LG Announces Chromebase: 21.5-inch AIO PC Running Chrome OS

Google and its partners are very serious about expanding the number of Chrome OS products available for consumers. Chromebooks are the most symbolic Chrome OS products, and we have recently shared with you the news that Dell has launched its very first Chrome OS laptop, the Chromebook 11. But now, LG has announced the world’s first all-in-one computer that will be running Chrome OS.

LG is only announcing the Chromebase, as the official unveiling of the product will happen during next month’s Consumer Electronics Show. Chromebase is a 21.5-inch all-in-onecomputer with an unnamed Intel Celeron processor, 2GB of memory, and 16GB of solid state storage. The monitor has a 1080p IPS display with a 1920 x 1080 resolution. LG says that the monitor delivers accurate color reproduction, stunning contrast and an impressive 178-degree viewing.should let you use it as a monitor for another computer. LG is targeting  schools, hotels, call centers, and other businesses and organizations with Chromebase. The main selling point of Chrome OS seems to be the fact that you can log into any Chrome OS computer and retrieve your content stored in the cloud. To recap, here are the tech specs that we currently know about Chromebase:

• Processor: Intel Celeron CPU

• Display: 21.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS

• Memory: 2 GB

• Storage: 16GB iSSD

• Ports: HDMI-in, USB 2.0 x3, USB 3.0 x1, LAN

• Accessories: Keyboard, Mouse, Cable Organizer

• Webcam: 1.3 M 720 HD

Speaking of the Chromebase’s launch, Hyoung-sei Park, head of the IT Business Division at LG Electronics, said the following:

Simple to operate for all types of users, the award-winning LG Chromebase computer represents the successful combination of simplicity, power and great design. LG Chromebase is the wave of the future for desktops, expected to be widely adopted not only at home, but especially in schools, hotels, call centers and other business settings.

The Chrome OS computer has its own keyboard, mouse, speakers, webcam, USB ports and networking, and there’s also an HDMI input that

The all-in-one Chrome OS computer also comes with a pair of built-in 5W speakers that will offer clear and powerful sound and music .Chrome OS will bring the following Google apps to Chromebase, such as Gmail, Drive, Search, Maps, YouTube, Play or Google+ Hangouts. LG has yet to announce a price for the new Chromebase All-in-One PC, but the pricing is expected to be somewhat in line with Chromebooks.

article by Radu Tyrsina

Read More

Facebook want to Joins Google In The Hunt For The Future

We now live in an era when Mark Zuckerberg speed-dials Obama, controls fleets of drones, brokers $19 billion acquisitions in a week, and buys whole virtual worlds. Facebook’s mission has changed. While once it was solely “to make the world more open and connected”, it’s expanded to also “give people the power to share.” And nothing is too crazy if it brings Facebook one step closer to that goal.

If you squint, the strategy looks a lot like the mantra of Facebook’s early days, “Move fast and break things,” but on a much more grandiose scale. Back in the 2000s, Facebook wasn’t afraid to launch sweeping new features like News Feed to the entire user base at once or overhaul privacy without warning, even if it had to apologize and back-track.

Pastbook

But as Facebook approached its IPO, something changed. All thoughts seemed to turn to monetization. The product itself appeared to slow down, while business ratcheted up. Facebook began injecting ads into its sacred News Feed. It battled with game developers to levy a 30 percent tax on their in-app purchases through its Credits virtual currency. And it started asking Pages to pay to reach their own fans.

When the share price plummeted on IPO day, it became clear that Facebook’s next crisis was mobile. It was hardly earning any money there, but that’s where its whole user base was headed. So it ditched the weak HTML5 mobile web standard and rebuilt its apps entirely natively to boost speed. It got dead serious about private messaging with big investments into its standalone Messenger app. And most critically, it saw that crowded app stores were making discoverability and growth tough for developers, so it launched mobile app install ads.

Now, its apps are much better liked, Messenger has become a real competitor, and app install ads have turned into a cash cow. The helped Facebook become a mobile-first advertising company with over 50 percent of its ad revenue stemming from the small screen. That’s more than $1 billion a quarter in mobile revenue alone. This all wrenched the share price out of the hole and up into the $60 range its been fluctuating around recently.

Having proven it’s equipped for the mobile era, and with the Wall Street monkey off its back, Facebook has finally been able to lift its sights to the horizon.

A Brave New Facebook

Since Facebook’s share price surpassed its $38 IPO mark in August, we’ve seen it act like a much bolder company: 

• It launched Internet.org alongside six telecom heavyweights with the goal of connecting the 5 billion people who currently lack Internet.
• It started the Facebook Artificial Intelligence lab on NYU’s campus to research data science, deep learning, machine learning, and software that can think for itself.
• It admitted its mobile app can’t be everything to everyone, and unveiled theFacebook Creative Labs initiative to build standalone mobile experiences starting with the radically-designed Facebook Paper.
• It spent $19 billion to buy WhatsApp in a bid to dominate mobile messaging in the third world. For many, WhatsApp is their first taste of the Internet.
• It acquired Oculus for $2 billion to control what it believes is the next critical computing platform and the future of human connection.
• And today it unveiled the Facebook Connectivity Lab, which is building solar-powered drones and satellites to beam Internet to the developing world.

Compare that to any seven months of moves in the past few years and it will look like Zuckerberg started watching too many sci-fi movies. But actually, he’s been turning Facebook’s new three-part mission into a reality. The CEO explained his plans on the call to investors following the Oculus acquisition announcement:

“I’ve framed our strategy as three high-level goals over the next ten years- connecting everyone, one; two, understanding the world; and three, building the knowledge economy.

With this acquisition, now each of those initiatives has an ambitious long-term bet associated with it, in addition to our important near-term work as well.

For number one, connecting everyone, for the long term we have Internet.org, our initiative to make free basic internet services available to everyone in the world. And for connecting everyone, we also have our near-term efforts for our messaging and growth.

For number two, understanding the world, we have our ambitious AI Research Group, which is trying to build a unified model of how every person [inside] the world is connected to each other. In the near term, our efforts here are in search and News Feed, and will help your network surface more useful information to you.

And for number three, building the knowledge economy, that’s really about building future technology platforms. And we now have Oculus joining us, which long term can be one of the next important computing platforms. And of course we will continue to focus on our extremely important work of building out our advertising platform as well, as part of this.”

With this strategy laid out, Facebook’s seemingly erratic launches, acquisitions, and investments come into focus. Facebook is playing two games. One for today, with messaging and News Feed powered by ads, and one for tomorrow, with AI and virtual reality powered by the entire globe being connected to the web and to Facebook. As outgrows its “social network” label, Facebook seems unconcerned with being perceived as creepy as long as it’s making progress.

There’s only one other company that seems to be thinking this far in advance and that’s Google. It has Project Loon for connectivity, Glass for augmented reality, Calico for human longevity, Boston Dynamics for robotics, Nest for the connected home, self-driving cars, and Deep Mind for artificial intelligence.

Both have realized technology is a lot bigger than showing ads on desktops and smartphones. They’re using the revenue from this era to fund research and acquisitions so they can pay their way to the next generation of innovation. It could be years before some of these technologies are ready for the consumer market and even longer until they’re widely embraced. But that’s why they’re starting now. Invention and integration take time. Of course, both could waste billions barking up the wrong trees. If users sidestep the Facebook-owned WhatsApp or developers abandon Oculus, these big bets could be seen as huge blunders in hindsight. But to these giants, gambling seems less risky than sitting atop a pile of cash.

The age of social snuck up on Google, and the age of mobile snuck up on Facebook. Now that Facebook has its small-screen strategy humming, it has the bandwidth and brashness to join Google in the hunt for the future.’

Read More

Daily App: Google Now Launcher (Android): “OK Google” Comes to Nexus

When the Nexus 5 was launched, one of the most talked about features in it – apart from the price tag, which remains astounding – was its launcher app. In particular, the option to simply issue voice commands by saying “OK, Google” on the homescreen grabbed a lot of users’ imaginations. Well, the launcher, christened Google Now Launcher, is now available for Nexus devices (and Play Edition handsets) and it worked just fine on both our 2012 Nexus 7 and Nexus 4.

 A 12 MB download, the Google Now Launcher replaces your homescreen app with a relatively quieter and more Spartan look. You have three homescreens (one of which is dedicated to Google Now, more of which later) to choose from and lo and behold, both the notification area and the app drawer are transparent, so if you have a particularly jazzy wallpaper, it will literally shine right through them.
While on the subject of wallpapers, the app adds a few to your collection, but nothing that will really make you sit up in wonder. App icons too seemed discernibly larger and sharper on both devices.However, what makes the launcher special are two features. The first of course, is the “OK Google” feature, which brings up the voice search option the moment you say those words out loud on the homescreen. And well, you can ask the app to do a whole lot of things apart from just searching the Web for information using this feature – I actually was able to get the app to start writing a mail to technett33 using it (I did have to give the app access to my contacts, but hey, this is an app from Google, so trust comes easily). There were very few accent issues – certainly fewer than Siri – and things moved along very smoothly in the voice department depending on what we were asking the app to do.



The other feature is merely a swipe to the right away from the homescreen. That is Google Now itself, which gives the launcher its name. For those from a non-Android planet, Google Now is basically a series of cards that tries to predict your information needs. So a map card will tell you how far you are from home, a sport card will give you the scores from matches involving teams you follow, and so on and so forth. 
Well, in most Android deices, you access Google Now by long pressing the Home button and dragging it upwards. Well, with this launcher, things get even simpler – just swipe to the right from the homescreen and you are in Google Now land. Of course, you can still do the long press and drag home button upwards routine if you wish (it is the best option to access Google Now from other apps). And all this works smoothly, speedily and certainly seems to tax the device a whole lot lesser than some of the launchers we have seen. We had zero lags and stutters on our devices.

So should you be downloading the Google Now Launcher? The answer to be honest, depends on whether you are addicted to Google Now or not. If you are, grabbing this is pretty much a no-brainer. We also think that this launcher is a great option for those who want to keep things simple and speedy. But if you are the type for whom a launcher means endless customization options, then you can afford to give it a miss. What did we do? Ah, we will give you a hint – we are getting addicted to saying “OK, Google”.

Read More

HTC 2014 Specs Leaked: 5-inch and 1080p screen, 2.26GHz, 2GB RAM.

 

What will set the smartphone apart are its dual rear cameras – a 16-megapixel rear camera and a 4-megapixel one. At the moment we don’t know how exactly these two will works but it seems that they will carry the same ‘UltraPixel’ technology. The Duo camera will feature dual-tone LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording.

HTC is expected to officially launch its next HTC One flagship on 25 March, but we’ve already got almost all the specs and we’ve formed a pretty good idea of how it’s going to look like. 

The device could be called the ‘All New HTC One’ or the ‘HTC One 2014‘, as we must agree that HTC One 2 sounds kind of dumb. We don’t normally deal with too many leaks here on Technology Personalized, but this one is different because the key specifications of the device have been published on a certification website.

The new HTC One is codenamed on the website as ‘HTC M8t’, runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat, comes with a 5-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen with a full-HD (1080 x 1920 pixels) resolution. The latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core powers the smartphone at 2.26GHz with an Adreno 330 graphics processing unit and there’s 2GB of RAM inside, as well. Of course, the handset is expected to come with 4G LTE wireless network support.

The 2014 HTC One could have a maximum expandable storage capacity of 64GB, but we don’t know at the moment details of its built-in storage, but most likely there will be two traditional 16GB or 32GB models. There will be four colors of the new HTC One – Black, Silver, Red and Gold. Exaction dimensions have been leaked, as well – 146 x 70.5 x 9.45mm and a 157 grams weight. Looking at what features the new HTC one could carry, I realize once more how impressive the new Oppo Find 7 is.

Earlier leaks were also suggestion that the smartphone will go on sale immediately after it will be made official by HTC on March 25. Select carriers and resellers will be able to offer the new Android smartphone instantly, instead of having to wait a few weeks or months. Take for example the Samsung Galaxy S5, which won’t ship until sometime in April.

Read More

Use Google Docs to Monitor Availability of iPhone and iPads in Apple Stores

You are looking to buy an iPhone 5S (or the iPad Air or the upcoming iPad Mini Retina) but the model you want is neither available on the Apple website nor at the local Apple Store. Apple will not notify you when they have stock so you manually check the Apple’s online store, multiple times a day, to know if that product has become available or not.

A website called Apple-Tracker.com (now offline) made that task slightly less cumbersome as it allowed users to quickly check availability of Apple products in stores in their locality. You could choose an Apple product, enter your zip code and it would tell you if that product was available for pickup at any of the Apple stores in your locality.

The website is however no longer available but the developer has uploaded the code on Githubshould you be interested in running a private copy of the Apple Tracker. This is a Node.JS based app and implementation does need some technical know-how.

There’s however a simpler Google Script based version of the Apple Tracker tool available as well that you can run privately in your own Google Drive. This version will send email alerts (sample alert) as soon as it finds that an item in your watchlist is available at a nearby Apple store. You can track stocks of iPad Air, iPad Mini with Retina Display and the iPhone 5S.

Here’s how you can use the Google Script based Apple Tracker tool for automatically tracking Apple inventory at various Apple Stores in your locality:

1. Click here to make a copy of the Apple Tracker script in your Google Drive.
2. You’ll have a sheet with a list of all available models of the iPhone 5S, iPad Air and the upcoming iPad Mini with Retina. Put “Y” against items that you wish to track.
3. Go to the Apple Tracker menu in the sheet and choose Initialize. Then click “Accept” at the authorization dialog. The script is open-source and none of your data leaves your Drive.
4. Choose Start Tracking under the Apple Tracker menu. Enter your zip code (U.S. only) and your email address where you wish to receive product availability alerts. Click the Start Tracking button and exit the Google sheet.

That’s it. The Google Script will check the inventory of all Apple Stores in the specified zip code every hour and will send email alerts if it finds a store where your Apple product is available for pick up. The email alert will also include the Apple store’s address and phone number.

If you would like to disable tracking, just open your Google sheet copy and add “N” against all the product items that you no longer wish to track. Alternatively, you may choose the Uninstall option under the Apple Track menu.

Read More

Apple Patents Face Recognition Tech For Enhanced iPhone Privacy And Automated Controls

Apple has been issued a patent by the USPO today (via AppleInsider) that describes a system for using facial recognition and detection on a mobile or desktop computing device. This could work a lot like the Android face unlock option, which has been criticized before for its fallibility, but is also designed to prompt activity and use facial expressions as input for controlling the device.

This could be used to not only protect data on an iPhone in a locked state, but also determine how much information is shared on the lock screen for a user. So if a person is receiving a call and their iPhone recognizes them (determined by a number of factors, including skin tone, vectors, feature distance and size, etc.) then it'll display caller ID and information from the user's contacts app. If it's not someone the phone has listed as a user of the device, it'll block all that data.

Likewise with emails or messages, it could scrub the content of any actual info until there's a positive recognition match for a phone's rightful user. In a desktop computing context, the recognition could be used to analyze a user's behavior over time as they sit in front of their Mac, determining when to trigger certain actions like screen savers, or enter a movie mode, or switch audio devices to prepare for a Skype call, for instance.

Apple has just acquired PrimeSense, the Israeli firm that helped created the original Microsoft Kinect's motion sensing capabilities, so it's tempting to link the two, even though the Apple patent far pre-dates that subsequent deal. Still, Apple has shown that it places a premium on innovation that helps users access their device more securely and more conveniently with the introduction of the iPhone 5s fingerprint sensor, and this could provide a way to allow users more access to things like Siri from the lockscreen, without the privacy compromises that come along with some of the assistant's more useful convenience features.

Source:techcrunch.com

Read More

How to Restore Deleted SMS/Text Messages on iPhone, Android & Windows Phone

The ability of sending messages using our smartphones plays a great importance in our lives. Thanks to messages, we can communicate with our friends and family in a way easier than the classic voice call, especially when we are in a place that we cannot talk. Due to this fact, when we delete all our old messages and realize later that we actually needed some of them, we can be in a very complicated situation.

There are numerous reasons that may bring to this unfortunately event, like virus attacks, software and hardware failure or even the situation when you mistakenly wipe your important text messages. That’s why, we gathered a bunch of solutions for you to try to retrieve your text messages, which should work for any iPhone, Android or Windows Phone.

How to Restore Deleted Text Messages

Users have little ways to restore their deleted or lost text messages from heir smartphone, either if it’s an Android, iOS or Windows Phone device. Any smartphone has its own tricks and here you will discover some of them, including which are the apps and what guides are right for you, regardless of your device’s operating system.

On Android

The Android OS stores all the text messages directly on the smartphone’s internal memory, so if somebody deletes one of them it’s completely lost. Though, there are some solutions to bring them back and most of them imply the installation of different applications. In the following lines we will present some of these apps that may be a life saver.

SMS BACKUP +

SMS Backup + is a software that can make your day better in case you accidentally deleted some important text messages. The app connects to your Gmail account and automatically creates two new folders for your SMS and call history backup.

Depending on your settings, the app is able to send all your text messages to the defined Google account along with the history of the made, received and missed calls. Also, it is able to restore the messages directly to your phone, so don’t wait anymore and download it for free from Google Play Store.

SMS BACKUP & RESTORE

SMS Backup & Restore is a very easy to use application that backs up your text messages and restores them whenever you want. The app saves all the messages in an XML format and permits users to directly email them through the app. In addition, it has the ability to backup certain conversations so that only the important messages will be saved.

A very nice feature is the one that permits users to set the app to automatically backup their messages daily at a particular hour or at every start-up of the smartphone. The process is very simple, users have to access the app and choose the “Backup” section. Then, they have to choose the name and the destination folder of their file. To restore one of them, users have to follow the simple steps from the “Restore” section of the app.

If you are interested in using this app, go to the following link and download the free version which contains ads, or go here to download the paid no-ads version for ‎$2.49.

On the iPhone

The great thing with the iOS devices is that they permit users to sync all their data from the old iPhone to new generation device in just minutes. This process is entirely made with the help of Apple’s application, iTunes, which stores all your important data (contacts, notes, calendars, text messages, settings and camera rolls) every time you connect your smartphone to the computer.

So, if you mistakenly erased some of your text messages, not everything is lost because you may have a chance to recover them. Note that in order to work this, the lost messages had to be on the device when the last synchronization was made.

The following simple guide will help you through this process:

1. First of all, you have to prevent the automated syncing of the program, for the time when you will connect your iPhone with the deleted messages. To do this, access iTunes, select “Preferences” and click on your device that can be found under the “Devices section. There, check the “Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically.” option.
2. Then, connect your iPhone to your computer via a USB cable. The device should appear in iTunes’ Devices list in just seconds.
3. Go to “File” and find your smartphone under “Devices”.
4. Finally, just click on “Restore Backup” and wait for the restoration process to finish.

Another way to prevent this unfortunately events is to back up everything with iCloud and restore when something is accidentally deleted. To do this, users have to go to the “iCloud” section under “Settings” and access “Storage & Backup”. There, they have to check the “iCloud Backup” option and that’s all.

Whenever they want to restore a text message, they will have that backup saved onto their iCloud account. Before beginning the restoration process, users have to go again to the iCloud settings and uncheck the “Text Messages option”, even if it sounds crazy you’ll understand in the following lines. A pop-up will appear and select ”Keep on My iPhone”.

Then, go again to “Text Messages”, tap “Merge” and in some minutes your deleted messages should appear back, mixed up with your actual messages that weren’t saved onto iCloud.

WONDERSHARE

You may also take a look at the following app that is helpful for both Android and iOS users. The app is called Wondershare Dr.Fone and it’s a program that can find your lost or deleted data from your Android / iOS device. All users have to do is to connect their smartphone to the PC via a USB cable and start the scanning for lost text.

Before buying the software for $49.95 USD (Android version) or $69.95 (iOS version), we suggest to try the free trial, in order to see if the program suits your needs. Note that the Android smartphone has to have the “USB debugging” activated, while the iPhones have to be in DFU mode (except the iPhone 5 and 4S) in order to be able to do the whole process.

On Windows Phone

The Windows Phone may not be the most used operating system when it’s about of smartphones, but it has its own and well-deserved place on the market. In case you erased an important text message from your device, don’t despair because there are some ways to restore them.

Users of devices who run on the old Windows Mobile 6 have a solution at their fingers. This particular version of the well-known operating system has a great advantage over the others, because when a user deletes a text message it doesn’t really disappear, but it is transferred to another folder. So, if you accidentally deleted your text messages, just follow the next simple guide and you’ll be fine:

1. First of all, find and access the text messages section, which is usually represented with an envelope.
2. Secondly, press the “Menu” button and select “Folders”.
3. A list with all the available folders will appear and press on the “Deleted Items” choice.
4. Locate the respective text message and then click “Menu” and “Move”.
5. Select “Inbox” or the folder you wish to transfer it to and the message will automatically transfer to that certain box.

Unfortunately, for Windows Phone 7 and 8 there are no solutions to restore text messages, once they’re deleted, they’re gone for good. The only thing you can do is restore your latest backup which has to be anterior the date when you accidentally deleted your text messages, otherwise you have your hands in ties.

So, go to “Settings” and select “Backup” in order to see when it was made the last backup and if it is favorable, reset your smartphone. When the process has ended, use the same email to log in to your account and you will be asked if you want to restore the latest backup, click “Yes” and all your messages, contacts, call logs and even social networks will be restored.

article by Techpp

Read More

The Android-Powered, Dual-Screen YotaPhone Launches In Russia And Beyond For €499

The delightfully kooky Russian smartphone that pairs a bog-standard LCD screen with an eInk display on its rump? It's been teased for a launch for months now, but the company behind it has just spilled the beans at a press event in Moscow: the YotaPhone will launch in Russian and Europe today complete with a confirmed €499/19,990 RUB price tag, right in line with rumors that flew around earlier this year.

Smartphone aficionados in Russia, Austria, France, Spain and Germany who are itching for a device that's a bit off the beaten path can lay claim to their YotaPhones now, and Yota Devices is pushing to sell the devices in a total of 20 markets in Europe and the Middle East by the time Q1 2014 rolls around.

Bummer alert: the Americas didn't make the cut for that first round of rollouts, and there's no official word on when (if ever) that split-personality smartphone will ever find its way state-side.

Bear in mind that Yota Devices has been plugging away on the YotaPhone concept for over a year now, so the components ticking away inside of the thing aren't exactly the newest you'll ever come across. There's a 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 chip in there (though the company hasn't specified exactly which variant), along with 2GB of RAM, a 4.3-inch 720p front display, and a surprisingly small 1800mAh battery to keep things humming away. If you were to just read those specs off a sheet of paper, it would sound like you were describing a flagship smartphone from (surprise surprise) last year, though as a whole the device still has enough oomph to keep up with users' daily grinds.

But really, I don't know anyone who's been eyeing up the YotaPhone based on the strength of its spec sheet; the real star of the show though is the 4.3-inch eInk display mounted on the YotaPhone's rear end in lieu of a more traditional backplate. Getting content onto the second screen seems simple enough - a two-finger swipe down on the front screen sends a screenshot of whatever you're looking at to the paper-like rear display - but only a handful of apps are really optimized for the task from the get-go. That early list includes an organizer, a social feed/RSS reader, and a language learning tool to name a new, and we're getting word that Yota Devices is going to open up the necessary APIs to curious devs in short order.

These days nearly every OEM is clamoring to deliver the sleekest, fastest, highest-def smartphones possible, and it's sort of refreshing to see a company stop for a moment to ponder a smarter way to add value to the smartphone formula. Naturally, that's not to say the YotaPhone is poised to be an overnight success. The limited scope of its launch means that the company behind the phone is missing out on traction in the crucial Asian and American markets, and it's hard to deny the incredibly niche vibe this thing gives off. As much as I like it, the YotaPhone formula almost assuredly won't click with a majority of potential smartphone shoppers, and there's no way Yota Devices doesn't realize that. If nothing else though, the path the company has chosen is an interesting one, and in a sea of smartphone sameness you can't completely discount the value of a wild-eyed notion.

Want a little more? Check out the live stream of the event (courtesy of CNET) below:

Read More

Google Makes Creating Online Exhibitions Easy For Anyone With Google Open Gallery

Google has been working with museums to populate its Google Cultural Institute, an online collection of virtual exhibitions from around the world. Today, it’s opening up that project to anyone who wants to create an online exhibit can do so, from independent museums to individual artists. Google’s Open Gallery tool makes it possible, letting anyone upload videos, images and Street View content, and then combining that with text to publish an interactive guided tour through a collection of cultural artifacts.

Forty-five new Google Open Gallery projects are live today, so people can check out some visually stunning exhibitions of gallery showings by European artists. You can request an invite to gain access to the tools yourself, too, and access and use is free. You can create an independent site using the browser-based publisher, or add a virtual exhibition or collection to your own existing website, too. It’s probably something any professional photographer or artist should at the very least take a look at, as it requires no programming knowledge and can create some beautiful, immersive virtual tours.

Google has also opened a physical extension of its Cultural Institute experimental arm, called the Lab, located at their Paris office. They’ll be experimenting with 3D scanners, super high-resolution cameras and interactive screens to see how those technologies might be useful in museums and other real-world exhibits, and how they can help improve online presentation of cultural artifacts, too.

In general, I’m a fan of when Google puts resources into projects that have the potential to make cultural artifacts more accessible like this one, and the Open Gallery tool is far more advanced than something like an image-heavy Tumblr. It feels like Google has taken the bones of what was its Blogger acquisition and made it into something truly robust that really suits the needs of cultural institutions in a uniquely advantageous way. It’ll be interesting to see how much uptake this gets among photographers just looking to get their work out there in a way that’s more visually appealing.

Read More

Why Does Google Need So Many Robots? To Jump From The Web To The Real World

Why does Google need robots? Because it already rules your pocket. The mobile market, except for the slow rise of wearables, is saturated. There are millions of handsets around the world, each one connected to the Internet and most are running either Android or iOS. Except for incremental updates to the form, there will be few innovations coming out of the mobile space in the next decade.

Then there’s Glass. These devices bring the web to the real world by making us the carriers. Google is already in front of us on our small screens but Glass makes us a captive audience. By depending on Google’s data for our daily interactions, mapping, and restaurant recommendations – not to mention the digitization of our every move – we become some of the best Google consumers in history. But that’s still not enough.

Google is limited by, for lack of a better word, meat. We are poor explorers and poor data gatherers. We tend to follow the same paths every day and, like ants, we rarely stray far from the nest. Google is a data company and needs far more data than humans alone can gather. Robots, then will be the driver for a number of impressive feats in the next few decades including space exploration, improved mapping techniques, and massive changes in the manufacturing workspace.

Robots like Baxter will replace millions of expensive humans – a move that I suspect will instigate a problematic rise of unemployment in the manufacturing sector – and companies like manufacturing giant Foxconn are investing in robotics at a clip. Drones, whether human-control or autonomous, are a true extension of our senses, placing us and keeping us apprised of situations far from home base. Home helpers will soon lift us out of bed when we’re sick, help us clean, and assist us near the end of our lives. Smaller hardware projects will help us lose weight and patrol our streets. The tech company not invested in robotics today will find itself far behind the curve in the coming decade.

That’s why Google needs robots. They will place the company at the forefront of man-machine interaction in the same way that Android put them in front of millions of eyeballs. Many pundits saw no reason for Google to start a mobile arm back when Android was still young. They were wrong. The same will be the case for these seemingly wonky experiments in robotics.

Did Google buy Boston Dynamics and seven other robotics companies so it could run a thousand quadrupedal Big Dogs through our cities? No, but I could see them using BD’s PETMAN, a bipedal robot that can walk and run over rough terrain – to assist in mapping difficult-to-reach areas. It could also become a sort of Google Now for the real world, appearing at our elbows in the form of an assistant that follows us throughout the day, keeping us on track, helping with tasks, and becoming our avatars when we can’t be in two places at once. The more Google can mediate our day-to-day experience the more valuable it becomes.

Need more proof? Follow the money. Robotics is big business and analysts estimate that Boston Dynamics could be a $5 billion company in the next few years. With the right contracts and the right product mix, almost any of member Google’s current robot horde can hit nearly any market, from consumer robotics on a large scale to massive installations in manufacturing – not to mention those lucrative DARPA contracts.

Will we see RoboGooglers wandering through Palo Alto this year? No way. It’s far too early. But with a bit of smarts from Google Chauffeur, the software running the company’s self-driving cars, and some better bipedal robot designs I could see Sergey and Larry standing beside their robotic assistants within the decade. Now all they have to do is make them sentient.

Read More

Google Brings The Telethon Online With First-Ever “Hangout-a-thon”

On Tuesday – aka Giving Tuesday - Google will repurpose its video broadcasting service called Google+ Hangouts to help host an online “Hangout-a-thon” that aims to connect those interested in making charitable donations with a worthy cause of their liking. Like a modern-day telethon, the “Hangout-a-thon” will feature celebrities, including  Jennifer Garner, Chris Daughtry and Sophia Bush, plugging their favorite non-profit or charity, says Google.

Organizations like Unicef, Charity Water, Save the Children, the Malala Fund, The Trevor Project, and several others will be involved, asking donors to give to help improve clean water access, eliminate bullying, provide disaster relief in the Philippines and more, Google explains in a post this morning announcing the event, that will take place tomorrow starting at 9 AM ET on the “Giving Tuesday” Google+ page.

In addition to the usual round-up of organizations doing good, the Hangout-a-thon will also have a tech angle, it seems. Google notes that viewers will also get a “quick coding lesson” from Code.org, Girls Who Code, and Code2040, who will also be there to inform viewers about the topic of digital literacy.

The event will be 12 hours long, and include 24 charities and brands in total, a full list of which has not yet been released. Viewers watching the event will be invited to donate directly to the organizations doing the fundraising, or support the organizations via the “Shoppable Hangouts” app which will allow viewers to buy “goods for good” (i.e. actual products) during the event.

For example, Hucksley, a curated marketplace for emerging brands that typically gives 25% of profits to charity with each purchase, will join with Google, Pencils of Promise, and Sophia Bush to donate 100% of profits during the event which will go toward helping build 25 schools in Guatemala.

This is the first time organizations have ever used Hangouts to power a charitable event like this, Google says. But it's not Google's first foray into giving. Not only does the company have a charitable arm called Google.org which develops tools that use technology for social impact, it also this year launched its inaugural attempt at mobile giving with the Google One Today Android app, which encourages users to donate $1 toward causes they like.

It should be interesting to see what kind of reach an online telethon-like event can generate – although it takes place on a social platform that's available worldwide, it's also competing with the vastness of the internet for your attention, while the old-school TV telethon generally took place during a time when there weren't that many other choices in terms of programming. Still, for those wasting time online during the holidays, there are far worse destinations to mindlessly click through to than an event for giving, of course.

Article:Techcrunch

Read More

Gionee Elife E7 with Snapdragon 800 Launched in India for Rs. 26,999

Gionee, the Chinese smartphone major is betting big with its Indian operations. The company has launched its latest flagship, the Gionee Elife E7 in India, just weeks after the China launch. The Elife E7 boasts of some impressive specs and attractive design, while keeping the price a lot more affordable.

Gionee Elife E7 features the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor clocked at 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM, 16GB of internal memory and 2,500mAh battery. The 5.5″ 1080p (Full HD) screen is equipped with Gorilla Glass 3 and is super-sensitive touchscreen responsive to gloves and wet hands. Interestingly, the 32GB version of Elife E7 comes with 3GB of RAM.

Gionee is trying hard to make a mark in the camera department as well. The Elife E7 comes with a 16MP rear camera with 1.34 μm pixel sensor and an 8MP front camera. The camera app has some neat tricks as well, with modes like automatic, portrait, micro, night, night portrait, backlight and backlight portrait.

The Chinese company has really huge global plans. In fact, Gionee aims to be a top-5 smartphone brand in the world by 2015 and the top most smartphone brand in India in the next couple of years. It’s impressive that Gionee managed to pack in the Snapdragon 800 CPU on Elife E7 at this price range. Talking about the price, the 16GB of Elife E7 is priced atRs.26,999, while the 32GB version is priced at Rs.29,999.

Though the price looks attractive for the hardware and features the phone comes with, it’s tough for Gionee to come out of “just another cheap Chinese brand” image. They are clearly investing big in R&D, as well as marketing, but would be a daunting task to convince customers to go buy an Elife E7, specially when they have an option to buy something like the Nexus 5 running the latest Android OS (unlike 4.2 Jelly Bean on Elife E7) at similar price range.

The Elife E7 does look good from the outset and we shall be taking a deeper look at it when we get our hands on it.

Article by Raju PP

Read More