Xiaomi wants the market share crown in India
According to WSJ, popular Chinese manufacturer Xiamoi is hoping to drastically expand its influence in India over the next few years and ultimately become the top smartphone manufacturer in the country.
Xiamoi is gunning for number one in India. This may indeed be one of the company’s highest goals to date, but Xiaomi’s CEO Lei Jun is confident. Xiamoi is only a 5-year old company and what the they have been able to do in their homeland over the years is quite remarkable. Handsets such as the Mi 3, Redmi Note and Redmi 1S put the company on track in becoming a big contender in India. With new handsets such as the Redmi 2, Redmi 2 Prime, Mi 4i, Mi Pad, and Mi 4 coming to India this year, Xiamoi is very hopeful in expanding its Indian user base.
Results from last quarter satisfy Xiamoi a top 5 market-share position when it comes to smartphones sold in all of the world. Xiamoi plans to continue its mobile efforts and use a similar strategy moving forward. We’ll keep a close eye.
Source: WSJ
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The new Roku does 4K and finds the remote for you
It’s clearly video-streaming box season. Apple finally dropped an updated Apple TV, the Chromecast got all colorful and the Fire TV upped its resolution to 4K. Now it’s Roku’s turn with the new Roku 4. The flatter and wider set-top box sports 4K, has a remote locator (YES!), an updated OS and a redesigned app that makes it easier to travel with your favorite shows. The new device joins the rest of the Roku line instead of replacing anything. Priced at $129, it sits between the Apple TV and Fire but without all the recent drama. Slideshow-325524
Roku told Engadget that it continues to focus on discovery. Fortunately that also means helping you find the tiny remote when it disappears behind the couch. The box has a remote logo that when depressed makes the remote sound an alert. With most of these set-top boxes shipping with small remotes, it’s nice that a company finally realized how easy it is to lose those damn things. The remote also has the same voice search, headphone jack and motion control with buttons for video games like the Roku 3.
The Roku itself has a quicker quad-core processor for 60 fps 4K streaming and supports 802.11ac WiFI. A new 4K channel has been added so you can find media for that fancy UHD TV. An optical audio port has been added along with the usual HDMI port and microSD port for playing your own videos.
In addition to new hardware the company announced Roku OS 7 with an upgraded way to follow movies, TV shows and actors. Now when something that’s been tracked is available in a channel, the My Feed section displays a notification. Want to know when The Martian is available on Netflix? Follow it and you’ll know as soon as it appears on the service.
The app also got a redesign with quicker access to commonly used features. More importantly, for folks that travel with a Roku, the app and new OS now work with WiFi networks that require a browser-based login like hotel rooms.
The Roku 4 is available for pre-order now and will ship in October for $129. The updated OS will be available to current Roku players starting in mid-October with the roll out lasting until November.
Source: Roku
US Marshals to auction last remaining Bitcoins seized from Silk Road
Here’s your last chance to grab a chunk of those bitcoins authorities seized when they arrested Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. On November 5th, the US Marshals will be auctioning off 44,341 bitcoins — around $10.7 million worth — from 8AM to 2PM EST. The bitcoins will be sold in 21 chunks of 2,000 each, along with a single block containing 2,341 BTC. Note that you can’t just show up during the online auction and bid: you need to fill out a bidder registration form and email it to the Marshals by November 2nd. The agency will then notify the winners on November 6th.
Silk Road, an online black market where people sold drugs and guns, reportedly made $1.2 billion during the two years that it was operational. Ulbricht was arrested when the feds seized the website raid and was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year for narcotics trafficking, money laundering and hacking, among other charges. Authorities previously held a couple of auctions to sell off huge chunks of Bitcoins confiscated from the marketplace and even accidentally leaked the first round’s bidder list.
[Image credit: Getty/TimArbaev]
Via: CoinDesk, TechCrunch, Reuters
Source: US Marshals
UV-light enabled catheter fixes heart defects without surgery
Advances in medicine are treating patients in ways that were never thought possible. The latest breakthrough comes from a team of scientists in Boston who have developed a way to fix holes in the heart without the need for invasive surgery. They created a ground-breaking catheter, biodegradable glue and patch that fit inside the patient’s veins and are guided directly into the heart. Once there, it uses a reflective balloon and UV light to apply the patch and activate its adhesive coating.
http://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/9kdahtvl7x
Ultraviolet light equipped catheter | Boston Children’s Hospital
There are so many more benefits that this new technology brings when compared to open heart surgery. For one, the heart doesn’t need to be stopped to repair it. Also, the heart tissue doesn’t need to be cut into which is an incredible improvement on old medical practices. While other devices that remain in the body may be moved out of place or fail to cover a hole as tissue continues to grow, this patch allows the heart tissue to create its own closure and then when it’s no longer needed, it dissolves. “This really is a completely new platform for closing wounds or holes anywhere in the body,” says Conor Walsh, founder of the Harvard Biodesign Lab at SEAS.
[Image credit: Boston Children’s Hospital]
Source: Harvard
EU rules that US companies can’t freely pull data out of Europe
A legal framework used to justify the movement of user data across the Atlantic has just been ruled invalid by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The Safe Harbor agreement, as it’s known, let companies like Facebook and Twitter freely move your information between its centers in Europe and the US. However, following today’s judgement, they may now need to store those details locally or prove that European privacy standards designed to protect your rights are being upheld.
The case began when Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems called out Facebook’s desire to move data stored in its Irish data center over to the US following Edward Snowden’s NSA surveillance leaks. The Irish courts dismissed the action citing the Safe Habor agreement, leaving him to lodge an appeal with the European Court of Justice. While he waited for a decision, Schrems received backing from Yves Bot, Advocate General of the ECJ, who agreed that Safe Harbor was dangerous and not binding.
With all past data-sharing agreements now deemed invalid, individual regulators now have the power to decide what happens with data stored in their countries. Ireland, for example, must now “examine, with complete independence, whether the transfer of a person’s data to a third country complies with the requirements laid down by the directive.”
“Legislation permitting the public authorities to have access on a generalised basis to the content of electronic communications must be regarded as compromising the essence of the fundamental right to respect for private life,” the court adds.
What must companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter do now? It’s not yet known how this will affect the flow of data between countries, but we do know that authorities can question the need for such a process and possibly request that all user data is stored locally, rather than in the US. More than 4,000 European and American companies are affected, so it’s not a small judgement. However, the European Union and the US are in negotiations over a new agreement, one that could give Europe far more control over what companies, but also security agencies, have access to.
[Image credit: mpd01605, Flickr]
Source: Maximillian Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner (PDF)
YouTube gives its iOS app a new look and in-app editing tools
YouTube has given its iOS app a full facelift, making it look a bit more like its Android counterpart. Now, the main page has three tabs on top: Home, which houses the usual recommended videos/channels, Subscriptions, which lists all the new uploads from the accounts you subscribe to, and Account, which shows a summary of your… account! It also comes with new in-app editing tools that you can use to polish videos to upload whenever you don’t have access to professional software. In addition, serious YouTubers can get the refreshed version of the Creator Studio app for an enhanced Analytics section. The latest version’s only available for iOS at the moment, but the Google-owned company promises that it’ll soon be out on the Play Store.
Source: iTunes, YouTube Creators (Google+)
Amazon expands one-hour Prime Now deliveries in London
When Amazon first brought Prime Now deliveries to the UK, only a select number of London postcodes were covered by the service. In three months, the company has expanded to Birmingham, foreshadowing the launch of Amazon Fresh, but now it’s giving its launch city some extra love after opening a new delivery depot in Wimbledon. From today, Prime customers in Merton, Wandsworth and Sutton can take use the Prime Now app to book a one-hour delivery. Users in Kingston, Sunbury and Croydon can now also enjoy free two-hour deliveries for the first time.
Prime Now isn’t just for last minute presents, it also includes items like toilet paper, batteries and toothpaste, as well as beer. The company also points out that it was able to deliver a Netgear WiFi Range Extender from its Bow delivery station to Canary Wharf in 12 minutes. However, it looks like London and Birmingham are just the start of Amazon’s Prime Now rollout in 2015. It says it will expand the service to “further UK cities before the end of the year.”
Source: Amazon UK Press Office
Apple fixes ‘app slicing’ iCloud bug for latest iOS 9 update
The iOS platform’s “App Thinning” feature is now available, and you’ll be able to download leaner, smaller apps if you’ve already installed iOS 9.0.2. App Thinning or “app slicing” allows you to download only the parts of an app needed for your device, effectively saving you storage space. For instance, if you download an app for the iPhone 6, it won’t have the parts needed for an iPad, because the developer tagged its assets for specific devices. It was supposed to be part of iOS 9 from the start, but it unfortunately got delayed due to an iCloud bug that forced users to download universal versions of apps.
Here’s Apple’s complete announcement about the update on its Developer page:
The issue affecting app slicing has been fixed, and device-specific versions of apps will be delivered when downloaded by users running iOS 9.0.2 or later.
Via: Mac Rumors
Source: Apple Developer
Sony’s lucrative image sensor division is now a separate company
Sony is transforming one of its most successful businesses, image sensors, into a brand new company called Sony Semiconductor Solutions. All of its chips will be produced under the new company, but Sony said in a statement that “image sensors are a primary area of focus.” The division will be carved away from Sony’s devices group as part of a larger reorganization, and the rest of the group (storage and batteries) will be folded into other operations. Sony emphasized that the new company will operate “alongside existing Sony group companies,” and start operating by April 1, 2016.
Sony made a similar move with its TV and home entertainment divisions, which now operate as separate entities. That led to speculation that it would eventually sell them off, much as it did with its VAIO PC division. However, Sony said that it’s all part of its larger strategy to split out its divisions one at a time in order to create “accountability” within each.
Sony’s semiconductor business is highly profitable, mostly because its sensors are widely used in smartphones (especially Apple models), DSLRs from manufacturers like Nikon, and Sony’s own popular cameras. The move means that Sony’s core businesses are now mobile, gaming, imaging (cameras), movies, music and financial services. Those businesses — especially mobile — will now have to stand on their own without sensors to prop them up.
Via: Reuters
Source: Sony
Nintendo launched a multiplayer web portal for Splatoon stats
How do you get your Splatoon fix when you’re away from your Wii U? With SplatNet — the game’s newly christened web portal, of course. Okay, it’s not actually that new: Japanese players have had access to the website for months, but Nintendo only just recently got around to translating the portal for international audiences. It’s a convenient online hub that lets users check their weekly ranking, plan future matches with friends, view equipped gear and more.
Companion websites are nothing new for online mulitplayer shooters (Battlefield players have BattleLog, for instance), but it’s a fairly new concept for Nintendo. As usual, Mario’s version has some quirks — SplatNet has Twitter integration to automatically let your friends know if you’re playing, but the feature is only active on Friday and Saturday. Still, it’s something new to do with your Nintendo Network ID, and it does allow Splatoon players to see which multiplayer maps will be in rotation for the next 12 hours of online play. That’s win-win. Check out SplatNet for yourself at Splatoon.Nintendo.net.
Source: Splatoonus, Splatnet
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