GOOGLE NEWS

Top Android Apps From Google

2019-04-24T01:39:00.001-07:00

Top Android Apps From Google

#YOU MUST TRY RIGHT NOW

GOOGLE OPINION REWARD

Google opinion reward is a developed by google. It is a reward based program. The app user is gives answer the survey and earn.

EXPENDITIONS

Google expenditions is the one type of education app. In this app you can see all virtual-reality place of the earth properly. It's a app like world tour in a phone.

GOOGLE PODCASTS

Google podcasts is a new and amazing android user app. It's a podcast player app. In this app we have search and listen a world's podcast.

MOTION STILLS

Motion stills is an app introduce a Google Research. In this app we can capture a short videos and transform into a beautiful cinemagraphy. In this app we can share a motion still as a looping GIF or videos directly your friends.

NEIGHBOURLY

Neighbourly is a crowd sourcing app. Is that helps to ask a question from other people , submit answer, and follow the other people question.

DATALLY

Datally is an app that's use to helps you gain control of your mobile data usage. These app is a pretty easy if you are using a datally app.

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UPCOMING GAMING SMART PHONE IN 2019

2019-04-07T03:44:00.000-07:00

NUBIA RED MAGIC MARS

Display : 6.0" inches FHD+
Soc : Snapdragon 845
RAM/ROM : 4/6/8/10 GB GB
64/128 GB
Camera : 16 MP ( rear )
8 MP ( front )
Battery :3,800mAh
Expected date : MID APRIL

NUBIA RED MAGIC MARS LINK : NUBIA RED MAGIC MARS

BLACK SHARK 2

Display : 6.39"inchess FHD +
Soc : Snapdragon 855
RAM/ROM :4/64GB
Camera : 16 MP+5 MP (Rear)
5MP (Front)
Battery : 3.000mAh
Expected date : MID APRIL

BLACK SHARK 2 LINK : BLACK SHARK 2

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TOP UPCOMING MOBILE IN APRIL 2019

2019-04-06T02:34:00.001-07:00

REALME 3 PRO

Display : 6.3" inch HD+
Soc : Snapdragon 710
RAM/ROM : 4/6/8 GB
64/128 GB
Camera : 16MP + 5MP camera
Battery : 4,500 mAh with ( VOOC )

REDMI 7

Display : 6.26" HD+
Soc : Snapdragon 632
RAM/ROM : 3/32GB
Camera: 12MP + 2MP
8MP (Front)
Battery :4,000mAh

OPPO RENO

Display : 6.4" inchesNo Notch / Bezelless
Soc : Snapdragon 710
RAM/ROM : 6/8/12GB
Camera : 48 MP +5MP ( Rear )
16MP ( Front )
Battery : 3680mAh
(EXPECTED)

SAMSUNG GALAXY A90

Display :6073" inches
Soc : Snapdragon 710
RAM/ROM :4/6 GB
64/128 GB
Camera : 48 MP + 8MP
Battery : 3,700 mAh

HUAWEI P30 PRO

Display : 6.47" inches OLED FHD+
Soc : Kirin 980
RAM/ROM :8GB/512 GB
Camera :40 MP + 20 MP +8 MP +TOF ( Rear )
Battery :4,200 mAh

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TOP UPCOMING FOLDABLE SMARTPHONES IN INDIA 2019

2019-03-30T23:21:00.001-07:00

HUAWEI MATE X

SCREEN : 1st screen : 8.0" inch
2nd screen : 6.6"inch
3rd screen : 6.38"inch
PROCESSOR : KIRIN 980
support 5G
MEMORY : 8GB RAM + 512 GB storage
BATTERY : 4,500mAh with 55W fast charging (type -c)
CAMERA : TRIPLE CAMERAS ( Rear )
EXPECTED PRICE : Rs. 1,80,000

SAMSUNG GALAXY FOLD

SCREEN : 1st screen : 7.3"dynamic ( main )
2nd screen : 4.6"inch HD+ super amoled
PROCESSOR : cover display qualcomm snapdragon 855
MEMORY : 12 GB RAM + 512 GB storage
CAMERA : 8MP + 10 MP ( front )
12 MP + 12 MP + 16 MP ( rear )
cover camera : 10MP
BATTERY : 4,380mAh
EXPECTED PRICE : ABOVE Rs. 1,50,000

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Samsung Galaxy M10 (Charcoal Black, 3+32GB)

TOP 6 SMART PHONE UNDER 15,000 IN 2019

2019-03-24T02:37:00.001-07:00

6. HUAWEI Y9

Display :- 6.5" FHD+

SoC :- Kirin 710

RAM/ROM :- 4/64 GB

Camera:- 13MP+2MP (Rear)

16MP+2MP (Front)

Battery:- 4000mAh

Price:- RS.14,990

GET LINK OF HUAWEI Y9 :- https://amzn.to/2OmyjAe

5. SAMSUNG M30

Display :- 6.4" FHD+

SoC :- Exynos 7904 octa core

RAM/ROM :- 4/64 GB

Camera:- 13MP+5MP+5MP (Rear)

Battery:- 5000mAh

Price:- RS.14,999

GET LINK OF SAMSUNG M30 :- https://amzn.to/2U9uMuo

4. REDMI NOTE 7

Display :- 6.3" FHD+

SoC :- Snapdragon 660

RAM/ROM :- 4/64 GB

Camera:- 12MP+2MP (Rear)

13MP (Front)

Battery:- 4000mAh

Price:- RS.11,999

GET LINK OF REDMI NOTE 7 :- https://amzn.to/2YjG2nl

3. ASUS ZENFONE MAX PRO M2

Display :- 6.26" FHD+

SoC :- Snapdragon 660

RAM/ROM :- 6/64 GB

Camera:- 12MP+5MP (Rear)

13MP (Front)

Battery:- 5000mAh

Price:- RS.13,999

GET LINK OF ASUS ZENFONE MAX PRO M2 :- https://amzn.to/2Omyvzs

2. HONOR PLAY

Display :- 6.3" FHD+

SoC :- Kirin 970

RAM/ROM :- 4/64 GB

Camera:- 16MP+2MP (Rear)

16MP (Front)

Battery:- 3750mAh

Price:- RS.14,999

GET LINK OF HONOR PLAY :- https://amzn.to/2TRH2Ax

1. REDMI NOTE 7 PRO

Display :- 6.3" FHD+

SoC :- Snapdragon 675

RAM/ROM :- 4/64 GB

Camera:- 48MP+5MP (Rear)

13MP (Front)

Battery:- 4000mAh

Price:- RS.13,999

GET LINK OF REDMI NOTE 7 PRO :- https://amzn.to/2U57hmi

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THE BEST MEN'S HAIR STYLE OF 2019

2019-03-23T02:50:00.002-07:00

A men's Hair has always been an important identifier of success.What looked good on roman emperors still has the potential to flatter a modern mug.

Thick hair men are lucky. It means Whatever you are into long or short haircuts. The best hairstyle for men with thick hair include the coolest cut's and style of 2019. Such as the best textured crop, modern quiff, comb over fade, slocked back undercut , and faux hawk etc,.

These are most popular current Men's hairstyle

Messy Matte.
Medium hair length.
Caesar haircut.
Loose undercut.
Slicked back.
Side slope.
Matte spike.
Modern side part
Taper haircut.

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Xiomi Redmi Note 7 pro

2019-03-03T05:12:00.001-08:00

REDMI NOTE 7 PRO SPECIFICATION :-

Performance :- Octa core
Camera :- 48 MP + 5 MP
Display :- 6.3" (16 cm)
RAM :- 4 GB
Storage :- 64 GB
Battery :- 4000 mAh
Launch Date In India :- 13, March 2019 ( Expected )

Redmi Note 7 will go on sale in India on 6 March, where Redmi Note 7 Pro will be available from 13, March 2019. The phone will be available on Flipkart, amazon, Mi.com and Mi Home store. Redmi Note 7 and Redmi Note 7 Pro both sport a 6.3-inch display with full HD+ resolution and a waterdrop-style notch on the front for the selfie camera.

The Redmi note 7 has a Qualcomm snapdragon 660 processorcouple with 3 GB RAM \ 32 GB storage and 4 GB RAM \ 64 GB storage and 6 GB RAM \ 128 storage. Redmi Note 7 has 12MP + 2MP camera , Where Redmi Note 7 Pro has a 48MP + 5MP camera. The front camera is a 13MP for selfie. The battery on Redmi Note 7 and Redmi Note 7 Pro is 4,000mAh. Redmi Note 7 is available on blue, black and red colour , where Redmi Note 7 Pro has a available colour is Neptune blue, Nebula Red and Space Black colourOptions.

Redmi Note 7 is Priced at Rs 9,999 for 3GB RAM variant and Rs 11,999 for 4GB RAM variant. Redmi Note 7 Pro, on the other hand, is priced at Rs 13,999 for 4GB RAM variant and Rs 16,999 for 6GB RAM variant. Redmi is now a separate sub-brand in India.

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Xiomi Redmi Note 7 : Price, Specification, Review

2019-02-28T06:47:00.000-08:00

REDMI NOTE 7 :- Price & Specifications

Series :- Redmi Note

CPU :- Octa-Core Kryo CPU

Type :- Smartphone

Weight :- 186 gram

Operating system :- Anroid 9.0 ( Pie ); MIUI 10

System on chip :- Qualcomm SDM660 Snapdragon 660

RAM :- 4 / 6 GB

Storage :- 32 / 64 GB

Battery :- 4000 mAh battery

Display :- 6.3 inche

Rear camera :-48 MP & 5 MP

Front camera :- 13 MP, HDR

Removable Storage uo to 256 GB

Xiomi launched it's upcoming phone Redmi Note 7.Now This phone is available in market.It was first relesed in China on January 11, 2019. Redmi Note 7 has Serious space with a lower Price range. Redmi has become sub brand of Xiomi.In this phone, We will see Redmi logo on every phone manufactured by Redmi itself.

Redmi Note 7 has been improved it's space and design in comparison to it's previous phone.Redmi Note 7 covered with glass frome both sides.It is shiny and ha sa greater gradeient finish.This phone Display is available in full HD+. Corning Gorilla Glass 5 is used to Protect the Display.Note 7 runs in Andriod 9.0 (Pie) Along with MIUI 10. With octa-core CPU and Adreno 512 GPU, gaming is going to be awsome in this specific phone.

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Samsung galaxy M30 With Triple Rear cameras, 5,000mAh Battry launched In India

2019-02-28T03:30:00.000-08:00

SPECIFICATION OF SAMSUNG GALAXY M30 :-

Display :- 6.40-inch
Procrssor :- 1.6GHz octa-core
Front Camera :-16-megapixels
RAM :- 4 GB
OS :- Android 8.1 Oreo
Storage :- 64 GB
Rear Camera :- 13-megapixel +5-megapixel +5-megapixel
Battery Capacity :- 5000mAh

SAMSUNG M30 FEATURE :-

The Samsung Galaxy launched M30 on February 27, 2019. M30 is the third addition of Samsung Galaxy "M series".In a Samsung Galaxy M30 has a 6.4-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-U display.It's packs Octa-Core Exynos 7904 14nm processor, and it has 5,000 mAh battery with fast charging.It comes with USB Type-C portt It's Come on two offering 4GB RAM with 64GB storage and 6GB RAM with 128 GB storage.

It has Triple rear Cameras, First one is 13 megapixels primary,Second 5 megapixels secondary depth camera and third 5 megapixels ultra-wide camera And It also 16 megapixel front camera.The phone has fingerprint sensor,4G VOLTE, WiFi, With Bluetooth 5 and GPS.

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Samsung Galaxy S10 Loock

2019-02-26T09:36:00.000-08:00

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Oppo R17 Pro

2018-12-04T07:47:00.001-08:00

ABOUT OPPO F7 PRO :-

Chinese smartphone maker oppo today. The company has scheduled an event in a Mumbai where it will launched Oppo R17 Pro smartphone. Oppo will be introducing R series smartphone in the country. Oppo R17 Pro price in india is about Rs. 43,890. Oppo R17 Pro launched on Dec 04, 2018 in india.

The latest smartphone by Oppo is packed with powerful night shot setting, and it's also stupendous click in dark night. The faintest rays create a radiant and clear picture. The amazing Oppo R17 Pro sport an advanced camera and strong configuration. Oppo R17 Pro has a 8 GB RAM / 128 GB internal storage. Which is expected to available in a Emerald Green, Radiant Mist Colour.

KEY FEATURES AND SPECIFICATIONS:-

Display 6.40-inch.
Processor 2.2GHz octa-core.
Front Camera 25-megapixel.
Resolution 1080x2340 pixels.
RAM 8 GB.
Rear Camera 12-megapixel + 20-megapixel.
Battery Capacity 3700mAh.

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Ken Berry

2018-12-03T00:45:00.000-08:00

Kenneth ronald berry was an amarican actor. They also actor, dancer and singer. Ken berry was born in 3, november 1933.ken berry starred on the telivision series "F troop", "Mayberry R.F.D"., "The And Griffith show", and "Mama's Family".

Ken played sam jones - first on "The Andy Griffith Show" and also on the spin-off, ''mayberry''- but might be most beloved for playing capt. parmenter on the western sitcom "f Troop" from 1965 to 1967.

His Film Career :-

The sullivan appearance was to take place shortly before berry would muster out of the army.Nimoy sent telegrams to several studios and talent agents asking them to watch berry on the show.

The performance led to an offer from Twentieth Century Fox and a screen test at universal studios. he signed with an agent as soon as he arrived in hollywood.Berry accepted universal's offer and began as a contract player. Soon he was being groomed to take over for Donald O'Connor in the francis the talking mule movie series : Mickey Rooney because available and got the part. At Universal, Berry took full advantage of the studio's talent development program and later, under the G1 Bill of rights, he took jazz dance, ballet, vocal, and additional acting classes.The movie mussicals Berry admired had already seen their heyday : which he once thought of as "something I Would do between song and dance routines", because the basics of his creer.

Dancing and the military were a large partof ken berry's life. when he was 13 he attended a carnival at his grade school. the dance impressed him so much that he decided that's what he wanted to do with his life. His parents were supportive, and his dad even booked ken into variety type shows. At 16 ken got to join the horace heidtyouth opportunity program. Ken toured towns all across the nation, and through the air force the troupe entertained in Germany, Ireland, England, U K and several other countries.

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HD Beautiful Wallpaper and Background Images

2018-12-02T05:28:00.000-08:00

HD Beautiful Wallpaper and Background Images

I hope that you would have enjoyed my selection of wallpapers. And you which one of them did you like most.

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MIT's Cheetah 3 Robot Can Climb, Run, and Jump Without Vision

2018-07-12T04:46:00.000-07:00

The Cheetah 3 robot developed by engineers at the MIT can now leap and gallop across rough terrain, climb a staircase littered with debris, and quickly recover its balance when suddenly yanked or shoved, all while essentially being blind.

Described as "blind locomotion", the 90-pound mechanical beast is intentionally designed to do all this without relying on cameras or any external environmental sensors.

The design may also be used for exploring disaster zones and other dangerous or inaccessible environments and versatile tasks such as power plant inspection, the researchers said.

"There are many unexpected behaviours the robot should be able to handle without relying too much on vision," said Sangbae Kim, Associate Professor and robot's designer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston.

"Vision can be noisy, slightly inaccurate, and sometimes not available, and if you rely too much on vision, your robot has to be very accurate in position and eventually will be slow. So we want the robot to rely more on tactile information. That way, it can handle unexpected obstacles while moving fast," Kim said.

The Cheetah 3 nimbly "feels" its way through its surroundings using two new algorithms - a contact detection algorithm and a model-predictive control algorithm.

While the contact detection algorithm helps the robot determine the best time for a given leg to switch from swinging in the air to stepping on the ground, the model-predictive control algorithm predicts how much force a given leg should apply once it has committed to a step.

These algorithms are designed to make these calculations for each leg every 50 milliseconds, or 20 times per second.

The findings will be presented at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots, in Madrid.

Compared to its predecessor Cheetah 2, the robot's improved hardware also includes an expanded range of motion that allows the robot to stretch backwards and forwards, and twist from side to side, much like a cat limbering up to pounce, the researchers said.

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Apple Earnings Show Growing Immunity to Smartphone Malaise

2018-07-10T05:05:00.000-07:00

Apple's results confirmed that, while the days of double-digit smartphone industry growth are over, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has a plan to withstand the slowdown.

The shares gained after the company reported iPhone sales in line with analysts' expectations, gave a bullish revenue forecast and highlighted a surging services business. A new $100 billion (roughly Rs. 6.68 lakh crores) stock repurchase plan and higher dividend also helped. The stock jumped 3.2 percent to $174.52 (roughly Rs. 11,700) at 9:33am in New York.

The numbers show that Cook's strategy of selling a growing array of services through a base of more than 1.3 billion Apple devices is working. The smartphone sector saw shipments fall 2 percent in the past year, according to Strategy Analytics, so the company must evolve beyond its reliance on a device that still accounts for more than 60 percent of revenue.

"Slowly but surely, [Apple] is morphing into more than just an iPhone story and is displaying ability to sustain revenue growth irrespective of iPhone trajectory," Amit Daryanani, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a research note.

The company reported iPhone unit sales grew just 2.9 percent in the fiscal second quarter. While the flagship iPhone X may not have matched the hype from its launch late last year, the device's $999 (roughly Rs. 66,700) starting price helped boost phone revenue growth 14 percent.

Cheaper iPhone models for emerging markets, and wearable gadgets like the Apple Watch, also drove revenue growth.

"Growth in the near-term will come from higher iPhone X pricing, a lower-cost iPhone SE update, selling more services like Pay to its premium subscribers, and increasing output of its surprisingly popular Watch portfolio," said Neil Mawston, an analyst at Strategy Analytics.

Revenue from services surged 31 percent to a record $9.2 billion (roughly Rs. 61,450 crores) in the quarter. The App Store, Apple Music, iCloud storage and Apple Pay all generated record sales, Cook said. The company is expanding these offerings with original videos and a news subscription service.

As long as Apple continues to sell around the same number of devices each year - 217 million iPhones, more than 40 million iPads, and almost 20 million Macs in fiscal 2017 - it can sell users of these devices a growing list of services that integrate tightly with the hardware.

"You have to start thinking about Apple differently going forward," Dan Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Company, wrote in a recent note. "Apple can support the stock as the investment thesis evolves from one of product cycle to services-led growth."

An Apple Music subscription costs $10 (roughly Rs. 670) per month (unless they're on a family plan), and the number of paying users recently hit 40 million. The middle tier for iCloud storage costs $2.99 (roughly Rs. 200) a month. The company now has 270 million paid subscribers across applications and its own services, up by 100 million from the same period a year ago.

Cook suggested new services are in the works and that Apple's installed base of devices grew by double digits from a year earlier. "This is just a huge opportunity for us and we feel very good about the track that we're on," he said.

Thanks to this new stream of recurring revenue, the health of the smartphone industry is becoming less relevant to Apple. Several iPhone suppliers and manufacturers reported disappointing results in recent weeks, sparking concern that Apple's numbers would be weak. But these companies don't gain from Apple's expanding services offerings.

Some Asia suppliers did rally after Apple's report, with South Korea's LG Innotek Co. up as much as 7.3 percent. But the reaction was muted for most partners given the limited growth in iPhone sales.

Synovus's Morgan recently estimated that services will drive about 60 percent of Apple's revenue growth over the next five years. That's a big change from the previous half decade when 86 percent of the company's growth came from iPhone sales.

"The Services segment will grow between 13 percent and 20 percent per year over the next five years driven by continued growth in existing services along with new, innovative services," Gene Munster, co-founder of Loup Ventures and a veteran Apple analyst, wrote in an email following the results on Tuesday.

Cook hinted at additional sources of growth in terms of both geographical areas and product categories. He said India is an attractive new market for iPhones, similar to China several years ago.

"There's obviously huge opportunities there for us and we have extremely low share in that market overall and so we're putting a lot of energy there," Cook said on Tuesday's call with analysts.

Still, he rejected the idea that the smartphone market has become saturated. There were still a half a billion feature phones sold in the world last year, he noted. "Over time, every phone sold will be a smartphone and so it seems to us that with that many feature phones being sold, that's a pretty big opportunity," the CEO told analysts.

Cook also discussed additional opportunities in health care. "It's an area of great interest where we think we can make a big difference," he said on the call. Apple has continued to add new health tracking features to the Apple Watch and ships its iPhones with an app to manage health data and records.

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Asus ZenFone 5Z Review

2018-07-07T08:58:00.000-07:00

Asus took a page out of Xiaomi's book by offering powerful hardware at an affordable price point when it brought the ZenFone Max Pro M1 (Review) to the market earlier this year. We were impressed with the device when we reviewed it, since it offered stock Android and a powerful processor, and it even managed to undercut the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro (Review) in terms of price, making it excellent value for money. With the ZenFone 5Z, Asus seems to be at it again, this time at a higher price point and against a very powerful smartphone, the OnePlus 6 (Review).

The newly launched Asus ZenFone 5Z sports a flagship-class Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor and dual cameras at the back, and starts at a surprisingly low price in India. With the ZenFone 5Z, Asus is not only creating competition for the OnePlus 6, it is also promising more features and benefits at a lower price point. But does the ZenFone 5Z have what it takes to be our new choice of budget flagship? We are about to find out.

Asus ZenFone 5Z design

The Asus ZenFone 5Z is available in Meteor Silver and Midnight Blue colour options. The phone has 2.5D glass at the front and the back, while the frame between these layers is made of aerospace-grade aluminium. Pick it up and you will feel the premium materials used in its construction. The glass and metal get cold to the touch in an air-conditioned room. While the ZenFone 5Z has a glass back, it doesn't make the most of it as it lacks wireless charging. Also, there is no mention of any sort of waterproofing, so you will need to shield this phone from the elements.

Asus has opted for a 6.2-inch display with a 19:9 aspect ratio, making this phone tall and narrow. It has a notch at the top which houses the selfie camera, the earpiece, and a couple of sensors. The ZenFone 5Z has a vertically stacked dual camera setup at the back, placed above a single-LED flash. The flash unit houses a colour temperature sensor just like the one on the Huawei P20 Pro (Review). The fingerprint scanner is well positioned and is quick to unlock the phone.

The positioning of the power button is spot on. Hold the phone in your right hand, and your thumb should rest on it naturally. The volume rocker is positioned higher, needing you to shuffle the phone in the hand to reach it. The SIM tray is positioned on the left, along with one of the three noise-cancelling microphones on this smartphone. At the bottom of the ZenFone 5Z, you’ll find a USB Type-C port, a speaker grille, the primary microphone, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. You can spot antenna lines running through the frame, and the third microphone is on the top.

Asus ships the ZenFone 5Z with a case and an 18W charger in the box. You also get a USB Type-A to Type-C cable and a pair of Hi-Res-certified in-ear headphones. These headphones sound really good, and you can tweak the sound using the Audio Wizard software built into the phone.

Asus ZenFone 5Z specifications, software, and features

Just like the OnePlus 6, the ZenFone 5Z is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC. This is a flagship-grade octa-core processor clocked at 2.8GHz. The ZenFone 5Z is available in three variants: 6GB of RAM with 64GB of storage, 6GB of RAM with 128GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM with 256GB of storage. Our review unit had 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage on board.

Storage is expandable using the hybrid dual-SIM slot, and the 5Z can support cards of up to 2TB. The ZenFone 5Z is a dual-SIM device and supports 4G and VoLTE on both slots. Connectivity options on the smartphone include Bluetooth 5.0, dual-band WiFi 802.11ac, NFC, GPS, GLONASS, and BDS. The ZenFone 5Z has support for FM Radio but there isn’t an app icon for it. Instead, Asus has put a shortcut in the notification drawer which is easy to miss.

The front of this device is dominated by a 6.2-inch full-HD+ display which uses Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protection. It has good viewing angles and the display gets bright enough to be usable outdoors. Asus uses the camera’s colour temperature sensor to adjust the screen automatically to suit the current ambient lighting, a feature that worked as expected. You do have the option to switch this off and adjust the colour temperature manually.

The display on the ZenFone 5Z supports the DCI-P3 colour gamut and you can switch between this and a standard gamut, or go ahead and tweak it as per your preference. There’s also the Smart screen feature which keeps the display on when you are looking at it.

Asus ships the ZenFone 5Z with Android 8.0 Oreo and ZenUI on top. Asus hasn’t laid out a timeline for updates, which a lot of companies are now doing. The ability to mask the notch with a black band is built in.

Asus is also promoting a lot of AI-driven features in the ZenFone 5Z, though the use of the term 'AI' is a stretch in some cases. AI Charging uses machine learning to adjust the charging speed based on your established patterns to avoid stressing the battery, something other OEMs like Sony have shipped for a while without marketing it as 'AI'.

For example, if you leave the ZenFone 5Z plugged in overnight, there’s no need for quick charging. The phone will charge itself up to 80 percent, then pause, and then trickle charge so that it’s full when you wake up. Asus says this is better for battery health. Alternatively, Scheduled Charging uses times that you set manually instead of what the phone learns about your usage patterns. AI Charging mode needs more than a week to learn your charging patterns, and so it did not kick in on our review unit. The Scheduled Charging option worked as expected.

AI Ringtone makes use of the microphones on the phone to determine the noise level around you and set the ringtone volume accordingly. We observed that in quiet rooms, the phone rang at a lower volume and that increased gradually, but it started off loud if the environment was noisy. We found this feature to be helpful.

Most of the custom software additions on the Asus ZenFone 5Z have been listed under an Advanced submenu in the settings. Here you can find Twin Apps, which lets you create two instances of compatible apps such as WhatsApp. Game Genie gives you the option to record gameplay or even livestream it to YouTube or Twitch. You also see a Game toolbar in the navigation bar when you launch games, giving you options to lock the navigation bar, disable alerts, and clear up RAM. A display scaling option lets you force games to run at the 19:9 aspect ratio. There’s even a way to create macros to record and automate specific actions or gestures, which is unique and might be helpful if a game you play requires the same repetitive input.

BeautyLive, a feature we first saw on the Asus ZenFone Live (Review), allows you to use beautification while streaming a live video. ZeniMoji is Asus' take on Animoji, and lets an emoji mimic your facial movements. While it isn't as good as Animoji on the iPhone X (Review), it is better than Samsung’s implementation on the Galaxy S9 (Review) and the Galaxy S9+ (Review). ZenUI Safeguard is a slightly enhanced safety feature that lets you send out an SOS along with your current location either to emergency services or to specific contacts by quickly pressing the power button thrice.

ZenMotion lets you interact with the ZenFone 5Z using gestures. You can double-tap to wake the phone or put it to sleep. You also have the option to wake the phone and launch apps directly by drawing alphabets when the screen is off. Just like with Google’s Pixel smartphones, you can swipe down on the fingerprint scanner to pull the notifications shade down. You can mute an incoming call by flipping the phone over, or answer it automatically when raising the device to your ear. The Advanced submenu also lets you set up the Kids Mode and an Easy mode, which simplifies the UI.

Like older Asus phones, the ZenFone 5Z has support for themes and comes with a Mobile Manager app that lets you manage the phones resources. You get a number of Google apps, plus Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and Asus WebStorage. While the WebStorage app can be uninstalled, all the others can only be disabled. Face recognition is available. It was easy to set up but is a little slow to unlock the phone. The OnePlus 6 is quicker and the Vivo X21 (Review) is even faster.

Asus ZenFone 5Z performance, battery life, and cameras

The Snapdragon 845 at the heart of the ZenFone 5Z pretty much guarantees top-of-the-line performance. The only other smartphone currently in the Indian market with this processor is the OnePlus 6, which makes this phone its direct competitor. We did not face any lag or stutter while using the ZenFone 5Z, and this SoC goes through apps and tasks like a hot knife through butter. With 6GB of RAM, our review unit kept apps running in the background, saving some time when reloading ones we’ve used previously.

Asus says that it uses 'AI' to predict which apps you might want to use and offers suggestions in the app drawer. It also has an OptiFlex feature that helps speed up launch times for your selected apps by allocating the maximum possible resources to them.

We ran benchmarks on the ZenFone 5Z and found that it scored 2,451 and 9,111 in Geekbench 4’s single-core and multi-core tests respectively. In AnTuTu, the phone scored 271,861. The phone also managed 60fps in GFXBench T-Rex and 33fps in Car Chase. In 3DMark Slingshot Extreme Open GL, it clocked 4,681 points. Asus' emphasis on AI shows up when you run benchmarks on the phone, as it subtly drops a notification asking you to enable AI Boost mode. We did also try this feature and saw a bump in benchmark scores.

The ZenFone 5Z is capable of playing most new game titles without breaking much sweat. We played PUBG, Clash Royale, and Asphalt 8, and they were all quick to load. The phone did not show any signs of stress when running them. Clash Royale, being the most basic of these tiles, had no issues running on the ZenFone 5Z. Asphalt 8 ran fine even at the highest settings without any lag. PUBG was quick to load and was running with the graphics set to HD and framerate set to High by default. The game ran fine and we did not notice any stutter while playing.

With our day-to-day usage consisting of WhatsApp, an active email account, and playing a few games, the phone lasted us one day with 20 percent left by 11pm. In our HD video loop test, the phone ran for 10 hours and 42 minutes, a little less than the OnePlus 6, which clocked nearly 11 hours. We observed that playing games for extended periods does result in faster battery drain.

You can choose between Performance, Normal, Power Saving, Super Saving, and a customised battery saver mode that lets you pick how exactly the phone optimises battery life. The charger bundled with the Asus ZenFone 5Z is rated at 18W and it takes close to an hour and a half to charge the phone completely.

The dual camera setup on the ZenFone 5Z consists of a 12-megapixel primary camera and a secondary 8-megapixel camera with a wide-angle lens. The primary camera has an f/1.8 aperture and dual-pixel technology for PDAF, resulting in quick autofocus. The selfie camera has an 8-megapixel sensor. We took the ZenFone 5Z outdoors on a cool, rainy day in Mumbai, and observed condensation on the inside of the selfie camera’s lens after returning to an air-conditioned room. It disappeared after a few minutes, and Asus told Gadgets 360 that this isn't normal. It might be an isolated problem with our review unit, and the company is looking into this.

The camera app on the Asus ZenFone 5Z is pretty straightforward and easy to use. You get a switch to toggle between the two rear cameras, and multiple quick toggles at the top for HDR, Depth Effect, Timer, and Flash. Swiping left from the main screen shows you all the available filters, while swiping right lets you switch to Pro, Super Resolution, Beauty, Slow Motion, GIF Animation, orTime Lapse mode. You also have the option to pin a mode, giving you quick access to it from the viewfinder.

AI is also built into the camera software on the ZenFone 5Z in the form of AI Scene detection and AI Photo Learning. AI Scene detection kicks in when framing a photo. The phone can recognise certain objects or scenes, and set up the camera accordingly. In testing, we found that the phone could recognise animals, flowers, and people before we hit the shutter button.

With the second feature, AI Photo Learning, the phone suggests edits to a photo within the Gallery app. Asus says that if you choose to apply the suggested edits, the phone makes a note of your preferences and can apply the same settings to future shots. Since it is AI-driven, it could take a week or two for enough samples to be collected for the phone to learn from. During our review period, we did not see any suggestions pop up.

Photos taken with the ZenFone 5Z are quite good, and we found that it was quick to focus and gets the exposure right in the daytime. It is also quick to gauge the scene and enable HDR automatically. Photos had good amounts of detail, and objects at a distance were still recognisable. Macro shots are easy to take, and the phone manages a sharp image with good separation between the subject and the background. We also liked the colour accuracy of our macro samples.

For the latest news to follow google-news-lab.blogspot.com ,Facebook page Jigar Saliya and subscribe to our YouTube channel .

'Norman,' When Artificial Intelligence Goes Psycho

2018-07-06T07:34:00.000-07:00

No, it's not a new horror film. It's Norman: also known as the first psychopathic artificial intelligence, just unveiled by US researchers.

The goal is to explain in layman's terms how algorithms are made, and to make people aware of AI's potential dangers.

Norman "represents a case study on the dangers of Artificial Intelligence gone wrong when biased data is used in machine learning algorithms," according to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Pinar Yanardag, Manuel Cebrian and Iyad Rahwan, part of an MIT team, added: "there is a central idea in machine learning: the data you use to teach a machine learning algorithm can significantly influence its behaviour."

"So when we talk about AI algorithms being biased on unfair, the culprit is often not the algorithm itself, but the biased data that was fed to it," they said via email.

Hence the idea of creating Norman, which was named after the psychopathic killer Norman Bates in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film "Psycho."

Norman was "fed" only with short legends describing images of "people dying" found on the Reddit internet platform.

The researchers then submitted images of ink blots, as in the Rorschach psychological test, to determine what Norman was seeing and compare his answers to those of traditionally trained AI.

The results are scary, to say the least: where traditional AI sees "two people standing close to each other," Norman sees in the same spot of ink "a man who jumps out a window."

And when Norman distinguishes "a man shot to death by his screaming wife," the other AI detects "a person holding an umbrella."

A dedicated website, norman-ai.mit.edu, shows 10 examples of ink blots accompanied by responses from both systems, always with a macabre response from Norman.

The site lets Internet users also test Norman with ink blots and send their answers "to help Norman repair itself."

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Hotstar's New UI Looks a Lot Like Netflix

2018-07-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

Hotstar and Netflix are competing with each other - and Amazon's Prime Video - for a lead in the online content streaming market in India, and a recent development might make it harder for you to differentiate between the two.

Hotstar recently updated its interface to something very similar to what Netflix offers. The updated interface, which recently debuted on Amazon Fire TV Stick, features a giant show preview that has links to all the episodes and trailers of the selected show. There is also an episode listing with thumbnails, titles, and synopsis of different episodes. All the seasons are also available on the episode listing to let viewers easily move from one season to another.

Among other similarities, Hotstar on Amazon Fire TV Stick offers a show preview once you select any of the shows from the catalogue. This preview screen has the synopsis of the show at the left side. There are also the links to the latest episode, seasons, and previous episodes below the synopsis. Below the episode links, there are the links to Extra clips, if any. There is also the poster of the episode at the right side.

Show preview on Hotstar

Show preview on Netflix

As is evident from the images above, the experience on Netflix is identical as there is the poster of the episode on the right, while the synopsis and episode links are available on the left. There is also a ratings icon that aren't a part of the Hotstar interface, though.

Apart from the show preview screen, the episode listing on the updated Hotstar looks similar to the episode listing on Netflix. There are thumbnails showing the glimpse of the episodes at the right, along with the title of the episode and the synopsis. Viewers can also switch to other seasons or episodes from the episode listing.

Episode listing on Hotstar

Episode listing on Netflix

There's no word on whether the same UI will be coming to Hotstar on other platforms, but we wouldn't be surprised if that's the case.

You can download the updated Hotstar app for your Amazon Fire TV Stick by visiting Amazon Appstore.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

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Asphalt 9 for Android and iOS Could Be the Best Mobile Racing Game Yet

2018-07-05T08:20:00.000-07:00

Asphalt 9: Legends for Android and iOS is the latest in the long-running series of racing games from Gameloft. It’s currently in soft-launch in the Philippines, Thailand, and France. Asphalt 9 download size is around 1.3GB on Android and iOS. While Asphalt 9 is not available in India officially, we’ve managed to check it out on a OnePlus 6 and an iPhone 6s to give you an idea of what to expect when it’s finally out in India.

First up, Asphalt 9 looked fantastic on both smartphones - from highly detailed car models complete with reflections and incidental details like meters on the dashboard to the tracks themselves with snow and water effects in full view. Be it the snowcapped peaks of the Himalayas to the gloomy wet roads of Scotland, every single inch of Asphalt 9 is spectacular.

Even insignificant bits like tires heating up when applying the breaks to the dust that’s kicked up when you use nitrous to boost through the game, it’s obvious that developer Gameloft Barcelona has spared no expense in making Asphalt 9 gorgeous, which is an impressive feat when you consider how visually stunning Asphalt 8 is.

However, graphics aren’t the only area that’s seen an upgrade. Asphalt 9 gameplay has seen some interesting changes versus Asphalt 8. You can double tap the left side of the screen to spin your car, allowing you push your opponents off the track. Double tapping the right side of the screen uses your nitro to send out a purple pulse that makes your ride invincible. If you tap the right side of the screen when the nitro bar is blue, you earn points for pulling off what the game calls a Perfect Nitro, increasing your score. It’s similar to Gears of War’s Active Reload mechanic.

Plus, there are three control options to choose from. Tilt to Steer uses your phone’s gyroscope to control steering, Tap to Steer has the familiar virtual buttons from past entries, while Touch Drive lets you swipe the screen similar to Subway Surfers. We used all three during our time with the game and they were surprisingly responsive regardless of the phone we used.

Moment to moment gameplay aside, Asphalt 9 also shakes up how you earn cars. As you keep racing and perform certain tasks like taking pole position or pulling off a certain number of Perfect Nitros, you unlock cars. We felt that we were racing a lot more to obtain new rides, which is probably what the developers intended. At the same time though, it’s ridiculously easy to upgrade your cars thanks to the obscene amount of in-game currency you get after each race. Asphalt 9 car upgrades allow you to tweak stats like speed, nitro boost, and handling to name a few which does shake things up quite a bit as the difference between each upgrade level is noticeable.

Where Asphalt 9 on Android and iOS differ are in the graphic options they offer. Unlike Fortnite and PUBG on iOS, you can’t tweak any settings. On the OnePlus 6 an option exists letting you switch between Default graphics and High. There’s no Medium option just yet, though we won’t be surprised to see this change when the game is finally out in all markets. Needless to say, it looks better on the OnePlus 6 versus the iPhone 6s with more particle effects such as light and dust as well as sharper car models.

At the moment, Asphalt 9 oozes polish. With some subtle tweaks to its controls, an incredible level of detail, and fresh race tracks, this could just end up being one of the better mobile games this year. Hopefully, Gameloft keeps its monetisation practises fair, which is something we can only ascertain when Asphalt 9 has a wider release.

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Amazon Fire TV Stick, Kindle, Echo Now Available in India With 2-Hour Deliveries via Prime Now

2018-07-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

Amazon Fire TV Stick, Kindle, and Echo devices can now be availed in select cities in India within two hours, through the Prime Now app. The app-only ultrafast delivery service is initially available in Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Hyderabad, and only for Prime members. To attract customers, Amazon has also announced a limited period introductory offer under which the Amazon devices are available with 15 percent discount. The latest development comes weeks after the e-commerce giant rebranded the original Amazon Now app as Prime Now in the country and introduced its two-hour fast delivery service exclusively for Prime members in select cities. Essentially, with the move, Amazon has brought the Fire TV Stick, Kindle, and Echo devices to the Prime Now store.

By leveraging the two-hour ultra-fast delivery service, Prime members can order the Fire TV Stick, All New Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite (Wi-Fi), Echo Dot, and Echo anytime between 6am to midnight. You can also avail the 15 percent discount. This brings down the price of the Fire TV Stick to Rs. 3,399 (MRP Rs. 3,999), All New Kindle to Rs. 5,099 (MRP Rs. 5,999), Kindle Paperwhite (Wi-Fi) to Rs. 9,349 (MRP Rs. 10,999), and Echo Dot to Rs. 3,699 (MRP Rs. 4,499), and Echo to Rs. 8,499 (MRP Rs. 9,999).

Under Prime Now, Amazon has a selection of over 10,000 products from categories such as Consumer Electronics, Home and Kitchen, and Grocery fulfilled by Amazon. All these products come from the Now Store that is backed by a network of 15 dedicated fulfilment centres in the top cities.

"We are excited to add Fire TV Stick, Kindle and the Echo range of devices to Prime Now selection of over 10,000 products available in hours," said Siddharth Nambiar - Head of Prime Now, India, while announcing the new development.

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There May Be a Better Answer Than Electric Cars

2018-07-03T11:08:00.001-07:00

Erich Sixt, chairman and chief executive officer of the Pullach, Germany-based global car rental company that bears his family's name, recently described electric cars as a "costly political error" given their still inferior range, long charging times and the huge investment necessary to expand the charging infrastructure. It may have been a self-serving statement (renters don't like them), but he may also well be right: If a paper published on Thursday correctly estimates the cost of extracting carbon dioxide from the air, regulators could do better to concentrate on that technology rather than on forcing vehicle electrification.

Carbon Engineering is a company co-founded by Harvard physicist David Keith and funded, among others, by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Since 2015, the firm has been running a CO2 extraction plant in Canada, testing out a technology that was until recently rejected as too costly. Keith and his collaborators, who wrote the paper, have used an independent cost assessment to calculate that using the process they developed allows the capture of a metric ton of carbon dioxide at the cost of $94 (roughly Rs. 6,400) to $232 (roughly Rs. 15,800), depending on variable costs such as the price of natural gas. (Since energy is used in the process, about 0.9 tons of CO2 is actually removed from the atmosphere with each ton captured).

That is far lower than previous estimates for the technology, ranging from $550 (roughly Rs. 37,400) to $1,300 (roughly Rs. 88,400) per ton. The paper's authors explain that the reduction comes from simply using industrial equipment already available on the market without much customization, a strategy they put in place at the Canadian plant.

At Keith's prices, investing in CO2 capture can be a better idea both for consumers and for the environment than car electrification. According to the International Energy Agency, increasing the number of electric cars on the road from the current 2 million to 280 million by 2040 will displace only 1 percent of the expected global CO2 emissions, largely because other demand for carbon-based energy, including from planes and ships, will push emissions up - and because electricity to power the giant electric vehicle fleet won't come entirely from clean sources. To achieve this unimpressive result, carmakers have already pledged some $90 billion (roughly Rs. 6.12 lakh crores) in EV investment, and that's not counting the cost of the ubiquitous infrastructure necessary to give EVs mass appeal, the investment needed to expand power generation and network capacity and the government subsidies to electric car buyers.

Since late last year, Carbon Engineering's plant has been producing fuel from the CO2 it extracts by combining it with hydrogen. The fuel is compatible with current internal combustion engines, so there's no need for carmakers to invest in completely different technology. Since burning the synthetic fuel can only release as much CO2 as was used in its production, the whole cycle is pretty much carbon-neutral.

Keith calculates that at scale, his technology can produce fuel at $3.79 per gallon ($1 or Rs. 67 a litre) - significantly higher than the current wholesale prices. There's no question that going over from fossil fuel to the synthetic liquids would need to be subsidized by environmentally-friendly governments, but such subsidies have a distinct advantage over incentives for EV owners and investment in parallel infrastructure: Nothing will need to change for the enormous existing fleet of cars, about 1 billion of them. Existing gas stations will be able to handle the new liquids just as they do fossil fuel, too. And the new fuels could be used for those modes of transportation that aren't even close to being electrified, such as ships.

Obviously, producing enough synthetic fuel to reduce emissions significantly will require lots of extraction capacity. According to the paper, building a plant capable of capturing 980,000 tons of CO2 a year requires some $1.1 billion (roughly Rs. 7,500 crores) of capital investment, which could be brought down to $780 million (roughly Rs. 5,300 crores) if construction begins at scale. To cut the CO2 emissions predicted by the IEA for 2040 by 1 percent, or by 357 million tons, would require $284 billion (roughly Rs. 19.3 lakh crores) at Keith's estimated prices. That number, however, is comparable with the total investment necessary to go over to electric cars. Besides, there are other carbon capture technologies that can be deployed directly at industrial facilities that use fossil fuels; developing them at scale could lower the required investment.

None of this is to say electric cars shouldn't be developed or sold. There are plenty of true believers who will buy them, probably enough to support some production and investment. It's just that governments, which have recently latched on to vehicle electrification as compulsory, and even begun putting out competing dates for their future bans on the sales of cars with internal combustion engines, may actually be wrong-headed.

There's no pressing need for regulators to rush into embracing the imperfect technology behind today's EVs and pushing it on manufacturers and consumers. Other technology exists that could use the regulatory attention and at least some of the government funds going into EV promotion. Promoting its development won't necessarily pay off, but it could well lead to better, less traumatic outcomes for an important established industry and for a billion (and counting) people who use its products.

For the latest news to follow google-news-lab.blogspot.com ,Facebook page Jigar Saliya and subscribe to our YouTube channel .

PUBG Xbox One Has Over 8 Million Players; Xbox One X PUBG Bundle Announced

2018-07-03T10:29:00.000-07:00

Fortnite may be hogging the spotlight, but that doesn't mean PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) doesn't have an audience. Microsoft has announced that PUBG on the Xbox One has over 8 million players and is the "most popular games on the platform since its release as a console launch exclusive in the Xbox Game Preview program". Furthermore, the company also revealed a new bundle for the game featuring the Xbox One X. Also included is an Xbox Live Gold subscription, Xbox Game Pass, and of course an Xbox One controller. Microsoft says the Xbox One X PUBG bundle will be "available later this week" for $499 (around Rs. 34,200) "at most major retailers worldwide". Here's what you get with the Xbox One X PUBG bundle.

Xbox One X PUBG bundle

Xbox One X with a 1TB hard drive

Xbox Wireless Controller

Full-game download of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

One month Xbox Game Pass trial

One month Xbox Live Gold trial

Also, Microsoft lifted the lid on a new Minecraft bundle. This comes with an Xbox One S and has the following additions for $299 (around Rs. 20,500).

Xbox One S Minecraft bundle

Full-game download of Minecraft featuring the Update Aquatic plus the Explorer’s Pack
Season one of Minecraft: Story Mode – The Complete Adventure
One month Xbox Game Pass trial
14-day Xbox Live Gold trial

It is unknown if these bundles would come to India at this juncture and Gadgets 360 has requested Microsoft India for comment. If so, this wouldn't be the first time PUBG has been bundled with the Xbox One X in India. Microsoft did something similar during the Xbox One X's India launch, just before it got a price hike to Rs. 48,490. For what it's worth, PUBG on the Xbox One X is the best way to experience the battle royale shooter, at least compared to the PC version that isn't as optimised as it could be.

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Do You Really Know What Your Kid's Doing on That Device?

2018-07-03T09:55:00.001-07:00

The 7th grader looks desperate as she approaches. She's just been to a cyber-security talk at her school, where she raised her hand when asked if she has a social media account - Snapchat, in her case.

Most students at Chicago's Nathan Hale Elementary School, many of them younger than the required social media age of 13, did the same when retired police detective Rich Wistocki inquired about Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat or any other number of applications and games.

"Please, please, pleeeeease, don't use my picture or a video of me raising my hand," this particular kid begs repeatedly, despite assurances that she was not caught on camera.

"Don't use mine either," a friend quickly pipes in, as they reclaim and then busily start scrolling through the mobile phones, which all students at Nathan Hale are required to give to their homeroom teachers during the school day.

They are pleading because their parents don't know they're on social media, the gateway to the secret digital lives many of today's teens are living - and that, for a good number, might also include:

- Using video and chat functions to meet strangers on apps ranging from Musical.ly to WhatsApp and Houseparty;

- Storing risqué photos in vault apps that look like something as innocent as a calculator - and then trading those photos like baseball cards;

- Using Text Burner and other apps to harass and bully peers with anonymous messages;

- Using apps that secretly record messages on Snapchat and other apps before they disappear;

- Ordering pot and other drugs via any number of social media and communication apps or encrypted websites - or buying something else online that you don't want them to have using prepaid credit cards (makeup maybe?) and having it sent to a friend's house;

- Buying or borrowing "burner" phones to avoid parental monitoring or when phone privileges are lost.

- And giving their significant others or friends the password to social media accounts so they can "manage" their accounts when their phones are taken away.

How are they getting away with this in 2018? In a world where the words "cyberbullying" and "predator" have been etched on the collective parental psyche for some time? Well, for one, devices have gotten smaller and the kids receiving them - phones, tablets and iPods - are getting younger and, thus, savvier sooner. The number of apps and games also has exploded and those offerings continually morph.

Many parents are just plain overwhelmed - and often far too trusting, says Wistocki, now a cybersecurity consultant whose packed schedule has him crisscrossing the country to speak to parents and young people since he retired from the police department in Naperville, Illinois.

During those talks, he holds up a mobile phone and regularly tells wide-eyed parents:

"When you give this kid, at the ripe old age of 11, this ominous device, it's like giving them the keys to their brand new Mercedes and saying, 'Sweetheart you can go to Vegas. You can drive to Texas, Florida, New York, wherever you want to go .." And with Wi-Fi, device doesn't just mean a phone, but also tablets and iPods.

Wistocki was invited to speak earlier this month at Nathan Hale Elementary by the principal, Dawn Iles-Gomez, whose days are increasingly filled with drama that begins on social media.

And it's often not the usual suspects in her office, but rather a long and diverse parade of students she sees acting one way in person and very differently in the digital world.

"It's shocking - the language and the threats and the mean things that are said," she says. "And I would say, 75 percent of the time, I call a parent and their parent will say, 'Well, no, they said they didn't do that.'

"And I'm like, 'Well - they did.'"

To get parents to the meeting with Wistocki, she offered extra graduation passes and other incentives. About 70 showed up, in a school that has 930 students.

Kathleen Kazupski, a mom with two daughters, ages 13 and 17, was one of them - and she hung on Wistocki's every word.

"As parents, we need to wake up, no doubt," she said after the talk. She came, in part, because she discovered last year that her younger daughter was messaging with a boy she didn't know, until mom put an end to it. "I scared the hell out of her."

Jennea Bivens, another parent who attended, uses an app called MMGuardian to manage and monitor her 13-year-old daughter's phone use. She shuts it down during the school day, though her daughter can call her, and at bedtime. She turns off certain apps, sometimes as punishment, and monitors texts. To monitor most social media, though, she must either be on her daughter's phone, or check the accounts she knows exists from her own social media, most recently getting after her daughter for cussing on some of her video posts. "It's a full-time job," Bivens concedes.

"People laugh at me because I monitor her stuff. But I don't have the same problems as other people do."

A 2016 survey from the Pew Research Center found that, back then, about half of parents said they had ever checked their children's phone calls and text messages - or ever friended their kids on social media (if they knew what social media their kids were using). But they were less likely to use tech-based tools to monitor, block or track their teens.

Since then, built-in parental restrictions, including screen time limits and app blocking, have been added all the time for Google's Android via its Family Link. In addition to already allowing parental approval for app and music purchases, the upcoming Apple operating system - iOS 12 being widely released this fall - also will give parents more control over screen time, app usage and web surfing on iPhones, iPads and iPods.

Beyond that, independent monitoring apps also have proliferated, sometimes allowing parents even more control to view and manage some content from their own devices, often for a monthly fee. But, as Wistocki notes, only a few of those apps allow parents to see actual posts and messages on social media, such as Snapchat and Instagram. In his own talks with parents, he recommends monitoring apps WebWatcher and My Mobile Watchdog, which he says can dig most deeply into the more open Android system, in some cases, even notifying a parent when certain words are used or provocative images are taken or exchanged.

Until his own sons turned 18, Wistocki monitored their locations and messages on various social media, controlled phone use and approved which apps they could download. He tells parents they should do the same.

"There is no such thing as privacy for children," is one of his most commonly used mantras, which he uses to prod reluctant parents.

Other tech experts agree that monitoring makes sense for younger kids. But Pam Wisniewski, an assistant professor in the department of computer science at the University of Central Florida, is among those who suggest a gradual loosening of the strings as teens prove they can be trusted. She says she and her students are working on a different kind of monitoring app for parents called Circle of Trust that is based on that concept.

"I'm almost to the point where I feel like the world would be better off without social media," says Wisniewski, who studies human computer interaction and adolescent online safety. "But I'm also a pragmatist.. So how do we make the best of it?"

Rather than cutting off a kid from social media, she encourages parents to look for teachable moments. When inappropriate content runs through their feed, for instance, she suggests discussing coping strategies, such as hiding that person's content or blocking them, if necessary.

Sarita Schoenebeck, an assistant professor and director of the Living Online Lab at the University of Michigan, says her research also has found that shutting teens out of social media only tends to make them sneakier.

She also cautions parents against thinking a particular application is bad, simply because some use it inappropriately - say, for sharing "sexting" photos or videos, nude or semi-nude images that have become a very common part of teen dating life.

"Focus on the behaviour, not the application," Schoenebeck advises.

A few more pieces of advice for parents:

- While he advocates vigilant monitoring, Wistocki also tells parents to offer their children the "Golden Ticket" - no punishment when they come to them about mistakes they've made online or help they need with a social media problem. Don't take away the devices, he says, but do keep limits firm. And always make sure they delete naked content, which is viewed as child pornography in many states.

- David Coffey, the chief digital officer at IDShield, a company that helps its customers fend off identity theft, tells his own two teens: "Don't put anything on your phone you wouldn't want Grandma Judy to see and read."

- Many tech experts tell parents to stand firm and not allow children to charge their devices in their rooms overnight, removing the temptation to text and go on social media. Iles-Gomez, the principal at Nathan Hale, says her step-children initially protested and said they needed the phone to wake them up in the morning. She countered with, "They sell alarm clocks."

Monitoring also isn't foolproof. Recently, Bivens' daughter, Ayrial Miller, went "live" on Twitter and came across a stranger who asked her to show her bare feet - a strange request that caused her to end the connection quickly.

"It is so hard to see and catch everything," Bivens, the parent who's so vigilant about monitoring her daughter's phone, concedes.

In this instance, Ayrial was using a tablet. But the good news was that she quickly told her mom what happened.

In recent days, they've been spending time going through her social media contacts, as Wistocki suggested they do. If her daughter doesn't know the person's name, how she knows them and where they live, the contact gets deleted.

"It's annoying," a sometimes grumpy Ayrial says of her mother's monitoring. "But then I see that she cares about me."

Eventually, she hopes mom will "back up" a bit.

"When I'm in high school, that might get embarrassing sometimes, you know?" she says. "You need to learn your own - how do I put this? - discipline.. You need to learn from your own mistakes."

If she doesn't, she says she's always coming up with new tricks to get online secretly. And nope, she won't share how.

For the latest news to follow google-news-lab.blogspot.com ,Facebook page Jigar Saliya and subscribe to our YouTube channel .

Moto G6 Review

2018-07-01T04:27:00.001-07:00

After a rather lean period, Motorola India has kicked off its 2018 innings with the launch of the Moto G6 and Moto G6 Play. The Lenovo-owned company has refreshed the design language of its budget-minded G series and has equipped both smartphones with tall 18:9 displays, which have already become ubiquitous.

We have the Moto G6 in for review, which adds a rear dual-camera setup to the mix and starts at Rs. 13,999 for the variant with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. While past G-series models from Motorola have been received warmly by buyers and critics alike, the Moto G6 is arriving at a time when competition in the sub-Rs. 20,000 market has heated up considerably.

Does the Moto G6 have what it takes to compete with the likes of the Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1(Review), which received top marks from us at Gadgets 360, and the Redmi Note 5 Pro (Review), which has established itself as the segment benchmark? Let's find out in our full review.

Moto G6 design

With the Moto G6 and G6 Play, Motorola has spurned the plastic and metal bodies of past G-series smartphones for a glass and metal design. With a sleek and shiny curved glass back and a polished metal mid-frame, the Moto G6 looks a lot like last year's Moto X4 (Review).

At 8.3mm, the phone is not the slimmest out there, but is easy to hold in one hand and is not too heavy (167g). The curves, manageable width, and rounded edges aid one-handed use considerably. However, this smartphone still feels chunky and solid. We (accidentally) dropped it numerous times during our week-long review period, but it did not suffer any damage save for a few cosmetic scratches.

What does worry us a little bit is the fact that Motorola has opted for Gorilla Glass 3 for the front and back, instead of the newer and sturdier Gorilla Glass 4 or 5. The glass makes the device very slippery and prone to fingerprints and smudges. A case is must with this phone.

While most manufacturers have had to move their fingerprint sensors to the backs of their phones in order to accommodate tall 18:9 displays and reduce bezels, Motorola has stuck with a front-facing one. The pill-shaped fingerprint sensor is very small and at first, we weren't sure how easy it would be to use. Real-world performance however is stellar, and the sensor is very quick and accurate.

The left side of the smartphone is blank, but the right side has the volume rocker and power button. These are small and fiddly, but easily within reach. The earpiece also acts as a speaker, and while it's loud, the sound it produces lacks warmth and clarity. On the bottom of the Moto G6 is a USB Type-C port and a 3.5mm headphone socket. With many OEMs still using the Micro-USB standard for phones at this price level, it is good to see a Type-C port on the Moto G6.

Moto G6 specifications and display

Motorola's newest budget smartphone is powered by the Snapdragon 450 processor, which is Qualcomm's latest budget offering and is also found inside the likes of the significantly lower-priced Xiaomi Redmi 5 (Review) and Honor 7C (Review). This smartphone is available in two variants - one with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage priced at Rs. 13,999, and the one we reviewed here which is priced at Rs. 15,999 and has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. You can expand the storage using a microSD card of up to 128GB.

The Moto G6 has a non-removable 3,000mAh battery and supports quick charging. Connectivity options include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/ A-GPS, USB Type-C, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It supports dual SIMs (Nano) but only one can run at 4G speed at a time, with the other limited to 3G. While many smartphones in this price range have hybrid dual-SIM trays, the Moto G6 has dedicated slots for both Nano-SIMs and a microSD card.

With the Moto G6 and Moto G6 Play, Motorola has finally latched on to the 18:9 display trend. The display is not exactly borderless but the presence of a front facing fingerprint sensor compensates somewhat for the relatively chunky bottom bezel.

The Moto G6 features a 5.7-inch full-HD+ IPS panel with an aspect ratio of 18:9. The display is adequate but nothing more. The viewing angles are spot on, and colours are accurate, but sunlight legibility is mediocre and so is the maximum brightness level. The Moto software suite includes a nifty always-on display feature that allows quick replies to messages right from the lockscreen, and a blue light filter.

In our experience, Motorola's own applications ran fine on the 18:9 display and we were able to stretch third-party applications that do not support this aspect ratio natively.

Moto G6 performance, software, and battery life

We have had mixed experiences with the Snapdragon 450 processor in the past. The Moto G6 however makes optimal use of the hardware that it has. Thanks in part to Motorola's clean and fluid software package, the G6 handles day-to-day use with aplomb. The phone does exhibit slight lag and stutter, and can heat up a fair bit when tackling intensive workloads. On the other hand, it never slows down too much.

Thanks to the Adreno 506 GPU, the Moto G6 handles games fairly well. We did experience few lags while loading heavy games like Asphalt 8, but gameplay was smooth. Benchmark scores were on par with other smartphones that have the Snapdragon 450, which means phones that cost less than the Moto G6.

The Moto G6 managed a score of 70,060 in AnTuTu, 20fps in GFXbench T-Rex, 5.7fps in GFXbench Manhattan 3.1, and 717 and 3282 respectively in Geekbench's single- and multi-core tests.

As with most smartphones these days, the Moto G6 has face recognition built in, but it's slow and inaccurate. In our experience, the Moto G6 simply refused to recognise our face at times, even in favourable lighting.

The near stock build of Android 8.0 Oreo is quick, fluid, and devoid of any laggy overlay. The few additions Motorola has made are genuinely useful and do not take away from the soul of stock Android. What mars the experience somewhat is the presence of a few preinstalled applications, namely Facebook Lite, PhonePe, LinkedIn, and Outlook. While this amount of bloat is minimal (just four applications which can be uninstalled), it sticks out like a sore thumb.

There are the usual Moto Actions such as a chop gesture to turn on the flashlight and double-twist to launch the camera app, which are extremely handy. A feature called Moto Key allows you to enter passwords using your fingerprint. The front-facing fingerprint sensor also facilitates Motorola's One-Button Nav gesture scheme, which lets you get around the smartphone using only the sensor.

The Moto G6 posted a rather poor score of 8 hours and 40 minutes in our HD video loop battery test. However, real-world performance was actually quite impressive. The phone easily lasted us the whole day, with juice left for more. Our usage involved two hours of navigation using Google Maps, a generous dose of Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook, games such as Asphalt 8 and Subway Surfers, and taking a dozen or so selfies and pictures.

Motorola ships a 15W Turbo Charger in the box, which charged the phone fully in less than 1.5 hours. The smartphone does get quite hot while charging, to the point that it is uncomfortable to hold.

Moto G6 cameras

The Moto G6 has a dual rear camera setup comprising of a 12-megapixel primary sensor and a 5-megapixel secondary sensor. At the front, the Moto G6 has a 16-megapixel sensor. There is a dual-LED flash at the rear and a single-LED flash at the front.

The camera app offers a multitude of features such as a Text Scanner mode that converts an image of text to actual text, and a Spot Color mode that lets users retain colour on only one object while turning the rest of the photo monochrome. Both come across as gimmicks, with the Spot Colour mode in particular proving to be quite buggy. There is also a fully featured Pro Mode which allows you to adjust the white balance, ISO, exposure, and shutter speed.

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Germany's Rules Says Self-Driving Cars Can't Base Decision on Age

2017-08-26T09:13:00.000-07:00

Protecting people rather than property or animals will be the priority under pioneering new German legal guidelines for the operation of driverless cars, the transport ministry said on Wednesday.

Germany is home to some of the world's largest car companies, including Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW, all of which are investing heavily in self-driving technology.

German regulators have been working on rules for how such vehicles should be programmed to deal with a dilemma, such as choosing between hitting a cyclist or accelerating beyond legal speeds to avoid an accident.

Under new ethical guidelines - drawn up by a government-appointed committee comprising experts in ethics, law and technology - the software that controls such cars must be programmed to avoid injury or death of people at all cost.

That means that when an accident is unavoidable, the software must choose whichever action will hurt people the least, even if that means destroying property or hitting animals in the road, a transport ministry statement showed.

The software may not decide on its course of action based on the age, sex or physical condition of any people involved.

"The interactions of humans and machines is throwing up new ethical questions in the age of digitalisation and self-learning systems," German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said in a a statement.

"The ministry's ethics commission has pioneered the cause and drawn up the world's first set of guidelines for automated driving," he added.

Germany earlier this year passed legislation under which a driver must be sitting behind the wheel at all times ready to take back control if prompted to do so by the autonomous vehicle, clearing the way for the development and testing of self-driving cars.

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