Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition :

Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition

              Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition is the third Ubuntu phone in the Ubuntu phone OS series.After taking a long 2 years of development of the Ubuntu phone OS by Conical , it released it's first and the second handset with BQ, the BQ Aquaris E. Now the company is really pacing up and trying to have more manufacturers.The Meizu MX 4 was originally an Android China only device , however the Ubuntu edition is just the replacement of the OS.

Hardware & Design

               The Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition  has a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 ,5.36 inch  display panel. With a resolution of 1152 X 1920 ppi , the display is crystal clear and bright with a good sunlight readability.The display is quite impressive with great color depth and viewing angles.

           The device however feels plasticky with the rear and front panel of white plastic.The rear piece is not impressive but the front end looks great. Inspired from the iPhone , it has only a single home button in the front and also the whole look of the product.While the back of the device is removable, the battery is not. There’s no microSD expansion , which is a bit of a shame as the internal storage is 16GB.

Camera

           On the rear is a 20.7-megapixel sensor, which after a few quick test snaps offer encouraging, though not perfect. The camera performs quite good but not up to the mark but an average user experience is good.The shots basically are "okay  okay".

            On the front, there’s a 2-megapixel sensor for video calling and selfies.However the front camera is really disappointing , the shot's are not quite impressive , especially when taking selfies

Ubuntu OS : The Key Factor

              As an new OS , it was obvious that it would take some time to get familiar with the device and the gestures.With Ubuntu phone OS it's all about scopes , now scopes are basically like pages that you can scroll.The home page or the main scroll presents information relevant to where you are, like restaurants , bars etc ,but you have the availability to customize the scopes as you want.

             Scrolling across through the next few panels reveals news, apps, music, video and photo panels. There’s also a device management panel.What’s key about the scopes is that on-device information is presented alongside content that hasn’t already been downloaded, such as with Videos, for example.The Photos scope shows your cloud-stored images alongside local ones, if you connect your accounts.

               To access core apps like the dialer or messaging, you swipe in the from the left-side. Swiping in on the bottom-right side opens up a list of running apps, swiping up on any of them individually closes them.
              We have to consider that's this is the initial stages of the Ubuntu ecosystem. You can see that in the app store or the overall OS.But the company is aiming at early adaptions and giving
only core apps for user's initially , till the market place grows and people are well adverse with the system.(we have a video for demonstration of the Ubuntu OS below)

              Meizu MX 4 Ubuntu Edition is for enthusiast who want to try the Ubuntu phone OS , but for the average people or those who want to have a good phone , the Ubuntu Meizu MX 4 is not the choice. Priced at €299 and available only in Europe, the company ideology is not for the worldwide till now.However if you want to but the Meizu MX 4 , the company is trying a different sale technique , in which the customer goes to the official site and opens an origami , if he get's lucky he get's registered for the product purchase.

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RAZER McFly : First Hover Mouse

RAZER McFly : First Hover Mouse

                Razer , a company well known for it's gaming accessories.Razer is on top of the PC gaming mouse industry and continues to elevate it's technologies. Razer McFly , a project introduced by Razer which is kind of like a futuristic film gadget.McFly is a first of a kind HoverMouse ," Yeah that's right a hovermouse".  Really when you see it blows your mind off. Let's see if it is possible or not ?

                Razer McFly , just by looking at the mouse looks stunning.However if Razer makes it possible,this will improve the mouse performance's than the usual and increase their functionality a lot more. McFly provides a fiction less gaming ,an ultra smooth experience which can really change the speed of work.A fusion of magnetized positional tracking  and dynamic force technology gives a feedback of the 3D object in game just like in the real world. It basically emulates real life physical sensations.

             So how does it hover ?  Hover technology is based on electromagnetic repulsion of two surfaces. Razer technology basically amplifies Earth magnetic force and avoid collisions , creating collision-less magneto-thermodynamics. A 6400 dpi optical sensor calibrates the mouse to a desired height.It also gives a high amount of accuracy of calibration which makes the world a surface.


             Razer has however not given a word for the release date for the McFly project. McFly however has a date in which it will either announce the finalized product or show the advancements in the project at the 21st Oct 2015.

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APPLE WWDC 2015 : watchOS 2

APPLE WWDC 2015 : watchOS 2

             Apple Watch the apple's take on wearable technology , had a great success on it's launch. Apple watchOS  a specific OS made for the watch has come  again with better improvements in the watchOS 2. watchOS 2 has made a large improvement over the initial watchOS  revealed. WatchOS 2 is just a refinement of watchOS and makes the Apple watch more productive.

                      Apple watchOS 2 has more watch faces including the original watch faces.Time lapse watch faces are the new addition in the faces of Apple watch. Apple has time lapse videos of over 24 hours shoot of locations from Hong Kong , New York , Shanghai , London & Mac Lake. You can choose between the time lapse of these places and make them your watch face.

                     With the new watchOS 2 you can choose a customized image from the photo album and save it as your watch face. It also allows you to choose a photo album or all your favorite photo's and every time you raise your wrist , a new photo will appear. This adds a more personal customized feel to the Apple Watch.

                       Time travel ,a new feature in  watchOS 2 can look beyond you ahead of time for your device. Time travel is a handy feature which work with time faces which have complications. Just turn the crown of the watch to see what will happen in the future. Time travel can tell you the weather, battery life , events upcoming in the future of the day. A simple press will on the crown button will take to the current time. An extremely cool feature.

              With  watchOS 2 , your phone is now a night alarm clock also. Just place it on its side and connect the charger. Apple Watch will automatically go into Nightstand mode, a digital display that illuminates whenever you will  touch the screen, the Digital Crown, or the side button of the watch. You can also snooze the alarm with touching the side crown or turn it off using the home button.

        

            Apple watchOS 2  can now let your Apple watch reply to emails.You can go at the bottom of   the message and tap on reply. You can reply with dictation using Siri or send an emoji or you can also choose from a set of replies already present.

 

                      Adding a new contact can also be done now  by using the watch.In the inner circle their are 12 contacts, but if you want to add or remove you would have to go to the phone and then do it. With watchOS 2 you can directly add in the watch from your collection of contacts in the iPhone.

Apple Watch had  a unique feature ,Digital touch which allowed users to draw sketches and send them.But had only one color, now with watchOS 2 you can add a variety of colors to the sketches.

                    Like the iOS and the OS X , the watchOS 2 has also been updated with the latest maps app.In the maps app there's a transit view to help people get around using the public transport routes. This helps you to have multiple transports in a single trip smoothly. However the transit maps are for few cities and more cities are said to come
                     
                      Apple Pay will make the payments right from your wrist. But now with addition of credit cards , you can have store credit cards and also reward cards. Siri is more better in watchOS 2 as it is seen in iOS 9. You can ask specific things to do like start a specific workout or calculate a tip.
You can see the whole detailed about Siri, Apple Pay and Maps in our iOS 9 article.

                      Apple watchOS 2 will be coming to the Apple Watch's in the fall. watchOS 2 will have the apps load' s faster and even more control to developer's to access the taptic engine , crown , accelerometer and also the microphone. watchOS 2 is a good update over the original watchOS and makes the watch more productive.

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APPLE WWDC 2015 : iOS 9

APPLE WWDC 2015 : iOS 9

                      Apple with it's latest Mac also showed the next iteration of iOS , the iOS 9. The iOS 9 is improvement over the iOS 8 in many key areas. The iOS 9 has improved in built-in-apps , intelligence (Siri ) , Performance as well as iPad productivity. Let's see what is in the iOS 9 and how it is improved over iOS 8 ?

                    Apple showed of new built-in  apps for the iOS platform. iOS has a News App , this is quite similar like the Android's Play NewStand or Microsoft's News. The News app has a better UI than the rest of the competition. Basically the news app is a combination of all your news app that you have to download for various interest. So you can choose various topics of your interest and even choose the website that you read. The UI of the news app is really impressive , it has a scrolling view and built in animations which make a better reading experience.

                     Notes app in the iOS 9 is redesigned and is far more improved over the previous version. If thinking of comparing it , it is like the Google Keep or any other note app like Evernote. Now you can add a note from any applications without going out of the app.You can make a checklist in the note and also draw a sketch in your app also. Adding a photo with the note or a url is also possible now. It's like "Apple has just woken from it's sleep". The new map has a transit feature which is discussed in the OS X El Capitan article.

               
               Apple's Passport app has been renamed and it's now called Wallet . The wallet is combination of Apple Pay and the old Passport app .Wallet now can also keep store credit cards as well reward cards from various brands or stores.Double clicking the home button the iPhone when locked will directly open the wallet app for faster payments.

             
                Now coming onto iPad iOS  change , iOS update will raise the level of productivity of iPad
much higher. iOS 9 comes with multitasking for iPad , to make it a true small computer.The first feature is Slide Over , with this feature you can slide an app to an edge of the screen .You can slide from the right to left an open the slide over screen , you can choose your app and work simultaneously without leaving the main app.It is a handy feature for replying to a text  or take a note and after taking it down slide it over to continue with the app.

             
                   Split view dejavu Windows 8 , yeah that's how exactly we felt.Split view is quite similar to Windows  8 split view but with a slight improvement . In Split view both the apps that shared the screen are highlighted , that means you can work both with exactly same time.Split view comes only with the latest iPad Air 2.

                 Picture in Picture is exactly what everyone was waiting for in more productivity tools. While using Facetime or watching a video , you can press the home button and the video automatically scales down to a smaller size. And you can app an app you want and the video will be still playing , not just scaling but you can also move around the scaled video .                

                   Quick Type is the next feature that will enhance keyboards in the iOS versions.The iOS 9 has a new Shortcut bar which helps to use the essentials things like cut , copy ,bold etc.Touch selection in iOS 9 is quite easy,you scroll in the text using two fingers. This is far easier to select all the text you want to highlight as well as the exact letter you want to scroll to.Keyboard shortcuts , iPad can be connected to a wireless keyboard  and you can have all the shortcuts that you are familiar with in the iPad.

                Intelligence the next chapter where Apple is concentrating after a long time. Yes , I am taking about Siri, Siri is now handling all the task what Google Now does as well as Cortana. It can
show exact photos of the event , create email , location based reminders , dynamic results . With these Siri can also tell location based people, apps ,places and news. Siri is more proactive , whenever you put on the headphones , Siri will suggest the playlist or resume the podcasts.Siri has a changed UI and looks a far more cleaner. Seeing after the involvement of Cortana in Windows Platform , Apple is also increasing it's directions towards artificial intelligence.

               Performance as always Apple keeps on increasing every event.In iOS 9 the battery and responsive time are increased. With iOS 9the battery life is extended with 1 hour before fully discharging your device.With metal in apps it loads far more faster and far more responsive. iOS 9 also has improved security , the old 4 digit password is replaced with the 6 digit one.Making it more difficult to hack with over a million combinations. Software Updates are also being enhanced , so the regular 4.58 GB OS update is down to just 1.3 GB which leads to faster OS integration.


                iOS 9 will be available this fall to all the iPhone's above 4s and all iPad above iPad 2 and above iPad mini as well as iPod 5th generation.However the beta program is available right now through the Apple developer's program. iOS 9 is a small but enhanced software updates for all the mobile devices.  
                 

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APPLE WWDC 2015 : OS X El Capitan

APPLE WWDC 2015 : OS X El Capitan

            Apple at the yearly World Wide Conference which was held in San Francisco , delivered it's new software enhancements. Apple showcased it's latest versions of OS X , iOS as well as the watchOS. Apple's or I would say Mac's new OS , the OS X EL Capitan . The latest OS X is an upgrade from the existing OS X Yosemite. El Capitan derived from a rock formation at the Yosemite National Park.Let's see what are the improvements over the previous installment ?

           OS X El Capitan has new features which will help the user experience.The Mission Control allows users to simply the access to open windows.With a single swipe, all the windows on your desktop arrange themselves in a single layer, with nothing stacked or hidden.With overloading of the windows , the availability of space can be adjusted by adding a new desktop space.

           There's not only Mission control for windows but also split view feature in the new OS X for better multitasking.It is almost exact like the Windows 8 split view and working is quite similar. However in Windows 8 larger screen can have 3 apps while Apple looks like is just having two apps sharing the screen. When looked at this feature it's basically a UI change over the Windows.

       

            Ohh one thing is that when  you wake up your computer , you always find the cursor and where it is gone. Apple has new feature , call out cursor for that problem , so when you move the cursor back and forth the cursor get's bigger to easily find it. Small but a handy feature.

           Now coming onto Safari , now you can pin your favorite sites and they open in a new tab. Pinning while make it easier to open the website , this is quite similar to the favorite tabs in all web browsers but just showing it in front.Safari can now mute all the tabs that are playing sounds , it can also show the tabs where the music is coming from.That is a handy feature when large amount of tabs are opened simultaneously.

           Spotlight the search tool that Apple showcased in the previous OS X with great improvements has been done in the El Capitan. This time Spotlight can search very deeply and has far more cleaner results. You can now move the spotlight around the whole screen and also find files using natural language.Better yet, you can type stuff like "document i wrote last month about pudding" and get what you're looking for.

     
            El Capitan features a improved mail app , which has the features similar to the tablet alike. You can add a event to the calendar right from the mail . The mail app automatically suggest an event looking at the content of the mail.Like the event  , mail can also add contacts directly when you receive an email from an unknown person or send to one.just like the iOS mail you can swipe right to mark an email as read or unread, or swipe left to delete.    

           The new Maps in the Mac has a transit view for all the public transport routes. With maps you can get the exact distance of travel from the transport stop to the actual place.The built in public transport like bus , train and subway is easier to track the exact time of travel.You can plan your route and send it to your iOS device as well.

            Performance is always what OS X is famous for which makes the Mac more smoother. The
El Capitan has 1.4x faster app launch and 2x faster app switching. It also has a 2x faster image display and 4x faster pdf launching.Ina ll makes it slightly faster than the previous installment. Metal which was previously only available on the iOS platform is making it's way in the Mac OS.Apple claims with the new metal technology the  mac can deliver 10x call draw performance.            


             Mac OS X El Capitan will be a free upgrade like it's predecessor and will be available in the Fall of this year. However the beta version is available now on the  Apple site. Apple is also releasing a public beta for the OS at the July 29th .


            

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ANDROID M

     ANDROID M                          

 

              Google at it's yearly developer conference the Google I / O , showed off the next iterations in the software and tech.Google at it's I/O teased the next release of the Android version , the Android M.Like previously Android didn't reveal the official name , just sticking with the letter for now. Android M is not the next major release by Google but a drastic changes to the little features and addition of new features. Let's see all the new Android M feature's and is it going to make smartphones more smarter ?.

 1. Google Now On Tap        

                    Google Now a primary search engine which uses all the Google search to give the  best results for the user.In previous Android versions , Google Now was just like an app contained in one place , but in M It is everywhere. Now you can simply hold on the home button and you will get info on what's on the screen with the help of cards.So the relevant data on the screen is analized and accordingly the card is shown.
 

2. App Permissions 

                 We've all been there before. You go to install an app in the Google Play store and you're met with a long list of things the developer wants access to.Google has simplified this experience by making app permissions more controllable for the users.Now when the app functionality is used then it asks for the permission for only once. You can disable any app specific permissions in the settings.

3.Android Pay 

              Android Pay is a new service that builds upon the promises of Google Wallet and adds more features. It can store all of your physical credit cards and loyalty cards so you can simply scan your phone via NFC to pay in stores. Android Pay can also be used to purchase items online. If a website supports Android Pay you won’t have to enter any credit card or shipping information. It will all be saved and ready to go.

4.Doze

              While  every company is trying to get more battery life from the batteries , while Google is concentrating on the software front. Doze a new feature in M , that can recognize when the Android device is in a rested state to help conserve power.Doze will put the apps in deep sleep when the phone is idle.So the battery juice when the phone was kept in idle state will be reduced extremely.Google claims it has tested the Nexus 9 and it got double the battery life.

 

 

 

5. Vertical App Drawer       

               One of the biggest visual changes can be found in the default Google Now Launcher. The app drawer is now a vertical-scrolling list with four recent apps and a search bar on top. In Lollipop the app drawer consisted of horizontal-scrolling pages. We’re not sure how we feel about this change. The icons in the new drawer are very large, so you can’t see many apps at a time. It seems to require more scrolling than the previous design.This is the most disgusting android feature ever displayed.
  

 

 

 

6.USB C

           Android M will bring full support for Type C, which should hopefully mean that we'll see Android phones and tablets in the not too distant future that can be charged quicker and easier thanks to the more versatile charging method.

 

7.Volume Controls

            The redesigned volume controls in Lollipop were not universally loved and Google has listened. It's tidier and now also includes the ability to individually monitor audio from anything making sounds, whether that music or alarms.

 

8. Fingerprint Support

             While fingerprint technology is not really widespread on Android phones, Google is opening the necessary APIs to allow developers to add fingerprint support with any app. That improved biometric authentication will also be extended to Android Pay to authorize payments, making it work a lot like Apple Pay. 

 

    However there are tons of features in the new release of the Android M.However we will tell you when the official name is out , but till that time M . All of the above are quite some of the main features of the next Android , but a link of all the changes is provided below.

link : All Features

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MYO : GESTURE CONTROL ARMBAND

 MYO : GESTURE CONTROL ARMBAND

         
             Myo a  gesture control ArmBand for controlling all your actions. Developed by Thalmic Labs , the Myo is a unique arm movement controlled band.The band uses fingers as well as arm movement to utilize the band.This unique gesture control device can be worn just above the elbow on either arm and detects the electrical activity produced by the user’s muscles.

             However the Myo is being promoted as a main presentation device rather than all around device. The company is showing off how the device performs when you are presenting a presentation.But it can be used with other applications like iTunes , VLC , Adobe Reader and many more are available in the Myo market.



             MYO connects wirelessly with other devices using a low energy Bluetooth connection. However it's quite similar to Microsoft Kinect which uses camera for all the tracking process. But Myo can only track single hand movement compared to the Kinect's tracking whole body.

                Some of the real world applications include being able to scroll up and down a web page just by lifting or lowering your hand, as well as swiping to the left and right with two fingers in order to switch between desktop apps.Even games like Call of Duty can be played with the Myo Control gesture Armband.Thalmic Labs is also launching the MYO API today though, which will allow other developers to experiment with the hardware and hopefully produce new applications.Myo is available on Amazon as well as Thalmic official store.

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