Nokia C1 renders leak ahead of launch, hints at 4GB RAM and dual rear cameras

Is Nokia working on its own AI assistant for smartphones?

Nokia is planning its return to the smartphone industry with two new flagship smartphones. The Finnish smartphone maker is expected to showcase its first products at Mobile World Congress in February and now a new leak suggests that one of those devices could be the Nokia C1.

Nokia C1 renders have now appeared on Weibo and offers a rather unusual design. The renders show Nokia C1 to feature metal unibody design with the screen dominating the front. The smartphone also seems to drop the physical home button with front camera and another sensor tucked in between a large speaker grille. There is a similar speaker layout at the bottom edge of the screen as well.

The smartphone also seems to have buttons placed at the right hand side of the device. It is unclear whether these buttons are physical or capacitive ones. Interestingly, the render hints at the device adopting dual rear camera mechanism with LED flash placed at either side of the camera. The smartphone sports a combination of 16 + 12MP rear camera setup with Xenon flash and triple LED flash aiding for low light photography. However, the front camera is a modest 5MP one.

The leaked images also reveal that the smartphone will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 830 processor aided by 4GB DDR4 RAM and option of 32/64/128GB storage.  The smartphone houses a 3210mAh battery and runs Android 7.1 Nougat.

Nokia C1 uses USB-C port for data and charging while there also seems to be a 3.5mm audio jack. The smartphone is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2017. If these renders turn out to be true, then we are definitely looking at one sleek and hot-selling Android smartphone in 2017.

#101 N is for Nougat: Google unveils the official name for Android N

Say hello to Android Nougat v7.0

After months of speculation, Google finally announced that the name of the next version of Android will be Nougat. The company made the announcement via Twitter and also unveiled a statue of its mascot standing on some pieces of nougat. The version number for Android Nougat will be 7.0. 

At Google I/O, the company had announced that it was crowdsourcing the name of of the next version of Android. One of the suggested names included Nutella, which may have been preferred for Google’s Senior Vice President, Hiroshi Lockheimer. Another name that was suggested was a South Indian treat called Neyappam. The Kerala Government, via its Twitter account, even encouraged people to vote for the name.

The developer preview for Android N, or should we say Android Nougat, launched a few months back. The upcoming update would include features such a multi-window support on phones and tablets that would allow users to run two apps side-by-side in split screen mode. Further, the update would also allow users to reply to notifications from within the notification interface. Android Nougat also improves upon the Doze feature that was introduced in Marshmallow and introduces a data saver mode.

Further, Google also announced a new VR platform that was built into Android Nougat called Daydream. The new platform is a more capable than Google Cardboard and would needs some basic hardware requirements for a device in order to work.

 

 

#100 Apple’s Secret Design Lab Where It’s Working To Make iPhones Even Thinner

PowerTech & Powertechmation: Short Bytes: Earlier this year, Apple began working on a secret design lab in Taiwan that focused on making the next-gen displays for its future devices. The latest media reports have suggested that the lab has at least 50 engineers and other employees who are working on new LCD and OLED screen technologies to make the devices even thinner.

Just like every other smartphone company, Apple is working hard to make its future smartphone thinners and more powerful. This never ending quest of the smartphone makers is motivated further by users’ fantasies to own thinner devices. To achieve this goal, Apple has opened a new production laboratory in northern Taiwan.

The secret design lab of Apple is rumored to work on the new LCD and OLED screen technologies for the future Apple devices. Exposed by Bloomberg, this lab has at least 50 engineers and other employees working upon the new screens for iPads and iPhones.

It’s being reported that Apple has recruited the manpower from the local company AU Optronics Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. This lab began its functions earlier this year to make more advanced liquid-crystal displays and adopt the use of organic LEDs which don’t even need a backlight.

This move by Apple is expected to reduce Apple’s dependency on its long-time suppliers like Samsung, LG, Sharp, and Japan Display. This report about outsourcing this job to the local manufacturers was soon reflected in the stocks of the companies that recorded a big jump.

“Shares of AU Optronics surged 7 percent, the most in four months, in Taipei and Innolux jumped 2.6 percent. Japan Display dropped 3.9 percent in Tokyo to the lowest in more than two months, and Sharp fell 1.6 percent,” writes Bloomberg.

However, Apple is yet to release any official statement about this secret facility in Taiwan. The reports suggest that Apple won’t be making this transition to the iPhone 8.

In another similar development, 60 Minutes ran a segment on Apple that featured Apple campus, Apple design studio, and the in-progress new headquarter.

Watch the complete video here.

Did you find this news about Apple’s secret lab interesting? Tell us your views in the comments below.

#99 Indian Origin Researcher Invents Lens That Could Spell The End Of Spectacles

An Indian-origin researcher in the UK is developing an adjustable artificial lens, made from the same material found in smartphones and TV screens, which could improve vision in older people with presbyopia and cataracts.

Controlling presbyopia

As people age, their lenses lose flexibility and elasticity. This leads to a condition known as presbyopia, common in people over 45 years old, and can require optical aids, such as reading glasses. Devesh Mistry, a postgraduate research student in the School of Physics and Astronomy, at the University of Leeds are working with liquid crystal to create a truly adjustable artificial lens. "As we get older, the lens in our eye stiffens, when the muscles in the eye contract they can no longer shape the lens to bring close objects into focus," he said.

"Using liquid crystals, which we probably know better as the material used in the screens of TVs and smartphones, lenses would adjust and focus automatically, depending on the eye muscle movement," he added. Using these liquid crystal-based materials, Mistry's research is developing synthetic replacements for the diseased lens in the eye - a new generation of lenses and intra-ocular lens implants to rejuvenate sight.

Devesh is sure that the condition can be cured by using liquid crystals - a material that is not a solid, liquid or a gas but is in the fourth state of matter.

Liquid crystals are structured like a crystal, but its properties can be changed by mechanical or electrical force. It is used in TV and smartphone screens.

The new lens could be inserted into the eye in a quick operation with the application of local anesthetic, similar to how cataracts are currently inserted.

The eye surgeon would make destroy the old lens and replace it with the new one made of liquid crystal.

The prototype goes live in 2018

Mistry is currently researching and developing the lens in the lab and aims to have a prototype ready by the end of his doctorate in 2018. Within a decade, the research could see the new lens being implanted into eyes in a quick and straightforward surgical procedure under local anaesthetic. Eye surgeons would make an incision in the cornea and use ultrasound to break down the old lens.The liquid crystal lens would then be inserted, restoring clear vision. The lens could also have application in tackling cataracts - the clouding of natural lenses - which affect many people in later life and which can seriously affect vision. A common treatment is to remove and replace the natural lens.

"Liquid crystals are a very under-rated phase of matter"

Everybody's happy with solids, liquids and gases and the phases of matter, but liquid crystals lie between crystalline solids and liquids. They have an ordered structure like a crystal, but they can also flow like a liquid and respond to stimuli," he said. Mistry is working in collaboration with the Eurolens Research at the University of Manchester and with UltraVision CLPL, a specialist contact lens manufacturer headed by two University of Leeds alumni. His research builds upon previous work by the same collaborators, who developed a prototype contact lens with an electrically-controllable focus using liquid crystals. The first commercially-available liquid crystal lenses could be on sale between six and ten years' time. 

#98 Linux Ubuntu 15.10 Finally Released, Download Year’s 2nd Biggest Release

PoweTech & Powertechmation: Linux Ubuntu 15.10, this year’s second Ubuntu release is finally here. You can find the download link below or check for the update on you already Ubuntu 15.04 running system.

Canonical has finally unwrapped the Linux Ubuntu 15.10 distro. Ubuntu 15.10 is also referred to as the Wily Werewolf and it follows the Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet release of April 23.

The Linux Ubuntu 15.10 comes with the latest OpenStack cloud computing platform and two new Canonical technologies: Autopilot tools for managing OpenStack deployment and LXD for containers.

The Linux Ubuntu 15.10 is based on the Linux kernel 4.2 that was unveiled on August 20th. Ubuntu 15.10 comes with new security and bug fixes and 9 months support.

You can grab the official ISO image of Linux Ubuntu 15.10 from the links below or look for the upgrade in already running Ubuntu 15.04.

Download Ubuntu 15.10

Do you like new Ubuntu 15.10? Comments below.

#97 Nike Unveils “Back To The Future” Self-Lacing Shoes, Michael J Fox Is First To Try

Nike’s power-laced ‘Back to the Future’ shoes to arrive in 2016

Yesterday on the occasion of Back to the Future day, Nike unveiled its Back to the Future shoes which are self locking. And it invited Marty McFly to try them out.

Nike shoe designer Tinker Hatfield sent Fox a letter today that stated, “As the first, most celebrated wearer” of the Nike Mag shoes, “we wanted you to be the first to receive a living pair,” according to a tweet from the actor.

Nike said today in a statement that it “reinvented the conventional lacing system, integrating it into an inimitable design that became an enduring beacon of popular culture.”

“We started creating something for fiction and we turned it into a fact, inventing a new technology that will benefit all athletes,” Nike president and CEO Mark Parker said in a statement today. The company said the 2015 Nike Mag is a limited edition release and will only be available via auction, with all proceeds going to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Additional details will be released in the spring, Nike said.

Earlier this year, Nike filed a patent for a “power lace.” And in 2009, Nike filed a patent for what it called an “Automatic Lacing System.”

Earlier today, a spokesman for Nike would only say that a pair of the self-lacing Nike Mag shoes worn by Marty McFly in the 1989 film “Back to the Future II” is in New York City

Here is the original Marty McFly giving a try to Nike’s Back To The Future shoes

#96 NVIDIA Pascal GPU Has 17 Billion Transistors and 32GB of VRAM, Packs Incredible Performance

GPUs, or Graphic Processing Units, popularized by NVIDIA in 1999, were a step towards accelerated computing to fasten memory intensive works like scientific analyses, engineering models, energy efficient data centers. And now, these processing units also come as separate graphic cards mostly famous for hardcore gaming.

NVIDIA in 2016 will announce their next gen NVIDIA Pascal GPU with an introduction of new technologies. A successor to Maxwell GPU, these new NVIDIA Pascal GPU processors will have the latest HBM2 and 16nm FinFET designs. The new NVIDIA Pascal GPU is believed to have whopping 17 billion transistor networks in its processing unit. These are almost double than on NVIDIA’a previous GM200 Maxwell that has 8 billion transistors and Fiji’s graphic processor that has 8.9 billion transistors.

The number of transistors in NVIDIA Pascal GPU assure of the best performing processing cores ever. The FinFET design technology increases the density of the transistors on the core by two times. Well, that’s the same thing that happened here. Also, the increased speed of above 60 percent and 70% less power consumption makes these GPUs’ wait worth it.

Along with the 17 billion transistors embedded into the core, the Pascal GPUs will also have access to up to 32 GB HBM memory across a 4096 bit memory interface. The new generation NVIDIA Pascal GPU cores have much more bandwidth compared to AMD’s Fiji and other graphic cards.

NVLINK is a unified Virtual Memory link with Gen 2.0 cache coherency features and the bandwidth increased to almost 5-12 times in comparison to general PCIe connection which will be introduced by the NVIDIA Pascal GPU. NVLINK will enable the connection of parallel GPUs that will enhance the performance in PCs for gaming and professional purposes.

The NVIDIA Pascal GPU promises incredible processing and for you an amazing user experience. The company plans to further exceed its computing prowess with Volta GPU with 150 Petaflops of performance and will be launched in 2017.

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