and the photographer says that he cannot shoot photographs without lights. Digestible till then. But then Alia Bhatt takes out the Gionee S6s with “Selfie Flash” and starts clicking pictures after saying “I can.”
We were like “what???”
Firstly, we think the idea itself was a little weak and secondly, this goes to whoever wrote the copy: NO ONE CAN CLICK PICTURES WITHOUT LIGHT!
If Alia Bhatt is clicking selfies with the front facing flash on then she still is using – hello – LIGHT!
So here is an answer to your question in the ad which says, “who needs light?” EVERYONE does. That’s what the selfie flash is there for. If the front flash is considered to be the USP of the device, we think the creatives could have done a better job on the ad. This was too light-headed. Pun intended.
This is one of the few ads OnePlus has launched in India so expectations were high. And to be honest, OnePlus 3 broke all the stereotypes about advertisements in this ad. Ads are supposed to be short, about the product, interesting, and catchy. This OnePlus 3 throws the milkshake of all these things down the drain.
The ad is four-minute three seconds long and we do not want to sound harsh but it is boring!
Nothing in the ad talks about the product. There is a guy fiddling in between his mother and his girlfriend, and honestly, it looked like a scene picked up from daily soap. Oh, actually the ad did talk about one feature of the product which was the dash charging feature of the OnePlus 3. So, in an ad which is 4 minutes 3 seconds long, the copy talks about a key product feature for just 10 seconds. There was a storyline to this ad, something revolving around this guy who cannot decide whether to go his girlfriend’s or mother’s place for Diwali. But where OnePlus 3 came into it was not too clear. Which is why we think this is not actually the type of ad we would have liked seeing for a device as richly featured as the OnePlus 3.
After we have discussed the ads that we loved and the ones we did not like, here are two product videos (call them promos or teasers or what you will), that we WISH were ads – because they were just so goooooood!
Have you seen a global vice president of an internationally acclaimed company trying to take on the challenge of skipping ropes insanely fast? Because if you have not, you missed Xiaomi’s build up to the launch of the Mi 5. Before Xiaomi launched the Mi 5, it aired some promos on YouTube, featuring one of the most personable geeks in the tech world. Yes, we are talking about its charismatic global vice president Hugo Barra here. Although we were not surprised at seeing him (he is the face of the company to many people), what he did totally surprised us.
The promo starts with a phone screen showing a guy who is skipping ropes like one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And then Barra steps in and tries to take on the challenge of becoming a world recorder holder in skipping ropes (3 skips in 3 seconds). He thinks it is a cake walk. Well, it did not take him too long to understand that it is not as easy as it looks. He gets very agitated throws the rope and leaves the frame. Take our word for it: it is hilarious.
The last frame of the ad reads, “insanely fast and more”
The promo is just simple, humorous and human at the same time – what a promo is supposed to do in the best possible way. Although the Xiaomi Mi5 did not turn out to be a total rockstar in the phone arena but Xiaomi picks up points for some superb messaging.
We had earlier criticized the iPhone 7 teaser for all its darkness but we think we did not mind all the darkness in the iPhone 7 design promo. The Cupertino tech wizard swished its magic wand and provided a promo for the iPhone 7 which it deserved. The promo features the process in which the iPhone 7 is manufactured and we do not think it is possible to make a smartphone as desirable or good looking in a filmed scene as the ad did. The two minute seven second promo is bigger than most of the ads we have seen by the company but we are not complaining. The promo starts with the name of the man behind the vision of the product – Sir Jony Ive. The visuals are accompanied by a voiceover and music explaining the design of the phone and it is the secondary bit. What made our jaws drop and our eyes pop were the visuals of the ad, laying enough stress on each element of the smartphone in such a loving and languorous way that it is to the eyes what a choco lava cake is to your receptors on the tongue. Yes, we fell in love with how Apple has showcased the design of the product and yes, we feel it is definitely better than the teaser they used for the smartphone. THIS should have been the iPhone 7 ad, Apple.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post Ad-Vantage: the Best and Worst Tech Ads of 2016 appeared first on Technology Personalized.
Clickbait, vaporware, smoke and mirrors or outright fraud. The cake was, in fact, a lie. The "best" of 2016, for a certain value of "best."
The post Vaporware: 2016’s wall of shame appeared first on ExtremeTech.
Well, that's not good. The Google Pixel and Nexus 6P are both suffering shutdown problems when the battery level reaches roughly 30%.
The post Some Google Nexus and Pixel devices are shutting down before the battery is drained appeared first on ExtremeTech.
