MIUI App Vault Overview – Shortcuts, Cricket, Calendar events, Notes and Ola

Xiaomi announced the latest iteration of its Android skin MIUI back in November with tons of new features including Split Screen, Interactive and Fresh UI changes, New Gallery App, Calendar Cards, App Vault, New Notification Shade, Mi Video App, New Mi Explorer and Mi Drop. We have already covered some of these features in posts earlier and in this post, we will be giving an overview of App Vault. MIUI focuses on making life simpler and App Vault tries to bring convenience on your tips. App Vault shows cards for various services and is an attempt similar to Google Now cards  for showing all the important information in one place, MIUI quick cards can be accessed in a similar fashion by swiping left on the home screen. As of now, only 5 cards are available on App Vault but Xiaomi claims to have support for 12 kinds of services, and hopefully, more cards will be added with time. Users can choose maximum 5 cards available at the moment, which are Shortcuts, Cricket, Calendar events, Olacabs and Notes. Cricket card shows the scores of ongoing game for the teams selected by users, users can choose international as well as Domestic teams. Users can ...

Intel RealSense D415 and D435 depth cameras with D4 vision processor announced

Intel today introduced the RealSense D415 and D435 depth cameras in the D400 Cameras series. The depth cameras add 3D capabilities to any prototype or end user-ready device or machine. It is powered by the D4 vision processor. The Intel RealSense is idle for educators, hardware prototyping, and software development. The new depth cameras come with a USB-powered form factor paired with D400 camera series. It is powered by the new Intel RealSense vision processor D4 for processing complex depth data in real time. The RealSense D415 and D435 depth cameras are supported by the Intel RealSense SDK 2.0 which is available for the first time as a cross-platform. The company says that the camera can be used indoors or outdoors and in any environments. Applications for a range of computer vision uses advancements across VR/AR, robotics, drones and more. it not just adds new levels of depth for real-time feedback, but will also make the devices more intelligent and enable's new experiences. The Intel RealSense Software Developer Kit with Intel RealSense viewer is now available to developers, allowing OEMs/ODMs and system integrators to unlocking new depth data with access to the depth camera to tackle everything from viewing the depth stream, visualizing 3D point clouds recording. The Intel RealSense D415 ...

Sony MWC 2018 event set for February 26; CEO says still committed to smartphone business

Given the downfall of Sony's smartphone business it would be no surprise if the company suddenly decides to pull the plug, but interestingly the company recently confirmed its presence at the MWC 2018 event that is scheduled to happen in February. Though Sony phones were a range back in the day, the firm got pushed away very soon by Apple, Samsung, and other Chinese brands. Given the age-old design of its smartphones, it is no wonder why Sony is struggling. Most of the design blame might be because of the philosophy of Sony president and CEO Hirai. Hirai took the position of CEO just when the WOW factor of Sony phones started phasing out. He is being credited for turning around the sinking ship, and in addition to his hands-on approach, his principles regarding design or other departments reflected Sony's culture. He says that his aim is for an emotional response rather than a technical one and not to change the award-winning design every year for the sake of changing it. Despite the fact that Sony smartphone business is not doing so well, Hira currently has no intentions to let go. Instead, he sees the smartphone business as their ticket in the communications space. ...

LG X4+ with 5.3-inch display, Hi-Fi DAC, military-level durability announced

LG today introduced X4+, the company's smartphone in the 'X series' in Korea. It has military grade durability with MIL-STD-810G  that can withstand impact, vibration, high temperature, low temperature, thermal shock, and humidity and also has a dedicated digital to analog converter (DAC) for Hi-Res 32-bit 192 kHz audio listening. It packs a 5.3-inch HD screen, is powered by Snapdragon 425 SoC, runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat), has a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 5-megapixel front camera. It also comes with LG Pay, the company's own payment solution. It has an aluminum back with fingerprint sensor below the camera and packs a 3000mAh battery. LG X4+ specifications 5.3-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD) IPS display 1.4GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 425 processor with Adreno 308 GPU 2GB LPDDR3 RAM, 32GB internal storage, expandable memory with microSD Android 7.0 (Nougat) 13MP rear camera with LED Flash, 77-degree lens 5MP front-facing camera, 100-degree wide-angle lens Fingerprint sensor, LG Pay 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio, Hi-Fi DAC MIL-STD 810G certified Dimensions: 148.6 x 75.1 x 8.6mm;Weight: 172.3g 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, NFC 3000mAh battery The LG X4+ comes in Moroccan Blue and Lavender Violet colors, is priced at 300,000 won (US$ 282 / Rs. 17,980 approx.) and will ...

WhatsApp might launch UPI-based digital payments service in India next month

WhatsApp UPI-based digital payments service has been in the news for quite some time and it now looks like the company is finally all set to launch the feature as early as next month according to reports. The WhatsApp payment will give a big boost to digital payments in India and will compete with Google Tez that was launched last year and already has over 12 million users. The peer-to-peer payment system powered by Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is said to be in the final stages of beta testing with few banking partners like HDFC, ICICI, State Bank, and Axis Bank. The final version is expected to go live for users next month considering the trails run smoothly said the people familiar with the matter. A banker too confirmed the new saying WhatsApp is at various stages of system integration with banks and is currently doing security checks to ensure the safety of the data. The feature before going live will be tested on few users and based on the results, the date will be fixed for final roll out. WhatsApp got the approvals from the government to integrate with UPI in July and will soon join Google, Samsung. Among the many digital payment solutions, WhatsApp UPI-based ...

Samsung patent files hint at in-display fingerprint sensor and front camera

Vivo scored the world premiere of Under the Display Fingerprint Scanning Solution that uses an optical fingerprint sensor from Synaptics which it showcased at the CES 2018 earlier this month. However, a new piece of information reveals that Samsung is aiming to take it a step ahead by not just embedding an in-display fingerprint sensor, but also the front camera. According to the patent filed by the Samsung at WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), in order to eliminate the need for adding a top notch like the iPhone X, Samsung is planning on embedding an in-display front camera along with the fingerprint sensor as well. The patent files explain that the company will be house the fingerprint sensor and the front camera in holes that are cut in the smartphone's screen. While the idea may be sound, putting it, in reality, is a lot harder than it seems on paper unless, of course, Samsung has the equipment that can do the job. One thing to be noted from the patent files is that the phone features an almost 100% screen-to-body ratio making it a stand out from the pack. However, brands like Samsung, LG, Apple file a lot of patents most of which never see the light of the ...

Instagram ‘Show Activity Status’ lets you see when a user was last active

Facebook-owned Instagram seems to be following the footsteps of WhatsApp and Messenger as new 'Show Activity Status' feature shows when a user was last active. You can now see when a user last used Instagram from the direct message screen.  The feature isn't rolled out to everyone just yet and is currently being tested with a handful of users. It is a feature that is found on most Facebook-owned apps like Messenger and WhatsApp. From the direct message screen, you can see the activity status of people you follow or previously chatted with. However, for now, though, you can disable this from the account settings if you wish to no reveal your activity status, but disabling the option comes at a cost. You won't be able to see the activity status of others if you disable it yourself. Your followers cannot see when you were active last on Instagram, but the people you follow or have sent a direct message will see be able to know when was the last time you were scrolling through the news feed. The feature also gets specific enough to display "active now" status if you are using the app at that precise moment. While the feature can be seen in multiple prospectives, ...

Honor View 10 vs OnePlus 5T – Which phone has the best A.I.

In general, the things that differentiate the Homosapiens from the rest of the species is our advanced cognitive skills, such as social intelligence, planning, and reasoning. With the help of our intelligence, we changed things by understanding it, implementing our knowledge, which in turn resulted in modern human civilization. In fact, the curiosity of humans led to several inventions and one such thing is the Artificial Intelligence a.k.a, AI. While capitalizing on the power of computers, some humans, out of curiosity started to ask a question to themselves and that gave birth to the idea of building a super-intelligent machine. The question is “Can a machine think and behave like humans do?” What is Artificial Intelligence (AI) ? According to the founder of Artificial Intelligence, John McCarthy, who also happen to coin the word AI, defines it as “The science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs”. In simple terms, the so-called Artificial Intelligence is an approach of building a hardware or a software that thinks intelligently, act rationally, in a similar way on how the intelligent humans do. The AI can be done by getting inside the actual workings of human minds and use the outcome of this theory as ...

Google’s Project Fi now offers Unlimited Data for $80 with Bill Protection

Google has introduced a flexible unlimited data plan dubbed 'Bill Protection' on Project Fi making it heavy data user-friendly. Before the new plan, Project Fi charged $10 per GB no matter how much data the user consumes. Technically, the new plan caps the data speed to 256kbps once the user crosses the data limit threshold but still offers data connectivity.  Super heavy data-users can use up to 15GB of data in a month without facing any throttling issues, and once the user crosses the 15GB mark, the speed will be capped at 256kbps until the next cycle. While all the other members of the group plan will get full data speeds until they each use their 15 GB of data. If a user wishes to have high-speed data post the 15GB usage, they can still get additional data by purchasing 1GB data at $10. It should be noted that Project Fi 'Bill Protection' kicks in at different usage points, depending on the size of your group. Another advantage of the Bill Protection feature is that you only pay for the data you used. Suppose, you only use 1.4 GB of data in the month's cycle, you’ll need to pay just $34 instead of $80. The new feature applies ...

WhatsApp Business app launched, allows small businesses to easily connect with customers

Facebook-owned WhatsApp back in September last year announced that it it is testing new tools through a closed pilot program that will allow people to communicate with the businesses they want to reach on WhatsApp. Today the company has officially launched standalone WhatsApp Business App for Android that enables small businesses to have a business presence on WhatsApp, communicate more efficiently with your customers, and help grow their business, separating customer and personal messages, and creating an official presence. The app is built on top of WhatsApp Messenger and includes all the features that are available on WhatsApp such as the ability to send multimedia, calls, messaging, group chat, offline messages, and more. It also has additional features such as Automated Messages that lets you set an away message when you are unable to answer so your customers know when to expect a response. You can also create a greeting message to introduce your customers to your business. Highlights of WhatsApp Business Business Profiles: Help customers with useful information such as a business description, email or store addresses, and website. Messaging Tools: Save time with smart messaging tools — quick replies that provide fast answers to frequently asked questions, greeting messages that introduce customers to your business, and away messages that let them know you're busy. Messaging Statistics: Review ...