Xiaomi Mi Box 4 and Mi Box 4c Smart 4K HDR TV box announced

Xiaomi just announced Mi Box 4 and Mi Box 4c, the company next-generation smart TV box with support for 4K HDR videos. It comes with the same AI-based PatchWall interface as the predecessor that learns your viewing habits and offers content based on your liking The Mi Box 4 also comes with multi purpose Mi Remote Control with PatchWall artificial intelligence voice system, which also has infrared in addition to Bluetooth to work with most appliances such as setup box. It has Mi Touch that replaces traditional navigation buttons so you can use gestures to control your TV. The Mi Box 4c comes with the standard infrared remote. Xiaomi Mi Box 4 specifications 60fps 4K (3840 x 2160) HDR output 1.5GHz Amlogic S905L quad-core Cortex-A53 64-bit processor with 750MHz 3+ 2-core Mali-45 GPU 2GB RAM and 8GB flash storage Xiaomi’s proprietary AI-based PatchWall interface Dolby Digital Plus +DTS- HD audio dual decoding Mi Bluetooth voice remote control Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1+ EDR HDMI 2.0a x 1 port, USB 2.0 x 1, 3.5mm audio output x 1, H.265 4K2K at 60 fps, H.264 4K2K at 30 fps, MPEG1 / 2/4, VC-1, DivX4 / 5,  up to 1920 x 1080P at 60fps ; Support for HDR10 Xiaomi Mi ...

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ Android Oreo beta program ends, stable update expected soon

Samsung ended the Oreo beta program for the Galaxy S8 and S8+ in India and UK earlier this month, now the company has announced to its beta testers through 'Samsung Members app' that it is ending the beta program in the USA from yesterday, i.e January 26th.  Samsung had released the 7th and final Oreo beta firmware for the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ last week. Since the company is ending its beta testing, we can expect the final roll out very soon. The announcement states that there will no further beta releases, no further responses to feedback. However, communication will still be open to beta users. Though Samsung says that it will make sure to roll out the update as soon as possible, it still didn't mention any time frame as of now. That said, it shouldn't take long, since the beta testing is now concluded, the next pit stop will the official stable release of the Oreo build. Samsung in the previous beta notice that it posted in the app two weeks ago mentioned that " we will do out best to distribute the official S/W version in January as soon as possible." Source

Twitter is using neural networks for smart auto-cropping of Images

Twitter feed doesn't show images in full on the news feed, and the company thinks that it can be challenging in rendering a consistent UI experience and the photos more often than not are framed awkwardly. Today Twitter is solving the problem by using neural networks for smart auto-cropping of Images. The company previously used face detection to focus the view on the most prominent faces in the pictures which had its own limitations when presenting images. Now with neural networks, Twitter will focus on “salient” image regions. In general, people tend to pay more attention to faces, text, animals, but also other objects and regions of high contrast. This data can be used to train a neural network to identify what people might want to look at. The basic idea behind this is to use these predictions of the neural network to center a crop around the most interesting region. However, doing a pixel-level saliency analysis of all the pictures uploaded to Twitter can be a lengthy process so to address the concern, engineers developed a smaller, faster neural network that can identify the gist of the image. Secondly, Twitter is said to have developed a pruning technique to iteratively remove feature maps of the neural network ...

Google Bulletin hyperlocal and community news app released

Google just launched Bulletin hyperlocal and community news app for Android. The app is designed with an aim to inspire users to share hyperlocal stories on a community platform right from your phone. Google also hopes that the app highlights the inspiring the stories that aren’t being told. The bulletin stories are open for everyone to read, but then there will be some sort of moderation before the story goes live. Users have the flexibility to share stories in the form of text, images, videos similar to a blog post. The news will be shared other members of the community almost instantly. Users will also be able to share the links to stories via message, email, etc. Since it is a Google product, not much is required except for a working Google account and a smartphone in terms of setup. The app is free to use, however, Bulletin availability is currently limited to Nashville, TN, and Oakland, CA. If the testing phase goes well, we can expect the app to release officially for public very soon. Users can also request early access by signing up for the Bulletin Pilot program here. Source

Google Files Go gets option to open files in other apps, tablet support and more

Google Files Go that was launched back in December last year has now received a significant update bringing features like open files in other apps, SD card support and more. Files Go app basically lets you free up storage on your phone that is occupied by junk files.  The first addition with the new update is support for SD cards. Google says that since many users use SD cards to back up necessary files and data, with one tap, you can now see and filter the files stored on your SD card. Another addition to the Google Files Go is the inclusion of tablet support allowing you to manage storage or transfer files between your small and big screen Android devices without using any data. Google further added open files in other apps feature which lets you customize which apps open your data with the new “Open with” flow. This will allow wider controls on different file formats including PDF files. This will further let you filter the files to save the space. The update has just started rolling out, so might be a while before it reaches everyone. You can download the Google Files Go app from PlayStore here. Source

Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ surface in first press images

Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, the company’s next flagship smartphones in the 'Galaxy S' series have finally surfaced in press image ahead of official announcement at the Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona next month, thanks to @evleaks. Only the front part of the smartphones have been revealed, which look similar to the S8 series with Infinity display, minimal bezels and a bunch of sensors on the top. [HTML1] Recently leaked retail box revealed key camera specifics including a super-speed Dual-Pixel 12-megapixel camera with OIS, an F1.5/2.4 variable aperture for the S9, but the S9+ is said to feature dual 12MP rear camera with fixed aperture. Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ rumored specifications S9 – 5.8-inch Quad HD+ (2960 × 1440 pixels) Super AMOLED Infinity display with 570ppi, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection S9+ – 6.2-inch Quad HD+ (2960 × 1440 pixels) Super AMOLED Infinity display with 529ppi, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 with Adreno 630 GPU / Octa-Core Samsung Exynos 9 Series 9810 processor with Mali G72MP18 GPU S9 – 4GB LPDDR4x RAM with 64GB storage (UFS 2.1), expandable memory with microSD S9+ – 6GB LPDDR4x RAM with 128GB storage (UFS 2.1), expandable memory with microSD Android 8.0 (Oreo) Single / Hybrid ...

Honor 9 Lite Review

There are very few smartphone makers who cater to all the three segments - Entry-level, Mid-range and High-end. One such company among them is the Huawei's online brand Honor. A couple of weeks before the launch of Honor 9 Lite, the company pulled the wrap off its flagship smartphone in India dubbed as Honor View 10 equipped with Artificial Intelligence. Last week Honor launched the Honor 9 Lite with brilliant build quality, quad-camera setup and Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box. We got hold of this device for more than a week and here is our review. Unboxing https://youtu.be/CS6XRoBGp5w Box Contents Honor 9 Lite in Midnight Black color 2-pin charger (5V-2A) Micro USB Cable SIM Ejector tool Quick Start Guide, Warranty information Display, Design, and Hardware The Honor 9 Lite sports a 5.65-inch (2160 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 18:9 2.5D curved glass display featuring a pixel density of 428ppi. There is no information about the Corning Gorilla Glass or any kind of screen protection though. In our observation, the screen is vibrant with punchy colors, has good viewing angles and texts looks sharp too. The sunlight legibility is good when the brightness level is set higher. The Honor 9 Lite smartphone comes with an ...

PM Modi’s Mann Ki Baat now available on Alexa

Amazon Alexa picks up a new skill. It can now play 'Mann Ki Baat’ Indian radio programme hosted by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is developed by the Asian News International (ANI), India's premier multimedia news agency.  Mann Ki Baat is an unique initiative that was started by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi back in 2015 to reach masses across the country through Radio directly and empower on topics such as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, demonetization and the Digital India vision. The skill is available on all devices with Amazon Alexa such as the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Plus and Alexa-enabled smart speakers such as Harman Kardon Allure and Eufy Genie. Users can also listen to all 36 previous episodes using simple voice commands. The company also mentioned that latest episodes will also be available within few hours of its telecast. Users need to enable Mann Ki Baat skill by going to the Skills section of the Alexa app or just by saying "Alexa, enable Mann Ki Baat." Once enabled users can start listening to episodes by using commands like "Alexa, open Mann Ki Baat" and then Specify the month and year to select the Mann Ki Baat that you wish to listen to. Ishaan Prakash, Editor Live Operations, ANI said: We are heading to a future where voice ...

Reliance Jio launches Rs. 49 pack with free voice calls, 28 days validity for JioPhone users

Reliance Jio unveiled JioPhone, the company’s first VoLTE feature phone back in July last year and started pre-bookings for the phone in August. It launched Rs. 153 plan exclusively for JioPhone users offering free voice calls and 500MB data per day with 28 days validity offering 14GB data. Earlier this month the company increased the data to 1GB per day offering 28GB data. Today it launched a new plan exclusively for JioPhone users that lets them to enjoy free voice calls and unlimited data (1GB at high speed) for 28 days at a price of  Rs. 49. It has also introduced affordable data add-ons at Rs 11, 21, 51 and 101. The company said "This Republic Day will mark an acceleration towards achieving the vision of Digital Freedom for the 50 Crore feature phone users of India." Reliance Jio said this will be achieved in three ways – Connectivity, Data Affordability and Device Affordability. Reliance Jio said that its network is expected to cover 99% of India’s population this year, and India’s 4G coverage will be more than 2G coverage in the country. After a huge demand for pre-bookings, Reliance Jio started sales of JioPhone a few weeks back. Now you can get it at your retailer as ...

Huawei, Deutsche Telekom and Intel achieve 5G NR Interoperability

Huawei Deutsche Telekom and Intel today announced that they have collaborated to achieve 5G NR Interoperability and development testing, a multi-vendor interoperability based on 3GPP R15 commercial system which will accelerate 5G commercialization.  The test is based on Huawei's 5G commercial base station and Intel's third generation 5G NR Mobile Trial Platform (MTP) and it is a step forward in the commercial launch of Huawei and Intel solution supporting millions of devices in 2019. The development was initially started by Huawei and Deutsche Telekom in 2015 which later was benefitted by Intel's 5G NR platform. Three companies have jointly verified the fundamentals of the new 5G 3GPP NR standard, including new synchronization, coding, frame structure, and numerology components underlying the interconnection of the NR-compliant terminal and network. The test configuration used is based on the largest C-band cell bandwidth defined by the 5G NR standard. The first 5G NR standard was successfully completed on December 21, 2017, at the 3GPP TSG RAN meeting in Lisbon, Portugal. Arash Ashouriha, Senior Vice President Technology Innovation of Deutsche Telekom said: After delivering leading contributions to the 3GPP’s work on 5G standards, Deutsche Telekom, Huawei and Intel moved swiftly to jointly verify implementation progress through standards-based interoperability testing. The success of our test is ...