Play Store carrier billing is now live for Idea Cellular subscribers in India

Play Store carrier billing is now available for Idea Cellular subscribers in India. The carrier has partnered with Bango to enable Direct Carrier Billing through the service’s payment platform, giving its 182 million customers the ability to charge app, game, music, and movie purchases from the Play Store to their monthly phone bill.

From the Google India blog:

This collaboration with Idea Cellular is the first time Google Play has offered direct carrier billing in India. Like with lower minimal pricing and pre-paid vouchers, we hope to make it easier for people to pay for the content they want on Google Play. And we also hope that this will help nurture the developer ecosystem in India, so that developers can grow their businesses on Google Play connecting to Indian customers.

Carrier billing is live for both prepaid and postpaid customers. Prepaid users will see their balance getting deducted automatically upon purchase of digital content, while postpaid users will see all charges added to their monthly bill. If you’re an Idea subscriber, you should see the carrier billing option in your Play Store payment settings.

Xiaomi Mi Max shows up at TENAA with 6.4-inch FHD display, 4000mAh battery

The Xiaomi Mi Max is all set to make its debut on May 10, and after an image of the phone leaked earlier this week, we’re now treated to a TENAA listing that gives us an idea as to what to expect when it comes to the specs.

From the image in the listing, it looks like the Mi Max will feature capacitive buttons at the front and a fingerprint sensor at the back. The specs on offer include a 6.4-inch Full HD display, Snapdragon 650 SoC, 16MP camera, 5MP front shooter, and a 4000mAh battery. Like the Redmi Note 3, it looks like the phone will be offered in two storage variants: 2GB of RAM/16GB internal storage, and 3GB of RAM/32GB storage.

The Mi Max is also likely to be the first phone to run MIUI 8 out of the box. What do you guys think of the alleged specs on offer?

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End review: Going out with a bang

Can you imagine a child patiently waiting for Christmas Day only to be told it’s being moved to 23 February? Then again to 16 March? Well, that’s how we felt about the constantly shifting release dates of the latest and purportedly last in the Uncharted series.

Originally due in 2015, the release date of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End was rescheduled to March 2016, then April and finally May. It had been pushed back more often than an onlooker at a murder scene.

This resulted in a couple of things (not just our questionable analogy above). First, it gave Naughty Dog extra time to add polish and sprinkle more magic onto the game. And second, it heightened expectation even further. After so many delays, it had better have been worth it.

Thankfully, it is. Oh boy, how it is.

Uncharted 4 review: Stealth and strategy

Uncharted 4 isn’t just the result of Naughty Dog’s learnings throughout the previous trilogy, it also benefits greatly from the developer’s work on The Last of Us. While radically different in tone, A Thief’s End undoubtedly borrows some elements from its enduring horror-based stablemate, resulting in the studio’s most rounded, balanced game yet.

The madcap, humour-filled action-adventure retains everything the Uncharted series is known for, but also reflects the heart, emotion and pace established by Joel and Ellie’s road story in The Last of Us.

You’ll laugh, cheer and cry during Nathan Drake’s greatest adventure. You’ll spend a lot of time crouched in bushes too.

Stealth plays a much greater part in Uncharted 4’s gameplay than ever before.

If we had a criticism of previous Uncharted games – which we’ve revisited lately thanks to the Nathan Drake Collection on PS4 – it’s that the pacing sometimes seemed off. The climbing sections punctuated the firefights, but tackling enemies face-on was almost always the only option and there was little time for strategy.

In Uncharted 4 you get to choose how you want to take on the swarms of bad guys. You can just use duck-and-cover to blast your way through them as before or you can hide and take them out individually and silently.

Uncharted 4 review: Fresh yet familiar

For the most part, skirmish sections are in massive open areas, with plenty of undergrowth or water to hide in, or debris to duck behind. And there are many more enemies lurking around than in the previous games. Just exposing yourself and firing at one alerts all to your position and you can soon find it’s possible to be overwhelmed. You can peg it and hide again, but occasionally that leads to being cornered.

Naughty Dog / Sony

That’s why we found that using stealth for the first 10 or so enemies, then taking out the last few in a firefight worked best for us. You might have other plans, though, and that’s the beauty of the gameplay additions. On the whole they introduce choice and variety in how you progress. So while the story and routes are linear, there is more freedom in the way you play the game.

Naughty Dog has achieved this without affecting the core values of Uncharted. The latest is steeped in familiarity, yet also contains enough that is new to make it feel fresh.

Uncharted 4 review: Co-op coin op

One of the other new elements comes in co-operative play – not with another human player but with a constant, artificially intelligent (AI) companion throughout the story. Bar one or two moments, you’re always accompanied by either Sam Drake, Nathan’s brother, or another of the much-loved regulars.

Not only does this provide greater depth for characterisation, dialogue and plot progression, with constant banter and interaction through every chapter, it is used to enhance the gameplay too. For example, many of the puzzles require the interaction of two characters, while during fights your AI helpers will often take out foes that are close to them.

Sony/Naughty Dog

There are odd bits, like the fact that if you poke your head up when hiding you can be spotted, while your companion can literally run in front of guards without them batting an eyelid, but we can excuse such minor quibbles. Certainly the AI is good enough to have them seek shelter in tandem with you, find climbing paths independently of yours, and generally help rather than hinder. They also provide verbal hints when you struggle to find a path to continue or suggest actions during puzzles.

Enemy AI is impressive too, with soldiers seeking cover the moment they are aware of your presence. They can even climb, leap and look for higher ground like human opponents. Playing the first Uncharted in comparison is an odd experience in that respect, no matter how good it was originally your opponents always felt on rails and utterly predictable. Not so much here.

Uncharted 4 review: Four wheels good

The final major addition to A Thief’s End is driving. At several points in the game you will take control of a jeep. This in itself presents new puzzles as routes through the seemingly open-world landscapes contain obstacles and pitfalls along the way. Using a combination of your deft gamepad skills and brain power will help to overcome them. Here’s a hint to get you started: there’s a winch on the front of the jeep.

That’s about the only spoiler we’re willing to give away here as, like the fictional life of Nathan Drake, Uncharted 4’s story mode is all about discovery. We’ll tell you that the brothers set off to find a pirate treasure, taking in such incredible locations as Madagascar, Panama and, ahem, Scotland along the way, but any more than that will ruin surprises and mighty plot points.

Sony/Naughty Dog

Needless to say, there are more tombs than Tomb Raider has presented in its last two outings, cliffs to climb, mercenaries to vanquish, and plenty of crumbling old ruins to explore. A Thief’s End is also, we feel, the most emotional in the series, with backstory and revelations aplenty. Even if this isn’t the last Uncharted game, it genuinely feels like the final episode in this particular run.

Finishing the game feels like a significant achievement and there are plenty of rewards along the way. There are many nods to previous Nathan Drake adventures and even an appearance (or two) for another of the developer’s enduring characters in one of the best cameos in gaming history.

Uncharted 4 review: Multi-faceted multi-player

Multiplayer, too, pays great homage to previous games. All the Uncharted favourites from the four games are playable characters. And mystical power-ups are based on artefacts plucked from the various adventures.

It has an entirely different pace to the campaign, but provides plenty of extended fun when you’ve wrung every drop out of the single-player action. Maps are purposely small to create frenzied matches, and the addition of sidekicks and the aforementioned powers can turn the tide even when you are being battered.

Naughty Dog / Sony

The multiplayer modes aren’t really what Uncharted 4 is about though. Or, indeed, the series as a whole. The adventures of Nathan Drake have always been about Hollywood-style storytelling, wrapped around gameplay that’s as intuitive and addictive as they come.

This time that’s accompanied by the best graphics and character renderings we’ve seen on this console generation, and career highlight performances by industry stalwarts Nolan North and Troy Baker as the brothers. It is, quite simply, epic.

Verdict

If this is to be the last Uncharted it goes out on a massive high. Nathan Drake has never looked better and the many additions to gameplay make it the most rounded in the series by far.

Naughty Dog has always delivered poignant, epic stories that live long in the memory and A Thief’s End is right up there with The Last of Us as the developer’s best. Nathan and his brother have a different dynamic to Joel and Ellie, but their relationship tells as fascinating a tale.

What most elevates Uncharted 4 above the rest in an already adored franchise, however, is its scope. Previous instalments have settled on being great duck-and-cover shooters, with plenty of platform elements along for the ride, or vice versa. A Thief’s End throws in gameplay mechanics from a wider range of genres; stealth, point-and-click adventuring and even driving get in on the action to present the most balanced, extraordinary experience yet.

You might lament the 15-16 hour campaign as being too short, but that is lengthy by modern standards. And the fact you feel like racing through it in a matter of days is testament to its premium quality. You also then have the expansive, fun multiplayer to extend play time.

Uncharted 4 is not just the best Uncharted game, it can be argued that it is the best PS4 game full stop – certainly in looks, writing, acting and detail. It is Naughty Dog’s love letter to fans and sets the bar by which all future current-gen games will be judged.

Siri creators have come up with Viv, an AI that could kill the keyboard at last

Viv is what Siri should have been. It comes from the Siri creators and is a super smart AI that could not only kill the keyboard but can change human-machine interactions forever.

Viv is designed to finally let people ask for what they want and have it appear. If you ask Siri for concert tickets it’ll pull up a booking website. Viv will not only book the tickets but will ask what seats you want and perhaps offer to book you transport there too. It does it all without opening a website or app.

The extremely exciting thing about Viv is that it could be a new gateway to content. So rather than typing in a search bar or opening an app, you’ll access what you want directly, simply by talking. Just how you’d expect an artificially intelligent assistant to work.

Viv’s creators sold Siri to Apple thinking that’s what it would do, but the company ended up using Siri in a more gimmicky way. This time Viv is going to get made to work as intended and the big companies that hold the keys to the gateway of information should be wary. In fact they’re all investing heavily in personal assistant development now plus Google and Facebook are reportedly in talks to buy Viv.

The future of talking to a computer in the cloud, just like Star Trek, appears to be closer than we think. Soon we may say goodbye to typing, swiping and mouse clicking at long last.

READ: Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End review: Going out with a bang

Google’s neural network is binge reading romance novels

The Big G wants its app to be more conversational, so it’s feeding a neural network with steamy sex scenes and hot encounters. According to Buzzfeed News, the network has been devouring a collection of 2,865 romance novels over the past few months, with saucy titles like Fatal Desire and Jacked Up. It seems to be working too: it was able to write sentences resembling passages in the books during the researchers’ tests. While the AI now has what it takes to become an erotic novelist, the team’s real goal is to use its newly acquired conversational tone with the Google app.

Project leader Andrew Dai told Buzzfeed:

“In the Google app, the responses are very factual. Hopefully with this work, and future work, it can be more conversational, or can have a more varied tone, or style, or register.”

Dai said the team chose erotic romance novels to teach the app how to speak, because they’re all typically the same story. They contain similar sentences written in different ways, which can help the network build its vocabulary and better understand how the language works. Besides the Google app, the team can also use the neural network to write conversational responses for Inbox’s Smart Reply feature.

Source: Buzzfeed

Special microchip can prevent kidney damage from medication

Doctors have to make sure patients are getting just the right dose of medication, because some drugs (especially those administered to ICU patients) can cause kidney damage. This “kidney on a chip” device developed by a team of University of Michigan researchers could make the process easier. It replicates the environment inside our kidneys and shows how each medicine affects the organ.

Shuichi Takayama, UM professor of biomedical engineering, explains:

“When you administer a drug, its concentration goes up quickly and it’s gradually filtered out as it flows through the kidneys. A kidney on a chip enables us to simulate that filtering process, providing a much more accurate way to study how medications behave in the body.”

The microchip was made by sandwiching a permeable polyester membrane and a layer of cultured kidney cells between the top and bottom parts of a microfluidic device. Besides helping medical professionals determine the right doses, it can also help them figure out the best way to administer each particular drug. For instance, the team found that an antibiotic called gentamicin is more harmful to the kidneys when delivered as a continuous infusion than as one large dose.

Takayama says the technique could be adapted to study drugs’ effects on other organs, including the heart and the liver. And since it’s more efficient and accurate than animal testing, it could allow drug manufacturers to release new products more quickly.

Source: University of Michigan

Live Video Broadcast App Periscope Gets Permanent Save Feature

Live video streaming iOS app Periscope has gained a new feature that lets users save their broadcasts forever.

Users of the Twitter-owned app are now able to permanently save replays of their videos simply by including the hashtag #save in the title, with the option remaining to delete the broadcast at a later time. The new feature puts it on a level footing with Facebook Live, which touts the same facility to make videos permanent.

The new feature was announced last night via Periscope by CEO Kayvon Beykpour, who described the feature as a “public beta” and part of an upcoming “holistic solution” that will let users control how broadcasts stay on the platform, including when to keep broadcasts for longer than the default 24-hour window and when to have them deleted more quickly.

Comments and hearts are saved with broadcasts that use the new #save hashtag and there is no limit to the number of videos a user can save. Broadcasts with the hashtag will be visible in a user’s profile, as well as anywhere else they show up, while links shared externally such as via Twitter will remain permanently active.

Periscope also bid a fond farewell to Katch, a third-party tool for saving Periscope videos and sharing them elsewhere. The startup shut down last month after running out of funding, reports TechCrunch.

Periscope users need not update their app to see the change come into effect, but should instead sign up for the Periscope Beta Program.

Periscope is a free download on the App Store available for iPhone and iPad. [Direct Link] A separate Apple TV app is also available on the Apple TV App Store.

Tag: Periscope
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Icky game ‘The Binding Of Isaac’ gets console expansion on May 10th

The Binding of Isaac, that weird game about a naked infant fighting through pits into hell, has been so popular since its 2011 release that it’s been continually released for new platforms as recently as last April, even on family-friendly Nintendo systems. But a new expansion, Afterbirth, will be come out for PS4 and Xbox One on May 10th for $11. Sorry, Wii U owners, you’ll have to wait until later this year.
As is the case for procedurally-generated games, it doesn’t take much new content shuffled in to make the existing mix feel fresh, so the additional 120 items, 25 enemies and playable character Lilith are welcome. For challenge lovers, there’s a new final area and boss along with Daily Challenges for high scores. Lastly, Greed mode brings waves of enemies and bosses for in-game rewards.

The PlayStation blog post announcing Afterbirth contains many additions that creator Tyrone Rodriguez has been promising since unveiling the game last year, but it’s unclear if the expansion will include tools for developers to build their own items and levels.

EasyAcc 20,000mAh Rugged Power Bank review

Battery life on smartphones has gotten better, but at a snails pace. Running out of juice is still a pain-point we all face. Hence, power banks are still useful and aplenty in the market.

Because of that fact, these days we see power banks push the capacity limit while not driving up the price. One we’re reviewing today is produced the mobile accessory manufacturer, EasyAcc. You have probably caught wind of its products on Amazon. One of its top-end is a battery pack that is rugged and holds a whopping 20,000mAh capacity. Let’s check it out.

Design

When I opened the box up, my first impression of this beastly power bank was “This thing is a tank!” I bet that’s the kind of response EasyAcc was looking for. It’s pegged as a “rugged” device, so if you’re looking for a slim, compact battery pack, you’ve come to the wrong place.

This thing is thick (just over an inch) and not the lightest either, but that’s all implied. What really matters in this case is that it feels the part, and it most definitely does. Super tough hard plastic surrounds the power bank from every corner. And I appreciate that EasyAcc didn’t just make it a simple brick; there’s plenty of rugged styling.

It looks like the green plastic is the base casing (textured on the top and bottom) and the black material is an extra layer of reinforcement.”V”-shaped ridges flank the body, and the sides are textured to assist with grip. If that wasn’t enough, there’s these substantial metal screws about the edges. And you bet this thing feels as tough as it looks.

EasyAcc says that it’s weatherproof, dustproof, and shockproof. The IP67 rating means that it can be submerged in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes. But you need to make sure that the charging ports are sealed shut. On the top, there’s a waterproof lid you have to release before you can charge up.

Within, you’ll find two USB charging ports and a microUSB port (to charge the device itself).

Functionality

EasyAcc’s rugged power bank has another feature up its sleeve – a flashlight. Chances are that you’re buying this to use it outdoors, like camping or a multi-day trip, so a bigger light than the small LED ones on our phones should be helpful when the sun goes down.

There’s a single button on the top of the unit. On the first press, it turns the charger on and displays the battery status (via four LED indicators). A second press is how you turn the flashlight on. Additionally, if you press it again, the light starts to blink to serve as an SOS signal.

The charging ports output a max current of 2.4A. This won’t get you Quick Charging speeds (3A), but it’s at least faster than standard speeds (2A). I do wish we could get the fast charging rate that we’re accustomed to nowadays, especially on power banks with huge capacities.

Final Thoughts

EasyAcc made a fantastic battery pack here. I totally love the design (despite the girth) and look forward to bringing it on upcoming outdoor trips. I’ve collected a bunch of external batteries over the years, but this one definitely rules them all.

At $50 (on Amazon), I think it’s a great value considering the tank-like build and considerable 20,000mAh capacity.

Surgical robot could sew you up better than a doctor

Surgical teams aren’t fond of robots that could replace them (just ask Johnson & Johnson), but that doesn’t mean they’re completely against mechanical helpers. Children’s National Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University recently tested a Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) arm during experimental bowel surgery on anesthetized pigs. The machine only handled suturing by itself, but excelled at that job — it sewed more consistently than veteran doctors and even other robotic assistants. Its edge comes from using a depth-savvy light field camera to find fluorescent markers placed inside the tissue, helping it spot folds that would normally stay hidden.

It may seem odd to use advanced technology for such a narrow purpose, but STAR could be particularly valuable if it’s put into regular use at the operating table. Surgery is frequently full of repetitive tasks like suturing, so robots could either speed up those chores or free surgeons for other duties (such as prepping for the next phase). Think of it as autopilot: while doctors would get to do the hardest work and claim the glory, they wouldn’t have to be active at every stage of an hours-long procedure.

The big challenge is getting autonomous robots that can handle multiple steps by themselves. Even if hospitals don’t object to rendering some of their staff obsolete, there’s still the matter of developing a surgical bot that can adapt to different processes. As it is, the odds aren’t high that doctors can afford to leave a robot alone with a patient anytime soon. Unless the technology becomes effectively foolproof, you’ll likely want an expert around to intervene.

Via: Popular Mechanics, Wired

Source: Science Translational Medicine