Google to shut down Gtalk today, will force users to switch to Hangouts

tarting today, users will have to move away from Google Talk and embrace Hangouts, whether they like it or not. Yes, Google is all set to force users to switch to Hangouts, as it seems to be the future for the search giant.
This isn’t surprising as Google had already made it clear as Gtalk was unavailable for download from Google. Last year, GTalk was suddenly replaced with Hangouts and most people started finding it very confusing. Users looking to download Gtalk were redirected to Google Hangouts download page.
However, this week, Google has made it quite clear that GTalk will no longer be operational starting Feb 16.Moreover, looks like, Google wants to bind the desktop version to Chrome, forcing users to move to Chrome.Could WhatsApp churning out a web client be the reason for this?
Most users are accustomed to the familiar Gtalk interface, which is also believed to load better than Google Hangout on slow internet connections.
Though Google tried to bring everything – phone calls, sms, messaging and video conferencing – in one place, it hasn’t worked. Hangouts isn’t as popular as WhatsApp, WeChat or some other messaging apps.

Samsung is still on top in India, Micromax and Intex follow: Counterpoint survey

A new report from Counterpoint Research has said that Samsung is still the number one Indian smartphone manufacturer, followed by Micromax and Intex. The numbers stand  in complete contrast to an earlier Canalys report, which stated that Micromax had over taken Samsung to be India’s leading smartphone manufacturer. Samsung has already dissed the Canalys report, saying it is still the leading smartphone brand in India with a 34 percent market share.
The Canalys report said that Micromax accounted for 22 percent of smartphone sales in India in the October-December quarter, ahead of Samsung’s 20 percent. It also said that Karbonn and Lava were in the third and fourth spot respectively.
The Counterpoint Research numbers are completely different from Canalys’ report. According to them, Samsung leads India’s smartphone market with a 27.4 percent market share, Micromax is nearly 7.9 percentage points behind at 19.4. Intex is number three according to the survey with a 6.5 percent share, followed by Lava with 5.1 percent and Lenovo at number 5, thanks to the Motorola acquisition. The data for is Q4, 2014 from October to December.
The survey said that smartphone shipments stood close to 22 Million during Q4 2014 in India, which is a close to Canalys’ number of 21.6 million shipments.
According to the survey, Samsung led the overall mobile phone and smartphone market during the quarter with a market share of 16.1 percent and 27.4 percent respectively. Intex entered the top 5 smartphone vendor rankings for the first time in a quarter, notes the report.
Also Motorola cross 3 million shipments in 2014, while Xiaomi smartphone shipments grew almost 250 percent quarter-on-quarter, says Counterpoint. Interestingly the report also comments on Apple’ iPhone shipment, a number rarely mentioned in any mobile report in India. According to the numbers, Apple saw shipments in India touch half a million units for the first time in a quarter with strong demand for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
The latest numbers from Counterpoint prove that there’s something very wrong when it comes to research on mobile phones in India. Research firm IDC, which is also a well-sought source for numbers on mobile tracking hasn’t yet released Q4, 2014 data for India’s smartphone market, so for now a major report is still missing.  For now the contradictions in the Canalys and Counterpoint research report are too big to be ignored and need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

YouTube is testing a new multi-angle feature for videos

Videos on YouTube are going to get even more vigorous thanks to a new feature which the company is testing out. YouTube has began experimenting a way to allow users to upload multiple camera angles for their videos. Viewers can then choose between various viewing angles as they like. This of course, means a lot more production work for film-makers.
As of now, the feature is only available for desktop versions and can be tested only in the US. For starters, the company has released a live performance of artist Madilyn Bailey and is open to take various other requests who would like to help out experiment the feature.

The new feature works in a way where a few thumbnails appear on the right side of the video and disappear once it’s started. Viewers can try out whichever camera angle they prefer. When we tried out the feature, it worked out fine. No lag was experienced and the video quality wasn’t affected either. The video was not available in Full HD though and can only support 720p for now.
This feature will be widely appreciated while watching concerts online or even sports as it enhances the viewing experience. In conversation with Mashable, a YouTube spokesperson Matt McLernon said that, “We want to give artists as many ways to connect with their fans as possible, and this experimental feature brings fans even further into creating the experience they want.”
In an effort to make changes, YouTube had updated their app with material design and search filters last year. YouTube’s version 6.0 has added different menu colors along with a more soft and easy effect. The menu bar slides from the left. Colors are lighter and are aesthetically pleasing. It complements then newly received Android Lollipop update.
YouTube had also announced offline-video viewing feature for mobile phone users in India. This will let mobile phone users take a video offline, using either Wi-fi or data plan and this video will be available for unlimited viewing for the next 48 hours.

Xiaomi phones to be made in India

Speculations over Xiaomi manufacturing phones in India are once again heating up. According to a report in Digitimes, Chinese OEM Inventec is planning to set up production lines at a leased factory in Chennai. The plant is likely to be Nokia's idle plant in Chennai.


Though Inventenc refused to disclose the devices it will manufacture at the Chennai plant, the report said "the production lines are likely to roll out smartphones and other devices for China-based Xiaomi Technology initially, according to industry watchers."

The production is likely to begin at the end of the second or beginning of the third quarter of 2015.

Chinese handset maker Xiaomi also recently announced plans to set up a research and development unit in Bangalore, its first such facility outside of its home country.

"We have always stated that India is one of our most important markets. We are in process of signing the lease on a facility in Bangalore, which will be our R&D unit. This is the first one outside China," Xiaomi India head Manu Jain said.

Work on the facility is expected to commence by the end of March and in the next few months, it will be operational, Jain added.

Besides, Xiaomi is also looking at bringing in its own e-commerce website into the country to sell its products here.
India is one of the largest markets for Xiaomi outside of China.
Founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneur Lei Jun, Xiaomi is often referred to as the 'Apple of China' and featured in Boston Consulting Group's top 50 most innovative companies in the world list last year.

Now, turn your eyeglasses into sunglasses at your command

Washington: If you are fed up of carrying spectacles and sunglasses separately, or are annoyed at your transitional lenses glasses, which change with light, here's some good news!

Imagine eyeglasses that can go quickly from clear to shaded and back again when you want them to, rather than passively in response to changes in light.

In the study, led by Anna Osterholm in John Reynolds' group at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the researchers point out that most transitional lenses now in the market don't meet many users' needs. When wearers are driving or wearing a baseball cap, for example, the lenses stay clear rather than switching to a darker shade even in broad daylight.

Also, the majority of available versions don't block out the harshest light, such as bright light reflected off snow. And the change from colour to clear can take several minutes, which has safety implications for certain users including airline pilots. Reynolds' team wanted to find a way to solve these issues.

The researchers have now designed a new kind of lens that can switch within seconds from clear to darkly shaded and back again in response to a small electrical charge that a wearer could control. They can also fine-tune the colour of the lenses to match the full range of hues used in commercial sunglasses. To make the lenses, they say they used a method that could be easily scaled up for manufacturing.

The findings are reported in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

Microsoft invests in rogure Android start-up Cyanogen

Microsoft is investing in a hot start-up that’s trying to weaken Google's hold over Android.

People familiar with the matter say Microsoft is putting money into Cyanogen, which is building a version of the Android mobile-operating system outside of Google’s auspices.

Microsoft would be a minority investor in a roughly $US70 million round of equity financing that values Cyanogen in the high hundreds of millions, one of the people said. The person said the financing round could grow with other strategic investors that have expressed interest in Cyanogen because they’re also eager to diminish Google’s control over Android. The identity of the other potential investors couldn’t be learned.

Spokespeople for Microsoft and Cyanogen declined to comment.

The investment would be unusual, because Microsoft offers its own Windows Phone mobile operating system. But Windows Phone has only about three per cent market share, which may be prompting Microsoft to consider unconventional steps.

Android was intended as an “open source” operating system that hardware makers can deploy in their devices for free. Yet Google has frustrated manufacturers in recent years by requiring them to feature Google apps and set Google search as the default for users, in exchange for access to the search engine, YouTube, or the millions of apps in its Play Store.

Such restrictions make it harder for apps that compete with Google’s to win distribution on Android devices. For Microsoft, that means less exposure for its Bing search engine, which is up against Google search. It also could limit growth of other Microsoft software products.

Cyanogen offers an alternate version of the Android mobile operating system free of such restrictions. The 80-person company claims to have a volunteer army of 9,000 software developers working on its own version of Android.

“We’re going to take Android away from Google,” said Kirt McMaster, Cyanogen’s chief executive, in a brief interview last week. The next day, at an industry event sponsored by tech news service The Information, McMaster said Cyanogen had raised $US100 million to date. Previously the company had disclosed that it raised $US30 million of funding. The company spokeswoman declined to make McMaster available for this story.

McMaster said more than 50 million people use a version of the Cyanogen Android operating system, most of whom have installed it in place of their phone’s initial operating system.

To spread adoption more quickly, Cyanogen is working on deals with hardware makers to install the software on their devices. It recently signed a deal with Indian smartphone maker Micromax to ship handsets with Cyanogen’s software and is close to announcing more such deals, say people familiar with the matter.

A third mobile ecosystem as an alternative to rivals Google and Apple could help Microsoft better distribute its apps and services on smartphones.

“Cyanogen may have a greater chance than Microsoft to build a third ecosystem for mobile,” says Rajeev Chand, managing director at Rutberg & Co., an investment bank focused on the mobile industry.

Independent versions of the Android operating system are already popular, particularly in China where Google has struggled to enter the market. In total, these other versions represented 37 per cent of Android shipments world-wide in the third quarter, according to Strategy Analytics.

Smartphone makers and wireless carriers are looking for a standard bearer to offset Google’s growing market power, Chand says.

Prior investors in Cyanogen included Benchmark Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Chinese social-networking giant Tencent. New venture capital investors are expected to join the strategic corporate investors in this latest round of funding.

Xiaomi’s Mi 3 has started receiving MIUI 6 OS update; Redmi Note and Redmi 1S to follow up in March

Xiaomi Mi3 during our review of the smartphone.

0

By tech2 News Staff /  30 Jan 2015 , 14:55

At the launch of Xiaomi’s flagship smartphone – Mi4, the company confirmed that other Xiaomi smartphones would receive the MIUI 6 update based on Android OS in India. The Mi 4 smartphone already comes with MIUI 6.

The Redmi 1S and Redmi Note 3G will get the update by March where as the Redmi Note 4G will get the update by early February. Xiomi Mi 3 is now receiving the MIUI 6 update in India.

MI 3 users will receive an OTA (over-the-air) update for the new OS, but if you can’t wait that long to try it out, you can download it from Xiaomi’s forum. Xiaomi claims to have made MIUI 6 less distracting and there’s definitely a big change when you compare the existing MIUI5 to the upcoming version.

Key features of the MIUI 6 include Motion, Colour Content, Customisation and Security. It will also introduce animation to some apps like Clock, Weather, and Device unlock, etc.

The new features in the dialler

The upgrade also allows floating notifications, which have been seen in the past. This means that if you get a call you don’t have to leave an app to answer it. There’s also a division of Notifications on the basis of those that are important and unimportant, which users can customise according to their preference.

Users can also choose what notifications that they would like to see in the Locked Screen mode and deny apps specific permissions by going into Permissions Manager.

Mail app looks very much like the iOS app

A lot of the skeuomorphic or real-world design elements have been toned down, which is evident in the clock, and calculator app, both of which sport a much cleaner look now. Similarly the camera app has been toned down, with the big target buttons replaced by clearer targets that float on the screen.

It does add a great deal of cleanliness to the camera UI, which earlier had broad bands on top and bottom with the icons.

Recently, Xiaomi had a flash sale for the Mi3 on Republic Day. Only a limited number of units were be available and that too on a first-come-first-serve basis. There was no information provided as to many devices were sold and how fast they sold. This is unusual, considering that the company has always gained huge publicity with the fact that their devices have been selling out in a matter of seconds.