Vodafone trials world’s first 4G IoT drone tracking and safety technology

Vodafone today announced the commencement of trials of the world’s first air traffic control drone tracking and safety technology. It uses the 4G IoT technology to protect aircraft from any unexpected accidents as well as prevent any unintentional or criminal drone incursions at sensitive locations such as airports, prisons, and hospitals. The company says that the regular drones are too small to be tracked by conventional radar and also present a serious risk to pilots worldwide, particularly in the immediate vicinity of airfields and airports. Since the usage of drone in criminal activities is a possibility, additional security and intelligence services are increasingly concerned about the wrong usage of them. With this thought in mind, Vodafone has developed the world’s first Radio Positioning System (RPS) for drones. It combined with Artificial Intelligence algorithms which are also developed by Vodafone enables very large numbers of drones to be tracked and controlled remotely. The company claims that it has kept the RPS research and associated intellectual property in the public domain with no licensing fees for re-use in order to accelerate the pace of drone safety and geolocation innovation worldwide. The Vodafone IoT drone tracking and safety technology trials support the objectives of the European Aviation ...

Chrome 64 for Android automatically cleans messy URLs when you share them

Chrome 64 for Android was rolled out last month with features like the white navigation bar, blocks auto redirect pop-ups and more and an ad blocker. Today the company is adding one more new feature that automatically shortens URLs and converts them and removes the unnecessary strings at the end of URLs. This feature was first spotted by Android Police cleans up long or messy URLs when shared through the browser’s built-in Share functionality in the overflow menu. You can also quickly copy the URL to the clipboard or share directly to another app with additional setup required. This feature is related to the "canonical page" URLs that Google started supporting some time ago. We've seen similar features in AMP pages where sharing the content would share a usable URL. It isn't functional in V63 and is only available in Chrome V64. Chrome's URL trimming will remove anchor tags that load a page to a specific location. This feature also works on links from Amazon, Google AMP, and also works with the “Copy to clipboard” option and any other third-party app. You can download the Chrome 64 directly from Play Store. Via

Swype Keyboard for Android discontinued

Nuance Communications, the makers of Swype Keyboard today announced that they are discontinuing the Keyboard for Android and iOS. According to a Reddit user who reached out to Nuance with a crashing issue has received a reply saying that they are ending the development. The Swype Keyboard app is one of the most used applications and in fact, it came pre-installed on Huawei and other phones. The company in their response email clearly clarified that the company will no longer be updating the Swype+Dragon keyboard for Android. It also mentioned that it is ending direct-to-consumer keyboard business to focus more on the AI solutions for sale directly to businesses. Furthermore, Nuance Mobility earlier this month announced the end of support to its iOS app and it will no longer be offering the Swype keyboard on the iOS app store. The company has also recently started working on getting its dictation software in vehicles. This is seriously sad news for those Swype users, and with that being discontinued, Gboard and SwiftKey keyboards are better alternatives. The company is a statement said:  Nuance will no longer be updating the Swype+Dragon keyboard for Android. We’re sorry to leave the direct-to-consumer keyboard business, but this change is necessary to allow us to concentrate on developing ...

Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact prototype surfaces – rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and no 3.5mm audio jack

Sony is expected to introduce the Xperia XZ2 Compact at the MWC 2018, but before the official launch, the device now surfaces in a new prototype image. The Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact next to a Xperia Z5 Compact shows a brief design and an idea of what to expect. A reader of Xperia Blog has left a comment on a post with an alleged photo of the Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact and also clarified that since it is a prototype image, it may not represent the final version. Furthermore, there is also no 3.5mm audio jack and a rear-facing fingerprint sensor much like the Xperia XA2. It has a slightly curved bottom design which completely contrasts from Sony’s usual blocky slab design. The final version of the Xperia XZ2 Compact will have a slightly smaller bezel on the top of the screen, and the design might reflect the plate + human design concept that was leaked back in 2015. With MWC 2018 event kickstarting in a few days, we are expecting the phone to make its appearance which might have a slightly modern look. Source

Apple rolls out iOS 11.2.6, macOS 10.13.3, watchOS 4.2.3 supplemental message apps crash fix update

It was reported last week that a Telugu character is making the messaging apps crash, and today Apple has rolled out the supplemental update to iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS devices running the latest public version just as it promised.  As per the changelog, the iOS 11.2.6 brings fixes to the certain character sequences that are causing apps to crash and also fixes an issue with 3rd party apps fail to connect to external accessories. The changelog for macOS also reads the same and it also fixes the Telugu character bug causing messaging apps crash. It is also the same with watchOS 4.2.3 as this too fixes the issue that is causing the character to crash message app. Apple made it clear that the latest developer and public beta versions including iOS 11.3 already fixed the issue. This update is to prevent users from waiting for the issue to come along with the larger updates expected next month. The updates are rolling out to most Apple devices and you can update it since they are public updates. The iOS 11.2.6 release note reads: Fixes an issue where using certain character sequences could cause apps to crash Fixes an issue where some third-party apps could fail to connect to external accessories Source ...

HTC Desire 12 retail box surfaces – 5.5-inch full-screen display, 3GB RAM and more specifications revealed

A few days ago popular leakster Even Blass revealed that HTC is planning on launching a new Desire series phone that is said to be pushing full screen 18:9 aspect ratio display down to entry-level segment. Today Android Authority has obtained the retail box of the phone named 'Desire 12' revealing most of the specifications. Going by the specifications, the Desire 12 is an upcoming entry-level smartphone. It is expected to sport a 5.5-inches HD+ (720 x 1,440) 18:9 aspect ratio display and is powered by the 64-bit, quad-core MediaTek processor, but the chipset is not yet revealed. It packs 3GB RAM and 32GB storage with a microSD card slot for memory expansion. [HTML1] There is a 12MP rear camera with 1080p video recording and a 5MP front-facing camera. A 2,730 mAh battery and there are slots for two nano-SIMs. Connectivity options include 4G LTE, WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth. Since the retail box has leaked out, it's only matter of time we have the rendered image. We are only falling short of price, release date, and images of the phone itself. With MWC 2018 inching closer, there is a chance of the phone making its appearance. Source

Samsung introduces world’s largest capacity 30.72TB SSD for enterprise systems

Samsung has introduced world’s largest 30.72 terabyte (TB) solid state drive (SSD), PM1643 for use in enterprise storage systems. It comes in a 2.5-inch form factor, and leverages Samsung’s latest V-NAND technology with 64-layer, 3-bit 512-gigabit (Gb) chips. It introduced  15.36 terabyte (TB) solid state drive (SSD), PM1633 back in 2016. Highlights of Samsung PM1643 30.72TB SSD Enabled by combining 32 of the new 1TB NAND flash packages, each comprised of 16 stacked layers of 512Gb V-NAND chips Based on a 12Gb/s SAS interface, the new PM1643 drive features random read and write speeds of up to 400,000 IOPS and 50,000 IOPS, and sequential read and write speeds of up to 2,100MB/s and 1,700 MB/s, respectively. Integrates nine controllers from the previous high-capacity SSD lineup into a single package, enabling a greater amount of space within the SSD to be used for storage The PM1643 drive applies Through Silicon Via (TSV) technology to interconnect 8Gb DDR4 chips, creating 10 4GB TSV DRAM packages, totaling 40GB of DRAM. This marks the first time that TSV-applied DRAM has been used in an SSD. Enhanced software supports metadata protection as well as data retention and recovery from sudden power failures, and an error correction code ...

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition with 4K visuals released for Windows 10 PCs

After 20 years of the launch on PC, Microsoft at the E3 last year announced  that will be bringing the real-time strategy game – Age of Empires: Definitive Edition exclusively to Windows 10. It was supposed to release last year, but it was delayed. The company said it took time to add features like attack-move and the improved minimap exactly right, and even added things like an in-game tech tree. Today it has finally released the game for Windows 10 users. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3rDhoWcVgQ The game has been fully remastered with enhanced graphics that support up to 4K resolution, entirely re-orchestrated soundtrack, brand-new narrative, major gameplay improvements, Xbox Live support for multiplayer, and achievements. It will get even more graphics performance optimizations, an option for players to Spectate a multiplayer match, additional data tuning based on beta feedback and telemetry and more soon. Highlights of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition Experience an epic game of empire-building and conquest - Engage in over 40 hours of updated campaign content with new narration and pacing Relive history with remastered graphics and sound - Experience 4K visuals and a new orchestral soundtrack. Build your empires and prepare for battle - Jump online in up to 8-player battles with new ...

Sony MWC 2018 teaser highlights curved display, Xperia XZ2 and Xperia XZ2 Compact expected

Sony Mobiles have just released a new teaser video of its MWC 2018 event which kickstarts in a week at Barcelona. Very little was shown in the brief 23-second video, all we see is just a curved display indicating a smartphone with a curved display. Sony is also expected to introduce two new flagships; the Xperia XZ2 and Xperia XZ2 Compact. While the exact specifications of the phones are unknown at the moment, a mysterious Sony phone with model number H8266 recently surfaced the benchmarks listing, which reveals that it sports an 18:9 Full HD+ display, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC Octa-Core processor with 4GB RAM, 64GB internal storage. [HTML1] It is said to run Android 8.0 Oreo, come with IP65/IP68 rating, a 3210/3240mAh battery with Qnovo Adaptive Charging. We also expect to see a phone with 6GB RAM, 4K display much like its predecessors. Since these are just rumored and surfaced specifications, there's no way to tell if these are the actual deal. But with MWC 2018 event in just a week, we expect to see a lot more at the event.

Honor 7X Battery Life Test – #OneChargeRating

Huawei's Honor brand launched its mid-range Honor 7X smartphone in India recently. We already brought you the review of the phone, here we have the battery life test results of the phone. It packs a 3340mAh battery (typical) / 3240mAh (minimum), has a 5.93-inch Full HD+  display, is powered by Octa-Core Kirin 659 SoC, has 4GB of RAM and runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat) with EMUI 5.1. Check out the test results below. Talk Time It lasted for 33 hours and 36 minutes in our talk time test. 3G Browsing It lasted for 7 hours and 16 minutes in our 3G browsing test. WiFi Browsing It lasted 9 hours and 7 minutes in our WiFi Browsing test. Video Playback It lasted only for 8 hours and 28 minutes in our video playback test. Charging Time It took 2 hours 23 mins for charging it from 0 to 100% since it doesn’t have fast charging, and 0 to 50% takes about an hour. Standby Time It lasted for 54 days in our standby test. In achieved a One Charge Rating of 14 hours and 46 minutes, mainly due to brilliant talk time results. Check out our battery life test procedure, to know more about our tests in detail.