Google Maps for iOS gets restaurant wait times, improved transit directions and More

Google Maps for iOS is getting a new update that brings features like restaurant wait times, improved transit directions and More. The updated app brings the version number to 4.47. The new restaurant wait times will be available at more than a million restaurants around the world. It will let you know long you can expect to wait before being seated, and it also gets the ability to sort and search through reviews of a restaurant, store, or other business. It also gets new transit directions feature that will let you know the transit entrance you need to go, which is available in New York, Hong Kong, Taipei, Paris, Los Angeles, Delhi, Moscow, Singapore, Madrid, Barcelona, Kiev, and Budapest. The official changelog includes: Features to help you discover new places and navigate to them: See average wait times at over a million restaurants worldwide. Search and sort through reviews of a place. Get transit directions that tell you exactly which entrance you need to go into. This feature is available now in New York, Hong Kong, Taipei, Paris, Los Angeles, Delhi, Moscow, Singapore, Madrid, Barcelona, Kiev, and Budapest, with more on the way! You can download the Google Maps for iOS directly from the App Store. Via

YouTube will soon let you go live directly from your smartphone camera

YouTube just made it easy to go live both from your computer and phone. Earlier to go live on YouTube using an encoder, it needed few steps to do so, today, the company is making it easy just by clicking “Go live” in the YouTube header or directly visit the youtube.com/webcam.  This process eliminates the need for any software or extra set up. YouTube says that creators have been using this to go live for fan updates, tutorials, etc. This feature is available in Chrome today, and it will be expanding to more browsers soon. As for mobile users, in the coming months, you’ll be able to start a live stream directly from the camera app in select devices from ASUS, LG, Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung. However, Google says that it will bring the functionality to more phones in the future throughout the year through the new YouTube Mobile Live deep link. But it didn't mention any time frame. Source

Meizu E3 with 5.99-inch FHD+ display, Snapdragon 636, 6GB RAM, 12MP + 20MP dual rear cameras announced

Meizu just announced E3, the company's latest smartphone in the 'E Series' in China, as it had promised. It has a 5.99-inch Full HD+ 18:9 display, is powered by Snapdragon 636 with 6GB RAM, but it still runs Android 7.1 (Nougat) with Flyme OS 6.3 on top. It has a 12-megapixel rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, Dual PD full-pixel focus for 0.026s fast focus along with a 20-megapixel secondary camera, to capture depth information for portrait shots and 2.5x loss-less zoom. Both have Sony sensors and are protected by sapphire glass.  It has a 7.6mm slim metal unibody design, has a Super mBack fingerprint sensor on the right side that can unlock the phone in 0.2 seconds and is also customizable to perform several actions with pressure sensor offering comfortable on-handed usage. It packs a 3300mAh battery with mCharge fast charging that can charge the phone up to 53% in 30 minutes using 20W charger. Meizu E3 specifications 5.99-inch (2160 × 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 18:9 2.5D curved glass LTPS In-Cell display with 83% NTSC Color Gamut 1.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 636 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 509 GPU 6GB LPDDR4x with 64GB / 128GB storage, expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD Android 7.1.2 (Nougat) with ...

Google announces range of augmented reality apps and games developed with ARCore 1.0

At the MWC 2018, Google had introduced the ARCore 1.0 with some changes and additions that also includes support for more devices. While Google opened up the ARCore to developers, there aren't many apps or games yet. Today the company has announced a host of apps and games that you can try considering you have a compatible device  In the gaming department, BANDAI NAMCO has launched the 'My Tamagotchi Forever' in which users can raise Tamagotchi characters while building Tamatown, a virtual town you can play in the real world. Another in the list is based on the popular hit show 'The Walking Dead.' The game lets you immerse yourself in the zombie apocalypse world and your mission is to defend your surroundings by fighting zombies in real-world environments. This is a real-world game and uses Google Maps API which was recently opened to developers. It’s currently in pre-registration on Google Play and is expected to launch globally soon. https://youtu.be/M5zxNMAQVR0 Another in the list is the Tender Claws created by TendAR, a game that features Guppy, a virtual fish that responds to users’ facial expressions and survives by 'eating' other people’s emotions. The game is a combination of ARCore with Google Cloud APIs, which provides computer vision and object ...

Google introduces ‘News Initiative’ to fight fake news, will invest $300 million

With an aim to fight fake news, misinformation and bolstering journalism, Google today introduced its new initiative ' Google News Initiative,' along with the International Fact Check Network which will offer advanced training on tools to distinguish misinformation online to more than 20,000 students globally.  The main goal of the Google initiative is to highlight accurate journalism fight misinformation, particularly during breaking news events and finally help news sites continue to grow from a business perspective. Google is seriously planning on tightening the goals and is pledging to invest $300 million in the coming months. It is also launching a $10 million global initiative from Google.org to find ways to tackle the challenge. https://youtu.be/d6ihrHNNkkY As a part of this new initiative is the MediaWise, a U.S.-based partnership bringing together the Poynter Institute, Stanford University Education Group, and the Local Media Association. It will be Supported by a $3 million Google.org investment. The new prioritization technique is currently live in the U.S. and will be rolling out globally in the coming months. Another part of this initiative is improving the subscription for news just by using users Google account. This method will automatically fill out details and subscribe to the news using your default payment method. Users will have the option to ...

Samsung Flip interactive digital whiteboard display launched in India for Rs. 3,00,000

Samsung India has announced the launch of Flip interactive digital whiteboard display with an aim to solve most prominent challenges businesses face during meetings. Samsung Flip packs multiple tools and processes required for a traditional meeting in a sleek, all-in-one design. The Flip doesn't need a dedicated pen to interact with the screen and, notes can be erased through a quick palm swipe. Users can access up to 20 pages of writing space, with support for search functionalities available to instantly direct participants to specific content. The Flip can be used both in landscape (3840x2160 pixel) or portrait mode (2160x3840) orientations to suit unique meeting needs, and it can be easily connected to a wall mount for roundtable-style discussions. It lets up to four different participants to introduce content or annotate directly on screen at the same time. It comes with 55-inches UHD resolution and is powered by the Tizen Processor with an 8 GB network storage. Once the meeting is done, it securely saves the data and all content within a central database. An airtight, password-based protection system safeguards meeting details and ensures that only approved users can access the information. Once logged in, meeting facilitators and participants can download and share featured content through email or traditional printing. Users ...

List of Jio 4G LTE and VoLTE Compatible Smartphones (Updated on March 2018)

Since the inception of Reliance Jio, the way we use mobile data has been drastically changed both in terms of quality and cost. However, it can often be confusing to find out just which phones are compatible and whether you need to change your phone or not. So we've decided to bring the Jio supported phones list to make the job easier for you. Having said that not all the 4G smartphones support VoLTE, where some of them have to use Jio Join App for making voice calls on Jio 4G network. Reliance Jio's network makes use of 3 network bands namely – Band 5 (850 MHz), Band 3 (1800 MHz) and Band 40 (2300 MHz). Band 40 currently pans India while the other two bands are available in two circles but will expand slowly. It is advised that the 4G LTE phone you are buying supports at least 2 or more of the above-mentioned bands. VoLTE basically means Voice over LTE and it has up to 3x the data and voice capacity of a conventional 3G connection and up to 6x that of a 2G connection. As a result, the call quality and volume are vastly improved as well as being able to connect ...

Samsung Carnival on Amazon India: Up to Rs. 4000 discount, No-cost EMI, exchange offers and more

Samsung today started its 4-day Samsung Carnival on Amazon India, couple of weeks after the first Carnival sale earlier this month. This offers up to Rs. 4000 discount on smartphones .  Samsung Galaxy Note8 buyers get Amazon Pay cashback of Rs. 8,000 making the effective price of the phone Rs. 59,900. Samsung Galaxy A8+ – Rs. 28,990 (Rs. 4000 off) Samsung Galaxy On7 Prime 64GB  – Rs. 12,990 (Rs. 2000 off) Samsung Galaxy On7 Prime – Rs. 10,990 (Rs. 2000 off) Samsung Galaxy On7 Pro - Rs. 6,990 (Rs. 2500 off) Samsung Galaxy On5 Pro - Rs. 6,490 (Rs. 1500 off) Samsung Galaxy Note8 – Rs. 59,900 (Including  Rs. 8000 Amazon Pay cashback) Samsung is also offering exchange and No cost EMI offers on select products on Amazon. The carnival also includes offers on consumer electronics offering up to 35% off on TVs and up to 25% off on large appliances. Some of the offers include Samsung's 49" full HD LED TV is available for Rs. 47,900, Samsung's 253L Smart Convertible Refrigerator is available for Rs. 23,990 and 324L Smart Convertible 5-in-1 Refrigerator for Rs. 37,990 during the carnival. You can check out more offers on Amazon.in.

Xiaomi and TVF announce strategic partnership for Mi TV

Xiaomi and The Viral Fever (TVF)  today have announced a strategic partnership for the recently launched Mi TV 4 and Mi TV 4A. TVF has announced that all the content including videos and web-series will be available across all Mi TVs. As a part of the promotion, the Viral Fever has released the latest episode of 'Tech Conversations with Dad' which is a show about exasperated youngsters explaining the nuances of technology to their clueless and curious fathers. With this partnership, The Viral Fever's TVFPlay is among the select few partnering content providers for the Mi TV, thus making Xiaomi the largest content aggregator library in India. Speaking about the partnership, Karan Chaudhry, COO, The Viral Fever said:  Digital content is making new inroads into the audiences' lives, and Xiaomi's new offering is truly disruptive for the Indian market. TVF is the pioneer of premium digital content in the country and is very focused on innovative ideas to satisfy the needs of Indian youth. The MiTV4 offers a great internet TV experience and is loaded with great content that is not available on other TVs in its category and that too at an unbelievable price – that is bound to shake up the TV eco-system in India. We are ...

New JioFi 4G Wireless Hotspot goes on sale for Rs. 999

Reliance Jio introduced the JioFi 3 back in 2016, which we unboxed in early 2017. Last year the company seems to have silently introduced JioFi 4 (JMR1140) and JioFi 5 (JMR814). Now the company has started selling JioFi JMR815, which should be JioFi 6. This measures 74 x 74 x 20mm and weighs just 95g with a 3000mAh, which is bigger than the previous JioFi models. It has indicators for battery, signal and WiFi and has power and WPS buttons. There is a micro USB port for charging. It has a Altair ALT3800 processor, supports band 3 (1800 MHz), 5 (850 MHz) and 40 (TD 2300 MHz) for Jio. It has WiFi 802.11 b/g/n support, similar to other models and lets you connect up to 31 WiFi-enabled devices and a device through USB cable. It also has a microSD card slot that accepts cards up to 64GB. You can make voice and video calls even on a 2G/3G phone by installing Jio4GVoice (JioJoin previously) app and connecting it to the hotspot over WiFi. The JioFi 6 is priced at Rs. 999 (MOP), but the MRP mentioned is Rs. 2,499.  It is currently available from Flipkart.