WHAT'S APP SACAM: DON'T ACCEPT THE CALLING FEATURE

WhatsApp users across the world are being targeted by cyber scammers who are circulating fake messages inviting users to test the new calling feature that fills the phone with dangerous malware.
According to the Daily Star, if users click on the link, they are taken to another website where they are asked to take a survey on behalf of the popular messaging service.
However, the survey forces people to download applications and software that might contain dangerous malware.
WhatsApp has not announced the calling feature officially. However, some users claim to have used it.
WhatsApp calling feature is one which is eagerly being looked forward to by everyone. We have read news about how WhatsApp is testing this feature in India. Also WhatsApp had activated the invite-feature for some users for a short period of time last month, so those users can still use WhatsApp calling feature. It has however, not been officially rolled out. By that limited time invite method, a person could activate their friends’ WhatsApp calling feature by giving them a call via WhatsApp. This feature has since been disabled.
It seems like WhatsApp has become a hotbed for cyber scammers. Back in January, one of our team members had got a random message with a contact card to call a certain ‘Diya’, whose number gave an Ivory Coast address. Using pictures of women and sending spam links on social media is a fairly tried and tested method of ensuring chaos on the Internet. Very often gullible users tend to fall for such scams and might even go on to add such a person on WhatsApp, which is dangerous as this person could try and get personal information such as bank account details, email passwords by trying to be friends them.
Back in 2012, another message was doing the rounds which promised lifetime free WhatsApp usage provided the user sent a message to 10 other friends and so on.

GOOGLE'S OCULUS TO TAKE FACEBOOK IN VIRTUAL REALITY

Google Inc. wants Android to be the operating system for virtual reality.
In the wake of Facebook Inc. ’s $2 billion purchase of Oculus VR, Google has assembled a team of engineers to build a version of the Android operating system to power virtual-reality applications, according to two people familiar with the project.
Those people said Google has “tens of engineers” and other staff working on the project. Google plans to freely distribute the new operating system, they said, mimicking a strategy that has made Android by far the most popular operating system for smartphones, powering more than one billion phones. A version of Android for smartwatches has been less successful so far, with devices using it registering few sales.
The project is speculative, because no virtual-reality devices are yet shipping in large numbers. But game companies, filmmakers and others see huge promise in the field.
Virtual reality was the highlight of this month’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Attendees waited for two hours for a demonstration of the Oculus product, and there were similarly long lines to see virtual-reality technology from chip maker Nvidia Corp. Many other booths had VR headsets for people to test out new games.
Facebook jumped ahead of rivals by buying Oculus, which makes a headset that wearers strap over their eyes to project virtual-reality images. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said that virtual reality will be the next “computing platform” after mobile devices, and he hopes Oculus will power a new generation of “immersive” experiences, from games to remote learning to virtual doctor appointments.
The Oculus deal helped spark a race to develop virtual-reality systems. Samsung Electronics Co. , the largest maker of Android smartphones, has joined with Oculus for its Gear VR headset. Sony Corp. has developed its own headset called Project Morpheus. Microsoft Corp. is working a device called “HoloLens” that projects images onto real-world settings, as are many startups.
Punctuating its rivalry with Google, Facebook last month poached a high-profile executive from Google’s advanced-projects lab, Mary Lou Jepsen, to work on Oculus. Her background is in display technology.
Oculus uses its own hardware and software for its headset, just as Apple Inc. uses its own hardware and software for the iPhone. Software developers build their applications on top of these systems.
Android is an “open” operating system available free to hardware makers. There are now four versions of Android, for smartphones, wearable devices, televisions and cars.
For its part, Google last year was the lead investor in a $542 million round of funding for Magic Leap Inc., a Florida-based startup that is developing its own eyeglasses-like device designed to project computer-generated images over a real-life setting. Separately, Google has another team testing a special tablet that uses multiple cameras to “augment reality” by projecting images onto real world objects.
The team working on Android for virtual reality is led by Clay Bavor and Jeremy Doig. Mr. Bavor’s LinkedIn describes him as a vice president of product management and Mr. Doig’s as a director of engineering. Mr. Bavor helped create the company’s low-tech virtual-reality viewer called “Google Cardboard.”
Unveiled last summer, it is a piece of cardboard with two magnets, two lenses, a rubber band and some Velcro, which fold into a crude virtual-reality viewing tool. Users place smartphones into the viewer, which render images in 3-D. The Cardboard app for Android smartphones has been downloaded more than one million times since last summer.

FACEBOOK TO REMOVE 'LIKES' ON DEACTIVATED DEAD HOLDERS

Facebook will soon reduce the number of likes every page has from accounts that have been deactivated and the one's owned by people who have died will be removed.

According to the Independent, it is not yet clear as to how many likes will be reduced from each page. The process of removing likes is due to begin in a few weeks.

Facebook will only remove likes from those accounts that have been manually deactivated, leaving those that have been deactivated as a result of being dormant.

Earlier in December, Instagram removed followers from many accounts, reducing counts by 15%. Facebook only expects a "slight dip" in the number of followers.

OFFICE 2016 FOR MAC PREVIEW AVAILABLE

Microsoft seems to have discovered a soft spot for Apple Inc. products as they release Office 2016 for Mac. Microsoft initially released Office for Mac in the year 2010 but it was way below what we had on Windows then. Since then, things have gradually grown better and Microsoft has not only upgraded Office for Mac but also released quite a few applications for other Apple Products.
Although the Office 2016 is not yet ready for use, Microsoft has released a preview program today. Considering the fact that the preview program is free, the experts recommend the users, to check it out as it is nothing less that Office on Windows.
The first thing that strikes with Office 2016 for Mac is the user interface. The combination of the previous features of Office for Mac and Office for Windows in turn gives Office 2016 for Mac, an exclusive and a much needed appearance. According to an official, the mix is such that the basic  features of Office for Mac has been kept intact and optimized for OS X.
Microsoft has taken a leaf from Office 2013 for Windows, as they have integrated all the cloud storage services into Office 2016. Thus, in case you have a document on OneDrive, you can easily edit it on Windows as well as Mac via the integrated features of Microsoft Office.
There are quite a few interesting features in Office 2016 for Mac. Although, both have a very much similar User Interface, Microsoft has added a few extra features like a better dictionary, a style pane for designing the documents, etc..
Microsoft has also allowed co-authoring, allowing two or more people, to work on a same document at the same time. According to the reports, Office 2016 for Mac will be officially available for the users by the end of this summer.

4G HUAWEI HONOR 6 ARRIVING IN INDIA BY END MARCH

After the successful business of Huawei Honor T1 tablet and Huawei Honor 6 smartphone in India, the company has now decided to launch the next Honor device in India again. When Huawei Honor 6 Plus was unveiled in the recently over MWC, during the launch one of the officials from Huawei had hinted that the device would be launched in India soon and Huawei has stayed true to its word. Following are the specs of the phone.

The smartphone has got a large display of 5.5 inches with full HD resolution. It is powered by 1.3 GHz octa-core processor and has 3 GB RAM. The only disappointing factor of the phone is that it will run on Android 4.4 KitKat OS, meanwhile other companies are offering the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop OS with their new phones. In the camera section the phone is a winner, because it has 8 MP camera on both the front and the rear end with LED flash on the rear camera.
The device has an internal storage of 16 GB and it has got a microSD card slot which can expand the storage capacity to a whopping 128 GB. Under connectivity, it offers the usual GPS, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi and NFC. The main highlight in connectivity is that the phone has an LTE support. All these facilities naturally require the phone to have a great battery life which it is expected to have considering the huge battery size of 3600 mAh. The user can buy either the dual-sim or the single-sim variant of the phone.
The phone has already begun its sales in China. According to Indian currency, the dual-sim phone approximately costs Rs 25000 and the single-sim phone costs Rs 20000 in the markets of China. It is expected that the prices of the phone will be similar to those in the Chinese markets. The exact date of availability is yet unknown but there are strong rumours which suggest that the phone will become available by the end of March.

WHAT'S APP BANNING USERS TEMPORARILY

Quite a few reports circling the web this week appear to indicate a tightening of WhatsApp policy toward the usage of third-party WhatsApp client applications. That is, word has it that those using an unofficial app will be banned from WhatsApp for life. However, that’s not exactly the case, WhatsApp explains. In fact, there’s been no larger policy shift since we last reported on the now Facebook-owned company’s crackdown on third-party app usage earlier this year.

As you may recall, in January, WhatsApp began banning users from its service when they were found to be using a third-party (unofficial) WhatsApp mobile application. In order to be allowed back into WhatsApp, users were asked to uninstall the offending app from their phone, then download the authorized version of WhatsApp from the app store instead. The company also explained the policy via an FAQ on its website.

At the time, one popular app maker even reported receiving a cease-and-desist from WhatsApp related to his service’s development.

The reason for the crackdown, the company explained, was related to security and privacy. It simply can’t guarantee such apps are safe, given that WhatsApp doesn’t control their source code.

That challenge is one many mobile application makers today face, as failing to restrict third-party app usage can lead to disastrous results – as Snapchat found out last year when its users were hacked. The event, dubbed “The Snappening,” came about due to insecurities in third-party applications.

The confusion this week related to WhatsApp policy on third-party clients appears to stem from a Google+ posting from WhatsApp+’s developer where he states that WhatsApp has started a “Permanent Account Disable” recently. That post was picked up by a German blog, and then subsequently began making the rounds as other sites repeated the story, and the details (in some cases) became fuzzy.

The problem is that there’s confusion around this terminology of a “lifetime ban.” That makes it sound like users are being banned from WhatsApp forever, but that’s not the case.

Instead, the same policy as before still stands: if users continue to use WhatsApp+ (or another third-party app), they will not be able to use WhatsApp anymore, as the company explained previously.

What has perhaps shifted is that, before, the company was issuing 24-hour “temporary” bans complete with a countdown timer displayed to affected users, but now those users are simply not able to use WhatsApp’s services at all until the third-party apps are uninstalled.

“If a user doesn’t uninstall WhatsApp+ then they will continue to be banned until they stop using it. But there is no permanent ban,” a WhatsApp spokesperson confirms.

In other words, once a user removes WhatsApp+, WhatsApp Reborn,Whatsapp or any other third-party client from their smartphone, they’ll again be able to use the official WhatsApp app – just the same as before. Their account and associated phone number is not “permanently” banned or “banned for life” from WhatsApp itself.

GOOGLE WORKING ON VIRTUAL REALITY VERSION OF ANDROID

Android is moving from mobile devices to virtual-reality headsets, according to a new report. The Wall Street Journal, citing two unnamed sources, reported Friday that Google has tasked a group of engineers with developing a version of Android to can power VR applications. "Tens of engineers" are working on the project, according to the Journal, which will be freely distributed like its cousins for smartphones, tablets, and wearables.
Google declined to comment on the report, which included few details about how Android VR will look or when it might become available. The move comes in the wake of Facebook's $2 billion purchase of Oculus, and Oculus' subsequent move to develop new forms of storytelling powered by VR. VR dominated this week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, where a new headset from Valve and progress on Sony's Project Morpheus were among the biggest developments.
The Journal reports that Android VR is being led by Clay Bavor and Jeremy Doig. Bavor is partly responsible for Google Cardboard, a low-cost, do-it-yourself alternative to expensive headsets that turns your smartphone into a viewer. The Cardboard app has been downloaded more than 1 million times since it became available last summer.

WOMEN'S SAFETY APP ISAFE FOR THIRUVANANTHAPURAM POLICE

UST Global on 6 March 2015 has launched women safety App iSafe. It is a mobile-based app for women’s safety. The app was launched ahead of the International Women’s Day on 8 March.

The App was launched for the Thiruvananthapuram City Police in the presence of high ranking police and other government officials at the Government College for Women, Thiruvananthapuram.

Through the app, women will be able to send instant alerts to the police control room by using the panic button or just by the long press of volume rocker (down) key of their mobile phones. The police control room receives the alert along with information of the location, the subscriber ID and the IMEI number of the mobile. The police then immediately dispatches help via the police CRV (Control Room Vehicle) that is nearest to the distress location.

Once iSafe sends an alert to the control room, its position can be tracked until the situation is resolved. The position is visible to the police at the control room and also on App.

The App iSafe is an integral part of the earlier app that UST Global had developed for Thiruvananthapuram City Police a few months ago. The app is currently available for Android and will soon be available on other platforms. UST Global will be providing the solution to other state police forces as well.

XIAOMI TO LAUNCH REDMI 2 IN INDIA

It looks like Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi is all set to launch the Redmi 2, its next-generation, entry-level smartphone in the Indian market. 

The company is currently running a contest on its India Facebook page which features a word puzzle. Participants who are able to find three key features from the puzzle qualify to get priority access passes to buy the company's upcoming smartphone. The puzzle includes words such as 'Snapdragon,' 'QuickCharge' and 'expandable' which suggest that Xiaomi is about to launch Redmi 2, since its Mi Note phones come with non-expandable memory. Also, it makes sense for the company to start selling an entry level phone again after recently discontinuing Redmi 1S. The contest ends March 11, so we can expect the launch to take place in the next few weeks. 

The successor to the Redmi 1S, the smartphone went on sale on January 15 in China and costs 699 yuan (approximately Rs 6,800). 

While Redmi 2 shares a few features with its predecessor, it has a few upgrades apart from the 4G-capability. The new model is powered by the 64-bit 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor, while Redmi 1S comes with the 1.6GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 chipset. 

The front camera gets a resolution bump, from 1.6MP in Redmi 1S to 2MP in Redmi 2. The battery is also slightly beefier at 2,200mAh in the new smartphone, up from 2,000mAh of Redmi 1S. Xiaomi's Redmi 2 smartphone also supports QuickCharge 1.0 technology for faster battery charging. 

Xiaomi will be preloading the Android 4.4-based MIUI 6.0 software with Redmi 2, while the Redmi 1S runs on the Android 4.3-based MIUI 5.0 custom skin. The new model is thinner (9.2mm) and lighter (134gram) than its predecessor (9.9mm and 158gram). 

The remaining features of Redmi 2 are same as that of its older sibling, including the 5-inch HD screen with DragonTrail glass, 8GB internal storage, up to 32GB microSD card support, 1GB RAM and connectivity options. 

AMAZON TO BRING GAMES ON IPHONES AND IPADS

Amazon has announced that it is bringing its premium games to Apple and Fire devices, which include four different Amazon Game Studios titles.
The games include the horror game Lost Within, colorful sci-fi adventure Tales From Deep Space, the haunted adventure game Til Morning's Light, and the arcade game To-Fu Fury.
According to a report in The Verge, there isn't any word on the release date, however, the announcement marks as a chance for Amazon to prove its mettle in providing great mobile experiences.
Amazon Game Studios VP Mike Frazzini said, "We wanted these games to be the best along some dimension." These games come with a premium price of around $6.99, a shift from today's free-to-play games for mobile.
Tales From Deep Space launched late last year, while Til Morning's Light and Lost Within are still in development.
Amazon hasn't made any announcement if these games will be brought to the Android phones.

NEW XOLO Q600 WORKS AS AN UNIVERSAL REMOTE

New Xolo Q600 Club is an addition to a list of good yet affordable handsets. The handset priced at just Rs 6499 looks good from all aspect and may become popular among the smartphone mavens in India.
To be true the Xolo Q600 Club is going to make things difficult for smartphones that are already available in the market in this price band. Running on 4.4.2 KitKat the handset packs a sort of surprise for people in India.
The latest Xolo handset comes with DTS audio that makes listening to the music sort of a treat for people who love music.
If this was not enough, the handset will also work as universal remote control. This means that it will allow you to take control of devices such as DVD players, air conditioners, DVRs and many other electronic gadgets.
When it comes to specifications the handset comes with 4.5-inch FWVGA IPS display. It comes with 1.3GHz quad core MediaTek processor, 512MB RAM, that is definitely on lower side and 5 mega pixel of rear camera. Its front facing camera is jut a VGA snapper. Besides it comes with 4GB internal storage that is expandable to 32GB with microSD support.
When it comes to battery the new Xolo handset comes with 1800mAh battery onboard that can deliver up to 8 hours of 3G talk time or around 6.2 hours of video playback. It comes with gesture support through the Smart Wake and Smart Light tools.

MOTO E 2015 BEATS MOTO E FIRST GENERATION

Both Motorola and Flipkart slashed the price of the Moto E recently,  leading to speculation that a new variant was on its way, and as expected, here it is! The company has quietly launched the all-new and highly anticipated Moto E second gen device.

Given that the phone is aimed at developing nations, we expect the device to reach the Indian shores soon. So what’s new about the phone? The successor to the Moto E has improved some key specifications and also adds support for 4G LTE. We list some of these in detail:

• Design

Motorola’s new Moto E is slightly larger than its predecessor, measuring 129.9 x 66.8 x 12.3 mm. However, it retains the same thickness and also adds a light curve to the design. In terms of portability, it seems to be slightly heavier at 145 grams. The previous Moto E weighed 142 grams. But lets face it, a mere 38 grams  is unlikely to make much of a difference to a user.
Design-wise, Motorola has added some subtle changes and tried to employ the same aesthetics that are already seen in the higher-end Moto G and Moto X devices. If you remember, the Moto E comes with two metal bars – above and below  the display. Motorola has now bid goodbye to the one below the display.
Motorola also gets more colourful with the new Moto E. It has introduced some new covers that it calls ‘Bands’. These bands are available in six colour options including Golden Yellow, Turquoise, Blue, Raspberry, Purple and Red. The new model also gets five “Grip shells” available in Golden Yellow, Charcoal, Turquoise, Blue, Raspberry.

• Display

The Moto E second generation also comes with a slight change in the display. It has been increased from 4.3-inch to 4.5-inch, making it more similar in size to the Moto G. However, Motorola disappoints with the resolution, which doesn’t seem to have changed. It still retains the same qHD display at 540 x 960 pixels. This means effectively, that the Moto E 2014 model will come with a better display as more pixels are pushed onto a smaller display size. The pixel density of the older Moto E is 265 ppi compared to the 245ppi seen in the 2015 model. However, to the human eye, this shouldn’t make much of a difference either.

• OS

While Motorola is still conducting an Android Lollipop soak test for the Moto E 2014 model, its successor now runs Android Lollipop. This means, you can expect the latest OS goodies from Google on the budget handset. Motorola has also reportedly added features like Moto Display for notifications and updates.

• Camera

One of the biggest drawbacks of the original Moto E was the lack of a front-facing camera, especially considering the popularity of ‘taking selfies’. With the new Moto E, Motorola has fixed the issue. You still get a mediocre VGA camera, but we suppose that this is still better than having none. The company has also retained the 5MP rear snapper, but it has been improved from a ‘fixed focus’ to ‘auto-focus’.

The company has also played with some gestures for the camera. If you twist your wrist twice, the new Moto E will quickly launch the camera. This is something new and was not seen in the previous version of the Moto E.

MICROSOFT WARNS WINDOWS PC'S

Hundreds of millions of Windows PC users are vulnerable to attacks exploiting the recently uncovered "Freak" security vulnerability, which was initially believed to only threaten mobile devices and Mac computers, Microsoft Corp warned.
News of the vulnerability surfaced on Tuesday when a group of nine security experts disclosed that ubiquitous Internet encryption technology could make devices running Apple Inc's iOS and Mac operating systems, along with Google Inc's Android browser vulnerable to cyberattacks.
Microsoft released a security advisory on Thursday warning customers that their PCs were also vulnerable to the "Freak" vulnerability.
The weakness could allow attacks on PCs that connect with Web servers configured to use encryption technology intentionally weakened to comply with US government regulations banning exports of the strongest encryption.
If hackers are successful, they could spy on communications as well as infect PCs with malicious software, the researchers who uncovered the threat said on Tuesday.
The Washington Post on Tuesday reported that whitehouse.gov and fbi.gov were among the sites vulnerable to these attacks, but that the government had secured them.
Microsoft advised system administrators to employ a workaround to disable settings on Windows servers that allow use of the weaker encryption. It said it was investigating the threat and had not yet developed a security update that would automatically protect Windows PC users from the threat.
"Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to help protect customers," it said. The Redmond, Washington-based company said that might include providing a security update in a monthly software release or putting out an unscheduled update.
Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer with security software maker Veracode, noted that it was not possible to change that setting on Windows Server 2003, a version of Microsoft's operating system for servers that is more than a decade old.
Windows Server 2003 "remains vulnerable," Wysopal said. "There is nothing you can do if you are running a Web server on this OS."
Apple said it had developed a software update to address the vulnerability, which would be pushed out to customers next week.
Google said it had also developed a patch, which it provided to partners that make and distribute Android devices.
"Freak" stands for "Factoring RSA-EXPORT Keys."

APPLES NEXT SMART PHONES

While the record-breaking iPhone 6 models continue to hit headlines, rumours about their successor and the company’s next smartphone have started to surface. Citing a source familiar with Apple’s future plans, AppleInsider reports that the next iPhone models will come with 2GB RAM, just like seen in the iPad Air 2.

The report adds that the new model called ‘iPhone 6s’ – and assuming it will be accompanied by a Plus version – will also support Apple SIM compatibility.  Apple is known to bump the memory after a few generations, so it is quite likely that the new iPhone models may feature 2GB RAM. The additional RAM will allow iOS to leave tasks in background, without the need to refresh. However, larger RAM may affect the battery life.

Where Apple SIM compatibility goes, that may have to wait. After all, it will take away control from carriers and could lead to confusion.

Meanwhile, a follow up report on the 12.9-inch iPad delay reveals some hardware details of the upcoming model. According to 9To5Mac, Apple plans to add USB 3.0 ports to the new ‘iPad Pro’ or iPad Air 2 Plus or whatever Apple plans to call it. Apple is expected to start production of the new iPad in September.

The company is also believed to be working on a new external input device for the tablet. This may sound unbelievable, but Apple may also allow users to connect the new tablet to mice and keyboard. However, for now, let’s take these rumours with a pinch of salt.

LENOVO A7000 SPECIFICATIONS

Lenovo made quite a splash earlier this year with its A6000 budget 4G smartphone, and now two months later, the company has debuted the follow-up device, the A7000. The new smartphone costs a little more than the original, but boasts of significant upgrades.
We go hands-on with the Lenovo A7000 at the ongoing Mobile World Congress and here's what we think of the smartphone.

• Display

Lenovo A7000 has a 5.5-inch HD screen, bigger than the 5-inch display of its predecessor. The screen quality is superb, with vibrant colours and excellent viewing angles. You cannot notice any pixilation on the smartphone's screen, though some portions may appear a little oversaturated due to the colour reproduction. This display is, in fact, at par with smartphones that cost over Rs 25,000 and sets a new standard for the sub-Rs 15,000 segment.

• Design 

In terms of design, Lenovo A7000 is a little plain, maintaining the boxy look of its predecessor. Made entirely of plastic, it doesn't have much to boast of on the design front. However, it is very light at 140grams and you would be able to use it for extended periods of time without noticing the weight.

• Software 

The new A7000 smartphone runs on Lenovo's Vibe UI, which we have seen earlier as well. This time, the custom software is built on Android Lolllipop, so there are a few animations you will certainly notice. The performance is very smooth and we did not notice any jitters or lag while running it through our paces at the demo station.

• Performance 

Lenovo A7000 comes with a 1.5GHz octa-core Mediatek chip and 2GB RAM, making it a powerful smartphone for the price, right up there with Xiaomi's Redmi Note 4G. The performance, as we mentioned above, is splendid and you would be hard pressed to push this smartphone to its limits using the regular apps.
Media playback is another strength of the smartphone, which is the world's first model with Dolby Atmos technology. The audio worked well with the Sennheisser headphones that were present at the demo station, but we could not hear it on loudspeaker due to excessive ambient noise.
Another key feature of the smartphone is its 2,900mAh battery, which should last at least a day even with 4G turned on. 

APPLE REPAIRS FREE OF CHARGE IPHONE 5S BATTERY PROBLEM

If you own an iPhone 5 and its battery keeps dying, you now have until January 2016 to get it fixed free of charge.

In August Apple launched a replacement program to address issues some people were having with their iPhone 5's battery life. At the time the company said the problems affected a "very small percentage" of handsets sold between September 2012 and January 2013 and that those affected had until March 2015 to get the problem corrected at an Apple Store or by an authorised service provider.

However, the company has now extended the program's life by a further 10 months.

However, the extension doesn't mean that you can trade in an old handset for a new one because your current model is looking a bit tired. You'll need to visit the support page and enter your handset's serial number to see if it qualifies for a new battery as part of the program.

Apple also warns that if the handset's screen is cracked or broken, replacing the battery may not be possible and recommends getting damaged iPhones repaired beforehand.

TWITTER PLANNING TO BUY LIVE STREAMING APP

Twitter is reportedly said to be mulling the purchase of live-streaming app, Periscope, in a deal which is said to be around $100 million dollars.

Periscope allows users to upload live video wherever they are and broadcast it to allow people to watch it. A Techcrunch report stated that the acquisition would prove beneficial for Twitter as it is in line with its real-time sharing option.

The reason why including Periscope in Twitter makes sense is because of the availability of high-bandwidth, prevelance of mobile cellular networks, and also the emergence of powerful mobile devices with great cameras.

Periscope is similar to the recently launched phenomenon called 'Meerkat,' which allows users to stream video from their smartphones to their followers in real time.

With Twitter's history of facilitating transparency in events like the Arab Spring, the Ferguson protests in the wake of the killing of Michael Brown and many others with live video streaming, having an in-house service would be a boon to activists, reporters and documentarians.

SELF DRIVING CAR COULD SAVE $190 bn PER YEAR

Each year, roadway crashes account for $212 billion in damages, including deaths, non-fatal but disabling injuries, hospitalizations and property damage.

If advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) achieve anticipated adoption rates, up to 90% of vehicle collisions could be avoided, saving up to $190 billion each year in the U.S. alone, according to a new study.

For example, 2.5 million Americans each year go to a hospital emergency department for crash injuries at an average cost of $3,300 -- and nearly 200,000 of those people are hospitalized. Hospitalizations for crash-related injuries over a person's lifetime cost, on average, $57,000.

The study from McKinsey & Company said ADAS, or autonomous vehicles, could also  improve traffic flow and free up time spent in the car for other activities.

On average, 1.2 billion people spend 50 minutes driving in the car per day. Commuters around the world waste time in traffic jams, with the average commuter in large urban areas in the U.S. spending 52 hours per year stuck in traffic.

"This could potentially generate global digital media revenues of [$5.6 billion] for every additional minute people spend on the mobile Internet while in the car," the  report said. In total, that adds up to about $140 billion per year in new revenue, even if only half of the 50 minutes is spent online.

Parking space would also see an increase with self-driving cars, as up to 15% of the parking width could be saved in ADAS dedicated parking, the study said. People would simply exit a car, and it would go park itself without needing the additional space for driver and passengers to get out.

The McKinsey study also predicted that vehicle manufacturers will be forced to take a clear strategic stance on autonomous vehicle introductions, as pressure from non-traditional carmakers continues to mount.

For example, Tesla, Google, and Uber and have all announced plans to begin producing self-driving vehicles. The study predicts that the ADAS industry will become mainstream by 2025.

Most major carmakers have already announced plans for fully-autonomous vehicles. For example, Ford this year opened an autonomous vehicle R&D center.

Google already has prototypes on California roadways.

NOTE 3 RECEIVING 5.0 LOLLIPOP UPDATE IN INDIA

Samsung has reportedly started rolling out Android 5.0 Lollipop OTA update for the Galaxy Note 3 devices in India.

Said to be rolling out with build number N900XXUEBOB2, the Lollipop update for Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (SM-900) can also be downloaded via Samsung Kies software, reports Sammobile, which also features the updated firmware for download. Additionally, Galaxy Note 3 users on T-Mobile have also started receiving the Android 5.0 Lollipop update from Wednesday.

Samsung's official support FAQ page for the US carrier listed the update build number N900TUVUFOB5 along with noting that two issues been fixed - "resolved Wi-Fi calling one way audio" and "resolved IPv6 email setup." There is no other changelog available from Samsung, T-Mobile, or users as of now.

Last month, it was reported that the Android 5.0 Lollipop update for the Qualcomm Snapdragon variant of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, with model number SM-N9005, is rolling out to users on major carriers in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK.

On the other hand, Samsung Poland had also confirmed an Android 5.0 Lollipop update is being planned for Galaxy Note II as well. The company on its Twitter account last month replied to a user saying that the Galaxy Note II will receive the update.

Around same time, Poland and South Korea users started receiving Android 5.0 Lollipop update for the Galaxy Note 4.

The South Korea update was reported to be based on Android 5.0.1 Lollipop, carry build number N910SKSU1BOB4, and rolling for Galaxy Note 4 users on SK Telecom. While Samsung officially didn't announce the roll out, the user reported changelog included expandable lock screen notifications from stock Lollipop, refreshed Samsung apps with a Material Design, and more.

FACEBOOK PLANS FREE INTERNET FOR 100 COUNTRIES

100 developing countries could get free net access as Social network giant Facebook has announced an aggressive expansion of its internet.org program that aims to connect more people to the web this year.

Currently available in Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Colombia and India, Chris Daniels, Vice President of internet.org, spoke on Facebook’s aim of expanding to another 100 countries this year.
The initiative, similar to Google operations like Project Loon and Project Titan, aims to connect the world’s population to the internet to bring increased advantages and opportunities.
Launched in 2013, Facebook partners with internet, mobile and data providers in the countries in which internet.org operates, offering free web access to people who could not normally obtain any connection to what many in western nations regard as a fundamental resource. Daniels said that the eventual aim is “to bring connectivity to the entire world.”
Residents of remote, developing countries have access to an app released by the company that provides access to the Internet.org network. It is designed to introduce people to “core” areas of the internet including essential websites like Google and Wikipedia.
Future targets for the ambitious program are chosen based on the operators present and the needs of the local population. Remote areas with little connectivity are the primary candidates. Over 90% of people who have no internet connection live in developing countries.

JOHNNIE WALKER UNNVEILS SMART BOTTLES

Johnnie Walker's premier Blue Label blend has unveiled a prototype "smart bottle" that enables the brand to, among other things, send targeted, personalized marketing messages to consumers.
Printed sensor tags in the bottle's label have technology called OpenSense, which uses smartphones' near field communication (NFC) capabilities.
Whether they've invested in a bottle, or are simply lingering near one in a store, consumers can read the tags with any NFC-enabled smartphone to see promotional offers, cocktail recipes or branded content.
The technology, created by Norwegian printed electronics company Thinfilm with Diageo Technology Ventures, was introduced at this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
“Mobile technology is changing the way we live, and as a consumer brands company, we want to embrace its power to deliver amazing new consumer experiences in the future," said Helen Michels, global innovation director, Futures Team at Diageo, who said the collaboration with Thinfilm will allow Diageo to explore all of the possibilities of smart bottles.
The technology also lets Diageo track bottles' movements across the supply chain, in stores and wherever it's being consumed, and detect whether a bottle is open or still sealed — useful for identifying tampering and thwarting counterfeiting and black market spirits sales.
The prototype bottle is the first initiative to come out of Diageo Technology Ventures, a program launched last September to solve business problems and identify new growth opportunities by working with emerging technology companies.

MOTOROLA E TO LAUNCH ON 10 MARCH IN INDIA

Motorola’s all new Moto E is all set to launch in India on March 10. Soon after revealing the price for the Indian market, the company has started sending invites for the Moto E event.

The Moto E 2015 model will be priced at Rs 6,999, same as the original Moto E launched last year. However, there is no word on pricing for the LTE variant of the device for India, yet.

The unlocked 3G version costs $119.99 that translates to approx. Rs 7430. This means the 4G LTE version that costs $149.99 (approx. Rs 9288), could be priced around Rs 8,000 in India.

The 3G version of the Moto E is powered by 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 32-bit processor and a 400MHz Adreno 302 GPU. The LTE version has a 1.2GHz quad-core 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor and a 400MHz Adreno 306 GPU. It comes with 8GB storage space and 1GB of RAM.

Design-wise, Motorola has added some subtle changes and tried to employ the same aesthetics that are already seen in the higher-end Moto G and Moto X devices. Motorola also gets more colourful with the new Moto E. It has introduced some new covers that it calls ‘Bands’. These bands are available in six colour options including Golden Yellow, Turquoise, Blue, Raspberry, Purple and Red. The new model also gets five “Grip shells” available in Golden Yellow, Charcoal, Turquoise, Blue, Raspberry.

Motorola has now doubled the storage capacity to 8GB in the new model. Moreover, one can also opt for the 16GB model. It can be further expanded up to 32GB via microSD card slot.

While Motorola is still conducting an Android Lollipop soak test for the Moto E 2014 model, its successor now runs Android Lollipop. This means, you can expect the latest OS goodies from Google on the budget handset. Motorola has also reportedly added features like Moto Display for notifications and updates.

One of the biggest drawbacks of the original Moto E was the lack of a front-facing camera. With the new Moto E, Motorola has fixed the issue. You still get a mediocre VGA camera, but we suppose that this is still better than having none. The company has also retained the 5MP rear snapper, but it has been improved from a ‘fixed focus’ to ‘auto-focus’.

Motorola has now doubled the storage capacity to 8GB in the new model. Moreover, one can also opt for the 16GB model. It can be further expanded up to 32GB via microSD card slot. Click here, to know what’s new in the Moto E second generation.

GOOGLE COULD TURN HUAWEI FOR NEXT NEXUS PARNER

Google could turn to Huawei for an upcoming Nexus device, or so says Kevin Yang, director of China research at iSuppli.
The move, if true, would be a first for Google, as it has yet to employ a Chinese manufacturer for the Nexus family (Samsung, HTC and LG have made previous Nexus models).
In an interview with The Verge posted yesterday from Mobile World Congress, Huawei CEO Richard Yu hinted that his company was hoping to use Google to expand its presence in the US market. Certainly, merging high-end hardware with the latest Android OS into the next Nexus could help the company accomplish that.
It's worth noting that there's likely 6 to 8 months before there's any real noise around the next Nexus. In other words, we're only just getting started with this one.

MICROMAX YUREKA SALE ON THURSDAY

Micromax's Yu Yureka Thursday Sale to See 30,000 Units Up for Grabs by NDTV Correspondent, 5 March 2015

30,000 units of Micromax's Yu Yureka smartphone will be made available on Thursday in its eighth flash sale that kicks off at 2pm IST on Amazon India for registered users. Yu announced the number of units going on sale in a tweet on Wednesday. The tweet said, "30,000 units of Yureka will be available TODAY."

This is the second flash sale that will see 30,000 units of the Yureka smartphone up for sale in India. The last sale also saw 30,000 units of Micromax's Yu Yureka on sale.

Last week, soon after the sale Micromax announced that 30,000 units of the Yureka smartphones went out of stock in 6 seconds.

The sixth flash sale for the Yu Yureka smartphone smartphone saw 15,000 units going out of stock in 4 seconds while the fifth sale saw 25,000 units made available that went out of stock in 4 seconds. The fourth flash sale saw 15,000 units of the Yureka smartphone going out of stock in 4 seconds, much like the fifth sale. Meanwhile the third flash sale saw 10,000 smartphones going out of stock in 3 seconds.

Last month, Amazon India, the exclusive online partner for Micromax's Yu Yureka, announced the 'Golden Ticket' sale for select customers. The sale was meant for "customers who showed interest to buy the Yu Yureka" earlier but were unable to avail the product due to limited supply and other issues.

Priced at Rs. 8,999, Micromax's Yu Yureka (Review | Pictures) offers some rather impressive specifications at the price. The dual-SIM smartphone features Cat. 4 4G LTE connectivity, and runs Cyanogen OS 11 based on Android 4.4.4 KitKat. It bears a 5.5-inch HD (720x1280 pixels) IPS display with Gorilla Glass 3; a 64-bit 1.5GHz octa-core Snapdragon 615 SoC (MSM8939); an Adreno 405 GPU; 2GB of RAM; a 13-megapixel Sony Exmor CMOS sensor rear camera with an f/2.2 aperture and flash; a front-facing 5-megapixel fixed-focus camera; 16GB of inbuilt storage expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB), and a 2500mAh Li-Po battery.

APPLE TO STOP I PAD'S PRODUCTION

Apple Inc., which has seen stagnating iPad sales, will delay the start of manufacturing for a larger-screened version of the tablet, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Production of the 12.9-inch-screen iPad is now scheduled to start around September because of delays involving the supply of display panels, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t public. Apple had initially planned to begin making the larger version this quarter, people familiar those plans had said.

A new big-screen tablet is part of Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook’s effort to reinvigorate the iPad product line, where sales have declined for four straight quarters. IPads are also facing competition from larger iPhones, which were introduced in September and helped Apple deliver record profit in the latest quarter.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, currently sells the iPad with a 9.7-inch display and the iPad mini, which has a 7.9-inch screen. Apple hasn’t disclosed plans for a bigger iPad.

Existing providers of displays to Apple include Sharp Corp., Japan Display Inc. and LG Display Co., according to the company’s supplier list. All three suppliers fell, with Sharp sliding as much as 2.6 percent and Japan Display dropping 1.3 percent in Tokyo. LG Display declined as much as 1.8 percent in Seoul.

Business Tools

A larger iPad could also bolster Cook’s initiative to make Apple’s products more appealing to business users. Apple announced a partnership last year with International Business Machines Corp. to create mobile software for businesses and for IBM to help sell iPads to corporate customers.

Even as consumers shift away from tablets in favor of bigger smartphones, businesses remain a growth opportunity for iPads because the devices can be used for field work and as laptop replacements. In total, global sales of tablets to businesses, institutions and governments are projected to jump to 101 million units in 2018 from 19 million in 2013, according to IHS Technology.

Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn cited the opportunity to boost iPad sales to businesses as one of the key reasons why he thinks Apple shares are undervalued. Improvements to the iPad and the IBM partnership should help boost revenue from the device by 13 percent in each of the next three fiscal years, Icahn wrote in a public letter to Cook last year.

TRUCALLER CALLER UPDATES SUPPORTS DUAL SIM SUPPORT

With more than 100 million users, Truecaller offers its services in more than 200 countries.

The company in a statement said, "India is the number one market with more than half the users in the country," 

Now the company is looking to entirely replace the native dial pad app on Android devices with significant improvements that make the experience faster, smarter, and more convenient.

"The new Truedialer app includes a more intuitive app design, expanded search, and improved dual SIM support across more than 500 Android devices, allowing millions of handset customers to easily switch SIM cards in order to access the best rates for calling and data traffic," the statement said.

"Supporting Dual SIM devices is not a matter of choice for us, it's a central part of the phone experience for our users," said Nami Zarringhalam, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Truecaller. 

"With every new release, we are taking one step closer to making Truedialer a complete replacement of your default dialer and we look forward to expanding our relationships with OEMs and operators to meet the growing demands of our users globally," he added.

GOOGLE'S MODULAR PHONES

With a smartphone that slots together piece by piece like Lego, US Internet giant Google is trying to reinvent the mobile as most phone makers are honing sleeker handsets.

The company aims to challenge its rival Apple's thin iPhones with the Google Ara project, giving smartphone aficionados the option to build their phone themselves.

Anlysts say tech boffins will love it but remain cautious about how popular it may be compared to polished conventional smartphones that sit snugly in the palm.

Google says the Ara phone is part of its bid to widen Internet access to users in developing countries and could create a new industry for assembly-ready handset parts.Google's associate, US firm Yezz, presented a prototype of the build-your-own device this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the world's biggest wireless telecom trade fair.

The phone consists of a base structure on which various square, magnetic modular parts can be attached: screen, battery, camera, speakers and more. Google plans to release it in three sizes.

Ara would allow users to replace individual components rather than throwing the whole thing away and buying a new handset. It says the base unit will last at least five or six years.

"That is good for the environment," said Annette Zimmermann, a telecom specialist at German consultancy Gartner.

It aimed to gain six billion potential clients -- the current billion people who currently use smartphones "and five billion future users", most of them in emerging markets.

Google says a mid-range Ara phone could cost between $50 and $100 to produce, but has not given details of the likely sales price, leaving questions marks over how sustainable such a product would be.

"Google is not looking to make money directly with Ara," said Jerome Colin, a telecom expert at French consultancy group Roland Berger.

"It is basically looking to spread smartphones in countries with low purchasing power, and to unify the telecom world around its Android system."

'Paradox of choice'

Tech fans and bloggers queued up to see the prototype presented in Barcelona, but analysts were sceptical.

"The trend in mobile phones is to have small, thin, really integrated products. If you make a product modular it immediately means that you're going to have to make compromises on that," said Ben Wood, head researcher at consultancy CCS Insight.

"The other question mark I have is: beyond geeks, who really knows" about components? he added.

"If I said to you, which processor do you want in your smartphone, I think you could stop people in the street and they'd just look at you like you'd landed from Mars."

Eremenko acknowledged that consumers risked being overwhelmed by too many technical options when it comes to choosing components.

"We need to resolve the paradox of choice," he said in January.

Google plans a test launch of the device in Puerto Rico by the end of this year.

"We will have to see if the public takes to it," said Zimmerman.

Google dominates the world of Internet searches and its Android operating system can be used on 80 percent of the world's smartphones. It also holds a large market share in wireless tablet devices.

Its senior vice-president Sundar Pichai said in Barcelona on Monday that it was in talks with telecom companies about possibly using their networks to operate its own mobile phone services in the United States.

XOLO Q600 LAUNCHED

Xolo Q600 Club With 4.5-Inch Display, DTS Audio Launched at Rs. 6,499 by Hitesh Arora, 5 March 2015

Xolo has launched the Q600 Club in India by listing it on the company site with price tag of Rs. 6,499. The smartphone is already available via various third-party online retailers at lower prices.

The Xolo Q600 Club is a dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) smartphone that runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat out-of-the-box. It features a 4.5-inch FWVGA (480x854 pixels) IPS display with a pixel density of 218ppi. The smartphone is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core (MediaTek MTK6582M) processor coupled with 512MB of RAM and Mali-400 MP2 GPU.

The handset sports a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, while there is a secondary 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera also onboard. The Xolo Q600 Club comes with 4GB of inbuilt storage, which is further expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB).

Connectivity options on the Xolo Q600 Club include 3G, GPRS/ EDGE, A-GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Micro-USB, and Bluetooth 4.0. It also features sensors such as accelerometer, ambient light sensor, and proximity sensor. The 1800mAh battery of the Q600 Club is rated to deliver up to 8.67 hours of talk time on 3G and up to 19.69 hours of talk time on 2G network. The handset measures 131.5x66x9.7mm.

Xolo notes that the Q600 Club comes with special box speakers with DTS audio support, smart remote solution and Hot-Knot technology for sharing data.

KNOW WHO CAN ACCESS YOUR FACEBOOK WITHOUT PASSWORD

Do you know that certain people can access Facebook accounts without the need for passwords? Some Facebook employees have direct access to your account.

But Facebook has explained that this is part of a tiered and strictly-managed customer support set-up, with employees abusing this trust getting fired, VentureBeat reported.

"Access is tiered and limited by job function, and designated employees may only access the amount of information that's necessary to carry out their job responsibilities, such as responding to bug reports or account support inquiries."

"Two separate systems are in place to detect suspicious patterns of behaviour, and these systems produce reports once per week, which are reviewed by two independent security teams," VentureBeat quoted a Facebook spokesperson as saying.

"We have a zero tolerance approach to abuse, and improper behaviour results in termination," the spokesperson added. The VentureBeat report said Facebook's explanation stemmed from the experience of Paavo Siljamaki, director at the record label Anjunabeats.

Siljamaki narrated about a visit to Facebook offices in LA, with nice people there giving advice on how to use Facebook better. He said he was asked if it was okay for them to look at his profile, and he agreed. He then said a Facebook engineer logged in directly without entering the password.

"Just made me wonder how many of Facebook's staff have this kind of 'master' access to anyone's account? What are the rules on who and when they can access our private content and how would we know if someone did," he wondered.

FACEBOOK DEVELOPS A.I TESTS

Facebook has developed a simple test that can help determine the intelligence level of an artificial intelligence software. 

The test, developed by researchers at Facebook's Artificial Intelligence lab, involves 20 tasks, which get progressively harder. 

Any potential artificial intelligence (AI) must pass all of them if it is ever to develop true intelligence, researchers said. 

Computing pioneer Alan Turing introduced his own test for AI, called The Turing test, in 1950. 

In the test a human judge engages in natural language conversations with a human and a machine designed to generate performance indistinguishable from that of a human being. 

If the judge cannot tell the machine from the human, the machine is said to have passed the test. 

However, this approach has a downside. 

"The Turing test requires us to teach the machine skills that are not actually useful for us," said Matthew Richardson, an AI researcher at Microsoft. 

For instance, to pass the test an AI must learn to lie about its true nature and pretend not to know facts a human would not. 

AI researchers everywhere are developing more comprehensive exams to challenge their machines. 

The AI intelligence test by Facebook has tasks involving short descriptions followed by some questions, like a reading comprehension quiz. 

For example the AI may have to answer the following question - John is in the playground. Bob is in the office. Where is John? 

Harder examples include figuring out whether one object could fit inside another, or why a person might act a certain way, 'New Scientist' reported. 

"We wanted tasks that any human who can read can answer," said Facebook's Jason Weston, who led the research. 

Having a range of questions challenges the AI in different ways, meaning systems that have a single strength fall short, researchers said. 

The Facebook team used its exam to test a number of learning algorithms, and found that none managed full marks. 

The best performance was by a variant of a neural network with access to an external memory. But even this fell down on tasks like counting objects in a question or spatial reasoning, researchers said.

APPLE CAR TO DRIVE THE COMPANY TO 1$ TRILLION IVALUATION

Apple Inc.’s experimentation with car technology could help push the company’s valuation past $1 trillion within the next 12 months from nearly $750 billion today, according to the new bull-case price target set Monday by Morgan Stanley.

The brokerage raised its 12-month stock price target on Apple AAPL, -0.35%  to $160, from $133 previously, and established a $190 bull-case scenario, up from $160. Morgan Stanley’s previous bull case didn't take into account the car opportunity.

Apple’s expanding ecosystem, including the Apple Watch and CarPlay, have created a “virtuous cycle” that could quadruple Apple’s total addressable market by 2020, said Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, whose price target puts her among the most bullish Apple analysts on Wall Street.
The company’s iOS-based CarPlay, which brings iPhone features to the touch screen control panel on a vehicle’s dashboard, rolled out in several car models this year, and Morgan Stanley auto analyst Adam Jonas said it would be natural for Apple to expand beyond infotainment to the rest of the interior, particularly if driverless-car technologies begin to be more integrated within new vehicles.
In a report last week, Jonas said he would not be dismissive of Apple’s automotive ambitions, calling the potential opportunity too large to ignore.
The brokerage’s calculations put the total automotive addressable market at $10 trillion, with the annual revenue potential on new vehicles amounting to roughly $1.6 trillion, compared with the current global smartphone market of $400 billion. Jonas’s argument is that if Apple were to corner just 25% of the value of the car, its revenue potential would equate to that of the entire smartphone industry today.

STEVE MOLLENKOPF C.E.O OF QUALCOME SETS IDEAS FOR 5G

About every 10 years, mobile technology takes a big jump forward—and the next leap is already in the works, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf said today at Mobile World Congress.

The question is “when does it break from 4G? When do we call it 5G?” Mollenkopf asked the audience of industry leaders attending Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Technologies such as LTE Broadcast, Carrier Aggregation, and LTE-U are already increasing the capabilities of today’s networks. But when it comes to 5G, according to Mollenkopf, “The key thing to remember is that we need to set a high bar—so we make big jumps and not just small jumps. We need to take a big enough step forward so that making that big design change is worth it.”

How high? Consider the gains of the past, Mollenkopf said. Data transmission times increased 12,000 times from 2G to 4G. And user connectivity costs dropped 99% in 2013 from 2005. “It’s tremendous,” he said.

But “there are a lot of things left to do in terms of innovating,” Mollenkopf said. That includes moving beyond “speeds and feeds” to include more security and robustness in network design.

As the Internet changes, users will interact with it in a different way. Today, “you think of the Internet as something that’s away from where you are,” Mollenkopf said. But, as more and more connectivity and computing power is pushed out to end devices on the edge, “the Internet will actually follow you around,” he said.

That will cause data demand to increase, as it has been doing since mobile networks were first invented. (Capacity may have to increase as much as 1000 times.) Keeping up will take a variety of technologies in different spectrums, working seamlessly together, Mollenkopf said. Operators need to be able to shift loads between licensed, shared licensed, and unlicensed spectrum based on time of day, geography, and need.

Getting this technology in place—and getting it right—will take some time, but less than you might think. A lot of people believe 5G will arrive around 2020, Mollenkopf said. “It’s going to be a very exciting time,” he said.

HTC REVEALS NEW FLAGSHIP

At Mobile World Congress, HTC announced the HTC One M9, the much anticipated follow up to last year’s HTC One (M8). At the time, the handset received high praise for its “great performance,” and “gorgeous industrial design.” Suffice it to say, HTC didn’t rest on the original’s success.

Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with X10 LTE, the HTC One M9 features 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and is decked out with a 5.0 inch, 1080p Full HD display encased in a refined, two-tone metal finish.

The HTC One M9 boasts a 20-mega-pixel rear-facing camera, equipped with auto-focus for snapping casual pics of premium quality, and the UltraPixel front camera is great for selfies even in low light. Users can record their favorite memories in vivid 4K Ultra HD video, and ZOE, a new photo and video app, complements updated software and apps like HTC Themes, HTC Sense 7, and HTC EYE. Plus, the duo-lens camera comes with a near indestructible sapphire crystal lens cover.

It’s easy to stay in the loop with HTC Blinkfeed. With a quick swipe from the home screen users can access a personalized content stream with relevant updates about breaking news, sports scores, and social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It’s all your first stops online, but now conveniently all in one place.

Despite the name, mobile devices are just as useful when you’re sitting at home as when you’re on the go. Now even more so with HTC Sense TV. This convenient feature allows users to completely replace their TV remote controls with an app that’s customized to their specific TV interests. More than just a way to graphics-based program guide, the intelligent system can even offer personal recommendations, and connect you with other fans watching the same show through social media streams.

For music lovers, or people who simply enjoy high quality sound, HTC’s famous BoomSound goes fully immersive—even without headphones, with Qualcomm Immersive Audio and Dolby Audio implementations engineered to provide incredibly faithful surround sound on nothing more than the dual front-facing stereo speakers. And, with Qualcomm AllPlay, HTC Connect means streaming music to one or many speakers is easy, connecting the device to wireless speakers and connected audio accessories.

The HTC One M9 is expected to be available in the early spring of this year through the HTC site and select retailers.

BETTER PARKING ASSISTANCE WITH SNAPDRAGON PROCESSORS

Driving is getting easier with the help of technology like GPS navigation, infotainment systems, and eventually full-on driverless cars may even take all the work upon themselves. But for now, parking is still an everyday task that humans need to cope with (thankfully we do at least have parking space finder applications enabled through automotive telematics capability and cloud service).

Still, once you find that coveted space, drivers never have a perfect view of their surroundings, and often have to strain their necks or jump out of the car to see the road, curb or another vehicle. That is, until now. One of the features highlighted in the Qualcomm Cadillac XTS technology concept car, enabled by Qualcomm Snapdragon Automotive Solutions, is parking assistance with 360° surround view. We think it’s a real game changer.

Clearly, avoiding collisions while parking is much easier when drivers know what’s around them. Imagine being able to pull up to a parking spot and have a 360° birds-eye view of the surrounding space right on the dashboard in front of you. The image looks like there’s an unmanned aerial vehicle hovering above your car, like some sort of robotic parking angel.

Thanks to the processing power of the Adreno GPU on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 602A processor, this kind of full view of the surrounding area is possible in real-time. Four fish-eye cameras capture ultra wide-angle fields of view around the front, back, left, and right of the car. Each input then delivers an HD image. At first, these images are independent of each other and have a morphed, fish eye effect. The images are fed to the CPU, then the GPU takes over and processes them with camera aggregation software—unwarping each camera frame from the original fish-eye view.

The GPU works to transform the perspective to generate the top-view and clips the images accordingly. In the post-processing stage, it proceeds to correct the color and blend the image to stitch together the full bird’s-eye view. It’s a computationally intensive process, but the GPU is designed to accelerate to support continuous image capturing at 30fps.

The finished product is engineered to be a seamless top-down 360° surround view that drivers can look at in real-time to help them park safely. Whatever the parking needs, like parallel parking or backing into a tight spot, this advanced image processing helps by providing an aerial view of the surrounding area.

Powering the 360° surround view is one way that Snapdragon 602A processors are designed to enhance automotive safety for drivers and their passengers (and all the car doors around them). Stay tuned for more in-depth looks at the various systems and capabilities enabled by Snapdragon Auto Solutions.