Tech Sparta

Mobile devices and Gadgets news & reviews, Game and app reviews coming soon!!

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Project CARS Vs Real Life - McLaren P1 @ Laguna Seca

This video shows how cool the graphics have become comapred to real life.

This side-by-side video was taken of a McLaren P1 on a track and compares with real life racing by Motor Trend and graphics made in the upcoming racing video game Project CARS.

Yes, you can tell which one is real and which one is graphics but when you compare it with open mind one keeps switching between both of them now and then.

[techsparta]

Android & iOS - Advantages and Disadvantages

Do you own an iOS device and thinking of switching to Android or vice-verse - but in dilemma on deciding which one to go for??

Go through the list of advantages and disadvantages below and then you can decide what you want.

Android Advantages

Choice of hardware and varied pricing - With Android being an open source platform, there are multiple manufacturers with multiple choices of hardware for users with variable screen sizes and specifications.

This offers multiple choice from budget friendly to expensive devices depending on users choice.

Customisation - Android allows you to customise how you want your home screen to look like, you want multiple pages with lot of widgets - you got it!! Using third party apps you can even take the android experience to next level with custom app icons. For advanced users, root allows to unlock full potential of a device and can install custom ROM for the device.

Notifications - Notifications on Android with Lollipop allows now to interact with them on lock screen. Probably the best modification in Lollipop is the heads-up display, which is a pop-up on screen when you are using an app.

Generally android devices have LED notifications which immediately bring attention to the user of any unread notification.

Battery life - Lot of high end android devices have bigger battery capacity than their rival iOS device and provide a much better battery backup. Another advantage being removable batteries in android devices.

Default app setting - You can select any app as default app to do open files from the device. You can even use a third party app as default if you want.

Google Now - Google Now provides information cards of various bits of information which can be setup in the settings section. These can include weather, sports team, share market, etc. Also the Google Now gets your travel details from email and shows you airport check-in times or your travel times when you leave from work to home or home to work.

You can also call contacts and get directions by saying "OK Google" followed by the command.

Multitasking - Multitasking in Android devices has improved a lot over the years, in high end samsung devices, multiwindow feature is provided which splits the screen in two parts and can run two programs in parallel, so you can reply to an email while watching a video.

File transfer - Android devices have a very simple way to transfer file from a PC or wirelessly. There are multiple apps that allow you to transfer files and also some devices have in-built feature to transfer files on wireless networks.

Storage Expansion - This feature is included on almost all android devices who have less inbuilt storage but it can be extended with a micro-SD card upto 32 GB or 64 GB (this is device specific). One can also buy OTG (On The GO) USB device to extend the memory.

Android Disadvantages

Security - Android is targeted by hackers because via apps. Google does not check apps before they are published to play store. Google only scans the apps for malicious content and hackers use this to their benefit.

While this is a problem, a little commonsense helps you to be safe in play store. When downloading app, keep checking the reviews and rating before you install it. Try to use the browsers that you normally use on your PC (Firefox/Chrome/Opera) and do not forget to look at the developers name.

App Permission - Right now, you can only see exactly what information your apps have but there is no way to restrict them. When you install an app, read through the permission.

Software updates - With Android, the software updates are limited with the OEM. So if you own Nexus device, you will be the first one to receive the updates and others will follow as and when the OEM will roll out the updates.

Performance variations - You stick with medium or high range devices, the performance will be good enough but the same for low end devices with RAM less than 1GB or single/dual core processors can not be guaranteed.

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iOS Advantages

Security and Privacy - Apple takes privacy very seriously. Privacy controls have been introduced in iOS 8. You know from settings exactly which apps have access to location data and you generally have three options when it comes to tracking. You can set access to "Always", "Never" or "While Using".

This can be controlled from the settings and its upto the user to decide which app to have access to some features.

APIs - With iOS 8, core APIs have been opened up for third-party developers to provide a better user experience. Now users can opt for a third party keyboard such as Swiftkey or Swype instead of the default iOS keyboard. Touch ID now can be integrated with third party apps as well, which includes amazon and there are more coming soon.

Siri - Siri is the Apple's smart personal assistant for iOS like Google now but better in terms of technology. You can ask siri any question like you are speaking to a person and it will either answer it or serach the web/device to get you the answer.

Content -  The App Store is very strict in terms of which apps are published and which are rejected, so that user will be able to install apps without much worry. The app store is also the first place where developers love to publish their apps, even before Android.

Communication between Mac OS X and iOS -  With iOS 8 & MAC OS X Yosemite, the communication has improved. Now you can receive and call from the MAC when both devices are connected on the same wireless network. Also now users can take off reading a book or writing an email on MAC where they have left off from iPhone or iPad.

iOS Disadvantages

Expensive - iOS devices are fairly expensive. iPhone 6 Plus 16GB will cost about INR 62,0000/-

Choice of hardware is limited - iPhone is not licensed out to manufacturers as Android so the only choices you have are 4s, 5c, 5s, 6 & 6Plus (with variable storage options from 16 GB on 4s to 128 GB on 6 Plus)

No memory expansion - Memory for iPhone starts from 16GB which is nothing for an average user and you can not install micro-SD card on the device.

Battery life - iPhone batteries are not of high capacity and for average usage you have to charge phone before you leave work.

File transfer from PC - Transferring files from PC to iPhone is a pain unless you are using some cloud storage service. You can copy pictures from the device when its connected.

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After reading this did you decide which one you want???

According to me:

Android - Users with a limited budget will prefer android but I think the mid level devices are quite good enough for average users. The high end, advanced users who love to play around and customize the interface and prefer to switch phones every year.

iOS - Users with concerns over security and privacy would prefer iOS. Plus the interface is so simple that anyone (even a 2 years kid) can use the phone. But the price point does affect the decision making from a average users perspective.

For me, the Android is winner all the way with the customisation options and usability of the device.

Whats you choice, let us know in comments.

[techsparta]

How to share your mobile internet - pros and cons

With increasing number of smartphones, people want to share their 3G connection with other or on their PCs/Laptops. There are number of apps which allow you to share your mobile Internet with other devices but people do not know that they can actually use their smart phones inbuilt capabilities to share the Internet either via Wifi Hotspot and Bluetooth or USB tethering.

I will quickly run you through the process of mobile data sharing via those options.

Wifi Tethering is the easiest way to get going.

What you need to is go to Settings>More Networks>Tethring and poratable hotspot (this might be different on your device, look for Tethering and/or portable hotspot in your mobile system settings)

From here you can selece Mobile Hotspot which will take you to the settings of the hotspot where you can configure your connection settings to setup SSID and password and you can also add Allowed devices to keep the network locked for others who know the password to access internet. That can be done by adding the MAC address of your device and selecting Allowed dvices only at the time of turning on the Hotspot.

As soon as the hotspot is active you can now select the SSID defined in from list of SSIDs on the other device click connect, enter the password and get high-speed internet from your phones 3G serices and connect multiple devices. The major con of this method is that the phones battery will drain twice as fast due to the continuos network usage, way around it is to connect it to power supply if available.

Now the USB Tethering is the second method which is far more simpler for one laptop/desktop to be connected to your phone using the USB cable. This method requires you to have USB drivers installed on your laptop/desktop. The good part is it will provide you stable connection compared to the WiFi Hotspot and it will also charge your phone. The only negative with this method is you can only connect one device at a time to your phones internet connection and that too if you have USB drivers installed.

Bluetooth data sharing is soemthing that is not very common. This is done via the bluetooth radio in the device also known as PAN (Personal Area Network). The setting up time is more for this method and the internet is quite slower comapred to the Wifi hotspot. This method consumes less battery as well. This is one method that can be useful when you are trying to preserve battery and dont mind the slow connection at times.

For me the WiFi hotspot is the best method when I am around the city travelling and I prefer USB when I am sitting in a cafe.

So stop downloading the apps which lets you connect internet to multiple devices and make use of your smartphones capablities.

[techsparta]

A big PS4 update is rolling out!

The PlayStation 4 is getting a big update with some features that were on hold for a while.

The major things in this update will include:

Suspend / Resume feature,with which players can jump in and out of the game quickly by putting the console into a rest mode. Push the power button of PS4 again to turn it back on and pick up where you left off. Sony says the feature will be "supported by almost all of your PS4 games." (some titles are not

Ability to backup and restore saved data and user settings to an external USB drive.

New social features, letting you find Facebook friends who also own a PS4. With the "Friends Who Play This" option, you'll also be able to figure out which friends are playing the same games.

Just like Twitter - introducing new verified accounts; a badge on select accounts will let you see the person you are playing against cetrain game developers.

Dailymotion has been added to the list of services where you can upload your gameplay clips.

For any future updates, Sony is introducing a new option to install them automatically. There's a lot more in the update, including better accessibility features, so check out the PlayStation blog for the full list of updates.

[techsparta]

Google Panda: your new & cute personal assitant!

Google Japan today unveiled the most adorable and cute personal assistant: Google Panda. as you can see from the video that Google Panda is not only cute but smart enough to answer anything you ask him. Using Google Now, the Panda will answer you questions in 0.3 seconds and it recognises upto 50 languages

Google Panda comes in two sizes (Google Panda 5 & Google Panda 6) and it can be attached to your arm when you go outside. Watch the announcement and see Google Panda in action in the video below:

P.S. Happy Arpil Fool’s day!!

[techsparta]

Samsung introduces Glaxy BLADE EDGE: Knife of tomorrow

Samsung announced the world’s first Smart Knife with smartphone capablities, Galaxy BLADE edge is the ultimate cooking companion, made with the modern chef in mind. Samsung claimed that this knife will make all knives in your kitchen obsolete!!

One of the features of this device is you can cut chop and slice upto 50% faster with the set of sensors and algorithms that analyze your grip, dexterity and strength. The blade also features a fingerprint sensor which does have a finger detection mechnism that will help you not to cut your fingers. With the help of human blood sensor, BLADE will automatically retract if you cut your finger.

According to Samsung it designed the Galaxy BLADE edge to be the champion of all kitchen knives, no longer will the modern chef require any other smartphone or a set of knives again.

As you have guessed this is not an actual product or concept but Samsung’s April Fool’s prank!

[techsparta]

Sony's SmartEyeglass

Sony’s SmartEyeglass Attach debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show this year, offering up a smart display module that adds connected intelligence to any kind of existing eyeware - be they optical frames, protective goggles or sunglasses. 

The concept and design is on similar lines of Google glass. Sony has released the first video of the device in action. With google's galss project back to the drawing board, Sony could swoop in and take an early lead in this market.

Sony is encouraging developers to build for the platform, and given that this is already v2 of its smart eyeware concept, they might be the best bet when it comes to building for the long-term.

[techsparta]

NVIDIA announced TERGA X1 Mobile processor based on Maxwell architecture

At a press conference in Las Vegas, Nvidia today announced an update to its Tegra K1 mobile processor. The X1 combines a 64-bit ARM_based processor with a graphics chip based on the company’s Maxwell architecture. 

The K1 used Nvidia’s older Kepler GPU technology. The X1 will feature a 256-core Maxwell GPU and an eight-core 64bit CPU. That, the company says, makes it the first teraflop mobile processor.

The original Tegra K1, was the first mobile processor that brought together a strong mobile CPU with a very powerful GPU. Bringing Kepler to the K1 took Nvidia two years.

Nvidia unveiled the original K1 a year ago at CES. It has since found a home in a number of products, including a number of Chromebooks from manufacturers like Acer and HP. Nvidia’s own Shield tablet and Google’s Nexus 9 also used the chip. The Kepler chip in the Shield and Nexus 9 already approached console-level quality and this new chip, the company said today, surpasses those specs by at least 2x. It also introduces a number of new technologies. 

“The Maxwell is unquestionably the most powerful GPU we’ve ever built,” the company said today. The X1 will also be far more energy efficient as its predecessor.

[techsparta]

YUREKA Phone launching in India @ INR 8,999/-

First look of the most awaited phone, YUREKA. RT if love it too. @CyanogenInc #YUPlayGod pic.twitter.com/LRDQIU5K9M

— YU (@YUplaygod) December 18, 2014

Micromax and Cynogen Inc launched their first phone under YU Brand on Thursday. Its been priced at INR 8,999/- and will be available exclusively on Amazon India

Are you ready to activate God mode yet? #ComingSoon @ http://t.co/0VHy3kzXsh #AmazonExclusive pic.twitter.com/cifIznwqCd

— Amazon.in (@amazonIN)

December 16, 2014

The YUREKA is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 615, octa-core processor clocking at 1.5 GHz, with 5.5-inch screen and 2 GB RAM. It has dual-SIM, screen resolution of 720p with Gorilla Glass 3. The phone will support 4G networks in India!!

The rear camera has 13 mega-pixel Sony sensor with aperture of F2.2, it can record 1080p video at 30fps. The front facing camera is 5 mega-pixel (for the selfie lovers). The device will have 16 GB internal memory and a microSD card slot for external memory. Battery is 2500mAh.

The partnership between Micromax and Cynogen Inc will allow Micromax to use CynogenMod exclusively in India and Indian customers with Yu phone will get updates from Cynogen for the OS.

[techsparta]

Waterforce GTX980 3-Way SLI Kit

Gigabyte today introduced the Waterforce to Indian market, in an event held at the ITC grand Central in Mumbai. The water-cooled system features three Nvidia Geforce GTX 980 graphic cards in an SLI setup, with enough capabilities to run any game.

We had hands on with the Waterforce with Far Cry 4 in three display setup and not surprisingly the gameplay was very smooth.

Each graphics card is pre-installed with the exclusive water cooling unit and radiator connected with a pair of coolant pipes. All three independent radiators are placed inside the external metal watercooling box. The intuitive control panel with an OLED display located at the box’ front panel enable gamers to check the performance of the 3 graphics cards in real time.

  This intuitive control management offers two control mechanisms for gamers. By utilizing the Target Temperature Mode, the fan and pump speed of each card will be automatically adjusted to attain uniform user-defined GPU temperature across all 3 cards with a few simple clicks. Gamers could also make use of the Fan/Pump Control Mode to adjust each card’s fan and pump configuration individually as preferred for achieving other desired performances.

With the exclusive 3-way closed loop liquid cooling architecture, the WATERFORCE breaks through the multi-way configuration air cooling limitation and keeps all the cards cool at the same temperature level. Without having any of the cards gone overheating, the system is able to perform up to 42.6% lower in operating temperatures overall and 13.1 dB lower in acoustic performance under load compared to a 3-way SLI reference cooler for ultra-stable extreme gaming in near silence.

Easy-to-Install Liquid Cooling Solution

The GTX 980 WATERFORCE 3-way SLI Kit is packed in a hard cover suitcase to ensure well-round protection during delivery. Straight out of the box, the main liquid cooling components are installation-ready and take only few simple steps to assemble the system without breaking a sweat. GIGABYTE also provides dedicated online support for users in case of needing any assistance.

The package also includes a 3-way SLI bridge with the illuminated logo, a VGA jack that supports and spaces in between cards, pipe clams for tubing management, and a WATERFORCE drive-bay front panel for routing the pipes to make it a complete kit.

 Availability

The GTX 980 WATERFORCE 3-way SLI Kit (GV-N980X3WA-4GD) will be available in India through INGRAM and its network of channel partners. It is protected by a 3-year carry-in warranty. We don’t have any confirmation on the price but Gigabyte officials told us the MSRP would be somewhere in between INR 2.25L to INR 2.5L

Note that Waterforce is three graphics cards, the water cooling box and all the parts needed to set those up. Other PC components like the motherboard, CPU, RAM and SMPS have to be purchased separately.

[techsparta]

Sony wants to make your normal glass into smartglass!

Sony has just announced a new attachable display module that can turn a "pair of fashionable glasses, goggles, sunglasses, or other type of eyewear" into smart glasses.

It’s completely detachable so you can remove it whenever you want to. This module is made of a control board where the Bluetooth and WiFi sensors, processor along with a 640x400 OLED microdisplay that serves as your screen.

Sony plans to start mass production in 2015, so we'll likely hear about new devices equipped with this module in a year or two.

[techsparta]

3D Visualisation of how moible camera works!

Many people know how mobile phone camera works, conceptually. Its not easy to imagine how it really works. Here is a visualization of the how mobile camera captures and displays a photo taken behind the lens of a Nokia Lumia 1020.

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Peer-to-peer browser by BitTorrent, with your help!!

BitTorrent is looking for Alpha testers for a new product called Project Maelstrom: a browser based on the company's peer-to-peer sharing technology.

What does that mean, exactly? Well, the company's keeping details under cover, but if the browser works just like a torrent client, then it will most likely load websites from peers instead of from servers. BitTorrent believes that its success could not only protect people's privacy online, but also help maintain net neutrality and keep the web open.

Part of the announcement post reads:

How can we keep the Internet open? How can we keep access to the Internet neutral? How can we better ensure our private data is not misused by large companies? How can we help the Internet scale efficiently for content?

The power of distributed technology that underpins BitTorrent and all of our products has long been an example in this regard and bringing more of this power to the web is only natural as these challenges loom.

Project Maelstrom is still in the very early stages, so whether a P2P-based browser will work remains to be seen.

If you want to lend a hand in shaping a new type of browser, you can sign up as an Alpha tester on the company's website.

[techsparta]

Wikipedia as Virtual Galaxy

Wikipedia is useful, but French computer science student Owen Cornec believes in displaying the entries "in a more engaging way." And he created WikiGalaxy: a special Wikipedia browser that visualizes the website as a 3D galaxy. Each star represents an article, and related entries form clusters of stars -- clicking a star loads the entry itself on the left-hand panel and links to relevant articles on the right. If you want to make browsing Wiki even more interactive, you can activate "fly-mode," which sends you zooming through the stars with each click. It's a really fun way to discover new articles, and you have to try it out if you can.

For specific articles use the search box provided on top left corner or jsut visit Wikipedia. Cornec says his next step is color-coding the stars based on their super-categories, like People and Science, but you can use WikiGalaxy right now.

You don't even need to have Google's browser installed it worked just fine on Firefox when we tried.

[techsparta]

Puzzlephone - the new modular phone

Looks like Google's modular Project Ara smartphone has some fresh competition. Circular Devices are working on the Puzzlephone, a simpler take on Android phones that you can upgrade yourself. Instead of letting you replace things piece-by-piece, it divides parts into "the Brain" (core electronics and camera), "the Heart" (battery and secondary tech) and "the Spine" (LCD, speakers and basic shape).

Puzzlephone not as flexible as Ara, but design looks sleekar; you can swap in a new module when you want a faster processor, a fresh battery or new features. The goal is to have a base phone that can last for 10 years, rather than two or three.

Circular Devices is near the prototype stage and hopes to have a shipping product in the second half of 2015, but a finished release depends on additional funding.

The challenge for Puzzlephone is Project Ara, which has the full support of both Google and hardware partners. None the less its good that we have an alternate to Google's Ara and it should be interesting to see how these two go on head to head. I am very sure that Google has an upper hand but the details on the

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Nokia N1 - Nokia's return to Hardware

Meet the Nokia N1: a 7.9-inch Android tablet running some Nokia software that looks like a giant iPhone. It'll cost you $250 when it launches, but it's slated to land in China first in time for Chinese New Year (that's February 19, 2015).

The 7.9 inch display has 2048x1536 resolution with Gorilla® glass 3 andIPS panel with LED backlight. The display is fully laminated with zero air-gap display.There’s a 64-bit 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3580 paired with 2GB of RAM in there, and 32GB of storage for all your digital content. It has 8 MP rear-facing camera with autofocus and 5 MP front-facing camera, fixed focus. It can record videos in 1080p. The battery is 5300 mAh, which shall give you around 8-10 hours of usage (my guess!!) The tablet will be wi-fi only. N1 runs Android 5.0 out of the box, but Nokia has their custom Z Launcher on top of Android. The launcher keeps tabs on the apps and actions you use frequently and as you keep using them a list will be shown on your homescreen. The N1 is a curious little beast, a chimaera of sorts infused with DNA from Nokia, Google and Apple (even though Nokia would probably deny that last one). We're not sure if Nokia can move the needle in a crazy-competitive tablet market, but there is one thing we're sure of: we can't wait to try this thing out. The N1 is a curious little beast, a mixture of Apple’s looks and Google’s OS. I am not sure how this tablet is going to stand in the competitive market of tablets but the only thing I can say right now is : I can’t wait to get my hands on Nokia N1.

[techsparta]

Super - opinion sharing app by Twitter Co-founder

A new opinion sharing app - SUPER, launched today for Android and iOS. It allows you to express your opinions with text prompts such as “The Worst”, “The craziest”,”The Sexiest”, etc along with a relevant photo and it allows you to change color of text, use filters for photo before posting. You can use text and photo together to express your view. A double tap on a post likes it. This is second app from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone’s new company Jelly, the first one “Jelly” a Q&A app, which basically flopped. Biz Stone wrote in his blog "I'm also not going to proclaim that it's the most innovative thing ever or that it's going to save the world. It's not, it's just fun.”

The app looks promising but with a few bugs that are being reported by users. Since the app was launched today, I am waiting for people to join in and start sharing their opinions.

This app has potential.