Friday, 29 May 2015
Google Photos With Free, Unlimited Storage: 10 Things You Need to Know
Review of $29.39 Xiaomi Small Ants Smart IP Camera
Xiaomi is a very versatile company. We know of it as primarily a phone maker, but it does a lot of other things and does them well too. It makes power banks, earphones, fitness bands, tablets… hell! it even makes televisions.
- 720p HD video capture
- Built-in microphone and speaker, supports two-way remote dialogue
- Automatically starts smart security model when you leave home
- Observe the pictures and video whenever necessary
- 4x digital zoom, every detail can be viewed on the screen
- 110-degree wide-angle lens can capture everything even in a large room
- Playback at any time, in addition to real-time viewing, it supports a micro SD(TF)
memory card up to 32 GB to store videos - Perfect fit for Xiaomi AC router, you can record videos directly to the router’s 1TB hard drive
- Cloud Video: Yes, supports local cloud (more secure)
- Supported Protocols: IPV4, UDP, TCP, HTTP, RTP/RTSP, DHCP, P2P
- Supported Wireless Standards: 802.11b/g/n
Installation Experience:
iPhone users can get the app here.
Android users can download the app from play store.
Usability
Verdict
Wednesday, 11 March 2015
Sony to Finally Launch PlayStation 4 Console in China Next Week
Japanese electronics giant Sony will launch its PlayStation gaming console in China next week, it said after a more than two-month delay in officially selling its products to Chinese consumers.
Tuesday, 10 March 2015
You Can’t Block Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook
It so happens that if you wish to block
Mark Zuckerberg from your Facebook
account, you cant.
You may have felt angry at Facebook for
various reasons like your fan page reach
has diminished or your pages get
unpublished and you may want to block the
account of the creator of Facebook, Mark
from your account, you’ll get an error
saying
Sorry! The blocking system is
overloaded Please wait a few
minutes and try again.
If you try to block him again after a few
minutes, you will get the same message.
It seems that Mark Zuckerberg , the
creator of Facebook and a man with around
31 million facebook followers is also one of
the most hated men on Facebook. The above
error message popups because of Facebooks
algorithm which kick in when too many
people try to block one user.
Facebook says, this is designed so as to
protect the voice of the people who raise
a campaign for a good cause, and people
who are not happy with the campaign try
to block the user. This is a general error
which is same for everyone and is
generated due to too many users trying
to block one user.
This was first noticed by a website Block
Zuck which seems to have been created
with sole purpose of testing this service.
After Block Zuck reported this peculiar
Facebook feature, Gizmodo spoke with the
website’s founder and learned that the
site was originally the base of operations
for a viral campaign to mass-block
Zuckerberg in protest of the social
network’s controversial user privacy
policies.
Follow us on Facebook - Tech24×7
Wednesday, 4 March 2015
OnePlus Says Entering New Product Category in April; OnePlus 2 Details Leak
Pei while talking to GSMArena at the sidelines of MWC 2015 added that the new product is neither a smartwatch nor a tablet leaving everyone to guess the next OnePlus product. Interestingly, Pei's announcement of a new product category ties-in with what he told NDTV Gadgets in December.
At the Indian launch of the OnePlus One, Pei told NDTV Gadgets, "For our first year, we've focused on just one product, the OnePlus One. Next year, we're looking into experimenting with different types of form factors and different types of products."
A new product category doesn't mean that OnePlus is not working on the successor of the One smartphone. Previously, Pei had confirmedthat the OnePlus 2 smartphone can be expected to be launched in Q2 or Q3 of 2015.
In other news, Business Insider reports citing a source familiar with the situation that OnePlus is revamping the design of the One smartphone for its successor.
It adds that the next OnePlus smartphone will sport a metal frame, which is likely to replace the polycarbonate build of the '2014 flagship killer' One smartphone.
The report goes on to claim that due to use of a metal frame, the pricing of the OnePlus 2 will be higher than that of the One which was launched in April last year at a starting price of $299 (unlocked and without contract) for the 16GB model. The sources however affirmed that the plans are yet to be finalised.
In January, the Chinese handset brand announced that it sold close to 1 million OnePlus One smartphones by the end of 2014. The company did not mention the exact numbers of the smartphone.
Tuesday, 3 March 2015
Nine Things You Need to Know About the HTC One M9
Here are nine things you need to know about the brand new HTC One M9:
1) Camera
Perhaps the biggest change in the HTC One M9 is a move away from the UltraPixel rear camera that many had complained about. The HTC One M9 comes with a 20-megapixel rear camera so you can zoom and crop images all you want.
2) Sense 7.0
HTC's upgrade to the custom UI brings a new contextual awareness that aims to give you information as and when you need it. So you have a custom launcher widget that shows apps based on your location and bundles that give you news and restaurant recommendations based on the time of the day.
3) Price and availability
While the company is silent about the HTC One M9 price, we do know the phone will be available in markets around the world (including India) in the middle of this month.
4) Snapdragon inside
The HTC One M9 comes with an octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor inside alongside 3GB RAM and 32GB of inbuilt storage. Are you listening Apple?
5) UltraPixel front camera
While the UltraPixel may not have been great success as a rear camera, HTC is giving its low-light photography capabilities a chance to shine as the front camera in the HTC One M9.
6) Design and finish
With the M9, HTC continues its lead in the industrial design department. The company stressed the finish of the HTC One M9 is inspired by luxury watches, and it shows in the end result. The HTC One M9 will be available in four colours: Gold on Silver, Gold on Gold, Gold on Pink, and our personal favourite, the Gunmetal Grey.
7) Dolby on your phone
The HTC One M9 comes with BoomSound including Dolby Audio Surround that offers a surround sound experience via the built-in speakers as well as bundled headphones.
8) HTC Connect
The HTC One M9 also comes with HTC Connect that lets the phone transmit audio to multiple sources over Bluetooth, DLNA, Miracast, Qualcomm's AllPlay, and BlackFire. You can even combine multiple sources into a single group. Do the three-finger swipe up in any app to quickly send the currently playing music to any of these groups.
9) Accessories
The HTC One M9 comes with a new range of HTC Dot View II cases that look brighter a Dot Message that let you see custom messages through the case in addition to the usual information like time, call notifications etc. The One M9 also comes with new clear back cases as well as an active case that's IP68 certified and offers protection from a 2-metre drop. HTC also showed us an active headset that's IP57 certified.
Disclosure: The correspondent attended a pre-MWC briefing in Barcelona at HTC's expense.
Monday, 2 March 2015
SanDisk Unveils 200GB microSDXC Card, USB Drive With Type-C Connector
Sunday, 1 March 2015
Gmail banned in government offices
The measures are a part of twin notifications issued by the Narendra Modi government on February 18 by which the use of private e-mail networks like Gmail and Yahoo has now also been officially banned for all government use.
Notifying an 'E-mail Policy of Government of India' and 'Policy on use of Information Technology resources of Government of India', the Modi government has now stipulated that only the e-mail services provided by NIC shall be used for official communication.
"The e-mail services provided by other service providers shall not be used for any official communication," the notification says. These notified policies will cover all central government employees, employees of those state governments/UTs which use email services of the Centre and those states that choose to adopt this in future. The step was in the offing for long given the government's concern over foreign servers of Gmail and Yahoo and instances of US snooping.
The notified policies stipulate measures to ensure secure and proper access to and usage of government's IT resources and "prevent their misuse" by users (officials).
"Misuse of these resources can result in unwanted risk and liabilities for the government," the policy says. The measures hence stipulated are: "NIC may block content which, in the opinion of the organization concerned, is inappropriate, or may adversely affect the productivity of the users."
Other measures spelt out in the notification are that NIC may monitor online activities on the government network, subject to SOPs as the organization may lay down, and the power with NIC to "access, review, copy or delete" any kind of electronic communication such as files, e-mails and internet history, for "security-related reasons" under due intimation to the user.
The policy has also stipulated the terms of access to social media sites from government networks, saying users will always use "high security settings" on such sites, not post "offensive, threatening, defamatory, bullying, racist, hateful, harassing, obscene or sexist" material on Twitter or Facebook and not make any comment or post any such material that would "cause damage to the organization's reputation."
The policy has specified that besides NIC, there would not be any other e-mail service under Government of India and says auto save of password or its sharing in the government e-mail service is not permitted.
"All organizations, except those exempted under clause 14 of this policy, should migrate their e-mail services to the centralized deployment of the NIC for security reasons and uniform policy enforcement," the notification says. An exception has been made for organizations dealing with national security who have their independent mail servers.
"They can continue to operate the same provided the e-mail servers are hosted in India. However, in interest of uniform policy enforcement and security, it is recommended that these organizations should consider migrating to the core service of NIC," the notified policy says.
Follow us on Facebook - Tech24×7
Saturday, 28 February 2015
Sony Launches 64GB Memory Card With 'Premium Sound' for Audiophiles
about Sony's imminent exit from smartphone and
television business, and the Japanese tech giant
has gone ahead and announced the SR-64HXA -
a 64GB Class 10 microSDXC card with a
'Premium Sound' tag that costs five times as
much as a regular microSDXC card.
The Verge reports that the SR-64HXA costs JPY
18,500 (roughly $155 or Rs. 9,600). It could be a
great accessory for those who intend to pick up
the Sony Walkman ZX2, which the company
announced at CES 2015 and has an astronomical
price tag of $1,200 (approximately Rs. 74,700).
This card is currently available only in Japan.
Audiophiles might find it worth the price but for
majority of the folks, who listen to music prefer
streaming or use only bundled earphones, will
find it too expensive.
As the tag suggests, the memory card is
engineered for sound quality. What this
effectively means is that SR-64HXA produces
less electrical noise when reading data. We are
unsure if that actually makes much of a
difference considering how flash drives are
already pretty quiet.
Interestingly, when questioned about the market
for such a product, a fairly clueless Sony
spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal, "We
aren't that sure about the product's potential
demand, but we thought some, among people
who are committed to great sound quality, would
want it."
We really don't know what Sony seems to be
smoking these days but we know one thing for
sure, the quest for audiophile-grade equipment
puts a dent... no... a crater in the pocket.
Thursday, 26 February 2015
Google Buys Facebook-Focused App Marketing Firm Toro
Announcing the acquisition via Toro blog, the startup company wrote, "With greater resources and distribution now available at our disposal, we're excited to join Google and continue our mission of making the lives of app developers easier."
The San Francisco-based startup Toro, which was originally known as Red Hot Labs Inc., is known for offering services and tools to help software makers boost their user numbers, and was best known for its Facebook ad campaigns. It was also a Facebook 'Preferred Marketing Developer' (PMD).
The company is led by Amitt Mahajan and Joel Poloney. The duo previously co-founded MyMiniLife, and is said (via TechCrunch) to have played a key role in the creation of FarmVille.
Now after the acquisition, Toro blog notes that the company would continue to support existing customers, however new campaign creation has been suspended temporarily.
"For our existing marketing customers, we will continue to optimize your campaigns and update your dashboards, though campaign creation has been suspended for the time being. We recommend working with an alternative Facebook PMD for new campaigns going forward. For reporting customers, your reports will continue free of interruption. We want to extend a huge thanks to everyone who has supported our team and product along the way. We're eager to get back to work building amazing products for you within Google!" added the Toro blog.
Techcrunch notes a Google spokesperson has confirmed the acquisition, and that Toro will be joining the Mountain View giant's mobile advertisement team.
Samsung Unveils Ultra-Fast 128GB Flash Storage; May Debut on Galaxy S6
To remind you, Samsung in its first teaser video of the "Next Galaxy" had words such as "the faster I am", "the more that gets done", "And the more time I can give to others", hinting at the performance - which as we know is not just linked to the processor only, but many other factors including display resolution, RAM, flash memory, OS and more. Interestingly, a report on Tuesday also tipped the device to come in three storage variants, which included the 128GB inbuilt storage option along with 32GB and 64GB. Alongside, an image leak indicated the lack of a microSD card slot.
Announcing modules based on the new UFS standard, Samsung said that the new memory modules will be available in 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB sizes, and if we look at the timing of the announcement, all three can very well be seen in the three tipped storage variants of the Samsung Galaxy S6.
The company says that the ultra-fast UFS embedded memory package is a new ePoP (embedded package on package) solution that can be stacked directly on top of a logic chip, taking approximately 50 percent less space. It conducts 19,000 input/output operations per second and is 2.7 times faster than eMMC 5.0, which is currently embedded in high-end smartphones.
"For random writing of data to storage, the blazingly fast UFS embedded memory operates at 14,000 IOPS and is 28 times as fast as a conventional external memory card, making it capable of supporting seamless Ultra HD video playback and smooth multitasking functions at the same time, enabling a much improved mobile experience," said company.
iPhone 6, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, Lumia 1320, and More in Tech Deals of the Week
AMAZON
The official Microsoft store on Amazon is selling the Nokia Lumia 1320 at a discounted price of Rs. 13,499 this week. The Windows Phone smartphone normally retails for around Rs. 15,000-16,000 online. You can pick almost any colour variant for the same price. The Lumia 1320 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 SoC comprising of a dual-core processor running at 1.7GHz, supported by 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of internal memory. You can use an external memory card to expand memory up to 64GB. The smartphone comes with a 6-inch IPS LCD display running at a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. There's a 5MP primary camera with LED flash, and the phone ships with a 3400mAh battery which should be just enough to survive a day on heavy usage.
Paytm is back with its cashback offer on select laptops. If you've finalised a model that you're looking to buy this week, don't buy before you do a price check on Paytm. The cashback of Rs. 6,000 will be credited to your Paytm wallet which can be used to pay your bills, or purchase other items on Paytm's marketplace. You can even use the cashback amount to pay for services and websites which accept Paytm which includes Uber, BookMyShow, eBay India, MakeMyTrip, and others. Some of our favourite picks from the laptop sale on Paytm include: HP 240 G3 14-inch laptop, HP 15-R062TU 15-inch laptop, and the Dell Vostro 3546 laptop.
If you're in the market for an affordable 5.1 speaker system, the Zebronics SPK-SWT6590 5.1 speaker system is available on SNAPDEAL
Increasing the coverage area of your WiFi network can be a pain sometimes. The best solution is to add a few wireless repeaters that can help amplify an existing wireless network around your home or office. For a basic setup, a router as simple as the Netgear N150 could do the trick. Now retailing for around Rs. 849 (MRP Rs. 1980) on AMAZON
SNAPDEAL