Yu Yutopia with Snapdragon 810 and 4GB RAM launched for Rs. 24,999
Smartphone manufacturer Yu, which is partly owned by Micromax, has launched its latest handset for the Indian market today. Its top-of-the-line Yu Yutopia packs in some pretty serious hardware and won’t break the bank either.
The Yu Yutopia boasts a 5.2-inch QHD (2560×1440) display, which is manufactured by Sharp and packs in a whopping 565 pixels per inch. The phone is powered by an equally high end octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC and 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, specs that you would normally attribute to this year’s high-end flagships. The phone also comes with 32GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot that supports an extra 128GB of space.
The phone extends its high-end features with a 21 megapixel rear camera based on a Sony Exmor RS IMX230 sensor, which is paired up with a 5P lens, optical image stabilization and a dual-LED true tone flash. There’s a 5P lens 8 megapixel front facing camera on the handset too. That’s not all, the handset boats a 3,000mAh battery, Quick Charge 2.0 technology to take your battery from 0 to 60 percent in just 30 minutes, dual-SIM slots, and 4G network support. The phone runs the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop based Cyanogen OS 12.1.
Along with the new phone, Yu has also announced its Assured Upgrade Programme, which guarantees purchasers a 40 percent cashback discount if they exchange their new Yutopia for a Yutopia 2 in the future. This can be taken advantage of during a specific “upgrade window” whenever the handset’s successor actually launches.
The Yu Yutopia will be sold exclusively through Amazon India with a price tag set at a quite reasonable Rs. 24,999 ($376). Pre-bookings open up on Thursday (today) and the handset will begin shipping out to consumers on December 26th.
Is anyone planning to pick one up?
Apple Music Estimated to Have 8M Paying Subscribers, Predicted to Hit 20M by End of 2016
Apple’s streaming music service Apple Music will have 8 million subscribers by the time 2015 comes to a close, according to music business analyst Mark Mulligan (via Music Business Worldwide). Mulligan also forecast that Apple Music should hit 20 million total users by around this time next year, ultimately making it the second most popular streaming music service behind Spotify.
“Apple might not have found the subscription market quite the plain sailing it had anticipated but it has still managed to establish itself as the second player with astounding pace. Its platform and marketing assets are well known, but its clear commitment to making Apple Music work have surprised some.”
As Mulligan pointed out, however, the exact numbers in his prediction can vary as we head into the new year. With Apple Music’s three-month free trial that could have led to some accidental paid subscribers and Spotify Premium’s $1 a month three-month trial system, the analyst stated that there are enough “wildcards” in the equation to unbalance his prediction.
If the analyst’s estimation of 8 million Apple Music subscribers by the New Year becomes true, that would be about 1.5 million growth during the fall, after Tim Cook confirmed the service had 6.5 million in October. Normally $10/month, Mulligan believes if Apple has trouble with getting subscribers to stick around, they could return to convincing record labels in lowering that monthly cost.
“If Apple finds growth tough going, expect it to throw everything it has got at getting the labels to agree to lower price point products so it can open up large chunks of the iTunes music customer base.”
In the meantime, Apple is pushing Apple Music onto more supported third-party products, including a beta for Sonos speakers that brought support for the streaming music service onto the speakers for the first time. The Cupertino company is also still dealing in exclusives, recently announcing a project with Taylor Swift that will include a made-for-Apple Music concert film debuting on the service this Sunday, December 20. Recently, Apple began rewarding its retail workers with gifts for the holidays, which included a free nine-month subscription to Apple Music.
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T-Mobile slashes $100 off top Samsung phones along with free Netflix subscription
This holiday season, T-Mobile is playing Santa of sorts. As part the Un-carrier Unwrapped promotion, T-Mobile offering a $100 discount off Samsung’s premium Galaxy devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, Edge+ and Note 5. If that was not good enough for you, the wireless carrier is also throwing in a full year’s Netflix subscription for free.
“Today we’re putting the final bow on a fantastic month of gifts to all wireless customers. Starting this weekend, we’re giving you $100 off the top on Samsung’s hottest phones, plus a year of Netflix. Period. Happy Holidays Everyone!”
– John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile
There is just one catch – the deal is only valid for T-Mobile’s equipment installment plan, which means you can’t avail the offer on the purchase of unlocked Galaxy devices. But if you don’t mind staying bound to one service provider, it is indeed a sweet deal.
To make the most of this offer, you must make a purchase between December 18th and December 23rd. While the $100 discount may not be available after December 23rd, customers still get up to a free year of Netflix though December 31st.
Source: T-Mobile
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Fleksy partners with ZTE to put its keyboard on millions of phones worldwide
Among the best keyboard replacements is Fleksy, which was named an Editor’s Choice 2015 by Google. And its quality is met with popularity as more than 1 million people have installed it to date. This morning, Fleksy announced it is ready to push become an international force by partnering with one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of mobile device. ZTE, the Chinese company that is silently the fourth largest smartphone brand in the United States, is helping Fleksy extend its reach internationally by pre-installing the keyboard on devices.
Adam Zeng, CEO of ZTE Mobile Devices, said this about the deal:
“At ZTE, we are constantly listening and working with both our consumers and partners to enhance our smartphone feature offerings. As such, we are delighted to work with Fleksy to incorporate their award winning user typing interface to give our end users the best possible smartphone experience.”
Owners of ZTE devices will gain everything that Fleksy has to offer, including its custom theme builder that presents users with a personalized keyboard visually and in operation.
Fleksy is adding ZTE to a portfolio of partners that already includes Samsung, Xiaomi, and Meizu. With its various partnerships, Fleksy expects that 50 million branded installs to be performed in 2015 alone.
Fleksy partners with ZTE, bringing a great text input option to ZTE customers worldwide!
San Francisco, CA, December 17, 2015 — Fleksy, holder of the Guinness World Record for typing, announces a new partnership with ZTE, a global manufacturer of smartphones and mobile devices.
Fleksy, which provides a unique and powerful user interface, will be providing more than just an award-winning typing experience to ZTE users, it will also bring rich content to users’ finger tips all around the world. Rich content includes thousands of GIFs, stickers and emoji for every occasion.
Partnering with ZTE, one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in China, further extends Fleksy’s international distribution.
“We’re committed to delivering a faster and more expressive input experience for users across the globe,” said Kosta Eleftheriou, CEO and Founder of Fleksy. “ZTE is one of the world’s leading device manufacturers, and we’re pleased to bring Fleksy to their users.”
“At ZTE, we are constantly listening and working with both our consumers and partners to enhance our smartphone feature offerings.” said Adam Zeng, CEO of ZTE Mobile Devices at ZTE Corporation. “As such, we are delighted to work with Fleksy to incorporate their award winning user typing interface to give our end users the best possible smartphone experience.”
Fleksy’s recently launched custom theme builder, which gives users the ability to customize their keyboard with photos, colors, and effects, will also be included in the integration. Allowing ZTE users to make the keyboard look and feel exactly how they like and change it up as frequently as they want.
About Fleksy:
Officially the fastest smartphone keyboard in the world (Guinness World Record, May 2014 & November 2014), Fleksy is already used by millions of people in over 170 countries. It features the world’s most powerful typing technology, an award winning design, and unprecedented customization. Having established partnerships with Samsung, Xiaomi, Meizu and many others, Fleksy is projecting more than 50M branded installs in 2015.
Winner of the CES Award for Design and Engineering, the South by Southwest (SXSW) Award, and a 2014 Golden Stevie Award for Innovation, Fleksy is the world’s most innovative keyboard company. It was the first keyboard to enable blind typing on a smartphone (Access Award by the American Foundation for the Blind), the first keyboard to be deployed on a smartwatch, and the first keyboard to enable typing in a 3D augmented reality platform (Leap Motion).
Fleksy is backed by venture capital including Highland Capital Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Come comment on this article: Fleksy partners with ZTE to put its keyboard on millions of phones worldwide
DisneyLife gets kids’ streaming absolutely right
Despite sinking billions of pounds into the production of blockbuster movies and hit TV shows over the years, Disney decided it was best to let companies like Apple, Netflix, Amazon and Sky handle the online distribution of its content. This has meant that every few years, the company sits down with streaming providers to agree on a licence, allowing you and I to log into our favourite service and access a selection of Disney content. It’s led to fragmentation, where Netflix carries something Amazon doesn’t (and vice-versa), and the only way to access everything is to buy it, one movie, TV series or soundtrack at a time.
This year, however, Disney decided enough was enough. The house that Walt built has finally dipped its toe into the enchanted world of streaming. DisneyLife is a UK-only subscription service designed to appeal to cord-cutters or, more specifically, their children. At £10 ($15) a month, it’s a little costlier than Netflix or Amazon (but on par with Sky Now TV), despite the fact it only offers Disney content. But there’s a reason for that. DisneyLife isn’t just for streaming video; it also hosts soundtracks, e-books and a selection of official Disney-branded apps. I can admit to being a Disney fan, but I know that DisneyLife isn’t really aimed at people like me. Fortunately, I played a part in creating two mini versions of myself (aged four and five) who fit perfectly within Disney’s target demographic.
Getting started
Signing up to DisneyLife is like any other streaming service: Enter a few personal details and fill in your card number to redeem a free month of service. For some reason, Disney sends a lot of emails once you’ve signed up, mostly to remind you how to use the service and the various ways to stream. Currently, DisneyLife can be accessed via the browser (which relies on Silverlight) and on iOS or Android devices. That means by proxy, it works with Apple TVs and Chromecasts too. You can associate your account with up to 10 devices and have four concurrent streams running at any one time.
Once registered, you will be asked to set up a master profile, which lets you manage your subscription, set parental controls and add new devices. It’ll also ask you to add up to five additional profiles, which Disney says “give each member of the family their own way to explore.” Being able to assign each profile a unique Disney character is a nice touch, especially if your child is the world’s biggest Frozen/Cars/Finding Nemo fan.
To properly gauge my sons’ usage, I covertly installed the DisneyLife app on their Android tablets and placed the app icon alongside their favourites: Minecraft and YouTube. I didn’t want to get in the way of their experience, just learn from it. When allowed to spend time on their devices (I try to be a responsible parent), they quickly recognised the Disney logo and dove straight in.
All Disney, all of the time
Disney knows its aesthetics. When the DisneyLife homescreen loads, you’re immediately met with a number of banners that highlight collections like Disney villains, Pixar films and Disney classics. Directly below that is a section called “Character Worlds,” which immediately drew my sons’ eyes (one chose Frozen and the other Incredibles). It’s here that we ran into our first minor disappointment.
Click to enlarge.
Upon seeing Elsa, my eldest son immediately assumed he could stream Frozen. The Elsa section certainly contains a lot of Frozen content — including a Frozen Fever mini movie, Frozen as told by emoji, Elsa fun facts, three separate soundtracks and eight e-books — but the full movie won’t appear on DisneyLife until the spring. That’s down to streaming agreements the company has with its UK partners, but my child was unable to understand the complexities of second-window streaming rights. It didn’t stop him from enjoying the other Frozen content, though, with one sing-a-long book becoming a firm favourite.
While Netflix and Amazon’s menus are relatively dull, Disney’s interstitials are vibrant and colorful, enticing the user to get interacting. Pull up The Lion King and you’ll see Pride Rock, click into Monsters Inc. and you’ll see Boo’s bedroom. Subtle animations guide you through each part of a character’s page. In short, Disney nailed the user experience.
While the apps are pretty good, I found they would log me out occasionally, usually after suffering minor performance issues. On the web, loading times are prompt, but you may run into some difficulties nonetheless. Using Chrome on a Mac running the latest version of OS X El Capitan, I was unable to get any movies to stream using the Silverlight plug-in. Google announced last year that it would phase out Silverlight support, so you’ll need a browser that still plays nice with Microsoft’s multimedia plug-in.
Click to enlarge.
Useful features
Disney knows that its apps are where the majority of streaming will happen, so it’s included features that make it easier for parents and children to enjoy its range of content. One of the best is an offline mode, which lets you download anything to your device to keep the kids entertained when you’re out of cellular or WiFi range. It’ll tell you how much storage space the movie or soundtrack will take up, too, just in case you need to make room.
DisneyLife also provides access to a selection of official Disney apps, with one free download each month. Selections include a number of themed storybooks, featuring The Good Dinosaur, Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph, but your little ones can also grab interactive titles like Disney Princess: Story Theatre and a Sofia colouring app.
Selection
With Netflix, Amazon and Sky’s Now TV already offering Disney content, is DisneyLife unique enough to justify another subscription? Looking at the numbers, DisneyLife offered 304 titles; Sky, 158; Amazon, 77; and Netflix, just 48. A wide selection of on-demand TV shows, or box sets, are also available and include programmes from the Disney TV, Disney Junior and Disney XD channels.
While Sky’s buying power has allowed it to negotiate access to newer Disney movies like Frozen and Maleficent, DisneyLife excels because it goes well beyond movies, offering behind-the-scenes clips, making-ofs, featurettes and, of course, all the related soundtracks, mini movies and books. Netflix and Amazon have smaller catalogues, with a smattering of classics and newer films, that can’t hold a candle to what DisneyLife and Now TV offer.
Click to enlarge.
If you already have a streaming subscription, it becomes a question of how often you think you or your family will use DisneyLife. Disney hasn’t yet made it easy to stream its content on the big screen, as you will always need a smartphone or tablet to hand to mirror movies on an Apple TV or Chromecast.
It worked out that DisneyLife was my kids’ flavour of the month for way less than a month, and towards the end of the free trial my sons rarely launched the app. Both prefer the variety that YouTube offers, whether it be illegal uploads of Peppa Pig episodes or Let’s Play Minecraft videos from Stampylongnose. This isn’t to say that DisneyLife isn’t good: It really is. It also bodes well for Disney’s streaming expansion in China next year and major markets like the US after that.
So, is a DisneyLife subscription worth a tenner each month? My answer is simple: It’s not about the quality — Disney left no stone unturned there (except maybe for Frozen). It’s about whether your little ones are mad enough about Disney that having access to nearly everything the company has ever put out will make you the best parent ever.
Source: DisneyLife
No ‘hoverboard’ is safe from UK Trading Standards
“Hoverboards” are getting a pretty bad rap of late, and not just because their common name is annoyingly misleading. Several UK retailers have stopped selling the things due to serious concerns over battery safety — they have a habit of spontaneously combusting, you see — with Amazon even advising customers to bin their potentially dodgy models. A number of airlines won’t carry them, the US is scrambling to regulate the fad, and earlier this month UK Trading Standards announced it had seized over 15,000 unsafe devices at sea ports, airports and postal hubs since mid-October. This hasn’t seemed to dent their popularity much, however, with Trading Standards telling BuzzFeed that figure has now spiked to 32,000 in just a few weeks.
Hoverboard imports have jumped significantly in the run-up to Christmas, and of the 38,800 Trading Standards has inspected at UK ports since October, 82.5 percent have been “detained” over safety fears. High demand for the gizmos has led to an influx of low-quality imports, the vast majority of which have dangerously noncompliant chargers, batteries and cut-off switches. By starving the UK of these highly sought-after products, Trading Standards may have either ruined your Christmas or saved you from a house fire waiting to happen. Either way, we imagine officers are having no fun at all “investigating” the matter.
Source: BuzzFeed News
Brazil temporarily shuts down WhatsApp messenger
If you’ve seen “WhatsApp” trend on Twitter lately, it’s because a judge in Sau Paulo, Brazil has ordered for the messaging app to be shut down for 48 hours, starting at 9PM Eastern yesterday. WhatsApp is huge in Brazil: it has a whopping 93 million users in the country, so this development affects a large number of people. That’s most likely the reason a rival app called Telegram Messenger has been seeing rapid adoption in Brazil, amassing 1.5 million new users in the past few hours.
It’s not quite clear why WhatsApp was shuttered, but there was a request to close it down earlier this year, because it reportedly refused to take down illicit photos of minors. What’s clear, however, is that the country’s telecommunication companies have been trying to convince the government to classify WhatsApp as an unregulated, illegal service. As TechCrunch noted, that’s pretty similar to the taxi industry’s stance against Uber. Telcos are mad that millions of Brazilians have been abandoning their phone lines due to WhatsApp, and if all 93 million users (or 93 percent of the country’s internet population) jumps ship, it will be a huge problem for them.
WhatsApp’s temporary deactivation is pretty mild compared to what the country’s Congress wants to happen, though. Back in 2014, Brazil passed a bill of rights protecting net neutrality and privacy, and we said everyone else could learn from the country’s example. Unfortunately, things have changed tremendously since then. TC notes that the Brazilian congress wants to restrict the use of social media networks and criminalize posting on Facebook and similar websites. Some politicians wrote a law that would require citizens to key in their address, phone number and tax ID in order to access apps and websites. They also want to be able to censor social media posts by giving politicians the right to ask for posts they deem defamatory to be taken down.
At the moment, Mark Zuckerberg says he and his team are working hard to get the Facebook-owned messenger unblocked in the country. He also says he’s stunned by the decision, as Brazil “has been an ally in creating an open internet.”
Here’s his full statement:
Tonight, a Brazilian judge blocked WhatsApp for more than 100 million people who rely on it in her country.
We are working hard to get this block reversed. Until then, Facebook Messenger is still active and you can use it to communicate instead.
This is a sad day for Brazil. Until today, Brazil has been an ally in creating an open internet. Brazilians have always been among the most passionate in sharing their voice online.
I am stunned that our efforts to protect people’s data would result in such an extreme decision by a single judge to punish every person in Brazil who uses WhatsApp.
We hope the Brazilian courts quickly reverse course. If you’re Brazilian, please make your voice heard and help your government reflect the will of its people.
Source: TechCrunch, Folha de S. Paulo
Micromax announces YU Yutopia with Snapdragon 810 SoC, 4GB RAM and CyanogenMod
Micromax has added a new device to its popular YU portfolio, and this time the Indian smartphone maker has decided to make it large with Yutopia. The mid-ranger is packed with premium features including aluminum unibody, a 5.2-inch QHD display and Snapdragon 801 processor and 4GB of RAM.
Earlier, the company’s YU handsets had created quite a stir in India due to their lucrative pricing and great hardware. The Yureka and Yuphoria also gained popularity because they ran CyanogenMod after Micromax signed an exclusivity contract with the custom ROM maker in India.
In comparison to YU’s past devices, the specifications and pricing of the Yutopia make it obvious that Micromax is now targeting India’s mid-range market. Priced at INR 24,999 ($375), the handset features a 5.2-inch QHD LCD screen, which is protected by a fourth generation Corning Gorilla Glass.
On the hardware front, it is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, 4 GB of DDR4 RAM and 21-megapixel Sony IMX230 primary shooter with optical image stabilization (OIS) and phase detection autofocus. It also sports an 8-megapixel selfie camera and even its back camera can be used to take self portraits thanks to its fingerprint sensor. It houses a 3,000 mAh non-removable battery and supports fast charging supported by Qualcomm QuickCharge 2.0.
The device runs Android 5.1 Lollipop-based Cyanogen OS 12.1, with the Marshmallow update just round the corner. The device is now available for pre-booking on Amazon India, and it will go on sale from December 26 onward.
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Tribeca Shortlist movies arrive on iPhone, Roku and Fire TV
Since launching in October, Tribeca Shortlist had only been available on the iPad. But, starting today, the movie-streaming service will expand to iPhone, Roku and Amazon’s Fire TV. To make things better, if you’re an iOS user, Tribeca Shortlist says the “majority” of its film catalog can now be downloaded and viewed offline — which, notably, isn’t something supported by apps like Netflix or Hulu Plus.
Shortlist was created by the media firm behind the Tribeca Film Festival, alongside Lionsgate, a film distribution and production company. The idea behind it is to deliver movies with a more curated approach, using recommendations from actors, directors and other Hollywood personalities. Naturally, you have to pay up to access Tribeca Shortlist’s video content: The monthly subscription costs $5, although there’s a free 14-day trial to help people decide if it’s worth it.Slideshow-348026
Source: Tribeca Shortlist
Pacemaker’s DJ app is putting the ‘mix’ back into mixtape
The team that gave the world the Pacemaker portable DJ device, the Pacemaker DJ app, and put the whole Spotify library in your virtual record box doesn’t want you to DJ anymore. In fact, the latest version of Pacemaker for iPhone almost elbows you out of the DJ booth completely, assigning you the role of “selecta” instead, while it blends the music. Pacemaker isn’t the first app to auto mix your tunes (it’s not even the first one this week). It’s not even the first Pacemaker app to do so. What this update does do, is have a stab at reinventing the humble playlist — turning them into seamless beat-matched mixes that you control.
The Pacemaker app already has an “in-house” auto DJ (called Mållgan) that will suggest mix-friendly tunes and line them up next. Now you’re getting to tell it exactly what to play, and how to play it. Theoretically, this means you could take any playlist from your favorite streaming service, and use Pacemaker to turn it into a beat-matched DJ mix, tailoring it to your taste. If you don’t like the way the software transitions between Diplo and Daft Punk, for example, you can tell it to mix in sooner (or later). Once you’ve tweaked your mix to your exacting standards, you can share it with friends as a small playlist file, not a huge mp3. The twist being that when they enjoy that mix via the app, it pulls the music from Spotify, so the featured artists still get paid (and you don’t need to download, or own the featured tracks).
Pacemaker DJ certainly knows how to adapt. What started as a dedicated portable device in 2008, reinvented itself a few years later as a (heaven only knows why) BlackBerry-only tablet app. It’d be another two years before Pacemaker would rise again, this time as the iOS app it always should have been — complete with (pioneering at the time) access to Spotify’s music library. Until this point, Pacemaker was a pretty straight-up DJ tool — mix songs, add effects and so on. Today’s update is still about DJing in spirit, just with a lowercase d on disk jockey.
DJing’s digital revolution has been a mixed blessing for those who like to spin. The art of mixing has never been as easy or accessible as it is today. Anyone with a smartphone or tablet can get a virtual mix going in no time at all, with many apps going to great lengths to recreate the turntable experience. This is something not always met with enthusiasm by purists, many who still prefer to hunch over rotating vinyls (even if those records are actually connected to software) or at least a comprehensive hardware controller.
Pacemaker’s own journey has followed a similar curve. The original portable device was a classic single-purpose gadget, and featured an iconic design with circular display and touchpad. The original Pacemaker device was well received by the DJ community (and yours truly), and would go on to receive awards and build an enthusiastic community. But the timing wasn’t ideal. In 2008, convergence was the word, and smartphones were swallowing up numerous different gadget categories for breakfast. Before long, the Pacemaker device was discontinued.
Since reinventing itself as an app, it’s continued to focus on making DJing more and more inclusive. Today’s update might leave the Pacemaker diehards a little restless, with not very much to do, but playlists are certainly going to get more interesting.
Source: Pacemaker (iTunes)
AIVAnet 