Technology news

bizEDGE NZ
Technology Valley Awards will help showcase the Hutt
Scoop.co.nz (press release)
National List MP based in the Hutt Valley Chris Bishop is excited about the second annual Technology Valley Awards, launched this morning at the Dowse at a special breakfast event. “It was great to have the Prime Minister in the Hutt last year to help ...
Second annual Technology Valley Awards promises to be bigger and better than everbizEDGE NZall 3 news articles »

Brookings Institution (blog)
Where do the presidential candidates stand on technology issues?
Brookings Institution (blog)
On March 1, thirteen states held their presidential primaries in what is known as “Super Tuesday,” when candidates stand to win more delates than on any other day of the primary calendar. Each candidate has addressed a number of issues over the last ...and more »

The Guardian
US defense chief tells Silicon Valley: 'encryption is essential'
The Guardian
US defense secretary Ashton Carter has been attempting to heal the rift between the Pentagon and Silicon Valley. Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP. Spencer Ackerman in New York and Danny Yadron in San Francisco. Wednesday 2 March 2016 16.39 EST Last ...
'Hack the Pentagon' cybersecurity test launched by US Defense DepartmentCBC.caall 550 news articles »

We might have an overdose of new mobile phones these days, but it is still a daunting task when it comes to choosing the right smartphone for your pocket. It’s very important to have all the basic features and functions in your device like smooth curves, glossy finishes, screen quality, operating system and many other things as well. Most of the high-end phones do have these qualities, many of the Chinese brands too have these specs in their mid-range offerings. Still, there are many among

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL is undoubtedly the most important smartphone for the company. It is one of the first devices based on CEO Satya Nadella’s vision of offering only six devices catering to three different set of users. Microsoft Lumia 950 XL is the flagship that will either lead Windows 10 Mobile to new great or will kill its identity totally. It builds on the legacy left behind by Windows mobile but with the aesthetics from Windows Phone 7.
Microsoft Lumia 950 XL shows that it wants t

With the introduction of bigger RAM, long lasting battery and quality screen display, the smartphone is becoming more powerful and the user experience is also gradually improving, leading to augmented demand for peripheral products which can further add value to people’s experience.
Aiming to tap this opportunity—especially coming from gaming market in India—the New Delhi headquartered, IT peripherals firm Amkette recently launched Evo Gamepad Pro 2. This is a new hand-held gam

Social media network Facebook on Wednesday claimed it had 69 million daily active users (DAU) in India, including 64 million accessing its website on mobile.
“In India, we have 69 million DAU, of which 64 million access our site on mobile,” the US-based social network firm said in a statement here.
The platform also boasts of having in India 142 million monthly active users (MAU), including 133 million accessing it on mobile.
“Over three million businesses advertise on our site

HTC Vive virtual reality headset appears to be off to a good start. It has sold more than 15,000 units of the Vive within its first 10 minutes on sale. These are the first Vive pre-orders, so thousands and thousands of people who may have been waiting over a year to buy the headsets, are reportedly rushing to get their order in first, claims The Verve in a report.
HTC Vive is priced at $799 and requires a high-end gaming PC. At present, only limited people have access to it.
The headset doesn&rs

Asian Correspondent
Applied mechanical engineering technology programs: Boosting graduate employability
Asian Correspondent
Choosing to study an applied program can give graduates a much-needed boost in today's increasingly demanding job market. By undertaking engineering technology geared at solving more practical, everyday problems, graduates are readily equipped with ...

Votiro's Zero Day Exploit Technology Honored as Silver Winner in the 12th Annual 2016 Info Security PG's Global ...
PR Newswire (press release)
Votiro, a global provider of Exploit Neutralization solutions for protecting organizations against ongoing cyber threats, announced today, while exhibiting at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, that Info Security Products Guide, the industry's ...and more »

Insurers Need to Add Technology Experience to Boards and Establish Technology Committees, According to Novarica
Business Wire (press release)
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--While technology is transforming the insurance industry, most insurer boards of directors still treat technology as if it were a risk, rather than a potential competitive advantage, according to a new report from research and ...and more »

CyberX Cutting Edge Technology Wins Best Product in ICS/SCADA Security Solution for 2016
PR Newswire (press release)
Cyber Defense Magazine, the industry's leading electronic information security magazine and media partner of the RSA® Conference 2016, has named CyberX winner of the Best Product in ICS/SCADA Security Solution. Cyber Defense Magazine, dedicated ...and more »

A file picture of Vineet Taneja at the launch of Canvas Silver 5 smartphone (Source: Nandagopal Rajan)
Micromax CEO Vineet Taneja, who was hired from Samsung India in 2014, has resigned from his post.
Read MoreMicromax Canvas Tab P702 with 4G launched at Rs 7,999 in IndiaIndia beats US to become the second largest smartphone market: CounterpointLenovo, Motorola's smartphone shipments up by 60% in India: ReportMicromax Canvas Laptab LT777 #ExpressReview: A tablet that falls short as a laptopMicr

LeEco sets new industry record with sales of over 2 lakh units of its Le Superphones (Source: LeEco)
LeEco has announced that it has sold 2 lakh Le Superphones in just 30 days. The company made its India debut on January 20.
LeEco announced two phones – Le 1s and Le Max during its January 20 event. Its budget offering Le 1s was priced at Rs 10,999 while Le Max was announced for Rs 32,999.
Read MoreLeEco sells 2,00,000 units of its Le Superphones in less than 30 daysLG G5, Xiaomi Mi 5, LeE

Asus Zenbook UX303UB is the latest flagship notebook running Windows 10 and sixth gen Intel Core i5 processor
Asus has announced the launch of three new Zenbook series notebooks running Windows 10 in India. The new notebooks include Zenbook UX303UB, UX305UA and Zenbook UX305CA.
The Asus Zenbook UX305UA comes with latest six-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processor while UX305CA is powered by Core M processor. The new laptops measure only 0.7-inch at its thickest point and uses a metal fin

Facebook is being investigated in Germany for the use of user data which may abuse market position (Source: Reuters)
Germany’s cartel office has opened an investigation into Facebook for suspected abuse of market power through breaches of data protection law, it said on Wednesday.
The watchdog said Facebook’s terms of service regarding its use of user data may abuse its possibly dominant position in the social network market.
Read MoreFacebook hit with Antitrust for abuse of market

Intel on Wednesday announced the appointment of Nivruti Rai as Intel India Site General Manager. Rai succeeds Kumud Srinivasan, who is relocating to the United States (U.S.) after the completion of her assignment in India. Rai has been with Intel for over 20 years and has held several technical and business management positions across different functions both in the US and India. Based in Bengaluru, Rai is Vice President and Director of R&D, in Platform Engineering Group, Intel Corporation.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 is used on Xiaomi Mi 5, LG G5, Le Max Pro to name a few smartphones.
At least some Indian smartphone manufacturers are working on devices powered by Qualcomm’s top of the line Snapdragon 820 processor, the chip maker’s India head Sunil Lalvani told IndianExpress.com without naming the OEMs. This is significant as Indian manufacturers don’t usually pick up high-end chips meant for flagship devices. “There is a lot of interest in the new feature set

Reliance LYF Earth1 is the flagship smartphone from Reliance’s retail arm. It is priced at Rs 19,399 on Reliance Digital
It may still not be too late for anyone to enter the smartphone space. Sure there are just way too many manufacturers, but a new entrant can definitely shake up the market nonetheless. LeEco sets a precedent that consumers will trust you if you offer them something unique. In that way, it shouldn’t surprise anyone when Reliance Retail enters the smartphone race wi

As more and more people are watching ‘Facebook Live Videos’, the social networking giant has pushed its live video feature to top of its News Feed. The company is considering Live Videos as a new content type – different from normal videos – and learning how to rank them for people in News Feed.
“As a first step, we are making a small update to News Feed so that Facebook Live videos are more likely to appear higher in News Feed when those videos are actually live, c

Vivo Xplay5 Ultimate is the first smartphone to feature 6GB RAM. The smartphone comes with curved display like Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge (Source: Vivo)
Vivo has launched Xplay5 and Xplay5 Ultimate smartphones in China. The Xplay5 Ultimate is the bigger cousin of Xplay5 and it features 6GB RAM.
Vivo Xplay5 Ultimate becomes the first smartphone to feature 6GB RAM. Vivo had previously launched Vivo X5 Max which was the slimmest smartphone ever with a thickness of just 4.75mm.
Read MoreVivo Xp

BlackBerry Priv gets new update: Improvements to Camera, Keyboard and more included.
BlackBerry Priv, the first Android smartphone from the troubled-Canadian tech company, has gotten a new set of updates which offer improved camera performance, launcher and keyboard.
BlackBerry announced the update on their official blog and said that the application updates are now live on Google Play, including the ones for BlackBerry Launcher, BlackBerry Keyboard, and BlackBerry Camera.
So what are the new f

WhatsApp iOS update (version 2.12.14) brings four new features with it, including pinch-to-zoom.
WhatsApp for iOS has gotten a new update, which brings additional features like ‘Pinch to Zoom’ on video content, third-party app support for sharing pictures and videos.  The latest WhatsApp iOS build (version 2.12.14) brings four new features with it.
The first is ‘Pinch to Zoom’ feature, which has been active on pictures. Now users can zoom in on a video message while

WhatsApp iOS update (version 2.12.14) brings four new features with it, including pinch-to-zoom.
WhatsApp for iOS has gotten a new update, which brings additional features like ‘Pinch to Zoom’ on video content, third-party app support for sharing pictures and videos.  The latest WhatsApp iOS build (version 2.12.14) brings four new features with it.
The first is ‘Pinch to Zoom’ feature, which has been active on pictures. Now users can zoom in on a video message while

Vivo Xplay5 Ultimate is the first smartphone to feature 6GB RAM. The smartphone comes with curved display like Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge (Source: Vivo)
Vivo has launched Xplay5 and Xplay5 Ultimate smartphones in China. The Xplay5 Ultimate is the bigger cousin of Xplay5 and it features 6GB RAM.
Vivo Xplay5 Ultimate becomes the first smartphone to feature 6GB RAM. Vivo had previously launched Vivo X5 Max which was the slimmest smartphone ever with a thickness of just 4.75mm.
Read MoreVivo Xp

Turing Award 2015 winners: Whitfield Diffie (left) and Martin E Hellman (right)
Whitfield Diffie and Martin E Hellman have been awarded the Turing Award for 2015, named after British mathematician Alan M Turing, who is regarded as the father of computer science.
Both Diffie and Hellman have been awarded for their contributions to modern cryptography, according to an official statement by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), which gives out the annual $1 million prize.
Whitfield D

Reliance LYF Earth1 is the flagship smartphone from Reliance’s retail arm. It is priced at Rs 19,399 on Reliance Digital
It may still not be too late for anyone to enter the smartphone space. Sure there are just way too many manufacturers, but a new entrant can definitely shake up the market nonetheless. LeEco sets a precedent that consumers will trust you if you offer them something unique. In that way, it shouldn’t surprise anyone when Reliance Retail enters the smartphone race wi

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly has returned home on board Russian Soyuz spacecraft. He becomes first American to spend over a year in space (Source: NASA)
Astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth on Wednesday after an unprecedented year in space for NASA, landing in barren Kazakhstan with a Russian cosmonaut who shared his whole space station journey.
Their Soyuz capsule parachuted onto the central Asian steppes and ended a science-rich mission at the International Space Station that began last Marc