Xiaomi Hoping Mi 4 Smartphone Will Boom In Market

Xiaomi Hoping Mi 4 Smartphone Can Take on Apple's iPhone Xiaomi launched its flagship Mi 4 smartphone at a glitzy event in Beijing, where the Chinese budgethandset maker's chief executive sought to challenge larger U.S. rival Apple Inc. The Mi 4 comes as budget handset makers in China are competing more aggressively on price and generous features, with even high-end manufacturers feeling the...

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Agricultural Robots Are Appearing On Farms

Agricultural robots are appearing on farms Significant numbers of robots are now appearing on farms.  These have been in development for 20 years and are now cheap and sophisticated enough for mainstream use. New scanning and imaging technology has solved the problem of allowing robots to handle the varying shapes of individual fruits and vegetables. Their on-board computers can now differentiate between an object and its shadow and between...

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India's First Space Flight

India's first manned space flight India becomes only the fourth nation – after Russia, the US and China – to independently launch humans into space. The rocket used is a variant of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark 2, operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). This carries a largely autonomous 3-ton capsule, with a two-person crew on board. They remain in orbit around the Earth at 248 miles (400 km) altitude for...

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Windows 9 is Ready To Release

Windows 9 is released by Microsoft Following the much-criticised Windows 8, Microsoft launches a major overhaul of the operating system in 2015. Windows 9.0 addresses a number of usability issues – refining the "Metro" design language of its predecessor and providing a more distinct experience for desktop, mobile and other platforms. This includes a return of the traditional Start Menu. The OS introduces a more unified code base,...

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First Self Regulating Artificial Heart

The first self-regulating artificial heart In 2013, French Professor Alain Carpentier engineered the first self-regulating artificial heart, using biomaterials and electronic sensors. The device weighed 900g, was roughly the same size as a real heart and could imitate its functions exactly. In a 10-hour operation, it was successfully implanted within a 75-year-old patient at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris. Permanent artificial...

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Trucks with Emergency Braking Systems are Mandatory in Europe

Trucks with emergency braking systems are mandatory in Europe In November 2015, an EU law comes into effect which mandates that all new trucks must be fitted with emergency braking and collision warning systems.  This has been introduced in an effort to lower the number of rear-end collisions, which account for a significant proportion of road accidents. A radar and camera, working together to identify and monitor vehicles in front, can prevent a collision with a moving target at relative speeds of up to 44 mph (70 km/h). When the...

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Battery Technology Gets Boost

Battery technology gets a boost Various new methods of charging lithium-ion batteries have emerged, enabling them to be powered an order of magnitude faster and lasting over ten times as long. One such technology involves a chemical oxidation process that creates miniscule holes (10 to 20 nanometres) between layers of graphene. This provides lithium ions with a shortcut to the anode. Energy density is boosted by inserting clusters of silicon between...

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DDR4 memory reaches the home PC market

DDR4 memory reaches the home PC market DDR4 is the fourth generation of double data rate, synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM) after DDR (2002), DDR2 (2004) and DDR3 (2007). It features greater speed, memory density and energy efficiency, with devices using 20 nanometre (nm) process technology allowing consumer-grade modules of up to 32 GB. Though Samsung and others introduced DDR4 memory boards in 2013, processor boards...

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Smart Flo Poise review: A decent smartphone at Rs 5,000

Smart Flo Poise review: A decent smartphone at Rs 5,000 Like many other Indian brands, Spice offers a number of smartphones at a pretty low price point in a bid to tap into switchers (people who are moving from feature phones to touchscreen smartphones). It is estimated that the low-end segment is responsible for a huge chunk of smartphone sales in the Indian market, and Spice has entered the battle with the ultra-cheap Smart Flo Poise.  The...

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HTC Desire 816 Review

HTC DESIRE 816 REVIEW: BIG ON  FEATURES HTC Desire 816 is part of the Taiwanese device maker's mid-range smartphone lineup. The company is now banking on this very segment to revive its fortunes in addition to riding on the critical acclaim that its flagship phone, One (M8) received. With Desire 816, HTC is perhaps looking at offering a feature-complete, yet affordable, big-screen smartphone to consumers. Does it succeed? We try...

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Xiaomi Mi 3 review: Redefining value for money

Xiaomi Mi 3 review: Redefining value for money Xiaomi, the Chinese device major known for selling high-end smartphones at budget prices, has finally arrived in India. The company has kicked off its Indian operations with the launch of Mi 3, its flagship device that features high-end hardwere  rivalling the likes of Nexus 5, but costs almost half the price. Is it the best smartphone you can buy in terms of value for money? We find out...

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Asus ZenFone 5 review: Best smartphone under Rs 10,000

Asus ZenFone 5 review: Best smartphone under Rs 10,000 Asus has entered the smartphone fray in India and launched five smartphones in one go. The Asus ZenFone 5 is the best positioned of the lot, offering a 5-inch HD screen, Android 4.3 and 2GB RAM and still keeping the price under Rs 10,000 for the base variant. However, unlike most Android phones today, the handset is powered by an Intel processor, not Qualcomm or Mediatek. Does it fare...

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