Chromecast now available for purchase on Play Store in India
Covered by Talk Android’s Josh Levenson last month (link here), India got its first ability to purchase the Chromecast from Snapdeal during Google’s annual Great Online Shopping Festival. Rajan Anandan, Head of Google India, had made the announcement but gave no indication on when we might see the Chromecast grace India’s Google Play Store.
Starting today, our sisters & brothers on the other side of the globe can get the Chromecast from the Play Store now! It’ll run you a small ₹2999 (Rs).
Similar to the dongle’s launch in the western part of the world, apps are limited at first. Indians can expect Eros Now, Rdio, Spuul, and YuppTV to be included initially, with Google hard at work on bringing more apps in the future.
To run the device, your TV needs to support a HDMI input and you need to have a WiFi signal in your domicile. Of course, you also need some smart device that can cast to it (a PC or laptop will suffice as well).
Source: Fonearena
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Disqus app updated for Windows Phone with visual tweaks, Channels and more
After picking up an update with a Dark theme option last week, Disqus has been updated once again, bringing a few visual tweaks and a new community feature to the app.
T-Mobile announces new Score! device purchase program
The Uncarrier is offering up a new way to save some money. T-Mobile introduced their new Score! program today, which can save you a good chunk of money on new phone purchases, and even score you free phones. For a fee.
T-Mobile’s new SCORE! is a paid service, available to users on prepaid or postpaid contracts. Simply pay in $5 per month, after just six months you’ll be eligible to upgrade your current device to a free entry level phone. After twelve months, the deals go up, a larger selection of free phones become available, you’ll find savings of up to $200 on devices all the way to the latest flagship offerings.
The phones currently on hand include the entry level Alcatel Onetouch Evolve 2, free after six months. Mid rangers include the Alcatel Onetouch Fierce 2 and LG Optimus L90, free after a year. At the top, the Google Nexus 6, Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy S5 are on deck at a discount.
Is Score! worth it?
The bottom line when it comes to deals like these, are they worth it? At face value, the answer is yes, Score! is worth it. That free phone after six months will cost you just $30 in Score! fees, regularly $80 or more. Your $60 of Score! fees after a year will get you free phones worth upwards of $198 regularly, or as much as $150 off the regular price of the Nexus 6 or Note 4.
Where can you go wrong with Score!? That’s simple. For starters, at least in the first round, T-Mobile offers a limited selection of devices in the program. From there, the longer you wait to upgrade the less money you will save. If you do not go for the free entry level phone every six months, or cannot commit to purchasing a new higher end device every year, this may not be the program for you.
Head on over to the T-Mobile website to check out all of the details of the new Score! program.
Do you think the Uncarrier is doing a good thing here, can you benefit from T-Mobile’s new Score! program?
Apple Launches ‘Free on iTunes’ Section With Free TV and Music Downloads [Mac Blog]
Apple today added a new “Free on iTunes” section in the iTunes Store, featuring free downloads of songs and full length TV episodes. The section replaces Apple’s “iTunes Single of the Week”, which previously offered free songs from popular and indie music artists.
Currently, Apple is offering full-length TV episodes from shows including Fox’s Backstrom, Syfy’s 12 Monkey’s, Disney Channel’s KC Undercover, and MTV’s Eye Candy. On the music side, Apple is offering downloads from artists such as Purity Ring, Jauz, Asking Alexandria, and Guster.
Apple’s “Free on iTunes” section is live now, and it is likely that the company will offer new content every week as it has done with the iTunes Single of the Week and its App of the Week section.
Samsung Debuts Gear VR Films at Sundance
Amongst the independent art films and critical hits showcased at the Sundance Film Festival last week, there was a different kind of visual experience showed off to the masses. Samsung’s Galaxy VR brought virtual reality to the guests at the festival with three experiences, all created by Felix & Paul Studios.
The first short is called Herders, and features Mongolian pastoral herders—one of the last remaining nomadic cultures. The viewer gets to see 7 minutes of life in the herder’s shoes. The second is called Wild- The Experience and features some star power. Reese Witherspoon stars as her character from Wild as you share an intimate 3 minute long moment between her and her ghostly mother. The last film is called Strangers with Patrick Watson, and features the musician and his Montreal studio on a wintery day. Although the films aren’t long or looking to take home any awards, Samsung’s inclusion in the festival at least shows how virtual reality is making progress in its move to the mainstream. Source: Android Central
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NASA wants helicopter drones to lead the way for Mars rovers
Rovers have a tough time getting across Mars’ vast, unforgiving landscape. They can’t see very far ahead, and the crew back home can only offer so much help by looking at orbital imagery. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory may have a clever solution to that problem, though: an aerial robot scout. Its proposed Mars Helicopter drone would fly ahead of rovers and give operators a much better view of the Martian terrain, helping them plot the quickest route to interesting locales. It could even find a safe spot to deposit samples that future rovers would pick up.
The robotic chopper currently exists as just a tech demo, and it’ll take some testing to prove that this small automaton (it’s 3.6 feet from blade to blade) is ready for the Red Planet. If it makes the cut, though, it could let Mars rovers cover much more ground than they have so far — JPL estimates that these machines could travel three times further in a given day. The project could easily be worthwhile if it means both completing missions faster and discovering things about Mars that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Spartan browser looks to crush old Internet Explorer 11 in benchmarks
Windows 10 is shaping up to be a big OS shift for many reasons, including the addition of a new web browser codenamed Spartan. Spartan is still very experimental and as such, it is not included in the current Preview for Windows 10. However, bits of the rendering engine can be engaged in the older Internet Explorer 11.
AnandTech forced the new Edge document mode in IE11 through a simple trick using about:flags. They then compared the new rendering engine to legacy IE11, Chrome 40, and Firefox 35. The results are very impressive so far, demonstrating that even in these early stages, what powers Spartan could be quite powerful.
Samsung to Produce Majority of Apple’s A9 Chips for Next-Generation iPhone
Samsung will be the main supplier of Apple’s upcoming A9 chip that will power the next-generation iPhone, reports South Korean newspaper Maeil Business (via Reuters). The newspaper notes that Samsung will supply around 75% of chips for the next iPhone, and that the processors will be produced at the company’s factory in Austin, Texas.
Apple’s A8 chip
Last month, a report from Korea’s ET News said that Samsung had begun work on the processor in Texas. Previous reports noted that Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) would be producing the A9 chip, although Samsung was chosen to be the primary supplier in a deal that was said to be worth billions. BusinessKorea reported last month that Apple would be relying more heavily on Samsung for iPhone 6 and Apple Watch components including RAM, NAND flash storage, and batteries.
Apple’s A9 chip is expected to power the iPhone 6s and presumably the next-generation iPad Air and iPad mini. Apple is also expected to launch a larger-screened iPad Pro at some point this year, although that device has been rumored to utilize Apple’s A8X processor. 
Samsung-made chips tipped to power the majority of Apple’s next iPhone
Samsung will reportedly power the majority of the next-generation iPhone according to Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper. The report says that the Korean company will claim 75 percent of processor chip production for Apple’s next smartphone: Samsung one of a few companies that have the scale to provide high-end processors in the numbers that Apple needs for its iPhones. The Korean company was the one responsible for crafting the A7 SoC powering the iPhone 5S two years ago, although an apparent exclusive deal with TSMC meant that wasn’t involved in Apple’s two new phones in 2014. It’s unlikely that Samsung and Apple are all-of-a-sudden BFFs, but, well, business is business. We’ve reached out to both companies for a response.
Filed under: Cellphones, Apple, Samsung
Via: Reuters
Source: MK Business
Internet Explorer Edge? Possible names for Spartan browser reportedly being considered
The Spartan browser, or more accurately understood as ‘Project Spartan’ is a next-generation web browser for Windows 10. Its main features include being a Store app for dynamic updates, using the older IE11 rendering engine for legacy websites, Cortana integration, and the ability to annotate right on the web page for document sharing.
However, Spartan is not the final name, just the internal codename that Microsoft is currently using for the project. The question is, what will Microsoft call the browser upon its final release? A new report suggests a few names are being kicked around and we have the list.
The information comes from a person who participated in an online survey from a company acting on behalf of Microsoft. Although ‘Spartan’ was not named specifically, it was referred to in the description including “Writing on webpages”, “A built-in digital assistant” and the fact that it is a browser from Microsoft launching later this year. No doubt that the survey is referring to Project Spartan.
AIVAnet 