Technology news

“This time, a record 15 students got selected from IIT-Kharagpur which includes one student from the first year, six students from the second year, two students from the third year, five students from the fourth year and one student from the fifth year,” said a statement from the institute. (Reuters) As many as 15 students from the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur have been selected for the Google Summer of Code open-source coding programme, the institute said on Monday.
The

Wall Street Journal (blog)
Oil and Gas Companies Turn to Digital Technology as Low Energy Prices Pressure Business
Wall Street Journal (blog)
Oil and gas companies are turning to digital technologies to lower costs and improve efficiency as the industry struggles with low energy prices. Information technology budgets have decreased by 10% or more at oil and gas companies during the slump, ...and more »

Micromax Canvas 6 Pro comes with more 4GB RAM, an all plastic body, 16GB storage space and no fingerprint scanner. It is priced at Rs 13,999.
Micromax is trying to revamp itself with the new Canvas 6 Pro and Canvas 6 flagships. As the new TV ad campaign tell us, they have ‘nuts, guts and glory’, and no fruit for a logo. I suppose if everyone can take potshots at Apple, why can’t India’s second-largest smartphone brand do the same; never mind that the target audiences and

Micromax Canvas 6 Pro comes with more 4GB RAM, an all plastic body, 16GB storage space and no fingerprint scanner. It is priced at Rs 13,999.
Micromax is trying to revamp itself with the new Canvas 6 Pro and Canvas 6 flagships. As the new TV ad campaign tell us, they have ‘nuts, guts and glory’, and no fruit for a logo. I suppose if everyone can take potshots at Apple, why can’t India’s second-largest smartphone brand do the same; never mind that the target audiences and

Micromax Canvas 6 Pro comes with more 4GB RAM, an all plastic body, 16GB storage space and no fingerprint scanner. It is priced at Rs 13,999.
Micromax is trying to revamp itself with the new Canvas 6 Pro and Canvas 6 flagships. As the new TV ad campaign tell us, they have ‘nuts, guts and glory’, and no fruit for a logo. I suppose if everyone can take potshots at Apple, why can’t India’s second-largest smartphone brand do the same; never mind that the target audiences and

An official notification dated April 22, said, “With effect from January 1, 2017, no mobile phone handset manufactured company shall sell in India… Feature phones without the facility of panic button by pressing ‘Numeric key 5’ or ‘Numeric key 9’ to invoke emergency call”. Panic button will be mandatory for all mobile phones to be sold in India January 1, 2017, onwards to enable users make emergency call easily.
Besides, in-built GPS navigation system

Lenovo Vibe S1 will be available at Rs 12,999, exclusively on Amazon from April 26.
Lenovo Vibe S1 will be available at Rs 12,999, exclusively on Amazon from April 26. The smartphone features dual front camera and was originally announced in India at Rs 15,999.
The USP of the Lenovo Vibe S1 is its dual 8MP/2MP front cameras. In our review of the Vibe S1, we noted that it is the best front facing camera ever packed into a smartphone. The 8-megapixel sensor captures the subject while 2-megapixel

Asus has launched Zenfone Go 4.5 2nd Generation (ZB452KG) variant in India at starting at Rs 5,299.
Asus has launched Zenfone Go 4.5 2nd Generation (ZB452KG) variant in India at starting at Rs 5,299. The dual-SIM, 3G-enabled phone is available in two different camera options. The smartphone will be available on Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon, PayTM, Shopclues and across offline stores.
Asus Zenfone Go 4.5 (2nd gen) features 4.5-inch FWVGA display wih a resolution of 854×480p. The smartphone i

In the past year, finds the research, more than one in four young Internet users have lost their devices (17%) or had their devices stolen (13%), with a third losing access to their online accounts, or suffering from a loss of data privacy as a result.
Loss of a phone is no longer a financial loss alone. As you carry your world in your palm now, in the form of family pictures, net-banking details, personal emails, texts or passwords, loss of a phone means you lose a lot of your privacy, letting

Micromax Canvas 6 Pro comes with more 4GB RAM, an all plastic body, 16GB storage space and no fingerprint scanner. It is priced at Rs 13,999.
Micromax is trying to revamp itself with the new Canvas 6 Pro and Canvas 6 flagship. As the new TV ad campaign tell us, they have nuts, guts and glory, and no fruit for a logo. I suppose if everyone can take potshots at Apple, why can’t India’s second-largest smartphone brand do the same; never mind that the target audiences and quality of pro

Apple iPhone SE costs Rs 39,000 in India. Reports say Apple has hiked prices of iPhone 6, 6s series but the prices are same on the official website. Discounts though are still available online.
India has always been obsessed with the pricing of Apple phones. So there is a lot of heartburn about the pricing and news of any hike will always generate eyeballs. But has Apple bumped up prices of the iPhone 6s, 6 after the launch of the iPhone SE in India? Does it now want parity between on

Lenovo Vibe S1 will be available at Rs 12,999, exclusively on Amazon from April 26.
Lenovo Vibe S1 will be available at Rs 12,999, exclusively on Amazon from April 26. The smartphone features dual front camera and was originally announced in India at Rs 15,999.
The USP of the Lenovo Vibe S1 is its dual 8MP/2MP front cameras. In our review of the Vibe S1, we noted that it is the best front facing camera ever packed into a smartphone. The 8-megapixel sensor captures the subject while 2-megapixel

Google Chrome OS could soon support and run apps from the Android Play Store.
Google’s Chrome OS will soon run all Android apps from the Play Store, according to posts on Reddit, which revealed a new setting in Chromebooks.
A Reddit user by the name TheWiseYoda posted the screenshots on the website, where one of the settings option allows a user to run Android apps from the Play Store. The setting incidentally disappeared after a few seconds, but source code from Chromimum and Github also

Facebook has a new transliteration tool, which will let Android users type directly in Hindi.
Facebook Android users will now be able to type in Hindi on the app, even if their smartphone does not support the native Devanagari script. The company says that user feedback indicated that people want to read and write in Hindi on the social media site.
So now Facebook’s Android app will have a lightweight Hindi editor natively built inside it, and when the app setting is turned on, a butt

Asus has launched Zenfone Go 4.5 2nd Generation (ZB452KG) variant in India at starting at Rs 5,299.
Asus has launched Zenfone Go 4.5 2nd Generation (ZB452KG) variant in India at starting at Rs 5,299. The dual-SIM, 3G-enabled phone is available in two different camera options. The smartphone will be available on Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon, PayTM, Shopclues and across offline stores.
Asus Zenfone Go 4.5 (2nd gen) features 4.5-inch FWVGA display wih a resolution of 854×480p. The smartphone i

Apple iPhone SE costs Rs 39,000 in India. Reports say Apple has hiked prices of iPhone 6, 6s series but the prices are same on the official website. Discounts though are still available online.
India has always been obsessed with the pricing of Apple phones. So there is a lot of heartburn about the pricing and news of any hike will always generate eyeballs. But has Apple bumped up prices of the iPhone 6s, 6 after the launch of the iPhone SE in India? Does it now want parity between on

Sirin Labs’ secure smartphone called Solarin will be launched at the company’s flagship store in London.
It is being dubbed the Rolls Royce of smartphones. So when Sirin Labs launches its secure smartphone this May, it will be priced in the region of $10,000 to $15,000 and will have one focus: security.
The phone might still be successful, especially since the withering away of BlackBerry has left a vacuum none of the bigger brands have been able to fill.
“After over two years

Obi Worldphone SF1 comes with a floating glass display and integrated features like Dolby Audio, Snapdragon 615 processor, 5 MP Front and 13 MP rear camera. Obi Worldphone SF1 priced at Rs 9,999 is now available on Snapdeal. The 16/2GB variant cost Rs 9,999 while 32/3GB variant is available for Rs 11,999 on the e-commerce platform.
Obi Worldphone SF1 comes with a floating glass display and integrated features like Dolby Audio and is powered by a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 clo

Xiaomi Mi Max is all set to launch in Beijing, China on May 10.
Xiaomi Mi Max a new phablet device, is all set to launch in Beijing on May 10, according to a latest Weibo post from the company. Xiaomi’s post also mentions that the event will be held at the Beijing National Convention Centre, and there will be tickets on sale for fans to attend the event.
Xiaomi’s had earlier given a quick glimpse of the Mi Max on its Weibo page, where the phone is seen inside a jeans p

Sirin Labs’ secure smartphone called Solarin will be launched at the company’s flagship store in London.
It is being dubbed the Rolls Royce of smartphones. So when Sirin Labs launches its secure smartphone this May, it will be priced in the region of $10,000 to $15,000 and will have one focus: security.
The phone might still be successful, especially since the withering away of BlackBerry has left a vacuum none of the bigger brands have been able to fill.
“After over two years

Sirin Labs’ secure smartphone called Solarin will be launched at the company’s flagship store in London.
It is being dubbed the Rolls Royce of smartphones. So when Sirin Labs launches its secure smartphone this May, it will be priced in the region of $10,000 to $15,000 and will have one focus: security.
The phone might still be successful, especially since the withering away of BlackBerry has left a vacuum none of the bigger brands have been able to fill.
“After over two years

Apple iPhone SE costs Rs 39,000 in India. Reports say Apple has hiked prices of iPhone 6, 6s series but the prices are same on the official website. Discounts though are still available online.
When it comes to the pricing of Apple’s iPhone 6s, 6 and now the newly launched iPhone SE in India, there’s a constant obsession. Has Apple increased the prices by 29 per cent as some reports claim? Does it now want parity between online and offline prices, given that online has a slew of dis

Amazon’s Echo device can also be used to order a pizza or book a cab from Uber. Amazon Echo, the wireless speaker and voice command device from Amazon.com, can now also add events to the Google calendar by voice.
Amazon’s Alexa would add the event to the calendar if asked to do so.
For instance, you can prompt Alexa by saying ‘Add date with Lucy to my calendar for Sunday at 10AM.’
The new service by the Amazon comes only few days after the American electronic commerce an

Micromax Canvas Spark 2 Plus smartphone sports a five-inch WVGA (480×854 pixels) display and is backed by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor paired up with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of inbuilt storage. Domestic consumer electronics company Micromax has recently unveiled its new Micromax Canvas Spark 2 Plus smartphone in India. Priced at Rs. 3,999, the company claims it to be the cheapest ‘Marshmallow’ smartphone in India. The smartphone is exclusively available for purchase via Snapdeal.
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ZTE ‘Blade A910’ and the ‘Blade V7 Max’ are priced at Rs 13,300 and Rs 18,400 respectively. (Reuters) Chinese multinational telecommunications equipment and systems company ZTE has unveiled two new smartphones, the ZTE ‘Blade A910’ and the ‘Blade V7 Max’, in its ‘Blade’ portfolio. The smartphones are priced at Rs 13,300 and Rs 18,400 respectively.
The dual-SIM supporting ZTE Blade V7 Max features a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080×1920 pix

Snapchat was created by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown when they were students at the Stanford University. Image messaging application software product Snapchat has added a new update, which allows the users to ‘face-swap’ with pictures in their camera roll.
The new feature allows the users to swap their faces onto someone else’s body or vice versa, the independent reported.
One can use the feature through an update. It’s already available on iOS and would g

The two Swiss pilots taking turns to fly a solar-powered airplane around the world said Sunday the endeavor is not only a demonstration of the importance of renewable energy but also of the many challenges the human body can endure.
Pilot Bertrand Piccard completed a risky, three-day flight across a great expanse of the Pacific Ocean while sleeping only 20 minutes at a time inside the plane’s tiny cockpit with no heat or air conditioning and while having to keep constant contact with the E

Mansoor Ahmed, who lives in Gachibowli in Hyderabad could not hide his smile, when a traffic police officer stopped him at Begumpet, while he was on the way to his office, and asked for driving licence (DL) and registration certificate (RC). He simply took out his smartphone and showed the documents saved in a mobile app. Ahmed, who had been fined twice last month for not carrying the complete documents, said, “Carrying all the necessary documents in a mobile app that can be easily ac