Huawei’s Honor 7i has just one flipping camera
Even though Huawei is just two weeks away from its IFA launch event, it couldn’t help but push out another eccentric device beforehand. In Beijing today, the company unveiled the Honor 7i which, like the Oppo N series, has a camera that can flip around for some quality selfies. The imager in question has a 13-megapixel resolution, an f/2.0 aperture, a 28mm wide-angle lens and dual-tone LED flash, so not bad on paper. Better yet, the Honor 7i can utilize the screen to brighten your selfies in the dark. There’s also a fingerprint reader located on the left side of the mid-frame, and it doubles as a camera button for some easy left-handed selfies.
With the exception of the Honor 7i’s octa-core Snapdragon 616 chipset (4 x 1.5GHz + 4 x 1.2GHz), its internal specs are almost identical to those on the Honor 7: a 5.2-inch 1080p IPS display, up to 3GB of RAM, up to 32GB of internal storage, a 3,100 mAh fixed battery, dual-Nano SIM slots (one of which can take a microSD card) and a color option of either silver or gold.
There’s no word on global availability just yet, but the base model in China (2GB RAM, 16GB of internal storage, for China Mobile) costs 1,599 yuan or about $250, whereas the top model (3GB RAM, 32GB of internal storage) goes for 1,899 yuan or about $300.
Filed under:
Cellphones, Mobile
Via:
Engadget Chinese
Source:
Huawei
Tags: android, china, emui, honor, honor7i, huawei, mobilepostcross, phone, selfie
NASA lists ‘The Martian’ tech that already exists
A lot of sci-fi films feature technologies we still only dream of, such as time traveling or warp drives — Ridley Scott’s and Andy Weir’s The Martian, however, makes use of more realistic ones. In fact, NASA’s already developing a number of technologies used in the film, including a Martian habitat and a spacesuit suited for the planet’s environment. The agency has listed nine technologies shown in the film that already exists in some form — not really surprising, seeing as NASA served as its consultant. Some of them are actually in use aboard the ISS right now, and who knows: the others might be ready in 20 years, when the events in the movie take place.
The agency enumerated these nine on its The Martian portal:
- Habitat: The movie’s protagonist, Mark Watney, stayed in the crew’s habitat when he was left and presumed dead on Mars. NASA’s astronauts train for deep-space missions by staying in a habitat called Human Exploration Research Analog or HERA at the Johnson Space Center.
- Plant farm: The movie shows Watney growing plants so he can have something to eat while waiting to be rescued. In real life, astronauts aboard the ISS ate the veggies they grew in space for the first time earlier this August.
- Water Recovery: Just like Watney, the ISS crew recycles every drop of urine, sweat and water used for washing.
- Oxygen Generation: The ISS astronauts have an Oxygen Generation System that continuously provides air they can breathe.
- Mars Spacesuit: NASA has begun working on the Z-2 spacesuit, which might look rather odd, but will allow humans to explore the red planet.
- Rover: Several rovers had already roamed Mars in the past, but NASA is developing its next-gen deep-space ground vehicle for the planet and for near-earth asteroids.
- Ion Propulsion: The crew in the movie used ion propulsion to reach the planet faster, while in reality, the Dawn spacecraft used ion thrusters to minimize fuel consumption when it made its way to the dwarf planet Ceres. The agency is also working on its next-gen “Hall effect thrusters.”
- Solar Panels: Many of NASA’s spacecraft already have solar panels to absorb sunlight and generate power they can use.
- Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs): These generators convert heat from the radioactive decay of plutonium-238 into energy. The Curiosity rover has one, which can produce 110 Watts of power, enough to light up one bulb.
Some of these technologies were shown in The Martian’s latest trailer, which we’ve embedded below:
Filed under:
Science
Source:
NASA
Tags: movie, nasa, themartian
Here’s what our readers think of Windows 10
Three weeks have passed since Windows 10 became available for download and, judging by the user reviews left on our product page, it’s been one hell of a start. While many users seemed to agree with our positive assessment, a few of you inundated us with tales of woe, ranging from installation issues to slowdowns to crashing apps. We’ve gathered together some of the best reader reviews below to find out if Windows 10 really is a “must have” upgrade now, or if some of you might be better off waiting for a few of the kinks to be ironed out.
“I feel this OS will be easy to use for all aspects of society, even the non-technical or PC-illiterate users.” –ubertiny
Many users’ first experience with Windows 10 is going to be the upgrade/installation process, and for most it was quick and painless, with ubertiny calling it “as easy as it can get” and kingtigre finding the operation “smooth as butter.” But, while steenbag “was using Windows 10 within 10 minutes of pressing install,” jquest71 botched his first upgrade attempt and ThrashedByPC was plunged into “a maddening 72 hours of chaos and frustration,” including a download that took over 12 hours.
But even an inauspicious start couldn’t sink Windows 10 for jquest71. Once he got it running on his Surface Pro 3, he found the icons “modern and fresh,” with full-screen apps working “much, much better” for him than on Windows 8.1. Hamlinpark calls it “simple and uncluttered,” and unsivil thinks that “even the most primitive Windows users” will find the new interface easy to understand. 13xforever agrees, saying that changes to things like language preference make “sense for an average user,” although they could be a pain in the ass for hardcore polyglots. However, while ethanturk enjoys how the new start menu “functions well and looks great,” many others were less enamored with this attempt to blend the old and the new. Nafem says, “It is too long-winded to find anything,” with boed finding it “cumbersome” and “less efficient than [the] classic shell.” Chingolingo calls it “a lame attempt” at bringing back the Start button, and KenD90027 actually found it to be his “biggest letdown” about Windows 10.
“The return of the Start menu is definitely amazing; the new Edge browser, well, I can say bye-bye to third party browsers now.” — EBD
The Start menu wasn’t the only marquee feature that didn’t make a splash with our readers. If Windows 10 was supposed to be a lighter, more responsive experience, it went unnoticed by many reviewers, with JesseLim calling it only “marginally faster” and boed not noticing an improvement at all. However, he also “didn’t notice any degradation either.” DrRockDC’s Yoga 2 Pro became sluggish and outright “unusable” in tablet mode, while ThrashedByPC’s computer slowed “to a crawl.” Still, some reviewers lucked out, with ubertiny finding the OS “extremely responsive” and Sat12321 says, “My laptop boots up in 15 seconds and apps open up in a flash.”
Among those apps is Microsoft’s new built-in browser, Edge. It loaded quickly and rendered pages well for steenbag, who calls it “a monolithic step forward from IE.” EBD even went so far as to say “bye-bye” to third party browsers. But even if jquest71 found that Edge has “worked extremely well so far,” there are still a few kinks to be worked out. JesseLim says it takes up “huge resources in Flash- or Java-intensive sites,” and Hamlinpark also found a few pages “that seem to have some issues with Edge.” However, he still thinks it’s “fast and usable.”
“Cortana makes setting reminders, checking flight status info, finding places, searching the web and sending emails a breeze.” — nrao6
Cortana was another feature that left reviewers with mixed reactions. Nrao6 was delighted by her ability to set reminders and search the web, but maybe not so much by her jokes. Both EBD and jquest71 found her handy to have around, though the latter noted she’s still “a work in progress,” explaining why users like light8 may have found her “useless and laggy.” Light8 was frustrated by how “she didn’t understand what I was saying or didn’t respond when I called her,” and ThrashedByPC had problems with Cortana “trying to schedule things whenever I tried to use a search.”
However, even as users like DrRockDC, light8 and chingolingo find themselves rolling their systems back to Windows 8.1 (or even Windows 7), plenty are willing to stick with this version of Windows, and encourage others to take the plunge as well. Ubertiny calls it a “super-intelligent, clean, user-friendly OS that has all the right stuff in all the right places.” Kingtigre says it offers “the promise of a better OS,” one that is all about what you need. For nrao6, that means he can “stay focused and get my work done.” For KenD90027, it’s about being “more modern and secure.” And for EBD, it’s simply “the best Windows I have ever used.”
Filed under:
Software, Microsoft
Tags: microsoft, reviewroundup, userreviewroundup, Windows10
Bing beats Google Now to system-wide contextual search
If you can’t wait for Android Marshmallow, Microsoft is offering an alternative for one of its most highly anticipated features. With the Bing Search app installed, you can now get “snapshots” by long-pressing on the home button, just as you would to launch Google Now on Tap. Microsoft’s search engine will then scan what’s on the page and bring up a small overlay card with useful information and shortcuts to related apps. So if you’re watching the trailer for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, for instance, you’ll get its current IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ratings, as well as an option to order tickets with Fandango. At the moment the feature is only supported in the US, and you’ll need to download the app to get started — unlike Google’s offering — which will almost certainly curb its popularity. Still, if you’re curious to see what Google Now on Tap is all about, this is a good preview.
Filed under:
Cellphones, Microsoft, Google
Via:
The Next Web
Source:
Bing Search
Tags: android, bignsnapshots, bing, bingsearch, google, googlenow, googlenowontap, microsoft, snapshots
Google gives the world a peek at its secret servers
Google has given everyone a rare look inside its server rooms and detailed how keeps up with the massive growth of its search business. In a blog post, Google Fellow Amin Vadat said that the company’s current network, Jupiter, can deliver a petabit per second of total throughput. That means each of its 100,000 total servers can randomly speak to each other at a speed of 10Gb/s, a hundred times faster than the first-generation network it created in 2005. To get there, Google did something surprising — it built its own hardware from off-the-shelf parts.
It was back in 2004 that Google decided to stray away from products by established companies like Cisco and build its own hardware using off-the-shelf chips from companies like Qualcomm. The aim was to put less onus on the hardware and more on software, something that’s impossible with off-the-shelf switches. Vadat said hardware switching is “manual and error prone… and could not scale to meet our needs.” Using software switching was not only cheaper but easier to implement remotely — critical for a company whose bandwidth requirements have doubled (or more) every year.
Google considers its servers as a key advantage over rivals like Microsoft and Amazon, so why is it talking now? For one, it’s recently started selling its cloud services to other businesses, so it’s keen to brag about them. It’s also being pragmatic — its data requirements are now so huge that it needs academic help to solve configuration and management challenges. That’s why it’s presenting the paper at the Sigcomm networking conference in London, and if you’re in the mood for a (much) deeper dive, you can read it here.
Filed under:
Peripherals, Internet, Google
Via:
WSJ
Source:
Google
Tags: DataCenters, google, GoogleCloud, Growth, Servers, Switches
Researchers pluck carbon from the sky, turn it into diamonds
Carbon’s the perfect material to build strong yet lightweight materials, but it’s also the reason we’re running head-first into an ecological apocalypse. Wouldn’t it be great if we could snatch the excess CO2 from the air and use it to cheaply build aircraft fuselages, modern cars and artificial diamonds? That’s what a group of researchers from George Washington University claim to have achieved at a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society. Not only would it mean that future engineering projects would have an abundant source of cheap materials, but it also has planet-saving consequences.
The process works a little like the electrolysis you’d have seen in high school. Rather than dunking a pair of electrodes in a bath of water, however, they’re placed in a mix of molten lithium carbonate and lithium oxide. When this compound reacts, it effectively pulls in CO2 from the surrounding air, and the electrodes cause solid carbon to gather around one terminal. The researchers have been able to tweak this system to create carbon nanofibers of varying shapes and sizes, which could theoretically be used to build pretty much anything. In addition, because the team can use solar power to drive this reaction, it’s believed that the process could actually produce a net reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide.
CO2 in the air is one of the key causes of climate change and we’re now well beyond the “safe” limit of 350 parts per million that the UN put in place. The increasing rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide is also causing faster acidification of our oceans which, you probably don’t need us to tell you, is a pretty bad thing. This system is, effectively, a super-smart carbon capture and storage system, but rather than dumping the material in chambers underground, would actually create something useful with it.
In a report by MIT Tech Review, it’s claimed that this process could actually return the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere to pre industrial levels in just a decade. That’s an ambitious claim, and it’d require a facility that took up roughly 940,000 square kilometers to make it happen. But let’s be honest, if this process can be proven to work, we could wind up with super-clean air, not to mention cars, planes and computers made out of carbon fiber. Let’s just hope that the team can make good on these promises, and fast.
[Image Credit: Getty]
Source:
Nano Letters, George Washington University, American Chemical Society
Tags: AmericanChemicalSociety, Carbon, CarbonFiber, ClimateChange, GeorgeWashingtonUniversity, StuartLicht
ZTE Nubia Z7 for $299.99 on Gearbest
Another phone coming out of Gearbest is the ZTE Nubia Z7. Unlike that other manufacturers, ZTE is one of the more well known Chinese OEMs.
As a matter of fact, ZTE is the official sponsor of different NBA basketball teams. Last I checked, they sponsored the Knicks and the Rockets.
The Nubia Z7 is a high quality device built by ZTE. Not only does it look great, but it also runs great. With a Snapdragon 801 and Adreno 330, the Nubia Z7 doesn’t skimp on much
Sure, it has last year’s processor, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
The Snapdragon 810 has been said to have serious overheating issues, and the Snapdragon 805 and 808 are more minor updates than a big overhaul.
Other key specs include a 5.5-inch display with an outstanding 2k resolution (1440 x 2560 pixels).
Just everything about this phone is beautiful. You have a beautifully designed phone with a beautiful display.
With that 2k display, you can really see all the detail captured by its 13-megapixel camera. The camera is equipped with a flash and auto-focus just like any other high-end phone out there.
On the front of the phone, you can find a 5-megapixel front facing camera for all the selfies you could want.
Along with all of those beefy specs, the ZTE Nubia Z7 also packs the following array of sensors:
- Light sensor
- G-sensor
- P-sensor
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Electronic Compass
In addition to all of those sensors, the Z7 also has a GPS just like any other phone in existence. Then you also get Bluetooth 4.0 along with it.
The only thing that this phone is lacking is a microSD card slot and a removable battery.
You will be stuck with 32gb of internal storage along with 3gb of RAM. The 3100mAh battery should be plenty to last through the day.
With a dual SIM set up for two microSIM cards, the Z7 is a great deal for $299.99.
You will be stuck on a skinned version of Android 4.4.4 for the time being, but I have heard nothing but complaints about battery life and stability issues on Lollipop.
The phone, just like with all other phones sold on Gearbest, is factory unlocked for use on any GSM network that supports the following bands.
2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
3G: WCDMA 850/1900/2100MHz
4G: FDD-LTE 1800/2100/2600MHz
So what are you waiting for? Go check it out on Gearbest right now and pick up one of your own for $299.99!
The post ZTE Nubia Z7 for $299.99 on Gearbest appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Samsung launches the Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ in South Korea
Samsung has now launched the recently-announced Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ in South Korea. The former retails for 899,800 Korean Won ($758) for the 32GB model and 965,800 Korean Won ($813) for the 64GB edition, and is available in White Pearl, Black Sapphire and Gold Platinum colorways, whilst the latter is only up for grabs in Black Sapphire and Gold Platinum, and carries a price tag of 939,400 Korean Won ($790) for the 32GB variant.
For anyone out there who requires a refresher on either the Galaxy Note 5 or Galaxy S6 Edge+’s specifications, we’ve included the spec sheet below:
Galaxy Note 5/Galaxy S6 Edge+ Specifications
- 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display (1440 x 2560 pixels)
- Exynos 7420 octa-core chipset
- Mali-T760MP8 GPU
- 4GB of RAM
- 16MP rear-facing camera
- 5MP selfie shooter
- 3,000mAh Li-Po battery
If you like the sound of the Galaxy Note 5 or the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and would like to pick up one or t’0ther — hit the source link below.
Source: Samsung
Come comment on this article: Samsung launches the Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ in South Korea
Check out this concept video featuring the Huawei-made Nexus 6
We’ve seen many leaks of what is allegedly the Huawei-made Nexus 6, and based on a recent leak, YouTuber Jermaine Smit has constructed a illustration video of what the device could look like.
Keep in mind that this video is purely a fan-made concept video and is far from anything official. Either way, it gives us a good look into what a Huawei-made Nexus 6 could look like. And it may not be too far from the truth.
Click here to view the embedded video.
So far with the hints we’ve seen from OnLeaks on Twitter, the new Huawei-made Nexus 6 is said to size in at 159.4 x 78.3 x 6.6/8.5mm, feature a fingerprint sensor on the back, support USB Type-C, and have front-firint stereo speakers.
As with any rumor or leak, nothing is official until its made official. What would you like to see in the next Nexus?
source: Jermaine Smit (YouTube)
via: Phone Arena
Come comment on this article: Check out this concept video featuring the Huawei-made Nexus 6
Lenovo ThinkCentre Chromebox Tiny review
With the release of its first Chromebox, Lenovo is looking to offer the Chrome OS experience in a compact package, and is designed with educational and enterprise institutions in mind. Is its versatility and affordable price tag enough to make it a compelling option? We find out, in this in-depth look at the Lenovo ThinkCentre Chromebox Tiny!
Design
The ThinkCentre Chromebox Tiny obviously gets its name from its small form factor, with its dimensions of 7 x 7.2 x 1.4 inches, and weight of 1 kg, making this portable device ideal for use in environments like home entertainment systems. The device comes with several rubber feet on the bottom for horizontal use, but there is also a stand included in the box to prop up the PC in a vertical orientation.
This Chromebox can easily be used with any monitor or TV you may have available, as it supports both DisplayPort and HDMI out connections. You also have the ability to convert the Chromebox Tiny into a 23-inch all-in-one, by pairing the device with Lenovo’s Thinkvision monitor which comes with a slot on the back to house the Chromebox, allowing for what Lenovo calls a “space saving transformation.” While this feature may not be particularly necessary if you’re looking to pick up this device for personal use, the ability to easily and quickly remove the device from the monitor to facilitate upgrades and servicing makes a lot of sense when it comes to educational institutions and businesses.
Performance
The Lenovo ThinkCentre Chromebox Tiny is available in two models, the 10H5 and the 10H3. The former is the less powerful of the two, with it packing a dual-core Intel Celeron 3205U processor under the hood, clocked at 1.5 GHz. The 10H3 is the more expensive option and features an Intel Core i3 5005U processor, clocked at 2 GHz. Also contributing to the price point is the fact that either model can be picked with 2 GB or 4 GB of RAM.
This particular review unit is the top-end 10H3 model with 4 GB of RAM, and performance has been excellent. Of course, Chrome OS is a relatively conservative operating system and doesn’t need to pack a lot of power, so the other iterations of the Chromebox Tiny should allow for a smooth performance as well. 4 GB of RAM is definitely recommended though, especially if you are someone who likes to have a lot of Chrome tabs open at once.
Hardware
The Chromebox Tiny comes with four USB 3.0 ports, an audio jack, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, an Ethernet port, and built-in Wi-Fi support. There is an antenna that is included in the box to boost the Wi-Fi signal, which made a significant difference to the signal strength, and proved to be a very welcome addition. If you do decide to go the AIO route, Lenovo has designed their Thinkvision monitors to accommodate the attached antenna as well. There is no speaker available, so you will either need a monitor with speakers or use the audio jack to connect your own set. You also get only 16 GB of on-board storage, but given the cloud-centric nature of Chrome OS, the 100 GB of free Google Drive cloud storage is the one that will be more useful.
The Chromebox Tiny does come with Bluetooth 4.0 support, but there were some issues when using a Logitech Ultrathin Touch mouse and an Apple Wireless Keyboard. The mouse cursor would occasionally flicker, but what was far more alarming was when the computer would start entering a keystroke repeatedly, which became very frustrating very quickly. Further, the devices would randomly disconnect and refuse to pair again, requiring a reboot to use any Bluetooth devices again.
Switching to the included wired keyboard and continuing to use just the mouse didn’t resolve the problem, and finally, the only solution was to turn off Bluetooth and depend on the included wired keyboard and mouse. Luckily, the included mouse and keyboard are pretty good, with the keys of the keyboard providing a good amount of tactile feedback, while also featuring Chrome OS exclusive shortcuts. I would have still preferred to use wireless accessories though, and hopefully Google and Lenovo will have a solution in a future software update.
Software
Running Chrome OS, the Chromebox Tiny provides a very basic software experience, ideal for those who are comfortable with exclusively using cloud services. Chrome OS is otherwise very easy to use, and offers only what is essential.
Turning on the Chromebox is when you immediately get its penchant for simplicity, with the device showing a Chrome OS logo for a few seconds, before directly taking you to the login screen. Logging in shows you the minimalistic Chrome OS interface, with basically just a search button in the left corner next to pinned applications, with status information seen in the right corner. There is no desktop where you can place shortcuts or files, and is actually just a wallpaper of your choice.
The search button will pull up Google, where you can search the web, launch specific apps, or use Google Now. The primary app that will used is the Google Chrome browser, which works exactly like it would on Windows or OS X. You can install apps and extensions from the Chrome Web Store, and also quickly switch between these installed apps by using the past view shortcut on the keyboard. Clicking on the time in the bottom right corner gives you access to a system menu with options to sign out or power off, connect to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, adjust the volume, or access the full settings app. There is also a help link in that menu which includes a lot of very useful resources to help answer any questions.
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Chrome OS is a very spartan take on the traditional PC software experience, and will definitely take some getting used to. Fortunately, the learning curve isn’t as steep as one might expect at first glance. Just keep in mind there isn’t any powerful photo editing and video tools, developer tools, or if you’re looking for some form of local file management, so if that is what you require, Chrome OS is not going to be a good fit. If your primary usage is online however, you do have Google Drive and other features that you can take advantage of.
Gallery
Pricing and final thoughts
As mentioned, there are multiple variants of the Chromebox Tiny, with the base model starting at $205, all the way up to around $340 for the top end version with the Intel Core i3 processor and 4 GB of RAM.
So there you have it for this in-depth look at the Lenovo ThinkCentre Chromebox Tiny! While Chrome OS may not be for everyone, this device offers good value for not only educational institutions and businesses, but also home users who are not dependent on Windows or OS X applications, and are looking for a simplified experience. There are some issues with Bluetooth connectivity though, that will hopefully be resolved soon. While this Chromebox will not replace the traditional PC experience you may be used to, it is small and portable, offers excellent performance, and features a smooth and simple software experience, which is more than enough for some people.
AIVAnet 