Cool stuff heading your way this year

This year is going to be great year for tech enthusiasts alike. Last year on September 10, 2014 (correct me if I’m wrong) Microsoft announced windows 10. Apparently skipping 9 to get as far away from windows 8 as possible. At CES (Consumer Electronic Show) there were plenty of new stuff announced. Namely, the Snapdragon 810 processor, USB – Type C, a new BMW electric car, free - form display by SHARP and better drones. I shall further discuss these new advancements below.  

WINDOWS 10

Microsoft did something different this time, in order to appease as many consumers as possible they’ve allowed the BETA build to be downloaded by anyone who wants. Do note that as it is still in BETA it is strongly advisable to not install this onto your primary system. The BETA build has been in progress since its release last year and is expected to end mid-2015. By looking at the picture you will immediately notice that the start bar as returned! Moreover, Microsoft has included Cortana, a digital assistant in-built into the system. Cortana is a primary character of Halo series, Microsoft’s bestselling First Person Shooting game. Recently Microsoft has confirmed that anyone can upgrade to windows 10 for free! And surprisingly enough people with pirated copies could upgrades as well, although, they will not be listed as an original copy. And lastly Microsoft is trying to have a universal app concept. So that and app on your phone could be used on say your XBOX One and on your Surface tablet.

Snapdragon 810

Snapdragon processors are present in a majority of smartphones today. The photo shows the key features that this new processor brings. Although, it is up to the company that builds the phone whether to include all these features or not. For example, a budget phone from HTC will not have gestures and voice activation. Phones like the Nexus 6 and the LG G Flex 2 already house this processor with more to come this year.

USB – TYPE C

‘One cable to connect them all’, quoting CNET. And that’s exactly what this new cable those. Type C can be used for just about anything that needs a cable to be plugged it, be it for HDMI input to charge a laptop. In addition, type C allows for faster charging as it’s able to provide up to 100 watts at 20 volts. Basically now you can charge your iPad by plugging it into your laptop. Another prime feature is faster data transfer rates of up to 10 GBs. That’s an entire HD movie in a second! The only drawback of this is that it requires a different port. And although adapters will be available they would be an additional device to carry with you. The new Google Chromebook and 12 – inch MacBook already have USB type C ports, with more devices coming soon.

Better Drones

CES this year so a wide variety of commercial drones. And costing at less than $1,300 dollars these are pretty hard to pass up. The DJI Inspire 1 (displayed in the picture) is a slightly more expensive drone (costing at about $2,900) but allows users to shoot videos in 4k. For this particular model the carbon – fibre landing gears lifts and rises for take-off and landing, allowing a 360 degree viewing angles and 125 degrees tilt for the camera. 

What’s cool about these new drones is that they’re simple to use. Some models can have the remote connected a tablet so that the consumer can get almost real-time footage from the camera. 

Another Kickstarter started drone called the Air-Dog follows user wherever he or she goes. Allowing for better photos to be takes. 

BMW i8 and i3

Almost anyone who’s watched Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol should recognise this car. It’s BMW’s new i8, an electric hybrid car. It is similarly prices to the popular Tesla model S, costing at around $130,000 dollars (2.4 Cr Rupees). Besides the futuristic looks the car comes with the BMW TwinPower Turbo 1.5-litre, 3-cylinder petrol engine. But wireless charging definitely is a unique feature in this car.

‘Premium quality and high performance with a focus on sustainability’ quoting BMW’s brochure is the way forward for compact electric cars. Priced at a much cheaper $42,500 (20 Lac Rupees) the car makes for a pretty decent package. The car has a similar charger to the Tesla Model S, with charging points at malls and BMW service stations (3.5 hour charge time). When BMW unveiled the i3 at CES they had a live demonstration of a futuristic feature. Press a button on the phone’s custom app and it automatically drives to your location. Although this feature still needs work, it’s definitely something to note.  

Free form display

Although Sharp unveiled their free form display technology last year it only recently gain hype when Nintendo become its customer. This could possibly be for a portable gaming console or a sleep-tracking device. The display uses Sharp’s new IGZO technology and can be crafted into almost any irregular shape. Thus making it perfect for car dashboards alike. As this technology is still new, it would be interesting to see where this be in the future. Perhaps an integration in the new IOT (Internet of Things) industry. 

A quick guide to buying the perfect smartphone for you

Alright folks – welcome to another post by me, the tech pundit. This post is for those of you who are still wondering which phone to buy, basically which one suits your need the best. What should you consider before arriving at a decision?

Budget

This is the first thing you are gonna want to look at before looking for phones. Because there is no point in having a 20k budget and looking for a current gen iPhone.Therefore I split costs into five categories: inexpensive (below 10K), moderate (10 – 20k), value for money (20 – 30k), the have beens (30-40k) and lavish (40K and above).I think the above list is fairly simple to understand - ‘the have beens’ include phones that have been replaced with newer model phones like the S5 for the S4 and therefore are cheaper than before.

Operating System

The operating system is something you should pay close attention to. Would you choose IOS for its simplicity, Android for its freedom or windows for its more personalized experience? Also if you’re a techie, it’s worth noting that all these OS’ offer their own custom voice integration programs. Android has Google Now, IOS has Siri and windows has Cortana (relatively new).  In case you didn't know the voice integration provides a hands free experience. Here a simple example of using Google now to send a message – “okay Google” (open voice recognition) “send message to mom” pause “what time are you back”. The audio is processed in a few seconds and the phone asks for confirmation to send, respond “yes”. And it’s complete. Simple and it’s a really cool experience!

RAM

RAM comes in many values ranging from 512MB to about 3GB. It all basically comes down to this simple formula, more RAM = more multiprocessing. Which means that you can have many apps open without affecting the speed of the phone. So, it boils down to if you are a savvy user versus a functional one.

Processor speed

This is another aspect which you should pay close attention to. The higher the processor speed the higher the overall performance of the phone, same as laptops and computers. Thus if you want to render games at a high graphic level a phone with something with a 2.0 GHZ processor or above would be ideal. Whereas if you all you use your phone is for calls, messaging and emails then speed between 1.0 and 2.0 GHZ would be most suitable.Another thing you might observe while looking at phones is the number of cores that they have. Like computers, phones too have cores, each with a different purpose. Basically the more the cores – the more efficiently the tasks are processed. This also aids battery life. (Give examples of phones and how that will help)

Screen size

Screen size varies from phone to phone. IPhone in general have small screens while most Samsung phones have medium sized screen. While looking through phones you’re going to want to look for screens measuring 4 inches, 4.5 inches, 5 inches or 5.5 inches. Because anything smaller or larger would be quite uncomfortable to hold and talk on.

Battery

The easiest way to find the battery life of the phone of your choice is to type ["your phone name" 3G talk-time] as this is what takes up the most amount of battery life. Therefore if can last up 10 or above hours your good to go.

Camera

This is something purely preference based. For me having a decent camera on my phone is somewhat important. The more megapixels the camera has, the better - this is in fact a common misconception (although it may be true in some very minor cases). What matters more are factors such as quality of lens, speed of shutter and an overall good aperture. Another misconception is that an 8 MP photo is double the size of a 4 MP photo, this is actually false. Because 8MP= 3264 x 2448 and 4MP= 2272 x 1704, thus as you can see it isn't double the size.

Here are a couple of examples of a configuration you can consider while looking for a phone:

Person 1

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 – working adult      
OS: Android
Speed: fast
Price: extravagant budget
Screen size: huge
Battery: lasts a day
Camera: above average, used often
Strength: screen is weak but flip cover case provides 360* protection
Weight: in between heavy and average

Person 2

Nokia Lumia 720 – student

OS: Windows 8.1, Love the functionality the phone presents, as well as the customization of the start screen and live tiles.

Speed: fast

Price: value for money
Screen size medium
Battery: lasts up to two days on 3G/WI-FI
Camera: use it often, stellar quality
Strength: strong – no scratches or cracks on the phone

Person 3

Nexus 4 – student
OS: android, cheaper than any apple phone, highly configurable, good apps and design fast
Price: value for money
Screen size: large
Battery: lasts a day on WI-FI
Camera: used rarely

Strength: appears to be strong, no scratches so far     _________________________________________________

If you go about it in this way before purchasing a phone, it will save you lot of trouble and importantly money and give you the best experience possible.

Now that I've laid out the guide lines for you what is the right smartphone for you?

StoreDot - Nanotechnology Inspired by Nature

Smartphones have become a key part of all our lives. We use it every day, to check emails, call people, play games and stream social network websites like Facebook. But, using smartphones does come at a cost, and that is dealing with their battery lifespan.  For example, Apple’s iPhone 5s has an average battery talk time of 10 hours while Samsung’s S4 has an average battery life of 17 hours.  And the more features you use, the shorter the battery life.

The picture below shows the battery of a further variety of phone (note: they are measured according to talk-time)

For a teen like me this isn't really a problem, if I leave it to charge the night before. But let’s say that I forget to charge my phone overnight and let’s say my phone is an iPhone 5s with a battery life span of just 10 hours. So I realize when I wake up the next morning that my phone is dead and it is too late by then. The iPhone takes roughly takes two hours to charge, implying that I don’t have the time to get it charged. I think the problem would be felt  much more for business folks. Luckily for me and I guess for all of us, an Israeli start-up company has come up with the perfect solution – StoreDot technology.

 As some of you might’ve read in the newspapers earlier StoreDot is a revolutionary technology that incorporates nanotechnology in their battery charger. The Charger as seen in the video charges a Samsung S4 to 100% in 26 seconds. Something that would've been impossible to believe without video proof.

Quoting the Telegraph, “"Batteries are just one of the industries we can disrupt with this new material. It is new physics, new chemistry, a new approach to devices," said Dr Myersdorf, founder of StoreDot.”

So I was thinking while this technology is still in its infancy – where it could be incorporated in 10 years. Battery powered cars like the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf require long charge times. And Battery powered vehicles are the future right? But what use is an electric car if its battery is dead? I’m sure that technology similar to StoreDot’s would be the ideal solution. Innovative chargers which can charge your car in 30 minutes flat, and I believe engineers are currently developing such technology for the Tesla model S.

Here is the link to StoreDot’s website: http://www.store-dot.com/

Introduction

Hi there, I'm a 17 and I live in Bangalore, India. I'm a big fan of tech related stuff - Google now, Smartphones, Xbox One you name it, and I know it. Perhaps Bangalore, being the tech capital of India influenced my love for technology.

I was introduced to the computer when I was three years old - the IBM computer - a source of interest and entertainment to me. Often I would see mom working at it, I’m pretty sure I didn't know what they were doing but all I can say is that, it caught my attention. When I turned four my dad introduced me to simple games on the IBM machine. Space Invaders and Pacman were personal favorites of mine, and every day after getting back from the day-care I would use the computer.

Today though, everything has changed.....IBM computers have ceased to exist

PRESENTING THE IBM MACHINE

 And instead a wide variety of devices, namely laptops, personnel-computers and now even tablets have taken up their place. PCs, or personal-computers are what most people have at home, a monitor connected to a CPU (central processing unit, the so called 'brain' of a computer), a mouse & keyboard would also be connected to the CPU. These make the base units upon which tech companies like Logitech and Asus keep building upon that is, making faster CPU so that the machine can process more data, also by making monitors of sharper contrast and better quality and so on.

Now, what is a smartphone? Well as Wikipedia would put it - "A smartphone, or smart phone, is a mobile phone with more advanced computing capability and connectivity than basic feature phones".

The three current operating systems for Smartphones: Android, Windows and IOS.