Google Set to Launch Android One Today, Opening Window For Low Cost Phones

Google will uncover the first of its series of budget smartphones under the much anticipated Android One today. This initiative gives a key set of references for hardwares to help phone manufacturers make minimal cost smartphones. The phones will be unveiled by Sundar Pichai, Google’s SVP of Android, Chrome & Apps in New Delhi.

Google is expected to launch a range of Android One smartphones, mostly priced under Rs 6,000, via domestic online stores. These have been developed in partnership with local mobile phone manufacturers such as Micromax, Karbonn and Spice. These smartphones are expected to be loaded with top-end features such as dual core chip, 5 MP camera and 4.5-inch display.

Indian tech market has been ruled by budget friendly and value for money devices. The company first unveiled the Android one initiative in June this year at Google’s annual I/O conference as a move to take the platform to markets where low-priced phones with fewer features and less memory are in high demand.

By modifying the working framework, some programming and packaging it with Google’s own service, its web search tool, Android One will help scale up the business for Google.

Android One is tipped to be a game changer in the smartphone market, delivering a better experience to users. The race to make the least expensive smartphone pressed with specs is just going to get bigger as more companies are looking at the budget segment of the Indian market.

Happy Onam To All

ആദ്യ ഫയര്‍ഫോക്സ് ഫോണ്‍ ഇന്ത്യയില്‍; വില 1999 രൂപ !

 മോസില്ല ഫയര്‍ഫോക്സ് ഓപ്പറേറ്റിങ് സിസ്റ്റത്തില്‍ പ്രവര്‍ത്തിക്കുന്ന ആദ്യ സ്‍മാര്‍ട്ട്ഫോണ്‍, ഇന്റക്സ് കമ്പനി ഇന്ത്യയില്‍ അവതരിപ്പിച്ചു. സാധാരണക്കാരായ ഉപഭോക്താക്കളെ ലക്ഷ്യമിട്ടാണ് ഫയര്‍ഫോക്സ് ഫോണ്‍ എത്തുന്നത്. ഇന്ത്യന്‍ വിപണിയില്‍ 1999 രൂപയാണ് ഫോണിന്റെ വില. രണ്ടായിരം രൂപയില്‍ താഴെ വില വരുന്ന ഫയര്‍ഫോക്സ് ഫോണ്‍ അവതരിപ്പിക്കുമെന്ന് കഴിഞ്ഞ ജൂണിലാണ് ഇന്റക്സ് പ്രഖ്യാപിച്ചത്. ഓണ്‍ലൈന്‍ ഷോപ്പിങ് സൈറ്റായ സ്‍നാപ്ഡീല്‍ വഴിയാണ് ഫോണ്‍ വില്‍പ്പനയ്ക്കു വച്ചിരിക്കുന്നത്. ഇതുവരെ ഇന്ത്യയില്‍ ഇറങ്ങിയിട്ടുള്ള സ്‍മാര്‍ട്ട്ഫോണുകളില്‍ ഏറ്റവും വില കുറഞ്ഞതും എന്നാല്‍ മികച്ച ഫീച്ചറുകളും ഉള്‍പ്പെടുത്തിയിട്ടുള്ള ഫോണാണിതെന്ന് ഇന്റക്സ് പറയുന്നു. ഇതേസമയം, തന്നെ മറ്റൊരു സ്‍മാര്‍ട്ട്ഫോണ്‍ നിര്‍മാതാക്കളായ സ്‍പൈസും ഫയര്‍ഫോക്സ് ഒഎസില്‍ പ്രവര്‍ത്തിക്കുന്ന ഫോണ്‍ ഇന്ത്യയില്‍ അവതരിപ്പിക്കാന്‍ ഒരുങ്ങുകയാണ്. സ്‍പൈസ് ഫയര്‍ വണ്‍ എംഐ എഫ്എക്സ്1 ഫോണ്‍ ആഗസ്റ്റ് 29 ന് ഇന്ത്യയില്‍ എത്തിക്കുമെന്നാണ് കമ്പനി പറയുന്നത്. 2299 രൂപയായിരിക്കും സ്‍പൈസ് ഫോണിന്റെ വില. 3.5 ഇഞ്ച് എച്ച്‍വിജിഎ ഡിസ്‍പ്ലെ, 1 ജിഗാഹെഡ്സ് പ്രൊസസര്‍, 128 എംപി റാം, 2 എംപി കാമറ തുടങ്ങിയ സവിശേഷതകളാണ് ഫോണിലുണ്ടാവുക. 46 എംപി ഇന്‍ബില്‍റ്റ് മെമ്മറി, 4 ജിബി വരെ സപ്പോര്‍ട്ട് ചെയ്യുന്ന മെമ്മറി കാര്‍ഡ്, ജിപിആര്‍എസ് തുടങ്ങിയ സംവിധാനങ്ങളും ഉള്‍പ്പെടുത്തിയിരിക്കുന്നു. 104 ഗ്രാമാണ് ഫോണിന്റെ ഭാരം.
source-mediaone

How to Make Your Computer’s Browser Use Less Data

Websites – at least the desktop versions – are designed for broadband connections and are larger than ever. This isn’t normally a problem, but what if you’re tethering your computer to a smartphone with a limited data plan?

These tips will help you use less data and come in under your data cap. They shouldn’t be necessary if you are on a decent, wired Internet connection with unlimited data or a high data cap.

Image Credit: Yosomono on Flickr

Enable Click-To-Play Plugins

Many websites include embedded Flash content, often for videos or advertisements. This Flash content can be fairly large in size. To prevent Flash content from loading, you can enable the click-to-play plugin feature in your browser. When you access a page containing content that needs plugins – usually Flash, but occasionally Silverlight or something else – you will see placeholder images\. Click the placeholder and the content will download and play.

With click-to-play plugins, plugins won’t run automatically. They will only download and use your bandwidth if you actually want to view them.

You can also whitelist websites, allowing them to always load plugin content without asking you. This can be useful for websites like YouTube, although you should consider using low-quality settings on YouTube and other streaming video websites to limit data usage while tethering.

Disable Images

Images still take up quite a bit of bandwidth, and this has only increased as websites include images that are larger and more detailed. However, most websites can be used without images.

Follow these instructions to prevent your browser from loading images automatically:

• Chrome: Open the Settings screen, click Show advanced settings at the bottom, and click the Content Settings button under Privacy. Select Do not show any images.
• Firefox: Open the Options window, click the Content icon, and uncheck Load images automatically.
• Internet Explorer: Open the Internet Options window, click the Advanced tab, scroll down to the Multimedia section, and uncheck Show pictures.
• Opera: Open the Preferences window, click the Webpages tab, and select No Images in the Images box.

Use Opera Turbo

Opera Turbo is a unique feature not available in other popular browsers. When you enable Opera Turbo in Opera, web pages you visit will be routed through Opera’s web optimization proxy. The proxy compresses images and other parts of web pages, shrinking them and making them take less bandwidth. This is similar to what Opera Mini, one of Opera’s mobile browsers, does.

To enable Opera Turbo, click the Opera Turbo icon at the bottom of the Opera browser window and select Enable Opera Turbo.

Opera will never route secure HTTPS pages through their proxy. This helps preserve your privacy when viewing sensitive data, but it means that some pages won’t be compressed.

Request Mobile Websites

Mobile websites often use less bandwidth. You may want to experiment with using the mobile versions of websites by changing your browser’s user agent.

Of course, you may be tethering your computer to your phone so you can use the full desktop versions of websites. If you want full websites, this won’t help. Mobile versions will also make poor use of your larger screen space.

To have your browser request mobile websites, you will need to change your browser’s user agent to a smartphone or tablet user agent.

Disable Automatic Browser Updates

You should update your browser regularly — automatic updates are the ideal way of doing this. However, if you’re tethering, you probably won’t want your browser to suddenly download a large update over your cellular data connection.

• Chrome: Google provides instructions for disabling Google Update on Windows.
• Firefox: Open the Options screen, click the Advanced icon, click the Update tab, and temporarily disable automatic updates.
• Internet Explorer: Internet Explorer updates itself through Windows Update. See below for more information on tweaking Windows Update’s settings.
• Opera: Open the Preferences window, click the Advanced tab, select Security, and select theNotify me about available updates setting in the Auto-update box.

Note that leaving automatic updates disabled is a security risk. You should re-enable automatic updates when you have access to a proper Internet connection.

Disable Other Downloading and Uploading Applications

This isn’t a browser tip, but if you are tethering your computer and using a mobile data plan, it’s crucial. Many other applications use the Internet and will chew through your data allotment if you let them.

You will probably want to tweak Windows Update’s settings. Set Windows Update to prompt you to download updates, not download them automatically. (Open the Windows Update control panel and click Change Settings to access these settings.)

You should also close any other data-hungry applications you use, including Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, Steam, iTunes, or anything else using data – even an application that just downloads automatic updates for itself. Keep an eye out for these data-hungry programs.

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You will probably want to undo many of these tweaks when you get back to Wi-Fi, as Opera Turbo will slow things down on fast connections and browsing the web without images can be obnoxious.

Source- Howtogeek

e!d mubarack :)

Post by Bahir.

Most Powerful Supercomputer’s Big Weakness

China’s Tianhe-2 may be the world’s fastest supercomputer, but some researchers say its use is limited by its high cost and dearth of software, according to a recent article in the South China Morning Post.

The Tianhe-2, which reaches 33.86 petaflops per second, was ranked No. 1 in the Top500 List for the third time in the row in late June. But some researchers say the system is not being used to its full potential because of its expense. Researchers have to pay the electricity costs to use the supercomputer, which can run between 400,000 to 600,000 yuan a day (between about $64,000 to about $96,500 a day), the story said.

Some critics also say the developers of the Tianhe-2 focused too much on hardware, and not enough on software, forcing researchers to write their own code to use the system, the article said. Some researchers would have to spend years or a decade to write the necessary software, said Chi Xuebin, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Science’s Computer Network and Information Centre.

“It is at the world’s frontier in terms of calculation capacity, but the function of the supercomputer is still way behind the ones in the U.S. and Japan,” Chi told the newspaper. “It’s like a giant with a super body but without the software to support its thinking soul.”

Tinahe-2, developed by the National University of Defense Technology and housed at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong, has served 120 clients at 34 percent of its capacity, the story said. Researchers have deployed the supercomputer for railway design, earthquake simulation, astrophysics and genetic studies.

In the supercomputer’s defense, the Tianhe-2 takes just one second to do the same amount of work that 1.3 billion PCs would take one thousand years to complete, said professor Yuan Xuefeng, director of the National Supercomputer Centre, which manages Tianhe-2. “The bill might be large at first, but calculations by Tianhe-2 can drastically shorten years of experiment time,” he told the newspaper.

Tianhe-2 Specifications

Tianhe-2 (MilkyWay-2) - TH-IVB-FEP Cluster, Intel Xeon E5-2692 12C 2.200GHz, TH Express-2, Intel Xeon Phi 31S1P

The World's Fastest SuperComputer Tianhe-2

Tianhe-2 or TH-2 (Chinese: 天河-2; pinyin: tiānhé-èr; literally: "Heavenriver-2" idiomatically "Milky Way 2") is a 33.86-petaflopsupercomputer located in Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. It was developed by a team of 1,300 scientists and engineers.

It is the world's fastest supercomputer according to the TOP500 lists for June 2013, November 2013, and June 2014.

Outernet Getting Ready To Broadcast Free Internet To The World !

The Outernet is a global networking project currently under development by the Media Development Investment Fund, a United States-based non-profit organization established in 1995. The Outernet team claim that only 60% of the world’s population currently have access to the wealth of knowledge that can be found on the Internet. This is because, despite a wide spread of Wi-Fi devices across the globe, many countries are unable or unwilling to provide people with the infrastructure needed to access the web.

The company’s plan is to launch hundreds of low-cost miniature satellites, known as cubesats, into low Earth orbit. Here, each satellite will receive data from a network of ground stations across the globe. Using a technique known as User Datagram Protocol (UDP) multitasking, which is the sharing of data between users on a network, Outernet will broadcast information to users. Much like how you receive a signal on your television and flick through channels, Outernet will broadcast the Internet to you and allow you to flick through certain websites. This service sounds too good to be true.

To understand Outernet better, check out their self-explanatory infographic:

You Can Now Correct Google Now by Simply Saying “No! I Said”

A new update for Google Now, a voice-based smart assistant, is tiny but a significant one. The new update will let users correct the search engine when it doesn’t correctly understand what they ask for.

Voice searches with Google Now can sometimes be excruciatingly irritating. Its accuracy is predicated on many factors, such as the quietness of your surroundings and the clarity of your speech and the worst of all its inability to correctly perceive non-American accents, so results can be pretty inaccurate at times.

A Farewell To Orkut

Post by Bahir.

If you were once a member of Orkut, then you are aware that last week Google announced that it will be shutting down the network.
The reason is because other similar Google services have outpaced Orkut, leaving it with no option but to close he ten year old service.
Below is the press release being sent out by email to all those who have accounts with Orkut.

After ten years of sparking conversations and forging connections, we have decided that it’s time for us to start saying goodbye to Orkut. Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world. Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut’s growth, we’ve decided to focus our energy and

What the Google Android One Program Means for the Developing World

Google I/O 2014 was jam-packed with interesting new launches and sweet surprises, some of which were unexpected while others were making the rounds as rumors. Android One was announced as Google’s exciting new program that will make the availability of smartphones in the developing nations ultra-cheap.

Android One program is in partnership with the three OEMs: Micromax, Spice and Karbonn. Micromax’s Android One smartphone was showcased at the event and was priced at under 100$ (approximately Rs6000.) Its features included 4.5” display screen, dual SIM, microSD card slot, and FM Radio.

With a vision to mobilize the highly fragmented market for smartphones onto the devised single platform, Google’s new initiative in collaboration with the phone makers Spice, Karbonn and Micromax is set to kick-off in India. While it will likely increase Android sales, Google SVP Sundar Pichai remarked about the advantages of Android One program, especially for the developing world.

If you look at all the OEMs in those countries, each has to reinvent the wheel… and develop a smartphone in nine months.

Sundar Pichai

Google SVP

 

The prevalence of smartphones in the developing nations and their use in a country like India, first and foremost requires a revision of cost and accessibility. Android One program aims to reduce the cost involved in the development of smartphone devices by pre-qualifying OEMs to identify compatible smartphone components and parts that go into its making. This is essentially aimed at standardizing hardware across all the three platforms.  Google will also ensure that the software is compatible with the design through regular updates.

Android One will thus provide the OEMs a hardware/software reference platform to work cooperatively and hence more efficiently.

by-Rhea Chaudhary

How to's : Removing scratches from screen of your smartphone

Smartphones -we do care about them day and night and the care taking stuff even increases if the premium smartphone you just bought came with a big- ticket price tag.What if the smartphone we just bought does not have a screen-guard and a nasty scratch appears on it, not to worry. Here we have brought some DIY tips and techniques with which you will be able to remove the scratches that appear on your technology gadgets, more specifically smartphones.

Whatever it is,scratches from car keys, or any sharp edgy objects in your pocket, we will help you remove the scratches from your smartphone screen.Have a look at the steps or points below and we are sure, the scratches on your device will go away.

1. Toothpaste 

Peace at Last : Apple-Google War is Done for Good

Seems like every techie journalists staple source of conflict beat is about to get over. On Friday, Google and Apple decided to call it quits on the incessant exercise of suing and counter suing each other. They have asked the courts to dismiss the remaining patent lawsuits and have decided to settle the matters outside the courts. . . . . . .

Be a Pokemon Master, Google tells users in April Fool's prank

It is that time of the year again. Yes, tomorrow is April Fool's Day and in keeping with the tradition, Google is starting the silly season with a prank today. In a video posted by Google Maps team, the company announced that it is creating a new position within the Maps team - Pokemon Master.

The elaborate video opens with an epic and thunderous music tune and shows a few "adventures" going to remote places like mountains, deserts and oceans, hunting for Pokemon characters. "At Google we seek to hire the most exceptional people. Today we are announcing a new job role and challenge — Pokemon Master," the voiceover in the Video says. "Pokemon Master's are world's greatest digital explorers."

In the real world, however, you don't need to go out to hunt Pokemons.

If you upgrade your Maps app on iPhone or Android phone or tablet, you can catch 150 Pokemons. These tiny toons are littered on the Google Maps, though most of them seem to be in the US. Catching them requires zooming into the maps of various cities. Once you have found one, you can tap on it and a press special button that says "Catch". Once the character is caught, it is stored in Pokedex. Clicking on it reveals its characteristics.


The easiest way to catch some Pokemons is by navigating to................

ഫിന്‍: മലയാളി ചെറുപ്പക്കാരുടെ കണ്ടുപിടുത്തം അന്താരാഷ്ട്ര ശ്രദ്ധ നേടുന്നു

കൊച്ചി: സ്റ്റാര്‍ട്ടപ്പ് വില്ലേജിലെ സ്റ്റാര്‍ട്ടപ്പുകളിലൊന്നായ ആര്‍എച്ച്എല്‍ വിഷന്‍ വികസിപ്പിക്കുന്നു. 'ഫിന്‍ ' എന്നു പേരിട്ടിരിക്കുന്ന ഉപകരണം ലോക ശ്രദ്ധ നേടുന്നു. കൈയിലെ തള്ളവിരലില്‍ മോതിരമായി ധരിക്കാവുന്ന റിമോട്ട് കണ്‍ട്രോളറാണ് ഇത്. വിവിധ ഉപകരണങ്ങളുമായി ആശയവിനിമയം സാധ്യമാക്കുന്ന, ബ്ലൂ ടൂത്ത് പോലെതന്നെ കുറഞ്ഞ ഊര്‍ജം മാത്രം ഉപയോഗിച്ചു പ്രവര്‍ത്തിക്കുന്ന ഉപകരണമാണ് ഫിന്‍ .

ഇതിനകം ഈ ഉപകരണത്തെക്കുറിച്ച് ടെക്ക് ചര്‍ച്ച് അടക്കമുള്ള അന്താരാഷ്ട്ര മാധ്യമങ്ങളില്‍‌ വാര്‍ത്ത വന്നുകഴിഞ്ഞു. $120 വിലയുള്ള ഈ ഉപകരണത്തിന്

Nokia X, Nokia's Android smartphone, launched in India at Rs 8,599

New Delhi: Nokia announced the launch of its new family of Android-based smartphones - the Nokia X series of phones - in India on Monday. The first three phones in the family - the Nokia X, X+ and XL - run on the new Nokia X software platform, that is based on Google's Android. The Nokia X, which will be available in India starting March 10 is priced at Rs 8,599.

Nokia says the other two phones in the family, the Nokia X+ and the Nokia XL will be available in India in the next 60 days.

The Nokia X has a single capacitive button for navigation, unlike the three capacitive buttons on a Windows Phone smartphone.................

Snaps From Mozilla Seminar

Webmaker Party Is Here !

Cheap Devices, Like Mozilla’s $25 Smartphone, to Bring More of Developing World Online

More than ever, the Internet is connecting people to information—if you live in the developed world. According to a recent Pew survey, however, most people in many developing countries are still offline.

Broadening Internet access isn’t about building more infrastructure or selling laptops, however. Just as developing countries leapfrogged landlines with cellphones, they’ll tap the Internet on mobile connections and affordable smartphones. read more