Technology news

Google’s free online mapping service is bringing the world into better focus with an updated version of Earth that takes advantage of photos from a US Landsat 8 satellite. (Image: Google) Google’s free online mapping service is bringing the world into better focus with an updated version of Earth that takes advantage of photos from a US Landsat 8 satellite.
The Internet giant introduced a “cloud-free mosaic” of this planet three years ago at Google Earth, and on Monday b

Margrethe Vestager, the powerful EU Competition Commissioner, could open two new in-depth investigations against Google. (AP Photo)
Google faces fresh EU anti-competition charges, this time targeting the search engine giant’s advertising business.
Margrethe Vestager, the powerful EU Competition Commissioner, could open two new in-depth investigations against Google as early as August, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
The first case would involve the Silicon Valley giant’s

Facebook is tracking a user’s smartphone location in the “People You May Know” feature to suggest friends
Facebook is tracking a user’s smartphone location in the “People You May Know” feature to suggest friends, says a report on Fusion. The social media giant, however, says detecting the location is only a part of how suggesting friends to a user.
Fusion.net has done a story saying Facebook was likely tracking the GPS location data from a users’ smartp

LeEco, which is also the first brand to release two flagship phones with Qualcomm processors in the same day, had over six lakh registrations for Le 2 and Le Max 2 in eight days. Chinese internet conglomerate LeEco on Tuesday garnered Rs 78.6 crore by getting purchase orders of over 61,000 units of its “superphones” LeEco Le 2 and LeEco Le Max 2 in its flash sale on Flipkart and LeMall.com, LeEco’s own marketplace e-commerce platform.
LeEco, which is also the first brand to re

Now, with Ringing Bells’ plans to hold a lucky draw, we don’t know how many people will actually get to see Freedom 251.
Ringing Bells Freedom 251, the world’s cheapest smartphone which was supposed to start shipping from June 30, will now be available only to winners a lucky draw. Confirming the same in a telephonic conversation with IndianExpress.com, Ringing Bells CEO Mohit Goel said they will organise a media event ‘soon’ to announce the lucky draw.
“We h

Chinese smart devices firm LeEco today said it received orders for 61,000 units of smartphones worth Rs 78.6 crore in an online flash sale during the day, calling it an ‘industry record’. (PTI) Chinese smart devices firm LeEco today said it received orders for 61,000 units of smartphones worth Rs 78.6 crore in an online flash sale during the day, calling it an ‘industry record’.
“We have received orders for 61,000 units amounting to sales value of Rs 78.6 crore in

Radha Mohan Singh released the app in a programme organised at ICAR-RCER in Patna. (Reuters) Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh today released an app, Crop Manager for Rice-based Systems (CMRS), for better crop and nutrient management for Bihar farmers.
CMRS provides irrigated and rainfed farmers with rice-based cropping systems in Bihar with a crop and nutrient management guideline customised to the needs of an individual farmer, an official statement said.
Singh released the app in a prog

The new imagery is now available across all our mapping products (Source: Google)
Google has bumped the satellite imagery on its mapping service with fresh imagery from Landsat 8 satellite. Google points out in a blog post that the software giant looked at millions of images and took the clearest pixels to stitch together this cloud-free and seamless image.
Google says it has also introduced a new processing technique for sharper images than ever before. Google says Landsat 8 is capable of capt

Researchers at Disney Research and ETH Zurich in Switzerland have demonstrated that consumer-grade LEDs can both produce light and serve as light sensors. (Reuters) Light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs can connect Internet of Things (IoT) by providing a communications link for devices such as toys and utilities in a room, scientists have found.
Researchers at Disney Research and ETH Zurich in Switzerland have demonstrated that consumer-grade LEDs can both produce light and serve as light sensors.
A

LeEco says it has garnered Rs 78 crore during the first flash sale of Le 2 and Le Max 2 smartphones
LeEco, the Chinese internet technology company has announced that it garnered Rs 78 crore via sales of its Le 2 and Le Max 2 smartphones. LeEco says it sold over 61,000 units of its next generation superphones.
LeEco Le 2 and Le Max 2 were available via first flash sale on both LeMall.com and Flipkart. The total registration for the sale reached over 6 lakh units.
“We are humbled to see yet

Microsoft says it has witnessed high rate of adoption of its cloud services across major business verticals (Source: Microsoft)
Microsoft says it has witnessed high rate of adoption of its cloud services across major business verticals. Microsoft is the first public cloud service provider to offer local datacenters in India.
The company had announced the availability of three datacenters at Mumbai, Pune and Chennai in September 2015. Microsoft is now offering complete set of cloud services &nda

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the launch of Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region, its sixth in Asia Pacific (APAC).
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the launch of Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region, its sixth in Asia Pacific (APAC). AWS now provides 35 Availability Zones (AZs) across 13 technology infrastructure regions globally.
More than 75,000 India-based users are already using other AWS Regions. Developers can sign up to start using the AWS Mumbai Region at here.
The new AWS Mumbai Regi

The new imagery is now available across all our mapping products (Source: Google)
Google has bumped the satellite imagery on its mapping service with fresh imagery from Landsat 8 satellite. Google points out in a blog post that the software giant looked at millions of images and took the clearest pixels to stitch together this cloud-free and seamless image.
Google says it has also introduced a new processing technique for sharper images than ever before. Google says Landsat 8 is capable of capt

Facebook is tracking a user’s smartphone location in the “People You May Know” feature to suggest friends
Facebook is tracking a user’s smartphone location in the “People You May Know” feature to suggest friends, says a report on Fusion. The social media giant, however, says detecting the location is only a part of how suggesting friends to a user.
Fusion.net has done a story saying Facebook was likely tracking the GPS location data from a users’ smartp

Last year, Trendyol had sales of 550 million lira. (Reuters) When Demet Mutlu dropped out of Harvard six years ago to found an online fashion retailer in her native Turkey, friends thought she was crazy to leave the world’s top business school for a leap into the unknown.
But more than her chutzpah, it is the 34-year-old’s unshakeable faith in the young Turkish consumer that seems to be paying off: her company, Trendyol, is now one of Turkey’s best known online fashion retaile

The AI, dubbed ALPHA, is the most aggressive, responsive, dynamic and credible AI to date, according to Lee. (Reuters) In a breakthrough, an artificial intelligence (AI) system has emerged victorious against a human expert during a high-fidelity air combat simulation.
The system developed at the University of Cincinnati in the US was assessed by subject-matter expert and retired US Air Force Colonel Gene Lee – who holds extensive aerial combat experience as an instructor and Air Battle Ma

The updated Galaxy flip phone will feature a 3.8-inch display with a resolution of 800 x 480 with support for at least 5 finger gesture
Samsung is reportedly working on a flip smartphone. Samsung is likely to launch an updated version of the earlier Galaxy Folder, but the leaked specifications don’t seem much of an upgrade really.
According to a GFXBench listing, the updated Galaxy Folder will feature a 3.8-inch display with a resolution of 800 x 480 with support for at least 5 finge

Now, with Ringing Bells’ plans to hold a lucky draw, we don’t know how many people will actually get to see Freedom 251.
The Ringing Bells Freedom 251 delivery saga seems like a plot with no end in sight. The company, which was supposed to start deliveries for the world’s cheapest smartphone from June 30, will now hold a lucky draw to give away Freedom 251.
Ringing Bells CEO Mohit Goel confirmed the same in a telephone conversation with Indianexpress.com. Goel said they will o

Le Max2 review: The smartphone by LeEco goes on sale today in India and here’s what we thought of the device.
LeEco is a Chinese technology player that wants to integrate hardware and content. And it’s not just looking at smartphones or TV sets. In April, LeEco showed off the concept vehicle LeSee, its electric Supercar, which will be driverless and part of its larger ecosystem.
At the same launch event in Beijing, LeEco’s founder Jia Yueting said the company hopes to see a da

The new imagery is now available across all our mapping products (Source: Google)
Google has bumped the satellite imagery on its mapping service with fresh imagery from Landsat 8 satellite. Google points out in a blog post that the software giant looked at millions of images and took the clearest pixels to stitch together this cloud-free and seamless image.
Google says it has also introduced a new processing technique for sharper images than ever before. Google says Landsat 8 is capable of capt

Apple Watch in 2017 could feature micro LED panels in place of OLED display
Apple is reportedly developing micro LED panels for the next version of Apple Watch. According to Digitimes, the Cupertino-based company could use micro LED panels in place of OLED as early as second half of 2017.
Apple Watch was announced at company’s special event in April 2015. The company recently dropped the price on its smartwatch and introduced new Nylon bands. Apple Watch was the first Apple product t

Facebook stalks you and uses your phone’s location to suggest new people you could befriend. (Reuters) Ever surprised by finding a person whose face you remember but not the name until the “People you may know” feature on Facebook told you about him/her? This is probably because Facebook stalked you and used your phone’s location to suggest new people you could befriend.
The accuracy that this feature shows has surprised as well as disturbed Facebook users for some time

Commissioned with 1,005 Indian smartphone and tablet users aged 16 and above, the findings from the Norton Mobile Survey shed light on the security gaps and the privacy risks smartphone and mobile applications (apps) present. (Reuters) Nearly one in two Indians have granted access to contacts and mobile data in exchange for free apps and close to 40 per cent have granted access to their camera, revealed global leader in cyber security Norton by Symantec on Tuesday.
Commissioned with 1,005 India

Twitter is also creating collections of stickers that are linked to the time of year and events such as New Year and Christmas. (Reuters) Micro-blogging website Twitter has added a new feature that would let a user add virtual stickers to photos by just searching them like hashtags.
“Twitter has given them (virtual stickers) one unique twist: you can search them like hashtags. Tap on a sticker inside a tweet and you will be taken to a new timeline that shows you how it is being used aroun

The study was conducted among 1,005 Indian smartphone and tablet users aged 16 years and above. (Express Photo) A majority of mWallet users believe that security of their mobile wallets is under threat from use of social networking and e-commerce apps, a Norton by Symantec study said today.
According to the Norton Mobile Survey, 52 per cent respondents see threat coming from using apps such as those from social networking (27 per cent), online shopping (24 per cent) and messaging (19 per cent),

TRAI reports have suggested that most telcos but airtel failed the call drop test in Ahmedabad. (Source: File photo)
All telecom operators except Bharti Airtel failed to meet the call drop benchmark in Ahmedabad, as per telecom regulator Trai’s sample drive test.
However, the situation was much better in two major cities of Uttar Pradesh — Lucknow and Kanpur — as most telecom operators met the benchmark.
“Only Airtel 2G met the call drop rate benchmark of less than or eq

The new imagery is now available across all our mapping products (Source: Google)
Google has bumped the satellite imagery on its mapping service with fresh imagery from Landsat 8 satellite. Google points out in a blog post that the software giant looked at millions of images and took the clearest pixels to stitch together this cloud-free and seamless image.
Google says it has also introduced a new processing technique for sharper images than ever before. Google says Landsat 8 is capable of capt

According to the report, the new smartphone will be launched by the end of the year. Google take more control over design, manufacturing and software, the report said. (Reuters) Google is all set to launch its own smartphone, a step that could see it directly competing with Apple’s iPhone. According to a Telegraph report, the internet giant is in discussions with mobile operators about releasing a Google-branded phone.
Under the Nexus brand, Google already has a tie-up with companies like

Le Eco Le 2 will go on sale today on Flipkart and LeMall.com. Here’s our full review of the Le 2 smartphone.
LeEco, the Chinese internet technology company with global ambitions, has suddenly overshadowed the likes of Xiaomi and Micromax in India. The company is the most talked about smartphone brand in India, and it’s stepping up its internet ecosystem elsewhere in the world.
LeEco (formerly known as LeTV) got a jumpstart in the Indian market with the launch of Le 1s and followed t

Portronics Muffs-XT has 195mAh Li-on battery, which provides more than 12 hours of music playback.
Portronics has launched Muffs XT on-ear bluetooth headphones at Rs 1,999. Muffs XT come with a microphone and ear-pad mounted controls to control music and phone calls.
Portronics Muffs-XT has 195mAh Li-on battery, which provides more than 12 hours of music playback. It supports Bluetooth 4.1 version. Muffs – XT feature 40mm drivers and weighs 135gms.
Portronics Muffs-XT sport PU leather ear

OnePlus Care enables customers to self-diagnose their smartphones and avail free pickup-drop service
OnePlus teams up with Servify to launch the ‘OnePlus Care’ app for all OnePlus devices & offers a complementary ‘Accidental Protection Plan’ for all OnePlus 3 users
OnePlus has announced a new ‘OnePlus Care’ app in association with Servify to enable customers to self-diagnose their smartphones and avail free pickup-drop service from their home or office, i

The survey, “The State of Cybersecurity and Digital Trust 2016”, was conducted by HfS Research on behalf of Accenture.
Insider data theft and malware attacks top the list of the most significant concerns for enterprise security executives, says a new report from Accenture and HfS Research.
According to the research, a budget shortage for hiring cyber-security talent is hindering the ability of organisations to properly defend themselves against these attacks.
The survey, “The