Asustek introduces Zenbo

Asustek introduces Zenbo, its smart home manager

Asustek Computer Inc chairman Jonney Shih introduces Zenbo, the “smart little companion,” during a news conference yesterday ahead of the Computex trade show in Taipei.

Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) yesterday introduced its first voice-controlled home robot as a “smart home manager,” officially tapping into the robotic sector.
“Our ambition is to enable robotic computing for every household,” Asustek chairman Jonney Shih (施崇棠) told a news conference in Taipei.
Zenbo, which is described as a “less-cute, real-world version of Star Wars’ BB-8 droid” by tech news site the Verge, can function as a kitchen assistant, security guard, companion for seniors or children, and a photographer.
Shih called on global hardware and software developers to join Asustek’s “developers’ program” to help create applications and content for Zenbo.

“Together we can make Zenbo the best and most practical robot for every household. Together we can work on the next chapter of proactive computing,” Shih said.
Compared with SoftBank Corp’s service humanoid robot Pepper, which is priced at ￥198,000 (US$1,782), Asustek’s home robot is “shorter” and cheaper at US$599.
No release date has been announced.
Asustek chief executive officer Jerry Shen (沈振來) told reporters on the sidelines of the event that Zenbo might not hit the market before the end of the year, as there is “still work to do and some adjustments to make.”
No other information regarding the specifications or manufacturing details of Zenbo were revealed, as Shih declined to take questions from reporters after the news event.
In addition to the introduction of Zenbo, Asustek launched three new models of its third-generation ZenFoen — the ZenFone 3, ZenFone 3 Deluxe and Zenfone 3 Ultra.
The three new models are mainly powered by Qualcomm Inc’s processor, as Asustek has gradually increased adoption of chips by Qualcomm, instead of Intel’s.
The change follows Intel’s withdrawal of its subsidy plan in the first half of last year.
The 5.5-inch ZenFone 3 starts from US$249, a similar price range to the ZenFone 2.
The higher-end 5.7-inch ZenFone 3 Deluxe and 6.8-inch ZenFone 3 Ultra are priced from US$479, a move that indicates Asustek’s attempt to increase the average sale price of its ZenFone.

Shen this month told investors that the company expects its smartphone shipment momentum to pick up significantly in the second half of this year, after the launch of the ZenFone 3 series.
Asustek aims to ship a total of 25 million smartphones this year, up 25 percent from last year’s 20 million, the company said.

source: www.taipeitimes.com

Computex 2016: Acer arrives with 5,000mAh handset, laptops, and 'Internet of Beings' products

Computex 2016: Acer arrives with 5,000mAh handset, laptops, and 'Internet of Beings' products

Prior to the start of Computex 2016, Acer has launched its new product range, including a number of IoT devices, laptops, notebooks, monitors, and a new cheap phone with a massive battery.

Taiwanese hardware manufacturer Acer has taken the wraps off a number of products that it will be showcasing at Computex 2016.

Image: Acer)

Leading the way is the Liquid Zest Plus, a 5.5-inch smartphone running Android Marshmallow packing a 5,000mAh battery that the company says is worth up to three days' usage without recharging. The handset also has fast-charging ability to regain 50 percent of its charge in less than an hour.

The Liquid Zest Plus will be available in North America and EMEA in July, with prices starting at $199 and €199, respectively.

On the small business front, the company announced two TravelMate P2 notebooks aimed at the sector.

Available in 14-inch and 15.6-inch sizes, the notebooks pack a Skylake-based Intel processor, can have up to 32GB of memory, and use Nvidia GeForce 940M discrete graphics. New for the P2 series, the notebook will ship with Windows 10, and while storage was not mentioned, the P2s traditionally use spinning rust drives.

The TravelMate P2 series will hit Europe and China in August, with pricing from €429 and ¥3,999, respectively, while North America is slated for the fourth quarter from $599.

HP has a backpack PC for tether-free VR in the works under the Omen X brand.

The experiment has finished HP has a backpack PC for tether-free VR in the works under the Omen X brand.

Backpack PC

After announcing its new lineup of Omen gaming products earlier this week, HP is now teasing a prototype “Omen X” desktop that customers can wear on their back. Why? For mobile virtual reality, of course. This new trend seemingly began with Zotac and was countered by MSI’s backpack VR solution, which is set to make its debut next week during Computex in Taipei.

Unfortunately, because HP is toying around with a prototype, we don’t have any hard facts to present. Instead, the company teased the press with a PowerPoint presentation and several photos. However, what we can say is that this device won’t be stuffed into a backpack, but will come with straps so that it can be worn on the user’s back. Right now, it’s simply a development kit called the Omen X VR PC Pack.

According to the HP slides, the Omen brand targets the performance gamer with an emphasis on delivering maximum gaming performance per dollar. The Omen X brand is targeted at the enthusiast gamer, with products that are overbuilt and overengineered to deliver innovation in the gaming space. The new HP VR PC Pack hardware seems to do just that.

HP Omen X VR PC PackBased on a brief overview provided to Digital Trends by HP, this developer kit includes two USB Type-A ports, two USB 3.1 Type-C ports, one HDMI port, one audio combo jack, one DC output jack for headphone power, two battery DC input jacks, and one DC input jack for connecting the desktop to a wall outlet. The hardware is housed inside a rounded back chassis with a checkered triangular pattern on the side facing away from the user’s back. It’s also decorated with red trimming and sports the company’s Omen logo and branding.


HP doesn’t say what headsets will be compatible with the backpack PC, but it should work just fine for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The latter solution requires an HDMI port and two USB 3.0 ports at the least, whereas the HTC Vive requires an HDMI port and a single USB 2.0 port or greater. We presume HP is using the HDMI 1.3 protocol in its development kit.

Note that Facebook/Oculus VR doesn’t list HP as an Oculus Rift-ready desktop vendor, whereas HTC lists the HP Envy Phoenix as a solution optimized for the HTC Vive experience. Also note that Oculus VR actually recommends desktops with three USB 3.0 ports and a USB 2.0 port, along with HDMI output, meaning Oculus Rift owners might not achieve the optimum experience when using the Omen X backpack PC. The HTC Vive seems to be the target headset.

Unfortunately, no matter how much we begged, HP would not cough up the hardware specifications for the current developer kit. However, the company did admit that the current model supports the latest quad-core Core i5/i7 H processors from Intel, M.2 SSDs with up to 512GB of capacity, and up to 32GB of DDR4 memory.

This dev kit also sports a battery belt that connects directly to the backpack PC. Each of the two supplied high-output rechargeable batteries only lasts for an hour in their present form, and can be hot-swapped when one gets too low on juice. The battery belt not only serves to juice up the backpack, but to counterbalance the computer so that it’s not pulling users to the floor. HP uses high-output batteries so that the CPU and GPU can run at full wattage.

But get this: HP isn’t simply throwing a PC on your back and sending you on your way. The Omen X VR PC Pack is lightweight (the target max weight is 10 pounds), and includes a dual-fan rear-venting solution so that the heated components aren’t making your back sweat. Now that’s neat.

The Omen X VR PC Pack is essentially a desktop on your back, meaning owners can take the straps off, place it on a table, hook up a display and peripherals, and use it like any other Windows-based PC. When users are ready to play again, just remove the cables, attach the headset and straps, and they’re ready to jump into the virtual playground again.

Given this model is indeed a developer kit, HP has no idea when a final product will be shipped to consumers. However, a representative told Digital Trends that the company will begin showing the VR backpack in demos within the next month. We’re betting it will make an appearance at E3-2016 in June.

Until then, the company is soliciting product requests from developers and independent software vendors to receive the kit, and to work with HP on the future of this cool, new product. Maybe that means we’ll see a final product later this year. Or maybe not. We shall see.

source: www.digitaltrends.com

Google to Boost Mobile Web Speed on Apple Devices

Google to Boost Mobile Web Speed on Apple Devices.

Google’s big plan to speed up mobile websites is picking up on Apple mobile devices.

The Google iOS app for devices like the iPhone and iPad now supports the search giant’s Accelerated Mobile Pages project, created to increase the loading times of news articles on the Internet.

Now when users search for news from their Apple AAPL -0.16% devices using the Google GOOG 1.18% app, they should see streamlined news articles from media companies like The Washington Post that chose to participate in Google’s web project.
The AMP project is a Google-led initiative to standardize the software code behind each news article on the mobile web. AMP was designed to remove years of accumulated software code that has built up on online publishers’ websites.

This extraneous code, which often comes from tracking cookies or other software features publishers have added over the years, can cause news articles to load at a snail’s pace.

As of Friday, iOS users should see a lightning bolt graphic and the letters “AMP” next to news articles from participating publishers in the “Top Stories” section of their search results in the Google app.

Because Google’s search engine rewards online publishers whose websites are fast with higher search rankings, there’s a possibility that publishers who choose not to implement Google’s AMP project could see their own websites fall down the rankings.

In December, Google executives explained at a press event that website speed is just one of many factors Google uses to determine its search rankings.

“The way we think about it is, speed is one of those critical ranking factors, not the only one that you need, and AMP says to us, basically, ‘I’m consistently fast,’” said Galfi at the time.

Last week at Google’s annual developer conference, the search giant detailed more of its AMP project as well as its sister-initiative known as the Progressive Web App (PWA). 

Whereas AMP only cleans up the code of news articles, the PWA takes it a step further and streamlines the code of an entire website. It also while make it easier for mobile websites to have app-like features like notifications and online payment services. Both Apple and Facebook also have their own projects to make it easier to read news articles on mobile devices. The iPhone maker has its Apple News app, while the social network has its Instant Articles program in which news articles can load more quickly within the Facebook app.

source: www.fortune.com

Google’s court victory might kill the GPL

Op-ed: Oracle attorney says Google’s court victory might kill the GPL.

Developers shouldn't celebrate Google's win in this hard-fought copyright case.

Annette Hurst is an attorney at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe who represented Oracle in the recent Oracle v. Google trial. This op-ed represents her own views and is not intended to represent those of her client or Ars Technica.

The Oracle v. Google trial concluded yesterday when a jury returned a verdict in Google's favor. The litigation began in 2010, when Oracle sued Google, saying that the use of Java APIs in Android violated copyright law. After a 2012 trial, a judge held that APIs can't be copyrighted at all, but that ruling was overturned on appeal. In the trial this month, Google successfully argued that its use of Java APIs, about 11,500 lines of code in all, was protected by "fair use."

The developer community may be celebrating today what it perceives as a victory in Oracle v. Google. Google won a verdict that an unauthorized, commercial, competitive, harmful use of software in billions of products is fair use. No copyright expert would have ever predicted such a use would be considered fair. Before celebrating, developers should take a closer look. Not only will creators everywhere suffer from this decision if it remains intact, but the free software movement itself now faces substantial jeopardy.
While we don't know what ultimately swayed the jury, Google's narrative boiled down to this: because the Java APIs have been open, any use of them was justified and all licensing restrictions should be disregarded. In other words, if you offer your software on an open and free basis, any use is fair use.

If that narrative becomes the law of the land, you can kiss GPL (general public license) goodbye.

No business trying to commercialize software with any element of open software can afford to ignore this verdict. Dual licensing models are very common and have long depended upon a delicate balance between free use and commercial use. Royalties from licensed commercial exploitation fuel continued development and innovation of an open and free option. The balance depends upon adherence to the license restrictions in the open and free option. This jury's verdict suggests that such restrictions are now meaningless, since disregarding them is simply a matter of claiming "fair use."

It is hard to see how GPL can survive such a result. In fact, it is hard to see how ownership of a copy of any software protected by copyright can survive this result. Software businesses now must accelerate their move to the cloud where everything can be controlled as a service rather than software. Consumers can expect to find decreasing options to own anything for themselves, decreasing options to control their data, decreasing options to protect their privacy.

Google is an advertising company. It does not depend upon traditional software licensing and is therefore free to disregard the protections that traditional software licensing provides. Nonetheless, Google exerts control over its APIs. Google prohibits copying of its APIs for competitive uses. In fact, Google has in the past settled with the FTC over the manner in which it has restricted its APIs.

Developers beware. You may think you got a win yesterday. But it's time to think about more than your desires to copy freely when you sit down at a keyboard. Think about the larger and longer term implications. You should have been on Oracle's side in this fight. Free stuff from Google does not mean free in the sense Richard Stallman ever intended it.

source: www.arstechnica.com

Tiny little cloud player for TV on the run

Dish ships the HopperGo, a tiny little cloud player for TV on the run.

Hopper Go,Cloud Player for TV

Originally announced at CES in January, the minuscule HopperGo is a 64GB USB drive with a built in wireless access point. The little device connects to your Dish Hopper 3 or Hopper 2 – essentially Dish’s DVR – and sucks down up to 100 hours of TV. You can then unplug the little bugger and watch for four hours on one charge through the Dish Anywhere app.

When I first pulled this little thing out of the box I thought they had sent the wrong thing. It is truly tiny – about as big as an Altoids tin if not smaller. There isn’t much in the way of an interface on the box, just a button to turn it on and a USB port. The real magic happens on the Hopper and in the Dish Anywhere app. To move video to the box you simply select the content and transfer it to the HopperGo. Then, when you are connected to the HopperGo via private wifi, you can watch up to 100 hours of TV.

Hopper Go,Cloud Player for TV

The product is similar to wifi “media drives” that a few manufacturers produced to stream video and images to mobile devices. However, because it is so small and so specialized you have to wonder exactly who might want to take 100 hours of TV in a tiny little box. Obviously the first users would be parents who want to take a few hours of Dora to the ski lodge without Internet connectivity but, given the prevalence of Internet around the world and the ability to simply stream from a connected Hopper device via Dish Anywhere without the HopperGo it’s a bit of a hard sell.

At $99, however, it might be a fun addition for an on-the-go family that wants to keep up with Sesame Street or a TV lover who wants to catch up with a favorite program in a hut on a desert island or on a plane without wifi.

source: www.techcrunch.com

Soon You’ll Buy Consoles the Way You Upgrade iPhones

Soon You’ll Buy Consoles the Way You Upgrade iPhones.

MICROSOFT

AS E3 EXPO approaches, it’s looking likely that we’re going to see another console war break out. Only this time, the consoles won’t just be going to war with each other—they’ll be going to war with themselves, attempting to change the way that game consoles have always worked.

Earlier this week, Kotaku reported that Microsoft plans to release a more graphically powerful version of its Xbox One, which currently has the delightful code name “Scorpio.” This report should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, given that Xbox head Phil Spencer recently said in no uncertain terms that Redmond plans to release an incrementally upgraded Xbox One. “You’ll actually see us come out with new hardware capability during a generation allowing the same games to run backward and forward compatible,” Spencer said at an Xbox game preview event in February. In followup comments to various outlets, Spencer noted that devices like PCs and smartphones operate on a “very continuous evolution cycle,” whereas consoles make players wait “seven or eight years” before beefing up their hardware.
And it’s not just Xbox that’s jealously eyeing the iPhone upgrade model. Given the number of details that have leaked, you might be surprised to hear that Sony hasn’t said anything official about the PlayStation 4.5, PlayStation 4K, PlayStation Neo, or whatever other nickname you might have heard kicked around. But a series of reports following this year’s Game Developers Conference, where Sony allegedly began divulging details on the upgraded machine to developers, have said that the new machine might be able to run games at 4K resolution, or that all PS4 games going forward might have two graphical modes: one for the original model and one for the Neo.
Whether officially or not, the writing’s on the wall: Neither Sony nor Microsoft want to wait through an entire “console cycle” before they release upgraded hardware. In fact, if they’re successful, said “console cycle” will become nothing more than a strange relic of the past.

Killing The Console Model

Since the introduction of game consoles in the 1970s, the song hasn’t changed much: A game console’s hardware configuration is set in stone the day it ships to market, and it stays frozen until the company sees fit to release a much more powerful successor machine many years later. Sometimes it’s many, many years later; the Xbox 360 was released in 2005 and wasn’t replaced until 2013. That’s eight years with the same CPU, the same tiny half-gigabyte of RAM.

This paradigm had its obvious weaknesses, but it stuck around because—well, because what other choice did consumers have? Incremental upgrades would have been a solution in search of a problem, not to mention that it would potentially confuse consumers and definitely create more work for game developers.

source: www.wired.com

A 4,100-mile cable capable of 160 terabits per second

Facebook and Microsoft team up to lay a massive internet cable across the Atlantic.

Internet cable across the Atlantic, example

Facebook and Microsoft announced a partnership today to lay the highest-capacity subsea internet cable to ever cross the Atlantic Ocean, starting with hubs connecting Northern Virginia to Bilbao, Spain. The cable, called "MAREA" after the Spanish word for "tide," will be capable of 160 terabits per second of bandwidth and will stretch more than 4,100 miles of ocean in a submarine cable system. The two companies have hired Telxius, the infrastructure company owned by global communications giant Telefónica, to manage MAREA and expand network hubs from Europe to Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Construction is slated to begin in August of this year with a goal of October 2017 to complete the cable.

"In order to better serve our customers and provide the type of reliable and low-latency connectivity they deserve, we are continuing to invest in new and innovative ways to continuously upgrade both the Microsoft Cloud and the global internet infrastructure," Frank Rey, Microsoft's director of global network acquisition, said in a statement. "This marks an important new step in building the next generation infrastructure of the internet." Even with Telxius onboard, this new operation marks a turning point for tech companies, which have in the past joined telecom consortiums that already operate undersea cables rather than financing new cables outright.

FACEBOOK AND MICROSOFT NEED A FASTER WAY TO MOVE INFORMATION AROUND THE GLOBE

The ultimate goal here is to help both Facebook and Microsoft move information around the world — to their vast and expanding networks of data centers — at higher speeds using more reliable equipment. Both companies now maintain massive cloud-computing operations, with Facebook hosting the output of 1.65 billion users and Microsoft managing a robust suite of online services including Azure, Bing, Xbox Live, and Office 365. To continue expanding, these types of companies are increasingly moving into the infrastructure business, whether that be Amazon with its shipping network or Facebook and Microsoft with data operations to reach other parts of the globe.

Investing in subsea cables is not a new trend. Tech companies have been making sizable investments in global networking infrastructure for years, starting with server farms and data centers and onward to large-scale underwater operations. Although this new deal involves only Facebook and Microsoft, Google has invested in two undersea cables that stretch from the US to Japan, South America, and other parts of Asia.

Microsoft says its new project with Facebook provides interoperability with other networking equipment. "This new 'open' design brings significant benefits for customers: lower costs and easier equipment upgrades which leads to faster growth in bandwidth rates since the system can evolve at the pace of optical technology innovation," the company said in a statement.

source: www.theverge.com

Peter Thiel, the Tech Billionaire Who’s Trying to Kill Gawker

The Weird Truth About Peter Thiel, the Tech Billionaire Who’s Trying to Kill Gawker.

From Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Thiel is rife with contradictions.

Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel has been unmasked as the shadowy figure reportedly funding former wrestler Hulk Hogan’s ongoing, extraordinarily costly lawsuits against Gawker Media. Thiel, a PayPal co-founder, early Facebook investor, and partner and co-founder at venture-capital firm Founders Fund, “has played a lead role in bankrolling the cases,” Forbes reported Tuesday.

Hogan, who sued the online news organization for defamation over the publication of a sex tape, won $140 million in damages in March. If Gawker fails to successfully appeal, Hogan’s award could potentially shut down Gawker Media, or force it to be sold in full. (Gawker founder Nick Denton has already been forced to sell a minority stake to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, allegedly to help pay his legal bills in the case.) Rumors that a secret, wealthy benefactor was bankrolling Hogan’s suits had swirled around the case for some time. On Monday, The New York Times reported that Denton himself suspected someone, perhaps in Silicon Valley, was funding the suits against Gawker, which specializes in skewering powerful people in tech, business, and media. Thiel has been among those written about extensively by Gawker’s now defunct tech blog, Valleywag. A 2007 article titled “Peter Thiel is totally gay, people” outed Thiel. A day after the Times report was published, Forbes confirmed the involvement of Thiel, who declined to comment on the matter.

Thiel, 48, is a complicated and contradictory character. An avowed libertarian, Thiel is both a big believer in privacy from the government and a co-founder of Palantir, a multi-billion-dollar start-up that collects data about its clients’ users and monetizes their personal information. The C.I.A.’s venture-capital arm has invested in Palantir. And while Thiel has been footing the legal bills that could shutter one news organization, he has also extended his financial support to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit foundation that defends “the right of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal.”

Thiel believes that monopolies are a good thing for society, and that college is a waste of time and money. (His foundation selects and funds young adults under 20 years old every year to build new products and start-ups.) He has donated to conservative-libertarian pro-L.G.B.T. organizations, and has said he wishes politics could return to an era that more closely resembles the 1920s—before the New Deal, and the creation of the modern welfare state. “Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women—two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians—have rendered the notion of 'capitalist democracy' into an oxymoron,” he wrote.

Unlike virtually all of his fellow Silicon Valley 0.1 percenters, Thiel is backing Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, and is slated to be a Trump delegate at the Republican National Convention this summer. But supporting Trump is not the only thing the billionaires have in common. Like the litigious real-estate mogul, who has a history of using his wealth to bleed enemies dry through the court system, Thiel has been using his vast fortune—anonymously, until now—to cut Gawker down to size. It’s still possible for Denton’s shrinking media empire to win against Thiel—Mother Jones recently fought and won a similar court case, but it cost them millions to do so. (A Florida judge on Wednesday denied Gawker’s motion for a new trial, though Gawker is likely to appeal.)

Thiel is entitled to his opinions, but his broader strategy—using vast sums of money to ostensibly shut down a media company whose coverage he doesn’t like—could set a dangerous precedent and have a chilling effect on the press as a whole. Gawker has already spent $10 million on its side of the lawsuit, the Times reports. If Hogan and Thiel prevail, the billionaire will have succeeded in effectively destroying a prominent, if flawed, fixture of the media landscape. All the donations in the world to the Committee to Protect Journalists wouldn’t offset that damage.

source: www.vanityfair.com

Most Expensive Laptops in the World in 2016

Most Expensive Laptops in the World in 2016.

Technology has transformed everything and we are adopting advanced technology as it takes control. Laptops are part of the advanced technology gadgets adopted as it takes over Desktop computers because of its power durability, reliability and portability.
As the usage of Laptops increase in our society, the demand also increases in the market which makes the manufacturers to be busy producing different kind of Laptops. Some comes with cheap price tag while some are made for those with huge pockets. It will amaze you that some Laptops worth fortune until you have the knowledge of their prices.

 Below are the list of Most Expensive Laptops ever manufactured.

Luvaglio

Luvaglio

Also known as One Million dollars laptop, UK-based company Luvaglio designed it with a 17 inches Led lit screen with a powerful anti-reflective glare coating for brighter image, efficient MP3 Player, colorful diamond stone encrusted in it, USB Memory slot, double power button with security, and 128GB Hard disk space. The owner can also upgrade its hardware anytime. You will start wondering if all the specs above is what makes this laptop so expensive, not really. Luvaglio comes with real diamond stones in place of every key also it is to be ordered online and you will have to wait for your request to be processed.

Price: $1,000,000

Tulip E-Go Diamond

Tulip E-Go Diamond

More than a laptop it is a jewelry box. It has been embroidered beautifully by emerald and ruby and that made the high end laptop cost so high. The super model that looks fancy costs around $350,000 and is surely a high end set for the users.

Macbook Pro 24 Karat Gold

Macbook Pro 24 Karat Gold

What else can you think except Gold to make the price of Macbook at a rate as high as $30,000. The full body of the device is polished with 24-Kt gold plate and that has made the price of the laptop with 4 GB RAM and DDR2 processor so high. Computer Choppers made 24kt Gold & Diamonds 15″ Macbook Pro has 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of 667MHz DDR2 memory with a faster 2 GB of RAM. The gold plated model has 160 GB internal drive with NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT Graphics and a 15.4″ TFT display. The 24 karat MacBook Pro exterior is polished with 24kt while the interior is satin 24kt gold, considered as one of the best for those who love Apple products whereas they have to pay $30,000 for which it is named in the list of top most expensive laptops in the world.

Ego for Bentley

Ego for Bentley

Ego Lifestyle is best known for manufacturing especially chic, luxury notebook, which is costly like a car but offers the same lavish feeling to its users. One of world’s most expensive laptop has price of $20,000 added in our list of most expensive laptops, powered by 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive and Mobile AMD TurionTM 64 processor. 1280×800 resolution comes from 12-inch wide screen with port of 3 USBs, S-video out, a VGA, microphone, headphones Uh and 801.11 WLAN WiFi is truly impressive than just a laptop.

Apple Sued Over iPhones Making Calls and Sending Email

Apple Sued Over iPhones Making Calls and Sending Email.

Yes, you read that correctly. Apple has been hit by one of the more shocking patent lawsuits in recent memory. A company that seemingly does nothing but license patents or, if necessary, sue other companies to get royalties, has taken aim at Apple AAPL 1.51% . But here’s the kicker: the lawsuit alleges that Apple’s last several iPhones and iPads violate a slew of patents related to seemingly standard features, including the ability to place calls as well as sending and receiving emails.
A total of six patent infringement claims were brought against Apple by Corydoras Technologies on May 20, according to Apple-tracking site Patently Apple, which obtained a copy of the lawsuit. The case was brought against Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Corydoras is headquartered in Texas, where many similar companies that buy up or file their own patents and sue others for royalties operate. That’s mainly due to some success the companies have had in Texas courts.
According to Patently Apple, the counts against Apple cover every iPhone dating back to the iPhone 4 and every iPad dating back to the iPad 2. In addition to taking issue with Apple’s devices placing calls, the lawsuits also allege that the tech giant violates patents Corydoras holds related to video calling, which is similar to Apple’s FaceTime, as well as displaying a person’s geographic location through a feature like Find My iPhone and the ability to block unwanted calls.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment on the report. Corydoras is only listed as a limited liability company in Texas, but it does not appear to have a website or any other method of communication and was not contacted on its lawsuit.
Corydoras has been called a “patent troll” by Patently Apple, among other critics. The term is used to define a company that doesn’t actually sell anything, but buys up intellectual property designed by others (or invents its own technologies) to profit. While these companies are often viewed in a negative light and try to skim royalties off seemingly ridiculous features in some cases, it can pay off. Some patent trolls make millions each year off the sale of devices they don’t make.
For those companies, therefore, there is little risk. Patents can often be acquired for a small amount and a simple court filing is sometimes enough for major companies to settle out of court and pay a nominal royalty. Others like Apple, however, like to battle it out.
For more about about iPhone, watch:

That said, it hasn’t always worked out in the company’s favor. Last year, for instance, Apple went to court in what was called the “plaintiff friendly” U.S. District Court in Texas, only to lose the case. That one was brought against Apple by Smartflash LLC for the company allegedly violating three patents related to copy protection. Apple was ordered to pay $533 million. For its part, Corydoras hasn’t only targeted Apple. In March, the company brought a similar suit against the world’s top smartphone maker, Samsung. That case is still pending.

source: www.fortune.com

A Stair-climbing Wheelchair.

Toyota is remaking the iBot, a stair-climbing wheelchair that was ahead of its time.

The iBot motorized wheelchair was first unveiled back in 2001, but it still looks remarkably futuristic today. The device was created by Segway inventor Dean Kamen, and could climb stairs, raise users from sitting level to eye-height, and travel at a steady walking pace in this "standing" configuration. However, with prices starting at $25,000, the device was too expensive for the mainstream market and was eventually discontinued in 2009. Now, it's making a comeback, with help from Toyota.
This weekend, the carmaker announced that it's joining forces with Kamen's company DEKA to "support mobility solutions for the disabled community." This includes developing and launching the next generation of the iBot, with the company publishing a photo of an iBot 2.0 prototype. The device has the same basic layout as the original iBot, but is much slimmer, and Kamen says the new device will be "[enhanced] with 15 years of improvements in technology." Hopefully that will mean a cheaper price too.

Stair-climbing Wheelchair

"As we've seen people enjoy the flexibility and the freedom and the independence that an iBot brings — and that no wheelchair can bring — we've known that we have to bring this technology to more people who need it around the world," says Kamen in a promo video, available from Toyota and hosted via a YouTube mirror above.
As part of the agreement with DEKA, Toyota will be licensing balancing technologies from the company for its own products. The automaker says these will be used for "medical rehabilitative therapy and potentially other purposes." Toyota has previously invested $1 billion in a research institute developing robotic helpers and related products, and it's possible that the technology licensed from DEKA could feed into these ambitions as well.

source: www.theverge.com

Top Cheapest And Awesome Gadgets You Can Get In 2016

Top Cheapest And Awesome Gadgets You Can Get In 2016

Do you love gadgets but don’t have huge pocket to purchase the expensive ones in the market? We will be revealing the top 10 cheapest and amazing gadgets you can buy in 2016. These lists range from smartphone solar chargers to Wi-Fi set-top boxes to Reality lasers.

 Below are the list of the top 10 amazingly cheap gadgets in 2016:

Roku LT

Roku LT

Roku LT is an online-only budget box or Wi-Fi set-top box, that give you the full experience of streaming over 1000 channels, including TED Talks, Amazon Instant, HBO Go, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora radio, MLB.TV, Vudu and Amazon Cloud Player. The price is just $50, and with it you have the cheapest way to cut satellite cord, as you can connect your broadband, HDTV, HDMI cable and an AC outlet and start streaming 720p contents.

iPod Shuffle

iPod Shuffle

Designed by Apple Inc, the iPod Shuffle is a high quality, digital audio player with 2GB memory. It is an awesome gadget because of its stylish and portable design, and can be controlled using your voice. We included it here because the price of this awesome gadget is just $49.

PogoPlug

PgoPlug

With just $50, you can purchase this awesome gadget called PogoPlug. It allows you to create your own personal cloud, and access your file from anywhere, and on any device. Unlike other cloud file services companies, who charge on subscriptional basis and with recurring charges, you only make payment once for the hardware and then create your own unlimited storage personal cloud.

iHome iDM8

iHome iDM8

Another awesomely cheap gadget you can get for $50 is iHome iDM8. iHome iDM8 is a compact rechargeable and portable Bluetooth speaker with a cool design, and it provides modest audio quality with a standard 3.5mm input.

Sony Ericsson LiveView

Sony Ericsson Live View

Sony Ericsson LiveView is a wristwatch-size, wearable device with a screen which allows you to control your Smartphone using Bluetooth. With this cheap gadget, that is sold for just $23, you can run third party applications from Google’s Playstore, enabling you to display Twitter feeds and messages, RSS feeds, Facebook, SMS, and even control the phone’s media player without pulling out your phone.

Belkin Bluetooth Music Receiver

                 Belkin Bluetooth Music Receiver

Belkin Bluetooth Music Receiver allow you to play music wirelessly through your home stereo or stand-alone speakers. Wirelessly set up the connection from the comfort of your couch, and get beam audio on your sound system. If you watch Hulu+ or Netflix on your tablet, you’ll love having full home-theater sound to accompany it as you lounge on the couch. It is sold for just $25.

IK Multimedia AmpliTube iRig

                             iRig

IK Multimedia AmpliTube iRig sold for just $20, is a guitar adapter that turns iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android and Mac, into pocket studio. With the advent of powerful yet affordable apps such as Garageband and IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube amps and effects offerings, there has never been a better time to learn guitar or to lay down some searing tracks.

LED Lighting T-Shirt

LED Lighting T-Shirt

LED Lighting T-Shirt is sold for $13, and it has an in-built LED lighting bars. The amazing part of this cool but cheap gadget is that, the shirt has a built-in microphone and the EQ bars actually light up to their respective frequencies. There are companies online who can also help in customizing the light with your logo or design.

LED Display Six-in-One Digital Altimeter

LED Display Six-in-One Digital Altimeter

LED Display Six-in-One Digital Altimeter combines an altimeter, a clock/calendar, a thermometer, a compass, a barometer, and a weather station in just one single gadget. The price is just $20 and it is good for woods and mountain expeditions as it will let you measure all Mother Nature’s vital signs.












Source: www.top10.kleanar.com

Bionic Hearing with New Smart Earbuds

Get Bionic Hearing with New Smart Earbuds

Smart Earbuds

If you've ever been on a crowded bus and found yourself stuck between a loud conversation on one side and obnoxiously loud music on the other, the idea of being able to cancel out that background noise probably sounds like bliss. Now, new earbuds can not only help boost your hearing and cancel out pesky noise, but also serve as wireless earphones for making phone calls and listening to music hands-free.

Wearable devices such as fitness trackers and smartwatches have become popular accessories, and recently, companies have started developing "hearables" — earbuds that electronically control how a person hears the world.
The IQbuds from Nuheara in San Francisco can use Bluetooth to wirelessly connect to a smartphone. As such, these earbuds can act like wireless earpieces, so you can listen to music, podcasts or audiobooks in stereo; make hands-free phone calls; and engage with Siri and other voice-enabled apps. Users can also answer phone calls and start or stop audio with a simple tap of the earbuds.

source: www.livescience.com

Cyber security

McAfee confirms he'll head cyber security company

SAN FRANCISCO — Shares of a small tech firm soared 34% on news John McAfee, the computer antivirus legend and Libertarian party presidential candidate who once spent several months on the run fearing assassins, has been proposed as its CEO. McAfee confirmed the appointment in a phone interview with USA TODAY on Monday. MGT Capital Investments, a Harrison, N.Y.-based tech firm with investments in fantasy sports and mobile games, will be rebranded as John McAfee Global Technologies, according to a release. The company's (MGT) stock jumped to $0.49 in trading Monday. McAfee, in an interview, said the company should be renamed soon after approval from MGT's board of directors. "The company's new focus will be on security and privacy," he said. The new company's first product will be D-Vasive, an anti-spyware product for mobile devices, McAfee said. "It locks down a device's microphone, camera, Blue Tooth," he said. "What shocked me most about FBI Director (James Comey's) testimony (before Congress in February) was that he put tape over his (smartphone) camera lens to protect it."
"D-Vasive offers a powerful tool for protection from the proliferation of invasive apps by consumer products companies, social networks, financial institutions and others," MGT said in a statement. "These invasive apps can secretly turn on a phone's microphone and camera, as well as monitor geographic movements and access contacts." McAfee founded McAfee Associates in 1987. The company was purchased by Intel in 2010 for $7.7 billion, He has also announced he wants to be the Libertarian Party presidential candidate in this year's election. "Things are going extremely well," he said. Though a reluctant campaigner — "I'm not a hand shaker or a baby kisser," he said — McAfee is "confident" he'll get the nomination when the Libertarian Party holds its national convention in Orlando on May 29.
Source: www.usatoday.com

Phone Holographic Glasses-Free 3D

Your Next Phone Might Have a Holographic Glasses-Free 3D Display

Holographic phone

Holograms are still mostly science-fiction fodder, but researchers at Queen’s University’s Human Media Lab have developed a prototype smartphone that uses holographic technology to display dynamic 3D images without the need for head tracking or annoying glasses. So how is this possible when 3D TVs and movie theaters still require you to wear shutter or polarized glasses, and Nintendo’s 3DS relies on a front-facing camera to track the position of the user’s head and face? It all comes down to a clever trick with the HoloFlex phone’s unique display.
The device starts with a 1920 x 1080 resolution OLED touchscreen display, but images are displayed as an array of 12-pixel wide circles. When viewed through a special 3D-printed overlay that’s covered in 16,000 tiny fisheye lenses, those images appear to pop-off the screen. And as the phone is angled and moved around, 3D objects can be viewed from almost any angle. The downside is that the images end up having a relatively poor resolution of just 160x104 pixels, but as screen resolutions and manufacturing technologies improve, eventually that special lens-covered overlay will be invisible to the naked eye.
But 3D images aren’t the HoloFlex phone’s only party trick. The OLED display it uses is completely flexible, allowing the phone to be bent and warped, introducing an additional element of interaction. Besides tapping the screen, and other touch gestures, users could play games like Angry Birds by physically bending the phone back to draw back the bird-launching slingshot. It also means if you were to forget about the HoloFlex in your back pocket when you sat done, there’s little risk of finding a shattered screen when you get back up.

source:www.gizmodo.com